Chapter 29
A/N: Chapter twenty nine of the series. Thanks to Rosey, who has now taken extra careful measures to ensure there are no grammatical errors in this chapter. Now there's no one left to blame but me.
Disclaimer: Avatar… belongs to Nickelodeon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Burnout
Zuko stared curiously at his sister's brow, glistening with drops of sweat, continuously falling and soaking her royal attire.
He wondered why she was so nervous; he had seen her in the heat of combat –literally – and she had kept her cool all the way through. It wasn't normal for her to be so nervous and seemingly confused, but perhaps that could work to his advantage. If he had been waiting for a chance, this was it, when his sister was not at a hundred percent.
"What are you looking at?" Azula asked violently when she noticed her brother's insistent gaze.
"Just wondering, is all." Zuko replied, carefully observing Azula's reactions. Her hands were tightly closed, and he guessed her nails were about to break the skin, and blood should trickle down her fingers any time. "I thought you'd be immensely happy when father finally named you Fire Lord. Or shouldn't it be Fire Lady?"
"Shut up, Zuko." Azula said through gritted teeth. "I didn't want to kill you before father officially named me Fire Lord."
Zuko frowned. Since when did his sister give explanations? There was something odd about the way she was behaving, and his answer didn't have to wait long. When they stepped outside of the royal halls and into the main square, he noticed several hundred citizens already gathered there.
It seemed they were Azula's audience, all of them curious to see their new Fire Lord, with an execution of three poor soldiers as the entrée; and his death served as the main dish.
"Poor soldiers." Zuko said. "Executed for doing their job. How proud you must be, Fire Lord."
Azula did not reply, but did slap Zuko with the back of her hand. The hit wasn't hard enough to draw blood and had been delivered with such indifference that Zuko began to actually get worried about his sister's state of mind. He could deal with the indifferent sociopath, but the scared little girl walking in front of him had him positively unnerved. He'd been getting prepared to kill her without a second thought, but now his mind was either playing tricks on him or she was giving the best acting performance of her life.
"What are you going to tell your audience, Azula?" Zuko asked, not knowing how to approach her anymore. "How are you going to explain this execution?"
"Like it is, Zuzu." Azula replied; and for a second she sounded like she always did. "They will lose their lives because they couldn't handle a small threat outside our walls. That should get the point driven through all of their minds; if the Fire Nation loses anymore ground, more soldiers will lose their heads."
"Are you willing to cut all those heads?" Zuko asked, standing just a little bit outside of his sister's range. "Because from what I've heard, it's you against the whole world."
"Don't be silly, big brother." Azula smiled. "Once I'm in charge, everything will be alright. I'm now Fire Lord, and once the comet arrives, the whole world will bow at my feet, and there will be no more need for these… foolish displays of power."
The sweet smile on Azula's face froze Zuko's blood immediately. It was almost as if he was looking at an entirely different person now. He was sure by then that she had never followed their father's commands, under pressure of being punished themselves should they fail. For an instant, he felt a sort of empathy towards her, knowing very well how Ozai punished even the slightest of failures. The constant glances Azula directed at the prisoners she was about to execute convinced Zuko that she had never taken a life, and realized for the first time that he didn't know anything at all about his sister.
"Azula." he said softly. "You don't have to do this."
"Zuzu, please." Azula's smile turned feral. "Don't even try. It's sweet, though, but don't waste your time. I don't know what you're thinking, but this is not about Father, or you, or even the Fire Nation. That's the problem with all of you; you always saw the details. Me? I look at the bigger picture."
Zuko sighed and shook his head. He had foolishly tried to reach out for her, only to be reminded that she was far too insane for him to find common ground between the two of them. The one thing that worried him at the moment was his own guilt, nicely represented in the form of three frightened soldiers kneeling not too far from him.
He gritted his teeth and felt the jump of power in his stomach, answering to his volatile emotions. He didn't know if he should try to save them or wait for Azula's reaction after executing them. If he saved them, then maybe they could try to help him and it would be four against one for a little time. But then again, they could run for their lives the moment he let them loose, because after all, he was a traitor and had been killing Fire Nation soldiers for the past couple weeks.
And the other choice, he didn't think he had the stomach for it – at least not anymore- and it made him sick and angry just for considering it. And yet he could picture it, the moment when Azula would execute the soldiers and the mess she would make of it, because that was the way she was. She would make the most of it, just to prove him wrong and to prove the Fire Nation that she could be as ruthless as their father. It was in that moment where she would be the most vulnerable, bathed in blood and smiling and basking in the midst of her ultimate triumph, the only instant when she would not be thinking about him.
But what if she were not to be basking in triumph? What if she were to be scared like a little animal, bathed in blood, unable to understand what she'd done? What would he do then? If he attacked her then, would he be able to murder her in cold blood? Or would he be too shocked to see his little sister scared witless and thus turn the tables instead?
That would be something to see: the newest Fire Lord freeze after executing criminals, then the traitorous Crown Prince Zuko trying to kill her, only to freeze himself and be killed afterwards by a recovered Fire Lord.
That would sure make Katara smile, just because of the irony of it all.
"It's almost time, Zuzu." Azula's voice brought Zuko back to the present. "What happened to you? I mean, not that you were the best that our family could offer, but honestly, you're a mess now."
"I just saw how the world sees us, Azula." Zuko replied. "And I didn't like it."
"How is it? How does the world see us?"
"Like murderers, Azula." Zuko answered. "Like we're not worthy to walk this earth with them. And maybe they're right. It's like seeing the pain of the whole world reflected in those eyes, cursing us, yet also trying to figure us out, Azula. Those eyes will drill all the way to your soul and make you realize there's something wrong with us, and the very memory of those eyes will make us want to be better; to change from the monsters we've become and maybe get a chance to correct our past mistakes."
"All that in those eyes?" Azula's smile grew. "Are you sure you're not in love with the Avatar, Zuzu? Because that would explain a lot of things."
"What? I'm not talking about the Avatar's eyes, Azula, I meant…!" Zuko closed his mouth and cursed himself for almost talking too much. He saw the little speck of fire dancing in his sister's eyes and he realized he had let his tongue slip too much.
"And you accuse me of being the mad one in the family." Azula laughed. "To fall for a water tribe peasant, Zuko; how the mighty have fallen."
Zuko kept his mouth shut, knowing that anything he said would only fall on deaf ears and would make him seem desperate. He merely shook his head and kept walking towards the kneeling prisoners. He had already made up his mind, after everything he'd told his sister. There was no way he would let those three men die, not even if it meant a little advantage over his sister. He had killed far too many soldiers to just stand there and watch them die.
Zuko stopped walking when he reached the soldiers, and kneeled beside them. He noticed how they bristled, but it was only normal; it was because of him that they were there, and he had made a name for himself after killing several Fire Nation Soldiers.
He vaguely listened as Azula's new position as Fire Lord was announced to the citizens while he looked around, trying to find a way for him to get those three men out of there.
"Any of you served under my uncle's command?" he asked. He wasn't surprised when none of them replied. Sighing, he asked again.
"The three of us did." one of them almost barked back at him. "And look where that led us. How's your fat uncle, traitor?"
"I'll let you have that one, because I deserve it." Zuko growled back. "But right now, I'm trying to think about a way to get you out of here alive. Or were you just planning on staying here and letting Azula kill you without even lifting a hand?"
"Look where you are, you scarred fool." another soldier said. "Do you think we could have gotten away from your mad sister? Or your equally insane father?"
"You didn't have me." Zuko said. "I want all of this to end as soon as possible, and if my uncle is really outside these walls, then it will be so. Did you personally see him?"
The three soldiers nodded.
"Very well." Zuko smiled. "Very well."
"What are you going to do?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Nothing." Zuko lied, fearing that one of them could try to betray him and perhaps win the favor of the mad Fire Lord. "We wait, and hope my uncle gets here in time."
"That's your plan?" One of them cried out. "You're as crazy as them all!"
Zuko didn't reply, seeing his sister slowly walking towards them. Stopping in front of one of the soldiers, she kneeled and looked at him.
"And? What did you learn?" she asked.
"Nothing, My Lord." The soldier's voice shook. "Your brother has no plan whatsoever, save waiting for your uncle to come."
"Too bad." Azula sighed and stood up. "Too bad for all of you. Now, who shall I kill first?"
Zuko saw the horror appear on the faces of the three soldiers, a mask of fear he had seen far too much in the moments before he took a life. He wanted to look away, but he knew he only had one chance.
If his sister was thinking like he was, she would execute first the soldier she'd hoped would betray him, and perhaps he should let her do it, then jump into action.
But that was not what he wanted to do anymore. He wouldn't be able to live with himself anymore, and he would be far too ashamed to let his uncle know that he'd let a man die just because it suited his plans best.
He would be too ashamed if those blue eyes that haunted him would hear about it.
So he took deep breaths as he saw the blue fire daggers appear on his sister's hands. He reached out for the violence and the dance, and slowly let the fire of his powers fill his body.
When Azula's hands went up in the air, he knew the time had come. He closed his eyes and thought of his mother, his uncle, and Katara, and wondered if they would be proud of him.
End of Chapter
