I OWN NOTHING!
I can finally stop calling the Blue Spirit "it"! That got so annoying, and I can only imagine how annoying it was to read. There is almost no blood; there is no suicide, no cutting and very vague violence. I did not enjoy writing this chapter as much as the others, but that is because I pushed what I was looking forward to writing to the next chapter. Please tell me what I can do better please, or just say if you enjoyed the story. I know that Azula is almost painfully out of character, but please bear with me… you will understand why it had to be like this.
Return of the Blue Spirit Chapter Five
'It feels so good to get out of those dreadful Kyoshi uniforms and back into my own cloths,' Azula thought as she observed her Dai Lee agents attempt to reconstruct the entrance to their headquarters under Lake Laogai. The water lapped at her curved-toed boots as the agents caused the ground under the lake to rise while turning the water tan with the unsettled mud. While the water cleared Azula caught sight of an odd object in the lake, not too far from the jetted piece of bended earth she was sanding on.
"You there," Azula barked at the nearest Dai Lee agent, "Bring up that item from the lake to me." The agent only succeeded in causing the water to get murky because there was too much water to bend the earth under it.
"I apologize princess; it would seem the object can not be reached." The agent was about to turn away when Azula grabbed his sleeve with such strength that her nails cut thru the fabric and into his flesh, "I did not specify how you were to get it, now follow my orders!" With this Azula threw the agent into the lake. When he came up for air he was met with a blast of blue fire hitting the water near his head causing intense steam to rise.
The agent submerged himself under the surface and did not emerge for almost two minutes. Azula, thinking the man had drowned, was about to call another agent when a sharp gasp was heard behind her. The agent delivered the object to the princess and caught his breath before crawling back on the rebuilt entrance way.
Azula's face broke into a devilish smirk as she analyzed the blue item. It was a simple wooden mask, the carvings were not spectacular and it was only painted in simple blue and traces of white, but the princess knew exactly how special this simple piece of driftwood was, 'Finders keepers, Zuzu.'
For the first time in her life, Azula cursed the Spirits for giving her blue fire. She made a visual sweep of the field and saw that her enemies, even the ones she was fighting beside, had a sheer look of terror plastered to their faces.
'…Azula,' Mai thought as she looked at the masked figure with new eyes. She felt as if someone had replaced her blood with water from the North Pole as she tried to remember how to speak. The courtyard had gone completely silent as the blue flames cooled down to red. Quiet coughing, like that of a kitten when they get a mouthful of dust, erupted from under a scorched fish net. The three men that were beating Ty Lee were reduced to smoldering coals around the acrobat who was weakly attempting to be free of the net.
Mai noticed that Ty lee's eyes were still closed. 'She closed her eyes while she was captured and has not opened them since, she still thinks that is Zuko!' Mai thought as she saw Azula walk towards the acrobat. Mai was closer and got to Ty Lee before the prodigy was within ten feet; she pulled her soot covered friend up while preparing to launch three arrow heads at her princess.
"Get back you monster!" Mai threatened as her friend regained enough balance to stand. "Mai what are you doing!?" the Ty Lee asked her support while finding the strength to stand on her own.
"That's not Zuko, its Azula!" Mai declared while never breaking her gaze at the princess. Ty Lee turned her sight to Azula who, even with her eyes still blurry from the ash could tell, was
looking away with her fists trembling. Ty Lee knew that Azula was trying to hold back her fury at being called a monster. Ty Lee felt a twinge of pity enter her heart as she lowered her head.
"I… I know Mai," Ty Lee said in a raspy voice as both Azula and Mai snapped their attention to her, "I knew all along." Mai was about to question her friend but in the corner of her eye she could see Azula about to release a dagger at them. Mai dived down, dragging Ty Lee with her, as she made her weapons ready to unleash on the prodigy. Mai was in mid throw before a sound behind from behind stopped her dead.
The guard that Mai was fighting with the overcompensating axe was about to strike Ty Lee and herself until Azula's dagger cut through the wood of his handle causing the blade to come down with such force on its master's back, that Mai could see a sliver of steel projecting itself through his chest. The girls felt the earth below them tremble as the guard fell to the ground.
The warriors had been standing in defensive stances ever since they saw the fiery tidal wave of blue. Less than twenty guards were capable of continuing the fight, and they must have thought those were good odds as they attacked as one unit shouting and razing their weapons. The warriors reluctantly took their focus off Azula and met the remaining guards in combat. Azula did not turn to assist them, and from what she saw that night she knew they would not need her.
Mai dusted herself off while she helped Ty Lee rise to her feet, "What are you doing here!? Did you want to kill us yourself!?" Mai's eyes shown with fiery fury that neither Ty Lee nor Azula had ever seen from her. "What, was a lifetime of imprisonment not harsh enough!? Why can't you just leave us ALONE?" Azula stayed silent as she looked down from the raging assassin.
"Mai, I don't know why she is here but so far it does not look like she wants to harm us." Ty Lee's eyes never wavered from Azula while she spoke, but unlike Mai who looked on with disgust and rage, Ty Lee had almost a concerned look directed at her princess. "I'm not saying that we should trust her, I just think we should put this off until after we escape." Ty Lee looked up at her ridged friend with shy smile that could barley be made out because her face was mostly covered in back soot from Azula's flames.
The warriors barley got finished with their opponents when they heard Mai demanding, "Alright, how to you plan to get us out?" Mai kept her weapons in hand as Azula started to gather electricity at her finger tips. The darkness made the blue lightning dance in the most beautiful way that Ty Lee had never seen before. A deafening clasp sounded as the lower half of the great metal gate disappeared.
A few guards seemed to have made their way to the roof of the prison and started unleashing arrows towards the girls. They were not accomplished marksmen by any means but they did pose a threat, a minimal threat but a threat none the less. The three Fire Nation natives moved to the agape twisted metal until Ty Lee noticed that the warriors were slacking behind.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Ty Lee exclaimed as those words brought a painful tightness in Azula's chest. The three stopped and looked back at the girls that were in some sort of huddle around… what looked like a body. "Zin is losing too much blood, we can't move her!" Ty Lee was about to return to her friends when a dark blur of Azula sped by her. The warriors saw their oncoming enemy and prepared themselves for a fight, a clear growl of frustration could be heard behind the wooden mask as Azula was within two yards of the group. The leader stepped forward to confront the princess, "Stay bac…" was all she could get out before she was thrown over ten feet away. She looked up and saw that Azula was tossing her warriors aside as if they were no more than rag dolls until she was alone with Zin. The princess produced a concentrated flame in her palm until it was almost white, then she took Zin's exposed wrist and cauterized the wound. Azula looked around and upon seeing that the other warriors were keeping their distance, she reluctantly lifted the unconscious girl onto her shoulders and sprinted passed Ty Lee and Mai until she was clear through the smoldering gate followed soon by all the others.
The warriors gladly took back their wounded and felt somewhat at ease until Ty Lee shouted, "Everyone get back!" The reason of this warning became apparent as they turned their attention to Azula: the princess turned her back on the group and stood ridged facing the forest off the road, she pulled her hands into tight fists while her body began to quake. The night air grew incredibly warm around her and everyone felt as if they were in a sauna while her body
looked like it was going to tare itself apart from the extreme tension. Azula raised her fist and struck the trunk of a tree so large that it would take ten people to just reach around it. From her fist came a blue flame so intense that it ate through the trunk in less than ten seconds. Azula roared so loudly that it could be heard over her jet flames.
The flames ended a little less than a minute from when they started; the alit forest cast Azula in a hellish silhouette while she seethed behind her mask. The warriors retreated far from the turmoil while Mai and Ty Lee stood their ground. 'Is this some kind of trick? I must be, Azula does not make a move unless she knows that she will somehow profit from it… even if it is a long ways away.' Mai frowned at the prodigy while she collected herself, "Are you about done with your temper tantrum? Now tell us why you have come here unless you wish to die where you stand." Mai flashed her projectiles threateningly. The masked princess turned to look at her would be attacker. She was still breathing heavily when she waved her palm in a signal that they should follow her.
"You can't possibly think we would follow you after seeing what you did. You are evil, and though I have not figured out your plan yet, I am going to make damn sure we won't fall for it." Azula sighed sharply as her frustration was visible through the mask. "I think we will be okay Mai, I mean she has gotten us this far right?" Ty Lee tried a weak smile but Mai only redirected her anger, "How can you defend this murderer after what you've just seen, what she did to us? Or better yet, what she has done to us for almost our whole lives!" Azula shifted uncomfortably at her last comment.
Luckily they were miles away from the prison and even further away from any population so their elevated voices were not heard. "How do you know that she wont just turn around and butcher us like we have seen her do countless times to others!?" Ty Lee was starting to get frustrated as tears welled up in her eyes, "The same ways I knew it was her from the beginning and the same way I knew she would get us passed the gate! Now if you have any clue where we are or if you have a plan then please tell us! If not then lets do what has been working so far!"
The warriors looked at Ty Lee with awe; they had never even seen this bubbly girl so much as frown! Mai turned to the current Kyoshi leader (whom she still didn't know by name) and asked in her dry tone, "What do you guys think?" "You two know her better than us, we will go with
whatever you decide." Everyone turned back to Azula who was stood with crossed arms impatiently; Ty Lee and Mai didn't need to see her face to know what it looked like. They had seen this pose many times as the princess waited for them to pack their tents or saddle their mongoose-dragons. "Lead the way then your highness." Azula ignored Mai's disrespect and turned on her heel to head into the thickest part of the wood.
Oh how I wanted to add the upcoming flashback into this chapter, but it will be the starter for chapter six! I am not as happy with this as much as my last chapter and I know why: I was trying to parallel the Gaangs reaction to Zuko trying to help to this group's reaction to Azula, but then I remembered how tired I got of that in WAT (Western Air Temple)! I did want more action but then I decided to leave this one as a little breather between battles…hint…hint. I promise that Azula's OOCness will be explained in detail leaving no room for plotholes (I hope). I really wanted to put it in this chapter but it would be almost twice as long. I hope that you all are enjoying this story, please review for any pointers or just to say if you enjoyed it or not.