Chapter 50: Truths
A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
Pa treon.com/HolyJoker
(20+ chapters in advance)
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Chapter 50: Truths
***
Azula was a tricky opponent and I had guided her into a battle of intelligence to increase my Intelligence Stat. But the last thing I wanted was to get overconfident and lose, that would be a horrible way to go out.
She looked at the ground for a split second, seemingly contemplating what to say. "My mother thought I was a monster."
By her smirk. I could tell that she thought she could trick me like this. But I knew the truth behind it. This was the absolute truth, Azula's mother was abusive, though in a different way from Ozai. Telling your child she was a monster, what kind of parent does that?
Well, some might say it in the head of the moment, but never mean it. At least most of the time.
Azula looked at me strangely, as if waiting for me to say something. Right, she could never imagine that I would know something so personal about her in any logical way.
Well, since she told me something about herself, I will match it with something of my own. Not about my life as Sokka, but as someone else. "I lied to the people I loved. Initially, I used to tell them everything, but then I started isolating myself, lying to hide my true self that was a failure in reality. Until I realized that it was too late to say anything."
Would she be able to tell whether I was lying or telling the truth? She was hurt by her truth, but I wasn't. Mine had been dulled by the passage of time, there was regret, no denying that, but it was useless to think about it now. Even if I had told them how much of a failure I was back then, it would have only worried them needlessly, and I would have regrets for telling them. Yeah, this was the kind of thing that had no right decision.
Or maybe there was one, but I just couldn't see it.
Azula muttered, confused. "I am good at telling when people are lying. But I just can't seem to read you. The best liar that I ever saw."
She didn't know what I told her was the truth. Just like she did with me, so even if she saw past my "deception" there wasn't anything I was hiding.
[You have outplayed a highly intelligent person, your intelligence increases by 1]
Even the Gamer Interface seems to address her as smart. Was she as intelligent as I thought? Well, guess she was, though I consider Iroh to be smarter. Or maybe he is just wiser. Azula had a strategic mind, with high intelligence, Iroh was smart too, but he was wiser than smart.
How long until Katara saves Aang? C'mon sis, do your job, your brother is spilling his heart here to the enemies. "It's your turn now princess. We can't stop this little game of ours, let's see who goes further."
She took that as a challenge and turned off her fire, the prison room immediately became dark. It was as if she was testing me whether I would attack her.
That's a pretty good idea, but I wasn't here to attack her.
"No one in this world loves," she said emotionlessly.
Oh, so she turned off the fire so I wouldn't be able to see her face. It seemed like I misunderstood her there. Well, we have already gone this far. There was no reason to stop here. Though I did wonder just how desperate she was to say these things to someone else, even under the guise of a lie.
"It's your turn now," she said. There was no tone of taunting in her voice. Just simple seriousness.
Well, it would be useless to try and lie now. "I never tried hard enough in my life, that's why I failed. These regrets will haunt me for the rest of my life."
"I taunted my brother when our mother died."
"Due to my greed, I wasn't able to see my loved ones even in their last moments."
***
This went on for an hour, we were telling "half-truths" to each other. By now we both knew that we were telling the truth, but neither said anything.
"Princess Azula, the Avatar has escaped," one of the guards came. By the tone in his voice, he seemed scared that she would do something.
But instead, she calmly got up and opened the door, turning around just before she walked out, we stared at each other's eyes. "Wait here."
"Sure," I smiled. This girl was an intelligence stat grind, just by talking for an hour I had gained an extra three intelligence points. It was all in the beginning too, since after a while she started realizing that we were both doing the same.
***
Katara and Aang were going back through the sewers. Waterbending their ways through it.
"How were you able to get to me?" Asked Aang, knowing that there were hundreds of guards around here.
"Sewers, air vents, steampipes," answered Katara with a disgusted look on her face. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Then where is Sokka? That sounds like something he would come up with."
Katara was worried about that too, he had told her that she shouldn't worry and that he will be with them, waiting with Appa.
But as she saw the light at the end of the sewers, Katara was ready to breathe out a sigh of relief. But then remembered where she was and decided to hold her breath for a little longer.
Once they got out of the sewers, she was about to cheer, but stopped once she saw dozens of Fire Nations guard around them.
BOOOOM!!
They shot blasts of fire at them. But Aang came forward and used airbending to change the fire's directions, hitting the nasty water around them.
Katara didn't stand idle either, so she used waterbending to manipulate that same nasty water and hit the soldiers in the face with it.
"Aggghh!! It splashed in my face!"
"It smells so bad!"
"Some got in my mouth!"
Though she didn't do a lot of damage, the nastiness of the sewer waters was enough to make the soldiers fall in disgust.
"That's quite an effective method," a feminine voice rang out, making the soldiers forget their disgust and readily stand up.
Katara saw that it was a young woman, with a dangerous look in her eyes. There seemed to be fire lit in her eyes. It seemed like there were hundreds of soldiers were there to accompany her.
"Avatar, how about you get back in your cage? Maybe then I won't hurt your girlfriend." Azula said maliciously, the murderous look in her eyes intensifying.
But suddenly, a roar came from the sky, confusing the Fire Nation soldiers. That was when Appa, landed down, and with a swish of his tail created a huge wind that pushed everyone else to the ground. While Sokka, who was riding Appa, smiled at Katara. "Told you I would be safe."
Katara wanted to go and hug him, she was worried and she could never get used to this. But decided against it as they had to escape, she and Aang got in Appa and flew away, before anyone else but Azula who shot blue flames at them could do anything. She had used a blast of fire to counteract the pushing power of the wind, making such a split-second decision wasn't something most people could do.
But even that, that didn't help her get the Avatar.
*
As they were in the sky, Katara breathed a sigh of relief, asking her brother curiously. "How were you able to get out of there?"
"I have my ways," Sokka smiled. "My ninja ways."
She chuckled, for once not minding her brother's jokes.
***
Azula looked at the Avatar as he escaped. She knew that her father would be disappointed. But strangely, she didn't feel as disappointed as she would have normally felt.
Instead, she calmly walked off while looking at her soldiers with disappointment. They all felt fear at her looks alone as she didn't need to say anything.
As she got inside the fortress, a panicked soldier came towards her. "Princess Azula! The prisoner, he…"
A Fire Nation soldier's helmet flew through the air.
Fwish!
Baam!
It hit the talking soldier on the back of the head, knocking him out. She saw Kuzon, his eyes looking at her hypnotically. He had a smile on his face. "Were you able to catch the Avatar?"
"I never told you we had the Avatar," Azula narrowed her eyes suspiciously, ready to attack him.
"The guards speak an awful lot. Better not have them know anything next time," Sokka said, he had sent the water clone to go and help Katara and Aang.
Initially, he had planned to go with them, and rejoin the group. But something more interesting had crossed his path.
"You didn't leave?" She questioned one last time, looking at his green clothes that were neatly suited. Showing that he didn't have any difficulty taking out the guards. "Also if you killed any guards, I will have to hunt you down."
"No, don't worry, I didn't kill anyone," Sokka reassured her and then added amusingly. "I didn't have time to escape."
'That is a lie.' - Azula thought.
She could tell by how casual he was about taking out the guards that he could have easily escaped while she was busy with the Avatar.
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