Author's note

Final round of the pro-bending circuit. Rewrite a scene from a Pixar movie using AtLA or LoK characters.

Words (excluding author's note): 1494

Movie selected: Finding Nemo

Character prompts: Katara (as Marlin), Aang (as Dory), and Azula (as Bruce)

Also appearing: Zhao (as Anchor), Long Feng (as Chum)

Katara was grateful to Aang for helping her search for her brother Sokka. She really was. But he really had no common sense. Every time she was sure he couldn't come up with a worse idea, that's exactly what he did. And now he had topped himself by accepting the "party" invitation from the scary girl on the eel hound. She would have said that things could not possibly get worse, except the past few days had made her increasingly skittish about tempting fate. She'd been wrong every other time she'd thought that.

Now they were riding through a wasteland littered with the remnants of battle. The giant stone disks that Earth Kingdom's benders hurled in battle. Broken and rusting tanks from the Fire Nation. The girl, Azula, pointed out the sights of warfare in a dry, almost bored sounding tone, as if they passing a landscape designed by a competent but uninspired gardener.

They crested a small rise, and Katara gasped. They were approaching the lip of the Great Divide. The shattered hulk of a Fire Nation dreadnaught lay balanced precariously at the edge of the canyon. A small lean-to had been set up in the lee of the huge war machine, and Katara could see two men waiting in its shelter. One wore the uniform of a Fire Nation officer, while the other looked like an Earth Kingdom high official. As they drew near, Katara could make out the cold, stern expressions on their faces as they stared at the approaching trio.

"Is this where the party is?" Aang asked eagerly. Katara closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration.

"Yes, well," Azula said. "I haven't been entirely honest with you about that."

Katara sat uneasily on the folding chair. Aang sat next to her, still smiling. The two stern looking men flanked them on their own chairs. Azula stood at a small lectern facing them. "Let's start the meeting with our pledge." She placed her hand over her heart, and the two stern men stood and did the same. Aang followed suit and nudged Katara to indicate that she should too.

"Conquest and subjugation is a betrayal of my better nature," Azula and the two men chorused. "The common people are my friends, not my victims. When we oppress others, we're really oppressing ourselves." Katara's brow furrowed. What does that even mean? she thought.

"We'll move on to some introductions now," Azula continued as the two men sat again. "This is Commander Zhao," she said gesturing to the man in Fire Nation uniform.

"Hello," Zhao said.

"And this is Long Feng of the Dai Li."

"Greetings," the other man said. Aang greeted the two men cheerfully. Katara gave her hellos a bit more nervously.

"Katara and Aang are here with me as my guests," Azula said. "As you recall, as part of step five we were to bring commoners as friends to tonight's meeting." She raised an eyebrow, apparently in comment on the lack of other guests.

"The young man who came with me suddenly remembered that he'd left stew on the fire at home," Zhao said. He gestured in one direction. Everyone looked. Katara could make out a rapidly moving cloud of dust heading for the horizon.

"Well, that's fair," Azula said. "It would certainly have been wrong to keep him here against his will." Zhao bucked up slightly at this remark. Azula turned to Long Feng.

"This is awkward…" Long Feng began.

"Hello, my name is Joo Dee," came a voice from outside of the lean-to. Katara started in her seat and turned to the sound. A young woman with a disturbingly vacant smile had walked up without any of them noticing. "I'm very happy to be here," she continued.

"I know she doesn't count," he said. "I was actually trying to undo the conditioning, when I realized it was time to come to the meeting. She … followed me."

Katara stared at the man in alarm. Azula merely said, "The important thing is that you're trying." Zhao nodded and leaned across to give Long Feng a reassuring pat. Aang laid his hand on the man's shoulder and gave him a smile.

"Thank you," Long Feng said, clearly moved. "Thank you very much."

"Let's move on to the testimonies," Azula said. "I'll begin. My name is Azula."

"Hello, Azula," Zhao and Long Feng chorused.

"It has been three weeks since I last had anyone executed, tortured, interrogated, unjustly imprisoned, blackmailed, extorted, exiled, or transported from their loved ones." There was a round of applause.

"You're an inspiration to all of us," Long Feng said.

Azula nodded her thanks. "Now who's next?"

Aang's hand shot up. "Oh, pick me. Pick me!" Azula motioned him to come up to the lectern, and took her place on one of the folding chairs.

"Hello, my name is Aang."

"Hello, Aang," came the dutiful chorus.

"I don't think I've ever oppressed anybody," he said.

There was a pause, but then the members of the group started applauding enthusiastically. There was a chorus of "Well done," and "Good job."

Aang looked relieved. "I'm glad I got that off my chest he said." Katara closed her eyes again.

Azula turned to Katara. "How about you?"

Katara looked back, surprised. "Me? I don't have a problem," she protested.

Azula arched an eyebrow at this. "Oh. All right," she said and exchanged a meaningful glance with Zhao and Long Feng. "Denial," all three declared in chorus.

"I'm not in denial," Katara protested. "OK, I've got a problem. I'm trying to find my brother, Sokka. Aang's helping me search."

"Katara," Azula said in a kind voice. "Have you been oppressing your brother?"

"What? No!"

"It's all right, you're among friends here," Azula continued gently. "I know what it's like. I oppressed my brother. That's how it all started. If we can help you stop before you truly get started…"

"No, you don't understand. My brother was taken. Kidnapped. By some crazy girl in a green robe and white face paint. He could be in terrible trouble. I've got to find him, and…" She had started looking around in distress as she recounted the story. In the process, she had looked toward the edge of the Great Divide and seen a strangely familiar object. She rushed out of the lean-to with an incoherent cry. There were confused remarks behind her, but she ignored them.

"This fan," she said snatching up the object. "The girl who kidnaped Sokka had a fan like this." Aang and Azula both came up to look.

"Really?" Aang said. "Cause that looks like one of Kyoshi's fans."

"Kyoshi?" Katara said. "One of your previous lives?"

"Previous lives?" Azula asked, sounding confused.

"Oh, yeah," Aang said. "I'm the Avatar."

Azula's eye twitched. "The … Avatar?"

Zhao and Long Feng exchanged a glance. As one they rushed forward, grabbed one Azula's arms each, and pulled her away from Katara and Aang, yelling "Intervention!"

She shook them off, and with an incoherent scream of rage fired a bolt of lightning from her hands toward Katara and Aang. Aang pushed Katara out of the way. In the process, she let go of the fan. The part of Katara's mind that was not in fear for her life watched in dismay as the fan, slightly charred, got blown over the edge of the cliff. As Katara and Aang fled, further bolts flashed from the crazed girl's hands. They hunkered down briefly behind a boulder.

"Your Highness," Zhao called out. "Remember the Steps!"

"Murder is oppression!" Long Feng yelled.

Aang raised his head. "Actually, if it's not political, does it count as oppression?"

"Not helping," Katara said, grabbing his arm and dragging him away. They dodged back and forth through the graveyard of abandoned war machines.

"We're really sorry about this!" Long Feng called over the cracks of thunder. "There's some family history about the Avatar. It's really very tragic. She's really quite nice once you get to know her."

"Highness, NO!" came Zhao's voice sounding even more alarmed than before.

Suddenly the lighting storm ended. Cautiously, Katara opened her eyes. Azula, Zhao, Long Feng, and the woman Joo Dee were all running away as fast as they could. She looked around. A fuel tank had been ruptured. A trail of spilled fuel had spread across the sand, and a stray spark had ignited the end of it. She saw the flame rush along the trail toward the dreadnaught. "Get down," she yelled, grabbing Aang and pulling him to the ground.

The dreadnaught's engines exploded, the cliff edge crumbled away beneath them, and they plunged into the canyon. Aang hurriedly unfurled his kite, and Katara held tight to him as he did his best to arrest their fall. "At least we're headed to where the fan fell," he said happily.

Katara sighed. At least she now knew that things could continue to get worse whether she tempted fate or not.