I own nothing.
One hundred years is a long time. The winds of change grew restless, and only a fool would think something so small as an ending would satisfy them. The winds feed on beginnings. An ending brings about nothing but the end of a thing. A beginning brings change after change, to shatter all before it. An ending brings closure and assurance. A beginning is full of hope and terror. The dissonance of beginnings is that they must always annihilate the past, for better or worse. Fools will be fools, however, and think this only an ending, rather than see it for what it is: the most horrifying beginning imaginable.
Dragon of the West Iroh, Aang's Comet: Liberating Ba Sing Se, 103 A.G.
Capital City Prison. How had it come to this? After all the power. Firelord. The title had been in her grasp. No more. Everything was ruined. She was no one now. All because she had had some fucking mental breakdown. I'll show them all a mental breakdown. Azula sneered at the thought of those wretched people, fucking Zuko, looking down on her like some rabid dog that needed to be put down. But they hadn't put her down. Dearest Zuzu hadn't had the stomach. Instead they had stuck her in a cell and let her rot for four fucking years. What a joy that's been.
Azula was pulled out of her thoughts by the grating of metal against stone. She glared daggers at the intruder. "Welcome back to my humble abode, Firelord."
Zuko's infuriating calm showed no sign of breaking. It never had. "Hello, sister."
"Have you grown bored of your duties yet? Your disgusting little reforms must be taxing to oversee."
"The only disgusting thing is that I have to reform anything." Zuko took his usual seat, just outside of her cage. He was within her reach, but they both knew how little that mattered. The Earthbender guards stationed just outside the cell could stop her in her tracks if they heard so much as a yelp from Zuko. "But what can you do? A hundred years of tyranny tend to warp a society's values. The colonies were returned to the Earth Kingdom. That's why I didn't come last week."
Azula wasn't sure why he kept her updated on the goings-on of his regime. She supposed it was to humiliate her for losing her crown to him, but that seemed a poor reason to continue for so long. "Why don't we get to the point, Zuzu? I'm going to tell you exactly what I have every week for the past three damned years: I don't remember Mother." A lie, but she followed it with the truth. "I never learned where Father sent her, and I never particularly cared to."
"Why do you think I didn't kill you, Azula?"
Interesting. She thought he might have sounded a touch exasperated. Was she finally getting to him? "You were emulating your Nomad lover-boy."
"Not at all. I told him to kill Father." The former princess cringed at the Firelord's words, remembering the fall of the man she most admired.
"Then please, O' Fiery One, enlighten me."
"You still haven't lost your tongue. I did it because you may be useful to me. You know the affairs of the nation better than most, and that knowledge can help me navigate the political landscape."
She smirked at his blatant sycophancy. "If you think—"
"But mostly I kept you around because I want to know where Mother is. So keep in mind that one of these days when you refuse to tell me anything, I may decide that I was wrong to think you such a valuable asset." His tone was again without emotion. He was not threatening her, but outlining her future. He stood and moved toward the door.
Azula moved to the stack of books in the corner of her cell, and as her brother passed the threshold, she spoke just loudly enough to be heard over the door closing. "I'm going to kill you, you know."
She had said much the same at the end of each of Zuko's visit, and it had gradually become rote. Even she could not hold so much intensity from within a cell over the course of years. Things were different now, though. Azula opened the book she had been reading for the past week, Wind and Fire: Sozin's Campaign Against the Air Nomads. Azula was never one to do much light reading, and that hadn't changed. She had a plan.
He sat, forcing himself to be calm, in a Southern Water Tribe Igloo. It was an igloo he would be leaving soon. He was already packed, but he had to make certain that the day's events were really and truly final. "It's really done, huh?"
"Aang, I'm sorry."
The Avatar hated those words. She wouldn't stop saying them. "Katara, it's fine. We both saw this coming. You're not fourteen anymore, and I'm not a hundred and twelve anymore." She smiled weakly at his halfhearted joke. It wasn't fine, but the rest of it was true. This had been in the cards for months. There had always been fights, and Katara was always been unsure about their relationship, but that wasn't the thing that had come between them in the end. The two had simply grown apart. Katara spent most of her time talking about Zuko and his reforms these days, and Aang knew he hadn't been the same since the end of the war.
Fire. Fire everywhere. He was in Ozai's head again, battling against the raging torrent of the Firelord's spirit. Ursa, young and beautiful. Ripe for the taking. Ursa's wonder and horror at Zuko's birth. Ursa, leaving the palace after poisoning his father. Zuko, so loved by his mother that it made Ozai sick to look at him. Zuko in the arena. Zuko, leaving with a fresh scar. Azula, light of his life, his perfect successor. Aang, the Avatar, revealed to the world. Aang, thwarting his plans. Aang, who must suffer more than any other before Ozai would be satisfied. Aang, eyes glowing, striking him again and again, battering him to within an inch of death. Aang, the weakling, refusing to end him.
Aang's sporadic views of Ozai's life had left him shaken, unsure of his upbringing. Should he have killed the Firelord? There was so much evil in the man. Noticing Katara's concerned look, he shook himself out of his daze. "I guess I'll head out then." He gave her a smile, the corners of his mouth pulling just a bit too tight. "It's been fun, Katara. I'll see you around sometime."
She returned the smile, but didn't meet his eyes. "Come back every now and then. Everyone loves to see you."
"Yeah, I will." With that, he picked up his bags and left, jumping onto Appa's back. "Yip yip, boy."
A loud bound of the tail later, the last Airbender was in the sky, and he felt truly alone for the first time since emerging from a block of ice so long ago.
Aang wasn't sure where he was going, but he was exhausted. "Appa, just find a clear space somewhere when you get tired, okay?"
The bison grunted an assent, and Aang dropped the reins and moved to the saddle. He looked back into the empty sky, as though he could see sleep chasing him, then he laid down and surrendered to it.
Mai looked Ty Lee up and down. "No stupid makeup, I see."
"The Kyoshi Warriors were great and everything, but I just get bored pretty easily, you know?" Ty Lee flashed her best grin. "What about you? How's Izumi?"
"I'm fine. Izumi's a handful, but what can you do? Terrible twos and all that. Zuko's still a drag, though. All that work to do. I think he even goes to see Azula sometimes."
Ty Lee shuddered. "I don't think you could make me go see Azula if she had been turned into a flying bison."
"So why did you show up at the palace today, anyway?"
"To tell the truth, I've just kind of been wandering around for a few months. I was in the neighborhood, so I came by to chat!" She put on her best innocent expression. "Also... I may need a place to stay for a couple nights."
Mai rolled her eyes. "And so you thought you could just walk into the Firelord's Palace like it was some rinky-dink inn, bat your eyelashes, and stay?"
"Not at all! I wasn't even planning to stay in the city for a day, but I met this really cute guy and heasked me out but he said he couldn't do anything until tomorrow and hehadsuchdreamyeyesandsuchanicebodyIjustcouldn'tsaynosonowIhaveadatetomorrownightand—"
"Alright! Okay! You can stay. Just, please stop talking."
Ty Lee beamed at her. "Yay! Thanks so much! You won't even know I'm here." With a quick but tight hug, the acrobat rushed to the room she knew she would be given: west wing, second floor, third room on the left. She had always loved the view, and she would not be giving Mai a chance to consider the implications of letting her stay.
Once she was in the room, she dropped herself onto the bed and closed her eyes. Mai always seemed to be complaining about Zuko these days, but they'd had a child together, so why should she butt into it. Besides, she had never really had a thing for Zuko. The brooding, angsty type just wasn't her thing. That Sokka guy, on the other hand, he was funny. And he had a killer body. And... he was with Suki. But who cared? She had a date with Dreamboat McNiceface—shit, did she really not remember his name? Oh well, no way she was telling Mai that now. Maybe she'd run into him when she was out and about tomorrow. Or someone better.
That was the part of her that didn't mesh with the Kyoshi Warriors. She liked boys a lot more than they did. Of course, Suki was with Sokka, but Ty Lee was more interested in testing out lots of guys to find the right one. The girls were very nice to her. No grudges or anything. She just didn't feel like she could be herself with them. They were so focused on being Kyoshi Warriors that they weren't out playing around and having fun. It was peacetime, for crying out loud!
As she thought about these things, Ty Lee drifted off to sleep.
Fire. Fire was her only ally. Only fire served her above all else. She was fire's mistress, and she would remind the world of that. Her path had come to a turn, and she was about to veer off in the opposite direction. She closed her eyes and tried to look tired as Zuko entered again. It was not hard. She draped her slender arms out of her cage and over the bottom bars.
He gave her an odd look, but sat in the same place as usual. "I've set up a trade agreement with the Water Tribes. They can transport their goods through the Fire Nation as long as they stop along the way to sell to us. There's no record of any previous agreement between the two societies. People are saying things are better now than they were before Sozin."
She spat weakly onto the ground in front of him. "Peace and cooperation are for those who cannot achieve by force."
"Then maybe you should try some peace and cooperation. What do you remember about Mother?"
"I've still got some force in me, Zuzu. Like I've told you, I remember nothing." Not that it would matter soon, but telling the truth might put him on his guard.
"It sure doesn't sound like it. I hear you haven't been eating."
"You haven't offered me food befitting a princess."
"It hasn't stopped you before now."
"I was unwell. I am no longer so." She nearly cursed. Too much edge in her voice. He might have picked up on it. Thankfully it didn't seem so.
"You're talking like you plan to leave here."
"How else could I kill you, big brother?" The words were acid jumping off of her tongue. She needed to calm down.
"Uncle is the only man to have ever escaped the Prison Tower, and the Black Sun does nothing to Earthbenders."
"Oh, you're right. I never thought of that. I suppose I'll just give in and tell you about Mother now."
There. A clench of his jaw. He wasn't as unbreakable as he wanted to seem. His emotions were getting the better of him. Confusion. That was what she needed. Now just to temper herself, ensure that it didn't give way to rage. "Zuzu, please just let me out." She forced the tears she had kept down to well up. "It's been so long in here. I'll tell you everything I can about anything you like. I don't even need to be in the palace. Just let me outside."
Zuko was certainly caught off guard by that display. His face contorted several times before it settled back into that peaceful look. Even the scar on his eye seemed less prominent than it had been four years ago. "You know that's not going to happen. Even if I didn't think you were unstable, even if I thought you really loved me or anyone else, even if you weren't the most dangerous Firebender the world, you're more despised by many in Capital City than Father ever was in other lands. Releasing you would get me ousted as Firelord, and then you'd just get sent back here, and we'd both be fucked."
She did her best to look crestfallen. He stood up to leave, and probably to try to sort himself out after her performance. "What day is it, Zuzu?"
"It's the third of Janli. I'm about to go and celebrate the Parahelion."
"Perfect." Azula took a deep breath, and Zuko turned to leave. Then, everything was red.
The prodigy kicked the section of her cage she had melted away from the rest directly at Zuko. He turned, but wasn't quick enough and fell to the ground as he was struck in the chest by the heavy metal. Before the Earthbenders outside had a chance to foil her, She had the entire hallway ablaze. The rapid temperature shift made the two faint immediately, and she left them to die there.
She turned back to Zuko just in time to dodge a fireball. "Not as hot as they used to be, Zuzu. Something troubling you?" Her plan to put him off balance had worked. Blasts of blue flame rained down upon him, and the Firelord was pressed to defend himself. He had grown too complacent. The world had grown too complacent. But it would remember, soon, what it had known when she was last out in it.
When he continued to resist, she surrounded him in rings of fire. When he blew that away, she created a swirling ball around him that left him unable to tell up from down, and he fell to one knee before disrupting that. She would not relent. She had come too far to stop here. She blew fire into his face and threw more at his feet. He jumped and spun like Ty Lee to avoid it. She let wave upon wave of blue flame travel the walls and ricochet around him, catching him in the smallest of ways though it could not finish him. A hand scorched, a trouser leg turned to ash. He fought against her, though. Perhaps he had not grown so lax as she thought. Regardless, the victor was already clear.
Finally, he dispersed the last of her flames. It was time. His breathing was haggard. There wasn't going to be a better chance. Focusing, she raised two fingers on each hand, pointed one at the sky and traced the other in a line from the first to her heart, then thrust outward at Zuko. The lightning struck him square in the chest, and she saw his eyes change. The light in them went out in an instant, as though he were a piece of machinery that had been shut down. Azula had always liked watching people die, and her brother's death brought her more joy than she thought possible.
The rest of the guards arrived while she stared at him, but none would raise a finger against her. They all knew what she was capable of. She never turned to look at them.
"You will take me to my palace, and anyone who opposes my being raised as Firelord may challenge me to an Agni Kai or be put down." She took the crown and hair tie from Zuko's head and gave herself the coronation she deserved, over the body of the person she wanted to see dead more than all but three.
Azula prepared to remove her enemies from their seats of power.
Azula prepared to show the world her justice.
Azula prepared to cleanse the palace of those who had wrongly taken up residence.
Azula prepared to take back her nation.
A war has ended, yes. But war lives on. Strife has no beginning or end. There is only the cycle.
Avatar Kyoshi, spoken after the death of Chin the Conqueror, 270 B. G.
Leave a review, let me know what you think. Or don't. I'll probably live.