Hello everyone! So for the longest time I have wanted to rewrite this fic that I wrote in 2012 (Five years ago!) and really do the story some justice and fix some of it's cringier moments. It was definitely a trip reading my own writing, as I tend to avoid that as much as possible, and just to see how far I've come as a writer in five years. This will definitely be a more fleshed out version of the original and I will hopefully end up with something that I really love.
I will most likely be leaving the original up permanently so you can see the difference. I think it's very important to show writers, especially new writers that you will grow with time and even if you think your stories are silly that you always have room to grow.
Here is the link to the original story if you are curious: s/8005828/10/Once-in-a-Lifetime
Anyways, without further ado, here is Once in a Lifetime; Take Two
1
Maximum Security Prison, Located in Unknown Location in Fire Nation, Approximately Three Years after the Great War.
Prison doors rattled shut for the night, their inhabitants settling down in their uncomfortable cots. Guards walked by counting off prisoners and making sure everyone was accounted for.
"Hall twenty-three is all present and accounted for!" He called up to the guards in their office. With a quick flick of his wrist he extinguished all of the lanterns that lit the hall before stepping into the main hallway, the thick metal door closing behind him and locking the prisoners in for the night.
They had finished with all of the normal prisoners for the night and had only one more to check on.
"I don't suppose I can convince you to do the count on the special prisoner?" He asked one of his friends, not looking forward to his next task.
"Yeah right." Scoffed one of his buddies "I'm still growing back my eyebrows from my rounds last month. It's your turn."
With a sigh the guard joined the five others who were on Special Prisoner duty that night.
"Let's get this over with." He grumbled and they set off as a group, heading down into the depths of the prison. They went down five flights of stairs until the air around them grew damp and cold.
"You'd think with all this damp that she wouldn't be able to use her bending." One of the guards remarked, holding his lamp up higher so that they could see into the cavern that they'd just entered.
"You all know that's not the case so be careful." Remarked the first guard.
The cavern was a domed shape, rocky stalagmites hanging down from the ceiling and dripping water down onto the group of guards. An underground river ran off to one side, further dampening their surroundings. They had moved the prisoner here a month before when she'd escaped from their solitary confinement and had nearly gotten away.
In the middle of the room was a large metal box that was heavily padded, inside they knew they'd find her sitting in the middle of her box-prison with a straight jacket made of heavy metal chains. Even then it wasn't enough.
"Do you have the prisoner's medicine?" One of the guards asked another and he held up a syringe filled with a yellow liquid.
"Good. Let's get this over with-it's poker night."
It took two guards to push the metal door open and the rest peered inside. She sat in the middle of the cell, her face illuminated by the bioluminescent crystals that ringed her cage. The guard with the lantern quickly blew it out so that the flame couldn't be used against them.
"Good evening Azula." the lead guard said, "Time for your sleepy juice."
She was covered in chains from her feet to her neck but even so a low chuckle came from her throat. That chuckle turned into a full throaty laughter. It was the same as it always was but it still made the guards completely uncomfortable.
"Give her her medicine." The lead guard said, ready to head back upstairs into the light.
The guard with the syringe approached Azula and knelt next to her. "Ready Azula?" he asked and her grin widened. Suddenly the chains were falling away from her body and she was standing, cracking her wrists.
"Thanks babe." She said, giving the guard a pat.
"What the hell?" the lead guard took a surprised step back.
But before they could do anything else the cell was engulfed in flames, burning the guards. They ran around the cavern on fire, throwing themselves onto the ground or into the river to put themselves out.
By the time that the commotion was heard and dozens of guards had rushed down the flight of stairs, Azula was gone.
Southern Water Tribe, Two Weeks Later
"Katara!" Sokka whined as he followed his sister around the tent, holding up yet another pair of ripped trousers. "Please fix the hole?"
"Nope." Katara said as she put away this and that around their tent "Remember last week when you made that stupid comment about how 'men fight and don't sew'? Well I think it's about time you learned." She left the tent then, a basket of herbs hitched onto her hip and her braid twisting in the chilly arctic air.
Sokka turned to Suki, who was finishing up her breakfast, "Suki?" He asked hopefully, holding the pants out to his girlfriend.
Suki finished her tea and stood, placing a kiss on his forehead "I agree with Katara. You should know how to sew your own pants up. If you need help learning I'd be glad to help."
She left the tent then, leaving Sokka complaining about frostbite on his private parts.
Suki joined Katara by the fire where she was drying the herbs by placing them on a flat rock close to the fire. Two boards were placed on either side so that the wind wouldn't pick up the fragile leaves or blow them into the fire.
"You okay Katara? You seem a bit off this morning." Suki sat next to her, butting the other woman's shoulder with her own.
"I'm fine, just going a little stir crazy here." Katara held her hands out to the fire, enjoying the warmth that pricked her palms "Aang's off having adventures and we're here doing nothing. Well not nothing we have been driving Sokka nuts all winter."
The two girls shared a conspiratorial grin.
"Well we couldn't have joined him."
"You could have. Things haven't been the same since we tried the whole 'dating' thing." Katara bit her lower lip. She and Aang had tried to be together after the Great War, but every time she kissed him it got less and less romantic and more like she was kissing her own brother. Maybe it was because she had spent so much time mothering him and taking care of him that she couldn't see him that way. She didn't know. But she'd ended it the year before and things had never quite gone back to normal since then.
"It'll all work out after Aang is done with all his growing pains." Suki assured Katara, Aang had turned fifteen that year and spent most of his time brooding and just generally being a pain when he was around.
"I hope so." Katara replied glumly, fortunately she didn't have to think about it for very long because one of the children of the tribe was running up to them.
"Master Katara." The little girl said out of breath as she jumped into Katara's arms.
"What is it Lilah?" Katara asked, brushing sweaty strands of hair out of the girl's face.
"Fire nation soldiers are at Grangrans."
Katara stood, apprehension filling her before she shook herself. The fear of the Fire Nation was still a knee jerk reaction for the Southern Water Tribe, herself included.
"It's ok Lilah don't worry." She said and sent the girl off to get everyone inside, just in case.
She exchanged a worried glance with Suki before they hurried to Grangran's tent, where they found the old woman standing in front of a group of Fire Nation soldiers.
"Grangran is there a problem?" Katara asked, stepping in front of the old woman and glaring at the Fire Nation soldiers who shifted uncomfortably under her icy stare.
"No dear, they were just looking for you." Grangran gave her a comforting pat.
One of the soldiers stepped forward and saluted her, "Master Katara, we've come with a letter from Fire Lord Zuko."
From Zuko? Katara frowned, he normally would send letters via carrier pigeons. "Why didn't he just send one of the birds?" She asked and the soldier jumped to answer her.
"The birds run too high of a risk of being intercepted."
"Intercepted…?"
"Read the letter and you will understand why, Ma'am." He held out a rolled scroll that was sealed with a red wax bearing the signet of the Fire Lord.
She broke the seal and unrolled it and began to read:
Katara,
I am sorry that I could not send this news faster via carrier pigeon. But this information is completely secret and must not be intercepted by anyone outside of our inner circle. Azula escaped from her prison last night and I need for you and Sokka to join me in the Fire Nation in order to recover her. I fear that she is amassing another army to overthrow the current Fire Nation Government-and in turn begin another war.
You of all people know that this cannot happen again. I hope you will come and help me.
I have sent a similar letter to the Avatar as I have heard that he is no longer in the Southern Water Tribe with you.
Zuko.
Katara stood for a moment, her chest hurting. She'd wanted adventure but she hadn't wanted to fight in another war. War brought too much sorrow and bloodshed. But Zuko had asked her and that meant that he trusted her judgement.
"We will wait for you on the ship and will leave by sunfall tonight." The same soldier who had handed her the letter said and the soldiers marched away back to the ship in formation.
"So I take it we're leaving?" Suki asked as they hurried back to the tent, where they found Sokka painstakingly attempting to patch the hole in his pants. Unfortunately his stitches were so crooked that half of the hole was still exposed.
Katara had to bite her lip from laughing as she pulled three packs from their spot in the corner. "Come on Sokka we need to pack." She said as she tossed a pack to Suki.
"What? Why?" Sokka asked as he pulled on his mangled trousers.
Katara handed him the letter as she pulled their Fire Nation clothing out of a cedar chest. She wondered if the clothing would still fit her as she'd grown curvy over the last few years, but pushed that thought away telling herself she would let the clothes out on the ship.
"Man when something goes wrong why do they always have to call us?" Sokka asked but was already gleefully picking out which weapons he'd take with them.
The sound of something heavy landing outside of their tent stopped their packing.
Sokka looked at Suki and Katara, "That sounds like-"
"Appa!" Katara exclaimed as she scrambled out of the tent to greet the white sky bison who seemed just as excited to see her.
"I figured you guys would need a ride to the Fire Nation that was fast than some silly boat." A voice deeper than she remembered called from the saddle.
"Aang!" Sokka waved as the air around them whipped until Aang was standing in front of them grinning.
He'd grown taller in the last six months since she'd last seen him, so when he gave her an awkward hug her head was just underneath his chin.
Luckily the awkwardness of the situation was over quickly as Sokka was groaning about Aang's sudden growth spurt, "That is totally unfair!" groaned Sokka, who at nineteen years old was half a head shorter than Aang, "I'm four years older than you, four! How can you already be taller than me."
Aang shrugged "I hadn't really noticed."
Sokka looked like he was about to say something else but Suki cut him off with a quick kiss, "Count yourself lucky that I like short guys." She said sweetly and Sokka gratefully hugged her and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.
"So you've come to get us?" Sokka asked, his earlier complaints completely forgotten.
"Yep, I was closer to the Fire Nation so the news reached me first. I would have been here sooner but I had to make a pit stop at the Earth Kingdom to pick up Toph.
"Toph is here?" Katara asked excitedly, she hadn't seen the earth bender in over a year and half.
"Uh… sort of." Aang said sheepishly as he watched Katara scramble up Appa only to have to dodge a bottle that came flying past her head, "She's kind of drunk right now."
Katara climbed into the saddle to find Toph slumped against the side with a bottle of sangi sake gripped in her hand. "What happened?"
"We hit some turbulence while flying and she apparently brought a stash of sake with her to cope." Aang said from the ground.
"Hey," slurred Toph with a grin "It's sugar queen! Long time no see!" She giggled at her own joke as she slumped towards Katara who deftly caught her.
"Man you've grown!" The blind girl giggle as she reached out to touch Katara's chest "Especially in this area."
Katara's cheeks burned but she couldn't help but laugh at the other's antics. Toph herself had grown, she had gotten taller though she would still be the shortest of the group and her shiny black hair had been cut to hand just above her shoulders instead of being contained in her hair band. She was already dressed in comfortable green pants and a shirt and of course was barefoot.
"Uh-oh." Toph said, interrupting their reunion as she leaned over the side of the saddle and violently threw up.
"Man Toph," Sokka joked as he lifted Suki up so she could grab the side of the saddle and pull herself in "You just got here and you are already throwing up, that must be a record."
"Only because I smelled that stench you call cologne, snoozles." Toph replied sweetly before slumping down into an alcohol induced sleep.
Katara laid her down and jumped down from Appa to finished throwing their packs onto the sky bison. By the time they'd finished the entire village had gathered to say goodbye.
"Don't you worry about those soldiers," Grangran said as she enveloped her grandchildren in a hug "I'll let them know you decided to take the 'express route'."
"Thanks Gran." Katara said squeezing the old woman tightly, she couldn't shake the feeling that she wouldn't be seeing the old woman for a long time and almost didn't want to let go.
"Go my dear, go take care of things-we will all still be here for you when you return."
Katara wiped at her wet eyes before following Sokka up and into the saddle. They waved to everyone as Appa jumped into the air. Once they were above the clouds Sokka held up the Sake bottle.
"To Team Avatar! Coming to save the day-as usual!" He toasted before draining the bottle.
"You're going to regret that later." Aang called over his shoulders.
"Probably." Sokka agreed, but was already digging through Toph's bag for another bottle of sake. "But hey you don't leave to save the world every day!"
-LittleMoonLover-