Entering the Crucible

In her dreams, she was still Suki.

She could feel the facepaint on her skin, and the comforting weight of her armor on her body. The heavy chest guard had never been a burden to her, not with the cunningly layered silk dress beneath it to provide padding and breathable comfort. It was all like a second skin to her, and that was appropriate, as she had worn the uniform since before she could remember. Her dreams guided her away from the blank spots in her memory like she was floating on a gentle stream, letting her pretend that she truly was who she wanted to be. The currents ran all around her, and she could feel her mind extending into the mists of time with ease.

Her Kyoshi Warriors were clustered a few paces in front of her, and she recognized the surroundings as the lush lands outside of Ba Sing Se. They had found and cared for Appa, here, as a group. As friends. She looked at her Kyoshi Warriors, at their painted faces, and felt the comfort of their sisterhood.

Then they all screamed and attacked her.

Enemy, they called her as they grabbed her, yanking her war fans out of their places in her belt. Chijin, Hanuke, Reppai, Kosokoso, Kowagaru, Soregashi, Aijou, and all the others. They tore at her dress, labeling her with the dreaded title of Foreigner as they ripped the gold out of the silk and smeared her facepaint with their gloved hands. She tried to tell them that she was their friend, their leader, but their painted faces were twisted with hate as they dragged her within the Kyoshi training dojo, somehow transplanted to the mainland. They hauled her over to a large bucket set in the center of the main room and, yanking her by her hair, held her head over the bucket. Suki saw her reflection in the muddy water within.

Or rather, her lack of a reflection.

Where her facepaint was wiped away, she had no face.

There was just a nothingness, like she ceased to exist wherever Suki's visage had been removed. She gazed down at her dress, and wherever it was ripped, the phenomenon persisted; she saw not her own flesh, but shadows and empty air. She looked once again at her reflection in the filthy water, seeking to find some sign of the person beneath the facade.

Instead, the water turned to crimson blood, and her reflection twisted into that of Ozai. He screamed as blue fire sizzled and shriveled the skin over his right eye. Suki shrieked and flinched away, and she no longer felt the hands of her Kyoshi Warriors on her. She fell to the floor of the dojo, knocking the bucket over and spilling the sticky blood all over the wooden boards. It flooded, never stopping, and soaked into her uniform, ruining the smooth feel of the silk. Now, all she felt was wet, sticky ash all over her skin.

Then the voices started.

Azula, Sokka said.

Suki looked up from the bloody floor, and founds his boots in front of her. Her gaze followed his legs up, but she didn't have the strength to lift herself. She could only look up at his scowling face and tell him, No.

He growled, Fire Nation. Then Suki realized that he was holding her katana; he stabbed it down and pinned her right hand to the bloody floor. She felt the impact of the blade, and her hand burst into blue flame.

Always a threat, Zuko said. Suki turned her head to find the Fire Lord standing to her side. He held his two Dao blades, and remorselessly stabbed each one down, the first into her left hand, the other at the small of her back. Blue fire sprung up at each point where the metal cleaved her flesh.

No peace while my sister lives, Zuko said. Suki tried to cry out, to deny that she was anything but his friend, but instead of sound, blue fire vomited out of her mouth and wouldn't stop. The blood around her boiled at its touch, and she couldn't shut her mouth against it.

Then Suki felt a soft hand caressing her, and she turned to her other side to find Ty Lee kneeling beside her in the blood. The blue flames melting out of Suki's mouth pooled around her old friend, but didn't touch the acrobat. The Kyoshi Warrior uniform she wore resisted them easily.

It's okay, Ty Lee said, Aang is here to turn the fire off forever.

Suki began trembling, and she didn't even know why. Aang approached out from somewhere out of sight, walking atop the sea of blood without disturbing it. He eyes and arrows flashed to glowing life, and as he approached, he extended a hand.

No, Suki moaned, Keep the cold away from me.

Sokka said, You deserve it.

Zuko said, Liars must be frozen.

Ty Lee said, Just relax.

Suki tried to scream, but all she could do was gag on the fountain of flames that spilled from within her.

Azula awoke slowly, wearily. She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but it obviously wasn't long enough. Or perhaps it had been, and there was simply no rest to be found in the nightmares. She looked around the cargo hold of the ship, filled with boxes of Ba Sing Se wine, and saw a shaft of light shining down from the portal to the deck. The sun had just set when she came down here; it must be tomorrow already.

She had slept through the storm.

Azula rose from her crouch amidst the crates and stretched, moving slow to accommodate the motion of the boat on the waves. Ty Lee's field-dress, a pink affair with full pants beneath the slit skirt, moved easily with her. It was no Kyoshi Warrior uniform, but she no longer had any right to that.

No. She no longer deigned to honor that uniform with her Majesty. She was Azula now, Princess of Fire. Time to start acting like it, whatever she felt. Never mind that this dress was stolen peasant-wear; Ty Lee had betrayed her, and she deserved everything she had gotten. She did. Azula would find more appropriate clothing when she got to where she was going.

Wherever that was.

Her quick exercise finished, Azula made for the stairs that would take her abovedecks. It was time to deal with her new situation. She blinked as she rose into the sun, but her eyes quickly adjusted. She saw people moving about, young men doing as sailors do. They weren't military, weren't economical enough in their motions, but they were still quick and sure with their work. One of the deckhands spotted her, and immediately bowed. "Commander Suki. Good morning. The Captain asked to see you when you were ready." The sailor's voice was high in tone; he must be younger than he looked, although he had a good height and, from what she could tell under the long sleeves and pants of his green tunic, was well muscled. He looked up and gave her a small smile. "Um, that's a very nice dress. I like the color."

Azula blinked once, and decided she was in no state to deal with whatever that was supposed to be. "Thank you. Please take me to the Captain."

"Right away, Commander." He abandoned the rigging he had been working, and waved her along towards the stern. It was a large, wide vessel, optimized for hauling cargo on deep seas.

Something suddenly occurred to Azula. "What is this ship's name? I saw it on Captain Toru's papers a while ago, but..." She shrugged.

The deckhand turned his head and offered her a grin. "Welcome aboard the 'Hidden Gem,' Commander." He moved along the deck, around the four masts. Azula knew that this wasn't an unusual design for the larger cargo junks, and today the sails were arranged to catch more of the wind for greater speed. The previous night, before she headed belowdecks to keep out of everyone's way as they prepared for the storm, the sails had been faced to the side to avoid the high winds.

Captain Toru was found next to the ship's rudder, leaning over a collapsible table. As she approached, Azula could see that he had a collection of detailed nautical maps spread out over the surface, most of them showing parts of the Earth Kingdom's Western coasts. He looked up at her and smiled. "Ah, here's our Kyoshi Commander. Good morning to you."

"Good morning, Captain Toru." She bowed formally at the waist, making the Earth Kingdom sign of respect with her hands. "Thank you once again for assisting me."

He nodded, scratching one of his bushy gray eyebrows. "We had a time with that storm last night, but I think it turned northwest. We were running away from it before it got too bad. The motion didn't bother you?"

Azula shrugged. "I had a fitful sleep, but didn't wake."

"Good, good." He turned back to his maps. "So, we were running away from a storm, but now I need to know where I'm running to."

Azula quietly took a deep breath, willing her body to calm. This would be the tricky part, and she had to have perfect control not just of herself, but the people she would be lying to. "Honestly, Captain, I don't have a specific destination for you." Toru looked up sharply at her, and the deckhand (was he still hanging round?) made a noise of surprise. Azula let a little of her own sense of uncertainty bubble up to the surface, and continued, "I knew my quarry fled Kyoshi Island, and that if she got too much of a head-start, she'd be impossible to ever track down again, but I don't know where exactly she thinks she's going. She's a fugitive, now, so her possibilities must be limited."

Toru nodded slowly, and shared a glance with his deckhand. "She must have been on one of those boats from the first wave of evacuees. Have any ships been spotted on the horizon, lad?"

The deckhand shook his head. "Not since sunup, but if the ship we're chasing used the storm winds to get some early speed..."

Toru leaned heavily back over his maps. "Aye, catching them will be no easy trick. I'm sorry, Commander, but this might be a lost cause. Perhaps we should head back to Kyoshi and get proper word out-"

"No," Azula interrupted. "Our opponent is too smart for that. We need to figure out where she'll go and find her before she begins the next stage of her flight. She'll know exactly how the other Kyoshi Warriors will hunt her, so our only chance is to take her by surprise and catch her while she's hurrying and at her sloppiest."

Toru and the deckhand exchanged another set of glances. "Um," the captain said, "who exactly are we hunting, again?"

Azula gave a deep, theatrical sigh. "You need to know so that we can hunt her effectively, but I must swear you both to secrecy on this matter." They each gave her a solemn nod. Hardening her gaze, Azula continued, "Our fugitive is a Firebender who we had been harboring amongst the Kyoshi Warriors."

Her two-member audience inhaled sharply at that, and Azula wonder what assumptions they were making. Looking away from them at the rudder, she let herself feel some of the pain of all the betrayals. "I can't give you the details, but we believed this girl had truly turned away from Ozai's cause and wanted to live in peace. We're not sure what set her off, but she apparently decided that she no longer wanted our good will, and escaped in a way designed to confuse and demoralize any pursuit."

The deckhand shifted from foot to foot. "Could she be working for the conservative dissenters in the Fire Nation? The ones who oppose Fire Lord Zuko?"

Azula pretended to consider that, turning a thoughtful look at the shifting seas. "Unlikely. Her options for keeping in contact with such people would have been limited, and if she had organized support like that, her escape would have been smoother and subtler. Certainly, she never showed any signs of it."

Toru flipped through his maps, arranging a certain set so that they were all visible. "The colonies, then. The Earth Kingdom is too dangerous for rogue Firebenders, but the colonies are mixed up enough now for anyone to disappear. Firebenders and Earthbenders both can live there, and all the troubles lately mean that travelers and indigents don't get asked questions."

"Hm." Azula had to keep a smile of satisfaction off her face. "That makes sense. Can you tell me what ports she'd be most likely to make for? And how she might avoid any security measures?"

Silence met her question. Azula turned back to look at the pair, and their demeanor set off all of her policing instincts. The deckhand looked like he was thinking of an excuse to leave, shifting in preparation of movement. Toru was paling, looking at her with a growing expression of fear.

Keeping here eyes wide and innocent, Azula said, "Look, Captain, this is more important than any little smuggling infractions you might be afraid of. Any... bent rules or suspicious knowledge that come to light during the pursuit of this fugitive will be overlooked on my part, and any Kyoshi Warriors. I'm just concerned with stopping the traitor before she hurts more people, like-" She swallowed, and the lump in her throat wasn't fake at all. "Like that monster did on Kyoshi Island."

Toru and the deckhand exchanged glances once more, and then the Captain sighed. "We... uh, we might know a bit about the dangerous parts of the colonies, and people who are looking to employ individual Firebenders there. Can we- can we trust you, Commander?"

Azula blinked. She had been hoping that these sailors could simply get her someplace where she could disappear for a while. What had she stumbled upon? "Please, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe," Toru said, "my daughter should explain."

"Daughter?"

The deckhand bowed, and offered a shaky smile. "I am Meisai, and I have sailed with my father for half a year now." He- She straightened, and snapped her hands together to produce a small tongue of flame cupped in her joined palms. "I am also a Firebender, a criminal for betraying the Fire Lord."

The Hidden Gem was making its way up the Western coast of the Earth Kingdom, keeping land just within sight. This was purely a practical matter, as it made navigating easier than sailing the deeper, featureless seas. Also, the winds were favorable, and even if they failed, the Gulf Stream that ran from the gulf opposite Foggy Swamp up to The Crucible would carry the ship along quickly.

Azula and Meisai sat together at the bow of the ship. It moved rapidly, cutting and bobbing through the waves. Azula looked out at the waters ahead and asked, "Why do they call it The Crucible?"

"I don't know if it had any other name before, but they began calling it that during the war. That's where the Outermost islands of the Fire Nation come closest to the Earth Kingdom, and the arrangements of the peninsulas there form a sea in the wider ocean. Most of the naval battles between the two nations occurred there, and at times the fighting became very heavy. Most of the tales of ship-to-ship battles happened in The Crucible."

Azula pondered that. "It must have been the Fire Nation sailors to first give it that name."

Meisai shrugged.

The pair continued to sit in silence. Azula's thoughts were turned inward, but she couldn't escape the influence of the Fire Nation. She supposed she had to start thinking of them as her people, now, but she wasn't sure she even had a people at all. She couldn't trust anyone, because she didn't know anyone.

The memories swirled in her head, a mix of perspectives that spanned both sides of the old war. She remembered key points in the story of the Avatar's victory over the Fire Nation, even when he and... his friends... weren't present with her in those memories. Where had they come from? On the other hand, she knewthe Fire Nation. She knew that they had coined the phrase 'The Crucible,' and knew the fervor with which they would have pushed their metal warships to join the battles there.

How could a girl from an isolated little fishing island know the enemy that well?

She had to find out who she really was, and what happened to her.

Azula found herself saying, "What is it like, hiding your Fire?"

Meisai looked at her. "By itself, it isn't hard. The exercises I do sustain me, let me grow and manage my Inner Fire without requiring me to actually Firebend. Sometimes, when I'm alone, I'll summon a flame, but only on this boat. My father and the rest of the crew all know who I am, and accept me. I just don't like to discomfort them with the sight of me actually Firebending."

"Where is your father from, originally?" Meisai hesitated, and Azula grew worried. "I'm sorry, it's okay if you don't want to talk about it. It's just-" How could she explain how much she needed to know all this? "The girl we're chasing. It might be important. In case she hides."

Meisai shook her head. "It's all right. I actually don't know where my father came from originally. One of the ports on the Earth Kingdom's coast. Maybe even Kyoshi Island; we stop there often enough. He's been sailing all his life. He met my mother in the colonies, though. Had to."

Azula held back a sigh. Who were her own parents? A faceless pair of people who perished in some mudslide? Or a missing murderer and the man she- Azula shook her head against the memories of holding her hand against his face while he screamed. "And you chose to follow your mother's path. Until Fire Lord Zuko took over."

"It's not that- I don't like war." Meisai looked down at the deck of the boat, and fiddled with a coil of rope tucked into the foremost corner of the bow. "But my mother raised me in the colonies, where it was peaceful. I thought it was a good thing to bring peace and civilization to the rest of the Earth Kingdom. so I joined the Army. When Fire Lord Zuko took power, and ended things... I was mad. Especially after the Yu Dao incident."

Azula listened very carefully.

Meisai continued, "The group I found said that they were fighting to protect the colonies. We just had to attack in certain places, according to certain plans, and we could make sure that the colonies survived and continued to grow the way the Fire Nation had intended for them, even without the Fire Lord's support. But when we found ourselves fighting Fire Nation soldiers, hurting our own colonists... I couldn't go back to the Fire Nation, I was a deserter and a traitor. But my father was there for me, when I needed him."

Azula marshaled her thoughts away from the smell of cooking skin and muscle. She knew of the chaos in the colonies, of course; Kyoshi Island was seeing enough refugees lately to make the larger situation impossible to miss. This was the first she heard of an organized resistance, though. It might not be too widespread, yet, but they were people opposed to Zuko, people with no loyalty to the Earth Kingdom. Perhaps Zuko's new enemies would be able to help her figure out her true past. She wouldn't tell them her true agenda, of course, but she was Princess Azula, and they would serve her needs regardless.

It might take years to restore herself, and she had to start building somewhere.

Pushing all that aside for now, Azula turned back to her companion. "But why do you dress up like a boy, even on the ship?"

Meisai blinked back at her. "Because I want to!"

"Uh, what about the people who mistake you for..."

"So what? I'm comfortable." Meisai smiled broadly and leaned back against the bulwarks. "This is my identity, not my disguise."

Azula snorted. "What's the difference?"

"Heh. Good point. I really like your dress, though. Pink looks good on you. I bet all the red tones go well with your hair. It's very special."

Azula turned away to look out at the waves again, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Could you... do you think you could teach me those exercises you do?"

"Your fugitive wasn't the only Firebender hiding on Kyoshi, huh?" Meisai leaned forward, and Azula tensed her whole body. The other girl looked her straight in the eyes, all cheer gone from her face. "You can't hide a Fire, Commander Suki. Not from one who already knows how. I'll teach you, just like I'll help you catch the one who betrayed what we both have chosen to stand for."

Their morning exercise sessions had become a routine when they encountered the first patrols.

Every day at sunrise, Meisai and Azula met on the main deck. The entire crew actually knew some form of martial arts, but each one handled their own practices around their shifts working the boat. Some even sparred on the deck, when things weren't busy. "That's something I encourage," Toru had explained to Azula one day. "Footwork is the most important part of fighting, and if pirates ever board, my crew will have the advantage in movement thanks to their practice."

No one else did exercises like Meisai's, though, and Azula could immediately feel why. She had been forced to improvise on Kyoshi Island when trying to harness her newly discovered (rediscovered) Firebending, but she could feel how the moves Meisai was teaching her could channel her Inner Fire into external flames. They were different from the fighting styles used by the Kyoshi Warriors, all snapping movements and hard hits. It would only take an extension of will to turn the motion into Firebending. Azula made sure to never actually do so, though. Only one person alive was known for blue flames.

But she was learning. It wasn't easy yet, but her body was learning.

Azula spotted the other ships in the distance after she landed on the deck out of a flying roundhouse kick. Meisai followed her gaze and let out a heavy breath. "Those are militia crafts. With the colonies all divided, they can't organize a real navy, so each port city has put together its own little fleet for protection. We have an even chance of being shaken down for bribes and turned away anyway, or simply checked and given proper transit papers. Maybe they caught your fugitive already."

Azula felt her heartbeat speed up. This could be a complication. "They patrol the whole Crucible? They catch all the traffic going in?"

"It's not a full blockade, if that's what you mean," Meisai shrugged. "But we're on the fastest way through, which the patrols definitely know about. If your fugitive went the long way, we might beat her to the major ports."

Azula licked her lips. A messenger hawk could have traveled here by now from Kyoshi Island, as well as a Sky Bison, depending on where they had to come from. The militia-sailors probably wouldn't recognize her, but there was a chance, and Azula didn't leave anything to chance. That's why she was perfect.

"And what are the odds," Azula said slowly, "that these militias will allow a foreign law-enforcement agent to go searching through their territory for a dangerous Firebender who she had harbored for a while?"

"Huh." Meisai looked back to where her father was coming up out of the cargo hold. "Maybe we should have you stay out of sight for the inspection. You can't exactly pass as a sailor. No offense."

"None taken. I know a bad disguise when I see one."

Azula couldn't hear the negotiations abovedecks, but the sound of armored footsteps was unmistakable as they moved down the wooden stairs. She crouched in the shadows between the crates of wine, and wished she was wearing something other than bright pink. The sounds stopped at the base of the stairs. "Open that one," a deep male voice said.

"Sure thing," came Toru's voice. There was a sound of stressed wood, a pop, and the rustle of hay. "See, all the crates have bottles like this. Would you like a sample?"

"We'll just do a few more random checks, then we'll give you your stamps."

The footsteps started again, heading deeper into the hold. From the sounds of the movement, the inspectors seemed to be heading her way, and the crates were not stacked in a way that left many avenues for escape. Azula rose from her crouch, carefully distributing her weight in accordance with her Kyoshi training so as to stay silent.

"That one," came the deep voice from around a bend.

Azula waited, again heard the stressed wood, and jumped at the moment when the lid popped off. She grabbed the crate behind her with both hands and swung herself over to the other side, landing in another crouch that minimized the sound of her deceleration. It was just like moving silently across the trees and rooftops back on Kyoshi.

There was a grunt, and the footsteps started again, still moving with slow nonchalance.

Still moving closer.

Azula shifted out of her low crouch, in case she had to move again. She hoped she wouldn't, as a moving pink blur was only going to draw the eye. But if she stayed where she was, would they see her through the gaps in the crates' siding?

They were close, now. Too close to risk movement. How could she-

"That one. Last one," the voice said. The crate right above Azula's head shuddered with movement.

She dropped into the lowest bow-stance her body was capable of. Meisai had taught her this one; it was used to shoot flames at an opponent's feet, below what most defensive stances could block. The crate being inspected was a full handspan above the top of her head.

The lid popped off the crate, and a bottle was pulled out of the hay. "All right, this looks good, too. Let's head up and get you your stamps."

The steps retreated, and Azula's breath remained as regular as a properly pulsing flame.

The Hidden Gemput into the docks at Buui Mun just after noon, but Azula waited until midnight to depart. She met one last time with Toru and Meisai on the deck of their ship, bowing as deeply as she could. "For everything you've done- for me, for my mission- you have my lasting gratitude." She rose, smiled, and considered killing them both and setting the boat on fire.

It would have been the smart thing to do. Murder and arson would draw attention, but it was less of a risk than letting these people go with knowledge of 'Suki's' destination, believing her to be a secret Firebender. Princess Azula would have weighed the risks, and made the dispassionate choice.

But she didn't want to.

Captain Toru bowed back. "Good luck on your mission, Commander Suki. If you need any more help, I'll be here for a while, selling my cargo and looking to pick up a new one."

Meisai took Azula's hands in her own. "Look for the Hidden Flame. No matter where she goes or how she tries to hide, we know our own."

Azula simply nodded. If she decided she wanted to disappear, that was the last advice that would be helpful to her. On the other hand, if she would rather seek the company and support of her fellow exiles- her fellow criminals- the Hidden Flame might just become her new calling.

Azula gave one last wave as she moved down the gangplank. It would be so easy to turn that hand motion into a call for fire, to fling it at both sailors. Then, while they writhed in pain, she would hit various points on the boat, making sure that it would soon be fully aflame. The blue fire would turn to red before anyone realized what was going on, and long before that, Azula would have disappeared into the sleepy city. It would be so easy. She could picture it all in her head, right down the sound Toru and Meisai would make as her fire ate away at their bodies...

Stilling her hand, Azula stepped off the gangplank, and left all such thoughts behind her. She didn't want to hurt these people. She was Princess Azula. Her will was law.

Let the rest of the world fear her will.

TO BE CONTINUED