Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or any of it's characters. The only thing I own is my OC.

The Six Rules:

Rule Number One: Alec won't warn the Gaang about things in advance or solve their problems for them, with a few rare exceptions.

Rule Number Two: Only Alec has the right to tell people his true origins, and he will mostly limit this to group members. He will tell new group members his secret as soon as they join the Gaang.

Rule Number Three: There are some changes Alec wants to make, and he will use his knowledge of the future to make those changes.

Rule Number Four: Sometimes, to make a change, Alec will act in a way that doesn't make sense. If that's necessary, he'll tell the Gaang "I need you to absolutely trust me." After he says that, the Gaang has to either do whatever he asks or leave him to do what he needs to do.

Rule Number Five: After a change happens, Alec will tell the Gaang what happened in the original story, in the interest of transparency.

Rule Number Six: If a major change happens that Alec doesn't expect, the Gaang will have a meeting ASAP. In this meeting, Alec will break Rule One and tell them all relevant information that will help them figure out how to respond to the change.

Chapter 46:

More Reunions

Mai POV

I led Zuko, Toph, Iroh, Ursa, and Azula up to the palace. Shul kept pace with Azula. I felt so much anger right now, and I needed to deal with it. I didn't say a word as we walked. Zuko didn't try to start a conversation either. He understood.

Once we arrived at the palace a red shape swooped down and landed in front of us. Druk had arrived.

The dragon looked me in the eye. "You are troubled," he growled.

I blinked. That was new. I remember Zuko and Alec telling us that the dragons would be able to talk eventually, but I forgot about it because the past few months had been so crazy.

"Yeah," I admitted. "I learned some things that I have to deal with."

Druk nodded. "I am bound to Zuko. He cares deeply about you. If you need my help, you need only ask."

I scratched his chin. "Thank you, Druk."

We entered the palace. Zuko spoke with Druk, getting used to the fact that he could converse with him now. Once we made our way into the throne room, we stopped before King Bumi.

Bumi leaned forward with his mismatched eyes. He focused on Iroh and twisted his face into an insane grin. "So, old friend, how was prison?"

Iroh cracked a smile of his own. "Not the most pleasant experience. I can see why you broke out."

Bumi cackled. "Fair enough."

He got up from his throne and walked over to us. He passed over Azula and Ursa. I assume they'd already met. He stopped in front of Zuko and leaned in close, as if he were examining him.

"So, this must be the nephew that you rave about," he said in an appraising tone. Zuko tensed a little, but kept mostly still and held Bumi's gaze.

Bumi seemed satisfied with whatever he saw and smiled at him. "I've lived through three Fire Lords so far. I suspect you'll be my favorite."

I managed not to snort. That was a pretty low bar to clear, considering he was comparing Zuko to Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai.

Zuko gave a slight bow. "Thank you."

Bumi moved on to Toph. "And who is this?"

Toph puffed out her chest. "Toph Beifong. I'm Aang's earthbending teacher."

Bumi raised an eyebrow and a challenging grin. "Oh, really? I'd love to chat with you about that."

Bumi stepped in front of me. "Ah, you must be Ukano's daughter. Mai, correct?"

I bowed slightly. "Yes, your majesty. Are my parents and brother here? I need to talk to them." The last part came out as a growl.

Bumi seemed to pick up on my meaning. "They're here. I'll take you to them."

Bumi led us out of the throne room, through the maze-like halls of the palace. Bumi began a conversation with Toph.

"I can't imagine it was easy to teach Aang earthbending," Bumi began lightly.

Toph shrugged. "I've never had a student before, so I can't really compare him to anyone else," she admitted. "It took him a little bit to get into the right mindset to even move a rock, and I had to blindfold him to get him to really listen to the earth, but he picked it up pretty quickly. Plus, he's got a ton of raw power."

Bumi nodded. "How powerful is he?"

Toph grinned. "The first time he moved a rock, it crashed into a canyon wall and carved out a brand new cave fifty feet deep."

Bumi laughed. "He did that by accident? Impressive."

A few hallways later, and Bumi stopped. He turned to me. "They're in a room in the next hallway. I have two guards there. If you want to let any of them out, that's up to you."

I nodded, even though letting them out was unlikely.

I needed to get some answers.

As soon as we rounded the corner into the next hallway, I heard my father's indignant voice, complaining loudly.

"I demand that you let me… I mean us out of here at once!" he shouted at the guards.

I glanced back at the others. "Stay here for now," I whispered. "Come in whenever you think it'll be a good time to throw them off-balance."

I received a round of nods, and Zuko gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. Great, now I needed to wait even longer for my blush to die down. Why did he have to be so damn sexy?!

"You can't hold me… I mean us like this!" Father shouted again. "I've done nothing wrong!"

Time to reveal myself. "Come on, Father. We both know that's a lie."

I stepped forward into his line of sight. Father was in a room that I would call the most luxurious prison cell ever built. There were multiple large beds, and a well-constructed crib for Tom-Tom. Glowing crystals in candelabras on the walls provided light. If it weren't for the stone bars separating the room from the hallway, or the two guards standing at attention on my side of the bars, I wouldn't even know it was a prison cell.

Father looked flustered, but no worse for wear. Mom held Tom-Tom protectively, looking like she was scared of me. Tom-Tom saw me and reached with his arms, smiling and cooing happily. At least he was happy to see me.

Father rounded on me. "Mai! Tell these savages to let us out of here!" he demanded.

I folded my arms across my chest. "Why would I do that?"

Father huffed. "Look, I understand that teenagers go through a rebellious phase, but committing treason is a bit much, don't you think?"

"It's not a phase!" I snapped.

"This has gone on long enough!" Father shouted. "Your little rebellion killed the Fire Lord's heir!"

"I'm not as dead as you think."

Azula strolled confidently into view. Father's jaw dropped. He was completely dumbfounded. "Princess Azula?"

Azula smirked. "Yes. I'm alive, despite my father's best efforts."

That got Mom's attention. "Your father's?"

Azula scowled. "Yes. He tried to have me killed in Ba Sing Se. If it weren't for the Avatar and his friends, including Mai, he would have succeeded."

"Or, you were planning a coup all along and he had to stop you!" Father accused, dramatically pointing at her. "You just want to overthrow the Fire Lord and take the throne for yourself!"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Only one out of three. I do want to overthrow the Fire Lord now, but that only started after he tried to kill me. Also, I won't be taking the throne when we win."

"I will."

Zuko stepped into view.

Father blinked, and then he started laughing. That jerk had the audacity to laugh at Zuko! After everything Zuko endured! To Zuko's credit, he didn't get angry. He just stared Father down.

"You honestly expect this whelp to be Fire Lord?" Father got out between chuckles. "The nation won't last a year with him in charge."

"The Fire Nation will stand," Zuko replied calmly, "but you won't be free to see it. Ukano of the Fire Nation, by my right as the rightful Fire Lord, I sentence you to life in prison for violation of the Consensual Arranged Marriage Law."

Father paled and stopped laughing. Mom looked confused. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "Our marriage was completely consensual."

I reached into my sleeve and pulled out father's letter. "He wasn't talking about you." I threw the letter to Mom, who caught it with her free hand. She opened it and read it. As her eyes travelled down the page, her expression turned from confusion to fury. She rounded on Father.

"How could you?!" she shouted. "You promised me if I trained Mai to be well-behaved, she could marry whoever she wanted! We did everything to help your career and you pull something like this?!"

"That isn't mine!" Father tried to deny.

"I recognize your handwriting, you liar!" Mom yelled. She turned to me. "Get me and Tom-Tom into another cell. I can't be around him."

I narrowed my eyes at Mom suspiciously. "You're telling me you weren't in on this?"

Mom shook her head vigorously. "Of course not! I would never agree to this!"

Toph stepped forward out of the shadows. "She's telling the truth, Knives."

That cleared up one question I had. "Let my mother and brother out," I said to the guards. "I'll take responsibility for them."

The guards nodded and lowered the bars. Mom walked out with Tom-Tom. Father tried to walk out, but Toph stomped on the ground, burying his ankles in rock. He lost his balance and fell down, knocking himself out.

"Boring conversation anyway," Toph said with a shrug.

I turned to Mom. "Are you going to try to stop us or send information to the Fire Nation if I don't put you in a cell?"

Mom shook her head. "No."

"Truth again," Toph confirmed.

I nodded. "I'll see about getting you and Tom-Tom a room."

I needed to talk to Alec. If he knew about this and didn't tell me, he was in big trouble.

Alec POV

Our ship sailed into the docks at Omashu. I noticed that the docks were almost entirely full. We must have been among the last to arrive. I swept my eyes over the dock, looking for anyone familiar. I saw Jeong Jeong, and oddly enough, I saw Gran Gran standing next to him. Yue was there, too.

I swallowed. Had she made a decision? Would she forgive me, or would she shun me for the rest of my life? I didn't wait for the ship to finish docking. I jumped and flew off the vessel and landed right in front of Jeong Jeong, Gran Gran, and Yue.

Jeong Jeong was the first to speak. "How did it go?" he inquired.

"Mission successful," I reported. "We got all the prisoners out, all the guards are dead, and I delivered the message."

All three winced. "We saw," my firebending master said ruefully.

Gran Gran stepped forward. "Child, I have something to say to you," she said quietly, her eyes staring deep into mine.

I swallowed. "Yes?"

"I remember the affection I felt for my best friend, and how sad I was when she was taken," Gran Gran began. "When you told me about her, about what she'd become, I couldn't believe it." She shook her head. "I have to accept that the Hama I once knew is long gone, and in her place was a monster. You did the right thing." She took a breath. "Did you do it quickly?"

I nodded. "Lightning to the heart. That's about as quick as I could make it."

"At least she didn't suffer long," Gran Gran said with a sad sigh. She smiled and her eyes shined with a few tears. "I should have forgiven you immediately, child. I'm sorry."

I wrapped her in a hug. "I understand, Gran Gran," I said softly.

"GRAN GRAN!" I heard Katara shout from behind me. Gran Gran and I broke our hug and turned to my sister. She and Sokka were walking down the gangplank with Mom right behind them. Gran Gran's eyes fell on Mom and she blinked, then she rubbed her eyes. "Child," she said to me, not taking her eyes off Mom, "have I gone crazy?"

I smiled. "You haven't," I said. "It's Mom."

Gran Gran gasped and shuffled forward as fast as her old legs could carry her. "Kya!" she exclaimed.

Mom beamed and ran forward, wrapping the shorter woman in a hug. "Kanna!"

There were laughs, hugs, and a lot of tears in that reunion. It must have taken five whole minutes. Eventually, they broke apart. I was about to join in when a black shape came from the sky and barreled into me, knocking me over.

I just about got my bearings and looked up at the face of my dragon. "Ved, you're starting to get too big for snuggles," I said ruefully.

"Sorry," Ved growled, and got off me.

I blinked. "You can talk now?! Since when?!"

"Since a few minutes before the eclipse," he said in what sounded like the dragon version of a shrug. He looked around. "Where's Mommy? I miss my belly rubs."

Ty Lee cartwheeled over right on cue and hugged Ved like he was a giant plushie. "I'll give you some tonight, I promise."

Mom broke the hug with Gran Gran and stared at Ved. "This is your dragon?"

I nodded. "Yep. As you can see, he's spoiled rotten."

Ved stuck his tongue out at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Point proven." I looked around. "Where are the others?"

"Up at the palace," Jeong Jeong answered.

"And Hakoda?"

"In the war room."

I nodded. "Get the waterbenders to the healers and tell the seamstresses that they've got customers." I smiled. "The Southern Water Tribe is back." I turned to Mom. "Ready for another reunion?"

She smiled brightly. "Absolutely."

We made our way up to the palace. Mom was getting more and more nervous with each step.

"Is my hair okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, you've been gone for six years. I doubt Dad'll care how your hair looks."

Once we got to the war room, we saw a lot of hustle and bustle. Dad was leaning over a giant map table, facing away from us. Bato was standing next to him.

"Dad, we're back!" Sokka greeted.

Dad just raised a hand and waved us off.

"Dad, you really need to see this!" Katara insisted.

Dad waved us off again and didn't turn around. "Kids, I'm glad you're back, but I'm busy right now."

Mom shook her head fondly. "You always did work too hard."

Dad started. He and Bato slowly turned around.

As soon as they saw Mom, their eyes widened to almost comical size.

"Bato," Dad's voice was barely above a whisper. "Am I dreaming?"

"Not unless we're dreaming the same thing at the same time," Bato said in a quiet voice.

Mom's eyes were wet with tears. Dad slowly walked over to her, not blinking. Once he got close enough, he reached out and slowly stroked her cheek. "I can't believe it."

Mom shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. "I must look a mess."

"You're as beautiful as the day I lost you," Dad said with a smile.

He pulled her into a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck. After several long seconds, they broke apart.

"Bato, take over," Dad ordered. "I have no idea when I'll be back."

Bato smiled and nodded. "Understood."

Dad and Mom left the room, never taking their eyes off each other.

Sokka tilted his head, confused. "Where are they going?"

Aang and Katara blushed. Ty Lee giggled. Ved and I rolled our eyes. "They're probably making up for lost time," Suki said with a grin.

Sokka looked even more confused. "I don't get it."

I facepalmed. "For the love of… Sokka, they're going to have sex. Lots of sex. Probably loud sex. Lots of probably loud sex."

Sokka blushed. Suki laughed. I shook my head. "I know you two have done it, so how did you not know what they were going to do?"

Sokka shook his head. "I don't know! I guess I just never wanted to think about my parents doing that, so my brain didn't let me think of it."

Everyone laughed at that.

We heard a coughing noise and turned towards the door. In the doorway was Mai, Zuko, Azula, Iroh, Toph, and Druk. Mai didn't looked happy.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We need to talk," she growled.

Team Avatar had a short reunion in a meeting room before Mai got down to business. She passed me two papers. "Read these."

I read both of the papers. Wow, Ukano was willing to marry Mai to Ozai to advance his own career? Father of the Year right there. After I finished reading I looked up. Mai was glaring at me. "Did you know?"

I shook my head. "No. Nothing like this happened in the original story. You were still on the Fire Nation's side until after the eclipse, and your father didn't make Ozai an offer like this that I'm aware of."

Toph nodded. "He's telling the truth."

Mai nodded and her face became less harsh. "I had to check."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Things have changed so much that things are starting to happen that I can't predict. Then again, my foreknowledge would've essentially run out after the war ended anyway."

Azula frowned. "Didn't you say there were other stories in this world that you knew?"

"Kind of," I admitted. "There were a couple of books about Avatar Kyoshi that I read, and there were a few stories that I knew about that, because of my actions, won't happen." My mind flashed to The Search and Suki Alone. "There was one other story that I knew very well, but that takes place seventy-one years from now, so it doesn't matter much to us now." I was trying to be very vague about Korra. "There were some other stories, but I don't know them."

All around us, stomachs began rumbling. "Maybe we should eat something and get some sleep," Aang suggested.

Late that night, while Ty Lee and I were trying to sleep, I heard a knock at my door. Ty Lee was out cold, but I was awake. Extracting yourself from the arms of a cuddler is no easy feat, I assure you. I managed to get out of her grip and walk over to the door. I was surprised to see who the knocker was.

"Aang? Is something wrong?"

Aang worried his lip between his teeth and then spoke. "Can we talk, alone?"

Aang and I left the palace and ended up on the same platform where we negotiated with Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee all those months ago. I could tell something was bothering him. "What is it?" I asked.

He looked me in the eye with his serious Avatar face. "I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth."

I nodded. "Okay." Where was he going with this?

"That story that takes place seventy-one years from now is about the Avatar after me, isn't it?"

Oh…

Crapbaskets.

I couldn't dodge this. I was fairly sure Toph had been teaching Aang to sense lies with Earthbending as part of his politics lessons. I took a deep breath. "Yes, Aang, it is."

Aang looked down sadly. "I knew it," he whispered.

I put my hand gently on his shoulder to try to comfort him. "I'm sorry."

"The monks taught me that death is a natural part of the cycle that comes for everyone," Aang said quietly. "I just heard how old Kyoshi lived to be and I wish I had more time." He looked me in the eye. "I want you to promise me something."

I nodded. "Anything."

"If you're still alive when they come around, will you look after them?"

I smiled. "That was my original plan anyway."

Aang smiled too. "Good." He looked thoughtful. "Could you tell me about them?"

I smiled at him. "Sure."

"Well, her name is Korra. In a lot of ways, she's your opposite…"

AN: In the immortal words of Abridged Vegeta: I'M BACK, BITCHES!

I watched the Netflix show, and that inspired me to finish this story. This chapter was a pain in the ass to write, but there aren't that many left in the story.

Now, a few things to be aware of. First, I made a minor change to Chapter 38. I changed what Sokka and Katara's social ranks would be in the Fire Nation. Sokka would now be considered a General, because he was one of the commanders of the defending forces during the Siege of the North. Also, I made the title Advisor Consort for when Katara marries Aang.

Second, with my actions in this chapter, I have butterflied away the Smoke and Shadow comic. The reason I did this is because the Smoke and Shadow comic was one half the stupid Zuko and Mai breakup love triangle, and the other half was every single character being stupid.

Third, I don't have as much free time to write as I used to. So don't expect frequent updates. I'll put out the new chapters when I think they're ready.

Next time: Team Avatar and Allies make plans.