A/N: I got permission from Sofia Albellera to use her fanart for this fic.

The idea for this fic is based on the suggestions of runrundoyourthings.

Azula liked training. She liked the looks of admiration—and sometimes fear—she got from her teachers. She liked it when they told her that she was a prodigy. That she was the most powerful firebender the Fire Nation had seen in ages. And most of all—she liked being better than her brother Zuko.

She liked how it gained her father's praise. Although, it didn't help her gainher mother's approval though. Azula had tried everything to get her mother's attention. She performed her new stances in front of her, expecting praise, or at least approval. But her mother didn't seem to care about how hard Azula worked. She would always look at Zuko and asked about what he had learned, without as much as complementing Azula. Why would she, though? Zuko wasn't as good as she was. He didn't try as hard as she did, either. Her mother didn't care.

But she was at least her father's favourite child. He would beam with pride when she showed him what she had learned and how quickly she had progressed. He would place a hand on her shoulder and tell her he recognized himself in her. That she was even stronger than he was—and that she would make a great Fire Lord.

'But what about uncle Iroh?' Azula had asked. 'He's going to be Fire Lord when granddad dies, isn't he?'

'Your granddad is going to chose his best son to become firelord,' her father had answered. 'Just like I'm going to do.'

'But what about Zuko?'

Her father had frowned. 'What about him?' he'd asked.

'He's older than me,' Azula said.

'I just said that doesn't matter,' her father pointed out. 'Didn't you listen to me?'

0o0o0o0o0

Azula felt the strength of the sun. The heat on her skin, the brightness that was apparent, even through her closed eyes.

She inhaled deeply and tried to concentrate on her breathing, but her mind seemed to drift off. She opened her eyes and huffed, annoyed with herself.

'What's wrong?' master Lu asked.

Azula decided to ignore that question. Instead of answering, she rose and looked at the old man with resignation. 'That is enough for today,' she said, trying to sound like her usual determined self.

The old man didn't contradict her, but bowed and retreated into his home. Azula turned back and watched the training ground that had been her home for over a year now. A year, in which she had perfected every possible stance. She had become the best lightning bender the Fire Nation had ever seen, and had even perfected the combustion technique. That was the exact reason she had sought out master Lu—she knew he was an expert on the matter. Exploding things with her mind had been a nice distraction for a while, but master Lu had taught her everything he knew by now. The last few months had felt as a waste of time—and there was nothing Azula hated more than wasting time.

Two years ago… She swallowed and turned her back to the training ground, determined to distract herself one way or another. She was surprised to find Ty Lee, looking at her with concern.

'What?' she snapped while crossing her arms over her chest.

'You're not training,' Ty Lee stated. Azula raised one eyebrow.

'Clearly,' she said, annoyed. 'What do you want?'

Ty Lee wasn't affected by her cold behaviour. 'I thought you might wanted some company,' she said while walking to Azula.

'I don't,' Azula muttered, but Ty Lee ignored her

'I know today's a rough day for you,' Ty Lee continued. Azula hissed and massaged her forehead, but she didn't contradict her words.

'And I have a great idea to cheer you up,' Ty Lee said. 'Since you like to learn new stuff... I'm going to teach you to chi-block!' She smiled, content with her own plan. Azula was surprised by her suggestion, but before she didn't say anything against the idea. It would be nice to learn something new, something remotely useful… Azula knew how dangerous Ty Lee could be—and all thanks to her chi-blocking.

'That's not… a bad idea,' she stated. It had been her goal to learn as much as she could during her time as the banished princess. She would impress everyone when she came back to the Fire Nation... if she ever came back. It had been two years now... and Azula had learned almost everything she could learn. She had practiced with swords, Mai had learned her to throw knives and now she had learned combustion bending. Chi blocking was the next logical step. Azula had been prodigious at everything she tried to learn and combined with the enormous amount of free time she had available, she had learned everything fast and with ease.

Ty Lee grinned, happy with Azula's not negative response.

'I hoped you'd like it,' she said, smiling. 'We could start right now, if you want to.'

It would be something to take Azula's mind off of things—and that was something she could use right now.

'Okay,' she said, trying to contain her enthusiasm. Ty Lee grinned and grabbed her hand. 'Let's go!' she said before pulling her towards the middle of the training grounds.

'Isn't there some sort of theoretical part?' Azula asked sceptically. She didn't look forward to dodging Ty Lee's fist without knowing what she would be doing.

'Of course there is!' Ty Lee exclaimed. 'That's where we're going to start with!' She let go of Azula's hand and turned around, facing the Princess.

'Chi-blocking means that you block the flow of chi in the body,' she said. 'Before you can block someone else's chi, you should be able to know where to hit.'

'Sounds… logical,' Azula said, still looking skeptically at her friend. Ty Lee quickly explained where the chakras we're located in the body, things Azula already knew. Talking about this subject brought a rare, serious side out in Ty Lee.

'I'm not going to do yoga, if that's what you had in mind,' Azula said when Ty Lee made a few difficult mouvements during her explanation.

'We're not,' Ty Lee said. 'Trust me.'

Azula nodded and sighed. She listened closely when Ty Lee pointed at places she should hit to block the chi.

'You have to hit the exact spot, with the exact amount of force,' Ty Lee said. 'So it's quite difficult to understand at first—but I'm sure you will be able to learn it.'

'Of course,' Azula said directly. She didn't doubt it for one second, to be honest. She touched the spot on her shoulder blade that should be able to block the chi.

'I should have someone to practice on,' she muttered. She glanced at Ty Lee, who gulped and suddenly looked very nervous. 'Didn't think this far, did you?' Azula said with raised eyebrows.

Ty Lee looked guilty while she shook her head.

'Lu has quite a few servants—maybe we can borrow one of them,' Azula said. 'You're my teacher—I don't want you knocked out.'

'Thank you,' Ty Lee said, with a grateful smile. She didn't seem to ponder over the poor servants. She shouldn't have—Azula didn't succeed in blocking their chi. It did, however, manage to take her mind off of the anniversary of her banishment—so that was progress.

'You're so annoying!' Katara shouted at her brother. 'Just because you happen to be a boy doesn't mean I should do all the chores! You should do something useful as well—would make a nice change!'

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her brother, her incapable big brother. Thanks to him, their kano had gotten stuck between two icy cliffs and thanks to him they were stuck in the middle of nowhere.

'Hey,' Sokka sputtered. 'I protected the village!'

'From whom?' Katara returned. 'The penguins?'

'The Fire Nation, of course!' Sokka proclaimed proudly. Katara huffed.

'You?' she said while glaring at her brother. 'Against the Fire Nation? Since when? I haven't seen them in… well…' She bit her lip and shook her head, trying to forget those horrible memories. 'You know what? I'm going back to the village.'

'You can't leave now!' Sokka exclaimed.

'Oh, I can!' Katara said. 'I'm a Waterbender, remember? My weird powers are going to get me home!'

'What about me!' Sokka yelled, annoyed.

'I'm not going to help you unless you apologise!'

'I've got nothing to apologize for!'

This time Katara really lost her composure. 'You're so ANNOYING!' she yelled. 'You just keep bossing me around, pretending you're the head of the family now…'

'Katara,' Sokka muttered, suddenly looking quite frightened.

'… Saying you're protecting the family, while I'm the only Waterbender left…'

'Katara…'

'… And I'm DONE with it!'

'Katara!' Sokka exclaimed loudly, but this time Katara realised why. In her anger, she had exploded a piece of an iceberg.

She didn't know how exactly what happened, but she knew the wave that resulted from the splashing would have thrown her in the freezing water of Sokka hadn't grabbed her.

'What the hell!' he yelled.

'Sorry,' said Katara timidly. Her accusations had been justified, but she hadn't want to nearly drown them.

'No, Katara, look!' Sokka said while he pointed towards the iceberg she had just molested. The water around still moved and she gasped as a new iceberg emerged. A weird glow came off of it.

It provided her with enough light to see a human form.

'It's alive!' she yelled. 'We have to help him!'

'No! Katara!' Sokka yelled. 'We don't know what that thing is!'

Katara ignored him. She grabbed Sokka's club and jump on the iceberg that contained the human. With all her force, she struck the ice in hopes of saving him. Nothing. She groaned and tried again. A little splinter of ice fell off.

'Damn it!' she screamed.

'It is no use, Katara,' Sokka said. 'You should know by now that ice is quite strong.' Katara ignored him. She grabbed the club with two hands and looked at the male figure in the ice. She struck one more time in the centre of the iceberg… and fell back with the sudden blast of force it released. Katara stared in disbelief as a crack spread from the place she hit the ice to the top of the icy mountain. Sokka grabbed her as the ice split and a blue light beam appeared, followed by a young boy.

'What the…' he muttered while raising his spear to the unknown person. He frowned when the boy collapsed.

Katara hurried towards the person. He was younger than she had expected and he wore weird clothes – way too thin for the South Pole. She frowned as she saw the arrow on his bald head. Wasn't that something the airbenders used to do?

She and Sokka stared at him in disbelief.

'We have to get him to the village!' she said while she looked at him worriedly. 'I think he's still breathing.'

'How?' Sokka said annoyed. 'If you don't remember—our boat is gone.'

The boy murmured something.

'What is it?' Sokka said.

'Come closer,' the boy whispered.

'He's alive!' Katara yelled, looking at Sokka before she stared at the boy again.

'I've got to tell you something…' the boy whispered. Katara frowned before she moved closer. From the way he was speaking, she could tell he was still very weak.

'Will you go penguin sledding with me?' the boy asked, his eyes growing big with hope.

'Uh, sure…' Katara said. She frowned, wanting to ask him about his arrow—but he still seemed weak. She was curious as to how he ended up in an iceberg, but that question would have to wait. Sokka didn't agree with that sentiment.

'Are you an airbender?' he asked.

Katara huffed. 'Sokka!' she exclaimed, but her brother ignored her and eyed the young boy with curiosity and scepticism.

'Sure am,' the boy answered smiling. 'My name's Aang.'

'I thought there were no airbenders left,' Sokka murmured, only loud enough for Katara to here.

'We'll get answers later,' she said sternly, before she eyed the young airbender with curiosity. He was an airbender – so that meant that the weren't extinct after all. She helped him stand up and he smiled happily.

'I'm not quite sure how we can return the village,' Katara said. 'Our katana has been destroyed.' She sighed. 'And we can't go swimming, obviously.'

'No problem,' Aang said. 'We can…' He frowned before he suddenly turned around and jumped in the air, startling the siblings. 'We can take Appa!' they heard him yell a few seconds after. Katara's mouth fell open when she saw an enormous creature appear.

'What's that?' Sokka yelled.

'That's Appa, my flying bison,' Aang said.

'Yeah… right,' Sokka said. 'And this is Katara, my flying sister.'

'Flying?' Katara said. 'You think he can bring us back to the village?'

'You don't believe him, do you?' Sokka asked her. Katara shrugged while she looked at Aang. Today had turned out quite different than she had expected. There was an airbender left. Aang jumped down and let Appa to the siblings. Sokka squiked while he tried to put distance between himself and 'Appa'.

Katara didn't fear Appa. She trusted Aang. He had given her something she hadn't felt in quite a long time. Hope.