"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."
The Lord of Ghosts
Fire Lord Azulon watched a much younger man push tiles around on a stone map.
The Four Factions had been at war for a very long time, and things were constantly changing. It was not a steady and simple war like the one Sozin won.
Sozin. . .
"The comet will decide the victor," said the Fire Lord. The War Minister stopped trying to track the motions of the Kishiko and looked up. "None of their little battles matter. Only Sozin's Comet will make a difference."
"Your highness, the comet is still a year away. Things change. . . quickly in this fight," said the War Minister confidently.
The sudden knock on the door was more important than talk of Sozin's Comet. One of the two soldiers at the door opened it and in came a scrawny girl. She was a messenger, and a good one at that. Her bow was deep and prolonged the tense silence in the war room.
"I have the letter you asked for," she said, standing and walking to set it on the table.
She nervously waited to be dismissed, and vanished as soon as she was.
A young general daringly picked up the letter and handed it to the Fire Lord. Azulon opened it and studied the curly, feminine handwriting.
"Things do change quickly in this fight, War Minister Chin," said Azulon. "According to my informant, the Khatun are retreating into the Si Wong, and my granddaughter is pregnant."
The war never failed to be interesting.
The Khatun Traitors
"Are you in love with her?" asked Zuko.
Azula looked at him with a small smile, suppressing laughter.
They were inside of their closed tent, a few miles into the vast Si Wong Desert. She was exhausted; he wanted pointless answers from his wife. Azula was amused, but not pleased.
"I don't love anyone," she said. "I don't even love my own parents, and you know that very well. I certainly don't love her, or you, or any of the followers I claim to love." She stopped speaking and smirking. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm curious," he replied. It was evidently more than curiosity, but Azula had no reason to question him further. He did not matter. He was a means to an end, and nothing more.
Azula shifted her position on the raised bedroll. "Are you concerned she'll steal me?"
"No. You need me to get the throne, and you need me to be your romantic interest in order to use your baby as leverage," said Zuko without hesitation or emotion. They both knew that their relationship was not romantic nor familial, but symbiotic.
"You are slightly smarter than you look," Azula said. "I am also starving and you will find me food and my missing girlfriend. I don't like her just walking around our camp."
"Out of fear for her safety?"
"Out of fear for her friends. I can't imagine she is keeping any secrets and I can imagine how many people she could be reporting to."
"If you think she's a spy, why let her stay with us?"
"My reasons are my own."
"You think she's attractive," Zuko said, jealousy simmering within him.
"She has helped us significantly over the years and her debt to me is very useful." Azula studied her nails and waited for Zuko to leave, but he did not move a muscle. "Yes, I think she is attractive. Is that what you need to hear?"
"Yes," Zuko said. He sighed and walked into the camp to find food.
The Ires Legion
"You almost scared me," said Mai. She did not leave the water, even if it was someone who had seen her naked on multiple occasions.
"Almost?" inquired the leader of the Ires Legion, a man as much a traitor as his two children.
"I'm not scared easily," Mai said coolly, meeting his gaze without fear. She lacked an appropriate level of humility, but perhaps she had earned her overconfidence. The tattoos on her arm were a testament to her prowess.
"No. No, you're not." He waited for her to resurface. "You also are still slightly bloody, and clearly overdressed for dinner with me."
She sunk under the water again; she did not want to smile.
The Kishiko Tribals
Katara rose from the water and looked up at the night sky. A thousand diamonds glittered above with swaths of pitch black knitting them together. The moon drew her attention.
Legends of the Water Tribe told that the moon was the first waterbender. Legends of the Earth Kingdom told that the moon was a rock launched into the sky by their creator spirit. Legends of the Fire Nation told that the moon was a second sun, banished by Agni to the cold night, where it lost its flames.
Katara had no idea what the Air Nomads thought of it.
She could not help but wonder from time to time. They were the unwilling spark that ignited the world, erased from the planet and replaced with conflict after conflict.
Maybe legends in the future would say that the Air Nomads were the incarnation of peace, and their obliteration left the world forever consuming itself in ceaseless wars.
Katara leaves her bath but still feels dirty. The battlefield did not test the strength of her bending, but the strength of her stomach. She failed.
Her tribe wanted to know their next step. Katara wondered if there even was one. She could not stand to watch more of her people die on a scorched earth.
When they asked her that evening around the bonfire, she gave her answer.
"We are returning to the Southern Water Tribe."
For once, no one argued. Katara was their Chief, and they would follow her to a land of snow and ice without question.
The Khatun Traitors
A scream woke Prince Zuko from a deep sleep.
He sat straight up and studied the shadowy room around him. The search was inconclusive before he saw Azula get up and stagger away. Zuko considered returning to his cozy slumber, but decided against it. After coughing up an unhealthy amount of sand, he pushed himself to his feet and walked through the tent flap to find her.
Zuko squinted in the darkness. The faint wind that penetrated the tent stung his eyes as he looked for her. At last, he found his sister knelt beneath the map pinned to the wall. She looked like something out of a nightmare, more shadow than human, and silent.
"What's wrong?" he inquired, kneeling beside her. She did not reply. "Are you okay?"
"Stop asking!" she snapped vehemently. "It was just a dream. . ."
It did not feel like a dream to Princess Azula; it was a vivid nightmare of blood and dragons. When she woke, she thought she was free—until she saw the claw marks on her waist. They did not fade; they were not hallucinations.
She saw that they were from her own nails when she saw the dried blood crusted beneath them, but whatever made her dig that deep into her own flesh unsettled her to the core. Her nightmares had escalated over the past two months, and now they were reaching their peak. Or at least she hoped they were.
Azula left Zuko and went to find Ty Lee. That would be an easier conversation, and she needed to do something about the bloody marks she gave herself.
Ty Lee was fast asleep in her own private tent. Azula invited herself in and kicked her pet gently on the ribs. That woke the girl in a heartbeat.
"Gaahhh!" she yelped, frantically looking around before her eyes settled on Princess Azula. Ty Lee composed herself and caught her breath. "What can I do for you, princess?"
Azula smirked at her. Ty Lee looked up at the shadowy figure with pure love in her eyes, and Azula knew at that moment that the debt was meaningless; Ty Lee would do anything for her, those five gold pieces or not.
"Help me dress these wounds," Azula ordered, stripping off her undershirt. Ty Lee sucked in a deep breath when she saw the torn flesh.
"What animal did that?" Ty Lee whispered, standing up and rummaging for spark rocks. Azula lit the two lanterns for her with a single sweep of her wrist.
"I did it. With my nails, that is," Azula says, poking at one of the marks and wincing.
Ty Lee reached out and took Azula's hand in hers. "Please don't hurt yourself, princess."
"Queen, Ty Lee. I am the Dragon Queen, not my father's pretty pretty princess," Azula said.
Ty Lee murmured a few words of apology as she searched her tent for the little first aid kit with which she had traveled.
"Dragon Queen does sound more you. You're way too formidable to be a princess," Ty Lee said, smiling. The chiaroscuro cast by lamplight danced on her pretty face. "Although, I think you deserve a better title."
"Yes?" Azula asked. Ty Lee found what she was looking for and began laying out her supplies.
"Just Queen. The Queen. Of everything in this world and all of the others," Ty Lee said and Azula loved how honest it was.
"Do you want to be the Queen?"
"No. I would. . ." Ty Lee hesitated. "I would love to be your Queen, though."
It was a risk that did not reap a reward. Azula snapped her fingers at the bandages and salve and their conversation ended.
Azula had only one true love: the crown.
The Ires Legion
Ozai nearly killed the messenger for interrupting his dinner. He stayed his hand, however, and waited for the young boy to speak. Mai looked up at him, which did not help his nervous shaking and profuse sweating.
"I have a letter," the messenger said, holding out a sealed envelope.
The wax was slightly deformed by the hot sun.
He tore it open and read its contents. After a few moments, he frowned bitterly and burned the parchment to ashes.
"Bad news?" Mai asked and he did not speak. "Very bad news."
They did not say a word for the remainder of their dinner.
That night, however, Ozai was less in a livid shock and Mai was no less interested in the message. He knew he would have to tell her eventually; it might as well be now.
"My daughter is pregnant," he said and Mai cocked an eyebrow. "That is a problem. That helps their cause by tenfold. She and Zuko were meant to have a baby of dragon blood, the first in centuries, but then they ran off."
Mai set her hand on his shoulder. "Unless she gives birth to a literal dragon, we have nothing to fear. It will only make them weaker and easier to dominate."
Ozai was not convinced, and she felt the need to remedy that.
She kissed him hard on the lips.
The Horitsu Militia
Sokka finished shouting at the guard delaying his meeting with General Iroh yet again and heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, blinked several times, and wondered who the little kid was.
He noticed how she never met his eyes. She was facing him as if they were having a normal conversation, but she was not looking at him, per se. He found it unnerving and odd, until he realized that she must be blind. Her eyes had the look of an old woman who lost her vision.
"You don't have to have whiny outbursts just to prove how tough you are," said Toph. "It kind of does the exact opposite of what you want."
"It wasn't a whiny outburst. It was rightful loud-speaking to make sure my point was heard," Sokka argued. His brutal tone that worked so well on his fellow Kishiko soldiers made the blind girl laugh. He had known her for mere seconds and thought he already despised her.
"If ya say so," replied Toph. She shrugged. "You must be the Kishiko. I'm supposed to start your training or something."
"You're the. . . you're Toph?" he asked, scratching his head.
"Yup. Who'd you think I was?" she said.
"I was. . . expecting. . . uh, someone taller," said Sokka before clearing his throat.
"Someone less blind and less female, you mean," Toph bluntly replied. "It's fine, it's fine. Guys with big egos like yours hate getting beaten by a blind girl. Your self-defense is pathetic, but I get it."
Sokka now knew he already despised her.
The Khatun Traitors
Azula had not slept in three days as they crossed the desert. No sandy and sweltering encampment was comfortable enough, and the baby within her was very, very prematurely attacking her insides. The pregnancy troubled her, but she had to focus on crossing this wasteland.
In the throes of exhaustion, she fell from her tiger-horse. Zuko did not move as quickly as Ty Lee, and he hated the former prostitute for it. Ty Lee picked Azula up and kissed her cheek before the Dragon Queen shoved Ty Lee out of her way.
Azula was about to mount her tiger-horse again when she saw something glimmering in the distance. It had to be a mirage; Azula had heard about hallucinations in this dead land.
"Do you see that?" Azula asked her brother.
"One of the Sand Cities? Yes," Zuko replied.
Ty Lee offered Azula help, but Azula again brushed her off and climbed onto her steed. She could better see what lay ahead of her from this height.
Sand Cities. There were many of them in the Si Wong, but Azula put little thought into them. Sandbenders were pathetic and far from a threat; all they wanted was trade and new sets of teeth.
Azula realized something. Amidst the chaos caused by her flight from the Scorched Lands, there was an opportunity. More soldiers, more supplies, real fortresses.
"How much do you think it is worth?" Azula asked, not letting on to her idea too quickly.
"Depends on if it's a trading hub or just a community," Zuko said.
"Send someone to find out, because I want it," Azula said plainly. "I want that fucking city and I will get it because I always get what I want. This is what I train armies for, is it not?"