A/N: And she feels like home. If the shoe fits, walk in it, everywhere you go. Love and be loved. Read… and review!
Sky's Calling
[Summer 125 AG]
The city is alive with the sounds of summer life. In the Lower Ring, people dance as street musicians play for spare change. Merchants entice onlookers to stop by for some of their wares. Snacks and treats are sold, large wind fans blow cool air, which children and adults idle in front of to alleviate some of the sweat they've accumulated. Pickpockets have a field day as visitors from the Middle Ring come to take in the sights and festivities. With the sun already set it is a glorious night for a certain raven haired woman, who is especially glad that she recently chopped her hair down to nearly a pixie cut.
"Hey Akola, where is Siq tonight? Hopefully he's got something to do?"
Akola eyes up a particularly delicious looking jennamites. She folds that idea into her back pocket for after dinner. She turns back to On Ji and replies with a roll of her eyes.
"The boy is bound to his work. Never leaves it for anything."
Jin, leading the way, doesn't break stride and doesn't turn back as she yells over her shoulder, "He leaves it for you, Akola."
A squeeze of her palm and Akola looks over at the familiar grey eyes and wide smile.
"Awww! That's sweet!" Ty Lin adds.
Akola is wearing green, billowy pants, with a sleeveless, green top, with yellow lining. She applied a bit of makeup for the double date night, including a touch of lipgloss for her wife. Meanwhile, Ty Lin wears her traditional braided ponytail, albeit her hair is more done up at the top before the pony. She wears a long, slinking green dress with yellow accents and a black bottom. It's a nice dress relative to the Lower Ring, but not nearly her nicest. Jin and On Ji wear similar outfits, long sleeved dresses that drag on the ground. They are patched and tattered in places. Jin wears a pale green, while On Ji in a subdued burgundy, with pink accents and sharp burgundy sleeves.
The four women wind through the crowded streets and finally arrive at their destination. A noodle shop, beloved by the permanent inhabitants of Ba Sing Se, which Ty Lin will soon learn why it is a favorite. The manager was a close friend of Jin's and owed her a favor or two. He makes good for the night as he sets the four of them up inside, in the cool air, at a table against the wall. It is a crowded place, very popular, but they have space to spare.
"Look, On Ji! A moon flower!"
Right on the table is the flower that Akola loved so very much. She can still remember the first ones coming into bloom when she used to live in Lanxi. The gardener in her soars with pride at the sight. She feels a light brush of a shoulder by her wife. When she looks over, they share eye contact and a knowing smile. Everyone sits down together. Against the wall are On Ji and Jin. Beside the Leader of the Southside is the former Dragon Empress, while their more expressive, more energetic, and more well endowed wives sit across from them. A waiter comes by quickly, delivering small cups of 'liquid fuel,' and four sticks of something or other as a complimentary appetizer.
Picking one up Jin offers, "I got the reservation, but Akola here says you're picking up the tab tonight, Ty Lin? Is that right?"
With a special sort of glow in her eyes she replies, "Absolutely! Eat and drink whatever you please. I want for nothing, and so tonight you can pay your share with your company and conversation."
"How generous!" On Ji leans into the grey eyed brunette. With a devious smile she makes eyes across the way at Ty Lin's wife. "Sorry, Akola, but you'll have to find some other way to pay her back since you're such shit company!"
The sarcasm elicits laughs around the table, but Akola is quick to reply, "I can think of a few ways. Later tonight."
The scandalous reply garners an in-kind reaction from the other married couple, as well as a crimson blush from the acrobat. Jin comes up with an addition.
"Clearly she means she'll read you her poetry tonight, in bed!"
"No, no, no-"
"Yes!" Ty Lin replies, excitedly. "That would be even better than the sex!"
"Wow!" On Ji chirps. Akola scowls, waiting for the girl diagonal from her to say something snarky. "That says a lot about your capacities in bed."
"Or does it say a lot about her writing?" Jin offers.
"You know, you two are the bane of my existence." Akola deadpans.
The group laughs together and enjoys the moment. As it subsides, On Ji leans across the table and says, "But really now! That poetry night you've been talking about? When are we-"
"Not anytime soon."
"Oh come on!" On Ji protests.
"Don't bother trying to rush her. She goes at her own pace with these things."
"Well we can be very persuasive." Jin replies.
"Maybe in a few months. But no promises." Akola extends the offering.
"We'll take it!" On Ji exclaims.
"Excuse me, ladies!" The waiter returns. "Terribly sorry for the wait. But can I take your drink orders?"
The pair of married women enjoy an enthralling conversation and delicious food together. It is a welcomed respite from a difficult life. Ty Lin is grateful to have arrived after a particularly arduous trip across the Si Wong Desert. After such a taxing journey, the brunette warrior wants to simply unwind and revel in some familiar comfort. She resurfaces the conversation about love that she enjoys so much.
"I know I've heard it already before, but can you just tell us the story of how you two met?"
"Again, Ty?" Akola asks, surprised.
"Oh come on! I love love. What's one more time?"
"I'm happy to oblige!" On Ji offers with a smile. "It's really rather simple. I was lost, adrift in the world, and Jin was my safe harbor."
"It's a little more involved than that, Dear."
"Please, spare some details." Akola jokes, which earns a playful smack on the hands from Ty Lin.
"No, but really. Alright, so after the Hundred Year's War ended, things got really messy for my family. They were loyal to the deposed Fire Lord Ozai, and we quickly lost a lot of standing, and money."
"Agni rest his soul." Jin chimes in.
"I mean, but does he really deserve that?" On Ji questions, distracted.
Akola feels her pulse pound ever so slightly at this turn in the conversation.
"He died, On Ji. Everyone deserves peace in the eternal sleep."
"Alright, fine. Regardless, my parents were putting all this pressure on me to marry a man and basically secure a place in the New Fire Nation. But I just never connected with any man, ya know?"
"Oh trust me," Akola jokes. "We know."
The group chuckles, but On Ji keeps going. "Yeah, obviously. So things got really stressful, but I had an awakening at some point."
"That you were a gender betrayer?" Akola jokes, again to some laughs.
On Ji keeps going. "No. That came later. I just realized that I couldn't bear the weight of their failures. So I struck out on my own."
"Did you go anywhere else? Before coming here I mean." Ty Lin asks.
"Sure. I wandered about the colonies. I tried Republic City out. But Ba Sing Se is the city of refugees, no matter what they say. Always has been and always will be. So I knew this was the best place for me. I just didn't know how right I would be."
On Ji stares lovingly at her wife. Jin takes up the story from there.
"I was, uh, pretty confused when On Ji showed up. I had dated men, but never women."
"And in the Fire Nation, at this time when I arrived, it was still illegal. And even if I had shirked my duty to my family, I still had never dipped into the 'gender betrayer' waters."
"I'd thought about it. But I just thought it was some passing phase in my life. Boy was I wrong."
"Jin found me lost in the streets and rescued me."
"Sounds familiar?" Ty Lin quips with a quick gaze at Akola, who shrugs.
"On Ji is so empathetic to everyone, while still being a goofball. She was plucky, but also caring, and that was evident from the very get go."
"Jin has such a zest for life that I just found so attractive."
"Then she serenaded me with her world class ehru skills."
"Not intentionally."
"Even so, I was in love."
"And everything felt right in the world, at last."
"When the time finally came, we got married without hesitation."
"Awww." Ty Lin fawns over the two.
Akola smiles at all of this, despite herself. She pokes fun at the group at large, "It's truly too bad we didn't all know each other in our youth. Who knows? We could've been right here in this restaurant as teenagers, all denying who we really are, and we never would've known."
The joke doesn't quite land the way she had intended for it, but it nonetheless earns a moment of silence. Quiet contemplation and reflection as all four women sit and try to imagine themselves here together as teenagers. If the world had somehow been different, if things had been only so, maybe it all could've happened. Perhaps they all could've been happy together, rather than how it had been. Nevermind that Akola and Ty Lin would be known by completely different names in this hypothetical world. Nevermind that, apart from Jin, they all would've had different statues in this world.
At that exact moment Jin raised her left hand and tucked it behind her ear, resting the elbow on the table. Akola steals a glance at it. The matrimony bond on her finger is gold with a sapphire gemstone, glittering in the light of the restaurant. On Ji wears a matching one. Akola reminds herself that On Ji and Jin are married through the Fire Nation, a prospect only possible because of changes to the law, which Akola is secretly, sort-of, indirectly responsible for changing. Just as it was to Ty Lee, On Ji wanted to be married through her homeland, and Jin had been happy to acquiesce.
In the grand scheme of the larger universe, Akola's decision to give up the bodies of the soldier and of Ozai has had a massive ripple effect. On the one hand, it almost assuredly is the reason why the Kemurikage and the Red Lotus were so confident that she was still alive. On the other hand, it had allowed for these two women, who she did not know and had no way of knowing, to fulfill a dream and join their lives together forever.
In that sense, for the briefest of moments, she felt that sacrificing 'Asuna of Lanxi' was worth it, no matter how much she missed Yasuko and company.
Ty Lin grabs her glass and holds it up. She offers, "A toast!"
After a brief pause to recognize what she was doing, the other three all take their own glasses and sit up. They lean in and smile.
"To Fire Lord Zuko. The man who broke with 100 years of tradition, and allowed all of us to get hitched! The Great Lover of Gender Betrayers!"
Akola laughs to herself before shouting, "Here here!"
They clink their glasses together and sip from their drinks. When they're all done, Jin says with a sly smile, "You know, I know him."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Come again?"
"You knew him! You don't still know him." On Ji corrects her.
"I like to think I know him better than anyone who has ever lived."
Akola is all ears, leaning in. "I can be persuaded of that. But why?"
Jin is all too pleased to have their rapt attention, "I went on a date with him too. I even kissed the Fire Lord!"
Ty Lin has a wide open mouth, completely stunned. "Please explain."
Akola adds, "Jin, I've known you for years. Years! How has this never come up?"
Jin looks to On Ji, who gives her an approving nod. She launches into the story.
"It was 25 years ago, and I didn't know he was the fucking Prince of the Fire Nation until years later. But he and his uncle lived here and operated a tea shop for a while. He told me his name was Lee, and I was just smitten. He was cute and funny and nice."
Akola bites her tongue on a wicked comment about her brother.
"So I asked him on a date, we went to a place just like this, then we went to the Firelight Fountain and kissed. A few years later I saw a painting of the Fire Lord and he had the same scar on the left side of his face as the Lee that I knew. It wasn't hard to put the puzzle pieces together from there."
"Fascinating." Akola whispers in awe, while Ty Lin wears a bemused look.
"And you didn't know at all that he was royalty?" Ty Lin clarifies.
"Nope. To me, he was just Lee from the Tea Shop. I didn't care about him because he was royal or worth a lot of money or any of that. Which is why I feel like I knew him better than anyone, because when you're that anonymous, when you're so far in it that people don't even know your own name? In a weird way, you're more yourself than when you're with your own family."
'Very astute observation.' Azula thinks, while Ty Lee wears an obligatory smile and nod. Both women feel uneasy.
Jin smiles as she looks across the table at her wife. "But that pales in comparison to On Ji here and her little foray with the Avatar!"
The pair turn to On Ji who quickly rolls her eyes. She huffs.
"The short version is he came to my school in the Fire Nation and we danced. That's all!"
"No no no. We need the long version." Ty Lin teases her, squeezing her arm.
"No. No." She denies.
"How's about a medium version? Would that be fair?" Akola asks.
On Ji agrees and weaves her tale.
"It was also 25 years ago, before the Hundred Years War ended. He enrolled at my school under a false name for Agni knows why reasons. But he was quirky, like me, and he had that pet that he keeps. Anyway, we talked and flirted a little. He called himself 'Kuzon.' He hosted a party in a cave and he taught me to dance and then we danced together in front of like 40 people. It was nothing. A couple of days."
"Then what happened?" Ty Lin asks.
"Then I helped him escape from the Dean of my school and his goons who came looking for him. All good fun, nothing serious. Still, it is funny how we both ran into these monumental figures under similar pretenses of 'hiding in plain sight and lying about their names' and such."
On Ji and Jin share a smile and glimmering eyes. They reflect on their journeys and various adventures. They had crossed oceans and deserts and lifetimes to be together and be here right now. Their love culminated in a marriage and matching matrimony bonds with glowing sapphire gems. A life they wouldn't trade for all of the glory or money in the world. In the distance a pair of matching figures make out the back of Akola's head and Ty Lin's face through the window. They make their way for the entrance.
Finally, On Ji turns to Akola. "What about you?"
Azula gulps. Ty Lee asks, "What about us?"
The figures enter the restaurant. Jin leans into Azula. "Have you two ever met the Avatar or Fire Lord?"
They both instinctively laugh to deflect. Akola swears that On Ji's eyes are piercing her, seeing right through the disguise and clear into the reality. Ty Lin feels like she's about to be unmasked by Jin. Akola turns her amber eyes to Ty Lin's grey ones. They ponder how they're going to answer. The pair are nearly upon the group.
They start, "Well…"
"Onny! Linny!"
On Ji and Ty Lin grin wide, raise their arms up, and in unison, with the same perky energy, welcome them.
"Bing! Beng!"
"Oh Agni." Akola groans as she turns to find them walking up behind her. "Do you two have some kind of instinct that tells you where I am at all times and when is the best time to annoy me?"
"Jinny! Akola." They finish solemnly and bow their heads in reverence.
"Our cosmic energies are always intuned with you, Akola!" Bing smiles..
"That's right, sister!" Beng nods.
"Can't you two see we're in the middle of dinner?" Akola chastises them.
"Oh? Are you all on, like, a double date?" Bing asks, genuinely.
"I think they call that a foursome." Beng corrects her brother, again genuinely.
Akola hangs her head in frustration as the others laugh. Ty Lin raises a hand up to get their attention. "I've been meaning to ask you two. Why the charcoal capes? Every time I've ever seen you two, you've got them on."
"They're super cool, right?"
"We look like bad asses in them!"
"Plus, they were like a gift from our parents."
"Before they died, obviously."
Akola has heard this story before and never understands why they need to clarify that the gift came 'before they died.' She is annoyed further.
"Plus, when we walk they go 'fwish' and that's even super cooler."
"Please, you two, go bother someone else," Akola complains. She adds, "Find a bender supremacist to beat up or something."
The twins, terrified and reverent of Akola, accept this command without argument. They quickly address the group and wish them well, and make their way out of the restaurant, headed for the bar just around the corner. After they're gone though, having been reminded by what Akola said, On Ji seizes an opportunity to bring up an old talking point in front Akola's wife.
"So Ty Lin," she says to the woman beside her. "Can you explain why Akola doesn't consider herself an Equalist?"
"Hmm?" Ty Lin asks, surprised.
"Must we discuss politics? Really?"
"You're a bender supremacist?" Ty Lin asks her wife.
"No!"
"But you're not an Equalist?"
"I don't know!"
"Babe, you know how important this is to me. Why is this news?"
On Ji and Jin share a triumphant, albeit quick eye contact.
"Listen, I agree with their views. Clearly. You should know this. But I just wouldn't call myself one. It's just not a word I would use to describe myself."
Ty Lin has half a dozen things she would say in response, but she stops herself as she notices the mannerisms of their friends subtly paying full attention. She is spared the need to decide a way out when the waiter returns with their appetizers. She files it away, certain to bring it up later in the night.
Bing and Beng stumble up to the doorstep of Siq's storefront. It's been about forty minutes since they departed from interrupting the group dinner. They've been drinking the entire time, and then left in a foolhardy effort to go find their friend. Bing is even still carrying a bone-dry bottle. The lights are low, the area not particularly well lit. It's in the evening and the normally well populated street is practically empty. They know Siq, their old friend, and they know he's been working himself sick. Especially in the last year and a half, after Aiwei disappeared. The twins don't connect these dots, not regularly, and certainly not now. They stop at the door and begin banging on it.
The sound attracts the attention of an equally inebriated firebender nearby.
Akola rarely drinks, usually only during special occasions, and she decided that tonight's dinner was one such night. She drank a decent amount of cactus juice with their meal. Now that dinner has been had and they're all just waiting on the checks, she gets brave.
A little liquid courage convinces Akola to finally ask On Ji a question she has wondered about for so long.
"Ahhh!" Siq yells at them from the other side of the door.
He opens his store door and quickly closes it behind him. "What are you two doing here? Can't you see I'm busy?"
Hiccuping and tripping over their words, Bing and Beng express their gratitude for knowing him. The Southern Water Tribe boy with the brightest smile in the world laughs at their intoxication. He locks his shop for safety as the three of them continue a pointless and confusing conversation. He surmises that the two are asking for money. Suddenly though a man's voice pierces their talking.
"Move it along, fuck faces."
In the poor lighting it's hard to see what he looks like. For Bing and Beng he doesn't look like much except for vague shapes and a rude tone. Siq is clear of mind and looks at him. He's built like a marble statue with large muscles. He has a goatee and harsh face. His long, slick black hair complements his tan skin. Siq opens his mouth to give a pleasant response but Beng beats him to it.
"Fuck off, Ash Maker." She tells him.
"Hey, I-I recognize you two. You're always at those Equalist things. Fucking assholes. And this store is the, uh, the, um,-"
"Place that's gonna put you out of business!" Bing shouts at him, stepping forward and waving a fist at him.
"No! No." Siq moves to stand between the two.
"On Ji, I have a question for you."
"Oh girl, someone cannot handle their cactus juice." On Ji laughs.
Ty Lin smiles at this silliness. Her and On Ji are sober, while their respective wives are more drunk than they've been in a long time.
"What is it?" On Ji asks.
"I-I know that you have studied Fire Nation history. Our history."
"Yes, in my spare time, I've read a book or two. But I'm not an expert."
A sober Akola would be of wiser mind. But the drunk Azula can't help herself.
"Can you tell me what you know about the Kemurikage?
The question unsettles both On Ji and Ty Lee, albeit for very different reasons.
Siq tries to keep everyone away from each other. "Whoa! Let's just settle this like adults. No need, hey, wait!"
"You're a fucking child of Ozai!" Beng shouts.
"Bender Supremacist, blood thirsty, shit bag!"
"Stop it!"
"Say that to my face! I'll fucking kill you!"
The bodies all come together and Siq can't keep them apart. The stranger swats his hands away and that act of aggression is treated as such by the twins.
"Come here you little shit" Beng yells to the empty street.
She puts her hands on the man's arm. He quickly raised his palm up and ignites a fireball. She stumbles backwards and falls to the dirt ground as Siq holds Bing.
He holds the flame up and points it down at her. She shields her body and puts her hands up defensively.
"That's right! On the ground, where you belong. Waste of space!" He yells at her, spit flying through the air as punctuation. He threatens her, "I'll kill you!"
Bing pushes past Siq. He raises his empty glass bottle and swings it down on his head. It cracks open and the man quickly hits the ground, fireball extinguishing.
"No! Bing, Beng, stop! No!" But Siq is too late to stop them.
Bing kicks the body on the ground, a loud thud sounding out. He groans but Bing does it again. Beng stands up and joins in, delivering a blow to the chest and another to the head.
"Stop! Stop!" Siq tries to pull them off.
The twins spit on the man and keep kicking. In the flicker of lights, they can't see the man coughing up blood.
"Hey! What are you doing?" An authoritative voice shouts.
Siq takes one look and sees someone in the distance watching. He pulls Bing and the boys take off running. Beng delivers one last kick and then she follows suit. The stranger, seeing the assailants take off, runs up to investigate.
"The Kemurikage? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time." She leans back into her chair.
"Of course I know the legend of them stealing babies from their cribs. I think everyone who grew up in the Fire Nation and misbehaved were warned about the Kemurikage by their parents. A sort of spirit story to get us to act right, you know?"
She chews on her cheek while thinking.
"Then, all of a sudden, they cropped up twenty years ago. They rose from their graves and, if we're to believe more spirit stories, it was to serve the Dragon Emperor."
Neither Akola nor Ty Lin corrects her.
Jin, wearing a scowl on her face, tries to interject, "I thought it was-"
"Shhh," Ty Lin silences her. "Let her finish."
"This was right around the time I had decided I wouldn't marry for my parent's benefit and decided to leave the Fire Nation. So I missed a lot of that. My family wrote to me about their acts. You would think that spirits born from spite and revenge and such, born into the physical world, would be here to torment us. Which is why it was such an odd thing that my parents told me good things the Kemurikage would do for them, and other destitute folks. All while most people were terrified of them because of their origins, and while Fire Lord Zuko scoured the Earth searching for them. They stretched to every corner of the world, even rumors that they infiltrated Ba Sing Se. Complicated bit. Hopefully in another twenty years or so there'll be more knowledge available that I can read about them. Both the good and the bad."
Relieved, Ty Lee feels her aura release and slide back into a lavender shade. It's quickly ripped from her when On Ji asks her own question.
"Why do you ask, Akola?"
Ty Lin looks at her wife who smiles at the black haired beauty.
"I had my own dealings with the latter day Kemurikage that you mentioned. Just curious what other Fire Nation people think."
"I see!" On Ji smiles. "Well, then, in that case, there is one more thing I should share."
For all intents and purposes, Azula's entire world now revolves around On Ji. She sits forward and waits for the next few words. Time even slows down around her. She stops hearing the background noise, the chatter, the buzz of the world around her. She sees, hears, and feels only On Ji.
"I heard that the Kemurikage are all extinct now, but there's a rumor, from what my family has said and the whispers I've heard, that there is still one out there. Still one left that haunts the Earth."
The table, the room, the city, the world is silent.
"As the legend goes, there's still one last Kemurikage."
Akola turns the lock on her door and pushes it open, Ty Lin directly behind her. The moment she shuts it behind them though she whips around and yanks the brunette's hand. She pulls her towards, their chests crashing into each other. They don't have to hide themselves or their feelings here. Azula slips a hand up and knots it into Ty Lee's hair. She pulls her into a passionate kiss, their tongues bending to each other. They slip for air and then go back at it. Ty Lee goes on the offensive, moving Azula back, guiding her through the dark hallway towards the bedroom.
In the darkness, Ty Lee accidently leads Azula right into the table by the door. They bump it so hard that something moves. There's a wobbling sound and then the object falls.
"Huh!" Azula gasps at the sound.
Always fleet footed, however, Ty Lee saves the day. She sticks her foot out in the darkness, taking a blind guess at the location based on her surroundings, and catches the heavy object on the top of her foot. Azula flips on the light and Ty Lee sees what she caught.
"Your flower pot!"
Azula, a little drunk and a lot lustful, has a moment of sobriety. She lifts it up and mumbles, "Wouldn't want it to shatter."
Azula takes the porcelain pot filled with moon flowers and fire lilies and puts it back on the table. They share a laugh about it and then head towards the studio's living room. They kiss some more, but Ty Lee has a plan and it involves a serious talk. She asks Azula for some water and her wife is all too keen to go get it. As Azula opens cabinets in the kitchen, Ty Lee starts in softly.
"Quite the dinner tonight! And they'll never know that you're the reason they can get married."
"A secret we'll take to the grave."
"You know, Lin once said something to me, Zuko and Mai-"
"Oh, this will be good."
"He said we're all just playing a part in the legend of you."
"That man was always too high on me. I miss him so."
"Suki hasn't given up."
"I know, you said as much in your letters. But still. It's been years. I feel like we missed our chance."
"Don't lose hope yet, Azula." She says and her wife grows silent. Hoping to pivot and get back to her main point she changes topics, "Did you really not know all that stuff about them meeting Zuko and Aang?"
"Not a clue. Crazy! Absolutely crazy!"
"I know Zuko lived here for a bit with your Uncle. I guess he went on some dates too? Do you think Mai knows?"
"Uh-nuh?" Azula returns with a cup of water for each of them.
"I'll have to ask her next time I'm sent to Caldera."
Azula sits on the couch on the opposite side of her wife, sipping from her cup. She thinks about her life here and tries to imagine Zuko and Iroh here. She feels the buzz wearing off, sadly. She hums to herself before speaking.
"I can see why they'd want to live here. Zuko and my uncle. This is a good place. A great place. It's not Lanxi, but it's home."
"If it was only a thousand miles closer to Kyoshi Island, it would be perfect."
Azula frowns. "I agree."
She stares at Ty Lee's face and is struck with thankfulness like spontaneous lightning.
"Thank you so much, Ty Lee. I know this has been harder. I should really move closer."
A little surprised, Ty Lee doesn't immediately have a reply. She agrees that it would be nice if she was closer but she doesn't want to admit it's a problem. So instead she says, "You move on when you're ready to move on. I'll follow you to the ends of the Earth. As I always have."
Azula reaches her hand out across the couch and Ty Lee takes it. In one hand they each hold a cup of water. In the other hand they hold each other. They share the space, the couch, and loving eye contact. Ty Lee doesn't put it off any more than she already has delayed.
"I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay." Azula nods. She leans forward and puts her cup on the table.
"This is serious."
"I can tell. What ails your mind, Ty?"
"You said earlier you don't consider yourself an Equalist."
"That's right, I did say that."
"Why not?"
She inhales and prepares to explain. "I just feel like both sides have some merit. As a bender I can and have made a positive difference for others. As the Empress, as Asuna, even as Akola."
"But Equalist don't deny that. We just want equal treatment. You agree with that, right?"
"Well, yes."
"And you agree that benders in power, like the Earth Kingdom monarchy, use that power to abuse non-benders - disproportionately so than non-benders in power. Due in large part because benders can retaliate vs non-benders."
Azula thinks about it. "Well, yes. Obviously. I've seen hundreds of examples."
"Don't you think everyone, bender or non-bender, should be free to pursue whatever life they want?"
"Absolutely. Yes."
"Honey."
"Hmm?"
"You're an Equalist. You believe all the things we believe. You just don't want to call yourself one."
Azula struggles with this. She sits in uncomfortable silence as she ponders the path that Ty Lee has led her down. She wrestles with her feelings and emotions. Finally, she settles on a question.
"Ty, even if I did say I was an Equalist, what can I do, as one person, for the Equalist movement? I'm one person in a sea of people."
"Oh Azula," she laughs. "You don't need me to stroke your ego. But I'll answer anyway: As A bender, you can do far more for the Equalist movement than I ever could as a non-bender."
The thought clicks. Her eyes awakened at that moment. Akola of Ember Island, the Equalist, is born.
Suki sits down at the kitchen table for tea. Lomin pours a pot as birds sing outside. It's a glorious summer day on Kyoshi Island.
"Thanks again for having me." Suki adds as her number two in command sits down herself.
"Of course. Did you hear the news out of Ba Sing Se?"
"Hmm? No? Why, did something happen?"
"I believe so."
"Tell me."
"There was a murder overnight in the Lower Ring."
"Oh? What's that got to do with us?"
"Well, nothing. Yet." Lomin says, taking a sip of her tea.
"I know I've been off-Island for a while, but I'm afraid I don't understand? A murder hundreds of miles away, in a location where it can be quite common?"
"Ty Lee is visiting one of her sisters in the Lower Ring."
"Ah."
"She was scheduled to return in a few days, but I've summoned her home immediately."
"I don't know if I agree with that?"
Lomin inhales deeply. Then, she explains, "With all due respect, Suki, you've left me in charge here. I'm doing the best I can. And I think calling Ty Lee home to answer what she knows about the matter is the best that I can do with this situation."
"I see."
Lomin calms the inner storm. "I'm sorry, Suki. That was uncalled for."
"No, no. I think it was very called for. And pertinent to the conversation I want to have."
Suki takes a sip and Lomin waits. Suki looks out the window and listens. The calmness. The breeze. The distant crashing waves. She loves this island with all of her heart.
"I am considering going undercover in Republic City."
"But-"
"I would leave you fully in charge, taking my place as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors."
"But Suki, I'm not."
"Sure you are. In action you are at least. Just not in title." She assures her. She thinks for a few seconds. "I'm exhausted, Lomin. It's been two years. Yet I've never been more alive. We've got some fresh intel lately, but unless we have someone on the inside, we're probably never going to be able to nail this son of a bitch."
"Surely there's another way?"
"I hope so. We're going to keep playing the angle, but I'm in the process of planting the seeds for a possible undercover op."
"What about Sokka? He surely can't support this?"
Suki chuckles.
"It's like you said earlier about me and this island: he's not even here."
"Oh."
Strained but willing to admit it to her close confidant, Suki looks away. "We're taking a break, for now."
"I see."
"Makes the decision much easier."
"I'm so, so sorry, Suki. I can't imagine."
Suki fights back tears as her emotions swell.
"When would you go?"
"Uh, relatively soon? A couple of months. Need time to create a fake person and origin story to deceive a criminal empire, ya know?" She chuckles to herself. "But also considering yo-yoing it. Going in and coming out in bursts of a few weeks or months."
"I miss the days when the leaders of the criminal empires were out loud and proud about it. Made it easier to know who we were fighting."
"I agree. What I wouldn't give to have an Empress in Yakone's place."
The two share a laugh and the tension is broken. They spend the rest of the morning catching up and talking about the logistics of what it would mean for Suki to truly, openly, abandon her post. It is not an easy conversation, but it is a necessary one.
Akola remembers the day Siq bought the nicest home in the Southside. He could've and should've moved up to the Middle or even Upper Ring, but the boy was devoted to his roots. He named it Lonlhai Fire after his hometown. He chose a house in the Lower Ring so he could remain in close contact with Jin and Akola and everyone else. It's extravagant and spacious, two words no one would use to describe the Lower Ring. The high ceiling and lack of furniture has the unfortunate and unintended effect of allowing a lot of volume to bounce around. In this case, it's the sobs of an 18 year old boy who has witnessed death not for the first time.
"He's dead! He's fucking dead and we killed him."
"It's okay, it's okay, breathe."
Akola consoles him and tries to help him work through what happened. He had called for her to come to his home. When Ty Lin was abruptly recalled to Kyoshi Island in the morning, she had already felt that something was afoot. Then Jin was acting shady and avoidant. On Ji was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't even realized that Bing and Beng were missing all day until she arrived here and Siq connected all the dots for her.
"You didn't do anything. No one saw you. No witnesses, no crimes."
He cries and bellows painfully. "He died right outside my shop, Akola. Right outside my shop."
"Breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth."
This isn't Akola's first rodeo, consoling someone after their first involuntary manslaughter. Siq isn't even in the top ten of the youngest that she's helped in this exact scenario. However, he is the first where she can't openly admit her background and own experiences with this topic.
"Siq!" A voice calls from outside.
A split second later there's a banging on his door. He gets up and rushes to it. Akola follows suit. He swings it open and Jin is on the other side.
"Siq, you need to come quick- Akola?"
"Jin?"
"What is it?"
"What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Akola counters.
She turns back to the boy. "There's a mob outside your shop. Some of my ant flies think they're going to raid it. I'm off to get some more help, but you should get over there now!"
"No! They can't!"
He goes to leave but stops. He turns back and asks for her aid. "Akola? Please?"
Part of her knows this is all a mistake. He is acting on impulse and emotion and should pull back and reevaluate. But he isn't thinking rationally and he can't be stopped.
And she can't let him run off to die.
"Alright. Let's go."
"For too long, the radical Equalist have sought to take our power! And now, when they can't do that through political games, they KILL US in cold blood!"
Akola is anxious. She and Siq are pushing through the mob to get to the door to his workshop. This is a raucous and loud crowd. She figures there are easily dozens, if not hundreds, of angry men of various ages. She's willing to bet that most, if not all of them are benders.
The mob hold up signs about 'Free Liling!' They make chants about 'Justice for Jakeem,' the man who was killed. There's shouts that 'Equalists are Terrorists!' Most concerning of all though, for Akola, is that the vociferous leader of this mob, starting chants and spewing hateful speeches, is that bastard Shulun. She is calculating how to handle him when they finally push their way to the front of the crowd.
"Well look who we have here!" Shulun greets Akola, who trails behind Siq.
"Please, sir! This is my shop! You need to leave!" Siq tries to reason with him.
"Oh? We need to leave? You want us to peacefully walk away?"
"Yes, please!"
Akola puts her hand on his shoulder, knowing this doesn't end well.
"Well we want Justice for Jakeem!" He shouts and the crowd roars. Quietly now he turns to Siq and Akola. "He just wanted to peacefully walk away, but Equalist couldn't allow that. They saw a strong fire bender and they had to rip his life away."
"Please, sir-"
Akola pulls him back and steps to the man. Under the crowd noise she whispers to him, "Now you know that's now how it went down."
"Why don't you tell us how it went down?" He whispers back. "All this haystack needs is a little flame to set ablaze."
"I'll give you two minutes to clear out before this gets ugly." She tells him. They are practically nose to nose, and Siq cranes his neck to listen in to their battle. The fire in her eyes explodes, "Or else."
"Or else what? You can't chi block all of us, and I doubt you have more firepower than us. Face it, Sweetie. We're not going anywhere."
He turns to the crowd and shouts, "We don't leave until the Equalist responsible are brought to justice."
Siq gets anxious but Akola tells him to relax. She tries to think. She doesn't want to bend in front of this many people. He's right that she can't chiblock all of them, even with all of her fighting skills. If she could just summon some lightning she could scare them off. But there isn't even a cloud in the sky to give a cover. She has to bide time until Lin can arrive with more people.
Siq steps past Akola and grabs Shulun's arm. "Please sir, my shop! I-"
"Don't you touch me, Mud Skin."
Siq stops in his tracks but continues gripping the arm of the man. He had heard such an insult since when he first left the Southern Water Tribe. He is stunned silent by their hatred and Shulun revels in that pain it causes. In the crowd though, a violent crowd sees their leader being grabbed by this boy. One particularly angry drunk takes matters into his own hands. He winds up and tossed his glass bottle through the air.
"What the fuck did you just call him?" Akola steps back up and in between the teenager and the man.
At that exact moment, in the corner of her eye, she sees it too late. In the flicker of torches, through the dark of night, an object hurtles towards her. She doesn't even have time to perceive it, let alone react to it. The object collides with Azula's forehead and the glass shatters on impact. Completely random chance, and a perfect throw, knocks her unconscious as glass flies through the air.
The spray of glass hits Siq and Shulun equally as both men duck away from the remains. With all three of the leaders appearing to be under attack, the front lines of the mob finally give way. They surge forward towards the shop.
"No!" Siq shouts but is too late.
Some of the men grab Shulun and usher him off. Others use fire and earth bending to shatter the glass of Siq's workshop. Siq rises up to try and block them, but he's just a boy. He gets struck in the crossfire. The rabid crowd raid his shop while Siq bleeds and Akola lies unconscious. Voluminous clouds gather overhead quickly.
Azula comes to and gasps as she sits up. She is still in front of Siq's shop, but now the mob of people are all around her. Shulun is gone and so is Siq. In an odd way, everything seems to be moving slow. She feels no pain, but she swore that something hit her. She lifts her hand up and is shocked at what she sees.
Her hand is translucent, with a blue hue. She stands up quickly. She goes to move away but finds herself lighter, and the people around her practically unmoving. She looks all around and it's the same everywhere. The world is turning so slowly that she can perceive with her naked eye that they are not frozen, but also only barely moving.
"What in Agni's name is going on?" She mumbles to herself as she looks around.
One second she was fighting Shulun, the next she has stopped time. She looks around for an explanation but sees something more preposterous than any of the rest of it.
Lying on the ground, right where she had just been, is herself. Her body. With shattered glass peppering the ground around her. Lying on her back, her head flush against the ground, Azula leans down and looks at herself.
"How is this possible? What the fuck is going on?"
Azula stands back up and screams.
"Ahhh! Whoa! What the fuck!"
A woman stands before her. Translucent with a blue hue just like Azula. She stands at the feet of Azula's lifeless body.
"What the fuck, Lady! WHAT THE FUCK!"
Azula can not understand what is happening in the slightest but she is terrified of all of it. The nearly frozen time, her own body on the ground, floating as some sort of blue spirit thing, and now this woman.
The Unknown Blue Lady appears to be about her age, perhaps younger. She has hair that is a darker shade of the blue and eyes that are a lighter shade. Her hair is worn as two large, swooping pigtails, forming a criss-cross formation behind her head, ultimately sitting on each of her shoulders, to the front, resting on her breasts. She has a thin face and a long neck. She wears old, formal, traditional fire nation garb. She wears a headpiece which has two pronged horns. Her translucent skin is darker than Azula's, and her arms are massive compared to her own.
Suddenly, the woman lifts her head up and cranes her neck. Almost as a command, Azula is pulled forward against her wishes. Up above the clouds quickly swirl together, moving faster than time is moving around them.
"What's going on! Are you here to kill me?"
Azula rapid fires a slew of other questions and thoughts. She doesn't know what's happening or how or why. The woman raises a finger up to her mouth and Azula gets the cue. She goes silent. The woman raises both of her arms and puts her hands on each of Azula's shoulders. They stay there for a moment and Azula finally looks her in the eye. When she finally does, the woman speaks, only saying two words.
"Keep searching."
She gives Azula a push and her floating, blue body falls backwards. She collapses into her own, physical form. The last thing she sees is a flash of light from above.
The clouds swirl into a formation above the mob. Suddenly, violently, a burst of lightning shoots down from the clouds and crashes amongst the crowd. By some bizarre chance, a perfect shot, the lightning strikes the woman who had been struck by the flying bottle.
The mob scatters, screaming, running for their lives, as much as they can, away from the lightning blast and where it landed. What they do not see is that the woman who has been unconscious is jolted to life by the blast from above.
Terrified of what's happened, the crowd disperses, albeit with difficulty. Those who had been in the shop come sprinting out. The group who had been pushing to the front falls backwards now and runs in the other direction. The lightning blast had been so loud and deafening that many men stay on the ground, covering their ears and heads, afraid of another blast, trying to recover from the boom.
Akola, on the other hand, stands up. She scans the group and then finds Siq, lying on the ground, covered in bruises and some blood. She rushes to his side and checks him for injuries. His arm is snapped the wrong way. He cries once more, but for different reasons now. Unable to comprehend what's just happened, Akola focuses on the task at hand. She looks around as the crowd quickly disappears from sight and yells out into the emptying night.
"Help! We need a healer! HELP!"
No one comes as every healer in the area is actively running from the lightning blast.
"SOMEONE HELP!"
No healer ever comes for Siq and Akola.
A/N: This chapter's OST is "Flicker" by Son Lux.
Love always. Tyzula forever.
Notorious