FicWad

A/N sorry for any small mistakes, posted this later at night and it was annoying me so I probably missed some things.

Italics re character thoughts, mostly Raven's unless specified / implied

I don't own TT or A:TLA, because if I did I would try to make it much more discreet when ripping off ideas from things I see.

R&R

They both woke up within minutes of each other the next morning. Most likely because of a nearby fight that was brewing and had caused quite a commotion. They had slept sitting upright, leaning against the other's back because neither of them cared much for lying on the ground. It was already nearing noon, and the port was busy with ships coming and departing; a constant cycle of loading, and unloading cargo for the workers. The vast majority of them were carrying cargo, with a half dozen small fishing trawlers and a lone warship; A small one at that, but still formidable in battle.

Holly stood and, stretching her arms and back, looked up at the sky to where the clouds covered the sun. "Under an hour until noon, should probably head for the docks."

Raven stood up and looked around, the memories of where she was slowly coming back to her. "Sure" She said, still tired but not in the mood to disagree. The two started walking away from the dock and looped back toward it a block later, in order to avoid the brawl that was sure to come. At this point, getting arrested would be among the worst things that could happen. Holly internally cringed when she saw dock three, with the warship high in the water. Of course the man would be on that ship. That damned ship, the only one that would kill her if they knew who she was. Most other ships on the port, especially the merchant ships, didn't care too much. To them, business with a man of different color clothing was still business, so long as they weren't in a military uniform. The two walked past a few of the small outdoor shops, when Raven spotted the man from the bar buying a stack of tea leaves from a vender.

"So, what kind of tea did you buy?" Holly asked as she approached him.

"Ah, it's their local specialty! Although I forgot the name" he responded with a chuckle. "Good to see you made it; I do apologize for not introducing myself yesterday. My name is Iroh." He stepped past Holly and shook Raven's hand. "I see you put it to good use." He said referring to the White Lotus token.

So that's why he seemed familiar.

He looked over at Holly; "The Kyoshi Warriors are good people, and they protect their own." He said in a very hushed voice, "At least, I assume that is what you are?"

She didn't answer him, she couldn't. It was hard to consider a person 'good' nowadays, and she knew that she was very far from that. Still, it was rare to see a Fire Nation citizen that was able to see both sides of the war. Of course, it wasn't their fault that many believe the other nations are evil. It's something that had been being taught to them young, and ingrained in their lives ever since.

"Regardless, please excuse my nephew if he is rude, he doesn't know you'll be joining us yet." Iroh said after the brief silence.

Before the group boarded the lone warship, they decided to stroll through the shops one more time. The two let Iroh talk most of the time as he explain various items and products unique to the region. While Holly just trailed behind, enjoying the peace while she could, and giving thought to what the upcoming passage on the warship would be: Spirits only know what the journey on that ship will be like. Iroh seems kind enough, and doesn't look like the man who takes shortcuts on pleasantries. Granted, we may have to be working in the engine room to receive passage. I wouldn't be opposed to that, done it before just to get home. Raven on the other hand, it isn't her home. That work won't do for her…

Raven looked over the stalls with a passing interest. She had far more concerns about the events of yesterday. Glancing over at Holly, she let her thoughts wander: She desperately wants to get back to her home, so she probably wasn't away from there willingly. That and she's a couple days journey from where she found me, and I don't even know how long she was traveling before that. So why would a person move across an entire sea and then some, just to try to get back? And with people trying to stop her along the way too, those men on the rhino were uniformed after all. Which means they weren't just bandits, had to be hired or military; and they were looking for her specifically.

Raven looked back at her again. She was looking at some fabrics at a stall, or at least appearing to be interested. Her eyes, a worn grey, had a faraway look. Honestly, Raven wasn't sure she could get her full attention right now if she wanted to. She silently wondered why, what had this person gone through? Raven, the child of a devil, had no doubt seen awful things; but what happened to this one person to affect her like this? It's not that Raven didn't trust her. No, this woman had saved her life at an extensive risk of her own. Back on Azarath that would be considered a life-debt; where one person would protect the one who had saved their life until they had "paid off" that debt. Maybe that's why I'm with her. Raven though briefly, even though she knew there was really no other place for her to go. No, the life debt hasn't been practiced in centuries. It's simply impractical in the modern world. But… this isn't exactly a modern world.

The trio began making their way to the dock when a young man with a top knot and a scar over his eye past them. Raven could've sworn he looked familiar, and quickly pulled up her hood before he turned around. Still, she couldn't place him until he approached Iroh with squared shoulders and n aggravated expression etched in his face.

"Uncle, we set off in ten minutes, where have you been?" He struggled to keep his voice below shouting. So he was the other one on the carriage.

"Oh, just around the shops, and I've found two friends to accompany us on the way.”

“I told you to talk to me before you do that! Look, just make sure they don't get in the way; and if the second one isn't here soon, we're leaving anyway." The one that wanted to abandon me.

Raven and Iroh looked back to see Holly missing.

"Oh, it won't be more than a few minutes, just be patient now." Iroh said easily as the young man rushed off, pushing past the throng of people around the shops as he went.

The two waited for a moment in silence until he was well out of sight, Raven scanning the crowd for her, but Iroh was just looking through his new purchases.

"You can come out now." He said to seemingly nobody. But a moment later Holly was standing at their side.

"How did you…?" Raven never finished that sentence.

"Stealth is something we learned very young." She interrupted.

"I see," Said Iroh, taking note of her clothing "You were right to hide, he would have noticed a prisoners outfit immediately. Although I don't know how we will get onto the ship without incident because of that."

She was a prisoner? That would explain a lot. Getting captured and moved forcibly across the sea. But her, a criminal? The same kind I had fought back on Earth for years? No, doubt that much. She had saved my life. Ah yes, the war. It must be because of that. She's a criminal in the eyes of the Fire Nation, but only them. I suppose she's more of a savior to me.

Iroh was scanning the shops from where he stood, but with no success. The venders here could only sell cloth, which would then be sent to factories to make the clothing. He looked at Raven again and realized what he could do. Yes, sometimes the simple solutions really are the best.

"Raven, would you be kind enough to lend her your cloak?"

It was a simple switch, with Holly covering her distinguishing clothes with ease and Raven, while not much to her approval, still being able to board the ship wearing her leotard. Despite the calls from deckhands who assumed she had a price. After all, leotards weren't as commonplace in this antiquated world –at least for a person with an “honorable” profession.

Never assume, it might get you killed. She thought to a group of the sailors on the deck. She knew she had been letting anger loose a bit more than she should have recently. But at least nothing was said aloud. No harm done, yet.

The trio stepped down below decks and, after taking a few turns, arrived at Iroh's room.

"Down the hall and to the left is your room. It will be three nights and two days until we reach Whale Tail Island, and from there you should be able to catch a ferry. I, ah, suggest you don't go up on deck for the rest of the day. It seems my nephew isn't in the best of spirits. Do forgive him though; it's a troubled time for all of us." He nodded briefly and gave a wide smile before retreating into his room.

Their room was small, probably meant to only hold one person originally. Fitted with a bunk bed and a small shelf and painted a dreadful grey. Their dinner, along with some clothes close to Holly's size, was delivered by Iroh a few hours after they had left the harbor. Two cups of his new tea and some small bowls of rice was their only meal that day, although Holly ended up giving the tea to Raven and did not finish her rice. The two entertained themselves the rest of the night by sharing stories of each other's home world.

*

The next day Raven woke up early and followed Iroh up to the main deck. In the fresh morning air he taught her the basics of Pai Sho, while Holly would sleep very heavily until midday. Aside from brief rain showers later in the day, the time passed with relatively good weather; and by the last full day on the ship, Iroh's nephew had come down to the deck and introduced himself. Zuko had not been rude, nor did he appear to be a harsh person beneath the façade he had put up. Maybe blunt would be a better word for him. Iroh, Raven supposed, was right. He was just troubled, for what reasons though, she could not grasp. Their third night on the ship, the night before they disembarked on Whale Tail Island, Raven told Holly of the many planets in her universe, and the different environments that were on a few on them. As midnight drew closer, a lone hawk flew toward the warship.

*

“Ensign!” Zuko yelled at the nearest person he could see in the ship's bridge. "Fetch my Uncle, now!" Zuko reread the paper clutched in his hands as the messenger hawk stood on a nearby table.

The ensign didn't respond, but started climbing down the ladder as fast he could. The captain wasn't happy, not an uncommon occurrence; but it was not a time argue with him, only to do as he says when he gives you an order

"Yes Zuko?" Iroh asked, thankful he hadn't fallen back asleep before the ensign had come to his room.

"What is this?" he shoved the scroll of parchment from the messenger hawk in front of him.

"A wanted poster."

"For whom?"

"Two women it looks like."

"Ugh." Zuko spun around and punched the wall out of frustration; thankfully opening his fist before it hit so he didn't break his fingers.

"You can't just pick up random people anymore! They're criminals. If they make it to the island they'll be gone, and we'll be as marked traitors!"

"Traitors isn't too far from what we are right now." He said grimly.

Zuko just grunted and left the bridge. He would solve this himself.

*

Holly had been sitting up in her bed when the sailor rushed past their door. In fact, she hadn't gotten more than three hours of sleep that night, due to one of her reoccurring nightmares. That's why, the nights she wasn't plagued by them, she usually slept close to twelve hours if she wasn't interrupted. Those nights have slowly been dwindling.

She had heard Iroh's conversation and gently shook Raven awake. The two had waited a minute for the messenger and Iroh to pass by until they slide open the rust door sprinted towards the spiral staircase.

Luck was not on their side that night.

They ran square into Zuko, dressed in full armor and an enraged expression carved on his face.

Zuko let loose a blast of fire, despite being in the close quarters of the spiral stairwell. As it came, Holly pushed Raven down a few steps and turned to use her back as a shield against the flames. The fire burnt away much of her kimono with ease and bit into her skin. The stench of burnt flesh brought back unpleasant memories to Raven; memories of her past, but now was not the time to dwell, she scolded herself as she pushed the visions of hell out of her head.

With severe burns on her back, Holly reached forward and, pulling him towards her, shoved him down the remaining stairs. Using his top heavy weight from to the armor to throw him off balance, he lost precious time trying to catch himself from falling. The two ran up the stairs to the upper deck, the fresh salty air aggravating the new wound on her back. Through many years of "experiences" she had grown accustomed to pain, but by no means immune. With years of training and the high amount of adrenaline coursing through her, she just clenched her fist and fought through it. They fled to the aft of the ship, having few other options. It was then they realized their situation. They were surrounded by water, and trapped with a madman bent on killing them, probably for good reasons too.

Zuko had emerged from the hatch leading below decks only a few seconds after they had. He too had seen their predicament.

The wanted poster said the criminals weren't benders; but Zuko knew how easily fooled the soldiers could be when giving reports. Besides, Zuko figured, any earth bender here would be useless on a metal ship, and the only water benders who could pose a threat to him were far in the northern water tribe.

Shooting two long streams of fire to his sides, he cornered the duo to the remaining aft section of the ship's deck. He said:

"You have two options. Either you come without a fight or you can take your chances with me. I'd prefer the later."

Damn psychopath.

"Hey," Raven said, looking behind her briefly. "How cold do you think the water is?"

"One way to find out." She said with a grin.

She grabbed Ravens wrist tight so they wouldn't lose each other in the darkness of night and, with one final breath, the two threw themselves backward and over the low railing, into the churning sea.

"Wha…" he let loose a scream of frustration. “The spotlights, spotlights! Somebody!" he screamed, but nobody would hear him. The crew knew not to be on the same deck as him when he was like this.

Zuko could hear the muffled scream Holly had let loose when the icy salt water contacted her wound.

Nobody can survive the night in the sea. Open wound and freezing water. Zuko thought to himself. He then turned and marched to his cabin to write up the report, on how had confronted a dangerous criminal and her accomplice; and how they had taken their own lives just before they were captured.

Holly had passed out from the pain when she hit the salt water, still gripping Raven's wrist almost painfully tight. She never saw Raven form a disk of obsidian beneath her and levitate them out of the water. Nor felt Raven swiftly rip away the soaked kimono, revealing the wound on her back. There was only one deep burn, almost a foot long and several inches wide, stretching diagonally across her upper back; but the surrounding area did not escape damage earlier. Raven's eyes wandered from the singed edge of the cloth wrapped around her chest to the lower portion of her back. She was taken aback by the amount of scars crisscrossing her back. Many very thin ones climbed upwards and under the cloth, with a few of the heavier ones continuing past it and snaking up along her back. She unconsciously traced one of them with her finger. And I thought I had seen what hell was like. She snapped back to reality and wrapped her blue cloak around Holly, knowing it was dry and, unlike the wet kimono, would hold in the heat instead of suck it away from her.

Thank Azar Robin had us waterproof everything she thought, remembering a particularly bad fight during their first weeks of defending Jump City. They had all ended up in the bay save for Beast Boy, who had reminded them about it for weeks once they had all come down with the common cold.

She felt guilty as Holly moaned from the pain. Healing, like everything else, had its limits and took time to do; and right now her priorities were preventing hypothermia and getting onto solid ground.

Just under an hour and a half later, Raven began descending down to a secluded shore on the eastern tip of what she hoped was Whale Tail Island. She had already passed a large portion of the same island minutes not long before, but decided against landing when she saw soldiers dressed in green tunics heavily populating the island. She wasn't sure if they were friendly or not, but wouldn't dare take that chance.

After walking the floating platform into the relative safety of the woods, she lowered her friend, back facing up, onto the ground. Kneeling beside her, she began the lengthy process of healing the burns. Holly awoke shortly after the she started:

"Where are we?”

"Not a clue. That island the ship was heading for I think."

"Oh" she said, she clenched her teeth when Raven removed the cloak as gently as she could without tearing the skin that had dried onto to it.

She reached to unravel the linen bandages around Holly's arm when Holly, with a bust of energy, turned to her side pushing her wrist away from the area; she glared at Raven, but looked away with a small grunt from the pain that moving had brought.

"I was just trying to heal it." Raven said, but silently doubting there was anything under it at all.

"It can't be healed." Holly responded bitterly, as she slumped back down onto the dry earth.

"Okay…I won't be able to heal all of this at once; it'll take one, maybe two more sessions."

"This is already more than I could ask for." She said gratefully, gazing at the horizon where the sun would soon rise from.

Raven sighed and started healing the woman before her.

I've been in this world what, three days now? Or has it been four? Either way, I've only really met two people: Iroh and her. Those soldiers and the bartender don't count - don't even know their names. Zuko though? I really only met him yesterday for an hour when he came down to the deck; seemed nice enough then, but not the other times, definitely not that last time…

The better part of an hour passed with Raven doing what she could to stop the bleeding and prevent further infection. Dawn would be coming soon, and if they didn't leave before it came, they would have to stay until the next night; or else run the high risk of being seen as they left the island. Holly, Raven knew, was in no condition to stay in the dirt any more than she already had. Raven drew her hands away from Holly's back and stopped the healing process for the time being.

She woke up a few minutes later to Raven cutting the kimono into long strips to use as bandages for her back. After applying them as best she could, Raven formed another disk next to her and helped Holly to get up and sit on the edge of it.

Don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep expending my energy like this, haven't meditated in what seems like an eternity, especially with all the recent changes.

She grimaced a bit, not looking forward to the next time she meditated, knowing that her emotions would hate her for neglecting them for so long.

Holly looked up from the edge of the disk, gazing at the few remaining stars as they became slowly washed away by the coming dawn.

"Umm, yea, well Kyoshi should be east of here, or maybe south. There isn't really enough stars out to tell." Raven rolled her eyes at this.

"Then we'll go southeast, just point the way."

"Well, I also can't tell which way north is."

"You're kidding me." Raven said to herself.

"Wish I was."

"Fine." Raven said as she lifted the platform higher and started heading in the opposite direction that the ship came into the islands port.

Flashback:

Suki was staring at a man dressed as a Fire Nation lieutenant. A rather short man actually. To be fair he was just under an inch shorter than Suki, and maybe 20 years older. The raiding party that day had let a small party off on the other side of the mountain before sailing into the main harbor of the island. Allowing five Warriors to be flanked and the majority of them captured. Suki, glaring at the leader, was curious as to what they would do; considering they only had enough men left to guard one or two prisoners effectively.

"I'll ask you kids again, bring me to leader of the militia here and no more harm will be done."

He studied the identically painted face of each person in the lineup and gave a small nod at the man next him, who then gave a wave for his men to drag a small boy forward. The boy was part of a small family of merchants who decided to leave the next day instead of just hours before. She recognized him particularly because he almost went swimming in the bay with the Unagi. Despite the multiple warnings they had given the merchants.

Suki had her left foot forward, about to step up and let them take her in exchange for the family's safety. It was her duty to protect the people of this island, and anybody taking shelter on it at the time. That's the code she was taught and trained by, and that was the one she would follow.

"Leave this island now and let the merchants to do as they please, I'll go with you for whatever your intentions are." The voice came from behind the soldiers. Suki looked around wildly. She hadn't stepped forward yet, none of them have. The other four in the line were equally as surprised when they saw the speaker. Holly, she was leaning against a tree no more than fifteen feet from the soldiers.

Suki stared in shock with her jaw slack as Lin held her back.

Holly, of all people. She had always acted as more of an outlier. Not to Warriors, she was family to them; but to the villagers. It was because she was the only warrior who wasn't born on the island –a sore topic for many of the members of the council. She was brought here when she was no older than six when her village was washed away in a flood. Hiroko, the Warrior who brought her back, chose to train her for the next generation of warriors. Of course, the decision and her stubbornness about it had not gone over well with the council. In fact, the only reason Holly was trained to be a Kyoshi Warrior was because Hiroko had threatened to leave the island if they didn't allow it.

The many questions about her background that had been left unanswered are why most of the villagers didn't trust her. Nobody knew what village she came from, or even her birthday. Some weren't even sure if she knew. More than once had the villagers suspected her of trying to snatch a free ride on the island instead of protecting them; or that she was stealing precious food and planning to flee with it one day.

That is why Suki was shocked when Holly had told those soldiers to take her to the prison. She had spent more than a few restless nights pondering the actions of that day. How could Holly subject herself to the infamous horrors of a Fire Nations prison, for people who would think twice about attending her own funeral?

Suki had never asked nor wanted another soul to go in her place.

She could never forgive Holly for doing what she did.

Yet she would be eternally grateful for all that she had sacrificed.

It was close to three weeks before they saw Holly again. She went from the merchant ship that she had stowed away on straight to the dojo and fell asleep in her hammock. She woke up hours later to eight annoyed but very relieved faces looking down at her. They had to replace her hammock the next day, as several of the ropes were stained in blood.

That was only the second prison Holly had been to, and it would not be her last. The prisons over the years had noticeably changed her. She would never talk about what happened in them, and she began distancing herself further from the group as she returned from each prison. She had stopped swimming with the Warriors on their days off after her second prison, instead preferring to take walks in the valleys or sit on a small hill overlooking the bay.

Despite these changes, what worried Suki the most was when she had asked her why she went in her place:

"Simple really, you've never been to those kinds of prisons before. It kills you, just a little more every time; and without a leader we wouldn't be able to protect this place much longer. But me? I'm rather expendable."

It was more of an answer than Suki expected, more thought out and brutally honest too. Despite Holly basically saying that she wouldn't be able to handle it, Suki never asked her about it again. And truthfully, it was probably more of a valid opinion than she would've liked.

She realized many things during those days after Holly returned. Among them, Suki had realized why she really went with the soldiers. Holly wasn't protecting the people. She was protecting the only home she had left. To do that, she figured, she had to protect those fighting for it.