Avatar: The Last Airbender - Changed
Summary: After CRoD, Azula returns to Mai and Ty Lee and brings them a surprise. It's been a long time...
Rating: K
Word Count: 1835
Disclaimer: we all know i don't own Avatar.
Yes, a new fandom. SQUEE. I've never seen one of these – if there is one out there I apologize to the author for doubling up on it! Something we didn't see on the show and that I needed resolved...
Changed
"I'm bored."
Mai's monotonous voice echoed gently around the throne room. Apparently done picking the dirt from under her fingernails with a stiletto from her sleeve, she had slumped backwards into the throne, her legs hanging over one arm, and her arms crossed behind her head on the other.
Ty Lee flipped back onto her feet and moved to stand over her friend, her hands on her hips. She seemed happy to be out of the clunky Kyoshi uniform, and back in her pink clothing from the circus. Mai, on the other hand, had rushed to the palace chambers she and Ty Lee shared and had practically thrown on her black pants and baggy overdress.
No one seemed to know what had happened to the 'nauseating' Kyoshi uniform.
"Azula told us to wait here. She shouldn't be that much longer!"
Mai sighed and cracked an eye open. "It's been hours. She's probably forgotten about us."
Ty Lee bit her lip thoughtfully. "Still…"
Mai closed her eyes once more. She dropped her head in annoyance over her friend's blind devotion to the Fire Princess. She was getting tired of being treated like Azula's servant. At least it was alright when she was actually doing something, instead of rotting away in the Earth Kingdom throne room.
How that king spent his whole day in there with nothing to do was beyond her.
"What did she say she was doing?"
Ty Lee looked at Mai through her legs and arms, her back contorting in ways Mai didn't even want to imagine.
"Finishing things up."
Mai sighed again. "How specific."
Ty Lee's body suddenly twisted, and she was standing on her head. Literally – her stomach on the ground as she bent her legs around her torso and inspected the soles of her shoes.
"She also said she was bringing something of interest."
Mai resisted the urge to snort, unwilling to offend the innocent girl. More often than not, Azula's interests were…not quite shared with the rest of the world. Knowing her, it was probably the Avatar's severed head.
She chose not to share her grisly musings with the girl next to her.
Ty Lee was now standing on her hands, and it took her but a few seconds to shift onto her middle fingers. Her body was perfectly straight, perfectly balanced – in fact, just perfect. Mai turned back to the ceiling and closed her eyes in annoyance.
Suddenly they heard a sound. Ty Lee dropped clumsily onto her back and yelped in pain and surprise. Even Mai twitched.
"You think that's her?" Ty Lee leapt to her feet and backed away to be at Mai's side.
"It had better be." Mai swung herself out of the chair, making it seem as though she was just tired to being in it, rather than letting on that she did not care to be seen by Azula lounging in the Earth Kingdom throne.
Both girls stood at attention on either sides of the throne as the enormous doors across from them swung open. Hoards of Dai Li marched through, lining up in opposite pairs along the walkway leading up to the throne plinth. They stood like the soldiers they were – radiating power – and no one would have guessed that they had just betrayed both their sovereign, and the rest of the world.
"Azula!" Ty Lee chirped, bounding down the stairs and landing in a small bow before the green-clothed princess. Her Dai Li outfit was faintly singed, torn in some places. Her hair had fallen out of its bun ever so slightly. Over her uniform was scattered some sort of strange greenish dust that oddly caught the light.
Mai made her way down the stairs with a considerable amount more elegance than her friend had.
"Did you finish," she glanced at the disheveled princess. "Whatever it was you were doing?"
Azula smiled. "The Avatar has fallen."
Ty Lee clapped her hand to her mouth as Mai looked behind the princess, somewhat needlessly. "Well, where is he?"
It was then that Azula's face fell into something resembling a scowl, and Ty Lee took one step towards Mai.
"The waterbender he travels with managed to get away with him." She moved to ascend the throne platform. "My uncle turned traitor and distracted us while they escaped." She seated herself in the throne. "No matter – the Avatar is dead, and we have sent out scouts to retrieve his 'friends'."
"Won't they get away on that giant fluffy…animal they have?" Ty Lee bounced up to stand beside Azula.
"Probably. It is of no consequence." She flicked her hand. "Without the Avatar, and with Ba Sing Se captured, we can finally return home."
"But Azula!" Ty Lee hopped up to sit on the arm of the throne. "His friends escaped…couldn't they–"
"No. They are no threat without him. Besides," she turned to Mai, standing now on her left by Ty Lee, who was still crouched on the armrest. "We may have lost the Avatar's allies, but we have gained one of our own. He…aided me in battle against the Avatar, and his waterbender."
"Oh really?" Mai's eyebrow twitched slightly.
"Yes," Azula's head was down turned, but that smile still lingered on her lips – the one that looked as though it was really larger that she let on.
That one she smiled when she was incredibly pleased about something. And both Mai and Ty Lee knew that when Azula was pleased, something bad was about to ensue for everyone else. Nothing pleased Azula more than others' pain or distress.
The two girls exchanged looks.
"Who is it, Azula?" Ty Lee asked timidly, dropping to the floor so that she stood beside Mai on the princess's left.
"Agent Shan!" Azula called. One of the Dai Li turned to face her. "Let him in."
The agent nodded and turned along with three others to the great doors. They each stomped their feet against the ground, and with a sharp jerk of their arms, the two towering doors began to ease open.
A single figure strode impatiently into the room, completely ignoring the Dai Li flanked on either side of him down the aisle. He wore Earth Kingdom clothes, the shirt sleeves tattered. He was quite tall, with long dark brown hair dangling in his face.
As he drew closer, Mai and Ty Lee could tell by the slight hunch of his shoulders and the faintly pronounced stomping of his feet that he was pretty angry. Probably with Azula – but they really hoped he didn't actually vent any of his anger on her. She would as soon kill him as tolerate that, even if he was an ally.
He ascended the steps leading up to the throne and, that close up, Mai and Ty Lee could see that he, like Azula, was covered in some sort of greenish dust.
Mai narrowed her eyes. He had been fighting with Azula – wherever that had been. And he survived against the Avatar.
Who was he? And why did Azula trust an earthbender so? He obviously wasn't in the Dai Li, so he wasn't under her control. And why did he side with her in the first place?
She folded her arms and stepped closer to Azula, and her friends.
"Why did you make me wait outside?"
He leaned in to snap at the princess, and both Mai and Ty Lee were surprised at his nerve. His voice, too, struck something in both of them.
Azula examined her fingernails. "I had to take care of something."
He simply glared at her, completely ignoring the two girls at her side. In fact, Mai wasn't even certain he realized they were there. For someone strong enough to hold out against the Avatar he sure didn't pay much attention to his surroundings.
Ty Lee didn't seem to either. He was handsome, and despite his seeming lack of manners she saw no threat. She broke out her brightest smile for the newcomer and took a step towards him.
"Hi!" She waved one hand. "I'm Ty Lee! And that's Mai – what's your name?"
And then he turned to look at them.
Ty Lee gasped and threw her hands to her mouth. She stumbled back to Mai's side, and grabbed the dark girl's stiffened arm.
A horrible burn marred the left side of his face – reaching viciously across his ear and into his hair, further than they could see. The skin was creased and crinkled, dirty brown and maroon. His eye was pressed almost closed by it.
Right in the middle of their shock, Azula decided, was then best time to speak to garner the most amusing reaction.
"Of course you remember Ty Lee and Mai – don't you Zuzu?"
That broke Ty Lee. Her cry of horror ricocheted through the whole room, across the pillars and off the walls through the spaces the Dai Li had subtly vacated. Mai's spine went dead straight, any color draining from her cheeks.
"Zuko?"
Ty Lee's whisper was tiny. She reached out with a trembling hand to the boy before her.
Zuko turned to face them full on. His hands had fisted by his sides, and his brow was down in a scowl. But he raised his head when he heard Ty Lee's soft voice. It had been a very, very long time since he had heard that tone. That friendship.
"Good to see you again."
With a tiny whimper she lunged at him and buried her face in his chest. Propriety seemed to have completely abandoned her.
He mind shot to the moments. The words. The Agni Kai. She hadn't been allowed to go – neither had Mai. And after…Zuko had left immediately. Banished. Exiled. Unseen.
Of course she had seen the posters in the Fire Nation. At first the warning posters. Then the wanted posters. The scar had been portrayed as a small, pinkish blemish skimming his eye. As little as the Fire Lord could get away with without rendering his son unrecognizable, she now realized.
She pulled away from him, noticing that his arms had not left his sides. She stepped away, embarrassed that she had put herself so out there and that he had been stone in her face.
Mai said nothing. Turning on her heel, she took three counted steps away from the others. A strange, fleeting feeling of burning anger flared in her stomach towards Azula, towards the Fire Lord, towards them all, but it was quelled instantly.
She turned back to the banished prince, her head high. Her eyes pierced his and she allowed enough emotion into them so that she did not have to speak.
He did not.
"Mai."
She put a fist against her palm and bowed in an action she knew well and trusted.
"Prince Zuko. Nice to see you again."
He bowed to her in response, and she straightened her back once more in surprise. Thoughts raged in her head, and one seemed to surface too many times.
How else has he been changed?