Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar: The Last Airbender, Azula would be dead, Long Feng would be dead, Ozai (the bloody git) would be dead, Aang (my son -this is a joke-) would be madly in love with Toph (who kicks some major ass) or a doomed bachelor, Jet would actually have a life (therefore being ALIVE), and Zutara would be canon. Obviously, I have no say in anything.
Just for the record, I have come to the conclusion most British swear words are a thousand times better than American ones. This is nondisputational (that's not a word, so don't use it).
Three
Zuko's Mantra:
Never Give Up
or The Best Laid Plans. . .
or Wait Until the End For the Best Title
Azula was peeved.
"Peeved" was actually a bizarre word. An outlandish word.
Fire Princess Azula, daughter of Ozai, and heir apparent to the throne of the Fire Nation was never peeved. Icy anger, calm indifference, and controlled impatience were all regular emotions for Azula. She could not remember the last time she had told herself she was peeved. Peeved was not an emotion fitting for a princess.
But nevertheless, Azula had to admit she was peeved.
Her worthless brother, Zuzu, —she sneered in disgust— had finally decided to help her when she had actually needed support. Odd. The boy still had some sort of convoluted loyalty system in his heart. Azula did not, aside from her undying dedication to her father and his throne. What would become her throne in time.
Zuzu would have to die. She needed him gone so he was no longer a threat to her destiny. He was a fool to think she would actually give him back his honor. He was a fool to trust her. Her objective was to destroy him, and he should have known that. Better to run with her good-for-nothing excuse for an uncle. Maybe he would have lived.
Maybe.
Azula crept down the hall towards her brother's room. He would ruin the Fire Nation, she told herself gleefully. I must remove him for the good of all. She smirked. Especially me.
She carefully pushed the door open, biting back a chuckle when she saw his form sprawled on the bed. The dagger—his dagger—that had drunk Azulon's lifeblood was clenched in her fist. It only seemed fitting that Zuzu feel its bite of death as well.
She padded silently towards the bed. Victory was to be finally hers. She would remove her only obstacle and the stain on her father's honor all in one purge. She bit her lip to keep from laughing in maniacal glee. At last! Soft moonlight fell past her cheek as she turned her back to Zuzu's balcony door and raised the knife above her head, her hand shaking with illicit pleasure.
Her last mistake.
Lightning struck her full force in the back, her traitorous body failing to redirect the unsuspected blast, a mere hurried heartbeat after she realized there wasn't a breathing form on the bed. Stunned, pain drove her to her knees. Through the ringing in her ears she heard a low, virile voice say smugly, "Looking for me?"
"Zuko!" she gasped, shock waves running through her nervous system like fire in a forest.
"You underestimated me, sister. You think I'm weak? You think I'm foolish? When I knew you, those many years ago, I lived by a mantra, and it was 'Azula-always-lies.' Nothing has changed. Now you will never be able to mislead me again."
Azula's body was recovering. She drew herself up and began to rise, but strong arms forced her back down. "You—" she gasped.
"Win?" he asked softly. She arched her back, letting out an agonized scream of pain. By some curse of Angi, she could feel herself burning and bleeding from the inside out. She was—dying? No! This couldn't be! This was supposed to be her sweet moment of triumph!
"Goodbye, sister," Zuko whispered, a sad, regretful tone in his voice as he pulled his burning sword out of the hole weeping blood and flame in her back. His dagger fell from her nerveless fingers, and she toppled to follow it to the floor. Her clouding, dying eyes watched its gleaming blade spin aimlessly on the glossy tiles. This—this cannot be, her mind stuttered. The blade stopped a fraction of a second before her breathing, the inscription written there mocking her fleeing soul into the void.
Never give up without a fight.
THE END
of
SHE GOT FRIED AND BLEEDING DIED
A/N: Heh, I wanted it to be like: The blade stopped a fraction of a second before her breathing, the inscription written there mocking her fleeing soul into the void. Made in the Earth Kingdom. BUT my friend Cryssi, blackvelvetband, stopped me from ruining the death scene (blame her) and we (she) figured you'd be mad if I had actually done that. But seriously, that would have been funny, right?
I am like one of the biggest Zuko fangirls, and I would probably shoot him if he did something as ridiculous as any of these one-shots, but, hey. "She's crazy and she needs to go down." Which was why I was so frustrated when "she needs to go down" turned into "oh, she's insane so no problem there."
Why couldn't she have just died?
I was totally in support of Zuko not killing his father, but come on, why isn't Azula dead?!
Check out my other Avatar fics, which are either Zuko-centric or Zutara, and until next time:
May the force be with you and may the strength of the Valar protect you.
~Conterra-hime
