04-09-2017: Here's chapter two and as promised, it's going to be longer than the last one and give you some background information on Abby. Just to be clear, from now on the story will be in Abby's POV unless stated otherwise. There won't be any Gaang in this chapter, but they'll make an appearance soon enough so enjoy.

13-01-2019: This was the part where the story started and continued in first person except for a few stray chapters here and there. So this will be the first real change in the story since I'll be re-writing first person into third person. This story was originally rated T before it was changed to M due to later chapters but I have decided to take more of a darker tone with the story in this new version, which you'll be able to see in this chapter.

Eyes on the Prize

Capturing the Avatar was a task that had taken over four Fire Nation generations. It had started with Fire Lord Sozin upon the Air Nomad genocide in his effort to rid the world of the Avatar. Somehow the Avatar had eluded him and his quest continued with his son, Azulon, his grandson, Ozai and now his great-grandson, Zuko. But it wasn't something that was restricted to the Royal Family, since almost everyone in the Fire Nation had been searching for the Avatar.

Now it was a task that had fallen onto Abi's shoulders. Granted, it wasn't a task that she had necessarily wanted but it was a task that she had been given and Abi was the kind of person that when she was set a task, she saw it through to the end.

That was one of the many characteristics that she had inherited from the man who had been the most consistent adult figure throughout Abi's entire adolescence. She'd only had her parents in her life for five years, but they didn't want her. They were pathetic non-benders who couldn't handle the fact that their daughter was a firebender. Because of that, they had abandoned her and Daisuke had stepped into Abi's life to take her under his wing.

Everything that she knew was because of him. He had made her into the person that she was today and she owed everything to him. That only made Abi want to succeed in this mission even more. For the past decade of her life, Daisuke had been there by her side and the least she owed him was succeeding in the mission that he had set for her.

Since she had begun her training under Daisuke over a decade ago, Abi had never once left the Fire Nation. The furthest that she had gone was to the Fire Nation's many small islands on the outskirts of the mainland. Of course then, she had been under Daisuke's watchful eye but this time she would be going out on her own. This was her chance to prove herself, and she was going to take it.

As Abi retreated from the Fire Nation, she couldn't help but glance back at the only place that she'd ever called home. The Tatakai Stronghold had been where she grew up. Now, Abi was leaving on her own to attempt her biggest mission yet. Competing in firebending tournaments was nothing compared to capturing the Avatar. It was going to take all of Abi's skill if she was to succeed, which she had to because failure was not an option. Daisuke had made that clear.

Failure was never something that Abi had experienced before, because she was the kind of person who didn't stop until she succeeded. Abi would do whatever it took to succeed in her mission. No matter what obstacles stood in her path, she would get over them. Just like she always did. Within weeks Abi would have the Avatar begging for mercy before she snuffed him out for good.

Are you sure you'd have what it takes to snuff someone's life out?An annoying voice entered her thoughts.

Of course. This is what I have been trained for. It would be foolish of myself to doubt my capabilities. Abi argued back.

But that would be murder. Murder is wrong.

It would be for the benefit of the Fire Nation. The Avatar must die in order for us to achieve complete supremacy.

You really are a true Fire Nation citizen.

This is what I was raised to be. It is time for me to live up to my purpose and make Daisuke proud.

It was going to be her moment, Abi could picture it now. The moment she brought the Avatar down to his knees. The moment he looked up at her, fear in his eyes as he realised he messed with the wrong girl. Everyone knew better than to mess with Abi. She was the Dragoness – one of the most powerful firebenders in the world. She had more power than men twice her age.

But the Avatar wasn't just any man – he was the last airbender. The last of his kind. He would have to know more on that than anyone alive could ever dream of. He's had over a century to master the four elements and Abi was well aware that he would be her most difficult opponent yet. This wouldn't be like any normal firebending tournament that Abi could waltz into with a secured win. Her victory wasn't secure, but she was confident that she could achieve it.

At the same time, Abi would be competing against armies of generals as the Avatar would soon become the Fire Nations top priority once again. Abi already knew one competitor that she would have – Prince Zuko. The banished prince of the Fire Nation who had been burned by his own father and sent to capture the Avatar in order to receive his honour. Abi had been there during that Agni Kai, sitting in between Colonel Daisuke and Admiral Zhao as Fire Lord Ozai burned his own son.

The sight of it hadn't phased Abi at all. She had faced far more gruesome things in her life before. She had watched people and animals die right before her very eyes. As part of her training, Daisuke had forced her to watch people as they neared their last breath so that when the time came, she would be able to commit the deed herself. Those sort of memories had left her scarred at the time, but now she could look back on them without a second thought.

Abi was ten the first time she saw death right before her very eyes. Daisuke had taken her away from the mainland for this experience. For the most part, he had told her that it would be a training expedition – which it had been. Daisuke had been talking about taking her training to the next level and Abi hadn't realised what he had meant until she saw a teenage girl gasping for air.

Immediately Abi had ran to her side, trying to see if there was anything that she could do to help her. At that point in time, Daisuke hadn't taken out any compassion that might have remained inside of her. But he was about to change that.

"Nothing will work, my pupil. She is condemned to deaths doorstep," Daisuke proclaimed.

"B-but wh-why?" Abi's lip quivered.

"Because there is nothing that can be done to save her. She made the choice by stepping near the White Jade bush. It is her own fault," Daisuke replied.

"There are remedies to stop it. We can stop it," Abi argued.

"Abi, there is a lesson that you must learn in life. That is that you can't save everyone. Some people are just unfortunate in their fate, like this foolish girl," Daisuke said.

"But she's dying…" Abi trailed off. Watching the girl convulse in front of her was horrifying. She had never seen anything as disturbing as this.

"Death comes to all of us eventually. There are just those who are unfortunate enough to experience it too soon," Daisuke stated.

Unable to tear her eyes away, all Abi could do was watching as the girl in front of her breathed her last breath. It had been a horrible sight, but as Daisuke said, it was a lesson that she needed to learn. Nothing that Daisuke had taught her so far didn't serve a purpose, so Abi had to believe that there was a reason why she had seen it. That was what had helped her sleep at night when images of the girl dying before her entered her mind.

At that time, Abi had just been a naïve and ignorant girl. She had heard about death before and people she knew had experienced it in the form of someone else. But actually seeing it right before her eyes had changed her perspective on it entirely. Death was something that you cannot escape, like fate.

Fate was an interesting concept in Abi's mind. It was fate that had put her life in Daisuke's hands. It was fate that the Fire Nation would be the country that would start a new era never seen before. It was fate that things had turned out the way that they did.

The Avatar had been escaping his fate for far too long. And Abi would be the one to give it to him.

~*•°•*~

Back at the Tatakai Stronghold, Colonel Daisuke sat at his desk as he mulled over the change in events. For so long, Abi had been his prime focus as he spent the past year moulding her into his perfect prodigy. Unfortunately, Daisuke considered himself to be a realist and was well aware that nothing could ever be perfect. Things with Abi had gone just the way that he had planned them to. It had taken a lot of his patience, but he had groomed her as close to perfection as he could've.

If everything could be perfect, life would be so much easier. Daisuke wouldn't have had to rely on an unruly teenage girl to do his bidding. That was what he was doing by sending Abi out to capture the Avatar. Since he trained Abi to be the way that she was, Daisuke knew that Abi would go to whatever lengths that she had to in order to achieve her goal. If she got caught in someone's crossfire, that was her fault for not being able to get out of it.

This was the ultimate test of Abi's loyalty for Daisuke. As nice as it would be to have his prodigy be the one to capture the Avatar, Daisuke only sent her on this mission so that he could see just how loyal she was to him. If cracks in her loyalty started to show, then he had a plan that would get rid of them. For now, Daisuke would sit back and wait to see what became of Abi as she attempted a task that so many had tried but never succeeded in.

04-09-2017: That's the second chapter done and dusted. In case you missed it, Daisuke is Abby's mentor or 'superior' I guess you could say from the previous chapter. I wasn't too sure what to name him, but I eventually settled on that. More will be revealed about their unique relationship as the story goes on. How do you like the story so far? Feel free to leave me a review and tell me what you think. In the meantime, check out my other works as well and tell me what you think.

13-01-2019: The original chapter mostly consisted of Abi's own personal thoughts, but I didn't want it to stay like that because nothing really happened and it was all just really… bleh. So I threw in the mini-argument with her conscience (which certainly won't be the last) since I want to show Abi's character in a different way than how she was originally portrayed like Azula 2.0. The flashback where she watched the girl die was also something that I added because in this re-write I want to explore more of Abi and Daisuke's relationship. I'm going to try and get two chapters re-written a week so hopefully I'll get chapter three up soon.