Authors Note

Full disclosure I haven't read the whole fic and I don't think this counts as spoilers but do feel free to click off now if you don't want to be spoiled in any way. I am also taking a few creative liberties from both sources with the events so it isn't just a copy.

It goes without saying I don't own any of these characters: cannon or AU.

This is set in what would have been season 1 so I know Katara/ Azula shouldn't shown up yet but this is all I've read and I think Azula gets a bit of a redemption later but I need Aang still to hate her for this to work. This is from when their camping out with the freedom fighters for a night before they realise their plan.

Third Person
Aang had been through a lot. He'd watched his world burn. He'd watched so many of his friends die at the hands of people who were now supposedly on his side.

He had had enough of Azula being 'nice' to him. She was a ruthless murderer. A mad Fire Lady who had helped her father destroy the Earth Kingdom, just as her great-grandfather did to his people. She shouldn't get to be good whilst his old friend tried to hunt him down.

It was a knife to the heart every time she tried to be sincere, every time she tried to teach him a new trick, every time she made a sarcastic but harmless jab at her brother. She shouldn't get to have Katara's life, while she was trapped in hers.

So he left.

A note on their rooms door and took Appa and {Momo equivalent} (I have been trying to find the original fic but for some reason I can't do if any of you know her name, if you could comment it, it would be much appreciated). He didn't know where they would go but he knew he needed space.

He knew realistically he would have to go back eventually but for now there was nothing he wouldn't do to get away for just one second. Odds were Jet was accutally good in this universe but just in case he tried to wipe out the water tribe colony he would have to stay close.

Appa was tired from the days flying so the trio was stuck walking along the forest floor. It was a bit tight but the bison just about managed.

This forest seemed so peaceful, one could forget there was probably a hundred traps dotted around, and at least one freedom fighter following him. The boy allowed the chirping of crickets, songs of the birds and the gentle rustle of the wind in the leaves to consume his every thought.

Everything was just to much - he needed to go numb even for a little.

He and his companions traveled in silence for a good half an hour before it started to rain. He instinctively went to bend a little water umbrella before realising he couldn't. His non-native elements along with every one he knew had been reset and twisted.

He began to look around for shelter when he noticed the rain didn't extend beyond a two meter radius around him.

Grabbing his staff, he held it tight bracing for an attack.
"I'm not in the mood for this, show yourself!" He ordered, eyes darting trying to spy the source of the rain. He racked his brain trying to think of what happend but of course he didn't leave Sokka and Katara last time. It could have been a band of soldiers, but they didn't get this discrete until later in the war when only a few band of rebel groups were left.

Silently a figure clothed all in black fell through the battleship-gray cloud. He quickly sent an air blast and rolled out the way of an ice spike. They landed and ended the rain, instead choosing to have an arsenal of floating water behind them. They sent flurries of ice, then tentacles of water jets to try and snatch his feet from out under him.

Spirits they were good. Every move took his full concentration just to block the attack never mind fire back.

Once again he cursed his lack of waterbending: they had a never ending supply of weapons if he couldn't displace the water.

Seeing an opening he sent a powerful blast of air for their chest. They blinked back their surprise as Aang landed the hit.

"Who are you?" He asked, sustaining the wind, pinning them to the tree and stopping all attacks.

It was only now he was really looking at their face. Their tan skin shone through their black mask with a warmth their eyes didn't quite match. But there was something about them that seemed all to familiar: like returning to air temples after coming out the ice, once a sanctuary of warmth and peace now abandoned and littered with the ravages of war.

"Katara," he whispered, the strong wind he was controlling faltered.

"That's Princess to you, Avatar." She hissed, drawing moisture from the ground, sucking the life force from the grass and blasting him back against a tree. It didn't even register to Aang: he just let it happen. She shacked his legs and arms back with ice before drawing an ice spike together with a delicate swirling motion.

"Is that really you?" He whispered, voice hoarse.

Oh spirits how he missed her. He hadn't seen her in what felt like years but was really only a few weeks. He knew in this world everything was supposed to be opposite, and Sokka had appeared, face scared and trying to capture him (but he'd wrote that down to, like his Zuko, his father had made him bitter). But Katara was fundamentally a good person - she would never have stood back while innocent people suffered. He'd desperately hoped she was out there, forming some kind of rebel group or doing anything but actively help the terror.

But here she was fighting him, knowing he was the Avatar.

With an unwavering stare the ice spike pierced right through his clothes and dangerously close to the skin. Never once did either break eye contact. Never once did either flinch. Never once did either move to attack further.

Aang may have been slightly disillusioned with her moral standing but still he held onto his hope: Katara had perfect precision. If she wanted to end him - as his Azula had tried numerous times (and once succeeded) - she could have.

She was going easy on him.

Maybe he had a chance.

Maybe she was still fundamentally his Katara.

But her icy blue eyes were devoid of any of the warmth he loved. Her genuine and bright smile never once seemed to grace this Katara's lips. Her passion and care for others was replaced with a war machine.

No this wasn't his Katara. But she was still Katara.

And no matter what, he couldn't bring himself to fight her.

"Why aren't you fighting me?" She asked, eyes assessing his every move. She wasn't used to people going easy on her. Or showing her mercy... But she had a mission and she would succeed. 

She should be making him bend to her will. Force the all mighty Avatar to kneel before her. Capture him and present him to her father. Cement her claim to the thrown and role as her father's favourite.

But there was this little nagging feeling, a seed of doubt, the smallest twinge that she shouldn't. Where it came from she didn't know, but it weakened her. And she didn't like it.

"Because I love you in every universe. And I always will."