Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or anything related to it.

It is 9 years after the end of Sozin's war. Under Aang's tutelage, the Air Nomads have started to come back and reclaim their lost temples. The Water Tribe has prospered but discontent brews in the north over the lack of a Royal Heir. The Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom have been wracked by political discontent despite having strong and capable leaders. And now a new war looms on the horizon, started by mortals and fueled by Spirits. And it all begins with a few strange dreams...

Chapter One: Dreams of Fire

She was dreaming of a vast golden-brown field of grain. It stretched on for as far as her eyes could see. Massive rolling hills rose on one side. A vast open plain stretched out on the other. The fields swayed in a soft breeze, making the wheat lap against her sides in a soft and gentle rhythm. The air smelled sweet and musky filled with the aroma of dark earth and hidden flowers blooming.

She smiled. It reminded her of happier days, of time spent with friends and family at the seashore. And just like those days of peace and happiness, the sun shone brightly in the sky. Its golden rays fell across her uplifted face, kissing her gently, as soft as a lovers touch would be. She was in paradise

But the smile slowly faded away, as a lone cloud drifted across the suns brilliant rays. None of those people who had been with her in the past were in the field with her now – why? Where had they gone? She lowered her face and glanced around, her eyes seeking out any sign of life in the golden, rolling fields.

She was alone. Again. Even here in this dream world, a place created from her own mind and imagination... she was alone. No people moved through the fields beside her, no creatures ran across the open plains. She looked back up at the sky. No birds flew threw the air; nothing moved besides the lone cloud that blocked the rays of the sun from touching her yearning face. She was abandoned.

Suddenly, she felt the dream world begin to change. The gentle breeze had changed from a soft caress to a howling storm. The sky began to darken, with ominous looking clouds blotting out the sun's shining rays. Had her mood affected the dream world? Was she responsible for what was going on? Why was she doing this to herself – why?

A bolt of lightning crackled across the sky. The accompanying blast of thunder caused her to crouch in fear. Wind howled and lighting shrieked. She knew what it meant. The dream was about to become her worst nightmare. She had to escape. She couldn't face what was coming. She hadn't been able to do it in real life – what made her mind believe that she could do it in her dreams?

Her mind began to race. There had to be somewhere she could hide, somewhere she could be safe. She turned her back on the plains. They were too open, she would be vulnerable on them. She turned her eyes to the hills; maybe there would be a cave or some ditch that she could hide in.

Thunder pealed again. There was no more time – she had to make a run for it and hope for the best. She took took off as fast as she could, desperately hoping that she would find somewhere to hide before they came. Her eyes scanned the hills around her as she moved, hoping beyond hope that there was somewhere to hide. Lightning continued to crackle across the sky.

This was taking too long and there weren't any caves to be found. She kept her eyes focused ahead. Nothing mattered now except for the next hill. Maybe, if she ran long enough, they wouldn't find her. But could she make it? Her breath was beginning to come out in gasps, and her muscles felt like they were on fire. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she felt sweat begin to drip down her body. That was odd. Despite the lightning and the wind blowing around her, she hadn't felt any rain. It felt as dry as a desert would... too dry. But why?

"Fire thrives best when there is plenty to burn."

She shrieked in panic and terror at the sudden voice. Hearing it come from her right, she threw her body to the side, letting out a scream of pain as the rocks hidden underneath the rolling wheat bit into her soft skin. She curled into a fetal position. If she just stayed still, maybe he wouldn't see her. Maybe he would leave her alone if she just stayed still. It hadn't worked in the past, but maybe now would be the exception.

But a soft chuckle in the darkness soon dashed her hopes. That chuckle haunted her, sending her into mind into a dark abyss of fear and despair. "I can see you there, dear. But you can't see me, can you?" Another chuckle reached her ears.

Tongues of flame suddenly darted through the field, burning everything to ash. Her hiding place was gone in an instant. She was exposed. "Now, my daughter, raise your head... and look upon your executioner."

Azula picked herself off of the ground and stared at the most hated man in her life. The only man who could strike terror into her very soul. The only man that she both loved and despised in equal measure.

"Father, please. Please forgive me! Don't punish me again. I promise you that next time I'll defeat the Avatar – I swear it! He won't escape from me again. I'll bring you his bleeding, bloody corpse as proof. Please father, please believe me." Her voice sounded weak to her own ears, strained from running and hoarse from her earlier screams.

For what felt like an hour, he stood staring at her. Her face was flushed and her shoulders heaved from deep breaths. Slowly, oh so slow, a cruel smile began to blossom across his face. "Now, my daughter, why would I ever want to do something like that? I thought that I had taught you better than this, that I had raised you to be a warrior. Azula... you are weak. You are worthless. You mean nothing to me". Ozai raised his hands and settled into a familiar stance. "And now... it is time for you to disappear. Forever."

Azula screamed again; her body half turned to the left to try and run. But there was nowhere to run to. Ozai let loose a hair raising laugh as he punched his right fist forward, unleashing a blast of red-orange fire at her midsection. She managed to her right hand up in time to block the blow, but the shock from doing so added itself to her turning motion and threw her onto her back.

Gasping, Azula fought to regain her feet. If she stayed still now, she would die. Shaking her head to clear the pain, Azula looked around herself. Where was he?

A screaming whip of fire burned threw the air towards he location. She let loose a blast of blue fire from her mouth to block it, but the whip broke through and slid along the side of her face.

Laughing maniacally, Ozai drew back his left arm and let go of the fire whip. Azula's eyes narrowed at that. The whip had served its purpose.

Ozai pumped his arms forward in quick, rapid motions. It was too much; the power behind the blows was greater than her own, and he was easily her match in speed. She would block a fireball launched from his hands only to get scorched by a blast from his feet.

She leaped over a wave of fire launched by his legs and was hit by a rolling inferno of flame when he clapped his hands together. And when she created a whirling sphere of blue flame to protect herself from a vicious spinning kick, red-gold flames blasted their way through and tore into her clothes, forcing Azula to her knees.

No, she couldn't let herself go out this way. She was Azula! She had conquered Ba Sing Se, she had killed the Avatar; nations had trembled at her name! Her inner fire was now a raging inferno. Her father had stoke its embers well – now she would burn him with the very flames he had once nurtured. Overcome by fury, she let loose a blast of screaming blue fire at him from her left hand, her middle and pointer fingers extended while the rest curled into her palm.

She launched attack after attack, blasting fireballs at him from every angle. She created shrieking disks of blue fire, like she had once thrown at the Avatar in Ba Sing Se. She let loose pinpoint blasts of flame from her hands and directed waves of sweeping flame at him with her legs. She fought alone, screaming like a raging dragon.

But it wasn't enough. Ozai blocked each blast that she sent his way, his cold and frightening smile unflinching. She threw everything she had at him – why wasn't it enough? "Good, daughter. Good... I was beginning to think that were jut going to lay down and die, like that pathetic Avatar did when he fought me. But if I didn't know better, I would think that I was fighting your dear brother Zuko and not you. You're getting sloppy, Azula."

Azula stood stock still, as if she was frozen in place. He was daring to compare her beautiful, precise style of combat to Zuko's? "Wait... never mind that thought. Your brother at least had the nerve to stand in the path of my fiercest attack without flinching. While you... you twirl like an air nomad!"

Zuko was... better than her? Zuko was superior to her? NO! Letting loose a scream of rage, Azula launched herself at her father, all precision gone from her movements. She was fury incarnate. She was death incarnate! And she wanted him dead! "You want lightning father? Then let me give you a taste of mine!"

Sweeping her arms back to begin to use as a necessary focus, she gathered the energy into her body from the air around her. She would show him that she was better than whining little Zuzu. She would show him that she was the perfect fire bender, the perfect child! She was the storm made flesh, and he would feel her wrath.

The power filled her, demanding that she release it or pay with her life. She held it in for a brief moment, savoring it's immeasurable strength. And with a look of sadistic glee on her face, Azula launched its destructive power at the current source of all her hate and misery. He would twitch and burn for saying that she was worse than Zuko!

Azula began to let out a high pitched maniacal laugh. She had done it! The only thing that remained was smoke, and once that dissipated, there would only be ashes. Azula kept watching... only for the laughter to fade away as she stared in disbelief.

Ozai had blocked her lightning with a blast of his own. Only, it had taken him less than a quarter of the time to gather and direct the energy than it had her. And not only that, but it was strong enough to break through her own attack... oh no! She had all of a moment to try and twist her body out of the lightnings forked path.

Not quick enough. The blast of lightning shot into her chest, paralyzing her. It burns, Azula thought.

Reeling in pain and shock, Azula was thrown back and fell down into the burnt remains of the once golden wheat. She rolled down the hilltop for a brief moment, unaware of what was going on as electricity flooded her system.

The black ashes scattered across the hill further blackened her already scorched figure. All she could see was white... she couldn't see!. Was he coming closer to finisher her off? Was another blast of lightning coming at her unseeing face?

"Impossible", she breathed. "This is impossible". You cannot do this. "Not to me". Not to me! "I am the greatest fire bender to ever live. I am! I cannot be beaten like this. Not like this!."

"Oh, but you can, my daughter. And do you want to know why? It is because you are nothing. You are a weakling and a failure. You couldn't beat your uncle in Ba Sing Se without the help of yopur miserable Dai Li servants. You couldn't kill the Avatar in the caverns of that same city without the help of your brother. You couldn't even beat Zuko on the day of Sozin's Comet, even though he fought you by himself. If you couldn't beat any of them on your own, what made you think that you could beat me?"

Azula heard something crunching in the ash. It was her father; he had to walking towards her while he spoke, closing the distance between them. And she couldn't do a thing to stop him! So she panicked. She tried to drag herself away from him, only to gasp in pain.

Pain from the falls she had taken, the burns from unblocked fire blasts, and the debilitating effects of the lightning blast all conspired to paralyze her. She couldn't move her body and she couldn't see anything. All she could hear was his feet coming closer to her, and the sound of his voice driving like a nail through her skull. It couldn't get any worse than this.

"Now, my dear, worthless daughter; it is time for me to end this. Are you ready to accept your miserable fate?"

No! She was not ready, she couldn't be ready. "Not like this. I can't die, not like this." And as she gasped those last words out, desperately trying to think of a way to escape or kill him, she heard the crunching feet come to stop, and she felt a hand grip her shoulder.

"Yes, Azula. You can die like this. But don't worry; now that I am here I won't let him harm you anymore. Nothing will get past mom."

To Be Continued

A/N: Have you ever had a dream that felt completely and utterly real to you? They can be quite frightening, no matter what age you are.