Avatar: the last airbender belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Nickelodeon.
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"What do you mean Zuko is nowhere to be found?" Mai exclaimed as she rose from her seat and smacked the table she was behind. The Dai Li agent reporting to her repressed a shudder caused by her scolding frown.
"Y-yes..." He managed to stutter. "He went to his sister's room and didn't come back. We found not a trace of him or of Azula's body there when we came in..." Mai's glare seemed to chill both the room and him. "However..."
She decreased the distance between both of their faces, her eyes staring through his. "However, what?"
"W-we found ev-evidence of a fight in the room..."
"A fight?" She repeated, straightening her back. "And none of you heard any rampage? Do you know how loud Zuko can be while fighting?" She continued icily, earning a nervous swallow from the earthbender.
"The attacker was probably very stealthy... We suspect the Blue Spirit..." He hesitantly replied.
"Him? Here? And attacking our royalty?" Her eyes widened. "Could it be he poisoned Azula?" She muttered to herself.
The agent heard her. "Maybe. Fire Nation royalty are appealing targets for outlaws."
"Yes." She produced a knife from her right sleeve. "Now go away, I have things to do." He was quick to obey.
When the agent was gone, Mai subsided on her chair. "The Fire Lord is going to skin me alive and sear me when he learns that his favored child died..." She whispered as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to rub away the tiring effects of a sleepless night. A few seconds later, she narrowed her eyes and tightened the grip on her knife. "Blue Spirit... Whoever you are, wherever you are..." She stabbed harshly the table, the steel blade winning the battle of resistance against the stone. "I will get you."
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Now out of range of any projectile Mai could throw at him, the agent stopped to lean against a pillar and catch his breath. "I hate... people of the Fire Nation..." He grumbled, not noticing a person stepping from behind the pillar closest to the room he ran from.
"Do not worry, we soon will be rid of them." Long Feng assured the earthbender.
Overcoming his surprise at finding his leader here, he replied. "I followed your orders." He got back up and took a quick look around them to check if Mai had followed him. "I made her believe Zuko was attacked by somebody exterior to the palace..."
"And you blamed it on the Blue Spirit." Long Feng smiled. "Excellent initiative. I will make so Azula's former room shows damages by blade."
He bowed. "Master." When he looked up, Long Feng was already gone, surely to speak with the agents assigned to the room.
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Ty Lee fell down yet again. Ever since she woke up, she trained her acrobatics to get Azula's death off her mind, but it did not work at all. The only things she managed to was trip more in a hour than during all her life and realize that all her skill did not prevent Azula to die. She got back on her hands and restarted to move around when somebody knocked on her door.
"Ente-" Her sentence was completed by a crash as she fell again and ended up on her back.
The door opened to reveal Mai glancing inside. "Everything's alright, Ty Lee?" She asked, a raised eyebrow being the only sign of concern she showed.
"Yeah... I just fell while walking on my hands. Nothing serious..."
"The great acrobat Ty Lee, tripping over?" Mai mused. "Everything is going wrong..."
Sadness appeared on Ty Lee's face. "Yes. Azula di...di..." She could not say this word. "How is Zuko?" Ty Lee then asked, oblivious to the events that happened earlier.
Mai knew that Ty Lee was already distressed with only one misfortune, but she had to inform her. "Zuko... Zuko was defeated and taken away by someone, along with Azula's body." Ty Lee gasped before bolting up. "The Dai Li thinks the Blue Spirit did it. As well as poison Azula."
"What are we going to do?" She asked, her face bearing a mixture of surprise, distress and anger.
"Find the Blue Spirit." She clenched her fist and her resolute stare almost scared Ty Lee even though they knew each other for ages. "And make him regret ever being on the way of the Fire Nation."
"What if he's not the killer?" Ty Lee tried to reason her friend. "You said the Dai Li only thought he was..."
"If he is, we will avenge Azula, and Zuko if he got killed. And if he is not..." She smirked. "It will still be one less obstacle to the Fire Nation..."
Ty Lee considered this. "But that means we might have to leave Ba Sing Se. I don't trust those earthbenders to keep the city for us."
Mai sighed. "You know, without Azula to govern, the only useful thing we can do is track her murderer." She looked sideways. "My father might be a governor now, but he didn't teach me how to rule a city..."
"Fine. We'll go. Just give me enough time to pack up." Ty Lee declared, convinced.
"We'll depart after breakfast, food won't hurt us." She failed to suppress a yawn. "I don't need to sleep anyways." She walked back to the doorframe and leaned against it. As much as she hated it, her sleepless night seemed determined to make itself know at this time.
"You should!" Ty Lee cried when she noticed her friend's exhaustion.
"That's nothing... I can stay awa-" She could not finish her sentence as she slumped against the doorframe.
Ty Lee ran to her, lifted her and delicately laid the girl on her bed. "Sleep well, Mai. We might have more luck finding the Blue Spirit during night anyways..."
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Zuko had already fallen unconscious in the past. Training and battles had made him familiar with the feeling. One second he was in a place and a time he knew and the next he opened his eyes on a foreign area, unaware of what happened during the blackout. He also knew that there was always light and sound, as weak as they might be, welcoming him back to consciousness.
Waking up to nothing but darkness and silence was new to him. If it was not for the perception of his body, he would believe he was still unconscious. At first he was only intrigued, then he became anxious and he finally was afraid that he was surrounded by an emptiness that would be too pleased to devour him. It had already taken his firebending.
He had thought that it came back at some point, but he was mistaken. The torch appeared out of nowhere and did not answer to his wishes. It only turned around him, as if the emptiness taunted him with the power it stole from him. But still, the moving and warm light made him feel less alone. That was why he became distressed when the torch suddenly vanished, leaving him to the darkness.
Zuko hoped it would come back.
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The breakfast and lunch had been incredibly monotonous. Ty Lee was not used to being alone and disliked it? She had travelled with Mai and late Azula for quite a time, and she at least had the company of the menagerie back at the circus. Her friends were not the most talkative people she knew, Mai often offered less conversation than the animals, it was still someone to be with.
Although, there were some people during the meals, some of them still in the canteen where she stayed. She could have talked with some members of the Dai Li or one of those women who always kept smiling. But the few earthbenders she talked with seemed to know only the words 'yes', 'no' and 'maybe' and soon after she had started a discussion with 'Joo Dee', as she enthusiastically introduced herself, she found herself bored by her constantly happy attitude.
She did not feel like talking to anybody besides Mai, anyways.
And it seemed Agni was in a good mood, because she walked in the room at this very moment. Fatigue still apparent through her half closed eyes, Mai sat besides Ty Lee and sighed.
"Did you sleep well?" She asked.
"Yes." Her eyes glossed over the earthbenders at the other side of the long table. "But I shouldn't have slept. The sooner we go and catch the Blue Spirit, the better."
"I think you should eat now and sleep until tonight. You won't be able to fight him with nothing in the stomach and exhausted." She stood up. "He's more of a night creature anyways."
"You're up since this morning, right?" Mai enquired, earning a nod. "And you won't be exhausted tonight?"
"I'm used to long days. We work much in a circus." Ty Lee smirked. "But a governor's daughter doesn't know about long days, does she?" She teased, receiving an irritated glare.
"Shut up and bring me food." Mai growled.
A smirk appeared again on her lips. "Not until you promise to get enough sleep for our hunt." The blade specialist rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you say." Her stomach grumbled. "Food. Now."
Ty Lee bowed mockingly. "As you wish, milady." Taunting Mai was not the best thing to do, but at least it kept the Azula tragedy off her mind. Leaving a fuming Mai, she made her way to the kitchen to order the cooks a meal.
Unknown to them, the earthbenders seated at the same table had listened in. And they were glad that both nuisances were decided to leave the palace to hunt a shadow, as Long Feng predicted.
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As this fanfiction revolves around surprises, plot twists and other cliffhangers, please do not spoil the events in your reviews.