Pre-Chapter A/N: Happy New Year! Here we go with the first chapter of 2025. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to pa-treon and read the next two chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read. It's also a new year, so this is probably the best time to buy an annual membership on my page, if you're the kind of person that would do well with one. Have fun.
It had been a month since Ba Sing Se truly came mine and in that time, it still felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. Amara had died during the raid of the palace, and I'd been forced to come to terms with the fact that my orders were suboptimal. Ordering a healer into an invasion force was a braindead move. The other generals had healers of their own, so that meant the army wasn't particularly stranded, but the fact that I lacked one in my personal unit was a blow. Of course, I had a plan to handle that one. I'd had Toji monitoring the other healers to find the one that was most skilled and seemed to have the most common sense for Azula to requisition into what was quickly becoming 'our' forces.
"Are you still looking at those papers? You know I could burn them for you, right?" The girl asked, spread languidly across a couch in the office that I'd claimed within the palace. It had formerly been the Earth King's personal study, but considering how the man was presently having his mind blown in his own palace's dungeons, I hadn't faced much resistance in claiming it as my own. It was almost funny how the Earth King's ignorance of the war until the last possible minute had morphed into a stubborn refusal to believe this was anything other than some massive practical joke. Perhaps allowing him to keep the bear would have been good for his mental state, I thought with a smile.
"Yes, I am, Princess Azula. And these papers are what inform me about the state of this city—how much food is being produced now that half the workers are on strike, how much water we still have after two reservoirs were blown up with blasting jelly last week, that sort of thing. Without these papers, we'd be in an even worse state" I explained with a sigh, while pulling the reports closer to myself to deter any action. She had actually followed through on the threat to burn the reports to get me to train with her last week, so I was wary of a repeat performance.
"Call me Azula, as I've told you a hundred times before. And what I am hearing you say is that the rebels are what are keeping you busy, so I should deal with them, and then you'll have more free time to spar with me" She said, and I felt my heart skip a beat at the thought of Azula of all people hunting down the Earth Kingdom citizens causing the present unrest. But that was just the initial reaction. She wasn't a practitioner of senseless violence. She could be cold-blooded, but it wasn't like she was just going to set all the homes belonging to Earth Kingdom natives on fire.
"And as I've told you Princess, doing that would be terrible for keeping my head on my shoulders in the long term. You are right, however. But it's not going to be so easy to deal with them".
"I'd kill anyone who even tried. And Good. I don't like easy tasks" she said, waving her hand like my objection did not matter.
"I already assigned Long Feng with rooting them out so he should have something for me in a few days" I said, taking a different approach.
"Good. I'll go hurry him along then" She said, boosting herself up to her feet and leaving the room.
"Do you want to go keep an eye on her?" I said to the only other person sat in my office.
"No chance. She gives me creepy eyes" Toph instantly refused.
"You can't even see her eyes" I replied with a sigh.
"Her body language is more than enough, I tell you. Every so often it feels like she sees me as a threat, and then other times it's like she sees me as someone to cherish and protect. The even more disturbing fact is that both those moods can switch at the drop of a hat" She said, turning to me at the end of the sentence and I just tossed her golden coin. We'd switched to coins because she had asked for an allowance to spend at the stores within the city, so I was making her earn the spending money instead of just giving it to her. The concept of earning money was new enough to her that she was enjoying every extra golden coin earned.
"Yeah, I get what you mean" I said, before returning to my work.
X-
Perhaps I should have seen this coming, I thought to myself while pinching the bridge of my nose. Could I even deal with this? I silently wondered Did I even want to? Part of me said yes, but the rest of me was going to be staying far, far away from this whole thing with all I had in me. Long Feng had managed to infiltrate the rebel movement, and Azula had begun planning some form of sting operation that involved her infiltrating them disguised as a peasant girl and getting close enough to their leadership to assassinate them from within. She insisted that she had the skill to do it, and Long Feng assured me that the plan was likely to work.
I looked at both of them. Long Feng's face was placid. He really didn't care whether I approved this or not. He had admitted to having more than a few alternatives in his mind already for if I said no to this plan, so it wasn't like it was going to leave him high and dry. On the other hand, Azula was practically hopping from one foot to another. It was a point in my favour that she was willing to take down her guarded personality in my presence, but it made it much harder to say no when I could see how badly she wanted it.
"You know what? Go ahead" I said. Azula technically outranked me as the one in nominal charge of this city, so it wasn't like I could refuse her even if I wanted to. Moreover, there was the fact that there was no need to get on her bad side or reduce the level of affection we had managed to build. If she got caught, she'd learn a lesson in acceptable risk. I doubted any of them would manage to kill her. The fact that they hadn't managed to cause any lasting major damage to the city's infrastructure or resource pool had me assessing them as a minor threat, but still an irritant nonetheless. If this didn't take them out, then whatever harm they caused Azula would be the excuse to levy the weight of the entire Fire Nation Army upon them without the Generals viewing me as a tyrant.
"Thank you, Natsu. You are the best" She said before rushing forwards to place a peck on my cheek and then leaving the room. I watched her leave with a raised eyebrow, never having expected that. I knew she was assertive and never shy about taking what she wanted, but there did tend to be an order to things, I thought with a chuckle.
"So I will be proceeding with the plan as relayed, General Natsu" Long Feng said, acting like he hadn't just witnessed that.
"Yes, please see to it. Thank you" I said to him before turning back to the papers on my desk.
We had finally received the response from the Fire Lord, and it was easy to see that he was not entirely pleased with the way in which we had taken the city. He had congratulated me on taking the city and named Azula as the temporary Governor, as expected, but he had unexpectedly chosen to dwell on the casualties like he actually gave a fuck about the lost lives and wasn't just using it to take me down a peg. He had ordered us to stay put and consolidate. A parade would be organised in the Fire Nation to celebrate the victory in six moons, he wrote. The timing was suspicious, and I wondered what the wait was for, but there was little to do about it. All it meant was that I had the time to see to it that the rest of the Earth Kingdom was flying the flag of the Fire Nation.
XXXXX- THE WATER BENDING MASTER
She closed her eyes and felt at the ocean beneath her. The ocean was a massive reservoir of water, the size of which no mind could ever imagine. She had tried to get Aang to describe what it felt like to merge with a being that powerful, but he had been too out of it to remember anything but the call for vengeance that had moved the ocean spirit to open itself to the Avatar and hijack Aang's position as the bridge between the spirit and physical realms for his own purposes. They had never thought much of it until Avatar Kuruk had explained to Aang how massive the faux pas had been.
Pulling at the small bit of it she could control, she sent their ship flying forwards even faster than Aang's winds in their sail. The Airbender lurched in his position on the deck, and she smirked as he turned around to look at her in surprise. There was an instant fire in his eyes that had the potential to rival the childlike excitement he had once been known for. She felt her heart quiver as the fire died out almost instantly and instead of taking her implied challenge, he dropped to the floor in a meditative pose.
He had been doing that more and more since they'd left the Lion Turtle. Without the massive creatures inherent spirituality to his advantage, Aang had an even harder time communing with his past lives, and Avatar Szeto was an unwilling counterpart most of the time with the knowledge that whatever he taught would be used against the nation that he had abandoned the other three nations to support. Needless to say, they were searching for a different firebending master while still trying to use what little Szeto had been willing to part with.
"Land Ahoy" She heard Bato's voice from near the helm, and she nodded before reaching for the water beneath them and slowing their advance so it was not too obvious just what she was and what their ship was. They flew white sails instead of the blue that the Southern Water Tribe favoured to avoid drawing attention. While the Fire Nation navy lay broken, their army had never been more dominant, and it would not do for someone to spot them at this point…in this place.
In no time at all, they made shore. Bato proceeded into the town to search for the man that Master Pakku had told them would be waiting for them here. She had no idea how the Water-bending Master from the North Pole and the most infamous traitor to make it out of the Fire Nation had become acquainted, but she thanked the spirits for it all the same.
"Avatar. You would have me teach you again?" Jeong-Jeong asked the second he stepped on to the ship, not bothering with pleasantries. He did not even look at Katara, Sokka, or their crew of tribesmen. All his eyes were for Aang, the same way all Aang's eyes had been for him the moment he stepped into range.
"Yes Master. I apologise for my previous failings, Master. I will not disappoint you this time" The man huffed at the words.
"We will see about that in time. I do believe we are off to a great start, nonetheless" He replied.
X-
They had returned to the Lion turtle and Aang's training had continued in essence. Now, his days were split between contact with his past lives and the time he spent learning under Master Jeong-Jeong. The former Fire Nation Admiral was a harsh taskmaster, seeing to it that every single basic that existed was covered before Aang began to bend in earnest. The time being wasted had grated at her in the beginning, but Aang had borne it all with a Monk's patience.
She had enjoyed the stupefaction on Jeong-Jeong's face, however, as Aang beat every expectation he had and then some. She had mourned the loss of her lighthearted friend as he began to be replaced by the Avatar that the world needed, but she could still feel pride at how far he had come as a person and as a bender. Jeong-Jeong was running him through a kata, and Aang followed with ease, keeping up with every one of the old master's movements and executing them perfectly. In the end, the man sighed and reached out to touch Aang's shoulder.
"I don't say this often, but you're something else" He said with awe in his voice.
"I haven't seen anyone learn these katas so quickly since-" at that, his voice cut off as he realised something. That drew Katara's attention almost immediately.
"Since whom, Master Jeong-Jeong?" Aang asked immediately.
"Since the last person I trained, Natsu Wu." He said, making both of them freeze.
"General Natsu?" Aang asked.
"The one and only."
"You trained that monster?" She hated the way rage made her voice crack as she cut into the conversation.
"'That monster' as you so affectionately refer to him, was once a boy. He was a gifted boy, yes. The kind of prodigy that you heard stories about but never saw in real life."
"What was he like?" It was Aang that asked, as she could not find the words to reply the tone that the old master had taken. He sounded so melancholic.
"He was sharp, and hardworking, and focused. He never hesitated to work at anything you asked him to, and once he put his attention into something, it was only a matter of time until he mastered it. He is the first fire bender outside the royal family in the modern age to bend lightning, and he learned it without a teacher or tutor in the subject." He said, still sounding sad as he looked back on it.
"It sounds like he was a good student"
"He was the very best. The kind that any teacher would have been lucky to have".
"Then why do you sound so sad when you speak of him?"
"He reminds me of a time long passed and a man long gone. I trained him with the knowledge that he would be one of the best to ever wear the Fire Nation crest, and now I must bear the weight of his deeds on my conscience. The damage he has done, the people he has hurt, they all weigh on me like I did those deeds myself." He said gravely.
"But Master Jeong-Jeong, you said he was a genius. I think he would have learned what he learned and done what he has done without your training" Aang said.
"That is a nice sentiment, Avatar Aang, but I have trained two men as personal apprentices in all my life. One of them, Zhao, killed the moon spirit, and the other, Natsu, has become the scourge of the Earth Kingdom. At some point, the blame will have to leave the students and extend to the teacher who armed them with the knowledge they used to cause the harm in the first place" He said.
"Well, if you care so much about it, why haven't you stopped him yet?" She hadn't even heard Sokka's approach and from the Fire-bender's face, he hadn't either. Aang just smoothly stepped aside to allow Sokka space inside their circle as they spoke.
"He was my best student. He had no father in his life at the time, and I cannot deny that some part of me grew to care for Natsu Wu as a son. The year I spent training him was one of the best and most peaceful of my life. He made me a better man in numerous ways" He said.
"So you don't truly regret the monster he has become" Sokka challenged. "The men, women, and children that he kills wherever he goes mean nothing to you then"
"Watch your tongue, boy. I care. Of course, I care. But what could I do? Even back then, Natsu had been a generational prodigy- a pool of unlimited potential. I have no doubts that he has since surpassed me at this point".
"But not the two of us together" this time, all four of them turned in shock at the voice. When had he gotten here? How? Before them stood Zuko's uncle, with Master Pakku walking behind him. Neither man was smiling.
XXXXX- NATSU THE YOUNGER
The eclipse is coming, I told myself as I stared down at the ranks of firebenders as they trained. In canon, the Avatar and his people had used the eclipse as a tool to attack the Fire nation capital and assassinate the Fire Lord. That was a possibility this time as well, but a feeling in my stomach refused to be settled by that fact.
We had a month until it came, and I had begun to obsess about keeping the non-bending arm of the army up to snuff, as well as training the firebenders to fight without their weapons. They probably thought I'd been hit over the head or something, but I was fine with the looks I received if it meant I didn't find myself with egg on my face when the eclipse came. I myself had begun to train with the spear without my heat to enhance me, and it had been far from easygoing so far.
"There you are" Toji said as he landed on the roof I was standing on.
"Here I am" I replied with a raised eyebrow.
"It's time for more training," He said.
"We already did our session for today" I said.
"Yes, and I've been thinking. To be honest, you're kind of shit with the spear." I lifted an eyebrow at his words but did not dispute them.
"Sure, in a month you'll probably be able to take on the average soldier and win, but I doubt that's enough for what you have in mind"
"Just give your pitch, Toji"
"Archery" He said instantly.
A/N: Making progress with this. We get to see a lot of pieces in motion in this chapter- beginning with Katara and the Gaang. In this world, the seige of the Northern Water Tribe went a tiny bit differently, so you will notice a few things that seem strange. Here, the attack had massive losses on both sides. The Fire Nation navy is gone, but the Water tribe was devastated. As always, the following two chapters are up on pa-treon. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not neecessarily the daily updates avalable with a regular pa-treon membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!