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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.

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Blue Mask, Two Swords, and Sozin’s Comet
02 - Hardships of Exile
By Pat Squared

The Blue Spirit quietly surveyed the campsite in the clearing below.

Acrobat Girl, Gloom Girl, and Acid Wench were eating a roasted boar.

The Blue Spirit had nothing to eat for the past two days save for a few not quite so ripe fruits he liberated from a farmer’s orchard. Despite her noble upbringing Gloom Girl knew how to prepare the boar. The scent of roasted meat only served to make the Blue Spirit hungrier and thus more miserable.

He wanted to walk into camp and cut some slices of the meat. However, if he attempted to claim a share of the forest’s bounty, the three girls would either have him in chains or more likely he would be a pile of ashes to be scattered by the wind.

Agni, please let Ty Lee draw guard duty tonight.

As usual Agni listened. Surprisingly, the god delivered a positive reply. Acrobat Girl drew guard duty.

Just as the Blue Spirit started to compose a prayer of thanksgiving to Agni, Acid Wench used the leftover boar for a quick session of firebending practice. The succulent meat was now charcoal.

Agni gave and Fortune, the fickle whore, dashed his hopes as the bitch always did.

The Blue Spirit silently cursed at the gods of fates. They toyed with him far too long. They ensured that he was cursed with all manner of ill fortune.

Tonight he was going to eat or he was going die trying.

Slowly the Blue Spirit made his way to the campsite careful to move only when the wind moved the grass and the branches. During his travels, he mastered becoming one with the wilderness as these girls would never have to do. Acrobat Girl was stretching in a futile effort to stay awake. Acrobat Girl always ended up falling asleep when she was bored. It has always been that way since she was a little child and thankfully that habit did not change.

Behind the mask, the Blue Spirit’s face twisted into a simile, something that he had not done in a long time. Crouching just behind the sentry he contemplated leaving the other two a message. However despite all the blood he had shed, he still was cursed with a conscience.

You may be a thief, a traitor, and a poor excuse of a man, but you are not an assassin, yet. Besides if you are going to strangle anyone it should be my little sister, Acid Wench.

Besides, Acrobat Girl was ... still is a little girl at heart.

Imagine being an assassin that only killed little girls, imagine that kind of honor when you have to answer to Agni.

Imagine was mother would think if her sacrifice only meant that you wasted her gift killing the innocent.

Acid Wench was never a little girl. She was just a monster wearing a little girl's body. Now that is a target worthy of eliminating.

However the death of Acid Wench would destroy his homeland. The death of Acid Wench meant facing Yuanluo’s judgment with this blood of his kin on his hands. His failures had condemned his soul to wander in the wilderness for this life. His failures had condemned his mother to death. His failures had condemned his uncle to exile. His failures had destroyed everything he valued and force him to live on the edges of society, living like an unwanted guest at a banquet, fearful of being found out.

The Blue Spirit may have issues with Acid Wench and her father, but he still had enough pride to not endanger his homeland by having the noble houses fighting for the dais while the Fire Nation fighting a multiple front war against the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes.

The Blue Spirit would never sit on the dais of the Fire Nation.

He accepted that fact when his uncle and he cut off the warrior lock after Azula attempted to trick them back to the Fire Nation for their execution.

The Blue Spirit would never find love or peace.

However, the Blue Spirit would never let a greedy noble like Admiral Zhao grab the dais.

If that happened, the Blue Spirit vowed that he would return back to the Fire Nation, surrender his honor, and follow the path of the shadow killers. The Blue Spirit hated his family, the ruler of his nation, and yet he loved his homeland no matter what the others did to him.

Acid Wench's father would die someday.

Despite her gifts, Acid Wench herself was mortal and in due time would pass on.

The Fire Nation had survive bad or incompetent Fire Lords before.

It would be up to him or one like him to restore his homeland to its former place of glory and honor. It might take generations, but he would ensure that the Blue Spirit would be in the shadows to protect the Fire Nation. If he lived long enough, he would pass the mask and the legend to a worthy successor.

However, those goals and possibilities were in the distant future. Acrobat Girl sat before him. She was the here and now.

Acrobat Girl started nodding off as was her habit.

The Blue Spirit resisted the urge to choke Acrobat Girl unconscious.

Acrobat Girl was too flexible to risk a wrestling match. She would be able to strike him unless he snapped her neck with the first strike. To do so would alert Acid Wench and Gloom Girl that he was shadowing them. The Blue Spirit was a master martial artist, but bad luck could kill anyone.

The Blue Spirit knew all about back luck.

Acid Wench was born lucky.

The Blue Spirit was lucky to even be born.

Fortune was never on his side.

As a child the Blue Spirit was born with a weakness of the lungs.

His father and paternal grandfather seriously considered the ancient practice of exposing him to the elements and letting him die. Only his mother's love and defiance kept him alive.

As a child, he fought for every breath.

Growing up, he fought for his right to live.

Everyday, he fought to prove that he was a person, not some animal to be culled out of the herd.

Every time he tried to keep up with his age mates, his lungs would not support his efforts.

So the Blue Spirit pushed himself until his body failed him, In the process, he became stronger. His will, not the weakness of his flesh, was the master of his fate.

He pushed until he would pass out from the lack of air. When he awoke, he would continue pushing despite his mother and healers protesting against it.

He despied his weakness and pushed his body and force his lungs to grow.

He practiced when the other children would go off and play.

He practiced every waking moment to be the strong firebender his father and grandfather desired.

He practiced so that no one could beat him with the blades or bare handed.

He practiced so much that he would collapse in exhaustion and have to be awoken by the lady that keep the dojo clean.

He mastered his skills and learned his lessons via pain, practice, and sheer determination.

He practiced until it was his will that ruled his body rather than his body ruling his will.

Lacking natural talent, he showed the world that determination meant more than anything.

He earned everyone of those scars and from everyone of those scars he learn a lesson.

He learned to be strong. He learned to be toughter than the granite mountains. He learned to be more stubborn than a wild, alpha rhino bull.

He learned that pain was just a construct of the mind. Pain was just an excuse for failure. Success laid beyond pain.

He learned to toss aside the blinders that his father put over his eyes during his youth and learned that the truth will always hurt. However, living with the truth was bearable. Living within a lie once one knows that there was another truth was unforgivable.

The Blue Spirit knew that the three girls would never think to remember the little phases that a young sickly boy went through ten years ago. All boys seemed to progress through the phases. However, before he moved on, he master everything he could.

One of them was the magician phase.

Being a prince meant that he had the best tutors in everything. Stage magic was not an exception. He learned every magician trick from mind reading and slight of hand to escapes.

The Blue Spirit’s education in stage magic paid off went the Avatar’s friends had tied him up during the battle in the Northern Water Tribe capital.

It paid off when the Blue Spirit had to earn money during his exile.

Sleight of hand made him a very effective pickpocket, cutpurse, and card cheat.

Misdirection allowed him to disappear into crowds and around corners.

Mastering the art of escape turned locks into open doors.

He knew the following things.

The best place to hide was in plain sight.

The second best was to hide in the watchers’ footprints.

Acid Wench could out bend him any day. She had too much raw power for him to risk a one on one duel, especially when he was weaken from hunger.

However she did not spend years of her life in the field.

From another lifetime, the Blue Spirit learned from veterans and experience how fugitives successfully elude their pursuers.

Every chase taught him another trick that he now used to stay just out of Acid Wench’s grasp.

Acrobat Girl was lying on her side snoring. Despite having curves in the places wear women were expected to have curves, she reminded him of a little girl who drove Acid Wench crazy with cartwheels and flips, at least until Acid Wench knocked her down in frustration.

Acid Wench could never stand begin showed up in anything.

The Blue Spirit knew that pride would be the downfall of Acid Wench.

The Blue Spirit slipped past the sleeping girl and liberated some food from the saddle bags - Not enough to let them know that he was in the neighborhood stealing their supplies. Just enough to maintain his strength and too little to be missed or even begin to state his hunger.

Giving into temptation, he risked a little more stealing the knife. However a knife was worth its weight in precious gems when one is out in the wild. The blanket - It was a good blanket and would make an excellent poncho when he was finished tailoring it. The small pouch of gold was a bonus to his gambling stash.

On his way back to his hiding place, Acrobat Girl started stirring awake. The Blue Spirit used an old memory and mimicked her mother’s voice.

“Sleep little Tea-leaf,” using her childhood nickname, “Mama’s here to chase the bad sleep bugs away.”

Acrobat Girl turned over to face him and smiled in her sleep.

He kissed her on the forehead, just like her mother use to do, and she settled back down safe and secure that her mom was watching over her.

Too bad Acid Wench dragged her into this chase. Ty was always a free spirit more concerned about the color of peoples arua than the intricate game of Fire Nation politics.

The Blue Spirit slipped away into the night with some supplies and a lot of sad memories of days gone by.

He cursed his silent tears.
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Blue Mask