AN: This is a fanfiction I've started to write for a collab project on the Avatarportal. Sadly we never finished it... but I wanted to continue it because I liked the idea.

I am german so english isn't my first language. If I made any grammar mistakes or other mistakes, please notify me so I can change them!

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1. Ashes

"Don't you know that fans just make flames stronger?", asked Azula contemptuously. Suki didn't hesitate but ran towards Azula, ready to strike. When a blue flash raged towards her, she jumped to the side, losing all her cover, her arms spread to each side to have power for her fans. Azula jumped towards her, preparing for a new flash. Suki blinked and suddenly a blue wall of light was raging towards her, hit her and pushed her onto the ground, unconscious.

"Aaah!" Suki sat up in her bed, her heart beating fast, her breath coming in short gasps. Then she closed her eyes, trying to relax and running her hand absently over her right side. "Again this dream", she mumbled and sighed deeply.

She remembered it as if it were yesterday. How Azula and her two friends had attacked her and the other Kyoshi warriors. How she had been burned... She laid back and stared at the ceiling, sighing deeply again. The dishonouring of being beaten and undressed still made her ache. Of course she got a new uniform when she came home... but how to use it, when you're hurt?

"I could have become the greatest female warrior next to Kyoshi", she mumbled. But one second of inattention and all this, the glowing path which had laid in front of her, had changed into a dark one, a dead-end. Yes, she was still called a warrior, but she didn't feel like a warrior. After the accident she had been cured by a family who had found her lying there, unconscious. They had tried their very best to make the wound less aching, to keep the skin soft so she could move well... But it has been difficult. Suki could have been glad that she still was able to walk.. more limp.. instead of lying in bed, but she wasn't. Because her burned skin wouldn't let her be a fighter again. And that was what she always has been. A fighter. Flexible and firm at the same time, strong, intelligent, dodging the attacking person.. But she hasn't been able to dodge this flash.

Suki turned around and closed her eyes. What have I done in these 2 months...?, she asked herself.

On the surface it looked as if she had just gone back to her normal life in Kyoshi after being cured. But Suki knew better. Of course, she was teaching the younger girls again, but she could feel a difference. Some movements were aching, made her almost cry from the pain, but she didn't stop. She still wanted to do her best, she still wanted to help the Avatar with his burden.

But the most aching part wasn't the big scar, which marked her right side and her upper leg. It was her pride that had been hurt when their uniforms had been stolen, their sign of pride and honour. It was aching through all this time, making Suki feel weak and useless.

She got up slowly, her side aching like always. She left her stick where it was, right next to the door and limped with gritted teeth over to the dojo, where soon the young girls of the town would gather to learn something new from Suki-sensei.

Suki-sensei, that's what they call me... All I can do is hold a fan, barely do some moves.. I'm not worth it to be called a sensei..., she thought, clenching her fists.

She went into the dojo, where she washed her face with cold water and then changed into her fighting clothes. Every time she put them on she had to see the scar in the mirror of the room where she changed. Of course she could have looked away from her reflections, but her eyes fixed on the red sign on her side every time... it started in the middle of her body and went down to her hip. On her right leg was also a smaller mark. The marks of her defeat against Azula. Not only dishonouring by stealing her clothes, but also marking her till the end of her life, making her unable to fight again because even walking without the stick made Suki nearly cry. But she forced herself to do it, to pretend to be strong as she had been years ago. She tried to ignore the fact that she couldn't move correctly, that she wasn't flexible anymore.

"A good warrior has to be like a bamboo, strong but flexible at the same time! Because if you aren't flexible, you'll break at the slightest gust of air!" That's what she always says to her pupils...

She would break in every fight with this scar. It had hardened her flesh so she was even unable to bend down. Anger rose in Suki. She could have become like Kyoshi, an idol for the young girls of the island. Not only that, she could have helped to settle the war... and Azula destroyed all this with one simple strike...

"Arrrgh!" Suki grabbed her fans, cutting with them through the air like they were knives, feeling again like a few months ago, sane and strong. She kicked hard in the air and a pain raged through her side. "Ungh..." She sank to the ground, breathing hard, sweatdrops running down her forehead.

"Suki-sensei, is everything alright?", asked a small voice from the door of the dojo. She looked up horrified to see young Coco.

"Everything's alright!" Suki got up in one fast motion, gritting her teeth so she didn't let out a moan of pain. "Now get dressed...", she said and went into her private room where only she as the sensei could enter.

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word explanations:

dojo like a gym, with tatami mats on the floor

sensei jap. for master, teacher