Anthropologists Note: Before we go any further I would like to remind everyone that in the cultures the Four Nations were based on, the onset of puberty was considered the onset of adulthood, on every level. From sex to marriage to education to jobs. Everything. In an attempt to be more realistic, and, to be honest, based on what the main characters were allowed to accomplish on the show, I've decided to go with that. So in-story the character will treat normally what we today might or might not consider repugnant. Let's explain one thing now to get the ball rolling. I'll explain any other things that may be potentially bothersome as they come up.
Education: In Western Europe those who were allowed to attend university typically started their freshmen years of college between the ages of twelve and fourteen. Which is why Ty Lee and Michiko are already essentially what we today would consider college graduates and hence officers. (Granted that was for boys, usually, but we're going to assume it extends to girls in this universe.)
Chapter One
Ty Lee walked down the torchlit stone corridor of the Boiling Rock, the smoky smell from the torches tickling her nostrils as her feet and the feet of her traveling companion echoed off the walls. The little girl, all of seven years old, clutched tight at the hand of the young woman on her right as the two of them walked down the corridor, fear gripping the little girl. The woman, with black hair and brown eyes, looked straight ahead at the door in front of her. She looked over at the one on her left. The brown-haired, green-eyed woman ignored her as well, looking straight ahead as they rounded a corner and approached a nondescript brown metal door. The two women looked at each other, and Shiga, the one on the right opened the door. The moment the door squeaked open, there was a flash of blinding white light, and she found herself standing in a circular room. She cast about. The room was torchlit, the orange flickering light casting the bare room in ominous dancing shadows. She felt fear tear into her gut, her entire body numb as she broke free of Shiga and Kelula and ran to the back of the room, hitting the wall and sliding down it as she locked her arms around herself as she trembled.
The door on the other side of the room opened, and in walked another woman, older than her friends. This one was in the pure black trousers and tunics of Ozai's elite guard, a sword with a pommel in the shape of a skull belted in the lanyard running down her chest. She was slender, with black hair and golden eyes. Medora, the name coming to her through the fog of her fear, surveyed her friends with a contemptuous glance, and the little girl pushed herself back
"You are both such stupid idiots," the woman's harsh voice, said, cutting through the air like a knife. "Did you honestly think that a bunch of Earth Kingdom hicks and one traitor could stand up to me?" She walked up to the woman and stared her dead in the eyes. "Well, you stupid whore? Did you?
Shiga opened her mouth and Medora responded with a vicious backhand slap across the face. Shiga's head bent with the slap and she looked right back. Medora grabbed Shiga's collar and pulled her towards her. The the little girl's eyes began to water as she watched. "I'm not the incompetent old fool I replaced. In my prison, I don't suffer anyone who breaks discipline." Medora bent Shiga's head back by her hair, exposing her neck. Those who do so, will be dealt with severely. Do you understand me?"
There was a loud pthut sound as Shiga ejected a huge wad of saliva into Medora's eye. Medora, saliva dripping down her face, gave one final glare before her foot lashed out with a savage kick that took Shiga in the gut. Ty Lee squeezed her eyes shut as she heard a blade slide into clothing and flesh. She opened her eyes and saw Kelula shout as she rushed forward only to hear her shout turn into an anguished scream as a burst of fire caught in her clothing, hair and flesh. All Ty Lee could do was watch, terrified, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face as Medora stepped over her friend's burning, stinking corpse and walked over to her. Medora picked the little girl up by her shoulders and shoved her against the wall.
"I have no reason to kill you," she said snidely. Unable to control herself, she screamed, and the scream carried her awake.
Ty Lee broke awake, her scream filling the air of her bedroom, numb with shock, as she wheeled around, trying to process where she was. After a moment, her brain kicked in and recognition returned. I'm home, she thought to herself, as she thought to bring her breathing back under control. I'm home on Kyoshi Island, and it's still night out. Finally her breathing slowed, and suddenly feeling the manic strength that went with fear drain from her limbs she collapsed back into her bed. Her mind still a roil as she felt tears began to grow in her soft gray eyes as she thought of that nightmare. It had born significant differences to reality, of course. Guards had escorted them to the office that had formerly belonged to Mai's warden on that horrible night five months ago, and she'd been a young woman, not a little girl.
I might as well have been a child,she thought to herself. A woman wouldn't have stood by and watched her commanding officers, her friends die like animals. That was what gnawed at her constantly. She'd just stood there, stunned into useless inaction by that first savage kick before Medora stabbed Captain Shiga, the commander of the Kyoshi Warriors imprisoned in the Rock . The guards had tackled her to the ground a second later to keep a then-First Lieutenant Ty Lee from helping First Lieutenant Kelula.
Sure, I couldn't have thrown myself off of me when I was on the floor, she thought, shame burning her like a brand. But my Dim Mak master drilled it into my bones how to break out of a hold like that. So why didn't I? I could've killed them all in thirty seconds, why didn't I? She sighed and got up out of bed, walking towards her dresser and pulling open the top drawer, revealing two stacks of clothes: one of green tunics and one of trousers neatly folded and tucked away inside, the undress uniform of a Kyoshi Warrior officer, the traditional armor and facepaint now relegated to, somewhat paradoxically, combat and formal occasions. On top was the rank insignia, three silver bars on a golden fan that signified a captain and lying across both stacks, sheathed in a black scabbard with gold filigree, was the sword of a Kyoshi Warrior marked with the same rank insignia.
She remembered meeting them in that terrible place after Mai and her had been imprisoned their for their attack on Azula to allow Zuko and his friends to get clear of the place. Shiga's company of Kyoshi Warriors had been transferred to the Rock in order to keep them out of the capital after one of their escape attempts. Unfortunately, that had deprived them of the protection of the regular military, which had honored the ancient custom that prisoners had a sworn duty to escape and that killing them in the process of escaping was abhorrent, to a prison which had just been handed over to the Black Hand, the elite guard of the Fire Nation under Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai, which most assuredly did not honor those code. Or any code of ethics she cared to imagine for that matter. Shiga, learning of both her and Mai's attack on Azula and her expertise in Dim Mak had made her an offer. She'd offered Ty Lee a field commission in the Kyoshi Warriors, in an attempt to give her a purpose while in prison, and a possible home outside it. She'd been appointed a First Lieutenant, as a training officer over the other officers and soldiers in the unit. It hadn't hurt that she'd had three years of officer training from the Fire Nation School For Girls, the premiere women's college in the Fire Nation.
It had all been going so well for her. The unit was progressing well in its Dim Mak studies, arranged in what they'd thought were secret times and places where the guards wouldn't catch them, she was rapidly gaining the trust and respect of her fellow warriors, and even Michiko, the most senior second lieutenant in the unit and two years her senior, and the one assigned to kill her if it turned out she was still loyal to Azula, had turned into one of the strongest friends she'd ever had. Then it all was destroyed in one night of blood, pain and fire, as the decision was made to terminate half the Kyoshi Warriors to reduce the risk of rebellion. Shiga and Kelula were murdered in Medora's office, her and Michiko had been savagely beaten and thrown in the coolers, and the balance of the guards swarmed into the cell blocks., murdering all the Kyoshi Warriors who'd been marked for death. By the time the sun rose on the Rock, only one hundred Kyoshi Warriors out of two hundred were alive, and they'd all been ravaged physically and mentally by that night's horrors. And it had been up to her and Michiko, the only surviving officers, injured and exhausted unto death to attempt to pull the unit together to survive.
And somehow, against all odds, they had, managing to even stage an uprising immediately after Sozin's Comet had left the atmosphere, an uprising that was succeeding when regular navy and army units showed up to help finish them off. After they were finally liberated, Suki had not only confirmed Shiga's field commission but promoted her and Michiko to replace them, and gave them the task of helping to rebuild the savaged company. A task, that, as the commanding officer of the second company, she'd thrown her heart and her soul into for the past five months, at .
She sighed and sat back down on the bed, catching site of herself in the mirror. She was slender, attractive, with a build that had always ensured she didn't have to work too hard to attract the opposite sex. She was not tall for a woman,coming in at an average five foot five inches. In contrast to the braids she'd worn her hair in before she was thrown in prison in the month and a half before Ozai and Azula were deposed upon the return of Sozin's comet, her brown hair now came down to her shoulders. Even in the half-light of the candle on her nightstand she could see the dark circles under her gray eyes. This wasn't the first time the nightmares had come to plague her in recent days. She sighed, derisively. She knew she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep, she was still riled up from the nightmare to do anything more than close her eyes. I need a walk, she thought to herself, standing up and letting her nightdress fall to the ground before crossing over to the nightstand and sliding on a pair of nondescript brown trousers, and undershirt and a gray tunic. She turned to leave her room before the thought occurred to her. Should I put it on? She thought to herself, then nodded, then pulled out her sword and buckled it on.
Five minutes later she was sitting on a flat gray rock on the edge of the sandy shore, glowing white in the light of the moon, as she stared out over the silvery waters. She breathed in deeply, inhaling the salt smell that had always comforted her when she was a little girl. It wasn't helping. "I am a Kyoshi Warrior," she said to no one in particular, recounting the oath she'd been sworn to by Shiga when she was commissioned. "We walk in the dark places no others will enter."
"We stand on the bridge, and no one shall pass," a familiar voice said from behind her. Ty Lee, a jolt of shock passing through her like a lightning bolt, wheeled around to see, to her surprise, Michiko. The First Lieutenant was seventeen, two years her senior, a few inches taller than her, with raven black hair and brown eyes with somewhat browner skin then Ty Lee's own features. She true was dressed in civilian clothes, a brown shirt tunic with black pants. "No surrender," her executive officer, and more importantly, her closest friend, said, finishing the traditional oath."No retreat."
Ty Lee nodded, smiling despite herself, the turmoil inside her finally beginning to die down at the sight of her friend. "What are you doing here."
"To inform you," Michiko said, in that half-mocking, half-serious tone she used only on issues that applied to the two of them, "that in her infinite wisdom, our commanding officer Suki has declared that you and I are to take the rest of the year off."
Ty Lee stood there, utter shock banishing all other emotions as it rooted her to the spot. Finally, she felt her mouth start working and she managed to sputter out. "Wh-Wh-Why?"
Michiko cocked her head to the left and gave her a stare that somehow managed to be both irritated and sympathetic at the same time. "Because we've both shared a brace of traumatic events. And apart from a brief excursion to order furniture, neither one of us has taken any time away from work apart from the time necessary to eat, eliminate, and sleep in five months, and judging from those bangs under your eyes you haven't really been doing a lot of that lately have you?" When Ty Lee didn't say anything she said, "Have you?"
"Not... particularly no," Ty responded. "But what about the rest of the company? And why are you telling me now, why not at dawn at the very least?"
Michiko sighed, "Because I'm having trouble sleeping, too, Ty. We're burned out, we need time to heal, to take time for ourselves, which is why this is not a suggestion from Colonel Suki, she's not even bothering to leave the wriggle room for you to not do it based on that. This," she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a scroll, is your written orders not to report for duty until the day after the start of next year, barring an emergency. As for the company, they've been mustered out for the rest of the year also. We don't need them, an they need the break also."
Ty Lee gave a resigned sigh. I'm not getting out of this one, I see. "What do you suggest we do with all our free time then?"
Michiko nodded. "We could go to Jalanda. It's in the Nerys Valley on Kyoshi's North Coast, and aside from it being a somewhat popular resort town for the rest of the local islands, it's my hometown."
"You're hometown?" Ty Lee asked. "If you don't mind me asking, why's it so popular."
"Aside from the spectacular scenery, the game filled forest, and the pristine beaches?" Michiko responded, no small amount of pride sneaking into her voice. "It's known for natural hot spring baths that seem to magically drain all the stress out of people, and you can't tell me that doesn't appeal to you at all."
Despite herself, Ty Lee found herself warming up to the idea. A nice hot bath does feel nice right about now, she thought to herself. It has been so long. "When do want to leave?"
"Later," Michiko responded. "When the sun's up. You own an Ostrich Horse?"
"I had one before I left for the School for Girls when I was twelve," Ty Lee, said, sighing, thinking of the elderly docile mare that her parents had set aside for her to learn to ride on when she was about nine. "But I haven't gotten one since I came here, even though I make enough money and I probably should."
"Consider it another aspect of your personal life you've been ignoring since you got here," Michiko pointed out smartly. "Come sunrise, after we've gotten some more sleep, we'll pack some food, go pick you out a nice horse, and we can be on our way. Which we should do today because we'll be on the road about a week."
Ty Lee nodded, a slight feeling of anticipation working through her. I have been working hard since I got here, maybe it's time I took some time to myself to get my head together.
"All right then," Ty Lee said, nodding. "Let's do it. "
Michiko brightened. "Good, good." She looked out over the ocean, glowing silvery in the moonlight. "I'll be back later, we both have to get some sleep before we set out."
Ty Lee looked out over the darkened beach. She could just barely see the outline of the beach and the mountain it curved around, with Ganjitsu on the other side. Granted, her friend had made her way to her house safe enough, but that doesn't mean she should have to walk back. She could stumble into a hole or a burrow in the sand and break her leg.
"Michi," she said as her friend turned to leave. Michiko paused mid-turn and gave her a curious look. "You shouldn't have to walk back at night. I have a guest bedroom. You could just bunk here until morning."
Michiko nodded and turned back around, clapping her shoulder in a friendly manner. "So I could."
Ten minutes later, after her and Michiko said there good nights to one another and her exec settled into the small bedroom next door, Ty Lee had slid into her nightdress again and climbed back int o her head, blowing out the candle with a small huff. As she lay back onto her pillow, she felt herself begin to sink into the warm depths of sleep. This could actually be good, she thought to herself. I get to spend time with my dearest friend, and not in an active war zone. She sighed, remembering the last time, things seemed to be looking up. When Azula had come in and made her last performance with the Colonial Circus a living nightmare as she released all the animals and set the ring below her on fire, to drive home the fact that if she didn't drop her life and join her mission against Zuko and Iroh she'd murder her.
Just before she finally drifted off to sleep entirely, she thought. I refuse to say those thrice damned words, "what could possibly go wrong."