A/N: I never learned you should stop loving fire because you got burned. Love and be loved. Read… and review!
Citrus
[Fall/Winter 138 AG]
Katara has shallow breath and a thumping in her chest. As the milliseconds pass by she feels her pulse pounding in a more hurried pace. There's something lighter about her head, the air feels thinner. Her eyes dart all about inspecting and searching, confirming all that she sees in front of her. A face that is older, much older than she remembers. Visible lines that etch her face, but the same amber eyes, the same nose, the same wicked smile. A dead woman walks the Earth.
"NO!" Katara slips the cap off of her trusty water skin and whips out an attack.
The water slings forward and hits Azula in the wrists, wrapping themselves around them, bounding her hands together in a pair of handcuffs made from water. Moon's Veil clatters to the ground.
"Is this really necessary?" Azula asks her.
Ty Lee pleads, "Katara, please, just calm down. We can explain-"
"Mom? What is this?" Tenzin asks, taking steps forward to be beside her.
Azula smirks. She jokes, "'Mom?' I thought that might be your husband and he just aged gracefully!"
"Shut up!" Katara screams at her. With renewed anger she yells, "Shut the fuck up!"
"Is he here? Your husband?" Azula asks Katara, blatantly ignoring the demand from her captor. She is both curious and trying to break the ice. Katara is still trying to wrap her head around all of this and doesn't answer. So Azula turns to the son, "Hmm. How about you, boy? Is your father here?"
Tenzin tenses. He stands up a little taller, his arm muscles flexing involuntarily. He asks her his own question to the woman his mother has attacked, "Who are you?"
"On Jin?" A new voice joins the fray. All heads turn to Azula and Ty Lee's right, Tenzin and Katara's left. A teenage girl approaches and asks, "What is this?"
Katara looks at this new girl and feels the whole world spin around her. She must be seeing double because now there is a second Azula. This one has blue eyes and freckles and is younger. She can not allow this, she holds her right hand out to keep Azula in shackles, but then she points left hand out towards Meng Shou. A new water whip explodes out. This one doesn't just bind the hands though. It wraps up her arms, around her torso, and forms a gag over her mouth.
"Mhm!"
Azula commands her, "Let her go, Kat."
Ty Lee pleads, "Katara, please!"
"Mom! Mom, what are you doing? What is this?"
"Everyone shut up!" Katara demands, her frustration and fear building.
As if on cue, yet another voice enters the arena. This one coming from Katara and Tenzin's right, Azula and Ty Lee's left.
"Guardian, what is this?"
Katara looks at this latest challenge. A woman with a ponytail as well as braids on each side to frame her face. She has tan skin, white hair, and a tiny face. Her eyes are as blue as the ocean and she looks ready for war based on her facial expression.
"Tapisa, stand down." On Jin demands.
"Why does she have your hands tied? Why does this woman have Meng Shou bound?"
"It's not your concern, Guru. Leave it alone."
Tenzin tries to intervene, "Perhaps we can talk this out? She's a Guru?"
Ty Lee chirps excitedly, "Yes!"
Azula is quick to concur, "A splendid idea."
"No." Katara answers.
The Guru agrees, "We don't negotiate with those who would attack us."
Katara turns to Azula and berates her, "I can't believe you're still using your bending to fight and hurt people!"
"What are you doing here?" Azula asks, ignoring her captor.
Tenzin offers a reply, "We heard the story of the Guardian and the Ghost. We came to thank them."
"Ah!" On Jin yelps. She smiles sarcastically and turns her head a bit as she talks to Katara, "So a moment ago you were here to thank me and my wife! Now you're attacking us on our property?"
"No no no no no. No. No, that can't be. No, you can't be. You can't be the Guardian."
"Can't I?" Azula quirks an eyebrow.
The Archer senses an opportunity and raises her arrows.
"Archer, stand down!"
"Not until she releases you!"
Tenzin puts his hands out and steps forward, trying to calm everyone. "Please! We need to work this out!"
Katara spits venom at Katara, "Aang should've taken your bending away like your Father."
"Harsh, but not all that surprising coming from you."
"What's your game?"
"Nothing. I-"
"Why are you helping these people?"
"Because they-"
"What's in it for you?"
"Nothing. Well,-"
"Are you rebuilding your empire?"
"No! If you-"
"Are you starting over? Using them as cattle fodder? Is that why this village is always under attack?"
"ENOUGH."
Azula shoots flames out of her palms, extinguishing the water, and releasing her cuffs. Katara is surprised by doesn't react.
"Don't play dumb, Katara," Azula yells at her, frustration growing. "You know how it is for people like you and me. We're one in the same."
An affront to Yue wouldn't have been worse than this insinuation. Katara takes another step forward, one hand holding Meng Shou captive, the other balled into a fist.
"No, we are not!"
"Yes, we are. We are two of the greatest benders of our time, perhaps of all time. Fire and Water. Our very existence invites challengers. People out to take our place."
Katara listens, but it does not take the edge off.
"You want to know why this village is always under attack? Because we're protecting it. It's valuable land. And these bad guys, they keep showing up. They think they're going to be the one to finally kill The Guardian and company. But they don't. So the next group comes along and says, "I'm gonna be the one to knock them off." That's why."
Katara scoffs as everyone else becomes an audience to this showdown between titans.
"You can play pretend all you want. But we both know deep down you're still a monster."
"Oh, I don't need you to tell me that. I remember who I am. I am the Guardian."
"Get out. And never come back."
"Ha! Are you mad? That's a death sentence for all of the people here who we've protected for the last 10 years."
Katara feels vaguely threatened and screams at her.
"By our honor we will protect this village after you're gone!"
Azula grows furious that she can't see what is so plainly true.
"Do you think it's HONOR that keeps this place safe? Do you think HONOR staves off the killers and the madmen? It's FIRE! FIRE AND LIGHTNING!"
"Then the Avatar will protect them!"
"THERE IS NO AVATAR HERE! THAT'S WHY I STEPPED IN!"
Azula spits as she speaks, unintentionally, as her anger reaches new peaks that haven't been seen by anyone in the village in her time there. She takes multiple steps out towards Katara, closing the distance between them. She calms herself and tries to explain.
"You have to understand this, Katara. I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me."
The words sound so familiar. Katara knows that the reasoning is sound. If she spent more than a few moments remembering her own past and her life, she would see the logic. But she can't see through all of the red in her vision.
"Everything you touch burns. It's your curse. All that you hold turns to ash. That's why I can't let you stay here. This village will burn if you remain."
"It will burn if I leave. They'll be nothing. It will be a graveyard. Can't you see? That isn't what Yue would want!"
"Don't you say that. Don't you use her name. I knew her. She was my friend. And it was you and your people who forced her to make the sacrifice that she made!"
"She sacrificed her life so that people of the Water Tribe, who couldn't defend themselves, could be saved. Why won't you let me do the same?"
"I can not allow you to live freely. Not here, in my homeland."
"You can. You won't."
"That's right: I will not. And if you won't come of your own volition," she uses her hand and summons more water to rise up in preparation to attack, "Then I'll have to put you down."
Arrogance is clouding judgment. Katara can't see left from right, up from down. A small voice nags at her, telling her to leave it behind. Walk away and forget all of this. But she can't let it go. She needs to 'save' this village, and this world, by slaying its 'Guardian.' She doesn't see that ice arrows gather en masse.
"No! TAPISA! NO!"
The Archer prepares for an onslaught.
"She is now threatening you with death. I don't understand why you won't take action against this woman - but if you won't, then I will!"
"Leave now, or I will make you leave," Katara demands. "Dead or alive. Those are your choices."
"Mom! Please. Can't we talk about this?"
And so the ultimatum is cast. Azula knows that there is no more talking about it and there is no talking out of it either. She turns to her right and looks back at her wife. Ty Lee of Caldera, now 53 years old and never looking better. The famous grey eyes, the bobbing, braided ponytail, they all turn and face Azula. The wives look at one another and try to read each other for a reaction, or a direction. Azula reflects. She remembers the first letter that Ty Lee wrote to her when Azula came to Lonlhai. A description of the nature of the great oak trees of Jingchan. A decision she made almost a decade ago, she makes again. Azula balls her fist. She looks back at her latest enemy.
"Tell me Katara, how do you want to die?"
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a question." Azula replies. "I've thought about it a lot over my many years. How I want to die. Ruminated on it. Pondered it. I'm not ready, not yet."
"So you'll leave then?"
"No," she replies curtly. "Every time I think I've found somewhere to settle, my past catches up to me. But not anymore. I've put down roots here."
"So you've decided?" Katara says, almost to herself rather than anyone else.
"I will not move. You will."
The stage is set.
"I've waited so long for this." And Katara attacks.
"This is fascinating! Burning rocks, and raging fires, and lightning, and enemies turned to friends. Passing from one generation of protectors to the next. I'm amazed! What a story!"
Kya has learned so much more than what was in the Republic Times' article. What's more is she feels so much more now. She can see how it's impacted these people's lives and made a difference. She wonders if this is how people all over the world felt, and still feel about her parents and their efforts to end the war.
Suddenly, a commotion overwhelms the peaceful calm of their marketplace eating area. People yelling and talking louder than necessary. Kya looks confused. She asks the pretty girl around her age, "What's going on?"
"I don't know. I'll go ask."
The girl rises and starts walking towards some people standing around, discussing something out of sight. Before the girl can get there someone else comes running to the table.
"Hey! You all gotta get over to the Guardian's house! The Chief's Sister is here and she is fighting with the Guardian! They're yelling at each other and people are saying they're about to start bending at each other!"
"What? No. No that can't be?"
Kya runs off towards the crowds, hoping they are going the right way.
Katara whips water at Azula, who dodges it, allowing the whip to smash into her home and break off some windowsills. Tapisa finally uncorks her Ice Arrows, which Katara clearly expects and is able to block with a shield of snow from the ground. Azula dashes forward and throws three fireballs at Katara, who quickly pulls her shield away from the ice arrows and swings them at the fireballs. This move finally liberates Meng Shou, who quickly rises and dashes forward. The ice arrows melt on impact from Azula's flames, and much of the water shield evaporates on impact. Before anything else can be done though a gust of wind blows from above, down in between them.
Tenzin jumps in the middle of the fight. Seeing Tapisa unphased, he quickly sends out a gust towards her and knocks her down.
"My quarrel isn't with you, boy." Azula tries to offer him mercy.
"Then we shouldn't be quarreling at all! We can talk this out!"
"You sound so much like your Daddy. Now move, or I'll kill you like I did him."
"Like you what-"
"Yah!"
Ty Lee swings Kyoshi's Fan in Tenzin's direction and he steps back. Her scimitar nearly cuts him and he is forced to retreat. Before he departs though he throws two gales of wind at Azula, who is tripped by the first and then flung back by the second. It's been nearly forty years since she fought an airbender, so she's a little out of practice.
When she lands she looks up. Meng Shou has reached Katara and is attacking her with the white flames. Katara has a clear edge here, but Azula watches her other protege, Tapisa stand back up and enter the fray. Azula is now much closer to her home, and realizes she left something behind. She goes to retrieve it.
Tenzin purposefully leads Ty Lee away from the fighting. She swings her blade wildly at him, with zero intention of hitting him. They are two reluctant fighters, neither one truly dedicated to the idea of killing the other. Ty Lee remembers when Tenzin was born. She watched him grow up, albeit from afar mostly. Still, she saw him in his crib. She has no desire to put him to the blade.
Tenzin simply is hoping to separate all the parties and prevent them from getting to each other's throats. Yet as he retreats, the words of the Guardian stick on him. He can't shake them. He finally stops and puts up an offensive air blast, to make the woman off balance.
"Can't you understand that this is senseless!"
"Of course I can!" She yells back at him. "That's why you should leave!"
"Why did that woman say she killed my father? My father is alive."
"Because she did kill your father," Ty Lee stops. "Long, long ago. More than a lifetime ago. Before your parents ever even had a spark of a relationship, let alone marriage and children. She killed the Avatar, and your mother brought him back to life."
Tenzin is unnerved. It is a shocking development, almost unbelievable. He balls his fist and feels tears welling up at the idea of losing his father. Now or in the past. Ty Lee sheathes Kyoshi's Fan and approaches. She puts her hands up in a non-threatening display.
"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this," she places a hand on his shoulder. He allows this, even as he works through his grief. She tells him, "But I assure you, she has paid the price more than anyone alive in the Fire Nation. She has worn the weight of her sins, and the sins of her homeland, on her shoulders. Your mother just doesn't want to see it."
Tenzin is not comforted by this. She is a biased party in this. She has no claim to his sadness, nor trying to dissuade it with empty words.
"Perhaps," he says, looking up at her. "Or perhaps not."
Ty Lee has been around enough. She knows what this means and she knows he's about to leave her to attack Azula.
"Yue above." She curses.
She retracts her hand on his shoulder and then quickly jabs it forward to hit his arm. He yells and quickly uses his other arm to blow her away with an air blast. She uses her hands and grace to tumble backwards and land on her feet about two dozen feet away.
'Well, at least he's only got one good arm for now.'
Katara's world will not end by the hand of White Fire or Ice Arrows. These two girls aren't even half her age, and although they are more practiced hands as of late, she has more skill and natural ability than they will ever have in their life. She puts it to use right here and now.
Katara uses the snow on the ground to rise up her own place above them. Meng Shou holds both hands out and shoots flames at the base to melt it while Tapisa slings arrows from all over the place. Katara easily maneuvers snow and water around her to rise up and deflect the blades. Much like her husband in the Avatar State, she commands the water to form a circle of protection around her. When the pillar shatters under the force of the white fire, she is able to do a controlled fall towards Tapisa, and create a barrier with the fallen pillar to block Meng Shou.
"Ahh!" Tapisa yells as she shoots an icicle at her.
The two of them are near the neighboring home that once belonged to Ganzaya and Achak. Now, Katara uses her water bending prowess to spin the ice arrow around in the air and back at Tapisa!
"Glug."
The arrows pierces right through Tapisa's shoulder and wedges into the concrete wall of the home next door. She uses the snow and her feet to form ice skates and quickly swings back around to go back to Meng Shou. The fire bender shoots two fireballs at Katara, then steps forward and unleashes a wave of white fire. She's too slow though, and all attacks miss as Katara skates around her. She drops off of the skates two feet from the ground, right in front of the firebender. Katara spins into a kick that crushes Meng Shou's left arm.
"Raghhh!"
As the teenage girl staggers, Katara quickly grabs her by the back of the head and pulls it down. At the same time she lifts her knee cap and delivers the forehead right into her knee.
"Oof." Meng Shou crashes into the ground.
Katara, sensing victory, doesn't relent. She pulls both arms of the girl back and locks them together with one hand, while the other twinkles the ice around them to rise up and lock the girl into a pair of icicle handcuffs, tying her to the ground. The same position she once put the Dragon Empress into at the Coronation Plaza.
"GET OFF OF HER!"
Katara looks up just in time to dodge the incoming blade. Azula swings Moon's Veil at her. Unlike Ty Lee and Tenzin though, she does not swing it with the intention of missing. She aims to kill. If it was Agni's Lament, Azula would channel her blue fire and lightning through the blade. Unfortunately, she's never been able to make that connection with the Watchkeeper's old blade. Nonetheless, it is sharp, and she uses both hands. One to guide, and one to balance.
Katara retreats but sees an opportunity. She throws water and ice up at the blade. Azula swings and deflects these things. They repeat this four, five times, Azula not realizing that Katara is building up ice on each hit, encasing the blade in it. Finally, on the sixth and final one, the blade is completely covered in ice. Katara uses her free hand to pull the blade down, against Azula's wishes, and crash it into the ground, removing it from the fight.
Azula leaves it behind.
Growing up outside of Republic City, with Toph Beifong and her metal bending police as a personal friend to his father, Tenzin was not unfamiliar with chi blocking. It was something he was taught and prepared for in case he ever came across it in life. However, he had never had it happen while actively in combat with someone, possibly with his life on the line. Nor did he realize it could come from such a simple tap. None of his teachers has prepared him for it.
Of course, none of his teachers were Ty Lee. She was the one who taught the Kyoshi Warriors and the first batch of RCPD officers. Everything Tenzin has learned about chiblocking was whispers down the lane from what Ty Lee taught to their master and their master's master. She has forgotten more about the techniques of it than he will ever learn.
Tenzin still has his right arm and thus his dominant hand. So he uses that, stepping forward and sending a blast of wind at her. Ty Lee sees it coming and quickly evades. Apart from Azula, and potentially even including her, Ty Lee is perhaps the most prepared fighter on the planet for an Airbender. She can move quickly, dodge, spin, and even cartwheel.
"Come on, Son. You have to be quicker than that if you want to graze me."
She gloats, and the crowds begin to build to watch The Ghost defeat another opponent. But there is one thing, much like Azula, that Ty Lee lacks in this fight. She may have once been a practice hand, but it's been four decades since she last fought Aang.
Tenzin punches a blast of air into the ground at her feet, intentionally missing. The snow kicks up all around her, causing a sort of smoke screen.
"Huh?"
Before she can react a gale of wind slices through and sends her flying backwards. Ty Lee crashes into a building and her head whips backwards into the wall. She falls to the ground feeling dizzy and hurt, possibly concussed. She stirs, trying to get up when she feels a gust of wind pushing her down onto the ground.
Tenzin advances, using his one free hand to keep her down.
Azula keeps advancing. Katara uses the ice around them and the water at her disposal. Azula swats it all away with her blue fire and quick reflexes. It is an odd experience for Katara, but Azula keeps trying to close the distance between them. Despite her clear advantage with bending elements, Azula wants it to become a fist fight. Katara doesn't understand, as this would seem to take her biggest strength away, but it also worries her. She tries to set the terms of the engagement, but despite the environment giving her the upper hand with endless amounts of water and ice, Azula seems to be dictating the entire fight.
She sends a water whip but a blast of blue fire acts as a shield and disintegrates the whip. Katara bends the ice at Azula's feet to grab her, but Azula had anticipated this possibly happening and activates her rocket feet the moment she feels the tug on her ankle. Azula is closing in now, a few feet away. Katara, desperate, mimics the move she used to win their fight all those years ago. She pulls the snow all around them up and defrosts it into water instantly. It swallows them both whole, only a foot or two apart.
The Lonlhai villagers that have gathered together to witness this clash look on in horror as their Guardian and the Chief's sister are trapped in a block of water together.
There was a time when water terrified Azula. When she feared drowning, all due to this specific encounter from when she was a teenager. But she is no longer a teenager. Katara breaths through her nose and summons the bubbles. To her surprise, Azula does the same. She exhales and bubbles spill out. She does this three more times and the bubbles keep popping, boiling the water. Her hands struggle to push fire out, the heat evaporating the water around her. Katara looks on in shock. Finally, Azula does the last thing Katara expects. She opens her mouth.
The Dragon's Breath is unleashed.
Katara is blown back, flying out of the water by the force of the fire breath. The cage of water around Azula collapses instantly. Katara, down on the ground, looks up with terror in her eyes. Drenched in water, matted against her neck and shoulders, the Guardian rises. She looks down at her opponent.
"Did you really think that would work? Like I haven't spent my entire life preparing for something like that to happen the next time? Like I didn't think about it for all these years?"
Katara scrambles up to her feet. Before she can assume a proper fighting stance though, Azula shoots a blue wave of fire just to her right to scare her, burning her right forearm. Katara screams.
"AAAAH!"
"Victory has defeated you, Katara."
Azula opens her palms to Katara's left now and with ease a blast of lightning explodes forward to destroy the ground around her. Some of the earth kicks back and strikes her in the forehead. A gash develops along the side of her face and blood begins running down.
"Peace has cost you your power."
Katara, distracted by the fire and lightning, doesn't see Azula step forward, erasing the distance between them, delivering two blows to her left arm, and then retreating. It goes limp.
"While you lounged on your island throne, I have been fighting."
She opens both palms and lightning strikes on both sides of her. She moves forward and punches Katara in the side of the head where she bleeds. Katara's head ricochets back, and Azula's knuckles have smeared blood on them.
"I became stronger, better."
Waves of blue flames on each side sends the water bender backwards, closer to Azula and Ty Lee's home.
"My mind is sharper. My fire still burns blue. I learned chi blocking. I became a master swordswoman. I became the very Spirit of Lightning itself. You beat me at the lowest time in my life. Now… I am at my peak."
Katara, with one arm chi blocked, bloody and bruised, can't fight her off. She goes to throw her right hook at Azula, but given it's her only available hand it is easy to predict. Azula catches her fist in the air and squeezes it, hurting the hand. She ignites the flames and burns her knuckles.
"AHHH!"
Azula turns her fist to the side, away from her body, twisting Katara's shoulder and pulling it out of place, and then she delivers a kick straight into her chest. The Avatar's wife falls to the dirt. Down on the ground for a moment Katara sees her salvation a few feet away.
Azula drops to her knees and straddles her body. She delivers a punch to her face, and then again. Katara's nose breaks on the second strike. Katara feels disoriented and holds out her free hand. She bends the water and ice that coated Moon's Veil earlier. The longsword flies through the air towards them.
Azula watches the hand go out and turns to see it. The blade of her mentor flies at her. She twists her body and avoids it, grabbing hold of the handle as it flies past them. She summons a fire and lightning infused fist and punches the ice coating the blade. The mixture of extreme heat and electricity shatters the ice instantly.
"No." Katara whimpers, but it's too late.
Azula turns the blade on her and slams it down, two feet to the side of Katara's head. She had missed on purpose. The way of the blade was too honorable of a death for her. Now with the blade out of the equation though, she moves on to the next phase.
Elsewhere, Meng Shou finally comes to after her head injury. She realizes that she is cuffed and summons her white flames to burn down the icicle chains. They melt within seconds. She rises and can see that On Jin has won, straddling her enemy, but the man has defeated Rangi, seemingly with air attacks. She stumbles to her feet and advances towards him.
"Stop!" She shouts as she sends out a raging fire towards him.
He stops suppressing Rangi, and turns to hold back the fire of the White Flame.
"Tapisa! Are you alright?" A voice calls to her.
The Archer stirs and looks up. She stares into the sky blue eyes of Miki, Senna's mother and her close friend.
"What happened?"
Tapisa's icicle arrow pierces her shoulder, pinning her to the wall. Before she can answer she looks up and witnesses the Guardian nearly killing the woman who had threatened them and defeated her with her own arrow.
Azula punches Katara's free arm twice, chi blocking both arms now. Azula is mounted on top of her, with complete control and dominance over the waterbender. One of the only people to defeat her in combat, now on the wrong side of a street fight. Azula savors this moment but only temporarily. She has learned from others to not play with her food. Instead, she pays homage to the man who taught her swordsmanship.
"Until the last watch is kept."
Azula punches her across the face.
Katara's lip splits open. She spits out blood.
Azula pulls her by the hair to straighten her face.
"All the words are spoken."
She punches her again, with the opposite hand this time.
Katara's head falls to the side and blood shoots out of her broken nose and open mouth again, staining the snowy ground.
Azula straightens her head again.
Katara is conscious, but only so much so. She tries to spit up some of the blood filling her mouth and clogging her throat.
Azula's fist singes with blue fire.
"And all the ends are met."
Azula goes to swing her hand but something stops her. She feels a strong tug against her arm, pulling her backwards. She turns and sees a young girl with brown hair. She looks like a younger Katara. She holds her with a water whip and looks to be in a great deal of agony at the sight before her.
"Let me go, Child."
"No! Stop it! Stop this!"
"I said let go!"
Azula sends lightning out along the line of water and Kya flies back a whole three feet before her body hits the ground. She convulses and shakes, the damage from the lightning having shaken her.
"Pl-Please."
Azula turns back to Katara
"She's…she's… my…"
"Your daughter?"
Katara nods, blood everywhere.
"Good."
Azula swings one arm around to gather static build up and then points it at the almost lifeless body of the girl lying a few feet away. Katara's vision is clouded by the blood, but now it is Azula who can only see red. A chance to take everything from the woman, just as she took everything from her. Katara set Azula on the path that led her to this. A chance to kill her daughter. She feels the power ripping through her body, enough electricity to kill three men, let alone a damaged girl. Her finger tips glow and there is nothing that Katara or anyone can do to stop her.
A voice speaks to her.
"On Jin."
Azula whips her head around and a few feet to her right is Miki. The woman who had saved her life, rescued her out in the cold, brought her home, and nursed her back to life. The woman whom she helped birth her first and only daughter. The Matriarch of the Guardian, the Ghost, the Archer, and the White Flame. She looks at her with disappointment and hurt in her eyes.
Azula looks all around her. Beyond just Miki, there are dozens of villagers looking on with horror. She sees Meng Shou struggling with the second to last Airbender. She sees Ty Lee, lying on the ground clearly defeated. Right beside Miki, she sees Tapisa's shoulder impaled on the wall. Finally, she returns her eyes to Katara, nearly dead, gurgling the iron liquid filling her mouth.
A tidal wave of emotions crashes down upon her, worse than any water bender's attack. She looks back at the body seizing a few feet away.
"Meng Shou!" Azula shouts.
The fire bender stops and turns. Tenzin is thankful for the relief from the blaze. Meng Shou turns back to the one she knows as the Prodigy with Blue Fire.
"Yes, Guardian?"
"The girl," she gestures to Kya. "Heal her."
"On it."
Azula stands up to her full height but feels a weight on her body. The aching pain of combat sets in. This isn't an unfamiliar feeling, but it's the most prolonged fight she's been a part of since The Burning of Lonlhai. She suddenly realizes that her knuckles burn and ache. The punches she had delivered are reverberating with pain now that she has settled down and the fighting is done. She looks down at them and sees them covered in Katara's blood. The brutalizing reality of fighting is that it is all but a citrus. It feels so good to deliver the kill strokes and deal out death, until she thinks too long about them, and then they become acidic and bitter, filled with regret.
She looks down at the ground and sees her great foe. Her former rival and enemy. Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, beaten to a bloody pulp, unable to open one eye. A cathartic victory, a rematch that was thirty-eight years in the making. She finally got to show Katara what real power looks like. Yet now she is filled with sadness, not glee.
Azula has won the battle, but lost the war.
She reaches down and grips Katara by the hair, who whines in pain as she feels the smaller woman start tugging. Azula pulls Katara's body along the ground and Katara wonders if this is where she'll kill her. Use her sword to chop her head off, or stand her up to execute her. She fears for her life. Azula lifts her up a bit and sits Katara up with her back against the wall of her home.
Azula crouches down to be in front of her and looks at her. Broken teeth, a nose that is barely distinguishable amongst the carnage. A gash on the side of her head, a black eye that is already swelling. She reaches down and takes Katara's waterskin. Azula uncorks the cap and then holds it out in front of Katara's face. She squeezes and water splashes all over her face. Azula reaches into her pocket and finds the rag that she used to clear the blood off Moon's Veil earlier. She uses it again, this time to wipe away the blood and water from Katara's face. Katara is too weak and hurt to fight it.
"Open up." Azula demands, pointing the spout of the waterskin towards her mouth.
Katara refuses. Azula groans at her stubbornness. She reaches a hand up and grabs her chin and jaw, pulling them down. She points the waterskin into her open mouth and squirts some more into it. Katara gags and nearly chokes.
"Good girl," Azula tells her. "Now swish it around before you spit it out. That'll clear your mouth."
Katara does it almost involuntarily. She doesn't want to do as she's told, but she does want the relief that is prescribed. She leans forward with her back and spits out the buildup onto the snow. She leans back and when she does, Azula holds the spout up. She squirts more water into her mouth.
"Okay, now swallow. Trust me, you'll feel better."
Katara feels the rush of the water go down and it rejuvenates her. Azula, recognizing that she will be okay, puts the bottle down in her lap. Her amber eyes look into Katara's ocean eyes. She huffs.
"Do you really have so much hate in your heart for me that you'd empty your waterskin just to douse my flame?"
Katara nods her head. She struggles through labored breath to say, "I'm going… to tell… every… one."
Azula is incredulous.
"I could kill you, your daughter, and your son. Wipe out your entire line. But I'm choosing mercy. And you threaten my entire existence?"
"You don't deserve peace," she weakly explains, while specks of blood spit out. "Dragon Empress."
Azula hangs her head now, averting eye contact.
"Apparently neither does Lonlhai." She mutters with a sad tone.
Finally, she admits defeat.
"What I've done can't be undone. Staying will put this village at odds with your brother and kickoff civil war. I can't do that to these people. They've already suffered enough."
Her amber eyes rise up. They burn with the fury of a dozen suns.
"But you, your brother, and your husband? You better protect this place. Or else I swear to Agni and Yue that I'll kill each and every one of you."
Azula stands and looks around. The villagers are shocked by what they've seen. The horror she has spread. She has failed these people and, somehow worse, now she must abandon them. She often wondered what would've happened in Lanxi if she had stayed to fight the Kemurikage. The truth is this is what would've happened. The people who knew her would've been astonished at her force and she ultimately would've left the village in a more dangerous place.
She walks over to Tenzin, who stares with fear as she approaches. She doesn't pay him any mind. She heads over to her fallen wife and helps Ty Lee up, who holds her head.
"C'mon, Ty. We better get going where we're going."
As they limp home, Meng Shou nurses Kya back to consciousness. Her white flames pull some of the static charge out of her, slowly, allowing her body to rebound from the shock more easily.
"Thank you, Meng Shou."
"Of course... Empress." She can finally call Azula openly what her mother once did. Azula allows it, knowing this gives the girl a sense of kinship with the departed Chyn.
A fire bending healer, something Azula may never see again.
She limps with Ty Lee, guiding her wife into their home. She situates the brunette on the couch so she can rest. Then she excuses herself.
"I'll be back in a moment."
Azula exits. Her legs are tired and she wants to lie down herself, but she has promises to keep, and much work to do before she can sleep. She walks to where Katara had been defeated and pulls Moon's Veil from the ground. Katara wonders if she's going to come finish the job, but she doesn't even walk towards her. She goes towards the neighboring home. Towards Miki and Tapisa. She sticks the blade into the ground and then kneels down to be at eye level with the women.
Azula reaches up and grips the ice arrow. She channels the heat into her palms and begins melting it. Tapisa groans a bit but feels it's pressure alleviating.
"Thank you, Guardian."
"I'm not your Guardian. Not anymore."
"You're-you're really going to leave? You can't!"
Azula observes a gash, still pulsating with blood. She puts her hand on top of it.
"Deep breath in now, okay?"
"Huh? Gahhh!"
Azula cauterizes the wound with her blue fire, to prevent it from worsening. When this is done, she explains to Tapisa the simple facts of the matter.
"I said that someday this would be your village to protect. The sun rose earlier than expected but it's yours now. And so I leave you with two final lessons, ones that Ganzaya taught to me. It's yours now."
She steals a peak at Moon's Veil, sticking out of the ground.
"Until the last watch is kept, all the words are spoken, and all the ends are met."
"I'm not worthy. I'm not ready."
"I know you're not. But we don't get to decide when we go. Which leads me to my second lesson, the final lesson: Even when your blade is down, you can't quit. You can't succumb to the feelings."
She holds Tapisa's full attention. A desperate plea for her to take up the mantle of leadership.
"You have to pick it up."
Without another word or argument, Azula leaves Tapisa. She turns and sighs. She walks across the way to return home. Before going inside though , she stops at Katara's body, resting against those very walls.
"This day extracts a heavy toll, but it will be the last. We'll be gone before sunrise."
A scream pierces the sky. Little feet stutter through the snow. Azula turns around and a tiny body crashes into her knees and hip.
"No! Don't leave! DON'T LEAVE!"
Miki and Aklaq approach, concerned for their daughter, and unafraid of the Guardian.
"On Jin, please."
"I'm not On Jin. I never was."
"Please-"
"Do you remember what you two told me when I first came here? About Siq?"
They place their hands on Senna's shoulders. The child grips Azula and holds her, never wanting to let go. Holding onto her like a fish in the water, destined to escape if she releases her grip even the smallest bit. The young parents are reminded of one of their earliest memories with On Jin. In a hushed tone she gives them an order.
"Take her. Take her and do it. Go to the capitol, or the Earth Kingdom, or the Agni damned Fire Nation. Anywhere else. Don't let her die here, as Siq always feared."
"No! Noooo! Stay!" Senna cries.
Azula bends over and kisses her forehead. She digs her fingers into Senna's grip and wiggles the hands loose. Senna watches as the fish slips away.
"I'm sorry, Little One."
Azula solemnly walks away, leaving them behind to hold their daughter. Senna cries and screams. She does not understand, and she may never understand. Her Aunt On Jin and Rangi had wanted a simple life, but that had never been possible. They were extraordinary people, trying to live ordinary lives. While the family copes, the woman known as Katara speaks to them.
"Your Guardian is not who you think she is."
Miki looks down at the bloody and defeated woman. Senna hears this and cries louder. She breaks away and runs off. She will appeal to Tapisa and Meng Shou to convince them to keep her Aunt On Jin with them. Surely they will help. Aklaq chases after her, leaving Miki with the bloodied and unmoving woman. They make eye contact, so Katara speaks. She tries to sell her on a dream of hope.
"She can't protect you anymore. But I will."
Miki doesn't interrupt her. She hears her out.
"I offer you, and everyone else here, refuge at Wolf's Cove. A new home. Me? My brother, the Chief? My husband, the Avatar? We can protect you. We are the good guys."
Miki sits alone with this feeling. She had saved On Jin from going too far. She had saved On Jin from dying alone, lost in the island's woodlands. She had raised her daughter and her family, safely, because of everything that On Jin and Rangi and Ganzaya and Achak and Tapisa and Meng Shou had done. A network of protectors, a lifeline to a village that was on the verge of disappearing. This woman, the Chief's sister no less, had come to her home and eradicated it all in an hour or so. Now she would have to leave the island, as On Jin suggested, as this woman offered, just for the scrap of a hope to give her daughter a normal life. Her sky blue eyes turn to the woman on the ground.
"You killed the Guardian and the Ghost. You have no idea what you've done," she pauses as the words and truth of the matter congeal together into a lump in her throat. She makes a deal with a demon. "We will take your passage. But know this, stranger:
You are not 'the good guys.'"
A/N: Well, folks, that was a long and wild final chapter. At the end A/N of Chapter 1, I said that there was a fight that was a" religious experience" for me to write and it was this one. Azula kicking the ever living shit out of Katara. This is a whole lot of wish fulfillment, but WTF it's fic and it's my fic. But this version of Katara just never could see the other side of the coin. She saw the world as she saw it, she stayed on her island, and she never talked to the people impacted by Azula's various deeds. I hope I painted her at least in a somewhat sympathetic light as a mother. As she spoke about in Chapter 6, she became what she despised growing up: an old woman, playing mother & healer, not fighting for anything. So there's some level of self awareness, but when it comes to Azula, there is 0. She sees her as the crux of all the bad things happening in the world, the seed that became a weed and ruined her garden. What's more, she's always doubted that Azula actually died, but after a while just came to accept it since there was no proof to the contrary. So to see her now? Still alive? Potentially the cause for much of Lonlhai's discord? Oh she was hot. And Azula lit her the fuck up. Obviously, without killing Katara and her whole family it becomes a pyrrhic victory. She can't stay in Lonlhai now, and has to leave it all behind. That's tough and leaves Azula in a bad place. So where does she go from here? And what will happen if Katara really does 'tell everyone?' We'll see in the next book. Anyway, during this book we had a nice little convo between Suki and Yasuko and I loved writing that scene. We haven't seen the last of either of them. There's a lot to do as we head into the final (!) book in The Legend of Azula. Many loose ends to tie up before I finish this story about our favorite blue fire wielder. That's all I've got folks. This book is yours now: till the last watch is kept, all the words are spoken, and all the ends are met. Originally, my plan was to start releasing Book 5 on October 13th (!). I had set up my writing schedule to be able to do that. But unfortunately a few life things happened. First off, I had some writer's block with an important early chapter in Book 5. When I finally broke through that, I got COVID for the first time, which set me back a few days where I couldn't think about writing. All this while my wife and I are trying to buy a house, which is eating up free time and causing money stress as well as regular stress. So I can't commit to October 13th at this time. Maybe it'll drop then, maybe it'll be after. It won't be before, I know that. It'll be a Friday, that's for sure, and I'll try to announce it on my Twitter account in advance. I'm sure you'll all understand but I still feel bad nonetheless. Alright, that's all for now. This chapter's OST is "For the Damaged Coda" by Blonde Redhead.
Love always. Tyzula forever.
Notorious