This is really, really embarrassing. there was a second part to the prologue and I completely forgot it existed! You all have no idea how dumb I'm feeling right this moment.

Prologue Part 2

Inconceivable! It was impossible! And yet it was true: she was in a house with things the best scientist and engineers of the Fire Nation couldn't even dream of, and that was without mentioning the marvels she saw out of the window. How long she had just stared at the city like a slack-jawed idiot? Azula shook her head; she needed to focus if she wanted to find a way home. And to do that, the first thing she needed to know was where she has been taken to.

Wherever she was, she must be in a land very far away – somewhere beyond the Four Nations, even; otherwise rumors of a civilization capable of such things would have reached the Fire Lord's ears. Or maybe not, she corrected herself – it would have been judged ridiculous and the messenger warned not to waste the precious time of her grandfather with such wild tales or else. Which was something she would have agreed with, until a few moments ago.

Wild tales or not, she was here, and she needed the information. Maybe there were some clues inside the house; it was a long shot, but she was reluctant to go outside. As far as she knew this was hostile territory, and the less she was seen the better.


The search did not go well at first. There were plenty of books and various objects similar to the one she had smashed, but ignorance hid her prize. She did not know the language these people used and she had no intentions to stay long enough to learn it. She returned back in the room with the smashed device, and sat on one of the chairs, trying to keep her irritation from the recent failure at bay. She would try one more time in the house – see if there was anything she had missed – if she found nothing useful again, she had no choice but to venture outside and …

"You have mail."

Alarmed by the strange voice, Azula jumped out of the chair and landed in a roll, ready to blast the interloper, but – to her great surprise – she was alone.

"Whoever you are, if you show yourself right now I promise to be merciful," said Azula in her best commanding voice.

It was then that she noticed the glowing device had reappeared on her assailant's hand, only for it to flicker away a few seconds later. Cautiously Azula approached the corpse, and examined the arm where the thing appeared. All she found was a device strapped on the arm. She couldn't understand how something like that could be linked to the semi-transparent orange construct she had seen, or the voice, but it was the only thing present on the man's limbs aside from his clothes.

After a bit of fiddling she managed to remove the object from the dead man's arm, and put it on herself. As soon as she put it on her arm, it immediately activated, coloured panels appearing on her forearm from thin air, and started talking.

"Greetings, new user. Thank you for purchasing..."

"Great! You too speak that weird language," interrupted Azula, frustrated.

"User language recognized, rebooting using new base language. Loading ... Loading complete. Greetings, new user. Thank you for purchasing the Ariake Technologies Omnitool Artemis Mark Four. This is the personalized V.I. you requested."

"I ... I can understand you! How?!" said a stunned Azula, an inkling of hope growing inside her. Maybe she wasn't as lost as she had thought she was, if this people knew her native language.

"The voice sample provided matched a language present in the database; the software rebooted using the new base language."

"You mean you have knowledge of this language?"

"The language is present in the database."

"I'll take that as a yes ... And if you have that knowledge, then you must know its origins."

"The information requested is not present."

"Don't lie to me!" Azula nearly screamed growing angrier. "If you know the language, then you must know where it came from - it is as simple as that! Speak, entity, or I'll destroy you!"

"The information requested is not present. If the user is unsatisfied, please contact the nearest authorized seller or contact Customer Service through the Kassa Fabrication extranet site."

"Extranet? How do I go there? What is it?"

"Extranet access is available on this omnitool, and vocal commands are possible. The manual activation requires ..."

The explanation was exhaustive and complete, even if the entity seemed a little dumb. She couldn't understand exactly what the extranet was, but right now that wasn't important – she needed to find a way home. After going through the "tutorial for a safe navigation of the extranet" a couple of times, Azula felt ready to use it and hopefully discover where in the world she was.

"Open extranet access," said Azula, and then suddenly a thought flashed through her mind: why not see what the previous owner of this "omnitool" had been doing? It surely couldn't hurt. "Resume previous session." A 'screen', as the entity called it, appeared and an unexpected scene appeared on the screen.

"Oh God! YES! YES!"

Her eyes widened so much it seemed they were about to fall out and her mouth opened slightly; two women were … were … "Close session! NOW!" Suddenly snarled a quite scandalized and angry Azula, she would have nothing to do with such … disgraceful pastimes. After a few moments to let the anger subside she began searching for a way home again.

This time, she was careful to open a new session.


The truth she found left her numb. The geography was wrong, the nations were wrong, her country didn't exist, THEY didn't exist; Mother, Father, Zuzu, that tea-loving uncle of hers, Ty Lee and Mai, everything the Fire Nation was and had accomplished had never happened here, never existed. Even her status as nobility was nothing. Humanity was an interstellar government, and bending as she knew it didn't exist; on the other hand, aliens existed! Aliens! Some looked like humans, like those blue women, but others were quite different, to say the least.

Her mind was thrown for a loop; she couldn't understand how it was possible for an entire world to disappear, and yet it had. She shut off the omnitool and sank down onto the nearby couch, staring at the wall. Slowly the reality of the situation sank in and an indescribable sense of loss and fear took her.

Azula could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but every time she blinked them away in stubborn defiance. She kept wondering if she would ever see her home, or anyone she knew again, until she fell asleep, exhausted. It was dawn when Azula woke up, and felt shame for her loss of composure; she was taught to be better that this, she was better than this – self-pity accomplished nothing.

So what if she was in a world so different from her own? She was smart, and she still had her firebending; there was nothing to fear. She would find a way back; she would learn all the secrets of this strange world and bring them home with her to further advance the glory of the Fire Nation; and if she ever discovered who or what played this 'prank' on her, she would make him or it pay, no matter what.

Having objectives to achieve made Azula feel better already, she was finally taking back control over her life. As she was considering her next move, the first obvious thing to accomplish was the disposal of the body – for the short term, at least. The huge cold box she had found during her exploration seemed a good option for now. Dragging the body downstairs wasn't easy – more than once, she considered making some fire knives to chop it down to more manageable pieces for her small frame – but she made it. As she was making space for the body, she noticed something strange: the omnitool kept activating each time her hand lingered over some of the writings presents on the boxes, the translation of the writings appearing on a small screen.

Azula then remembered the entity mentioning a "database", which had to contain both this language and her own, at the very least. The possibility of learning this new language – thus eliminating a rather annoying weakness – and knowing more about this incredibly useful tool excited her; she wanted to start as soon as possible.

Which was as soon as she managed to shove that thrice-cursed overweight waste of flesh into the tall cold box, and after some time and much effort, she managed to do so.


For once luck seemed to be on Azula's side: investigating the various omnitool functions, she found something called a universal translator. With its help, it was relatively simple to find out the name of every object foreign to her that was present in the house. Once she had the new name, it was easy enough to look each one up on the extranet for more information.

The presence of the Virtual Intelligence also helped immensely, though if she was having difficulties believing that it was an artificial construct. She couldn't even begun to fathom how such a thing was possible, but she was determined to understand it. Unfortunately, this meticulous process took several hours, but in the end she had at least some basic knowledge of the things she had found in the house. This included the computer where the now deceased former owner – a certain John Doe – had kept some kind of diary where he recounted his deeds. Rather pathetic deeds in her opinion; but his diary described them like they were criminal masterpieces. This man surely had an oversized ego.

The most interesting entry of this diary was one of the most recent: he claimed to have managed to ... "acquire" and sell some really expensive valuables – including a top-of-the-line omnitool with a customized V.I. that he had obviously kept. The money would have allowed him to live comfortably for a few months while the false identity he had set up – someone called Jeremiah Shepard – would have provided needed security from the – in his opinion – local overworked and understaffed law enforcement.

This was all Azula needed: an adult name to hide behind – though she had to admit, Azula Shepard, niece of Jeremiah Shepard sounded really weird – enough money to get her by until she got a better understanding of the world she was in, and time to plan her rise to power.

'I am coming, world.' she thought. 'Prepare yourself.'

'Not that you have any chance anyway'.