"Princess Azula has formally requested an Agni Kai,' the Fire Sage informed him. They had called a private meeting with him to discuss the ramifications of her latest gambit, even from the shelter of a mental asylum.

Zuko raised his eyebrows. "But we already had one. The matter's decided. And I've been Firelord for twelve months!"

The Fire Sages glanced at each other. "She cites reasons as to why the first one is null...reasons that we cannot in good conscience dismiss."

"Such as...?" Zuko growled.

'"She says the Watertribe girl interfered."

Zuko stormed out of his chair. "Azula attacked her!"

"True, but she was in the zone of combat, and the attack never got to her. Technically, the girl had no right to step in."

Zuko shook his head. "I can't believe this. Any other surprises you want to throw at me. You know, a year after I should've been informed!"

The eldest one sighed. "There's also the fact that when Ozai announced her as Firelord, it was a legal and binding statute. The only reason we went along with your coronation is because you are the eldest, and that gives you a lot of chips at the table, so to speak. Now, under the circumstances, in order to fulfill our duty to the Fire Nation, we must ask that you assent to the request. It's tradition."

'I am the Fire Nation!" Zuko declared. "That's how the saying goes, correct?"

"Again, you are correct, but Sozin was the Fire Nation. As well as Ozai and your sister. We honor all of their wills."

Zuko put a hand on his forehead and slumped into his seat. "Do I have any other options?"

One of them cleared their throat. "You can declare her a war criminal and have her executed."

Zuko tensed. 'That's the only way I can keep my crown without having to challenge her again?"

"Either that...or have us executed as well as any generals or nobility who support her bid for the throne. Word of her request has gotten around."

The Firelord shook his head. "I can't do that. And I can't have my own sister executed, my own flesh and blood, no matter how much I dislike her. I'd be just like my father." He turned to them one last time. "Are you sure there's no way to claim she's still too mentally ill?"

"I'm afraid not, not after the healers declared her well."

"Very well," he nodded, a look of determination on his face. "The Agni Kai," he breathed, "will take exactly one month from now at noon on the courtyard. I trust you to have it prepared."

"Yes, my lord," the bowed.

"You can't be serious," Mai grit. "You cannot be seriously thinking about going through with this. She has no right!"

"Technically she does. And unless I have people executed, who frankly do not deserve it, I have no other choice but to assent. I'm not going to turn out like my father, holding onto power through whatever means necessary. It's not right."

Mai clenched her teeth. "You're a fool then. The world sacrificed too much for you to just hand it away. What will the Avatar think?"

Zuko finished dressing. "Are you saying that you do not believe I have the ability to defeat her?"

'Of course not, but…"

"I think you've said enough."

Azula seemed different from the last time he saw her. More composed. Perhaps she really did recover as the healers claimed. Her hair was longer than ever before and she wore commoner robes, yet despite them, she still emitted a regal air.

"Hello, Brother."

"Azula," he nodded. They customarily bowed to each other in the center of the ring. "I'm glad to see you well."

"You're still a bad liar."

"I've focused on other skills."

"But you're diplomacy has improved. I'm impressed."

For just a moment Zuko could've swore he saw a chink in her sanity, it was a brief glint of mania in her eyes, but she quickly controlled herself.

"Let's get the show on the road then, shall we?"

"I decide, Azula. I'm the Firelord. Remember that." He watched her suspiciously. In the past Azula had rarely been so straightforward in her tactics. He figured her as the type to escape and then plot an armed insurrection. Not go through the proper channels and in the worst case scenario, lose her bid for the throne forever.

He summoned his calm and got into his firebending stance. She mimicked him. Then with one last glance at the audience, Mai, Aang, the Fire Sages, several Generals, and an assortment of nobles, he shouted, "Begin!"

Immediately something shifted in Azula. Her breath gradually became more drawn out, on each exhale, a cloud of smoke. She looked fanatic, but not in a negative sense. More like the very act of being on that stage exhilarated her. The truth is the act of firebending did elicit in her a joy unmatched by any other experience on the Earth. It was what she had lived for, and in her time spent imprisoned, she continued to focus it. She didn't need to practice katas. She had already memorized them all. No, with enough meditation, she had become fire. Each thought enslaved to its very existence, the freedom, the danger, the restraint needed to control it, it was all a part of her now. It had been her destiny since the day she first summoned blue fire.

She took the initiative and sent a wall of fire, just as high as Zuko remembered from when the comet was present, at him. He had no time to dodge and so with every available effort he put his hands out and guided the attack to his left and right, singing both sleeves. His lips automatically dried up from the heat, this was insane.

Collecting his breath, he quipped, hoping to unsettle her, just as he did the first time, "Once again, no lightning, Azula? I wonder why."

She shook her head, unphased. "I don't need lightning to defeat you, Zuzu. We both know who the better firebender is. And you're about to find out by just how much a margin. All of these people will witness the true essence of our country. It has been handed down to me, and no one else. A prophecy, if you will. I challenge anyone to test it."

The fight raged on, scorch marks dotting the landscape. Zuko repeatedly found himself on the defensive, but she was tiring. He could tell. All those sedentary months were catching up to her. "You're slipping, Azula!"

"No!" she screamed, her cool persona cracking. Because she felt her bones. Her muscles were slowing down. Her heart unable to keep up with her body's oxygen needs. "I will not lose!" And then with an unexplained burst of speed, she was beside him, but her guard was down. Zuko turned to deliver the finishing blow, when she took an impossibly deep breath. His eyes widened, aware of what was about to happen. Realizing he was almost out of time, he sacrificed force for speed, cutting the kata in half.

His fist met a tornado of flame, and he was thrown back fifty feet where he landed against one of the stones. His head was ringing from the impact, and through double vision he saw his sister approaching, lightning on her fingertips, intent on finishing the match in a permanent fashion. He tried to stand, but he was still too dizzy. He had been lucky not to have been fried by her attack. He had never witnessed his uncle, the Dragon of the West, perform a blast like that.

The lightning shot forth, and he closed his eyes in surrender, his thoughts focused on Mai and their daughter, when Aang was suddenly in the ring. He casually deflected the lightning with a wall of earth, and then helped Zuko to his feet and let him lean against his shoulder.

"Azula," Aang said tonelessly, his eyes unreadable. "We will have words later."

And Azula knew he meant them. She wasn't so stupid as to go against the Avatar, especially after his defeat of Ozai. Aang wasn't the same boy she faced in Ba Sing Se. This was a fully realized bender of all the four elements. So she nodded.

The crowd, meanwhile, was silent, as the implication settled upon them. They had a new Firelord. Azula took this opportunity to address the audience. With a loud voice she began, "I know this is unexpected. But for a long time I have always believe the strongest firebender should sit on the throne. At one point that was Sozin. And then Iroh. And now that person is me. I think I made that clear today."

She paced before the audience. "Because let me assure you, I am the Fire Nation. I am fire itself, a direct descendent of the first firebenders, and my blue flame, hotter than any other's, tell of the story. If you think I care to conquer the world, as my father and his father have done, then you are mistaken. The Fire Nation should not be shared. Earth peasants do not deserve our riches. They do not deserve our wealth or knowledge. That is foolishness. No, I only want what's best for the Fire Nation, from beggars to nobility, the entire spectrum of classes. And let me assure you," she raised her fist, "as your Fire Lord, I will do whatever it takes to make sure my people have the best!"

"How are you doing?" Mai asked softly, holding an ice pack to his head.

"How do you think I'm doing!" he barked. "Agni! I'm so mad at her. I should've had her executed like they said."

His wife sighed. "I know you would have regretted that for your entire life. That's the kind of thing that turns you into a different person. But this, you're strong, Zuko. You'll move on. And Aang will make sure she doesn't step out of line."

He closed his eyes. "I just need some time."

"Avatar," she drawled, on her way to her former chambers, four teenage girls in a circumference around her.

Aang wondered when she had picked them up. "I must congratulate you on your victory.'

"Yes well, I'm glad you stepped in at the last moment. I would've felt moderately bad if I killed him. Now I'm sure you have a couple things you want to discuss. Let me guess, make me promise not to genocide the waterbenders and what not?"

Aang put a hand on his chin, playful as always, and nodded. "Basically. I'm here to maintain the balance and that's all I'm here for. Which is why I didn't interfere once I heard about your little challenge. So you don't have to worry about me micromanaging your decisions."

"That's good to hear," she rolled her eyes.

"But know that if you do step out of line, and you'll know when you cross it, I'll be coming for you."

Azula was frankly impressed by his threat. He looked like he meant it. "Of course. Trust me when I say I would not look forward to a fate like my father's. Worse than death."

"On that we disagree."

Azula sat on her throne, a fortress of blue fire behind her. It felt good to be back. This was her destiny.

Zuko and his family took a vacation, which was fine with her. It was awkward, honestly. And teasing him about how he lost got old after a while.

Yes, everything was going just as planned, she noted, as she tried to ignore the image of her mother in the corner of the hall. Her mother, shaking her head in disappointment.