For the first time in a long time, Azula allows herself to relax.

There are, of course, more things she that has to plan ahead for. But getting Zuko out of the way just in time for her birthday is a special occasion, so she can afford to spoil herself for just one night. Reclining further into her hot tub, she adds a little extra heat to the water. She can almost feel the steaming water burning away her troubles.

Then the water grabs her and tosses her unceremoniously out of the hot tub.

"What the hell was that?" she yells at the waterbender who could be the only cause, scrambling for her towel. "Do you have a death wish? That wasn't funny!"

The look on Katara's face tells her this definitely isn't just some spontaneous prank. There's a dash of anger, dash of betrayal, with maybe some shock mixed in here. Why would Katara be so angry with her?

Well, she could think of many reasons, but she was certain that all her bases were covered, that Katara shouldn't have found out about any of them.

"What gives, Azula?" Katara yelled back. "I just learned that I could have gone back home weeks ago! But you told me your father wouldn't let me. It wasn't your father who stopped it. It was you!"

Well, that wouldn't have been her first guess. At the very least, it certainly explained the bad mood Katara was in. Azula had been certain that Katara would have been sufficiently dissuaded from ever speaking to her father, but it looked like that was wrong. She cursed herself internally for the miscalculation.

"Look, it's all just a misunderstanding," Azula placated. "You couldn't possibly think I would take that away from you, do you?"

The reaction Katara gave was a positive one. Katara was looking for the good, not someone to blame, and people like that were much easier to persuade. 'Maybe I can get out of this after all,' Azula thought.

"Then what really happened?" Katara asked.

Well, shit. Azula was capable of some spectacular lies, but this was one lie she had not prepared for.

"I'm not sure," Azula began. "Maybe we can sleep on it, and I can go clear it up with my father tomorrow morning."

"Let's go together now," Katara countered. "He seemed like he was in a good mood just now. Unless you don't want to?"

Azula's silence was telling.

"I knew it!" Katara yelled. "I knew it! I knew you were lying. Why would you lie to me about something so important, Azula?"

Azula gritted her teeth in frustration as Katara yapped on about immorality of lying and the importance of telling the truth. Months in the Fire Nation, and this naive girl had really learned nothing.

Screw it. It was all hopeless. Better just to burn it all down and start afresh. Putting on her best villainous smirk, Azula cut off Katara's tirade.

"I thought I dispelled such notions from you long ago, Katara. I don't get it. Why do you have to make such a big deal out of lying?"

Ignoring Katara's baffled face, Azula continued. "You could have lived in luxury! What is there for you at the South Pole even? Your family? Sokka? Hakoda? You could have just asked for them to be shipped up here! Heck, you could have gotten enough favor eventually to have the entire stinking South Pole shipped up here!"

"All you had to do was nothing! Instead, you just had to play detective, didn't you? Well, good job, you've just gone and ruined it! Do you see now? This is what the truth gets you."

"Just how much," Katara asked, her voice an eerie calm, "have you been lying about to me?"

…

Just as planned. The idiot was so insecure about actually losing to Katara that he actually asked for the real deal that night.

"Oh guard!" she called innocently. "I think I saw an intruder in the courtyard."

…

"You can't help her here," Azula whispered to Zuko as he looked on in horror while Katara was swarmed by guards. "Let's go," she told him, tugging him away from their vantage point.

…

"Father, I do believe an opportunity has presented itself."

"If so, then you should make necessary preparations."

Azula left Iroh's chambers, wondering just how she was going to frame Iroh for asking Katara to kill the Fire Lord. And get him out of the Fire Nation so he couldn't defend himself properly, while making it seem like he was fleeing to set up his alibi.

…

Azula skimmed through the documents that Chang had hidden. She couldn't tell exactly what they said, but she was certain they were related to the conspiracy club that her uncle had going on.

They would be enough for Chang to be condemned to death. She just needed to hide them less competently so the guards would actually be able to find them.

With the annoying servant gone, the waterbender would be become putty in her hands.

…

"General Bujing, a moment of your time?"

"Of course, princess. How may I serve you?"

"It's about the Southern Water Tribe. I want you to suggest burning it all."

"But why? They are barely a threat, and Fire Lord Ozai wanted us to divert attention away from it."

"Just do it, general."

…

...Well, she certainly wasn't going to admit to all that.

"How could you do this to me?" Katara cried. "I thought we were friends!"

"Friends?" Azula asked incredulously. "You, friends with me? I think you've gotten ahead of yourself. You are a peasant from the asshole of this world, I am a princess!"

"You've always been nothing but a tool. I only showed you kindness because I knew that was the easiest way to get you to do what I wanted you to do. The only reason I pushed you towards my brother is because I needed you to get cozy with him. Brother would have been disowned if he actually fell in love with you. Did you actually think you would become a princess?"

"I just needed you to get Zuko out of the way for me. Of course, I never imagined that you would actually take grandfather out of the picture too! A year ago I was fifth in line to the throne, now I'm second!"

Azula could tell that her words had hit home. 'Bring it on,' Azula muttered under her breath. This would be a good fight.

…

Well, it would have been, except Azula forgot that she was in the royal baths. It didn't take long until Katara had gotten the upper hand, pinning Azula against the floor, an ice dagger pushing against her chin.

Azula does her best to control her voice. "You aren't going to do it," she manages to say in a bored tone. "We both know you don't have the guts to be a murderer." As if she already knows Katara doesn't have it in her to complete the deed. Even though she's unsure whether she's pushed Katara a little too much over the edge.

They glare into each others' eyes for what seems like an eternity, Azula's challenging, Katara's furious, before Katara finally relents, backing up so Azula can get up.

The two take seats on opposite sides of the room, an awkward silence filling the space in between them. Azula analyzes all the possible outcomes- is there a way to salvage this? Does she even want to salvage this? Why is she even bothering trying to salvage her relation with a peasant waterbender?

"You don't even realize it, do you?"

Huh? "Realize what?"

"You lie to everyone so much that it's second nature. You can't even see that you are lying to yourself."

Azula felt herself puke in her mouth a little. She was certain that she had gotten Iroh away from Katara before he could influence her with his... Iroh-ness, so why was she spouting that sentimental garbage?

"What the heck are you going on about?"

"Do you remember when you caught those men who attacked me? Do you remember when we talked about our families? Do you remember when you gave me presents? You can't possibly tell me all that was just so I would do what you wanted."

"We've spent months together, Azula. I know you better than a lot of people now. And I can tell that there was more to it. You've changed, you're happier, you smile more. That's what having friends is like."

Azula wanted to deny it, wracked her head for a counterpoint, but she somehow couldn't argue back when Katara was gazing at her with that look of disgustingly sweet pity and sympathy and compassion (how could she be like that? Azula had denied her what she wanted and lied about it). The truth was, Katara was right. Somewhere down the line, Azula had stopped looking at Katara as inferior and started looking at her as a …

When had it all changed?

Oh right. That day when Azula tried to lightningbend, when she had almost burned her own body from the inside out in the process of killing herself and taking her ambitions with her, Katara had taken her hand and saved her using a technique that she certainly was not supposed to know.

When had she become so weak? First, she couldn't lightningbend, now she was showing true admiration to a waterbender. If she was to survive as heir apparent to the throne, she had to cut away that weakness.

Azula sighed. "You're right," she admitted. "I hate to say it, but you're right. I did see you as more than a tool."

"Despite your origins, you are the most fit to be my equal. I envisioned you by my side as I crushed my enemies. I envisioned you by my side as my right hand as I ascended to the throne of Fire Lord."

"But I see now that I was wrong."

The smile that had been slowly forming on Katara's face disappeared instantly, but somehow Azula didn't find glee from it.

"You were never meant to be my greatest ally. No, you were meant to be something different. You were meant to be my greatest enemy, the one who tried valiantly to stop the inevitable march of progress, the one who stood for those who would reject the glory of the Fire Nation."

As if on cue, the two girls heard banging on the door. "Princess! We heard fighting! Is everything alright in there?"

Azula could tell that Katara was going to try and get Azula to change her mind. There was no way it could happen, of course, but Azula didn't want to give Katara the chance. Opening the door, she ordered the guards, "The waterbender here has completed her duties to the royal family. As a reward, she has earned passage back to her home in the Southern Water Tribes. Please see to it that she arrives safely and in comfort. She leaves tonight."

As Katara left with the guards, it was clear that there was more that the waterbender wanted to say, that she didn't want to depart just yet. How pathetic. First she wants to leave, now she doesn't?

How stupid does a girl have to be to have so much trouble making up her mind?

…

An hour later, Azula watched as a lonely Fire Nation freighter departed the harbor in the dead of night. Azula had briefly, so briefly that she might have not at all, considered the idea of recanting her order, of ordering the waterbender back into her possession.

There was no way that would turn out well, of course. With all that had passed between them, there was no way that Azula would be able to keep Katara in line, and a weapon that she couldn't control had to be discarded.

Azula sighed. It felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. All the lies and all the manipulation that had dominated her calculations, all in order to keep Katara in the dark, and the ungrateful peasant had to go talk to her father. Now Azula didn't have to worry about all of that.

Azula giggled. Oh, how it felt to be free. The only person she had to worry about her lies to was her father, and at this point that was second nature. Azula could feel the relief physically well up inside her, swelling until the sensation filled her chest.

An arc of light jumped between her fingers.

Azula smiled.

…

Katara watched as the Fire Nation palace shrank farther and farther away. Months ago, Katara had arrived, not knowing what lay in store for her. Now leaving, Katara somehow felt even more unsure about her future.

Katara's thoughts were a whirlwind of emotion. All their bonding, and Azula had callously thrown it away. As was typical of the princess, Katara had trouble divining the true intentions beneath that harsh exterior. When Azula talked about conquest, she sounded truly genuine, as if she expected Katara to hang around for years to come.

Now Azula had thrust the role of enemy onto her. Azula had all but declared that if Katara didn't fight her, the princess was going to conquer the world. Katara sighed. Shouldn't that be the Avatar's job?

The calm night was punctuated by a brilliant flash of light, as a lone bolt of lightning reached from the palace to the clouds.

…

"Good morning, father."

"Good morning, daughter. Did you sleep well?"

"I did."

"Where is the waterbender? I thought for sure that she would accompany you to breakfast."

Azula's silence filled in the blanks.

"What a shame," Ozai said, his tone leaking with insincerity. "Oh well, it's better not to have Azulon's killer living in the Fire Nation anyways."

Azula glared at the back of Ozai's head has he departed. One day she was going to...

…

The snow crunched beneath Katara's feet and the wind howled as she trudged her way from where the ship had dropped her off. Katara had requested warmer clothing, but even so, she shivered a little. She truly had been away from home far too long.

She saw two figures ahead running towards her. One's hood was down, and Katara saw a familiar ponytail. A voice punctuated the cold. "KATARA!"

In the past months, Katara had almost forgotten Sokka's voice. It was deeper than she remembered. Sokka had developed mightily in the months she had been gone, something which was evident when Sokka enveloped her in a tight hug that lifted her off the ground.

"I'm so happy you're back! We had no idea what happened to you, where you were. You have to tell us everything!"

Katara chuckled nervously. How much should she say? "I was uh, taken prisoner. I only just escaped recently," she offered.

Katara threw a glance at Sokka's companion. By his skin tone, he didn't appear to be Water Tribe. "By the way, who is 'us'?"

Sokka laughed. "Well, it's a funny story. You see, I was out by myself and I hit this iceberg..."

A/N:

AtLA got popular again because of Netflix so I decided to write the final chapter.

To give an idea of what would have happened, the timeline is a lot different because the Gaang no longer needs to go to the NWT to get a waterbending teacher so they go straight to the Earth Kingdom. Also, Zuko is a much more legitimate threat in this timeline.