Chapter Text
Chapter one - The Bison in the Iceberg
Azula remembered finding it funny.
Her brother was banished to find the last Avatar but he wasn’t allowed within the borders of the Fire Nation.
It has been around fourteen years since her grandfather ordered the last Earth Nation Avatar to be hunted and executed, every Fire Nation child who turned fourteen since that year was tested by the Fire Sages.
So, naturally the princess thought nothing of it when Ozai mentioned he would take her to them in the morning before they turned their attention to the celebrations of her birthday.
It was just a show of fairness. To allow him to announce that she wasn’t the Avatar and prove that the Fire Lord was not exempt from what he put his people through.
Because it was just for politics, she wasn’t concerned at all when she went to sleep, instead thinking about how grand her banquet would be the following evening.
That changed when her eyes cracked open a few hours after she had retired to bed.
One of the many things her father had taught her was to always be aware of her surroundings, which is why she shot up and held out a knife-shaped blue flame to the source of the intruder.
“Woah, it’s okay,” the boy squeaked with his hands held up.
Azula drew her eyebrows together but didn’t move the fire away from her target.
Of all of the people to bypass the guards and be sat at the end of her bed, she wouldn’t have expected a tattooed, bald boy, dressed in clothes she had never seen before. They looked far too comfortable to be from the Fire Nation.
Without saying a word, she thrust forward but went tumbling to the floor when her arm went straight through him and the force of the stab meant her body kept sailing forward.
The princess hissed when she hit the hard floor straight onto her side. Since she didn’t expect to keep going, she didn’t have time to think about breaking her fall.
The boy sat forward and cringed as he asked, “Hey, I’m sorry, are you okay?”
He reached his hand forward to offer her a way up, but he stared at his hand and remembered that if he was able to use it to help her up, she wouldn’t currently be on the floor and he dropped it back down to his lap.
“Why are you here?!” Azula asked.
“I’m here to wish you a happy birthday!” he replied with a wide smile and threw his hands up as if to emphasise his point.
Azula looked over her shoulder to the door.
She heard it being pushed open and swallowed hard.
The guard was going to see that a little boy had pushed her down to the ground. She was going to look so pathetic!
The guard (she had no earthly idea what his name was) ran in with a spear brandished, but faltered when he looked around the room and just saw the princess on the ground.
He did another scan before he lowered his spear and asked, “did something happen, your highness?”
Azula pushed herself to her feet and moving her head between the guard and the boy on the bed.
He just smiled at her again and waved and she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes since she didn’t think her birthday would be as enjoyable if the guard told Ozai she was hallucinating.
The guard frowned at the empty bed and Azula forced a more neutral expression and moved to sit on the edge of said bed (as far away from the boy as possible) and said, “I simply fell, please leave me so I can return to sleep.”
She could tell that the guard wanted to argue that there was obviously something suspicious going on, but it wasn’t wise to argue with the princess.
He just inclined his head and said, “I will be right outside if you need any assistance, your highness.”
Azula didn’t respond and he left.
She stared at the ground gripping the edge of the bed until the door closed and she looked at the boy with narrowed eyes.
“Who are you?” she whispered with some venom in her voice. She didn’t appreciate being made to look a fool in front of anyone, even if it was just a guard.
“My name is Aang,” he replied as if that answered all of her questions.
Azula growled lowly and asked, “Why couldn’t he see you?”
Aang’s smile fell and he asked, “Have you never seen a spirit before?”
“Spirit,” Azula repeated, “Do you expect me to believe that you are dead?”
He sighed and a look overtook his face that told her he was remembering something specific before he said, “For about 100 years now.”
Azula’s attention fell back to his clothes and then to his tattoos.
She didn’t spend too much time taking note when she was in combat mode, but now something occurred to her.
The look was exactly what Azulon had described to her when he explained his father’s accomplishments at the start of the war.
Looking at the spirit of the little boy, she felt a slight twinge in her stomach rather than the intense pride she would usually feel around the topic, however, she chose to ignore it.
“You were an Airbender?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied, without looking at her, choosing not to mention that he was hoping he wasn’t the last Airbender.
Azula ignored that twinge again and said, “that doesn’t explain why you are here.”
Aang looked up at her and said, “Like I said, I’m here to wish you a happy birthday!” but an unimpressed expression from Azula had him slumping his shoulders before he added, “you can’t allow your father to take you to the Fire Sages. The Avatar Cycle can’t end before balance is returned to the world.”
“Why would the Avatar Cycle end if my father were to take me to the sages?” she asked with an exasperated sigh.
“Because after the test shows that you’re the Avatar, Fire Lord Ozai will have you executed to finish Sozin’s plan to end the cycle,” Aang replied in one breath.
“My father wouldn’t…” Azula trailed off when it hit her what else Aang had just said, “I am not the Avatar!”
Aang tilted his head as he inspected the expression on her face. She looked angry, but there was also a hint of the terror he felt when the monks told him what he should have been.
“Do you really think non-Avatars would have an Airbending spirit in their room?” he asked.
“That logic is ridiculous, this is obviously a trick,” Azula shot back raising her voice slightly before she looked over to the door to make sure the guard wasn’t about to check on her again. When she was satisfied the door wasn’t about to open, she stood and started pacing.
She couldn’t be the Avatar!
Despite her objections, she knew Aang was right about what her father would do if the sages told him she was the Avatar.
Zuko would still be here and unscarred if he was as merciful as she was about to claim he was.
If it meant he could announce that it was him that ended the Avatar Cycle, he wouldn’t have any qualms of also announcing that he had executed his daughter. Not matter how much he seemed to trust her, she knew that he wasn’t a man who would bank the future on that kind of trust, especially with someone who had the potential to be so much more powerful than him.
As she admitted this to herself, she felt her stomach churn and she closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again.
“I am not the Avatar!” she repeated, more quietly this time.
Aang remained silent as she paced for a few more seconds before he asked, “I understand that you’re scared but what if I am telling the truth? Tomorrow will not be a good day for you if I am.”
“Why should I believe you?” Azula sneered.
Aang drew his eyebrows together and considered this for a moment before he shot to his feet and said, “I can teach you a simple air-bending form! If it doesn’t work, I’ll leave.”
Azula swallowed hard.
Logically she should test his claim considering what would happen if it were true, if it didn’t work and he left, it seemed she had absolutely nothing to lose. But she had everything to lose tomorrow.
Azula bit down on her lower lip before she forced out a single word, “fine.”
“Okay, so air-bending is all about freedom. Monk Gyatso once told me that your mind needs to be clear, you need to detach youself from all earthly worries to air bend,” Aang explained, as he demonstrated pushing his right hand forward slowly while bringing his left hand towards his body. Azula saw a gust of air fly from his palm but didn’t feel anything, more proof that he was in fact a spirit.
“Detach my mind from all earthly worries?” Azula asked, “you said this would be a simple form?!”
Aang frowned, but it occurred to him that clearing your mind wasn’t a common skill for non-monks.
“Can you try and remember a time when you had no worries?” he tried.
Azula got the distinct feeling he was making things up as he went along, but if it would get rid of him, she supposed she could try. She closed her eyes and did the move exactly as he showed her, thrusting her palm out as she opened her eyes.
When she saw nothing happened, a rather smug grin overcame her face and she looked over to the spirit.
“Does this mean I can return to my rest now?”
Aang shook his head and asked, “what memory were you thinking of?”
“Why does that matter? You said if I tried once you would leave.”
“I’m trying to save your life!” Aang shot back, raising his arms in the air for emphasis.
Azula deflated a little at the determination on his face and replied, “I was thinking of a training session with my father.”
Aang shook his head and said, “no, no that’s not worry free! How can you detach from earthly worries when you have someone judging your every move?”
“You mean like you’re doing?” Azula asked.
“Please try again.”
Azula wanted to say no, that a deal was a deal, but shook her head and closed her eyes and searched her memories.
All of her memories of her father felt similar to the training session, memories of Ty Lee and Mai were concerned with appearing perfect and those of her mother were concerned with jealousy over how she clearly favoured Zuko.
A jealousy she claimed not to care about every time she thought about it.
There was one exception to this.
She was around seven and her brother had pushed her to the ground for reasons that she couldn't quite locate in her mind.
Ursa had reprimanded him for hurting his sister and taken her inside to check her scraped knee.
When her mother checked it for dirt, she had no worry about being accused of being weak, that she should just deal with the pain.
She didn’t need to because her mother was there to take all it away.
The princess allowed the feeling to wash over her and let out a deep breath, as she performed the form again.
This time, when she opened her eyes, she saw a gust of air emit from her hand.
Granted, it was nowhere near as powerful as the fire she could create, but that wasn’t really the point!
She shouldn’t be capable of it all!
A part of her mind was telling her that she should go to Ozai right away and admit the truth so that she could help him achieve his goals. He would honour her bravery, right?
But then she looked at the boy that her great-grandfather had slaughtered and thought of the last water and earth Avatars, there was an obvious reason that she didn’t know their names.
They were just footnotes in the Fire Nation’s history.
She didn’t want to be that!
When she thought about her legacy, she imagined that she would remembered as Fire Lord Azula, successor to the man who had won the war.
But it didn’t seem possible that she could be both Fire Lord Azula and Avatar Azula. Wasn’t the Avatar always enemy of the Fire Nation?
“What if I don’t want to…” Azula asked without looking at Aang.
His smile fell as he inspected her, she looked truly vulnerable for the first time.
He recognised the fear in her eye, it was what he no doubt had just before he decided to run away.
“I’m not saying that you need to make the decision to save the world right now, but if you want to live long enough to choose, you can’t be here in the morning,” Aang said softly.
She glanced around the room.
When Ozai discovered that she wasn’t here in the morning, she didn’t think it would take him that long to figure out what had happened.
She moved to grab a bag even though she had no idea what one would need to pack to run away.
As she grabbed her crown from the bed side table, she thought back to Zuko’s banishment and it wasn't quite so funny anymore.
S
-Four months later-
“Please.”
Azula covered her eyes with her forearm and groaned, “go away, Aang, I’m trying to sleep.”
“One penguin,” Aang insisted.
“I. Am. Trying. To. Sleep,” Azula repeated.
“You wouldn’t go to the Air Temple, you could at least go penguin sledding once,” the air bender tried again, “it will be fun.”
Azula groaned and hit her head against the metal in frustration.
The last four months had been a mix of hiding, learning air bending and avoiding every other Avatar-related duty that Aang suggested to her.
Unfortunately, her efforts to avoid the Air Temple and stay off the Fire Nation’s radar had landed her in the South Pole with no other mode of transportation since her small one-person ship had finally given up after getting her across the world.
It was for this precise reason that she was trying to sleep on an abandoned fire navy ship that had presented itself like a mirage as she walked through the blizzard.
“What is it about being stuck in the South Pole with no mode of transport would suggest to you that I am in the mood for fun?” Azula asked.
“A penguin is a mode of transport,” Aang muttered.
Azula groaned and shot up to look at the spirit with narrowed eyes.
The air bender was frustratingly unaffected by the glare as usual. She really wasn’t a fan of spending so many months with someone who wasn’t afraid of her, but what reason would he have to be?
“You do realise there is quite literally no way out of this awful place? Why would my first thought be to try and ride a penguin?!”
Aang crossed his arms over his chest and inspected the princess.
It had been exceptionally difficult to get her to so much as say the word ‘Avatar’, the air bending training seemed like a way to fill the time rather than because she wanted to try and fulfil her destiny. He had been hoping that he would notice some changes from day-to-day in that regard, but she seemed to be just as stubborn as ever.
“So…you’re just planning to give up?” Aang asked.
Azula lay back down and shrugged, “I’m just tired, Aang…and cold.”
The boy was silent for a moment.
He had been reluctant to mention why he was her guide since it would mean admitting what he had done. His story would hardly inspire her to embrace her destiny in a way that he didn’t.
It didn’t help that he was indeed making it up as he went along and his only plan was to get her to the Southern Air Temple.
Surely there were some monks left who would be able to help her?
“I can feel you pouting,” Azula said without removing her forearm from her eyes.
“There is a village close by, we could go there and see if they have the materials for a makeshift glider. Or maybe they could offer a small ship?”
“I hardly think anyone in the Southern Water Tribe would help the daughter of the Fire Lord,” Azula replied. It was a fact that she’d had to accept as soon as she’d left the Fire Nation. The people at war with her father were not going to treat her like a princess, not that she really was a princess anymore.
She’d found the odd poster that told her that Ozai was in fact looking for her and she’d almost been tempted to return to the palace until she remembered that she would have to explain what happened.
It wouldn’t take long for her father to figure it out. She may be an excellent liar, but she'd never even thought about trying it with him. His relief at having his only remaining heir returned would soon disappear when he discovered her new circumstances.
“They would help the Avatar,” Aang replied, “and then we can find a monk.”
“There are no monks!” Azula exclaimed, sitting up again, “the fire nation wiped out the air army.”
Aang’s chin wobbled slightly and she admittedly felt a little bad. Was this the empathy and sympathy that her mother always wanted her to feel? If it was, then she had to admit that she wasn’t a fan. She much preferred Ozai’s approach of just taking whatever he wanted without worrying about other’s feelings.
As it was, in her current situation, being ruthless would hardly get her anywhere:
“Look, Aang, I’m sorry but Fire Lord Sozin had to…”
“The air nomads have never had an army,” Aang interrupted the attempt at justifying genocide, “we were peaceful people who never interfered in world politics, but Sozin ordered the genocide anyway. All because your great-grandfather wanted to kill the avatar. How can you be so proud of your family’s legacy of pain and suffering?”
Azula had the urge to defend Sozin. How could she allow this little boy to insult the honour of her predecessor?
In school, she had been so smug when they discussed the conquests of the Fire Lords and she had been so proud that it was a legacy that she would get to continue since her brother had his claim to the throne burned away.
However, the look on Aang’s face gave her pause. He was so sure of himself, just as sure as she had felt about what she believed. Surely he had to have been ignorant of the existence of the air army as a little boy? Her great-grandfather wouldn’t have launched an attack against a nation that was not prepared for an honourable fight, right?
Using all of the patience that she had been forced to learn to bend more than just a gust of air, she stopped herself from making some snarky comment about how her family’s legacy was more relevant than that of his long dead nation. It didn't seem like saying something like that would make the situation better.
“I’ll let you sleep, just call me if you need anything,” Aang said and faded away not allowing a chance for Azula to say anything at all.
The princess wiped her hand over her face before she curled up on her side and blew out a breath of blue fire while she rubbed her hands together and curled them into her palms.
She could worry about insulting her only friend in the world when she woke up.
Not having any actual plans for the rest of her life meant that she would have nothing better to do anyway so she might as well figure out how to be nicer to the spirit.
S
When Azula woke up the next morning, she was still freezing and alone.
For a few seconds, the princess tried to close her eyes. If she could fall asleep again, it would be the best way to pass the time, however, that plan was thwarted by a loud growling in her stomach.
With a deep sigh, she sat up slowly and reached over to grab her bag.
Unfortunately, her suspicions were confirmed. It only contained her now less than polished crown and an empty water canteen.
The last of the food she had managed to scavenge had already been eaten when she had been flying over the ice and that was a couple days ago now.
She was really beginning to regret not turning back to the Southern Air Temple the tenth time that Aang had asked her to. There was a better chance of finding something edible there than in the literal South Pole.
For a moment, she considered whether she could go to the village and announce that she was the Avatar. She could conceivably do a bit of air bending as proof and then be given food in return.
If she really was the last hope for the balance of humanity, that had to be worth some free meat, right?
However, the thought of actually going up to someone and telling them that she was the Avatar actually incited an onslaught of nausea. She hadn’t even spoken to another living person for 4 months, so she didn’t trust herself to be able to have an actual conversation with anyone other than Aang.
From what she could tell, the boy had no choice but to help her because if he had a choice, he surely would have left her permanently by now?
She was very aware that she wasn’t a pleasant person. It used to be something that she revelled in because her status meant that she could act any way that she wanted and she got to enjoy it, without consequence.
She just shook her head and looked over to the exit to the navy ship.
A part of her wanted to just stay here and finally give up. What was the point anymore?
It wasn’t as if she could see herself as the great Avatar who would stop Fire Lord Ozai.
How could she ever fight her father?
The last four months may have given her some glimpses of what her nation had done to the world, but why would she spend so much time in self-banishment only to be killed by her father in a foolish challenge?
On the other hand, what was the point of running if she was just going to curl up and die after four months?
For someone so obsessed with legacy, it didn’t make a lot of sense to accept that her story would end in the South Pole on a ship that no one would ever board again.
The princess ran her hand over her face as her stomach rumbled again and she finally made a decision as to what she should do.
It wasn’t as if deciding to go and get something to eat was her committing to defeating all the evil in the world.
Right now, she really needed to stick to the one thing at a time philosophy that had gotten her this far.
“Aang,” she called.
Not a moment later, the air bender appeared cross-legged a metre or so away from her with his usual smile on his face, as if their discussion the previous night had never happened. Maybe Azula would get away without having to apologise after all?
Since the option appeared to be available, she chose to just go right into what she wanted.
“What would be the easiest way to get food here without going to the tribe?” Azula asked.
“Oh that’s easy,” Aang replied quickly, he was very used to helping her with basic survival at this point, apparently a princess knew less about the world than a nomad who had been dead for 100 years, “you can go fishing.”
“Fishing,” Azula repeated with a sigh, before she stood up and tried her best to pat down her clothes that had long since past their prime.
“While you’re taking my advice, a penguin would be the quickest way there,” Aang added.
Azula rolled her eyes and went towards the exit.
S
“Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish.”
Katara completely ignored her brother, he was probably doing something ridiculous anyway.
Instead she was staring at the water.
She had known for a long time that she was her tribe’s last waterbender, which was no doubt why she felt perfectly comfortable staring at the element, she just wished that she knew how to control it as her Gran told her she should be able to.
Sure, she could physically move water to varying degrees of success, but it wasn’t a particularly useful skill, especially considering all of the traditions that only she was capable of continuing.
It was for this reason, that when she saw a fish swim by her side of the boat, she glanced quickly over to Sokka to make sure he wasn’t watching. He was always the first to stop her when she was about to do something ‘magic’ and when she was satisfied that she could do this without judgement, she removed her glove and held out her bare hand to the water.
She made a wavy motion with her wrist and moved her hand up and down, all the while, apprehension filled her expression. It always felt so important whenever she tried something like this.
To her great surprise, the fish actually rose out of the water and she exclaimed, “Sokka look!”
“Shhh! Katara, you’re going to scare it away,” her older brother replied without once tearing his attention away from his aquatic prey, “hmmm, I can already smell it cooking.”
“But, Sokka! I caught one!” Katara tried again, though most of her attention was on the somewhat random movements she was making with her arms in the hopes that she could get the fish to stay suspended in the air. Unfortunately something went awry very quickly as the water bubble containing the fish floated across and over Sokka’s head just as he pulled back his spear to strike the fish his eyes were still trained on.
The water bubble burst which meant two things. Sokka was soaked and the fish fell back into the water.
“Hey!” Sokka cried, “why is that every time you play with magic water, I get soaked?"
Katara looked away from where her catch had escaped and narrowed her eyes at her brother, as she replied, “it’s not ‘magic’, it’s waterbending! And it’s…”
Sokka just held up his hand while he used the other to dry out the wolftail tied in his hair, before he said, “yeah, yeah ‘an ancient art unique to our culture’, blah blah blah. Look I’m just saying that if I had weird powers, I’d keep my weirdness to myself.”
“You’re calling me weird? I’m not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water!”
Katara had her statement proven a moment later as Sokka grinned at his reflection in the water while flexing. He was obviously very happy with what he saw.
But this happiness disappeared a moment later as their canoe lurched forward and he reached forward to make sure that his sister was secured.
Sure enough, the canoe was trapped in rapids, being pulled towards clusters of icebergs.
It was this that got Azula’s attention.
The princess had been sat on a patch of ice not too far away (though far enough away to not be seen by the siblings) trying to figure out the best way to catch a fish. She had decided that if it took longer than ten minutes, she would ignore Aang’s objections and just electrocute the water.
Unfortunately, her proximity meant that she was close enough to hear their ridiculous interaction. Honestly, did she and Zuko ever sound like that when they argued? Or was it how they should have sounded rather than her gleeful tone when she announced that Ozai was going to kill him on their grandfather’s orders?
The Avatar had been determined to just ignore them until she could get a fish and go back to her ship to figure out if the air nomad’s vegetarianism extended to fish. She was really relying on him knowing the best way to cook one.
This plan didn’t last though as soon as she heard the cries of distress and she rolled her eyes when she saw the boat being pulled by the rapids.
“Watch out! Go left! Go left!” she heard Katara shout.
She saw two icebergs smash together just as their canoe passed through them and she knew instantly what was about to happen, which was confirmed a moment later when Aang announced:
“You have to help them, Azula!”
Azula looked up at the boy and said, “You cannot be serious. I really don’t see how this is any of my business.”
Aang let out a deep breath. If he had more time, he would have been very prepared to explain all the reasons to her, but as it was, the siblings could smash against an iceberg at any moment so he just went with: “because it’s the right thing to do! It’s what the Avatar should want to do!”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Azula sighed and actually rose to her feet much to Aang’s surprise, “at the very least, I may be able to get a fish from them.”
Aang rolled his eyes as the princess made a funnel of air to launch herself up to follow the pair. It wasn’t exactly the lesson that he wanted her to get from this, but he supposed that baby steps were key here.
The spirit turned his attention over to canoe that was getting further away by the second while Azula followed it deftly.
The strong winds seemed to carry the words “You don’t like my steering? Well, maybe you should’ve waterbended us out of the ice.”
Aang closed his eyes and concentrated on appearing on the other side of the ice where Azula was stood watching the ensuing argument with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Well that was pointless, they’re fine!” she muttered and pointed with her chin over to the pair who were clearly physically well, other than the consuming anger (and Sokka’s spear which appeared to have been stuck into the floe they had abandoned their canoe for).
“You could sound happier about that,” Aang replied, though he was mostly looking at Katara. If he was alive, he knew that he would have felt his throat constrict slightly, “wow,” he breathed.
Azula raised an eyebrow at the boy and looked at the girl with a little more attention. There was no denying that she was beautiful, but she didn’t see the point in turning into a drooling idiot just because a girl was in her presence (not that she would admit having experienced that once or twice in her life).
“So this is my fault?” Katara asked and both Azula and Aang turned their attention back to the pair who were still ignorant of their audience.
“I knew I should’ve left you home! Leave it to a girl to screw things up!” Sokka announced.
Azula scoffed and Aang’s mouth fell open slightly.
“Maybe you should stop her from hurting him?”
“Surely the Avatar doesn’t have to save every idiot,” Azula shot back, “especially if they deserve it.”
Aang was about to argue further, but it soon became apparent that Katara didn’t need the assistance:
“You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained...” she shouted while waving her hands up and down in anger, creating waves, “I’m embarrassed to be related to you!”
The waterbender finally threw her arms back down which sent a stronger wave towards a towering iceberg behind her, which Sokka stared at in awe as it begins to crack.
“Ever since mom died, I’ve been doing all the work around camp while you’ve been off playing soldier!” she continued, and another swing of her arm caused the crack to deepen alongside Sokka’s fear.
Her older brother pointed at the iceberg and said, “uh...Katara...”
“I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled you dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!”
“Katara, settle down!” Sokka shouted as more chunks of iceberg fell.
“No that’s it! I’m done helping you! From now on, you’re on your own!”
The arm movements from this statement created two huge waves which impacted with the iceberg and caused it to start cracking, and then split completely in two.
Katara finally noticed the effect that she was having as the iceberg split into two, the force of the waves pushed the floe backwards.
Sokka doesn’t hesitate to bring his sister close to him.
Azula frowned at the motion as she knelt down to keep her balance before she turned her attention back to the iceberg, mostly because she heard Aang let out a sharp breath at the same time that something tugged in her stomach.
“Okay, you’ve gone from ‘weird’ to ‘freakish’, Katara,” Sokka said as he released his sister.
“You mean I did that?” Katara breathed, inspecting all of the ‘damaged’ ice. She didn’t always believe Gran Gran when she told her about the power of a bender, but this was all the proof she needed.
“Yep, congratulations.” Sokka replied.
Katara frowned as he nudged her but she didn’t have chance to offer a retort since small glowing bubbles started to appear on the surface of the water in front of them.
The floe was pushed back again, as a glow revealed itself to be a smaller iceberg pushing up through the water.
Sokka was unable to hold Katara this time as she stepped towards it and leaned forward to have a closer look.
“There’s something in there,” she said, though she had no idea what it could possibly be.
“Oh my...” Aang muttered and Azula looked away from the iceberg and over to her companion.
“What?” the princess asked, but the boy was genuinely worried for the first time since she had met him (more accurately since he had ‘appeared’ in her life).
“We must be close to where I...” he said to himself, before he caught himself and shook his head, “we have to help him! He could still be alive!”
“What are you talking about, Aang?!” Azula called after him, but he was already jumping across the water over to the ice berg.
The princess rolled her eyes and considered whether she could just go back to her fishing and leave the spirit boy to whatever it was. But then she noticed something, the light was shining straight into the sky and she cringed.
If that wasn’t a beacon, then she didn’t know what was. If there was anyone close by who happened to be looking for her, she had no doubt that the giant light in the sky was at least worth a look. Though she had no idea how far her father would have extended the search by now.
It also didn’t help that she heard Katara shout, “there’s something in there!”
“Katara, get back here! We don’t know what it is!” Sokka called, but it was evidently too late.
The Water Tribe girl was already crossing the ice to stand before the glow, unaware that Aang was knelt next to it with his palm rested atop the ice.
As Sokka and Katara joined him, the airbender turned to look at Azula with pleading eyes.
She had made it very clear to him that she had no interest in interacting with the living, but she had never seen something that obviously meant so much to someone.
She had to imagine that would be what she would look like if she was faced with a chance to get her old life back.
That really begged the question of what could possibly be in that iceberg considering how long ago Aang’s life was?
She wanted to point out that they could come back later after the Water Tribe people had given up, but that suggestion didn’t stay feasible for long since Sokka started bashing the side of the ice berg until it broke with a crack.
Azula groaned and finally lifted herself off her little patch of ice and over to the ice berg, landing lightly behind the siblings in the hopes that they didn’t turn around and see her airbending. There weren’t many excuses that she could make as to why a member of the Fire Nation could perform an extinct form of bending.
Luckily, they were far too focused on the mystery in front of them to turn around and the ice finally split apart with a particularly hard smash.
The princess cringed again as the light brightened infinitely and she scowled up to the sky.
She almost turned around and went back to the safety of her abandoned navy ship home, but she felt the now familiar tug in her stomach that she was beginning to think should be called her ‘Avatar sense’ because she definitely never felt anything like it before Aang had shown up on her birthday.
Katara and Sokka were staring in awe as the light began to dim down to something they could actually look at to reveal a giant creature neither of them recognised.
Unbeknownst to either of them, Aang jumped up to his feet and raised both of his arms in triumph as he shouted, “Appa!”
“What is an Appa?!” Azula asked because looking at the creature didn’t give her any clues at all.
She counted six legs in total and one arrow but beyond the horns, she had no idea how else to explain what it was she was looking at other than the fact that it was soaking wet and fast asleep.
Before Aang could explain, Katara and Sokka turned around at the same time and Azula almost ran away in that moment. It wasn’t that she was afraid of these people (far from it), it was just that she didn’t want to have to deal with having to explain her presence in a place that she had no intention of staying for long. She couldn’t risk staying anywhere for long.
This just complicated matters and she hated complicated.
This thought was only solidified in her mind as Sokka held up the club thing he had just used to break the ice and announced, “I knew there were Fire Nation spies!”
Katara rolled her eyes and pulled her brother’s arm down.
There was no denying that the girl was Fire Nation, if the clothes weren’t enough, those ember eyes told Katara all she needed to know about her origins.
However, she’d never seen someone from the Fire Nation with a less than perfect appearance.
They were always well fed, well groomed and ready for a fight and this girl looked like a ghost of someone who fit that description.
She was in desperate need of help.
“What’s your name?” Katara asked softly, though Sokka let out a squeak and tried to pull her back.
“Ty Lee,” Azula replied instantly and without much thought, it never did take her long to decide to lie.
She ignored Aang’s look of disappointment.
If he wanted her to talk to other people, he would have to get used to her lying. On the off-chance that these water peasants knew the name of the daughter of the Fire Lord, she would have lost their trust instantly if she didn’t lie.
“Okay Ty Lee, I’m Katara and this is Sokka.”
“Don’t tell the spy our names!” Sokka squeaked.
“Shut up,” Katara hissed and turned back to Azula who very much looked like a flight risk, though the girl’s eyes kept flicking over to Appa.
The creature obviously meant a lot to Aang and Azula knew that she would never hear the end of it if she just ran away without it. If he was going to continue to be her only companion, she couldn’t risk him having something else to complain about.
She had to imagine that it would be much more annoying than the whole penguin debate.
“Do you know what this is, Ty Lee?” Katara asked, moving to take a step forward, but she stopped when Azula visibly tensed.
Azula surveyed ‘Appa’ again, she wanted to say that she had no idea what that thing was and that they were welcome to do whatever the wanted with it as long as they told her how to get food in this forsaken place. She was really beginning to notice the rumbling in her stomach now. She had never gone so long without eating before and she was very sure that the coldness wasn’t helping the situation. However, she frowned when she noticed something about the arrow on the sleeping creatures head.
Despite her insistence that she wasn’t listening, Aang told her a lot about the culture of the Air Nomads while they were training and it was suddenly rather obvious what she was looking at.
“It’s a Sky Bison,” she replied, “and apparently his name is Appa.”
Katara shared a look with Sokka to confirm that statement was odd, but her brother was far too tense anyway.
She couldn’t exactly blame him.
They both had reason to hate everything that the Fire Nation stood for, but it wasn’t like it was this girl who killed their mother and was the reason that their father had been off at war for so long.
She was pretty sure that both of her parents would agree that you should help someone no matter where they were from.
“Apparently?” Katara asked.
Azula closed her eyes as a sudden bout of dizziness overcame her. She was beginning to wish that she had just gone with the option to go back to sleep on the navy ship.
She would have avoided looking vulnerable in front of these peasants!
At the sight, Katara abandoned her previous question and asked, “Are you okay, Ty Lee?”
At the same time, Azula heard Aang shout, “Appa buddy, you’re okay!”
She cracked her eyes open to see that the Sky Bison had finally opened his eyes with a loud growl, though Aang’s arms fell down when he realised that the creature wasn’t looking at him. He couldn’t see him!
Aang turned to look at Azula with that same pleading in his eyes. Honestly, what did he want her to do?!
However, before she could attempt to ignore the peasants and point out to Aang that it made sense Appa wouldn’t be able to see him, the Bison let out a loud sneeze, covering Sokka in a thick layer of snot.
This seemed to cheer the airbender up as he started laughing, though only one other person could hear that laughter.
Azula would have smiled too, honestly, but the dizziness was getting worse at this point.
“Katara!” Sokka shouted, but he went completely ignored as Katara had never taken her eyes off ‘Ty Lee’.
Her grandmother had long since got her to help with the healing in the village so she was fairly sure that she could tell when someone was about to pass out, though she couldn’t tell from this distance whether it was more because of hunger or because of the cold.
“Ty Lee?” she asked again, but this fell onto deaf ears as Azula finally decided that there was no way that she could muster up enough energy to get away. Even if she did, she would just end up passing out in a pile of snow.
Freezing to death after months of running wasn’t exactly the most epic story that she had ever heard for the Avatar.
Instead, she closed her eyes and let her knees buckle.
“Azula,” Aang shouted when he finally turned his eyes away from his old friend and over to his newest one. He had thought that it was strange that the girl hadn’t said anything in the last few minutes.
He and Katara ran over to her at the same time, though the Water Tribe girl had no idea that she wasn’t the only one who was concerned about the Fire Nation girl, whose unconscious form she was now kneeling over.
“We can just leave her here,” Sokka announced.
Katara scowled over at her brother and said, “I can’t believe I’m related to you.”
Sokka rolled his eyes dramatically as he tried his best to clean the snot from him with very little success, before he replied, “She's from the Fire Nation.”
“And she needs help,” Katara shot back.
“How do you expect us to even get out of here?”
“You can take Appa!” Aang announced, though it fell onto deaf ears. The boy’s shoulders fell and he stared back over to Appa as the siblings continued to bicker, “come on, buddy,” he pleaded.
Finally, the Sky Bison seemed to have shaken off his tiredness, not that Aang could blame him after 100 years, and looked straight at the airbender.
Aang sighed in relief, he just knew that if Azula was inherently spiritual enough to see him, then Appa must be able to as well.
“Please help,” he said and the Bison seemed to understand as he let out another loud roar which caused both Katara and Sokka to look over to him.
Katara gasped in sudden realisation and she said, “help me get her onto Appa!”
Sokka drew his mouth into a thin line and tried to think of all of the reasons why they shouldn’t bring ‘Ty Lee’ to their village. Hakoda would surely be disappointed in him if he literally carried a spy to their people.
However, when he saw the determination on his sister’s face, he knew that she hadn’t said it as a question. If he wanted to get them both home, he had very little choice here.
“I just want officially point out that this is stupid, Katara,” Sokka announced, though he still reached down to pick up the unconscious princess.
“Yeah, yeah,” Katara mumbled, as she removed her hand from the other girl’s cold cheek.
S
-Meanwhile-
Zuko stared at the glow in the distance as he breathed deeply.
The moment his father banished him to find the Avatar, he knew it was a fruitless task.
That Ozai knew he wouldn’t be able to find the Fire Nation Avatar when he wasn’t allowed in the Fire Nation. That his father never intended him to have a chance at regaining his honour.
It was a fact that his uncle reminded him of every time they found a ‘lead’, but the disgraced prince still continued to try, because that was just what you had to do when you were lucky to be born.
It wasn’t as though it was impossible for some parents to realise that their child was the Avatar before their 14th birthday which would give them a chance to run away. There could also be firebenders who no longer lived in the Fire Nation. It wasn’t as if it was completely impossible for a firebender to be in the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribes and that was just what he had to hold onto.
In his mind, the light confirmed this.
“Finally!” he announced and turned to see the Dragon of the West sat cross-legged at a small table as he almost always was with his pai sho tiles, “Uncle, do you realise what this means?!”
“I won’t get to finish my game?” Iroh replied without looking up from the tiles.
“It means my search is at an end.”
Iroh sighed deeply, it wasn’t the first time that he had heard those words.
“That light came from an incredibly powerful source,” Zuko said and gestured towards said light as he turned back to his uncle with his face scrunched up slightly, “it has to be the Avatar!”
“It’s more likely the celestial lights, we’ve been down this road before, Prince Zuko. You must remember that the Avatar will just be a child, they may not even be capable of firebending yet, do you really believe they could do that? It would be a much better use of time if you sat down down and enjoyed a cup of calming Jasmine tea,” Iroh replied, without looking up at his nephew. He’d had this conversation so many times and he was more than ready to have it again until Zuko accepted that it was time to refocus his life. His father had set him an impossible task and as much as Iroh believed in his nephew, he hardly wanted to support something that Ozai ordered.
Not after the Agni Kai against a child!
Of course, he couldn’t besmirch his brother’s name openly since it would probably only result in Zuko throwing him off his small crew and the boy just wasn’t ready to be alone yet.
As expected, Zuko replied furiously, “I don’t need calming tea, I need to capture the Avatar! Helmsman, head a course for the light!”
Iroh sighed again and picked up another tile.
S
Everything was grey.
It was only interrupted by lightening splitting the sky.
Azula shot up and looked around her surroundings with deep breaths.
She didn’t have time to figure much out before she lurched and she reached forward to grab anything she could for support. She furrowed her brow when she saw that her hands were not her own, they had blue tattooed arrows on them.
She looked around frantically, hoping to see Aang next to her, but there was no one there.
A roar brought her out of this pursuit and it suddenly hit her that she was sat on the saddle of the bison who was hurtling downwards with the rain.
“Ahhh,” she screamed, but not in her own voice as she lost her grip on the saddle at the same time that Appa hit the water.
They each sank down in the freezing abyss, but the bison was sinking much more quickly.
Azula reached her hand out towards Appa. All she could feel was the need to stay with her only remaining friend.
The arrows started to glow bright blue and the water around Appa started to freeze, which unfortunately meant that he proceeded to sink much faster, just out of Azula’s reach.
The last thing she saw was the giant ball of ice before she closed her eyes.
“Ty Lee? Ty Lee! Wake up.”
Azula shot up and threw the covers from her body as she gasped for air, she still felt very much like she was drowning. However, she calmed down significantly when she saw Katara sat beside her. But why would that calm her down? Though she did quickly look around to see if Aang was there, apparently he chose the time she wanted to know what the dream was about to have disappeared.
Katara stood when she saw that Azula was awake and reached down to pick up a plate.
“It’s okay, you’re in the village now,” she announced as she thrust the plate towards the princess.
Azula raised an eyebrow at what she had to assume was ‘food’.
Katara took a second to decipher what the expression meant before she said, “it’s seal,” at which Azula cringed, but the waterbender thrust it closer to her and said, “you passed out, you have to eat.”
The Avatar wanted to argue that she couldn’t tell her what to do, but her grumbling stomach betrayed her and she tentatively reached forward to pluck a piece of the meat from the plate.
Her face remained slightly scrunched up as she took a small bite, but when she found that it tasted absolutely fine (though nothing like what she was once used to) she actually took the plate from Katara and mumbled, “thank you,” before she continued to eat.
Katara smiled brightly at this before a frown overcame her face, which caught Azula’s attention.
The princess swallowed and said, “What is it?”
Katara was silent for a moment before she said, “Can I ask you something, Ty Lee?”
“If you want you want to,” Azula replied instantly, after all, she didn’t have to worry about questions when she knew how to lie with such ease.
“Can you bend?”
Azula tilted her head up with mild surprise on her face, she wasn’t expecting that question.
She was about to just say no, if they thought she couldn’t bend they could hardly identify her as the Avatar or as the Fire Lord’s daughter, however, when she saw the hope on the girl’s face she found that she couldn’t lie. It was a strange feeling but she decided to file it away for later.
With the hope that Katara was exuding, she wanted to show her airbending, it was definitely her most impressive skill at this point, however, it wouldn’t help with the whole inconspicuous thing.
So instead, she just held up her free hand and lit a small ball of blue flame by way of answering the question. She extinguished it when Katara backed away slightly at the sight.
Was she actually afraid of fire?
“Why do you ask?” Azula prodded instead of prying into the reaction too much.
“Because…I’m a waterbender but I have no idea how to…you know…”
“Bend water?” Azula supplied.
Katara sighed and looked down at the ground with a nod.
“Then you should get someone to train you,” the princess replied and took another bite of the seal. It was really starting to grow on her.
Katara dragged her gaze up at the other girl. She had never heard someone speak with so much entitlement in her life, was she some kind of upper class noble or something? If so, why would she be alone in the South Pole?
“There are no other waterbenders here,” Katara replied, “the…Fire Nation took them all.”
Azula stopped chewing at this, suddenly remembering Katara mentioning her mother’s death while ranting to her brother. There was no way that it was a coincidence that she was so afraid of firebending and also that there was no one around to teach her.
It felt like she spent a lot of time recently discussing the horrible things the Fire Nation had done and she was beginning to no longer feel the need to defend them.
That didn’t mean she had to openly sympathise though, so she just replied, “Are there not waterbenders in the North Pole? You could just go there.”
“We haven’t had contact with our sister tribe in a long time. It’s not exactly ‘turn right at the second glacier’. It’s on the other side of the world,” Katara shot back.
“I didn’t exactly decide to take a casual stroll to the South Pole from my home either, if you want something, you should just do it,” Azula replied.
Katara frowned as Azula continued to eat.
This statement only made her want to ask questions all the more, but it was at that moment that the someone entered the tent.
“Katara, your brother is troubling those young boys again, could you please try to talk some sense into him. Tell him that he can’t have an army of children?” Kanna asked.
Azula snorted into the last bite of the food.
An army of children? Was that really all they had here?
Katara gave her a look before she turned back to her grandmother, “I can’t have that conversation with him again, Gran Gran, he won’t listen to me.”
“And the children are not listening to him,” Kanna sighed, before she turned her attention to Azula with a scrutinising eye. After her experience, she was perhaps less trusting of any one in those kind of clothes than Katara was, but she still said, “it’s good to see you’re awake dear, Katara was so worried about you.”
Katara who was clearly trying to hide her deep blush and the princess felt a sudden burst of butterflies in her stomach, though it wasn’t entirely because of the blush. She cared about her enough to worry?
“Ty Lee, this is my grandmother,” Katara announced, very much eager to change the subject.
Azula managed to clear her throat and replied, “Thank you for all your help.”
“It is my granddaughter who watched over you, dear, it should be her that you thank,” the older woman announced.
Katara wanted to hiss at her grandmother to stop embarrassing her in front of the firebender, but there was no way to do it without making it obvious that she was embarrassed.
Thankfully, ‘Ty Lee’ seemed to be of a similar opinion that this interaction needed to end as she turned back to Katara and said, “Well…thank you too. Especially for the…seal meat., but I really should be going…”
Katara opened her mouth to argue that she needed to stay, but she realised that she had no reason that she couldn’t leave. She only knew two things about this girl, that her name was apparently ‘Ty Lee’ and that she could firebend. As much as the thought of firebending made her sick, she was also the only other bender she had met recently. She was the only new thing to happen to her in recent memory and she could just feel that things shouldn’t go back to normal after this.
But she told herself that was just a ridiculous notion, and if the pretty girl from the Fire Nation wanted to leave, then she had no right to stop her.
“At least let me to give you some furs and supplies before you go,” Katara suggested.
S
“You should have shown her that you can airbend, it would have given her hope,” Aang said as Azula continued to trudge towards the navy ship.
She may have no idea where she was planning to go after she left the South Pole, but she knew that she needed to get her bag before she did that.
At least for the first time, she had gained something in a place she was hiding. She wasn’t sure whether she ever appreciated anything more than the furs that were currently hugging her entire body. Or maybe it was the package of fish that she was more excited about?
She finally reached the door of the ship and asked, "Why would I do that?”
“Airbend or give her hope?” Aang asked, watching as the girl hopped over the trip wire and moved into the next room to grab her bag.
She flipped it open, shoved the food packages in and then sighed in relief as she pulled out her crown.
The princess did her best to try to rub the scuffs off the gold surface. A crown should not be carried around the world in a bag.
“You know, you don’t need that anymore,” Aang said, deciding that there was no point trying to argue why the presence of the Avatar would give people hope. He’d had this argument too many times already.
Azula rolled her eyes and shoved it back into the bag before she replied, “I don’t care, it’s mine.”
“Are you at least planning to go back to the village and get Appa before you leave, he can fly you anywhere if you just say yip yip,” Aang replied, hoping that it would entice her enough so she didn’t leave his friend behind.
Before Azula could say that she would consider it if he agreed to not mention the Southern Air Temple again, someone else asked, “Who are you talking to?”
Azula whipped around and ignited a blue blades of flame in her hands, but it instantly disappeared when she saw Katara take a step back with her hands raised and genuine fear on her face.
“I was…talking to myself,” Azula replied, turning back to close the bag, but not before running her hand over the canvas to double check that the crown was still securely in there, after which she slung it over her shoulder and turned back to Katara and asked, “did you follow me?”
Katara nodded, because she honestly had no idea what else she could say to defend her presence on the ship that she wasn’t supposed to go on.
Sokka had insisted that she just forget about the girl who he was convinced was a spy, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her mentioning that she should just go to the Northern Water Tribe. She wanted to ask her exactly how she would go about doing that.
Azula had said it so simply that she was sure that she should know, however, her desire to get the answer had temporarily made her forget that she really shouldn’t be on this ship.
In fact, now that she thought about it, should she be more suspicious about the girl being on this particular ship? Sokka would certainly be.
However, she quickly decided that she was hardly that suspicious considering that she appeared to only have a bag here. It was becoming increasingly apparent to Katara that ‘Ty Lee’ was running away from something, so maybe it made sense that she would choose to sleep aboard a ship that was more familiar to her than anything else in the South Pole.
“I wanted to ask…something,” Katara replied, “and I figured you wouldn’t be coming back to the village any time soon.”
Azula just nodded, and said, “what did you want to ask?” Honestly a part of her was happy that she got to see the other girl again, though she had no idea why that was. She just told herself that it was because it interrupted another Air Temple argument with Aang.
“How would I get to the Northern Water Tribe?” Katara asked.
“A ship,” Azula replied with a shrug, ignoring Aang’s disapproving look. She could guess that he was thinking that she shouldn’t be encouraging this girl to abandon her tribe, but she didn’t really care.
“All of our ships have been taken for the war,” Katara replied with a sigh, remembering vividly the day that her father sailed off on one.
Azula felt that twist in her stomach again and she glanced over to Aang, knowing instantly that he would reject this, but she just said, “You could take the bison, if you say ‘yip yip’ he’ll fly you anywhere.”
“You can’t give Appa away!” Aang shouted as expected, but the Avatar ignored him.
Katara thought about this for a moment, it was certainly a viable option, but there was one problem, “I don’t think I could go on my own…”
“Anyone can do anything on their own,” Azula replied, already beginning to walk towards the exit, because she was feeling the urge to offer to go with her.
It would make sense since water was the next element in the cycle, but the point here was supposed to be to stay away from the cycle altogether.
Katara frowned. There was so much bitterness in those words and she had to wonder who it was that had forced Ty Lee to do things on her own.
She was pretty sure that she had never been so interested in someone’s life story before.
“Don’t you want the bison?” Katara asked, moving to walk with her.
Azula shrugged, which was accompanied by a light sound of protest from her airbending teacher, he was clearly becoming more and more frustrated by the fact that he could only be heard by someone who had grown so adept at ignoring him.
Before Katara could try to push though, her foot caught on something and she fell to the ground.
Azula spun around with wide eyes and she confirmed that the Water Tribe girl had indeed tripped the wire that she had been avoiding so well.
The fire ball launched into the sky and Katara gasped.
The princess resisted the urge to verbally berate her for her idiocy and reminded herself that this girl had helped her not die of starvation.
She offered her hand Katara who was starring at the sky with wide eyes.
“The village,” she gasped as she was pulled to her feet.
Azula sighed and her gaze fell onto Aang who made a small encouraging hand gesture, as if to say that she should know what the right thing to do would be by now.
She pulled Katara closer and said, “You should hold on.”
The girl instinctively brought her hands around the other teen’s waist and scrunched her eyes shut as she prepared herself to feel the heat of firebending lifting them from the ship, however, when she opened her eyes a few moments later, she found that they were standing in the snow. Something had definitely lifted them out of the ship, but she was pretty sure that it wasn’t fire, it felt as light as air, in fact.
She stared at Azula for moment, considering the possibility.
Her grandmother had explained to her that the next Avatar would be from the Fire Nation. It was a huge part of why so much hope had been lost since the death of the last Earth Nation Avatar, but was it really possible?
She quickly decided that now was not the time, she needed to get back to her village and make sure that they were okay.
“Come on!” She announced and pulled Azula by the sleeve of the furs towards the village.
The Avatar could easily get out of the grip, but she just allowed herself to be pulled along.
S
-Meanwhile-
Zuko stared through his telescope, straight at where the flare had raised up from.
He couldn’t make out much from the distance, but he was sure that two girls jumped from the old ship propelled by air.
Considering the Air Nomad genocide, there was only one explanation for airbending.
“How did they possibly learn airbending?” he muttered to himself, but he just shook this off and turned to the soldier behind him and yelled, “Wake my uncle! Tell him I found the Avatar,” he brought the telescope back up and saw the figures moving towards something so he followed the direction until he landed on a definitive landmark: a village, “As well as their hiding place.”