AN: I don't mean to insult anyone or call anyone an idiot, but I've gotten, like, six reviews commenting on how Azula is slightly OOC. Well, this is an AU—what do you expect? It would be seriously messed up if I tried to get these people to act exactly the same as they did in canon after leading completely different lives, you know. Quite frankly, in the beginning I was more worried that Azula's character was too close to canon than anything else (I justified that by having Ozai be canon-like a jerkass, though how I can justify that when Azulon presumably gave his son a lot more love and attention with all that time he was spending not fighting wars is another question entirely).

The only person I wanted to keep in character was Ty Lee, given that this world, in spite of the darker and edgier nature of this fic, sucks considerably less than the world from canon does. And she's also the character I have the worst grasp of; ah, well.

AN2: Well, I made it, writing some 3300 words in two days, and all I had to do was cut out all television, books, and most internet time. Yay, me. Anyway, if my calculations are correct, this puts me over the 40k mark.

The World without the War

S-Michael

Chapter 10:

In Which the Avatar is Kidnapped

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Azula and her friends went to bed, and Iroh glanced at Zuko. He suppressed a chuckle; the boy looked as if someone were feeding coal into a fire lit directly under his chair. Clearly, he wanted to leave and be with his girlfriend. And whatever happens after that is none of my business, really. "So, Zuko, what do you think?"

"It seems to me that your 'evil master plan' worked better than we could ever have hoped," Zuko said. Iroh's "evil master plan" had been about as far from evil—or much of a plan, really—as one could get.

After Prince Ozai had been banished, Zuko had recovered from his influence quite well to turn into a fine young man. Azula, on the other hand…well, Ozai's poison had stained deeper into her. Eventually, the sixteenth anniversary of Avatar Aang's death came, and with it a flimsy excuse to send Azula on a mission to travel from one end of the world to the other (literally). Hopefully, with just a little exposure to the world outside the Fire Nation (and Sunshine, same difference), she could see for herself how truly full of shit her father was.

"She seems…happy," Zuko said. He momentarily forgot his agitation to leave, and smiled warmly at the thought. "Heh. Who'd have thought it?"

"Those Southern Water Tribe kids have been a good influence on her," Iroh said. Then he chuckled. "Of course, facing her father down in that swamp probably helped. What were the odds of that?" In spite of what Azula had said, they had had time to relay the tale of their travels while waiting for dinner and then over dinner.

"They say strange things happen in the mist of destiny when the Avatar is near," Zuko said. "Look, Uncle…uh…?"

"Yes, you can go. Tell Mai I said goodnight." And Zuko was off.

Iroh chuckled at his now-absent nephew's expense, and sipped his tea. Ah, to be young. The Firelord missed it. Of course, there were advantages to age, as well. He thought back on the events of this night. Azula was…radiant. Happy, yes, but more than that; healthy. He savored his tea at the same time as he savored this recent memory. It is moments like this that make this whole old age thing worthwhile. Tonight was a good night; tonight was a very good night, indeed.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

It was a very good morning, Zuko thought, gazing lovingly at Mai. "Hey, there, beautiful."

"You have a strange definition of 'beauty,'" Mai said.

"Oh, hush; you're just being gloomy and depressed because, well, you're always gloomy and depressed," Zuko teased.

"Ty Lee's prettier than I am."

"Pfft. Ty Lee's prettier than everyone, so that doesn't count." Zuko thought he saw Mai chuckle, once, silently.

"What about that water tribe girl?"

"Yeah, she's pretty, too. Which water tribe girl are we talking about, again?"

"And Tsubasa?"

"Eh, I do like how she hates everything. It reminds me of someone I know, but I can't quite put my finger on it…ah, well, must not be important."

They were silent for a moment. "You know, Zuko, you'd best never leave me. Where else am I going to find someone who gets my sense of humor?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. After all, I've only got eyes for you."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

It was a very good morning, Azula thought.

"So, time to unveil your evil plan for Tsubasa yet?" Sokka asked.

"It's definitely got to be soon; I don't like how…antsy she was last night."

Sokka hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but then, he'd gotten use to Azula's nigh-preternatural ability to read people. "Also, we've got a solid week before we have to ship out to see this Commander Zhou, so our wild hormones are no excuse." This last part would have been more convincing if he wasn't kissing the hollow of her neck as he said it.

"Bah! You devious Water Tribe peasant! You're using your masculine charms to distract me while I'm trying to use my big Fire Nation brain for thinking!"

"What? I can't have you thinking—you might figure out that I'm actually just a gold digger, and then the gig would be up."

"Aha! You admitted it! See what I managed to get you to confess by using my giant brain."

"Uh-huh, brain, right. Because that's the part of your anatomy I'm staring at right now." Azula laughed. "Ooh, that looked pretty. Do it again."

"Oh, you're going to pay for that."

"Goodie."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Sokka and Azula left Azula's room at precisely the same time Mai and Zuko left Zuko's room. And the former was right across the hall from the latter, so they nearly physically bumped into each other, and none of them looked particularly un-disheveled. "Oh, hi, Zuko. Mai," Azula said awkwardly.

"Hey, Azula. Sokka." Zuko was equally awkward.

"We were just going to check my mail," Azula said.

"Sounds nice. We were going to get a fruit tart," Zuko said.

"Sounds nice," Azula said. They walked down the hall.

"So, Zuko, you aware of the political situation in the Earth Kingdom?" Sokka asked.

"Generally," Zuko admitted.

"So does that mean you've heard of Toph Bei-Fong?"

"Yes, actually. Our foreign intelligence is really top-notch in the Fire Nation."

"Ah. So you'd be aware of the phenomenon of 'Toph Bei-Fong Facts,' then?"

"Haven't you given those up yet?" Mai asked.

"Fond of them, is he?" Zuko asked.

"Oh, so you are aware of Facts like: 'Sozin's Comet isn't going to return. It's too scared of Toph Bei-Fong.'"

"Actually, if our intelligence is correct, she's probably counting on Sozin's Comet," Zuko said.

They split up. "Your brother needs his sense of humor checked," Sokka said.

"Oh, he was just trying to shut you up," Azula said. They went to the palace's mail room and found Azula's locker. "Well, it looks like Mai's parents got back to me. Let's go see what they found." They took the package and walked to the library.

On the way, they ran into Ty Lee. "Hey, have you seen Amy?" Ty Lee asked. "I wanted to show her something."

"Nope," Azula said. "We'll tell her you want her if we see her."

"Okay."

Azula and Sokka found a table, and began reading. "Oh, spirits," Azula said ten minutes later. "This is bad."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Amadahy was in the swamp, and a bald old guy with airbender tattoos stood in front of her. "Am I dead?"

"Why does everyone ask me that? No. Tsubasa knocked you out so that you couldn't escape."

"Escape how? Waterbend with only my face?"

"Something like that. I could earthbend with only my face; it's something Bumi and I learned to do together."

"Who are you?"

"About time you got around to asking: I am Avatar Aang."

"So you're the one who told Sokka how to find me. Thanks for that, by the way."

"Hey, the world needs the Avatar," Aang said.

"I've seen no proof yet that I even am the Avatar," Amadahy protested.

"Oh, you will," Aang assured her. "For now, though, there's something I need to tell you."

"Alright, so long as you don't disappear right afterwards, because I've got some questions."

"Fair enough. You remember those documents that the Firelord had you study?"

"How can I forget? I'm pretty sure I've got Kai's Pendant etched onto my brain."

"It's fiction."

"What? I'll kill him!"

"It's not the Firelord's fault. He doesn't know. Every document referring to Kai's Pendant has been forged and put in the Royal Library over the course of the last decade by Zhou. There is no such object as Kai's Pendant, and there was no such person as Kai."

"Why?" Amadahy asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that it appears that, for some reason, Zhou wants the most powerful firebenders in the Fire Nation to be at a certain location on the day of Sozin's Comet. Considering that he was willing to unleash a horde of evil spirits on his countrymen to aide in the subterfuge, I think it's safe to assume that he doesn't suffer form an excess of morals, and therefore that whatever he's planning might not be in the best interests of anyone other than him."

"Understatement of the year."

"Yeah, probably."

"Anyway, before I can deal with this little Zhou problem of yours, I'm a bit tied up at the moment. So, got any insight on why Tsubasa hates my guts, or how to get out of here?"

"Yes, actually, I do. I have answers to both of your questions, actually, and I'm not too proud of the first one…"

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Azula coordinated a search of the entire royal palace, even the subterranean eclipse bunker, and found no trace of either Tsubasa or Amadahy. "Damn it, I should have acted sooner," Azula said.

"There's no way you could have known," Sokka comforted.

"That's why I should have acted sooner! I thought Tsu's hostility towards Amy was just resentment of the way the Avatar has systematically cracked down on dominators for the last nine hundred years. I never thought it could be personal."

"How could it have been? Avatar Aang died before her second birthday."

"I should have suspected, anyway! I should have considered all angles—"

"Azula, love? You're a perfectionist. You're the biggest perfectionist I've ever met. If you'd stop blaming yourself for a moment, you'd remember that it's impossible to consider things from all angles. You can only pick the most likely paths of enemy action, and hope there isn't a secret dungeon access to your keep you don't know about and they do."

"I still should have moved earlier."

"Yeah, well, that's as much my fault as yours. After all, I knew we had this evil plan to brainwash Tsubasa into being a good guy going on, but I insisted on distracting you with my sexiness, anyway."

Azula's grin was the visual equivalent of a single chuckle: short, sharp, and dry.

"All that being said, now's not the time to think about what we could have done," Sokka said seriously. "Amy's in danger; now's the time to think about what we can do to fix that."

Azula nodded. "You're smart when you want to be."

"Yeah, but don't tell anybody. It could ruin my reputation."

"Alright, let's put our heads together," Azula said.

Sokka nodded. "Tsubasa kidnaps Amadahy. From there, there is three scenarios that I can think of. One: she kills her outright, and is just hiding the body. Let's ignore that for the time being, as there's nothing we can do about it. Two: she's hoping to provoke the Avatar State so that she can kill the Avatar off for real. Three: she's going to lock her in a hole somewhere for the duration of her entire life.

"Tactically speaking, numbers two and three are similar, as in either case she's going to need to lock Amy down, at least temporarily. And she's going to want to do it as far away from us here as possible, but also as far away from as many of her elements as possible. Air and fire are a no go, as air's pretty omnipresent and firebenders can make their own fire, so that leaves earth and water. Or rather, earth or water, as I don't see how you can get away from one except in the middle of an ocean or the other except in the middle of a desert.

"On the one hand, being on the ocean gives them mobility, but on the other, the only element Amy knows how to bend yet is water, so no, it wouldn't be worth it. What do you think, Azula?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, if I were a pair of airbenders planning on capturing the Avatar, I'd want to keep her in a metal tower as high up into the air as possible."

"A pair?"

"Tsubasa was in the womb when her father died; I'm thinking that this is more her mother's vendetta than hers," Azula explained. "And that means that Kazane could have been planning this for sixteen, hell, even eighteen years.

"So Tsubasa gets banished—maybe as part of the plan, but probably she just goofed practiced her forbidden techniques where someone other than Mommy could see her—and so she makes the best of it by going to Omashu and hanging out with King Bumi. The person it would be logical to believe that the Avatar would go to in order to learn how to earthbend—after all, he and Avatar Aang were such good friends.

"Even if the Avatar elected to be trained by someone else, well, the most logical place to find earthbenders is still in the Earth Kingdom, after all, so that's where they'd have set up their hidey hole."

"Hmm," Sokka considered. "Well, I suppose that that's more logical than that Tsubasa's flying by the seat of her pants. Logic's a trap, though, when dealing with people."

"Oh, believe me, I'm fully aware of how the common person laughs in the face of logic on a daily basis," Azula assured him. "Still, Tsubasa had to be thinking about this since Omashu, or at least since Saibei. She's smart enough to know that there's no way she'd pull this off without a good plan. Especially after spending so many weeks going over all the ways in which it could possibly fail, and the constantly changing venue. And yet she made her move on my own turf—literally. Why?

"Because her mother is here," Azula said. "The Western Air Temple's not far from here. She could—"

"Okay, I follow you, and it does appear to be the most likely scenario. I just don't want us to be too clever for our own good."

"Duly noted. So, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm afraid so," Sokka said. "There's no way we're going to be able to find one random tower in all the earth kingdom. We need leads, and there's only one place I can think of where we're likely to find them. Please tell me that you have some awesome plan or diplomatic powers that will allow you to get the airbenders to let you rummage around their temple, because I've got nothing."

"I've got something."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, Azula?" Zuko asked.

"This Zhou person says he's going to need as many of the most powerful firebenders in the world as possible when Sozin's Comet returns, and, frankly, if this is what Aang wanted Amy here for, I say there's no such thing as overkill." Azula gave him a sympathetic half-grin. "Sorry about pulling you and Mai apart so shortly after you just reunited."

"Yeah, well, if it can't be helped, it can't be helped. It's not exactly going to be forever, after all—as soon as you rescue the Avatar, you've still got to come back here in case Avatar Aang wasn't talking about Zhou's thing, right?"

"Right," Azula said.

They hugged. "We've already got teams scouring the Fire Nation, in case you're being too smart for your own good, just like you wanted. I'll be joining them shortly. Could I have five minutes with Mai before you left?"

"Of course."

Mai and Zuko walked out of earshot, speaking in low voices.

Sokka held Azula's hand.

"You realize that Kazane was probably careful to not keep anything important at the Western Air Temple, right? And that she'd have destroyed anything useful that she did keep there?" Azula said tonelessly.

"She can't have destroyed everything. Not every last bit of evidence," Sokka said. "There will be something there, we'll find it, and we'll rescue Amy. Just like you rescued me."

Five minutes later, they flew off on Fluffy.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Amadahy came to. She tried to move, and couldn't. She was bound in a device that was like a cross between a bed frame and an iron maiden. A woman was watching her. "So you're the Avatar?" She looked a lot like Tsubasa, but part of that could have been the clothes.

"So they tell me," Amadahy said.

"How do you like your suite?" Kazane asked. "I had it custom made, just for you."

"Oh, my; someone's been skimming off Temple funds."

"A little bit, but this tower was a joint venture. It turns out that a certain Earth Kingdom satrap near this desert needed a place nearby where he could stash earthbending prisoners away from the earth, and the Dai Li also needed something like that, only completely off the books. I hooked them up with each other, and gave them the plans for this place. I then used some of my dear departed husband's contacts to get it built and staffed for guards, even got a little treaty with the sandbenders." She grinned. "I've actually been making a profit on this place."

"Good for you," Amadahy said dryly.

"It's not about the profit, however. It's about having a place where I could actually imprison the Avatar. There's no water or earth in this tower. So even if you were to somehow magically learn all of the other elements and become a fully realized Avatar overnight and then escape your shackles, you'd still be down to air and fire, and an Avatar limited to the use of one element isn't much more powerful than a really good bender, which I happen to be."

"Air and fire are two elements."

"Firebending is like the retarded little brother of airbending, except when Sozin's Comet is around. If you're going to firebend and airbend at the same time, you might as well just airbend with some spark rocks in your hand." She demonstrated, creating a cone of flame two feet in length. "See?"

"Neat trick. I'm sure it's not indicative of any sort of jealousy towards firebenders at all."

"Your attempts to goad me are cute, but uneffective."

"Well, it was worth a shot. So, now that you're a wanted international criminal, what's step two in your Secret Big Evil Master Plan? Kill me? The Avatar will just reincarnate. So, what, just keep me here until I croak of old age? Awesome plan."

"Not quite." If you die in the Avatar State, you die for real. So all I need to do is to torture you until you enter the Avatar State to defend yourself. Simple, really.