18 Chapter 18: Prisoner

"Yep. I've defeated Azula and took her as a prisoner."

All of my teammates approached me excitedly. Aang speaks up.

"Amazing! Even me and Zuko couldn't beat her in that deserted town a few weeks ago! Even if we weren't exactly working together."

Katara glances at the imprisoned Azula, then at me.

"Wow, I knew you were training hard and all, but I honestly didn't expect you to outright capture the Fire Nation Princess."

Toph just looks at me blankly for a few seconds, then looks down and smiles.

"That's my man. The greatest earthbender in the world."

Toph walks up next to me and locks her arm to mine with a smile.

Sokka walks up to the caged Azula and begins to mock her.

"Ha! Boo Ya, Crazy Blue Fire Princess! I betcha didn't expect to be bested by the mighty BoomerAang Squad!"

Azula just sits in her prison, unresponsive.

Katara looks at Sokka in confusion.

"BoomerAang Squad? Is that supposed to be our team name?"

Sokka looks up from his mocking and glares at Katara.

"What, you got a better name for our team?"

"Uh, how about... The... 'Saviors'?"

"Oh, come on, that's just as bad as mine! How about 'The Aang Gang?' or 'The Fearsome Fivesome'!"

I step up to give my input on our team name.

"How about plain old 'Team Avatar'?"

Sokka looks up with a hand to his chin and Katara smiles and nods. Aang and Toph seem to have no problems either.

"Yeah, that sounds nice. Not too complicated and easy to remember. Thanks, Lu Chen."

"No problem, Sokka."

Toph walks up to Azula and gently kicks her cage.

"So what're we gonna with this one? We've never held a prisoner before. Have you guys? Before we joined, I mean."

"No, not really."

"Some of us have been held prisoner before, though."

Katara looks annoyingly at Sokka's interjection.

"Oh, shut it, Sokka. That was on purpose to help that town."

"Well, we did hold on to Zuko at the Northern Water Tribe. If only for a few minutes."

Aang mentions the time they helped Zuko out of a blizzard after Sokka and Katara helped him escape from the Banished Prince.

"Let's just head home, for now, we can think of what to do with Azula tomorrow."

"Good idea, Lu. Boy, am I tired after cutting those pillars."

Toph agrees with my suggestion and stretches her arms while walking to the inner edge of the wall.

She makes an earth platform and Team Avatar, along with Azula, hop on.

By the way, I think Zuko is just about to arrive in Ba Sing Se.

I need to give him time to settle with Iroh in the tea shop.

Without Appa being missing, Zuko won't find any posters of the bison, leaving him to settle peacefully.

Of course, that means he won't get sick from freeing Appa and having a different outlook on life, albeit temporarily.

That's ok though. Maybe if I show him how broken Azula will become, he'll realize that if Ozai doesn't love her enough to get her back, why would he love Zuko and want him back, even after capturing the Avatar?

If I can open his eyes when that time comes, then he'll teach Aang firebending.

That is, after they come back from the Sun Warrior ruins and learn from the firebending masters.

----------

After arriving not our temporary home, I set Azula down in a corner of the room.

Everyone else goes to their respective rooms to sleep after eating dinner, except for me.

I earthbend the area around Azula to give her more space within the cage and making it more comfortable.

I set a futon on the floor of her cage.

I move her cuffs from her back and to her sides, attached to the ground, preventing her from lifting her arms.

I remove Azula's boots. Wow, they're surprisingly heavy. It has metal around the toes and heels. No wonder she's able to kick rocks so effortlessly.

And for you Feet People, yes, Azula has very nice feet.

I give Azula a pat-down for any hidden tools on her clothes, while she squirms at my touch.

"Just put up with it, princess. This is better than outright removing your clothes."

"...To be this humiliated..."

Azula, finally letting out a voice, complains while looking away. I guess even she has some shame.

Looking at her face, without us fighting, for the first time I realize that Azula is very beautiful.

I remember my previous life, watching the show when I was around 10/11 years old. Seeing Azula in her sleeping clothes and without makeup in that one scene made me have a huge cartoon crush on her.

It's the same with Toph, not the cartoon crush part, but her appearance. She's so much cuter in the flesh. Katara as well.

Hell, even Sokka is more handsome than in the show.

I guess being from a cartoon makes their real life appearance more attractive.

Finishing the pat-down, I set aside her boots and put a blanket on top of her.

She's still looking away, unresponsive.

I guess being captured, or rather, failing for the first time, really got to her.

"Hope your comfortable, Azula. I'll bring you breakfast tomorrow morning."

"..."

"Remember, if your Father doesn't respond within a week, it's proof that he thinks of you as a failure, that he never loved you, and that you were only seen as a tool to further his plans."

"...Wrong... your wrong..."

Azula weakly refutes my statements.

"You can believe what you want, Azula. When what I say becomes true, you'll see. Maybe after you realize that, we can help you."

"...Tch..."

Azula seems like she doesn't want to listen anymore. She turns her head away and closes her eyes tight and bites her lips hard.

"Good night, Azula."

I turn around and head to my room.

Toph was there, already next to my futon.

"What took you so long? Hitting on the princess?"

"Yeah, she's really pretty."

Toph smirks.

"You're lying. Well, at least the flirting part. ...Hey, how don I compare to that princess? Am I pretty? Or just normal? ... Ugly?"

I walk over to Toph and sit down on my futon next to her while wrapping my arms around her waist in a hug and kissing her cheek.

"You come first in every category. There isn't even a competition."

Toph looks down, blushing, while hugging back.

"... Well, you're not lying, so at least that's something. Thanks, Lu. I would say the same, but I can't exactly see your face."

"Haha! Thanks for the thought anyways. Goodnight."

"G'night."

...I wonder... If Iroh traveled the spirit world, can I travel there too? If I can, maybe I can take Toph with me.

If we're in the Spirit World, Toph may be able to see for the first time. Maybe I can even cure her blindness? Well, I can deal with that after the war.

Even if I can't cure her blindness, wouldn't holding a Spirit World marriage be great? She'll be able to see, maybe. It'll be a good memory for her.

Still wrapped in each other's arms, we fall asleep.

===============

1.2k words this time. What? The last chap was 2.9k!

Just so you know, guys, 'Reborn as The Son of The Wolf God' is more important to me than this fanfiction, so I'd really appreciate you add it to your collection. Thank you.