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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.

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Blue Mask, Two Swords, and Sozin’s Comet
Path of Souls
By Pat Squared

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Thank you very much for feeding the muse.
It is a pleasure to share my muse with the world,
when someone says, 'Thank You."

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Sharp razor rocks cut into the flesh of Katara’s feet.

The water bending master looked around. Here was a land where her powers would be useless. There was no water. Worse, even if there was water, there was no moon. Not a moon hiding in the shadows, but the total absence of the moon in this place. There were no stars. The sky was black and yet there was no darkness, nor was there any source of light.

Everything was etched in a soulless miasma that one would call grey if it was not black.

The soil was blackened by soot and the blood of a million-million unfortunate souls to thread this path.

This is not the peaceful glade with the mediating monkey Aang told me about.

That was the thing that frightened the water bender into action.

Katara knew that had the future of the world in her hands. Millions of lives and the fate of nations would be decided by this journey. Aang’s only chance to learn fire bending was Zuko. To save Zuko was her task. It was her duty to save the soul she condemned in a prior life.

‘Strike from the shadows. Strike fast, and run even faster.’

Katara’s legs felt wooden as if she walked all day. Where there were no sharp shards of obsidian jutting out of the path, the earth was loose sand that gave way as she walked. She wanted to rest. She wanted to close her eyes. She lay down and did so.

Instantly, she knew that she was not alone. Around her were the weary souls of a hundred thousand wanderers each seeking their way to the judge of the underworld. Each one walked as Katara once did, believing themselves each alone as she once did.

Along the path, hungry creatures waited for any soul foolish enough to step away from the protection of the path.

Katara opened her eyes. She could not rest. Not here, and not now. To fall asleep in this world would mean never waking again in the one she left behind. She just prayed that she could find Zuko in this sea of souls.

________________________________________

“Aang, something is wrong with Katara.”

Sokka was in a panic. Katara was still breathing, but her body was lying limp over the still form of the dying prince. However, what scared the Southern Water Tribe warrior was that inky black glow that surrounded both her and Zuko.

Aang and Toph ran out of the stone tent that Toph made every night. Aang was stunned. Toph bent some earth to knock Katara awake but the moving ripple of rock rebounded off an invisible shield. Toph quickly stopped the wave of earth before it could knock her to the ground.

Aang looked at Sokka. Sokka did not need to hear anymore words. There was nothing that anyone could do save stand watch.

I have failed. Katara is trapped. Aang is going off to the Fire Nation to die. All I am is an useless drunk and smoke sniffing bastard.

Sokka made his decision. He was useless and only a liability to the group. He only stayed because of Katara. The cause was over. The war was lost. He knew that he would be the last of a dying breed. The Fire Nation was going to destroy the water tribes.

“When Katara dies, I am going to take her back to the sea and then go on my way. I wish the two of you well.”
Aang and Toph looked at him silently. Once they would have opposed him and tried to slap some sense into him. Now they knew that Sokka was only vocalizing the awful truth. Tonight the gang lost hope. Tonight they would lose the one person that held the group together.

________________________________________

Katara closed her eyes. She fought off the urge to fall asleep. Yet she had to close them to see past the illusion that hell cunning designed. Ahead the path divulged from the road.

Every step weakened her, but she knew that she was past the point of return. There was no way that she could return via the path she used to come so far and survive. Here every step weakens her spirit’s grip on life.

The oni were feasting on unfortunate souls. She could see the agony inflicted upon the damn. The path would soon disappear and she would have to run from these things.

Over the hill, there was a river. However, this river did not team with life. There were no fish. There were no plants. It was water, but dead water.

Katara made a motion that would ordinarily summon a small ball of water from the river. However the water did not respond. There was no moon. There was no puller or pusher of tides in this land.

The path crossed the river and so must she.

Katara made her way into the river and the river seized her. The water entered her lungs drowning out cries for help. She lookup through the water and saw two oni stare down at her before she lost her consciousness.

________________________________________

The children awoke tied together as two oni circled around them. One was a sick eight year old boy with two toy swords whose throat was already ripped out by a hungry oni. The other was a seven year old girl who did not know why she was even here.

The little girl screamed in fear.

An oni leapt towards her, but the wheezing boy swung his toy sword with all his might driving the oni back. Wordlessly the boy handed her one of his swords. The other oni laughed.

“Boy, surrender, you will make it easier on yourself and the girl. If you surrender, we will promise to end your pain before eating you.”

But the boy merely shook his head. The girl could see the tears in his eyes, but the rest of his body did not hint at surrender.

Strike hard, grab the boy and run.

With a scream, the girl hacked at the nearest oni. As the oni leapt back, she grab the boy by the hand and started running. The girl did not know where, but she knew that anyplace was better than this.

The oni let out a terrible roar as they realized their prey was running away. They gave chase.

The boy tripped knocking the girl into the hard earth. The boy motioned for the girl to run, but she couldn’t leave him. Instead she stood guard over him. The two oni surrounded the children.

The boy took in a deep breath through the hole in his throat. He whipped his leg out and flames struck the first oni. The second moved back as the first screamed in terrible pain.

“Burn in...burn in hell, you bastard,” the girl cried.

If her mother or grandma Kana heard those words, she would be spanked, but the girl did not care. She knew that she found someone special - Someone that would be by her side.

The boy kicked off another flame sending the other oni scampering. He then grabbed her by the wrist and started running. The oni took a minute before gathering their courage to start chasing the pair.

Soon the pair found themselves trapped by a rift. Here there was no place to run, nor were there any places to hide. The oni reinforced by more of their kind walked up towards the children. Wordlessly the children looked at one another and leapt off the cliff holding hands.

The girl would not let go of her savior.

The pair found themselves alone in the middle of a swamp facing a mandrill. They were ten years older. The boy’s face bears signs of intense sorrow. The toy swords that he wielded against the oni were replaced by the real thing. At the girl’s belt was the familiar weight of her water bag.

“Not you two again, the gods will be very angry that you two escaped their trap. Follow that butterfly and get out of here before you bring them here!”

The boy did not move, but only silently stared down the mediating mandrill. He shook his head and reached for his sword. With a series of quick motions, he drew the Earth Kingdom hiragana for god (kami) and then spat upon it.

The mandrill looked at the boy and laughed, “You have not changed a bit since your previous reincarnation. I pity the one who had to deal with you. Think of what you want and maybe a butterfly will guide you on your way.”
The boy closed his eyes concentrating on how to return to his failing flesh.
________________________________________
Aang stared at the bodies of Zuko and Katara.

They were not dead and yet they were not alive. The black glow vanished, but their aura was still there. Every so often one body or the other will twitch.

Aang tried to return to the spirit world by the spirits barred his path. He tried again, but his only reward was exhaustion.

The avatar was in a quandary.

He needed to master all the elements.

He had to defeat the Fire Lord’s plans for global domination.

He had to do it before the end of summer.

The gods handed him an impossible task and yet they would deny him the one person who could help him master the element of fire.

Toph sat by his side silently standing guard over the bodies of the fallen. Aang was afraid to tell Toph and Sokka the truth. He did not want to give voice to what he feared. To give voice to his fears would only serve to irrevocably confirm the truth and render it immutable.

The avatar was powerless in spirit realm – that was not supposed to happen, but it did.
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The girl looked on as the boy meditated. He was her guardian since she awoke in the clearing with the oni around her. She did not remember anything that happened before she found herself surrounded by the demons and yet she knew that she did not belong in this world.

“Where are we? Why...”

The bright faced mandrill replied, “I cannot answer that question. Besides only the two of you can answer it. Be gone.”

The mandrill returned to his mediation.

The boy limped over to the girl. He took her hand and lead her deeper into the swamp.

________________________________________

Damn.

Crown Princess Azula looked upon the stack of documents that piled upon her desk.

It was human nature to bring problems to the top. In that case it was Azula who was serving as her ill father’s regent. With the exception of Kozun Clan’s Regent Quin Hong-Xian, who served as her trade minister, the rest of the cabinet still burdened her with the minutia of governance.

With her father slaying anyone who brought him bad news, the government was paralyzed with fear. Even with her touch and granting power to the cabinet ministers, the old habits died hard.

Zuko, be thankful that you are not cursed with this.

It was the first time that Azula remembered her oldest brother in months. Growing up, he was her rival in the war for the affection of her parents. She plotted to remove him from power, not for power’s sake, but to punish him for stealing away her mother’s love.

She hated Zuko.

How dare Zuko get sick and make mom rush to his side? How dare Zuko earn mother’s love when he couldn’t do the moves right? No matter how many times father whipped him for his failings, mom would not see the truth that Zuko was a failure. I never got whipped. I never failed anything in my life. And yet she did not love me like she loved him.

And yet, Zuko succeeded in doing one thing.

His mere existence generated rumors that he was merely in hiding waiting to claim his rightful throne. There were rumors of a faction who used the memory of Zuko to push for the overthrow of the Sozin Clan.

Azula cursed Jian Li.

Jian Li stole her cupbearer.

The cupbearer was the one entrusted with the most terrible secrets of the Fire Nation. The cupbearer ran the Fire Nation’s intelligence network. It was the one position that Azula absolutely needed filled by someone she could trust. And yet she lost the loyalty of her childhood friend Mai. She knew that Jian Li set things up. He pushed her to sell Ty Lee into his service. If the princess did not know better, she would have bet her throne that Jian Li was trained by no other than her disgraced uncle, Iroh, in the arts of manipulating people.

Jian used Ty Lee’s disgrace to drive a wedge between Mai and the future Fire Lady.

Jian Li, chi shi (Go eat shit, Jian Li)! Yanse lang (male whore)!

And yet, Azula still could not stop the nightly nightmares.

“I don’t expect your surrender or your love. I am going to take what I want and you will try to resist. You stole my heart and I am going to take your soul. It’s not that bad, you get all of me.”

He calmly replied, “Not in this life.”

With four words, Jian Li calmly threw away what every other masturbating bastard in the Fire Nation would sell his soul to do. He threw away the chance to be at her side. He crushed her soul.

Enraged, Azula threw a lightning bolt and he threw it right back at her. Azula barely ducked the arcing blue spark and launched a ball of blue flame.

The assassin-magician did not bother to duck the blue flames. He merely gathered her flames around his body and launch it right back at her. For every attack the princess launched, the assassin merely responded by turning her flames against her.

The assassin launched a furious attack. His fire, blades, and body became one.

I cannot lose. I cannot lose. I am the best. No sewer scum can defeat the Fire Nation’s most dangerous bender.

However, the princess was falling back against the onslaught. She was a fire bending prodigy. However, she did not study unarmed combat and blades like he did. Yet she was not defenseless. She had drawn out a long straight sword.

Flame, flesh, and steel interacted in a dance of violence and seduction. The air was electrified with the flow of qi. Both sides fought for victory and nether side would give up.

Faster and faster the dance whirled. The building was on fire and yet the pair did not care. Fire was their birthright. Fire and the shedding of blood unified them and yet they were fighting one another.

He spun and tripped her onto her back. From the ground, the princess returned the favor. Surrender was not in either contestant’s vocabulary.

Silently both fighters separated. Fatigue was now a factor in the balance equation of death and dishonor. Each fighter knew that the next minute would decide the issue.

Azula took the opportunity to taunt the elusive assassin, “I know where you will strike next and when you do, you will be mine. Did not you coin the phrase, ‘He that follows best follows from the front?’ Thank you for such a fine education. I do so hope that you will share it with our kids.”

She imagined him being force to raise her offspring into vicious monsters dark and twisted as both their parents.
She had carefully timed her strike with the word hope.

There was no surprise as she hoped.

Jian Li was prepared for her sneak attack. He wordlessly spun his blades blocking her attacks of flame and steel.

He got up close to her where the longer length of her sword would be a disadvantage. She could see his golden eyes and almost taste his lips. The assassin prepared to deliver the final blow in tonight’s contest.

Suddenly his body failed. Looking down, the princess saw the dagger in her hand being pushed into his scared chest. She had defeated the assassin and yet she lost the one thing she sought.

There was no question that Jian Li was going to die. She remembered the bright pink foam coming out of his mouth. He tried to say something to her, but the blood.

She remembered collapsing, crying out his name. This was the closest thing to love she would ever have in this life. Unlike others, he did not kowtow to him because of her position as princess. He did not give respect because a millennia worth of traditions demanded it. Jian Li forced her to earn his respect. He forced her to chase him down and prove her love to him.

Azula would forever remember the moment that she proved herself unworthy of his attention.

She failed his test.

She lost the calmness that infused his spirit and became the emotional creature he detested.

He was of the shadows and she was of the light. She flared up and destroyed the shadow she craved.

Then the avatar somehow entered the fire.

The snot-nosed brat blasted her back with an air gust into the growing inferno. If she was not a daughter of Agni, Azula would have instantly been killed from the fire.

Azula remembered instinctively cocooning herself from the heat and making her way out of the collapsing rubble. By then the avatar seized her prize and had vanished.

Azula wept silently in the privacy of her own room. Her one chance to not live a life of loneliness was gone, stolen by the avatar.

She knew that one day she would have to reluctantly spread her legs and let some pedigreed lug mount her so that she would give birth to an heir. However, the lug would breed her would never earn her love like Jian Li.

Azula would have given up everything she ever strived for if only Jian Li would be by her side when she woke up in the mornings.

________________________________________

Ozai suppressed a smile as he watched his daughter cry over the lost of a potential lover.

Azula did not know that he had known of a spy-hole that gave him a view of his daughter’s private quarters. Now the Fire Lord would have a weakness to exploit. All he had was a name. With a name he was going to seize his power.

He knew that name and what that name accomplished.

Jian Li, the Blue Spirit, was a deadly choice for his daughter to pick as a lover. An assassin and royalty did not mix save for the rare occasions when an assassin serviced royalty.

That serves you right, cunt, for trying to take what was mine. I cannot wait to kill you.

Despite three generations of nobility in your mother’s line, you are still descended from a line of pimps and whores. Despite all your training, you instinctively have the passions of a whore. You feel for a man who treated you like a pimp treats his stable of prostitutes. You are nothing but another bitch to screw, use, and manipulate for his profit. This Blue Spirit, Jian Li, would make you whore over all your power and privileges for his profit. He will not pluck you until you have surrendered everything of value to him. He will convince you to bear him a child and then he will kill you so that he can have all the power. That is why you never let a bitch run a nation, especially my nation! You control a woman’s heart and her womb – you control everything.

Ozai knew that this Jian Li was a man after his own heart.

Too bad that there would only be room for one alpha war rhino in this herd, otherwise Jian Li would make an excellent heir to his dais.

If only Zuko was as proficient as this magician assassin in the ways of power, my nation would already be ruling the world. Of course, I would already be dead and that would be quite unacceptable.
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Blue Mask