Heyo y'all! It's me again. I just got back from vacation so here is the very grammatical incorrect Seventh Chappie that I wrote on the 12hr drive. I hope you all enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA... If I did we would still only be half way thru the 1st season bc of my procrastination problem.
The torch lit up the sitting shadow of the former princess, but the light did nothing to burn away the darkness of the hunched figure.
Ty Lee couldn't see beyond the swirling patterns of light and dark. Even the figure's aura was a swirling black mass. Kind of like the black slate boards of the Fire Nation Academy with nothing on them. The aura was a blank slate.
"Now whose silly idea was it to not light these wall torches?" Ty Lee nervously clucked in mock disapproval as she lit up the remaining wall sconces and slipped the one in her hand back into the hall quickly.
As she was just the torch back into the sconce, the guard looked up in alarm. "Lady Ty Lee! Is that door open?"
Ty Lee looked at the supposedly imposing guard quaking in his proverbial standard issue Fire Nation boots. She was after all still standing in the doorway and by his own admission he didn't deem the Princess a credible threat anymore.
Ty Lee internally sighed. It was moments like these when she wished she were more like Mai. One look from her and the guard would know to shut his mouth. But Ty Lee's favorite sister had always said to kill'em with kindness…Or was that her second favorite? They did tend to blur together.
"Oh I'm so sorry! I'll be sure to close the door now that the torch is back in place. Silly me! Luckily silly girls have big strong men like you to watch out for us." For extra measure Ty coyly fluttered her eyelashes, while she internally dry heaved. Why were the strong men always the easiest to please? Pathetic, but definitely fun.
Yet again the man puffed out his already sizeable chest and replied, "It's our honor, my lady. Now if you would just shut the door all will be fine. As I said I will be nearby."
Ty Lee merely smiled extra wide and shut the door. When the door clanked to a close Ty Lee laughed to herself and lightly said, "Of course you will be."
Ty Lee was still facing the door sadly shaking her head at the guard when she realized that she was finally in the now bright cell with the Princess. Ty Lee gulped and thought about how she was perhaps stupider than the guard after all. He hadn't just locked himself in a tiny room full of fire with a potentially very angry fire bending prodigy.
The overwhelming urge to pound on the door and let the suddenly vastly more intelligent guard save her from her foolishness overtook Ty Lee for a second.
What had she been thinking? Did she honestly think this would end well? Everyone had told her to give up, and, as demonstrated time after time, everyone was smarter than her. She never thought ahead. That had been Azula's job. Now her thoughtless actions were going to be the end of her. Why was she so stupid?
"You're not stupid." A voice from Ty Lee's past pulled her out of the locked cell before she could shout for the guard to do it instead.
"What do you mean, 'Zula?" Ty Lee's young voice drifted over the lush gardens of the Fire Nation Palace, the playground of her youth.
A seven year old Ty Lee and Azula lay under the large shade tree that Ty Lee loved to climb. Mai and Zuko, both nine and ten respectively, had been called off to private dancing lessons as they were both now old enough to be forced to dance at the upcoming summer solstice festival.
Ty Lee had sighed as her friends had been summoned. She couldn't wait until she was nine. Azula had merely stuck her tongue out at her obviously skittish brother. She could wait.
While the absence of her quiet friend and the grumpy royal boy did sadden Ty Lee a little, she was very happy to have Azula all to herself. Azula was always more relaxed when it was only Ty Lee around, which meant that Ty could get her to play the silly games that she loved a lot easier.
They had just finished a fun game of flee-and-capture. Ty had been the escaping Earth Kingdom prisoner and Azula was, as usual, the Fire Nation prison guard. Ty had put up a good chase, but Azula had finally caught her and brought her back to the base. The game had worn the young girls out so they had decided to rest in the shade.
Azula's aura was a calm blue bursting with happy warm golden slivers. The young Ty was happy that she got to see her friend so relaxed. Ty often wondered why her friend's aura was usually grumpier and sadder than most adults. But that was a stupid question according to her mother.
The little Ty Le was lost in memories of all the times her family and even most of her friends had called her stupid when she accidentally burst out the simple statement she had heard over and over again: "I am stupid."
When Azula had refused the well-rehearsed fact, Ty became confused. Everyone said she was stupid. Even Mai had said it that one time when she had accidentally told the Fire Lady that her gray friend was really good at throwing sharp objects. Yet here her smartest friend was arguing with the world. Ty had to know what she meant, so of course she asked. Stupid question or not, Ty couldn't help herself.
Azula simply rolled her eyes at her strange friend before answering, "Ty, I do not associate with idiots. Therefore you are not an idiot, ok?"
Ty Lee's eyes were still confused even as she nodded her head at her friend. Azula sighed. It appeared to the young royal that she was going to have to actually explain herself to her pink friend. She really should've expected that.
Azula grabbed Ty by her shoulders and made her look straight into her golden eyes. When Azula knew that she had the full attention of the stormy gray orbs she began.
"Listen to me Ty Lee. You might be hair-headed and even a little dumb in certain areas, but you are not stupid. You understand things that no one else can. Are you understanding me?" Azula waited until Ty Lee had nodded her head ever so slightly before she continued, "Good. Father says I need smart people by my side. Mai is astute in politics already, but she lacks what I need most, what you have. You understand people better than anyone I know, Ty. I need you. And I do not need stupid people. Understand?"
Ty Lee stood in complete disbelief. Azula, the fire prodigy at age five, who, in all the four years that Ty Lee could remember knowing her, had been so very independent. Ty loved to remember the look on the royal nurse's face when a bloody kneed four year old Azula had taken the bandaging supplies and dismissed her with an imperial wave of her hand.
Azula didn't need anyone…Right?
The still stunned Ty latched onto that priceless word and asked in a tiny voice, "You need me, 'Zula?"
An obviously embarrassed Azula reddened, while slowly shaking her head. She internally sighed as she realized that maybe Ty was too smart for her own good. Only the pink-loving little girl would've picked up on that.
"Ahem…Well it's what I said. Now let's go play some more flee-and-capture."
"Catch me if you can, 'Zula!" Ty Lee leapt up and sped off faster than Azula knew she could.
Azula smirked as the back of her athletic friend started to fade into the distance of the garden. Yes, there was a lot of potential for that girl…Besides she was a lot of fun.
The smirk quickly faded as Azula realized that she had forgotten to tell her friend something of dire importance. In a panic she blazed after her friend yelling at the top of her lungs.
"Ty Lee! You better tell anybody about that conversation!"
The sound of childish laughter faded into silence as the cold steel of the cell replaced the warm scenery of the gardens in the past. Ty Lee noticed her hand was raised to strike the door, but the panic had faded with the memory.
Ty Lee had never told anyone about that conversation at Azula's insistence, but she would never forget it. It was that day that she came to realize two very important things.
First, no matter what anyone said Ty knew she wasn't stupid. She just had a different way of thinking and a specialized type of knowledge that most people couldn't appreciate. But Azula had appreciated it.
Second, and most importantly, Azula need her. Even at the height of her power the Princess had sought out Ty Lee. The part of Ty that thought suspiciously like the Princess and sounded a lot like Mai argued that it was because Ty was the best at extremely close quarters combat, but the center of Ty Lee's knowledge, her heart, told her that it was deeper than that. Sure, Azula had wanted her martial arts and acrobatic prowess, but what she needed was Ty the friend not Ty Lee the tool.
She wasn't stupid. This wasn't a bad idea. Azula needed her.
Ty Lee lowered her hand and finally turned around.
And there she was…Azula. Not the Princess. Not the fire bending master. Not 'Zula her friend. It was just Azula the body.
Ty Lee gulped down the scream that threatened to tear out of her throat.
It was Azula's hair, luscious and dark as midnight. They had even put it up into a toknot without the crown. It was her face albeit more angular both from the natural loss of a year's worth of baby fat and from the lack of sufficient eating. It was still her hands, elegant if less deadly without the sharpened nails. It was still Azula.
Ty Lee wished she looked different. She should've looked completely different. Her body should match her soulless eyes, flat and dull. But she was as beautiful as ever, if not more so.
For a second Ty Lee imagined that the blackness of Azula's body's non-aura was filling the cell. It washed over the walls and fought with the torches. It invaded her own quickly darkening aura. Soon everything was dark.
There was no hope. They were right. She…Azula was gone.
Ty Lee fell to her knees weeping uncontrollably.
"I'm sorry…So so sorry. I-I…Oh Azula! What have I done?"
Jumping up and whirling around in a surprisingly graceful rising pirouette, Ty Lee blindly ran to the steel door and pounded for the guard.
The big guard was startled out of a fabulous daydream full of medals and gorgeous noblewomen by the panicked pounding on the door. The guard now fearful of actually having to earn a medal ran to the door praying to the spirits that the Princess had lost her edge over the year.
The guard quickly unlocked and threw the door open as he sunk into a battle stance. What he found charging him was a hysterical noblewoman. He sidestepped just in time to avoid a devastating blow to his ego as the acrobat was very much willing to shove the top-heavy guard to the ground in her haste to escape everything.
She needed to get out. She needed to forget. She needed to run.
With all of Ty Lee's sudden needs she forgot about Azula's as she ran as fast as her highly trained legs could.
The guard stared at the retreating and very firm backside of the noblewoman. He finally gathered his wits, and with a feral war cry that shook the steel door leapt into the cell ready to subdue the fearsome…sitting, vacant Princess.
The guard shook his head and cautiously approached the prisoner. At a foot away and with no movement from the prisoner the guard leaned over the Princess and waved his hand in front of her face. For a second he could've sworn her eyes shifted towards him, but after jumping back into a defensive position he just shrugged it off.
After determining that the noblewoman was just a silly girl who couldn't stand ten minutes in the same cell as the once fearsome fire bender the guard left.
As the lock jammed home no one could hear the prisoner quietly whisper one name:
"Ty Lee."
Muhuhaha! Got you! You will have to wait for a confrontation b/w Ty and our crazed Princess I'm afraid.
I know this isn't how Ty is normally written, but I think there is much more to her than air-head. Do you think Azula would suffer her nonsense if there wasn't more behind it? Well I think not.
As for the freak out, mental illness is never pretty and it puts a lot of stress on not just the patient but also their loved ones. Therefore I thought it was more realistic for it to be too much at first.
Please feel free to discuss it with me via PM or Review... Reviews are very much appreciated as usual so just do it... I will not beg... PLEASE!
Haha! Ok that's enough for now. Peace Out Fools!
