As you've probably noticed, the rating of this fanfic kept changing. I was trying to figure out if I could do this story without the disturbing ideas I had in mind. But the story would be less thrilling without them, so the story from this point is M Rated.

Enjoy! …. and if you can't handle the scary parts or not old enough for M-Rated fanfics,

STOP. READING. THIS. FANFICTION.

You have been warned.


Growing up, Azula had been born a Fire Nation Princess. She knew from a young age that she had great power in her mind, body and soul. She was a firebending prodigy, adored by all of her nation and seen as an indestructible being that had accomplished so much in her young life. At age three, she produced her first flame while somehow knowing what stance and breathing force to use so the flame wouldn't go out or burn her fragile baby skin. At age five, she became the youngest attendee of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls due to her intellectual mind and firebending abilities. At age seven, she had mastered all her classes at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls so quickly, her father insisted she graduate early and begin to learn firebending the way adults do; through scrolls, textbooks and tutors at home. At age twelve, she mastered lightning generation and shortly after her thirteenth birthday, her fire turned from common orange to deadly blue. Her last accomplishment was infiltrating and conquering Ba Sing Se from the inside at age fourteen armed with only her friends Mai and Ty Lee and her master manipulative mind to convince Zuko to join her against the Avatar and the Dai Li to bring down the walls of their great city and securing the Fire Nation's victory of the Hundred Year War.

The cold harsh wind brought Azula out of her happy memories as she remembered she was now like a fallen phoenix; someone who had it all, until she was made weak and vulnerable by Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal at the Boiling Rock, abandoned by her father in a plan she had thought of to destroy the Earth Kingdom's final hope, and being defeated in the Agni Kai by her incompetent brother who cheated as somehow, the Avatar's peasant girlfriend had managed to encase the two them in ice and then chain her to a grate long enough for her to be sedated and locked away in an asylum for over a year...

"with her there to torment me around the clock."

And when she was finally out of the asylum and came close to her goal of killing Ursa, close as in one flaming fire ball inches away from her face, Azula hesitated and ran away and was now trusting a strange elderly woman who had found her moments ago shivering in a cave and on the brink of crying. Azula wondered how she was going to reclaim her birth right now that Zuko had the letter back. Or if she even could take back her power after seeing the way Zuko was full of certainty as he put on his Firelord headpiece on in front of her and declared the throne was his destiny, but her three main priorities at the moment were staying as warm as possible, refusing to let the wind take the spare cloak she was given and keeping up with the old woman who was somehow quicker than herself despite the obvious old age. Azula realised that neither one of them had asked for each other's names, but they could do that once they reached the hut they were heading too.

The walk was quiet with the exception of the howling wind which was blowing the opposite way Azula and the elderly woman were heading, so it was blowing right in their faces. The wind became so powerful that their hoods kept blowing off their heads and at some point, the woman had abandoned the only light they had in the dark night as the metal torch's flame went out again and it was weighing her down and then after the wind began to force her to step back, she grabbed Azula's upper arm to keep herself from falling back. Azula didn't like her or anyone grabbing her without her consent, but she didn't want to be out in the open for too long as Zuko and his misfits for friends could be looking for her, despite the intense weather conditions. So the sooner they got to the hut, the sooner the woman would release her surprisingly tough grip on her arm.

Azula began to stumble and grew more tired with each step she took. Finally, she collapsed to her knees forcing the two of them to stop. Azula heard the old woman grunt at this, but the cold had made her feel so numb, it was as if she had no bones or blood inside her to keep her moving.

"Come on, we're not too far now!" the woman said clearly frustrated at this incompetence, though it was hard to hear her voice from the wind. Azula did the only movement she could and looked up to meet the woman's face. Behind her head, Azula saw leaves blowing in the wind and a not quite so full moon.

Azula then glared at the sight of the moon. She had always hated it from when she was a child as whenever there was a full moon out, she noticed her firebending was at its weakest, making it almost impossible to practise her forms or to even go to sleep at night due to the chill she felt in her bedroom. Then, a surge of energy seemed to come out of nowhere and it willed her to stand up and keep moving with the woman still holding her arm tightly. Azula felt it strange as it didn't feel like she was moving. Then again, she was incredibly numb and if whatever this was got her to continue walking, she decided to not question it and just go with it.


After what seemed like forever, they came to a house that Azula assumed was the "hut" the old woman was talking about. It was surprisingly bigger than Azula had imagined. The outside walls appeared to be dark grey stones, the roof was covered with tree leaves and straw, and at the front was a wooden door with an almost opaque glass window on the right. Azula thought the hut's size would resemble Lo and Li's house on Ember Island, but it more resembled...

"Mother's new home." Azula thought in her head, then quickly changed it after realising what she had just thought "NO! Ursa's new home." Azula then felt her energy boost from before vanish without a trace as the woman released her arm just as they reached the door, as if it had never been there. She opened it and Azula paused when she heard a voice she didn't want to hear and saw a face in the house window she didn't want to see.

"Turn around Azula. You don't know what you're doing." said an apparition of Ursa that appeared in the window. Normally, Azula would talk to the voice in her head until Ursa disappeared, but she couldn't risk the elderly woman catch her talking to herself as she was probably already feeling something was off about Azula and she was too cold to respond back. So, Azula instead just looked away and tried to ignore the hallucination by covering her ears fully with her hands while her body shivered. As she walked into the house, she looked again at the window, but Ursa was once again gone.


The door shut and Azula removed the hooded cloak, placing it on a rod near the door. She then looked around the inside of the house; it appeared to be one whole room with indigo curtains sectioning off two separate rooms. One on the far right was a smidge open and the foot of a bed could be made out. Azula saw in the room she was in had a light yellow sofa in front of a light grey stone fireplace, a kitchen area between her and the bedroom on the right and in the centre was a table for eating with four chairs. Strange... considering most people in Hira'a had shorter tables and sat on cushions to dine at and not many had purple curtains, but rather dark red or pink. At this point though, Azula was focusing more getting a warm feeling back into her body. She looked to see the old woman was in the kitchen and then heading to the table with a bowl with steam coming out of it. Azula could smell it from where she stood; it was tomato-carrot soup. Her favourite.

"Come sit down." the woman said while placing the bowl on the table and pulling out a chair before walking into the bedroom facing the front door and disappearing behind the curtain. Azula then clutched her stomach as it gave a low growl that sounded like an owl kitten honing its hunting skills. She sat down at the table and gazed at the soup below her face. The warm steam slowly rising up to meet her porcelain white, doll-like skin, the smell unearthing long-forgotten memories of when she was sick as a child and tomato-carrot soup being all she wanted to eat and drink until she was feeling better because nothing else had taste while she was sick.

But Azula did not smile even a little at remembering this. She felt a single tear come down from her right eye and pressed the back of her hand on it to see the tear. It brought with it the hurtful recalling that she could never go back to the Fire Nation or her home ever again unless she wanted to go back to the asylum or worse; a Fire Nation Prison such as the Boiling Rock for the remainder of her life. So, she wiped the tear off on her pants and grabbed the chopsticks at the side of the bowl and began to eat, not bothering to savour every tasteful bite in her mouth.

While eating, Azula looked around the house to distract her from her memories. She saw beige wall tiling, pictures frames hanging on the wall, mostly of plants and shells. No personal photos of family or friends. "Perhaps they were in one of the bedrooms" Azula thought. She turned her head left and saw, on the floor next to a brown cupboard, a trap door that probably lead to a basement.

Azula then finished the soup and placed the chopsticks down by the empty bowl. She pondered on what her next move was. She couldn't stay here for very long; if Zuko was searching for her to take her back to the asylum, he or the Avatar and friends would eventually discover this house and her identity would be exposed to the old woman who had found her by luck tonight. The howling of the wind outside was beginning to sound like a broken train whistle, indicating that for tonight, she was stuck in here. At least there was a bed for her to sleep in tonight. That was better than the floor of a cave where the only blanket were the clothes on your back and your arms and legs clenched tightly around your body.

As Azula was trying to work out how long she could stay here before curiosity got to the old cat she was staying with, she saw her finally come out of the bedroom. She had taken the cloak off and had it in her arms along with a white material on top of it. Azula could see the woman was wearing Fire Nation rags with light grey baggy sleeves, a purple shall over her shoulders and a darker purple dress with a black apron with red flames along its bottom corners tied around her waist. When Azula looked up, she could see her face more clearly and saw a small fire nation headpiece in the centre of the big circular bun on top of her head.

She held out the white material and Azula saw it was a night dress "Here's something you can wear, I've altered it so it should fit you."

Azula stood up and tucked in her chair before heading to the woman and carefully taking the night dress. Its material was soft and it appeared to be her size.

"Thank you." Azula said looking more at her make-do pyjamas rather than the woman's eyes. Surprisingly, the woman didn't seem to mind Azula not wanting to make eye contact with her. Perhaps previous tenants lost in Forgetful Valley had been this way and she had grown accustomed to this reluctant behaviour. As Azula walked into the bedroom she'd be sleeping in, the woman took her plate and chopsticks from the table to the kitchen and then proceeded to have soup for herself.


Azula shut the curtain and saw, right in front of her, a cosy bed with a big duvet folded back to the bottom of the bed that was fully coloured royal red and a decorative patchwork blanket was sprawled over the pillow area. On the left side of the bed was a bed side table with a single lit candle being the only source of light in the room. On Azula's left from where she stood was a chair she could put her current attire on. She put the night dress on the bed and took off her clothes and boots and placed them on the chair. She then pulled the night dress over her head and arms before taking out the ribbon keeping her hair in its perfect top knot.

As her hair came down and she smoothed over it with her hands, a knock came from behind the curtain and then a voice asked "Can I enter" came the old woman's voice.

Azula answered with a quiet "Okay" even though she just wanted to go to sleep and forget for just tonight what had happened regarding her mother and dum dum brother. The woman entered as Azula put the ribbon from her hair on to her folded clothes.

"Come on, I'll tuck you in." she said going over to the left side of the bed. Azula felt this wasn't normal or necessary as she had been tucking herself in bed since she decided at age 7, she didn't need to be tucked in bed. Especially since it was apparent that their mother didn't want to tuck her in or read her a story as she preferred to stay with Zuko and read him the story of the Ugly Turtle-Duckling. Sometimes, Azula would hear her mother's voice while she was trying to sleep and would sneak out of bed to listen to her mother and brother while she hid and silently cried. Then, when Ursa was done, Azula would race back to her bed and feign being asleep and Ursa didn't bother to come over to her to check. She just took one glance and left for her bedroom.

With more memories that were bringing pain to her mind, Azula nodded slowly to the old woman and got into the bed. As she lied down on her left as she always did, she felt the snug fabric of the blanket cradling her face, but her expression remained blank and full of sorrow. The woman then brought the half on the blanket that was behind Azula's head over the princess' head. She then walked to the other side and pulled the other half diagonally downwards so it would cover her top half, making Azula looked like a new-born baby wrapped in a blanket. Finally, the woman pulled the duvet at the bottom of the bed over Azula's body. Azula felt a sense of warmth returning to her as the woman blew out the candle and left the room. Azula then felt a sense of safety as she fell asleep.


The elderly woman continued to watch her guest and as soon as she was sure Princess Azula of the Fire Nation was sound asleep, her smile went from sweet to sinister as she closed the curtain.

A noise came from below the house. She knew exactly what it was.

Or more who it was...

She took a key from a pocket hidden behind her apron and unlocked the door that led to the basement. The noise came again and the woman entered quickly so she could shut the door behind her. After all, she couldn't risk waking up the princess. She grabbed a torch that was fuelled not by fire and coal, but simply by rocks that were luminous in pure darkness. She descended down the stair until she reached a large spacious room filled with nothing but black. There were torches across the rooms walls, but they had covers so that the only light in the room was from the torch the woman was holding. She continued walking straight ahead to the noise that was a muffled scream that continued as she got closer to the cell hidden in all the darkness.

She took a rock from her torch and lightly tossed it in between the bars on a cell to see her prisoner; he was, when they first met five months ago, a healthy, muscular man who went into Forgetful Valley. But not to forget who he was, he wanted to make a map of the forest and then sell them. But he had gotten lost and was then found by her. He stayed in the guest room one night before she trapped him in her basement using a technique he still didn't quite grasp despite experiencing it everyday for five months. Now, he was skinny to the point where his bones could be seen in his arms and chest area, his clothes were torn, his eyes were wide open with terror and almost bloodshot, there was over there were burn marks and whip marks on his back and he continued his screams despite being muzzled and all four of his limbs were chained to the walls and floor in a position where he couldn't inflict pain on himself. No, only she could do the hurting... and what she was about to do...

"Astonishing." She began with in a unsettling calm tone to the man who was now breathing rapidly. "I could hear you from upstairs. You must really be scared. Not that I blame you."

The man tried backing away as far as his restraints would let him go as the woman examined her right hand while mockingly flexing her fingers "My new prisoner could've heard you and ran off. But luckily, she's asleep and even better, my special technique works almost perfectly without the full moon to aid me... all thanks to the five months of practise I've had with you."

As she flexed her fingers slowly into a fist and lifted her arm, the man in the cell seemed to unwillingly rise up from his cowering position and his screams ceased as he felt what she was doing to do his neck area. The woman looked in his eyes and saw that he knew what she was going to do to him.

"Soon, she'll be occupying this cell and endure the pain she so deserves." The woman said to herself. Then she looked dead in the man's eyes "Such a pity you won't anymore." She said before making a quick slashing movement with her arm.

SNAP!

She released her grip on the blood in his body and the man fell to the ground, dead from his own blood snapping his neck. The woman then unlocked the door and unlocked the restraints on the now dead man whose name she had long forgotten. As she used her special technique to move his body without touching it, her mind went back to when she and the princess were making their way here. The spoilt girl had almost frozen and stopped walking, so she had to risk using her technique and hope for the moment that Azula wasn't suspicious about how she continued walking. The woman rose her arm as she walked upstairs and the lifeless body of her former captive followed her. She knew the forest well and took him to a cliffside and flung him over and the simply left. She wasn't worried about anyone discovering him. Even if they did, no one would know him as he had come to Hira'a as a stranger. He had no family or friends, so they would dismiss him as a lost soul who went into Forgetful Valley and never came out alive.


When she returned home, she quickly peeped into the guest bedroom to check Azula hadn't woken up when she left. No, she was fast asleep.

"Good" she thought before she walked into her bedroom. It was identical to the room Azula was sleeping in except on the bed side table was something other than a candle. There was a box. A dark green box that contained her most valuable possession. She opened it, but only to look inside, not to touch.

Inside the box was a whale tooth comb from her home in the Southern Water Tribe; something she was able to smuggle on to a fire navy ship until they confiscated it from her and made her dress in rags before locking her in a cage that prevented her and her water tribe brothers and sisters from using their gift of waterbending.

Until she had invented a special technique that allowed her to escape and reclaim her prized possession.

Bloodbending. Controlling the water in another body. Enforcing your own will over theirs.

But it came with a limitation; she could only use it during the full moon when her bending was at its most powerful. But after coming to Hira'a and discovering lost souls in Forgetful Valley that couldn't talk if they stayed in the forest permanently, she was able to perfect her technique and was becoming better at using it without the full moon's aid, as tonight had proved with Princess Azula. Now, she would perfect it even more to exact her revenge on the Fire Nation.

"I will avenge you my fallen brothers and sisters of the Southern Water Tribe. It is my duty as the last Waterbender of our Tribe to ensure the Fire Nation pays for what it did to us." Hama thought as she closed the box.


So now you know who the old woman is... Hama. I am going to add her as a main character after maybe a week. I didn't at first because it would've spoilt the story.
Noticed some errors in this chapter; I've corrected them.