Author's Notes: Donki-shouben was nice enough to write a "removed scene" from Distorted Reality—his own version of "The Fortuneteller" episode, since that one's not going to be in this. For lots of laughs, check it out. The link is in my profile.

By the way, the dream scenes are in no specific order. This one takes place before Aang's escape from Ba Sing Se, in which Mai and Ty Lee betrayed Azula by letting them escape.

(Edited 01/18/2021): Finally got to making edits for this chapter. Mostly minor things like awkward sentence structures and weird out of character moments.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.

Book 1: Fire

Chapter 13: The Carnival

Her jumps were surprisingly almost as high as his, almost as fast, and her movements just as dexterous. It didn't take long for Aang to realize that only airbending would work in the fight against her, since it was the only one out of the four elements swift enough. Waterbending was too heavy and graceful; earth too staunch and solid; fire too aggressive. Besides, his opponent spent lots of time around a very skilled firebender—she was bound to know how to get past that element.

Aang dropped his staff to the ground, staring at his enemy with a fierce gaze. Gone was the lighthearted, innocent Aang. In his place was a thirteen-year old who had seen too much war and violence and pain.

Even the staff was too cumbersome for this fight—his hands offered faster, but weaker airbending. She attacked first, running at him from the side, jumping against a tree and kicking off it, flying at him with her fists. He ducked under the attack and swiped at her with air, but she cartwheeled out of the way. She was under him again in moments, crouching low and trying to strike him with her fingers. He had just enough time to gather his hands together and blow her back with a blast of wind in a counterattack.

She recovered in the air and back-flipped, landing on her feet. She stood straight and stared at him with her head tilted, like a quizzical child. Well, Aang thought, she certainly had the nature of one.

"What's wrong?" Ty Lee asked, her head tilted to the side. "I noticed that you've been acting different." Aang didn't answer. She should have known. Was it so easy for her to just ignore everything that had happened? All the horrors her side had inflicted on the world? Or did she just pretend in order to cope?

Zuko, Sokka, and Katara all warned him of Ty Lee's fighting ability—they revealed the pressure points that they knew and taught him to keep those parts of his body safe from the acrobat. He kept their warnings about the dangers of her chi blocking in mind. This was his first time actually fighting one-on-one against her. In the confusion of battle, the two of them had been separated from the others, and Zuko, Katara, and Toph all fought Azula while Sokka and Suki fended off Mai. Aang itched to finish the fight with this distraction so he could go help his friends.

Aang fell into firebending motions and unleashed an uncharacteristically aggressive blast of air that swept all the way to Ty Lee, but the acrobat sprung high into the trees surrounding them, landing on a branch with perfect balance. She peered down at him on the ground below her.

"You really have changed," she said. He thought she looked sad. "You used to be so happy. I thought we could have been friends."

He blasted her again with a current of air, forcing her to jump away from him again.


Aang's eyes flickered open abruptly, having woken up from his dream. However, another surprise was quick to greet him.

"Whoa!" Aang shouted out, once he realized what was in front of him. It was quite odd waking up to Azula's amber eyes staring at him. Both of the benders jumped back and sat up. "Why were you… staring at me?"

"I was not staring at you!" Azula shot back. "We just… happened to wake up at the same time."

"Sure you did," said Zuko, choosing to walk by at that moment. Azula fumed.

Aang shook his head as he stood up and gathered his sleeping things to pack them away, the contents of the dream on his mind. Why had he seen Ty Lee this time? Usually, all of his other dreams consisted of tragic or painful moments in his past, serving to remind him of his moments of greatest defeat. This dream only resurfaced a nightmare that only shamed him. Later, Ty Lee would go on to betray Azula alongside Mai and sacrifice herself so Aang and his friends could escape Ba Sing Se, long after the Comet fell. Aang was silent as Azula mercilessly teased Zuko about something, hardly listening to the two.

"I thought we could have been friends."

"Aang, you're being depressing again," Azula pointed out to him, flipping her bangs out of her face.

"You don't seem to care when I'm being depressing," Zuko mentioned to her, his shoulders slumped. Azula ignored him, fixing Aang with a drilling stare.

"I'm fine, Azula. Leave me alone," said Aang. He busied himself with breakfast, lighting the remains of the previous night's campfire. His mood worsened when all it did was smoke, a result of the nighttime rains. A frequent issue in the Fire Nation and one of the many reasons he hated camping there. The forest only did so much to hide them and a plume of smoke always made him feel vulnerable. He knew he was being even more moody than usual but it felt easier just to let himself stew.

"How about a quick fire duel?" Azula suggested, lighting a flame at the tip of her fingers. "Maybe you need to be beat into shape."

"No thanks."

Azula's brow furrowed, but it soon passed and her voice rose, brighter and persistent. "I've got an idea. The carnival's in town!"

"What's your point?" Zuko deadpanned.

The firebender rolled her eyes. "We should go, dum-dum."

Zuko's response was plain. "I don't want to go to a carnival."

"Why not?" Azula asked, her voice sharp. "Do something to make yourself happy for once."

"I'm never - "

"Don't say it," she said, and Azula promptly threw her shoe at him. She turned back to Aang, disinterested in Zuko's following yelp of pain. "He always says that like he's trying to be funny," she added, by way of explanation, with a malicious glint in her eyes that told Aang she found her brother's misfortune funnier. And then—Aang blinked in surprise—she gave him a pleading look. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"Why do you want to go so badly?" Aang asked.

"Don't ask me. It's something to do." Azula was clearly avoiding the answer, folding her arms and looking away from him.

Aang frowned as he tried to figure out her motives. He'd never seen her so pushy about something like this. "Alright. Fine," he finally conceded. "Let's go to the carnival."

Zuko sighed. "Why did you have to give in to her?"


"Look, Prince Sokka! The carnival is in town!" Kanna said with a wide grin, holding the flyer in her grandson's face. It was a gaudy thing in too many clashing colors, meant to distract and offer surface-level intrigue. Only children would be interested in something like that.

Sokka waved it away, looking over his maps with a bored yawn. "I'm not going to a carnival."

"Why not?" Kanna persisted. "Is the Avatar on your mind again?"

"Do I really have to answer that?" said Sokka, leaning against his propped fist. "Bato already caught the Avatar once. Just two days ago, I came very close to losing the Avatar forever. He has many more resources than I do…"

Kanna paused for a moment, and, ignoring him, held up the flyer again. "But it'll be fun! They might have ocean kumquats there. And cute girls in tights."

He perked up. That grabbed Sokka's interest. "I guess we'll go. But only because it isn't out of the way. We won't stay for any longer than an hour - no, ten minutes."


Azula was the only one out of the three of them that was full of energy and ready for all the things that the carnival had to offer. Aang couldn't help but wonder what it was about the carnival that had enticed her so; especially since she had looked as glum as Aang did while they recovered from their fevers earlier in the week. She'd never told him how she learned of and procured the medicine to make him and Zuko better. At the time, Aang just assumed that she hated playing the caretaker and didn't question it. Perhaps this was just her way to let out some steam; he could never imagine Fire Lord Azula ever wanting to go to a carnival unless her prey had hidden there or something.

Bright colors and big-top circus tents attacked them as they walked among the happy occupants of the carnival. Men and women in loud makeup walked along the dirt road, smiling and juggling various trinkets to the delight of the children following them. Aang's face changed from miserable to thoughtful, and maybe even a little sad. It felt like so long since he'd seen something like this, so many carefree people just walking through the stalls and sights.

Back in his world, he and his friends decided to forsake fun for working and training. At that time, after the Comet was gone and many of their friends were dead, there was no time for fun and games.

"Heads up, there are two Water Nation soldiers here," Zuko whispered to the Aang as Azula wandered among the game stalls. "And I think I saw some pirates wandering around earlier."

Azula turned back to the two of them, her face twisting into a scowl. "We'll not let them ruin our day. I'll burn this whole carnival down before that happens!"

Aang and Zuko exchanged wide-eyed glances. "Sure," said Aang. "They're not here. Completely ignoring them."


Sokka clenched his fists when he saw a familiar trio, a wolfish grin on his face. "Gran, look who's here," he said. "I knew it was a good idea to come to the carnival."

Kanna sighed, letting the stuffed rabiroo she had won drop to her side. "We are here to have fun, my dear prince. Do not let your hunt for the Avatar ruin it for you," she said. "Perhaps this is the universe's way of telling you it wouldn't be worth it today."

He watched the three of them walk by a stall displaying a variety of traditional Fire Nation stage masks. Sokka knew next to nothing about theater, but he watched the Avatar's swordsman friend pick up a blue demon mask with ferocious teeth and ponder something about it until the sister wrenched it from his hands and they walked away.

His mind had just hatched a plan.

After making sure they were well out of earshot, Sokka approached the mask stall and gestured for the seller's attention. "Hey, those kids that were just here - they're some friends of mine, and I think they were interested in one of these masks. Can you tell me which one?"

The artisan beamed. "Oh, yes! That boy liked this one, the Blue Spirit," he said, holding out the blue mask to Sokka. "It's a character from Love Amongst the Dragons, one of the most famous plays here, but recently there have been stories about a vengeance spirit with its face in these parts, so there's been a surge of popularity with this mask!"

"And my friends didn't want it?" Sokka didn't care about any stupid spirit legends.

"Oh, that boy seemed interested, but the girl was very... insistent that they move on." He frowned. "She said some rude things about my mask, you know. You should talk to your friend and tell her to be more polite."

"Oh, don't you worry," said Sokka. "I certainly will. Now tell me, would you say me and that guy have roughly the same height and build?"

The artisan scratched his chin. "Oh, no, he was definitely taller."

Sokka bristled. "No, there's no way he's that much taller than me."

"Oh, I think he is, dear," Kanna quipped. "A little more muscular, too."

The artisan gave Sokka an understanding smile. "Oh, I see. You're shopping for a new outfit for him, aren't you? That's really cute, but you should get something that fits him better and that'll certainly get your message across. Once you get his measurements, down the street there's a tailor - "

Sokka cut him off with an exasperated squawk of consternation while Kanna giggled into her hands. "No, no! What kinds of ideas are you getting? Just sell me the stupid mask!"

The artisan tugged at his mustache while he counted Sokka's coins. "Well, now I see why you're friends with that rude girl..."


The sky bison stuffed toy dissolved into ash as it burned in Azula's hand. The firebender walked down the street of carnival games, winning each and every one, only to burn the prize (but only after offering it to Aang first, who politely, if a little uneasily, declined). At the next game, Azula tossed a ball up and down in her hand, her other hand on her hip as she observed her target with a smirk on her face.

The object of her ministrations this time was a red and white bull's-eye, which was a switch that triggered the dunk tank, which dropped a real person into a tank full of some foul, green liquid. After spending a moment to calculate the distance, Azula chucked the ball right at the target and dunked the frightened man into the unknown fluid.

"Is that juice poisonous?" she asked, a note of dark excitement in her voice. Zuko and Aang glanced quickly at each other again and Aang had gotten an idea of why she wanted to come to the carnival so badly - she loved winning.

The alarmed attendant shook his head. "N-no, it's a p-perfectly safe mixture of water and potions for color," he said, as the drenched man resurfaced from the green fluid miserably.

Azula pursed her lips in disappointment. Zuko quickly switched her attention to something else. If they lingered too long, then someone would face her wrath like the people at the strongman competition already did. "Look, 'Zula! It's an acrobat show!" He pointed to the next stage in an attempt to hurry her along.

"Well, come on. Let's go see if they're real," Azula said with an exasperated sigh, leading the way to the stage. It had already gathered a larger crowd than any they'd seen in the carnival so far. All of the stage performers were clad in pink, cart wheeling around the wooden platform, doing flips off of each other's shoulders, and performing many other feats that might have even put some airbenders to shame.

Aang, Azula, and Zuko were enraptured.

A dozen of the girls gathered together in the center of the stage, facing their audience, climbing on top of each other and forming a pyramid. One of the girls, at the very top, held her palm straight up in the air as yet another—with a gold, decorative headdress framing her face—climbed above her, using one of her hands to prop herself up on the palm that was already in the air in an amazing accomplishment of balance. The girl with the gold headdress was totally upside-down, holding herself up with the other girl's hand. The audience clapped and cheered while the girl at the very top smiled at them all.

Aang felt like he was hit with an electric jolt.

"You used to be so happy. I thought we could have been friends."

The girl with the golden headdress—Ty Lee—seemed to stare directly at Aang, Zuko, and finally Azula. From the tip of the pyramid, she pushed herself off of the other acrobats and front flipped in the air, landing deftly on her feet, only to get more cheers.

He had never seen Ty Lee so happy. But, had he ever really noticed her before, other than when she attacked him or his friends? Aang wasn't sure, but he was positive that he should be happy for her. She was free of an evil Azula's influence and from being in the middle of an all-consuming war.

However, he chuckled to himself upon realizing that she was really part of a circus. Wait 'til I tell Katara that she really is a circus freak! And then, just as quickly as they came, his happy thoughts left again.

Aang did not want to speak with Ty Lee. She had died on his behalf—aiding in their escape from Azula—and he owed her enough not to get her involved in the war again. The crowd dispersed, and the three went on their way.

Unfortunately, meetings with fate, he supposed, were unavoidable.

"Hey there, cutie!"

There she was already, but without the golden headdress, popping up in front of Zuko with her braided ponytail and the same pink clothes he knew from his world.

"Uh… hi," said Zuko, his eyes widened and his hand behind his head, scratching nervously. "Aren't you… one of those performers?"

"Yupp!" she said cheerfully. "I couldn't pass up the chance to say hello to one of my cuter fans."

Azula cleared her throat. "Is that all you wanted?"

Ty Lee tilted her head. "No, I sorta wanted to know who you guys were." Her voice suddenly became deeper and she hunched her shoulders and waved her hands, speaking in what she apparently thought was a creepy voice. "One of you has a mysterious aura."

They all fell silent.

"Well? Wasn't that cool?" she asked.

"I suppose," said Azula, examining her nails coolly. "But you aren't one for theatrics."

Ty Lee snapped her fingers. "Oh, flaming hogmonkeys. I guess I can only do acrobat-ing," she said with a shrug. And, with a surprising amount of bounciness, she turned to Aang. "You were the one with the weird aura."

"You can read auras?" Aang asked, surprised. Could she do that before?

"Yep! I'm a woman of many talents," she said with a bright grin. She walked around the young Avatar, examining him closely from all sides, muttering inaudibly to herself, stroking an invisible beard. "Aha! You are surprised at my ability to read auras."

Azula gasped in mock surprise. "Oh my! She's amazing!"

Ty Lee looked up at her with another cheery grin. "You really think so?" She stopped her examination and looked down at Aang, who was shorter than her. "So kid, what's your name?"

Aang's felt his face redden in embarrassment. "I'm not a—"

"Whatever! But we've got to introduce ourselves if we're gonna be friends, don't we?" she asked.

"Er, what…?"

"My name's Ty Lee! What's yours?"

He hesitated but saw no harm in it. "I'm Aang."

"Aangie! Bit of a weird name, but it's adorable," she said. Aang clapped his hand to his forehead. Ty Lee jumped up near Zuko again, leaning her face close to his. "So what's your name, cutie?"

"Uh… I'm Zuko," he managed to say, tugging at his collar.

Azula butted her way in front of Ty Lee. "And I'm Azula. Do you mind? We were trying to enjoy a nice walk through the carnival."

"Whoa, okay," she said, putting up her hands. "I'm sensing some hostility. Is Zuko your boyfriend or something?"

"Don't make me gag. He's my brother."

"Oh. Is Aangie your boyfriend, then?"

Azula's fists clenched and froze against her side as her eyes bulged in anger and surprise. "What? Absolutely not! There is nothing between me and Aang and there never will be! How can you say something like that?"

"I'm unconvinced," Ty Lee deadpanned. She turned back to Aang and Zuko. "Aaanyway, it's blaringly obvious that you guys are travelers. Where're ya heading to?"

"The Golden City," said Zuko, who finally regained the use of his voice.

Ty Lee joyfully clapped her hands together after a moment's hesitation that only Aang caught. "Wow! What a coincidence! I gotta go there too!"

"You do?" Aang asked, scratching at his head of unruly hair.

"Yeah. I've got stuff to do there," she said. It was clear to Aang that she wasn't telling them everything. Just as he was about to open his mouth and ask, the acrobat changed the subject. "Hey, there's tons more to the carnival you guys have to see! Let's split up and have fun."

"Split up? That seems a little suspicious to me," Azula said, narrowing her eyes at Ty Lee. "Don't you have more flipping and such to do?"

"Nah, we're all done for the day," she said. "And honestly, it's kinda boring to go through the carnival with the same old group. It's more fun when you show it to new friends!"

"You used to be so happy. I thought we could have been friends."

When her words echoed through his head again, Aang gave Ty Lee a soft smile. "No, Azula. That's fine. We'll split up and have fun."

She returned it with a smile of her own. "Great! I call going with Zuko!" she exclaimed, latching onto the older boy, whose cheeks reddened.

"I guess that leaves me and you," Aang said to Azula.

"Well, fine," she said, folding her arms and looking away from him again. "If we must."


Ty Lee attached herself to Zuko's arm the whole time as they walked, but he quickly found that she wasn't so bad to be with as he previously thought upon his first impression of her.

She was so happy, so innocent, so untouched by the harshness of the war. Almost childishly, she pointed out everything she saw, every game she wanted to play, everyone she recognized from the circus. She was a nice change from his teasing sister and the broody but thoughtful Aang. And himself, he supposed.

"So why are you guys going to the Golden City?" Ty Lee eventually asked him, once they slowed down to a more relaxed pace. She still held onto his arm. He found her presence comfortable, after a while.

"Aang and Azula need to master firebending," he replied. "We've heard there are many great masters there. That is our only reason."

"Oh, I've heard that, too. And after that?"

"What makes you think we're going somewhere else?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I can tell you guys live like true travelers," she said. "I may not look like it, but I'm highly perceptive!"

Zuko smiled. "Maybe the Earth Kingdom, after the Golden City," he said, answering her previous question. Aang did need to master earthbending after fire. And then, he realized, he would probably be along for the full ride.

"Why?"

"Well… Aang's the Avatar," Zuko responded with a shrug of the shoulders. He saw no harm in telling her - she didn't seem to have a disingenuous bone in her body.

"Oh, I thought so. His aura seemed pretty powerful," she commented, defying the gravity of the statement as much as she did with her stunts. She didn't seem shocked in the least. The more of her eccentricities Zuko witnessed, the more he started to find it actually endearing. It wasn't often that someone looked past Azula's talents or Aang's Avatar status to take much notice of him. Not that he minded most of the time, but it was still nice.

"Too bad… the Avatar's journey is ending here," said a voice from unnervingly close behind them, almost in their ears. Before either of them could react, rough hands pinned their arms in place, twisting so that it hurt to move. Neither Zuko nor Ty Lee struggled as their attackers pressed bone blades to their throats, and Zuko wanted to curse his inattentiveness. The apathetic crowd around them kept moving, unwilling to cause trouble with the Water Tribes.

Prince Sokka stepped out from the crowd wearing a triumphant grin. "I'll be taking this," he said, ripping Zuko's sheathed broadswords from his back.

Zuko scowled at him, his words coming out as slow and dangerous as he could manage. "Give me my swords back."

But Sokka didn't seem threatened in the least. "Nope, sorry! I kinda need these."


Aang stood silently under Azula's calculating gaze as she tapped her chin. "Hmm… I've figured out how to tame that mess of hair on your head," she said.

"You did?" he asked. He hadn't bothered to cut his hair since emerging from the volcano. He liked the anonymity it gave him, a habit from three years of living in hiding. The practicality of it far outweighed his desire to adhere to Air Nomad customs. But, he had to admit, it had become unruly.

"Yes, but we don't need to cut it. You just need something."

"Like what?" Aang asked. She tossed a couple of copper pieces onto the stall counter next to them, swiping a headband from the display. The old shopkeeper happily pocketed the money. "A headband?"

"Correct," said Azula, circling around him again to tie it at the back of his head. The headband was made of soft silk, displaying a stylized white lotus figure in the front, the familiar Pai Sho piece. The headband was brown in color, with a dull yellow around the white lotus symbol. Azula turned to the shopkeeper. "Do you have a mirror?"

The shopkeeper produced a hand mirror from the sleeve of his robes, holding it out to her. Azula took it and handed it to Aang, who looked at himself.

His grey eyes stuck out to him first, clouded by war and violence, cold and unfeeling. The innocence that he displayed what felt like years ago was all gone. He tried smiling, but it didn't reach his eyes. It occurred to him that he had not seen his reflection this clearly in a long time.

"You used to be so happy."

"Here, take it," Aang said, almost forcing the mirror back onto the shopkeeper. He turned and hurried away.

Azula followed him, something like concern in her features. "What happened? You don't like it?"

"No, I do. It's fine. I'm fine," he assured her. Azula did not seem convinced. Luckily, they were interrupted from further conversation by the arrival of a blue masked figure.

Aang's eyes widened upon seeing the horribly familiar face, the blue mask, the ferocious white teeth… It had been so long since he'd seen it. Back in his world, Zuko was underneath that mask, he had rescued him… And then, just as quickly, he remembered that it was Zuko under that mask.

"Hey, Zuko," Aang said to him. He wondered when Zuko found the time to dress in black, but Zuko's broadswords were unmistakably there, right on his back. He wondered if Ty Lee had something to do with the new outfit - perhaps she had wrangled him into performing in a stage play. "Where'd Ty Lee go?"

The Blue Spirit shrugged.

"Zuzu, you look ridiculous," Azula informed him, after a brief moment of hesitation that perplexed Aang. "Now that we lost that girl, can we leave?"

"Um… Okay," Aang said. There was really no reason for them to stay anymore. Aang wasn't in the mood for the carnival anyway. "We'll probably run into Ty Lee again at the Golden City, if she's really headed there."

"Okay, let's go," said Azula. "Zuko, take off the stupid mask."

Zuko shook his head and continued walking.

"Why is he being so stupidly quiet?" Azula asked Aang, who shrugged. "I bet it's because vapid people like Ty Lee fall all over themselves for the detached, aloof types. She got to his head, I suppose."

Zuko led them to the outskirts of the carnival, where the din of the crowds lessened to make way for the singing cicadas at sunset. Soon, there was no one in sight, until Zuko turned a corner where they came to a circle of tents all close together—a dead end. The circle was filled with Water Nation soldiers, and in the middle, Zuko and Ty Lee.

Aang looked to the Blue Spirit, alarmed, as he took off his mask, revealing Sokka's scarred, victoriously smirking face.

He let out a barking laugh. "What does the big hero say to his enemy in that play about loving dragons or whatever? 'I've finally got you, brigand!' You can't run away now, Avatar. I've got your friends this time." Aang and Azula fell into bending stances as more soldiers sealed off their exit. Sokka reached into his pocket, pulling out Azula's golden headpiece and tossing it up and down in his hand tauntingly.

Azula lunged forward, harsh words rising to her lips, but Aang cut her off.

"Stop!" Aang said sharply, holding his hand out to stop her. "You'd be doing exactly what he wants you to do. If we use brute force he'll probably have contingencies in place." He's much cleverer than Prince Zuko ever was. Aang dropped his staff. "Sokka, take me and leave the rest of them alone."

Sokka sighed. "On one hand, you seem to think highly of my plans - and you really should, I love that - but on the other... How much of an idiot do you think I am? I know what you'll do. Once you're in chains and your friends released, you will have no reason to hold back and you'll just escape. I see right through you, kid."

"Oh yeah? See right through this!" Ty Lee yelled out, elbowing her captor in the gut. Freed, she twisted and jabbed him in the shoulders, rendering his arms useless. She proceeded to do the same to Zuko's captor, ducking under a spear swipe and simultaneously freeing the swordsman. She moved quickly, disabling almost a dozen of Sokka's warriors before they even realized what was happening so they could fight back.

Aang took the opportunity to attack, shooting a jet of fire from his hands at Sokka, who gathered water from his pouch to absorb it. Using an airbending-powered jump, Aang leapt over Sokka and grabbed the leather strap of Zuko's broadswords, burning the sheathed weapons off of Sokka's back. He tossed them to the weaponless Zuko, who caught and unsheathed them, ready to help.

"Now would be a good time to call Appa!" Azula called, shooting a fireball at one of the many soldiers still around them. Aang was busy in combat with Sokka, dodging his slicing water attacks and countering with wind and fire. Sokka stayed light on his feet, dodging and hurling his boomerang, but Aang knew better and disrupted its return with shifting winds. That turned out to be a distraction and he barely dodged out of the way of Sokka's close combat swings of machete and club in tandem.

"Who's your new friend, Avatar?" Sokka asked, cutting air with his machete. "Picking up girls at the circus now? I thought you were a monk!"

Aang flipped to the side and swung his staff, but Sokka bent low to the ground and braced himself. Prince Zuko never engaged in banter like this when he pursued Aang. "You've got the wrong idea, Sokka."

"Well, either way... that skill she's got is annoying! You really know how to pick 'em, huh?"

"Whatever foils your plans works for me," Aang responded, flipping his staff so that he kicked up an updraft under Sokka. "You almost got me this time, though!"

"Aang, are you trying to encourage him?" Azula stepped back with each blast of fire from her fists, backing closer and closer to Zuko and Ty Lee. The acrobat still weaved among their enemies, dropping several to the ground. Aang couldn't help but grin as he disengaged from combat with Sokka and backed up to them - it was nice to have her unique skills on his side for once. Once clear of Sokka's attacks, he managed to blow on the bison whistle.

Aang spun his staff in circles to deflect a stream of water Sokka sent his way, then spun to gather up more wind and throw it at Sokka. The miniature tornado blasted the prince backward with a yelp, tossing him and a handful of his men into one of the tents and making it collapse.

"There's our opening!" said Zuko, crossing his swords in front of him to block a blow from a Water Tribe spear. The soldier he fought collapsed to the ground, revealing Ty Lee behind him with her fingers outstretched.

The rest of Sokka's soldiers filled in the opening Aang had made, closing in on the group with their weapons and water. Azula, Zuko, and Ty Lee backed into each other, outnumbered and tiring.

"Get them!" Sokka shouted from the ground, pushing his warriors aside and struggling to stand. Just as the warriors were about to strike, everyone heard a loud rumbling and Appa appeared, hovering just above the ground. Azula was the first to jump and grab the bison's horns, pulling herself onto his head. Ty Lee was next, springing right up into the saddle, turning back to pull Zuko with her. Aang stayed on the ground, swinging his staff to keep as many soldiers away as possible, especially when the arrows started to fly. When there was enough space around Appa, he jumped…

…Only to be yanked down to earth by Sokka, who grabbed his ankle and hurled him to the ground, ready to bring his club crashing down on the Avatar. Aang quickly punched his fists together, creating a barrier of air that swept out all around him, throwing Sokka airborne yet again. Aang stood and unfurled his glider, but before he flew away he stared down at Sokka with more conflicted feelings before Azula's shouts urged him to move.

A moment later, Aang landed back on Appa's saddle as the bison was flying from the carnival. Ty Lee and Zuko sat in the saddle while Azula had control of the reins.

"Wow, that was so cool!" Ty Lee said, clapping her hands together. "Those Water Tribe guys are so mean, but we showed them!"

Aang grinned and scratched his head. "So… Ty Lee, since you're going to the Golden City too, why not come with us?"

"That's very nice of you. I'd love to!" she said happily, clasping her hands together in excitement. "I hope I won't be a burden."

"Are you kidding?" Zuko said, shocked. "That was amazing! What was that?"

"Chi blocking," Ty Lee informed him, miming the action. "I can strike the pressure points and stop people from moving or bending." Aang noticed that she used a lot of hand motions to talk.

"So you can block chi and read auras?" Aang asked.

"Yupp! Hey, that reminds me. Want me to finish your aura reading?" she asked him.

"This should be interesting," Azula commented from the saddle.

Aang shrugged. "Sure."

"Okay," said Ty Lee, sitting in front of him and crossing her legs. "Well, you're a very angry individual."

"Oh. Thanks?" He wondered how much she would be able to reveal.

"But I also see determination. And sadness. Guilt. Fear," she said, her voice getting lower with each emotion. They seemed to be having an effect on her. "You have a lot of layers, Aang." Everyone fell quiet. "But there's also other stuff hidden under there. I see happiness, a little bit of hope, and love."

Azula turned her eyes from the sky ahead to stare at the two.

Aang nodded. "Thank you, Ty Lee," he said sincerely.

"No problem!" she responded, giving him a thumbs-up. She was all smiles again. "So, you guys are definitely sure I can be a part of your little group now?" she asked for confirmation.

"Of course. The more the merrier," Aang said, smiling. The old Ty Lee's words echoed in his head again.

"You used to be so happy. I thought we could have been friends."

He owed her that much.


Author's Notes: Oh, how I love Ty Lee.

And yes, before anyone asks, Ty Lee IS switched with somebody, but that somebody won't be evident until later chapters (unless somebody can guess first).

Oh, and Sokka doesn't know about Katara being the real Blue Spirit of this story. He just found another similar mask and took it to fool Aang. That was the last we'll see of Blue Spirit!Sokka.