Azula
She walked the corridor to her destination with slow and calculated steps, careful not to be heard by the occupants of the place.
The Firenation Prison is a well-guarded place, but everyone here knows that she pays frequent visits to her brother to persuade him to join his father's cause, so they let her in to visit him..
Those Fools, easily manipulated. Azula thought as she remembered the first time a guard caught her trying to get into her brother's prison chamber and she told him to stand in her way if he wants to live for the rest of his life without his balls, The poor man gulped thickly and stayed out of her way, but not before Azula told him that she was sent by her father to persuade him to join their cause, and the dim-witted guard believed her, she pondered the thought of changing the guards of this prison, as those fools were easily manipulated.
But today she had to be incredibly sneaky if she was to get to this other prisoner she wants to visit, She walked the corridor slowly with a flame of her own making in her hand to light her path, and a hood over her head to cover her flowing hair that would give away her identity, in The Firenation, they know you are of royalty from your hair.
She finally reached the chamber, she peaked from the small window of the door, the room was dim-lit but the smell gives away how dirty this room must be, Azula opened the door to the room with her light in her hand and searched with her eyes for the prisoner, he was sitting in a corner with his head down, his grey hair ragged and mussy from the back, she couldn't look at his face as his back was to her, she hated seeing him like that, as much as she hated him when she was a child, she couldn't bear the condition her uncle was in right now.
"Who's there ?" Iroh voiced out thickly as he appeared to have never talked to anyone in ages.
"It's me, Uncle." Iroh turned his head slowly, as if in disbelief that this was really happening.
"Am i having another daydream?" Iroh voiced confusedly, making Azula smile sadly..
"Why would seeing me be a dream, Uncle? It could be a nightmare." Azula said as she sat down on the cold floor of the chamber, she wondered how her uncle endured sitting on this floor all this time.
"As much as you might think otherwise, but looking at you has always been a pleasant sight for me, My niece." Iroh said sweetly.
"Can't say the same for you. To be fair, I've always hated you, Uncle." Azula stated bluntly.
Iroh looked down with a sad smile on his face, "I know.. I don't know what i've ever done to deserve such treatment, but it seems like i am not going to live for much longer, so whatever it is, i beg your forgiveness." Iroh asked regretfully,
Azula looked so confused of the statement, she opened her mouth and closed it a couple of times, What should be her reply to this ? Should she comfort him before his execution ? Or should she lash out at him and tell him why she hated him, Eventually she chose the latter..
"You don't know what you've done? Oh.. You don't know what you've done?!" Azula started, making Iroh visibly flinch from her tone.. "You and my mother were the worst two creatures in my life ! You've never cared about me, and always saw me as a monster.. You've always loved Zuko more than me, and that was the main reason i hated my brother for as long as i did.. BECAUSE OF YOU !" Azula stopped herself from shouting any longer, it was too risky but at the same time, she couldn't just hold it in any longer.
"Hated?" Iroh asked after Azula stopped, and she looked at him confusedly.
"Hated what?" She asked.
"You said 'Hated' your brother for as long as you did.. Does that mean you don't hate him anymore ?" Iroh questioned hopefully and Azula had to frown at his question.. Did she really stop hating Zuko ?
"Maybe.." she responded. Even after three months she was still confused concerning her new relationship with Zuko, Did she really start considering him a brother? A person to rely on and Love? She couldn't tell, but Iroh seemed to have caught on with her thoughts.
"Give it some time, Azula.. you're starting to get to know your brother again, not as bad of a person as you thought he was, right ?" Iroh asked, and Azula pondered the question for a bit.
"You know, Uncle.. i've never really considered Zuko a bad person.. I guess i was just jealous of him because he was that little sweet boy everyone likes who had mother's love and i am the monster no one likes.. Even though i earned the respect of everyone especially my father, i still wanted the only thing Zuko earned in his life, the love of my mother." Azula poured out her heart to her uncle, not sure why she did so, but the old man had a way with words.
"Zuko has always loved you.. When you two were little, he had always been fond of your abilities and skills, when i was teaching him Firebending, he would do moves that i've never taught him, and when i ask him why, he would always say 'Azula does it that way.', it made me quite jealous at times." Iroh finished with a grin, and Azula couldn't help but return it, she did miss the days when they were young and had no fear and no thoughts of what to come, No search for Combustion Man, No thoughts of saving her uncle before his upcoming execution, Nothing at all.
"I already have a lot on my plate to feel bad for, Uncle.. No need to put more pressure on me." Azula said, making Iroh give a chuckle but it was filled with weariness and sadness, she never imagined she would ever see her fun-loving Uncle be this way.
"We've always loved you, Azula.. We tried to make you see the right path but your father's influence has always been greater than ours, you are his child after all.. His prodigy.. And somewhere along the way you started thinking the same as your father, that achieving power and control is the only option." Iroh stated somewhat with a scolding voice.
"What did you want me to do ? Enlighten me with a better option that would keep my position and ensure that i don't end up like you and Zuko." Azula responded calmly.
"So you only follow your father because of your position and not because you love him ?" Iroh asked, She truly didn't know how to answer this,
Do i really love my father ? The man who murdered Aang, the man who imprisoned my brother, the man who wouldn't think twice before selling me out if I started getting lazy with my work ? Azula kept pondering the question without a visible answer.
"I don't know.." Azula answered, that's twice this day her uncle asked her a question she couldn't answer, what was happening to her mind ? She has always been the one to know everything..
"You've always been the quickest to grasp a situation, unless that situation is about Family." Iroh handed her the answer to all her questions, that's why she can't answer his questions, because they are about the only topic she never understood, Family.
"Oh and you are one of the spirits' angels with the wings on your back, Correct me if i am wrong, Uncle.. But aren't you the one who left the family for more than Five years, only returning when it's time for a ceremony ?" Azula fought back, narrowing her eyes, as much as she would try not to show it but her uncle's words about her lack of understanding of the concept of family have cut deeply inside her, her uncle looked down, sadness and uncertainty clouding his face, Azula thought he might be debating telling her the reason for his disappearance from the capital and taking residence in Ba Sing Se, and indeed it was.
"Your father killed my son." Her uncle said when he raised his eyes to meet hers, Azula was taken aback by her uncle's sudden outburst, she has always suspected her father would be behind such a thing, Lu Ten was loved by all, commons and nobles both, why would anyone think of killing him, unless there is a prize to it ? And her father was the only one who would claim a prize from Lu Ten's death, but those were all thoughts, thinking of something and confirming it are two different things.
Azula chose to defend her father, "I don't think my father would do such-" she was interrupted with a loud outburst this time,
"YOUR FATHER KILLED MY SON !" her uncle shouted with the roar of a dozen firebenders making Azula's push herself away from the cell a little, she has never seen Iroh this angry, and she thanked the spirits she wasn't the one causing this fury, Azula found it hard to find words after her uncle's outburst, she kept opening her mouth and closing it, until her uncle spoke again, this time more softly,
"I had to leave so not to let my fury take over me and take revenge on your father, revenge was the last thing i wanted and i know that if i did, the whole family would have been torn apart for good, and maybe another family will come and take charge of the firenation, as much as i hate it, sparing your father was the best option available, so i decided to leave, shove my pride aside and start fresh and it worked until that cursed ceremony." Azula was taken aback by her uncle's admission once again as she saw sincerity in his eyes,
As much as her father would claim otherwise, her uncle has always cared for the welfare of the family, that was the reason he left in the first place.
"I'm not sure how to respond to that.." Azula said, clearly distraught by all this new information.
Iroh decided to speak once again, "The hardest part about me leaving was that i left you and your brother to this monster, and it was even harder for me when i learned that Ursa disappeared from the capital a few weeks later, I knew he would do it, Ursa was not one to stand by while all this treachery and deceiving were happening." Iroh said.
Azula set her mouth agape as soon as Iroh finished the sentence, "What ?" Azula asked with a face that spoke volumes, she wasn't sure if she heard it right.
"Yes, That's the truth, your father eliminated your mother after she helped him ascend the throne, Your mother told me everything before i left the capital, Even after your father killed my son and made me heir-less, my father still refused your father's request to make him heir to the throne because he had you and Zuko, not just refused him, but ordered him to kill his own son, Zuko, as punishment for taking my loss to his advantage, when your father informed your mother of this, she saved Zuko by suggesting the alternative, an old and rare poison that would kill without showing any side effects making the victim look like he died naturally, and indeed they succeeded in their endeavor, but afterwards your mother kept threatening your father every time a fighting happened between them, i was still in the capital so your mother came to me, she confessed everything to me and asked me for protection, My anger overtook me after she informed me of her part in murdering my father so i refused to help her, and i left the capital immediately afterwards, a couple of weeks later i learned of her disappearance from a colleague of mine." Iroh finished, with an astonished Azula staring holes at him,
her eyes immediately watered and she felt all the weakness in the world, she couldn't respond, she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything except sitting on the ground staring at her uncle.
Iroh saw the look on Azula's face and decided to keep talking, "Your father isn't the man you think he-"
"SHUT UP !" Azula interrupted her uncle ferociously and the old man immediately shut his mouth, a few minutes later she stood on her feet with her uncle's eyes on her, and silently she walked out of the prison chamber, she kept walking with a neutral expression on her face until she reached a place outside the prison where nobody saw her, and she broke into a fit of sobs, Azula kept crying like it was her first time crying in years, had anyone been around, he would have heard her as her sobs were very loud for anyone to hear.
Her mother wasn't the monster she thought she was, she didn't leave her in her time of need, it was her father who drove her away, her heart telling her to avenge her mother and destroy her father, but her mind telling her that to keep her position, she has to rethink it, the fight between her heart and mind resolved in another loud fit of sobs, she kept at her spot crying until dawn.
She came to the prison still debating whether to save her uncle from execution or not, but now, she's debating doing actions that will not just help save her uncle, but Zuko, Toph and her family, and all the people who were threatened or imprisoned by Ozai as well.
A Rather short chapter, but one i intended to make to enforce Azula's character arc, and it will help me shape the coming events of the story.
I Hope you enjoyed it, until we meet again. Peace.
