Avatar: the last airbender belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Nickelodeon.
Azula struggled to get up after her tremendous fall from the drill. She had not managed to stop her descent and her body had suffered greatly, she could not feel anything in her right leg, but it was nothing compared to the blow to her ego. It was her third defeat against those ridiculous kids and this time the Avatar did not settle for a simple escape, he destroyed the apotheosis of Fire Nation technology as if it were a mere toy. The only good point of this horrible failure was that the overwhelming mass of mud that eviscerated the drill allowed her to survive her fall.
Breathing heavily as she stood up, Azula turned towards the Outer Wall. Her aching body only made her anger build up faster. She snarled as she shot lightnings after lightnings at the fortification, each strike leaving insignificant, smoking cracks in the taunting walls.
Now unburdened of her frustration, she limped to the rear of the drill, where she had sent Ty Lee and Mai. She knew the machine had not spontaneously exploded, it did so because they were incapable to take out three kids, while they had dispatched an entire batallion of earthbenders with amazing ease. But she chose to scold fate after her companions.
There was nobody on that side of the drill. Azula cursed silently. The escorting tanks were busy gadding about much too far away for her to requisition one, so she would have to walk around the machine, unless she found an accessible hatch. She inspected the metal carcass as she walked with difficulty towards the rear of the drill. She cursed again as no entrance was in sight, especially that the sun was setting. She continued, and was relieved when she finally spotted a steel door a little above the ground. And the she tripped.
Azula was voicing her discontentment as she arduously rose to look at the cause of her fall, but she stopped as she realized what it was.
Ty Lee.
The acrobat was covered with mud and was barely visible with the coming night. But what distressed Azula was that she was completely still. A filthy trickle of slurry leaked from her half opened mouth and her eyes, half opened as well, stared blankly at Azula as she held her in her arms. The princess bit her lip as she forced herself not to cry, Fire Nation royalty did not cry. She preferred not to think in what condition she would find Mai after her fight with those barbarians.
Azula would soon learn her fate as the hatch beside her opened, letting a flow of steam escape. She half-heartedly glanced at it and was surprised to see Mai, safe and sound, nonchalantly gazing at her.
"We lost." She stated simply, her expression still as bored despite the cruel defeat they just suffered.
That was when Azula noticed it. Mai's robe was still immaculate, unlike her and Ty Lee's outfits. Rage engulfed her mind as she understood why. She had disobeyed a direct order, which caused them both the victory and, much more importantly to her eyes though she would never admit it, Ty Lee. She exhaled deeply as she stood up, staring coldly at Mai, who did not notice Ty Lee's corpse behind Azula.
"What?" She asked, raising an eyebrow in fake interest. Looking over her nails to see if they were still clean, she did not notice the blue sparks flying from Azula's hands.
-
When Azula came back to the control room, War Minister Qin chose not to ask her about the disappearance of her cronies nor about the bloodcurdling scream that echoed all through the drill.
Second installment of this fanfiction, exploring one of Azula's comment from the previous chapter. And in case you are wondering, the blue sparks at the end are supposed to foreshadow Azula's blue fire and not a lightning, as spark can be used for 'spark of fire' or 'spark of electricity'.