Burn My Dread FES
By Iain R. Lewis
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to Nickelodeon, some of the concepts are similarly inspired by Persona 3 and Persona 4, property of ATLUS games.
"Forget it, I'm the next masterpiece made, the new generation comes up with the beast 'Ace.'"
- Mass Destruction FES
Lotus Juice
Chapter 22: Scions
The street was on fire. Flames crackled unrestrained, devouring the buildings, leaving them little more than skeletal husks. Flashback, the night they faced Agni played in their head, the intensity of the heat was playing like a faint memory in the back of their heads.
This was the night Zuko left the Bending Club.
Out of time and pulled from memory, it was like a dreamscape playing out in front of them. The heat distorted the world around them, making it seem like the everything was a mirage on the night sky. A lonesome ember broke free as a beam of wood cracked under the heat. It rolled across the ground, exposing a deep fracture on the surface.
"We're too late," Sokka said, "This place is already broken up. Something's gotten here before us." He drew his sword up. "I got a bad feeling about this."
"Me too," Katara agreed. "A really bad feeling."
Why am I even fighting anymore?
The thought seemed to rattle about through the fragments, causing them to quiver and shake. Almost like steam against a cold window pane, the thoughts condensed on the shattered pieces of time. Like dark smoke, it started to rise up and take form, clawing its way up from the chasm into the void. Fire and soot radiated off of the steel masked figure.
It let out a cry that resonated from inside their heads.
Without gravity, the situation for Azula was more frustrating than dangerous. It seemed odd. Once in a brief while, a fragment of a spirit would float by. It looked like its master, a soldier in a faceless army. Unlike some of the other creatures, it didn't wear one of those strange masks. Azula filed that away for future observation. The difference right now between the spirit alive or dead was that it only vaguely creeped out Yue.
"You were right, something terrible happened here," she said, her voice quivering in fright. It was typically feminine of Yue to do, Azula thought distastefully. Though the girl was finally showing some backbone. It did not do to have a complete and total doormat as their support.
"Of course I was right," Azula retorted. Not that it needed saying.
"I'm curious. How do you know so much about this place, Azula?" She sounded suspicious. She expected Sokka or Zuko to catch on that she knew more than she let on sometimes, but there was really not much to explain. She'd sound crazy if she tried. Xiao and Lee, two figments of her imagination, it sounded absolutely mad. But the fact that they knew, that they told her things that not only proved accurate but also useful, it made her question if they were in fact just things her addled mind had created.
It made her question if she was even mad in the first place. Recent episodes not withstanding, she couldn't quite remember why she had felt so paranoid, so absolutely disturbed in the first place. "Observation," she muttered.
"I don't know if I can believe that, Azula." Of all the times for Yue to act with conviction, she had to pick then and there, and on that subject. "Azula, if there are things you're not telling us, they may be important. Like, you knew about the boy we saw when our other sides, our - Strangers, you called them? - when they went out of control."
If she could focus on moving along the corridor without just floating away, she'd have probably been able to think of some sort of lie to dissuade Yue from more prying. Instead, she let loose her frustration, "Yue, do I insist to know every detail of what it means to be the Moon? Do I pry into every little facet of your psyche trying to locate little ticks that make it work, or do I simply accept that you know."
"Well, I mean, you could," she said, "But you never asked."
"Just believe me that I know what I know because I need to know it," she said, "I chose this fate of my own free will."
Yue paused. "That is a rather strange wording," she began, hesitantly. "I remember someone telling me that once, too. It was right before..."
"Right before what?"
Yue was about to say, when something burst. A low whine of oxygen releasing from a valve filled the room, and the crashing of gates echoed down the corridor. "Something happened! I can sense a strong presence has entered the base."
"What?" Azula asked, "Is it a spirit?"
"Part of one," she said, confused. "It's like the strange spirits in the maze. They're not quite right, almost like they're incomplete."
"Incomplete how?"
"Um," she looked hesitant to say further, looking quite perplexed. "Incomplete, as in they're just parts of something bigger? I'm not sure how else to explain it, I'm sorry. EIther way, it's immensely powerful. I think it best if we avoid direct confrontations."
Azula wanted to protest, but she was having enough trouble just moving forward. "All right." She had hoped these halls would provide more answers, but they just seemed long and terribly boring. Staging grounds for some sort of conflict littered with machine parts and rubble from a variety of strange toys. However, none of them seemed to have what she was looing for.
"This place is certainly a maze," Azula muttered. "I think we may be in the wrong part of the ship to find a console."
"It certainly is massive. Your brother's subconscious is so, so," Yue searched for a word, "So innocent!"
"Innocent, hardly. Zuko's as tainted as me," she scoffed.
"No, it is! Of all the things he's been through, he subconsciously created a world made from the workings of his favorite shows growing up. He seems so intimidating, but inside, he has a good heart."
"Well, we can't all be diamonds in the rough."
"Azula," she said, hesitantly, "I know what you're trying to do, but, you don't need to push us away."
"I'm not."
"You are!"
"I'm not, Yue," she said, with a final edge to her voice, "Anyway. Let's go around and find another passage. There's got to be some sort of mainframe we can get into."
"Wait, i sense a powerful spirit heading right for us!" Yue said. "We've got to hide!"
The only place nearby was one of the old staging rooms. Azula kicked off the wall and over the door, opening it as quickly as the device would go. "In here," Azula said, motioning for Yue to follow as she pushed herself into the room with the frame. "Close it."
Yue turned and closed it as she entered. The low emergency red light making it even more difficult to see. They hid by the door, waiting for whatever the powerful presence was to pass. Azula could make out a sound from behind the door. Pistons pumping, and mechanical pieces clanking in time to footsteps. She peered through the window on the door.
Shadowed by the red light, it seemed like a figure of a man, but it was too rigid, and too much of it seemed to be segmented along joints, almost like one of the toys in Toph's maze. A mechanical man? This was the powerful spirit?
It turned to look through the window, causing Azula to dart back into hiding. Its face glowed from a pale blue light where its eyes should be. Its face hidden behind an ornate steel mask. The number four etched on its forehead.
The fiery spirit that erupted from the fragments of Ba Sing se raised one of its long, muscular arms up into the air and released a wave of heat around the three of them. It forced them back, and they turned their faces away.
"What are these things?" Toph asked. "They're way stronger than any spirit I've ever faced."
And they'd faced some strong spirits before. Maybe it was a stretch to say any, but, it certainly seemed different. Sokka'd started to notice these ones always appeared when they ran into that boy. The others were convinced it was Aang, but he wasn't.
Sword well in hand, he was ready to charge down the fiery monstrosity. "Wish I knew. Anyway, it doesn't look like it's going to talk it out with us, so maybe we should, y'know, bending and stuff."
"No need to tell me twice!" Toph leapt into action with a holler, fracturing the ground beneath her foot and then, shifting her weight forward, she forced the fragmented ground to jut up, solid stone reflecting like black crystals from the fogged glassy remnants. They rose up around the fiery creature, causing it to flail through the stony prison. Its black flames licked hungrily against the stones.
Toph traced a line in the ground with her toe and then raised her hands. "Wait til this matchstick gets a load of this."
The ground underfoot creaked noisily as it rose up, and then lurched with Toph as she shifted her wait again, and brought her fists forward in a slow palm large sheet of earth shot forth, raising up even more of the earth as it moved from fragment to fragment until it collided into the spirit like a bulldozer.
The scion roared, its scream penetrating their minds and causing the land around them to fragment even further. Whatever this thing was, it was inherently part of this fragmented doorway. Sokka grimaced. The scream left him disoriented, and he couldn't quite see it coming, but he felt the wave of heat and heard the stone cracking.
The sizzle of water extinguishing flame resounded by his ear, and he opened his eyes to a massive wave that crashed above the shattered street, It rushed about the landscape, seeping between the cracks, and tilting along the raised and angled surfaces, and coming down on the spirit. "Way to go, Sweetness!" Toph said. "Did you get 'im?"
"I don't know. I don't think that's all it's going to take." Katara stared hesitantly at the raising plume of black smoke. Could that really have been it? She remembered the last few of these creatures they'd faced. Even the more ridiculous forms they took - a rubber turtle ducky for example - nearly left them short one of their own.
It seemed like the only thing that moved was the licks of flames that covered the old street of Ba Sing Se like a kaleidoscopic lens when viewed through the fragmentations and cracks that ran along the past.
The smoke seemed to hover above their heads like an ominous cloud and for a moment, things seemed to finally calm. "I don't feel it," Toph said, "I think you got it good, Sweetness."
"I don't know. I got a bad feeling about this."
"You've got a bad feeling about everything, Snoozles."
"Okay, maybe I do, but this time for real. Something doesn't feel right about this. It's all too easy."
"It was on fire wasn't it? Water beats fire, that's it."
"I agree with Sokka, Toph. This is just too easy. Maybe we should hurry up and get out of here before something else comes or -" She stopped. The smog seemed to be getting thicker now, and though it might have been a trick of her eye, she was certain an appendage emerged and reached for the ground. "Do you guys see that?"
"No."
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Way to be like Sokka, Sweetness."
"Hey!"
"Anyway, Sokka, do you see that?" she asked. "Or is the heat starting to get to me?"
"See what?" She could swear it was reaching to the ground as if it were looking for something. It was grasping, groping about as if there was something left behind by that creature. "Katara, are you feeling well? The heat must be getting to you, yeah, it's probably the heat."
It was lifting something off the ground. That steel mask, the number four barely visible beneath the soot and grime on its surface, was lifted from among the shattered rubble. The smog seemed to place it on its surface. How it held onto it, how it wore it, all mysteries to Katara, but now she was sure she wasn't hallucinating. "Now do you see?" she said.
"What the - great, now it's a smog monster!"
"What do you mean smog monster?"
The creature moved through the fiery night sky, and descended upon them. It began to quickly become harder and harder to breathe.
"Did it see us?"
Azula seemed so calm and unaffected. Yue wished she could be like the younger girl, briefly. Yue could feel her heart pounding in her chest, her breathing grew faster. That creature radiated massive power, even if it was only a fragment of it.
"I don't think so," Azula responded. "It's moving on. Those masks are puzzling. Do you think they hold some significance? It's the same as the number on the door." She frowned. "Peculiar. I don't suppose your sensory abilities would confirm a connection."
"I don't really think my senses are that good, sorry," Yue said with a small smile. "I think that would be too easy and make Sokka complain."
"Indeed it would."
Yue put her hand on her chest, hoping that somehow it would slow her heartbeat. "I thought it had seen us, Azula."
"So did I." She seemed nonplussed.
"You seem so calm. Aren't you afraid?"
"Hm? Why should I be?" Azula's eyes darted around the staging room. The pieces of machinery hung up around the room seemed familiar. "Interesting. Yue, I'll be a minute. Let me know if our friend decides to turn around."
"Y, yes, of course."
Azula pushed herself over to the ladder rails and dragged herself downwards. She propelled herself off of the rungs and looked around the staging ground. The devastation looked surprisingly minimal. Most of the damage must have been personnel. Probably for the best that this doorway had been breached, she reasoned. She didn't particularly feel like dealing with whatever spirits had been called by her brother's subconscious.
That was how it worked, right? The subconscious drew them, and they took form. That - that sounded familiar. A distant memory stirred. A spirit was drawn to her once. She could barely recall, barely even recognize herself.
Distractions! She needed to focus. Though she'd only gotten a glimpse of the figure, she was certain that the pieces were the same. Bigger, of course, but still, the same basic design. Had something taken them and repurposed them, perhaps? That seemed to fit. She grinned. Of course, she would figure this out before Sokka would.
She would remember to gloat later. There were other, important things at hand.
"I think it's gone, Azula," Yue called down. "Should we get moving?"
"I'll be right up." She kicked herself over to the ladder and pushed herself up as fast as she could. A low hissing crackle built up into a loud static-clouded screech. The monitors blinked to life and the distorted features of the OZAI Mainframe appeared on them. "This thing again."
"I wonder what it's saying," Yue said. "I can't quite make out anything but that shrill noise!"
It kept raising in pitch, up and down, but always high. It almost sounded like it was trying to say something. Perhaps she shouldn't have gone down there. "I hope it isn't something about intruders in the staging docks."
"Me too!" Yue agreed. "But, who'd respond. The only thing in here is that thing..."
Not to mention Zuko and his Stranger. "Let's just get out of here quickly."
"Warning. Station Hull Breach Imminent. Commencing Lockdown of sectors R through U. Please follow the flashing lights to the nearest blast doors in a calm and orderly fashion. Have a nice day."
"A hull breach? Oh dear, I would not want to be in those sectors," Yue said, worriedly. "It would be simply dreadful." Azula's eyes were too busy scanning the large 'Sector U' written next to the door and taking note of the flashing lights along the walkway. Azula nodded her head towards it, and Yue turned her head. "Oh dear."
"Well let us proceed to the nearest blast doors."
"Oh, yes, in a calm and orderly fashion," Yue agreed, bobbing up and down peacefully. "The lights seem to go this way. How helpful."
"Yes, I suppose," Azula muttered. The hall was deadly quiet, the steel reflecting the red emergency lights in a sinister fashion. Even Yue's snow-white hair seemed blood red underneath that light. It was getting tiresome. "Let me just get a hold of the rail and -"
Yue stifled a giggle as Azula ran her forehead straight into the railing. "That was not funny," Azula reprimanded.
"Of course not. It wasn't funny at all."
"You're laughing at me,' Azula said.
"I'm not! Really!"
Azula gripped the rail, tightly. "You're terrible at lying."
"But I'm not laughing at you, honest!" she swam over like a fish to water, "What I do think is that it's nice to see you make mistakes every now and then. It lets us know that you're human." Azula bristled. "Does your head hurt? This is the second time you've bumped it and here I am not helping."
"It's fine."
"Oh. We shouldn't dilly dally around! It's an emergency situation!"
"I know that," Azula said, "Let's just follow the flashing lights." She started to pull herself in the direction of the lights."Did you think I wanted to watch the hull breach up close?"
"Well, no," Yue said. She didn't want her subject change to fall to pieces. She just wasn't quite as good at this as the others, yet. "Oh, we're close! Blast doors, hull breaches, space adventures have so many fun words, I think, don't you?"
Azula didn't answer, too busy clinging to the sides as she pushed herself along. This lack of gravity was making things far too difficult and she really wished it would resolve itself sooner rather than later. How Yue could be so chipper in situations of absolute peril was absurd. She'd have to investigate when she wasn't floating around endlessly through the expanses of space on an asteroid base created by a sentai hero version of her brother's repressed emotions.
She questioned, not for the first time today, her sanity. That sentence seemed almost banal to her.
"Watch your step, Azula, er," Yue looked bashfully as she realized she mispoke, "I mean, be careful. These blast doors are quite impressive. Does the door take up this entire section?" Azula was too busy fumbling around to push herself through the door to really answer the question.
"I suppose."
"All hands brace for impact. Collision imminent."
"Collision imminent?" Azula's eyes narrowed, "Collision with what?" And as if answering her question, a ship hull crashed through the corridor they had been walking in not minutes earlier. Azula quickly reached for a rail and held on tight.
"I really wish you would not ask these questions, Azula!" Yue fumbled to do the same. A loud klaxon sounded and the blast doors began to close. Far too slow for her taste, if Azula were asked, but clearly she wasn't.
The air was being sucked out into space - an inelegant description but to be fair, Azula didn't argue semantics when she was being pulled into space herself. Those blast doors couldn't move any slower if they tried.
"Still holding on?" a voice laughed, echoing down the corridors. "I'm impressed! Hah!" Azula's grip tightened as pieces of debris barreled past her through blast door to the massive gash that ran through the station's hull.
"Yue, remind me when we inevitably have to fight this clown..." she said, trailing off.
"Remind you to what?" Azula couldn't figure why Yue was so focused on the decompression. It was probably the least of their worries at this point.
"To attack relentlessly with extreme prejudice. Show yourself, you coward!"
"I'm afraid the OZAI Mainframe has commanded that I see to our other guest. However, huh! I thought I'd make sure you two have been kept entertained!"
"Oh yes, very much so," Yue whimpered. Her arms were getting very tired. "If it isn't too much trouble, of course, would it be all right with you if your doors could speed up?"
"Haha! You must be jesting! A fine joke!" He grunted some more like a martial artist, before adding, "I am sure you will be all right. I look forward to defeating you all soundly! For the glory of the OZAI Mainframe!"
After she was certain he had stopped speaking, Azula rolled her eyes, "And people wonder why I find my brother so annoying."
"I just wish this door would close!" Yue screeched.
"Oh, relax, and hold on. It's nearly done."
"That's easy for you to say!" Yue shrieked.
The doors closed with an audible clang, and the releasing of pressure as the locked swung into place. Azula let go, letting herself drift slowly over to the door. She looked at Yue with a wide, unreadable smile. "Why, Yue, that was positively nasty of you. Well," she amended quickly, "By your standards."
"Oh, dear. I'm so sorry." Yue released her hold. Her face was flushed red brightly. "I don't know what came over me!"
Azula cocked her brow. "Why are you apologizing. Don't."
"But, Azula!"
Azula shook her head, "I won't hear it. Come along. Perhaps we can find a console in this sector." She floated along the corridor, gazing out the long window. She could make out other asteroids floating along the belt, and additional wreckage from the fleet. It seemed the asteroid field had chewed them up rather handily.
Of all the mysteries in the maze, this one seemed to be the most dangerous. Who were those attackers, exactly, and what about the glitch in Sokka's game-world that nearly deleted everything. Something seemed to be working to stop them every step of the way.
"What do you make of them?" Azula asked suddenly. "Those attackers, I mean."
"I'm really not certain. They seem quite determined to destroy this place."
"They seem to be after us more than they're after him," Azula muttered distastefully. "This is becoming a trend."
"I agree. I don't like it."
"I don't suppose you have any ideas as to their true nature?"
"They're like spirits, only not," she said, "The seem to be a part of the maze and not from the spirit world. Whoever or whatever created them, they must be intensely powerful. These scions of theirs are unlike anything I've ever seen before."
More non-answers, Azula grimaced. It seemed that the darkness at the center of the maze held all of the answers after all. She'd be certain to interrogate Xiao about this the next time that strange girl made an appearance.
"Azula, was that of any help?"
"Of a sorts," Azula answered. She still didn't want to mention Xiao unless strictly necessary. Even if they didn't think she was crazy, the idea of revealing this girl's existence seemed unseemly to her, and she wasn't particularly sure why.
In fact, she wasn't quite certain why she even thought about it in the first place.
"Azula?"
"Sorry?"
"You looked like you wanted to say something," she said, "Then you got very quiet. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
"Azula."
"What?"
"I'm just worried for you. You do know that I don't blame you," she said, "For trying to kill me, I mean. You were doing what you thought was right, regardless of anything else."
"Kill you?"
Yes she had done that, hadn't she? Why was her memory so vague all of a sudden. Everything outside of the immediate moment always seemed to be a blank until someone filled it in. "You remember, don't you?"
"Yes, I," she paused. "I'm not certain what is wrong with me."
"Azula, perhaps we should take a break. I don't sense that thing anywhere nearby, and you seem a little pale."
"I'm just tired, it will pass. I'm already feeling my second wind coming on," Azula said, dismissively.
"Please, Azula, please let's just take five minutes and rest. We don't know how this maze is affecting us," she pleaded, "Perhaps we're starting to forget the longer we're trapped inside here."
"Why? Are you having difficulties remembering things?"
"No, not particularly," Yue said, "But I'm a spirit. It may affect me differently than it does you or the others." She smiled sadly, "There are some advantages to being different, right?" She put herself into a kneeling position and she seemed to spin upside down. "Anyhow, what's your clearest memory?"
"Clearest memory? Waking up in the hospital, clearly."
"Oh," Yue said, thinking, "How about earlier than that. What's the first thing you remember."
Azula paused. "I was pointing a gun at someone - Aang I think. I pulled the trigger, but I didn't hit him. That doesn't make any sense. He was standing close enough that he'd be burned by the powder."
"I see. I believe you fired to protect him."
"That makes no sense."
"No, it doesn't," Yue said, "But that's the thing about memories, sometimes they don't make sense when we look back at it. I know you did it for the right reasons. You didn't want to hurt him, though, I can't claim to know why. Except."
Azula frowned. "Are you implying something?"
"Only, that I've heard rumors - well, gossip really!"
"Believe me, there's nothing to those rumors," Azula snapped quickly. She fought the blush off from her cheeks tooth and nail. "Anyhow. I don't see what's so important about this."
"I think you're trying to remember what you've forgotten, Azula, but," she seemed to be confused, "I think something or someone doesn't want you to. I don't know why, or who. It's only a guess, and perhaps I'm missing something quite obvious."
Azula frowned. "Not to sound rude, but I didn't ask to be psychoanalyzed."
"I'm not trying to!" Yue protested, furiously, "I'm just trying to help. You're our friend, after all."
"Hardly."
"You are, though. Even Katara seems to think so. And, I know I've probably said this before, but, Aang never stopped believing in you."
"I don't care! I never want to see his face again. If he wanted to see me so bad, why didn't he?" She frowned. As far as she was concerned, he'd have to hide his face if he ever wanted to talk to her again.
"Oh, Azula."
"We should get moving. If we stay in one place too long, we run the risk of being discovered. Where is that thing anyway?"
"I don't know, exactly, but it is quite active," Yue paused, "I suppose we should get going."
"I'm glad you're seeing reason." The corridors along this end seemed to be upside-down compared to the last bunch, on closer inspection. Azula groaned. "I think I've had enough of these gravity tricks this place seems so fond of."
"It's not quite so bad," Yue said, already upside-down. "Here, all you need to do is shift your weight -"
"I have it under control," Azula said, trying to use the railing to turn herself around. It was quite complex, the way she had to move her arms and legs in such a way as to not bump uncomfortably into one another as she went. Yue remained perfectly still and quiet, letting the girl work it out for herself.
When she was finished, Yue asked her, "Why are you so intent on doing everything alone, Azula?"
"What sort of question is that?"
"I'm concerned, that's all. You're not alone, Azula. Let us help you once in a while."
"Hmph."
Yue sighed. Azula just shrugged her off like always. And she was certain she'd been making progress. "I sense a great deal of energy moving through this section of the base. Perhaps we''ll be more likely to find a console here?" A change of subject that came a little too quickly, but the change in Azula's demeanor was immediate.
"Excellent! Let's proceed."
Though the sudden change in her attitude should have heartened Yue as well, there was something else. She could feel that creature moving towards them at a frightening pace. "We must hurry though! I think it's found us."
"Once the gravity is on, that thing will not stand a chance."
"I'm not so certain of that. I'm telling you, Azula, it's a really powerful enemy. I would feel better if you had some support."
"You're my support," Azula said, firmly. "Now, hurry up. We don't have all -" Yue had to wince as Azula's head collided with the ceiling, the loud bump interrupting her, "-day."
Yue couldn't stop herself. She broke out into a giggle fit.
"I can't see!" Katara choked out. The smog settled over top of them, filling their lungs and covering their eyes with a murky smoke. Sokka was barely wheezing in enough oxygen to keep himself composed, while Toph seemed the least affected.
"Oh, how horrible! I can't imagine what that's like." She still seemed to have enough air to be snippy, and Katara reasoned at any rate Toph was just naturally resilient. Typical. "Anyway, stay close. I think I got a pathway."
"Doesn't this thing," Sokka began, only to be interrupted by a hacking cough, "Doesn't this thing got any weaknesses? Everything's got a weak point, right?"
"Yeah, in video games!" Katara retorted from behind her hand. "This isn't a video game, Sokka!"
"Hey, didn't that freaky zombie thing have a mask on?" Toph asked. "Wasn't that its weak point?"
"You're right! The duck thing had it too."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Katara said. This left Toph further in a state of confusion.
"What duck thing?"
"Turtle Ducky," Sokka said, "Long story, really not interesting." He coughed again, "If I can break its mask shouldn't we be able to -?"
"Get low," Toph said, "It's easier to breathe."
They crouched down low. It became a little easier to see, and their lungs didn't feel as clogged, but it was still hard to breathe. "I hate to bring this up, but, isn't its mask made out of smog too?"
"Never know unless we try, Sweetness. Can you guys see it anywhere?" Sokka and Katara both scanned the cloud. Though tendrils of smoke wafted before their eyes like light linen blindfolds, they could make out vague shapes within the cloud, none of them resembling the ornate steel mask that the creature formed around.
"No?" Toph asked. She didn't get a response, and shrugged, "Let's keep moving. It's got to be around here somewhere." The ground was uneven, but she could make out where the cracks were and was able to get a sense where the shattered land wasn't as bad.
"Still not seeing it," Sokka said.
"Me neither."
"Hurry it up!" Toph said after a series of hacking coughs, "I'd rather not choke to death on smog."
"Working on it," Sokka coughed. "Wait! There! I see it!"
"Huh? Where?" She followed Sokka's outstretched finger and rubbed at her eyes. "There? You're sure? I can barely see through the smog it's so thick there!"
"Exactly. And I know just the thing for it!" Sokka said. The girls coughed, just staring blankly in his direction. "Boomerang!"
"Oh your stupid boomerang," Toph said. "Sure, why not. I could try flinging a boulder at it if you gave me directions."
"No, Boomerang needs a chance to shine," Sokka said.
"Fine. Have your fun. I'll be here trying to get a path in this smog in case you miss."
"Boomerang never misses!" Sokka paused, the hair on the back of his neck responding to the stares he was receiving. "Well, except for those times it missed."
"Of course, silly me!" Toph exclaimed. "Now let me concentrate and throw your little toy around."
"Stupid Toph, hurting Boomerang's feelings. There there, Boomerang, I believe in you," Sokka whispered to the boomerang. He noticed Katara staring at him between coughing fits. "What?"
"I don't know how you can talk so much."
"So?"
"You're using all of our air!"
"It'll be fine!" Sokka said. "Boomerang! Go!" He threw the boomerang in a wide arc and it sailed through the smog, catching glimmers of the distorted fires on the bladed edge. The old hunting relic still turned smoothly into its return swing, coming down through the center of the cloud.
Like a bolt out of the blue, it struck straight and ture on the steel mask.
And collided with a loud clang.
Sokka's face fell. "Nice shot," Katara said.
"Boomerang, no!"
"This is funny and all, but let's move! This way!"
"But, boomerang!"
"Yeah, it's not coming back. Move!" Toph pushed along the ground, following the path she'd mapped out through her feet. Katara tugged at Sokka to hurry him up, but he dragged on his heels. "What's the hold up, stay close!"
"Sokka, it's just a boomerang!"
"Right, right," Sokka said, shaking his head, "Where to?"
"This way!"
The heat was getting more intense the further they went. Gouts of flame gushed out of the fragments blasting black soot all over. The choking smog grew thicker, breathing in the ash and expanding. The scion's mask seemed to swell, growing larger.
As did a small crack, unnoticed.
Breathing meanwhile had gotten tougher and tougher. Toph managed to grunt out that she found another path threw her coughs, but their pace was slowed. Katara gave Sokka a weak look. It really seemed like they'd been beat this time.
Sokka frowned. He reached for his sword, but Katara shook her head. There was still a chance they'd be able to make it without risking their lives. Sokka acquiesced reluctantly. They couldn't see it, but the pathway Toph was leading them on lead to the center of the inferno of the shattered Ba Sing Se, down a molten path, towards a door. The choking smog hovered over them, pursuing them, and the crack along its surface continued to grow.
They were so close when they stopped, falling to the ground as the coughing overtook them. The smog was so strong and thick and black that they couldn't even see in front of their eyes. The mask's mouthless face began to swoop in closer, savoring its kill, when the expression turned pained.
The smog began to lift as the crack reached from one side of the mask to the other, The mask began to snap in half, bright light gushing forth from the wound. "What's happening?" Katara moaned after a wheezing cough. No one knew the answer. The mask fell limply to the ground where it dissolved into darkness.
"I can breathe!" Sokka said, relieved. "Finally!" He pushed himself to his knees.
"That sucked!" Toph moaned. Katara secretly agreed. Brushing the soot off, Katara quickly surveyed the wreckage.
"We're nearly there!" Katara said, relief washing over her.
"Finally! Anyone seen my boomerang?"
"Oh yeah. I totally saw it over there," Toph said.
"I'm not falling for it this time! Hah!"
"This is definitely a console," Azula said, eying Yue dangerously while rubbing her head. "Unfortunately, last time I couldn't understand a single word these consoles say. It's all in some nonsense space language, no doubt based upon an alien race in one of my brother's frivolous childhood television programs."
She looked over the device. Yes, the characters were still alien to her, but she could probably figure out how this worked if she took a second. There seemed to be a lot of the character that looked like a small circle with a quarter missing and a horizontal line in the middle. That typical meant that it was an important character. Unfortunately, after a minute, she sighed. None of it made any sense, except maybe the one that looked like a man wearing a hat. No doubt a pictograph for, well, a man wearing a hat. "Process of elimination?"
"Inelegant, but necessary." She began to hit as many buttons as she could, in rapid succession. When nothing happened, she tried to imitate that characters on the screen. Eventually, she heard a shrill sound as the OZAI Mainframe appeared on the console's monitor.
"Oh no!" Yue said, "Did we do something?"
Azula braced herself for something to blow, but instead, she heard the low humming of machines underneath her feet and felt her feet slowly fall to the ground. "Gravity restored," a female voice intoned, mechanically.
"You did it!"
"Of course I did," Azula said, confidently. There was no question of that. The image on the screen began to flicker into static, and Azula was about to turn and go when she caught something out of the corner of her eye in the static.
She grew pale as the image became clearer to her. Taking a step back, she looked like she'd seen a ghost. in fact, she was all but certain she was. "No," she said, "You-!"
"Azula?" Yue looked at the screen. The static was as strong as ever. It made a loud crackling sound and lit up the room with a pale gray light. "What's wrong?"
"Don't you see her? On the screen!"
Yue looked again. There was nothing there. "Azula, I don't see anything."
"She's there on the screen!"
"Who is?"
Azula's eyes seemed to lose their luster, and she began to scream, an incomprehensibly primal scream as she drew her gun and fired at the screen several times. The image began to flicker on and off before settling on off.
Azula stared. Even as the screen dimmed, the image did not. "Azula? What's wrong? Who's there? Who do you see?"
"M, mo-" she cut herself off, channeling a large twister of air to completely destroy the console and every trace of the monitor, before she stood, breathing heavily, staring at the point. "Zuko's mocking me. Mocking me!"
"Azula! Calm down!" Yue hadn't seen her like this in a long time. "What's wrong? What do you see?"
"She was there. My mother," Azula said quietly. "My mother was on the screen."
"You're imagining things, Azula," Yue said, calmingly, "She isn't there." Azula's breathing slowly began to return to normal as Yue repeated in a soothing voice the same thing over and over. She looked down to the ground.
She couldn't figure out what came over her. The intensity of that rage was something she hadn't been prepared for. "I don't know what came over me there, Yue. Please, don't mention it to the others. I am perfectly fit to lead."
"Azula, maybe you should rest. We've been in here a long time."
"No, we're almost through. This is the last door. I know it," she said. She looked at the mess of wires and cables that once had been the console. "Let's get back."
"Azula, that presence is approaching fast! I think your bending alerted it."
"What?" She looked at the door. "Where is it?"
"Right outside," Yue whispered.
The door released pressure as it opened up. The silhouette against the red light looked particularly menacing as it stepped through the door and drew a large, toy-like blade. As it approached, Azula could make out the details more clearly. it was made of a hodge-podge of discarded pieces, held together by red lines eminating from beneath the steel mask.
"Azula, we can't fight this thing alone."
"What other choice do we have?"
"Let me search for another way, Azula."
Azula grimaced, and then nodded, "Fine. Make it quick. I will distract it." Azula drew a bead with her gun and fired. Yue had other things to focus on than watching Azula struggle with that creature. The room was quite large, with several other consoles lining the walls. The other monitors were off, quite permanently from the looks of things.
But she could sense something deeper within the room. A familiar, yet alien presence. "There's a door! It leads into one of those strange pockets of time."
"Excellent!" Azula said, a gust of wind repealling a barrage of pellets. "Where?"
"This way!"
"Bit busy, allow me just a minute," Azula answered, politely. She launched another gust of wind that pushed the mechanical man into the wall and then drew out a water bottle, splashing its contents at the creature and freezing them on contact. "That won't hold him long."
"Okay. Follow me!"
The other side of the door contained a surprise for the trio that emerged. Gravity. The passageway they found themselves on was over a major hub of terminals not unlike the one in the main room. They appeared to be closer to the top than they'd been before, though. "Well, that's a relief."
"Tell me about it. We got lucky this time," Katara agreed with her brother. Toph stretched, looking as if nothing had happened save for the soot that covered her face. "I wonder which way we should go."
"Hey, don't look now," Sokka interrupted out of the corner of his mouth, "But someone's watching us."
"Who?" The girls seemed to be looking around. Sokka sighed.
"That shadow kid." Sokka frowned. And indeed, the shadowy boy stood at the end of the platform, just staring at them. He began to take a step backwards, turning on his heel, but Sokka started into a dash. "Hey, get back here!"
"Aang, wait up!" Katara called after him.
He wished Katara hadn't said that. Sokka was certain, one-hundred percent that they were wrong. That wasn't Aang. And he was going to prove it right here and there. He reached out his hand to stop the other boy. His hand reached the boy's shoulder and seemed to sink into the blackness that surrounded him.
He recoiled his hand at the sensation. "Who are you?" he asked. The boy turned to stare at him and a smile crept onto its face as it did. Sokka shook. That was not a friendly smile at all. "What are you!"
He drew his sword instinctively and when the boy raised his arm forward, he struck in response. He heard his sister shout out in surprise. But he was more horrified that the sword had gone through wtihout touching anything. The arm just hovered in place with a line slashed out, the shadows writhing about, reaching out to each other.
"You're not Aang," Sokka said. He sliced again, this time clear through the figure's torso. The figure exploded out, pushing him down.
"Sokka!" Katara cried, rushing over to him. She stared at the boy as the darkness slowly started to reconstruct itself into its form. Some fragments just clung to the ground, unmoving, and though the boy stood with his heart exposed, a shining blue core, his smile never faded.
"Guys, watch out!" Toph said. "Whatever those things are, they're moving!"
Sokka and Katara's attention turned to the small puddles of darkness that started to crawl off of the ground. The boy shook his head slowly and walked away.
To be continued.