But Zuko is oblivious, all of his attention on the strange girl in front of him. What the hell is she? He thinks. But much to his despair, Yu Jie seems to read his mind and smiles coyly, her answer only one word;
"Different."
Aang glances back at the group and gives a warning.
"Hey guys, we're almost at the palace. Get ready for a dive!" Despite his warning, he gave his passengers no time to even get ready, and a 'yip yip!' later they are plunging toward the ground at high speeds.
Leaving Yu Jie, for the second time today, having to hold back a terrified scream.
But to her relief, they reach the ground quickly. When Zuko, still in a state of shock, makes no obvious movement to help her, she lifts herself up and over the basket. But not even a second after her feet touch the ground than she crumples to the ground like a marionette whose strings were severed. Sokka is to her side in an instant, hooking his arms under hers and lifting her to her feet.
"Come on, we just have a few feet to go." Sokka whispers encouragingly, and starts to lead Yu Jie towards the front doors. But it soon becomes apparent that the teen isn't used to walking much, and she stumbles over and over again, Sokka becoming her main source of balance. She doesn't get to go inside, however, as Katara switches to protective-mother mode again.
"No, Sokka! Wait!" He looks at her and gives her a 'what in the hell are you talking about?' look, to which Katara only scowls.
"I have a makeover to do. You just go upstairs and bring down some of my extra clothes." He nods and hands the frail Yu Jie over to Katara, who leads her step after painstaking step to a nearby lake. Katara lowers her into the body of water slowly.
How long the poor girl had been in that dirty cell soon becomes obvious. The grime rolls off of her body in waves from head to toe. Katara pulls out a piece of cloth and a comb from a pouch on her waist. Yu Jie eyes the comb warily.
"Okay!" Katara says cheerfully, suddenly in nothing but bandages to count as a bra and underwear. She lowers herself in the water and eyes Yu Jie's hair warily. She hands her the rag.
"Here. Wash with this while I work on this monstrosi – I mean…all of this hair." But before the comb can come close to the mane of hair, Yu Jie jerks her head away.
"Please remember to start and the tips and work up to the roots." She advised. "Do it the other way around and I will not hesitate to pull out your hair." Katara's hands automatically fly up to her scalp, but she soon lowers them, mumbling incoherent. She does as Yu Jie says, though, and takes it slow on her hair while the ex-prisoner takes on her skin. She had been in that cell for so long that the dirt had caked up and is nearly a part of her skin.
It isn't too long after tackling her skin however, that it is free of dirt and grime. Her hair is an entirely different matter. Katara tugs. A bit hard.
"Ow!" Yu Jie exclaims.
"I-I'm sorry!" Katara shouts. "I'm trying not to hurt you!"
"Well, freakin' try harder!" Yu Jie snaps. Thankfully, her scalp doesn't fall under the mercy of tugging, and one full comb of dead follicles later and Yu Jie can actually run her hands through her hair for the first time in years. Taking a clip from the pouch on her waist (what else is in there?) Katara takes the long, front bangs of Yu Jie's jet black hair and pin them back. By now, Sokka had already placed extra clothes and bandages on the bank of the lake and booked it. Yu Jie slipped off the oversized tunic she had worn in the water, sinking deeper in the cool liquid up to her chin. Katara holds up the bandages, avoiding looking Yu Jie in the eye.
"You do know how to…uh…" the teen catches on quickly and nods.
"Yeah. You don't have to stay." Katara nods once and, grabbing her clothes, walks away briskly. The teen climbs out of the water and dries off with a stray towel, probably left behind by Sokka. Not going into details here, (because that's perverted) Yu Jie manages to mimic the way the bandages were on Katara's body and pulls on the extra robe. Not that surprisingly, it fits. While Katara and Yu Jie have an age difference, Katara is, well, thicker and heavier than Yu Jie. The sixteen year old makes up for this lack of weight by her height. The robe is made of silk, something Yu Jie only once touched very briefly, so she was left in a state of enormous gratitude. The robe is a dark forest green, soft floral patterns decorating the surface. She took towel and folds it neatly, placing the comb on top along with the cloth, after she wrings the soft blue thing of any extra water.
Though it wasn't until she started walking did she realize that she shouldn't even be able to walk, let alone be able to stand. She smirks to herself, remembering that the water bender has the ability to heal.
Clutching the towel in her hand, Yu Jie starts walking faster. She gradually speeds up until she breaks out in a full run, the soft, cool grass caressing her feet. She reaches the palace doors shortly, feeling good but out of breath. When was the last time she had run? She pushes open the doors with effort, wheezing when the doors fly wide open, hitting her with a blast of warm air. She opens her mouth to call Katara, but stops short. She doesn't even know her name.
"Waterbender?" She calls, only to hear silence. She scowls, her temper quickly rising. She never had much patience to begin with.
"Fire Lord? Air bender?" she calls, louder this time, walking in an aimless direction. The floor was cold, her feet making a slapping sound on the smooth surface. Well, this is pissy. She thinks. How long can one girl go without having a meltdown? After a couple of minutes (couple of hours is more like it), she comes across a large and elaborate door. Noting that nearly all of the doors in the palace are large and elaborate, this one was, for some reason, especially large and elaborate. Not bothering to knock, she twists the dull gold door knob and peers inside.
And nearly has a heart attack. Well, Zuko nearly does anyway.
He's trapped in the center of the great room. His amber eyes are as wide as saucers, unmoving like a poor deer trapped in the headlights of a truck. A simple black tunic is frozen halfway onto his body, leaving his abdominals open for the world to see. Yu Jie, in the meantime, remains impassive. It's just a shirtless boy; nothing special.
The tunic slips continues its trip onto Zuko's torso so fast it's a blur.
"Yu Jie!" He exclaims, embarrassment evident on his features. Yu Jie shrugs.
"What?" she says, her features remaining melancholy. What is he having a hissy fit about?
"Get the hell out of my room!" he exclaims, having to hold himself back from shrieking at the intruder. Wordlessly, Yu Jie slips from Zuko's doorway, closing the large door softly behind her, just as a large shattering sound is heard. Yu Jie assumes that Zuko threw a vase, or something of glass.. She didn't really get why Zuko reacted so strongly. Shoot, all that he had off had been his shirt. What's the harm in that?
She turns to continue her adventure of aimless walking, but crashes into someone, falling to the floor. Shaking her dazed head as if to dispel flies, she looks up to see the water bender, a concerned look on her face.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, Yu Jie! Are you alright?" Yu Jie nods, getting up slowly to avoid a buzzing head.
"Don't worry about me. I've been through worse." Katara falls silent, catching the double meaning behind the ex-prisoner's words. She shakes her head like an annoyed cow, secretly hoping the thought will fly away.
"Anyway, I was just looking for you." Katara says suddenly, grabbing the girl's hand, only to recoil back. Are her hands always so cold? She thinks. She shakes her head again.
"Like I was saying…dinner's, uh…ready." Katara hesitates. She turns without waiting for an answer, her slippers making no sound on the smooth floor. Yu Jie follows her silently. The walk is in silence, but they soon arrive in a large, circular room. One would call in a dining room, but there were no adequate tables or chairs. The "chairs" were soft, downy pillows that sink when you sit on them, and the table was a simple, small wooden one.
A pleasant smell wafted over to Yu Jie's nose, and it took all of her self control not to drool. Over to her left was a simple hearth, a large pot hanging over the fire lit in it. Yu Jie walked over to the nearest cushion to her – it was a soft, earthy brown color – and plopped into it. As she expected, she sunk into it like it was made of clouds. No sooner than she had sat down then was a ceramic bowl full of soup is placed in front of her. The soup is hearty; it's filled with rice, mixed vegetables, and meat in shallow broth. Yu Jie can't help but seize the spoon and starts pigging out, shoveling the still hot soup into her mouth, ignoring her protesting and burning lips. The bowl is finished in mere minutes, and another is placed to replace the first one. This bowl is eaten slower than the first, Yu Jie savoring the flavor this time.
"So."
Yu Jie's eyes snap up, the food still making its trip to her mouth. She had forgotten anyone else was in the room; she focused only on the food and keeping her long hair out of it. Aang is sitting across from her, a tranquil look upon his face. He hands her a napkin, and Yu Jie proceeds to wipe her messy face with said napkin.
"Now that you're full…or on the way there…let's talk." Katara and Toph sit on Aang's right, while Zuko and Sokka sit on the left, flanking him like commandos. Yu Jie shrugs, though she knows the answer to her question.
"What do you wanna talk about?"
"Getting to the point," Toph says, leaning forward on her elbows and resting her chin in her palms, "how long were you in that cell? Seriously." Yu Jie fidgeted in her seat. She knew the great earthbender could tell if she was lying or not, so Yu Jie had no way out.
"Since I was around six or seven." The member's of Team Avatars eyes nearly bug out their sockets.
"Nine or ten years?" Sokka exclaims. Yu Jie just nods.
"Well, why were you there?" Sokka adds. Yu Jie fidgets again.
"There are two main reasons." She starts. "But they kinda lump together as 'something my dad's actions led up to." This time, Katara speaks up.
"What's the first reason?" This time, Yu Jie is left entirely uncomfortable.
"I'll…have to show you." She says quietly. She bows her head and closes her eyes, leaving her hands folded neatly in her lap. A couple seconds of silence pass.
Then everything starts getting weird.
First, some of the flames in the hearth go out, casting the room into dim light. No one notices the fluttering at first, until Yu Jie's hair is cast upward, out and away from her face like a black halo. It isn't until close inspection that the gang notices dark tendrils surrounding the body of the teen like solidified smoke. The tendrils are pitch black, maybe even darker, it that's possible. The move and flail out like dangerous snakes, a sharp contrast against the teen's nearly white skin. One swirling tendril takes on the shape of a blade and impales itself into the wooden table like a hot knife in butter, causing the team to start.
Just as suddenly as it starts, the spectacle ends, the fire returning to earth as if nothing happened. Opening her amethyst eyes, she takes in the utter shock and terror on the team's face. When no one speaks up, she explains,
"I don't bend water, earth, fire, or air. I bend darkness; an element I suppose no one else can bend or even know is bendable." She shrugs.
"So that's one of the reasons you were put in that cell." Aang says, breaking out of his stupor. "People were scared of you're ability, so they locked you away." Yu Jie nods.
"So that's one reason." Zuko says quietly, also breaking out of shock. "So what's the other?" Yu Jie looks down at her hands. Another awkward moment passes.
"I…" She shakes her head, her long hair bouncing. "It started when I was about three or four."
"What?" Toph asks, her voice drenched in curiosity.
"Like I said, it started when I was three or four. Before I was born, my mom, whose name was Ai, divorced my biological father over something she refused to tell me. After I was born, she soon remarried to a seemingly sweet and kind guy by the name of Feng." Yu Jie shakes her head again.
"The fact that I bend darkness doesn't even make sense, due to the fact that my mom was an earthbender and Feng was a fire bender." The teen shrugs, but continues her story.
"I was about three when my dad learned that I could bend darkness. After that, his personality did a complete 180." She scowls, the gesture looking deadly on her features. "I was nothing but an object, a monster; he didn't refer to me as Yu Jie. He called me 'It' or 'That Girl'. By that time I turned four, he had turned really ugly toward me. He never acknowledged me if I was in the room, he never spoke directly to me, did all he can to stay out of my life. I liked that way. He was a rotten, ugly person; inside and out." Yu Jie stops then, taking a well needed deep breath. Just thinking about her stepfather made her mad beyond belief.
"But a couple of weeks before my fifth birthday, Feng gave me a birthday present I'll never forget." Yu Jie's voice at this point had turned hostile, taking on a gruff tone that surprised even Aang. "It was after midnight when he came into my room. My mother is a heavy sleeper; she never notices anything," she rambles, but reluctantly stays on topic.
"He started…groping me, touching me in places that even my own mother hesitated to touch." Yu Jie's voice grows dangerously low, her anger seeming to pulsate off of her. "He told me, 'Freaky girls tend to do freaky things. Maybe you're as freaky as your mom.'" Yu Jie shakes her head violently.
"I lost my virginity when I was four."
Abruptly, she snaps her head up and slams her palms on the table so hard that they leave obvious imprints, her purple eyes suddenly a fiery crimson red.
"I WAS ONLY FUCKING FOUR!" she screams, her voice vibrating around the room like a thunderclap. The mirrors on the nearby wall shatter, and the forgotten bowl in front of her suddenly seizes and splits in half. Her hair whips around her by some unseen force aggressively before it settles down, her breath labored and ragged. Purple clouds the red until her eyes are back to normal, and she dislodges her hands from the table with a sickening crunch. She runs her hand through her now disheveled hair, and isn't taken aback when her hand pulls back red. She continues, answering the unasked question hanging in the air, her voice breaking with fury.
"This…this continued for about two years. He told me…he told me that if I snitched, he was going to kill me, and then kill my mother." She puffs a stray hair away from her face, ignoring the fact that it only fell back down to its original place.
"I couldn't take it though. My self esteem was at a suicidal low; I actually attempted suicide more than once." Yu Jie chuckles darkly then, much to the alarm of the team. "But fate obviously has a twisted sense of humor, since every attempt failed. Every time I tried, Feng was rougher, more merciless than the last time."
"One day, I just…snapped. That night, I went into his room. He didn't feel like messing with his little toy that night, and my mom was away for business. I tied his ridiculously long silk sheets to the legs off the bed frame with thick rope. After that, I simply to the oil lamp he kept by his bed, set the sheets aflame, and watched him burn."
It is Aang turn to slam his palms on the table, his eyes filled with shock and anger.
"YOU KILLED HIM?" he shouts. Yu Jie just shrugs it off as if he asked if she went to the market.
"Yes. I took his ashes and scattered them in the wind. After that, I was locked up in that crystal monstrosity that rendered my bending nearly non-existent. Aang stands up and grabs her shoulders and shakes them aggressively.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" He shouts in her face. Yu Jie shoves his hands off roughly and stands up, her height being an apparent advantage over the short 112-year old.
"So what the hell was I supposed to do?" She says, her voice dripping with venom. "Just sit back and let him have his way, hm? Just sit back and let him rape me?" Aang shakes his head violently, his anger apparent in his tightened features. Katara stands up and tugs on Aang's arm.
"Aang, just calm down –"
"NO!" he shouts, shaking her hand off, effectively shutting Katara up and sending her back to her seat. He turns back to Yu Jie.
"Violence is never the answer! Never! Are you proud of yourself, Yu Jie? Are you proud you became a murderer at only six?"
Yu Jie's hand moves so fast it's barely a blur.
Her right hand makes itself known to the side of Aang's face, instantly leaving an angry red print as his head whips to the right. Zuko jumps to feet and grabs Yu Jie's wrists, preventing her from slapping Aang's face again.
Aang turns back around slowly, one hand gingerly touching his flaming cheek, his eyes wide. Yu Jie's eyes are once again a crimson red, her breathing irregular with anger. She wrenches her wrists out of Zuko's iron grip and storms away to the door. She opens it and walks out, slamming it behind her so hard that the walls shake. Toph decides here to speak up.
"Wow. Now that'swhat I call a drama bomb."