AN: We're starting to hit the meat of what I wanted to write about, so I'm pretty anxious to hear what everyone thinks going forward. I really hope you all enjoy, please let me know your thoughts!
Chapter 4: Collision
The head of palace security and captain of the guard reflected for the umpteenth time in the past hour how curious the present situation was. It was his duty and privilege and very distinct honor with safeguarding the massive ornate building that housed the Fire Lord himself, and until only just recently, he had managed to do everything necessary to fulfill that duty.
But now, here he stood alongside the majority of his guard, vacated of the palace at the express order of none other than Fire Lord Ozai himself. So now the entirety of the royal guard was milling about the palace grounds until further notice and the head of palace security was finding this less than flattering. It was almost as though he and his elite soldiers had been sent outside for recess as though they were children following school lunch.
Worse than being unflattering, however, it felt distinctly off.
Fire Lord Ozai had never been one to see the great need in explaining himself, but there was usually at least some semblance of reasoning behind his orders. And after the recent assault on the capital itself, security seemed of the utmost importance. Regardless, they had all been placed on temporary hold of their service until summoned by the Fire Lord's personal aid, meaning that save for perhaps some of his closest advisors, their leader was completely alone. A prime target for Earth Nation assassins, or another joint attack or perhaps the Avatar himself making another appearance. All was enough to drive the captain of the guard a tad crazy as the possibilities rushed him.
"Sir, here they come."
Glad to finally have something to focus his attention on that wasn't his own muted distress, the captain looked down the long winding set of broad steps to see three palanquins being brought up to their base. He had been alerted ahead of time that Princess Azula and her personal consorts were en route and her highness was due for a meeting with her father.
Could that be what this is all about? What sort of private matter with his daughter would make the Fire Lord paranoid enough to vacate the entire palace?
Even from the distance that he stood, there was no mistaking Azula's striking figure stepping free of her palanquin where she was joined by the other two young women that she seemed to go everywhere with. As she began to ascend the stairs, he turned and began to walk a path around the palace grounds. His second in command eyed him as he did.
"Sir? There are already five patrols sweeping the grounds as per your orders."
He continued without looking back, calling over his shoulder.
"I know. But I have no desire to be anywhere between her highness and whatever her destination."
And he left it at that. The second in command stayed put a moment longer before glancing down the stairs. As she approached, it was clear in her movements that Azula was not in the finest mood. She rarely was, but even then, the soldier took the advice of his superior officer, and took off as well.
"SASUKE! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WILL BECOME MY NEW LIGHT! YOU HAVE MY SPARE EYE!"
"FROM THE DAY YOU WERE BORN INTO OUR CLAN, YOU HAVE BEEN UNAVOIDABLY INTERTWINED FROM THIS BLOOD-SOAKED FIGHT! NOW COME MY LITTLE BROTHER! I SHALL KILL YOU TO OBTAIN MY TRUE TRANSFORMATION!"
….
"But with us, it's different. I'm always going to be there for you. Even if it's as an obstacle to overcome."
….
"THIS IS THE TRUE BOND OF THE BROTHERS OF THE UCHIHA!"
…
With a shout, Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he pulled himself into a sitting position from where he had been laying; the words he had heard in his dreams continued to thunder in his head like the gongs of some monstrous bell.
Was that… who was that?
"You're okay, freak. Bad dream?"
As the waking world became his reality, Sasuke looked up to see Toph leaning against the burner box, arms crossed and her blind gaze directed towards him. He licked his lips and breathed slow and calmly as his heartbeat slowed to a regular pace.
"Yeah, something like that."
Looking skyward past the balloon of the airship, he blinked and then jumped to his feet. "How long was I asleep?"
Toph shook some hair free from her face and sat down, clearly relieving herself of the duty she had taken while watching him sleep. "Not sure, about two hours?"
The darkness of the sky caused Sasuke's heart to skip a beat, but he quickly realized why the blackening of the sky had occurred. Directly ahead of them was a colossal storm front; a wall of black clouds rose from several hundred feet above the ocean to disappear into the heavens. Whatever breeze had been softly flowing was gone now, the distinct and unmistakable reality of the calm before the storm. Toph seemed to have picked up on this and asked, "It got pretty quiet while you were asleep. We're not in trouble, are we?"
Not yet.
Looking down, Sasuke could see the distant flicker of the lights from what must have been the Fire Nation capital a sprawling city that culminated at its highest point with a building that even from that far off he could tell was a massive and impressive structure.
"We're close."
The sudden nerves in Toph's voice were apparent as she replied to him quickly, "We are?"
Not speaking back, Sasuke began preparations. He hadn't counted on a storm, but with the blue sky he had dozed off underneath being replaced with an encroaching storm, he would need to work fast if he wanted to still go through with his plan. Casting another fireball jutsu that sent the small airship on a tremendously quick ascension, he double checked his limited gear and their trajectory. Assuring himself that everything was in order, he sat back down and pulled free an apple that had been provided to him as part of his provisions. Only then did he stop and actually listen to Toph who had been hounding him since he had started moving.
"… I swear, if you actually flew us all the way out here without an actual plan… I demand to know right now what you're thinking and what we're going to do, because I can't imagine that even you're stupid enough to just go park in front of the palace, walk inside and say 'Hey, Azula, long time, no see, oh by the by, your dad is about to kill you to steal power from a comet, so fair warning' unless you really are that stupid in which case – was that thunder?!"
As a distant rumbling sounded and Toph spun around like a schizophrenic owl, Sasuke reached up and grabbed her arm, gently but firmly.
"You're going to need to relax."
Though he hadn't quite expected it, she did as he asked and inhaled deep gulps of air in an effort to keep herself stable. When he was convinced she was in a place where she would actually comprehend what he was saying, Sasuke began to talk, keeping the details as fluffy as he could.
"The best way into a city guarded like a fortress as far as I can tell, is from air. We'll go down just above the palace and land on the roof, or nearby, our inconspicuousness being rather important to that end. We'll use your earthbending to get inside, and from there, we hunt down Azula."
This gave Toph pause and she turned in his direction, "Wait, so part of this plan actually relies one me being here."
"It does now."
She leapt into the air triumphantly. "Yes, I knew it! Act all tough and loner, but you need help just like everyone else, you're not so bad… "
Another splintering crack of thunder sounded, this time much closer and louder, and Toph jumped again though this time not in jubilation. Sasuke looked towards the flickering black mass of cloud and found himself glad Toph was unable to see it and just how massive it was.
"You keep talking that way, and I'll throw you into this storm."
She rotated angrily to face him. "I knew it, that was thunder!"
Her elation entirely gone, she dropped down to sit on the floor of the airship's basket, wrapping her arms around her knees. A more intense wind had begun to interject itself over the prow of the vessel, and Sasuke finished his snack hurriedly before seizing the rope that served as his only other provision and began to tie it.
Toph muttered from the floor of the basket. "Stupid idea, should have let him just go get killed by himself, stupid asshole, making me think it was a smart move to tag along, I should have—"
Looking out over the black storm, Sasuke looked over the edge of the airship which had started to begin swaying more in line with the desires of the wind. Beneath them was the distant dark grey of the ocean and just ahead of them was the capital; it would be close, but wait much longer and he was risking serious disaster.
"I'm leaving now, you want off, or do you want to get hit by lightning and die complaining?"
Toph squealed at his words, her voice cracking. "YOU BETTER NOT!"
She scrambled back up and raced up to the sound of his voice, colliding with him. If she had been much bigger, they might have both been knocked clean off the ship. Taking her shoulders to steady her, Sasuke asked, "Do you want to be on my back or on my chest?"
Even in the darkening light of the evening sky, he could see her cheeks redden and he rolled his eyes, clarifying what he meant, "I'm going to tie you to me; I'll be able to control us falling fairly well, but it will be much more of a chore, and more risky, to try and do both of us separately."
She turned her head upward at him.
"What do you mean 'falling'? Aren't we landing?"
A strong gust of wind rocked the vessel, and Sasuke lied in the hopes of speeding this process up.
"That's what I meant, but the wind is going to get pretty strong and if we have to make a hard landing, I'll be able to keep us both together and safe."
She waited almost long enough for Sasuke to yell at her before muttering, "Front."
Lifting her and putting her arms around his neck, Sasuke took the rope and tied her as tightly as he could to his chest. Another crash of thunder and roar of wind sounded, and as Toph jumped against him at the sound, he knew it was time.
Sorry, kid.
Sitting on the railing of the airship, he tipped off backwards and fell into space. As the wind bellowed at him, the thunder rolling all about and Toph screaming to top it all off, he spoke a jutsu that he couldn't well hear over all the noise. "Sound Release: Muffled Echo."
All at once, the sound around him dulled into a dampened and fuzzy sound that resounded low in his ears. Finding it much easier to think, Sasuke turned his body so that he was aimed headfirst towards the ocean.
The storm seemed much larger and imposing than it had as though it had significantly gained speed since they first set eyes on it. The Fire Nation capital by comparison looking like a small display of a thousand tiny fireflies with an enormous, flickering black blanket swooping low to smother it. Keeping an arm wrapped around Toph, not trusting his knots in their entirety, Sasuke spoke again as his free hand went through several symbols.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Current."
As though they had hit an invisible chute, they turned in their fall, carried diagonally towards the capital at an excessively intense speed. Sasuke cast another jutsu to hopefully deter any freak lightning strikes from directing themselves towards him and Toph and within thirty seconds of their descent, the capital had grown exponentially in relative size. Toph had fortunately stopped screaming, but he could still feel her heart pounding against him.
Don't worry, we're almost—
As they soared above the capital and palace at about two thousand feet, the world suddenly glowed very bright and Sasuke felt pain explode in his side as a fireball collided with it. His fall became free once more as the jutsu broke and he spun at the whim of the wind before correcting himself and returning to reality. The ground was bearing up on him awfully quickly and he shook away the burning tips of rope that flapped around him.
Burning tips of rope?
It was then, as he scanned beneath him relentlessly to see who might have attacked him, that he was absent a very particular weight. His eyes turned upward and he saw Toph falling twenty feet or so in front of him and about ten feet beneath his descent. She appeared to either have passed out from the strike they had taken or from fear entirely and dropped as helplessly as a ragdoll might. Growling, Sasuke prepared to recast his Wind Release jutsu to reach her and keep her from becoming a stain with attitude on the palace grounds.
Another fireball flashed by him on his right and he twisted in middair to track its path. As raindrops splattered against him as hard as rocks, he saw what he had somehow missed during their descent.
A Fire Nation airship of roughly the same size and make of the one he had just piloted over to the capital was steadily descending after them. It was slowly falling out of sight as it seemed unable to keep up with the rate Sasuke and Toph were falling, but not one to be without the last word, Sasuke pulled back an arm.
"Chidori!"
Barking the word, he let the lightning sling from his wrist, a very abrasive blue color against the white flashes amongst the blackening sky. It arced to reach the airship and he watched it explode in a burst of electricity against the balloon portion of the vessel. As it spiraled uncontrollably towards the ground, Sasuke turned back to the situation at hand.
Shit!
Was all he had time to think before his shoulder collided with an uppermost outcropping of the palace's highest tower and blew it apart in a slew of rubble. As the pain seared at his limb, he realized that in the time it had taken him to turn, identify his target and attack, gravity had remained far from forgiving. He saw that Toph had miraculously avoided the same tower he had struck, but a quick glance down met him with a frightening realization.
He would never get to her in time.
There wasn't enough time as the roof of the palace was seconds away; Wind Release wouldn't get her to him in time. She was going to die because he had put getting even over her.
No… I won't!
Just as they were about to hit the roof at very near terminal velocity, a deep blue glow appeared from behind Sasuke. A snaking appendage, thin and with a massive hand to adversely complement its apparent wiriness, reached out and opened its palm beneath Toph, catching her even as the roof met Sasuke with a clattering smash.
He opened his eyes to realize that not only was he seemingly fine, but he felt mostly unhurt, save for the pain in his shoulder. As rain hammered down around him, he stood slowly to see what seemed to be a cage of dark blue arcs circling him in a protective shield. The arm that stretched out gently deposited Toph on the top of the palace and Sasuke looked around at the ghostly apparition that had just come to his aid.
"Susano'o."
Somehow, he knew that was what it was, though how it had suddenly been remembered as something he could utilize was another matter entirely. Regardless, he had more important matters to deal with.
He raced over to Toph, the Susano'o disappearing as he did. A quick look over told him she hadn't been hurt badly, save for a burn where part of her sleeve had been torched away when they had been hit. A quick couple slaps across the face and she was slowly blinking her way back to reality.
"Wha… what happened? Where… am I?"
Then as she must have remembered all that had happened, she leapt away from him and adopted a particularly angry stance. Sasuke straightened and stood back as the rain continued to lash them and lighting splintered the now entirely dark sky overhead.
"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU! YOU JUST JUMPED OUT OF THE AIRSHIP WITH ME?!"
She stomped her foot and an explosion of shingles and roof rushed towards Sasuke. Casting a quick substitution jutsu, he leapt away from her attack and cast another Wind Release, that allowed him to hover above the ground. His Sharingan had let him see that Toph's movements and attacks came from her sensory abilities that she gained by communing with the ground beneath her feet. Of all the people he had read around the fire back at the temple, she had been by far the most impressive, but it was still with relative ease that she could be countered.
Sasuke watched as she clearly realized that he was no longer there and she spun about angrily, surely feeling through the roof with her powerful sense of touch, furiously keen to find him, "DON'T RUN AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK!"
When he remained silent, she cried out in frustration and sent a circular wave around her feet rushing out and tearing at the roof, rushing up in a cascade of hard bits and framework. It would have been a strong blow to anyone it might have hit, but Sasuke remained quietly out of reach and out of her only two senses that could detect him. He watched as she seemed to grow more and more upset; he intended to let her burn herself out, or put her to sleep if she wasted too much time, but something surprising happened.
Toph continued to vent through her movements, flinging pieces of roof every which way, the sound of it muffled by the hammering of rain, claps of thunder, and roar of the wind. Sasuke listened to her curse him, scream insults and do everything in her power to find her target and introduce him to her wrath. It was after a dozen seconds or so of this behavior that Sasuke realized two things.
First, she shook with a sudden spasm every time there was a boom of thunder. Second, her movements were less aggressive than they were desperate, as though something very important relied on her blowing him away. He heard distinct fear enter her voice after a while and then after a minute, without warning, she dropped to her knees and ceased attacking him altogether.
And as he looked at her shake with fright and worry, head bowed on the massive sprawling roof, Sasuke realized that all she really was, was scared.
Her voice shook as she put her hands over ears, "Please don't go… don't leave me… I'm sorry."
Had he been any weaker, Sasuke might have been overcome with pity. As it was, his mission never faded from his mind and he put himself down next to her. She didn't reach to him returning to a plane where she could sense him, and she barely moved when he knelt next to her and put an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm right here, you're alright."
Words of comfort came from his mouth as though someone were pulling his teeth; empathy, he found, came to him about as reliably as cold found itself in fire. For a moment, the world was lit up in a silent and brilliant flash of lightning and Sasuke put his hands over Toph's ears, but she still leapt as another boom, the loudest yet, shook the world around them. Taking his hands away, he leaned down to speak quietly in her ear.
"What do you say we get out of this storm?"
As though propelled purely by the idea of having something to do, Toph raised her head to give him a short nod. He stood up straight and she followed suit before bowing her head again, though he could tell it was for a purpose other than fear. After a second, she stomped her foot and Sasuke felt the roof beneath him give way, and he dropped down a circular hole that she had opened with her bending. He slid down a distance before they pair of them dropped into a massive hall, adorned on either side with pillars the width of a man lying on his back and lit by torch, glowing a dim, yet intense orange around them. The wall behind them silently opened to create hands of marble and stone, catching the pair of them to set them down silently in the shadowy corner of the great hall.
As the hands retreated to become the wall they were originally purposed to be, Sasuke instinctively leaned out to look up and down the massive room, even up to the ceiling that disappeared into blackness over a hundred feet above them.
"We're alone," Toph remarked coldly as though she had read his mind. Sasuke looked back to her skeptically.
"Are you sure?"
As though personally insulted by him even asking, Toph reached out with her hands and drew up pieces of the floor, both nearly the size of Appa before flinging them across the length of the hall to land in the shadow of the other pillars, hardly visible then, but the almighty crash that followed caused Sasuke to stare in pain and grit his teeth. But as the noise echoed away and no one came running, he was forced to look back to Toph who had her arms crossed.
"You win."
He had hoped his submission would spur her further, but she instead seemed to ignore him and leaned back against the wall. In the shadows, he had trouble seeing her expression, but her aura practically seeped with her mood. Stepped up to lean on the wall beside her, he asked quietly, "Are you going to be okay?"
She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, "I just hate storms. Like, really badly. I got lost in my family's garden once when I was a kid and a storm blew in. Rain hitting the ground made feeling my way around through the earth really difficult and the noise of it all made thinking impossible, except for remembering how alone I was in all of it. So, yeah, storm's terrify me, laugh all you want."
"I'm not laughing."
Toph scratched behind her ear. "Yeah, you don't seem like the kind to laugh at much of anything."
Standing alongside her a moment longer in the pure quiet of the enormous hall and listening to the distant rumble of thunder, Sasuke supposed that he ought to move this along. Surprised he didn't have to remind her of their reason for being there, she pushed away from the wall and started to walk further into the palace. He fell in line beside her as she asked, "Do me a favor and stop moving a second."
He complied and she got on her hands and knees, palms open against the red carpeted floor. After a moment, she mused, "Weird. The place is almost totally empty. It's a lot harder to sense people when they're not moving, but I've got one down the hallway… footfalls to heavy for a woman though. There's another… too soft, Azula walks way more aggressively than that… "
As Toph muttered out her findings one after another, Sasuke couldn't help but be genuinely impressed over her control of her element; her blindness had very clearly done nothing but enhance her growth and skill.
Suddenly, she stood up straight and pointed at an angle towards what must have been another part of the palace.
"There. About a dozen hallways away, three sets of footsteps."
"Are you sure she's one of them?"
Toph smiled. "One set is almost dragging her feet, like she'd rather by lying down then walking about, another set is almost bouncing around, and the third is marching with the authority of someone who thinks a great deal of her place in the universe.
Nodding, Sasuke ran his fingers along the handle of his blade.
"Lead on."
Stopping in front of the massive ornate door that provided entrance to her father's chambers, Azula found herself remembering exactly where she was. She was about to receive an audience with the most powerful man in all the four nation, her father and ruler, and it would not do well to enter his abode with an attitude of any kind. She was more than aware of her frustration laden footsteps and the silence from her two companions informed her that her dissatisfaction with the situation was no great secret.
Exhaling and humming sweetly in an attempt to return to her usual amenable façade laced with malice, she turned to look at her friends. "Mai, I know this isn't a first for you, but Ty Lee, do exactly as I do. Do not speak unless spoken to, reply to anything asked of you with a bow, and under no circumstances express yourself with anything more than a small smile."
Ty Lee gave her a look.
"The Fire Lord doesn't like big smiles?"
Azula turned back to the door.
"I've seen him kill for less."
With an audible gulp, Ty Lee adopted a much more modest expression.
The door swung open with an impressive silence for a piece of architecture quite its size. Quite like the rest of the palace, Fire Lord Ozai's chamber was one of deep black and orange, the line of fire burning before the throne the brightest colors to be found. As she had done dozens of times before, Azula strode in, briskly but respectfully; her father sat on his throne as he always did, silhouetted intensely by the fires that lit his room. His voice that Azula had heard an uncountable number of times was just as smooth and commanding as she always remembered it.
"My daughter… how good it is to see your face again."
She bowed low. "My lord, it is an honor to be returned to your presence so quickly." It was with a great deal of effort that she was able to keep from putting any resentment in that statement.
Returning her gaze upwards, Azula looked at the imposing frame of her father inquisitively.
"I noticed that the palace was far more empty than usual and a large number of the royal guards were displaced outside. Is there something happening?"
The Fire Lord raised his hand in a gesture of dismissiveness.
"A series of drills are being conducted by the captain of the guard; I was told that he intends for security to be of a much greater focus amongst the capital. Perhaps he feels the precautions you and I put in place are not enough."
Azula wrinkled her nose disdainfully.
"He is a fool. The work we put in to secure the capital after the invasion is complete and impregnable."
"I quite agree, but I found it best to appease him in this case."
Azula nodded in blind agreement. Her father's gesture moved to her right and left. "I see you denied my guards that I sent to meet you in favor for your own."
Bowing again, she replied as diplomatically as she could.
"Your gesture was much appreciated father, but these two are the best to have at my side."
As impossible to read as always, her father leaned back and spoke with something of interest in his voice, "I was hoping you might make introductions."
"Of course. This is Mai, daughter—"
"Ah, yes, how could I forget. Ukano's daughter. My apologies, my dear, forgive an old man's ailing memory, I meant nothing by it."
Mai inclined her head deeply. "There is nothing to forgive, your highness."
Azula turned her gaze to Ty Lee who was doing a remarkable job keeping her usual bounciness under control. "This is Ty Lee, from the academy."
"The three of you used to play when you were children, yes?"
Genuinely surprised that her father, who never had time for children, or the exploits of such, had remembered this, Azula nodded.
"Indeed."
Spreading his hands in a gesture of goodwill, Fire Lord Ozai spoke with the closest thing to warmth Azula imagined she had ever heard. "I welcome you both into my humble abode. I only wish… it were under better circumstances."
This gave Azula pause for more than one reason. She didn't think, that in her entire life serving him, that she had ever heard her father slow up on his words, not even once. The Fire Lord was a man of outspoken feelings and always spoke his mind, feeling the lack of doing so to be a waste of efficiency and time.
She also could never recall having ever heard something that sounded of regret mingle in her father's tone. From banishing his own son, to being betrayed by Iroh and Zuko on more than once occasion, to ordering the entire sixteenth legion to march into a massacre in the hopes of catching the enemy by surprise with an aerial attack during one of the attempts on an Earth Nation fortress, Azula never heard any form of remorse come from her father.
Slowly and carefully, she asked, "Are the circumstances cause for concern, father? Forgive my impudence, but I assumed you recalled me to the capital due to pressing need, is something wrong?"
It was then that Fire Lord Ozai fell silent for nearly an entire minute. The harsh crackle of flames kept the room from being completely seized in silence, but the tension began to grow until it was entirely impossible to ignore. Azula could practically feel Ty Lee squirming next to her and she would have admitted to feeling slightly uneasy herself. There was something her father was having trouble putting into words and that in and of itself was more than cause for concern.
When he finally did speak, it was with slow and intent deliberation, "I don't find this easy to say, nor will I find it easy to do… but the truth is the truth and I owe this to you, my daughter."
He stood, his silhouette becoming one even more imposing as his shadow lengthened on the wall behind him; he paced slowly, as though using the movement to control his words.
"In recent months, I have become aware of a particular ritual invented by my grandfather, your great-grandfather that, if performed, might grant one such as myself exceptional potential awoken by Sozin's Comet itself."
Azula felt something akin to excitement begin to spread from her gut. A new way to combat the Avatar and the joint forces of the Earth and Water Nations perhaps?
"What is this ritual?"
Fire Lord Ozai reached the end of his throne's platform and turned, pacing the thirty or so feet the other direction, still speaking slowly. "My daughter, are your companions loyal to this nation?"
She didn't even need to think in order to reply honestly. "Yes, of course."
"I'm glad. Then they will understand, as you will, why this has to happen."
As though summoned from the very shadows themselves, a cluster of hooded figures descended from the darkness belittling the room and gathered in a semicircle around the throne of Azula's father. It was not lost on her that she and her friends had been surrounded. Mai growled and Azula heard the distinct sound of her drawing her knives, and she saw Ty Lee adopt a defensive stance out of the corner of her eye.
The Fire Lord continued on as though there had been no sudden intrusion. "The ritual set in stone by my grandfather decades ago indicated that the ability to utilize the comet to inhibit the Avatar State itself could be possible. As firebenders, we all will be able to draw power from Sozin's Comet, but this ritual will grant me access to a path that will truly make me insurmountable to even the Avatar himself."
He gestured around them, drawing notice to the hooded dozen figures that hadn't moved since forming their almost invasively tight circle. Azula could tell that her friends had turned their attention to them, but she kept her gaze locked intently on her father. There was a growing feeling in her that she couldn't quite identify, one that she honestly felt she didn't want to try and name.
"It is entirely possible that the nation I reign over might feel… dubious of my actions here, and I have appropriately evacuated the palace so no watching eye might report my doings to the populace. I apologize for that lie."
The wall of fire that separated him from any onlookers parted, and he stepped down a couple of the stairs, drawing closer to them, but remaining on the steps to remain above them. Now, Azula could see his face, the face of the man she had respected more than anyone, whom she believed would be the one to bring about true change to the four nations.
"I had sent a group of disposable guards to fetch you as they would need to be killed along for this façade to play out. But as it stands, it will only need to be you three."
He took another step down the stairs, and Azula felt her heart catch in her chest as he addressed her, in a tone almost too soft to believe it was even his.
"Azula, my daughter, my purest creation… to perform this ritual, I have to… let you go."
There it was, the penultimate moment. She realized she had hadn't been breathing and pulled in a shaking, rattling breath as her world spun.
Everything she had worked towards had built to this final requirement, this statement of her being. To be a loyal servant to the end, to give her father every piece of her, even her life, to fulfill the fate of the Fire Nation. There was nothing she could even think to say, nothing she could even really think to do. Her father reached out a hand towards her, beckoning in a final sort of way.
"Will you grant me this severance?"
Azula felt her hand shaking and she clasped it behind her back. There was no choice. Her life had already been given in service to her father thus far; how could she deny him this now? Her life, truly, was no more than something to be used, something to be traded for gain when said gain outweighed her usefulness.
You were never even a player.
The words she had spoken to the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se resounded in her head; was this what it had felt like? To finally be reduced to a party worth only what it offered by way of intrinsic value?
Please, Zuzu, while you're still trying to manage your anger, I'll be second hand to our father, and one of the most feared and respected people in all of the Four Nations.
Words she had thrown at Zuko before he had departed on his banishment voyage to hunt down the Avatar rang hollowly within her mind as she swallowed.
This was it.
The end.
Taking a long breath, Azula closed her eyes and unclenched her fists at her side. "I will, father."
Steeling herself, she walked forward, but had only gone a single step to kneel at the Fire Lord's feet before an hand grabbed her by the upper arm and spun her around. She then no longer saw her father's imposing visage, but that of her friend who was glaring at her with furious eyes.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME, 'ZULA?!"
Ty Lee's voice echoed around the chamber with a tempestuous echo that resounded with the thunder that continued to storm about beyond the walls of the palace. Her face was furious, and her eyes were glimmering with unshed tears.
"IS THAT ALL THIS WAS FOR?! ALL YOUR TALK, AND YOUR HIGH AND MIGHTY ATTITUDE, AND YOU'RE JUST GOING TO DIE BECAUSE MAYBE IT GIVES THE FIRE NATION A CHANCE TO BEAT THE AVATAR?!"
Mai put a hand on Ty Lee's shoulder, and Azula could see that her sullen friend was crying fully, shaking silently, but her hand was thrown away. Azula waited to be yelled at again, but after a long second of staring at her desperately, Ty Lee finally shook her head and took forward, knocking her aside and moving to stand closest to her father.
"I'm sorry, your highness. But I can't let you kill your own daughter."
Azula's heart was a storm of emotion; indignation that Ty Lee had butted in, worry that her father was going to disintegrate her friend on the spot, and something that might have been affection trying to worm its way past all her negative feelings. She couldn't find a single thing to say as the Fire Lord stared down at the young woman who now blocked his path towards what he believed to be certain victory.
Shouldering gently past Azula, Mai paced forward reluctantly, head bowed. For a moment, Azula was sure she was going to pull Ty Lee back, but then, to her horror, Mai slowly withdrew a knife from the inside of her sleeve and directed it forwards toward the Fire Lord.
Her arm shook a moment, before it steadied, "Whatever you gain from this, my lord, I promise it will never be worth it."
Azula couldn't believe what she was seeing. Minutes ago, she had been on a way to an audience with her father, albeit under peculiar circumstances, but it was still something she had done a hundred times before. Now, her only two friends in the world were threatening her father, the most powerful man in all of the Four Nations as though meaning to deny him. It was all so impossible, she couldn't hardly believe it.
The Fire Lord cocked his head, and asked, "My daughter, I fear the loyalty to these two was perhaps not what you claimed it to be."
Finding the ability to move again as she was addressed, Azula stumbled forward numbly, grabbing both of her friends. "Stop it both of you. This is what I want."
As though the words were coming from somewhere beyond her own head, she turned to her father, "If I submit, will you let them go? I know they have disrespected you, but I implore you to find forgiveness and allow them to live."
She bowed her head.
"I am your humble servant, and I will always submit to your will. My only desire is that these two may live on."
The Fire Lord regarded her as Mai and Ty Lee made noises of protest before speaking over them. "I hadn't intended for there to be witnesses to this moment, but for you, my daughter, I will allow them their lives."
Ty Lee stepped furiously towards him, "WE DON'T NEED YOUR—"
Desperate to keep her friend from making such a devastating mistake, Azula took Ty Lee by the shoulders and forced her to meet her eyes. "Ty Lee, please. Do not make this any harder than it need be. The Fire Nation's victory is worth more than my life."
She choked on the last word and nearly couldn't speak it; Mai stared at her disgustedly over Ty Lee's shoulder.
"Words of a slave."
Azula looked to Mai angrily. "Just because I've decided to make my life mean something beyond moping around and waiting to die doesn't translate to slavery. Go, Mai."
Giving Ty Lee a gentle push away from her, Azula watched Mai carefully. She was met with a hardened stare for several long moments, and she waited to be further disputed. But finally, Mai took a now crying Ty Lee by the arm and turned her away.
"Have it your way."
And without looking back, she marched them both away. The hooded enforcers stepped silently apart to allow them passage and as she watched them go, Azula felt a hundred things she could say roll over her tongue. But in the end, she wasn't strong enough to tell her two friends what they truly meant to her and she turned back to her father in resignation. He had not moved and she approached him, her heart hammering in her chest.
"Kneel, my daughter."
As she reached the bottom step, she obeyed, closing her eyes. Stupidly, she wondered if death was something that hurt.
"Your sacrifice will be remembered, Azula. You will live on in our—Argh!"
Azula's eyes flashed open at her father's snarl and she looked up to see that a knife had sprouted from his shoulder. His fingers grasped at it and at the sound of a scuffle behind her, Azula turned to see that Ty Lee had already subdued two of the men forming the semicircle and Mai had raced past her, arm already pulling back to sling several more knives. At once, Azula reached out a hand in an attempt to stop Mai, but before she could even utter a word, a pair of the hooded man had taken her down before any more knives could be thrown.
At a cry from behind her, Azula turned and watched as Ty Lee was taken down by no less than four of the silent soldiers and restrained; ahead of her Mai grunted in pain as one of the men threw a punch into her gut and she doubled over. They forced her to her knees where she gasped and looked at Azula, face agonized, but her eyes more still.
A clatter sounded next to Azula as the blade her father had pulled from his shoulder fell to the ground, still glistening in the glow of the fire with his blood. She saw his face alive with anger staring down at her as he raised his hand in her direction.
"Enough."
As she realized what was about to happen, Azula couldn't even think to close her eyes. Flame coalesced around his palm, a burning white glow, ready to pierce her body and fell her. Mai screamed in protest, but it was a muffled sound as the pounding of her heart thundered in Azula's head.
In the next moment, several things happened.
Fire Lord Ozai unleashed a firebolt at his daughter, tight and pointed, aimed directly at her heart. Azula remained where she had been, half risen to her feet before she was knocked aside. Ty Lee, who had somehow escaped the grasp of the men who had ceased her attack, had come in from the side and struck her in the shoulder. And as Azula fell to the ground, she watched as the flaming bolt of pure heat and fury tore into her friend and Ty Lee collapsed without a word.
The sounds of everything around her became very clear at that point. The sound of Mai crying in despair, the crackling of the fire, her own breathing. Something was rising from deep within her, and it wasn't anything she knew how to deal with.
She turned to look at her father who was looking on with something that was likely disdain and it clicked. Azula hadn't lied when she claimed that her life had less meaning. But Ty Lee's surely had.
As the rising in her throat finally came forth, she screamed in anger and threw a wall of burning blue flame directly at her father. She had time to see the look of shock on his face before the fire smothered him like a blanket. Stumbling away and stunned at what she had done, Azula was able to jerk her head to the left and blast away the men holding Mai down; she found herself barking orders, the one thing that didn't seem horrifyingly out of place.
"Help me get Ty Lee, we'll have to—"
This was as far as she got before a jet of lightning struck her in the chest. She arched her back in pain, and dropped to her knees, her eyes blurring with agony as she saw her father slicing through the attack she had thrown at him. Even then, though, his voice reflected only deep regret. "My child… you would strike me?"
Freed from her captors, Mai was able to get off a single knife that the Fire Lord shot from the air with an arc of fire before the men Azula had blasted were replaced. As the lightning dissipated and Azula gasped for breath, she found herself dragged up and forced to her knees alongside Mai. Not able to even look in her father's direction, she turned to look at Mai weakly.
The words came freely then, almost miraculous in the ease at which they flowed. She knew she didn't have long to say them "Mai, I'm so sorry. I never wanted this for you, or Ty Lee."
Mai only looked at her sadly. Above them, Fire Lord Ozai growled. "My own daughter, turned against me by something as pathetic as friendship. Though this pains me to no end, perhaps it is a mercy I strike you down before you betray me further."
He seemed as though he might have had more to say, but in an instant, the very ground beneath him rose up and encased him from the neck down in a casket of earth. The floor beneath Mai and Azula tipped up and they both were dumped away from the hooded men; Azula rolled upright in time to see them all knocked up by pillars that shot out of the ground with vicious speed and then, while they were still floating in the air like dolls, a sweeping arc of lightning roared through the air and ripped them to pieces. As their remains fell to the ground, Azula watched as the child she knew to be called Toph rode a wave of the palace floor to stop next to her, hands raised in an aggressive earthbending stance.
"Hiya, Princess. Hope we're not intruding on anything too important."
Ahead of them, her father's entombment glowed red hot before bursting away from him in a blowup of magma. He glared down at Toph, his rage on full display as he whipped a firestorm together above him preparing to unleash it on the only remaining people living in his chamber.
"YOU DARE ATTACK ME?"
He never finished flinging his firestorm however as Azula caught sight of a shadow just behind the roaring flames her father had whirled to life. Breaking through the waves of heat completely unscathed, she saw none other than the young man she had fought briefly at Boiling Rock prison come flying towards the Fire Lord's back, the same lightning he had just used to blast away the hooded guards still crackling around his arm. There was no time to see it coming and all at once, her father was blown over her head in a din of pure blue energy as the attack met its mark. The Fire Lord was dashed against the ground of his very chamber, thrown several dozen yards before skidding to a halt. He immediately picked himself up, and glared towards where the prisoner stood, just where he had moments before.
The exchange of places seemed oddly appropriate as the prisoner pointed at Fire Lord Ozai with his glowing hand, blue sparks of energy spitting from it wildly.
"Looks like this party is really getting started."
Sasuke couldn't quite believe his timing.
He and Toph had broken in just as Ozai had been about to fully cremate his own daughter, just as Zuko had believed would be the end goal. Toph's quick thinking had been just what they needed and now, he had his chance. Azula was saved, and now he could turn his attention to things that concerned him more.
He flicked his gaze down to see that Mai had rushed to Ty Lee's side; the latter wasn't moving, and Sasuke knew they didn't have time for sentiment, regardless of who might be dead.
"Toph, get them out of here."
A slab of earth the size of a small bed lifted from the ground, carrying Ty Lee's body aloft. Toph grabbed both the dazed looking Mai and the stunned looking Azula by the wrists and ran with them at the wall, as the floating rocky gurney trailed after them. Just as they were about to collide with the side of the chamber, the very wall itself pulled apart to allow them access.
Snarling, Ozai drew up a great many flaming orbs and hurled them at the retreating women, but Toph threw up a shield of earth behind them, taking the attacks full on. Not deterred, Ozai leapt after them, fire blowing from his palms and feet propelling him forward.
In all this, he must have forgotten about Sasuke.
"Going somewhere, old man?"
Meeting him in midair, Sasuke allowed himself a quip before throwing down a tremendously quick taijutsu combo and flinging him backwards. They both landed on their feet, Ozai a little shakily and Sasuke half turned to see Toph, still with the three young women in tow, turning back questioningly at him. This wasn't something that he had discussed with her and for good reason. He had no clue if he would actually be leaving with her at all.
"Go."
She blinked and shook her head, taking a step forward. Sasuke cursed and uttered, "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall."
A great piece of earth rocketed up from below, shaking the very chamber itself. Nearly as wide and as tall as the entire side of the chamber wall, it blocked Toph and her company from Sasuke's view and he returned his gaze to the Fire Lord. As it had been generated and moved with his chakra, it would take a reasonable amount of effort for Toph to move it as its energy differed from his own. Hopefully, she would take the hint and take off while they still had the chance.
Sasuke had other plans. Pointing intently at Ozai, he spoke calmly and directly. "You have answers I need."
There was a string of seconds in which the Fire Lord simply blinked at him and Sasuke realized he hadn't been recognized immediately. Stepping forward and more so into the glow of the surrounding fire, he snapped, "Remember me now?"
Ozai's face dawned with recognition and a disbelieving smile crept subtly onto his face.
"It's you. The boy who broke into my grandfather's temple and tried to kill me."
Seeing no reason to waste time, Sasuke spoke truthfully. "Believe it or not, I have very little memory of our first encounter, but I do know that you locked me up in the depths of that dump to hold onto me for whatever reason."
The Fire Lord laughed and fresh fire was whipped to life around him.
"It seems I should have not taken you so lightly, boy. I will not make that mistake again."
Knowing that hell was about to break loose, Sasuke tried to quickly pry some form of information. "How did I come to be in your temple? Why was I imprisoned instead of executed?"
Ozai's gaze darkened and he growled, his powerful voice resonating over the hissing of his summoned flames. "I'm not in the mood to play games. You have taken my daughter from me, and I must reacquire her."
"Is that all she's good for? Your own child, nothing more than a sacrifice for a ritual you don't even know will work?"
"It is my duty, my purpose to make the difficult decisions that no one else will. As Fire Lord that means putting my position before my family."
Suddenly, there was a flash in Sasuke's head and the words he had heard while dreaming raced in to pummel his consciousness. But more than that he saw a face hovering before him, one that, at a glance, was like looking in a mirror. Black eyes and a slightly older complexion told him that it was not exactly him, but his mere appearance was enough to cause Sasuke's heart to churn.
It was due to this sudden visualization of someone from his past that he only was able to move slightly away from an enormous fireball that detonated at the ground at his feet; it tossed him away, but he was able to catch himself and land feet first near the Fire Lord's throne.
Ozai was bearing down on him now, his face alive with excitement and malice. "If you want answers so badly, you'll have to find them yourself!"
The battle only raged for a minute before Sasuke realized the odds he was against. He had made this trip under the confident expectation that there were no beings in this world that would be able to stand against his vast array of jutsu, and natural techniques such as his Sharingan. But Ozai was something beyond what he had expected; the Fire Lord's attacks were ferocious, swift and worst of all, constant. There was no room to recover, to set up anything, to even try and analyze what was being struck at him.
If Ozai was abiding by the laws of Chakra, it would be a near impossibility that he was able to maintain such constant aggression and pressure, but with every wall of fire that was put in his path, with very burning whip that seared at his flesh, with every tidal wave of heat that scorched across the room, Sasuke knew that he was fighting a very different kind of enemy. There was no time to cast a jutsu, no time to even think about how to proceed.
Finally, he got careless as he leapt between pillars and a fireball caught him in the side, sending him crashing into the wall and to the ground. As he blinked away the pain, he heard Ozai behind him cackling energetically.
"This was all you had to offer? I would have guessed you were made of sterner stuff, boy."
You already gave me what I wanted, old man. You like fire so much, let's see if you can really take the heat.
From his place on the ground, Sasuke had been given more than enough time to concentrate and prepare his move, the Fire Lord's hubris giving him exactly what he needed to pull together his chakra. Blood dripping from his eye, he launched himself to his feet and whipped his head around.
"Amaterasu!"
But as the onyx flame burst from the ground, Ozai was no longer standing where Sasuke had known him to be; he had time to look up just in time to see the Fire Lord bearing down on him with fire erupting from his palms. Roaring, Sasuke cast a substitution jutsu and pulled himself behind Ozai, tackling the older man from behind.
"What are you—" was all that Ozai had time to snarl before they both hit the ground heavily; Sasuke used the force of the impact to roll to his feet and direct his black flame towards the Fire Lord who was trying to pull himself up. He had barely straightened before the Amaterasu had reached him, searing at his robes and working to engulf him. Sasuke watched him flail about for a moment beneath the Fire Release technique, but was stunned to see that the Fire Lord had begun to laugh. Ozai turned to face him, fully wrapped in the pitch black fire, but seeming entirely unharmed.
"No matter the fire, I cannot be touched, not as long as the heat remains loyal to me," he boomed before tossing Sasuke aside like a leaf caught in a gale. As he hit the ground on the other side of the chamber, Sasuke doused the Amaterasu and saw Ozai continuing towards him as though the fire had never been there at all, an orange aura enwrapping his person. Sasuke got to his feet with a wince and his Sharingan flared to life.
If this keeps up, I'm going to get pissed.
"I don't understand what you're doing here. Is the Avatar with you?"
Toph shook her head at Mai's question as she continued to feel her way through the palace, working towards the grounds that housed the royal airships that she and Sasuke had previously discussed. She had assured Mai that Ty Lee was still breathing and that her best chance was for them to escape as quickly as possible. Still, that didn't stop her from continuing to fling questions.
"Nope, just me and the asshole."
"But… "
Not for the first time, Mai made to turn around as if expecting to catch a glance of him. Toph pulled on her wrist again and she fell reservedly back in line.
"But who is he? Why is he with you?"
Trying to keep her entourage of previous enemies in line compounded with attempting to work her way towards her destination and with Mai hammering her with questions, Toph was starting to feel slightly overwhelmed; she wasn't even going to think about the fact that she was perhaps feeling a little worried for her companion.
Turning sharply down a hall, Toph answered as concisely as she could. "His name is Sasuke, and he came along with me to make sure her highness here didn't get buried."
"Why?"
Toph sighed irritably, "Because Zuko pitched a big fit and didn't want to let Azula die. He wanted to come himself, but he was talked down because he wouldn't stand a chance talking to her, and we need him alive to teach Aang firebending. So Sasuke volunteered to make the trip warn Azula and I tagged along."
Mai's pace slowed briefly at the mention of that particular name, "Zuko…"
Huffing, Toph snapped. "Yeah, yeah and I sure he'll be more than happy to see you too. But in case you forgot, you just attempted to kill the Fire Lord, and we're still inside the Fire Nation palace. So, how about we get out of here and then worry about being all excited to see old flings?"
"Zuko was not a—"
"Yeah, yeah."
They resumed their hurried escape in what was finally some variable of silence and Toph was able to focus on what she was truly concerned about.
Bringing Ty Lee was of no issue as she barely seemed conscious, Katara would have to take at her before she even opened her eyes again. Mai was moving with a frantic, harried pace as though she was having trouble keeping track of the pure chaos she had been thrown into, but Toph didn't feel as though she were dangerous.
Azula on the other hand, was no less than worrying.
Toph hadn't let go of the princess's wrist since they began rushing their way from the Fire Lord's chamber and while she had made no attempt to resist or even speak up, everything about her seemed wrong. Toph had encountered Azula enough to come to expect a very usual air of arrogance, confidence and coldness, but there was nothing to be sensed in her now. Her pulse beat slowly and her pace was jerky and unsteady; Toph almost felt that Azula would topple over if she let her go.
Azula hadn't said a word as well since they had begun to walk out and the very fact that there was nothing to indicate how she was feeling had Toph on edge. And as they rushed further and further from the Fire Lord's chamber and Toph felt tremendous rushes of energy running from that same room towards them, she silently dared to hope.
Sasuke… don't you die on me.
In her head, she kept replaying it over and over. Her father, demonic and endless in his desire, loosing his attack towards her.
Ty Lee, endlessly faithful, pushing her aside.
Mai screaming as Azula had never heard before as their friend collapsed silently.
The young man she now knew to be named Sasuke arriving alongside Toph to save them.
And in the middle of it all, herself, Azula, useless and faltering.
Her will felt like it was rushing out of her as though a great dam had broken in her heart and everything that had driven her forward was flowing away, never to be harnessed again.
It was agony and yet nothing.
And all she could think, over and over.
Why is it... that all I have left... are my sins?