Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar!

There are spoilers from the finale her, so you have been warned!


"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." -M. Scott Peck


This was it.

This is the day she would finally become Fire Lord. After all she had done over the years, after all her training and perfecting of herself, she was at last going to get what she deserved. There were problems of course...how could she have been naive? Everyone around her was jealous of her, envied her, hated her, feared her, and that could only mean that they would betray her. Just like Mai and Ty Lee did. She could only trust herself! Even father had left her here, not wanting to take her with the air ship fleet, when it had been her idea in the first place! It didn't matter though. She was going to show him that she would be the greatest Fire Lord in Fire Nation history!

Now she stood in front of her mirror, attempting to fix her hair for her coronation. She growled in frustration as it would not obey her hands. Even her own hair dared to defy her! She thought of ordering the servants to come fix her, but then recalled she had banished them all. The pathetic fools were only a risk to her own safety after all. With a look of anger she grabbed the scissors on the table next to her. "Alright hair," she muttered, "prepare to face your doom!" And with that she cut her front bangs, watching as they fell to the floor in pieces. She had just destroyed her own hair, just like...She looked at herself in the mirror. Seeing her own face and she did not recognize it. Out of the corner of her eye, a familiar figure in red stood behind her...what?

"What a shame," the woman said quietly, "You always had such beautiful hair."

She narrowed her eyes on the mirror at the sight of her mother. "What are you doing here," she hissed. How was this possible? Her mother had to be dead or banished, she was not sure, but she should not be here!

"I didn't want to miss my own daughter's coronation."

"Don't pretend to act proud!" She snapped back, "I know what you really think of me...you think I'm a monster." That was what her mother had thought of her, why else would she have loved Zuko and ignored her? Her own daughter? Only father had recognized her greatness, but he was not capable of love...he had shaped her the way she was. And she was perfect!

Her mother tilted her head. "I think you're confused," she replied sadly, "All your life you've used fear to control people, like your friends Mai and Ty Lee."

She glared in the mirror at herself at her mother's words. That was not true!...but...it was..and she finally now knew it. When she was alone and no one loved her, and it was because of her own choice, to reject love, to be cold and cruel...! "But what choice do I have!" she howled, whirling around to glare at her mother, "Trust is for fools! Fear is the only way!...even you fear me..." She stared at the woman who had never loved her because she was a monster. Perhaps if she had...

"No," her mother said insistently, "I love you Azula, I do."

Azula held the brush in her trembling hands. Fury took of her and denial that she was wrong...could be wrong about everything. Her life, her mother, about love and her friends! Why had they betrayed her! How could...? With a scream of rage she broke the mirror behind her, seeing her mother's image disappear. She looked behind her, waiting to see her mother's horrified face, but there was no one there.

She was alone. She looked back at the mirror and collapsed to the floor, sobbing for the first time she could every remember. She was alone...the shattered mirror stood before her. Broken and unfixable. Just like she was.


A/N: I really feel sorry for Azula. I think it was along with her father's upbringing of her, what she saw as her mother's rejection, and along with her natural brilliance and firebending abilities that made her what she became. Anyways, that is that!