Dark Puck - Roulette 11

In the year 1085, on the longest night of the year, a baby girl was born on the island of Ina-Pele.  Her birth was heralded as a great sign, as the moon had been full that very night, indicating that she would grow to be a wise, powerful woman.  Her proud parents named her Leilani, for surely this little flower was a gift from the heavens.  When, at the age of six, little Leilani caused water to move, the islanders rejoiced again; the child was apprenticed to the current princess so that she could learn to use her ability to the benefit of all.

In the year 1097, four months after Leilani turned eleven, outsiders in red came to Ina-Pele and claimed the island for a strangely-named man many miles away.  The islanders conferred, and decided that it simply wasn't worth it to care — the strangers were many in number, and all of them trained in the art of war.  To object would only end in disaster; thus was the island added to the territories of the Fire Nation with little fuss.  This might have been entirely un-noteworthy if Leilani hadn't been discovered by one of the officers involved in the annexation.  Seeing only the girl's ability to heal, Lieutenant Zhao secretly drugged the child and smuggled her aboard his vessel.  Until she woke and began to scream, none were aware of his actions. 

The lieutenant was only able to talk his way out of trouble by pointing out that the girl could be extremely useful to them during the war, given her healing ability.  In the end, Leilani was left in the care of the soldiers at Coastline Base, a Fire Nation stronghold half a mile from the waterline on the closest island to the Earth Kingdom.  Perhaps luckily, the frightened, homesick waterbender reminded the men and women stationed there of daughters, of nieces, of sisters; by the end of the week, Leilani had been adopted.  By her twelfth birthday, Leilani was just as happy at Coastline Base as she had been on Ina-Pele.

In the summer of 1101, when Leilani was fifteen, Coastline Base was attacked by a group of Dai Li agents.  The first hint of trouble was when Commander Tojo burst into her room, bruised and bleeding, and roughly pulled her out and thrust her at her adopted older brother, a young soldier named Shing, ordering his subordinate to get her out of the base and to safety.  The two of them had almost made it out of the base when Shing grunted and went down; Leilani turned to see him sprawled on the ground, dead.  In her grief, the thought of fleeing went entirely from her head, and she was captured.

By end of the summer five years later, Leilani had had enough.  The Dai Li had deprived her of her surrogate family, killed Shing, used her to exhaustion, treated her at best like a pretty, trained pet and at worst like a slave, and kept her locked up in a cell when they weren't forcing her to heal their injuries.  She was at the breaking point.

That night, it was another full moon. One of the crueller agents, the one who had killed Shing, brought her food.  As per usual, she did her level best to ignore him, even though when she did that it angered him almost without fail.  Or perhaps she was deliberately trying to anger him tonight.  She would never be certain.

Finally, he gave into his irritation and struck her.  The blow was not a gentle one, throwing the young woman to the ground.  As she pushed herself to her knees, she finally spoke.  "How the mighty have fallen," she said, her voice heavy with scorn.  "To have to prove your manhood by hitting a girl must weigh so heavily on your soul."

"I have nothing to prove," he said quietly, then hit her again, knocking her to the ground once more.

He didn't see the puddle on the floor behind the girl ripple.

Setting the food down in front of her, he turned and began to walk away.  He was almost to the cell door when he suddenly stopped moving.  "What the—"

"Did you know that a waterbender's power depends on the phase of the moon?" Leilani asked behind him, her voice curiously flat.

"I was aware of that, yes."

"And did you know that the human body is… oh… roughly eighty percent water?"

"Is it, now."

One of his arms raised against his will.  "Yes."

He struggled against her, to no avail, and was dragged to the small bed Leilani slept on.  She forced him to kneel.  "What are you doing?" he asked, panicked.

"I discovered this technique by accident," Leilani replied as she bound his ankles together.  "When I was thirteen, I found that by manipulating the water in the blood, I could heal internal injuries such as broken bones and concussions.  You and the other Dai Li have benefited from this many times."

"And the ethical problems of what you're doing right now don't bother you at all."

She didn't answer him — but she didn't release him, either.  Instead she tied his wrists to the bedpost. 

"And what do you plan on doing with me now?"

She smiled sweetly and undid his belt, removing the keys and then gagging him with the cloth.  "I'm going to leave you here and walk out."

He glared at her, silently.

"Have fun explaining how an unarmed prisoner managed to walk out of here with your keys," she told him, then let herself out of the cell, pausing only to take the food with her and lock the door.

Leilani ghosted through Coastline Base, her unshod feet making no sound on the stone floor as she unerringly navigated her way to the door.  Her stomach tried to rebel against what she'd just done, but she firmly controlled it.  Not now.  If I'm caught now, I die.

 She managed to escape the base intact. From there, it wasn't far to the beach… and the ocean.  By the time her feet hit sand, she was running, desperately.  Ten feet from the shore, she moved her free arm in a bending motion, freezing a section of the water into an ice raft just large enough to hold her.  As soon as she ran onto it, she detached the ice and jettisoned her small craft away from the beach.  She didn't slow down until she was two miles out, when she finally settled down to eat the meal she had been brought less than half an hour before.

 

*          *          *

 

Things at the palace had been relatively quiet since the dual wedding. There had been problems, of course, but none major, and none life-threatening.

One night, in late summer, a massive storm blew up, the worst the capital had seen in decades. Out of the storm, towards the palace, a young woman with an air of perpetual drunkenness wandered, dragging along a small boy, who looked to be about four or five.

Kouji, now a strapping young lad of sixteen, was just making the transition from the palace to the building that had been set aside for him and Qiang (now roughly thirty feet long from nose to tail and still growing) in order to get some sleep.  Thus he was the first to see them, and was quick to invite them into his lair to get the boy out of the rain.

"I need to see the Firelord," the woman said, dully, keeping an iron grip on the child.

"I'll… go get him, then," Kouji replied, eyeing them both, and then glancing closer at the boy.  What in…?

The boy looked nervous, almost scared, as he stared up at Kouji with round golden eyes.

Kouji gave the kid a reassuring smile, then glanced into the darkness beyond his unexpected guests.  "Qiang, behave," he ordered, then ran out into the storm, making his way to the palace.

He first ran into Ursa. "Kouji? What's wrong?"

"Th-there's a woman," he stammered, breathing heavily.  "With a k-kid.  Says she needs to talk to Zu…"

Ursa frowned. "I think he's in his study…did she say what she wanted?"

"No."  He paused.  "But the boy…"

"What about him?

"He looks like Zuko," whispered Kouji.

Ursa was silent for a very, very long moment. "I see. Well, I think Zuko is in his study. You should check there."

Kouji bowed to her in thanks and farewell and bolted for the study.

Zuko was, indeed, at his desk, working.  Big surprise there.

"Zu?" Kouji said.

He looked up. "Thought you were going to bed."

"Something came up.  Um.  There's a lady who wants to see you."

"D'you know who?"

"She didn't give me her name."  He hesitated.  "But she had a kid with her."

"A kid?" Zuko looked genuinely puzzled.

"Yeah.  Um.  I really think you need to talk to her."

"All right." He stood up. "Lead the way."

Quickly, Kouji led him to his dwelling, all but running once they were outside.

Zuko followed, just as quickly. When he saw the woman who'd brought the child, his face drained of all colour.  The sixteen-year-old glanced at him, confused.  "Zu?"

The Firelord was trembling a little, clenching and unclenching his fist. The woman detached the boy from her skirt and shoved him at Zuko.  Kouji was the one to catch the child, as Zuko was still frozen and staring at her.  Her errand completed, she turned on her heel and walked away.

"Zuko.  Zuko," Kouji said, trying to get his attention.

He jerked back to himself. "Wh-what?"

The teenager nodded to the little boy.

Zuko turned to the child, who was staring at him in somewhat awed apprehension. He knelt down to get onto his level. "Hi."

The boy stared at him a moment longer, then hesitantly reached out and brushed the left side of his face. "Why?"

Zuko flinched, but all he said was, "My father was… a very cruel man."

The child seemed to accept this, and then reached out for the stump of the young man's arm. "Why?"

"I was… hurt. Years ago. And I lost it."

With Zuko thus occupied, Kouji slipped back outside to follow the woman.  She didn't seem to notice or care, just slogged her way through the storm off of the palace grounds.  Determined, Kouji kept up, hoping to find where she'd come from.

A guard rested his hand on Kouji's shoulder from behind. "We'll take it from here. Go back to His Lordship."

Kouji jumped, startled — damned mud, screws up my perception, can't feel anyone coming in it — and then nodded.  "All right."

The guard, true to his word, continued pursuing the woman, and Kouji returned to Zuko and the child.  "Qiang?" he asked softly, watching the two.  She looked up at him, and Kouji sighed and hugged her head gently.  He had a feeling things were going to get messy.  Thunder boomed overhead, and the child squeaked and buried his head in Zuko's leg.

"Zu?  Do you want to stay here with him tonight?  I don't think Qiang will mind," Kouji offered.

"I… I suppose…" The Firelord still looked more than a little freaked out.

Kouji squatted down so that he was on the boy's level.  "Hey, kid, what's your name?" he asked gently.

"M-mikoto," he replied.

The older boy grinned at him.  "M'name's Kouji.  It's nice to meet you, Mikoto."

Mikoto nodded. "You, too."

"Did you get a chance to meet Qiang yet?"  Gently Kouji drew the boy away from Zuko, giving his heart-brother time to collect himself.

The boy shook his head, and stared up at the dragon, wide-eyed.

"Don't worry," Kouji soothed him with a smile.  "Qiang's nice.  Want to pet her?"

He nodded.

"Here," the teenager said, kneeling.  "Get up on my shoulders.  I'll lift you up so you can reach — she likes being scratched behind her ears."

"Okay," the child said, and clambered up where Kouji had indicated.

As soon as the young earthbender was certain Mikoto was secure, he moved to a standing position and drew close to Qiang so Mikoto could pet her.  Qiang crooned lazily and shut her eyes as the small boy hesitantly patted her head.

"She likes that," translated Kouji with a laugh.

Mikoto giggled a little and grew a little more confident in his petting.

After a few minutes, Kouji had to let the boy down, but he showed him other places Qiang liked to have scratched.  The child was delighted to play with the dragon; while he did that, Kouji turned to Zuko.  "Zu?" the teen asked softly.

The Firelord jumped a little and turned to him. "Yeah?"

"He's yours.  Isn't he."

He nodded.

Kouji sighed.  "This is gonna be a fun little mess."

Zuko nodded again, still watching his son.

The earthbender gave up on conversation and got to work making his bed comfortable for a five-year-old.  He could just curl up on Qiang.  The Firelord settled down in a corner, hugging his knees to his chest, watching Mikoto play with Qiang with a haunted, frightened expression.

Outside, the storm continued to rage.

 

*          *          *

 

Scarcely had Mikoto and Zuko been at least temporarily settled in Kouji's lair when a second pair of unexpected guests landed through the storm — the Avatar and a strange young woman, coloured like a member of one of the Water Tribes.  The young woman looked frankly terrified, and rather unhealthy for the time being.  However, there was also a determined glint to her blue eyes, and she held her head high.

They were met by one of Song's bodyguards, a swordswoman named Meiling. "Lord Avatar," she shouted over the storm. "We weren't expecting you."

"It's a long story," he shouted back. "I need to talk to Zuko, d'you know where he is?"

"Should be in his study, I'll take you there."

The blue-eyed woman followed the Avatar and Meiling, jumping at the slightest noise and looking all around her.

Zuko was not in his study. Meiling barely restrained herself from swearing. "Why don't you two wait here? I'll find Shang and ask him where His Lordship's run off to."  The other two agreed, and Meiling ran off to track down the other bodyguard.

Captain Li Shang, who had been shunted from NCO to CO status by General Iroh a year before, was at the door leading out to the courtyard that housed Kouji and Qiang.  Meiling held no such rank, having not come to her post through the military, but, the year before, had been promoted to second-in-command of her charge's guard. "Shang?" she called out.

The older man turned and grinned at her.  "Meiling!  What brings you by?" he asked, drawing near to kiss her hand.

She smiled back at him. "The Avatar's shown up unannounced, wants to see His Lordship — who wasn't in his study. You know where I might find him?"

Shang blinked.  "Huh.  That's two surprises for him in one night."  He jerked his head back, indicating Kouji's lair.  "He's in there."

"What d'you mean, two surprises?" Meiling asked, warily. "Is there something in there I'm not going to like seeing?"

Shang considered this.  "Well, Lady Song just might try to kill his Lordship over this one."

"Is this something I should let her know, or wait for him to?"

"Definitely wait for him to," said the other guard quickly.  "This is not something anyone else should tell her."

"Got it," she replied. "Well, thanks for the tip." Bracing herself, she headed for the lair; it was Kouji who opened the door.

"M-Meiling!" he exclaimed, turning slightly pink.  Age and puberty hadn't improved his ability to deal with girls any — if anything, they had made it worse.

"Lord Kouji." She bowed a little. "His Lordship's needed back in the palace immediately, something really urgent's come up." Or I assume it is, since the Avatar showed up completely unannounced.

Kouji stared at her.  "You're kidding."  Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the inside.  "Zu!"

"What?" the Firelord called back, sounding a little strained.

"Something urgent came up.  They need you at the palace like now."

"It had to be tonight," he mumbled. Guess I'm paying for those quiet years. He came to the door, looking rather shaken. "All right, let's go."

"I'll stay with him," Kouji said to Zuko.

"Thanks. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Meiling didn't ask.

When they got back to the study, the blue-eyed woman was nervously toying with a small globe of water.

"What's going on?"

"Zu, this is Leilani. She's got some information for you…" The Avatar turned to his new friend.

With a gesture, Leilani made the water globe evaporate, then turned her gaze on the Firelord.  "Lord Zuko," she said, bowing.  "I come from Coastline Base."

"I see." He gestured her to a seat, taking his own behind the desk. "Anything you can tell me, no matter how small or insignificant the detail seems, can be helpful."

"The base has been converted to a Dai Li stronghold," she said flatly.  "I was the only one left alive after the attack five years ago, for my healing ability."

"I'm sorry," he said, quietly.

She shrugged one shoulder.  "How could you have known?  You didn't even know I exist."

"Still. I'm sorry."

"That aside," said Leilani, "the Dai Li thought that I would never be able to escape them, so after awhile they stopped guarding their tongues around me."

"What did you find out? Anything you're willing to tell me?" Zuko asked.

"Not much that is still of use," she admitted.  "One, the Dai Li as a group are planning another move soon.  Two, Long Feng is still alive.  And three, they have someone inside the palace."

The only piece of that that really surprised him was that the Director was still alive. It was still almost nice to have it confirmed. "That still helps. Thank you."

She bowed again and glanced at Aang.

Aang hung back, just watching the dialogue.

The Firelord studied her for a minute, then said, "It's probably best if you stay here, at least for the time being. If you want to be useful, I'm sure you can help out in the infirmary."

Her eyes lit up at that.  "Thank you, my lord," she said.

He almost-smiled back at her. "You're welcome. And thank you for your information. Every little bit helps."

"Yes, sir," she said softly.

Zuko sighed. "Hang on, let me get someone to find you a room." He turned to Aang. "You want your usual one, I assume?"

"Sure."

Thus dismissed, Leilani drew her globe from the air again and began to toss it from hand to hand. 

Aang watched her as a page was summoned and a room was prepared for the young healer. As soon as she was settled, before the Avatar could ask any questions, Zuko escaped back to the lair and his bastard son.

 

*          *          *

 

The storm blew itself out an hour before dawn. About an hour and a half later, Qiang extracted herself from the lair — Mikoto had originally fallen asleep curled up next to her, but had gravitated over to his father's lap at some point during the night — but, after less than twenty minutes, she returned, trying frantically to rouse her human.

"I'm up, I'm up," moaned the young man, opening his eyes.  "What is it?"

She didn't respond, even in her non-verbal way, just dragged him out of the lair and onto her back. Before he was completely settled, she shot into the air.  Kouji clung to her for dear life — unsaddled, Qiang was not an easy creature to ride on.  "Qiang, what—?"

Finally, she reached what she'd been so frantic to grab him for — lying in a gutter, unconscious, a trail of blood and broken tiles behind him, was Yì Suì.

"Fuck!" cried Kouji.  "Let me down!"

She did as he asked, frantic with worry — while not bonded, she'd grown very close to Yì Suì over the years of his staying with her while Kouji was working.

Kneeling beside the older teenager — they had eventually determined that Yì Suì was about a year and a half or so older than Kouji — Kouji checked his pulse.

It was there, and discernable, but slow.

Now the Royal Aide turned to Qiang.  "Go get Doctor Chang!" he ordered her.  "Break a window if you have to, just get him here!"

Yì Suì was cold, so very cold.  Kouji ripped off his shirt as the dragon flew off and spread it over the younger boy, then waited.

Qiang returned with the old man in short order. He slid off of the dragon's back, somewhat stiffly, and joined Kouji next to Yì Suì. After a quick examination, he turned to the aide, and said, "I need you to run and ask the Avatar if we can borrow his bison. Then I need you to come back here and help me get Yì Suì onto him."

Kouji nodded and leapt astride his dragon, causing his groin to scream at him.  He ignored it.  "Go!" he ordered her.  She barely waited for the order before shooting off.

Luckily for all of them, Aang was outside, working to comb the snarls out of Appa's coat.

The young earthbender didn't even wait for Qiang to land, instead sliding from her back when she was still ten feet up and rolling with the impact.  "Avatar Aang!  I need to borrow Appa!"

"Sure, what's going on?" the young man asked, a little startled by Kouji's obvious urgency.

The frantic younger man explained, the words tumbling over each other in his rush.

Aang's eyes widened. "Oh, no." He'd never met Yì Suì, but he knew who the fragile young man was. He helped Kouji climb up into the saddle, and called to Appa to take off. "Which way?"  With the earthbender directing, they made it back to Doctor Chang in short order.  Chang then directed the two younger men to load the unconscious one onto the bison, then directed them back to the infirmary. Once there, he instructed them to find Song, Ursa, and Leilani, as quickly as they could.

The ladies were gathered quickly and led to Yì Suì.  Chang had already started cleaning at least the surface injuries and trying to warm him up. He quickly filled them in on what had happened — at least as far as he knew.

Without a word, the Water Tribe girl named Leilani moved around to the front of the bed, resting one hand on Yì Suì's forehead gently.  "He has several broken ribs and his spleen is ruptured," she reported.  "There's other internal injuries, but nothing as severe."

"How well can you fix them?" Chang asked.

"As good as new," she replied, closing her eyes.  "But it will take a number of healing sessions."

He nodded. "Do what you can for now."

"Yes, sir," Leilani replied, then her brow furrowed in concentration.  In the meantime, Song forced aside her fear for the boy who was as good as her son and her worry about her workaholic husband and focused solely on stitching closed the deeper, longer gashes Yì Suì had received in his tumble.  For her part, Ursa mostly focused on warming him.

They forced the waterbender to take a break to eat and sit once an hour in an effort to keep the young woman from over-extending — all three of them could tell that she was recovering from dehydration, and the fading bruise on her cheek didn't indicate that whoever she had been with before had cared much about over-extension.

A little before sundown, Yì Suì drifted back to semiconsciousness — now feverish, he wasn't entirely lucid, but he was awake.  Song was kneeling on the floor by his bedside, asleep against the wall.  Woozily, he half-rose, then sank back with a whimper, unprepared for the pain his action had caused.

An unfamiliar, tired-looking woman came into view at that.  "Good evening," she said quietly, her voice tinged with an accent he didn't recognise.

As always wary with strangers, he didn't say anything, just watched her.

"You're not ready to move just yet," she went on.  "I still need to work on your ribs, but Doctor Chang won't let me start those until tomorrow."

He nodded, accepting her restriction. He hesitated a moment, then asked, "Is sh-she okay?"

"Is who okay?" the woman asked him.

"Th-the l-lady wh-who screamed…"

"What do you mean?"

"S'wh-why I f-fell," he admitted. "H-heard her… s-startled me. W-was on th-the window…"

The woman knelt in front of him.  "Why don't you start at the beginning and tell me everything?" she suggested.

He did, as best he could remember — he'd been on his windowsill the night before, and had fallen asleep, before the storm started. Thunder woke him up, then he heard the lady scream and fell off the sill down the roof.

"Sh-she sounded l-like s-someone w-was really h-hurting her," he finished.

The woman frowned.  "That's odd, you're the only severe patient that's been in today…  Do you remember where the scream came from?"

"G-garden."

The woman nodded.  "All right.  I'll let Doctor Chang know.  Thank you for telling me."

Yì Suì nodded as well, then closed his eyes and drifted back into an uneasy sleep.