Morality Chain

I'm back! And here's the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy this.

Once again, I hope I give all of you a good time.

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It was only expected that news of the reappearance of the Avatar would have sent shockwaves through the court. The physical embodiment of the ideal of balance, it had always been taken for granted that the Avatar would be opposed to the Fire Nation's plans for conquest. After all, that had been the entire rationale for Sozin's annihilation of the Air Nomads.

As she sat in the solitude of her own room meditating, Azula found herself unable to disagree with that assessment – if the Avatar were to exist, he or she would inevitably come into conflict with the Fire Nation's goals. The Avatar would have to be neutralized.

But how?

Even if they knew the Avatar was back in the mortal world, they still didn't know where he was. They had pinpointed the energy that lit the temple coming from the south, so perhaps the Avatar was there as well, but none of the people who'd seen the light had been able to narrow down the source with any accuracy.

Once again, her thoughts drifted to her brother. Silently, she wondered if he'd already discovered that the Avatar had returned. Had he seen that pillar of light? Did he understand what it meant?

The last letter in which he'd included an itinerary of the stops had indicated a southward course, and if they'd stuck to their schedule they would in fact be in the vicinity of the South Pole at approximately the time the light had appeared. Maybe Zuko would have even been in position to confront the newly reawakened Avatar shortly after he had appeared. Now wouldn't that have been serendipitous.

Breathe in. The candles weren't strictly needed for the meditation exercises, of course, but they were traditionally included, if for nothing more than to provide a point of focus for the Firebender in question.

So. Working under the assumption that Zuko knew the Avatar had returned and had in fact located the returned Avatar and had engaged the returned Avatar – a rather tenuous string to go on, she knew, but really, what else did she have to ponder right now? – the next question was obvious. Would he win? Could he win?

Against a fully realized Avatar, the answer was obvious – Zuko would lose, and badly. In a more candid moment, she admitted that she herself would also have lost in such a confrontation, and probably just as badly. But if the light that signalled the Avatar's return had been any indication, his current incarnation was new to the world.

So maybe he did have a chance, after all. Maybe.

Breathe out. The flames on the candles flared brighter as she expelled the air from her lungs. It had always been a habit of hers to see how long she could make the candles last – her personal best had been five hours and seventeen minutes from a candle designed to burn for a quarter of an hour. It was a fairly simple exercise that demonstrated discipline and control – two essential traits of all Firebending.

At the end of the day, they simply didn't have the necessary information. Nothing about the Avatar's skills, knowledge, native bending style, what he or she looked like – Agni, they didn't even know the Avatar's gender. Nor did it seem likely that they would be finding out any time soon.

Father had been worried. She'd seen him in deep thought before as he pondered the war, how best to allocate the resources, where to strike next, when to retreat and regroup. However, this was the first time in a very long while she'd seen him upset. He'd never taken the threat of the Avatar very seriously – certainly he'd never diverted a fraction of the resources Sozin or even Azulon had to locating the entity.

Clearly that had been a mistake. Or maybe it hadn't, considering the Avatar technically hadn't even existed until two days ago. Or at least he'd existed in a state so inconsequential the signal braziers in the Fire Temple hadn't bothered informing the Fire Sages that had existed.

Not much difference either way, she supposed. Regardless, they hadn't been prepared for the Avatar's return.

Breathe in.

Back to her father – he'd been worried. The entrance of such a powerful – or potentially powerful – figure into the grand scheme of things threatened to upend everything. Even beyond the Avatar's own capabilities in combat, his return would instantly strengthen morale across all the lands that believed themselves on the poorer end of the scale – which basically meant everyone aside from the Fire Nation. On the other hand, she supposed morale across Fire Nation troops wouldn't have taken too big a hit yet – not if and until the Avatar showed up in person and started wrecking armies on his own. Still, was the Avatar even capable of that currently?

And besides, what bending school was native to the current Avatar? The light had come from the south, and the largest (not that that was saying much, of course) group there was the Southern Water Tribe, so it would make sense that the current Avatar was a waterbender. But that would mean that the Avatar had somehow went from his last known incarnation of Avatar Roku from the Fire Nation to a nameless Air Nomad that had presumably died in the purge, and then… a hundred year gap in which the Avatar had suddenly disappeared before reincarnating to the next element in the cycle? That didn't make sense. Nor did the alternative that he had cycled through the elements one more time over the past hundred years without anyone noticing, not least of which because it would have required him to have been reborn as part of the Air Nomads when they were no longer any Air Nomads to be reborn into.

Breathe out.

It just didn't make sense. Azula suspected that her father and most of his planners had been running into the same roadblock as well. The Avatar had been the dominating topic of discussion at the last war meeting, and aside from assigning all bases in the southern region to be on high alert, there didn't appear to be much they could do. The manpower needed to sweep the area would have taken far too long to draw up, and besides the Earth Kingdom had been launching several fresh counter-offensives that were tying down far more troops than the generals would have liked.

The wild card in all this, of course, was Zuko. While it was entirely possible that he'd simply missed the whole thing – Agni knew her brother could be painfully oblivious at times – it was also entirely possible he'd been embroiled in the thick of the whole affair.

Her golden eyes flashed open as she stared down at the candles in front of her, now burnt down to stumps of melted wax.

The two months until her brother's letter arrived to tell her about whatever he'd been doing during this time were going to be agonizing.

(X)

Of course, given the somewhat speedier official channels, it wasn't too long before official confirmation was given that the Avatar had returned. Azula had not been privy to the meeting in which the details were discussed, but thankfully her father saw fit to provide her with the details after the fact. Apparently Zuko had run into the Avatar in the South Pole after all, but the encounter had ended rather badly for him, with the ship so badly damaged that they had pull into a port headed by Commander Zhao to make the necessary repairs.

Of course it would be him. Azula thought with a fair amount of distaste. The man wasn't stupid, and he had had Zuko's crew interrogated in the interim – which was really the only reason that they had gotten any new information about the Avatar, considering Zuko had been remarkably tight-lipped.

It's frustratingly vague. The princess pursed her lips with distaste as she continued to peruse the report Zhao had sent the palace. What scant details had been included were barely enough to form and outline, and it was painfully obvious to anyone with an eye for details that the Commander was doing this purely for the sake of protocol.

He wants to hunt the Avatar himself. Azula set the paper back down on the table, one hand cupping her chin. The prestige associated with successfully subduing the Avatar would be immense; part of the reason why their father had listed that as his ridiculous condition for Zuko's return – obviously Zhao wanted to claim it for himself. Somehow, she found the idea of Zhao and Zuko working in concert to capture the Avatar unlikely at best – if the rumours were right, Zhao had actually fought (and lost) an Agni Kai with Zuko over the right to hunt the Avatar. Naturally Zhao's report made no mention of this.

Well, that wasn't good at all. Zhao had resources far beyond Zuko's scope, after all, and Zuko's lifeline would be extinguished if he himself wasn't the one to capture the Avatar. The thought briefly flitted through her mind of her father setting up a second task of an equally prestigious (and impossible) nature, but then they would be right back where they started. Once again, Azula rubbed her forehead as she retread the familiar ground of how her bumbling brother was going to get out of this one, and how she really should be out there helping him instead of stuck in the Fire Nation capital dealing with bureaucracy and courtly intrigues.

Not for the first time, the shape of a murky, half-formed plan began to churn in her mind. If she played her cards right…

Well, first things first; she had some research to do. Zhao's report had been missing most of the necessary details, but one thing he'd let slip was that the Avatar was a young male airbender. The how of one apparently surviving unnoticed for a century could be dealt with later – the bigger problem was learning how to fight airbenders when literally no one had done so in the past hundred years.

It appeared she was going to need to pay a visit to the Imperial Library.

(X)

What an awfully defensive fighting style. Azula noted with distaste as she continued reading the scroll detailing several advanced airbending techniques. While the high spirituality of the Air Nomads had ensured that every last one of their kind were benders to some degree or other (something that would obviously befit the Fire Nation, whose numbers of new Firebenders had been dropping alarmingly over the past few generations), she couldn't help but feel that it was wasted on such a… pacifist discipline.

Not to say that being able to defend oneself was bad, of course, and not to say that that airbending didn't have its fair share of useful techniques, but even then their philosophies spoke of a reluctance for overt violence and distaste for inflicting fatal harm upon others.

And look where that got them. Azula shook her head impatiently as she skimmed through yet another tract expounding on the sanctity of all life. Rolling it up, she shelved the scroll. She could ponder the merits of living in mountaintops and eating three grains of rice a day later – right now she was concerned chiefly with their combat abilities.

What she could find (which honestly wasn't that much), was that airbenders were apparently in love with the idea of avoiding and evading attacks – no reason to see if you could weather a blow when you could simply pass it by. Enclosed spaces were, therefore, a bad place for them – although even then their increased agility (something about manipulating air resistance) would make it tricky for others to land a blow. Scrolls which analysed the airbending fighting style generally spoke of it being extremely freeform and dynamic.

Not that it would help her much in the end – these scrolls could give her basic ideas of what airbending moves the Avatar might use against her should they ever meet up, but it was never going to replicate the actual experience of facing these moves in actual combat. Frustrated, she replaced the scrolls in their original spots and began to leave the library, her mind still occupied with thoughts about how to match the Avatar (as well as one or two moves she'd picked up from those airbending scrolls that she thought she could incorporate into her own Firebending routine), when a servant entered the room.

"What is it?" She questioned offhandedly.

"Your highness, you told us to inform you the next time there was a report of the Avatar making an appearance."

"So I did. You have the report on hand?"

(X)

"A sighting at Kyoshi Island… why would he even go there?" Azula muttered to herself as she walked back to her room. That island was created by Avatar Kyoshi, of course, but if the Avatar wanted to commune with his spiritual past or some other nonsense, wouldn't he have gone to Crescent Island? Avatar Roku was the Avatar before this one, after all. Then again, it's in Fire Nation, territory, so he might not want to take the risk. True to form, her father had already sent word to the Fire Sages that if the Avatar showed his face there he was to be apprehended immediately.

Well, it's probably a good thing he's not coming into the Fire Nation anyway – Zuko wouldn't be allowed to enter it, not even to capture the Avatar. Even as the thought crossed Azula's mind, she had to wonder if her brother would actually pay any heed to something like that. Well, it was a moot point, anyway.

As she entered her room, her gaze fell upon her writing shelf, and she knew immediately that a new letter had been placed there. Shutting the door behind her, she quickly drew out the latest missive and quickly read through it.

Happy as it was for her to continue reading through her brother's letters, she couldn't help the feeling of hazy unreality of it being from two months ago, when dreams of hunting down the Avatar were just that – dreams. So much had changed, and so quickly…

Abruptly there was a knocking at her door. Azula's eyes widened fractionally, and a moment later the letter in her hand had been consumed. Sweeping the ashes aside with a graceful motion, she turned to the door.

"What is it?"

"Fire Lord Ozai has requested your presence in the strategy meeting to be held in an hour's time, your highness."

Ah. Right. Azula sucked in air and allowed herself the beginnings of a smile. Her conversation with her father the previous night had been productive, after all.

Her presence in the gathering – seated to the right of the Fire Lord, as was only proper for the heir apparent – would help cement her status as one whose presence had to be acknowledged, whose opinions and ideas had to heeded even if they were ultimately rejected. Her youth was in this regard a boon – there had been more than enough talk flying around about her surprising skill at Firebending, politics, and tactical acumen. Seeing her officially recognized by her father at such an age would only increase her reputation, something which certainly never hurt. That she would no longer have to cower behind pillars and curtains to keep up with the flow of information was a pleasant bonus.

Too, she would be able to influence the direction the war would follow – even if such influence would be severely mitigated by nearly everyone else in the room. That didn't bother her too much – once she got one or more of her ideas or plans to go through, the results would speak for themselves, with a corresponding increase in prestige.

But perhaps most importantly, it would take her one step closer to her ultimate goal – some actual, honest-to-goodness field work. She could hardly wait.

Closing her eyes and letting out her breath, Azula stood and quietly departed the room.

(X)

As time wore on, reports concerning the Avatar and the hunt for him continued to filter in. Most of them were conspicuously lacking in details, although Azula had to admit that she quite enjoyed the one in which Comman – Admiral Zhao (seriously how had he gotten himself promoted?) had to admit that he'd successfully apprehended the Avatar… only to have him rescued by a mysterious 'Blue Spirit'.

Less amusing had been the report of the Avatar showing up at Crescent Island, with Zuko in hot pursuit. Her father hadn't appeared to care very much that Zuko had apparently entered the Fire Nation without permission, paying rather more attention to the fact that for a brief moment, Avatar Roku, or his spirit or something along those lines, had reappeared to aid the current Avatar in his escape. Somewhere along the way, they'd also learnt that his name was 'Aang', although any significance that name might have held was lost on Azula.

Zhao had been there, of course. The man was as tenacious and annoying as a cockroach-flea, and any personal dislike Azula felt for him was magnified rather intensely by the simple fact that he was constantly getting in her brother's way. Zuko was going to have a hard enough time of it on his own, and there was no reason for that insolent, pompous self-serving jackalope to constantly hinder his efforts.

True, in her current situation she could do little to overtly aid her brother, but she still had power and authority enough to do something. And every little bit helped.

"B – but your highness! The Lord Admiral has ordered us to send these troops to reinforce-"

"And I'm countermanding that order," Azula replied, giving the colonel an icy glare, under which he quailed visibly. "He may be an Admiral, but he isn't undertaking any major campaigns that would require those troops right now, whereas the Earth Kingdom has been getting increasingly restless, especially near the coast. Those troops will be put to better use defending our supply garrisons near the Green Jade Pass."

At that. the colonel fell silent.

You want to make capturing the Avatar your personal goal? Azula thought with a scowl. Then you can do it personally.

Her frown only deepened as she continued to look at the troop dispositions. Over the past month or so, Zhao had apparently been using his position as Admiral to send out orders to all ships under his direct control – they were definitely gathering, although no word had yet reached the Imperial Palace as to for what. Her eyes narrowed, and she briefly pondered if her statement that he wasn't planning a major campaign had been an accurate statement after all.

Well. It could be saved for later, if and when he finally gave notice to the palace about whatever his next set of actions would be. There was no way he would launch a major campaign without discussing it in a strategy meeting with the rest of the officers, or at the very least informing them first.

There was no way he would do something like that.

(X)

Of course he would do something like that.

When word had finally reached her father about Zhao's campaign to subdue the Northern Water Tribe – a full week after the fleet had already assembled and begun their journey – the Fire Lord had been apoplectic. The diversion of so many able men and ships would leave them dangerously undermanned for protracted campaigns in the Earth Kingdom at precisely a point where the people had started to rally behind the idea of the Avatar coming to help them overthrow the Fire Nation. Even an eventual victory would likely result in horrendous losses, as was only to be expected when you assaulted the largest concentration of waterbenders in the world in a city made entirely out of water in the middle of the Agni-forsaken ocean.

And the worst part was that, for all his authority, her father could not give the order to halt and turn the ships round. To do so now, after Zhao had already progressed halfway across the world to his target would have created (or revealed) fatal cracks in the command structure that had allowed such a maverick like Zhao to a high position in the first place, which would in turn result in a massive loss of respect and prestige

No, the only alternative was to simply pretend that they had known and approved of the entire operation all along – with the first opportunity to withdraw without losing face being when it was apparent that losses were heavier than projected. Not a good solution by any means, but the closest they had. Being Fire Lord was a rather delicate combination of strength and weakness – at least if you wanted to command the respect of the general populace, which her father did.

As she stared down at the copy of the damning massive, she could feel a cold rage building up within her, and quickly she bundled it all up and forced it down again.

Right. Think this through clearly. She let out a breath, and out of the corner of her eye, a candle flickered. Zhao's not that much of an idiot – he's got to know that he'll be flayed alive once he comes back home unless this goes far, far better than expected. That'll mean the defeat of the Northern Water Tribe with minimal casualties. But how in the world does he plan to accomplish that? For Agni's sake, he's scheduled to reach their fort at the full moon! The peak of their powers!

Regular combat projections all agreed that losses would be massive. So logically Zhao wouldn't do it the regular way – and she dearly hoped she wasn't giving him too much credit on this line of thought. It followed that he apparently thought he had some way to subdue or neutralize the waterbenders of the tribe. Bribery? Blackmail? Some new reagent that prevents bending? Azula's face creased into a frown. No, that doesn't make sense. If he had a way to neutralize the waterbenders he wouldn't have a reason to keep all this hidden from us. Unless… A cold knot of suspicion formed in her gut.

Unless he knows we wouldn't approve. Unless he knows that whatever it is he's planning would cause father to order him to halt immediately. Unless whatever it is he's planning has the potential to completely blow up in everyone's face. Suddenly the prestige of the imperial court hardly seemed very important at all. Her father had to be told. It was entirely possible that he'd come to the same conclusions that she had and was already taking the necessary measures, but Azula was not one who believed in taking chances.

She stood, intending to leave her room, when suddenly the door was pushed open. Irritation pulsed through Azula; she'd made it expressly clear that she did not tolerate unannounced interruptions in her room. Whoever it was who had completely disrespected the protocol was going to-

"Li?" She raised an eyebrow. "Might I ask why you hadn't knocked first?"

"Actually, I'm Lo." The aged woman said. "A – and I'm sorry, your highness, but this is…" The woman was obviously distraught by something.

The princess resisted the urge to sigh. "Fine. I'll overlook it this time. Now what's all this about?"

"A report, your highness, I was asked to deliver this to you in person…"

Walking over, she plucked it out of her tutor's hands while simultaneously shooting the old woman an annoyed look. "You may leave." She said curtly. Simply reading the thing would surely be faster than hearing her instructor stammer the whole thing out.

Lo looked like she wanted to say something further, but departed quickly.

Once alone, Azula unrolled the latest report.

There was absolute silence in the room for a long moment. Azula's grip on the paper tightened, to the point where her knuckles were now a pale white. Thought she did not know it, there was a fury in her eyes that would have given the Fire Lord pause.

Silently, she placed the scroll down on her desk, took a single step away, and then turned and left the room.

Chapter End

Yes, I did condense the vast majority of the events of Season One into a single chapter. Why do you ask?

Thanks for reading. Please review.