Apotheosis

The Siege of the North Was a horrific battle. One of the largest and bloodiest the world has ever seen. Dry your eyes, young prince, and learn from Yue's example. Do not seek to do great things, instead do something with great love.

The citadel held. For now. As Azula wiped the sweat-caked soot from her forehead, she turned to count the terrible price of their defense. Healers tended to the wounded as best they could, the stench of scorched flesh rising with the screams of the dying. A trail of blood on the ice caught Azula's eye.

It led to Chief Arnook stumbling towards his throne. He hobbled step-by-step, leaning on his spear, til he tumbled at the foot of the dais. Yue followed after him, pleading for him to rest. His companions rushed to him, swords and boomerangs clattering in their wake. Azula too rushed over, though she knew not what she could even do for him. She could make wounds, not heal them.

Yue had remained at his side, heedless of the danger. But none of these proud warriors had the strength to keep a grieving daughter from her father's side. Her shrieks rent the air like the surgeon's knife, and the warriors pulled away. A graven chill ran down Azula's back.

Try as she might, Yue was powerless to save her father's life. The sword had plunged deep, and every ragged cough brought bloody froth to Arnook's lips. Yue babbled her indecipherable apologies and prayers. With a mournful smile, Arnook put an unsteady hand on her cheek and told her it would be alright.

Liar, Azula accused.

Or maybe it's his way of saying I don't blame you, said another, kinder voice in Azula's head.

"Azula," Arnook coughed, "I have one last order for you as your chief."

Azula snapped to attention like second nature, then rushed over. As she knelt by Arnook, his lips were turning blue. "My chief," said Azula.

"I want you to take my children and get them as far away from Agna Qel'a as you can."

"Shh…be still."

"No…this was never your fight, I should have never dragged you into it." Arnook took Azula's hand in his. "I've failed my people, Avatar. The city is lost! I hid behind our walls thinking the Deluge couldn't come to us, played politics with the world's best hope, and now I have paid the price. Please, don't let Yue and Tulok pay for my mistakes."

Despair was an infectious thing, and Arnook's words sent a chill across the gathered warriors, plunging the hall into stunned silence. It had been in the back of every warrior's minds. The Fire Nation had brought such terrible firepower to bear, like nothing they'd ever seen before, far worse than the nightmarish tales spoken by their grandfathers from the start of the war. Their airships rained fire and ash with impunity, the city was besieged, encircled from the oceans the Water Tribe could no longer control, up to the top of the glacier wall. And the final defense line had been breached, the palace citadel actively contested.

All their eyes were on Azula now. The woman they hated, the daughter of the enemy slipping into the bed of the chief's daughter, the fox pretending to be a wolf. She felt their stares boring into her, begging for help, knowing it could not come. If La had abandoned them, then all was lost.

"None fought with more courage than you, my Chief. You did what you thought was best for your people."

"And it brought us here! It is over. For a hundred generations my forefathers watched over the Water Tribe, and now it all ends on my watch. I have failed my people."

Azula gripped his hand with white knuckles. "I do not know what strength I have, my chief, but I swear to you that I will not let Agna Qel'a fall. Or our people perish. I am with you to whatever end."

"Our people?"

"Our people."

Arnook's eyes lit up like the moon on a cloudless night. Yue looked up at her, eyes streaked with tears. Dozens more fixed on her. She felt it all, despair and hope balanced on the edge of a knife.

Arnook's eye's fluttered, as his bow-string taught body relaxed. "I would have been proud to call you my daughter, Azula. I wish I could have realized it sooner." Arnook's body went limp, the last death rattle came, and he was no more.

Azula rested Arnook's hand on his chest. She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the weight bearing down on her narrow shoulders, heavier than the chainmail she wore. But there would be time enough to mourn later, to comfort Yue in her grief. She rose to address the warriors assembled in the great hall, the chief's blood still warm on her hands.

"Now what?" said a young warrior.

Murmurs of umbrage followed. Yue snapped from grief to anger in an instant. "Yutu, you dare?"

It finally clicked to Azula who this Yutu was. One of Hahn's closest friends, the sneering voice whenever she was made to attend Wolf Lodge functions. His warpaint was caked with blood now, weapons still stained in it.

Azula supposed the question was fair, after all. She had promised a miracle, and now she'd have to deliver. She'd been puzzling away at the tactical situation for some time, always in the back of her mind whenever there was a moment. One idea in particular had stuck with her, but it had been too ghastly to speak out loud. Until now, with their backs against the wall.

"We do what we must. Every able-bodied person, brother or sister, able to hold a spear will be reformed into battalions. Get them to the battlements, ready to counterattack."

Arnook's chancellor waited only a moment, testing the waters. "You heard the Avatar. Tarqans, reform your hosts. Get anyone able to hold a weapon ready to fight for their lives."

"They've already occupied most of the city," said Yutu. "They've occupied the Spirit Oasis and control the causeway leading to it. So many of our brothers have already fallen? What hope have we of managing a break out?"

"Lucky for you, Lodge-brother, that I already have a plan in mind. The Fire Nation holds the east glacier wall, including the reservoir. Its retaining wall is many yards thick of solid ice, all tall as the citadel."

"Of course I know of it," said Yutu, crossing his arms. "You're the foreigner, not me."

"A commando team can accomplish what a battalion could not: sneak through the catacombs and collapse the retaining wall with blasting jelly. I'll need eight volunteers"

"That's a suicide mission!"

Azula bit her tongue, ignoring the insult to her intelligence. "Yes. But we need time. At any price. Time for soldiers from the nearby cities and fortresses to arrive. Time to regroup, to continue to bleed them. Once the wall falls and we've weakened them, our forces will counter attack." She pointed south-by-southeast, "along Fireweed Canal, cleave the enemy apart and defeat them in detail."

"You're asking men to die trapped under cold water and ice. Why should any of us go?"

"You'll go because it must be done. You heard your chief, do you want a hundred generations of our people's history to end on your watch? To see your temples torn down, your homes burned away? To watch our people be herded into camps, children torn from their mothers, so that they may be beaten body and soul until they forget their birth name and their mother tongue?"

Azula bit down on her temper, rubbing her forehead. The hall was silent now. "I'm sorry, but that's how it is. I've seen this play out before, and you have no way of knowing what's coming. But I do."

Yutu was sufficiently cowed now that he just listened earnestly. He had been brave before, both on the hunt as well as in the battle, but like all the other men in the hall he'd been pushed to the limits of his courage. It was a fight forced on him, and no doubt his fundamental decency expected his conquerors to show mercy in victory. Azula would have done it herself and spared the trouble of all this. But she was the Avatar now, and already on one suicide mission.

Azula stepped up onto the dais, and stood at the right hand of the chief's throne. "Brothers," she cried, "do you live for the good of the tribe?"

They said in one chorus, "there is no other way."

"Then for the good of the tribe, who will pull the dam down on top of you and the Fire Nation invaders?"

Katara stepped forward. "I will."

It stuck in Azula's heart like an icicle. She stumbled a half step back. But she held onto dignity for dear life. It was too late to back down. She had assumed command of these proud warriors, reduced to a rabble ready to surrender. If the Avatar asked for a suicide mission, then who else could be expected to lead it but her closest confidant?

"I will lead the attack," Katara called out. "If the Avatar says it must be done, then it must be done."

Another man stepped forward. "My life for the tribe," he said, pulling back his hood to reveal ragged claw scars on his face that left him one eyed. "I am Yenisey of the Orca Lodge. When the Avatar calls, I answer."

More stepped forward. Nanuq of the Polar Bear Lodge. Ornlu of the Wolf Lodge. Tigin, aspirant of the Snow Leopard Lodge. Ujurak, Captain of the Palace Guard. Dené of the city watch. And Yutu of the Wolf Lodge. Azula studied their faces and names

Dying inside, Azula remained stoic. "Even when the world ends and all is washed away, your deed will be immortal," she said, trying to force herself to believe it.

There was a plan. However awful it was, it had imposed a sort of order on the defenders of Agna Qel'a. The tarqans followed her instructions now without question. Arnook had placed his faith in her, and she'd already pulled one miracle. Truly the last hope, turned to with the greatest reluctance.

When she'd finished making plans and distributing orders, Azula slipped away from the generals to find Katara. The girl from the South, a stranger in this land, was now laying her life down for it, dutifully loading sleds with blasting jelly for her own funeral pyre.

"Katara, can I speak to you?" Azula's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Not now, I have to prepare, review the maps–"

Azula spun her around. "There will be time for that, just talk to me!"

Katara's hand trembled on the sleigh. She would not look Azula in the eye.

"I don't understand…why?"

Katara shrugged. "What, do you think you have a monopoly on suicidal bravery?"

"Then let me go with you–"

"Save it. You are the one person we cannot afford to lose."

"I don't want you to go."

"That's why I must. Was your military judgment wrong?"

"No," Azula said gravely. "No, we need the time. Time to push them back, to cut off the forces blocking the way to the Spirit Sanctuary."

"Then that settles it."

"No it doesn't–"

"Shut up and listen for once!" Red-faced with anger, Katara grabbed Azula by the nape of her neck, knocking their foreheads together. "This is my last gift to you, my friend."

"It doesn't have to be that way," muttered Azula.

"They won't follow you unless you sacrifice something precious. You've already lost everything once. The only thing you have left to give is your bonds." Katara shrugged. "I'm just a lowly girl from the South. But right now, I can make a difference. We both gave our oaths to each other, to see this through to the bitter end, to give every last drop of blood for the future. I am obeying the call of my heart. Don't deny me this."

Azula fell silent, pressing her palm into the small of Katara's back. "I can't lose you both."

"Then take this piece of me with you. Katara pressed a bead and shell necklace into Azula's hand. "It belonged to my mother before me, and to Kanna before that. All our hopes go with you."

Azula kissed Katara's cheeks, then her lips. They lingered until their lungs burned. As they parted, a thin line of spittle drew out then broke.

Katara fought back the tears. "You have the hardest job of us. You have to live, to keep moving forward. Yue and I, we'll watch over you."

"I love you more than life itself. If only, if only we had more time."

"Go. Be our Avatar."

Katara watched the men arrayed in their ranks, teeth chattering in the cold. Azula strutted in front of them. The princess's natural charisma inspired even from afar. The men who had been on the verge of forsaking their oaths and casting away all the bonds of the tribe would stand with their shields locked together.

It was like a hot knife in Katara's chest. She turned and stumbled away, unable to bear watching any longer. She could not bear to leave Azula. But she could not stay. If Azula could hold her head high and do her duty, then so must Katara.

Katara met the other princess who'd so ensnared her heart on the way back to her commando team. Yue's eyes fell on the dried blood on Katara's hands, and thus Katara was transfixed. The pregnant silence drew on until finally Yue said, "Is there no other way?"

Katara's voice came out small, like a child's, despite herself: "My word is all I have. I will not go back on it."

"There must be some other way. How could any man let a girl go in their place? It's awful, shameful–"

Katara pressed her hands to Yue's cheeks. The princess stood still, silent tears in her eyes. "Yue, please. It's my life to give. This is our darkest hour. With our sacred bond to the Moon broken, and the terrible losses we've taken, our people are ready to go quietly into the night. We have to resist, strike back at them, do anything to level the odds, to give us time to accomplish a miracle."

Yue's blue eyes bored into Katara, but the princess said nothing.

"You'll have to look after Azula for me. I'm sorry we didn't get to see how the three of us would work out."

Yue trembled. "That's the one thing I can't do." She looked up at the empty black sky.

"You can't…"

Yue forced a smile. "What was it you said? 'It's my life to give.' Whatever they gave me, I have to give it back." Yue brushed the tears from Katara's eyes. "I really am a hypocrite, huh? Come to dissuade you from doing exactly what I planned to do." She laughed, leaving the freezing tears behind.

Katara laughed uneasily. "We're awful, leaving Azula the hardest job."

Yue set her hands on Katara's shoulders. "I will sing for you, Katara, daughter of Hakoda. I will howl like the wolves at the end of days, to let them know that one of Amarok's own is coming, to set their halls to welcome her and dare not to bar her way."

Their kiss was chaste, lest anyone think something untoward about them. Katara turned abruptly and grabbed the yoke from her sled. She dared not turn around, even for one moment, lest she lose the strength to do what she knew in her bones needed to be done. Men twice her age watched her pass, gimlet eyes of the men she would lead into the jaws of death. "Let's go," said Katara.

They fell in behind her. Eight soldiers and four sleds of blasting jelly. The oldest, Ornlu, chuckled. "Thank the Spirits, no sodding speech."

"I thought Azula covered that well enough. If the enemy has found the tunnels, we'll split into two groups. One to fight them off and cover the rear, the other to continue on."

She heard the grunts of affirmation. Yana took the yoke from her, nodding. Katara's hands trembled as she stepped to the fount. She clenched her fists repeatedly, and still they trembled. Only once she occupied her hand with the reassuring weight of a jian sword did the shaking stop.

Eyes strained in the dark; the whale oil lantern barely held back the shadows. The dread clung to Katara, sticky like the tongue in her mouth, long run dry. She shoved the fear away, trying to focus her rage and righteous hatred towards the invader. But it did not help.

Even upon catching the first Fire Navy sentry by surprise, running him through and twisting the blade so his hot blood would freeze on the ice, the anger would not come. Even the fires of hate for the Fire Nation had gone out in this freezing night.

Snarling, sweat beading on her forehead, Katara tore into the enemy ranks. She dug deep for something, anything to fuel her. But her sword work remained dull and mechanical. The enemy lay strewn out in the paths around the reservoir, and all that Katara could feel was a profound pity for them.

The ice above their tunnel heaved and crackled. Even without her Waterbending, Katara felt the ebb of flow of the reservoir as it sloshed and settled from the sudden death of the tides. "We're here," she said, "Get the fuzes laid."

The soldiers obeyed without hesitation. It weighed heavily on Katara as she began packing the blasting jelly capsules into the holes that Yutu augured into the tunnel wall. His hands trembled. After the seventh charge, he slipped and cried out. His bones rattled as he tried to pick up the tool, fumbling it again. "I…I don't want to die. I'm not ready. Spirits, why did I–"

Katara placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're not done for yet. And even if we do die, remember the people we are doing this for."

She thought of Sokka, imagining his grief but also his pride. She thought of her father, wondering if he'd ever forgive himself for outliving his daughter. But she also felt her heart overflow with warmth. The cold no longer bit at her steadied hands as she packed the next charge in.

Her thoughts turned to Azula, and Katara was struck with how much the princess had grown in the months since their paths crossed; watching her transform from the seething Ashmaker princess looking down her nose at the world into someone worthy of the title 'Avatar.' Katara was not superstitious, but nonetheless she felt the ghost wind of fate in all this.

Azula had confessed to her one troubled night around the campfire that she feared her whole existence was a mistake: that it should have been Aang, not her, who Katara pulled from the arctic waters. Perhaps she was right. But perhaps also it was Katara's fate to love and nurture that little cinder of good in her during their short time together.

But more than the mere transition from villain to hero, Katara cherished all the days spent peeling away Azula's armor to find the girl beneath it. The girl who wanted more than anything to be loved, and yet convinced that there was something so vile and obscene in her soul that she was totally unworthy of its grace.

So no matter the odds, no matter the trials, Katara swore that she would not let their story end here. She would find a way.

Katara packed the last of her charges, tapping her work partner on the shoulder. "Help Nanuq get the fuzes cut."

Yutu jolted at Katara's touch, but nodded. Katara watched him go before finding her way to Ornlu, who'd just finished the other bank of the charges. Kneeling beside him, she said, "So far, so good."

Ornlu grunted. "Yeah. They say my cousin Jaga said the same thing when he fell off the glacier wall. Heard him saying it all the way down." When Katara chuckled, he ran a hand through his gray hair and laughed.

Katara cycled between the teams, giving words of encouragement as they finished their charges. When she cycled back to where Ornlu was gathering up and braiding the fuzes together, a garbled shout echoed down the tunnel. "Finish up here," said Katara.

She drew her sword and rushed forward. Heart pounding in her ears, Katara crossed the threshold into the glacier wall antechamber. Two men in the crowned helmets of the Imperial Firebender corps loomed over a wounded Water Tribe warrior, who cowered under his scorched and smoldering parka.

Katara charged, pure instinct spurring her forward. Rolling under their attacks, she closed the gap, thrusting her shoulder into one's belly. Her blade arced, digging into the other's bracers with a satisfying crunch. Snarling, she wrenched the blade free, trailing hot, red blood. Taking it half-sword, she wheeled the pommel into the man's face, knocking loose his helm.

Shifting back to the handle, she swung with all her might, smashing through the mail curtain to end him. "Light the fuzes," cried Katara, twisting out of the deadly path of a fire bolt. The second Imperial, winded by her body check, kept her at bay with what fire he could summon. Ducking under the fire jabs, Katara grabbed her fallen comrade by the parka and dragged him away. Pounding thumps of armored runners neared.

After dropping off the badly injured Tigin, Katara rushed to their ingress point, only to find the torches and shouting voices of Fire Nation soldiers, coming down the tunnel.

Trapped. She returned to find her comrades already skirmishing with the advance elements of the enemy. Ornlu spied her out of the corner of her eye once he'd finished tacking a soldier to the ice with a spear. "Is there no way out?" he shouted.

"We'll have to fight our way out. Light the fuzes."

"Gods above, we're going to die," said Dené.

"Quit your yapping," said Ornlu.

At the edge of despair, still they fought on. Yenisey sang the song of his ancestors, even as the wounds piled up. The enemy's resolve faltered, and soon a no man's land of two paces formed between the Fire Nation and Water Tribe soldiers. In that lull, Katara reached up to clasp her mother's necklace only to find the bare skin of her neck. One last gift, my love, she said to herself.

"So there was no hope after all," said Yutu, gripping his bloodied war club tighter.

"No," said Katara, "there's infinite hope. But not for us. Light it!"

As Ornlu dipped a torch to the fuze's braided end, an unfamiliar voice shouted, "Stop!"

The barest hesitation by the old warrior was all that was needed. Doubt was seeping into the Water Tribe warriors. The man who'd spoken stepped forward. His dull red armor, worn from years of abuse, creaked as he walked. "No one else has to die today. You're all brave lads, but don't be bloody fools. Fight's over, just walk away."

Exhausted, frightened eyes looked back at Katara. They could not trust the Ashmaker, but neither did they want to die. So they stood on the primer, waiting for the hammer to fall.

"Give me the torch, Ornlu," said Katara. Her eyes met the Fire Nation captain's as Ornlu passed the torch to her. "You're right, no one should have to die today."

The old captain relaxed an inch. "Good, good, let's all breathe easy."

"You know it's funny, really," said Katara, giving a wink to Ornlu.

"What's so funny?"

"We're all out of Waterbending, and you can't fight this fire with fire."

The captain's eyes went white with alarm as Katara plunged the torch towards the fuze. His last ditch effort to knock the torch away ended with Ornlu's boomerang smacking him in the head. The fuze sputtered and sparked as the room descended into bedlam. Some of the soldiers ran, while others chased after the burning fuze.

Even in the chaos, there was no escaping. Katara cast aside all hope of fleeing to chase after the now helmetless captain as he weaved through the melee on a one-way mission to cut the fuze or die in the attempt. Katara shoved aside men a full head taller than herself to weave through the forest of swinging blades, finally body slamming her quarry mere seconds before his triumph.

As they rolled and tousled, she felt the deep sting of his sword slicing across her back. Howling, she headbutted him, managing to daze him as much as herself. World spinning, they disentangled. Katara tore off the bloodied parka, but every move brought fresh spurts of hot blood down her back. She bit back the pain and crawled after him.

His fingers stretched, tantalizingly close to the unburnt length of the fuze, as Katara flopped on him, crushing him down on the ice. He swatted at her, trying to wrench himself free, but Katara summoned up the last of her might, vowing to Amarok and all her ancestors to grapple to the last with the Ashmaker, spitting her last breath in defiance.

Acrid smoke stung at Katara's eyes as the burn raced past his outstretched hand. The captain cried, "You've killed us all!"

"My soul is prepared," said Katara, tightening her grip around his neck. "How's yours?"

The blasting jelly charges blew one-by-one, like a god pounding his drum. The blasts sent them both sliding down the tunnel. The ice groaned and the world shook, the herald of La's vengeance. A wall of water and pulverized ice burst forth, all-destroying but unconquering, to sweep them all away. Grinning, Katara shouted, "Azula! Witness me!"

Azula walked towards the parapet as the ash rained down around her. The thunder of catapults pounded the keep like drums. The soldiers cowered under the onslaught, so fierce that even the Fire Nation gunners pitied the men under it. Never had she felt so alone as now, teetering here at the edge of hope. Her normal confidence had faltered. She wasn't sure she could do it, that she could bear the weight of the world any longer. But if she could not, then no one could. That alone was reason enough to spit her last breath in defiance.

The fleet was close in the bay, pounding Agna Q'ela as fast as the crews could load. Azula saw the damage wrought by the breaking of the dam and the unleashing of the reservoir, and her heart clenched. Two wards of the city had been washed away in the cascade of ice and water, and with it hundreds of Fire Nation soldiers and their war machines. In the scoured landscape, Water Tribe soldiers charged forward.

Azula knew she had to be proud, but she lost the stomach for it. It may well have been Katara's last defiant act.

There was no use thinking about it. If she lived through this, Azula would have the rest of her life to mourn. Dawn should have come by now. But the battlefield remained smothered in the pitch-black blanket of the moonless night. Perhaps it would never rise again in retribution for this sacrilege, and they'd perish in this world drained of color.

"There's something sleeping inside me, which seldom awakens." Azula said aloud. "I've asked many times for help, for a hint of what I need to do, for guidance. I've had nothing but silence except from the man who condemned me to this. I was never supposed to be the Avatar." She looked up at the fleet, eyes narrowed with fury. "But there's no use lamenting the road not taken. And I am no longer asking."

It was like putting her hand on a hot stove. But as much as it seared her to the bone, Azula reached within herself and grabbed hold of that feeling that overwhelmed her everytime she fell into the Avatar State. And she pulled, with all her might, until she felt the qi rushing outwards.

She fell to her knees, screaming in pain. But she would not relent, as the blue aura spread, returning a tinge of color to the world around her. Eyes glowing, teeth gritted, Azula stumbled to her feet, fighting back the pain. She formed the lightning sigil with her hands and began the separation of energies.

A memory of a similar moment flashed up, untold thousands of years ago, when her name was not Azula, when she gave counsel to her friend, the young warrior-prince Arjuna. Firing this bolt was like riding the thunderstorm. It struck a Fire Nation battleship amidships, arcing off the bow and stern to the adjacent ships. In the flash, the metal heated red-hot. A dozen ships sizzled in the water for a moment, until their boilers erupted into giant fountains of steam, peeling them open like kernels of popcorn.

The power of three elements rained down on the Fire Nation troops. Typhoon winds stripped the flesh from mens' bones. The earth broke through the deep ice, forming new battlements, cracking chasms to swallow the giant drills whole. Fire burning like the Sun herself scorched the land. The Avatar State usually wielded her. But this time it surrendered to her, that almighty cause of world-destruction, come hither to end worlds. All the ranks arrayed against her would perish.

The power of the Avatar State left Azula soon after, and she collapsed into a boneless heap. But the bombardment stopped. As she crawled, wincing, up to the parapet, she watched the attackers pulling back.

Time had been bought. The cost was more than Azula could bear. One foot in-front of the other. The men who'd hated her, sneered at the traitor princess, or whispered their jealous innuendos parted, bowing in genuine awe. The power of the Avatar State had lit up a world plunged into darkness.

Seeing god in the flesh; Azula supposed that was reason enough for religious terror. Their genuflections went in one ear and out the other. There was no time for this; she'd already hacked off a piece of herself with Katara's last gift. Only by the all-consuming grief could Azula grab the Wheel of Dharma with white-knuckle grip and turn its course. But it still was not enough.

She searched through the halls of the palace, stepping over the dead and the dying. If Azula stopped even for a moment, her strength might abandon her. She found Yue comforting her younger brother Tulok, who wailed into her chest. He was so young, that even as she knelt, the boy barely came up to her heart.

Yue glanced up to Azula and nodded. An old god had died. A new one was struggling to be born. Now was the time of monsters.

"Tulok, buddy," Yue whispered, patting his back, "I've got to go now."

His babbling was incomprehensible, but Azula knew it anyway: I don't want you to go. Me neither.

"I'm going to help keep you safe. I need you to be brave, okay?"

Azula was tired of being brave. But then this was the price she owed, letting others go in her stead. Yue rose, patting Tulok's head one last time. She took Azula by the hand and pulled her down the road destiny had laid for her.

Yue's voice cracked. "If I could do this on my own, I would. It's…it's horrible that you have to be the one."

"What is going to happen?"

Yue said nothing.

"I need you to say it out loud, Yue. Will there be anything left of you?"

"I don't know!" Yue stopped, throwing her hands up. "All that is mortal in me will be gone. I don't know what's left after that. Whether I'm dying, being born, or just fading to nothing. But that was the price that was paid for me to even live."

Azula wrapped Yue up in her arms. "I'm scared too."

"When I first met you, I thought you were fearless, so far beyond a pampered princess like me. But being with you has taught me to be brave."

"I would have been happy to be your wife. Err, husband…not that it matters. Point is, I need you to know that it may have been politics that betrothed us, I don't regret it."

"I love you too, Azula."

Flustered, Azula could only mutter "Yeah."

"Come, we can't tarry any longer."

After passing through the rear lines of the Water Tribe soldiers, they walked the lonely road up to the Spirit Oasis. They encountered exhausted Fire Nation soldiers, now cut off from the main body of the army. Azula took the lead, cutting the men down without mercy. None had the stomach to face Azula after seeing the Avatar State. Even the ones that fled were torched. She left the wounded to freeze.

Zhao and three Imperial Firebenders guarded the final way to the Spirit Sanctuary. Zhao wore his colonel's epaulets with sneering disdain. When he recognized Azula marching up the stairs, he let out a full throated laugh. "So we meet again, Azula, at another of my triumphs."

"Zhao," she spat. "I thought I recognized your stench. I knew you'd sell your mother for your ambitions, but you truly have outdone yourself."

"Here you are, sleeping with the savages, caked in their heathen warpaint, and you dare to judge me?"

Lightning crackled across Azula's mail. "No, Zhao, I am going to kill you."

The three Imperial Firebenders brandished their fire, but Zhao raised a hand and said, "I've slain the false moon god, I'll slay the Avatar too. I challenge you to Agni K–"

The lightning had already arced from her fingertips. Zhao only had a split second of terror before the bolt struck him square in the chest. The flashing plasma knocked his companions to the ground.

Zhao was strewn out on the cobblestones, smoke rising from his scorched breastplate. He gurgled a few incomprehensible words, raising a twitching hand.

"Do you really think I'd leave the fate of the world up to single combat?" Azula lowered her hand. "You three, surrender or die. I've already tired of this carnage."

The glowing blue aura of spirit energy was a compelling argument. The three doffed their helms and tied each other up when prompted, with Yue finishing the last man's bonds.

All that was left was to climb the last steps to the heart of the sanctum. Azula followed Yue up, like the morning star followed the moon. Yue trembled with each step, her pace slowing. Azula caught her, putting an arm around her waist. "If I could go in your place, I would," whispered Azula.

"I know."

The air smelled of spring. Atop the stairs, a warm, lush grotto invited them to earthly paradise. In the glowing blue pond, a koi lay belly-up. Its mate frantically circled.

Aang's spirit manifested atop the placid water. He looked stricken, as though his own life was meeting its end. "Azula. It's time."

Yue did not seem surprised by the apparition. "Your last incarnation?"

"Yes." Azula led Yue to the pool. "What must we do?"

Aang opened his eyes, uncurling from the lotus position. "Enter the Spirit Oasis with Yue. When you invoke the Avatar State, you'll know what to do."

"I wish that we'd stop meeting under such dire circumstances."

"You live in dire times." Aang disappeared into a wisp of smoke.

This really was it. The end of their road. It burned away everything in Azula to even take the next step. Another heart had come into Azula's life, touching hers and leaving her irrevocably changed, only to leave her. Again. If only…if only "If only we had more time."

Yue touched Azula's cheek. "I don't want to go, Azula. But I can't stay."

When they reached the edge of the oasis, Azula doffed her blood-stained mail and hauberk.

"I guess I won't be needing these either," said Yue, discarding her blood-matted furs and her silk robe. Nude, her natural glow waxed, white hair shining silver, as the light from her returned color to the oasis. Shining like the moon, she removed everything of artifice, from her betrothal necklace to her earrings.

Azula's mouth hung open as she watched Yue's many piercings close before her very eyes, leaving unblemished brown skin.

"I can feel it beginning," said Yue, as her hair fluttered in the still air. "I dreamed of this moment before. I'm remembering it again only now. At the time, I thought it was our wedding night."

Yue was so beautiful, so radiant, it hurt to look at her. Self-conscious, Azula stripped down to her fundoshi and bandeau.

Yue walked across the waters. Kneeling at the corpse of Tui, she cradled the dead goddess in her arms. "Rest now, friend," she whispered. Both koi turned into twinkling stars, rising into the southern aurora.

Azula splashed into the oasis. The warm water came up to her hips as she waded over to Yue, who settled into Azula's arms in princess carry.

"Don't cry, Azula," Yue raised her hand to brush the silent stream of tears. "I'll be watching over you every night. I'm sorry I have to break your heart."

"I'm not. I…at the risk of sounding ridiculous, the pain feels like it will kill me, but I really do think that loving you both has saved my soul. To love and to be loved changed me. It has given me a reason to live. Even if I spend the rest of my life resenting your absence."

"Kiss me then."

Their lips met slowly at first. A ravenous need filled Azula, and Yue certainly returned it in kind. Their kiss deepened, tongues mingling as Yue held Azula's head in her hands. The air rose around them, as the limitless wellspring of the Avatar State surged through them. The oasis shined brighter than the sun, swirling blue spirit energy lifting the lovers up. And then apart. Azula reached out to grab Yue's hand, screaming her name into the howling wind.

It was like staring into the sun. Azula's eyes shut but she still shouted until she was hoarse. She landed in a heap by the oasis, knocking the coursing energy of the Avatar State out of her. Her eyes creaked open, and on instinct she shielded them with her hand. A titan glowing like moonlight knelt over her. As tall as a mountain, the ground quaked as the titan rose, silver hair blowing back to reveal Yue's face.

The glaciers groaned with Yue's tides. Waters swept into the city. Looking through the keyhole in the glacier, Azula could see the utter devastation being wrought on the invaders. But Yue could never be a wrathful goddess. They did not deserve her mercy, but she gave it anyway. Had she willed it, they would have all died to a man. Thousands already did, while the chastened survivors fell prostrate before her.

The surging waters receded from Agna Qel'a, leaving a battered but still standing city. It would be some time before the miracle could be fully appreciated. The waters quenched fires and swept Fire Nation soldiers and war machines away, but left the people of Agna Qel'a and their homes undisturbed.

Radiant Yue hovered over the city, arms outstretched. Azula could only watch in awe, feeling the warm song of the sea once again. Yue turned to look down at Azula one last time. Her forlorn smile broke Azula's heart. All of Yue was still there. Her apotheosis was perfect and complete, and this separated their hearts forever. The Avatar was the tether between Spirit and the Mundane, and could never fully exist in either.

Azula waved goodbye. She closed her eyes and found herself once again the moon temple from her prophetic dream. This time, she was not clad in the raiment of war. She was naked and completely vulnerable.

Yue descended from the obsidian plinth, wrapping her arms around Azula, hands resting on the Avatar's belly as she floated behind. Yue sighed, "If only they could all see the world as I do. Not four separate nations, but one world in pain. Don't judge them too harshly, my love, they know not what they do."

Azula rested a hand on Yue's. "I am just…" the words stopped as the tears flowed. "Just to see you again, to know you're alright, it's enough."

"No, it isn't. Not for you or for me. Perhaps that's why we were a matched pair. We both lived on borrowed time, lives that were not our own."

Azula turned, standing on tiptoes to give Yue one last kiss. The moondrops fell from Yue's cheeks. "I know this isn't exactly death. But please do not be offended when I wear the ashes of mourning for you as well as for Katara. When I give my offerings to Yama for your safekeeping. Or when I light incense on your birthday."

"I won't be offended. Just don't let the grief keep you from living."

"I saw a vision like this before. Of us looking down from the moon. It was different though. I…know that the future is still mine to make. But what I really mean to say is, even if I knew with certainty it would all end this way, I would not change one day. I will always cherish our time together."

Yue kissed Azula's forehead. "I'll be watching over you. Even on the darkest nights of the new moon, I will be there."

Azula opened her eyes to the sun rising over the bay. The light warmed her skin and dried her tears. Turning, Azula watched the moon begin its journey back to its appointed place. For the first time since she went on the run, Azula observed the morning prayer ritual, genuflecting to the rising sun, the gleam in Agni's eye. She then gathered up all of Yue's mortal trappings. She kept the jewelry, stashing them away in her trouser and vest pockets.

Yue's clothes were gathered into a folded pile and made into a pyre. Once it had carbonized, Azula smeared the fine charcoal dust into a band across her eyes.

Katara! However remote the odds, Azula had to know. Not even bothering to finish dressing, she ran down the terraced city. Only the breath of fire warmed Azula as she searched the city high and low. The search went on all day, as the beleaguered survivors continued to pull bodies out of the bay.

Sokka found Azula late afternoon, sitting on the docks cradling a bloody parka to her chest. Azula's lips had turned blue from hypothermia, but she stayed there, rocking back and forth.

"Azula, buddy, it's a little cold for this," said Sokka.

A small voice, so very unlike Azula, answered. "I've killed her. It's my fault."

Sokka noticed the distinctive patch on the parka's shoulder, and a pit formed in his stomach. A ragged, bloody cut had torn through the fur and leather. Even through the iron smell of blood, Sokka could smell his sister's scent on it.

Sokka crushed Azula into a bear hug. "Don't say that. I couldn't stop her, neither could you."

"If I had just been smarter. Faster. Better. Then. Then she'd."

"No, you already did more than anyone thought possible."

Azula finally fell silent and let herself be comforted. After the rush of silent tears came and went, Azula whispered, "I don't deserve you, Sokka."

"Well we're family, so you're stuck with me."

"Family?"

"Please, you really think my own sister wouldn't tell me you practically proposed to her?"

"But that was when–"

"She never gave up on you, or the dream of getting to be just a normal woman with her. That makes us family, as far as I'm concerned."

Azula was silent. Warmth returned to her body as she remembered to draw qi through her fire chokra with each breath. "Oh! Suk!" she blurted, "Is she fine? I'm sorry, I didn't think."

"Relax, she's wounded but it's light. Especially now that the healers have gotten to her. She just needs to take it easy for a few days."

Azula patted his back for a pensive moment. "I need to get stronger."

"No, you need to rest."