A/N: This chapter was finished rather quickly. After all, normally it takes me at least a week to even get the beginning (What do you guys prefer? Speed or Quality? Cause I'm definitely not good enough to give you both...-.-)

Chapter 1: When Fire and Water Collide

Azula could spot the small village in the distance and sneered. It looked so primitive...

She knew that the villagers must have noticed the ship already, but she didn't care. It was unlikely that there were any waterbenders left. And even then Azula could have beaten them easily.

There was a reason why everyone feared her wrath, after all.

„How long until we reach the village?" she wanted to know from the man standing next to her, the one that had brought her the message.

„About 15 minutes, Sir."

She smiled, satisfied with the anwer. The soldier let out a sigh of relief, but quickly hurried away to help the rest of the crew, as she raised an eyebrow at his behaviour.

Another 10 minutes passed, while Azula stared at the village and the soldiers did everything to avoid her. She was in a good mood and in their eyes, that was just as bad as her being in a bad one.

Well, maybe not quite as much, but it was enough to scare them witless.

Finally, after another few minutes, the ship reached it's destination. Not bothering to slow down, the head of the ship sliced right through the ice, only stopping when it reached the outskirts of the small village, leaving the wall of ice meant for protection destroyed.

There was a hissing sound and slowly the door at the underside of the ship opened. Steam leaked from the open doorway as the cold air mingled with the warm one from inside the ship.

Azula stepped out, head held high and generally looking like the princess she was.

She began to step down the ramp, when she heard a scream. Looking up, she saw a boy, face covered in some ugly war paint, running towards her and holding up a weapon. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and, with one swift kick, sent the boy flying into a heap of snow to her side.

Stepping her foot on the snow-covered ground, she let her gaze wander over the villagers. They were all assembled before her, seemingly clueless as to what to do.

Azula smirked. She would have thought they were at least smart enough to hide in their houses. Well, it certainly made things easier. She put on a fake smile.

„How about we make this easy? You tell me where you have hidden the Avatar and I won't harm you or your village."

Inside, she laughed at her statement. She would destroy the village, no matter if they decided to tell here where the Avatar was or not. This way, she may at least get some information out of them.

At that moment, the boy attacked her again, this time throwing his weapon.

Azula sighed in exasperation. Why did those foolish Water Tribe Peasants never learn from their mistakes? She caught the weapon easily in mid-throw and flung it into the water.

With effort, she managed to keep the smile on her face.

„So?"

The villagers looked unsure and Azula's patience was wearing thin. Just as she was about to snap and order her soldiers to burn the village, a girl with an odd braid stepped forward, obviously being held back by an older woman. The old woman – her grandmother, perhaps? - tried to shush her, but apparently to no avail.

„He's not here, so take your men and leave us be!" the girl said, her arms folded in an almost aggressive manner.

Azula raised an eyebrow, studying the girl before her intently. The girl was definitely attractive, her skin, characteristic for the Water Tribe, a choclate-brown colour and her eyes a deep blue...or was it grey? It was hard to tell from where she was standing. However, she eyed the braid with an amused look in her eyes.

The girl must have noticed the amused look, because she narrowed her eyes and a light blush creeped into her cheeks.

Smirking, Azula motioned for her soldiers.

„Then I'm sure you won't have a problem with my men taking a look around, do you?"

Immediatly, the men began searching through the houses, opening chests and digging snow out of the way.

All the while, the girl shot her hostile looks, as if she would suddenly snap and start spewing fire.

She snickered inwardly, knowing that it wasn't very unlikely for her to be doing that.

As the search went on, Azula could feel her anger slowly starting to take over. Why did it take so long to find him?

The soldiers returned, all of them saying the same: He's gone.

In a matter of heartbeats, her slowly growing anger turned into a raging fire, ready to burn everything and everyone in it's path.

The Princess clenched her fists, willing herself not to lose control.

„Where is he?" she asked in a deadly calm voice. Even her own soldiers flinched at the tone she was using, knowing that it meant she was one step away from letting the beast out, from letting her anger control her.

While Azula was always a force to be reckoned with, she only showed the true power she held when her rage took over.

She stared at the girl in front of her, only letting a small part of her ire show through her eyes, but it was enough to make the girl swallow hard and take a few steps back.

„Where is he?" Azula asked again through clenched teeth.

The girl seemed to force herself to regain some of her bravery, before she answered.

„We don't know. He didn't say anything."

Everyone was silent for a moment, apparently trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

A few seconds passed, before the Princess let out a long breath and unclenched her fists.

Relief washed through the soldiers at that sight.

Back to normal, she plastered a cheery smile on her face.

„Well, I guess then I don't need you anymore." The fake smile fell from her face as quickly as it had appeared and was replaced with cruel smirk.

„Get them"

Instantly, the soldiers rushed forward, taking the villagers by surprise, and began to chain them up.

The girl screamed as she saw the boy who had attacked Azula earlier being clobbered as he tried to fight back.

Grinning gleefully, Azula grabbed the girl by her waist with one arm and held her hands captive behind her back with the other one.

„You said you wouldn't harm us!" the girl spat.

The Fire Nation Princess leaned down slightly to reach her ear.

„You shouldn't have trusted me." she whispered quietly.

She drew back and sneered, disgust marking her features.

„Well, but what else can you expect from a Water Tribe Peasant?"

The girl tried to kick her in the shin and she had to laugh at the weak blow. Grasping the struggling package in her arms tight, she slung the girl over her shoulder, not even paying attention to the blows raining down on her back.

„Katara!"

Azula whirled around and saw that boy running at her...again. She was annoyed at his stubborn behaviour.

Blue fire flaring up in her palm, she waited until he was near enough and struck him hard in the chest. He fell to the ground, not moving.

She couldn't see if he was breathing, but was pretty sure that he was alive. She hadn't hit him that hard.

Suddenly, the blows on her back started again and the girl – Katara? - began screaming something into her ear.

Azula felt a headache already forming and was pretty sure she would kill the girl instead of sending her to the slave market if she didn't stop screaming.

She roughly held Katara's head still and lay two fingers on her temple. A short, sharp lightning bolt later, the girl was out cold and, thankfully, silent.

Chapter 1 End

A/N: Am I the only one who thinks that Katara's braid looks ridiculous?-.-

Anyway, it seems like Katara already got a taste of Azula's insane side. God, I love writing Azula completly and utterly Unfortunately, I need her to be at least somewhat sane for this story...but at least I can play with her a little, can't I? ;D

Oh, and I think it'd be wicked cool if Azula could knock people out by shooting a lightning bolt to the right spot, so I put it in the story. XD

Also, I figured Azula was the type of person who would jump from one mood to the other, all in a matter of seconds. (I dunno if it's OOC)

Well, was there anything else I wanted to say...oh, yeah...Feedback makes me a happy little author. :D