A/N: No, I'm not completely in love with Tyzula, what are you talking about? Heh. Anyway, this can be seen as a followup to Cobalt, or practice at my (lack of) drabble skills.
When a pointed knuckle made contact with the princess' side, her heart stopped before anything else did.
Ty Lee, the one who had loved her, worshiped her, even. Ty Lee, the innocent acrobat who crooned gentle words of calming when Azula was ready to electrify people who had failed her. Ty Lee, her best friend, the only person in the world she felt anything other than indifference or hatred towards.
She didn't even notice when she hit the ground. Long unshed tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but she fiercely blinked them back, letting anger fill her instead. "You're both fools," she spat, trying to make eye contact with the traitors in her paralyzed state. The words were barely out of her mouth when two guards rushed over to help her up. "Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again," she growled, staring especially at Ty Lee. "And let them rot!"
She expected to see hurt on the acrobat's face, somewhat like the feeling that was currently tearing her apart. All Azula saw was cold defiance in the usually warm grey eyes. As the guards holding her former friends dragged them away, she thought that she saw a flash of despair, a glimmer of regret on Ty Lee's face. Then, whatever hope the princess had left was crushed as the girl quickly turned her head and didn't look back.
At that moment, any frayed strings of sanity that remained in Azula's mind snapped like a slender tree hit by misfired lightning.