God Tier ATLA fics
This either intrigued me or blew my tits clean off.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Zuko had never excelled at anything. Azula was a prodigy. Uncle always knew what to say. And Father... Father was strong, iron-like. But Zuko had only ever been good at surviving. Putting one foot in front of the other in a grim show of stubborn determination, gritting his teeth and bearing it. Survival was all he had ever been taught. He knew how to do it. So when he was kidnapped by the Southern Water Tribe, he expected to fight as he always had. He didn’t expect to be taught instead how to live.
In a warring land, the Water Tribe forgave the enemy in an act of defiance. For this, he was torn from them, and this time, his wounds won't heal so easily.
Forced back into nothing but survival, the last person Zuko expected to see was Hakoda's son. Hakoda was a promise of safety. The relentless blue of Sokka’s eyes was a promise of happiness. Zuko could have both if he just reached out his hands, but he found them clutching into fists. After all, he’d been burned one too many times.
But hey, at least between Hakoda and Sokka, Zuko could appreciate the family resemblance of pure, asinine stubbornness.
PODFIC AND TRANSLATIONS AVAILABLE
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While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor for distractedKat
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender
26 Sep 2024
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High Sage Kenji blesses Fire Prince Zuko with the resilience of the reed, who bends in the wind and never breaks. When he is done, Fire Prince Ozai narrows his eyes, seemingly displeased by this blessing. But Kenji does not speak for himself; he is only a vessel.
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The newly-crowned Fire Lord Ozai offers his firstborn son to service in the temple.
This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.
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Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole.
[An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead].
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At Sokka’s behest, the Gaang skips rescuing Zuko during the Siege at the North Pole. Instead they leave him, unconscious, buried in the snow.
In completely unrelated news, Sokka’s haunted by a ghost now.
(If you'd like more details before deciding to read this story, look here for spoilers.)
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Book one ends with two major diffrences: 1. Sokka went on the mission with Hahn (it did not go well) 2. Zhao survives the North Pole and that proves unfortunate for everybody (except Zhao, obviously)
Imprisoned on Zhao’s war ship, Sokka and Zuko have to work together to survive. They are not very enthusiastic about this prospect.
And they argue.
A lot.
Series
- Part 1 of All's Fair
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After the events of War Crimes, Sokka and Zuko have escaped Zhao’s warship and are fleeing across the Earth Kingdom. As well as unfamiliar terrain, they have to navigate their shared trauma, work out where they fit into the war, and their place in each others lives.
Sokka is aware that being friends with the enemy is going to bring complications, but he probably should have guessed that being friends with Zuko in particular, was going to be a bit like dunking your head repeatedly into a bucket of angry Fire Ferrets.
Katara is also grappling with the confusion of befriending an enemy, something that doesn’t prove as difficult as she had expected with the bond of shared, furious grief bridging old wounds. (Learning a new way to look at her bending doesn't hurt either)
Azula, struggling with the Fire Lord’s mistrust, encounters a few nasty surprises and has to make some difficult decisions. Luckily, she is a great deal better at making sensible choices than her brother.
Her father may have made a slight tactical error.
Series
- Part 2 of All's Fair
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Hidden in the deepest darkest corner of the Palace, the imprisoned Prince Zuko serves out his punishment and waits - and waits to be pardoned and released by his father.
Not knowing that Fire Lord Ozai has already declared to the world that his son has died.
Until a strange group of kids invade the Royal Palace, and accidentally rescue the formerly dead Prince Zuko...
— their invasion had gone to shreds since the Fire Lord had disappeared, and now there was an unconscious maybe-probably-enemy lying by his feet.
"Oh great, NOW what??” Sokka flailed both of his hands towards the boy. "When I said we could loot some stuff from the Royal Palace, I didn’t mean THIS!!"
As usual, Katara ignored his extremely valid point.
"We need to hurry," she said, as if Sokka didn’t already know that, it was his plan, "- can you carry him, Sokka? We have to take him with us."
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Ozymandias, King of Kings by Think_of_a_Wonderful_Thought
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender
25 Jul 2026
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After that fateful Agni Kai, Ozai makes a different call. Branded as a traitor and banished to a prison camp, Zuko learns how cruel the Fire Nation can be to its citizens. Three years, a water tribe raid, and an unexpected meeting with a gang of over-enthusiastic idealistic children puts Zuko back in the spotlight. The revolution is coming and it wants another poster boy, but Zuko is not willing to lend his face to the cause.
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Canon divergence AU where Zuko loses his firebending after the Agni Kai, although he doesn't truly admit it until he's been banished for more than two years. He runs away, gets lost in the Earth Kingdom, and finds a mysterious old man on a strange pilgrimage on his way south.
It's the story of a friendship which bridges generations, cultures, and the lines set by war. A story of the people we find in our paths who change our lives forever. It's the story of a journey home.
01/10: This story is now being translated into Russian by Tamiraina!!
on Ao3
Or on Ficbook: https://ficbook.net/readfic/11216472 -
and all we are is the little pieces our world sticks together by JamlessGenius
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender
20 Nov 2020
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“Who would dare to hurt a prince?
Suddenly, the angry red scar seems to stand out a little more against the firelight. Sokka isn’t quite sure why.”