Aang's spine tingled at the sight of her. It happened every time he had thought about that night, when she emerged from the shadow to do something he hadn't known possible. Only now the feeling returned with one hundred times the force.
He'd known since meeting her eyes that it wouldn't be their last encounter.
He'd told Katara and Sokka about it, mostly to heap some terror off his chest and partly because they should know what firebending could and would do in certain hands.
Katara fussed over him, which he enjoyed. She hadn't found any injuries but a few cuts and nicks from the fragments of exploding tile.
She'd been whipped into a fury that the firebender would attack while he was delivering the governor's son.
Aang felt the need to inform her Tom-Tom had been safely in his parent's arms by that time. At least she hadn't attacked him until the baby was safe.
Katara chided him for giving the firebender even that much credit. He couldn't help it. In his book, it showed that she wasn't all bad.
Aang didn't think he'd ever be the beneficiary of her good side though.
His waterbending master insisted that to strike another warrior from behind was a despicable tactic. Aang decided not to mention she'd kind of done the same thing to Master Pakku, though without lethal intent.
Despite being her brother, and therefore possessing the years of experience this entailed, Sokka did not share his wisdom. He got off with a warning look before Katara huffed and said that had been different.
She didn't get any argument, but that probably wouldn't have been the case had Toph been with them then. The girls had been at each others' throats all night.
Now, as a group of four, they held the numerical advantage against the oncoming trio riding the backs of mongoose-dragons. Especially with such a prodigious earthbender by their side.
Well, Toph dismissed Sokka's warrior skills, but Aang knew he was an asset. Besides...
"Only the girl in the middle can firebend, Toph," Aang said.
Sokka nodded furiously. "That's right! You gonna count them!?"
Toph cracked her neck on both sides. "Well then, this should be easier than I thought."
Earth spikes burst under each attacker, but the reptiles crawled over them without faltering or throwing off their riders.
As they approached, Aang hurriedly shared the most important bit of information. "Toph, she can shoot lightning."
"She can what?"
"How about we get out of here before it comes to that?" Sokka urged, already headed for Appa's saddle. Aang and Katara followed as Toph raised a wall of earth to dwarf the mongoose dragons.
From his airborne bison, Aang watched as she conjured the streaks of light and heat that haunted him. The explosion carved a hole for the lizards to crawl through. The destruction made him think of Jeong Jeong's lessons. But this firebending was precisely controlled.
Toph launched herself up before the gloomy girl's knives struck, landing next to Aang.
"Whoa," Toph said.
Aang nodded grimly.
"I still don't like this running away. We should stand our ground and fight. When a challenger comes to my ring, I show him the way out."
"Get used to it," Sokka said through a yawn. "Running from firebenders is kind of our thing."
"Don't underestimate them," Katara warned. Aang felt her tensing up with fear. Katara didn't want to lose her bending again.
Aang wouldn't let harm befall his friends.
Azula wordlessly rode her mount back into the stable car of the tank train. Her friends quickly followed.
Her twin advisers, Lo and Li, would continue rotating shifts of driving the vehicle. Meanwhile, Mai, Ty Lee, and herself would rest between each attack, wearing down the Avatar and his companions.
Azula altered their sleep schedule to be the antipode of their target, waking up refreshed the moment the Avatar would begin setting up their hovel of a camp.
She'd realized the attack could not end when sky beast was out of sight. They could not wait even the next day to track him down. The Avatar was simply too talented at escape. He'd evaded capture and extermination for one hundred years already.
Bringing the Avatar down required continuous, unrelenting pursuit. Each attack would be more brutal than the last as their resistance withered. She would be struck every time the bison landed.
The bison could not fly indefinitely. One of many disadvantages of relying solely on beasts for transport. Machines, however, required only fuel and oil to function. Azula exploited every advantage.
And the beast made it easy to track them over hundreds of miles. Simpleton airbender. Letting the sky bison leave a trail of hair for them to follow.
Azula retreated to her private car, furnished with decor befitting the Crown Princess. What space she had represented a small taste of luxury that awaited her victorious return to the palace. Red curtains, silken sheets, a tasteful tapestry of Sozin's Comet, worth more than three decades of peasant wage.
She couldn't say the same awaited Zuzu and her hippo-cow of an uncle. Perhaps Father would send them to the Boiling Rock? She became giddy at the thought of her final victory in the one-sided sibling rivalry.
Azula shut her eyes and knelt on the cool, metal floor. She timed the in and out, the shallowness and depth of her breath, the key to firebending. Had Zuzu ever figured that out?
Blue fire tipped four candles, one in each corner of the room. The flames grew and diminished as dictated by her will. Four identical fires blooming in unison. Then each at different heights. They reached for the ceiling and fell in a competitive song and dance.
The meditation kept her mind sharp, her senses alert. She would not sleep. The hunt would end long before that need came. When next she slept, the Avatar would be captured or dead.
Azula didn't share the pervasive obsession with taking him alive. Understandable for her brother, she supposed. Zuzu pined to reclaim his honor, and as a man without honor, his word held no value. He needed the proof of a body at least; charred remains would be called into question.
But Zhao should have turned the airbender to ashes the moment he'd been captured. The ambitious fool had likely wanted to present the Fire Lord with a living trophy, as all nobles of the court bore witness, inflating his ego.
She understood the appeal of this glory. Azula embodied it. And Zhao like all others envied the royal family's dominance, as well he should.
Regardless, killing the Avatar remained the simplest method. It wasn't as if a toddler would be a threat to the Fire Nation. With Sozin's Comet approaching, the war would end as it began. They could simply destroy the whole of inferior nations.
Melt every iceberg the Water Tribe hid behind, and the newborn Avatar would simply drown in that benign cesspool. Frostbitten savages provided no use to the world's rulers.
The crowning achievement her country thirsted for would arrive in a few months. They would rain fire upon Ba Sing Se from their developing airships, sailing over its futile walls. Domestication of the Earth Kingdom's population would proceed smoothly after the war ends. Every earthbender would be imprisoned or slain. Eventually the crude tradition would die out.
It won't matter who the Avatar is if the roots of bending are lost. Even if the next Avatar discovered their bending, it would take years to train them, and by that point Azula would snuff them out. It could even be a family vacation, or a task for her children.
Then what to do when the Avatar is born in the Fire Nation? That would be interesting. Perhaps her child would have the honor. That seemed suitable to her, having that power wielded by her bloodline.
Ah, but who would teach them the other arts? Certainly there would earthbenders willing to sell their services. A simple taste of luxury would be enough to hook them. People will take any opportunity to crawl out from their poverty.
The warning bell disrupted her fanciful musings. Azula opened her eyes and let the flames die.
Lo… or was it Li's shift to steer the vehicle? Either way, the trail had been spotted.
Azula stood and stretched, ready to kill. She had let fantasy overtake her in relaxation.
The world didn't need an Avatar to keep balance. It had Azula to enforce imperial will. It wasn't as if the cycle would continue anyway. There would be no airbenders left.
She and the girls rode out, following the white trail. It lead them to a river where they found... 'clumps' Ty Lee and Mai decided.
So they'd finally smartened up and washed the sky beast's fur. Too late.
It fooled Mai, but Azula keenly saw through the shamefully desperate ruse. The damaged treetops were a dead giveaway.
She assigned the capture of the others to her team and followed a trail the Avatar so generously left for her to find.