A/N: So I've gotten a lot of questions on the Aang/Azula (I know it's odd and a little uncomfortable, it's hard for me to imagine too) thing that's going on. I don't actually know what it's called (pairing-wise). I've never seen it before. I'm not really sure how I like it just yet but someone pointed it out to me as a possibility (and showed an interest in it) a couple of chapters back and since I like to try new things I decided to give it a try. I kind of like how it's developing so far so I'm going to stick with it but it's still up in the air. I was beginning to feel bad about Aang being alone though and I was trying to avoid creating a character.

Chapter 33

Peace Deferred

"What was Aang thinking, giving Azula back her bending?" Sokka seethed. "She could have hurt Toph."

"I'm sure Aang didn't know that Azula would fight Toph." Suki replied calmly.

"It doesn't really matter who she was fighting. She can't be trusted." Sokka barged on.

"Give it a rest, Sokka. She didn't hurt me so that's the end of it. If we're going to learn to trust her we've got to accept her for who she is." Toph said.

"What? What? Are you crazy? She almost killed you!" Sokka cried.

"But she didn't." Toph responded sounding equally exasperated.

"That's got to count for something." Teo shrugged.

"You people are unbelievable. You'll all be thanking me when she turns on us and I'm the only one prepared." Sokka sulked.

"Sokka, why can't you just give her a chance? It would mean the world to Zuko which means it would mean the world to Katara." Suki asked.

"Her own people won't give her a chance. Didn't you hear all the whispering? It was just like the engagement party they think she's crazy evil and that look on her face didn't help the situation at all. She enjoys hurting people. It's what she does." Sokka explained.

"And you enjoy being stubborn." Suki said rolling her eyes.

- -

Zuko sat beside the cot on which Azula lay, giving the healer a hard stare.

"My lord I can find nothing wrong with her other than a bump to the head." The intimidated healer repeated.

"That doesn't explain why she froze up like that before hand." Zuko snapped.

"I can't explain it sire. Forgive me." The old man quaked.

Zuko's face was a darkened cloud and it was only Katara's gentle hand on his shoulder that silenced him from further questioning the old man.

"She'll be fine Zuko. It was just a bump to the head. She probably just exhausted herself. She can't have had her bending back for very long, Aang was totally against the idea. He must have changed his mind before the match and she just wasn't ready for that much exertion." Katara explained.

"No, that doesn't sound like Azula at all. She's always aware of these things. She wouldn't tax herself out like that. Something else is wrong."

"Well we're not going to solve it just now. Please try to calm down. The healers will look after her. You have to get back to the stadium."

He looked pained at the idea of leaving her. Katara was gentle in her insistence but she eventually got him up and dragged him out the door. The healer gave her a look of thanks and she sent him a soft smile before disappearing with Zuko.

Aang let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding now that Zuko and Katara were leaving. He slipped past them stealthily and into the room where Azula lay. He was tired from the energy it had taken to aid Azula in her fight but he was curious as well by what had happened. He had felt her mind focus to a certain point and then shatter into a million pieces. So many doubts and fears had flooded him and fierce images of the Fire Lord. He had seen Azula as a child striving for his pride and acceptance. He had felt her hurt at the way her mother never seemed to look at her with the same love she held for Zuko. He had felt the jealousy at the friendship Mai and Ty Lee shared and how out of place Azula felt in the group. He had heard all the harsh things Fire Lord Ozai had said about Zuko but in Azula's mind it had somehow been twisted and aimed at her. Every time Zuko was called weak Azula had flinched as though she herself had been called weak. There was a resentment there and it had built over time and then been torn away in the days that she had been locked in her cell.

Azula's mind was a twisted complicated place. She had more fears that he had ever thought possible. She kept it bottled up so much that it wasn't a wonder she had finally snapped. She felt she had to earn her father's acceptance and because her brother failed at such things she clearly couldn't be loved either. She'd felt like an outcast among her friends and she believed her mother saw her as nothing more than a monster. She was alone.

He pitied her. She could feel it and it pained her. She didn't want his pity, she didn't want anyone's pity. Aang's head throbbed with her contempt for being pitied.

'I'm sorry but how else am I supposed to feel.' He thought.

'Get out of my head.' Azula's voice filled his mind.

'No, let me help you. I want to help you.'

'Leave me alone. I don't need anyone.'

'But you do. You've been doing things on your own for so long, why can't you just try letting someone in?'

He was afraid she wouldn't answer as the silence stretched between them.

'It will hurt.' Her voice was like a whisper in his head and in his mind he saw the moment in which Ty Lee struck her down. It seemed to happen in slow motion as the breath caught in Azula's throat and she felt to the ground. He could see Ty Lee tugging on Mai's arm. He could feel Azula's hurt; he could feel her anger, her sadness.

'Being alone hurts too. I won't abandon you.' He replied.

'That's only because you don't have a choice. You don't trust me, you despise me, you pity me.'

'Find hatred in me. I don't hate or despise you. I didn't understand you but…but now I think I do and I want to help you. Please, let me help you.'

He reached out a hand to her. She was still unconscious. It terrified him how pale she was and the stillness of her body was unnerving. He would never be used to seeing Azula as vulnerable. When his hand touched hers he felt a lightening jolt, similar to when he entered the spirit world.

The air around him seemed to constrict his ability to breathe and his body tensed before a bright light spread through him and his mind and then there was peace. He felt new. His eyes opened and he was on a beach. It was warm and dry. A breeze whispered over his bare scalp and fluttered the hair of a girl sitting at the water's edge, watching the setting sun. She turned and looked at him with the softest golden eyes.

'Azula…' His hand reached towards her and she reached back. Then he felt himself being ripped away, out of the vision and back to reality. It was almost painful how violently his back stiffened and then he could breathe again. She was still lying on the cot but her eyes were open now.

"What?" She asked, looking at him confused.

"You didn't see that?" He asked.

"See what?"

"The beach?"

"What beach? What are you talking about avatar?"

"I just…we were on a beach. Weren't you on a beach?"

She bit her lip and then shook her head. "Not a beach…"

"Did you see something? Anything?"

"I was standing before my father. He was sitting behind the flames, he looked so angry, so disappointed. He told me I was weak, just like Zuko, dead to him…I wanted to shout at him. I wanted to tell him I didn't care, that he was cruel and evil and I hated him but I just stood there."

He stared at her for a moment and then moved slowly and took a seat beside her. They sat in silence. She didn't know why but that was comfort enough. She'd never had a companionable silence before. A small smile was trying to fight itself free of her saddened looks. She wasn't alone anymore. Her father wasn't the only voice in her head any more. She had a friend, a real friend.

- -

Katara's hair had been braided back into its old style. She was wearing an outfit similar to the one she used to wear when traveling with Aang and the others only now it was red. She shuddered feeling Zuko's hands trailing slowly up her arms and then back down again. He leaned over her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Be careful, Katara. I don't want you getting hurt." He murmured

"I already told you, I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. If you're not here to help me get focused for my match, go away." She said, turning in his arms and poking him in the chest.

He shook his head, chuckling at the defiance he loved so much about her. "How can I help you focus?"

"I don't know." She gasped, distracted by the kisses he was placing on her neck. "If I lose you have no one to blame but yourself for getting me so distracted before my fight."

"I'm distracting you?" He smirked then pulled her close to him for a kiss. Her arms wound up around his neck and her eyes closed. She took a deep breath reveling in his scent and being in his arms.

"EW! Gross, could you two please stop that, I'm going to be sick." Sokka complained, coming into the tunnel where Katara and Zuko stood waiting for the match between Jeung and Kaili to finish to determine who would be champion.

"You could always go away. It would yield the same fix." Zuko drawled, turning his golden gaze on the other boy.

"But then I couldn't wish my sister good luck so enough with the kissing I'm going to be stuck with the disgusting image for weeks." Sokka blanched.

Zuko rolled his eyes and only pouted briefly as Katara slipped out of his arms and hugged her brother instead.

"Be careful out there, those guys are serious." Sokka said.

"I think I can handle it, I've been watching them fight all day." Katara said.

"Well then go kick some fire nation butt!" Sokka cried, pumping his fist in the air. "Uh…no offense."

Zuko just rolled his eyes at the sheepish look Sokka shot his way. His eyes were drawn to the double doors as Lo and Li's voices rang out.

"KAILI IS THE WINNER!"

Zuko gave a short nod of approval. Pushing Sokka out of his way, he pressed a quick kiss against Katara's lips and then left for his seat in the balcony.

"I should probably get going too so that I can watch." Sokka said. He squeezed his sister's hand and then made a beeline back to his seat.

- -

"Burn everything to the ground!" Snider shouted, riding through the small village on his ostrich horse. His plan had fallen into place excellently. There were people trapped by the land slide. The fields were in ruins. His men had fed the lie that the earth benders had caused the land slide to get revenge on the fire nation. Fighting had broke out and now the fields were a blaze with the stray fire that had escaped the attacks on the earth benders. There was utter chaos in this small town and while everyone was distracted, his men slipped in and out of houses taking anything of value.

- -

Katara stood before Kaili, poised and ready to attack. A hint of a smile lifted the corner of his mouth as he set his own stance.

"You do me a great honor in coming to test me yourself Lady Katara. It is only a shame that I cannot show you my true strength so that you might feel secure." Kaili said.

"And why can't you show me your real strength?" Katara frowned.

"It is punishable by death to strike a royal."

"You would have fought the Fire Lord."

"It is my duty when ordered."

"Then I'm ordering you to fight me all out."

"I don't believe the Fire Lord would appreciate that."

"Good thing he's up there then." She said, a challenging grin spreading across her face.

"Then by your leave, your grace."

"Promise me you won't hold back."

"I don't make promises that I can't keep."

Rather than allow her to retort, knowing what she would say and what the Fire Lord would do to him if was caught attacking full out, Kaili started the match with a thrust of an open palm sending a stream of red hot fire in her direction. Annoyed, Katara determined to force him to fight her full out by not holding back against him. Bending the water she had previously wrapped around her arms, she lashed out at his head. While he was distracted with the dodge, she coiled a string of water around his left ankle and tugged.

Kaili was in the air grinning at the fierce nature of the new Fire Lady. He arched back and came down on one hand, turning his fall into a flip and slashing a line of fire at her the moment his fingertips parted from the ground. She threw her hands up deflecting his attack with a barrier of ice and then thrust her palm at it sending a torrent of icy blades after him.

He threw flame after flame to melt the ice while battling his way closer to her. The steam that had arisen masked her movements and it was too late that he'd discovered that she'd snuck up on him. He recognized her proximity when a foot hit him squarely in the chest, driving him backward. Another flip saved him from falling on his butt and he was shocked by her strength. She hadn't pursued him this time but stood in the parting steam, standing tall and ready.

"Are you sure you don't want to really fight me?" She taunted.

"I'm actually very curious now to see how you'd fair. Are you ready to fight full out, I can tell you're holding back?" He called.

"It didn't seem fair to really go at you if you weren't going to put up a real effort to defend yourself."

"Well then consider me defensive."

"How much more to get offense?"

"I already told you, the Fire Lord wouldn't like that."

He jumped out of the way of the water whip that came at him after that comment.

"I can take care of myself." Katara said.

"I can see that." Kaili commended.

"Then show me a little respect and fight me."

She drew up a great wave behind her, collecting from the many buckets arranged around the court. Turning in a tight circle and sweeping her hands along with her she set the water to spinning like a hurricane and sent it after him.

He narrowly avoided the cyclone coming at him. Katara cupped her hand and snapped her fingers up calling the whirling mass to double back this time easily swallowing him up, spinning him round and round before spitting him out to the side.

He hit the ground coughing up the water he had unintentionally swallowed while being battered around inside her attack. He was only just catching his breath when he sensed the whip about to crack down on him. Jumping from side to side he avoided strike after strike.

'Alright, a little offense shouldn't make him too angry.' Kaili finally decided. Pushing his weight off the ground Kaili jumped up making a harsh pivot and thrust both hands in Katara's direction. She smiled seeing the flames coming at her and sent a wash of water at it.

She had missed the hiss of her attacks clashing with Zuko's in their time as enemies, now she had that back. He threw fire balls in her direction and she blocked them all recalling the "good old days."

She smirked as her plan finally fell into place. The arena floor was went and now she pinched her hands up and Kaili was suddenly completely incased in ice except for his head and a cage had formulated around him. He looked around himself shocked, not having expected that.

"You're very good." He complimented.

"Thank you, you're not so bad yourself."

"It's not over yet." He laughed, clenching his eyes shut for a minute and rapidly raising his body temperature to melt the ice.

She grinned setting her stance once more and beckoned him to her. "I'm ready when you are."

"MY LORD!" Rang out throughout the entire stadium.

Katara whipped around at the sound of the shout and Kaili's attention was stolen away just as rapidly.

"There's been an attack. People are trapped, the village is burning, and people are fighting in the streets." A man called riding in on an ostrich horse. "You must come at once, please, my village!"

Everything seemed to happen in an instant. The tournament was forgotten, men were running to get into formation to be sent out to put down the chaos. Zuko disappeared from the balcony in a flurry of advisors and generals.

Katara watched how rapidly the tone seemed to shift. The light and carefree spirit was gone and it was all back to business. Smiles had vanished from all faces but one. She frowned spying General Kawamura looking rather calm a cross between a smirk and a smile lifting the corner of his mouth as he watched over the sudden movements. It disturbed her to see him looking so relaxed about all this. A shudder went down her spine but she shrugged it off, he was a man of war, perhaps this sort of thing excited him.