Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Bender or its characters
Pointers: 'italics' means that the character is thinking
Summary: He hadn't seen her since the day he was banished, but he could still remember the way the wind had drifted her away. Zuko x OC
Book 3: Fire
The Awakening and The Headband Pt. 1
"Twinkletoes, that's got to be you." Toph and Katara running towards Aang excitedly. Standing in front of Aang are Hakoda, Bato, and a shorter Fire Nation soldier wearing firebender armor. Toph, Katara, and the tiny Fire Nation soldier, who is The Duke, walk on camera from the right, while the tall Fire Nation soldier, who is actually Pipsqueak, runs in from the left.
"Aang, you're awake!" Katara said ecstatically, "Go get Sokka and Jiyuu!" She told Pipsqueak, who nods his head and runs off.
Aang, meanwhile, rubs his eyes. "Are you sure? I feel like I'm dreaming." He is caught off guard when the waterbender runs up and embraces him.
"You're not dreaming. You're finally awake." Katara lets go as both Sokka and Jiyuu, dressed up as soldiers as well walks up to Aang.
Sokka gives him a quick hug. "Aang, good to see you back with the living, buddy."
"You sure?" Jiyuu asks as the watertribe warrior turns to look at her, "He seems pretty dead to me?"
"Sokka? Jiyuu?" Aang said as he looked very very exhausted and confused and then suddenly, he began to faint.
"Uh-oh! Somebody catch him, he's gonna..." Toph suggests, but Katara runs to catch hang, who still hits the deck.
"Ughh." He groans as everyone gathers around him.
"Told you he looked pretty dead to me, don't worry! I got this." Jiyuu lifted inhaled a large amount of air and then moved her lips to his ear, blowing a large amount of cold air through them, which immediately wakes him up and scurries to the corner of the wall. Everyone looks surprised, except for Aang, at her trick. She sneers, "Its an old trick Grandpa wrote about."
Sokka sitting on top of a crate on the deck a long with with everyone else. They are all eating bowls of noodles. "After what happened in Ba Sing Se, we had to get you to safety."
Jiyuu nodded her head, "We flew back to Chameleon Bay, where Sokka and the others found Hakoda and the other Water tribe men. The Earth King decided to be an idiot," Toph, Sokka, and Katara began to snicker, "and decided during this crazy war that he wanted to travel the world in disguise, so he set off with his stupid bear, Basco."
"Bosco." Sokka corrected.
"Like I care?" Jiyuu gave him a blank expression as everyone began to laugh. "What's so funny? You continue, Sokka!"
He gave her a nod of his head, "Soon, the bay was overrun with Fire Nation ships. Rather than fight them all, we captured a single ship and made it our disguise. Since then, we've been traveling west," He points to Chameleon Bay and moves his finger across The Serpent's Pass, "we crossed through The Serpent's Pass a few days ago. We've seen a few Fire Nation ships, but none have bothered us."
"So what now?" asked Aang.
"We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan." Hakoda informed them.
Katara spoke in an annoyed tone, "It's Sokka's invasion plan."
"Wait," Jiyuu cut the conversation, "what invasion plan?"
Everyone looked at her, "We never told her, did we?" Toph asked as Katara and Sokka tried to remember if they did.
"What is it? Hello? I'm confused!" The hazel-eyed girl slapped the deck. "If I'm apart of this team, I oughta know stuff like this."
"The invasion plan," Katara began, "is the day we attack the Fire Nation during the day of the black sun."
"The Day of the Black Sun?" The female airbender repeated, confused. "You mean the Solar Eclipse?"
"Precisely." Hakoda answered, "We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the Earth King's armies, but the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable."
"So we're planning a smaller invasion. Just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke. And the best part is, the eclipse isn't even our biggest advantage." He whispers, "We have a secret," He looks left and right. "You!"
The Avatar was confused, "Me?"
"Yep, the whole world thinks you're dead!" The watertribe boy stands up and raises his arms triumphantly, Isn't that great?"
Aang has shocked plastered over his face he looks over the side of the ship, still shocked. "The world thinks I'm dead? How is that good news? That's terrible!"
"No, it's great. It means the Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore. And even better, they won't expect you on The Day of Black Sun." Sokka tried to explain.
"No, no, no, no, no. You have no idea. This is so messed up!" Aang throws his hands in the air. Just then, a horn of another ship blares. They all look over to see a Fire Nation ship approaching ahead. "I'll handle this. The Avatar is back!" Aang grabs his glider staff and slams it on the floor, opening its wings, but it causes him to flinch in pain and clutch his side. Bearing through it, Aang grabs the glider's wings and prepares to take off.
"Aang, wait. Remember, they don't know we're Fire Nation." Katara said as the twelve-year-old was sweating heavily and reluctantly folds his glider up.
"Everyone just stay calm. Bato and I will take care of this." said the Southern Water tribe leader as he and Bato don their Fire Nation helmets. Pipsqueak lifts up The Duke, who is wrapped in a large piece of tarp and throws The Duke over Appa, who is sitting in a cargo pit, letting the tarp unravel and cover the flying Bison. Momo jumps into the pit with Appa. Jiyuu, Aang and Toph were crouching inside the stairway leading below the deck. Katara and Sokka join them.
Aang whispers, "I hate not being able to do anything."
"Hopefully, you won't need to." Toph replies as Jiyuu places her hand on Aang shoulder and gives him a comforting squeeze, he smiles uneasily at her and places his hand on top of hers. Katara looks on with a slight frown and then looks away. After some muffling from what they could hear, Toph continued to listen to the officer and then appeared shock when she hears his last sentence, she climbs out of the stairway and points at the officer. "They know!"
Toph thrusts her hand towards the floor, grabbing the metal and twisting it. She bends a fissure in the metal leading all the way up to the bridge. The bridge buckles, and the officer and the soldiers lose their balance just as the bridge falls out from underneath them. The soldiers, and officer, yelled in fear, falling into the water below.
Katara had bended a small mountain of water up between the ships, she turns in a circle and thrusts her arms forward. The water slams into the side of the ship, knocking it back several yards and washed into the enemy ships deck. The stolen ship they were on makes it escape as the other ships soldiers were floating to sea as they soon grab hold of a rope ladder from their ship.
Zuko was sitting at the edge of the turtle duck pond at the Fire Nation capital. He tears up a bread bun in half before throwing it into the mother turtle duck and its ducklings swim up to the floating bread and feeding on it as Azula's shadow is now over them, scaring them off. Azula was standing in front of Zuko with the turtle ducks swimming away and quacking in fright. "You seem so downcast. Has Mai gotten to you already? Though actually, Mai has been in a strangely good mood lately."
"What do you mean? We just talked now and then, nothing special. I haven't seen Dad yet. I haven't seen him in three years, since I was banished."
"So what?" His sister said, not understanding where her brother was coming from.
He looked at her, "So, I didn't capture the Avatar."
The Princess gestures, shrugging her shoulders. "Who cares? The Avatar's dead. Unless you think he somehow miraculously survived."
The Prince looks down and away from his sister as he remember Katara holding the spirit oasis water from the fall of Ba Sing Se, "No. There's no way he could've survived." Azula stared Zuko down, and then to Zuko matching Azula with a glare.
"Well, then I'm sure you have nothing to worry about." She says as she then decides to answer his question from before, "Its quite obvious that Mai likes you, dum-dum."
Zuko looked at his sister incredulously, "She likes me? Since when?"
"Since we were kids. Are you really that dumb? She never told you since you were around little Miss Airbender all the time." Azula rolled her eyes, "I can't believe that girl is still alive."
Her brother looked down at his hand as a flash of Jiyuu's face appeared in his mind, the moment when she told him to never say her name again. "Yeah, I can't believe it either... She was in front of me the whole time and I didn't realize it until then. I think it was because I didn't want to believe she was alive because then I knew whose side she would take."
"She's a traitor," Azula said harshly, "but I know you like her." She looked at her brother who didn't return the gaze, he simply stared at his the necklace he pulled from out of his chest pocket. "You should let go of your feelings for her, you know father would never approve of that relationship. Mai would be a wise choice, brother."
"...I guess your right." He threw the necklace in the pond, letting it sink further and further down as his sister got up and walked away. Zuko stood up and looked to see the glimmer of the silver chair sparkle through the water, he took a step away but then found himself looking back where he saw it sink down. His feet immediately went closer to the pond and he found his hand splashing into the water as he then searched for it, grabbing the chain and then pulling the necklace from out of the water. "I can't let go..."
In the throne room, Zuko was kneeling before his father as the flames were before him. " You have been away for a long time. I see the weight of your travels has changed you. You have redeemed yourself my son." He stands up and walks forward, "Welcome home. I am proud of you, Prince Zuko. I am proud because your sister conquered Ba Sing Se. I am proud because, when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle, you did the right thing, and captured the traitor. And I am proudest of all of your most legendary accomplishment. You slayed the Avatar."
"What did you?" Zuko asked he raises his eyebrow in surprised as his father walks around behind him.
"Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed with your power and ferocity at the moment of truth." His father continued on as his son looked away, "She also told me that Jiyuu is still alive."
The Prince frozen at the sound of the airbender's name coming out of his father's mouth, "Is she still a problem?"
"Of course, she's an airbender and there's no telling what she plans to do. You know as well as I do, how determined she is. I'm surprised you fought against her and I'm proud that you did. But I've known she was alive all these years." said his father as Zuko's eyes widened with surprise.
"How did you know?" His son asked, turning to look at him.
The Fire Lord stopped walking and turned to look at his eldest child, "I tortured Admiral Cheng the truth about his relationship with her before I killed him. How did you think Zhao became admiral?" The boy nearly gasped at the information he heard, "She had him wrapped around her finger. He was a fool."
On the Fire Nation islands, it was day time. A mysterious cloud is scudding rapidly over the water. As it lights on one of the islands, voices emanate from it. "I think I see a cave below." Aang says.
"Shhush! Keep quite!" The cloud disperses with a blast of airbending to reveal Sokka, Jiyuu, Katara, and Toph riding Appa. Sokka dismounts and begins a furtive reconnaissance. "Great job with the cloud camo airbenders, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut."
Jiyuu gives Sokka a glare while Toph says something sarcastic. "Yeah, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in."
"Hey! We're in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds." He points upward to four of the enemy, perched on a rock just behind him. One hops down onto his head and
squawks plaintively. Everyone laughs as Sokka is unamused. They walk toward the cave, Sokka lurking behind. Of a sudden, he leaps over their heads to ward off some, entirely imaginary, threat. Peering suspiciously about, he dashes into the cave, followed by the rest of the gaang. "Well, this is it. This is how we'll be living until the invasion begins. Hiding in cave after cave... after cave... after cave..."
His head drops further to his chest with each repetition of the word. "Have you guys been living in caves before? Because that's what it sounds like." Jiyuu asked as Katara laughed.
"Not really. Sokka just thinks we might become cave people. All we really need is some new clothes." The waterbender suggested.
Aang nodded his head, "Yeah! Blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave."
"Plus...they have real food out there. Does anyone wanna sit in the dirt and eat cave-hoppers?" Toph asked as she punches the cave wall and several hoppers hop out. Momo catches one and begins chowing down. Everyone appears revolted as Jiyuu hides behind Katara, her face green of nausea.
"Looks like we got out voted, sport." Sokka says to Momo before turning to the others, "Let's get some new clothes."
They had went to a nearby Fire Nation laundry. Several items of clothing were hanging on the lines out door, suspended over steam vents. The gaang had hid behind some rocks close by, surveying the scene. "I don't know about this. These clothes belong to somebody." Aang said.
"I call the silk robe!" Katara leaped from the rocks, runs to her prize and snatches it from the line.
"But if it's essential to our survival...then I call the suit!" Plunder ensues as the laundry's lone attended, stealing a nap in the doorway, is oblivious.
Aang was tying the belt from his suit around his forehead to conceal his arrow. He turns around. "Ta-dah! Normal kid."
"Hmm... I should probably wear shoes, but then I won't be able to see as well. Sorry shoes!" She sits down and brings her knees to her chest pulling on the shoe's
upper and popping out the sole with her foot, which propels it into Sokka's face. She stands up and evaluates her new customized footwear. "Finally,
a stylish shoe for the blind earthbender."
Katara then walks over, "How do I look?" Aang quickly turns, smitten by Katara's appearance and blushes, but then suddenly realizing the problem.
"Uh...your mom's necklace." He pointed out.
Katara chagrined, "Oh...oh, yeah. I guess it's pretty obviously water tribe, isn't it?" She removes it, reluctantly. "Where's Jiyuu?"
Everyone looks around until they spot the brunette jumping down from the cave's ceiling and then towards the entrance. "I pretty much don't fancy this outfit."
Aang and Sokka look at her, their eyes wide as she is wearing a maroon crop top, shoulderless with long butterfly sleeves with the Fire Nation insignia at the bottom of them, a red short skirt with black tights under them, and red pointed shoes. Katara walks over to her, "I didn't see this shirt. I probably would've snatched it," she said as she rubs the material.
"I think they might've had an expensive customer." Jiyuuu spins around as her hair is still in it ponytail with the red ribbon, "Lucky me or I would've been stuck with the shirt with the holes."
"It would look better with a necklace!" Katara added, "We should go buy some."
Jiyuu smiled, "That sounds like fun."
They all went to the bazaar of a nearby town, Aang was standing around while Toph placed on a new headband and Sokka put on his new topknot clasp. The monk had smoothed down Momo's ears and tucks him beneath his coat, "So Aang, why don't you spend time with Jiyuu?" Sokka asked, "She doesn't bite and since she's an airbender, I figured you would be all over her case."
Aang had looked at his friend and then at the ground, "Welll, I figured that I should wait a while before talking to her because I mean, I don't want her feel uncomfortable."
"Twinkletoes, your never going to get to know her if you keep letting the air be so awkward. Look at Katara, she's really clicking with her. And I think she's pretty awesome, how about you Sokka?" Toph asked the watertribe boy.
The warrior shrugged his shoulders, "She's a great asset to the team and she proved her loyalty fighting Zuko and Azula with you guys. She goes out of her way to help and she can bark, but I guess I deserve it... Sometimes."
The male airbender rubbed the back of his head, "Its just... You know how I get when I'm over excited."
"Out of control? Yeah, we know but she's an airbender too. It might just be in your personalities." Toph tried to explain as Aang nodded his head.
"I'll try!" He nodded before looking at the Fire Nation people, "I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago. So everyone just follow my lead and stay cool. Or as they say in the Fire Nation - "Stay flamin'"! He saunters out, everyone now following behind him. A man is eating a meat shish kebab on the sidewalk. Aang waves to him as they walk by. "Greetings, my good Hotman!"
One citizen looked surprised, "Uh, hi. I guess?"
Jiyuu shook her head, "Nobody says that anymore, Aang." She whispered.
"Huh? They don't? But the man understood! Sokka leads the way to a butcher's shop. "Oh, we're going to a meat place?"
"Come on, Aang. Every one here eats meat... even the meat!" The tan skinned boy indicates a nearby cow-hippo, greedily scavenging a pile of fly-blown fish.
However, the monk remained unconvinced. "You guys go ahead. I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage."
"That's pretty nasty." Jiyuu folded her arms as Toph, Katara, and Sokka went inside the shop. "I'll take you to a veggie shop that I know."
Aang smiled, "Your a vegetarian too? And wait, you use to live here?"
"Well, I do eat some meat but I try not to. I guess you can say, I like the best of both worlds." She explained before answering his next question, "I grew up with Zuko, actually. I use to live on these streets that we're walking on, but they found me when they discovered I was an airbender. I use to steal food and use my airbending to escape and one day I got caught and brought to Fire Lord Azulon."
The boy looked at her in shock, "They took you in? But how did they know that you weren't the Avatar?"
"I took the test and I failed it. Not only that, Zuko's mother had decided to keep me. She was a kind woman." She smiled at the thought of Ursa's kind smile.
"Did she... pass away?" Aang asked, noticing how the girl used a pass term about the woman.
The female shook her head, "She just left one day. I don't know why or where she went, but all I know is that she did it to protect Zuko."
"Do you think that's why he has so much anger? I mean, you know him better than anyone else, right? You two were friends from what I could see in Ba Sing Se. I could tell how hurt you two were fighting each other. It even hurt me to see two friends fight." He looked down sadly, somehow feeling guilty for being unable to save their friendship.
"Zuko has been through a lot and that, his mother absence, is apart of it. Nobody knows how its like growing up in the Fire Nation Palace, the stress and the pain that goes along for being apart of the royal family. I mean there were good times, times that I will never forget, but its... Its not like how people expect it to be." She placed her hand on Aang's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze, "Me and Zuko's friendship was something that was bound to be broken. He wants his father's acceptance and I want to change the world by helping you, Aang. We're too different, our days together are over and I have come to accept that more than anyone can imagine. Yeah, it hurts, but I know where I stand and he knows it too." They both stop in front of the shop, "Wait here, I'll be back." She said before going inside the building.
Three imposing, official-looking figures approach him. "It's over, we caught you."
"Who me?" Aang asks.
"It couldn't be more obvious that you don't belong here." Aang cringes, expecting the worst. "Next time you play hooky, you might want to
take off your school uniform."
Heh, heh. Uh!" He is seized by the collar and pulled away.
It was nighttime when Aang slid down the roof of the cave to its entrance and walks in. Everyone was seated around a fire, "Aang?" Jiyuu said causing everyone to look up, "What the hell, Aang?! I told you to wait for me!"
"Yeah, where have you been? We've been worried sick!" Katara added, both girls had their arms crossed.
The monk was covered in burn marks, "I got invited to play with some kids after school."
Sokka stands up, flummoxed. "After what?"
"I enrolled in a Fire Nation school, and I'm going back tomorrow." Aang said happily.
"Enrolled in what?!" Sokka and Jiyuu screamed in a unison, but the boy keels over. Once Jiyuu brings him up on his feet, he begins to lecture the Avatar."Aang, I'm trying to be mature and not immediately shoot down your idea. But it sounds...really terrible."
"Yeah, we got our outfits. What do you need to go to school for?" Tophs asked.
"Every minute I'm in that classroom. I'm learning new things about the fire nation. I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai." He holds it up towards everyone as Jiyuu glared daggers at it and then looked away, "And here's one that I made out of noodles!"
"Impressive, I admit. But I still think it's too dangerous." Sokka sighed.
The Avatar continued on, his voice sounded a little devious. "I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then. It goes right to the Fire Lord's palace. We were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow..."
"Hmm... I am a fan of secret rivers." The warrior began relenting. "Fine, let's stay a few more days."
"Flamey-o, hotman!" Aang runs around in excitment.
Sokka turned to Jiyuu, "Flamey-o?"
"Some dumb greets they used back in the old, old days. Aang is 112, so that's the language from back then." Jiyuu informed him.
Toph then turned to look at Jiyuu, "You know a lot about the Fire Nation to be from the Earth Kingdom."
"I was raised in the Fire Nation." The female said before sitting next to Toph around the Fire.
The watertribe siblings looked amused, "But how?"
"I don't really remember why my parents came to the Fire Nation in the first place, but we got split up. I was homeless for a good month until the police discovered that I was an airbender and they immediately thought I was the Avatar." Jiyuu placed a piece of meet on a stick and held it above the fire, "They did the test, you know the one with the toys and everything that related to the past Avatars, I failed. And so, Azulon was going to put me back out on the streets, but Ursa, had convinced him not to."
Katara then asked a question, "Who is Ursa?"
"Fire Lord Ozai's wife or ex-wife, however it is now." She answered.
"So, that's Zuko's mother..." The waterbender mumbled as she looked into the Fire and Sokka stared at the meat being evenly roasted.
"So, you grew up with Zuko and Azula? Tell me how that was like." Toph asked as she dug her pinky in her air, turning it to gather the wax.
Jiyuu merely smiled, "Zuko and I became best friends, really fast."
"How? You sure he wasn't a jerk when he was a kid? I'm pretty sure he was a jerk when he was a kid." The warrior said as Aang shook his head.
"Zuko wasn't always a jerk, he was really nice. We played together, we did everything together. I know its hard to believe from how he is now, but a lot of things have happened." Jiyuu took the now cooked piece of steak towards her, and blowing away some of the heat in certain areas.
Katara then turned to look at Jiyuu, "What happened to his mother?"
"Ursa just disappeared one night and she said it was all to protect Zuko, not only after she disappeared we found out that Azulon had died that night." She bit a piece of it and cringed a little since it was still too hot.
Aang blinked a couple of times, "Do you think that she was... apart of that?"
"I don't know, but Azula, whose such a pathological liar told us that Azulon was going to kill Zuko because Ozai asked for Azulon to dismiss Iroh from being crown prince." The brunette airbender said as everyone looked confused.
"Why would he do that to his own brother?" The Avatar asked, "I mean, we know Ozai is cruel and everything but why?"
"Because during that time, Iroh was General and he was supposed to take over Ba Sing Se and he failed because his son died." Her voice got softer and Toph immediately noticed the strange reaction.
"You were close to his son, huh?" The Earthbender asked, "I can feel your tightening."
"Lu Ten was someone I had fallen in love with and yeah, I was pretty devastated when I learned that he had died during the battle. But because of that, Ozai thought he could make himself become future Fire Lord during his brother's grief and failure of conquering the city."
Sokka frowned, "That's pretty harsh, but he shouldn't try to kill his own grandson."
"Well, that's what Azula claimed he said in order for Ozai to get a taste of what it was like to lose your first born. So, maybe Ursa did kill Azulon, I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders, "But we deeply missed her, she was a really nice woman. She was like a mother to me when I was distant from mine."
"How did Zuko get his scar?" Katara asked, "Was it a bending practice accident?"
"No, Ozai did that." Everyone gasped in shock, a series of why filling the air.
Toph then looked around, "Why didn't nobody tell me had a scar?"
Sokka made an I don't know noise, "I guess we never thought you would think about it."
"Why would Ozai do that to his own son?!" Aang shouted, angry as if it had happened to his own friend. "That is wrong! Really wrong!"
"No wonder why Zuko is the way he is." Katara frowned, "I was really hard on him, but... now that I know all this."
Jiyuu placed a hand on Katara's shoulder, "Don't feel guilty. None of you had known about this. Zuko got his scar during this Angi Kai between him and his father."
"What's that?" Some Fire Nation tradition... thingy?" Sokka asked.
Aang nodded, "An Agni Kai is a traditional Firebending duel." He said, "I remember my friend Kuzon telling me about them, but that's all I really know. I just know its centuries old."
Jiyuu had nodded to confirm Aang's answer, "But centuries ago, they were fought to the death. Now days, you only win when one opponent burns the other. Its a source of resolving conflicts and a source of entertainment since there can be spectators. There's a special chamber in the Royal Palace for it." She explained as everyone looked unamused, seeing as how that seemed to be a bad way of resolving problems. "Zuko was about thirteen when he went into the war chambers, he wanted to go because he thought it was important for him a Crown Prince to do it. Uncle Iroh warned him not to speak, but he did. He spoke for a good cause, he was right, and we wanted to save the soldiers one general wanted to use as a sacrifice, but he spoke out of turn which was disrespectful to his father. He didn't know he was going to be facing Ozai, but when he did find out on that stage he had kept telling Ozai that he didn't want to fight him, that he never meant to disrespect him. So, Ozai took that as weak and dishonorable and burned him which gave him his scar."
Everyone looked away with a frown on their face, feeling awful about it. "Its really hard to be angry at him knowing all this." Sokka said.
"Yeah, its like... We can't really blame him for the way that he is." Toph added, "I just don't get why he wanted to go back home."
"Because he still wants his Father's love and acceptance. Azula was the one that Ozai had praised and cherished the most since she was considered a prodigy. Zuko had to work really, really hard. More than anyone else." The female airbender said as she ate more of the meat on the stick.
"Will you ever forgive him?" Katara asked, "I know you feel betrayed by what him joining Azula."
The female shrugged her shoulders at the waterbender, "I don't want to, but after me leaving him all these years... I should but I already know that he doesn't forgive me."
"There's something you not telling us, Ballerina." Toph said as Jiyuu seemed to be shocked at the nickname, but looked away.
She looked back at all of them since they were all looking at her, "Jiyuu, what happened? Why did you leave the Fire Nation?"
The airbender sighed, her bottom lip poking out. "Well," she started but then paused, "during Zuko's Agni Kai, I had... gotten up on stage and told Ozai off."
"YOU WHAT?!" Aang, Sokka, and Katara said in unison disbelief.
"How are you alive!" Sokka began to poke her, "Your a ghost aren't you."
"If I was a ghost, you wouldn't be able to touch me." The female airbender glared at him as he then nodded his head, rubbing his chin.
"Good point." He scooted back away.
Jiyuu sighed, "So instead of fighting me like I wanted, he sentenced me to the Cliff. Where they tie the prisoner up and throw them off it, kinda like letting them drown or hopefully get hit by the rocks below. And let me tell you, I made myself jump."
"Are you nuts?!" Aang slapped his cheeks, his eyes wide as he waited for her continue.
"I guess you can say that." She shrugged, "But to me I was proving a point that I rather die by my own terms than theirs. I thought I was going to die, I swore I had, but I was saved by a friend of mine who was Admiral of the Fire Nation. Its been a long time since I've seen him, but he brought me to the Earth Kingdom."
Toph sniffed, "You were pretty lucky."
Katara nodded in agreement, "You could've been at the bottom of the ocean."
"Well, luckily I wasn't. I guess fate has something in store for me."
Sokka and Jiyuu were now in the Headmaster's office of Aang's school. Katara motivating for her to take the spot as Sokka's wife seeing that Jiyuu could look like she could related to Aang. The female airbender had done it reluctantly, especially with Sokka as simple as he was. Sokka was wearing a fake mustache and beard while she had hair tied in a ponytail, her waist padded to mimic pregnancy. "Fire! Want Fire. This is my wife, Sapphire."
Jiyuu had cut him a dull look before smiling graciously at the Headmaster. "Sapphire Fire, nice to meet you."
The Headmaster spoke dubiously, "Mr. and Mrs...Fire, your son has been enrolled here for two days, and he's already causing problems. He's argued with his history teacher, disrupted music class, and roughed up my star pupil."
The airbender feigned shock, "Oh dear! That doesn't sound like our little baby Kuzon!" She placed both her hands on her cheeks in fake fright.
The watertribe warrior tried to hold in his laugh as the school master spoke indulgently. "That's what any mother would say, ma'am. Nonetheless, you're forewarned. If he acts up one more time, I'll have him sentto reform school by which I mean the coal mines. Are we clear?"
"You ain't taking my bab-" Sokka placed his hand over his "wife's" mouth.
He quickly answered, "Don't you worry, Mr. Headmaster. I'll straighten this boy out some fierce." He turns toward Aang and blusters in his face, "Young man, as soon as we get home, you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime!"
The headmaster had an air of subdued sadism, "That's what I like to hear."
The all rise and leave, Sokka swaggering proudly, a little too into his role. As they were walking he looked at Jiyuu, "What were you going to say that was going to get us in trouble?"
"Uhm..." Jiyuu laughed nervously, "nothing!" She shook her hands in front of her dismissively. "I got a little carried away is all."
Once they were back at the cave, the watertribe warrior begins to rant. "That settles it. No more school for you young man!" He straightens up and strokes his beard imperiously.
"I'm not ready to leave. I'm having fun for once, just being a normal kid. You don't know what it's like, get to be normal all the time." Aang explained to them as Jiyuu rolls her eyes at Sokka being called normal.
"Ha, ha." Toph says mockingly as Sokka scowls.
"Listen, guys, those kids at school are the future of the Fire Nation. If we wanna change this place for the better, we need to show them a little taste of freedom." He explained, about to propose an idea.
The watertribe warrior then asks, "What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?"
"I'm gonna throw them..." He does a quick tap dance flourish, "... a secret dance party!"
Everyone appeared stunned as Sokka is the first to recover from the astonishment, "Go to your room!"
"I think I'm going to stay out of this." Jiyuu took the padding off, "I'm going for a walk. Have fun at your little dance party."
Aang frowns, "B-But Jiyuu!" It was too late, the girl had already left.
Jiyuu: The Japanese name meaning "Freedom"
Feng: Chinese name meaning "Wind
Stay tuned for the next chapter.
A little teaser:
The Blue Spirit makes an appearance.