Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. 'Nuff said.
Chapter II: Nightmares and An Old Friend
He walked all night, the next day, and the next night, stopping occasionally to eat and fill his canteen from a stream. According to his maps, and more importantly the sun and stars, he should be approaching the place known as Chameleon Bay soon, and from there he should easily get a ship to take him back to the Fire Nation.
As the sun reached its noon-day height, he found a river that the map said would empty into Chameleon bay near the channel that ran to Ba Sing Se. As he washed and stacked his armor plates, he glanced at his reflection in the water. Golden eyes stared back at him from under a mane of long black hair. Normally he would keep it tied back, out of his face and under his helmet, but it now hung loose, a few of his bangs hanging in his face. Although the water didn't show it very well, his skin was unnaturally tan, almost the mocha brown of the Water Tribes--his mother's influence--instead of the pale Fire Nation skin of his father. He wondered how they were doing now that he left, but hurriedly pushed the thought away before he could dwell on exactly how long it had been since he had seen them.
Suddenly, he thought he heard movement behind him. Spinning on his heels into a fighting crouch, he sent an arc of flame across the tops of the bushes. There was a shout, and an old man jumped out from the closest bush. Akira nearly swore, how did he get so close before I noticed? I must be making myself too tired, I'll take it easier from here to the bay. "Who are you?" he barked at the man.
"Ah, hmm, is that really the question right now?" The old man smiled, revealing numerous missing teeth. Akira dimly registered that neither of them were wearing shirts, and that the man looked to be in pretty good shape given his obvious age. The man seemed to be giving Akira a once-over as well, and something in his eyes made Akira uneasy--this man knew things, things that Akira didn't know, he was sure of it.
"I said, is that really the question? My what horrible manners you have! I would have thought you would pay more respect to your elders, especially an old man such as myself. Well, if you insist, you may call me Pahtik."
A short pause, "Akira."
"Well then, I suppose we are now acquaintances, yes?" The man slowly made his way to the bank and sat down cross-legged next to the stack of armor plates, "Please, go ahead and finish washing. I do not wish to disturb a member of the Fire Nation military," he tapped a plate on the stack, "and a very important member at that."
For a moment Akira was simply outraged that the man had come barging in here, demanded Akira answer a question without even knowing the man's name, and now was touching his things without his permission! Then his anger gave way abruptly to confusion and, even more surprisingly, to curiosity. What did this man know about the Fire Nation if he could deduce rank by armor? Granted, any Fire Nation recruit was drilled to recognize the bright red and gold of the High Guard, but this man--Pahtik, he supposed--looked Earth Kingdom to the core. And yet...
"Staring now, are we? Tsk, tsk, your manners are completely terrible! Not like that nice boy who visited me a few days ago, but then he was the...yes, the..." The man trailed off there, but Akira's curiosity had risen above his confusion, and he managed to get out, "Was who?"
"Oh, no one that you would be interested in, my dear boy. Now tell me, with the Fire Nation converging on Ba Sing Se, what is a lone soldier doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Something that the ordinary soldier couldn't do, I take it? Perhaps trying to find the Avatar?" The man laughed then, but it was very subdued, almost sad, and the man no longer met his eyes, simply staring out at the river. Akira finished washing his tunic, bending it dry and warm as the man sat staring at the water. With his tunic back on, and his armor moved to his other side, away from the old man, he felt some of his confidence returning, and he turned to the old man.
"The Avatar is dead, from what reports I have heard," Akira relayed the story to the man as he had heard from a group of fighters along the road yesterday. Apparently the Fire Princess had been involved, and Iroh and Prince Zuko as well. As he listened, walking in the trees beside the path, the stories got wilder, until several of the men were sure the Avatar had singly-handedly destroyed an entire invasion force and fought his way within arm's reach of the Princess before being hit by her lightning. That was the detail that everyone agreed on, that Azula herself had killed the Avatar with a lightning bolt. That, and the fact that he was dead.
The old man seemed, if anything, further saddened by the story. He mumbled something into his beard, and Akira thought he heard, "...shouldn't have left." They sat in silence for a long time, as the sun slowly sank. The river flowed smoothly by, clear and strong as the spring thaw fed its course. He yawned, wondering if this man was going to sit here all day, and mentally kicked himself for allowing the old man to delay him so badly. Still, it was beautiful out here, with the sun's rays cutting through the trees in a crazed patchwork design, and the water throwing up reflections that dazzled his eyes to look at. So he shut them, laying back on the ground as he decided that maybe he'd just sleep here tonight, since he was only a day's hike from the bay anyway according to his maps, and what difference would a day make in getting back to the Fire Nation? He had just come off a mission, he had been promoted, and he was going to relax, blast it.
"You seem troubled." The man's voice had been absent for so long that Akira nearly let loose another jet of flame. He looked over at the man, who was watching him with a look that said he knew far too much for his own good.
"Why do I seem troubled to you?"
"Please, do not insult my intelligence. I can feel that you have an abnormally strong connection with the Spirit World, for a non-Avatar that is. Through that connection I can feel many things in conflict within you. For instance, the way you were raised now fights the way you have been trained. You now feel the only thing you can do is fight, kill, and destroy, when once there were many things, and you continue to search for those things, even if you do not know what they are. I also feel a great capacity for love within you, but it has been shut away behind walls of restraint and coldness. You are at war with yourself, my boy, and it will soon force you to change or destroy yourself."
He wasn't entirely sure why, but Akira found himself on his feet, balls of flame in his hands, "Why did you come here, you mad old geezer? Are you trying to scare me, or is this some kind of trick the Earth Kingdom is trying to play? Is that it, you turn soldiers to traitors, spread dissension with your lies? Why are you here?" He was shouting by now, blue flame blackening the grass around him, yet the old man sat almost serenely at the riverside, regarding him with those all-knowing eyes. Akira felt those eyes reaching into him, pulling up his life story, and shaking it in his face as if to say You've done all these things, but for what exactly? He suddenly found that he couldn't stand those eyes anymore. He had to get rid of them, and the fire was there. He struck out at those eyes, releasing a curtain of blue fire that met the eyes and seemed to fade, lose strength until it disappeared into the old man's eyes. Again and again he threw walls of flame against the eyes, and when that didn't work he grabbed up the katana. But for all the times he slashed into those horrible eyes, all that he ever felt was air, until finally screaming out every remaining bit of energy he had left, he collapsed, in front of the eyes that only now began fading into the dark.
He trudged through the forest, knowing that he would see Chameleon Bay soon, yet not sure if he even wanted to. The nightmare was still with him, and he couldn't shake the image he was faced with on waking: a blackened clearing, the trees scorched, his katana lying in his outstretched arm. They're getting worse. You're bending in your sleep now. He shook himself out of the memory as he came to the ledge of a small cliff and saw the glittering water of the bay. It was just something he'd eaten, something had gotten rotted in his pack, that was all. Still, the vision made him uneasy, and he resolved to tell someone when he reached the Fire Nation. No, he stopped himself, If they think you're going crazy, what about your Captain's promotion? What about being one of the High Guard? You'll be lucky to serve in the regular army if word gets out that you're hallucinating. No, best to say nothing right now. As he skidded to a stop at the base of the cliff, he spotted a ship that was just leaving the channel from Ba Sing Se, bullying another out of its way and very nearly forcing the other ship to beach itself. Akira instantly recognized the ship, although he couldn't quite believe it. The prow ornamentation, however, was present on only three ships in the entire fleet, and only two were in active service. It had to belong to the Princess.
He waved to the ship, making sure his High Guard's distinguishing insignia was visible. The ship slowed, then stopped, and soon a shuttle boat was detaching itself from its hoist cables and working its way shoreward.
The man introduced himself as Lu Jee and left it at that as Akira got into the boat. The only other words the man spoke were to let Akira know how grateful he should be that they had stopped at all, with Azula breathing fire down anyone's neck who dared question her orders to proceed directly to the Fire Nation capital. Akira assumed it had been her orders that had nearly beached the other ship entering the channel and wondered just how reckless the girl had become. Quite possibly, he thought, it wasn't mere recklessness but the beginnings of insanity. But you would know all about that, now wouldn't you? He hurriedly shut down this train of thought, before it led him back to--no, think of something else. Anything else. Apparently, his mind had finally decided to obey, although it clearly couldn't resist having more fun with him, as she appeared in his mind's eye. He hadn't seen her in over three years, and he couldn't help but wonder if she still had her hair in that braid. I guess it's not that annoying, when you get down to it, he admitted. Still, he used to constantly marvel that she could fight at all with all that hair flying around. He also wondered if her family had gotten over the shock of her leaving--last he had heard, they had been threatening to disown her if she didn't come back and live, "like a proper noblewoman of the Fire Nation." He grinned as he thought of what she would likely say to such a statement, even from her father.
The boat reached it's docking clamps, inside a room on the side of the ship. Lu Jee explained that he could reach the deck by going down the hall, turning right, taking the second somthing-or-other, Akira had stopped listening, he wanted up on deck now and he knew he could get there easily enough. Flipping up and over the clamp arms, he slammed his forearms into the side of the ship, feeling as he did so the heat-driven climbing spikes fire from his vambraces. Grunting with the effort, he pulled himself up the side of the ship, until finally he could reach the lip of the deck. He pulled himself up and over, swinging his legs onto the deck and orienting himself. Then he nearly fell backwards off the ship. Azula was instantly recognizeable, despite her Earth Kingdom clothing, yet expected onboard this ship. Zuko, however, was leaning over the railing, also in Earth clothing, staring back at the land they had just left with his scar showing up plainly. But Zuko's a traitor! Why isn't he locked up belowdecks? He turned to ask someone, then spotted the slender, somber-faced girl next to Azula--Mai, he knew, from their meetings years earlier, since she was always with--there. Stretching against the wall of the command tower, completely oblivious to the stranger who had just vaulted himself over the railing. It was her, he knew it, even though she was in Earth Kingdom clothing as well. Now suddenly noticed by everyone but her, he trusted his High Guard armor would buy him a few more seconds of silence, as he finally found his voice.
"Ty Lee!"
"Ty Lee!" He called out over the deck, and suddenly the acrobat was looking at him, albeit upside-down, with an almost silly grin on her face. Then suddenly her face fell, shortly before she did, saving herself at the last moment from crashing to the deck plates. Utterly confused by the change in expression, he was suddenly finding it too constricting in his helmet. He pulled it off, tucking it unconsciously under his arm. Why did it seem like everyone was staring at him? Just because he was a High Guard didn't mean that he wasn't human under his armor. Or maybe he wasn't, from the look that Ty Lee was giving him, quickly moving from a mere frown to something bordering disgust, or was it something else? Then she was gone, her braid clearing the door to the tower just in time as it slammed. What just happened, and why? Hastily jamming his helmet back down onto his head, he turned to the Fire Princess who, it seemed, had an amused smirk on her face.
"Milady, First Lieutenant--uh, I mean, Captain Akira Hideyoshi reporting. I have orders to return to the Fire Nation capital, and I request passage on this ship, or transfer immediately to another ship that is going to the Fire Nation."
"Hmm, Captain, is it? It sounded to me as though you weren't sure. You know, impersonating a soldier of the Fire Nation is a rather severe offense, especially out here." Azula's voice could have frozen volcanoes. He saw the tension just before she moved, and the flame she summoned was easy enough to turn away. The next attack was as well. All he had to do was sidestep and--blast it. She was herding him to the edge of the deck, where she would be free to push him into the water with a few hard strikes. But I noticed it, so I can compensate. Instead of dodging her next attack, he dodged into it, letting the armor take the brunt of the attack, and letting the hit throw him backward, using his momentum to roll toward the center of the deck. He came up weaving a wall of fire that forced the Fire Princess into a defensive crouch and cleared the way for his own attacks. He focused just below her waist, that seemed to be the center she had adopted. She parried, making snide comments about his abilities, but he didn't pay attention. He simply kept knocking her out of alignment with flame bursts until she simply couldn't block one, which slammed into her gut and scorched the robes she was wearing. He saw the outrage play across her face, as she lay sprawled on the deck. Then she stood, and adopted a look that could either have been friendly or a death threat, he couldn't tell.
"Well, it seems you're legitimate. Only a true High Guard would have been crazy or stupid enough to take a blow deliberately. Yes, for your information we are going to the Fire Nation, and you're welcome to come along. In fact," she eyed the closed door, "I think I would prefer it."
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