The tired boy observed the three girls getting down from their mount, the smaller one in the middle who seemed to be their leader walked to him.
Aang remembered her.
"Alright, you've caught up with me. Now who are you and what do you want?"
"You mean you haven't guessed yet? You don't see the family resemblance? Here's a hint." She used her open palm to cover the left side of her face, "I must find the avatar to restore my honor."
"…"
"Not funny to you? What a shame."
"So what now?"
"Now?" The girl smiled, "Now I will propose a deal, Avatar."
Azula sat in front of Aang in a seiza position, her knees bent as her body rested on top of her calves, and Ty Lee put a small wooden table between them. A tea set was placed upon the table.
"We shall talk, and you will answer my question with sincerity. If you do so, and I will know if you lie, the chase is over; you will be free to go." She lifted a blue fire that quickly faded to red, to heat a teapot. "Who knows? Maybe you will even gain an ally."
Aang, who is mostly being inexpressive so far, looked confused. But he did notice how the other two girls froze for a moment when she talked about gaining an ally.
They weren't informed about this part of the deal.
"You tried to kill me in Omashu, what changed your mind?"
"Kill you? Please. If I wanted you dead you would be. Anyway, how will it be? Do you accept it?"
The boy was afraid of this being some kind of trap, but when a chance of, finally, talking instead of fighting appeared to him…
He couldn't really say no.
"Yes, yes…" He sighed, way more tired than any child should be, "What you want to ask me?"
For a few seconds she just stood there, smiling, before a cup was put on his side of the table. She then prepared tea, slowly, in some form of ritualistic way that Aang could not recall seeing before.
She only spoke after seemingly finishing, which took around 10 minutes.
"I find myself lacking the appropriate equipment to fulfill the art of tea. So this shall do." She served both of them, "My name is Azula, crown princess of the Fire Nation, daughter of the Fire Lord. And for you, Avatar, my first question is about the spirits. How necessary are they? What is the real importance of your beloved balance?"
Aang didn't expect her to ask this.
"W-What do you mean? Without balance the world will fall."
"How? If all spirits ceased to exist will mankind die? Or the plants and the animals? Children will be born disfigured? The mountains will stir and the sea will rise?" The princess looked all serious, "I need to know what will actually happen."
His jaw dropped, he really didn't expect her questions to be those. Especially because…
"I… I don't know."
"You… don't know…" She stared at him, blinking, "You, the Avatar, can not teach me about spirits." Her tone got more and more frustrated, "I see…"
Azula inhaled air deeply, her two friends(?) retreated a little, but she just drank her tea.
"Very well, it came to my knowledge that the spirit of the moon was dead for a few minutes in the north siege. Despite this, the seas did not, in fact, rise. Apart from the ominous red sky, no real negative consequence was detected."
He waited for her to continue, an awkward silence spawned.
"Yes?"
Her grip into her cup grew stronger.
"Is this true you idiot? And if so, what was the consequence that could have been cast if the spirit did not come back?"
"..."
Staring at the embarrassed boy, Azula only got more annoyed.
"Let me guess? You don't know?"
"I didn't learn these things, I did not learn about the spiritual world before I ru-."
"Then what good are you?"
"It's not my fault that the fire nation killed the air nation before I-"
"Will you use this excuse for the rest of your life? Unlike you, I wasn't born at the time and I certainly wasn't accounted to protect them."
Before they continued to argue a loud male voice was heard.
"Azula!"
Moving their head toward the voice an old man stood, with a blind little girl following him.
"Uncle, tsk." The princess stared at a building on her left, "It looks like today is another family party, you shouldn't hide yourself, Zuzu."
"Zuzu?" Giggled the young boy.
"Back off, Azula! He's mine!"
"Oh ho, Mai must be so sad. I never thought that you would fall so low as to go after little boys."
"S-Shut up." Angered, Zuko prepared to attack his sister, but before he could Azula continued.
"Throw a single flame before I'm finished with the avatar, and you may not have enough of a face for our father to burn."
Zuko stopped moving, he knew that this discussion was way more important to her than she would like to admit. But to his eternal anger, her total disdain of him, of his father's actions, had hurt him somewhere deep. They have never been on good terms but…
She has never been that cruel against him.
"And if you want, uncle Iroh, you can have a little tea for yourself."
The old man walked slowly towards them, his normal carefree face not to see.
"Listening to your questioning, I was sure that you have changed. But you continue to wield your words like my brother rule the country, with violence." He sat on the table and put tea in a cup that he held on his clothes, "Yet, you ask things that your father would never even consider."
She smiled.
"I haven't changed, you just never knew me."
"Clearly."
As Iroh tasted her tea, and made a surprised, pleased face, Azula turned her attention back to the spirit of the world.
"You see, Avatar, It's my personal belief that the spirits should all die, especially you." Ignoring his widened eyes, she continued, "However, I need to know what consequences such an act would bring to my people, my empire."
"Why do you think that?" Asked a scared Aang, "The spirits are necessary to the world balance."
"You say that, but cannot explain how they are necessary. Very convincing." She scoffs, "But why? Well, maybe you can help with this too, uncle. I am not as sure as I would like too"
"You have my attention." He replied.
"Since you… disappeared, even with the ongoing war, the fire nation prospered as never before. Science, infrastructure, healthcare, economy and more! It's truly the biggest golden age ever. One that no other nation came close to in any other point of history."
"It's because you stole your riches from the earth kingd-" Replied Toph.
"Do not be foolish, this war has cost the fire nation way more than it granted, only the oldest colonies are actually profitable. And the Earth Kingdom certainly didn't have steam motors and steel ships to steal."
Azula drank more of her tea before continuing.
"We were doing well before the war, but our endless prosperity truly bloomed after your death. The end of your intervention, finally stopped this world stagnation. You were a cancer that held mankind back." She scoffed and had her expression morphed to a frown. "And the other spirits live by imposing their rules on my citizens, on my land, and punishing those who disobey. As if mere spirits have any right to rule over us, humans."
"If you are so certain of that." Said a taciturn Iroh, "Then why do you even bother to talk to him?"
"Because I am not stupid. The spirits have a real, tangible, influence in reality and I fear the consequences that would be cast upon mankind. Some data imply that less spiritual communities have a lower chance of fire benders being born, for example." She shook her shoulders, "I also fear that the world may be destroyed, I guess."
A silence filled the empty village, contemplation blooming in the young people, and one old one, minds. Aang in particular felt insecure, he knew that the war was wrong, no rightful war would stay for so long and genocide a nation, but would his death really help the world?
"I don't know how to answer your questions and I believe that you are being sincere with your doubts. I'm sorry." He bowed his head as an apology, "But I don't understand. You said that this war cost more than it has ever granted. If the war is really that bad to the Fire Nation then why do your people continue it?"
The princess lifted an eyebrow.
"We will talk about the war now? Very well. Because of Sozin, he gave us a dream." She lifted her right forefinger, "To exterminate the barbaric ways of the Water Tribe, to end the corruption and misery of the Earth Kingdom…" And with a smile she finished. "To put an end to the disgusting culture of the Air Nomads."
"Before any of you interrupt," Azula continued, "Allow me to explain."
"I don't think that I need to explain the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribe, you have seen them by yourself, where the peasants live in misery and the women are slaves. It's the Air Nomad that you wish to question."
"We did not see the individual nomad as evil, no, but your culture spoke of segregation of the highest levels. Steal the children from their parents, divide them by sex, isolate the nation from the world, create a caste system based on seniority and let little kids alone with older man and woman hours every day, ready for any abuser. And then spoke of peace and pacifism to the world, ignoring the many wars that your people were involved in the past, the many air nation avatars who were murderers, all while preaching about a higher moral ground."
The princess scoffed.
"Disgusting, really. Sometimes I wonder if Sozin did a good thing."
The wooden table flies away in a gust of wind, barely missing the princess' now serious face, the eyes of the Spirit of The World glowed in a white light. The earth itself started to tremble as the winds grew wilder.
"Aang stop!" Screamed the earth bender to deaf ears.
"Proving my point. A mere uncomfortable fact told, and your first reaction is violence."
"Stop provoking him, Azula." Exclaimed Mai and Iroh.
"That's how you honor your ancestors, Avatar? Will you break our deal? Would your teachers smile at your actions?"
"AZULA STOP!" This time all members of the Fire Nation screamed.
Fortunately for them, her last words seemed to work. After a few seconds a crestfallen, calmer, Aang talked back while staring at the ground.
"Sorry for losing control."
"Hm… Anyway, I don't agree with the genocide. We didn't need to go to such extremes to exterminate your culture, a fast assimilation and military control would have done the trick in a mere generation. And surely Sozin could have killed you by himself."
"What do you really want, Azula?" Asked Iroh, truly curious, "The young girl that I remember wouldn't bother to do anything that her father wouldn't."
Seeing that the conversation hasn't ended yet, Mai put the wooden table between Aang and Azula again. Iroh, who secured the tea set before, put it on the table again.
"As I said uncle, you never knew me. How could you when you only had eyes to the war and to Zuko. To ease your mind, you saw in me only what you wanted to see."
"If that's the case, then I owe you an apology."
"Keep it to yourself. I don't want one that comes from you." She looked back at the avatar, "Enough of family issues. Avatar, not even you can teach me what I need. As such, I will not change any of my plans involving you, who shall remain an enemy of the Fire Nation and mankind itself, a symbol of external, alien, influence holding humanity back. For I know for sure that you at least is a spirit that is safe to get rid of."
She stood up.
"You can go, I will not hunt you anymore, as it was our deal. We will fight, however, if we meet on the battlefield."
And walked away to her mount.
"Where are you going, Azula?" Asked Iroh.
"I have a war to win, and I will win it on my terms."
Azula looked at the boy one last time.
"Do whatever you want with Zuko and Iroh, they have my blood, but family we never were."
Iroh frowned at her words.
Slowly, her two friends followed her, Mai eyes stopped at Zuko for a second before leaving.
"She left her tea set." Said Zuko a few moments later.
"Hm?" Iroh stared at it, "So what? She's still a princess, Zuko, she can buy another set."
"It was our mom's."
"Oh…"
After a few minutes, with Zuko and Iroh nowhere to see, Sokka and Katara appeared on the battlefield. And after seeing the destruction caused by the Avatar state they had a single question to ask.
"What the hell happened here?"
As Toph started the explanation to the duo, Aang contemplated this day. He knew that he would need to meditate much more in the following days.
The ominous advice of the gentle uncle resonating in his head certainly would not help.
"Be careful Avatar, my niece is not only a formidable warrior years ahead of her age, a prodigy in fire bending as no other, but a genius in many other fields too: engineering, economy, strategy and more. Do not, under any circumstance, underestimate her."
As if Aang could underestimate Azula.
Aang remembered her.
He remembers Bumi fighting her, for otherwise Aang would not have escaped.
When he looked back, Bumi wasn't winning…
(And yet he did, their next encounter would teach him how much he did.)
I do not intend to continue this, but I think that an antagonist, imperialist, Azula, that believe that she's doing good to her people, of which she cares, is interesting. I also don't recall any Avatar fan fiction trying to combat the concept of spirits being necessary, or how the Avatar definitely caused stagnation to the world.