Categories > Cartoons > Avatar: The Last Airbender > "What is a Heart Beat?"
Chapter Two
0 reviewsAU. Zuko was found in the Forest, wild, being attacked by a group of unknown beings, wounded severely but somehow not affected by the pain afterwards. Read and find out the secret of the Fire Natio...
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"What is a Heart Beat?"
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Summary: AU. Zuko was found in the Forest, wild, being attacked by a group of unknown beings, wounded severely but somehow not affected by the pain afterwards. Read and find out the secret of the Fire Nation, the reason why the nation despised the rest, the reason why the nation seemed cold, and yet...
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Chapter Two
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Ba Bum ... the heart beat once.
Ba Bum ... the heart beat twice.
Ba Bum ... the heart beat three times.
Ba Ba Bum ... and the heart beat no more.
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It was Zuko.
Zuko looked up from where he was lying. 'This can't be right. The shadows should've taken me to their lairs by now' he thought, sitting up. The Avatar group stood there, shocked that the man was Zuko, and that he was, in fact, still alive although they had thought him dead. 'What the hell is wrong with them? Unless...' His eyes widened in horror: They had witnessed the death and rebirth of his curse.
"What do you want Zuko?! How in the hell did you do that?" the water peasant male yelled at him. Zuko's mind was clouded. He hadn't spoken or even heard the "common" language in quite a long time, maybe over a year or two come to think of it.
"What," Zuko tried again, shaking his head. "What happened?" Zuko asked again. His voice and accent were shaky and it sounded like he hadn't spoken it in a long time.
"You tell us," Toph said, raising her hands, just in case the firebender thought of attacking them. Zuko ignored the shocked group; he had no time for their stupidity. He looked down to where the shadow had stabbed him. He had a dulling pain in his abdomen around where the wound was, but it understandable; all wounds caused by the shadows never heal. He would have the open wound for the rest of his miserable life, if you could call it that.
"Do want me to heal that?" Katara asked, rather uneasy. It wasn't every day that you offered to heal a firebender. She looked at the infected wound that was now riddled with bluish-black and greenish splotches around it. It looked very painful; she wondered how Zuko wasn't affected that much by it.
"It cannot ever be healed, special healing powers or not." Zuko said sadly, wondering what other effects the wound would give him. It was his first 'shadow wound.' He had heard of and seen what these wounds could do to a person, especially fire nation. In a few short days he would find out which weapon he was stabbed with: Each of the shadow's weapons gives a different (albeit still painful) effect. He attempted to sit up, but failed miserably when he suddenly fell down to his knees, then being caught by the water peasant girl that was now beside him.
It took every ounce of Katara's willpower to not let go of the Fire Prince. She gagged in disgust; Zuko smelled so awful one would think he hadn't bathed in years. His clothes were so moldy, bloodied, and ragged that she wondered how he could stand it and how the clothes themselves hadn't fallen apart yet. Whatever happened to the proud firebender she'd once seen and thought knew?
"Come on." She kindly said to him. Zuko wasn't easily fooled. He knew the water bender was merely being courteous; just faking kindness towards him.
"Katara we can't take him to our camp! He could easily kill Aang or send him to the fire nation!"
"I really doubt that he could. Look at him, he's hurt!"
"I have to agree with Katara on this, Sokka. He does look helpless," Aang said.
"I am NOT weak or helpless!" Zuko yelled at them. The group looked at him, wondering what he just said. "I'm not weak or helpless." Zuko said again in the calmest voice he could manage. "Just let me go, and you will never see me again. I am not here to hurt anyone or to take the Avatar any longer. The Fire Nation is now led by Fire Lady Azula, my sister, and soon enough my county will fall further into disarray. Let me go back to my people in peace; let me die with them."
"We can't just leave you here! What if those evil beings come back?" Katara was shocked of what she just heard from the firebender.
"So be it then, if fate has it." Zuko growled impatiently at the peasant.
"Even if you die?" Sokka asked, wondering what insane person would take a risk like that.
"Then I will die." Zuko said firmly, not once showing any fear or backing down.
"Come on, just let us help you."
"Face it, Sugar-Queen; if he doesn't want help, then you can't help him." Toph said, not caring if the firebender was let go and got himself killed or something.
Zuko looked up at the young water-tribe girl. He had to admit, she was a very beautiful young lady. Had fate been nice to him, he would have a gone out with her sometime; it would be nice to have someone to love him like that. "You cannot help me, Katara, isn't it?" she nodded, surprised that he knew her name. "You and your friends must understand that you can't help me because you can't. It's not because I won't accept your help. There is nothing you can do. Nothing."
"There must be something, or you will die!"
"No, not die. Not yet. My time long ago came and went many times. Yet, I'm cursed to live." Zuko said sadly.
The group was confused of what he meant by that. If he wasn't here to harm Aang then he might be okay, but they still had to be on guard. He might warn the Fire-Nation about where they were.
"We can't risk releasing you, Zuko. You have to come with us." Sokka said, not liking the outcome of the conversation one bit: the Fire Nation Prince tagging along with them. Zuko growled at the thought. All he wanted was to be freed and to go to his camp where his uncle and the others are. They were probably very worried about him, maybe even believing him dead or worse. The camp was two days away from where he sat; he hoped the Avatar and Co. were heading in that direction.
"Fine." He said bitterly.
He let them tie his ankles and wrists, and watched helplessly as they loaded him and their other things onto the white air-bison. When everyone was safely on, the Avatar, on the top of the bison's head, yelled, "Yip-yip!"
As the air-bison flew into the sky, Zuko closed his eyes, smiling slightly. He rather enjoyed the cool breeze brushing through his long greasy hair. It felt good, being in the sky like this. It wasn't so bad.
Everyone was happy that they were now in the air (they couldn't stand the smell of Zuko). "You need a bath and new clothes. When we find a village you should ,eh, attend to that," Katara told him, looking at this filthy clothes and hair. "When was the last time you've taken a bath or worn any decent clothes?" she demanded. Zuko thought about it. It has to have been over a year ago, maybe two years now, since around the time Uncle helped save the moon spirit?
"Don't know." He shrugged. "A year or more maybe?"
"Argh! Even I take baths regularly!" Toph said, covering her nose in disgust.
"How in the world would a 'Prince' forget to take baths or wear decent clothes? Doesn't the old man you used to tag along with ever tell you take one?" Sokka asked rude voice.
"My uncle hasn't taken one either. It is not our fault that our enemies wait for us near rivers and lakes. It's hard to go into any village when people keep staring at you." Zuko told them. Well, it was half true; all the fire nation's villages had been destroyed by the other nations, and there really weren't any other villages where people of fire nation lineage were welcomed.
"Zuko, what are those things in the forest?" Aang said getting into business. You must know your enemy before you attack.
Zuko's glowing yellow eyes dulled ever so slightly. It couldn't hurt to tell them a few facts about them, he supposed. "Beings from hell. Banished evil spirits of the Spirit World." He looked at the Avatar's eyes, as if looking straight into his very soul. "They take souls and bend them into their slaves for all eternity, they say. The only ones that know for sure are in no condition to tell us, for they are now gone. Disappeared off the face of the earth itself."
The group stared at him like he was nuts. How could 'evil' sprits which could be seen and killed by common weapons bend souls into slavery?
"Yeah right." Sokka said slowly. "And I'm the Fire Lord."
"Believe what you wish, peasant. If you just let me go you will not be in danger anymore. The longer I'm here, the more danger you will all be in."
"No way, Zuko. You're not going to warn you little 'friends' of where we are." Sokka said, sharpening his spear at the other side of the large saddle. He pulled out the map from his backpack.
"Let me see here. Where are we? Yeah, Aang, what do you see up ahead?"
"Ahh, very tall mountains and," Aang leaned forwards a bit from Appa's head, looking downwards. The dark forest seemed larger then the swamp that they once visited and more 'alive' in a foreboding way. He felt something amiss in the forest, as if something was calling him, like some spirit lurking in the shadows, watching them with hungry eyes. "And nothing but forest, Sokka."
"Mmm, now, where is a large forest and mountains?" Sokka muttered looking back on the ancient map. Zuko slowly inched towards the other teen. When he got close enough to see Sokka's map, he saw that it was an Earth Kingdom map. 'Of course the forest wouldn't be in there' He thought, 'You either need at pretty good map or a Fire Nation map to know'
" Idiot." Zuko muttered, while watching him.
"What was that, fire-scum!" Sokka hissed at him.
"Well, by the looks of it, you have an Earth Kingdom map, and a very old one, at that. It won't work around here. The only people who would be able to map out these lands are the ones that know about them."
"You think you know better then us?"
"Yes, I do. Unlike you fools, I know where we are. And I knew what dangers were here before hand."
"Enlighten us then. Where the hell are we?"
"In the language you use, we are in "The Forest of the Dead," known in the ancient tongue of my people as L' Taur d'lil Elghinyrr."
"'The Forest of the Dead?' what kind of stupid name is that?" Sokka said.
"The kind that was given for a reason." Answered Zuko, smirking at their faces when he said it.
"Well we better get out of this forest then, if it really was called that for a reason. I really don't want to fight those spirits again, if they are spirits," Aang said. "Which way should go?"
"I would head south-west if I were you, Avatar." Zuko said.
"Right. In the mean time, we have to figure out what to do when those shadow things come back." Aang said.
"What do we know about them?" Toph asked. There was silence.
"They are nothing but evil sprits, the same ones who caused the 100 year long war and left the Fire Nation in ruins," Zuko said, now biting his ropes behind their backs. To able to survive with this group, they needed to know more about what they were up against.
"The Fire Nation caused the war, fire-scum! It was because of you and your filthy nation that millions of innocent people died! It was your people that caused my mother's death and they're also the reason my dad has gone off to war! Don't blame the "spirits" for the mistakes of your pathetic nation!" Sokka yelled. During this speech, Zuko was foaming at the mouth and baring his teeth, his fingernails scratching the saddle, and was growling. Just as Sokka finished, with an unknown burst of strength Zuko broke the ropes around his wrists and ankles, jumping on top of him like a wild animal. Whisps of fire danced around him in short angry bursts. Just as Zuko landed on top of the young teen, both fell off the flying bison, and plummeted to their deaths below.
"SOKKA!" cried Katara watching her older brother and the enemy falling down from the sky. Aang opened his glider and jumped off after them. Katara grabbed the reins and followed after Aang. Toph, who couldn't see what was going on, but had a good idea judging by what she was hearing, waited impatiently as Aang flew to save Sokka and Zuko.
Down below, Sokka and Zuko were wrestling, Zuko on top. Zuko biting, scratching, and burning Sokka with all the strength that his will power would allow. He was angry at the water-peasant that dared to insult him and his people. 'How dare he!' Zuko thought angrily.
Zuko suddenly felt himself being picked up by an unknown force at the back of his ragged shirt. He then was carried over to and placed safely on the back of the flying bison. Zuko took deep breathes trying to calm his anger. Sokka was trying to keep his heart rate down, he was so traumatized. That fire-prince could've killed him.
"You fucking crazy son of a bitch, fire-scum! You could've killed me!" Sokka yelled.
'And next time I will' Zuko thought to himself. A thin stream of water whipped the back of his head. For the second time in less then three hours, Zuko blacked out.
End of Chapter
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Words: 2,378
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay. Few things on chapter 1, to all who read it before and reviewed so nicely, that was changed.
R&R
--FireChildSlytheirn5
"What is a Heart Beat?"
-
Summary: AU. Zuko was found in the Forest, wild, being attacked by a group of unknown beings, wounded severely but somehow not affected by the pain afterwards. Read and find out the secret of the Fire Nation, the reason why the nation despised the rest, the reason why the nation seemed cold, and yet...
-
Chapter Two
-
Ba Bum ... the heart beat once.
Ba Bum ... the heart beat twice.
Ba Bum ... the heart beat three times.
Ba Ba Bum ... and the heart beat no more.
-
It was Zuko.
Zuko looked up from where he was lying. 'This can't be right. The shadows should've taken me to their lairs by now' he thought, sitting up. The Avatar group stood there, shocked that the man was Zuko, and that he was, in fact, still alive although they had thought him dead. 'What the hell is wrong with them? Unless...' His eyes widened in horror: They had witnessed the death and rebirth of his curse.
"What do you want Zuko?! How in the hell did you do that?" the water peasant male yelled at him. Zuko's mind was clouded. He hadn't spoken or even heard the "common" language in quite a long time, maybe over a year or two come to think of it.
"What," Zuko tried again, shaking his head. "What happened?" Zuko asked again. His voice and accent were shaky and it sounded like he hadn't spoken it in a long time.
"You tell us," Toph said, raising her hands, just in case the firebender thought of attacking them. Zuko ignored the shocked group; he had no time for their stupidity. He looked down to where the shadow had stabbed him. He had a dulling pain in his abdomen around where the wound was, but it understandable; all wounds caused by the shadows never heal. He would have the open wound for the rest of his miserable life, if you could call it that.
"Do want me to heal that?" Katara asked, rather uneasy. It wasn't every day that you offered to heal a firebender. She looked at the infected wound that was now riddled with bluish-black and greenish splotches around it. It looked very painful; she wondered how Zuko wasn't affected that much by it.
"It cannot ever be healed, special healing powers or not." Zuko said sadly, wondering what other effects the wound would give him. It was his first 'shadow wound.' He had heard of and seen what these wounds could do to a person, especially fire nation. In a few short days he would find out which weapon he was stabbed with: Each of the shadow's weapons gives a different (albeit still painful) effect. He attempted to sit up, but failed miserably when he suddenly fell down to his knees, then being caught by the water peasant girl that was now beside him.
It took every ounce of Katara's willpower to not let go of the Fire Prince. She gagged in disgust; Zuko smelled so awful one would think he hadn't bathed in years. His clothes were so moldy, bloodied, and ragged that she wondered how he could stand it and how the clothes themselves hadn't fallen apart yet. Whatever happened to the proud firebender she'd once seen and thought knew?
"Come on." She kindly said to him. Zuko wasn't easily fooled. He knew the water bender was merely being courteous; just faking kindness towards him.
"Katara we can't take him to our camp! He could easily kill Aang or send him to the fire nation!"
"I really doubt that he could. Look at him, he's hurt!"
"I have to agree with Katara on this, Sokka. He does look helpless," Aang said.
"I am NOT weak or helpless!" Zuko yelled at them. The group looked at him, wondering what he just said. "I'm not weak or helpless." Zuko said again in the calmest voice he could manage. "Just let me go, and you will never see me again. I am not here to hurt anyone or to take the Avatar any longer. The Fire Nation is now led by Fire Lady Azula, my sister, and soon enough my county will fall further into disarray. Let me go back to my people in peace; let me die with them."
"We can't just leave you here! What if those evil beings come back?" Katara was shocked of what she just heard from the firebender.
"So be it then, if fate has it." Zuko growled impatiently at the peasant.
"Even if you die?" Sokka asked, wondering what insane person would take a risk like that.
"Then I will die." Zuko said firmly, not once showing any fear or backing down.
"Come on, just let us help you."
"Face it, Sugar-Queen; if he doesn't want help, then you can't help him." Toph said, not caring if the firebender was let go and got himself killed or something.
Zuko looked up at the young water-tribe girl. He had to admit, she was a very beautiful young lady. Had fate been nice to him, he would have a gone out with her sometime; it would be nice to have someone to love him like that. "You cannot help me, Katara, isn't it?" she nodded, surprised that he knew her name. "You and your friends must understand that you can't help me because you can't. It's not because I won't accept your help. There is nothing you can do. Nothing."
"There must be something, or you will die!"
"No, not die. Not yet. My time long ago came and went many times. Yet, I'm cursed to live." Zuko said sadly.
The group was confused of what he meant by that. If he wasn't here to harm Aang then he might be okay, but they still had to be on guard. He might warn the Fire-Nation about where they were.
"We can't risk releasing you, Zuko. You have to come with us." Sokka said, not liking the outcome of the conversation one bit: the Fire Nation Prince tagging along with them. Zuko growled at the thought. All he wanted was to be freed and to go to his camp where his uncle and the others are. They were probably very worried about him, maybe even believing him dead or worse. The camp was two days away from where he sat; he hoped the Avatar and Co. were heading in that direction.
"Fine." He said bitterly.
He let them tie his ankles and wrists, and watched helplessly as they loaded him and their other things onto the white air-bison. When everyone was safely on, the Avatar, on the top of the bison's head, yelled, "Yip-yip!"
As the air-bison flew into the sky, Zuko closed his eyes, smiling slightly. He rather enjoyed the cool breeze brushing through his long greasy hair. It felt good, being in the sky like this. It wasn't so bad.
Everyone was happy that they were now in the air (they couldn't stand the smell of Zuko). "You need a bath and new clothes. When we find a village you should ,eh, attend to that," Katara told him, looking at this filthy clothes and hair. "When was the last time you've taken a bath or worn any decent clothes?" she demanded. Zuko thought about it. It has to have been over a year ago, maybe two years now, since around the time Uncle helped save the moon spirit?
"Don't know." He shrugged. "A year or more maybe?"
"Argh! Even I take baths regularly!" Toph said, covering her nose in disgust.
"How in the world would a 'Prince' forget to take baths or wear decent clothes? Doesn't the old man you used to tag along with ever tell you take one?" Sokka asked rude voice.
"My uncle hasn't taken one either. It is not our fault that our enemies wait for us near rivers and lakes. It's hard to go into any village when people keep staring at you." Zuko told them. Well, it was half true; all the fire nation's villages had been destroyed by the other nations, and there really weren't any other villages where people of fire nation lineage were welcomed.
"Zuko, what are those things in the forest?" Aang said getting into business. You must know your enemy before you attack.
Zuko's glowing yellow eyes dulled ever so slightly. It couldn't hurt to tell them a few facts about them, he supposed. "Beings from hell. Banished evil spirits of the Spirit World." He looked at the Avatar's eyes, as if looking straight into his very soul. "They take souls and bend them into their slaves for all eternity, they say. The only ones that know for sure are in no condition to tell us, for they are now gone. Disappeared off the face of the earth itself."
The group stared at him like he was nuts. How could 'evil' sprits which could be seen and killed by common weapons bend souls into slavery?
"Yeah right." Sokka said slowly. "And I'm the Fire Lord."
"Believe what you wish, peasant. If you just let me go you will not be in danger anymore. The longer I'm here, the more danger you will all be in."
"No way, Zuko. You're not going to warn you little 'friends' of where we are." Sokka said, sharpening his spear at the other side of the large saddle. He pulled out the map from his backpack.
"Let me see here. Where are we? Yeah, Aang, what do you see up ahead?"
"Ahh, very tall mountains and," Aang leaned forwards a bit from Appa's head, looking downwards. The dark forest seemed larger then the swamp that they once visited and more 'alive' in a foreboding way. He felt something amiss in the forest, as if something was calling him, like some spirit lurking in the shadows, watching them with hungry eyes. "And nothing but forest, Sokka."
"Mmm, now, where is a large forest and mountains?" Sokka muttered looking back on the ancient map. Zuko slowly inched towards the other teen. When he got close enough to see Sokka's map, he saw that it was an Earth Kingdom map. 'Of course the forest wouldn't be in there' He thought, 'You either need at pretty good map or a Fire Nation map to know'
" Idiot." Zuko muttered, while watching him.
"What was that, fire-scum!" Sokka hissed at him.
"Well, by the looks of it, you have an Earth Kingdom map, and a very old one, at that. It won't work around here. The only people who would be able to map out these lands are the ones that know about them."
"You think you know better then us?"
"Yes, I do. Unlike you fools, I know where we are. And I knew what dangers were here before hand."
"Enlighten us then. Where the hell are we?"
"In the language you use, we are in "The Forest of the Dead," known in the ancient tongue of my people as L' Taur d'lil Elghinyrr."
"'The Forest of the Dead?' what kind of stupid name is that?" Sokka said.
"The kind that was given for a reason." Answered Zuko, smirking at their faces when he said it.
"Well we better get out of this forest then, if it really was called that for a reason. I really don't want to fight those spirits again, if they are spirits," Aang said. "Which way should go?"
"I would head south-west if I were you, Avatar." Zuko said.
"Right. In the mean time, we have to figure out what to do when those shadow things come back." Aang said.
"What do we know about them?" Toph asked. There was silence.
"They are nothing but evil sprits, the same ones who caused the 100 year long war and left the Fire Nation in ruins," Zuko said, now biting his ropes behind their backs. To able to survive with this group, they needed to know more about what they were up against.
"The Fire Nation caused the war, fire-scum! It was because of you and your filthy nation that millions of innocent people died! It was your people that caused my mother's death and they're also the reason my dad has gone off to war! Don't blame the "spirits" for the mistakes of your pathetic nation!" Sokka yelled. During this speech, Zuko was foaming at the mouth and baring his teeth, his fingernails scratching the saddle, and was growling. Just as Sokka finished, with an unknown burst of strength Zuko broke the ropes around his wrists and ankles, jumping on top of him like a wild animal. Whisps of fire danced around him in short angry bursts. Just as Zuko landed on top of the young teen, both fell off the flying bison, and plummeted to their deaths below.
"SOKKA!" cried Katara watching her older brother and the enemy falling down from the sky. Aang opened his glider and jumped off after them. Katara grabbed the reins and followed after Aang. Toph, who couldn't see what was going on, but had a good idea judging by what she was hearing, waited impatiently as Aang flew to save Sokka and Zuko.
Down below, Sokka and Zuko were wrestling, Zuko on top. Zuko biting, scratching, and burning Sokka with all the strength that his will power would allow. He was angry at the water-peasant that dared to insult him and his people. 'How dare he!' Zuko thought angrily.
Zuko suddenly felt himself being picked up by an unknown force at the back of his ragged shirt. He then was carried over to and placed safely on the back of the flying bison. Zuko took deep breathes trying to calm his anger. Sokka was trying to keep his heart rate down, he was so traumatized. That fire-prince could've killed him.
"You fucking crazy son of a bitch, fire-scum! You could've killed me!" Sokka yelled.
'And next time I will' Zuko thought to himself. A thin stream of water whipped the back of his head. For the second time in less then three hours, Zuko blacked out.
End of Chapter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Words: 2,378
Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay. Few things on chapter 1, to all who read it before and reviewed so nicely, that was changed.
R&R
--FireChildSlytheirn5
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