ARC 2: THE MARK OF THE FOUR
The first night she had the dream she'd woken up screaming. She'd been unable to stop crying for hours and her entire body had trembled even as Aang held her and told her it was just a dream.
Every night since she'd been forced to watch what her mind supplied as the battle of Shian, to watch Zuko fail at saving the city every night, and to know that he was not coming back.
It had been a month since she'd seen Zuko and he never left her being. She could feel him behind every curtain, in every breath of wind and in every stir of the fire.
For a month, Aang had listened to her excuses to stay in Tasha, hoping that Zuko would appear one day perhaps even with refugees from Shian, telling her that her dream was only partially true.
So Katara talked to the moon, telling Yue her fears about this night, about how she longed never to sleep again.
She worked herself to the bone every day in hopes of forgetting Zuko's plight even for a moment and at night she tried to restrain sleep as wave after wave of exhaustion piled over her. Her eyes lost their brilliance and her hair remained uncared about for days at end. She didn't see the point.
Yue whispered to her, telling her to sleep and in the window Katara slid to the floor, unable to hold back the nightmares any longer.
White brilliance
People screaming…
fire…everywhere…
rain…arrows…lightning…
children…dying…
soldiers fighting…burning…killing…
Katara trembled but instead of forcing herself to wake she forced herself to watch. Yue held her and told her it was all right. The world in her dream spun and Katara was there. She could feel the heat of the fires and hear the screams.
Before her, a teenage girl no older than herself was murdered as a spear fell through her chest.
She saw Zuko fighting desperately against many soldiers and willed herself to move. This time her feet responded and she whipped the soldiers back giving Zuko room to finish them off. In the midst of the battle, he embraced her with his free arm, holding his spear out to one side, and kissed her.
"Katara, I must finish this."
He tore from her arms and disappeared into the crowd as she called his name.
She then saw a beautifully terrifying spire of fire rise into the air, dodging and destroying everything thrown at it.
The white brilliance consumed her again and she was in a hall of red metal, glorious trappings hanging from the walls and nobles dressed in crimson silks all around her.
A man brushed passed her, startling her to stumble off balance before regaining her composure and staring after him, the gnawing in the back of her mind telling her she knew him.
"Zuko," she whispered.
The man turned and it was Zuko, his face unmarred by that hideous scar. She reached her hand up, the Powers that Be allowing her to touch him for the briefest of moments, engraving his face into her mind.
He said one thing to her. "Jeong Jeong,"
The innate knowledge that comes with dreams explained this to her and she nodded.
"Shian,"
As he turned to fall back into the flow of the world, his eyes were softened and became pained.
"I can't remember Katara. Please help me. Please find me."
She woke, tears streaming down her face but her resolve and confidence was firm for the first time in many nights.
"We have to go to Shian."
Aang was torn in two, standing on the outer wall of the city. How could he go on when the woman he loved was in love with another and pined for him? How could he be the Avatar, the intangible Avatar, when he could not detach himself from what held him to the earth?
He turned as footsteps echoed on the steps, audible even as the reconstruction of Tasha continued.
As Katara appeared the rain clouds that had been gathering since dawn let loose their woeful downpour.
Katara's words died in her throat as she viewed the silent pain in her dearest friend's eyes. Once she had thought he could be the only one she could ever love. He had thought the same thing.
Even now what he had thought was love was dying with the pouring rain, washing away pretenses. It was without guilt that he fell into the arms of the only one who used to matter. She was now one of many he had to save.
Katara slumped against the wall, cradling Aang and raising her head to the weeping of the sky.
"Aang, I'm…"
He smiled through his tears.
"You're the Daughter of Nen. You couldn't have changed things if you wanted to."
Katara blinked then smiled. "Did Zuko tell you?"
He shook his head against her stomach. "No, I figured it out."
"We should find Jeong Jeong. He can train you to fire-bend now."
Aang turned his head. "No, I want Zuko to train me."
"He's not a master."
"I don't care."
Katara closed her eyes. "I had a dream."
Aang raised his head to look at her but found her face peaceful.
"If we find Jeong Jeong, we'll find Zuko."
"Where do we start?"
"Shian."
It was raining. It had been raining ever since Shian had been destroyed. In what appeared to be a sheer cliff, a man in hood and cloak ran along the edge of a rock shift. Stopping, he knocked a certain pattern against the cliff wall and from inside an earth-bender opened the way for him.
Jeong Jeong handed the hood and cloak off to the young water-bender ready to take it from him where the water was bended off and the cloak was handed back to him dry. In silence, he headed deeper into the labyrinth of caves. A single earth-bender followed him without his request for it was well known one could not travel these halls without the skills of earth-bending.
This was hazardous and frustrating for the water-benders as well as the fire-benders he had brought with him. When he had met Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe neither he nor his men had even been trusted to leave peacefully. Now the second powerful fire-bender had been accepted into the ranks of this rebellion.
The earth-bender left him after letting him into the private cavern where the other stayed.
Instantly the pacing Ki-Lin that never left the boy's side spun around, ready to gore him until he bowed.
"Excuse me, Lady Kagehi,"
As always, her wings fluttered as she raised her head high, her tail tossing nervously. He could tell she hated being underground but she would not leave the one she called Korosu. In fact, it was the only name they had for the prodigy.
Freezing cold wind blowing pushing fighting against can't breathe can't see. In the roaring he heard himself speak.
"Leave me and go."
That girl again, her voice like a song.
"No!"
"Go."
"How will you survive in this?"
"Go."
Jeong Jeong smiled softly. The poor boy was collapsed at the table where he'd been reading the night before. His smile hesitated a moment as he heard the boy mumble.
"Always…alone…"
"You are not alone. You're here, with me, and I'm not going to leave you here alone. I will never leave you Zuko."
Gently, Jeong Jeong shook him awake. "Korosu,"
Korosu snapped awake, staring at the book he'd fallen asleep on with wide eyes. He blinked once or twice and then realized where he was.
"Jeong Jeong…what has happened?"
Jeong Jeong smiled. "Nothing, you fell asleep. We're ready to move out."
Korosu nodded. "I'll be out in a moment."
Jeong Jeong exited and Korosu packed up his books, leaving everything else, his thoughts turning to his dream once more. Quickly, in his journal, he jotted down the name 'Zuko' along with all the other names mentioned in his dreams. Maybe they would help him remember himself but then again…maybe not.
Outside, thousands of earth, water, and fire-benders emerged from the cliff side, not only soldiers but women and children as well. Hakoda had once referred to them as a moving nation. Only Jeong Jeong had laughed.
Kagehi flexed her wings as she hadn't been able to do in ages.
"Oh, it feels good to be back in open air again."
Korosu laughed. "Easy for you to say. I'll be happy to keep my feet on the ground for some time."
She shook her mane and allowed his hand on her shoulder as they worked their way down after the others. Dressed in borrowed Earth Kingdom clothes, Korosu was a far cry from the boy she had met what seemed like years ago but was only two months.
He really was a mixture of nations now with Earth Kingdom clothes, a Fire Nation topknot, and a Water Tribe bag. The soldiers were still not fain to give him a weapon but as he remained with Kagehi, she assigned herself the duty of protecting him.
With a sharp gust of wind, a single strand of hair fell down over the left side of his face and Korosu brushed it away, once again overtaken by the strange feeling that he got when his fingers brushed the unmarked flesh over his left eye, like it wasn't supposed to be there.
He bent down behind Kagehi's neck as she tucked her wings close to her. The wind drove the rain into them and it felt like knives piercing the thin cloth of their clothing but they pushed on. The Fire Nation would never expect an attack in this storm.
The depression was filled with blood.
Once it had been full of water but the aquifer that supplied it had run dry nearly two thousand years before he entered it.
It had been a small feat to convince the soldiers to walk into the depression and slit their own throats and often the throats of those around them. It was even smaller a feat to convince the few still alive to gather the bodies out of the blood lake and onto the shore.
Zyperis watches silently, relishing the cold feeling that swept over him, the only emotion he'd allowed himself to feel for the past month until it had once again become a harsh, calculating habit that allowed him a clear mind.
Blood magic was a forbidden art, even in this time, magic gathered from the pain and suffering of others and by the Powers, he knew how to gather it.
For a moment his dark thoughts granted him a picture of the one he'd hurt the most before he shook the memory away.
He began to speak, an ancient chant from before the world had been created, and his words formed runes that hovered over the crimson lake before drawing up the blood magic and forming it to his command. In the air above the lake, a swirling void began to appear, piecing itself into existence with his words and magic.
Inside the void, the darkness began to take shape.
"Who is he, brother? Do you know?"
Standing in the rain, Haku could not meet his sister's gaze.
"Can a child be born after the mother has been dead for six months?"
Kanna blinked, looking up. "What?"
However, Haku wasn't paying attention to her. He was thinking about a time when he was still young, about the first time he had fought these enemies.
Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee doubled checked everything on their mounts before turning to face their small parting group. The Avatar's flying bison was nearby and they were ready to go after her brother.
Jet was there, a hand on her shoulder.
"There's too many risks. You shouldn't go."
Earlier that morning, the members of the war council had determined that they needed to launch a counter-offensive. Azula and her team had volunteered to go the camp and infiltrate it as spies. She believed that the news of her treason could not have reached so far so fast as Peris would have surely returned to a much larger base immediately.
Now, fully dressed as a Fire Nation Princess once more, she felt safe in what she knew. Surrounded by her enemies, she knew only one more thing could make what was to come a realistic idea.
"You'll find Zuko."
Katara touched her hand and nodded. "Take care, Azula."
The water-bender climbed into the saddle with the others of her group. Midori had chosen to stay in Tasha to help with refugees and the rebuilding. Jet was also staying, cutting the group down to Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph.
Azula could barely steady her hands on the basilisk's reins. She glanced down to meet the mud-colored eyes of the man she dreamed of forgetting and knew she couldn't. Raising her head, her gaze met the Avatar's.
"Be careful. Peris has a fine way of appearing where you least expect him."
"You be careful as well. You…hmph…" Aang fell silent, glancing away. How could he explain that he could barely meet her gaze without thinking of Zuko, of the man who had hunted him for nearly a year, of the first fire-bender in this time that he had trusted and yet so foolishly hated, and now of the only one who could make the woman he loved happy again?
"Appa, yip yip!"
Appa leapt into the sky and Azula turned her team into the woods. The wind stirred and sped them on their way.
Jet closed his eyes so as to not watch them go. When he opened them again, they were gone from view. The wind swirled again and met him outside the walls of the city where he unearthed a small bag and a long brown cloak. Pulling the cloak over him, he slung the bag over his shoulder.
"Someone's coming…"
He turned and stared up the path as Midori came running out of the gates.
"Midori-san, what is it?"
Midori bent over her knees to catch her breath. "I thought you would be leaving and I wanted to give you this."
Jet raised an eyebrow. He hadn't told anyone he was leaving. Seeing his expression, Midori winked.
"I just had a feeling, ok? You're as unreadable as stone. Here."
She thrust a crudely wrapped package into his hand. Inside were writing utensils and scrolls.
"Keep it touch, Jet-san,"
She smiled and raced off.
"Something's not right about that girl,"
Jet smirked. "You're telling me?"
The Hiketsu chuckled as he placed the papers and such in his bag and continued down the path.
"So, where are going?"
"North."
Jet nodded and began to run, bringing out his swords and disappearing into the trees.
Just inside the gates, Midori was frozen. A glazed look overcame her eyes and then faded away. Glancing around, she frowned in confusion.
"Now, how did I get out here?"
Shaking her head, she continued on and disappeared into the city.
She pushed her head under his arm as he sat on the hillside. He was humming a soft song that she seemed to know but couldn't place.
"What is that song?"
Korosu shrugged. "I can't remember."
Kagehi lowered her head to rest on the grass, still wet from the rain. The battle had gone well, another victory for Seigi. She touched her alicorn to his cheek and looked at him through one impossibly blue eye.
"What are you thinking about?"
Korosu closed his eyes and the warm sun shed its last rays on the earth for that day.
"Just how sunny days seem to hurt the most."
Appa sank a little lower in the air, the easy breeze allowing him to glide lazily over the forest.
Katara closed her eyes, leaning into the warm embrace Sokka had offered as the others slept in the dark night.
"Everything is going to be all right, Sokka."
He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "It's just, I didn't tell you…"
Katara sat up. "Didn't tell me what?"
Sokka looked away. "The battle at Tasha, the man that Jet was fighting…"
"Peris,"
"Mom was with him."
Katara stared at him, her mouth agape. "That's impossible! I fought him too, remember? I didn't see Mom."
"It was when that blue light overtook you, when you got that strange sword. He was going to kill you but Mom stopped him. Peris wouldn't hurt her for some reason. Then they left together."
Katara shook her head. "Sokka, you haven't been drinking the cactus juice again?"
Sokka tried to stand but the wind over the saddle kept him in his seat.
"I'm serious, Katara! I saw her."
Katara leveled a glare at him. "As if we don't have enough to worry about, Sokka, you have to make up tales to get the attention back on you. But bringing Mom into it! I didn't think you would stoop so low!"
She stood against the wind before he could say anything and walked over to sit on Appa's head. The bison groaned softly before adjusting for her weight and continuing on.
Sokka pulled his sleeping bag up over his shoulders and his forehead creased in worry.
"But I saw her."
Katara forced herself not to look back at her brother. The anger in her heart had cooled but she was so tired. There was too much to be expected of her, what was she supposed to do?
She glanced back to see Sokka was asleep. She couldn't apologize now and not yet either. Instead, she turned back forward and said nothing.
She didn't know she wouldn't get another chance to speak to her brother.
ak
zk
at
BLAR!
I know it wasn't worth the wait. Forgive me.