XXXVI: The Mother of Faces

"There has to be something that I can do! After all, I'm the Avatar, I am…"

"The great bridge between the human and spirit worlds; we know, we know!" Sokka interrupted, Katara shot him a glare. Aang approached the pool and sat before it, telling his company that he was going to cross over into the spirit world to get the giant wolf to come to that particular pool.

"Bah! This is a waste of time!" Azula exclaimed she got to her feet and began walking away, Mai seized her chains and asked her: "Where do you think you're going?"

"We didn't travel all this way to help some dirty vagrants! We're here to find our mother!" Azula snapped and then she added inside her mind: So that I may destroy her and ut an end to her treachery against me!

"Azula!" Zuko barked. He stood up and told her in a more gentle tone: "Aang is the Avatar, helping others is what he does, and we're his friends… his team; so helping others is what we do too."

"Ha, no wonder you don't want to be Fire lord anymore, Zuzu! You'd rather gallivant around the world with your little friends saving poor people."

"I never said…" Zuko started, but then Azula's eyes went crazy again, she gasped and exclaimed: "Hold on, did she orchestrate all this?! I'm getting close, aren't I, MOTHER?! Is that why you sent these two vagrants?! To slow me down?!"

"What's wrong with her?" Misu asked.

"She's not in her right mind, been that way since the war ended." Mai explained in her usual dry tone.

"IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!" Azula shouted, and she turned to Misu and Rafa, prepared to start bending at them, already tendrils of smoke and steam seeped out of her mouth: "YOU HEAR ME, MOTHER?! IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!"

Katara, Mai, and Sokka prepared to defend Misu and Rafa.

"STOP AZULA!" Zuko shouted and he stood before her to block her attack. She spat a bolt of lightning, but zuko caught it and redirected it into the sky with a KRRRACKA-BOOM!

"Did you forget, Azula? I know how to deal with your lightning!"

"Whoa, I think I might be scared of you again." Sokka stated, feeling a little shaky.

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Aang had reached the spirit world ending up in a forest with jack-o-lantern faces on the trunks of trees. He looked up to the branches and found a familiar creature.

"Mr. Flutter-bat, I knew we were meant to be friends!"

The flutter-bat splayed out his wings to reveal a smiling face on his belly, and through that mouth he spoke: "Come with me, I will show you what you want to see."

Aang rode astride the back of a now gigantic flutter-bat and took in the full view of the beautiful forest and the four beautiful pools. He then spotted the wolf spirit and leapt from the flutter-bat and landed before the wolf. After a little bit of effort, he coaxed the wolf to steer away from the pool she was headed towards and managed to hop on her back for a ride until the wolf sat before a great pool.

"Who dares ride my wolf as if she were a common beast of burden?" a voice asked.

"I'm the Avatar, wh-who are you?" Aang asked, he rubbed his eyes to clear his vision; the ride the wolf gave him wasn't very easy. He then saw a great spirit, looking like a hybrid of a woman and a tree, with several half-faces around her head, a crown of horns obscuring where eyes and foreheads should be. Speaking of trees, she was as tall as an ancient oak. Surrounding her there were astral faces, like those fit for masks and those fit for people to be born with.

"I am the Mother of Faces." She stated.

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"Misu and Rafa have nothing to do with our mother! How could you even think…?" Zuko began.

"BUT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE! HOW CAN YOU BE SO NAÏVE?!" Azula exclaimed. She then breathed fire over her shackles until she broke free of them.

"You're right, I have been naïve… Take her down!" Zuko ordered.

"Gladly." Katara replied, and the fighting started.

"No, don't do this! You mustn't cause such a disturbance, the Avatar is trying to bring the spirit here!" Misu pleaded.

"She's right, stop!"

Everyone paused and turned to see that Aang had returned to his body.

"Aang, you're back!" Katara exclaimed.

"Whew, it's just you, I thought we were about to see another creepy face." Sokka stated.

"You mean like those?" Aang asked as he pointed to the pool, and the mask-faces had floated to the surface. Sokka let out a bit of a girlish shriek, and the company watched in awe as the pool continued to ripple and more faces appeared.

"Listen to Misu, everyone, we're about to have a visitor." Aang announced. Everyone gathered near the pool, but Katara froze Azula where she stood, she needed some form of restraint. A magnificent geyser then shot out of the pool as Mother of Faces surfaced. She was grand, majestic, and in the realm of the spirits she carried her special form of beauty.

"I am the Mother of Faces. Through me, separateness came into the world. Through me, came identity. The one became the many. I walk through my forest once a season, but never have I strayed from the path my wolf chooses for me. I do so now in deference to the Avatar, the great bridge between the spirits and the humans."

"See what did I tell you?" Aang whispered to Sokka.

"Yeah, yeah, great bridge guy, no one said you weren't." He replied.

"I am a generous spirit, softhearted and kind." The Mother of Faces added.

"Maybe she knows where my mother is." Zuko whispered.

"Spirits know a lot of things, you should definitely ask." Aang replied.

"Each season I grant one favor to one human, you may make your request now."

"Wait, just one?" Aang asked as he looked between Zuko and Misu.

"One." The Mother of Faces confirmed.

Zuko looked to Misu in sympathy, but then he had an idea.

"Um, the thing is… we, uh, kind of need two favors from you." Aang told the Mother of Faces.

"Humans like you often chase after me begging for new identities. The faces I create I put my heart into, and it saddens me to be told by an inferior being that my work is inadequate. So do not test my generosity, Avatar, one."

"Wait, Great Mother of Faces," Zuko began, lighting his eyes up so that she may see the spirit of Lux within him: "Since you see that we are inferior to you, then we shouldn't make the choice for you. Will you please hear both of our requests and see which one you find befits you the most?"

"A spirit born from the child of Raava? You are a reasonable human too. Very well I will hear both requests."

Zuko then told her: "I wish not for a new identity; I came for your knowledge, I wish to know the whereabouts of a woman named Ursa, once princess to the Fire Nation."

"If that is all you ask of me, then I believe that I will grant both requests." The Mother of Faces stated. The faces of Aang and Misu lit up with joy. Then the Mother of Faces held out her hand to reveal an image of Ursa: "I remember her well. I could not understand why a human of such beauty would ask for a new face. So to test her sincerity, I offered her one as plain as can be and she accepted."

"That's Noriko!" Zuko exclaimed. Azula then broke out of her icy bonds and with a face contorted with manic rage she announced: "Thank you so much for that, Mother of Faces! Now don't worry, Zuzu, I'll give her greetings from both of us!" She then made a run for it, shoving Rafa out of her way, knocking him to the ground and dislodging his mask from his face.

"No, his mask, he needs his mask!" Misu exclaimed.

"I need to go after Azula!" Zuko told his friends.

"I'll go with you." Sokka replied.

"Same here." Mai added. Misu took a quick moment to abandon her search for the mask and directed the trio to a shortcut to the village, thanking them for their kindness. Mai, Sokka, and Zuko ran off, but as Misu turned back towards the spirit pool, and Rafa, she heard Katara's scream, and saw her looking at her brother's nonexistent face!

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Yep, I think that's a good place to end it!

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