Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar TLA, if I did it would be more like this and less like what city is. Also I would not have endorsed a live action adaptation, not even because it was bad, I just consider moving from animation live action as marching backwards.

Beta: N.A.

As Time Goes By: Part I

Azulon, Fire Nation Colonies:

Nervous, it was a new feeling to Azula. Well not truly, but she refused to acknowledge past lapses into this state. Now here she was standing before an assemblage of the Third Army to address them from a balcony as a general. Unblooded recruits, old men, the cowardly and corrupt; but still a mass of men with their attention solely placed on her. Mai and Ty lee stood behind her, unseen by those below, the Princess was grateful for their support however she had achieved it. Now to begin, with a final breath se let her voice fill the assembly yard.

"I imagine you think little of me.

"For most of you I have been nothing but a rumor passing into actual news from home. You've heard I killed a Waterbender in single combat and received instruction form a great general. But how believable is it? Would the Fire Lord not want you to think highly of his daughter, especially when his son is a disgrace?

"Is there anyone among you who doesn't think I would never have been granted the rank of general if my father wasn't our glorious Fire Lord? If there is I would be sorely disappointed.

"I am a cynic and a critic. I believe in striving for perfection rather than being content with adequacy. I believe it is better to be cruel in teaching so that the lesson is learned rather than being merciful and see mistakes repeated.

"I do not expect you to see me as more than my father's daughter and uncles' niece. They cast long shadows, and I accept the challenge of stepping out of them to cast my own.

"As such I promise you nothing. Rather I offer my ambition, for this army to once more be a name spoken with awe by ally and enemy alike," Azula concluded. They gave a hurrah with Benders shooting off their fire into the air. But that was all custom, it would be reports of what they said tonight that would determine if she had reached the rank and file. The higher ups would require a more personal touch.

Royal Palace, Fire Nation:

His wife was dead, Fire Lord Ozai thought again as he stood before her wrapped remains garbed in white. The Senior Sage was giving his elaborate death rites to the court and the assembled nobility including Ursa's nephew and himself.

He wasn't responsible for this; he had realized his wife needed to be removed. Yet he not actually gotten around to planning anything. He had considered poison, but somehow the planning had gotten away from him, and now she was dead of a simple misstep on the stairs. And to the best of his knowledge it was simply that, despite the sinister nature of the court, particularly under his reign, accidents did happen.

Death troubled him, it shouldn't he knew, not after all he had done. He had personally lead the razing of Ba Sing Se, felt supreme satisfaction as he used the power of Sozin's Comet to obliterate the grandest city the world hade ever known along with countless civilians. Yet as with his father he felt melancholy standing here.

He recalled his first meeting with Ursa after the announcement for their engagement had assured their marriage. Irritated already by his brother's congratulations, as if an arranged marriage was to be lauded, he had little patience for the empty courtship his father had insisted he do. In this instance it was a simple walk through the Eastern Gardens.

She had been beautiful, but that had little meaning to him. He had seen the beauties of the court from childhood and had laid with women enough for the appeal of the flesh to have dulled. She had been polite, and had after some awkward attempts at conversation settled for saying she looked forward to being his wife.

He had told her they were both being used for political gain; he did not require her to at otherwise. He had gone on to say since he was unlikely to be attached to her se was free to pursue an affair so long as she inquired all children were his and exercised discretion. She had been shocked at his blatant words as expected. But had then grinned and asked if he was only granting her liberty s he could pursue pretty young things.

He had laughed at her wit and the walk had continued and ended with a comfortable silence. For that day he had thought that even if it would not be like Iroh's marriage he and his wife could at least be close.

And they had been, not what he would call love, but allies and perhaps even friends. She had helped him advance in the court and he had granted her liberties as he promised, though she never pursued them to the utmost. She had been a woman worthy of respect then.

That had changed with Zuko. It had been the apex of their marriage the birth of a child from their union, he had felt true contentment that day sitting at his wife's bedside holding what he thought was his heir. It had not lasted.

The birth had changed his wife, he had been told such a thing might happen, but he had foolishly expected better from Ursa.

She had asked him during the fight that had ended the last pretense f affection in the relationship why being a father hadn't changed him. He could still recall the look of disappointment and perhaps pity she had held when he had asked why it would have changed his goals, simply having a child. From then on they had hardly been husband and wife Azula's conception the last he had taken a woman to bed.

Even as parents they had avoided one another, butting heads over Zuko's rearing had destroyed the stranger relationship they had. He had given up the got on his son once he learned he was to have another child. His wife had agreed that in exchange for his withdrawal from guiding his son she would allow him to have his way with this new child.

As was his right he was the one to ignite the pyre immolating her remains. Though he felt no sadness at this affair, he could not dismiss the regret tugging at him.

When they offered him the ink he would choose the black over the red, he would not choose to extend his marriage beyond death sealing it with crimson. He would remarry, and while he would have the pick of brides it would again be for politics.

He was past wanting more from a woman, what he required was heirs not tainted with Roku's blood. It was the natural explanation for his wretched children, the Avatar striking at Sozin's linage through tainting the bloodline. This time there would be no mistakes he would have a worthy vessel for his seed and he would guide and reject as many as needed until he had the heir he needed to secure his legacy.

Still the Fire Lord could not deny that he had regrets. His expression was unreadable before the yes of the court and priests in the twilight broken by funeral flames.

Sanin, Earth Kingdom:

Bumi was dressed in a white variation of his kingly robes. Well except for the black ostrich horse feathers in the head set. He was actually feeling depressed, true it was a funeral, but he was rarely depressed at funerals. Usually he did whatever mourning was needed beforehand and by this point was bored and wanted to get too the celebration of life stuff. But the fact he and the priest were the only one in attendance was just sad.

Okay, the man had been a first class bastard, but still there should be . . .

Should be what? The fact was he had here a person who had wasted their lives in one of the foolish ways, pursuit of power. He didn't understand what had made such a man, Bumi may have been a mad genius but some things were just beyond him.

The man had lost his family at some point, but that was no excuse Bumi only had a few memories of his father and his mother died birthing him. His father had been a minor bender, who spent decades working on the bending based delivery system of Omashu, his fondness for the old system was probably tied to his father in some strange p[psychological way. Though the same man who told him that had instead dreams of flying were naughty. If flying dreams were naughty then were naughty dreams actually about flying.

Yeah that gut had no answers either, last time the ministers tried o get him professional help. It was so fun to see them concede to the inevitable he had given them all their weight in rock candy.

Oh yeah, squandered life very sad and all that stuff, Bumi corrected his train of thought. He buried the coffin with his own bending and just like that it was over. Long Feng was dead and buried by the bender that had killed him.

He hadn't enjoyed it, he had never executed anyone in Omashu. While a realist who was willing to kill for the greater good Bumi saw his vast power as a bender and a king, not to mention genius as potent reasons to find better solutions than killing. And it had worked pretty good, he supposed.

But Long Feng had tried to comeback to power. Even after facing complete failure in the Wake of the Comet when the Council overthrew him and inmvited Bumi into the new government. Bumi had saved him from execution then, giving him Dai Li chief as a job with monitoring since his brilliant mind was an asset the kingdom could use.

But still the man had not been content. He had tried to take hos old power back and Bumi realized so long as he lived he would never cease to be a threat. So the Mad King had literally crushed him and many of his supporters.

Now they had given the Dai Li to some kid named Chiang and despite all the man had accomplished for good and ill in his life no one bothered to say goodbye.

It madeBumi feel old, he shouldn't feel old. He hadn't lived for more than a hundred years just to fel like he had seen a century!

He should go talk to Toph, his apprentice had the makings of a mad genius, and was quite funny when she got plum wine. Well she was usually funny, but she was much less angry when tipsy.

He recalled what she had said earlier.

"You and the Council will finally be able to run this war right," Toph continued hoping to get a rise out of the subdued madman.

"Eh, you forgot about the Earth King, after all we are doing this to restore him to power," Bumi chuckled. Toph rolled her eyes at the mention of that bear loving wimp, at least the Fire Lord wasn't impotent, even if he was the king of all jerks.

"Eh, I think we should just kick him out and put you on the throne," Toph answered with no small amount of sincerity.

"Don't be ridiculous, I would look ridiculous in that fancy hat," Bumi waved off the comment with one of his snorts.

Somewhere at Sea:

*Plop*

*plop*

*plop*

*plop*

*Cling!*

The metal clanged as the miniature water whip struck it. Katara immediately regretted the action; she had just been lifting the water from the bucket to practice when her temper got the better of her.

She blamed **** and the Prince for the temper she had acquired these last years. As a slave in the palace her situation had been hopeless and she had company in her misery. As the alibi for the Prince's quest she was alone and had escape just out of her reach.

Her bending had improved in bounds since she had gotten actual advice from an actual water bender. Brief as it was the woman had pointed her in the right directions and answered some vital questions. If only that was all her northern kinswoman had done.

When the door to her room opened she frowned as she looked up from her spot seated on the edge of her cot. Only two people came into her room and she doubted it was the General, she didn't have good luck.

She liked the General, if not for the circumstances she could even forget he was the enemy. But the fact was Iroh was free, if he woke one day and decided to return to the palace no one would have reason to stop him. Katara on the other hand was property; she had no say in where she went or how she was treated when she got there.

The Prince she didn't like. True she had a certain respect for him; he was a diligent man and while not compassionate had never displayed cruelty to her or the crewmen. What she disliked was his belief he was better than everyone on the ship but his uncle. He never said it or even tried to demonstrate it beyond the duties of commanding the ship, but she felt it was loud in its unspoken declarations. It was the feeling that he never bothered treating anyone else with extreme emotions because he simply saw them as beneath him, interacting a chore to be done efficiently with no more effort than needed.

Just like now, when he took in her, the bucket, and the water dripping down the wall.

"I wanted to throw something," she told him with a mean smile she had developed over the years of enslavement. He frowned slightly, not because he was angry, but because he disliked senseless things.

"You seem more maddened all the time. If Uncle wasn't fond of you I would sell you back to the Palace," The Prince told her before stepping back into the corridor closing the doors behind him.

Everyone was avoiding Prince Zuko; his normally polite but mildly unpleasant demeanor had taken a turn for the worse since yesterday. Word had come about his mother's death, apparently it wasn't even that, he was informed of he funeral, that it had already happened.

Some thought he was angry over the slight of not even being invited back for the funeral of his mother, Katara knew better. Grief was something you couldn't fake, and the Prince had been hit hard by his mothers' death. Despite constantly reminding herself the Prince and the late Fir Lady were both enemies, leaders of the Fire Nation, she couldn't help but have some sympathy for her captor.

But that was fading with his actions. He had seriously burned a man during a spar, he would recover, but the scar on his arm would be large and permanent. And it was only a matter of time until the next one. The General was trying but seemed unable to get through to his nephew.

Which was why Katara was leaning against the railing looking over the stern of the ship, the Prince rarely came back here. Something about looking ever ahead rather back the way you came, some such philosophy, or had that been the General describing the Prince?

The point was that she could come here without being bothered.

"You spend a lot of time looking at the ocean," the Prince commented as he stepped out of the hatch onto the deck. Katara wondered when she would just accept catching breaks just wasn't in her karma? Had she been a bad person in a past life, because she honestly could not recall deserving being stuck on a boat with a bunch of men who just so happened to be enemies by birth.

"So much water must be unsettling to a Firebender. My people revere the ocean," Katara answered. She turned to face him leaning her back on the rail alas he stood by the hatch.

"The moon spirit is the benign one, your people have a fearful respect for the ocean, it is the darker of the two," the Prince pointed out with a superior air. She did not appreciate being told about her own people's beliefs like she didn't know better. Katara had about had it with his attitude.

"Your highness, everyone's sad about your loss. Even me, and I don't even like you. So why don't you stop taking it out on others and just try and boil the ocean or something," Katara answered. She knew it was going far but what did she really have too loose.

"You have no right too . . ." Zuko began his fists clenching before his eyes widened a moment in recognition. Katara couldn't help but give a nasty smile at his slip up.

"Oh, forgot that I know what it is too loose a mother. Because your glorious Fire Nation has no problem killing mothers fathers, sons, daughters, and pretty much anyone. Maybe you'll appreciate why people fight against your oh so great empire now," Katara spat, she stood up and walked past him. She was passing into the hatch when he spoke up.

"Have you ever thought it would have been better had your people surrendered?

"The Southern Tribes have fought valiantly in this war, but for all the sacrifices your people have made you face extinction. Either falling with the Earth Kingdom, or assimilated into the Northern Tribe. All that remains is whether your people fall with a whimper or a roar, but they will fall.

"Had your people surrendered years ago your mother would not have been killed in that raid. You would probably be a free subject of the occupied South Pole, rather than a slave whose homeland is deserted and your people scattered?" Zuko asked. He stopped being sarcastic his tone shifting to more thoughtful, but not sympathetic.

Katara took her leave closing the hatch behind her with unnecessary force. Any longer and she may have slipped revealing her bending and loosing the one ace that might see her free. Did he forget? They had spoken like this before.

"Would it have been so terrible for your people to bend the knee to Blazing Throne and spared your people and so many Fire Nation soldiers death and suffering?" he had asked once. She countered with the idea of freedom, and that no element was meant to rule over another. He was unmoved, simply remarking about the world changing, and that her people having refused to change were being left behind.

It wouldn't have hurt so much if a part of her didn't believe it as she stormed into the ship.

Kiyoshi Island, Earth Kingdom:

"Another toast! To our glorious Chieftain Hakoda, for raising a hero!" Bato called out as he lifted his cup the warrior's voce was a little blurry, but he and the men had reason to celebrate.

The water tribe warriors had gathered for the feast prepared for tem by the people of Kiyoshi, who had become adept at preparing more water tribe style cuisine since the base had come to dominate their island. It was a standard stone long building such as the Earth Kingdom used for mess halls and the like, but the Southern Water Tribe had since customized it with pelts and the like claiming it for their own.

Hakoda stood to accept his means cheers from his place at the head of the table. The Kiyoshi warriors in attendance were mire reserved, and less drunk. Kiyoshi had been a rather back water place before the course of the war made it a strategic asset and home base for the Southern Water Tribe Remnant, but still stiff-necked Earther sentiments held a certain sway.

Ironically it was a stupid rivalry between Hakoda's own son and Suki, the leader of the Kiyoshi warriors that had lead to the two warrior traditions coming together. The father could not help but be amused by the fact most of his sons successes came about by accident. Sokka seemed eternally jinxed in small things while getting absurdly lucky when it mattered. Which would mean a successful life, but one also filled with frustration, the chieftain actually laughed at that thought.

Though this victory was no accident, Sokka and Suki had gone against standing orders and used their forces to seize a Fire Nation battleship! Not an old vessel either, part of the new line that had been challenging the naval frontier these last years.

And now she belonged to the Earth Kingdom, intact, supplied, and more than a hundred prisoners to be exchanged or put to work in the penal mines. It was the definition of victory.

Yes he saw his Sokka had slipped away at some point, his place at the table vacant. Suki had excused herself when matters started to get rowdy. A number of the Kiyoshi warriors had adopted more of the laidback "barbaric" Southern mannerisms and Suki was determined to remain an example of her own people's traditions. Poor girl, she wasn't nearly so stiff necked as she tried to present herself.

But Sokka loved celebrations and was never one to turn down a meal. And now that he was gaining the recognition he had sought since the day Hakoda had returned for his son, he was nowhere to be seen.

Troubling, but despite appearances the Southern Tribe did have its etiquette, which said Hakoda couldn't excuse himself from the celebration. At least not until he lost consciousness, he recalled taking another drink.

It was the next day, after a local cure for hangovers, that Hakoda found his son. Sokka was leaning in the late morning sun on a railing looking down at the harbor facilities. The island had grown a lot in a short time. He would bet there were more military and Southern Water Tribe here now than Kiyoshans. And even they had changed with the way of life in functioning to support the military rather than just subsisting.

The base dominated the island pushing the villagers back from the harbor to accommodate new docks and repair stations. Life on Kiyoshi had gone from avoiding the war to revolving around waging it. True the government had given some compensation like building a new more impressive Shrine to Kiyoshi and payment for land seized, but it still rankled with some of the locals.

He understood the village of Shin was perpetually upset they had been "passed over" as the site for the naval base. Those jerks don't even have a decent harbor so Hakoda just wished they would stop whining. At least the government had declared Avatar Day unpatriotic and ordered them to cease and desist or else.

"Sokka the men missed their hero at the feast," Hakoda greeted the boy as he took a spot next to him. Though he supposed he couldn't even idly think of his son as a boy now, he may still be a little strange but this was just the latest instance of proving himself a great warrior.

"Not all of them," Sokka answered, quite subdued. Hakoda recognized the glint in his son's eye and cursed himself for not realizing it.

"You are thinking about the men you lost," the Chieftain guessed sagely. It was the first command the boy had had, and even minimal causalities weren't the same as none.

"And two of Suki's girl's," Sokka amended looking a bit annoyed.

"It's the burden of command son. Try as you might you can't bring everyone back. At the very least they died for victory, knowing that I am sure their spirits moved on in peace," Hakoda placed a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder.

"Yeah, one battleship out of how many?" Sokka snapped, shrugging off the hand as he stood up.

"One less now, and it will help keep the kingdom safe from others like her. You're smart Sokka I don't need to tell you what you and your, people achieved.

"It won't win the war but you brought back hope. Not just to the soldiers, but to the people here and under the Fire Nation's boot. The Fire Lord likes to think we are just delaying the inevitable hiding behind forts and mine fields from his invincible military.

"We aren't, even if we are on the defensive we can fight back and so long as that is true we can hope to beat them back. You defeated the Fire Nation in waters they claim to control. It's a valuable reminder to us as well as them.

"The war is not over, and we're not about to give up," he firmly told his son as a chieftain of the South. Switching back to father he smiled a mischievous mile that had Sokka on guard.

"Now Suki's been asking after you," Hakoda changed the subject looking sly. Sokka squawked and bolted to his feet before dashing off. Heh, that boy was destined to be wrapped around some girl's finger. Hakoda just hoped it wasn't Suki, she was a fine warrior and all, but he just had something else in mind for a daughter-in-law.

Daughter, here he was trying to avoid the elephant-bull in the room. He felt guilty for not sharing the report with Sokka, and more so for not having investigated it himself. The Crown Prince of the Fire Nation searching for the Avatar with his infamous uncle, and a slave girl of the Water Tribe.

The name wasn't uncommon, and even then it wasn't certain intelligence had gotten the name right. It was an afterthought to them.

To a father though was the question that mattered most. He hoped he would have an answer soon while knowing it was a foolish hope. Because if Sokka found out, it was a certainty he would do something foolish no matter how slim the chances.

AN:

Well I can offer no excuses. I got caught up in my other stories and left this old friend waiting in the cold. I am sorry, but you are sick of hearing that I imagine. I almost wish someone would tear into me cause that would mean people still cared about this neglected project.

Well I returned to Sanin, but not the way I was hoping a year ago. Shameful.

Anyway, short chapters like the early days of KLW are my latest harebrained scheme to get this project moving. I figure chapters divided up into parts with less than 10lk each will be easier to slip in with my PDJ work and other projects. At this rate steady updates regardless of length would bean improvement.

Still need to fix that continuity error too.

Well Happy New Year, among other thing I am hoping for greater productivity in writing and seemingly abandoned stories I like being revived.