Little Zuko and little Azula love Lu Ten. They love Lu Ten so much, they successfully smuggled themselves into Lu Ten's baggage when Lu Ten left to go fight.
Lu Ten, meanwhile, finds out that his little cousins snuck along for the ride way too late.
He knows they're gonna lose the fight.
He isn't about to let a couple of little kids die like that, murdered by Ba Sing Se soldiers too hyped up by war.
He may have been prepared to put his own life on the line, but he's not sacrificing Zuko or Azula's. But he also knows that if he flees the field with them, then Ozai will absolutely use that as an excuse to "punish" his own children.
Lu Ten does not want to know what that punishment entails. He is, in fact, more terrified by whatever it may be than the literal war raging outside his tent.
So.
So.
He swallows his pride for his country, his love for his father, and his dreams of being a successful general.
He grabs the kids, fakes his death, and runs.
Now some people in the notes have suggested they run to the swamp or desert. I'm going to say that Lu Ten looks at all of his options and decides to go to the Northern Air Temple. It might not be the most tactical decision, but he decides to do what no one will expect (given his father’s practical genius) and go there. Along the way they bump into a bunch of refugees and Lu Ten goes... "y'all know you're being trailed by the Fire Nation, right?" And the mechanicist and his group go "...if you can get them off our trail, we'll take you and the kids in and vouch for you if we meet any soldiers." Later that evening one of the earth benders says just loud enough for the three royals to hear, "Well with all the explosions Tao (the mechanicist in this AU) might as well be a fire bender anyways, so what's three more?" Azula tries to retaliate, thinking the following laughter was mocking them, and Lu Ten has to run interference because not every joke is meant to be a slight Azula please for the love of Agni don't instigate for once in your life.
Lu Ten and Tao manage to set a decoy group towards Omashu and lose their tails. The decoy group meets up with them later, Lu Ten having gone with this group (as a show that Tao and the others can trust them), and he's relieved to see that his cousins are still there (the earth bender from earlier, let's call her Li(yes Lu Ten chose Lee as his cover name and yes Li uses this to tease the kids that she's their cousin, that's how it works in the Earth Kingdom (It’s not but Zuko and Azula don’t know enough about the EK to dispute this)) comes in clutch and keeps a hawk's eye on them). The group makes it to the temple and by that point Lu Ten, Azula and Zuko have been a part of their group since the beginning as far as anyone will say and their names are Guy Lee (the guy part is only relevant when it's spoken aloud), Lin who wouldn't choose a name and has to accept what she was given, and Muyang who definitely didn't chose a name from an Earth Kingdom play.
Now this is five-six years before canon(roughly), so Azula and Zuko are very different by the time Aang wakes up. Lu Ten is alive and has some realizations (that he had started to ponder before deserting but hit him when he ran) about the Fire Nation. Seeing the bodies smaller than Azula who was barely eight when they got to the temples made the part of him that had been loyal to his grandfather wither away. His priority is the kids first and foremost, but he wants a world where they and kids like them can be safe. So, he encourages Tao to reach out to one of the Council of Five generals and they end up with an older woman who gets to the temple, takes one look at Lee, Lin and Muyang and just goes "Really... really? We're doing this?" and Lu Ten is like "Look I'm willing to give you information on the Fire Nation troops and how they work at the very top and protect Tao so he can help you guys win." And she takes a long moment to look at Zuko who's fretting over Teo going flying for the second time (the first time was a disaster because Zuko jumped off the cliff after him) and Azula getting frustrated learning how to fight without her bending and heckled by Li (but not attacking the woman or using her flames) and makes a choice. Because she might be White Lotus, but Iroh is frustrating to deal with and still loyal to his father and this royal actually has some pretty important information and is willing to share it. And maybe she sees hope for the future, or maybe she doesn't want to deal with the hassle of bringing in three royals, but she goes along with it.
And so, Lu Ten ends up help running the temple as a shelter for both deserters and refugees. This wasn’t actually ever officially decided, he just ends up being the best at organizing the set-up of their camps and being good at resolving disputes so when they get to the temple, he’s just kind of the guy everyone looks to for this given Tao would much rather be inventing. This actually ends up being good practice for him becoming Fire Lord later because he’s not the leader with all the power, but instead acting as steward. He has the trust of the people he’s working with, but he can’t just order them around and has to consider how to convince them to keep trusting him. He also ends up advising the Earth Generals on the side which is its own practice in patience.
Zuko had been fairly withdrawn around Tao and his group while they traveled. He hesitantly liked Li because she had all sorts of stories and scars, but she was still a stranger from an enemy nation. No amount of fire flakes and other snacks being made just right (she was from the colonies and wasn't that a shock to have someone who had seen the 'improvements' from the Fire Nation firsthand and chose to rebel) was going to change that. And then they got to the temple and everything he thought he knew came crashing down when he saw the bodies and the closest one was a child. He breaks down crying and throws up. He barely makes it through dinner before falling into a fitful sleep plagued with bad dreams.
The next day he's made up his mind and he's determined to lay the spirits to rest and at the advice of one of the quieter young men in the group, Bao, he decides to look in the library (which is its own kind of pain because it's so burnt and why would Sozin destroy so much if he had nothing to hide?) and finds some intact scrolls and some less intact ones and is careful when he reads them. He finds the burial practices strange…. but it's not right to judge them when they aren't there to defend their culture and they’re not there because of- .... he finds it's better to not dwell on that and instead works with the Bao, who looks a lot like Ty Lee if she came from the Earth Kingdom which is something he’ll have a realization about later, to find a way to do a proper burial given the lack of proper resources (I'm going based off this fic's take on it).
After this Zuko devotes himself to learning both about the Air Nomads and the Fire Nation before Sozin especially after Lu Ten mentions the tidbit about Roku to the two siblings. This also starts a similar journey to what many head canon for Zuko in canon where Zuko is very into preserving scrolls related to the Air Nomads (as opposed to the avatar). He spends the next five years working to clean and restore the library without damaging the remains of the scrolls. He's not the only one who does this and it's not a full-time job (because Lu Ten insists, he spends time being a kid), but it's definitely his passion project and he takes the lead on it. The day someone who worked in text preservation visited, he about cried.
Once other Fire Nation Deserters show up, he badgers them about their local customs and what beliefs they learned that his family had tried to wipe away. Some notable moments are learning about minor Fire Nation spirits (some of which Ursa taught him about, the ones that still existed in the minds of the elders of her village at least), a shared holiday with the water tribes that celebrates the sibling relationship between the Tui and Agni, and the time a person tells him that their village has an elder who's grandmother was able to heal with her bending (this does cause a debate later with Katara over whether she was a water bender or if fire benders can also heal with their bending).
Like I mentioned earlier, Zuko was wary about flying at first, but he eventually gives it a try after Azula has already mastered it. He follows her tip about heating the air to change the way the air moves around you a bit too quickly, though so his first flight is cut short by Teo bailing him out. He enjoys flying generally, but more so as a way to spend time with Teo and Azula than it actually being his thing. He gets super into swords (he had started to learn with Piandao but not for very long) like in canon with the only major difference being that his swords are engraved in an earth kingdom tradition taught to him by the EK sword master who lives at the temple. He also loves reading plays with the other kids and even if she pretends not to enjoy it, Azula joins in.
Like under Iroh, his bending grows much faster than under his tutors with Lu Ten. While he's not at Azula's level, their relationship is much less tense and Lu Ten makes sure he understands that being behind her isn't a cause of shame. It helps that the other fire benders reaffirm that they're both very advanced once they start to arrive. While they both learn other forms from various teachers(Combat from primarily Lu Ten, practical uses such as cooking and cauterizing from a mother of a mixed family who used to be a healer, fire dancing from a runaway army recruit who was bitter that their nation only cared about fighting and not spiritual pursuits and so on) Zuko tends to be more openly interested in the artistic uses whereas Azula focuses on the practical and combat uses(at least she pretends to but I'll get into that in her part).
While in general Zuko is a lot more settled, he still got a lot of angst and teen anger going on, especially around the Fire Nation and what they've done. Lu Ten made him promise not to enlist (in the EK army) until he was eighteen and he's counting the days. This 100% makes Lu Ten desperate to end the war before his son baby cousin can do so. When Tao wants to start a workshop and 'improve' the temple, Zuko has a huge fit and insists that he can't. This is a really big moment for him because it's the first time outside of Ursa he's not overly punished for an outburst. Lu Ten helps him calm down and explain calmly to Tao (and the large group of bystanders) why the idea of changing the temple bothers him so much. Tao is spiritual to a degree in this, but I think Zuko is much more so and finds that if they're going to live in the temples they should try to respect and care for them the way the air nomads would. Azula comes in clutch here and points out that if they build Tao a separate building into the cliffs with earth bending then they won't damage the remains, and for plumbing and such they can use earth bending to carefully take the walls apart and replace them around the pipes. There's a little bit of back and forth but Teo (Who after spending some bonding time with him on the travel to the temple) backs him up to his father and Li and the other benders begrudgingly agree (who's she kidding she's proud of the kid).
Azula changes are much more major yet on the surface she seems the same as canon. Whereas Zuko was shy and withdrawn at first, she came out strong and snapping at the group. Li pissed her off especially because the woman was stupidly good at blocking her attempts at setting her on fire. While she doesn't outwardly react at the bodies like Zuko does, she's still quietly disturbed and unlike in canon where Ozai is around to reinforce the part of her that scoffs that this is part of war, she has Lu Ten who doesn't judge her for not being bowled over by grief or unsurprised. He just talks to her quietly away from the others about how what happened was a tragedy, but she was taught to view it a certain way and there's nothing wrong with her, it's just a thought process she has to challenge. She pushes back against this but he holds firm without getting angry like Ozai or comparing her to Ozai and calling her a monster the way she perceived her mom doing (emphasis on perceived) and so it ends up being what sets her to more quietly readjust her views on her home.
Azula takes to the gliders fairly quickly once they're invented, and while they scare the shit out of her at first despite the way she pretends otherwise, they also remind her of Ty Lee in the same way weapons practice reminds her of Mai. It takes a while but eventually she finds that she really enjoys being good at something just for the fun of it. While she doesn't say so outwardly, it's clear in the way she talks about it. Her competitive nature comes out so much differently than with strategies in canon.
Azula doesn't love weapons, but she becomes proficient in defending herself if she needs to hide her bending. She also learns hunting along with Lu Ten (and Zuko but he's not really into it) and the two of them spend their bonding time hunting rather than talking about their feelings and sitting near each other like him and Zuko (she still talks about her feelings, but it's a much different energy). She likes the tracking specifically, and the other parts are simply something she's good at. There are other hunters in the group, and they work in rotational groups so her and Lu Ten go out about once a month.
She is as dramatic as she is in canon and while she doesn't acknowledge it, quite a bit of her phrasing in her letters/speeches is inspired from the plays they read with the other kids. Her moves end up tending to be more rigid than Zuko', but she adds her own sharp flair inspired by the dances they learn together. A really big moment in this AU is when Zuko admits to having a puppy crush on Li (because my lady is very buff, smart and funny) and she admits that she has one too. In the Fire Nation after Sozin this would have been taboo, but a pair of husbands moved to the temple and Lu Ten didn't say anything (my man blue screened and then went "Well fuck Sozin anyways" and carried on resolving to unpack his bias later) so it had to be okay*. Zuko realizes how tense she is and pulls her into a hug, telling her he loves her no matter what. Lu Ten doesn't learn about this for a while (possibly until after he rescinds the ban in the Fire Nation), and then thanks fuck he didn't say anything stupid to his daughter cousin and make her afraid of his opinion when he finds out.
While she's not as obsessive as Zuko about learning about the temple and its former people, she still reads the scrolls that he's started to work to preserve and learns what she can. The incident I mentioned with Tao is a big moment for her as well. It sets her down a path towards being a mediator and planner in a way that's much more constructive than canon especially given how for days after people are still telling her good job. And they mean it?
While I'll get into him later in more detail, something that is relevant to Azula pre-Aang is that Iroh sends a letter to Lu Ten (or Lee from a worried father Mushi) that she quickly is able to decode and figure out is an invite into the White Lotus. She basically bullies Lu Ten into letting her be the main go to on this since she cracked it, and he thought it was just about tea and didn't believe her about it being about a secret organization until the general from earlier confirms it on her visit next visit after the letter arrives. This sparks White Lotus Azula, and she is a menace. Whereas Lu Ten is great at thinking like a FN general, Azula thinks around the generals on both sides and comes up with quite a few strategies to help with the resistance (I'm personally of the belief the WL wasn't nearly doing all they could to end the war and Azula thinks the same. She tells them to get on board with her plan or she's starting her own network to overthrow Ozai, and they wisely agree (mainly because she signs her letters as heir to Iroh's code name and they assume she's Lu Ten (and yes Pakku loses his shit when he realizes))) and war.
Thanks to her, Lu Ten, Tao and occasionally Zuzu the war is going much more in the favor of the EK /Southern Water Tribe by the time Aang shows up. Despite not leaving the temple more than a handful of times and not really on diplomatic missions, she's got resistance fighters all over in a way more connected web of correspondence and she's got Hakoda involved in her planning too. She reaches out to him when she realizes the generals are being idiots and acting like he's not on their level despite his tactical prowess and the fact his ships are... ugh fine she'll admit they're superior in a lot of ways to the Fire Nation ones, specifically speed. Him and Bato end up with some of their fleet near the temple and visit and he's surprised for all of ten seconds that she's a nine-year-old girl (he ends up joining the war much sooner here) before he's like "...no this actually tracks, honestly my kids would do the same." It's a very strange meeting for the two but they leave having a much better grasp of the three royals (who they know are the missing/dead royal children despite trying to pretend otherwise) and way more contact with the EK fighters who are actually willing to take them seriously. The main concession Hakoda gives Azula (on behalf of Zuko of course not her own concern) is that they'll try to minimize causalities on their raids. Obviously, she couldn't ask them not to win, but if knocking someone out or injuring them instead of a kill could be done, she'd appreciate having some of her subj- people still alive at the end of this war. She does stick around when Zuko gets the two men to spar with him (not at the same time and Lu Ten makes it clear through dad language to match his skill level) only because it's valuable to learn how her allies fight, not because she also wants to know (and if Zuko sees her taking some of their advice for him, he should keep that to himself).
The final big war change that happens is that Azula utilizes her contacts to sow unrest in the Fire Nation. Rumors about Ozai sending his children to die, him killing them to spite his wife, Azulon being killed by Ozai and him being a usurper, Ozai sending assassins after Lu Ten (true but he was gone when they arrived), Ozai being bad for the Fire Nation, rumors that Agni is angry about the war because why else would the leaders lose their children, and so on. She's terrifying in her ability to spread rumors from afar especially given the level of unrest and threat of civil war.
When Ursa speaks up in the meeting that takes the place of Zuko’s and subsequently takes his punishment, Azula has mixed feelings. Up to this point she'd been trying to avoid being affected by rumors of her mother (and writing off her letters as just a show not genuine love). But the way the woman speaks about both her and Zuko both during and after the Agni Kai starts to make her wonder (the FN court is split on this whole debacle and isn’t that something). When she finds out Ursa has become a full WL member, she makes everyone who can spar with her. Then a few years later the news of the avatar returning and her mother being there reaches her and she bullies Zuko into having a long sleep over while she works through her feelings on this.
Iroh realizes fairly quickly that his son isn't dead, so he has a different crisis than in canon. He decides to cover any loose ends and fake the kids' deaths as well. He doesn't know what made Lu Ten turn on the Fire Nation specifically, but he grieves that he didn't trust Iroh with it. This leads to Iroh pretending to be in the depressed state he is in canon while plotting to end the war. He reaches out to Lu Ten after returning back and realizing that Ozai has made it just a bit too messy to reclaim his birthright and end the war because of the backlash his supporters would throw at him if he didn’t keep it going. When he gets the reply from Azula he's befuddled but quickly grows to not underestimate her and does his best to mentor her from afar. The two have as pleasant as relationship as they really can, so that's a win. Zuko and Lu Ten also send letters (usually through Azula's since she knows all the codes) and he encourages their growth and learning (When Azula and Zuko are ready he plans to take all three to the Sun Warrior ruins).
Ursa in this AU is interesting. She's going through it to put it lightly. She discovers her children missing after returning from a trip away from the palace and is upset that somehow nobody noticed!!! and while she's fretting and sending people out to find them, they get the news about Lu Ten. The meeting with Azulon goes differently but the end result is Ozai convincing her that when the children return, if they return, Azulon wants them gone to make way for Iroh to have new heirs. If she was thinking straight, she'd probably realize that Azulon was planning to have Iroh adopt them into his line and cutting out Ozai, but she's panicked and makes her moves same as in canon. Iroh doesn't let the word of the children's fate reach the capital before him because he's scared something will happen to Ursa at either her own hands or Ozai's if she finds out without him there to pull her aside. He's not worried about her finding out the truth given she's a great actress. He tells her solemn when he arrives, still feigning that depression, and while Ozai whisks away to plot, he pulls her aside and tells her the truth.
At first, she's furious and then realizing what Ozai would have done if the kids came back, grateful to Lu Ten. She insists on writing to the kids and Lu Ten and letting Iroh put it into code. Anytime someone catches her with the un-coded letters they assume its grief given she plays up the half mad with grief mourning mother angle anytime she’s in public. Zuko and Lu Ten both keep her updated on their lives without giving away too much, and Azula sends short replies that ice her out and eventually she gives up sending more than warm wishes to her daughter. Her and Azula have parallel paths in this AU because they both confront how Ozai messed up their relationship at different times but often related incidents. Ursa is finally able to pull away from Ozai in a way she couldn't with the kids around. Given the time with Iroh as someone to talk things out with she grieves the way she hurt her daughter, too wrapped up in her own pain. This is why she lets Azula ice her out, because she doesn't blame her for any resentment. She still sends her something with every letter to the other two, though, because she doesn't want her to feel unloved or like she's not important to Ursa. This leads to Azula having a lot of complicated feelings that she doesn't know how to handle and come to a boiling point the first time they see each other face to face.
Ozai is thrilled at first by the turn of events outside Ba Sing Se, except perhaps losing Azula, but honestly, she was replaceable to him anyways. Ursa surviving the attempts on her life makes him furious though. Three years into his attempts, Ursa is in a war meeting to support Iroh where Ozai is grappling with the fact that the war is not going well, and they clearly have high ranking spies. Ursa speaks out directly against Ozai's plan to root the spy/spies out because it's insane and when it becomes clear the council agrees, he carefully sets her up to make a slip up in a later meeting to challenge her to an Agni Kai. He can't kill her in it, because the nation would actually revolt killing his grieving wife with all the rumors, but if she succumbs to her injuries... well that's Agni's will. She loses to him by the slimmest of margins, more due to getting caught up in her anger and blaming him for the loss of their children, than any lack of skill (neither of them are extraordinary) and ends up with a burn that goes up from her stomach to her face given the blast had been in an upward arc. Ursa and Iroh were prepared for this though and the healers that tend to her are loyal to the two and survives the worst of it. Ursa isn't officially banished but Ozai makes it pretty clear that it's that or he makes her life hell. He jokes that if she brings back the avatar, he'll forgive her.
Iroh goes with her because he knows that while she's on bed rest she can't watch her own back, and they need to have at least some people who will spy on them for Ozai otherwise he'll get suspicious. Her boat is grander, and she's given much more leeway with colony ports than Zuko was. It's still not a ship that fits her station and her budget is tight, but she's much more well equipped to handle her banishment especially because she has skills to make things to sell. She pulls a good portion of her crew from younger recruits who were enlisted to punish their parents, back in court for this or that, or needed the military stipend to support their family. The rest are the dregs of the military, all with remarks against Ozai on their record. Iroh gathers crew members (who don't work for Ozai) and makes it very clear that they can have a looser protocol and all the other benefits of traveling with a disgraced Fire Lady if they're willing to look the other way in the face of any strange happenings, distract said spies, and not be stupid enough to be a threat to Ursa. Given they're all where they are by being generally skeptical of the Fire Nation or as a punishment for family from Ozai, they're all happy to agree.
The crew is quickly endeared to Ursa once she's finally up, and they get quite good at distracting Ozai's people when she or Iroh need to do something treasonous. Ursa's mask is somewhere between grieving mother and desperate wife at this point. The spies report that she's either distracted by memories of her children or her fool's quest to find the avatar. There's about two years of Ursa bonding with her crew and plotting the downfall of Ozai before she sees Aang return. At this point there's only one spy for Ozai, the other three having quit due to her weird navigation choices and she motions for him to be thrown in the bridge.
Kanna is not sure what to expect when a giant FN ship docks nearby and a small group heads out towards her village. But the group stops near the entrance and it's only an older man and a middle-aged woman dressed in red garb that fits the weather and a single guard who is tiny (He's 16 and still hasn't hit his growth spurt). She takes Sokka and Katara (so they don’t try to run away with Aang in the five seconds she’s gone) to meet them along with a few other elders. ------- *So I head canon that in the EK there's a mixed level of acceptance for queer people. Some places are very conservative and some places are very accepting. The general vibe is that it's a normal part of life.
I see the SWT being accepting given they also allow women to fight (at least their water benders) and while Sokka is sexist at first that more seems to be him coping badly with his need to be a protector for what's left of his village. The NWT is harder for me to get a read on so I'm going to say hesitantly that I think it's not a punishable offense to be queer, but it's looked down upon.
The Air Nomads strike me as accepting (like Kya said in that one LOK comic) of pretty much all identities. Thank you to Jade (@dqrshrtck ) for reading behind me and helping me with mistakes.
