Book Three: Fire

Chapter Six: The Beach

"I'm so excited to spend the weekend on Ember Island," Ty Lee commented happily. "It's going to be great to hang out on the beach and do nothing."

"Doing nothing is a waste of time," Zuko snapped. "We're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child."

"Lighten up," Azula replied from her spot against the railing. "So Dad wants to meet his advisors alone, without anyone else around. Don't take it personally."

Mist was scowling irritatedly under the hood of her cloak. She had never cared for beaches, because it was to hot to wear her cloak and people would stare at her strange white hair. Not to mention that being so close to the water, but not being allowed to bend it was torture. She closed her eyes as Ty Lee asked if they had a house on the island. This was gonna be a long weekend.

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"Welcome to Ember Island, kids," Li and Lo greeted as they stepped from the ferry.

The five teens followed the twins to the smallest beach house overlooking the water.

"It smells like old lady in here," Zuko whispered quietly to Mai.

"Gee, I wonder why," Mai replied sarcastically.

Mist snorted faintly and stepped around them to follow Ty Lee, who had paused in front of a painting of two young beautiful women wearing yellow bikinis.

"Who are these two beautiful women?" She asked Li and Lo.

"Can't you tell? It's Lo and me." Li said.

"Li and me," Lo said at the same time, imitating the painting with Li.

Mist frowned as the other three girls gave the older women disturbed look and Zuko gagged.

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"Ooh, I love the seashell bedspread," Ty Lee proclaimed, stretching out on one of the beds.

"Are you serious? It looks like the beach threw up all over it," Mai declared, following her into the room.

Mist secretly agreed with Mai, but didn't say anything as she sat on the edge of the bed next to Ty Lee.

Lo and Li stood in front of the five of them. "We know you're upset that you had to come here this weekend."

"But Ember Island is a magical place, " Lo continued. "Keep an open mind."

"Give it a chance," Li added.

"And it can help you understand yourselves and each other," They chorused together.

Lo picked up one of the smooth rocks from the table in the center of the room. "The beach has a special way…"

"Of smoothing away even the most ragged edges," Li finished.

The twins suddenly clapped twice. "Time to hit the beach!"

Mist let out a disturbed squeak and turned away from the sight of the two older women in saggy bathing suits. There was no way to get that image out of her head.

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Xena stretched out on a rock in the center of the hot spring, listening as Katara, Aang, and Era played in the water. The three of them had insisted on taking a break much to Sokka's irritation and this place was perfect. Sokka had even gotten over his irritation enough to try and fish.

"Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that?" Toph called out.

"What?" Aang responded. "I'm wearing trunks."

"I know. It's your tattoos I'm worried about. What if someone sees you?"

"There are walls all around us. It's completely safe," Katara said, turning to face the blind girl, not that it made a difference since Toph couldn't actually see her.

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Zuko sighed quietly as his sister demolished a sand castle a group of kids were working on in order to claim the spot for themselves. Mai glanced over at him curiously, still holding the umbrella that they'd brought. He carefully laid a blanket out as a scrawny boy helped Ty Lee unpack her own blanket. He glanced to the side after they were both seated and picked up a seashell and offered it to Mai.

"Here. This is for you."

Mai gave the shell an unimpressed look. "Why would I want that?"

"I saw it and thought it was pretty. Don't girls like stuff like that?"

"Maybe stupid girls." Mai scoffed.

"Forget it," Zuko barked, throwing the shell away.

It landed next to a guy sitting on the water's edge. He turned to look at the shell and saw Ty Lee. Grabbing the shell, he ran up to her and held it out to her with a grin. Ty Lee accepted it gratefully, seemingly proving Mai's point.

"It's too bad Mist decided to stay at the beach house," Ty Lee suddenly remarked to Azula.

The firebending prodigy was too busy glaring at the guys surrounding the acrobat to respond.

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Mist sat on the edge of the dock, staring down into the water. She'd left her cloak in her room along with her swords. Bored, she used waterbending to make a small whirlpool in the water. A shadow suddenly fell across her and she stopped bending.

"What do you want, Shun?"

He didn't respond as he dropped to the deck next to her. 'Who says I want anything?'

She glanced over at him, noting that he too had taken his cloak off. He wore his usually hat though and his bow was slung across his back. She frowned and looked back down at the water.

"I feel lost," She finally admitted. "I don't know what to do anymore."

"I saw you send those letters."

"Yeah, well, I pretty much pushed all my problems off to someone else." She quietly explained what she had written.

He was quiet for a moment before responding. "I don't think you are as lost as you feel. And I was wrong about what I said that time."

"No you weren't. What you said was true and I needed to hear it. It's time I grew up." Mist stood up and began walking back across the dock.

She stopped when Shun spoke again. "Why did you break your promise?"

Mist turned and sat back down. Her voice was quiet as she explained.

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Mist stared at the burning net. Obviously she had missed something. She did however know that this probably had to do something with Azula's competitive nature. She stopped at Ty Lee's side, raising an eyebrow in question. Ty Lee just smiled with a faint shrug. Two boys suddenly wandered up to the two of them, ignoring Mist.

"I'm having a party tonight, you should come by."

"I love parties."

The other boy leaned towards Mai with a smirk. "Your friend can come too."

Zuko scowled at him while Azula complained about not being invited as well. The boy that extended the invite to Ty Lee grudgingly agreed to let Azula and Zuko go. Mist rolled her eyes, not surprised to be overlooked. She didn't want to go to the party, but it would have been nice to have at least been invited.

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Mist sat alone on the private beach belonging to the royal family. She was watching the water with a thoughtful expression, spinning the blade that had been returned to her. Shun had informed her that after getting in touch with two of his comrades along with Smellerbee and Jet they had found out that Aang had survived. He had also found out that Xena, after giving her life to save Aang, had become the first in line of the Guardian Spirit. A few minutes before she came down to the beach, she'd gotten a reply to one of the messages she sent. It informed her that the Avatar had stopped by Master Piandao's estate so that the water tribe boy, Sokka, could learn from him. That news brought a smile to her face and she quickly prepared another letter, this would be going to the same person that the second letter had.

Now sitting out here by herself, she had nothing but time to think and to remember. She turned her hands over to stare at the scars on her wrists. She remembered the day she'd done this quite clearly. It had led her to finding a great man that took her in despite all her shortcomings, but it had also led to her becoming one of Azula's lackeys. She always liked to think of herself as Zuko's friend, but it wasn't entirely true. Whenever Azula was around, she was anything but Zuko's friend, including now. Mist knew why Ty Lee did it and she knew why Mai did it, but as for herself she had no clue. But maybe she didn't need to know why, maybe she just had to accept that she'd made a mistake and change it.

"Zera."

She turned her head in Shun's direction, but didn't say anything. She remembered when she met him to. She was still relatively new to the Fire Nation and causing as much trouble as she could against the nation that had stolen her family from her. A week before she met him, she'd been abandoned by another thief she called friend over a mission in which she killed a man. She was in no shape to fend for herself, but with her companion gone she had no choice. Her feet had been cut up from the glass of a broken window and she could barely walk, but every night for seven days she forced herself to break into shops for food. She'd met Shun on the seventh night in a bakery that they both had targeted.

He had been nothing, but a weak scrawny orphan carrying around his dead father's bow. He wasn't good at stealing or at picking locks and the bakery with its unlocked door seemed like a spirit blessing. Mist had forced all weakness aside as soon as she'd seen him, baring her knife and hiding how injured she was. He had stammered out an apology and backed out of the way so she could passed. She'd hesitated before moving to pass him and in doing so revealed her injuries. He'd seen and admittedly demanded that he be allowed to tend to them for her. She surprisingly let him take care of her.

In the next three months she taught him the language of the streets and how to be a successful thief and he taught her how to wield a bow. Shun had opened her up and learned all her secrets - including suicide attempts, instinctively knowing when she was lying. After the three months had ended he'd told her that he was going to travel to the Earth Kingdom and before he left he made her promise to never try to commit suicide again. It was a promise she soon broke.

Mist leaned against Shun, who had sat down next to her in the middle of her pondering. He tensed briefly and then relaxed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She sighed and closed her eyes before speaking.

"Were you aware that I had fallen in love with you before you left?"

"I did not."

"Well, I did."

The were silent for awhile until Shun spoke again. "I loved you to, I still do."

She didn't respond, but relaxed farther into his embrace. She wondered if things were too broken for them to ever have a chance at being together. Ty Lee would find them later that night, Mist sleeping comfortably in Shun's arms as he watched over her.

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Zuko didn't know why he had come here after the events of the party. It was a place of once happy memories that could only bring him sadness now. He grasped one of the door handles to the royal beach house and tugged. It didn't open. He hesitated and then took a step back and kicked the door open, snapping the lock. He looked around the foyer for a moment before heading up the stairs. As he walked he thought about his over reaction to that guy talking to Mai. It was something he realized he would have never done had it been Xena instead of Mai. He was using Mai as a crutch and it somehow hurt more than if he didn't.

He paused in front of a family portrait. It was from a time when they'd all been happy. It wasn't that hard to turn away. He picked up the clay imprint of his baby hand next and slid his now much bigger hand over the top. What would his uncle say if he could see him now? Better yet, what would Xena say?

She would've talked to him and she would have listened. She wouldn't have judged him and wouldn't have ridiculed him. She had been the only person besides his uncle to actually listen to him. It was, he thought, one of the reasons he fell for her.

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Xena lightly traced the fang of the mask in her hand, remembering the first time she'd seen it. He could've been a great guy had he not been so intent on regaining his honor. She carefully replaced the mask in her bag and stretched out on the ground, staring at the stars. The others were already asleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She was still awake when Toph woke everyone up, announcing that she felt a metal man. She rose fluidly to her feet, swords in hand. Sokka drew his sword as well as they stared up at the figure standing on the edge of the crater. Both an arm and a leg were made of metal and were reflecting the moonlight.

There was a strong ray of energy that shot towards them and Aang quickly raised a wall of earth ro protect them The blast slammed into the ground a few feet away, explosion sending the six teens flying. Xena twisted in midair to land back on her feet. Toph also landed on her feet and after steadying herself, she thrust her hands out. A large wave of rocks rose and rushed towards the man, but he blasted them to smithereens. The blast continued straight through the rocks and Toph jumped to the side. Aang leapt forward and created a protective shield in front of the other downed teens. That was when Xena figured out what was going on.

The man was using two of the most advanced firebending techniques that took years to master. Psychic bending and air combustion. He was literally using his mind to combust the air. As the smoke and dust from the blast faded, Xena and Katara bended a wave of water from the hot spring that was quickly turned to steam. Appa roared angrily nearby.

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"I thought I'd find you here."

Zuko briefly glanced at Azula and then back down to the plaster cast in his hand. He had left the inside of the vacation home to sit on the steps, not wanting to be in that house for any longer than necassary. He didn't know why he'd brought the cast out with him. It was after all, just a simple little trinket he'd given to his mother.

"Those summers we spent here seem so long ago," He said quietly. "So much has changed."

"Come down to the beach with me," Azula suggested, turning her back on the house. "Come on this place is depressing."

Zuko hesitated and then set the cast down on the stairs in order to follow her. Azula led him down to the beach, where Mai, Ty Lee, and Mist were waiting for him.

"Hey," Mai greeted quietly after a brief hesitation.

Zuko glanced at her sadly and didn't say a word. His new realization was still fresh in his mind. She looked away from him when he didn't respond and Zuko sighed before moving to take a seat next to Mist. The white-haired girl's face was tinged red and she kept shooting glances at Ty Lee. He brushed the redness in her face off as just a sunburn.

"I'm freezing," Ty Lee suddenly declares.

Only then did Zuko realize, how chilly it was. He and Azula were mostly immune to the cold due to their firebending, but the three non-benders had to be freezing.

"I'll make a fire." He turned to glance at the old vacation home. "There's plenty of stuff to burn in there."

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Xena grabbed Aang and Katara's arms, pulling them behind a rock as another explosion split the air. Toph, Era, and Sokka joined them soon after.

"This is crazy!" Sokka exclaimed in disbelief. "How can we beat a guy who blows things up with his mind?!"

"You can't," Xena replied. "But I can. You guys get on Appa and I'll distract him."

"What? Xena, no!" Aang protested, grabbing her arm as she started to rise.

She glanced down at him, eyes gleaming an eerie silver. "Aang, I am your Guardian. It is my job to protect you, so let me do it. Get on Appa and get out of here. I promise to join you as soon as I can."

He hesitated and then nodded, releasing her. She slipped out from behind the rock cover, sheathing her swords in preparation for bending. She charges through the smoke towards the rock ledge where the psychic bender. is standing. Blasting fire from her feet and hands she launches herself skyward. He shoots a blast at her, but she rolls to her side and comes back to her feet. She shoots towards him and he lashes out with a hand. She dodges around him, whipping a fire whip at his back as she passes.

He blocks the fire with his metal arm and chases after her as she slides down the back of the cliff, disturbing the dust. He starts to turn away from her back towards the others. A bad decision on his part. A spear of ice shoots past him, drawing a line of blood across his cheek. She bends more water from the hilts of her swords, shaping them into small ice blades. The use of two elements draws his attention to her automaticly and he slides down the slope after her. She shoots half of the blades at him and he shoots a beam at her, and turning the blades into steam. Once his vision is blocked, she dashes off into the field of stone pillars, continueing to bend the rest of the ice blades around her.

Xena dodges behind a pillar to catch her breath for a moment only to dodge out of the way of as it explodes. She takes refuge behind another pillar and ducks as it explodes above her head. Quickly manipulating several ice blades into a spear, she begins running again. Circling around behind the man, she pulls her arm back and throws the spear. With surprising dexterity he grabs it out of the air and throws it back at her. She thrusts out an open hand, returning the ice to water. She then changes the direction of it's momentum, to collide with his face.

When he recoils, she charges forward. He tries to grab her, but she dodges to the side once again only for his metal foot to collide with her stomach. Air rushes from her lungs as she tumbles backwards. She tries to slow her momentum by coming back to her feet only to continue sliding until she strikes a pillar, back first. Staggering, she dropped to a knee. The ribbon holding her hair into a ponytail snaps and her hair falls in front of her face.

The assassin grabs her by her throat and lifts her up. Xena chokes and kicks at him, grabbing his metal arm frantically. He tightens his grip in response. Eyes narrowing, she allows the temperature of her hands to heat up. The metal resists the heat at first, but slowly her hands begin to sink into the softening metal. Sweat drips from her face and she is in much need of air, but he isn't intent on letting her go any time soon. A blast of sand suddenly collides with the man's face and he releases her in order to protect it. Xena gasps and inhales lifegiving air, coughing weakly. Another blast of sand catches him in the chest, pushing him backwards.

Era grabs Xena under the arm, lifting her effortlessly. His green eyes shine with concern. She shakes her head and then pushed him away from her as she leans back. The blast flying between them and pushing them away from each other. She summons a shield of fire and blocks the next blast, digging her feet in and holding the rippling flames. Allowing her fire to dissolve, she punches a blast of fire. The fire is a flickering red instead of its usual unique color. She is running out of steam and he is not.

She dives out of the way of another blast and rolls to a stop beside Era, who was just getting to his feet.

"Have you've ever glassbended before," She asked, standing.

"Glassbending?"

"It's a lost bending art, only able to be done by the Avatar or the combined efforts of a skilled sandbender and firebender."

He realizes what she is suggesting and pulls the last of his sand from his pouch. Xena began punching fireballs quickly at the metal man as he readied another blast. The man raised his metal arm to protect his face and didn't see when the two benders combined their elements. Glass splattered over the metal of his arm, locking the joints as it cooled rapidly. He bent his arm, forcing the glass to break. When he lowered his arm, the two benders were gone.

Era held Xena as they ran through the pillars. Toph was standing where he had left her and the blind bender wasted no time in launching the three of them into the air with earthbending so that Appa could catch them.

Xena slumps into Aang's arms as he catches her. Katara rushes towards them and automatically begins to heal the bruising on her throat.

"I'm okay," She rasped painfully, pushing her away.

"No your not," The waterbender replied, slapping Xena's hands back.

"Well, that was random," Toph said, referring to the sudden attack.

"I don't think so. I get the feeling he knows who we are," Katara said, raising her head.

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Zuko tosses the family portrait onto the fire. MIst stares at the image as the fire begins to eat away at it.

"What are you doing?" Ty Lee asks curiously from where she sits behind him.

"What does it look I'm doing?"

"But it's a portrait of your family."

"You think I care?"
"I think you do."

Zuko turns his head to her. "You don't know anything about me, so don't you mind your own business!"

Mist sighs quietly at the honest wounded expression on Ty Lee's face.

"I know you," The acrobat says softly.

"No, you don't." He waves his arm around angrily. "You're stuck in your little Ty Lee world, where everything's great all the time.

"Zuko, leave her alone," Mai says from the other side of the fire.

Azula is watching them all in amusement.

"'I'm so pretty, look at me. I can walk on my hands, whoo!'" Zuko continues, doing a handstand. He lets himself backwards into the sand. "Circus freak!"

Azula laughs and Ty Lee's eyes shine with anger. She jumps to her feet, glaring down at him. Mist jolts in surprise at the knowledge that Ty Lee is done pretending.

"Yes, I'm a circus freak. Go ahead and laugh all you want. You wanna know why I joined the circus?"

"Here we go," Azula says in exasperation, rolling her eyes.

"Do you have any idea what my home life was like, growing up with six sisters who look exactly like me? It was like, I didn't even have my own name. I had to act some stupid ditz to get any attention from my parents and when that didn't work I joined the circus because I was scared of spending the rest of my life as part of a matched set. At least then I could be myself. And then Azula had to come and mess that all up."

Azula's eyes along with her brother's widened in surprise. Even Mai's normally blank face held an expression of shock.

"I was different, but now I have to go back to being that airhead everybody thinks I am. So when you call me a circus freak, I take it as a compliment!"

"Guess that explains why you need 10 boyfriends, too," Mai snarked sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ty Lee asked, hands on her hips.

"Attention issues. You couldn't get enough attention when you were a kid, so you're trying to make up for it now."

Ty Lee's grey eyes narrowed.

"Well, what's your excuse, Mai? You were an only child for 15 years, but even with all that attention, your aura is this dingy, pasty, gray…"

"I don't believe in aura's," Mai replied dully.

"You don't believe in anything," Zuko declares, standing up. He is aware that his emotions are getting the best of him, but right now he can't seem to care.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry I can't be as high-strung and crazy as the rest of you."

"I'm sorry, too. I wish you would be high-strung and crazy for once, instead of keeping all your feelings bottled up inside. She just called your aura dingy. Are you gonna take that?" Zuko asked.

As this continues Mist notices the bracelet around Zuko's wrist. The dragon's eyes are glowing a faint eerie gold. She leans forward, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

"What do you want from me? You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn't. I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted. As long as I behaved . . . and sat still . . . and didn't speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my Dad's political career to think about."

"Well, that's it, then." Everyone turned to Azula as spoke for the first time. "You had a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them you were shut down. That's why you're afraid to care about anything, and why you can't express yourself."

"You want me to express myself?" She stands and yells, "Leave me alone!"

The four other teens stare at her in surprise. Zuko swallows nervously and reaches forward to touch her in comfort.

"Don't touch me. I'm still mad at you," She snaps, moving away.

"My life hasn't been that easy, either, Mai-"

"Whatever- that doesn't excuse the way you've been acting," Mai says, cutting him off.

"Calm down, you guys. This much negative energy is bad for your skin."

That was the wrong thing to say.

"Bad skin?" Zuko starts angrily. "Normal teenagers worry about bad skin. I don't have that luxury. My father decided to teach me a permanent lesson on my face."

"Sorry, Zuko, I . . ."

Zuko walks away from them

"For so long, I thought that if my dad accepted me, I'd be happy. I'm back home, now my dad talks to me. Huh, he even thinks I'm a hero. Everything should be perfect, right now. I should be happy now, but I'm not. I'm angrier than ever and I don't know why."

Azula leans forward. "There's a simple question you need to answer then. Who are you angry at?"

"No one, I'm just angry."

"Yeah, who are you angry at, Zuko?"

Mist examines Zuko as Azula and Ty Lee throw out a few names. Zuko automatically denies it, but now Mist recognizes what she is seeing in him. It's the same thing she had seen in herself.

"You're angry at yourself," She says softly and the others turn to her in surprise.

Zuko seems to hesitate before nodding. "Yeah."

"Why?" Azula asks curiously.

"Because I'm confused. Because I'm not sure I know the difference between right and wrong anymore."

"You're pathetic," Azula replies.

"You're one to talk, Princess," Mist says and Azula turns to glare at her.

"What did you say?"

"You say Zuko is pathetic and yet you sit here taking delight in their stories. I think that's pretty pathetic that you can't even bother to care that your friends are hurting."

"Well, yes, I guess you're right, Azula said to the surprise of everyone. "I don't have sob stories like all of you. I could sit here and complain how our mom liked Zuko more than me, but I don't really care. My own mother . . . thought I was a monster." She pauses. "She was right, of course, but it still hurt."

It was quiet for a moment before, Azula turned to Mist. "And what about you, Mist?"

"Everyone else has shared their stories."

Mist frowned thoughtfully for a second before shrugging. "I don't really have any problems."

Had she said that earlier that day, it would have been a lie. But now after talking to Shun it was the truth.

"Right," Azula replied sarcastically.

Mist just shrugs again and lays back in the sand.

Everybody is quiet for several minutes and then Zuko turns to Mai.

"I'm sorry about how I was acting earlier."

Mai smiled and approached him. "I do know one thing I care about . . . you."

She kisses him and Zuko winces internally.

"What Lo and Li said came true. The beach did help us learn about ourselves." Ty Lee picks up a smooth stone from the ground. "I feel all smoothed. I'll always remember this."

"You know what would make this trip really memorable?" Azula asked.

Mist raised her head to see a devilish grin on the other girl's face. "Whatever you're planning, I'll pass on."

"Suit yourself," Azula said with a shrug and began telling her plan.

Ty Lee leaned towards Mist as she spoke. "I saw Shun heading up to the vacation house a little while ago, he's probably still there if you want to cuddle some more."

Mist blushed and turned her head away. She looked up at the house and smiled slightly. She might just go do that.

Finally, a new chapter, XD. If you've already reviewed on the two previous author notes, you won't be able to review on this or the next chapter, but you are welcome to shoot me a PM. Next chapter is supposed to be The Avatar and The Fire Lord, but after rewatching the episode I realized there wasn't much I could add to the chapter. It's the same as in the show. So the next chapter will be the The Runaway. Also the poll on my page will be taken down shortly and replaced with a new poll.

Also to the guest reviewer that mentioned Gaea being from the Heroes of Olympus, I have read those books, but it is not where my inspiration for the spirit came from. My inspiration came from many sources, which does include some Greek Mythology, but not that particular series. I knew Gaea as the Earth Goddess long before I knew her as being Greek.