Avatar: the last airbender belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Nickelodeon.
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"Where… Where am I?" Azula asked when she came back to her senses. She could feel her body now and moving was less difficult. She remembered last being in Ba Sing Se… And now she was lying on what she supposed to be a mattress, covered by a blanket.
"You're in my apartment." The voice she heard earlier said.
Her vision clearer than before, Azula looked around. It was still a little blurry, but she could see that the apartment was more of a tenement. She assumed she was in the Lower Ring.
"…Who are you?"
"I'm Jin, a friend of Lee," The girl replied. Her clothes, though nice-looking, designed her as a commoner. Most definitely Lower Ring.
But she still did not know who this Lee she kept mentioning was. "Lee? Who's Lee?"
"You don't remember your own brother?" Jin exclaimed, her face showing a mixture of concern and surprise. "This fever was more serious than I thought…"
Fever? Azula did not remember any fever. In fact, she recalled feeling better than usual before the enigmatic blackout she underwent. Though she did not remember what precisely happened before said blackout.
As for this Lee… Her brother? She had only one brother and he was bothersome enough for her not to wish another sibling. Unless Lee was the name Zuko had to take when he entered Ba Sing Se. Yes, it was plausible…
Azula removed the blanket and tried to get up, but Jin stopped her. "You must rest!" She said before draping her again. "I'm surprised you already woke up twice after only a day, Lee told me this fever was really strong."
The princess considered going against Jin's advice but she decided against it. Even if her senses returned, she still felt incredibly weak and tired. And she had not rested properly since her father sent her to track Zuko down…
----
"Those monorails are fantastic!" Ty Lee squealed, hopping around inside the stone vehicle.
"Yes, we'll reach the west of Ba Sing Se in not time thanks to it." She stated. "And you should keep your energy instead of prancing like that. You'll end up destabilising the car."
As much as she disliked the city, Mai had to admit that they were very advanced. Earth Kingdom people had tamed their vast continent with verve. She hoped the Fire Nation would keep enough earthbenders to take care of transport logistics once the war was won. She doubted the Dai Li would be numerous enough and she doubted even more their good will to be relegated to monorails.
"Aw… Why do you keep spoiling my fun?"
She would never divulge it, but Mai secretly envied the ease Ty Lee had in showing her emotions. "Why do you keep being so bubbly?"
"Why do you keep being so dull?" Ty Lee retorted.
"You get excited over naught."
"You're hopelessly boring."
The argument went on for a long time, Ty Lee visibly enjoying it and as did Mai, though she did not show it. Both were oblivious to the peaceful sight of Ba Sin Se by night and the occasional chuckle from one conductor, amused by the dispute he could hear from inside the car.
"Monkey girl!"
"Marble stat-"
"We will soon arrive at the western gate of Ba Sing Se." They heard as the two earthbenders prepared to stop the stone car. "Please get ready to exit the monorail."
As the vehicle started its braking, they moved towards the nearest exit. Mai waited for the final arrest and Ty Lee adjusted her garb. When the car stopped to move, Mai opened the paper door and stepped out, shortly followed by Ty Lee.
"What is the world coming to if even the warriors of Kyoshi bicker?" One of the earthbenders said once the girls left the monorail.
"Yeah. There's something rotten in this kingdom." His associate joked.
Neither of them noticed two Freedom Fighters hopping down from the roof of the monorail and sneak after Ty Lee and Mai.
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The light had come back, and not alone. It had brought food and water. Granted, barely enough to fill the hunger and thirst that had been building up inside him since he had woken up in this strange place, but it was still something. Hopefully enough for him to not fall unconscious again, he did not want to even think what could happen to him within this cold darkness.
But even after his meal, thinking was difficult. He was still tired and the light had come with voices. Insidious voices whispering deceitful words to him. But for a reason as obscure as his surrounding, he still listened attentively to the voices.
And then, the light vanished again. But the voices stayed, as if encouraged by the triumphant oblivion around him.
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"You've been keeping me confined to bed for hours now…" Azula weakly complained. "Let me get up…" She would have cursed both fate and Jin for being in such a humiliating position, but speaking alone summoned all her strength and attention.
"Come on, talking tires you." Jin sighed. "You're like Lee, hard to convince."
She was sure that Lee was indeed Zuko now. Though she had yet to understand why the girl seemed so nostalgic each time she spoke of him. Perhaps she had been more than a friend to him.
She suppressed a feeble sneer. Maybe she did have a fever messing up her head. Zuko never had any luck or skill in his whole life, much less when confronting the opposite sex…
"And when will 'Lee' come to see his dear sister?" She sweetly asked.
"I don't know…" Jin admitted. "He told me he had no idea when he would return." She looked down. "Or if he would return…" She whispered to herself.
Azula rolled over on the mattress, trying to make her tired mind work well enough to understand what was going on. He memory was slowly coming back to her. She had taken over Ba Sing Se and disposed of these irksome Earth King and Council of Five, though Mai told her the former escaped as well as the entire team of the Avatar.
She blinked. Mai. Where was she and Ty Lee? Why would she be left alone in some tenement of the Lower Ring? She remembered them, as well as Zuko, being with her in the palace with noblemen and the Dai Li. The corrupted Dai Li who switched side so quickly and betrayed their leader for years, Long Feng, in a split second.
Wait.
Long Feng. The last thing she recalled was a dinner. Drinking a cup of water was the last thing she remembered before waking up here. No, not exactly she realized, she remembered a sudden pain… Could it be that Long Feng poisoned her for stealing away his power?
And it seemed that Zuko was the one who saved her. How he could save her from poison, she did not know. But maybe that her brother was not as worthless as she thought…
----
They had come back. The warm, nice light and these voices. The torch had vanished yet again, abandoning him to the voices and darkness. They tormented him for what seemed an eternity before finally leaving. But he knew that, sadly, they come back.
Once he was alone, shreds of memory came. He saw three girls, one red-clad, another wearing pink clothes and the last bearing green colours. He felt a strange connection with that last girl.
Another strange thought came. He saw himself diluting something, poison according to his memory, with water and praying Agni that the dilution would weaken the poison enough to be less deadly. And he saw the green-clad teenager again.
However, he did not remember who she was. Or who this Agni he prayed could be.
Zuko's train of thought was interrupted as the light came back.
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Ty Lee and Mai were now in sight of border of the woods they were looking for. They had spent all the day walking to their destination and the dusk gave the forest an eerie look, but they were firmly decided to continue their quest for the Blue Spirit.
"So… What do we do now?" Ty Lee asked, looking at the track road piercing through the dense forest.
"This innkeeper said something about a lost patrol." Mai replied. "We should start searching the site of the battle. With any luck, we'll find the Blue Spirit gallivanting nearby."
"And then we'll learn if he did kill Azula…" Ty Lee murmured.
Mai looked at her. "He'll pay."
"But what if he didn't kill her?" Mai raised an eyebrow at her. "For all we know, the real murderer is in Ba Sing Se…"
"Then we'll avenge some of our soldiers instead of Azula." She narrowed her eyes. "Either way, we'll be the last people he'll ever meet." She growled.
"Shh! He might be listening to us!"
"I. Don't. Care." She snarled. "I'll get him."
Mai then walked into the woods, shortly followed by a Ty Lee, a little uneasy by her friend's determination. Although taught to be a fighter, or even a killer, at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, she still found brutal fighting objectionable.
But she knew she would make an exception for whoever killed Azula.
Too busy examining the ground around the path, they were oblivious to the two kids watching them from the branches above. Smellerbee was looking at them with a mixture of contempt and abhorrence while Longshot, firmly holding his bow with two arrows positioned around his index finger, was patiently waiting for them to crowd together.
"So." She whispered as Ty Lee approached Mai to help her. "Do you plan to leave me some fun?"
Longhot aimed his bow so the two arrows were directed at both girls' throats. "No."
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As this fanfiction revolves around surprises, plot twists and other cliffhangers, please do not spoil the events in your reviews.