A/N: This fic is a cooperative effort of the members of the AtLAFC forum. This chapter was brought you by: The Pyromancer
Summary: The Hundred Year War is over and peace now reigns on the Earth as the Avatar and his friends try to unify the four nations. But what happens when one spirit is not happy with the world in balance? What if that spirit wants the chaos to begin again?
Disclaimer: We do not own AtLA.
"You want me to do what?"
"We need you to seek out our champion. Convince her to help us."
"She's not 'our champion', as far as I've heard she's just a psycho. We should put our trust in someone else, like the Avatar, Sokka or their friends. I've heard that the new Fire Lord is also a trustworthy person."
"Iname has already gotten to them first, subverted our word. They're in his grasp and he blocks all of our attempts at communication. The augury readings say that the champion is our hope, our last possible link to the physical world. If you can't convince her then all is lost."
"I will try then."
In a small coastal town on the very edge of Earth Kingdom territory, one of the closest port towns to the Fire Nation, the day was blotted out by clouds. It threatened rain at any moment, and people were moving about the streets as fast as they could to finish up their day's chores and sit down for a nice hot meal whenever the sky decided to open up and pour down. At one of the many food stands scattered down the main boulevard sat a young woman. Her black hair was chopped off to her shoulders, slightly erratically, and had happened when, in a fit of annoyance at the long hair and what it had symbolized to her once, she had chopped it all off with a knife. A smiling old innkeeper had offered to trim it for free so that it didn't look so bad, but the young woman had just snarled her refusal and left the inn that night, bag in hand. Now she sat at the food stand, which boasted a small kitchen area behind a counter and stools pulled up to the counter. The whole thing was open to the street, no front wall or door, just some cloth hanging down advertising the stand. On a wall was a sign listing the food and the prices. The young woman sat on one of the stools, a warm plate of food in front of her. Lying on the plate was some type of roll made from cabbage that had been wrapped around a steaming pile of meat. It smelled funky to the woman and she took a trepidatious bite. The stand owner had warned her to wait for it to cool down first so that she didn't burn herself, but something being too hot had never been, and never would be a problem for her. She found she actually enjoyed the cabbage wrap, having been unimpressed with basically every other meal she'd had in the past several years. She took a second bite and savored the seasoning of the meat. Her enjoyment of her food was interrupted by a series of shouts from down the street, and they were getting louder.
"Run!" yelled a man running down the street past the food stand. "The platypusbear has gotten loose!"
Several other people ran tripping and screaming past the stand, and the owner looked outside, saw something and ran to hide at the back of the stand. The young woman just ignored it all and continued to eat her food, done with the first of the wraps and went to the second. A roar sounded right outside the stand and one of the walls of the stand exploded inward as a powerful force swiped at it. The young woman had sensed the attack coming moments before it had hit, and had pushed away from the stand, toppling her stool and rolling backwards over her shoulder onto the street. She ended up in a crouching position and saw a large platypusbear standing over the stand, roaring at the destruction it had caused. The young woman scowled at the beast. In her movements away from the stand, her food had been covered in dust from the road. She threw it at the platypusbear in disgust, drawing its attention.
"Beast," she snarled, settling into a fighting stance. "How dare you interrupt my meal. You will pay for that."
The platypusbear roared once more in anger and charged on all fours at the young woman. With a smirk she dodged with minimal movements to the left towards the stand. When the platypusbear had run past her, and was trying to correct its path to attack her, she lashed out with a quick palm strike to its side. The platypusbear fell down onto the road with a pained yell. It quickly lashed out with a poisoned paw but the young woman leapt over the attack and landed down with an axe kick to the platypusbear. It tried to move, to do what the young woman didn't know or care, but she lashed out with a powerful side kick and the platypusbear collapsed fully, unable to move due to the pain.
The rain finally decided to arrive, pouring down on the scene as onlookers peeked out from their hiding places in the surrounding buildings and alleyways. A pair of animal catchers huffed and puffed down the street, nets in hand as they finally caught up to the platypusbear. The young woman just silently turned around, bent down and fished her satchel out of the rubble of the stand wall and walked away down the street. As the animal catchers looked on stunned at the knocked down platypusbear, one noticed that sections of the bear's fur were singed from having run into a fire, or having been hit by one.
The young woman finally found an inn that seemed suitable enough for her to spend her night in. The room was small and just had a pile of blankets and a pillow for her to sleep on, but at least it offered the bonus of no questions asked. If an inn or shopkeeper asked her questions like her name, where she was from or anything possibly personal that didn't have to do with completing her business and getting on with her life, than she'd usually just leave immediately. This had occasionally led to her sleeping on the ground at night or going hungry, but at least it was better than dealing with people actually wanting to talk. She dropped her bag to the ground and saw that a fresh robe had been hung out on a hook for her, a towel accompanying it. Stripping off her wet clothes she flung them into a corner to deal with at a later moment. She used the towel to dry her hair and body, and then donned the warm robe. Like how she didn't have to worry about burning herself, she didn't worry about getting too cold, but there was something to be said for comfortable clothes. The luxuries of life were not to be underestimated if available. A lesson she had learned the hard way.
"How are you feeling?" asked a familiar voice from behind the young woman. She turned around and saw a beautiful woman with dark brown hair that fell slightly below her shoulders. She was wearing a simple purple robe in the style found commonly in the earth nation. She wasn't exactly as the young woman remembered her, but older, aged gracefully but aged none the less.
"Mother?" asked the young woman. "Is that really you?"
"Yes Azula, it's me," replied the older woman. "I've been wanting to talk to you for many, many years. Imagine my surprise when I witness a strong young woman taking out a platypusbear, with a very restrained but powerful display of firebending. How you concentrated the attacks into single points was impressive. You've grown beyond how I could ever imagine."
"Mother…." said Azula simply, almost wistfully.
Azula's mother started to walk towards her, hands outstretched to hug her daughter. "Azula, I've so missed you. There's so much that we need to talk about. I urgently need your help with something."
"Meh, it'll have to wait," said Azula, shrugging and suddenly looked bored. As fast as a bolt of lightning, Azula struck, shooting a blast of fire at her mother. The older woman was engulfed into a ball of fire that continued to swirl around its victim even after Azula stopped feeding it. She smirked at the ball of fire. "Honestly, you're either yet another apparition, an imposter with a large amount of information or my actual mother. Either way, that was very, very satisfying. I'm hoping you actually have a physical body and carbonize and crumble into ash. It'll be a very satisfying release for having to hold back earlier instead of attracting attention to myself."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you then," said a melodious voice from the fire. It was extinguished in a gust of wind and instead of Azula's mother stood a rather stunning young woman with snow white hair falling down her back. She was wearing an opulent dark blue robe and a rather disapproving frown on her face. "I lost my physical body to another mad fire bender's scheme, so you've lost out on your chance."
"That's rather a shame. You knew so much about my mother that I hoped you were actually her. Impressive really, it makes me want to burn you even more."
"Enough with your madness!" commanded the white haired woman, her voice booming through the small room but not attracting any outside attention. "I am here on serious and urgent business and I need your help."
"Not interested," replied Azula. She blew out a nearby candle, the only source of illumination in the room, plunging it into darkness. The white haired woman started to glow, lighting up the room instead of the candle. Azula just smirked once more and crawled between the blankets, trying to fall asleep.
"I am Yue, the spirit of the moon," said the white haired woman, ignoring Azula's indifference. "I come with a message of danger from the spirit world."
"And why should I care?" asked Azula, not even turning over to face Yue.
"Because," sighed Yue, "if you assist me, I have been granted the approval and ability to answer any question you have, about anything. Past, present or future, as long as it's about something that has or will exist in this world, I can, and will answer it with the utmost accuracy. Is this an acceptable payment for your cooperation?"
"I'll sleep on it," replied Azula. Yue just gave a sigh.
"Then I will await your answer in the morning," she said simply. Her light dimmed and then disappeared, leaving Azula once again alone in her room.
Under the dual covers of her blankets and the darkness, Azula gave a feral smile.
"Finally…" she muttered, falling asleep to pleasant dreams of pushing her father Ozai down an infinite flight of stairs. Twice.