Finding Katara pouting in front of Aunt Wu's building, Azara walked over. "What's up?" Azara asked as she moved to stand next to Katara.

"Aunt Wu won't see my anymore!" Katara complained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm sure she's just on a break," Azara tried to assure her, but she knew that Aunt Wu was most likely over telling Katara absurd pieces about her future. "So, what was your fortune?"

"I'm going to marry a powerful bender," Katara replied, her voice trailing off as if she were caught in a daze.

"Sounds dreamy," Azara teased, leaning on the wall as Katara turned to her. "You know anything else about him?"

"Not really, Aunt Wu didn't tell me anything," Katara huffed, kicking at the ground.

"I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure he'll drop into your life soon, if he's not already in it," Azara shrugged as Katara looked over at her.

"What about you? I know you said you were going to have a long, happy marriage before Sokka cut in." Katara nrolled her eyes at the mention of her brother. "But did she tell you anything else?"

"Just that he's apparently a strong warrior and that we're somehow opposites," Azara shrugged, thinking back to her reading.

"Opposites? What's that supposed to mean?"

"She never really clarified that. Maybe something about personalities or . . . what was the term she used? Something integral to who we are," Azara recalled, a confused expression on her face. "I don't really know what that means."

"Hmm, that's strange."

"Yeah, right?" Azara laughed, crossing her arms over her chest. A stretch of silence fell over them before Katara looked up again.

"I'm sorry about Sokka, by the way. His comment was way out of line," Katara added as Azara shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I just . . . Aunt Wu caught me off guard when she predicted I would have a long and happy marriage with children. I overreacted."

"No, you didn't. Especially after what you told us . . ." Katara trailed off as she thought about how the Fire Lord had blatantly abused his children. "I can see why the idea of a happy future would fill you with hope like that."

"Yeah, I guess I just always thought that I'd be forced into a ridiculous arranged marriage or something like that," Azara commented, looking to the floor.

"That would be awful," Katara agreed, clasping her hands behind her back. "I couldn't imagine marrying out of anything else other than love."

"Me neither. My mom suffered so much in her arranged marriage. I would never want that," Azara nodded as Aang and Sokka came running over.

"Katara, Azara, we have a problem!" Sokka yelled as he stopped in front of them. "Aunt Wu was wrong about the volcano."

"Sokka, you tried to convince me she was wrong before. It's going to take an awful lot to change my mind—" Katara argued but was cut off by the rumbling of the volcano. Azara looked up as smoke started to spew, the situation looking grim.

"We need to warn the villagers!" Azara yelled, already running back into the town square. Reaching the town square, Azara raised her hands to cup her mouth. "Everyone! The volcano is about to blow! Aunt Wu was wrong!" Azara announced, gesturing up at the volcano, which continued to spew smoke.

"Aunt Wu predicted the village would be safe and so the village will be safe," a man spoke up, causing Azara's eye to twitch.

"You know, when a volcano starts to spew smoke and the ground shakes a lot, that usually means that there's a volcanic eruption coming!" Azara snapped, growing frustrated with the villagers.

"If you won't believe her, maybe you'll believe me. I want to believe Aunt Wu as much as you do, but my brother and Aang saw the lava with their own eyes," Katara continued, but her statement did little to sway the crowd.

"Well, I heard Aunt Wu's prediction with my own ears," the man from the path replied, clearly still stuck in his ways.

"Please listen to us! You are all in danger! And we have to get out of here! You can't rely on Aunt Wu's prediction, you have to take fate into your own hands," Aang announced, jumping on top of a building to gain everyone's attention. Azara watched as the crowd shuffled off, still unperturbed by their imminent deaths.

"They won't listen to reason," Katara sighed as Azara stared up at the clouds.

"No, but they will listen to Aunt Wu," Azara pointed out, causing Aang to nod.

"We need to borrow Aunt Wu's cloud reading book," Aang stated, before leading the group back to Aunt Wu's building. Aang snuck inside, emerging a few minutes later with the book in hand. Azara and Sokka bid Katara and Aang good luck before walking into Aunt Wu's building.

"We need to speak to Aunt Wu, it's urgent!" Azara spoke to the attendant, who nodded and walked back to get Aunt Wu. The fortuneteller appeared, staring at Azara and Sokka questioningly.

"What can I help you with, dear?" she asked, turning to Azara.

"There's been a change in the clouds. You have to come see!" Azara insisted, leading Aunt Wu back to the town square. As they walked into the pagoda, Sokka started to speak to Aunt Wu.

"Aunt Wu, look! Something is happening to the clouds!" Sokka remarked, pointing up at the shifting clouds, courtesy of Aang and Katara.

"That's very strange. It shouldn't . . . oh my!" Aunt Wu shouted in alarm as the skull cloud formed above their heads. With the villagers now convinced, they could work together to save the village.

"We can still save the village if we act fast. Sokka has a plan," Aang told the crowd, moving to the side as Sokka stepped forwards.

"Look, lava is going to flow out of the volcano and downhill to this spot. If we can dig a deep enough ditch then we can redirect the lava to the river, away from the village," Sokka explained, pointing to the space between the village and the mountain. Aang led the earthbenders away while everyone else picked up shovels, hurrying to dig.

As they hurried to dig, the volcano continued to explode and rumble behind them, driving the villagers to work faster. The earthbenders worked to clear the trench as Aang jumped down to the trench's edge. 

"Evacuate! We will come for you went it is safe!" Aang yelled as the villagers ran for cover. Azara stood in between Sokka and Katara as the lava inched closer, reaching, and quickly filling the trench.

"It's too much! It's going to overflow!" Katara warned, running back, Sokka close behind her. Azara stepped back when her mind drifted to one of her uncle's last teachings to her. Benders, at least theoretically, are able to bend any iteration of their element. Some sub-bending styles were more common than others, obviously, but that didn't mean they were impossible. 

Firebending in its purest form was lightning bending. However, the techniques required to generate lightning had escaped Azara for the weeks leading up to her escape from her brother's ship. Internal conflict, according to her uncle, was the culprit. But, lightning bending was not the only sub-bending style of firebending her uncle had shown her. 

Taking a deep breath, Azara widened her stance and circled one hand, gathering the heat from the lava in front of her. As she moved her hand in a circle, the heat from the lava rose up, pooling in Azara's palm. Releasing her breath, Azara pointed her other hand towards the sky, the heat spewing from her fingertips. 

Azara held the position as the lava started to harden. Seizing the opportunity, Aang jumped forwards, using large air gusts to cool the lava further, his air gusts traveling down the length of the trench. 

As Azara continued to redirect the heat, Aang knocked a rock away from hitting her, the two standing side by side as the lava hardened, forming an odd shaped wall around the front of the village. Standing up and staring at hardened lava, Azara allowed a small smile to grace her features.

The two Water Tribe siblings stared at Azara and Aang with a mix of awe and surprise as village was saved. "Wow, sometimes I forget how much of a powerful bender Aang is," Sokka commented, staring at Aang before turning his attention to Azara.

"Azara too. I don't think I've ever seen a firebender do that before," Katara added, as the siblings shared a look. Azara stared at the volcano for any other signs of danger, before turning around, the glow of the lava reflecting off her golden eyes. 

As she reached Katara and Sokka, a small smile appeared on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I guess your plan worked, with a little help from the Avatar," she spoke to Sokka, glancing back at Aang, who was still standing by the trench. "Maybe stick with battle strategies instead of girl advice next time."

Sokka, now shaken out of his stupor, smiled despite the comment. "Hey, my advice was great!"

"No, it wasn't. If a guy acted that way towards me, I would never date him," Azara shook her head, some strands of dark hair falling in her face. Sokka's mouth opened, but he closed it as Azara moved to talk to Aang, who approached quietly. Looking to the ground, Sokka kicked at a rock.

"Girl advice?" Katara asked, making Sokka groan and cross his arms over his chest in indignation. "You shouldn't be giving girl advice to anyone, Sokka."

"Yeah, ok, I get it, alright!"

The villagers assembled in the town square as Aang returned the cloud reading book to Aunt Wu. "So, you messed with the clouds, did you?" she questioned, cocking an eyebrow. Before anyone could spout apologies, she smiled and chuckled. "Very clever."

"No offense but I hope this has taught everyone to not rely on fortunetelling," Sokka concluded as the man from the path walked forwards.

"But Aunt Wu predicted that the village would not be destroyed, and it hasn't. She was right after all," he pointed out, looking smug.

"I hate you," Sokka muttered, glaring at the man. Placing her hands on his shoulders, Azara steered Sokka away from the man.

"Just let it go Sokka, let it go," she sighed, directing him over to Appa. With a quick goodbye to the villagers, Appa lifted off and headed north once more.

A.N. A few notes about Azara's ability to manipulate heat/sub-bending styles of firebending because it kind of came out of nowhere:

1. Azara's ability to manipulate heat is important to later chapters and will reappear infrequently. 

2. I couldn't really find anything about heat bending anywhere, only that Fire Lord Sozin was able to do it (which was the inspiration for me adding in Azara's heat bending ability in this particular instance) so, I took some creative liberties here and later to make it what I want it to be. I understand it makes Azara an incredibly powerful firebender despite her age, but considering her prodigal status, bloodline, and the fact that Iroh taught her a lot of what she knows, I didn't think it was that far of a stretch. 

3. To clarify, Azara has not been able to lightning bend. I personally stand by the idea/ideology that lightning bending is a very rare form of firebending that requires a great deal of emotional and mental stability as lightning, by nature, is unstable (because Iroh essentially said so). And, Azara is not exactly completely emotionally stable at the moment, especially following the Blue Spirit episode. However, she will get to that soon so stick around! 

As always, thank you my lovely readers for reading/voting/commenting on this story!