AN: This was inspired by Rosemary's Baby's final scene and I've caught up to it. If a certain scene within looks familiar, it's because it's inspired by Rosemary's Baby.
The fire burns and Azula knows that she is screaming.
She tries her best not to be ashamed of that reaction. Her head spins and she feels something pressing hard against her and then breaking her. Damp heat of blood trickles from the point of impact and she starts to feel dizzy. It is then that she fades away, into the brilliant colors, her mind fixated on the shades of blue that she had never imagined nor seen.
Azula comes half-way to and hears her uncle in a panic about helping her. She cannot believe he would do that when he sacrificed her. This is all his fault.
She feels pain. Agonizing pain.
Then she slips away again.
The next time she opens her eyes, Azula struggles to stay lucid.
She had been dressed in ceremonial garb while her uncle assured her that he believed in dragon blood. She had been marched during a chilling ceremony up towards a ledge. She had been standing there with no clue what to do when she saw dragons. Dragons, fire, and herself collapsing.
When she wakes, she is lying in a Sun Warrior bed. The ceremony must have ended, because she no longer hears chanting and dark singing.
She does not feel differently than before. In fact, she feels as if she never even had two dragons breathe fire all over her. It was beautiful. The colors were beautiful until they blended into blue and from that blue came a vision of the world on fire and dragons loose.
Then she realizes what has changed; she does not feel the baby punching at her insides.
Her hands fly to where the bump once was. There is no way she could have had a baby while in the middle of all of that.
Stiches and bandages soaked in herbs. There is no way that didn't kill her. She begins to wonder if she is cursed; she certainly didn't die after two years unconscious. She didn't die when she was thrown into a mass grave. She didn't die when something tore her insides out while fire cooked her.
Azula is untouched by the flames. Not quite startling, to be honest.
She does not remember bending to protect herself, but she must have.
Iroh walks in and Azula wants to shout at him. But her voice is sore and half-way vacant.
"I guess I didn't pass," Azula manages to say.
Iroh looks nervous when he replies, "You did pass. You would be dead if you did not. You also would have been dead without the help of very talented healers here."
"So, what's this about being Dragon Priestess? What do I do?" Azula does not know why that title sounds more appealing. It must be the blood loss messing with her head.
"I do not know yet. Do you want something to drink?"
"I just almost died. I don't want your tea." Azula leans back. Sitting up was a strain on the wound. "Did you know about the dragons? They're alive."
"They are dying," Iroh says sadly. Azula perks up through her haze. "The Sun Warriors told me that they are ill and fading, as the spirits attack and harm the people of the jungle."
"We have to help them," Azula says viciously. She catches herself and wonders why she cares about anyone or anything but herself. "Help the dragons."
Iroh examines her. "I do believe I was right about you. The spirits chose you because you are the only one of your kind. But you would not be my first choice to help restore the Fire Nation's spiritual balance. To restore the dragons."
"Is the baby dead?" Azula inquires. She does not care about her magic blood or the spirits who sent her on this abhorrent quest. She wants to know.
Now Iroh looks more nervous. Azula has never seen him like this before.
"No. No, it is not," he says.
"Then something is wrong with it?" Azula can tell he is hiding something.
"You may be shocked and uncomfortable. I do not want to rush this when you are hurt."
"Show me my child," Azula snarls.
Iroh bends to her will, just this once. He knows she deserves it, but he is still pondering what to do with the information. He holds out a hand and Azula takes it, gnashing her teeth from the pain. She hopes she does not get a blood infection or she will haunt these savages forever.
Once she is on her feet, Iroh guides her to a very ornate room. Azula quickly realizes that it is a temple. It is a temple and Azula feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She does not like the idea that her baby is on the altar of savages.
She is brave. She is brave and she tugs on Iroh to move her faster. She knows that it would be very premature and it would be a miracle for it even to survive. She is not brave enough once she approaches the very masked cradle. She steps back and Iroh catches her by the arm.
"What's wrong with its eyes?" she whispers, because she saw the glint from afar. They are a little like hers but she wonders if she is a monster because it looks like one.
"His eyes," corrects a beautiful Sun Warrior woman. She seems to be in charge of whatever freakish nightmare is in front of Azula. "Do you have a name for a boy?"
"Ryzu," Azula whispers, because she doesn't know what else to do.
Iroh is her anchor. Azula never thought she would need him as much as she does right now. She is in ceremonial garb, half-ripped open after being sacrificed to dragons, and now there is something very wrong. Very wrong.
"Ryzu it is." The woman speaks warmly but Azula does not trust her.
Azula walks forward, because she has to do this. She has to do this.
She pulls back the blankets that must be protecting it from the cold. She notices candles burning fiercely all around it. Premature? She doesn't know.
Princess Azula has to force herself not to recoil. She refuses to show weakness at this point.
"That's not a baby, you lunatics," Azula says, taking a deep breath and stepping backwards. "But I am glad you have a backup for those dying ones that could have killed me."
"I did not think that the scrolls were so literal. I imagined it was figurative. I imagined it meant that she would give birth to more with dragon—"
Azula screeches, "Shut up about this kuzet thing! I think I agree with my father that it's a fairy tale!"
"You see the evidence before you," Iroh says.
"That's not my baby. That's absurd. That's not even possible." Azula nearly falls as she stumbles backwards. She can barely control her sore limbs.
"Neither is staying alive as a corpse for two years. I know now that you were in the Spirit World at the time; your body was left behind but kept intact. When your spirit returned, your life returned, but you brought something with you. Do you remember anything from your journeys there?"
"It was less journeys and more meditation and frustration. They did show me a dragon egg and told me I could open it but there's a humongous difference of what comes out of eggs and what bursts out of my chest," Azula breathlessly declares, her eyes wide and burning.
"Bursts out of your womb. Significant difference, my priestess," corrects a girl that Azula wants to strangle to death.
"Yeah. Okay. Whatever. I want to go home." Azula feels so cold, even in the burning hot room. "This is clearly a bad dream. Maybe a hallucination. I could be hallucinating."
"This is real, and this is something you must confront."
"Take me home before I massacre you all." Azula turns. She hears a purring noise she cannot quite place.
Walking towards it is ridiculous, but she does it anyway. Her desire to know overwhelms her desire to escape.
It is small, blue, alone. Dark blue and beautiful but its wings look pathetic. It's cute, like a kitten but with more nationalism. She does not like its eyes.
She reaches forward, rapt, and touches it.
A strong sensation ripples through her body.
Ryzu is hers. And no one will take him from her.
No one.
###
Azula walks around the well-groomed ruins with her uncle. It is healer's orders for her to practice getting herself around as the injury heals. She is still too timid to even touch Ryzu, but she has accepted that even if it is madness, she would rather be the imprint of the first true dragon than give that power to someone else.
Iroh suddenly stops. "I am sorry."
"For having me sacrificed?" Azula asks.
"No. For our past. Much of your hatred for me is my fault. I want you to understand that, and I mean my apology."
"You want my baby." Azula starts to walk away. He still follows her.
"What do you intend to do with what the spirits have given you?"
"They want revenge. I want revenge. So that's what it will be," Azula says.
Iroh sighs. "I want to know more before we-you do something drastic."
"And where do we get this information?" Azula asks.
"I do not know. But there will be records somewhere, I assure you."
"My brother will steal Ryzu. Our ancestors took the Fire Nation with dragons. We could take the world if we had them back. That is my destiny."
"That is not your destiny. That cannot be what the spirits want from you."
"Maybe it isn't. But it's what I want. And I am tired of people trying to control me." Azula stops walking. "I am leaving with Ryzu tonight. You may accompany me if you wish."
She then leaves him behind.
Iroh tries to brace himself for what he knows is to come.
###
"She took my uncle," Zuko fiercely says, his hands clenched tightly on the table. Ty Lee nervously rubs her lips together. "Do you think she's holding him hostage?"
Ty Lee squirms; she does not like being put on the spot. She retired from political matters and is very happy about that. Being so concerned all the time was super bad for her aura. Now she feels it slowly dying.
"Maybe he took her," Ty Lee suggests. Zuko gives her that look that people give her when she has said something they think is stupid. "He talked to her that day. Maybe she said something that he…"
Zuko will not believe her regardless of her efforts. She gives up before even finishing her thought.
"We have to go look for them," Zuko says and Ty Lee chews on her lip.
"Where? We don't know where they went and you can't leave the throne over this," Ty Lee whispers.
Zuko frowns. "I do have an idea of where they are. She talked about Ran and Shaw. If my uncle is cooperating with her at all, he would show her to them. We probably need help other than just us if that's where we're going… and if it's us who chase them."
Ty Lee nods. Azula is powerful enough on her own without Iroh and whoever Ran and Shaw are. Iroh wouldn't harm anyone, of course, but he is Zuko's weakness. The Fire Lord may be standing strong right now, but the minute he sees Iroh he will falter. And, well, Ty Lee feels the same way about Azula. They are the wrong people for this mission – or at least they shouldn't do it alone.
"Call Aang. I'd say Azula is a matter of world security and finding her is in his job description," Ty Lee says.
Zuko nods at her; he had the same idea.
###
Meanwhile, in the humid jungle, a young woman creeps into a temple like a shadow. And finds an old man waiting for her.
"What are you doing? You can't stop me," Azula says fiercely as she approaches the altar.
Uncle is there, waiting for her. She imagines he wants to prolong the imprisonment of his niece and her baby. Baby? Is she thinking of Ryzu as a baby?
He is in a human cradle, but the fire burning beneath it as if boiling a pot of water reveals that he is far from human. Azula sometimes thinks if maybe her mother was truly right about calling her a monster.
"I want to help you." He clearly desires to guide her like he did Zuko. But Azula is not weak like her brother; she will not let him corrupt her.
But he might be soft enough to protect her from too much harm. Ryzu was a risk. People would steal him and even if Azula struggled with maternal instinct, something primal inside of her growled with rage when she thought about him being stolen.
Him. Is he even a him? What is this and what is she doing?
"Then help me," Azula whispers just loud enough that he can hear.
"Come get him. We must go now."
Azula suddenly feels intense discomfort. She did not think much about the fact that she will have to confront Ryzu. The thought of holding him never crossed her mind until this moment.
She walks forward, hesitantly at first, and then reaches out one hand. He jumps up. Not jumps, no, but not flying either. Azula hadn't realized that he was in water, which is strange, but she tries not to think about it. His tail wraps loosely around her arm. And she looks him in his eyes.
Like a kitten, to be honest. She had one of those, a long time ago. Azula found it hiding in a dead fire fountain, and she managed to coerce Zuko into doing all of the dangerous work. That might be the only thing they ever worked together on.
Zuko buried the cat.
Azula always wanted to exhume it and build it a proper pyre, but that would be insane, and so she forgot.
She tries to think of it like that. Like how Ty Lee used to call her pets her babies and she treated them as such.
It isn't as if Azula gave real birth, right?
That would be even more unsettling than the quiet observation from reptilian golden eyes.
"Are you alright?" Iroh inquires. He speaks softly, as if she is delicate. She hates that tone of voice, but she does think he will be of use to her during her escape.
Wise tactics are more valuable to the princess than small annoyances.
"Yes. You said we should go now, didn't you?" Azula asks and Iroh nods in response.
She follows him as Ryzu pries his way into her cloak with gentle claws. Azula has ignored worse pains, and so she just keeps going with Iroh as a very substantial human shield.
"Why was he in water?" Azula asks, the dragon damp against her skin.
"To keep him warm," Iroh explains.
"I saw the fire under him, I just didn't think…" Azula decides it is not worth asking.
They begin to walk towards where she was nearly sacrificed, and Azula's heartrate flares.
"What is it?" Iroh whispers.
Azula takes a slow, long, deep breath. "They said those dragons were dying."
"All things die," Iroh says and Azula rolls her eyes at him. She is not two. She knows death. She has given it to more than one human.
"They're sick, from whatever made the spirits so angry that they're attacking humans. We should help them," Azula thoughtlessly says. She cannot believe her own words, but there is a monster that came out of her currently latching itself to her clothes, so she is not that startled by strangeness.
Now Iroh is agape. Azula wishes she could enjoy that face, but she picks up her pace. He has every right to be surprised; Azula doubts she has ever wanted to help anyone or anything.
"Azula, you cannot possibly mean to…?" He looks so marvelously hypocritical. "Perhaps they must be helped, but right now I have promised to help you with your escape, and I will not let you and Ryzu become endangered."
"I never truly saw them in the first place. The spirits told me to go here, and I didn't think much of them until… I'm now holding a dragon in my arms. I must speak to them," Azula protests. She sets off in long strides through the humid night air, heading towards the caves and sacrificial structure.
Iroh reluctantly follows.
Azula does not find Ran and Shaw, despite walking fearlessly into the caves. They seem to be more like caverns, going far and deep. She does not think she wants to delve into those depths.
She wonders if they are elsewhere. If they hunt or just get sacrifices. If they do not want to face her for some reason. It is kind of difficult to hide fully grown dragons, but they have vanished in a fashion that gives her gooseflesh.
As she scopes out the mouth of the second cave, she jumps from surprise. There is someone inside, waiting for her. Or at least looking as if she is waiting for her.
Azula stares and sees the milky color of her eyes. A blind old savage wearing a mystical necklace. Azula hopes she is hallucinating.
Yet, the feeling is very real when the woman walks closer to her and Azula can smell the strong scent of incense that burns her eyes.
"What do want?" Azula demands as royally as she can.
The woman's weathered, filthy hands tremble as she gazes intently at Azula with those blind eyes. Although she cannot see, it feels like she can see into Azula's soul. That nearly makes the princess shiver. The blind soothsayer's lips part as if surprised.
Then she speaks. "You will do such terrible things that should be wondrous. Acts of good with intentions that poison them, and a terrible darkness—"
Azula yanks her hand away, deciding to take pity on the woman and not burn her too. Such words must be treason. They are treason.
"You're not swindling me, peasant. I don't care for you savages and your vile opinions," Azula spits. She does not feel a drop of remorse for the soothsayer's frown.
And there is no more talk of her dark intentions and good deeds.
###
Azula finds nothing, and the moon is beginning to set by the time she is finished.
"This was a useless venture," Azula snaps as she and Iroh escape the city and enter the jungle. The sky is stained pink but the sun rises at a pace slower than molasses. "I'm tired and livid. I was promised an army of dragons and I can't even be face to face with two of them. And, oh, yes, Ryzu is all I need to claim the world."
"Claiming the world may not be the best of goals," Iroh says and Azula silences him with a glare. He does not want to touch this situation. "One dragon is more than enough to burn a hundred cities and attract the attention of thousands of people. Hunger for more will only lead to suffering."
"I deserve more, is the thing. You forget that hunger is a basic need."
Ryzu seems to decide that is an appropriate time to claw at her skin. Hunger is a basic need…
"What does he eat?" Azula asks, noticing that Uncle also looks concerned about Ryzu's possible starvation. As if he could do better, Azula thinks to herself.
"Meat," Iroh says. It is the best answer he can give.
Azula rolls her eyes.
"I know dragons eat meat, Uncle. But I imagine feeding him is probably more specific than meat. What were the Sun Warriors feeding him?" Azula demands coldly.
"They made… sacrifices." He looks so uncomfortable with what he allowed happen, in Azula's opinion. She does not put any thought into the fact that Iroh could have been doing what he had to do in order to keep Ryzu alive.
"Are you volunteering yourself? You're probably two weeks of baby dragon food."
"They were animal sacrifices. I probably should have specified that…" He trails off in thought for a moment. "You were going to hunt that sun bear."
"Because that turned out so well for me. I'm also not risking my own life, because all Ryzu will have is you to watch him and you might slay him. I've done a lot of amoral things in my life, but I would never kill a dragon, much less the last one."
"You just met two."
"Yes. Amazing how you resisted murdering them in cold blood."
Iroh opens his mouth to express how wrong but right that statement is, but he decides it is not in the best interest of Ryzu to make Azula think he is intending to steal the dragon. That seems to be a dangerous concern of hers at the moment.
"Yes, very amazing," Iroh mutters. Zuko was more difficult at times, and not ever holding a flightless, helpless baby of a beyond endangered species.
"Why don't we compromise? You hunt a sun bear, and I will wait here under this tree and tend to the claw marks in my side."
"You didn't tell me he was scratching you."
"Right. So you can take him and run."
"Do you believe I could outrun you?"
Azula says nothing. Iroh takes that as a small victory, but probably not a compliment.
"I have reason to suspect you. You're being nice to me. You want my baby."
"I want to make sure he survives, which is very reasonable of me."
"You want to give him to Zuko," Azula snaps.
"I do not think that would be wise," Iroh says honestly. "I am certain he needs you."
"Yes," she lies. Azula is not so confident about her parenting, seeing as she has not managed to find a way to feed him ye, much less train him to lead her conquest and burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground.
That was her idea. And it would've worked too, if it weren't for her meddling brother and uncle… and her incompetent father, if she's being thorough.
Azula sits down beneath a dripping tree and waits for Iroh to hunt a sun bear.
###
"That is a rabbit-mouse. That is not a bear. I asked for a bear."
Azula is sitting, shadowy from the sunset above the trees, waiting for him and staring at the small supposedly-extinct-animal sitting on her lap making mewling noises at her. She has not quite known what to do, but she did touch his nose once, which didn't give her many answers.
"I think that might be slightly wasteful," Iroh says.
"I think I don't care what you think is wasteful." Azula just sighs and gives in; she does not have a choice. "Fine then. You can break its legs."
His nephew may have been difficult and spoiled, but at least Zuko just screamed insults. Iroh does not think Zuko would ever ask him to break a helpless animal's legs. He thinks he would not do that and would hit his nephew on the back of the head for suggesting it. His niece is different in many ways, and he underestimated that before setting out to help her.
"The Sun Warriors burnt them."
"I bet that's what a mother dragon would do. That makes sense. I will burn it if you are such a coward."
"I'm not a coward. I would kill it before burning it because I believe that burning things alive is inhumane and—"
Azula tries to grab it from him and nearly trips. She catches herself and snatches the whimpering furball.
"Should I apologize to it first, or something?"
It works. It is messy, but it works.
Azula stares at Ryzu eat and Iroh feels that pang of concern. The spirits seem to have a sense of humor. Although, it is what she was born to do, and he has hope that she will realize that before the end. She looks pensive in the worst of ways.
They built a campfire because night has fallen and neither of them want to travel through this place in the dark. The sounds of animals they do not want to cross, coupled with the spirit attacks of late, are not encouraging.
"He's good at ripping things apart," Iroh suggests. He thinks perhaps that might be the way to talk to her.
"Yes. He is. He is not a human baby." And that is what is troubling her.
Iroh supposes it would be uncanny and disturbing to anyone.
"Where are you planning to take him?" Iroh inquires.
"As if I would tell you," Azula scathingly snaps. "I am taking him where I will take him to help him grow up and turn into the weapon he was born to be."
Iroh is silent before replying, "You sound like your father."
"Did he ever actually act so blatantly about me? I never knew." The princess laughs.
Iroh watches Ryzu walk around the small campsite.
The dragon is the size of a human toddler – he has grown quickly – yet he is about as formidable as a human toddler. He cannot fly yet, nor can he breathe more than smoke, and therefore cannot hunt for himself or defend himself – Azula must do those things for him.
She must be trusted to do those things for him.
And Iroh does not like the idea of trusting Azula.
The princess looks up at her uncle when Ryzu screeches. She then looks at her dragon, then back at her uncle.
"I had hoped he wouldn't cry like real babies do. I also had hoped that all those mothers were right when they say you just know what they want," Azula complains.
"Thank you for being so open and honest with me," Iroh says.
"Oh shut up," Azula snaps in response. She takes Ryzu on her lap and he stops screeching. "I need to figure him out before we're on our own. Your help will kill him, you know."
"I could accompany you to your final destination," Iroh suggests yet again.
Azula glares.
She has every intention to take Ryzu to Ember Island. She knows where she would hide and what she would do. Ryzu has to grow up before he conquers the world; she must bide her time. The jungle ends at the ocean and she knows she can procure a ship to sail there.
"How did you know the Sun Warriors? I thought they were extinct," Azula inquires, her eyes on the campfire and not her uncle.
"You thought dragons were extinct too." Iroh clears his throat. "I met them long ago, when I was younger. I spared Ran and Shaw after meeting the lost people and brought back a claw as evidence of their supposed deaths."
"You didn't slay the last dragon?"
"No. No, I did not."
Azula harrumphs.
"I have gained a small amount of respect for you," she says and Iroh looks surprised. "What? I always though the slaughter of the dragons was disgusting. They say the royal family is descended from them, they say that we tamed them, they say that they were the force behind our ancestors' first conquest. I thought it was foolish to waste that power by hunting them. Perhaps if we still had dragons, we could have won the war."
There is no sound but the jungle animals and dripping water.
Iroh understands her reasoning. It seems like something his niece would believe.
"If it were not for your father," he earnestly says, "I think you would have been an admirable Fire Lord."
"I love my father," Azula spits. "No one can change that."
Iroh does not argue. She did not choose the life Ozai gave her.
"Speaking of him, you might be getting in over your head. Your enemies have—"
"Yes, Zuko has the support of four nations and an army and the Avatar, but I have a dragon. It's not a fight they can win."
"That might be a misuse of having a dragon." That was a last ditch effort, Iroh has to admit.
Azula laughs. "That's precisely the use of having a dragon. It's what our ancestors did with them. It's what anyone would do with a dragon. What? You think majestic beasts that can burn entire cities like I can burn a leaf are meant to put in a petting zoo or ride around on?"
"I am not going to talk you out of your plan, am I?" he says.
Azula gives him a quite unkind glance. "It's not much of a plan yet. More of a goal. But no, you will not."
Iroh stares into the campfire and tries to reassure himself that she is wrong.
That she is not more of a monster than her child.