Wanted
By: Agent-Ayu
Chapter 1
Note: There are some references made to The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story because I found that it could have happened in the show as well.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer from Prologue still applies.
Zuko wondered into one of the training grounds to find Azula in the middle of a circle of wooden lanterns, standing at various heights. Ever since Azula returned to the palace the training ground always seemed to have new things set up for the elder Fire Nation princess. He stayed quiet as he watched his sister.
Azula let out a deep breath before opening her eyes and firebending all of the small flames out of the lanterns and have small balls of fire surround her. She brought the small flames in to form a one ball of fire that was the size of her fist. The elder princess was disappointed in her flame. It wasn't burning blue like it had in the past and she had been trying to get her fire to burn blue again. She separated the one ball into their smaller forms again and pushed them back into the lanterns without setting any of them on fire.
"That's very good control you have there." Zuko finally spoke up. "Is that what you've been doing since you came back?"
"I was chi blocked for four years, what do you think? It wasn't painful or anything, but it felt weird. They had special bracelets, anklets, and choker built so I wouldn't be able to produce fire while I was still insane. Can't blame them. I was the world's strongest female firebender at one point." Azula crossed her arms and looked everywhere but her brother.
The Fire Lord sighed and walked up to his sister. "What was your drive for your firebending? It had to be something strong for it to be as powerful as it was and blue for that matter!"
"How honest do you want me to be?"
"I'll take brutal honesty. I'm used to getting that from you."
Azula sighed. "To not end up like you. As long as I was stronger and perfect, I wouldn't end up like you. That changed after the Day of Black Sun. Father saw me as a failure for trusting you and even worse for lying to him. If it wasn't for my success of bringing down Ba Sing Se, he more than likely would have scarred and banish me as well. I was terrified that he was going to do just that when I returned after failing to capture you at the Boiling Rock. Not only did I not capture you, Ty Lee and Mai betrayed me and that was unforgivable in father's eyes for my misplaced judgment."
For the first time in years, Azula finally looked at her brother and stared at his scar. "Still being honest, I sometimes wondered how life would be for me if he had just scared and banish me before Sozin's Comet. Maybe I wouldn't have gone insane, but I'd still have probably hated you. I guess it's a matter of which would have been the lesser of two evils."
Zuko sat down on a near by bench. "Being scared is being marked for life. Everyone will see that you lost your honor at some point and no matter how hard you try to ignore that, people will always know you did something dishonorable."
"I'D RATHER BE MARKED ON MY FACE FOR LOSING MY HONOR THAN BRANDED INSANE!" All the lanterns caught fire from Azula losing control of her temper.
"You were able to take your scar and change it's meaning by getting your honor back. As for me, being declared insane will forever taint my reputation and it's officially documented. You don't think I hear the servants gossiping about me? Just because I want to be left alone and be ignored doesn't mean I don't hear what others say around the palace. No one will be able to take me seriously because they think I'll have a lapse of insanity again. I don't want to be marked as the crazy princess for the rest of my life. I don't want people to pity me for being a fourteen year old girl who lost her sanity." Azula looked down at the ground as she felt tear start to roll down her cheeks. "No one will ever trust me again. I'll forever be the joke of the Fire Nation and I can't do anything to change that."
"I trust you. I'm not saying I don't have that fear that you might betray me, but I trust you… if I make any sense. Besides my daughter doesn't have a problem with you. In fact I hear she always goes looking for you and spends her whole day with you even if you do nothing with her." Zuko weakly smiled. "I don't think she would do that if she didn't trust you, Azula."
"She's four years old, Zuko. The older she gets the more she'll learn and understand what happened during Sozin's War, as it's officially named. While she might 'admire' me now, she won't when she finds out what I did. She won't when she finds out I lost my sanity during the last days of the war. Let's face it, Zuko. I'm the family's big disappointment. Having me around is going to have people questioning you with every decision you make as Fire Lord."
"Always the pessimist."
"And when did you become so optimistic?"
The two siblings stared at each other as they tried to read the other's thoughts. Zuko sighed and broke eye contact. "I'm temporarily banishing you."
"What?"
"I'm temporarily banishing you from the Fire Nation. You need to get out of here and find yourself. You won't be able to do that if you stay here in the palace. Three years. That's how long I was gone. What do you say?" He stood up and sheepishly grinned at Azula who didn't look too amused.
"Did you hit your head on a rock? There is no one would be willing to travel with me for three years."
"I'll find a crew. You don't even after to stay with them for three years. Once you leave the Fire Nation, you choose where you want to go and what you want to do. You're free to decide."
"Doesn't sound like I have much of a choice."
"Would you rather I make it an order? Would that make you feel better?" Zuko playfully asked.
"Whatever." With that Azula walked away from the training grounds.
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"… Forever swimming, La and Tui began their eternal dance and bringing harmony to the world." Jing finished reading the last of the Water Tribe myths and fairytales. She looked over at her father's patient as the woman continued sleeping. Two days have gone by and the woman hadn't shown any signs of waking up. "You know I don't find the Water Tribe stories as interesting as the Fire Nation stories. Not that I'm trying to sound bias or anything since the Water Tribe stories have their own lessons to be taught, but most of their stories are very spiritual. I'll probably like them more when I'm older."
She looked outside to see the sun beginning to set. "Oh no! I forgot to practice this afternoon! I'm sorry, I'll be right back after I practice some of my firebending. When I get back I'll begin reading stories from the Earth Kingdom!" Jing set her book on a near by table and ran out of the patient room.
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Izumi was screaming as her mother held onto her. Even though she didn't really know what was happening, she knew something was going to change. After a few days, Azula took her brother up on his proposal of having her banished from the Fire Nation for three years. Zuko managed to recruit almost all of the sailors from his banishment to go with his sister.
"On the bright side, you're having a better ship than I got when I was banished." Zuko joked as the two stared up at the ship.
"That was not my fault. All you asked was for me to talk to father to give you a ship. You never said I had to try and get you a nice one. At least you were smart enough to take my advice and change your bandages since you didn't lose that eye." Azula watched as the crewmen finished carrying the last of the cargo onto the ship.
Zuko watched his sister as this kind of reminded him leaving the Fire Nation the first time. "Uncle says you're welcome to visit him any time at his tea shop in Ba Sing Se."
Azula smirked. "Right, as if Ba Sing Se would allow its conqueror to come into their city again. I'll think about it. Doubt it… but I'll think about it. What would be the point of my 'banishment' if I were to go to Ba Sing Se? You traveled the world trying to find the Avatar when we originally thought he wouldn't return. That's what I need to do."
The elder princess looked over at her niece as she kept on crying in Mai's arms. Azula walked over to Mai and looked at the Fire Lady, asking if she could hold Izumi. Mai sighed as she handed her daughter to Azula. The moment Izumi was in Azula's arms she stopped wailing, but tears were still rolling down her cheeks.
"Alright, kid. Stop crying, if you're not hurt there is no point in you crying. Aunt Azula is going to be gone for at least three years and she needs this very much. I know I didn't interact with you a lot over years, but I'll admit it was still nice having your company. Do you understand?"
Izumi nodded. "I just don't want you to go. Why do people want you to go away?"
Such an innocent question caught Azula off guard. The elder princess' expression softened as she answered her niece. "Because I did a lot of bad things before you were born. You'll understand when you're older. Right now I need to find myself."
"Why? You're right here."
"Physically I am. But there's something inside me that's missing and I need to find it again."
"Can't you find it here?"
Azula shook her head. "No. Your daddy will explain it to you someday." She was caught off guard again when she felt her niece's small arms warp around her neck.
The younger Fire Nation princess hugged her aunt as hard as she could. "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too, kid."
Izumi let go of her aunt and walked back to stand by her mom as she watched her dad and aunt talk to each other some more. The young princess looked up at her mom. "How come you're not saying good-bye to Aunt Azula?"
Mai looked down at her daughter. "It's something else daddy and I will tell you when you're older. A lot of stuff happened between us before you were born. It's hard to explain right now." The Fire Lady lightly brushed her hand through her daughter's hair.
Zuko handed his sheathed broad swords to Azula. "Here, you might need these if you need to hide your firebending. It's funny I got these swords from a traveling Fire Nation actor who was being coerced to enlist to the military. He gave these to me as thanks for helping him save his son from Commander Kanku. That was only a few months after being banished too."
"Sounds like you had quite the adventure at the beginning of your banishment."
"Sir," The two royal siblings looked over at the ship's captain. "We're ready for departure when the princess is ready."
The Fire Lord and elder princess looked at each other having a silent conversation again. That was something the two started doing since Azula returned to the palace four years ago. The two closed the gap between them and hugged each other. They stayed there for a while because they last time they hugged each other was when they were little kids.
"Hey, Zuzu."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
She felt Zuko squeeze a little tighter before the two broke their embrace. Azula just nodded before pulling away even more and began walking up the gangplank. As the bowsprit began to rise, she turned around to see Izumi trying hard not to cry again as she waved good-bye. The elder Fire Nation princess gave her niece one of her genuine smiles and waved before the bowsprit fully closed.
Azula walked through the ship and immediately found what was her cabin and dropped off the swords Zuko gave her before heading up to the deck. When she finally step foot on the deck, the ship was already out of the port and heading towards the Great Gates of Azulon. She walked to the back of the ship to watch the Fire Nation Capital become smaller and smaller until she couldn't see it anymore.
