Chapter 1: The New Beginnings

A/N: New series I guess?

Completely and utterly nothing. She was drifting in a black void, only aware that she existed.

Or at least she had.

Who knew? It wasn't like anything mattered anymore.

She was dead after all. 'Well, I think I am at least.'

And so she floated like this without any idea of where she was going and when she would get there. It was a mind-numbing sort of existence where the only consolation she had was that her prison—she didn't know what else to call it—was warm and cozy. Kind of like a hot bubble bath.

Being imprisoned in a hot bubble bath. The thought of it made her snort and kick out with her leg. To her eternal surprise, she was met with some resistance.

'I thought I was in some sort of outer-space-cosmic afterlife or something...'

Emboldened by this mysterious boundary and her curiosity, she decided to kick even harder. Somewhere far away, she thought she could hear the sound of someone screaming in panic.

'Must just be me… Maybe I'm going crazy or something,' she idly thought as she kicked again. The boundary felt kind of bouncy now that she thought about it.

If anything, it was fun having something to do besides drifting about like a lost ship. Speaking of which…

She kicked again, this time, as hard as she could. Her foot bounced off as she heard the distant scream again.

'This… This is sorta funny…!'

As she pulled her leg back for another kick, she suddenly felt a tight squeezing sensation on her head that almost knocked her out. Even then, she still felt really woozy.

'What's going on?!'

The intense feeling that seemingly came out of nowhere after such a long time of nothingness frightened her.

The fact that it wasn't stopping frightened her even more.

Fearing for her life, she desperately kicked harder and harder as her hands flailed about, seeking some sort of grip, anything, that would stop the squeezing.

Somewhere along the line, the black void had become as cold as ice.

'Am I dying? Wasn't the blackness the afterlife? Haven't I suffered enough…? Why do I have to continue to pay for someone else's actions?'

All of these thoughts ran through her frantic mind until her eyes were suddenly blinded by a brilliant light.

After lying in the embrace of the warm fluid darkness for so long, the cold air and stark light—and were those hands?—were too much for her.

Faced with this new and frightening situation, she did the only thing that could come to mind and began bawling her lungs out.

As she cried and cried—her voice sounded awfully squeaky—she vaguely heard the voices of people excitedly talking. She blearily blinked and tried to turn her head around to see what the fuss was.

'Maybe the blackness was purgatory or something? So that means this is heaven right? I thought heaven would be… fluffier.'

For some reason, her mind felt oddly sluggish like it was physically incapable of thinking for long periods of time. However, all her thoughts were swept away when she felt the warm embrace of… someone.

Somehow, it was like the world had stopped spinning, and there was no time, no evil, no sourness, and it felt like nothing else mattered anymore. All she felt was warmth and peace.

Her body was gently pressed into something soft and warm.

This was the kind of love she had waited for, prayed for, and maybe would have gotten back if the explosion hadn't happened.

It was nothing at all like the clinical way she had been held earlier. In fact, she couldn't even quite remember the last time she had been held like this. The closest thing she could think of was her mom giving her a good-night hug when she was a kid.

Wait.

No way.

There was absolutely no way. She forced herself to open her eyes and with great effort, pulled one of her hands out from the blanket she had been wrapped in.

It was really small and really chubby.

'Am I… a baby?'

As the very old baby briefly contemplated the nature of reincarnation and her place in the universe, the woman pushed soft and warm lump in her face.

'Ah, I guess I'm supposed to suckle, huh?'

In what she felt like was a very awkward action, the girl clumsily grabbed the lump with her chubby little baby hands and began to suck. Instinct took over reason as her mind became fuzzy with contentment.

When she woke up, she noticed that she had been laid in a crib of some sort. She clenched and unclenched her fists as she tried to turn her head around so she could look around the room.

After much effort, she was finally able to get her head to tilt to the side only to realize that her little infant neck didn't have the strength to tilt it back towards the ceiling.

"Aa-aaa."

'Fuck.'

She couldn't even talk coherently! Maybe it was too much to expect for an infant's body to have the muscle control necessary to form actual words.

Still, this situation sucked.

With such a gloomy thought in mind, the adult-turned-infant stared at the red-gold wall of the room and slowly thought about everything that had happened so far.

She had died in a gas explosion because some idiot decided to throw a lit cigarette on the ground at a gas station. Of course, this normally wouldn't have been enough to blow her and the idiot to kingdom come, but being the exceptionally lucky person that she was, there happened to be a gas leak as well. Or at least she thought so; she really wasn't quite sure how else the explosions could've happened.

'And only a week before I was going to go back home and make up with Mom and Dad…'

"Uuu-aaaa," another failed attempt to curse slipped out of the baby's tiny lips.

She had always wanted to be a filial daughter. A steady and strong presence that her parents could depend on. Sadly, her past life had thrown one thing after another at them, and before she knew it, a massive gulf had separated her and her parents.

She didn't get to love them enough…

But this wasn't so bad either. Maybe, maybe she would get a second chance.

Still, she was a fucking baby!

She felt a short flare of bitterness.

She didn't even know what her gender was!

If she was born as a boy that meant she would have to deal with awkward hard-ons, and the godawful awkwardness of a teenage boy with their squeaky voice that cracked more often than popcorn in a microwave.

Even if she was cursed to be a boy physically, she was still a girl on the inside. Last time she checked, she was completely straight so girls weren't going to make her hard. Would that make her gay then? Who knew...

It would be great if she had been born as a girl, except for one tiny thing.

Fucking. Period. Pains.

She was definitely not looking forward to another lifetime of periods.

Well, if there was one thing she was confident in, it would be adapting. No matter what gender she was given, she'd adapt to it one way or another.

But man, being a baby sucked!

Her brain had the attention span of a fly, and her mind kept switching to sleep, eat, poop with little energy to spare for anything else.

Did she mention that she would soil herself on a daily basis?

It was humiliating.

But worst of all, she was bored. So, so, so incredibly booooooooooooorrrrreeeeeeedddd!

With that comforting thought in mind, her infant mind switched back to sleep and she promptly fell asleep.

( ・ω)( ・)( )(・ )(ω・ )(・ω・)

She woke up again, absentmindedly noticing that the sun was already halfway across the sky. And that she was very, very hungry.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The bundle of joy began screaming for food. In fact, there were precious few hours in twenty four that weren't blasted by her cries. Of course, this caused some of the attendants' minds to cease with a number of them even taking to napping throughout the day as they were always jarred out of sleep at night.

'Sorry nurses,' the baby quieted down as one of her wet nurses gently picked her up from the crib and began feeding her, 'But you'll have to deal with my crying for a bit longer.'

She noticed the nurses exhaustion, of course, but it wasn't as if she could do anything about it. Hell, she didn't even have the motor skills to talk.

Plus, their confused and frustrated faces made for decent entertainment.

Amidst the nurse's humming and her own gulping, she heard a familiar voice.

"What is going on?"

'Isn't it kind of obvious?'

She would have rolled her eyes if she had enough control over her muscles to do so.

The familiar woman picked her up, and for the first time since being born—er, being born again—, she took notice of her appearance.

'Wow, what a pretty lady...'

She stopped feeding and stared at the gorgeous woman. The wet nurse patted her back, slightly worried that the baby had stopped feeding, but she mentally shrugged it off.

Hair as dark as ebony, skin as white as snow, and lips as red as roses. Honestly, the person in front of her would've looked like Snow White if she didn't have those amber eyes. Instead of the big black eyes of a doe, the woman had wolfish amber eyes that stood in stark contrast to the long dark hair that tumbled over her shoulders.

'Maybe she's a fairy tale princess after all,' the baby mused, 'Who knows where I am now...'

As her infant mind slowly thought over that point, she noticed that the woman's eyes looked disturbed somehow. She could tell that the lady was trying to hide it, but she obviously wasn't doing a very good job if even a baby like her could tell.

Well, she wasn't exactly a normal baby.

The woman's somberness was evident in the crease of her lovely brow and the slight downwards curve of her lips. But her eyes, her eyes showed what she really felt. They were a deep pool of restless gold.

'She looks so sad, so...lonely.'

She wobbly raised her small palm towards the pretty lady, in the adorable way that babies tend to do, and hoped that the sight of a cute baby such as herself would make the lady forget about whatever was making her sad, even if just for a bit.

'She gives off an awfully familiar vibe…'

"Ogyaaa~!" she slowly and mechanically clenched and unclenched her tiny chubby baby hands.

The woman in front of her gave a trembling smile and put her arms out, "Could I hold her?"

'Damn lady, your voice is nice too…' Seriously, this woman had it all.

"Yes, Lady Ursa," the wet nurse that had been feeding her lowered her head respectfully and carefully passed her off to Ursa.

'Ursa is a weird name… reminds me of that octopus woman from Little Mermaid,' her big baby eyes widened as she looked up at the beautiful woman, 'She doesn't look anything like that psycho octopus witch though.'

She didn't know why, and somehow she didn't care either, but she wanted the beautiful woman to speak more. With this in mind, she started laughing and giggling, 'Just for you, I'll give you an extra special smile.'

"Waaaa! How adorable!" the people around her cooed.

"Forgive me Lady Ursa, but it's time for the young Princess to nap," the wet nurse urged Ursa.

"I understand…" she reluctantly passed her to the wet nurse.

'What?! No! I don't want to go back to sleep again!' she started struggling, her widdle hands clutching Ursa's clothes, 'Don't let go of me woman, dammit!'

She started crying again, 'I'll make sure to torture you all with my bawling if Ursa leaves!'

"WAAAAAAA!"

"My, it seems that the Princess wants you to stay," the wet nurse observed with a smile as she let go of the baby.

'Wait, Princess? So I'm a girl after all!' She would've cheered more if her brain could think just a bit more than the three baby essentials.

Once she was back in the pretty woman's embrace, she ceased her crying.

"She's even clingier than Zuko was," Ursa said happily.

"Of course, Princess. All children would feel at ease when they are with their mother."

When she heard that, her eyes boggled.

'The pretty woman is my mom?!'

She looked at the pretty woman once again, this time examining her features with a more critical eye. The more she saw, the more confidence swelled up in her heart.

'Dang, I'll be super attractive in the future!'

"Is that so?" Urs—mom, curiously asked the wet nurse.

Mom then proceeded to rock her in her arms gently, stroking her hair as her breathing slowed. Then she began to sing a lullaby that sounded eerily familiar.

'I feel like I should know this lullaby… But that isn't possible, is it?' she let out a big baby yawn as her mind gradually began to prepare for sleep, 'So… annoying… zzzzzz'

( ・ω)( ・)( )(・ )(ω・ )(・ω・)

One day, something caught her attention.

She was staring emptily at the ceiling, and something entered her peripherals.

As per her usual protocol, she chose to ignore it. But boy was it fucking persistent.

It started poking and pinching her cheeks but she didn't give it as much attention.

Then it started to climb into her crib, causing the caretaker in the room to fret, but in the end it managed to climb and plop itself next to her.

'Oi, isn't this dangerous, Ms. Maid? What if it landed on my head or something?'

Without any disregard for her tired worry, the intruder finally poked its head in front of her eyes, forcing her to look at it and it only.

It was a toddler with warm amber eyes and a bright chubby smile. When the toddler caught a glimpse of her, he enthusiastically emitted high-pitched gurgles as he tried to grab at her with his pudgy hand.

She frowned and clumsily swatted at the toddler, hoping that it wouldn't stay for too long!

"'Zula," the chubby toddler giggled as she weakly slapped its thigh, "'Zula!" it gleefully shouted again before laying down on top of her.

"Uu-Ugya!" Why…! You brat!

Who was this brat, and who let it crawl into her crib? Wasn't this a huge safety concern?

Before she could worry more about her very likely death from-being-squished by-a-toddler, the adorable intruder began patting her cheeks.

"'Zula!" it giggled to itself again.

'Come to think of it, no one here has actually called me by name…' the staff always called her 'Princess', her mom resorted to pet names.

'Perhaps my name is 'Zula then?' Zula honestly couldn't believe that it took months to learn even just her first name. It sounded awfully familiar.

"'Zula," the chubby brat finally got off her and was now rolling around in her crib. Seeing as she was a helpless baby with no means of defending herself, there was only one thing she could do.

"WAAAAAAA! MAMAAAA!" Just mere seconds later, the sounds of frantic footsteps and chatter approached her bedroom.

"What's the matter?" Ursa walked into the room, the only sign of her rushing over a strand of misplaced hair, and quickly plucked the toddler out of her crib. "Zuko! What are you doing here?!" Her mother glared at the scant few maids that had rushed into the room with her. "What were all of you doing?"

"Um…" one maid nervously shuffled her feet, "We thought the Prince only wanted to play, Lady Ursa."

Ursa frowned as she turned around to look back at Zula, "I apologize for my outburst. And," she put a hand up before the maids could burst into their own rants about their own faults, "I'll take care of these two for the rest of today. Thank you for your help."

At this, the maids shut their mouths and bowed their way out of the room. Ursa waited for them to all leave before turning back to her two children with a sigh and a smile, "Sorry kids. Mommy is really forgetful today, huh?"

Zula absentmindedly nodded. She knew that Ursa was mostly hands-off, but letting your toddler just wander around a palace…? Geez.

She shifted her eyes to look at Ursa. Her mom was now bouncing that annoying toddler in her arms while making baby sounds at it. Him? Zuko sounded pretty masculine after all.

Another name that sounded familiar.

But she really didn't have the energy to think about all of those complicated things at the moment. For the first time in a while, she felt the call of a comforting sleep grasping at her.

'Maybe that kid wasn't so annoying after all.'

Ursa gently put Zuko down in his crib, double checking to make sure that nothing was out of place before nodding with satisfaction.

Her two year old son was honestly just too cute.

The way he waddled around in his little diaper cloth, and how he would exuberantly shout in a palace that had been quiet for far too long was a balm to her soul. It her think, if only just for a few precious fleeting moments, that she could be happy in this place.

That feeling never lasted for really long though. Ozai made sure of that.

Ursa's grip on her son's blanket for a fleeting moment before she let out a sigh and shook her head. Ozai was usually an ass, but he had been fairly cheerful ever since Azula was born.

Reasonable even if such a description could be attached to a man like him.

'Speaking of Azula…'

Her few months old daughter was strangely… strange. It was cruel for her to say as a mother—Ursa knew that—but she just didn't know how else to put it. Azula was far too precognitive for a baby.

As she watched her daughter more closely, she realized that sometimes, when the baby thought that no one was watching, her enthusiasm would be replaced by an annoyed expression. She tried to hide it too, and Ursa somehow knew that her baby girl was odd. There was also that knowing glint in her eyes whenever Ursa was trying to teach her words, as if she was...bored.

Could it be…?

But that was impossible.

'Maybe it's just my imagination…'

An infant that couldn't even crawl yet should most likely not be able to effectively connect words in a story to their meanings. Certainly, Zuko hadn't been that smart as an infant of all ages.

The thought sent chills down her spine.

Perhaps this was the reason for Ozai's cheerfulness. Ursa lowered her head in deep thought as she continued to rub her sound-asleep son's tummy.

'But how would he know if he barely spends any time with her?'

It has been four months since Azula was born and within these four months, her husband never spent any amount of meaningful time with Azula. He was always exhausted with work and would sleep like a log whenever he got back home—that is, if he wasn't sleeping at his office—then continued to work again first thing in the morning.

Now, Ursa had no problem with this herself since she didn't exactly thirst for her husband's attention, but the worst part was that Ozai had eyes and ears everywhere in the castle. Despite being a noble herself, she wouldn't even dare to ask a maid what Ozai was up to whenever he came to visit, but she heard a passing rumor from a particularly talkative maid that Ozai didn't love the Princess as much as the Prince.

This in itself was not very surprising seeing as Zuko was both the firstborn and a boy. These factors meant that his ascension to the throne was only third after Iroh and Luten, or perhaps fourth if she counted Ozai, but she didn't think he would last that long. Ursa sighed as her ponderings over her children reminded her of her days in school, endlessly learning about things such as succession.

And of course, Azula would be destined to live a life as dreadfully dull as her own. She would have to learn how to cook for whenever she got married off—sold off, Ursa bitterly thought in her head—she would have to learn to sew, how to arrange flowers, how to brew and present tea, and countless other skills that would only serve to make her the perfect trophy wife.

Ursa looked down at both of her children, sleeping soundly next to each other, and to her amusement, the bigger one started nuzzling into the smaller one's neck for warmth.

The mother's lips trembled with a watery smile.

All she could do in this lonely castle was to take care of these two as best as she could.

She silently promised herself that she would do her very best to nurture and love these two so that they wouldn't grow up to become their father.

If only someone would remind her of that promise in the distant future.

( ・ω)( ・)( )(・ )(ω・ )(・ω・)

Zula felt warm.

It took her awhile, but there was a tingling warmth that seemed to have spread throughout her body. She sat up fumbling with her uncooperative baby limbs, and she saw Zuko who was also sleeping inside her crib. She struggled to turn her head towards the side only to find that Ursa, who had been sitting on the chair next to the crib, was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, she felt an intense gaze peeking through the bars of her crib, and her body instinctively tensed. It was late at night and the only light available dimly shone in the corners of the room, providing barely enough light to make out her room.

When she looked at the door, she saw a shadow through a small crack in the lit hallway.

A shadow that was much taller than Ursa.

Her tiny heart began to beat faster, but somehow she was certain that the person wasn't going to hurt her.

"Why are you awake?" the shadow asked.

She just looked at the door and tilted her head. 'Is he really expecting a response from a baby?'

"Am wak da!" 'I'm awake yes!'

The shadow stepped forward, and she finally got a better look at him.

A giant-weird goatee man with an equally giant fivehead, carrying a…fire on his palm?

'The fuck?'

The heavy silence subsided, and his eyes filled with arrogance pierced her. His golden eyes were looking down at her for no reason—why did everyone here have golden eyes except for the maids?

"This is my child?"

The moment he spoke, the air weighing on her finally grew heavier as she came to a realization.

Along with the voice of the bewildered maid at the man's sudden appearance, she heard the voice of another man, but she didn't have a chance to see what the new man looked like. It was because she realized who the guy in front of her was and who she was.

'Fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…'

What was the point of being reborn into this story?!

"G-Greetings," the maid accompanying her for the night finally found her voice and bowed as lowly as possible, "Prince Iroh and Prince Ozai!"

"Quiet," Ozai admonished the maid with a snark in his voice. "There is no need to announce us so loudly at this hour."

"I-I apologize, Prince Ozai!" the maid flustered, her head on the floor.

"Oh! So this is Princess Azula!" Iroh exclaimed with a smile on his face, approaching the crib slowly to get a better look.

To both of their surprise, Azula started crying out loud.

This was how she met her father.

And this was also how she knew that her new life had just turned into ninety percent shit.