Of Fire
Chapter 25
The living area had been quiet for a while now. The light murmur of hushed voices was the only thing breaking the quiet. Zuko and Agni had worked out an arrangement over the leadership of their nation. That conversation had been anything but quiet. Zuko wanted his country ran a certain way and that certain way did not settle well with Agni, who had no problem telling him as much. Once they stopped yelling at each other, and the wooden table wasn't on fire, the arrangements came quickly. Azula, being the true diplomat that she was, helped arrange everything, which was why it ended quickly. Agni would only be Fire Lord until Zuko felt he was ready to take the position over again, and in case he didn't, his children would still be heir to the throne.
Ty Lee had woken and made her way to the room about ten minutes after the arrangements were set in stone. The acrobat sleepily sat in Azula's lap until she realized that Zuko and Mai were in the room. When she did, she jumped up and hugged them both. For a while, she chatted animatedly about what had happened to them in the past week, stopping every so often when one asked a question, like about the violin. Ty Lee and Mai were still talking quietly to one another and Agni was still talking with Zuko about the who's-who of Fire Nation society and their personalities, which Azula and occasionally Ursa would chime in on, and Aziza just listened to. Toph had drifted to sleep on the couch, her bare feet propped up against the arm rest.
"Agni!" an irritated voice yelled from somewhere in the inn, breaking the quiet like a tsunami and waking Toph from her sleep with a jolt.
"And there's my mate," Angi responded with a laugh, not the least bit worried about the wrath of the water bender. "In here!" she yelled back.
Not seconds later, the ten-year-old form of the water goddess entered the room looking irritated. "What the hell is taking you so long? Where's Detia?"
'Right here, why?' Detia answered from behind her friend – her cousins filing in after she entered – her golden eyes focused instantly on the flaming red hair. 'Why are you in adult form?'
"Can't I be in whatever form I want?" Agni asked as if offended, a long hand pressing against her chest.
A white eyebrow lifted. 'You can be in whatever form you choose. I was just wondering why?'
Agni snorted, "Yuna wanted me to bring this box back for you to open." She gestured mildly to the metal box still sitting on the floor. "I wasn't going to carry it all the way here as a child. That would have looked weird."
Detia's golden eyes turned to the lone metal box in the room. It didn't look anything like the one Thunder's egg was in. It was just a metal box with four smooth sides and a smooth top and bottom. 'What's in it?' the lightning bender asked, looking from the box to Agni.
The fire god shrugged, and when she did, Detia turned to Toph. "Looks like another box," Toph answered the unasked question.
Detia sighed; at this point, everyone was looking at either the box or Detia. "This box isn't going to explode or whatever like the last one did?" Lu Ten inquired, moving to stand so that his father was between him and the box.
'I don't know,' Detia answered honestly, watching with amusement as Lu Ten and Ursa hid behind their father.
"Let's find out," Toph remarked, digging her hands into the metal top like it was sand and easily removing it.
The box kept its integrity and nothing happened. "At least nothing happened," Mai pointed out as if she didn't expect something to happen.
Detia nodded as the Earth Queen pulled out the smaller metal box. This one had a large heavy duty lock on it. Toph placed the lock in her hand and looked at Detia. "Do you want me to break it?"
Detia shook her head in the negative and pulled a hair pin out of her hair as she approached the lock. She took the lock from Toph, stuck the pin in, and wiggled it around a little. At least, that's what it looked like she was doing. Concentrating to enhance her hearing, Detia listened for the tell-tale signs of the lock clicking in place. It took her seconds and she put the lock on the floor. "Where did you learn that?" Aziza asked, her tone clearly telling everyone how impressed she was.
Detia only looked at her mommy and everyone's gaze followed. Ty Lee shrugged, "What? It's good to know. You never know when you might need it."
Aziza and the other children, excluding Ezra and Yuna, giggled. The adults just stared in a mixture of that's what they expected and awe. While they were looking at Ty Lee, Detia took the first item out of the locked box. It was a book, a worn brown thick leather book. "What's that?" Ezra asked, kneeling beside her best friend.
"I don't know." Carefully, because the leather straps on the book were old and near falling apart, Detia untied the straps and set them down gently beside her. Opening the book, the first thing she saw was a date, a very old date. If her memory served her correctly, the date would be just after the War of the Gods ended. The first sentence supported her theory, stating that the gods had vanished. "It's a diary."
"Whose?" Agni asked at the same time she snatched the delicate item from the lightning bender, sending loose pages and faded images scattering along the floor. "My bad," the Fire goddess remarked as if she was bored and didn't mean it at all.
Detia glared at her friend as whoever the pictures and pages landed near helped her pick them up. Most of the images were too faded to truly see. One laminated image and a folded piece of paper fell just inches from Ty Lee and she picked them up. Air caught in her lungs at the laminated image. Instantly, Azula turned to her wife, curious at what had her breathless. Without being asked, Ty Lee handed Azula the image. Ursa, looking over her oldest daughter's shoulder, gasped. "That's beautiful."
Azula smirked and nodded, "Ty Lee looked better in it."
"What?" Zuko inquired, to which Azula showed him the picture. "Isn't that the uchikake Ty Lee wore for your wedding?"
Azula nodded again, smiling at her wife before she continued to examine the young yellow haired woman in the image. While the image was faded and clearly very old, the woman in the picture was clear, her grey eyes shining and her smile wide. She looked very similar to Ty Lee, especially since they were wearing very similar wedding outfits. "Who is this?" Azula inquired, showing the picture to her daughter.
Detia looked at it briefly before answering, 'That's Alia.' Her eyes went briefly to the still folded paper in her mommy's hand. 'That's also Alia.'
"How do you know?" Ty Lee asked, unfolding the paper in her hands.
'I've seen it before,' Detia answered. 'It's a flyer for when she was in the circus. According to the family records, an artist was so amazed by the golden phoenix he painted the image on the flyer. It was spread all throughout the world.'
With an abundance of excitement, the acrobat unfolded the fragile flyer. The golden phoenix had been something of a forbidden art while she was in the circus. Apparently, before she joined, a young performer died while attempting it, and the ring master forbid anyone else from trying. No one would even talk about it. Ty Lee sighed in disappointment when she opened the piece of paper and the picture was far to faded to see. Detia read her mommy's expression when the faded image was passed back to her. The lightning bender almost told her mommy that the near perfect original painting hung in a vault deep within the Fire Sage's temple in the heart of the capital, kept safe and hidden and forgotten. She almost told her about the diagram that detailed every step to perform the golden phoenix perfectly and the diary Alia wrote in every day till her early death. But that was a few conversations she did not want to have, so she remained silent.
"Who wrote the diary?" Ty Lee asked, turning to the goddess of Fire, who instead of helping pick up loose pieces of paper was reading the book.
Carelessly, Agni tossed the book in Detia's general direction, making the lightning bender jump to catch it. "It looks like Linka's. What else is in the box?"
A cold, firm hand on her shoulder was the only thing stopping Detia from attacking the fire bender. Delicately, Detia set the item – so much more precious than before – beside her and away from untrustworthy people, a pointed glare at the fire bender. Reaching into the box, her hands came into contact with a round disk shaped object, identical to the one that was with Thunder's egg. Except this one was still in working order. "Hey, that looks just like that thing that was with Thunder." Lu Ten voiced what she was thinking. "Are you going to shock it?"
"No," Detia answered as she flipped the device over, noting the small item placed inside it. "It's already charged."
"Oh." Lu Ten almost sounded disappointed.
Detia ignored him and placed the object on the table, sitting in Azula's lap – without asking – to get better access to it and carefully placing the journal on the table in her line of sight. Azula adjusted her daughter's weight but didn't say anything as the little goddess pushed at the metal object. Everyone moved closer, except Toph who couldn't see so moving closer would have been moot, as a beam of light shot out of the device. Zuko stood to give his wife his chair, and once Mai sat at the table, both her daughter's moved to sit in her lap. Lu Ten stood by his father, watching in fascination. Ty Lee moved to sit on the arm of the chair her wife and daughter sat in, noticing as Yuna did the same with Agni – though Agni quickly pulled the water bender into her lap.
Without asking if everyone was settled, Detia pushed another seamless button and two young golden eyes took up the screen. "Is it on?" a young female voice inquired in a whisper.
The golden eyes moved away, revealing two female children, one noticeably younger than the other. The girl with the golden eyes, the older of the two, brushed the bangs of her white hair out of her face, tucking the wayward strands behind the golden circlet around her head. "It should be working," the older girl stated confidently as she proceeded to brush dirt and leaves from her white outfit, two thin, wide strands of silk hovering behind her.
"Are you sure?" the younger girl questioned, her long honey-colored hair done up perfectly in a large silver cuff, scarred with gold lightning bolts. "The last time you did this you blew it up."
The older girl glared and pushed the younger girl on the shoulder, the transparent silk circling around the younger girl's shoulders creasing. "I know what I'm doing. I'm the eldest."
The younger girl took offense to being pushed and used both hands to push the older girl back. "Like that matters. You're nothing but a sister. And an annoying one at that."
"Who are they?" Azula inquired, though she assumed the girl with the white hair was a younger version of Linka.
Detia pointed to the girl with white hair – as said girl shoved the younger one to the ground – and confirmed her mother's assumption. "That's Linka. The younger girl is Maya."
Maya stood quickly and rushed her sister, sending them both tumbling to the ground and out of view of the recording device. With them out of the way a different littler girl was revealed standing upside down in a wobbly handstand, her pale yellow hair falling from her pigtails. "That's Alia," Detia answered before anyone could ask.
Alia fell to her side, sitting up quickly and smiling widely as a white kitten with spiky white fur and a bushy tail rushed to her. "What's that?" the younger Ursa inquired, pointing to the kitten as Alia stood and allowed the kitten to walk across her outstretched arm to flop down on her head.
Alia laughed as the device caught her attention, and she began walking towards it. "A cat," Detia answered.
"An owl-cat?" Ursa asked.
"No," Detia reaffirmed, watching as Alia's small hand pulled the device down just a little so that the cat's black nose could sniff it and her large, innocent grey eyes filled the image.
"A pigeon-cat?" Ezra intoned, and Detia shook her head in the negative.
"Surely, you mean a porcupine-cat?" Lu Ten replied.
"No, it was just a cat," Detia repeated, strongly.
Lu Ten crossed his arms and shook his head. "That place is weird."
"No weirder than a bear," Toph remarked causally, making Azula and Mai smile and Ty Lee giggled, but confusing everyone else.
"I liked that bear," Ty Lee stated happily.
Everyone's attention was turned back to the device when a strict voice yelled, "What is going on around here? What have you two done to my garden?"
"Momma!" Alia yelled and rushed over the charred, still-smoking ground to a tall white-haired woman standing just beyond where the garden started.
Before the woman was in the picture long enough to examine, the image went blank. "That was it?" Lu Ten remarked, clearly unimpressed.
"You're mother's going to kill you," a new, much older, female voice interrupted, the screen still blank.
"She's not going to kill me." Another female voice, this one distinctively belonging to Linka. "First of all, she's gone just like the rest of them, and secondly, do you think my mother would want to see a video of me and Maya getting in trouble or one of Alia doing some stupid circus trick?" the fuzziness of the image spiked then cleared. "See it's working, now."
An image of Linka, just as most of the people in the room thought it was, appeared – much older than before and wearing Earth Kingdom greens instead of her normal white, though the metal silk still wrapped around her body. "That's the last one of those we have, you know," the other woman stated from somewhere off to the side.
"I'm aware," Linka remarked as if she didn't see the point.
The woman sighed, "A lot of good any memory stick would do if you broke the last recording device we have."
Linka's golden eyes rolled as the image moved, revealing their location to be outside near a large circus tent. "We should find my sister."
"You know," the woman replied as they started walking, "I'm surprised you're not angrier at your mother."
"Why on earth would I be angry?" Linka inquired, her tone telling that this line of questioning was getting dull quickly.
"Oh, I don't know." the woman stated, a whiff of golden blond hair coming into view of the camera. "She left."
Linka chuckled, "What would she have done? Lead all twenty of us into extinction?" the woman must have made a surprised gesture. "There's no getting around it, Sara. Our race, our way of life, is gone. You know as well as I do that our genes are recessive, and even if they weren't, the only ones to retain even a little of them would be the Fire Kingdom's royal family. On top of that, most of our technology is lost, excluding whatever my mother set you up with. The animals that were distinctly ours, like the peacock-lion and Thunder bird, are extinct. Besides all of that, my mother lost more than just her people that day. If I had been in her shoes, I'd have done the same thing."
"I'm assuming she's talking to Doctor Sara," Azula asked and Detia nodded.
"That sounded like a secret." Sara noted in a sing-song voice. "What else did she lose?"
Linka didn't answer. Instead she stated, "There's my sister."
In the distance, not too far away, sat a young woman in a simple top and shorts, her shoulder length pale blond hair tied up in a loose pony tail. She was sitting on her forearms with her feet resting on her shoulders. "Fine, change the subject." Sara deadpanned. "What is she doing? That looks…wrong."
Linka shrugged. "She's always been like that." She paused as the device was handed to another, presumably Sara. "Alia!" the lightning bender yelled, and the younger blonde's head snapped up.
The youngest princess jumped up from her stretch and ran to her sister, embracing her tightly. "Linka!" she let go a little. "We've been wondering where you ran off too. Did you come to see me perform?" Before Linka could answer, the acrobat turned her attention to the woman beside her sister. "Who's this? You're girlfriend?" She sing-songed. Linka didn't answer, which meant yes to her sister. "For real!" She let her sister go, her expression matching her disbelieving tone. The younger blond took Sara's hands into her own, bringing Dr. Sara into the image for the first time. "You managed to tame the Blazing White Warrior? The woman who vowed to only have relations with the person who could defeat her? How in the universe did you manage to do that?"
Sara's light golden eyes, hidden behind a pair of glasses, turned to Linka (and the camera). A dark blond eyebrow lifted in inquiry, though it was barely seen behind her bangs. "They were just rumors. I told some soldier that to make him leave me alone," Linka explained then turned to her sister. "We really don't have to go into my humiliating defeat at the hands of a half-crazed scientist."
Alia smirked. "Oh, I think we do." Her hands moved from Sara's hands to around Sara's shoulders. "You and I, we're going to be good friends. I can tell these things." With little effort, the acrobat turned herself and Sara away from Linka. "We have the best popcorn here."
"Popcorn!" Sara exclaimed. "I've missed popcorn."
"Popcorn?" Lu Ten questioned.
Detia sighed and answered, "Corn was one of our main exports. So, we had a lot of snack foods for it."
Her explanation interrupted Alia telling Linka to turn the recording device off because she wouldn't be performing for another hour or so. And almost cost her the sentence Linka said before she turned off the device. "You eat snack food all the time, Sara. Won't that be bad for our baby?"
The instant the word baby left Linka's mouth Detia pushed a button on the device, stopping it before the image could fade. She would have been a grandmother, sure she knew Alia and Maya had children. But Linka? If Linka had children where was her blood line now? There was no one in this village with lightning bender blood, Ursa and Aziza excluded of course. So where did her missing grandchild go?
"Was it normal for two women to have children in your kingdom?" Mai asked, giving the distraction Detia needed.
The little goddess' golden eyes turned to her aunt. "It wasn't uncommon," Detia answered. "The ratio to homosexual versus heterosexual couples was about one in ten, which was more than all the other nations excluding the Water Nation, where the ratio was about 50/50. In fact, the ability for two women to have a child that is biologically both theirs is Water Nation technology."
"Yeah, the bastards in the Northern water tribe destroyed most of that technology at the end of the war." Yuna remarked grumpily, crossing her arms and frowning.
"Does this technique involved alcohol?" Azula asked suspiciously.
Yuna smirked but answered, "It sure doesn't. The alcohol I gave you was a gift for your wedding. It's not my fault you waited a year and blacked out after drinking it, light weights. I told you to drink it that night."
"Oh shit," Agni remarked with a laugh. "You waited a year before drinking that? I bet you two were fucked up. Do you even remember what happened that night?"
Ty Lee's face turned bright red and Azula trained her expression to remain neutral. "Regardless of that, how is it possible for two women to have a child?" The older Ursa inquired, only wanting to know. After all, she loved her oldest granddaughter.
"It has to do with genetics," Yuna remarked, leaning back against Agni's chest. "It's complicated. In layman's terms you take DNA from the two parties and combine them. There's a lot of work involved between then and when the fertilized egg is placed back into the 'carrier' mother." Yuna sighed. "We had it down to an art when the men rebelled and destroyed most everything on the other parts of my nation. Since then, we've been able to recover most of it though." The master water bender smiled. "Ironically, because Arjuna is a lightning bender all I had to do was place both of your DNA into the carrier, that's you Ty Lee, and she did the rest."
"If you haven't noticed," Agni pointed out. "We've been planning this since you made that contract with her when you were three." The Fire goddess smirked.
"It wasn't a contract," Detia denied vehemently.
"Whatever," Agni dismissed easily. "And while all of that is super interesting," the sarcasm in her tone was not lost any one person in the room, "I'd like to change the subject." She turned to the little lightning bender. "Arjuna, what secret did you hide from us the day your kingdom fell?"
"No offense." Lu Ten interrupted. "But who are you two and who's Arjuna?"
Zuko answered before Agni could. "This is Agni, the god of fire." Zuko introduced, all three of his children gasped. Agni just smirked.
"Stop it," Detia demanded. "You'll give her a big head."
"It's far too late for that," Yuna remarked casually.
Agni laughed lightly at the comment but didn't deny it. "Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm going to be Fire Lord again."
Detia sat there in stunned silence for a good minute until her golden eyes turned to her Uncle, clearly telling him with her eyes how dumb an idea she thought that was. "It's complicated," he explained.
The lightning goddess rolled her eyes then turned back to her cousins. "This is Undine," she introduced the other goddess in the room, who bowed her head slightly. "She's the goddess of water." Lu Ten and Ursa nodded, still clearly amazed. Ezra appeared uncaring, but there was just a hint of curiosity in her eyes. "These are my friends," Detia elaborated, and noticed the crease in Ezra's brow as she put two and two together quicker than her brother and sister.
"So, who's Arjuna?" Lu Ten asked, and Ezra literally slapped her forehead, glaring at her brother.
"Seriously?" Ezra almost growled. "Isn't it obvious?" Lu Ten didn't answer, but he did look highly offended as he crossed his arms over his chest. She sighed slightly, "Alright, let's think about this for a minute. We all know that the adults believe a certain cousin of ours is a goddess. Now here's the tricky part." The sarcasm laced into her tone impressing her aunt and mother. "If these two," she gestured to Agni and Undine, "are goddesses and one of them says, 'Arjuna what secret do you have?' Who do you think they were talking to?"
His eyebrow lifted as he thought for a minute. When the answer came to him his entire expression lightened. "Detia? She was talking to Detia." He exclaimed as if he had solved the hardest puzzle in the world.
"Wow," Ezra remarked deadpan, making her sister giggle, as she turned to her mother and not so quietly whispered, "I think you should hold him back a grade."
"Hey," Lu Ten remarked indignantly.
"Be nice," Mai scolded lightly, but was proud that her youngest daughter showed some kind of emotion.
"I like her," Agni stated, very impressed. Then turned back to the lightning bender. "Well, now that that's all settled, Arjuna…"
"My name is Detia. I'd prefer if you called me by it."
"Whatever," The fire goddess dismissed. "I want to know what secret you withheld."
The lightning bender rolled her eyes and glared lightly at her friend. 'First of all, if I did have some sort of secret, of all the people in the world I would tell you would not be one of them.' Agni pretended to be offended, but really wasn't expecting anything else. She was really bad at keeping secrets. 'Secondly, I don't know what she was talking about. You know how memories work.'
The Fire goddess humphed and turned to Toph. "Terren, do you know?" Toph remained silent. "Is that a yes, Terren?" When Toph did not answer a second time Detia examined the earth queen.
Toph was not asleep, even though her eyes were closed and she was lying on the couch. She was just ignoring Agni. "Toph do you know?" Undine inquired because really she'd like to know this secret as well.
"Not a clue," Toph answered evenly, almost able to feel the heat coming from the Fire Bending Goddess. "Arjuna didn't tell me everything, ya know. In fact on that day she asked me to join her, she said she had something important to tell me. The kingdom was attacked before I could get there."
Toph sat up, as the images of her past life flashed past her eyes. Seeing the white of Arjuna's attire dyed red with her own blood and the entirety of eye white with rage had scared Terren. Terren had never seen the goddess of Lightning so angry or hurt. Before that moment, Terren couldn't even remember seeing her cry. But tears were streaming from her eyes as one of her hands pressed against her stomach and the cry of lightning deafened the sound of her dying people. Toph was sure whatever the secret was, if there even was one, it was something of great importance and even if she knew, she wouldn't tell anyone. Toph agreed with Linka in that regard. When Detia remembered whatever it was Arjuna kept secret, Detia would be the one tell them and no one else.
The Earth Queen sighed as her sight focused on the little girl sitting in Azula's lap. "Didn't you want Detia for something, Undine?" Toph reminded, moving to lie back on the couch.
"That is correct." Yuna confirmed. "Are you finished with that?"
Detia looked at the device then up at her mommy and said, 'If you push this button, it should continue to play. I assume that Alia will be performing the Golden Phoenix.'
The lightning bender smiled as Ty Lee's eyes widened and her aura brightened considerably. "Really!"
Detia nodded as she slipped from Azula's lap, taking the book with her. She looked at her mother and handed her the book, "Keep this safe," she said verbally as Azula took the book and Ty Lee took Detia's place.
The move from the arm of the chair to Azula's lap was sudden, and the sudden weight took the air from the ex-princess' lungs. "Ty Lee," Azula scolded lightly. "You could have warned me."
The acrobat shrugged it off as she pushed the button her daughter told her to push. 'I'm ready,' Detia remarked, smiling at her parents' behavior.
"Actually, Detia." Zuko interrupted before Undine could slip from Agni's lap. "I'd like to talk to you in private."
Detia's golden eyes hardened as she turned to her uncle, and he had to restrain himself from gulping. He was about to say please when Detia walked out of the room all alone, motioning for him to follow. When they were fairly alone, Detia crossed her arms and turned to her uncle. "What do you want?" she asked, knowing full well that it was rude but unable to make herself care at the moment.
"It's about Ezra," he said and relaxed when Detia's brilliant golden eyes softened.
"What about her?" Detia inquired, running through her memory to see if she could remember anything off about her favorite cousin. "If this is about the fact that she's not very happy with you, I can't do anything to help. I'm in the same boat, after all."
Zuko put his hands up in defense. "I understand; I really do." She didn't look like she believed him. "I'm worried about her. Besides you, I don't think she has any friends." He sighed. "She also admitted that she often wishes that Lu Ten and Ursa would disappear."
A white eyebrow lifted as she read between the lines. He was afraid Ezra would become like Azula. She wondered if he realized that's what he was afraid of and decided to see if he would admit it. "If you're worried that she will have no friends, enroll her into the Earth Kingdom academy and let her stay with Uncle Iroh," she offered as a solution, even though she knew that Ezra had other friends at school and would not like to be transferred to the Earth Kingdom and so far away from her mother. Zuko looked as if that was a valid solution and Detia sighed. "You'd have to talk to her about it first, Uncle. Transferring her without her permission would only make her hate you more."
"Of course," he stated, as if he was thinking of doing just that.
Before he could say anymore she asked, "Are you saying that you never even once wished that my Mother would simply vanish into nothingness?" He didn't answer. "What is it that you really want to know? Ezra has friends other than me. I'm just the one she's closest too."
"I know, and that's why I'm worried."
"Is it really?" she questioned. "Because I don't think it is." Before he could reply she continued. "You don't spend a lot of time with her." She put a hand up to stop him from arguing with her. "I know that Ursa and Lu Ten need a lot of attention. They are unpracticed, emotional fire benders. Ezra is not. But don't think that just because she doesn't show it that it doesn't hurt her when you spend so much time with them and not her. That's the basis of your problem," The lightning bender finished, astonishing her uncle into a temporary silence.
He sighed; it was like talking to an adult. "We don't have anything in common."
Detia scowled and it looked so much like Azula that Zuko had to stop himself from smiling. 'That's a lame excuse, and I feel insulted you even said it. If there is nothing you have in common, then you make something. You're the parent; create a new hobby for yourself. Ezra loves to read for example.' His eyes lightened, after all it was a good idea. 'If that fails, Ezra is the type of person who keeps secrets. And she has a very big one. If you get her angry enough, you'll find out what that is, and you'll hopefully realize that it's something you can bond over.'
Zuko nodded and half wished he had something to write all of this down. "Thank y…"
'Don't thank me,' Detia interrupted angrily as she turned back towards where they came from. 'I'm doing this for her. So she won't have to go through what my mother went through growing up.'
The Fire Lord swallowed, feeling like he had been punched in the gut. Detia was right, of course, but it still hurt to hear. He watched as his niece, who probably still hated him, walked away from him and was struck by the knowledge that she was willing to give advice after what he did to her mother.
"Are you ready?" Undine inquired, leaning up against the door frame of the room they were in and listening to the people in the room gasp at what they were watching.
"Yes," Detia answered, she needed to get away to cool off.
"Mind if I join you?" The Earth Queen interrupted as she appeared by the door. "A lot of good it does me to listen to what's being shown without seeing it," She gave as her explanation.
Undine nodded with a smirk. "Sure, but we're going under the lake."
Toph grimaced but followed them anyways.
~x~
"That wasn't so bad," The Earth Queen admitted as they entered the caves under the lake, her tone giving away just how glad she was to be on solid ground. "This place is huge."
Undine nodded in agreement as she lead the way. "Angi and I were going to surprise you and bring the surprise to you, but we couldn't figure out how to get it to you. Lightning bender technology is a bit beyond us it seems."
"You know that I only ruled over the people of lightning. I don't necessarily understand how all the technology works." Detia admitted.
"Did my ears just deceive me?" Toph mocked lightly. "We had that recorded right?"
Undine laughed but shook her head. "No, the controls I guess you can call them, were designed for you to understand them. But some of the things they were talking about didn't make any sense to us."
"What are you talking about?" Detia questioned as she followed the water bender into a large cavern cast in blue. "What's in there?"
The water Goddess smiled and replied, "This is the laboratory of Dr. Sara, and in that room is the surprise we wanted to bring you."
Undine stopped and allowed Detia to venture into the room first, even though Toph could see what was in there already. The Earth Bender barely stopped herself from gasping at what she saw as Detia entered the room. Before she could actually examine the room, though, Undine directed her attention to one of the flashing screens. "Is this the only one that works?" Detia asked, as she watched the screen flicker.
"Yes," Undine answered, "I checked all the others."
Detia placed her hand on the active screen and an image pulled up. The image made her gasp loudly, sending freezing air into her lungs and making her cough. When the fit was over Detia examined the image on the screen. She recognized Linka first, dressed in her royal attire and then Dr. Sara standing beside her. But the thing that had her gasping was the small pale-haired child in her daughter's arms. She ran her fingers over the small child held so tenderly in Linka's arms. The action of running her fingers over the child flipped a switch in the room as the hum of generators, long since unused, filled the freezing air.
"What did you do?" Toph asked, not too concerned because the cavern seemed to be retaining its form.
Detia only shook her head, but didn't back away from the screen as scripts rushed over it. The lightning bender read over them just as quickly as they disappeared from the screen. Most of what she read she understood. She had somehow triggered the defrosting of one of the test tubes. The humming lowered as light flickered on from above and more script appeared on the screen, this time much slower than before. It was a sequence, from what Detia could gather. It had the number one followed by details of what was happening. After a few seconds, the number one turned to a number two and an image appeared.
"Mother," It was Linka, only she looked more worn and tired than Detia had ever seen her. "Or whoever receives this," the image forced a chuckle. "Well, I guess it would have to be my mother, she's the only one who can activate this." She waved a hand dismissively. "Anyways, Sara has completed the task you set out for her, and if you're watching this, then that means that you have started it." She paused and swallowed heavily. "We had a daughter, a beautiful little girl. We named her Lin after Sara's mother. Ironic I know. Anyways," again she swallowed "she, Lin, was diagnosed with Cardiac dysrhythmia. As you know, this was somewhat common in lightning benders. I know I had it. But with the fall of our kingdom the method used to cure it has vanished. So," Linka wiped her eyes, "when she didn't wake after an attack, we decided to preserve her." The recording skipped. "The process should be nearly finished." The sound of pressurized air releasing and the white clouds of smoke swishing across the floor distracted Detia. "Save my child…"
The screen went blank, but Detia had ventured over to where the air was releasing, noting that Toph had not entered the still mainly frozen room but Undine was standing beside a long cylinder object that was completely frozen over. "Detia," Undine said with a smile as she lifted the ice covered glass door and waved her hand to clear the ice. "This is Lin."
The lightning bender's expression was neutral as her chest filled with what she guessed was pure joy. The joy faded quickly as the reality hit her. What was she supposed to do with a child who was for all intents and purposes her granddaughter? She was still a child herself, she couldn't (and really didn't want to) take care of child. The little girl in the object looked like she was sleeping, sitting in the large pod-like object in a relaxed position with only the barest minimal amount of clothing on. Surprisingly, inside the pod was getting very warm, the ice that had frozen to Lin's golden hair melting.
Tentatively, Detia reached into the pod, tracing her granddaughter's smooth young face. She couldn't have been more than five. "What are you going to do?" Undine asked, breaking Detia from her thoughts.
'What can I do?' Detia responded, turning to look at her friend. 'What am I suppose to do?'
"Can you heal her of her disease?" The water goddess ignored the other last question, assuming that Detia did know what she was suppose to do.
Detia nodded as she turned back to Lin. Undine didn't even see her create the electrical energy but felt the air charge as Detia placed her hands on the girl's bare chest. The jolt caused Lin's small body to bow, her eyes wide open for only a second. Her body coursed with electricity even after it settled down. "Did you fix it?" Toph inquired from her position out of the room.
'No,' Detia answered, smiling as Lin's chest began to rise as she took her first breath in very long time. 'I just found the problem.'
"Oh, well I found her clothes," Toph informed.
Detia nodded, her mind far too focused on the small body before her than anything Toph said. With her hands still lingering over the girl's heart, Detia sent a smaller bolt into her granddaughter. Closing her eyes, the lightning goddess felt the electrical impulse fire through the chemical synapses as the girl revived from her long sleep. But those were not the impulses she was looking for, though she kept an 'eye' on them just to make sure there were no problems as they revived. She had to be fast and fix the problem before the heart started pumping again. Sending small bolts into the heart, Detia was able to temporally activate the sinus node, find where the electrical impulses were not communicating and fix them.
In theory, this was not hard to do. One merely had to be fast and understand the electrical impulses of the heart. But Detia could see how Linka would not be able to do this. It was taxing on the person healing. Even being a goddess, Detia could feel her energy levels decreasing rapidly. A normal lightning bender could not fix this. A heavenly maiden would have to be schooled and practiced in this field before trying it. When Hishou Raikou was still floating in the sky, there were three such maidens schooled in medicine, excluding Arjuna of course. Linka was not trained in medicine; she didn't want to be. Linka's art was in the martial skills, and while she knew a little medicine, she did not know near enough to do this.
Detia pulled back, bracing herself against the edge of the pod to stop herself from collapsing. She still kept an eye on Lin's electrical systems, but they seemed to be reviving normally. A rough hand fell on her back lightly, causing her to look up into blind green eyes. "You okay?" Toph asked as she handed whatever was in her hands, probably clothes, to Undine.
The lightning goddess nodded, "Just a little taxed."
"If I remember correctly, this was super hard to do." Toph remarked. "Is it done?"
Again Detia nodded. "Yes, it seems that all of her higher bodily functions are reviving normally, but only time will tell if there are any other side effects."
Toph hummed as she nodded, "So we can leave now? My feet are freezing."
Detia chuckled, "It should be okay." Her golden eyes turned back to her granddaughter, who really was sleeping now, as Undine buttoned the last silver button of the tunic. "Can you carry her?"
"Yeah." Toph answered casually as she lifted the sleeping girl in her arms. "Terren always wanted a daughter. I half expect that's why I'm a girl," she mused aloud.
"He had two sons, right?" Undine inquired, trying to remember.
"Three." Detia corrected and followed Toph out of the freezing cave.
Toph nodded, "Yeah, I have some fun memories of them tearing up my palace. But anyways, there are more cylinder things behind that wall of rock." She gestured with her head to the wall of fallen rocks. "We'll have to send teams down here to clear it out. The wall doesn't look stable."
Detia examined the wall through Toph's eyes, seeing the intact pods behind a half mile of fallen rocks. "It could take a while." She agreed verbally. "I wonder what's there."
"Maybe it's Linka and Sara," Undine offered, only half joking.
Detia smiled, that would be perfect. To have one of her daughters still alive would be one of the greatest things she could think of. "So, what are you going to do with this little one?" Toph inquired. "I mean you're still just a kid yourself."
"Uh…" Detia hesitated. "I haven't thought that far ahead." Toph and Undine stopped in their tracks, making Detia stop as well and turn to look at them. Both had an expression of shock on their faces. "What?"
"That is so unlike you," Undine remarked first, coming up to her friend and placing a cold hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling well?"
A white eyebrow arched before Detia slapped her friend's hand from her forehead. "I'm fine."
"I don't think you are," Toph agreed with Undine as she gently placed Lin on the ground and came up to Detia. "Waking this kid up is a monumental event. It'll affect everyone. It's not like you to simply do something without considering how everyone involved will react." Toph reasoned logically.
Silently, Detia cursed the earth bender's astuteness. "I'm fine, really," The lightning bender assured. "I've just been using a lot of energy I don't necessarily have yet. To increase certain abilities you have to push them close to their breaking point."
Undine crossed her arms and glared at her young friend. It was so easy to forget that Detia's body was really the body of a child and not just a chosen form. Her body was nowhere used to using the energy levels of her past self, which is probably why she was verbally speaking and not using her mind. Arjuna would have had no problem fighting the Earth Queen, healing her fractured jaw in less than a day, making someone forget, and waking her granddaughter from an unnatural sleep. Not to mention the things she did every day like talk mentally, and there was no telling what else Detia had done that she didn't tell anyone about. The old lightning goddess could have done all of that in an hour and still be unaffected. From the Earth Queen's firm stance, Toph seemed to have come to some conclusion. "How much energy do you have left?" the water bender inquired.
Detia didn't answer automatically, giving off the illusion that she was checking her energy levels. "Enough." She turned and continued walking down the tunnel. "You two worry too much."
Just as the words left her mouth Detia nearly tripped over a rock. She would have fallen to the ground if Toph hadn't acted quickly and caught her. "No," Toph stated firmly. "We, apparently, don't worry enough." Within seconds Toph had taken over the scene. "Undine, you carry the kid; she isn't that heavy." She looked down at the lightning bender, who refused to look up at her. "So stubborn," she remarked as she set Detia on her feet for a second before picking her up.
"I can walk," Detia argued, her hands fisting into Toph's tunic to gain her balance.
"No, you can't," Toph accused. "Just shut up and let me carry you. I don't remember Arjuna giving me such a hard time."
Detia huffed and crossed her arms defiantly, but ultimately gave in and allowed her energy to recharge as they made their way back to the Inn. She didn't know when she fell asleep, but her mother's angered aura woke her about ten feet from the Inn. Detia looked up at Toph, who hadn't noticed she was awake, or if she did, she didn't say anything. The little goddess noticed a few villagers trying to eavesdrop on whatever had her mother so angry while appearing inconspicuous. 'Put me down,' Detia ordered and without a word Toph stopped and set Detia on her feet.
Detia brushed herself of imaginary dirt from her clothing, mentally checking on the little blond in an adult Undine's arms. Lin was still asleep, but everything seemed to be working properly. The next thing she noticed was that her cousins and Aziza were standing outside the entrance of the Inn. That left her aunt, uncle, parents, and grandmother in the Inn. Agni too but the Fire Goddess had a tendency not to get involved in family spats. In the past Agni often let her children fight out their differences. So she might as well have not been there. 'What's going on?' Detia asked, getting the attention of her family as she approached them.
"Where have you been?" Lu Ten nearly yelled.
Detia ignored him as Ezra answered, "We don't know."
"Everything seemed fine," Aziza started. "We finished watching that thing you found in the box and we were just talking about it. Zuko touched Big Sis' shoulder and she tensed visibly. Then all hell broke loose."
The lightning bender nodded and entered the Inn. The crackle of charged electrons rang in her ears. Somehow they had managed to move from one of the living areas to the main entrance. Ty Lee stood next to Mai and Ursa at the far side of the entrance, away from the door. Azula stood facing an angry Zuko. "There are issues that we need to work out." Zuko all but yelled.
Though she wasn't as expressive as her brother, Azula was not happy with being accused of still needing to work out issues, even if that is not what Zuko meant by the comment. Sparks ignited from her mother's hands as she tried to grind her teeth together in order to stop herself from doing something rash. "No, there are issues you need to work out. I've worked out all of mine," Azula countered. "Until you pulled this recent stunt, I thought we were getting along just fine. We could actually stand to be in the same room together and have a decent heart to heart conversation without the quips and insults." Azula sighed when her golden eyes fell on her daughter, feeling calmer instantly. "You hurt me for reasons that I thought were long since over with." And it appeared it hurt her to even say it. "You need to come to terms with that. Not me."
Zuko growled, thinking that this was not all his fault. "Well," Detia interrupted, though she fully agreed with her mother. "As emotionally uplifting as this is, mother we have a slight dilemma."
Azula sighed in exasperation and placed a hand to her forehead – ignoring the light throb – that was the last thing she wanted hear. "What kind of dilemma? Please tell me you found gold or silver in the caves and need a way to bring it up."
Detia smiled, "Well, no." The smile widened when Azula whispered the word damn. "I found my granddaughter."
Ty Lee choked on air at that statement, and Azula only stared at her. "Please clarify," Azula asked after a second, noting the confused expressions on everyone's faces but Ty Lee's.
"I found Linka's daughter. She's outside asleep." She hesitated. "I'm not capable of taking care of her…"
"Of course not!" Ty Lee agreed adamantly. "You're only a child yourself."
Detia loved her mommy, only she would realize how much of a child Detia still was. "I don't know how much memory she'll have of her parents, and I don't know what to do with her. Whatever I do will be temporary though. I suspect that her parents are also down in the caves, but it could take years to dig them out. I can't leave her here though."
The room remained quiet just long enough for Undine to deem it safe and walk in room, stopping beside Detia with a still sleeping Lin in her arms. Ty Lee crossed the room in two seconds flat, examining the little girl in the woman she knew as Une's arms. "Is this her?"
Detia nodded, 'Her name is Lin.'
"Une?" Zuko finally managed. "What are you doing here?"
Undine ignore him and carefully shifted the child to Ty Lee's more than willing arms. Grey eyes turned towards bright golden ones, shining with love as the little girl nuzzled into the acrobat's neck, moving voluntarily for the first time since her waking. "Let's adopt her." Ty Lee stated in the form of a suggestion.
"What?" Azula argued, even though she knew it was a losing battle. "We already have a daughter. We don't need another one."
Ty Lee rolled her eyes. "Is great-grandma Azula being mean?" she baby talked the little girl, making her smile in her sleep.
"Seriously Ty Lee, I love you and everything, but if you ever call me that again, I cannot be held responsible for the things I do to you." Azula warned, completely serious. The acrobat only giggled at the very real and serious threat, warming Azula's heart. The ex-princess sighed, she did love the way the little girl looked in her wife's arms, the way her short hair the color of the rays of the sun splayed over Ty Lee's pink tunic. Her golden eyes softened momentarily before turning to her daughter. "If we do this, we are not replacing you by any means," she clarified.
A white eyebrow lifted, she had never considered that her parents might think about replacing her with Lin. 'How could you replace me?'
"We couldn't," Ty Lee agreed as she rocked Lin lightly. "You'll still be our baby girl."
"You'll still be her baby girl," Azula clarified as she moved to her wife and daughter…daughters she clarified mentally. She placed a hand on Detia's white hair, ruffling it lightly. "You'll be my little monster."
TBC