Zuko: You scared them away with that small bit of fluff.
Me: But I like fluff! It's so... fluffy!
Zuko: (--;) And THIS is the story director...
Me: Yes, I am. You know you love it... Zuzu...
Zuko: I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!
Me: But it's so cute! Who'd have thought it was Azula who came up with it? (snicker) Heh... Azuzu...
Azula: I shall destroy her by all means!
Me: (shifty eyes) I do not own the Avatar cast, except Akemi and the weird purple-haired girl. She reeks of manga geek... doesn't she...
CHILD OF SKY
Chapter 10
"See you tomorrow, Jodi!" A girl with long silver hair and crystal blue eyes shouted to her best friend as they parted ways.
"Bye Mizuki!" Her friend shouted in return, "See you tomorrow!"
The girl blinked, 'Mizuki? That doesn't sound right? Wasn't it something else? Who was that girl? How do I know her?'
Suddenly memories of a small pale-skinned girl with short silver hair in a simple white dress, jean jacket and sandals surfaced. She was playing on a swingset with a small brunette about her age.
'That's right. We've been friends since kindergarten.' She thought to herself, ignoring a nagging question in the back of her mind: "What is kindergarten?"
Still, as she continued on her way home, she couldn't help but feel like she was forgetting something besides kindergarten and how she had somehow ended up talking to her best friend in a strange place. Not only did she feel like she had done all this before, but she felt like she had left something behind.
"Oh, right! What kind of trouble am I in? Are you here to take me to a prison cell or something?" She asked, gazing up at him with nervous expectation.
"No," the prince replied shortly, "You haven't done anything wrong. What you did was firebending."
"Are... you serious?" the silver-haired girl asked, gaping in disbelief, "But I didn't even do it on purpose! My body sort of... moved on it's own."
The scarred prince, who had been gazing about the room with lack of interest, now turned to look at her, "My uncle asked me to tell you that he plans to teach you firebending."
"He's going to teach me? What about you?" She asked, not bothering to hide her curiousity.
"I don't have time to teach little girls." He replied hotly, "And I've decided from now on you will assist the cook in the kitchen to occupy your time."
At the sudden strange memory, her head throbbed in pain. Was it really a
memory? Finding it was too painful to dwell on it, she shrugged it off and
continued on her way.
"Where am I going again?" She wondered out loud.
"I'm home!" She shouted, removing her shoes and placing them near the doorway.
"Welcome home, Mizuki. How was school?" A woman with black hair asked, entering the room wearing an apron.
"It was alright. I have a headache." She said simply, carrying her bag down the hallway into her room.
"You plan to study for exams, I hope?" The woman who she had come to recognize as her mother asked.
"Yes, mother." She replied, finally casting her mother a sidelong glance. Her mother was in her mid-forties with gray streaks in her black hair. Creases lining the edges of her soft gray eyes.
"Alright, dinner will be ready soon." Her mother warned, closing her daughter's door behind her.
Mizuki sighed and threw herself upon her bed, sprawled there on her back she stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours but had only been a few moments before she snatched up the remote lying inches from her pillow and clicked it on at the black box on the opposing wall. Moving images faded in from black on the screen and instantly the image of a bald boy with a blue arrow on his head and a dopey smile on his face filled the screen.
"Hi! I'm Aang, you don't look like you're from around here." The boy said cheerfully.
"To be honest, I don't know where I'm from." She replied truthfully with a smile.
The boy named Aang raised an eyebrow in question, yet before he could speak a girl with a blue skirt split into a pair of flaps over a pair of dark blue breeches and leather boots approached. She was a pretty thing, with tan skin, light brown hair and deep-set blue eyes. Her hair was braided down the length of her back, with locks of her hair put into loops on either side of her face before merging with the braid. The silver-haired girl stared aghast for a moment, surprised by this girl's appearance.
"Aang, we have to go." She said urgently.
"Where is Sokka?" The boy named Aang asked with concern.
"He's on the edge of town getting Appa." The girl explained.
"It was nice meeting you." Aang said hurriedly, scurrying off with the brown-haired girl in tow.
Mizuki shook her head again as a throbbing sensation soon followed the illusion. Raising her arm, she aimed the remote at the television with the intention of changing the channel when suddenly a young man with one side of his face burned and his head shaved bald save the bit of dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail queue appeared, muttering something about capturing the avatar.
The young woman felt her body being hoisted up by an unknown force out of
the watery horizon that had so warmingly greeted her. Her drowsy, clear,
crystal blue eyes watched as the ocean's surface slowly sank away from her,
reflecting a dark silhouette off it's filmy surface. A faint humming sound
gradually rose in her ears into distant shouts and orders from men as she
was lifted and tossed into a wet heap upon the boat's main deck like a newly
caught fish.
"This is the girl the men were speaking about?" A young masculine voice
inquired.
"Yes sir. I saw her fall from the sky with my own eyes." An older masculine voice reported.
The young, silver-haired girl slowly rose to her hands and knees with what little strength she could conjure as the sound of approaching footsteps drew closer. Her long, wet silver hair heavy with sea water fell about her shoulders and clung to her face, dripping upon the iron deck of the ship.
She gazed up through the wet strands about her face in exhausted curiousity to the blurry approaching figures that slowed to a stop, looming over her. After moments, her eyes focused on the two beings until she could make out their features. One was an old man who appeared to be in his mid forties at least.
His hair was graying and tied into a sort of topknot while the rest was allowed to hang about his neck. His eyes were pleasant with the wrinkles that indicated he smiled often. There was no mustache on the man's face, but a neatly trimmed beard protruded from his chin and the corners of his jaw near his earlobes.
His entire being held an easy-going disposition while a small glint of mischief remained in his eyes. The second being startled her to a shallow gasp so faint she doubted they had heard it. For this being was a young man who appeared to be about her age, possibly older. Yet a horrible burn had nearly welded his left eye closed and melted his left ear into a mess of flesh and cartilage.
His eyes were golden and looked down on her as if in fierce scorn which had given her an unnerving chill. He lowered himself into a squat for a closer look at the strange girl from the sky.
"Perhaps she is an Earth Kingdom spy, sir?" A being dressed in red and black armor suggested, his face concealed behind a horned helm with a mask like a skull's face.
The young, scarred man took a lock of her hair into his palm to examine, "No, take a closer look. Her hair and eyes are nothing like any woman I've seen from Earth Kingdom. Their women normally have dark hair and eyes just like their men. Even her clothes are haggardous and worn, not even fit for someone of any nation."
The young woman watched him in bafflement, "Earth... Kingdom... ?" she said softly.
The young man's unharmed eye travelled from the lock of hair in his palm to the young girl's face without the slightest tilt of his head, releasing the silver lock from his palm.
"What is your name?" He asked suddenly.
The young woman blinked in bewilderment as she considered it, yet the only thing close to remembering was the image of someone's lips mouthing a word. But as soon as the image was there, it was gone once more unable to be recovered.
"My... I-I... I don't know." She responded regretfully in a soft voice, "Where... am I... ?"
"Zuko!" She cried instinctively, somehow all of this was very familiar to her.
"Your world is more familiar to me than my own." She sighed concedingly before clicking off the television, "Why don't I live in your world?"
"Mizuki! Dinner!" Her mother shouted.
"Coming!"
Her father had been absent for dinner, working late again at the office as usual. Now hours had passed and studying would give way to the hour of slumber, but perhaps she could stay up a bit later. After all... the exams were in two days and she would have to brush up on everything if she was to be ready.
A sudden screech from her parent's room startled her from her deep concentration. Had her mother left the television on too loud again?
"Mom... ?" She squeaked, her heart thudding with fear in her chest.
Something wasn't right somehow.
The sound of scuffling and muffled shrieking crept passed the closed door and to Mizuki's ears.
"Momma... ?" Mizuki said softly, slowly turning the handle to her mother's door. The hinges squealed with the sudden swing before creaking into silence. The scuffling grew louder with one last muffled shriek before it slowly turned to silence.
The sound of labored breathing still remained. It was not her mother's breathing. This was deeper, more masculine in sound.
Slowly she approached the sound, was it her parents?
As she rounded the corner, she saw the still form of her mother in a white silk nightgown sprawled on her back with a pillow covering her face. A man knelt on top of her, heaving in exhaustion. His figure was familiar to her as he knelt there, erect and oblivious to her presence.
"Daddy... ?" She whispered.
Hearing her voice, he froze. He turned to find the horrified face of his daughter. In moments he had pushed her against the opposing wall, his broad hand placed firmly around her throat as he slowly squeezed.
"Da... Daddy... ?" She rasped, struggling to pry her father's hand from her throat.
"Hello my lovely. Daddy's home." He said darkly, his breath reaked of alcohol.
"You... ki... killed Momma... !"
"Yes, I did. You would have gotten a new Momma, but I can't have you telling the police the lowly widower killed his wife for another one." He said, a crooked and cruel smile creeping upon his lips.
"Daddy... " She rasped, placing her hands on his shoulders gently. She placed all her strength into one thrust of her leg between her father's legs.
Instantly his hands flew from his daughter's throat to the precious area between his legs, screaming in agony.
"Female defense rule number one: Know where to kick if your attacker is male." Mizuki said quickly before hurrying through the house to the front door.
Hurriedly she ran down the steps of her house into the pouring rain, bounding onto the sidewalk and without a glance, ran into the street with the intention of going as far from that house as her legs were able to carry her.
A small star-like light appeared from the dark and rainy distance, rapidly blossoming into a fierce and brilliant pair of lights. As if by instinct, Mizuki stood just as the growl became a deafening roar. Suddenly, she gasped in realization: the roar came from the pair of lights.
Mizuki stared, dumbstruck and frozen with fear. Through instinct, Akemi raised her arms to her face for protection as she screamed. The roaring suddenly ceased, becoming an ear-splitting screech.
A pain so incredible she was unable to explain it took over her entire body as she lay upon the wet pavement of the city street. Her eyes stared transfixed on the door to her house as it swung open, her father walking awkwardly onto the porch.
The man from the car quickly got out and ran to Mizuki's side, blocking her view of her father who stood in a drunken stooper and watched with a grin of pleasure playing upon his lips.
"Oh crap." The man cursed under his breath, watching as blood mixed with the fallen rain before standing to look at her father.
"Sir, is this your daughter?" The man asked.
Her father shook his head without hesitation, "No."
Tears ran down Mizuki's eyes as they blurred into darkness.
When she again opened her eyes, she found herself in the black abyss.
"So you finally got to relive the last moments of your life." A woman's voice said from behind her, "Do you remember what happened after that?"
Mizuki turned in her seat to find the violet-haired girl standing behind her with kind and proud eyes.
A young woman of sixteen years sat upon the soft sand as the sun faded beneath the watery horizon, reflecting the bronze and crimson sky. The world would fall into darkness soon, and her family would have dinner set by then.
She stood, gathering up her sandals before heading home. This sunset was unusual to her, for it was more brilliant than any other before it. She paused in her leave to cast one final glance at the living tapestry in the sky. Yet in that glance she noticed something that seemed out of place in that sky. Something fell from it like a meteor, cutting through the wind that surged around it in fury. At a closer glance, she noticed the falling object was actually a person!
Falling closer and closer she could make out the being's features. It was a young woman with waist-length silver hair and fair, pale skin. Her eyes were concealed behind closed lids. Staring at this being in awe, she was struck with the sudden realization that this was no ordinary person. This person was herself!
The ground beneath her seemed to melt away, tipping her off balance. She fell back, watching her sky fall away as she sank into an ocean of darkness. Deeper into that abyss, she plummeted. The sky above fading into darkness. She cried out, but no sound came. Was she breathing? The sensation and the sound of her breath had vanished just like her sky. There was neither heat nor a chill in this land of shadow. Was this what they called death? How had she died? Had she taken her own life? Or had she... been killed?
A light glistened like a tiny golden star in space blossoming into a brilliant and overwhelming light which had soon overcome all her senses as she passed through it to the point she had no choice but to tightly shut her eyes. Even as she did this, she screamed in flesh-searing agony as her entire body felt as if it were being consumed by flames.
The fiery sensation soon melted away, and she could feel the cool, refreshing and gentle wind carress her cheek playfully if but for a moment before it suddenly rushed past her in a fury. Opening her eyes she suddenly gasped. Still she plummeted, except this time it was toward a massive body of water. And yet even as she fell, she was taken by an eerie and overwhelming calm. As if she somehow sensed that this was not the end... yet the beginning of something bigger.
Closing her eyes, she was recieved by the ocean's watery breast as a child to it's mother where she receded into the darkest recesses of her own mind: unconsciousness.
"I was stuck on that beach. Limbo, I think it was called. Then I remember falling into an ocean. An ocean in HIS world." Mizuki said, her mind fresh with the memories.
"Good, then I'm sure you remember the deal we made? I give you some time alive in another world and you can go happily." The girl recited happily.
Mizuki nodded, "So I can live a bit longer as Akemi?"
The girl nodded, "Yes, of course. But remember that if you die in this world you can never come back. I don't mean ever return to just this world, I mean you can never return to any world. You will remain in limbo forever."
Mizuki swallowed hard at the thought, but nodded.
"Then I will return you to consciousness. But before I do, know that Zhao's army is fast approaching on your position. The Earth Kingdom army will try to hold them off, but in three days of fighting they will perish along with the prince, his uncle and the family you stay with. Make your decisions wisely." The girl explained, raising her flute to her lips.
"Thank you... Izumi the Shinigami." Mizuki said kindly as she vanished from the world of her mind.
Opening her eyes she found herself in the bed she had been given. Bolting upright, she gazed about the room. Zuko sat in a chair, slumped over with his arms folded over one another upon her bed and his cheek nestled in the cradle of his arms.
Iroh sat in a chair in the corner, snoring in a deep sleep.
"I'm back." She whispered, stroking Zuko's cheek affectionately with the memory of her rescue fresh in her mind.
He roused from his slumber at the sensation of her touch, finding her sitting up on her own without any sign of pain from her injuries.
"Akemi, are you okay?" Iroh asked, suddenly awake in his corner.
"I'm okay. Actually, I remember... everything. My origin, my name... everything. My father... he... my mother." She explained, her expression quickly shifting from happiness to sorrow.
Again she felt the pressure of her tears against the back of her eyes, cursing them as they surfaced, running down her cheeks onto her clenched fists.
Iroh felt this a good time to rise from his chair and place a comforting hand on her shoulder. Finding her anger and sadness overpowering, she thrust herself into Iroh's warm mass, embracing his as she cried into his clothing. First Zuko, now Iroh. Had they become her family in such a short time?
"Sho! Hiroshi! Akemi! You have to- Oh! Sorry... " The voice sprinting toward the bedroom was Ichiro, finding the emotions running rampant in the bedroom, he found himself standing there blushing in embarrassment.
"What is it?" Zuko demanded.
"Oh! Right. Th-the Fire Nation Army found us. They demand Akemi."
A.N.: Ha ha ha! I left you all hanging! Neener neener neener! What happens? Will Akemi be killed by Zhao? Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oohhh Yeah! (snicker) Don't worry, I'll update soon. I promise. This thing only has a few more chapters, and I know you're all going to just LOVE it. Heh... okay, maybe I DON'T know. I'm not psychic, GAWD! Anyway, I hope I answered a couple questions for you. There is still the matter of Akemi's name, which I have already figured out. Or... finally figured out. So I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. Akemi had died! She lived in OUR world before she died and then went to the Avatar world. Weird twist, huh? Hope you enjoyed it.
