A. N. Whew, I just barely finished in time. I'm going to leave for a short vacation today. I know this chapter's a bit rough, but I felt like I had a lot to say. I don't think I'll be able to post the next chapter until I get back (in about five days) but I'll have plenty of new material and I'll be online...I just won't get much posted.

Anyway, this should give a lot more insight on Yue's personality and her relationship with the Fire Nation and her family. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar; if I did then I wouldn't have thrown away 2.5 seasons of hints and evidence and foreshadowing in 10 minutes.

A Princess's Legacy

Chapter Two

Oh How I Miss My Penguins

It was only a few years ago that I learned what had happened after the war's end. My mother and the Avatar had been in a relationship at first. He made her feel like a kid again, but it only lasted a few months. Eventually they called it off and decided to just be friends. There hasn't been an awkward moment since, she says. They grew out of each other at exactly the same time, and never once has Aang or she had any regrets.

Zuko was engaged to be married to a Fire Nation girl named Mai, whom he'd been off and on with for a good portion of the war. He had thought he loved her at the time. Mom always reminded us that it was possible to love more than one person. But the engagement screeched to a stop. Even though the fighting had ended, a large percentage of the Fire Nation secretly sided with Azula and Ozai's beliefs. They had organized and hired an assassin to take out my father. A poison-tipped arrow had been aimed for his heart. But at the last moment, the assassin's finger slipped, and the arrow landed, with a loud thunk, in the side of Mai's throat. She had been gone before the servants had been able to notify the healers.

At a reunion on Ember Island, Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki had proudly announced their engagement. Joy and laughter had been everywhere. But Dad had been sitting on the fringe, keeping to himself, cut off. After everything that they had gone through, it seemed like he was still the least valued member of the group. My mom had joined him.

"I thought back to all of the times we'd fought against each other...I thought about the times when we had fought side by side...And I realized that he had understood me when no one else had. It just clicked." My mother had recounted the story a thousand times. Around the fire they revived their old bond.

When my mother and others visited him in the Fire Nation as a friend, Katara asked him why he had leaped in from of him during the last battle. They talked of their mothers and their families and what they wanted to do in the world. They grew closer.

When she returned as an ambassador from her Tribe, they grew closer still.

When she left home again, having no excuse left for her father or brother, or even herself, he asked her to stay. She said yes.

Aunt Suki told me that her husband fainted when he heard the news.

I was their second born. My brother, Miro, was first. He will take the throne. Even if the order was reversed, I know what the people want. A male firebender, with their skin and their eyes. Not a female waterbender, who took after her mother with a darker complexion and ice blue irises. But I don't wish to rule. It would pin me down. I would be separated forever from my other half.

My great-grandfather Pakku, ancient but still able to teach, began at the age of nine to invite me down to the South Pole for training. The rest of the family would visit, too, but my father can't leave his country for more than two weeks. My brother Miro would want to return, too; eager to practice for what would be his someday. I'd stay with my mother, though, and my skills grew. I became attached to my family and friends in the South and looked forward to the visits. I always felt like I belonged - like someone had reserved a place for me, a pocket that I could fill and call home.

Not that my parents hadn't tried to do the same in the Fire Nation. I had been born in the Water Tribe, because my mother felt that at least one of her children should have the opportunity to claim that right. She called the Southern Tribe "my dark side". I didn't understand what she meant until I heard the story behind my name. The dark side of the moon is a mystery. No one knows what it looks like, because we always see the same side. The people of the Fire Nation didn't know that part of my heritage. It was a mystery to them.

But Mom worked hard to change that, from the day of my birth. She had a museum built for the other three nations. Over half was dedicated to the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. People flocked to the building, but even so, many Fire Nation schoolteachers conveniently overlooked anything related to other cultures. She wouldn't give up. Of course not. She was Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, master waterbender and Fire Lady.

She began at the Fire Nation Royal Academy For Girls, where I attend now. She thought that young women, especially, should be more open-minded. Marching up the shiny marble steps, through the intimidating wooden door, and past the shocked faces of students and teachers alike, she wouldn't rest until the headmistress had gotten more than her fair share of the Fire Lady's mind.

My father supported her actions - he always does. Eventually it became necessary for an official order to go out to all schools, public and private. The customs and people of the other nations - including the Air Nomads, even though their numbers had dwindled to one - were required subjects for all students in the Fire Nation. The other nations followed suit.

Finally, the Fire Nation was a culturally diverse country, the perfect place for me to grow up.

It's almost time for me to visit Pakku and everyone else down at the South Pole again. Mom can't come with me this year. Her excuses are innumerable: she has to help Dad with some legal stuff; she wants to go visit Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph where they're staying in the Earth Kingdom; she's needed to spearhead a project focused on refurbishing the Western Air Temple; one of her best friends is heavily pregnant and she wants to be present for the birth. I'm getting the feeling that she filled her schedule on purpose. She's remembering her adventure days, when she was fourteen. When she started making a name for herself. She wants me to have an adventure. I was just pondering this as I hid behind a statue of Avatar Roku and his wife. It was almost safe now.

No one walks into my school alone. Teen girls clad in red and gold file into the monstrous building in pairs and small groups, talking about...well, I wouldn't know what girls talk about anymore. I was "out" by the age of seven.

Kalora Lon, the most popular girl in my age group, has an entourage of about twenty schoolgirls, all bustling around her asking questions and fawning over her. She lets everyone know what she thinks, but I'm the only one she ever goes out of her way to be mean to. She's outrageously beautiful, and she happens to be my second cousin once removed or something. So of course she never fails to giggle to her friends about what a poor excuse for a princess I am, or how she can't believe that we're even on the same family tree; thank Agni it's by marriage!

Her herd is always the last in school; her pointy-toed shoe fell fell into the shadow of the doorway almost too late. I scrambled to pick up my book bag and ran two steps at a time to get indoors just as the gong sounded. Close, but worth it.

First class of the day for me is World History. I yanked out the correct supplies from my cramped bottom locker and shoved the rest into the tiny space, barely able to shut the door.

First things first: reciting the new post-war pledge.

"I pledge to always remain faithful to my country

The Fire Lord Zuko

And his family."

My ears never fail to burn at that last line; at least one girl always glances at me.

"I pledge to commit my services to the Fire Nation

And do my best to keep the peace between the elements.

I pledge my skills and my spirit to my country

And to the world."

"Pop quiz!" shouted my teacher, Mrs. Kei Yon. I sat up straighter in my seat. Poor posture during a quiz would result in her firing at least twice as many questions at the student in question.

"What is the current Southern Water Tribe chief's name...Kata?"

Kata stood up, a tiny girl who always seemed to be bouncing. Rocking back and forth, she took her sweet time answering the question.

"Um...Is it...Wait, no...Lemme think...Ooh, I know! It's Chief... Sagoka, isn't it?"

Mrs. Kei Lan flicked her pointer stick on her desk. "No! Incorrect. Next question..." Her gold eyes swiveled to meet my blue ones.

"Yue!" she snapped. She was always harsher with me than the others, because it was really my fault that she couldn't have us recite the Fire Lords all day long.

"Which pole was the water Avatar Soran Ko from originally?"

I managed to take this in before Mrs. Kei Yon could yell at me. "Soran Ko was from the North Pole..." I'd probably be scolded for what I was about to say, but I wanted to contribute something. "But both of his parents had been born and raised in the Southern Tribe."

Mrs. Kei Yon released a sound that can only be describe as a squawk.

"Was that in yesterday's lesson, Yue?"

"Well, no, Mrs. Kei Yan, but -"

"But what?" I could hear Kalora and her worshipers giggling behind me. I looked at the ground before I answered, speaking as fast as I could so no one could stop me.

"I learned some of Soran Ko's family tree when I visited my family in the South Pole last summer," I said. My voice was barely audible. " I wasn't quite clear on what you were asking, so I -"

"I will have none of this nonsense in my classroom!" erupted my teacher. I swear I could see the smoke spilling out of her ears. "We are learning only what is in the lesson plan I have taken from the approved texts. None of this...this...unapproved knowledge!"

I couldn't stop myself. "But -"

"But nothing!"

I could hear Kalora loud and clear. "Oh, poor Yue. Now she'll have to go back with the penguins and live in her igloo where she belongs!" Over half the class exploded in laughter. I continued to admire Mrs. Kei Yon's shoes and the scroll in front of me.

At lunch I sat alone. Well, except for Mr. Lin and Mrs. Kai, who were playing Pai Sho in the corner. I always ate in my classroom. Yes, my classroom. It was the only place where I could learn waterbending. Pakku and the others from the South had given me countless scrolls to study, and the two tutors that were supposed to be teaching me were only moving targets when needed. The headmistress had given them both raises to observe waterbenders and teach me. It was a nice effort, but from Day One I'd told them that I could learn on my own.

Even though I had water, I didn't have the ocean, or snow, or ice, or anything I needed to really delve into the art. Still, I'd been learning in the redecorated storage closet ever since I'd started school here. The others girls learned firebending or other arts and made friends at lunch, but I'd never really been able to relate to anyone. Like my mind ran on a completely different track.

I sighed as the final bell rang, trying to cheer myself up. Kalora was right, after all. Only a week, then it's back to the penguins.

A. N. Hopefully that wasn't too bland. I told you that I had a lot to say.