Just a bit of drabble on what would have happened if Azula had won. I've rated it T because of all the killin' n' stuff. Enjoy.
There was nothing she could have done but win, really. It was all she ever had done, all she ever could do and all she ever would do.
It hadn't been easy, although she would always say otherwise. As far as her loyal subjects were concerned, she hadn't had any difficulty; it had been plain that she would be the victor since the very beginning. They believed what she told them, and that made her believe it too.
Her victory was to become legend, she knew it. Her strength, wit, cunning and ruthlessness were all celebrated. And the cause of her success? It all came down to a few key factors:
She had found killing her father surprisingly easy.
All she'd had to do was realise that he was the only thing in her way, once all was said and done. He was all that was left standing between her and the power she'd always dreamed of; realising that had made it maddeningly easy to smother him whilst he slept and frame a palace guard as a rebellious imposter. She'd killed the guard too.
And the thing was, the thing that made it the slightest bit easier, was that he would have done the same to her if the roles were reversed. She may have been his protégé, his favourite child, but he still would have gotten rid of her had it been necessary. She sometimes liked to think that he was looking down on her, from whatever afterlife he'd been given, and that he was proud. Proud, if a little regretful that he hadn't gotten rid of her first.
She didn't need any help.
She never had done. Sure, occassionaly she had employed the services of other people, the Dai Li, Mai, Ty Lee...but she hadn't needed them. They hadn't been necessary. She could have done the job without them, but sometimes it was nice to lighten the load for herself. She was stronger, faster and smarter than all of them, but they'd made things easier.
She needed no help on the subject of war or politics. Those were things she'd been raised in, things she'd been fed on and reared around. And really, what were advisors apart from people who would mess with your plans and betray you anyway?
She took no prisoners.
To her, there were allies and there were dead people. She'd offered the Kyoshi Warriors a chance to join her, be ruled by her. She already had the Dai Li firmly under her belt – another formidable trophy to put on her shelf couldn't hurt. But when she'd asked they'd had no leader – their leader had escaped, working with the Avatar. And without a leader it was plain they were unable to make intelligent decisions. That was the only logical reasoning behind them refusing her.
So they had had to go too. She admitted that that one particular mass execution had been a bit of a waste, but they'd made their choices. So she'd had to make hers.
As for Mai and Ty Lee...Announcing the date of Mai's execution had been the perfect bait to lure in her big brother, and she had been happy to get rid of the circus freak at the same time.
After all, they'd both been dead to her long before their hearts had stopped beating.
She really was a 'people person'.
At least, she knew what made people tick. She knew emotions would only make you hold back and act unwisely, or lash out and act rashly, so she chose to only feel a select few. She knew that killing the waterbending peasant girl right in front of the Avatar would make him angry enough to not think through his attack. Consumed by rage and sorrow, his final attack had been easily cut down by a bolt of lightning. It had ended quickly.
Too quickly.
She could keep a secret.
She would never tell anyone how her brother had evaded her. It was because she couldn't kill him straight away, as soon as she'd found him. But if anyone asked, then yes, she did it. She had killed the traitor. If anyone asked, he hadn't hung himself in his cell with his own chains. He hadn't taken what she'd wanted again. And still she saw his face when she shut her eyes.
It was because she'd had to let herself break just the little bit more before she could kill her brother. Although he'd resented her from the beginning – she'd always been the favourite, always – despite how he had loathed her, she'd only ever envied him. Everyone always saw it the wrong way around – despite her being a firebending prodigy and her father's pride and joy, Zuko still had what she wanted. A little girl wants nothing more than her mother's love and affection, and as far as she was concerned, Zuko had taken it all away from her. And that had made her want to kill him.
But when she finally had him in her clutches she couldn't do it. And she'd screamed and cried and hit him and punched the walls and tugged at her hair and killed the odd servant in frustration - but she couldn't do it. So she'd planned to let him rot, her dark little secret.
He hadn't even let her have the pleasure of that. But no one will ever know.
She wasn't bothered by anything she had to do.
She was fine. Honestly, truly fine. None of this haunted her when she dared to sleep. No faces swam in front her eyes as soon as she dared to close them. Of course not. Why would they?
Sleep deprivation does funny things to people, she found out.
If she showed any sort of discomfort that would mean that something was wrong – and nothing was wrong. What could possibly have been wrong? She'd gotten everything she'd ever wanted. That was the important part. Who cared about how she'd gotten there?
Not her. Of course not.