The Portal

Azula was feeling confident - as always. A prodigy like herself could do no wrong, and any headway her opponents may have made were only because she allowed it to happen. She was in control. She had proved it with her 'friends', she had proved it with her brother. The only mistakes made were ones by others. She scowled slightly as she thought of the failures that had occurred. But now she had the Avatar trapped in this cocoon crystal. Soon either he would have no choice but to come out, or she wold destroy his shield. Whichever came first. Either option would be fine. She glanced at where her brother (manipulated by herself and his want to belong, untrustworthy, but currently not a traitor) was punching a flamed fist at the water girl, filling the air with steam. Good. At least he was under control. She knew without having to look that Ty Lee and Mai were fighting the other small fry. Neither of them would betray her. She knew it for sure.

The Avatar was glowing. Azula refocused all her attention on him. This was not a good sign. Glowing meant double, maybe triple his normal power minus the self control. She would have to move fast. Keeping calm, she drew her hand out and focused on gathering all the electrical power she would need. He rose from his shell, ready for battle - she struck.

'Perfect', she thought, smirking for a millisecond until something seemed off. The Avatar had been hit, had been hurt, she was sure. Look, he was on the floor with the water girl flung over him. Was she pulling out a vial of water? What good would that do? But still in the air was the residue of the electrical power mixed in with the Avatar power's physical form. It seemed to be sucking in the power from everyone in the room at that point. Something was wrong. All her alarm senses were going off, and everyone seemed to be on the same page as her.

"What's happening?" She heard someone screaming. She felt a pull of gravity. The mass of energy was swirling now, pulling in the Avatar and that water girl first, then her weakling brother who was closest, and on and on. She grabbed onto something but it was too late. She got lost in the energy, the rush of sound going straight into her eardrums and everything turned into a fog. Her last vision was the blue dressed idiot with his fingers dug in the ground, failing to resist the thing that was pulling them all in. Whatever it was.

She woke to a twinge of pain from her head and shoulder where someone was attempting to dislodge it. She hissed in pain and opened her eyes to find a little girl gleefully shaking her awake. Ugh. The girl reminded her of Ty Lee with that smile. She sat up slowly, taking a look at her surroundings.

"Where am I?" she asked the girl. Nothing seemed familiar.

"Rin doesn't know exactly where this place is." The girl happily spoke. "But we found pretty ne-chan and Sesshoumaru-sama let us rest a little. What's ne-chan's name?"

"Don't call me ne-chan. You will refer to me as Princess Azula."

"Ah, so pretty ne-chan is a princess!?" Azula growled.

"What did I just say? She grabbed the girl's hand and applied some pressure and heat. "Don't make me say it again." The girl started grimacing in pain. Azula let go. The girl, as Azula expected, ran off somewhere.

'Well that peasant brat was no help,' she thought as she strenuously picked herself up. 'Where is Mai? Ty Lee? The Avatar slipped out of my grasp again!' The most recent of memories flowed back to her.

"Damn it." She felt frustrated enough to punch the tree next to her, causing it to ignite from her flame encrusted hand. She began walking away from the clearing only to be stopped by a midget green amphibian with a walking stick too tall for it that featured two heads at the top. Her nearest comparison was a frog-alligator, but it seemed far from the animal she knew. First of all it was speaking.

"You! You dare spurn Sesshoumaru-sama's allowance of care for you? You dare injure the one who convinced his Lordship to let her watch over a pathetic human like you?" The... thing screamed. She listened, annoyed, but continued walking. She needed to find out exactly where she was.

"And now you ignore the great retainer, Jaken-sama?" How dare you!" He slammed his sick to the ground and out from one of the heads streamed fire. Her instincts kicking in, she turned around at at the sight of flames, countered by forming a shield of her own blue flames.

"I don't know who - or what," she added as an afterthought, "you are, but I will not allow this insult. I am the Fire Nation Princess, and for that insult I will kill you." She moved into a fighting position and threw a flamed punch at the thing. It hit and knocked him unconscious and slightly burnt.

"Pathetic Human. You will tell this Sesshoumaru why you have insulted me." The velvety steel voice that reminded her so much of her own voice came from right behind her. Before she knew what was happening, she had been picked up with one hand by the throat and pinned on a tree, several feet distance between her feet and the ground. "I allowed time to be wasted on you and you repay this Sesshoumaru with what." It was not a question.

Azula was shocked for perhaps the first time in her life. This strength. This person. He was beauty and strength and fear and death impersonated. Her hands that had immediately went to her throat to pull away at the hand choking her were pulling harder then they had a second ago as his fingers clenched tighter. She then pulled out of the shock and remembered who she was. She became angry. Who was this person to treat her, a PRINCESS, like this? How dare HE? She pulled the flames from her anger into her hands. The person's eyes barely widened but he didn't release his grip.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama!" The girl was back with a bandage over the wrist Azula had burnt. "No, it's okay. It was probably an accident! Let ne-chan down! Please?" She tugged slightly on his clothing. He glanced at her and let go. Azula fell, coughing as she tried to get air back in her lungs.

"Listen well human. You are here because I allow it, and for no other reason. Do not attack my followers again or I will kill you." His hand dripped green goo that melted the grass it fell on. "Understand it or die." He turned around and began walking. The girl and the thing followed it until the girl ran back and poked Azula.

"Come on!" She said. "Sesshoumaru-sama isn't going to wait for you!" Azula took a second to think the choices over. Stay here and recover from this insult/injury but have no idea where she was or where to go, or follow a man much more powerful than herself who knew where he was and possibly get information out of them. She hated felling weak, but she hated feeling ignorant as well. But gaining strength would be easier then finding knowledge in an isolated place like this. She was mad. Oh yes, she was mad. But she would follow this man and find the secret to his power.

"I'm coming." She smirked. The child smiled happily and skipped off. Azula strode after her, refusing to seem affected by her earlier treatment.

'Soon,' she told herself, 'they'll know what it means to get on my bad side.'

Annnnnnd...cut!

Hope you enjoyed this first chapter.

I really hope I can continue with the story, but I honestly have no clue where the story's going. I only wanted Azula to encounter Sesshoumaru and witness his ruthlessness and feel powerless for once. I've only begun on that (and on a very biased third point of view). I could use some suggestions from the audience, such as if I should bring anyone else in. All the characters from the fight did go through the portal, but I don't know if I want to bring them into the plot. Who knows. Azula was separated from the rest of them so perhaps the portal led them all to the Inu-universe, but it's just as likely that they could've been flung to other universes. It would have to be a different story, but I could have a lot of fun writing it either way.

(Though if I remember it right, the Dai Li were there. I don't want them to have gone through. If they were there, I'll have to either show why they didn't get pulled through or kill them off. Dunno.)

So: Suggestions, please! Give me a plot. Give me feedback on what I've done. Have I written characters too out of character? I'm a bit afraid for Sess and Rin. The stoic-barely-has-a-word-but-cares-for-his-pack-demon and the little kid who doesn't seem to use first and second pronouns. Pronouns? Whatever it is.

And above all, thank you all for reading!