Summary: In another universe Ty Lee realized her potential as an airbender, Zuko tamed a dragon and Mai fought in the final battle against the Fire Nation. Shamelessly AU.

A/N: Although they will probably will never know it, this story was inspired largely due to TealTerror's story Trapped and also by Sanji's story The Circus. Particularly the Title of this little one-shot. Both stories are listed under my favorites for anybody who wants to check them out.

The Essence of Freedom

One-shot

Written by: ljv

Disclaimer

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

- Albert Camus

"When I grow up," Ty Lee says, eight years old and very earnest, "I want to join the circus."

Her sisters giggle. This is enough to make Ty Lee blush with humiliation and make her aura flare a brilliant pink. But her mother does not laugh, does not smile and does not act if Ty Lee's words are a joke. Her mother gazes at her calmly.

"Why do you want to join the circus, Ty Lee?" There is no malice in her voice but only a gentle concern.

(Ty Lee loves that her mother can always tell her apart from the rest of her sisters. She loves that she has a name that her mother calls only her. She loves that she is always Ty Lee to her mother instead of simply being one of seven daughters.)

"Because I want to be different." She tells her mother. "I don't want to be just like everybody else."

Her mother studies Ty Lee with pensive gray eyes. Eyes that were almost the exact shape and color of Ty Lee's own.

Her mother does not respond immediately. When she does finally speak it does not seem to Ty Lee that her mother is really talking to her at all.

"Being different is dangerous, Ty Lee. Being different might cost more than you would ever think."

Ty Lee does not completely understand what her mother is trying to say but she knows her mother is telling her the truth.

Ty Lee watches as her mother's aura, a beautiful purple edged with strands of gold (so unlike the red, gold, yellow and orange that is so common among Fire Nation citizens), swirl with a startling but foreign luminous shade of white.

Her mother notices her looking before a sad smile curved her lips.

"My wise child," she says, "you always see too much."

oOoOoOo

It is much later, long after the final battle, when the details of her attack on Azula at the Fire Nation prison become clear.

"You saved me." Mai says, her gray aura flickering and twisting with shades of stunning silver, her hair whipping wildly around her face as she gazes at her friend.

They are traveling on the back of a blue dragon with an unbelievable speed away from the Boil Rock prison. This does very little to clear away Ty Lee's bewilderment and terror.

(Dragons are supposed to be dead, Ty Lee is suppose to be Fire Nation, none of this is suppose to be real, she is supposed to be Azula's best friend, she is supposed to be fighting for Fire Lord Ozai, she is supposed to be happy and not afraid).

The events of the last two hours still refuse to make any sense in Ty Lee's mind.

"I didn't…" She trails off, not knowing what she meant to say, still in complete shock.

"You airbent." Zuko says, speaking over his shoulder as he holds the reigns, guiding the massive beast through the air, the red and gold of his aura laced with various shades of gray. He sounds just as shocked and confused as Ty Lee feels. "You're an airbender."

"I'm didn't mean…"

"But you did." Said the pretty girl with blue eyes she had fought against on the gondola barely hours before. "You were amazing."

"I didn't mean to be." Ty Lee pleas. To whom she pleas, she is not sure.

The water tribe boy, Sokka, is beyond enthusiastic. (She is pressed against him on the over crowded back of the dragon. She can feel is heartbeat against her back and see the pulsing blue of his aura mix against her flickering pink aura to form the brightest dancing shade of purple.)

"You were so powerful." He says, with excitement in his voice.
Not a lot of control… but still. Control can be learned. You were fantastic! Just think of how much use you'll be against the Fire Nation!"

She was about to tell him that she was Fire Nation but her throat constricted so painfully at the thought of fighting against her own country that she was not able to form any type of response.

She is able to hear most of the story from Mai when they arrive at the Western Air Temple although she has no desire to ever listen to anything again. Ty Lee is windswept and exhausted and wants nothing more than to curl into a ball and cry. When they finally land, she is able to climb down from the giant dragon. (Her body is abnormally stiff. She doesn't have control of it. Not anymore. When her feet finally touch solid earth she falls instead of landing with her usual grace and agility. It is Mai that helps her stand and holds her to prevent her from falling again.)

The Avatar is there along with the Water Tribe girl and the Earth Kingdom child and they demand an explanation for the sudden arrival of the former Fire Nation prisoners and the (former) Fire Nation Elites.

Sokka and Zuko describe how they broke out of the Fire Nation prison. How they found Chief Hakoda and the Kyoshi Warrior. Zuko tells them how Mai saved them from being boiled alive. Mai then tells them just how Ty Lee saved her from being electrocuted.

"She was amazing." Sokka butted in. "First she took out Azula like this."

Sokka punched through the air poking at an invisible opponent.

"And then all those guards closed in on her, like twenty of them if not more, and she was like "whoosh!" and they were like "AHH!" and Azula was like "GRAW" and it was completely awesome!" He finished spinning in a circle with his arms stretched high above his head.

His antics are enough to make the aura around Mai to darken with annoyance.

It is the Avatar that speaks.

"Umm…I don't really think I'm following."

"She airbent." Zuko supplied. "Ty Lee is an airbender."

"A powerful one at that." Sokka added. "She took out about thirty Fire Nation prison guards with one big air torpedo."

"It was more like a tornado." Suki corrected Sokka. "And I thought you said it was only twenty earlier."

"Give or take." Sokka shrugged.

Ty Lee suddenly felt everybody looking at her.

It is the Water Tribe girl that breaks the silence.

"How long have you known?"

Ty Lee's voice is shaky. (She is still afraid, heartbroken and in complete shock and she can't figure out if any of this is real or not.)

"I'm Fire Nation." She says. "I can't airbend."

"But you did," says Mai. "I owe you my life."

For a moment, the bland shade of Mai's aura suddenly turned into a silver that was so intense (just like Azula's before she blocked her chi as she gathered deadly lightning and watched her fall) it made Ty Lee's heart break a little more.

"But I didn't mean too." Ty Lee says again. "I don't even remember airbending."

This was the truth.

Ty Lee remembers nothing. Nor will she ever.

Despite the number of times she will hear the story later of how she first airbent, when others will speak of her heroic exploits long after the war is over, the only thing she will remember from that day is being terrified. She will remember being torn between the two people she loved most in the entire world as they prepared to kill each other. She will remember with unrelenting clarity having to choose between them.

oOoOoOo

"You must never remain still. Power in air bending comes from movement. Air bending is about freedom. You are only free once you can control yourself."

Ty Lee knows about movement. She knows how to make her body fly and twist through the air. She knows how to dance with her opponents, how to avoid being hit in hand-to-hand combat. She knows how energy moves in the human body, she knows how to completely disrupt it with the lightest of touches. Ty Lee has always understood movement. She had always thought, at least until now, that she also understood freedom.

"Breathe." Aang says. "Control is in your breath. You must make freedom yours."

Watching Aang's aura was always fascinating. It moved with grace, peace and always an underlying restlessness. She would almost call it violent.

She breathes in. As she prepares to breathe out she prepares the air around her to bend with it. It does. But the blast is strong; far too strong and there is absolutely no control. She loses it and it is all Aang can do not to allow another building of the Western Air Temple to be destroyed.

"Power in air bending comes from movement." Aang tells her while they watch the flames from the campfire twist and crackle later that evening. "Freedom comes from internal control. You have no freedom if you have no control over yourself and your element. As you have the illusion that you control your own destiny you must also have the illusion that you control your own freedom."

"But I have always been free." Ty Lee says.

"Freedom is an illusion." Aang supplies back. "An illusion that must be controlled."

oOoOoOo

"Was it your mother or your father?"

Ty Lee is startled by the sudden appearance of Aang on top of the Western Air Temple statue. His face is friendly enough but there is a burning curiosity in his eyes that makes his gaze very intense.

She straightened.

"My mother or father what?"

"Which one of them is a descendant from the Air Nomads?"

"Neither."

Aang looked confused.

"That's not possible."

"My family history can be traced back well before the time of Fire Lord Sozin on both of my parent's sides."

The snap way in which she spoke to Aang is enough not to make him not to push the subject any further.

(The Avatar had no right! Because she is Fire Nation, born and bred, all the way through to her very essence, she will not acknowledge any claim she is not of pure Fire Nation blood.)

It will take nearly half of her lifetime before she is able to disregard the years of being told that the Fire Nation is superior above all else and all other nations. She will only wear the tattoos of an Airbending Master after her great granddaughter is born (although she has already been a master for decades).

oOoOoOo

It is years after the war when Ty Lee finally confronts her mother. The history is old but it still burns within the forefront of her mind.

"Did you know?"

By now, Ty Lee has adopted the clothing of the Air Nomads. She still refuses to shave her head for an exaggerated hairline that was standard 100 years ago for female airbending masters. However, her hair is pulled back into a modest braid. The austerity of the style she wears does little to hide her stern grace of her beautiful face, molded by many battles and hardships.

Ty Lee can hear her children playing outside. They are playing some sort of airbending game that is, as far as Ty Lee can tell, completely devoted to knocking each other over. There auras are so intertwined she cannot tell one child from the other as she watches them play.

Her mother is staring out the window watching her grandchildren as they airbend with unusual skill.

"Know what?" Her mother asks calmly.

"That we are airbenders."

Her mother's expression does not change nor does she look at Ty Lee, she continues staring out the window.

"Oh yes." She says, "I knew."

Ty Lee has many questions but she doesn't even know where to begin.

"Then why didn't…?"

"I had to protect you and your sisters. If anybody knew the truth, there would have been nothing I could do to protect you. My airbending potential was never realized. My father died before he could train me. I would have never been able to defend you."

Ty Lee wants to be angry with her mother. She wants to tell her that hiding is cowardly and there was nothing noble about it. Instead she asks calmly.

"Did father know?"

"Yes. He was the one who forged my family tree so that I could marry him."

"What about my sisters? You never told a single one of them?"

"No," her mother finally turns to look at Ty Lee. "Not until after you betrayed Princess Azula anyway."

Ty Lee flinches. She knows her mother didn't mean it like that but it still hurts all that same. Ghosts of old misery are enough to make Ty Lee's throat tighten. The wound is old but still incredibly painful. She is thankful when her mother continues to speak.

"Once word reached us that you airbent against the Fire Nation, your father and I took your sisters and we went into hiding. We told all of them then."

"Did they believe you when you told them."

Her mother shook her head.

"No. None of them believed until they saw you airbend against the army of Fire Nation solders that tried to kill us."

Ty Lee nodded but did not say anything as she too looked out the window at her children. Their game had suddenly changed. They are now seeing who can bend air to make themselves float the highest above the ground. The mild panic in Ty Lee's stomach at the sight of her children dozens of meters above ground is only calmed at the thought that her children were exceptional benders.

Her mother's hand is suddenly on Ty Lee's cheek.

"You were braver than any of us, Ty Lee. You were always the strongest."

Ty Lee's face twists with an internal pain.

"I never meant to be."

"I know."

oOoOoOo

Because Aang must fulfill his duties as The Avatar, Ty Lee trains all the children with airbending potential.

"I would do it myself…"

"I know." Ty Lee answers automatically.

She wants no part in training airbenders. She does not like that her life, which was once hers to do with what she pleased, is now dictated by airbending. She had nothing against children or teaching. What she hated is that she no longer had a choice.

"It means so much to me that you are willing to do this, Ty Lee." Aang says, smiling at her. "You will make a great teacher. You know so much more than just airbending. You understand the body's energy far better than any airbender in the last 1000 years."

She smiles and nods before rising gracefully to her feet.

"You are too kind. I cannot imagine my life now without airbending."

As much as she fights the malice in her voice is not hidden.

By the flicker of yellow of Aang's aura she knows that he has noticed.

oOoOoOo

Ty Lee is twenty years old the first time she falls in love. It does not take her long to decide it is the most horrible feeling in the world.

Sokka is only a year younger than she is. However, by this time he is no longer the gangly young boy whom she had a schoolgirl crush. This is something much more than a crush, she admits to herself, because having a crush never made her hurt. Having a crush had made her silly, but it certainly had never made her miserable.

The way her heart beats within her chest whenever Sokka is remotely near to her absolutely terrifies her.

When he smiles it is enough to make her blush. (Ty Lee never before has blushed because of a boy.)

When he asks her a question she forgets words.

When Sokka marries the Kyoshi Warrior, Ty Lee does not attend the wedding. She is not sure if she can stand it. She liked Suki very much and could not stand the misery of be jealous of a good friend.

"I'm very busy training the children, Sokka. I cannot go."

"But Ty Lee…"

"No. I have made my vows to the last of the airbending children. Don't expect a wedding vow will ever compete."

She truly regretted the hurt look in Sokka's eyes but she convinced herself that she was above petty emotion. The blue around him darkens into something tragic to look at. Besides going to watch the man she loved marry another woman served very little purpose but to further torment her.

oOoOoOo

Ty Lee marries a man with absolutely no bending ability. He loves Ty Lee. Because he was so infatuated with her, Ty Lee learns to love him.

The marriage lasted until his death, nearly ten years later. During that time he had given her 9 children. Three sets of twins and three other children who were all airbenders.

She mourns terribly, but is relieved. She did not want any more children. It was heavily under the Avatar's influence that she had so many children.

"The more airbenders the better," he would say. "We will have a nation again."

While none of Ty Lee's sisters learned to airbend, all of their children had airbending potential.

She made her home the Western Air Temple. She had upwards of 50 pupils made up of her nieces, nephews, sons and daughters. All of Aang and Katara's children also passed through her temple. Although she was not the only adult at the Air Temple, she was the only teacher. It was a task that was more than exhausting.

When she is called away from the Western Air Temple she is happy. Aang has asked her another favor.

The best she can tell it is one of Zuko's and Aang's crazy plans but she is willing to help.

"A new city," Aang says, his voice wavering with emotion, "for all the people of the world; Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, the Last of Air Nomads, and non-benders alike. It will be a place where we can all join together."

The young girl she once was would have reveled at the idea of such a place. Even now she felt a flicker of hope and optimism. Experience has told her, however, that it would be a long road and she felt a sudden and very heavy wariness.

"I will help in any way that I can."

oOoOoOo

It is at Azula's funeral that she finally sees Sokka again. He is much older but just as handsome.

"Hello, Sokka. How are you?"

Last she heard of Sokka was that he fell into a temporary insanity after his wife died. She had heard of very little of him since. However, given the current tumultuous waves of his aura, she can see that he has not completely escaped his own insanity.

"I am well with all things considered." He smiles, his eyes lightening up in such a way it makes Ty Lee's heart ache. "It's been awhile and I must say things are much better now that I see you."

oOoOoOo

"You should have seen your grandmother the first time she airbent," she hears Sokka tell her grandchildren, as she walks out of the room "there was at least 500 Fire Nation prison guards…"

-fin-