#this au could just have an explanation that makes any more sense than brainwashing via anime death scene

[loopy777]

‘Retroactive’ Planning Doc

Copy+Paste straight out of my original planning document, including links to where the original concept came from, my outline, and various free-writing summaries of the plot.

http://forums.avatarspirit.net/index.php?topic=18938.msg1980740#msg1980740

“AU. There wasn't always a Suki. When Firelord Zuko needed to hide/rid himself of the crazed contender to his throne, he had the mindbenders of Ba Sing Se work with Aang's energybending to strip Azula of her firebending... and her memories. Thus was born Suki, a girl with a fresh start on life -- and no greater ambition than to live on backwater Kyoshi Island. (What, you though Ty Lee moved there for the good weather? She's totally a watchdog.) And Sokka's attraction to 'Suki' is drawing more than a little disapproval from his friends and family."

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/03/misinformation-effect/ Elizabeth Loftus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_effect

1) Start 2) Ozai talks to the hypnotist, Suki talks with Ty Lee and raids a bar. 3) Ozai arrives and reveals everything to Suki. She kills him and goes after Ty Lee, then escapes. 4) The gAang discusses everything. They want to go after her, but only Sokka and Ty Lee both think she might be good. 5) Suki is confronted by a faux-Azula. Sokka does something? 6) Suki is brought before Long Feng. 7) Suki infiltrates the Earth Palace, and is forced to kill the Earth King. 8) Suki tries to escape, but is confronted by Sokka. She defeats him and goes after Long Feng. 9) Long Feng makes his play to be made leader of one or more of the independent colonies. The gAang can't stop him. 10) Suki arrives in the colony looking to go after Long Feng. He unleashes the faux-Azulas after her. 11) The final battle. Suki vesus Long Feng with Sokka trying to save the woman he loves. 12) Epilogue

Suki doesn't exist. Azula has been brainwashed and made to think that she's a Kyoshi Warrior named Suki. For our purposes, "Suki" and "Azula" will be used interchangeably to reflect which identity the girl herself is claiming at the given point in time. (Notes in parentheses are background information that the narration will have to leave out, since most of it is from Suki's perspective.)

Suki is living on Kyoshi Island. She's fitting in, and if she notices that anything is wrong or feels weird, she finds herself compelled to shrug it off. However, she has two major problems on her mind. She's being plagued by vivid nightmares about "Princess Azula," her old enemy from the war, which are actively leaving her sleep-deprived. Also, her boyfriend Sokka is spending a lot of time traveling on goodwill missions, and can't seem to make the time to visit her. Both issues are addressed when Sokka manages a one-day visit, and in his company Suki is nightmare-free.

(Ty Lee wrote to Sokka, and helped arrange his visit. The others in the gAang+ are trying to discourage the relationship, and Sokka himself is conflicted about it, in a heart-versus-mind kind of way.)

The next night, alone again, the nightmares return. Suki enlists Ty Lee's active help, and the acrobat tries a mix of herbal remedies (carefully chosen not to affect memories) and exercise. The fix isn't 100%, but Suki gets enough good nights to avoid sleep-deprivation-related health problems. Feeling a little better, Suki begins thinking about her problem with Sokka, and begins to wonder if he's either avoiding her or being pressured away from her. She deduces Ty Lee's role, and plans to confront her friend. It occurs to Suki that she could lure Ty Lee into a deadly trap, and make the girl tell her the truth in exchange for her life, but Suki quickly dismisses this very odd thought. Instead, she directly confronts Ty Lee, bombards her with a mix of facts and circumstantial evidence, and gets a halfhearted confession: Sokka's friends and family don't approve of their love, and they're actively discouraging even a visit. Suki is stunned, and can't imagine why anyone has a problem with it.

She fires off a series of letters to her newfound enemies, and makes plans to leave Kyoshi Island in search of Sokka, intending to travel with him for a while. However, she gets home one day to find ex-Fire Lord Ozai sitting in her house. He calls her "Azula," and insists that she's his daughter, that he escaped and went into debt to new allies to find her and save her (or end her life as a mercy). Suki resists the idea, of course, but he offers himself as her captive, and tries to actively convince her. He knows all the details of her life, details even she's fuzzy on, and his explanation makes a weird kind of sense, given how she's being treated. Then he goes into details about the daughter he knew, and Suki finds that she has memories of such a life. She starts to panic, have a breakdown episode.

That's when Ty Lee shows up with Suki's nightly herbal remedy. She can immediately tell, when Suki answers the door, that Azula's old aura is back, and her panicked expression gives the game away. Suki gets angry, accuses her of being her jailer, and attacks with Firebending (but not up to her old strength, because the brainwashing has messed up her style and combat instincts). A fight ensues, and Suki wins, burning Ty Lee. The other Kyoshi Warriors arrive, the Firebending have drawn attention in the night sky, and Suki flees. Ozai attempts to as well, but is subdued by the Warriors and captured. (Killed?) The Kyoshi Warriors try to find Suki, but she evades them and escapes to the mainland, via a smuggler and his sons and daughter. The kids are Firebenders, and Azula realizes that she doesn't remember any of her old moves.

Feeling betrayed, she decides that Suki never existed, and that it's time for Azula to pursue her own life and happiness. (She's going by her own memories of Azula, which don't necessarily match the truth of the matter. The cartoon events are more or less the revised history meant to go with the creation of the "Suki" identity, but the truth was that Azula was less of a monster, hence her chance for redemption here. She did terrible things, but Ozai pushed her to do them, and she made the choice to do some merciful things, too. Doctors theorized that creating a separate identity could be the key to curing her mental afflictions, and so all the good was excised from Suki's memories of Azula's life and attributed to Suki instead. The Dai Li brainwasher only got the details of what he needed to do based on this, and so doesn't know that the gAang aren't just turning her into their own little doll.)

When Sokka gets the news, he begins seeking her in turn. Of course, he isn't the only one. The full gAang+ are on the case. They all descend on Iroh's teashop to discuss what to do. Iroh stays out of the discussion, for the most part. Mai is leading the faction that considers the Suki Experiment a failure, and advocates taking her down hard. Ty Lee is reluctantly on the same side, Toph not so reluctantly. Aang never liked the Suki Experiment in the first place, so he's on this side as well, although advocating recapturing Azula and locking her up. Katara is leading the side for retrying the experiment or getting her some other kind of therapy, with Zuko and Sokka supporting her. The only problem is that the Dai Li doctor has gone missing (Ozai got him!), and they don't have any other ideas or options.

Meanwhile, Azula tracks down her mother's grave. She tries to remember her, and the feelings associated with her, but it's all confused in her head, and she finds she can't trust them. She gets upset that she's not even the real Azula, she's a watered down version, and decides that she needs a challenge to get back on her game. It's what the real Azula would have done, after all, based on her memories. (These memories are pretty much the Evil Azula created by the separation of the Suki persona.)

In Ba Sing Se, Azula has come looking for the man who arranged Ozai's release and informed him of Azula's fate- Long Feng! The former Dai Li admin had gone into hiding, and has emerged and returned to Ba Sing Se to enact a daring plan to make the best of Azula's return. (In truth, Long Feng knows that the real Azula has been hopelessly corrupted. He hopes to use her intelligence and reputation to make her into a figurehead, while he controls this more docile version of his old rival.) He encourages her to announce her return, and get revenge against those who wronged her, with a daring display- assassinating the Earth King! She reluctantly agrees, although she doesn't entirely trust Long Feng, and begins making plans.

When she infiltrates the palace, though, she sneaks into the Earth King's chambers, and requests sanctuary and an alliance. He freaks out, and calls the guards down on her.

-UPDATE- Or, scratch the last two paragraphs, and see what I do with another idea I had. If Long Feng is masterminding everything, why wouldn't he have access to all the data about Azula used to turn her into Suki? Perhaps he can make his own faux-Azula's, all inferior to the real thing by a longshot of course, and that's what Azula finds when she gets to Ba Sing Se. But, aside from knowing that she's going to kill them all at some point, what do I do with that?

Azula lands on the Earth Kingdom coast, and is met by a Copy-Azula. Long Feng was expecting her, and sent a green-eyed copy to meet her and bring her to his hideout. Long Feng has been using the copies to create chaos across the colonies. He's been sending each one into a trouble spot to disrupt things in Azula's uniquely intelligent and effective way. He wants to send the real Azula to Ba Sing Se. Long Feng offers Suki-Azula all her old memories back, and gives her a preliminary "treatment" before she is dispatched to the Impenetrable City. Azula thinks she is playing Long Feng, and decides that her best chance at double-crossing him is to meet with the Earth King and offer a deal: Long Feng, in exchange for all his brainwashing tech and info, as well as the means to get her old personality restored.

Azula infiltrates Ba Sing Se with the fake passport that Long Feng gave her. She seeks out Jin as her guide, because both Suki and Azula know only the Upper Ring. When she meets Jin, she asks if Jin sees the resemblance, then covers her eye, pinches her expression, and says in a deep voice, "When I was with the circus, I used to juggle!" (She heard the tale from Sokka and Ty Lee.) Jin finds Azula a place to stay and lets her know where to eat and such, and gives her the latest news. When Azula is ready, she has Jin guide her to the Upper Ring.

She infiltrates the Earth King's palace, and Kuei's personal chambers. Once she sees him, though, she is compelled to kill him. Long Feng had added a hypnotic suggestion when Azula got her first "treatment," which both put the suggestion in her head that she should meet with the Earth King, and then compelled her to kill him. It also tries to force her to commit suicide.

Azula has a metaphysical fight with herself, and manages to keep herself from killing herself. She emerges from that mental-plane as an Azula-Suki fusion. Let's now call her Azuki.

Azuki escapes the palace, and makes her way back to Jin. She is racked with guilt, and Jin gives her a talk about letting the past go and living for the future.

Long Feng, meanwhile, appears in the colonies, peddling order and sovereignty. As he tries to take control of the colony from "The Promise," Azuki arrives with the gAang hot on her heals. There's a confrontation, Azuki kills Long Feng and most or all of her copies. She has a standoff with the gAang, but Sokka talks her down and reveals that the real Azula wasn't irredeemable, just damaged, so that's why they made "Suki." Azuki gives herself up. Publicly, one of the Copy-Azulas is blamed for the Earth King's death. The real one is given a new identity on Ember Island, in Li and Lo's care, where she's visited by Sokka.

I’m not feeling that. Alternatively...

During the big confrontation with Long Feng, Sokka meets up with Azula and reminds her of all the good things about her, like when she protected the Kyoshi Warriors, fought with Long Feng to keep their coup bloodless instead of killing the King and Council of Five, when she forgave Mai and Ty Lee their lives. Azula realizes that she isn't the monster she thought, but is mad that all those memories are gone. The gang killed that person, all the good and bad about her and replaced her with a lie. Then she goes to kill Long Feng and fake her death. Half a year later, Sokka gets a message and follows it to a remote Fire Nation island, where a young woman of extraordinary Firebending ability has is a rising voice in local politics and teaches self-defense.

The End!

-UPDATE DURING WRITING PHASE- So Azula wants to disrupt Long Feng's plans, steal his organization for herself (or at least the public part that is pushing for freedom in the colonies), and save the fake Azula's. The latter is actually her first priority, so she starts by returning to the colonies.

She confronts Toru, and forgives him unconditionally. Then she asks for his help in hurting Long Feng. He reveals who his contact was, a former Dai Li who had contacted Toru out of the blue and conveyed Long Feng's instructions and intimidation tactics. Azula, Meisai, and the Rough Rhinos go after this guy, and find him serving in a similar capacity to Shingyung in one of the colony cities. This city is a newer one, with lots of Earth Kingdom culture yet, and it's basically the Gaoling of the West, with lots of money and sprawling estates. The Dai Li guy is organizing loans and investments to industrial businesses all around the colonies. He's also running several "terrorist" cells, each led by a fake Azula. He's still waiting for their arrival when the real Azula shows up and demands information. The Rough Rhinos play bad cop and Azula plays good cop? She gets the information, meets up with the fake Azula's in the Dai Li's stead and tries to break their programming, but she's unsuccessful and they eventually have to take the girls captive and hide them on the Hidden Gem. (Although, Azula is savvy enough that she manages to keep them from stabbing themselves per their suicide programming.)

From there, they use the Dai Li guy's written timetables to intercept another attack on a refugee convoy to be led by another of the Azula's. Azula recruits the "terrorists" who had been following the two fake Azula's and consolidate them into an army. They join up with the refugee convoy, and spring their trap when the third fake Azula. Azula knows that the truth didn't help the other two, so she pretends to be a fake herself, and tells the other Azula that there's a conspiracy to exploit her yadda yadda, and gets the location of Dong Min!

Dong Min is holed up a cave in Cave Country, guarded by Earthbender and Firebender minions of Long Feng. There are also several fake Azula's on hand receiving programming. Azula leads an assault on the place with her growing army, and successfully captures the base and Dong Min. She and Dong Min have a long chat, in which she convinces him to surrender. He reveals all the locations of the reprogrammed Azula's, as well as the control phrases for putting them into a passive state (although they'll need extensive therapy like the Joo Dees to completely undo the programming and allow them to live normal lives).

Then he and Azula have a long chat about her, seguing from the admission that the old identities of the fake Azula's are lost forever to the revelation that Azula herself has lost her old life and no amount of therapy can get it back. Dong Min also reveals Sokka's true part in things. In the end, Azula notes that Dong Min is guilty of treason against the Earth King and directly aided in his assassination. He couldn't hide from Long Feng, before. The Avatar will scour the Earth for him now. Dong Min has nothing but execution or a life in jail to look forward to, at best, or reprisal or recapture from Long Feng at worst. The knowledge in his head makes him to dangerous to be allowed to go free. Dong Min thinks that Azula is going to kill him, but then she reveals that she's actually offering him the option of a painless suicide. After some dithering, he accepts, but first he warns Azula that Shingyung is after her with June's Shirshu.

Azula sets the trap for Shingyung. She sends her army to recover the fake Azulas, with one member of the Rough Rhinos commanding each division and armed with the Dai Li control phrases. She and Meisai head to Yang City alone to fight Shingyung.

#writing