A story based on how I basically think that Azula should have gotten a second chance at happiness
NOTE: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender, or its characters
A dark haired girl stared blankly at the damp prison bricks ahead of her. A deep rooted fear gripped her heart, but it had no explanation. The girl was simply afraid, and didn't know why. Footsteps clanked in the hallway, a man approached and threw a few chunks of dried out rice and rancid meat at her feet. The torchlight behind the man obscured his features, leaving no particular impression about him. The girl felt her pulse quicken, her heart beginning to ache into her chest. The energy built up until she could barely breathe. As she gasped for breath, heat began to build up. After what seemed like hours, the heat met its peak. The air itself crackled with energy, finding its escape through the uneven stones on the wall. Fresh air rushed into the prison cell and its cool freshness enticed the girl. She sprang from the cell and into the drizzling rain of the night, unsure of what was beyond the walls of the prison, unsure of where she was going, unsure of who she even was.
"Azula has escaped! All personnel to the gates! Don't let her get away!" A deep male voice boomed into the night.
The dark haired girl didn't know how the words applied to her, but they struck another pang of fear into the girl's heart. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring the shock of the nearly frozen mud seeping between her toes, and the sharp rocks that dug into her heels. The girl ran through the closing gates with only a few inches to spare, before disappearing into the woods.
"AZULA!" a different male voice than before called out into the darkness. It was familiar, but the girl couldn't place it.
"We will find her Zuko, your sister will not make it far, and winter is upon us after all." A guard comforted the man who had called out.
"I'm just afraid of what she will do in the meantime." The young fire lord looked towards his boots.
The girl kept running and running through the forest, the reason unknown to even her. She simply ran until her body would take no more, and gave out.
The girl moaned and picked herself up, the coldness of frost covered moss beneath her having sunk deep into her joints. She looked around and could smell the sea. She looked through the tree line to see hordes of men and women boarding large metal ships. They all wore dirtied scraps of clothing, just like her. She thought that maybe that was where she was supposed to be. The girl stumbled down the ravine and into the group of people standing before the ships. The young woman looked at the groups being formed and looked to a group of men yelling out at the heads of the group.
"Ba Sing Se this group right here, Ba Sing Se!" one man yelled out.
"Omashu group here!" another called out.
"Eastern countryside villages here!" yet another announced.
"Hey, young lady, which part of the Earth kingdom were you taken prisoner from?" a young man about her own age approached the young woman.
"Earth Kingdom?" The girl looked blankly at the tanned young man.
"Are you alright? Do you know where you're from?" the man asked.
"I… I don't remember anything. I just remember waking up in a prison and getting out. I don't even remember my name." The girl studied the ground, feeling the pressure of tears welling up in her eyes.
"Oh, I've heard about prisoners like you. The Fire Nation supposedly brainwashed hundreds of Eastern countryside villagers to fight for them. That must be where you are from. I'm headed to the furthest village, why don't I accompany you and see if your family is in one of the towns on the way?" the young man smiled, trying to comfort the young woman.
She smiled and looked up into his green eyes. "Thank you." The girl took hold of the side of his shirt and he led her into one of the many writhing groups of people. The groups soon boarded select boats, and they simply set sail for the Earth Kingdom.
"So, what's your name?" the girl asked the young Earth Kingdom boy.
"You can call me Aki." The boy flashed a heartbreaking smile, and winked one of his green eyes. Suddenly his charming demeanor took a downturn.
"What is it, Aki?" the young woman asked.
"A pretty girl like you deserves a name, even if it's just until you remember your old name." Aki rubbed his temple in thought. "How about Jia, it's a name meaning beautiful. The name fits right?" the boy scratched his head nervously and began a nervous laugh when the girl didn't respond for a while.
"I love it! I'm Jia then." The girl smiled, and somehow the boy knew that what he was seeing was special. The girl's features accommodated a smile so well, but the lines on her face indicated furrowed brows instead of smile lines.
"Alright Jia! You just stick with ol' Aki here and I'll get you home, I promise." The boy smiled and took a seat next to the beautiful dark haired girl, a blush creeping across his features.
"A little too smooth there." Jia joked, nudging the boy's shoulder.
"Sorry, I knew it too but kept going." Aki laughed nervously again. "Girls like you usually don't notice me, or it could be that there were only two other girls in my small village besides my sisters, and I was only thirteen when I was taken prisoner." The boy explained.
"So many people, were they all taken like you? Why would something so terrible happen?" Jia asked somberly.
"The Fire Nation was ruled ruthlessly for the past one hundred years. The war they started put us all on this path, but now Fire lord Zuko and the Avatar will put it back on track. Now is a time for peace and love, a time for forgiveness. I mean I always wanted to see the world outside my little village, but would never have left because I needed to provide for my mother and sisters. When I was taken I was angry, but then I saw the most amazing things on my journeys between prison camps. The horrible food was almost worth it. I don't curse my fate, but I sure am glad to be going home. These people are too, they are filled with so much joy and are ready to be home. Somewhere a family is probably waiting for their darling Jia to return to them too." Aki smiled as he romanced about his past.
"I hope so, but what if there is no one waiting for me?" the girl hugged her knees to her chest.
"Then you can come live with me! It's a bland life in the farming village, but it's a peaceful one. A good life awaits anyone who is fortunate enough to live there." Aki looked away, afraid of the girl's reaction. After all, who wanted to be a farmer?
"It sounds like a plan, thank you Aki." Jia looked reenergized and happy again.
The boat rocked to a stop and Jia flinched awake. A smoke and fire filled dream had wracked her brain throughout the night. She sat up, realizing her head had been leaned on Aki's shoulder for the better part of a day and a half.
"You sure slept pretty long, not even the smell of food seemed to stir you any." Aki commented.
"I guess I was tired then." Jia tried to hide how shaken her dream had left her, but it was blatantly obvious that she was no good at hiding her emotions.
"Jia did you have a bad dream? It might have been some of your memories trying to come through." Aki suggested.
"I only recall smoke and fire. There was a broken mirror, and that's it. Not really a tell-tale dream about my past." Jia shook off Aki's suggestion.
"Yeah I guess you're right. Oh well, just keep it in mind." Aki smiled.
"Now approaching the Eastern Earth Kingdom shores, the caravans all the way through to the second to last village will be departing immediately." The loudspeaker announced throughout the ship.
"This is where our journey begins Jia!" Aki exclaimed putting his hands on his hips and jumping up out of his seat. He turned to face his companion and held out a hand to her.
"This is the beginning." Jia repeated, taking the hand into her own and standing up with Aki.
The journey by ostrich-horse pulled wagons took a month and a half to reach the town one over from Aki's. The long journey had taken its emotional toll on Jia. Not one town recognized Jia, nor was missing any girls of her description. Aki could feel the depression falling off of her in waves, but could do nothing but reassure her of his presence.
"Jia, you will always be welcomed at my family's farm. It's an hour's walk from here so why don't we get started?" Aki draped his arm around Jia, who had only recently gotten a better change of clothes a couple of towns back. The green garb seemed to become her, contrasting perfectly with her dark hair and pale skin.
"Alright." Jia gave a weak smile and began to walk with Aki.
"I know you will love my family. My sisters are a bit rowdy but it's been six years. My older sisters probably married and left home, and the younger two are twins that are twelve now. So, it should be calmer with the two older girls gone, they were noisy divas. They always fought over chores, clothes, food, and one time whose turn it was to grind corn for skin scrubs or something." Aki laughed at the memory.
"I hope they like me, I'll do my best to fit in." Jia looked ahead and wished for the best.
Aki looked at the familiar childhood home and could barely keep the tears in his eyes from overflowing. Jia looked at him and couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness in herself because Aki was happy. The pair walked between two fenced off areas of crops that were currently empty due to the off season for crops. The chilly winter wind did nothing to hinder Aki's mood, as it did Jia's.
Aki walked to the front porch and inhaled deeply before knocking on his own door. A rustle of footsteps could be heard before the door creaked open. A middle aged woman that looked remarkably like Aki appeared. She looked taken aback for a moment before yelling into the house.
"Aya, Maya, Kaya! Aki has returned to us!" the woman began to sob hysterically and grabbed her son in a platypus-bear hug. She cried for a better part of ten minutes, watched fondly by two young girls and an older one, presumably Aki's sisters.
"Ma, I'd like you to meet someone." Aki stood back and pulled Jia forward. "This is Jia; I met her while I was away." Aki beamed introducing Jia, which made her blush a deep crimson.
"Is this your wife Aki? When you were taken you were no more than a child, oh how you've grown!" Aki's mother said excitedly.
"No, no she's not my wife!" Aki corrected quickly, "But I hope so, one day." Aki added in a badly concealed whisper.
"Aki!" Jia piped up, more than a little embarrassed.
"My lady?" Aki asked jokingly.
Jia simply huffed, but everything was all in good fun. Aki's mother invited the pair in and the family caught up till the sun went down.
"Will you be staying with us then Jia?" Aya, Aki's only present older sister. Jia looked uncomfortable for a moment before Aki stood in.
"Jia lost her memory, I thought it was due to the Fire Nation experiments on people from the Eastern villages, but no one in any of the towns claimed to know her. I promised her that she could stay with me if that happened, I'm just sad that it did come to this. I had hoped she would be with her family by now." Aki squeezed Jia's hand, an action that was not lost on Aki's family.
"Oooooo Aki's got a girlfriend!" Maya and Kaya squealed in unison.
"Only if she'll have me." Aki joked.
"Alright she can share a room with you Aya, it would not be proper for an unmarried couple to sleep in the same room." Aki's mother warned harshly. Aki and Jia both blushed hard enough for it to get noticed by the women present.
"Other than that you are welcome in my home young Jia." Aki's mother hugged the young woman. "I can see you make my son very happy, so we'll keep you around." She added in a whisper.
"Yeah, our home is yours until you need it." Aya agreed.
"This is my home." Jia felt a tear roll down her face. "I've never had a home that I've known, thank you for making this my first one." Jia smiled and bowed in respect. "Thank you."
Two years later Aki and Jia had been married and Jia had given birth to twin boys. Tradition stated that they would receive their names when they reached their first birthday, a good luck charm to ensure their survival. The boys were a mere two months old when Jia began to work in the fields again, an action that Aki nearly had a heart attack over. With the boys back in the house with their grandmother, Jia knew they were in good hands, and had no reason not to be working. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, slightly lifting her straw hat to do so. The animals in the far fields began to make a ruckus, signaling the approach of someone. Aki's mother and sisters gathered where Jia and Aki were to see who the rare visitor was.
One of the babies started crying and Jia took him into her arms. He was the smaller boy; the one that Jia was concerned would never survive the year. He settled down quickly, nuzzling into the blanket his grandmother had woven him. The animals settled as a group on ostrich-horses came barreling up the pathway. They stopped just mere feet from the family.
"We haven't been to this town in a few years, the tax is way past overdue." A gruff man with a sword announced.
"Yeah, and the interest includes all the money you have to go towards the rebuilding of our cities." Another man added.
"You will not threaten my family." Aki hissed, throwing using his earth bending to launch an attack.
The attack was quickly blocked by one of the supposed Earth Kingdom troops. "You think the Earth Kingdom would send non-benders to defend its honor?" the leader with the sword asked cynically. He quickly dismounted from his animal and bested Aki in hand to hand combat. Within moments Aki lay unconscious in the dirt.
"Aki!" Jia quickly handed her son to Aya and ran to her husband. The large man stood over her.
"Hmm, maybe I will be willing to forgive this man's indiscretion for a little entertainment." The man lifted Jia's chin so her golden brown eyes met his. The anger in Jia's body rolled off her in waves. Her body was practically shaking with the pent up emotion, just looking for a small window to burst through.
"Jia." Aki moaned in pain. Jia looked at him and felt something click in her mind and body. She stood with a rigid sense of pourpose. The steeled look of pure anger frightened her in-laws, having never seen this side of the girl they had taken in two years before.
"How dare you disturb my family's peace. You will pay for what you have done here today." Jia took a stance that no one recognized. With three steps forward in her perfectly sculpted forms, a plume of blue fire sailed from her finger tips and into the man with the sword. A twist and another blast knocked two more men from their ostrich-horses. "Leave my family alone!" Jia screamed, raising a wall of fire and pushing it into them.
The men scrambled and urged their animals to move faster, spouting something about, "a blue fire demon lady." Jia on the other hand, could feel all the energy draining from her body, as she collapsed in her now conscious husband's arms.
Jia woke up in her bed, hearing the cries of her infant sons. She sat up, feeling drained as if it was a snowy day in winter. She looked out the window and saw that it was still the middle of summer.
"Jia are you alright? You collapsed earlier today." Aki's concerned voice caught her attention.
"Aki what did I do?!" Jia cried out and leaned into his embrace.
"You are a fire bender. It doesn't change who you are, it doesn't change that I love you, or that my family loves you. This just means I have a badass for a wife." Aki hugged her tighter.
"I love you too Aki, but this means I never did have family in the Earth Kingdom. I was sent to prison by my own people, who am I Aki?" Jia asked looking into his eyes.
"You're my wife, our sons' mother. You are just Jia." Aki explained simply.
"I am, aren't i?" Jia smiled triumphantly and headed towards the sound of the cries of her sons.
Fire Lord Zuko heard about Earth Kingdom rumors regarding a "Blue fire demon lady" a month after the story's origins had occurred. As soon as he heard the rumor, he knew that they were about his sister, Azula. Based on the information, she was hiding out in a small Earth Kingdom farm. It didn't make sense for her to be there, Azual's personality just didn't fit with a farm.
"Lord Zuko your ship is ready for your departure." A servant announced and Zuko nodded his thanks. He boarded the ship and made the long journey to the small Earth Kingdom town, accompanied later by Toph and Sokka who happened to be in the area assisting the building efforts of a nearby town. The trio approached the town, they were all thinking the same thing that Zuko had. The rundown country life was still buzzing and happy as ever, no sign that the shedevil princess was around.
"Are you sure your information was right Zuko? This town seems too intact for Azula to have been here." Sokka pointed out.
"Yeah isn't she the devil queen of the Fire Nation? She escaped your most guarded prison, basically undetected! She shot you full of lightening and went coo-coo crazy after she lost a fight." Toph added with hand gestures.
"I know, but it doesn't make sense to me either." Zuko agreed as they approached the farm, the sun going down behind the house. Zuko knocked on the weathered door and waited for the answer. Eventually a young Earth Kingdom woman answered the door and looked at the trio.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked tentatively.
"I'm sorry to bother you, I'm just looking for a fugitive of the firenation. She would be about twenty years old, dark hair, and a very powerful firebender." Zuko explained. "I have heard rumors that she may be here."
"I am sorry but I …" the woman backed away when another woman came behind her holding two small infants.
"Aya, who is it?" Jia looked at the group and felt strange looking at them.
"Azula?!" Zuko cried out taking a defensive stance, mirrored by Toph and Sokka.
"Azula?" Jia looked confused at the mention of the name. Jia readjusted her hold on one of her sons and looked at the trio without a word.
"No fight, no insults, nothing? After years you turn up on a farm of all places, Azula what happened to you?" Zuko looked a little distraught, not knowing how to react to a sister who wasn't trying to kill him.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my name is Jia. I came here on a refugee ship and married a man whose family owns this farm. Aki and I have lived here for three years, and these are my two sons. I do not think I am who you think I am." Jia tried to assure the visitior.
"It seems the sister that I knew is long gone, and I cannot say that it is a bad thing." Zuko admitted. The words seemed to pique the young woman's interest.
"Sister?" she asked.
"Yes I came in search of my younger sister, but you do seem correct that she is not you." The man with the scar agreed.
"Wait, can you tell me about her?" Jia asked, handing her sons to her mother in law, and the woman who answered the door.
"It wouldn't hurt." Zuko nodded.
"Come sit with me on the porch!" Jia smiled excitedly and pulled Zuko onto the steps. He was taken aback at the smile that hid no ill will behind it. "So tell me who this Azula was?"
"She was the crown princess of the Fire Nation. She led a sad life that she didn't seem to comprehend was tearing her apart. She was so naturally gifted and loved by our father that she couldn't see the evil lurking in him. She tried so hard to be like him that in the end she also became evil. At her final battle she could finally see what she had done, and she lost her mind over the terrible things she had done. She was taken to prison, showing no signs of sanity. Then two years ago she escaped. My sister never knew happiness, but I am glad to say that she may have finally found peace." Zuko smiled and nodded before gathering his friends to leave. "Goodbye Jia, if you ever find yourself in trouble, please don't hesitate to ask me. Send a messenger hawk to the Fire lord and I will be sure to aide you. May my sister's past not haunt your future." Zuko hesitated, but left without another word.
"It seems my sister got a second chance here, she is not the person she once was." Zuko informed his friends. "But there may come a day when the Fire nation needs its Princess, or her sons. I just hope that day never arrives for her sake."