Story Avatar the Last Airbender: Soul of Fire Revised (Updated 9/19)

Title: Azula Trilogy, Part 3: Soul of Fire (revised edition)
Author: MasterGhandalf
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters: Azula, Ty Lee, Ursa, Aang, Katara, Zuko, Mai, Sokka, Toph, Iroh, OCs
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Epic
Timeframe: Immediately following Path of Fire
Summary: Azula has found her mother and triumphed over her enemies, but nearly died in the process. Now in the process of reevaluating who she is once and for all, she finds herself forced into an alliance with old enemies to stop a terrible new threat. For Zhan Zheng, the Spirit of War, has set in motion a plan to throw the world back into chaos, and it will take all of Azula's cunning and her unlikely allies to stop it. But what can mere mortals do against a god?


Prologue: War

The spirit first came into being more than a century ago.

True, in some sense it had existed long before that- existed for as long as the will to quarrel amongst themselves had existed among mortals, which was to say from the beginning. Yet once the powers that the spirit now embodied had been in the dominion of another, and had lain without a master for millennia after that other had been imprisoned. But that had cchanged when Fire Lord Sozin had given the order that the Air Nomads were to be destroyed in order to prevent the rise of a new Avatar, and the world had shifted permanently. And because the Spirit World and the mortal world reflected one another, that shift had sent shockwaves across them both. In the aftermath of that cataclysm a new power of chaos arose- Zhan Zheng, spirit of war, spirit of the War.

For a century it hung on the fringes of the two worlds, basking in the chaos and destruction that fueled its essence. But then the unthinkable happened- the Avatar, incarnate guardian of the balance and thus the spirit’s natural enemy- returned from obscurity and vanquished Fire Lord Ozai utterly. To mortals those events took months, but from a spirit's timeless perception they happened almost in an eyeblink. For the first time in its existence, Zhan Zheng knew fear.

Spirits embodied the powers at work in the mortal world, and even as the Moon Spirit might be crippled by the loss of the celestial body to which she was bound, or a nature spirit broken by the devastation of its territory, the advent of peace threatened an ending to the incarnation of War. It knew that in order to preserve its own existence and power it had to act, and quickly - and thankfully, the foolish mortals seemed all too eager to assist.

It ensnared a delusional Fire Nation general named Azun, convincing him with visions that it was Agni, spiritual embodiment of the Sun. Azun would have begun the war anew, but he was foiled by the Avatar, and by another, a mortal Zhan Zheng had instructed him to seek out, the one who was closer to the spirit's heart than any other mortal alive. It tried to turn her to its cause and failed, but it was patient, and knew that her time would come.

During the last days of the War, it had claimed the soul of a girl in Ba Sing Se who had been made into a hollowed out puppet for the city's controlling power, the Dai Li. She was filled with hate and rage, and after Azun's failure it decided that through her it could force the world back towards war, for it had remade her into a singularly lethal warrior who could slay the world’s leaders and leave the nations open for chaos to return. She led it to Long Feng, head of the Dai Li, but the earthbender proved too cold-blooded to make an effective pawn. Zhan Zheng was not sad when the girl Wei Ming killed him. Though it had been Long Feng who had most directly ruined her life, some of Zhan Zheng's interest for another mortal bled over into her, and Wei Ming became obsessed with destroying her.

Again the fascinating mortal proved triumphant, driving the spirit from its pawn's body with searing lightning. But she then provided it with the key to victory- an ambitious warlord hovering on the edge between life and death. Zhan Zheng dwelt in the space between worlds, where its enemies would have great difficulty striking at it, but a drawback of this state was that it was difficult to commune with mortals save for those who were already open to spiritual forces - the spiritually attuned, the mad, and the dying had all proven susceptible, and Jian Chin was no exception. It was easy to trick the warlord into allowing Zhan Zheng to possess his body in return for healing.

Like all spirits, Zhan Zheng possessed great power, and it could use this power to enhance the abilities of his mortal pawns. To Wei Ming, come from the dark pits of Lake Laogai, it was able to bestow the ability to call shadows and disappear, in addition to turning an untrained peasant into one of the deadliest warriors alive. With the warlord Jian Chin the effects were much more dramatic, his already potent combat skills and earthbending enhanced a hundredfold, and his brutish mind aided by a far greater intellect.

To travel to Ba Sing Se, capital of the largest nation in the world, and shatter it was the spirit's goal now, one that Jian Chin in his foolish drive for glory proved most pliable. But there remained two faces that haunted Zhan Zheng's mind, mortals that could not be ignored. One was the Avatar, vessel of his immortal enemy. The other was a girl who was powerful, cunning, and ruthless, born of the bloodline to which he owed his very existence. She was the conqueror of Ba Sing Se, she was so very nearly the slayer of the Avatar, she, not her fool brother, was the true inheritor of Fire Lord Sozin - so closely did she align with Zhan Zheng’s own nature that she might have been made for it. In the end, the spirit vowed, she would be made to come to it, and it would cast off Jian Chin like the refuse that he was and claim her as its link with the mortal world.

For together, Zhan Zheng knew, they could do anything.

And if she refused, then Princess Azula, like the Avatar and all others who thought they could build a lasting peace among mortals, would soon learn the utter magnitude of her folly.

///

Welcome, everyone, to Soul of Fire, third and final installment of my Azula Trilogy! This prologue gives us a brief rundown of the Trilogy’s past events, while also giving us greater insight into our ultimate villain. As I mentioned previously, I knew that I didn’t just want to make my spirit villain into a western-style devil, and I also didn’t want to create a cosmic force of evil so powerful it made the Fire Nation’s villainy irrelevant, thereby undermining the show’s conflict. And so I gave Zhan Zheng an origin directly making it a by-product of the Air Nomad genocide, a spirit aspected directly to the Hundred Year War itself and who desires above all to see that war continue indefinitely. That means that the final foe Azula will have to face in the Trilogy is the embodiment of her and her family’s sins, come by to roost in a very real and terrifying way. ZZ isn’t just some abstract demonic force, it’s tied intimately to the Fire Nation and to Azula’s own actions and heritage. A fitting opponent for a redemption quest! Incidentally, this also ties in to why I think Zhan Zheng’s possession ability works differently from the spirits in Korra; as a human-made evil, ZZ has an easier time inhabiting human hosts than most spirits would.

Characterization wise, I drew on several inspirations for ZZ – it takes some cues from Sang-drax and the Serpents from The Death Gate Cycle, still others from Ruin of Mistborn, and a little bit from Lord Foul the Despiser of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, another evil god who acts as a foil to a less-than-heroic protagonist. Within the Avatarverse cosmology, ZZ was created well before Vaatu showed up in “Beginnings” but embodies similar principles (in a spiritual sense, you might even call ZZ the offspring of Sozin and Vaatu, not that they ever directly interacted that we know of); I dropped some references to Vaatu in the revised prologue, and intend to do so at a few more points as well. The other main change I made to the prologue was to switch pronouns from “he” to “it”; ZZ may present as male (or female) to humans at different times, but in its own thoughts, it doesn’t perceive itself as having a gender.

In any case, that’s the prologue out of the way; next time, we’ll be checking in with Azula’s recovery and see how ZZ’s possession is affecting Jian Chin. The final act has begun!

-MasterGhandalf

 

Chapter 1: Awakening

She crouched in darkness, hands held at the ready to unleash fire at her attackers. She couldn't see them, but she knew they were there, circling beyond the range of her sight. They wanted to kill her- she didn't know why, but she wasn't going to let it happen. By every spirit great or small, she was going to live!

The earth suddenly heaved beneath her feet and she collapsed to her knees. Looking up, she saw her enemies towering above her. One was a girl, pale as death but wrapped in a cloak the color of shadow, her violet eyes burning with hatred. The other was a huge man in a gaudy uniform, his brutal features twisted into an expression of cruel amusement.

She knew them now- Wei Ming, Jian Chin.

Scrambling to her feet, she launched blasts of blue flame at both opponents. They merely smiled as the fire washed over them and left them unharmed. "You can't hurt us, princess," Wei Ming said. "Tell me, how does it feel to be helpless?"

"I'm never helpless," the girl snarled in reply, but before she could attack Jian Chin caught her wrists in his massive hands and slammed her back against a rocky wall. Wei Ming advanced slowly, her unsheathed knives gleaming even though there was no source of light.

"There's no one here to hear you scream," the shadow-girl whispered as she raised her blades high. The princess tensed herself for the pain, but it never came. Instead a great light seemed to build all around them, swallowing both attackers and the darkness that surrounded them. She could feel that it had power, but that somehow it wasn't dangerous to her. Rather it was comforting, soothing.

She let it swallow her too.

///

Azula winced and opened her eyes slowly. The last thing she remembered was watching the warlord Jian Chin falling to his doom from atop the crumbling wall of his own fortress. She'd been battered and bruised already from her duel with Wei Ming in the caverns below, and despite her best efforts she'd used too much of her firebending power too quickly. Willpower had been all that kept her going, and as soon as her goal was accomplished it had ceased to be enough. Azula had collapsed to what remained of the warlord's courtyard in a dead faint.

Now she seemed to be lying on her back on the floor of a forest. Because she didn't know how long she'd been out, Azula wasn't sure where she was and decided she had best sit up to get a better look. Slowly the princess pulled herself into a sitting position, dreading what she knew must be imminent pain in her side- she was certain Wei Ming had broken at least one of her ribs- but before she had a chance to notice either location or pain she felt something slam into her and wrap her in a tight embrace.

"Azula!" A familiar voice said. "You're awake! You're alive!"

"Something I won't be much longer if you don't stop cutting off my air," the princess managed to gasp out. Ty Lee pulled back, an apologetic look crossing her expressive face.

"Sorry," the acrobat said. "It's just that I've never seen you get beat up that bad before, and even after your mom did that weird glowy healing thing I was worried about you."

"How long was I- wait," Azula said. "What do you mean "glowy healing thing'?"

Ty Lee shrugged. "I don't really know how to explain it, but when your mom saw how hurt you were she held her hands out over you, and then there was this light- and when it cleared, you were better!"

Azula shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. Firebending doesn't have healing power- only waterbending does. If it could heal, surely one of the master benders would have discovered it during the war."

"That's what Shin said," Ty Lee said. "But your brother and uncle say that firebending's really all about life and everyone's been doing it wrong at least since the war started. I’m not a bender; I don't know."

"My brother and uncle are overemotional sentimentalists," Azula said, but her heart wasn't in it and she knew it. The princess had already begun mentally checking over her body, and however it had happened, the truth was undeniable- she was still in pain, but it was a dull ache rather than the stabbing agony of the injuries she'd suffered during the last, terrible struggle. Somehow, she had been healed, or else she'd been out for a lot longer than she'd thought.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked Ty Lee, following that line of thought.

"A couple of days," the acrobat said. "We've been heading west from Jian Chin's fortress- Captain Shin was carrying you. We did try to wake you up, but we couldn't- it looked like you needed to sleep it off."

"Where are my mother and Shin now?" Azula asked quietly.

Ty Lee shrugged again. "I don't know. They went off to get some food from a village near here- Jian Chin's men let us go, but they didn't give us any supplies or anything either. I guess they still weren't very nice even without the Head Jerk." An unusually troubled look crossed her face. "What happened down there, anyway? You were really beat up when you came up out of the ground- I didn't think there was anything that could do that to you, except maybe the Avatar if you hadn't shot him in the back."

"I didn't think so either," Azula whispered. Memory flashed through her mind- Wei Ming's hate-maddened face inches from her own, pain lancing through her body as the shadow vented a lifetime of bitterness and anger on her. In the end, only a desperate trick had saved the princess's life. Then there was the conversation with the broken remnants of the real Wei Ming- or whatever her name really was- after the spirit that had used her fled… "I'd rather not talk about it."

"That's okay," Ty Lee said, seemingly willing to let it lie. She watched as Azula pulled herself all the way to her feet, and then flipped over and began to practice cartwheels and handstands. It wasn't that she'd lost interest, the princess knew. The simple fact was that Ty Lee needed to be in motion the same way most people needed air and sunlight.

"Is there any water nearby?" Azula asked, stretching. "I feel filthy."

"Sure." Ty Lee landed back on her feet and pointed off between the trees. "It's that way, not too far."

Azula nodded and walked off in the indicated direction. After picking her way through the trees for several minutes, she came to a small, fast moving stream. Kneeling at its side, she splashed water on her face and then paused, noticing her reflection for the first time.

Gone was Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, elegant and deadly. The person who stared back at her from the stream was dirty, her clothing ragged, her hair uncombed and unbound. There was a look in her eyes she had never seen before- the controlled intensity was still unmistakably there, but behind it was something else, something tired.

All of that paled compared to the jagged scar that ran up the right side of her face, narrowly avoiding her eye. Azula raised a hand and ran it along the scar's length, to make certain that it was really there and not somehow a trick of the light. That was where she had been cut by Wei Ming's knife- apparently due either to the severity of the injury or some strange property of the weapon that had dealt it, it hadn't healed fully.

The shadow's dying words came back to her. "For the rest of your life you'll look in the mirror and know that… you're not perfect, that… an Earth Kingdom peasant could do that to you. I guess that's a pretty good revenge, huh?"

"Yes," Azula whispered to her dead enemy, "it was."

Shaking herself out of her dark reverie, she splashed more water on herself and did her best to straighten her clothing and hair. No matter what else had happened, she was still royalty, after all, and should at least attempt to maintain some semblance of dignity. That accomplished, she made her way back through the woods to the small clearing where she first woke up, and Ty Lee was now hanging upside down from a tree-limb.

"Hi, Azula!" the acrobat called. "Are you feeling better now?"

"As far as is possible," the princess replied. "Though it would seem that Zuzu isn't the only one in the family with a scar anymore. Was there any reason you failed to mention that when we were talking?"

"Well, I just thought it would be better if you found out yourself," Ty Lee said. "It's not all bad, though- I think it makes you look more dangerous, and it didn't take out anything vital, and if you needed to go to a party or something you could always cover it with makeup…"

"It's fine, Ty Lee," Azula said, sinking back down against the tree. "It's a reminder that even for all my skill and royal blood I'm not invincible- and that sooner or later, all actions have consequences."

A confused look crossed Ty Lee's face, and she seemed to be about to ask Azula what she meant, when something else caught her attention. Flipping so that she now rested atop the limb, she shielded her eyes from the sun and looked off in the opposite direction from the stream. "Azula!" she called down. "Your mom's coming back!"

Her mother, the Lady Ursa, who the princess had gone through a long and dangerous journey to rescue, but who she hadn't spoken to in years outside of her own mind. Her mother, who Azula had told herself for years was weak and foolish, but had somehow discovered a new form of firebending that had eluded generations of masters and prodigies of the royal line.

For one of only a few times in her life, Azula wasn't sure what to say.

///

The fortress of Jian Chin had been ancient, built by some warrior king in the dim reaches of the Earth Kingdom's past, long before the great city of Ba Sing Se had expanded its rule to encompass the entire continent. Since then it had fallen into ruin, until it had been claimed as headquarters by the line of warlords that had ultimately produced the man who arrogantly took the name of one of history's greatest conquerors.

Now it was ruined again, much of the outer wall and part of the courtyard and inner building destroyed by the duel between Jian Chin and Princess Azula. Rather, Xang thought with a disgusted sneer, it had been the warlord who did all the fighting, while the battered but still cunning girl had goaded him to his destruction. All she needed to do was strike a single, final blow to send everything tumbling down.

Xang had been Jian Chin's second-in-command, though there was no love lost between him and his lord. The other man had ruled because he was the strongest and no one had ever succeeded in killing him (not that anyone truly important in the world had ever cared enough to try)- that was the way things worked in this spirits-forsaken corner of the Earth Kingdom. He'd thought his master a brute and a fool, but had been wise enough not to say it aloud. People who insulted Jian Chin had a distressing tendency to end up crushed, and Xang knew he wouldn’t survive his master’s wrath – he might be as skilled a swordsman as could be found in this place, but he was no earthbender.

The firebender princess had fixed that, which was the main reason Xang had decided to let her and her companions live, in addition to it being an easy way to get them out of his hair without running the risk of a potentially disastrous battle. Now he had his men working on removing all of Jian Chin's fortune (such as it was) and armory from the fortress, which had proved far too unstable for Xang's liking. There were other old castles nearby- less impressive, but also in far better shape- and he intended to claim one for his own.

As he stood in the center of the broken courtyard, directing his workmen, Xang heard someone running up behind him. "Warlord," the man panted, "come quickly. You must see!"

Xang turned towards him slowly. "What are you babbling about?" he asked. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I don't think this can wait, sir," the soldier said. Scowling at the interruption, Xang followed the man over to the broken-off edge of the courtyard and looked down at the broken pile of rocks that marked Jian Chin's grave. The newly-made warlord's eyes widened in shock at what he saw- the stones, which had lain still since the collapse, were moving, as though something was trying to force its way up from below. Xang took a step back and drew his broadsword, preparing for some sort of strange attack.

The rock-pile exploded outwards and a tall, muscular figure became visible in their midst. Xang barely had time to mouth that it was impossible before the man- or creature- below raised his hands to the sky and was swiftly born up the side of the cliff on a platform of rock.

The platform came level with the courtyard and stopped, and the figure stepped out onto the broken stone. It was Jian Chin- unmistakably, impossibly alive- and yet he seemed to have changed. Though he seemed uninjured, his flesh had somehow taken on the color and texture of solid grey rock, and his eyes burned with unnatural green fire. Somehow, he even seemed to have grown – always a tall, broad-shouldered man, he now appeared to have added at least a foot to his height; he seemed more like a mountain carved into human form than a man. Looking around at his stunned former subjects, the warlord smiled.

Xang backed up, lowering his blade. "How?" was all he managed to say.

"I was careless," Jian Chin began, his voice deeper and more resonant than before, and it echoed slightly as if two Jian Chins were speaking at once, slightly out of sync. "I allowed Azula of the Fire Nation to get the better of me, and for that I have paid. That defeat you all witnessed should have been my end, but as I lay dying a spirit came to me and spoke, saying that my destiny was unfulfilled. Long had I dreamed of conquering Ba Sing Se and from there the Earth Kingdom, but now I know that it was what I was born to do! The spirit sent me back and imbued me with his power so that I may accomplish this great destiny." He stretched out a hand over the edge of the crumbled courtyard. "Behold!"

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then the earth began to rumble beneath Xang's feet, and as he watched in awe and terror the rubble began to rise from where it had fallen and reassemble itself into the broken-off portion of the courtyard, the wall, and the inner building. It hovered in midair for a moment and then affixed itself back to the main fortress. There was a final shuddering crack, and the pieces were rejoined seamlessly. It was earthbending like nothing Xang had ever seen- the fortress was whole once more.

"Behold my power," Jian Chin repeated.

Xang cast his sword at the warlord's feet and knelt. "Forgive me, lord," he said. "I thought you were dead- I did not know that you were alive, much less that you had become something far more than you were." Behind him, the soldiers who had followed him fell to their knees as well, begging forgiveness and mercy.

Jian Chin smiled. "Rise, my servants," he said. "You could not have known, so I do not fault you. Now I need every warrior here under my command, for I prepare to march on Ba Sing Se. We shall gather more along the way, for this world is filled with aimless warriors like you, in need of a cause. I can convince them that I am truly blessed, and they will follow me. When we reach the capital, we shall have a force that is truly mighty. Then Ba Sing Se will fall, and all shall know that I am the true Earth King! Are you with me?"

As one the soldiers drew their weapons and raised them to the sky, chanting their lord's name louder than thunder. Xang, shaken to the core of his being and not certain what to believe, only that Jian Chin had somehow become less of a man and more of a force of nature, shouted the loudest.

///

The Azula portion of this chapter is pretty self-explanatory, I think. Coming fresh off her near-death experience fighting Jian Chin and Wei Ming, along with her definitive rejection of her father’s memory, Azula has, in a sense, been reborn. But while she’s no longer the person she was, she’s not sure who she’s becoming either. Her relationship with Ursa may play a key role in that – but then, that’s for next chapter.

Jian Chin lives, and now empowered by Zhan Zheng he’s graduated to something very close to godhood. ZZ’s enhancements, I determined, are a reflection of the person the spirit grants them to, twisted by ZZ’s own violent nature. Wei Ming – beaten down, overlooked, locked in darkness – was transformed into a vengeful, ninja-like warrior with powers of shadow and stealth; Jian Chin, a man of vast physical and earthbending might, had those qualities magnified tenfold (he’s a bit smarter now, too, courtesy of having a century-old spirit to whisper plans in his ear). And now he has the strength and will to back up his long-nursed ambitions, and is preparing to set in motion the Trilogy’s final conflict.

Xang is someone who I initially created here, as I wanted to have someone else to see the “new and improved” Jian Chin through; I later went back and seeded him in a few spots in Path. He’s lived his whole life in Jian Chin’s lands, taking service with him largely because he saw no other options for himself; he’s selfish, but there’s a somewhat pitiable element to him as well. Fundamentally, this is a man who lives in the moment because he has no real hope for a better tomorrow. He will continue to be a major character throughout Soul.

-MasterGhandalf

 

Chapter 2: Uncomfortable Reunion

It had been years since Azula had spoken to her mother in the flesh, rather than the version of her that existed only in the princess's mind and, she had come to realize, spoke truths that she was unable yet to consciously accept. Their last meeting couldn't be called friendly by any stretch of the imagination- it had involved little more than Azula telling Ursa about Fire Lord Azulon's plan to punish Ozai's lack of respect for his brother by forcing him to kill Zuko. That, of course, had been part of a plan she and her father had hastily worked out minutes earlier as he sensed a golden opportunity to rid the Fire Nation of its ancient ruler and install himself in his place. Ursa killed Azulon that night, and then she vanished from the palace and from her daughter's life for eight years.

During her early life, Azula's opinion of her mother had been straightforward and low- or so she had believed. Her father had told her early on that Ursa was soft and weak, not to be relied upon, and Azula had believed it. But killing the Fire Lord to protect her child had not been the action of a weak person, and there was some part of the princess that recognized that, though it was buried deep down. Then had come Azula's breakdown, and as she descended into madness the part of her that loved her mother had come to the fore in the form of visions and hallucinations.

While searching for Ursa on the advice of the spirits, Azula had focused on the immediate goal of finding and saving her, not giving thought to what she would say when they met again. Now that meeting was moments away from happening, and the fire princess found herself unsure. It was not, she decided, a feeling she liked.

Ty Lee dropped from the tree and landed beside her. "Are you all right?" she asked concernedly.

"I'm fine," Azula said. Looking up, she could see two figures approaching through the forest, picking their way toward the clearing through the trees, what looked like full packs slung over their backs. The one in front was a serious looking middle-aged man in armor- Shin, former captain of the ship that had brought Azula to this forsaken part of the Earth Kingdom before it was destroyed. He seemed to be going out of his way to keep the way clear for the second person, a woman who managed to keep an air of regal beauty about herself despite the lines of grey creeping into her once solid black hair. Azula knew her face well- Lady Ursa, once wife of Fire Lord Ozai and mother of the princess and her brother Zuko.

Both stopped when they saw Azula awake and standing. They were both carrying large sacks that presumably contained food for the journey; Shin put his down and gave a half-bow. "Princess," he said. "It's good to see that you are awake." The words were cool, conveying respect but not personal liking, which Azula felt summed up Shin's opinion of her rather well.

Turning from the captain, she focused all of her attention on her mother. Looking at Ursa closely, Azula could see a great deal of resemblance to herself, and also many differences. The Fire Lord's widow had her daughter's elegant grace and cool beauty, in addition to the pale skin and golden eyes shared by many of the Fire Nation elite. Ursa's face was softer than Azula's, less intense, but there were hints there nonetheless of the fierce will suffered no defeat, waiting only for an imminent challenge to surface.

Ursa, too, studied her daughter. When they had last met and Azula had been conscious she had been a child and already nearly lost to Ozai's particular and vicious way of seeing the world. Ursa had loved both of her children, but with Azula it had been more distant- though it shamed her to admit it, the young girl's behavior had often disturbed or frightened her. During her captivity with Jian Chin she hadn't been able to keep up with news except in broad strokes, but what she had heard of Azula made it seem like she had gotten worse, not better, in the intervening years. And yet it had been her daughter who ultimately came to rescue her from the warlord's clutches, and the young woman who stood before her now didn't seem the mad but brilliant monster who had led the Fire Nation to victory over Ba Sing Se. Ursa could sense a sort of weary defiance about her manner and a ruthless edge that waited just below the surface, but her daughter seemed calm and in control of herself.

"Mother," Azula said, finally breaking the silence.

"Azula," Ursa replied. "It's been a long time."

"Eight years, give or take a few months. A lot's happened since then, and I don't think either of us is quite who we were then." Azula's gaze sharpened. "I was hurt very badly in the fortress, but not anymore. Ty Lee says you healed me. How?"

"I don't know," Ursa admitted. "Seeing you hurt was enough to trigger something in my firebending, but I can't explain beyond that. I'm not even certain I could do it again."

The idea that simply seeing her on the brink of death was enough to trigger a strange new manifestation of her mother's bending struck Azula powerfully. "So you really do care," she said softly. "I'd wondered, sometimes."

"How could you do that?" Ursa asked. "I'm your mother, Azula. Of course I cared."

Azula snorted. "Well, when I was growing up you seemed to like Zuko a lot more. Father said it was because you were both weak, but I'm not certain of that anymore. I'm not sure I know what to believe."

Now it was Ursa's turn to sharpen her gaze. "I gave your brother more attention because it was clear to me that he needed it- certainly Ozai cared little enough for him. And because I care about you does not mean that I approved of all of your actions. I love you, Azula, but I couldn't simply stand by and watch you hurt animals or other children."

Azula snarled and hung her head. "I'm not that person anymore!" she spat. "She died on the day of the Comet."

"Did she?" Ursa asked. "I still see pride and anger at least in you, Azula. I do want to help you, because you are my daughter and because you helped me, but you have done things I can never approve of. I want to make sure they do not happen again."

A brooding silence fell, neither woman speaking. Captain Shin stood impassively beside Ursa, while Ty Lee looked from one person to another and then shrugged helplessly. Finally the captain cleared his throat. "Princess," he said, "since you're awake now and we have supplies, I would recommend that we continue moving. Jian Chin may be gone, but this is still an unfriendly land, and I don't believe any of us wants to say here longer than we have to. We should continue to the coast and rendezvous with my men, and then turn west, for the Fire Nation."

"Yes," Azula said. "That would be wise. If you approve, Mother?"

"I agree," Ursa said, picking up her sack of supplies. "We should keep moving." She turned and began to walk with purpose in the direction she had first come from, which was presumably where the road lay. Captain Shin took up his position at her side.

Azula and Ty Lee followed at a short distance. "I'm sorry, Azula," the acrobat whispered. "I wish your reunion with your mom could have gone better."

"It was better than I had right to expect," Azula said. One hand went up to trace her scar. "I did lots of things that made people hate me- even my own mother isn't sure she can trust me. But I've learned from my mistakes and I won't repeat them." She lowered her hand and clenched it into a fist. "I won't."

Azula didn't know if that last statement was supposed to convince Ty Lee or herself.

///

He stood atop a mountain that rose above an endless sea of clouds. The sky above was a strange color somewhere between pink and red and the clouds were yellow, but otherwise there were no memorable features, but the boy didn't worry. He knew this place- he'd been here in dreams before.

He sat down calmly to wait, and soon a serpentine creature was winging towards him across the sky, the small figure of a man on its back. Within moments of appearing the great dragon had drawn even with the mountaintop and the boy could make out the familiar aged features of its rider.

"Hello, Aang," the dragon rider said. "Come with me. There are things we must discuss."

The current Avatar shrugged confusedly as he stood and faced his predecessor. "What do you need to talk about, Roku? The war's been over for a year and a half now. What else is important enough that you'd need to talk to me about it?"

Roku lowered his eyes sadly. "Come ride with me and I will explain." He patted the dragon's back next to him, and Aang hopped lightly into position. The old man bent and whispered into his serpentine companion's ear, and they shot off into the sky.

Aang sat still for several minutes, enjoying the wind blowing back from the dragon's wings in a way that was very different from how his sky bison Appa flew. Finally he turned back to Roku. "All right," he said, "What do you want to talk about?"

"A great danger approaches, Aang," Roku said. "The spirits and I tried to prevent it, but we have failed. Now you must take up the burden, or both worlds will be in terrible peril."

"It can't be worse than the Fire Lord, can it?" Aang asked. "I mean, he was planning to destroy everything that wasn't his, pretty much. Can anything really be more dangerous than that?"

"It is the same danger," Roku said. "An earthbender warlord marches from the east with an army at his back, and with him comes a great and ancient evil. You remember the spirit Hei Bei?"

Aang frowned. "Yeah, but what does he have to do with this? I showed him that his forest was going to grow back, and after that he wasn't dangerous anymore."

"Your experience with Hei Bei taught you that the spirit world and the mortal world reflect one another," Roku explained. "When Fire Lord Sozin began the war and wiped out your people, that was a great and terrible change in the world, and so the spirit world changed as well. A new spirit was born from the ashes, drawing strength from conflict and death. His name – or hers, or its; this spirit’s nature is difficult to describe in human terms - is Zhan Zheng."

"Zhan Zheng?" Aang asked. "I've never heard of him."

"Not many have. For years he was content to watch and wait as the world descended into war, but no longer. He feels threatened by the onset of peace and has taken matters into his own hands. He intends to restart the War and ensure that this time, it lasts forever. To do this he uses a pawn- the earthbending warlord I mentioned, who has named himself Jian Chin."

An uncharacteristically serious look crossed Aang's face. "So you're saying I have to stop this Jian Chin guy before he takes over the Earth Kingdom? I don't think that will be too hard, but thanks for the warning."

The dragon swooped back towards the mountaintop, but before Aang could dismount, Roku held up his hand. "Remember, Aang, that the real threat is not the warlord but the spirit who comes with him. I do not know the extent of his powers, so I can't tell you how he will fight you or if he can win, but I know that he will fight. Also remember the lessons of the past Avatars and of your own experiences. Often, by looking into the past we can find the wisdom to face the future."

"I will." Aang leaped from the dragon's back and onto the rocky peak. "Good-bye, Roku. I promise I won't let you or the world down."

"I know," Roku said. "Good-bye, Aang." He reached down and patted his mount's head, and the dragon leaned forward and touched one of the tendrils in his 'beard' to Aang's forehead. There was a great flash of light, and the Avatar awoke with a start.

///

Azula’s reunion with her mother is less than storybook, to put it mildly. Though they do love each other, both are still carrying a lot of emotional baggage they’ve yet to work through – and Ursa has some dirty laundry of her own that she hasn’t aired yet but influences her opinions on the matter. To rebuild this relationship will require both Azula and Ursa to come to terms with who they are, and with each other, and needless to say, this is easier said than done.

Aang’s scene with Roku is mostly there to get the Avatar more directly involved with the plot. As Zuko was the secondary focus character in Heart, so is Aang in Soul, but so far, Roku has mostly just informed him of things of which the audience is already aware – we’ll see Aang actually act on that in a bit. Some of my early readers were confused as to Roku’s reference to “an ancient evil”, as not only is ZZ not that old by spirit standards, it’s actually younger than Roku himself! However, while the spirit itself hasn’t been around that long, the forces it embodies are as old as humanity, and it is to this that Roku is referring.

-MasterGhandalf