17. Chapter 16 (1/2)

he who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life righteousness and honor

~ proverbs 21:21

"when are we gonna show sokka our secret hideout?!" haru asked as the boys made their way up the streets of ba sing se covered in coal dust.

jet chuckled as he swung his canteen around pretending to knock out invisible fire nation soldiers.

sokka kept walking silently his hands in his pockets wondering if his sister would be okay after getting in trouble this morning. he knew his sister was fearless, but this was beyond stupid.

the sound of footsteps and voices caught the boys attention. they turned around and noticed a bunch of soldiers, civilians and running frantically with buckets of water in their hands. the boys wondered what was happening and jet was the first to ask.

"what's going on?"

one of the civilians was a woman carrying an infant on her back, she stopped to look at the boys trying to catch her

eath.

"fire in the orphanage."

the boys spared no time asking any more questions and immediately ran.

"come on, i know a shortcut!" haru hollered leading the way.

the boys got there in there in a matter of minutes and stepped back in shock. jet's mid froze as the memory of his village came into view his mother and father 's screams pierced his ears. he fell to the ground gasping out shallow

eaths. sokka tried scanning for his sister among the crowd but she couldn't spot her anywhere. haru quickly joined the earth benders and soldiers as they tried to creating a ditch to divert the flames. passerbys stopped to help and the women cried out tears of pity. sokka looked at jet the sight of the determined boy was gone and only a scared little boy remained. he needed to find katara and knew he couldn't do it without him.

he leaned down roughly tugging the earth kingdom boy.

"jet! jet you need to snap out of it!"

"n-no! it's too painful!"

"my sister might be inside, i need your help!" sokka begged.

the young boy remained where he was unable to move as he couldn't stop the memories from coming. sokka knew there was no time to convince jet, he quickly grabbed a bucket someone was holding and dumped the water over his body. shielding his nose from the smoke, the young southern water tribe warrior went into the flames.

the flames continued the lick towards her flesh as she staggered backward, dark smoke filled her lungs and her vision went blurry. katara felt sick to her stomach and could feel the bile rising to her throat. she began to stagger and felt her balance giving up on her until a hand-scooped her from the ground.

katara jostled from her trance as she jostled from the person carrying her. she blinked to squint at the figure and she realized it was lady ming with panic torn across her face. katara wondered what was going through her mind as she knew the lady disliked her. the orphanage was clearly falling apart now. pieces of wood came crashing down in embers, the kitchen and dining room all unrecognizable. katara looked towards the back where she had shown sokka her healing abilities until another large column came crashing into them from above.

before she had a chance to react, lady ming pivoted to the side, her whole body obscuring the waterbender. katara screamed and the column connected with lady ming knocking both of them backward. katara tried to stand but the weight of the woman and the column pinned her to her spot. she tried to pull herself out to no avail, lady ming was unrecognizable as her perfectly made-up face concealed with blood and soot. katara heard voices and noticed three figures approaching but the smoke was becoming too strong overtaking her consciousness.

luten ran as quick as his legs could take him and ran into the coronation room. it was dark and empty, but he didn't miss the pile seals stationed in seats of noble and officials.

he quickly walked across the tables looking at the row of seals and names protesting his title of crown prince.

"zhao" he spat.

"nobleman ukano"

"lord xie lou"

"colonel shinu"

"captain li"

"captain chey"

"bujing?"

"even general mak?!"

the officials he had mentioned were just a handful of the hundred more seals placed on each seat in the room.

"this is outright disrespect towards me." he scoffed.

a chuckle snake it's way into the room and luten turned towards the figure at the door, his anger boiling even more.

"zhao! i know you engineered this? call off the protest this instant! you can't take my birthright away from me."

the commander's frowned at the prince