"The time has arrived, my Princess. We act tonight."
Ugh. Why did members of the New Ozai Society always strive to be as melodramatic as the group's namesake? The royal family had just gotten home from Ember Island; their things hadn't even been unpacked yet. Azula had been so tired from the trip that she hadn't noticed when a man snuck up on her while she was alone in the hallway. He'd whispered, "Come with me, Princess," into her ear. Yes, she could have taken him on easily even caught off-guard, yet she played along because she was curious as to what was going on. The Society had been sneaky these past few years, and even Azula's spies had been unable to infiltrate a meeting since before Kazuo was born. But she remembered her own observations of them whispering among themselves while she'd been receiving visitors the day after her son's birth, so she hadn't been terribly surprised to discover that they were behind…whatever this was.
She had thus allowed herself to be quietly but firmly escorted into this vacant and poorly-lit meeting room, where a chair had been placed on a platform to create a makeshift throne.
Azula peered from this perch, holding a flame in her hand to dispel the gloom and looking at the five men bowing before her, and said, "Oh, do get up. What's your brilliant plan this time? Need I remind you that you have been trying to break Ozai out of prison for twenty-two years now? It's not going to happen. Get over it."
"We have long since abandoned that idea, Princess," spoke their leader, Shoren Keohso…double ugh. He had assumed the role of sole leader of the Society after Ukano defected and Huang died. "The Phoenix King's mental condition has deteriorated too far for restoring him to power to be feasible. As he is unable to rule, there should be a regency by his rightful and designated heir…you. We spent the Royal Family's absence finalizing our plans. All you need to do is give the word, and our assassins will strike."
And Azula wavered. No matter how loath she was to admit it to herself later, for a split second the thought of the crown that had been stripped from her was tempting. She could rule as Fire Lord, with Tom-Tom by her side as Prince Consort. But no sooner had that thought crossed her mind than she realized that Shoren had omitted some crucial information.
"Forgive me, Lord Keohso," she said slowly, "But if your goal was to install me as Fire Lord, then why wait until now? Why not proceed before Zuko had an heir of his own, which makes the entire situation more difficult for you?"
"His heir is a girl," Shoren said smoothly. "You are the mother of the Phoenix King's only legitimate male descendant."
"Then why are you so eager to put me on the throne? Last time I checked, I wasn't male either. Unless…it's not me you're actually after, but my son?"
"That's ridiculous, Princess!" Shoren snapped. But the brief flicker of oh shit that she'd seen in his eyes told it all.
Azula stood from her elevated chair and snapped, "That's all you came up with after two decades of planning? Wait around until I produce an heir with a penis, make sure he survives infancy, and install me as a puppet ruler only to off me as soon as you have an opportunity? Then, you'd have a two-year-old as Fire Lord, and isn't it convenient that you have two great-granddaughters he could potentially be married off to? I would have expected better from you after you managed to murder your own daughter and get away with it!"
Shoren let out an affronted gasp. "Naoko's death was a tragedy! She was going through a relapse and her heart gave out."
"Yes, well, I don't pretend to know exactly how you did it," Azula said while waving a hand in dismissal. "But I have done research, and apparently there are poisons that get metabolized so quickly that they go undetected." Her spies had reported that shortly before her death, Naoko had had a falling out with her father after a visit to Ozai, for undisclosed reasons. However, seeing as their daughter Eri had been just shy of thirteen at the time, it didn't take a genius to get a general idea of what said reasons might be.
"Oh, and by the way," she told the men. "I have been sitting here for several minutes explaining your own plan to you, and none of you have taken the opportunity to kill me. I must say that I'm quite disappointed."
At these words, Lord Keohso finally assumed a fighting stance.
"I didn't want it to come to this," he said mournfully.
"I bet you didn't," Azula muttered, rising from her chair as her fingertips started to spark. Those idiots…they'd given her the high ground without realizing it.
"Azula…what…?"
This was the still half-asleep Zuko's none-too-intelligent remark as she flung the corpse of Shoren Keohso at his feet. Servants followed with the four surviving plotters, who were covered in burns of varying severity and bound in a special fire-resistant rope. The captives were thrown roughly onto the floor of Zuko's bedroom, joining the assassin who only moments ago had been caught by the Royal Guard trying to sneak in through the window. The hunt was on for the others, although clearing this part of the palace in particular was top priority.
Azula scoffed. "How difficult is it to understand, Zuzu? These men were going to kill you and your entire family. I just saved all of your lives." She was somewhat worse for wear herself; the fight had been intense, and she had multiple injuries that needed tending. For now, though, she had to act like it had been nothing.
Zuko inhaled sharply, and looked as if he'd just been stung by a buzzard wasp.
"Mai! And Izumi! Are they…I have to make sure they're okay!"
He was halfway out the door when one of his guards tried to apprehend him.
"With all due respect, Fire Lord, that might not be the best idea. They have been moved to a safe location, as have the Princess Azula's family. All are unhurt. You can check on them once the whole palace is secured."
The esteemed Fire Lord, ruler of nearly fifty million people and one of the most important figures in the entire world, shouted, "I DON'T CARE!" He simply ran on past the man, shouting his wife's and daughter's names the entire way down the hall.
"If you die, don't come crying to me about it!" Azula yelled after him.
No one died. The guard, used to Zuko's impulsive behavior, had simply rolled his eyes and chased after him, leaving his counterpart with Azula.
As Lord Keohso's corpse needed to be moved, and the prisoners transported to the holding dungeon, this guard had escorted her to another safe room, where she had been reunited with her own family. Kazuo was not pleased about having been woken up, but Azula held the grumbling toddler close anyway. He had no idea how close he'd become to being an orphan puppet Fire Lord, and Azula intended to keep it that way...for now, at least. Tom-Tom, on the other hand, was more aware of the situation, and had had no objections to being embraced tightly.
"Oh…you're hurt," was the first thing he said to her when they broke apart, tentative hand reaching towards the patch of blistered skin on Azula's shoulder.
"It doesn't bother me," Azula lied.
In the small hours of the morning, the entire palace was finally cleared. Her brother showed up at Azula's safe room, accompanied by a paler than usual Mai and a sniffling Izumi.
"So. Azula. I…I guess we're in your debt," Zuko said. "We'll do a formal…recognition thingy next morning."
"Your way with words has always astounded me, brother," Azula remarked.
Surprisingly, he was able to completely ignore her barb. Without missing a beat, he went on, "And we'll reward you for this, of course. Banquet, money, titles, land…anything you want. All you have to do is ask."
For another fleeting moment, Azula wondered what his reaction would be had her request been "Your crown." But she stifled the urge once again, only saying, "I shall think about it, but it's getting rather crowded in here, so I believe that my men and I will be heading off. I daresay that we will all want to sleep in after this eventful night. Good night, Zuko. You may sleep soundly with the knowledge that you will most likely not be murdered tonight."
"Yeah…sure," Zuko replied. "But can I ask you one thing?"
Azula sighed. "What, brother?"
"Where did you get all that rope from?!"
"Zuzu, one can never have too much rope," was all Azula told him.
A/N: Yeah, there's no fight scene. I have visual-spatial difficulties, and most of the time can't even read fight scenes without getting overwhelmed trying to visualize what everyone's doing. But I did know I had to eventually attempt write something after I foreshadowed it in Ceremonies and Celebration, so here you go.
But...but...I'm really excited for next chapter! Why, you ask? Well, check which number THIS chapter is! The next chapter is gonna be so epic that I think it'll have to be its own story.