Book 3: Water

Chapter 9: Stormblood, Part 2

"You're just a fallen princess."

Katara massaged her wrists after they cut her free of her bonds to put her in a jail cell made from wood and bone and metal. How foolish they were to leave her arms free, to dismiss her as a girl who couldn't fight, even with no water within reach. But she was used to that by now. What she didn't like was getting her status called into question, whether or not her father said so. "And you're just a coward to leave me in here. What, am I gonna be part of your tribute? Just sending me back home to dear old dad?"

Attohwak knocked his club against the cell bars in an attempt to intimidate her. She didn't flinch. "Perhaps just your fingers," he said. "Then you'll really be useless, unable to even weave a tapestry for your future husband. And when your father marches this way to retrieve the rest of you, we'll crush him."

She bristled. "You underestimate me. Wanna prove how manly you are? Why don't you fight me one on one, you coward?"

He stepped closer to the bars, sneering. "Think you're a little warrior, do you?"

"Oh, I know I am," she said, meeting his gaze. It would be so easy to wrench control of his limbs from him, make him beat himself bloody with his own club, but she felt no need to display her power yet. Not when they were alone, where no one else would see her strength. They would go to any lengths to explain his sudden and violent death another way instead of attributing the deed to her.

Bloodbending was devastatingly effective, but it was almost cheating. She wanted them to respect her power, not dismiss it as trickery.

Bloodbending won't prove a thing, said the voice. The tiny voice that sounded uncannily like hers, the one that spoke up sometimes in disapproval. Often, it sounded like her mother.

And Katara didn't like thinking about her mother. Besides, that little voice spoke up always in opposition to bloodbending, no matter the scenario. It was frustratingly shortsighted that way.

"Then perhaps you'll meet your death the warrior's way," he said. "And we'll just send your father your head."


After retrieving their parkas, Lo and Li led Azula down the only other tunnel branching off from their main chamber, lighting the torches hanging in sconces along the way. As they descended deeper into the mountain, Azula felt the cold seeping into her bones more and more as they left the warmth of the hearth. Here, she saw more signs of all the years the twins spent under the dominion of the Poisonous Snowy Wolverine-Skunk Clan: paintings sketched upon the tunnel walls in a rainbow of pigments. She saw more depictions of the Everstorm. The twin volcanoes of Azula's home island. Fire and dragons and blood. Dark shapes that she couldn't identify in the dancing shadows. Lightning wove through and connected each picture in one long mural.

The tunnel ended with a round wooden door set into a frame molded to the tunnel's shape. When Li pulled it open, the door was nearly battered off its hinges by the fierce winds, and the wind tunnel nearly pushed Azula off her feet. But instead she stepped through the door frame into an opening in the mountain, which widened to give all three of them space and then some. Below, Azula could see the mountain passes that she and Katara had traversed. It was a sheer drop, and the window from which the twins viewed the world.

Even more of a spectacle, it gave a perfect, unobstructed view of the Everstorm. Its power thrummed, its chaos all-consuming. Blizzards and violet streaks and flashes of lightning raged in its dark clouds and Azula never felt so small, so inconsequential. No wonder the clan leaders thought themselves greater than the emperor, for if they guarded such a primordial and sublime place it was not so difficult to make that assumption. That was true power.

And Aang, Zuko, and Sokka meant to venture right into its center to reach the Southern Spirit Portal. Here she was, viewing it from above, when she should have been right in the thick of it with them. She longed to be with them, with Aang, as he faced its dangers.

But here she was. She had to harness this power.

Fire Lord Azula's voice whispered in her ear, crooning and dangerous. A selfish motivation if I ever knew one.

It's to protect them from you.

From yourself. You know you are capable of just as many monstrous things as me.

"Azula," said Lo. "You remember what we said of the dangers of harnessing lightning, I trust."

She didn't move her eyes from the churning storm. "Of course."

Li stepped up to her side. "One thing you need to know about creating it is that it requires peace of mind. We are conduits to guide its power, not control it."

It's a good thing you stopped fighting me, said the voice. We're at peace now, wouldn't you say? You've accepted that you need me.

I'm still not sure what you want from me.

Lo held out her right palm. "Positive energy."

"And negative energy," said Li, holding out her left.

"Separate, and together," said Lo, at the same time as Li said, "Together, and separate."

I want you to take your rightful place in the world. I'm on your side. I always have been.

"Split the yin from the yang," Li continued. "You already wield blue fire. That is a form of negative energy."

"But I can't make white fire," Azula said, turning to face them. "Its positive counterpart."

But why? I love Aang. And you've killed him.

"Everyone has positive and negative energy within them," said Lo. The wind whipped at the fur draped over her shoulders. "Whether or not you've learned to draw it out with your firebending, you can still separate the energies within."

Li started to move her arms in a wide circle, power crackling at her fingertips as she spoke. On Azula's other side, Lo mirrored her movements. "When you separate the energy, its natural reaction…"

"...Is to come crashing back together!" Lo finished, and together they pointed down below. Lightning cracked from their fingers, cleaving the world in two as thunder boomed and the Everstorm rose in a crescendo of its own as if in response to their power. When the rolling, deafening blast subsided, Azula refrained from rubbing the bright flashes out of her eyes. She wanted to imprint it in her memory forever.

Despite that failing, I despise the idea that my other self wouldn't be on top of the world. In any world. And now… here you are.

"Manipulating that duality is the key to this power," said Li.

"And once mastered, you can exert fine control," said Lo.

Duality, the Fire Lord repeated. You and I, we are two heads of the same dragon. The blue and the red. Let me hold the positive energy for you.

So the negative energy will be all mine? But it already was, wasn't it? She could only make blue fire, not white.

Only for the moment. Until we come crashing back together. And in that time between the seconds, we will hold all of the storm's rage.

"Move your arms in a circle," said Li.

Lo nodded. "As we did. Envision the energy within you splitting apart."

You can do it. Split the energy apart, funnel it to me.

She mimicked their movement, her right and left arms moving in circles. In her mind, she envisioned the blue dragon following the path of one arm, and the red dancing around the other. A charge prickled up and down her arms, the chatter of sparks left in their wake, and when she moved her fingertips in tandem with each other she heard the Fire Lord laughing mad over the peal of lightning that streaked from her fingers, over the thunderclap that resounded through the mountain range.

Azula had never felt such a thrill in her life, the power coursing through her body, the sweet and pungent smell left in the air. When the lightning dispersed she felt herself coming back down to earth, the touch of the cold and the wind. She stared down into the Everstorm as if all the energy had been drained from her. The Fire Lord's laughter had fallen silent, trailing away like the echo of a whisper.

Lo put a hand on her shoulder. "Congratulations, Azula."

"You're a lightning bender," Li finished.

Carried on the wind, she heard the distant rumble of something else, and for a moment she thought it was more thunder before she realized it was the cheering of a crowd. "What's in that direction?" she asked. She couldn't see the source of the sound from here, but it came from somewhere in the village above.

"The fighting pit," Lo surmised.

"I assume that means the princess is facing her fate," said Li.

Azula whirled on them. "What do you mean? A fight to the death?"

"They often are," said Lo, shrugging. "It should be of no concern to us. Her blood is the blood of the emperor. Let them kill her. If she truly is disgraced, they'll get away with it."

Azula let out a frustrated grumble and made her way back to the tunnel. "Ugh, as tempting as it is to let it happen, I do need her. Especially if we're to get out of this village."


She heard the sound of massive wings beating and the world rocked again, taking her body with it. She rolled through the sand, heard distant shouting, and stopped when she hit a cold, hard metal plate. She was lucky that she didn't hit its other side, she supposed. She felt spikes there. But she didn't move after that, didn't stir after she struck the plating to some larger structure, and let her body lay there. She wondered if she would become part of the sand.

"Hear us, great knowledge spirit!"

"Yue, watch out!" Something crashed into the sand, sending it up in a gout that rained down upon all of them. "Stay behind me. I'll protect you!"

"You think I can't handle the sandbending of the Si Wong Tribes? I know the styles of the Lop Nor tribe, the Hami tribe, the Tamajaq, and even the Taklamakan tribe! I've predated all of them."

"What have we done to offend you?" She heard more sounds of struggling, but she could barely sense it across the sand. "Wan Shi Tong, my tribe has respected you for as long as I can remember. I've always wished to see your library, just to catch a glimpse of the knowledge contained within."

"Look at all of this devastation," he responded. "I was there when humans first wrought metal from the earth. When smelting techniques progressed to a point where your artisans and crafters made all sorts of wondrous things. But I should have known what would happen when weapons were among the first things you created with it. When spears began to be made from bronze and iron rather than wood and stone to make killing easier."

"You cannot fault us for what our ancestors have done. All of this weaponry here isn't even from our world."

"It doesn't matter. You have now seen what the fruits of the earth can grow. And you will use this knowledge and twist it like all the others have. And it is my duty to stop you before you can bring this back to your world."

"Please, we wish to do no such thing! We just want to go home safely!"

"These weapons all around you have already destroyed one world. I won't let them destroy another."

She heard them struggling. She heard them fighting. But it didn't matter.

"Are you listening to yourself? What is all that nonsense?" Her own voice threw her thoughts back at her, rough and in disbelief. If she had the body to do it, her spirit self likely would have shaken her by the shoulders. "You're just gonna sit here while your friends fight and struggle? That Nagi's a good earthbender, but she's not like you. Show 'em what you can do!"

What could she do? She lost track of how much time they wandered. They'd never get to leave the Spirit World. She'd never get her face back.

"So you're just going to give up? That is not something that's in the vocabulary of Toph Bei Fong! You're the greatest earthbender in the world, so you better act like it!"

She didn't remember that.

"C'mon, Toph! Wake up! Who cares if you don't have a face? We'll get it back! You just need to keep on fighting!"

She heard the voice of one of the others calling to her. "We can't stay here or he'll kill us!"

"Move!" her other self shouted in her ear. "If not for them, think of your other friends! Aang! Zuko! Sokka! Even that Azula!"

She'd never see them again. She knew that already. What was the point? They wouldn't recognize her anymore.

"Ugh! Come on! You're the Blind Bandit. Not some lily-livered weakling! What about Jet? Do you want him to see you like this? Or the other Freedom Fighters?"

No, she supposed. They wouldn't approve.

But she never cared to get anyone else's approval.

"That's right! Remember that! No matter what the rest of the world says, the only approval we need is our own!"

The ground buckled and swelled beneath her. She realized it was the sand, shifting and coiling, and before she knew it, some great force lifted her up and sent her body careening through the air. She slammed into something metal - a massive construct, rounded and halfway buried in the sand, dwarfing buildings. Her head rang. She felt every dent, every curve; knew where time and sand wore it away and where the impurities felt greatest. Her body pressed flat against it for just a moment before she slid back down to the sand.

"See? You can feel all that. You know. You remember. You can do it."

She felt dizzy. The back of her head throbbed. But she remembered. That spirit, Wan Shi Tong, had said that these structures were all fruits of the earth. Constructed by human hands and methods, antithetical to everything in the Spirit World.

And if it came from the earth, she could bend it.

She stood up through the pain, faced Wan Shi Tong and Nagi and Yue, all battling across the sands, and slapped her right hand into the metal remains of the zeppelin behind her. The tiny pieces of unrefined earth called out to her and she responded by digging her fingers into the metal plating. With a crunch, it bent to her will.

Spirit-Toph let out a loud whoop. "Here we go! Metalbender Toph is here and she means business!"

Toph felt Wan Shi Tong pressed flat against the ground, his neck elongated like a serpent's, and he swept toward Nagi and Yue, beak biting at them like a spear. Nagi pulled up some sand as a cover and a defense, diverting the giant owl's head just in time for Toph to surf in on her metal plate and strike him directly in the face with it.

He shook his head as if to clear it of the clamor. "What is this?"

She responded by shoving her hand into the wheel of a tank, ripping it off the main body, and hurling it toward Wan Shi Tong with spikes spinning. It caught him on his wing just as he threw himself to the side to avoid the attack, taking some feathers with it. He took to the air but faltered, his good wing pumping extra hard, before he gave up and perched on top of the prow of a nearby warship, nearly vertical in its ruin so that it looked like a tower.

"She's… bending the metal?" Yue asked with a gasp. "That's amazing!"

"You know it, honey," said Spirit-Toph. "Ever see this type of bending before, oh-so-powerful knowledge spirit? I don't think so - cause we're the first!"

"I have not," he admitted. "What a shame… that would have been knowledge I would have loved to add to my collection."

"Is that all it is to you?" Nagi shouted up at him. "Something to collect, instead of share? It's not even your knowledge. It's all things you've learned from humans and compiled together."

From his distance, Toph couldn't sense his movements, but she got the feeling he hadn't moved from his perch. But he sounded angry again. "Someone has to compile it! Otherwise it would be used and destroyed in your petty wars! Even now, with my library lost to me in your world, I can only assume you humans mean to plunder its depths, its knowledge, use it for great evils!"

"Why must you assume the worst of us?" Yue asked.

"Because I have seen it all before and I am seeing it happen again."

Spirit-Toph's voice hovered above them and Toph imagined her other self gesticulating angrily as she spoke. "So what're you gonna do? Wipe out all humans? Is that why you're here, just tracking down the three of them since you can't get back to your precious little library?"

"Not just you," he said. "But all of the other humans who've been stranded in this world, ever since my library got displaced to yours. Before you can all do irreparable damage to the spirits."

"Wait, other humans?" Nagi asked. "Here?"

Yue fumbled and almost dropped her sword. "From Ba Sing Se!" she exclaimed. "From the raid, and the collapse of the Middle Ring!"

She heard the flapping of wings and felt the gust that accompanied it. "Yes," said Wan Shi Tong. "If I find them and… redress that balance, then my library may go back to its proper place. If not, I will seek the roots of the Tree of Time and make my way to a world without humans."

"Not if we can help it!" Spirit-Toph yelled, and Toph lurched forward to grip the battleship's hull in her fist and pull it off the rest with a screech of metal. She felt the owl spirit flap his wings for balance before he leapt off of it, presumably toward her, but at a silent direction from Spirit-Toph she stepped to the side, wrapped her fist in iron, and slammed it into the side of his head.

Nagi pulled the sand over him like a blanket while Yue warded off his flailing talons. Toph took the chance to continue pummeling him with her gauntleted punches, but before any of them could do any real damage the owl righted himself and let out a cry that went right through Toph's ears and disoriented her even more than getting her head slammed into the side of an airship.

Spirit-Toph let out a pained grunt. "Toph, Nagi, get us outta here! Go down!"

Nagi removed her hands from her ears and yelled out in anguish, but with a matching movement from Toph they let desperation take over common sense and opened up a sinkhole in the sand to swallow up all four of them.

As they fell through darkness, Toph accepted the possibility that she might never get her face back. Right now, that didn't matter. She would persist. But now, they had a new goal - to find the other survivors.


When they reached the edge of the mountain pass that marked the end of the eastern peninsula, they finally stopped so Aang and Sokka could look at Appa's bite. Behind them, fields of white dominated their vision, but ahead the giants watched them from above. These mountains had the Great Glacier on their other side, so their journey was far from over.

They hastily made a shelter big enough to cover Appa while they applied their ministrations, Sokka taking the lead while Aang followed. It was a nasty bite, already red and puffy, and Sokka feared infection. Aang found himself calmer than he expected - he was worried, but he fought alongside Appa through much worse.

"His nose is dry already," said Sangmu, scratching at his face. She seemed even more panicked than Aang expected to be and he assumed it might have had something to do with Minmin, her bison. "Is he going to be okay?"

"I think so," said Sokka. He wrapped Appa's whole foot in water and washed over him with its glowing power. "Those things have enough venom for four people, but one giant sky bison? No way."

"His breathing is really ragged," she said. "And he seems really tired out."

"He just had to fly across the tundra with a big wound," said Aang, rubbing Appa's leg. "That's all, right buddy?"

Appa responded by licking Sangmu, which actually got a laugh out of her.

While Zuko tended to the fire, he scratched his chin in thought. "Hey, Sokka. Why are they called poisonous snowy wolverine-skunks if they're actually venomous?" he asked.

Without looking, Sokka responded. "It's not just their bite… It's the pee."

"Oh," said Zuko. Then: "Ew."

"They're cute when they're babies, I promise. Anyway, Old Spriggy gave us a poultice that's good for preventing infections," said Sokka. "Aang, go grab that. Sangmu, can you get the bandages? We've got to hurry. Once they taste blood, those things don't let up until you're far, far from its territory."

Once Aang and Sokka had Appa's foot all wrapped up, they let out collective sighs of relief when Sokka declared he would be all right. When Appa let out a contented sigh, Sangmu walked over to Sokka, tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, and gave him a thank you before retreating back to the fire with Zuko. Aang and Sokka exchanged a glance and Aang smiled as if to say, "Well, it's a start."

Then they heard a high-pitched cry from outside of their shelter. "Aaand that's the sound of a poisonous snowy wolverine-skunk that found the scent of its prey," said Sokka, eye wide. "Let's go!"

"Oh, but shouldn't Appa be resting?" Sangmu asked, biting her lip.

Zuko clambered up Appa's tail, who roared in challenge - and possibly to show them that he still had fight and flight left in him. "He can rest later!"

Aang and Sokka blasted the roof of their shelter outward as Appa took to the sky, and even before they got very high into the air they spotted the beast loping after them. Zuko hurled fireballs down below but they either missed or did nothing to its thick hide. Aang pulled at Appa's reins to urge him to fly higher, toward the mountains where it hopefully wouldn't pursue them, but with the slopes rising on either side it had a clear path after them.

Sangmu stood toward the back of the saddle, carefully balancing. "I've got an idea. Everyone, cover your ears! And fly high!"

Zuko and Sokka pulled Sabi and Momo into their parkas while they all did as she told them - Appa included, who pressed his ears flat against his head. Sangmu looked at their pursuer, held out her hand, and snapped her fingers.

The sound reverberated through the mountain pass, echoing among the slopes, and for a moment it seemed to irritate the beast enough to make it shake its head and whimper before continuing unabated. Aang heard nothing else, and thought that she had muted the sound again for a moment, until something all around them cracked loud enough to sound like thunder and he realized it hadn't come from her. He heard a deep rumbling coming toward them and his jaw dropped when the slopes on all sides barreled down toward them.

He heard the awe and terror in Sokka's voice. "It's… an avalanche!"

Aang pulled on the reins as hard as he could and Appa didn't need to be told twice; he veered higher up to avoid the snow that threatened to bury them. Though an enormous cloud of snowy dust managed to reach them, they made it in the clear, and both Sokka and Aang whooped with joy and exhilaration.

Zuko, meanwhile, looked stunned. "Did you just… kill it?"

Sangmu whirled around with her hands on her cheeks and her eyes wide and round with panic. "Oh, no! I didn't think so! I just figured since it was a snowy creature…"

"Nah, they can dig through snow just fine," said Sokka, chuckling. "That was amazing! And super risky. But still amazing!"

"I've gotta learn how to do that," said Aang, grinning. "Now I hope that thing knows not to mess with us."

"Are you kidding?" said Sokka, pointing at her with both hands. "It knows not to mess with Sangmu!"

A blush rose to her cheeks and she averted her eyes. "I know what you're doing," she said. "And you don't have to. But… thank you."

Sokka let out a breath, but he nodded and let out the barest of smiles. "Right, then," he said. "Onward, I guess, toward the next dangers in our perilous journey to the South Pole. But, really, I hope it's smooth sailing from here."


Meeting death 'the warrior's way' apparently meant battling against all sorts of warriors in a fighting pit, surrounded on all sides by high walls while the people watched. The men they sent against her hadn't been condemned as Katara was - they simply fought at the whims of Chief Attohwak and Patriarch Alsek for lack of any other fighting to do. They came at her with weapons and waterbending, but she knocked them out and cut them down after their attacks missed her by a hair; veering just a little low, or swinging just a little too wide…

They gave her no water or weapons to fight back with but after defeating the first trio she had both.

Just don't kill them! It isn't worth it!

All right, fine. Mother.

The enormous man from the mountain path who used a heavy iron grappler on a chain as his weapon came at her next, but she stepped to the side of his first blow to avoid the hooks and froze the chain before shattering it. He lunged for her with his bare hands next, but she rolled out of the way and made the floor slick beneath his feet, sending him crashing down. Before he could move, she froze his long braids to the ground, making him yowl in pain when he tried to get up.

Katara couldn't help but laugh at how easily he went down.

"Enough of this farce!" Alsek shouted, jumping from his chair. "I want her dead!"

"Yes, father!" said Chief Attohwak, but even at that Katara could only roll her eyes - the chief was the one who was supposed to give the orders in any clan, but Attohwak answered to his father. How could any of his people follow him?

At his signal, a dozen archers rose up at the top of the walls all around her, their bows fixed directly on Katara. She grit her teeth. "Well, now this isn't fair!"

Neither is bloodbending! But look at you!

You're really not helpful!

Here she was, facing danger and having a silent argument with herself. She hoped she wasn't starting to lose it yet.

Just when she started to wonder how she would manage to bloodbend all of the archers, a plume of blue fire erupted at the top of the wall and knocked down three of them, followed by Azula herself a moment later. She leapt down to Katara's side, landed on her feet in a crouch, and held out the Blue Spirit mask while she put on her own. "Thought you might want this back," she said.

Katara rolled her eyes and put the mask on. "You couldn't stay up there and deal with the archers for me? You just had to make a dramatic entrance, didn't you?"

"Maybe so." She heard the smirk in Azula's voice.

"Well, lucky for you, I like a bit of theatrics," Katara said, responding with her own smirk. She held both of her hands forward, concentrating on as many of the archers as she could manage, hands splayed out. She didn't need to take control of their whole bodies - just enough to disrupt their ranks.

She knew bringing Azula along would pay off.

Alsek gripped the side of his chair with white knuckles, his long white beard quivering, but before he could say anything Attohwak whispered into his ear and the old man's panic vanished. "The witches will handle you," he said.

The wall underneath Alsek parted to admit the old twins, who fixed their gazes straight ahead, their eyes cold.

Next to her, Azula stiffened.


Azula didn't think that Lo and Li would have entered the fighting pit to fight against her. She barely concealed her surprise in time when the wall slid open to reveal them and shut again behind them. And if she was being honest with herself, she didn't want to fight the twins.

She remembered what they said about striking her down on the mountainside. To them, killing Azula was an act of mercy. To survive, and to prevent Azula from suffering their fate, they would do what they must. But so would she.

"So what?" said Katara.

"They're firebenders," Azula hissed. "Don't underestimate them."

"Finish them!" Attohwak cried. "Kill them both!"

Both Lo and Li stepped forward and punched, unleashing a stream of fire from their fists. Katara met their fire with water and the fizzle of steam rose up to conceal the arena. Azula went on the offensive, her own flames red now, and rapidly assaulted them with a series of fireballs. But one worked to defend her sister while the other retaliated. The steam coalesced back into water and Katara pushed a deluge toward the twins, but they spun out of the way with surprising agility, advancing on the younger benders with their hands blazing.

A concussive blast from Li nearly knocked Azula off her feet, but she blocked the attack outright with her forearm and dispersed the flames, then followed it up with a smooth slide into a low, sweeping kick. The arc of flame knocked Li's feet out from under her with a grunt, and Katara spun two globules of water at Lo's head and feet in opposite directions to knock her down as well. On shaky limbs, both women stood back up, and moved as one to combine their attacks into a much larger blast headed right for Katara.

Azula moved without thinking, standing in front of their attempt to immolate Katara with a wall of white fire, blazing to life and blinding in its radiance. Both Lo and Li let out a gasp, its heat flaring and felt by everyone in the arena.

"You… you would protect her?" Lo asked, arms shielding her face.

Li scowled. "That waterbender?"

"I told you," said Azula. The white flames continued to burn in a line across the ground, as if splitting the fighting pit in two. "We're just using each other."

Katara let out a bark of laughter. "Ha! You got that right."

Their attack renewed in earnest, with Katara coating her arms in water to cover their defenses while Azula leapt right over her in a spinning kick, searing the air with a blazing white wheel that rushed toward the sisters. Lo and Li threw themselves out of the way in opposite directions, blasting through the ice that Katara tried to use to restrain them. They threw another attack from both sides of Azula and Katara, but Azula swept her hand across to summon another wall of white fire. It licked the air in front of her, nearly as hot as her blue flames. Katara lashed at them with a pair of water whips from both hands, knocking both sisters backward, but when they stood again they retaliated with breaths of fire that screamed toward Azula and Katara in a raging conflagration.

But her white fire overpowered it, consuming their blaze and washing over their fire breath. Lo and Li shielded themselves with their arms, but when the white flames dissolved they looked up in surprise. Azula dissipated the flames before it could harm them - she found that white fire had the capability to consume more than blue, with control so fine she wondered if she could light a tree without burning it, even if the fire didn't feel as hot.

"I've had enough!" Alsek snarled. "Archers, witches! End this! Princess, I want you to die knowing of the Everstorm that courses through our blood, the storm that empowers us, that will make all other clans kneel!"

"You think that's what runs through your veins?" Katara asked, her tone a taunting lilt. "That stormblood you boast of - it's all ours to control."

Just as the archers on top of the walls readied their bows, Katara lifted her hands and pulled, making them jerk and topple into their own comrades. Arrows went askew and missed their targets with the twang and snap of bowstrings.

"A bloodbender?" Attohwak exclaimed in fear. "During the day?!"

At the same time as the archers readied their bows, Lo and Li both began to circle their arms. Lightning crackled at their fingertips. But before they aimed it at Azula and Katara, she saw the sorrow in their eyes, the regret; but Azula didn't back down.

For the first time, Azula reached out to her other self willingly. I know what you can do. I've seen it.

And?

I remember.

As both bolts of lightning streaked toward her, she felt as if they moved in slow motion. Drawn to her, both bolts met the fingertips of her outstretched left hand and she caught them. The burning that streaked through her arm and jolted all of her senses awakened her to true power, to true danger. She knew they didn't want to hurt her, and certainly not out of malice. This last attack, this intention to kill - it was a mercy. In.

She held it like a ratviper. Delicate. Consuming. She guided it to her stomach. Down.

Their faces twisted, aghast; they had never seen such a technique. Never knew such a thing to be possible. But as she brought the coiling, destructive energy back up, she carefully avoided it passing through her heart. And for a moment she saw true fear in the twins' eyes, and she knew that they had the horror of her turning their attack back on them. But acceptance settled into their eyes as well, and relief.

Her eyes rose to Alsek and Attohwak instead. And she pointed with her right hand. Out.

She caught the attack as two streaks of lightning and released it back out as a fork that hit the patriarch and the chief head-on, striking them in the chest with enough force to throw them backward where they didn't rise again.

She wanted to have a reaction to killing them. Anything. Nausea even would have been welcome. But she couldn't bring herself to say anything in response to her first kills. She couldn't do anything.

It was Katara who spoke first, and her words made Azula realize everyone else had fallen silent, too. "Warriors of the clan," she called, pulling off her mask. "Know that, today, your leaders have been struck down by the very power they sought to wield. Pride and greed have torn apart our people for far too long. But now, as the war nears its end, we must stand united. Why must we be rivals when the tribe can do so much good if we work together?

"Your leaders are gone. But, as a clan, you can all step up. It will take true strength. And I know you have that in your hearts. We'll end this war as one."

They watched her, unmoving and wary. But, behind Katara, the giant of a man with long braids stood up and threw a fist into the air. "After all of that, you show us your strength of character most of all," he said. "Our chief was a coward to the moment of his death. But now, princess, we follow you."

When he led his people into a cheer, Katara smiled and took the praises they heaped upon her while Azula knelt down next to Lo and Li. Both had fallen to their knees.

She didn't know what compelled her to go to them, to offer her hand and help them back to their feet. "After all these years, you're finally free."


"It's always the empty sentiments of love and friendship that get them," said Katara. They made their way back down the mountain, putting the village of the Poisonous Snowy Wolverine-Skunk Clan behind them hopefully forever, atop four new caribou-panthers - two of them for Lo and Li. "All in a day's work."

"So it was all a lie?" Lo asked, eyes narrowed.

Katara shrugged. "Not exactly."

"You two can come with us," Azula said. She didn't bother to ask for Katara's permission to invite them. "We're going to change the course of this war."

"We are done with wars and the Water Nation," said Li. "I think, at this point, we would just like to go home."

"I can't fault you for that," Azula said, staring ahead as snowflakes whirled in front of them. The journey back down the mountain was much less eventful than the way up. "Will you be safe traveling on your own?"

Li held up a fist. "There's still some fight in us yet. Do not worry for us."

"If anything, we worry more for you," said Lo, giving Katara a sidelong glance.

"But you are born of the Fire Nation," said Li. "You are strong, and we have faith in your success."

They stopped at the base of the mountain. From here, Azula and Katara would travel west, while the twins would journey north. "You deserve a long rest. And I want you to know… just because you two didn't fight back the way I expected you to doesn't mean you're weak. You had to pick your battles."

"And sometimes," said Lo, "surviving is enough of a victory."

"Thank you, Azula," said Li. Both of them smiled. "You've done more for us than you know."

She felt heat in her cheeks. "Right. Well, then. Say hello to my Uncle Iroh for me."

After the twins departed for the north, Katara's caribou-panther sidled up next to hers and she nudged Azula with her elbow. "Well, doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?"

"Oh, shut it."

"Really! C'mon, I think that whole thing went pretty well. Makes you feel optimistic about what lies ahead, doesn't it?"

"I suppose so," Azula said. She still felt the tingling in her fingers. She would bring this new power to bear in Aniak'to, for better or for worse.

The blue dragon smiled. And don't forget. I'm with you.


Author's Notes: "The Puppetmaster" is one of my all-time favorite episodes, so I wanted to do it justice. Maybe I got a little carried away, but I hope you liked it! A lot of this chapter changed from the overall course I had planned, but from the beginning (even pre-hiatus) I had been looking forward to writing this one.

Again, I'd really appreciate a review for both chapters! Just an FYI, I wrote 19 pages of this 34 page two-parter all in one day. It's wonderful what being off sick from work will do for you! (Though I don't think it's COVID or anything, just a cold). Be safe, everyone!