A/N:
Let me just say, thanks for coming to read this. If you didn't see in the summary, this begins at the very end of Book 2. There will also be scenes from when Zuko and Azula were kids. The final note is that I chose to use a book instead of a scroll in my story. They're both present in the Avatar world, so I decided to go with the one I felt made for a smoother read.
Enjoy!
Azula's eyes snapped open.
She crawled out of bed, shaping the covers so if any guards passed by it would look like there was still an eight year old girl nestled underneath. Azula tip toed across the palace, avoiding the guards until she got to the room she was looking for.
"Zuko!" She prodded the figure on the bed in front of her. "Wake up! Come on, Zuzu."
"Azula?" A groggy voice spoke up. "Why aren't you in bed?"
"Clearly because I got up," Azula replied exasperatedly. "Now come on, I want to go see something." She yanked off his covers.
Zuko sat up. "We aren't supposed to leave the residential wing at night, you know that."
"My apologies for trying to make your life interesting, for once." Azula drawled. She took a step back. "But I'm still going to go. So you can either join me, or leave your little sister to fend for herself in the night." She did her best to look innocent. That wasn't a look she used very often.
Her brother scratched the back of his head. Azula smirked. He was coming.
"Fine," he sighed. "But if we get in trouble I'm not sharing any of the candy Uncle sends me anymore."
A broad grin spread over Azula's face.
If she was being honest with herself, she hadn't expected Zuko to come to her side. If anything, she thought he'd stay behind, incapacitated with indecision. It was nice knowing that she still held that much sway over him, after everything she'd put him through. It crossed her mind that perhaps Zuko still cared about her, like when they were children. It was a warming thought, and her brother was enough the fool for it to be true.
Dai Li agents were lining up behind her and Zuko, cutting off any potential route of escape for the Water Tribe girl in front of them. What was her name? Who cared. The important thing was that she had the groundwater hanging like tentacles around her, clearly trying to defend herself from all sides.
Azula looked to the other side of the cavern. The Avatar was surrounded by the rest of the Dai Li force. It was one hundred versus two at this point. Ba Sing Se was nearly hers.
A nagging thought creeped into the back of her mind. It won't be yours, it said. It will never be yours, it said. Ba Sing Se will be Ozai's, and you will still be Ozai's, it said. Nothing will ever change, it said.
Azula blew her hair out of her face, and the thought was buried.
The Avatar dropped to the ground, bending the bright crystals into a tent around him. What was he doing?
Azula moved to investigate, leaving her brother to deal with the waterbender.
"Hey, look at this one," Azula whispered to her brother. She didn't know it, but the area of the Fire Sages' Temple she had convinced her brother to sneak into with her was called the Dragonbone Catacombs. She'd been dying to explore it after she saw one of the Sages go in during the most recent of those dull royal family visits.
"We should really get going," Zuko fretted. "Someone is going to find us."
She hushed him, and he relented. Her brother worried too much. The young girl opened the book, and lit a small flame on her fingertip to see what was inside.
Azula smirked as her brother reacted to the blue fire. She had only discovered that skill a few weeks ago, and it pleased her to no end how jealous Zuko was.
The siblings flipped through the pages of the book. It was mostly poetry, or other boring stuff.
"Hey, look at this," Zuko turned back to a page his sister had just flipped past. On it was the only drawing they had seen in the entire library, of what appeared to be a man. "What is that?"
"An airbender, look at the arrows." The blue arrow tattoos were really the only thing Azula knew about airbenders. But for some reason, this airbender's tattoo was painted silver, as well as his eyes. He was floating in what looked like some kind of tube, that had streaks of the same silver color in it.
Azula lowered her blue light closer to the page. Words began to appear in the previously blank border of the page. "Whoa."
Her brother leaned even further down her shoulder. "What does it say?"
It was a poem. Of course. But Azula cleared her throat, deciding a poem in invisible ink was at least a little interesting.
"beneath the secret all people know
behold the crossroads of destiny for
the chosen heir of Wrath,
the despised heir of Light…"
Azula was standing just behind the front line of the Dai Li, about ten yards from the Avatar's crystal shelter. She watched carefully, waiting for any sign of him coming out. Normally she would have ordered the earthbenders to charge, but something told her to wait for airbender to come out on his own.
It was nearly silent in the cave, almost unbearable so. Everyone, even those across the room, had their eyes trained on the Avatar. Waiting.
For what? it asked. Nothing will change, it said.
The crystals began to glow. Azula's eyes focused even more, if that was possible. She got down into her stance, determined to be ready for whatever she faced. What she had been waiting to face for months.
Any second now.
"… perhaps a Serpent attempting flight
believing it a Dragon, a conqueror of walls
but lacking the wings to attain its dream.
a mind to be lost searching for perfection."
"That doesn't make any sense," Zuko interjected.
"It's poetry, it's not supposed to make sense."
"But why would a snake think it's a dragon? They're so different. It could just look in a mirror and see it's a snake."
Azula rolled her eyes. "Maybe someone told it that it was a dragon, and it was really focused on something in front of it. So it never looked at itself close enough to see it was a snake. Or maybe something else happened, I don't know."
Zuko was still staring at the words intensely. "I bet Uncle would know what it meant," he whispered.
"Seems like the kind of thing an old fart like him would know about." She grinned as her brother made a face at her. "Don't try and read too much into it Zuzu, you'll hurt that precious little brain of yours."
"Oh shut up. Keep reading it."
The crystals hiding the Avatar shattered, and the ominous silence was broken. Azula brought her hands together, ready to strike at a moments notice.
You don't need to do this, it said. There is another way, it said.
A beam of light shot up from the crystals in front of her. She crouched lower.
Ozai is not worth the destruction of the world, it said. He will only ever use you, it said.
The Avatar rose from the ground, his power lighting the entire cave. Lightning crackled down Azula's arms.
Nothing will ever change, it said.
Her arm flew forward, discharging the energy inside her. Yet the light continued to glow. She had missed. No, that wasn't possible. Azula never misses.
No, Azula realized, she couldn't kill the Avatar. It was… It was wrong. What had the Avatar done to deserve death? All he did was try and defeat her father. And Azula could think of many things Ozai had done that would deserve death.
The Princess looked up, watching as the Avatar brought his rising to a zenith. Her eyes widened, reminded of a picture she had seen six years ago. No, she wasn't just reminded of it. What she saw before her was, without a doubt, the image in that book of poetry.
Suddenly it all made sense.
Decide, it said.
Azula saw the Dai Li, waiting for her order to attack. She saw her brother throw a few defensive blasts, caught off guard by the reinvigorated Water Tribe girl. She saw her Uncle Iroh, standing in the entryway of the cave.
So she ran. With tears dripping unbidden from her open eyes, Azula ran. Around her the cave fell apart, Dai Li agents getting crushed at the Avatar's will. So she ran, desperate to escape.
Somehow she made it out. She collapsed in an alleyway of Ba Sing Se, and let the tears flow freely down her face. Azula was not normally one to display emotion, but she also did not often abandon her entire way of life.
I love you, Azula. I do, it said.
The former princess picked herself up, and brushed the dust off her pants. At least she was wearing Earth Kingdom clothes, so she could blend in while she planned her next move.
"or a true Phoenix birthed from the ashes
its past burned away by the Light of the Pray.
with purpose, a new life to undertake as
a warrior reborn in the eyes of its Prey.
"all nations to breathe in its righteous fire
restoring all but those who shaped it
for they will have naught but what they gave it
the Phoenix greater in purpose than desire."
"Now that's more like it." Azula stopped reading.
"You would like the poem when it talks about burning things up." Zuko groaned.
"What can I say, I know what I like. Besides, you liked that part too. I can tell."
Zuko huffed. "Yeah, but not because of the burning."
"Then what did you get out of it?" Azula looked up to make see her brother's face more clearly.
"The person made the right choice," he replied. "Instead of being lost, they're reborn. They have the respect of the world."
"I guess that's pretty nice too." She wouldn't have admitted it, but she had not picked up that theme while reading it.
They heard boots clack in a nearby hallway.
"Is there somebody there?" A voice called out in the dark.
Zuko shot up. "Azula, let's go! Dad will kill us if he finds out."
"Alright, alright. Just give me a second," she whispered back.
"Come on, Azula, let's go."
The young girl quickly read the final stanza of the poem. Her eyes flew wide, startled by what she just read. The blue flame at her fingertips went out, and the moment was forever seared into Azula's memory.
Azula walked through the market of the sleepy Earth Kingdom town, picking up a few items for her lunch. It had been nearly five weeks since her failed coup in Ba Sing Se, by her count.
She'd stayed out of sight, mostly making her journey through the forests and mountains of the Earth Kingdom. She would only pop into towns to get more supplies and hear the latest information on things she cared about. Namely, her traitorous relatives and the Fire Nation.
Well, she was a traitor now too. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
The latest she heard said that Zuko and Iroh managed to escape the Earth Kingdom capital. Azula guessed that Iroh had bargained with the Avatar and his friends. She knew he was on good terms with them.
The firebender looked up at the rock formation around the small town. It looked almost like claws coming up from the earth. She wondered how they got there.
"Young lady," a voice called out to her, "Care to hear your fortune?"
Azula looked up. An old lady stood by the door of one of the larger houses in the village.
"No, thanks. I don't have time, I need to get moving." Honestly Azula would rather do almost anything than get her fortune told. It was nearly as pointless as poetry.
"Wait." The old lady walked over and grabbed her hand. The firebender considered jerking her hand away, but decided against causing a scene.
"I've seen eyes like yours before. Yes, indeed. Two men, one old and one young, visited here several months ago. He was quite handsome." Azula prayed to Agni she was talking about Iroh, and not Zuko.
The woman was quiet as she studied the girl's hand. Azula was quickly growing impatient.
"My apologies if I am taking up your time," the fortuneteller broke the silence. "But before you go, listen to what I have to say if I can be of any help at all. You will encounter a great test soon."
Azula sighed. "I know."
"You must understand yourself before you face it. Know what you will do, but more importantly know why you do it."
The former princess finally made eye contact with the elder. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."
Aunt Wu gave her hand a slight squeeze before letting it go. "The best of luck to you, dear. I'm afraid you may need it."
Stealing that guards uniform was genius. Getting through the maze underneath the Capital without being seen was painstakingly slow, with all the guards in place for the invasion. Being able to blend in made it much quicker to get to the bunkers.
She knew he'd be down here. The last letter she had sent him detailed the Avatar's invasion plan. Her father could have left the city, but she knew him better than that.
The real problem was finding out which bunker he was in. Obviously not the main one — that's where he would set up the trap, just in case someone managed to break in and beat information out of a guard. No, it would be either the second or the third bunker.
Azula needed to make a choice, quickly. Second or third? There was no factor to choose one over the other. A mental coin flip had her rushing off to bunker number two.
Getting into the bunker was easy. She knew the password, and a lie about a change in the guard shifts was easy enough. These were just grunts, after all. They didn't know anything.
A deep breath, and Azula opened the door to the main chamber.
It appeared lady luck was on her side, for now. On the makeshift throne sat her father. The man who motivated her, scared her, and she was sure now hated her. He was the man who shaped her.
The Fire Lord sat up. "Why are you here, solder? I was not aware of any changes in my guard, not this close to the eclipse." The standard twelve man guard stood ahead of him.
"General Bujing's orders, sir." Azula lowered her voice to mask her identity. "He wanted to be sure the Fire Lord was properly protected with guards capable in non-bending combat during the eclipse, sir."
"That man is growing far too worrisome in his old age," Ozai muttered. "Very well, take your place in the line."
Azula did as she was told. Once in position, she closed her eyes. All of her focus was on her internal fire. The fire that drove her bending. She needed to time her move just right.
After what seemed like an eternity, the former princess began to feel the inner flame weaken. Just a few more minutes. Wait, it said.
The sun was at half strength. She could hear the other guards fidgeting uncomfortably. Azula's eyes flickered open.
Now, it said.
The bunker lit up with the light of Azula's flames. She kept them orange for the time being. No reason to alert her father of her identity yet.
Within five seconds four of the twelve were down, and the door melted shut. Another five seconds, and two more fell. She dodged a lightning bolt from her father, which took out another two on its own. Four guards left. Two well placed punches under their helmets halved that number. Azula dodged another fireball from the Fire Lord, and proceeded to bake the last two guards in their own armor.
"Who are you!?" Ozai's voice reverberated off the metal walls. It was blistering hot, all the heat trapped inside the room.
"I'm disappointed," Azula taunted. She pulled off her helmet, flashing a smile at her father. "You don't recognize your own daughter?"
His eyes widened, then narrowed again in anger. "Azula. I should've known you were still alive. Filth like you, Zuko and my brother have a nasty habit of never leaving me alone."
She grinned, keeping her rage pinned beneath the facade. "It's lovely to see you too, Father."
"At least this time I won't make the same mistake I did with Zuko, leaving him alive!" He moved to attack.
Azula didn't budge. He was too late, and the absence of fire from his fists proved it. She had timed her move perfectly.
"What a shame. Seems you've forgotten why exactly you're in the bunker in the first place." Azula walked towards the Fire Lord, pulling the handcuffs she had brought with her out of the armor. "You never did respect the non-bending arts enough, Father. Fortunately Ty Lee and Mai were always there to make sure I did."
It was true. Her father was an awful fighter without his bending. It was a simple matter for Azula to knock him down and put on the cuffs. A knife at his throat ended his struggling.
"Now, we're going to walk over to that rather unimpressive throne of yours, and I'm going to tell you a few things."
"Let me go Azula. You are my daughter, you will obey me."
She heard that one coming from a mile away. It didn't even deserve a response. She shoved him into the chair, keeping the knife at his throat.
"Do you remember the time Zuko and I were caught in the Dragonbone Catacombs at night, Father?"
His eyes furrowed, not understanding the point. He would, soon enough. "Yes. That was one of the more devious things you did as a child."
"Perhaps. That night, we read a poem. Well, more than a poem, but I'll get to that. It was written in invisible ink, only seen under the light of a flame, nearly four hundred years ago. On the same page was a drawing of the Avatar. Avatar Aang, who wouldn't be born for three more centuries."
"What, is that supposed to mean something?" He growled.
She sighed. He was far too impatient as a human being. So she began.
"beneath the secret all people know
behold the crossroads of destiny for
the chosen heir of Wrath,
the despised heir of Light.
perhaps a Serpent attempting flight
believing it a Dragon, a conqueror of walls
but lacking the wings to attain its dream.
a mind to be lost searching for perfection.
or a true Phoenix birthed from the ashes
its past burned away by the Light of the Pray.
with purpose, a new life to undertake as
a warrior reborn in the eyes of its Prey.
all nations to breathe in its righteous fire
restoring all but those who shaped it
for they will have naught but what they gave it
the Phoenix greater in purpose than desire."
A pause. There were still a few more minutes before the eclipse ended.
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" He spat. "That could be about anyone, or anything. If you're going to torture me with your words, at least say something with purpose."
She pressed the blade a bit more forcefully. A drop of blood dripped down his neck.
"I'm not finished yet, Father. There is still one last verse. One that no one, not even Zuko has ever heard. The one that made this day happen." She took in a breath before continuing.
"a world to make, a world to break
one face to be burned, a new life to be learned
purified in ashes, rising from within
the Phoenix, she of the Blue Flame."
The Fire Lord was silent.
"Do you not see, Father? This is my destiny. For years I let you control me, shape me into a monster full of hate and violence. Because of my bending, you chose me as your heir over your own firstborn son. A disgraceful act in any culture, no less because Zuko did nothing to deserve it other than be perfectly unexceptional." Azula could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. Never in her life had she spoken like this to Ozai.
"So you think because it mentions blue fire you're meant to change the world? You're insane."
"How many benders have had blue fire in the last half millennium, do you know?" She gave him a second to answer if he desired. He didn't. "Three, including myself. And the others were both men."
Her father slowly looked up. His face twisted into a snarl. "You are nothing. Nothing but a miserable failure, just like Zuko. Neither of you will ever be anything more than a disgrace upon this nation, upon this family, and upon myself."
"That's where you're wrong." She leaned down so their heads were at equal height. "I may be a disgrace. I've accepted that. It no longer haunts me." Azula let out a deep breath. The eclipse was almost over. "But I am not nothing. No, I am she of the Blue Flame. I am the Phoenix."
She left the bunker, her purpose fulfilled. All she left behind was thirteen bodies and one throne, quickly being consumed in a blue inferno.