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Blue Mask	By : PatPat Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality > Het- Male/Female Views: 11106 -:- 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
- 17
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Blue Mask, Two Swords, and Sozin’s Comet
Drugs
By Pat Squared

________________________________________

“Toph, long time, no see.”

The blind girl woke up to a major headache. The voice sounded familiar, but it was far too painful for the young girl to start digging through her memories.

“Your father misses you and has hired us to bring home his wayward child.”

Her mind blinked into alertness, albeit through one hell of a headache. She was in danger. She tried to move her feet to feel the vibrations of the earth and...

I am truly blind.

She could not recall feeling so scared since she lost her ability to see with her eyes. Through the thick, opaque film that covered her eyes for the past thirteen years all she could make out was a candle flame and a shadow.

“Xin Fu, what have you done to me!”

All she heard was a chuckle from the former fight announcer.

Xin Fu was the one who tried to kidnap her and hold her for ransom.

“There are two ways we can go about this. One, you be a good, little, meek, blind girl and you go back to your parents without any troubles. Two, you don’t cooperate; I will crush enough bones to ensure that you will never bend earth again for the rest of your painful life. Are you going to be a good girl or do I have to start?”

Suddenly she felt a rock slam into her right arm. She felt her arm snap. Despite her determination to not give her enemy any satisfaction, the tears started welling up in her useless eyes.

“That was for throwing that fight and costing me five hundred gold pieces. If you tell your parents, I will merely tell them that you tried to resist and I unfortunately had to do such a terrible thing.”

“That is enough Xin. You had your fun. We are being paid to bring her back in good health. I will watch Toph.”

Master Yu! My father had to offer a great deal of cash to have this two former rivals work together.

“Alright, she is your responsibility. If she escapes, I will collect my fee from your dead corpse.”

She would wait and feign the acceptance of her fate. Maybe they will get sloppy. If not Aang will come for her. He had to. She was carrying his child.

________________________________________

Zuko woke up the instant he felt the wetness pooling under his flesh.

Great Agni, I...

He hadn’t had that kind of accident since he was five.

If there was any moment in life that signified how low he fell, it was this very moment. He was dying. His body had betrayed him letting him suffer all sorts of indignities. His long-time rival, Katara, had him as her virtual prisoner and play thing. And now he was lying in a puddle of his own piss and shit. If he had any strength left, he would already kill himself out of shame.

Katara merely smiled and yanked the blankets off of his nude form.

“Yuanlao, why don’t you just take me now? Better yet, invite my sister and father to see my shame.”

“Don’t worry. It’s part of the medicine. You have too much fluid in your body and I gave you medicine to make you pee.”

“But couldn’t you...”

“No. I have to bath you.”

The thought of her babying him drove him mad. He was grown up. He was suppose to be in the prime of his life. He was no longer a baby or a doddering old man.

“No way in hell, peasant wench!”

He found himself doused in water.

“Stop screaming! You almost just set your bed on fire, you dumb jerk! Bending is what’s killing you right now. Every time you light up another puff of flame, you are damaging your already damaged lungs. I am trying to save you, you ...”

“...spoiled brat.”

Zuko knew that his future depended on her mercy.

“How did you know what I was going to say?” she asked, actually laughing at him.

“Don’t all our conversations end up being taunts of peasant wench and spoiled brat?”

She actually laughed.

Zuko wanted to die, but years of protocol training taught him that sometimes he had to swallow his pride and do the unthinkable. He had to abase himself to his worst enemy.

“I am...sorry for my poor manners. My mother taught me better and I have shamed her memory by my slander of your good name.”

“Have another cup of tea?”

Zuko HATED tea. He hated the medicinal taste. The healers were always putting their vile poisons into his tea. Even his mother tried to trick him into drinking that foul brew. He couldn’t take any more. However, instead of wasting his time and energy he decided to be deceptive.

“Thank you, my mother used to serve me tea all the time.”

It was the truth, but it was not the whole truth.

He accepted the tea cup and pretended to sip letting some of the foul brew dibble down his chin. He coughed and wiped away the evidence of his defiance. He played this game as a kid facing down his mother and the best healers in the Fire Nation and he knew that he had not lost his touch.

“What was she like?”

He did not want to talk about his mother with Katara, but it was either share a few memories or drink the tea and end up sleeping in his own piss again. However, once he got thinking about his mother, something snapped in his mind, and he could not stop crying.

Why am I so pitiful? Mom is dead for seven long years. I mourned her and moved on with my life. Why am I losing my mind? Am I going mad?

I am going mad. I must be going mad. Going mad in a Fire Nation torturer's cell is better than this. I have spent too much time under the sun and started to hallucinate. Katara is not really here; otherwise I would have icicles driven through my eyes and my xiao didi (little brother). This Katara is a product of my fever dreams.

I am dying and so I had to come up with something in my mind so that I won’t die alone like a stray dog in the streets.

This Katara is too pretty to be real.

This Katara is so nice. Nice like mom was nice to me. I can share anything with her because she is not real. I guess that in a way It is better than seeing uncle. He would be so disappointed that I have sunk to murder and robbery and charlatanism to make a living. Besides I don’t want to remember the scent of his feet. The memories of having to rescue him from the earth kingdom by tracking him down and the scent of the sandal. Damn, the gods would probably ensure that I won’t forget that vile scent when I reincarnate.

Suddenly he laughed, “You are pretty, too pretty to be the Katara that I fought in the North Pole. You must be a figment of my imagination. You have to be since you are so nice to me. I bet that I can tell you anything!”

“Go ahead,” the dream Katara replied.

He launched into a chaotic description of his childhood, the war council meeting, the duel, his banishment, and his travels. Her face was puzzled at times but she did not ask questions.

“…Then I meet this pretty water tribe girl named Katara. I wondered what was up with her and that bald air-bender, the Avatar. She is older than he was and far too pretty for him. I remember chasing her and capturing her. Damn pirates – I had to buy them off so they would not sell her to a brothel and what did she do? Water whip me! However, I got her. I took her first kiss. Beat damn bald boy to it, ha! My second kiss. Katara was a better kisser than Mai, though. If she wasn't a water bender, she was more passionate than any Fire Nation wench.

“Then we met up again at the North Pole. First, Zhao paid the damn pirates to blow up my boat with me on it. I snuck aboard his boat and pretended to be some faceless private. Gods the kitchen duty stunk. Peeling potatoes, cooking humongous pots of rice, washing every damn dish, and cooking all the food for the officers and not even having a bit of the leftovers. Zhao was such a jerk. No, on my boat even the powder monkeys and cook boys ate what I ate. No gruel. Gruel, gruel, gruel. How is a poor soldier able to build up enough energy and chi for battle on gruel. Damn you Zhao! You let good men die and you can’t even let them have a decent meal.

“Then I swam. Why did the water tribes have to live at the poles? The water was too damn cold. Fish were wearing jackets for Agni’s sake! I had to swim up through the city sewers. Frozen manure and piss and clumps of pooh so big that I was starting to expect war elephants in the city. I made it to the bald kid sitting in the only grass field in the damn place and she had to be there.

“She was good. Much improved and it was a long fight. I knew that I had to hang on. Just fight till she tires or the sun rose. She was tough, so tough that I expected to find icicles driven through my body or have her freeze the fluid in my heart and watch me die. But I held on and beat her. Since she did not kill me, I decided to return the favor. Strange talking about killing someone I’m talking to. But I digress.

“And then I had to drag bald boy into the snow. The fight drained my chi. I could not keep myself warm anymore. I wanted to give in and die, but I would be damned if I did so. After three years of wondering if I would ever visit my mother's shire again, I would not let myself die when I had the means of my salvation in my possession.

"I hated the avatar. I hated how he easily made friends.

"I hated how everyone was proud of him. My paternal grandfather and father use to banish my mother, sister, and me to a remote garden so that they would not even have to publicly acknowledge our existence. They prayed that I would die like I was supposed to die. They wanted to pretend that I never happened."

"I hated how the avatar kid easily mastered everything and how I had to suffer for years just to build up my lungs so I can light a single candlewick without nearly dying. I hated how he had friends who loved him and I was stuck with a father and sister who cheered when they believed I died. He now even has a red string soul mate with whom he can share confidences and all I have is you, a figment of my imagination. I remembered closing my eyes.

“Bam, he chose that time to blast me out of that warm cave. I woke up on that furry ten-ton bison of his with that jerk of your brother wanting to leave my corpse on the glacier. I don’t blame him; if it was not for you, I would have done the same to him with glee. I am surprised that you did not already drown him.”

He smiled, “I got away. They were good with ropes, but they did not know that I was a good magician and mastered escapes as a little kid. There is no rope or cuffs that I can not pick my way out of given enough time and a little sliver of metal. I met monkey-face trying to run away from uncle. The coward tried to kill the moon spirit and ran away before my uncle could blast him. Uncle looks like a fat old man, but when you get him angry, boy can that fat old man be really scary."

Zuko lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Did you know that he can bend lightning? Not many fire benders can bend lightning. My grandfather, Lu Ten could. He learned it from his mother who picked up learning how to redirect qi from a water bender. He taught my uncle and my mother. My father was too ruled by his passions to learn. My sister can and I am learning. I can’t summon it, yet, but I can redirect someone else’s attack or change the location of a natural strike.

“However, I fight monkey Zhao and then this sea spirit thing comes in and grabs Zhao. I tried to save Zhao. I don’t know why. I wanted to kill him. He wanted my throne and tried to kill me and yet I tried. I was stupid. I half expected for the spirit to take me, too.

“I watched good men, some I knew, swept out to sea to die because they loyally followed their admiral's command. Drowning is a bad way to die. Worse, the crabs and other creatures feast on our flesh. Our souls are trapped and we get to experience the joys of drowning in the afterlife until our bodies decompose. I know that you are not real, but would you lie to me? Would you tell me that you will burn my body when I die? Please, I don’t want to experience the sensation of my body decomposing in the afterlife. Burn me please so that my soul can be free.

“I don’t understand why the Earth Kingdom hates us for burning their dead on the battlefield. It’s sanitary – no plagues or diseases. Your loved one’s soul is free to seek the rewards promised to the virtuous in the afterlife, instead of waiting for decades before the worms ate enough of you. No they have to lock up their loved ones in a stone box where they can not breathe fresh air and must wait centuries before …

“And don’t even get me started on the Water Tribes. They send their dead to the bottom of the ocean, turn their loved ones into fish food. Don’t they know that the water pressure will crush their bodies, and that in the afterlife, they will experience the agony of drowning until they decompose. I tried drowning once when I was three. I fell into the turtle-duck pond and I did not master how to swim yet. I remember water entering. My mom had to dive into the water to rescue me. Then she had to pump the water out of my lungs. I remember the pain. I hated the sea. All that water. I can swim now, but I am still afraid of drowning every time my head dips below the water.”

He feigned drinking another sip of the tea, but still enough made its way into his throat that he wanted to throw the cup away. However the trick will not work if he acted up now.

“Then my father sends my sister after me. She drags in Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is a blood sucking imp from the moment she was born – takes after daddy. Ty what can I say. She was a good girl forced into her predicament. It took some doing, but I got her out from under my sister’s thumb. Mai, my former fiancé – She is the daughter of the new governor of Omashu. She once had a crush on me and she kind of scared me. She was always spying on me. I caught her in the bathhouse more than once trying to get a glimpse. Too bad I was too young to realize that she cared about me and loved me in her own quiet way. She probably was the only one my age to cry when I was thrown out of the kingdom. Be careful, she is good with knifes and other sharp things.”

He relaxed.

“I am going to tell you a sad truth.

“Nobles and peasants, the only difference is that the nobles have too much time to find new vices while the peasants stick with the classic of wine, women, and song. I hate those stuck up bastards. What have they done? They hate me. They hated my mother since she did not come from a long line of illustrious ancestors. My father called her the Lucky Whore, because my great grandpa Kozun happened to be born in a brothel. He did more in a lifetime than their illustrious families did in eighteen generations. If it were up to me, I would banish the title and require every generation to earn their spurs. Make them work for their honors instead of whispering in the shadows because they are jealous of those that do. At least it will stop all the damn in-breeding.

“Like I am the poster image of a success.

“I started out a prince with a mother and uncle that loved me. Now I am alone, a fugitive who robbed graves, a thief, a gambler, a charlatan who does magic tricks for all my adoring fans. I conned some jewels off my sister for faking my dead, and sometimes work as an assassin if the client is a jerk who deserves it. I guess that I really am not since I don’t charge the jerk’s victims my fee, but collect it instead from the jerk himself. I am also a thief. In my bag is a match sapphire jewelry set. I did not kill to get it, but I would be damned if I let the governor’s wife wear the stolen taxes from the poor. I left a love note from the Blue Spirit, that’s me, telling him that if the taxes were not returned, he would undergo my version of reeducation. I need to pay him another visit, since he did not change. So I guess I threw away everything, every advantage given to me, and became the dishonorable rascal you see before you. See what doing the right thing can do for your future. Stand up and fate will hammer you down.”
Zuko felt light-headed and felt himself accidentally drinking more and more that that vile tea with every sip.

“Damn I HATE tea. They always try to shove that damn stuff down my throat since I was a baby. It tastes bad, but I am starting to feel funny, in a good way of course.”

He looked up into her face.

“Didn’t I tell you that you are pretty, pretty enough to be my queen? If not you are. If you were real and not a figment of my imagination, I would try to seduce you. You are so much like my mother it hurts, you know. You are kind, patient, understanding, and forgiving if someone is less than perfect. Even if you were scarred up like I am, you would still be pretty.”

She smiled and shook her head, “Definitely crazy. I am real, Zuko.”

“Prove it!”

He reached out for her right breast, made contract and gave her nipple a squeeze.

SLAP!

He smiled, “I guess I deserved it. You sure slap hard for a figment of my imagination. It was worth it though. I can now face Yuanlao with a smile upon my face.”

He went and tried to hug her, but she pushed him down into his bed.

“Relax, Zuko. You are not dying yet.”

“Don’t lie to me. I would not be confined to this wagon if I was not. I earn too many coins for the ringmaster to give me the day off because I have a little cough. Promise me when you end my life, that you will burn my body? I don’t ask for tears or even some good words or prayers over my pyre. Just burn my body, please. I don’t want to rot.”

“I promise.”

The darkness took him.

Katara looked upon her patient. The cactus juice that Sokka inadvertently discovered was perhaps the most potent truth drug available as long as you could separate the truth from the hallucinations. Add in a touch of some powdered root and your stubborn, spoiled brat would fall asleep.

Asleep, he looked like a little boy dreaming of his next prank, instead of a young man who had lost everything that ever mattered to him.

________________________________________

Aang woke up in a panic.

Something was missing and he did not know what. He was chasing something for some unknown reason yet it was so important that he could not give up the chase.

It was an hour pass sunrise and he found himself tangled in the bed sheets and lying on the cold stone floor. He sat up and notice that Toph's side of the bed was empty.

Toph never woke up early unless...

He remembered that today was the day that they were going to pack up and leave Chongqing to find a fire bending master. He walked to the small box that Toph bought at the market. Their stuff was neatly packed. Aang knew better than to move anything. Toph had developed a system of how she arranged things so that she could always find whatever she needed without having to dig through all her stuff. Now that he was her husband, he was forbidden to add or remove anything to the box. The box was her box.

While not married very long, Aang knew that girls were crazy about certain things and he would just have to accept it if he wanted a relative calm marriage.

Aang knocked on Katara's and Sokka's door. There was no answer. He knew better than to barge in. Katara was working late into the night taking care of a patient. Sokka was probably going to escort her back. The caravansary was not the safest place from a lady to be alone by herself. Katara could handle most goons, but it was probably better that Sokka walked her back to the inn.

Half and hour later, Aang saw Sokka. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were big. He had a stupid grin, at least a grin more stupid than usual.

"Where's Katara and Toph?"

"I don't know. I was at Jade and her sisters’ house."

Aang knew enough of Sokka's new habits to know that Sokka would think nothing of taking on Ozai by himself. Since that cactus juice experience in the desert, Sokka has found a new way of ignoring his troubles. It scared Aang that Sokka did not care anymore. Sokka reeked of stale sweat and vomit.

"Sokka, you..."

"Don't worry; I go to the baths, later. The girls there all love me and they have powders that give such nice dreams."

"Where are the girls?"

"Which girls?”

Aang suppressed the urge to smack Sokka in the forehead.

“Toph and Katara.”

“Oh, you know how girls are. They are probably shopping right now before it gets too hot."

Sokka staggered into the room and collapsed on the floor.

Aang reluctantly pulled his friend unto the bed and removed the soiled clothing off of the friend who studiously explained the mysteries of women to the former monk.

However mosts of the advice was merely wishful thinking on Sokka's mind.

However, Aang knew that something was wrong. Sokka need help – not physical help but help with repairing the emptiness inside that was consuming him. He wondered when Toph and Katara would come back from the market.
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Blue Mask