where the past can't reach us // zuko x reader

Chapter Three - Answers

“Hello.”

I gritted my teeth, saying as little as possible in hopes she’d go away.

“You know, I heard about your parents…” she began, voice dripping with schadenfreude, “It’s a shame two such respected individuals turned out to be disgusting traitors.”

My hands were beginning to tremble. I looked at the ground, trying to calm myself down before I said something I would regret. Taking note of my silence, she continued:

“I pity you, I really do. However, as the Princess of the Fire Nation and next in line to the throne, you must understand it is my duty to make sure all traitors to our fatherland are punished with utmost severity.”

A quiet gasp left my mouth before I could stop it – was she implying what I think she was? I looked up into her eyes for an answer. Golden pits of sadism and indifference stared back at me. She smirked.

“I think you realise what I’m talking about. After seeing those books your parents kept in the basement, I had no choice but to take action.”

My mind went blank in shock and disbelief. She was just provoking me – she must have been lying – there was no way any of this could be true. And yet, as much as I refused to believe it, her voice had a heartless sincerity to it that made any denial futile. The full meaning of her words sunk in. Azula had killed my parents. The horrific images flashed in my mind once more, this time more vivid than ever: the concrete block, the burning horizon, the bodies flailing helplessly around on the noose like fish on a hook. The darkness. The emptiness. The despair.

My whole body heated up in anger, the cold sweat evaporating in an instant, taking with it the last shreds of my self-control. My vision went red. The city faded to an incoherent blur, and I could see nothing but Azula. I wanted her dead.

As if on its own, my body charged towards her, hands filled with fire, arms swinging at her before my brain had registered a single movement. Shock flashed across her face – she had never seen me firebend before. My fist flew at that infuriatingly merciless smile.
She stepped calmly out of the way.

I ran at her once again, punching the air to create a fireball that I sent hurtling in her direction.

She dodged effortlessly and her smirk grew wider.

“(y/n), is that honestly the best you can do? My, you’re pathetic. You –”

I interrupted her with a barrage of flames. The blazing orange bullets cut through the night, almost scorching her entire body, but once again, Azula jumped out of the line of fire.

“If you are so desperate for a fight, I should warn you. I will not go easy on you,” she said, her mocking tone gaining a tinge of seriousness. I didn’t care. I wanted to fight to the death.

I sprinted forward to attack once more. Drawing my leg back for a kick, I anticipated another dodge from Azula's side. But instead, she remained rooted in place. A mysterious blue substance circled her, flashing and crackling as it moved. I had seen her blue fire before – and who hadn’t? – but this was something new entirely. I stopped for a short second, staring in awe. A second was all she needed.

Pure, blinding light erupted from her hands, illuminating the harbour in an instant. Everything went white and, for a moment, the night sky shifted into daytime. Flashes of  – I realised in horror what it was – lightning split the darkness once, then twice, then three times, and then the night exploded into a booming electrical crash. I froze, paralyzed, as the light enveloped my whole body in its dazzling and dangerous beauty. And then, an excruciating pain shot through me.

I jolted back into reality.

Azula spoke.

“You know, it really didn’t have to turn out like this.”

She began to walk away and I had no strength left to stop her. My vision faded into darkness, and before my consciousness slipped away completely, I thought about how stupid I'd been to attack her. In my rage, I'd overestimated myself, but thinking back, I had no technique to speak of and no control over my bending whatsoever. She was right. I really was pathetic.

With that thought, everything went black.

///////////

(y/n) collapsed onto the grey tiles of the deserted plaza, clouds of smoke rising out of her now-ruined clothes. The sight pleased Azula. Her lightning bending was far from perfect, she was well aware of that, but she was glad it was at least able to knock people out. She smiled, before continuing to walk away from the scene. There was no need to alert the soldiers, she thought. They’d find (y/n) tomorrow morning, maybe alive, maybe dead, but what would it matter? Her parents were traitors, and (y/n) herself was quiet, weak, and potentially disloyal to the regime. Her life or death was irrelevant to the glorious Fire Nation.

Azula had almost left the plaza when she sensed something. She didn’t know what it was, exactly, a disturbance in the air, perhaps, or maybe it was the night getting just a little bit brighter. Whatever it was – instinctively, she turned around. Her jaw dropped at the sight.

(y/n) was lying on the ground, just as Azula had left her. But now, her eyes were open. Not just open, Azula realised with growing horror, they were glowing white. All of a sudden, (y/n)’s body jolted upwards, the glow in her eyes getting brighter with every second. It was Azula's turn to freeze in an uncomfortable mixture of terror and amazement.

(y/n) flew upwards until she was levitating a few metres above the ground. Water, rocks and dirt from the nearby streets and ocean rushed in to join the fire and air that was already forming into a sphere around her. Azula wanted to run but her legs rooted her to the ground. And then, when she came to her senses and the fear released its grip on her, movement returning to her limbs, she turned around and realised escape was impossible. A wall of rocks had shot up from the pavement and surrounded Azula in all directions.

She tried to fight it, of course, sending stream after stream of fire at the barrier. But any holes she managed to make disappeared as quickly as they had been created. The wall itself seemed to be regenerating as if it was a living being, each time growing back taller than it was before. Realising that attacking the wall was pointless, Azula focused her attention on (y/n). Blue flames shot at the bubble of elements, then disappeared with a hiss as they hit the water, or were blown apart by the swirling hurricane-force winds. Meanwhile, the walls were slowly but surely closing in on Azula, along with the unfamiliar feeling of powerlessness.

Refusing to give up, she tried sending more fire in (y/n)’s direction. As the flames once again failed to penetrate the sphere of defence, she silently cursed herself for not being better at lightning bending. She looked around for other ideas, and saw only the walls that were inching ever closer with each attack. Maybe she should try jumping, after all. Using the force of her flames to boost her upwards, she jumped, reaching two-thirds of the way up the wall before she fell. She tried again, this time boosting herself with both hands, which launched her significantly higher into the air. This was a good sign, she thought. If she could just jump up with enough power, she could hit the side of the wall, then launch herself off of that onto the other side, then climb out. She jumped once again. It wasn’t high enough, even lower than on the first attempt, in fact, and she landed, disappointed.

Azula stood still for a few seconds, trying to catch her breath. She was confused as to why two powerful blue flames from both hands had given her so small a boost. She had definitely intended the flames to be as strong as usual, even stronger if anything, so why did they come out so weak and underdeveloped? Bewildered, she held out her hand and tried to make blue fire appear on it, just to check everything was alright with her bending. It was not. What she had assumed would be a small bonfire instead came out looking like a dying matchstick. What on earth was going on? And, on another note, thought Azula, why was it suddenly getting so much harder to breathe?

She looked up at (y/n)’s bubble, which was now suspended in mid-air directly above her. It looked different now, bigger, with the fire, water and earth surrounding (y/n) having disappeared almost completely. Actually, that wasn’t quite the right way to put it, it wasn’t that the amounts of the other three elements had decreased... It was more like the volume of air had increased. It was like all the wind from the surrounding areas had flown to join the spherical tornado. And, suddenly, Azula knew exactly what had happened. The reason she was out of breath, despite training physically every day. The reason her fire had become so inexplicably weak.  The reason for the change in the bubble. (Y/n) had created the walled-off area where Azula was standing for more than just preventing escape. She was sucking the air out of it.

As the realisation hit her, so did the effects of oxygen deprivation, and, just like (y/n) had done only a few minutes ago, Azula collapsed on the pavement, vision fading to black.

The walls crumbled and the rocks returned to their rightful place on the streets of the harbour. The water of the element sphere evaporated and the fire died down. (y/n) floated back to the ground, the white glow in her eyes fading. She closed her eyes. And, when she opened them, she could finally take in what happened in the minutes she had been unconscious.

/////////

I woke up confused and disoriented, and still in a lot of pain. I remembered passing out during a fight with Azula... Was she still here? Was I safe? It did seem oddly quiet, so I assumed she had left. But were we seen by anyone? If the guards saw me fighting the Princess, I’d probably end up in a labour camp, at best. I looked around to check that I was alone, and, sure enough, there weren’t any guards around. What I saw instead, however, was much, much worse. Azula lay on the ground, unconscious. Or maybe even... I shuddered at the thought. Maybe even... dead.

The questions began to flood my mind. Had I done this? What had I done? I passed out, so it couldn’t have been me... unless? Unless what? What on earth happened?

But I didn’t have time to think about that. If Azula was, in fact, alive, she would be waking up soon, and when she did, she would be out for my blood. I had to make my escape, and fast. And, luck being on my side for once, a thought on how exactly to do it finally came to me. It was stupid, and it was crazy, and it was incredibly dangerous. But, I thought, it might just work, and, in any case, I had nothing left to lose.

An hour later, I was as far away from Azula as I could be in this city, holding a saw and a large crate of apples, standing on the edge of a cliff. I’d stolen the crate from a warehouse that had been left unlocked, and that’s where the saw came from too. For once, life had done me a solid – I’d managed to commit a whole two crimes today and there had been no guards around to stop me.

I knelt down behind a bush to shield myself from the wind that had picked up over the last hour, and began sawing the lid off the crate. This would take a while, unfortunately. As my hands went through the monotonous motions of back and forth, back and forth, then once again, and again, and again, my mind began to wander.

I was still really confused as to what happened with Azula. The spoiled, sociopathic brat had it coming, of course, there was no doubt in my mind about that, but who actually hurt her? I was out, so someone must have come by in the meantime – how long was I out for, anyway? – but then, who? And how? And why? I sighed, knowing I would probably never get an answer.

In another few minutes, the lid was off. I chucked it off the cliff – I wouldn’t be needing it. There was a splash as it hit the waves below, and for a second it disappeared, before coming back up and promptly being carried off somewhere into the distance. The apples were next. I knelt over the crate and tipped them out, except for a few that I kept to eat later. Then, I took my tent out of my bag of supplies and wrapped all my things in it. The tent was the only waterproof thing I had with me, so it would have to do.

Now, it was time for the risky bit. I walked up to the edge of the cliff and stared down at the ocean below. Tossing and turning like a child on a sleepless night, the turbulent water reflected the black sky, the darkness both calling to me and warning me to stay away. I didn’t want to do this. I wished there was another way. But, with hundreds of soldiers guarding the only safe way out of the Fire Nation into the sea, there was nothing else I could do. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the crate over the edge. Then, gripping onto my supply tent, I jumped in after it.

The water hit me hard. The force nearly pushed the tent out of my hands, but I managed to hold on as I kept falling into the ocean. My legs kicked at the murky depths in a desperate attempt to bring my body back up to the surface, but l only fell further. With one arm, I released my grip on the tent and clawed at the water. It was no use. I was running out of oxygen now, and growing ever more frantic. Panic overcame my senses and my instincts took over. I dropped the tent. Without the extra weight of my supplies, my body began to rise again, and now that I could use both my arms, I quickly swam back to the surface. My head crashed through the waves and I could finally breathe.

After a few minutes of swimming, I finally caught up to the crate. I climbed into it, exhaling with relief when it held my weight with no problem. I curled up into a ball, trying to warm up even a little. The night was cold and windy, and with every wave, a spray of water droplets landed on my soggy, tattered clothes. I shivered. The pain from Azula’s lightning strike was still very much present – a burning sensation in my chest that persisted despite the wet conditions. I was hungry too, and deeply regretting throwing away all my supplies. To top it all off, my fingers were numb with the cold. I could only hope that I’d wash up somewhere warm tomorrow morning, somewhere with food and shelter and kind strangers, somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t the Fire Nation. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
___________________________________
A whoosh. A swish. A crackle. A feeling of warmth. I opened my eyes to find myself sat by a lake in a forest, fish swimming just beneath the surface as a small fire burned nearby. My clothes were dry, and I didn’t feel hungry or in pain anymore. I looked around. The place was strange, but beautiful, in an ethereal, calming sort of way – trees twisting up into the sky, golden leaves falling like raindrops onto the water. A bird I didn’t recognize chirped somewhere in the distance, and another bird responded. The patch of grass I sat on was soft, a luscious green blanket with blue and white flowers scattered over it. The sky was clear, calm and yellow. I must be dreaming, I thought to myself. What a pleasant dream this was.

After a few moments, I heard leaves rustling in the distance, the sound gradually getting closer and closer. I turned around to see what was going on, and was met with an old man I was sure I’d seen before, but I wasn’t quite sure where.

“Hello?” I said nervously.

“Ah, (y/n)... It’s good to see you again.”

“I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

“We spent almost a whole century together... but I suppose your words mean you don’t remember anything from before you woke up.” He smiled. “In that case, I’d better introduce myself. My name is Roku.”

“Hold on, Roku?” I exclaimed, “As in, Avatar Roku! I’m so sorry I didn’t recognise you, I’ve read so much about your life! I’m just... ugh, sorry,” I trailed off.

“You must be feeling very confused right now...  Especially with what happened today.”

I nodded silently, not knowing what to make of the situation.

“Then, I will explain everything as much as I can.”

He sat down next to me. I had no idea what any of this meant, but I figured it was time to find out.

“It all started exactly one hundred years ago. Avatar Aang had just frozen himself in an iceberg, and we – that is to say, the spirits of the past avatars – were very concerned. Of course, as you’ve probably read in your books, if the Avatar dies, the spirit is resurrected into someone else. However, with Aang, he wasn’t exactly dead, nor was he fully alive.” He stopped and looked up, making sure I was following what he was saying. I nodded. He went on: “We recognised that the world was in danger, and that the Fire Nation’s imperialism was a problem that needed to be solved as quickly as possible. We had faith in Aang, of course. He was more than capable of fulfilling his duty. But what worried us was the iceberg. It could take years, decades, even centuries for him to unfreeze. We had to take into account the possibility that, by the time someone found Aang and got him out,” he paused, a grave expression settling on his face, “by that time, there might not even be a world left to save.”

“But that was a century ago! Is Aang out now?”

“Yes, two members of the Southern Water Tribe found him, only a few days ago, in fact.”
I was relieved to hear the news. I honestly doubted the Avatar was even alive, despite what Mayako had said. And to be hearing the news from a previous Avatar, no less!

“That's great! But...” I looked at him, confused. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Yes, I suppose I should get to the point,” he chuckled. “We were getting desperate, but there was nothing we could do. Or so we thought, until you appeared."

“Appeared?”

“A few months after Avatar Aang froze himself, you appeared in the spirit world. It was very strange, since you weren’t dead. It’s very rare for living people to come here. We thought you’d leave after a few hours, a few days, at most. But you stayed here for ninety-seven years.”

“I was in a coma. The Air Nomads did some magic on me, I’m not quite sure what.”

“Yes... We thought that was the case, which is why we assumed you’d come back to the world of the living. We didn’t know how long that would take, but there were no other options. We took you in, spoke to you, tried to find out what kind of person you were. To see if you were suitable for the goal that was to lie before you if Aang never woke up. And we found that you were very much up to the job. So, after getting to know you well, we went through with our plan.” He turned to look at me.

“Tell me, (y/n), have you heard of the ancient art of energybending?”

I stopped to think, trying to remember what I’d read. After a few moments, I answered: “I know a bit, but not much. Barely anyone can do it these days, and even that’s an overstatement. You can give bending abilities to people and take them away, right?”

Roku smiled. “That is correct. It is also the only form of bending possible within the spirit world. That allowed the spirits of the previous Avatars to give you the power to bend all four elements. If Aang didn’t wake up, you were supposed to have gone on to defeat Fire Lord Ozai. Unfortunately, something we didn’t anticipate happened – when you woke up, we couldn’t contact you. You had no idea about any of this. That is, until now.”

I stared at Roku, millions of questions swimming around in my head like the fish I’d just been watching. I opened my mouth, then closed it again, unsure where to begin. Eventually, I was able to form a coherent sentence, and so came the dreaded question: “I – I can only bend fire, though...”

“With time, you will learn to bend the other elements, too. You were a non-bender before your coma, so it will not be easy for you to adjust. However, I have faith that you can do it.”

I let out a sigh of relief. At least I wasn’t actually a firebender, and not from the Fire Nation in any way.

“Is – Is that why I only discovered firebending recently? Why did it take me so long?”

He frowned. “I don’t know exactly... Bending works in mysterious ways. Maybe you needed strong emotions to get your chi flowing?”

“Right.”

We sat in silence for a while. I could do nothing but stare at the trees and the lake, just letting it all sink in. Another bird chirped in a distant tree. A frog croaked. The leaves continued to fall, guided by the gentle breeze. I didn’t know what to think. Finally, Roku spoke.

“I suppose you’ll want to know what happened with Azula.”
My eyes widened. Between nearly drowning, learning the Avatar was alive, and finding out about powers I never knew I had, I’d managed to forget about the whole Azula affair. But now that I’d remembered, I had to know.

“Of course, tell me!”

“I don’t quite know how to explain it. I... felt your presence all of a sudden, for the first time in years. I couldn’t see your spirit but I could sense it there, asking for help. I had a vision of you, lying on the ground and looking hurt. And then... I don’t know how else to explain it other than: you channelled me.”

“I – I did WHAT?!”

I stared at him, dumbstruck. What was I meant to say to that? Was that – was that even possible?

“You passed out; your spirit left your body. That meant your body was empty for me to take over.”

“Well...” I mumbled, still confused. “Um, what did you do with it? I woke up, the area around me looked fine... but Azula was on the ground? Is she alive?”

“Of course! I removed the oxygen from the area around her so she passed out for a few minutes, which would allow you to get away. She must be awake now.”

“Great...” I sighed, staring blankly at the water. “So what happens now?”

Roku thought for a few seconds before responding.

“I think the best thing for you to do right now would be to assist Avatar Aang. Right now, he is on Kyoshi Island with his friends. I’ll help you get there. But first, I must warn you. I will probably not be able to contact you again unless you faint or in some other way enter the spirit world. You will have to rely on Aang for guidance – remember, a part of me is in him. And, secondly... If I am right about what happened today, that means that, if you lose consciousness again, your body will open up for spirits to possess you. If you’re lucky, it’ll be me, or Avatar Kyoshi, or another one of us. But if you’re not... who knows what kind of spirit will wreak havoc on the world through your body.”

With that, he rose from his spot and began to walk away.

“Be careful, (y/n). And good luck."

The area around me began to disappear, fish, water and trees evaporating out of existence. The crackling of the fire got quieter and quieter until I could no longer hear it. The sky was blue again, and my ears filled with the sounds of the ocean. I felt the cold breeze against my skin. Children yelled somewhere in the distance. Birds squawked. The pain in my chest came back, duller than it had been last night but still strong enough to make me wince. I sat up and looked around, noticing the island which had a large statue of Avatar Kyoshi on it. I sighed in relief. Somehow, I had arrived.