At the Spirit Oasis, Azula hadn't yet been spotted. She listened in on Katara speaking earnestly to the white-haired girl.

  “I can protect him,” Katara said. It was a brave sentiment, but wrong.

  Azula wasted no time in attacking Katara. With sunset almost upon them, the waterbender’s power would be at full strength, while hers would not. Azula jumped and spun into the air, releasing a whirlwind of blue fire at the unsuspecting waterbender. Katara saw it out of the corner of her eye and dodged just in time. The fire hit a tree close to Aang. It erupted into flame.

  The white-haired girl fled from them, presumably to get help. Azula would need to work fast if she was to capture the Avatar.

  "Don't come near him!" Katara said. She stood between Azula and Aang, her hands raised and ready to waterbend.

  “You're so motherly,” Azula said. “Now I know why I hate you.”

  Katara swirled her arms around, and water leaped from the nearby pond. Azula jumped back, trying to get out of its path. The water changed direction and pursued her. Azula threw a fiery uppercut into the water as it reached her. The water attack collapsed, hissing into steam.

  Azula punched and kicked fireball after fireball at Katara. The other girl kept a solid base and waved water in front of the attacks. Still, Azula pushed Katara backward under the onslaught. She pressed her advantage against the waterbender. Azula ran forward, utilizing her superior speed and flexibility. The other girl could barely keep up.

  Katara sent a rush of water at Azula, who couldn’t get out of the way in time. The water surrounded and then trapped Azula in a globe of ice. Azula smiled to herself. Katara had fought well. Azula inhaled deeply before spreading her hands outward. Fire exploded the globe into tiny fragments of ice.

  “Someone’s been practicing,” Azula said. She needed to end this before nightfall.

  “I didn’t have a master before,” Katara said. "Now I do."

  Azula smirked. “I’m proud of you.” She had an idea.

  Katara grew angry at her and ran toward Azula, swirling water with her hands. As she came closer, Azula met her, swirling her own fire. It was just a diversion, however. When she reached Katara, she shoved the girl into a pool.

  Katara stood up in the pool, water dripping off her hair and clothing. “Your plan was to shove me into water?”

  Azula smiled. “Yes.” And then she charged one hand with positive and the other with negative chi. She brought them together, and lightning leaped from her hand into the water. It wasn't the strongest bolt of lightning, nor was it the most precise, but it didn't have to be. The lightning hit the pool near Katara.

  Katara screamed as the electricity flowed through her. When it died down, she fell backward, unconscious. Her head hit the soft, muddy embankment, and she lay still.

  Azula smiled. She still wasn’t as accurate as she wanted to be with lightning, though she was getting there, but she had accomplished her purpose. Aang was hers. Once she delivered Aang to her father, the Fire Lord would love her once more.

  ***

  Azula carried, and then dragged, Aang back toward the city. He was heavier than he looked. She reached the mostly abandoned palace and pulled him into a room just inside it. She breathed heavily. Dragging Aang all the way to a secluded room in the palace had been harder than it had been to defeat the waterbender.

  Azula took some time to catch her breath and watched the Avatar's gentle breathing. He was still in his trance, arrows glowing. She'd already bound his hands, arms, and legs, but he looked so peaceful. Outside, snow had started to fall. She walked over to a window and stared out.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking,” she said to his unconscious form, “It was stupid to capture you. There's no way I can deliver you to my father on my own. You weren't in my plans at all." She paced back and forth. "But maybe I don't have to. If I kill you now and you get reborn, it’s still another ten to fifteen years before the next Avatar's a threat. Right?”

  Aang said nothing, of course.

  “My father would accept me back if I brought him your head. Even my brother couldn’t take the glory for my work.”

  Silence.

  She glared at him. “Well, isn’t that just fine!” she stomped over to him and raised a hand. All she needed to do was bend some fire at him, and then it would be done. It would be so easy to burn him to a crisp.

  Instead of her hand summoning fire, it violently trembled. “Not now!” she said. She shook her hand, forcing out the tremors as best she could. What was wrong with her?

  “Azula!” a spirit voice said.

  She recognized that voice and rolled her eyes. “Not you again, Avatar Roku. Are you here to preach at me?”

  “No," Roku's voice said.

  “Then what? Show yourself!"

  Avatar Roku shimmered into existence in front of her. He was still tall and imposing, with a flowing white robe. He hovered over Aang. “I want to talk.”

  She sat down in a huff. “Are you here to tell me I’m a disappointment to my ancestors? That I'm some sort of monster? Because I already know that. My mom, your granddaughter, told me.”

  She waited for him to say something. “Well?”

  “I was once like you: aggressive, impetuous, headstrong…calculating.”

  “Yeah?” she said. “Did it work out for you?”

  “Not really,” Roku said with a sad smile. He shrugged. “Maybe after much struggle. It is far less painful to learn from others' mistakes than from your own. I would spare you that.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  She pulled her knees to her chest. “You sound like Uncle Iroh.”

  “He has many good things to say.”

  “He’s not always right!”

  “Neither are you.”

  Rage filled her. She jumped to her feet. “Go AWAY!”

  He smiled at her sadly. “As you wish, Daughter.” He faded from her sight.

  She raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected that to work. She looked back at Aang and raised her hand again. This time, it wasn’t shaking. She pointed her palm at him and willed for fire to come and consume him.

  The fire refused, and, with a hollow feeling in her stomach, she suspected that she knew why. “I…I can’t do it!” She looked down at her palm as if it was alien to her. “Why can’t I bring myself to kill you?”

  Panic set in. She paced back and forth. “Father will be so displeased.” She lacked the strength to do the right thing for her father and her nation. She fell to her hands and knees and began to hyperventilate. Tears fell from her eyes as she frantically tried to inhale air into her constricted chest.

  A light smashed through the window and into Aang. His eyes fluttered open. “What? Where am I?” He tugged at his bindings before his eyes fell on her. “Azula?”

  She shivered and kept repeating. “I’m weak, I’m weak, I couldn’t kill you, I’m weak. I'm unworthy.”

  The door opened behind her, and Katara and Sokka entered.

  "There they are!" Sokka said.

  "I couldn't kill you," Azula said. Her voice sounded faint in her ears.

  “It’s the only reason you’re still alive,” Katara said darkly, walking past Azula to Aang. Katara created a blade out of ice and cut the Avatar’s bonds.

  Azula fell onto her side and curled into the fetal position, mumbling to herself.

  Aang stood. “Thanks.”

  Sokka pointed at Azula, who was still lying on her side and mumbling. “What do we do with little Miss Crazy over here?”

  The moon suddenly turned blood-red. All of their eyes widened. “What’s going on?”

  “Admiral Zhao,” Azula murmured to herself, “He wants to kill them. Destroy the moon spirit, marry the princess."

  Katara gasped. "You don't think she's right, do you?"

  "Not even Zhao..." Sokka began.

  They all looked at one another, realizing the horrifying truth.

  “Leave her,” Aang said, his eyes full of pity. “We have to get back to the Oasis. Hurry!”

  They all ran away. Azula lay there, alone, she knew not how long. Then, the moon’s light went out completely, leaving her in inky darkness.

  ***

  Azula had no idea how long it was before she came back to herself. The world was still dark. It was as though someone had extinguished the moon itself.

  She sat up. “Zhao’s been victorious!” The fool had doomed them all.

  She suddenly remembered her mission, the whole reason why she’d sneaked into Agna Qel'a in the first place: to kill Zhao. Anger filled her, giving her renewed focus. On wobbly legs, she returned to her feet and stumbled to the window. As fate would have it, Admiral Zhao was running past. She clenched her jaw. It was time to finish things.

  ***

  She chased him all the way into the city, her legs slowly regaining their strength. Zhao kept running as well. She knew where he was headed. He wanted to get back to the ships and his men. As if that would save him from her. She met him on a bridge over one of the canals.

  “Zhao!” she yelled.

  He froze when he heard her voice, and then faced her in the surreal darkness. “You! You’re supposed to be dead.”

  “Hire better assassins next time,” she said. She raised her hands and blasted a stream of fire at him.

  He clamped his hands together in front of his chest, and the fire split itself on either side of him. He ran towards her. “I know what I did wrong last time we fought.”

  She punched a couple of fireballs at him, but he deflected them. He sidestepped her next attack and rushed her. He suddenly loomed over her and pinned her back against the wall of a house. She struggled to free herself but was unable. He weighed so much more than she did.

  "I can't give you even a little room to maneuver," Zhao said. His breath was on her cheek, sending cold chills down her spine. “It’s a pity you refused me. Maybe I’ll steal a kiss from your corpse.”

  She let anger fuel her bending. Her mouth opened, and fire blasted Zhao in the chest. He frantically blocked, but the power of her fire blew him backward. She took out two throwing knives and threw them at him. He wouldn't be expecting that.

  He knocked one away with firebending, while the other lodged in his hand. After yelling in surprise and pain, his eyes grew wide with recognition. “Knives? You’re the Red Spirit! You’re the traitor who freed the Avatar from Pohuai Stronghold!”

  She laughed. “And it was so pathetically easy.” She swirled her hands together. "You're despicable." Lightning danced from her hands and lanced out at Zhao. Terror in his eyes, he leaped out of the way, but only barely. She ran close to him, and they traded punches and kicks full of flame. She finally hit him again, and he rolled onto the bridge.

  The moon lit up. It was so bright that the moonlight blinded them. For a moment, both of them stopped and blinked.

  “No!” Zhao said. “That’s impossible. I killed—”

  “Something wrong?” Azula said with a fake pout. "Aw! Poor widdle Admiral Zhao."

  He turned to her once more. Rage contorted his face. “I’ll kill you!”

  He raised his hands to attack her once more. As he did so, a bright blue spirit flowed through the waters in the canals beneath them. It ascended out of it, tentacles wrapping around him like a giant shark squid. Zhao was held fast. “Help!”

  Azula ran to the middle of the bridge. Her hands started to blast fire at the water spirit, but then she stopped. Why was she trying to save this scum? “You brought this on yourself.”

  He cursed at her as the spirit dragged him into the water-filled canal. Then, the slimy worm was no more.

  ***

  Azula and Iroh sat on a small sailboat. They were heading south.

  “It was nice of the Avatar to get the Water Tribe to lend us this boat,” Iroh said. “Especially after you helped the Fire Nation invade the city and tried to kill him.”

  Azula snorted. “If I'd wanted to kill him, I would’ve.” She'd pondered why they'd let her go. The only conclusion she could make was that her uncle had asked for her. She'd heard that he'd tried to prevent Zhao from killing the moon spirit. That must have earned him some goodwill with the Avatar.

  "True." Iroh laughed. “Not that I'm complaining, but why didn't you?”

  She wrapped her arms around herself. “I couldn’t...bring myself to do it. I don’t know why.”

  “Regardless,” he said, smiling, “We were able to save the moon spirits, sort of. That poor girl...”

  “What will my father think if he finds out you attacked the admiral?" Azula said. "Enough of our men survived this disaster to do a prisoner exchange.” Many of their old shipmates had thankfully survived, including Lieutenant Jee.

  “He won’t be pleased, I imagine,” Iroh said. “My brother is not always the most reasonable, especially when circumstances don't go his way. What do you want to do when we reach a Fire Nation port?”

  Azula was suddenly exhausted. "That's a problem for another time." She lay down on the deck of the boat. “I’m going to get some sleep. Don’t wake me unless you have to.”

  For the first time in a long time, she didn’t dream of her father or brother. She slept, free of fiery nightmares.

  ***

  The flames in the Fire Nation throne room burned brightly. Shadows flickered and danced on the wall. Prince Zuko prostrated himself before his father, Fire Lord Ozai, who sat high on a dais overlooking his subjects. Red fire blazed in a massive trough between them. The message of superiority was clear, and Zuko had long ago learned that obedience and perception were his most important tools to maintain royal favor. The Fire Lord's rigid posture told him that his father was in a foul mood. Zuko wisely kept his mouth shut and waited.

  Why had his father summoned him?

  After several minutes of making Zuko wait, Ozai spoke. “Your uncle has committed treason, and your sister has failed to capture the Avatar for long enough. It is time that you proved your worth and served our great nation in battle. Rise, Prince Zuko, my beloved son.”

  Genuflecting on the ground, he froze for a moment. He was glad his father was finally sending him out into the field, but...going after his own sister and uncle?

  "You are uniquely suited to bringing them in," Ozai said, as if recognizing Zuko's reticence. "I know you won't fail me, not like your sister."

  Zuko stood and made a perfectly calibrated and sufficiently somber expression. He would not be a disappointment. He would show himself the worthy heir. “Their treachery has shamed us all. I would be honored to serve you, dear Father, much as it grieves my heart.” He bowed low.

  THE END OF BOOK 1: WATER