Katara never expected to see an Air Temple. She saw great sights in the Earth Kingdom, most notably buildings that don't melt. The carnage in the Earth Kingdom was disgusting and Katara imagined the Air Temples would be equally scorched and muddied with death. Yet, time has served the place well. The marks of the Fire Nation have almost entirely faded.
Sokka is complaining, as usual. And Aang is excited, which Katara loves. What she saw two days ago terrified her, but she has grown fairly sweet on Aang.
His compassion and ability to see the best in people are personality traits that no longer exist in a world after Sozin's Comet. The moment that beautiful light streaked across the sky, hope died and the ground was permanently scorched.
"So, Aang," Sokka says as they walk up endless stairs, "what was that whole outburst?"
Katara watches as two ships are sheared in half by the power of water.
"The strength of water can sink a man," is an old saying in the Water Tribe. It never made sense to Katara until she saw Aang's eyes and tattoos glow blue and a tsunami rise at his command.
Hakoda, Bato and the other rebels look on in shock as they battle on their own boarded vessel. Katara ceases struggling against the soldiers fighting her. And they stop trying to drag her towards their own ship.
The ships were attracted and Hakoda decided to make the best of it by using this opportunity to steal one for the infiltration. But while it was too much, right now, Aang proves to be the most vital weapon the rebels could ever have.
He sinks into the water and rises again with the help of his Sky Bison.
"I don't know," Aang says calmly, shrugging. Then he frowns for a flicker of a second. Katara has only seen that expression on Aang's face when she showed him the Fire Nation ship and explained what happened during the comet.
Katara feels a twisting sensation in her gut as they come closer to the Southern Air Temple. Aang has not fully accepted that his people died one hundred years ago. Just like seventy years ago, Katara's people were killed and stolen. She wishes she could express that to him, wishes she could express what she saw in the Earth Kingdom. Bodies. Charred bodies in open graves.
"I never wanted to be the Avatar," Aang says as he starts to walk away. "I can't help you."
He cannot help after he failed everyone. The world's balance is forever tipped and he knows it is his fault. Katara follows him even though he plans to leave before the rebels ask him to help them. Why would Aang be able to do it? He does not know the first thing about being the Avatar, and he does not know any elements except for airbending.
"Let's run together, then. Let's go to the North Pole. I've heard it wasn't defeated during the comet. But our communication was broken off even when we were in the Earth Kingdom." The dream of the North Pole is a foolish legend people cling onto because they fear their culture will die out forever. "Please. You don't have to infiltrate the Fire Nation like Sokka keeps going on about. Let's run together."
She hesitates. Aang stops walking, but he does not turn to face her.
"Please take me with you. I can't be here anymore." Katara's voice never sounded broken to Aang before, but right now it does.
"Okay," Aang says earnestly. She is the only person here who has treated him as a person and not a valuable resource.
They reach the upper levels of the Air Temple and Katara and Sokka try to distract Aang futilely.
But it cannot be a secret forever.
In the Fire Nation, Azula is grateful that her brother did as she asked despite their messy history. The loathing between them fades upon occasion as they are older, more mature, and it is set in stone that Azula will rule the nation. Rivalry dies hard, however. But for now, they are best friends, because Zuko has information that Azula desperately needs.
"You found out about my engagement?" Azula asks slowly and smoothly, shutting herself in her brother's room.
"You're going to be angry," Zuko replies, eyeing Azula closely as if she will bite him. "Father plans it to silence you."
"I'm aware. But one hand may be given in marriage, but the other is prepared to strike him down with a bolt of lightning," Azula says and Zuko gulps. He never imagined Azula talking like that. She is the opposite of treasonous, but here she is openly talking about killing their own father.
But Azula couldn't hurt him. She knows it; Zuko knows it. But in her anger, she believes she is capable of killing anything that breathes.
"There's a reason father sent Admiral Zhao as your... escort?"
"Babysitter," Azula corrects, before Zuko's words sink in. Her eyes flash, because she does not want to hear what comes next.
"I think you can figure out where I'm going with this." Zuko does not want to break it to her in clear terms. She looks like an angry dragon, except slightly more terrifying.
"It's okay," Azula says, her voice slightly constricted by emotion. "It's okay. Because I'm going to find my way out of this. If there's anything I'm good at, it's finding a loophole. It's conniving. It's okay. It's going to be okay."
She seems incapable of breathing and Zuko wonders if he should do something to help her. He simply looks at her with his lips slightly parted as she coughs twice and straightens her back. Her cheeks are flushed, something Zuko has never seen on Azula. She controls herself and her emotions to the point where Zuko thinks she might just combust someday.
Azula walks into the hall and Zuko hesitantly follows her. There is commotion in the palace, and Azula wonders if it is for her or for something else.
"Oh wonderful, perhaps the Fire Sages are here to marry me before I can think of something," Azula sighs as she sees the men walk into the palace. There is urgency about them beyond the matter of a royal wedding.
Azula narrows her eyes and waits a few heartbeats before following them. Zuko scampers after her.
They reach the throne room, where Azula and Zuko stand outside for a moment. A crash, a burn, the scent of smoke. Azula's eyes flash and Zuko flinches at the sound.
"What do you mean the Avatar has returned?" growls Ozai loud enough for his children to hear him through the door.
Zuko swallows, his throat suddenly dry. Azula can only blink several times too fast. The Avatar has returned, the Fire Nation is about to have a civil war, and she is engaged to a man three times her age. She catches herself as she is about to stumble and possibly faint.
"You don't look so good," Zuko says and Azula clears her throat.
"I'm fine. I don't need your concern," Azula says coldly before fleeing the scene slowly and cautiously, trying to look cool and calm but not pulling it off.
Zuko also disappears, for fear of his father walking out of the throne room and finding him eavesdropping.
He is on thin enough ice already.
"I'm getting married. This is disgusting. I..." Azula is halfway through a tirade that is mostly just repetitive and reworded complaints about sex, loathing and patriarchy.
Ty Lee listens carefully, trying not to get her own emotions tangled in it. They so easily could. Far too easily, they could. Azula getting married writes off any chance of it developing. It being the relationship that has been blossoming slowly and painfully for some time.
"Just because I invited you into my bed doesn't mean I invited you into my heart."
"You're going to find a way out of it. You're you. You're perfect and smart and pretty," Ty Lee offers, beaming in defense. Azula sits down on her bed, picking at her fingernails ferociously.
"I know. There has to be a way. There is always a way," Azula sighs, taking two deep, timed breaths. She has better control than this, but she feels like she is spiraling into dark waters that want to suffocate her.
"I know you'll get out of it," Ty Lee murmurs.
They sit in silence for a moment before Azula moves forward like a striking wildcat. Ty Lee flinches before Azula's lips are against hers. No, no, no... this can only lead to trouble.
Azula's hands slip into Ty Lee's shirt and her brain stops protesting. Or maybe her body tells her brain to stop protesting. It is frantic and confused, a war of tongues that winds up on the floor of the princess's bedroom.
And after it is over, Azula is going to make some excuse, some snide comment. But Ty Lee will see her eyes and bite her lip to avoid telling Azula that she is the best liar there is, but even she cannot hide something as strong as this.
But there it is. Fucking on her floor. As she is about to be married.
Azula sees her father in the morning. She has concealed what she has done, as she has with every midnight meeting with Ty Lee. He would never suspect it. And Azula wonders if she can weaponize her relationship with the acrobat to get out of her engagement to Zhao.
But her thoughts are muddy.
"I have a significant amount of news," father says and Azula nods, slowly bowing.
Someday he will bow to her. She will force him to. But for now, serving him is in her best interest. Sacrifices must be made if she wants the throne. Some sacrifices that no human should go through. But she does it.
"Yes, father?" Azula asks, realizing he is waiting to be prompted.
"The Avatar has returned. And is presumably with the rebellion. And I have news of your engagement."
Azula pretends to be surprised.
Azula thinks quickly as she walks to the rose hued balcony with golden fixtures. Now it will be announced, now it will be announced that she is being forced to marry. She will tell the people how much her father loves him, and that she is a servant of the people.
But Azula has the potential to be more than a tyrant like her father and grandfathers. She has the capability to be the best leader the world has ever seen. And now she is being brushed aside and tucked away because that threatens the man who made her this.
Fire Lord Ozai made her who she is.
He brought this on himself. Just like he said every time she would be brutally punished for trivial reasons.
"You brought this on yourself."
And Azula gazes at her two friends and supposed bodyguards. Mai already looks bored before anyone has been speaking. Ty Lee is watching Azula with a hollow, broken sadness Azula did not imagine she could experience. Ty Lee is overly optimistic and sickeningly happy and blissfully ignorant.
But now reality sets in. Azula turns away from her and turns to the public.
Now she makes her choice. Her father nods at her and her lip twists into a brief snarl that disappears when she realizes she has been doing it. The final speech is her greatest yet. It finishes in the most populated city, surrounded by the most important people. The people that threaten her father most.
Azula has no script. She jotted a few notes to herself when she was not obsessively trying to figure out how to break off her engagement before it begins.
"We observe today not a victory of battle but a celebration of freedom. Renewal, as well as change in our Nation. I have sworn before you upon the exile of my brother the same solemn oath my forefathers mad to you. I do not intend to squander it in my future reign."
Ozai did not anticipate that. Azula smiles faintly as she glimpses at him. It is intentionally meant to unnerve him.
"The world is very different now from the age of Fire Lord Sozin. We hold in our mortal hands the ability to abolish entire races of our enemies. We dare not forget today that we are heirs of that first strike."
And the Avatar is back. Sozin did not achieve as much as he was accredited with.
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well of ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any ally and oppose any foe to assure the survival of liberty. Our country is on the brink of civil war."
Ozai's eyes flash.
"It is the worst move we could possibly make as a Nation. Ripping out each other's throats is a waste of resources that could be better used to spread our values and our people throughout the world. We need to build up from the ashes of our enemies and not reduce each other to ashes. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of the Fire Nation."
Azula pauses and looks around. It worked better than she imagined it would.
Fellow citizens, not loyal subjects. Little words. Little words can win her the support of every person on this street. If she takes the country, there will be no qualms. No people who need to disappear like when her father usurped Fire Lord Azulon.
It will be clean and controlled, like a bolt of lightning.
"And so, my fellow citizens, ask not what the Fire Nation can do for you; ask what you can do for the Fire Nation."
Azula steps back. She has not thought of what to do next. At the end of her words she will have to accept an engagement and pretend to be happy. To pretend her dream is to walk down an aisle and not walk down the path to absolute power.
It hits her as she is stepping backwards and Admiral Zhao is stepping forward. In plain sight of the people who were brought to teas by adoration of the pretty princess with prettier words, she seizes Ty Lee by the wrist, startling her.
In the light of the sun, she presses her lips against the acrobat's. Zhao freezes in place. Everyone stops, as if time halted.
Azula takes the extremely confused acrobat by the hand and walks past Zhao.
"I am also pleased to announce my engagement, as promised."
As soon as Azula and Ty Lee are out of the sight of the people fawning over them as a couple, they are ripped apart. Ty Lee is half dragged away by guards she snaps at for being rough with her. Azula has her wrist seized by her father and finds herself shut in the library with him.
It smells of dust and victory. Azula's heart beats quickly as she feels brilliant.
"So, you decided to sabotage your engagement," is all father says, in a low tone that would have terrified a younger Azula. Slowly, Azula nods. "Do you love her?"
Azula is silent. She doesn't. It was simply to incite people. Simply to defeat any chances of being married off because the public is enamored with her declaration of love and long, passionate kiss on the balcony.
"No," Azula replies honestly. It is not important enough to lie to her father over.
"Well, you better act like it. If you value your right to the throne at all, you better be ready to live happily ever after with this circus whore." He pauses. "Let's give the people what they want."
"I fully intend to."
They lock eyes for a moment, but do not fight.
It is uncertain who would win at this point.
Okay, exposition phase is over. We're now starting the plot, of the engagement and the Avatar and such. It's mostly Azula and Ty Lee's point of views now, except the occasional glimpse into Aang, but not as much as there has been so far.