꧁ chapter twenty-five ꧂
prison break

✧₊⁎⁎⁺˳✧༚˚✧₊⁎⁎⁺˳✧༚˚✧₊⁎⁎⁺˳✧༚˚✧₊⁎⁎⁺˳✧༚˚✧₊⁎⁎⁺˳✧༚

"SOKKA, ARE YOU okay?" Meiluna looked at the boy with concern.

It was barely noticeable but she knew there was something bothering him.

"Hm," Sokka looked up at the girl, "I'm fine"

Meiluna took a seat beside him,
"No, you're not"

Sokka sighed as he rested his chin in his hands.

"You can tell me anything," Meiluna smiled,
"You're my best friend"

Sokka let out a small laugh,
"Don't let Katara hear that"

Meiluna rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious Sokka, you really helped me with Yue," She spoke softly, "I want to help you too"

"It's my dad," Sokka explained, "I need to find him"

Meiluna listened to him carefully as she recalled how he was captured by the Fire Nation.

"Zuko might know where he is" Sokka continued.

Meiluna stood up with her hands on her hips.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," She looked to Sokka, pointing over to where the rest of the group sat, "Let's go"

"What?" Sokka stood up, looking at Meiluna as if she were crazy, "You want to just go up to him and ask?"

"Yes" She answered plainly.

"Hard to argue with that, come on"

Sokka and Meiluna walked together to the campfire where Zuko served everyone tea.

Meiluna grabbed a cup for herself, extending it out for Zuko to pour her a drink.

"No one can make tea like my Uncle," Zuko spoke fondly, "But hopefully I learned a thing or two. Would you like to hear Uncle's favourite tea joke?"

"Sure" Katara answered.

"I like jokes" Aang said happily as Toph also spoke,

"Bring it"

"Okay, well I can't remember how it starts but the punch line is leaf me alone, I'm bushed"

Zuko looked around for a moment,

"Well, it's funnier when Uncle tells it"

"Right, maybe that's because he remembers the whole thing" Katara rolled her eyes as everyone laughed.

Toph accepted her tea from Zuko before speaking,

"It's nice to get a chance to relax a little, it hardly ever happens "

Meiluna nodded in agreement, taking a small sip of her tea before immediately letting it spill out of her mouth, back into the cup.

"What?" Sokka asked as he noticed her expression of discomfort.

"It tastes like my tea," Meiluna frowned as she poured the liquid out onto the floor, "But hot"

She then remembered the reason she was there in the first place, nudging Sokka with her elbow as she looked towards Zuko.

Sokka turned back to Meiluna as he neared Zuko, seeing her give him a thumbs up before turning to face Prince.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"

Zuko nodded following the boy.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"What'd he say?"

Meiluna sat next to Sokka on his sleeping bag.

"He told me where my Father is, and the rest of the troops," He turned to face the girl, "I have to go"

"Sokka-"

"I know you're going to tell me it's too dangerous, but I can't sit by and do nothing, I need-"

"I know," Meiluna cut in.

She understood perfectly. This was his family, he would do anything for them. There was no way Meiluna was going to stand in the way of that.

"What?"

"I understand why you need to go," She spoke quietly, "And I'm coming with you"

"No, I can't let you do that" Sokka shook his head quickly.

"You can't tell me what to do," Meiluna crossed her arms, "I'm a Princess, remember?"

"Luna-"

"You can't do this alone, please let me help you," She pleaded, "I won't let you get hurt"

Sokka gave in at the sight of Meiluna's expression and let her follow him. The pair quietly tip-toed their way to Appa, making sure not to wake anyone else up.

Sokka started to climb on to the bison, turning around to Meiluna on the ground, putting a finger to his lips, gesturing for her to stay quiet. He turned back around, about to enter the saddle when a voice startled him.

"Not up to anything, huh?"

Meiluna let out a shriek as Sokka fell back, crushing her underneath him.

"Fine, you caught me," Sokka rolled off Meiluna before helping her up, "I'm gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?"

Zuko stared at the pair with his arms crossed,

"I'm never happy"

"Look, I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea, it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong," Sokka explained as Zuko jumped down, "It's my mistake, and it's my job to fix it. I have to regain my honour. You can't stop me, Zuko"

Sokka pushed Zuko aside as he moved to climb Appa once again.

"You need to regain your honour? Believe me, I get it. I'm going with you" Zuko told them.

"No, I already have Luna coming with me"

"How are you going to get there?" Zuko questioned, "On Appa? Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison daycares"

Sokka stopped climbing, realising Zuko was right.

"We'll take my war balloon"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"What does it say?" Toph asked curiously.

"Need meat. Gone fishing. Back in a few days. Sokka and Zuko. P.S We took Luna with us," Katara read,

"One more thing, Aang practice your firebending while I'm gone do twenty sets of fire fists and ten hot squats everytime you hear a badgerfrog croak. Zuko"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

Meiluna felt a very strong impulse to jump off the side of the war balloon. Listening to the two boys she travelled with interact with each other gave her so much secondhand embarrassment, she though it would probably kill her before the Fire Lord did.

"Pretty clouds" Sokka observed.

"Yeah," Zuko agreed awkwardly, "Fluffy"

Meiluna couldn't believe she had to listen to this.

"What?" Zuko turned to look at Sokka.

"What? I didn't say anything," Sokka spoke quickly, "You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons"

"No kidding"

"Yep, a balloon," Sokka nodded slowly, "But for war"

Meiluna inwardly groaned. How did Sokka, the boy who always had something to say, not have anything to say?

"If there's one thing my dad's good at, it's war"

"Yeah, it seems to run in the family" Sokka remarked.

"Hey, hold on. Not everyone in my family is like that" Zuko said defensively.

"I know, I know, you've changed" Sokka replied.

"I meant my uncle," Zuko looked downcast, "He was more of a father to me. And I really let him down"

"I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us? That's hard" Sokka spoke genuinely.

"It wasn't that hard" Zuko shrugged.

"Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?"

"Well, I did have a girlfriend, Mai," Zuko started, quickly looking to the Princess, who had her back facing him as she looked out the side of the balloon, before turning back to Sokka,

"We broke up a while ago. But she's still one of my closest friends"

"That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?" Sokka asked with a smile as Meiluna turned around, now interested in the conversation.

"Yeah. Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it" Zuko nodded.

A moment of silence passed as Sokka tilted his head back, looking up to the sky,

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon"

"That's rough, buddy"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"We're going down! The balloon's not working anymore!"

Meiluna woke from her short nap, startled to see Zuko blasting bursts of fire in to the tank.

"The air outside is just as hot as the air inside so we can't fly!" Sokka realised.

"So, what's the plan now, idea guy?" Meiluna asked, holding tightly to the side of the balloon.

"I don't know! Crash landing?"

Meiluna squeezed her eyes shut as she braced for impact when the war balloon skidded across the boiling water. It abruptly hit the base of a rock, sending all three of them flying out. Meiluna groaned as she raised a hand up to the side of her head. Zuko had stood up quickly, offering a hand to the Princess, who ignored his gesture as she stood up shakily on her own.

"How are we gonna get off the island if the balloon won't work?" Zuko asked, slowly pulling his rejected hand back.

"We'll figure something out! I suspected it might be a one way ticket" Sokka said, standing up.

"You knew this would happen and you wanted to come anyway?" Zuko asked in disbelief.

"My dad might be here," Sokka spoke as he walked to the destroyed balloon, "I had to come and see!"

"Uncle always said I never thought things through. But this," Zuko looked to Sokka, "This is just crazy!"

"Hey, I never wanted you to come along in the first place! And for the record, I always think things through!" Sokka replied defensively, "But my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time, I'm playing it by ear. So there"

"What are you doing?" Zuko watched as Sokka kicked at the war balloon.

"It doesn't work anyway, and we don't want anyone to find it" He explained.

Zuko shook his head slightly,
"I hope you know what you're doing"

Meiluna stood in front of the boys, her back facing them, as the three of them started to walk towards the prison,

"Even if he doesn't, there's no turning back now"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"These uniforms are horrible," Meiluna looked down at her clothing, "I mean, you can't even tell I'm a girl"

Zuko wanted to laugh at how poorly the uniform fit her frame, loosely hanging off every part of her body, but decided against it, seeing how annoyed she looked at his very presence.

"We just need to lay low and find my dad as soon as possible" Sokka spoke quietly.

"Guards!"

Meiluna looked up, seeing a series of guards run past them.

"There's a scuffle in the yard. Come on"

The three of them moved to follow the guards to the commotion where they saw everyone gathered in a circle, surrounding a prisoner and a guard.

"I didn't do anything! I'm going back to my cell"

"Stop right there, Chit Sang" The guard threw a whip of fire at the prisoner.

Meiluna felt Zuko move forward before she instinctively grabbed his arm to stop him.

He turned around, seeing the girl silently shake her head,

"You'll blow our cover"

"I've had it with your unruly behaviour" The guard continued.

"What did I do?" Chit Sang asked.

"He wants to know what he did," The guard laughed as he faced the three, "Isn't that cute?"

A moment of silence passed as Meiluna, Sokka and Zuko were unsure of what to do.

The guard sent them a suspicious look prompting Zuko to reply,

"Uh, very cute, sir"

Sokka nodded,
"Super cute"

"Adorable" Meiluna added.

"You didn't bow down when I walked by, Chit Sang" The guard taunted as he walked towards the prisoner.

"What? That's not a prison rule" Chit Sang argued.

"Do it!"

"Make me"

The guard pretended to walk away before firing another blast at Chit Sang, who managed to block it and redirect it back.

The guard broke the fire with a kick, giving him a condescending smile.

"Firebending is prohibited. You're going in the cooler," The guard turned and pointed at Sokka and Meiluna, "You two! Help me take him in"

"We'll meet you back here in an hour" Sokka whispered to Zuko.

He nodded subtly as Meiluna and Sokka walked with Chit Sang in their custody while the guard led them to the cooler.

"The warden will deal with you soon," The guard spat at the prisoner as Sokka closed the door, "Can you believe this guy?"

"Prisoners! Am I right?" Sokka played along.

"Scum of the earth" Meiluna nodded hesitantly.

"Ugh, tell me about it"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"Hey there, fellow guards, how goes it?"

Meiluna instantly recognised the awkward voice,

"Zuko?"

He stood beside her as he lifted his helmet's visor.

"Listen, I asked around the lounge. There are no Water Tribe prisoners left. I'm afraid your father's not here" Zuko spoke sadly.

"What?" Sokka asked sadly, "Are you sure? Did you double check?"

"Yeah, I'm sure" Zuko nodded reluctantly.

"No!" Sokka banged his fists on the wall in frustration as Meiluna placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"I'm sorry, Sokka" Meiluna apologised softly.

"So we came all this way for nothing? I failed again" He said angrily.

"Ah, what would uncle say?" Zuko held his chin in thought as he looked up to the sky, "Sometimes, clouds have two sides, a dark and a light, and a silver lining in between. It's like a silver sandwich!"

Meiluna furrowed her eyebrows as she listened to Zuko ramble while Sokka remained disinterested.

"So, when life seems hard, take a bite out of that silver sandwich!"

Meiluna was deep in thought, replaying the words in her head as she tried to make sense of what Zuko had just spewed out.

"Maybe we haven't failed after all!" Sokka exclaimed snapping the Princess out of her daze.

"That's the spirit! I can't believe that worked," He looked over to Meiluna, "I didn't even know what I was saying"

"No, what you said made no sense at all," Sokka dismissed, "But look!" He pointed into the distance.

Meiluna looked to where he was pointing before she noticed,

"It's Suki!"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"Excuse me, I need to get into that cell" A female guard demanded as she approached Zuko and Meiluna.

"No!" Zuko spoke quickly, "You can't go in there"

"The lights are out, the prisoner could sneak up on you" Meiluna added.

"Step aside, fools"

The guard moved to push Zuko out of the way when Meiluna reacted instantly, grabbing her arm and turning her around to slam her face first against the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Meiluna's eyes widened as she had realised what she had done,

"Uh, sorry?"

The guard turned around angrily, ready to attack Meiluna when Zuko stepped between them and grabbed the woman's arm, forcing her backwards, allowing Sokka to slip out of the cell.

The female guard managed to hold both Meiluna and Zuko against the wall when she turned and noticed Sokka,

"Guard, help!"

She nodded her head towards the two she held,

"I think they're imposters"

She let go of Zuko, still holding tightly on to Meiluna as she kept her hands behind her back,

"Arrest him!"

Sokka walked up to Zuko throwing him down in the floor,

"You're under arrest!"

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

Meiluna stood close to Zuko as he pretended to mop before meekly bumping into her. Meiluna rolled her eyes as she turned around, ready to put on a show,

"Hey!" She yelled, catching the attention of the prisoners, "What are you, stupid? Watch where you're going!"

She quickly brought her hands up to shove him backwards.

Zuko felt surprised at the strength in her actions before he yelled back,
"You watch who you're shoving!"

He pushed her back, making her stumble slightly.

The prisoners began to gather around. Zuko made some weak attempts at punching Meiluna, while in return she threw him roughly to the floor.

"I need backup over here!" Sokka yelled to the other guards.

Meiluna gave Zuko a subtle nod, hinting at him to firebend at her. He hesitated as he stood up. He wasn't sure what would happen if he did ended up harming her in the process. He made her a promise to never hurt her again and he would stick by that.

Meiluna knew that their time was running out,
"Come on!"

Zuko reluctantly shot a poorly aimed blast of fire at her.

She ducked down just in time as a guard approached them.

"No firebending! Into the cooler!" He pointed to Zuko.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"Are you sure you wanna go?" Zuko asked Sokka, "You're the one who said you wanted to redeem yourself. Redeem your honour. Rescuing your dad is your chance"

Meiluna looked up at Sokka's saddened expression as Suki walked up to him,
"Your dad?"

"If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail" Sokka shook his head sadly.

"No it's not," Zuko told him, "Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out"

"That supposed to make me feel better?" Sokka asked sarcastically as he stood up.

"Even though you'll probably fail over and over again,"

"Seriously, not helping" Sokka cut him off.

"You have to try every time," Zuko grabbed Sokka's shoulder, "You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail"

"Hey," Chit Sang called out from beside the cooler boat, "If you two are done cuddling, can we get a move on?"

"No, I'm staying," Sokka replied before turning to Suki, "You've been here long enough"

"I'm not leaving without you Sokka" She assured him.

"I'm staying too" Zuko added.

Sokka looked to Meiluna as she spoke,
"So am I"

"Not me, I'm out! Let's roll baby" Chit Sang said as he pushed the boat into the lake while jumping in.

"We gave up our only chance of escaping. I hope we haven't just made a huge mistake" Sokka commented, watching Chit Sang leave.

━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━

"This is it!" Sokka spoke as he walked up to where Suki and Meiluna stood with Hakoda, "We have to start a riot"

"Okay," Suki agreed, "But how do we do that?"

"I'll show you" Hakoda smiled smugly before making his way over towards another prisoner, shoving him roughly.

"Hey!" The prisoner turned around with an annoyed expression, "What'd you do that for? That hurt my feelings"

"Aren't you mad at me?" Hakoda asked in confusion.

"Uh, well normally I would be," He answered honestly, "But I've been learning to control my anger"

"This isn't working" Sokka mumbled under his breath when Chit Sang suddenly appeared behind him, placing his hands on his shoulders.

"Hey, you! You're lucky I didn't rat you out," Chit Sang grinned slyly, "But my generosity comes with a price, I know you're planning another escape attempt and I want in"

"Actually, we're trying to escape right now but we need a riot," Sokka spoke as he pointed to Chit Sang, "You wouldn't happen to know how to start one, would you?"

"A prison riot? Please," He scoffed before reaching over to lift another prisoner in the air, "Hey!"

All the other prisoners in the courtyard paused their movements, looking over to Chit Sang.

"Riot!"

Immediately, several blasts of fire