Prologue

What is the difference between a Hero and a Villain?

The first thing Azula noticed when she woke up was not the different seat she was on; it was the noise. It had interrupted her ... meditation – meditation, definitely, she had most certainly not been sleeping on the history scroll she was supposed to study. It was constant in the background, always changing but never stopping. Curiosity and annoyance both demanded the discovery, and appropriate punishment, of the culprit. Any ill intent she might have felt, however, evaporated when she opened her eyes.

She was somewhere outside, and – more importantly – no longer at home. She jumped up from her seat, panic threatening to overwhelm her before she remembered who she was; a member of the royal family would NOT act like a scared peasant! Once she regained some control over herself, she started examining her new environment: she was in a small and badly maintained garden, surrounded by a tall wooden fence on three sides, and a small two-storey building made of bricks with a wooden door on the last. Its style was unfamiliar – something made by the Earth Kingdom maybe?

Had they managed to kidnap her? As preposterous as the thought of some lowlife barbarians accomplishing such a feat was, it also remained the only logical explanation. Though the lack of restraints or guards made no sense. After all, someone capable of snatching her from one of the most, if not the most, secure place in the Fire Nation surely could be not be THAT incompetent. It would be insulting; and rather shameful, too. Well, if they WERE that incompetent, she would gladly teach them the last lesson of their miserable life; and if they were not, they would survive her retaliation.

Probably.

Azula opened the door silently and entered the house. The interior wasn't lit but it didn't look like it was in the same state of disrepair as the garden. However, the house was clearly old, and looked empty. Azula, not taking any chances, kept moving as silently as possible, exploring the house until she arrived in a slightly bigger room. It contained several cushioned chairs positioned around a strange rectangular contraption on a wooden shelf.

"Strange," muttered Azula as she got closer to the object. "What is this?"

Curiosity and caution warred within her. Curiosity wanted to examine the strange object; given its central position, it had to be important, and could give her some clues on the identities of her captors. But caution demanded that she secure the building before poking around for clues.

In the end curiosity won, as more information on who kidnapped her would help her fight them more effectively. Hesitantly Azula got closer to the object, and, trying to determine the materials it was built with, she ran her hands over its surface. Suddenly the thing started speaking in a weird language and – even more disturbingly – people appeared inside it.

Panicking, she started to press everywhere on the surface, hoping to stop whatever was happening; but as nothing happened, she took a more direct approach and threw it down, breaking it. Suddenly a faint sound, almost like an angry hiss, reached her ears. Azula, reacting instinctively, rolled to the side, barely dodging a club aimed at her head; she ended the roll in a crouch, and let loose a fiery blast towards the attacker, striking him in the chest.

.*.

John Doe was a thief, mostly he did small time stuff, but recently he had had a stroke of luck and managed to rob the house of a really rich guy, the theft even managing to catch the attention of the local news agencies. For the moment he was laying low, hiding in a house he had bought under a false name, and he was waiting for everything to calm down before selling the most unique things he had taken.

He was sleeping when the noise of a door opening woke him up; he was alone in the house and nobody knew he was here, so it was probably someone that had seen the empty-looking house and thought it an easy job. Whispering a few curses, he grabbed his baseball bat and stealthily climbed down the stairs, ready to deal with the intruder, who had apparently decided to watch some television judging by the sounds. Apparently the trespasser was a child – he couldn't tell whether the kid was male or not – but he was clearly trying to shut down the television. John almost snorted in derision. If you fucked up like that, you didn't stand around waiting for the angry owner to bash your skull in.

Any resemblance to current situations was of course purely coincidental.

It was at that point that the kid decided to smash his rather expensive TV – an antique he was rather fond of – to silence it. With anger running through John's mind, he raised his bat, a faint hiss of fury escaping his lips, and struck. The kid, though, had already dodged, and John was turning when a burst of flames hit his chest.

He fell down; the pain was unbearable, he couldn't even scream. As he managed to focus a little, he realized he needed help immediately if he wanted to survive. John reached for his omnitool, hoping to call for help, but his body was going numb, his focus slipping, and a moment later everything went black.

.*.

Azula was not amused. A commoner like him, not even a bender, trying to kill her? Insulting, really. Talking boxes quickly forgotten, she began getting closer to the man; she did not want to leave a potential enemy at her back. As she got closer, she saw the man's forearm briefly encompassed with a transparent orange construct, a moment before he died. Very surprised, Azula tried to look for whatever had produced such a phenomenon, but the memory of what had happened the last time prompted Azula to secure the area first.

When she reached the second floor, she found an open window, and was reaching to close it when the unexpected view completely destroyed every assumption she had made. In the distance gigantic towers could be seen, nothing like anything the Earth Kingdom had ever built. Flying vehicles were darting everywhere, and the people were dressed like nothing she had ever seen. A deep sense of dread settled in her.

Where was she?