Journey of a Thousand Miles

Azula awoke up in a flophouse, in a room with a dozen other women, and wondered if she had ever really lived in a palace.

She knew the Fire Nation's Royal Palace, of course. As Suki, she had even gone there to guard Zuko during the Yu Dao Rebellion and wound up taking control of the place's security for a time, proving quite adept at maintaining everyone's safety with a minimum of disruption. Or, at least, she thought she did. Who's to say how real that was? In the hazier parts of her mind, she had earlier experience with the place, though largely as background to the few memories that had returned since Ozai (Father) had 'freed' her. She still couldn't recall actually living there as a princess, wearing red robes and allowing servants to care for her like some kind of adult child.

The only thing she could be sure was real was the world around her, inconveniences and all. Perhaps her life as Suki was merely a dream, too, and she was simply a madwoman who invented new lives and memories for herself with every phase of the moon, letting the old ones eventually fade from her malfunctioning mind. It would actually be a relief, if Azula could make herself believe it, but life was just not that easy.

Given her current situation, that was just as well. Azula had a feeling that if she remembered being a pampered princess, she would have objected to sleeping on a filthy wooden floor with strangers. The bugs alone were bad enough, crawling over her in the night, but the smell of unwashed human bodies held no charm, either. But then, her own second-hand (at least) clothing was no better; it was almost enough to make her wish she hadn't traded Ty Lee's silly pink dress away for the brown robes.

The rising sun's light reflected off the sprawl of buildings outside the room's lone window. Azula rose from her spot, moving carefully so that she didn't disturb the other women. She was the only one getting up with the dawn, and she wasn't even sure of the reason. As a Kyoshi Warrior, she typically got up early when she wasn't working the occasional night shift, but it was also said that Firebenders naturally awoke with the dawn. Was this habit of hers a development from the Firebending training that Azula had recently received from the sailor woman Meisai? Was Suki's old penchant for early mornings an expression of the Azula that had been locked inside of her?

How well did she truly know herself?

Azula could only shake her head against the uncertainty and the nausea that came with it. Trying to push against the dark corners of her mind made her feel ill.

Lost.

She stepped over the sleeping bodies, touching none of them, and reached the door. It swung with a creak, but then, it was a very creaky building. Azula was pleased to see that the hallway outside was empty. Last night, a man had decided to visit this room, finding something interesting about the fact that all the flophouse's female clients were lodged within. From the stink of him, he had been drunk, but he was an Earthbender and carried a stone hammer of significant weight. The other women had screamed as he pounded on the locked door, bellowing that they should open it for him.

Giving up hope that the situation would resolve itself, Azula had risen from the floor with a muttered, "For crying out loud, where's the City Watch?" Then she satisfied the man's impolitely phrased requests by unlocking the door and kicking it open so that it crashed into his face.

Being a drunk with a smashed nose, he hadn't offered any resistance as Azula then proceeded to give him the most professional beating he would ever likely receive. She started with the hand that held the hammer, catching his wrist in a precisely angled grip and applying just the right leverage to make him shriek with pain but not actually snap the twin bones in his forearm. Meisai's less physical training had paid off, too, since Azula was able to harness her Inner Fire into a thoroughly mundane pounding without ever feeling the urge- despite the annoyance the drunk presented- to light his face on fire. He had apparently taken her threat to do so seriously, though, given that he had not come back in the night.

The flophouse's proprietor was still at the front desk, if the rickety table right next to the entrance could be called such, but it was currently serving as the man's bed. He let out a little snore when Azula passed him by, but didn't stir. Azula ignored him and walked outside; she had paid for her room the night before with her last copper piece, and wished for no further business with the man.

The city that greeted her this morning had not improved overnight. Even at this early hour, people were out and about on business, entirely appropriate for a trading crossroads like the former Fire Nation colony of Yang. If Yu Dao was the bright jewel of the colonies made rich by fashioning sturdy and reliable personal weapons, Yang was its tarnished match, a city grown out of the large-scale smelting and die-cast manufacturing that went on in its smoke-spewing factories. While the Fire Nation had desired to keep the secrets of its military technology at home as much as possible, shipping everything over to the Earth Kingdom was impractical at best, and so the need for supplementary manufacturing in a few trusted colonies emerged. These days, Yang even produced goods for the civilian sector, provided the civilians in question had the money with which to pay.

Most of the residents of the city did not.

That wasn't to say the people lived in poverty, no matter the color they wore. As Azula walked the streets, she saw a mix of red and green, and while the red clothes were usually the ones in better repair, no one was ragged or dirty. It took a degree of skill to work in these factories and the pay reflected that, forming the foundation of a thriving economy and community. Yang once had its own mines for the raw metal, but they had been exhausted long before the war ended, and so much of the material had to be imported. That required large, well-kept roads, which in turn spawned plenty of trade that wasn't even necessarily related to the manufacturing sector. Even now, with Yang self-governed like the rest of the former colonies and the Fire Nation forces withdrawn from the Earth Kingdom's continent, the factories had lucrative contracts building tanks for Ba Sing Se and other wealthy cities. The city's continued prosperity was ensured.

Of course, 'prosperity' in a city such as this was subjective, especially to someone like Azula who was used to Kyoshi Island. She passed through a residential sector made up of cramped apartment buildings that ran into each other, making for something more like warrens than respectable housing. In the week she had spent in Yang, Azula had observed that food was plentiful but not fresh, and all kinds of pests thrived from the waste. The stink of garbage and human waste was omnipresent, the one exception being the actual factory districts, but the smells there were perhaps even worse.

Azula decided, right there on the street, that she disliked 'modern' cities. She could never live in one happily, and hopefully wouldn't be staying long. The only reason she was even here was to join a terrorist group that intended to blow one of those vaunted tank factories into smoke and ash.

Her search had started in the port of Buui Mun, as soon as she stepped off the Hidden Gem and left Toru and Meisai's company. As much as she would have liked to cut to the heart of the matter and begin kicking in doors looking for members of Meisai's old rebel group, she knew that would at best be fruitless and at worst get her killed. So she had found some temporary work as a bouncer at a large tavern with rowdy crowds, and merely listened to the news that filtered through the port.

"The Fire Lord is pushing to get his troops back into the colonies," a man complained one night in the dim lighting. "Something about hunting down fugitives, but you know it's just an excuse! That Zuko had to give in on the colonies, but he was clutching so hard that he left dents when they finally pried his hands off of them, and now he wants his soldiers back in here by any excuse he can think of."

The female who sat next to him at the bar appeared unimpressed to Azula's eye. "Ashes, I wish someone would send some troops in here. I don't care if it's rutting Chin the Conqueror, we need some kind of protection."

"Bah," came the reply, "it's all mud on the boots. We can protect ourselves if the other nations keep their armies out." Although unimpressed with the man's intelligence, Azula maneuvered towards the pair as unobtrusively as she could.

"Protect ourselves from what? You hear about that attack out west?" The woman slammed her mug down on the bar. "The whole caravan was destroyed, all the carts burned to ash. Killed every single one of the merchants, but let most of the guards live. I heard one of them in here the other night, swearing that the dust-raker in command of the attackers was the Fire Nation's Princess Azula! And then there's the rumors I've heard about Kyoshi Island-"

The man burped. "The guard said, did he? And I suppose he used to be the Princess' consort, or something?"

"For your sand-brained information, pal, he used to a be trooper in the Fire Navy." The woman was on her feet now, tipsy enough to Azula's experienced eye (taverns were much the same back on Kyoshi Island) to be spoiling for a fight. "He tried to arrest the Princess' brother under her direct command."

"Oh, an ash-licker, huh? Well, why should I believe the salted up ramblings of a..." The man had gone on to disparage said trooper's personal habits, lineage, and employment prospects in impressively colorful language.

Azula had to step in when the woman threw her mug at the man, but it was still a good chunk of information. She kept her ears open and as the days passed she heard similar rumors, most featuring herself as major player in, if not the instigator of, the horrific attacks. All the assaults were purely destructive, but Azula couldn't help but notice that they all left behind talkative survivors.

Were Zuko and Aang spreading these lies about her to flush her out? Or was the plan just meant to turn the world against her, keep her from finding peace anywhere but the solitary wilderness. That's the type of cleverness of which Sokka might be capable.

And for the Fire Princess Azula, he might just be that cruel, too. Whenever she thought about that, Azula couldn't help but feel a pain deep in her chest.

Of course, all that talk was just unfounded rumor. Azula needed facts, so she took what money she had earned and hit the road.

It wasn't hard finding work as a caravan guard. People were getting scared. The only unfortunate part was that the convoys she wound up protecting went completely unmolested during their trips. Not that Azula wanted her clients to be attacked, necessarily, but it would have put her in easy contact with her prospective allies in the war against Zuko. Besides, she was sure she could have protected her caravans, probably even negotiated for them to be spared in exchange for her joining the attackers, and then worked within the bandit group in question to focus them on more important matters.

Probably.

So it was that Azula found herself traveling around quite a bit, arriving at a modest city in grain country just in time to witness a rather interesting rally. The city itself was at the center of a rather bountiful swath of farmland, and served as a giant farmer's market specializing in oats and such. It seemed, however, that quite a few farmers had recently suffered attacks from organized Firebender forces, and the rally was a public cry for something to be done.

Azula drew close to the chanting crowd but remained on the outskirts and observed. She eventually spotted one woman who seemed to be taking a strong interest in the proceedings but wasn't among those screaming their heads off, so Azula walked over to her and gave a quick bow. "Excuse me, ma'am, but can you tell me about the attacks? I only just arrived in the city."

The woman gave Azula a squint-eyed glance. "Oh, a refugee, huh? Guess you didn't pick so well. Should have headed for the coast. Anyway, not much to tell. Group of Firebenders hit some farms and burned their fields, seems to be just for the sheer fun of it. It's only happened a few times now, but we're scared. If something isn't done... we depend on our fields! The whole province does!"

Azula nodded. "But why did they attack? They didn't steal anything? Who would do that?"

"Good job, kid. New to town and already you're asking the same questions all our elders are. All we know is that it's Firebenders, and it was just mindless destruction. Could be the Fire Lord ordering these things for all we know."

Azula bowed again. "Thank you, and good luck with all of this." She stuck around the rally, meandering through the crowds, curious if her name would be mentioned in conjunction with the attacks, but it never came up from any of the rally's speakers.

What was interesting, though, was that all the most fervent speakers were Firebenders who hid their heritage.

They all wore green and styled themselves like Earth Kingdom descendents, but Azula could tell the truth by the way they walked, and by the way her Inner Fire roared in time with their angry speeches. There was no doubt: these people had an Inner Fire all their own. A Hidden Flame. They were using their Firebending to influence the people, inflame hearts, and bring everyone's blood to a boil. The longer the rally went on, the louder the crowd got, and Azula's heart beat in time with the chants and the rants.

Though they weren't Firebending up on the stage, the speakers couldn't help but express what was hidden within them.

The last of the demagogues was focused on the need to unite the colonies under a single government, a new nation that owed nothing to the others. "Only we can protect ourselves without selling our souls to the Fire Lord or the fattened fools in Ba Sing Se! And only by uniting can we have the strength to hunt down the parasites within our borders, and keep the other nations out," he had said to great applause. The crowd was practically throbbing with heat and excitement, and Azula found herself sweating in the midst of it. The Fire in her heart was roaring. "We must find leaders of strength, and give them the power to fight for our future!"

It took a while for the crowds to finally disperse, but Azula left quickly after the final speech. After all, she had to follow that last speaker and find out what he was about.

While tailing him through the wide and busy streets of the city, through marketplaces filled with baskets of grains, Azula spotted no less than three people following and watching her in turn. All of them had bare feet, likely making them Earthbenders. Earthbenders who were, apparently, guarding a secret Firebender. The Earth Kingdom had the lowest percentage of Benders out of all the nations, and it was said that in the colonies the rate was even lower. People speculated that this was due to the Fire Nation's influence, but there was no way to verify that. Regardless, Earthbenders were not common enough in the area that anyone could to hire three of them for guards without some decent money.

Azula's mind worked with a speed that kept her blood boiling. This would be interesting.

Her Firebender target turned onto a small side street, and Azula was gratified to see the Earthbenders closing in on her as she continued to follow. They didn't waste time, either. As soon as they left other pedestrians behind, small slabs burst out of the ground around Azula's feet and converged into vice around her ankles.

Azula was never even off balance. "Finally. I was beginning to think you hadn't noticed me." She crossed her arms and smiled the 'Azula Smile' she had been practicing in her spare time.

The Earthbenders moved into a triangle formation around her and took fighting stances, but they didn't attack. The Firebender demagogue himself walked right up and looked her in the eyes. "What do you want? Make it quick, and make it good. Failing either one of those could be dangerous for you."

"Like you, I believe that people should be able to have peaceful lives without worrying about some foreign King or Fire Lord." If her fingernails were nice, Azula would have put on a show of examining them, but as she was, she could only brush a hand through her auburn bangs in an ostentatious manner. "And, again like you, I'm such a strong believer in this ideal that I'm willing to do some disagreeable things to make it happen. Like, oh..."

Within the little rock pyramids that trapped her ankles, Azula used what little play she had to stomp a foot down and release all the heat that had risen in her blood since the rally. She kept the flames to a minimum, since she hadn't yet figured out how to make them appear with something other than her signature blue color, but the resulting explosion was more than enough to shatter the restraints.

Snapping into one of the stances Meisai taught her, Azula finished, "Like hiding my Firebending and using it in very strategic ways to get what I want."

The Earthbenders had all jumped at the explosion, but the Firebender's raised hand kept them from attacking. His face was impassive as he spoke. "People willing to make sacrifices are always in demand. But you'll have to prove yourself."

"Isn't that what I'm doing?" Azula cocked her head teasingly.

"Your qualifications, certainly. But we need to know we can trust you."

She smiled as sweetly as she could. "I'm open to suggestions."

She didn't actually want to bomb a factory for this mysterious man who wouldn't even share his name, of course. She had hopes that the whole thing was just a story she had been fed to see if she would snitch to some authority. Regardless, she followed his instructions, headed for the ex-colony of Yang, and told herself that if the opportunity presented itself, she would see if she couldn't at least minimize the casualties.

She was Azula, of course, so the lives didn't really matter to her. People died. She had even killed to get what she wanted. She reasoned that what she really objected to was the waste, the senseless deaths that seemed to serve no concrete goal. If she was going to make war on Zuko, she had to wage it smartly, honoring the people who did not side against her.

It was only logical. Entirely reasonable.

It took a while to get to Yang, and once there she wound up staying in a series of flophouses while she tried to find her contact. It was a large city, and Azula didn't dare to ask too many detailed questions.

The morning after she spent her last copper piece and beat up the drunkard who assaulted the room it bought, Azula came to an innocuous little building that was labeled only with the characters for 'body' and 'health.'

The door was left wide open, so she walked right in and looked around. It was set up like a typical clinic, but there was little actual medicine being practiced in the long room. Men and women were sprawled on top of raised tables, while clinicians in either red or green oiled and massaged them with great focus. The whole place smelled of incense and perfumes, giving Azula's nose a little itch. The only windows in the place were on either side of the front door, and they were the sole light sources. For some reason, the decorator had eschewed the paper lamps that should have been hanging from the ceiling, so the back of the clinic was left in shadow.

From around a screen, a girl no older than Toph had been when they first met walked up to Azula. Her robe was a pale yellow the same shade as her skin. "Welcome to the House of Wellness. What internal and external peace do you seek for your body?"

Azula opened her mouth to answer, but the motion was hijacked by a sneeze. She didn't like the smell of this place at all. "Sorry about that. I'm looking for Lady Shingyung?"

The girl looked at Azula without blinking. "The Lady Shingyung is the proprietor of this House, but all of our masseurs can release the wellness trapped within your body."

"I'm sure. But the Lady was personally recommended to me, so I would like to speak with her."

The girl bowed. "If that will put your soul at rest, it is my duty to provide. You are in luck; the Lady is not often on the premises." She swept away with a lilac-scented wind.

Azula sneezed again. She hated this place already.

It was almost a quarter hour before the girl came back leading the tallest woman Azula had ever seen. She wore a long purple dress that even covered her feet, and the grace with which she walked made it look like she was gliding over the floor like a feather on the wind. Combined with the high ponytail that added considerably to the woman's height, she made for an intimidating presence that at the same time managed to feel utterly soft.

She also smelled heavily of incense. Azula disliked her already. "Lady Shingyung, I presume?"

"I am." Her voice was heavy with breath. "How can I guide you to the Wellness your soul craves?" The cadence of her speech was odd, as though she were an overdramatic actress trying to seduce an audience.

"A mutual acquaintance told me that you might have use for a person of my skills. I specialize in the strategic use of... heat."

Shingyung tilted her head to her left, letting her dark, glistening ponytail hang to the side of her face. "I can always find a use for a woman who can master her own heat and give to others. Especially for house calls. Come, let us have tea in my office, and we can discuss your employment." Without waiting for a reply, she turned and glided back through the rows of masseurs into the shadows.

Azula followed with a frown. The way Shingyung said it, it sounded more like dirty talk than a code phrase for recruiting Firebender terrorists. She sneezed twice more before she reached the building's rear.

"Our brothers in the grain country do credit to our cause," Shingyung said over tea a few minutes later. "If they trust your skills, then I can certainly make use of you."

Azula blinked and ignored the steaming teacup in front of her. "You run the cell here? I thought you would merely be a messenger or recruiter."

Shingyung and Azula were kneeling directly across from each other on thick mats, in what the lady had called her "office." Really, it seemed more like a mix between a meditation room and an antique shop, filled with odd and sometimes obscene statues, while strange paintings hung from the walls. Shingyung herself ignored the decor and kept her half-lidded eyes on Azula. "This city will be important to our cause, and so groundwork must be laid with great care and precision. I have other duties, as well, that take me away from the city. I'm what you would call a 'hands on' type of woman. Now, my dear, what is your name?"

"I have none." Azula casually eyed a nearby statue of a Lionturtle, then turned her attention back to her host. "My name is whatever I decide it to be at any given point. You may call me Chijin, for now."

"Interesting. People who deny having names are usually running from a past."

Azula smiled with no humor. "The only thing 'usually' gets you is a broad assumption that can color your judgment. When I tell you I have no name and no past, I truly mean it. But let's not waste more time on that. The man at the rally told me that you're organizing an attack on one of the factories in this city producing tanks for Ba Sing Se. I presume I'm here to assist with that. Is there an initiation process, or can I get right to training for the strike?"

Shingyung took a long sip of her tea, and then shifted out of her proper kneeling to lounge across the floor. "First, you will need to meet the field commander, my dear. That will determine your entire future with our organization. She is quite the exquisite creature."

Azula raised her eyebrows at the odd description. "And when can that be done?"

"Oh, she is not yet in the city. Come, I will arrange your lodging, and you will stay there until I send for you to meet her." Shingyung's rich red lips twisted into a broad grin. "I'm flush with excitement for how well you two will get along."

"Can't wait." Azula didn't care if her tone sounded sincere or not.

Shingyung looked down at Azula's cup. "Oh, you haven't touched your tea. I think you should at least taste it; you strike me as the type of girl who could use its relaxing influence. Give your body what it needs."

Azula stood up. "I hate herbal tea, and what my body wants is a real bed and some food that isn't of questionable origin. Let's see this place where I'll be staying."

It was a nice hotel, but it did nothing to alleviate Azula's suspicions that she was being pulled into a trap.

The hotel in question was situated in one of the nicer sections of Yang, in a neighborhood that catered to the traveling merchants constantly passing through the city. It wasn't grand or decadent, merely comfortable without asking for riches in return. The economy in the ex-colonies was rough, after all. Azula didn't make use of even what amenities the hotel boasted, electing to stay in her room every day and practice her Firebending- through both katas and meditation- from morning to night.

The situation was more than a little insulting. She had been sent to Yang to meet Lady Shingyung, but according to the massage parlor's little assistant, the woman was rarely around. Despite that, she just happened to be on hand to meet with Azula, which was leading directly to a rendezvous with this special "field commander" who would supposedly welcome Azula into whatever this conspiracy was about. Azula, who had walked in off the street and had only a short meeting with that Firebender speech-giver as her credentials.

It was really quite contrived.

Which implied that someone was making these things happen, and Azula didn't know who that was or why they were doing it.

Still, forewarned is forearmed. Azula spent the time she wasn't cultivating her Firebending outlining contingency plans.

After nine days, a courier came to bring Azula to her long-awaited meeting. The young man didn't say anything after introducing himself, and so they walked in silence through the night into Yang's industrial area. Azula was grateful that she didn't have to worry about making nice with this flunky, allowing her to concentrate on her surroundings and keep an eye out for whatever double-cross was going to be sprung on her.

Azula had her Inner Fire stoked and ready by the time they got to the warehouse district. The young man went straight to one of the big stone buildings and unlocked the door with a key, then bowed to Azula and motioned. "I have been instructed to go no further. Have a good night."

She waited until he was long gone before she walked in. As she expected, it was quite dark inside, but enough moonlight spilled through the windows to reveal that the warehouse was far from empty. Caterpillar tanks, designed by the Mechanist of the Northern Air Temple and first fielded during the Day of Black Sun Invasion by rebel Earth Kingdom forces, were lined up in neat rows across the entire open space. They smelled of fresh paint and seemed to have their green detailing completed, from what Azula could see, so she assumed had already been sold and were simply awaiting transport to the customer. Could they be bound for Ba Sing Se, or perhaps a more independent buyer in the colonies? Well, it hardly mattered to her.

From within the gloom, small lights suddenly burst to life. They weren't the otherworldly glows of ghosts, but rather the warm flames that only Firebenders could produce without sound. The lights revealed figures in polished black armor as they closed in on Azula's position. The glow of the fires coalesced into a single large spot of light, and Azula found herself surrounded and completely visible.

She waited, not yet taking a defensive stance. They wouldn't have announced themselves like this if they wanted to kill her. Probably.

Then a figure in purple stepped out into the light, and Azula recognized Shingyung. "So good of you to come, little Chijin. Allow me to introduce our mission commander. Depending on that personal history you may or may not have, you might find it appropriate to bow."

Another person, much shorter than Shingyung, walked into the light, and Azula found herself eating her own gasp. It was a woman, dressed in unique Firebender armor that hugged her lines so precisely it had to have been custom-fitted. The woman's dark hair was bound into a royal Fire Nation topknot, with two spear-like bangs left to frame the face. A gold ornament was stuck into the topknot, glistening faintly in the firelight, and seemed to be shaped like the sigil of the Fire Nation. Most impressive was the way the woman walked; she was clearly a Firebender herself, but the normally strong way of moving was softened by a confident grace that even Shingyung should have envied. For all that it was artificial, the woman made it look as natural as breathing.

The smirk on the woman's face was one that had haunted Azula's- Suki's- who was she really- nightmares. "A pleasure to meet you, Lady Chijin," the woman said. "You have chosen the path of honor and loyalty in joining our cause. Please, allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Princess Azula, daughter of Phoenix King Ozai, Conqueror of Ba Sing Se, Slayer of the Avatar, and rightful Lord of the Fire Nation."

Azula- Suki- who was she really-

The girl who had answered to the names of Azula and Suki stood there dumbfounded, and wondered futilely where reality ended and the fever dreams of insanity began.

Shingyung looked her right in the eye and smiled. "Exquisite creature, isn't she?"

TO BE CONTINUED