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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
Forgiveness
By Pat Squared

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Zuko listlessly watched as his father scarred his sister’s face and blinded her.

A part of him wanted to do something, but he could not crawl of the thick molasses that the drugs induced in his mind to form a coherent thought let alone act. He could not even winch at the pain that she was feeling. He knew the pain intimately and now his little sister had experience the agony he endured after the Agni Kai that destroyed his universe of delusions.

Slowly over time, the guards stopped drugging his meals or somehow he became immune to its effects. He wanted to end his life, but he could not leave his sister to suffer the fate their father planned for her.

Once he would have savor the poetic justice of his tormentor being cast out and disgraced like he was once cast out and disgraced. Now all he could do was hold Azula in his arms and lie to her that things will be better.

Zuko looked down into the wreckage of her once flawless face. Now Azula’s face was marred by burn scars, weeping pus, and a bandage covering the twins holes where once she had golden-brown eyes. Azula now would live in a world of permanent darkness for the rest of her days.

Zuko wanted to hate the sister that once psychologically tormented him.

He wanted to laugh at the downfall of daddy’s little fire bending prodigy.

Once he wanted to burn her and convert her flesh to ashes in revenge for all the things that she did to him. Once he wanted to slowly, painfully dismember her for her role in their mother’s death.

Once he wanted to hear her pleas for mercy, before he turned her into a living funeral pyre.

Now, he had the power to break the remnants of the spirit that was once his little sister. All he had to do was tell her that he hated her. All he had to do was to tell her that she was just like the other females of their mother’s line. That no one could love the little whore as their father now dubbed her.

A part of him wanted to hurt her, but he could not bring himself to do so.

Zuko uttered the five words that he would never imagine saying to his sister, “I forgive you for everything.”

Azula winched upon hearing his words. In trying to save her soul, he had hurt her in a way that a curse could not.

He knew that she expected his condemnation.

He knew that she expected everyone to go out of their way to prove their loyalty to the old Fire Lord by tormenting the now blind usurper. She had broken him and forced him to do the most unforgivable of acts. The ancient practice of sibling marriages among royalty was banned ten dynasties ago. She knew that she destroyed his spirit and his honor.

However, he could not bring himself to hurt the young girl whose only real wish was to be loved. Behind the façade of power and danger was a lonely little girl who just wanted to feel what every human needed...love.

Five words broke through the brittle barrier that Azula spent her lifetime erecting to protect her self-image. Five words signaled the end of the sibling warfare that once nearly destroyed both their souls and would have destroyed their nation.

Zuko held his sister as she wept herself to sleep. His forgiveness destroyed the vestige of the Azula that he grew to hate with every fiber of his soul.

As a little child, Azula was once afraid of the raging summer lightning storms that plummeted the home islands of the Fire Nation. Azula would race to Zuko’s room and would hold onto him trembling until the storm was over. Twelve years later, she was again at his side, holding onto the only anchor remaining in her life.

Zuko looked down at his former tormenter. With five words, he broke the power that she had long wielded over him. With five words, he broke thirteen years of rivalry. He knew his father, Ozai, meant to kill the both of them as soon as they were no longer needed to give their twisted father an heir to corrupt in his own image.

He could not change the past. He could not undo the hurt that he inflicted upon others and she could not undo the hurt that she inflicted upon him. He could not change the fact that she was carrying her brother’s child...his child. He knew that he would not live long enough to see any of his children. However, that did not mean that they did not have a place in his heart and that he still had an obligation to ensure that they were raised not to be the monsters that his sire desired.

However, Zuko would not allow his father to kill the only family he had left. No matter what Azula did to him, she was the only family that he had left. She was the only thing that he had left. He was not going to leave his sister in their father’s tender care. He was not going to the next life with his sire terrorizing the world. He was not going to the next life with his demented sire raising his child, twisting it as his father once twisted his sister.

Zuko vowed to prevent that obscenity at all cost.

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Aang was confused by all the conflicting rumors coming out of the Fire Nation.

Despite the war, the merchant houses of Chongqing maintained extensive family contacts with their distant Fire Nation counterparts.

Not even a hundred years of warfare could stop two millennia of international trade that occurred one of the world’s wealthiest cities. Nothing of significance happened in the Fire Nation without it being a matter of speculation in the guildhalls and trading house of Chongqing within the week. As a Fong, Toph's family had extensive contacts with their distant cousins of House Ming, second to only House Kozun in terms of economic power and via Toph, Aang heard rumors of coups and countercoups.

Conditions were not much better in the Earth Kingdom. King Bumi, the last of Aang’s old companions was dead. His nation was collapsing into warring factions and the once united Kingdom was dissolving into small nation-states. The two most powerful developing factions were the Gouzoku no Burakuman (The Outcast Clan) composed of mixed Earth-Fire Blood refugees and the Earth Kingdom Loyalists under the command of Generals Yamamoto and Yung. The western Earth Kingdom was claim by the Gouzoku no Burakuman. The Earth Kingdom Loyalist claimed all the lands of the former Earth Kingdom and the traditional holdings of the Fire Nation as war reparations. The other semi-independent Earth Kingdom provinces like Kyoshii or Chen waited to see what would happen before declaring their independence.

There had been several violent clashes between loyalists units and Gouzoku militia. Military units of the old Earth Kingdom were splitting apart with entire battalions falling in with one of the two factions depending on the ethnic make-up of the unit. Both sides found themselves with half an army and spending more time fighting one another than the Fire Nation.

The only thing that prevented the Fire Nation from conquering the Earth Kingdom was the fact that the Fire Nation was fighting itself. There were two factions. The traditionalists supported Fire Lord Ozai while the Phoenix Society supported Fire Lady Azula, or at least claim that Ozai had lost the Mandate of Agni and that the dais belonged by decree of heaven to Azula. The Fire Nation was turning against itself with both sides launching devastating privateer campaigns in an effort to destroy the other sides’ logistics.

The only nations so far immune to the outbreak of civil war were the Water Tribes. However, they did not have the manpower or influence to broker peace.

There was only two more weeks until Sozin’s Comet returned and Aang knew that he was nowhere near ready to defeat Ozai and save the world from war.

He felt a pair of familiar arms around his chest. He looked over at his wife and the bump on her belly signifying the growth of new life inside her womb. This was supposed to be a joyous moment in both their lives, but he could see the tears in Toph’s cloudy eyes. He wanted to say something. He wanted to do something to alleviate Toph’s fears. However, there was nothing that Aang could do. He kissed his wife on the lips and rubbed her nose with his nose as was their custom. He knew that these moments would slip away. He wanted to run away form his destiny. He wanted to take Toph away and hide from the demands of being an avatar. However, the last time he ran away the once peaceful world he knew became a hell. He would confront Ozai. Toph would become a widow and his child an orphan.

“Aang, Katara needs to talk with you. It’s important.”

Aang wanted to snap at Sokka. This was the last private moment he had left with his wife before Aang would depart on his suicidal quest. However, after Zuko left, Katara was withdrew into a shell of her former self and would not tell Aang of what happened.

Toph merely nodded and motioned him towards the outside of the earth tent.

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Zuko knew of the civil war consuming the Fire Nation from the whispers of his guards. He acted like he was feeble-minded around them. The guards were all members of Ozai’s personal bodyguard, the Black Badge. Their oath of loyalty was not to the nation, but a twisted demented man. Slowly Zuko began breaking the rules and carving out exceptions for himself. The guards watched Azula like a hawk, but as far as he was concern he was just a pet kept docile by drugs. There were twenty Black Badges plus a handful of palace guards who were pressed into service as armed maids.

The Black Badges were known for extreme loyalty to the Fire Lord. They would not shirk their duties no matter how much they loathed Ozai. Zuko saw the disgust and hate in their eyes whenever they whispered about Ozai among themselves. Zuko knew that he only needed to turn one loyal black badge and he would be able to deliver his sister to the growing resistance. However, not one had turn against their oath in a ten centuries. It was her…it was his only chance to save his sister and their child.

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Aang and Sokka listened as Katara tried to explain what Zuko did to her. Sokka immediately wanted to pickle the prince’s head and present it in a jar to his sister. Aang was on the verge of going into the Avatar state and destroy the no good bastard.

However Katara’s request to bring Zuko back to her alive stunned them. She wanted to believe that this was just a ruse. She wanted to believe that he did it so that she would not cry when he died. She wanted to believe that the father of her child was something more than an opportunistic bottom feeder. She wanted to see his eye when she will tell him about the child growing inside of her.

The news about the baby stunned the water tribe warrior. Sokka actually forgot to breathe for a minute before he passed out from shock.

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Mai looked on as Ty Lee screamed in pain.

The birthing process was not going well. Like Mai once did, Ty Lee had narrow hips. To give birth, Ty Lee’s body would have to fracture her pelvis so that it would fully dilate as Mai’s body once did when she gave birth to Tom Tom.

The former acrobat was squatting as the Mai and the midwife tried to urge the new mother to keep pushing. It was taking far too long and Ty Lee was exhausted.

“Push, Ty. Push damn, it.”

Ty was pushing but her hips were too narrow and her child too big.

Mai knew that Ty Lee was in trouble. If she could not deliver her child soon, Ty Lee would die and the child would die with her.

“Push, please push. You can do this. Push and the pain will be over. Push.”

Ty Lee screamed as the child’s head entered the world. Her body fractured her pelvis and the final barrier to Lijuan’s entry into the world was sundered. The child then suddenly spilled out into Mai’s waiting arms.

Mai looked at the face of Ty’s child. It was covered in blood and mucus, but it was healthy. She wiped the child dry as the midwife help Ty coax out the afterbirth.

“Lijuan meet your mommy. Ty you just gave birth to a wrinkled prune.”

Ty instinctively inspected her daughter and having made sure that everything was alright place the child to her breast.

“Don’t worry, they tell me it’s easier the second time around.” Ty Lee was light headed from the experience of bringing forth new life.

Mai could only hope that it was true. She came close to dying when Tom Tom was born and now was six months away from risking her life again. She prayed that the god would watch over Zuko or at least end his suffering.

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Zuko carried his sister in his arms as he made his way down the steep passage. He had only half an hour before the guard would change and the black badge captain would inspect the prisoners. Thankfully generations of paranoia made every Fire Nation palace lousy with long forgotten bolt holes and passages. Over the week he had found one that will serve his needs.

His arms were tired, but with his sister blind, the only way they could move fast enough to evade the initial search was to physically carry her.

Azula was surprisingly small and light for someone of her power. She was delicately built like their mother and great-grandmother. The air was damp and the smell of the cesspit was overpowering. However, the smell would hide their trail from the shuirshu when they left this place. The strong odor of the sewers and tight passage would prevent the guards from using the more effective scent trackers in the Fire Nation.

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Zuko dreamt of something besides his torturous childhood for the first time in a month.

Uncle Iroh was drawing the symbols of each of the bending disciplines in the dirt with a stick as Zuko sat cross-legged nearby, observing his uncle intently. The old man could be a lecherous geezer, but Zuko would trade all the wealth and honor in the universe to have his uncle by his side once more even if he had to smell the old man’s sandal.

“Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want. Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring.

“Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom. Also, they apparently had pretty good senses of humor!”
Zuko could always trust uncle to crack some jokes.

“Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.”

The impetuous youth snapped at his uncle’s lecture, “Why are you telling me these things?”

Uncle did not bat an eyebrow at his rash ways. Once Zuko would make no notice of this, now he wondered how his uncle put up with a brooding adolescent with delusions of grandeur.

“It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale.”

With a quick flick of the wrist, Iroh drew two lines separating the four symbols.

“Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations will help you become whole.”

Zuko knew his uncle was leading up to something, but Zuko could wait. If the gods wanted to give him patience, they would have made him an earth bender.

“All this four elements talk is sounding like Avatar stuff.”

Iroh lectured on, “It is the combination of the four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful. But, it can make you more powerful too.”

Iroh then poked Zuko in the chest with his stick.

“You see, the technique I am about to teach you is one your great-grandmother learned by studying the water benders.”

If it was anyone else, Zuko would have blown them off. However, uncle the most skillful bender since the death of Zuko’s maternal grandfather, Lu Ten. Azula might have more raw qi to exploit, but she did not know the tricks that his uncle had long forgotten about their common birthright. Uncle showed him a feel water bending moves, moves that that he had long since incorporated into his kung fu. Moves that allow him to be her equal instead of being smacked around the gangplank when she tried to trick them into return back to the Fire Nation for their executions.

“Water benders deal with the flow of energy. A water bender lets their defense become their offense, turning their opponent’s energy against them. I learned a way to do this with lightning.”

The dying prince watched as the younger Zuko suppressed his turtle duckling-like excitement. He was going to master the trump card that would put his imp of a sister in her place.

“You can teach me to redirect lightning?”

Iroh simply nodded as the impetuous youth’s ego swelled with visions of finally dominating his sister.

“If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips up your arm to your shoulder and down into your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called the sea of chi. Only in my case, it is more like a vast ocean.

“You direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the lightning pass through your heart or the damage could be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion to get a feel for the pathway’s flow. Like this. Now, are you focusing your energy? Can you feel your own chi flowing in, down, up, and out?”

Zuko felt something at he made the movements, but as he tried to mentally grab for secret, the secret eluded him. Frustrated by his lack of understanding, he redoubled his efforts mimicking his uncle’s motions.

“Come on. You’ve got to feel the flow.”

It took six hours until Iroh announced that he got the flow.

Zuko bowed slightly, putting his hands together, making the traditional gesture of honor to a beloved sifu

“Great! I’m ready to try it with real lightning!”

Iroh knew that he was not ready.

“What, are you crazy? Lightning is very dangerous.”

Zuko was annoyed. He had trained under his uncle’s tough, critical eye.

His uncle taught him and told him that he mastered the flow. And when the moment of truth came, his uncle backed down.

“I thought that was the point. You were teaching me how to protect myself from it.”

“But I’m not going to shoot lightning at you! If you are lucky, you will never have to use this technique at all.”

Zuko would do it if it cost him his own life. He was sick and tire of being the little boy who everyone treated with kid gloves. He was no longer a sickly child with the lung flux.

“Well, if you won’t help me, I’ll find my own lightning.”

He remembered climbing up the face of the mountain during a rainstorm. Zuko stands at the peak, staring at the clouds. Staring at what he believed to be the homes of the gods.

“You’ve always thrown everything you could at me! Well I can take it! And now I can give it back! Come on! Strike me! You’ve never held back before!”

Zuko remembered the moment of his weakness. He had blamed a natural phenomenon for his short comings. He had weakened himself with his indulgence in the childish pride that had defeated more times than the Avatar.

He was lucky that the lightning did not kill him.

Zuko remembered the failure on top of the mountain. However he did not quit. He stopped blaming the world and made himself stronger. He mastered the art. However he did not master the lesion his uncle tried to teach him.

Zuko had traveled alone for the past 18 months learning the lesions that his uncle tried to teach him. Zuko wanted to be the tough avenger that marked the heroes of the Fire Nation. He created an aloof persona so that others would not see his weakness. He was afraid of being revealed as the fraudulent prince. He was afraid that once they got to know him, others would hate him for his failings as his father did. He was so stiff necked that he let fate led him by the horns to this end.

Once in a while, Zuko would find the answers in his dreams to the question that eluded him while he was awake.

Zuko sat up looking as the still form of his sister. She needed help. He needed help if he was going to save his sister and his nation. However, help would require that Zuko once again face the woman he loved.

One look at you and Katara would turn you into a piece of ice candy. She hates you. What will you tell her? Hi, honey, it’s not my fault that I knocked up my sister and cheated on you, but can you heal her. Crap, even Uncle Iroh will disown you when word gets out. Word always gets out. Gossip is the Fire Nation’s national sport. What will Ty Lee and Mai think when word gets out that Jian Li escape with his sister-lover? Best just throw yourself off the cliff you pathetic bastard.

Zuko could not return.

He could not allow himself to torture Katara for one more second with his presence.

He had lost his right to her love when he shattered her soul. He could not face her again. He was scum, lower than the pimps that whored out his of Zuko’s female ancestors from the cradle. He could never accept Katara’s forgiveness. He was unworthy of her forgiveness. He had destroyed everything she had believed to be good about him. He had destroyed everything that made her special.

Zuko’s preoccupation with honor was because he did not have any. When confronted with hunger and poverty, he became a thief, an assassin, and a charlatan. His preoccupation with station was because he was the accidental prince. He had to create a world of lies so that he could run away from the sickening truth. All his life, he only made a mess of things.

Zuko was going to do the only thing he knew how to do when confronted with a situation. He would bull ahead as he always had done, chugging with all his effort until he defeated his adversary or died trying. However, it was impossible for him to defeat the demons that haunted his twisted soul.

Zuko would find his mask, his twin sabers, and hunt down his sire. He closed his eyes remember the few short fights that he had with the Avatar during the chase. He would have to be just as cagey and evasive as the air bender until it was time to deliver the coup de grace.

He would replay every move and countermove in his dreams seeking an edge over the man who blinded his sister.

He would have to do it alone. His crimes were beyond anyone’s forgiveness.

Pain and suffering were his teachers and he would have to endure their brutal lesions for a little while longer until his body caught up with his soul in hell.
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Blue Mask