Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender all characters and locations are official property of Nickelodeon.

Foreword: Thank you to all the people who reviewed, it's really nice to get so many reviews so fast! To answer a few quick questions I should have put this part in chapter 1 then there would have been less confusion but I felt it was too long so I split it. Basically this chapter explains most of what was said in chapter 1, hopefully. Also Ty Lokka and Azulaang sound interesting but if it's Ty Lokka that it has to compete with Sukka and Azulaang would be just disturbing. Maybe I can make Azula stalk Aang :P


The First Lightningbender

電Book 1: Lightning

Chapter 02: Reconnection.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."—Abraham Lincoln


Azula assumed the Tigerhawk was female, it did sound somewhat female. Then again it was hard to tell, it certainly never referred to itself as female. You couldn't really refer to your gender in passing. Its voice boomed and echoed within her like thunderclaps but made no real sound. The Tigerhawk was talking directly into the princess's mind. Something which took getting used to.

"So what do I call you?" asked the young raven haired girl.

"I have many names but you may call me Inazuma."

"Very well. What must I do now?" she demanded.

"First let us start by creating a spark of electricity," taught the Storm Tiger.

"And how do I do that?"

"You have not lost your ability to bend. The Avatar could not rid you of that, only your firebending has been removed. To begin let me start with this: lightning requires peace of mind only as an extension of peace in the flow of chi - not as a matter of trying to separate the negative energies from the positive. Lightning flows through the body like water through a creek. Like water, electricity seeks to flow a matter of its nature and move like air that seeks to fill a vacuum. Like water flowing down a river erosion takes place, wearing away the sides of it. Over time valleys are formed, mountains crumble and the river is no more. Lightning is the same only it happens instantaneously making it extremely dangerous. If there is any resistance the lightning jumps back into you, burning you or even killing you as it flows through your body."

Well that explained a lot. Azula had seen Zuko trying to shoot lightning after she had taken him home and even offered to try and teach him. He refused of course. But no matter how hard he tried every attempt literally blew up in his face. But even when she was in a frenzy on the day of the Comet she could still create lightning with ease, though it was a lot weaker and less focused than it should have been. Not to mention tiring.

"Lightning exists within the body, in your muscles, nerves and brain. It animates your organs, makes your heart beat. Firebending comes from the breath the mixing of air and chi to create flame but lightningbending comes from the muscles and nerves. You merely need the will to create a circuit. In the firebending style you gather static electricity from the air around you by sweeping your fingers through it like clouds rubbing against each other. Like a lightning rod you draw the power into yourself forming a circuit within your arms and shoulders, putting your hands together you join the circuit to unleash it and it rushes forward to meet the first solid resistance it can."

The Tigerhawk seemed to have a tendency for excessive hyperbole and metaphor not to mention melodrama. One thing that stuck in Azula's mind were all the riddles and hints she dropped none too subtly but being a pragmatist Azula pushed her queries aside and continued to listen intently.

To some extent listening to Inazuma lecture kind of reminded her of the lectures her father, Li and Lo had given her and for a brief moment the princess suddenly felt a little sad. She missed them.

"But the body already is a living ever changing circuit, it creates lightning like a generator and stores it like a battery. Your nerves, your muscles are all conductive wires which automatically form these positive and negative charges every time you move, breathe or even think! Even the beating of your heart creates electricity. With lightningbending I will teach you to harness the power within yourself and without. Like firebenders draw the heat from their body to make fire you can draw the lightning in your flesh and send it forth as well as command electricity all around you by building your own external circuits of chi. Now with what I have told you generate a spark and make it dance between your fingers. Remember you are the master, the element your tool. But respect and treat it with care and caution."

Obeying Inazuma's commands Azula breathed in deeply, calming her mind and stilling her body and heart. She tried not to fall on the habits of firebenders realizing quickly that this was a new kind of bending art - one that would undoubtedly be markedly different from firebending. With a steady pace she reached deep within herself feeling the lightning in her flesh and willing it to flow down circuits she chose.

"Electricity is a matter of yin and yang. It flows when positive and negative energies or charges are present, empty and full like breathing and while some believe that a bender is only a humble guide this is in fact foolish humility. Respect it but do not fear it. Rivers can be damned, swamps drained, canals built. Lightning can be bent into a circuit, directed and controlled to empower and destroy at your whim. Now make that circuit!"

At its command Azula began focusing her chi to form lines and from that energy she began turning it into electricity that flowed down and around her body. The feeling was amazing as nerves were fired and receptors stimulated. The feeling of exhilaration was beyond the warmth of firebending. The lightning was life itself empowering every cell in her body, tingling every sensation pleasurably, renewing all vigor and drive.

She almost lost herself in the sensation until she quickly caught herself and focused.

"Focus, Azula. You must command the lightning. Your circuit must be insulated and conductive like a strong canal forcing it to flow at your beck and call. Focus!"

And then it happened. An arc of electricity danced across her fingers jumping from one tip to the other and even from hand to hand. It was like a web of strings, threads of azure lightning that bounced and danced at her fingertips at her whim. For her amusement.

It was an epiphany, a revelation. Azula had been reborn.

"Good, now let us begin your training."


Only weeks passed but it only took weeks for Azula to master so many forms, so many skills and techniques the Tigerhawk had to offer. The beast was impressed by her talent, the princess needed only a single demonstration to comprehend and a single attempt to copy and memorize the forms the Tigerhawk demonstrated to her.

Of course the Tigerhawk wasn't really 'teaching' her lightningbending, it was a tigerhawk after all. Like the ancient benders from the animals, like Toph from badgermoles Azula was creating her own art by following the movements and ways of the creature. And learning ridiculously fast as well.

Azula was certain she was actually getting smarter, stronger, faster and more energetic. She was all of this already but somehow she was becoming more so. New ideas seem to pop in her head faster, solutions came quicker, she rarely got tired these days and barely needed any sleep. And the world seemed to pass by so slowly. Was it always this slow she wondered?

"Lightning is the energy of life; it is the substance of thought. Lightningbenders have a natural predisposition towards intelligence and athleticism in the same way earthbenders are strong and resolute, airbenders swift and evasive etc."

Azula smirked at the comment feeling her ego inflate with her power.

"Lightningbending is also affected by your confidence and strength of personality. That being an aspect of lightning as well," added Inazuma matter-of-factly.

It was a monsoon at that time on this part of the world and many lightning storms raged high in the sky, filling the darkness with staccatos of blinding white light. Each time Azula emerged into the open, the power of the sky flowed into her. And it was especially potent during a storm and far greater than the feeling of invigoration she felt under a noon sun as a firebender.

"The storm is to lightningbenders as the noon sun is to firebenders, the full moon is to waterbenders. The sky will give you power, clouds more so, rain even more and lightning storms the greatest of all. As lightning stabs from the sky to enrich the earth the storm will feed you power, but remember should you need to defend against lightning simply stay grounded and redirect its flow into the earth which will absorb it for you." lectured Inazuma whose thunderous psychic voice seem to boom even over the peels of thunder around them.

Azula was drenched and cold but she didn't care. The power she felt under a storm was pure ecstasy and she would not let even a freezing downpour stop her from training under the violent skies.

"Under the storm you will even have the power to counter the chi flows within others and control their thoughts and perceptions. You are adept at that already and this art will be child's play for you. The art of mindbending."

True to its word Inazuma had mindbent every doctor, patient, nurse and guard in the facility bending them all to the princess's will. In a way she had a palace of her own once more and it allowed her to train out in the open.

"Positive and negative charges, flowing, current, grounding. Why does lightningbending sound like every other bending art?" Azula asked.

"All the elements are connected, firebending and airbending are very similar, as are waterbending and airbending, earthbending and firebending and so on. All elements exist in a cycle that compliment each other and share aspects. Lightning is no different. It was the very first to form when mankind stopped simply bending the energy in themselves and started bending the elements outside. Lightningbending is the first true elemental bending art, the purest and oldest. All others learned from its divine wisdom first. And now you will be the first master seen in an epoch."

"Can father do this?" she asked suddenly concerned for her father.

"No, nor can Iroh or your brother."

"Why? Why only me? The Avatar took away father's firebending and couldn't he also do the same with Iroh?"

"No, because your spirit is unbendable. The Avatar does not have the power to take away the bending of the first true lightningbender seen in an age. He does not have the right and your will far surpasses his. He merely…trimmed away the dead branches that were your firebending limbs to let your lightningbending branches grow strong and true. Unwittingly of course."

Azula could always tell when a human was lying to her. Inazuma hardly fell in that category. But instincts were telling her that there was something the Tigerhawk was keeping from the princess, something important as to why Inazuma only picked her and her alone. Pressing the issue didn't seem wise though, not now anyway.

"I won't lie to you Azula. You're firebending no matter how powerful held you back. Now that you have embraced your true calling you will get stronger. Far stronger than your father, far stronger than any bender alive or dead. It is your destiny to revive an old nation destroyed and becomes its monarch."

"Monarch to a new nation. Hmm," she grinned from ear to ear. "I just love the sound of that."

Azula trained out in the open almost twenty four seven taking breaks only to eat and occasionally sleep. The only times she couldn't do any of these were when Zuko came to visit. Each time he did he continued to talk to her like the doctors once did thinking they could talk her into being good. The doctors called it therapy though the princess had more colorful words for it. Somehow Azula imagined that if she hadn't learned lightningbending and found a new motivation to keep her going she would probably have just turned good out of insanity from all the talking.

She had many more questions to ask the Tigerhawk, like what this talk was about a destroyed old nation, forgotten genocide and what not. It hadn't seemed particularly prudent, but Azula was more interested in just learning lightningbending. Frustratingly, the Tigerhawk would cryptically reply to her occasional probes with:

"I will show you in time." Or "It is better seen than told."

Obviously her help was not altogether altruistic but that was fine, Azula was used to it.

In the end she just went with the flow and decided to wait for Inazuma to tell her in her own good time. Besides she was having a marvelous time practicing her lightningbending, she especially enjoyed poking around peoples' brains with her mindbending. The only time her mood was soured was when Zuko came round to which she was forced to return to her newly repaired prison cell and pretend to be imprisoned.

She longed to wrap her slender white fingers around her brother's neck and send a million volts of electricity through him. But there would be time for vengeance another day, she would allow him to live while he could still be useful to her. Not to mention Azula found that such a death was too good for her treacherous brother. No, she needed to find a more suitable end for him.

Each time he came (which tended to be frequent) he went to tell her about her past deeds and how that despite her ruthlessness and cunning she had always clearly held back and tried to do things without causing loss of life. Zuko tried to play it up as a sense of morality when in actual fact it was just exceptional efficiency. Capturing was more useful than killing.

"Remember at the Boiling Rock. I know you wanted to just cut the line and let us fall into the boiling lake but you didn't. Instead you jetted across the cable to fight us head on. Ty Lee told me that it was because you wanted to capture us alive. It made me happy to know that you really do care and it's not just deep down," he would say and Azula would just scoff at him.

He also tended to rabble on and on about how their father was at fault for warping her, curiously he seemed to avoid mentioning any of their mother's failings but Azula was in no way surprised.

"What do you want from me anyway? You have everything you ever wanted Zuzu."

"I want you be normal. And happy. That's it."

Azula just gaped at him like he grown an extra head complete with a scar and everything. Then she burst into such hysterical laughter than it hurt her sides.

"What's so funny Azula!?" Zuko demanded crossly.

"Spare me please," she chuckled. "Be honest Zuko and tell me the truth."

"What truth?" now Zuko was puzzled.

"You don't know? Not surprising I suppose."

"Then tell me, what do you know that I don't?"

"All these attempts to try and get me to change. All this effort you put in. To make me repent. It isn't for me Zuzu. It's for yourself."

"F-for…myself?"

"Yes, you obviously don't realize it so I'll tell you. You were born, by your definition, a good person but you changed, you turned rotten for the sake of pleasing father. Even though you got better and changed back it doesn't change the fact that you could become evil all over again since you did it once. And you're afraid of that. You see Zuzu, you aren't trying to change me for selfless reasons. You're trying to change me because you believe that if you can change someone as evil and selfish and cruel as me, in your mind it not only absolves you of your sins but also ensures absolutely that you can never ever go bad again. But I know and you know, that you can always go bad Zuzu. Nothing save death will ever be able to remove that sword hanging over your head."

This time there was no retort, no counter argument. He simply had neither. Fire Lord Zuko simply left and would later get chastised by his girlfriend for being stupid enough to listen to Azula, the greatest and most charismatic psychologist known.

Eventually the day came when Azula decided enough was enough. It was time to move up in the world.

"Do you think I've trained enough?" Azula wondered out loud.

"Yes, I think it's time we left this dreary prison palace of yours and seek your destiny."

"Good. I was beginning to grow impatient."

Taking a well balanced Horse stance Azula swiftly waved her arms left and right before bringing them to swift halts. In response to her manipulation of magnetic fields the iron bars bent aside at her gestures groaning loudly in protest to her harsh act of bending.

The next thing she did was find a nurse who was roughly her size and build and who had just about as much hair and the same color of pale skin. The girl was obedient and responsive thanks to Inazuma but Azula had greater plans for this girl than just menial servitude. The first thing she did was dress her up in the same kind of patient robes she wore then styled her hair so that from most angles you couldn't tell the two girls apart.

The next thing she did was far more sinister. Azula put her fingers against the side of the nurse's head probing her scalp with her fingers. With careful precision and the power of the storm raging above backing her she began the careful surgical art of mindbending.

"Remember mindbending is not a simple ability. You do not think what you want and cause it to happen. To read the mind of another is like reading any book, you must pour through it to find the details you wish often without the benefit of a contents page or index. Dull minds tend to be like this. In mindbending you can edit these parts as surely as you might edit a scroll written in charcoal for the mind is not set in ink, and thus it changes and warps with time and experience. You must erase the memories and write anew in the pages of the brain," Inazuma continued to instruct as Azula plied her craft with prodigious ease.

With the bending movement of each finger Azula careful stimulated and trigger electric pulses in choice ganglions and neurons within the nurse's brain. With her altered eyes she could see them all pulsing and racing, the firing circuits of her mind like words and illustrations to the lightningbender. And each she carefully edited.

Changing her entire personality would take far too long. Azula was simply altering her stimuli response patterns to create a body double for herself - a kind of small split personality. She would have none of the true wit of the cunning princess but enough to keep Fire Lord Zuko occupied for a while with a few witty remarks and scathing comments and if necessary some violent retorts followed by long periods of silence.

It took hours of work but finally Azula was finished and put the nurse inside her former cell before bending the bars back. Then she moved on to the next part of her plan. Supplies and gear had already been prepared for her by the other 'puppets' and Inazuma had offered to become her mount and beast of burden. A mote of irony struck Azula as she began donning her new outfit - courtesy of Inazuma and some personal tailors she 'acquired'. Just a year ago Azula was chasing the last survivor of a dead civilization riding a once thought extinct animal. And now she was the heir apparent of a dead civilization riding an animal no one even knew existed. It made her wonder if she should expect Fire Nation soldiers to be chasing her soon. With Zuko, you never knew.

Azula's new apparel was apparently modelled after the clothes worn by the ancient lightningbenders. It was basically a jet black Gi with gold rims and a storm grey hakama skirt tied by a black sash to hold it together. Underneath her kimono-style shirt she wore a grey long sleeve top that covered her neck and extended down her arms. She wore white toe socks or tabi allowing her to strap on a pair of strong black leather sandals.

Most importantly she had lipstick on once more. Putting it on for the first time in weeks was like a smoker smoking for the first time in weeks. It was the most satisfying feeling she felt in a very long time.

"It's pretty light," Azula complimented on her new outfit as she bounced on her toes.

"You should really thank your tailors, they were the ones who did the work," replied Inazuma.

"Good point. Thank you very much," she thanked the catatonic servants standing at attention beside her Tigerhawk in a sickly sweet tone and bowed with a sinister smirk.

The characters 雷神 were scrolled down the left side of her top in gold thread beneath a symbol resembling a golden S-shaped lightning bolt emblazoned over a golden ring. Azula had done up her hair in a topknot once more holding it in place with a new hairpiece that bore a similar symbol wrought in gold. Sadly her bangs hadn't fully grown back yet and her hair was still asymmetrical even if it was at least clean and tidy.

"The thunderbolt was the crest of the Lightning people. It's fitting that you wear it."

"I see. Well I suppose it's time we leave eh?"

"Agreed. Get on." the Tigerhawk jerked it's head towards her saddle and immediately Azula jumped onto it securing herself comfortably into the harness.

"One question?" Azula wondered out loud.

"Yes?"

"Are you male or female?"

The Tigerhawk simply smiled and yelled: "Female!" before she jumped into the air flapping her wings furiously to gain altitude as she soared through the black clouds.


The Storm Tiger continued to fly through the sky at a pace that even exceeded the Avatar's Sky Bison, much to Azula's surprise and delight. Ever since becoming a lightningbender Azula could no longer instinctively tell where the sun was like firebenders, instead she could feel the pull of what Inazuma told her was the Earth's magnetic field guiding her North like a compass. From that she could tell that Inazuma was travelling South-South-East to only spirits knew where.

She also found that if she focused just a little she could tell what the weather would be like and today promised to be fine and brisk. Which as a firebender was delightful but to a lightningbender it made her feel lethargic. It was ironic because Azula recalled the reverse when clouds obscured sunlight and made her feel sleepy not the other way around.

"Not to look a gift-tigerhawk in the mouth but why are you helping me Inazuma?" Azula asked as she rested her arms and head against Inazuma's saddle.

"I will show you in time. But suffice it to say I want to see the return of the Tigerhawks to their original numbers and the return of the human lightningbenders and their nation of storms."

"So there is an ulterior motive."

"As you would say there's always an ulterior motive. Even the most selfless of actions still serve to provide one with some pleasure. However demented."

"Hah. That is true. Where are the other Tigerhawks?"

"Scattered, in mountain tops and forests all over the world. Tigers are solitary creatures by nature and the destruction of the lightning nation and their near extinction has made them more so. Don't worry, I'll summon them in good time."

They travelled for days and eventually Azula worked out where they were going from the landmarks they passed and their rate of speed. The temperature of the wind that whipped her face began to drop sharply the closer they got to the south but Azula found she could still warm herself with her inner lightning just as surely as she had done before with her inner fire.

"We're heading to the Southern Air Temple aren't we?" Azula yelled over the wind.

"Yes, there are things there I would like to show you," Inazuma replied directly into the princess's mind.

Eventually the pair reached the porcelain white spire that was the Southern Air Temple. Dead but pristine and wrapped in white snow like bones picked clean and bleached white. Azula grinned. Another storm had begun to gather around the peaks and echoed in distant rumbles when they finally landed on the temple's outer courtyard.

"Kuwabara, kuwabara," Inazuma chanted.

"What's that?"

"It's a charm to ward off lightning. The old lightningbenders of the old empire used it as a good luck charm."

"Kuwabara, kuwabara," Azula repeated then smiled. "I like it."

The Tigerhawk led Azula through the temple with a purpose. She never hesitated to think about which turn to take and never paused at any doors. She simply pushed them aside or knocked them down. Eventually they came up to a wall where she stopped for moment.

"Protect yourself," she warned then gathered a globe of lightning around her tail and launched it at the wall which exploded into a deadly shower of debris.

Azula brought her arms in an X and swept them aside creating a shockwave of thunder that easily turned the rock into dust and then swept that dust aside. Peering through the clouds of fine powder Azula saw a tunnel leading down into the mountain behind the destroyed wall.

"Beyond is the secret history of the Air Nomads. Kept hidden from all but the Air Elders who guarded it from generation to generation lest some young sapling stumble upon the secret shame of their race," explained Inazuma as she led the princess down into the dark.

Inazuma created a floating orb of energy that lit the way making it easy to navigate. The steps were tiled but not worn as though few had passed through, though the stale air and age in the walls showed.

"This place must be centuries old," Azula noted.

"Millennia old, dating back to before the founding of the Four Nations as you know them. Before the coming of the Avatar. In the Fire Nation this is the time of the Sun Warriors but before even the Avatar," Inazuma explained.

"I see."

Eventually they found themselves in a large dome roofed chamber filled with frescoes and murals etched and painted into the walls and ceilings. Inazuma touched her tail against a large metal ball at the entrance causing a spark of electricity to jump into it and then there was light in the room radiating from strange glass orbs that produced light yet no heat or flame. It was like the glow crystals used in Ba Sing Se yet brighter and more natural.

"Electric lighting. The benders of the old Lightning Bureaucracy developed them, they use inert gas and metal wire to harness the light generated by lightning. Impressive isn't?"

"It is," Azula breathed clearly awed by such advanced ancient technology before smirking as she stroked her chin pondering what she could do with such technology.

But even that was dwarfed by the majesty of the room itself. It was pristine yet old, well preserved yet seemingly new as though the passage of time did little save cause dust to gather.

The ceiling depicted men and women in clothing like the ones she was wearing bending the lightning in their hands, from the sky and from strange metal devices Azula did not recognize. They bent metal as well and seemingly kept knowledge from the scrolls they held and at the center of the ceiling was what Azula could only describe as a floating island suspending a great metal city more beautiful than anything Azula had ever witnessed.

The walls however depicted in the Four Cardinal directions the four peoples. Firebenders depicted as warriors and generals, Airbenders depicted as messengers and diplomats, Waterbenders as healers and sailors and Earthbenders as builders and artisans. All bowing in harmony with each other and to the heavens. It seemed unprecedented that all the nations could be united as such.

"This room was built by the last of the Lightning Bureaucrats, the ancient ministers who watched over the world."

"What do these illustrations mean?"

"In ancient times when mankind first began bending elements they were divided based upon their geography. Proximity to ice and water created the waterbenders, volcanoes the firebenders, earth and deserts the earthbenders and the mountains and winds the airbenders. But the lightningbenders were the first benders of all, the first to master the original energy of life."

"Lightning."

"Yes, electricity animates life. It conceives it and births it. Without lightning in all its forms life would have not been possible. More than earth in bones, water in blood, air in our breath and fire in body heat lightning is the most primal element. At the beginning each of the nations lived together cooperating and using their abilities to help one another. It was the job of the lightningbenders naturally more brilliant and longer in memory and lifespan than others to document knowledge, experiment and plan. They were the first bureaucrats and they did their job with great honor and skill."

Azula mentally scoffed, there was no way she could believe bureaucrats had honor. Inazuma must have been exaggerating but it was hard to tell.

"To that end they created great technology culminating in the legendary Tianjing," Inazuma continued.

"The Floating City of Heaven?!" Azula gaped back up to the mural of the floating city now recognizing it.

"Yes, it wasn't just a legend. However another group of benders didn't want to share the sky with them."

"The airbenders," Azula sneered.

"Yes, just as the first firebenders were the Sun Warriors, the first waterbenders were the Moon Tribe and the first earthbenders were the Three Earth Empires. And finally the first airbenders were called the Bison Lords and they were a terrible lot."

"Oh," this perked Azula's curiosity.

"The Bison Lords were haughty and arrogant, they believed that because they soared over everything and went where they pleased that everything beneath them was theirs. While there were those that respected the laws imposed by the Lightning Bureaucrats on behalf of the other tribes many went around pillaging and raping and stealing. Until finally a powerful airbender named Temujin was born."

"Let me guess. He gathered all the Bison Lords and launched an attacked against the Heavenly City?"

"He did indeed. It was devastating. The lightningbenders were outnumbered and caught unawares. They were destroyed in an eye blink and in their desperation they crashed their city into ocean."

"Where is it? Is it still intact?"

"Perhaps, I don't know. All I know is that after the seat of Lightning's power was destroyed the Bison Lords went about hunting down every lightningbender and Tigerhawk in the world. They almost succeeded in wiping out my kind too. And what did the other tribes do? They abandoned them and the lightningbenders were no more."

"Tch! Those Lightning Bureaucrats should have tied tighter leashes around their dogs."

"Don't blame them for acting out of fear."

"Hmph."

"As a result the nations of world fell into the sequence of four mirroring the seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. It seemed like divine providence that removing the lightningbenders could do this and the arrival of the Avatar only cemented that belief even though the very first Avatar was the last lightningbender and his purpose was to punish and avenge."

"He destroyed the Bison Lords."

"Not exactly, he pacified them and established the Air Nomads as you knew them. As peaceful monks living in mountains but regardless some of their arrogant philosophies still held true and the Air Nomads of old still thought themselves above material concerns though for less devious reasons. After that the first Avatar died forever ending the existence of lightning in mankind and the elemental pentagram."

"Until my great-grandfather unwittingly avenged that genocide."

"Correct. What he did might have been wrong but in thanks the Spirit of Lightning granted his descendants the power of Lightning."

"Hmm, that does explain why only those in my family beginning with Azulon can create lightning and even then we can't exactly 'bend' it."

"Precisely. It goes without saying that this is the legacy you must revive. With the airbenders gone a hole has been ripped into the Cycle of Nations and must be filled lest the world be sundered by this imbalance. You must become the Matriarch of a new Lightning Nation and replace the airbender's domain over Autumn and the Sky. Ideally I would like the old five nations, but we work with what we get, don't you agree?"

"You're telling me. But why have you waited for so long. Surely you could have approached Azulon or Iroh or my father? Or even my brother?" she pointed out with disgust.

"No, none of them have what it takes to build a nation. Only you have the necessary mind and charisma to do so. Your destiny is written in the stars Azula, we Tigerhawks have waited for decades for your birth since Sozin's genocide. For the Avatar to restore peace and for him to remove your firebending for this chance. This chance to take the dominion of the extinct airbenders in payment for the crimes of the Bison Lords. This is your destiny Azula. You must embrace it."

Azula paused and contemplated her offer for the longest of times. All her hopes and dreams had been stolen from her once upon a time. And now they were coming back to her. Her fate demanded more work and sacrifice but she was no stranger to it.

"You're right. I do need to do this. And the power I could gain is certainly tempting. Very well, I will build this new nation. I have land in the former domains of the Air Nomads but first I'll need people to rule over who will help me build. And I know where to start."


Author's Notes: Inazuma means Lightning in Japanese. A Gi is the outfit most martial artists wear. Normally white some people notable masters wear black. You can look up a hakama in google images. The characterson Azula's Gi are Japanese they read Raijin or Thunder God, this is also foreshadowing. Kuwabara Kuwabara is an actual Japanese charm to ward against lightning, metal gear solid and yu yu hakusho fans might know it.

More plot questions will get answered as time goes by so I'll try and write fast. Please be patient. Maybe I should change the 2nd genre to mystery. What does everyone think?

Yes she can bend metal. Two notes on that: her metalbending is merely a crossover like cloudbending(water/air), magmabending (fire/earth) and mudbending (water/earth), there's quite a few examples of that like when both Toph and Katara plugged up the Drill. However Azula's metalbending is more limited than Toph's, Toph can bend all metals that have at least a little earth in it Azula can only bend anything magnetic which is much less than Toph who can bend any metal with impurities like say certain titanium alloys which Azula cannot.

Tienjing means Heavenly Capital it's based on the Chinese/Japanese belief that Heaven is a floating island. The Lightning Bureaucrats are based on the Chinese Celestial Bureaucracy, a bureaucracy of gods and deified humans who maintain order in the universe beneath the Jade Emperor. The Bison Lords are based on the Mongols, Temujin is the birth name of Genghis Khan. It might seem a little implausible that the Tibetan based Air Nomads descended from a Mongol like state but quite frankly I find it even less believable that the Fire Nation descending from South American Aztec Sun Warriors! So yeah.

Also a note on pairings while I'm primarily a Tyzulian however I think I'll take a vote on pairings. An Azula pairing is very important to my plot and more importantly her character development but I need to decide which one and only one otherwise it gets silly. And yes Jet will show up. It's going to be a surprise how too. So head to my profile page and take the vote.