Chapter 12

Alone

Yu woke up in the woods on the outskirts of town. He was still groggy, the events of last night kept playing out in his head and hadn't allowed for a very peaceful sleep. He stood up and ran his hands through his messy hair, shaking loose a few more shards of porcelain as he did. He caught one as it fell and rolled it over in between his fingers, then flicked the piece of broken vase it into the bushes.

I can't believe I actually said that. He thought to himself as he cleaned the remaining fragments out of his hair. It had been nothing but an innocent slip of the tongue. He hadn't really meant anything by it, though given where they'd first met, it really hadn't been a very smart thing to say.

He looked down at the burnt remains of his shirt hanging out of the top of his pants, realizing he'd have to venture town one more time to pick up a new one, not really sure how he was going to pay for it. He'd left his pack, and all his money, back in Azula's room at the Inn, and he wasn't going to risk returning there.

Oh, well, I'll figure something out.

Yu headed back towards the town, not sure where he was headed next.

Well, looks like I'm on my own again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Night Before

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I refuse to spend one more night sleeping outside like some filthy wild animal, or worse, a commoner. " Azula said while looking at the small Inn. She turned back to Yu and added with false sincerity "No offense"

"Hey, I could be a noble for all you know" Yu retorted.

Azula just looked at him for a moment, then burst into laughter. Yu just stood and looked at her without amusement. Azula's laughter trickled off and finally stopped.

"But seriously. I'll be staying here." She motioned back to the Inn. It was small, only two stories and was in no way luxurious. In fact, by Azula's standards, this was only marginally better than sleeping on the ground. But given the amount of money left to them, this would have to do.

She addressed Yu once more. "Tomorrow, you will meet me out front exactly one hour after sunrise. Do not be late."

They parted ways and Yu headed towards the city gates to find a place a safe place to sleep outside of town.

His powers hadn't flared up again since the events at the hospital, and Yu was beginning to get anxious. He knew it could happen again at any time and wanted to spend as little time in town as possible.

Because of that, Yu insisted they stay close to the edge of the city when they arrived in the Earth Kingdom city of Shenjing late this afternoon... just in case. While his request seemed to annoy her (something Yu was beginning to secretly enjoy), Azula could appreciate that accidentally lighting a city on fire was not the best way to remain inconspicuous. So she reluctantly agreed to find an Inn on the edge of town.

As he neared the city gates, he stopped.

"Oh yeah" Yu said to himself aloud. "The map!"

He turned and headed back to the Inn.

He asked the Inn keeper about Azula, and was directed up the stairs to her room. As he neared the door to the room she was staying in, he thought he could hear her talking to someone. It sounded as if she were in the middle of a heated argument, but he could only hear one voice, hers. He stopped at the door and considered turning around when it suddenly flew open. A hand shot out, grabbed his wrist and gave a slight twist. Next thing he knew, he was lying on his back in the middle of the room hearing the door slam shut behind him.

He looked up to see Azula holding a ball of blue flame in her hand, ready to attack. When she saw it was him, she gave an annoyed huff and extinguished the flame.

"Oh, it's just you." She said impatiently standing above him. "Care to explain what you're doing lurking around outside my door?" She crossed her arms and asked suspiciously as he rolled to his feet.

"Sorry" He said, not really sure what he was apologizing for.

"I didn't ask for an apology I asked why you came here. I thought I made it clear that I didn't require you until morning!" She said more forcefully.

"I just wanted to borrow that Earth Kingdom map" He said, his attention moving about the room.

She raised an eyebrow and eyed him suspiciously, a gesture lost on him as his attention was focused on scanning the room.

"Figured I might as well try and familiarize myself with the area. It's not like I've got a lot to do out there. Other than just lay around waiting to fall asleep. Gets kinda boring" He explained, as his eyes passed over a vase full of flowers sitting on the dresser.

She looked him over hesitantly. "I'd hate to think you're considering..."

"Look, if I was going to run out on you, I would have done it already." Yu said, trying to convince her. "You can trust me"

"Ha!" She spat out. "What do you take me for? Of course I don't trust you, and unless you're a complete idiot, you don't trust me either. What we have is an arrangement of mutual convenience. If, for some reason, you've begun deluding yourself into believing there's anything more to this than that, well, you're an even bigger fool than I ever gave you credit for."

Yu was about to respond, but thought better of it. This just wasn't something worth butting heads over (especially since hers had so far proven to be much harder). Yu shook his head and turned to leave. He reached down to pick up his pack (which had fallen off at some point when Azula threw him to the ground, and was now lying on it's side next to the door) and mumbled an offhand comment without thinking about it.

"You know, if you go through life thinking that way, you're gonna end up going crazy..."

Yu froze, his hand hovering inches away from the top of his pack and his breath catching in his throat. The room went silent.

Did I just say that? Yu thought as a cold sweat broke out over his body. Did I really just say that to the girl I broke out of a mental institute!?

He slowly turned his head to look at her. Praying that, through some grand intervention of the spirits, she hadn't heard him. When he came to face her, he found himself locked in her stare. Apparently the spirits didn't like him much.

He could feel an inferno of rage boiling just behind her bright golden eyes. If looks could kill, there wouldn't be a single survivor left in the city.

That momentary silence felt like an eternity, but was finally shattered by Azula's slow and harshly spoken command spoken through clenched teeth.

"Get out!"

"I, uh..." Yu's tongue betrayed him, refusing to form any words.

A burst of blue flames hit his chest, turning his shirt almost instantly to ash. And while the flames couldn't hurt him, the force behind it sent him stumbling back against the wall.

She turned and grabbed the vase of flowers off the dresser and threw it at him.

"LEAVE" She screamed.

Yu ducked. The vase smashed against the wall behind him, showering his head and upper body with shards of porcelain, flowers petal and cold water. He quickly opened his eyes to make sure nothing else was flying in his direction.

"Get out of my site. You're bani..." She stopped herself mid-yell. Whatever she'd been about to say seemed to swell her anger even more. She drew in a deep breath, her right eye twitching. "I SAID LEAVE"

Yu wasn't about to keep arguing. He turned and yanked the door open, practically falling into the hallway and pulling the door closed behind him just as something else, more substantial than the vase, impacted on the other side.

He stepped back from the door and momentarily slumped against the wall on the other side of the hall. He took a few breaths to collect himself, then headed quickly downstairs.

"Is everything all right sir." the old woman that ran the inn asked as he came down. It was clear from the look on her face that the commotion upstairs hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Yeah" Yu said looking back up the stairs. "Yeah, every thing's... fine."

She didn't look convinced.

"I knocked a vase off the dresser and uh, she got mad at me for it. Sorry" Yu said unconvincingly (and doing nothing to explain why he was bare chested with the charred remains of a shirt hanging from the top of his pants).

He walked slowly out into the street and took one last look back at the Inn.

Boy, that was stupid. I really should start thinking about what I say before I say it.

He looked up and down the street, trying to remember the way out of town, then headed towards one of the gates.

* * * * * * * * * *

Azula stood in the middle room. Her hands shaking as she drew in deep breathes in an attempt to calm herself. It wasn't working.

What does a nothing like him know. Crazy... There's nothing wrong with me, this is all mother's doing that's all there is to it. That's all!

"I don't like you" a child's voice came from behind her.

Frightened, Azula spun around to face the source of the voice. As soon as she did, her breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. Azula stood frozen in place, face to face with the younger Azula from her dream one the ocean.

Only this time, Azula wasn't sleeping.

"You're not a very nice person"

The little girl just sat there, her arms crossed, and looked straight at Azula. A scornful look adorned her small features . Azula felt as though something cold and horrible was gripping her heart. She couldn't move, she couldn't breath, she couldn't even think. This couldn't be happening. Her mother's voice was one thing. She knew that, somewhere out there, her mother was still alive and had, apparently, found some way to communicate with her.

But this, this was something different. How could... how was this possible?

The fear within her turned to panicked terror. She tried taking a few steps back, but her legs wouldn't respond. Instead, she tripped over her own feet, stumbling backward and falling. Her tail bone slammed into the hardwood floor, a stinging pain shot up her back, all the while her eyes stayed locked in transfixed horror at the young "her" on the bed.

The little girl uncrossed her arms, hoped off the bed, and took a few steps toward her.

Azula scrambled backward on her hands and feet. Franticly trying to put distance between her and this girl as she slipped on chunks of porcelain and flowers scattered about the wet ground. Her back hit the wall and she pressed as tightly against it as she could.

The girl stopped a few feet from Azula. Azula's breath came quick and heavy as she felt her heart pound against her ribcage. The little girl tilted her head slightly, looking on at Azula with an odd mixture of pity and anger.

"Why do you want to hurt my brother." She asked in a huff.

Azula's panic overtook her, she closed her eyes tightly and clamped her trembling hands over her ears and yelled out. "Stop it, stop it. You're..."

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Azula jumped as her attention snapped toward the door. She quickly looked back in front of her.

The little girl was gone. She was alone in the room once again.

"Ex... excuse me!" she heard an older woman's voice through the door. "Is everything all right in there?"

Azula was silent for a moment, still looking around the empty room for any signs of the phantom girl.

She heard the old woman's voice once more. "Young lady... are you..."

"Everything's fine" Azula said in as steady a voice as she could manage.

"Are you sure? I thought I heard..."

"I'm Fine" Azula responded more forcefully.

The woman didn't respond. There was a slight pause, then Azula heard footsteps moving away down the hall.

Her heart was still pounding, and her hands wouldn't stop shaking. Azula looked back at the bed, nothing about this made any sense, Azula didn't have any answers. She closed her eyes and pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and leaning her head onto her knees. For the next few moments, the room had the eerie silence of a tomb, a silence that was pierced only by the sound of Azula sobbing.