The Return

by tubendo

The ice of the South Pole hides many things, and when Azula and Sokka are confronted by something far greater than themselves, the strength of their relationship is tested, and the Princess has to decide whose path she will follow: the path of her father or the path of freedom. (Sequel to Into The Fire)

3. Chapter 3

Opening his eyes, Aang blinked a few times, realising that he had no idea where he was; all he could see was a Water Tribe girl leaning over him, staring into his eyes with amazement. He realised he must be the Southern Water Tribe, taking note of the cold moisture that he felt on his robes; the last thing he could remember was he and Appa flying through a storm, and being forced into the water, before he blacked out. He realised that maybe he had washed up ashore, after the storm ended; he was just glad that he was alright, and the smile on the girl's face made his heart skip a beat.

"I need to ask you something..." he questioned, realising that there was something he had wanted to do when he got to the South Pole.

"What?" she asked him with surprise, the young airbender whispering in response.

"Please... come closer." he requested, the Water Tribe girl moving in closer as, before she questioned him once again.

"What is it?" she asked him, Aang making a bright smile as he asked his question properly.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?" he asked her, making the girl lean back, looking at him with slight unease; in hindsight, he realised that his question probably seemed a bit odd, seeing that she had just found him in what looked like the middle of nowhere.

"Uh..." she began to mumble, before she was interrupted by another girl, who placed a hand on her shoulder, giving the young airbender with a steely glare.

"We're not going penguin sledding." she declared, before stepping closer, her finger pointed at his chest, "What were you doing in an iceberg?"

"I don't... uh- I'm not sure." he admitted, completely dumbfounded by her question; he had just woken up after he and Appa had a rough ride through the night- he wasn't in an iceberg.

He turned his head around, realising that he was lying down on what seemed to be a large iceberg, with a crater sitting right behind him; he gulped with fear, realising that the angry girl might have been right. He turned back to face her, unsure what exactly had happened between him hitting the water and when he had just woken up.

"What's going on here?" he asked her, the girl stepping forward, her gold eyes staring daggers at him; he realised at that moment, judging from her complexion, hair colour and the most obvious aspect of her eyes being a bright gold, that she was Fire Nation, unlike the other girl, who was clearly Water Tribe.

"You tell me, Avatar." she addressed him, making his eyes widen with fear, realising that she already knew that he was the Avatar; he had left the Southern Air Temple for the exact reason that he didn't want to be the Avatar, but it seemed he couldn't escape his fate that easily.

"H-how did you know?" he mumbled, bewildered that she already knew that he was the Avatar on the spot, without him even having said or done anything that indicated that to be the case.

"You've got the tattoos of what I believe is an airbending master, you're wearing the robes of an Air Nomad, a race of people that no one has seen for a hundred years." she simply explained herself, the other girl looking at him with shock.

"You're the Avatar?!" she exclaimed with utter shock, Aang forcing himself to nod; there was no point lying about it if he couldn't keep the secret very well.

Suddenly he heard a low gruff noise behind him, realising that Appa was awake; he grinned, turned his heels and raced up the icy slope behind him before jumping down onto his friend's head.

"Appa! Are you alright?" he asked him, leaning down over his eyes, which were closed, "Wake up, buddy."

He opened one of the sky-bison's eyelids, trying to make him move or at the very least make a grunt; once he let go of the eyelid, it simply closed, before he decided to take another tactic, jumping down in front of his head, grasping his jaw, trying to pull his head up. He finally got a reaction from his friend when he opened his mouth and licked him with his tongue, which assured him that he was alright.

"Ha, ha! You're okay!" he beamed, before he hugged Appa by his nose, just happy to be with him.

He had been unsure after waking up where he was, but was glad that they were still together; Aang knew it would be easy for his big furry friend to get lost in the icy seas of the South Pole.

He heard the voice of the angry Fire Nation girl, who unlike before, had a rather relieved, albeit sarcastic tone in her voice, "Ah, see Katara, now we won't freeze to death. We can ride the giant monster instead of hoping you're anywhere near competent at bending us a raft." she derided the girl, which made him cringe slightly; he hadn't gotten the best first impressions of the Fire Nation girl, who confused him by the fact she was in the South Pole, with no obvious indication of the fact that she was from the Fire Nation as of yet.

"This is Appa, my flying bison. He doesn't take kindly to being called a monster." he warned her, making her scan his sky-bison.

"Yeah, I don't think I'd like to get in a fight with him." she admitted, the young airbender chuckling.

"You would not. Sky-bisons are some of the toughest creatures in the world, and they can airbend!" he exclaimed, before his attention was diverted to Appa, who was making a deep inhale, indicating that he was about to sneeze.

Foreseeing it, he ducked before he sneezed, watching as the blast of green snot being sent out of his nose, right at the Fire Nation girl, who dropped down flat to dodge the sneeze just as he had; although part of her parka was splattered with the green substance, she amazed him with her agility.

"Wow, that was a good dodge." he admitted before smiling reassuringly at her, "Don't worry about your clothes. It'll wash out."

She touched the top of her hood, feeling the green snot in her hand, and making a face of disgust, "Eww..."

"So, do you guys live around here?" he asked them, Katara nodding while the Fire Nation girl simply glared at him without uttering a word.

"Yeah, we do." she admitted, before furrowing a brow at him, "Sorry, I'm just a little confused, what is the Avatar doing in the South Pole... in an iceberg?"

He raised a brow, realising what she was saying, "In an iceberg?" he looked around him, "Are you trying to say I was frozen?"

"That's quite likely." the Fire Nation girl told him with a serious face; he was the Avatar, so he thought that he ought to be the one who would believe absurd and unnatural things, but at that moment, he was the one who was in disbelief.

"How can you be so sure?" he asked her, making her furrow a brow pointing at him.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked him, Aang raising a brow, knowing for sure that he was riding Appa in a storm, but he felt a sense of dread, considering why her had been doing so.

He had fled from the Southern Air Temple, knowing that the monks wanted to separate him and Monk Gyatso, send him to the Eastern Air Temple, so he could continue to train without his guardian.

"I was riding Appa. We were in the middle of a really bad storm, and we got hit by a few waves, and I think I might... I might have got knocked out." he admitted, before she stepped closer.

"Okay, but where did you come from?" she furthered her questioning.

"The Southern Air Temple. My home." he added without a second thought.

"And do you live there alone?" she asked him, the Avatar raising a brow in thought; he was never alone, because there were always monks and other children around.

"No. The temple's full of people. Some of those people... I don't like." he added, not wanting to ignore the fact he had left because of the demands of the monks like Tashi that he put his Avatar duties above all else; Avatars weren't even meant to find out that they were the Avatar until they were sixteen, but for some reason they had told him when he was only twelve.

"I've got some bad news for you." the Fire Nation girl admitted, Katara's eyes shimmering with fear, grasping her by the arm, and pulling her away from Aang.

"Azula, don't." she tried to stop her, the young Avatar stepping forward, feeling a growing sense of dread.

"No, I bear responsibility. My family does. I ought to be the one to say it." she grit her teeth, at the Water Tribe girl.

"What do you mean your family bears responsibility? Who are you?" he asked her, the girl, whose name he now learned was Azula, simply sighing as she looked at him, seeming more annoyed than saddened.

"My name... my name is Azula. I am the daughter of Fire Lord Ozai, and until a few months ago, I was Crown Princess of the Fire Nation." she clarified, the Avatar furrowing a brow with confusion; he was pretty sure that a man named Sozin was the Fire Lord, and that he didn't have any children.

"Who's F- what..." he began to mumble, unsure what question to ask first, "Something happened." he simply acknowledged the most obvious fact that he was faced with.

"That is the greatest understatement of history." she admitted, "You were probably in that iceberg for over a hundred years."

"A hundred years?!" he exclaimed with utter shock, "But... I'm twelve!"

"I can see that." she gestured to him, before sighing, "You being alive and in not ageing that entire time probably has to do with you being the Avatar."

"That's... impossible." he mumbled, in a state of utter disbelief.

"She's not lying." Katara backed her up, approaching him, "You were frozen that entire time... and a lot of things have happened. Everything has changed."

"Everything?" he asked her with an uneasy voice, Azula looking at him with the same steely glare, her seriousness not fading.

"I didn't even tell you what happened." she admitted, before sighing, looking as if she didn't want to say it, "Your home, your people, they don't exist anymore."

"D-don't exist?" he asked her, unsure of what she meant, "I mean... people don't live a hundred years." he admitted, knowing that if he had been a hundred years, all of his friends would be long gone.

"She doesn't mean it like... that." Katara admitted, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It would be better if you... uh- sat down for this." she suggested, before raising a brow, "We didn't get your name."

"Oh, I'm Aang." he grinned at the pair, before he sat down, as she had suggested, looking up to Azula, whose expression looked tense; whether she was sad, angry or regretful, he couldn't tell, but she was full of emotion, even if she wasn't letting it out in any way other than dagger eyes.

"One hundred and two years ago, Sozin's Comet passed by our world, and with it, the power of firebenders was increased dramatically; the Fire Nation's armies attacked the Air Temples." she explained, Aang trembling with fear as he heard it.

"Wh-what... what do you mean? Why would the Fire Nation attack the Air Temples?!" his voice rose to a shout, now angered by the thought of what had happened; his rage was already boiling up, even if he didn't truly understand what had purportedly happened.

"Because my great grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, desired to destroy you. Because you were the only thing that stood in his way to conquer the world."

"C-Conquer the world? How could they even..." he began to mumble, utterly shocked by what he was hearing.

He couldn't imagine that the Fire Nation would even try to do such a thing; Aang had friends in the Fire Nation, and he was sure that they wouldn't approve of such a horrible thing.

"Sozin's Comet was only the beginning." she admitted, before looking at him with a steely glare, "A hundred years passed, and by the time it came back again, my father and his armies used it to conquer Ba Sing Se, the last stronghold of the Earth Kingdom."

"And... and now what? What happened to the rest of the world?" he asked her, Katara sighing as she sat down.

"I'm the last waterbender in the South Pole. The rest were taken by the Fire Nation, by a group of savage soldiers called the Southern Raiders. They destroyed us." she admitted, making his jaw drop; he couldn't imagine the possibility of his people being destroyed, but all the benders at the South Pole, that was just as bad, and he could tell from the tone of her voice that she was speaking with certainty and authority on that matter.

"Wh-what about the other tribe?" he mumbled, knowing that there was another one at the North Pole.

Of all the things he had said, that was the thing that had made Azula laugh; he was unsure why anyone would laugh over the fate of a nation, but she found the time suitable to do so, much to his shock.

"Hiding behind their walls of ice like cowards." she declared with a rather snide tone, "They've done nothing. If any of the nations deserved to be destroyed, it was them, if only for their complacency. They haven't done a thing, they didn't even send a boat south to help the Southern Water Tribe, despite all that has happened here."

"B-but... you're a princess?! Why are you here?! If Fire Lord Sozin wanted me dead, why aren't you trying to kill me?!" he accusingly asked of her, feeling a growing sense of dread just by looking at her.

"Why would I do that?" she simply retorted, "I let you out of that iceberg."

He looked around, before glancing back at her, "You... you let me out?"

"Yeah. We found you by accident, but Katara asked me to crack it open, because there was obviously a twelve-year-old boy in there with glowing tattoos."

"Glowing?" his eyes darted around, touching his forehead instinctively.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird, actually." Katara admitted, making him look back at his sky-bison, fearing that what he had just been told was true, and somehow a result of his Avatar powers, something that he understood little about; he knew about the role of the Avatar as the bridge between words, but he didn't really know how to play that role when it came to something like a world war, let alone if he'd how the power to stop it.

"What... what do I do?" he mumbled, the Water Tribe girl approaching him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I... I don't know, but you should come with us, back to my village. You can't just stay out here."

"I wasn't planning to." he admitted, making a grin, "But do you still wanna go penguin sledding?" he asked her, Azula stepping forward and pointing at him.

"Enough about the penguin sledding." she grit her teeth, before her finger pointed to Appa, "Can your sky-bison fly us out of here or what?"

"Uh, yes, of course he can. He's a sky-bison, it's in his name!" he assured her, before he used his airbending to lift himself up into the air, landing on top of his friend's neck, where he could grab a hold of the reins that were tied around his horns, "Get on the saddle, I'll show you." he grinned at them, Katara's expression brightening as she clambered up onto the saddle, Aang offering her a hand to help her up.

Azula, instead of climbing up like he'd expect her to, instead stood still, clenching her fists; he looked at her with confusion, "Uh... I'm confused. Are you still angry or something?" he asked her, making the Water Tribe girl beside him chuckle.

"She's always angry." she noted, the Fire Nation girl turning around and pacing a few strides back from Appa's saddle, before she turned around and raced back toward them; just before she would have ran straight into him, she shot herself into the air with an impressive show of firebending, landing skilfully on the saddle beside them.

He made a double take, just realising that her firebending was blue, not orange, like any normal firebending ought to be, "You're fire's blue... wow." his jaw dropped with awe, making her flick her hair out of her face before smirking.

"Indeed it is." she declared with a rather self-satisfied look on her face.

"How'd you learn how to do that?" he asked her, genuinely curious how she was able to bend fire that wasn't just the ordinary orange, the Princess sitting herself down on the saddle.

"Oh, just years of training. It helped that I was born a firebending prodigy." she explained, making his eyes widen with surprise; he was sure that whoever was running the Fire Nation would have to be good benders, but something like blue fire, that was completely unheard of, at least from what he knew of firebending, which was honestly very little.

"Anyway, first time flyers, hold on tight!" he warned them, the two girls grasping onto the edges of the saddle, "Appa, yip-yip!"

His sky-bison growled, before he moved his tail around; then, without any warning, he launched himself up into the air, Aang grinning as he watched the awe grow on their faces. A moment later, however, his flight was cut short, simply falling down in a belly-flop into the water; instead of trying to get back into the air, Appa simply began to paddle his way through the water.

He whipped the reins again, not wanting to disappoint his new friends, "Come on, Appa. Yip-yip!" he told him, a little more tersely than before.

"At least we're moving." Azula sighed, before glancing out onto the water, looking at the numerous icebergs that surrounded them, "It won't take that long."

"Don't worry, Appa's tired right now. With a little rest, he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." he told them, specifically looking to Katara as he made a bright smile; he looked at her and he wasn't going to lie to himself that he thought she was very pretty, although he realised that she was a fair bit older than he was.

"Eyes on the icebergs." the Princess warned him, Aang snapping out of a stare that he realised might have gone on for too long.

"Oh, yeah, you're right." he turned his eyes around to focus ahead, pulling on the reins slightly to guide Appa around the numerous ice floes that sat around them.

"Aang, thanks again for letting us come with you." Katara added, making the young airbender grin at her.

"It's my job to help people... I am the Avatar after all." he admitted, although his voice quietened as he finished, reminding himself of the fact of the matter.

"I'm sure you'll do a great job. You seem like a pretty nice kid." she assured him, making him blush, turning away.

"You think so?" he asked her, the Water Tribe girl nodding, before he heard Azula scoffing at the other end of the saddle.

"Well, being nice isn't exactly what the Avatar's supposed to do." she clarified, the two of them glancing back at her.

"And why would you know what the Avatar is meant to do?" Katara quipped at her, the Princess rolling her eyes.

"Did you not listen to a word I said? My ancestors have been trying to find him for three generations. Even my brother, the one who just became Fire Lord." she explained with a rather snide tone.

"Your brother?" Aang raised a brow.

"Fire Lord Zuko, that's what they're calling him nowadays." she narrowed her eyes, "He was banished and sent to find you... about five years ago." she recalled, before chuckling, "And in the end, I was the one to find you."

He tensed up, looking back at her with a fearful expression, "And what are you going to do now?"

"Watch you do what you're supposed to. Restore balance to the Four Nations." she declared, Katara looking at her skeptically.

"And how exactly could Aang do that? It's not like he can just tell everyone to stop fighting."

The young airbender raised a finger to his chin, realising that her joke suggestion sounded quite enticing, "Well, I mean, I could try that."

"Good luck. You haven't seen what's happened out there, not yet, but when you do, you'll see why that's going to be a lot harder than you might think." she warned him, the young Avatar's expression turning into an unsure one, feeling that she might know a lot about the world, far more than he did, especially if what they were saying was really true, that it had been a hundred years since he hit the water in that storm.

"I guess I'll have to see it for myself."

---

Holding Aang's sleeping body in her hands, Katara slid down the slide of Appa's saddle; they had made it back to the village by that evening, and understandably, the villagers were shocked to see a sky-bison show up at their village walls; they hadn't ever seen one, let alone think that they still existed. She had a growing sense of dread that the sky-bison before her might by the last of his kind, just like Aang; the idea that a single child could be all that was left of the Air Nomads was something that shocked and saddened her at the same time. But as Azula had succinctly put it, if there had been a smidgen of evidence about surviving Air Nomads, she would have known about it during her time as Crown Princess, seeing that he concerned herself with becoming just like the conquerors that Katara herself despised. She realised however, in seeing how she interacted with the young Avatar, that perhaps she wasn't fully prescribing to the beliefs that might have been forced upon her; to think that her brother enlightened the Princess of the ways of harmony and peace was humorous to say the least, seeing that of all the people in her village, before he had joined the warriors, Sokka was the one most obsessed with trying to be a warrior, preparing himself to face the Fire Nation.

It was at that moment that she saw her brother racing out of the village with a face of utter dread on his face; he raced up to her and Azula, who had climbed off Appa's saddle after her, "Wh-what is that thing? Who's the kid in your arms? And where did the boat go?" he asked them a tirade of questions, the Princess stepping forward to try and calm him down.

"Not so fast, idiot. It's a bit more complex than a three sentence answer." she tried to stress, before her expression turned to a cringed one, "And sorry... the canoe got destroyed."

Sokka's eyes widened before he face-palmed as he tried to contain his frustration, "Urgh... Dad's not going to be happy about that one." he admitted, before Katara chuckled, patting her brother on the shoulder.

"Sokka, this is on me. I'm the one who couldn't save it, despite the fact I'm a waterbender." she admitted, not wanting her brother to feel guilty about something that was completely outside his control.

"So... uh... who's the kid?" he asked her, making her sigh, realising that she'd have to explain the situation.

"Don't freak out." she warned him, to which he nodded, still intent on finding out what happened, "He's the Avatar."

"Th-the..." he mumbled before his eyes turned to Azula, "Oh... oh this is... well, it's kinda funny, isn't it?"

Azula narrowed her eyes at him, before she made a curt nod, "I don't see any humour in this situation."

"Zuko spent all those years looking, only to give up, and then look at this." he gestured to Aang, "You found him."

"Yes, yes I did." she admitted, before staring him down, "And now I have to face the consequences of my actions."

"Ah... consequences. I thought we left them back in the Earth Kingdom." he joked, making her snarl with annoyance, although Sokka was quick to place a hand on her shoulder, "I'm just kidding. Let's... uh- talk about this."

"You go do that." Katara prodded them, wanting to go take Aang and let him rest somewhere; he seemed to tire awfully quickly when they were coming back to the village, and fell asleep soundly, and she guessed it probably had something to do with being frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years.

She continued to walk along toward the village, a number of people approaching, all wanting to get a look of Aang, and all whispering the same thing- 'Avatar'; Appa groaned behind them, making her turn around, tilting her head with a pout, knowing that the sky-bison probably didn't trust them much yet.

"I'm sorry, Appa. I just need to take him somewhere warmer to lie down and rest." she apologised to him, even if he couldn't understand her.

Taking Aang all the way into the centre of the village, she decided that she would best put him down in their family's igloo, which was warm and spacious, and would offer him the warmth that she guessed he would appreciate; she had taken note that he was wearing clothes that seemed unsuitable to the South Pole, although she guessed that perhaps his airbending helped him stay warm, like how Azula's firebending did for her.

As she approached the igloo, she immediately made sight of her father and Bato, who both rose to their feet from where they were sitting by the communal fire, "Katara... who is that?" her father asked her with a clearly concerned tone, the Water Tribe girl looking down at Aang before her gaze returned to him.

"He's the Avatar." she simply told him, both of their jaws dropping with shock, the other villagers turning her way with similar expression

"Did you just say the Avatar?" Bato's questioned her, before he narrowed his eyes at the young airbender, "But... that kid, he looks like he's only eleven or twelve." he expressed his disbelief.

"He was stuck in an iceberg, and from what he was saying, he spoke as if the war hadn't even happened; as if he were from a hundred years ago."

"So he's like... a hundred and fourteen, but hasn't aged?" her father narrowed his eyes with an understandably confused tone.

"That's what Azula says... and I trust her more than anyone when it comes to this stuff. Supposedly the Fire Nation royal family has been hunting down the Avatar for decades, and until now, none of them were able to find him." she admitted, before her father stepped closer.

"Is she... reacting alright?" he asked her, "It must come as a bit of a shock, and I would assume she'd feel a little bit conflicted about helping him."

"I think she's okay. As okay as that girl will ever be." she admitted, knowing that it was hard to read Azula's emotions even though she could easily read her own.

"What's his name?" her father stepped closer, taking a look at Aang, his expression softening.

"Aang. I think he's in a bit of a shock, but I don't know if he believes us. It would be a bit of a crazy story to hear."

"A lot happened in the past hundred years." Bato suggested, the Chief sighing with a bittersweet smile.

"Indeed." he agreed, before his eyes turned to Katara, "Just lie him down in the igloo. Once he wakes up, we can tell him what's happened... properly."

"Yes, yes we can." she agreed, remembering the things that Azula had been saying to the young Avatar; even if they weren't lies, her view on the world wasn't exactly lacking bias or misconstrued by whatever 'education' they did in the Fire Nation.

She walked into the igloo, taking note that there was no one inside before she decided to lay Aang down on her own bed; he was sound asleep, surprisingly so, seeing how much she had moved him about since she got off Appa. She knelt down, laying the boy on top of her sleeping roll; if he was still asleep by that evening, she would put him in another sleeping roll, something she realised she would have to procure out of somewhere for him.

"I wonder what the world was like back then." she mumbled, knowing that he couldn't hear her, before rising to her feet, "Probably a lot better than it is now." she acknowledged the obvious fact of the matter; a world where there was peace and the Southern Water Tribe was still united and prosperous was something that was in the far past for her, and she hoped that she would arrive in a future where that past could be restored, somehow.

Walking out of the igloo, she glanced around, realising that the villagers would want to discuss the turn of events; finding someone out in the ice floes was news in and of itself, but the fact it was the Avatar made it probably the biggest news in her tribe for a long time. The Avatar was thought to be missing, and hadn't been heard of since the previous Avatar died, according to her grandmother, who said that the last one had been from the Fire Nation, but he died before the war began. No one actually knew of the Air Nomad Avatar who happened to be Aang; most probably would have guessed he would have been a hundred year old man. That would have been more disconcerting though, knowing that if he had been around all that time and willingly done nothing to stop the war, he would be as bad as the perpetrators himself; not that he was a bad guy, he was just a kid, a chirpy kid who didn't deserve what happened to him. He had been taken from his own time, without any choice in the matter, from what she could tell.

"Katara, are you alright?" her father broke her chain of thought, making her eyes dart up from the snow as he placed a hand on her shoulder; she flinched back momentarily, before sighing.

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm more worried about Aang, honestly." she admitted the truth, before he tilted his head toward the fire.

"Come sit with me. I just want to know what happened." he asked her, making Katara chuckle, before she followed him, sitting down beside him a few strides away from the flickering flames, which warmed the left side of her face as she turned her head to the right to look at her father.

"Where did you want me to start?" she asked him, the Chief furrowing a brow.

"When you left the village. You went fishing with Azula, didn't you?" he asked his daughter, who gave a curt nod in confirmation, "So... how did you exactly come to find the Avatar in an iceberg?"

"We went out with the canoe. I wanted to take Azula to the ice floes, because that's the best fishing spot." she explained to her father, who straightened his lips as he tilted his head up in thought.

"It's also quite dangerous." he noted, his daughter signalling her agreement with a humoured nod, knowing that he was certainly right in that regard.

"Yeah, it is. Sokka and I nearly got caught out there a few years ago." she admitted, remembering one time when they had gone out fishing, and he had narrowly paddled them out of a current; Azula hadn't succeeded in the same task, perhaps because she wasn't as well attuned to dealing with them as her brother was, "This time, Azula and I weren't as lucky. We had to row between two icebergs that were coming together, before the canoe got jammed into a bunch of ice floes."

"So it was crushed?"

She nodded, "Yep, and that was just the beginning. After we were stranded, Azula prodded me into fighting her with my waterbending."

"She did-" he began to ask before sighing, "Well, I'm not exactly surprised. I see her beat your brother up every day."

"Yeah, I wasn't either. So, I played along, and threw a snowball at her." she explained, before remembering Azula's powerful show of firebending, "Her attack... well, it was a lot stronger than mine. She hit the iceberg behind us and split it in two. We got a bit of a fright, but then another iceberg emerged out from underneath that one, where I saw Aang. He was in this big spherical iceberg, and his tattoos and eyes were glowing." she furthered, making Hakoda's eyes widen with surprise.

"Glowing?" he asked, getting a nod in return before he leaned back, "That must have been a sight to see."

"It was, and then I realised that he was in there, and asked Azula to break it open." she explained, her father's eyes narrowing at her.

"She agreed to doing that?" he asked her, Katara pausing momentarily before she nodded; in hindsight, she realised that it was unusual for her to agree to freeing him out of the iceberg, especially seeing that she seemed to immediately recognise him as the Avatar.

"I don't know why she agreed to do it, but I was glad she did. She used her firebending and cut it open, and then it burst apart. Then, out of the iceberg there came this massive beam of light that went up into the sky, far brighter than the southern lights. If that wasn't shocking enough, then Aang climbed out, and he was still glowing!" she exclaimed, remembering the moment where she had trembled with fear and awe.

"Wow..." he mumbled, "So... when did he stop glowing?"

"Just after that. He passed out and fell down. Azula and I got to him by the time he was waking up, and then we talked with him. She knew that he was the Avatar immediately, for some reason. She explained it having to do with her ancestors trying to hunt him down or something." she admitted, still a little confused that the Princess had been able to recognise that Aang was the Avatar on the spot; she did acknowledge that there was only so many people in the world that could have glowing eyes and tattoos.

"So, then you came back... how exactly to achieve that without the canoe?" he asked her, making her gesture backwards toward the rear of the village.

"His sky-bison, Appa. He's out the back of the village. Just don't get too close, he might sneeze on you." she warned, making her father laugh, seeing the humour in such a situation.

"Oh, who had to experience that?" he inquired, making her smile, glad that she wasn't her.

"Azula." she answered his question before raising a finger, "She was able to dodge most of it, though"

"If she could fight all of those Southern Raiders, I'm sure she could avoid a... sky-bison's sneeze." he slowed himself, probably considering what Appa might even look like.

"If you wanted to go see him, you need only ask." she suggested with a humoured tone, her father standing up.

"Show me this 'Appa'." he asked of her, Katara chuckling before she grasped her father by the arm.

"Right this way."

---

When he saw the expression on Azula's face as she got off of the sky-bison, Sokka knew that she was obviously distressed by what had transpired while she had been out with Katara, and as she explained it in more detail, he came to understand why she would be feeling such dread. After decades of looking for the Avatar, the Fire Nation was unsuccessful in capturing the Avatar, and Azula had realised in the moment that she released him, that the Fire Nation never needed to find the Avatar; in fact, finding the Avatar was actually the worst thing that could happen for them, seeing that otherwise, he would be soundly ensnared in an iceberg, which Azula told him she guessed was of his own making.

"I think... I think you need to try and calm down." he admitted the first thing he said after she had given him a tirade of information detailing what had happened while she and Katara were out on the ice floes.

"Calm down?" she twitched an eyebrow as she stood up inside their tent, "How can I calm down?! I may have just inadvertently doomed my nation."

"No, I got that." he assured her, knowing that her ramblings did have some reason; releasing the Avatar was not in the best interests of the Fire Nation, seeing that he was the only one that could reasonably oppose them.

"Then why are you telling me to calm down, Sokka?" she snarled at him accusingly, "You understand what I did. If the people of my nation found what I did, they'd despise me. Think of what could happen if he's let loose on the world."

"I know." he agreed with her, "What you're talking about are possibilities. Nothing's happened. He's just a kid, passed out, probably more confused than we are about what has happened." he suggested, making her sigh, sitting back down.

"I know." she repeated his own words back to him, "That doesn't change what I've let out. What I've done."

"Katara would have tried to and probably succeeded in breaking him out if you refused, according to the story you just told me." he clarified, making her eyes narrow, "Don't blame yourself for something that hasn't even happened yet. Who knows, maybe he and your brother might get along."

"That'd be even worse." she grit her teeth, "I need to get rid of Zuko, not get the Avatar to be buddy-buddy with him."

"How are you going to do that, exactly?" he raised an eyebrow at her skeptically; as much as she liked to spout her desire to take him down, she didn't exactly have a means to do so.

"Steal that sky-bison, go to the palace, and assassinate him." she offered a fairly realistic plan, "We have enough supplies to feed us for that journey."

"One: don't steal his damn sky-bison, and two: why would you do that?!" he asked her, the Princess narrowing her eyes at him before raising her chin.

"Because it is my destiny to rule the Fire Nation. I can lead our nation into peace; destroy the dissenters, ensure that those damned Southern Raiders are gotten rid of, before I make sure Fire Lord Sozin's plans can be realised as they should have been."

His eyes widened, remembering their discussions on said intentions her great-grandfather had had when he invaded the Earth Kingdom, "Spreading prosperity?" he asked her with an uncertain voice, the Princess nodding.

"Indeed, savage. I can even help your tribe, make sure the Northerners don't try to lord over you all. Make you truly independent and as dignified as the other nations." she offered him, the Water Tribe teen wincing, knowing that more than anything, he would want to see the Southern Water Tribe return to its former glory, and perhaps surpass that, after they adopted the technology that the Fire Nation harnessed against the rest of the world.

"That sounds nice and all, but I think you're ignoring the fact you'd have to... y'know, off your brother to do it." he admitted, "As much as you despise him, you shouldn't have to kill him for simply doing what he believes in."

"If he runs my country to the ground and shatters it into chaos, then what will we do? Sit here in our igloos and tents and hope that the world gets better?"

"Of course not." he assured her, "We need to make sure there's peace. That's the only way the Four Nations can move forward." he stated their common belief.

"I agree, Sokka, but are... are you really taking his side? Do you think he should be Fire Lord?!" she questioned him, her voice becoming audibly pained; she was offended by something that he hadn't even said, her only evidence being omission of him proclaiming her the better Fire Lord.

"I'm... I'm not." he assured her, placing his right hand over her own, "I know you are better. I might be biased, but I don't care." he assured the Princess, who tilted her chin up, her eyes glaring back at him accusingly.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." she accused him, the Water Tribe teen sighing, grasping her cheek with his left hand, touching it softly.

"No, Azula. I believe in you." he told her the truth; above anything, he held belief in her resolve, because that was the one thing that seemed to power her forward, whether she was in a forest in the middle of nowhere in the Earth Kingdom or in the icy tundra of the South Pole, "I love you." he told her, trying to assure her of what she already knew; she tried to turn away from him, before she looked at him, still clearly disgruntled.

"I don't want him to take my future away from me, Sokka. I should be on that throne, not him." she declared, the Water Tribe boy's eyes locking with her own; he wished that had been how their adventure had turned out, knowing that it was so much more painful for Azula to lose.

"This is just a hurdle." he assured her, "Maybe... maybe this Aang kid will provide you with what you need to become the person you want to be." he suggested, knowing that even if the young Avatar wasn't exactly aligned with Azula's point of view, if they were to work together with him, maybe she would see things in a better light, whether she ended up on the throne or not.

"I don't think the Avatar's going to hand me an army." she argued, before he raised a finger.

"I think you're forgetting a certain army that wanted our help." he reminded her, the Princess's eyes widening.

"You don't think..." she mumbled, before she clenched a fist, "Maybe, maybe you're right." she admitted, before he leaned in and hugged her.

"Don't worry, Azula. I know you'll do what's right. Just don't do anything stupid." he told her, making her rather cautiously wrap her hands around his back; she wasn't as confident as she usually was, but he couldn't blame her, after the day's events.

"So, don't act like you?" she asked, making him roll his eyes.

"You're such a smooth-talker aren't you?" he sarcastically asked her, before lightly kissing her cheek; she blushed slightly, before pushing him back with her open palm, "What?" he questioned, unsure why she was rejecting his advances.

"We need to go talk with your father and Bato. They'll probably have some ideas about how to best use the advantage we've gained." she argued, the Water Tribe teen raising a brow at the suggestive use of the word 'we'.

"We? Are you saying that you're advantaged by finding the Avatar?" he asked her, the Princess shaking her head.

"Not me specifically. The Southern Water Tribe as a whole, and when they win, I win, because for the moment, I'm stuck here." she explained herself, before furrowing a brow, "And... what do you think will happen when your tribe finally reasserts itself?" she asked him, making Sokka lean back momentarily, considering what she was asking him.

The Southern Water Tribe was a loosely organised grouping of villages, with little to no organisation; the extent of said organisation came to the warriors of the tribe uniting to go against the Fire Nation, but that was about it. He guessed that Azula was referring to whatever reorganisation would obviously occur once they found themselves at peace; there might be a chief, and due to his role in their expeditions north, his father might end up as the head of all the Southern Chiefs.

"Oh..." he mumbled, realising that was what she intended in her question, "So, if Dad becomes the head chief, that means that I might eventually take his place?"

"Exactly, Sokka." she pursed her lips upward, offering him a hand, "So, should we go discuss how to better your tribe with the help of our guest, the Avatar?"

"Yeah." he grinned, standing up, feeling more confident than he had when they entered, "Let's go do that."

The two of them rose to their feet, opening the canvas flaps to exit out into the village, Sokka glancing out to take note of the sun already nearing the horizon; early autumn days were long, but the sun seemed to fall quickly. Azula grasped his hand and led him along toward the centre of the village, instead of letting him walk himself; he did appreciate the gesture from a romantic perspective, but it made him feel like a child, something that he didn't approve of. He pulled his hand free, making the Princess glance back at him with dagger eyes, the warrior trying to give her an appeasing smile in return. Approaching the communal campfire, Sokka made sight of his sister, father and Bato, all sitting by the fire, looking like they were probably discussing what had happened out on the ice floes.

"Ah, here they are." Hakoda addressed the pair, "How are you?"

"Good, I'd say." the Water Tribe teen smiled, looking at the Princess, who had a straight face as she turned to look at the Chief.

"Yes, we're fine." she voiced her own opinion, which sounded a little more dour than what he had said.

Azula let her boyfriend step ahead, before he sat himself down beside his father, "Uh, so what did you three talk about?"

"The Avatar." Katara stated the obvious, "Then I showed them Appa."

"He's a very big... thing." Bato admitted, "I didn't think there were land-animals that massive."

"I don't think there is anymore." the Princess reminded them, "Sky-bison were hunted down, like the Air Nomads that rode them."

"That's sad. If Appa's the norm, they must have been a friendly bunch." Hakoda sighed, before turning his eyes back to his son, "So, did you two discuss what happened?"

"Yes." he simply confirmed, "I made sure Azula was alright, and now we're here to discuss... whatever you'd like to call having the Avatar sleeping in our village."

"A miracle?" Katara raised a brow, making him chuckle, knowing that having someone so important around could go both ways.

"It's only a miracle if he doesn't attract the attention of the Fire Nation." he stated the obvious thing; it was what he was told as a youth, that they ought to always, above all else, avoid attracting attention to their village, lest the Fire Nation find reason to attack them.

"Seeing what happened last time, maybe that won't be a problem." Hakoda admitted, "Thanks again for dealing with the Southern Raiders." he addressed the Princess, who simply nodded, as if it had been nothing; it obviously wasn't, but even then, she probably did think there were far greater feats she wanted to achieve, compared to saving one crummy little village in the South Pole.

"We should consider what might happen next. You said there was a beam that came out of the iceberg, Katara?" the Chief asked of his daughter, who nodded, "I don't want to sound paranoid, especially after we just kicked them out, but the Southern Raiders could have seen that light, right?"

"Certainly." Azula jumped in, "I know we shouldn't have to worry about fighting after what happened, but you can never be too careful." she suggested, Bato leaning forward, making a long sigh as he looked back at his best friend.

"Ah, well, I guess we have the best and worst luck in the world." he commented on the turn of events, making the Chief chuckle.

"I'm sure that we will be able to beat them if they come back. We have probably the most powerful firebender alive to protect us." he argued in favour of the Princess being their one-woman-army against whatever might the Southern Raiders sent their way.

Sokka rested his chin in his open palm, thinking how frustrating it was having to deal with the possible threat of another attack; the Southern Raiders, and by extension, probably most of the Fire Nation renegades like them would want the Avatar dead or imprisoned, seeing that he was the only one who could pose a reasonable threat to them bar Zuko's loyalist forces. The young boy and his sky-bison had popped out of an iceberg, and now they were probably going to be hunted to the ends of the earth as long as they remained free.

"So, if they're going to hunt him down no matter what." he began to plot out his thoughts, "It doesn't matter where he is." he added, before smirking, realising that he had a good idea, "We just need to send him north on the sky-bison, make the Southern Raiders believe he's heading to the Earth Kingdom, and they'll be none the wiser when he circles back."

"He doesn't even need to circle back." Azula suggested, before turning to face Hakoda, "Do you think that you'll get a better deal with those rebels if you offer the Avatar as an ally?" she asked the Chief, whose eyes narrowed in thought.

"He is the Avatar, after all. Maybe they'll take us a little more seriously." he pursed his lips upward, approving of her idea.

"If the Avatar works with those rebels, then maybe they'll be able to push out the Fire Nation forces, and the Earth Kingdom can be free again." Katara suggested, the Princess cringing at her words.

"I don't think it'll be as easy as that." she retorted, "Do you think that the Avatar would be best used as a political tool? As useful as he would be, how do you think that would go down with the Fire Nation, and not just the rebels, but my brother as well?" she asked, the Water Tribe girl looking dumbfounded as she turned to her father.

"Uh... Dad?" she asked him for some proverbial backup, Hakoda obliging as he cleared his throat.

"Azula, you have a good point, but what other choice do we have? The Fire Nation renegades who fight to control the Earth Kingdom won't just give up. We need to stop them."

"I have an idea on that front." she admitted, Sokka turning to face his girlfriend, already guessing what she had in mind.

"Please don't tell me you want to do what I think you want to do." he made a cringed expression at her, Azula cocking her chin up, making a snide glare at him.

"You think it's a bad idea to leave all those soldiers roaming the Earth Kingdom. I have a very useful thing for them to do, and it will make everyone happy." she declared, Katara, Hakoda and Bato all looking at her with confusion.

"What exactly do you want to do?" the Chief inquired, making her raise a finger.

"Six or so months ago, I was leading a large force of Fire Nation soldiers to go seize the colonies located along the Mo Ce Sea coast, which is the most heavily developed and colonised area of the former Earth Kingdom." she recounted the plans she had originally had, before Zuko had defeated her and their forces were left without a leader, "Those soldiers might have been beaten back by my brother, but they likely are still in control of large portions of the Northern Earth Kingdom." she clarified, Katara's eyes widening.

"Wait, you're saying that your followers are ruling a large portion of the Earth Kingdom?" she inquired, the Princess nodding.

"Well, whether or not they are still my followers is up for debate, but I believe that they might be amenable to my leadership." she declared, Sokka chuckling at her words; she was counting on her former followers having an ounce of loyalty, which despite what she herself might have thought, was quite unlikely.

"What, are you going to hope that you can wow them by showing off the Avatar?" he quipped, making her roll her eyes.

"No." she glared at him, "You all believe that we could ally ourselves with these rebels. It is only one step up to get both of those groups, my former supporters and the rebels, to work together to force my brother out of the Western Earth Kingdom; the rebels get their land back, and I get the colonies. The Earth Kingdom would be 'free', as you'd like to call it, and I would be in a position to both face off my brother and assist your tribe."

"Assist us?" Hakoda raised a brow, looking curious as to what she meant exactly.

"The colonies are full of factories, mines and farmland. It produces a vast portion of the Fire Nation's economy output, and I know that with a few well placed taxes, I could send dozens of ships south, full of equipment and resources to help you rebuild your tribe." she suggested, before raising a finger, "And unlike the Northern Water Tribe, I have no intention of ruling this place."

"What about the Northern Water Tribe?" Katara raised a brow with confusion, making her brother clear his throat.

"After the war has ended properly, I'd guess that they might try and reinstate their rule over our tribe, especially if we end up building up industry like they have in the Fire Nation." he suggested, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"That'd be a little unfair." she admitted, Sokka nodding in agreement with that specific sentiment.

"Exactly." he declared, "Nobody wants that to happen."

"So... what exactly do you intend to do with these Fire Nation colonies?" Hakoda asked the Princess, who narrowed her eyes into a cold glare.

"I intend for those people to be ruled by someone competent, that being myself. The possibility of the Earth Kingdom ruining all the great things the Fire Nation has done there is a serious threat for me to ignore." she argued with a stern voice, "The concept of the Four Nation is quite outdated at this point, seeing that there are only three of them, and one of them is essentially controlled by the other."

"Why should we even support you conquering a part of the Earth Kingdom?" Katara looked at the Princess accusingly, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Because you, the Southern Water Tribe, will benefit greatly because of this. I will not forget the hospitality your people have shown me, nor the great things that you could do if you only had the resources to achieve them." she declared, Hakoda clearing his throat.

"Now, I know we don't see eye to eye, but what Azula's offering, it's a lot better than the kind of deals we were getting when we were fighting alongside the Earth Kingdom." he pragmatically described their situation, making his daughter sigh.

"Fine." she mumbled, before her eyes turned up to the Princess, "But you'll get rid of the Southern Raiders, won't you?"

"Yes." she nodded, before grinning, "With no less than the fleet my father intended to conquer your northern cousins."

"Oh." Sokka turned to face her, "You really think you can trust Zhao to do that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him with disbelief, her mouth opening slightly, "Who said I was trusting Zhao with anything?"

"This is the guy who bombarded Yu Dao, isn't it?" Katara asked, her brother nodding with a cringed face, remembering all too well the massive fuck-up that had been that evening in Yu Dao.

"Yep, and he probably hasn't gotten any more sane since we last saw him." he admitted his thoughts on the matter, before turning to face Azula, "Let's just not think too much about all of this yet. For all we know, the whole situation in the Earth kingdom could be a whole lot worse."

"Chaos is a tool for some." Azula quipped in return, pursing her lips into a snarl, "You remember what the Order of the White Lotus did. What the Dai Li intended to do." she reminded him, the Water Tribe teen sighing, knowing that both of those situations hadn't exactly helped anyone; she was right, but he didn't want to abuse chaos, he wanted to prevent it- chaos was the kind of thing that led to the Southern Raiders attacking his village for the first time in a decade.

"I don't think anybody wants the Earth Kingdom to be in chaos." Hakoda admitted, "But we are stuck with the odds we will find. We best make use of them." before he turned to face the Princess, "When Aang wakes up, you can explain your plan for him to go north and distract the Southern Raiders, and we'll see what he thinks. If anything, that'll get them off our backs while we go assemble the warriors again."

"Again?" Katara raised a brow, "Are you really going to head back to the Earth Kingdom now?"

"With the return of the Avatar... we have opportunities we might not have had before. I think the fleet should be assembled at once and I'm sure the other Chiefs will agree to it once they know that we have the Avatar as a friend."

"Is he your friend?" Azula asked him bluntly, "Our friend? Katara and I just found in an iceberg, and yes, he helped us back to the village, that doesn't mean that he'll help you or even vouch for you when he goes to... do whatever he intends to do."

"That's something we should find out." Katara added, before turning to her father, "I'll try and explain it to him when he wakes up. So he understands the situation that we're in."

"It's pretty self-evident." the Princess raised her hands, gesturing around her, "Just look at your village. You're the only bender he'll see around here. I think that proves whatever you have to say before you do."

"He's just a kid. It might go over his head." Sokka voiced his own opinion, remembering how ignorant the little children had been of the war in their village, even though they had grown up knowing what had happened; until two days ago, most of the children hadn't seen, let alone remembered the Fire Nation raids, "We'll need to show it to him. The shipwreck, that is."

"Huh... usually I'd recommend against going near that thing, but it's a very useful way to show him what we have seen." Hakoda admitted with a smile.

"If we're lucky, he'll agree to helping us get friendly with these rebels. Then we might have a chance to really make a difference in this war." Bato voiced his own thoughts on the matter, "I guess... that's all that has to be said."

"Yeah." Katara agreed, rising to her feet, "I have chores to do. But when Aang wakes up, I'll be ready."

Her father smiled at her wordlessly, before she turned her heels and walked away; Sokka glanced over to his girlfriend at that moment, considering whether they should do something.

"So... did you want to rest after your fishing trip?" he asked her, Azula shaking her head as she rose to her feet.

"I got enough rest on the sky-bison's saddle." she glanced back down at him, before she offered out a hand, "Let's go test your fighting skills, Sokka." she suggested, her chin cocking upward as she looked out to the horizon in thought.

"You may need to use them properly, sooner rather than later."

---

As she sat by the warmth of the campfire, by her boyfriend's side, Azula felt a sense of calm; she did not confuse that calmness with contentedness, knowing that it would be a struggle for her to ever be content. Despite that dissatisfaction, she wouldn't deny that she appreciated sitting beside Sokka, and eating a meal; she wanted to chide herself for being so selfish, knowing that she ought to be happy. The Water Tribe teen had followed her around the Earth Kingdom for months, wishing for nothing in return but an opportunity to return home, and unlike anyone she had met for a long time before that, he truly believed in her; it wasn't about loyalty, it was beyond that. Loyalty was for soldiers and citizens, those who would worship their Fire Lord and die in their name; Sokka was a person she disagreed with more than not, but even then, he understood her.

She had always refuted herself as a people person, and when she first met him, she could only think of one thing to call him: an idiot, and a smug one at that; once they had washed ashore, he treated her like an equal, as if everything that had happened before that didn't matter, and that made her think he was both uncultured and ignorant. It turned out, however, that he was only the former, as he proved his knowledge, strategic ability and insights to be of great use to her; he wasn't just useful because he was smart, even if he was, but because he was someone that she could work with. No one else treated her as an equal that wasn't her father, and even then, he was certainly in a position of power in their relationship; even Zuko, who was, until his banishment, the heir of the Fire Lord, probably thought himself to be lesser than her, but Sokka did not, despite his origin and lack of bending.

He showed her what she guessed a 'normal' relationship was like, understanding well and truly after her time with him that her father was rather deluded in his worldview; that there was the strong and the weak, and that she had to destroy or force into submission any that were rightfully below her. Azula learned how to be kind, how to be intimate, and more than any of that, she was able to feel a sense of commonality, of identity, with the Southern Water Tribe of all places. She was as patriotic as the next Fire Nation citizen, but that didn't mean that she hadn't grown to care for the place she had called her home.

It wasn't a kind place to live, and the people were not necessarily as warm as their parkas would suggest, but that didn't mean that they weren't hard-working and honest people, just like the man she had come to love. She understood that she had been somewhat ignorant and xenophobic in her view of his people, knowing that they were simply shaped by their circumstances; just because they lacked warships, factories and a proper population of benders didn't mean they were any less of a culture. Their own traditions of equality and merit-based rule was something that she genuinely respected; she knew that because of her own skills, she would likely still have the power she did in the Fire Nation if it had been run in such a fashion. It was a fair place, not one where cronyism and elitism ran amok; the people there were free to do and think as they pleased, even if they were forced to live a life of hardship.

As she put another scoop of the seaweed stew she had been eating into her mouth, Sokka turned her way with a warm smile, "Are you enjoying your dinner?"

After she finished chewing the bit of stew down, she gave a quip in response, "It's better than the sea-prunes."

"They're really not that bad." he argued, the Princess shrugging her shoulders.

"I am inclined to disagree." she retorted, making him roll his eyes, knowing that she was just being difficult for the sake of it.

"Whatever. At least you like the seaweed stew." he mumbled to himself, making him snicker at him, knowing that his rather defeatist reaction was truly hilarious to witness.

"Are you really going to not argue in favour of your great Water Tribe cuisine?" she prodded him, the Water Tribe teen shaking his head.

"Can I persuade you to like sea-prunes?" he retorted, the Princess scrunching her lips up for a moment as she considered his argument for not arguing; she wasn't just going to start liking them because he gave her arguments for why she should.

"I see your point, Sokka." she conceded, before looking back toward the fire, taking a bite from the seaweed stew; as she swallowed it, her boyfriend leaned over, putting an arm over her shoulder, Azula flinching forward slightly before she leaned into his embrace, knowing that however argumentative she was feeling, she shouldn't take it out on him.

"So... are you really over the Avatar being back?" he asked her, making her almost choke on the stew she was eating.

She cleared her throat before swallowing the bit of seaweed in her mouth, "I'm fine. I just hope that he's cooperative to our ideas."

"You don't have to lie to me." he added, making her tense up, "I know this is hard. You don't want to betray everything you were taught." he explained his own thoughts on her situation, making her sigh; he was right, of course, seeing that he was rather observant when it came to things like her inner thoughts, which he seemed to deduce without actually asking her about it.

"I wish I hadn't let him out, but then again, it was probably inevitable. If peace benefits the Fire Nation, and he can ensure peace, then I can't argue against him doing his Avatar duties." she admitted, before looking back toward the flames, which flickered blue from her own bending, which she wasn't even using consciously, "I want to be the Fire Lord that betters my nation, brings it forth to a new age of prosperity, but I don't even know if Aang doing his job will end up making the Fire Nation better. It might make it a whole lot worse."

"I- I think get what you mean. You are afraid. We've all been afraid to take that step. I was afraid to trust you in that forest, but I did it anyway."

"You're just lucky that I'm more honourable than most in my nation." she quipped, making the Water Tribe teen chuckle.

"You're right. You are honourable." he assured her, making a warmth rise in her chest; she didn't acknowledge it, but his words, his certainty, it made her more certain of herself, "You love saying whatever you do, by default is right, because you decided to do it. So... do something. Make your own right." he argued, the Princess sighing, before she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek; he blushed for a moment before his lips widened as he grinned with contentment.

"Thanks." she simply told him, before she tilted her head, her eyes locked with his own, "You actually give good advice."

"I'd like to think that I'm a wise elder in the making." he declared, making her roll her eyes; eldership was something quite far from their present affairs, far more so than anything else she could consider in their future.

"You're a long way from being an elder; maybe think about becoming Chief first, seeing that's a lot closer." she suggested, the warrior's eyes widening.

"I mean... I do think about it." he acknowledged, before grinning, "I'm going to do a lot of things before then."

"What kinds of things?" she cocked an eyebrow up, Sokka grabbing her by the shoulder and making a confident smirk.

"Saving the world." he declared, making her scoff.

"You're going to have to do something impressive to start calling it 'saving the world'." she suggested, making him furrow a brow.

"Let me think about that one. It'll probably have something to do with our new friend." he suggested, the Princess taking another bite from her dinner.

"Really?" she asked him, before chewing the seaweed down, "And when did you become 'friends' with Aang?"

"Well, you have a point, but I'm sure we'll get along."

"Yes, you two and your positive outlooks on the world; the only thing you'll disagree with is probably morality." she admitted, the Water Tribe boy raising a brow.

"Morality?" he asked her with a confused tone, the Princess glancing back toward the fire.

"The Air Nomads were self-declared pacifists. According to the records that I've read, they were vegetarians and hated all forms of violence." she explained what she had learned in her time reading restricted document.

After the reign of Fire Lord Sozin, it was quite hard for anyone to find anything about the Air Nomads in books, but she was formerly the Crown Princess, meaning that she could pursue whatever information she liked without much repercussions. She was glad in hindsight for those liberties, because it gave her knowledge that could allow her to comprehend the Avatar and his culture, as well as being able to predict his future actions; if he were a pacifist, like the most, if not all Air Nomads had been, then he was likely to oppose any wide military action, especially between the nations themselves.

"I'm not a pacifist, and neither are you, as much as we might want peace." Sokka admitted, agreeing with her own assumption on the matter; he was more than willing to fight if it would secure the future he desired for his people, "So... that might be a bit of an issue... seeing that you being Fire Lord is the one thing that might really help our tribe."

"That's the problem we currently face, Sokka." she acknowledged the point he raised, knowing that was something she had already been considering.

She knew that trying to get Aang to support her intentions was hard, but then again, she was unsure if she could gather enough support behind herself to reasonably threaten her brother's hold on power; in the six months she had been at the South Pole, for all she knew, she might have fallen into obscurity and from the minds of the people of her nation. Of course, the Southern Raiders recognised her, but no one would simply forget the association of her with blue fire, something that she took pride in, but realised that it would be a threat to her safety if she were to go against Fire Nation renegades who would want to get their hands on the Avatar.

"Azula!" she heard Katara's voice shout out; the couple turned their heads to face her, and Azula immediately took note of her bright expression, guessing that it was good news that she had for her, "Aang's awake." she told her, the Princess rising to her feet, relieved that the young Avatar had finally awoken from his slumber.

"So, can I see him?" she asked, the Water Tribe girl narrowing her eyes at her.

"As long as you don't get all angry with him." she gave her a simple condition.

She strode forward, approaching Katara with a serious expression, "I won't. I just want to discuss what we talked about." she explained, the Water Tribe girl nodding.

"I know. I already told him what we discussed, but if you have something you want to tell him personally... go ahead." she gestured to the igloo, Azula nodding before she patted her on the shoulder.

"I will. Make sure Sokka doesn't do anything stupid while I'm gone." she jokingly suggested, the other girl's lips pursing upward as she held back laughter.

"I- uh- yeah, I can do that." she agreed to her request, obviously knowing him as well as she did.

She approached the igloo, parting the canvas covering at the doorway, before she made her way inside, glancing around to spot Aang sitting by the bed, wearing only his pants; she noted how he was young by noting his scrawny arms and skinny frame, but she thought such a body-type would make sense, given the nature of airbending itself.

He tilted his head up, his expression bright before it dropped to a more neutral one upon realising that it was her that had entered the igloo, "Oh... hi, Azula." he addressed her, making the Princess chuckle.

"Were you expecting someone else?" she asked, the boy's cheeks turning a rosy colour as he shook his head.

"Of course not, you- uh- got me out of that iceberg... you must be wondering how I am." he argued with a fast paced, jittery voice.

"Yes." she agreed with what he had just assumed, "Well, I can already see that you are alright. You must be tired after being frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years."

"U-uh... yeah." he mumbled, uneased by her reminder of what had happened. Perhaps something else had happened to him before he was in that iceberg, or the gravity of the fact was hitting him; he was the Avatar, and he had been stuck in an iceberg for a hundred years, and thus was unable to fulfil his duties, which back in the day would have probably involved fighting off Fire Lord Sozin and his armies. Instead of doing that, he had gotten himself accidentally ensnared in ice for a century, and the world continued on without him, for better or worse.

"I'm here to talk about what's happened since you got frozen, from a personal perspective." she explained herself, his eyes widening with realisation.

"Oooh... so you're going to tell me the story of how Fire Nation royalty ended up here in the South Pole?" he asked her, his expression brightening with interest; although she had told that story a few times before, she wanted to be succinct in her explanation of the events of the hundred year war and her life.

"Not exactly. An abridged version, perhaps." she admitted, the Air Nomad nodding intently, before he picked up his robes that sat beside the sleeping roll he had been napping in.

"O-of course. It'd take a long time to explain it all. I asked Katara, and she said you've been here for six months. That's a long time." he admitted, before he pulled his robes over his head, dressing himself properly.

"Yes." she mumbled, tensing up for a moment before she sat down beside him, "It has been. I can tell you with experience that unless you've got good reason, you shouldn't stay here."

"Oh..." his mouth went agape, "Is this about the... distracting 'the Southern Raiders' thing?"

"No. I'll get to that later, what I want you to know is why I'm here, and who is doing what out there. I've seen the players, and I've played the game."

"Pai Sho?" he asked her curiously, Azula relenting to laugh, remembering that the Order of the White Lotus was a very important player in the events of the past eight or so months since her ship was sunk.

"It's quite ironic that you just said that." she admitted, before clearing her throat, wanting to start at the beginning, "Five years ago, my elder brother Zuko, who was the Crown Prince at the time, spoke out of turn during a war meeting, declaring an elderly general's plan to be a betrayal to the soldiers he commanded."

"Uh... what does your brother have to do with this? Isn't he Fire Lord?" he asked her, the Princess sighing, wishing he had remembered what she had told him earlier that day.

"Don't you remember what I said?" she glared at him, raising a hand in gesture, "Because of what he said, he was forced to fight in an Agni Kai duel. Do you know what that is?"

"I've heard of them... from my friend Kuzon. He's from the Fire Nation." he clarified, making her raise a brow.

She realised he was telling her that Air Nomads could come and go to the Fire Nation, even in the years just before Fire Lord Sozin decided to wipe them out; that only made what happened all those years ago all the more disturbing- an Air Nomad could have been friends with people who came to wipe them out during the comet. She shook her head, knowing that she shouldn't distract herself with such matters, returning to her story.

"So, my brother came to the Agni Kai chamber, believing he was to fight the general he insulted, but instead, he came to fight my father." she explained, as the boy's eyes widened with shock.

"The Fire Lord fought his own son?" he gasped, making her shake her head; she would have been a little less disappointed in her brother if he had at the very least tried to fight their father, as fruitless as any effort might have been.

"No. My father demanded him to, and when my brother refused to, he burned his left eye, to mark his dishonourable actions."

"It's not dishonourable to refuse to fight his father." he retorted, Azula waving her hand up; she was both annoyed and amused by the Avatar's input, as without knowing that actually happened by the end of her tale, he was making a lot of uninformed and sometimes ironic commentary.

"That was my father's decision, not mine." she retorted, before she sighed, "My brother was exiled from the Fire Nation on the condition that he capture and bring back the Avatar... that being you."

"But... I was in an iceberg." he narrowed his eyes at her, "So, he probably wasn't going to find me, unless he was really lucky, like you were."

"Exactly." she confirmed his presupposition; that was probably her father's intentions in exiling Zuko in the first place, just to get rid of him, and if Aang had ever showed up, her brother would have been set to track and hunt him down at any cost.

"You didn't appear to save the day. Three years passed, and Sozin's Comet arrived... you might know it as the 'Great Comet'."

"What is that?" he asked her with a fearful tone, the Princess knowing already what it had last been used for.

"It's better if you don't know. Let's just say it is the ultimate weapon to the Fire Nation, but it only appears briefly, once every century, to be wielded. With its power, my father led his forces to destroy the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se and conquer the city, all while my brother remained in exile. I was back in the Fire Nation, governing in my father's stead as Princess Regent while he consolidated our final conquest."

"So... the entire Earth Kingdom was conquered?" he asked her, the Princess nodding, believing that such a judgement was accurate; the Earth Kingdom had fallen with Ba Sing Se, that being all of it that counted to the Fire Nation in building their empire.

"It was. My father returned home, and a relative sense of peace had been established. The only area free of Fire Nation control was the North Pole, and even then, there has been a long campaign ever since the passing of Sozin's Comet." she explained what had actually happened, before facing the fact that they were in a place that was relatively free of the Fire Nation, even if the Southern Raiders had just come down to attack them, "The South Pole is free, but that is only because my father, or grandfather, saw no need to conquer it."

"So... that was two years ago." Aang stated the obvious, "What happened between the Fire Lord winning and you ending up here?"

"About nine months ago, I was sent on a mission by my father to Ba Sing Se to deal with a conspiracy against his rule. I sailed on my Royal Barge, but about four days before we were about to arrive in Ba Sing Se, it was attacked by what I initially presumed were Water tribe pirates."

"Oh... so that's how you met this Sokka... Katara's brother?" her asked, the Princess nodding; she realised at that moment that he actually hadn't met her boyfriend, although he understood who he was.

"Yes. He attempted to capture me, but failed. Before my men could thoroughly defeat the intruders, our ship was sunk, and I was injured when I tried to attack my enemies."

"So... you were shipwrecked? Did you become friends with him after that?" he asked, his head moving up as he eyed her intently.

"I guess I did. We found each other after we washed ashore, and travelled north through the forest, hoping to find a settlement where we could get help. We fought a group of Earth Kingdom deserters, and then travelled to a small village called Fuchang. We met some helpful people there, but we couldn't stay long; the deserters came around and told them all I was a firebender."

"Just because you're a firebender doesn't mean you're evil or something." he argued, making Azula laugh, knowing that in their world of war, the kinds of things parents told their children about the other side, it made entire nations hate each other.

"Well, they did. We had to run away, but we got some help from a friend we made, and disguised ourselves as peasants. Then we made our way to the closest port, which was luckily for me, where my guard and crew had evacuated to after the Royal Barge sunk." she furthered her story, the young airbender's eyes narrowing at her.

"So... I'm a little confused. I get that this is your story, but how does this have to do with your brother being Fire Lord." he admitted, Azula chuckling.

"Fair point." she agreed with his words, before raising a finger, "The Water Tribe warriors did not attack my ship for no reason, they were hired by an organisation called the Order of the White Lotus, who intended to have me kidnapped."

"But why?" he asked her, Azula tensing up as she remembered what Sokka had told her; the whole time, her uncle had been at fault, for everything that had happened to her.

"Zuko. That's why. My uncle was part of this secret society, and he had told their members that my brother had decided to betray my father, and wanted to become the Fire Lord."she explained, the Avatar's jaw dropping with surprise, before his expression became more concerned.

"Do... do you even know why he did it?"

"Probably due to frustration. I don't know what it would be like, stuck on a boat for five years straight, but I guess it muddled with his mind, and drove him to desperation."

Aang cleared his throat, "So, your brother tried to have you kidnapped?"

"No. It was a man by the name of Jeong Jeong that organised it. He and some other members of the Order of the White Lotus decided that the best way to ensure my brother got on the throne was by getting me out of the way." she explained, the Avatar simply nodding without a further word, indicating for her to continue, "After we found safety, Sokka joined me, because he wanted to secure passage to the South Pole. We went to Ba Sing Se, just as my father had asked, and I played my role as the 'diplomatic envoy'; on the first night we were there, Sokka went out and got drunk- by that I mean he drank far too much baijiu and nearly passed out. He was kidnapped by an organisation called the Dai Li, but was saved last minute by a group that call themselves 'The Freedom Fighters'."

"Wait... so these Dai Li people... they're from before your dad conquered the place?" he asked, the Princess nodding.

"Although it took a while, we were able to figure out exactly where and how the Dai Li had been accessing the Governor's Palace. Sokka and I broke into a safe house and interrogated an agent. We weren't able to get much information other than that the Dai Li were led by a man called Long Feng. I guessed well enough that he was heading their operations in the Crystal Catacombs, right underneath our feet in the palace." she explained, the Avatar bunching his lips up as his eyes brightening with interest.

"So these Crystal Catacombs... were they really catacombs made of crystals? That sounds pretty cool." he admitted, making her chuckle, Aang having jumped ahead a bit.

"I didn't see them, actually. Before we could organise a task-force to go deal with the Dai Li, they attacked the palace itself, by making us fight each other. They had brainwashed the Governor and a number of his close associates."

"Brainwashed? Wait, like they scrubbed their heads clean?" he asked her with understandable confusion.

"They were able to be triggered to act in a way by some kind of messaging. For example, they made the Governor call me a traitor and desire to arrest me." she explained, opening his mouth wide with fear as he scampered back.

"Wh-what?! That's crazy?! Does the Fire Nation do that too?"

"No. We don't. We are far more... direct with our affairs." she clarified, before sighing, realising that they were going off track, "Anyway, we defeated Long Feng and captured him. By using him as a hostage, we stopped any further Dai Li attacks, but then I found out that evening my brother had killed my father."

Aang's face paled, "I know b-burning someone's face is bad... but he killed him?"

"Well, that's what the messages said. It turned out later he was lying to save his own skin."

The young Avatar's unease lessened, almost sighing in relief that her father hadn't been murdered; she was amused by such a reaction, knowing that if the boy knew her father personally, perhaps he would be far less happy that he was alive, even if he was probably rotting away in some prison cell.

"I called on any nearby Fire Nation military forces to heed the call to the command of me, their new Fire Lord. Technically, I was only a claimant, seeing that the Fire Sages would need to crown me to make it legitimate, but the military had little care for that."

"So you were... kinda Fire Lord." he mumbled, the Princess nodding.

"Essentially. I took as many men as I could and sailed west to meet with a man who opposed my brother by the name of Admiral Zhao, who controlled a large portion of the Navy." she explained, before clearing her throat, "I spent the next month or so travelling west, before I went overland to the colony of Yu Dao, which I sought to submit under my rule."

"By conquering it?" he asked her with an uneasy voice, making her chuckle.

"Conquest is for the stupid. I was far more tact in my approach. I intended to intimidate the local mayor into supporting me and allowing me to use his resources against my brother, but I failed to consider one thing." she admitted, knowing that without hindsight, her plan was well formulated and seemingly set to succeed.

"What?" he narrowed his eyes at her, sounding like he wanted her to get on with finishing her story.

"My brother. He showed up around the same time I had, and I decided to cut my campaign short by making him fight me in an Agni Kai." she explained before sighing, knowing that she would have to speak of her greatest shame- her defeat by Zuko, "Then we fought a fair and even fight. But I failed, I tried to end the duel by firing lightning at-" she began before Aang's eyes widened with surprise, seemingly for the tenth time throughout her tale.

"Lightning?! You can make lightning?" he asked her, genuinely amazed by the idea.

"Yes, I can." she told him with a tone of confidence, remembering that she was still capable of doing so when she had shot at the Southern Raider's vessel three days prior, "But it wasn't good enough. Obviously my uncle had taught him a new technique, and he used it redirect the lightning right back at me. I was knocked out, and when I came to, I was in the house of one of our allies with Sokka by my side, in a state of extreme fatigue and sharp pain."

"Wow..." he gasped, before his eyes softened, "That sounds tough... like, really tough. You must be strong if you survived that."

"I am." she made a small smile, appreciating the respect the boy could hold for her, even if he didn't agree with her actions, "Sokka and I fled the city in a fishing boat, as my subordinate Admiral Zhao, was attempting to destroy it with his fleet." she explained, the Avatar looking at her with a disgusted grimace, "Yeah..." she mumbled, knowing that she wouldn't have ever agreed to what Zhao did; needless death was just that, needless, in the end, and he had a propensity for wasting both the lives of his opponents and his own men, "Let's just say he had a very strong grudge against my brother."

"Why would he try to destroy a city?" he asked her with an understandable tone of disbelief.

"Zuko gave Zhao the same mark that our father gave him." she clarified, the Avatar grimacing.

"Your brother doesn't sound like a very nice guy." he admitted, the Princess nodding.

"I agree. He chose to redirect the lightning into me, after all." she admitted with a frustrated tone, before chuckling to herself, knowing that despite what he had done, he had proved that their father was wrong; even if he didn't have the guts to murder his own father in cold blood, he was more than willing to ruthlessly fire her lightning right back at her to win their duel.

"So... you fled? How'd you get here?" he asked her, the Princess rolling her eyes, remembering the long and straining journey the two of them had taken south.

"A long trip on that fishing boat. We used the money Sokka had on him, his allowance I had given for him to buy things in Yu Dao; we survived on it for nearly two months, and then we finally arrived here. Katara attacked her brother, thinking he was a soldier, and then he told her the story I just told you, with a little more detail."

"Huh... so that's it?" he asked her, the Princess narrowing her eyes at him.

"What I want you to understand, is that the order of things, how they were, it's been turned on its head. The Order of the White Lotus. The Dai Li. They all want power and control, one way or another, even if they don't have especially malicious intent in how they want to wield that power." she explained, "The war isn't over just yet, but I'm guessing that you will want to make sure that peace comes."

"Y-yes." he nodded, "I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. I'm the Avatar."

"Exactly, you are the peacemaker. Balance and peace mean the same thing, and without the force you hold, it won't be possible. I ask one thing, and one thing only."

"Um... okay? What was it that you wanted?" he asked her, the Princess narrowing her eyes at him with a serious expression.

"Balance is just that, balance. If you take one side, you will turn the world on its head, just as my brother did." she warned, Aang nodding, his eyes sombre, and understanding of her intentions.

"I think I get it. This whole... war thing, it's new to me, but I know when the world's gone wrong." he admitted with a hopeful expression, before he raised a finger to his chin, "So... was that all you wanted to tell me?"

"No. Three days ago, a Fire Nation vessel attacked this village. The Southern Raiders, as Katara obviously already told you. We beat them, but I'm afraid they'll come back."

"Come back?" Aang asked her with a disconcerted tone.

"They were here for slaves. They wanted the children; I guess that's so they could indoctrinate them, brainwash them in a far more straight-forward fashion than what the Dai Li did." she explained, the Avatar standing up.

"I- spirits..." he mumbled, before looking at her with a serious expression, "That's horrible. Maybe... maybe it's time the Avatar comes back to teach them a lesson."

"Ah." she mumbled, smiling with appreciation as she realised that he had come to the exact conclusion she had wanted him to, "I have a suggestion."

"How to beat them?" he asked her, the Princess making a cringed expression.

"Well, I do not recommend you face off a whole fleet of Southern Raiders just yet. I'm guessing you've only mastered airbending."

"Y-yeah, that's right." he nodded, before raising one of his eyebrows.

"So, if you don't want me to beat them, what do you want me to do?"

"The one thing more important to anyone like the Southern Raiders than getting slaves or captives... is getting the biggest captive of their careers." she argued, pressing her finger on his sternum, "You."

"You want them to capture me?" he gasped with shock, making her roll her eyes.

"Of course not. I want you to fly on Appa, catch their attention, and they will give chase; you can obviously outrun them, seeing that your sky-bison can supposedly fly, and can go overland, while they cannot."

"He can definitely fly, you'll see." he argued, puffing his chest up; his confidence indicated that he agreed with her plan, making her purse her lips upward.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it. You snot-producing friend, he will be much better than any mere ship."

"Well, he is." Aang raised a finger, before peering behind her, "So... could I go out of the igloo now. I'm kinda hungry."

"Uh... yes." she acknowledged, "You don't need to take orders from anyone, you're the Avatar."

"Huh... good point." he mumbled, "But I better be polite. How else can I get her to like me." he argued, before he covered his mouth, acting as if he shouldn't have uttered the last part of his response.

"Oh... get her to like you?" she made a smug expression, before gesturing to the exit of the igloo, "Go ahead, I'm sure you'll have great luck with a sixteen year old."

"I'm one hundred and twelve." he argued, proving her guess right purely by his response, even if he didn't exactly admit he had eyes for Katara.

"Probably one hundred and fourteen, actually." she corrected, the Avatar sighing.

"That's going to take a while to get used to." he admitted, making her snicker.

"If I woke up one day and was told I was a hundred and fourteen years old, I wouldn't believe it too."

---

"Do you want to come to the North Pole with me?"

Aang was hopeful that Katara would react positively to his question, having figured out well enough that she wanted to learn waterbending, and seeing that she was the only waterbender at the South Pole, the only place for her to learn her bending art would be at the North Pole. He was actually surprised by how giddy she got, hugging him on the spot; he tried to hold back his blush, before she leaned back, grinning at him brightly.

"Thank you, Aang, truly. I've wanted this ever since I learned that I could bend." she beamed, the Air Nomad scratching the back of his hairless scalp.

"U-uh, so, you really do want to go with me?" he asked her one more time, wanting to make sure she wasn't be brash; his brash decision-making had inadvertently got him stuck in an iceberg for a hundred and something years, so he decided he would do his best to make sure neither he nor his friends made that same mistake.

"Of course I do. Dad will have to let me... his excuse was that it was too dangerous for me to go, but who could catch a flying-bison? Not the Fire Nation, that's for sure." she argued, making him nod, agreeing with the sentiment; Appa was faster than any old ship, he was probably the fastest creature in the world, even if he didn't coil and spin around in all directions like dragons supposedly did.

"Yeah, that's right, nobody could!" he grinned, "Appa's really fast, and I'm sure you'll become great friends if you came along."

"I'm sure we would." she made a soft smile at him, before she turned to face the ice-fields outside of the village, "So... you mentioned penguin sledding?"

His head jolted up at the mention, "Oooh! Yes, penguin sledding! Do you know how to do it? I've never tried it before, but I've heard it's really fun!" he asked her, hoping that she did.

"Well, I do. Sokka and I used to do it when we were little... a bit smaller than you, probably." she explained, before she turned back toward the village, "But before we do that, we should probably tell my dad what you just offered. He's going to have a heart-attack if I just jump on Appa when you leave without telling."

"Of course." he agreed, before his eyes widened with realisation, remembering the letter he had left for Monk Gyatso; in hindsight, he felt so bad for just leaving a mere letter when he could have told his mentor what he was going to do, and perhaps even asked if he wanted to come with, "I think that's a good idea. A very good idea." he assured her, making her raise a brow at him suspiciously.

"Uh... okay." she nodded, before tilting her head back toward the village, "Let's go talk about this with Dad, and Sokka too, because I guess he'll want to come along too."

"Really? Even after all that happened with Azula?" he asked her, remembering the story that the Princess had recounted to her; even if he didn't know whether of them very well, he thought it would be a bad idea to leave the South Pole if the Fire Lord was going to hunt them down.

"My brother's the protective type. He wouldn't let me leave this village without knowing I was with someone he trusts." she explained, making him him clear his throat, realising what her words were implying.

"He doesn't trust me?" he asked her with a fearful voice; he didn't even know Sokka, so he was unsure why he would mistrust him.

"Oh, not yet, but I'm sure you'll get along." she gave him a warm smile in return, calming his fears; Katara was nice, and he really hoped that she would come along with him, since he didn't know if any of his friends were still around after a hundred years, so he was in dire need of finding some new ones.

The pair made their way back into the village, Katara glancing around, probably looking for her father; he figured out pretty quickly that she couldn't actually see him, and she made her way straight toward the igloo, Aang following in tow. She pushed through the canvas openings, and he too followed, getting a few glances from the villagers, who were intrigued by him, as he was probably the only foreigner they had seen up close other than the Princess and the Southern Raiders, the latter of which they were probably less interested in and more terrified of.

When they walked in Katara's grandmother, Kanna, rose to her feet, looking at the two of them with interest, "Ah, Katara, did you come back from your break to do your chores?"

"Uh, I will get around to those," she assured her, before gesturing outside the igloo, "We're looking for Dad. I need to ask him something."

"A request?" she guessed what her granddaughter wanted; she nodded, before glancing back toward Aang, who gave her a reassuring smile.

"Aang has offered to take me to the North Pole to learn waterbending."

"Oh." Kanna's eyes widened, "That might be a problem." she admitted, the Water Tribe teen's expression turning to a pout.

"W-wait... are you forbidding me from going?" she asked her, the elder woman rising to her feet.

"No, no, Katara, I'm not. You will probably be wasting your time if you do so."

"Why would learning waterbending be a waste of time?" the young Avatar questioned, offended by the suggestion that bending wasn't worth Katara's time; it was part of her very being.

"Because they won't teach it to her." she clarified her answer, "At the North Pole, women learn how to heal and men learn how to fight. That is how they do things, and even if you say you're the last of the Southern waterbenders, they won't listen. They're a bunch of stuck-up fools." she sighed, making her granddaughter's lips purse downward, as she realised what she was being told.

"Gran-Gran... I- how did you know this?" she asked, Kanna turning her head to the side, her expression looking nostalgic and pained at the same time.

"Because I'm from the North Pole. That's where I was born. When I was a young girl, about your age, I fled an arranged marriage to the South Pole, because I was disgusted by the way in which I was treated only because of my sex." she admitted, her granddaughter stepping forward and hugging her.

"It's okay, Gran-Gran." she assured her grandmother, who shook her head.

"No, no it isn't. The Southern Water Tribe, it's full of good, kind and fair people. No one here ever argued anyone was any more worthwhile because of their sex, or their age. Everyone respects each other. It was a good place." she told them both, "The Fire Nation destroyed all that. They destroyed our tribe, and everything good about it, while letting the rot fester in the North. They get to continue living their fantasy of peace and tranquility, while we've had to suffer."

"It's not fair." Aang simply acknowledged the fact of the matter, "That's not fair. Your Tribe has suffered all these years, and from the looks of it, the Northern Water Tribe hasn't even tried to help you."

"They haven't." she confirmed, before the young Avatar stepped forward.

"When I go there, I will tell them what has happened here. I'll make sure things are made right. Katara, Katara's going to be a great waterbender, and they'll have to teach her."

"I hope they listen to you." she made a bittersweet smile, "Because if they don't listen to the Avatar of all people, I don't think they're ever going to change."

Aang looked back at her with a determined glance, sure that she had to be wrong, "Change and growth they're part of life, that's what the monks taught me. I'm sure they'll realise that they're wrong. Looking at Azula, even the Fire Nation must treat women far better than they do, and they've tried to conquer the world."

"We can only hope." she admitted, before sighing, "I guess that's all there is in the end, hope."

"Don't worry, Gran-Gran. If Dad lets me go, I'll make sure that problem gets fixed, and fixed properly." Katara assured her, before she fluttered her eyelids a few times, "Oh, sorry... we got side-tracked. Where is he?"

"I was sure he was down by the shore fishing with your brother." Kanna explained to her, the Water Tribe teen nodding before smiling at her.

"Thanks, Gran-Gran. I- I can't believe you never told me."

"The memories are painful... especially given what happened here after I arrived." she admitted, "I lost all my friends there, and I lost most of my friends here as well."

"Well, I'll ask around if we go to the North Pole and see if anyone remembers you. I'm sure they will."

"Some certainly should." Kanna's eyes narrowed in thought, before she lightly pushed at her granddaughter's parka, "Now, go. If you want to get going, you better ask for permission instead of bugging your grandmother."

"Thank you for your story." Aang bowed to her respectfully, which she returned a small smile, before he and Katara made their way out of the igloo; he heard a familiar voice call out to them as soon as they did.

"What are you two doing fumbling about?" he heard Azula address them, the Water Tribe teen turning to face her with an annoyed look on her face.

"We're not fumbling. I went to ask where my father is, so I can ask if I can go with Aang to the North Pole.

"Oh, good timing then." the Princess pursed her lips upward as she approached them, "Can Sokka and I come along too? I have some... unfinished business along the way."

"Let me guess... Zhao?" Katara questioned him, the Princess tilting her chin up as she looked into the air in thought.

"Uh... he is one aspect of it." she clarified, before looking back at them, "There's a few people I need to find and things I need to figure out."

"Like organising your conquest of the Fire Nation Colonies?" the other girl prodded her, making him raise a brow with confusion.

"Conquest of the what..." he mumbled, before he actually comprehended what she was saying, "You want to conquer them?!" he asked her with genuine concern; the Fire Nation Princess had been mostly helpful to Aang, but there was a point at which her actions became a little too extreme.

"Well, technically, I want to instate myself as the rightful Fire Lord." she argued, raising a finger, "I am the legal heir of my father."

"That doesn't mean you need to conquer the Fire Nation colonies." he quipped in response, not wanting to be a party to such a devastating plan.

"You are assuming conquering is going to involve violence. I will try to make sure, for the sake of lessening any unwanted disdain toward myself and my rule, to instate myself as peacefully as possible. I might add that until my Agni Kai, when I lost control over my forces, there had been no casualties of either my forces or my opponents."

"Okay." he mumbled, seeing that she did actually have a good point; it was a political upheaval, yes, but it didn't necessarily involve he going around setting people on fire, "I can see where you're coming from, but... I would say that's a bad idea anyway." he stood his ground, making the Princess roll her eyes.

"Well, we'll see if you change your mind when you see what's going on over in the Earth Kingdom." she argued, before striding forward, glancing at both him and Katara, "Well, are we going to see Hakoda or not?"

"You're coming?" the Water Tribe girl asked her, making Azula groan with annoyance, looking at her as if she were a lot dumber than she was.

"Of course I am. Well, seeing that Sokka's being dragged along with us no matter what, I thought I ought to be there to watch his reaction."

"You two have a weird relationship." Katara snidely commented, making the princess raise a finger, as if she were about to insult her, before she shook her head.

"I'm not taking the bait." she grit her teeth, before prodding them both with a gesture, "Come on, let's go." she demanded, the pair glancing at each other, Aang trying to give as sympathetic a look as he could to the Water Tribe girl; as kind as she was to him, she seemed to act rather mean-spiritedly toward the Princess, who really didn't seem to have done anything wrong to her.

The three of them made their way along through the village, approaching a large hole in the wall, which he guessed was not there by purpose; the Southern Raider attack was only three days ago, according to what Azula had told him. The Princess led them through it, reaching the front of the village, where he could see a few villagers sitting by the shoreline, including Sokka and his father, Hakoda. As they walked along the ice shelf toward them, the two turned their heads back toward them, standing as they made sight of the trio nearing; Katara's brother was the first to address them with a curious tone.

"What are you three doing here? Did something happen?" he asked them, his sister laughing at his words.

"Kind of. Dad, I wanted to ask you something." she turned her gaze to Hakoda, his eyes widening before he darted them toward the young Avatar.

"What did- what happened?" he asked her, the Water Tribe girl sighing.

"I want to go to the North Pole, so I can learn waterbending."

"Y-you want to go to the North Pole?" he asked with a disbelieving voice, before he looked back at Aang, "I see that you have a method, with the flying bison and all, but are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Gran-Gran told me what they're like." she admitted, addressing the matter that most concerned the young Air Nomad himself; how the Northern Water Tribe could be so sexist and demeaning was beyond him, and he truly hoped that in the years since Kanna left that they had improved, "But I want to go. I need to learn waterbending, and I think Aang needs some help."

"Uh... thanks." he rubbed the back of his scalp, making an awkward grin before Sokka stepped forth.

"Well, if you're going, then I'm going- and Azula's gonna- oh..." he began to realise what had just happened, "I just got dragged along for another adventure without my consent, didn't I?"

"Yep." his girlfriend confirmed with a giddy smile, "You better get your things."

"I didn't say whether I was going to let you go." Hakoda raised his hand, stopping everyone in their tracks; for a few moments there was silence among them all, even the other villagers who were fishing looking their way with slight concern, "I am, by the way."

Katara's eyes widened with surprise, "Wait, really?"

"I can trust your brother to take care of you, and I guess this means that I'll have some reassurance. Aang will have you to help him, and then you can make sure everything goes... the way it's meant to." he suggestively told them, although the young Avatar didn't miss what he was implying.

The Chief had his own aspirations for the world after peace was finally achieved, but what that might entail, he was unsure of- he assumed it was the same as whatever his two children wanted.

"We will." his son assured him with a pat on the shoulder, "But... we're not leaving right now, are we?"

"Appa probably needs to rest for a little longer... but as soon as he's ready, we can head right for the North Pole."

"Don't forget the Southern Raiders." Azula raised a finger, Aang's eyes widening when he remembered that issue.

"Oh, yeah, of course." before he turned back to face Chief Hakoda, "I'll make sure they get off your back, Chief-sir." he gave him a salute, making the only adult amongst the five of them laugh.

"I'm counting on it. Don't be afraid to whack them with that staff of yours. They're certainly asking for it." he gestured to the glider staff that he had in his hand.

"Well... it's not for whacking... but yeah, I can show them a little airbending, for sure." she grinned, making Azula raise a brow at him skeptically.

"You don't just want to show off, do you?" she glared him down, Aang shaking his head, trying his best to give her a reassuring grin.

"No, no, I'm all about fighting in the name of justice. I'm the Avatar." he declared.

"Isn't it balance?" she corrected him, the young Air Nomad raising a brow, realising that she was the one correcting him about the things he himself ought to know; the fact he had only just been told he was the Avatar and what it entailed meant that the details were somewhat foggy.

"How do you know so much about the Avatar, anyway?"

"I was under the assumption that if you returned, that my father would send me to hunt you down. I took the precaution to do my reading." she clarified, making him narrow his eyes at her, remembering a certain part of her story; her brother had been banished to go find him, so the idea that he'd send his other child to find Aang seemed a little absurd.

"So you were going to stop your brother from returning to the Fire Nation?" he asked her with a serious expression, slightly concerned by her attitude toward her elder brother, who despite the fact he had shot her with lightning, didn't necessarily seem to be the worst person, especially if he was making the Fire Nation turn against him- if they were evil, he had to be doing something right.

"I'm not going to answer that question." she simply refused, making her boyfriend chuckle, patting her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, great idea." he sarcastically remarked, before turning to face Aang, "Sorry about Azula, she gets... a little too ruthless at times." he apologised, before his eyes widened, "Oh, I just realised, we haven't been properly introduced." his head rose up, before he approached the young Avatar, offering him a hand to shake, "It's nice to meet you, Avatar Aang."

"Uh, it's nice to meet you too." he awkwardly accepted his handshake; the way that both Katara and Azula spoke about him made him seem a lot more immature than he actually was, or maybe it was that he didn't know him well enough yet, "So... if Katara's a waterbender and Azula's a firebender, then what can you do?" he asked the Water Tribe boy, who only responded with a chuckle, although it was clearly uneasy in tone, before he cocked a smirk, pulling something off his back; it was some kind of axe-shaped blade, the same gleaming white and blue as everything else in the South Pole.

"Boomerang." he declared confidently, before his sister rolled her eyes and his father laughed.

"You can do a lot more than just throw a boomerang, Sokka." he suggested, Azula stepping forward, before clearing her throat.

"Sokka, how about a demonstration. Remember what you've been working on for the past six-months?"

"Oh..." the Water Tribe teen scratched at his chin, "To Aang?"

"You may as well. I want to see if a non-bender can beat the most powerful person in the world." she suggested, the Air Nomad looking her way with confusion; he was unsure how Sokka was going to beat him, seeing that he could probably evade whatever attack he sent his way.

The Water Tribe boy took a fighting stance, but he didn't have any weapons in hand, "So... you can't bend?" the Avatar asked him curiously, making him grin.

"I don't need to be able to bend to beat benders." he assured him, before making a motion with his fingers, "Hit me."

"Uh... okay." he agreed, making an awkward smile as he took his own stance, readying his staff, "I won't try and hurt you."

"I know. Azula already said you were a pacifist." he clarified, making him narrow his eyes at him; Sokka sounded cocky, too cocky to just be confident, making Aang suspicious that he might be hiding something.

The others stepped back slightly, before Aang spun his glider staff around, sending a blast of air right at the Water Tribe boy, hoping to just knock him off his feet; instead, he watched with surprise as he rolled out of the way of his attack before kicking the end of his staff, knocking it out of the way as he approached the young Air Nomad. He opened his mouth wide with shock, making a slight shout of fear as he aimed a blast of wind toward his opponent; he grasped Aang's wrist, letting the gust of wind fly up into the air above them. Before he could further react, he found himself jabbed in the gut in quick succession, stumbling back before he retook his stance, moving to throw him off his feet with a wind blast; his eyes widened as he realised he couldn't even send a puff of wind from his hands, trying once more by kicking up his staff and attempting to use it to whack Sokka, just as his father had told him to, although that was against the Southern Raiders, not his son. The Water Tribe teen was able to duck under his staff, before tripping him, the young Avatar falling flat on his behind.

"Ow!" he grunted, before his eyes darted up to the teen who had just beaten him with his hands and feet alone, "What was that?"

"Chi-blocking." he pursed his lips upwards, before offering him a hand, "The best technique a non-bender can learn against benders."

"You can stop people from bending? That's... scary and cool at the same time." he admtited, making him grin widely.

"Yes, it is. You can thank Azula, who was in turn beaten up by her childhood friend with it. Without her, I wouldn't have gotten to figure out this skill."

"So is that what you've been doing since you got here?" he asked the Princess, who made a sheepish smile.

"Well, that amongst other things. He takes his time to learn, that's all."

Sokka rose up to his feet, "I would say I'm pretty good at chi-blocking, thank you very much." he argued, Katara stepping between the two of them.

"Now, now, no need to turn an argument into an actual sparring session."

"We've got the time." Azula quipped in response, before her boyfriend raised a hand in objection.

"Well, actually, I'd prefer to spend any time we have left in the South Pole enjoying Gran-Gran's cooking. Who wants stewed sea prunes?" he asked them, "I'll help make it, so we'll have extra." he suggested, his father and sister nodding with agreement.

"Sounds good, son." Hakoda patted him on the shoulder, with the Princess turning away with a disinterested look.

"Are sea prunes bad or something?" Aang asked her, Katara shaking her head, answering for her.

"They're fine. She's just a grouch." he assured her, Azula rising to her feet with a defiant look on her face.

"No, I just think it's gross. I'm allowed to have my own opinion." she argued, Sokka stepping forward, looking like he was ready to intervene in the next argument that popped up.

"Okay, time out! Now is not the time for arguing." he told them, the two turning their backs from each other, Aang only making out the disgruntled look on Katara's face, "Follow your own advice, sis." he raised a finger to her, before turning back to face his father, "I guess this cuts fishing short." he admitted, the Chief chuckling, turning to face both his children.

"Don't worry. We can have a meal together. It's the least we should do if you're going to leave. You don't even know how long you'll be."

"What about you?" Katara asked him, "Are you just going to stay here with Gran-Gran and the other villagers?" she asked, the Chief shaking his head.

"No. We'll organise the warriors once again. I want to take them north, and finally put an end to the Southern Raiders. What was it that you did to the engine?"

"Blocked it and let the pressure build up. That was what Azula told me to do." Katara added, making the Princess grin.

"That worked it's charm. If you do that to a few dozen ships, no one will ever try to bother your tribe again." she suggested, before turning to face Aang, "What do you think? Maybe we should scare them a little with your sky-bison."

"Appa's not for fighting." he argued, before raising a brow, "I mean, he can fight, but he's not cut out for eating fireballs or anything like that."

"No, I got that, it's just that the people of the Fire Nation have thought Air Nomads, as well as sky-bisons to be extinct for a whole century. I bet you could intimidate them by just landing on a deck and mooning at them."

"Don't actually do that, that'd be stupid." Sokka argued, before making a wistful look, "Although, it would be hilarious to see the looks on their faces."

"I'm not going to show my butt to a bunch of strangers. That'd just be weird." he argued, before scratching his chin, "Why did you of all people suggest that?"

"I like practical jokes." Azula excused her rather unusual suggestion.

"The fact that we're talking about the Avatar mooning Fire Nation sailors is making my head spin." Katara admitted, "Everything has changed in only a single day."

"Changed for the better, that is." Sokka suggested, "Now, I have an excuse to go and find some Fire Nation spicy jerky again. I've been craving it." he declared with a grin, making everyone look at him with confusion; Azula, however, face-palmed at his words, obviously embarrassed by association.

"I bet we could find you some." Aang assured him with a grin, liking his eager attitude, before his expression turned more serious, "As well as a waterbending teacher for Katara and I; that's what really matters."

"Luck is on our side, once more." Sokka argued, his girlfriend looking back at them with a skeptical look in her eye.

"Don't get your hopes up. Things can go from fine to horrible in the blink of an eye if you don't pay attention."

"We'll pay attention. I just need to keep focus." Aang told them, before he turned back to Katara, "Oh, yeah, we were going to go penguin sledding."

"Yes." she acknowledged his words, "But we'll need to be quick, otherwise we'll miss dinner."

"You won't be missing much." the Princess offhandedly remarked, making the Water Tribe girl glare her down.

"Aang and I will go off for a bit. Don't worry. I won't go anywhere dangerous."

"You went fishing and found the Avatar. Don't blame me if I'm a little skeptical of that claim." the Chief admitted, making Aang chuckle uneasily, looking to him with a reassuring grin.

"I'll make sure your daughter is safe, sir, uh- Chief Hakoda."

He snickered at his unease, tilting his head to gesture, "You can just call me Hakoda. Now go along. Sokka will never forgive you if you skip a meal."

"That's true. It's the greatest insult a cook can ever receive." Sokka piped up as he and Azula began to walk back toward the village, "So, be quick, penguin-sledders." he warned them.

"We will!" Katara shouted back at him, before grasping him by the hand, "Let's go."

As she dragged him along, he felt a little giddy, smiling at her as she grinned back; he was making friends, and a pretty girl was going to take him penguin-sledding. All-in-all, Aang thought he'd had a pretty good day since he woke up and found out he had been frozen for a hundred years; he'd met interesting people and learned all kinds of things, about the history of a banished Princess and her adventures, as well as the story of a tribe that had suffered long and hard in Aang's absence. Even if he felt giddy at that very moment, he felt more confident than ever to be the Avatar; he could be happy, be a kid, and still help return the world to balance. He wasn't doing it to spite the monks, but he smirked at the thought of disobeying them even after a hundred years, just to prove them wrong. He was going to make Monk Gyatso proud, and he knew that with his new friends, maybe he'd be able to make the new world he found himself in a better place.