Hey, everyone! So, basically this is an AU in which it was the Water Tribe, not the Fire Nation, that attacked everyone else. And so, a century later, the siblings who find the Avatar are Zuko and Azula, and the exiled prince who is hunting down the Avatar is Sokka. Some things about the characters will obviously change because of this, but I've made an effort to keep key parts of their personalities from canon. For instance, Sokka is "evil" in that he's Aang's enemy, but he's still going to be the "meat and sarcasm guy" lol. I'll warn you now that since Azula essentially takes Katara's canonical role in this AU, Azula/Aang will be canon. But this world's Azula is not the one you know – she's one of the "good guys", helping Aang defeat the Water Lord. Are you ready to see the world of ATLA turned completely upside down?

Read on, and don't forget to review!

-Storychan

Earth. Water. Fire. Air.

My uncle used to tell me stories about the old days – days of peace, when the Avatar kept the balance between the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Water Tribe attacked. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements – only he could save us from the ruthless Waterbenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

A hundred years have passed, and the Water Tribe is nearing victory in the war. Two years ago, my father and his men journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Water Tribe, leaving me and my brother, Zuko, to take care of our Nation. Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle was broken.

But I haven't lost hope. I, Azula, still believe that the Avatar will return to save the world.

Book One: Fire

Chapter One: The Boy In The Lava

The small town was much like any other in the Fire Nation – full of red-painted houses and industrial-looking smokestacks. The only thing that distinguished it from any other factory town on the coast, really, was the large volcano that towered over the landscape. Two siblings trudged up its side, searching for an elusive komodo chicken to catch and eat for dinner.

"I think I hear one rustling around behind those rocks," Zuko said hopefully.

"I didn't hear anything," Azula replied, unconvinced. "You know, this is really pathetic. According to Uncle, our ancestors ate like kings in the capital every night. I bet they never had to catch their own food."

"Our ancestors were kings," Zuko laughed. "But that was a hundred years ago. You know as well as I do that since the Water Tribe stole our family's throne, we've pretty much been commoners for generations. Now, we're just factory workers, using our Firebending to heat the coal that makes the machines work, just like everybody else."

"I don't want to be like everybody else," Azula pouted. "I want to be a princess."

"Well, Princess, could you help me find a komodo chicken nest, or are you going to keep standing around?" Zuko asked as he moved aside a small rock. "I think it could be behind here…"

"Zuko, watch out!" Azula cried, but it was too late: the rock Zuko had just shifted had caused an avalanche!

Zuko jumped out of the way of the falling volcanic rock just in time. "Are you ok?" Azula asked.

"I'm fine," Zuko replied. Actually, only a few rocks had fallen. It could have been a lot worse.

"Good," said Azula, "Now just take out your net, and maybe we can still catch something good to eat."

"Or…..not," Zuko frowned.

"What do you mean, not?" Azula blinked. "Do you want to have just rice and Uncle's tea for dinner again?"

"I….may have dropped the net," Zuko confessed. Azula's eyes followed to where Zuko was looking – down the side of Mount Ryu.

"You tossed the net all the way down the hill?" Azula cried. "You idiot! We'll never find it! Now how are we going to get any meat tonight?"

"Well, maybe if you'd been a little bit more helpful…" Zuko protested. "I mean, it's not like you would have cooked it that well even if we'd caught it, despite the fact that you're a girl!"

"UGH!" Azula cried in frustration. "You are the most sexist, useless brother in the Fire Nation!"

Zuko paled as he watched the smoke from the volcano billow dangerously behind his sister. "Um…Azula….maybe you should calm down…."

"No! I won't calm down!" Azula shouted, having a fit. "Ever since Mom left, you've expected me to do all the cooking while you run off playing Navy!"

"A-Azula…." Zuko warned.

"And you make me do all the cleaning when we both get home from the factory! Why should I lower myself like that?" Azula continued, ignoring him. "Do you expect me to be your slave?"

Thicker, blacker smoke wafted down from the summit above them, and Zuko swore he heard the sound of boiling liquid.

"Azula….."

"No!" Azula snapped. "I don't deserve this life! My destiny should have been to be royalty, not your stupid servant! From now on, you are ON. YOUR. OWN!"

As she said this, sparks shot from the volcano's peak, igniting the rocks, which began to fall towards them! Zuko grabbed Azula by the wrist and pulled them both away from the burning stone. They sat behind a boulder, sighing with relief that they were safe.

"Did I do that?" Azula gasped, looking apologetic as she stared at the still-smoldering basalt.

"Yeah, I think you did," Zuko frowned. Cautiously, he peered over the side of the boulder. "Hey….what's that?"

The pile of rocks that had caught fire and rolled down the hill seemed to have been concealing something, which was now visible to the naked eye. It was a perfect sphere of solidified lava, as tall as Zuko was and twice as wide. It was too smooth and large to just be an ordinary part of the landscape – it had to be manmade.

"What is it?" Azula wondered curiously, getting up and walking towards it.

"Hey, Azula, get back here!" Zuko warned. "It could be dangerous!"

But Azula, ignoring him, was already lighting a flame on her fingertips, trying to burn open the side of the sphere. Zuko approached cautiously as Azula continued to blast it with flames a few more times. Finally, she burned away a large enough piece of the lava rock that the rest began to crack. Hot air shot out of the hole, making the siblings take a step back. Then, the rest of the sphere cracked in two, shooting chunks of solidified lava everywhere as a strange, blue light shot into the sky.

Azula's jaw dropped and she grabbed her brother's sleeve protectively as she watched the light continue to rise, like a beacon. Then, she looked at where the sphere had stood, and in its rubble was…..a boy?!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The siblings were not the only ones to see the light. Far off the coast, on the deck of a longboat sailing through the warm waters, a tall boy in regal blue clothing, a tribal wolf headdress, and war paint stared, open-mouthed, at the glowing signal in the sky. "Bato!" he cried. "Do you know what this means?!"

"That I won't get to finish my stewed sea prunes?" sighed a middle-aged man in a blue tunic, looking up from his lunch.

"It means my search is finally over!" the boy replied aggressively. "That light came from a powerful source – it had to be him!"

"It's probably just a mirage," Bato shrugged. "You have been staring at the sea too long. We've been over this, Prince Sokka. I don't want to see you get excited again over nothing. Why don't you just relax and have some nice sea prunes?"

"Forget your prunes!" Sokka cried. He stormed down below deck, where a dozen men were using their Waterbending to steer the ship towards their destination. "Set a course for the light!" he commanded.

Bato frowned.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

When the light began to dissipate, Azula saw she was right – there really was a boy in the lava! Moreover, he was moving towards them, crawling out of the rubble. Azula saw that his head was shaved, and his clothes were not those of a Firebender. Who was he?!

The boy stood. "Get back!" Zuko warned, lighting a fireball in his hand and pointing it at the stranger. The boy looked at him uncertainly…..then fell to the ground in a dead faint.

Azula rushed to grab him. Zuko approached and prodded the unconscious boy with his finger.

"Stop it, Zuzu!" Azula hissed. Her expression softened when the boy moaned softly and opened his eyes. They were grey, she noticed, and he looked about twelve – two years younger than her own age of fourteen (and four years younger than sixteen-year-old Zuko). The boy stared up into Azula's golden eyes as if fascinated by them. She resisted the urge to blush.

"C-can I…ask you something?" the boy muttered weakly.

"What is it?" Azula wondered eagerly.

"Come closer…" the boy implored. Azula obeyed.

"Will…," the boy croaked. Azula leaned closer still, listening intently.

"WILL YOU HELP ME CATCH A FIRE FERRET?" the boy grinned mischievously, sitting up and looking perfectly healthy.

"Uh..very…well," Azula said, taken aback.

"Yaaaay!" the boy cried excitedly, then took a deep breath and…..floated into a standing position somehow.

"How did you do that?" Zuko gasped. "And how did you get inside a ball of solid lava rock, anyway?!"

"I dunno," the boy shrugged. "That's pretty weird. Last I remember, I was riding my…." He paused. "Where is he?"

"Where is what?" Zuko asked. This was already too weird for him.

An animalistic growl sounded from around the corner, where a pile of debris from the lava sphere had fallen. "There he is!" the boy smiled, and ran towards it. "Yay, he's ok!" Cautiously, Zuko peaked around the corner and saw….

"What is that?!"

"This is Appa," the boy explained. "He's my flying bison."

"Your flying what? Impossible," Zuko said skeptically. "Azula, do you believe this?" Appa sneezed on him as if offended. Zuko tried to wipe the snot from his red and yellow tunic, disgusted.

"Do you live around here?" the boy asked curiously.

"Don't answer that," Zuko warned Azula. "He might be a spy from the Water Tribe Armada."

"Yeah," Azula snarked, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure the Water Tribe lets children join the Armada all the time."

"The paranoid one," she continued, "is my brother Zuko. And you never told us your name."

"I'm Aa…," the boy's introduction was interrupted when he sneezed, and suddenly his entire body shot ten feet in the air!

Slowly, he floated back to earth. "I'm Aang," he resumed, unfazed.

"You just sneezed and flew," Zuko recounted, shocked.

"You're…an Airbender, aren't you?" Azula realized, impressed by his power. Aang simply nodded.

"First bright lights in the sky," Zuko complained, "then flying bison, and now Airbenders? None of this makes sense. I refuse to accept it. It's got to be some sort of elaborate hoax. I'm going home, where I can investigate if there's any way the Armada could fake Airbending."

Turning to leave, he realized that the flying rocks had knocked the top layer off the ground beneath their feet, revealing molten lava underneath. It would be impossible to walk through these exposed lava flows.

"If you guys are stuck," Aang offered, "I can give you a lift on Appa."

"That would be most helpful," Azula smiled.

"No way," Zuko protested. "I'm not getting on that….monster."

"That's fine," Azula smirked. "You can just wait here until the lava flow spreads and drips down onto your feet. It's not like you needed those, right?"

Five minutes later, Zuko was on the bison with others, sulking the whole time.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Ok, Appa!" Aang commanded. "Yip, yip!" The bison leaped into the air….and then immediately landed on the ground, less than a meter from the nearest lava flow.

"He's lucky he didn't catch his tail on fire," Zuko sighed. "What's he going to do, jump over all the lava puddles until we're home?"

"No," Aang protested. "He's totally going to fly. He's just tired right now."

"Uh-huh," Zuko said, unconvinced. Turning away from Zuko, Aang stole a glance at Azula and smiled.

"Why did you smile at me?" Azula asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I…I wasn't smiling," Aang stammered with a blush.

"Uh-huh."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

On the longboat off the coast, Sokka stared into the waves, his parka billowing in the cool night breeze.

"I'm going to bed," Bato announced, yawning. "Every man needs his rest."

Sokka ignored him, his grip on his boomerang. He was itching for the fight he knew was ahead.

"You should rest, too, Prince Sokka," Bato advised.

"Right. Rest," Sokka said sarcastically. "I can totally just rest and relax. It's not like I'm five inches from the thing I've been searching for for years or anything."

"Even if you have found the Avatar," Bato reminded, "you will likely be unable to capture him. Your father, and his father, and his father….they all tried. And failed."

"That's because their honor," Sokka insisted, "their very standing in the tribe – didn't depend on it."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Appa leapt gracefully over another river of lava. Zuko, somehow, had fallen asleep, despite the bumpy ride.

"So," Azula said conversationally, "if you're truly an Airbender, I have a question for you."

"Shoot," Aang smiled.

"Did you know the Avatar?"

"No," Aang said quickly. "I mean, I knew people that knew him, but I, uh, didn't actually know him."

"I see," Azula said, looking disappointed. "I suppose I'll try to get buckled into my sleeping bag before Appa makes his next jump, then."

"Good night," Aang smiled, but the moment Azula turned her back, his expression became stricken with guilt.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Aang awoke to find himself soaring through the air on Appa. Beneath him was the sea, and beyond that, the coast of the Fire Nation. Suddenly, the wind picked up as lightning flashed through the sky. He realized he was being blown off course. He tried desperately to grab the reigns and steer himself in the right direction, away from the land. He screamed when the wind pulled the reigns right out of his hands – it seemed to be trying its best to pull him bodily from the saddle, as well.

"Appa!" he cried. "We've got to turn right!" The faithful bison tried his best, but the wind was relentlessly pulling them left. The coast and its sharp rocks drew closer. They were going down, down….He gasped in fear as the wind pushed them nearer to the mouth of a volcano. If this storm dumped them in there, they would melt to nothing in seconds!

He saw the magma boiling crimson as they continued to fall towards it. He had to get away before they hit it! He couldn't regain control of Appa, who roared in fear as they began to fall so dizzingly fast that he was close enough to feel the volcano's heat…

No!

His eyes glowed white as the wisdom of lifetimes took him over, and suddenly he was spinning the magma out of the volcano around them, and it solidified like a shield to protect them from the searing heat. But he was still falling….

The last thing he remembered was the lava rock encasing his face like a tomb.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Aang! Wake up!" cried a feminine voice, and Aang woke up, gasping for breath, in a steel bed with a bright red quilt. Out the soot-stained window, he could see someone's chimney, billowing smoke. When he looked to the other side of the room, he saw Azula standing beside a small fireplace.

"We're back in town now," she explained. "This is my family's apartment. Please, come downstairs – this is a pretty small town, so everybody has heard what happened by now. They're all waiting to meet you."

She tried not to stare when he stood, revealing blue arrow tattoos spiraling down his body.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Zuko leaned against the wall of the apartment building, warming his hands apathetically in the brazier beside him, as Azula dragged Aang out the sliding door.

A crowd of people clad in red and yellow stood waiting for them beneath the pagoda of the town square.

"These are all the townspeople," Azula introduced. "All the townspeople, Aang."

"Why are they staring at me?" Aang asked self-consciously.

"Well," said a short, stout, old man, taking a sip from a lotus-print tea cup, "Nobody has seen an Airbender in a hundred years. We'd thought they'd gone extinct until my niece and nephew found you."

"A….hundred years?" Aang repeated. It couldn't be.

"Aang, this is my uncle," Azula introduced. "Iroh."

"You can call me Uncle, too, if you'd like," the old man smiled happily. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No thanks," Aang said politely.

"Don't be so welcoming to him, Uncle," Zuko called out from the corner. "I still say he's a spy. What's this you're carrying?" he asked, stomping over and grabbing the staff Aang carried. "A weapon?"

"This isn't for fighting," Aang shook his head, wondering why Zuko was so suspicious of him. "It's for flying!"

He opened the staff, revealing bright orange kite wings. Grabbing the handles, he pushed the glider onto his back and took to the air, soaring like a bird. Zuko's jaw dropped. A spy couldn't fake that.

The children laughed and chased him from the ground as he flew past them overhead – right until he flew into a string of lanterns, entangling himself. "Oof!" He was lucky he hadn't knocked any of the candles out of their bright paper containers.

Azula rushed to help extricate him from the string, while Zuko hung back and rolled his eyes.

"So you are an Airbender," he accepted. "But it's obvious you're just a rookie. Great. Azula is a rookie when it comes to Firebending, too. So, out of the three of us, it looks like I'm the only one who has a clue how to control his Bending abilities."

"You're both Firebenders?" Aang asked excitedly.

"Well…somewhat," Azula clarified. "Uncle says I'm a natural, but Zuko is the only one who was old enough to have a chance to learn from our father. I definitely would be more skilled by now if I'd been able to study with him."

"Speaking of studying," Iroh interrupted, "Azula, you have homework to do. Come with me."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"He's the real thing, Uncle!" Azula said, excitement in her voice, as they walked back up the stairs to their apartment. "I may have finally found a Bender to teach me the skills I need."

"I offered to teach you many times, Azula," Iroh reminded.

"Yes, but you're a pacifist," Azula frowned. "I want to learn the firebending techniques used for war – the kind Father taught Zuko."

"Zuko and I have refused to teach you those for a reason," Iroh protested. "We don't want the little girl we love getting mixed up in all this fighting. It's dangerous."

"But I'm not a little girl anymore!" Azula protested. "I'm a young woman now, Uncle, and I don't need to be protected by you and Zuko anymore. I want to be a warrior, like Father, like -"

"Like your cousin?" Iroh huffed. "War got him killed. Do you remember that?"

Of course Azula remembered. Lu Ten's picture hung in a shrine in their living room, a daily reminder of the casualties the Water Tribe had caused. Azula wanted payback for injustices like the death of Iroh's son – she wanted to take the fight to the Water Tribe instead of sitting here, hoping they wouldn't be attacked.

"Try not to place all your hopes in this boy, Azula," Iroh advised, looking more old and tired than she had ever seen him.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Again," Bato demanded.

"How many times are you going to make me make the same blocking motion with this boomerang?" Sokka growled. "Like I'm going to block the Avatar to death. I need to learn how to go on the offensive with it. Teach me the next step – how to attack!"

"Being a warrior in this tribe is not all about being able to strike hardest," Bato lectured. "It is about which warrior strikes the wisest. A wise warrior does not simply strike first and assume he can vanquish his enemy before he can strike back. He anticipates how his opponent may strike him in return, and is prepared for it. And so….again."

"No!" Sokka insisted. "The shamans tell us that the Avatar's got to be 100 years old now. He's had years and years to master all four elements. I can't even bend one element, in case you hadn't noticed. If a nonbender like me is going to fight him, I need to use all the physical strength I can."

"Battles are not won solely by strength," Bato reminded.

"I don't care! As Prince of the Water Tribe, I command you to teach me the attack!"

"Fine," Bato conceded. "After I finish my seal jerky."

Sokka smacked his hand to his head in frustration.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Zuko stared at the group of small boys who had gathered in the teahouse his uncle owned, still in their school uniforms. It was time for after-school Firebending practice.

"Firebending comes from the breath," he lectured seriously. "Breath in, and turn that into energy. Your energy, your Bending, is the last line of defense this town has in case of a Water Tribe attack now that our fathers are away. You must devote yourself to the art of Bending, and in so doing become men your fathers would be proud of. Do you understand?"

The shortest boy raised his hand.

"Yes?" Zuko acknowledged professionally.

"Ok, but, like, how do we use Firebending to cool our tea?"

Zuko's face fell.

"Your uncle's tea is really good," another boy added. "Does he have any snacks to go with it?"

"We mostly just came because you said there would be snacks," another boy confessed.

"Did someone say snacks?" Aang grinned, appearing suddenly from around the corner. "I helped Uncle make sticky buns! Who wants some?"

"Me! Me!" the children cried, getting up from the booth where they sat and crowding around Aang.

"When you're done, wanna play with my flying bison?" Aang offered.

"Yeah!" the children cried, and ran outside with sticky fingers to go pet the furry beast.

"AUGH!" Zuko cried. "Azula, he's got to go!"

Azula, wearing her waitress uniform (she had to help Uncle out today, since there were so many customers) looked at Zuko quizzically. "Why?"

"This lesson was for Firebenders only," he protested. "Aang keeps distracting them. We don't have time for fun and games when there's a war going on."

"What war?" Aang asked from the open doorway with a confused expression. "What are you talking about?"

"Is that a joke?" Zuko scoffed.

Aang looked concerned for a moment. Then, something on the neighbor's roof caught his eye. "FIRE FERRET!"

And then suddenly he was floating up to the rooftop chasing after it, and was gone.

"Was he trying to be funny?" Zuko asked Azula again after the boy disappeared from sight.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

A bemused Azula climbed up the fire escape of the abandoned building on the edge of town. When she got to the roof, she saw a dozen of the fire ferrets that tended to build their nests here. They were squeaking and darting about all over the place – and Aang was fruitlessly trying to scoop them all into his arms.

"Every time I think I caught one, they jump away!" he noticed. "They're so fast!"

Azula chuckled. "I'll make you a deal," she offered. "I'll help you catch a fire ferret if you teach me Firebending."

"Sure," Aang agreed. "But…..there's one problem. I'm an Airbender, not a Firebender. Isn't there anyone else in town who could teach you?"

Azula shook her head. Every able-bodied Firebender in town had left to go fight in the war – the only benders who had stayed behind were Uncle (because he was too old), and the children (who were too young), including Zuko and herself. And Uncle refused to teach her the bending moves she really wanted to know. Zuko only had the barest grasp of said moves himself. There was no teacher here who could give her the power to defend herself and her people that she craved.

"That's not right," Aang frowned. "You should be able to learn any Firebending techniques you want." He thought for a moment. "What about the Fire Nation capital? If there are any really powerful Firebending teachers anywhere, it's probably there."

"Maybe," Azula said contemplatively, staring out at the setting sun from their high vantage point. One could see the whole town from here. "I mean, my ancestors lived in the capital once. But nobody in my family has even visited there for a hundred years. And it's not as if it's just next door, you know? It's on the other side of the Fire Nation."

"That's true," Aang nodded. "But, you forget I have a flying bison. I can personally fly you to the Nation's capital. Azula, I can find you a Master!"

"I don't know," Azula hesitated. "I've never left town before." She had Uncle to think about….could he run the teahouse without her, and get by without the money she brought home from her factory job? He was so old now. Besides…she loathed to admit it, but she was afraid of the unknown.

"You can think about it," Aang said understandingly. "In the mean time, will you help me catch one of these? I wanna hug it!" He tried to grab at a fire ferret's tail, but by the time he moved, it was already halfway across the rooftop.

"Of course," Azula smiled. "Listen, my young pupil: the catching of fire ferrets is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." She pulled a meat bun from Uncle's teahouse from her pocket and tore it into pieces, throwing the pieces at Aang's feet. Immediately, all the fire ferrets on the roof rushed toward him excitedly, bowling him over and crawling all over him. He laughed and scooped as many into his arms as he could, embracing them tightly before letting them scurry away with their treats.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Azula and Aang lept in a parkour-like fashion from rooftop to rooftop after the fire ferrets, scrambling over fire escapes and ladders in their quest to catch and pet another. Azula found herself laughing, in spite of herself. "I haven't done this since I was a kid," she confessed.

"You still are a kid," Aang reminded as they scurried up a clocktower before vaulting onto the top of a pagoda. They grabbed a fire ferret before it could scamper away and climbed down with it to the ground, where they began petting it and feeding it more pieces of meat bun before they finally set it free.

It was then that Azula realized where they were. They were on the outskirts of town, near the coastline, far from the bustling plaza where most of the townspeople spent their day. Uncle had warned her not to come out here alone.

"Whoa….what is that?" Aang gasped. Azula followed his gaze until she saw it, and her expression darkened. It was the ruins of a wooden ship, with blue tribal symbols on it in fading, chipped blue paint and carvings of spirits leering eerily from the damaged prow.

"It's a Water Tribe Armada ship," Azula explained, "and a very bad memory for my people."

Aang approached it cautiously. "Aang, stop," Azula warned. "We're not supposed to go in there. It could be booby-trapped."

"If you want to be a bender," Aang advised, "you have to let go of fear."

'I'm not afraid of anything!" Azula said hotly. I'm not like Zuzu.

"Then, come on," Aang smiled. Reluctantly, she followed him into the wreck.

They walked through the area below-deck, where the wooden planks were starting to warp and rot. They turned into a room Azula supposed was an armory. It was filled with boomerangs and spears made of bone, machetes with whale teeth attached to the dull side of the blade, spikes one attached to icebergs to disable incoming ships and jars of intimidatingly bright war paint.

"This place has haunted my people since Uncle was a little boy," Azula explained mournfully. "These weapons were used as part of the Water Tribe Armada's first attack."

"Whoa, back up," Aang said, looking panicky. "I have friends all over the world, including the Water Tribe. I've never seen any war."

"Aang…." Azula whispered, realization dawning on her. "How long were you in that ball of lava rock?"

"I don't know….a few days, maybe?" Aang guessed.

"I think it may have been closer to….a hundred years," Azula said, herself shocked.

Her shock was nothing compared to Aang's. "No way!" he protested. "It can't be! Do I look like a 112-year-old man to you?!"

"Think about it," Azula insisted. "The war is a century old. Yet you don't know about it….because you were in that rock, like a fossil, that whole time."

Aang gasped and fell to his knees. "No….."

"But, perhaps there is some good in all of this," Azula said comfortingly.

"I got to meet you," Aang realized.

Another rare smile escaped Azula's lips.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Aang, we should leave," Azula warned. "This place is out of bounds for a reason."

Just as she said that, Aang's foot struck a trip wire, causing water, which had been kept in a small clay pot all these many years, to shoot through a system of pipes and up out of the top of the boat, like a geyser.

"Uh oh," Aang gulped. "Don't worry, I'll get us out of here!" He scooped Azula up into his arms and flew with her through a hole in the floor, leaping down through a crack in the bottom of the boat and descending the dune of red, volcanic sand on which the boat rested.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Miles from the shore, Sokka watched them from his telescope. "The Last Airbender," he noted with a hint of grudging respect. "He's pretty agile for an old dude." He turned to face a Water Tribe brave in a sky blue parka. "Go get Bato's butt out of bed," he commanded, "Tell him I've found the Avatar!"

He turned his telescope to the red pagoda roofs of the town. "And his hiding place."