Queen of the Forgotten

by PlasticRapture


Prologue

Ty Lee always thought she was ordinary.

While she was adventurous, talented and took the risks of walking tightropes on her hands with no regard for safety, she knew she was really no different from any other human being. Everyone lives, breathes dies and goes in and out of the world the same way.

Ty Lee never wanted to be ordinary.

She was raised with sisters, sets of twins. She went to school and got average grades, that probably would be below average if she took the type of classes that you could fail. And she went to the state college, then, well, instead of settling down, she decided to stop being ordinary and ran off to the city to pursue her passion.

Then, once she was in Cirque du Soleil, Ty Lee was ordinary again. She was not special among all of those talented people, but she knew how to grin and bear it.

Ty Lee is not ordinary anymore.

She no longer will die, she no longer is in the same world that she was born into. Ty Lee does not have to think about traffic or grocery lists or anything else like that again. She does not have to be a normal, mousy-haired girl in her mid twenties, moving and grabbing a secure job to become a full adult.

Her true love changed her, and Carolyn still wears her bloodied wedding dress as the guards in metal armor with fire on their hands lead her through a dimly lit manor somewhere in this eerie, strange Universe.

Ty Lee feels strongly that something wicked is about to happen. The woman leading the guards, who roughly had carried Ty Lee after the painful transition, is one of the immortal, one like Ty Lee's love.

That love, that love that Ty Lee hopes is looking for her. Too many times of late she has played the damsel in distress, even when remembering the skills of combat that she apparently once had.

But she loves Azula more strongly than she has loved anything in her life. She thinks of her true love: beautiful beyond belief, with words that entrance Ty Lee, a warm, fiery embrace and electrifying sex. She hopes her mind remains on the painless memories of Azula if Mai decides to burn her or kill her some other way.

They reach a room of cold, gray stone and a gorgeous view of the night sky and indigo sea. There is a blue fire burning that Ty Lee remembers Azula showing her, and at that moment, the direction of her life was set in stone.

"She's back, princess," Mai says into the flames, and Ty Lee squints in confusion. "And now you can wake and claim your world or revenge or whatever."

Okay, now Ty Lee is totally confused.

"Returned?" she whispers. No one responds.

Ty Lee gazes forward, squinting even harder into the fire as if it will make her vision clearer. She knows that now that she is in this world, things will change. But leaving her fiancee. . .

The woman who was made into shadows by the cerulean flames walks towards the blue light, and Ty Lee bites down hard on her lower lip. Because it is, yes, her love. Ty Lee exhales in relief, before realizing the fact that this means her love has been lying to her for a very long time.

The guards hold her tightly, despite the fact that she is not struggling, as Azula's figure becomes clearer. Beautiful; as she is in the real. . . or not real world; Ty Lee is not sure. Her skin is ivory, her hair pitch black and smooth, face chiseled and cold, full, red lips and glowing golden eyes superhuman. The air seems to thicken around the princess as she walks forward from the palace as if rising from a crypt.

Ty Lee knows that the world is in danger, like her little town, and she knows it is in danger from a person who had promised to help her. She is also now uncertain if she is in danger or not, seeing as Azula has decided to just destroy the trust between them without a second thought. This shadow those with memories went on about was locked away millennia ago for good reason. And now, the darkness and unease that hung like fog over Ty Lee's dream wedding to Azula are no longer theories.

They are very real.

"It was such a hassle getting you here," Azula purrs before walking to Ty Lee and kissing her lips.

She bites down, gently, and Ty Lee closes her eyes.


Chapter One

The death adder slithers up Ty Lee's arm. Its deadly, serpentine eyes are focused on her. One bite could kill, but so far it has not decided to strike. Ty Lee's heart beats rapidly, thu-thump, thu-tump, thu-thump. It feels like a trap for James Bond, a snake circling around her body.

"Okay, okay, I'm done now," Ty Lee squeaks, her eyes flashing in fright.

Her friend Fi laughs and Ty Lee glares at her.

"I'm coming," Fiona says sweetly before moving at a super intentionally slow pace towards the acrobat. "It's not my fault that you needed to play with the dangerous snake."

FiFi snickers as she grabs it by the mid-section and returns it to its proper cage. She smirks at the serpent and it sniffs the air. Quietly, it coils up and ignores the fact that it was just free.

"You shouldn't play with those things," Ty Lee grumbles, trying to hide that she was truly scared while FiFi drops a meal into a lizard's enclosure. "It's gonna kill you one day! Our four pet snakes was totally not in the roomie agreement."

"But you love Unagi so much," Fi says with a grin. "You even named her. "And also, I'm pretty sure you jumping through rings of fire is way more dangerous than my very deadly herpetology degree."

"Maybe." Ty Lee waves her hand dismissively. "I've done like so much training."

Fi cocks an eyebrow. "I've done four years in school."

"I did learn my lesson about rings of fire," Ty Lee sighs as she looks at her leg wrappings. FiFi frowns when she sees that and looks like she regrets teasing Ty Lee. She brought her to visit the dangerous animal show to distract her, not to make her feel worse about having to go home.

Ty Lee glares at her wound every time she remembers it.

"And now you're back off to Smallville. I'm gonna miss your reckless disregard for safety protocol," Fi says as cheerily as possible, even though her smile is sad. Ty Lee bites her lip.

Ty Lee is twenty-five and probably should have quit the circus by now anyway. She should go back to her family, and her old friends, as much as bouncing from place to place with FiFi and interchangeable faces and scenery is.

"I'm gonna miss you," Fiona says, her eyes intently focused on an albino peacock so that she does not have to meet Ty Lee's cartoon-eye gaze.

"I know," Ty Lee replies smugly and Fi snorts. Quietly, Ty Lee adds, "I'll miss you too."

Ty Lee picks at her bandage and forces another smile.

.

After her peaceful night, Ty Lee spends the day traveling in a blur.

When the plane finally lands at LAX, she gets out, her legs wobbly as she tries to properly use her crutches. She grimaces in frustration as she fumbles with them, wanting to scream about how she really is super graceful and not this much of a klutz.

At the entrance, Ty Lee sees her friend from school awaiting her, with a bright grin on his face. He was always there, especially when Ty Lee's family was not. He was military, and when Ty Lee had a horrible, abusive boyfriend, he was the only one who would take her in until the police managed to do something.

"Sokka!" Ty Lee cheers, hobbling over to him for a quick hug. He smiles at her and waves. "How is everybody?"

"Good. They're really good." He rubs his neck, a bit awkwardly. She feels it too, how strange it is to be looking at somebody you haven't seen in so long, especially somebody who was such a good friend.

Last time Ty Lee saw him was he and Suki's wedding, and they are so adorably happy together. They have a little kid, Elliot or Ellie or gosh, something with an E. Ty Lee hopes she doesn't have to ask.

"How's the shop?" Ty Lee asks as they walk towards the car.

"Not bad. How are the. . . braids?" Sokka clearly was going to say something about the acrobatics, and now Ty Lee's mouth feels dry. Everyone is going to dance around it, because it was the only thing that Ty Lee could do.

"Hopefully fine." She tries to get her many pink suitcases into the back, but Sokka can't watch her struggle, and so he does it while she clenches her jaw and hobbles over to go strap herself into the passenger seat.

Ty Lee just pouts, yanks down the passenger seat mirror and sees the fly fishing hooks jabbed into it like decorations. They would usually make her laugh, but she is putting on lipstick, fixing her hair and just trying not to look like a dumb, ordinary failure who tried to be special and screwed up.

She is super glad Sokka came instead of Suki, because he doesn't talk much, and she can just look at California breeze by, and not be interrogated.

.

Ty Lee's town was always so plain and boring in her memories. Up closer to Oregon, tucked near the woods. It is an easy place to overlook ─ no; it is an impossible place to find. When she arrives, however, she sees the cute Mom and Pop Shops without a Target or a strip mall or a Starbucks. Everyone waves, knows each other's names.

It is a cute place, yet, Ty Lee has this strange, aching feeling inside of her gut that something is off. Maybe she just has her mind addled by nostalgia, but everyone looks grim and concerned.

"Did people just get bad news?" Ty Lee asks and Sokka furrows his brow. "Nah, not really." He shrugs and keeps driving as the light drizzle of rain becomes fiercer. "So, you got set up in that weird abandoned place? You remember when. . . oh. . ."

Sokka feels like a moron again, as he remembers him and his stupid fucking ponytail he thought was so metal. He and his sister, and Suki, and Aang, and Zuko and Toph would get into so much trouble in town, and he often forgets that his friends he made later in life weren't always around to have those adventures.

"Yeah, I remember it was the weird witch house, right? The one that girl lived in." Ty Lee scrunches up her face as she tries to remember her.

"She moved out and moved to, uh, Portland, I think." Sokka nods, even though he can't really remember.

"I thought she got sent to an asylum?"

"Well, yeah, I also heard that she was a witch, remember?" Sokka turns the corner and Ty Lee runs her fingertips along the window, following the raindrops on the outside of it. "It's a small town and people talk. People. . . have talked about you a bit too, so uh. . ."

"It's fine," Ty Lee says, waving her hand. She has no worries, because she does not want to stay here very long.

Ty Lee sees another car in the driveway of the house she bought when they arrive. Her family offered her a place to stay, but it was clearly not actually welcoming. Out on the porch, hiding from the rain, are Aang, Suki and the little kid whose name starts with E.

And Ty Lee hugs them both.

"Do you have the key?" Suki asks, her teeth chattering like a typewriter. Sokka pulls off his light blue aviator jacket and tosses it to her; she catches it quickly and Ty Lee rummages around in her pricey pink purse for the key. There it is, weird, knobby and nothing like the hotel room keys she has gotten used to.

She might have saved one with girls in lingerie from a hotel in Las Vegas inside of her wallet. By "accident".

The five of them walk inside after Ty Lee manages to unlock it, and they all look around in disgust save for Aang.

"You can always stay with me," Suki offers, staring at the decrepit front hall in distaste. How this was sold, she has no idea.

"I'm an adult," Ty Lee says, flicking on the set of lights with one hand. They flicker first before all illuminating the front rooms. It does not make the house look any better, as Ty Lee had hoped, but it is okay. "I can figure out how to decorate and take care of it and live on my own and stuff."

Aang adds, "It can be really freeing to get rid of worldly possessions and just. . . fly and stuff."

Ty Lee gives him a toothy grin, despite knowing just how much furniture and how many gift certificates for furniture are in her huge set of matching pink suitcases. "You're super right."

Suki shrugs and starts walking through the halls. "The offer still stands. Sokka and I have an extra room."

"Thanks," Ty Lee says, smiling. "You can help me unpack if you want to."

.

Far away from where a gaggle of awkward people are unpacking, Mai is sitting, very bored, in the Nightclub of the Damned. She studies her long, manicured and black fingernails as her employees clean up after last night's dull festivities. She ignores her headache that refuses to go away, and ignores the half empty champagne flute with gross lukewarm orange juice in it that she holds loosely in her left hand.

Her most recent fling, some boring girl from this world with an equally boring name, is sitting next to her, talking, while Mai does not listen.

Mai hates this place. It is not fun, and whoever said that owning a nightclub would be fun was an idiot. She just wants to get through this morning, and then take a few naps.

But then someone appears behind her.

"Did someone leave a window open or did Princess Azula just walk in?" Mai asks with a very halfhearted and unfinished sarcastic shiver. She turns around to face the woman who just kind of appeared.

"It would do you well to respect authority," Azula says coldly and Mai just shrugs.

"What are you doing in my club. . . your highness," Mai says with a sloppy bow. Azula's upper lip curls like a tiger-cougar's.

"Katara is in town," Azula says sharply and Mai does not know what to say.

"What does she want? I thought she moved to New York after leaving that stupid containment facility." Mai sets down her glass. She hates orange juice.

"Well obviously someone high profile is in town. Someone people on the other side is concerned about."

"Someone who doesn't have a double." They have had this conversation too many times.

"Mhm."

"Right. You like making lists. Get to it." Mai grunts.

"Do you honestly treat this so casually? You are sitting here so bored and griping about being stuck here, and someone could very easily be walking right into our hands, and you have no desire to try to catch them." Azula seems surprised by Mai's apathy, and it is kind of cute.

"Look, I don't know why you're coming to me. I've washed my hands of politics and I'm really done. It's hopeless and too much effort for no results." Mai sighs and rolls her amber eyes as her cute little this-dumb-world friend looks scared and confused.

"You may be brooding with angst and apathy towards. . . everything but I am in no mood for another war. I'm staying here." Azula's eyes are dedicated, and Mai is certain that she is not being fully honest about whoever is in town.

"Help yourself to wherever you want to stay," Mai sighs, and returns to watching other people work as if nothing had happened.

.

Ty Lee is eating lunch at the old diner with Sokka and Suki. It's an interesting and fun place with a weird theme Ty Lee can't quite place a finger on. It's like an oriental wild west with a lot of green and rocks, but also some homage to cowboys. She holds a chocolate flavored beer that is surprisingly good, and picks halfheartedly at French Fries.

"So, Ellie is really rambunctious." Ty Lee smiles so fiercely that her eyes are forced closed.

"Good, good," Sokka says, smiling.

"I know this is soon to ask, but are you with anybody?" Suki inquires, of course, picking up her fork.

Ty Lee feels a little anxious, and messes with her skirt. "No," she says, as if she could not be more of a screw up.

"So, my sister is also single and looking. She came back in town the other day," Sokka says and Suki's eyes widen slightly.

"You're right," she says, a little too loudly and Ty Lee thinks that they may have planned this. "They'd be good with each other."

"You're kidding. A blind date?" Ty Lee asks, snorting.

"Nah. Come hiking with us Saturday. Katara would love to come," Sokka says, and he will not take no for answer.

"I think you're forgetting my stupid crutches," Ty Lee says with a pout. She glowers at the crutches resting on the side of the table. "I totally can't hike."

Ty Lee bats her eyelashes in hopes that they will say no, but they both are the most stubborn people that Ty Lee has ever met in her life. She does not really remember a time before being friends with them, even if they didn't know her in school.

"We can do a very gentle hike," Suki replies in a teasing tone, tapping Ty Lee's shoulder with the palm of her hand.

"I'm just back in town and you're already forcing me into the wilderness. Of course," Ty Lee says with a giggle, smirking and taking a sip of her beer. "Maybe I will do it."

Katara always was kinda hot.

.

Ty Lee's first dream is that night. It feels more vivid and more real than any memory she has ever had before.

She can feel the heat of steam against her, and can feel knots of tension in her body. Her body moves as she feels panic in her chest and her fists collide with a crisp, clear figure of a girl she has never seen before. The twisting emotions of agony in her are so strong that she wakes with tears rolling from her eyes.

It is a single image, just one. And a dream too. But it feels more jarring than any fall she has taken from incredible heights.