Chapter Text
The Avatar Cycle. Most knew it very well. Ever since the beginning of bending as an institution, there would be two individuals born with the power to control all four elements. Through some element of fate, they would always be born within a few years of one another. Partners who went through the roughest stages of life together. Simply being around one another brought strength, including the so-called ‘Avatar State’, a monstrous, nigh unstoppable form that was impossible for either of them to utilize without the aid of the other. Which was why the last fire lord, Sozin, made sure to kill the last two avatars, Roku and Kyoshi, when they weren’t close to the same area as one another.
Sozin’s attempt to ensure that there would be no next generation of Avatars failed. At least as far as he knew. He had to wage a complete war of extermination against two different groups, and while one was known for their pacifism, the other had a litany of great warriors behind them. He managed to wipe the airbenders off the face of the Earth, but the best he could do with the waterbenders was ensure that none would exist in the southern tribe, not being able to break past the northern wall. Even that in itself was a feat, with the North trying its best to protect its sister Kingdom, knowing that the Avatar could be born there someday. Unbeknownst to Sozin, who also held this fear in his heart, that new threat would never come to be. Because while the avatar of the air nomads, the young Aang, would be born and lost to the sea, his partner’s birth was mysteriously absent.
As though fate itself knew she wouldn’t be needed yet. That was, until eighty six years after Aang was frozen. Eighty six years after the fall of the Air nomads, and the slaughter of every known water bender in the southern tribe… a young Korra would take her first breath. As she grew in the northern tribe, taking her first steps, drawing the first string of water with her movements… the girl was a true prodigy. But it was when she spit a burst of fire that people began to take notice. Northern society was particularly sexist when it came to the roles waterbenders were meant to take, something that came to a head when they realized a girl was the mighty avatar. They trained her, but there was always some form of hesitation there. Like they refused to give her everything, despite how important she was.
And she knew she was important. The fire nation came knocking on the north’s door every couple of years on the off chance that someone like her finally showed up. She was their secret weapon, the turning point that could end all of this… and nothing was coming of it. Even her parents, as much as she loved them, were careful not to let her go too far. Careful not to let her make too big of an impression for fear of losing her. And… that wasn’t sitting well with her.
She was supposed to be traveling the world, having adventures, training… and if she wasn’t going to get what she needed at home, she was going to get it somewhere else. On the eve of the girl’s thirteenth birthday, she unknowingly followed in the footsteps of her other half, leaving her home not out of fear of being the avatar, but excitement to see what it all meant. She would travel to the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom, picking up the most basics of the art of Earthbending as she traveled, never being particularly subtle with her other skills. This style, traveling the world without a single attachment to her name, actually worked for a little bit. Helping the occasional straggler every now and then, fighting off the fire nation as well as her self taught skills could allow, even picking up the core basics of fire bending from a few run ins with what she had come to call the ‘shell heads’ of the fire nation’s military… until the day her luck ran out.
She encountered a boy. A firebender in command of his own army, one sworn to find and capture both halves of the avatar to ensure the restoration of his honor… She had been better than so many of the benders she encountered. Her unconventional thinking had kept her steps ahead from the rabble for nearly a year on her solo journey… but him. He was a master. She was a dabbler in three elements, but she was a master of none of them. Every single flaw in her technique, no matter how small it might have seemed, he exploited with ruthless efficiency. Their fight was long, but… it only ended one way. With the girl in chains on the boy, she had come to know as Zuko’s ship. There she would remain for months… until the fate of her world would change forever. When a boy would be discovered in the ice… and another boy appeared in a flash of light
--
Edward Elric looked before him, there was nothing around. Nothing but blank space. He hadn’t expected using Envy’s stone to escape gluttony’s pocket universe to bring him back here. The last place he ever wanted to see again. “You’ve made quite a mess of things. You used too much power from the stone.” The voice of the white blob of a child said, it’s voice echoing in Ed’s ear.
Did I? Ed asked himself.
He never used a philosopher stone before. Any power from something so demonic seemed like too much. And it was the first time he was purposely trying to traverse dimensions. “What the hell does that even mean?” Ed asked.
“It means, the checkbook must be balanced.” For a moment, it looked like the universe itself had split for Ed. Like he was seeing double… before everything went black. The next thing he noticed, he was staring, looking around at his surroundings. And they were unfamiliar. He was in the center of a town where buildings were made of stone. Architecture he had never seen before. “Where the fuck am I?” He asked, more to himself than anyone around him. And there were people around him. An entire city of people who looked… confused to say the least at seeing the boy appear in an eruption of light. Ed’s confusion was much… much worse though. Especially when it erupted into panic. “Al.” He rubbed his temple.
His brother was nowhere in sight. “Al!” He shouted, shoving people aside, looking for the nearly eight foot lunk of armor he knew his brother as. Ed grabbed a man by the arm as he walked by him, pulling him inches from his face. “Hey! I’m a state alchemist,” Ed said, pulling his watch from his side, flashing it like a badge.
“A… what?” the man asked, scared. Ed flinched. Even another country would know the dogs of Amestris’s military. It didn’t exactly bode well for him, but he couldn’t bother to care about he semantics of the whole situation.
“It doesn’t matter, just know I outrank you. You seen a guy, like seven feet tall in a suit of armor anywhere?” He asked, the man slowly shaking his head. Ed took a deep breath. So, Al wasn’t here… that was fine. He could always find Envy and pound him into taking him back to where he came from… he couldn’t be the only one here, after all… wherever here was. But, that led to another problem. And presumably… a much bigger one. Envy could look like literally anyone on Earth. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen some guy with long black hair around here. Tiny shirt, short pants, crazy ass eyes? Or a giant green monster?” Ed asked, knowing that it was not exactly… likely… that he was going to be taking his actual human form around here. Or his true monstrous one.
But when the man shook his head… Ed couldn’t exactly hide his disappointment. “Fuck!” He slammed his automail arm into the wall behind the man, who shrunk in response. Ed took a second to collect himself. “Where am I?” He muttered to himself, thankfully loud enough for the man in front of him.
“Gaoling.” The man replied, shakily.
“Huh?” Ed replied.
“In the… Earth kingdom…” The man swallowed hard.
“Huh?” Ed said again. The Earth Kingdom. Ed knew every country even remotely close to Amestris, it was part of the training that he had to go through as a state alchemist to know the world, especially since half of them were his country’s enemies. To say none of this made sense would be the understatement of all understatements.
Ed felt a hand on his shoulder, which he pulled away with ease. Some guys dressed in all green clothes.
“Sir, you’re causing a public disturbance.” They said, Ed looking them up and down before letting the man in his fist’s grasp go.
“My bad.” Ed replied, letting the man drop to the floor and beginning to walk away only for the green clad man to grab him on the arm, and him to twist out of the grip. “Buddy… I’m having a bad day, you don’t want to carry this any further.” Ed cracked his knuckles.
“Sir, you’ve committed assault. I’m afraid you have to come with us.” They replied, one of them stomping on the ground, a wall of rock coming up in front of Ed, which he dodged immediately. No light from an alchemical reaction, no alchemic circle in general, the guy didn’t even clap. The Earth just moved with him. The same thing happened when he did it again, only for Ed to clap, turning the wall to nothing but dust on the wind. The guards stood in silence and shock at the boy, only one of them still having the guts to fight, tackling Ed into a nearby fountain. Ed clapped, slamming his hands on the surface of the water. It twisted up, grabbing the man and lifting him in the air before freezing into an ice fist that restricted him. If people weren’t nervous before… they sure were now.
“The avatar…” The murmur started with the guards, but soon spread to the entire crowd, becoming one steady, repetitive beat that pounded at his ears over and over again.
“The… who now?” Ed murmured to himself. People were surrounding him, getting closer, a couple of them looked scared… and those guards looked a heck of a lot more eager to get their hands on him now… thinking quick, Ed clapped his hands together, creating a mountain of steam from the water beneath him, obscuring his presence, as he scampered away, the panicked sounds of searching being heard behind him hitting his ears as he ducked into an alleyway, lots of complaints about something called the ‘Fire Nation’ getting wind of his appearance. “Fire nation, Earth Kingdom… what the hell is going on here?”
--
The waves of the ocean bobbed the ship up and down. Up and down, as Prince Zuko of the fire nation felt a smile drift across his face for the first time in a very long time. Ignoring the pleas of his uncle, he went down to the basement of his ship to confirm his suspicions. There, sitting in chains in a corner that nobody had bothered to attend to (that part was particularly important) sat a young brown haired woman with dark skin. Her blue eyes normally strained against the blackness that surrounded them. The fact that they didn’t, meant her eyes were closed.
“Avatar.” Zuko said, plainly. It wasn’t a question in his mind anymore. It couldn’t be. The young woman forced her face towards the floor.
“Jeez, you’re still calling me that.” She said, her voice still jovial even after the weeks she had been gathered in here. Like she still wasn’t taking things seriously. Like she still wasn’t in danger. “You really don’t know how to let things go…”
Zuko stared at the girl. Even now, she was a walking contradiction. When he found her, a firebender wearing water-bender clothing in an earth city, she had already stood out. Now… in a situation that should rightly terrify her, she was still as calm as she was every day. Every single day he talked to her.
“So… what brings you to my neck of the woods? Thought I wasn’t pressing business anymore.” She jabbed, turning her head so that she could listen to his position. For some reason, Zuko noted, she seemed very reluctant to open her eyes.
“Things have changed.” Zuko replied as he walked directly next to her.
“You think about what I had to say?” The girl responded.
“Korra-”
“Calling me by my name now, huh?” The fourteen year old joked. “If only you gave yourself the same respect you’re trying to give me.”
“Don’t start again.” Zuko snarled.
“Yeah… right. Don’t disrespect the man who gave you an impossible task just to get rid of you… ” Korra responded. This wasn’t the first time they had this conversation since she had been captured. It was an easier conversation to have now. He didn’t stop her when she said it anymore. He just… stared. She imagined that was what he was doing now. “A real saint that one. I’m sure he’s checked up on you a lot since last time we talked. After all, it’s got to be easy for the Fire Lord himself to do.”
Zuko didn’t respond to those words. Rather, he knelt down beside her. “The task doesn’t seem impossible now.”
“You have no way of proving I’m the avatar.” Korra responded, a sentence that she had said probably a hundred times now.
“Not without the other one, no.” Zuko responded. “But I think you know that… open your eyes.”
“I’m a bit tired at the moment.” Korra responded quickly, knowing that it wouldn’t end the conversation.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Zuko said. Korra almost shot back with a ‘could have fooled me’. After all, her capture was a particularly painful experience. But… the more Korra saw of him, the more she saw what was underneath the fiery warlord persona he had tried so hard to craft.
She saw the scared kid. She appealed to him. She even got some of his thoughts out of his head. That sister… boy did she sound like a piece of work.
“Korra… there was a beacon of light in the sky. Something that could only be explained by the Avatar. It was said that when they were both in the same place… Open your eyes or I’ll open them for you.” Zuko said quietly. Korra sighed. He meant it…
Boy did she hope the other avatar would be better at escaping the fire nation than she was. At least he’d probably know they were coming. As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the blue glow they were emanating glow softly against Zuko’s eyes. That soft glow disappeared almost immediately as it was replaced by a much… much larger one. One that seemed to swallow the whole area in a mountain of light.
--
“Well, we haven’t seen an airbender until my grandson and granddaughter brought you back here. Honestly, we thought you were all extinct.” An elderly woman, Sokka and Katara’s grandmother, said. Aang sat stunned for a moment as he took in that information.
“Extinct?” Aang asked, the word tasting bad in his mouth. He tried to push the thought down, but it stuck in his throat. They were wrong. They had to be. As he opened his mouth to speak again, something caught his eye. A beam of light coming from beyond the sea. Almost immediately Aang himself began to float. To glow like Katara and Sokka had thought they had seen when he emerged from the ice, as a beam of light exploded from him in response.
It only lasted a few moments, but it was enough to catch the attention of everyone in the Southern Water Tribe. As Aang stepped back down to the ground, both lights faded, as Aang looked like he had just woken up from a long sleep.
“You… do you know what you just found?” Gran Gran looked towards Sokka and Katara, all while never taking her eyes off Aang. “The Avatar.”
Sokka and Katara shared a look. A look of sheer concern that radiated through their faces. “And that other light… does that mean-”
“The other avatar. They have arrived.” Their grandmother replied. But there was something else there, something far more concerning. “Ash… is filling the sky.” She whispered. Sokka and Katara looked at each other. Whoever the other avatar was, they had already been captured by the Fire Nation…
What chance could Aang have?
--
The fight had lasted a very short time. It was clear to Aang that those in the village wouldn’t stand a chance in a prolonged military conflict. They were peaceful. So, he did what an avatar should do. He protected them. It… surprised him how relatively gentle his captors were. He expected the prince to blow up in his face but…
He didn’t. He just passed him away to soldiers, and left. He could see… conflict in his eyes. As he watched the lapping waves fade away, he was led to a dingy area near where he gathered was the bottom of the ship. Near… a young woman. A young woman he almost immediately felt. Connected to. Like he knew. Back in training at the air temple, he was always told that this would be how it was.
The Avatar wasn’t one person. They always came in pairs, the last of which being Roku and Kyoshi. In the writings he studied, the limited reading he had done, they described it as a siblinghood of sorts. No matter what, it always felt like this person was… someone that you needed to stick by.
No matter what.
“Y-You…” Aang stuttered as he looked at the girl’s face. Her eyes met his and almost immediately, the joking stoic look on it faded as an almost… protective one took hold. The two of them felt the other half of their souls in each other.
“Oh… crud.” Korra murmured to herself. She was hoping at the very least the other avatar would be an adult. Or if it wasn’t that she would at least be able to adopt her regular attitude to meeting the guy.
That she’d be able to operate independently. It was quicker that way. Granted, she didn’t exactly care about the kid. It wasn’t like she was fawning over the kid, or anything. She’d just met him. But she knew he was important. It was like seeing a brother that she had never met. A single glance told her that.
Just. One. Glance.
Some past Avatars had bonds that grew much deeper than that. Roku described Kyoshi as his sister in everything but blood. Heck, in what few drawings and statues of them that the Fire Nation hadn’t torn apart and buried, they were practically always depicted together. Inseparable. Others couldn’t stand each other. It was a coin flip that she was about to have to take.
She just found her other half. There was no changing that.
He looked at her, a look in his eye that asked her a question. A simple sentence that she could practically hear despite him never saying a word. “Are you with me?”
He was planning on escaping. Of course, she was initially too. She could have left five times by now from her recollection, but… she wanted to save the Prince. Snap him out of his self destructive spiral. She figured with enough time, especially since he would need to find the other Avatar before he could turn her in. Probably to get executed.
If she could help him… maybe she could drop just a bit of sense into the Fire Nation. She could help put a stop to a war that had dragged on for a hundred years. But, with both halves of the avatar in his possession, that was out the window. Even if it wasn’t, even if she was absolutely sure that she could convince Zuko by then, which she probably couldn’t given the headway she had managed to get, she wasn’t willing to put the boy in front of her though being stuck in here. So… she nodded.
Almost instantly, Aang shot out a jet of high pressure air from his lungs, bashing himself and the guard holding him into a wall. Korra forced her shock to subside immediately. But it was there. For a split second. An air bender. An honest to the spirits airbender. She was liking this kid more and more.
When the other guard tried to attack Aang, raising his blade in a pouncing position, Korra let out a roar, a plume of fire leaving her mouth. The fire nation didn’t fight fire benders. Their suits were rarely, if ever, prepared for it. True to form, it began glowing red hot, searing against the man’s skin as he yelled out in pain. Aang jumped up, kicking the man in the face as he fell to the ground.
As he landed in front of Korra, he tried his hand at a reassuring smile. “Hey, I’m Aang. I’m the Avatar.”
She almost burst out laughing, but settled for a small chuckle at the boy. He was so earnest, it was practically unheard of. “Well, I kinda figured. Hi Aang. I’m Korra. I’m the Avatar too. Introductions aside,” she pushed Aang with her foot, forcing him to spin around as she shot a spurt of fire from her mouth at his restraints, which crumbled to Ash. Aang, without missing a beat, used his air bending to cut the chains that bound her to the wall. Standing up she smiled at him. “So… airbender… I have about a million questions about that, but there’s no way they didn’t hear the commotion. I’m hoping you have an escape plan to get out of here. Wherever here is?”
“Nope.” Aang said, guiltily.
“Right.” Korra muttered, as she grabbed Aang’s hand. “Figure it out as we go.” She had already started running when the sentence was finished. The resistance they met on the way to the top was… well it was nothing. Less than nothing to the pair of them. Korra’s firebending was easily better than theirs. Something about not being in any real combat for a century probably dulled their senses. That’s what happens when you win for too long. That combined with the incredibly adept airbending that Aang displayed, something Korra really wasn’t expecting from someone as innocent looking as he was, and it was a snap. Until it wasn’t.
“The Avatars have escaped!”
That one shout made their jobs so much harder. That was why Korra was going to try to sneak out when she left. They may have not been the best fighters, but if enough of them gathered, that wouldn’t matter. And if someone really competent like Zuko got involved, this was going to turn into a mess.
“Follow me!” Aang shouted as he ran. It was the direction he was running that confused her. Back into the ship. It wasn’t like they had infinite options, there were less people. She cursed as she did as she was told. Down the twisting metal corridors, Aang took down one person while Korra took on another. One to the left, one to the right, one behind. They were starting to get more frequent. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to fight them off. Korra pushed one of the doors opened, a s Aang knocked out another guard. If they could barricade themselves for a second, they might be able to catch their -
“Uh… hi?” Korra said, inwardly screaming. As she took in the slightly shocked form of Zuko staring at the two of them, she cursed her choices. Of course, this was his room.
Of course it was.
Just her luck.
Zuko watched the pair for a moment before launching a fire blast that she dispelled with her own. Aang pushed him back into the room with a large air blast as she shut the door, attempting to seal it shut with a concentrated flame blast. She sealed off an unfortunately promising room. People coming from the left and right now. A lot of people.
Easily thirty by her count. This time, it was Aang grabbing her hand, leading her away as quickly as possible. Through the twists and turns, she could tell where he was taking her. Back to the top. Now that so many people were chasing them on the lower decks, the upper ones were probably safe. It was a smart move. A really smart one.
‘Another point for the nomad.’
It was good timing. She heard an explosion that had to have been Zuko being freed. With his determination, he’d be on them in seconds. As the reached the top, Aang immediately lunged for a staff that had been leaning on the ship’s rail. His weapon, if Korra had to guess. The second he had managed to grab it, Zuko busted through the steel doors.
“You aren’t getting away from me!” He snarled, as he rushed them. He went for Aang first. It was pretty clear the boy was outmatched by someone who had spent his life fighting. As Aang barely dodged a flaming fist from Zuko, Korra pulled him away, as the pair retreated to the front of the ship. Zuko now had his entire fleet behind him. What was left of them that the Avatars hadn’t knocked out.
As Korra looked overboard, she looked at Aang. This time, it was her turn to ask for his trust. He nodded, as Korra turned back to Zuko. “We are getting away from this ship. You’ll just have to deal with it.” She smiled, as Zuko stepped closer, her own hand clutching Aang’s so that she would be sure she wouldn’t lose him in what she was about to attempt. “Or… you could come with us.” She ignored the look from Aang that basically screamed that she was crazy.
Zuko’s fists went up, but no flames came forth. He was hesitating to fight them. To fight her. So she had gotten through to him a little bit. “You think I’d just abandon my people? My honor, my father-”
“Your father who sent you on a mission that should literally have been impossible?” she asked. “Your sister who, from your descriptions, might be even worse? What are you even fighting for?”
“I need you to go home-”
“Home is the people around you… Are those the people really your home?” Korra asked. She saw that Iroh, Zuko’s uncle, now stood beside him. From the look in his eye, he agreed with her. He just didn’t say it. Korra reached out a hand to Zuko. “All you have to do is take a step. Just one step-”
“And I’ll be a traitor.” Zuko spat.
“Honestly, it seems a heck of a lot better than being a prince.” She argued. Zuko looked between her and Aang. For a second, he almost seemed to lower his fists. Only for a second.
Zuko looked to his surrounding officers, people who were sworn to the prince of the Fire Nation… people who represented the honor that he wanted to reclaim. And he couldn’t bring himself to give it up. He took a step alright. The beginnings of a fire blast. Immediately Korra’s hand tightened even more around Aang’s, as she jumped ship bringing him behind. Using her waterbending, she had just about managed to catch them with a wave just solid enough to stand on. But there were too many people from above. Korra couldn’t push herself as quickly holding Aang’s hand. He was heavily restricting her movement. Eventually, Aang got hit in the back by a fire blast. He was on the verge of passing out almost instantly. And…
That was it. It was the last straw. Aang’s self preservation kicked in… and the protective part of Korra… the part that had formed the second she and Aang had laid eyes on each other… that kicked in too. The next fire blast that came towards them was blown away in a gust of wind as the pair were lifted, a dome of water surrounding them. Through the murky seas, four piercing eyes could be made out.
They didn’t run like Zuko thought they would. Aang landed on the front of the ship, a cyclone of water sweeping up almost every soldier around him, knocking Zuko against the side of the ship. Meanwhile, the seas around the ship froze, lifting it out of the water, as Korra above the ocean pushed the ship so far up that it wouldn’t be able to gain any traction in the ocean. Aang’s wrath was nearly depleted, but Korra took it one step further. She used the water to punch a hole in the ship’s hull as she landed on the top deck. Almost immediately after, the pair collapsed.
Just in time for a flying Bison to land on the ship’s deck.
“Aang! Are you okay?” Katara asked as she kneeled beside him, along with her brother.
“Hey Sokka… hey Katara. Thanks for coming.” Aang said, gratefulness evident in his voice.
“Couldn’t let you have all the fun.” Sokka joked.
Aang clutched the staff that he had thankfully managed to keep hold of through… whatever had just happened to him. “The other Avatar… they had her. She’s over there-” he said weakly. Sokka’s eyes widened, as he looked to the side to see… a girl in Earth Kingdom clothing.
“Huh… I always thought she’d be from the water tribe.” Sokka said plainly, Korra pushing him aside as another fire blast soared by his head.
“Feel free to ask me the sordid details of my life later.” Korra muttered, pushing the crowd on the flying bison, something she had to push down her reaction at seeing as much as possible just to keep herself going as the thing pushed off into the sky.
--
It had been a few days for Ed. A long few days. Ever since people thought of him as whoever this Avatar guy was, he hadn’t been able to show himself very out in the opened, having to hide himself just to get the basics of what he needed. Food, water, basic information… it especially didn’t help that nobody around this place had blonde hair which mean that his basic genetics were a dead giveaway…
His money was basically worthless here, and those ‘fire-bender’ guys everyone was so scared of started poking around town… and if those Earth benders were anything to go by, he’d basically have to be fighting dozens of copies of the Colonel out there… The best lead that he got was some underground tournament. A contest of Earth benders. Apparently the winner didn’t just get money, they got enough money to be rich around here. And he could probably limit himself to just controlling Earth for a bit, hide some of the light show that came with alchemy with his cloak.
If anything, it was a good way to get some resources, maybe stretch his legs. So, he went… and he watched. A bunch of meatheads using rocks in… frankly impossible ways… to kick the crap out of each other. It might have not made sense to him, but he was beginning to pick up the rules to this… bending thing. That to move rock, you had to make sturdy, jolting motions. Almost like you had to be sturdy like the thing you were pushing. He’d have to try to mimic it to hide his alchemy.
“Enjoying the show?” Someone said next to him. A girl. Probably his age… and surprisingly, though there was no way he’s admit it, a bit shorter than him. “You’re not cheering like everyone else.”
“I try not to cheer when I’m studying.” Ed said blankly.
“You’re competing?” The girl asked.
Ed ignored the indignant tone as best he could. “I need the money.” He replied.
“Huh…” The girl replied. “Everyone around here usually is just in it to be the best.”
“Don’t care.” Ed replied.
“And you call yourself an earthbender?” The girl asked, laughing, Ed’s silence at the statement only piquing her curiosity. It seemed like, unlike everybody else here… he had no ego to go with his bending. That was… Different than she was used to.
“What do you need the money for?” She asked, prodding.
“Get out of this place as quick as my legs will carry me.” Ed replied, pulling his hood down ever so slightly. He figured it wouldn’t be the best idea to stand out after what happened before. Preferably his fight would only last a couple of minutes maximum.
“And go where?” she asked, her voice sounding more earnest than Ed expected.
“What? Want to come with?” Ed joked. This time, it was time for him to be weirded out by her silence.
“Tell ya what… when I beat you, you tell me where you’re going.” She replied, Ed tilting his head in confusion only for the girl to casually get to her feet and walk to the stands as the announcer called for the champion of that round, the absolute mountain of a man they called the Boulder, to face off against the undefeated champion.
The blind bandit.
That girl.
Ed folded his face in a grin. At least this place had a few surprises.
--
Azula stepped off the boat that had carried her to this nation. A nation where she was, under no circumstances, to make a scene. She knew that there was nothing here, but she had to admit, her brother’s chasing of the avatar had made her curious about these rumors. A boy able to seemingly bend every element, who had gotten into a scuffle with the Earth Kingdom guard. As Mai walked beside her, she was only curious about the fact that her brother seemed to show no interest in it. He would chase any shadow. It probably meant that this was something not even worth his time.
Or maybe … she thought as she straightened the attire of her peasant clothing she wore not to attract attention, clothing that itched her skin with every step she took in a frankly unbearable way… Just maybe… I’m not chasing a shadow. She smiled wickedly. If anything, it was a good enough way to pass the time.