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The Legend
In each of the temples of all four nations, within the innermost chambers, is a painting. This painting represents a potential savior sent from the Spirits to help get the fire nation back to its original glory. She is marked with unnatural beauty and an inner fire that could outshine even the sun. She was found as a child by the air nation monks and they decided to take good care of her. However, on their way to deliver her to the avatar, the priestess's charged with her were attacked. One managed to escape with the child and gave her to a local before she too was found and killed. Most everyone has given up hope on finding her; much like they had given up on finding the avatar. However, since Aang has showed his face, the fire nation has doubled its efforts to locate the prophesized child with the intention of using her as a human weapon. She was meant to reappear yaers ago, but something went wrong. Will she still be able to patch up the world even though she showed up ten years too late?
Arabella's P.O.V
I cursed out loud and pushed my legs to move faster. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. So much fuck. I overheard a conversation between some jocks at school that a local gang was planning on robbing someone's house. What I found out a few hours prior to the crime was that the victim would be Kera, a nerdy girl I go to school with. Normally, I wouldn't really care. Yeah, I'd call the cops and all that but I wouldn't take it into my own hands. However, she was my partner in science and she was really nice to me even though I was the social outcast. I was known to rough up anybody who gave me trouble, but she didn't look at me like I was some kind of monster. She treated me like I was human and now I wasn't going to let some school bullies traumatize her. An eye for an eye. (Makes the whole world blind but hey—who needs to see?)
Despite the fact that the police were supposed to be patrolling the area, I went to her home and watched it from the trees, dressed in all black. I'm not going to take any chances My tight pants had strips of leather just above the knee, adding to the badassery that was me; undercover. I also wore a long sleeve crop top, revealing about three fingers worth of skin between the bottoms and the shirt. I slipped my feet into my combat boots, pulled my phoenix necklace over my head, braided my long purple hair to the side to keep it out of my face, and applied some makeup. All in all, I would have to say, that I looked pretty damn hot. Not that it's important since it will be dark and nobody will be able to see me but hey—I'm still a teenage girl. I won't admit it out loud, but on the inside, I will always be just the littlest bit shallow.
Of course, law enforcement never showed up and when the teens tried to break in, the door wasn't even locked. Stupid, stupid Kera! At least lock your door! What's wrong with you? You live in one of the worst parts of town and you don't even take simple precautions? How stupid is that? I, of course, stepped in without thinking. I hopped down from my tree with a loud thud. The wannabe criminals turned around, startled. My god; they must be new at this. If they had been seasoned felons, they would have sensed me long before then. "Heya, boys? Whatcha up to? Giving Kera a little night visit? I had no idea ya'll were so close."
As I spoke, I examined the tip of my braid, checking for split ends. I just loving doing that to jerks; showing them just where they stand on my priority scale. For these fucknoses it wasn't exactly very high. I think my grandmother probably could have been more dangerous than them. Then again, she did like to wave that cane of hers around an awful lot, so it's not all that surprising.
One of the shorter guys stepped forwards and cracked his knuckles a little bit. "Now just hold on one fucking minute. Who the hell do you think you are? Talking to us like that, you got a death wish or something?" He had a southern twang to his voice and I wondered for a brief moment whether or not he could read. Not that I judge people on where they are from, of course.
I stepped closer to him, smirking. "Oh, how rude of me. I'm Arabella" a few of the gang members let out a curse or two at that. I see my reputation as a take-none-of-your-shit bitch is getting around. I like it. "And guess what else? That girl—you know, the one whose house you are currently to rob—is a friend of mine. I don't think I have to explain to you why this displeases me." I examined my nails, checking for any dirt. Of course there wasn't any but that was beside the point. Mental warfare; it fucking kicks ass.
Long story made short, we exchanged a lot of coarse words. When things came to blows, I was the first to strike. (An overly aggressive teenage girl with a troubled past stars a fight? Gasp! No way!) I managed to elbow grey-shirt in the nose, kick ski-mask man in the crotch then slam his head into my knee, effectively knocking him out before the wannabe cowboy pulled a gun. In the end, I couldn't liberate the gun from his hands and he was clearly serious about wanting to fill my skull with shrapnel. I took off running and the shithead followed. With all the time I spent committing petty crimes, I was fairly in shape and he was nowhere near catching up with me. He fired at me a few times but I never halted in my movements. I didn't know when he stopped following me but I was too terrified to turn around. I've been shot before; it certainly doesn't make me feel like bursping butterflies, eating rainbows, and screwing unicorns.
I pushed my legs to keep pumping past the point of pain. Hours passed and yet I didn't stop even when my muscles went numb. I didn't need to live, but I really fucking wanted to. Eventually, I tripped and exhaustion overcame me when I tried to stand up.
Zuko's P.O.V
I took my stance and breathed deeply before launching a healthy of fire towards the door of the fire temple. It squeaked a little and then lurched open, pushing aside cobwebs and it did so. Disgusting. Don't we leave people in charge of taking care of these places? I took a step forward, ignoring Uncle's idle chatter. He kept going on and on about some sort of tea that he absolutely had to have. He also mentioned something about it killing sixty percent of the people who drink it, but that he figured he would be one of the lucky one's who was able to taste its splendors without meeting an unfortunate end. The bat-shit crazy fool.
I took a step forward only to have something crawl onto my face. I fought the urge to have a tiny little spaz attack and merely swatted the spider off my face, crushing it with my foot as soon as it hit the ground. I took a little bit of sadistic pleasure in it's guts mixing with its blood on the expensive marble of the temple. I took my twin blades from the sheath attached to my back and sliced at the webs; steadily getting more and more irritated. There are supposed to be people maintaining these sanctuaries. I understand that perhaps the air benders had sort of dropped the ball since they were all dead with the exception of aang, but you know, he could get off his ass and do a little bit more of the work. That's my theory anyways.
If I can spend the majority of my life chasing him as well as juggling an angry crew, a pathetic excuse for a ship and my uncle, then he has time to wipe up the floor once a year or so.
I finally gave into my aggravation and just blazed everything out of my way. Not long after, my soldiers followed my lead and we had cleared a relatively large space. And by relatively, I mean it was probably large enough to house at least three hundred people. I didn't do it as a favor to whoever was supposed to be caring for this shithole, but as a way to relieve a little stress in a manner that would not have uncle riding my back.
I took a good long look around and was pleasantly surprised. This place looked somewhat similar to the palace at home; the sight bringing back bittersweet memories. Everything was either marble, pure gold, or something else of equal value. I was mildly surprised that no thieves had broken in and stolen anything.
The walls were covered in whimsical patterns of ivory ivy. It was rather odd considering the fact that in general, temples are filled with thousands of alters to various spirits; some real and some not. I twirled ( I do NOT twirl, damn it.) turned in a complete circle to find that in a dim corner of the room sat a large marble block. It looked to be something like ten feet by ten feet and not actually made of stone. Well, it was, but it had been carved out so that it was almost like a bathtub. Then, a large, plush mattress had been placed inside of it as well as incredibly expensive looking sheets and pillows.
Above it on the wall hung one of the largest paintings I had ever seen; rivaled only by the one my father had painted of himself and placed in the palace. However, the person depicted didn't seem to be of any real power. She was simply a pale girl of roughly age seventeen with long purple locks, dressed in a white dress ( Check details later). She obviously had beauty on her side, but there were no flames in the background like in my fathers picture, no crown upon her head, no scars indicating that she might be some kind of war hero. The weirdest thing about it all, though, was that the bed was messed up, the sheets strewn to the side like it had been recently used. I got a little closer as curiosity got the best of me. Hesitantly, I placed a hand against the soft material and my suspicions were immediately confirmed. Someone had been here and chances are that they still are.
I whipped around, and began shouting out orders to the crew who were still setting up camp. "There's someone here. Find them and bring them here or you won't like the consequences." For a moment, nobody moves, sending me 'what the bloody fuck?' kind of looks.
Jin Lao steps forward. "Uh, with all due respect sir, but there are cobwebs everywhere and I really don't think th—"
I interrupted him, giving him a glare that probably made his mother roll over in her grave; assuming that's she dead. "NOW."
They do as commanded, leaving uncle and I in silence. This better fucking be worth my time. Then again, who knows, I may be able to return not only with the avatar, but with a fucking idiot who failed to take care of a holy temple. Two gifts for the price of one.
Arabella
I groaned and rolled over pulling the sheets up under my nose, curling my hands around them, enjoying the way they puffed against my fingertips. Wait—what? I sat straight up, ignoring the way that my whole body screamed at me not to move. Where the hell am I? I'm in a bed; not only that, I'm in a very nice bed. Like, mid-evil princess style. It's actually pretty fucking creepy.
I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and nearly shouted out. What the hell happened to my clothes? Don't get me wrong; it's not long some pervert jacked my threads. Nope. Some pervert replaced my threads. For whatever reason, they had felt it necessary to supply me with a flowing, Greek style white gown. My combat boots had been swapped out for gold sandals. The weirdest thing about it all was that my hair was tickling my waist. Do you know what that means? I'll tell you what that means. That means that my hair is down. That never happens. I grunt a little and swing my legs over the side of the bed, letting me feet connect with the marble flooring. This shit is just too weird. I'm so out of here. Time to blow this popsicle stand.
I have no idea where I'm going, but I trudge on anyways. My legs hurt like a bitch and I know that I must have pulled something but I push it to the back of my mind. I have this theory that if you ignore pain, it disappears. It's generally worked for emotional stress throughout my relatively short life so I began to apply it to that of a physical nature as well. Of course, it had yet to work correctly in this type of situation but giving into the ache isn't going to fix anything either. I might as well get some shit down. Besides, I kind of feel like I'm about to get sacrificed, Mayan princess style.
I walk for a while, the halls lit by torches. I did not know if there was anybody else here; I mean, sure, there had to be somebody since I obviously didn't bring myself here but I got the feeling that I did not particularly want to meet whoever that person is. I took random turns, not sure whether I was getting more lost or finding my way out of here. I should probably be more upset about this but the way that I see it, I have two options A) Freak out, start screaming, and alert my kidnapper to the fact that I had regained consciousness and am attempting to escape their clutches or B) Keep going on my own and maybe find my way out, so that I can return to my lonely little house all by my lonesome. Neither of those options were particularly inviting but hey—I pretty much hate everyone so I went with option numero dos. Feel free to call me crazy, but I would just assume not die right now.
I continued down the long hall, making random turns. There were so few painting on the walls that I didn't know if I had actually been going anywhere, or just strutting around in a giant- ass circle. Suddenly, I heard a click and stopped moving. I sat down where I was and scooted closer to the spider-infested wall. I could already feel the little buggers leaving the marble in favor of my warm skin. Shit. Shit. Shit. Don't scream, Don't scream, Do not fucking scream, I told myself.
The clicking got closer, and instead they began to turn into thuds. Not long after, the thuds rose in volume and were accompanied by voices. The voices of men, not all that surprisingly. I mean, damn, the dress I was wearing certainly revealed a decent amount of the twins so I certainly had a hard time believing that a woman picked out my outfit.
"Stupid prince. Who does he think he is anyway? Sending us out to do his dirty work…there's probably nothing even here!"
The second shadow responded, shushing him slightly. "Hey, man, come on. They could hear us." Prince? There are no Princes in America. Maybe that's some weird code name or maybe they belong to a weird ass club of some sort. No, it's probably a cult. This wouldn't be the first time I got mixed up in some bizarre cult shit.
I could feel the little creepy crawly bugs just climbing all over me and had to slap a hand over my mouth. I may not exactly be a girly girl, but nobody likes black widows. Well, unless it's the black widow from the avengers. She's just plain awesome; even if her only superpower is being a superwhore.
They continued on towards me, chatting casually about things that really didn't make any sense. What the hell is a badgerfrog and why does this so-called prince look like one? I've never seen one of the odd creatures (if they happen to exist, which I'm certain they don't) but they probably aren't the most attractive of creatures.
They were getting closer and I was not making any progress at getting farther away. Shit. They just kept walking forward, talking merrily the entire time. I however cowered against the wall knowing full well that the light of their lantern would soon make me entirely too visible to remain hidden. I squeezed my eyes shut and just waited—waited for them to spot me. Who the hell are these nutjobs?
Suddenly, a cry rang out. It glanced around wildly looking for the source until the burn in the back of my throat alerted to me to the fact that it was me. I was the one screaming. One of the creepy-crawlies had managed to find it's waydown into my dress and was currently snuggling it's way down into my bra. Hell no. That is so not going to happen. I jumped up and started dancing around, whimpering and shrieking all the while. "Oh my god, ew, ew, oh god, ew, ew, get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Oh god, get out of my fucking top!" I tugged at bust section of my dress, praying that the spider would fall through and onto the floor. It didn't.
I knew in the back of my mind that I had just alerted the weird dudes to where I was, but at this point, I really didn't give a flying fuck. One grabbed me by the shoulder but I pushed it off. Something black crawled up off my breast and after swinging myself in few small circles, I flicked it off. It scuttled back towards the wall, no doubt after giving me the bug equivalent of the 'sit and spin' gesture.
I sighed in relief and tried to calm my heart down, which was beating so hard I thought that it just might jump straight out of my chest. "holy. Shit. That. Was. Scary." I said mostly to myself, but also to the armored freaks standing next to me.
They just stared at me open-mouthed with their mouths wide open, jaws resting on the dirty floor. Irritated, I forgot myself and snapped, "What? What? What the possible fuck do you want?" My words were so sharp, they probably could have cut straight through bone.
After jolting at my tone, the one closer to me opened and closed his mouth a few times, clearing attempting to speak. "You—and the—are you—who—when - how did—you-and—" He just continued spluttering for a few minutes and finally I rolled my eyes and gestured for him to just shut the fuck up, ignoring the fact that he was clearly armed and I wasn't. Well, I was armed before when I went to help out Kera but now, not so much. At least, I don't think so. Unless this dress has some secret compartments that I didn't know about before, than I haven't really got a shot in hell against these fuckers.
I nodded to the other guy. "Alright, you're up Sparky. Start talking or I gut you like a fish." Please don't sense the bluff, please don't sense the bluff, please don't sense the bluff, please don't sense the bluff. I almost expected him to leer and demand, "With what weapon?" but he didn't. He was either an idiot or a nice guy. Either way, I liked him.
Instead of answering me, since he seemed to have come down with a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease, he just pointed to the wall behind me. What the bloody fuck is with these people? I'm certain that they have walls everywhere; no matter what weird-ass country that I happen to be i—ohhhhh. Ha, okay, um, what? What? When did that—what?
Behind me, on the arachnid infested wall, stood a large—no, huge—no, massive—painting of a women who looked suspiciously like me. She too had long purple hair, and I believe that the color would have been the exact same, had it not been covered in what looked like a million years worth of dirt and grime. She wore the same dress as myself, even though I hadn't put mine on willingly. She even had a studded leather bracelet; the same one that I have had locked on my wrist since the seventh grade, the year that I started causing trouble Well, actually I had always been flipping my shit, but I mean really, really flipping it.
I had always had a casual flirtation with the law; I just wasn't ready for a long term commitment. You know, in sixth grade you just aren't ready to say hello to your forever. But that year, I decided I was ready for something more serious and was awarded my first year in a juvenile detention center. It really wasn't that bad there; I mean, there were a few people who thought that they could screw with me but they soon learned otherwise. I might even go as far as to say that I became the queen bee. And just about everyone wanted to be part of my hive. Partially because I protected my 'friends' (They weren't really friends. I would have never talked to them outside of the jail and when we all broke out, that was it, I didn't contact them anymore.), and partially because they didn't want the rest of the group picking on them. Either way, I fucking owned that shit.
I continued to stare at the painting for a moment before the stuttering dude, the one who I had originally addressed, bowed low to me, gesturing for his buddy to do the same. "Please forgive us, miss, for not understanding earlier. Allow us to escort you to prince Zuko, I'm sure that he will be more than happy to bring you to safety."
I arched an eyebrow. Who the bloody fuck do these people think I am? I mean, yeah, it's a pretty scary coincidence that I got locked in some creepy-ass mansion or whatever with an old-as-dirt painting that happened to have some now-elderly lady who bore a slight resemblance to me, but it's not light that means anything. Despite that, these 'tards seemed to think that I was someone important. If this is my ticket out of la-la-land , then, well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'll take it!
I grabbed the bottom of my gown and stood up a little straighter, patting my hair down. I puffed up my chest a little, trying to give myself an air of prominence. "yes, you have, um, you have disrespected me greatly! One of those creepy spider-beasts attacked me and you did nothing but watch on." They blinked at me with fear in their eyes and I couldn't help but take it a tad bit further. "I hereby sentence you to death by drowning!" They cowered on the floor and the guy who had yet to speak cried a little. I felt a fragment too mean so I continued on. "That is what I would like to say, but I real have a hankering for a pb and J, s if you can make that happen for me, I shall repeal your sentence."
They got off the floor and nodded, not saying anything more. They gestured for me to follow. "I don't know what a pb, or a j is, but maybe it's a royal food? Zuko has to know." Lantern-dude stage-whispered to silent dude.
Time skip
Zuko's P.O.V
I was spinning this intricately decorated shot glass in my fingers, reveling in the way that the smooth glass caressed my fingertips. I wonder what it would look like if I burned it to a crisp…
I was about to follow through with the idea, out of nothing but pure, unadulterated boredom, when captain Jin walked up to me, speaking very softly. He was just a little too close to me so I shoved him backwards, not paying attention to his words. He never really has anything interesting to say, anyway, I doubt that I am missing out on anything important. I turned back around, ignoring his presence. Usually he would just leave, but instead he got up and tried speaking tome once again.
"Sir, this is important. It really cannot wait until morning."
I rolled my eyes and grit my teeth. What—were we out of tea again? That would only be considered an emergency by Iroh, and none of us are entirely certain about his sanity. Well, actually, we are confident that it is non-existent. "What is it?" I didn't have the energy to argue tonight. I might as well get the yelling out of the way.
"It seems that the unmentioned has returned…she is with Ji and Lee right now, attempting to create these things called 'pb's and 'j's. We believe it may be some type of medieval war weapon but we cannot be sure yet. It's best not to over-react." I stood in silence for a moment. Well, she's late. Nearly ten years late. She was supposed to arrive when I was eight years old. I remember because the entire fire nation kingdom stormed the air nation ruins, searching for her. Guess what they found? Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Keinen dinge. My father was incapable of finding her; an embarrassment that he is unable to graciously admit, imagine how happy he would be if I brought her to him? Of course, it would be more beneficial to us if we were able to harness her power rather than killing her. She hasn't been here long; we could still make the fire nation out to be the good guys and trick her into it. Of course, to do that I would have to be nice to her until after I've got the avatar and returned home. It's going to be risky, but when I did, I would not just be accepted back as family, but maybe, just maybe, I would be taken back as a hero.
I nodded to Jin. "Bring her to me."
He gave me a disbelieving look and nodded. "I will ask her if now is a good time."
He made to turn around but I held my hand up, stopping him. "Wait—ask her? Why the bloody fuck would you have to ask her? I'm a prince! My word is law. She has no choice but to obey my command!"
He rolled his eyes at me. "She isn't from the world, Prince Zuko. Do you really think it matters to her who you are—who any of us are? She can kill each and every one of us just the same, title or not. Do not forget yourself." With that he turned around and trudged away. The insolence! He cannot just go around speaking to me in such a manner, he will be recruited to kitchen duty for a year if I have anything to do with it!
