By the time Azula returned to the Caldera, preparations were well underway for the second major round of celebrations in only a couple of months.

The Fire Princess did not feel like celebrating though.

It had all been going so well; she had successfully orchestrated the defence of the Caldera city, on extremely short notice, and forced the surrender of an entire army- including the Earth King. Then she had taken off with an airship and Ty Lee to hunt the Avatar and his friends who had escaped, only for Ty Lee to suddenly betray her and leave her, unable to move, in the middle of the forest for what had felt like hours until the crew of her airship had found her. The humiliation of that moment and all the time leading up to it had been nothing short of unbearable.

The Princess stepped off the airship, and was met by Ozai himself, resplendent in the brightest ceremonial robes the Firelord owned.

"Daughter!" He smiled at her. "This is a glorious day! Will you come and celebrate with me?"

Then he looked next to her. "Wait, where's your friend? The annoying one?"

"She... she betrayed me."

"I see." In an instant, all the goodwill in her father's eyes vanished. "I'll deal with you later. In the meantime, let us put on a show for the crowd."

Sure enough, another great procession had been put on, this one even larger than the last. There were masses of captured enemy troops, all fettered to prevent their escapes. The enemy leaders were out in front of them, including Earth King Kuei himself, the Fire Nation aiming to publically humiliate them. Ozai had been particularly pleased about this because he had failed to get the Earth King in Ba Sing Se; for the man to then go and deliver himself into his clutches by himself was very convenient. In front of them marched a number of Fire Nation troops, with pride of place given to the men and women who had held the line on the barricades against incredible odds while the eclipse had been happening, and in front of them came Ozai and Azula.

Ozai had not been there, but he saw no reason to let the citizenry of Caldera City know that.

Before Azula went to join her father and start the procession though, she decided she had some gloating to do.

The Kyoshi warriors stood, a decent way down the column, without their makeup. Their leader, Suki, was not among them, having been taken away with the Avatar, but she found herself not being too disappointed by that, given that not five minutes earlier she had watched her get shot in the face with an arrow. Normally she didn't take pleasure in warfare, but she had enjoyed that. Hopefully it would turn out to be terminal.

"Well hello!" She greeted them. They only scowled at her in response. "Oh come on!" She said with mock offence in her voice. "Is that any way to greet me?"

"It's more than you deserve." one of them replied, venom in her voice.

"That's funny! Because this," she gestured to their chains, "is exactly what you deserve. You put me in prison all those months ago, so this is poetic, don't you think?"

"If this is poetry, it's very bad poetry. Perhaps you wrote it."

"Whatever. Enjoy prison, although of course I'll make sure you don't."

And with that Azula walked away. She made her way up to the front, where a Komodo Rhino awaited. She got up on it, and so they set off.

As they made their way through the city, the cheers from the crowds were even louder this time. After all, the last victory at Ba Sing Se had been glorious, it was true, but it had also been far away. This one had been right on their doorsteps, and the acts of Fire Nation valour that had secured it had been highly visible.

Further down the line, jeers were directed at the invaders, and things were even thrown at them. Azula even saw a brick get thrown at the Earth King, but the thrower was a terrible shot and it sailed harmlessly past his head.

Azula, much as she might have ordinarily gloried in the festivities, which were after all being put on for a victory achieved in large part by her, struggled to get into the spirit of things. Even gloating at the Kyoshi Warriors wasn't enough to cheer her up.

And she knew precisely who she blamed for this: Zuko.

Prince Zuko, her brother, who had had a (short) lifetime of resentment watching her, the golden child, the prodigy, have all the success and the fun, and was now taking it out on her by taking everything away. First had taken her mother, who had spent her time on him and considered her a monster. Then he had taken her father's affections; Ozai had taken Zuko back into favour because of his rescue of her from Ba Sing Se, and for being imprisoned she had fallen from grace.

Then, when he had father's love, he had thrown it away! Willingly! That was as insulting as it was incomprehensible for Azula, but at least it had offered her a path to redemption. And then Zuko had taken Mai, and ultimately Ty Lee too. They were supposed to be her friends! Not his!

Given that they were now travelling with Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors and the one who had put her in Earth Kingdom jail, it was not outside the realms of possibility that Zuko had put them up to it.

Azula briefly wondered if their preference of him was because of anything she had done wrong, but swiftly rejected the idea. After all, Ozai had drummed into her early the principle of ruling through fear, and her father could not be mistaken.

Azula was snapped away from her thoughts by the parade halting. They were at the Palace, and Ozai was about to make another victory speech. Fire Nation banners fluttered in the hot breeze as the Firelord, with Azula at his heels, dismounted his Komodo Rhino, made his way up the steps, and began to address his people.

"Yesterday," he began, "a great evil threatened to engulf our nation. For the first time in one hundred years, the war came to the Fire Nation."

He paused.

"But the Fire Nation weathered the storm and emerged victorious! The Avatar and his companions were driven off, and his army compelled to surrender. We captured men from the Earth Kingdom and both water tribes, as well as their leaders- including the Earth King himself!"

Sure enough, Kuei had been forced to follow them up the steps and was now presented to the crowd. Theatrical boos rose to meet him. Ozai, who was nothing if not a consummate showman, paused to allow his people to make their feelings known.

"This man will answer for his crimes. It is not the custom of Kings to kill Kings, but given what was discovered under Lake Laogai, we will bring those responsible to justice- including him!"

Ozai pointed at the bewildered Earth King with a flourish, and on cue he was dragged away. Azula knew what Ozai intended to do with him- Kuei was going to be thrown in a prison cell, in a relatively low-security prison, because Earth Monarchs did not come from a family of benders like Firelords did, and he was going to stay there for a very long time.

"Before I tell my men to drive these invaders away, there is one last order of business I must attend to. The battle for the Caldera was won thanks to the valour of a small group of soldiers, who even with a section of wall collapsed and their firebending gone, manned the barricades and held off many times their own number long enough for the eclipse to end."

He produced a small metal object from his robe. It was an ornate golden object, skilfully moulded into the shape of a flame.

"These soldiers will all be awarded the Flame of Valour! The highest military decoration for bravery in the Fire Army! Let it never be said that the Fire Nation does not reward its bravest."

Finally, he gestured at the prisoners. "Get these people out of my sight! Tonight, we feast!"

A great cheer rose up from the crowd, who looked forward to the fruits of victory.

Azula, though, would have to work harder before she could claim them. Before, it had just been rather impersonal; even when Zuko and Mai had defected, hunting the Avatar, and by extension them, had been a job, a mission assigned by her father. Now, though, the gloves were off. Team Avatar had wronged Azula, humiliated her, taken everything away. Now, she vowed that she would not just defeat them; she would crush them.