Chapter Text
"My own mother thought I was a monster..." Azula started as she stood right in front of the fire, catching everyone's attention. It all felt too familiar, yet surreal. Zuko couldn't help but feel the shivers being sent down his spine. Something felt odd, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.
Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing.
"She was right, of course..." Azula scoffed as she blankly looked at her own hand before discreetly taking the knife she had kept inside her pocket for so long.
"But it still hurt." She whispered, frowning. With the distinct glint in her eyes, she slashed her palm, blood dripping down the soil beneath from right where she stood, turning everything into its path a lethal shade of crimson. It's exactly how she envisioned humanity kneeling beneath their mercy.
Small bouts of lighting surrounded her entire body, there was no time for caution to everyone gathered around her.
Sokka held onto the blade of his maneuvering gear tightly in anticipation of what was going to happen next, but still failing to prevent it as his mouth fell agape in shock just like the others.
Perhaps it was too late. None of them have seen this coming, not even Zuko himself.
Aang couldn't believe what was happening, none of the past avatars had warned him about this or even the mere possibility of it. He immediately sprinted towards Katara in a desperate attempt to shield her.
And that's when everything turned black.
"Aang, you need to wake up." He heard a faint voice talking to him. He couldn't feel anything, it's as if he was floating in mere darkness, and all that kept him somehow grounded to reality was that faint voice he could barely even recognize.
"Aang." The voice repeated even louder. By now he could feel his limbs again, he attempted to close his fists just to feel... something.
"Aang, please. You have to wake up, you need to stay alive." He could feel a hand on his chest, stirring him up. He finally knew who was talking to him.
"Aang? Aang." Katara cried out again, her breaths were becoming even shallower as her face grew even more worried.
"You have to give it some time, Kat. I'm sure he's fine." Sokka reassured as he placed a hand on her shoulder in efforts to calm her down, it didn't work too well, though.
"It's been an entire day, Sokka. How am I not supposed to worry about him?!" Katara snapped.
"Geez, if he has a pulse and if he's breathing then that means he's alive. It's that simple." Azula sighed, crossing her elbows as she butted in, only to get a hostile reaction from Katara.
"He saved your ass, so the best thing you can do is shut up!" Katara retorted.
Azula glared back and couldn't help but frown at what Katara just told her. It was true though. She was in a near-death experience for the first time in her entire life. And the worst part is that she was saved by someone she ruthlessly killed in the past. It was pathetic, to say the least.
She was pathetic.
Katara bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed as she frantically located his pulse. He was still alive and breathing, just like what Azula said. That's good. But what if... what if... "What if he's brain-dead? How are we supposed to... how are we supposed to get back?"
"I'm sure we'll figure something out..." Zuko muttered mindlessly. He wasn't even so sure of that himself, but he said it anyways in hopes of keeping everyone sane. "What's important is that we're now safe inside the walls, I'm sure we'll figure a way out soon."
"Guys! He's blinking!" Katara exclaimed, smiling as one hand caressed his cheek, the other holding Aang's hand tightly. The others stood up from where they sat and gathered behind Katara.
"Where... what happened?" Aang groaned as he tried to get up.
"Someone get him some water." Katara requested as she helped Aang get up, subsequently making him lean against a wall nearby for support.
Azula sighed and reluctantly got up to go get Aang some water. It's probably the least she could do to return him the favor. She hated the feeling though, she hated being humbled down, she hated being in anyone's debt.
She walked towards the end of the hallway filled with refugees to go grab some cup of water. From what she's heard by far, there were inside Wall Rose and the creatures they encountered not too long ago were called "titans."
"Here." She said as she handed Katara the cup of water.
"Thanks," Katara replied flatly as she gave it to Aang. "Go drink up, you need it."
Aang did what he was told, before he went on and asked another question, his voice still raspy. "How did we get here?"
"We got luckily saved by a couple of soldiers just in time, then they brought us here inside the walls... I guess we're safe for now..." Sokka answered.
"Appa... where did they.." He cut himself off as he slowly began to remember the events that led them there.
"Aang, Appa got eaten... that's why we're stuck here." Katara looked very concerned before she reminded him, her hand placed gently above his shoulder.
"Yeah, sorry... I'm starting to remember now." Aang told her before he continued asking, "So... you guys have any plans?"
"Azula and I scouted around the refugee camp to go gather some information. Apparently, the outer wall which we thought was Ba Sing Se's lower ring is called Wall Maria. It got destroyed a year ago so they sent thousands of refugees to retake it, but they failed. Then now they're recruiting more cadets to be a part of the scouts to fight off those... things..." Zuko explained.
"Titans." Azula corrected.
"Right." Zuko agreed, before proceeding with his explanation to Aang. "So yeah, signing up for the cadets then the scouts would help us secure those gears they use to kill the titans. It's one step towards escaping this... place."
"Where are we anyway?" Aang asked back.
"None of us knows it yet exactly... Did we somehow end up in a different dimension? We don't know." Azula mused before turning her attention to Zuko, "Zuzu, when you were searching for the avatar, did your crew somehow manage to circumnavigate the world?"
"I... I don't think so. No." Zuko answered.
Azula continued sharing her presumptions, "Then one possibility is that... we and our ancestors haven't explored the entire world yet, and this is just the other side of it. What's even stranger is that we write and speak the same language as the people here, yet none of them are benders, at least we haven't seen one yet." She then asked Aang, "How about you, avatar? Did the past avatars tell you something about this?"
"No..." Aang simply answered, his voice trailing off before he came up with another question on top of the other, "You guys can still bend, right?"
"Yeah... but we tried restraining ourselves the moment the scouts arrived, they might hold us captive if they find out," Katara answered.
"I see, so if we're not in the Spirit World, then where are we?" Aang mused.
"Azula might be right." Sokka agreed with her thoughts and reiterated it, "Maybe we haven't explored the world fully yet." He then asked Aang, "Have you tried contacting the past avatars yet?"
"I tried once while I was knocked out, but there was nothing. It's as if our connection has been severed off." Aang answered, his gaze glued down to the floor in desperation.
"Funny how this entire adventure started as a mission to find our mom, and now we're stuck here." Azula scoffed.
It wasn't just more than a day ago when the five of them left the Royal Palace and boarded Appa in hopes of finding Zuko's mom. The first strange thing that happened was that they were headed for the northeastern part of the Fire Nation, but Appa had led them unknowingly to the Earth Kingdom instead. They thought they were flying over Ba Sing Se's lower ring and decided to stop there to gather some supplies, only to find out later on that the entire place was deserted and that they weren't in Ba Sing Se at all. If it weren't for the thick sea of gray clouds obstructing their view, they would've found out about it sooner and they wouldn't have gone down. But as Appa descended rather quite quickly, a stray titan grabbed its tail and dragged him to the ground before it attempted to eat him. The group didn't even have a full second to internalize what was going on, they had to react at the spur of the moment and jump out of Appa's saddle to save themselves. The titan then spat out Appa's lifeless and disfigured body that was torn down in half.
What happened next almost felt like a blur. They were all lucky that Appa descended near Wall Rose that they only had to sprint just 50 more meters to get into the safe zone. But then again, it was raining. The visibility was too low and the area was infested by titans. More than that, they didn't know where they're supposed to head to. They didn't even know that all they had to do was get inside the walls to save themselves, they weren't from Paradis after all.
Katara tried using the rain to her advantage, but it was no use. The giants couldn't just die off easily with shards of ice and water blades. The same went for Azula and Zuko, their firebending seemed useless. However, Azula tried using her lightning, which surprisingly was enough to kill a titan or two. Unfortunately, at that rate, she'd have to generate and aim lightning at least five more times to kill five more titans within their vicinity, which isn't feasible at all if they want to reserve their stamina longer.
During her third attempt, Azula's aim misses a titan, her lightning hits a chimney instead, causing debris to fall on her. She stood there still, her life flashing right before her eyes. There was simply no way out from it. The giant was already headed towards their way, but she slightly felt relieved to know that she the debris was going to kill her first before she gets eaten by it as the bison did. She had accepted her fate already when Aang suddenly gets in the way to save her, pushing her out as he gets hit by the falling debris instead, knocking him off unconscious.
"Aang!" Katara shrieked as she ran towards her death. The titan was only a few meters away from them by now. Azula still sat there helplessly, her eyes wide open in shock, her breaths rapid and shallow.
"Katara let's go, we have to go!" Zuko shouted.
"You have to help me get this thing off of Aang! Please!" Katara cried out as she frantically tried to lift chunks of stone lying atop of Aang, but her efforts remained futile.
"Katara, that thing is coming we have to go!" Sokka exclaimed.
"So you're all just going to let him die?! Is that it?!" Katara screamed back at them.
The titan was only a few steps away when Azula snapped out of it and grabbed Katara by the hand so they could all escape in time.
"Get off me! He was still breathing! He's still alive!" Katara resisted and tried running back, but Azula's grip was rather strong. "He saved your ass so why wouldn't you?!"
Azula frowned momentarily, her brows furrowed before she burst out in anger, "fine. Then let's all die here if that's what you want. You want to survive? Then we have to leave the avatar, there's no other option." She strongly insisted as she tugged Katara's arm.
"Fuck off!" Katara spat as she yanked Azula's grip off of her arm. Her eyes shot wide open in horror as she looked back and saw the giant lift Aang's limp body from the pile of debris. "No..." she gasped, "No!" A loud cry escaped from her lips as she mindlessly ran towards her death.
But it wasn't until a mere second later when they saw several people wearing green capes swiftly flying over rooftops. The four of them all stood frozen, observing what was going on in pure silence, but still failing to comprehend everything. Those people managed to take the remaining giants down by slashing swords on their nape, and one of them managed to catch Aang's body right from the moment the titan loosened its grip.
"You must be a few of the refugees who survived the operation to retake Wall Maria." One of the green-caped men approached them, "We were told that there were a few survivors left out here waiting for some rescue, but we didn't actually expect to see one, not to mention that there's five of you out here."
"It's a miracle you survived without having any maneuvering gears on you, how long have you been out here?" The green-caped man asked them.
No one simply knew how to answer him. Not one of them understood what was going on after all.
"Sorry." The green-caped man apologized, "Perhaps I'm being too aggressive with these questions, you guys must be traumatized... being stranded out there and all for so long..."
Despite all the confusion from what just happened, Katara couldn't help but interfere, "My friend needs help. Do you have any supplies nearby?"
"Yes. Yes, of course. We'll take you to the refugee camp, there'll be a clinic waiting for you and your friends there." The scout told them as they were led towards a wagon.
"Thank you."