A/N: Finally finished editing the second chapter (phew). I edit, edit, and then edit again like a crazy person, then I edit once more. Hence, why it took so long, hehe. Happy Holidays everyone! And enjoy!

EDIT: I'm still new to uploading docs on the site so I had to take the chapter down to make a couple of changes.

Sorry Spikesagitta, I don't know if your review will be deleted too. But if so, I'm still happy for your review on the old version of Ch. 2.

Amethyst

Chapter 02

"I still can't remember it." Azula was surprised it took her so long to recall the girl's name from earlier that day. She found it even more surprising that trying to remember the name preoccupied most of her breakfast.

The princess had to clear her mind of the subject though, because the next couple of hours would require her full attention.

Azula approached the doors to the old war chamber. She heard voices and, with a grin, realized that the meeting had already begun. This was exactly what she wanted; she planned to show up a little late on purpose to make a noticeable entrance. Putting on her best smile before proceeding, she nodded to the two guards on either end of the doors and waited for them to announce her entry.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Inside, Zuko and Aang were discussing the boundary issues between two Earth Kingdom provinces while Sokka was explaining the maps of the areas in question to Toph.

"I don't see why we can't just have the two provinces work together on the land. The point of these meetings is to bring peace. We should be working on equality and union between the people, not the division of them." Aang stood, leaning over the table covered in maps, his normally jovial features now taken over by a serious frown.

"Aang, I get where you're coming from." Zuko replied in a calm tone. "But you have to understand, without some form of order we could just end up with a violent outburst between them. Leaving it as is would just make matters worse."

"Zuko's right, Aang." Sokka added turning from Toph to the previous two, "The only thing we can do is divvy up the land by placing a line right down the middle."

Up until this point, Toph sat in silence listening to the debate, "I'm sorry to say this twinkle toes, but you give people too much credit. Now, I'm not saying they can't be trusted or anything, but they can't just be given an unlimited amount of trust either. Could you imagine the chaos that would happen if one farmer accidentally wrangled a bull-pig belonging to another?"

Aang sighed sitting down dissatisfied, "I know, I know. But, just cutting a line between the two? What if that causes problems with the farmlands they already have?"

"Entering Her Royal Highness, Princess Azula!" The group turned from the table towards the sound of the guards' spear butts against the ground, and the following announcement. Toph slightly tilted her head in confusion until the guard's words registered, "Wait a minute. You have got to be kidding me."

Azula entered the peace room to find her brother, the Avatar, and two of his friends all sitting around the strategy table covered in maps. She recognized the other two as the water tribe boy, who she believed was related to that peasant girl, and the blind earth bender who mastered the ability to bend metal. Their names were Sokka and Toph, if she remembered correctly.

Seeing the war room used like this annoyed her, but she maintained her regal poise and nodded a gracious bow suited only for royalty. Smirking, she gave her formal salutation using the sweetest voice she could muster, "Greetings, Avatar Aang." On her way up, she silently noticed the water bender girl wasn't there.

"So you've come," the Avatar sat up with a huge smile.

"What do you mean, 'So you've come?' Aang, what is going on? What the hell is she doing here!" The water boy pointed an accusing finger in her direction.

Aang looked to Zuko with a serious expression, "Zuko would you care to explain for me?" With a stern face, Zuko walked over to stand next to Azula, stiffly folding his arms.

It was apparent to her that although Zuko didn't quite agree with the Avatar's decision, he still stood by the boy's judgment. She filed that revelation away in her memory banks. She also knew the two realized there was a better chance of the others accepting that judgment if it was presented by him rather than just Aang. Azula was pleased with the information she already obtained within the first minutes of her walking in. But, she was thoroughly irritated that everyone else wasn't brought up to speed on the matter.

"Well, Aang was noticing that these negotiations and our efforts at governing were a little more difficult than we expected. So he figured we could use an extra hand." Azula turned to the other two sitting across from her and made a slight nod in response to Zuko's words. She was satisfied with the introduction. That is, until the water boy and earth girl burst into hysterical laughter.

"You really had us going for a second there twinkle toes." Toph was still laughing to herself. Sokka continued, "I mean, come on Aang. Azula? At a peace talk?" The two turned towards each other and again broke into another fit of laughter, even louder this time. It continued until they noticed the deadpan expressions on both Aang and Zuko's faces.

"You… you can't be serious!"

Azula had to contain her own laughter at the split second change in their dispositions. The two immediately protested the idea. And as well they should, Azula thought to herself.

The most verbally opposed to the idea was Sokka, "Aang, have you lost your mind! I know that as Avatar, it is your duty to give everyone a second chance when they deserve it. But, you do remember how this crazy bitch tried to kill you not more than a year ago, right? Aang, this could be dangerous. This IS dangerous. I mean, she was locked away in a loony bin for eight months! Do you really trust that?"

Azula felt her smile drop a hair at the boy's colorful choice of words.

Sokka looked at Aang with a serious expression, "Everyone knows the only reason she's not at the Boiling Rock is because she's one of very few left in the royal bloodline. That said, one can only imagine the reasons why she'd be sent there under normal circumstances. That should be plenty reason enough to not have her near us."

The princess saw this debate was going nowhere in her direction fast and she started to become unsure of its outcome.

However, Aang made an argument that threw even her off, "Yes Sokka you're right, Azula has had a rough past and a reputation that should make everyone in this room edgy. But you're also right about something else. She is one of the only members left of the Fire Nation's royal line. She was brought up just the same as Zuko with the lessons on how to govern a country. We haven't the slightest clue what we're doing. And let's face it, Zuko was away chasing us during the more important half of those lessons. Of the two, Azula is simply more experienced in strategy and the knowledge on how to rule a nation. I know the risks we'd be placing ourselves in, but we need help Sokka. And all the people who could help are miles away taking care of their respective nations. We need them to stay where they are."

Azula silently mulled over the Avatar's words and drew the same conclusions herself. Her uncle Iroh was too busy juggling his teashop and working as their ambassador to the Earth Kingdom to come assist them, they were on their own. After Aang making such an argument, Sokka and Toph thought on it for a bit longer and finally agreed.

However, the water tribe boy gave one condition, "I want you to take her bending away like you did with Ozai."

"Abso-FUCKING-lutely not." Azula had had just about enough, and now she was ready to kill the boy sitting across from her. Two brilliant blue flames appeared on either side in both of her hands as she began to walk forward. Zuko put his arm out to stop her.

"Wait," Aang stood up again. "That will not be necessary." Azula paused to listen, but she didn't let the flames dissipate just yet.

The Avatar glanced around the room before continuing, "First, I am more than capable of handling Azula if she does decide to revolt. But second, and most important, we need her skills. All of her skills. Azula is a powerful bender. That is something we will definitely need in the future. Third, I am willing to put my full trust into Azula and give her the chance to help run her nation as is her right. And finally," at the last part he fixed his gaze on the princess, "if it comes to it, know that I will not hesitate to take your bending away."

And at that, Azula let her flames turn off completely and replied in unison with Sokka, "…Fine."

Azula, completely miffed about the entire situation looked to the table and changed the subject to the current task at hand. "What are we looking at here?"

Zuko moved to inspect the document she picked up and began to explain, "Everyone is working hard on the post war efforts. But when it comes to some of the more difficult decisions they look to Avatar Aang to solve the problems for them."

This piqued Azula's interests, "Go on."

"There are a few areas in the North-Eastern Earth Kingdom that have recently been relinquished of Fire Nation rule. This area in particular needs to be equally divided between the two provinces on either side." Zuko took the map, placing it on the table, and using his finger to pinpoint different areas.

"Aang wants to let them be, allowing them to come to their own terms of equal sharing. However, Toph, Sokka, and I have been trying to explain the consequences of not giving an official border. But Aang has correctly pointed out that doing so may cause issues with the farmlands that have already been claimed and used. With the war over, more and more people are starting to migrate to the area to build farms."

"How much land in total?"

"Roughly over two thousand acres."

"And these squares?"

"Farms that have officially been claimed"

"What are these other markings?"

Zuko glanced at the map symbols Azula was pointing to, "Oh. This is a river that runs through the area, it leads from the mountains in the north and ends about halfway down the map. That is a patch of unusable soil where there used to be a Fire Nation artillery factory. It will take a decade, if not more, for the soil to revitalize itself, although the soil on either side is very fertile. And that area right beneath the factory sight are patches of rocky territory, unusable and inhospitable."

Sokka continued the explanation, "The main issue is that even though we have a mapping of some claimed farmland we don't have all or even most of them written down. The only area of farmland that we know is not being used is that patch in between the river and the factory sight. It was used for the Fire Nation troops and is still fenced off. We were thinking of selling the land to build some funds for the rebuilding process. It falls almost center of the two provinces. It takes up about 20 square acres."

Azula looked at the maps with a blank expression, "How long have you been stuck with this problem?"

"A few days." Aang answered.

"It's a lot worse than I thought." Agitated, Azula let out a deep sigh, "For the future, what time does this meeting usually start so I can get here as soon as possible from now on?"

Aang looked puzzled, "We don't have a time. We just drop in and out in shifts during the day." Azula placed two fingers to her forehead in exasperation, so much for being fashionably late.

Just then, the water bender girl entered the room. "Hey everyone. Sorry, it took a little longer than I thought to get the bath ready after my training." She stopped short when she noticed Azula at the table. "…What's she doing here?" Toph spoke up to answer, "Aang invited her to come help us in our meetings."

"Aang, is this true?" She asked in a very stern voice, although her face remained emotionless. Azula found it interesting that the girl didn't have the same reaction of outrage as the other two had.

Aang looked at the floor before regaining eye contact and honestly replied, "Yes Katara. Yes it is."

Ah that's right, her name was Katara, Azula mused to herself. She figured her difficulty in remembering the name was due to its strange and foreign sound. She frowned at the thought of the name deeming it inept.

Katara continued to stare at Aang for a moment longer before she finally responded more quietly, "You made a serious decision like this and didn't come and speak with me about it first? I thought we talked about everything." Before Aang could answer, Katara dropped the subject, "We'll talk about this later. Any luck with the farmland?"

"Yes, well, no." Zuko cut in, "We were just bringing Azula up to the speed on the matter."

Katara's brows furrowed in concern, "We're going on three days now, and we still haven't come up with a solution?"

Azula continued examining the different landmarks her brother pointed out to her when she had an idea. "I need a pen."

"Ooo-oh no," Sokka contended, "I did not spend four months making these maps for you to just ruin them with scribbles."

Ignoring Sokka, Azula grabbed the nearest badger-goose quill and drew out a few dashed lines on the parchment. Aang focused on the patterns she was drawing, "Hang on Sokka, Azula what are you doing?"

"It's a quick method for land partition using the landscape as natural dividers." She continued drawing, "Military commanders use simple things like mountains and lakes, but you can extend the method to include how the land itself functions."

Aang walked over to Azula, "What do you mean?"

"Well, see the river that runs from the mountain? It's obvious that the Fire Nation generals chose this spot because of its placement. It falls almost directly down the center about halfway."

"Yeah, we were trying to use it to make drawing the border easier, but it gets difficult after the river ends."

"Not necessarily," Azula went on, "See the fenced off land? It may not fall directly between the river's end and the barren patch from the factory, but if we continued the border from the foot of the river…" Azula drew more lines leading further down.

Katara peered at the map being worked on. When she looked, she found that Azula had drawn two circles, one around the fenced off farmland and one around the factory sight. She drew a dotted line leading from the end of the river to the top of the circle around the fenced area and then continued the line from the bottom of the fence to the circle around the factory sight. Finally, the line continued from the bottom of the factory's circle to end at the patches of rocky land on the bottom of the map. When looking at the finished border, Katara saw two roughly equal divided pieces of land.

"And finally, instead of selling off that unclaimed land," Azula finished, "We can have the two provinces co-own it, working on the land together. All crops from that territory will be widely distributed under the government's direction to the peoples of the Earth Kingdom."

Aang smirked with approval, "This is brilliant. Not only do we establish an order, we also unite them co-working on one task."

"Remarkable." Zuko starred in disbelief at the map in front of him. Azula leered at her older brother content with her work, "Oh Zuzu. You were never good when it came to looking at the bigger picture."

Toph got a hold of the parchment and ran her hands over it, "Hehe, not bad princess."

Bewildered, Sokka squinted his eyes at Toph, "Hold on a second. I sat for thirty minutes explaining the maps to you when you can just see them… with your hands?"

"What? You seemed so happy talking about them, I just didn't see the point in stopping you."