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.

"Taiyou kakusu kirisame hikari wo ubai, shinjiru mono nakushiteta boku wa nayami dakedo."

("The rain hides the sun, stealing away its light. I am troubled as I lost what I believed in.")

- Never More

Shihoko Hirata

Chapter 29: Anthems for a Sixteen Year Old Girl

It surfaced from the primordial ooze, not a mind but a mirror of minds. It lacked impulses and nerves, it had no imagination or room for emotion. It existed, but it was a pale existence. Not even its shape was its own. It drew upon what it fed, and it changed.

What emerged was a predator. But it needed no talons, no claws or teeth. Instead, it looked like some manner of ape. It walked upright, on two legs, with arms that ended in remarkably dextrous fingers. And despite appearances, it didn't use tools. It didn't need to.

Existence sufficed.

Like a shadow puppet, what existence it had wrought was only an illusion that it cast. It became what it needed. It prowled memories, lurking like a tiger. It stood out, and yet, remained unseen. It waited for its moment.

But, something had changed. There was some new stimuli, evoking something akin to a mental response in the creature.

No, it wasn't a spirit, not quite yet, but it was close. And it was beginning to learn that all which exist can, ultimately, die. And its finely-tuned instincts turned to its prey and realized new and frightening information

It adapted.

Fight or flight.

Either would do. But it was good at the first one. And it vanished into the shadows as if it never existed except for the flash of its eyes, inhuman eyes on a human face that looked so friendly and kind.

Ba Sing Se burned.

No, to be more accurate, Ba Sing Se burned away, the flames were closing in, and as the sky burned to nothing but ash and it exposed around it a wholly different sky. It was an observatory star-show, bleeding away the projection to reveal underneath the bright red sky was a maze of grey stone. It carried over into the horizon and underneath the skyline of the city. The fires still burned, making the shadows above long and treacherous.

Things squirmed in the shadows. They weren't human, but they weren't quite spirits either.

"Oh my." Yue's assessment was echoed by the others one by one. Except, of course, for Azula. The girl had wasted no time in passing out, but now they were trapped and they didn't exactly have an idea of what to do next.

"Someone's going to have to go looking," Katara said. "We can't stay here."

"Let me just teleport us up to the maze," Sokka said, voice dripping with deadpan venom. "Oh, look, I don't have that sort of magical power. Sorry."

Katara rolled her eyes. "Look, Sokka, there was no call for that."

"I just don't see what we're going to do about this," he said with a sigh. "We're in the middle of the maze, aren't we. I mean, look at that. It's literally all around us. Where do we go from here?"

"Down."

They all looked at Yue. She was radiating light all around her, a calm and pleasant sort. "The maze carries on downwards. I'm certain that somewhere close, there's a door that will take us to where we need to go."

The light dimmed and she seemed suddenly much heavier. "I think I might have overdone it," she said, as means of sheepish explanation. "I need to get my breath back. I exerted myself a lot."

"Don't worry about it," Toph said. "We'll find it, right, Snoozles?"

Sokka wanted to protest. His body was willing him to, but it just dropped, sagging in a cartoonish fashion. His head hung low. "Fine, let's get it over with. You coming, Zuko?"

"Yeah." He crossed his arms. "The two of us will make this go much faster."

"Great." Sokka relaxed. "As long as I'm not alone."

"Who said you were going alone?"

"Toph, you can't even -"

"That hasn't been a problem before."

"I know, I mean, I just - I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Nope."

"The Unification of the two worlds. The Spirit World and the human world - I know all about that." Azula seemed impatient. She couldn't help the nagging feeling that time was passing outside at an accelerated rate. The room was eerie, as well, and she just couldn't read Lee underneath the mask. He sounded desperate.

But was he really?

"Aang stopped it when he defeated Agni."

Lee nodded. "More or less. He defeated Agni with the help of the bonds of friendship he made. They were like little red strings that bound him to every person he's ever met. Some were stronger than others, but together they had the strength to prove to Agni that humanity was worth sparing."

He tilted his head. "Aang confronted Agni on two levels, you see. Not only did he defeat the physical manifestation of Agni, he actually confronted Agni's true form in the space between the two worlds."

"How do you know this?"

Lee chuckled. "Well, I know everything about Agni and Aang. Just say I'm really well informed, if it helps."

"This labyrinth - this is where he fought Agni, too?"

"Yes! Exactly! Though it's different now. Something's changed it. Or, maybe, he met Agni within his own world within the maze. There are a lot of things that aren't clear. But, the doorways, the memories, and, most importantly, the hearts of everyone are connected inside the Labyrinth."

Azula frowned. "So he could do it again, couldn't he? If he were here, he could stop the Unification."

"Even if he could, I don't know." Lee sounded conflicted. He hazarded his answer slowly. "This is your fight, Azula. He can only help you from behind the scenes. The Avatar spirit is acting as a tether, and he's acting as a barrier."

Azula closed her eyes, trying to visualize it. "I can't believe that you want me to believe that the world and the Spirit World are just two big globes connected by a little bit of string."

"Well, it isn't like that at all, but it's easier to understand than how it really is."

"And you know this how?"

"I told you, I'm well-informed about this sort of subject matter."

"I bet you are." Suspicion flared in her eyes, but try as she might, she couldn't remove the mask. "So, I have to stop the Unification this time? That's all there is to it? No appeals, no one asking me if I want to do anything about it?"

"No, but the choice has always been yours."

"What sort of choice is that? To stop it and be free or be trapped here forever? That's not a choice, that's just blackmail!"

Lee shook his head. "It's always been up to you, Azula. That's why you're the only one who can do anything. The maze, everything that's happened has happened because of what you chose. Something responded."

She didn't really hear what he said after that, but she knew exactly what it meant. Something had found her where she'd gone to, and brought her back. Her bitterness, her anger, her fear and her hopes called it to her, and from it, a maze took shape inside this space between time and memory.

And when she returned to her body, it followed. And in that instance, there was a breach.

It had found a way to feed, and it was growing stronger.

"... at least, that's what I think," Lee finished. "I think you came to the same conclusion."

'Yes. Yes, I did. Our strangers are its food, and it's been what's called them out. Whatever it doesn't need gets thrown out. They called them Scions, but they're really just little fragments of whatever is lurking there in the dark."

Lee shook his head. "That's bad. It's getting stronger."

"So. Is this thing a piece of Agni?"

"Worse."

"Worse than a piece of Agni?" Azula frowned. "If I remember correctly, Agni was the immolated remains of a giant dragon that nearly razed the world to the ground."

"It was," Lee answered, "But it wasn't what caused the Unification, it was just the means to do it."

"So whatever this thing really is, it's the cause of the Unification. And if it gets through the maze, it'll come out on the other side. In other words, if we don't stop it soon, it'll reach the Spirit World."

"And Agni."

"Unfortunate. That's what you mean by it's starting again. But this time we can put an end to it for good."

Lee shook his head. "No one can stop that forever. It required a lot of sacrifice to buy a future for everyone, but it's tenuous right now at best." He clasped his hands together nervously. "Azula, you know what you need to do now. The next time we talk will be our last. I'm glad that I got to see you again."

"Our last? What happens next?"

"I don't know," Lee said. "But the next time we speak, it'll be in a very different circumstance than the rest. The only advice I can give you is that the path forward is taken by going backwards. The end is only a beginning that's not yet been explored."

"Riddles?"

"I thought I'd try and be mysterious!"

"Last time you did that we got attacked by a fake Yue."

Lee laughed nervously. "Well, what can I say? It's tradition, though. Vague mysterious advice like this is our stock and trade!"

Azula paused. "I'm going to wake up soon, am I?"

"Yes. Any minute now."

"I see." She paused. "There was one thing I needed to talk to you about, I just remembered. It won't take long." The words themselves seemed innocent enough, but Lee seemed hesitant by the way she said it. She spoke as if those words were the prelude to a vicious interrogation.

"Okay."

"My Stranger said something very unusual, and I wonder if you know anything about it."

"What's that?"

"She told me that the past is not immutable. You wouldn't happen to know what she was talking about, would you?"

Sokka threw his hands up in frustration. Toph slammed her foot down, satisfied by the sound of the door creaking on what remained of its hinges. "Nothing. We've been through every door on this side of the building and we've got nothing! I'm starting to think we need someone who can teleport us places because I'm stuck."

"Oh relax. That was fun. Besides, Matchstick's still got to finish his hallway."

Toph had been merciless to school property. She attacked it with the fury every student could muster after spending the best part of the year attending soul-sucking classes and listening to assemblies that went nowhere.

Every door she met now had her footprint blazed into their wooden memories. But every last room had been a dead end. Sokka had expected a door, and had moaned every time the door swung open to reveal a room that had seen the fury of someone who attended school for the better part of an eternity.

"What do you expect. We beat Evil Azula and the door just magically appears?"

Sokka cocked an eyebrow. "Evil Azula?"

"What?"

"How do you tell the two apart?"

"Eviler Azula, whatever. We just got to keep looking. I'm sure Sparky's coming down the hall right now to tell us the good news."

"I'm sure he's going to tell us that we're doomed."

He slammed his back against the footlockers. The school looked forlorn and abandoned, like it had been the site of many a great panicking people. Every room was full of overturned desks and the remains of a nuclear holocaust that had scourged the city.

Or a great big dragon. They were about the same thing for all intents and purposes, only, you couldn't exactly argue with the power of the atom. You couldn't bargain with a dragon, but most of the time it spoke back.

Sokka looked uncertain, but he was sure there was something just under his nose that wasn't quite right. Something that wasn't where it should be, maybe, or maybe it was just something he'd never paid any attention to before.

"Hey Toph, do you - never mind." He sighed. She would probably make some bad joke about how she totally sees what he meant then wave her hand in front of her eyes to educate him on how stupid he was.

He was really feeling stupid right now, and he didn't need Toph to make him feel like it. "- it's just there's something off here, and I don't know what."

She shrugged. "I hear ya."

"You got that feeling too?"

"For a while. But it's probably just because this whole place is a mess." The lights flickered on and off, and Zuko returned from the other side of the hall. He wore a grim expression, and he didn't even need to say anything for Sokka to know exactly why.

"Well, that's a bust."

"Yeah," Zuko agreed. "I can't think of anything else except the activity building, and I don't even know if it's still standing."

"I'm not about to run out there to check," Sokka said. "Anyway, I think we're close. Something tells me that the way's right in front of our noses." Toph nodded in general agreement, and Zuko glanced around.

"I don't know."

"Maybe Yue can muster some amazing moon powers and go woo-OOOO-oooo," he wiggeld his fingers and then pointed straight ahead, "Find us the exit lickety-split!"

The others stared in silence, stunned into a stupor, until Toph finally found her voice. It was busy lauighing. "I can't believe you did that!" she said between guffaws, "You sounded like such a tool!"

"Hey!"

Zuko hid his grin as best he could. "It certainly was one way to go about looking. But seriously," he said, coughing. Sokka glowered. The cough sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "Seriously," he continued, voice squeaking, "I don't think Yue's got enough power to do much. We shouldn't expect miracles."

Sokka sighed. "Anyway, there's still one more floor to check out -"

"What do you mean, one more floor?"

He looked at Zuko. "Don't you see the stairs there, man? Must be a basement or something."

"This place has a basement?"

"No."

Zuko frowned. "I don't know where those stairs lead, but it's not to a basement. This place doesn't have one."

Sokka paused. "In the real world, but Azula made this place up, didn't she?"

"She wouldn't have included a basement either," Zuko said, "She knows exactly how many floors this building has. She knows every last detail of the place."

"Then why is there a basement she knows doesn't exist?" Sokka asked, then held out his hands, "No, no, wait, don't tell me. It's to symbolize that she's descending into self-loathing?"

"I don't think so. Maybe we should check this out?"

Zuko approached the downward stairs slowly. It was dark. Even shining a light into the darkness didn't chase away the darkness. If anything, it made it more acute. This was no ordinary basement, that was for certain. For one thing, the stairs seemed to disappear halfway down.

But, they didn't. They weren't visible, but the flame's light caught on the steps, outlining them in a shimmering red. Something in the dark sparkled.

"I think that's our exit."

Was the past immutable; the question echoed in the small lavender colored room. Lee remained still for a long time, not speaking. but it wasn't that long at all. She could feel her consciousness beginning to stir, but she forced it back. She needed to hear this.

"Your stranger told you this?" he asked, as if he didn't quite believe her.

"Exactly as I said. I'm not certain how she discovered this, or if she discovered it at all. I could have been the one that discovered that it was possible but no matter what I do I don't know anymore than that."

He was quiet for much longer this time. "It's just like you said. The past can be changed."

"What past, then?"

Lee seemed to be taken aback by the question. "I don't know what you mean."

"You're lying."

Lee shook his head slowly. "I don't know, Azula. I'm sure no matter what I tell you, you'll do what you think is best. You shouldn't try and change the past, you don't know what repercussion it could have."

"What good is the power to change the past if I don't at least try?"

"It's not as simple as that," he said, but he was wrong. Azula knew he was wrong. It was that simple. "The past and memory are just two parts of the same thing. Here, though, the past and memory get muddled together a lot more. And there is, well, a place that isn't quite either."

"Isn't quite either? Nonsense."

"It's complicated."

"I doubt it. You just like acting like it is."

"It's complicated to me, okay. I don't understand how everything works, I just know that somewhere is a place where the memory is the past. But I'm telling you, Azula, that I don't think you should even consider it. The price is too high."

Azula did some internal math. She was almost certain what that meant. She crossed her arms and allowed consciousness to resume. "You've been very helpful, Lee. I'll consider what you said."

"Azula, please! It's not worth it!"

"That isn't for us to decide, now is it?" she asked and then, just like that, she was gone. The room faded from her memory like a waking dream, leaving her with only the impression in her mind. Not a memory, but a feeling.

And she looked up at Yue and Katara, who were around her with some food.

"We thought you could do with a snack, and we still have some from when we found that door to Cabbageway's," Katara explained. It was nothing but empty sugar, but her stomach gurgled eagerly at the prospect.

"Thank you."

"The others are looking for the way out of here, Azula. They'll be back soon."

"Good."

"Um, say," Katara looked anxious. "I know I've been hard on you a lot since we met. I mean, this place may be playing tricks with my memory, but I know we got off on the wrong foot."

Azula looked up at her. The Water Tribe girl looked like she was quickly reassembling what she planned to say. Suddenly, saying what she had meant to say earlier was no longer good enough, or the ravenous destruction of the sweets in Azula's maw had made her change tact.

Either way, she finally, and lamely, concluded, "We're friends, you know that, though. I mean, obviously you know that because you pretty much know everything about us even though you don't let on how you know-"

"Could you get to the point."

"I think that was my point. I'm sorry if I made you feel like you were a monster."

Azula frowned. "This is about what I said earlier, isn't it?" The accusation lingered in the air and left Katara scrambling for cover. She stuttered out her protests as Azula swallowed the last of the candy and said, "I know what I said sounded extreme, but I'm not the sort to let that stop me, you know."

"Yes, but - you gave me a scare, okay?"

"I'm sorry, then." She sat upright, and straightened herself out. "I have been at odds with myself for a long time, Katara. It's not something that happened overnight." It was Aang, she thought. The common link is Aang.

He'd changed us for the better and now that he's gone, we've gotten onto shaky ground. Just like the worlds.

"But someone trusted me once, and I intend to live up to that."

Katara again stopped herself and rethought her words, before saying, "I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure he'd be glad too."

And he would be, Azula thought, in his own ridiculous way, he'd think it was just the way it ought to be. Everything would work out, he'd say, and that would be that and no one would ever bring it up again.

Ridiculous, but that was just how it was.

The roof door opened and the others stepped in. When they saw Azula, they stood up straight - Toph reacted even quicker, processing information long before the door was even opened. Sokka was the first to speak, though, "We found it."

Stairways usually led somewhere, Azula confided with herself that here she wasn't quite sure about that, but some of the time, they led somewhere. Where this one went, she didn't know. She could barely see the first few steps, even stepping down ahead with a flame held aloft for light.

A few steps further and it was utter blackness.

"You're certain of this?" Azula asked.

"I think you'd know this place only has three floors," Zuko countered and Azula nodded slowly in agreement. She hadn't made a staircase here subconsciously, but something else did. The maze, strange as it was, seemed to be alive. And it seemed to want to help them.

"Be nice if this place had a little light," Sokka said, "But so far so good, right? No sudden drops, stops, or traps."

A sudden trap would have been welcome reprieve from Sokka's nervous pattering. She was getting nervous herself, and it was just humiliating. It was embarrassing enough the way she had to lean on people for support. It wasn't a proper meal. And she was hungrier than she'd ever remembered being in her life.

With each step, the shadows seemed to move like a cloud of dust. There was a shine beneath, like something cold and midnight blue. It emerged from the shadows like a lion-turtle coming to the surface. It felt cold even through the soles of her shoes, like a perfect, jagged winter.

She just wished Sokka would stop making her question just how safe this was.

"Yes sir, some light would be great," he said as he stepped forward and the clouds moved aside.

It wasn't quite accurate to say there was a sky overhead. It was more of a reflection of a sky, or even a reflection of a memory that just happened to contain a blue sky and the brilliant light of a noonday sun.

In the light, the shimmering grew more intense, like sharp fragments of glass that had been thrown about everywhere. And at the heart of it all was the stairway, which itself was made of the same material. It wasn't glass, though.

"Yeah," Zuko said, "We're on the right path."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, right," Katara said, "You weren't with us when it happened. We had to follow you through a passageway that looked just like this. We think these are memories."

Azula bit back a stupid response like "Memories?" or "What do you mean?" It was obvious what they meant. These were fragments of the memories that the maze ran through. Each shattered fragment was being used to make a new passage.

Azula froze in step, causing the others to stop.

"We're at fault."

"What?"

"We've been doing it the whole time. This is our fault."

"I don't see how." Sokka shrugged. "It's probably that fake Aang -"

"Sokka!"

"- wait, did I say fake Aang, I meant -"

"Stop it, Sokka!" Katara said. She pulled him aside and whispered loud enough to be heard, "We weren't going to just blurt it out like that." She glanced at Azula, who stared at her perplexed, and she thought she saw the hope drain from her face.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"That Aang we've been following's a phony," Toph said. "What? No point in sugar-coating it."

Azula was silent for a long time. Everyone seemed anxious when she slowly spoke up again. "I see." And then nothing. She didn't even seem to be thinking, just staring straight ahead. The group avoided her gaze.

The staircase wasn't really even, and it slid about endlessly into an abyss as deep and black as the bottom of a cave. It didn't just writhe, it screamed. Countless memories streamed out of it, shining and blue, wrapping around them like a tunnel.

Broken but not gone, the memories flooded into every space they could.

They flooded into Azula as well. This was all their fault, this is what she started. She hadn't meant to, but perhaps she'd wanted to back then. She refused to be forgotten, but was the price really worth it?

She closed her eyes. "I have to ask everyone something."

"Can't it wait?" Sokka asked, "I think we're finally getting somewhere."

"No, I don't think it should."

She looked forward resolutely, staring at the memories as they floated on past. Spring days where the birds were high in the air, the trees budding fresh and the excitement of the first day of playing outdoors after a frigid winter in the Earth Kingdom came rushing back to her in a second-hand way.

"If we could change the past, would you?"

She was confident that hit with the proper amount of force to make them think on that. She wouldn't elaborate what she meant, not yet, she'd wait until the full weight of the prospect sunk in to them. And then, if she was right, she wouldn't have to decide anything.

No guilt, no fear, just proper democratic action.

How wonderful.

"But, we can't change the past. I mean, it looked like we were traveling to the past, but I think that it's just a collective memory. Kind of like how everyone thinks that feudal Fire Nation was full of samurai firebenders who went around having epic fire-blade fights."

"I don't think that," Azula said, sourly. It was nothing like that at all. Firebender Samurai would have been just too much.

"Well movies think so. And now when you ask anyone about it, you're going to hear about samurai firebenders dispensing justice on the edge of a fiery sword."

"This is ridiculous."

"But the point is, this is a collective memory, not a real thing."

"I know that!" she snapped. She'd underestimated Sokka. His ability to overanalyze stuff was only beat down by the will to annoy her. Tempered, in fact, into a blade. He'd ruined her effect and now she had to recover and she did not sound happy. "My point is, if you could find a way to change the past, would you?"

"I guess that depends." He thought about it. "There are some things I'd changed."

"I'm almost afraid to ask what."

"Well, for one thing - you know."

"I know?"

"That thing - the whole Agni incident."

Azula nodded. First and foremost on even his mind. It was good that she could trust even him to think of that. It made her feel confident. "Precisely. If we could change that, so that Aang didn't sacrifice himself for everyone else, would you?"

"That's impossible."

"Is it?"

"Yes, I just said it was."

"Would the both of you stop it." Zuko grunted in irritation. "We're getting nowhere."

"How do you mean?" Azula glanced around. Everything was moving, and it was hard to tell exactly where they were in the abyss, even with the light of a crisp winter morning funneling across half of the tunnel and a fiery autumn sunset to their left.

"Yue, how far away from the bottom are we again?" Zuko asked. The moon goddess looked a bit flustered at the attention.

"Well, like I said, we're about ten feet."

"That's almost out of here!" Sokka said, encouragingly.

"And how long have we been ten feet from the bottom?" Zuko continued. Azula arched her eyebrow at the question, and looked over at Yue. She seemed even more embarrassed than before.

"I know it sounds strange, but, about three minutes."

"We've been walking in place for three minutes?" Toph asked. "While Power Princess and Snoozles were mumbling about something or another?"

The maze was like something Escher would have come up with after a particularly bad night out on the town. It weaved, it bobbed, it seemed to be built more out of perception than reality. Distances couldn't be trusted. A passage a mile long could appear to be only a matter of feet while a small nook could go on for hours.

And sometimes up and down tended to get flipped around. Sometimes up went down.

"Let's turn around."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Sokka complained.

"When did this maze ever make any sense?" Toph retorted even before Azula. She'd have to thank Toph later for saying what was clearly on everyone's minds. "So, let's go up, or down, or whatever."

They turned around, Sokka's complaint the only conversation as they stepped up and into an uncomfortable blue glow. Memories of thunderstorms came to mind. A flash of light and all they could see was his shadow under his eyes.

Aang.

It was like watching a predator emerge from the underbrush, its teeth bared, its every movement evolved to the point that it appears as leisurely as an afternoon stroll. Its dark purpose clear. Its need self-evident.

Stairs -

They couldn't fight like this. They lacked the balance, and this thing wasn't even bothering with the space between. It simply stood and waited for its prey to come. The area was too cramped. If she made a wrong step, she'd fall down the unending flight of stairs.

It would just - keep happening.

How dreadful. She considered herself warned. But she refused to simply run away. She could hear the roar of thunder - the memory of it, anyway, which was made up of more terror than the low shudder of the gathering clouds.

She could almost remember it.

"We have to run!" she heard Katara said, "Come on, Azula!"

She wasn't afraid, she'd been the predator once herself. She knew it could be beaten. Everything had a weakness, and it was only a matter of finding it. She was face to face with the cause of the Unification and it had taken his face.

It made her furious.

And it smiled at her. It was a dreadful thing to watch its mouth open behind the mass of shadows that obscured its features. It wasn't normal, and it more closely resembled a child's drawing of a smile. Not a curling of the lips, the face didn't change at all except for the large crescent that spread across it.

Sokka took a haltering step back. "It's smiling. Guys, why is it smiling?"

He took a quick glance at his feet and jumped down a step. "Coward," Azula sniffed. And she drew herself into a stance. "We won't get anywhere if we run away. We have to stop it here." But she wasn't sure how. She could presumably attack from some side, some angle it couldn't predict, but how would she know what angle to use?

But in that moment, she was the hero. It was her, she would have to do something about it.

The crack of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the ghastly shadowed effigy. Around hiim, the abyss churned. The memories shuddered at its presence, like cattle waiting for the butcher. And even in that brief flash, it was certain that this person - this thing, was not Aang. Aang would never have worn such a face, and he would never take a single step that seemed to be a challenge.

She let the memory of lightning fill her up.

She knew her angle. She had the time to strike. "Imposter!"

She shouted it with more anger than she intended, but she knew that she had to cool that anger into something she could use. Control it and harness it, instead of letting it control her - that was the key.

It was a crackle of light in the dark, a spark of hope for those lost in the shadows.

The memories seemed to dissolve into the walls. The entire stairwell was thick with shadows that seemed to envelop them like deep sea. And she could see the memories churning to the surface of the darkness.

And she could see the light that ran across her fingers. She could feel the hum of power coursing through her like a thousand watts. Probably, she thought, much more than that. It just didn't sound as good, though.

She'd let it slide.

The shadow of Aang looked uncomprehendingly at the lightning, as if it knew of it in passing, but hadn't got the whole story. She grinned. It was in for a nasty surprise. She had a clear shot, she could tear it into two with a single strike of lightning.

The memory of lightning, though, is cold.

The face, though distorted and deformed, contorted into a grisly mockery - still recalled someone else to her memory, and the memory of lightning struck like a bolt through her. Everyone had gone silent as the lightning streaked from across her fingertips into the wall.

It disappeared into the darkness.

And the predator looked up with terrified eyes. It touched where the lightning had grazed its shoulder, and felt the burn that seemed to course through his every being. Azula just stared wide-eyed.

She remembered.

How unfortunate.

It was a pleasant morning in the hills of southern Earth Kingdom, just east of the shore. There was a sun in the sky, and there were the livestock being herded up. And it was coming at them like a spinning blade of death.

What happened over the next few minutes were hard to describe. The memories bubbled up from the darkness, agitated and struggling like a cornered animal. They lunged at everything and everyone and at the center, the shadowy imposter seemed spellbound by it all.

In the minds it reflected, the concept of pain was well-known. It was a constant that they yearned to end. To experience it first-hand was different. The creature moaned. It moaned deep inside.

It yearned to be free.

Azula felt limp when Zuko tried to hurry her down. The stairs began to shudder violently around them like the sea during a tempest. And she wouldn't respond. He grabbed her and pulled her down as the memory of a pleasant morning in the farms of the south crashed into the ground, shattering forever into millions of shards.

But she'd done it before, and she remembered it clearly. How could someone ever truly forget that sort of thing. She wished she knew what she did next, even though she was frightened that she already knew.

She yearned to forget, but she chose to remember.

And the ground shuddered as a low bellow emerged from the imposter's mouth, a scream of pain and anguish that resonated with the mirrored surfaces. The abyss of shadows rose at its call and pulled the struggling memories down.

"I think you ticked it off, Azula."

Azula didn't respond and Sokka rubbed his temples furiously. "We got to get going. We're going to be thrown about and I don't want to be shish-kebobbed on someone's wedding memories."

"Would really put a damper on the occasion," Toph retorted.

Yue looked around at the angry room and then, she bit her lip and puffed up her chest. "There's one chance. Trust me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Yue jumped into the abyss.

"Okay, that's asking for a lot of trust."

"Shut up, Sokka, and let's go!" Katara shouted, diving in after. Sokka watched Azula, still carried by Zuko, descend and then Toph gave him a shrug and followed. He took a deep breath and looked at the abyss uncertainly. Then, he looked at the shadowy impostor and the shards of memories around him.

He had absolute certainty about what would happen if he stayed.

So he leapt in after.

The shadows were thick as thieves as they dropped through it. It wasn't really a plummet, more of a gentle descent, though. The shadows moved like mist, but it felt stronger, realer. It tickled against them as they went past.

There were shapes in the dark, They seemed to be watching them, their featureless figures turning to follow as they fell past. Only Yue seemed encouraged by the situation. "At the very least, we are no longer in danger."

Azula paused. She knew all the tricks. Dramatic irony, metaphor, pathos, puns, parodies, litoses and satire. She chose the most deadly of all: sarcasm. "Oh, good, I'll just stop worrying about us falling down a bottomless pit."

"Azula, really?" Katara asked.

"Really doesn't feel that bad," Sokka said, "I mean, I've never fell to my death, but I kind of assumed that I'd be gripped with mortal terror the entire way down. Well, the way my day's been going, maybe I'm just relieved."

Toph grumbled. "You know what I hate? That guy. He's a jerk. What's his deal anyway?"

"We're nearly to the ground." Yue looked a bit flustered, "And, uh, I don't think we'll end up flattened when we do reach it. We are falling very, very slowly."

"I'm totally okay with it either way at this point," Sokka said. Apparently falling into the nothing of the maze with only the sensation of the tendrils of shadows brushing against him did wonders for his stress levels.

"You're handling this well," Azula said, tentatively.

"I think I've just moved past everything."

"Or you're in a moment of denial."

"That's totally possible."

The ground was as pitch and terrible as the shadows that engulfed it. There was nothing save for the light of a brilliant white door. They landed, softly, around it in a neat circle. The shapes in the darkness kept their distance. The light seemed to push them back.

The door seemed welcoming, even friendly amongst the cold black field.

Toph immediately latched to the ground and refused to let go. Azula glanced at the others. Their gaze momentarily shifted back to her as she did, but then back at the door. "Is that it?" Azula asked, and Yue hesitated.

"I don't know. It must be close."

"The center of the maze could be right behind that door," Azula continued. "We need to be ready for anything."

Azula approached it carefully. "Are we ready?" she asked. The others responded in a brief series of mutters. She took that as a go-ahead. The approach was one of someone not quite certain what lies beyond, but with the utmost certainty of someone who doesn't want to spend the next hour waiting for another option to present itself.

Doors are meant to be open. Mazes are meant to be lost in.

The problem with the Labyrinth of Lethe was that navigating it was a task best left up to the omniscient with perfect vision. A precognitive sense of where doors lead alone would be of great help, but being able to predict the maze's twists and turns only goes so far when the maze reacts to that knowledge.

The Labyrinth breathes. It expands outwards around a singular point, like the rise and fall of empires. When the handle of a door is turned, it feels it and it reacts. The door swung open quietly and it dragged her through so fast she didn't even feel her shoes scrape against the floor.

The light that emitted from within the open doorframe seemed to reach out and grab them. Slowly, ever so slowly, a slothlike supernova expanded outwards and then disappeared as the door slammed shut.

Azula's stomach seemed to catch up with her on the other side.

Inside it was bright. Her eyes took a moment to adjust. A light flickered and then resumed its sterile phosphorous glow. There was a click. She turned around as the basement door opened up and she was nearly buried in the landslide of bodies that fell out.

"What the - what just happened?" Toph asked. "I've had it up here with disappearing acts and falling. If this happens one more time I quit."

"You can't quit, Toph," Katara said, her elbow hitting her brother in the square of the back as she tried to untangle herself from Yue. "Could you give me a hand, Azula?" Azula just stared beyond them. "Hello?"

"I think we broke her," Sokka quipped. "Ow! Watch it, Katara!"

"Sorry!" Katara managed to free herself and started to help the others to their feet. "Hello, Azula? A little help?"

Azula blinked, started, and turned over to Katara. "Oh. Right, yes. Of course."

As they pulled everyone to their feet, it was Zuko who decided to ask the obvious question. "Where are we now?" It didn't look like the maze, but it was certainly familiar. They had fallen out of the basement door, Azula thought.

That led into a basement, with a couple of washers and dryers.

"We're home."

The dormitory remained locked in time. The clocks were frozen in place, and nothing seemed to work. The door was the first thing they tried, and try as they might against a broken lock, it refused to budge.

Not that it had stopped Toph from trying, but even her feet were getting tired of pounding at it. She flopped down on the couch next to Sokka and groaned. "This is stupid." The others seemed to share a moment of agreement through murmurs and sighs.

"What do we do now?"

Katara looked at everyone. Only Azula had gone missing, it seemed. She had taken off like a bolt shortly after the door refused to budge. She glanced at the stairs, wondering if the other girl would come down. "I mean, do we have any ideas at all?"

"I'm stumped. I mean, this is it, isn't it? I thought that door was supposed to take us right to the middle of the maze." Sokka scratched his nose. He couldn't think of anything else. They'd beaten every enemy that the maze threw at them except for the shadow kid.

Which was another mystery that he didn't feel his brain could solve right now. He was still exhausted.

"Maybe we should have a nap. I'll think of something in the morning."

Zuko sighed. "I can't believe I'm agreeing with him, but he's right. We need our strength."

"For what?" Toph asked. "We're going to go after that shadow jerk?"

"I can't think of anything else."

Sokka groaned. "No, no more. I'm done. I'm not thinking up some new strategies on how to hunt him down, I'm just going to take a nap and let everything work itself out." The others stared at him, and he shrunk back. "I mean, since I know you're going to ask if I have any ideas and - okay, I'll do it. Fine."

"You are a pushover," Zuko grunted.

"Yes, yes I am," Sokka admitted in defeat. He slumped in his seat. "I think I'll try and get a nap first."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Everyone should try and get some rest," Katara agreed. "I'll go tell Azula."

In truth, Katara was worried about Azula. She was acting as if everything was normal, but for some reason, things just didn't seem to be. She'd come to notice everytime she spoke and put down someone for two years, a bitter repository of memories that had accumulated over the years.

And yet, it was that same bitterness that left her uneasy about this new Azula. She was slower to react, and she second-guessed herself. As much as she didn't like her attitude, the girl was sharp.

But she wasn't acting it.

The door was closed, and she approached it without an ounce of apprehension. The worst Azula could do didn't frighten her anymore. She knocked, and after a moment, a voice answered.

"It's unlocked," she said, "But I'm a little busy. Could we make this quick, Katara?"

Katara paused. Deciding against asking how she knew, she just opened the door to find Azula on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "We've decided we may as well take a rest for the time being. Sokka and Zuko think we should chase the, you know -"

"Fake Aang, right?" Azula closed her eyes. "Yes, I'm at a loss myself."

Katara crossed her arms. "You? At a loss? Who are you and what have you done with Azula?"

Azula chuckled. "Oh, Katara, you've never missed an opportunity to take a shot at me. I've got to admit, I'm surprised you've not challenged my leadership more often than you did." Katara frowned. "I've made a stupid mistake and I don't know how to rectify the matter."

"You've made a lot of mistakes, but at least you're admitting it now."

Azula frowned. "Would you believe me that my coming back was a mistake? It shouldn't have happened."

Katara paused.

"If I hadn't come back from the almost-dead, none of this would have ever happened, you see. And now everything is wrong and I am trying to think of how to stop it all from spiraling out of control." She grinned wryly. "In fact, I think it would have been rather easier if I'd just given up."

"You're joking, right?"

"No. I know this, someone I trust told me so."

"Did they tell you it would have been better if you'd never - you're impossible, you do know that, right?" Azula laughed.

"Oh don't worry, I'm not about to profess how I loathe my existence, Katara. I'm just pointing out that this has turned out to be a very bitter work indeed."

"Well you'll get through it, with us. I don't know why you think you coming back was a mistake, but you're here now." Katara sighed. "That's what being alive is all about. It's not easy, but it's still something we've got to see through. What's the point if you don't give it everything."

Azula considered this, or appeared to. She sat up and got off her bed. "I think I see what you're saying, Katara. Tell Sokka not to stay up all night - or whatever - thinking up a plan."

"Okay."

"I've been trying to figure out how we're supposed to proceed. Those doors don't act like normal passageways. They seem to take us where we need to go. That means somewhere here is some detail we've overlooked, or something we're meant to discover - some gate or key - and that will take us right where we need to go.

"We've all but left the labyrinth now. We just need to make sure it stays closed."

"We'll follow your lead, then."

"Good."

When she'd gone, Azula grabbed a notebook and opened it to the first blank page and began to write. Her mind had been kicked into overdrive all of a sudden, and she had the urge to get down her thoughts on paper. She'd organize them, make them march in neat little lines. She had a tidy mind, which was where her madness seemed to stem.

She liked to be in control, and in her head, the thoughts were not staying in perfect rank and file. She tapped the pen in the border once or twice before beginning like a letter. "My name is Azula Houou."

It was the start of this.

And like Katara had said, it wasn't something that came easy. Dying, now that was easy. Losing her identity in the ebb and flow of that unending shadow would have been the simplest solution to everything. If she knew then what she knew now -

But she chose to live. And now she'd have to deal with the consequences.

Her name was Azula Houou, and now she would define what that meant.

She took great care in describing the journey through the labyrinth as it appeared in her memory. She endeavored to keep every detail of the journey intact. It was difficult. Her memory was better, but it was still criminally incomplete. It was like looking through a library and finding spaces where books should be.

"I recall a place where there was nothing. No light to see, but still, there were shapes. They were clear as the light of day. They were my own hands and the figure of a girl. I don't know if this was a dream. I think it might have been. I am starting to doubt that dreams evaporate like mist when we wake up, anyhow.

"I saw a girl and she had me sign a contract and I signed it Azula Houou and I knew that was my name. I chose to remember. And of all the things I've remembered since, it remains the anchor of certainty in the storm.

"I am Azula Houou. No matter how much I know is wrong, that will never betray me."

Uncertainty clouded her thoughts for a moment and she put the pen down to think. Writing was usually a simple matter of transcribing facts and expounding on them in such a way to develop a new idea.

Here, she was writing her memoirs. She hadn't thought of ever doing something like this, though she'd entertained the thought once in a moment of deluded grandeur. If her life were a book, not only would people want to read it, they would throw it into the fiction section and throw away the key.

"I have fought monsters before."

It was a lame line, but she tapped her pen along the period and turned it into a comma. "I have fought monsters before, but never any quite like the creatures in this maze. There are monsters here that are spirits before they become spirits, mere shadows of themselves in fact. I know what evil lurks in the hearts of men because I have seen it. Not clearly, but I know its been watching us.

"I wonder if a book feels that way when it's being read. I wonder what it feels like to be written."

She sighed. It was hard to put into words the exact feelings she had about this place. Terror, certainly, though it was tempered by resolve and common sense. But there was always this groping, terrible feeling in the back of her head like someone was plucking the best of her mind like they were some kind of fruit.

But that's how it fed. It grew on those memories. The maze was like a repository of bad thoughts, and someone had decided to make it useful.

It fed and grew and it got more and more cunning. At the start, who would have imagined that it was little more than a bad thought. A thought that had been here all along. But then something changed it. The thought had gained - well, calling it sentience would be an insult to all sentient life, but something close to it that in the shadows it could be mistaken for it. A mind that wasn't a mind, but a series of impulses that reacted to stimuli in such a way that it made it seem like it was animal.

Like a plant, whose feelers tingle when the lion-honeybee land on it searching for the sweet smell of pollen only to find a trap like a mouth squeeze shut.

And then they'd come, drawn by the smell of nectar on the breeze, and it drew out exactly what it needed to make it grow. The maze grew too, though. Symbiotic relationships had been formed. Azula struggled to figure out why a maze, though.

That seemed almost self-defeating. If Lee was right, this shadow over them was trying to start the Unification by awakening Agni.

It had to merely travel from one point to the next.

A maze is something people build for amusement, of course, but earlier still, they were used not simply to keep people out but to keep things in.

She groaned in defeat. There was still something she was missing. Something that was clear enough to be seen but too far away to be identified.

She started to write about the garden.

Yue was not one to sleep. She simply lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling and fretted. The others were tired, but she was simply exhausted. Seeing inside the maze was like staring into a murky pond. The shapes underneath are menacing, even if it's just some manner of toad darting about.

It was hard for her to explain to someone without the senses she possessed. There was a taste to it that just couldn't be put into words a tongue could comprehend, a smell that was as alien as color to the ear. The Spirit World was simple enough to explain. It was a series of ideas, of emotions and thoughts. It was like seeing inside the collective human mind. Everything was distinct. Every tree was born of some ancient memory, and every creature was part of the way the world was.

The human world, though, was a little more complicated. People built things for a purpose. A road was paved to allow cars to drive on them, lights were there to allow them to see. The practical nature was different than the Spirit World, enough that it could be disorienting. Everything came down to shapes and sounds, less direct than in the Spirit World. The earth answered, as did the wind and the water. Even the fire spoke to her.

But this world - there was no rhyme or reason. Everything seemed to be turned upon itself, and everything was seen through a lens.

She worried about what she couldn't see. She was so used to being the all-seeing Moon, and now she was in a place where moonlight was little more than a collective memory, more silver light than spirit.

The tides didn't listen to her, here. Here, the tides ever unchanged, frozen in that one perfect moment where the sea meets the land.

Azula struggled through the Secret Sands in her mind, replaying the memories as best she could, even as she was swept up by sand and water alike. Right now, she was certain the answer was there, in her memory.

Katara slept.

She was so tired she'd fell asleep before she hit the pillow. She dreamed about many things, troubling things that made her turn in her sleep. It had been a long journey and she couldn't help but feel it wasn't over.

In her sleepy state she wondered about what Azula had said.

Despite all they'd done, they hadn't left the maze. There was still something, maybe not quite undone, but all the same tethering them to this place. In her dreams she knew what it was. Her brain had just assumed she would, it seemed.

If she had any awareness of that, she'd have struggled for an answer, but in her dreams, she could see it as clear as day.

When she woke up, her thoughts would change.

But that moment, she knew she had to protect Azula, if not from the shadow in the maze, then from herself.

If Azula approached this new, selfless point of view the same way she approached her old, selfish way, then she'd be afraid for anyone in that path.

It wasn't in the Depths of Defeat, either, except that somehow she knew it was. She was overlooking something important. Something that would make the path clear. She just couldn't make herself see it.

Toph never doubted, least of all herself.

The path ahead was clear. There was just the tiny hitch of finding the door that led to it. The center of the maze held some kind of monster, and they had to defeat it. But she'd heard what Azula had said earlier, and she was curious.

What did she mean by all that metaphysical nonsense. She almost sounded like she knew some way to change the past.

There was only one thing she'd change.

It was just hard to ignore, no matter how you tried to fill that emptiness, she'd say. It was just a hole that you had to carry.

But if you could change the past, why wouldn't you?

If you could make the world better by one little action, why not?

The Anguished Adventure was surreal enough living through it, transcribing it tested her abilities to the limit. There were only so many ways to describe the atonal music, the fact that she felt like she'd been covered in eight-bit graphics.

But something was beginning to emerge clearly.

A pattern.

And a door.

And Sokka had spent most of the night thinking. A shadowy impostor that looked like the friend they lost, in a place that was almost, but not quite, reminiscent of the Tower of Memory. It all reeked of something, and he was going to find out what.

He didn't much think about Azula's ramblings. She was still incoherent after that thing with her Stranger. The spirits or whatever in this maze were a different beast from the ones in the Spirit World. Those were corrupted by human feelings, while these ones started out corrupt and just got worse.

And the impostor seemed to just be the source of all the negativity. It was like it was drawn to it like a moth to the flame. And as time moved on, that just got more and more pronounced. It was mocking them, but he had an idea.

Pillow soft, eyelids heavy, Sokka seemed quite pleased with his idea.

Set a trap, and he knew just what to use for bait.

The Stars of Solitude replayed quite clearly for her. It was after that when things started to get fuzzy. But she was certain now. She just needed to know what it all meant.

Zuko hadn't put up much of a fight against sleep.

Through-out his life, his Uncle's so-called failure had haunted him. He'd respected the man, and it pained him to watch his name be dragged through the mud for his father's own self-serving ambition. But even harder were the times he doubted him.

And then Agni had come.

And that was when he knew he'd been wrong to ever doubt him.

A bitter work indeed, but he'd found some measure of redemption. He fought against regressing into that brooding loner, even though he'd lost himself once or twice, his friends hadn't.

And now he had to trust Azula's path.

Sleep seemed easier, so he chose that. Whatever Azula was planning, he couldn't even begin to figure it out. It was easier to approach things in a straight line, set a goal and accomplish it. She tended to think of goal-setting as a triathlon. Not only did the goal have to be met, but several others would be set mid-stride and she always seemed to come out on top.

Except for that one time.

Even she'd been troubled by it. She'd set up her walls after they'd betrayed their friends. It was kind of a sad to watch himself stand by the wayside while she did, but it was too easy to get lost in her circuitous logic and careful planning. This maze had been nothing in comparison. No man alive could navigate a maze like Azula's mind.

It seemed obvious.

Why then did she seem reluctant to accept what she'd written down. It had taken her hours of time to put together the pieces. A memoir in and of itself. A rough draft. If she ever got out of the Labyrinth, she would make it into something she could really be proud of.

There was another door, of course.

It had been there and she'd just skimmed over it.

... and it always seemed like I was running around in circles avoiding it. Perhaps it was just as well that I didn't want to enter that door. Inside, I'd be forced to make decisions that I can't make lightly or alone.

I'm not alone, though. Foolish of me, but I can't help but accept that now. I never really thought about it until I wrote this down. I have friends, and I won't have to be alone again.

The next step is obvious and unavoidable. I have to open Aang's room and enter the center of the maze.

And I'm not coming back.

- Excerpts from Azula Houou's Private Diary

To be continued.