Chapter 26: Dream Therapy
-.-.-.-.-.-
Appa flew lazily near the war balloon.
Lin had curled up in a corner of the balloon, constantly making sure Sura was still nearby, and fallen asleep.
Zuko watched her despairingly. He'd left her to her corner, but ached to hold her. He rocked a bit, trying to calm himself.
Katara put a hand on his shoulder. "It's going to be all right, Zuko. She'll come around! She's just tired."
Zuko hung his head. "But she fears me, Katara! My wife won't let me touch her—and when I try, she's terrified!"
"I'm not surprised she's scared; she doesn't remember any of you," Sura interjected. "Oh, yeah, who are you? I know the Fire Lord and the Avatar, but I'm not sure who anyone else is. By the way, the whole 'flames bursting all over the place' is another reason Lin is terrified."
Zuko frowned at her. "Why would she be afraid of fire? She's lived with fire her whole life!"
"She's been having nightmares about fire. She did mention blue fire specifically, but it seems she's afraid of it."
Zuko cringed and looked at Katara. "Blue fire. She remembers Azula." He put his face in his hands.
"At least she remembers something," Katara said gently. Turning to Sura, she said, "I'm Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."
"Really? I'm from the Northern Water Tribe! Did they survive the attack? Is anyone left?"
"Actually, they're better than before!" Katara avoided looking at Zuko, remembering that day. Instead, she looked over at Aang. It was calming.
"My soldiers have helped rebuild all the damage we did," Zuko added. "We're trying to be good allies." He frowned again. "I don't remember prisoners being taken."
"You were there?" Sura straightened up. "You obviously don't remember well. I was taken, since I didn't willingly offer to become a slave." Sura glared.
Zuko and Katara gaped.
"But Aang—" Katara broke off. "The army didn't— What happened to you?"
"I was at home, and the general found me. There were other plunderers, but I only saw Chao. I was put on a boat and taken to the Governor's mansion."
Zuko folded his hands, the way he often did in council meetings. "Nobody has admitted to that and it's been two years. How could I miss—"
"There was that whole business of the moon and ocean spirits, and you were fighting Zhao," Katara pointed out.
"Makes sense," Zuko allowed.
Mai scrunched up her face. "I am not going in there, Ty Lee. It's so dirty!"
Katara and Zuko's eyes were riveted to her.
"Ty Lee!" Zuko growled. "She can remember Ty Lee!"
"Only in her dreams. Once she wakes up she won't remember," Sura explained.
"Do you hear her talk like that often?" Katara asked.
"I had to soundproof her room, she talked so much!" Sura almost laughed, but knew her present company wouldn't find it funny.
"What did she talk about?" Zuko asked cautiously.
"She mentioned nasty Earth Kingdom food, and how boring Omashu is. Oh, yeah, and she hates the snow."
"Did she ever mention me?" Zuko prodded.
Sura concentrated. "She has mentioned that she wants… um… Zuzu?"
Zuko's face turned red, but then he laughed nervously. "Well, she's never called me that in public before."
"I didn't know she called you that at all." Katara held back her own fit of giggles. "I thought that was Azula's name for you."
"It was." Zuko looked at Mai with a shake of his head. "But she thought it was cute."
Katara looked at Zuko skeptically. "Mai thought something was cute?"
"You'd be surprised," Zuko said with a shrug, feeling better than he had in what seemed like forever.
"Where are we going?" Sura asked.
"Omashu," Zuko replied.
Lin turned over in her sleep. "I said, 'You miscalculated.' Do the math problem again, 'Zula."
Zuko snickered. "This sounds good."
"Hey, don't get mad at me; I only told you that you got the answer wrong. No need to burn the scroll, 'Zula! Hey!" Mai pulled her knees up closer to her chin. "There wasn't any need to singe my hair, either."
Zuko and Katara cringed.
There was a pause, during which Zuko shot fire into the balloon.
"Azula, I can't go alone; what if I run into your brother?"
Zuko scowled. "And what is wrong with running into me?"
"Zuko!" Mai squeaked. "Where did you come from?"
A grin spread across Zuko's face. "This'll be fun," he muttered. Then he scooted closer to Mai. "I've actually been here for a while, watching you tutor my sister."
"I wasn't tutoring her." Mai said with a shake of her head. "I was just…"
"Correcting her work?" Zuko guessed.
"Yeah."
"Azula, you should know better than to shoot fire at your friends," Zuko scolded Mai's dream of his sister. "You should relax, Mai." Zuko touched Mai's cheek gently.
A distinct blush appeared on Mai's face. "Um, sure, Zu… Zuko. But I promised I'd—"
"You can stay with me." Zuko lifted Mai into his arms, smiling down at her.
Mai squirmed. "What are you doing that for? Don't you see Azula and Ty Lee—"
"I don't care what they think. I think you're pretty. You can stay with me."
"Okay," Mai said hesitantly, and then remained quiet.
"I like her dreams," Zuko stated.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Lin woke up lying against a tree. There was a ringing in her ears. As she stared through the blur before her eyes, she could not see a single human figure. She was alone. Rising shakily to her feet, Lin tried to remember where she was. "Hello?" she called. She had to find someone. She needed to be around people so that maybe she could find him. She paused for a second. Him? Him, who? It didn't matter. She ran forward. She kept to one direction, only swerving to avoid trees. Sometimes she tripped, but she picked herself up, ignoring the cuts and bruises she was getting. The world was tipping in front of her. What was going on? She had to find people. She had to keep going. But when had it gotten so dark? She didn't even feel her body as it crumbled to the ground, her head thudding against a tree trunk.
-.-.-.-.-.-
The sun's rays shining into her face woke Topekaia the next day. Throwing off the covers, she stretched as usual, until she was suddenly struck with the irrational need to find Mai. She whirled towards the tree where Mai had been sleeping. No Mai. Speedily thinking of something that would wake the entire camp at once, Topekaia rushed to the packs and found a shield. Without hesitating, she propped it against the tree. Picking up an iron bowl, she threw it at the shield, screaming, "Wake up! Mai is gone!"
"What?" Zuko was the first to respond, snapping out of his sleep and looking around wildly. "Where could she have gone?"
Sokka had woken up because of the loud crashing sound, but he still wasn't fully awake. "Did you look under a rock? I'm sure someone that scared of the world would definitely…" Sokka trailed off as he met Zuko's angry gaze.
"Sokka, be more considerate." Katara, already out of her bed and heading for Topekaia, whacked her brother upside the head.
"It's true. She's afraid of everything that moves or makes noise!" Sokka waved his hands around. "She probably heard Zuko snoring, thought it was a platypusbear, and ran off."
Zuko was too angry about the insult to Mai to worry about the snoring comment. "Sokka!" he snarled. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just going to find her."
He turned away from Sokka, who was now being slapped by both Katara and Suki, and stood over the place Mai had slept that night. There was a heavy indentation shaped like her curled up body. Then there were deep foot prints leading away from the tree, ones which were deeper on the outside than the inside—ones that appeared to have been made by someone with balance problems.
"It looks like she wasn't feeling too well," Zuko commented, keeping his voice even. "I'm going after her. Who's coming along?"
"I am, of course!" Topekaia and Katara said.
"And me," Sura said drowsily, "since I'm the one she isn't afraid of."
Zuko felt a bit of a stab to his pride at that, but knew it was true. "Fine, then. Come on."
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I just realized that fanfiction dot net has been erasing all my section breaks within the chapters! I'm so sorry; I hope you all haven't been too horribly confused by the sudden jumps in the text.