asura--
It was a long time before her screams died out and the fire stopped. By then, the comet had passed and the sky returned to the dusky blue of early sunset and all the people who had been at the palace had filled the streets to cheer or cry or rant. Here, where she was, silence reigned.
She tugged, again, at the chains around her wrists, trying to slip them off or loosen them somehow, but the skin on her hands was raw from ice and flame, and the constant shifting left her bleeding and in agony. It wasn't really worth it. Someone would be by to free her soon enough. She lifted her head, listening for footsteps.
"No one is coming," a voice whispered in her ear. She shook her head resolutely.
"They'll come. They'll come for me."
"No, they won't. It's just you and me here, Azula."
"No," she hissed, "you aren't real. You aren't here. You're just a figment of my imagination. Soon, Ty Lee or Mai... Or Li and Lo or, or someone, someone will come for me."
"Ty Lee and Mai are locked up tight in prison, remember?" Her mother knelt beside her, brushing ghostly fingers through her hair. "And Li and Lo won't come out this far to find you. You've been left here."
"You aren't real," she repeated, a mantra, trying to force her mind into clarity. She wracked her brain, tried to put the pieces together and figure out what to do next. "Father, he'll come for me."
"If this is any indication of how today has gone, your father is already dead. And even if he isn't, you think he will come for you? You failed. I'm the only one who will stay with you now."
The chains behind her chinked softly. She leaned forward heavily. "He'll come. They'll come. Zuko -- Zuko won't leave me here. He'll have to come and get me soon enough. He'll free me. I'm his sister! He won't just -- he won't -- he'll come for me."
"Why would he do something like that?" Her mother's voice shifted to something softer, crueler. The figure shimmered and disappeared, and on her other side, a creature slithered out of the depths and wrapped itself around her shoulders, leaning close into her ear, voice barely above a whisper. "You would have left him for dead. Why would he save you?"
The demon of self-loathing. Her oldest, and truest, friend.
"You aren't real," she whispered, choking on her own voice.
"Of course not," it hissed, skeletal fingers raking across her neck, "but I'm all you have."
"No," she replied, hating the way her voice cracked.
"Yes," it confirmed, a kind of sick joy bleeding into its voice. "You've got nothing left. But don't worry, darling," it morphed back into her mother, an arm wrapped comfortably around her. "I'll always be here for you. I'll never abandon you, or betray you, like those stupid girls did. I'll never lie to you, or tie you up and leave you for dead. I'll never turn you away. You and me, Azula dear, it's just you and me."
"You aren't real," she repeated, finally crying, something inside her chest falling through her soul, shattering to the ground like glass. Her voice rose in hysteria, "You aren't real, you aren't real, you aren't real!"
Her mother kissed her on the forehead, transforming back into the serpentine, demonic form she wasn't used to. "But I'm here for you, sweetheart. I'm the only one who is."
"No," she insisted. She looked up, and met its eyes, sharp golden, Fire Nation eyes, set in a burned-black face that might have been her own, in some other dimension. It smiled.
"It'll all be okay, Azula. I won't leave you."
She stared blankly into her own eyes. Her oldest friend, her darkest enemy, her coldest demon. "Yes," she whispered. It nodded, the smile growing. "Yes," she repeated, head bowing. "It's just you and me."
A/N: Changed the title from "Only" -- a reference to the Nine Inch Nails song -- to "Asura," the Hindu term for "demon" and a reference to Azula's name.