Disclaimer: Not mine, amigos. Nickelodeon's.

A/N: In the light of new 'Legend of Korra' information, my ideas have been completely overruled and made AU. So, I will not be publishing the 'Korra' story I've had in the works. I will publish the end to this story, just to give it some conclusion, and may later put up notes about what I had planned, if there is a desire for it.

This chapter was meant to lead up into 'Legend of Korra.'

Whole: Hole

A hole. She could feel it. It was almost tangible, as though she could reach into her chest with her fingers and find a gap. It had ripped a hole in her, and then tried to sew up the edges with as much skill and finesse as a goatgorilla. Still, it might hold.

She breathed, and felt nothing inside her flicker. She was a war machine, gutted of its engine.

Yet, she lived.

She lived.

Spirits, she was cold.

Her eyes flicked around her cell, taking it in. How long had she been here? How much time had passed? She stretched out the arm that still worked properly, flexing. Horribly thin. No muscle tone to speak of. Had it been months? Years?

Assess the situation. Absorb information, and put yourself in a position of advantage.

She had to keep going. If she could no longer burn, she would smolder. She would wait. She would turn this around. And next time, she would win a far deeper victory.

The physician almost had a heart attack when he went to feed the supposedly near-comatose inpatient, and instead of screaming and writhing or lying limply like she normally did, she sat upright and said, in a scratchy voice that overlay a tone that one usually reserves for warthound dung under one's shoe: "Don't you have anything other than gruel?"

When the physician didn't answer, she lay back down and said: "Leave it by the cot."

The Fire Lord was notified immediately.

"Azula?"

She said nothing. She was done talking with that one.

"They say you're getting better."

Better? Oh, please. This was better? She pulled the blankets more tightly around her shoulders.

"If you make a full recovery, we're going to put you on trial. You will likely be moved to the Palace Dungeons."

What a way with words her brother had. Why, she was practically improving by the second, with that kind of motivation!

There was a pause, but there was no sound of footsteps. He was still there.

"You're an aunt, now."

Oh, joy. He'd spawned.

"His name is Lu Ten."

How charming. Wherever did he think up a name so very original?

"Ty Lee is asking to see you."

Here, there was a brief flicker of the old rage, and her blood roared in her ears. But it died just as quickly, draining away into the hole. That traitor would suffer, in time. But there was no need for that now.

"I'm going to tell her she can come."

And she should care why?

There was another pause, and she heard him shifted his weight.

"I'm still looking for Mother."

That time, she turned around, looking at her brother with as much distain as she could manage. "Is there a reason you're here, Zuko? Or are you just wasting my time?"

He had, she saw with some surprise, changed from the image of him she still held in her mind. His jawline had filled out, and though he'd distained growing facial hair, there was a bit of stubble on his chin. She almost raised an eyebrow at that. Shaving for firebenders takes only seconds. Why was he neglecting himself?

"Stress of being Fire Lord getting to you, brother?"

"No!" Ooh, such an angry tone! How easy it was to restart this game!

"Everything is wonderful! The world is at peace and I am very happy."

"I can tell."

They froze there for a second, eyes locked. Then: "All I wanted was to see for myself, if you had recovered. It seems you have. I will arrange for the trial within a week." He turned away from her. "Goodbye, Azula."

She did not return the farewell, but rather curled up into her previous position, blankets wrapped about her like a shroud.

It was just a show trial, really. The Avatar advocated for life imprisonment, as expected, and the others went along with him.

She knew there was nothing she could do to change the verdict. She would neither die nor go free from this. But the sparks could still be planted.

"Phoenix King Ozai named me Fire Lord and heir to the throne. I am the rightful ruler of this Nation." She looked at the scribes, hastily scratching down her testimony, and adjusted her heavy blankets like they were royal regalia.

"You lost that right in Agni Kai, as our laws make clear," her brother replied.

Azula smiled. "Not to you, Zuko. If I remember the event correctly, I defeated you, and you were aided by a third party, defying those very laws."

"No." Her brother's good eye narrowed. "You broke the laws by attacking a noncombatant, thus forfeiting!"

Azula closed her eyes and kept a stable, measured tone. "I struck against one who stepped illegally into the arena, preserving your dignity by preventing a third party from aiding you dishonorably. Might I remind the assembled," she looked out into the court, to a sea of red, blue and green. So, they had invited other nations to witness this completely internal affair. Disgraceful. "Might I remind the assembled that the third party I refer to was not even a legal candidate for Agni Kai, being a waterbender. This illegal participant stepped into the ring, presumably to give her aid to my... accuser. This was the illegal act. By accepting her help, it was he who forfeited the Agni Kai.

"You may wear the Crown of Flame now, Fire Lord Zuko. But you did not win it by dint of honor or skill."

Then, they passed her sentence, and she allowed herself to be taken away. She met her brother's eyes as she left, and showed him teeth.

She could not be Fire Lord. She had no bending. Non-benders had never been Fire Lord, never in all recorded memory. Fire Lords past had appointed children of only distantly-related nobles as their heirs rather than allow their own, nonbending children to ascend.

This, at least, was what they said, what they whispered in the halls of nobility. Trace the origins of the rumor, however, and it came to rest rather uneasily on some traders from the southern reaches of the Earth Kingdom.

It was a capable poison, but others were more caustic.

Taxation, for one. This was before the founding of Republic City, and most societies still distrusted the Fire Nation's technological wonders. So, there was little income paying for the war reparations, except for the war booty itself. Several noble houses were ruined, and the royal coffers grew bare.

Forced emigration, for another. The Avatar said that the lands were Earth Kingdom (as he remembered them being), though they had been inhabited by the Fire Nation for three generations now, and Fire people had lived there all their lives. Now, they were packed up and shipped back to a Nation they had never seen.

Fire Lord Zuko, these poisons whispered, was weak. He bent over backwards to the demands of other nations. He was just a puppet for the Avatar.

And he wasn't even legitimate. Wasn't even honorable.

When Azula found the key in her gruel, she only wondered what had taken so long.

She no longer wanted the Fire Nation. Her homeland, her throne had been tainted. She would cleanse it, but that would come later.

Her new role was… different. Yet not unfamiliar. Her flames couldn't spread any more. But ideas… ideas could spread. Ideas could smolder and simmer for years until they had enough fuel, then burst into blazing life.

The world is changing, she said. So we will change too. We will make a world with a new balance, a new glory. Forget the old ways. Forget the divine, the spirits have turned against us. We can make our own way. A way good for… all people.

We can rise against our oppressors.

We can find something better.

We can break this endless, unchanging cycle.

We can change the world.

We can be equal.

After all, my poor downtrodden people, what is there to lose?

(one day, dear brother, you will feel what I do)