Prologue: Reversed
Li the security guard had just been through a very long day indeed. He'd been running around from the time he overslept and been rushed out of the house without his morning tea. At almost midnight, he was still on the clock, striding through the corridors of the mental institution where he worked and checking to make sure all the doors were properly bolted. Incident after incident of patients attacking the doctors, breaking free of their restraints or attempting to harm themselves blurred together into one long headache of a day. He had been forced to split his lunch break into three short segments due to being called away from his food so often.
The moon had risen some hours ago, full and bright, to stream through the windows and bathe the outer rooms with its colorless glow. The guard carried no torch, not really needing one, and was checking the locks by moonlight. He would be able to go home as soon as he was finished, and in his haste he kept nearly skipping doors and having to go back and re-check.
Finally he reached the cell on the end; the one lately occupied by the most frightening—and worst damaged—patient he had ever encountered. She had only been there for a few weeks since the war ended, but already she had put three doctors and a score of security personnel in the hospital.
Hurry or no hurry, he fully intended to make a thorough inspection of Former Fire Lord Azula's lock, but he was deterred when he saw a bright light shining from under the door. It was silver like the moonlight, but much stronger, blazing through the keyhole and the narrow gaps between the door and the frame. He reached out to open the little peep-hole and see what in the spirits' name was going on inside when the glow was suddenly extinguished.
Li stood frozen in the hallway, wondering if he ought to go inside or double-bolt the door and leave. The moon's faint luminescence was obscured by a cloud, and without a torch, the man—who was no fire bender—found himself enveloped in total darkness.
With a creak of rusty hinges, the door swung slowly open.
-0-
Dr Yabu, whose evening shift had begun only a few hours earlier, was in a far better humor than his coworker as he strolled absentmindedly back and forth across the courtyard, reviewing the patients' most recent files and making notes on a scroll about possible treatments. He did not look up from his work until he heard the shattering of glass somewhere above him and to his right.
Spinning around, he caught sight of a figure swinging lithely out of a broken window on the third floor, gripping the top of the window-frame in one hand and holding a small bundle in the other; a package about the size of a loaf of bread.
Yabu stared up towards the intruder as the moon came back out behind the rooftop, but he was disappointed. No matter how much light the moon gave off or how much he strained his bespectacled eyes, he could not seem to see the person's features, or indeed to determine their age or gender.
He did see one thing though, and it was a thing that deeply puzzled him. The bundle in the stranger's arm was not bread.
It was—well, it appeared to be—a human baby, complete with squirming and shrieking at the top of its lungs.
'What on earth…?' he thought in blank astonishment, as the institutions' security guards charged the intruder from either end of the roof. There was a blinding flash of light, and they all fell down stunned.
Yabu's eyes followed the intruder as he…or she… or it… ran across the roofing tiles and vanished over the edge. After that, he listened for a long moment until the baby's cries became too far away to hear.
It wasn't until nearly a quarter of an hour had passed that he finally managed to wake up enough of the medical staff to get the perturbing story from each of them that they did not remember choosing to go to sleep on their desks and in the hallways. Not one of them had seen the intruder.
It was not until the next morning that Li, making his rounds in a rather better mood for having drunk his tea, checked the cell opposite the broken window.
The alarm was raised and the palace contacted. All procedures were followed.
But it was hours too late.
Princess Azula had vanished without a trace.
A/N: Hello readers! This will be my third multi-chapter fic, and the first one in which I do not have any original characters in major roles! (There are still plenty of OCs sprinkled around of course; they're just not main characters.) I'm so excited! It's also my first non-romance fic that still focuses heavily on interpersonal relationships; this will be hard… =^_^=
Rebirthing is rated K+ for mild dark themes and brief mild violence which does not overstep the bounds of the original series. Later I will change the rating to "T" for more violence and darker themes, but there shouldn't be anything particularly horrible. Honestly I think that what happened to Zuko to give him that scar is more graphic than anything I am going to write.
I was planning to wait until I'd written all the subsequent chapters before I started posting, so I could update regularly. But with this story, although it's all neatly outlined and planned chapter by chapter, I haven't yet found the right combination of time, inspiration and motivation to get it finished. There may be some long, annoying waits ahead; ye be warned. (I work and I have school, so I'm not kidding about the time part!) I have, however, completed through Chapter 5 at the time of this post, so at least the first few parts should be posted at reasonable intervals.
I hope you enjoy the story! Kudos to anyone who knows where I got the fic title, and double-kudos and cyber-cake to anyone who can say where I got the idea for the chapter titles!
~B. Nottingham
Post Scriptum: Reviews are welcome, constructive criticism is appreciated, flames will be donated to Azula, who is a little short on them at the moment (if she's not too proud to take second-hand bad attitude). :D