As their airship landed down before the Royal Palace, Zuko couldn't help but tense up; he distinctively remembered telling Amari not to blow it up with their old airship, and was still glad she hadn't. Looking out of the bridge, he could see a number of guards approaching, obviously confused as to why an airship would be landing in the palace grounds; he pulled up his robes by the shoulders, hoping that he was looking proper enough to address people, seeing that he was soon to become the Fire Lord. The fact that they weren't attacked on the spot by the guards was a good sign, and he turned to face the Kyoshi Warriors, who were as per usual commanding the airship.
"Hey, do you need us to guard you against your guards, your majesty?" Nakata piqued her head up, making him roll his eyes.
"No, not really. I'm sure Azula is going to give a terrifying speech to ensure that they fall into line. If need be, we can show them my father in his pitiful state; I'm sure they'd understand the situation better if they saw him." he simply spoke his mind, Esumi raising a brow and gesturing down the hallway.
"Well, go on then. You do actually need to go tell them you're Fire Lord, don't you?" she prodded him, making him nod in confirmation.
"Okay, I'll go. Just make sure you're ready to fly this thing out of here, in case things go side-ways."
"We're the Kyoshi Warriors. We're always ready to escape when things go side-ways." Amari stressed with a tone of confident, "Now, seriously, go. We don't want to drag you out there, but if you're really that nervous, we will."
"I'm not nervous." he retorted, clenching his fists before he quickly strode on down the hallway toward the exit of the gondola; it didn't take him very long, and when he got there, Sokka, Toph, Katara and Aang were all standing waiting for him.
"Are you ready?" the young Avatar asked him, making him smile, trying to show his confidence as best he could.
"I've been ready for a while." he admitted, before his eyes darted around, "Where's Azula?"
"Um..." Sokka mumbled before pointing out the doorway, where he could see Suki restraining the Princess from getting any closer to the guards.
"He's the Fire Lord, you idiots!" he could hear his sister scream out, making the Prince chuckle.
"Hey, Toph? Could you do me a favour?" he turned to the stout earthbender, who crossed her arms, raising a brow at him skeptically.
"What is it, Sparky?" she stared him down, despite the fact she was blind, making the competition, if one would call it that, rather easy for her to win.
"Could you fetch the Fire Lord out of his cell, with metalbending of course. I might need to prove our victory."
"Yeah, yeah. I could do that." she accepted his request, turning around to walk down the hallway to where they had been keeping his father.
"Oh... bring out the Loser Lord, will you?" Sokka asked her the same question in his own Sokka fashion, making the Prince roll his eyes before patting him on the shoulder, acknowledging his joke for a moment.
Striding down the stairs toward his sister and girlfriend, he raised his hand up, gesturing to the guards, who were taking firebending stances around the ramp, "Excuse me, I think there's been a misunderstanding."
"There's no misunderstanding to be had, brother!" the Princess scowled, "He is the Fire Lord. You just said it yourself, he declared himself Phoenix King, superseding his position as Fire Lord, and the Avatar just dethroned him. Ergo, Zuko is the Fire Lord." she explained their situation, making the Prince snicker; the title of Phoenix King was something that their father had murmured after he had been defeated, and Zuko had actually thought it was just illusions of grandeur rather than a title he actually bestowed upon himself.
"You are both declared enemies of the state. You are to be arrested on sight." one of the guards clarified, making the two royals look at each other with the same expression- frustration.
"Don't you realise that there is no other option?" Suki asked of the guards, "There is no more Fire Lord or Phoenix King Ozai. These are the heirs to the throne, whether you like it or not."
"Urgh." one of the guards groaned, turning to who the Prince assumed to be his superior, "Sir, should we go tell the emergency war council that the Prince and Princess have arrived?"
"I believe that is in order." the leader agreed, before turning to face them both, "You better not try and leave the capital while this issue is being sorted out. We won't arrest you, if only for the virtue of you having possession of one of the most powerful weapons in the Fire Nation." he warned them, Azula scoffing at him.
"Seriously? Do you believe yourself? We're the most powerful firebenders alive. We could take you all down in a heartbeat, without this stupid airship."
"I don't think-" Zuko tried to advice against his sisters rather extreme bent for violence, but was interrupted by the sound of Toph calling out, "Here he is, your royal majesty, the Phoenix King of Getting His Butt Whooped!"
The Prince turned around to see his father bound to a large sheet of metal that the earthbender was holding with the assistance of a few floating boulders; his father was awake, and was clearly shocked when he realised he was back in the palace.
"Wh-what is the meaning... you fools, arrest them!" he shouted out to his guards, who looked amongst themselves, obviously taking note of Ozai's dishevelled appearance.
"I wouldn't bother, if I were you." Azula warned the guards, before gesturing to their father, "Father here doesn't have his bending anymore, the Avatar took it from him."
"That's impossible!" one of the guards called her out.
"Yes, it is, scarily enough." the Princess reaffirmed her statement, before turning to face their father, "Come on, 'Phoenix King', if you're really the best firebender in the world, you should be able to escape right now."
The former Fire Lord glared at her, grunted as he tried to loosen himself from his metal binds before he sighed with defeat; the guards looked amongst themselves for a few moments before the head guard cleared his throat.
"Okay, I feel like we might have made some assumptions." he admitted his fault, the Princes stepping closer to him.
"Are you going to call on the Fire Sages now?" she asked him, indirectly requesting the coronation of her brother.
"Um, yes. Yes, we will." he admitted, "I am sorry for doubting you, your royal highnesses."
"You really shouldn't have." the Princess chided him, "You should just be glad I'm in a good mood, or I might have shot you full of lightning."
"Azula!" Zuko chided her, gritting his teeth as walked over to her, grasping her by the shoulder and pulling her away from the guard.
"Don't worry Zuzu, I wasn't actually going to do anything." she assured him, the Prince rolling hsi eyes before turning up to face his friends.
"Well, you all may as well come inside. The coronation won't happen until midday, I guess." he suggested, his girlfriend making a whistle, which didn't make much sense for a few moments until he realised it was to call on the Kyoshi Warriors.
"Thanks, your highness." Toph grinned, before she gestured up to Ozai, who she was still holding up with her bending for everyone to see, "What do I do with your dad?"
"Uh... just put him back in his cell for now." he gave her the first directions that came to mind, "I'll have the guards deal with him properly at a later time."
"I'll go meet with the war council with Azula, and you all can rest. I feel like you've all deserved at least that." the Prince admitted, his friends looking amongst themselves before Suki turned to him with a serious expression.
"I'll come with you." she almost ordered him, her tone stern, even Azula giving her a surprised glance.
Although he was within his powers to refuse her, he didn't want to, if anything he wanted more than anything for her to be by his side when he finally made his intentions clear for the world to see.
"Are you sure you can handle that? They might not be open to what you've got to say." Aang asked him, to which he shook his head.
"I'll be fine." he gave his friend a reassuring smile, "They'll listen. They will have to listen." he added, before turning his heels, followed by his sister and girlfriend as they made their way up toward the front door of the palace, the palace guards all moving out of the way as soon as he began to walk to walk in that direction.
As he approached the front door of the palace, he couldn't help but think back to what had happened there the last time he was within its walls; he had finally chosen the side of good, but he had almost lost his sister to their father's merciless use of lightning. He remembered looking down at her body as she struggled to breathe, and the expression on his girlfriend's face; she regretted that day more than anything, and no matter how many times the Prince told her it wasn't her fault, she couldn't help but blame herself. He understood why, but he just hoped that now that his father was finally defeated that it would be less present in her mind.
He took a deep breath, looking at the doors as they were opened for him, before he took a step into the palace, reminding himself that it was indeed his home, even though his little room on his ship and the room he shared with his uncle at Ba Sing Se seemed far more 'his' than he thought the palace ever could. Funnily enough, the place he found to be the most homely was Kyoshi Island, although he would admit that was mostly in hindsight, seeing that he had had dejectedly agreed to his do chores, sleep in a dojo, and be beaten innumerable times by the Kyoshi Warriors.
He momentarily turned to face his girlfriend, who smiled back at him, reaching out her hand to grasp his own, "We're finally back in this damned palace again." she observed, "I just hope we'll leave with some better news than last time."
"That's what we're all hoping for." he acknowledged, turning to his sister, who tilted her chin up before she began to stride inward, indicating that she did agree, but seemed not overly fussed by the events that had transpired; their father's defeat had truly improved her mood, although he was unsure if it was going to last.
"Come on you two. We can reminisce later. Right now we have to make sure we don't find ourselves at the wrong end of a coup."
"We are your humble servants, Fire Lord Zuko."
Tensing up as she watched all the men who she knew probably despised her boyfriend bow to him, Suki felt a strong uneasiness in seeing their deference; it seemed like a lie to her, a way to save face in seeing the turn of events fall out of their favour. The war council was just that, a council intended for war, and from her understanding, even if Azula and Aang might have disagreed on what was to happen to the world after the war was finished, Zuko certainly didn't intend to leave the world off in its horrible state; he was there to fix it, and a lot of that 'fixing' would probably be not well received by the men before her.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what was your most recent military report?" Azula asked of the highest ranking officers in the Fire Nation military, who looked amongst themselves for a few moments, before one of them stood up, "Ah, General Shinu. Is it the same as the last one I heard?"
"U-um, no, your highness. The earthbender rebels have seized more ground since then; Omashu fell on the day of the eclipse, although a force was sent to reclaim it. Most of the rebel forces are concentrated around the north-west of the Earth Kingdom." he gestured down to the map, the Princess nodding, looking to her brother.
"Well then, your majesty, what do you intend to do with that?" she asked, the Prince sighing as he looked down at the massive strategic map of the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation.
"Assuming that said rebel forces don't cease hostilities when I go to meet with the Earth King, I believe withdrawing our troops to the colonies, ensuring that our citizens remain protected, would be the best course of action." he spoke his mind, the officers looking amongst themselves before the one she had learned was called Shinu nodded with approval.
"That does sound like a wise course of action, you majesty." he acknowledged his plans, although Suki doubted the man before her agreed with his intentions for the Fire Nation.
"Do we know of the state of affairs in Ba Sing Se?" the Prince who was soon to be Fire Lord asked of the generals, one of them standing up.
"Uh, yes, sir. The last report was that the situation there was stable. There has been no widespread rebellion, thanks to the combined efforts of our forces and the Dai Li."
Suki's eyes darted to the Princess, who she could see make a smug, haughty grin upon hearing the result of her efforts, before she returned a far more serious expression.
"I'm afraid to inform you all that the city has likely already fallen. It is only due to a delay in communication that we cannot ascertain this absolutely." the Princess raised a finger, "The Dragon of the West, who you probably know now as a traitor, has set upon seizing the city from Fire Nation rule... although that was under the pretences of our father still being Fire Lord."
The throne room fell silent for a few seconds, one of the tenser silences Suki had experienced in the room, seeing her boyfriend's expression tense upon the mention of his uncle.
"Ironic." she heard one of the generals mumble, the Princess immediately hammering her hand down onto the table, her suddenly infuriated expression clearly showing that he had said the wrong thing at the wrong time.
"You best watch your tongue." she grit her teeth, gaining the attention of all the men present, "General Iroh is not to be spoken of in a negative light, not in the presence of my brother. It would be gravely offensive to defame his adoptive father in such a way."
The Kyoshi Warrior wasn't surprised when she saw her boyfriend's jaw drop in shock, "D-did you just say adoptive father?"
"Well, he is, for all intents and purposes. Am I wrong?" Azula asked her brother in retort, to which he simply shook his head.
"No, you're not." he spoke in a quiet, reflective tone, before his eyes scanned across the room, clearly showing his unease, if not restrained anger; Suki didn't know which high ranking officer was responsible for Zuko's Agni Kai with his father, but she had a strong feeling he was in the room with them.
The Prince stood up, and the two girls beside him rose in concert, "I believe that is all that needed to be discussed; actual troop movements is something we can consider after my coronation." he admitted, delegating the current issue of the Fire Nation occupation of the Earth Kingdom a day or so down the line; Suki couldn't blame him for wanting to not jump right into his work; his new job was going to be the hardest one he would have to ever do, and that was despite it lacking much if any physical demands.
"Have a good day, and I must stress once more, all troop movements are to be stopped. Any actions ordered by my father that are of an offensive nature dealing with the Earth Kingdom are no longer in effect." he stressed, the generals nodding in confirm that they had indeed gotten his message; though he hadn't laid out his full vision for the Fire Nation to them, what he had told them was rather explicit.
The three of them then walked on out of the throne room, the two guards that had been standing by the exit looking to them with interest, "Did you desire an escort, your highnesses?" one of them asked the two royals, the Prince raising his hand.
"I will retire to my quarters for the moment. I would like to request that the servants tend to the needs of my friends; it is only fair after such a long and straining fight that they receive all they need."
"Of course, it is your will and command." the other guard accepted his directive, the pair of them bowing before opening the doors to allow the trio to exit, "We will make sure the servants attend to such matters at once."
They walked on down through the dark hallways, the Princess raising her hands up into the air, "Well, I think I'll take my leave, now." she acknowledged, eyeing them both, "I have missed my spa sessions for far too long."
"Ah, you're in need of luxuries after what... a month and a half out of the palace?" Zuko mockingly asked of his sister, who shrugged her shoulders before walking down a different hallway.
"Yes, I am." she stressed, "Enjoy yourselves, lovebirds." she mocked the pair, who blushed for a few moments; Suki decided to defy her by kissing the Prince on the cheek.
"She's not wrong... because I do love you."
"But I'm not a bird." she stressed a clearly observable fact, the Kyoshi Warrior raising a finger to her chin.
"Are you sure? I distinctively remember Azula rambling about 'a little burnt turtle-duck' when she was injured." she joked, her words a distortion of the truth; she had actually heard the Princess mockingly call him one at a certain point, but she realised she had hit a heart string when his face drooped down.
"It was just a joke." she assured him, punching his shoulder playfully.
The Prince made an uneasy smile as he began to walk on down the hallway, "Y-yeah, yeah, I know that." he assured her, although his tone indicated that he felt a little uncomfortable by her joke, and not in the way that he was offended- he would have certainly showed that if that was the case.
"I feel like I said the wrong thing." she admitted, his eyes darting back to meet her own, trying to make a reassuring smile.
"I-it's okay, Suki. Really." he stressed, the Kyoshi Warrior stepping closer; she knew something was up, and she wanted to help- that's what she ought to do, at the very least.
"No, I can tell something's up. You can tell me what's wrong." she asked of him; the Prince fell silent for a few moments, before he began to walk faster, perhaps subconsciously, his eyes looking ahead, instead of toward her.
"It's my mother." he put it simply, "You reminded me of something she had once called me. Azula does it to mock me, but hearing it from you... it just reminds me of what's... gone."
Her eyes fell down, unsure how to respond; his mother was such a touchy issue, after all, and she hadn't really spoken to him much about her. All he had ever said was that she left him when he was younger, before his banishment, and that she was kind to him; that was as much she understood about the woman who seemed to loom over her son more than she might have first realised. He understood that he found his moral compass with Iroh, although she could certainly tell even before he had decided to go against his father, that Zuko was a good person to the core, and he guessed that his mother had been that early guiding influence in his life, and without her, he must have felt lost, and maybe even without love.
"You miss her a lot, don't you?"
"I really do." he mumbled, before his eyes rose up, "I don't even know what happened to her, or where she went... but I hope that now my father is without his bending, he mightn't refuse my questions."
"You asked him before?" she asked him, the Prince nodding in confirmation.
"The very day I realised she had left, I went to ask him, but I got nothing out of him; just a cold expression, and nothing more. I realise in hindsight he must have been in a good mood that day, seeing that he was about to become Fire Lord." he admitted, before sighing, "I want to find her... but I don't know if I should even bother."
"But, if you miss her so much, shouldn't you ought to try?" she asked him, unsure why he would even try to stop himself from getting what he had wanted for years.
"I want to... but I feel like I'll just end up hating her, just like Azula does. She left me- both of us, and she could have taken us, even if father tried to hunt us down. I want her back, but forgiving her for that... it's hard."
"I understand." she admitted, before looking him in the eye, "When I found out you were a firebender and a prince, I was so angry with you. For lying about who you were, and thinking that you were so wrong to do what you did, that it was unforgivable. But then, I realised that you had no choice in the matter; we would have thrown you to the Unagi if we found out any earlier."
"I mean that is the truth." he admitted, before he narrowed his eyes, "So, what you're saying, is that without the truth, it would be wrong to judge my mother for what she did, even if at face value... it seems cruel."
"Yes." she nodded, "You love her, so if you do find her, give her the opportunity to explain herself."
He smiled at her, first brightly, before his expression darkened, as if he'd made a mistake, "I'm more worried about Azula, honestly. If I'm thinking this, she's probably got far worse assumptions in her mind. I want them to make up, like how we did, but I don't know if they can." he explained his worries, the Kyoshi Warrior clasping his shoulder as they approached the doors of his room.
"That's a bridge to cross when we get to it." she acknowledged the facts as they were; they had no idea when, if they even could find his mother, even if they tried to wrangle the truth out of the deposed Fire Lord.
"Well, here I am. My room." he acknowledged it, before chuckling, "I'm going to have the Fire Lord's bedroom now. That's a lot bigger."
"A bigger bed for the two of us." she winked at him, the Prince rolling his eyes, before he smiled at her, appreciating her comment.
"I see what you're getting at." he admitted, the Prince opening the doors of his bedroom, looking inside, to see that the bedding was the same as he had left it the day of the eclipse, and his armour was still sitting on his bed, "Well, this is exactly the same."
"Like, exactly?" she asked in clarification, the Prince nodding, before his eyes darted to his desk, seeing that the draw was ajar.
"Well, other than my father's guards going through my personal writings. Luckily for me, I don't write anything personal down."
"Oh, really?" she asked him with a bemused tone; she was rather curious to hear his argument for that.
"I'm more into actions than words." he admitted, making her clear her throat.
"Like restoring peace to the Four Nations?" she queried, the Prince placing his hands on his hips.
"Now that you say it... yeah, like that." he agreed with her, making her roll her eyes; she had been joking, actually, and she was trying to prod him into saying something a little more seductive than that.
"I was just joking." she raised a finger, before clasping him by the shoulders, kissing him lightly on the lips, only for a moment, before drawing away.
"Oh... uh..." he froze up, the Kyoshi Warrior smirking, realising that she liked it when he got nervous; it was funny, but endearing at the same time.
Suki gestured to the bed in front of them, "Come on, your majesty, are you going to get on the bed or not?" she asked him, the Prince straightening himself up before he furrowed a brow, realising her intentions.
"Oh... is this what you meant you were talking to Toph about celebrating our victory?"
"Did you want me to beat you up instead?" she quipped, the soon-to-be Fire Lord tilting his chin up, before he stepped past her, moving to sit himself down on the bedside.
"No, I prefer your suggestion."
Azula would admit that she truly enjoyed her times at the Royal Spa; being pampered by servants was one thing that she missed above all else, and she knew that she could lay there for hours, getting her self massages, while eating cherries. The servants were rather surprised by her good mood, but they didn't understand the gravity of her experiences away from the palace; the Azula who had decided to turn against her father, she was a different person to the one who returned to the palace victorious. She smiled brightly, feeling that she had finally found a sense of completion in heart; her work was done, it seemed, at the very least, the hard part of it was. Her brother was to be crowned Fire Lord, and then she would serve as his closest advisor, ensuring that her nation continued to experience prosperity, while peace could reign under her new world order. Of course, it was Aang that was to be the peace-broker, but her actions had allowed for their peace to be possible; if Zuko had not been returned into the fold in Ba Sing Se, he could have never set of the chain of incidents that led to both her betrayal and the Avatar's eventual victory over her father.
She believed, honestly and truly, that the world was at peace because she intended for it to be so; in the world where she had remained loyal to her father, she could have seen another outcome, where she Zuko fought for the throne, and one of them ended up dead, instead of their father being the one in chains. That wouldn't have led to peace, it would have led to chaos, and perhaps an absolute humiliation of the Fire Nation; she didn't know if her own intentions for peace would be considered by Aang, but ultimately, her brother had the final say in what the Fire Nation military did, and she just hoped that they retained peace rather than having their troops dawdle out of the Earth Kingdom, letting the chaos there fester like an untreated wound.
She found herself interrupted by a calling from a guard, something she didn't actually expect, given that she had intimidated them quite intensely when she arrived at the palace; unlike when she was her father's heir, she was in more than a capable position to deal down any punishment she liked upon those who displeased her, seeing that her father could not punish her for it. Not that she wanted to have someone exiled on the spot for idiotic actions, seeing that she was in a rather pleased mood, she did have the power to do so.
"Your highness, there are visitors here to see you." the guard told her in a stern voice, his tone indicating that he wasn't feeling uneasy in her presence.
"Oh, did Katara decide that she actually did want to join me in the spa?" she quipped, although she knew that the guard likely didn't even know who Katara was.
"Uh, no, your highness. It is Lady Ty Lee and Lady Mai. They requested to enter the palace to see you, and in accordance to your former permissions policy before you were proclaimed a traitor, they were permitted entry."
"I am impressed that my rules have been maintained, despite my absence." she smirked, before gesturing her right hand up toward the door, "Let them in, I'll be finished soon anyway."
She heard the door opening a few moments late rand almost as if on key, she heard Ty Lee squealing ecstatically; the Princess raised her head to look up at her friend, who was giddy and beaming, distinctively more than usual, like she had just completed three back-flips in a row on a tightrope kind of giddy.
"Zula!" she shouted her name, reaching forward to giver her a hug, the Princess raising a hand.
"Not just yet." she warned her, the acrobat pouting for a moment before she grinned, sitting down beside her while her servants continued to attend to her, washing her hair and massaging her hands and feet.
"Oh, that's okay. I'm just- like- wow, I just really want to hear what happened! You just disappeared out of thin air; like one day we were training together, and the next-"
"The next day was the eclipse." she clarified, Ty Lee nodding before she glanced back, Azula hearing footsteps approach her.
"And what happened on the day of the eclipse?" Mai asked her, the Princess raising a brow.
"Well, actually, I'd like to hear what they said happened, first." she admitted, "I saw a play depicting the adventures of the Avatar, and their depiction of what happened was somewhat... vague."
"Wait, somebody made a play about the Avatar? Were we in it?!" Ty Lee rose up, making the Princess roll her eyes, forced to remember back to the rather horrific portrayal of the past year or so of her life.
"Oh, you were. Trust me, you were better off not seeing it." she warned them, the acrobat turning to face the stoic girl.
"We have to see it." she declared, the Princess making a fake yawn before eyeing them both.
"I guess you could go see it if you really liked. I watched the production as done by the Ember Island Players." she explained, Ty Lee grimacing at the mention of that name.
"Oh... okay, now I see why you didn't want us to see it."
"Exactly." she agreed, knowing that she didn't have to say another word, "Now, where was I? Oh, yes, you were going to tell me what the official story was."
Mai stepped closer, her expression ever so uneasy, although she could understand why, after what story might have been propagated by her father, "You and Zuko both plotted to overthrow Fire Lord Ozai. and then orchestrated the overthrow with the help of the Dai Li, but you were defeated."
"The first one is true, the second one a believable lie, and the third the truth once more." she clarified her facts, before the stoic girl's eyes narrowed at her.
"After the eclipse, you were both declared traitors: Princess Azula, presumed dead, Prince Zuko, believed to be working with the Avatar."
"Wait!" she rose up from her spa treatment, "Did you just say... presumed dead?" she asked her in clarification.
"Uh... yeah." Ty Lee mumbled her expression saddening for a moment, before it brightened once more, "But you didn't die, which is great!"
"I agree." she smiled at her friend, trying to hide the feeling of dread she still felt every time she thought back to the day of the eclipse; her experience less than a day earlier was less traumatic, if only for the fact it was overshadowed by her father's defeat.
"So... What actually happened, then?" Mai inquired, the Princess sighing, as she remembered back to that fateful morning of the eclipse.
"The previous afternoon, I had attended a war meeting with Zuko; the first he had attended since his banishment, actually. Father decided he was going to try and deal with the Earth Kingdom, and I foolishly suggested he use Sozin's Comet, knowing that it was the most effective tool he could use. I regretted it soon after, and Zuko mouthed to me, without a word, to decide."
"Decide whether to choose your father, or choose him?" the stoic girl asked in clarification, the Princess nodding.
"Yes. The question sounded rather absurd at first, but I realised that after Ember Island, and after all I had done to help my brother, I couldn't betray him." she acknowledged, Ty Lee putting her hands on her cheeks, grinning brightly.
"You're a pretty good sister." she acknowledged, before furrowing a brow, "Compared to mine, of course."
"Uh, thanks." Azula made an uneasy smile in response, before she returned to her story, "I had already decided to join Zuko already, but I hadn't realised until that afternoon that he intended to betray our father during the eclipse. I had to accelerate the inevitable."
"To fight your father." the acrobat's jaw dropped, "He's like a really really scary firebender, isn't he?"
"Yes, yes he was." she acknowledged the power he father had once held, before Aang took it away from him, a last act of mercy that the Princess found to be a poetic turn of fate; instead of losing his life, he instead lost what he truly valued most, his own power.
"Uh, was?" Ty Lee's eyes widened, before she moved closer, her voice falling to a whisper, "Did you kill him?"
"No." she clarified, "The Avatar took away his bending, so he could no longer be a threat."
"How is that even possible?" Ty Lee's eyes widened, "Like, I know chi-blocking can take away a person's bending temporarily, but it can't remove it entirely."
"A technique called 'energybending', supposedly. It was one of the scariest things I've ever since, honestly. I'm just glad I wasn't the one at the end of it." she admitted, remembering the bright blue and orange lights, how Aang was almost defeated, and then her father collapsing onto the pillar, completely powerless.
"That's... a surprise." the acrobat acknowledged with an uneasy glance before she clapped her hands, "Anyway, back to where we left off. You decided you would go fight your dad."
"Yes, so I told Zuzu the next morning, when we were set to go underground to our bunkers."
"Like we did in the Caldera City?" Ty Lee asked, the Princess nodding; she was reminded once more that there was a similar plan in place for the civilian population, for them to hide in the underground system of tunnels that gave the population of the capital protection from outside threats.
"Essentially. Zuko, being the heroically minded emotional teen he is, had already decided that he would face our father, something I decided to usurp from him, knowing that my superior speed and accuracy with my bending would face off my father better."
"But you went to speak with him during the eclipse." Mai raised a brow, "Neither of you would be able to bend."
"That is true, but I was thinking in advance, considering the worst possible situation, where the Avatar did not find my father, or didn't come to the capital at all." she admitted, before sighing, her eyes turning to her servants, who were nearly finished drying her hair, "Could you all leave us for a moment? I'd like to speak with my friends in private." she asked of them, the servants standing up and bowing.
"Of course, your highness. As soon as you call on us, we can continue." one of them assured her, before she led the rest of the servant girls out of the room.
As soon as the servants walked out of the room, she lifted her upper-body up from her rather comfortable position, properly looking at her friends; she reminded herself that the girls before her were just that, and that was what she wanted their relationship to be like. She didn't want everyone of her friends to treat her like Toph did, but she didn't want her friends to fear her either; that wasn't what she wanted, not anymore, not when she truly understood love, for what it truly was, not what her father just made it out be.
"So... why did you just get rid of the servants?" Ty Lee asked, Mai placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I think we both know why." she told her, eyeing the Princess with a glance that she could only call understanding; she didn't seem to show sympathy or disappointment, but rather just a simple understanding of what Azula must have gone through.
"It turns out, after I went down to the bunkers, that Zuko had had his girlfriend trail me, disguised as an elite guard." she continued her story, before furrowing a brow, "At the time, I thought it was a pretty bad idea to have her anywhere near our father, seeing that she's a non-bender, but I let her come along, if only to ensure that I had back-up in-case things went side-ways."
"And... things went side-ways?" Ty Lee asked in clarification, the Princess sighing as she pulled herself up, remembering back to the moment her firebending had reawakened.
"I mocked my father for the period of the eclipse, distracting him while I hoped Zuko would return with the Avatar, to allow him to finally defeat my father, before he had a chance to fight back." she explained, tensing up as she then remembered the instance itself; she had pushed Suki out of the way, realising that her father would shoot lightning at them both, but she was the only one who could take the attack and live.
"And?" the acrobat leaned closer, making Azula clench her fists.
"Suki realised the eclipse was about to end, and there was no Avatar in sight, so she wanted us to leave; she tried to incapacitate my father, so we could leave, which if it weren't for the timing, might have helped. It didn't, it just distracted us both while my father's firebending returned." she explained the situation, before she looked down, not wnating to look her friends in the eyes, "Then he shot a lightning bolt at us; I caught it, using a technique Zuko had taught me earlier that day. I didn't fully comprehend the technique yet, and the surprise of the attack caught me off guard."
"Lightning?" Mai's eyes widened, her emotions coming through for only a moment as she realised the gravity of what had occurred, "Azula, what happened to you?"
"I nearly died. If it weren't for the fact I was able to redirect the attack out of my body back at my father, I would have died then and there." she admitted, "And I nearly died for the sake of Suki; the girl I had thrown in prison only two months prior."
Ty Lee leapt toward her and hugged her, and the Princess didn't resist, "Zula... I'm so sorry that happened to you. You're- you're a hero, you know that." she smiled at her, a few tears coming down her cheeks.
"I'm not a hero- I'm an idiot. Any person with half a brain wouldn't have even gone down into that bunker." she admitted, knowing that she had had a choice, and she had made the wrong one, "I was overconfident and believed that I could just beat him- I couldn't."
"But you tried to end the war, then and there, right? That was your intention, wasn't it?" she asked him, the Princess nodding, knowing that if she cut away all of her grudges and hate toward her father, that was the truth of the matter- she wanted to end it all there, and make sure her father never had the chance to destroy the Earth Kingdom, to become the 'Phoenix King'.
"It was." she admitted, "I can't believe what I did, but here I am, victorious, my father in chains and my brother about to be crowned Fire Lord."
"You know, Azula, once I was afraid of you." Mai admitted, before she looked down at her, staring her eye to eye, "But now, I think I see you for who you really are."
"I'm a monster, I know." she pre-empted whatever she was going to say, the stoic girl shaking her head, her eyes narrowing at her, as if she was angry at her for even saying that.
"No, you're not. You were manipulated for all your life, just like I have been; you accepted that control, but you've broken free now. You're your own person."
"I- I guess I am." she agreed with her idea; if anything was true, it was that Mai understood what is was like to have parents expect so much of her, being forced to be someone that she never wanted to be.
"And what are you going to do now?" Ty Lee asked her, looking at her with awe.
"I'm going to make sure my brother is the best Fire Lord in history." she declared, the acrobat grinning at her.
"I could already guess that from your aura."
Breathing in and out, his meditative trance was broken by the sound of footsteps; Aang smiled, realising that there was only one person who would be coming down the hall at that moment. Opening his eyes, he turned around to face Zuko, who he had been awaiting for some time, while everyone else gathered outside in preparation for his coronation as Fire Lord. The Prince was standing beside his girlfriend, who had been walking alongside him in full Kyoshi Warrior garb, while he was wearing the regal robes that Aang would expect a Fire Lord to wear, his hair tied up into a topknot instead of falling down over his face. The Kyoshi Warrior whispered something to him before walking ahead past Aang, who gave her a curt wave before she exited out of the hall.
As he approached the Avatar, the Prince made a bright smile, indicating that he was in a good mood, "I think I'm ready, Aang." he declared, before he raised a brow, looking bemused, "You know, a year ago, I was scouring the world, trying to hunt you down, and now..."
"And now we're friends." the Avatar finished his sentence for him, making him chuckle.
"Well, yeah, we are friends." he acknowledged, the young Avatar raising a finger to his chin in thought, thinking back to a year prior.
"I can't believe a year ago I was still frozen in a block of ice. The world's so different now." he acknowledged, thinking back to all the things that had changed; the Air Nomads were gone, the Southern Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom devastated by war, and the culture of the Fire Nation corrupted by the vision of Sozin.
Zuko placed a hand on his shoulder, "And... well, because of all that's happened, I think it's going to change a whole lot more. But, we're going to rebuild it together." before the two of them hugged, Aang accepting his proposal without a word.
That was their intention, in the end, to as Avatar and Fire Lord use their powers for the good of the world; he didn't ignore the fact that his relationship with Zuko, is what Sozin and Roku desired without each other. He was just glad that it had turned out far better than their relationship had, and that he would have someone he trusted helping him restore balance to the world.
"Yes, together." he heard a familiar voice behind them, the Prince and him both looking back to see Azula approaching them, now wearing her own royal robes, which looked similar to, though slightly less ornate than Zuko's, "That is the intention, is it not?"
"It is." Aang confirmed, "I'm just glad you chose our side." he smiled at her, "I don't think I would have been able to become as good a firebender as I have without both your help."
"We are a good pair of masters." the soon to be crowned Fire Lord grinned, before he gestured to the doorway, "We should head out. I don't want to keep them all waiting."
"Remember to keep your 'game face' on, brother. You're going to be Fire Lord, after all." she warned him, the Avatar snickering before he began to walk forward, joined by the two royal siblings soon after.
As he walked out onto the pavilion that sat outside, Aang heard a gong be sounded, indicating that Zuko had arrived; as he approached the edge of the pavilion, which looked over the courtyard, their friends and many others cheered him on.
Zuko raised a hand, "Please. The real hero is the Avatar." he declared, indicating for Aang to walk up beside him, which he did, receiving cheers as he himself came into view; Azula stood to the other side of her brother, while he stepped slightly ahead, looking ready to address the crowd.
"Today this war is finally over!" he proclaimed, the crowd cheering in response, "I know that the world has suffered for a century, and countless lives have been lost and changed by it. I made a promise, once, that I would fix my nation, and with it, hope to fix the world." he furthered, before smiling at the Fire Lord, who continued to look forward, "The road ahead of us is challenging. After a hundred years of fighting, the world is not the same as it once was, and I know that we are more divided than ever." he acknowledged the tremendous task ahead of them, before turning to face the Avatar himself, "But I know that with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path, and begin a new era of love and peace."
The Prince knelt down, Aang and Azula both looking back to watch as a Fire Sage approached from behind, holding up a headpiece; it was the same one that his father had worn, and his father before him. The history of blood and war, but also of the great leaps the Fire Nation had made, were all bound up in the icon before him. He truly hoped that his friend would bring honour to his nation and the title of Fire Lord, redeeming it from the horrible war that Sozin had plunged their world into.
As the Fire Sage placed the headpiece down, he spoke out in proclamation, "All hail Fire Lord Zuko!"
The crowd cheered as Zuko rose up to his feet, smiling as he turned back toward Aang and Azula, both of whom gave him the same grin; although he didn't know if she felt exactly the same, the princess seemed to be proud of her brother and elated that he had fulfilled his destiny. The young Avatar felt similarly about the new Fire Lord's achievements, and was glad that he had chosen the side of good; they had all chosen the side of good, and now, together, they would fix the world, no matter how bad it had become.
"Together." Aang told him, in reaffirming what he had already told him, offering out a hand, which Zuko accepted with a smirk, eyeing both him and his sister.
"We're going to change the world."