Daughter of Hate

by Blutus Mindpretzel

The war is over. Azula's motives remain unknowable as her child stands to shake the foundation of everything built since the fall of Fire Lord Ozai. For Toph, Mai, Aang, Katara and the rest, the world is an even more dangerous place than it was when they were children. And despite being long since gone, Sasuke's impact continues to shudder their world, perhaps more than they know.

27. Chapter 27

AN: Phew, just cranked it out before going out of WiFi range. I had actually intended to push this out late last night, but this was a longer one, and I needed to make sure that I gave it a fresh look this morning as best I could. Anyways, just thrilled to have gotten it out as close to usual as I could. Hope you're all doing well and hope you enjoy the read!

Oh, and username Karu15, check your PM's when you get the chance :)

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Chapter 27: Azula

Feeling her body will consciousness back into itself, Azula slowly opened her eyes as she pulled in a breath of warm, yet strangely cozy air. She stretched feeling all the way to her fingers and toes before pushing herself into a sitting position on the rather stiff and squeaky mattress that she had been apparently lying on.

She blinked around at the timber walls around her and twisted her head to look out the room's one window from which dim light was streaming from; outside, it was a desolate expanse of white and grey, snow falling about what she realized was a very small and very deserted cabin.

A twinge of worry came to life in her gut as she wondered if she had been left alone in this place and she kicked aside the covers and leapt from the bed; Azula realized that she was dressed in very simple eveningwear, a light shirt and shorts over underwear from the feel of it. Amidst her dread, she felt a thought of excitement pass through her at the mere idea of Sasuke undressing her.

"Sasuke!" she called out, trying to keep a rising panic from her voice as she threw the bedroom door open. "Where are—"

As the wooden door banged against the wall, Azula felt relief flush through her veins like a cool spring breeze as she caught sight of Sasuke sitting at the kitchen table with his back to her. He was looking out the front window of their small lodging, seemingly oblivious to her noisy entrance into what looked to be the only other real room, attached to the kitchen as it was. Blowing out a relieved sigh, Azula allowed herself a moment to lean against the doorframe to look at him affectionately as a smile pulled up the corners of her mouth. Foolish though it was, she imagined if this was how it might be had he never left her all those years ago and married her as had been her deepest desire. Would this be what it would have felt like?

The fantasy continued to play out in her head for a minute or so longer before she pushed herself gently away from the wall and walked quietly up behind him. Her instinct was to reach for him and immediately make as much contact with his body as she could manage, but a few steps from where he sat, she paused in her approach and forced herself to think a moment.

Remember what he said about mother.

Even so much as thinking about Ursa in that moment was enough to cause disgust to drip through her insides and hate for the mother who dared claim to love her after what she had done. But still, when Sasuke was around her, he became as open and vulnerable as Azula thought he might ever manage around another person, and if he wouldn't just be rough with her which he clearly had difficulty not doing, this was going to be her best bet in trying to approach him.

Continuing to draw nerarer to Sasuke at a gentler pace, Azula smiled affectionately down at him.

Oh, Sasuke, you're so easy to manipulate, as easy as anyone I've ever known… but I want you to be happy, the same way you make me happy. And I'll do whatever I have to in order to achieve that.

Slowly reaching out, Azula ran a hand over his shoulder to gently ease her nails down his chest, scratching his body gently over his shirt. She tried to think of something nice to say, something that might be able to bring him some level of comfort.

"I like this…" she said softly, letting her feelings talk for her. "Just you and me."

His head moved just a hair in acknowledgement of her words.

"Oh?"

She bent down and nuzzled her nose against his ear, unable to keep from such a show of affection.

"It's all I've ever wanted," she whispered to him, letting the seductive and usual edge to her voice slither out as her hands gently moved over him.

"You didn't need to try and castrate one of your best friends if you wanted to spend some time alone with me," he replied, his voice a chilled rebuttal to hers. Azula pulled slightly away from him, and continued to smile at him, even as he continued to look out the window, acting utterly ignorant of her beyond his words.

"Oh, please, does that actually bother you?" she said dismissively, but there was a strange bubbling within her gut. "I knew the moment I heard you two together that she had forced herself on you; she's such a jealous creature."

Sasuke leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.

"The fact that you can't hear the irony in what you just said is… astonishing," he murmured and Azula straightened her back, crossing her arms as she did.

"Ty Lee has no purpose, no intent beyond grasping for comfort. What I've done, and what I continue to do is for the good of more than just myself."

"You'll forgive me for not believing that," Sasuke replied flatly and Azula tried to keep herself from getting wound up.

This isn't how it's supposed to go. He's supposed to crumple before my words, not the other way around.

Sasuke had always proven to be a pushover when Azula wanted him to be, but his overall demeanor in this moment seemed to be entirely unfazed by her.

"I understand your distrust of me," she said, somewhat carefully, even as she kept her voice as light as she dared. "But have you ever doubted my intent? I've tried to share it with you and help you understand, am I to be blamed for the way you've treated me even after all I've done to try and let you in?"

For a brief period, Sasuke fell silent, seeming to be very deep in thought.

"And did you ever once consider if I wanted to be let in?"

Feeling the old desperation that hid so consistently in the back of her head, Azula couldn't resist reaching out and grabbing his shoulder as she replied.

"What more do I have to show you, Sasuke? That we're meant to be together, you and me! We've made the most perfect, powerful and ruthless little girl and we can raise her to be even stronger than we are! We can be happy together, I know we can! Why won't you even just give me a—"

Azula wasn't able to finish her question as Sasuke rose from his chair faster than her eye could track and slapped her across the mouth. Her head whipped to the side at the force of his blow and she staggered, feeling a stinging pain as she slowly brought her hand up towards her face. Her eyes, widened in shock, looked to his and she saw him starting coldly at her with raw purpose in his dark orbs.

"Fine. Fine."

That was all he said before taking a step closer to her and punching her in the stomach hard enough that she retched and dropped to her knees. Her vision blurred briefly with pain as she heard his voice above her, still grimly cold.

"You, who measure everything by power, are going to try and tell me that I haven't been fair to you? After what you did to Ty Lee, who just wants your love in return, not this twisted labyrinth of violence you drag her through?"

Swallowing down bile, Azula managed to sputter out a reply.

"She's not—"

Sasuke threw his knee into her face and it erupted with a searing pain. Toppling back, Azula hit the ground as she clenched her eyes tightly shut while putting her hands over her mouth and nose.

"I didn't give you permission to reply," Sasuke growled and Azula felt a rush of nearly palpable excitement rush through her even as the pain continued to burn at her. There came a sharp agony in her scalp as he reached down and dragged her up by her hair, prompting her to cry out as he forced her back to her knees.

Yes… be forceful with me. Remind me how powerful you are, remind me why I'm so in love with you.

"But this is what you want, right?" Sasuke asked and slapped her again, bowing her body to the side. "You want to be hurt. You want it to be this way."

Azula heard a brief rustling as her head was yanked upright again by the hair and, with shock, she realized that she was eye level with Sasuke's sex. He must have pulled it free in that brief moment she had been bent down, and it was now just an inch or so away from her face.

She blinked as her mouth hung slightly agape. Azula never could have cared about Sasuke's size, but it was apparent even then that there was more size than she remembered there being when she had taken his seed all those years ago. And here it was again, and she couldn't believe that it was being willingly offered to her. After everything, after all of her certainty that Sasuke would come around, she still couldn't quite believe that this was happening. Feeling her pulse hammering and her cheeks flushed with excitement and lust, she risked a glance up at him as he continued to hold her in place by her hair.

"What do you think you're—"

As her mouth formed an 'o' shape, Sasuke took her hair by both hands and rammed himself into her mouth. He passed through her mouth in a split second and hit the back of her throat immediately; Azula's eyes teared up as they rolled to the back of her head and she brought her hands involuntarily up to his thighs to try and alleviate herself slightly as she gagged loudly, but Sasuke pulled out just as swiftly and hit her again. Bowing her head before him, Azula panted as her saliva dripped from her lips and pooled on the ground.

"I also never said you could touch me," Sasuke added before yanking her head up again sharply and repeating the process. This time, he never fully removed himself and simply drove himself in and out of her mouth, his sex always rebounding against the back of her throat. Azula obediently kept her hands to herself as she could only gag and choke, desperately pulling for breath as tears streamed down her face. It hurt, it was uncomfortable, and she was barely able to stay conscious.

And Azula was loving every second of it.

After a couple minutes of this, Sasuke withdrew and shoved her backwards roughly, causing her to collapse to the floor, choking and gasping for air as his juices and her saliva spilled from her mouth though she tried to swallow as much as she could. She blinked the tears from her eyes and looked up to see him standing above her, staring down with disdain.

"Get up," he said quietly and when she didn't move for even a single second, he moved forward and stepped on her stomach, putting most of his weight behind it. Azula gasped in pain and nearly grabbed his ankle to try and stave off some of the agony before remembering his command and letting her hands fall uselessly back to the ground.

"Get up," he repeated and as he pulled his foot back, Azula scrambled to get to her feet and stood before him, panting and wincing. She looked him in his eyes as she wondered what he thought of seeing her face after it had been so thoroughly ravaged by him. Sasuke was silent for a long while as Azula felt her heartbeat against her throat before he stepped slowly towards her until the distance between them was inches at most.

With equal suddenness to his earlier movements, he reached out and ripped her shirt clean off her body, leaving her standing before him topless save for her bra.

"Remove that," he ordered in a quiet and cool voice, and Azula couldn't help shivering at this persona he was emitting as she complied, the article of clothing falling to the floor. Sasuke looked down at her breasts and she followed his gaze before a swift uppercut nearly lifted her off her feet and she staggered, head spinning.

"Eyes forward," he snapped and Azula quickly straightened as her jaw surged with pain, starting forward at him as he returned his gaze to her chest. She could see his arms moving in her peripheral vision and there was a pregnant, seductive pause before his fingers clamped tightly down on her nipples which were well hardened to begin with. It took all her effort to keep from throwing her head back and moaning loudly and Azula had to settle for biting her lower lip almost hard enough to draw blood. His touch was so incredible and perfect, and she couldn't quite keep from shivering again. Sasuke didn't punish her for this movement as he gave both her nipples a sharp tug before releasing them, and Azula let out a quiet gasp at the sensation. Moving his cold eyes back to her, Sasuke regarded her a moment before shaking his head.

"You're pathetic," he uttered before walking around to stand just behind her. His hands moved around her body and wrapped around her breasts, massaging them roughly and Azula finally couldn't keep from moving and she leaned back into him, moving her upper body in rhythm with his gripping.

"Please…" was all she managed and Sasuke released a noise of derisive amusement.

"You want to be mine? I'll show you what that takes."

His hands moved back to her hair and he dragged her roughly back into the bedroom. Throwing her into the bed, Azula had barely hit the mattress before his hands had ripped away her lower clothing down around her legs and flung it aside.

"Hands and knees," his voice came again, still nothing but authority in his tone. Azula swiftly complied and leaned back, making sure he had as good a look at her rear as he could have asked for. Her mind was racing and she realized she couldn't quite believe this was finally happening. All of her struggles and efforts to achieve this, all of the countless minutes she had spent glaring at her mother, or Mai, or Toph, or whomever else was threatening to steal him away, and she was finally being rewarded.

Claim me… yes, Sasuke, take me, own me, hurt me, beat me like I'm nothing more than your slave, I want this more than anything.

She felt his weight shift onto the mattress behind her and ran her tongue over her lips to put his taste back in her mouth as she gave her rear a slight shake. Her fingers dug into the covers as she slowly wrapped her mind around what was actually about to happen.

Yes… yes!

His hands gripped her waist and he sheathed himself inside of her without a word of warning, pushing himself all the way in so that his waist clapped against her ass. As he hit her cervix, Azula's eyes bulged, her back arching sharply. Her mouth flew open and it was only because she was so out of breath that she kept herself from screaming, a heaving gasp instead issuing from her mouth. Her walls seized around him, as her own sex quivered spastically; fortunately, her swift arousal in the minutes previous had wettened her and that mixed with her saliva had allowed him relatively smooth entrance, but the width of him and the depth to which he reached had practically paralyzed her.

Sasuke remained where he was, buried within her, his hands gently massaging where they were holding her waist.

"What's the matter?" he inquired, and his voice had suddenly grown so soft and seductive that Azula couldn't keep from whimpering at even just his tone. She could barely form any semblance of words, let alone a coherent thought.

"You're… so deep…" she managed, panting hard; Sasuke didn't reply to this but after several seconds of holding her there, he pulled back and hit deep within her again, forcing a loud cry from Azula's throat as her body rocked from the thrust.

"Is that all?" he asked and she heard that his voice had returned to its cool and steadied tone. "I thought you were the great Princess Azula. Surely you're not tapping out already."

It took Azula a moment to force the words out with how breathless she was, and she nearly choked on them trying to speak before she was ready.

"No, no, no, don't stop, please, don't stop! Hurt me as much as you want, I'm yours, I'm yours, Sasuke, do anything you want with me, I just want this so bad, I'll take it, I'll take it all…"

She trailed off and looked back at him over her shoulder desperately.

"Please, baby," she tried, hoping a pet name might even further his understanding of her plight. "Please, just—"

With another enormous, sharp gyration of his hips, Sasuke pumped into her again before leaning forward and slapping her hard enough that her head snapped back forward.

"Head down," he snapped. "If I'm going to fuck you like the animal you are, you need to know your place."

"Yes," Azula whispered, lowering her head to look towards the mattress per his order. "Anything you want."

With that, Sasuke started to pound her harder and faster, and Azula started to lose her grip on reality as a whole. Her mind devolved into a state of just devouring as much pleasure as she could handle, and then some; she squealed and screamed and moaned as he rocked her body with every movement until he reached down to grab both of her breasts to pull her upright as he buried himself as deeply in her as he could in that position. Azula threw her head back, leaning it against his shoulder as he clenched her already tender mounds in his hands and she soaked his cock with what would be the first of many orgasms she knew she would experience. She remained there, her back arched, resting against him as she reached back with a hand to grip his head, feeling her fingers run through his black, soft hair.

"Sasuke…" she breathed and he responded by giving her a hard bite at the base of her neck, she groaned as he quietly replied in turn.

"What is it?"

She swallowed before daring to ask, "Please… please let me ride you."

Though she imagined that this might be a touchy thing to ask him considering that he had seen her riding him in her memory when he had probed into her mind, she figured that the worst case scenario is that he would hit her for even daring to ask, which she found exceptionally appealing in its own right.

"Hmm… I think maybe if you asked properly, I'd let you."

For a moment, Azula's mind buzzed blankly before the answer fell into place.

"Sasuke, please let your slave worship your cock by riding it, please let me pleasure you with my body; I'm yours to fuck, I'm yours to hurt, I'm whatever you want me to be."

The words only caused the excited throbbing within her to heighten, though Sasuke didn't move behind her or say anything for a long moment. Then, one of his hands moved to her throat and he held her there tightly, just barely allowing her the capacity to full in shallow, painful breaths of air.

"Who are you?"

It took her several seconds before she was able to gasp out a reply.

"Princess Azula…"

His grip tightened even further and she felt her eyes rolling back.

"What are you?"

Her hands began to scramble at him frantically as blurriness started to overtake her vision, but he swatted her attempts to relieve herself aside, clearly waiting for an answer. Azula wasn't sure she would be able to give him one before she passed out, but with a great, heaving effort, she heard her voice whisper hoarsely.

"Your… slave."

Sasuke released her and she fell forward onto the bed, sucking in great gulps of air and coughing all the while. Beside her, Sasuke lay down while she cleared her vision, his sex curved ever so slightly and directed towards the ceiling. After a few seconds, he swatted her ass hard with a loud smack.

"I'm waiting, slave."

As though possessed, Azula drew her still somewhat limp body up and crawled on top of him. Like it was meant to be, her opening found his cock seemingly on its own and he slid back inside her with a sensual and overwhelming feeling. Putting her hands on his chest, she pushed herself up and arched her back again, allowing him to reach deep inside of her; releasing a long and feminine hum of pleasure, Azula started to rise and fall on his length, still, still trying to wrap her head around that she was actually able to do this. Sasuke put his hands back behind his head, watching her intently and only moving to occasionally reach up and fondle her breasts which only further increased the pleasure that was ramping through every ounce of her being. She moaned and talked through the entire experience, making sure he knew just how much she lived to worship him and how incredible serving him felt, the very act of talking this way to him causing her body to tingle all over even more so then it already was.

It was impossible to describe, even in her own head, how incredible and liberating it felt. It was physical pleasure unlike anything she had ever experienced on her own or with Ty Lee before, to the point that her body rocked again and again with climax, but even as she drenched his sex and waist, there was so much more to this.

She had won. She had finally won. Sasuke was hers.

Azula had told herself that Soza had been enough of a victory, and she supposed that given different circumstances, she would have had to have been. She had secured a piece of Sasuke that would not only never be apart from her, but would also live on as her successor, powerful and worthy to carry on her will and motives.

And then he had come back.

He had come back to her.

It had been years and years since Azula had told herself that she was over him, ready to move on and accept that Soza was the height of what she would ever have obtained from him. True, she thought about him plenty, while zoning out during boring, irrelevant meetings and flaunty parties in the Fire Nation, alone when she masturbated, even when just holding her daughter and stroking her hair fondly. But there had always been that reality that she had imposed on herself that she was going to be happy living her life without him. She had fallen into a groove of spending time with her daughter, pushing Fire Nation influence where she could, and going off on the missions that Zuko was willing to unleash her on to get her fix of violence and to just let loose. Ty Lee was there when she needed pleasures of the flesh and her plan to use Toph to build Soza into a more powerful person was well underway, and Azula knew full well the fear that her name and presence commanded. She had started to believe that she was happy.

But then, when she had heard his name from that soldier in Ba Sing Se, not even a month ago, everything had changed again. Just as it had when he had burst into her life, saving her from her father and humiliating her after she challenged him to an Agni Kai. And then she had seen him and Azula had fallen right back in love.

He had accused her of not knowing what love was, but Azula knew that her love couldn't be compared to that of some normal, weak person, nor defined the same way. Sasuke made her imagine a world where she was whole, where she was free.

And now, as she looked down at him lustfully, her breasts rising and falling to the rhythm of her bounces, sweat glistening on both their toned bodies, she was finally experiencing what that might feel like.

---

Azula opened her eyes and found herself once again in the small plain bed, resting on her side and feeling like she had just finished running a marathon. She must have fallen asleep at least for a spell because it seemed to be a touch later in the day given the light coming through the window. Rolling onto her back, she winced at the soreness between her legs and on her chest and back, but immediately smiled when she felt the hardened texture on her stomach that had been left by one of the climaxes that Sasuke had given her. Immediately, she knew she hadn't been dreaming and her heart soared.

Sasuke himself was sitting on the edge of the bed near her feet, back hunched as he rested his chin on his laced knuckles, elbows on his thighs. Her heart swelling all the more at even just seeing him in such close proximity to her, Azula's smile widened as she sat slowly up; her hand reached out and she slid her fingers through his hair, nails digging gently into his scalp.

"Thank you," she said warmly to him and Sasuke let out a grunt.

"For what? Hurting you?"

Hearing the pain in his voice that he was clearly trying to hide caused Azula to grin even further with excitement. Finally, she had a chance to be the one to comfort him, to be there when he was wallowing in his misery, to make him feel better and in turn pull him closer to her. Getting to her knees and scooting just behind him, Azula pressed her lips to the top of his head while holding both his shoulders gently.

"You gave me what I wanted, Sasuke," she whispered softly. "You weren't afraid to take what is rightfully yours and…"

She trailed off before finishing that thought. It was not lost on her that she was still playing a very fragile game and implying that Sasuke had accepted that they were right for one another, as she had been about to, might very well throw her entire plan into disarray, if she didn't play it as safely as she could.

"I'm glad you brought me out here," she chose instead to say, trying not to drag her fingers over his body more in pure ecstasy over having him in her clutches. Nuzzling her face gently through his hair, Azula waited on edge for him to say anything in reply.

"I'm glad too," he said then, and her heart about stopped. Closing her eyes, she felt tears leak from her eyelids in utter relief alone.

"I love you," she said, her voice barely a breathe and while he didn't reply, he brought a hand up to his shoulder to grip hers tightly.

They stayed that way for a long while as Azula fawned down at him, relishing every bit of his body she could touch. Sasuke didn't seem overly receptive beyond holding her hand, but he never made even the slightest move to push her away either. Lost in her joy, she realized that something like a half hour might have passed before Sasuke spoke again, softly pulling away from her and getting to his feet.

"I think… it's time we head back," he said with a tired air of finality. Azula leaned forward, feeling urgency in her bones as she peered at him with wide eyes.

"Then… that was what this was all about?"

He still didn't seem to feel comfortable looking her in the eye, and she wanted so badly to reach for his hand as he stood just out of reach from her, staring out into the grey.

"Yes… that was it."

Though she would have been so thrilled to hear him say the words exactly as she knew them, Azula knew that even just this single admittance was victory enough. The fact that Sasuke had gone to this extent to determine how he felt about her, and for it to be known to her now that he did in fact truly care for her make her felt like she was soaring through the skies.

Pushing her sore body to the edge of the bed and slinging her legs over the side of it, Azula winced slightly as she stood; Sasuke heard her struggles and reached out to help her stand. Anyone else and Azula knew she would have bitten their head off for assuming she wanted their assistance, but feeling Sasuke's hands on her as she stood before him naked was just another layer of perfection to the moment that she was still so enraptured in. She let him hold her as she rested her head against his chest and a shiver ran up her spine as his fingers slid from where they were supporting her at her side to down her back and to her rear, where he gently groped at her. As his fingers dug into each cheek, Azula started to softly gyrate her hips, pushing back against his grip and enticing him to fondle her harder than he was.

"I'm ready again, if you want me," she whispered to him and she her body suddenly seized as his fingers prodded at the opening that he had not been using for his pleasure in the hours previous.

I'd… I'd never thought he'd want to try it there…

Still, the idea of doing anything with him sexually was heaven enough in her head and she started to moan for him, whining as he massaged next her rear's tight pucker.

"Maybe next time," he said and Azula felt her heart sink.

"Why?" she asked before she could force herself to be patient. "I told you, you can use me whenever you want, however you want."

"I know," Sasuke said, and to her surprise, he kissed her. Her eyes widened for just a moment before she let them flutter shut and threw an arm around his neck. Their lips worked against one another for several long seconds before he started to pull away, though Azula resisted. When he did work himself free, she was thrilled to see that he was smiling.

"But our ride is nearly here, and you should probably not be naked for the ride back."

Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, Azula saw that the carriage that had brought them to the cabin could be seen as a small smudge off in the distant white of the landscape.

"Perhaps not," she replied and gave him another quick few pecks on the face and neck before moving back towards the bedroom where her change of clothes was, making sure to walk slowly enough that he could get a good eyeful of his prize before she was out of sight.

Azula took a wet sponge to her body before getting dressed, and both feats surprised her by how difficult they were with her aching body. She wanted quite badly to ask Sasuke to help her, but the other side of her mentality that didn't want to show him too much weakness kept her from doing so. Minutes later, she had changed back into her usual outfit, doing a quick bit of work to her hair, though she knew it would require more time and she was content just placing it behind her in a ponytail. By the time she was finished, the carriage was outside and she and Sasuke boarded it without a word.

She was thrilled when he didn't resist her as she sat on the side that he had taken, though she wasn't sure if she ought to get much closer than that. At least, that was until he reached around with an arm to wrap around her shoulders and pull him to her. Azula, her heart skipping with every second that passed, leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder as he followed suit by resting his own head against hers. Putting a hand on his chest, she waited a couple minutes before she was able to gain the courage to ask, "Can it always be this way?"

In the back of her head she had known that there would come a reckoning for this when it was revealed to the rest of the group that she and Sasuke were together, and she didn't know if he was going to want to hide this. Surely he would want to considering what it would mean for Ursa and Toph and Mai and—

"Of course," Sasuke said and not for the first time since their trip had begun, Azula was left speechless.

"What do you mean?" she finally asked, her voice somewhat hoarse.

"I won't hide the fact that I love the mother of my child," Sasuke said softly and she could hear the weight of his words and sense the fact that just saying them hurt him to some extent. She supposed that if he did have feelings for any of these others, this surely was the cause, but it didn't matter.

He said he loves me.

Tears leaked from her eyes again, her relief flooding over her like a waterfall. She didn't need to say anything else and neither did he as Azula pushed even more against him, pushing her affection on him as much as she could. It didn't matter what anyone else thought; Sasuke loved her and she loved him. Azula would pulverize anyone who dared try to come between them, and she would protect him the same way she ferociously protected her daughter. He didn't need it physically, but she knew that he was a kinder person in his heart and he would likely struggle if her mother or someone else tried to ensnare him back into their grip.

I love you.

Resting against him, Azula felt her mind start to drift away as exhaustion overtook her, and she fell asleep, looking forward to dreaming of walking up to the group, hand in hand with Sasuke and laughing as she received looks of shock, devastation and hurt.

She wanted them to hurt.

They deserved it.

---

It was the sound that roused Azula from her slumber and she felt her brow furrowing blearily in confusion. Having grown up in the Fire Nation royal palace, the sound of soldiers performing stand marching procedures was as engraved in her head as her own voice, having heard it more times than could have ever been feasibly counted.

So why… why do I hear it now?

She opened her eyes and sat up.

The scene was not what it should have been. Her mattress was large, exceptionally comfy and with a large ornate frame. The bedroom was a rich and deep red color with exquisitely detailed pillars lining the edges of the room itself which was quite large. Two massive open windows were on either side of the bedframe, the curtains flapping gently as a breeze coming in from outside tossed them lazily about. It was then too that Azula realized the air was much more to her taste, warm and temperate, not that dry, frigid awfulness that was the Northern Water Tribe. As she pulled herself straighter up, she noticed she was wearing very fine nightwear as well, of fine silks and laced edges. Everything about her waking and the setting she found herself in was perfect.

Almost, anyway.

I shouldn't be here… I was just sleeping against Sasuke!

His name sent a chill through her.

Where is he?!

His name was on the tip of her tongue, ready to be desperately shouted when one of the side doors that led into the bedroom opened.

"Still in bed at this hour?"

Sasuke walked into her room, but the sight of him tied her mind in knots. He was dressed in rich, maroon robes with yellow highlights, striping down the center over his chest and along his sleeves, and Azula realized that he was wearing clothing traditional of Fire Nation royalty. His hair was still spiked and slightly messy, but it somehow complimented his attire quite well.

His expression further bemused her; there was none of the hesitation, the uneasiness, the worry behind his eyes that she had seen before, the sort of almost distance that he seemed to keep from her in just his eyes alone. He wore a pure, genuine smile, his eyes dancing with mellow happiness as he looked at her; as Azula stared dumbfounded at him, his smile softened.

"What's the matter?" he asked, approaching her bedside. "Bad dream?"

"I…" Azula stuttered. "I don't…"

She looked around, once again analyzing the room as though expecting it to have changed before looking wildly back to him.

"Where are we? Why aren't we in the Northern Water Tribe?" she demanded and Sasuke's brow furrowed.

"Honey, we haven't been in either Water Nation for years."

Azula wasn't sure what was knocking the breath out of her more just then, the fact that her surroundings as well as Sasuke's attire and words were denying all premise of the reality she had known until only recently, or the fact that he had just called her 'honey.'

"Must have been quite the nasty dream," he remarked and sat down beside her. Before she could say anything, he had pulled her into a hug, kissing her forehead.

"…Dream?" she murmured against him and he chuckled softly.

"Oh dear, is my angel of a Fire Lord having some memory trouble?"

It was starting to get too much for her, and Azula found herself pulling away from Sasuke, something she would have thought herself unable to ever do.

"Fire Lord?! Where's Zuko?!" she nearly shouted and Sasuke's smile faded away into a look of genuine concern. He put his hand on hers and squeezed if gently.

"Azula, you banished Zuko, over five years ago now."

Feeling almost dizzy at what she was hearing, Azula dropped back against her pillow, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

"Banished?"

Sasuke started to rise from the bed, looking more concerned by the moment.

"Why don't you just lie there and rest your eyes, I'll go get the doctor and she can—"

"No!" Azula shouted, suddenly sitting up poker-straight again. She could tell her sharp words and movement had only worsened Sasuke's overall perception of her and she cleared her throat softly.

"No," she repeated in a much calmer tone. "Just… I did have a pretty terrible dream. If you could just… tell me what's happened since we were in the Northern Water Tribe those five years ago, I'm sure that would help clear my mind and wake me up, I still feel rather caught up by my head."

Sasuke looked at her a moment before sitting down slowly again beside her.

"Of course, my love," he said and gave her a small kiss before leaning back and letting out a sigh.

"Well, a little after we came out as being together, I was given the information necessary to allow me to close of the spirits access to this world. After that, with you by my side, I slipped back to Ba Sing Se and killed Kyoshi and began the process of routing the other spirits. You and I were declared heroes and your own nation rallied behind you when you chose to overthrow your brother and take the throne. You had him banished then, along with the Avatar, Katara, Sokka, Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors before sending Yue back to the Water Tribe to act as a consulate. You've been Fire Lord ever since and we married in conjunction with your coronation."

Azula slowly drew her hand up and noticed a shimmering band of gold around her ring finger.

We… married.

An intense, enormous throbbing moved its way through her gut then at the idea that this could be true, but it still wasn't quite enough to fully force the crazed reality of the situation from her mind.

"What of my mother? And Toph? Mai and Ty Lee?"

Sasuke turned his head towards the door as though expecting to see someone.

"Mai and Ty Lee are likely in the palace right now, they're fine," he assured her, looking back and reaching to gently stroke her cheek. "Ursa and Toph were both banished as well, though separately from the others."

There was a very strange twinge in the back of her head at what he said and though Azula could tell that he was telling the truth, there was more to it then perhaps he knew. How she knew that, she wasn't sure.

"Soza?" she asked quietly, hardly daring to ask, and Sasuke chuckled.

"Our daughter is out running drills with the shocktroopers right now. You can go see her of course if you'd like; the servants tell me you carved out some time for yourself late this morning, but I'm sure you'd be able to at least say hello to her before doing whatever it is you have planned."

Azula forced herself to take slow, calming breaths even as it still felt like she was going to pass out. There was so much going on in her head that she couldn't even figure where to start as far as what she wanted to think about.

Me and Sasuke… our daughter… my mother, Toph, out of the picture. And… I, not my brother, am Fire Lord.

With that, a flush of pure, unadulterated bliss started to well up within her, as she felt her lower lip quivering. She blinked and looked up at her husband with a glee that she almost couldn't control.

"Would you help me get dressed?" she asked with a widening grin and Sasuke smiled in relief down at her.

"That's better. Your smile will never not light up my day."

He kissed her and helped her to her feet, moving to a wide wardrobe to obtain her royal garb. Biting her lower lip as her mind continued to race in excitement, forcing her to believe what she was hearing, she pulled off her light and loose nightwear, dropping it around her ankles and leaned over the bed, holding herself up by her hands and arching her back just slightly to push her ass into the air. She swayed just slightly as she heard Sasuke close the wardrobe and walk back to her; hearing his footsteps stop, Azula waited with bated breath as he tossed her clothes onto the bed without a word and stood behind her in silence. Moments passed and just before she was about to open her mouth to beg, he complied with her silent wish.

Mounting her, Sasuke made love with her for several long and euphoric minutes as Azula practically drooled onto the mattress. Somehow, she knew that this was something she had done many times over as her insides seemed more accustomed to Sasuke's size, though he still brought her to a pair of quivering, sensual orgasms. He finally grunted shortly after her second and she felt a vast warmth spill inside of her; as he panted and regained control of his breathing, Azula pushed back and forced him to bottom out within her. They stayed that way a while longer before she snatched up her clothes and dressed herself.

"What was it I had planned again for today?" she asked as she sat in front of a spotless, ornate mirror to look herself over with makeup and work on her hair.

"I'm not certain," Sasuke said as Azula made short work of her rather disorderly hair, getting it neatly into place as she had done so many times before. "I only found out when I heard from your servants."

As her mind continued to secure its grip on this new reality, Azula could feel in even just her base feelings that there was indeed something she knew she had wanted to make sure she did that morning. Not knowing so much was certainly making her anxious to a point, but if things were literally as heaven as they seemed to be, it would no doubt be yet another lovely surprise that only seemed to build and build on top of one another. As she finished her hair, gently moving her head back and forth to make sure her makeup was spotless, Azula realized she actually felt somewhat sick in the pit of her stomach, an adverse reaction to feeling so much joy and anticipation. It was unlike anything she knew she had ever experienced, and she didn't want it to end.

"Well then," she said briskly as she got to her feet and turned to smile at her husband.

Husband.

The word alone would have been enough to make her insides sing with happiness.

"Shall we?"

Sasuke inclined his head with a smile of his own and extended an elbow as he stood near the man entrance to the chambers. Azula approached him, looped her hand around his arm and they walked through the large, looming door together.

The palace was just as Azula remembered it from when she had been there last, dimly lit, full of rich dark colors and, just as she preferred it, full of people who were more than willing to bow as she passed. Somehow, they seemed even more respectful of her than she remembered them ever being before; as they passed a gaggle of servants who looked to be taking a break, their eyes all bulged at the sight of her and they fell to their knees, palms down as they pressed their foreheads to the floor. Had she not been in such a good mood, Azula would rather have liked to stop and enjoy herself with perhaps a couple of them and really show them what it meant to fear for your life.

But I am the Fire Lord. Married to the most powerful man our world has ever seen.

"What of the other nations again?" she asked lightly to Sasuke as they continued down the hallways towards the center of the palace. The last thing she wanted was to make him think that she was still in a place where her memory was absent of her, so she posed it as almost a joking question while continuing to smile, making sure not to look like it was something she desperately wanted to know. While they walked, he pushed up next to her affectionately as he responded.

"Water and Earth submitted to your will long ago, my lord," he said, a touch of joking in his voice, but the respect and adoration was more present than anything, and Azula felt a tingling spread all the way to her toes.

Sasuke, husband, Fire Lord, domination.

Words that held more meaning to her then they ever had before swirled about in her head and more than once, Azula wanted to relinquish his hold and just lean against the wall to keep her joy and disbelief from causing her to black out. She knew for a fact that she had never felt this happy in her entire life and her single, stinging regret was wondering why she couldn't remember more and why her last thoughts had been to a time years and years prior.

It will come back to me. I know this is real now, I know it.

Deep in the back of her mind, the dark corner where doubt resided kept leering at her, silently suggesting that this was still all a dream, but all evidence was to the contrary. Azula had taken her fingers to her own arm well more than once since she had awoken and tried to pinch or scratch herself enough to the point that her mind would have woken her from a dream, had that been what this was. Still to that point, Sasuke taking her while she was bent over should have been well enough physical stress to spring her awake, but Azula didn't need any of that truthfully to know that she wasn't locked in her own head.

Everything about her current state screamed of the hard reality she had woken to; no dream could ever have felt this lucid, no dream could ever have tricked her into feeling such a sense of reality. Nothing was amiss, no strange bits of impossible space or matter that indicated this was just her mind recreating something within the throes of sleep. All her senses were in perfect working order and she was in complete control; if she had wanted Sasuke to start making love to her again right there in the middle of the palace, she had the power to dictate that. If she wanted to casually blast aside any servant who remotely got the bad side of her attention, she could do so. And had she wanted to break down and start crying with joy, she could have gone right ahead and—

Pfft, cry? What reason have I for tears any longer?

They pushed into the second floor of the main entrance hall where two curved staircases wrapped around the sides of the room to lead down to the main floor, and Azula was greeted by a most gratifying sight. Directly in the center of the massive room that towered up well over a hundred feet, there was a statue of herself and Sasuke, seemingly carved out of obsidian. The black and imposing monolith seemed to cast its shadow over the entire room and Azula looked at the depiction of herself and her husband, side by side; they stood shoulder to shoulder, close enough that the giant likenesses could have kissed, but they still exuded an aura of such power and menace that Azula was nearly overcome just looking at it.

"I knew they were around."

Azula blinked her eyes away from the statue as she turned her gaze back towards the ground at Sasuke's words. Somewhat near to the base of the magnificent effigy, both Mai and Ty Lee were standing and talking to one another, both of them looking completely content. Very strangely, Azula thought, she felt the sudden and craving urge to run down the stairs to the pair and throw her arms around them. Her brow furrowed at the needlessly and foolishly affectionate act she had just briefly considered and instead squeezed her husband's arm and walked down the staircase at an appropriately superior and regal pace.

Mai and Ty Lee caught sight of her as she neared the bottom, and both turned sharply to face her. Straight backed and courteous, they bent at the waist at her approach, and Azula's smile only continued to widen.

"Girls, and how are we today?" she inquired, and noted the small flickers of surprise that seemed to pass over both of their faces at her words.

"We're doing well, your highness," Mai answered, a touch more politely then Azula might have guessed she would answer. But there was something very specific that she was looking for instead that she found she wasn't seeing.

Mai isn't so much as glancing at Sasuke.

Just another victory that Azula felt her heart soar in acknowledgement of. The idea of Mai knowing her place and not daring to try and impose anything whatsoever was something that Azula didn't even know she had ever once considered as a possibility.

"We are at your command," Ty Lee added to her left and the princess…

No. Fire Lord now.

…she looked at her friend curiously. It had taken her such a deal of time to try and force subservience on Ty Lee and the most recent memory she had of her friend was that of a night of debauchery with the love of her life, something Azula hadn't been able to properly punish her for.

But perhaps I did, in those memories that are still eluding me. If this is where I am now, with her bowing to me here and Sasuke at my side, I suppose there might be more to all this than I realize.

"I'd like to see you both in private this afternoon," Azula said curtly and they both nodded without a second thought, causing her to smile again. There was a test she was looking forward to performing, to see if her friends were truly as loyal as they seemed to be. She continued to look at them both for a few seconds longer before raising a hand carelessly and snapping her fingers.

"Very well. I'll be expecting you," she said simply before striding off with Sasuke still at her side It was another layer to her plan to not specify the time, to see if they might be impertinent enough to correct her for not telling them, or to instead see how they would handle such an ambiguous order. Azula was looking forward to seeing how that would play out.

"Where's Soza?" she asked of Sasuke who simply smiled and continued to escort her, guiding her with his arm.

They two of them stepped outside of the palace into a blisteringly hot day, the kind that made Azula's blood run hot with excitement. She wanted to get in a fight, or perform some executions, or come up with some series of absurd tasks for servants to perform so that she could punish them when they inevitably failed in their duties. After all, she was the Fire Lord now, and there was nothing off limits to her; she relished every low bow or kneel sent her way by palace officials, guards, soldiers, servants and whomever else crossed her path. She wondered if, since she really had seemed to have achieved the victory her father had strove for so long ago, any individual in any of the Four Nations would treat her with the same and appropriate amount of respect and fear she was receiving presently. Only two people should have been exempt from that, and one of them had her hand looped around his arm. And the other…

As they exited the palace grounds and moved towards the military academy directly beside the palace, which Azula noted seemed to have grown massively in size since she had seen it, she heard a voice snapping angrily out as they passed through the gate.

"…each and every one of you, worms! You disgrace the Fire Lord and your own nation with such a lackluster display, and you should be thankful I don't set the kimodo rhinos on you! Seriane, you call those sets?! Pick it up, or I'll have your children relocated; I'm not going to be responsible for a dead limb of this squad because your mind is on those little urchins your whore body pumped out instead of on the task at hand! And Rabel, you better start shitting me perfect spear throws or I'll make sure the last one you hurl winds up impaling you outside the academy!"

At first, Azula was nothing short of impressed by the diction and command of whomever was drilling what seemed to be a fresh batch of Fire Nation shocktroopers, given their armor scheme. But as they approached and she looked at the back of the young woman issuing the derogatory orders, she came to a complete halt.

Is that…?

Seemingly ignorant to her shocked state, Sasuke continued to walk, relinquishing her hold on him as he did, a humored smirk on his face as he sized up the young woman.

"Soza, haven't we talked about taking it a little easier on the fresh ones?"

Azula could only watch as the young woman turned around, looked at Sasuke, and her aggressive snarl flipped into an excited smile.

"Daddy!" she yelled out and rushed the short distance between them to jump into Sasuke's arms. "I missed you! When did you get back!"

He laughed as he held her.

"Just this morning. Just managed to get to your mother when she woke up and we decided to come give you a little hello."

Soza pulled away from Sasuke's arms, and Azula could only stare in stunned disbelief at who she now knew to be her daughter.

She had matured into a striking and powerful looking young woman with a deadly aura about her, even as she looked at her father almost gleefully. It was almost like looking at herself in a mirror were she to go back to her years of being a late teenager, Azula thought, save for those dark eyes and even darker hair she had clearly inherited from her father. There was so much she wanted to say, though not a single word made it to her tongue as her eyes say unblinkingly on the beautiful young woman before her.

Eventually, Soza turned to her and her smile, while not fading, became a touch more reserved and she inclined her head respectfully as opposed to the more enthusiastic way she had greeted her father.

"Mother," she said in an equally respectful tone to match her stance. "I hope the day finds you well?"

Azula didn't say anything for a few moments before she felt the question slip from her mouth almost too naturally.

"Why have they stopped?"

Behind Soza, the shocktroopers in training running their drills had paused their work to either catch their breath, or eye the three members of royalty out of the corner of their eye. Azula might have gone as far as blasting one of them as an example for the rest to threaten appropriately against slacking off or eavesdropping, but she wanted to know how her daughter would handle such a thing. She watched as her daughter's chest seemed to swell angrily, her mouth flipping into an angry scowl as her eyebrows furrowed intensely.

"Did I give you maggots the order to stop?!" she barked and every single one of the trainees practically leapt where they stood, and one of them dropped down to one knee to resume a weight lifting exercise. Soza walked over to the individual, stared down at them for a moment, and then slammed them in the gut with a ferocious kick. As they dropped to the ground, gagging and gasping in pain, she looked disdainfully down at them.

"I asked you a question, and you start hoisting weights like a street performer begging for loose change?! Were my words too much to understand?!"

With the trainee practically retching at her feet, Soza looked up to the rest of those surrounding.

"Now you have my permission to continue."

They complied without a split second of hesitation, including the one who had just been violently struck. Soza turned back to her parents, looking a touch sheepish.

"My apologies, mother. There is no excuse for—"

She was cut off as Azula closed the distance between them and pulled her daughter into a hug. They were nearly the same height and she was able to rest her chin on Soza's shoulder.

"I'm so proud of you, my little lotus," she said, her smile once again feeling as though it was stretching from ear to ear. As they pulled away from each other, Soza was still smiling sheepishly, with a slight flush in her cheeks now to boot.

"Thank you, mother. I hope everyday to further please you," she said, sounding a touch confused as though this sort of affection wasn't something she was used to. For a moment, the two women looked at one another before Sasuke chuckled and walked between them, putting an arm around each of their shoulders and drawing them into a group hug.

"I'm such a fortunate guy to have you both in my life," he said warmly and Soza playfully pushed him in the chest.

"Stop it, daddy, you're going to make mother sick."

Azula was finding she couldn't think of a single grouping of words she could use to express how she was feeling just then, but holding both Sasuke and Soza in her arms was about as immaculate a gift as she could ever have asked for. She could have remained there with them for a great deal longer but her husband pulled them all apart after a spell and kissed them both on the cheek.

"I was thinking we could go to The Embered Bull for dinner this evening, it's been a while since we all ate as a family."

Soza gave him a look.

"The Bull? Aren't they booked back like three months?"

Flashing his daughter a smirk, Sasuke ruffled her hair causing her to growl and swat his hand away.

"No establishment in the Four Nations would dare to tell us such a thing."

Reaching up and straightening her recently tousled hair, Soza smiled.

"I suppose you're right, that was foolish… I'll be there."

They both looked to Azula then, and she could think of nothing to do other than smile proudly at both of them before a voice rang out behind her.

"Your highness!"

Genuinely feeling ire that someone would dare interrupt what Azula very well thought might have been the happiest moment of her life, she whirled to see a short, younger woman in robes befitting only of those serving royalty approaching. She wore glasses that parted her shoulder length black hair, and she had the same sort of sullen expression that Mai always seemed to wear, though their was a tight grimness about this one that seemed even more gloomy.

"What?" Azula snapped as the woman approached; with a short bow, she replied.

"They're ready for you."

Her expression shifted then and her eyes flicked to Sasuke and Soza as though she had just misstepped and Azula looked to her family to see them both looking at her with an air of fake curiosity.

"So mysterious, isn't she, father?" Soza asked in a playfully mocking voice.

"Truly," Sasuke replied with a smile. "Maybe one day she'll clue us in."

Though her memory was still only coming back to her in bits and pieces, Azula became very aware of a certain dynamic that was a part of their lives: there were things she got up to that not even Sasuke or Soza knew of, and while they were playing it off as a joking matter, she could see the desire to know the truth buried behind their eyes.

What exactly is it that I'm off to do that they're so interested in, and that I wouldn't be willing to tell them about?

Her own curiosity then outweighed her mental querying then and she collected herself with a short sigh.

"Very well."

Turning back to her husband and daughter, she delivered kisses to them both, one to Sasuke's lips and another to her daughter's forehead.

"I'll see you both this evening, shall I?"

Somehow, she knew that whatever she was to be led to was going to be something that was going to take a while. It was a rather odd scenario she found herself in; things were coming back to her, but only in vague details, nothing specific. Just feelings and emotions that told her more about certain facets of her life without ever directly addressing them. Part of Azula hated the uncertainty, but the larger bit of it was a burning excitement. Surely there could be nothing that could bring her down now, not when she now knew how perfect her life was.

Sasuke and Soza both gave her smiles of confirmation and she gave them both a last fond look before turning to the aide that had come to escort her.

"Lead on," she said sharply and the shorter, gloomy looking woman complied. As they left the academy grounds, Azula couldn't resist looking back to where she could see both her child and her child's father smiling and talking away. To see them that way, to see them looking so content, that alone could have kept Azula's positive mood suspended for days on end.

While they walked, the desire to demand more information from this woman kept surfacing in Azula's mind, but there was something about the anticipation of what was coming that was playing with her insides in a very thrilling way. She knew already that this was something very important to her and something enough that she had even hidden from her family.

So why do I feel such… foreboding?

Nothing had changed about the day; the sun still shone high above, the heat of the late morning kept the air around her at an arid temperature, and she still could look around at the Fire Nation that she knew was nothing short of prosperous under her rule. Her memory would return in time, but she now was aware that the world had submitted to Fire Nation rule as it always should have and that there was nothing more for her to fear. Success and fulfillment had brought themselves into her life and she was at the peak of it all.

Yet still, there was a cloud that had settled over her day, not one that could be seen, but one that could be felt only by its shadow, looming and ponderous. Azula could feel it just at her back, the darkness it spread creeping up her spine to lick at her shoulders. What had driven this cloud to her now?

She followed the servant back into the palace and into a hallway where an unremarkable door was unlocked to open up to a narrow spiral staircase. Lit only by meager torchlight, Azula followed the small woman down what must have been several stories worth of steps until the staircase opened up into a vast maw of a room along which many doors were latched, heavy and sturdy with no light escaping from under their frames.

They continued to the end of the room where another door was unlocked and swung open, revealing yet another hallway, this one pitch black and rising with a musty smell. Azula could hear their footsteps echoing the further in they traversed, and nothing but silence beyond. She wondered how far they must have been beneath the palace at that point to be at a place where the temperature was so much less than what it was above and where it genuinely felt like a hole in the earth where no life could hope to exist. She couldn't fathom feeling fear, but there was a true uneasiness that was siphoning away the good mood that she had been feeling only minutes prior.

Nearly running into the gloomy looking servant as she stopped abruptly at last in front of a heavy door, Azula watched as the shorter woman fumbled with a set of keys yet again. As she found the one she was looking for, she jabbed it into the lock, speaking as she did.

"She's been unusually energetic this morning. We anticipate this is because her abilities still are poignant enough to feel above to the point that she can sense the presences of others, perhaps exacerbated because of how deep in the earth she is. And with your daughter being back near the palace as opposed to the forward operating base at the edge of the capital, we assume that her presence is what is causing the prisoner to act up. You said you'd like to visit her second, but I assume you'd at least like to see her before we move on."

The key twisted as Azula's mind started to race, her heart beating heavily, and the door opened with a ponderous and heavy creak.

It became clear that the doors were soundproof as the moment it was open even just a hair, muffled screaming could be heard. Unable to stand the mystery of it any longer, Azula shouldered past her servant and burst into the room, her eyes locking on its center.

The cell wasn't very large, enough to hold a large metal table within its center and a firepit in the back left corner. Two masked individuals were working around several devices and instruments that were clearly used for causing pain, holding them next to one another and speaking in low voices. Upon seeing Azula enter the room, they both leapt to stand poker straight, the taller of the two of them stammering, "Your highness, we didn't expect you this early, it was our belief you would be starting with the other…"

Azula ignored them both as she moved to the metal table and peered down at what rested upon it.

The person on it was bound with thick leather bindings, resting on their belly. Their arms were bounding behind them and their legs too, wrists being pulled back behind them to be harnessed to their ankles, allowing for very little in the way of movement. Another strip of leather was wrapped around their head to rest in their mouth, keeping them fully gagged, their black hair a tangled mess around them as blind eyes stared unseeingly forward with beads of sweat swimming down their temples past them. One of the pain inducing devices had clearly just been laid against a muscled leg that had clearly seen quite its share of burns and lacerations, as a fresh incision was opened, wrapping around in an arch with blood leaking from it.

Seeing Toph like this should have caused Azula to feel nothing short of utter joy, and she felt her mouth twist into a thrilled smile.

But there was something… a strange sense within her that was building that she couldn't identify.

"She's still been responding well to waterbending healing techniques," the sullen aide behind her said in a flat tone. "Ensuring she intakes proper food and water is more difficult, but we've managed. As such, she's ready whenever you are; would you perhaps like to start with her first today?"

It took Azula seconds before she even realized that she was being spoken to, with a question no less. As she looked down at Toph's bound and tortured body, watching it heave with pain and panic, watching her blind eyes flick frantically about, it was impossible to so much as register anything else. Her mouth was dry, her head light, so much excitement was abound in her that she didn't know quite what to even think.

And still, that… feeling...

"I think I'll see the other first," Azula said and was surprised at how quickly her body moved her from the room, her feet almost acting as though they couldn't wait to peel her away from the spectacle of Toph's bound form. And when the door closed behind the servant who followed her out, she suddenly started to realize what the feeling was.

Moving further down the hall, they reached the last room, an unremarkable door ahead of a plain stone wall, heavy and looming. It swung open as it unlocked and the inside of the room was completely black until the aide walked around with a torch pulled from the wall and lit a large lamp in the corner of the room.

It was larger in size than the one that had held Toph, taller too, but there were still a collection of instruments of torture scattered almost carelessly about the room. The only other thing within was its occupant, strung up by their hands which were bound above them, chains holding them stretched out.

"Will that be all?" the servant asked, though her words were only a whisper in Azula's ear. She somehow managed to wave a quivering hand in a gesture of confirmation and the shorter woman retreated from the room, saying something about how to let her know when she was finished before the door slammed shut, leaving Azula and the room's occupant alone.

It was quite possible that Azula could have stood there for hours without even noticing the time pass. The sight before her was enough to make her almost want to.

Her mother was completely naked save for the bindings on her wrists and the unused ones on her ankles. There was still the lean form and clear definition of muscles, but she was clearly thinner and her body revealed an entire host of reasons why. Scar tissue of all shapes and sizes, burn marks, and the darkened splotches from where bruising had clearly been dealt relatively recently was apparent and they only gave her mother a more pitying look.

As if Azula could have been asked to pity her.

There was no strange feeling in the back of her mind as with Toph that kept her from completely enjoying the sight and she forced her legs to move, walking in a slow and gentle circle around her mother's body, getting a closer look as she did.

Ursa's head was bowed, her eyes slightly open enough to reveal that she was awake, if in a state of exhaustion and defeat. There was little to no glow in her eyes, nor really any sign that she was even able to acknowledge that Azula was in the room with her. Her long hair hung around her face, framing it in its state of forgotten misery, a person lost to anyone who might have known her, and Azula knew exactly why it was that her family hadn't known of her leaving to partake in activities unknown to them. How could Soza ever know that her best friend was locked in the depths of the palace, being tortured, nor Sasuke, the woman whom he had once so desperately seemed to fawn over?

Azula's fingers felt like electricity was blasting through them, though no bending worked its way through her body as she walked around again behind her mother. She had been doing this for years perhaps, and yet it felt now to her with her stunted memory that things were only about to happen for the first time.

I want to know. I have to know.

Walking lightly over to a set of equipment, Azula's fingers curled around the handle of a whip with several notches numbered along its length. She pulled it back and gave it a small shake, letting it unravel as she turned to look at Ursa's suspended form; she walked forward to reach out and pull any loose hair over her mother's shoulders, ensuring that her back was totally bare as she stepped back. Azula thought she heard the smallest moan rise from Ursa's throat as she did and she looked at the scars, burns and bruises that covered her back. Clearly, a healer had been sent to work on her, but there was enough there that hadn't healed completely to know that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

I'll make it feel like it is.

Azula looked down at the handle of the whip in her hands and blinked slowly at it. Her dry mouth opened slightly and she couldn't quite even get the words out as a wave of anxiety rolled through her.

"Can you hear me, mother?"

There was no response, and Azula felt some disappointment at that, swallowed a small bit of her gut in annoyance. Drawing her arm back, she swung as hard as she could, hearing the whip whistle as it slashed through the air. With a resounding crack that echoed through the room, Azula watched as Ursa's back arched while a deep red line appeared on it and flecks of blood splattered the ground. No noise issued from her throat and Azula felt furious that the mere act of tucking her hair over her shoulder had caused her to make more sound than her swing.

"I asked a question," she hissed, almost feeling like she was saying it to herself more than anyone. "Can you hear me?"

She swung the whip again and opened up another deep laceration on her mother's back and again, Ursa's whole body shivered and bent at the strike, though no cry of pain sounded out. Though her nerves had been electrified and numb throughout the entirety of finding both of these women in the depths of the Fire Nation dungeons, Azula could feel frustration properly building within her, and even more so, a fluid and pungent anxiety that was starting to cause her to almost shiver.

Have I been at this for months? Years? To the point where a scream isn't even something that can be peeled from her?

Still, the fact that her mother was reacting at all to the strikes told Azula that she was aware enough to experience pain, and that indicated to her that she should be able to hear just fine as well, even if she wouldn't admit to it. Knowing that one of her most powerful weapons had always been her tongue, Azula waved her wrist almost lazily, letting the whip furl and unfurl at her side.

"I saw Sasuke this morning. He's just as perfect as I'm sure you remember when you tried to strip him away from me."

Pulling back her arm, Azula brought the whip down in a harsh overhead swing that drew blood from Ursa's shoulder down to her buttocks.

"But he's happy, and he doesn't even remember you. I asked him about you, you see, and he barely even seemed to realize he knew you. You never meant anything to him."

She swung again hard, and blood splattered the floor once more.

"You tried so hard again to undermine my life, to ruin me and I beat you at your own game. You saw Sasuke as another way to hurt me, to leave me abandoned, but I won. You never cared about him, but I did; I cared, and he saw through you and chose me. And now, I'm married to him and will love him for the rest of my life, no matter what's to come."

Her next strike caused Ursa's body to twist, arms seeming to strain against the restraints as yet another dark red line appeared on her back.

"And what of you? No one knows you're down here, no one even probably cares enough to pay you any thought at all. No one except me, the daughter you neglected and abandoned. I come to see you mother, to remind you of how I've risen above what you did to me, and what I—"

Just before she swung the whip again, she heard a softly whispered breath and she froze in place, her eyes widening.

"What?!" she very nearly shouted and she stormed up behind Ursa. "What did you say?!"

Seconds later and she was about to walk back to the distance she had been at to resume her cruel activity before a sound came hoarsely from her mother's mouth, a gentle and somehow comforting voice even with the strain and cracked nature it held. Words that should have meant nothing to Azula but yet somehow caused her insides to writhe the moment the struck her ears. The last thing she expected and the last thing she wanted.

Or at least, that's what she kept telling herself as the words seemed to echo in her head over and over again.

"… Azula… I'm… sorry…"

Retreating back to where she had been standing, Azula remained paralyzed in body and voice for what could have been a minute. The anxiety had somehow grown to overpower just about every other emotion she could have been feeling at that point, and she ground her teeth hard enough to be painful as she brought the whip back behind her.

"No, no, NO!"

She slung the blow as hard as she possibly could, the crack resounding loudly around the room as her mother's body seized again.

"I don't want your apology! You don't get to be sorry for what you did to me!"

The whip sliced through the air and drew blood once again.

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DID TO ME?! WHAT YOU STOLE, WHAT YOU DEPRIVED ME OF?! I, FIRE LORD AZULA, DOMINATOR OF THE FOUR NATIONS AND WIFE TO SASUKE?!"

Her next swing practically tore at her own muscles with how much effort she put into it and she listened to a building sound of maniacal laughter that she realized was bubbling from her own throat.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PICK HIM?! WHY ZUKO?! WHAT WAS SO MUCH BETTER ABOUT HIM THAN ME, WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO LOVE HIM AND NOT ME?! I WAS BETTER THAN HIM AND EVERY WAY, AND YET ALL YOU DID WAS IGNORE ME!"

Azula continued to cackle as she whipped her mother's back with a ravenous glee.

"I BEAT YOU! I DIDN'T NEED YOUR LOVE! I FOUND THAT I ONLY NEEDED MYSELF, TO FIND WHO I WAS ON MY OWN! I DIDN'T NEED ZUKO AND I DIDN'T NEED YOU!"

Blood began to pool at Ursa's feet as Azula felt sweat beginning to run down her face.

"YOU DECIDED TO LEAVE ME ON MY OWN, AND YET I PERSEVERED! FATHER TAUGHT ME EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW! YOU WERE NOTHING, JUST HIS WHORE WHO THEN TRIED TO STEAL SASUKE AWAY SO MANY YEARS LATER!"

It could have been any number of things, but as the swings grew to become more laboring on her arm with each strike, Azula realized through blurring vision that her laughter was actually the sound of her sobs, mingling with the whistling cracks of her whip.

"WHY DID YOU IGNORE ME?! WHY DID YOU HATE ME?! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!"

With another scream and a swing, Azula finally felt something break within her as her next blow brought out a ragged scream from her mother. Feeling her eyes bulge, she threw aside the whip and dashed in front of the strung up form of Ursa, viciously wiping aside tears as she grinned hungrily up at the tortured woman. She wanted to see that pain and that denial, that expression she knew she would see on her mother's face, this reserved hatred that Azula knew her mother had always bore for her, the same hate that she had struggled with for so many years of growing up. She wanted to finally hear Ursa admit just how she despised her, and to finally just know how right she had been to hate her mother right back.

But she looked up into the pale and exhausted face of Ursa and saw only an agonized smile as the older woman's eyes glistened with tears, her words a whispered vow.

"…I… love you… Azula… I always… loved you…"

As her arms started to shake and her knees quivered, Azula stared up at the emotion in her mother's face and saw only raw affection there. She stared a moment longer before her body couldn't handle it and she dropped to her knees, slamming her hands on either side of her head and screaming as loud as she could, not daring to look, not willing to believe.

No, no, no, it's not fair, it's not fair, I need this hate, I need this more than anything.

Her nails dug into her temples as she practically cowered at her mother's feet, feeling more powerless than the woman who was stripped, tortured and left forgotten.

SheneverlovedmeshecouldneverlovemeallIwantedwasforhertolovemeandsheabandonedmeshecan'tlovemeshecan'tlovemethesamewayshelovedZukohewasworthlesshewasworthlessIwasworthlesswhywhywhywhywhywhywhyWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY—

Fully intending to continue to beat Ursa until the truth as she knew it to be was revealed, Azula rocketed to her feet, blinking aside tears furiously and found that there was only dark.

It wasn't just dark around her, it was truly, completely black.

Continuing to blink, now fully in confusion, she reached out for where she knew her mother's body had been and found nothing but void. She could see her own body, but nothing else. Wondering if this was some trick being played on her, she backed towards where the door of the cell had been and found nothing there. She backed up further to give herself more room to reach and still could find no door.

She spun about in the darkness, looking about for anything she could use to ground herself in the truth that she hadn't just been forced into a world of pure nothingness, but even the ground beneath her was black; she didn't seem to be even standing on anything at all.

At some point, she realized she was running. Running and running and running until her lungs burned and her legs ached, but still she ran. And it felt like she could have been running in place for all the nothing that remained around her. The void should have been filling her with fear, but somehow, it was only anger that continued to force her onward.

When she couldn't run anymore, Azula collapsed and dragged herself along the ground until rolling onto her back and trying to catch her breath. She knew deep down what this was, the same way she had felt guilt when looking at Toph, the same way she had felt such anxiety looking at her mother.

"Is this how you're going to treat me Sasuke?" she asked quietly, to a black and empty space that stretched forever all around her. "After all I've done for you?"

No reply touched her from the dark and she pushed herself back to her feet, glaring around her.

"If you're testing my resolve, my love, I will stay here as long as you need me to be. I'm not frightened."

Still, no reply and Azula growled before starting to run again. She ran for minutes, ignoring the pain in her body at the effort it was exerting, occasionally calling out for Sasuke, and always receiving nothing but silence in turn.

The minutes became hours, and the hours became days, but Azula never felt her body growing hungry, thirsty, or exhausted. No need for sleep encroached upon her and no need for nourishment touches her insides. Nothing but blind anger spurred her on, and a desperation to hold fast to her truth.

The days might very well have become weeks, or months, or years, but it didn't matter to her. She continued to cry out for Sasuke until the cries became hoarse screams. Azula pleaded with him to show himself, to talk to her, to just give her a chance to explain herself, but the further she went through the black, she felt a presence settling on her shoulders, looking in the dark beyond her sight.

It wasn't Sasuke, nor did it even feel truly human. It was a concept as much as a presence. An ultimatum. A choice she could make.

Give up. Or...

What it was she had to give up was something Azula refused to even consider.

I'm right, she told herself again and again. My emotions can't be wrong. They're MY emotions.

But still, that presence continued to haunt her, seeming to grow. It's size became titanic, its weight unbearable and the threat it posed to her finally was enough to force fear into her veins. It was then that it seemed to almost take shape, and she felt her father's looming stare staring down at her intently. Suddenly she felt herself slowly picking herself off the ground, her tired body desperately trying to keep striving forward in her exercises, to impress him, to cause him to care for her, to love her, anything to know that he didn't hate her the same way that—

Azula collapsed to her knees and tucked her head down low into her lap; the choice's presence almost seemed to have swallowed her entirely. Perhaps this was the black all around her? Had that been its nature all along?

I can't… I can't…

She threw her head back and screamed, letting the force of it tear at her vocal chords violently. As she drew in more breath to curse Sasuke, something she never thought she would ever dream of doing, she realized that the black was gone.

Azula practically toppled backwards in surprise, the color and visuals before her stunning her mind that seemed to have grown so used to the black that had surrounded her, but she still looked around at it all, and took it in as best she could.

She was sitting in the grounds behind the palace, on the steps that led up into the chambers that she knew had belonged to her parents. She saw the garden, the grass, the path, the pond, the trees, everything that nearly pulled her back into her childhood with just a glance. How many times had she come out here to play with her brother, and Mai and Ty Lee? Azula tried to remember what that last day had been. Had it been before her mother had left?

Speaking of her mother, Azula looked out under her favorite of the trees to see Ursa sitting beneath it, a child in her lap. Zuko was laughing at a storybook that she was holding before him, and the smile on her face made it clear that she was enjoying their time together just as much as she seemed to be.

Azula stared at the sight for minutes, tucking her legs up and somehow finding herself unable to look away. There was a piece of this scene that she was refusing to notice, and she somehow knew that she would have to before too long.

"They look happy."

Sasuke's voice sounded just beside her, but Azula didn't even look over as she saw him standing on the steps in her peripheral. If this was his attempt at trying to break her further, she would just have to outlast him again. She didn't respond to him as the two watched Zuko get up from Ursa's lap and excitedly dash to the bushes around the back grounds of the palace to hide while his mother put her palms over her eyes, counting down.

"I somehow don't imagine you ever did anything like this with our daughter."

Azula snorted.

"Pointless games. There was always something more important she could be doing."

Ursa finished her countdown and got to her feet, playfully calling out to Zuko as she did. It was clear that she spotted him fairly quickly, tucked between an ornate pillar and a bush, but she took her time in tracking him down and pounced when Zuko seemed to least expect it, causing a startled yell to issue from him before he burst into giggles as Ursa tickled him and swept him up in her arms.

"Happiness isn't something you thought should be important to her?"

Finally, Azula snapped her head to the left to face him, feeling her lips curl angrily.

"You wouldn't understand, Sasuke. Happiness can be found in things other than stupid games, or childish activities; it can be found honing your strength and growing your power, things that are relevant!"

Sasuke wasn't looking at her and instead seemed to be zoning out as he looked out into the grounds. Azula reluctantly followed his gaze to see Ursa holding Zuko tightly in a hug now, singing softly as she stroked the back of his head. His eyes were closed and the smile on his face could have lit up the darkest night.

"And happiness can also be found in something as simple as a mother hugging her child and telling them she loves them," Sasuke added quietly. "Something just as relevant."

Azula released a noise of frustrated derision but made no reply. She tucked her arms over her knees and rested her face against her forearms, no longer willing to look at her mother and brother, so many years ago. As she ignored the last piece of the scene, it seemed Sasuke was no longer willing to do the same.

"Why didn't you go to them?"

Her eyes moving slowly, Azula looked at the shadows behind the pillars just next to her and Sasuke, tucked closely to the palace. A young girl was pressed against the marble, peering around the side of it, eyes wide and pained. She bit at her knuckles softly, but made no movement or sound beyond that. Azula looked at the girl a long while before answering Sasuke in a dulcet tone.

"I wasn't wanted. Mother only ever had eyes for Zuzu."

He waited a beat before asking, "Do you know that for certain?"

Azula scowled again.

"What, you expected me to go to mother and ask her why she preferred Zuko over me?"

"The answer might have surprised you," he replied and Azula looked at the sadness and jealousy on the young girl's face for several more agonizing seconds before pushing herself to her feet to glare at Sasuke.

"And just because you spent time with my mother, that makes you believe you have any idea how she viewed her children?!"

His eyes were black and piercing as he continued to look at her without expression.

"I know that when we push people away and hide our feelings, it makes it much harder for the people who care about us to know how to get in. You're not the only one who tortured yourself that way."

Azula spun away from him and crossed her arms, leaning on the pillar just behind the younger girl, staring down bitterly at the child. Behind her, Sasuke wasn't finished.

"You think you beat it? That you were able to defeat your need for love? No, Azula, you lost. You lost as badly as anyone could. You let the world swallow your hurt as you disappeared into your father's shadow and never stepped out of it again. Because you were too jealous, and too scared, to ask for love."

Unable to believe just how badly Sasuke was getting under her skin, she whirled to face him again.

"I WASN'T—"

Her furious scream petered out as she saw no Sasuke behind her but instead the hallways of the prestigious Fire Nation women's academy. Just as with the palace grounds, the memory of it was ingrained fixedly in her mind and she immediately felt as though she could start walking and know where all her classes were, where all the rooms were located, where every last bit of this part of her life was. Looking behind her, the palace grounds were gone, replaced with more of the academy. Young women walked by without so much as glancing at her as she took a ginger step forward.

At a cluster of noise behind her, she turned to see a group of female students in uniform aggressively shoving along another girl who had her hands up around her head in what looked to be a desperate manner. There were tears in her clothes and her ponytail was grabbed at more than once before she finally fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, keeping her head down and her hands over it as loudly shouted insults and jeers were flung down at her, mixed with an occasional kick or slap. No one walking by the scene so much as gave it a passing glance as the girl was tormented by the group who laughed and shrieked, seeming thrilled beyond belief to be doing what they were.

Azula watched as another young woman finally seemed to take notice of what was happening, and walked up behind the group of girls, looking almost as though she were looking to join their number. But when she reached the young woman who looked to be the leader of the group, she drew back with a punch and slammed her in the kidney with a fierce blow. The leader gasped and dropped to her knees while the other girls rounded on the intruder, but lunged backwards in fright when they realized who they were looking at.

Watching as her younger self put a foot on the leader's calve and ground it there, drawing out a shout of pain.

"This one is off limits," the teenage Azula sneered. "If I catch you paying her any mind again, I'll take it to my father and I wouldn't be surprised if he executed your families simply for annoying me."

The leader scrambled away and to her feet and ran after the group who had abandoned her there, throwing a last look of terror over her shoulder as she did.

Teenage Azula smiled proudly at her handiwork as the young women fled from her before turning her gaze down with a frown of annoyance at the girl they had been tormenting, who was still sniffling and huddled on the floor.

"What are you doing, Ty, get up! Are you so pathetic that you can't even so much as make a stand for yourself?"

When the younger Ty Lee didn't move, the younger Azula growled and reached down, yanking her to her feet; putting an arm somewhat aggressively around her shoulder, she guided her away down the hall, firing a snarled threat at any girl who so much as looked in their direction.

Azula watched the younger versions of herself and Ty Lee walk away, and made no attempt to follow them.

"That was kind of you, helping her the way you did."

She didn't need to look up to the floor above to know that Sasuke was leaning over the banister, likely having witnessed the entire scene himself as he spoke to her.

"I didn't do it out of kindness," Azula snapped. "I was teaching her a lesson about standing up for herself and not letting trash walk over you just because of their numbers or size."

"Then why not let them have their way with her?" Sasuke asked. "Would that not be the better lesson? To let her experience that failure and try to grow from it on her own? Why interfere?"

Chewing angrily at the inside of her mouth, Azula backed away from where the scene had taken place, shaking her head like a pendulum.

"You're asking me why I bothered to stand up for one of my…"

She trailed off; it struck her that she couldn't remember the last time, if ever, she had referred to anyone as her 'friend.'

"I suppose I am a touch surprised," Sasuke continued, as though she hadn't said anything at all. "I wouldn't have guessed you ever cared about her at all."

A ripple of anger flowed down Azula's arms, causing the hairs on them to rise.

"I've always cared about her!" she snarled, spinning around to look for Sasuke only to find that she couldn't see him anywhere. "Always!"

It was an admission that caused shame to surge through her body, that she could ever admit the weakness of caring for anyone other than Sasuke or her daughter.

I'm stronger than that. Nothing else matters but them.

"You were going to call her your friend," Sasuke remarked almost offhandedly. "I almost pity any 'friend' you might have had more than your enemies, given how you've come to treat them."

Azula ground her teeth again in anger as she continued to look wildly around the academy for him, the women continuing to walk by as though she were nothing but a ghost. Every moment that passed where she was unable to confront him seemed to increase her frustration and anxiety tenfold, two emotions that she realized were tearing apart her insides with all the fury of a hurricane.

"Why are you doing this?!" she screamed. "What are you trying to prove?!"

He said nothing in response and Azula started to run through the hallways that she realized were all starting to blur. More rooms then there should have been, a hallway longer than should have been possible, as though the reality of the memory was starting to give way. It felt as though she were in the black once again, and fear clutched her heart with an icy grip.

Something out of the corner of her eye caused her to skid to a halt outside one of the classrooms and she looked inside.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong… what if I'm not like you?"

"Don't say that. No firebender taps into their abilities at the same time as another. Just give yourself more time."

"I don't want to wait… I want to be like you."

Azula walked towards the scene, aware that the academy around her was fading away to dark walls, the classroom now a dimly lit bedroom. The sounds of the young women faded away, their talking and footsteps becoming nothing but silence in her ears; the only sound came from the two children ahead of her.

They were young, the boy looking a touch older than the girl he was sitting behind, cradling her against him as she looked sadly at her fingers.

"Father doesn't even notice me. It's like he doesn't even know I exist."

"Don't be silly, of course he does. He just has a lot to worry about with grandfather. I don't see him as much either."

"But—"

"No buts, Azula. You're going to be just fine. I bet you'll even be a better firebender than me someday."

She girl seemed to perk up at this.

"Really?"

The boy smiled, the smile reflecting the brotherly love he was feeling.

"Really."

Azula backed against the door of the bedroom, watching as the two children cuddled and talked. Her knuckles were white as she stared at the scene before her, clenched against her side as she felt the coppery taste of blood in her mouth from the lip she had cut from biting.

"Are you finished?"

She couldn't see Sasuke, but she could certainly hear him as his voice echoed about the room.

"I don't know. Do you get it yet?"

Sneering, Azula drew her fingers through her hair, the very sensation numbing as she quivered with anxiety, something she was trying hard not to show.

"Get what? That I have a past? Everyone has a past, Sasuke, mine's nothing special."

He didn't say anything back to her for a long time and when he did, she could sense that the more casual edge to his voice was gone, replaced with something considerably more serious in tone.

"Azula, people want you dead. People who have known you for a long time. You're dangerous in your obsession, in your endless hunt for what you want."

Watching as the children laughed at a joke told between them that she couldn't hear, Azula slid down the wall to sit against it, staring bitterly forward.

"I don't care about other people. I care about you and my daughter."

"And yourself," Sasuke added and Azula's sneer deepened.

"Yes, I suppose so," she said, not seeing the harm in admitting that. "With you both in my life, I can be happy."

He sounded more far off then ever as he replied.

"Why couldn't you find that happiness before? People who loved you, they always existed. You didn't need to lay claim to me and rape our daughter into existence for you to find fulfilment. The people who loved you then, they still love you now. Your mother and brother would never dream of raising a hand against you, even after all you've threatened and done. And Ty Lee was willing to let you torture and mutilate her if that meant making you happy."

"They made their choices and I've made mine," Azula snapped.

"Being Fire Lord and claiming me as your own, is that what will make you happy? You won't be haunted by your past even then, the past you won't confront even though it's right here, your mother, your brother, your friends? People who just want to know that there's good in you, that you can change?"

Leaping to her feet, Azula stormed to the two children on the bedroom floor and lashed out with her firebending and both the two spectral siblings and the room around them wisped away into a void, as did Azula's furious blue flames.

"I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE! I DON'T CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF ME, I DON'T CARE WHAT I'VE DONE! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LOVE ME THE WAY I LOVE YOU; WE CAN BE HAPPY, YOU, ME AND OUR DAUGHTER! WE CAN RUN AWAY, GO WHEREVER IT IS YOU WANT, JUST STOP, JUST STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE SOMETHING I'M NOT!"

Sasuke said nothing to her outburst, but the darkness coalesced into color and the world formed around her once more.

Azula found herself standing in what seemed to be the rubble and remains of what might once have been a cavern, the ground shaking beneath her feet. Sunlight beamed in towards her as she looked through clouds of dust to see an enormous purple specter and before it, a young man, with a hand near his face.

She had never once forgotten what Sasuke had looked like when she had first met him, and it was this younger version that she saw now.

Walking towards him, she saw bandages falling away from his face and when he looked up, she stopped dead.

There was the black and red pattern in his eyes that she had seen well more than once, but there too was something she had seen much more rarely, an emotion pulling at the edges of his face as his eyes glistened intensely.

Sasuke looked every bit how Azula had seen herself in the mirror, on more than one occasion. Hunger, excitement, anger, all of those violent emotions swirled on his face.

Yes… this is what I've been waiting for.

But as she reached for the younger version of Sasuke, a hand fell on her shoulder, keeping her from moving forward and she turned to see the Sasuke she knew from her present standing just behind her. In many ways, he still resembled the exact same figure he had once held, a touch of height being all that really seemed to separate the him and his younger self. That, and the wild difference in emotion. Azula looked between them as the present Sasuke looked at the younger version of him, who didn't seem to acknowledge either him or Azula. There was a sadness in his eyes as he regarded his past, but more than that, there was a clear and distinct hate that seemed strange to Azula.

"You saw it, right? That similarity?" he asked quietly and she looked back to the younger Sasuke.

"Where is this?" she asked, but he seemed to ignore her.

"I don't know if you ever understood just how alike we used to be. When we were back in our teens, it was actually scary how locked into our hate we were. Everything about who I was had been forced into me, from when I was just a kid; I wanted revenge, I wanted blood, and I was going to get it. Nothing was going to stop that."

Azula looked to him desperately; it hurt her to know how close she had been and yet he had still slipped out of her reach.

"What changed?" she asked in a pleading tone and Sasuke actually smiled at that.

"I met you," he replied and everything around them faded away.

They were standing in a grassy field then, evening wind pulling at the green blades around their ankles. Azula saw herself facing off against Sasuke as the Avatar, Mai, Zuko and the rest looked on in stupefied horror.

"I don't know what I was thinking," she tried to explain. "I was so angry, so lost, I just—"

"I didn't realize it until later, but you were just the same person I was after your father tried to have you killed. You latched onto the idea of revenge bound in duty, and you latched onto me as well. I know you were hurting, I could see it in your eyes even then, but I was too caught up in my own revenge to notice."

The pair watched their younger selves lunge into action and Azula felt herself shiver as she relived just how thoroughly Sasuke had dominated her physically during the Agni Kai she had imposed on him. Then, it all faded to black again and she was standing in the black again with Sasuke, his head turned down.

"The difference is that I found a different path when I met you, when I met all of you," he murmured. "And because of that, I can tell you that the path you walk will bring you no peace. Even if your world is brought to fruition, even if you had me, the throne, complete domination of the world, you would always be followed by that hate, that fear, that regret and doubt. I know, I fought it and I won. But you're still here trying to tackle it, and you're losing. You don't think you are, but you're losing."

"How am I losing?!" Azula cried out, wringing her hands in desperation. "I've birthed a child who will surpass me one day in power, I've gotten closer to you than ever before, I'm feared by all!"

"And you've alienated, hurt and devastated the people who might have truly made you happy," Sasuke replied, sadly and curtly. "You don't even understand the pain you've put them through, because you're so caught up in your own head, your own agenda."

Azula whirled about madly in the dark, throwing her head back and screaming her laughter into the nothingness.

"The pain of others means nothing!" she shouted. "If they are weak, the pain they feel, the hurt, the sadness, all of it, it is only what they deserve! Pain is nothing! Pain is nothing to me!"

She panted and stared at Sasuke's back, though he didn't so much as look at her.

"Are you sure?" he asked, and she heard the menace in his voice before he disappeared from her sight.

"No, wait!" Azula cried out, reaching for where he had been and looking around desperately for where he might have gone. "I'm sorry!"

She didn't even know what it was she was apologizing for, but she realized that after what felt like years of being alone, he had just been standing beside her, and she had driven him away. Making to run back into the dark to find him, Azula tripped over herself in her desperation and crashed to the void floor beneath her. Wincing and cursing her haste, Azula looked up only to fall back onto her rear in shock at the sight before her.

She was kneeling on a beach and watching as several members of who were clearly those of a tribe were brought forward and executed by an almost gleeful looking young woman. Azula realized quite immediately that they were people she cared about and the young woman was her teenage self.

"We'll keep this up for as long as it takes, old man," the younger Azula taunted. "How many of your tribe can you live without? I can do this all day."

Azula realized as she heard her younger voice, that she was the old man, and she was watching her people being killed one by one.

"No…" she whispered. "Stop… please…"

What was this feeling? This horrible, abhorrent and crippling feeling that was surging through her now? It was unlike anything she had felt before, unlike anything she had been forced to bear. Helpless and weak, she crawled forward only for a Fire Nation soldier to kick her upside the head and knock her to the ground. There she lay, listening to the screams of her people as they were ripped heartlessly from the world. Azula found that it was something she couldn't bear; she needed to get free of that body and she needed to do it now before she feared her sanity would break. Scrambling to her feet, she turned to stagger away and found herself crashing back to the ground.

Her body was different now, she was lean and toned, female and curved, and nothing but fear and sadness ripped their way through her as she rested on her hands and knees.

"Fooling around with boys, are we?" a familiar voice hissed, and Azula recognized herself instantly. "You've been a bad girl… you know what I have to do with you when you go behind my back, don't you? Are you ready for your punishment?"

Azula felt herself nod weakly as she lowered her head, long brown ponytail falling over shoulder. The feeling within her now was so horribly painful and she felt her anxiety mounting horribly as she tried to drag Ty Lee's body up to fight back, to run, to just do anything to free her from these awful feelings of guilt, and shame, and fear, and love. It was horrible, it was miserable, it was sapping away every ounce of strength she had left and with a forceful shove, Azula propelled herself to her feet and crashed into a boulder that was suddenly erected in front of her as she made to evade something bright and azure.

Now she was in another female body, clad in green and wielding two bladed fans. She rushed about in a panic, trying to remember her training, but she didn't know where she was or what was happening. Blue fire ripped past her, some of it missing, some of it slashing burns through her clothes and skin. Similarly dressed women were moving about all around her, but somehow the onslaught of this flame wielding young woman was something that they all couldn't so much as hope to temper.

Her feet finally gave way and she crashed to the dirt beneath her feet, scrambling to turn over but before she could get to her feet, a different foot came down hard on her gut and forced her to stay pressed against the earth. Azula looked up to see her younger self staring hatefully down, fire crackling in the palm of her hand.

"Kyoshi Warrior… pathetic to even consider you a 'warrior' in the loosest sense of the word."

The fire blossomed outwards in Azula's eyes to completely encompass her world and suddenly she was standing far from a group of people in the distance; they seemed to be huddled around something. Azula broke into a run towards them, the only reality she could see and even as far as they were, she could hear their voices.

"This is her… the Fire Lord's brat."

"We need to hide her, she's the only thing that'll keep us alive."

"Her mother will kill us for laying a hand on her."

"That's why we'll hang onto her until we know we're safe… but I don't know about the rest of you, but that cunt Azula has had this coming a while. Maybe we should… make things a little tougher on her. I hate this girl as much as I hate her in a way."

Azula felt her body diving into the depths of terror at what she was hearing, but worse yet were the people standing in the distance as they reached down and started to yank at something and she saw what looked like clothes being tossed aside.

"We're going to make you ours, you fucking monster. Just like your mother, just like her, we'll make you hurt for that. You'll wish you'd never been born after this, you'll wish you'd just die of shame; everyone will know you as Azula's little whore, and you'll never live to bear a child of your own."

Azula's scream mingled with that of her daughter's and fire and lightning exploded in a rage-induced rush that caused her to the very fabric of what she was seeing to almost warp and distort. She leapt into the air, preparing to obliterate the group of people standing around the now naked form of her daughter, but as she came down, they all vanished and so did the floor and Azula found herself falling. But still, she could hear Soza's thoughts, echoing about as she tumbled through space.

Mother, why… why am I being hurt because of you?

She was lost in the sensation of falling, but everywhere she looked, she was in the body of another, feeling the most horrible and depressing feelings she ever could have thought possible. Fear unlike anything she had ever known, pain beyond anything she had felt, loss that tore her insides to their core, agony of the soul that made her wish she were dead, everywhere, every single place she could turn her eyes, she found herself in total and complete horror, unable to escape the memories, the minds of those she was being forced into.

And at the core of all of them, Azula saw herself, prideful, smirking and ruthless. The sight should have been filling her with joy.

But it was only misery that she found within.

There was no escape, and the visions kept coming, the mixture of pained emotions building and building until Azula was screaming silently for release, her voice unable to be heard over all the other howls and cries that melded together into a chorus of the damned, those whom had deemed worthy of her punishment. She looked through the eyes of warriors of all kinds, commoners who had dared cross her, people she even recognized and remembered, and yet it all chalked up to the same.

Misery. That hurt, that pain. It was beating her down in a way she never would have imagined, ripping at her soul and causing her to wish for it all just to end, no matter how.

Somehow, as she was flung from body to body, she thought that perhaps if she could only draw a positive memory, something she truly could hold onto, she could find refuge in it. An escape from this madness, this horror that was exploding over and over before her. She dug deep, deeper than she ever had and grabbed the first thing, the most powerful thing she could.

It wasn't thoughts of Sasuke, of being with him, or loving him. It wasn't of her sitting on the throne of the Fire Lord, the world bowing in her wake. It wasn't of Mai or Ty Lee at her side, nor was it that of her father's approval. It was none of the things that Azula might have expected.

The visions stopped abruptly and she crashed into the ground, the black void before her once again. Her head spinning, she tried to clear her head from the strange melody she was hearing, before realizing that the melody wasn't the result of the madness that had just been forced on her.

Picking herself up, Azula looked forward and saw a bed, with a girl lying on it. By the look of it, she was fast asleep, but her mother still sat by her side, a hand reaching out and stroking the side of the girl's face. A wistful and haunting tune came from her mouth, but it was impossible not to hear the love that it was being sung with.

Azula staggered forward, her mind still spinning from the hurt that had just been dumped on her, but still kept her eyes fixed on the bed, the girl and the woman. Nothing else could be seen, but somehow she knew that nothing else mattered just then either. She reached the side of the bed beside the mother and looked down.

It shouldn't have been a memory. It shouldn't have been something she knew to be true. But as Azula looked at the simple sight of her as a child, sleeping soundly while Ursa sat by her side, singing gently, she knew it was no vision, nothing being concocted up to trick her.

This was a memory. Somehow, it was a memory.

Azula felt her body give way and she dropped to her knees beside the bed, looking up at the face of her mother desperately, and saw it rich with affection and sadness. The song finished and Ursa bent down slowly to kiss the side of the young Azula's head.

"I have to leave you, Azula. Please forgive me; I'm not strong enough to wake you and put you through this. I know you wish to please your father, but I hope you will never forsake love in place of power. Your brother loves you, and I pray with every bit of my being that you still love him too. I will always love you more than I ever can express, and more than I ever neglected in saying."

Tears slid down Ursa's face and splashed against the covers as her body shook with a silent sob.

"Be better than I was, my daughter, my beautiful ray of sunlight. You will grow up to be an incredible woman, I know it. I just hope that when your time comes and you show the world who you really are, I'm there beside you once again. To help you, to stand by your side, whatever you need of me. I'm… I'm so sorry I can't be there for you now."

Her mother's whole body was shaking with sobs now and Azula watched as Ursa leaned down and kissed her forehead a last time.

"Mama loves you, Azula. She loves you so much."

With that, she got to her feet and swept away to disappear into the darkness. Azula watched her go and then slowly turned her head to look at the sleeping child in the bed.

She looked so peaceful.

Azula's heart broke then and she bent double, clutching her body as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her fingers dug into the bed's covers and she grit her teeth hard enough to hurt. There, in the darkness, she fell apart, next to the only person she had chosen to live for, the only reality she had ever known.

I'm by myself. I've always been by myself.

Her agony split her very head and she felt her body shaking with anger.

And all because I chose this. Me. This is what I've chosen.

And in the end, she knew it was just what she deserved.

There, in the black, lost forever.

Alone.

Just as she always had been.

---

Sasuke returned to himself with a retching gasp and stumbled backwards from the bed, and collapsed against the wall. Immediately, he knew that his body was in no fit state as his head spun and his body shivered with what almost felt like a fever. It took his bleary mind a moment to even realize that he had only cast his jutsu meant to sustain the body on Azula, and not himself. He would have laughed at his own oversight if the mere act of doing so might not have caused him to pass out then and there.

Taking as deep a breath as he could manage, he opened his chakra flow up within him and let the natural energy he possessed start to restore his body to a somewhat functional state. He didn't know how long it would take for him to regain proper use of himself and he knew that he would need food and water eventually, but as long as Azula's body was still there sleeping on the bed, he supposed he was alright to let his body rest there and recover slowly as his chakra flushed its way through his system, working to help him recover.

… I can't believe that just happened.

It wasn't that he had fostered doubts in his ability to perform a genjutsu to that degree; he knew that it might have been sloppy and he likely would wind up using far more chakra than he needed, which he could tell had been the case just based on how weak it was.

But the things he had brought to life inside Azula's head…

So much of it had been nothing more than allowing Azula's own psyche to generate natural states of its own, but nonetheless…

But I made them a reality.

So many times he had nearly broken; he had struggled through hurting Azula while having sex with her, he had struggled even more so in letting Toph and Ursa exist in such a way within Azula's vicious desire to see them hurt, and tapping into Azula's fear of having her daughter beaten and—

Stop. Don't think about it.

Sasuke knew he was in dire straits enough as it was, and he didn't need the mental strain added on top of his physical weakness he was slowly beginning the process of recovering from.

But he had done what he had intended. He had meant to show Azula all of what she wanted deep down and desperately in her heart, and try and show that it was not what she truly wanted most in the world, to show her that there were pieces of her life that showed the goodness in her, the purity that might still have remained, and to subject her brutal and evil mindset to every bit of agony that she had inflicted on others and then some. It had been hard, almost impossibly so, to dredge up everything he had and to bring it to life within her head, and he had witnessed all of it. And all throughout he couldn't keep himself from wondering if she really was someone who could be saved.

That had been when he had seen something in the back of Azula's head, a memory that shouldn't even have been able to exist. Sasuke had leapt for it, he had found it, and he had let Azula reach for it in turn in the midst of her desperation. Of all the things her mind could have gone to for comfort, this had been the one it had chosen, the memory that wasn't a memory, something she had slept through and yet somehow, it was locked away within her head.

No… within her heart.

Hearing Ursa's song and confession himself had been enough to affect him rather strongly, but he couldn't imagine what it had done to Azula. He had known then as he had watched her collapse within her own head that there was nothing stronger he could have struck her with. His intent had been to wrap up the mental abuse he was dealing with his genjtutsu with a moment of trying to convince Azula that there were people in her life who cared about her more than even she cared about him.

But that burning resentment, hate, desire… it was never really about me.

That had been the most heavy revelation to Sasuke throughout the entire ordeal. All along he had assumed that he would have needed to say something himself, to do something about his own presence within Azula's head, but that hadn't been the case. Maybe she did care a great deal about him, maybe she truly might have actually loved him… but the blackness within her hadn't always been there, and it had started to spread long before she had met him.

Sasuke couldn't help but release a wheezing chuckle through his exhausted body.

Ursa… you should have woken her up.

It didn't matter then of course, what really mattered was whether or not anything he had done actually had made an impact on Azula. The genjutsu had forced her to dwell within her mind for a period of time that he had intentionally made ambiguous, perhaps days, or perhaps years. Forcing her to look at her own dreams, her own memories and then the brutal collage of pain at the end of it, Sasuke could only hope that these intentions he had brought upon her had been enough to cause something to be confronted, something to change… there had been some good there after all, and it wasn't that it was a small part of Azula, but much more so that she had done everything in her power to stamp it down, shove it away, and hide it even from herself. Such was her inability to confront her own past and what it had done to her, and what she had done to herself.

Sighing, Sasuke leaned his head back against the wall, the insides of his eyelids urging him to sleep.

Not yet… let myself recover a little bit, enough so that I can get up and get something to eat and drink. I don't think Azula will be waking up for a while, so to that end, that will give me time to fix myself up enough to—

Opening his eyes, Sasuke felt his heart surge within him and skip a single, pounding beat.

Azula was sitting up in bed, her back straight as a rod and her eyes as wide as Sasuke imagined they could be. Her face was pale, her expression blank as she stared forward at nothing in particular. Wincing from where he sat, Sasuke cursed in his head.

Shit… she shouldn't be up, how is she awake?!

When Azula's eyes turned down to stare at him, he felt a genuine tremor of fear in the depths of his gut.

Shit… shit, shit, shit…

He was in no fit state to defend himself, and if she realized just how powerless he was just then…

There's no telling what she'll do. Unless…

Maybe it had worked. Maybe that deep dive into her own mind, into so many of her own feelings had been enough to instill something in her head, maybe she wasn't who she had been before she had gone under.

His hope quickly faded as Azula kicked her legs over the side of the bed and started to march right towards him.

Immediately, Sasuke's mind fell on two possibilities. Either she was locked in a state of fury and was about to attack him, or she was going to pick up where she had left off the day their daughter had been conceived. He wasn't sure which was worse, but he quickly started to try and force more chakra through his body to get it back to a place where he would be able to keep her off and away from him. The wild look in her eyes as she bore down on him spoke only to some deeply intense emotions that she was in the throes of, and Sasuke didn't even want to think about what was coming.

When she got to him, she peered down at him for a brief, frightening spell before reaching down and seizing him beneath the armpits. As she lifted him somewhat more upright, Sasuke realized just how much out of sorts his body felt, a numbness and crippling exhaustion keeping him from even scrambling away with his feet. It didn't even feel like an emptiness of chakra, it just felt like a genuine tiredness that he was battling.

How long… how long did I have her under?

Azula pulled him roughly towards the bed and forced his body up onto the mattress, rolling him onto his back before walking around the other side of the bed. His heart sinking deeply, Sasuke tried to keep himself in a poised state mentally.

She's going to try and take me again… I have to just give myself as long as I can and before she can… do it, I just have to…

And in that moment, where Sasuke felt Azula circling around the bed like a predator, he realized he still didn't want to kill her. He didn't even know if he was able.

I didn't want this. That's why I went to all this trouble to try and just… force her mind into being something more than it is, that's why I tried to hard to just…

He grit his teeth weakly.

I just wanted things to be different.

Azula reached the other side of the bed and stopped for just a moment and Sasuke tried to steel himself. He waited for her to take her clothes off, then try roughly to remove his. He waited for her to start hissing about how he should never have tried to force those thoughts on her, as she wrapped her hands around his throat, or mounted his sex, he waited for her to start muttering about how she needed to kill so many of them, to make sure they never allowed such weakness into her mind again, to make sure that this would be the last time she had to claim him.

But Azula did none of these things.

She climbed onto the bed without undressing.

She lay down beside him without a word.

And she nested her head on top of him, between his shoulder and chest, putting a hand over his torso and holding him gently.

Sasuke couldn't quite believe it as she stopped moving from there. Of all the things he had been ready to expect out of Azula, he had expected so much more, and so much less.

What…?

He was ready to cast it all away as being a dream as she lay next to him, holding onto him like a child might hold a stuffed animal after a nightmare, or after being frightened badly by something. There was no conceivable way that he ever would have imagined Azula would be in a state such as this, so suddenly… whatever this was.

And it wasn't until her body started to heave that he started to believe that this could be real. She made no noise beyond the sniffling that came from her crying, but her body twitched and moved with full on sobs, again, like those of a child after waking from a nightmare. Sasuke could feel spots on his shirt growing hot and wet as her tears likely spilled over him, but he made no attempt to move as she quietly sobbed against him.

Things… might be different, he thought, as Azula held him and he felt himself willing to close his eyes and drift off to sleep.

Somehow, he trusted this was all she wanted now.