Title: What She Left Behind
Author: winterxlovee
Chapter Rating: M
Summary: The abandoned child of Fire Lord Ozai travels home after 6 years to find everything's altered. She is changing her family's plans, especially Azula's, and will come to find out hidden information on her true destiny . *Starts at the beginning of Book 3*
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my original characters! All rights go to the Avatar team! Of course if I owned this series it would be so much less awesome, but it would have way more romance! ;D
Pairing: Zuko/OC, later on I'm pretty sure!
...
...
...
"So, how did you do it?" Azula asked through gritted teeth. She was backed against the metal wall, glaring daggers at the girl, as Aria was still strapped into the chair.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Aria managed to choke out, along with a few spurts of blood.
After Fire Lord Ozai had left the girls to tend to his business, Azula had gone crazy. Pain was throbbing in her chest from where Azula had kneed her in the ribs. Hard. She was sure at least one was cracked or broken. Her lip was split and Aria knew she had gained a black eye.
"When we were younger, and we were sitting in the throne room the last you visited, you bent that lightning. How? Was it with the help of the spirits? Since you belong to them, and all, you must have some super powers! That's the only explanation!" Azula slammed a fist against the wall and raced over to the chair as fast as a shadow viper, resting the palms of her hands on the leather arms. "Not even I was that superb at eight years old."
"Maybe I got lucky... Or maybe I'm just that good," Aria taunted, returning a cold stare as she cocked her head to the side.
Azula cackled harshly, "You're joking right? Nobody can beat me!"
"Oh, you just wait. Zuko is gonna kick your ass and he will become Fire Lord. Not you!"
"Not unless he's dead..." Azula sauntered around the chair, "I did read somewhere that the spirits grant the Akane with a little extra power, giving them the ability to enhance their bending. For example: and eight year old fire bender can lightning bend, or a bender that has only been studying for a month has already become a master." Aria could tell by the acid in Azula's voice that she was referring to her, "But something I don't understand, is how do you control all four elements using your enhanced bending? You must have figured it out already, even though it's rare for an Akane to be in control of that much power! So why not kill me dead right now?"
Aria winced as Azula stood behind her and pressed a fingernail to her neck, and when the princess applied heavy pressure, it caused blood to rise from the wound and trickle down her chest to stain her prison shirt.
"Red is definitely your color," Azula sneered in Aria's ear and she traced the line of blood, and it became smeared against the prisoner's skin.
...
...
...
Aria had been returned to her cell while Azula was resting for the night, and she really hoped that Ty Lee would hurry along with the plan. She was beaten, bruised, humiliated, and the only actions the poor girl could do was drag herself around the cell with her loss of muscle and energy - and the occasional scuffle through the halls by guards; she would attempt to coddle her wounds to the best of her strength and ability, but without Hukana by her side, it didn't do any good.
Her thin arms were wrapped around her chest, the rows of ribs jutting against her fingers. She hadn't eaten anything in months except the weekly slice of bread and star fruit; Aria wasn't going to eat dry bread, but she wasn't going to give up fighting, either.
"Why didn't I just kill that bitch! I had the perfect opportunity right fucking there, but the naivety in me pussied out! I hate being such a gullible girl! How she and Ozai could trick me so easily!" Aria's head fell into her hands and she began sobbing.
"You're a child, just like the rest of us." Aang's voice was heard in the distance, and Aria stopped her cries and raised her head to look. He was sitting cross-legged in the opposite corner of her cell, elbows rested on his knees. The Avatar looked as if he was sitting before her; like he was actually there, except for the faint blue glow of his skin.
He was dressed in the same attire she had seen him in last on the Day of Black Sun.
"Aang!" Aria breathed as she clawed at his blue figure from where she sat, unable to move. "Is - is it really you?"
"Yeah," he smiled faintly, and stood up to move and sit beside her. "You look terrible."
She rustled the chains latched to her hands. "So I've been told," she said.
"What have they... done to you?"
She lowered her head. "I - what haven't they done to me?" Silence. "Do you know what they do to female prisoners? They've beat me, tortured me until I begged them to stop, and they raped me... they took the only innocence I had left."
Aang wrapped his arms around her small frame, and he could feel her spine peeking from her skin. "We're gonna get you out of here, I promise. Zuko's joined the group, and we're going in three days to stop the Fire Lord."
"Don't mention that traitor's name to me. He left me here to rot," she whispered into the crook of his neck.
"Aria, don't be like that!"
"Has he talked about me once?" She glared up at him.
Aang was silent.
"Exactly," Aria laughed.
"Hey! Shut up in there!" a guard yelled from the other side of the door, and he banged on it as he talked. "Wh - who are you?"
Aria turned her head towards the door, her shackles clanged against each other.
"My name is Fong Li. Azula sent me here to fetch the prisoner," a voice replied.
"But Princess Azula said - "
"Oh, okay. I'll fetch Azula and tell her you said that."
"W - wait! I'm just confused, that's all. Here are the keys," she heard the guard say.
The door was suddenly opened and it poured light in to Aria's cell.
"Aria," Ty Lee whispered as she shut the door with a creak. She was clad in a gaurd's uniform from head-to-toe. So that's how she slipped past the guard! Aria thought.
"Ty, I though you'd never come. Aang, look who's - " Aria turned to look at where Aang sat, but he was nowhere to be found.
"What was that?" the acrobat asked as she opened the door and hauled Aria to her feet.
"Nothing. Just... talking to myself," she murmured.
Ty Lee lifted Aria into her arms, as she was too weak to walk by herself.
"I'm taking the prisoner to the palace," Ty told the guard sharply once they were outside of the room. He just nodded his head and watched as she ambled down the hall with his prisoner in her arms.
...
...
...
"Listen, I want you to get as far away from here as possible." Ty Lee had carried Aria to the outskirts of town, near the fields of beautiful, tall grass and fire lilies.
"Come with me. Please, Ty. I'm begging you," Aria cried in to her friend's shoulder.
"I - I wish I could, but Azula..."
"Azula doesn't care about you like I do! She wouldn't hesitate to kill you dead if you ever got in her way." The firebender clawed at Ty Lee's shirt, not knowing that Azula almost did. "You're my best friend; my only friend."
She was cut short by a pair of lips pressed against her own and a hand pressed against the nape of her neck. The kiss ended just as it started, and when they parted, a pair of grey eyes gleamed at her.
"What was that for?" she asked, confusion in her voice.
"I - I don't know. Just to say I'm sorry for everything you've had to go through. And to say thank you," Ty Lee smiled, and she suddenly broke in to a fit of giggles. "Wow, I never would have thought I would kiss a girl until now, but you're really special to me, Ari."
Aria started giggling along with her friend, and she cuddled closer to her chest. "Don't go."
"Okay, I won't," Ty Lee whispered against her best friend's hair. "So, lets find somewhere to sleep tonight and get you cleaned up. Oh, and some food! How about it?"
"Sounds good. I'm so damn hungry!"
...
...
...
The friends sat at a small cafe in an esoteric village called Tai Bei. It was about 30 miles from the prison, and on the way there they had bought Aria some new clothes, and hoods for both of them to cover their faces, as they were technically fugitives...
"Oh my spirits, this food is amazing!" Aria praised, though Ty Lee barely heard her because of her full mouth.
The acrobat just stared at her friend with her cheek propped up on her palm, amazing at how healthy she already looked. It had been a couple days since they had escaped, and Ty Lee felt so free now that she wasn't under Azula's control anymore.
"What?" Aria asked when she finally became aware of her friend's intense staring.
"Just - happy to see you... alive, I guess. You're practically knocking on death's door," Ty Lee answered and rested her palm on top of Aria's. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she squeezed the fire bender's hand tightly. She didn't want to let her go. Aria was all she had left. "I don't wanna lose you!"
"Ty, don't - don't cry..." Aria pleaded. She stepped around the table and encased her friend in a snuggle. "We're okay now. Nobody can hurt us."
"But they already did! Those guards did terrible things to me... and to you." Ty Lee stood up and noticed Aria's bewildered expression. "Did they rape you, too?"
Aria replied only with a simple nod of her head. "And tortured me, and burned me, and beat me."
"Me too, me too."
...
...
...
The sharp metal dug into Aria's skin, causing a shriek of pain to erupt from her lips.
"You can scream louder than that, wench! Don't you want Mommy to hear you?" one of the guards spat, tugging her hair on the crown of her head.
"Please! I - its hurts!" she cried as he forced himself inside her, causing a wave of pain to emanate from between her legs and travel through her spine.
"How cute! The cunt's never fucked before," another guard laughed. He carved the letters of Azula's name into Aria's stomach one by one, painfully slow. "Princess Azula will love this."
"Aaaah!" the girl screamed as she jolted up from the bed. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and she felt insanely dizzy.
"It's okay. It was just a dream." Zuko sat beside her on the bed and rubbed her shoulders to console her. They both were nude with only a thin, red sheet to cover their bodies.
"Wh - what happened?" she asked him as she rubbed her forehead to clear her thoughts.
"You had a nightmare," he answered. Zuko trailed hot kisses along the side of neck as his hand slid slowly along the curve of her side. "Wake up, Aria. You've gotta wake up. We need to get going."
Suddenly, Ty Lee stood at the corner of the master suite, and she slowly paved her way over to them. "It's almost noon. Let's get going."
...
...
...
Ty Lee shook the fire bender, but she wouldn't wake up. Aria had been asleep for hours upon hours, and although Ty Lee realized beauty sleep was key, they needed to pack up camp and get started for the day.
"Hmmm?" Aria mumbled, and she started stretching under Ty Lee's arms. "Zukooooo," she giggled. His name was drawn out, as if she was jokingly scolding him for sneaking up behind her or something.
"Aria, c'mon, we've gotta get going. Get your lazy butt up!" She wouldn't dare ask what the heck Aria was dreaming about to say Zuko's name in her sleep.
"Five more minutes, Mom!" She rolled over and covered her head with her arms.
Ty Lee stood up with a huff. "We're gonna celebrate your birthday today!"
Aria shot up from her mat like a blind deer-moose in a forest fire at the sound of that sentence. "I'm up, I'm up!" She paused. "Wait, why celebrate today? It was weeks ago!"
"Everybody deserves a birthday celebration! Now get cleaned up, put some new clothes on, and let's get going!" Ty Lee reached into their new bags and pulled out a pair of dark green pants and a sea green bebe tunic with white hems, along with a fresh breast wrap and loin cloth.
"What about accessories?" Aria asked, knowing that Ty Lee would fluster at her sudden love for fashion.
Ty Lee sighed dreamily. "I thought you'd never ask!"
...
...
...
After half an hour of choosing color-coordinated necklaces and bangles and such, Ty Lee designated a beautiful, oval-shaped, green pendant that matched Aria's skin perfectly.
"Green is definitely your color! Red is a close second." Ty Lee nudged some stray hairs away from Aria's face, and stepped back to admire her work. "We look like Earth Kingdom citizens if I've ever seen one!"
They gathered their things and headed for the town around a mile from their campsite.
"Hey you two!" a voice called from behind them. The pair glanced at each other before turning around to see a man around mid-thirties with two younger men behind him. "Well, well, well, look at what we have here. A couple of cute young ladies just asking for trouble. Where's your mommies? You shouldn't be all alone in a street like this unsupervised. Bad things could happen." He tossed the dagger in to the air, and caught it by the hilt when it fell back down. It looked perfect for killing.
"Aria, what the hell do we do?" Ty Lee whimpered, and she dropped her bags in the process of stumbling back out of the man's range.
"Stay here. I got this," Aria replied. She dropped her bags to the ground and took a few brave steps toward the men. An orange flame emanated in her hand and she grinned savagely. "If you want a fight, you've got one."
"Perfect," the lead man laughed.
He lunged at Aria with the dagger and she side-stepped his attack easily. She turned on the ball of her foot and as he approached, Aria connected the heel of her foot with his jaw, casing him to tumble backwards.
"Come on, I know you've got more than that," the fire bender teased, and hopped from foot to foot.
"Oh, you want more? I'll show you more!" He spat on the ground and revealed the blood in his mouth. The mysterious man pulled a second knife out of his pocket, and Aria felt both arms become bound by his posse. He charged at her with the knife, and before he was able to stab her, he fell to the ground like jelly.
Ty, you sly bitch! Aria thought, as her friend was revealed behind the man laying on the dirt ground. She was in her chi-blocking stance with her fingers bent so her knuckles could perform their job.
The fire bender elbowed the man on her right arm in the stomach. He clutched his waist long enough for her to turn and knock the other guy's feet out from under him.
With a couple jabs, Ty Lee had rendered the robbers defenseless, and they hurriedly gathered their bags and raced to the nearest town.
"Agni, let's not do that again, okay?" Ty Lee panted from loss of breath and rested her hands on her knees.
"Those guys were easy, though!"
"But you know I hate fighting! So, let's be more careful, okay?"
Aria huffed. "Fine."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Long time, no see, right? It's not like anybody missed me, though. *Nervous laugh*
I have no excuse, but I hope you like this action-filled chapter. And some Aria/Ty Lee goodness. c:
I'm kinda losing inspiration, because I see that not many people like this story from all the negative reviews I've been getting. Well, not negative, just criticizing, I guess? And, don't get me wrong, I LOVE THEM, but I wanna know I'm doing something right. /:
Until we meet again.
