"… And so he and Iroh set off in their ship to the old air temples, searching for hints that the Avatar was still alive."
Sokka leaned back on the tree stump, frowning to himself as Ty Lee finished her story. So that was why Zuko had followed them for so long. He'd never given it much thought before, and had kind of assumed that the prince had come out from birth as a scarred, angry jerk.
To hear that he'd actually been something of a gentle boy by his nation's standards, and had been harshly punished for taking a stand against an act of evil, made Sokka feel a little bit-… strange? He still hated Zuko for attacking his home, threatening his sister and chasing them halfway around the world, yet now there was a twinge of sympathy that took the edge off it. All of the bad he'd done, all of the spite that filled him, wasn't born of some inherent nastiness. He was just desperate to go home.
But The Firelord wouldn't let him. Sokka's frown turned into a snarl. He'd always known that, as the ruler of the Fire Nation, Firelord Ozai was an evil man. But it had been a distant, impersonal evil. He sat at the top of the hierarchy of warmongering firebenders, and while he was certainly guilty of allowing those beneath him to commit atrocities, he wasn't the face associated with them. It was the Southern Raiders who took his mother. It was Tanya who invaded the North. The Firelord had just signed the paperwork that allowed it to happen.
This was different. It had been the Firelord himself who personally burnt off half his own son's face for doing the right thing. Who'd tormented him with false hope by giving him a quest that, as far as anyone knew at the time, could never be achieved. Only a person who was twisted on a deep, personal level would do something like that.
And Aang's destiny was to defeat this person before summer's end.
"I never realised Zuko had it so rough." Sokka murmured ponderously. "But it makes me wonder why anyone, let alone an entire nation, would follow a Firelord who does something like that to his own son."
Ty Lee shifted uncomfortably, looking nervously around their little patch of woods as if worried a spy might be hiding in the thickets. "Well… he has ways of appealing to different groups of people. To those who are ambitious, he promises power and glory. To those who are scared, he promises punishment should they fail. And to those who are simply loyal to their homeland, he promises justification that everything they do is for the greater good."
Sokka raised an eyebrow. "And people believe that?"
"Some more than others."
Sokka turned his eyes on Ty Lee curiously. "And what about you? You don't exactly sound enthused about the cause."
"I-…" Ty Lee fidgeted uncomfortably. "- I do love my nation, really. There is so, so much that's good and beautiful about it. But the war-…" She looked aside. "It does ugly things to people's aura. They fixate on anger, on pride, on all the feelings that make it easier to destroy another person. Once they spend so long hating, some forget how to stop. But Azula, Mai and Tanya are my best friends, and they need my help! So its my job to make sure this war doesn't get to change them for the worse along the way!"
Sokka snorted derisively. "Worse? One is the princess of the Fire Nation, and the other massacred the Northern Water Tribe. I'm not sure you can get much worse than that."
For the first time since they'd met, Ty Lee looked genuinely angry. She glared at him in a way that would have been a cute pout, if not for the dangerous sharpness to her eyes. "You're wrong about them! They're good people! Just-…" she looked away, the anger deflating out of her in a heartbeat and replaced by the tired sadness of someone resigned to a bad situation. "- they don't think the same way other people do."
"Because they're both crazy." Sokka wanted to say, but resisted the urge. It made sense that Ty Lee would be defensive about letting her friends be insulted, even if it was clearly true in his opinion.
"I suppose their definition of good is different from most other people's." Ty Lee continued, her eyes glazing over as her thoughts drifted into memory.
"For Azula, good is equal to perfection. Honing your strengths, overcoming your weaknesses and facing new challenges is always a good thing. And not just for people, but for a nation as well. The rapid economic and technological advancements have all been a result of the Fire Nation challenging the rest of the world through war, so from her perspective the war had been a good thing."
"At the cost of a hundred years of misery and death." Sokka challenged.
Ty Lee looked away uneasily. "She'd say that misery and death are an inevitable part of life, war or not. Those who face such challenges become all the stronger for it, and those who let it defeat them aren't worthy of respect."
Sokka frowned unhappily. It didn't seem right to him to look down on people for being any less than perfect, but there was no point in moaning to Ty Lee about it. "And what about Tanya?"
Ty Lee thought about it for a moment, her face scrunching up in mild confusion. "I suppose… I'm not really sure either. Tanya is a person who prizes rationality and logic.
She told me once that she wants peace and prosperity above all else, because war is such a-… what did she call it-… waste of human resources. Sometimes I feel like when she looks at someone, she sees numbers above their head according to how valuable they are. In her eyes, good is whatever will raise the total value of the world around us the most."
"That way of thinking sounds cold." Sokka replied. "Heartless even."
Ty Lee didn't reply.
...
Bullets of fire and water shot wildly through the sky, hissing and crackling as they collided. Down by the riverbank, Katara swerved and twisted like a dancer, artfully avoiding yet another salvo of blazing fire darts, and effortlessly flowed into a counterattack; a barrage of razor thin icicles that whistled like birds as they cut up into the air.
Tanya had to throw herself to the side mid-air to avoid the blades, one narrowly grazing her shoulder.
"You really are the most stubborn waterbender I've ever met." Tanya called down, a mocking lilt to her tone. "It's rather surprising actually, given how easily the northern waterbenders folded to occupation."
Katara growled, that temper of hers gnashing at the tight leash she was trying to keep it on. "They would never surrender to the likes of you."
"Oh, to the contrary." Tanya retorted, bringing a smug smirk to her face. "I was there in person when their dear chieftain Yue bowed at the Fire Lord's feet and begged him to bring her people into the fold."
A flinch flickered across Katara's face, and Tanya knew she'd hit a sore spot. Given that Yue had really only ever been sighted in the Avatar's company during the siege of the north, it had been a fair guess that she'd become a friend of the group.
And damn if that whole group didn't let their immature concept of what friends should be hinder their actions. "It was pathetic really, the way she grovelled. Like a beggar pleading for change. Come to think of it, she never asked for the rights of her citizens to be protected. All she seemed to want was to be kept in comfort in the palace, like a prize pet-…"
Whoosh!
A torrent of water suddenly crashed towards her as Katara stormed forwards like a tidal wave, with a literal wave drawn from the river behind her. Tanya darted backwards rapidly, swerving back and forth like a mosquito around a swatting hand as powerful streams of water speared towards her.
"Wow, that's quite the hot temperament you have. Are you sure there isn't a little bit of fire nation blood in you?" Tanya taunted.
Katara's glare darkened, and the torrents grew in ferocity.
"Come to think of it, weren't a lot of raid parties sent south? Maybe one of those soldiers caught your mother's eye, hmm?"
"Enough!" Katara all but screamed, thrusting both hands down at once. With a roar, the entire wave trailing behind her crashed down, felling small trees and shredding bushes in a wide, furious rage.
Tanya smirked victoriously.
With an intense flare of light she blasted forwards, the wind whipping violently through her golden hair as she pushed her speed to the limit. Her foot skimmed the crest of the wave as she shot past it, zipping just above the humongous weight of the river as it smashed past her and carved a path of destruction through the forest.
Katara growled in frustration, her hands already instinctively moving behind her to grasp more water to wield. Yet as her will closed back around her river, a cold spike of dread shot through her, and she looked back in alarm.
In her temper she had strayed too far from the safety of the river, drawn to follow Tanya and her aggravating taunts. Now that precious source of water which enabled her to fight was far enough a way that it would take a few seconds of concentrated effort to draw new water to herself. In a fight against Tanya, who fought fast and dirty, the chance of getting those few free seconds was almost zero. She'd impale her with a spear of flame the instant Katara lost focus.
Her legs tensed, preparing to dash back to the river, but it was already too late. Tanya was moving too fast, and in a streak of orange firelight the blonde zipped past her. Flames erupted from her hands as she quickly bled her momentum, coming to a halt hovering in the air right between Katara and the river.
"What's wrong? Out of water?" Tanya sneered, her eyes taking on the cold sheen of a killer as all humour drained out of her. "You've been an unwelcome variable for too long. It's time that you were taken out of the game." She raised an arm, building a ball of concentrated, powerful flame in her palm. A killing blow. "Permanently."
Katara gaped at her in wordless dread, the glow of the fireball reflected in her eyes.
Then suddenly she grinned, a flash of vindictive mischief dancing through her eyes, and raised her hand.
Tanya's expression had just begun to twist with confusion when a wellspring of muddy water burst up from the ground beneath her, catching her completely off guard and enveloping her entire body. The muddy geizer spurted high in the air, then, at the command of Katara's hands, arched back downwards and slammed into the ground, leaving a winded Tanya sputtering on the floor.
"Now!" Katara yelled.
The ground twisted again, but not at Katara's beckoning this time. Wet earth clumped around Tanya's limbs, holding her down in place as a figure rose up from the ground like a creature of the swamp.
"Hey there." Toph called cheekily, wiping the mud off her face with one hand. "Good to see you again. I was wondering if you'd ever touch the ground."
"You!" Tanya spat venomously at the blind girl. "You dug tunnels connected to the river!"
"Yep!" Toph replied, popping the P. "What, did you think I was all brawn, no brains or something? You don't beat men three times your age in the ring without using your head a little."
Tanya struggled against her restraints, but her body wasn't packed with muscle and the earth held firm. Toph stomped her heel and the earth twisted again, sucking Tanya down into the mud until only her head stuck out of it.
Katara approached, triumphant but grim. She looked down at Tanya as if the admiral were a disgusting bug to consider stepping on. "We're done running from you Tanya. You can't scare us any more." She declared icily.
Tanya's glare promised fiery death, but her lips pursed into a crooked, sneering grin. "And what will you do with your victory? Are you going to avenge that master of yours? What was his name?"
"Pakku!" Katara hissed, clenching a fist. The moisture in the air around her seemed to thrum in response, promising to exact whatever vengeance she wished at her command. "After what you did to him, and to so many others, it's no less that you deserve!"
Tanya stared back at her in silent challenge.
"-… But I won't." Katara relaxed her fist, and the tension bled out of the surrounding water. "Because he wouldn't have wanted me to execute a foe that's already been defeated. He taught me better than that. And I won't try to justify my cruelty as an act of war."
"Then I'll keep hunting you." Tanya replied, her forced calm of her voice conflicting with the thunder in her eyes.
"And I'll beat you again." Katara replied, turning to walk away. "But I refuse to let myself become like you."
Tanya writhed and struggled, but the ground held firm, and she could only watch helplessly as Katars strode away, with Toph shooting her a cheeky grin before jogging off to catch up. "Ty Lee! Mai!" She yelled. "I need you! Hurry!"
====================
AN :
Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I've started a new fanfic about Tanya in the Star Wars universe. We've already reached Chapter 10!
I if you're interested. you can read it on my P atreon
p atreon.com/Rimanovi