Author's Note: No dream scene here. This chapter is Zuko and Azula-centric! Woo! Or is that a bad thing? I dunno... Whatever you guys like. I think that after three big plot episodes, a nice "filler-type" one will be good. Things will pick up right after this one.
(Edited September 3, 2020): Ended up changing more in this chapter than I thought I would. I never realized how messy this chapter was, but I fixed up some consistency errors. Azula was pretty out of character this chapter and now it gives a better picture of her relationship with Zuko. I think I like it much better now. (Edit Sept 14, 2020): Changed again, mostly to flesh out the motivations of the Academy kids a little bit better. Still, I don't want to focus on them too much since this is really old writing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.
Book 1: Fire
Chapter 10: The Academy
Red flames shot from Azula's fingertips, just missing her opponent who zipped all around the battlefield. She fired small, quick bursts at him, but he dodged them all and returned a volley of his own. He had superior agility, able to jump great lengths to safety. She could only sidestep his blows and keep him on the move, but he attacked from all directions. She bent and slid to the side, avoiding his latest fire blast, but the rocky terrain around him yet again served to his advantage. Her lungs were on fire as she attacked rapidly, releasing short, ragged breaths as her blaze released into the air. Her opponent landed on one of the jagged rocks that served as the edge of their battlefield, grinning.
"Looks like you can't keep up, Azula," said Aang, giving her a cheeky grin.
Azula pushed her hair out of her eyes. "This is getting boring. We've already mastered everything on that scroll and none of it's as good as the fire funnel," she replied. "We need a firebending master. And I want one now."
"We can't," the Avatar said, jumping down from his ledge to land in a sitting position on a cushion of air. "We're still far away from the Golden City. It'll take us weeks to get there." Earlier, Zuko had discovered from a nearby villager that the Water Nation had claimed the ancient ruins of the Fire Nation capitol, and they had set up their stronghold there as their primary land fortress in their fight with Jie Duan to the south and the Golden City to the north. "We'll have to avoid the Water Nation and go all the way around, out to the sea and maybe even the northwestern shores of the Earth Kingdom to reach the city from the north instead."
"That'll take too long. I don't like to wait," she said, looking away from him with her arms folded.
"You're going to have to deal with it," Zuko told her, looking up from sharpening his swords. "Aang is the one who has to master firebending before the end of winter, anyway."
Previously, Aang had said he didn't mind, though. He enjoyed training with Azula, competing to see who was the best. Azula truly was a firebending prodigy, he'd told her, and that it was only due to the foreknowledge of his past lives and hard work that he was able to keep up with her at all. By the same token, she found training with him to be exhilarating. She'd managed to pull a passion for firebending out of him and when they trained together the burden on his shoulders seemed lighter, at least from her point of view.
"There have got to be more firebenders somewhere else in the Fire Nation," Azula said impatiently.
"I'm sure there are, somewhere," said Aang. "But lots of them fled behind the walls of the Golden City."
"Look all you want, though," said Zuko. "I doubt you'll find any before we get there." Both of them grinned and put their arms behind their heads.
"You're both buffoons." Azula sighed and grasped her forehead, rolling her eyes at how they indulged in being better than her at something for once - even if that 'something' was being more patient. "Fine, where's the nearest village?" Aang and Zuko's eyes widened when they realized she was serious. Aang looked to Zuko.
"Well, there are plenty of towns in the Inner Islands, according to my maps. You might be able to find a firebender somewhere if you really look hard, I guess," Zuko said. "I guess we could check it out. We're sort of running low on supplies." He scratched his head of black hair. "I should come, too."
She snapped her fingers at them to hurry with packing up camp. "Fine," she said. "But don't get in the way of my search for a master."
From above, the town among the Inner Islands looked bright and welcoming, with sandstone buildings facing east so that the sunlight hit their doorways and front-facing windows every morning. That alone seemed promising to Azula - surely only firebenders would care enough to rise with the sun. After making camp in the dense forest outside of town, Zuko and Azula set off, leaving Aang with Appa and Sabi.
Most of the town was constructed of stone and polished wood with gold-rimmed roofs that were multi-leveled, not unlike in Azula's own village, though these tapered at the corners in a way that resembled dragon claws. Stone streets and pathways matched the buildings, reflecting the light to make it look almost like marble and giving the whole town the impression that it shone white like the sun. She saw people wearing mostly Fire Nation reds and blacks, but warriors in blue with clubs and slings on their backs indicated that this was a Water Tribe colony outside of the influence of Long Feng's city, Jie Duan. In a different day and age, some of these people would have been high-ranking soldiers or generals in the old army of the Fire Nation, but now they had been reduced to being meaningless citizens scraping a living by dropping their national pride and trading with the Water Nation. It was truly a worthless existence and Azula couldn't help but look down on them for living like that.
Zuko and Azula looked all around at the town and Azula shared her assessment of them all with her brother. The people seemed comfortable. They laughed together and shopped among street stalls lining the main thoroughfare, indicating a healthy economy. One stall sizzled with fire flakes and jars of spices cultivated from all around the Fire Nation, which told Azula that traditional Fire Nation dishes had not been completely abandoned even under their new rulers. Their crops seemed to be doing well, if the bounty of rices, red dates, persimmons, and ginger loudly advertised by one merchant indicated anything. Azula surmised that their wealth was due to a subservient relationship to the Water Tribes, though she failed to see yet how the Water Tribes benefited from this relationship. Two of their ships - the coatings of ice completely melted in the summer heat - dropped anchor in the sea far enough away from shore to signify to Azula that they must have been watching for something.
"Right," Zuko said, turning to her in the middle of a fork in the road. People walked all around them, uninterested in the two teenagers. "I'm going to look for food. You go find your firebending master, but be quick about it."
"What? I can't master firebending in a matter of minutes, dum-dum. I'm good, but I'm not that good," she said, frowning in annoyance at him.
"I'm aware of that," he snapped at her, but squeezed the bridge of his nose, equally as annoyed. "I don't even know why you need a master anyway," he managed to say. "If we keep traveling with Aang and fight, we'll get stronger through experience. That's how it works. You don't need a master, only some more real fighting."
"You wouldn't know." She stared at him resolutely, gauging his reaction to her next words. "You're no bender, and you never will be." His shoulders and arms stiffened. She struck a nerve in him and she straightened her back. "Aang and I will always be better than you at fighting." She knew how to win against her brother. It was easy to press in at his insecurities on all sides, exploiting his weaknesses. She smirked at his retreating back as he walked away, struggling to hide all emotion, but she saw his shoulders trembling in barely-contained rage. She didn't have to go all out, she knew, but Azula wanted him to leave her alone for now. He'd come around eventually - Zuzu always did, no matter how much she slighted him. He made it painfully easy for her.
She turned around to take in the rest of the town, resuming her hunt for a firebending master. "That was a nice way to start my search," she said to herself with a smile.
She sauntered right through the town, her head facing forward but keeping every side street and alleyway in her peripheral vision. A smirk grew on her lips when she spotted a young man dressed in red and gold, not unlike her and her brother, who nonchalantly grabbed a peach from a grocer's bushel as he passed it. She strolled over to a different stall in his path, sighing dramatically. "Oh, I wish I could find a firebender somewhere," she said loudly, glancing quickly at him to see if he noticed. A frown flitted across her face when he didn't. She sighed again, louder this time. "A big, strong firebender is just what I need, but I just can't find any!" She wore a mask of a smile, poking the man on the shoulder. Feigning politeness, she asked, "Are you a firebender? I would like a little help, please."
The man - or boy, she realized, since he seemed about her age up close - turned and shushed her. "Do you want to get yourself killed?" he asked in a rushed whisper, pulling her into the shadow between a tailor's shop and a residence. "Don't go around parading your firebending!"
Azula dropped all politeness and her face turned into an angered frown. "Why? Are you a firebender, or not?"
"Shh! The soldiers will hear you!" He gestured for her to be quiet with his hands as he looked over her shoulder, panicked. Azula looked behind her and spotted two Water Nation warriors walking out of the tailor's shop. They glanced toward her and the boy for just a moment before continuing on their way. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to the boy.
"You led me here so they'd hear me!"
"What? No way!" He moved closer to her to whisper. He put his arm around her shoulders and led her away, but, surprising herself, she didn't resist. He pulled her further down the side street. "The waterbenders took over our town years before I was born," he said to her, speaking quietly. "Any firebenders we ever had either get taken away or they flee to the Golden City or something. Many of us left are the descendants of noble families so we've been allowed to stay here peacefully while the Water Tribes protect us from pirate fleets that raid these islands and command the sea. Too bad I wasn't born yet for the initial invasion, though. I would've completely kicked them outta this town!" The boy's voice rose higher as he spoke, proudly grinning and giving her a thumbs-up with his chest puffed out.
Azula was unimpressed. She gave him a single raised eyebrow and neglected to mention the fact that the Water Tribes had an alliance or sometimes even worked directly with pirates, so it was erroneous to say that the pirates had full control over any waters. "So, there are no firebenders?" she asked. "I need to get stronger. I have to find a master."
He looked around her again as if expecting to spot someone spying on them because she spoke of something forbidden. "There are no firebenders left in this town! Are you crazy? They'll take you away!"
"Ugh, so I came here for nothing," she said, rubbing her temples with one hand. "Alright, I'm leaving."
"Well, you don't have to leave immediately, you know," he said, scratching the back of his head, a blush rising to his cheeks. "What's your name?"
She looked over her shoulder at him. "Azula."
"Wait!" he said, grabbing her wrist to prevent her from walking. Azula pulled it from his grasp. "Don't you want to know my name?"
"Not really."
"I'm Hide," he said with a cocky grin, ignoring her.
Azula lost all interest in him already, but dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Great. Bye, Hide," she said to him, walking away.
Hide's jaw dropped.
"You two! What are you doing?" Azula and Hide turned to the sound of the voice, spotting the two Water Nation warriors from earlier. With leather helms molded into the shape of a predatory bird, they walked down the alley toward Azula and Hide. "Do you seriously think we're stupid? We know who you are!"
Azula stepped back, her mouth hanging open. How did they know? Did they find out she was a firebender, or did they know she was with Aang?
"You kids really don't know how gracious the Water Nation is, do you?" one of the warriors said, barking out a harsh laugh. "Turning your back on the education we're letting you keep... Hah! This is a privilege, and you're wasting it. I guess the Fire Nation really is a group of mindless savages after all..." Azula paused, one eyebrow quirked. She had no idea what they could be referring to.
Hide, on the other hand, nibbled at his fingers in fear. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Don't hurt me!" he yelled, cringing. Azula turned and ran away as the two warriors closed in on the stupid boy, grabbing him by the arms. She knew when she was outmatched. She wouldn't be able to get what she came for, anyway.
"The girl's getting away!" the first warrior yelled. The second lifted his arm and twisted his fingers, causing water from a puddle nearby Azula to rush up in a stream and grab her feet, slamming her painfully against the ground. She barely stopped her fall with her hands, letting out a small cry. She brought two fingers up as she twisted around into a sitting position, ready to defend herself. Hide's frantic movements behind their backs to tell her to stop caught her eye, however, so she simply curled her fingers into a fist and punched the warrior in the face as he approached her. He flinched but otherwise barely showed a reaction - a stark reminder that combat without bending was and always would be beneath her.
"Nice try. Hey, we're not here to fight little girls. We're just bringing you back to school, that's all."
Azula's face scrunched up in anger at him. School? They were taking her to a school? "Whatever. Fine. Take me back. I don't want any trouble," she said to them under her breath.
"Good," he said with a knowing smirk. "I thought you'd agree. Smart girl." She mimed retching behind his back as he lifted her up into a standing position, gripping her by the arm as he guided her along, back into the sunny street. Azula wasn't stupid. She was not going to fight back when it meant that she'd get into even worse trouble for firebending. As he had done before, Aang would rescue her again, if she needed it. For now, she was fine on her own. It was just a school, how bad could it be?
"Hey, kid!" Zuko froze upon hearing the words of the Water Nation warrior. The boy knew that he was there, and he tried to avoid them and stay out of their sight, but they caught him. As soon as he found out the warriors were present in the town, he decided to make finding Azula his first priority and get out of there, despite their previous argument. He contemplated running, but he decided to play dumb if they interrogated him or anything. Would it be possible for them to know that he was with Aang anyway? As far as he knew, he left no signs that pointed to that.
"What?" he asked, lacing his voice with contempt. He couldn't bear to quiver in fear or show them politeness. He had too much pride for that.
"You're supposed to be in school, aren't you? You little brat," the man said, gripping his arm like a vice.
Zuko pulled away. "I don't want to go there," he said, the previous vitriol replaced by cold indifference.
The soldier lunged for him again, holding his arm so tight that it hurt, but Zuko tried his hardest not to show it. "It is required for all children to be at the academy. You're coming with me," the soldier said gruffly, pulling him in a totally different direction.
He almost - almost - made the stupid choice to fight back against them.
"Man... I hate school," Hide complained as the soldiers 'escorted' them to the academy. "Are you new?" he asked Azula.
"I suppose so," she said.
"Where are you from?" he asked. "The mainland?"
"Yes," she responded, uninterested. Of course, she'd never let him know she was from one of the southern villages. Only peasants lived there, and she didn't want to be known as one.
"Well, as you'll soon see, I'm one of the most popular kids in the whole school," Hide boasted. It couldn't have been more obvious to Azula that he was just trying to impress her.
One of the warriors snickered. "Yeah, if you're ever at school. How many times have we caught you skipping now?"
Aang punched his fist forward, feeling the heat rise in his body. An arc of fire burst from his knuckles, followed by an air-powered kick. He sucked in a deep breath, exhaling in a breath of fire and wind which swirled all around him. He moved through any bending forms that he could remember. He tried to do movements that he pulled from vague memories of earthbending or waterbending, but for each try, nothing happened. Like before, there seemed to be some barrier on his mind. Frustrated, he snorted fire from his nostrils and sunk into straining squats to continue his exercise. At the same time, he held his arms in front of him, holding rock weights as he worked.
He needed to regain his former physical strength. He wasn't going to be weak this time.
Inside the school, she expected to see the usual trappings of the Water Tribe. Pelts hanging from the walls. Stretched animal skins. Weapons and spikes made from bones and teeth. But the wood and plaster hallways felt overwhelmingly normal, if a little run-down. The floorboards had been littered with years of scuff marks and scratches. A fine layer of dust coated the floor in the distant corners. But the minimal details and hard angles of Fire Nation architecture had been maintained. If Azula were Water Tribe, she would have erased any link these people had to their home nation in her effort to stamp out any lingering feelings of loyalty to anyone but their new masters. But the fact that so much of this town still felt like Fire Nation and after years of subservience they still had not fought back felt shameful to her.
"We caught these two skipping," one of the warriors said to the teacher, a straight-backed woman with graying hairs and pursed lips.
Azula rolled her eyes. "I was not skipping class. I'm... new."
"Hm. I will deal with her from here. Hide, get to your seat!" she snapped at the boy, who jumped and hurried to comply. "State your name," she said to the firebender.
"Azula," she said simply, yawning behind her hand.
"I will not be spoken to that way, young lady. I do not know what measly village you come from, but we show proper manners here. The great Water Nation gave us the privilege of education, and we shall accept it graciously. I am Ms. Kwan, your new teacher."
Azula casually walked over to an empty desk in the back of the classroom with her arms rested behind her head, earning the curious and somewhat disapproving stares of the other children. Ms. Kwan frowned in disapproval with the other children.
As she sat down, one of the other boys in the class stared at her, awestruck. "Wow, I can't believe you spoke to Ms. Kwan like that! You're so cool!"
Azula smirked. "I know."
"I'm Shoji," the boy said in a hushed, excited whisper. "Are you from the Outer Islands? The mainland? The Golden City?" His eyes glowed with admiration.
"The mainland," she sighed. This boy is ridiculous, she thought.
"Azula, be quiet back there!" Ms. Kwan snapped. "Open your scrolls inside your desk and read along with the rest of the class. On Ji, read the text on the Water Nation's dominion of the world to the other students."
"Yes, ma'am," said a girl with a prim haircut, glancing condescendingly at Azula. On Ji looked down at her papers and read. "The war began with the reign of Water Chief Seiryu and his attack on the Air Nomads with the aid of a second moon and the blessing of the spirits that granted unbelievable powers to the waterbenders, an art greater than any other..." And from there, Azula lost interest. She drummed her fingers against her plain wooden desk impatiently, leaning her chin on her other hand. She wanted to leave this school. What were Aang and Zuko going to do when she didn't return to camp?
The girl named On Ji droned on about how the Water Tribes destroyed the weakling Air Nomads in their search for the Avatar while the teacher dithered on about her endless reverence for the Water Nation and how they must be thankful for everything they had been given. Despite the superiority of waterbending and the fact that it covered the world in greater amounts than any other element (except, perhaps, air, though some argued that the ocean depths had more water than the sky had air), they had been confined to the extreme north and south. Water's ability to change between solid, liquid, and gaseous forms indicated its ability to exist anywhere, and this solidified that their dominion of the world was just and ordained by both the spirits and the sciences, in their eyes.
In boredom, Azula's eyes roamed. She caught Hide staring at her and he gave her a wink. In response, she leaned toward him and whispered across the hapless student sitting between their desks. "I think there's something in your eye to make it twitch like that, Hide. Perhaps you should get someone to look at it." A few students sitting around them giggled.
"What is going on back there?" Ms. Kwan asked, her hands folded behind her back. She glared at them through the tiny spectacles perched on her nose.
"Azula is causing a commotion," said On Ji, shooting a look at Hide, who sat right behind her. He sunk into his chair, cowed, as On Ji passed him a folded piece of paper beneath the teacher's notice. Azula did not miss a thing, though, and made a mental note of a possible connection the two shared. She found the attention of boys like him to be welcome and flattering, since there were so few boys her age back at home. But something about Hide seemed lacking.
"Is that true?" Ms. Kwan asked, her piercing gaze settling on both Shoji and the other student who sat between Azula and Hide.
"N-nothing I noticed, ma'am," said Shoji.
Azula reminded herself to praise the boy for his loyalty later. She lowered her eyes to her desk, demure (not a good look for her), and tried to sound as polite as possible. "I do not know where On Ji got that impression. I simply admired her reading. On Ji's diction and enunciation are astounding."
Ms. Kwan looked unconvinced. "Azula, I will have to ask you not to speak while others are speaking or the punishments will be severe."
"Oh, I apologize very dearly, Ms. Kwan, but I was explaining the lesson in ways that the others could better understand it," Azula said with a tone of voice that always worked on Uncle Iroh, protruding her lower lip in an attempt to make her pout look innocent.
"Very well, Azula. The gesture to a fellow classmate is appreciated," Ms. Kwan said in approval. On Ji frowned.
After that class, the boys and the girls had been split from each other to go their separate ways. The boys went to weapons training as dictated by the Water Tribes - fighting matches with all sorts of weapons like boomerangs and clubs and machetes. The girls, meanwhile, had been shepherded into a hot, stuffy room to learn weaving and sewing. On Ji sat as far away from Azula as possible, which Azula felt thankful for because she did not want the other girl - an apparent leader of several social circles in school - to see her failures at anything regarding needlework like this. She pricked her fingertips more than once before the hour was up and the class was dismissed for break. Afterward, the students were let out into an old courtyard in severe disrepair, with stone walkways and long weeds clustered at the base of the schoolyard walls.
Shoji found Azula first. "What do you want to play, Azula?" the boy asked her.
"I don't want to play anything. I want to get out of here," she said, looking around the courtyard for any chance of escape. A few other classes with students of varying ages also milled out into the courtyard. Most clustered together, while some played ball games in the open spaces, and yet others climbed on rotten pieces of wood or discarded building materials meant to be either a fun exercise for the children or a death trap, she wasn't sure which. All of the students seemed to be from varying social classes and in varying shades of red, green, or brown— an apparent sign that children from both the Fire Nation and Jie Duan's Earth Kingdom territories had been thrown into the school once they'd been found in town. Azula could only assume that Water Nation's nefarious purpose for a forced education was to instill loyalty to the tribes.
Shoji pressed the tips of his fingers together. "Oh, well, I was hoping..."
Azula ignored Shoji's hero-worship and strolled over to Hide, who weathered On Ji's furious ramblings.
"I don't want you talking to that floozy anymore, do you hear me?" On Ji said to him as Azula approached. "She's trouble in the making."
Azula interjected in their argument with a loud announcement of her arrival. "Hello Hide, On Ji," she said.
"Hey, Azula," Hide said with a wink. "What's up?"
"Stay away from my boyfriend!" On Ji's voice came out shrill, her arms pressed to her sides as she pushed in front of Hide as if to block him from Azula's view. The sudden movement had her barreling into Shoji, who fell over as easily as one of Azula's old dolls.
Azula sighed and inspected her nails. "Listen, I don't want anything to do with your boyfriend. He was the one who found me and got me stuck in this awful place. Not to mention his constant flirting." She surmised that On Ji could be useful in planning an escape from her position at the top of the social ladder at this school. Azula figured it would be better to have her as an ally.
Though Azula also thought she could climb her way to the top of this school if given a couple of days. But she had no intention of spending that amount of time here.
On Ji put her hands on her hips and glared at Hide. "His constant flirting?"
Hide's expression turned fearful as he pointed at Azula. "Er, don't mess with her, On Ji. She's a firebender," he said. An obvious and poor deflection, Azula thought. "I don't want you getting hurt."
On Ji's eyes widened in astonishment, but then they narrowed at Azula. "A firebender..."
Shoji pushed himself to his feet and looked back and forth between Azula and On Ji, biting his nails. "A firebender? Uh... I gotta go!"
Azula watched him go, her face scrunched in confusion and irritation. "Why do you all have a problem with firebenders? You're Fire Nation, aren't you? The more you have, the more you can fight back."
"I told you, keep it quiet," Hide said. "They take away people like you. You're better off just leaving."
On Ji's gaze followed Shoji as he scampered away. "Shoji and I both had older brothers who were firebenders. Both of them disappeared one night and never came back."
Azula put a hand on her hip and glared at Hide. "Well, I'm trying to leave, but you're the one who got me caught here in the first place." She wondered if she should worry about Shoji's abrupt departure, but he seemed the loyal type.
On Ji's mouth twisted into a thoughtful frown. "So you weren't trying to steal my boyfriend?"
"Don't make me gag."
"Azula!" a familiar voice shouted. The firebender turned to see her brother Zuko running towards her, pushing aside Shoji, who fell right back down to the ground as he retreated from Azula and the others. "There you are!"
Azula crossed her arms as he approached. "How'd you get here, Zuzu?"
"That doesn't matter," he said, ignoring the nickname as he always did. "We have to leave. Something doesn't feel right about this place." He surveyed their surroundings, though his gaze lingered on the three students Azula kept for her company. He exchanged a glance with Azula, his brow furrowed in confusion as if wondering if she made friends here.
On Ji clasped her hands together under her chin and turned to Zuko as if awestruck. "Oh, who is this?"
"That is my brother," Azula said, scowling. "How disgusting," she muttered under her breath. "Come on Zuzu, we have to go."
"Yeah... sure," Zuko said, rubbing the back of his neck as he regarded On Ji.
"If you try to escape through the front doors they'll just catch you again in town," On Ji said, folding her hands behind her back. Her stance brought Ms. Kwan to mind. "You'll have to sneak out through the back gates, near the music room."
"Is that where they keep our stuff, too?" Zuko asked her.
On Ji nodded. "Yes, I'd think so. There's a locked storage closet in the same hallway where they keep all kinds of things confiscated from students."
"If you see my blasting jelly beans try to grab them for me!" said Hide, though On Ji turned on him with a frown of disapproval.
Azula smirked, appreciative of On Ji's change of heart. "Well, thank you. That was a surprise."
On Ji shrugged and clasped her hands together. "My brother would have helped you. It's nice to see a firebender back in this town."
Azula gave them a two fingered wave. "Can't say I'm like him, but good luck with your pirate issue."
Aang grew frustrated as his hair clung to his forehead, matted with sweat. Fire flared from his fingers, flickering momentarily in the air before he quenched them. He followed it up with another flame, circling around to gather a breeze to expand the flames and control them with his airbending. He fed the fire with more air, making them stronger.
A fire funnel swirled from his hands which he tried to manipulate further, twisting it around to make it a large and dangerous torrent of fire. However, he had no such luck and he dispersed the funnel before he lost control of it. Aang exhaled, falling to the ground in a slump. No matter what he tried, he couldn't go further with his bending. Everything he did ended in defeat. What was he doing wrong? It made him furious - he felt almost as helpless as he did when he first lost Appa all those years ago in the desert, walking for days and nights with no hope of escape or survival. Why couldn't he keep his mastery of bending with him when he switched worlds? Why couldn't the spirits offer him one little piece of help?
On top of all his firebending problems, he still couldn't bend water and earth. They refused to bow to his will, to hail him as their master. He slammed his fist against the ground, hoping that there would be some disturbance in the dirt. Nothing happened.
"Why isn't anything going right?!" he shouted into the air, throwing up his arms. He felt the emotion bubbling in him, threatening to be released. He gulped it down with such a force of will that it almost hurt. His eyes burned. He hugged his knees closer to him, craving comfort of some kind. Neither Azula nor Zuko were good for that... He wanted Katara. He needed her.
He wished he could just see her. Only once would be enough to give him the strength to continue on - he missed her eyes, as blue as the deep crevice of a glacier. He missed her warmth. Her smile. Her mother's betrothal necklace. The way that she always knew what to say to make him feel better, to coax a smile out of him despite everything. He missed Sokka. Momo. Toph. And his Zuko, the one who fought alongside him through so much. He missed his family. He'd been gone from them so long it felt like he mourned their loss.
Unable to hold it back any longer, Aang wept.
"Where are we going, brother?" Azula asked Zuko, running alongside him across the courtyard.
"It's your fault we're here in the first place, so you're helping me find my broadswords," Zuko said to her, not even turning around to look at her face. Azula skidded to a halt.
"My fault?"
"Yes, if you didn't want to come here to find a firebending master we wouldn't be in this mess. And if we don't get out of here soon, knowing you, you'll show off your firebending, and then we'll be in real trouble." He stopped a few feet ahead of her.
"Like that's all my fault, Zuzu. Whatever."
He clenched his fists and spoke through grit teeth. "Stop calling me Zuzu!"
"No, I happen to like that name," she said with a smirk.
"Azula, I'm warning you..."
"What are you going to do? Wave your swords at me?" she asked in fake fear.
"Don't make me say it..."
"Say what? What could you say to bother me?"
"You like to pretend you're so perfect all the time," he said, turning to her. His words came out all at once as if he'd held them close to his chest for years, his face set in an angry scowl. "Always bossing me around just because you're the one who has firebending. Yes, I get it, you're strong. But that doesn't mean you're better than me! Even if Dad thought so, too! Because you know what? I don't care anymore. Your firebending means nothing to me anymore because it has only caused us trouble." He gestured forcefully as he spoke, almost as if he held his broadswords and sliced them through the air. "And you rely on your bending for everything! You can't hunt. You can't forage. You don't help navigate. You don't even cook. I've been doing all of that our whole journey! And it's not like you're that tough either if you're so afraid of salamander-toads, of all things, from that one time..." He'd began pacing as he unloaded on her, not even focused on her standing in front of him anymore, but he trailed off and lost steam when he turned back and saw her face.
Azula did not even bother to interrupt him. She had fallen silent, staring at him without an expression, waiting for him to finish. She hadn't known that all of that had been coming to a boiling point inside of him. She wondered if she should feel hurt by what he said. But it certainly gave her the impression that her brother had finally gotten stronger. She ruminated over his words in the short span of time that stretched between them. After everything they'd been through together, she valued Zuko's perspective. He was her brother, after all, and if he thought she had that many failings she would have to do her best to correct them.
Zuko froze, as if waiting for her to explode on him.
When she spoke, her voice came out calm. "Let's go, Zuko." Astonished for a moment, Zuko did nothing but nod as she passed him at a slow walk, but he turned around and ran to find his swords again. She followed at his speed. "And I never remembered father saying I was better than you..." She couldn't see his face to gauge his reaction to her words, and he said nothing to share it.
They said nothing else to each other as they barged through the wooden double doors leading into the academy. Zuko led the way once they reached the inside, running through the corridors on a path that he seemed to know. They avoided the instructors in their staff room and crept with soft footsteps into a different classroom, larger than the ones Azula had been in but empty of all people and dark, as there were no windows. Azula lit a fire in her palm while Zuko rummaged through the drawers of his teacher's desk. Azula's flame burned brighter as she looked around the room, casting light on rows of seats with an assortment of instruments instead of people.
Zuko straightened and held up a brass key that he pilfered from the desk, which glinted in the firelight. "They made me play the tsungi horn," he said.
Azula smiled to herself, recalling the memory of Uncle's music nights back at the village. The tsungi horn was Zuko's best instrument. She, of course, always refused to participate. "I pity your classmates," she said, to which he only scoffed in response.
"What was that comment you made about the pirates earlier?" he asked her. "There are no pirates here. I thought that was the point - they live under Water Tribe rule so that they're protected from raids."
Azula rolled her eyes. "Just think about it a little more. The Water Tribes control the seas. Based on our little adventure with the pirates not too long ago, it's obvious that the pirate fleets in these waters are under the jurisdiction of the Water Tribes anyway. The waterbenders aren't protecting this town - they just haven't ordered the pirates to raid it yet. They make the people live in fear of an imminent pirate attack that'll never come as long as they behave. It's just a method to control the town. And I'm willing to bet all the missing firebenders got conscripted into their armies for battles in the Earth Kingdom or something."
Zuko scratched his chin. "So what should we do about it?"
"We?" she asked, incredulous. "We can't do anything. We're just three people. It isn't my problem and it shouldn't be yours, either. We have more important things to do." She crossed her arms, hoping that would signal an end to this conversation. "I'm sure Aang would agree."
He shrugged and shuffled his feet. "I don't know about that. But anyway... According to On Ji, that storage closet with my swords should be out in the hallway," Zuko said, creeping across the wooden floorboards so that they didn't make a sound. He peeked out into the hallway and gestured for her to follow. They crossed the hall and discovered a set of double doors with a keyhole that Zuko unlocked, granting them access to the storage closet. Inside, Azula laid her eyes on years of students' contraband, a treasure trove for any troublemaker. Scrolls covered in the untidy scrawl of test answers, at least six kuai balls, sweets and candies she had never seen before, Hide's blasting jelly beans, an inappropriate drawing, and countless other confiscated items covered the shelves inside the tiny closet. Azula held up her flame to look more closely, enabling Zuko to spot his broadswords on one of the higher shelves and grab them.
"Stop right there!" someone shouted from the doorway. A man's voice that she didn't recognize.
"Look, that's them! She's firebending!" Azula looked to the source of the other voice, surprised to see Shoji flanked by a pair of warriors.
"You little traitor," she said to him, eyes narrowed. Her thoughts cycled through a possible motive for his betrayal, wondering if it was something as petty as the desire for attention or as basic as fear. But she supposed she would never know for sure - she didn't plan to stick around to find out.
"You're under arrest," one of the warriors said to Azula. He flung water at her from his pouch, ready to claim her, but Azula shot a fireball at it, dissipating it into steam.
"Let's get out of here, Zuzu," Azula said to her brother. For a moment, they paused to share a look, and Zuko smiled as if knowing she no longer meant harm from the nickname.
Zuko ran at the warriors first, hitting the one on the right with the hilt of his broadsword before drawing it from its sheath, cutting the water pouch from his side. Azula punched twice and kicked, sending out two fireballs and an arc of flame at the remaining warrior. Shoji shrieked and ran away. Azula's opponent tried blocking her attacks with his feeble amount of water, but the force of her bending threw him into the wall. Both warriors slumped over, unconscious.
"This way!" Zuko shouted to her, running down the hall opposite to the one Shoji took. They met no more warriors, but at the school's entrance hall, they ran into an unexpected obstacle.
The whole student body—which admittedly wasn't much—stood waiting for them, blocking their escape. Ms. Kwan and the headmaster, a Water Tribe man, were in the forefront.
Ms. Kwan held out her hand. "Stop! You are not going any further!" she shouted at them from across the hallway.
"Try me," Zuko said, unsheathing his broadswords and twirling them. His voice took on a menacing tone that Azula thought suited him well. Beside him, fire flared to life in Azula's hands as she took a stance, ready for any opposition. She spotted Shoji in the crowd, who looked fearful and nervous, pushing other students aside to hide behind them. Hide and On Ji stood near the front, and both of them gave Zuko and Azula a friendly wave.
"Wrong choice," the Water Tribe headmaster said, drawing water from pouches at his side and throwing it at them. Azula spun and released a fiery arc that clashed with his water in a sizzle of steam. The man tried again, but Azula released a fire funnel that devoured his attack. She let the fire grow and gain momentum, letting it uncoil and heat the corridors to an almost unbearable level, scorching the walls and floors. The headmaster shouted in alarm and focused all of his attention on the growing fire. The children screamed and fled from the school. Ms. Kwan and a small group of other teachers stayed behind to attempt to extinguish the fire, but Zuko and Azula used the opportunity to flee.
Zuko was the first to slip outside among the stampede of fleeing students. Azula melted into the crowd as well, finding herself running alongside Hide and On Ji. She found Shoji sniveling to a pair of Water Tribe warriors and suddenly it all came together - he had hoped to trade her in to get his older brother back. She didn't have it in her to pity him too much because it was at her expense, but she supposed someone more heroic might have done more to help him. But as she ran by the boy, she wondered what Aang would have done.
"Bye, Azula! I hope to see you again someday!" On Ji said to her, waving.
"See you," she said with a smirk, running alongside her brother to get out of the town. The running students grabbed the attention of the warriors stationed in the town, who immediately began to give chase to the firebender and her brother. Azula tried hurling fireballs behind her back to stop them, but it did little. All she had to do was reach camp and they could escape the island.
Zuko ran down a side alley which ended with a wooden fence. Zuko didn't even pause as he jumped on a crate alongside it to leap right over and Azula followed, letting him pull her up to the top and hoist her over. She set fire to the crate, blocking the progress of the waterbenders.
"Almost there!" Azula shouted, running into the woods surrounding the town with her brother. The two were experts at this; they were born on lands with forests all around them, and keeping up with each other as they hunted through the forests was second nature to them. Minutes later, they burst into a clearing to find Aang prying open nuts with Sabi.
Zuko grabbed things strewn about camp on his way to Appa. "Let's go, Aang!"
The younger boy complied without question and packed up everything he had in seconds, loading it all onto Appa. As the bison flew into the air, leather-clad Water Nation warriors flooded into the clearing, but the bison was out of their reach too quickly for them to do anything.
Aang twisted around to face his two companions. "I don't even wanna know what happened back there," he said to them, giving Appa's reins a shake to go faster. Azula and Zuko exchanged glances with each other, shrugging. "So, did you find a firebending master?" he asked Azula, though the tone of his voice indicated that he knew the answer to that question already.
"No," she answered.
"What about supplies?" he asked Zuko.
"Nothing," he replied.
Aang's face fell to a blank expression. "Was there anything productive to this stop?"
Azula sat back against the side of the saddle. Not a single snide remark came to mind, only honesty. "Yes, actually."
Author's Notes: Wow, that chapter was a huge pain to write. With the difficulty of the chapter coupled with final exams, sorry that this chapter was a little late. Anyway, I hope you liked it. I did, when it was all finished :) Next chapter, we'll get back to some story episodes.
