Chapter Text
The ringing sound of steel clashing together filled the air as Zuko and Azula whirled around in a well-practiced dance. Azula thrust forward with her single shin gunto while Zuko hurriedly parried with his dao swords. They had been sparring for hours and both were exhausted. Eventually Zuko swung one of his swords over his head while stabbing with the other, catching his sister off guard and tripping her up.
“Submit?” Zuko asked, gasping for breath.
Azula looked disdainfully down at the sharp point that was poking dangerously near her face. “Ugh. Okay, I submit. But one day I’m going to beat you.”
“You can already beat me if you used fire bending.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, brother,” she said in a fake haughty voice but then her words took on a slightly softer quality, “That wouldn’t be fun, you still sometimes freeze up when you see fire.”
“I hate that you have to deal with my weird panicky moments.”
“You’re ridiculous, you pathetic turtle duck. I don’t care if I have to help you with your weird panicky moments. You do the same for me.”
“I know I’ve got a bit better but I’m a firebender who sometimes panics when I see fire. How stupid is that?”
“Who cares - no one knows that we’re firebenders. You’re the one who has to train me and deal with my bullshit when my legs are refusing to cooperate, anyway.”
“Hey, that’s not bullshit, Azula,” Zuko replied in a softer tone.
Although the siblings had grown much stronger in the month after leaving the ship, there were still some days where Azula suffered with paralyzing pains traversing over the scars that covered all of her body. It was particularly bad when it affected her legs as she simply couldn’t do anything and the feeling of helplessness and Azula did not mesh well together. Azula rolled her eyes at Zuko’s comment but a small smile wormed onto her face anyway.
The next morning, Azula and Zuko packed up their make-shift camp and moved on in their travels, wanting to resupply and find a little work in the next town. They moved every week, finding simple farm work that an 11 year old and a 13 year old could manage or similar manual labour in each new place for a couple of days to buy food and essentials and then continuing their journey. There wasn’t really a point to their wandering - more of an aimless, ongoing sibling field trip. It was the best experience they had ever had.
A few hours after they left, they reached a small village called Baoshan, nestled in the pastoral Earth Colony countryside. Azula and Zuko smiled as they saw the peaceful scenery although their smiles were slightly sad as they knew this little corner of the world wouldn’t stay untouched by the war.
And they were right.
***
Zuko and Azula were strolling around the market, picking up various non-perishable foods that would sustain them for a while when a troop of soldiers clanked into the village, casually pushing passers by while shoving their way up to one of the stalls. A captain was in the lead and grabbed the vendor of the stall by the collar of his shirt.
“Now, you listen to me. On behalf of Firelord Ozai, I’ve come to liberate you of some of that money that rightfully belongs to us.”
“No, please. I need the money to feed my wife and children,” the vendor begged.
“You won’t see your wife and children again if you don’t pay up,” the captain threatened back menacingly.
The vendor reached into his money box and practically emptied out the whole thing until the captain was satisfied while trying not to sob with sorrow.
Azula had to pull Zuko away so they wouldn’t face the captain’s wrath next. They went to find work on some farm on the outskirts of the village and returned back to their make-shift camp for an evening meal.
***
The same events occurred for the following days as Zuko and Azula walked through the village centre every morning to see the captain threatening a new innocent civilian. And after each day, Zuko got more and more broody (which Azula didn’t think was possible) until one night when Zuko and Azula were settled cozily around the fire. After a while of comfortable silence, Zuko, who had previously been deep in thought, glanced up.
“Az?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m going to help the people in the village. From the Fire Nation battalion, I mean. I want to help people and everyone’s suffering and I can’t take it anymore. I’m pretty good with my Dao blades and I think I could make a difference.”
“Okay. When are we setting off?” Azula grunted, seemingly reluctant, but Zuko could see the anticipation radiating off of her.
“You’re coming too?”
“Of course I am. You’re just begging to get yourself killed and I’m not letting you have all the fun,” Azula gave a long suffering sigh, “Plus you’re 13 and I’m even younger. We need to have each other’s backs.”
“I thought I’d have to convince you way more than that.”
“I was wondering when you were going to suggest it. You’ve been quiet all week. It’s a wonder your brain hasn’t exploded from all the thinking.”
“ You just had to ruin the moment, didn’t you?”
“Yep.”
“You’re terrifying.”
“I know.”
“Shall we set off tomorrow morning?”
“That would probably be best.”
The pair spent the rest of the evening creating a plan, ready to enact it the next morning.
***
Azula woke up before Zuko, roused, as she often was, by another nightmare. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes groggily while trying not to wake up her brother. The fire was dwindling, and Azula noticed that Zuko was lying far away from the glow of the fire, presumably to not induce nightmares about Ozai’s attack. Azula smiled sadly in his direction and looked in the pack for something to eat. Just as she was going to pull out a roll, a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her. She looked up and realised it was Zuko who had stopped her. He must have woken up as Azula had risen.
“We need to ration our food. We don’t know how long it’ll be until we get to stop again. We need to go.” he said, his voice sleep-filled. Zuko sat up, tied his hair up and buttoned the bag back up, swinging it over his shoulder.
“Wait!” Azula called. Zuko saw that she was rummaging for something, but he couldn’t see what. She finally swung round, holding the two spirit masks they had bought before.
“What...what do we need those for?” Zuko asked, raising an eyebrow. Azula looked at her brother sceptically.
“You’re a bit thick, aren’t you? We’re not going to be exactly stealthy with these ugly mugs. We need to use them for disguises, dum dum.” Azula sighed. Zuko looked mildly offended at the insult, but took the blue one from Azula’s hand and fixed it onto his face, pulling up his hood over his head so that his face was completely concealed.
***
The fire was coming in bolts as big as comets, and they’d probably hurt the same. But both Azula and Zuko had no intention of being hit by one as they moved the whole town out of the way of the fire nation soldiers. Azula was holding a toddler with tears streaming down his cheeks and Zuko had a baby in his arms, multi tasking with attempting to get the village out, holding the crying child, avoiding being hit by a blazing blot of fire and cutting down the soldiers with his swords. Neither had ever really imagined this as being their future careers.
They had slightly miscalculated their attack and butted in just as the battalion was being relieved by a new one and a warship had been called out to check out the ‘possible revolutionary activity’. Little did they know that it was just two children dressed up as characters from their favourite story.
***
They could see the fire nation ship coming from a mile away. They looked from the huge boat to the town it was heading for and they clenched their fists.
“Zuko, I’ll stay here and keep watch. I’ll try to hold them off.” Azula said. “You go and warn the village.”
“Are you crazy?” Zuko asked, and Azula shrugged. “You can’t use your firebending to keep inconspicuous. You’re not gonna hold a whole fire nation army off with one sword.”
“You willing to take that bet?” Azula said with a wild grin, “Oh relax, idiot. I’m only joking - it’s a small raider ship that has been called out to address a low-level threat. It’s not going to be armed to the teeth with elite soldiers.” Before Zuko could object that this was still incredibly reckless, he had been shoved away, and Azula was ready to fight.
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, before running off to warn the village, a pit of worry in his stomach for his sister. He knew that the reason he wasn’t there instead of her was because he was at least slightly better at talking to people than his sister, but that didn’t stop him from wishing he was fighting aside Azula. He looked back at his sister, then continued running to the village.
Azula somehow managed to keep calm as a 6 foot fire nation captain stepped off the boat and stood in front of her. Azula kept her right hand hovering over the hilt of her sword, but stretched her left hand out.
“Good morning, captainl, how do you do?” she said with faux friendliness, a touch of ice in her voice.
“Take off the mask, child. You can’t be more than 10 years old. We’ve got better things to do than scare away some children playing dress-up.” The general sneered back. Azula crossed her arms.
“Make me then.” she said, sounding rather like a small toddler. Two guards grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back roughly. “You know, you’re a bit stupid, aren’t you?” she said. “It’s going to take more than that to kidnap me.” And in a flash, the guards who grabbed her were on the ground, one with a hand clamped over a bleeding temple after a violent punch to the head, and the other doubled over in pain from a kick in the crotch. She turned around to the general, who was red in the face in a fighting position. “You know, I think it’s time to hire some new staff. These ones aren’t very skilled at their jobs.” she said. She pulled the sword from the scabbard. “Let’s hope that you’re better.” Azula dodged the burst of fire that flew towards her and darted over the now unconscious body of the first guard. “Oh, that’s disappointing. I guess you’re not.”
Zuko had warned the village and helped them all leave, finding a safe place for them to hide while the army was searching. He ran back down to where he had seen Azula last to find her standing amidst (hopefully only) unconscious bodies, looking a little too proud of herself.
“Spirits Azula, what the hell did you do?” Zuko gasped. Azula shrugged.
“I’m magic,” she said sarcastically. “What do you think happened?” Zuko looked around at the people lying on the floor.
“Is he…dead?” Zuko asked. Azula craned her neck to look at the body Zuko was looking at.
“No, he’s not.” Azula replied.
“Your emphasis on the ‘he’s’ concerns me.” Zuko said. Azula smirked and Zuko shook his head, thinking that they may have to have another conversation about violent impulses and homicidal tendencies.
***