Fate Deferred: Prologue

South Pole - Nine Months Before Sozin's Comet

Sometimes, Katara wondered what good it did her being a waterbender anyway.

She had no one to teach her how to use her gifts properly. The Fire Nation had seen to that, and they had been very thorough. Even the scrolls that contained the wisdom of their tribe - about waterbending, and about other matters - had been stolen or destroyed. Gran Gran and the other elders could tell her stories about the amazing feats the waterbenders of old had been able to do, but they couldn't show her how to do them. All she could manage on her own was mostly sloshing the water around uselessly.

She couldn't use it to rebuild their village. Creating any kind of sturdy structure out of ice was hopelessly beyond her, so they continued to live in their little circle of tents with nothing but Sokka's snow embankment for fortification. Her waterbending was no substitute for the construction skills the grown men possessed, which they had taken with them when the war party had left two years ago.

She couldn't use it to do her chores. Even something as simple as collecting snow to melt over the fire, she lacked the control to do reliably. The snow wound up as much on her - or more often, on Sokka - as in the pot, and she'd been admonished by the adults to stick to doing things with her hands. And as that day's misadventure had proven, her waterbending wasn't even any good for catching fish.

She couldn't use it to defend herself or her people. That much she knew without even trying. Her waterbending hadn't saved her mother, and it didn't look like it was going to save anyone else, either. Not any time soon.

Mostly, her waterbending just seemed to start fights between her and her brother.

So as much as she took pride in her abilities, however meager and unrefined they were, as much as she appreciated the importance of waterbending to their culture and their heritage, as grateful as she was that the Fire Nation had never succeeded in wiping it out completely, and as honored as she was to be the one to carry it on, there were still times she couldn't help but wonder.

Why had the spirits given her this gift, but not given her any good way to use it?


Southern Seas - Eight Months Before Sozin's Comet

On the bridge of his ship, an older vessel which had be recommissioned to serve him in his quest, the banished Prince Zuko admitted to himself with a tired sigh that his search of the southern seas had proven unfruitful. The former Air Nomad territories were sparsely populated - a few trading outposts, but mostly uninhabited islands. The Southern Water Tribe had been reduced to a single village not even worth his time. Carefully kept records of the Fire Nation's own raids showed that their last waterbender had been killed six years ago. There was simply nothing left here for him to find.

He looked up from the navigational charts he had been studying to bark an order at his lieutenant. "Tell my uncle...we're going to try the eastern Air Nomad territories again." It was a long shot that they had missed anything on their last pass through that region, but it wasn't impossible. And it wasn't like he had much to lose by gambling on long shots, at this point.

The lieutenant gave a curt nod and a salute and left to carry out his orders, looking none too pleased. His men thought he didn't notice how begrudgingly they obeyed him, but he always did. No one on this ship respected him, not really. From the captain down to the galley cook, they all thought he was just a spoiled child who had done nothing to earn their esteem. The worst part was that he knew they were right - a dishonored prince deserved contempt.

Nevertheless, he had been put in charge of this ship and this crew, and he was grateful for what small mercies he had been shown. He gave orders to the helmsman as well, and the ship changed course, heading northeast. Zuko then headed out onto the deck for some air, to clear his head. The landmass of the south pole, just a blue smudge on the horizon, soon slipped out of sight behind them. He threw his head back and looked up into the clear winter sky, as if hoping his quarry would simply fly overhead. The white steam that escaped his lips was from frost, not fire.

Another attempt, another failure. Two years, ten months, and six days. But he wasn't about to give up. He would never give up. And when he finally did find the Avatar, he'd return home a triumphant hero to claim his rightful place by his father's side. Then he would have the respect of the men under his command. Then he would have his honor, his crown, and...everything that he longed for.

Someday. Soon.


Fire Nation Capital - Six Months Before Sozin's Comet

Fire Lord Sozin had not designated which of his sons was to be his heir until close to the end of his prodigiously long reign. A new crown had been forged for the occasion, a golden scallop-shaped flame which the chosen prince wore for less than a year before ascending the throne himself. He was the youngest of Sozin's children, still unmarried when he became Fire Lord, and so the heir's crown was retired to storage.

By the time he named his son Azulon as his own heir, it had disappeared. Azulon wore a red enameled flame in its place, and the mysterious theft was never explained.

Azulon never passed the red flame on to either of his sons, for he followed Sozin's example to even greater extreme. Though he had been generally understood to favor his elder son Iroh during his lifetime, with his dying wish he named his younger son Ozai as his heir instead, and Ozai was crowned with the golden Flame of Agni at his father's funeral.

Even before he became Fire Lord, Ozai had given smaller red flames to his wife and his daughter, as was his royal privilege. But Zuko had never been given anything. Many had taken this as a sign of Ozai's ambition even then. It was said that Ozai was waiting until he could give his son the heir's crown, as he truly wanted.

Azula knew better. Father had never given Zuko a crown, because Zuko had never deserved one. And now the whole world would know it, too.

Before the assembled generals and courtiers, she strode confidently towards the dias where Ozai stood. The wall of flames before him did not lower an inch - as ceremonial proof that they were indeed a master firebender, the heir was expected to walk through them. This she did without hesitation, not parting them or casting them away from her body, but actually letting them burn higher and hotter as she came in contact with them. For a moment, it was her own blue fire that separated Agni's anointed from his subjects.

She knelt before her father, and he pinned the heir's crown into her hair. It was the same crown her namesake had worn, though she doubted Grandfather would have expected her to inherit it. Not that his expectations for her mattered now. She had long ago surpassed them.

"Rise," the Fire Lord commanded her, "Crown Princess Azula, heir designate to the Flame of Agni and the throne of the Fire Nation."

She stood and turned to face the courtiers, who bowed, then came forward one by one to pay her homage as she was due. Commander Zhao met her eyes with a smile before he knelt and pressed his forehead to the floor as he swore his oath of allegiance. But Father didn't smile, so neither did she, even though she was truly pleased. This was her moment. She had earned this.

Only briefly did the thought darken her mind that it was too bad Mother wasn't there to see.


Gaoling - Three Months Before Sozin's Comet

Through the servant's passage from her maid's room to the kitchens, out the kitchen door to the vegetable garden, over the garden wall and onto the path that led to the main road, and then up the road to freedom. It was the same path Toph had taken many times before, and would take many times again.

At the Earth Rumble, it didn't matter that she was blind. It didn't matter that she was young, or a girl, or a Bei Fong. She could show off her earthbending for anyone to see, could kick butt and take names and no one could stop her. It was heaven.

If only it didn't involve so much sneaking around. Toph was careful, and she was pretty sure it was impossible for anyone to get the drop on her with her earthbending senses, but she dreaded the day she got careless and was proved wrong. If her mother were to find her bed empty, she would not be understanding about her precious daughter sneaking out to fight strange men in the night, and Toph wasn't sure how she could explain it to her.

For all that she hated their rules and their restrictions and their snobbery, Toph still loved her parents, and the thought of disappointing or upsetting them wasn't one she relished. She did want to be a good daughter, as much as she could, it was just that their expectations were unrealistic. Don't walk too quickly, Toph, you might trip and fall. Don't spend too much time outdoors, Toph, you might catch a chill. Don't speak too loudly, Toph, you might strain your voice. She tried, she really did, but it was maddening, knowing she could do so much more than they would let her.

So she went on with her double life - demure and proper heiress by day, earthbending champion by night. Her longing for freedom called her to run away, but her loyalty to her family fixed her in place, and she couldn't even say which side she'd choose if it came to that. She knew she couldn't keep this up forever, but she didn't see any way out. It was like being slowly pulled apart, knowing someday something would have to give, but not being able to stop it.

In the meantime, she stood her ground, enjoyed what freedom she could find, and waited for things to change.


South Pole - The Day of Sozin's Comet

At the southern end of the world, the skies turned a pinkish hue that day. The cause for this was unknown, for the people of the Southern Water Tribe had no memory of the comet's last coming, and could not see the comet itself from their remote village. The elders took it as an ill omen, for even in their long lives, all the omens had been ill.

But the seas were calm that day, and the air clear, with no sign of a storm. The children played and the adults went about their work and no one was the wiser about the schemes of foreign kings or the ravaging of distant lands or the destruction of unknown families that took place under the comet's passage. Not until later.

Below the surface, the ocean held on to its secrets, hidden in the dark and frigid depths. Fearsome monsters of the watery abyss, powers and spirits never glimpsed by men, shifting currents and great masses of ice. And within once such frozen mass, as smooth and round as a child's marble, was the hope of the world, hidden away like a seed in deep soil or an infant in the womb, awaiting the proper time to burst forth into life.

Fire and fury fell upon the world above, but down below, the Avatar slept in the ocean's cold embrace. His hour had not come. Not yet.