In the burning Caldera, Mai turns to the Dragon Queen, her betrothed. They stand in the throne room after Azula held a meeting with spirits caught between worlds.
Mai remarks, in response to Azula's supposedly grand plan, "A loyal sellsword is as common as a virgin whore."
Azula instantly shrugs off that mild concern. "They will quickly become as loyal to me as my soldiers. More loyal, seeing as so many decided they would rather be a snack for Ryzu than a good defender of the Fire Nation. I offer them gold but I also offer them purpose."
Mai does not think this will work out as well as Azula intends. Then again, she has Ryzu, dragon ghosts, the unborn dragon inside of Mai, the unstoppable angry spirits and countless other capable people who fear her enough to fight for her.
Maybe she can pull it off.
Mai decides it is not worth caring about (she makes that choice quite often). "Is this worth it?"
"I promised the spirits an army and I never fail to deliver," says Azula coolly, glowering at her fiancee.
"Azula," says Mai, touching her arm. It has little effect. "Do you remember the Dai Li?"
"Yes, obviously I do," Azula snarls.
"And the soldiers who fought for you. And the turncoats from the other side. And me and T—and your other allies," Mai dryly lists, not making the point very clear to the Dragon Queen.
"I can recall my feats as a charismatic leader. Have you reconsidered your position?"
"All of those people fought because they believed in you. They were fighting for you, not fighting because they're afraid of being eaten by Ryzu or gutted by dark spirits."
"I will give the people something to believe in, but for now I must control them. Fear is the best way to control people."
Mai licks her lips and brushes her fingertips across the bump on her stomach. A dragon. Her worst fear; at the moment, it exceeds worries about Azula's madness (the main concern of the populace and the corporeal members of her court).
"Whatever works," Mai says, because she has seen what Azula can do. She was there when Caldera fell; she switched sides due to what she witnessed.
Maybe her army will serve her honorably eventually.
But she is gone.
Too far gone for anyone to save her.
###
Right now, Azula stands with her old friends, her former friends, or something like that. They have made her realize that she needs to make bolder moves if she wants to keep up with the game the spirits play. They have given her an idea - one not fully formed, but a good one - and she allows it to race in her head.
"You are on my side now," Azula says, glancing between them. "I think since I have a dragon, several armies and ultimate power, you don't have any choice but to agree. You. Are. On. My. Side. Now. OrIwillburnyoualive."
The other three exchange glances. They do not seem to take her seriously, which makes the side of her lip twitch.
Zuko stammers, "I—I don't know if—"
With smoldering golden eyes, Azula demands, "For our current purposes, you are on my side. You will assist me in my further conquest."
They at last pick up on it. She cannot say the true meaning, but they comprehend it. Her former friends have no other choice than to join Team Dragon Queen until their time comes.
"I am going to imprison you two," Azula orders. "But I will find an advantage in your skills."
Silence.
Zuko hates to trust her, but he knows he must take a gamble to save the world. Someone needs to do something before the cities and people are nothing but ashes.
Therefore, he nobly accepts the handcuffs and the dank dungeon.
Ty Lee returns to her locked room.
Mai touches Ryzu and tries to ignore her racing thoughts.
###
After her conversation with Zuko, Ty Lee and Mai, Azula tears at her hair and clenches her jaw and needs to just scream. She picked up the bad habit at some point and it never faded away. She does not know if she wants to play along with Zuko and Mai and Ty Lee. Maybe they are… right. Maybe they are right. She knows she has no control, that this is not how she wanted to win, but she does not want to lose her position of power either.
The spirits gave her much. Yet, she does not like being their slave in the slightest.
In a fit of rage, she throws everything off of her desk. The clatter of her belongings smashing on the floor does not satisfy her the way she thought it would.
She begins to cry, grateful to be alone. No one sees her break down, clinging to her desk until her knuckles turn white. The tears drip down and fall onto the parchment beneath her.
Azula is a slave. She thought she would have riches and glory and everything that comes with reigning over Caldera. But she is a slave. The spirits use her to get what they want and she lives in as much fear of them as everyone else in the world.
She knows she should team up with them. It would be wise.
But she has power and prestige with the spirits.
Zuko would take that away the instant she won his war for him.
Then again, he has always been so easy to use. Azula could succeed and get rid of him when the time came.
Could she win without him?
She does not know.
###
Azula visits the dungeons in the dead of the night, her palm alit with bright blue flame. She walks to Zuko's cell and stands there until he turns his attention to her.
"Do you trust me?" Azula asks her brother, locking eyes with him.
He averts his gaze. "No."
Azula shrugs; she expected no less. "Fair enough. I am going to make a decision right now that is going to make you very unhappy, but it is an invaluable temporary measure until I figure out a way to make what we discussed in the tower possible."
"I still don't like this."
"I don't care."
"I figured that."
"Just be patient." She grabs him by the arm, digging in her sharp nails, and screams. "Your trial is after Ty Lee's. Just keep your mouth shut down here and I will take care of those loyal to me. Are you loyal to me?"
He picks up on her tone. He knows her. . . and he is not stupid. Whatever her scheme is, he will play along until it becomes clear that she must be stopped. At this point, it is the best chance the world has if it wants to recover.
"I can be patient. My life has essentially been an exercise in patience."
"Yet, you still tend to be terrible at it." She smirks. He sighs.
"Can you wish her luck on her trial?" Zuko asks and Azula suddenly sneers. He certainly touched a fresh wound with the subtle reminder that he and Ty Lee were in love while she was allegedly dead.
"Not from you."
And the Dragon Queen vanishes as quickly as she appeared.
###
Later that pitch black night, Azula cries in her bedroom. Not for her brother, but for herself.
Is she this pathetic a ruler? How did she create a land of ashes, a land she does not herself control, when Ozai groomed her for so long?
She wipes away her tears and opens her door to face one of her royal guards. He bows to her and she pouts at it. Unsatisfactory, but she needs a messenger.
"Fetch Ty Lee for me," she coolly orders and he quickly rises and vanishes down the hallway.
Azula wants her. Maybe she just married someone else, but she needs something to remind her why she deserves to be the Dragon Queen. Someone she can so easily convert to her side.
When Ty Lee arrives, Azula slams the door shut and turns to her. She examines her, looking right through her and giving Ty Lee uncomfortable chills. Azula kisses her and bites down on her lower lip. She steps back after that and sits in an antique chair as if it is a throne.
"Would you swear fealty to me and recant your love for my brother and crimes against my nation?" Azula demands, clasping her hands on her lap.
"The first one I would do in a heartbeat. . ." Ty Lee trails off, thinking to herself, The second one is too hard, too wrong.
"Then you mean nothing to me and I will get rid of you. Your attempted treason against the spirits has unsettled me," Azula says, as cold as her father. Ty Lee thinks her teeth might chatter as Azula's words freeze the previously hot room.
"You're perfect and I want to—"
"No one is perfect. Not even me." I never was. "I am far, far from infallible and I am sick of your meaningless compliments that only a fool would believe."
Ty Lee does not hesitate to reply honestly, "You only think that because you can't see yourself through my eyes."
Azula pinches the bridge of her nose. She honestly does not know if she can handle this. She should have started with someone else. But a recant of Ty Lee's treasonous beliefs would be useful.
"Tell me something truthful," Azula brusquely orders.
"I would run away with you in a heartbeat. Away from both sides of the war. Nothing could stop us if we teamed up. Not even all the spirits in both worlds combined and your brother and the Avatar or anybody. We're like the strongest people in the whole Universe. Let's just run away and forget about Zuko and Mai—"
Azula snarls, disgusted by the traitor again, "You are very quick to turn your coat."
"I never loved Zuko. I loved you," Ty Lee whispers, still telling the truth. She does not know why Azula refuses to believe her.
"I am not talking about Zuko," Azula says, rolling her eyes at Ty Lee's apparent stupidity. "I am talking about Mai. She is about to give birth any day now and you would just run off with me."
"This time, I want to pick the right person." Ty Lee leans forward and kisses Azula, but the Dragon Queen pulls away. "What?"
"I am in fact married to a pregnant woman who also wanted to pick the right person a long, long time ago when I first took Caldera with my dragons. I think she beat you to the punch," says Azula, setting her hand on Ty Lee's shoulder to keep in control.
"Do you love her?" whispers Ty Lee, daringly meeting the Dragon Queen's gaze.
"No, but I would not sink to her level. Or yours for that matter," quietly but forcefully replies Azula, pushing slightly on Ty Lee.
"Okay, then, no betrayals, no schemes, no coat turning," Ty Lee says. "I'd follow you no matter what. I'm kinda in love with you and I know we don't have a good relationship but why don't we just have. . .this. It doesn't matter if you want Mai or even love her or have that. We could have us. . ."
"You are a horrible person," Azula says breathlessly. "Kiss me."
Ty Lee does, but she starts with her neck. She lowers her lips to Azula's collarbone and then to the top of her breast. She rises again and cautiously kisses her lips—she still is sore from minutes ago being bitten.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Azula pushes her down onto the floor. This might mean nothing, but it is what she wants and she was promised everything she dreamed of. And she did always dream of this. The spirits could never blame her.
Ty Lee kisses the woman on top of her. She very hesitantly slides her hands to Azula's hips as she grinds against her.
Azula's fingers brush across her body.
"Do you love me?"
"Yes."
"Recant it all tomorrow."
"Yes."
Azula kisses her neck.
The night is perfect.
###
The next day, still glowing, Ty Lee stands in front of a court. A court that includes the spirits, which terrifies her. At least she is not in their world, or so she hopes. Other people of Azula's regime stand around. Ty Lee hears Ryzu breathing.
She silently says goodbye to everything she used to have. Things change. Ty Lee knows that.
Azula asks regally, her voice resonating through the packed room, "Do you recant your previous ways and treasonous acts against my empire."
Ty Lee hates herself, but she replies, "Yes. I recant my beliefs and words. I promise myself to the Dragon Queen."
It means more than what the others in the room would assume. Azula turns to Mai, who has three days before she will have her baby on the burning altar. She has loyalty to her wife and child more than she does to a near-perfect lay.
"Good," Azula purrs, then suddenly switches tones and fixates her gaze on the buff guards. "Put her in the dungeon with my brother: Immediately, as I command."
Ty Lee does not fight the soldiers the drag her away, but Azula confuses her.
She thought recanting would save her.
###
Azula lights the grungy hallways blue as she walks down to the dark dungeon. She reaches Ty Lee and steps inside. She had Ty Lee's hands chained and so hopefully that will prevent any chi-blocking incidents.
"Why did you turn against me?" Ty Lee whispers, her face puffy from ugly tears.
"I wanted you to recant to clear your name," Azula purrs. "But you are a danger to my family, don't you understand? That baby dragon means more to me than you ever could."
Ty Lee closes her eyes. She has no more tears in her to shed.
Then she looks up at the girl illuminated azure.
"You're beautiful," says Ty Lee when Azula visits her in the dank cell.
Azula clenches her fist. More pathetic platitudes that make her want to strangle her past-crush to death.
"I conquered the world," Azula snarls, tired of the petty compliment. "I am going to kill you, and therefore I doubt you believe me to be beautiful."
Ty Lee coyly smiles. Azula cannot, for the life of her, understand why.
"Just because an unstoppable force is coming to destroy me doesn't mean I can't pause and admire its beauty."
Azula averts her eyes.
###
With Zuko and Ty Lee in the dungeons and Mai sleeping on the other side of the palace, Azula stands before a counsel of spirits, shadows of black, white, green, red and all other imaginable hues. Yet they all seem wreathed in darkness, out of place in the mortal world.
The shape-shifter who trained her during her coma leads this table of the spirits who chose her to lead their vengeance. She—or perhaps he—sits with translucent hands clasped.
And that sensei states, "It is buried under Ba Sing Se."
"What is buried under Ba Sing Se?" Azula snarls, risking her life. She does not care at this point. Their demands become increasingly vaguer as time passes.
"If you knew, you would act unwisely and with too much human passion."
"Then I imagine it will hurt me. Why would I seek something that will hurt me?"
"The opposite, Dragon Queen, but your human emotions are so irrational. They call you mad for a reason."
Azula's eyebrow twitches and her face flushes from fury.
"I have proven myself," says Azula. "I have earned your trust and I ought to be allowed to make a few decisions about my—our—empire. After the birth of my child tomorrow, I will find an appropriate team to accompany me. The conquest needs to stretch further; that much is clear to me now. I took Ba Sing Se once and I can easily take it again."
"You want to conquer. We want what is in the Crystal Catacombs."
"I will go myself," Azula states cleanly, glancing between the spirits.
"You are needed here."
And Azula swiftly retorts, "Caldera is broken and obedient. I want to do this myself, and I want to select my soldiers and my lieutenants. I've lost touch with what made me great and powerful; give it back to me."
"You are too important."
Azula rebuts, "I am important because of how capable I am at conquering and winning wars."
The silence echoes.
"If that increases your power, so be it. We must make plans."
Azula conceals her smirk, but her eyes knowingly glint.
She has her opportunity.
###
Azula runs her palm across Ryzu's sleek blue scales. He has grown so much and she could not be prouder of him. And, now, he will be integral to this ritual. Azula knows how prepared he is; he was born to resurrect the rest of his kind.
Dragons will reign over the Earth again.
Azula adjusts the gem adorning her neck and asks Mai, "Are you scared?"
Tugging at her embroidered silk sleeve, Mai replies, "Not really."
"How?" Azula asks, in genuine surprise.
Mai says earnestly, "Well, I try not to care about many things and so I fairly often just think to myself that, if this is how I die, this is how I die. Like when a raccoon-rabbit snuck in through my bedroom window but I was too tired to do anything about it."
"Sometimes I wish I were more like you." Strange words from the Dragon Queen's lips.
They stride beautifully side by side, atop the ceremonial path seared into the ground. This once was a lively courtyard but now it surrendered to the ashes like everything else in Caldera. The altar matches the one of the Sun Warriors in as close of detail as Azula could manage.
She is pleased with her work.
She is concealing her nerves about this birth going awry.
Azula watches from the outside this time. She has a few fleeting thoughts about how dragon blood might have been the only thing that protected her, and that Mai will have none, but she knows this is more important than a decayed friendship.
The fire burns, Ryzu creating such beautiful colors with his flames. They make bright, stark blue look like boring orange in comparison.
Mai does scream.
Azula does not feel a single twinge of guilt over it.
Because, out of the wild flames and escalating crowd, Azula sees the outline of small swings, a shadow against Ryzu's bold inferno.
The world is on fire again, and it is so beautiful.
A second living dragon takes its first breath and screeches a warbling war cry to the unforgiving shadows.