Random Azula fic I thought of. Set after the end of the final battle with Zuko and Katara. Hope you like it. For you, Father
As the prison guards led her to her cell, she kept her head down, letting her black tendrils fall in front of her face to hide her from view. She didn't like this place at all. And she didn't want to be there.
"Here's your cell, Your Majesty," one of the guards said, making a mocking bow. His comrade unlocked the door and Azula was pushed in. The first guard stepped in after her and held her against the wall as he removed her handcuffs and then left. The second guard locked the closed and locked the door behind them.
She stood at the door of her cell, just far back enough so that the shadows hid her face. And through the bars she watched as other people in the asylum – the prison – went about.
As she looked out of her cell, she saw that she was at least five floors above ground-level. And down on the ground-floor, she could see a gathering of people.
"The war is over!" someone was shouting. "Ozai is defeated!"
Some of the crowed cheered and some shouted in dismay.
She was not surprised in the slightest when someone made the first punch. The asylum went up in a riot.
Azula shook her head, "Father." She sighed, "You failed as I did. But they still believe in you."
Azula rolled her head on her shoulders, listening as her neck cracked several times. She shook herself and then stepped forward, out of the shadows and reached forward to open her cell door. Of course it wasn't lock. But for her own safety, it probably should have been. She doubted everyone in the asylum would be happy to have her in such close proximity… and some might be a little too happy.
She walked with her head high, her shoulders back and her chest out. As people looked at her, those who noticed her stopped and stared in a mixture of shock and awe.
This difference was that she didn't feel as confident as she made herself look.
Azula felt weak. She was alone in this place full of crazed people. And in the back of her mind, she knew she had become one of them.
Azula looked over the railings and down to where the riot had started on the ground-floor. She pushed herself up onto the railing and balanced there a moment, before she swung her legs over and pushed herself off.
Azula landed neatly on her feet and straightened up. She looked around, searching the blur of a crowd around her for the person who had spoken up, proclaiming that her father had failed to win the war.
"Father," she murmured to herself. "You may have lost the main battle, but for you, I will still earn a victory of some sort."
With an air of confidence around her which she'd had since she was a child, Azula strutted through the crowd of entangled bodies. Her heart was pounding in her chest because she did not have her firebending to help her because she'd been drugged so the guards wouldn't have to worry about being hurt by her. But not all of her prison-mates were as defenseless as she was.
When Azula reached the man who had so boldly spoken up, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him around to face her. The huge smile which had been spread across his face quickly disappeared and she swung her fist harshly at his jaw.
Wide eyed, the man looked at her, clutching as his face and spitting bloody saliva on the floor. He frowned at her, taking in her appearance.
Azula stood straight, making sure he realized exactly who she was.
"Are you… who I think you are?" he stuttered.
People around them stopped fighting.
Slowly, people fell silent, until all eyes were on Azula and the man she had just punched.
"You dare defy my Father?" she asked in a clear voice that echoed through all floors of the asylum. "Do you?"
The man shut his gaping mouth and pressed his lips into a firm smirk. "And what if I do?" He quickly stooped into a mocking bow and shouted loudly, so everyone would hear, "Princess Azula?!"
Everybody murmured in excitement and wonder as they looked down at the Fire Nation's princess.
"Or should I say, ex-princess?" he hissed.
She felt herself seething. As fast as lightning, her hands reached for his throat. Her nails dug into the flesh on his neck. The man screamed in horror as she choked the life from him, mercilessly, looking him in the eye the whole time.
"Nobody defies Phoenix King Ozai!" she screamed.
All around her, Azula heard the screams and shouts. She saw the blurs of bodies moving in all directions – some trying to get away from where she was in terror, others trying to get the best view in the house, and some rushing at her to restrain her.
"Hey! Let him go, bitch!" a gruff man ordered, placing a hand firmly on her shoulder. He made to pull her around, but Azula did not let go of the man she was strangling until she heard the snap of his neck. And as she rounded on the gruff man, her left fist flew to his temple. He fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
All around her, people with conflicting views turned on each other, bashing each other, biting, kicking, punching, screaming. Azula walked away from her victims, strutting through the blur of bodies. Without another word, she climbed up five levels of the asylum, until she reached her level. She slipped back into her cell and closed the door, slithering back into the shadows.
Azula watched as the result of her doing unfolded in the asylum before her. She smirked.
"For you, Father."
R&R Thanks.