A/N: I don't own Avatar.
Sorry it took me a while to repost, I've had mad writers block...
Also, when I change points of view I'm just going to put the characters name in bold print. Just so you know.
Chapter 9
A Dream Weaver is a kind of sorcerer, a bender in his own right, that can literally weave ones dreams with another.
Chung
Ever since I was a child I have had this gift, some call it a gift at least, dream weaving takes no fighting skills or actual physical strength just intense concentration in a dream state. I have taught only a few how to do it, one is a master, the other went mad and now my only other pupil is bent on overthrowing his own son by manipulating his young daughter into doing so. This type of magic should not be used to destructively, I have always believed that, and that is what damned me to The Boiling Rock to begin with.
Working under Fire Lord Azulon I was assigned to the Secret Service and Intelligence for war tactics. It was my duty to infiltrate the minds of enemy generals to figure out their next move in battle so the Fire Nation Army could counter act it, thus making us unstoppable in battle. The Fire Lord held too much praise in my name and my abilities, he tried many times to use my unique skills to find the whereabouts of the Avatar, but with out a mind for me to penetrate there is very little I can do to find the answer to anything.
"How can that even be possible?" Azulon demanded. "How can you invade the dreams and thoughts of Superior War Lords but not The Avatar?"
"With all do respect my lord, anyone with any information about the Avatar is long dead after the air benders genocide at all of the temples."
"You're just not trying hard enough" He was a stubborn man and would hardly take logic seriously at time when it came to his fathers war and the Avatar. "Perhaps one of your other pupils will be able to do your job better."
"One is in an asylum and the other isn't fully trained in the weaving arts, I'm telling you Azulon, there is no way that Dream Weaving will find the Avatar. I have done countless deeds for you in helping you achieve greatness in this war, isn't that enough?"
"No." He turned from me. "It is not enough."
Now here I am, a fugitive from the law, with the former Fire Lord, Azulon's cursed son Ozai. Cursed because his thirst for power is unquenchable and it makes me sick. He got me out of that prison, I had been planning for years to escape but I needed help and unfortunately beggars can't be choosers. So I continued to teach him my art which he now made a dark one, he stayed in a constant sleep for a few days randomly bursting out in screams and fire. He had gotten into her head. The days were long and mostly quiet, we managed to get to a beach on one of the lower Fire Nation Islands, there we would stowaway on a ship to the Earth kingdom. Ozai said he knew a village we could hide in until the heat died down. With the bounty on his head that wouldn't be for years and I doubt he realized that. Prison, despite what he will say, messed with his mind a bit. He is not the same man he was before, but to live through a duel with the Avatar himself and last four months in solitary confinement at the Boiling Rock would make any man insane.
We sat around a fire in silence, traveling with this man was not easy. He was short tempered and demanding, a lot of what he complained about his son were qualities of his own. At one point he was a patient and precise leader, now he was fractured delicately down his center, nearly breaking his spirit. It makes me wonder what Azula is like now, she was the very image of her father in his days of ruling. I met her when she was a child and it scared me thinking of the woman she would later become under the dark wing of her father.
"Did you see her?" I dared to ask as we sat across from each other, a blazing fire between us.
"Her and then some." Ozai said with no emotion to his tone.
"Oh?"
"I saw Ursa as well..." He looked up at me.
I paused at hearing that and stared at the ground, that is a name I haven't heard in years. Ursa, the Princess of the Fire Nation, loyal subject to the late Fire Lord Azulon and adorn mother and wife to her family. A picture of peace and understanding. Sitting back against a rock I looked up at Ozai.
"Sometimes the weavers path is blocked by a past that haunts him."
"Have you dreamed of her too then?" Ozai stood up and stared down at me before turning away and walking towards the ocean.
I ignored Ozai's comment and decided to retire for the night. Yes, he knew, I dreamed of Ursa often, how could I not? She was, after all, my star pupil in the art of dream weaving. She did not act as intelligence for the Fire Nation Army like I did, no her cause was more noble than that. She kept both of her children in a sane and safe state of mind, when they were restless or stressed from the pressures their father put on them she put their minds at ease with blissful dreams of happy and fulfilling lives. Truly her intents were better than most and I really enjoyed that about her. There is no such thing as a dreamless sleep, so for someone like me I will always be restless. My dreams are always a portal to someone else's mind, I don't believe I know how to stop weaving. I've lost all control over it.
"Chung..." Said this familiar and heavenly voice. "Why do you guide him?"
"He got me out of prison, Ursa..."
"What does that make you?"
"Why do you do this?" I asked her...but by then her voice faded away. "Damn..."
Pushing myself out of the sleep state I sat up to find the former Fire Lord staring down at me with a furious look on his face. Sitting up more I looked back at him, confused at his apparent anger towards me.
"Do you often talk in your sleep Chung?" He asked me before I got the chance to speak.
"I'm sorry?"
"Do you often dream of my wife?"
"Didn't think you cared much for her at this point..." I turned from him, he heard me speaking with her...
"It doesn't matter, she's probably long dead by now..."
"Oh how little you know..." I rolled my eyes and stood up, walking away from him.
"I knew of your affair with her, Chung, I'm not stupid."
"Apparently you are..." I spat back at him. "There was no affair, I just admired her is all..."
"Admiration and infatuation are two different things." He argued in his typical calm but firm voice.
"Admiration is what I had for her, Ozai, all you had for her was spite, she did what you could not, she infiltrated the minds of your children and protected them from you." I prepared a bag for myself, I had no reason to fear this former bender anymore.
"Where are you going?" He demanded staring to get up.
"We have no reason to travel with each other anymore, you've obtained my knowledge and escaped the Boiling Rock, what more do you want? I'm traveling on my own now."
"I suppose you're right" He agreed as I turned my back from him.
Never turn your back on a man you don't trust. Even with out his bending he was deadly, I knew that all too late, I could hear his steps quicken as he darted behind me and dug a cold rusted blade into my side. Everything became cold and dark, my eyelids grew heavy and my head spun in circles as I heard Ozai's voice echo all around...
"As always old man you are always right...we have no reason to continue this journey together...good night Dream Weaver..."
Good night...
Aang
It took us a few days to even get anywhere near Ba Sing Se and as usual we had to make our stops to sleep and to give Appa some time to rest. Sokka had sent a message to Suki via Hawky letting her know that we would be in the Earth Kingdom. Sometimes I wonder why he never returned to Kyoshi with her.
"I'm sorry but that Foaming at the mouth guy really creeps me out." Sokka would always respond with that when I asked.
"Yeah, what's up with that anyway?" Katara laughed.
"Who knows? But it's creepy..."
I shook my head and returned my attention to the sky, Appa was getting tired again and we definitely had to stop for the night soon. A great screech came from in front of us and a great shadow flew passed my head and before I could turn to look I could hear Sokka screaming.
"HAWKY!! You're back!! Who's a good birdie? Who's a good birdie?!"
"That is almost so cute it's disgusting..." Toph retorted as Hawky landed on Sokka's shoulder.
"Hey I got a letter back from Suki, she's at a forest village not too far off from here. I sent this letter this morning, so she's got to be close by."
"Staying at an inn would be a nice change of pace..." Katara said to me casually.
"Not for me. I'm staying outside in my element." Toph crossed her arms and sat back.
"Well...I guess it couldn't hurt...keep a look out for the village, we'll land and take a break for the night."
Eventually we did find the forest village, though it was hard to spot from way up high the way we were. When we finally landed I found some food for Appa and let him rest, we had been flying all night and the sun was coming up again, before we even made it to the inn, Suki ran out to greet us. Sokka ran to her and they embraced, she looked terrified as she looked from him to the rest of us...
"Ty Lee is missing!"
Suki
All I heard was, what I thought was an animal rushing up the stairs of the inn, running and then silence. Instinctively I rushed to the door and looked out, and not seeing an animal but my new recruit. Ty Lee stood there with more seriousness on her face than I had ever seen. It was almost frightening. Her look was almost demonic, like someone was taking something valuable from her, her breath wreaked a bit with alcohol and I wanted to call her on it but the way she was I did not want to mess with her...
She did a cart wheel across the hall and kicked a door down, I ran to help her but when I got there I heard her growl to the woman in the room...
"Get off my girlfriend" And I knew this was her fight.
I stepped back and waited for the fight to be won, and I knew she would. There were a few swings taken towards Ty lee but then her signature take out pressure point move stunned her victim into a paralyzed form. Once I saw that she had taken out the proverbial trash I knocked on the door and peeked in on the hopefully happy couple. I had never seen Azula so submissive before, the way se was cuddled next to Ty Lee it was like they switched personalities. Look closer at Azula I saw that she had scrapes along her sides and her lip was bleeding from what looked like a harsh bite or scratch. She didn't look too weak from a fight but she did look exhausted from traveling alone, she looked thinner than how I last saw her
"Should I leave you two be?" I asked.
"Do me a favor first?" She said so innocently you wouldn't think she had just been in a fight with the potential to kill someone. "Could you bring me some water and a warm towel? She's bleeding a little..."
"Of course." All I could do was smile, finally the search was over, its not that it took long but it was nice to see Ty Lee smiling. When Azula was missing and even...even when she was in jail...Ty Lee was miserable.
I went back to my room and got a bowl of water and a few cloths and took them back to the girls, after leaving it with them I went back to my room again and got some much needed sleep. Hopefully things would get better in the morning, thats what I kept thinking, until I woke up hearing a familiar cry...Hurling myself out of bed I rushed to the room where I left the two of them, finding Ty Lee pounding her fists against the ground drowning in her own tears. Kneeling by her side I held onto her for a moment or two and let her cry on my shoulder.
"Azula is gone..." She sobbed. "She's gone again..."
When she finally managed to calm down I tried to convince her to get something to eat, which she continued to refuse. Eventually I took a plate of food up to our room and put it in front of her. By that point she had stopped crying completely and just sat there with no emotion on her face at all. I never pegged Ty Lee to be in a trance of deep thought.
"You need to eat something..."
"I need to find her."
"Maybe this is for the best...maybe she needs to do what she needs to do to figure herself out. With or with out you." I reasoned with her.
"Don't say that." Ty Lee glared at me.
"Well then..." I had to think of something that would make her feel a little better. "Maybe you need to start thinking like her if you want to find her..."
"What do you mean?"
"You know her, the way we all know her, as a tactician and amazing huntress. You were there with her in her hunt for the Avatar, what took Zuko years took her less than half the time to find Aang, Iroh and Zuko more or less at once. You know her strategy by heart I'll bet anything on that and if you want to find her maybe you should start enforcing her methods." I really hope that all of that made some sense to her.
It must have, she pulled her plate forward and picked at it a little, looking down from me she asked if she could have a few moments alone. Before I left I saw her glancing between her food and her warriors uniform. I put my hand on hers and looked in the eyes.
"Don't do anything stupid."
With that said I got up and left her there with her thoughts, stepping outside for some air a messenger hawk flew into the village and headed my way and I found myself smiling again.
"Hello Hawky." I said as he landed on my forearm as I pulled out a letter from Sokka letting me know where they stood on the search for Ozai, he let me know they were heading to Ba Sing Se to help Iroh, so hopefully if he's the man I think he is, he'll come find me on his way there and see me. Maybe they'll be able to help Ty Lee and Azula as well...After taking the letter I sent Hawky on his way and went back inside to check on her.
"Ty Lee?" I knocked on the door before entering.
No Answer. Shit...
"Ty Lee are you in there?" I pushed the door open and saw she was gone. "Fuck..."
I searched all over the inn and then the town, there was no sign of her anywhere. She went out on her own to find Azula. Returning once again to our shared room and noticed on her bed that she left her uniform and weapons behind. So now I knew that not only was she gone but she was unarmed as well. Even though I knew she could handle herself in a fight without the use of anything but her own two hands, I was still terrified for her. Over the last few months we all became like one big family and with her missing, it was like I just lost my little sister. The only bit of relief I had was hearing a familiar beast come flying down from the sky letting out an exhausted grunt. Appa, and where there's Appa, there's what my love calls "Team Avatar", I knew he would find me.
Aang
We all stood there in shock after Suki said that, so now with two ruthless Fire Nation royal blooded psychos on the run we have a ditzy and crazy kyoshi warrior missing. The day just keeps on getting worse and worse...
"What do you mean missing?" Sokka's typical goofy tone turned serious.
"When was the last time you saw her?" Katara stepped between them.
"This morning, she was freaking out because Azula had run off again and she said she was going to go out looking..."
"Wait, hold on..." Sokka stopped her. "You found Azula?"
"Just last night, Ty Lee saw her being attacked..."
"Azula was attacked?!" I pushed past Katara, amazed.
"By what?" Sokka was dumbfounded.
"A gladiator?" Toph was a little astonished.
"Another Fire Bender?" I thought out loud.
"A Demon Pig Lion thing?" Sokka joined the hype.
"A what?" Katara gave him a strange look.
"Hey...weirder things have happened." Sokka shrugged.
"Come on guys, this is serious. She just took off, unarmed after Azula, she left when I wasn't looking so I didn't see which way she went...I thought she just went back to her room to rest, I'm so stupid..."
"No, you're not, she's probably fine..." Sokka tried to comfort her.
"Ok, we have to go looking for them. Sokka, you and Suki work the ground,get the other Kyoshi warriors to help you, Katara and I will take Appa and get a birds eye view..."
"Um, Aang?" Toph stepped up. "I don't think Appa's in the best shape to fly right now..." She pointed over at my Bison, who was completely knocked out partly under a huge pile of hay.
Suki stepped away from us and hugged her sides and said softly... "She left her uniform..."
Sokka stood beside her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She turned to him and they embraced. Katara pulled me away to give them a moment alone.
"With Appa flightless, we'll have to do it all on foot." She said when we were a distance away from everyone.
"We have to figure out which way Ty Lee would have gone...We'll need to split up and look for her that way, at least until Appa gets enough rest."
"Good Idea." Katara nodded.
"Suki.." I turned back to face her and Sokka. "Do we have any idea which direction to go in first?"
"No idea..." Suki sighed. "Azula probably took off last night so who knows which way she went...and Ty Lee...she could have gone in any direction looking for her."
I haven't felt this defeated in a long time, there are three people missing and not enough time or manpower to find them all when we needed to. We have no leads in what to do and no direction to follow. Usually we have some luck but not now...not when it matters.
"What do we do Aang?" Sokka asked.
"I don't know Sokka..." I sighed. "I just don't know..."
Ty Lee
"Maybe you need to start thinking like her if you want to find her..."
Suki said I needed to think like Azula to find her, she was right. I knew Azula thought I was stupid and obviously not as brilliant as she was when it came down to hunting people down, but in her own oblivion she did not realize that I was always right there beside her the entire time watching her every move. Even in my own mind I never realized how much I actually paid attention to the things she did and how she did them. Knowing Azula's corrupt mind she was probably heading back home to the Fire Nation. Her reasons why are still unclear to me, if she's caught back there she'll just be put back in jail again and I'm sure she knew that already, so why return at all? No matter, I would find her before that point.
Azula left during the night, probably an hour or so after I fell asleep, she knows I'm a heavy sleeper and unfortunately that has always been a downer for me. I thought it all through thoroughly, from here the Fire Nation is due about Southwest, along that path I stopped at a few villages looking for ways to bind her when I found her. I never thought about restraining her before but at this point I don't have much choice.
"Here we are..." Said the merchant, in this incredibly shady village I found along my way, as he dropped a box full of chains in front of me.
"Don't you have something a little less..." I tried to think of the right way to phrase it as I searched through the shackles, "Barbaric?"
"Dealing with a sensitive one eh?" He winked and grinned at me before removing the box. "We have some old Fire Nation trick restraints. Made of the strongest fabric in the world."
"Why is it called a 'trick restraint' then?" I asked after he put a few of them in front of me.
As I studied the different colored fabrics he explained that 'trick restraints' were made to stop a bender from bending or at the very least make it uncomfortable to do. I remember Azula telling me when were young how captured Fire Nation soldiers would bend there way out of wearing shackles by heating them up and hurting their captors with them, or letting them melt against their armored wrists. So apparently these restraints would prevent her from escaping...
"They were first made for the prisoners at The Boiling Rock and other high security prisons all over the world to keep the higher risk prisoners from smarting their way out of jail time. I was never much into becoming one with the Fire Nation, what with the past war and all, but their goods are great if not better quality than most." He went on.
"I'll take them." I said giving him the money and heading out.
Now I am prepared to handle Azula on my own, the only thing I hoped for was that she was still weak in her wrists and legs, if she still had trouble bending I would have a better chance at catching her. If not then flat out I am screwed. I do not want to be her enemy, but to find her I have to be.
There are twenty-four hours in the day and I only slept for six of them and not all at once. I would search most of the day and night to give myself an edge over her. By leaving me in the middle of the night she thought she could buy time like she did before, but I know her. Sooner than I had imagined I finally caught up to her, but I could not strike yet. She seemed to be setting up camp, so I'll just do what she's done to me...
"I just need her to go to sleep first..."
I waited all night and all she did was sit by her fire and stare into it like a zombie. Part of me just wanted to go down there and sit with her, it was getting cold and I wanted to hold her or let her hold me since she was already warm beside the fire. The thought of her embrace made me feel weak in my stomach. Peeking over the rock I hid behind all night I saw that she finally retired for the night in her makeshift tent. The fire was still going so I had to be careful not to cast a shadow, Azula had a habit of sleeping with one eye open while we traveled the Earth Kingdom the first time. Carefully I made my way down to her campsite, avoiding any loose twigs and stepping over all small rocks. I found myself holding my own breath so that way no noise would wake her up. At first glance I saw her covered up inside of the tent sleeping soundly. Drawing closer I got on my knees and pulled out one of the restraints preparing to jump in and take her.
"Are those for me?" A voice came from behind me.
I turned sharply seeing Azula standing there with her dark facial features glowing in the light of the fire. She looked so cynical, as she used to in the old days, her usual smile towards me was the frown she showed everyone else. Though I would never tell her this, she looks like her mother... As if she heard my thoughts she quickly threw herself in a fighting stance and shot a flame at me.At first my eyes widened but with some luck I managed to flip away from her blast of fire. She followed me with more flames and I cart wheeled in several circles dodging her ever blast. Hopping up on a rock across from her I gained a few feet above her and the campsite. Despite my feelings I knew I had to fight back at her, pulling one of the restraints from my pocket I snapped it and jumped off the rock getting right in her face. She backed up a few feet and put a wall of fire between us again like she did back at the palace, but this time she came through it as the smoke got in my face and struck me hard in the stomach. I could feel myself hit the ground but I could not see anything through all of the smoke she created. I looked around but she was no where in front of me, but from behind she grabbed my neck and dragged me along the ground, I tried to grab at her arms but by doing that she grabbed the restraints I had and pulled my arms behind my back, using my own weapon against me.
"Azula!" I cried weakly as she stepped away from me. "Stop this! Please!"
"So you're going to beg now are you? Do you really think I'm that stupid Ty Lee?" Her shadowed figure came before me.
"Please...just stop this..." I begged.
"You've betrayed me before and you plan to do it again don't you?"
"No...I would never...why would you assume..."
"Assume? ASSUME?!" Her golden eyes shined against the black cloud around us before any other part of her. She roughly grabbed my elbows pulling me up into her face and clasped one of her hands against the restraints on my wrists. "Then what is this?!"
"We need to go to Ba Sing Se..." I said through a few broken coughs.
She looked at me with that same look of betrayal on her face, and then for once in a long time she pulled me closer and kissed me hard on the lips, then let go and quickly threw me onto the ground. She didn't run this time like I expected her too, as the smoke cleared she was still standing there looking down at me with the same frown plastered against her face.
"I wish you could understand why I'm doing what I need to do." She said softly. "I need my life back. Maybe one day you'll want to be apart of that life. Until then..."
"AZULA!!" I screamed as I watched her leave me once again. "Don't leave me here!!"
She ignored me, I haven't hurt this much in a really long time. Watching her figure disappear into the horizon brought tears to my eyes and a horrible pain in my stomach. All I could do way lay there, shaking and crying, I lost the fight.
"Azula..." I continued to cry softly curled up in a ball.
Eventually I stopped crying and just laid there ignoring the rest of the world, here I am completely restrained and alone, abandoned by the woman I love...loved...I don't know anymore. The night grew colder and I was still there, I probably could have gotten up and walked around but I just didn't have the energy for it.
"What happened to you?" Came the voice of a woman behind me.
The position I was in made it hard to turn over to see who it was, before I could even try to move she knelt down behind me and untied my fabric trap then helped me sit up slowly. She shuffled around to the front of me and looked me up and down like a mother checking for cuts and bruises on her child. There was something so familiar about her...
"Who did this to you?" She asked me, brushing my hair out of my face.
"My..." I cleared my throat. "My best friend..."
"She's not a very good friend is she now?"
"No...I guess not..." I hugged my knees and put my head down.
"Come with me...I'll take you back to my village and you can rest."
"No...No thank you...I need to find her...I need to take her to the capital..." I started to pace around and her eyes followed me. "The Fire Lord won't be happy if I don't..."
"The Fire Lord?" She sounded a bit surprised then looked down nodding. "I live in a secluded place...I don't know the state of the war...Ozai is the Fire Lord?"
"No, Zuko is." I waved that comment off and kept pacing. "He wants me to take his sister to Ba Sing Se to meet with her uncle to help her reform and all that fun stuff... I'm just an old friend of hers." I explained it all but it felt more like I was explaining it to myself rather than this strange woman.
"Ty Lee, is that you?" She said with a bit of joy in her tone.
I turned and looked at her funny, how did she know my name? It was still dark so I could not see her as well as I could in the day, so stepping forward and leaning down I looked closely at her for a few moments. Golden eyes, fair skin, pleasant smile on her face at knowing who I was...My heart fell into my stomach, shocked, happy, confused as usual, I was staring into the face of the once amazing and charming Princess of the Fire Nation, Ursa. I stuttered trying to find the words to say to her after all these years but she put her fore and middle fingers against my lips and just smiled like she always did.
"Come on. We'll go to my village and you can rest..." She stood up and held her hand out to me
"But I need to find Azula..." I protested beginning to step away.
"I'll show you how to find her..." She guided me away from the campsite and we left for her village.
Zuko and Azula's long lost Mother right before my eyes, willing to help me...? Maybe things will get better soon enough...I will find Azula and we will finish this journey...
