A/N: This is my magnum opus.
Icarus
When the moon fell in love with the sun
All was golden in the sky
All was golden when the day met the night
When the sun found the moon
She was drinking tea in the garden
Under the green umbrella trees
In the middle of summer
"When the Day Met the Night," Panic! At The Disco
Queen Katara laid waste to the Kingdom of the Sun.
She entered the realm of a famous conqueror, granddaughter of the man who took Katara's mother from her, and stood with her soldiers in front of the fortified palace. The city burned even though the soldiers worked like a tsunami.
"I will go alone," said Katara, walking past the officers who tried to stop her.
She stood at the precipice of the palace and locked eyes with a teenage boy quavering at the gates. He looked to be a servant from the rags he wore and so Katara touched his chin and tried to force his gaze to stay on hers, but he resisted.
"Where is Empress Azula?" demanded Queen Katara.
The servant of fire dared to raise his eyes and replied honestly, "With her army."
::
When Katara at last seized the palace, and breached the sanctuary of the Empress, she saw Azula drinking tea in a garden, beneath trees whose leaves wept and the Empress glistened with sweat.
"Do you surrender?" Katara asked, Azula not even turning to face her. The Empress did not reply. "You're not very brave, are you?"
Slowly, Azula stood and turned around.
"I have no care for bravery, but I do not bow to anyone, much less surrender," coldly said the empress. She spoke like a true tyrant, one Katara would take great pleasure in overthrowing.
"Well," Katara said, cocking an eyebrow, "we took your city and your army gave itself up."
Azula made a humming sound in the back of her throat.
"Yes, but I personally will not submit to you, which I think matters more. Armies are replaceable; I am not." Azula sat back down and sipped her tea.
Katara pondered the action for a moment, then tore the tea from the cup with a motion of her hand and let it seep into the dirt.
She ordered her strongest officers to guard the enclose, and went to secure Caldera.
::
After three days and two nights, Katara labored over war plans as the Empress was led in by soldiers. Azula walked past them without any regard for their muscles and weapons, and stood in front of Katara.
"You have spared the people of my city, even those who opposed you. More troubling than that, you healed the wounded."
"Well, I don't really conquer the same way you do. I can't have much of an empire if no one lives in it, and I would never let those who I rule over suffer. I'm responsible for the people under my flag and that means I need to protect them."
Azula laughed wickedly and shook her head as if Katara was a particularly stupid child.
Katara said, "I summoned you three times."
"You never forced me, so I do not respond to your summons." Azula smirked. "I was worried that I had something to be concerned about when a water bitch invaded my city."
Azula walked to the maps Katara was studying. She ran her fingers over it and Katara felt a strange chill when she saw the smooth, slender fingers with overgrown nails.
"These maps are flawed and outdated. How do you think you can own the world when you cannot handle basic geography?" Azula smirked smugly.
"If you have better maps, I'd be honored to borrow them." Katara sat down. "Your grandfather conquered my village when I was a little girl. He personally killed my mother. Do you know how that feels?"
"Well, he happened to have killed my mother as well, so I think I do understand. I never saw eye to eye with her and she never cared for me, but I can very easily comprehend what it looks like."
"Why did he kill her?"
"You go first, Queen Katara." The title rolled off of Azula's tongue so mockingly that Katara felt a surge of anger she very rarely had. Katara hated to be angry, and Azula made her that way.
"He killed her because she was protecting me. They tried to wipe out all of the waterbenders because they feared us. My brother and father vowed to make them right about their fears. They died in battle against your father."
"Then I think the family history suggests that I be the one to kill you."
"No. Today I break the cycle."
"Then string me up."
"That's not how I do things." Katara stood and turned to the soldiers who were Azula's escort. "Take her back to her room, please."
Azula tried her best not to laugh at Katara saying please to her subordinates.
::
Katara removed her mother's necklace and ran her fingers across the carving. She was under the moonlight outside, feeling the cold breeze against her skin and the power of the moon coursing through her body.
Someone unlikely joined her.
"You touch that necklace often. Is it good luck?" asked the Empress. Azula walked to sit across from Katara, unbidden but not quite unwelcome.
"It belonged to my mother."
Katara said no more.
Azula watched her in the silence.
::
Azula lay on her stomach, naked save for the sheer silk draped over her.
The beautiful girl's hands dug into her back, an expert massage, a moment that led very slowly to a kiss, the moment Queen Katara entered Azula's living quarters.
Katara watched as the Empress took her time to break the kiss and turn to her unwelcome visitor.
"I do not recall inviting you in, Queen Katara," Azula purred.
Katara was frozen. She could not shake the image that the Empress just burned into her cobalt eyes and her racing mind.
"I didn't invite you into my courtyard last night either."
"Do you need something." Azula slowly sat up, pulling the silk over herself, but leaving a remarkable amount of herself revealed.
"No," Katara said. She needed to escape this.
She had never thought about sex or love, because no one had ever made her feel that way. Men chased her and she denied them due to lack of interest.
Katara had only two kisses in her life, both surprise ones that she would not allow if it were up to her.
Her first attraction could not be to this monster.
::
"I will make the speech," Azula agreed, standing in front of her own throne that the Water Tribe peasant pretended to own, "but I have one term. I must remain royalty at any cost. The divine right to rule belongs to me, even if you have strong-armed your way onto my throne."
Katara wrung her hands and thought about it.
"I'll see," said Katara, sitting back in her throne.
Azula cavalierly shrugged.
"Then you will have no speech from me."
::
More of Katara's reinforcements sailed to the city.
She stood on the balcony above the Royal Plaza and greeted them.
The response from her new citizens was unsatisfactory, while those from the Water Tribe screamed her name.
::
The city burned not from Katara's soldiers but from the rebels inside of it.
Their restlessness grew into an attack the killed many and left her healers so overwhelmed that others slowly died of wounds. In the empty living quarters of the palace, she wept into her knees.
She turned into the Fire Nation monsters she despised, didn't she?
::
Katara summoned Azula again; she needed the speech to placate the angry populace.
Two days after attack, the smoke still rose into the sky, poisoning the clouds and blacking out the ocean. Katara tried to remain composed, but Azula broke that icy exterior for the first time today.
"Why did you cry, Queen Katara? Do you feel defeated?" Azula asked, her voice pretty and sweet, even though her words were venomous. "Can you not handle the rebellion that was bound to happen?"
Katara blinked several times. Her eyes were dry.
"How would you know?" Katara demanded, clutching the throne tightly.
"I saw you, of course," Azula said, smirking. "Play conqueror all you want, Queen Katara. Pretend to have the right to destroy and steal and pillage as long as you heal the sick and promise not to hurt any of your enemies. But, you see, you are nothing. You worked very hard to gather enough forces to overwhelm my people, but hard work can only go so far when your soul is so weak."
Katara stepped down from her throne and walked towards Azula.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," Katara strongly said, refusing to break.
"No, no, I do. I'm looking at you and I see someone who will not last a month. True Queens and Empresses have the innate ability to subjugate and claim what they want. The divine right to rule is something you are born with," purred Azula, her eyes on Katara's, gold against blue.
"You are going to give me that speech whether you like it or not," Katara ordered. She gave herself away by licking her lips and looking ashamed.
"Yes, my queen," Azula said, agreeing only to prove that she could. "Whatever you want to make your stay as my guest more comfortable."
::
Azula stood and spoke to an immense crowd.
Katara watched and saw what weapon the Empress truly had.
Not legendary firebending or some gift she claimed to be born with.
She could make the wickedest words sound like desirable daydreams.
::
One summer day under the reign of Queen Katara, Empress Azula did the unthinkable. She watched her own serving girl offer a drink to Katara and could see the fear, anxiety and lies in her eyes.
"Meng," Azula said, making the shaking girl set the golden cup on the obsidian table, "I tend to have my servants try my drinks before I do. Perhaps you should do the same for our guest."
Katara despised being called a guest by her prisoner, but she let Azula's order occur.
Meng shook and shook as she sipped the drink. In a few breathless seconds, she crumbled, lifeless.
Katara watched, puzzled, while Azula wordlessly exited.
::
"Why did you save me?" Katara whispered, unlocking the door of Azula's bedroom.
The princess's eyes flashed and the candles burned bright blue. Katara gazed at a color she saw not in her cities but only on the uniforms of her soldiers as it painted the walls an eerie shade. Azula calmed down and stood. Katara struggled to avert her eyes from the robe that covered the Empress.
"The grab for power endangered me as well. I happen to prefer the demon I know," Azula said, walking to Katara. The candles began to die out, strained from their surge.
"I'm very far from a demon," Katara whispered, standing her ground as she smelled the sharp perfume of the Empress. "I think I'm the only kind person you've ever known."
Azula shook her head in that condescending fashion yet again.
"You are the weakest person I have ever known, but you somehow manage to retain power. It intrigues me. What would push you over the edge? What would make you cry so much that you would flood the world?"
"You won't talk to me that way. Never. I'm not afraid to hurt you," Katara said.
"Not afraid but not willing either. You are so much like the people who hurt you enough to make you fight back. Maybe you understand why my family has done what you consider to be wrong."
"I am not your guest, I am not your curiosity, I am not your anything. They sometimes call me the moon itself."
"Well, we are excellent counterparts, since I have always been called the sun."
"Only when you're not called a monster."
"You are the moon only when not called a weakling peasant."
"I heard a legend once when I was young. My gran-gran used to tell me about what the world was like before Sozin became a power-hungry monster, which I loved to hear, but I always preferred the stories that were older than a world that I hoped to restore somehow," Katara said.
"You call razing the world to the ground with an army restoring the old world?"
"It's a flood that cleanses suffering," Katara said, wondering if she believed that anymore.
"Well, drowning does tend to stop pain, but at an expensive cost."
"Goodnight. The sun sleeps around this time, doesn't it?"
The candles at last died. Katara lingered in the darkness, feeling Azula's breath.
She left the room and returned to her own.
::
When Katara was little, she would often say before bed, "Gran-Gran, tell me about how the sun loved the moon so much he died every night to let her breathe?"
The story was different every night.
Katara never found out which one was true.
::
"You must execute them," Katara said, as soon as her poisoners were caught. Her heart was in her throat and she felt such regret. Her officers begged her to make an example, in order to show she was not weak.
Katara squeezed her eyes shut when they were dragged away, begging for her mercy.
"Will you cry again?" asked Empress Azula, standing. She was sitting on the sidelines, watching and waiting, ready to see if Katara would show her true colors were red, not blue.
"No," Katara said, swallowing and taking in a deep breath. "I had to do this. It wasn't a choice."
"Of course it was," replied Azula, walking to stand in front of the throne. Katara's guards clutched their weapons tighter, but Azula did not attack. "You have absolute power and can do what you will with people."
Katara stood up and walked to Azula. "Leave," she said to her guards. "I'm going to duel her."
Azula's eyes lit up as the soldiers reluctantly left.
"This should be exciting, shouldn't it?" Azula whispered, taking steps back and lighting her clenched fists with blue fire.
Katara seized the water from the many stone bowls throughout the room. The water was sacred, but this was an important act. Katara was not committing true sacrilege against the ocean and moon spirits.
Azula struck first. She ran forward and Katara threw a shield of water that Azula avoided, rolling and slipping up behind it. Katara dodged three punches and stepped beneath the columns. Azula followed her, spinning around them as the blades of ice rained her way, melted, and returned to Katara's hands.
Katara stepped back and their fight waged on.
They were tired. They were a perfect match for each other.
But Azula was too overconfident. She stumbled and scraped her knees on a grate. Katara pulled the water up from beneath and Azula moved back and smashed her back against the column. When she gasped in, she breathed in water and slid to the floor.
Katara released the water and ran to her side.
No, no, no…
Katara set her hand above Azula's mouth and drew the water from her. It fell onto her soaked clothes that Katara hated herself for looking at during a moment like this.
Azula coughed and slowly opened her eyes. She closed them again when they stung with water, then opened them at last, drinking in the sight of Queen Katara.
"I would have let myself die," said Azula. Katara did not expect a thank you. "That's why people think you're weak."
Katara leaned down and kissed Azula on the lips like she still remembered that servant doing.
Azula did not reject it.
::
They were in bed with each other within one day.
Katara never loved the heat of the sun so much.
::
"Do you still want to be royalty?" Katara asked after two weeks sharing a room with a monster whose every kiss seared her skin like fire.
"I already am," Azula said. The Empress stood up and stepped away. "Whatever you are thinking is absurd. This is not anything worth falling in love over. I would prefer if no one knew that we are doing this."
Katara, wide-eyed, gazed at Azula in disbelief.
This could not mean nothing, but Azula thought otherwise.
::
"I think you love me. You're my sun and stars," Katara said, caressing Azula's face.
"You are far too open about your feelings." Azula smirked tonight. This one she was tipsy from too much to drink at a feast for a visiting Water Tribe dignitary. She leaned against her headboard, slipping down and dizzy.
"As Queen, I demand you tell me the truth."
"Do not treat me like I am something you have conquered."
Katara sat up and fiercely kissed Azula's lips. She pulled away and said, "You are something I conquered."
"But you said I am your sun and stars," Azula breathed.
"Which makes me the moon of your life," replied Katara.
Azula did not contest her for once, but she did not admit to love either.
::
Despite Azula's claim that she was not in love, they would lie in bed for hours.
Katara told her every single legend her Gran-Gran told about the moon and sun. Azula listened to them with a reverie that the monstrous woman never showed at any other time. In this bed, Azula was a different person, and Katara was too.
Soon, at night, they would lie glowing like the sun and moon, and Azula would ask in a voice that had a sweetness that was not stemming from mockery, "Katara, tell me about how the sun loved the moon so much that he died every night to let her breathe."
That was the only command of the fallen Empress Azula's that her captor Queen Katara ever obeyed.
::
Azula was dressed beautifully on the day of the insurrection.
Katara looked at her and saw the sun in the beautiful orange and red fabric, her golden eyes burning brighter than two stars. Azula nodded once at Queen Katara and then stepped back and waited.
The city burned and Katara knew her soldiers were dying and her empire was falling.
Azula did drag her to the courtyard, locking her inside. Katara sat down beneath the green trees that wept and Azula set tea in front of her.
"I'm not drinking that. It's poisoned, isn't it?" Katara whispered.
"No. It is chamomile." Azula sat down across from Katara. "I told you that you didn't have the divine right to rule. So the spirits will strike you down… or at least your own citizens will. They will make it here, they will imprison you under far crueler terms than you imprisoned me, and I will again sit on that throne."
Katara stared at the teacup. "I can stop them. You fought me and I defeated you."
The thunderous sounds from outside shook the garden. Katara knew what Azula said was true.
"You can stop it. I saved you and treated you well for a long time. If you're such divine royalty you must have enough honor to return the favor." Katara stared at Azula.
She saw her glimmering golden eyes and the way the sunlight made her shimmer as if she were made of its rays. Katara saw the one day Azula was covered with just silk and the Queen imagined herself in that servants' place for months.
Katara knew Azula had slept with her and listened to her legends while tangled in the sheets.
"I will," Azula said, standing. "Lie with me. I need the sun and sky."
Katara lay beside her on the grass. It tickled her skin. She reached for Azula's hand.
"I can't cry, even though I can hear my people dying…" Katara felt despicable for it.
"You have become strong, and so you cannot cry." Azula sat up while Katara remained on her back. "Katara, I almost believed you would break the cycle like you wanted to, but I suppose the spirits will the pattern of your family and my family's fates to continue."
Katara did not understand until two heated hands were on her throat.
Azula pressed down and Katara struggled and tried to use the dew to slice Azula's skin, but she surrendered before she could do it.
She never knew which story about the moon and sun was true because none of them were.
This was the real story, in which the moon stopped breathing so that the sun could rule the sky.