Team/Position: Future Industries Fire Ferrets / firebender

Word Count: 1240

Prompts: Her Name Was (Title), (plot point) someone burns an important document, (restriction) End with the following: "Thinking back, he/she wondered if he/she would have done things differently. A smirk came across his/her lips. He/She wouldn't."

Bonus point: firebending

oO0Oo

Sitting in the cold, carved throne, watching her blue flames flicker against the walls of the empty room, Azula wondered if this was what true happiness felt like. It was lonely, but the powerful always walked a lonely path. She had struggled and fought to become Fire Lord: assassinating her esteemed grandfather, discrediting her old fuddy-duddy Uncle, sabotaging Zuko, and finally poisoning her Father.

But in the end, she had achieved her dream. She was Fire Lord now, the ruler of the Fire Nation. Her word was law. Yet somehow, she still felt… incomplete. It was a haunting feeling, one which she could not shake, one which left her with empty smiles and even emptier words. It was as if she had somehow still failed, even when she was Fire Lord. Did she miss her family, that den of poisonous vipers which had stood before her and the throne? She ruthlessly quashed that thought, but nevertheless she found herself wondering, staring into the depths of the darkened room and remembering.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She was fourteen, just realizing how far she was from the throne. She was sixth in the line of succession… but if she played her cards right, she could jump to third. A small, secretive smile crossed her lips as watched her foolish Uncle Iroh laughing and playing with his two-year old grandson. Uncle's decision to remain in the Fire Nation and attack neither Ba Sing Se nor the Northern Water Tribe could work in her favor, if she managed to paint him as a craven coward, remaining near his Father because of weakness and misguided political ambition. If she could only pin him with some atrocious, treasonous crime, one which would destroy his entire line… oh, she could kill two turtleducks with one stone. It would require long careful planning and help from her power-hungry father, but it was possible.

Now, to set the foundation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was her sixteenth birthday, and Azula knew the perfect present. After two years of preparation, it had been finally time to act. "Where is grandfather?" she asked demurely, looking around the reception hall which was packed with various Caldera nobles, the cream of society, all there to celebrate her birthday.

Her father smirked. "He is… lying on the floor of his room in a puddle of his own blood," he murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It is very tragic."

"And how would you know that?" she asked, a devilish smile turning up the corners of her lips.

"Let's just say… I paid very close attention to the health of my late father. It was of utmost importance to me."

"I'm sure it was," Azula drawled. "The servant should come running in any second now, screaming treason…"

And as if summoned by her words, a distraught maid sprinted into the room and threw herself before Crown Prince Iroh. "Murderer!" she shrieked. "You killed your father, Fire Lord Azulon!"

Uncle Iroh blinked. "What do you mean?" he said.

"I saw you enter the Fire Lord's rooms earlier this evening," the woman spat. "And when I went in to clean his room, he was lying dead on the floor. Murderer! Killer!"

"You are mistaken," Uncle Iroh said gently, laying a hand on the woman's arm. "I was not in my father's rooms earlier. I was enjoying a picnic with Princess Azula on the slopes of Caldera."

"Uncle, I don't know what you're talking about." Azula's cold voice cut through the woman's hysterical sobs. "We never went picnicking… you never have time for me, only Zuko. Your alibi is rather flimsy."

"Guards, take him away." Ozai called. Two men in bone-white masks shackled Iroh's wrists together and led him from the room. "The Fire Sages shall decide his guilt."

Of course, the Fire Sages had been bribed to proclaim Iroh guilty and thus ineligible for the throne. And when evidence surfaced in the form servants testifying that Lu Ten had helped plan the Fire Lord's murder, the Sages disqualified Iroh's entire line from the throne. Lu Ten and his son could never be Fire Lord, either. Instead, that honor fell squarely upon Ozai, and his children.

Ozai accepted the position with grace. He was a fine Fire Lord, who continued his father's work; however, under his rule, nothing changed. The siege of Ba Sing Se continued, and the Water Tribes continued to belittle Fire Nation ships - the only difference he made was that, instead of naming Zuko Crown Prince, as tradition demanded, he turned to Azula.

"My daughter," he said. "You were instrumental in my rise to power. You deserve this honor, not your brother; you deserve to be at my side. Do you accept?"

"I do, father," she replied, kneeling at the foot of his throne. She could feel the eyes of her mother and her brother watching her, boring into her back, but she ignored them, keeping her eyes focused on her father. Now, only Ozai stood between her and the throne. His decision to make her his heir would prove to be his downfall.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A year later, once the dust had settled, she began visiting the kitchens. It was innocuous enough, and she made certain to flirt with one particular kitchen boy who she thought was rather pleasing to look at, if he weren't a peasant. But she had more to do than send speculations about her love life flying. Her father was beginning to outlive his usefulness. So slowly, slowly, when the servants were not watching, she began to poison him. It was a tasteless, odorless white powder which she placed in the golden salt shaker reserved for the Royal Family's use. At meals, she was careful never to add salt to her food; rather, she waited and watched her father do so with quiet, calculating eyes.

After a month, he died abruptly in the middle of a war meeting. It was a shock to the entire Nation, but Azula was prepared. She insisted on going through her Father's belongings, claiming that as his favorite child, it was her right. She ordered the Fire Sages to crown her quickly, before Zuko could challenge her claim and throw the Fire Nation headlong into a Civil War. And when cleaning out her father's room, she found a sheet of paper upon which he had written in a shaky hand, My eyesight is failing, my hearing is fading; I wonder if I am being poisoned… I wonder if Azula is destroying me. I would not be surprised. It was she who planned her grandfather's death. Sometimes, she is a monster.

The words stung, but he was already dead, so Azula forced herself to ignore them. Crumpling it, she set it alight, letting the last evidence to her crimes disappear in smoke.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

That day had marked the moment when Azula achieved her dreams. She had struggled, she had fought, but she had won in the end. Sitting in the cold, empty throne room, hated by Ursa, by Lu Ten, and by Zuko, she smiled. This was the life she had chosen for herself. This was the life she had always imagined. When future historians looked back on her reign, they would say the Age of Azula had begun on that day, when her father mysteriously died and she seized control. The world would know her name. Thinking back, she wondered if she would have done things differently. A smirk came across her lips. She wouldn't.