Book One: Fire
Chapter Five: The Fire In A Bender's Heart
By: Storychan
Hey, readers! I want to start by saying I'm super honored that y'all have left me so many nice reviews! Thank you! But, there are a couple questions several of you have been asking me that I would like to address. No, there will not be any Zutara in this fic –sorry. I ship it, too, but I've decided it doesn't work for this particular AU. But, maybe one of my future ATLA fic projects will be a Zutara one. I've also been asked how Aang is going to learn Waterbending – don't worry, I do have a plan for that. I won't reveal the secret just yet, because that would be spoilers, but, no, he isn't going to learn from Katara.
Anyway, about this chapter….I've been basing each chapter so far on a canon episode, and, by that sequence, the next one would be "The King of Omashu". But, I feel like that's really a "filler" episode: not a lot happens, and most of it focuses on Aang. Katara and Sokka didn't feature prominently in the episode, so I feel like Azula and Zuko being there wouldn't make things that much different. So, for that reason, I decided to skip the episode and move directly on to the events of "Imprisoned" (because it's going to be much more Azula-centric and interesting). I will say that it's canon for the fic that they went to Omashu and met Bumi, but I just don't think it's necessary to write it all out. So, with that said, shall we continue with the story? Enjoy!
-Storychan
The trio had been travelling for a few days since leaving Omashu. Azula was glad Aang had been able to reunite with his friend, though she couldn't say it had been particularly exciting for her. She'd spent most of that time partially encased in crystal (she still wasn't sure if she forgave Bumi for holding her hostage like that). Now, they had landed and made camp in a lush Earth Kingdom forest.
"I think I've found some food," Zuko announced. "Nuts, berries, and a few mushrooms….assuming they're not poisonous."
Aang frowned uncertainly, then gasped when a huge BOOM suddenly emanated from a nearby clearing.
"Water Tribe?" Azula guessed, immediately arming herself with a ball of fire.
"Water Tribe doesn't 'boom'," Zuko shook his head. "They 'splash'."
"Then, who could it be?" Aang asked with a worried look.
"Let's do some renaissance and find out," Zuko suggested. Silently, he led the two younger Benders to a fallen tree, which they peered over with trepidation. From their vantage point, they saw a young man in green clothing moving a boulder around in practiced circles.
"An Earthbender," Azula realized, her calculated gaze gauging the stranger's power. Was he a stronger Bender than herself? More importantly, was he stronger than the Water Tribe? And could he be recruited?
"Let's go talk to him," Aang smiled.
"Not so fast," Zuko warned with a whisper. "We need to approach with caution."
But, impulsive Azula was already darting out from their hiding place to greet the stranger. "Hello!" she called out. "My name is Azula. I've never met an Earthbender before. I'd like to see what you can do."
The boy gasped and dropped his boulder in shock. Eyes wide, he scampered away into the distance, sealing the path behind him with some rocks so that they could not follow.
"Hey!" Azula frowned. "I was just trying to talk to you!" She sighed, knowing he was already gone.
"It's ok, Azula," Aang comforted. "If there's people out here, that means there's a village nearby. And where there's a village, there's a market. We can buy some really good food tonight."
"It's got to be safer than my mushrooms," Zuko agreed.
"Just about anything," Azula laughed, brightening, "would be safer than that."
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As they walked to the edge of the forest towards the town, they saw that many trees had been cut down. Some stumps had axes stuck in them, as if they were left there by lumberjacks who would be returning shortly.
"This town must have a thriving lumber industry," Zuko realized.
Aang and Azula were too focused on other things to reply as they stepped through the town gates. Aang was hungry, and immediately headed toward the market to trade for ingredients for their dinner. Azula, on the other hand, was still consumed with thoughts of the Earthbender. To her delight, she spotted him disappearing through the door of a small shop with a green pagoda roof.
Ha! You won't get away from me that easily, she thought, and chased after him.
"Haru!" called the shopkeeper, who appeared to be the boy's mother. "You're late!"
"Hey!" Azula interrupted, paying no attention to the older woman. "Why did you run away from me before?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," the boy denied. "I'm sorry, miss, but I've never seen you before in my life."
"Liar!" Azula accused.
Aang and Zuko traipsed into the shop when they heard Azula shouting.
"We saw you Earthbending," Zuko backed his sister up.
The shopkeeper gasped and shut the doors and windows. "They saw you what?" she hissed, eyes wide.
"Don't listen to them!" the Earthbender waved his hands desperately. "They're obviously foreigners – just look at their clothes!"
Azula and Zuko looked down at their bright-Fire Nation-red tunics, self-conscious. Aang tried not to look at his Airbender tattoos.
"You know what would happen if you were caught," the shopkeeper warned, ignoring the trio. "You know what they would do if they saw you Bend."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Zuko peered through the blinds and saw, with alarm, that it was a blue-coated brave from the Water Tribe!
"Hide," he warned, and shoved his sister and Aang under the shop counter, before ducking under it himself. Not a moment later, the Water Tribe man entered with a swagger.
"We already paid you this week," the shopkeeper said defiantly.
"The tax has gone up," the Waterbender shrugged. "Call it flood insurance. " He uncapped the gourd of water on his hip before adding threateningly, "You just never know when a tidal wave is going to rise up and, say, wipe a shop off the map."
The shopkeeper got the message, and forked over a purseful of coins.
"You can keep the copper ones," the Waterbender sneered, letting them fall out of his hand onto the floor with a clink as he exited the shop with the larger denominations of coin held tightly in his fist.
As soon as he exited, Azula leapt up from her hiding place, seething. "The nerve of that guy!" she growled. "Are you seriously just going to take that?!" She wanted to burn the smug smirk right off his face.
Zuko motioned for his sister to ssh when he saw the shopkeeper's offended look. "How long has the Water Tribe been in the area?" he asked calmly.
"Five years," the skopkeeper replied, stooping to pick the copper coins up off the floor. "Water Lord Hakoda uses our lumber to build his ships."
Azula didn't doubt that Prince Sokka's new warship could have been hewn from lumber stolen from this town's people. She scowled as she considered the injustice.
"The Water Tribe are thugs," Haru elaborated, looking as furious as Azula felt. "They steal from us, and everyone's too scared of being hit with a tsunami to do anything about it."
"Quiet, Haru," the shopkeeper hushed. "If they hear you talking like that, you'll be struck by a boomerang faster than you can say treason."
"But," Azula protested, "Haru is an Earthbender! Why doesn't he rise up and answer their boomerangs with a rock to their faces?"
"Earthbending is forbidden," the shopkeeper explained. "It has causes this village nothing but trouble."
"Forbidden?!" Azula repeated, incredulous. "How can you say such a thing? Bending is a gift from the spirits themselves, given to us so that we can fight to protect what we love! That's like asking my brother and I not to Firebend – it's part of who we are!"
"You don't understand," the shopkeeper frowned.
"I understand," Azula insisted, "that Haru's Earthbending could help this village avenge the injustice it has suffered."
"What are you afraid of?" Zuko asked, agreeing with his sister.
"I'm afraid," the shopkeeper confessed, "that the Water Tribe will take Haru away from me – like they took his father!"
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Haru led them to a barn, informing them that they could seek shelter there for the night, if they wished. He warned them that they would have to leave the next morning. The trio accepted this with a guilty look.
"I'm sorry for losing my temper earlier," Azula apologized, walking down the path near the barn with Haru. "I didn't know about your father."
"It's alright," Haru forgave easily. "The fiery way you were talking earlier – it reminded me of him."
"Thank you," said Azula. "It never occurred to me that someone from another nation could be a firebrand like me…."
"But, he was," Haru recalled. "When the Water Tribe invaded, he and the other Earthbenders were outnumbered ten to one. But, they fought back with more courage than I ever thought possible."
"I admire that," said Azula quietly.
"Me, too," Haru replied, sitting down on a rocky outcropping that overlooked the forest. "After the revolt, the Water Tribe rounded up every Earthbender in the village who had fought and took them away."
"All those that knew how to fight left my village, too," Azula empathized. "I wanted so badly to go chasing after them, and fight with them."
"But, in my case," Haru frowned. "Going where my father and those brave men went means going away forever. Still, Bending is the only way I can feel close to him…."
"See this headpiece?" Azula said softly, pulling a small, three-pronged, flame-shaped accessory from her topknot. "My mother gave it to me. She said it was traditionally worn by the Princess of the Fire Nation. She told me to wear it to remind myself that even though the Water Tribe had stolen my family's throne, deep down in my veins, my blood was still royal - and that meant I was destined for great things. They couldn't take that away."
Haru stared at the hair accessory as it glittered in the fading sunlight with an understanding look.
"The Water Tribe is the reason my mother was forced to abandon my family," Azula continued. "She knew they were planning a raid, so she fled before they could hurt her – or my brother and I could get caught in the crossfire. This headpiece is all I have left of her."
"It's not enough," Haru asked empathetically, "is it?"
"No," Azula frowned. "Not even close."
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"Timber!" a voice shouted suddenly, and Haru and Azula looked out into the distance and saw a villager chopping down a tree. A capricious wind blew, and, instead of falling neatly, the tree knocked a boulder as it fell. The boulder was pushed down the hillside before landing on top of the lumberjack!
"Help!" the man cried, screaming with pain.
"We have to do something," Azula urged. Running to the man, she attempted to pull him out from under the boulder, but he remained pinned. "Help me, Haru!" Azula pleaded.
Haru tugged on the man's arms, as Azula did, but it only succeeded in making the man scream more.
"You know you have the power to do something about this, Haru," Azula hinted. It was no different than her feeling that not fighting the Water Tribe with Firebending when she had the opportunity to do so was unnatural. The years she'd resisted the urge to leave home and fight had made her feel as if her fire was burning inside her veins, begging to be free to ignite. Haru must feel the urge to Bend inside him as well.
Haru hesitated for a moment, still uncertain if it was worth the risk.
"Come on, you coward!" Azula snapped. "A man is suffering! You have a duty to act! Nobody is around to see you, so just do it!"
Haru relented, and Earthbended the boulder off the man's back.
"I knew you could do it," Azula said proudly, helping the man up, whose eyes had gone wide as saucers.
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"Haru's Earthbending power was amazing," Azula told Aang and Zuko excitedly later, at the barn.
"Well, you gave him the courage to use it," Aang complimented, reclining on his back.
"Yes!" Azula said, smiling. "Who knows what else we can inspire this town to do? Perhaps we can convince them to stand up for themselves!"
"We don't have time to involve ourselves in local politics," Zuko disagreed from under his Fire Nation-flag blanket. "We're leaving at dawn."
"Dawn?" Azula protested.
"You're the one who said Firebenders should rise with the sun," Zuko recalled.
"It's not about that," Azula argued. "I want to help these people."
"Well, I want to keep you safe," Zuko insisted, "and there's no safety for us in a town occupied by an entire Water Tribe war band. If we don't leave at the first opportunity, we could wake up six feet underwater."
"I'd rather be underwater," Azula said sharply, "then leave this town under the Water Tribe's thumb."
"Good night," Zuko muttered, extinguishing the lamp with his Bending, and abruptly ending the conversation. I had to leave Ty Lee behind to save herself, he thought. But my sister's safety? I can do something about that – and I will, whether she likes it or not. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The next morning, Azula put out the last embers of the fire on which they had cooked their dinner the night before, a triumphant look on her face. "See, Zuzu?" she smirked. "Nobody drowned us in our sleep. You were worried for nothing. We're safe."
"But Haru isn't!" said the shopkeeper, bursting into the barn suddenly with tears streaming down her face. "They took him!"
Azula gasped, her smirk vanishing instantly. The lumberjack, she realized. Did that honorless, ungrateful swine turn Haru in after he saved his life?
Zuko had too much honor to tell his sister he'd told her so, but the thought occurred to her anyway.
"You were right," she said miserably. "I told Haru to stand and fight, and you told me that provoking the Water Tribe would have consequences. Zuko, my whole life you've been telling me to keep my head down to keep myself safe – I know that! But I flew off like a spark, like I always do, and did what I wanted, anyway. This is my fault! I have to save him."
"Appa can track him," Aang offered.
"No," Azula shook her head bitterly. "He's long gone by now – too far away to track. The Water Tribe – I'll get them to lead me right to Haru!"
"And how do you plan to do that?" Zuko protested, bewildered. "You think you can intimidate them?"
"No - I'm going to get myself arrested," Azula declared, "for Earthbending."
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"I thought you were crazy at first, Azula," Aang grinned, "but this plan is actually genius! I just have to hide behind this vent, right, and send some air to the vent you're standing next to and levitate a rock off of it – then, boom, fake Earthbending?"
"Yes!" Azula nodded, proud of her plan. "This shall be glorious!"
"This shall be dangerous," Zuko argued. "Intentionally being arrested by the Water Tribe – do you ever think about your own safety, Azula?"
"Right now," Azula said firmly, "the only person's safety I can think about is Haru's. I have to rescue him."
Zuko wasn't entirely convinced – a part of him wondered if this was just more of his sister's impulsiveness, like a flame leaping suddenly skyward. But, he knew he could no more stop her than stop a fire from burning hot.
"They're coming!" Aang hissed, ducking behind the boulder where he hid as three Water Tribe braves, clad in azure furs and armed with sharp boomerangs, swaggered into view.
Zuko immediately stated his scripted line: "Out of my way, little girl!"
"How dare you!" Azula replied, acting. "I'm no little girl – I am a lady of the Earth Kingdom! And you should get out of my way, you shaggy-haired fool!"
"Shaggy-haired fool?" Zuko repeated with mock offense.
"Yes! Your shaggy hair makes you look stupidly melancholy, like you should be singing some song about how sad your life is! With your hair down like that, you look like an emotional girl!"
"Shut your mouth!" Zuko glared. Internally, he actually hoped she did shut it – he was still a bit sensitive about the fact that he'd abandoned his last hope of a proper topknot at the Western Air Temple.
"I will not shut my mouth!" Azula huffed, the perfect actress. "You should shut your hair up in a hat before birds mistake it for hanging moss and nest there! I'll teach you better than to disrespect an Earthbender like myself – EARTHBENDING STYLE!" She dramatically posed as if summoning her power.
Nothing happened.
"I said, Earthbending style!" Azula hissed. Was Aang going to ruin her plan?
The second time, Aang was paying attention, and sent a blast of air shooting through the vents, which lifted the boulder high into the air.
"Look!" Zuko cried. "This girl is Earthbending! I'll hold her while you arrest her!"
The Waterbenders surged forward to cuff Azula's wrists. She smirked.
"You have 12 hours to save Haru," Zuko whispered in her ear as they dragged her away. "After that, I will come for you, ready or not." It took all his self-control to stop himself from preventing the Water Tribe men from dragging his sister off to their boat. It reminded him far too much of the day Ty Lee had been taken.
I hope you know what you're doing, little sister, he thought to himself as he watched Azula and her "captors" sail away into the distance.
Aang put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"And my hair," he added with a stubborn expression, "looks fantastic."
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"Welcome, Earthbenders," proclaimed a bearded man with a long warrior's wolf-tail in an ermine-lined navy cloak, "to my humble ship. I am your warden. I hope you will think of yourselves not as prisoners, but as my guests. My tribe's hospitality is…."
An elderly Earthbender who stood next to Azula coughed.
"WHO DARES INTERRUPT MY SPEECH!" the warden snapped, his expression changing instantly. He shot a wall of water at the man, who drew back in fear as the wave splashed at his heels. "The way of my tribe is to punish those who dishonor those that show them hospitality! Take him away!"
Two braves dragged the struggling man below deck as Azula watched, wishing she could interfere.
"May the spirits guide him towards a lesson on respect during his week in solitary," the warden proclaimed. "Now, if the rest of you can simply respect me, your elder, you will need no such rituals of education."
Azula's eyes narrowed.
"You Earthbenders should know," the warden continued, "that this ship is made entirely of wood. It's funny, isn't it, how your kind can bend the stones of the earth but not the trees that grow from it. How interesting that there is nothing you are capable of bending here."
He led them to a pen-like area of the deck where other Earthbenders were splitting logs with axes, sweat beading at their brows.
"So if you were considering using the harsh, calmness-lacking motions you call Bending to escape," the warden continued, "think again. Good day." With that, he slid the heavy wooden door of the area shut, and Azula and the other arrested Benders were sealed within on all sides but the sky above.
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Azula strode through the sea of dejected-looking Earthbenders with purpose until she found him.
"Haru!" she cried with relief.
"Azula?" Haru gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Your capture was my fault," Azula explained. "If I hadn't shot off like a flame, without thinking, and insisted you help that lumberjack, you never would have been arrested. The only way to restore my honor after such a mistake was to come and save you."
"So, you got yourself arrested?" said Haru, incredulous.
"It was the only way," Azula replied.
"You have courage, Azula," Haru complimented. "I admire that."
Azula beamed.
"Come," he said, taking her by the hand. "There's someone I want you to meet." He led her to a white-haired, older man who was eating a bowlful of gruel in the corner.
"This is my father, Tyro," Haru introduced. "Father, this is Azula."
"It is an honor to meet a brave revolutionary such as yourself," said Azula, bowing. She was excited to meet someone who had done what she dreamed of doing, and revolted.
"Some revolutionary," Tyro shrugged. "I lost." He held up his bowl of gruel to Azula. "Have some," he offered, "it's not as bad as it looks."
Azula accepted the bowl gratefully and took a bite. She winced at the taste.
"It's still pretty bad," Tyro admitted. Suddenly, another, older prisoner tapped him on the shoulder.
"Tyro," the prisoner said. "The prisoners are complaining again. They're saying there's not enough blankets to go around."
"I'll talk to the guards," Tyro sighed. "In the meantime, we'll hope for warmer weather." Azula made a mental note to Bend the freezing prisoners a warm fire later, when the guards weren't watching.
"So," she asked Tyro, looking to the experienced revolt leader for guidance, "what is your escape plan?"
"Excuse me?" Tyro scoffed.
"Your plan to get off this ship," Azula pressed. "What is it?"
"The plan," Tyro sighed, "is to survive. To wait for this cruel war to be over."
"You really think an end to the war will just happen if you don't fight?" Azula snapped, leaping to her feet in anger and disappointment. So he was no better than the people back home in the Fire Nation, who cowered and hid inside their village walls. "You sound like you've accepted defeat already!"
"I'm sorry, Azula," Tyro said resignedly. "The warden is a fearsome man. If we try to fight, many people could get hurt. We're safer if we accept things as they are."
"Tch. You sound like my uncle," Azula frowned. "Let's see if I can find some courage amongst the cowards." She stood atop a pile of logs and banged the gruel bowl with a stick to draw the crowd's attention.
"Earthbenders!" she cried. "In my home in the Fire Nation, we say that courage is the flame in the heart of a Firebender that ignites their power. I believe that Earthbenders have the fire of courage inside of them as well. The Water Tribe may have made you believe that that fire has gone out, but I am here to tell you that I have faith that it roars within you still! If you can find the spark of faith within you and ignite the inferno of your determination and bravery, then, even with your Bending stolen from you, you will be unstoppable! Rise like the sun on the mountains I know you can move, and fight for what is yours! When you have faith, all doubt will burn away, and all that will be left is the power of a hardy and proud people like yourselves! If one person believes, that spark of hope will catch and create a blaze of glory that will reduce the oppression you face to ash! The time is now – now is the hour we fight back! For I'm here to tell you the good news – the Avatar has returned, and a new age is upon us! So rise up like a wildfire and fight for your freedom!"
To Azula's dismay, the Earthbenders ignored her impassioned speech completely, as if they had not heard a single word.
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That night, Azula awoke to a frantic tapping on her shoulder. Her eyes widened and she saw that it was Aang. He had stolen aboard the ship to retrieve her. He led her by the hand to the edge of the deck.
"Come," said Zuko, hovering on Appa beside them. "I gave you your 12 hours, Azula, now it's time to go before you get hurt."
"No," Azula refused.
"What?" Zuko hissed. "Azula, I won't let you stay in a place where you're not safe! You have no idea what the Water Tribe could do to you if you don't run while you can!"
"I won't run away," Azula insisted. "I have to be brave, and help these people."
"There's a fine line between brave and foolish," Zuko argued. "You're my responsibility, so I'm getting you out of here, Haru or no Haru."
"I'm not going," Azula said stubbornly. "Not until every last Earthbender on this ship is free."
Zuko looked like he was going to grab Azula and drag her onto the bison right then and there, but Aang held him back.
"I think Azula is right," the Airbender decided. "If someone's in need, we can't just abandon them in order to save our own skin."
"This stubbornness is going to be the death of you, Azula," Zuko sighed, but relented, and Appa flew away as the three of them crept further onto the deck of the ship.
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When the guards told the warden they'd spotted the Avatar's bison in the sky, he was furious. Ruthlessly, he bent a wave, which climbed up out of the sea and all but grabbed the messenger, hurling him overboard into the ocean below. He resolved to discover what exactly was afoot in his prison.
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"We have to think of a plan," Zuko whispered as the trio knelt in the shadows of the deck.
"I tried to get the Earthbenders to fight back," Azula recounted. "But any fire they had in their hearts seems to have been all but extinguished. If only there was a way I could help them rediscover the power within themselves."
"For that," Zuko figured, "they'd need some sort of earth, or soil. Something they could bend."
"Everything on this ship is wood," Azula sighed.
"Not everything," Aang realized, looking at the corner of the ship. "Look what they use for anchors!"
"Bags of sand," Azula saw, and realization dawned on her.
"I've seen Earthbenders who live in the desert bend sand," Aang revealed. "Sandbending is somewhat different than standard Earthbending, but I'm pretty sure any Earthbender could figure out how to do it!"
The Firebender siblings looked at each other. At last, they had a strategy.
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"There's a system of holes in the wood," Zuko noticed as they stood on the deck the next morning, "that the Water Tribe created so that and cool air could blow in all areas of the ship so that they don't overheat while they work. If I block all of the holes except for one, and then Aang steals some of the sand bags and blows the sand through the hole, it will only have one place to go."
"Perfect," Azula smirked, but her smirk disappeared from her face when the pair were suddenly surrounded by Waterbenders who pointed boomerangs at them from all sides.
"Don't try to fight them, Azula!" Tyro warned. "I don't want them to hurt you, so just go quietly!"
"Listen to your elder," the warden laughed as he strutted towards them. "If you strike at us now, my men will not hesitate to kill." He looked so smug, and Azula longed to burn him to a crisp.
But, just then, a cloud of sand came bursting from the air-distributing hole beneath their feet! The warden's eyes widened as the sand billowed up and up like a storm. Then, the Avatar rose from the hole and slammed the sand down into a large dune at Tyro's feet.
"Here is your chance, Earthbenders!" Azula cried. "Do you feel the fires of revolution brewing in your hearts now like a sandstorm?"
The prisoners stared at the dune hesitantly…..then backed away from it. No.
"Ha!" the warden cackled. "Did you think a little speech and some beach-dirt would make these people foolish enough to rise up against me? They are wise enough by now to know that resistance is futile – that the pain they will suffer if they revolt again would be a thousand times worse than what they are suffering now! They know better, you silly girl! They know that I – that the Water Tribe – is far too fearsome an enemy for them to ever face and win!"
As the warden turned to leave with another cackle and a swoop of his cloak, a ball of sand hit him in the back. He turned, eyes wide, and his furious gaze met the defiant eyes of Haru, who had already bended another sphere of sand into his hand.
Furious, the warden bent a wave of water at Haru. Tyro leapt to his son's defense and hurled a mass of squirming sand at the wave. The sand mixed with the water and the squishy mixture fell harmlessly to the ground, the warden's attack evaded.
"Finish them!" the warden snapped, and a group of Waterbenders sent more water splashing the Earthbender's way.
"For the Earth Kingdom!" Tyro cried, and then all the Earthbenders began to weave a veritable storm out of the sand and hurled it at the Waterbenders. The Water Tribe men struck back, but could not even see which way to bend their water with all the sand flying through the air. Undaunted, the Waterbenders threw their boomerangs. Joining the fray, Azula and Zuko sent them hurtling back to their owners with fierce licks of flame. The sky was filled with water and burning sand as the battle raged on.
Haru and Tyro bended the sandstorm through the gates of the area where they had been locked away for so long, and then blasted the Waterbenders right off the side of the ship.
"Get to the life boats!" Tyro ordered the Earthbenders. "I'll hold off the rest of them!"
Asssisting him, Aang blew sand toward the warden, and Tyro bended it the rest of the way so that the warden was pushed off his own ship on the sand cloud!
"Don't drop me!" the warden cried. "I can't swim!"
"I hear cowards float," Tyro laughed, and bent the sand out from under the warden's feet, sending him tumbling into the drink.
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Standing on the deck of the largest lifeboat, watching a fleet of canoes filled with Earthbenders sail slowly back to the mainland, Azula beamed with pride.
"Thank you, Azula," Haru said sincerely. "You saved me. You saved us all."
"It was just a bit of sand," Azula said with polite modesty.
"It wasn't the sand," Haru shook his head. "It was you."
The fire in Azula's heart rose into her cheeks.
"Thank you for helping me find the courage in my heart again that I thought the Water Tribe had snuffed out," Tyro said gratefully. "Azula of the Fire Nation, you have saved my people, and for that I owe you a debt I can never repay. Thank you – throne or no throne, you have all the regal capacity to lead of a princess."
"High praise," Azula said with a bow, "especially from the leader of a revolution such as yourself. And I think the revolution is only beginning – you plan to return home to reclaim your village, do you not?"
"Not just our village," Tyro cried, "but all the villages of the Earth Kingdom!"
From the canoes, a cheer of agreement rang out from the people.
"Come with us," Haru offered. "Join our revolution!"
"No," Azula refused, with grace. "Your fight is for your homeland. I'm fighting for something different – to get Aang to the Fire Nation capital."
"That's him, isn't it?" Haru realized, looking down at Aang, who was waving to the liberated Earthbenders from Appa's saddle. "The Avatar."
"Yes," Azula smiled. "He is."
"Thank you for bringing my father back to me," Haru bowed, his long hair blowing in the sea breeze. "I never thought I would see him again. Maybe someday you will find where your mother fled to, and be reunited with her, as well."
"Someday," Azula promised, running a hand through her hair…..and froze.
"My headpiece!" she cried, blood freezing in her veins. "It's gone!"
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Far away, on the deck of the abandoned prison ship, Prince Sokka stepped through the piles of sand that had clumped upon the wood. Amidst the fine golden grains, he saw something of a brighter gold glinting and picked it up, turning it over in his hand. A cruel smirk played across his features as he picked up the three-pronged, flame-shaped bauble, and clenched it in his raised fist.