I'm the Earthbender of the Ember Island Eel Hounds and my prompts are: Why are you over there? Contempt and Third Person POV. Word Count: 1,283
'Why are you over there?' A child's voice came to Azula's mind out of the nothingness that surrounded her, a black void that made feel Azula as if she was in free fall, yet she could walk and move and feel beneath her feet solid ground at lacked the texture of soil, rock or marble. It was flat and hard but that was it.
'Why are you over there?' The child's voice boomed harder and Azula found it haunting that even with her innate combat senses she couldn't determine where the voice came from; in an attempt to focus and find the source of the voice, Azula closed her eyes (or did she opened them? The void was such that she couldn't tell the difference between once and the other)
A blinding brightness struck Azula like she once struck down foes and suddenly she wasn't in a void anymore but in a garden of beautiful grass and flowers.
'The Royal Fire Academy for Girls' Azula said to herself recognizing a memory from a lifetime ago and seeing it as vividly as if she was there once again, still feeling the breeze of the wind and the heat of the sun in her; even more so, she could feel something else than the void that had surrounded her until just moments ago.
'Why are you over there?' The child asked once more and Azula was able to find the source and murmured in awe and shock the name she once spoke with sentimentality she never really knew the source of "Ty Lee"
"That's right, Your Grace" Ty Lee chirped as happy as ever and bounced on her feet as she made her way from where she stood, a few feet away from Azula, and once the bubbly girl reached Azula, Ty Lee plopped down and sat crossed-legged right next to her "I'm honored that you remember my name"
"Being forgotten is quite the insult amongst us nobles" Azula spoke without speaking, her voice a chirp of what it is nowadays "Especially if all you can be remembered for is your family name or being related to someone greater than oneself"
That had been what her father had told her since she could remember at least once a day, every day; twice a day as Zuko proofed to be useless with each passing day once they were older, earning their father's contempt with each passing day and each mistake made. Her father seemed to be so unable to accept the fact his tender brother would inherit the Throne when it was pretty much carved to fit him, not Iroh. So he made sure that Azula would bring glory to them since early to proof he was better in every aspect: A dutiful son that had brought great victories in war to the cause of their ancestors with promising offspring that would lead the Fire Nation into glory.
It wasn't unheard of. The firstborns in some noble house could be easily spoiled and be incompetent and naturally, with the affairs as they were with the war, they couldn't be trusted. There was also record of cases like Zuko, where they were simply incompetent since birth and to avoid crying over spilled milk with an unfortunate accident, the firstborns were put aside in favor of more competent people.
Azula had been in such deep thought that she didn't noticed the scenery changing, much more to her liking for what now surrounded her was the Earth King's Throne Room and she sat upon it undisputed, victorious over both the Avatar and the Earth Kingdom's Army. The King was of little concern to her, a puppet of which she had the puppeteer locked away in the catacombs.
Ty Lee was standing before her and the look on her face was that of awe, for Azula had turned earthbender against Earthbender so easily that it seemed like they were just waiting for someone to organize the small details.
"Azula-" Ty Lee started to speak and Azula could hear uneasiness coming from the acrobat "I can't believe this actually worked. And the pay off…The Avatar dead, Ba Sing Se fallen. If you're going to be remembered for something it'll be for this"
Azula chuckled with such amusement that Ty Lee cringed thinking she had made some mistake or silliness that had made a fool out of her once more.
"My dear, I'm barely starting" Azula spoke coldly and the gears in her head plotted her next movement as she spoke "Too bad we don't have the body, things would be easier if we did but it's not critical"
The background faded and became the black void Azula was becoming familiar with and all that she could see was herself and Ty Lee, so far that she seemed like a dwarf dressed in green who spoke with a praising tone "You've made your mark in history"
'Then why didn't it felt enough?' A voice that Azula couldn't recognize asked to no one in particular and Azula told herself 'Because it wasn't enough. There was more to be done'
'What? The world brought to its knees and its hope killed with thunder. What was left?' The voice asked and Azula thought of a thousand thing but none sounded good enough to speak, even worse they sounded petty.
"There was a legacy to establish, a-" Azula didn't knew what to say next, she knew there was something more in her life than that, because if there wasn't then what was left for her to live as she had done all this before her 15th birthday.
'You weren't hungry for power' the voice said enlightened 'You were hungry for meaning'
"I have meaning and purpose!" Azula yelled "I am meant to conquer and rule! To bring the enemies of my nation to yield and to bring the great culture of my forefathers to the ignorant masses of the world"
'You had done that' the voice reminded her 'A child of 14 and you had done that already, there was nothing left. It wasn't the betrayal, it was the lack of purpose that drove you to me'
"Who? What?-" Before Azula could finish her question, a bright light came from nowhere and blinded her and she was back in the green fields of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls and Ty Lee asked "Why are you over there?"
"I don't know why-" Azula said, astonished that she had recognized such thing out loud "I don't know why I do things anymore"
"I do them because I-" Azula couldn't finish the sentence because of what it would imply. She did them because that's what she had been told she was meant to do. Just like Long Feng she had been a pawn that did things as it best fitted others. But she was no puppet. She was the ultimate puppeteer.
"I do them because-" She tried to focus on her achievements and on the mark she had left in history. But all she could see was her father behind her, her father saying that it was his blood that had conquered Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom. His blood. Him.
"I do them because I will not be a forgotten footnote under my father's name" Azula mumbled "Because I won't be forgotten, can't be forgotten. I did it all for me!"
'I heavily disagree' The voice of The Mist of Lost Souls said, tired of the humans under its grasp not understanding their fears and accepting them and rather telling themselves complicated lies to perpetuate them 'You did it out of the fear that controlled your father. The fear of being forgotten under a better person'