Summary: Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

Main Pairings: Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

Word Count: 1,538

Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance

Rating: T, but it may rise...

A/N: Hi, everybody! I know this is really short, but it's only a prologue, and I was only trying to break 1000 words, something I succeeded in doing. If it seems a bit abrupt and strange, that's good, because it's supposed to be that way. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)

The Gilded Throne

Prologue

Katara on Dire Situations:

How could things possibly get any worse? That question seems to be asked a lot lately in my group of friends. After all, when traveling with the Avatar, crazy things are bound to happen. In fact, not a day goes by, really, without something remotely detrimental happening. It just wouldn't be the same without a crisis in progress at least once a day!

Even so, nothing could have possibly prepared me for this. I mean, I always thought that Appa getting kidnapped and Zuko chasing us around the world were pretty awful things to have happen to our little gang. Actually, if someone had told me a few months ago that I would be traveling with the Avatar, and these things would actually happen to me, I would have laughed and said they were crazy.

Now, though, I feel like I'm the one who's crazy. Here I am, stuck with one of my arch enemies, one of the most dreadful people in the entire world! How could things possibly get any worse?

Zuko on Jokes:

Every day, back when I was traveling with a group of loyal sailors, they would go about their duties, pulling up the anchors, setting the ship on course, and doing their "sailor" things. All the while, they would chatter amongst themselves like busy squirrel-rabbits up in their trees. Their words would be often punctuated (rather sparingly, in my opinion) with laughter.

I would turn on them and reprimand them for their merriment amidst my moping, irate that my noble crew would dare laugh while in my presence. After all, how did I know whether they were laughing at me?

Of course, it was much more likely they were laughing at me than my uncle's tea jokes, though some of those were quite funny. Like the sailors, Uncle enjoyed telling jokes, but even his best jokes, which usually have the other sailors in stitches, haven't made me laugh in years.

In a bout of irony, I've begun to learn how to tell jokes myself. Most of them aren't very funny and don't really catch on with Uncle, though he says I've gotten better. I think he may be lying.

But I discovered I was stuck with her, I laughed for the first time in over three years, a derisive, snorting laugh but a laugh nonetheless. And let me tell you: the way her blue eyes narrowed and burned with rage like my sister's fire was a lot more fulfilling than any joke I could have made.

Toph on Friends:

As a little girl, I was sheltered—at least, that's what my parents call it. I call it imprisonment. I wasn't allowed to see the children of other nobles. Heck, I wasn't even allowed outside of the house on most days without an entourage of guards around. My father said it was for my own safety, and my mother calmly explained to me that I was blind, and I wasn't like the other children. So, I wasn't treated like a child. I couldn't play, I couldn't come and go as I pleased, and most importantly, I couldn't make friends.

I tried my best to be friendly with some of the younger servants and some of the servants' children, but a group of scary-looking guards doesn't exactly scream, "Hey, let's be best friends!"

For the most part, I spent a lot of time alone, until I discovered the badger-moles. They were my first friends. They were blind, too, so they didn't judge me. Instead, they helped me to discover how much I loved earthbending and that I could see, even if I was blind in one way.

After I learned earthbending, I heard about the Earth Rumble tournament, and I knew that I had to participate. I was pretty good at bending, after all, and I had nothing else to do. My first win sent a thrill through me that resounded through my entire being. It was such a great feeling that I began to sneak out of the house by bending my way through the wall and going to the tournament every week.

This tradition started when I was eleven, and it ended when I turned twelve. Aang became my second friend. He, Snoozles, and Sugar Queen were my friends, for sure—or, at least, that's what I think is going to happen eventually. I've never had human friends before, so I'm not exactly sure when I'm allowed to call them my friends.

Twinkletoes himself is strange to me. He's not like the other boys I've met, like Snoozles, male servants, my father, and the other Earth Rumble competitors. He's softer somehow. It almost makes me excited to consider him my friend, to learn more about him, and to figure out why he's so soft. Of course, I'd never tell him that...

Aang on Acceptance:

Being accepted is hard, especially when you're a walking contradiction. I mean, I wouldn't exactly know—about the walking contradiction part, at least—but I do know that it's hard to accept anyone, especially a walking contradiction, into your group of friends. That said, I can sort of understand her, in theory…In theory, I should be able to be best friends with the girl, if being "outcasts" is something we have in common, right?

Wrong. So wrong. How is it possible that someone so similar to me, someone who doesn't have many friends, who's the same age as me, who's a walking contradiction, just like I feel like I am sometimes, is so difficult to understand? She's a mystery to me, a puzzle, an enigma, shadowed and veiled so beautifully with walls of harsh, foreboding stone that I have to find out more.

Don't get me wrong; in no way am I saying that she is beyond my comprehension. She's one of the bluntest people I've ever met in my entire life. She tells it like it is, and she isn't afraid to criticize, and for that, I respect her. She never holds back; she stands strong, and I admire her for that.

Even so, admiration isn't enough. Respect isn't enough. Acceptance isn't enough. No, I want to understand the girl from the swamp. I want to know Toph Beifong.

Azula on Luck:

It's strange how my luck manages to work at times. My father always said that I was born lucky, and it's true. I was born on the hottest Summer Solstice in over two hundred years—at high noon. I was practically born walking, talking, and, of course, firebending.

However, I was raised not to rely on luck, to only rely on my own abilities and skills. I was raised to stand on my own, to want to do things by myself, a master of independence from the day I started breathing.

I didn't need luck; I had something better and worthier: talent. One of my father's many mantras, after all, is, "If you want something done right, get your indolent body off of your gilded throne and do it yourself!"

That mantra itself was one of the reasons I found it especially ironic when father asked me, his prized daughter, his Blue Dragon, to capture the Avatar and arrest my pathetic brother. Obviously, my father was just far too up on his "gilded throne" to do it himself.

So, I, being the loyal, abiding daughter I was, expressed to him that I would be honored to attempt such a task. And now, here I am, hunting the Avatar and armed with not only my superior wits and bending but also a master plan to topple the Earth Kingdom Capitol.

Unfortunately, after a recent turn of events, my luck has decided to change. I supposed, at the time, that after a life time of being lucky, my luck would have to run out at some point, and it chose then to flee, like a coward. So be it. I would show my luck that I didn't need its timorous grace.

Sokka on Being Lost:

Funny, isn't it? How things seem so normal one minute and then just abruptly change…How the sky can be blue, the birds can sing, and the sun can rise like any other day, and it almost seems like the world is moving on, yet you're not moving. It's moving around you, and you're left out, not a part of it. You're out of the loop, trapped within your own mind to crumble away, and you can do nothing but watch.

The whirling sands of time manage to erode away everything, all the pain, torture, mistrust, and, eventually, all of us…I forget who said that, but whoever said it was both stupid and correct at the same time…Funny how that happens, right?

Well, that's what happened to me. One minute, we were headed to Ba Sing Se. The next, my friends were gone, and everyone was gone. She was the only one left, the vicious, elegant creature who haunted my waking moments and my nightmares. Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, the terrifyingly beautiful monster with equally beautiful firebending, was the only one left. This is where my story begins.