Movement in the dark, traveling onwards to escape from what lay behind. They had told her it would be like this, but she hadn't had any choice. She had to get going. Her destination was the only thing that would save her, and more importantly, save Azula. She wondered if maybe she should have found someone stronger to give the task to.
It was something that really ate at her. Maybe she just wasn't strong enough to pull it off. She had been selfish to take it on herself. She wanted to save Azula, so instead of finding someone better, she was doing it herself. But the argument was, the thing that kept her belief in herself strong, was that Azula chose her, trusted her. That counted for something… actually; that counted for everything.
Her mind came back to reality as a spatter of light broke through the leaves above, spilling in disjointed rays like droplets. She was very aware of the crisp autumn colors, as she had been indisposed and had missed the transition. Suki had told her it had lasted just over a week… but the world seemed to have changed so much for such a short amount of time. She was growing increasingly worried as time progressed. If this was how much the world had changed here, how much had things changed back home?
Present won out once more though, in a rather violent fashion. She was aware of the glow reflecting off of the foliage and in the darkness before any heat or sound registered, and her instinct to throw herself forwards and practically hung her mount saved her a potentially debilitating burn. The animal was, of course, spooked by the large blast of fire and quickly broke its stable stride into a flat run forwards.
Sparing a glance back, Ty Lee caught site of at least three Fire Nation soldiers, ridding on the back of a pair of Komodo Rhinos. If she was more politically oriented, the question of the legality of fire nation soldiers perusing her on earth soil would have been present, but as she wasn't and given the present nature of the situation her attention was quite fixed on staying alive.
Komodo Rhinos were sturdy animals capable of throwing around a good deal of bulk and taking a beating, but her Ostrich horse was faster. Another fire blast came from behind and she jerked to the left on her reigns. Well trained, the animal quickly obeyed and twisted itself in that direction, putting a tree between herself and the burst. While she was saved, the tree was lost in a plum of smoke and ash.
It was a good distraction, and one the young acrobat was both grateful for and took full advantage of. Ty Lee drew her legs up and bent herself into a slight crouch on the animals back, and after pausing briefly to give in a small pat on the head, leapt of and grabbed hold of a branch above her. Momentum carried her forwards in a swing and she gracefully shifted herself as she came up and over it to land in a crouch on top of it. Easy as pie, though the sensation of doing an acrobatic stunt while near fire brought back certain less than pleasant memories of how she had come back into Azula's life.
A slight sight escaped from her lips as she turned her attention slightly behind her, watching the three soldiers emerge from the veil of smoke. As quickly as she had come to be where she was, she let herself fall. Hands braced against the skull of the first komodo rhino as she landed in a handstand on it, and using the leverage she shifted her downward momentum into an overhead kick.
Her legs came together and down in a crescent, clubbing the rider with enough force to knock him out, but his saddle and spurs kept him locked in position. As he fell backwards her legs continued to descend, planting on his face and giving her footing to spring from the hand stand. Her body came up into a slight standing position, though followed through into a forwards facing crouch.
Using the heavy soldier for bracing, she gripped the back of the rhino's saddle and launched herself forwards. Her speed was faster than she had anticipated, however, and rather than land on the next rhino's head, she instead shot past it. Her shoulder collided with the face of the soldier mounted on it, and she felt bone give way under her energy. The crash also sent pain shooting through her upper arm and neck, and she rebounded off.
Quick reflexes caught site of the last rhino charging for her airborne form, and she used all the strength and speed she could muster to grab hold of its horn and twist herself to the side, avoiding the goring that would have been sure to follow. Body lined up right as she barely twisted past, and her skilled limbs striked out, sealing the beasts energy flows.
Even as she crashed into the ground and felt bone groan and flesh rip, she was rewards with the sound of a much heavier crash coming from behind. She turned her head to assess the situation and saw that the soldier riding on the animal was currently half trapped under it, his left leg crushed between the beast and the ground. With the other two unconscious, that left her safe from this squad and a moment to catch her breath before she tried to catch up to her ostrich.
She didn't have that chance though. Before she could react, a forth Rhino burst through the smoke, its rider quickly taking in the situation and parking his beast right above her, fist leveled at her chest. If she had been at peak condition, she thought she might be able to react quick enough, but given the incident a week ago and her crash just a moment ago, she was a little weary about her bodies' ability right this second.
"Ty Lee." He said after a moment. "You are charged with the attempted assassination of the Fire Lord, and the assassination of the previous fire lord. You are also charged with fleeing, resisting arrest, treason…" He glanced around. "And assault and attempt murder of nationals and solders of the Fire Nation. How do you plead?"
She gulped, quickly looking around for either cover or another way out from where she was. "Um…not guilty?" No luck. It looked like she was going to have to go straight for it.
The gruff soldier continued on, as though not having heard her. "The Fire Nation finds you guilty of these charges, and sentences you to death."
Several things happened at that moment. Ty Lee braced herself to push off to the side when the blast came, hopefully able to lift herself into a sideways handstand and get the ground back under a part of her that could move with it. The soldiers fist lashed out, energy crackling to life around it and the jet of flames quickly washing towards her.
Even as the flames flew forwards and her body twisted, she became very aware of the fact that she wasn't moving quite quick enough. A feeling of dread washed over her as she realized that the flames that were drawing towards her as though in slow motion would, if not kill her, leave her severely injured and unable to continue on her mission.
She also became acutely, aware, however, of the soldiers head twisting as what looked like some sort of metal impacted with the side of his helmet, and he began to slowly slump over in her world of slow motion.
Even as all of this was happening, she also became aware of a slight trembling in the earth near her, and a jut or rock shot up just inches away from her. Flames licked at it and washed around, warming her and causing some slight singing, but she found herself very grateful none the less.
Need gone, her body relaxed into a roll instead of a stand, and as she came over her right arm she had to bite back a scream as pain shot through it and the rest of her body. The only thought she could manage for a moment was the limb must have broken when she hit the solider. While excruciatingly painful, though, it wouldn't debilitate her from moving on, and for that she was happy.
Pine subsided enough for her to think clearly, she became aware of two new forms standing over her. One stood head held high with pride and clothed in blue, armed to the teeth and solemn looking, while the other was…short, and looked all to smug at the situation. Not that she cared. Wasn't in Ty Lees nature to get worked up about the particulars of a rescue.
"Sokka! Toph!" She managed a weak smile towards the pair, managing to break it through the grimace that was unnaturally placed on her face. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving a broken knight, by the looks of things." Toph, obviously, the smile big and bragging, though Ty Lee knew there wasn't any mal-intent behind it. That's just how the girl was, and she actually found it a little endearing. Or would, if she wasn't in a great deal of pain.
"Suki was worried about you. And for good reason it seems." Sokka. His brow was furrowed slightly, obviously disturbed by what had just transpired, and probably more so, what would have probably transpired had they not arrived when they did. "I had my reservations about helping you, knowing that your working for Azula though." His eyes looked over her, as though judging her, trying to find her sins and faults. But then they looked away, seeming to have found little.
"Lucky for you, I ran into meathead over here on my way South. Heard there was some commotion with Fire Navy ships shooting flames in Earth Kingdom waters. Thought it would be a good chance to bust some Fire Natio heads for old times sake. The arena was getting boring."
Ty Lee managed a weak nod of understanding and gratitude towards the pair. "So…if you know I'm working to help Azula, why did you help me? After what me, Mai and her did to you all during the war.." She trailed off. "And your Zuko's friends…" It was an honest question. Political mind or not, even Ty Lee was a little weary given everything that had happened.
"Your right. We don't hold anything but unpleasant memories of princess batshit herself." Toph's form shifted as she crossed her arms over her chest. "But regardless of who your working for, and why your working for them, no one has the right to have you hunted down and killed, not without a fair trial at least. Beyond that, especially not on Earth Nation soil. When I find the commanding officer for this I'm going to express certain feelings towards this personally."
"Basically what she said. I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I'd like to think that intentionally killing someone would be just about as much on board with you as Aang, let alone assassination. Zuko's got some pretty bad traits, and at the moment I think anger and paranoia are right at the top of that list. And while we supported Zuko…you couldn't really call us friends. We just recognized he wasn't a bad guy and gave him a chance to prove it."
He crouched down towards her and reached under her shoulders, doing his best to support the injured one. "Aang was heading back down this way to see how things were going at the Southern Water tribe. I'll send a message to him to stop off and pick us up on the way, and you can explain your situation to him then…and my sister can see about fixing your arm for you." As he picked her up, he stopped and looked around. She could feel slight shudder carry through him. "This reminds me too much of…well. I don't know if any of us have very pleasant memories of that time. I hope this isn't foreshadowing towards something worse.
Toph laughed. "Speak for yourself dunderbrains. I'm just upset that we didn't get here in time to fight the rest of them."
Sokka shook his head. "No Toph. Not like that. I mean…depending on how thing go… I don't want to have to fight another war. This was a really, really stupid move on the Fire Nations part, on Zuko's part. He just threw at least three treaties out the window. And for what, misguided revenge, or some fear that little Ty Lee here is going to be the key to overthrowing his empire?"
Another chuckle from Toph, but this time a good deal darker. "The broken knight. It would be fairly ironic if princess over here was actually a herald of doom." Her tone was somber. Though she didn't mean it as though it might sound, the message was clear none the less. For whatever reason, Ty Lee was an important symbol of things.
And that was something she herself knew all to well. All of this had happened because she was out here, trying to help Azula. The world was being ripped apart, caution thrown completely out, to stop her from doing that. It didn't take a genius to figure out that for whatever reason, Zuko was afraid…desperate even, to stop it from happening.
"Sorry for everything that's getting caused because of me…" She said finally. "But I couldn't just sit by and do nothing while something wrong was happening to my friend."
Sokka glanced down at her before returning to the path ahead as he started walking. "I know. I wouldn't be here if I thought you were guilty."