Since finishing two of my main fics, Blinding Horizon and Taming the Dragon, I've had a lot more spare time to write. And since it's been a while after the conclusion of Taming the Dragon, I figured that I might as well post a collection piece for it since I miss writing for Azula. I'd originally intended to post this in my one-shot collection titled Everything in Between, but I decided to create an entirely new collection piece based on things that have happened after the end of my stories since I have now completed two of them. Every chapter will start with an authors note like this stating which story it relates to. Unlike my other stories, this collection will have no set update schedule and updates will likely be once every few weeks.
If you haven't read Taming the Dragon, then I suggest you stop reading now since what I say next spoils the ending. While I was writing Taming the Dragon, a lot of people were rooting for it to end with Azula and Izanami together, which was not how I ended things. So to satisfy you femslash lovers, here is an alternative ending for the story with Azula and Izanami together. Everything other than the epilogue happened, so you can just ignore that last wrap-up.
In Another World, Part I
Following the aftermath of everything that had happened after the conflict with Ozai, Izanami had decided that she wanted to spend some time on her own for the first time in her life. The only time that Izanami could ever remember being on her own was in the months following the war. Sure, she'd been on her own at Ember Island but Izanami still had contact with her old friends and interacted with plenty of people. Only now Izanami was flying solo for a mission of her own.
After betraying Azula at the Boiling Rock and ending up in prison, Izanami's parents had disowned her and she had never seen them again. There had been a few times in the past when Izanami had tried locating them, but to no avail. Now that Izanami no longer had anything holding her back, she decided that she was truly ready to face her parents regardless of what their reception of her were. The chances were that they'd react just as frostily as they did last time, but Izanami wasn't going to give up.
The first few month after the ordeal with Ozai, Izanami had remained back at the Fire Nation capital to help things out. She was also there as support for Azula since Izanami knew how difficult it would be for her to be back at this place again. It was certainly hard for Raiden and Kei Lo since this wasn't the kind of environment that they had grown up in. A few weeks after they'd arrived, Raiden had been quick to ask Izanami when she would be leaving with them. It had annoyed her that Raiden had just assumed that would be where she went after spending the last few years with them. What had followed was an argument between the two about what they wanted to do for their future.
"I don't to deal with this politics nonsense, Izanami!"
"You don't have to stick around if you don't want to! I'm not forcing you to be here!"
In the end, Raiden and Kei Lo had decided to leave on their own while Izanami remained behind until she decided that it was time for her to leave as well. Part of Izanami had regretted how things had gone down with Raiden, since she had cared about him and valued his friendship. But he obviously wasn't completely committed to her and didn't understand her since he had encouraged her to abandon Azula in her time of need. Raiden had never quite understood her 'devotion' to Azula as he put it, and if he wasn't going to support her decisions like that then Izanami didn't want to deal with him.
"How can you still support her after everything she did to you? She hurt you, she lied to you and she betrayed you! Yet you're still devoted to her for whatever reason."
"Because she's my friend, Raiden! You of all people should understand that after you you've had to babysit your brother and still support him after the poor choices that he's made!"
It was unfortunate, but she and Raiden had left things on a bit of a sour note. He'd said some other things to her that had prompted Izanami to revaluate her feelings and made her decide to leave sooner than she had planned. Her disagreement with Raiden had also made Izanami realise that if he wasn't going to support her decisions now when he wasn't even obliged to, then how was he going to support them if they were to be together? When it came to her future life with someone, Izanami wanted a partner who would support her no matter what, regardless if they didn't agree with her choices which was a quality that Raiden clearly lacked.
Admittedly, deciding to track down her parents had been Izanami's way of ignoring what she knew she had to deal with in her own life. There were still a lot f things that Izanami needed to sort out, and seeking out her parents surprisingly seemed to be the easiest thing to do now. Tracking them down also proved to be surprisingly easy since it seemed as though they now resided in their old hometown of Fire Fountain City, and Izanami almost couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of that possibility before.
To Izanami's surprise, there were actually a few people from her old town that seemed to remember her or recognised who she was. There were of course some people who Izanami had known from before her parents had been relocated and then there were people who she had never met before. Izanami ended up finding out that her parents now resided in their old house, which she still remembered the location of so finding it was also easy. What wasn't easy was dealing with her parents.
"Izanami! Just what do you think you're doing here!" her father demanded with rage.
"I came to see you, father," Izanami tried replying with confidence.
"After five years?" Masaru growled.
Izanami glared at him, "I tried looking for you, even after you two disowned me!"
"You should have stayed wherever you came from! We do not want anything to do with you!" Masaru yelled.
"Masaru, what is going on?" her mother asked as she approached them.
"Our lovely daughter has come to visit us," Masaru spat.
Hikari's eyes widened, "She has? Oh, Izanami! I knew you would see sense again!"
"See sense?" Izanami repeated stiffly as her mother hugged her.
"I knew that you'd eventually realise the error in your ways and realise that your place was here with us! Now you're here to resume your role as our daughter! This is just wonderful, Masaru!" Hikari exclaimed.
"You think that I'm here to be a servant again?" Izanami clarified.
"Not a servant! But our daughter!" Hikari argued.
Izanami glared at her mother, "I think telling me what to do and how to live my life made me your servant. I didn't come here to be your perfect little subservient daughter. I came here to potentially mend our relationship, but I realise now that I was being naïve in believing that you would have changed your minds about me."
"How could we, when you disgraced our family name? Do you have any idea how difficult our lives became after your act of defiance against the princess? I lost any credibility that I had, Fire Lord Zuko wanted no part of me in his new regime and we were forced to move back to our old home!" Masaru roared.
"You think I care about that, when you clearly didn't care that I was being locked away in prison?" Izanami snarled.
"Young lady, do not talk to your father that way!" Hikari chastised her.
"Why should I give him respect when he never gave me an ounce of his! You expected me to be your perfect little daughter when you were never the perfect father! You practically abused me!" Izanami yelled, finally letting out her pent-up anger towards her father.
"You little brat! How dare you give that blasted princess more respect than you ever gave me!" Masaru seethed.
Hikari shook her head, "I don't even understand why you wasted so much time with her after everything she did to you, Izanami. She manipulated you, she used you, and then threw you in prison! What kind of friend does that?"
Now her parents were starting to sound like Raiden since these were the exact arguments that he had used against her. It frustrated Izanami to no end that people tried to influence how she felt towards Azula when they knew nothing about their friendship. Nobody had any right to judge their friendship.
Izanami scoffed, "There you go again, acting like you know what's good for me when you clearly don't. Being friends with Azula is the best decision that I ever made. If I hadn't become her friend, I never would have realised the true injustices of the war. I would have remained an ignorant, close-minded person just like you two!"
"That girl has manipulated you to the point of no return," Masaru growled. "She poisoned your mind! Your devotion to her always puzzled me since you so easily put her above us! Why were you so obsessed with her?"
"You think I was obsessed with her?" Izanami gawked. "I was only 'devoted' to her because she treated me far better than you two ever did! Where is this sudden hatred for Azula coming from when you were all-too happy to let me befriend her to begin with? In fact, you are the only reason that I befriended her so I guess that's one good thing you did for me."
"Yes, that was certainly a mistake on our part to encourage you to befriend her. I wish that we had never gone to Ember Island that time," Masaru growled.
Izanami rolled her eyes, "I like to think that everything happens for a reason, and I believe that even if I'd never met Azula that day, I still would've met her in the future. You only quickened the process."
"Izanami, you do not realise how frightening your obsession with that girl is. It's almost like she's manipulated you into loving her," Hikari stated.
"What!" Izanami shrieked. "You think that I l-love her?"
"It would explain your constant dedication to her…" Masaru trailed off thoughtfully.
"Or maybe it's because she's my friend and I'd do anything for her because that's what friends do?" Izanami argued.
"Maybe we could brainwash her into hating the princess?" Hikari suggested.
"That could work. I refuse to let my only daughter soil our family name even more by loving a… a girl!" Masaru proclaimed.
"You do know that I'm standing right here, right?" Izanami snapped.
"Unfortunately," Masaru grumbled.
"You know what, I should've known that this was a waste of time," Izanami huffed. "I had allowed myself to get my hopes up, only to be severely disappointed. I'd hoped that these years apart would have wizen the two of you up, but they haven't. You're still as close-minded and even worse than you were before!"
"I take it this means you're going for good now?" Masaru said, and Izanami scowled at the hopeful way that he had said it.
"I guess it does," she mumbled before walking away. "I guess this means you'll never get to meet your grandson!"
Giving her parents one last look, Izanami smirked as she saw the gaped look on their faces. They would never know what she had meant after they'd shut her out so easily, and Izanami certainly didn't plan on telling them what she meant. It was clear that they wouldn't accept Niko as Kazu's son simply because his mother was from the Earth Kingdom, and she didn't want to put them through the scrutiny that would come from her parents. As she walked away, Izanami couldn't help but think about how Azula it was of her to have the last laugh with her parents, and she was glad that she did.
At the same time, Izanami was left completely bemused by the fact that her parents had accused her of being in love with Azula. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Of course Izanami loved Azula. As a friend. And what was it with people saying that she was 'devoted' to her? In Izanami's mind, she was just being a good friend and obviously she wasn't' completely devoted if she was willing to betray her like she did.
Since her reunion with her parents didn't go like she had hoped it would, Izanami now planned on continuing her solo endeavours to see what she could find. Some would say that Izanami had already seen enough of the world, but Izanami didn't feel like she was done just yet and she thought that there was plenty more of her to see. It certainly wasn't because she was avoiding anything, that's for sure.
Alright, so I get that there was hardly any development for Azula/Izanami to begin a relationship, but after everything they'd been through I couldn't just jump into anything. So the Azula/Izanami ending is going to be a continuous series that I'll post a few shorts for as things start to evolve between them. Any other pieces related to this will have the same title. If I haven't made it any clearer, this collection piece won't just be for Taming the Dragon. It'll also be for Blinding Horizon and even Flying Embers once I finish it. I'll only add even more to this collection as I write more stories so I just thought that I'd make that clear.