The Promise and The Search are marred by terrible writing, poor characterization, half-baked ideas and missed opportunities. What could have been the start of an epic, post-finale Avatar story about the Fire Nation and its royal family turned out to be a raw, bloody mess.

In spite of this, those two comics contain four valuable ideas that provide the backdrop for a compelling, heartfelt, post-finale Avatar story centered on the Fire Nation and its royal family. Those ideas are:

1) Unrest and rebellion against Zuko over his ending of the war and dismantling of the colonies;

2) The anemic, dysfunctional state of the royal family is a threat to Zuko's rule;

3) Zuko and Azula work together to find their mom, and;

4) Azula remains adversarial and runs away from the heroes.

This fanfic intends to salvage those good ideas and continue that story from where it left off in The Search. This story also assumes those four ideas were developed clearer in the comics compared to what actually happened.

Some references to dialogue in The Search are modified while others are kept the same, but the overall plot is unchanged: Zuko brings Azula with him to help find their mother, in part to test the waters on a thawed relationship with his sister, but Azula remains adversarial and 'deranged' for reasons the heroes don't fully understand, resulting in a bungled adventure that drives Azula to run away from the heroes and find refuge in somewhere in the Fire Nation.

This story is written from the POV of Azula as she has the most growth and change to undergo in a story like this. If you've read my articles on my Cobra-Diamond Tumblr account, you'll have an idea what this story is about.

Enjoy!

~Cobra Diamond