Author's Notes: Hey everyone, sorry I haven't written in a while. Here we go. Dante owns Divine Comedy, also known as Inferno
In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straightway was lost.-Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
Azula sailed to the Earth Kingdom with all speed. After leaving the capital she had made a stop at Dragon Breath estate to collect Tala and Night Shadow. When she found Zokar she had a feeling he would need both, she refused to consider the possibility that he was dead.
Her orders from Father had been simple; she was to locate Uncle and Zuko, seize them and return them to the Fire Nation. She, however, had other plans. She was determined to find Zokar and then hunt for the Avatar with him. The Avatar was clearly the greatest threat their nation had faced in the last hundred years, defeating him was clearly more important than imprisoning Uncle Fatso and Zuzu. And as for Zokar…
Her breath caught in her throat. Until the news came that that he was missing and suspected dead did she realize just how much she needed him. He had been there for her when she had been at her lowest. He had encouraged her while he was teaching her how to use a sword and had taught her how to be more than she had been before.
Ever since Mai and Ty Lee had left she had been alone till her relationship with her brother had become what it was. She had never been close to any of her family before. Even her father, she had told herself that he loved her but that had been a lie and she knew it; he only valued her as a tool and nothing more.
She had to find him. If he were dead she would be alone again and she could not stand the thought of that. She could not live like that again. She had to find him.
She arrived at North Port, where the majority of the survivors of the invasion had gathered to lick their wounds. Her inquires there yielded little. No one had seen Zokar nor heard any reports or rumors of him. She did, however, learn that Uncle and Zuko were a day or two way; at a resort of all places. Though perhaps that wasn't so surprising; Uncle did so love his comfort. Actually, when she thought about it, there was a way she could use this to her advantage.
She sailed to the estate. She could have taken the soldiers onboard to storm the place and take them by force, but that would not help her plans so she took a different approach. She went alone to the estate. Questioning of the staff revealed they had gone to the beach to collect seashells, Oh Uncle, she thought with a roll of her eyes.
She went to their rooms and moved a chair so she could sit in the shadows. As she sat she adjusted Fire Fang, which she took everywhere since she learned to use it, she had found she like the feel of it. She waited for nearly an hour, sitting quietly in the dark without moving till they returned.
As they entered they did not appear to notice her, too busy arguing about seashells. "Hello Brother." She said sardonically. As soon as they heard her voice they turned and saw her, their expressions immediately going to mutual looks of dislike and suspicion.
"What are you doing here?!" Zuko demanded angrily.
"What," Azula asked in a tone of false sweetness; "I can't pay a visit to my dear brother Zuzu?"
"Don't call me that!" He yelled at her, as he took a step towards her.
Before he could get any farther Iroh held out a hand to stop him. "To what do we owe the honor of this vist?" His voice was suspicious and wary.
"Straight to the point I see. Well, that suits me just fine. You should know that Father is very angry about what happened at the North Pole and he blames you Uncle." She said looking at her Uncle. Before either of them could say anything she turned to look at Zuko; "And he considers you a miserable failure. Father sent me here to take you two into custody so you can no longer embarrass him."
Zuko's face had a look of stunned disbelief; "Your lying," he spat our; "Father wouldn't do that!" Before she could reply Iroh wrapped an arm around Zuko to support him. Azula felt a brief flash of jealousy at the gesture, remembering all the times she had seen Mother do the same thing, she suppressed it angrily.
"Why are you telling us this?" Iroh asked, interrupting her chain of thought, she noted that he did not seem surprised at all by her announcement.
"Simple," she said, her voice becoming serious; "I need you to run. In my opinion the Avatar is a far greater threat than you two could ever be. I intend to hunt the Avatar myself but that is not the task Father gave to me. So I need you to run. That way I can hunt the Avatar under the guise of hunting you two."
Zuko was silent, his face a mask of shock. He knew she was telling the truth, she could see that. Not too long ago she would have rubbed it in his face, but now it just seemed stupid and she knew that Zokar would not like it.
She began walking towards the door; "I'll take as long as I can when I get back to the ship to prepare. I'll be back with my soldiers in an hour or so. I suggest that you both be long gone by then." She reached the door and paused. Looking back over her shoulder and trying to sound casual she asked Iroh; "By any chance Uncle did you see or hear what happened to Zokar?"
Her uncle gave her a curious look. "No, I fear I do not know what became of him at the North Pole. Why do you ask?"
"It is not important," she said, trying her best to sound casual and uninterested; "Just curious. Good-bye Uncle, Zuzu." She turned her head back and continued on.
Zokar was not sure where he was everything seemed hazy and only half formed. He could not even remember how he had got here. He had half-formed memories of being somewhere very cold and of a great…something and then of falling followed by cold.
He first looked down at himself he was clad in armor of steel and a steel sword was in his hand. He then looked around and tried to determine where he was. He recognized it at once; it was the Fire Nation Royal Palace gardens. It was all familiar yet it also seemed as if something was wrong, as if what he was watching was slightly out of synch.
Even as he watched a women and two children, a boy and a girl, came into view. The woman was holding the boy's hand and they were smiling and laughing while the girl followed behind, a sneer on her face. Though they were less than ten feet away from him they gave no indication that they were aware of him.
"Such a touching scene don't you think?" The voice came from behind him. It was smooth, cultured and made him think of a blade sliding into flesh.
He turned and took a step back in surprise. The speaker was not human at all; it had the face of a human but had the body of a centipede grown to massive proportions. He did not let his surprise show, however, for he remembered hearing stories of this creature and the horrible fate of those who showed emotion to it.
"You are Koh the Face-Stealer."
The creature smiled. "Some call me that. Personally, I never liked that title." Suddenly the face was replaced by another; "I prefer to think of myself as a collector."
"Where are we?"
"Well isn't it obvious? I am a spirit so we must be in the Spirit World, and if we are in the Spirit World: YOU MUST BE DEAD!" This last was screamed as he thrust his face up close.
Zokar did not flinch. "No we are not."
Koh drew back chuckling again. "You are a clever one. No, you are not dead, not quite. You are somewhere in between."
Zokar looked around again. "This is a memory, my memory."
"Yes, and from the look of it not a happy one." Zokar followed Koh's gaze even though he already knew what he would see. Off to the side, hidden from the woman and two children, his siblings he knew, was a younger him. His younger self was standing in the shadows watching the others. Though his expression was indifferent pain could be seen in his eyes.
"I had no happy memories as a child." Zokar said simply.
"Or any other time as far as I can see." Koh replied.
As they watched the scene vanished to be replaced by another and then another. All were from his life and all showed him all the times he had been neglected, scorned, mocked, shunned or used by others. They concluded with his disastrous fight with the Avatar.
"Why are you showing me what I already know?" Zokar asked as the last scene vanished.
"It is quite simple really. As I said you are between life and death." Just then to the side a white portal opened up beside them. "Step in and you shall return to the mortal realm. Do not and you will die and enter the Spirit World. Where I shall take your face, I must confess I am quite interested in adding yours to my collection."
"You believe I am unable to prevent you from taking my face?"
"Why my dear boy, why would you? Those whose faces I acquire do not die, and in their company you would have what you have always wanted and not had. To be with those who would not shun you for not being what they think you should be. Who would accept you for who you are? There you would not have to be alone anymore.
"What do you have to look forward to if you go back? A world that shuns you and will never accept you no matter how many victories you win. Where that which you fear will inevitably come to pass?"
Again the scene shifted. He was inside the Royal Palace but it was all wrong. Everything was dirty and decayed as if hundreds of years had passed. Even the people were decaying as if they had died yet were still moving around. In the throne room was where he received his greatest shock. He was just as decayed as the ones he had seen earlier and his armor was pitted and rusted, with patches missing and falling off. Sitting on the throne, which was raised far higher than normal, was the Avatar. It looked about it and its eyes locked on Zokar. It stared at him for a moment and then its face broke into a malicious, triumph-filled smirk.
"What is this?!" Zokar demanded.
"You know what it is. It is the world the way as you know it will be now that the Avatar has returned. Do you really want to stay and see this come to pass? Perhaps you would like me to show you what you truly fear? What you tell no one, not even yourself, but what haunts you at night in the dark?"
"No!" Snapped Zokar with more feeling than he had intended.
"Oh, I do believe I struck a nerve."
"It would appear you have," Zokar said, his usual calm returning to his voice; "Tell me is it true that you have dozens of faces?"
"Hundreds I expect," Koh said, giving Zokar a curious look.
"Good," Zokar said and then he moved. Before Koh could react Zokar spun to face him and lashed out with his sword, slicing Koh's face in half; "Then you'll not mind losing one."
As Koh thrashed around clutching his face Zokar continued speaking. "I know what I fear and that those fears may be realized. But I will not hide from them, I will face my fears." So saying he turned and walked into the portal.
He awoke under water. The cold was sapping his strength and his lungs burned from lack of oxygen. He kicked and thrashed, trying to reach the surface. He had lost his shield but his armor seemed to be gaining weight by the second. He was becoming woozy and black spots appeared before his eyes and he felt his strength leaving him when he suddenly broke the surface.
He thrashed about for a moment and nearly went under again when his hand grabbed a piece of debris; with the last of strength he hauled himself onto it. He lay their gasping for breath unable to move till he passed out. When he came to the sun had risen; looking around he found he was out at sea and the Water Tribe city was barely visible. Forcing himself up he found his sword was still in his hand. Facing away from the city he lay down on his belly and began paddling away from it.
He did not know how long he was on his improvised raft. After several days he found he no longer had the strength to paddle and let the tide take him where it would. After a while time just blurred together. The nights were cold and frost formed on his armor and skin; days, while not blistering, were still hot enough to burn his skin. Salt from the air got in his unshaved facial hair and rubbed against his burnt skin. He was tormented by hunger and the thirst was a torment that threatened to steal his ability to sleep.
He was awoken by the sounds of a ship. Lifting his head he saw a ship, a Fire Nation ship! He tried to raise his hand and cry out but his strength and voice were all but gone. Regardless they seemed to see him as they altered course towards him.
As it pulled alongside him, the wake racking his raft so much he feared he would be knocked into the ocean. He heard commands being called to bring him aboard when suddenly the water beneath him formed a column and lifted him up and deposited him on the deck of the ship. His confusion was answered when he saw Tala on the deck performing bending moves.
"Zokar!" A voice cried out. Turning to the side he saw Azula running toward him. She fell to her knees beside him. As she cradled his head she shouted commands to bring water so Tala could heal him. As she did so Zokar saw a single tear at the corner of her eye. As consciousness left him he thought back to the conversation he had had in the dream? Hallucination? He still was not sure. Well Koh, it seems you were wrong and so was I.
Author's Notes: Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated in some time, I hope you liked it. What did you think? Please let me know. Yes, he does have fears two, well, one now. Can you guess? If not I'll explain in later chapters. That's it for now, will write more later. Please pray for the southern Philippines as they recently had a big earth quake, the missing hiker in Washington State, the two Americans kidnapped off Nigeria and all who need prayers. Thanks and may Jesus bless you.
