This choice: Old Enemy for a New Avatar • Go Back...Chapter #7Old Enemy for a New Avatar by: Unknown Originally written by akplez
A figure walked down the prison hall, flanked by guards. The Hundred Years War had ended. Peace had come to the land. But there were still remnants of the old Fire Nation. Prince Zuko -- no, now Fire Lord Zuko -- was bound to face challenges as he restructured his nation. The government in particular -- a century of conflict had bred a militant disposition in the elite. These people had flourished under Sozin, Azulon, Ozai. They would not budge for an exiled prince, a traitor, a teenager disowned and scarred by his father. Not while there was another option.
The prison was in the capital. Nowhere else, not even Boiling Rock, could be trusted with this prisoner. She was the reason for numerous attempted break-ins, and had nearly started civil wars several times over her claim. Azula. It didn't matter that her brief reign displayed paranoia and megalomania on a scale grander than even her father. She represented the Old Ways, and at the present she was a liability. Irredeemable, vengeful, unstable... and unkillable -- by order of the Fire Lord.
The cell door creaked open, and the prisoner, chained to the floor, sat as upright as she could. Azula was a mess -- hair unkempt, eyes glittering, fingernails long. She smiled viciously at the figure. "Come to gloat, peasant?"
The figure stepped forward, revealing herself as Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. Her voice was as hard as ice. "Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation, by official decree of Fire Lord Zuko-"
"My brother is no Fire Lord! It should be me! ME!!" spat Azula.
"You are to be imprisoned indefinitely, not by bars of iron, but by sheets of ice."
The mad princess drew back, confused. What could she mean by this? Then, Katara drew a pouch from the folds of her robe. "Spirit water has many properties," she said. "Beyond healing, it can also change people -- people like you." With that, she started to waterbend a cocoon of glowing water around Azula. The princess staggered; her head was pounding, like her skull was too small for her brain. Her eyes bulged. She grew dizzy, and her legs gave out from under her. The last thing she saw before unconsciousness was the room growing larger around her, with Katara at it center, looming up and up and up and up....
Then, nothing.
Katara took the small ball of ice -- no larger than a fist -- and looked inside. There was Azula, asleep. Katara breathed on the ice, and the ball went from clear to opaque with her breath. Then she put it in the pouch she had brought the water in, and was escorted out. She knew, as she left the confines of the prison, what would happen. There would be a rumor that Azula had escaped, been spirited away to some island beyond the western ends of the Fire Nation. As the guessing and speculations grew to fever pitch, Zuko, apparently bowing to pressure, would check and find her missing. His critics would be silenced, and he could sleep without fear at night. Meanwhile, Katara would head back home, back to the Southern Water Tribe where the ice never melts, and hide away the little ball of ice until sometime in the distant future, when the Hundred Years War was little more than legend, when the world had moved on. Maybe then she could release the Fire Princess onto the world.
Maybe, always maybe...
****
Many Years Later
****
Korra and the Airbenders had stopped by the Southern Water Tribe to meet with Katara. As Oogi, Tenzin's air bison, landed on the packed snow fields, the elderly Katara came out of the house.
"Grandma!" shrieked the children as they ran to her.
"Hello, Mother" said Tenzin, looking frazzled. "I'm sorry we can't stay long, but we've got a celebration to get to -- even Lord Zuko will be there! So sorry for the short notice, but the kids demanded-"
"Oh. that all right." said Katara, waving a hand dismissively. "I do have something for Korra, though. Follow me."
Korra followed the old waterbender into her igloo. Katara grabbed an old sealskin pouch, reached inside, and took out a ball of ice. "I want you to give this to the Fire Lord." she whispered, handing it to the Avatar. "This...amulet...holds great meaning to him. I'm sorry I can't come myself, but these old bones aren't meant for air bison anymore."
Korra inspected the amulet, then pocketed it. "Thanks!" she said loudly. "Will do!"
A couple days later, they reached Air Temple Island. When they landed in the sweltering hot sun, Pema came forward to her husband. "I'm sorry dear, but it looks like Lord Zuko won't be attending."
"What?" gasped Tenzin. "He won't? Why not?"
"Something came up in the Fire Nation that required his attention. Now as for your other guests..."
Meanwhile, Korra came up to her room. It was beastly hot, and all she could do was set the amulet on the table and flop down on the bed, hoping she wasn't sweating as hard as she felt she was. As she lay there, the first few drops of water came off the ball of ice, and a dark spot at the center became clear. The thing in the center was still asleep, asleep as it had been for decades, but now its bonds were loosening. For the first time in more than eighty years, Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation, began to stir. More drops began to run off as the heat steadily melted the ice. By now, Korra had gotten up and was about to start with preparations for the party, when she noticed the amulet and the growing puddle of water surrounding it. She was about to attempt to refreeze it when she noticed something in the center. Something dark, something not water...
For the first time in nearly a century Azula opened her eyes...
Korra bent down closer to get a better view, but then she heard a insistent knocking at the door -- Ikki and Jinora. "Mom says you need to come down to help -- now!"
"Just a second!" replied the Avatar. She knew she really should get to helping, but there was something captivating about that spot in the center...
Azula was awake. In the glaring sunlight that pierced through the ice, she knew how to escape. She breathed fire into her prison, which began to glow, and turn white-hot. Suddenly it burst, and once more the teenaged Fire Princess was free. But what was her first sight upon liberation?
1. An empty room -- Korra had left with Ikki and Jinora. Lost yet determined to escape, Azula will leave the room and try to flee. But instead of finding the exit, she first runs into an unaware Ikki and Jinora.
2. Korra -- The new Avatar, intrigued by this chain of events, finds out who this tiny girl is and shows her off to the Airbender twins. Together, all three become Azula's new wardens, and the island becomes her new prison  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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