Blazing Crystal

Scars Run Deep

Aang grit his teeth. He shut his eyes as they watered like Sokka's. "It's my fault. I let Azula play us and lost my chance to find the Fire Lord. The warriors were captured because of my failure to save this world again. I keep failing to defeat the Fire Lord. This is all on me!"

Katara walked over and hugged Aang to comfort him. "It's not your fault Aang... We all knew this mission may not succeed. Every man in the fleet today knew what they were signing up for. Today just wasn't the day we would win. There's nothing we can do but look towards the future. We can still defeat the Fire Nation. But right now we need rest. All of us need rest." Aang turned into Katara as she held him, and I could see he was beating himself up terribly from the loss.

Toph let out a heavy breath, running a hand through her hair. "Yeah. Sugarqueen is right. We need to focus on what to do now. What our next steps are... We can't mope around and wallow in our sor-" She stopped, and her lips turned down as her clouded eyes narrowed. Her feet went flat as she focused on the vibrations of the earth. "Hey... wait a minute." Her head cocked in the direction of the one person who had gone unnoticed so far. "That light feet back there... Isn't that the chick from Ba Sing Se who helped imprison the Earth King and his bear?!"

Everyone immediately looked back behind Zuko and I at the girl who had remained silent since their arrival. Katara, Sokka, and Aang's eyes widened at the person they knew from the very recent past. They were not happy at all.

"WHAT! What is she doing here?!" Katara ripped out her water ready to attack Ty Lee. Sokka yanked out his sword, and Aang flipped his staff prepared to fight as well. Toph had got into a stance too. The Duke and the unnamed kids backed away with uncertainty, but looked ready to defend themselves if they needed to.

"No! Wait! Don't!" I rushed between the group and Ty Lee holding my hand out to stop them. The movement hurt, but I tried not to show my discomfort as I defended my friend. Zuko had backed up as well to jump between if he needed to. "It's okay! She's with Zuko and I. She's not bad! I promise!"

Katara was appalled by my defense and cried, "What?! Not bad?! She's Azula's minion! She's the one who paralyzed Sokka in Omashu, chased us through the Earth Kingdom in a giant machine, tried to attack us on that drilly thing, and helped capture the Kyoshi Warriors! She's the enemy!"

Ty Lee stepped forward beside me with angst. "Was," she promised. "Not anymore."

Aang gripped his staff with both hands and pointed it towards her. "What do you mean, was?! Talk! What are you doing here?"

I looked at Aang with plea. I could see the tension was rising and I needed to intervene quickly. "Please listen to us, everyone! She helped us escape from the Capital. Zuko and I were about to be attacked and captured by Azula again as we were making our escape. Ty Lee turned on her friends and blocked their chi. She's on our side now. There's no need to fight her. She won't hurt anyone. She saved us!"

Zuko quickly stepped back so he could get between the group as well. "It's true. She joined us to help us end this war. If it wasn't for Ty Lee I would've never gotten Crystal out of that awful place."

Sokka was bewildered. He lowered his sword as he took in our words. The others slowly did so as well with their own weapons. "You're telling me this cartwheel chick whose bestie is your crazy sister changed sides?!" He pointed at her for emphasis. "How can we trust her after everything she's done to us?"

I looked at my brother with agony. "By trusting me."

Sokka was shocked by my plea. He wanted to argue, but after meeting my gaze fully for the first time since their arrival, and realizing he didn't want to fight me, he let out a deep sigh. Instead of debating further, he looked over at the three kids who clearly did not need to be part of this group decision. "Haru..." He looked at the earthbender with authority. "Why don't you take Teo and The Duke into the temple and get settled? The rest of us need to discuss some stuff further with these three."