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Blue Mask	By : PatPat Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality > Het- Male/Female Views: 11083 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Blue Mask, Two Swords, and Sozin’s Comet
Envious
By Pat Squared
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Katara hated her braids.

For dozens of generations, the traditions of the Southern Water Tribe required that until the birth of their first child, that save for the expected funeral offering made for the death of a family member, the women of the water tribe were forbidden to cut their hair. What the tradition meant for Katara was she had to spend hours every week tending her braids, otherwise her hair would get in her way.

Despite having much shorter hair than the other girls of her tribe due to having to make a funeral offering when her mother died four years ago, she hated having long hair. Many of the girls in the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation wore shorter, more comfortable hair styles. They did not have to spend all hours that Katara spent weekly picking out the lice and other hitchhikers that made their way into her hair during their travels. She wanted to cut her hair for the longest time, but feared that Sokka would blow up like Fire Nation blasting jelly.

She would not go back to the Southern or Northern Water Tribes. Since being trapped in that rock-candy gemenite crystal by King Bumi of the Earth Kingdom, Katara experienced a mind numbing sensation of being crushed whenever she could not see the sky. Due to the climate, there were no windows in her homeland as windows would only serve to let out the heat. There were balconies in the city of the Northern Water Tribe, but to sleep outside at night was to court death from hypothermia. Only a fire bender such as Zuko would be able to survive to survive nights alone out on the ice.

It was that unknown advantage that almost decimated the Southern Water Tribe, since the tribesman did not expect on overland midnight attack, not with the recent cold snap. Many fathers and sons of fighting age were killed when the fire nation launched it coordinated land-sea attack. If it was not for the Fire Lord’s loathing of the inferior races and the Fire Nation commander’s zealous enforcement of the no fraternization rule, all the young females of the tribe, including herself, would have been forced to volunteer their services as victory wenches to the Fire Nation troops that killed her mother.

Katara remembered that fact too late.

When she saw Zuko at the North Pole shrine, she had realized that she had forgotten all about the fire-bender’s ability to survive in Artic waters for short periods of time. Fortunately, the chi energy that the feat required kept him weaken enough to deal with, at least until the sun awoke his powers.

Katara looked into the silvered mirror hanging on the back of her door. Back home, mirrors were unheard of. If you needed one, you either bent some water and hope that you did polished right to form a reflective surface. Or you traded some meat or crafts with someone who could do it for you. Once made, the mirror would work as long as you kept it away from the heat. It was not until her travels with Aang that she saw her reflection in a real mirror.

She examined her reflection.

In the Water Tribes, she would be considered just another pretty girl. She was not the prettiest girl in the village. She was not yet old enough to be worn down by the harsh artic sun (Lots of ultraviolet light with the ice and sea acting as giant reflectors). Yet she was not exotic nor would she ever be as beautiful as Princess Yue. However away from the Water Tribes, her dark skin and blue eyes made the boys in the Earth Kingdom ooh and awe over her exotic beauty. She could not walk alone without some boy or man making some comment. Some were good, but other, more lecherous comments convinced Katara that males have too much time on their hands to contemplate various sexual variations that they will never enjoy.

Katara mastered the art of subconsciously tuning out all but the most outrageous of comments. She learned how to politely deflect flattery. She did not have the time to find a mate. Aang needed her to continue his water-bending training and more importantly keep him out of the clutches of the Fire Nation.

Katara looked at herself as she toweled herself off. Over that past year, she noticed that her body was becoming curvier in the bust, hips, and rear. Yet the baby-fat that earn her the nickname Little Tara Seal Pup in her early childhood disappear from everywhere else on her body.

Katara opened her bag. Inside was a gift that she had never used. When Princess Yue merged with the moon spirit, the Northern Tribe held a quasi-funeral. As was the custom, her goods were given up to others. In a spirit of jest, Yue named Katara the recipient of her cosmetics case in her will.

Katara took the case, but until today did not open it.

Katara knew that Sokka still though of her as the little seal pup that followed him around. He would never come to terms with her growing up even if she lived to be older than Aang. The giggle coming from the bath-shed that Aang and Toph were having way too much fun scrubbing each other’s back. As for her brother, he was in the inn’s common room. He was far too busy eating everything in sight while simultaneously wooing the innkeeper’s daughter to pay attention to what was happening with his little sister.

Katara opened the leather case.

Inside there were all these little vials labeled with meticulous handwriting. Also inside was a piece of paper with handwritten instructions. The problem was that it was written in a mixture of Earth Kingdom kanji and Fire Nation calligraphic pictograms. Katara wanted to yank the bottle out of the case and smash them against the wall. She could barely read the thin and thick phonetic strokes of her native tongue and knew enough of the symbols common to the trade language to be able to navigate her way through a market or read a simple poster.

Katara hated being simple, stupid peasant. She hated her past, her family for limiting her so much.

Zuko was right to call me a stupid peasant wench. The only reason he ever paid attention to me was the fact that I was traveling with Aang and that he was stuck on that ship of his without another women in sight. Otherwise, I would be viewed like a filthy servant who does not know her manners.

However, Katara simply put the case away.

Last night, Jian Li made her feel like a princess. He was charming without being overly so. He did not snap at the kids asking for his chop on one of the many posters they liberated from the walls.. He was educated and yet he did not lord it over her. He was patient with some fans that would frankly cause Katara to want to drown the whole lot at birth.

The magic exhibition was to take place at the Gem-Traders’ Guildhall later tonight. Tickets were hard to come by and only the elite of Chongqing could come by them. If it was not for Jian Li’s generosity, there would be no way that Aang would be able to get ticket for the show tonight.

Looking at her clothes, Katara knew that her peasant origins would be as obvious as Zuko’s scar if she and others wore their traveling cloths. At one time, she would have defied everyone and proudly represent her homeland. Now she acquiesced to current tastes.

Today, she knew that she no longer truly a member of the Southern Water Tribe. The old Katara would never think to wear another nation’s fashions. The old Katara would never think that her people were so backwards that they were the laughing stock of the universe. The old Katara would not think that they were holding her back. However, tonight’s only concession to her homeland was that she and her brother would wear blue outfits. Aang and Troph would wear molted green and silver outfits that seem to be the standard wear for the Earth Kingdom.

Sokka and Katara have to get everyone measured. Then Katara had to do her shopping. Finding ready made good clothing at a reason price proved impossible, so Katara had to settle for buying the material and paying the dressmakers extra to have their clothing ready for tonight.

Katara carefully untied her mother’s necklace around her neck. For the first time in a long while, she examined it carefully. There was a little red stone on a gold mount hanging from the blue ribbon. It was not originally part of her necklace, but was attached to it when Zuko returned it. Some part of her could not throw it away. Even from the dead, Zuko could still sting her. His presence in her memory contaminated her pure memories of the necklace. She carefully removed the stone and yet she could not bear to throw it away. Instead she placed the stone in Yue’s cosmetics case.

There was nothing that could have ever happen between us, Zuko. I am water and you are fire. If we merged we would both disappear in a puff of steam that would destroy us both. I wish that the gods show you more compassion in this life; however, I must move on and do what I need to do.

Jian Li was perhaps the boy who could change her luck in the romance department.

Despite being an obvious Fire Nation half-breed living in an Earth Kingdom, Li did not let others ruin his life with their hate of all things Fire Nation. He did not obsess about honor or run around trying to prove that his element was superior to all others. He even shied away when she asked him if he could bend. He was a free spirit who enjoyed listening to her. He shared something he loved with the world. Katara knew that if she had a choice that she would want to live a life like Jian Li’s. He sense to be happy and feel to follow a dream.
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Jian Li woke up screaming.

It was the same nightmare that had plagued him every night since he was cast out of his father’s home almost four years ago.

Zuko, only ten, was asleep in a bed that he has not sleep in for four years. The room was bigger, empty save for the bed, a stool with a basin of water, a small chest, and the two swords and blue mask hanging on the wall. His mother was at his beside.

Half asleep, he sits up and says only one word, “Mom?”

“Zuko, please, my love, listen to me. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to protect you. Remember this Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.”

His mother hugged him for the last time. Then she let him go and walked down the dark hall out of his room to her death.

The ten year-old child didn’t know, but the man the child became grew to learn that he was not worthy of his mother’s sacrifice.

His father hated him and favored his sister. The nobles carefully hinted that a sickly prince such as him was the gods’ punishment for mixing the most noble of Fire Nation bloodlines to a bloodline that only recently climbed out of a brothel three generations ago. Only Azulan’s need for the wealth of Kozun’s descendents compelled him to marry off his youngest son to Ursa, daughter of General Lu Ten and some minor-noble’s merchant’s daughter from House Ming.

The boy would earned top honors in every course he took in the Fire Nation Military Academy and yet his father would never offer a word of congratulations. Every time he fail, the boy would undergo the harshest discipline. He only wished that he accepted his punishment for his father’s crimes instead of watching his mother disappear.

Azula was singing in a sing-song voice, “Dad’s going to kill you. Really he is.”

“Ha-ha Azula. Nice try.”

Stupid kid.

Azula pressed on, “Fine, don’t believe me, but I heard everything. Grandfather said dad’s punishment should fit his crime.” Imitating their grandfather Azulon, Azula continued, “You must know the pain of losing a first born son, by sacrificing your own!”

“Liar!” the stupid reflexively replied.

Azula sat on his bed and smiled in her sarcastic way.

“I’m only telling you for your own good. I know, maybe you could find a nice Earth Kingdom family to adopt you.”

The boy found himself holding unto his blanket for security.

“Stop it, you’re lying. Dad would never do that to me.”

Dad would have willingly incinerated his only son it if it wasn’t for his mother agreeing to take his place. He banished you because you were weak and soft, just like mother. He wanted an heir as vicious and bloodthirsty as he was and the sickly little prince boy would never do.

However the nightmare would not end yet.

“Please, father, I only had the fire nation’s best interest at heart! I’m sorry I spoke out of turn!”

The Fire Lord was shirtless as was the norm for the Agni Kai. Zuko did not see his face, but the Fire Lord’s massive bulk was still silhouetted against the fires burning around the arena.

“You will fight for your honor.”

Zuko abased himself on the floor and pleaded, “I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son.”

Despite the years of being his father’s whipping boy, Zuko could not fight his own father.

“Rise and fight, Prince Zuko!”

“I won’t fight you,” said the boy to his father.

“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.”

Zuko raises his tear filled face to his father, the Fire Lord, who was now standing a few feet from the erring Prince.

The world became the flames of the underworld. He did not remember screaming. He remembered the pain and the darkness that came after it.

Only when he recalled the moment of his shame would the gods of sleep allow Jian Li to awake. He would find himself screaming with his blades in hand ready to fight the phantoms of his imagination.

Jian Li hated sleep. Jian Li hated being awake. Jian Li hated being alive. Jian Li hated being unable to end his life.

The gods of the underworld did not have to wait before he suffered. Fate, the harlot, was making him her bottom boy. He was born to fail. He failed all his life. He would die a failure. His life was nothing but a comic farce to entertain the senile gods of the underworld. However, unlike in the operas, the straight stick in life would figure out that he was universe’s joke on mankind.
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Even Sokka was stuffed. The various guilds of Chongqing competed to prove that they were the most generous entertainers in the world. With the possible exception of the Fire Nation capital, Chongqing was the richest city in the world. Katara looked at the acrobats performing feats of flexibility. Each one could bend their body in unnatural ways and pull off dramatic martial arts maneuvers. There were the animal trainers and the clowns. However Katara knew that that was just an appetizer for the main act of the evening.

The orchestra stated playing a new cadence. Dominated by percussion, the beat mimicked the human heart. Slowly at first building up to a great roar that got everyone’s pulse rate up.

Everyone hushed up except for Aang who was whispering a running commentary into Toph’s ear.

Jian Li walked out wearing nothing but his twin swords, a bright white linen loin cloth, and body paint. Katara felt a jab of jealousy as even the respectable matrons oohed and awed over the slim, muscular physique of the young magician. He bowed to the eight cardinal directions and pulled off a spectacular mid-air twist flip that only generated more awe. Katara recognized it as a part of the extravagant Fire Nation martial arts kata, but no one else obviously did for every rose to their feet and cheered vigorously.

“Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to witness something that has not been seen since in a hundred and five years. Witness an act, a dance with steel and flame so dangerous that not even that villain Ozai, Lord of Fleas and Father of Lies, would even think of attempting it. Watch Captain Pak, did you bring the purple horsehair tea?”

There was a mutter. Purple horsehair tea was given to prisoners and little children prone to temper tantrums to temporary suppress their bending capabilities. For Katara the time that that acrobatic girl tapped her and prevented her from bending was like losing a hand. Any yet he was going to voluntarily strip himself of any bending talent that he may have.

Jian Li pour the tea into his mouth so that the stream was visible. Then he held out the cup upside down to show that was no tea left in the cup.

“Now that you know that there will be no bending of any kind tonight, are you wondering if you are going to witness the greatest act in the history of public entertainment or are you going to witness a performance artist create his own funeral pyre?”

“My usual assistant left. After a couple close calls, she said that I was crazy enough to seduce the dragon’s mate in full view of the dragon. To help me, I will select a lovely assistant just every bit as crazy as I am. Everyone yell out a color.”

“The audience was yelling out.”

“Reds, sorry that is the Fire Nation color. Yellows, that is hard to see against the flames. Green, sorry there are way too many pretty ladies wearing that color for me to fairly select one without having the rest of you tear me apart. Blue. That is perfect. The color of water, something that I would find in short supply in the middle of hell should I mess up tonight. Will the lovely young noble lady from the Southern Water Tribe in the blue dress step on up?”

Katara found herself being pushed by Aang towards the center of the ring.

“Relax, act kind of shy, and whisper whatever you want, just keep it short.”

“Are you nuts? How are you going to control fire if you can’t bend it?”

“Trust me, Katara, anyone that gets burnt has a healthy respect for fire. Fire needs fuel, air, and heat. By controlling the fuel, I control the fire. Trust me, relax, and for Agni’s sake don’t make any sudden movements.”

Jian Li then announced, “This is Ason (Divine Princess) Katara of the Southern Water Tribe with whom the gods grace us with her presence. Sister of the Moon Spirit, La, and daughter of the Ocean, Ta.”

“I am no princess,” she whispered.

“Trust me, Katara, we are creating a legend tonight and in the legends every pretty girl is a divine princess even if she was raised by the brotherhood of lice and grew up in a brothel.”

Jian took her hand and kissed it.

“Ladies and gentlemen, now that I have kissed such divine beauty, my life is complete and if the gods of the underworld decide to claim me, I will go with a smile and flutter in my heart.”

The ladies in the stands were swooning.

“Without further ado, I hearken back to the age of legends. To the time before the legends. Mankind was plagued by demons. Demons of the earth, demons of the skies, demons in the dark waters, and the worst of all demons, the demons of the flame. Demons ruled over all the world turning the men into meat and the women into their concubines.

“Wang Li Lao Zi was the son of such a woman. Despite his half-demon blood he had to watch as his aunts and female cousins were force to serve their demon overlord. Li Lao Zi had a beautiful sister who in due time would be required to surrender her virtue to the demons. To prevent this abomination, Li Lao Zi erected a pyre and burnt himself to travel to the realm of the dead ruled by Yanluo, the yama or wang of the eighteen hells. To bring to the humans the powers of the demons, Yanluo ordered Lao Zi to be reincarnated and within fourteen summers complete the Oni’s Challenge. Only then would mankind be able to bend the elements like the demons that enslaved them.”

Katara knew of the story. It was one of the common myth of how man learned to bend the four elements and the birth of the first Avatar.

“One by one he defeated the eighteen challenges proposed by each of the eighteen yama of the underworld. Some were of body. Others were of mind. The worst were of spirit. Yet Li Lao Zi never gave up even when he was apparently defeated. He struggled until he mastered each of the oni’s arts and defeated the challenges. He saved his sister and shared the oni’s arts with mankind, training the first generation of masters of the bending arts. Wang Li Lao Zi was the only king of the world and with his death the four disciples moved apart leading their followers.

“To the seas, Gong Gong and his follows went. To the heaven, Shangdi and his follows travel with the four winds. To the bossism of the earth, did Panku go with his kin. And the lands of the dying sun did Angi, Li Lao Zi’s own nephew-son did travel. In honor of their master, each swore to remember their oaths of brotherhood. In honor of their master, did each promise to have a champion ready to face the Oni’s Challenge should the demons think men weak and seek to enslave men again.

“I, Jian Li, shall prove myself to you to be the greatest of magicians since Pan Rui the Immortal Trickster and the best wielder of the dual dao since Zhu Wu walked on this earth. I shall attempt the eighteen challenges. I shall succeed or I will turn myself into a beautiful funeral pyre and travel to Yanglao’s judgement.”

Katara could not believe in the audacity of Jian Li. He was willing to do the impossible.

“Ason Katara here will vouch for what you all can see. This is a ring. There is no man manipulating levers behind a hidden curtain. I am standing on solid earth so there are no trap doors. I have drunk of the purple horsehair root which renders any bending skills useless. Ladies and gentlemen should I die, it was great honor to have provided you a spectacle worthy of a lifetime.”

With that, Jian Li grabbed a torch and lit himself on fire.

Katara witnessed something that she would not be able to describe to anyone without being called a liar. Katara witnessed a man using only his wits defeat the power of the most destructive element. Even a master fire bender would be hard press to pull off the skills that he shown that night. If it was not for the purple horsehair root, it would all be believable.

The worst part for Katara had to be blindfolded and having burning oil poured on her body. Engulf in flames, Jian Li had to prevent the lit arrows from hitting her and burning her alive. Agni’s Blind Guardian Dragon of the Fire came alive for just a terrifying moment.

As soon as the blindfold was removed, Katara found herself staring at the audience. The ordinarily prim and proper gentry were going as crazy as young children when the candy vendor was giving away sweets. They called his name like he was a god walking on the earth.

She turned around. There were tears in Jian’s right eye. He lifted his left arm. He waved his appreciation. He bowed to the four cardinal directions. Then he was in the center of a fiery cyclone. The cyclone died and he was gone. Katara returned to her seat.

The ringmaster stood up and announced, “There are no words that will describe what you witnessed this evening. There is no act that will ever excite you as the act that you have witnessed. Jian Li has created a legend, a legend so great that your descendants will doubt that he ever existed. Thank you for being a part of entertainment history. Thank you Ason Katara for being willing to be Jian’s assistant. Let us all extend our thanks to the gods for letting us witness the show of the century.”

The floor was littered with gold and silver coin. The legendary tight purse strings of the Chongqing merchant guild were loosened and the gold flowed.

Aang was bouncing around. Sokka was too awed to realize that he had a plate of food in front of him. Even Toph was excited, chanting, “He really disappeared. I could not feel him after he did that spinning leap into the sky.”
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“Is that her?” Xin Fu asked Master Yu.

Master Yu merely nodded.

“Let’s get her.”

Master Yu merely rested his hand on Xin Fu’s forearm.

“Stop doing the inscrutable earth bending master act and speak damn you!”

“I am merely pointing out that trying to kidnap an earth bender as powerful as Toph Bei Fong when she is surrounded by dozens of other powerful benders is a quick way to die.”

“Powerful.”

“Powerful enough to defeat Prince Zuko, Iroh – the Dragon of the West, and the entire Fire Nation navy. We are but two and even if they were not in front of a crowd of hundreds of Earth Benders and dozens of bodyguards, those three little kids...let us separate our little girl out of the herd.”

Xin Fu cracked his knuckles in frustration.

“I am not going to lose that little blind bitch again. We are going to need some help. I heard Princess Azula is quite gifted. She wants the Avatar. I say let us make a trade. One air bender for our little brat!”
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Blue Mask