After they had cooked and eaten a wonderful dinner of skewered meat, nuts, and fruit; they sat around the fire and began to talk. After much persuasion from Sokka and the others, Sessa told them stories of her world. Of the buildings and skyscrapers, trains and cars, people and places. She told them the story of how she and her sisters had met, and what training in the Spirit World had been like.
Suki eagerly accepted her invitation to train together the way Roku had suggested, and Toph smirked evilly as she began plotting how she would help them train without the use of sight. She figured that the best way to do it would be to mimic the way she had done it with Aang when he learned earthbending, just blindfold them and see what they could do.
As the first drops of evening rain began to fall, they slowly rose and went off into their individual earth tents for what they all expected to be a relaxing night, after what had to be the longest day. For everyone but Sessa, the night would pass peacefully. She paused outside the entrance to her tent and turned to look up into the tree across from her at the only one who was not going to sleep. Zuko, had first watch tonight.
"Goodnight Zuko." She knew he could hear her, but he didn't answer; and his hood was up again making it impossible for her to even tell if he was looking at her. "Thank you, by the way, for everything."
He said nothing, but watched her as she walked into her tent.
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The dream was different this time. She knew it the moment she looked around the red and gold hall. An instant later, she had been swept up in the emotions of it and was once again living in its hell.
The throne room, she thought to herself worriedly, she hadn't meant to come here, the palace was enormous and she had gotten lost; but she had to find what she was looking for. Something important. Where the hell do I go? I have no idea-
His voice interrupted her.
"Se-ssa", he was calling her, like a quiet whisper on an absent wind, so quiet she wasn't even sure she had actually heard him speak, or if her mind was so freaked out already that she had imagined it. The fear and adrenaline that pooled in her stomach made her feel like she was drunk; nothing made sense, and yet she understood everything that was happening. She spun around desperately searching for the figure she knew was there, hiding in the darkness of the shadows.
When she finally found him, his dark silhouette was leaning against one of the many poles scattered about the room. The sight of his faceless, black figure sent a wave of panic through her, and as she watched him approach, the fear and hate that had been starting to build inside her, rippled out through her until every inch of her trembled with emotion. She despised him. She knew she had leave, that she had had to get away, or she would die...she just couldn't get her feet to cooperate.
"Sessa," He repeated as he slowly stalked toward her; every bit of him a trained and deadly predator. His voice was barely audible, but in the quiet emptiness of the room, it reached her as if he were standing right beside her. He tilted his head to one side as he studied her and came closer still. But she still tried to defy him; for every step he took forward she took two back. Silently she sent up a prayer to any god or goddess that would listen to help her find an escape. Her body screamed at her to run, to run in any direction so long as it was away from him, but she was unwilling to take her eyes off of him for even a moment to find the exit.
Think, Sessa, think! There was another entrance here, you saw it in the episode when Ursa disappeared. Where is it? Panic surged through her as she realized he was coming closer faster than she was backing up.
His entire body was completely surrounded by shadows, a result of the fire that danced along the walls behind him; but she didn't need to see his face to know who he was or that he watching her. It was a sick and deadly dance they were performing and the longer it continued the more she came to a single terrifying conclusion.
He's playing with me, she thought angrily as she kept moving back to keep the distance between them. So long as there was distance between them, she could fool herself into believing she would survive this. But she knew the truth, he was a cold, merciless predator playing with his prey before he tore it apart, and in this particular situation, she was the prey.
Without warning, a wall pressed hard against her back, it's cold unyielding force stopping her suddenly and offering no shelter or protection; panic and surprise swept through her, "Oh shit," she breathed, nearly hysterical as realization struck her, I'm trapped.
Screw distance, her mind screamed. She tore her eyes away from him ad began looking around for a way out, she felt her hope die; he was blocking the only exit she could find. Her only chance of survival was directly behind him, and as far as she was concerned, he was as impenetrable as Fort Knox. Glancing back at him to make sure there was still some distance between them, her heart thudded to a stop when she realized that he was no longer across the room; he was right in front of her. Her gasp of surprise died in her throat as she tired desperately to maintain composure. Steadying herself mentally, she forced herself to control her breath for fear of making the slightest sound; and as he drew upon her, she had no choice but to stare helplessly into the raging pools of molten gold she knew were his eyes.
"Tsk. Tsk. Sessa". He murmured as he stepped ever closer. They were all but touching now. "I warned you. There is no chance of defeating me, no hope. You've failed." He reached up and tucked a strand of flyaway hair behind her ear, "And now, for your foolishness, you must pay the price."
She couldn't see his face as he told her all this, even though he was right in front of her, but she was sure he was smiling. There was a sick something in his voice that told her he was enjoying this game he was playing. She leveled her violet-blue gaze at him and glared all her anger and hatred at him. There was no more fear. Only racing adrenaline. She defiantly raised her chin at him, making sure she showed him she was not afraid...even though she was sure he could hear her heart beating madly in her chest. She refused to give him the gratification of knowing he had scared her.
She spoke with more courage than she felt, "You think you've won, but you haven't. Zuko will beat you. He is more powerful, and more of a man than you ever were! When he takes his place on the throne, no one will remember you!" she spat on his face and his laughter filled the empty hall.
Fury hit her hard, and without thinking, she brought her right knee up hard into his groin; satisfaction made her smile evilly as she watched surprise flash across his eyes as his body went limp. Without waiting another moment, she forced her legs to run at full speed in the direction of the heavy double doors, but before she made it ten feet, and iron like grip caught her about the wrist and whipped her back around into a solid wall of stone.
Tiny black spots danced about her vision as her mind screamed in protest at the pain. The man slammed her hard against the wall again, railing her body with pain. She couldn't breathe, one more hit to the head and she would slip into the wonderful darkness of unconsciousness.
"You think," he fumed at her, his voice rough and harsh, "that miserable failure will be able to do anything? He's weak!" shouted her assailant, "And when he sees what I have done to you, he will lose any chance he had of winning." There was a moment's pause, "I supposed I should thank you for that." he hissed.
He let his eyes show her that sick, twisted smile of his as his right hand reached up and grasped her neck. She had nowhere to run, and even if she tried to fight him now, it would only take him a moment to accomplish his goal. Her body was too weak to fight back, as little by little he applied pressure until he was sure he was choking her. She felt panic rise from deep inside as her life giving air supply was slowly cut off, but despite this, she refused to show him what he wanted, I will not let you have any of the satisfaction you want from this, she thought bitterly to herself. The moment she saw him raise his left hand, her eyes widened in horror as the full realization of his intentions hit her. An instant later a twisted smile graced his lips before yellow-gold fire erupted from his outstretched hand and engulfed her.
Her scream resounded off the walls of the hall.
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Sessa flew off her pillow with a gasp, her body shaking with fear. Sweat glistened off every part of her exposed skin in the pale light of the fire outside. The black and white penguin tee shirt and black pants she had brought from home clung to her like second skin; and her hair, wild and mused was plastered to her face. She took in ragged breaths of cool night air in an attempt to calm herself, but the fear and adrenaline continued to pump through her veins as if she were still in the midst of the dream. Before she could stop herself, warm, salty tears slipped down her cheeks like miniature streams and off her chin.
The oppressive darkness inside her earth tent felt like it was slowly crushing her, sending tremors down her back as the fresh memory of her dream assaulted her. Choking on a sob, she threw off her blanket and scrambled outside, eager to be in an open space surrounded by light.
No one was outside, and while she normally preferred solitary silence to loud boisterous crowds, at this particular moment in time she would have given anything to be among friends. The leftover fear from the dream had made her wary of the shadows cast about by the dim firelight but for now she preferred it dark shadows where anything could linger about. You're being paranoid, the sensible part of her brain told her, better to be paranoid than get caught unaware, the evil part of it retorted. She ran a hand through her hair desperate for some way to relieve the tension. She knew bending some fire would help, but if it got out of hand, she didn't want to have to wake anyone up just to help her put it out. Without thinking about it, she began to pace back and forth, but upon remembering that Toph could hear the quietest sounds through the ground, she gingerly walked to the edge of camp and began to walk its perimeter, careful to always remain within sight of the fire.
Zuko sat silently in the tree he had chosen as a lookout point, watching the stars shoot across the sky and listening to the night whisper its secrets as the others slept. He had been on watch for nearly four hours, and had not heard a single unusual sound. So bored, Only his thoughts had kept him company during the uneventful night. However they had just begun to wander when the sudden sound of crunching of grass beneath him brought him back to the present, No! No one should have been able to come so close to camp, even if his mind had begun to wander. He narrowed his gaze in the direction of the sound and waited until the footsteps were directly below him before he dropped silently out of the trees ready to battle whoever was foolish enough to try and attack them.
"Oh, Shit!" Sessa swore out loud when Zuko landed in front of her with a fire ball at the ready; reacting on instinct, she pulled water from the grass and threw out a handful of ice spikes which he barely managed to dodge before they impaled the tree behind him.
Instantly realizing his mistake, he called out to stop her but she couldn't hear him over the thundering of her heart in her ears, ignoring his "Wait! Stop!" she jumped up into a nearby tree and disappeared from his view.
What the hell is going on? He thought frantically, listening to the subtle movements of the leaves to see where she had gone, he had just begun to turn when a sudden kick to his back sent him flying forward. He managed to stop himself from falling completely, and spun around in time to see her use a low tree branch as a way to swing herself up onto into a crouching position.
The deadly glare in her almost black eyes surprised him, he would never have guessed she was capable of such a look; she was no longer the gentle, warm girl he'd found sick in the woods, in this moment, she was a lethal fighter, planning her next move. It was then Zuko did something he would never have thought himself capable of, he relaxed his stance, raised his hands and slowly approached her.
It took her a full count of five to realize what was happening; the person she had thought was her attacker was actually not an attacker at all. In fact, he was quite the opposite, and with his hands raised looking at her like he she imagined he would have looked at a crazy wild animal, she felt like an idiot.
"Zuko?" her voice was soft and lost quickly in the depth of the night, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she shouted as quietly as she could while dropping down from the tree branch.
He cringed before he got angry, "What was I doing? What were you doing? I could have killed you!"
She raised an eyebrow at him and glared, "I'm sure," she answered drolly, "And I was taking a walk."
His eyes turned a deadly molten gold at that casual statement; for some annoying reason, the idea of her walking about at night, alone, pissed him off. "Are you crazy? Why would you do that?"
Her eyes had returned to that deep ocean blue, "None of your business".
His temper snapped, "It is if I nearly attacked you!".
"You'll just think it's stupid", she huffed, suddenly very tired. She didn't feel like arguing with the only person awake, especially if they were a way to keep the shadows at bay.
His gaze softened slightly as he studied her; she was paler than normal, but that could be due to lack of light, her honey hair fell around her wild waves mused by a restless night, but it was her eyes that held his attention...they seemed to glow with an inner light as she thought about telling him whatever had brought her out at such a late hour.
His voice was quiet when he spoke, "I won't think it's stupid; trust me, I've heard some pretty crazy stuff." Okay, he thought, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to.
Sessa ran her hand though her hair again, forcing the waves to tumble around her even more as she settled herself enough to tell him what was bothering her. When she felt calm enough, she walked over to the side of the fire knowing he would follow. When they were seated, she raised a finger and sent a small stream of fire into the wood to make it burn brighter. While she spoke, recounting every detail she could remember everything from her dreams, Zuko could only think one thing, Her? She's the one I've been dreaming about? What does this even mean? His brows furrowed as she finished and he got lost in his own thoughts as they raced through his mind about what this meant, I need Uncle.
"Zuko?" she was watching him, worry shining at him in the firelight, "Have you ever had dreams like that?"
He made up his mind instantly, I won't tell her anything until I know what this means. He kept his face straight as he lied, "No".
"Oh. Yea, I must be a nutcase then." She sighed.
They sat in silence only a moment longer before Sokka came out of hit tent yawning, he rubbed his eyes sleepily and nodded at Zuko. Without a word the exiled prince rose and disappeared into his tent.
"Aren't you going to go to sleep?" mumbled Sokka as he warmed himself by the fire to wake up for his shift of watch. Sessa stared into the fire, letting its warmth curl around her and seep into her until it had eased away her worries and the nightmare was nothing more than an all but forgotten memory. "No. I think I'll stay up." She smiled at him. Five minutes later he was snoring, lost in his own dreams for the night.
When the others finally awoke just after daybreak, Sessa had already washed and peeled the fruit they would eat for breakfast while Sokka studied a map to decide what their next move would be. While the others were oblivious to the shadows under her deep blue eyes, Zuko noticed them, and he knew she had stayed awake, but he didn't say a word. While he may have fought caring about this girl, they were tied together in one way, and until he understood why, he would keep a close eye on her.
After breakfast, they talked their options over and it was unanimously decided they would head the Fire Lord's abandoned home on Ember Island. Quickly cleaning up camp and excited to prepare for the ever approaching battle they boarded Appa and left.
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The nearby figure that watched the sky from the safety of its cloak, waited until the bison had long been out of sight before removing a piece of parchment from their bag and relaying the message. Working quickly they rolled up the message, tied it in a black ribbon and placed it in the carrying pouch of the messenger hawk, with a cry it took flight and headed off in the direction of the bison.
To Ember Island, smiled the person. Turning, they began the long walk back to the village to pick up their Komodo Rhino for the ride back to the Fire Nation.
