Chapter Text
Time
The legends say that the air nomads believed that Time was the continuous past of existence, an irreversible and inevitable succession from the past, through the present, and into the future.
It's a weird concept when you think about it hard enough; it only moves forward. Meanwhile, we're trapped in it, we can't leave it or alter it, we can't touch it, but we can feel it.
Zuko thought that everyone went through the same effect; it was one of the only truths that only the Avatar was able to trick the inevitable.
Or that's what he thought before seeing his left-for-dead Sister, looking exactly as the day she disappeared.
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“I'll make them pay, I'll make them pay.”
The sound of footsteps resounds in the darkness; a small figure, covered in red ropes, walks through the forest without a trace, searching for those who left her behind.
“I'll make them pay, I'll make the-” Before Azula could finish her sentence, a misstep made her fall through the mud. If her day couldn't be worse, a tempest started at least a minute after.
Without another option, Azula keeps walking into the night, without knowing how that's gonna be her last time under the eye of Tui for a long time.
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Zuko never actually expected to see his sister again after capturing the fire warriors without her. They thought at first that it was all some kind of plan, until those girls admitted that they left her alone in the middle of the forest, that they were running away from her. At first, Zuko felt some relief; if all the groups Azula had abandoned her, then her possibilities of overthrowing them were worse than you all believed.
But then it passed a year without any signal from her, and then it passed two, three, five, ten.
No one want to believe that she was dead, she was azula after all, she could ignite everything in her way if she wanted to, but with every year it passes it makes less sense why she hasn't showed up, every year the fire imperialism groups got weaker, every year the bonds between all the nations becomes strongest and every year the idea of getting over-throned becomes more an old paranoia than an actual real possibility.
But there wasn't any other explanation. Ty Lee searched for her throughout the entire nation; no town was left without a search for the ex-princess. Toph, Katara, and Aang tried to search for her in the other nations with the same luck. They tried to connect every conspiracy group with Azula, but they always got a dead end.
No matter how much Zuko looked at it, Azula just disappeared in the air, and by the fifteenth anniversary of the end of the war, they all accepted that the old princess was gone.
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“Everyone, your highness, Everyone who loves you!”
Azula was confused by the declaration of the old pair. The bright light left the princess blind for a second before the truth of the woman's words was revealed.
The whole royal family was there, from Azulon to Zuko; everyone was there, looking at Azula with such love in their eyes that it made the youngest remember when she showed her fire for the first time.
Her uncle brought up her achievements with honor, Zuko praised her talent with full pride.
The lost princess couldn't bring herself to believe this. This isn't how her family looks, this isn't how they act…right?.
“I'm so proud of you.” Maybe it doesn't matter; her family is here, her brother, uncle, father…her mother is here, and they're proud
“Yes, daughter, so proud.”
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It all started on the outskirts of Hanno'wu, where multiple travelers were declared missing after leaving through the forest that surrounds the old town.
Zuko sent some Warriors, led by Ty Lee, to look into what was happening there. They didn't come back.
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Months passed, and everyone grew increasingly worried. Eventually, they decided to search for her. Whatever was happening, if it could take Ty Lee, then it was deemed dangerous enough to warrant their full attention.
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“You never change, uh?”
“ Why are you here?”
“Not for you, never for you again.”
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That old hag creeps something out of Sokka.
“This is a place of refuge, of rest for the weary.”
If there's anything that years of travel could teach him, it's to heed his instinct.
“There are too many visitors here to remember them all. If you're searching for your friend, the best you can do is rest here for the night and keep looking tomorrow.” Before Sokka could say that he preferred to sleep under the stars rather than here, he felt the warmth of Suki's palm in his hand.
“Thanks, we really appreciate it.”
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“Ok, listen, there's definitely something wrong here,” Sokka whispered the second he was sure the woman was gone.
“No shit,” answered the blind with a smirk.
“Why do you think that? That lady was nice to let us stay tonight.” Katara asked. Meanwhile, she prepared the futon.
“NICE?! Cmon Kat! The only old ladies who live in the middle of the forest are the bad ones, or you already forgot that witch?”
Katara avoided eye contact with her brother; he knows he hit her down.
“Listen,” Suki put her arm in front of the siblings, “We are all tired, I'm with Katara in this, everything will seem clearer tomorrow.”
“But the hag-” “Even if the lady is dangerous, we are seven! Including the avatar, we can deal with her.”
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"I'll stay”, Zuko thought, “who cares about what I was doing before? My friends are here, my family is here, everyone I love is here. I don't need to leave.
Never.”
.
.
.
“You can't be serious, Zuzu.”
NO.
“You can't fall for this.”
That voice,
if she's here,
Then this isn't…
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“I told you that there was something wrong with that woman!” Sokka screamed while he tried to pull Toph and Katara's sleeping corpses out of the temple, which was about to fall at any second, thanks to the fight between Aang and the spirit.
“This is NOT the time, Sokka!” Suki, who was trying to wake up Mai, looked exasperated at her boyfriend.
Zuko was looking at the scene from down after being hit by the spirit.
The old woman has just transformed into a giant centipede, but before that, when he barely woke up, she mentioned something that can't get out of Zuko's head.
“You were in that girl's dream, so why did her presence in yours wake you up?”
Before Zuko could think more about that, the giant body of the monster hit the wall beside him, taking him out of his mind.
“Zuko? Are you alright? We need to move!” Suki's scream was all that he needed to get back in action.
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The first rays of agni welcome them after defeating the evil spirit, where there was a big building; now there's only dust and ashes.
Aang looked at his friends, Katara, Toph, and Mai were fine, still confused about what had happened (Toph was more mad for being asleep during the fight), but fine at the end.
Before anyone could say anything, Toph looked at a movement in the bushes, a man in uniform came out of them. Suki recognized him from the disappearance report. After him, more and more people emerged, appearing from behind the trees and out of the dirt, as if the forest were made up of people.
All of them looked confused, some talking in languages forgotten by the time, but all of them looked like they'd just lost something precious.
Mai seemed stunned by what was happening when she noticed a movement from the ashes of the old building; a green uniform came up from them; her closest friend, Ty Lee, was there, fine and untouched as when she left.
She was about to hug her pink friend when she saw something that left the firelady without breath.
The golden eyes of Azula weren't something Mai ever expected to see again, but she never thought that they would be in the still teenage body of her first best friend.