AN: This is a fanfiction for my teammate Takara :D She couldn't turn in hers due to problems, so this one is a replacement.
Prompts are: easy-stunning, medium- (character) Mai, and hard- (Song) Say Something!
Position: Waterbender (character succumbs to his or her fear).
Azula stared at the wall of her jail cell. She couldn't stand the thought of being beaten by... well, anyone. But especially not by her. It was stunning. It was unfathomable. Absolutely unthinkable. Yet, it had happened.
Of course, that wasn't what had made her go crazy. No, it was something far deeper than just being defeated. It was them: Mai and Ty Lee. Azula's former friends. The day they attacked her at the prison, was the day her insanity began to eat away at her. Since then, it had slowly gotten stronger. The thought that the only people she cared about, and the only people she felt cared for her, had betrayed her had turned her mind darker than it was before.
Then, she knew her morals. She knew what was good and what was bad, and she purposely disregarded it all. She went for power, whether or not it was moral.
Now though, she didn't know what was right or wrong. She wasn't sure she could obtain power anymore. She wasn't the old Azula. No, that Azula was almost far too gone to be saved... unless, perhaps, she could pull herself through this madness.
The truth was, Azula was afraid. She had been afraid all along. But only after the betrayal that had occurred, had she slowly begun to give in to this fear. She could no longer fight the fear by making herself feel stronger than everyone else. She didn't know how to fight it any other way.
"Azula." A guard called out to her, "Time for a meal." He threw the plate on the floor and kicked it towards her cell.
Azula, snapped from her trance, looked at the guard and smiled devilishly. She picked up a piece of fruit and bit into it. She sighed as the sweet juices ran through her mouth. She opened her eyes and looked at the fruit: It was a plum. The juice was red. The color of blood. The color of fire. The color of hatred. Everything Azula had once stood for. And just like the fruit, it was being consumed.
Azula chuckled softly.
"What are you laughing for?" The guard asked.
Her soft chuckle turned into a loud, maniacal laughter. It was a laugh that resembled the fear and madness the was pulsing within her. "Oh, no reason. It's just, you've failed at understanding me completely, now haven't you? You still don't quite know what I'm capable of."
The guard readied himself for a firebending fight. She was in a cage. How much could she do?
Without anymore warning than her previous ominous statement, she send a blast of blue flames at the bars as she simultaneously kicked them. This sent the bars flying towards the guard. He didn't have enough time to react, and as a result of the impact, was knocked unconscious.
"As long as I'm still somewhat sane, I will keep trying to destroy Zuko!" Azula declared.
"Are you sure that's how you want to live the rest of your life?" The voice of a woman spoke.
"GET OUT!" Azula yelled as she sent another blast of blue fire at the direction of the voice.
The voice stopped speaking, and Azula looked around. No one was there. Shaking her head, attempting to ignore the hallucination, she walked out of the cell room. Then she calmly made her way to the exit, barely even noticing the guards that attacked her, as if they were weaklings that deserved no such recognition from her.
From there, Azula traveled all night towards the edge of the nation. When the morning hit, she was outside the nation, and sailing towards the Earth Kingdom. She sailed for days. Days turned into months. And after many of these months, each one eating away at her more than the last, she reached an uninhabited bay. Presumably of a small island that was far too insignificant to be noticed by any Earth Kingdom citizen that happened to see it, if it was even near the residence of any citizens.
After scouting the shore a bit, Azula spotted a small cave. She eagerly walked towards it, knowing she needed shelter. Seeing as no animals lived in it, at least none that were making themselves known to her, she gathered wood and sustenance for the night and lit herself a small campfire.
She went to sleep that night, thinking about the fact that someone could attack her at any given time. Should she stay awake? Or risk sleeping? It was no use fighting, she was t ok exhausted to stay awake any longer.
She awoke early the next morning finding nothing had happened. But this did nothing to ease her tension and anxiety. What if someone had slipped poison into he mouth while she was sleeping? She was sleeping deep enough for it to be possible. What if someone was going to try to get her next time she fell asleep? She couldn't let this happen!
"I guess I'll just have to keep looking out then..." Azula muttered.
For a while after that, night after night consisted of hallucinations, anxiety, fear, and insomnia. After a while, Azula couldn't fall asleep even if she wanted to. Her mind had been eaten away at so much, that she no longer could tell the difference between her madness and reality. It was all the same now.
"This won't stop me from getting Zuko!" Azula announced. She would get him if it was the last thing she did.
"Sweetie, is that really what you want?" The voice was back.
"What are you doing here?" Azula asked the voice.
"I'm trying to help you." It replied in a gentle tone.
"WHY WOULD YOU CARE?! You always hated me." She accused the voice.
"You know that's not true."
Azula turned to face the origin of the voice. She saw the image of her own mother, Ursa.
"It is. Always has been. You favoured Zuko all along." Azula said, scowling.
"Is that what you believe? Is that why you want to destroy Zuko? Or is it because you are too scared of being vulnerable?" Ursa questioned.
At this point, Azula began screaming words no other person could completely understand. Madness finally had taken over. She had refused to accept her fear, and it's origin. She had chosen to be consumed. And so, she was. The only things to be understood that originated in her mind from that point on, was a song she had heard somewhere before. The image of her mother began to sing it to her:
Say something, I'm giving up on you
I'll be the one, if you want me to
Anywhere, I would've followed you
Say something, I'm giving up on you
And I am feeling so small
It was over my head
I know nothing at all
And I will stumble and fall
I'm still learning to love
Just starting to crawl
Say something, I'm giving up on you
I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you
Anywhere, I would've followed you
Say something, I'm giving up on you
And I will swallow my pride
You're the one that I love
And I'm saying goodbye
Say something, I'm giving up on you
And I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you
And anywhere, I would have followed you
Oh-oh-oh-oh say something, I'm giving up on you
Say something, I'm giving up on you
Say something...
And so, Azula could say nothing else. She was gone, forever.