Traitor's Face - Chapter 77 (1/2) by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 77 (1/2)
Time is an Illusion - Part 1
Aang looked up at the setting sun and could feel that, somewhere, he was desperately needed.
But also knew that he was too late.
It was a feeling that reached past the soothing nature of the paradise around him, the river and lush grass banks and the rising mountains in the distance and the pale rocks that glowed golden in the sunset. Even though he'd spent the day just sitting on Appa's head with reins in hand, he felt as exhausted his buddy must be after flying south all night and day again. Aang couldn't even do more than nod as Sokka organized sleeping shifts so that someone would always be awake to prod ev
Traitor's Face - Chapter 77 (2/2) by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 77 (2/2)
Time is an Illusion - Part 2
Mai wore many faces, as she observed the physical world through Koh's power. She had no control over who she became and no access to anyone's thoughts but her own. She didn't even know if Koh was controlling all of that or if it was simply the nature of this power.
She also didn't like how her spirit-self was hanging, speared through the chest, from Koh's insectile legs in the center of the creature's domain.
All in all, it was almost as bad as one of Mother's dinner parties.
"Aang is trying to get there," she managed to gasp in between spying sessions. It was disorienting, having her existence brush up agains
Traitor's Face - Chapter 76 by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 76
A New Age, A New War
Aang's return to consciousness was slow, up until he remembered that Mai was gone forever. His eyes popped open as he sat up and drew breath for a shout and-
This wasn't the Oasis.
Aang was sitting on a blanket with some kind of padding underneath. Next to him, hunched on a little pile of furs, Sokka dozed with Momo asleep in his lap.
They were in the center of a room made of ice. At least, it looked like ice. The bits of the walls that peaked out from behind hanging blue banners were like polished white glass, and the air was crisp and cool. The ceiling was also made out of ice, although regular panels had been made
Traitor's Face - Chapter 75 by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 75
Azula Alone
Even if Azula could have remembered the dream, she wouldn't have spoken of it. Fear has no place in the heart of the Fire Nation.
It had come to her throughout her life, that same dream again and again. She could be sure because she always woke up from it in the same way, her arms snapping into a defensive Firebending position while her heart hammered an attempt to break free of her chest. Her bedroom would always appear monstrous to her, the elegant architecture and tasteful decorations appearing alien to her eyes, a nauseating backdrop to the true stuff of reality- the shadows that reached up to her bed to claw at her body and
Traitor's Face - Chapter 74 (2/2) by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 74 (2/2)
It was purely by instinct that Mai grabbed at the line of shining sunlight that connected her to Aang.
It didn't make any sense, of course. That light was just a visualization of the emotional bond they shared, and her hand couldn't have any substance, either, since this was the Spirit World. There was no friction, no materials to catch on to, nothing that should have prevented her from plummeting further into this endless ocean that also wasn't real (probably).
And yet, somehow, she was saved by her connection to Aang.
The Spirit World, apparently, was the place where metaphors went to roam free.
She held onto that line of light, and beg
Traitor's Face - Chapter 74 (1/2) by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 74 (1/2)
The Price
Sokka's death came at the end of sharp claws made of luminescent darkness, which was the kind of stupid contradiction that had always annoyed him. Appropriate that it would be the end of him, really.
He'd led the corrupted Dreamcatcher cat-fish spirits on a merry chase through the bowels of the Bastion's lowest level, if 'merry' meant confused and frantic and far too dark to see anything, accompanied by screaming terror and a few stubbed toes. It was as dark as his stay in the basement of Long Feng and the Dai Li Earth rebels, back before his and the gang 'liberated' the Fire Nation for Iroh, an unpleasant memory that did nothing
Traitor's Face - Chapter 73 by Loopy777, literature
Literature
Traitor's Face - Chapter 73
The Hunger
Beneath the dark waters, Aang could not see, could not hear. He was removed from the world, or perhaps the world was removed from him.
But he could feel. He could feel the tepid waters that engulfed him, could sense the currents within them. Perhaps he was imagining it, a hallucination born of the lack of anything to see or hear, but the currents that flowed over him were almost like the echoes of a scream.
Aang wondered, in the cold and the dark, how he might know he was crying, with the waters submerging him and drinking up all his tears.
Sokka couldn't say his was enjoying his first ride on a mechanical cargo elevator. Usual
EPILOGUE - THREE MONTHS LATER
Mai was heading for the Earth King's throne room - or, rather, the former Earth King's throne room - with Ty Lee when she heard That Voice again.
For a moment, she wondered if she was dreaming.
It had been a strange few days, dressing like a disgustingly colorful Kyoshi Warrior to infiltrate the Earth Kingdom's capital, and then helping Azula to bring the whole thing down. Mai had been forced to put on a performance for the Dai Li, fight the Avatar's companions, wear green all the time, and even put up with Ty Lee trying to train a bear to walk on its hands. She'd gone to bed last night exhausted, leaving the
7 - Dusk
It was said, by giggly overly-idealistic schoolgirls across the Fire Nation, that the way to tell you're truly in love with a boy is if you wind up committing arson for him.
Mai held very firm to the fact that, while she might technically be lighting the Mantapsan Armored Facilities on fire for the Blue Spirit, she was ultimately doing it for Zuko. So there.
Because she wasn't in love with the Blue Spirit. She wasn't even attracted to him. Yes, he was fun - when he wasn't ruining her life - and she respected him as a warrior who apparently walked through fortress security like it was nothing, but she wasn't the type of girl to fal