Chapter 4: Ba Sing Se Bound

Kagomes' attitude and demeanor had changed since the siege on the north pole. Aang understood that she was in the midst of an inner turmoil and offered a listening ear but she politely declined. People that treated her on an equal level prior to the siege was wary of her when she revealed her fire.

She wanted badly to go home and talk to her mother to help make the ultimate decision. Would she really kill Zuko in order to keep Aang safe. Even though the world needed her newly found friend, could she truly forgo years of friendship for the sake of humanity.

The answer was always yes in her mind, but her heart...her heart always began to hurt when she came to the ending conclusion. She began to have nightmares about killing Zuko. Each time she got close to delivering the killing blow she could see her reflection in his horrified eyes. She was always grinning maliciously, with a crazed look in her eyes and wild hair.

She killed him, in every single dream, in a different way and it was making her heart ache. She didn't want to be a murder. If she killed Zuko, she would be a traitor to her nation. She could never return home, her family could be imprisoned and murdered, and she would be hunted down until someone made her draw her very last breath. Her entire life would be ruined because of a bald headed little air nomad who couldn't handle the responsibility of...

Kagome shook her head of that negative thought. Truth be told, Kagome honestly felt that Aang would have died if he tried to go against Souzin 100 years ago. He would have back down and let him win. That peaceful shit was going to get him killed one day.

Kagome looked down at her lap in surprise. Since when did she curse like that?

Regardless of it all, she needed to trust in her fire. The only reason why she didn't use it often now was because her even if people forgot her face, they could never forget her fire. She could cause serious trouble for Aang and the others and could get them killed.

Deciding in the next town that she would send a missive to her mother, Kagome rolled over on Appas' saddle and stared at the sky. Gently, she moved her hand and pulled the moisture from the air and clouds bending it into a spinning halo of water. Then freezing it, creating a disk. Then heating her hands and melting it till steam lifted from her hands. After that, she started the process all over again.

"Hey Kagome, were getting ready to land for the night, it is getting pretty late." Kagome nodded sat up grabbing her bag.

With the conflicting feelings in her heart, she decided to travel alone and meet them at the station taking them to Ba Sing Se. She wanted to make a detour to the temple of Agneya that was on a remote volcanic island deep in the Earth Kingdom. The island was know for its hot springs and spiritual cleansing. She was going to travel by night to get a head start since Aang and the others were going in the opposite direction.

As soon as Appa touched down, Kagome jumped off and waved goodbye to them.

"Kagome, are you sure you want us to go ahead with out you? We can just go there then come back around and go the other way." Sokka said while Katara hugged the other girl lightly.

"No, for some reason, I believe that you should go on ahead...it's almost as if something is pulling you in that direction and pushing me in the other. I will be fine guys. Just make sure you get Aang here a good Earth bending teacher. You guys might end up running into jeong-jeong again and can get him to master fire-bending."

"Why can't you just teach him fire-bending?"

"If it was meant for Aang to learn anything from me he would know it by now. I didn't teach him water-bending why would I teach him fire-bending?"she asked Sokka who was bringing down their supplies.

"I'm just saying...you had to learn water-bending from a teacher but you were trained in fire-bending."

"My training is not yet complete. If you want a real teacher, you would have to train with the best and the only one I can think of that fits that category is General Iroh."

The silence between the group at the mention of the General made Kagome sigh in defeat.

"You guys still don't trust me because I am of the fire nation? I thought we got all of these feelings out of the way before we met Bato." she asked.

There was some hesitation before Sokka, oddly serious for once, spoke up again. "It is nothing personal...it is just..."

"Where I am from shouldn't be a question of my loyalty or my friendship. If I knew that you guys didn't trust me, even since that night, I would have never traveled with you. Don't bother trying to find me, I'll make my own way." she said turning away from them.

"It's not like that! It's not that we distrust YOU." Sokka started to say but Kagome cut him off.

"Anything you say after that sentence may destroy any remaining shred of friendship I have toward you. This separation is turning out to be a better idea than I thought. Kilala, you stay behind girl." and with that she walked away from them. Katara called out to her but she didn't turn around.

Sokka watched her leave before shaking his head. "Come on, let's get ready to go to sleep. We got some ground to cover in the morning."

"Sokka, what she said was true." Aang said to the two water tribe kids.

"I knew several people from the fire nation that weren't bad people, even though Souzin was ruling at the time, they were just as loyal as you guys are to me. I think, you guys hurt her feelings. I think I did too...by not standing up for her." Aang said leaning against a tree. He pulled his knees up to his chest and with that, the group began to settle down for the night.

Walking around in the dark or night, Kagome...was hopelessly lost and on top of that she was hungry now. Kagome was annoyed by her 'friends' behavior and hoped that wherever the journey was trying to take them would help them wise up about the world.

Kagome kept going though. Maybe when they ran into each other their feelings would be changed. She then heard the sound of an arrow being notched and managed to deflect it with her war fan. Then she flung the fan into the trees and heard something fall to the ground.

Running to the sound with her other fan drawn, she could see a bushy haired girl on the ground cradling her hand, a large tree trunk was on her left with her fan still in it.

"Why are you following me?" she asked irritated and cautious.

"Damn, that was my third bow the year, Jet ain't gonna like this." the half moons' dim light seeped through the trees enough so that she could see the girls hand was bleeding.

"Answer me!" she yelled but then felt the air around her change. In the nick of time, she ducked to the left and grabbed the fan she threw at her attacker.

"Smellerbee are you alright?"

"Yeah she broke my bow though." she said standing up.

"Your going to have to steal another one or make one. As for you, what are you doing in these woods."

Kagome glared and Jet actually got a good look at the female.

She was a beauty. Based on her skin tone, she could easily be from the Earth Nation or some remote part of the Fire Nation, but than again, she had the same complexion of that Air Bender. Her dazzling blue eyes only seemed to glow from the light of the moon. Raven colored hair was tied in a braid that reached her hips from over her shoulder, and small pouty peach colored lips twitched as she waited to see if he was going to attack.

Raising his hook-swords in front of him, he charged her and was surprised when she moved out of the way at the last second. This continued for a few moment, Jet attacking with Kagome dodging, until Kagome began to attack him back. Normally war fans are used for defense so to be used as an offense weapon had his mind a little frazzled. That, and because she looked like she was dancing with her movements. She was completely fluid and her footwork was amazing. She was obviously trained well.

"Hold it." he said sheathing his swords on his back. "Let's try this again."

Kagome nodded and lowered her fans, but kept them open in front of her.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Kagome. I am traveling to the Cavern of Agneya on Amethyst Island." she said. When she felt that he wasn't going to attack her again, she closed her fans and tuck them into her obi once more.

"What is a rich girl like you doing out here?" Smellerbee said, looking over Kagome's outfit. She was wearing a short kimono with sleeves that covered her hands. It was a dark blue color with a black and silver obi holding it closed.

"i am not rich as you think. I made this outfit a year ago before the start of my journey. I seek to be blessed by Agneya so I can work at a local shrine on Ryukan island."

"You want to work for the fire nation?" he asked, hostility bubbling in his voice.

"I won't be working for the Fire Lord. I will be working for the temple. It is not under the jurisdiction of the Fire Lord, but the Fire Sage. It is her private island for her to reside away from the Fire Nation."

It was always fun making a new identity. She wasn't trying to make friends with them and she was in no mood to be killed for her identity. That meant that she wouldn't bend near these people either.

"Who trained you?" Jet asked her after a moment of silence.

"I am self trained. I was an orphan on Kiyoshi island before my journey. I learned by watching their practices. Your not so bad yourself with those."

"So what is your name?" he asked her, walking up in front of her.

"My name is Kagome. You?"

"My name is Jet."

Kagome and Jet traveled together until she made it half way to the cave. Mist began to surround Kagome the closer she got to the cave so she decided it was time to say bye right here.

"It was really nice traveling with you Jet. Even though I had to hit you a few times." she said with a small smirk on her lips.

"what can I say, I like a good few every now and again fire ant." he said smirking back at her.

"You can't come any further than here Jet so I will leave you with this." she handed him a scroll and he looked a bit confused.

"Think of it as a gift between friends. See you later!" she waved to him and dashed

Jet watched her go for a minute before opening the scroll.

Dear Jet,

I had a lot of fun traveling with you. I hope that we can meet again some day in the future and travel again. However, I feel that I need to tell you something. I am in fact from the fire nation, I did not learn how to use fans by the Kiyoshi warriors but by my teacher. I did make that kimono, my name IS Kagome and I am not going to work at the Ryukan islands with the fire sage because I AM the fire sage.

Years ago, something happened to someone I love and treasure very much in this world and he is now walking down a lonely path of destruction and I want to save him.

No, I WILL save him.

So, hopefully by this point in the letter you aren't mad at me or else I won't make you any more fish! What I am hoping you understand from this letter is that not all people from the fire nation are evil and corrupt. We have families and loved ones too. There are people like me who love this world and want to protect it. Fire Lord be damned. I will die by my beliefs but I didn't want to die in the woods with a tomboy and bushy haired tree nibbler so I hope you can forgive that lie.

So, I hope jet, that you also walk away from you dark path and start a new one. Your loved one will always be with you in your heart but I know they would be disappointed with you for most of the things you have done to people who just so happened to be fire nation.

When we see each other again-because fate can be mysterious like that- I hope that I will be able to hug you or shake your hand and not worry about ducking from a hook-sword strike.

With love,

Kagome.

p.s. I'm on my way to Ba Sing Se after my little detour so if you decided that you want to attack me after all, I will be there, Fans waiting.

Jet looked over the letter a couple of times before he rolled it up and placed it in her chest armor.

"Damn fire ant." he muttered walking away from the trees.

By the time Kagome made it to the cave she was panting in exhaustion. She was tired as hell from the long up him climb that almost seemed like it was endless. Walking into the cave she noticed that the deeper she got, the brighter it got.

Finally, when she reached the bottom of the cave, she was in a field of flowers.

"Agneya-sama. You seem to have a thing for flowers."

"One of my human incarnates adored flowers very much." a woman said walking up to her and smiled.

"Now that I have made it hear, what is first? Where are we?"

"We are in the spirit world. The middle half of the cave where my statue resides is where everyone with spiritual awareness visits. Down here only you and the avatar can enter. As so what is first...a bath. I'm quite sure you are in need of one."

Agneya could swear the cave got brighter from the smile Kagome gave her.

After her bath and some rest, Kagome began the last few steps of her training. It was hard and rigorous but she learned may things from her. When it came time for Kagome to leave, Agneya gave her a small pouch.

"What is this?"

"Call upon your reiki and you will be able to summon your cat companion here. You will need her for the rest of your travels."

Kagome did as she said and the pouch caught on fire. She dropped it and in its place was Kilala, who jumped into her arms as soon as she saw her.

"Oh Kilala, I missed you so much! I'm so glad to have a friend here with me."

"Kagome, remember what I have taught you. A time will come when you will need to use your fire, and I mean use it well. Do not fear others because of who you are. You are of me, and you are my pride."

Kagome nodded and began to walk back up to the surface. When she turned around, the field was gone.

"Did they treat you good while I was gone girl?" she asked the still purring cat.

"I'm sure Momo and you had some wild adventures. I wonder they are doing? Anyway now that we are finished here it is time for use to head to Ba Sing Se. as soon as she walked out side the light of the sun nearly blinded her.

"How long was I in that damn cave!" she yelled trying to shield her eyes.

When she finally got used to the brightness she she opened her eyes and took in the sight around her.

"Well Kilala, I'm gonna need you to transform okay?" the kitten nodded and lept into the air in a burst of flames. When she landed, she was in her saber form.

"We need to get a close to Ba Sing Se as possible. From there we can cross by taking the tram." she jumped on her back and the two of them took off.

For a good minute, the two companions traveled until she saw blue fire shoot into the sky and nearly hit Kilala. Jumping off of the cat, she opened her fans and used them against a tree to slow her decent to the ground. When she got closer she pushed off the tree to get her fans loose just in time to avoid a blade hitting her in the face.

"Well, look who it is. How long has it been now Kagome? 4 years?" Kagome frowned at the fake joyful voice of the Fire Nation Princess.

"Could have been longer if I managed to avoid you."

"I see." Azula muttered just as Ty Lee and Mai entered the clearing.

"Oh wow! Is that Kagome!" Ty Lee cried. Mai glared at the older girl, and Kagome gave her a very dry look in return.

"Wouldn't father be pleased if I manages to bring back his little bird? Of course, this time, you will never leave your cage!" and all three of them rushed her.

Ducking under Azula's flaming foot, she kicked Ty Lee in the stomach. Flipping backwards and launching her herself at Azula she shot a ball of fire at her. Azula counterd with her own causing a small explosion. Silver flames began burning the ground they stood on. Mai was knocked out from hitting a tree from the blast, and Ty Lee was fighting consciousness.

"Azula, why don't I just leave and we can continue this at another time. Those two need some medical attention and you don't look so good yourself."

"Those two will be just fine. I'm not letting you get away from me that easily."

"It is a wonder you even have friends to this day. They must fear you something awful."

"They fear me as much as you should be fearing my father."

With that said, Azula sent a strong burst of fire at Kagome who couldn't properly dodge it. Losing her footing and her focus, Kagome watched in horror as Azula began creating lightning.

Thinking quickly, Kagome bended the water from the tree behind Azula and entrapped her just as she was getting ready to fire the shot of lighting at her. Azula screamed in agony and she was electrocuted by her own attack, amplified by the water of Kagomes attack.

Azula landed on the ground, slightly twitching and breathing hard.

"You will never beat me Azula. As long as there is fear and anger in your heart, you will not be able to tap into your full potential. I sound so old saying things like this to you. Now, you be a good girl and stop trying to get me in trouble." she patted her on the head and walked away.

Azula glared at the ground, tears in her eyes as she recalled the last time she heard Kagome say those words to her.

"Hey Azula, you wouldn't happen to know where my gold obi is would you? I need it."

"No. I haven't seen your stupid obi. Why don't you just borrow one from the closet down the hall." and the younger girl walked away.

Azula smirked as she watched Kagome dig through the closet and pull out one of her mothers obi. It was forbidden to go through that closet and she knew her father would be angry at the girl.

Later that night, there was a banquet. It was time for the moon festival and the royal family was preparing to enter to pagoda when Iroh stopped the young Fire Sage.

"That is a magnificent obi you are wearing today. Where did you get it?"

"I got it from a closet down the west wing." silence filled the small travel party as each one registered just what closet she went into.

"Did I do something wrong?" Kagome asked worried.

"It is forbidden to enter that closet Kagome." Zuko said, worried about his friend.

"It is forbidden but you did not know. In the future, send for a maid and she will get you what you need." the fire lord said in a cold voice.

Kagome nodded, and the tension lifted.

When they arrived, everyone climbed out of the rickshaw. When it was Kagome and Azula's turn, she turned to the younger girl and scowled.

"You thought I was finally going to get in trouble from all of the pranks you pulled against me didn't you? Don't answer that. Give me a break okay? All I want to do is train and then leave, just let me have my small amount of time and then your life will return to normal. Now, be a good girl and stop causing me trouble or I will tell Iroh who it really was that switched all his teas around." and since that moment Azula wanted the girl to pay more attention to her.

'When I bring you back to the fire nation you will never be able to leave me again. I swear it.' Azula swore as she stood up on shaky feet.

The sun was setting and she needed rest after that ordeal.

Her vow still echoing in her mind.

hope you enjoyed it!

also, Ryukan...i been playing ALOT of skies of arcadia...this shit is amazingly complicated but i love it.