Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Prisoner

An Avatar: The Last Airbender oneshot (in four parts)

Part 2

Iroh and Azula held exactly four conversations during their long, restless, miserable journey to the South Pole on a rickety old boat.

The first was initiated when Azula complained about said boat—"I can't see, but I can smell the worthlessness of this dump" were the exact words.

Iroh explained that a fancy ship would both attract too much attention and be far too difficult to acquire; there weren't many ships outside of the Fire Nation Navy, and while some army officials were opposed to Ozai in principle (especially after his "decisions" regarding Azula) none of them were willing to defy the Firelord openly. Azula acquiesced reluctantly but quickly. Self-interested logic was probably the only thing that could move her, but move her it most certainly did.

Their second conversation began when Iroh told her who they were going to stay with.

"Hakoda!?" she shouted. "Either I misheard you or you're going senile, old man, because shacking up with the most famous southern barbarian in the world is the stupidest idea I've ever had the displeasure of hearing."

"First of all, Azula," Iroh began from his prepared speech, having had a good idea of what his niece's reaction was going to be, "you might not want to complain about 'southern barbarians,' considering your current situation." Azula practically snarled at that. Iroh ignored her and continued.

"Second, my brother is going to send thousands of soldiers to the South Pole once he figures out you're there—and he will figure it out eventually. Starting with Hatsuna, the Southern Water Tribes became experts at hiding from the Fire Nation in order to save themselves from our raiders, and Hakoda's the best there is. Just because he's famous doesn't mean he's easy to find; on the contrary, he became famous because he's the hardest to find. Besides, the most skilled healers and waterbenders in the South are in his tribe, so if you want to recover and learn waterbending there's no better option."

Once again, Azula was angry; once again, she had to bow to Iroh's logic. She may have been smart, but Iroh had the intellectual weight of the entire White Lotus behind him. No eleven-year-old could match that.

Their third conversation was prompted when Azula asked Iroh one day, out of the blue, "Where are Ty Lee and Mai?"

Iroh blinked, then answered levelly and truthfully. "While they are your friends, they're also daughters of influential families, so they managed to escape punishment. As far as I know, Mai went back to live with her family while Ty Lee went to the circus."

That produced something Iroh hadn't seen in quite a while: a laugh from Azula, albeit a short and bitter one. Iroh decided it was worth the risk to inquire further. "What's so amusing, my niece?"

Azula answered after a few seconds, slowly and with no discernible emotion. "You'd think Ty Lee was getting the raw end of that deal, but it's the opposite. She's always wanted to go to the circus, while there are few things Mai hates more than her family. And she hates a lot of things."

They were both silent for a while, until Iroh eventually felt forced to say, "We can't get them—"

"I know, Iroh. They're both connected to me, so Ozai's going to have them under constant surveillance. Agni, I'm not Zuko, old man; I have some brain cells."

Zuko. Iroh was trying to avoid thinking about him. He had returned to the palace in order to free the boy from the shackles of his father, but Azula—or rather, the Avatar—had put a stop to that. The operation to rescue Azula was risky enough; it was impossible to take Zuko along as well, even assuming he would want to go. And he wouldn't.

I suppose both of us have to abandon the ones we care about, he reflected while studying Azula for some sign of emotion. Though I have more practice at it.

Their fourth conversation occurred at about the midpoint of their trip. Iroh had finished feeding Azula dinner and was about to go check the sail when she said, "Wait."

Iroh paused and looked back.

"Don't you want to know why they did this to me?"

He said nothing.

Azula smiled what had to be a rueful smile, but looked for all the world like it was one of immense pleasure. "It's not very hard to guess, of course, but the guy in charge of the prison—name was Haka, incidentally—felt the need to inform me in person. He said they didn't want the Avatar to reincarnate so he was ordered to keep me alive, but only barely. That was why he put that custom gag on me. He had to cover my teeth to keep me from biting my tongue off and committing suicide, but needed to leave an opening for my mouth so I could be fed. Well, I couldn't chew, so they only fed me mushed up slop, but still.

"Anyway, the next problem was, how to prevent me from escaping? The obvious answer is just to cut off my arms and legs, which is apparently what Haka wanted to do. But he said Ozai overruled that idea, since there was too much risk of me bleeding out; even if they managed to cauterize immediately, I might have been able to figure out a way to reopen the wounds. So they did this," she rotated her head around, "as the next-best thing. Haka wanted a souvenir, though, so he decided, hey, why not take my eyes? He covered his hand in fire, reached in, and plucked them out with his fingers. He made sure I was awake for that, by the way.

"They never tortured me after that though, again because they didn't want to risk me dying. So in that sense, I guess I was lucky. Don't you think?"

Iroh didn't know if it was best to remain silent or say something, and if the latter, what he should say. All he could do was stare at the cloth he had tied around her eyes, imagining the empty sockets that lay behind it. In the end Iroh said nothing, and went back to check on the sail.

Maybe he didn't understand his niece as much as he thought he did.

Azula stomped her foot and screamed in frustration.

"Calm down, Azula," Father said, squatting down and putting his arm around her shoulder. "Getting upset will only interfere with your bending."

"But I've tried so many times and it's still not working!"

Father grinned. "Well, this is a very advanced kata. Even I learned it when I was years older than you are now."

"Are you saying I should just give up?" Azula pouted.

Father laughed. "If I thought that, would I be giving you this special training?"

Azula scuffed the ground with her foot. Her frustration started to fade, replaced by a warm feeling that spread throughout her body. "I guess not."

"Exactly. Now then," Father stood up, "follow my lead one more time." Azula nodded, standing at his side. "First you do this," he said, sweeping his leg back, which Azula copied. "Good. Then," he turned to face her, "you do this," and time slowed down as Father's fist rushed toward her face. Somehow, though, his voice stayed at the same speed. "This is what the Avatar deserves."

Azula couldn't move as the fist, now on fire, expanded until it covered everything—and then suddenly, the world went black.

Eventually, after a couple minutes of sobbing, Azula realized she was awake.

Though "sobbing" was not quite the right word for it. Her mouth was making the right noises, and she was feeling an intense, overpowering desire to cry, but no tears formed. And they hadn't since the day they tore out her eyes.

They...Ozai had even taken that.

Iroh's first meeting with Hakoda, greatest of the Southern chiefs and his new protector, was in a small igloo near the South Pole's coast. The meeting had been organized by Hakoda's mother Kanna, a member of the Order of the White Lotus. Not that her family knew that.

Iroh had never met Hakoda before, and looking at the man he could not see the qualities that made him so great. There were many stories about Ice Wolf Hakoda, but all Iroh saw before him was a tired, gentle-looking middle-aged man.

Then again, maybe I'm not one to talk, he thought grimly. Iroh knew from first-hand experience how quickly one could shed gentleness.

The only signs of Hakoda's status were the beads hung in his hair, and even those were far fewer than tradition would normally signify a Chief should wear, especially in a formal setting. His parka was worn and plain, his gloves and boots dark and rough; he wasn't even sitting on any sort of raised dais. To his left was Kanna, with a somewhat more ceremonial-looking coat that covered her almost completely, making her look like a bear-pig's corpse.

Sitting on Hakoda's right was his bodyguard Hama, the most powerful waterbender in the South. She was at least as famous as her tribe's Chief—she had studied under Avatar Hatsuna's prized pupil (and probable lover), and later was the leader of a feared guerrilla force that combined the best waterbenders from many different tribes. After that fell apart, the tribeless Hama moved in with Kanna, and became the leader of her tribe's guerrilla force. She was too old now to engage in pitched battles directly, but was plenty good enough to defend Hakoda, and few dared to take up arms against her.

She was also known for truly and completely despising the Fire Nation and its people. Soldiers feared being her captive even more than they feared being her combatant. She was also responsible for the only successful invasion of the Fire Nation mainland during the entire war, one that was still spoken of in soft whispers, as well as the occasional angry drunken rant swearing revenge.

Needless to say, the meeting was not as comfortable as might have been preferred.

Still, it went well. Kanna did most of the talking. Iroh had already known she held most of the real power, but he was somewhat surprised they didn't even bother pretending otherwise. Hakoda interjected occasionally, while Hama just glared at Iroh. He had instructed Azula to remain silent, and no one ever addressed the blind, crippled, eleven-year-old Avatar. Even Hama only spared her a disdainful glance once.

They had roughly three years until Sozin's Comet, which would likely herald the Fire Nation's victory, so it was agreed to make the final, go-for-broke invasion some to-be-determined time beforehand. Trusted messengers were to be sent to Ba Sing Se and the North, complete with a poison they could use on themselves in case of capture. Iroh also requested a suitable earthbending master be searched for, although the logistics of that would be a challenge.

The biggest problem at the moment was airbending, but Kanna had a solution for that. Or at least, pretended she did—the true source of the idea had been the collective leadership of the White Lotus. But the other three didn't need to know that, either.

"There is a frozen forest at the southernmost point of the South Pole," Kanna intoned. "It is the most spiritual place in our lands. The Winter Solstice is soon. If the Avatar meditates in the forest during the Winter Solstice, her spirit should be able to enter the Spirit World. If an airbender exists anywhere, they will be there."

At the end, Iroh dared to ask Hama if she was going to heal Azula herself. The waterbender gave him a withering look while Hakoda laughed.

"Hama's the best there is at killing people, but when she tries to heal them, she tends to make them worse," the chieftain said lightly. "But don't worry. I knew the situation and brought along our best healer. The Avatar won't be wanting for medical attention."

Iroh almost winced, knowing those words and tone wouldn't exactly endear the man to Azula. But when he glanced at her, she was wearing the same mask of indifference she always wore these days.

Finally the three Water Tribesmen left, with Hakoda promising the healer would be there soon. After they all left hearing range—Hama favoring him with one last glare—he turned to Azula and prepared for the eruption.

To his surprise, there was none. She still had the mask up.

"How was it?" he asked tentatively, though making sure to project certainty in his tone. It would be a disaster if Azula thought he was weak.

"Nothing particularly objectionable occurred," Azula answered evenly.

Iroh nodded, then caught himself. It was still hard to remember she was blind sometimes. After quietly berating himself, he said, "Indeed."

They said nothing else before the healer arrived. He looked to be in his 20s, with black hair and light skin for a Water Tribesman. He happily waved Iroh out of the igloo, and Iroh obeyed, looking back at Azula only once before he stepped outside.

If this is how cold it is at the coast, I'm not looking forward to going further inland, he thought, wrapping his arms around himself and doing firebending exercises to warm up.

Azula hated being blind.

Oh sure, having all your limbs broken was incredibly humiliating, but not having eyes was even worse. Throughout her life, Fath—she had been taught to notice all the subtle ranges of emotion a face could produce. Faces don't lie, and Azula had learned well the art of gleaning people's true characters through sight alone.

"The face is a window to the spirit," Father said, smiling. The memory flashed through Azula's mind before she could stop it. She bit hard on her lip, focusing on the pain until the memory went away.

Regardless, now she would have to rely on voice alone. Worse, she'd have to figure it out by herself, so Agni knew how long that would take. In the meantime, not knowing others' emotions with perfect clarity was like another blindness. It left her almost immobile in social situations.

She was actually grateful that she didn't have to speak at the meeting, despite the fact that it involved the two subjects closest to Azula's heart (herself and politics, in that order). So she listened and tried to work on analyzing their voices.

By the end of the hours-long talk, she figured she had the basics down somewhat—having had previous training in voice analysis helped a lot. Getting back to her old level, though, would take years, if it was even possible at all.

Terrific.

The four adults left, and someone with light footsteps entered the ridiculously cold igloo.

"Hello," a young male voice said cheerfully. "I'm Kalu, and I'll be your healer for the foreseeable future. Let's get along!"

Azula despised him immediately.

"Just see what you can do about my limbs, okay?"

The man hummed. "Alright. That's going to require touching you, incidentally. I assure you I have no untoward—"

"I know." She swallowed a sigh. "Just do it." She hated the way it seemed like he was almost (but not quite) laughing after everything he said.

Kalu started feeling Azula's arm, pressing down harder occasionally. Azula did her best not to grunt in pain when he did that, and mostly succeeded. After a while he moved on to her other arm, then her legs, and the entire time he insisted on chatting with Azula. It was really annoying.

"So, little Avatar—"

"Don't call me that."

"What's it like being the Avatar?"

"You have eyes, I assume. Use them and guess."

He clucked his tongue. "No need to use that tone, little Avatar."

"I can use whatever tone I want when talking to some pissant barbarian!"

He started humming again. "And what if I told you I was the son of the chief?"

That surprised her. "Isn't Hakoda's son supposed to be a nonbending brat?"

"His official son, yes. I just so happen to be a bastard."

As much as Azula hated this guy and didn't want to talk to him, she had to admit he was piquing her curiosity. "A bastard, huh? How'd that happen?"

The humming got louder. "You see, little Avatar, when a man and a woman love each other very—"

"Not that! I know about sex, you swine."

Azula thought she heard Kalu chuckle, but it was fast and hard to make out. "Fair enough. About 26 years ago, before my father had become Chief, he and his troops managed to capture an entire Fire Nation raiding party. One of their soldiers caught his eye, and they had what you might call an illicit—"

"Wait, you're half Fire Nation?"

The humming started up again. "Indeed. My father swears it was mutual love, though I can't deny I've wondered occasionally. In any event, it was of course impossible for them to stay together. They eventually sent her back in a prisoner exchange, but he kept the baby. 25 years later, here I am."

Kalu didn't talk after that, and Azula considered the information she had just been given. "So is that why you're a healer even though you're a guy?" she asked after a minute. "Because they didn't want to let a half-breed learn combat arts?"

This time, Azula definitely heard a chuckle. "You're thinking about the Northern Water Tribe there, little Avatar. Really, with their cities and hierarchies and laws, they're more of a country than a tribe these days. I keep saying, any day now they're going to start calling themselves the 'Water Empire' or something.

"Anyway, while the North may cling to a sexist delineation of bending duties, we in the South never really had that problem. Especially after Hatsuna. I'm good at healing and bad at battle, so I became a healer. Not so complicated.

"As to my being half-Fire Nation, that does cause trouble occasionally. But after you bring their friends and family back from certain death, people have a tendency to treat you well. Especially when they know you're the only one who could've done it."

There was blessed silence for a few minutes (except for the humming). Then Kalu withdrew his hands and seemed to back up a bit. "They sure did a number on you, huh?"

Azula didn't say anything.

"Well, hate to break it to you, little Avatar, but we do have a problem here. Since your limbs were tied up and left untreated for so long, your bones started growing back in ways they shouldn't. If you want to gain much function back in them, it'll take…drastic measures."

"Cut the dramatics and just tell me."

She could practically sense Kalu smiling. "I'd have to break them again, in all the places they broke them the first time, then set it up so that this time the bones heal properly."

A chill crept up Azula's spine. The memory of the day she was imprisoned, always just barely beneath the surface, flooded her senses. Her final memory with sight, the day all control had been stripped from her and she had been left a doll.

She gulped and tried her best not to sound nervous. "Then do it."

More silence. Azula's heart was beating hard in her chest.

Eventually, Kalu said, "It would be very painful, of course, and I can't do anything about that. I'll also warn you that I've never done something like this before; it's possible I'll have to do it a second or third time if you're to regain full functionality. And you are still just eleven, little Avatar. I should probably ask your uncle."

"No!" she screamed. "It's my body, and it's my choice! I don't care how much it hurts, and I don't care how many times you have to do it; going through life not being able to move is infinitely worse. Now do it!"

Azula had no idea how many seconds passed after that.

Finally, Kalu chuckled again, low and soft. "I kinda like you, little Avatar. Okay, I'll do it. But I imagine your uncle is going to come running when he hears your screams and won't be very happy, so I'd ask for your help in explaining the situation. If the Dragon of the West kills me, your recovery will go much worse, I promise."

Azula would've rolled her eyes, if she had had them. "I'm not an idiot. Just do it."

She heard Kalu stand up. Azula grit her teeth and prepared.

Iroh was deep in thought as he trudged along the icy wilderness, heading for the living grounds of Hakoda's tribe with Azula sleeping on his back. First we wait for her to heal, he thought. He had to admit he didn't entirely trust Hakoda's bastard after the man broke Azula's limbs without his permission, but both Kanna and Hakoda vouched for his skills, so he had to live with it. Next is airbending. Nobody would follow someone who claimed to be the Avatar but could only bend fire. It was impossible to know how long that would take so it was hard to make further plans. Finding a waterbending sifu wouldn't be a problem, but they'd likely have to go to the Earth Kingdom for earthbending training. Then there's the issue of her blindness, though really, are we not all blind to the true nature of things? Indeed—

Iroh blinked and stopped in his tracks. What was he doing?

"Something wrong, Iroh?" he heard Hakoda ask.

"Ah, no, I'm fine." He started walking again. Come to think of it, it had been a long time since he had meditated on the nature of reality; the last time may have been at the beginning of the miserable ship ride here. And when was the last time he had had a good cup of tea—during one of the White Lotus's planning sessions?

No, even that wasn't getting to the heart of the matter. His nerves had been stretched tight as a bowstring for months straight now. When was the last time he had been relaxed and happy? Before he found out Azula was the Avatar?

Or before he saw his son's headless corpse?

This is pointless, he told himself. You're not helping anyone. Breathe out, breathe in. Imagine life flowing into you with each breath. See it feed the bonfire of your soul. Feel it warm the air around you with each exhale.

Images of Lu Ten and Zuko flitted through his mind. He let them sit there while he meditated, until they faded away on their own.

Right now, he had a role to fulfill. He had to ensure Azula would grow into a proper Avatar. All the rest could wait.

"Hi, Azula!"

Hooray. "Katara."

It turned out the Southern Water Tribes really were tribes, surprisingly enough. They all lived together, ate together, slept together, and generally acted as if they had never heard of the concept of privacy. And Hakoda's tribe was large. It was hard to tell how large since all the adult members were constantly leaving to hunt, scout, harass Fire Nation troops, and the like—but even only counting the young, old, and infirm they numbered well over 500. From what Azula could gather, Hakoda basically just organized the logistics of it all (admittedly a pretty daunting task, for a barbarian at least), while his mother did the actual decision-making, leader-like stuff.

Azula wasn't exactly keen on dealing with so many savages in her state, so she spent most of her time with the chief, as was her right as the Avatar. Unfortunately that brought its own problems; namely, having to deal with the chief's children.

"I'm here to feed you lunch!" The girl giggled.

"I figured," Azula said, careful to keep the disdain out of her voice.

His son, Sokka, was kind of surly and distrustful. Which suited Azula just fine. His daughter Katara, on the other hand...

"I talked to Kalu this morning. He said you'll probably be able to move your limbs by next week! Isn't that great?"

"Wonderful."

Hakoda's wife, in her infinite wisdom, had decided to leave Azula and Katara alone for the first few hours after they met to "bond." Katara proceeded to rattle off every half-baked story she had ever heard about the Avatar. Not wanting to antagonize her protector's daughter, Azula smiled and nodded while secretly wanting to kill herself.

She liked Ty Lee, but was often incredibly annoyed by her, and Katara was a Ty Lee who didn't know when to shut up.

To be fair, Katara got better after she finished gushing about the Avatar. She then happily took over all of Iroh's old duties, including feeding and…cleaning Azula. Azula was grateful for this; being aided in that way was incredibly humiliating, but it was slightly better when it was a ten-year-old girl instead of a thousand-year-old man. And the girl was pleasant enough, generally speaking. Plus she was apparently a waterbender training under Hama herself, which might make her useful in a few years' time.

But the girl's practically worshipful attitude was starting to really grate on her. At first, Azula didn't quite know why—normally she loved it when people worshiped her. But she managed to figure it out soon enough.

Katara wasn't worshiping her. After all, what person even remotely sane would worship a blind cripple who couldn't even wash her own ass? No, Katara didn't really care about Azula at all; she was worshiping the Avatar.

"So, you won't believe what Sokka said today…"

A month after he first broke her limbs, Hakoda's bastard told Iroh that it was safe to take off Azula's bindings and let her move.

"She'll be sluggish for a while yet, and I'll still need to be on hand, of course," he had said. "And as you know, I might have to break them again somewhere down the line for the bones to heal completely. But I figured the little Avatar wants control of her limbs as soon as possible, no matter how little it is."

To be honest, Iroh still didn't trust the man, but he certainly did know his job. And he was right about Azula—she practically gushed at Kalu when he took her restraints off.

Well, not really, it wasn't even particularly close to gushing. But closer than he had ever seen her get before...at least, with anyone other than her father.

Then she started walking.

Her face screwed up in concentration, she took her first step in over three months. And as she firmly planted her foot, her face blossomed into a grin of pure joy.

She took a second step.

And crashed to the ground.

Kalu and Katara instantly ran toward her, but Iroh waved them off. Maybe he didn't understand his niece perfectly, but he did know she would hurt anyone who tried to help her right now.

Azula stood up by herself, slowly, a bruise starting to form on her cheek. The joy was gone, replaced by concentration again.

It didn't come back.

"Let's try it again, okay? Remember, the key is to—"

"Work with the flow of the water, not against it," Azula said. "You don't have to repeat yourself."

Katara smiled. "Right. And don't worry, because—"

"It's my opposite element. And I'm blind."

"I didn't say the second part."

"You didn't have to."

Katara frowned. Azula was hard to get along with when she got like this. Not that Katara could really blame her. Daddy had explained to her what happened to Azula before the Avatar arrived. She was used to death, everyone in the South was, but that...that was on a whole different level. When Katara imagined Daddy blinding her and breaking her arms and legs, her heart started beating so loud she couldn't hear anything else. To actually live it would be...

And yet, despite it all, Azula was doing her best to recover and train, all so that she could save the world. Mommy was right about the Avatar after all. That was why Katara was determined to be her best friend. And that was why she was teaching her waterbending here, even though the adults told her not to.

Still, though. How was she supposed to react when Azula said stuff like that?

Not knowing what to do, Katara decided to just ignore it and proceed with the training. She formed a stance and bent some snow out of the ground, melting it into water as she did so.

Everyone called her a prodigy. She didn't really get it, but it seemed that nobody else could see water like she could, or they couldn't see it flow like she could. Bending wasn't really about controlling the water, it did its own thing no matter what; all you could do was channel it in the direction you wanted. Like a guide, or a teacher.

Sort of like what she was doing with Azula. Except she couldn't see how Azula flowed. That made it a lot harder.

Katara bent the water into a thin stream and sent it meandering toward Azula. She caught the stream, and managed to keep it going for a second before the water fell to the ground.

"That was amazing, Azula! You're making great progress."

As usual, Azula didn't respond to praise. She just said, "Do it again."

Katara glanced back at the carriage in the distance. "Maybe we should call it quits for today. We've been out for a long—"

"I said, do it again."

She felt a little uneasy as she looked back at her friend, who was as angry as Katara had ever seen her. Now that Azula could move around, she could be a little scary sometimes. "O-okay. One more time." She bent some snow up again, formed it into water—and yelped when someone's hand gripped her wrist, sending the water splashing to the ground.

"If I had known you would do this, I wouldn't have let you come along."

Katara gulped as she looked up. Naya was Sifu Hama's top student, on track to become captain of the tribe's warriors, and more than a little scary. She was in charge during their trip to the Spirit Forest.

After glaring at Katara for a few more seconds, Naya turned to Azula. "Training's over. We're returning to the carriage."

Azula didn't move. "If you don't want her to teach me, you should've agreed to do it yourself."

"As I've already told you, there's a reason you have to learn the elements in order. Right now you're putting too much will into your water, so you'll either fail or, worse, hurt yourself and others. There'll be more than enough time for waterbending once you've grasped the basics of airbending. Now," she jerked Katara's hand, "we're going back to the carriage, and if you don't follow we're going to leave you behind."

"Transparent bluff," Azula grumbled, but she did follow them into the carriage. Naya didn't say another word as she got into the driver's seat and pulled on the yak-oxen's reins.

Azula was sitting next to Katara and looked pretty...mad? Sad? Either way Katara wanted to say something, but hesitated as she looked at the other two people in the carriage. Big brother Kalu, there to help with Azula's recovery, was really weird but he wasn't the one she was afraid of. That was Azula's uncle. Sure, he was sleeping now, but still...he was the Dragon of the West. No matter what Gran-Gran said, she couldn't help but feel nervous when she was close to the man who had symbolized the Fire Nation army her entire life.

The next day, as Azula's mood didn't improve and a raging blizzard made it impossible for any of them to leave the carriage, she wondered if maybe going on this trip was a bad idea after all.

"You know what you're supposed to do?"

"Yes, Iroh, you've told me a thousand times. Meditate, go to the Spirit World, find an airbender, get them to teach me as many things as possible."

"Indeed. Remember, we will—"

"Take care of my body, and I'll be able to find it either in the carriage or back with the tribe. Now just shut up and let me concentrate on my breathing."

Iroh looked at his niece, draped with at least ten mole-bear skins, huddled at the base of a giant frozen tree. Agreeing to this plan in the abstract was one thing; actually seeing it play out in front of him was another. Too late to change it now. He swallowed and nodded. Then berated himself and said, "Alright. We'll be waiting."

"Welcome to the Spirit World!"

"Unh," Azula grunted, her vision blurry. "Who are...wait..." She blinked, and the world came into focus. "I can see!"

Azula looked around wildly. The faces of her escorts (That's what they look like?), the frozen forest all around her, some tattooed bald boy wearing a robe—

"Who are you!" she yelled, pointing a finger at him. "And why can I see!"

The boy looked thoughtful for a second, then nodded. "I'll answer your second question first. You're in the Spirit World right now. See, that's your body right below you."

Azula looked down and saw herself. She involuntary flinched.

"Now, technically the Spirit World exists outside of space and time, in a sort of parallel dimension overlapping the Material World." As he talked, the boy's gestures were becoming more and more dramatic, and his eyes were getting steadily brighter. "Note, this has a bunch of strange consequences, if you think about it. Like, if we're outside of time right now, how come we're still in sync with the passage of time in the Material World? I think—"

"Why can I see!"

The boy took a step back and coughed. "Er, right, sorry." He cleared his throat, then started speaking again, once more becoming increasingly excited with each word he spoke. "All spirits are, in essence, one. What you're seeing right now isn't the true nature of the Spirit World, it's how your spirit interprets it. Nobody really knows why human spirits interpret it with their senses; I think probably we just spent so much time in the Material World that that way of perceiving reality just became a habit, you know what I mean?"

Azula tried to glare at him, but realized she couldn't. "No," she said distractedly.

"Um, well, basically, since the entire Spirit World is already a part of you, or to be more accurate it's the same thing as your spirit, you 'know' it all already." Now he was getting really worked up. "You're just seeing it because you used eyesight for the first eleven years of your life."

Azula was barely paying attention to him; she was looking for some kind of reflective surface.

"But! You need to keep in mind that while distinction, as in any kind of distinction of course, may not exist ultimately, it does exist practically. There are differences between spirits in terms of practical existence, just not ultimate nature, which is why it's possible for us to interact like this. Everyone knows this. However! I started thinking about it, and realized: if distinction doesn't ultimately exist, then neither does the ultimate/practical distinction, and when you realize that—"

Azula screamed.

She could see, all right. She could see her eyeless face staring back at her through the ice.

Needless to say, she turned away from that sight immediately.

"Um…" the boy said, stepping closer to Azula. "Are you okay?"

"Shut up!" Azula yelled. "Just who are you? What do you want?"

The insane kid actually beamed. "My name is Aang. I was Avatar three incarnations before you. I'm also your Spirit Adviser. Nice to meet you!"

Ozai raged.

He had been counting on Azula to succeed him after he conquered the world. But then that fell through. So stupidly he had tried to teach Zuko, only to learn of his son's worthlessness all over again.

"Is this because of Roku's blood!" he thundered. "All of his descendants are weaklings or traitors, is that it? Even in death, that man bedevils this family!"

To think I was once in love with that woman...

Shortly, though, Ozai calmed down. After all, he was still a relatively young man, and he planned on seeing many more sunrises.

He called a retainer in.

"Publicize this message," he said through the Fire Curtain. "Though the Firelord still grieves the loss of his first wife, for the good of the nation he must move on. While honoring the late Firelady Ursa's memory, he has decided to start searching for a new bride. Any noble lady between the ages of," a short pause for thought, "13 and 29, please come to the…"

End of Part Two

Author's Notes: There's a gland in your eye socket that produces tears. That gland got damaged or destroyed when Azula lost her eyes, which is why she can't cry.

All of the stuff Aang is talking about is basically copied straight from Buddhism (certain abstract branches of Mahayana, to be specific). I didn't even let him get into the real cool stuff.