Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or its characters. I do not own Teen Titans or its characters. I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in and my OCs.

Fractured Minds
Chapter 21: A Snake in the Grass

Kyoshi Island, Refugee Camp; the Council Tent/Day 60

She was disoriented and a little cold but her ears perked up when she heard her mother's voice getting closer, "I love you, in all your idiotic glory. But from the moment Raven flew into that court yard all you've let yourself see of Raven is how much she reminds you of Azula. Raven is not your sister, Zuko. Raven, if she'd been in the Fire Nation would have come to our aid."

We have an aunt? This thought was quickly pushed out of her mind as her father accused Raven of knowing about the attack. "You're right. But that begs the question, where was she for the attack? Maybe she knew about it..."

She bristled on Raven's behalf and wanted to give her father a piece of her mind, if mother didn't beat her to it. Her resolve to yell at him later was cemented in place when Raven spoke.

"Or maybe she prioritized Azula's treatment over the Fire Nation and its ruler, whom already rejected her offer of help once."

She didn't even spare a glance at Raven as she launched herself at her mother, from the corner of her eye she saw Rook had similarly rushed their dad.

As she was held in her mother's arms and then traded to her father a minute later, her mind was fixated on that master firebender that accompanied Raven. There was something familiar about her but no matter how hard she tried, that familiarity remained out of reach.

"Huh?" She said coming out of her daze. She had no idea how she got to the tent she and Rook were in.

"I said," Rook paused to look at her, making sure she was paying attention this time. "what's gotten you so upset?"

"I'm not upset. I-"

"Daoru's been flickering in and out for the last little while."

She let out an annoyed huff at his interruption. "I'm thinking about that master firebender. She seemed awfully familiar but I can't think of where from. I know I've met her. And her chi, even though she only bent lighting, felt similar to Daoru. Did you...?"

She saw how Rook started to fidget as she stared into his eyes, silently asking the rest of her question.

"No I didn't feel anything like that. You should let it go Lil. I have a bad feeling about that firebender." He couldn't stand the look in her eyes as he said this so he shifted his attention to the stretch of tent behind her.

"I can't let this go Roku." She said and took very little joy in his resulting wince. She told him that she would use his full name when she was angry with him or irritated.

"Why?"

"The shape of her eyes are the same. The color's the same. The protectiveness was the same." Her voice grew more and more quiet as she spoke.

"Lil why are you so fixated on a stranger. One that we've never met before today." He coaxed trying to keep her from getting more upset than she was.

"She's the woman, Rook." At her admission he went stock still. They were both told by their parents, and Shen, that they were found next to a woman's body. The woman who'd taken them after she killed their parents; their real parents. Lost in the rush of unpleasant memories as he was, he almost missed the rest of what she was saying, "I know the story. But I've never believed it, not for a second. I remember the woman waking up as we were found by Shen's search party. Her eyes locked with mine when he picked me up. They were filled with protectiveness and desperation. That master firebender had the same eyes as the woman."

"She can't be, cause if she was than she murdered our parents. " He spat, frustration bleeding into his words.

"No she didn't, they've all been lying to us. Shen, Mom and Dad." She said trying to keep a lid on her anger at his stubbornness.

"She destroyed our family before we even got to be a part of it!" He screamed back, sparks flying from his finger tips. He took a moment to reign his fire chi in. After taking several deep breaths, he asked, "Why are you so hung up on this firebender?"

"I think she's our mother." She said softly.

"Well she isn't and if she was, how could a mother abandon her own children." He shot back, though his tone wasn't as sharp as before.

"If that's how you feel," He looked everywhere but at Lily not even when Daoru appeared did he look at her. "then I'll find her myself."

At this he did meet her gaze. "She's on Kyoshi."

He moved to catch her sleeve to hitch a ride but was too late and his hand closed around air. His stomach twisted into painful knots as his guilt overwhelmed him. He needed fresh air, that would help clear his head. He exited the tent.

"Where's your sister?" He heard Shen growl and refrained from backing away from the general.

Refugee Camp; the Infirmary Tent/Day 60

As she pulled her soul-self back from the injured civilians and soldiers she carried, to deposited them on the cots, Intelligence's summons seeped into her birthmarks making them pulse with the same agony that she felt when Slade inscribed them on her; do not ignore. She swallowed the reflective hiss as she sunk into the ground.

Nevermore was still a scattered smattering of small rocky platforms, revolving around the large platform that held Azula's tree. Everything was lit by the sickly purple light cast from the giant purple runes across the sky. None of them had yet to fade. She suspected that they wouldn't for quite a while.

She slowly made her way past the floating debris and to the burnt out skeletal remains of Intelligence's library. It relieved her to see that there was already a handful of books drifting toward the platform to join the small pile that was already there. Intelligence had been working non-stop to beat their faculties into some semblance of order to be of some help to Azula.

As she descended to land, she was dismayed to see that Rage and Intelligence had willingly merged. She was cautious in her approach, the last time this happened she was over powered and lost control; Slade got thrown around like a rag-doll and her friends' fear of her grew. Controlled Fury wasn't an emote that she wanted to meet again.

Their cloak was a dark orange-red that had inscriptions fading in and out; the reddish tint to it told her that Intelligence was barely holding herself back from giving in to their anger. The cloak billowed around them in a non-existent breeze. She shivered as the chill of their soul-self smothered her under its oppressive weight.

'We've identified one of Azula's frequent visitors.' Her apprehension worsened by Fury's words. Intelligence nor Rage would mince their words but the fact that they were, means they need her to stay in control.

'They were sent here by someone a long time ago, we do not know who. We aren't comfortable with guessing it was the Brotherhood. But it seems to fit. We request a full merge.' Her knee-jerk reaction was to stay no and demand they tell her what they knew; they'd never asked like this before. But again they were holding back to keep her from losing it.

Her voice was calm. 'Why a full merge?'

'Psimon's attack and subsequent injury, limits our power. You'll need all of us to harness our sire's powers. The actions we'll be taking require them. It won't be for long but long enough to incapacitate your human half.'

'I suspect you'll be taking the lead in this merge.' Fury nodded.

' May we proceed with the merge?' She held eye contact with deep orange-red eyes. 'Proceed but be warned I will not tolerate needless action and I will step in if things get out of hand.'

Her anxiety reached fever pitch as Controlled Fury walked slowly toward her. Not stopping until they'd pulled her in for a hug. 'Father controlled a handful of us to some degree and made us hurt you and your humans. They will not come to any harm. You don't have to be afraid for them anymore.'

She closed her eyes as Controlled Fury's soul-self pulled her into its burning chill; they were one.

The half-demon sensed his presence on Kyoshi, he shouldn't be there. She caught the tail-end of an emotional flare directed at him. Her soul-self followed the flare to Rook and the one she sought. She stayed within the shadows of the tent they were behind; only her eyes were visible.

"Where's your sister?" Shen's voice was little more than a growl as he stalked toward Rook.

"I don't know, sir. But I'll send Kuutak to find her." Kuutak's fiery orange form appeared next to Rook as he spoke. But the fire guardian didn't disappear until Shen had nodded his assent.

"As soon as he's located her, you're both to pack your things for a training trip." Shen said and without waiting for a response from Rook, turned on his heel. Mid-spin hazel eyes locked with red ones. His panic closed around her throat like a vise as he vanished into thin air. She tried her best to lock onto his emotions but he was teleporting too fast for her to follow. The shadows writhed and shredded the tents nearest her.

"Rook," He spun around to face her. "Send Kuutak to your sister and have him warn her about Shen. Neither of you are to go anywhere with him. Do you understand?"

He gulped at the odd cadence to her tone, he'd never hear anyone's voice sound so scary before. "Yes Ma'am."

"Good. Once you've sent him, you'll remain here with Zemra and Kyrak." Behind her, he watched as two fiery entities rose from the ground. Where their feet should have been, they had tails made of fire. The fire was red and black as it flaked off their bodies. Eight red eyes, like the ones that Raven had, rested on him. "Shen won't try anything with them here."

Without another word she vanished and he nervously glanced from Zemra to Kyrak. "H-Hi."

Kyoshi Island; the Lake/Day 60

It wasn't surprising that Ty would abandoned her like this. And as hard as she tried and much to her chagrin, Azula was right, it was impossible to be angry with Ty. The acrobat was currently using her lap for a pillow as she watched Azula move through a series of different katas. She thought it looked more like a dance than real firebending but the most unusual part was the color of the flames; they were orange-red.

"Ask," She shivered as Azula directed a glare at her. "I can feel the heat of your burning questions."

She tried to stifle her snort but from the way Azula's glare intensified, she wasn't successful. But as she went to speak the question on the tip of her tongue, she changed her mind. "She wanted to visit you."

"But she didn't." There was something in the way that Azula had spat those words out that took her a moment to identify; hurt. Her mind flash through all of Azula's interactions with Ty Lee and that same hurt was there, hidden behind snark and anger. She could scarcely believe that this was the same woman who'd conquered Ba Sing Sei, the same woman that gave her nightmares, and the same woman who almost killed Aang. "I wasn't expecting a parade, but I hoped, at the very least, she would have visited."

"Iroh warned us that trying to see you would get us imprisoned." She said not being able to listen to the broken undercurrent in Azula's voice any longer.

"Us?"

She nodded, "You're important to her and as much as I hated you before, I refrained from speaking badly of you, for her sake."

"Hated?" She would've laughed out loud at having reduced Princess Azula to bewildered one-word questions, if she didn't expect Azula to charbroil her on the spot.

"Your brother killed fifteen people when he was here, looking for Aang. All you did was kick my ass and scare off a sky bison. No one got hurt, except my pride and Kyoshi's legacy." She shrugged and flashed Azula a rueful smile, "Ty pointed out I was being a stubborn idiot and threw that in my face. It forced me to re-evaluate your actions toward the end of the war. Between you and Zuko, some of his actions were even worse than yours."

"Out of the many non-benders I've fought, you were one of the most memorable." She figured that was about as close to a thank you as Azula got.

"I have a lot of experience fighting firebenders." She saw the thoughtful and calculating glint in gold eyes. "Its not well known among the rest of the world but some of the Kyoshi warriors are benders, they just don't use it when in uniform. In fact before I got promoted to lead, the use of bending was forbidden but I changed that. Now new recruits have to be able to fight off and overcome two benders at once to officially join the Kyoshi warriors."

"That's not an attitude I've encountered very often from non-benders. Most of the time their bitter and resentful," She watched as Azula stopped to take a deep fortifying breath. "Bending isn't all that's its cracked up to be." Another breath from Azula as if the firebender's lungs refused to hold the air in and she spoke, her voice a whisper. "All my bending has ever brought me is suffering."

"Did-" your father beat you? She felt a pit of dread forming in her stomach that forced her to close her mouth over a suspicion that Ty's vehement defense of Azula birthed in her two months ago. "Never mind its not important."

She pretended not to notice Azula's tense muscles loosen at her words. A silence settled between them. Azula went back to practicing her katas and Suki resumed keep watch over the valley as she waited for Raven to return.

The silence was shattered a few seconds later as a ball of pink hit the ground hard enough to knock Azula off her feet. Ty Lee's eyes fluttered once before they stilled and she slept on. Suki hid her amusement as Azula scowled at Jinx. But was shocked when her scowl transformed to a small smile a moment later. The reason for her smile was a man, standing behind Jinx, in strange all black body armor with a splash of blue across his chest; in the shape of a bird.

Suki's jaw hung open when Azula let an orange skinned woman lift her off the ground and into a hug. "Friend Azula we had worries when you and Friend Raven disappeared."

"Star, the princess needs to breathe." Her eyes were drawn to another man with a half-metal face and a red eye. Her attention was drawn back to Azula and the woman addressed as Star who was lowering Azula back to the ground.

Azula had a fire dagger in one hand as she advanced on the man with a red eye. Before she could shout a warning to him or tackle Azula to the ground, a water whip smacked the back of his head. The source was a waterbender with dark blue eyes.

"How many times have I told you not to antagonize Azula?" A dark eyebrow rose as the waterbender waited for a response.

Looking like a thoroughly chastised child, he mumbled, "Countless."

"Jinx what the hell is going on? Who are they and why are they here?" She kept her tone as calm and as even as possible.

"Rae asked me to collect these four losers before relieving you and Ty Lee as Azula's minders. Else Fire Lord Cannon Fodder and Avatar Tactless will think something is up. Also, this is the rest of the original Titans from Left to right we have Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg. And...?" Jinx trailed off as she glanced in the waterbender's direction.

"Zen Ji, Azula's current doctor. Speaking of, Azula you're long over due for a check up." To Suki's further shock, Azula complied with the waterbender.

With a more firm tone of voice she said, " Jinx, why are they here?"

"To help you stop the Brotherhood and whatever they're planning for your dimension." Jinx's tone was smug and matter of fact. She made a mental note to keep Jinx away from Aang and Zuko for as long as she possibly could.

"Why isn't Raven here?" Everyone's attention was drawn to Ty Lee who had finally been woken by the noise but if the way Azula's eyes had shifted to the acrobat and back to the Titans, Suki would bet anything that Ty Lee had been awake the entire time.

"She's on Kyoshi but she said she needed to flush out a rat before they escaped with their information. Said this rat was hanging around the royal family." Jinx said with a shrug.

"Come on Ty, lets go lend our assistance to Raven. I don't want her to have to deal with Zuko on her own." The three Titans were surprised at the stern woman's sheer protectiveness for Raven. The Titans stayed long enough to make sure Azula would be okay with Jinx and Zen watching over her before following after the two women.

Refugee Camp/Day 60

Suki braced herself for the meeting between the Titans and Zuko as she led the three Titans through the refugee camp. There were a thousand different way that their presence could be interpreted by Mai and Zuko; mostly Zuko.

"Suki, Ty, thank the spirits!" She heaved a sigh and prepared for the latest life-threatening situation in two whole months of a never-ending stream of them."The Giant Serpent-eels are attacking. Zhaji, Reina, Mammoth, Gizmo, and X are trying to hold them off, there are kids in the water."

"Ty." She said and wasn't disappointed when her acrobat snagged Ade's arm, dragging her off to go rally the troops. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Starfire take off after them. She loosed a breath as the weight on her shoulders lifted a little.

As they came upon the council tent, she was stopped by a question from Robin, "Is there anything we should know about this Fire Lord and Fire Lady before going in?"

"Don't bring Azula up to Zuko, there's a lot of bad blood between them. And he's gotten worse over the last few years. Don't say anything about her being on Kyoshi either." She paused to swallow around the sudden lump in her throat about what Zuko would do to the fragile woman that Azula was underneath the scorn and fire. "They, unlike Aang, Katara, and Sokka, have seen the Brotherhood first hand and are willing to help you fight them. It'd be best if you focused on that."

As she reached out to lift the tent flap and let them inside, they flew open. An irate general Shen rushed out. He shouldered her out of the way or at least tried to. With reflexes honed from endless hours of practice and with everything that the last two months had thrown at her, her hands lashed out to land several jabs to his torso. Shen went down hard.

He lay un-moving for a second before jumping up, only for his shadow to come alive behind him. The shadows winding around him like a snake started pulling him down into the ground. A shrill scream echoed in the air as his head was swallowed up by the ground.

The entire camp echoed with an inhuman snarl of rage. That made every living things' bones rattle. As Zuko and Mai exited the council tent, Raven rose from the ground facing away from everyone. Suki bristled when Zuko rounded on her. "What is the meaning of this? Why have you attacked my general?"

Suki wasn't prepared for Raven to turn around and skewer Zuko with four narrowed solid red eyes, and the half-demon's answer sent chills down her spine. "He's in league with the Brotherhood. They have plans for Rook and Lily."

"No that's impossible." Zuko's disbelief was mirrored by Mai's.

"Raven are you sure?" Everyone's attention was drawn to the speaker.

"I'm sure." Raven's four red eyes shifted to Robin. "Kyd had orders to help evacuate the rest of the civilians from the palace and then bring Shen, Iroh, Rau, and Gar back to Kyoshi. He teleported here on his own. I like the new uniform."

He flashed her a smile at the comment on his uniform and,"Good enough for me. But maybe we should take this discussion somewhere else?"

To the surprise of all, mostly Suki, Zuko and Mai ushered them into the council tent without a word. The tent was dark when they entered it, a well-placed and controlled wave of flame produced by Zuko illuminated the space. The illumination from the candles didn't last long when Raven entered and seemed to dim the lit candles with her presence alone.

Everyone waited for the silence to break but when it had they soon wished it hadn't been. "Who are you?"

"Robin, leader of the Titans. And here to help you stop the Brotherhood." Robin's tone was short. Raven shared Mai's amusement at the exchange.

"How many of you are there?" Zuko's irritation at Robin's dislike of him dripped from his words like water from a faucet.

"A hundred," Robin said and gestured for Cyborg to follow him as he crossed the tent to stand by Raven and Suki, "and counting. But if you meant currently on Kyoshi. There's eleven of us."

Neither Mai or Suki missed the smug glint in Cyborg and Robin's eyes at his last statement. Mai eyes narrowed at that and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "This is all very fascinating but can we discuss why Raven wants to start a war with the Fire Nation?"

"They are not your children, are they?" Her question drained the blood from Mai and Zuko's faces; Cyborg, Robin, and Suki were somewhat confused by her declaration.

"Do you even know that your general," She made his rank sound like an insult, "is their father?" The roiling mass of emotions from them was all the answer she needed.

"This doesn't make any sense, why would he pretend they weren't his?!" Zuko defended his general, refusing to believe what she was saying.

"Who taught them how to master fire bending?" She whispered answering his question with another question.

It was Mai who answered, "He did."

"Have you ever seen Shen use his firebending?" The silence that fell after her latest question was telling.

"Mai," the fire lady's fear impelled her like the knifes she fought with. Her grin slowly revealed her razor sharp fangs. "who does Lily remind you of?"

The hesitation was so brief that, had her empathy been less advanced, she would have missed it.

"Ursa, Zuko's mother."

"You're lying." She said so sweetly that it was in congruent with her tone. "Their eyes are the same shape, the same color. Their mannerisms are the same though Lily's haven't yet become malicious like hers. They're both prodigies. I will ask once more. Who does Lily remind you of?"

"Enough!" Zuko formed a fire dagger in his left hand and leveled it at Raven. Cyborg, Robin, and Suki all readied their own weapons. Mai wisely stayed perfectly still, she knew Zuko was all bluster when he got frustrated. "Speak plainly. I'm tired of these fucking mind games!"

"Zuko." His eyes shifted to Mai and then back to Raven. He tensed further when he felt her hand on his wrist, the same one with the fire dagger. Gently Mai rubbed soothing circles into the muscles to relax them. His tension melted away and he drew his chi back into him, allowing the fire dagger to fade. His gold eyes found dark bronze. "I've always lied to you when you've asked me. I said Lily bore a striking resemblance to your mother. But who else..."

"No." He shook his head and tried to pull his wrist from her hand but she held onto him.

"I was afraid of what you'd do if you found out; especially after the fight you had with your uncle. I failed her when I picked you over her. But I couldn't, would not fail her in this." This time when he tried to pull away, she let him.

"Lily has always reminded me of Azula." He moved even further away from her. His eyes land on Raven and was startled to see confusion on her face as the half-demon's focus was on Mai; like she'd never seen Mai before this moment or was seeing her for the first time.

His mind raced through every interaction he's had with Lily. With his eyes forced wide open, all the little things he blocked out; her bending, the flash of fiery rage in gold eyes, and the way she sneered at people when they were mean to Rook. It all clicked and his image of Lily fell away as he spoke a truth that he'd buried, "Azula is her mother."

Ah cliffhangers...gotta love them.