Azula Amongst the Stars

Chapter 1

Authors Note: Hello and thank you for clicking! This is my very first attempt at writing fanfiction using my favorite series of all time and using my favorite character from said series. I mainly made this story because I wanted read a sci-fi themed ATLA series that involved aliens yet could not find any and so I decided to just write one my self. lol. 

This story takes a lot of inspiration from sci-fi television series such as Farscape, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate and Babylon 5 while also using and barrowing some original characters and concepts from my own personal worldbuilding projects, so if you enjoy any of those then you'll like this fic. And if for any reason you have trouble reading a chapter I have this fic up on fanfiction.Net and Ao3.

Thank you again and I hope you enjoy! 

Two years since the hundred year war came to an end. Two years since she was at the top of the world. Two years since she was set to be the next fire lord. Two years since she was betrayed by both those she would call her friends and her mind. Two years since it was all stolen from her by her brother, the man she hated most in life and his group, the Avatar and his friends. Azula, former princess of the fire nation, is now on the run as her last attempt to destabilize her brother's rule had failed and now she is being pursued by the Avatar through the western Earth Kingdom.
She sat at the edge of a campfire, her legs tucked into her chest, in the middle of the great divide under a tapestry of stars. Traveling alone while being pursued had not been kind to the teenage girl as her once porcelain skin had been scuffed with dirt and faint scratches, her long ebony hair that was once held up tight in a proud topknot now hung half freely past her shoulders and half done up in a disheveled topknot unbecoming of someone of her status, her clothes where tattered and dirty peasant rags that she had to steal after abandoning the royal robes she had months earlier when she was still in the Fire Nation capital that was covered in a tattered cloak that now serves as a makeshift blanket. Her narrow eyes that always had a spark of cunning and life in them now stare blankly at the fire in defeat, dark bags from lack of proper sleep hung below them.
Four months of running, four months of looking over her shoulder and wondering how much time she had left before her pursuers catch up with her. Frustration grew as she stared into the orange flame. Seeing that golden crown hair piece adorning Zuko's head infuriated her to no end. It belonged to her. Her father Fire Lord Ozai, no Phoenix King Ozai, gave his blessing that she rule the Fire Nation. A position that she has strived towards her entire life that she trained to perfection was snuffed from her by her traitor brother and his peasant friends. Even though she told her brother that it wasn't her destiny to become Fire Lord, a lie of course, she tried to steer Zuko to rule the nation how it should be, through unquestionable fear and strength. She had hoped that teaming up with the New Ozai Society, posing as the Kumerakage and abducting fire nation children she'd get him to rule as he should. But no, the Avatar and his posse of fools thwarted her plans.
The New Ozai society fell apart almost as quickly as they formed, its most prominent members arrested and the rest scattered or submitting like the weak dogs they are. Azula would not end up like them, trapped in a cell again or cowing down to a weak ruler. No. She would flee her homeland for now, stay low and gather her strength to strike once again. She just has to find a safe place to hide in for awhile, however that is easier said than done. Just two days ago the Avatar and his two water tribe peasants had found her amongst a harbor town, almost as if they were waiting for her, and she barely managed to escape. Thankfully the blind earthbender wasn't with them which made her uncanny ability to sense her through the earth something she didn't need to concern herself with, at least for now. Who knows when she will join the hunt for her.
Her mind had barely healed since she was free of the mental asylum Zuko had trapped her in since her defeat on the day of the comet. At the corner of her vision she could see her.
That woman.
She sat just outside of Azula's reach; kneeling in a regal manner with her arms hidden in her silk sleeves, staring at her with the same solemn expression she seemed to always carry in all of her memories. Ursa, former wife to Fire Lord Ozai and her mother. The mother she despises even more than everyone who had a hand in her downfall.
"You look tired Azula." the specter says in an equally solemn voice.
Azula ignores her. She knows that this is her mind playing tricks on her again. Making her think that she ever cared for her when Azula knew that Zuko was her favorite just like she was her fathers favorite. Azula corrects her posture, sitting up straight, shoulders back, chin held up high with her legs crossed as she focuses on her breathing exercises and staring into the flame. Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. The flames retract and puff out with each breath.
She hopes that focusing her mind on this will make the apparition go away.
"You can't keep going on like this. You're hungry and exhausted." The apparition said, causing her to falter a bit in her exercise, "If you do not get proper rest you will collapse."
Azula took deeper, more labored breaths as her brow furrows. Rage begins to form in her as the campfire begins to burn more intensely.
"Please Azula, you've been soldiering through this for two days." Ursa pleaded but her concern only added more fuel to her daughter's fire as her calming breaths were now slowly becoming quick hyperventilating gasps as she fought for control over her composer.
Through gritted teeth Azula answered back in a hushed tone, "Stop pretending to care."
The fire flashes cyan each time it rises with every exhale.
The apparition's expression does not change, "Azula, I have always cared for-"
"SHUT UP!" Azula shouts, cutting her off as the campfire explodes into a column of blue flame and disappearing.
She now sits there gasping labored breaths in the darkness of the canyon night illuminated only by the light of the full moon. She struggles to regain her composure again after her outburst and glances to her side seeing that her mother disappeared with the fire finally leaving her alone. She glanced at her fire seeing nothing but embers left as her outburst caused her to burn through what little firewood she managed to find. She shot up cursing to herself as she grabbed her hair in frustration. She knows she should be better than this but ever since her first defeat on the day of the comet she has become a shadow of her original self.
Not wanting to waste any more energy she returned to the hard rocky ground and laid back looking up into the countless stars that hang overhead. There were so many of them, millions of tiny white dots spread throughout the sky as if every paper lantern that had ever been made ascended to the heavens. She never paid too much attention to the night sky before as she was far too busy with more important matters on the earth, but now that she has nothing left she finds that staring at them when the night is clear helps calm her nerves, at least just a little bit. She begins to wonder how high the sky truly goes, if it was possible to touch the stars that hang above her.
She dismisses these thoughts as soon as they appear. She has no time to wonder about such nonsense. The Avatar and his group are still chasing her, she is in Earth Kingdom territory where she is probably even more wanted than in the Fire Nation and she has no plan of action. She is certain that if she is caught the Avatar will take her bending away just as he did with her father and she couldn't let that happen. Her bending, her blue flames, where all she had left. They were who she was and without them she was nothing.
As she continued staring into the night sky she saw a bright shooting star soaring through the sky.
She wonders aloud, "What was it that Ty Lee always said? Make a wish when you see a shooting star and it will come true?" She scoffs at such a notion but decides to follow through on it, after all she can only gain from it if it was true and she had nothing else to lose if it didn't.
"Take me away from this place." She says in a dry humorless laugh. She didn't know if this is something she truly wanted after months of living on the lamb or if this is just a passing thought.
She continued to keep her eyes on the star as it continued its run across the sky but then began to notice that it was getting bigger. She quickly sat up looking at the star as it began to get closer and closer until she realized it was not a shooting star at all but some kind of metal structure trailed by fire. It was so large that it could possibly rival the Drill she had overseen during her first attempt to breach Ba Sing Se's walls.
Within moments the structure soared over her covered in flames accompanied by an unearthly roar that was so loud she instinctively covered her ears hoping that it didn't cause her to go deaf. As it passed by it continued its trek until whatever it was crashed a mile or two away. The impact shook the earth around her causing what little wild life around her to stir in a panic and flee the area.
She could not believe what she had just witnessed. Could it have been some new experimental airship? No it couldn't have. She and her father knew all of the Fire Nations airship experiments and future models. Any that Zuko or that water tribe peasant could have thought of couldn't have been made yet, especially one of that size.
She should flee the scene as there were too many unknowns in whatever this was to investigate it. However she couldn't just forget about this and her curiosity was beginning to outway her better judgment. Azula decided she needed to see what this was and began making her way in the direction of the crash sight, fire and smoke now beginning to choke the night sky. Hopefully this goal of hers will keep her focused enough to not worry about any more visions.
It took some time for her to reach the structure on foot carrying what little belonging she had in a simple satchel, but when she arrived she came to a cliff side and below her she saw a massive metal structure like that of one of the many Fire Nation naval ships she had sailed on but on a much larger scale with a long rectangular body, arrow headed nose, a wide rear with large funnels that seemed to spew fire and what looked to be some kind of structure near the rear like a ships helm of some sort. Its starboard rear was engulfed in flames as if it had taken damage in some kind of battle as holes, scratches and dents littered the hull of the boxy structure. She could feel the heat rising from the crash site, even from her vantage point
Azula couldn't begin to imagine how long it took to create such a vessel. It took years for her nation to construct the drill alone but this vessel was almost the same length as it and double the width. As she continued to admire this miracle of engineering she heard an all too familiar roar overhead. Her head snapped in the direction of the nose and she saw the Avatar's bison flying straight towards her direction. Azula immediately ducks down, trying to hide from the bison. She is not sure what to do now. Should she try to run away? Or stay put and hope that the Avatar or anyone in the bison's saddle spots her. Azula is torn between her feelings of self preservation and overwhelming curiosity.
Before she could do anything the bison landed several feet away from her and blocked any exit from the cliffside. The Avatar dismounted from the beast's head landing in front of her, his staff at the ready and his two companions leaping off and taking fighting stances.
"Azula!" Avatar Aang said, pointing his staff at her. His lemur pet gliding down and wrapping itself around his shoulders, "What is this? Did you have something to do with this?"
Azula doesn't answer right away. She glances at the vessel and back to him studying the situation while remaining calm and collected before giving an answer back with as much confidence and arrogance she could muster, "You give me too much credit avatar. But unfortunately I am just as perplexed as you are when it comes to this thing."
It was the non-bending water tribe peasant who decided to answer her question with as much sarcasm as he could muster, "Well, given the Fire Nation's knack for making gigantic death machines, I think it's a pretty safe bet to assume you had something to do with it."
Azula gave no outward reaction to his accusation remaining nonchalant, however irritation grew within her but didn't allow herself to be baited by his comment, "Well I don't care whether you believe me or not. What matters is that I am telling you the truth."
"Right, and even if you're telling the truth you'd probably use this weird ship as some kind of weapon against us. Wouldn't you?" It was the water bender's turn to speak with a glare as equally as dangerous as hers.
Azula's voice hardens slightly, her demeanor losing some of its calmness, "Are you seriously going to focus more on me than whatever this ship from the sky is?"
"Enough! She's telling the truth guys. Fighting about it isn't going to solve whatever this whole thing is. Nobody is around for miles so we're probably the only ones who know about this so we need to stop fighting." Aang interrupted, hoping to keep things from escalating further.
Azula rolls her eyes upon hearing Aang's call for a truce but agrees to comply, at least for now, "Finally seeing sense now are we?" She couldn't help but let some sense of superiority leak into her tone.
Before any more words could be exchanged the massive vessel let out a deafening sound like that of a fog horn before beginning to stir. Appa panicked at the noise and almost flew away as the ground rumbled all around them. The cliffside Azula stood on shook violently as the vessel began to ascend until the stone beneath her crumbled away sending her plummeting onto the structure where she managed to slow her descent with her firebending.
The ship continued to rise higher into the sky despite its rear section still being encompassed by flames. She struggled to regain her balance as she looked around frantically trying to ascertain how the ship was moving, all she knew was that now she was on top of it and her first assumption was that it was going to return to the sky. Not wanting to join it she decided that her curiosity was filled and she needed to get off of it as soon as possible. She ran to the edge of the vessel and saw that it had already risen high enough where she wouldn't be able to jump onto any rock outcroppings.
As she looked around for anything that could help her in this situation she heard the bison's roar just barely over the sound of the exhaust being produced by the ship's massive engines. The bison rose up into the air near her and she knew that her best likelihood of getting out of here was through her worst enemies. It sickened her but she would rather suffer a bruised ego over whatever fate lay in store for her if she remained on the ship. Without missing a beat she began running towards the direction of the bison and in doing so she saw the Avatar leap off it and unfurrow his glider and descended down to her in order to grab her easier.
As soon as Aang had jumped from Appa a bright blue shimmering light appeared from the rear of the titanic ship began to cover the surface of its structure and before Aang could land in front of her it passed between them with the Avatar landing on top of it as if he was standing on solid ground. Aang stomped and struck the barrier of light trying to pierce it to get to her but every attempt from air bending, fire bending and even striking it with his staff failed.
What was going on? How is this happening? Her salvation was just right in front of her and now it seems to have been snuffed out. Tired of not being in control she shot an azure flame up at the barrier just beneath the Avatar not really caring if she burned him or not but just like him her flames were stopped by this barrier. She shot more flames around them but each time the invisible barrier would appear to block her flames from escaping. She decided she had enough of this trick and took on a signature stance, one her enemies knew all too well, as she began to focus her chi to generate lightning. The Avatar took note of this and leapt away not wanting to be caught up in the blast.
As she began to generate the energy necessary to create the blast the ship shifted, turning upward and let out a sharp gasp as she was thrown off balance before she could even generate a spark and she found herself sliding along the smooth metal plating as it ascended further into the starry night. She continued sliding, unable to find anything to grab ahold of until she noticed a large hole to her right coming up. Quickly she shifted her position to where she slid straight into the hole of the ship and fell into a long metal corridor hard on her side.
As she stood back up and began to rub her shoulder, she looked around seeing that the hallway was long and tube-like but didn't get to observe further as she started to see a large circular door beginning to close. Without properly thinking she ran towards it and dived through the opening before it could shut completely and closed off entry to this area.
Now with a moment to finally properly think and strategize Azula stood there trying to get her bearings as now she is inside the very ship she was trying to escape from with the tube shaped halls bathed in an ominous red light as a strange ear piercing siren sounded off rhythmically to the turbulent swaying of the ship.
Outside the vessel Aang and his friends rode on Appa with Aang trying desperately to make the sky Bison fly faster and higher but this metal monstrosity moved too fast for them to keep up with. Azula may be one of his worst enemies but he couldn't leave her behind on this colossal ship that came out of nowhere. He promised Zuko that he would bring his sister home and he made a promise to their mother Ursa.
The ship climbed higher and higher piercing the sky with little effort and Appa could not fly fast enough to catch it and he was reaching the limit of how far up the bison was capable of flying. In a matter of minutes Aang, Katara and Sokka couldn't help but watch as the titanic ship continued to fly faster and faster into the stars until it became a gleaming speck of light too far for them to reach.
He knew then and there that he had just lost Azula, possibly forever.