Hi, I hope you enjoy this oneshot. I always thought that during the series, Azula couldn't have always been as horrible as they made her seem. As a child, it's not like she was already planning to rule people through fear. She was probably just a normal kid until her father started to hover over her. And thus, the story was made.
I hope you like it!
The roaring, the pleading, the crying; it broke his heart. Every flame that exploded from her tearful screams cracked through his defenses, broke down his wall. The emotions that danced in her eyes, the madness that had taken her, pierced him. It was painful to watch her. He wanted to cry for her, spill his own tears in order to mourn the tragic state in which she lay. He wanted nothing more than to make his father pay for this. He changed her. He turned her into...
Another shriek, blue heat thrown around.
...this.
"Zuku?" a voice whispered gently beside him. His amber eyes focused on the water bender. Katara.
He didn't answer her, he just kept watching. How could he ignore the cries of anguish? How could he do what he told himself needed to be done? How could he kill his own sister?
He couldn't.
He didn't know if it was weakness or pity or even love, but he knew he couldn't do it.
"Zuko," Katara called again. She placed a reassuring hand on his arm. "Do you want to leave?"
"She wasn't always like this," he blurted, putting his own hand on hers. She gave it a reassuring squeeze before she replied, "I know."
"No," he denied, staring back at his sister as her crippled mind told her to fight back, "you don't. I don't mean how she was when you knew her. I mean when we were kids. She was never power-hungry, she was never cruel. She was just my little sister."
Another bloodcurdling screech echoed throughout the burning battlefield. He noticed that her blue flames were starting to die down. The heat that radiated off of her was merely a tickle on his skin now.
"How about we find Aang and the others?" she suggested, tugging his hand in the direction of Appa. She was even having a hard time watching the woman. Even if she was her enemy, it was...sad. Watching anyone wither away on the ground, their mind snapped, was heartbreaking. She didn't care who it was. No one deserved this.
"You go," he told her, releasing his grip on her hand. "I'll stay here and make sure she doesn't escape. You find the others."
She was about to protest, but he immediately clamped a hand down on her mouth and told her, "I'll be fine. Just go."
Sighing, she jumped onto Appa and flew away, leaving Zuko with his sister.
Locking eyes with her, he realized that she was completely drained of all energy. Her eyes were glazed over and her eyelids were drooping as silent tears streeked down her face. She was in a ball on the ground, her knees to her chest.
Taking a few hesistant steps towards his sister, he waited for her to react to his prescence. She didn't. Believing that he was safe from her fire, he knelt beside her. He put a hand under her back and lifted her up, leaning her against the column next to her. He sat next to her and lightly brushed her uneven bangs from her face.
"Hua," he called to her. She didn't stir, but a small smile spread across his lips as he remembered the old nickname.
Hua meant flower and her favorite things as a child were always flowers. She always had them by her bed at night. She said that her dreams would be pretty since she was able to smell the pretty flowers. He didn't mean for the name to stick, but ever since that day, he never called her anything else. At least, not when they were kids, anyways.
"How come you like Fire Lilies so much?" he had asked her one night. They made a fort on Zuko's bed, the blanket draped over them and a small lantern in the middle of the two. She had brought a Fire Lily from her little garden in back for Zuko.
He played with the firey petals as she answered, "They're pretty and they look like fire."
"There's fire everywhere! Shouldn't you, I don't know, pick something blue as your favorite? There's never any blue around here."
"I like them because they look like fire, but they don't burn like it," she whispered, her cheeks red. She was embarassed to tell him.
He cast his eyes downward. "Oh."
He looked over at her bandaged arm and winced. She was practicing firebending and lost control of the fire and burnt herself. She was only five so it was impressive that she could even conjure up a spark. The teacher shouldn't have pushed her so hard.
Flicking his thumb over the petal again, he gazed up at his younger sister. She was looking away from him and twiddling her fingers around. He looked down at the flower again and smiled. Ripping off part of the stem, he mumbled, "Stay still," to his sister then stuck the lily into her ponytail.
"Well, if the flower can do it then so can you."
She looked at him quizically. "Huh?"
"The flower looks like fire, right? And the flower doesn't hurt anybody, right? So, if the flower can't hurt anybody from the fire then you can do that, too."
He gave a lopsided grin, and she couldn't help but giggle.
"You're silly, Zuzu!"
He patted her on the head with a laugh and told her, "I get that from Uncle, Hua."
"Hua?" she swatted his hand away. "Why'd you call me flower?"
"You're going to be learning your firebending from a Fire Lily. That means you're a flower too"
"Am not!" she pouted.
The rest of the night, he couldn't stop calling her Hua. She stopped denying it and it became her second name. Zuko smiled at the memory. He had almost forgotten it. With the war and his banishment, all of the happy memories of the two of them as just siblings--not the prince and princess, the failure and the prodigy, not anything else--seemed to be quickly vanishing. He missed them. He missed little Hua, he missed his mother, he missed Lu Ten, he missed everything.
He put a hand to his scar, the rough skin reminding him of that day when he was thirteen. This scar told him that time can't be erased, things won't be shining and happy anymore. Sure, the war was over and that was something to celebrate, but he can't celebrate his family being torn apart. He can't celebrate his sister's unstable mind or his father's death. No, time moves forward and away from any hope for his sister. Time moves away, far away from Azula's innocent mind. The scar told him there was no way of making that time up, either.
"Hua," he called again.
No answer.
"Hua," he called once more.
No answer.
He sighed. "I'm sorry."
But...
He grabbed something from his pocket, ripping off the stem. He smoothed out the petals and placed it in her disheveled hair.
...that doesn't mean he can't try.
Well, I hope this wasn't too bad. I wanted to make something because I felt so bad for Azula and Zuko. I mean, they were brother and sister and they had to fight to the death in an Agni Kai. That's brutal.
Hope you liked it though!
Review please!