Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzk own Avatar: The Last Airbender
A teenager was slowly walking through the alleyways of the Fire Nation at midnight looking for something that she could munch on. She still does eat, but not as much as the average human. She doesn't have access to food like regular people do. Ever since she left his brother and his group, she hasn't eaten normally and it isn't getting any better. Some days, she has to steal money from random people just to her buy food or drinks. She's not allowed to get a job to earn money
Walking around the world, she has to wear something to cover up her face or otherwise, some idiot will report her and be sent to prison. If she's captured wandering around aimlessly, she'll either be sent back to prison, the Insane Asylum, or even worse, her brother. Meeting him again in the condition she is in right now, her brother will perceive her as a weak human being. She's afraid that her brother would look down on her and laugh at her pathetic appearance. Once a princess who had everything that everyone wanted with a clap of a hand whose mindset is to become the greatest ruler of the world now becomes a wondering prisoner looking for a place where she can rest. Instead of asking her servants to deliver her food, she has to steal food from either stalls, people, or restaurants. It'll be embarrassing for her to see a princess stealing food. She admitted that if she saw herself stealing food, she'd be disgusted.
Ever since when she watched her brother confess to the Fire Nation that he wasn't the best ruler, her whole plan started to fall apart. Her group became less and less like a group. Not long after the plan failed, she was all alone, again. It reminded her of that time when her friend betrayed her. She couldn't believe they betrayed her like that. She thought friends were supposed to stick together forever, not just Chi Block you and lay on the floor vulnerable. She tried to create her own group by recreating the Kemurikage and destroying her brother's role, but it all didn't work out and now, she's walking around by herself in the streets of the Fire Nation at night looking for something she could at least nibble on.
Who would've thought she planned to end up like a coward?
Zuko was walking through the halls of the Fire Nation palace looking at his mother. He had just finished his meeting in the meeting rooms. If he was, to be honest, the meeting just made his whole day tiring. Zuko was meant to meet up with Kiyi after his meeting, but ever since the meeting with the generals, his energy was depleted with coming up with plans to hopefully remove the New Ozai Society. Zuko's hoping he still has enough energy to play with his half-sister.
Zuko walked up to the Royal Palace Garden where he was supposed to meet up with Kyi. Entering the area, it place always gave so much nostalgia for when he was young. Zuko got a flashback to when he, Mai, and Ty Lee would sometimes play near the fountain. A specific memory came when walked up to the fountain. He was brought back to when he pushed Mai into the fountain with him and the both of them were soaking wet. It was a memory he would cherish, even though it was embarrassing. Zuko kept it to himself but that was the first time he was ever close to Mai. That was partly the reason why he cherished the memory.
Zuko looked around the garden to find Kiyi but to his disappointment, he couldn't find the energetic young little girl. But straight after, he heard rapid footsteps from where he came from. Turning around, Zuko was met with a tight hug from below.
"Zuzu! You're finally here!" Zuko looked down to see his younger half-sister.
"Of course, I would be here! Why would I miss out on a time out with you?" Kiyi stepped back to look at his half-brother.
"Well, you're always busy with Fire Lord stuff, so never play with me."
Zuko noticed an annoyed expression on Kiyi's face. "You know me, I'm always busy with adult stuff. You never know, but you might have to go through the same thing in the future."
"No, I won't!" Kiyi replied with a slight rise in her tone. "I'll always be playing with my toys."
"Didn't you say yesterday you were going to bring your toys so we can play with them?"
"Oh no!" Noticing her toys weren't with her, Kiyi started to panic. "I forgot about them! I'll be right back!"
Zuko watched as Kiyi started running back towards the building to grab her toys. He noticed two figures walking out of the doorway and saw that it was his mother and step-father talking to each other, but was interrupted by their daughter running back into the palace. Zuko chuckled at their confused reactions.
"Kiyi, where are you going?" Her father asked as he watched his daughter run past him.
"I forgot my toys but I'll come back!"
Zuko's step-father, Ikem, sighed as Kiyi's footsteps becomes quieter and quieter. "Will she ever run out of energy?"
Zuko chuckled at his comment. "Not for a while I'm pretty sure. That's what children are."
"You were the same when you were a child, Zuko," Ursa replied with a warm smile. "You were always hyper when were around Kiyi's age. Always asking to play in the afternoon after I come back to the palace."
"I was like that?" Zuko asked.
"Yes, you were!" Ursa replied realising how fast time would go. "I miss those times. You were so small, young, and energetic. I wish we could back to those times."
"Yeah. It was just you, me... and... Azula hanging out with each other, before she discovered that she could firebend."
Azula... He hasn't thought of that name for so long. It's been so long since he said the name that when he said it out loud, it felt weird. Like, it was a new name to him. That's how long he has been trying to avoid her. Every time Zuko thinks of her, images of her would appear of crying back when he defeated her in their Agni Kai. If Zuko was, to be honest, it traumatised him seeing her crying, screaming, spewing out the blue fire, the list could go on and on.
"Azula..." Ursa said remembering her other daughter. "It's been so long since I last saw her... Do you know how she's doing?"
Ursa suddenly had a flashback to back when she was still with Ozai and when Zuko and Azula were still little children. She would remember the time Zuko and Azula would fight almost every day nonstop. Ursa would always have to intervene between the two whenever they get into an argument. Ursa always wished that they would eventually get together and be happy with their existence but with Ozai's influence on Azula, it looked like it wouldn't happen. But ever since she heard the news that her ex-husband was brought down and sent to prison by the Avatar, maybe, just maybe there could be a chance that Zuko and Azula could become true brothers and sisters that she never saw. And at the same time, she could become the mother that Azula never got.
"I haven't heard from her ever since, mother," Zuko replied looking down at the ground sadly. "I don't even know if she's..." Zuko didn't want to finish his sentence to avoid offending his mother. Azula is a sensitive topic to both Zuko and Ursa and still is to this day and hearing her name could cause mayhem within the Fire Nation.
"Yeah..." Ursa replied just barely a whisper but loud enough for Zuko to hear. "But I still believe that she's still out there looking for her way back."
"You still think she's still out there?" Zuko asked looking at her mother.
"Definitely!" Ursa replied as if he was crazy. "I'm pretty sure she's on her way back right at this moment."
From behind the three, they heard soft footsteps themselves. Turning around, they see Kiyi running back with her breathing very fast as if she did a marathon in the process. "I'm back..."
"Are you sure you want to play still?" Ikem asked with an eyebrow raised. "You look like you can take a nap."
"No!" Kiyi replied now hiding her exhaustion. "I can still play! C'mon Zuzu, let's play now!"
Grabbing Zuko by the hand, Kiyi dragged the Fire Lord near the fountain and they started their fun that was overdue till the sun started to set. In the background, Ursa and Ikem laughed and smile watching their children play without each other and having fun. Ursa loved seeing her children play. Sometimes, she would just imagine Azula instead of Kiyi playing with Zuko and a tear would roll down her cheek.
The moon is looking high in the Fire Nation so stealing food isn't going to be a problem for her. The teenage girl has done the procedure countless times and it would result in her getting food fairly easily. In some cases where she's desperate, she would accidentally cause a small noise, catching the attention of some people, causing her to flee without getting food. But tonight, she's feeling ready.
Wearing her all-black clothing, the teenage girl is shown walking down through a residential area. A house she has been eyeing the whole day appears to be locked up indicating that the family inside has to be sleeping already. All the lanterns appear to be blown out but just to be safe, she's going to check how recently has been blown out.
Sneaking up towards the lantern that was placed near the door, the girl placed her hand near the lantern and feel it. The lantern was cold indicating that it was blown out possibly hours ago meaning that the people inside are out cold.
Now, it was time to break in.
Bringing her right hand, the girl brought her two fingers up and made her everyday flame. Summoning her blow torch type flame, she made contact with the lock on the door, melting it faster than any other Firebender. Grabbing the part of the lock that was cool, she threw it to the side without any care.
Slowly opening the door to prevent any creaking, the teen manages to enter the house without causing a problem. The house was extremely dark so the girl produced her flame and navigated herself to find the kitchen. Walking around the living room, the girl saw the artwork of the family who lives there. Right next to it, she saw the artwork of a little girl and her mother hugging each other with huge smiles on their faces. Looking at it more, the girl feels enraged. They don't deserve to have happiness. If she doesn't have a carrying mother or any other person. She wants people to suffer just like her so that they all will feel her pain.
"SHE DOESN'T DESERVER A MOTHER! NO ONE DOES!"
Grabbing the frame with hatred boiling up inside of her, her hands started to generate fire causing the frame to ignite the same colour as her fire.
"A MOTHER DOESN'T LOVE YOU! THEY FAKE THEIR WAYS INTO YOUR HEARTS!"
Suddenly, the girl heard footsteps coming from her left and noticed a light from the top of the stairs. Damn! She got so distracted from her personal problems that she caused the owners to wake up due to her rage. She needs to be more aware of herself next time or otherwise, she'll end up in the same position as her father: Eternity in prison.
"Who's there?!" A female voice yelled out from behind the teenager. "Leave before I attack you!"
Having no choice, the teenager ran towards the entrance before it was closed off by a wall made of stone. Her fear caught up to her; one of the parents is an Earthbender! The last thing she wants to encounter during a robbery.
Turning around, the teenager noticed two mature looking people, possibly the parents. The mother looks to be dressed as a Fire Nation citizen while the father has Earth Kingdom clothing. Looking at the husband, he appears to be a skilled fighter just by the appearance with his muscles stretching his pyjamas and the girl could say the same for the mother but with fewer muscles, but learning from her past, the mother could be hiding something powerful under her appearance.
"What do you think you're doing in our household, you thief?!" The father demanded. As the father walked toward her, the girl just noticed how tall the man is until he was close. The lantern in the man's hand wasn't close enough to she the teen's face. Smashing his hand towards his palm, the man said, "You're gonna regret walking into the house, and you're going to learn it through suffering!"
The girl just has a nostalgia trip from the last sentence.
"Gan, sweetie," The mother said in a soft stern voice. "I don't think you need to go that far."
"Can't you see properly," Gan replied as if she were crazy. "She's trying to rob and kill us at the same time. She needs to be put down."
"Hun! She's clearly a young lady! We just need to call the soldiers and get her arrested! Not executed!" The mother replied. "I think you're going too far with this!"
"Of course not!"
Hearing that, the girl knew the house that she was eyeing the whole day, is a murder house. Maybe next time, she should check who owns the house first before planning to rob it. Yeah, that'll be a good idea.
As the man walked toward her with him pulling up his sleeves revealing more muscles, the girl has no choice but to look around the living room to find an exit out of the house. Seeing a window not too far from her, seeing that the man was about to throw a boulder at her, the teen went for the window and dived into the window causing the glass to shatter around the window frame.
Landing on the ground outside the house almost perfectly, the teen dashed away from the house before she gets hurt. Running as fast as she can, she heard cracking from behind her and the sound of something hitting the rock. Turning her head around, she saw a massive boulder hurtling in her direction. Moving to the side, the girl manages to avoid the rock hitting her.
Stopping, she turned around to face the person in front of her. It's still the same person from the house, the father. It was still dark in the area so her face is still hidden from view. Looking at the man, she can tell he wanted a fight, but does the teenager want to though? It has been a while since she had a serious fight.
Pfft! Who's she kidding? Of course, she can handle it!
"So, you want to fight?" The girl asked.
"What does it look like?" The father replied with his arms out indicating that he wants to.
"Young girl, I think this is a big mistake you're making!" The mother yelled out behind her husband to her in a nervous voice. "He never backs down in a fight!"
"Don't worry," The girl said getting into a stance. "This'll be quick."
"LET'S DO THIS!" The man yelled.
Slamming his foot on the ground hard, the man summoned a large boulder from the ground and side kicked it in the girl's direction causing it to move in her direction fairly fast. The girl seeing this moved to the right to avoid the boulder hitting on impact. Unable to firebend due to its colour and not knowing how to turn it back to its original colour, the girl had to resort to hand to hand combat.
Dashing towards the man, the girl noticed that man had his arms out ready for an attack. The girl hasn't fought many Earthbenders so seeing this attack is fairly new to her. The man then brought his arms back and slammed his foot again causing a line of broken rocks to rush towards her. Jumping to the side, the ground where she used to then suddenly became spikes. The girl then looked at the man crazy.
She then noticed him getting into another stance. The man then had his right hand stiffly flat and then made a gesture toward her direction. The girl didn't have enough time to react when the ground made a pole made out of rocks launched her into the air. Since she was in the air, she was able to land on the roof of the house in front of the house she was about to rob.
Looking from above the man then made a fist and swung them, mimicking a series of punches, and small rocks were hurdling towards her. The girl was able to dodge and kick some to the sides but a couple hit her making her groan in pain. She wasn't as good as when she was younger.
Stopping rocks from flying, the man jumped using the ground beneath him by rising it and landing on the same roof as her. The girl then jumped from the roof and landed on the ground pretty hard causing her to drop to the ground in pain. Looking above her, the man then bent the roof tiles and threw them at the girl. Full of panic, the girl then slowly ran towards the rock the man used to jump onto the roof and uses as a shield. The girl started to pant from how exhausted she is. She noticed that the sound of tiles breaking stopped. She can hear the man's wife telling him to stop in the distance.
Looking to her left, she noticed that he wasn't there at all. Turning to her right, she noticed that he wasn't there as well. Maybe the wife convinced him to sto-
BAM!
The girl was hit hard on the face with a boulder from her left. The girl now couldn't hear anything besides a ringing coming from her left ear. With all her might, the girl tried to get up even with the pain killing her. Trying to limp away, another boulder hit her from behind hitting her spine square on. The girl screamed in pain due to her spine cracking. Falling to the ground, she can see the man laughing and walking toward her. Tears started forming in her eyes from the large amount of pain she was feeling everywhere. Wiping away the tears, she saw the wife running toward her husband and grabbing his arm to pull him away from the girl before he does anything stupid. The man then pushed his wife away to the ground.
"Say hi to your ancestors for me, would ya?" The man said. The Earthbender then formed a fist and made a swing towards her making a large boulder towards her, trying her end her existence.
Out of instinct, the girl closed her eyes and made a swinging fist, the same gesture as the man, and unintentionally released a large ball of blue fire to the boulder causing it to explode. Releasing what the girl did, she opened her eyes to look around her surroundings. She realised that a crowd has formed already witnessing the whole fight. They also witnessed her Firebending...
"W-Wait... Are you Princess Azula?" The Earthbender asked walking backwards. "That blue fire, it has to be you!"
Ignoring the man, the girl slowly got to her knees. The girl then hear murmuring around her, spreading the news of the princess getting found again and robbing someone's house. Her whole plan, went down horribly. It wasn't supposed to go this way! She should've made a backup plan in case something goes wrong! What's happening to her? She used to be so could at planning and manipulating things!
Suddenly, 4 Fire Nation soldiers came up to the scene getting into a stance and one of them said, "Get onto your knees! You're under arrest for attempted robbery!"
The girl didn't want to be thrown into prison because that would mean she would have to see her brother and he'll make fun of her because their roles switched. Not wanting to be arrested, the girl then ran in the opposite direction and dashed towards the nearby alleyway so that she can lose the soldiers following her. Pushing through the crowd, the girl ignored all the yelling demands the soldiers were telling her.
Running as fast as she can, the girl dipped into the closest alleyway while still running. She could still hear the guards yelling at her from behind telling her to stop. Ending up in a street, she looked both left and right to find any more alleys and to her luck, there was on her left not too far from her. Running towards it, she a garbage pile in the middle. Looking at it, she knew it was disgusting but she didn't have a choice right now.
...
...
...
"Damn it!" Yelled one of the soldiers. "We lost her! All because of you!"
"What do you mean?! Just because I tripped over doesn't mean you have to blame me!" Replied another soldier.
"Leave your problems for another time. We still have to find that robber. C'mon!"
"Fine! But you didn't need to go that far..."
Hearing the footsteps fade away into the distance, the girl then removed the rubbish bags from her. The indescribable smell almost suffocated her almost to death while she waited for the soldiers to leave. If they stayed a little longer, she'll be done for.
Trying her best remove the rubbish off her body without barely touching it, the girl decided that it was time to head back to the woods before she was caught again. Walking to the end of the alleyway, the girl checked both ways. The night made it a bit difficult for her to see down the streets, but it looked like it was safe enough.
Walking cautiously down the Fire Nation streets, the girl re-thinks everything that had happened throughout the night. She attempt to rob a house saw the artwork of a daughter and her mother together and raged at it by burning it, had a fight with an Earth Kingdom father and her identity was then revealed due to her accidentally Firebending and lastly, Fire Nation soldiers tried to catcher but then she fooled them.
And all of this started because she saw the artwork of a daughter and mother together happy.
A tear rolled down the girl's cheek
Azula just wants to see her mother again...
The palace halls freak him out for some reason due to their large size. Even though his coronation was 2 years ago, he still has difficulties navigating his palace. He would still have to ask some of the guards where has to move to. It still embarrasses him to this day.
Reaching the balcony, the warm sun hits his skin. It was just the perfect feeling after having a huge talk with the councilmen. Those people just never shut up. Every day, he would just receive letters from them asking for permission to do this or to do that. Thinking how busy he is now, he just wishes he was back 2 years ago when the Gaang was together again. He loved every bit of it when they would venture into every part of the world. He also missed that time when-
"Apologies, Fire Lord Zuko," Zuko's thought was interrupted by one is messengers. "But there is an urgent message given by the General."
"Thank you. You are dismissed." The messenger bowed and walked back into the palace. Usually, urgent messages are common within his role of being Fire Lord so he usually just doesn't think about the message too much.
Opening the envelope, the letter looked different from the other letters they received. There seems to be more writing the usual. As he continued to read, Zuko's noticed that it was another burglar on the loose. But a question popped into mind, 'Why would a burglar be one an urgent message?' Normally, it would be the soldier's problem to solve the crime.
Apparently, the owner of the house started a fight with the burglar. In Zuko's mind, it isn't surprising to him. Looking down the page, there was a new section, 'Abnormalities'. Why would there be something abnormal during a robbery? Now, this report is sounding unrealistic. They're probably messing with him,
But, looking down, that's when Zuko's heart dropped.
'Blue Fire'
Azula, his sister who he missed and worries about a lot, is back...