Shedding Skins, 3/4. R.
Title: Shedding Skins
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Cobb/Mal
Disclaimer: Characters you recognize belong to Christopher Nolan, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 16: He's Fire Nation, and she's Water Tribe. Everyone is supposed to be getting along now, but it's still seen as taboo. Bonus points: For working the rest of the team in to the story. Warnings for violence, allusions to past rape and wartime mindfuckery.
Author's Note: This is a fusion of Inception with Avatar: The Last Airbender, which borrows heavily from various Far Eastern traditions. The different nations of the Avatar universe were modeled on different cultures. I renamed the Inception cast to blend in the Avatar universe. Saito's name obviously doesn't need to change, and I didn't change Yusuf's. Here are the names I use in this story: Arthur is Shi An Rui, Eames is Tu, Ariadne is Mei Ai Ren, Dominic Cobb is Song Du Man, Mallorie Cobb is Song Mai Liu, Nash is Niu, Cobol is Ko Bal, Robert Fischer is Feng Rui Bang, Maurice Fischer is Feng Mu Rui and Peter Browning is Bai Bao Tien.
Summary: Shi An Rui and Mei Ai Ren each had expected to lead ordinary lives. The spirits had other plans, as accidents and chance meetings change everything. Sometimes fire and water do mix.
Prior chapters:
One - Accidental Meeting
Two - The White Lotus
Three - Talk Of Secrets
"We're going to have to take the steamer," Tu was telling Du Man as the retinue broke to make camp for the evening. They were near one Fire Nation outpost, but Mai Liu had actually started screaming when they approached it. An Rui had planned to compose a letter for Ai Ren's parents at the outpost to be sent via hawk messenger; in order to do that, he had volunteered to join the men visiting it to stock up on supplies and inquire about ferry services.
Mai Liu was still adamant that she wouldn't cross the waters between the Earth and Fire Nations, but there was no other way to get there. She would have to cross somewhere, and this outpost had the shortest distance over water. When Yusuf mentioned calming droughts to ease the anxiety of the trip, Mai Liu shot him a baleful glare and retreated to her tent.
In the week after the dream walking experience, Ai Ren had kept her distance from the Song family. There hadn't been any further invasions of her dreams, for which she was grateful. An Rui had continued with his own nighttime visits, leaving her deliciously tired and sore in the morning. He also had taken it upon himself to speak with the leather craftsman about new clothes for Ai Ren. Oftentimes Fire Nation women would wear light tops or vests and short skirts, keeping a lot of skin exposed. The exception to that rule was that nobility wore sumptuous robes to advertise their station. The camp leather craftsman had been pleased with the challenge of An Rui's request to make suitable clothing for Ai Ren. He had taken two nights to complete it, designing it in his mind during their daytime travels. The clothes were in the fashion of the Northern Water tribe but made from Fire Nation fabrics.
"Do we have a noble among us?" the men teased Ai Ren the first day she walked through camp or rode her ostrich horse wearing the tunic and leggings. She had merely stuck out her tongue playfully and kept going.
She was apparently coming along nicely in learning the basic forms of fire bending. She mimicked the moves without trying to bend water yet; she had seen how water whips could leave nasty bruises and welts or even break the skin if not used properly in training. It wouldn't do to harm the men teaching her. It was easy enough to tell where the water would add to the bending forms, though she would have to carry water with her if she was truly to be ready. It was one thing to have a sealed pot of water in her belongings for healing purposes. She couldn't use that supply for fighting purposes. It didn't sit right with her.
Chi came to Ai Ren breathless after running. "The children... filthy... bath in the river," she gasped, finally bending over to help control her breathing. She was older and stout, so running after two very young and mischievous children could be trying at times. It was easier to watch over them on a wagon, but after so long in close quarters, the children wanted to run and play. Ai Ren had laughed when she saw them kneeling in the dirt and playing with stones earlier, and hadn't thought much about them being dirty.
"All right, I'll help," she replied before she could stop and think about the task. Helping the nurse with the children meant that she would be near Mai Liu.
Ai Ren really needed to stop and think sometimes before she acted.
The nearby river wasn't very swift flowing, and Ai Ren brought along several water skins. The men would need their travel supply refilled, and she could possibly appropriate one to use as her fighting water supply. Mai Liu actually kept her distance from Ai Ren, which the healer was grateful for. She brought clothes to wash with her, and kept occupied with that. Ai Ren had her own washing, and managed to make a game with the children so that they could assist their beleaguered nurse. They were charmed by the idea of games, and Chi picked up on that fact right away. Cheered at the thought that they could actually splash and play in the water as their bath, they instantly complied with her commands.
There were shouts in the distance, opposite from the army camp. Ai Ren couldn't tell what they were saying, but it didn't sound pleasant. She vaguely recalled a village in between their location and the Fire Nation outpost that Mai Liu hadn't wanted to stay near. Chi and children didn't seem to notice, though their game of laundry and washing was rather loud. Mai Liu's head shot up immediately, her eyes finding Ai Ren's. "Trouble."
"I think we need to go back!" Ai Ren shouted at the children. Mai Liu seemed frozen in place, as if seeing something that wasn't there. Ai Ren had the urge to get to her side and shake her until she fell to the ground, but ignored her. The children were protesting, and Ai Ren had to make them her priority. They couldn't defend themselves.
As Ai Ren corralled Jiang and Phung, their nurse went to gather Mai Liu from the riverbank. The children whined that they were cold now and didn't want to get out of the water. "It's so boring in the wagon!" Phung cried, shaking her wet shirt at Ai Ren. "Nobody plays with us, and all Father ever does is bring little trinkets when he comes to visit. It's not the same!"
"No, I'm sure it isn't the same at all," Ai Ren said soothingly, managing to push her gently away from the river. "Why don't you show me one, though? I've never seen Fire Nation toys."
The shouting was growing closer, and Jiang lagged behind to look for whatever was making the noise. His mother was still staring at the water as if in a trance, lips barely moving. It almost seemed as though she was whispering to the water, though she wasn't a bender. The nurse couldn't budge her at all.
Three disheveled and dirty men in rough, tattered clothing burst through the brush on the opposite side of the river. They stopped when they saw the women and children, then the one in the lead began to laugh. "I thought I was hearin' things," he told one of the other two behind him, a wide gap-toothed grin on his face. "C'mon, there's time f'r some fun."
Ai Ren's skin crawled; there was something about the menacing way he said fun that made her think it wouldn't be fun at all. She pushed Phung behind her and hissed at the girl to take care of her brother. Chi was growing more frantic but couldn't get Mai Liu to wake from her trance as she stared at the water. Ai Ren thought that perhaps the men in the camp would hear the screams, but these brigands could still do damage prior to their arrival.
Without consciously thinking about it, Ai Ren waded forward into the water. She ignored the shouts of the children and their nurse and only kept her focus on the leering men. They approached from the riverbank, slipping on the rocks a little in their haste to cross the river to get to her. Her hands moved in a sweeping motion as she got into the correct stance to throw a fireball. Standing in the middle of the river, there was plenty of water to fly up into her hands and shoot forward, knocking the men to their backs on the opposite bank. Ai Ren flowed into the next stance of the kata, water whipping forward sloppily. She hadn't thought to practice with water on her own, and had only mastered the motions of the kata. Adding the water to the move made it a little harder to flow from one stance to the next, as if she was struggling against an onrushing tide. Ai Ren pushed herself to continue, imagining An Rui's voice in the back of her mind. Discipline will let you do amazing things, even if you think you can't do them.
She forced herself to complete the moves as An Rui and his men had taught her, even though her thighs burned from pushing through river water and her arms felt as though she had carried Chi the entire way from the camp. The water came up from the river and slammed into the three men repeatedly. The jets and water balls were loosely formed, great blobs of water falling to rejoin the river. Enough was left over from the force of her bending to keep the three men at bay. They were shouting something, but all Ai Ren could think of was the pinched expression on her mother's face the first time Ai Ren realized the truth of her birth. She could not let it happen to her, could not let Mai Liu or the children experience such a thing.
Hands closed over her arms from behind her, and Ai Ren struggled, screaming to be set free and for the children to run.
"It's us!" Tadashi cried. "We heard the screams."
Sure enough, more men from the company were there, wading across the river to capture the three men. Song Du Man was there to collect his children and look toward his wife and the nurse, gratitude in his eyes when he caught Ai Ren's gaze. Tu, Yusuf and An Rui were part of the expedition to the outpost and weren't back yet.
"You did it," Tadashi was saying, taking in the trembling of her lips and hands. "You kept them all safe, Ai Ren." He laid a respectful hand on her shoulder, as if understanding that she needed something to ground her in the moment. "You're safe now."
It wasn't what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear An Rui's steady You're okay over and over until she believed it to be true. She wanted his arms around her, his heartbeat under her ear in a reassuring rhythm. But Tadashi was doing his best and he was friendly enough, and eventually her heart slowed down to something resembling normal.
"They're safe," Ai Ren repeated, looking back toward the children.
"Yes," Tadashi assured her. "That was amazing to see."
"I didn't do it right," she protested. "I made mistakes and the form was all wrong..."
"You've been with us for a little over a month and haven't been training as long. Today was the first time you bent water to fight." Tadashi grinned at her. "You did better than I did, the first time I bent fire."
Ai Ren blinked. "Really?"
"Really. Now you know how the bending feels, so you can focus better when you train."
Training. Oh. She could focus on that. That was normal. That was ordinary. She had done much training already, and she could still recite her old training schedule in her sleep. She could do that, fall into the mindless routine of it. She could do that.
It was amazing to have the support of the men and feel their protection. She wasn't less than they were by any means, and they treated her with the utmost respect. Even the men that weren't impressed by the Captain or An Rui regarded her on her own merits. It was an odd feeling, since she had felt like one of a number of faceless healer trainees back in the Northern Water tribe. Ai Ren hadn't felt as though anything she did was special.
This was a good feeling. It really did seem as though everything in her life was falling into place.
***
An Rui crushed Ai Ren to him as soon as he returned to camp. Their swiftest messenger had run to the outpost and found the team in the market; as An Rui had only intended to send letters, he returned immediately and left the other men behind to obtain supplies and ferry passage. "Thank the spirits," he murmured into her hair, not caring who saw the depth of his emotion. He could be stoic later, but right now he needed to feel her in his arms and know that she was all right. "If anything had happened..."
"It didn't," Ai Ren told him in a hoarse whisper, knowing how close it could have been if she wasn't a bender. She could feel the tremors start again, the weariness in her spine and the wish to collapse into a pile of tears and have him pull her together. "It didn't. We're fine. I'm fine. I'm okay. I promise you, I'm okay."
"I know, but..." He squeezed her tighter. "I needed to see for myself."
Ai Ren nodded against his chest, feeling safe. She inhaled the scent of him mixed with oiled leather, sweat and the ostrich horse he had ridden at breakneck pace to get back to camp. It comforted her as much as the feel of his arms around her. "Tadashi thought I should practice with water now."
"Yes," An Rui agreed. "Perhaps see if there are water benders to teach you specific things, too. I can teach you what I know, but it's for fire bending. Fire and water are so different, I wouldn't know if it's really helping."
Ai Ren looked up at him then, seeing the self recrimination on his face. "Yes, it did. That helped me to survive it, to start to think of bending as a way of possibly defending myself or attacking someone else. I'd never thought of it that way before. I just need practice and training." She gave him an almost shy smile. "With you, I hope."
He smiled, eyes crinkling in the corners and dimples appearing in his cheeks. "Of course. Anything you wish."
The rest of the outpost party returned to camp the following morning. They had their supplies for the rest of the journey as well as passage on the ferry leaving for the Fire Nation the following day. Mai Liu looked ready to revolt, but Du Man's fierce expression quelled her.
"Careful," Yusuf told Ai Ren and An Rui over dinner. "Agitation can wake a sleeping dragon. I would guard my dreams carefully tonight."
Understanding the warning for what it was, Ai Ren napped in the afternoon with the intention to remain awake throughout the night. An Rui offered to help in that endeavor, just as she hoped that he would, and gave her a knowing smile. Hers was much warmer and private.
She was drowsy that night thanks to An Rui's ministrations. Sated but still awake, she lay curled on her furs with her fiancé beside her. Fiancé. The word thrilled her in a primal sort of way; she had never been the sort of girl to pin her entire hopes on a man, if only because she had never thought it was a possibility for her future. But there was the thrill of knowing that he cared for her and was pleased to call her his, that he saw a family and life together as one of his goals now that the war was over. She didn't need him to be happy, but having him with her made everything feel that much better. She had someone to share her life with, someone to talk to about the observations she made on the journey, her thoughts about the secrets she was holding and her hopes for a quiet and loving future.
As An Rui turned in his sleep, Ai Ren smiled to herself. Mai Liu might have terrified her with that talk of being half of a whole, but Ai Ren felt that she had something better.
An Rui murmured softly in his sleep, and Ai Ren snuggled closer to his side. She was just brushing his hair away from his temple when he called her name in an agonized tone of voice, as if trapped in a nightmare.
I'll be fine, he had promised. I don't dream anymore. I'll watch over you.
She had thought this would be a quick catnap because of physical exhaustion, but now she worried that Mai Liu was drawing him into an unnatural dream. How could she counter a Dream Walker if she didn't even understand how it was done?
Ai Ren shook his shoulder roughly and called his name. She didn't speak loudly, afraid her voice would carry in the night. She wasn't ashamed if they were caught together, as they were affianced now, but at the same time the whispers likely would grow unbearable. She didn't want to tarnish An Rui's reputation for adhering to details and didn't want to start out her new life with him being known as a loose woman.
"An Rui, wake up!" she cried, voice pitched a little louder but not enough to carry. She straddled his waist and bent down directly to his ear. "You're dreaming," she told him desperately. "You're dreaming and I'm perfectly safe. You need to wake up!"
An Rui didn't wake. His eyes moved behind closed lids, and his lips parted as if speaking though there was no voice. It looked like he was telling someone to run, and she could only think that perhaps he was warning her to run. He was trapped in this dream, whatever it was, looking more and more distressed as time went on. Shaking him wasn't helping, and Ai Ren looked about her tent in despair. How could she wake him?
Her eyes lit on the water skin near her daytime clothing. Quickly she bent the water out of the skin and let the temperature drop to near freezing. It was a trick she and the other girls often played on each other when concentrating too hard on chi patterns or sensing internal anatomy, and it often led to shrieking and broken focus.
The freezing water was like a slap in the face for An Rui, waking him quickly. He sputtered and flailed, nearly striking Ai Ren in the face. She leaned back and pulled the water out of his hair, clothes and furs, then sent it back into her water skin. She breathed a sigh of relief when he stared at her incredulously, his eyes very much looking like his own and not Mai Liu's. "What was that for?" he cried.
"You were dreaming," she told him, reaching back to cup his face. "You looked afraid and worried and you called my name. I couldn't wake you up any other way."
An Rui froze. "So that was a dream?" he asked, half in wonder. "We were near my boyhood home, and the fields were dried and cracked. You were helping to water the fields, and my parents were telling me that I had something important to do. I had to tell them so they could help me complete the mission." He frowned as he remembered something else, a hazy detail that was starting to come into sharp relief now that he was trying to remember it. "I told you to run," he said abruptly, looking up at her in concern. "Someone was coming to hurt you, and I told you to run. I don't remember the person's face, or if it was even a man or woman. I heard you calling for me, and I locked the person in the granary to look for you. Then I woke."
"So you trapped whoever it was?"
"Yes, but-"
There was a high pitched scream. It seemed to come from the Song family's part of the encampment. Their eyes locked, then they scrambled into more appropriate clothing. An Rui slipped out first, heading toward the Song family tents, and Ai Ren followed afterward.
Jiang and Phung were screaming, and the little girl's voice was more shrill with terror. Jiang seemed to be screaming just because his sister was. "Ma!" she was screaming. "Ma won't wake! I had a nightmare and she won't wake! She's barely breathing!"
Song Du Man looked haggard, with deep circles under his eyes as he ran his hands through his hair, pulling it up into sharp, jagged clumps. "She needed calm, she said," he was telling Yusuf, voice dull. "She promised she wouldn't take too much. She only needed to sleep. The crossing tomorrow worried her, and she couldn't sleep..."
An Rui and Ai Ren exchanged worried glances. They found Tu nearby, quick eyes observing everything. Yusuf was placating Song Du Man, and Tu was clearly listening and looking in on Mai Liu. Her breaths were so shallow she nearly looked dead.
"We know who our walker is, then," Tu said as he came up behind An Rui and Ai Ren. His gaze upon them was distant and impersonal, making Ai Ren shiver. "Because she would have targeted either of you. She knew there was a reason you both were here, and it wasn't for her continued health. The two of you simply didn't belong, and General Saito's word was never good enough for her."
"What will happen now?"
"It rather depends on what you did to her in the dreams, darling," Tu told Ai Ren.
"She wasn't the target," An Rui said stiffly. Tu turned startled eyes toward An Rui. "Somehow, I dreamt tonight. I never saw her face, but it must have been her that I locked away just before I woke up."
Yusuf managed to calm Du Man and get him and the children settled back to bed. Tu tersely got him up to speed without overtly mentioning Dream Walking. "Ah," he murmured, and laced his fingers over his stomach in his familiar contemplative pose. "Well, that explains matters."
"What do you mean?" Ai Ren asked, frowning in confusion.
"You see, the dreaming potions in small doses can be calming draughts. That was also the excuse that Song Du Man used to keep some of it when he swore to me that he no longer did such things as part of the war effort." Yusuf sighed as he looked back toward the Song household. "The times I've tried my own draughts..."
"You've walked as well?" Ai Ren asked, stunned.
Yusuf snorted. "Not as such. But a good potions master will sample their wares to judge its purity. And I know that my potions are very pure, giving very clear dreams. The times I've tried them, however, I could not precisely direct where I dreamt. I could keep a location in mind, like a rough estimate, but I could not choose one specific dreamer. It's an imprecise talent, I'm afraid. And it could be that she set her sights on you, my dear," he said sadly, looking at Ai Ren, "but found your beloved instead."
"And now that I've locked her inside a dream?"
"Now she will not wake. Or if she does, her mind will be locked away where we cannot reach it."
"What if you built the same dream?" Ai Ren asked. "Could you unlock her then?"
Yusuf shrugged. "I don't know if it's ever been done. But why would you want to do such a thing? If you set her free, she will only wish to harm you."
"Because no one deserves to be trapped like that. For all we know, this could be why her mind broke in the first place." Concern was etched into every feature, driving home for the men that she was a healer, not a warrior. It wasn't in her nature to leave someone in pain, even if the others might think it was useful.
"Ai Ren," Tu began in a no nonsense tone, "I will not argue with you, because you can believe what you like. But when a situation is too dangerous, you need to know when to sit it out. This is one of those times. The way she was when awake... It's a mercy."
She could see that he didn't say that to be mean or spiteful, but that he truly believed it. "I don't agree. There's time, we can still do this. She doesn't have to be lost."
Yusuf shook his head. "She'd been under for far too long already, and it's been that way before. Du Man just admitted - without saying the words, of course - that she had difficulty waking in the past. She wasn't the same afterward. She grew distant, almost crazed. He tried to go back to fix matters, but then she grew into the woman you met."
Ai Ren looked at him in shock. It felt as if her hands were shaking or that she was chilled. It almost seemed as though she would never be warm again. An Rui remained silent, but he was a comforting presence at her back. "You can't believe it's impossible," she protested weakly. "The children... We can't just leave them to their father."
"It's not our place," Tu reminded her, not unkindly. "Their father determines their fates."
"But..."
"He would not appreciate our interference. He's effectively already lost his wife."
Yusuf sighed as Tu nodded. "This talent broke her. Perhaps she was doing this because she thought you would harm Du Man or the children. I cannot say."
Ai Ren thought of her eyes, the fierce expression on her face when she spoke. They're not my children. My real children are waiting for me. But you still can't have them!
There were no difficulties getting to the ferry the next day. They loaded Mai Liu's sleeping form onto a pallet and kept her in a private room for the duration of the crossing.
There were no further incursions on anyone's dreams.
***
Ai Ren wandered past the Song rooms ofnthe second day of the ferry ride. Another two days and they would be in the Fire Nation capital. An Rui had entrance papers to speak with Fire Lord Zuko. Their engagement now was a good cover for her presence, but she was still terrified at the thought of being the lone water bender in the Fire Nation. Her primary skills were for healing, not fighting. She could hold her own against non-bending bandits while standing in a river, but Ai Ren didn't kid herself. She was an utter novice at fighting with her bending, and couldn't rely on it for safety.
Perhaps because of her thoughts about the river attack, Ai Ren paused outside of Mai Liu's rooms. She pushed open the door and stood next to Mai Liu's pallet. Her breathing was shallow and she didn't have any of the fluttering eye movements that told her someone was dreaming. If she was still in An Rui's dream, she was so far down she was nearly lost. Ai Ren wondered if she had left pieces of herself behind in other dreams, ghosts of who she had been. If so, that could be one reason why her mind fractured.
Mai Liu looked so very young and almost innocent while lying on the pallet. Ai Ren knelt beside her and was bending water out of her skin before she even really thought about it, and the cool water coated her hands. She touched Mai Liu's head and closed her eyes to better visualize what she would find there.
Nothing. Ai Ren could sense absolutely nothing in her mind or chi lines.
"You can't help her," Song Du Man said from the doorway, startling Ai Ren. He watched impassively as the water fell from her hands and splashed his wife's face and hair. Ai Ren's concentration had broken, but she was able to bend the water back into her skin. "She's beyond anyone's help now. She's all but dead." He strode forward, eyes on his wife's still form. "I suppose you really do just want to help, no matter what the cost. She claimed you harbored secrets. She thought you were the one to be wary of, that you truly had no place on this trip." His eyes raked over her form, still bent beside Mai Liu. "But if you held secrets that could destroy us, you wouldn't be trying to wake her from her dreams. You wouldn't keep trying to do the right thing, even if it would hurt you."
Ai Ren's eyes were wide with confusion. "What are you talking about, sir?"
Apparently Song Du Man wasn't entirely innocent of dream walking himself. The realization made her blood freeze; he was standing between her and the door, and no one had known which direction she had wandered in. Her only protection was her water skin and his own honor, however tarnished it was.
"Of course you wouldn't know," he said, almost to himself. "You wouldn't understand. There's so much out there, a whole different world, and you've seen none of it yet." He looked at her with an intense gaze that reminded her of Mai Liu during the dreams or her more crazed states. "I could teach you. I could open your mind to the possibilities." He smiled, almost the way Mai Liu had. "It's all in the mind, after all. Pain, love, worry, fear, wonder, awe... All of it is in the mind, and all you have to do is wake up."
Ai Ren thought of repeating herself or running past him. An Rui hadn't been entirely sure who he had locked away, after all. What if Du Man had been there as well? What if part of his mind was in that granary, and parts of Mai Liu had persisted inside of Du Man's mind?
"Why don't you wake her up?" she asked, backing away from Mai Liu. She acted as if the still body would suddenly reach out and grasp her leg or pull her down. It was ridiculous, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Du Man's secrets were important and would be the downfall of the entire party heading to the capitol.
Du Man looked down at Mai Liu, a reverent but distant look on his face. Ai Ren used the opportunity to creep backward and further away from them both, toward the door. "She is lovely, isn't she? My beautiful spring blossom. She never liked to think she was wrong about anything, but in this she was wrong. There was no secret, was there, Ai Ren?" She froze as he turned around and looked at her with sharp eyes. Now he looked almost dangerous, as if he could take a fire whip and wrap it around her throat to silence her forever. "There is no secret, nothing to tell anyone. Is there?"
Ai Ren shook her head mutely, eyes wide with barely suppressed fear. "I just wanted to help her, Captain Song. It's what I do."
"Ah, yes." He turned his back to her and looked down at Mai Liu, tucking his arms into the sleeves of his robes. "A little healer girl from the Northern Water Tribe. What could you know that is so important to risk this?"
Though Ai Ren wanted to bristle at him in anger, she kept her tongue. "I don't understand your meaning, sir."
He whirled around, eyes sharp and angry. "Tell me what you know!"
Stumbling backward, out of the room, Ai Ren blinked back tears of helpless frustration. "I felt nothing," she snapped. "Her mind isn't there. I didn't feel anything, and I can feel what sleep is like. This is not sleep."
Du Man seemed to deflate and his eyes took on that faraway cast that Mai Liu had. "Oh. Oh. I see." He nodded absently, waving her off as if he had summoned her in the first place. "Yes, I understand now. Her mind isn't there. It's somewhere else, hiding, resting. She's waiting for me, I know. I'll find her again. I'll show her the way home."
Finding him deeply disturbing, Ai Ren fled.
***
It wasn't difficult to avoid the Song family after that and stay close to An Rui. He cherished the attention and lavished it back on her a thousand fold. That let the time pass without too much anxiety, and before they all knew it, the ferry was arriving in the Fire Nation capital.
Tu and Yusuf disappeared as soon as they could. Most of the army men were absorbed back into the Fire Nation ranks; a handful gave An Rui the names of their home towns so that he could eventually send hawks or visit. He seemed a little startled, not expecting that. His prior unit hadn't particularly cared to spend time with him, so it was a new experience. He gave his parents' home town as contact information, since he had never settled down in one place since joining the Fire Nation army. Ai Ren may have thought it was a sign of excessive dedication, but kept her opinion to herself. There were other things to worry about, namely the presentation before the Fire Lord himself.
The capitol was a large, sprawling urban center, the palace at the city's heart. The palace was a sumptuous place, eclipsing Chief Arnook's holdings in the north. Though they held letters of introduction from General Saito, Ai Ren still felt like an interloper. The letters allowed them access to the throne room itself, rather than courtiers meant to limit the masses from directly seeing the Fire Lord. She couldn't help but wring her hands or fidget with a fold of her tunic out of nervousness, but An Rui caught her hand in his. "I've got you," he murmured, voice pitched low so that only she could hear it. "We'll be fine."
The doorway leading to the throne room was immense, inlaid with gold and lacquered shells in the shape of a fire breathing dragon. The sight of it didn't help ease Ai Ren's nerves in the slightest, and she clutched An Rui's hand even tighter. As the doors were opened, they were formally announced by one of the Fire Lord's staff members
"Corporal Shi An Rui of the Northern Battalions and Healer Mei Ai Ren of the Northern Water Tribe, here by invitation of General Saito."
Ai Ren quailed inside, though she walked with her head held high and her steps even. It was rather like walking when the other children were whispering about her in the north. The same pretended indifference and controlled breathing techniques kept her from simply fleeing in the opposite direction. An Rui seemed to be nervous too, though he hid his discomfort well. He was used to being in odd situations and having to appear stoic and in control.
Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Mai were seated on the dais, a low bank of fires burning at its edge. Looking at them, Ai Ren was suddenly struck by how young they looked. They were in their teens, but Zuko's eyes seemed to carry the weight of responsibility and knowledge well. The horrific scar marring his face stood out in stark relief against his pale skin, though his golden eye in the midst of the scar didn't seem damaged. Mai's appearance was impeccable, with a bored expression on her face. She was in the long sleeved robes that nobles and royalty seemed to wear, and Ai Ren wondered if Mai was the kind to hide weapons the way Mai Liu did. She felt less out of place in her clothing, and seeing the youth of the rulers helped her relax a little. She knew that teenagers could be capricious and absolute power could be a corrupting influence. She didn't get the feeling that these two would be that way.
An Rui gave her hand a slight squeeze in support as they stopped and waited to be acknowledged by the Fire Lord. He let her hand go and slowly reached for Saito's letters of introduction. "Most honored Fire Lord and Lady. I have letters from General Saito."
The guards had tensed imperceptibly when he reached into his tunic, then relaxed when they saw the parchment scrolls with the wax seal on them. An Rui gave them to an attendant, who then walked up to the Fire Lord and presented them. An Rui and Ai Ren waited as Fire Lord Zuko slit the seals and read the letters carefully, then gave them to the Fire Lady to read as well. They watched carefully, but Zuko remained impassive as he read. Mai lifted one manicured eyebrow as she read one of the letters, but otherwise she was impassive as well.
"Tell us the story you have come to tell. The others in this room can be trusted implicitly."
An Rui looked around the sumptuous throne room, taking in the faces of Zuko's advisors. He didn't recognize them at all, but hadn't really expected to. He was pleased that Ai Ren managed it a little more circumspectly, no change in expression on her face. There were two people that looked alike, possibly siblings, dressed in formal blue clothing. An Rui guessed they were Water Tribe, though their dress didn't resemble the finery of the North. One young girl beside the Water Tribe girl was dressed in green courtly clothing. The girl in green was blind but seemed to be entirely too aware of her surroundings. Beside the Water Tribe young man was a slim young woman with short hair tied back from her face. Her clothing was a darker green than the blind girl, and she carried herself like a warrior. There was a young man standing next to the thrones dressed in orange and yellow, with blue arrow tattoos on his hands and bald head.
"The Avatar?" An Rui blurted, stunned. Ai Ren gasped as the Avatar nodded and smiled.
Fire Lady Mai tapped the throne with the parchment letters impatiently. An Rui started as she huffed out a breath. "Yes, they dressed so you'd recognize them. Start talking."
Ai Ren looked at An Rui and gave him a faint smile before stepping forward. "I'm actually the one that has to speak, your majesty. The Corporal was meant to protect me on the journey, in case anyone discovered what I had seen." In fits and starts Ai Ren began to tell them about the day she wandered into the tundra and heard Feng Mu Rui and his man Bai Bao Tien plotting with General Ko Bal to take down the current Fire Lord and reinstate Fire Lord Ozai.
"General Saito sent us overland so that I would not look suspicious," Ai Ren concluded. Her voice had been fairly steady throughout most of the tale, though she desperately wanted a drink of water by the end of it. "You needed to know," she said softly. "They mean to kill you."
"You're Water Tribe," Fire Lord Zuko said mildly, eyes assessing. "Why should I believe you?"
Ai Ren bristled, as did An Rui beside her. Before he could say a word, Ai Ren snapped. "You know what? Don't. I did what I thought was right and I trusted in General Saito to do the right thing. I trusted in the men that protected us on the journey and the White Lotus members. I don't care if you believe me or not. I told you what I heard. Whatever you do with that information has nothing to do with me."
"Ai Ren," An Rui hissed in a pained tone. "Stop."
But rather than bellowing in anger the way An Rui had thought he might, the Fire Lord started laughing. Fire Lady Mai still looked bored, but somehow her expression was less hostile. The others in the gallery were amused, some laughing. He and Ai Ren exchanged confused looks. "I don't understand," he murmured.
"General Saito mentioned that there was talk you were outspoken, Healer Mei," Zuko said, lips twitching with a smile. "The talk in this case is correct, isn't it?"
Ai Ren flushed. "They were bullies and deserved every nasty thing I called them." She didn't mention how long it took until she snapped, the kind of things they said before she broke and acted on her anger. It wasn't becoming of a Healer, and she wasn't exactly proud of her behavior. At the same time, she couldn't regret it, since the mocking had dropped off sharply after making examples of the mean spirited boys that had teased her.
"I don't doubt that. Sometimes people have a hard time remembering just how tough women can be," he said, lips curling into a smile as he gave his wife a sidelong glance. Her lips quirked in amusement, but she didn't say anything. "And Corporal," he said, voice rising slightly. "You simply accompanied her."
The implication was that his duty was now over and he should leave. An Rui bristled slightly at that order. "Mei Ai Ren is my fiancée." He inclined his head toward the dais with respect but didn't move. "Her fate is mine as well."
"And what fate would that be?" Zuko asked, no inflection in his tone.
An Rui and Ai Ren looked at each other, not sure what to say. "We haven't..." Ai Ren began uncertainly. "I didn't think of what would happen after we got here."
"It seemed more important to get here safely first," An Rui agreed.
The royal couple looked toward the blind girl. "They're telling the truth," she said, face turned unerringly toward them. "Even down to not planning ahead past this point," she added with a cheeky grin.
Zuko smiled. "Well, I have an idea. The two of you will remain guests for a time while I process this information that you have brought me. For your safety, it might be best if you had a guide in the palace."
"That's really not necessary..." An Rui began, flustered. "We'll probably retire to the country..."
"I'm sure my uncle would love to discuss your travels and life in the Northern Water tribe capital," Zuko continued as if An Rui hadn't spoken. The blind girl gleefully jumped down to get him, exposing her bare feet as she lifted the edge of her dress.
She returned soon after with an older man dressed in Fire Nation finery. He approached the couple with a jovial smile that widened when he saw Ai Ren's necklace. "Ah... Are you familiar with the White Lotus Gambit in pai sho?" he asked.
An Rui frowned. It had to be something related to that secret society Yusuf and Tu had alluded to, but he never did learn the proper answer. "My father meant to teach it to me, but I joined the army before he could."
Zuko's uncle Iroh nodded sagely. "Well. I can correct that deficit. Shi Tai Rui was a very capable officer before he was forced into retirement due to his injuries. It was a sad day when he was no longer able to bend," Iroh said. "I remember him well. You are a credit to him."
An Rui blinked. "You knew my father?" he blurted.
"I was his commanding officer," Iroh said proudly. "Come. Why don't we talk about this and play pai sho while we drink tea? It's very calming and good for your health." He inclined his head toward Ai Ren. "While you may have a healer on your side, prevention is very important as well, don't you think?"
Nonplused, the young couple left the throne room with Iroh and left the others to discuss the information they had brought with them.
***
***
To the final chapter!
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Pairing: Ariadne/Arthur, Cobb/Mal
Disclaimer: Characters you recognize belong to Christopher Nolan, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-movie. For the inception_kink meme prompt in round 16: He's Fire Nation, and she's Water Tribe. Everyone is supposed to be getting along now, but it's still seen as taboo. Bonus points: For working the rest of the team in to the story. Warnings for violence, allusions to past rape and wartime mindfuckery.
Author's Note: This is a fusion of Inception with Avatar: The Last Airbender, which borrows heavily from various Far Eastern traditions. The different nations of the Avatar universe were modeled on different cultures. I renamed the Inception cast to blend in the Avatar universe. Saito's name obviously doesn't need to change, and I didn't change Yusuf's. Here are the names I use in this story: Arthur is Shi An Rui, Eames is Tu, Ariadne is Mei Ai Ren, Dominic Cobb is Song Du Man, Mallorie Cobb is Song Mai Liu, Nash is Niu, Cobol is Ko Bal, Robert Fischer is Feng Rui Bang, Maurice Fischer is Feng Mu Rui and Peter Browning is Bai Bao Tien.
Summary: Shi An Rui and Mei Ai Ren each had expected to lead ordinary lives. The spirits had other plans, as accidents and chance meetings change everything. Sometimes fire and water do mix.
Prior chapters:
One - Accidental Meeting
Two - The White Lotus
Three - Talk Of Secrets
"We're going to have to take the steamer," Tu was telling Du Man as the retinue broke to make camp for the evening. They were near one Fire Nation outpost, but Mai Liu had actually started screaming when they approached it. An Rui had planned to compose a letter for Ai Ren's parents at the outpost to be sent via hawk messenger; in order to do that, he had volunteered to join the men visiting it to stock up on supplies and inquire about ferry services.
Mai Liu was still adamant that she wouldn't cross the waters between the Earth and Fire Nations, but there was no other way to get there. She would have to cross somewhere, and this outpost had the shortest distance over water. When Yusuf mentioned calming droughts to ease the anxiety of the trip, Mai Liu shot him a baleful glare and retreated to her tent.
In the week after the dream walking experience, Ai Ren had kept her distance from the Song family. There hadn't been any further invasions of her dreams, for which she was grateful. An Rui had continued with his own nighttime visits, leaving her deliciously tired and sore in the morning. He also had taken it upon himself to speak with the leather craftsman about new clothes for Ai Ren. Oftentimes Fire Nation women would wear light tops or vests and short skirts, keeping a lot of skin exposed. The exception to that rule was that nobility wore sumptuous robes to advertise their station. The camp leather craftsman had been pleased with the challenge of An Rui's request to make suitable clothing for Ai Ren. He had taken two nights to complete it, designing it in his mind during their daytime travels. The clothes were in the fashion of the Northern Water tribe but made from Fire Nation fabrics.
"Do we have a noble among us?" the men teased Ai Ren the first day she walked through camp or rode her ostrich horse wearing the tunic and leggings. She had merely stuck out her tongue playfully and kept going.
She was apparently coming along nicely in learning the basic forms of fire bending. She mimicked the moves without trying to bend water yet; she had seen how water whips could leave nasty bruises and welts or even break the skin if not used properly in training. It wouldn't do to harm the men teaching her. It was easy enough to tell where the water would add to the bending forms, though she would have to carry water with her if she was truly to be ready. It was one thing to have a sealed pot of water in her belongings for healing purposes. She couldn't use that supply for fighting purposes. It didn't sit right with her.
Chi came to Ai Ren breathless after running. "The children... filthy... bath in the river," she gasped, finally bending over to help control her breathing. She was older and stout, so running after two very young and mischievous children could be trying at times. It was easier to watch over them on a wagon, but after so long in close quarters, the children wanted to run and play. Ai Ren had laughed when she saw them kneeling in the dirt and playing with stones earlier, and hadn't thought much about them being dirty.
"All right, I'll help," she replied before she could stop and think about the task. Helping the nurse with the children meant that she would be near Mai Liu.
Ai Ren really needed to stop and think sometimes before she acted.
The nearby river wasn't very swift flowing, and Ai Ren brought along several water skins. The men would need their travel supply refilled, and she could possibly appropriate one to use as her fighting water supply. Mai Liu actually kept her distance from Ai Ren, which the healer was grateful for. She brought clothes to wash with her, and kept occupied with that. Ai Ren had her own washing, and managed to make a game with the children so that they could assist their beleaguered nurse. They were charmed by the idea of games, and Chi picked up on that fact right away. Cheered at the thought that they could actually splash and play in the water as their bath, they instantly complied with her commands.
There were shouts in the distance, opposite from the army camp. Ai Ren couldn't tell what they were saying, but it didn't sound pleasant. She vaguely recalled a village in between their location and the Fire Nation outpost that Mai Liu hadn't wanted to stay near. Chi and children didn't seem to notice, though their game of laundry and washing was rather loud. Mai Liu's head shot up immediately, her eyes finding Ai Ren's. "Trouble."
"I think we need to go back!" Ai Ren shouted at the children. Mai Liu seemed frozen in place, as if seeing something that wasn't there. Ai Ren had the urge to get to her side and shake her until she fell to the ground, but ignored her. The children were protesting, and Ai Ren had to make them her priority. They couldn't defend themselves.
As Ai Ren corralled Jiang and Phung, their nurse went to gather Mai Liu from the riverbank. The children whined that they were cold now and didn't want to get out of the water. "It's so boring in the wagon!" Phung cried, shaking her wet shirt at Ai Ren. "Nobody plays with us, and all Father ever does is bring little trinkets when he comes to visit. It's not the same!"
"No, I'm sure it isn't the same at all," Ai Ren said soothingly, managing to push her gently away from the river. "Why don't you show me one, though? I've never seen Fire Nation toys."
The shouting was growing closer, and Jiang lagged behind to look for whatever was making the noise. His mother was still staring at the water as if in a trance, lips barely moving. It almost seemed as though she was whispering to the water, though she wasn't a bender. The nurse couldn't budge her at all.
Three disheveled and dirty men in rough, tattered clothing burst through the brush on the opposite side of the river. They stopped when they saw the women and children, then the one in the lead began to laugh. "I thought I was hearin' things," he told one of the other two behind him, a wide gap-toothed grin on his face. "C'mon, there's time f'r some fun."
Ai Ren's skin crawled; there was something about the menacing way he said fun that made her think it wouldn't be fun at all. She pushed Phung behind her and hissed at the girl to take care of her brother. Chi was growing more frantic but couldn't get Mai Liu to wake from her trance as she stared at the water. Ai Ren thought that perhaps the men in the camp would hear the screams, but these brigands could still do damage prior to their arrival.
Without consciously thinking about it, Ai Ren waded forward into the water. She ignored the shouts of the children and their nurse and only kept her focus on the leering men. They approached from the riverbank, slipping on the rocks a little in their haste to cross the river to get to her. Her hands moved in a sweeping motion as she got into the correct stance to throw a fireball. Standing in the middle of the river, there was plenty of water to fly up into her hands and shoot forward, knocking the men to their backs on the opposite bank. Ai Ren flowed into the next stance of the kata, water whipping forward sloppily. She hadn't thought to practice with water on her own, and had only mastered the motions of the kata. Adding the water to the move made it a little harder to flow from one stance to the next, as if she was struggling against an onrushing tide. Ai Ren pushed herself to continue, imagining An Rui's voice in the back of her mind. Discipline will let you do amazing things, even if you think you can't do them.
She forced herself to complete the moves as An Rui and his men had taught her, even though her thighs burned from pushing through river water and her arms felt as though she had carried Chi the entire way from the camp. The water came up from the river and slammed into the three men repeatedly. The jets and water balls were loosely formed, great blobs of water falling to rejoin the river. Enough was left over from the force of her bending to keep the three men at bay. They were shouting something, but all Ai Ren could think of was the pinched expression on her mother's face the first time Ai Ren realized the truth of her birth. She could not let it happen to her, could not let Mai Liu or the children experience such a thing.
Hands closed over her arms from behind her, and Ai Ren struggled, screaming to be set free and for the children to run.
"It's us!" Tadashi cried. "We heard the screams."
Sure enough, more men from the company were there, wading across the river to capture the three men. Song Du Man was there to collect his children and look toward his wife and the nurse, gratitude in his eyes when he caught Ai Ren's gaze. Tu, Yusuf and An Rui were part of the expedition to the outpost and weren't back yet.
"You did it," Tadashi was saying, taking in the trembling of her lips and hands. "You kept them all safe, Ai Ren." He laid a respectful hand on her shoulder, as if understanding that she needed something to ground her in the moment. "You're safe now."
It wasn't what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear An Rui's steady You're okay over and over until she believed it to be true. She wanted his arms around her, his heartbeat under her ear in a reassuring rhythm. But Tadashi was doing his best and he was friendly enough, and eventually her heart slowed down to something resembling normal.
"They're safe," Ai Ren repeated, looking back toward the children.
"Yes," Tadashi assured her. "That was amazing to see."
"I didn't do it right," she protested. "I made mistakes and the form was all wrong..."
"You've been with us for a little over a month and haven't been training as long. Today was the first time you bent water to fight." Tadashi grinned at her. "You did better than I did, the first time I bent fire."
Ai Ren blinked. "Really?"
"Really. Now you know how the bending feels, so you can focus better when you train."
Training. Oh. She could focus on that. That was normal. That was ordinary. She had done much training already, and she could still recite her old training schedule in her sleep. She could do that, fall into the mindless routine of it. She could do that.
It was amazing to have the support of the men and feel their protection. She wasn't less than they were by any means, and they treated her with the utmost respect. Even the men that weren't impressed by the Captain or An Rui regarded her on her own merits. It was an odd feeling, since she had felt like one of a number of faceless healer trainees back in the Northern Water tribe. Ai Ren hadn't felt as though anything she did was special.
This was a good feeling. It really did seem as though everything in her life was falling into place.
***
An Rui crushed Ai Ren to him as soon as he returned to camp. Their swiftest messenger had run to the outpost and found the team in the market; as An Rui had only intended to send letters, he returned immediately and left the other men behind to obtain supplies and ferry passage. "Thank the spirits," he murmured into her hair, not caring who saw the depth of his emotion. He could be stoic later, but right now he needed to feel her in his arms and know that she was all right. "If anything had happened..."
"It didn't," Ai Ren told him in a hoarse whisper, knowing how close it could have been if she wasn't a bender. She could feel the tremors start again, the weariness in her spine and the wish to collapse into a pile of tears and have him pull her together. "It didn't. We're fine. I'm fine. I'm okay. I promise you, I'm okay."
"I know, but..." He squeezed her tighter. "I needed to see for myself."
Ai Ren nodded against his chest, feeling safe. She inhaled the scent of him mixed with oiled leather, sweat and the ostrich horse he had ridden at breakneck pace to get back to camp. It comforted her as much as the feel of his arms around her. "Tadashi thought I should practice with water now."
"Yes," An Rui agreed. "Perhaps see if there are water benders to teach you specific things, too. I can teach you what I know, but it's for fire bending. Fire and water are so different, I wouldn't know if it's really helping."
Ai Ren looked up at him then, seeing the self recrimination on his face. "Yes, it did. That helped me to survive it, to start to think of bending as a way of possibly defending myself or attacking someone else. I'd never thought of it that way before. I just need practice and training." She gave him an almost shy smile. "With you, I hope."
He smiled, eyes crinkling in the corners and dimples appearing in his cheeks. "Of course. Anything you wish."
The rest of the outpost party returned to camp the following morning. They had their supplies for the rest of the journey as well as passage on the ferry leaving for the Fire Nation the following day. Mai Liu looked ready to revolt, but Du Man's fierce expression quelled her.
"Careful," Yusuf told Ai Ren and An Rui over dinner. "Agitation can wake a sleeping dragon. I would guard my dreams carefully tonight."
Understanding the warning for what it was, Ai Ren napped in the afternoon with the intention to remain awake throughout the night. An Rui offered to help in that endeavor, just as she hoped that he would, and gave her a knowing smile. Hers was much warmer and private.
She was drowsy that night thanks to An Rui's ministrations. Sated but still awake, she lay curled on her furs with her fiancé beside her. Fiancé. The word thrilled her in a primal sort of way; she had never been the sort of girl to pin her entire hopes on a man, if only because she had never thought it was a possibility for her future. But there was the thrill of knowing that he cared for her and was pleased to call her his, that he saw a family and life together as one of his goals now that the war was over. She didn't need him to be happy, but having him with her made everything feel that much better. She had someone to share her life with, someone to talk to about the observations she made on the journey, her thoughts about the secrets she was holding and her hopes for a quiet and loving future.
As An Rui turned in his sleep, Ai Ren smiled to herself. Mai Liu might have terrified her with that talk of being half of a whole, but Ai Ren felt that she had something better.
An Rui murmured softly in his sleep, and Ai Ren snuggled closer to his side. She was just brushing his hair away from his temple when he called her name in an agonized tone of voice, as if trapped in a nightmare.
I'll be fine, he had promised. I don't dream anymore. I'll watch over you.
She had thought this would be a quick catnap because of physical exhaustion, but now she worried that Mai Liu was drawing him into an unnatural dream. How could she counter a Dream Walker if she didn't even understand how it was done?
Ai Ren shook his shoulder roughly and called his name. She didn't speak loudly, afraid her voice would carry in the night. She wasn't ashamed if they were caught together, as they were affianced now, but at the same time the whispers likely would grow unbearable. She didn't want to tarnish An Rui's reputation for adhering to details and didn't want to start out her new life with him being known as a loose woman.
"An Rui, wake up!" she cried, voice pitched a little louder but not enough to carry. She straddled his waist and bent down directly to his ear. "You're dreaming," she told him desperately. "You're dreaming and I'm perfectly safe. You need to wake up!"
An Rui didn't wake. His eyes moved behind closed lids, and his lips parted as if speaking though there was no voice. It looked like he was telling someone to run, and she could only think that perhaps he was warning her to run. He was trapped in this dream, whatever it was, looking more and more distressed as time went on. Shaking him wasn't helping, and Ai Ren looked about her tent in despair. How could she wake him?
Her eyes lit on the water skin near her daytime clothing. Quickly she bent the water out of the skin and let the temperature drop to near freezing. It was a trick she and the other girls often played on each other when concentrating too hard on chi patterns or sensing internal anatomy, and it often led to shrieking and broken focus.
The freezing water was like a slap in the face for An Rui, waking him quickly. He sputtered and flailed, nearly striking Ai Ren in the face. She leaned back and pulled the water out of his hair, clothes and furs, then sent it back into her water skin. She breathed a sigh of relief when he stared at her incredulously, his eyes very much looking like his own and not Mai Liu's. "What was that for?" he cried.
"You were dreaming," she told him, reaching back to cup his face. "You looked afraid and worried and you called my name. I couldn't wake you up any other way."
An Rui froze. "So that was a dream?" he asked, half in wonder. "We were near my boyhood home, and the fields were dried and cracked. You were helping to water the fields, and my parents were telling me that I had something important to do. I had to tell them so they could help me complete the mission." He frowned as he remembered something else, a hazy detail that was starting to come into sharp relief now that he was trying to remember it. "I told you to run," he said abruptly, looking up at her in concern. "Someone was coming to hurt you, and I told you to run. I don't remember the person's face, or if it was even a man or woman. I heard you calling for me, and I locked the person in the granary to look for you. Then I woke."
"So you trapped whoever it was?"
"Yes, but-"
There was a high pitched scream. It seemed to come from the Song family's part of the encampment. Their eyes locked, then they scrambled into more appropriate clothing. An Rui slipped out first, heading toward the Song family tents, and Ai Ren followed afterward.
Jiang and Phung were screaming, and the little girl's voice was more shrill with terror. Jiang seemed to be screaming just because his sister was. "Ma!" she was screaming. "Ma won't wake! I had a nightmare and she won't wake! She's barely breathing!"
Song Du Man looked haggard, with deep circles under his eyes as he ran his hands through his hair, pulling it up into sharp, jagged clumps. "She needed calm, she said," he was telling Yusuf, voice dull. "She promised she wouldn't take too much. She only needed to sleep. The crossing tomorrow worried her, and she couldn't sleep..."
An Rui and Ai Ren exchanged worried glances. They found Tu nearby, quick eyes observing everything. Yusuf was placating Song Du Man, and Tu was clearly listening and looking in on Mai Liu. Her breaths were so shallow she nearly looked dead.
"We know who our walker is, then," Tu said as he came up behind An Rui and Ai Ren. His gaze upon them was distant and impersonal, making Ai Ren shiver. "Because she would have targeted either of you. She knew there was a reason you both were here, and it wasn't for her continued health. The two of you simply didn't belong, and General Saito's word was never good enough for her."
"What will happen now?"
"It rather depends on what you did to her in the dreams, darling," Tu told Ai Ren.
"She wasn't the target," An Rui said stiffly. Tu turned startled eyes toward An Rui. "Somehow, I dreamt tonight. I never saw her face, but it must have been her that I locked away just before I woke up."
Yusuf managed to calm Du Man and get him and the children settled back to bed. Tu tersely got him up to speed without overtly mentioning Dream Walking. "Ah," he murmured, and laced his fingers over his stomach in his familiar contemplative pose. "Well, that explains matters."
"What do you mean?" Ai Ren asked, frowning in confusion.
"You see, the dreaming potions in small doses can be calming draughts. That was also the excuse that Song Du Man used to keep some of it when he swore to me that he no longer did such things as part of the war effort." Yusuf sighed as he looked back toward the Song household. "The times I've tried my own draughts..."
"You've walked as well?" Ai Ren asked, stunned.
Yusuf snorted. "Not as such. But a good potions master will sample their wares to judge its purity. And I know that my potions are very pure, giving very clear dreams. The times I've tried them, however, I could not precisely direct where I dreamt. I could keep a location in mind, like a rough estimate, but I could not choose one specific dreamer. It's an imprecise talent, I'm afraid. And it could be that she set her sights on you, my dear," he said sadly, looking at Ai Ren, "but found your beloved instead."
"And now that I've locked her inside a dream?"
"Now she will not wake. Or if she does, her mind will be locked away where we cannot reach it."
"What if you built the same dream?" Ai Ren asked. "Could you unlock her then?"
Yusuf shrugged. "I don't know if it's ever been done. But why would you want to do such a thing? If you set her free, she will only wish to harm you."
"Because no one deserves to be trapped like that. For all we know, this could be why her mind broke in the first place." Concern was etched into every feature, driving home for the men that she was a healer, not a warrior. It wasn't in her nature to leave someone in pain, even if the others might think it was useful.
"Ai Ren," Tu began in a no nonsense tone, "I will not argue with you, because you can believe what you like. But when a situation is too dangerous, you need to know when to sit it out. This is one of those times. The way she was when awake... It's a mercy."
She could see that he didn't say that to be mean or spiteful, but that he truly believed it. "I don't agree. There's time, we can still do this. She doesn't have to be lost."
Yusuf shook his head. "She'd been under for far too long already, and it's been that way before. Du Man just admitted - without saying the words, of course - that she had difficulty waking in the past. She wasn't the same afterward. She grew distant, almost crazed. He tried to go back to fix matters, but then she grew into the woman you met."
Ai Ren looked at him in shock. It felt as if her hands were shaking or that she was chilled. It almost seemed as though she would never be warm again. An Rui remained silent, but he was a comforting presence at her back. "You can't believe it's impossible," she protested weakly. "The children... We can't just leave them to their father."
"It's not our place," Tu reminded her, not unkindly. "Their father determines their fates."
"But..."
"He would not appreciate our interference. He's effectively already lost his wife."
Yusuf sighed as Tu nodded. "This talent broke her. Perhaps she was doing this because she thought you would harm Du Man or the children. I cannot say."
Ai Ren thought of her eyes, the fierce expression on her face when she spoke. They're not my children. My real children are waiting for me. But you still can't have them!
There were no difficulties getting to the ferry the next day. They loaded Mai Liu's sleeping form onto a pallet and kept her in a private room for the duration of the crossing.
There were no further incursions on anyone's dreams.
***
Ai Ren wandered past the Song rooms ofnthe second day of the ferry ride. Another two days and they would be in the Fire Nation capital. An Rui had entrance papers to speak with Fire Lord Zuko. Their engagement now was a good cover for her presence, but she was still terrified at the thought of being the lone water bender in the Fire Nation. Her primary skills were for healing, not fighting. She could hold her own against non-bending bandits while standing in a river, but Ai Ren didn't kid herself. She was an utter novice at fighting with her bending, and couldn't rely on it for safety.
Perhaps because of her thoughts about the river attack, Ai Ren paused outside of Mai Liu's rooms. She pushed open the door and stood next to Mai Liu's pallet. Her breathing was shallow and she didn't have any of the fluttering eye movements that told her someone was dreaming. If she was still in An Rui's dream, she was so far down she was nearly lost. Ai Ren wondered if she had left pieces of herself behind in other dreams, ghosts of who she had been. If so, that could be one reason why her mind fractured.
Mai Liu looked so very young and almost innocent while lying on the pallet. Ai Ren knelt beside her and was bending water out of her skin before she even really thought about it, and the cool water coated her hands. She touched Mai Liu's head and closed her eyes to better visualize what she would find there.
Nothing. Ai Ren could sense absolutely nothing in her mind or chi lines.
"You can't help her," Song Du Man said from the doorway, startling Ai Ren. He watched impassively as the water fell from her hands and splashed his wife's face and hair. Ai Ren's concentration had broken, but she was able to bend the water back into her skin. "She's beyond anyone's help now. She's all but dead." He strode forward, eyes on his wife's still form. "I suppose you really do just want to help, no matter what the cost. She claimed you harbored secrets. She thought you were the one to be wary of, that you truly had no place on this trip." His eyes raked over her form, still bent beside Mai Liu. "But if you held secrets that could destroy us, you wouldn't be trying to wake her from her dreams. You wouldn't keep trying to do the right thing, even if it would hurt you."
Ai Ren's eyes were wide with confusion. "What are you talking about, sir?"
Apparently Song Du Man wasn't entirely innocent of dream walking himself. The realization made her blood freeze; he was standing between her and the door, and no one had known which direction she had wandered in. Her only protection was her water skin and his own honor, however tarnished it was.
"Of course you wouldn't know," he said, almost to himself. "You wouldn't understand. There's so much out there, a whole different world, and you've seen none of it yet." He looked at her with an intense gaze that reminded her of Mai Liu during the dreams or her more crazed states. "I could teach you. I could open your mind to the possibilities." He smiled, almost the way Mai Liu had. "It's all in the mind, after all. Pain, love, worry, fear, wonder, awe... All of it is in the mind, and all you have to do is wake up."
Ai Ren thought of repeating herself or running past him. An Rui hadn't been entirely sure who he had locked away, after all. What if Du Man had been there as well? What if part of his mind was in that granary, and parts of Mai Liu had persisted inside of Du Man's mind?
"Why don't you wake her up?" she asked, backing away from Mai Liu. She acted as if the still body would suddenly reach out and grasp her leg or pull her down. It was ridiculous, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Du Man's secrets were important and would be the downfall of the entire party heading to the capitol.
Du Man looked down at Mai Liu, a reverent but distant look on his face. Ai Ren used the opportunity to creep backward and further away from them both, toward the door. "She is lovely, isn't she? My beautiful spring blossom. She never liked to think she was wrong about anything, but in this she was wrong. There was no secret, was there, Ai Ren?" She froze as he turned around and looked at her with sharp eyes. Now he looked almost dangerous, as if he could take a fire whip and wrap it around her throat to silence her forever. "There is no secret, nothing to tell anyone. Is there?"
Ai Ren shook her head mutely, eyes wide with barely suppressed fear. "I just wanted to help her, Captain Song. It's what I do."
"Ah, yes." He turned his back to her and looked down at Mai Liu, tucking his arms into the sleeves of his robes. "A little healer girl from the Northern Water Tribe. What could you know that is so important to risk this?"
Though Ai Ren wanted to bristle at him in anger, she kept her tongue. "I don't understand your meaning, sir."
He whirled around, eyes sharp and angry. "Tell me what you know!"
Stumbling backward, out of the room, Ai Ren blinked back tears of helpless frustration. "I felt nothing," she snapped. "Her mind isn't there. I didn't feel anything, and I can feel what sleep is like. This is not sleep."
Du Man seemed to deflate and his eyes took on that faraway cast that Mai Liu had. "Oh. Oh. I see." He nodded absently, waving her off as if he had summoned her in the first place. "Yes, I understand now. Her mind isn't there. It's somewhere else, hiding, resting. She's waiting for me, I know. I'll find her again. I'll show her the way home."
Finding him deeply disturbing, Ai Ren fled.
***
It wasn't difficult to avoid the Song family after that and stay close to An Rui. He cherished the attention and lavished it back on her a thousand fold. That let the time pass without too much anxiety, and before they all knew it, the ferry was arriving in the Fire Nation capital.
Tu and Yusuf disappeared as soon as they could. Most of the army men were absorbed back into the Fire Nation ranks; a handful gave An Rui the names of their home towns so that he could eventually send hawks or visit. He seemed a little startled, not expecting that. His prior unit hadn't particularly cared to spend time with him, so it was a new experience. He gave his parents' home town as contact information, since he had never settled down in one place since joining the Fire Nation army. Ai Ren may have thought it was a sign of excessive dedication, but kept her opinion to herself. There were other things to worry about, namely the presentation before the Fire Lord himself.
The capitol was a large, sprawling urban center, the palace at the city's heart. The palace was a sumptuous place, eclipsing Chief Arnook's holdings in the north. Though they held letters of introduction from General Saito, Ai Ren still felt like an interloper. The letters allowed them access to the throne room itself, rather than courtiers meant to limit the masses from directly seeing the Fire Lord. She couldn't help but wring her hands or fidget with a fold of her tunic out of nervousness, but An Rui caught her hand in his. "I've got you," he murmured, voice pitched low so that only she could hear it. "We'll be fine."
The doorway leading to the throne room was immense, inlaid with gold and lacquered shells in the shape of a fire breathing dragon. The sight of it didn't help ease Ai Ren's nerves in the slightest, and she clutched An Rui's hand even tighter. As the doors were opened, they were formally announced by one of the Fire Lord's staff members
"Corporal Shi An Rui of the Northern Battalions and Healer Mei Ai Ren of the Northern Water Tribe, here by invitation of General Saito."
Ai Ren quailed inside, though she walked with her head held high and her steps even. It was rather like walking when the other children were whispering about her in the north. The same pretended indifference and controlled breathing techniques kept her from simply fleeing in the opposite direction. An Rui seemed to be nervous too, though he hid his discomfort well. He was used to being in odd situations and having to appear stoic and in control.
Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Mai were seated on the dais, a low bank of fires burning at its edge. Looking at them, Ai Ren was suddenly struck by how young they looked. They were in their teens, but Zuko's eyes seemed to carry the weight of responsibility and knowledge well. The horrific scar marring his face stood out in stark relief against his pale skin, though his golden eye in the midst of the scar didn't seem damaged. Mai's appearance was impeccable, with a bored expression on her face. She was in the long sleeved robes that nobles and royalty seemed to wear, and Ai Ren wondered if Mai was the kind to hide weapons the way Mai Liu did. She felt less out of place in her clothing, and seeing the youth of the rulers helped her relax a little. She knew that teenagers could be capricious and absolute power could be a corrupting influence. She didn't get the feeling that these two would be that way.
An Rui gave her hand a slight squeeze in support as they stopped and waited to be acknowledged by the Fire Lord. He let her hand go and slowly reached for Saito's letters of introduction. "Most honored Fire Lord and Lady. I have letters from General Saito."
The guards had tensed imperceptibly when he reached into his tunic, then relaxed when they saw the parchment scrolls with the wax seal on them. An Rui gave them to an attendant, who then walked up to the Fire Lord and presented them. An Rui and Ai Ren waited as Fire Lord Zuko slit the seals and read the letters carefully, then gave them to the Fire Lady to read as well. They watched carefully, but Zuko remained impassive as he read. Mai lifted one manicured eyebrow as she read one of the letters, but otherwise she was impassive as well.
"Tell us the story you have come to tell. The others in this room can be trusted implicitly."
An Rui looked around the sumptuous throne room, taking in the faces of Zuko's advisors. He didn't recognize them at all, but hadn't really expected to. He was pleased that Ai Ren managed it a little more circumspectly, no change in expression on her face. There were two people that looked alike, possibly siblings, dressed in formal blue clothing. An Rui guessed they were Water Tribe, though their dress didn't resemble the finery of the North. One young girl beside the Water Tribe girl was dressed in green courtly clothing. The girl in green was blind but seemed to be entirely too aware of her surroundings. Beside the Water Tribe young man was a slim young woman with short hair tied back from her face. Her clothing was a darker green than the blind girl, and she carried herself like a warrior. There was a young man standing next to the thrones dressed in orange and yellow, with blue arrow tattoos on his hands and bald head.
"The Avatar?" An Rui blurted, stunned. Ai Ren gasped as the Avatar nodded and smiled.
Fire Lady Mai tapped the throne with the parchment letters impatiently. An Rui started as she huffed out a breath. "Yes, they dressed so you'd recognize them. Start talking."
Ai Ren looked at An Rui and gave him a faint smile before stepping forward. "I'm actually the one that has to speak, your majesty. The Corporal was meant to protect me on the journey, in case anyone discovered what I had seen." In fits and starts Ai Ren began to tell them about the day she wandered into the tundra and heard Feng Mu Rui and his man Bai Bao Tien plotting with General Ko Bal to take down the current Fire Lord and reinstate Fire Lord Ozai.
"General Saito sent us overland so that I would not look suspicious," Ai Ren concluded. Her voice had been fairly steady throughout most of the tale, though she desperately wanted a drink of water by the end of it. "You needed to know," she said softly. "They mean to kill you."
"You're Water Tribe," Fire Lord Zuko said mildly, eyes assessing. "Why should I believe you?"
Ai Ren bristled, as did An Rui beside her. Before he could say a word, Ai Ren snapped. "You know what? Don't. I did what I thought was right and I trusted in General Saito to do the right thing. I trusted in the men that protected us on the journey and the White Lotus members. I don't care if you believe me or not. I told you what I heard. Whatever you do with that information has nothing to do with me."
"Ai Ren," An Rui hissed in a pained tone. "Stop."
But rather than bellowing in anger the way An Rui had thought he might, the Fire Lord started laughing. Fire Lady Mai still looked bored, but somehow her expression was less hostile. The others in the gallery were amused, some laughing. He and Ai Ren exchanged confused looks. "I don't understand," he murmured.
"General Saito mentioned that there was talk you were outspoken, Healer Mei," Zuko said, lips twitching with a smile. "The talk in this case is correct, isn't it?"
Ai Ren flushed. "They were bullies and deserved every nasty thing I called them." She didn't mention how long it took until she snapped, the kind of things they said before she broke and acted on her anger. It wasn't becoming of a Healer, and she wasn't exactly proud of her behavior. At the same time, she couldn't regret it, since the mocking had dropped off sharply after making examples of the mean spirited boys that had teased her.
"I don't doubt that. Sometimes people have a hard time remembering just how tough women can be," he said, lips curling into a smile as he gave his wife a sidelong glance. Her lips quirked in amusement, but she didn't say anything. "And Corporal," he said, voice rising slightly. "You simply accompanied her."
The implication was that his duty was now over and he should leave. An Rui bristled slightly at that order. "Mei Ai Ren is my fiancée." He inclined his head toward the dais with respect but didn't move. "Her fate is mine as well."
"And what fate would that be?" Zuko asked, no inflection in his tone.
An Rui and Ai Ren looked at each other, not sure what to say. "We haven't..." Ai Ren began uncertainly. "I didn't think of what would happen after we got here."
"It seemed more important to get here safely first," An Rui agreed.
The royal couple looked toward the blind girl. "They're telling the truth," she said, face turned unerringly toward them. "Even down to not planning ahead past this point," she added with a cheeky grin.
Zuko smiled. "Well, I have an idea. The two of you will remain guests for a time while I process this information that you have brought me. For your safety, it might be best if you had a guide in the palace."
"That's really not necessary..." An Rui began, flustered. "We'll probably retire to the country..."
"I'm sure my uncle would love to discuss your travels and life in the Northern Water tribe capital," Zuko continued as if An Rui hadn't spoken. The blind girl gleefully jumped down to get him, exposing her bare feet as she lifted the edge of her dress.
She returned soon after with an older man dressed in Fire Nation finery. He approached the couple with a jovial smile that widened when he saw Ai Ren's necklace. "Ah... Are you familiar with the White Lotus Gambit in pai sho?" he asked.
An Rui frowned. It had to be something related to that secret society Yusuf and Tu had alluded to, but he never did learn the proper answer. "My father meant to teach it to me, but I joined the army before he could."
Zuko's uncle Iroh nodded sagely. "Well. I can correct that deficit. Shi Tai Rui was a very capable officer before he was forced into retirement due to his injuries. It was a sad day when he was no longer able to bend," Iroh said. "I remember him well. You are a credit to him."
An Rui blinked. "You knew my father?" he blurted.
"I was his commanding officer," Iroh said proudly. "Come. Why don't we talk about this and play pai sho while we drink tea? It's very calming and good for your health." He inclined his head toward Ai Ren. "While you may have a healer on your side, prevention is very important as well, don't you think?"
Nonplused, the young couple left the throne room with Iroh and left the others to discuss the information they had brought with them.
***
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To the final chapter!