Chapter Fourteen: The Daughter Also Rises
Ty Lee feels groggy.
She stumbles before she sits down across from the older man.
Piandao, he said he was? She thinks that he did.
Her chair is comfortable, which does not help her drooping eyes. Her change of clothes is as luxurious as her ruined outfit tailored for a princess. Her instincts tingle; they want something. The rebels cannot be trusted, even if Ty Lee once was one of them.
He looks at her like Ozai does. His eyes may be kinder, his posture more honorable, but he still seems to see her as a tool.
"Do you want some wine?" he offers warmly.
Ty Lee shakes her head, but he pours two glasses anyway. He slowly sips his own while she barely even looks at hers.
"Do you need something?" Ty Lee slurs, her cheeks flushed. They dressed her in a tarnished gold shade, a color that exists almost exclusively in the Colony Kingdom.
"I'm going to release you and Azula."
She smiles. "Really?" she asks, her chest swelling from the excitement.
"Under one condition, and it's not too much to ask," Piandao says. His tone is strong and gentle, but Ty Lee still feels wary of anyone who has something to gain by using her. So everyone. "I—we—want you to use your position to help others instead of hurt them. We want an ally as Fire Lady, and we want Azula as our weapon instead of Ozai's."
Ty Lee sleepily shakes her head. "That's not gonna work."
"I believe that you can make it work. I believe that you can use your position with her to your advantage, and that she wants power as much as we want freedom."
"So… you want to replace a power-crazed tyrant with another power-crazed tyrant," Ty Lee whispers.
"I think she has potential," he replies with confidence. Ty Lee wonders if he is just a good liar.
Ty Lee answers, "I think she's the only person who you think can bring down Ozai, and you're gonna try to get rid of her as soon as she's done."
"We're better than that," he insists.
Ty Lee does not think so. But she wants to leave this horrible place. "I'll help you. I'll convince her to help."
"Thank you," he says.
Ty Lee hides her trembling hands on the chair beneath her knees.
Two Weeks Earlier…
Azula stands on a balcony, looking down at a crowd. Ty Lee stands next to her, looking supportive, as she should. She gives the same recycled words as charismatically as she usually does. It is already getting old, after only three protectorates.
They all hate her and she knows it. She is making a speech about all Ozai wants to give them, but he wants to give them the gift of spears in their chests. The gift of uniting the protectorates under the banner of oppression.
She watches a man get dragged away for calling her a liar.
Her father would continue speaking. Maybe point out the treason.
But Azula is not her father. Something tugs at her gut and she does not deny it.
Azula regally declares, "I am lying." Azula does not know why she just did that, but there is no turning back. "We are liars, as someone so kindly pointed out two protectorates ago. No one in the homeland has the desire to give anything to people they cannot see or hear. Why on Earth would a wise ruler want to give the people here a voice? The world is what my father makes it. Everyone in this crowd would love to do that. Don't act as if you would not do the same in his position.
"Sozin didn't take the Earth Kingdom because the comet granted him divine visions, Azulon didn't destroy the Water Tribes because it was his spirits-given purpose, I didn't seize Ba Sing Se because it was rightfully mine. We did it because we could, and because you let us.
"You cannot complain about my dishonesty when you want me to lie to you. You do not want me to tell you the truth because you do not want to hear it. We brought you to your knees because you knelt when we said to kneel.
"That is all."
[X]
Not so far away from the stunned audience, "I have a bad feeling about this," Zuko murmurs as he looks at the stretch of thick forest ahead of him. It is too quiet, and the two outposts they passed were deserted. "It's been a long time since we met with the rebels. They…"
He thinks that worse has happened than them moving on, but he keeps his mouth shut about that. Katara, Sokka and Suki are too hopeful for him to say too much. After so long in captivity, he is alienated enough from his old group of friends.
They resisted the Fire Nation at full force from the Colony Kingdom.
Now, however, the world is bleak and Zuko does not feel as brave and brash as he once did.
Katara leans towards him, "Don't. The rebels are here, and we're going to find them."
"Yeah, not helping," Zuko hisses back. The Painted Lady pouts her lips and shrugs before walking ahead to lead the group.
He met her four years ago.
Katara runs as fast as she can. She throws water backwards aimlessly as her heart pounds out of control from the panic. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did she get sighted? How did she get sighted?
She suddenly hits a dirt coated rock wall. No, no, no. She can hear the gruff voices of the soldiers behind her. Frantically, she looks around for escape.
Someone grabs her wrist and she begins to kick and fight as the muscular male arm pulls her up onto the rocks. Katara reaches to fight him before she sees his mask.
"The Blue Spirit," she whispers and he silently nods.
He gestures with one hand for her to crawl across the slender ledge. She follows as fast as she can go, and the Blue Spirit at last guides her into a dark cave. They… they might be safe now.
Katara stands and paces around the cave. It is small, but well concealed by trees and shadows. She looks at the young man in a mask, broadswords on his back, and smiles faintly.
"Thank you. I never thought…" Katara trails off. "Just thank you. I got betrayed, you know? I was… I was with this guy who came to the Rebel Alliance and I didn't really trust him. Lee. His name was Lee and he had a Lotus tile, but obviously that wasn't enough. He and I had to go out hunting, and turns out he was a firebender. I managed to lose him last night but… I hope I can trust you."
The Blue Spirit shrugs and Katara wonders if he knows how to speak.
"You're bleeding," she whispers, striding over to him and gently touching the wound. He tenses beneath her hand. "I can heal you." She reaches to the mask and he pushes her hand away.
Katara wonders about him.
He was a legend to the rebels; the Blue Spirit who liberated the oppressed and struck in the night.
Now she is alone with him until the Fire Nation soldiers lose her trail.
Years later, Zuko glances around the trees anxiously. He scratches his arms as he walks towards the trodden path. It supposedly leads to the rebels, but Zuko is skeptical.
He comes to a fast stop when he hears Katara scream. She hangs from her foot, caught in a trap. Sokka runs at her and yelps as he soars into the air.
Suki glances at Zuko before grabbing a fan and tossing it at the rope holding Sokka in place.
[X]
Azula is not permitted to leave her lodgings after the speech debacle. She could override them, she supposes, but she knows that she has caused damage. So, now, she sits in an empty bar without drinking. Ty Lee is making herself pretty for bedtime or something else vain and petty. Azula just stares at the wall and wonders what the next step is.
The crowd panicked.
It was brilliant before it died.
Ozai's soldiers snuffed it out, unsurprisingly
"Don't regret what you just did." Amaransu interrupts her privacy. "What? You've sparked something. There is truly nothing more powerful than a son or daughter defying their father. You're a good politician."
"You flatter me," Azula sarcastically says. Amaransu's lips twitch and she pours herself wine. "I got their attention."
"You got more than their attention. I think you can run with this," Amaransu states. She sits down and tries to stop thinking about how eager she is to betray a man who gave her the world for a girl who can give her the moon and stars on top of it.
"I don't have the trust of peasants and I never will."
"Well, you can have whatever you want once you're Fire Lord," Amaransu says cavalierly and Azula is so shocked that she does not even attack or say something witty.
People do not… speak to her like that. It simply does not happen.
"Excuse me?" is the most intelligent thing she can muster.
"Your father has never had a response like that from his devoted subjects, much less his enslaved enemies. I think you should contemplate making this tour work for you and not for him." Amaransu finishes her drink in one gulp. "If you have the colonies united, you have all the more people to make jump at your command. What is it you promise politically, anyway?"
"I mean what I say in my speeches."
"Mhm, and you mean what you say to girls in bed. Right." Again, the princess does not quite know how to respond. "You're sixteen—"
"An adult," Azula snaps.
"Not an adult. I'm sure you have much more selfish and entertaining orders in mind. You're clever. Smartest person I've ever met in my long life. But being the smartest person in the room is so fun. That's why you lie and play with people. But did you ever think that those skills would be better outside of the sandbox and in the court? You could be Fire Lord tomorrow if you stopped toying around with dignitaries and batting your eyelashes at daddy and started acting on the grandiose lectures. That's my opinion, of course, but it's the right opinion." Amaransu reclines in her chair and watches the spark resonating through Ozai's little princess.
"You're suggesting I usurp my father, which is ridiculous. I would never do that," Azula icily insists without a breath of hesitation.
"Even if he sent you on a dangerous honeymoon to be the center act of his puppet show while he has secret meetings behind your back? He doesn't trust you." Pause. "He sent me to spy on you. I'm corresponding with him about your every move, and I doubt you even thought to do the same to him."
Azula scoffs, trying to disguise her nervousness. "You're not a spy. I would know."
"You do know he would do that, because he's paranoid and you scare him as much as you scare everyone else. I'm telling you that he sent me because I just saw that, and I think I'd rather have you as a friend than him in the coming months."
"Why?" Azula demands.
"Because I just saw that speech. You're the one who needs the throne, and the one who has the best chance of keeping it. I think many people are under the odd impression that it's up for grabs." Amaransu stands and has to steady herself with one hand. She looks at her wobbling knees and sighs. "I'm getting old. Such a shame."
She leaves before the Monster of the West can bite her.
[X]
When Azula goes up to her room, after that disconcerting exchange, she has only one thing on her mind.
"I want to sleep with you." Azula thinks she needs to be blunt and open about it. Ty Lee is too nervous.
"Oh? You—really?" Ty Lee thinks she needs to be less wishy-washy about it. Azula is too dangerous. "I'm sorry. I just, no one has ever said that to me is the only thing."
Azula could prolong the awkward conversation, but she instead slowly takes off her shirt. Which only makes this feel more uncomfortable. How is this more awkward than their wedding night? The discomfort is very evident in how Ty Lee very hesitantly walks towards her.
Their lips meet and it feels nice, but it does not change how strange the movements feel.
This is only new to Ty Lee; why does it feel so novel and daunting to Azula? She has been fucking Mai since she was fourteen. But this girl makes her shake, and not necessarily in the aroused way.
"Bed. Bed right?" Ty Lee says and Azula almost laughs. She blushes; Azula takes her by the arm and pushes her down onto it. Not as hard as she has handled her before. But it was heated then, it was so fresh that they both tore into each other without thinking. Now they both are thinking too much.
Azula never truly thought through the consequences of an arranged marriage. Particularly one with a girl like Ty Lee. It is complicated when Ty Lee kisses her and takes her by the wrist, because Azula has the aching suspicion that this is just the part Ty Lee has to play. It is complicated because Azula knows she should ask but she is afraid of the answer.
The Monster of the West is still standing as she slips onto Ty Lee, straddling her. They are intertwined together for breathless, forceful moments, their tongues warring and lips pressing against each other over and over and over, hips grinding against each other to a certain rhythm that is both familiar and alien. Azula steps back for a moment to remove her nightdress. Ty Lee is unsure what to do as she reaches for her own light pink nightgown, but Azula seizes it and removes it violently.
She has not done this. Not just taken what she wanted and Ty Lee is not sure if it is sexy or worth-worrying-about. It feels nice to not think about whether she is interested in Azula sexually nor not. She is interested on the fierce hands on her wrists.
Ty Lee gasps and moans but is silenced by Azula on top of her again.
When their lips collide and crash, Azula sucks on Ty Lee's lower lip. The arc of her wife's back is welcome as they tear at each other, clinging as if they would drown if they did not. Maybe they would.
Ty Lee moans but it fades into Azula's forceful kiss, teeth and lips grazing against each other. This is possibly the messiest sex either of them have ever had but they both love it. Love it with frantic, palpitating hearts. Maybe they don't love each other in the same way but they both love this the same way.
Their bare cleavage presses together as their bodies become so close they might as well be united in the Universe. Ty Lee has the sudden compulsion to gently push Azula onto her back. Azula breathes in and enjoys it, surrendering and closing her eyes for a brief moment as Ty Lee kisses her clavicle.
Her teeth dig into Azula's skin and the princess is stunned and confused as light pink lips leave bruises on pale skin. Ty Lee's lips touch her pink nipple and Azula has to gasp for breath and control herself before she lets herself believe it is real on Ty Lee's part.
Ty Lee is absorbed in the song of Azula's pleasure as she forgets all about the speech and that mess; they only know the buck of her hips, the fire that Ty Lee feels as Azula they burn, Azula's body incredibly hot, which Ty Lee quite likes. Ty Lee holds her down and Azula parts her legs.
Azula has seizes Ty Lee's hand with a fervor. Ty Lee allows to be controlled with sparkling dark eyes. She allows Azula guide her fingertips to Azula's navel.
She is supposed to take some kind of command. She didn't want that. She didn't want to be responsible, but she has no choice but to choose. So she does:
Ty Lee circles her fingertip around Azula's clit and pushes two fingers into wet heat.
[X]
In the morning, Ty Lee wakes at ease.
She cannot explain the feeling. While she always wakes up feeling optimistic, she never has felt this soft warmth inside of her body, the peaceful hum of the world inside of her. It is a quiet happiness, not the loud kind she screams to the Universe.
When she rolls on her side, she sees that Azula is still asleep. The ivy covered window makes shadowy patterns of leaves on Azula's ivory skin. Ty Lee stares at her in silence, stares at her wife. That word still scares her, to be honest. But she likes being here this morning, alone, peaceful, her breath regulated by the timing of the Monster of the West's heartbeat.
Slowly, she touches two fingers to Azula's bare arm. She does not stir and Ty Lee is grateful for that. Ty Lee lingers for a moment and finds herself walking her fingers up the arm of the Monster of the West. She doesn't know why she does it, but it feels right in the sunlight, in their room.
In a room someone broke into and left accusations of LIAR. That rips Ty Lee from her reverie and forces her to sit up. Her heart is no longer in soft, gentle time with that of a sleeping woman. Now she feels the panic and anxiety spreading where the contentment was moments ago.
Reality crashes down on her and she tries to keep herself from flying out of control. She is a traitor to the rebellion, she is in a very dangerous place with dangerous people, and she does not think that Fire Lord Ozai is suddenly going to stop tormenting her because she is married to his daughter.
She does not think he meant a word he said about family.
A knock on the door makes Azula stir. Ty Lee sits straight up, her heart starting to pound.
But Amaransu's voice says, "Lovebirds, time to go. Your little army is waiting for you."
After getting ready, the two newlyweds sit in a briefing room for their journey, and Azula can feel the sunlight reverberating through her body. Ty Lee is just groggy and half asleep on Azula's shoulder. This is not how she imagined her honeymoon when she fantasized about marriage.
The strange woman Ozai sent to Azula stands in front of them both. Apparently, an art dealer is acting as head organizer of the trip. Which is odd, but not the strangest thing Ty Lee has encountered over the past months.
Amaransu says, "That speech had some undesirable effects to say the least. You have somehow riled up the rebels even more than before, which has somehow raised the price on your head. I took the liberty of hiring better guards than ordinary soldiers. The Ruthless Sun, to be exact."
Ty Lee cannot imagine those mercenaries working as security, even for a significant amount of money. It makes her feel nervous about the rebels… and nervous about Azula too. She takes the hand of the Monster of the West and holds tightly.
The Ruthless Sun bows to them and Ty Lee recognizes most of the soldiers. They are on their way to prepare the procession.
"Where's June?" Ty Lee whispers as soon as the attention drifts from her and her wife.
"I hope dead in a ditch somewhere," Azula bitterly replies.
Ty Lee scowls. "That's mean."
"She does not respect my power."
Ty Lee giggles. "She told me you had more abandonment issues than an orphanage in a desert."
Azula does not laugh with her and Ty Lee's skin prickles.
"I probably do. But it's due to treasonous talk like that that I'm relieved not to be dealing with her," Azula says casually.
Ty Lee smiles faintly.
[X]
Across the sea, in the Fire Nation Royal Palace Courtyard, Mai runs a knife along the throat of a servant she has pinned to the patio stones. She digs it in deep one last time for good measure as he coughs, chokes and drowns more quickly than she would like.
It's what he deserves for coming at her with a damned spade.
No one has tried to kill her since she was military. Her heart races and it feels… good. So good. She stands up and does not bother wiping the blood from her hands.
And about ten minutes too late, in comes a burst of guards.
Oh, the price of so many secret meetings of the paranoid Fire Lord.
"Are you okay?" the boldest of the idiots asks.
"Yes. The assassin you people let nearly kill me is not." Her breath is still heavy, still long, still tasting of metal. She misses war, she abruptly realizes as she tosses her knife down and strides past the guards who are awkwardly muttering things she does not care about.
She then collapses onto her knees. Maybe her body is not quite equipped to handle an adrenaline rush like that, even if the instincts hammered into her since she was a little girl are still as sharp as the blades she keeps on her at all times.
An entire hour later, she sees Fire Lord Ozai for the first time in three days.
"I'm sorry about what happened. You shouldn't have been outside."
"In our own courtyard? He was a fucking gardener. I wasn't wandering around on a battlefield," Mai says and Ozai taps his fingers on the table. He does not like her attitude.
"There's no need to talk to me like that." I will hurt you if you talk to me like that again.
Mai tones it down. This is not worth it. "Well, I understand why you were too busy. However, I don't understand why someone would go for me. I've never had an attempt on my life before."
"There is a first time for everything."
"I don't care. It's not worth my time. I lived." Mai is honest about that.
He appreciates that she does not cause trouble.
That always was her best quality as a Fire Lady born of rebels.
"Are you still in pain?" he asks.
Mai mentally searches her body. "Not really. No."
"Good," Ozai says. "Then we can move on."
"Then we can talk about what this means. It was easy to avoid until Ty Lee." Mai preferred avoiding the topic, to be honest, but she feels the need to get this over with.
Ozai demurs, "She has a contract—"
"You don't play by the rules. She's scared of you. Her mother—who you made the contract with—is in custody. I don't see why you don't get on with it. Ty Lee seems like the kind of person who would be happy about it," Mai says, sitting up. Her head spins despite how small of a movement it was. She has been lying down for far, far too long.
"You make a good point." Pause. "I made arrangements for a bodyguard for you. Seeing as I had to have all of the guards protecting you at the time executed for negligence."
"I am more than capable of defending myself," Mai says. "I did defend myself."
"The fact that you had to disturbs me. You'll like her, anyway."
"I don't like anyone."
Ozai pauses and decides to ignore the impudence. "She's your ex-girlfriend. I figured she has a stake in protecting you and she loves money more than loyalty to anyone."
Mai is at a loss for words.
She does not know what game he is playing, but she does not want to be playing it with him.
[X]
"You don't want to have sex with me and I have no clue why because everyone does, but I'm going to respect your insanity," Azula says as they are alone in their royal tent. The firelight flickers outside, making patterns against the cloth.
She is turning two candles off and on, blue and orange and black, as she tries to figure out how to retrieve last night's passion. It simply is not there. That speech has ruined her somehow.
"But we're married and stuff," Ty Lee says sweetly. She lies on their bed, half-naked but evidently uninterested.
"But you were married not to fuck me but to fuck my broth…"
"Your brother?" Ty Lee knew that about Zuko, but she only just thought about how Zuko escaped his prison. She kind of assumed it would just be Ozai, but judging by Azula's face, she did not have the same thought.
"The one who vanished with his little rebel friends. I didn't think…" about that.
"We're gonna find him." Ty Lee shrugs.
"If my father is even trying. Which I imagine he will be given this revelation."
"Mai," Ty Lee chimes.
Azula is silent. She has that expression that Ty Lee hates. It is when she has words she could say but she does not. It is worse than lying to her wife, but Ty Lee does not rock the boat.
"I don't think she's an option," Azula softly says. She does not turn the candles back on.
"Why not?" Ty Lee sits up and her head spins for a moment.
"She's tried before. It didn't go well." Azula relights the candles and makes the flames dance blue.
"She must have been a child. Of course it didn't," Ty Lee says fiercely.
"That's the fable everyone has decided upon to help them sleep easier."
Ty Lee uncomfortably recalls when she first met Azula. Her mother told her about how the princess could not have children of her own. That she got sick when she was younger.
Foolishly, "My mom said—"
"I'm sure she tried to make you feel good about having to fuck one of two men just to get knocked up for me," Azula purrs. She hates the idea of her brother or father having sex, but does enjoy Ty Lee's uncomfortable expression. The perpetual gleam of her eyes and smile on her lips grows tiring over time.
"I could sleep with Fire Lord Ozai if we don't find Zuko."
Azula reacts viscerally, snarling, "No. That's disgusting and an absolute last resort. If that."
"You've been sleeping with his wife."
"Yes. But he won't be sleeping with mine."
"So that seriously detracts from your argument for getting the thr—"
"It's not an argument. It's a birthright. No one will be stealing it. I know what I'm doing."
"Not exactly. I think you should be making moves for it already," Ty Lee protests.
"How do know I'm not? You sound like her."
"Like who?"
Azula keeps her lips sealed about Amaransu. No one needs to know about that night in the bar. "I've just gotten that comment a few times tonight already."
"You're way more persuasive than Ozai. And way prettier too! People want pretty people to rule them. And you are the prettiest girl I have ever met."
A realization dawns on Azula. "I know. I know that you are still a rebel icon and that is more useful than anything I have. My father wants to use you for his own ends; I can too."
"I'm confused."
There is nothing more powerful than a daughter defying her father. "You are going to take me to the rebels."
"I don't know where they are," Ty Lee squeaks, her eyes rotund from terror.
"We don't have to know where they are as long as they know where we are." Azula examines the candle in her hand and then pinches it out. In the darkness, "You're good to talk at. This really is one of my most brilliant plans."
"Being captured by people who want to torture you?"
"Yes. I think it is time for me to get a bit more drastic, don't you?"
Azula kisses her. Hard.
[X]
Azula dismisses the girls doing her hair when she sees Amaransu appear. The Monster of the West stands and glances around for eavesdroppers. Amaransu observes it and patiently waits.
"You are on my side now. You will report what I tell you to report to my father. I will remember the favor when I'm on the throne," Azula says coldly and Amaransu stifles her smile.
Good, Amaransu decides, the girl is finally coming into her own.
"I am honored to serve the Fire Lord." Amaransu does, at last, allow herself to smirk.
Princess Azula looks into the mirror and sees the person who conquered Ba Sing Se looking back at her.
She missed war.