Azula was standing in a sea of darkness. She looked around and found nothing. There was nothing here at all. Feeling cold, she crossed her arms and tried to create a small puff of fire from her mouth, but nothing happened.
"That's not how you're supposed to firebend," A voice echoed from the darkness.
Immediately, Azula got into a defensive stance and looked around her. She did not like the sound of that voice. Where was it coming from? She squinted her eyes in the darkness and did not find anything for a while, but suddenly she noticed a growing shape out of the darkness. A figure of herself appeared, slowly at first but then quickly took shape in front of her. She was wearing her old royal family armor.
The other Fire Nation Princess put her hands on her hips and cocked her head, a dark smirk on her lips. "Oh… Look at how low I've sunk. Sitting back while Zuzu weakens our great nation, agreeing not to firebend, and not to mention…" Her gesture grew steadily more severe as she went on, but then her expression finally cracked into rage. "I soiled my perfect body by sleeping with that Water Tribe peasant!"
"Leave Katara out of this!" A rage inside of Azula shot out from inside, surprising her.
The other her looked very pleased with this. "You see? While you might want to pretend to be on the good side now, I'm still inside you. Your ambitions, your rage, and all of your hate! I didn't just disappear."
Azula's head throbbed and she winced as she demanded, "What're you doing to me?"
"Let's just take a little trip back down memory lane. I'll remind you who you are." The evil her explained, Azula could feel the hate radiating from her body, it was like poison to her.
Coughing, Azula lost her balance and fell to a knee. Her head throbbed again, but much more painfully now. "No! Stop it! I don't want to remember!"
The Evil Azula scoffed. "I can't believe how weak I've become. Well, this is going to change all of that. You're going to remember who you are! You're going to put a stop to all this love nonsense! When I'm through with you, you'll wake up and strangle your would-be bride to death!"
"No… I won't let this happen!" The princess resisted, but the pain was so severe that she struggled to keep her eyes open. This undiluted evil made it hard to breathe too. She could not believe that this kind of evil was inside of her.
"Remember!" Her evil side commanded, putting her hand over her mouth. She felt almost as if something crawled out of her hand and into her mouth. The pain intensified and then she felt a sudden release of pressure and her eyes shot open.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in her cell. Except it had none of the comforts that she had toward the end of her sentence. No bed, no vanity, the window's shades were drawn, and anything that could burn was out of the room. There were scorch marks everywhere. Once again, she was standing in front of herself. She saw herself in chains, heat-resistant ones made specifically for holding firebenders. Her hair was still cut awkwardly from the haircut she gave herself. She remembered that this was only a few days after her coronation.
Walking up to the other hair, she asked, "What are you gaining from showing me this?"
The Azula in chains did not respond. She gave a roar, azure fire blazing from her mouth as she did. "I'll kill you all! I'm Fire Lord Azula! I'lll kill you, Zuko! I'll kill you, Katara! Just wait until I get out of here! I'll crush the Avatar's skull under my boot!"
There was a slam from the heavy metal door and a guard shouted, "Quiet in there, you crazy bitch!"
She watched herself roar with anger once again. She can't see me, Azula concluded. This is just a memory. Come to think of it, I can't remember much about the six months that occurred after my failed coronation.
There was a flash. Nothing had changed in the room, but Azula noticed that she had become paler, her eyes were blood shot, and her hair had grown a bit longer. Her lips were white with thirst because she kept spitting the water back in the guards' faces when they came in with food and water. She was wasting away, dying even. She could tell that she did not even have the energy to firebend anymore. No longer was she standing, she was hanging from her wrists. If something did not change soon, she would die for sure.
The door opened suddenly and she overheard a conversation outside.
"Don't worry, Doc. She's no trouble anymore. I don't think she'll last another day, then she won't be a problem for anyone anymore. She won't eat or drink anymore, so she's looking about ready to die at any moment." It was one of the guards.
"Hm… I see. Still, I want to go in and have a look." Azula recognized the second voice. A man walked in, it was the therapist. The door closed behind him and he stood before the fallen princess. It happened quickly, so quickly that the Azula watching had barely saw it. The therapist was holding the princess's head up.
"You will listen to me," The therapist commanded a hypnotic ring in his voice, and suddenly life returned to the chained Azula's eyes.
She looked up at him and yelled, "What? Who are you?"
The man pulled back and said, "Looks like you have quite a bit of life still in you, after all. That's good. The Fire Lord doesn't want you to die."
Azula gritted her teeth in anger and then growled, "I'm Fire Lord, not him! Father made me Fire Lord before he left!"
"Because he no longer had any use of you, correct?" The therapist asked quietly.
"What?" The chained Azula cried, some tears forming in her eyes.
He smiled and said, "Oh, so you've already concluded that much yourself. It's true. As the Phoenix King, he had no use of the title Fire Lord anymore. He just distracted you with the chance to fulfill your ambitions so you wouldn't ruin his plans. He was always ashamed of you, wasn't he?"
"No, he loved me!" Azula screamed in reply.
"That's right. He loved me!" A dark voice echoed. The memory was in suspension. Azula looked around, but did not find the source of the voice. "I was his darling prodigy daughter. He loved me. Look at what they did to us, Azula! Remember how you suffered! Are these the people you love?" Katara face appeared in her mind. "She did this to you! Yes, I can feel the hate swelling within you. That's right! You don't love her, you hate her! You've been waiting patiently, gaining everyone's trust. Now, it's time to strike! Kill her!"
The princess sobbed and then shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. "No! I won't! I love her!"
"Oh, really? Well, let's keep watching, then."
The memory played again, and the old man continued, "No, he didn't love you as a daughter. He loved you as a tool. Ever since you were young, he was excited to use your talent to help him destroy the world. You were only a pawn and when you weren't needed anymore, you were sacrificed."
The chained Azula screamed and wailed in agony. If she still had the energy to firebend, flames would have been searing the ceiling again. Finally, she said darkly, "Liar! Father loved me and hated Zuko. Zuzu was a failure! An average firebender, at best. No ambition! No honor! No talent! Worthless! I was the one who had everything that my father wanted in a child! Me!"
"But what you're describing is someone who can be easily used." The therapist reasoned. "Someone with honor has a lot to lose. Someone with ambition can be easily controlled. And those with talent, but not wisdom to use it correctly, become arrogant and eventually fall from power, just as you did."
The only thing the chained Azula did in response was laugh sinisterly.
The therapist's eyes narrowed and then he said, "If you won't listen to reason, then perhaps…you'll listen to yourself." Once again, it happened so fast that Azula barely saw him move. One moment the therapist was standing there calmly and the next he was by her. He held his hand over her mouth and said, "You must face yourself and decide which destiny you want: a dark one or a happy one. It's your decision."
All of a sudden, Azula's head was throbbing in pain. Even the visiting Azula fell to her knees, holding her head and screaming as it felt like her brain was being ripped apart. The pain was so intense that Azula lost herself and when she regained consciousness, her world was dark again.
"Do you see now?" A voiced over her asked. "You are nothing! You are a façade! You're just an idea implanted in my head by that crazy doctor. You have no real power and now it's time I took my body back!" The shadowy figure of herself reappeared and laughed.
Standing back up, Azula glared at the other her and yelled, "That's it? That's all you've got? You show up, show me some memories and I'm just supposed to give up?"
The other her looked surprised. "Aren't you broken? Don't you yet realize that you aren't real?"
Shaking her head, Azula said, "I'm not sure about any of that. Maybe I was always a part of you, but I was always too scared to surface. Now, though, it's different. I'm happy. I'm in love. And I'm sure as hell not going down without a fight!"
She was not sure why, but Azula was compelled to reach out and grab the other princess. As soon as the two touched, a brilliant light shot up between them: a red and blue light. For a time, the two seemed transfixed in place, as if they were equal in power. The red one suddenly gained strength and started overpowering blue.
"This is the difference in our power!" The dark Azula commented. "You are weak just like Zuzu! I'm going to kill them all and force you to watch before I erase you from my mind. Your girlfriend, her brother, her father, the entire South Pole! And I'll kill Zuzu too. The Fire Nation will welcome their true Fire Lord back with open arms! They won't have to put up with Zuzu anymore—"
"Are you done?" Azula asked suddenly. "Nobody is going to hurt my Katara!"
"What?" The dark princess gasped as the blue light suddenly out-shown her own light.
It was so bright that Azula had to close her own eyes. When her eyes opened, she was laying in bed with Katara at her side. Was that really just a dream?