AN: Avatar: the Last Airbender belongs to Michael Dante Dimartino and Bryan Konietzko.
I would like to thank to Vladimir Zhivanevskaya for Beta chapter.
~~~~Strange mile~~~~
Agni kai between Azula and Zuko.
"No lightning today?" Zuko taunted, "What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it?"
Ignoring her body's protests Azula screamed, "I'll show you lightning!" before beginning the deadly movements to summon the awesome and lethal power. She watched Zuko prepare himself for her attack, and knew with certainty he would be able to redirect it. Or not. If she was clever, she might be able to shoot two rabbits with one bolt of lightning. In corner of her eyes, she noticed a new target.
"That filthy water tribe savage, Katara, the girl that managed to undo her action in Ba Sing Se and revive the Avatar. How could she? I ... I ... Well now it's payback time. And, knowing poor Zuzu, he will try to do something stupid, like cover her while he is unprepared for it. Poor Zuzu, he probably likes her, but she loves the Avatar. I am going to end your pain ... dearBrother. On the other hand, it may cause you evenMORE" Azula thought, a maniacal grin appearing on her face.
Time stopped.
Zuko saw Azula grinning and laughing maniacally, and realized that something was wrong. He instinctively jumped to the side where Katara stood; she was frozen in fear, seeing the approaching lightning…and her doom. Panic was written all over her face. Her entire life passed before her eyes and she reconciled to the fact that she would never see Aang again or tell him that she loved him, as well as never see her brother, father and friends. This was the end.
However, it was not the end. Zuko leaped in front of her, ending up in the lightning's path. It caused him pain ... lots of pain, and he instinctively redirected the lightning bolt in a random direction before losing consciousness. Or maybe he was already unconscious, and this was only muscle memory?
Azula saw Zuko as lightning struck him in the chest and a terrible cry of pain left his throat. The next moment, one of Zuko hands suddenly veered toward her, and out of it shot her own redirected lightning. Zuko's body fell to the ground. Fear came upon Azula. She saw that there was no opportunity to get out of its way so she created a huge sphere of blue fire around herself, hoping to stop, or at least mitigate the lightning hit. She realized that this one act had cost her everything. Everything. How could she be so stupid?
Lightning struck the blue sphere of fire, but there was no deafening explosion, no dust clouds, nothing. In a place where Azula had been standing, there was only a crater. Azula had disappeared like smoke.
...
Sokka and Toph were holding hands as they ran from the fire benders across the ship's hull. Eventually, they came to the edge, and the only direction in which they were able to move was down. Sokka didn't hesitate and jumped off. With one hand he held strongly onto Toph, who was screaming in fear and shock, while in the other he held his trusted space sword and tried to slow their descent by plunging it into the ship's side. Sokka had to look after Toph. The blind bandit had become like a little sister to him, who — unlike the gentle, motherly Katara — was a prankster and trouble maker, and he was not planning to lose her, not now when she was so vulnerable. Right now, she was truly blind. No metal, earth, or anything for her to use, only thin air below them, and moving at this speed there was no chance of getting of here ... alive. Suddenly, the sword slipped from the hull where it had made a huge gash, and Sokka with Toph fell down. Fortunately, Sokka managed to land on one of the protruding platforms. Unfortunately, the crash was not good; he had dislocated his leg and could not move. Despite the searing pain, he maintained his grip on Toph's hand as she was now dangling in the air, only his grip preventing her from a very unpleasant and forceful contact with her favorite element.
"Hang on, Toph!"
"Aye aye, captain." Toph voice carried clear hints of fear.
To say that Toph was not as happy as Sokka would be Understatement of the month. She hung between earth and sky, life and death, and the only thing that separated her from her certain death was Sokka's outstretched hand, which she wasn't going to release. A couple of firebenders were either too stupid or too certain of their victory, and tried to attack intruders, but Sokka was quicker and with his free hand he reached to his trusty boomerang and hurtled it at one of the soldiers. Headshot! Boomerang collided with head, knocking the soldier clean out, only the rope preventing a fall to his death. Not hesitating for a second, Sokka grabbed his space sword's hilt and threw it at the platform the other soldier was standing on. The metal on the platform was no match for the space blade; it sawed right through the strut and the soldier fell a few feet before being caught by the rope attached to his armor.
"Bye-bye, space sword." Sokka watched as his weapons vanished into the forest below, unconsumed by ongoing inferno. He heard footsteps, and a squad of soldiers lined up on the walkway. Elite Firebenders were ready to crisp them to ash.
Then, when Sokka thought that it couldn't become worse, it did. He felt his grip on Toph starting to slip, and only a desperate clutching of their fingers prevented the blind girl falling to her death. The way things looked, she was already dead, but she didn't know that yet—she was either going to suffer that fate, or be burned alive.
"Hold on sis, hold on until I think of something ... anything ... Think Sokka ... think ..." thought Sokka.
"Shit!"
"I don't think boomerang is coming back, Toph." Sokka hoped to at least ease her fear before they met their deaths. "It looks like this is the end." He looked down at Toph to see tears flood her eyes. She understood.
Toph could not hold Sokka's hands and slowly slid. Tears flooded Toph's face when she realized what Sokka said. Her hand slid and slid it could no longer keep up…and so she released it. She fell. If she had been able to survive for at least a couple of seconds longer, she would have easily landed on another airship, an airship controlled by Suki.
But fate seems to have other plans. Plans where she no longer existed. Or maybe...? She could hear how Sokka fell on the airship and was shouting her name. Toph didn't care about anything except for one thing: the fact that she did not tell Sokka that she likes him, and will not have another opportunity. She understood the awful truth, that this was the end; the Blind Bandit's end…her end. Although she still had so much to say to their friends and relatives, so many opponents to beat. Now was the last opportunity to tell Sokka how she felt. She screamed "Sokka, I-" and lost consciousness. That's it. The End.
But was it the end? When she was about to hit the ground, a bright white light surrounded her, and she disappeared.
...
Azula's mind was clear as water. There were no thoughts. Her survival instincts would cause her body to automatically create a protective sphere, but experience told her that this would not be enough. She hoped for a fluke and waited for the shock, but ... but nothing happened. Strange. Azula opened her eyes and looked around. She stood in a meadow full of beautiful flowers.
Suddenly the screaming girl's voice reached her ears, and fell silent. Azula looked around, but found nothing, until she raised her eyes to the sky. But then it was too late to back out. The girl fell directly on her.
...
My head is ... my hand ... my foot. Both girls would moan if this had been any other place, but it was as far from normal as one could get. Azula awoke and tried to get up, but could not. Something was on top of her. A body. A dirty body. Azula pushed away from the unfamiliar girl, inadvertently waking her. They both stood up and Azula finally recognized the other girl.
"You!" Azula yelled, trying to hide obvious hints of surprise and also trying to look intimidating, forgetting that girl in front of her was blind. For minute, the other girl did nothing.
"Fire bitch" said Toph, in the same manner as Azula.
Then both girls took them bending stances and struck out...
... and nothing happened. Both girls were unnerved; why couldn't they control their elements?
"Welcome!" a strange voice called out, and both of the girls turned to its source.
Azula wanted to scream when she saw what was standing in front of her, but her self-control helped her to abstain. At that time, Toph's mind finally realized that the ground was quiet. Too quiet. No sounds or vibrations. She felt utterly blind. In addition, the notion that somewhere nearby was a crazy fire nation princess that could kill her any minute, and the fact that she could not earthbend, further fueled the fear. But for some reason, the fire bitch did nothing, which was more curious than disturbing. Why?
"Do not show any emotion, and do not move out of place, or we are dead." Toph heard Azula said. She also felt how Azula hand clenched her hand. Toph could feel that Azula hand and voice shook as if she saw something scary. "What could scare the mad Fire Nation princess, who seemed to be fearless? Whatever it was, it had to be something very terrible and dangerous. And that could mean fun in some way."
Toph froze like a pylon and lowered her head down, ready to flee at any moment.
"Hi" the girls heard a second voice.
"Where are we? Are we dead?" Azula said.
"It has been a long time since I added a pretty woman's face to my collection." Breaking off form its musings, the voice added, "Yes and no. You are in the spirits world, and your friends think that you are dead. But we have moved you here one second before you die so technically you're still alive."
"You can look for yourself," said the second voice, and the nice meadow was replaced by crystal clear water. In the water, Azula saw her brother with Mai and uncle; the avatar with that cursed waterbender and her brother with his girlfriend; and many other people she couldn't recognize.
"Hope Toph and Azula found peace at last."
"No one should morn that. Azula is dead and we are glad that she ... You'd better comfort your brother, look how broken he is. He blames himself that he couldn't save Toph."
"We gathered here to remember Toph, show some respect for her"
"My baby."
...
"Why are you showing us this? I know that people think I am monster, but that's just how my father ..."
The voice interrupted her. "We can return you back. Alive. Before those fatal events. Or we can leave you here if you like."
"We would like to return"
"But if you don't learn from your mistakes, I will, with great pleasure, add your faces to my collection." said the same voice.
"Koh ..." Toph said. She finally remembered the story Aang told her about the spirit world, including Koh and what he's capable of.
"I've got news for you, I'm blind and I'm not affected by your tricks." Said the earthbender, waving her hand in front of her eyes. Azula wanted to laugh, but resisted it. "That girl could be valuable ally if thing had turned other way. Anyone who could mock the face stealer and get away with it ..."
"Open your mind." Koh said in a seductive voice. Toph lifted up her head, the fog that enveloped her eyes disappeared ... and she screamed.
The first ... and possibly the last thing she saw with her eyes: there was ... blaze and hard to describe what happened next, but it looked like ...nightmare ... like some ... overgrown centipede and ... it was still growing? Bigger and bigger! ... And something ...something was wrong with the way it looked ...it moved? And what was in ... Then she connected view with name. Koh! And what that name associated with. Toph stood like petrified for few seconds. She didn't know how long she was standing, but she woke up when someone desperately shook her hand, trying to slowly flee. Toph released her hand and desperately hid her face in her hands when she realized that she just broke the rule to be unbreakable.
"Goodbye, face! Even though I have never known how I look."
"Koh! Behave! You almost scared those two poor and innocent girls to death. I know that you like it, but we have other plans." Uttered the first voice and overgrown centipede turned around and went back.
"Yes, ... mom, ... but they aren't poor, or innocent, for that matter; so young and they already have big head counts. The only difference between them is that one is called hero, and the other, monster." Koh said.
"We will do ... a little experiment, and give you an opportunity to live in the other nation's person's body for 1 year. After that, we will decide if you are worthy to be ... Alive." One of voices said. Azula could swear that she saw ... speaking carrot ... with a straight face ... faces ... or something like that. What Spirit looks like carrot? Can't remember any. Azula could swear she knew all major spirits – and this one should be major one – all thanks to Ozai and his forced and painful lessons she and her brother had to attend about spirits and the Avatar then they were still young and ... happy. Ozai even sent commander Zhao to scour the great library of Wan Shi Tong for it. Unless he didn't wanted her to know about it for some reason, like it was with ocean and moon spirits. Why?
"Apparently I am dreaming. Strange to see, and don't feel, and it's getting weirder and weirder. Perhaps this is what is called 'sight'?" thought Toph.
"But if anyone finds out who you are, or you tell anyone, I will personally take care that no one will know who you were." Koh added, spinning between two girls.
Azula and Toph wanted to say something, to object, but it was interrupted by the other voice.
"You can select one of two things to keep, but you both can't choose the same thing."
"Your bending, or..."
"Bending" Azula said before Toph could say anything.
"It is decided then" Koh said, and the bright lights once again covered the two girls.
"It seems that you forgot to mention that they move not to someone else's body, but swapping for each other's."
"I could, but that would just take all the fun out of it. It is very amusing to mess with mortal lives…you know how I enjoy it. Especially if it involves my old friend, the Avatar. Besides, we were bored."
"You are evil Koh, you know that?"
"Yes and I like it that way." "And if we're lucky, we can get rid of one pesky spirit." "Besides, we are not breaking rules, just bending them a little bit. Not like Agni did or should I say he and She will try to do."
AN: It is said that to know someone you need to walk mile in their shoes, but what to do if that person walks barefoot and hate shoes? Lets just say both girls have some new and interesting experience.
Can you guess what was other thing? And what that overgrown centipede is up to?
Please don't forget to comment/review and let me know what you thought of it, thanks! I really want to know what you think about it. :)
