A/N: Hello! This is my first contribution to the ATLA fandom. I do not own anything related to the splendid and fantastic world created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
Walls of ashen gray, the same sight that greeted her every morning, as if they were continuously taunting her to acknowledge how far she had fallen.
How far down the invincible Azula, the crowned daughter of the Fire nation had plummeted.
Several weeks ago, the title of Fire Lord was within her grasp, she could almost taste it. The glint of the hallowed crown hovered centimeters above her head, and within moments it would have all been hers. She would finally reign supreme. Over all of her subjects who would eventually come to love her, whether it was from respect or fear, she cared not, as long as she felt the gratification of that priceless power within the palm of her hand.
It was all perfect, like the person she deemed herself to be, and the perfect life that beckoned to her would have transpired, had it not been for the one loose end she had failed to purge from this world. Her own flesh and blood…Zuko.
That was her one mistake in all the years of her decisive precision…welcoming him back from exile. He was the reason for her entire demise. He was the reason why the Avatar managed to defeat her father and reduce him to nothing but a mere shadow of the great fire bender he had been. He, along with that lowly peasant water bender, was responsible for the chains that held her arms behind her back within this room, this freezing room, that managed to keep her once lethal blue flames limited to nothing but a worthless spark. This unforgivable form of betrayal was deep enough for her to cast him off as her brother forever, for as long she was to remain within the suffocating walls of this asylum.
If...no, when she was to able to break free from the confines of this prison, Azula knew that she would surely set out to fulfill the task of becoming an only child.
There was one thing in her life that seemed to keep her inner fire alive. She could feel within her bones that this was not the end for her. No, she could sense that triumph would fall into her hands again.
However, the key ingredient needed for her to succeed this time around would be patience, to wait and understand her surroundings, however limited they appeared, and evaluate the people she came into contact with everyday, including her doctor, the guards that stood watch by her cell, and the nurse who brought her food, which was passed through a small opening within the iron clad door that locked her away. Yes, all she had to do was wait, and soon another opportunity would present itself.
An airy laugh passed through the walls; almost quiet enough to be considered a whisper.
"Who's there?" she called out, looking around herself as far as the binding chains would allow her.
Only her voice echoed back to her, causing her to dismiss the noise as a whistling of the wind rattling through the ventilation system of the building.
She felt a concentrated breath near her ear, causing her to jerk backward in alarm. "You poor girl…" whispered a woman's voice.
"You?" she gasped while attempting to clench her eyes closed and force away the apparition that was now materializing before her. Not again.
"Surprised to see me?" asked the woman who stared back challengingly at Azula with the dark golden eyes that resembled her own.
"Considering my circumstances as of late, I'm not," Azula hissed, bending her head away from her mother's gaze.
"What are you doing, my dear child?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Are you planning to follow through with this wild goose chase to reclaim your title?" Ursa questioned with a calm demeanor.
"I prefer to call it the path to reclaiming my honor that I was originally entitled to hold."
"Why burden yourself with such a ridiculous quest, Azula?"
"The only thing that is ridiculous is having your idiot son Zuzu on the throne. He will send our beloved nation to the ashes."
Ursa shook her head slowly in protest. "No…that was what your father almost did."
Azula kept her head turned, although allowing herself to converse with this hallucination, knowing all the while that this was not particularly a sensible thing for her to be doing. Then again, it was the first time anyone had spoken to the former princess in weeks without fear being summoned to his or her eyes. "He only wished to have the world reborn."
"By destroying the life that was already present? How could you have considered such a thing? All life is precious."
"It was necessary to rid the earth of the frailty that infected its roots. We were doing the world a favor by removing the weak souls that were not fit to walk upon its ground…weak-minded souls like you," Azula said with a smirk.
Ursa's gaze softened, as if not affected by the insult thrown by her daughter. "Surely you do not mean that."
"I mean every word of it."
"This venom you have toward weakness, must stem from a resentment you have toward something else…or someone else," the older woman reasoned.
"You think I resent you?" Azula asked with an all-knowing façade, attempting to hide the truth in her gaze.
"I left you and your brother alone during a time that you both needed me the most. I couldn't be there for you to guide your hand, and for that I'm sorry," Ursa replied, tilting her head in a gracious manner.
"I could not care less if you were dead or alive, mother," the younger girl spat out. "Now, leave."
"I can see through your lies Azula, and I know beneath the rough exterior of an intimidating and brilliant girl, beats the heart of a vulnerable child, whose innocence was corrupted by her need for control."
"Don't pretend to know me Ursa! You only saw me as a monster. Don't pretend to know anything about me!" Azula's voice rang angrily at a higher volume.
"Oh, but I do know you. As much as you are your father's daughter, you are my daughter as well, and I will always love you."
Azula threw her head down onto the floor in defeat, not wanting to hear anymore from her. "Get out!"
She felt the embrace of arms encircling around her shoulders, but she knew that this could not be possible, for she was alone within the cell.
"You can defeat the darkness in your soul. I know there is good in you," Ursa whispered into her ear.
"No…there isn't…my soul is as black as the void you left in my heart," the girl replied definitively as one tear managed to slip away from the others she held back.
"Look around you Azula. You've been chained down with a muzzle placed over your mouth like a wild animal. The best you can do now is turn your life around before you run yourself to an early grave with this ambitious madness," the woman said in one final attempt to relieve her daughter.
"Just you wait Ursa. My time will come again. Now. Get. Out!" Azula roared, feeling the heat of the flame erupting from the hollows of her nose and mouth while it was released in full-blown fury onto the wall that had taunted her earlier.
Ursa shook her head solemnly as the blue fire exploding all over the room diminished her form, gradually causing the older female to disappear from sight.
The girl panted heavily, welcoming the silence and peering over to the newly blackened wall crumbling at the corners, which now seemed to resemble how she viewed her true self. "I love you too…mother," she whispered while hearing the sound of rushed footsteps moving toward her cell, most likely a response to the commotion she had caused with her own demons.