Chapter 65 - The Truth

As the gang left Kyoshi Island, Aang looks back in sadness as he notices the black smoke rising into the sky. He feels a hand on his shoulder and turns to find katara giving him the same look.

"You were right katara, they came and it was my fault."

"It's not your fault aang....."

"No it is. You warned me and I didn't listen. I guess I was still not clear on what the fire nation has become while I was frozen."

"....aang...." She mumbles as Sokka jumps up.

"Enough of the doom and gloom! Let's focus on the future." He claps his hands.

This somehow works as Aang no longer looks sad but determined.

"However, before we talk about that, I want to talk about how Seras, who looked dead, somehow isn't injured anymore." He points to Seras who was leisurely leaning on her back.

"Hmm?" She sounds out.

"Yeah, I'm curious about that as well. You were so injured I didn't think you could survive." Aang says.

"...you guys don't know what a vampire is, so you?" Seras sighs after realizing the problem.

All three shakes their head making her sigh once more. She sits up and looks to them.

"A vampire is an undead creature that drinks from the blood of humans-"

"Undead? So you're like a zombie?" Sokka interrupts her.

"No. I died, but my master bit me and since I was a virgin, I became a vampire."

"He bit you?" Katara asks.

"Yep! With his fangs." She opens her mouth shows her own.

"That must have hurt."

"Not really, Anyway! A vampire comes with many abilities."

"Like?" Sokka asks wanting her to continue.

"I have super strength, super speed, super reflexes, I heal instantly, I can hypnotize people, I can phase into objects, and I gain the abilities and memories of people I drink from."

"Seriously!? Doesn't that make you a freak?"

"Sokka!" Katara yells making him put his hand on his mouth.

"Sorry...." He chuckles awkwardly.

"No, it's fine. Even when I was human, people called me a freak."

"....."nobody says anything making the atmosphere awkward.

"anyway, I have other abilities as well, but they're too complicated to explain, so I'll skip them." She states making the mood better.

"I see....Katara told me many strange things, but the one that stood out was the fact that you know the future?" Aang asks.

"In a way, Yes?"

"Do I defeat the fire lord?"

".....I'm not going to say anything."

"Why!?"

"Because, I don't want to." Seras gives a smirk making the others annoyed.

"Whatever! I never believed in that other world crap. But what is true is that the Fire nation is chasing us. We need to reach the North Pole so aang can learn waterbending."

"I agree, but since seras can firebend, shouldn't I try to learn that first?" Aang asks.

"That's not a bad idea." Sokka hits his palm with a fist.

"No." Seras states making the rest turn to her.

"What do you mean seras?"

"I'm an anomaly and my firebending is even more so. Aang needs a master of the art to teach him." She tosses a few grapes into her mouth.

"She's right, that's why we're going to the north pole. He needs master's to teach him." Katara speaks up.

"Hmm....so we're going to do nothing until we reach the North?" Sokka's question makes everyone a little unnerved.

A few seconds later Seras speaks up again

"Well...we can try to reach Omashu for aang to learn earth bending. It's close by, right?" She brings out the map and points to a city.

"That's true....but doesn't the avatar need to learn the elements in order?" Katara asks.

"Who said that?"

"I don't know....I just thought that that's how it is?"

"....Monk Gyatso said I should learn waterbenidng, the earth, and last fire. I wish to follow his wishes." Aang says with a sad look.

"....very well." Seras agrees:

"But, we should stop at Omashu."

"Why? You just said you needed to learn water bending first."

"I know, but there is something I want to show you guys at Omashu. It's going to be a lot of fun." He grins but that doesn't make sokka happy.

"Then it's decided?" Katara asks.

"Yep, we're heading to Omashu." Aang jumps up and air bends his way to Appa's reigns.

After they decided their heading, in the Palace of The Fire Nation, a dark red bird arrived at a tall tower with a cylinder attached to its claw. When it landed, the soldier manning the tower went wide eyed before running down the stairs.

He arrives at two large doors and hurriedly tells the guards to let him in.

"The Fire Lord is in an important meeting." They state with no emotion:

"It's urgent!" The soldier yells as he shows the cylinder.

The guard was about to tell him off when he sees the symbol.

'That's...' he recognizes the symbol and immediately walks to the front of the door.

He gets into a stance before punching out a large fire which gets sucked into the two large holes. A second later, the doors open and the guard escorts the soldier inside. As they're walking in, the air becomes scorching and they both bow in reverence to a raised throne surrounded by flames.

"You dare interrupt me while I'm in a meeting?" The question is asked in a normal tone, but the flames increase in height showing his anger.

"My apologies, Fire Lord. But a message has come-"

"What Message Could be so important!?" This time he yells and the flames almost reach the ceiling which is 20 feet high.

"T-The symbol, My Lord....it's from the Dragon of the West..." the solider speaks up and right after the flames die down to their normal levels.

Silence prevails for what seems like eternity when he speaks up.

"I see....very well, bring it here." He gestures and an elderly lady walks forward with a tray.

The soldier placed the tube on the tray and the elderly lady walks back. A minute later, the Fire Lord begins to laugh uproariously making he room shake a little. The guard and soldier start to tremble when he stops laughing.

"My brother, he still seems to be well." The Fire lord mumbles as he waves away the guards.

After they left, the two Elderly women look at the fire Lord in confusion.

"Lo, bring Azula. I have an order for her." He commands and the right woman bows before leaving with an eery stride.

"What was the message my lord?" The other woman asks while bowing.

"It seems my brother has found a very powerful fire bender." He chuckles again but the answer made her even more confused.

"A powerful firebender?" She asks hoping he would continue.

"Yes, he sent me a warning about either trying to recruit her or not to fight....he has weakened greatly since his son died." He says the last sentence with a venomous tone as he burns the letter.

'Sir Iroh Has Warned the fire Lord about a fire bender? The Iroh I know would not send a message like this unless it was truly urgent....no matter how much his sons death affected him.' The woman thinks but doesn't voice her concerns.

The next few minutes go on in silence as the doors open once more. A teenage girl strides in with elegance followed by the older woman. She reaches the throne and bows despite the lord being her father.

"You called for me, Father?" She looks up after bowing.

"Yes....Lo. Li. Leave us." He commands the woman as they both now and leave.

After they left, the Fire Lord makes the fire go away and Azula begins to climb the stairs to get closer.

"Come and Sit Azula."

Azula sits down on a cushion and waits for her father to continue. She doesn't wait long.

"Azula, your Uncle sent me a message about a very powerful Fire bender he met. He asked me to either try to recruit her or not fight her." He tells her of the situation which makes the princess surprised.

"...Uncle said that?"

"Yes, What do you think of it?"

"It can be a few things."

"Oh?" His tone suggest to continue and she does.

"One, this firebender exists and she is truly powerful. Two, uncle has weakened greatly since his time as general making a semi-strong Fire bender seem powerful. Or three, which is most likely that a fire bender stopped him and he wishes to use their existence as an excuse for failure."

".....Hahahaha, that's my daughter. You came to the same conclusion as I. Yes, I believe my brother has truly fallen and doesn't wish for me to know. That's why I have a mission for you."

"A mission?"

"Correct. Your uncle and brother were sent to find the avatar and according to them, he is a twelve year old air bender."

"Twelve? But the avatar disappeared for a hundred years."

"I don't know how he has survived and I'm even more confused as to how he has remained young, but we still must capture and execute him."

"It seems this firebender is traveling with the avatar and she has rebuffed all means of capturing him. That is why I wish to send you to catch him."

"Me, Father?"

"Yes."

"....it shall be done." Azula grins before bowing in acceptance of the order.

The princess leaves to get ready for her trip leaving the Fire Lord alone. Soon he chuckles again, but this time it's completely evil.

'Oh Iroh, you've fallen so low. I'm glad that all the time I spent planning to kill your son didn't goto waste.' The room becomes cooler despite the amount of flames inside.

Despite Seras' attempts at not altering the story, her very existence has changed it anyway.

While the Fire Princess was setting out earlier than anticipated, the princess in the north was also experiencing unusual changes. In the northern Ice Palace, Princess Yue was thrashing in her bed while sweating.

Her face was scrunched up like she was experiencing pain she has never felt before.

'No! NONONONO!!!' She mentally screams.

In her dream, she was in the palace overlooking the North Pole. Since the princess has never went outside of the city, all of her dreams end up about the city. It was normal with kids running around and many of the adults showing happy smiles.

She walks through the city and smiles along with everybody when something horrible happens. She blinks and when she opens her eyes, everybody was gone. The city was covered in this eery darkness so she looked up.

'No....' She covers her mouth in shock to find the moon is blood red.

After looking up, she then sees black snow falling to the ground all over. This sight makes her weak in the knees. As she was shocked, she hears screaming from all around and she knows what they are despite not hearing these type of screams before.

All around her are the citizens being killed by fire nation soldiers. They set fire to anything and everything. The buildings, the adults, the children. They show no mercy.

'NO! Please stop it!!' She tries to yell but her voice is gone.

However the scene changes after her yell. A figure appears from above and a huge flame is thrown to the direction of the soldiers. She is scared once more because the flame is so big that it would incinerate the entire street.

But before she can yell again, she notices that only the soldiers are being burned alive. The flame hits her citizens but they don't get hurt. She sighs in relief when the figure walks to her.

The darkness made it almost impossible to see the feature of the savior, but she noticed that it was a woman and they had strawberry blonde hair. she also notices that the woman is wearing what looks like water tribe clothing but she hasn't seen the type in her city.

The woman bends down and stretches their hand for the princess to take. As she is about to do so, a large flame hits the figure from behind and the princess yells out once more in fright.

The woman falls over and Yue can see the burned flesh. She begins to tremble as a man comes forward. she sees that the man is older, has large side burns and seems to be commanding the other soldiers. He grins maliciously as he goes to grab her.

However before his hand can reach her, another hand grabs his wrist. They both turn to find the woman fully healed but her face is covered in darkness. The man goes to scream but another hand grabs it, stopping him from releasing a sound.

"You know....I was told not to play with my food, but seeing your face contort into such a nice look is making me reconsider..." multiple voices seem to come out of the woman's mouth.

However when Yue hears it, she began to tremble even more than when the man appeared. She sees as the woman's eyes go red and tries to run but her legs refuse to move.

She becomes dumbstruck as the woman opens her mouth and bites into the neck of the man. She then hears a sucking sound as the man starts to shrivel up and into dust.

'nononoNoNoNoNoNONONONONO!!!!' Yue begins shaking her head frantically as the woman steps closer.

The next thing she knows, she opens her eyes to find herself in her bed with two young girls showing worried looks. Her hands are holding her head as her body was in a fetal position.

"Princess! Are you ok!?" One of the woman asks in worry.

"Y-Yes....I-I'm f-fine." She states but her body keeps trembling despite being safe in her room.

Just as the servant is about to ask again the doors open and Yue finds her parents rushing in followed by soldiers.

"Yue! Are you ok!?" Her mother runs forward and hugs her.

"Mother....I'm fine..." she whispers out but her father notices her trembling.

"Everyone, leave us." He commands and the others leave.

After they leave, Yue begins to cry and the mother rubs her back in consolation. The father sits down next to her and rubs her head.

"Yue....it's just us now. Please, be honest."

"....ok....thank you, Father." She smiles making the parents sigh in relief.

Yue breathes for a minute which makes her stop trembling.

"I had a nightmare, but it was so real. The city was covered in darkness while Fire Nation soldiers were attacking the citizens. I couldn't stop it!" She cries again.

"Shhhhh...it's ok Yue." The mother soothes her again.

"But that's not all....there was this woman....she saved me from the soldiers but...she was the scariest one of them all!"