Spiral
The uproar at the palace has been contained. The interloper has been taken to the prison tower to be incarcerated and to await questioning. The few who were involved in the skirmish have met with the Fire Lord and Minister Kuo to report, describe and discuss the incident. If events surrounding this night's invasion had not been so tense, it might have been written off as just a random crazy trying to gain access to the Fire Lord. This however is not the time for dismissing forced entry into the building that houses the royal family.
The meeting ends on a tense note, with the Fire Lord thanking his guards for their diligence and complimenting Yukio, Taoki and Kenya on their quick thinking. As all file out the door Zuko motions for Minister Kuo to stay. The door closes behind Yukio and he stops, looking worriedly at the ground as if it might have some answers for him.
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"So you were Sokka's first mate?" Commander Chin asks the captain of the Water Tribe ship as they share a pot of tea on the bridge. The majority of the schooner's crew has been stricken with severe food poisoning and it has been decided that the Fire Nation's larger ship will tow the Water Tribe vessel to the Fire Harbor while its crew are being treated in sickbay. It's a deviation from the schooner's route, but the choice was either to take an unplanned stop or sit like a cripple in the middle of the ocean for however long it takes for the crew to get back on their feet.
"I was. For three years. I got my own ship around the time of the Fire Lord's coronation." Sokka's erstwhile first mate, Kiani replies.
"I can't imagine working for someone like him. He seems … disordered."
"Actually, he's pretty uptight under the sloppy veneer. The Yue ran like a top. When we only hauled cargo we were always in port early and intact. When we patrolled for the Unified Council we were often first to the scene when there was a distress message."
"If he heard you talking like this he wouldn't get his head through the door." Chin laughs pouring more tea.
"He was a good captain to learn from. If I'm half as proficient, my crew is very happy." Kiani says loyally, nodding his thanks for the refill and taking a sip. "Well they're not happy at the moment. But in general." He adds with a grin.
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Much later the prince crosses the threshold of the cellblock where the wild intruder is being held. He's thought of little else since the frenzied encounter this evening and the edgy meeting following. Why would this teenaged girl breach palace security in the first place? She certainly wasn't one of the many girls who try to make their presence known to the prince and the White Spirits. During the entire confrontation he was certain she had no idea who he was let alone any interest in pursuing him romantically.
Not that he and the twins are the only reasons to invade the palace, but if teenaged girls are involved in a security problem it usually does have something to do with the trio.
He and his friends had talked about the confrontation at length after the meeting and he had expressed an interest in checking up on her.
"Man, Yukio. Don't you have enough girls to keep you busy?" Kenya had asked him with a smirk.
"I don't want to talk to her for that!" Yukio had huffed, offended. "I just want to … I don't know. She was…"
"Extraordinary?" Taoki had offered distractedly as he looked up from the book he was reading.
"Don't tell me you want her too." Kenya laughed.
"No. The girl I'm interested in is likely to get me killed indirectly." Taoki explained. "She's not likely to do the killing herself. I prefer it that way." And he went back to his book.
"I'm not interested in her as in interested in her!" Yukio had insisted to his friends' endless amusement. "If she's from the cult then …"
"If she's from the cult then I'm joining." Kenya joked, prompting Yukio to end the conversation then and there.
So now he finds himself going completely against procedure to get a second look.
As he nears her cell he is surprised to hear the unmistakable sound of weeping. Now he's really confused. A rabid fighter doesn't usually succumb to tears where his or her enemy might hear. She's showing her vulnerability with her emotion and he has to consider it might be a trick to gain sympathy.
The door between them, he listens carefully to the soft noises coming from the cell.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Are the weak mutterings he overhears.
He stands there for a minute, listening to her apologetic mantra and finally surreptitiously peeks in the barred window.
She's sitting on the floor, although there is a thin futon beside her. She leans back against the wall, eyes closed, an expression of helpless despair on her face as she continues to speak to the air. He tries to quell a stab of pity by reminding himself that it took eight trained fighters to stop her illegal entry to the palace.
"Who are you apologizing to?" He hears himself say and curses his soft heart. He hadn't intended to speak to her.
Before his self-recrimination can be completed however, the girl leaps to her feet, flies at the bars and reaches through to grab at him. He flinches back and grabs her arm before she can pull it back, holding her in that position for a moment before he pulls her slowly toward him, until she is flat against the door and unable to get leverage to wrench away. His grip is gentle, but firm and she isn't likely to be able to extricate herself from his hold.
"Let go of me!" She hisses.
"Why? So you can rip my throat out of my neck? No thanks." He replies.
"You're very brave with this door between us." She spits.
"No. I'm very brave with your arm and therefore your body under my complete control." He smirks.
She growls at his comment.
"What's your name?" He asks.
In response she growls some more and glares at him furiously.
"Why did you come here?" He continues his questioning.
Again, he receives no verbal response.
"Did you come here to kill the princess?" He asks her.
"What? No!" She responds angrily, surprising him. Why would that question suddenly elicit a reply? He wonders.
She tries to pull her arm away from him, pushing hard against the door, but he's got it angled down from the window and all she ends up doing is hurting herself. She screams in a primal fashion, stomps her feet and pulls with all her might. Yukio considers letting her go before she rips her arm right out of the socket, but then she tries to push her other hand through the bars in an attempt to get at him, an impossible feat, and he decides she's too crazy to be free in his presence.
"If you keep acting like a wild animal we'll keep treating you like one and you will never get any closer to what you came for than you are right now." Yukio tells her, his voice firm and deadly serious.
She abruptly stops fighting him. It takes a moment but eventually her arm in his grasp goes completely limp.
"If you agree to step all the way to the back of the cell I'll let go of your arm." He promises.
She sullenly nods her agreement.
Yukio releases her arm and tenses for the attack he suspects may come. She dutifully shuffles to the back of the cell however, just as she agreed to do, rubbing her stretched shoulder dejectedly. Once there, she leans her back against the wall and slides wearily down to the floor.
"What's your name?" He asks her.
There is a long moment of silence as she wraps her arms around her legs and bends her waist so that her face rests on her knees.
Yukio decides he's pushed her far enough. That little battle between them at the door ruined any chance he had of gaining her trust. She's not going to tell him anything that will help him help her. He turns to leave.
"Lily." She croaks.
"What?" He asks.
"Lily." She repeats with more volume. "My name is Lily."
Yukio can't help but bark out a laugh.
"What's so funny?" She asks curtly.
"Lily. I would never have guessed that in a million years. It's so … sweet." He chuckles.
"I didn't choose it." She grumbles.
"Who did?"
"Nobody. Leave me alone." She turns her face away from him and shuts him completely out.
"Did you come here to kill the princess?" Yukio asks again.
"No! Stop asking me that! I already said no!" She snaps at him, her voice rising to a shout.
"Temper." Yukio scolds softly.
"Go to hell!" She explodes.
Yukio doesn't respond to that. He watches her for a bit longer, perplexed and agitated.
"Are you a follower of Xin?" He asks her.
Her head snaps up and he sees something in her eyes; fear?
"No." It comes out in a whisper.
"I'm just trying to protect the people I love." Yukio says quietly and she stills, listening intently. "If that makes me your enemy then so be it. But if it doesn't then maybe I can help you."
"Nobody can help me." She rasps.
"You'd be surprised what a prince can achieve once he sets his mind to it." He smiles.
She looks up at him again, her eyes narrowed. It appears as if she's about to say something and then she shakes her head disgustedly before resting her forehead back on her knees.
Yukio stays for a long time but she never raises her head again. He would think she's asleep except for the white knuckled hands embracing her legs. She's awake and she's as tense as the trigger rope on a loaded trebuchet.
He'll come back again he decides, pleased with his efforts. With any luck he'll have her mystery solved by the end of the week he thinks as he saunters confidently out of the cellblock.
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"What were you thinking?!" Zuko barks at his cousin who sits dejectedly in front of him the following morning.
"I just wanted…"
"Don't give me excuses!" The Fire Lord shouts furiously. "You've jeopardized the entire investigation!"
"I only meant to get a look…"
"You don't see enough pretty girls when they're hanging all over you every time you go out in public?"
Yukio would smile at the similarity of Kenya's words to the Fire Lord's, but he's fairly certain it would not be a well-received facial expression at this point.
"I didn't go because she's pretty. I went because I was…"
"Arrogant? Spoiled? Childish?" Zuko grits out a list and Yukio stares at him as if he's been punched in the stomach. His cousin has never said such insulting things to him.
The prince looks over at Minister Kuo who sits stoically beside him. The older man doesn't say a word in Yukio's defense and the teenager is filled with indignation.
"I found out her name!" The prince defends himself.
"Lily. She couldn't possibly be lying could she? Of course not. She said it was Lily. She's pretty. So it must be true." Zuko snarls mockingly, unimpressed.
"I found out she knows something about Xin." Feeling the argument slip away from him, Yukio clings to one shred of accomplishment.
"Yes, thanks to your impromptu interrogation, we know she knows something about Xin. Not what she knows though. Just something. And now she knows that we know something about Xin. Whose revelation was more damaging to whom do you think?" The Fire Lord gives no quarter.
Yukio looks at the floor. He hadn't even meant to speak to the girl. He just wanted to look at her. He's never seen anyone so fierce and desperate and he'd wanted to convince himself that she was actually what she appeared to be under all that fury: a pretty teenaged girl who, under different circumstances, could have been any one of the many who frequented palace events.
The standard operating procedure would have had her left alone. Fed, but not afforded communication until she asked to speak to someone. Regardless of that protocol, the overall agreement had been to hold off any interrogation until Bokkusu's imminent return.
Finally aware of his monumental screw-up, Yukio takes a deep breath and looks his cousin in the eye.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk to her." He says miserably.
"You're off the investigation." Zuko responds quietly.
"No!" Yukio protests.
"And the twins as well." This addressed to Minister Kuo who nods.
"Why Taoki and Kenya? They didn't have anything to do with it!" Yukio exclaims.
"They knew what you were doing and they didn't do anything to stop you. They didn't alert Minister Kuo to the possible violation of procedure." Zuko explains calmly.
He's right, Yukio realizes. Nobody else gets a second chance and he and his friends shouldn't either. Gritting his teeth he nods.
"You'll stay away from the prison complex. I don't want you going near her." It's obviously not up for debate.
"I won't." Yukio promises. It's a difficult vow to make. He feels he connected with her and she might be willing to talk to him, but now is not the time to bring up that particular possibility. Of course, he thinks ruefully, they've already thought of that and rejected the angle.
"You're dismissed Yukio." Zuko says flatly.
The prince stands and bows to the minister and then to his cousin before he leaves the room. Despite his realization that he had been completely wrong in his actions, the harsh tone of the official dressing-down leaves him feeling shaken and angry.
He's not been perfect in all these years. He and his friends have gotten in plenty of embarrassing and dangerous scrapes, but Zuko has never been so angry with him. He's never been deliberately cruel.
Arrogant? Spoiled? Childish?
The words continue to assault him as he strides quickly down the corridor toward the twins' suite. He wants to get to them first, before they're informed they'll be punished for his infraction. They'll accept his apology without reservation he knows, but that won't make him feel better.
And on top of it all, his brain keeps improvising ways to get back to the girl's cellblock without anyone knowing.
It's morning. He should be able to find someone to spar with.
A little pain and a lot of exertion might be just the thing to get this nonsense out of his system.
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"Was I unduly harsh?" Zuko asks Minister Kuo after Yukio has left the office.
"No, my lord." Is the obvious answer.
"Are you being honest of dutiful?"
"Honest my lord." The elder box man replies. "He was out-of-line. In other circumstances such impetuous behavior might get him and other team members killed. He needs to take these things more seriously."
"This reminds me of the insurgency." Zuko says rubbing his forehead where an ache is starting to throb.
"I've noticed the similarity." Minister Kuo agrees. "But they won't be able to gather the support that the original enjoyed. Nobody wants to go through that again."
"I certainly don't." The Fire Lord sits heavily in his chair and takes a deep breath before taking advantage of Kuo's presence to talk about the more unsavory aspects of the investigation and how to deal with their unexpected visitor.
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"It's okay Yukio." Taoki assures the prince.
"No, it's not. I was thoughtless. I shouldn't have told you what I intended to do." Yukio responds.
"So you're only sorry you got caught? You'd do it again, but cover your tracks better?" Kenya asks meaningfully.
"What are you saying?" The prince furrows his brow at his friend.
"Knowing that we would be punished I wouldn't have done it differently. I would never stop you from doing something unless it was something that might get you killed. I would also never snitch on you to Minister Kuo or anyone else." He explains.
"So there's no need to apologize because I think we all would have done it again even knowing what would happen." Taoki adds.
"Hmm. I suppose that should make me feel better, but it really doesn't. I hate that you're off the investigation too."
"Because you would have been drilling us for information after ever meeting?" Kenya smirks.
"Yes." Yukio admits with a grin. "That's not the only reason, but it's a big one."
Even as he smiles with them and enjoys their ready forgiveness and assurance, he makes a silent promise to leave them completely out of his further plans. He won't put their positions in jeopardy again.
But he will go back and talk to the girl at least one more time. He has to make up for the mistakes he made in his last visit. Yukio is certain he'll be able to win her trust and convince her to share everything she knows.
He just has to figure out how to get in and out without his cousin or Minister Kuo discovering what he's up to.
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A/N: I know, I know. It looks like I'm introducing another OC with Kiani, but he was actually introduced in chapter 1 of Parts of a Whole. And anyway, he's not going to be around all that much, so don't worry about him. Don't forget about him just don't expect to see him that much. ;D
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I've recently had an epiphany about this story and I'm getting very excited about it. Hopefully I can tangle and then untangle the plot webs enough to keep you interested!
MacFie xoxo
PS: For those who liked Mask and Veil, there's another 'BluePaint' fic out called "Come With Me" by Steamboat Ghost and Fuzzy Tomato (under Steamboat's penname). They've posted two chapters and it's already got me on the edge of my seat, so BluePaint fans should be sure to check it out. ;-)
