The S h o w d o w n that was A l w a y s Meant to Be
There they lay. The water peasant by the sinking pool of water, and her brother in the middle of the plateau. Both of them were still breathing, but only vaguely. Zuzu even made a few agonized noises.
She closed her eyes, and her frantic panting filled her ears. She got to her feet and pushed her newly formed bangs away from her eyes, grinning widely.
"Look, brother!" she laughed, gesturing towards the fire that surrounded them. "All this devastation on our home is the momentum of this fight. The fight that I won!" She moved closer to his body, continuing her rant: "I won, little Zuzu, my dear big brother, and you lost!" She broke into a hysterical laughter, reaching his body. She poked him superiorly with the tip of her shoe. He grunted. "You said something, Zuzu?"
He grunted again and lifted his head to shoot a glance towards where the water peasant lay. She stepped his foot down on his chin, forcing his head to the ground. He gave out a sound that might be a sigh, might be a moan.
"If father was here –" she started, but stopped herself, realizing that wouldn't mean anything to him. She smiled to herself. "No, if mother was here, she would be very disappointed in little Zuzu." She pushed to his ribs, making him turn with his face upwards. His golden eyes were looking into hers.
She bowed down into a grouch by his head, stroking his cheek with her index finger. Her nail left a white mark after it. He gritted his teeth.
"It was quite a boring fight, don't you think? The little peasant there tried to freeze me in a block of ice. But –" she clapped his chest where the lightning mark was still fresh, and he twitched in pain, "my fire was stronger."
A few wheezing sounds came from his throat, and she turned his ear to his mouth. "Did you say something, little Zuzu?"
"K … Ka …"
"Sorry, I can't hear you." She placed her fingers on both sides of his cheeks, pressing inwards. "Speak clearly in your last hour."
"Her name … Is Katara …"
A moment of silence, then she burst into laughter. "You think I give a pitchencat about that? She's a peasant, and you're a failure. The only difference is that she was born a failure, and you became one."
He wheezed again, making fists in anger.
She got up and looked down into his eyes from there, feeling high and mighty.
"This is as it should be, Zuzu. It was always meant to be."
She started to walk away with wide eyes and a sly smile, yelling for the fire sages to come back and crown her. Then Zuko spoke again, much clearer and profound than before.
"Where's Mai?"
Azula froze. The hair in her neck rose, and her eyes darted back in the direction he lay in. His breath was heavy, pained.
"Where is she?" Azula asked silently, taking a few, inaudible steps back to him. "Why, she's right where you're going to be in a moment." She reached down to his face again, grinning at his wide eyes. He was suddenly so aware.
She hated it.
"Mai is –"
"She's dead, Zuko," Azula whispered. "Such betrayal. It couldn't be helped." She touched his scar. "You looked so alike when I was finished with her."
A tear danced in the corner of his eye, and his hand slowly raised, as if it was struggling the battle of a lifetime. I grasped her arm lightly, not able to hang on better.
"You're a liar …" His eyes closed, and his last words were said with a sigh: "right to the end."
A relieved smile lingered on his lips as his hand fell down his side and his head tilted slightly to the side.
She opened her mouth to say something, but it was pointless. He was already gone.
A deep breath hissed from within her, and she snapped up, biting her tongue so she was faintly able to taste blood.
She thought of Mai, sitting in a lonely prison cell, surrounded by darkness.
I love Zuko, more than I fear you!
The words echoed in Azula's head, inanely repeating into eternity.
"Fear," Azula whispered, looking to the peasants body. It was too burned to move properly, but it had crawled quite a bit of way, though Azula did know what for.
"Fear," she repeated louder. "Fear is the only reliable way." She kicked the motionless Zuko in the side. A scream that ripped her throat on its way out filled the air. She kicked him again. She bowed down to punch him. She slapped him on his scarred side, then on the clean side.
"Why?" she cried, traitor tears streaking down her cheeks. "Why didn't she fear me? Why?" Her mouth twisted downwards in a hurtful way. She was shaking. "It's your fault. Curse you. Curse you!" She spat on his face. There was no reaction. Of course there wasn't.
He was gone, too. Just like Mai. Just like Ty lee.
Just like everyone.
When she was crowned, she would return to the empty palace. She would rule alone.
"I took your Mai," she whispered to him. "I took her and hid her away. Aren't you going to say something? Aren't you going to cry for mom or someone else to take her back? Aren't you going to do something? I took your knife!" She kept hitting him, scratching him. Her nails broke over his skin, and blood began dripping.
"Why aren't you doing something?" she screamed, and a stripe of spit stuck to her chin. Her body sank down, her forehead suddenly resting on his chest. Her voice kept ripping itself further apart by screaming loudly until the noise disappeared, and her mouth moved without sound.
"Somebody," she whispered, just as the fire sages arrived. "Make him move."
They ran down the stairs from where she was to be crowned and grabbed her brother's body with promises of taking him to the crematoria.
Two sages remained.
"Princess, it is time for your coronation."
She looked spitefully up at him. "You idiot," she hissed. "Like I'd want that anymore."
On her feet again, she looked into his eyes, as if to find his soul and destroy it, watch it crumble to dust. He shuddered beneath her glance, but it didn't feel as it was supposed to.
She walked up to where she had been almost-crowned right before Zuko disrupted.
"Don't burn him yet," she told the fire sages. "Put him somewhere safe, and bring Mai to me."
"Yes, my princess," the fire sages agreed, hasting away. Azula watched them, feeling the last drops of fear slowly evaporating.
But soon, there would be a flood. A flood so powerful that even knives dug deep into the ground would be uprooted.
I have no idea what this is. I was watching the end of Avatar with my mother, and then the thought "what if Azula won," came to me. What would have happened?
I don't know if you all get the little symbols I've put into this, but it was just a plot bunny that needed to come out.
Lythya