Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or anything recognizable. This story is set in a world inspired by Distorted Reality by Ogro, an utterly superb story that I advise anyone who enjoys AtLA to read. Also influenced heavily by the other role swaps I've read, like Exigence's Book 1A: Water on this site and Kaetbab's 'Are They Still Worthy of Love?' and others on AO3.
AN: In this story, Kataang (the future pairing, though I don't plan on it being the focus) is genderswapped, with Aang being a 13/14 yr old girl named Anji and Katara being Prince Kaito of the Water Coalition. (Sokka will be like canon!Azula, though maybe he'll be redeemed eventually, haven't decided.). Obviously, all characters will be ooc, but hopefully not disappointing. And the realities of war, while I don't plan on making them graphic, will not be glossed over as a kids' cartoon has to do.
The Avatar Cycle is Water, Air, Fire, Earth so the Avatars leading up to Anji were Yangchen, Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk.
That is the DR inspired part, and when I was planning this, I decided to have Tui and La leave the Oasis and return to the Spirit World, and then later read that same idea in it, so I credit Ogro for it to. I was looking for a replacement spirit and picked Anningan, the evil Inuit Moon Spirit, while Ogro seems to have Sedna, the Inuit water spirit. Various spirits will be mentioned, but Anningan will be the Coalition's 'primary' deity.
Kuruk's team (Kelsang, Jianzhu, Hei-Ran and Ummi) swapped with Roku's (Sozin, Ta Min, Sud, Gyatso) timewise which differs from DR, so Kelsang was Amanthi's surrogate father instead of Gyatso who was Kyoshi's, and Rangi was Sozin's daughter and still Kyoshi's lover/bf/etc. Amak, the poisoner/waterbender was the first High Chief and Jianzhu didn't get the chance to go insane.
This Fire Nation is still ruled by the Fire Sages instead of a Fire Lord, with regional warlords, etc. I plan on trying to incorporate more references to the spirits, culture and such, and show scenes of past life Avatars because I find that concept ssoo fascinating. More info will come with coming chapters.
Without further ado
Chapter One
The Girl in the Volcano 1
Fire. Water. Air. Earth.
Before she died, my mother used to tell my brother and I stories of her great-grandparents' time. They were times of amity in the world, when the Avatar maintained the balance between the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom and Air Nomads...
But everything changed when the Water Tribes attacked. On the heels of Avatar Kuruk's mysterious death, the tribes of the North and the South united under the rule of the self-proclaimed Emperor Amak, High Chief of the Water Coalition. Then they invaded the rest of the world, claiming that they were the superior race, on account of them bending the water that covers most of the world. Like their element, they too should dominate the globe in the Coalition's eyes.
Only the Avatar, Master of the Four Elements and Bridge Between Worlds could have stopped them, but, thirteen years after Avatar Kuruk died, the Coalition attacked the Air Temples where his reincarnation would have been born and raised. They slaughtered the Air Nomads, who were a peaceful, pacifistic society. When the waterbenders attacked, they were helpless to defend themselves from the brutal massacre of their people.
That was a century ago, and the Coalition is nearing victory in the War. Of the whole world, only a select few strongholds such as Omashu, Ba Sing Se and Kyoshi Island remain free in the Earth Kingdom, and most of the Fire Nation is under Coalition control as well. Two years ago, my Uncle Iroh left to lend his firebending skills and shrewd tactical mind to leading the Fire Navy and its Earth Kingdom allies against the Coalition.
Some believe that the Avatar is gone forever. That the spirits have become so disgusted by humanity's corruption and disrespect they decided not to choose a new host for the Avatar Spirit after Avatar Kuruk's death. My brother denies it, insisting that the Avatar will return to save us all.
I don't know what I think about that, but I do know that the war is nearing an end, one way or another...
Ember Island, Fire Nation:
Azula huffed and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, irritated by its persistence. She had her hair pulled into the traditional topknot of the Fire Nation, but she'd always had trouble getting her wavy raven locks to stay in place. Her mother had always done her hair for her when she was younger, but Azula had never gotten the chance to learn the trick Ursa had used to keep it all in place.
Her brother was a little ahead of her, crouched and squinting in through some hanging vines, searching for any sign of game. The two of them were the only ones able to hunt in the whole village, being the only adolescents out of the population of forty, a third of whom were children under the age of nine, the rest elderly or injured adults unfit to join the war effort. All the other adults and older teenagers had either joined her uncle when he went to help the Earth Army, or else were sent by the Fire Nation generals to protect the more important outposts of their country that still held out against the Coalition. Azula and Zuko had begged their uncle to let them come with him when he left, but he had refused. He'd told them someone needed to look after the village, but Azula was pretty sure that was just an excuse to leave them behind in 'safety'.
She understood why he wanted to protect them, of course. He had lost his brother, sister-in-law and only son to the Coalition, and his parents and wife were all dead too. Of course he sought to keep his niece and nephew, the last remnants of his family, safe as well. And someone really did need to provide for the remaining villagers. She still resented being kept out of the war though. She could firebend, and that was a dying art nowadays, what with the Coalition killing or enslaving any benders who controlled the non-water elements. She wanted to fight, to make the Coalition pay for killing her parents and Lu Ten, and everything else they had done.
One day she would. She repeated that vow every morning when she woke up, and each night before going to bed.
For now, though, all she could do was practice what little firebending she could learn from the scrolls handed down through the generations on both sides of her family, train with the knife her father had given her to protect herself with, and provide for the village.
"I think I see something!" Zuko hissed suddenly, distracting the firebender from her troubled thoughts. "There! It looks like a squirrel-toad!" He drew one of the dao swords he had inherited from their father from its place strapped to his back and adjusted his grip. Azula scoffed.
"You're such a Dum-Dum," she hissed at her brother. "Using swords to hunt! No wonder we never catch enough."
He shot her a glare. "Like you can do so much better with your magic fire," he scoffed.
Azula's temper flared. "I'll show you!" She snapped. "I bet I'll catch it first!"
"You're on," Zuko retorted. "Whoever catches it gets out of doing laundry for the next week!"
Azula grinned a toothy grin at that. She and Zuko divided the chores fairly evenly between the two of them, but they both hated doing laundry or trying to repair torn clothes. "Ready?" She said, accepting the challenge.
Zuko nodded. They readied themselves, eyes on the napping squirrel-toad, and Azula raised a fist. She jerked it down in a gesture to begin, and they both lunged for the animal, Zuko's sword raised and Azula's fist engulfed in fire. She let out a loud curse when the squirrel's eyes snapped open and it leapt out of the way of them, causing them to slam their foreheads together painfully.
"Damn it, it got away!" Zuko yelled, outraged and annoyed. Azula growled and exchanged a look of determination with her brother as they silently agreed with each other. Then they turned and ran after the squirrel. It was now a matter of pride for them both to catch it. Pride and vengeance for their sore heads.
The cursed thing was slippery, though. The two siblings chased it up the side of the volcano, Azula feeling her chest begin to hurt as they raced up the small but steep mountainside, ducking and dodging the vines as best they could, though more than once they both got slapped in the face by the plants.
Eventually, they broke the treeline and found themselves on the edge of the volcano's mouth. The squirrel-toad was out of sight, but Azula had lost interest in it the moment they came out. She had never been there before, and she looked around curiously.
The volcano had an interesting story. She'd found it fascinating as a little girl being told stories by her mother or uncle.
The attack on the Air Temples by the Water Coalition was the action that triggered the war, with the few survivors having fled to the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom for sanctuary and the other nations rising up in protest at the horrific genocide. The motivation for the assault was outright sacrilegious. For all the Coalition claimed they were seeking to impose peace throughout the world by uniting all the countries under their banner, it was well-known that they sought domination over the rest of the world purely out of greed, and attacking the Air Temples was so they could murder the unknown child-Avatar before they could learn the elements and put an end to the waterbenders' vile ambitions.
The night of the assault, the spirits themselves had seemed to rage in fury at the atrocity. Rumours said that Tui and La had abandoned the mortal world in disgust at the crimes committed by their blessed, and fierce storms had savaged the entire world as the wind spirits raged at their own chosen's slaughter. Even when their homes were being invaded and their people massacred, the peaceful Air Nomads had not defended themselves, only fled, or tried to. In the midst of it all, a bright white light was seen above Ember Island, and a loud eruption had occurred, one that had destroyed the former resort. The lava that leached into the ocean had poisoned the water surrounding the isle for decades after, protecting it from the Coalition's attempts to attack. Only recently had they managed to reach it, in the same attack that cost Azula's family so much.
Surrounding the mouth were various vents in the earth that let out irregular, yet frequent jets of steam and hot gas. Azula wandered forward, only to pause when Zuko grabbed her wrist.
"'Zula, we shouldn't be here!" He protested. "This is dangerous. We could inhale something and get poisoned, or-"
"Don't be such a worry-wart, Dum-Dum," she huffed, tugging her wrist back. "Come on, aren't you curious? We won't stay long, and maybe we'll find some more game nearby or on the other side."
Zuko groaned and stomped after her, grumbling. A few moments later, a large gust of steam burst out of one of the vents, making him stumble and fall as a series of rocks fell from the top of the volcano mouth. Azula felt a large stab of panic and cried, the sulphur from the vents stinging her eyes and making her cough.
"Zuko! Zuko! Come on, Dum-Dum, this isn't funny!" She cried through her coughs, fear for him choking her worse than the smoke did. "Zuko!" She waved her hands frantically, trying to make the steam disperse so she could see him.
There was a loud crack that sounded like lightning, but Azula barely noticed, too relieved by the sight of her brother clambering back to his feet to pay attention.
"Zuko!" She cried. He looked at her and yelled out a warning.
"Azula, watch out!" She spun and shrieked, jumping backwards and nearly falling onto her behind from fright. The lightning had hit some rock wall, causing a cleft to appear in the dark stone and magma was beginning to pour out in a crimson and orange stream of lethal liquid, coming towards her. She dashed out of the way as the crevice continued to widen, a strange red glow emanating from the opening.
"What did you do?" Zuko breathed when she got his side. She gave him a wide-eyed look.
"You think I did that?" She said dumbly, amazed at the prospect. He shrugged, looking almost impressed save for the trace of jealousy he always had when she used the bending she had inherited from their father.
"Well, you're the only psychotic bender on the island that I know of. Unless you think the squirrel-toad did it."
"But I-" Azula began, only for a loud 'crack' to cut her off. Her brother dragged her down and shielded her with his body as the rock broke completely in half, shards flying everywhere and the remaining magma spilling out over the ground.
That wasn't all, however. To the siblings' amazement, a large orb, a strange red colour, rolled out and came to a stop a little away from them.
"What in Agni's name?" Zuko breathed in amazement. Azula's jaw was hanging open as she stared at the semi-translucent orb.
"There's somebody inside!" Azula gasped suddenly, as she spied two shadows within the orb. One was a strange, huge and animalistic shape, curled protectively over the form of what looked like a girl in her early teens. The person was in a position that reminded Azula of the lotus meditative form her uncle had shown her. Arrow shapes were glowing an eerie white light on her shaved forehead and the backs of her hands, which were curled into fists and pressed against each other.
She stood back up and moved closer, peering at them. Suddenly, the girl's eyes snapped open, glowing the same white light as the tattoos, and Zuko let out a girlish shriek of fear at the sight.
"She's alive!" Azula gasped. "We have to help her!" She yanked her knife out of its place on her belt and began stabbing at the orb. The sharp weapon barely scratched the strange material the orb was made of. It wasn't something she could even begin to identify.
"Azula, don't!" Zuko protested. "That thing could be dangerous!"
She ignored him, stopping her futile scratching and re-sheathing her knife as she took a step away. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled, going into a firebending stance. She blasted it with a small but searing blast of fire. It hit the centre of the orb, and a blast of hot air erupted out from a sudden crack, making her and Zuko stagger back from the boiling heat. Zuko dragged his resistant sister close to curl around her in a protective embrace as as the orb cracked open like an egg.
Except, of course, most eggs didn't send a stream of bright white light straight up into the sky when they broke open.
The Kassuq (Prince Kaito's ship), Western Sea:
An elaborate ship made of the finest oakwood and iron harvested from captured Fire Nation mines sailed through the Western Sea, its speed and direction controlled by the waterbending crew. A navy banner flapped proudly above the rest. On it was the four silver moons, each in a different phase, that symbolized the Coalition of Water Tribes.
A tanned young boy with dark hair shaved into a warrior's wolf tail, dressed in a fine blue Water Coalition summer tunic made of silk was standing on the main deck. A scar pierced his jaw, going from the right corner of his chin, through his lips and ending just beneath the corner of his ice-blue left eye. He stared up at the beam of bright light shooting up into the clouds. "Finally!" The young waterbender hissed underneath his breath, whipping around to where an elderly man was seated at a small table, playing with his well-worn card deck as he munched on some seal jerky.
"Sifu, do you know what this means?" He demanded, eyes shining excitedly.
"That I won't get to finish my game?" The elder, Waterbending Master Pakku, huffed, not glancing at his pupil.
"It means that I've finally found him!" The boy responded, ignoring his mentor. "A bright light like that? It can only be the Avatar! My search is finally over!"
"It's probably just the celestial lights," Pakku answered. "We have them all the time back in the Poles," he reminded his pupil. "Don't get your hopes up, Prince Kaito. We've gone through this before."
Kaito ignored him, turning to the sailor at the tiller. "Helmsman!" He barked. "Head for that light! We've finally found him!"