A/N Sorry it took me so long. I've been busy with homework and other websites that I've recently discovered. I got this idea from a combination of a song, a book, and a headache. I've been wanting to make this a longer original story with the same premise, but for now, it's just a oneshot on some fanfiction website.
Sela is the mother in Zuko Alone. Much of this takes place before that happens, though. Miyuki and Ying are named after different characters who appear in other episodes. I'll tell you in the next chapter, and for now leave you to guesswork. Panya's name is not from the show at all.
Dedication: Because it was slimy.
When Sela was fourteen, she and her family traveled to the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se. Her father was a merchant, and they were going there for trade opportunities.
The house they stayed in was the nicest that she had ever seen. She and her sisters each had their own room, and there was an apple tree in the back yard. Sela loved the apple tree. Little Miyuki climbed it all the time, and even Ying, the eldest, spent some time in the branches, but only when she wasn't in danger of ripping her nice skirts.
The only thing Sela loved more than the apple tree was the museum. They had a room where every few feet there was a mirror. Glancing into one of them you could see reflections for feet behind you. Sometimes it even looked like a tunnel.
But you could never tell, with those mirrors. Something you thought was real might be an illusion, and something you thought was an illusion could very well be reality.
After a few days spent stopping at every turn, Sela thought she had a handle on the way things went. She thought she knew what was reality and what was illusion.
She was wrong.
Sela turned left at a reality, and kept straight on going through illusion. She smacked straight into the intangible chimera, and knocked it over.
Illusion is made of glass and easily shattered.
As one mirror illusion tumbled into the next, Sela jumped back to avoid it and crashed into a third.
"Three mirrors," said a voice behind her. A smiling woman toward over the girl on the ground, surrounded by glass. She didn't try and help her up.
"Break a mirror, seven years bad luck," the woman said. "Break three mirrors, twenty-one years."
Sela turned and ran, turning right at illusion and dodging reality.
"Twenty-one years!" the woman called after her. "The thirteenth day of the sixth month twenty one years from now! The curse will end then, if ever!"
When Sela was fifteen, her small town was invaded by the Fire Nation, and her father was killed. The Fire Nation occupied their town for five years.
When Sela was sixteen, Miyuki developed Earthbending abilities and was taken away. They never did see her again.
When Sela was seventeen, Ying's husband was murdered by the Fire Nation, and she killed herself, leaving her only son to be raised by her sister.
When Sela was eighteen, the boy took it into his head to become a hero, and ran off to fight in the war, taking with him a good half of the young men and women in the town, leaving the remaining few defenseless.
When Sela was nineteen, the Fire Nation was driven out of their home, but at a terrible price. Instead of living under the occupation of a force they could hate, they lived under the rule of a tyrant who they must love.
A young Earthbender named Gow lead a band of soldiers into the village and left the Fire Nation behind... but not the days of terror that they lived in.
It wasn't until years later that they would discover that Gow and his soldiers were renegades, and not the voice of the Earth Kingdom army, only of their own whims. But by then, it was too late.
When Sela was twenty she was married to a farmer named Gansu. Several days later, half their lands were burned in a terrible fire that seemed to have no source. Gansu didn't blame her. The rest of the village did.
When Sela was twenty-one, she had a son named Sen Tzu. The boy was born on the anniversary of the Fire Nation's first blow against the rest of the world. As he got older, the only thing Sen Tzu would ever lie about was his birthday.
When Sela was twenty-two, she had a daughter named Panya. Gow suggested that when she reached marrying age, she become his bride. Sela sent her off to Gansu's cousin in Omashu.
When Sela was twenty-six, she had a son named Lee. He was born on the anniversary of the day the Fire Nation took over their city. They told everyone he was born the day after. Nobody believed them. Everyone knew, after all, that Sela's family was bad luck.
When Sela was twenty-seven, half of their remaining farmland was burned down. This time the perpetrator was caught, but nobody was entirely convinced.
When Sela was twenty-eight, Lee wandered into the barn Gansu was building and it collapsed. He was untouched by the falling beams through a stroke of luck alien to the family. But he was still trapped.
It wasn't until nightfall that ten-year-old Sen Tzu found his brother and the three of them dug the little boy out. Lee was unconscious, and slept through the next day. Sela didn't.
When Sela was thirty-four, Sen Tzu and a few of the real soldiers from their town traveled to the warfront in an attempt to drive the Fire Nation off. Sen Tzu survived. But he didn't come home.
When Sela was thirty-five, they got a message that Sen Tzu's battalion was captured. Gansu rode off to find him, and when he was gone, Lee was kidnapped by Gow and his ruffians. He was rescued by a scarred stranger who they had offered hospitality to the night before.
It wasn't until after Lee was safe that they realized the man was a Firebender. They hadn't known that. Nobody believed them.
The next night, the last of the family with no luck snuck out of the village, looking back only once to see their home ablaze.
"Mom," Lee asked once they were safe. "Remember that curse you had on you?" Sela could only nod. "When was it supposed to be broken?"
His mother sighed. "Yesterday, if ever." Yesterday... the day their rescuer was revealed as the enemy. The day they had lost their home, and the only hope they would ever have of finding their family again.
"Oh." It was quite clear that the latter was true, and the curse would never be lifted. "That's good then," Lee commented, smiling.
"Good?" Sela glanced up over the small campfire they had made.
"Good," affirmed Lee. "The curse is gone."
"Lee," his mother reminded him, "Yesterday, they day our luck supposedly returned, you were rescued by a Fire Nation man..."
"But still rescued."
"We lost our home..."
"But kept our lives."
"And any hope of finding your father and brother again."
"No we didn't."
"They'll never know where to look for us," Sela despaired. "We can't stay close to the village, or we'll be killed, and they'll have no idea which direction we left in."
Lee shrugged. "So? They'll find us. Sen Tzu found me the night I was trapped in the barn. And he was born on a bad luck day! To a bad luck family! If he can do that, he can do anything."
"No one is all-powerful," Sela warned him, but Lee had already rolled over and would hear no more against it.
Sela considered her son's words for a moment. She was out in the wilderness, with no ties to the home she had grown up in, with nobody but a young boy who couldn't believe for a moment that they wouldn't be okay. Lee and Sen Tzu were both born on bad luck days, and the very nature of her life was that it was intended to be hard for a stupid mistake she had made long ago.
And to make matters worse, they were sleeping under an apple tree, as if nature itself was taunting her with memories.
Maybe breaking a mirror was good luck after all.