A/N:
If you want to talk about this story or any of mine (Ashera Fanfics), send me an invite on Discord at: Graal DTC#0625 (since the link to my Discord channel is broken on the fanfiction website).
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Chapter 3
Azula had left Vulkain at dusk in order to travel during the night, which would make it harder to recognize her. She had packed a bag of provisions and clothes in order to live long enough to reach her objective.
In a town close to a Fire Nation colony, she found a giant man with a metal prosthetic on the right forearm and lower leg, with an eye tattooed on his forehead and wearing a shirt with a half opening going down to his abdominals and bulk pants of the Fire Nation with a typical Fire Army boot on his left lower leg.
"Hello," greeted Azula, "I know about your reputation, I think I could be in need of your services. I know a certain airbender who should be dead. Kill him for good, here's the money."
She gave him a bag of gold. He took it and left the village without a word. Combustion Man, the nickname he was known by, was indeed very well-known for being a very skilled assassin. He could firebend with his mind and create explosions. Saving the Gaang from such a powerful killer would certainly help her gain some of their trust, enough to approach them and get a chance to talk to them without being attacked on sight.
Now all she had to do was to find them first, and that's exactly what she intended to do. With the money she had left, she bought an ostrich horse and darted towards the Western Air Temple, which she had read about beforehand, learning that it was built upside-down, under a nearly circular cliff. Fighting such a talented assassin without getting downed by the people whose trust she wanted to gain would prove to be an interesting challenge for the firebending genius she was.
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After five days of travel, switching transport means and ending the trip by walking on her own two legs, she finally reached the Western Air Temple. She propelled herself in the air with firebending and slowly descended, turning around to look at the magnificent upside-down structure. She was truly impressed by the architecture and wondered how they even managed to build it like that. It was as if something was reversing gravity for these buildings to be hanging like that.
She landed swiftly in the main building with a hall of statues. She contemplated the figures of female airbenders while crossing the hall. She visited several buildings and found a giant Pai Sho table, a flying bison obstacle course and an echo chamber.
She slept there on a sleeping roll she had brought along. The floor was hard and she slept badly, but she was too excited to have a good night anyway. She was looking forward to the morning and making plans on how she would deal with the situation.
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As the first rays of sun crossed the opening of the cliffs, she couldn't lay on the hard floor anymore. She was sore of the travel and the rough floor she had been sleeping on. Her mind was going wild with different scenarios that could happen when she would meet the Gaang and protect them from Combustion Man. She had gone through ten different chains of events overnight and now she just wanted to find some inner peace.
In order to calm down, she repeated the motions of the technique to redirect lightning. It was effective and allowed her to focus on something else. As she was going through the motions for the fiftieth time, she heard the sky bison's groan as the Gaang was reaching the temple.
She hid in the building with statues and waited for them to pass by before moving out of their sight. She understood the blind girl could see through motions on the floor, so she stood still while they were visiting the building where she was hidden.
She saw the earthbender girl whispering something to her friends and they all came into the hall as if they just wanted to visit. Soon, she felt the ground move slightly under her feet and quickly dodged the hand trying to grab her in its rocky grasp.
"Wait!" she exclaimed towards them. "I'm not here to fight!"
"You killed Aang and yet you dare come here, in the temple of the people your nation has slaughtered, to tell us that you didn't come to fight?" exploded Water Tribe peasant girl.
"Exactly. You catch fast, I see," mocked the Queen of Ba Sing Se.
"As if we were gonna trust your words!" shouted the Water Tribe pitiful non-bender. "You even hurt your own family! How could we believe that you won't try to kill us for good whenever you get a chance?"
"If you let me talk for a second, maybe I could explain why I'm here and not the Great Admiral of the Fire Nation."
"And what are you gonna tell us?" asked an angry Avatar. "Last time we talked to each other, you left me a scar in the back and I would have died without the water of the North Pole! I don't trust liars who can hurt their own family!"
"Last time I was obeying my father's commands. I don't care about you. You mean nothing to me. But you meant a lot for the Fire Nation and for my father. But now that I'm in a worse position than my brother used to be in for several years, I want to form an alliance with you, Avatar."
"Ha! As if we'd believe your lies, witch!" mocked the Water Tribe teenage boy.
"Yeah, no one can trust you! Not even your friends, I bet!" added the girl.
"Shut up!" shouted the blind little girl. "She's not lying, and this time I'm sure of it. She didn't attack any of us yet. Let's hear what she has to tell us."
"I like your ways, earth peasa...I mean, earthbender. A little blind girl who can show more authority than the addition of everyone else in her small group…"
"Get to the point, Perfection Freak!" cut the earthbender.
"Okay, okay…! See, father is not a kind man, and he's not a kind dad either. He wanted me to become the Fire Nation's Great Admiral and lead our forces during the return of Sozin's comet. The thing is, I'm already the Queen of Vulkain, which you know as Ba Sing Se. I ignored his gentle offer and turned the Fire Nation soldiers and the governor he sent to supervise Ba Sing Se, which he wanted to rename New Sozin, into my own army through brainwashing by the Dai Li.
"I am now a traitor to my own country, a usurper in my new kingdom and my brother is my undercover agent inside the Fire Nation. No one told Fire Lord Ozai your little plan about the eclipse."
"How could we trust you without any proof?" shouted the waterbender angrily.
"You can consider the fact that I've come here alone, that I haven't attacked anyone and that I'm a master firebender who can teach the Avatar, and I even have a gift for you, airbender."
"And what kind of gift is it? Another near-death experience?"
"My uncle wants me to teach you how to redirect lightning."
"WHAT?" shouted the whole Gaang.
"He learnt it from studying waterbenders. I've been practicing for it since my brother told me you were alive and that it could be a good way to make up for killing you, teaching you how to counter the technique I killed you with."
"Still, we can't trust you!" the Water Tribe girl would not let go. "You've only been hurting and using the people around you! Why would this be different?"
"Because I want to form an alliance with you. I make sure we have a trump card in case the eclipse operation fails by teaching the Avatar the only discipline he lacks, and you let me as Queen of Vulkain when the Fire Nation loses the war. I want to make an alliance with my brother who will take Ozai's place as Fire Lord, so that we can avoid a new war between the Earth Kingdoms and the Fire Nation.
"No one can stop a hundred year old war just by changing the lord of the aggressor. Zuzu will have to face opposing factions who will desire to put someone more like my father, even though they are not from royal blood. I will have to find agreements with the other Earth Kingdoms. Peace is not a question of winning the war, it's a question of finding the right balance and treaties as well as the right collaborators to make sure it doesn't go back to war after some time. I am a good negotiator, I am smart enough to find a way to get what I want, and in this case, I want to find a way towards peace."
"What would you gain from peace?" asked the eldest boy. "You've never known anything else than war!"
"I know that I would have better chances of finding a father for my children if I was not constantly fighting someone else's war. I have never known what love means, but I know what a family should be. And I want to have a family, a functional one for a change. My mother abandoned me to protect my brother from my grandfather and my father, who only likes me because he saw his reflect in the mirror when he looked at me, my brother and I were never close and my uncle is a coward who has never liked me. I think I should also have a chance to have someone I care about and who cares about me in return."
"I'm sorry," said Aang, sadness in his voice, "but it's still hard to believe you after what you've done to us each time our paths crossed. I can't let you join us, even if you're a great master of firebending."
"You've got a firebending master in front of you who offers you everything on a silver platter and you reject her?" exclaimed the blind girl. "I don't trust her either, but we don't have time to find another master to teach you! If the Fire Lord throws lightning at you, would you prefer to try your luck or to redirect it away from you? Do you have a death wish or are you willing to make concessions and have a chance to win if the eclipse plan fails?"
"Toph, Azula has killed me once! Nothing can guarantee us that she won't try to kill me for good and be welcome to the Fire Nation!"
"Then, you should turn around," responded Azula, "because you have a real enemy who's come for you."
A giant man landed heavily onto the floor behind the Gaang and started blasting things in the direction of the Avatar.
"Wow! That's dangerous!" exclaimed the monk while dodging the explosions.
"Seems like father has finally learnt about your survival," said Azula. "Combustion Man here is a renowned assassin who makes things explode with his mind, don't stay in his line of sight!"
As the Gaang started fighting the explosion master, Azula got into mid range from him and started throwing blue flames at him. The man was holding his own and even closer from victory than from defeat against the whole Gaang, but Azula's intervention and constant pressure as well as her accurate aim and her swift and fast movements made her hard to predict and he was beginning to back away from the hall of statues.
The group scattered around him and encircled the explosion master. The Water Tribe teenage boy threw something at the man who blast it, but it was an explosive and he was blown away, where Azula's lightning struck his forehead eye, killing him on the spot.
"What about some thanks, folks?" she teased them.
"…Thank you for alerting us," said Aang, his gaze locked on the floor.
"I should've sensed him coming before he landed behind us," said the earthbender while spitting to the floor.
"Wait, she knew about him! And she didn't look surprised!" exclaimed the annoying waterbender. "She knew he was coming! Maybe she hired him herself to show off and gain our trust! I still don't believe her!"
"Of course I knew that man, he was the best assassin in the whole Fire Nation. If I didn't know about him, I would be a fool of a princess. I am NOT a fool, waterbender. Any member of the royal family should know who can be sent to dispose of them, that's obvious. I do not want to end like my grandfather, killed by someone I did not suspect of being able to hurt me."
The Water Tribe girl was annoyed and threw something to the floor in frustration.
"We have a…kind of problem…" hesitated Aang. "You see, when you…killed me in the Avatar state…"
"Aang! Don't tell her that! What if she tells the Fire Lord?"
"It doesn't matter anymore, Katara. Like I was gonna say…I lost my connection to the Avatar powers when you struck me, Azula. I am no longer the Avatar. I can still use all four elements, but I can't enter the Avatar state anymore. I'm just a powerful bender now…"
"Oh, that's interesting. Does it mean I've ended the Avatar cycle?" she asked.
"Yes, that's what it means," he answered.
"Good. If you're no longer keeping the Avatar powers for yourself, maybe it will spread around. The Avatar was here to keep balance. So if the cycle has ended, the role of balance will probably be scattered all around the world. Be glad, Avatar, you might have a chance at a happy life. If you're no longer the being who keeps balance, it means that your responsibilities are no longer yours alone."
"Uh…that's a strange way of trying to reassure me…"
"Well, if you went all alone before the attack, it should mean that you were afraid of being the Avatar. That's also what Zuzu told me about you. You wanted to be free and being the Avatar was everything but a life of freedom. And maybe if the Avatar cycle is finished, the powers of the avatar will just be spread through every living being, or every human being, who knows? Even your Water Tribe peasant...warrior could be a master bender?"
"That would be funny!" laughed Toph. "Captain Boomerang trying to earthbend! Maybe you could've earthbended yourself out of that hole!"
"Ha, ha, ha… You're so funny, Toph…" commented the boy in a sarcastic tone.
"Or maybe you could be an airbender!" exclaimed the monk. "You're always trying to flee, to avoid danger, just like the wind! I think the world needs more airbenders for, er…balance, y'know?"
"Absolutely not because you want another airbender to play with, huh?" said the South Pole boy. "But that would leave me a chance to get my revenge on you at airball!"
"Not even in your sweetest dreams, Sokka!" mocked the young boy.
"Laugh while you can…revenge is a dish best served cold… MWAHAHAHAHA!" said the other boy with a villain's voice.
"So, can you take your decision, now? I'm falling asleep, here," mocked Azula.
"I'm against it," voted Katara.
"I'm neutral," said Sokka, secretly hoping he could really learn to bend an element.
"I'm all for it," voted Toph. "You don't have enough time left to look around for a better teacher, and she IS a master of firebending."
"Ah, uh… It's a hard choice…" hesitated Aang. "I think we should capture her and see how she behaves."
"Finally you listen to me," slapped the Water Tribe girl's tongue at him.
"Well, it's hard to trust her completely with the wound I'll keep forever in my back to remember me of what she's done quite recently…"
"Well, tie me up if that's what it takes, but you'll be wasting your time instead of learning."
"I don't even want to firebend…"
"Little monk has hurt his little girlfriend while playing with fire?" she said in a sarcastic tone. "Good for you that I am the queen of control, then. I can teach you how not to hurt yourself or your friends. You know how precise I am, unlike my brother who's spreading his attacks everywhere hoping to catch you while you're faster than him."
"The only reason you were able to strike me down is that I was not in control of my own body."
"Well, your little blind friend has been hitting you quite often, you're not as good at dodging as you think you are."
At this mention, a pillar shot out of the floor and hit his butt, causing him to fall face first into the floor.
"Hahaha!" laughed Toph while he was rubbing his butt to appease the pain, and Sokka was as amused as her because for once he wasn't the one to be laughed at.
"Alright…I'll learn firebending from you… But my friends will be keeping an eye on you – and a foot for Toph."
"You don't need to ask," commented the waterbender.
"Finally! Now that you've been able to make a choice before the sun set, let's start your training! You're great at dodging, but without the Avatar state, your fighting abilities are too low. You can't hurt your opponent if you try to avoid conflict! If you were to fight my father as you are now, he would kill you slowly while mocking your lack of will to fight, just like he mocked Zuzu when he refused to fight him in an Agni Kai when he was thirteen after he insulted his honor by confronting a general who wanted to sacrifice soldiers to lead an offensive during the distraction."
"What? So that's why Zuko was chasing after me this whole time?"
"Yeah, he is too kind. Of course he was right, but he should not have confronted the general directly. Not when father was already waiting for any mistake to send him away. And the fact he refused to fight was the reason he was inflicted this scar before being banished in a stupid quest that sent him away from his family for no reason! He left me alone with that tyrant while he had uncle Iroh to watch over him, stupid brother! Sorry, I needed to let out some steam."
"I'm a noble from the Earth Kingdoms," began Toph, "I was born blind and my parents wanted to protect me from everything. They didn't love me, they just spoiled me while making sure I could never become free and fend for myself. With Aang, I've discovered what it's like to have a brother. I wouldn't like him leaving me with my blood relatives for a stupid quest that was supposed to be impossible to complete."
"I did not expect to get comforting words from any of you on my first day…"
"Well, I sure would've hated if Sokka had left us alone to follow our father to war after our mother's death…but I won't trust you just because you've had a bad family! You killed Aang once, and I'll never forgive you!"
"Angry Sugar Queen, could you please stop the drama now?" commented Toph on a sarcastic tone.
Water whipped her ass in revenge, but the peasant Water Tribe girl was tripped by two blocks of earth and fell on her butt, her legs extended towards the ceiling.
"What kind of clown party did you make me join, brother?" asked Azula in her mind.
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A/N: This will derive more than I thought from the original material. I have doubts on pairings. Toph and Azula would be a funny pair of nasty strong girls, but Toph has made it obvious on the Serpent's Path that she preferred boys to girls…unless Suki just wasn't the kind of girl she could fall in love with (it's not like everyone likes everyone of the gender they're attracted to)…and in geopolitical affairs, being linked to the Bei Fong family would strengthen her legitimacy in the Earth Kingdoms.
Azula and Aang could be a couple trying to heal each other, and Aang wouldn't be shielded from reality like he has been with Katara. Azula likes power, she wants a strong companion and Aang is one. She also needs help to handle her control and perfection obsessions and let go, learn to love, and learn the value of freedom. Men tend to grow into better people when they feel responsible for someone, when they help others. Katara is clearly keeping Aang from becoming a good, responsible and adult man. Azula would push him into the unknown and force him to grow up and take reality in the face so that he becomes more adult.
Azula and Sokka could be a couple in which he offers her comfort and tries to protect her at all costs like he does for Suki and Toph, and she could find it charming for a weak man to stand between her and danger…but this dynamic seems like it wouldn't work with Azula. She's not the rescue the princess type, rather the princess taking down the kidnapper's lair to get her lover back.
I will also let bending evolve. Earthbending has been shown in quite diverse ways, but not enough to my taste. Waterbending has gotten most of the attention with airbending. Firebending has evolved throughout the show but still seems very primitive. I want to make fire blades, rock blades, some videogame-like techniques that are missing in the show.
I'd like to see a rock Golem, an original way to use fire, things like that, and I'll be sure to write them. Lightning whip, lava bending…
I'll take inspiration from Pokemon, Dofus, Wakfu, RPG games, MMORPGs, Fire Emblem…
Write you next time!