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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
Self-Defeat
By Pat Squared
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Aang bitterly cursed the gods for the first time in his life.

They had given him an impossible task and now they were denying him the only person that would be able to teach him fire bending. He was never so scared in his life. Here in the Spirit World, the bender’s arts do not work and everything in the spirit world was twisted. Up and down, left and right, distance and time had no meaning, and nothing was as it resembled.

The monks at the Air Temple taught Aang and his age mates that the world was an illusion. That only in the spirit world one could see the truth. If so the truth was not exactly reassuring. He knew that he held Zuko’s spirit in his arms and yet Zuko here was only a three year old child who probably had no idea that he could even bend fire let alone be the infamous Blue Spirit, the assassin without peer and an adept at fire bending.

“Turn over the chaos child to us!” demanded the spirits, “He has only brought destruction and misery to untold millions in his thousands of lives. Spare the world a fate worst than the Fire Lord.”

Aang could not surrender the child in his arms. The look on the faces of the spirits told him that they would desire nothing more than to consume the soul of another...human. Aang could not surrender the soul of the boy who once saved his life. Zuko...The Blue Spirit saved him from a lifetime of imprisonment. Aang instinctively knew then that Zuko was going to be more than just an enemy, but someone who could change the path of the future. Turning him over now would damn the world to a fate that Aang could not accept. He would have to act just like the child in his arms and keep fighting.

Aang took in a deep breath and willed his staff into his arms. He set the child down and stepped between the spirits and the child.

“You will have to kill me first.”

Unlike the other fights in his life, Aang could not use the traditional Air Nomad tactic of evading and running away to string his enemies apart. He has to stay rooted to the spot and fight like an earth bender. He had to be...rocklike. He prayed that Toph would understand if he was slain in the spirit world. He knew that without Zuko, there would be no future for anyone he called friend.

The spirits came, shrieking and drooling for the blood of a sleeping child. Aang swung his staff.

________________________________________

The old man drooled as he contemplated his next course of action. He knew that his only remaining child would try to take the throne, but her genius in taking the throne in this fashion stunned him. The Fire Lord expected her to first garner the loyalty of the Council of Lords and the powerful Clan Masters of the richest merchant houses in the Fire Nation. However, she neutralized him and rendered him weak both physically and politically. She cleverly did not kill him outright, but instead cited an illness that rendered him incapable of rule. The child who did not cry at her mother’s death shed tears at the ceremony that confirmed her regency over the throne.

Damn, that whore of my daughter. Ursa gave birth to my weakling, sniveling son and then that blood sucking imp of a daughter. No one takes away my power!

The Fire Lord would bid his time. His daughter was too wary. She had his nurse and her two burly assistants keep a very close eye on him. He was rapidly recovering but he would feign weakness until it was the opportune moment to take back what he took from his brother. He had plans. He planned to destroy his remaining child. He would hang unto his power even if the Fire Nation was going to be destroyed upon his death. The nation was his personal property. His people were his slaves.

Ozai drooled some more and started humming a nonsense tune.

The nurse, of course, will notice and report to my bitch of a daughter that I was mentally drifting. Soon I will start playing with some toys to cover up the fact that I am recovering.

The Fire Lord replayed the fight. Azula was the best fire bender the Fire Lord saw since his tutor Lu Ten and his mute mother was still alive. He recalled the times that Lu Ten patiently tried to teach him about lightning and how to harness its powers. He would have to seize Azula’s unstoppable weapon and turn it against her.

He would mediate when the nurse lit the candle. If she caught him, he would pretend to be hypnotized by the flame. He will master Azula’s power and reclaim what was his. Then the floors of the palace and the streets of the Fire Nation will be bathed clean in the blood of the traitors that betrayed him.

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Aang was tiring. He stood over the limp body of the Zuko-child. The staff in his arms was growing tired and the odds were getting worse.

The spirits never tired. They did not feel pain.

All Aang could do was temporarily push them away. He was failing and knew that soon they will take away his only hope of mastering the final element. He had truly tasted defeat for the first time in his life. Now, the only question was how much longer he could defy the spirits. Once he would have prayed to the gods for help. Now he only had curses.

The spirits circled around as Aang knocked back anyone of the pack that approached too close. His movements were getting sloppy. His hands were having a difficult time even holding the staff, let alone whack the enemy with it.

Suddenly the spirits charge as one to towards the child. Aang knew that the cause was lost. He swung his staff one last time before falling into the darkness himself.

________________________________________

Katara saw the glow vanish from Aang’s body. Toph felt her husband collapse. Aang was still barely breathing but Zuko was not anymore.

“Toph, get Zuko out of the ground!”

Toph was too busy tending to her weary husband to listen to Katara.

Aang opened his eyes for a moment and whispered the word, ‘Sorry.’

Katara knew then that Aang failed. She lost it. She grabbed Toph and yelled at her to release Zuko’s body.
Stunned Toph did so. Katara tilted the head back, and started slamming down her weight on his still chest. 30 slams in 18 heartbeats. She covered his nose and breathed into his mouth twice. She kept on going. She did not care if she had to do this for the rest of her life. Zuko was going to live.

Katara did not care how, but he was going to live.

She repeated the pattern. She would not stop. When Sokka tried to pull her off, she used the water whip on her older brother and continued to compress Zuko’s chest. She could not stop.

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It was a silent dinner as everyone had to adjust to a new reality. Jian Li...Zuko now had two wives expecting a child.

As far as the village knew, Mai was merely a cousin of Ty Lee’s now dead husband and Storyteller Li’s daughter. Thankfully, Mai knew enough about poisons and antidotes to pass herself as an apothecary. Tom-Tom was too young to understand what was going on. Madam Chi and Storyteller Li were the ones having the most difficulty with the situation.

Tea Leaf, Madam Chi’s granddaughter hated the uncomfortable silences and there was casting a pall on the entire meal.

Li was the first fire bender that Tea Leaf personally witnesses in action. The jolly old storyteller became for an instant the old general that blasted into once impenetrable walls of Ba Se Sing. He was ready to kill anyone that threaten the ones he loved. Tea Leaf wanted to believe that she was grown up enough to face down trouble. She was one of the best earth benders among the kids in the village of Kami no Tsuyu, but when Mai burst in she was too busy dragging her older sister into her bedroom to fight. Her grandmother, the legendary warrior who once single handedly defeated a squad of fire benders in her youth, was too stunned to do anything.

That more than the deception was what strained the relationship between her grandmother and the storyteller.

Madam Chi’s pride was hurt and that made her snap at Li. The deception was just the excuse. If the excuse lingers too long, then the hurt will never go away. Tea Leaf watched her grandmother suffer too long when her grandfather and parents died in a flash flood. She cheered when Storyteller Li and her grandmother got together. Both needed one another and belonged together.

The problem with earth benders is that we are too stubborn over the dumbest things.

Later that night, Tea Leaf laid things out for Ty Lee and Mai. A plan of action was made and an agreement was made. Everyone would ensure that Storyteller Li and Madam Chi would be sharing the same bed again by the time Ty Lee had her child.

________________________________________

“Why are you trying to save that fire bending creep? Let it die.”

“Shut up, Sokka! I love Zuko and I don’t care what you think about it!”

Sokka launched into a major fight at that moment.

“You don’t love him. He just seduced you and you convinced yourself that you love him. I am going to kill him for messing around with my little sister.”

Aang awoke to find Katara and Sokka fighting. Katara was standing guard over an unconscious, barely breathing Zuko. Both sides were starting to pull out the weapons. Aang could see the water whip and the boomerang coming into play.

“Both of you, stop it! Can’t you see that this fighting is useless? I lost him. I lost Zuko’s soul in the spirit world and he is never coming back. Without him, everything we have done is useless. You all witnessed the fight between him and that demon girl. You all saw how skilled in fighting they were. I have an announcement for you all - they are both Ozai’s children. If his children were that deadly, image just how deadly the father is? He is older and has more experience fighting duels. I am sorry Toph. I am going...to die and leave you to raise our child alone. Katara, Sokka – I am sorry for dragging you away from your family and giving your guys hope when there was really none to give.”

Aang grabbed his staff and pulled himself up.

“In two months, I will go alone to the Fire Nation and face my death. I don’t want you guys following me. Hide. If I am going to die, I want you all to be safely hidden. I’m sorry that I dragged you all into this mess. I don’t want you...Please let me die knowing that you guys are still breathing. Even if you hate me, promise me that you would not throw away your life.”

The Avatar had tasted the bitter ashes of failure and defeat. He remembered Toph trying to hug him to calm him down, but he stomped off. If she hated him, it would be good. Maybe then his death would not hurt her at all. It was the last thing comfort that he could give her.
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Blue Mask