Lightning flashed across the sky above the tiny island illuminating a ghostly face. Tears streaked down from the perpetual wooden gaze as the rain pelted the village roofs. She was awake, always awake. The statue of Kyoshi never slept, a fate her newest adoptive daughter shared with her lately.
This new daughter, so unlike her others, was not originally trained in her warriors' way. No, this newest Kyoshi warrior known as Ty Lee was forged in the embers of a warring Fire Nation. Even dressed in full Kyoshi warrior regalia and the obscuring make-up her over-powering otherness could not be hidden.
Over the past year the statue of Kyoshi had watched this overly perky girl change from interloper to full-fledged Kyoshi Warrior in the eyes of all the villagers. Here Ty lee had seemed to make a home for herself and the statue no longer glared down suspiciously on her glossy brown hair, but instead gazed over her with the same motherly-stern expression that Kyoshi held for all her villagers.
Even so Kyoshi could see through her daughter's smiles, and what she saw there made her turn her wooden gaze every night upon the humble shack by the seashore that Ty Lee resided in. Night after night her painted pupils would seek out the last lantern burning in the dark and watch over her strangest warrior, and this night was no different.
As the storm grew stronger, rending the night sky in two again and again, the statue's eyes filled and over-flowed. These would by no means be the last tears cried this night, for beneath raging skies and ever-watchful eyes twisted and turned a girl wrapped in green sheets and guilt.
A bolt of lightning flowed through the tiny window of Ty Lee's shack and slipped through the slightly gapped curtains and flooded the sparsely furnished room with blue light. It lingered around the green cocoon lying on the bed, but then it drew back as quickly as it had crested.
Ty Lee's disgruntled, pouting face appeared out of the cocoon of blankets and groaned in frustration at the likelihood of yet another sleepless night. She had always been a sound sleeper before…
BOOM!
Thunder reverberated in her skull gratefully sending her haunting memories spiraling from her brain.
Another blue flash, another memory.
The predatory smile transformed into a snarl of rage.
A split second to decide.
A split second to tear her heart in two.
She chose what she could live with, but apparently not sleep with.
BOOM… Ty Lee whimpered and snuggled down deeper into her Earth Kingdom green sheets. Everything around Ty Lee was green now, from her blankets to her curtains. Even her clothes had lost their characteristic hue to be replaced by the supposedly soothing color of grass.
Ty Lee sighed and looked around her new home. It was like the very Earth had coated the insides of her abode. The brown of dirt and mud clung to the walls, floor, and ceiling and covered the two chairs, table, and bed. The cushions and one decorative tapestry were as green as grass. And everything was made of wood.
This sea-side cottage, this town, this whole kingdom was a world apart from the world she had grown up in. As the shaking from the thunder finally stopped, Ty Lee could no longer tell whether she liked her new surroundings better than the old, or even if she missed or resented the past.
There was to be no more pink, red, or black, and that most dreaded and missed color of Fire Nation gold was nothing but a dull brass at best on this island to her eyes. It had been months since those familiar bold and cold colors had entranced her mind, and she had been decidedly missing them lately. There was a certain comfort in them that she felt lacking in this world of greens and browns and the occasional blue.
Flash. Crack. BOOM!
Ty Lee could no longer cower in her bed, wrapped up in the foreign greens. There was something that would not let her sleep again and the storm in particular called to her. She somersaulted free from her blankets, hand-sprung toward the window, and threw open the green curtains to stare at the raging beast outside.
Maybe it was the electric energy that leapt and crackled crazily about the night sky or maybe it was the wild dark intent that amassed the dark silhouettes above the island, but, whatever it was, Ty Lee couldn't help but to remember her. After all, the stories had all stated that she had become nothing more than a powerful, rabid beast.
Lightning cast a hard glare into the little room. Had anyone been around they would have marveled at the resemblance between the wooden and the living statues in the village of Kyoshi.
BOOM!
"Oh, Azula." Ty Lee whispered as she slumped to the floor.
That name was the reason for her sleepless nights and excess tears. Her dear friend, her princess, her guilt. Azula, the firebending goddess, had been invincible until Ty Lee and Mai had cut her legs out from under her. They each had done what they had to do. Ty Lee would do it all over again to save Mai from Azula's rash temper, but she wished she could've saved Azula from herself as well.
Flash.
Too late now. Azula's mind had burned up in the intense blaze of her own fire. It was consumed so that not even the healing waters of Katara the waterbender could quell the flames.
Boom!
Azula's fire, it's what had first drawn Ty Lee in like a moth to the flame. Azula had been all intensity and gravity, while Ty Lee had been aimlessly floating around with nothing to orbit. However, Azula found her and saw her potential. She roped her into her orbit and became the sun in Ty Lee's life.
Flash.
Yes, a sun, a storm, a force of nature was what Azula had been. No matter how hard Ty Lee tried she could not escape the animalistic draw Azula possessed on her. Even now with an ocean and a severed link to reality between them Ty could still feel the pull.
Crack!
Ty could no longer deny the tug on her conscience. Something had to be done. Ty Lee was an acrobat and she knew that sometimes the only way to regain balance was to shift. The only problem she faced was how she should shift this time. Should she sate this apparent insatiable urge and give into Azula's gravity once more or should she admit there was no life in the past and commit to her new life? She could no longer walk the tightrope in between her past life and her new life on Kyoshi. She would have to choose. Ty Lee knew the wise and prudent thing would be to move on, but...
BOOM!
But Ty Lee was neither wise nor prudent. Those were things better left to Mai or at one time Azula. No, Ty Lee had always and would always follow her heart no matter the consequences, and her heart had always and would always be with Azula. She had to return. She had to set things right. If that meant falling for good...Well Ty Lee was an acrobat and she was always prepared to fall.
With one final flash and roar the beast moved out back to sea. The storm was over both inside and out. Ty Lee exhaustedly dragged her leaden feet back to the brown bed and wrapped herself in another green cocoon. Sleep would at last be hers. The choice had been made so Ty knew the way would come along.
As the sun rose only Kyoshi stood guard over her village and sleeping children.