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bellatrixobsessed1 · 5 years

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Swift As Karma (Part 42)

Ice came easier than water once Azula got past the obstacle of actually drawing it up and to her hands and the tedious process of separating the water into little droplets. It was an exercise in patience, control, and determination, but those were things that Azula had a generous amount of. But once she had the droplets held in the air, cooling them to the point of freezing had been an easy feat; much easier than anticipated.

She supposed that it helped that Katara wasn't bickering with her throughout this time.

Though Azula's own mind provided a distraction of its own to makeup for Katara's lack of one. She pondered upon whether or not she should confess that the avatar state was lost to her; that it was never in her possession at all.

For the time, she pushed the thought aside.

Her brow creased in concentration as she lifted her arms, and with them the hail balls. She swept her arms down and found herself thankful that she hadn't mastered sharpening g them into darts, for they pelted the back of her own head and neck. And from the sound of Katara's wince, the waterbender had been in the line of fire as well.

Azula cringed.

If she hadn’t had the attention of nearly everyone in the invasion party before, she did now. She very much wanted to call it quits, but the invasion was only a week away. A little over a week away and she had made little progress on her waterbending and none at all on airbending.

Azula inhaled deeply and lifted the water once more, visibly straining to do so.

“Do you need to take a break?” Katara asked lightly.

“No.” Azula replied, taking extra care to not let her voice betray her frustration.

“I think that you need a break, Sparky.” Toph commented.

“I didn’t ask for your thoughts.” Azula snapped.

“She’s just trying to help.” Sokka stepped in.

“And I’m just trying to learn basic waterbending so I can fight my father and keep everyone from dying!” The water fell around her, her breathing made somewhat heavy by her own outburst. “I killed him. Now I have to fix it…” She was fairly certain that this was the first time she had admitted as much out loud.

“And you’ll be able to do that a lot better if you don’t push yourself.” Katara noted.

Azula took another sharp breath. Grueling work and training until she was ready collapse had been so deeply ingrained in her that it was still hard to train in a more leisurely fashion.

“Why don’t you firebend for a while instead? Or earthbend?” Katara asked.

“I might as well…” Azula grumbled. “It doesn’t really matter anyways.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t get into the avatar state.” Explaining that was difficult and intailed discussing what little she knew about Raava as well. It left her feeling drained and offered a dismal sense of solidity having shared the news. She found that her shoulders were slumped. Frankly, she was just tired.

Katara dropped herself down next to Azula. “Aang always said the same thing, that he couldn’t get into the avatar state and it made him feel like he wasn’t a true avatar.”

“He was. I’m not.” Azula replied.

“What’s that?” Haru asked.

Azula followed the length of his extended arm, before realizing that he was pointing at the sky and her effort to answer his question would be futile.

“A messenger hawk.” Sokka leapt to his feet.

The avian landed upon Haru’s outstretched arm and came into Azula’s sight. Sokka unravel the scroll that had been clenched within the animal’s claws. “It doesn’t say who its from…”

“Then it’s probably Zuzu.” Azula replied, thankful to be pulled away from discussing her own fears. “Read the letter to me.”

.oOo.

Azula had to admit that she was impressed; her brother’s letter had been brimming with information about invasion defense plans and, according to Hakoda, a crude drawing that detailed layout of Ozai’s secret bunker. If she had to guess, she’d say that Mai had drawn it.

At least one small portion of Azula was relieved; they’d no longer have to fuss over finding Ozai’s hiding place. It would just be a matter of breaching security measures and getting there.

She stood in front a crowd of soldiers with her arms crossed. She also had to admit that she was impressed by the amount of them. She had been expecting a small gaggle of friends that the original team avatar had picked up throughout their journey.

Sure, that much was true enough. But since their arrival on this hidden beach, more and more ships were filing through. Ships with weapons and opportunities. And enough men to perhaps hold off Ozai’s army long enough for she and the new team avatar to infiltrate the bunker.

Azula was still utterly exhausted. She had helped Hakoda and Sokka make an inventory of their artillery and then devise a plan as to what it would be used for.

She listened to the rustle of parchment as Sokka pinned up a map. He coughed nervously, and Azula wondered if it was a good idea to let him explain their plans. He had been twitchy with nerves all day. But she had permitted Hakoda to give the boy encouraging pep talks, rather she hadn’t intervened.

Still, Sokka’s delivery proved to be shaky. “We’ll line our ships up here.” He pointed to somewhere on the map, Azula couldn’t say if he was pointing to the right spot. “And...and we have this plan called stink and sink…”

Azula resisted the urge to slap her own forehead, she had very specifically told him not to call it that.

“And well...umm...we’re going to use mist to sneak up on the Fire Nation, they won’t know what hit ‘em…” he paused, “we also have these armoured tanks…”

She almost felt bad for the boy, he was giving off enough vibrations to cloud her vision.

“Alright Sokka,” Hakoda put a hand on his shoulder. “I can take over from here.”

She heard him give a glum sigh.

“Myself, my son, and avatar Azula have come up with a plan…”

The title sent an unpleasant jolt resounding through her. “Why don’t we leave your dad to it?” Azula asked Sokka, suddenly feeling as nauseous as he probably did. He nodded quietly and followed her off of the platform.

She waited in the crowd, silently listening to Hakoda cover the points of their plan, where each team would be stationed, and who would fill what role. He went over their back up plan--a thing that was too loose for Azula’s liking but it was the best that they could do for the time being.

“Is there anything that you’d like to add?” A pause. He must have been looking at her because he apologized and repeated, “is there anything you’d like to add, Azula?”

She thought for a moment and frowned. It would seem that they would have to do some re-planning. Their initial plan didn’t involve the submarines. But it looked like they would have to work them in afterall. “There’s an alarm system set up at the Gates Of Azulon. Even with the fog coverage, we will be detected.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “We will carry on with the original plan, to sail in by ship. We, however, won’t be aboard any of the ships. We will be on the submarines. By the time that the…the enemy realizes that the ships are empty, we will be well on our way.”

.oOo.

“I really messed it up.” Sokka mumbled while sheepishly rubbing his arms. “I helped make the plan I should have been able to explain it better.”

“Making plans is one thing, discussing them in front of a crowd is another.” Azula shrugged.

“I take it that you’re not good at public speeches either?”

Azula laughed. “I’m extremely good at them, you should have heard the speech that I gave to the Dai Li…” She trailed off, thinking again of the possibility that her father was going to make use of them. She was counting on her father handing them all to Zuko under the assumption that he couldn’t take care of himself. She tried not to dwell on that too much, it was nearly out of her hands. “It’s casual conversation and small talk that I have a problem with.”

“No kidding, Sparky.” Toph agreed with a dismissive hand wave.

“I think that you did great.” Katara smiled.

“Thanks, Katara. But you’re not very good at lying.”

“I am.” Azula declared.

“Oh yeah, prove it.” Toph replied.

“I am a four-hundred foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings.”

“Okay, I admit it, you’re good.” Toph laughed. “Now tell Sokka that he didn’t totally flop that speech.”

“He didn’t totally ruin it.”

“Wow, that sounded really genuine!” Toph declared.

“It was genuine.” Azula insisted.

“You really are good at lying.” Sokka spoke.

“I wasn’t lying that time. You didn’t totally ruin the speech, just...mostly.”

“Gee, thanks, you’re reassuring.” He rolled his eyes.

“Why are you smiling if you’re offended?” Katara asked.

“Because, she has no social skills and it’s kind of funny.”

Azula folded her arms over her chest, but she couldn’t exactly counter him. She had already admitted that she lacked mundane conversational elegance. She had to admit that the commentary was slightly entertaining. It was somehow reliving to be able to make mildly self deprecating jokes. To be able to put insecurity aside just long enough to do so. “Really, it wasn’t the worst public speech that I’ve ever heard. Zuzu has given some pretty dreadful ones.

#Avatar #Azula #Katara #Sokka #Toph #Zuko #Mai #TyLee #Fanfiction

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