The quest for the Avatar began as soon as Zuko's wounds were roughly treated.
Shortly after the Agni Kai, the whole of Royal Caldera City had caught wind of the Crown Prince and his prompt banishment. Repeated requests for Ozai's audience made by General Iroh, as expected, all fell on deaf ears. Patriarchs of reputable families beat around the bush when the respected firebending master asked for them to put in a good word for the condemned prince. Personal guards and close servants of the Fire Lord would also flee from the retired general when they crossed paths in palace hallways, in fear of passing along messages that might incur His Majesty's wrath. Eventually, Iroh stormed into the throne room, interrupting a meeting to demand a word with the Fire Lord.
Dozens of military and civilian advisers recounted that day being dismissed from the war chamber. They said that the air was still enough to hear the drop of a single needle. Until a clattering sound of objects striking each other startled the palace, followed by a bellow of rage. At last, the stout general retired from the war chamber. His usual vigorous energy withered into a quiet, somber demeanor as he walked away with his shoulders slouched in defeat and wore a doleful look on his face. Later, when chancellors and senior officials returned to the war room, they were thus informed that Iroh were to accompany his young nephew and his expedition for the Avatar.
It was unclear whether anyone noticed the slight hollow at the base of the Ozai's ornate throne. The once smooth, even surface was freshly indented by an apparent exertion of pressure, and next to it laid the remains of His Majesty's stemware, liquified by fire, carelessly disregarded on the floor. If someone did, they made no attempt to point out the aftermath of a heated dispute between the two royals.
On the other side of the palace walls, as soon as word reached the Fire Nation's most esteemed households, longtime childhood friends of the prince were kept in their respective residences. Not permitted to go outside unless the boy had left city grounds. In the end, Ty lee and Mai never received the chance to bid farewell to Zuko before his untimely journey. Even if the prince intended to pay a visit, the children of Fire Nation nobility wouldn't have been allowed to greet him anyway. For these noblemen have always bent where the wind blowed; like petty weeds nestling under the shade of a towering tree. Why should anybody jeopardize their relationship with the Fire Lord for an exiled prince?
Having stripped of the privileges that came alongside his royal title, Zuko had no other option but to set sail without any highly-trained individuals and special armed forces. Instead, he was accompanied by a group of hastily gathered outcasts; some were prisoners desperate to escape death row, others were bootlickers gambling their way to a prosperous future by serving under the great General Iroh, who obviously considered the search to be an extended vacation as he ushered the crew to unload a heap of miscellaneous objects.
Thus, their journey commenced.
The group of men started off the trip north of Fire Nation, inspecting the nearest Western Air Temple. Situated directly beneath the edge of a cliff, thus initially difficult for the crew to pinpoint the exact location.
While Iroh sincerely advised Zuko to take a break, for it had only been a week since his banishment, and his wounds have not quite properly healed yet. Instead of accepting the offer, the young prince silenced the general by calling him lazy; lashing out at the sudden reminder of his tarnished status. Turning his back to his uncle, Zuko refocused his gaze on the upside-down spires of the air temple, in order to distract himself from reminiscing his beloved homeland.
One after another, soldiers unanimously informed that there wasn't trace of the Avatar. To which Zuko responded by commanding the crew to return to ship at once, and set course for Earth Kingdom straightaway. Which resulted in a round of muffled complaints that the prince purposefully ignored.
From then on, Zuko and his men went on to scour the world. They entered Earth Kingdom territory a week later.
Successively, they visited the northern upper reaches of the nation, where the Northern Air Temple was located upon a snow-capped mountain. Afterwards, they journeyed south towards the Eastern Air Temple, which was housed on three separate mountains.
Iroh observed the divine structures, now remnants of the greatness it once was before. 100 years of war, and the Fire Nation still hadn't been satisfied. He suppressed a sigh at the devastating sight of men rummaging through sacred grounds, disrupting the solitude of the ancient architectures as they continued on this unlawful intrusion. The aging general couldn't help but feel guilty for being complicit in these wrongdoings.
Just as expected, nothing more was discovered besides debris after the conquests made over Air Nomads. Zuko remained stubbornly hopeful since he hadn't expected the centenarian airbender to linger on desolated premises awaiting an ambush.
Unfortunately, as time went by, the fruitless trip evidently began to take a toll on the crewmen.
They had now been at sea for more than seven weeks, and it was extremely hard to imagine any positive prospects for an ostracized thirteen-year-old prince to capture the master of all elements, who had been at large for decades. Iroh watched as his nephew grew more and more restless; some days he would not bother to speak unless it was information regarding the long-lost Avatar.
At first, Zuko messaged the Royal Palace frequently to give a general update on their search, especially whenever they finished thoroughly investigating obvious hiding places for the Avatar, such as the air temples.
But as of recent, whenever he sat down with scroll of paper neatly spread above his writing desk, he couldn't muster up the courage to relay the usual tedious information. Repetitive as it were, these letters back home were the only link the young prince had to his father. And now this devout act of fealty to his royal father was tainted by the overwhelming number of disappointing news. It was then did it finally dawn on Zuko that the longer he took to finish his mission, the weaker the connection with his home, his birthright and his very being.
He must capture the Avatar. By any means necessary.
"To no one's surprise, my brother's reports are as useless as his entire existence." Azula concluded dryly, face expressionless as she watched the parchment roll turn into ashes at the tip of her forefinger.
The princess had intercepted the message right before it was to be presented to the Fire Lord. No malicious intentions, of course. She was merely sparing her father's dwindling sanity from heatstroke. The arrival of these letters had brought nothing but fury to Ozai, and the Fire Lord never once bothered to acknowledge them. Azula scoffed at the thought of Zuko comprehending anything with that smooth noggin of his. Though there definitely was reason to suspect that Zuko was acting deliberately obtuse of their father's indifference to remain in contact with the Fire Lord. Who knows? Her leech of a brother might actually succeed in boring himself back into the Fire Lord's favor and return home from sea.
It was one of the hottest days of summer. Azula was stuck in the royal palace all by herself.
Mai had locked herself indoors. The apathetic 12-year-old claimed that she had no business to leave the comforts of her home and in this scorching heat. In spite of the fact that her parents were more than eager for their daughter to revisit the Fire Princess, so that they don't lose His Majesty's graces. Nonetheless, it was obvious that someone still haven't got over Zuko's leaving. Ty Lee, on the other hand, seemed to have went on a bootcamp for puppetry to become well versed in her newfound hobby and making it her purpose. Unfortunately, as desperate as the lively young girl was to preserve a sense of individuality, her thirst for knowledge was also easily overwhelmed by devoting herself to a single cause. Evident in her past short-lived passions.
Azula tried to kill time by revising some previous battle sequences. But considering the fact that making fun of her older brother's lackluster performance was part of her regular exercise, working her butt off alone just wasn't as entertaining as it used to be.
The royal princess ended up paying a visit to her friend, Naan, who mostly resided in her personal bedchamber, complying with the Fire Lord's latest demands, whether modernizing traditional bending forms or revamping worn-out battle attire.
The pair of young girls had been study partners since children. The details of their introduction were all too memorable for the Fire Princess as she vividly recollected meeting her friend during a private practice with Zuko.
The scrawny girl clothed herself in a loosely-fitted upper garment that reached her kneecaps. Her dull, lifeless hair draped down her protruding shoulder blades and below the back of her scraggly physique. She looked as if a walking bag of skin-and-bones. Zuko was off to the side trying to rile up the newcomer by tossing dead flower petals onto her head. Azula would've called out the audacity of their instructor for bringing a low-life to their firebending lesson, if the princess herself weren't tickled by the commoner's disrespect to her brother as she ignored the Crown Prince's irritable childish behavior.
Kunyo had claimed the sickly girl possessed an extraordinary talent for the bending art, unraveled by the Fire Lord himself. Prompting His Majesty to assign her as the new royal learning companion of his heir.
As a young prodigy, Azula scoffed at the ridiculous arrangement. She couldn't fathom anybody else being up to par with her kind of talent and work ethic. But she knew better than to blatantly go against the Fire Lord's orders. Therefore, the fastest way to get rid of this stranger was to show her father her prowess as a bender and that she didn't need weakness to be kept as company. She ended up asking their teacher for permission to hold a "friendly match", in order to better acquaint herself with her new playmate.
Kunyo obliged without a second thought. Not before scolding the Crown Prince for intending to intervene. See, the master was more than happy for the cunning princess to rid him of his additional trouble, whom was clearly not of royal nor noble blood.
Standing in front of her opponent, Azula hadn't the faintest idea of what her father saw in the peasant that made her appropriate by a princess' side. The dainty girl appeared as if she had difficulty coughing up a cloud of smoke. Nonetheless, the child genius cheekily bowed as Kunyo signaled for them to begin. She didn't wait for her rival to return the mutual respect before firing a blast directly at her feet.
Zuko yelled out like a scalded cat that he was telling their mother about this.
Azula giggled in delight at the lighthearted prank. She was interrupted the next moment when the girl halted the ball of fire before it reached her chest and sent it straight back. The prodigy jumped away, all the while critiquing the girl's poor reflexes for choosing defense when offensive maneuvers would have impressed Kunyo more.
The Fire Princess swiftly reacted by swinging her arms, creating a flurry of blue fires at her rival, who in turn, strangely manipulated the blue fire as her own, and shifted it into a shield before pressuring it back to Azula.
Zuko was now cheering by the sidelines, feverishly waving his arms up and down for the girl to show his sister what she's got.
Huffing in annoyance, Azula shattered the fire shield into pieces with brute force. She wondered how the docile-looking girl managed to keep deflecting attacks without drawing her own fire. Taking the observation into consideration, Azula curiously sent a fire bomb to test out a theory. She watched in interest as the girl split the fire in half as it was to hit her face, and allowed the flame to dissolve into smoke and slowly seep back into her own fingertips. Not once had she strayed from her beginning stance.
Unable to decipher what they just saw, Kunyo let out an incredulous gasp. While Zuko was simply stunned speechless, leaving his mouth agape with disbelief.
It wasn't till Azula further studied the peculiarities of Naan's firebending did she realize the girl actually fueled her firebending by absorbing other's energy.
Regardless, the princess remembered hopping on over to her new friend, making fun of the droplet of sweat on the latter's nose tip that somehow brought out an endearing side of her.
The petite girl diverted Azula's piercing stare, and focused on the ground before her. Furrowing her brows before finally asking whether the match was over.
The Fire Princess simply replied by introducing herself officially. "What's your name?" she asked, extending out her hand, golden eyes twinkled with excitement.
They had been inseparable ever since.
Azula rolled her eyes at the pitiful sight of her friend's bedroom. She hadn't a clue what possessed Naan to choose this location abandoned by the royal palace walls, rather than the elaborate refurnished ones closer to her and Zuko. Perhaps it was Naan's humble upbringing that resulted in an excessive modesty. Which also explains the lack of discipline towards these ungrateful servants. The princess thought to herself as she barged into the bedroom, catching at least half a dozen of them slacking off around of the main entrance. Nevertheless, Azula wasn't about to waste her own time and energy sorting out somebody else's problem so she merely waved off the attendants for some quiet space.
The princess eventually found Naan in the open yard right beside the parlor. By the looks of it, the young inventor was still infatuated in recreating an obscure heat-resistant material; having recalled manipulating an arm full of fire with the protection of that unconventional fabric in an odd dream a few weeks ago.
Naan drew a couple of deep long breaths, legs spread inappropriately wide as she sat unladylike on the steps. Her willowy figure casted a long shadow onto the cobblestone footpaths. The mousy little girl was no more as Naan reached puberty, she had a dramatic growth spurt and was now the tallest of the gang, even beating Zuko's height before he left the nation. Azula supposed she was surprised when she discovered that the girl was in fact the eldest of the gang, when she was half a head shorter than the royal princess when they first met.
Taking in the sharp contrast that was the well kept sitting room, Azula was disgusted by the atrocious sight of the garden. Turning her head back and forth between the two spaces in disbelief. Owing to its spacious potential, the backyard was covered in muck, rubbish, and animal droppings. Cracked flowerbeds were desperate in need of weeding as uneven patches of grass grew to the length of their shins. Spotting her target in the middle of the dump, the princess fought her way toward her friend, and almost got dragged down when a foot got stuck in a pile of tangled branches. Azula complained with heavy sarcasm, "for someone so obsessed with the betterment of our nation, you should really start turning your focuses inwards. This place is a dirthole and you are letting those vile servants humiliate you by being a complete pushover."
"I can see that you've finished sabotaging your brother for the day, Your Highness?" Naan inquired with a breathy monotone. It was a normal occurrence for the royal to go on these type of long-winded rants; last week, it was Mai's faux benevolence when it came to fighting, and the week before was Ty lee's off-putting new suitor. Naan tried to ignore them at first, but that never ended well with Azula; she craved the attention, particularly after the incident last month.
Azula scoffed down at her freshly manicured nails. "There's really not much to do when Zuzu undermines himself on the regular. And that's besides the point that I was making!"
"Thank you for the concern, Azula. But it's too much work to ask people to waste their time caring for something I rarely entertain." Naan ripped apart the pale elastic glued on her forearms and looked to the piles of failed experiments laying on the ground. "I can also tell that you're here for something. So you might as well be blunt without involving my poorly kept garden."
Azula rolled her eyes. She could never ease her way into a conversation, it always has to be straight to the point with this one. Diverting her attention to Naan, the princess watched as red pressure marks began to form where the rubber straps once were. "Any progress yet? Father was asking of results a couple nights ago."
Naan struggled a bit until she broke free from the gluey fabric. "These tapes still has a down side of becoming sticky whenever it reacts to sweat or water." she explained while wiping off the blood starting to exude from her skin. "I don't think we can mass manufacture heat-resisting gloves yet. But the bamboo strips are definitely good to go." Finally peering up through her low eyelids, Naan noticed the signature sinister smile on Azula's lips and hesitated before asking, "what are we up to now?"
"Zuko and his fellow outcasts have reached the South Sea. They are to touch the shores of Patola Island, and may finish searching the entire Southern Air Temple within a day or two," the Fire Princess disclosed as her face lit up with excitement. "How would you like to put some of your inventions to the test?"
A/N:
Made some tweaks here and there. Nothing major.