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It had become something of a tradition, during their annual meetups, for Aang to ask after Azula. Zuko would thank him for being so thoughtful, and tell him she was getting better, and Katara would scoff and say he said that every year and it never got more true. Zuko would insist she was, and Aang would chide her that she should be more forgiving. Then they'd all turn to Toph so she could say whether Zuko was lying or not, and Sokka would hurriedly change the subject so she didn't have to answer. Later on, Aang would offer to visit her, and Zuko would politely decline, saying right then wasn't a good time for her to have visitors.
After the third or fourth go-through, Katara grew annoyed by the repetition. By the eighth, she began just going through the motions. It was hard to muster up genuine hate for someone you'd only fought as a child.
More annual visits came and went, her friends married, their families grew. Aang had proposed more than once, but she could tell he was a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing. He'd spent a good portion of his life outside, living with the world, and while he'd adapted well, there were still many aspects of his upbringing that stayed with him. Monks didn't marry. Live together, sure, make families, certainly, but marry? It was always deemed too solid, too material, to attach to the living world.
So when he proposed, she'd turn him down, and pretend not to bristle at the plain relief on his face. In her head, she knew the reasons. But looking so happy he didn't have to marry her, the action still set her teeth on edge.
She was waterbending when the messenger hawk came, but that wasn't really surprising. It seemed like she spent more and more long hours by the shore, practicing her bending, and for what? In a one on one fight, Aang had the power to crush her at any time. No matter how much she trained, she'd lose.
Katara hated losing.
The hawk perched on a sapling and Katara unfurled the tiny scroll to read the message within, her eyes widening at what it contained. In simple cursive writing, no doubt penned and sent by Zuko himself were two words: 'Azula's escaped.'
She and Aang were on Appa before nightfall, soaring toward the Fire Nation, just hoping they'd get there before a plume of smoke from the burning capital city could be seen on the horizon.
"Relax, Katara," Aang told her, gently, laying a hand over hers. "Azula's been imprisoned for years without any kind of firebending training, and Sokka, Toph, and the others are probably already there. We'll fix this in no time."
"What do you think her prison was like?" Katara asked, and Aang blinked at the question.
"I never really thought about it," he admitted. His smile wasn't cocky, she wasn't sure he'd ever be able to pull that off. But the overwhelming self assurance forced her to look away.
"Azula was one of the most powerful firebenders in the world. Do you really think she would have been kept in anything but the highest security prison the Fire Nation could build?" She'd heard about the prison break Sokka and Zuko had done in the Boiling Rock, even seen the facility herself after the war. It was brutal, yet even that wouldn't have been satisfactory to hold Azula, so she had to have been kept somewhere worse. But if she were locked away so completely... "Aang, how do you think she escaped?"
Hama was locked underground, dry air pumped through vents and she learned how to bend the very blood in a person's veins. Toph was trapped in a metal box, and she bent even that, however impossible that was at the time. So what had Azula done? What could she have done?
When they reached the Fire Nation, would it be to face a half-mad former princess with fists full of lightning? Somehow, Katara doubted it would be so simple.
"One of the guards probably just made a mistake." Aang shrugged. "It was bound to happen eventually."
Aang could afford to be blasé about this. He was the Avatar. He was the most powerful bender in the world. He hadn't needed to watch as Azula struck him down, hadn't needed to feel his neck for a pulse that wasn't there, or barely yank him back with water from the spirit oasis.
Though, sometimes, when he spent a bit too long meditating, or talking to spirits, when he almost seemed to forget that the people around him were human, that he was, she wondered just how much of him she'd managed to yank back.
"Maybe," she hedged. Aang's assurances hadn't made her feel any better, just more unprepared for what they would find.
She had expected fire, explosions. She had expected Azula's cunning, her rage. It had been too long, it seemed, since she'd fought her. She didn't remember that Azula defied all Katara's expectations.
"She's been recaptured," Zuko assured them, meeting Appa as they touched down in the courtyard.
"Azula?" The clarification wasn't necessary; there wasn't anyone else he could have meant, but still Katara needed to ask. To have it happen so quickly... "Was it Toph?"
"Actually, she only arrived here a few hours before you did. It was a city guard that took her in. She's going to receive special commendation in a week." Zuko said it so casually, like it made perfect sense.
Aang was congratulating him, talking about... something, she wasn't listening.
"Firebender?" She interrupted them.
"Katara..." Aang began, ready, she was sure to dispense some Avatar-like wisdom.
"A non-bender, actually," Zuko answered. She appreciated how most of the time he would just answer her question instead of going off on some tangent.
"A chi-blocker, like Ty Lee?" Please, she thought to herself. Let it make sense.
He shook his head. "No, the Warriors of Kyoshi have that a pretty well kept secret." He scratched the back of his head, looking away. "I know it sounds weird, which is why I'm having everyone I can spare look into her escape and arrest. If she hurt anyone, if she even talked to anyone, I'll know by week's end." He smiled, brightly, in a way he never had during the war. "Thank you for coming, but until I know more, there's not much you can do, aside from join me at the banquet tonight. The Earth Kingdom appointed some new ambassadors, so it was already scheduled, and Sokka and Toph already agreed to go, so..."
"We'd love to go," Aang answered, easily. For someone supposed to let go of material attachments, he sure loved parties. Katara frowned. Maybe it was a consequence of never being able to live out his childhood in peace.
"Can I meet her?" Katara asked, and once again the eyes of Aang and Zuko turned to her. At their confusion, she elaborated. "The guard that took Azula in, can I meet her?"
"We've already checked her out thoroughly for any kind of connection to Azula and found nothing. As far as I can tell, she was just in the right place at the right time." Katara raised an eyebrow and he relented. "But, I've never been able to stop you doing anything, why start now? You're one of the great war heroes, and a bender powerful enough to take on a good portion, if not all, of my guard. You don't need my permission to speak with her, but if it makes you feel better, you have it."
Katara hugged him, like they did when they were kids. "Thanks, Zuko." Before Aang could say anything, she was running down the path, assuring them she'd be back in time for the banquet.
Finding the guard was both easy and not, but after going through quite a few ranks, she managed to track down where her patrol route took her. "You're the one who took in Azula, right?"
"Yeah-" the guard started to say, turning around to see her. When she actually looked at her, though, her eyes widened in some mixture of fear and admiration. "Y-you're Katara."
It was an expression she'd seen before. "Yes. When Azula escaped, I was called in. Getting here, though, I heard you'd already taken care of it." She paused, then added. "You don't need to bow this whole time." The guard hastily corrected herself, looking embarassed, but not answering back. "When you recaptured Azula, what happened?" She asked, point blank.
The girl winced, and Katara looked at her armor and skin, searching for any obvious injuries. "Were you hurt? I can help-"
But the girl shook her head, roughly, waving the suggestion off. "No, it's nothing like that. It's actually a little embarrassing." Katara raised an eyebrow. Embarrassing? The guard continued. "I saw her on my patrol, recognizing her from a picture hung up in the station and tried to make an arrest. She was sitting there, in the middle of the town square, and I was worried she'd start taking hostages, but when she saw me she just asked if I was a firebender." Her hands clenched slowly into fists. "I'm not a bender of any kind, and I told her that. She looked... disappointed." A hollow chuckle came from the girl. "People usually are. Then she stood up, let me chain her hands behind her back, and walked with me back to the station."
"She came willingly?" That wasn't a good sign. The only times Azula had willingly surrendered herself were during the Day of Black Sun, to distract them, and to the Dai Li so she could destroy them from inside.
"I think, if I were a firebender, she would have killed me. As it is, I wasn't worth the measly effort it would have taken." The guard bowed low, once again. "I can't describe what an honor it is to meet you; I just wish it was for something I actually did."
Katara laid a hand on her shoulder, flashing her an encouraging smile when she looked up. "I can see how that would make you feel cheated, but it takes real guts to stand up against a master firebender without so much as a spark to your name." She didn't respond, but her expression seemed to say she appreciated the words. "Thanks for telling me the truth. I'll let you get back to your work."
The guard babbled her goodbyes as Katara walked away. Being famous could be nice from time to time, but it was tough getting over how no one could just have a normal conversation with her anymore. Well, apart from her friends, at least. Even then, though, they were usually spread so far apart it was like they were becoming strangers. Katara sighed. It was a thought for another time.
The banquet wasn't for hours. She probably should have spent the time with her friends, with Aang, but she couldn't relieve the dread in her stomach. Azula was plotting something, and the only way she could possibly find out what would be to go to the source.
Finding Azula was even easier than the guard. All Katara had to do was go to the one place in the city under more protection than the Fire Lord. The guards let her pass, of course; that would be one of those times being famous came in handy, and before she knew it, she was staring into the golden eyes of the former fire princess.
She was thin, and terribly pale, but the way Azula sat was like a coiled viper. Her lethality, her cunning, had not faded with time. Katara was sure her power had not either. "I knew my brother would send for you, but to be greeted by the hero of the Water Nation, I must be so honored."
"Water Tribe," Katara corrected, certain she already knew that.
She smiled, patronizingly. "Of course."
The room was cold, freezing even, and Azula wore robes which, while proper, were thin enough she should have felt chilled to the bone. Yet still she sat, looking like she'd already taken the throne. "Why did you surrender?" Katara asked. It was unlikely Azula would tell the truth, but maybe there would be something in the lie Katara could pin down, something she would try to hide.
She smiled and it was like the room grew even colder. "There's no sense staying in the market when you've already bought what you wanted."
Her stomach clenched. Of course. Whatever Azula wanted to gain from her escape, she'd already done it. So either someone was dead, or she'd just set off the first domino in a massive chain. Katara considered for a moment. This was Azula, after all; it could easily be both. "How did you escape your prison?"
She strode forward, gripping the bars so there was less than a foot of space between them. "My brother may have found some trick to boost his pitiful bending all those years ago, but he has no idea how firebending works." She pulled away and the space where her hands gripped the bars left an empty gap, the metal melting in the freezing room. "I'm bored now," she announced, retaking her seat. "This conversation is over."
Numbly, though whether from what she'd seen, or the cold, she wasn't sure, Katara left. Naturally, Zuko was there when she came outside. "You couldn't have talked to me before going to see her?" He asked, frustratedly. "I could have been there with you, or sent escorts, or anything better than being alone there with her."
"What are you talking about? There had to be a dozen guards in there, and she was behind bars." She scoffed. "Besides, not to rub salt in any old wounds, but I have plenty of experience beating firebenders, including that one."
Zuko crossed his arms, shooting her a deadpan look. "I may not be Toph, but you're gonna have to try a little harder than that if you want to lie to me."
Katara looked away. "Those frozen rooms, they were in the Boiling Rock, too, weren't they?"
He nodded, letting his arms fall to his sides once more. "They're meant to stop firebending. If the air is too cold, the firebenders will heat themselves up first to survive. They might have enough fire leftover to make a few sparks, but never enough to break out."
Katara's fists clenched. "What if the firebender doesn't care about surviving?" Zuko stared at her, shocked, but Katara had to say it. "I know how Azula broke out." She was turning back to the prison almost before she'd finished the sentence.
"Two visits in one day?" Azula faux-gushed when she reentered the room. "I must be quite special."
Katara turned to the prison guard, impatiently. "Do you have the key to this cell?"
He gave a start. "Uh, n-no, madam. The warden, he has it."
"Am I being moved to my new cell, already?" Azula taunted. "It's amazing how much faster things move once I've caught a bit of attention."
A thought scratched at the back of Katara's head, not fully formed, but seeming important, nonetheless. Unfortunately, before she could fully explore it, Zuko came in with the warden, unlocking Azula's cell as the guards gathered around her, fire at the ready in case she made any wrong moves. Expression suspiciously even, she allowed her hands to be cuffed behind her back and her eyes to be blindfolded as she was led out of the frozen room.
"I hope you have some kind of plan," Zuko whispered to Katara. "I just stepped in with the key so you wouldn't have to break a few dozen Fire Nation laws."
"I'm pretty sure letting a war criminal out of prison breaks a few dozen laws in the Water Tribe, too," she whispered back. "She has frostbite six places I can see, and probably more I can't. I need her somewhere I can do some healing that she won't try and kill me as soon as I lower my guard."
"I have an idea," Azula interjected, apparently having heard the whole exchange. "Why don't you beat me bloody and force me to accept healing while I'm unconscious?"
It was a testament to Azula's skilled ability to get under her skin that Katara considered that option for a moment. When that moment passed, however, a better idea came to her. "Zuko, you have a turtleduck pond, don't you?"
He raised an eyebrow, questioningly, before realization dawned on his face. "Yes. Yes I do." Directing the guards in a new direction, the company found themselves in the palace gardens.
Katara began wading into the pond, turning around and gesturing for the guards to have Azula do the same. "This will probably take a while, so I might be late to the banquet," she told Zuko and he nodded, looking nervous.
"I'll be leaving the guards here if you need them, just, please be careful," he pleaded.
Katara gave some assurance she would be and with a smile and wave, a wall of water erupted around them.
She had taken to calling that technique she'd used at the Agni Kai so many years ago Glacier. While there was no true ice involved, the way it trapped things in a seemingly impenetrable grip was far too reminiscent of those massive structures from her home. With a breath, bubbles surrounded her and she could move and breathe like it was her own private airbending. Carefully, she sculpted some of those bubbles around Azula's face, so she could breathe for a time even while her other movements were limited.
"Nice place you got here." Oh, yes, that meant she could talk, too.
"It's been in the Firelord's palace for generations," Katara pointed out. "Doesn't that make it your place?" She started healing her arm, thankful she had experience treating burns, even if these were from cold instead of heat.
"My place is a ten by ten room where my brother can pretend I don't exist," she replied, so bluntly Katara had to cover a wince. "This..." her head moved, looking out at the gardens, "is barely even a memory."
"I guess that's a consequence of following a tyrannical megalomaniac and trying to kill humanity's last chance at peace," Katara answered, frostily. She moved to begin healing her other arm.
To her surprise, Azula laughed. "I'm assuming that means the guards outside can't hear us in this."
"They can see us," Katara hedged, warily.
"You have me well and truly trapped. I can't imagine what kind of incredible assassination attempt you think I might make on you," she commented. At Katara's continued silence, she gave a disbelieving gasp. "You're joking, right? Well now I feel a bit flattered. Covered in water, surrounded by guards, unable to move more than my head, and one of the war's greatest heroes right here? You must think quite highly of me, if you think I can still manage something in this situation."
"Well..." Katara gave a wry smile as she moved to her leg. "You did kill the Avatar."
She shrugged, an action made difficult with only head motion to denote it. "And you brought him back to life. Comparatively, mine isn't very impressive."
Katara hummed, thoughtfully, continuing her ministrations, but made no move to speak again.
"How is the Avatar, by the by?" Azula asked after a minute or two of silence, then gritted her teeth with a sharp exhale as Katara accidentally pressed down too hard on the frostburn she was treating.
"Sorry," she said, automatically, then shook her head like she'd just remembered who she was talking to and resumed scowling. "Aang is fine, not that it's any of your business."
"He was shooting you disgusting glances all the time when you were kids," she observed, her former snide cruelty coming to the fore once again. "Did that ever happen?"
There was something off in the way she said it, but Katara couldn't pin down what. "Yes," she answered, then added, "not that our relationship is any of your business, either."
"Relationship?" Azula cackled. "You mean he hasn't even married you yet? Pssh, he's only known you for half his spirits-damned life."
Katara breathed deeply, forcing herself not to do anything drastic. She found being faced with such direct reflections of her own thoughts decidedly not as funny as the former fire princess did. "What do you want from me, Azula?"
"Why do I have to want something?" She asked, giving another of those ineffectual shrugs. "This is the first real conversation I've had in who knows how long, can't I just be enjoying that?"
Katara was quiet for a minute, the soft glow of her healing fading until it finally flickered out. "Do you not know how long it's been?" She asked, her voice almost a whisper, but carried across the water to the woman she'd beaten as a girl, nonetheless.
Azula stiffened, the action visible despite her lack of movement, when she spoke, it was with the unbending steel of royalty. "What could you possibly say to me?" Katara gaped, floating backwards for a moment to regain her bearings. "You could tell me I've been locked away for five years, ten, twenty, and it would mean, what, exactly? It takes fifteen days to repair my cell and crank up the cold until they're absolutely sure I'll die if I use my bending. Whatever number you have in your mind can stay right there; the counter hasn't stopped yet."
Katara floated in the water, staring at her face. It wasn't angry or sad, but a sort of pale acceptance that made her stomach churn. Silently, she returned to healing.
Neither of them spoke again, even as Azula was walked away to her cell once more. When she was out of sight, Katara thanked the guards, put on the dress Zuko's attendants provided, and left for the banquet.
If she'd arrived on time, she'd probably have had better luck finding any of her friends, but as it was, she found herself nearly assaulted by nobles looking to get a leg up through favor with one of the great heroes, as soon as she got there.
Her rescue came, finally, from Toph physically bending the ground to move the crowd that had gathered around her to the side, offering an arm Katara eagerly grabbed as they walked out on the veranda. "You were late," Toph stated, never one to mince words even when they were kids and that had definitely not faded with time. "What's the story, Sweetness?"
Katara leaned a little closer, dropping her voice so it wouldn't carry. There were definitely fewer people outside, but it wasn't empty by a long shot. "Azula's been training her firebending. I don't know for how long, but she's put her body through hell to do it. I just spent the last hour or so healing the worst of her wounds."
Toph quirked an eyebrow. "She was captured by a regular city guard, right? Should we be worried?"
"I..." she hesitated. "I don't know. When I was talking to her, it was like," Katara sighed, frustratedly, brushing a bit of hair behind her ear, "well, like she wasn't a psycho who wanted to kill everyone, I guess."
Toph snorted, taking a tray from a passing waiter, touching a few pastries, then passing it back, shaking her head. Strictly speaking, Katara was pretty sure she could tell what the food being handed out was some other way, but really it was easier to just avoid the food that seemed to have fingerprints on it than try and call her out on it. "She's a good liar."
Katara gave a half-shrug, not answering.
After a minute or two, Toph elbowed her in the side, frowning. "What's wrong now?"
"She was just a kid," Katara muttered, looking away. "I know everything she did, everyone she hurt, but why lock her up at all if we're just gonna throw away the key? I'd rather we just send her to the spirits; at least then, she'd have some peace."
Toph grunted, earthbending two short pillars for them to sit on, and taking one. "That sounds pretty serious. I thought Mr. Pacifist would have talked you out of ideas like that by now."
Katara barked a humorless laugh, taking the proferred seat. "Like Aang could talk me out of anything."
"So what's the plan, then?" She asked. "It doesn't sound like you really want to execute her."
"Of course I don't," Katara huffed. "Honestly, if I were sure she wasn't going to hurt anyone, I'd want her set free."
Before Toph could answer, Sokka arrived, gently breezing past the partygoers blocking the doorway. "There you are. I was wondering where you two were hiding." He hugged his sister and took a seat beside Toph she created, ignoring, like they had, the amply cushioned chairs already provided. "So what's up with Azula? Did you find anything out?"
Besides Katara, for a while at least, and Zuko, who had mixed feelings on the subject, Sokka was the one who hated Azula the most. He took his failure at the Day of Black Sun hard, and her being so prominent made her an ideal figure for his frustrations to target. The news that she'd escaped had him immediately clear his schedule and grab Toph before nearly everyone else could even react.
Toph, for her part, didn't like it when anyone grabbed her, but she seemed to let Sokka do it more often than most.
So Katara relayed what happened, from what the guard told her, to what Azula herself said, figuring out how she escaped, and healing her, all the way to her conversation with Toph.
The results were mixed. "If we let her out, she would hurt someone. Mystery solved."
"I gotta agree with Mister Detective over here. Even if I were there, she's fooled my bending before. There just isn't a way we can be sure what she'll do," Toph answered, reasonably.
Okay, maybe the results weren't mixed.
"Yeah," Katara said, forcing a smile. "I guess you're right."
Toph pursed her lips, but said nothing as the conversation moved on to other things.
The night wore on just as Katara's patience wore thin, and with each noble and diplomat urging her attention she vaguely wondered how Zuko put up with it all, being Firelord. Though, come to think of it, he did have an army of guards he could order to kill whoever bothered him without an appointment, so there was that.
But thinking of Zuko just made her think of Azula. There had to be something she could do. The way she'd talked, how she surrendered so easily, it was like all the fight had been sucked out of her. Having someone like that locked away again, well...
She'd seen Hama's cave.
Maybe that was what bothered her the most about Azula. How long would it take before she became just as embittered as Hama, and what psychopathic bending would she create? What if someone were there for the waterbender before she went too far? What if someone were there for Jet? To hate firebenders so much they couldn't even distinguish them was a horrifying thought. Is that what Azula would see?
Katara slipped away from the party, still mired in her thoughts. She didn't know where she was going, despite her visits, the layout of the Fire Palace still eluded her, but as she walked further and further along, the architecture became older, more traditional, until the rooms she passed must have been in the original construction.
There were no doors, just curtains, and she could see a bed past one, with toys and other personal affects around the room, all covered in thick dust.
"It's not hers, if that's what you're wondering," a bored tone floated by. "This was probably for one of the tutor's kids. Good to keep close at the time, but no real need for it now."
Katara knew it was Mai even before she turned around. "It's not who's?" She tried, knowing full well who Mai meant.
Mai smirked, leaning against the wall. "I don't need Ty Lee's 'aura reading' to know you've been stewing over Azula practically since you landed; I just need ears." She began walking down the hallway. "Her room's over here, if you want to see it, but it won't help."
Katara followed after, passing by a series of similar rooms before finally coming upon what were obviously princess quarters from the sheer size alone. The bed by itself was bigger than many of the tents in the Northern Water Tribe, and a mirror took up a good portion of the wall.
"Were you ever really her friend?" It was a sudden question, but not new. When she'd heard Mai and Ty Lee betrayed Azula, it was difficult to trust them at all, despite the help they provided. Time hadn't removed the edge of her distrust, only dulled it.
Mai was quiet for a moment, Katara began to wonder if she would even answer, but eventually she spoke again, voice the same bored tone, but the affectation a bit more forced this time. "Azula always got what she wanted. Ty Lee and I were no exception."
Katara nodded, solemnly. She'd been expecting an answer like that. Still, "Do you ever wonder if the timing had been different, would Zuko have been the one locked away, a monster for the Firelord?"
Mai frowned, ever so slightly. "Azula was-"
"Born lucky?" Katara finished for her, heard enough times she could repeat it easily by then. "How lucky is she now?"
Mai turned to go. "She made her choice, and if you were the one to lose, I doubt she'd show you the same consideration you're giving her."
"Maybe," Katara allowed, "but that's why we're the heroes, right? We're supposed to be better."
She didn't turn to face her, but her footsteps halted. "You know, I used to be confused why you hung out with Arrowhead so much."
She walked away.
Katara watched her go, hands clenched into fists. No inflection, nothing inherently negative in the words, and yet. She finally tore her eyes away, back to Azula's room. No toys, no art, even her books were only on firebending, save a single volume on Fire Nation history. When she was growing up, Katara lived in one tent with her brother. It was annoying, cramped, at times impossible in the tiny space, but for all the times she hated it, there were just as many, during hailstorms, when Bato would tell scary stories, after mom... she wasn't sure what she would have done without it.
Azula had a brother, too.
Katara left. The room was too big.
She cited a headache to get out of the party and Zuko had someone show her the room they'd prepared for her and the Avatar. One bed. Katara slumped down on top of it, not bothering to slide under the sheets. She was asleep long before Aang made it back.
The next day, they made their goodbyes and left. Another four months passed before they returned.
It had become something of a tradition, during their annual meetups, for Aang to ask after Azula. Not this year. This year, Katara asked. "How has Azula been, since the breakout?"
Everyone was silent for a few moments, but Zuko recovered first. "Oh, good, yeah. There was a brief resurgence in some Fire Princess extremists after, but it was all disorganized, definitely thrown together in response, not something she triggered."
"Zuko?" She asked, after a moment, when everyone had let the question pass for the oddity it was. He looked up. "I asked how Azula's been."
His brow furrowed. "She's been quiet, no problems at all, I don't..."
"Healthy?" She asked next.
No one intervened. Even Aang watched the back and forth with curiosity. "Yes, your healing was quite thorough, and she hasn't even attempted firebending since."
"Good." Katara stood, forcing a smile. "Then I'm going to spar with her." She turned and strode away as the table erupted in chaos.
To her friends' credit, they managed to catch her before she left the Fire Palace. She'd figured they'd be arguing at least until she'd made it outside. "Katara, you can't do this," Sokka insisted, walking alongside her. "Azula is crazy, if you let her out for a spar, she could do anything."
"Like fight me?" Katara asked, skeptically. "You realize that's exactly what a spar is, right?"
"You could get hurt, Katara," Aang added, apparently also missing the idea of what a spar was. "The war's over; you don't have to do this."
"You know, Aang, you're right. I could get hurt sparring with Azula," she agreed. Aang finally relaxed, smiling, before she continued. "I could also choke on my food, fall off Appa, or drown in two inches of water, and while I appreciate your worrying about me, that does not give you the right to prevent me from eating, flying, or bathing, either."
"I'm with Sweetness," Toph announced. "Azula may be crazy dangerous, but Katara's a big girl who can handle herself." Katara shot her a grateful smile, but she continued. "Don't think that means I won't be there, though. It's been ages since I've been there for a good spar."
Sokka pointed a finger at himself. "But you spar with me all the time…"
Toph slapped him on the back. "Buck up, Sokka."
At Toph's endorsement, Zuko finally gave in and began leading the way to her cell, which was handy since Katara actually had no idea where she was being kept at that point. They travelled through what seemed like endless security before reaching her cell, and Katara had to frown because even that seemed too big, too empty, for Azula.
Her eyes darted between the visitors for a moment before settling on Katara. "I don't suppose this is my parole hearing," she asked, deadpan.
"It's a spar," Katara answered, turning around and waving her hand to follow. "Come on, we'll stretch outside."
Azula crept outside her cell, accompanied by the veritable honor guard of war heroes that were Katara's friends. She was housed close to the training field, though whether that was coincidence or not, Katara couldn't guess. They took their places on opposite sides and began stretching in preparation.
Azula's eyes strayed to her brother, then the others, as they stood poised to intervene at a moment's notice.
"Ready?" Katara called once she'd finished preparing, a barrel of water set beside her.
Azula nodded, face serious, and fell into a combat stance. Fire flashed across her fingertips for a moment, but she waited to attack.
Toph created a bell, bending the metal from a spear leftover from the guards’ training. "Round one." The bell rang and Azula dashed forward, spitting a volley of fireballs before ducking to the side for a close range attack. At close range, waterbenders had more control, but firebenders had more power. It was a fine strategy, and more than a little obvious Azula's experience fighting Waterbenders was as fresh in her mind as ever. But she wasn't the only one with experience.
Her water shifted moment to moment, ice, then steam, then liquid, blocking Azula's attacks easily. Too easily. They fought for close to an hour, with only small breaks between rounds, and Azula's fire never changed blue.
Azula was taken back to her cell, her friends congratulated Katara on her sweeping victory, and everyone thought the matter would drop. Except, the next day, she went to spar with Azula again.
Her friends were there, but more relaxed once they thought they'd seen Azula's limits. Azula, too, seemed a bit more relaxed, but no matter how long they fought, her fire didn't change, and Katara never got off with more than a first degree burn.
They fought the next day, then the next, then the day after. Occasionally, her friends would pop in to look at a round or two, but it wasn't the pressing danger they seemed to think at first. Toph was right: Katara could handle herself. So they let her be.
Without a crowd of onlookers, Azula, began speaking again,never without a sarcastic edge, always a bit aloof. "You seem to enjoy pummeling me quite a bit. I never would have figured 'sadist' to be one of your character traits."
"No promises, but if you stopped screwing around and actually used your real firebending, maybe I wouldn't pummel you as much," Katara shot back.
Azula smiled and there, right there, was the cockiness Aang could never manage. It should have been annoying, and yet. "I have no idea what you're referring to."
They fought again. Katara won, but for a moment, she thought she saw blue. Seeing Azula pale as snow, dressed in red, it didn't fit her. The pitiful red fire wasn't her. Azula was lightning, always ready, always rested when Katara was just about to collapse. Her, her fire and lightning, it had always been blue. Bit by bit, bout by bout, Katara was drawing that Azula out again.
The others had to go, attend to their own duties elsewhere, but Katara stayed behind even when Aang left. The fact he didn't even try to convince her stung only for a moment before she readied herself for the next time she sparred, the next time she saw Azula.
"I've never met a waterbender that likes the sun so much," she said, one day, weeks into their daily exercise.
"You want my bending to be stronger?" Katara said with a skeptical eyebrow raise. "I can beat you just fine where it is right now."
"Of course you can," she answered, blithely. "I've just been warming up."
With the way the sun shone down on her, granting her the color that already seemed to be returning to her cheeks, Katara didn't doubt it for an instant.
"You didn't talk to anyone when you escaped, did you?" Katara accused lightly.
She shrugged. "Who would I have talked to? My friends abandoned me, my servants hated me, my father's more useless now than I am."
"Why break out at all? Why not try to escape? Why just surrender to the first guard that tried to arrest you?" For months, it felt like those questions were all she could think about.
Azula paused, opening and closing her mouth a few times without any sound coming out. When it became clear, she wasn't going to answer, Katara sighed and dropped into a combat stance once more. "You ready?"
"I was going to kill you," Azula blurted out, shutting her eyes tightly like she'd just put her head on the guillotine.
"What?" Katara asked, softly.
Azula ran a shaking hand through her hair, still not daring to look up. "I knew if I escaped, Zuko would send for you. I thought I'd be able to hide out in the city for a few days, determine your location, and execute you, even if it meant being taken down, myself. You'd taken everything from me."
Katara's eyebrows furrowed. "But you were arrested again before I even got here. What changed?"
Azula looked up at the sky and cracked a fragile smile. "I felt the sun on my skin, felt my firebending nearly bursting out of me, and I thought, even if I died trying, I'd make the world remember me." She laughed, the sound hollow in the empty courtyard. "Then I saw the world, I saw how happy everyone was. There was music, and dancing, and an old woman handed me an apple just because she thought I might be a beggar. I sat down by a fountain in the middle of the town square and I watched people for a while." She gave a half shrug. "Ate my apple. The guard came, told me she was a nonbender, and I thought how easy it would be to kill her, to make all the people around me afraid again." She shook her head. "Then I thought maybe it would be better if the world didn't remember me. So I just… went along. Didn't think I'd ever see the sun again until you came along."
"And then you thought, if you ever won a match, I'd have you locked up again, forever."
Azula nodded.
"Look at me." Slowly, Azula turned and met her gaze. "Hit me with everything you've got."
Those golden eyes sparked with life, and she shifted into a different stance than normal. "As you wish."
Her fire was blue, her lightning faster than anything she'd fought in years, and Katara was thrown to the ground with a flaming fist flickering a few inches away.
"I give," Katara said, breathless from the exchange and before she knew it, Azula's lips were on hers, stealing a kiss, before standing up and backing up to her starting position. Katara lay there, motionlessly, for a minute before standing.
What was that?
Another round, it was like Azula was a blur, growing faster and faster, she couldn't keep her eyes on her. A leg swept her feet, and Azula's lips were on her again.
They fought long after the sun dipped low and the moon rose behind them.
Katara hated losing. But this?
This wasn't so bad.