The Meeting of Flames

Prologue

"I need a suitor, an heir to the throne. That is all I ask of you."

Azula sneered at the thought. She did not want a husband, nor did she need one. She did not wish to immerse herself in the care of a child. She despised the young. Never did she want to fall pregnant at the will of a man. She could not put herself up to carrying another's weight around. No, Azula felt that motherhood was corruption. A child would consume her very existence from the moment of conception.

Did her father not realize her aspirations?

She wanted prominence, to stand out as the greatest leader of her nation. The Fire Nation, she felt, would fall at the hands of her too noble-minded brother. She knew he would fear power. He could not hold it as she could. She would be the first female leader of the Fire Nation, and what a great honor it was.

But it would be short-lived. A man, a husband, a suitor, would take her place. Male dominance was the shortfall of the Fire Nation. What job could a man do that a woman could do better?

Not one damn thing.

The only reason she would take the throne was to destroy Zuko's bloodline. Though this was all in good reason, she felt that she was the puppet of her father. She would have to rival the newly crowned Phoenix King. She would be second in line. She desired to rule the four nations. She had a greater power than that of her father. His flame was nothing but pitiful in her own sane mind. No, her fire consumed, murdered, and corrupted the lower civilizations. His was a spiteful act of show. No greed, no rage, she believed.

Azula was more than that. And no man could steal that from her. No man could make her carry the weight of his heir, his first-born son. If anything, she would rather a daughter take the rightful place on the throne. If only she could make it possible.

If only she was not the toy of her father's silly game. She was not a prize to be won. She was to be feared. She wanted man to fall to his knees, beg for her forgiveness.

But she knew to show restraint. She respected her father, thanked him for her own existence. He gave her power. It did not conceive from her mother's womb. She was perfect in his image, the apple of his eye. She would never show disdain from that.

At that is where Zuko would fall. His mere disadvantage was from their mother. He owed his gratitude to her. He was perfidious, disloyal to the crown. There is not a thing as love in the Fire Nation. Passion is defeat; it is the murder of fire. His idol was a clown, a hopeless figure of war. Uncle Iroh was a father to him.

But would she fall? Would she be the mother of a new heir? She could not deny her role in the history, the balance of the Fire Nation.

But why did it hurt her so much?

"I need a suitor, an heir to the throne. That is all I ask of you."