I love this story dearly, but it is harder to write for some reason than my other stuff… maybe because it goes on as though Season Three never happened, which I'm sad about on the one hand and unapologetic about on the other. So… yeah. New chapter, yay! One more after this before I time-skip, because I keep changing my mind about things I planned ages ago. But don't worry, we'll finish before summer. At the rate Season Three's going, I might even finish before them! Just kidding, and please don't even attempt to hold me to that. Enjoy!
I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Shaping the World
--Chapter Seven: A Sentimental Man--
Looking at the boy was almost like looking at himself in a mirror twenty years ago, Zuko thought. The boy's scar was on the right side of his face instead of the left, but the two were eerily alike. This one was Azula's handiwork rather than Ozai's, of course. Like father, like daughter.
"Why are you here?" Zuko asked. He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from the boy.
"I came to the palace to avenge my mother's death," the boy said honestly. It was one of the few times in the last few months he'd been honest with anyone.
"I didn't kill your mother," was the reply. "Since you were honest with me, I will show you the same courtesy. Your mother's death was an accident. I won't say that I didn't want to kill her, but I was not the cause of her death."
"I'm sure," the boy replied sarcastically. "It doesn't matter. She wanted you dead, and I'm going to see that her wish is fulfilled."
"What do you plan to do after you've killed me? Will you destroy my family and take the throne of the Fire Nation for yourself? That's what she planned to do."
"I have no interest in ruling the Fire Nation. As to your family… I have no interest in them either." The boy's green-gold eyes flashed as he summoned a lightning bolt and fired it at Zuko. The Fire Lord prepared to deflect the bolt and send it back towards its source.
"Uncle Zuko, no!" a female voice cried.
In the moment just after Zuko was distracted by his niece's shout, the lightning was redirected back towards the boy. But something was wrong. Zuko felt his lungs constrict, felt his heart-
Zuko sat up in his bed, breathing hard. Next to him Katara stirred, blinking in sleepy confusion.
"Zuko? What's wrong?"
The Fire Lord shook his head. "It's nothing," he reassured his wife. "Just a dream."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." He kissed her on the forehead. "Go back to sleep."
Katara yawned. "If you say so." She quickly drifted off.
Zuko stayed awake a little longer.
--
"Where are we going, Twinkletoes?" Toph asked after several hours of flying.
Aang just smiled. "You'll find out."
Toph blew her bangs out of her face. "We're going north. I can tell that much, because it's getting colder. Ba Sing Se was never this cold, so we must be headed to the North Pole."
"Can't you just let me surprise you this once?"
"I don't like surprises. Shouldn't we be looking for Azula?"
"We don't know which direction she went in after she left Gaoling. Until someone sees her and reports it, I figure we have a little extra time." He handed her something. "Here, put these on. You'll need them."
Toph felt the bundle. It was one of Katara's old parkas wrapped around a pair of boots- probably the pair she'd worn when they went to the South Pole for Sokka and Suki's wedding. "I knew it."
--
While she had long ago accepted that she was and would always be blind, Toph did not like feeling blind. Wearing shoes (or boots) made her feel blind, but she had no other choice in a land where frostbite could ruin her earthbending skills forever. So she let Aang lead her by the hand through the Northern Water Tribe's magnificent city of ice and snow, having no sense of her surroundings other than that everything was cold. She wasn't fond of cold either.
"I assume you're taking be someplace 'fun'?" she asked.
Aang laughed. "Patience, Toph, patience."
Finally he stopped in front of a small door built into an ice wall at the back of the city. "Anyone outside of the royal family has to have special permission to come here," he told his companion. "Being the Avatar does have a few advantages."
Toph smirked. "You didn't bring me all the way here just to brag, did you?"
Aang smiled. "No." He opened the door. "Come on." He stepped through the doorway and pulled her in after him.
Toph gasped. Wherever they were, it was warm. "What is this place?" she breathed.
"Welcome to the Spirit Oasis, Toph. You can take off the parka and boots if you want."
He didn't have to tell her twice. The boots were off in an instant, and the blind earthbender sighed happily as she wiggled her toes before standing in the center of the oasis to get a better sense of the place.
Aang watched her for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Toph inhaled the scent of grass and something else she couldn't identify, but decided she liked anyway.
Aang bit his lip. "Why won't you get married, Toph?"
The earthbender sighed again, this time in slight annoyance. "I've told you that a million times, Twinkletoes…"
"I know. Please, just answer the question?"
She sighed a third time. "Lots of reasons. I definitely don't want to marry anyone my parents pick out for me. They'd try to turn me into a real lady or something, and I just can't have that." It was the same thing she always said, and she intended to keep saying it until it was no longer true.
"I'd never try to change you," Aang said softly.
Toph continued, trying to fight off her rising blush. "And they'd probably try to boss me around; that'd be a big mistake."
"I know better than to tell you to do anything you don't want to do." Aang took a step towards her.
"And I couldn't possibly marry someone who didn't absolutely love me for me and not my parents' money," she said, her voice slightly less sure and strong than when she'd begun.
Another step. "I've loved you for years. Money doesn't mean anything to me."
"I couldn't marry somebody that I didn't love." She was almost as quiet as he was this time.
"You love me," Aang whispered, leaning closer.
Toph didn't move away. "I never said that."
Aang smiled. "You didn't have to."
Aang had always thought he would be the one to make the first move. It wasn't that he didn't think Toph was capable of it; he'd just assumed the first move would be his. He'd waited for the right moment for so long, anticipated it, and so Aang was caught off guard when Toph kissed him. Well, tried to kiss him. She got his cheek instead. He just smiled and kissed her back, this time on the lips.
"I love you," she said when they parted. And then she popped his little bubble of happiness. "But I won't marry you."
Aang blinked. "What?"
"At least, not yet. Not until both of us are truly ready for it. And probably not until my parents calm down, which is going to take a while. And we still have to finish visiting the whole world, and you promised to take me to the Rose Blooming Festival in Bara again this summer, and-"
"Toph?"
"What?"
"I never thought I'd have to say this to you, but…" Aang smiled. "Be quiet." And he kissed her again.
--
All Ty Lee wanted after the war was to be left alone. She'd enjoyed her life at the circus, once she'd gone back to it. But then Azula appeared at one of her shows, and a little part of Ty Lee died.
Azula's escape had nearly ruined every dream Ty Lee had for her life, until Bane's birth. When Azula didn't want him, Ty Lee was secretly glad. Here was her chance to leave and be normal again. She'd always wanted children, and Bane was such a sweet child (he must have gotten it from his father, because the spirits knew Azula had never been sweet). That part of her Azula had killed was given new life and started to grow again.
And then Azula turned up at her door once more. Ty Lee wanted to cry, scream, throw a fit, slam the door in Azula's face and never regret any of it for an instant. Instead she invited the former princess and Mai inside. The part of her that was growing so well cowered in fear, because she knew what was coming next.
"Hello, Ty Lee. It's good to see you again." It was mostly a lie, but it was so easy for Azula to lie again, and she reveled in it. "And there's little Bane. I don't suppose he remembers me?" She looked at the baby, who was almost a year old.
Ty Lee knew the moment she heard Azula's voice something had changed since they'd last seen each other. Not just that Azula had changed her mind; it was that Azula's mind had changed. Her golden eyes no longer had the slightly crazed look Mai and Ty Lee had become used to over the past two years, but had returned to their former glory: she was in complete control, and that scared Ty Lee much more than an Azula who'd already crossed the thin line into insanity.
Bane stretched out his arms in Azula's direction, as he usually did when he wanted to be picked up. His smile was wide. "Mama!"
Ty Lee shivered as she had the night Bane stuck his hand in the fire. It wasn't possible; he couldn't know who Azula was. She'd never even held him before. And that this of all things would be his first word…
But even as Ty Lee thought this, the former Fire Nation princess laughed. Then she smirked. "He's intelligent after all. Perhaps he does take after me." She offered her hand to the boy, who grabbed it in a gesture Ty Lee had previously found endearing. Now it frightened her. Azula picked Bane up somewhat awkwardly, the motion strange because she had only one usable arm. Ty Lee marveled at the apparent maternal feeling in Azula's expression, but she knew the other look in the former princess's eyes all too well.
"Mama," Bane said again, softer this time, as he snuggled himself closer to Azula.
Ty Lee willed herself not to cry.
--End Chapter Seven--
There you go. Taang, Azula's back in evil action, and Zuzu had a freaky dream. His freaky dream is relevant, but it will be more so if I do a third story. Yes, a sequel to this sequel. Whether or not it happens is still questionable, so you need not worry about it. Thanks for reading, and please review!
