Chapter 3: Reanimated
Rue bolted backwards, flipping and rolling out of her bedroll and somehow getting her legs under her. Forcing her bare feet against the floor of the tent behind the little shop, she sprang through the back flap, dashing down the street in her cream-colored under dress. Her red tunic and sash lay folded by her bedside; it wasn't like she had time to dress properly with strange men attacking her in the middle of the night.
Heart pounding, she flew down one street, turned sharply onto another, and doubled back through an alleyway to a third. The fabric of her garment swished around her calves, and she grabbed fistfuls of it to free her legs.
Were they still after her? Who were they? The questions pumped through her with her racing blood. Were they from the palace? What about her parents? They had been sitting up talking in the shop when she had gone to bed. Were they all right? Why oh why was all this happening to her family? The An-Dins were as ordinary as they came; no criminal records, no distant relatives causing trouble… What were those men after? Why did the Fire Lady suddenly hate her for no reason?
She caught her foot on a stone and stumbled, skinning her knees and right elbow and clamping her jaws shut over a cry. Half running, half crawling, she scrambled into a doorway and huddled down, hoping the elbow-length sleeves of her dress weren't too visible in the darkness. The moon was barely a sliver of pale, sickly light in the starless sky, and wraithlike clouds kept drifting in front of it, plunging the town into utter blackness.
She listened carefully, at first hearing nothing but her own heartbeat sounding in her ears. Then she caught another rhythm; a different sort of pounding.
Footsteps, running at full speed…
Footfalls, drawing closer…
She held her breath, covering her mouth and burying her face in her knees. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the darkness gradually recede before the dancing illumination of someone's fire. Her blood ran cold. She hoped at least it was only a torch.
Peeking around the frame of the doorway she was hiding in, she caught sight of her pursuers; a dozen or more men in dark uniforms, holding crackling flames in their palms. Her heart missed a beat, and then set off again, at a slower pace, but with a force that made her chest ache.
They were fire benders.
All Rue's short life, nothing had terrified her more than fire. The fact that half the people in her nation could wield it at will did nothing to help this irrational fear. It wasn't so much that she was afraid of being burned exactly, but something in the wild, untamable nature of flame made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her mouth go dry. If she had known that Di'o was a bender when they first met, it probably would have taken her a lot longer to get used to him and become friends.
The hunters turned this way and that, trying to decide which roads to send which people on. Rue was at war with herself, unsure of whether to remain where she was, or bolt while they were distracted.
'Fight,' her instincts told her, but she ignored them; that was absurd, irrational, and utterly preposterous! She'd die burnt to a crisp in less than ten seconds. She hated that she reacted so aggressively all the time. It made no sense, and when she was younger and less able to control her reactions, she had gotten into a lot of trouble for it.
It wasn't that Rue was weak, of course. She had always been freakishly strong for her age, and flexible, with superb balance. She excelled at P.E. in her little school back home… But the idea of her taking on a group of fully armed fire benders was just insane. She had to close her eyes to keep from studying the man closest to her. The longer she looked at him, the more she wanted to take advantage of his poor stance and take out his kneecap.
If she defeated him quickly, she'd be able to jump-kick the guy behind him, using the first one as a platform, and then foot-stomp the big guy on the left. If he couldn't stand, he couldn't attack her. Then she'd use him as a shield…
'You are eleven years old, Rue An-Din,' she reminded herself sternly, 'and every one of them is twice your size. Quit thinking such dumb things!' She covered her ears with her hands, as if she could somehow block her inner voice from speaking.
'A princess surrenders with honor…'
The words came from nowhere, echoing through her head like a very distant memory, and she saw herself standing tall and unyielding among stone ruins, surrounded by a semicircle of aggressors. The image lasted for only a fraction of a second, but it was so strong it made her head spin. She muffled a moan with her skirted knees.
It had been a long time since that had happened.
She had almost written off her mini-hallucinations as childhood fantasies, but it looked like that wasn't the case. Her stomach tied in knots as snippets from other visions intruded on her senses; garbled sounds and images like a dream, strung together in chaotic patterns that made no sense. Yet somehow she understood them.
She was strong. She was smart and fast. She was lithe and powerful… She was perilous.
Sliding her back upward against the wall, she straightened her legs and stood with practiced grace.
She was deadly.
-0-
"So in short," Aang concluded his retelling of the Azula-doppelganger story, "we have no idea who she really is." Katara sighed and clapped her forehead.
"Of course," she grumbled, "we couldn't possibly be rid of that menace for good. It just isn't in her nature to be a good little villainess and go die in a ditch somewhere…" she trailed off awkwardly, remembering in hindsight—as everyone always did—that Zuko was Azula's big brother. He merely nodded agreement and gestured with a wave of his fingers that she should continue. Even Uncle had once agreed that Azula had to be taken down; Uncle who saw the best in everyone.
If only he were here. Perhaps he would know the right thing to do about this whole twisted mess. But time had caught up with him at last, and his heart, that vast expanse of love and forgiveness and power, was as mortal as anyone's and had eventually given up.
"I wonder who overheard you," Suki ventured after a moment of tense silence. Out of all of the women, she was taking the turn of events the best. Katara and Mai had both gone from enraged to worried and stressed, while Ty Lee had pitched a fit and stormed out of the room. Toph—who still sort of counted as a man—was lounging on the sofa, having heard the story before.
"Whoever it was," Mai sighed, "I hope they don't go spreading rumors and causing a panic." The raven-haired woman had calmed down enough to realize how unwise her shouting in the street had been.
-0-
Rue felt drowsy and her senses were muffled, like she was having a vivid dream instead of truly walking up behind a soldier in the firm plane of reality. She dropped low and swept his legs out from under him, elbowing him in the head to knock him out before he could make a sound, and catching him as he fell so he wouldn't make any noise. He was the only one who really stood between her and the freedom of a deserted side-street. She started down it, but was brought up short by a thick, cloying feeling of shame.
Why was she running?
She had standards, and a reputation to uphold.
'No I don't,' she reminded herself, trying to shake off the ethereal quality of the whole scene. 'I'm a nobody, with no fighting experience and no good reason to get myself incinerated.' Her feet felt heavy, as though some foreign willpower was trying to turn them around, but she kept on walking. She scooted along against the side of a building until she could no longer be seen, and then ran as fast as she could in the first direction that struck her as 'away.'
It was much like running through hip-deep water. The resistance increased until she was forced to duck into another doorway only a few dozen meters away from where she had started. She crouched, breathing hard, until she heard more footsteps over the sound of her ragged throat forcing air in and out.
The searchers had, it seemed, discovered the unconscious man, and they were enraged and determined, splitting up and roving the streets in packs. Illuminated by their conjured flames, they looked like demons to the exhausted little girl.
Cold night wind swept down the street, passing across her face and neck and helped her to feel more awake. She hoped that sensation would extend to her protesting legs as well. Why did her body have to choose right then to be so stubborn?
-0-
"Fire Lord Zuko!" the breathless messenger exclaimed as she burst through the doors. "We have just received reports from the Town Watch that posses of Royal Guards were scene roving the streets, apparently chasing a little girl in her nightgown!" The woman's face was concerned and disapproving. She obviously didn't know that the guards thought they had a good reason for their actions. At least the secret hadn't spread that far yet.
"Thank you," Zuko dismissed her, standing up and heading towards the door. "I will handle this breach of conduct personally."
"I'm coming too," Toph announced, jumping forward to catch up with the scarred man as he departed.
-0-
'I'll conflagrate them…'
The thought was crazier than any she had ever had, and Rue could hardly believe it had come from her own mind. She wasn't a bender. She was pyrophobic, for crying out loud!
'Burn them to ash…' The garbled words flowed indistinctly through her brain, the way she felt when she was just waking up and still dreaming. The bracing wind had died down, and even on a chilly night in her scantily-clad state, she felt feverishly hot.
Mopping her damp forehead with her sleeve, she brushed the hair out of her face and glanced around the apparently empty street. All was dark; the wispy clouds had become more solid and covered the moon entirely.
Standing gingerly and testing her feet, she found that the heaviness was gone and she could move normally. She started off walking in the general direction of her family's shop, though she wasn't sure if going back there was a good idea. It would be the first place they'd look for her when she didn't turn up on the street. Still, it was the only place she could think of, and maybe her parents could help. If the grown-ups all got together and talked like intelligent human beings, maybe the whole matter would be solved.
'Naïve…' the thought was foreign, and she tried to ignore it. 'You rely too heavily on adults. You're stronger than they are. You should rule them; not they you.'
"You're wrong," she whispered to herself.
Di'o's place; she could go there for the night. It was down the street from her shop, and maybe it was just far enough away from where they had found her that the men in black wouldn't think to look there. She could tell her parents in the morning, when there were more people on the street. If there were witnesses, maybe the men wouldn't attack her.
Ducking down a narrow gap between two buildings, she headed in the direction she thought Market Street lay in, glad that she had been blessed with a decent head for directions in unfamiliar places.
'Coward,' the voice rang out in her head, high and cruel, with an imperious edge. She made a point of disregarding it.
-0-
"Who are we after?" Toph asked, striding along beside Zuko's ostrich horse, searching the city's vibration's for a child's heartbeat and a bunch of big, burly men. "Are we trying to stop the Royal Guards, or to catch Lightning-Princess Junior?"
"Both," the Fire-Lord responded flatly. "I do not order children to be hunted down, no matter who they look like. The Royal Guards are way out of line. However, we really do need to have a talk with the girl and her parents. There are some questions I'd like answered."
"I'll be sitting in on that conversation—There!" the blind earth bender cut herself off abruptly, pointing down a street. "One little heart working overtime, surrounded by a bunch of big hearts, with large bodies to go with them."
"Have I ever told you you're amazing?" Zuko asked, kicking his mount to a run. Toph grinned at him from her surfer-like stance atop a great moving bulge of stone.
"Not yet today," she replied cheekily.
-0-
"What do you want?" Rue demanded tremulously, her hands up in front of her, the way Di'o always held his when he was getting ready to fight. The only difference was that she couldn't make smoke and flames come from her fingers like he did—and she did not want too.
They had been lying in wait at the first intersection she entered, and had all made flames at once as they encircled her, trapping her in a ring of leaping red-gold light.
"You are the one called Rue, are you not?" a gravely voice addressed her from behind a mask. She glared at him and nodded.
"Yeah, and what about it?" she cried back. "What have I done that warrants you breaking into my tent and trying to kidnap me, then running me down in the middle of the night?"
"Nothing at all," the man replied, stepping menacingly forward. "Not yet, anyway."
"What is that supposed to mean?" she exclaimed, her voice cracking. The smell of the smoke permeating the air around her was overpowering, and there was nowhere to run that wasn't blocked by fire.
"You will come with us," the spokesman informed her flatly. "This way, princess."
"…Huh?" Rue exclaimed, unable to think of anything better to say that didn't involve a filthy oath. 'Princess? Is this guy for real?' she thought disjointedly. The fire around her crackled and danced in a light breeze that swept more smoke in her face and made her cough.
"Stop!" bellowed a vaguely familiar voice, and the circle parted to admit a man on an ostrich horse, accompanied by a woman on foot. Rue's eyes were immediately drawn to the left side of his face.
'Great,' she thought, 'now the Fire Lord's here to arrest me too. This really just couldn't get any weirder, could it?'
"Do not touch her," the Fire Lord demanded, sliding from his mount and striding forward, his long, straight brown hair blowing in the soot-muffled breeze. "You, captain, who gave you orders to detain this girl?"
'He's…' Rue realized very slowly, feeling like a gear in her brain had broken somewhere, 'he's helping me?'
"Are you Rue An-Din?" the woman asked, and Rue jumped. She had not noticed her crossing the distance between them.
"Yes," Rue replied, coughing again and rubbing her burning eyes. She could barely see through the smoke-tears, but the woman was fairly short, sturdily built, with long black hair that swept over her face. Her clothing was of the Earth Kingdom, and her feet were bare. "You're Toph Be Fong, right?"
Toph grinned, the expression just visible beneath her signature long bangs.
"That's me," she affirmed, holding out a hand, which Rue shook. Then they both turned to look—or whatever a blind woman turns for—at the Fire Lord, who was still arguing with the spokesman.
It would take an inordinately long stretch of time to recount the men's entire conversation; the way the Captain of the Royal Guard eventually took off his mask to shout in his Liege Lord's face, veins throbbing in his temples, and the sparks that began dancing near Zuko's eyes as his anger grew and manifested. In the end, the captain and his men bowed and slunk, subdued, back to the royal palace.
"That idiotic—" The Fire Lord gritted out as he practically stomped back to his mount.
"Who sent 'em?" Toph inquired. "I assume it wasn't anyone we like?"
"Apparently the eavesdropper was Chairman Ahaz's personal valet," he replied in a growl. "Naturally, the sneak immediately ran off to tell his master, and of course he didn't wait and consult me before telling everyone and their aunt on the council. The captain had it from the council; he was acting on his own, albeit with what he thought was a reasonable motive."
"Excuse me," Rue ventured quietly, and both adults looked at her. "It's just," she hedged, twisting the hem of her skirt, "What is it the valet overheard? You're all behaving as if there's something wrong with me, but I don't know what it is." The fact that it was around one in the morning after a very long day and an exhausting chase had finally caught up with her, and she was swaying on her feet, her skin deathly pale.
The Fire Lord looked to the blind earth bender, whose face had creased into a slight frown of frustration.
"You look a lot like a wanted criminal," Toph finally answered after a moment of unspoken communication between her and her scarred companion.
"Is it princess Azula?" Rue asked quietly, and she saw the Fire Lord's eyes widen, his eyebrows traveling up his forehead in horror. "That captain man called me princess," she explained hurriedly, "and the only criminal princess I can think of is her. But hasn't she been locked up since the war? That was all over and done with before my lifetime. Are they stupid or something?"
"They're very stupid," Fire Lord Zuko replied calmly. "It's all just a misunderstanding. But I have to say, you do look a lot like her. Perhaps it would be best if you came to the palace for a while, just for safety, until the mess is sorted out." Rue felt like she was going to pass out from fatigue right there. She just wanted to get back into her bedroll in her parents' tent and forget any of this had ever happened.
"How about we come and get you tomorrow?" Toph suggested, almost as if she could sense what the little girl was feeling. "That way you could explain things to your parents and get your stuff."
Rue could only nod. The world around her was spinning and filling with fog.
"After all your conniving and hard work, look at what you've been reduced to."
The stranger's voice was amused, and if her arms were not restrained by the straightjacket, the princess would have leapt upon and strangled him right there. The manacles on her wrists hit her pressure points, stemming her bending, so she couldn't burn him. She couldn't even make a light to see his face by.
"What do you want?" she demanded sullenly. Her voice, which had once been so clear and clipped, sounded gravely and strained from disuse.
The stranger did not reply, but laughed and placed what she thought was his palm—though it was difficult to tell in the complete darkness of her cell—on her forehead.
'Metanoia,' the stranger intoned, though she wasn't sure whether she heard it with her ears, or within her mind…
-0-
"Unless she lies and I catch it," Toph rounded up her explanation, "or says something we know to be false, we have to assume that I can't tell if she's lying."
Zuko nodded pensively as he trod along beside her, leading the ostrich horse on which a sleeping Rue was slung as comfortably as they could manage.
Whoever this little girl was, she was causing a lot of problems. If his father was still on the throne, she would have been imprisoned immediately.
But Zuko was not, and would never become, his father. He had made a covenant in his own heart that he would never follow in that man's bloody footsteps, and upheld that promise for the last twelve years.
He did not incarcerate eleven-year-old girls, no matter who they had the misfortune to look like.
A/N: Disclaimer: I got the pressure-point, anti-bending manacles from Lightning and Flame, by funvice-san. I did not make those up myself, nor have I contacted her and asked to use them, since it's a brief mention that never occurs again, and I really don't think it all that necessary.
If anybody else reads that story and feels it most appropriate to let him/her know I used them, please feel free to do so. I intend no disrespect or "idea-infringement." (I don't think stuff on fan fiction is necessarily copyrighted, so it's not copyright-infringement.)