Disclaimer still applies: I own only the plots/situations/ideas that I have placed the characters in and any ocs.
Fractured Minds
Chapter 4: The Dragon Woman
Katara didn't quite know what to make of the two strange people that Toph introduced her and Aang to as soon as they landed in the Jasmine Dragon's back garden. This had been three days ago and not for the first time she wishes that they'd said no. It certainly didn't help that Raven reminded the waterbender of Azula, then the waterbender was immediately suspicious of Raven after hearing that she agreed to help Azula at Iroh's behest.
The bad memories that she associated with the insane princess were still fresh in her mind, even though it'd been a few years since the war ended. And despite her best efforts, she couldn't bring herself to forgive Azula for trying to kill them all.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos" Raven's endless chanting of these unusual words woke Katara.
She briefly contemplated going back to sleep until the sight of Raven levitating four feet off the ground, registered in her state of semi-consciousness. How is she doing that? Aang can't float like that. What is she? What do those words mean? These were just a few of the questions running through her mind as she passed by Raven to get a head start on breakfast; not to mention that it was one of the few foolproof ways of getting Toph out of bed before noon, the promise of food.
"I was born with the ability to levitate and I could be called an energy bender, Katara. Azarath is the place I was born, Metrion is that which dwells within, and Zinthos signifies strength of will." Raven said, stopping the waterbender in her tracks.
Katara turned to face the strange woman with a horrified look on her face, before shouting, "You can read minds?!"
"No. She can't." Katara's attention was drawn to Raven's right as Gar seemed to appear out of thin air. "But she can feel and decipher emotions like she's reading a book."
"How is that even possible?" Aang was very curious about the two strangers, he and Katara didn't quite see eye to eye on the issue.
"How is it even possible for you, Katara, Toph, Iroh and thousands of other people to bend the elements? I was born with the ability." With that said, she turned away from the small gathering and went back to meditating. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos."
"Bu-" Aang was interrupted as Gar stepped in front of him, blocking his view of Raven.
"Dude, trust me when I say this, whatever questions you have they can wait."
A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth at hearing Gar say that. It was kind of shocking to her about how much he'd listened to her over the years. She recalled that particular conversation about her daily meditation; it involved lots of broken glass and threats to drag him into the underworld.
'Can I help you?' she sighed, officially giving up on her morning meditation session.
'We know virtually nothing about Azula. Other than what we could get out of Toph and the little that Iroh knew. Aren't you a little concerned about this?' Intelligence fired back with a question of her own.
'I've already asked Aang and Katara. Neither of whom had anything other than 'she's evil' to say about her.' Her answer was less than satisfactory to Intelligence and upon sensing this Raven asked, 'Do you know of anyone else here that we could pump for more information?'
'I'll concede that point but what about her friends, surely they could give us Azula's side of the story. I'm just asking you to consider tracking down someone who wouldn't just give us: she's bad, end of story. All we've got to go on is how 'evil she was'.' Intelligence could charm a cow out of its calf when she exerted the effort.
'Very well. I should have remembered not to bother arguing with you. Because we both know who's going to win.' Compared to other instances, Intelligence had never experienced her mistress give in this easily to her demands before.
'Don't get use to it.' Raven said just as she was dragged from the conversation by a messenger hawk landing near where she was meditating.
The red hawk was flapping its wings and screeching nonstop to get attention and it succeeded. Before either Aang or Katara, whom recognized Hawky, could move Gar was already next to him. With exception of Raven, this wasn't new for her, jaws hit the ground as Gar seemed to have a conversation with the hawk.
'Calm down.' His tone was harsh and sharp. The effect was immediate as Hawky stopped screeching needlessly and snapped back, 'I have an urgent message for Katara and Avatar Aang. Kyoshi island is being ransacked by pirates.'
Not missing a beat Gar said, " Kyoshi island is being attacked by pirates."
The moment that he'd said Kyoshi was being attacked, Aang wasted no time grabbing his glider. Just as he launched into the air, the avatar started issuing orders but only managed, "Katara-"
"Go, we'll be right behind you." She said, watching as he soared over the waters of the cove, where they'd made camp the night before.
As she moved towards Appa's head, she saw a flash of black and gold. When she turned her head, she was stunned by what she was seeing, both Raven and Gar had shot off like lightning after Aang. When Gar had reached the water he dived head first into it and as he hit the water's surface transformed into a creature of some kind. Raven on the other hand was airborne and was already little more than a faint speck on the horizon.
"Oh Sugar Queen, I forgot to mention that Nightmare can fly and the Goofball turns into weird animals. My bad." Try as she might the blind earthbender couldn't contain the smirk that spread across her face.
Through grit teeth Katara demanded, "Anything else you forgot to mention?"
Toph's only response was an even wider grin. Which quickly disappeared when Katara snapped out an urgent, and in Toph's mind the worst two words in the world, "Yip, Yip."
Midway through his hasty and poorly planned flight Aang heard something gaining on him. That can't be Appa and the others. Toph did mention that Raven and Gar are like benders but not..
Rather than allow his mind to go in circles trying to figure out what was following him, he risked a glance back. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he saw Raven closing the distance between them.
Once she was level with him, him having not taken his eyes off of her approach, she said, "If I keep going in this direction will the first thing I see be Kyoshi Island?"
He nodded at her and his mouth hung open as she changed into a shadowy bird, that sliced through that air like a knife through butter. He attempted to increase his speed to match her but a muted flash of silver from below drew his gaze, he was further astounded at seeing the sea creature shift into another one, matching Raven's speed. Who are these people?
Kyoshi Island; Sunrise
It was officially fall in the Earth Kingdom as the morning air would have easily chilled her to the bone, if she'd not been doing her required once daily run. Unlike most of her fellow warriors she preferred to run in the morning rather than at night. Plus she loved watching the sunrise from Suki's front porch. Her house had one of the best views of the bay. I wonder what Suki wants to talk about. She seemed awfully nervous when she asked me if I was doing anything on my day off yesterday.
Shaking her head of these thoughts Chaz Zu easily crested the hill and to her surprised there was Suki, standing by the railing on her porch with two steaming cups of tea. As she drew closer to her leader and her closest friend, she waved.
When she finally reached the house a steaming cup of tea was her friend's way of greeting, which in Chaz Zu's opinion was the best kind of greeting. "How can you possibly run in that?"
She flashed Suki a grin by way of answer before sipping the Dartsti tea, a specialty blend of tea from the Fire Nation. According to Ty Lee it was how her mother's family got rich. The tea was designed to help soothe muscle aches and joint pains. When you blended it with Blackthorns it had a kick to it that helped the drinker's mind to wake up. "Its very breathable and its like a second skin, after I hit my stride I barely even notice the cold. I need to thank Ty for recommending something like this."
They fell silent at that and directed their attention to the sky above the bay, where the sky was beginning to shift from night to day. The last couple of months had been relatively peaceful for Kyoshi. But the festival was just around the corner and the two island born residents knew how hectic the island would get.
"Has Ty found a permanent place to settle yet?" She figured that this was a safe topic, seeing as how the last person who brought up Sokka was assigned to take care of the Unagi for six months.
"She has." The stiff tone and rigidity of Suki's body language, alarmed Chaz Zu. She set her empty tea cup on the railing and focused her full attention on Suki.
"Is there something you're not telling me?" She can see that the question has had a visible effect on her friend, Suki starts fidgeting.
"Its difficult to put into words and the elders will likely try to remove me as leader, if they find out." Suki was never one to sugar coat anything.
She was taken aback by this. What could be so bad that the elders-?
Her mind went into over drive as it connected the dots. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, she said, "You know Kyoshi's laws as well as I do. You've met this one in particular. I'd love to see the elders try to remove you. And I know for a fact that none of the girls will be bothered."
In the silence that greeted her words she watched as the tension in Suki drained away into nothing. A moment later and she found herself being squeezed to death. "If Ty hurts you, I'll kick her ass to the spirit world and back."
"Thanks, Zu. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't my friend." As Suki pulled away from her, she inwardly frowned. I hate that you worried over my reaction Suki. But I can hardly blame you, after all its society's fault that you're like this. Afraid to live true to yourself for fear of being ridiculed, shunned, and or killed.
Before Chaz Zu could say anything further the sun set the water ablaze and glinted off the hull of a Fire Nation Destroyer. Suki wasted no time as she switch from friend to leader.
"Zu rally the girls and gear up." She was torn, normally she'd never question Suki at a time like this but she couldn't help herself from asking, but before she could get a word out, Suki said, "Sokka let me know that the twins and himself made it to the United Republic safely, he also informed me that Aang and Katara would be traveling back to Ba Sing Sei from the southern air temple."
With that Zu nodded and shot off down the hill and headed toward the dojo, hoping against hope that at least some of the girls would be there for Ty Lee's chi blocking technique training. She was already too far away from the house to hear Suki calling for Hawky.
The pirates had somehow managed to bypass the Unagi and the lookouts unseen and had sent skiffs to shore with hundreds of pirates. And just as the first of the boats reached shore, the ship's catapults rained fireballs down on the village, setting half of the buildings on fire. The marauding pirates dragged villagers from their homes as smoke and countless indistinguishable pleas for help filled the morning air. A blur of black and red dance through the chaos. Twisting and turning around, by, and or above the enemy. When a strike landed, the pirate fell crashing painfully to the ground and paralyzed from the waist down.
She'd been in the middle of her introduction to chi blocking when Chaz Zu came running in telling them an attack on the village was imminent and rather than wait for orders, she took off for the bay. She reasoned that the others would follow as soon as they could. Now she was one of the few Kyoshi warriors that was still standing and the only one without a single scratch on her.
Normally an attack force this size would be no problem for them but that was before the airships arrived shortly after the first wave landed on the beach and dropped more pirates into the village. This particular warrior wasn't phased by the overwhelming numbers, losing one's fear in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds happened quickly when sparring with Princess Azula. Upon seeing even more pirates coming into the village she just willed her body to move faster.
She'd just saved Kan and Kai from four pirates when she heard a heart stopping bellow cut across the battlefield. She wasted no time and took off in the opposite direction of the sound, hoping to find the others. Her search was in vain as they were all spread too thin over the village. There's only one way forward.
With her course of action set she headed toward what could be certain death. It take didn't long for her to reach the village square and as soon as she did, she used a little known talent of hers; she imitated the cry of a injured baby calf.
The rhinoceros boar was unstoppable once enraged and as destructive as a saber-tooth mouse lion searching for a lost cub. Its razor sharp ten inch tusks jutted out of a square mouth and had two six inch horns on their wide snouts, that can impale the tough hide of catgators. Both male and female rhino-boars were ill-tempered and highly protective of their young. Many young and inexperience Fire Nation hunters were discourage from hunting them alone. All of this was at the forefront of her mind as fifteen rhino-boar riding pirates tore into the village square heading straight for her. Right as the rampaging rhino-boars reached her she jumped into the air and paralyzed four riders, their mounts shortly followed.
Both Suki and Chaz Zu stood in shock as Ty Lee danced among the rhino-boars, knocking pirates from their backs and dropping the ferocious animals to the ground. Suki's heart beat was just starting to slow when one of the riders pulled the reins on his mount to the left, causing the rhino-boar's head to sweep from side to side. This forced Ty Lee to doge to the right and she landed in the path of another rhino-boar. She barely managed to chart wheel out of harm's way. As she came to her feet, a jolt of pain shot through her left leg. A single grunt of pain escaped her, displaying very little about how much the wound hurt, and then she collapsed.
Merciless laughter rang through the air as the last six riders charged the downed warrior as she tried to stand. Time passed in agonizing slowness as Suki and Chaz Zu forced their already tortured bodies to run. They both realized at the same time that they couldn't do anything. Neither was able to look away as the distance between Ty Lee and the rhino-boars was eaten up.
"NO!" At Suki's heart rending cry, the impossible happened, all six rhino-boars were thrown back. A wall of black ink surrounded the area where Ty Lee had fallen. The two warriors blinked and when the wall remained, they were knocked off their feet by an unnaturally cold force as a battle axe sailed above their heads.
Disoriented Suki and Chaz Zu shook their heads to clear them and looked up to see a woman in a black and gold cloak. The cloak's hood hid half of the woman's face from view but what held their attention was her white glowing eyes and her hands, suffused with the inky substance; that'd saved their lives. "See to your friend. I will handle the rest of them."
Suki did a double take after the woman had spoken to be sure that that hadn't been the fire lady. Her jaw hung open as she watch the cloaked woman fly out of the square, pursuing the now fleeing rhino-boars and their riders.
She was then pulled to the right by Chaz Zu as a knife was thrown at her by a soot covered marauder. Chaz Zu rushed him. "Oh fuck no. Better start running asshole."
Suki felt herself being shoved to the side once more and as she rolled to a stop on the ground, what she saw drained the color from her face. Ty Lee had been impaled by two short swords and the only thing visible was the tip of one sword protruding from her abdomen; the other sword's hilt was fit snugly against her chest, just below her heart. Blood poured out of her mouth as both marauders pulled their weapons out, laughing coldly. She fell to her knees first, hands clutching the wound on her stomach and as one of the marauders passed by her, she fell onto her side hitting the earth with a final sounding thud.
Their laughter turned Suki's vision red as she launched herself toward the discarded battle axe from earlier. Her knuckles were white as she gripped it and in one smooth motion she rose from the ground to face the advancing marauders.
A plume of smoke, ash, and sparks shot into the air as the behemoth of a man was thrown through a burning house. There were splinters and cuts covering his face as he'd been thrown through many walls ever since he encountered the cloaked monstrosity. "W-what are you?"
The tremor in his body as well as his voice pleased them. And as they turned to look him in the eye, they said, "I'm your nightmares come to life."
'Don't kill anyone.' Rage snarled a hiss by way of answer.
The hiss was not just in her head, it rode upon the heat filled air and as it traveled the battlefield, all conflict ground to a halt. As the few warriors in the area, the villagers, and the marauders all thought they'd heard the roar of a dragon. With all eyes upon the cloaked figure they watched as it grew and towered above them all, it was even bigger than Avatar Kyoshi's statue in the village square.
Suddenly the figure was engulfed in flame as the airships launched a volley of fireballs. The flames were swallowed up by the very shadows themselves but those watching soon realized that it had been the cloak that devoured the flames. An eerie gold glow slowly spread across the ocean of black fabric and as the outline of a dragon stood in stark contrast, they heard, "That was very ill advised."
Then all at once a volley of black fireballs flew through the air and punched through the airships and one by one each ship crashed into the bay's waters. During this the white eyes switched to red and another set had appeared above the first.
A wave of agony and rage fueled her as she sent five shadowy tendrils at the downed marauder. His attempt at distancing himself from her attack was pathetic and in vain as her soul-self latched onto him like boiling tar. The chill of it bit deep and saturated his bones. The man's terror increased as the seconds ticked by and as it grew she fed on it, plunging him beyond fear. She tugged on the tendrils attached to his legs, his screams were music to her ears, the smell of his urine made her nose twitch, and all of it was mesmerizing to her.
His screams cut off abruptly as his head disappeared from view and the last part of him to vanish was his bloody cracked finger nails, they'd dug three inch furrows in the ground as he had been dragged the six feet between him and her. The silence was suffocating and unnatural as even the wind had stilled as soon as the marauder was taken beneath that black shroud.
That silence was shattered five minutes later when the marauder was flung from the shroud like he was a tiny pebble. He sailed through the air and crunched sickeningly onto the ground. No one dared to breath nor move. Just as she began to approach him, Katara and Aang rushed in between Raven and the deathly still man.
Before anyone could do anything, a hulking creature with white pupil-less eyes, tackled Aang and Katara out of the way. It growled in warning when they tried to move. And when that wasn't enough it changed back into a human form. "Stay out of her way."
As he slowly moved toward his teammate, hoping to calm her down, he was brought up short as Raven spoke, "Does anyone else want to tango?"
Her red eyes swept over the crowd. The only thing reflecting in those eyes was the promise of pain. They moved from person to person leaving them pale and shivering but thankful that she'd passed them over to find another victim.
"Very wise decision," she fell silent and moved toward the downed marauder and as she reached him, he lifted into the air as if he were a puppet on strings, "If I ever see any of you bastards pillaging another helpless village again. I will hunt you down and do unto you what I've done to your leader."
The aforementioned leader jerked violently but did not open his eyes. Her smile was wide and humorless as she flashed the frozen marauders her fangs, "And I will enjoy every single minute of it."
It was then that the marauder woke his eyes were bloodshot and listless. When his was free of her energy he collapsed and sat staring blankly at the ground.
"Boo." Her voice triggered a reaction in him.
He started thrashing uncontrollably and pounding his head against the dirt, while wailing, "Get the their voices out. Their voices. Their voices. Teirh viceos. Ehrti Isovec. TIERH OSCIOV. TGE HTE IRETH VEICSO TOU."
'Don't look at me like that mistress. No innocents were harmed and that worthless sack of skin, liked them young; Melvin's age to be exact.' Rage was visibly fatigued and as she turned away from their conversation, 'This period of rest was a good suggestion. Please give my gratitude to the Worm, mistress.'
Raven was for the first time completely baffled. She'd never seen such a docile side of Rage before. She decided not to pursue her curiosity at this time, for she had no idea what to even ask.
'Do you...?' She trailed off as Intelligence simply nodded to her mistress's unspoken concerns.
'We are all worn out from our mission and I'm sure Red's been soldiering on for the last three months. You were right to demand this down time. We need it.' Intelligence let a wry grin steal across her face. 'Though this escapade certainly doesn't qualify as down time.'
Raven returned the smile with a small one of her own. 'Still Rage worries me. Please look after her. If you'll excuse me I have damage to control.'
'Don't worry.' Intelligence's voice was fading out as reality came into focus.
In her preoccupied state of mind, the rest of the marauders, at least the ones that could stand, fled to their boats. It was hard to take her own advice as the first thing that she saw was Gar nervously standing to her left.
"Raven, what was that? Did...?" His fear was like a slap in the face to her, but she understood that he was a afraid for her and not of her; he knew that Rage can taken control.
"What are you?" Katara had never been so terrified in her life, not when Aang first went into the avatar state, not when Azula struck him with lightning, not when Hama forced her to become a blood bender, and not when Zuko was almost killed. She's evil, even more than Azula was.
Raven didn't speak and as she brushed past Katara, the waterbender reached for her arm but the waterbender's body was suddenly cold. Katara wasn't bothered by the coldness of the strange black energy encasing her entire body.
"Gar I let it happen and if you want to know why, follow me. And you Katara, will learn that I'm not evil and that I do what I must to protect and help people." Her voice seemed to snap the avatar out of his stupor.
"Let her go." Everyone one in the vicinity stepped back as the wind picked up around the avatar and his tattoos started glowing. In an instant a black ball closed around the avatar.
"Toph, your friends are fine. They're just overreacting and there is an explanation for all this." She paused and turned to face the blind earthbender, who'd been torn about whether or not to aid her friends. When the hovering rocks remained airborne Raven continued, "Please don't make me use force."
When the rocks slowly dropped to the ground, she turned around and beckoned for Iroh, Gar, and Toph to follow her. The ball of black and Katara had no say in the matter as they were taken along for the ride. The citizens and warriors of Kyoshi island watched as the dragon woman subdued a powerful waterbender and the avatar, in the avatar state, without any visible effort. Iroh had a thoughtful look on his face as he followed behind his friend having no doubt that whatever her reasons for her extreme action, it was warranted.
The haze of red that clouded her vision had been replaced with a veritable ocean of blood. The two men that had killed Ty Lee were dead themselves. Pieces of one littered the ground, a hand here, a few fingers there, and his head, it'd been cleaved in two. The other one had precise incisions along his abdomen, he'd been disemboweled, and his entrails were scattered around his body. Their pale skin had been stained red like the earth beneath them. She saw none of this as she haltingly moved to where Ty Lee had fallen. As she reached Ty Lee, Suki saw that the acrobat was still breathing.
She won't be alive for much longer. This thought drove away the last of her rage, the same rage that had driven away her tears; they spilled over to trail down her face. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the horrible sight so she willed her eyes to shut. "Please don't leave."
"As much as I love you and as much as I wish I could stay. I can't." Her eyes snapped open and she watched those gray eyes, that could be as hard and as cold as steel or could hold so much warmth, lose their spark of life.
"No, no, no, no, Ty come back. Please come back. For me, please. I love you. Come back. I need you to come back. No." She felt the words pass her lips but the wind stole them away before she could hear them. An immense weight pulled one of the world's fiercest warriors to her knees. Her tears flowed like a river after a storm as she pulled Ty Lee's lifeless body into her arms. Her jaw was locked nor could she force herself to say the words. I won't ever forget you.
The sound of Suki's voice had brought Chaz Zu back to the square at a run, that would have disastrous repercussions on her protesting body later but for now she ignored it. When she entered the area all she saw was Suki cradling Ty. She wanted to go comfort her leader but she knew Suki better than anyone and so, hating every moment, she kept her distance. She put lid a on her grief as someone would need to help with the day to day needs of the village in the days to come.
About three minutes into her silent vigil, she heard approaching footsteps. We so can't handle more marauders right now. But what she saw instead wasn't much better than more enemies, the woman who'd saved their lives was bringing half the village to the square.
As she moved to intercept the woman and the others with her, she was shocked when another warrior, Dai, dragged her out of the woman's way. "Don't get in her way Zu, she just put a stop to the attack single handedly. And when she did something to Katara, the avatar when into the avatar state, she easily contained him."
She would have laughed it off, but she'd known Dai about as long as she'd known Suki and neither were the type to exaggerate. Not to mention Dai was unnaturally pale for someone whose family was from the Southern water tribe originally. She nodded but then took off and fell into step beside the woman. The kid next to her tried to come in between them but the woman held her hand up and shook her head.
"Suki is a very private person. She doesn't need half of the village to see her like she is." The woman remained silent but gave her, strangely enough, a reassuring look.
Once they reach the square and before anyone knew what happened, the dragon woman, the strange kid who turns into a creature, Chaz Zu, Toph, and Iroh were obscured from view as a wall of black popped into existence.
Chaz Zu jumped a foot in the air when she heard the woman address her, "I'm Raven, he's Gar, and I'm sure the others need no introduction. What's your friend's name?"
"Nice to meet you, I'm Chaz Zu, call me Zu. And her name's Ty Lee or was." Even though her voice was steady she saw a knowing look in Raven's eyes.
"I need you to go to Suki and get her to let go of Ty Lee."
"I'll need help." She tipped her head in the direction of the eerie black wall, and asked, "Can you let the others pass through that?"
By way of answer, Dai, Shenzi, Bo, and Tan Jin fell through the wall that they'd been about to slam into. "Come on girls, Suki needs us."
As they went to their leader, Raven set Katara on the ground and withdrew her soul-self from the waterbender's eyes and ears.
"I'm going to release you now and when I do please remain silent or I won't hesitate to silence you myself. Do be sure to clam your boyfriend down or Ty Lee will stay dead permanently." With that Katara found herself faced to face with Aang in the avatar state.
"Aang its okay, she didn't harm me at all." As he looked her over for injury just to be sure, and when he found nothing, he stopped glowing.
"Let me go." Suki's voice was a snarl and she kicked out, trying and failing to break free from Chaz Zu's grip on her.
"Alright Raven whatever it is you're going to do, better make it quick." Chaz Zu said being barely audible over Suki's shouting.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." At her words, a blue glow enveloped Ty Lee's body and a black one around herself.