Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA

A/N: Azula is no one's subordinate, not even her father. She fends for herself and seeks her own power. Infiltrating Ba Sing Se and becoming its leader gave her a taste of what it feels to accomplish something by herself, without being anyone's pawn. She knows how competent she is and she knows she doesn't need her father to be someone.

This is the tale of Azula, a strong woman who wants to take her independence from her family and her nation. She wants to show the world she doesn't need Ozai's backing or the Fire Nation's military to be a great leader.

Some elements of books 3 will change to adapt to this turn of events. The avatar will no longer be able to play his role and the war will play out differently.

If you want to talk about this story or any of mine (Ashera Fanfics), send me an invite on Discord at: Graal DTC#0625 (since the link to my Discord channel is broken on the fanfiction website). For updates, I'm very busy with my new shitty job and my 2h and a few of driving back and forth so it won't be daily updates like it used to be. I don't update the same story all the time, I update the one I'm inspired in when I have time. Naruto: Away from Konoha has a complete 1st arc for example, so unless I get a high demand, I'll try to finish at least a full arc about my other main stories before going back to it eventually.

I'm taking a break from Naruto stories because I'm rewatching ATLA and it's such a good base material for fan fictions compared with Naruto that I prefer writing stories of ATLA.

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Chapter 1

A member of the Dai Li came to bring Azula a message.

"Queen Azula! You've received a message from Fire Lord Ozai!"

He gave her the letter before leaving. She unrolled it and read it.

"Azula,

I am proud of your success in conquering Ba Sing Se where your uncle had failed like everyone else before him. I invite you and Zuko who has killed the Avatar to come back to the Fire Nation Royal Palace. I want to make you the Great Admiral and Zuko the Crown Prince, since you've shown better military achievements than even your uncle in his pride, while your brother has proven his worth as my heir by ridding the Fire Nation of its most dangerous enemy.

You are both to come meet me as soon as possible for the ceremony that will assess your new positions. Do not make me wait.

Fire Lord Ozai"

"What does he say?" asked her brother.

"He's proud of us. I've conquered the impenetrable Ba Sing Se while you have killed the Avatar and rid the Fire Nation of its most dangerous enemy. You're to be the Crown Prince again, while he wants to make me the Great Admiral. Tcheh! Why would I have to be a Great Admiral when I'm already a Queen? Who does he think he is? I've gained this throne by my own merits! I won't give it up to some pawn!"

"But we could finally be a reunited family, wasn't this the reason for you to lie to him telling him I was the one to kill the Avatar?"

"We are already a family, Zuzu. I don't need to lose my well-earned power to be your sister. I was the one to plan all of this, have you already forgotten? If father was so proud of me, he wouldn't give me a position inferior to what I am already here! This is unacceptable! I am a Queen! The Admiral should be my subordinate, I shall not be anyone's subordinate! Not even his!"

"How will it be if the locals decide to betray you? They've already betrayed their master for you, loyalty doesn't seem to be their forte…"

"Oh, Zuzu, are you worried about your little sister? They chose me over their previous master because they found me more competent than him. They will not betray me, as that would mean they've found someone more worthy than me. Aside father himself, who could they obey to over myself?"

"And what if father comes and takes your new power from you? Will you try to fight him and risk being the same as me? A wounded exile with nothing left of your power and possessions?"

"Don't worry, brother. While father makes stupid domination plans that will weaken the Fire Nation, I know of a plan that will certainly make both of us happy. I'll be the Queen of Ba Sing Se, you'll be the Fire Lord, father will fall for his own foolishness by wasting his resources in a pointless war that has lead the Fire Nation nowhere in a century. I also know how he will fall to his own pride and feeling of superiority. He's so self-confident that he won't know what's coming when it happens."

"But…this would destroy our family again…"

"Look, brother, I've been considering you my family even after your failure at capturing the Avatar, when I was after you and him at the same time. What did father do for you? He's just hated you for sixteen years straight, do you think he now sincerely loves you because you've killed the Avatar? He doesn't care about you. All he wants is to be powerful and for his children to reflect his power. He's self-absorbed to the point he thinks I will just give up my new power that I earned with my own brain in order to get a forced promotion in HIS army!

"I genuinely care about you, even if I'm not a cute little sister like some prefer. I lied to father for you to get your damned honor back! I was the one to plan our family reunion, and I had to live alone in the Royal Palace while you were away hunting a ghost for more than two years! What if you had never found the Avatar? Would you have left me alone there until you died of old age or in a fight for your pride? Don't be a fool like father! I am the only one who's kept the soul of our family alive for this whole time! You should try to thank me instead of trying to get recognition from our selfish power-hungry father who didn't even deem you worthy of his blood for your whole life!"

"I… I understand…" he replied. "I'm sorry. It's just…since mother left and uncle has lost his son, I've been so lonely… You were so mean the whole time… And father just kept complimenting you while he was ashamed of me… I was jealous of the attention you got from him…"

"Yeah, indeed, he complimented me and talked ill about you all the time. But do you know why he was so proud of me?"

"Because you were confident, fearsome, talented and because you didn't turn your eyes away from horrors…"

"Because he was reminded of himself whenever he looked at me! He's just been trying to make me a copy of himself! I am nothing to him! All that preoccupies him is himself! I bet he's gonna crown you Fire Lord just so he can be some Emperor! He'll just give you a useless crown to get away with you and enjoy himself with an even better title! He doesn't love any of us!"

"Do you really think…he doesn't love you either…?

"I told you, the only person he likes is himself! I won't let him usurp my new position to give me an inferior responsibility while he just dumps a worthless crown on you so that you feel acknowledged! He's been manipulating you, in reality if he sent you away without ever recalling you although the Avatar was supposed to be dead, it's just because he was ashamed of you and wanted to cut his connection to you so that you wouldn't be weighing him down! Neither of us means anything to him!"

"Then…what should I do? I did all of that to regain my honor, to finally get his recognition… What should I do? If he never cared about me, about us, then why did I do all of this?"

"You've been wasting your time. Now you have to find your own way. I think you should go meet him and take the title he wants to give you. He's so self-absorbed that he won't even notice that you don't need his acknowledgment. He thinks he is the center of the world, as long as you fake a little he will be blinded by his pride. Just let the plan of the Avatar's gang play out and father will be dethroned and lose everything he's been killing to have.

"At that point, you'll become the real Fire Lord and we will make a real alliance between Ba Sing Se, that I'm gonna rename Vulkain, a kingdom of earthbenders lead by a firebender, and the Fire Nation. We will be the greatest leaders ever and we will stop all wars by pressuring the other nations together! Vulkain will be the outpost of our combined powers into the Earth Kingdoms, while the Fire Nation will be safe from them thanks to being islands with a strong navy! We will provide materials for new technologies that will make us impervious to any other power, and we will have a great influence over geopolitics! Other nations will soon join us because we will be the most powerful alliance and they will add to our power as well as contribute to avoid wars.

"I know you don't like to waste resources, I know that you were banished for having risen against a general who wanted to sacrifice soldiers as a distraction to strike harder. I'm offering you both power and no pointless death for our people, while we will be a real family. Who could offer you better than that? The Avatar's gang? If the Avatar's really dead, they will be nothing for our combined forces. If he's somehow been able to survive, he won't be powerful enough to offer you anything better! Hell, if you like uncle Iroh so much, you can even free him once you're the one in charge and he can be your advisor! I know you've grown to like him, even if you try to pretend the contrary."

"I… I need to think about it," he said before leaving the throne room.

"Remember, Zuzu, we are siblings, and father has never liked you. He has never liked us. The only one who's tried to put our family back together was me. Oh, another information that could help you choose wisely; father asked mother to poison Lord Azulon's food rather than killing you for the affront he did when he tried to throw uncle Iroh out of the way to the throne by telling he had no more children to take over after him and that he was weak since his son's death. Our grandfather wanted him to kill you so that he would feel what it is to lose his first-born son. Father just jumped on this occasion to force mother into serving him the throne on a silver platter by threatening of killing you if she didn't kill the Fire Lord. Then he banished her and forbid her to contact you or he would kill you."

"How can you know about that?"

"Because I was spying on them. Remember when I came to tell you that father was gonna kill you? After that, mother visited you and said her goodbyes. That's the reason for her to leave us. She protected you from the cruelty of our father."

"Then I need to find her…"

"Just do as I told you. When you're the Fire Lord and father is out of the picture, you'll have all the resources you need to look for mother and no one will be able to harm you for this."

"…I'll follow your plan… Thanks for telling me about mother…"

"You're welcome."

He walked back to her and, to her surprise, he embraced her.

"W-what are you doing?"

"I'm hugging my little sister who's been planning our family reunion while I was chasing ghosts to regain something I never had to begin with. I'm sorry for leaving you alone for all this time, Azula."

She blushed of embarrassment at the situation. She wasn't used to physical contact or affection marks in general. This felt weird and embarrassing, but it was also…enjoyable. She had never felt the positives of having a family since she had started to follow her father's steps back when she was three. She hesitantly closed her arms around him before he broke his embrace and left the throne room.

"So that's how it feels to be loved…" she whispered to herself.

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A/N: Hello dear readers, I hope you enjoyed this! Some new turns of events from the beginning! I don't like re-writing things in the same way they were written in the first place, it feels pointless. That's why I started with a strong alternate branching of events.

The Avatar is not dead, well, not technically dead. Aang is still alive, but he's lost his Avatar connection for good because he was killed in the Avatar state. I'm hesitating between making him lose every non-air element he's learnt during his journey, it would be more balanced and would bring more interesting match-ups and co, as well as new opportunities, but maybe I could leave him with the ability to use all the elements.

In any case, I think the death of the Avatar as such may open new possibilities, the end of an era when only one person could bend more than one element, and the beginning of a new era where elemental bending is not restricted by genes and avatar reincarnations. A new era where everyone has the ability to use the elements, just with different outcomes, unequal difficulty and where the children of two parents with different elements have a higher affinity towards both elements, even if one child may have a higher affinity for one of these while the other may have a higher affinity for the other. Lavabend Azula's child? Lavabend Azula herself? Let's see what we can do with that.