Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Precious Illusions ❯ Bitch ( Chapter 4 )

Authors Notes: “How about you sit on my lap and see what pops up.”

 

Disclaimer: Is not mine, I could never make up something so beautiful and predictable as it, though I do wish I had Zuko (I would lock him in my room and never leave). It belongs to Nickelodeon (I think) and its creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

 

Warnings: language (the f word is used twice in the fic), a bit of violence, emotional turmoil, insanity, yuri (light and far away), shoujo ai, mentions of shounen ai/yaoi. Original characters made up avatar creatures (that's all the warning I can think of off the top of my head).

 

Bitch by Meredith Brooks

Chapter Four

Bitch

 

Gato woke up with a killer headache. He didn't remember much, just a very angry flying hippocow, a good deal of being battered around in the air, and thanking the avatar that the Fire Nation Lord had been disposed of and he no longer had to worry about exposing their existence as he fell to the ground. He vagually remembered waking up on the ground and then glancing into the stunning green eyes of an angel before darkness consumed him for the last time.

 

“What are you, the leader of the charity cases?” came a harsh and demanding voice.

 

“He fell from the sky with a flying hippocow chasing him, I couldn't just leave him,” said a softer female voice.

 

“You have basically no supplies and you already have me to take care of since you're dead set on thinking that I'm crazy. You very well could have left him to die,” snapped the first female. Gato peeked a little at the two voices. Two girls sat near a river. One was holding a comb and working on the other girl voice's hair who sat scowling at nothing in particular like it insulted her in the worst way possible and it would pay dearly for that slight. Looking at the girl's hair, Gato had to agree with the second girl's apparent assessment of the wild haired chick, the first girl looked insane, half of the hair smoothed out and half in a rat's nest that was being picked apart strand by strand.

 

“We'll escort him home, maybe, if we're lucky we'll get some clothes. That'll make you less grumpy, won't it?” asked the other, she sounded a little like a mother though the girls looked about the same age.

 

“What are you looking at?” Gato blinked and started a little. The mean looking girl was glaring at him.

 

“Oh, you're awake, I left you some food a few feet behind you,” said the red head with a gentle smile. Gato turned to see some meat with a little rice by a smoldering fire.

 

Azula watched the boy with eagle eyes. She didn't like Saki picking up new members; it was only a matter of time before Azula's wanted poster made it over to this part of the globe. Still, all she could do was hope, the boy hadn't said anything, and there hadn't been recognition when he had looked at her.

 

“So boy, who are you, and do you live around here?” asked Azula, she wanted to get rid of him, he would interfere and maybe take away Saki's loyalty.

 

“I don't know, I don't recognize this area,” said Gato and sighed. “But I live near a mountain, so if we get higher and a little over the tree line I could probably head in the right direction.”

 

“Would you say that you're very far from home?” asked the nicer girl, he shook his head. “Would you say you're more than a day?”

 

“No, I wasn't that long on the flying hippocow,” said the boy. “It wasn't a voluntary flight.” He said to the crazy haired one who looked like she was goingq to comment.

 

“Well, we'll find high ground after I finish untangling her hair that should get you home by tomorrow by our pace if you are a day away,” said Saki with a smile. Azula scowled at the girl.

 

“I knew it, you are setting a ridiculous pace!” exclaimed Azula, Saki giggled but didn't contradict. Gato saw the crazy girl rub her feet a little as she glared. The shoes looked painfully old and worn.

 

“Well, since we're going to be traveling together we should probably introduce ourselves,” the green eyed girl smiled in a friendly way that made Gato shiver a little. “I'm Saki, this girl over here is Mai, or so she says.”

 

“Right,” he was a little confused.

 

“I'm on my spirit journey and picked up her on the way,” Azula watched as understanding flooded the boy's features.

 

“My mom said that hers was intense, the spirits made her almost… well, I suppose it doesn't matter now…” Gato trailed off.

 

“Boy, if you're going to say something at least try to make sense,” said Azula, Gato glared at her.

 

“I have a name.”

 

“I don't know it…”

 

“Gato.”

 

“Or care. Saki do you think you could hurry up without ripping out all my hair?” said Azula Gato made an irritated noise which went ignored.

 

“You're almost done, eat up Gato,” Gato nodded but was very uncomfortable. One girl was pushy, dismissive and very likely insane. The other acted like an overly nice mother. These next two days were going to be interesting, and scary.

 

-----

 

“This is taking forever, why are we going up a mountain? He said it was faster to just go to the side of it, not up and then down like this,” Gato had his fingers in his ears, past trying to convince the `go out and conquer the world mother' to take the easier path, they'd gone so far that it really didn't matter anymore. Of course her psychotic friend wouldn't leave it alone and insisted on annoying Saki. Well, tried to annoy, the only person it was annoying was him. He was under the firm impression that Mai had been raised somewhere that had given her everything she wanted. Spoiled brat.

 

“Have you been up here?” asked Saki, her eyes were wide anticipation; she wanted to see the summit, why, Gato couldn't fathom.

 

“No, this is supposed to be the first stop on our spirit journey; we're always caught when we're children trying to sneak up to the top to whatever is there,” said Gato, remembering the times he and his friends had tried. He had been hoping that they would be caught before they got far, but no, it seemed that they were far enough from the village that their modest priestess did not have the sight to sense them.

 

“I hope we're not ruining it for you,” said Saki, suddenly concerned. Azula growled, angry that she was being ignored.

 

“Oh hush Miss Prim, observe the beauty of nature all around you,” said Saki smiling happily.

 

“If nature flies into my mouth or pokes me again I'll…” Azula usually filled in that part with some fire bending threat; she needed to work on what she would do, she couldn't just threaten idly, no one would take her seriously then. She didn't even know if she should reveal to these people how much about combat and war she knew.

 

“You'll what?” asked Gato with a small scoff. “Give it a good talking to; make it feel like dirt under your feet. Then again, considering your condition it wouldn't be that surprising if they talked back.”

 

“What was that lowly peasant?”

 

“Peasant? Saki are you sure you can't just knock her out and leave her somewhere and say that you learned something like - some people it's really just better to kill them because they end up being a danger to themselves and everyone else and that nothing can change them?” Gato was perfectly serious. The spirits better not give him someone like this when he went on his spirit journey, he would not take the righteous path that Saki had taken. The girl would have been left in the woods and him miles away from her in the first hour of getting the silly notion in his head that the person was somehow his to take care of.

 

“She's my friend,” said Saki and turned back to look with soft eyes on Azula as the former fire princess cursed all foliage and stretched her twisted ankle. Gato had to give the girl that. Saki hadn't noticed that her friend's feet were probably killing, maybe bleeding because of the increased amount of walking she had to do in her horrible shoes, and that she had twisted her ankle pretty badly a little while back. “How would you like it if we just left you?”

 

“I think that by now I can find my way back home,” said Gato with a frown.

 

“Then why don't you leave and go to your village?” asked Azula sharply. Gato didn't have an answer for that. He could have just headed home when he realized they were close and that the ride on the flying hippocow had not been as bad as he had thought.

 

“Because if we bring him back to the village then his family might be grateful enough to give us some food and a comfortable place to sleep,” said Saki, the trees were thinning and her ability to stay with the group was lessening with her patients. She really wanted to see the summit.

 

“You try to run away and you'll regret it Ati,” said crazy girl looked at him with eyes sharp enough to cut.

 

“It's Gato,” sighed Gato, but he had basically given up.

 

“Who cares?” reason number one as to why he would never get along with the girl. “Hey, boy, do you have any siblings?”

 

“Yeah, and older brother and sister,” said Gato with confusion.

 

“Do you get along with them?” asked Mai, her eyes were focused on the ground but he could tell that she had something painful connected to the question.

 

“As much as siblings ever do,” said Gato, his voice clipped and hesitant. Mai snorted and shock her head and glared up into the sky at something that probably wasn't there.

 

“Ignore him Mai, he doesn't have anything to do with your life anymore,” said Saki confirming his fear.

 

“You don't get along with..?” Gato glared but shut up when an acorn hit him hard across his forehead.

 

----

 

Azula decided that the summit wasn't much to look at. A small crevice near the top of the mountain had a small shrine dedicated to the air benders while at the very top and a few meters down was a wide open space filled with rocks, tuffs of grass and the bare but brave tree.

 

“I wonder, if the Fire Lord hadn't wiped out all the air benders if this place would have eventually become a temple,” said the Saki in awe.

 

“I don't know, this place isn't anything special, it's not that high up and it's rather predictable, hardly adequate room for a temple,” said Azula. “Plus, it should have a second summit or something for more room to be made. What?”

 

“I suppose you're an expert on this?” asked Gato, his arms folded; insulted with how this stupid crazy person was undermining something that was sacred to his people. She blew him off, again.

 

“I've had an education,” snapped Azula, Gato would have preferred if she had just ignored him. He didn't notice that Azula was watching him from the edge of her vision. She was happy to see that her assessment of him was right, she could still read people fine, and make them react how she wanted them to. Saki had been right; Azula's outward appearance probably did hinder her in her goal. She should have remembered that, the former princess had always looked impeccable; it had always made people know that she knew how to wield the power she was born into.

 

“Well, we'll never know, will we?” Saki's voice was falsely cheerful and Azula could feel a shiver wanting to escape. Saki seemed to force herself out of her thoughts; her feet hardly touched the ground as she jumped down from where she was. She looked up sharply, gulped, and then smiled.

 

“Be more careful, just because the Fire Lord is supposed to be good now and there's peace doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. Though it is nice to meet someone similar,” Gato smiled and Saki shared his joy. Azula got pissed off, how the hell had they kept this secret so long when they were being so damn obvious?

 

“Whatever you two are talking about, either clue me in or shut up,” Saki blinked over to Azula, she smiled but it quickly disappeared and was replaced with something that a scared Azula a little.

 

“Do you want to see a trick?” Saki asked clasping her hands and practically floating over to Azula.

 

“No, Gato has a point you shouldn't be broadcasting it so soon, and before you come out completely you should contact the avatar,” said Azula, Gato nodded in agreement, until he stopped and glared at Azula in a way that said he knew she knew his name. Not that Azula was going to call him by his name now that he knew, that would cut into the little bit of fun she could still get from driving people up a wall and them really not being able to do anything about it.

 

“You two are absolutely no fun,” the girl complained.

 

“Can we..?”

 

“No, I think we should stay here for the night,” said Saki, both of her traveling partners tried to argue but she held a hand up. “I think it would be for the best. I always had a second sense for these kinds of things.”

 

Azula shrugged and braced herself for the night. Really, who was she to argue with Saki on this? The other girl had been able to travel out of her body and contact Azula since they were both children. Gato had a few words of complaint but Azula didn't really want to walk around anymore anyway. Her feet were killing her and her ankle almost canceled out that pain. All she wanted to do was sleep. Maybe if she got in a few good hours of sleep it would hurt less, at least she wouldn't feel it when she was a sleep.

 

Azula woke up to the sound of screams. She blinked, trying to clear the sleep from her mind. She didn't know the last time she had felt so tired waking up, when her body sagged with exhaustion, or waking up while being so disorientated.

 

“Come on Miss Prim, you need to get up, there's a fire we need to help the people from Gato's village,” Saki's voiced was scared and concerned, it forced Azula awake faster, the cold water over her head had her awake in a second holding Gato's throat in her hand.

 

“Let's go Mai, come on, we have to help,” Azula let herself be pulled toward where smoke was catching the full moon. Morons running toward a fire when they were air benders and peasants. The only reason that Azula was letting them drag her toward the fire was because she could fire bend, and in the mayhem that was happening if she had to there was very little chance of someone actually finding her out.

 

Azula noticed the dry grass under her feet and also how little water had been in that river. So there had been a draught, the littlest of fire could have started this. She could see the flames were everywhere, a small amount of water hit her nose and she noticed that rain clouds were gather. She supposed the moon spirit was looking down on this and feeling bad for the small tribe. Then again these fires could be as devastating as they could be cleansing. It depended on if people concentrated on the instant destruction or what rose out of the ashes.

 

“We have to get to the lake,” shouted Saki. “Get the first group you can find and bring them there, but don't get to close to the fire or the smoke!”

 

“Don't get close to the smoke at all that can be a worse killer then the fire if you underestimate it!” shouted Azula, she knew fire and didn't need anyone lecturing her on it. The lake was on the other side of the mountain, a little hard to get to but it had a path down the steep cliff; it would take all night to get to.

 

“Right, good luck,” they were separated in the woods. It wasn't long until Azula heard the whimpers and frantic cries of a large group of people. They were heading slightly to the right, maybe right into the fire if it came around and in.

 

“This way!” she shouted as she saw them. A few women, a husband who was frantically trying to lead his family, an old woman, and a few crying children. They looked uncertain with her request. “I know the way; we need to head to the summit before heading down. Going around only allows the fire time to creep on you!”

 

“Come on, follow the girl,” the voice was old. Azula looked at the grandmother and bowed in thanks for her words of help. The twelve of them started to follow her. They were slowed by the old woman, the pregnant woman and the crying baby, and Azula started to feel her pulse race, the fire calling cold in her blood to the heat that was rapidly catching up to them. She wasn't sure they'd make it to safety before the fire caught up to them.

 

“Come on, we have to go faster!” she shouted.

 

“If the spirits want us to live we will make it, just like they sent you to lead us,” said the old woman. Azula tried to hold back a snarl. It sounded like she would be blamed if anything went wrong. This is why she hated old people, they made little sense, talked about how their lives weren't really theirs, and would never let the blame fall on their shoulders.

 

There, the fire had almost surrounded them. Azula glanced back and almost broke her jog, she reached deep into her powers and with the smallest movement of her arms she imagined the area a few yards in head opening for them. The fire backed off and she heard a sob of relief from one of the woman and hoped no one would question their luck. She suddenly grew angry. She wanted some of that warmth. She wanted to stop feeling constantly cold, like a chill gripped her heart in its frozen grasp.

 

They came to the end of the tree line and jogged toward the other side of summit while slipping over stones. Azula allowed the peasants to help themselves; she was too preoccupied in keeping her anger from showing all over her body. As they came over the rise they saw quite a few people just staring in awe at something behind them.

 

Azula turned around and so did the rest of her group. The fire had stopped, not with the trees, but a few meters before the tree line ended. It was amazing the edge of the fire and everything she could see of the mountain had been contained. The most amazing, and perhaps most frightening fact of this little show, was that the fire that lined with blue.

 

“The moon spirit,” gasped one of the peasants, his child lightly held in his arms. “She has shown us mercy.”

 

Stupid peasant, didn't he know that blue fire meant the fire was beyond burning? Didn't he realize that no spirit would interfere so readily and obviously in anyone's lives? They hadn't even helped the avatar except to guide him. No that's what they were guides, sometimes they would interfere, but never with their own powers, they would use a vessel. Azula was fairly confident that the moon spirit would not use her as a means to save these people. She was a fire bender, an evil fire bender, and these weren't even water benders, they were people descendant of air benders, so no, the moon was not what was saving them.

 

That's when she was forced to realize the most shocking fact, if it wasn't some all powerful spirit then it was her. It was her fire that was stopping the destruction of this forest. The place that Saki had looked at and called beautiful, how much Saki had wanted to see it. How Saki had a look all around in wonder at the greenery. How she was more likely she was to talk about her father and yet do all in her power to avoid the subject. How she had wanted to see Gato safely home so she could taste the food here.

 

“Girl, girl you're shaking what's wrong?” it was that old woman she had led here. Azula realized that her whole body was shaking and her teeth chattering without her say so. She couldn't control it, she was freezing. The cold seemed to come from the core of her and out, affecting her all the way through.

 

“Cold,” she was able to get through. “Freezing.”

 

“Young lady! It's okay, it's probably just shock, just breathe,” said a voice by her ear.

 

“Azula, how dare you protect these people,” her father's voice echoed in her head, reprimanding her again. “Your grandfather used his power to eradicate them and they dare rise again and defy us! Let the flames consume them, let them consume you. You are such a disappointment, like your brother.”

 

“No, no I'm not like him father. I can't, I just can't let… please I'm not a disgrace!” Azula wasn't sure whether to cry or scream. She started fighting against invisible bounds that tied her hands, body, and soul. Something was placed on her forcing her into a small prison that made the cold sink into her bones and cause her an aching pain. She let loose a dry sob and felt her mind slip into the black abyss.