Special Thanks to Gift Of Dragons for Beta-ing.

Flashback: ~~Azula~~ 6 years ago.

"Or what?"

She studied him from her crouched position, leaving her challenge to hang between them. A mocking half-smile played on her lips. She was eight, already brimming with the confidence her status and abilities brought her. Zuko, two years her elder, was already well aware he would never live up to the expectations placed on him.

Not like Azula would.

For half a minute, the only sound between them was that high-pitched gasping out from under the palm she kept planted firmly in the mud. There was a roll of the shoulders, and Zuko deliberately planted his feet apart. 'That's it; come on. Take me. I wanna go again. I want to fight you'.

"Or I'll tell mom."

Azula only missed one beat before she covered her disappointment with rancorous laughter. "Oh please! You really are pathetic, tattle-tale! Well go on then; see if you can even find her before this beast here croaks."

Dad was right. He really was a pathetic, weak disappointment of a son. No wonder she was not allowed to play with him.

'He can only drag you down, my daughter.'

There was a slow intake of breath, as her big brother deliberately paced himself.

"This is unseemly conduct for a princess. Let him go before he suffocates."

She felt her eyes narrow, that feeling in her chest like she was ready to explode—but Azula would not. Though she knew he would not attack her; the battle was against his own temper now, and Zuko hated to lose. Perhaps he really had finally learned his lesson, or perhaps he was too tired from his own training sessions to even entertain the thought of having half a chance.

No; more likely it was because both their parents disapproved of the siblings actually coming to blows. Ursa because she hated her little darling boy hurt, their dad because he seemed convinced Zuzu's stupid would somehow rub off on his little princess. But if Zuzu refused to land the first blow, there were plenty of other ways to humiliate him.

"What's the magic word?"

There was a forlorn sigh. Yet her brother did always feel ever so responsible. Perhaps that's why the servants preferred him over her. Fools! Like his weakness could protect them.

"Please?"

Ah. And sometimes it could.

With a grin, Azula released the muddy, messy tangle of hair, allowing the head attached to escape. A page's ink-black form - only a little taller then she - pulled free from the mire. He did not spare a glance to his rescuer, nor to his would-be executioner. With panicked-dazed eyes he crawled away, panting. Then he made it to his feet, stumbling, and ran as fast as a boy his age could.

Azula watched his retreating form through the gardens, chucking softly.

"There you go, Zuzu. Wasn't that easy?" Then, she let her voice fill with malice: "Just make sure those pathetic servants know this; next time one fails to address me by my proper titles I will not be as merciful."

~~Z~~

It took a corpse nearly squashing him to sober Zuko to the enormity of his task.

And really, looking back Zuko thought he should have known he had it too easy. The days were passing in a happy, easy bliss in which he either walked amused the soldiers with tales of the Avatar and Uncle, or simply talked with Mai. At the best of times, he did all at the same time.

That one morning he walked into the town on which outskirts they had camped, summoned by his sister. He wasn't really sure where he was supposed to go, but soon he found a little church dedicated to the Spirits. Its oversized doors stood wide, and within he saw two familiar figures.

When they turned to him, Mai's blank look gave the disowned prince pause.

"Zuko!" Ty Lee laughed nervously. "Come inside, will you?"

He hadn't even been aware of dropping into a defensive stance. Yet he refused to climb the white marble steps without an explanation: "Where is Azula?"

"Up on the roof. Come inside, Zuko." Mai's voice was as deadpan as her face, but he knew her well enough to know this was her at her most desperate. Almost unconsciously Zuko moved up to obey her plea.

Cold dread made him ask more: "What is she doing up on the—!"

Reflexes honed through the years made Zuko pull his Dao's free of their scabbard and turn fast enough for him to get a face full of blood. When there was no further sound, the fire bender chanced to wipe at his face with a sleeve, and look down. Dead eyes stared up from a mangled corpse, prone and twisted, pushed into the stone steps.

Ty Lee laughed her empty, nervous laugh again: "Interrogating a witness. I guess she is done now."

Horror-struck, Zuko looked from the body, back to the two girls. Only a few of the man's injuries could be explained from the fall. Moreover, the man hadn't even screamed when falling down. "Why didn't you two stop her?"

Mai didn't even twitch. "Are you kidding, Zuko? You are her brother, and even you can't get into Azula's way without getting hurt."

~~Az~~

The princess made her way down the stairs, wiping her fingers on a towel, and found her three most intimate waiting on her. It was pleasant; having Zuko complement her girls did feel right. Though, he was hardly playing the perfect soldier: his back was turned to his princess as he stood rigidly, looking down at the corpse on the stairs, a few paces away.

Leave it to her brother to be shocked by something as ordinary as a peasant's interrogation.

"Ah, Zuzu dear," she greeted in a neutral voice. Pulling rank for kicks could always be done later. "So glad you could come. I have new information on the Avatar's location, and as my official tracker, I would like your thoughts."

He turned, slowly. She noticed the blood on his face. Her prisoner must have made quite the splatter. "My thoughts? My thoughts are that you just murdered a man, cruelly, shamelessly and without remorse."

The princess simply made a vexed sound: "Is that any way to talk to your boss and benefactor? Now, the Avatar's bison has been seen heading north-east, up into the marshes. But I cannot help but think he is leading us on a merry chase."

"There's a man, dead. And that's the extent of information you extracted in exchange for his life?" Zuzu must still not be really listening. He completely ignored the warning in her tone. Instead, he seemed to be reprimanding her. He strode up to her accusingly, drawing his face a little too close: "How many people would you need to kill to get direction to the next town, 'Zula? This is disgusting."

She let a small smirk tug at her lips and raised her head even closer. Did the fool think to intimidate her? "Come now, Zuzu. There are enough of them to go around. And what are you going to do about it anyway? Challenge me to a duel?"

For a moment, just a fleeting wonderful moment, she thought he would say yes. His teeth are bared, and the set to his shoulder suggested he was getting ready to dig in; to defend his values, as he used to. But the forward angle of his head fell sideways after a moment and his eyes trailed downward. "That won't bring the man back to life. But could you please not do something like that again?"

"Please?" She let out a half-breath, half-chuckle.

"Please." He drew it out, like a plea. Maybe her brother was not as clueless as he seems. Or at least not all the time, and he knew how much she liked that.

Music to her ears. Azula thought she could at least consider it.

"Anyway, I believe we are being led on a merry duck-goose chase. Mai, Ty Lee, tell the troops to turn around. We are going back to Serpent's Lake."

~~A~~

The Northern Air Temple was as beautiful as Aang remembered. It stood on the peak of a mountain, like a fairytale castle. The towers grope at the sky like giant hands, reaching straight into the clouds. The crisscross roads start at the many towers, but all come together and end into steep nothingness where Sokka blew up the roads to stop the advancing Fire Nation armies.

Nothing else reminded him of that war however; the landscape stood silent, and when Appa reached the forests around that peak, the gliders flew out and flocked around them in welcome.

Teo is there, amongst their welcome-party, and all the other children too. Giddy with their yelled excitement, Aang grabbed his own glider and joined them, ignoring Katara's worried frowns and admonishments: 'How can he be so irresponsible, when he is obviously still so gravely injured?'

Aang grinned and bore it. She did not understand, even if he would tell her he had finally made a friend in the Fire Nation. Even if she'd believe Prince Zuko was on their side now. She may be kind, caring, loving. But to her, family is all. Aang may be family to her, but to Aang, it was friendship that went above all else.

If he would tell her that he would gladly take a lightning bolt to the chest for every new friend he made, she would not understand.

But that's fine too. He is the Avatar; and for the first time since he found out that fact, Aang thought he knew what he needed to do.

The refugees threw them a party that night; an eat-fest garnished with witty inventions and performances. It was late at night, before he even talked to Teo; the boy was the first not full of 'how great it is that the Avatar is back for a visit'. He just wanted to know where his friend Sokka is.

Katara looked away, worried. Toph gave her most wicked, fake grin and claimed they 'dumped the loser'.

And Aang?

He looked for that telltale plume from the tank's smoke on the horizon. When he didn't see it, he felt the first tinges of apprehension, but shook it off. He has a job here: give hope and unite; to make more, closer friends. Sokka could take care of himself for a little while.

And soon, that tank would show up on the horizon, and then they would have to move on in a hurry, for they would not wish to endanger the refugees again.

~~Z~~

They retraced their steps the rest of the day. It bothered Zuko, though he told himself there is no need for him to control, or even understand. Let it go; just let it go. And stay close to Azula.

Close enough to step in, the next time she feels like committing bloody murder.

The sad thing, of course, was that even with his new insights into his sister's shortcomings, Zuko had no way to predict when that might be. His closes guess right now was:

Any bloody time.

Of course, that couldn't be right. Because there were still a hundred soldiers here - one hundred men, that had all lived with and survived Azula a lot longer than it should have taken her to do away with them all.

Perhaps he took to his task as obsessively as the old one, but as Zuko felt he needed to stay as close as possible to his sister anyway. So he found himself studying her. Observing, making interpretations, trying to understand. The first oddity he noticed is that that doesn't bother her. No- she seemed to almost crave the attention.

And not just his—everyone's.

When she came out of her tank to ride a komodo-rhino for a while, she needed Mai and Ty Lee close by; she needed them to at least keep half their attention on her at all times. She needed the soldiers; needed them to march beside her and cast her fearful glances, like piglet-lambs wondering if their day to slaughter has come.

She needed it.

It struck Zuko as odd, because he had always thought a person as perfect and untouchable as his sister high above craving the attention of lesser beings. It seemed he was wrong.

When Zuko followed his sister's almost troubled gaze across the endless marshes, he decided to test his theory.

"It's a big place, isn't it? The Earth Kingdom can make a person feel small, inconsequential. One could get lost around here, and never be found. No wonder earth citizens never seem to move. One peek into the endlessness of their country might well drive a man to despair."

She tensed a moment, but then Azula eased her face into a more familiar smirk: "As it drives you, brother-dear?"

"It used to," he admitted, with no hesitation. "But then I got used to it, and noticed the good side."

Her voice was impatience come to life: "There is no good side to despair. It is an emotion called on by weakness."

"The Earth Kingdom is huge and unmoving, like a mountain. It does not even notice us; the people do. We can kill earth-citizens and they hate us for it. But the wilderness doesn't care. It does not put you on a pedestal nor does it denounce your deeds. The earth-lands do not even notice us. You cannot impress it, but neither can you fail it."

And he looked at her; truly looked. Was that a shudder?

"How pleasant for you," Azula snapped. "But I assure you, not even this disgusting land will be able to deny me when I capture the Avatar."

Ah; do you know, little sister? The worst I ever wanted to do was just impress father.

You have it bad.

But the banished teen did not let his grin break through. "What makes you so sure he is not with his bison? It is his spirit animal; he would not want to be separated from it for long."

"They are drawing me away, taunting me. It must be to distract me from the prize."

In that, Zuko had to agree; they might well be trying to draw them away from something. But it is Azula's self-centeredness that convinces her that thing has to be the Avatar himself. 'Aang would be willing to draw your fire just to protect a particularly pretty field of flowers,' he reminisced.

Still, Zuko was convinced his theory was right.

A very long time ago, before both their parents had decided it was better if both siblings were kept far away from each other, Zuko had known a different side to Azula; the side that followed him around and demanded in her still-limited vocabulary that he play with her.

Oh, she'd screamed and pushed and bit him when he did not comply, and always demanded she could pick what they'd be playing. (And Zuko would have almost given anything to just have a sister that wanted to play dolly or house like a normal girl.) Also, after his fourth birthday, when proper tutorage started, it had annoyed Zuko to no end to have what little free time he had left spent hiding from a near-rabid little sister.

Still, it had been his attention she had craved.

And had he not burned down the choice wall-tapestry in a fit of rage, when his father had again professed no interest in him?

Ah, how could he have ever been scared of his wicked little sister? How could he not have recognized his own reflection, grotesque and deformed as it was.

They were the same.

And with that thought, the Avatar's words came back to Zuko: "Perhaps you could talk to you sister… and we could all be friends?"

Well, Aang did just talk way too much. And even if he was the Avatar, that hardly made him a messiah.

Or maybe it did. But he was still just a twelve-year-old kid.

So Zuko didn't really think he should take Aang's words as world-truths.

Not quite.

Still, the idea had… merit.

It was also stupid, suicidal and completely impossible. Not that Zuko had ever allowed common sense to get in the way of his ambitions before…

a/n:

hehe. Anyone getting excited over this fic? I am. Lots a fun, in the next chapter already. Sneak preview:

"Well? Is it him?"

A girl's giddy voice inquired from the side. Sokka tried to look, but found turning his head only made the rest of his body turn the other side, so the action didn't gain him enough angle.

"It's hard to say, isn't it?" A contemplative, yet strangely familiar voice rasped. Then, a scarred face to accompany the voice swam into view, upside-down of course; as the owner crouched down to examine him. "He is definitely water-tribe, but whether he is one of the Avatar's companions…" a shrug. "They all look the same to me, these water-warriors."