The Last Airbender: Shadows Cast by a Final Salute

[Graywand2]

Historian's Note: This story is set three months after the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Sozin's Comet".

Yes, Madam Chang's a reference to Star Trek: Enterprise. The title is a reference to Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.
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Shadows Cast By a Final Salute

"Before crime is committed, conscience must be corrupted."

-Henri Amiel (1821-1881) Journal, 30 May 1865

"War is the province of danger, and therefore courage above all things is the first quality of the warrior."

-Karl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831) On War

"It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake."

-H.L. Mencken (1819-1891), A Little Book in C. Major

Chapter One

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Ty Lee watched the sun dip below the horizon on Kyoshi Island. The young warrior relaxed against the oak tree behind her, and sighed. She was clad in the casual clothing issued to new Kyoshi Warriors when they joined the ranks: a green tunic and trousers with a black stripe up the left leg. Her shoulders had the upswept golden arrowheads of a detachment commander, quite an achievement for a person who was only a member of their number officially for a few months . Normally the young soldier loved to watch the sunset, but something was off. In her days in service to the Fire Nation, normally it was because she hadn't picked up a cute guy for a significant period of time, but she finally got over the attention issues that mandated that she have several boyfriends at once. Due in no small part to the fact that arguably she met the love of her life in that hell, a man she'd probably never see again, a man who'd told her to move on and forget about him, but she just didn't think she was ready. She figured she'd put herself back on the market eventually, but she'd promised that she would find him again, no matter who she dated in the interim. I will find you again, Kozin, she thought to herself, pocketing her locket. I will.

Ty Lee heard a soft rustling in the undergrowth behind her and turned around to see Michiko Kurosawa behind her. The young woman was in her casuals as well, with the golden arrowheads of a detachment commander on her shoulders. She smiled at her, and said, "Michi, how are you?"

"Fine," she said.

"You thinking about Kozin?" Michi asked. Michi and Ty had served with together in the Boiling Rock, eventually becoming close friends with her in that hell on Earth, and willingly serving under her, when Ty Lee had emerged, against all odds, as their leader. After they were released from prison when Zuko took over as Firelord, Michi had taken a demotion in rank and military seniority in order to remain of equal rank with her friend.

Ty Lee sighed, "Yeah, I am."

"He was a good fighter," Michi said softly, clearly trying to comfort her.

Ty rounded her, incensed at her words. "Was? We don't know if he's dead, Michiko."

Michi sighed, and appraised her with an unreadable look. "Do you really think he survived those final days?" Michi said, incredulously. "The Fire Nation Army evacuated us when they went in to restore order, and they were striking down the rioters indiscriminately."

Ty sighed, and for a moment let herself get lost in what she and Kuzon went through, glossing over the battle, and focusing on the precious few times they'd shared together. Sighing, she put those thoughts away, and stood up. She walked over to the edge of the water, and looked out, to the southwest, the general direction of the Boiling Rock, a place where part of her wished she had stayed to fight, and, yes, to die. Better then running, she thought.

"Come on, Commander," Ty said. "Time to go back home."

Ty and Michi walked through the forests, following an old trail back to Ganjitsu Village, where most of the Kyoshi Warriors tasked with defending and policing the eastern section of the Island were based; the farther they walked, the closer they got to the heart of her and Michi's area of responsibility. "So," Ty said. "You want to get something to drink when we reach town?"

"Why not," she said. "Madame Chang's? She has the best rice wine on the island."

"I want Ling's," Ty said. Ling's was a bar that was considered far less classy than Chang's, but Ty preferred the somewhat more rough atmosphere of Ling's to the overly refined atmosphere of Madam Chang's. Which was another personality change wrought by her time on the Rock. Before her time in prison, she was the stereotypical airheaded noblewoman's daughter: stuck-up, girly, shallow, but with a core of something that said she could be something greater than that. The Rock had brought the woman she'd never known she could be out, but at a terrible price in blood.

"Ling's," Michi said. "That's always been a tad...rough for me. I prefer something more...civilized."

She was about to respond to what she considered a slur on her favorite bar when a high-pitched scream pierced the night. Ty and Michi immediately froze in their tra and in an instant her and Michi's katanas were out, shining in the light of the full moon as they wheeled around, trying to locate the direction of the sound.

"Where did that come from," Michi shouted.

"That way," Ty Lee shouted, using her sword to gesture to the west, off the path. Ty and Michi shared a look of apprehension with each other, and without a word, charged off into the underbrush, swords to the ready.

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The thick blanket of shrubbery on the forest floor grew bigger and thicker with each inch Ty Lee and Michi travelled into the woods surrounding them. As they advanced further, the more frustrated Ty became. Where did that voice, come from? She looked around her, the light was failing fast, pretty soon it would be dark completely.

"We should head back," Michi said beside. "We need reinforcements to run a search like this."

"You're right," Ty said. They turned back around to head back to the trail when Ty felt the sole of her shoe make contact with a solid object under her foot. She looked down, and her blood turned to ice water at what she saw below her.

"Michi," she said, her voice wavering. "Look down."

"What?" her friend said. She saw her friend's eyes widen tenfold, as she visibly struggled with her impulse to run away from what she saw.

"I think we're going to need the signal flare for this one," Ty said. For staring up at her with vacant eyes, was the body of a young woman, a deep and bloody gash in her throat.

A/N: This is the start of a story I'm working on. It probably won't get any larger than a 17, 000 word novella.
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[Graywand2]

Chapter Two
Forces of Darkness and Night

Thirty minutes later, the area was swarming with members of the Third Operational Detachment, who were securing the area and spreading out with lit torches to look for clues. Normally Ty would be right there with them, but she was waiting for someone in particular to show up so she'd sent Michi out with them.. It was at that point that a young woman with brown hair and eyes and pale skin showed up. She was dressed in a simple blue and white dress and was carrying a lit torch in one hand and an animal-skin medical bag.

"Song Ma," Ty Lee said, greeting her warmly. "We're glad to have you out here with us."

"Of course, Ty," she said with the same warmth in her voice. "I needed to get away from my practice, though I wish it was under better circumstances," she said as she appraised the body lying in the underbrush. She moved the torch over to illuminate the body of the young woman. The woman had brown hair and eyes and somewhat tannish skin. She was dressed in a simple white linen shift, and Ty Lee got the distinct impression that she had seen her before.

It was then Ty suddenly recognized where precisely she'd seen this young woman before, and she stared, stunned as she remembered when, precisely she did meet this young woman

"I've seen her before," Ty said.

"What?"

Ty was silent for a moment as she stared down at the corpse, and didn't answer Song's question.

"Ty," Song said, sighing as she pressured again. "I've only been here on this island for a few weeks, but I wasn't born yesterday. You know this woman, tell me what happened."

Ty looked up at the young woman. Song was staring at her with an annoyed look in her eyes. Ty sighed, and opened her mouth, but at that moment one of her warriors came up to her and came to attention, an anxious look in the other young woman's gray eyes. She opened her mouth to say something when she heard a familiar voice shout from behind her.

"Commander, Footprints!" Ty Lee turned to see Michi kneeling down behind a shrub, using a torch to see view her discovery.

"I'll tell you later, Song," she said. She then dashed over to her friend. Michi looked up at Ty Lee, a curious look in her eyes. She moved out of the way and pushed the bush aside to reveal a set of goodly-sized footprints that, if she were any judge, weren't that much bigger than her own. Ty moved her own torch up, pushing aside bushes to reveal that the footprints extended off into the forest.

"I don't think we should follow it until morning," Michi said. "We can leave posts in the ground to mark it when we come back."

Ty gave Michi an amused look, Michi tended to err on the side of caution, in these types of situations. Which was a stark contrast to how she acted in a straight-up military situation, when she could count on her to be one of the deadliest, most brave women she'd ever met.

"Where's your sense of curiousity about these things?" Ty asked, an amused smile on her face.

Michi sighed, staring back at her, and annoyed look on her face. "I left it back on the Rock, and no, I have no intention of going back for it anytime soon."

Ty rolled her eyes and patted her friend on the shoulder, understanding her point, what had happened to Michi wasn't something either one of them liked to talk about. Still, this was something that had to be run down now, and they couldn't wait until tomorrow. "Grab three of the warriors and let's go, Michi."

"Yes, ma'am," she said. Turning around she yelled, in her best commanding voice, "Lai, Takeshewada, Ling, get your asses over here we're going to follow these footprints!"

Once the warriors acknowledged her orders and assembled at the edge of the clearing, the entire group set off into the dark forest, the only thing keeping the light at bay were five torches burning against the night. They pushed through the forest, torches low to the ground as they followed the trail of footprints. As they moved, Ty found herself thinking back to the moment she meant the woman who know doubt was being transported back t the village at that very moment...

Ty Lee sat in her office in Ganjitsu, her head buried in the paperwork set on the desk in front of her. She had a lot of work to get through before she could go home for the evening. She would be glad, to wipe the facepaint off her, and to get out of her uncomfortable green duty armor. Normally, she'd spend three hours getting drunk with Michi, but her fellow fifteen year old was as out of it as she was and since she didn't like to drink alone, it looked like she was going to spend this night eating alone and pining for her beloved Kuzon.

It was at that point that she heard a knock on her door. Ty sighed and sat back in her chair. "Come!" One of her soldiers, Reiko Takeshewada walked into the room. She stood at attention and said, "Ma'am, this young woman has a criminal complaint she'd like to put forth."

"That's Akagi's job isn't it?" Ty Lee said, sitting up

"Yes, ma'am," she said. "She insisted on seeing you, though. She said her life is in danger and can't risk placing her fate in the hands of anyone else."

Ty sighed, "Send her in."

"TY!" Michi said, snapping her out of her reverie. "It's time to engage here." She turned around to look at the young woman, who was staring at her even as they stood at the beach, the sounds of the ocean reverberating through the air.

"These are where the footprints end," Michi said, angry.

"Whatever bastard did this," Ty said, enraged. "Is on a ship far from here." It was then that she heard the distinctive whistling sounds of arrows being launched from behind her. She turned and saw that Lai and Ling were falling to the ground, black-feathered arrows sticking out of their backs. Ty, Michi, and Reiko, swords drawn immediately clustered together."

"AMBUSH!" Reiko shouted.

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Song Ma watched as the body was laid out on her autopsy table and sighed. She hated when this happened, she hated having to perform a routine autopsy on someone who was so brutally killed. She came to this island after the war ended a few months to start a new life. She was fifteen, a woman, and six years apprenticed to her mother as a healer had meant she was more than ready to start a new practice of her own. She'd gone there with the hopes of having a peaceful life treating injured children and helping young mothers give birth.

Life, though, had other plans for the young doctor it would seem, i.e. reality.

At least I made a new friend here, she thought to herself, thinking of Commander Ty Lee, a relative newcomer like herself, the difference being she was fairly high-up in the Kyoshi Warrior. They'd established a quick friendship after she came in for a routine physical. She was about to cut into the victims chest using, a fairly large butcher's knife, when her door slammed open. Ty, Commander Kurosawa, and another Kyoshi Warrior burst in. They and their armor appeared to be covered with a liberal coating of blood and earth, and there were lacerations and bleeding punctures in all their armor.

"What happened," Song said, putting her knife down and grabbing her bag. She ran over opening her bag and pulling out a bottle of wine and some linen bandages. As she worked, she asked again

"What happened?"

"We were ambushed!" Commander Kurosawa said, throwing her an annoyed glare as she worked on Ty, who seemed to have come off the worst of it, there was a fairly large puncture in his armor, and she was bleeding profusely through the armor.

"Ambushed," she said as she stuffed Ty's wound. "By who?"

"By the people who killed that woman on your operating table!" Ty shouted, the pain causing her to grunt. "It was a godsdamn trap! That innocent woman was murdered and used as bait to lure me out!"


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