Chapter 20: Duel in the Dark
Azula fell down a long tunnel, rolling and beating against the sides of it as she descended. None of the injuries were particularly damaging, but the constant jolting and bumping kept her from concentrating enough to firebend, or even take much in of her surroundings. All she could tell was that she was falling at an incline through a tight space. Finally Azula was spilled out onto a level surface.
Quickly the princess scrambled to her feet, looking around intently to try and understand where she was. Azula could feel that she stood in a large open space, but the darkness still hung too thick for her eyes to make out any more details. Raising one hand she called a bright blue flame into it, illuminating the area around her enough to confirm her suspicions. She was in a large cavern, obviously some distance beneath Jian Chin's fortress.
Suddenly she was struck from behind and sent sprawling facedown on the stone, her fire sputtering and flickering out. Azula could feel the weight of whatever had hit her resting on her back, and then a hand grabbed her hair and lifted her head slightly up.
"You're mine now, princess," Wei Ming's voice hissed in her ear. "Tell me- how does it feel to be helpless?"
/
Ty Lee's mouth opened in a stunned cry as the earth swallowed Azula up. Before the ground had even stopped moving she launched herself into the air, jumping on ledges and the heads of startled soldiers as she made straight for Jian Chin. The warlord stood with an easy confidence and directed the men who stood on the balcony with him to engage the acrobat. His expression changed to terror as she lightly dodged their attacks and felled each in turn with a series of quick blows. Blanching, Jian Chin ducked through the door at the rear of the balcony and pulled up a wall of stone to seal it off.
Before Ty Lee could even attempt to react she was forced to dodge a very large rock that came sailing past her head. Apparently with their leader no longer on the balcony the other earthbenders were now perfectly willing to open fire on it in an attempt to pulverize the acrobat before she could take down any more of them. A second boulder- larger even than the first- came shooting straight for Ty Lee, and she barely managed to leap off the balcony before it was smashed to pieces.
She really didn't envy whatever soldier got stuck with the job of telling Jian Chin about that particular bit of unplanned remodeling.
Ty Lee landed on the ground of the courtyard and dodged the falling rubble as she ran over to stand beside Captain Shin. Looking up, she saw several of the surviving earthbenders leap down from the walls and land across from them, pulling up several boulders and preparing to launch them. "What do we do?" she asked quietly. "Azula's gone!"
"Keep fighting," Shin said simply. "Stay behind me!" Ty Lee ducked low behind the captain as the earthbenders launched their projectiles. Concentrating intently, he blasted each with carefully positioned fireballs, causing them to explode harmlessly before reaching their targets. Shin grunted. "I can't keep this up forever!"
"On it." Ty Lee sprang to her feet and ran forward as the earthbenders 'reloaded'. Dodging under the floating rocks, she came up and managed to immobilize two of them before the rest retreated backwards and formed the earth around them into a wall. The acrobat hurried back to Shin.
"Quickly," the captain said, motioning towards the door to the main part of the building. "Inside!" He and Ty Lee both turned and ran, reaching the door and slamming it behind them before the earthbenders could react.
Both paused for breath inside the fortress's entrance hall. "I bet they won't shoot any more big rocks at us while we're in here," Ty Lee said, "but they'll be coming though that door in just a minute. You're the officer- what do you think we should do?"
"All we can," Shin said. "Find Princess Azula and Lady Ursa, and get them out of here. And if we see Jian Chin- take him down."
"Sounds like a plan." Ty Lee and the captain nodded at each other, and then together hurried further into the fortress.
/
"I've been looking forward to this more than you can ever know," Wei Ming hissed in Azula's ear.
"I'll bet you have." With a sudden jerk, Azula arched her body and rolled over. Wei Ming was taken by surprise and knocked off of her back, and both girls quickly pulled themselves to their feet. The princess lit a flame in her palm and held it up again- in its light she could see her nemesis standing a short distance from her, both blades drawn.
"I should have known you wouldn't go down without a fight," Wei Ming said. "But you can't win here. There's no sunlight in these caverns to fuel your firebending, princess- and even if there was, how could you hope to defeat someone you can't even see?" Stepping away from the light, the shadow-girl melded with the darkness of the cavern and vanished. "This is my domain."
"Don't push your luck," Azula said. "I defeated the Avatar in a cave, after all. You took me by surprise once- why not just quit while you're ahead and spare yourself a lot of pain?"
"I will never quit," Wei Ming's voice hissed from seemingly every direction. "Not until you're dead!" Azula strained her eyes and more importantly her ears, attempting to pin down her foe's location, but when the attack came it still caught her by surprise. Seemingly from nowhere the other girl slammed into her side with a flying kick and the princess was sent sprawling to the ground. She sat up slowly, wincing- she was pretty sure she'd heard something crack when Wei Ming hit her. Either way, her side hurt.
Bringing one hand up, Azula launched a jet of flames towards the direction from which Wei Ming had come. The only response was taunting laughter. "Look at the perfect little prodigy," the shadow's voice said. "She can't even hit me."
Azula knew that she needed to keep Wei Ming talking; she might not be able to see her, but if she could hear her she'd have a way to track her movements anyway. "Why do you hate me so much?" she demanded. "I don't even know you!"
"But I know you," Wei Ming hissed. "Oh yes, I know you, Azula. Raised in the lap of luxury, taught that all the world revolved around you, your whole livelihood built on the suffering of others. What did the sacking of a thousand villages mean to you- you never had to experience pain? What did the conquest of a peaceful kingdom mean to you- you never had to deal with being under anyone's control but your own. Spirits, you make me sick! But you're going to learn about suffering now, princess- I'm going to teach you. And you will beg for death before the end!"
"I never beg," Azula gasped out through the pain in her side, and launched another fireblast, more intense than the last. She thought she'd gotten a good read on Wei Ming's position, and smiled when she was rewarded with her enemy's enraged and painful shout. Looking out into the darkness, she could see the shadow casting off her burning cloak and hurling it aside.
"You will pay for that," Wei Ming snarled.
"So you can burn," Azula said as casually as she could under the circumstances. She pulled herself back up to her feet and stood with one hand on her aching side. "I figured your immunity wasn't absolute when you said why you brought me down here- to weaken my firebending. Why would someone who is impervious to bending care to do that? It just needs to be intense enough that you can't bat it aside." Azula's eyes narrowed, and she allowed a cold smile onto her face. "In fact, I don't think you're nearly as powerful as you let on. You're fast, strong, and skilled, but not that much more than me. You can do that vanishing trick wherever there's darkness, which I have to admit is impressive, and you can knock firebending out of your way, but I think that's it. If you had any more power over shadow, then down here, in this cave, you'd have had plenty of opportunity to use it. Maybe compared to most people you're something scary, but I'm not most people, and compared to someone who's fought the Avatar, I just don't think your little tricks measure up."
Wei Ming snarled inarticulately and seemed to pull the shadows back around herself, vanishing completely from Azula's sight. The princess spun around, trying to guess from what quarter the attack would come, but the other girl appeared suddenly by her side and caught her free arm in an unbreakable grip. Pulling Azula backwards, she slammed her forward so that she struck the rock wall of the cavern head on. The princess stumbled backwards, shaking her head to clear it, and struck back, catching Wei Ming's arm with a fire dagger. Smoke rose and the shadow screamed, her violet eyes blazing with hatred. Pulling one of her knives from her cloak, she lunged forward faster than the eye could follow and pinned Azula's shirt against the cave wall.
Pulling herself up, the princess kicked out and launched a fireblast from her feet towards Wei Ming. The shadow dodged around them and struck Azula's legs hard, causing them to drop painfully back against the wall. The violet-eyed girl drew her other knife and advanced to within inches of Azula's face.
"You're going to suffer, like I suffered," she said. "I lost everything that I ever loved, bit by bit, but that's not something you can understand. You don't love anything or anyone but yourself, do you? So I'm going to make you feel pain in every way I know how- and then I'll break your mind, like mine was broken in Ba Sing Se, and you'll have to watch helplessly as I bring your wretched nation to its knees. I'm not sure I have the technique quite right, of course, but we have time- and there's no one here to hear you scream."
"And they call me crazy," Azula muttered. As Wei Ming recoiled from that, the princess formed a ball of fire in her free hand and prepared to slam it into the side of her opponent's face. Seeing what was happening, Wei Ming caught her wrist and forced the flame down against the wall, and then grabbed Azula's head and slammed it back into the rock. The princess shook herself, her vision gone blurry and disoriented.
Wei Ming brought her knife up. "Now, now," she said softly. "We can't have that, can we? It's time for you to learn something your parents clearly never bothered to teach you- misbehaving children must be punished." Quicker than Azula's blurred vision could follow she raised her knife and sliced down across the side of the princess's face. Azula could feel the searing pain lance along the wound and the blood that dripped from it.
Clearly this approach wasn't working- in this darkness, Wei Ming was so difficult to follow that countering her attacks was next to impossible. But the fact that she was vulnerable to particularly intense bending gave Azula an idea, even if executing it felt uncomfortably like a last result. She'd never tried the technique she was about to attempt, or even heard of it being done, and she knew full well that it might kill her. Even if it did, it would end things on her terms, not the horrible half-life of which Wei Ming spoke. Screwing up her will and fighting to keep the blurriness at bay, the princess began to move her free hand through a familiar pattern.
"Really, Azula," Wei Ming laughed, "flailing helplessly just doesn't suit you."
"I'm not flailing," Azula snarled, "and I'm never helpless." Her hand came up, trailing sparks, and Wei Ming had just enough time for her eyes to widen in horror before Azula seized her hand and released the lightning charge.
Wei Ming screamed in agony, and after a moment Azula joined her. The lightning shot through both their bodies, filling the air about them with a strange blue-white glow. For an instant they seemed to hang there suspended in time, not enemies but two girls linked by soul-numbing agony. Finally Azula could contain it no longer. She released Wei Ming's hand and her own concentration. The lightning exploded, and the shadow was hurled across the cavern where she lay in a crumpled heap. The princess was forced back against the wall, and her head struck back against the rock. She knew no more.
/
Captain Shin looked slowly around the corner, making certain that none of Jian Chin's earthbenders were in the hall ahead of them. When he saw that it was clear, he motioned to Ty Lee and they both went down it.
"Do you have any idea where we're going?" the acrobat asked. "I don't mean to be rude, but we've never been here before and it's starting to feel like we're lost."
"I'm hoping that if we get far enough away from the fighting we can catch one of them alone," Shin said. "Then we can make them tell us where Ursa is being kept- and maybe even where Jian Chin sent Azula."
"Oh," Ty Lee said. "That makes sense."
Shin suddenly stopped and held up a hand for quiet. A figure in a green hooded robe had just come out of a side passage and was hurrying in their direction. The captain grabbed Ty Lee and pulled her back against the wall, and as the figure approached he jumped forward and grabbed its arm.
What happened next was something that neither Shin nor Ty Lee expected. The figure's free hand came up and released a jet of orange flames that were mostly absorbed by the captain's armor, but still sent him stumbling back towards the wall. He looked up in surprise and prepared to firebend himself, but at that moment the figure cast back her hood and Ty Lee's jaw dropped. She quickly interspersed herself between the two firebenders.
"Lady Ursa, remember me?" She asked rather frantically. "I'm Ty Lee, Azula's friend. We're here to rescue you!"
"Ty Lee?" Ursa looked from the acrobat to the captain in bewilderment. "I honestly didn't expect to see you here. I would apologize for firebending, but your companion attacked me first."
"I thought you were one of Jian Chin's people," Shin admitted. "Really, it is I who should apologize, my lady."
"Time for that later," Ursa said. "We need to get out of here before Jian Chin realizes I'm missing- he's fixated on the idea of making me his queen, and he'll tear the fortress apart to find me."
Ty Lee made a face, but Shin shook his head. "Too late- the warlord knew we were coming, and he's done something to Princess Azula. We need to find her before we can leave."
"So Azula is here," Ursa said, half to herself. "That shadow person was right, then."
"Shadow?" Ty Lee asked. "Wei Ming is here too? This is really bad- we need to find Azula fast. Wei Ming's crazy, and she hates Azula- and just about everything else."
"Too late," a deep voice rumbled. The three spun towards the sound- Jian Chin himself stood there behind several dozen of his soldiers. Crouching, they all threw out their hands and strange-looking stone bars shot forward. They slammed into the wall, trapping Ty Lee, Shin, and Ursa. Jian Chin stepped forward and regarded them with mock sadness that seemed slightly genuine when he looked at Ursa.
"A pity it had to end this way," he said. "I am disappointed in you, my dear- I thought you would have realized the glory you could have at my side." He shook his head and motioned to his men. "Bring them to the courtyard- the other two will die there as an example of what happens to those who defy me, but Lady Ursa will come with us to Ba Sing Se. Seeing me claim my throne may change her mind- and if not, then she will learn she has no real choice in the matter."
As the guards extracted the three prisoners from the wall, they could do little more than struggle helplessly.
/
Azula groaned and came back to herself slowly in the dark. She could feel pain lancing up and down her body- from the lightning in general, but also from her side and the back of the head- and her face. Bringing up her free hand, she felt the still bleeding wound, a bloody line running along the side of her face from temple to chin. Some part of her was able to appreciate the irony- no matter what happened, that was going to leave a scar.
Pulling away from the jagged cut, she reached up and pulled Wei Ming's knife from her other sleeve. Her arm was sore after having been held in the same position for some time, and she rubbed it for a few moments. Then, looking down at the knife, Azula thought of its owner. Igniting a small fireball for light, she stepped forward slowly, looking around and wincing with every other motion.
She saw Wei Ming laying in a crumpled heap nearby. Azula hurried over and bent down over her enemy, to make certain she was dead- and then pulled back in amazement. At first she thought it was only a trick of the flickering blue firelight, but no – it was becoming increasingly obvious that Wei Ming's appearance was changing before her eyes. The unnatural pallor was deepening to a more normal tan color, and her hair and clothes were losing that otherworldly sheen; soon, they were no longer a shadowy cloak, shirt, and pants, but merely dingy brown rags. The strange girl coughed and opened her eyes, and Azula saw that they were no longer violet, but a common Earth Kingdom green.
"Where- where am I?" Wei Ming gasped out. Then her eyes focused on Azula and narrowed with familiar hatred. "You!" she snarled and tried to lunge, but before she could even pull herself all the way to her feet she collapsed, shaking. The lightning had done its work- whatever strange power she possessed had absorbed much of the damage, but what got through was enough. Azula guessed that the girl had minutes left, at most.
In that time, the princess needed answers. "Who are you?" she asked, steadying herself against a stalagmite.
"My name is… I'm not sure," the other girl said, a confused look on her face. "Joo Dee? No, that's not right. I remember being called that, though, and then I was left alone in the dark, and someone else came and opened me up and poured herself inside. Wei Ming? No, that's her name. Not mine." She doubled over, coughing. "Not mine," she finally repeated in a whisper.
Azula didn't know what to think of this person who lay trembling on the ground before her. Wei Ming had been a terrible enemy, but in defeat there was something about her that was pathetic- almost sad, in a way. Was this what Zuko and the waterbender thought about me after the last Agni Kai? The princess wondered. It was a disturbing thought.
"You were a Joo Dee?" she asked absently, forcing dark thoughts away. "That's how you knew Long Feng. Where is he? Did he put you up to this?"
"Long Feng?" The girl seemed to think for a minute, as if trying to match that name to a face. "He's dead. I killed him- we killed him. He was part of my revenge, like you. But all that's so fuzzy now."
"You're dying," Azula said without sympathy, but also without malice. She had no pity for her foe, but seeing her like this made it hard to find any joy in her downfall.
"I am?" the girl asked. "Yes- I feel it. You got me pretty good, there?" She raised a trembling finger and pointed at Azula's face. "But I got you too. For the rest of your life you'll look in the mirror and know that… you're not perfect, that… an Earth Kingdom peasant could do that to you. I guess that's a pretty good revenge, huh?"
She coughed again- harder this time- and then sank down to the cavern floor. Azula listened to her breathing, and could tell it was slowly fading. Then the girl- Wei Ming or whoever she really was- looked up and smiled. "I remember now," she said, so softly that Azula had to strain her ears to hear. "I'm…" her voice trailed off before she could say her real name. One final breath rattled in her throat, and then she stilled, dead at last. Her features seemed at peace in a way they hadn't been in life, and that sad smile was still on her lips. The princess remembered the death of General Azun, and the ghastly smile that corpse had worn, but this was different somehow. Wei Ming's body didn't seem horrible like the general's had- just sad.
Azula surprised herself by bending down and shutting her enemy's green eyes. As she did so, she sank to her knees, suddenly overwhelmed by emotions she couldn't name, and a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, though whether for her adversary or herself she couldn't say. She didn't know how long she remained there, kneeling beside the body of someone who'd been trying her hardest to kill her. Maybe it was because of the fact that she was too tired- and in too much pain- to stand. Or maybe some part of her felt pity for the girl who'd been torn from her home and turned into one of Long Feng's soulless puppets before being taken over by some other force to be used as a tool for unknown ends.
For, Azula realized in a sudden moment of disturbing clarity, she too knew what is was to be another's tool, and to be cast aside when one's purpose had been served.
"Banish such thoughts, my daughter," a cold voice said from behind her. Azula turned slowly, somehow not surprised at all to see her father standing there. "Wei Ming was your enemy- now she is no more. That is all there is to it. Forget her."
"I can't." Azula touched the still-bleeding cut on her face. "She nearly killed me, Father- a peasant nearly killed me. That's not how you said life was supposed to work. We were the strong, and we had the right do whatever we pleased."
"We are the strong, Azula- don't let one aberration convince you otherwise. See what these peasants become without us. Clearly they need to be ruled over by a stronger hand- our hand."
"Or maybe if we'd learned to moderate ourselves we wouldn't create enemies like her," Azula said. "All my life, I thought I was as close to perfect as was possible. What did it matter if I hurt someone else, or even killed them? They weren't important. What could they do to me? Well, I've been learning the hard way that that isn't true. Mai and Ty Lee, Zuko and the waterbender girl- they all defeated me, left me convinced that everyone who knew me was plotting against me. But today I nearly died at the hands of an Earth Kingdom peasant I'd never met before, purely on the basis of my reputation. She didn't hate me because of something I'd done – that, I could understand. She hated me because of what I was, and what I stood for. That's the sort of thing that makes you think, Father. And what I've realized is this- if we act like tyrants, we create our own enemies. Sure, a lot of them may be pathetic, but somewhere out there is someone who could defeat us. If we want to have long, health lives and reigns, maybe we shouldn't go out of our way to give those people reasons to hate us. You'd still be Fire Lord- and alive- today if it hadn't been for the War giving the Avatar reason to come after you."
Ozai scowled. "Of all of my family, Azula, I never thought to hear you espouse such weak-minded drivel! Clearly you've gotten soft and weak since we last talked."
"Or maybe for the first time in my life I'm seeing things clearly," Azula said. "I let myself be blinded by arrogance and selfishness, but you yourself taught me that a good ruler sees what must be done clearly, without concern for personal attachments. You meant attachment to anyone but yourself, but I see now that's an attitude that could kill you. I will not repeat your mistakes."
"Insolent little girl!" Ozai snarled, raising his hand to strike her. But as it came down, Azula caught his wrist.
"You said that you would always be a part of me," she hissed, "But that doesn't mean I have to listen to you. You're just a figment of my mind- go, and leave me alone!"
"Never!" Ozai snarled.
Azula narrowed her eyes, focusing all of her considerable will. "Leave. Now. You are dead and gone, killed by the same girl who now lies dead in this cave, this peasant in whom I've seen more of myself than I'd wanted to admit. You have no power over me any longer. After all my life, I am finally free of you. Go!"
She closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, Ozai was gone without even a shimmer in the air to mark his passage.
"Goodbye, father," she muttered. Climbing slowly to her feet, wincing at the pain, Azula looked up at the roof of the cavern. Her mother was up there somewhere, and Ty Lee- and Jian Chin. She still had a goal that was unfulfilled, and one enemy who hadn't yet been faced.
Breathing deeply, Azula focused her will and forced intense heat out through her fingers. Pressing her hands against the cavern wall she began to climb, blasting her own handholds from the rock as needed. It was difficult work, and she had to stop several times to rest, but she refused to give up now, to surrender to pain or exhaustion. Whatever else she had become, she was still a princess of the Fire Nation, and she would not give in.
Steeling her will yet again, ignoring everything that might distract her from her goal, Azula climbed.
/
And so ends Wei Ming, and her death marks a turning point in Azula's life. Wei Ming is fundamentally a tragic character, and her end reflects that, coming back to herself only to die moments later, barely even given time to remember her own name – honestly, there probably wasn't enough of the original girl left to keep her alive for very long after the spirit departed, even discounting the lightning damage.
Their fight, and final conversation, awakened something in Azula, though – for the first time, she's grasped at least part of the importance of conscience, and though she remains incredibly loathe to admit it, managed empathy for an enemy. As has been a recurring motif for Path, this inner conflict played out in Azula's interactions with a hallucination, in this case of Ozai, and by refusing to allow him any more influence on her life, she has crossed another significant milestone. The Wei Ming fight itself was intended to be vicious and brutal, two skilled, deadly young women trying their hardest to kill each other, and yes, Azula is going to be carrying that scar with her for the rest of her life. She and Zuko have something in common, now.
Two enemies are down, but one remains. Azula has one major duel yet ahead of her before this fic ends, and Jian Chin, who has now captured Ursa, Ty Lee, and Shin, is her foe. That, however, is a story for next chapter…
-MasterGhandalf