Jump 162: Avatar - The Last Airbender

Jump 162: Avatar - The Last Airbender

Location: Eastern Air Temple
Age: 15
Identity: Nomad, Airbender
Drawbacks: [+600] Into The Inferno, The Seven Chakras

[50/1600]   Sense Of Humor
[200/1600]  Spiritualist
[500/1600]  Innovative
[600/1600]  Bending Arts (Wind)
[1200/1600] Bending Genius
[Free]      Air Nomad Glider
[1600/1600] Master's Scroll (Fire, Air)

Five years before the return of the Avatar, the Fire Lord and the younger of his sons shared a vision. A vision of a world that was to be in flames, instead reduced merely to embers, the fire blown out by a wind that ought not to have been. This was, not coincidentally, a vision that was brought upon them both at the same time that Prince Iroh's son died in combat. Though the Fire Lord still was enraged at the seeming desire for Prince Ozai to become the heir to the throne shortly after, this was moot as his own flame was extinguished after he'd threatened to kill Ozai's own son.

Very mysterious how he mysteriously died, mysteriously, after making such a blatant threat. So mysterious that literally no one looked into it, though his mysterious wife was mysteriously exiled for mysterious reasons.

Of course, Iroh retiring from the war didn't change much; Ozai decided it prudent to refocus the war effort as it had been wearing everyone thin, while also quietly sending forth individuals to search for a particular airbender. Not that they were terribly successful in this endeavor - at best they had rumors that such an individual might have come from the seemingly abandoned Eastern Air Temple, before disappearing. But throughout the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation seemed to have issues with sabotage where otherwise they would not. No one involved in fighting, but missing supplies, food spoiled before its time, occasionally ship boilers simply blowing out. All signs, at least to the Fire Lord, that this was the work of the one in his vision, but none could find the culprit.

It came to pass that the crown prince spoke out in a meeting when he ought not have. But words were whispered in the prince's ear before the ritual combat that his father had challenged him to - and while the prince began by offering an apology, he still faced his father in combat. It changed little from how things would otherwise have gone, and the prince still found himself with a scar upon his face and exile until he completed an impossible task. But the same one that whispered words of encouragement was certain to tell him that despite what even the Fire Lord said, honor was satisfied with the duel, and the Fire Lord was not the sole arbiter of what was and was not honorable in this world.

Zuko went forth on his mission with more steel in his spine than he might have had, and less brittleness, but it still took his uncle Iroh time to imbue the maturity that he needed - after all, he was still young. Yet, the Fire Lord found himself beset by inconveniences in the capitol. Enough that anyone could see were simple coincidences, but he insisted was an unknown actor. Some began to quietly wonder whether he was truly fit as Fire Lord, considering his actions against his son and his instabilities, his public humiliation of his son for asking a strategic question. And none could find the supposed air bender that he blamed for increasingly more things - ranging from corruption to incompetence to the wind blowing out candles.

Azula, on the other hand, was quite taken with one of her tutors who'd shown up perhaps a year or two prior to that point. Unlike most, he would let her rage, but he would not flinch even if she were angered to the point of shooting flame at him; instead he would let her have her moment, and then turn it into a lesson in itself. His own firebending was stunted, but he was quite knowledgable for being barely an adult himself at that time, and would often say innocuous things that made sense in retrospect or would help her puzzle through something. While it was nothing such as an infatuation, he was certainly a puzzle that she tired to figure out, until things escalated to the point that the Avatar was repeatedly confronted by Zuko and the Fire Nation began seeking him out in earnest.

This was a bit derailed by the fact that another airbender had, finally, been confirmed to be out in the open... and one that seemed to use every trick he could for maximum mobility. And yet his bending was not quite the same as had been described in the archives. He'd manifest bits of air at the ends of his fingertips to turn a swipe of the hand into a slash that could cut through cloth and rope with ease, and which could easily draw blood if someone was unwise enough to get too close. Aside from the traditional air glider, he'd been seen to be wearing a baggy cloak on more than one occasion, which itself could catch the air like a sail and propel him through the skies. Or be used as a sail on the open water, his feet rooted firmly in place.

Azula's tutor was arrested and thoroughly interrogated, and only released weeks later when the rogue airbender had been confirmed to strike in two different locations during that time. Azula herself was displeased, and increasingly possessive of him after that point; when she eventually gathered her somewhat estranged friends to venture forth, she pointedly included him. Both to have a, quote-unquote "responsible adult", and one that had been proven loyal to a fault, that had even offered his life's blood if it would satisfy whatever he'd done to gain the Fire Lord's ire.

Azula's actions dovetailed with Zuko's hunting of the Avatar at several points, though it escaped her notice that her tutor had slipped a scroll to the Avatar during the confrontation in the capitol during the eclipse, just before he'd fled. And of course, his firebending was weak at best, sparking and popping and weak flames the extent of his abilities in combat. But still the Fire Nation's army was beset by problems during this time, their sieges nearly universally unsuccessful, the only successes found almost universally at Azula's hands. For example, taking Ba Sing Se. Though the Da Li ... fared poorly, for certain tutor-related reasons.

Things progressed further, however, and eventually Azula seemingly killed the Avatar with lightning and returned in triumph to the capitol along with her brother who she credited with the Avatar's death. Her tutor made sure to try to keep her grounded, but she would not let anything keep her down as the Fire Lord named her the new Fire Lord... only to name himself Phoenix King. Because of course he has to take the wind out of everyone's sails. But more than her own ire, her tutor pointed out the anger of the nobles who thought the unstable king was to step down - her tutor, after all, had not been the only loyal citizen subject to interrogation and imprisonment. In private, Azula despaired that her father only ever saw her as a weapon, and wondered what to do. Her tutor's answer? She was not a sword, she was a person, and deserved to be treated as such.

When the day of Sozin's Comet came about, the Avatar and his compatriots stormed the capitol. And Azula joined them, having been forewarned by her tutor. Of course, in the confusion she and a certain waterbender still had a duel, but all was otherwise well--

"You have to see that the Fire Lord has to be stopped!"
"I'M the Fire Lord! You mean the Phoenix King?!"
"Whatever, I mean Ozai!"
"My father is an idiot, and his madness needs to be stopped!"
"You attacked ME! From what Zuzu told me, I figured this was how you waterbenders said hello! I'm trying to be friendly!"
"If you were being friendly you wouldn't be trying to burn off my eyebrows! This fight is totally unnecessary!"
"Blasphemy! ALL fights are necessary! Besides, they'll grow back!"

--and at the end of it, she and Katara both found themselves flat on their backs on the ground, laughing their heads off at the absurdity of the situation.

The battle ended, as lopsided as it was in the end. The Avatar chose not to strike Ozin down, but instead to take away his ability to bend entirely. In the days to come, he was imprisoned of course, but Azula was still technically Fire Lord - the nobility and military had been in favor of Ozai's deposement, even if the soldiers had to be seen fighting the Avatar's motley crew in order for it to not be seen as an outright coup. Zuko, though, was still given a position of authority, if just shy of Azula's. And years later, just before her once-tutor disappeared, Azula gave birth to a pair of twins that had the ability to bend both fire and air. They were mum about who the father could have been, since the Avatar himself was involved with Katara and had an obvious disinterest if anything. Too, there were rumors that both Zuko and Azula gained the ability to bend the same two elements, though they were studiously denied. Alas, children are never so circumspect about it, so there was no way for that to be hidden. Perhaps, some said, it was a reward from the spirits for standing true against the madness of their father, the would-be phoenix.

And there were rumors of Azula's tutor visiting the former Phoenix King in his cell; it is unknown what was said, but the disgraced ex-firebender was known to be in a state of wrathful despair for weeks afterward.

"Hello, Ozai."
"So familiar with me, are you? I thought you a loyal subject, but you opposed me in the end as well, didn't you? Even if you can't bend fire. At least I once had the ability to be competent, you'll never have that."
"Actually, I can't bend fire at all. That was some very elaborate sleight of hand. But were I not a bender, I would not have been allowed to serve the royal family. Needs must, in the end."
"Not even a bender, in the end. Ironic."
"Oh, I never said I wasn't a bender. I said I wasn't able to bend fire. But air? I can bend air just fine."
"Madness. You expect me to believe that we harbored an airbender unaware? We looked into your background, your childhood, your friends!"
"Fabrications all. But don't feel badly, you never could have found otherwise - for I am the punishment sent from the spirit world."
"From the spirit world. Indeed, you must be mad."
"Oh, angry perhaps. Would you care to know why?"
"Oh, by all means, great spirit, tell me."
"I have had your daughter's ear for the last two years. In two more, I will have your daughter's bed--"
"YOU LIE!"
"--and two more beyond that, she will bear my children. And they will be able to bend air, this I will guarantee."
"You dare hope to defile the royal line!"
"Oh, no, 'Fire Lord'. I shall corrupt the line in a way that your daughter will never forget. And as it is within my power, I will ensure that the both of your children will bending air as well."
"Even the spirits couldn't..!"
"Is it truly so hard to believe? The Avatar spared you, but you will never bend again."
"He was weak. He should have killed me..."
"Mm, but this way your disgrace rings down the annals of history. Now consider: the avatar is a bridge between the mortal world and the spirit world, but when the avatar has been indisposed... would you not expect the spirits to take matters into their own hands? To bring one to ensure balance is kept, as time passes?"
"You lie."
"What better way to ensure there is balance... but for the leaders of the Fire Nation to bend air forevermore? And when you see your grandchildrens' faces, you will see my own, looking back at you."
"No. No!"
"Oh, yes. And even as the world changes in the decades to come, Ozai... after I have left to the spirit world... when the world needs me in seven decades, I will return again, to once more help the Avatar. Not that you had an inkling that I had done it. You of course will be dust, but your daughter will still be around."
"Are you here simply to rub salt in my wounds?!"
"Yes. Had you not committed great sins, the heavens would not have sent me as your punishment. No, Ozai, it shall be within my power to restore your daughter's youth and to take her beyond the living world. She will know a life beyond your imagining at my side. And you... you have nothing but the spirits' punishment ahead of you."

A pity no one knew of the conversation. No one ever seemed to think to tell the disgraced Ozai that the Fire Nation's royalty could bend both air and fire.