Who sucks? I do! I promised you guys I'd have this up by the end of 2015 and here it is the middle of February and I'm just now getting around to it! I'm soooo sorry and I'll try not to let this become a habit. I hope you can forgive me! Colege started back up and I've been crazy busy. As an apology for the wait and because this ended up being kind of a short chapter I gave you a little bit of Asuko fluff at the end!
It was what felt like a punch to her heart that brought Asuni out of the blackness. She sat upright with a jolt, her mouth dry and foul-tasting. One hand fisted over her heart as she curled her knees to her chest.
"What's wrong?"
It was Zuko's voice, his hand on her back supportively as he helped her sit up.
"I feel faint…" Asuni looked up and saw the princess huddled in her furs and Sokka's arms, one hand delicately on her temple.
"I feel it too," said Aang, who sat on the head of the bison. Asuni looked around sharply when she realized just where they were. She and Zuko were on the back of the flying bison. Moreover, they were with the Avatar, and not a single punch had been thrown that she knew of. And they were bathed in this strange red light…
Asuni looked up and gasped in horror as she took in the sight of the blood red moon hanging in the sky overhead. It raised goose bumps on her arms and turned her stomach. Asuni shuddered and pressed back shamelessly against Zuko's hands.
"Makes me sick," she muttered worriedly, casting a nervous glance up at the red orb.
"The moon spirit is in trouble," Aang said grimly. Asuni's jaw tightened.
"Is that what you're feeling?" Zuko whispered in her ear. Asuni looked up and found his face almost uncomfortably close, his eyes staring over her head suspiciously at the Water Tribe peasants huddled around the princess.
"I would guess," Asuni said faintly, wincing as her vision blackened and blurred momentarily. She felt something core had been sapped from her, like there was a hole inside that had been ripped open.
"I owe the moon spirit my life," the princess said faintly.
"What do you mean?" Sokka asked, concern glowing in his eyes as he reached out and out a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"When I was born I was very sick and very weak," Yue said quietly. "Most babies cry when they're born, but I was born with my eyes closed, as if I were asleep. The healers did everything they could, but there was nothing they could do. They told my parents I was going to die. My father pleaded with the spirits to save me. That night, beneath the full moon, he took me to the oasis and placed me in the water. My dark hair turned white. I opened my eyes and began to cry, and they knew that I would live. That's why my mother named me Yue. For the moon."
"That makes sense," Katara said softly. "Aang feels the spirit's suffering because he's the Avatar, and you're tied to the moon spirit. But what about you?" Katara demanded, turning to Asuni with narrowed eyes. "Well, Miss Royal Guard? How come you can feel it?"
"It's in my blood," Asuni replied shortly, eyes scanning the horizon and watching as the buildings of the North began to come into view, still keeping half an eye on their fellow travelers in the saddle.
"I'm gonna need more than that," Sokka said belligerently. Asuni tore her eyes from the horizon, fixing them with a cold glare.
"Very well. We'll have story time," Asuni said with a bitter twist of her lips. "Once upon a time, winter came colder and harsher than anyone could ever remember. Snow buried people within seconds and the wind could steal and man's breath better than an Airbender. Everything and everyone was starving and the spirits were no exception."
"The Starving Winter," Yue whispered quietly. Asuni nodded in approval.
"Yes, that's what it's called now. During this winter, the spirits of the North were turned as dark and cold as the land around them by the sadness and depression and hunger of their homes. They began to attack the North and prey upon those who ventured too far from home. The villagers feared the dark spirits and barricaded themselves into their homes.
"But for one man. Akiak was not the avatar but nevertheless he was brave enough to venture out into the North to find the spirits and reason with them. He was able to calm them down. The spirits were grateful to Akiak. They gave him gifts and he became the liaison between the people and the spirits until his death when his children carried on his legacy. On and on, to this day.
"Your spiritual leaders, the older couple, what are their names?" she barked at Yue, who blinked in surprise.
"Iluak and Ahnah," she replied. "Why?
Asuni shook her head. "Just thought I should know my grandparent's names," she said leadingly.
Yue's eyes widened in disbelief. "But… But their daughter died! Aluki never…"
Asuni laughed harshly. "Is that what they said? No, my lying grandparents drove her away. They drove her to a husband she didn't love, they looked down on her for her lack of abilities, and they disdained her for her desire to fight. They drove her into the arms of the Fire Nation where she met my father. Yes, she is dead now," Asuni admitted. "But I'm still here, and Akiak is still my ancestor."
"I've heard of him," Aang recalled. "The spirits welcomed him with open arms after he died, right?"
Asuni nodded. "That's how the story goes. And every since him, all of his descendents have been especially sensitive to the Spirit World."
'If that's true then you know what this war is doing to the spirits in this world," Katara said passionately. "How can you support the nation responsible for so much suffering? We found a spirit whose forest had been burned that was kidnapping people because it was so angry!"
Asuni snorted. "One spirit? That's your evidence? Those spirits that have crossed over to this world are, on the whole, few and far between. Most, like the ocean and moon spirits, are so isolated it's impossible for them to be touched by much. One spirit is nothing in the grand scheme of things."
Katara opened her mouth to respond hotly. But Sokka shook his head, reaching out to place a hand on her arm.
"You're not going to convince her," he said firmly. "She drank the ice wine a long time ago."
"Loyalty and obsession are two different things," Asuni snapped as Appa began to descend. She glanced over the side of the saddle and saw that they were coming back to land in the oasis. Zhao stood there, flanked by several standard soldiers. In his hand was a writhing burlap bag that he held aloft. His eyes gleamed with madness, his speech so impassioned that he didn't notice them at first, too caught up in himself.
"They will call me Zhao the Moon Slayer! Zhao the Conqueror! Zhao the Invincible!"
Asuni snorted as Momo lunged off of Aang's shoulders as the Avatar dismounted. The flying lemur soared over to Zhao, scampering all over his head and shoulders and utterly wrecking the illusion of grandeur he had created around himself.
"Get it off!" he shouted. The soliders moved immediately to try and remove the lemur from their leader. Mom leapt free and soared to Aang's arms, drawing all eyes to him, Sokka, and Katara as they faced Zhao down. Yue remained in the saddle with Zuko and Asuni.
"We should slip away now, while they're all distracted," Zuko whispered in Asuni's ear. Asuni shook her head, frowning slightly as she placed a stalling hand on his forearm.
"Not yet. He has the moon spirit," she said tensely, worry pouring like ice through her veins. She pulled her mask free from where it was tucked between the layers of her tunics and pulled it on over her face, hiding herself from Zhao and preventing herself from being recognized as Royal Guard and as Asuni.
"Don't bother!" Zhao sneered, raising the bag and directing his fist at it smugly.
"Zhao, don't!" the Avatar said hastily, real concern showing obviously in his voice as he dropped his glider and held up his hands placatingly.
"It's my destiny," Zhao murmured, a fervent light in his eyes. "To destroy the moon and the Water Tribe."
"Destroying the moon won't hurt just the Water Tribe," the Avatar tried to explain. "It will hurt everyone. Including you. Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance. You have no idea the kind of chaos that would unleash on the world!"
"He is right Zhao!"
"Uncle," Zuko breathed as all faces turned toward Iroh on the edge of one of the bridges. The old general was still as pudgy and rosy-cheeked as ever, but a harshness colored his voice and showed in his stance. This was the general who had nearly broken Ba Sing Se, not Zuko's tea-loving uncle.
"General Iroh," Zhao greeted calmly. "Why am I not surprised to discover your treachery?"
"I'm no traitor, Zhao," Iroh said as he lowered his hood. "The Fire Nation needs the moon too. We all depend on its balance. Whetevr you do to that spirit I'll unleash on your tenfold! Let it go now!"
That was no idle threat. Iroh was once in line to be the Fire Lord. In another life, he might have led an entire nation. Iroh grew up studying bending under the best masters the world had to offer and now he himself was one of those masters. Iroh could decimate Zhao as easily as breathing.
Zhao knew he was outnumbered and outclassed. He slumped in defeat and dropped into a crouch, letting the moon spirit slip free of the bag and back into the water where it joined the ocean spirit in its eternal circling once more.
Zhao's face began to contort, anger and defeat and embarrassment and madness warring for victory on his features. Anger won out. Zhao drew back his flaming fist. Cried echoed from all over the oasis and everyone moved to stop him, but too late. A burst of fire blackened the back of the moon spirit. It floated limply in the water, dead.
The moon, whose light had only just returned, flicked off as if someone had snuffed out a candle flame. Asuni gasped and shuddered as she felt the sensation of her bending being physically ripped from her. She sagged weakly back into Zuko's arms.
"Asuni," he breathed worriedly, seeing glittering blue eyes alight with horror through the holes in her mask. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"It's gone…" Asuni said faintly.
With a roar Iroh lunged, fire flying from his fists. Zhao stepped back as his soldiers stepped forwards. Iroh tore through the soldiers like they were training dummies, even with four of them against one of him. Zhao saw what was happening with fear in his eyes, turning and fleeing.
"Go after him," Asuni bade, feeling Zuko shift longingly after the admiral. She pulled herself out of his arms, staring sadly at the fish floating in the water. "I know you want to."
"You won't come?" Zuko asked, surprised she was willingly letting him go off by himself in the middle of a battle. Then again, if she was as sensitive to the spirits as she'd said she was, there was no telling what she must be feeling at that moment.
"I need to be here. And I… I have faith in your abilities," Asuni said earnestly, reaching out a placing a hand over his encouragingly. She squeezed, leaning forward and pressing the carved lips of her mask to his cheek in an approximation of a kiss.
Zuko flushed, looking at Asuni in surprise, but she was already pulling away and slipping over the side of the saddle.
Asuni bitterly regretted her words from earlier, about one spirit not being a big deal, as she saw Zuko shoot off after Zhao out of the corner of her eye. In the grand scheme, a simple forest spirit wasn't much – but the moon? That was world-shattering.
"There's no hope now," Yue said softly as Iroh dipped his hands into the water, lifting the dead fish from the pond. "It's over."
Light burst into being from the avatar's eyes and tattoos. It shone from his mouth as he spoke.
"No, it's not over."
The avatar stepped into the pond, heedless of the freezing water. The ocean spirit circled him as he closed his eyes and folded his hands in meditation. With no preamble, the avatar suddenly dropped through the water. The glow from him spread throughout the pond, into the water around them and beyond, into the city, bringing a glow to everything. The water began to shift, waved rising and crashing against and then over the bridge as the water moved to the mouth of the oasis. It lifted into the air seemingly independently of anything else and took shape.
Asuni watched in awe as a gigantic fish made of water, the true manifestation of the ocean spirit's power, towered over them. Floating inside the fish's chest was Aang, his eyes and tattoos glowing as he was suspended, unharmed, in the water. When he raised his hands the fish raised its fins and when he leaned forwards, the fish began to move, surging down into the city.
Iroh knelt, setting the moon spirit back into the water sorrowfully.
"It's too late," Katara mourned as they all sank to their knees, for once united in their grief. "It's dead."
Iroh hung his head, but looked up suddenly at Yue. "You have been touched by the moon spirit," he realized. "Some of its spirit is in you."
"Yes," Yue said, surprised by the sudden comment. Comprehension dawned on her face, followed by a wash of determination. "The moon spirit gave me life. Maybe I can give it back." Yue stood, her eyes fixed lifelessly on the dead spirit.
"You don't have to do this!" Sokka pleaded, desperation clear on every inch of him.
"It's my duty, Sokka," Yue said quietly.
"I won't let you!" he protested, grabbing her hand and holding her back. "Your father told me to keep you safe!"
Yue's hand slid from his grasp. "I have to do this." Iroh held the fish out for her. Yue laid her hands over the body, her fingers covering the ugly burned scar across its back from Zhao's blast. The fish glowed under her touch. A final breath left Yue's lips and she sagged sideways.
"No!" Sokka shouted, agonized, as he lunged forward to catch her. He touched her face, hoping for a trace of life, but none could be found. "She's gone. She's gone." He hugged her tightly.
But between one blink and the next, Yue's body vanished. Sokka's arms tightened on nothing. The fish in Iroh's hands began to glow once more. He quickly set it free back into the water. It was alive once more and returned immediately to its circling, spreading its light around the pond until it glowed like a moon laid out before them.
The glow lifted out of the water and shifted, coalescing into a shining, ghostly image of Yue clad in flowing robes, her hair and fabrics drifting around her.
"Goodbye Sokka," she said, her voice echoing softly. "I'll always be with you." She drifted forwards, cupping Sokka's face and slanting her lips over his. She vanished once more, and the glowing moon appeared in the sky once more.
"It's done," Asuni said softly, reaching up and brushing a tear from her face. She smiled slightly and reached out to touch the General's shoulder. "We must find Zuko and go," she whispered, unwilling to draw the eyes of the two Water Tribe members to them.
Iroh nodded and, slowly, they both rose and moved away from the oasis, leaving and descending into the town. It was strangely empty, most people seemingly drawn towards the harbor. The aftereffects of the onslaught of the angry ocean spirit hung in the air like electricity, sparking and dancing across Asuni's skin.
"I will find a raft for us to use to get away from here," Iroh said, moving towards the water. "You find my nephew. Something tells me you'll have a better chance at that than I will." He winked at her, but there was still a bit of melancholy in the gesture. Asuni smiled faintly and nodded. Iroh moved off as Asuni turned, casting around for any sign of the prince. Burn marks were everywhere but there was nothing that definitively said Zuko.
"Where is he?" Asuni wondered aloud, planting her hands on her hips and casting around.
She shivered as a gust of wind blew snowflakes up around her. The snowflakes shifted and danced… in ways the wind shouldn't have blown them. Asuni watched, awe washing over her as she realized that she was looking at a spirit actually made of snow, the image of a small humanoid creature with frosty wings formed by the individual flakes.
"Thank you," Asuni breathed to the spirit and followed it as it began to drift off down an alleyway. It drew her around one corner and down a street until Asuni saw Zuko standing on a bridge, staring wordlessly into the water below. The spirit exploded into powder, its job done, and the flakes soooped past Asuni back to wherever it had come from, but not before tangling in several loose strands of her hair and brushing along her cheek in farewell.
"Zuko," Asuni called as she stepped onto the bridge. Zuko didn't acknowledge her, but she knew he'd heard. "We need to go. The hunt will soon begin for surviving invaders. I doubt the Water Tribe will be very pleased to find us still here."
"You're right," Zuko allowed, but he still stared at the water. Asuni peered over the rail curiously, but nothing seemed amiss.
"Zuko?" she questioned, stepping closer and placing a hand on his shoulder uncertainly. "What happened? Is it Zhao?"
"Zhao's gone," Zuko said hollowly.
"Gone?" Asuni repeated.
"Gone, dead, I don't know," Zuko said in frustration, raking a hand across his forehead. "This… this glowing hand came out of the water and grabbed him. I offered him my hand, I tried to pull him free but he… he wouldn't take it. He would rather die than be saved by me. You say I'm to be Fire Lord, but how can I be if my people would rather die than let me be the one to save their lives?" he demanded angrily, turning away from the water and hurling the question at her.
"Zuko, Zhao is only one man, a man blinded by delusions of grandeur and maddened by defeat. You cannot measure the entirety of the Fire Nation against him," Asuni insisted, urgency in her eyes. "There are so many people just waiting for you to take the throne, so many who desperately want you to lead them!"
"So you say," Zuko snapped, glancing away. Asuni reached up, not quite sure what possessed her to do it as she cupped his cheeks and pulled his face to look at her.
"I will never lie to you, Prince Zuko," she reminded him quietly. "Never. I never have and I never will. I promised you that long ago."
There was a beat of silence and then Zuko said, "And you've never broken that promise." He slumped tiredly, reaching up to pull her hands away from his face. Asuni was somewhat gratified to see a slight pinkening of his cheeks.
"Come on, let's go find your uncle," Asuni said, tugging him after her. Zuko followed wordlessly, neither of them paying attention to the fact that their hands remained clasped together but both completely aware of it. They moved through the side streets down towards the bay. The great ice wall that had protected the Northern Tribe was breached in several places.
It was at one of these places that they found Iroh manning a raft made of scavenged parts from wrecked Fire Nation ships. There was no shortage of debris floating around. What the Waterbenders hadn't been able to destroy was taken out by the ocean spirit. A minority of Zhao's fleet had sailed away for the Fire nation again.
"You found him," Iroh called cheerfully as Asuni iced a path for them from land towards the boat. Zuko and Asuni crossed the bridge and stepped onto the large slab of wood tied over the rears of two small tinder boats. An oar and a scavenged cloak had been turned into a makeshift mast.
"I'll push us along," Asuni said, taking a stance at the back of the boat. She thrust her hands out and their boat took off, cutting through the water with a little swell and sailing smoothly through a large hole in the wall. They hit the current of the ocean and Asuni dropped her hands, letting them ocean to the work of moving them. She sat down near the rear, ready to push them along some more if they lost the current or the wind.
"I'm surprised you aren't trying to capture the avatar," Iroh said as he fiddled with the sail, looking at Zuko pointedly.
Zuko stared wordlessly over the back of the boat.
"I'm tired," Zuko replied hoarsely. Iroh abandoned the sail and placed his hand on his nephew's shoulder.
"Then you should rest," he urged. "A man needs his rest."
"I'll keep watch," Asuni offered. She crossed her legs and patted her lap. "Sleep, my prince," she beckoned.
Zuko raised his one eyebrow questioningly, but did as she offered. He laid down, his head in her lap, and was rewarded by some of her body heat as he closed his eyes. He flinched in surprise as he felt Asuni's fingers begin to card through his ponytail, nail occasionally scratching gently at his scalp. It was simultaneously soothing and set his nerves alight. He liked it.
Asuni looked up at found Iroh staring at her, eyes glowing knowingly. She scowled in reply and Iroh turned away. She could see his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Asuni smiled wryly. She wasn't being very subtly, she had to admit. She couldn't help it though. She wanted to take care of the prince and soothe him in any way she could.
Zuko's nose twitched as something cold struck his nose, then his lips, then his lashes. He opened his eyes and found Asuni looking heavenward as flakes fell around them.
"It's snowing," Asuni said. Zuko watched as her eyes combed the grey clouds over them. She looked down. Zuko's breath caught as she smiled at him softly, snowflakes dotting her dark hair and lashes. She looked gorgeous in the pink and orange light of the sunrise, skin glowing like burnished bronze.
"You're supposed to be asleep," Asuni chided gently. Zuko flushed and hastily closed his eyes. He was caught between wishing he'd just pass out so that he could sleep away the confusion and disappointment of the day and wishing he'd stay awake to feel the sensations as Asuni's fingers again began to work. She continued to stroke his hair, scratch his scalp lightly, and occasionally even rub his temples in soothing circles with her thumbs.
Zuko had the mental capacity to wish he could fall asleep like this every night before sleep claimed him and he was sucked away into the darkness.