Chapter 10: Choices

A/N: Hi, it's been a while. I'm three years older and married now. Um, thanks for all the comments, I've been keeping up on them as they've come in. I fell in love, shacked up, got married (adopted two cats along the way), and got really sick. Now I seem to be doing alright these days. I've been wanting to finish this story for a while. So much for my goal of finishing it before the finale!

Azula turned to see the fall out of her actions. Katara fell to her knees and vomited. Aang just stared at her unflinching.

"Katara?" Azula asked. She reached towards the water bender, attempting to comfort her. The smell of burning flesh didn't bother her much, but it wasn't the first time she had seen someone die.

"Go away," Katara said, pulling Aang with her.

The waterbender had never felt so disgusted. Not with Azula, well, maybe a little with Azula, but mostly with herself. She had just begun to really trust her. How could she have been so foolish?

"Aang," Azula said in her strictest voice. "This is why you need me. You wouldn't have done this. But things like this will need to be done along the way."

That cinched it for Katara, Azula was evil. She wasn't showing any remorse, any pause. The guy was just a soldier, they could've hid, they could've fled, they were some of the strongest benders on the whole planet, they didn't need to kill a simple soldier to be free. It made no sense. And now the evil young woman was trying to justify herself. It was disgusting.

"You're wrong," Aang said. "We need less of that to be done. We're the good guy!"

Katara turned around, annoyed with Aang. "Come on!"

She just wanted to leave, to be done with Azula. No more ambiguity, no more cautious trust, and best of all, no more weird dreams.

"You know," Aang admitted, both sadness and anger in his voice. "I had really hoped you had changed."

Katara was relieved that Aang said what she was thinking, what she was feeling. She grabbed Aang's wrist to pull him away. The soldier's body was still cooking from the electrocution, its nauseating odor poisoning the air.

"But I have," the Fire Nation princess protested. Bushes could be heard rustling. They didn't have time to debate or chat. "I'm a good guy now, I'm one of you."

Katara pulled Aang off into the brush, going eastward. Nothing mattered more to her than getting away from that, that, murderess.

Azula cursed under her breath as the rustling got closer. She opted to head north. The princess was an expert on managing relationships. She knew they would need some time apart from her.

-.-.-.-

"I can't believe it," Katara said, after they had gotten far enough it felt safe. "We trusted her."

"Yeah," Aang agreed. "I don't know what we should do."

"Let's leave her to die," Katara suggested bleakly.

"I don't think that's going to happen," the Avatar said. "If she is still evil, then she'll just go back to the Fire Nation, if she's not…"

"What was that 'if she's not'?" Katara exclaimed. "That girl KILLED a man in front of us."

"But what would've happened if she didn't? Would her treachery have been found out? Would it have compromised her plan."

"I don't know," Katara admitted, her eyebrows furrowed. "I don't remember her ever spelling out her grand plan. She just promised us help, and you fire bending lessons."

Aang nodded, "So, you think she took us for fools?"

"Well, now we're separated from the others, without Appa, and we don't even have a map of where we are. If she did, she did a good job."

Aang exhaled loudly. "We're in trouble aren't we?"

"I hope Sokka finds us soon," Katara stated bleakly as she ran her hand across the ground, sitting down.

"At least we should be able to hear Azula coming," the Avatar said, trying to sound upbeat. "If she were an airbender she'd be able to sneak up on us."

"So, she is evil then?" Katara asked. The young Water Tribe girl wasn't stupid, just, it felt like the past few days events were overwhelming her ability to think about them clearly. Aang almost died, Azula showed up, offered her services, tried to teach Aang, didn't do so well, they split up from Sokka and Toph, and now this. If it were an animal she were riding on, she'd ask to be left off!

"I think she's doing to tell us that she's not evil," Aang stately blandly. "I have no idea if she is."

Katara swallowed uncomfortably. The idea of Azula being evil no longer was one of the basic truths she knew about the world. Just a few days ago, she would've sworn that the fire bending princess was evil incarnate, now, now she was confused and conflicted. She wanted to be free of the girl, but she also wanted to understand her. It gave her a headache to think about.

"Do you think we should go off further? I think there's supposed to be a body of water a good days trek from here."

Aang agreed, and picked himself up off the ground. The two began walking together eastward in silence.

He didn't really want his mind to wonder, when it did he could only remember the burnt corpse of the soldier. Azula's words also haunting him, that things like that were going to be necessary. As much as he wanted to avoid it, she was right. He couldn't exactly just make it to the Fire Lord's doorstep and ask him to please leave the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes alone, please.

But did he have it in him to kill the Fire Lord? Did he even want to have that in him? He had been raised to not even accept the death of animals for food. How much harder was it going to be for him to accept the death of a person? By his own hand no less.

Zhao's death had been easy to accept. A god had killed Zhao, and rightfully so, and Zhao had killed a goddess. Those where actions outside of human control. Way outside of his own control. Fire Lord Ozai's death, that was, at best, under his control. No gods or spirits would do his dirty work for him.

Would it be better if he accepted Azula's offer for help? She'd be the most willing and able to destroy her father. But, if she was doing it for her own selfish motives, what was to keep her from rising up to be an even eviler- harder to defeat enemy? Especially now that she had gotten to know them somewhat. At least with fighting Ozai, he didn't know anything about them first hand.

"You look lost in your thoughts," Katara commented.

Aang stopped walking. When Katara turned to see what was wrong, he hugged her.

"Come on," Katara said, her voice betraying forced cheerfulness. "Let's get to a body of water!"

"We need to, don't we?" Aang stated. He and Katara needed to protect themselves, from Azula if necessary.

"I don't know," Katara said honestly. "I don't think Azula's going to even try to find us tonight. But it never hurts to be prepared."

Aang nodded. Katara realized that she needed to be the one to keep it together. Aang had been doing his best, but, he already had so heavy of a burden.

.-.-.-.

Azula cursed under the breath as she jogged. How could she have lost control? She had gotten herself out of tighter pinches before without having to show that much of her hand. She must be getting soft. Spending too much time around goody-two-shoes.

She started to sprint east. The princess doubted Aang and Katara were going to make it very far today. The event undoubtedly shook them up a lot. She prayed to Agni that they wouldn't do anything stupid over it. She didn't want to have to rescue them.

There was a chance they could forgive her for a mistake. But only once. It was much easier to fool the Earth King. He didn't know about anything that was going on. Aang and company, they didn't give her a lot of privacy, she had to had to have her façade up all the time. No co-conspirators to get feedback from. She should've brought Ty Lee with her. Everyone always loved Ty Lee. The acrobat could've distracted the cynical Sokka. But then again, the acrobat might've given them away, what with Toph's abilities.

Azula heard the snort of a rhino.