*Azula*

The wall of earth went down with the body. It crumbled to the ground leaving its leaving the dead girl, out in the open. Azula dropped from the trees, and walked over to her, and looked into her face. She had died with her eyes open, Azula noted as she scanned her victim's face.

Maybe, she was hoping that before she died, she would see something, anything, even her own death coming. Azula thought, as she gazed into the dead girl's wide unseeing eyes. The one girl that can't see is the one that dies with her eyes open. How ironic.

Azula continued to look into the girl's eyes, and for the first time, thought about how people looked after they died. They all looked like this dead little blind girl. Relaxed, perfectly at peace, limp, blissful, no matter how horrible and agonizing their death had been, they all looked like they had just simply fallen asleep. The girl looked exactly like that, except for one thing, she had her eyes open. That's not how dead people are supposed to look. Azula thought. They're supposed to be sleeping. How can she sleep with her eyes open? Azula wonders why she even cares. She would be completely awake, and alive, if it weren't for her. But how could she not do this after all the suffering the girl had been through because of her? Azula shuddered as she thought about, how much that killing burn must have hurt. She had been burned countless times, but never bad enough to kill, and those minor burns had hurt worse than anything else, she had ever come in contact with. A killing burn… that must have been uncompressible suffering. How could she not grant the girl, just this one act of kindness? The guards were close by; she'd have to act quickly, and secretly, unless she wanted them to know about this. She leaned in the girl's face, pretending to be trying to get a better look, then extended two, pale, surprisingly gentle fingers, and closed the girl's eyelids for the last time. There, she thought with satisfaction, now she can sleep forever. And Azula just walked away. On her way back to the ship, she marched up to one of the guards, and commanded, "Bury it." Pointing to the body. Then she continued to march away, on and on, away from her single act of mercy.

___________________________________________________________________

Azula shook violently as she slept; breathing heavy, sweat forming on her brow, her head shook over and over, as if trying to erase the images that only she could see. This was how nights always were for the fire nation princess; she could barely remember a time when she slept any other way. It was the same old dream over and over again.

___________________________________________________________________

"Ursa, you have to quit this! You're making our children soft, and weak!" Daddy, screamed at mommy.

"Why? All it is is a little compassion, a little caring, a little…a little love. Why should I stop? It doesn't make them weak, it makes them stronger. Why should I stop? Why Ozai? Tell me why." Mommy yelled.

"I'll tell you why, Ursa!" Daddy pulled me from where I was standing by the door, with Zuko, our younger eyes wide with fear. Daddy grips my shoulder firmly, as he roughly yanks me toward him. Being pulled that way hurts and I cry out in pain. Daddy just laughs. He slams me close to his body, and yanks up my red silk tank top, until my entire stomach is exposed. It's already burned and scarred, from so many other times, it's permanently disfigured. Mommy's eyes go wide like ZuZu's and mine.

"Ozai, no!" Mommy cries.

"You asked, to know why Ursa and I'm going to answer you. This is why." Daddy barks, while still holding my tank top up. He uses the hand he isn't using to keep my struggling form to his chest, takes a handful of my belly, and I start to cry because I know what's going to happen next. His hand heats, and heats, and within seconds, it's a burning flame, jammed into my stomach. I scream so hard. I try to run away from the hand, but he restrains me easily. The flame gets impossibly hotter, and it hurts so bad. I'm screaming and crying, and struggling. But he just laughs.

Through his sadistic chuckles he spit bitterly. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt so much, if you didn't make her so soft!" Mommy weeps, like she can feel my pain too.

"Ozai please, please, just let her go, she didn't do anything wrong!" begs for me.

"Do you vow, never to weaken my children again?" Daddy demands.

"Yes! Just let her go!" Mommy yells.

He releases me, and I continue to cry, as I run over to Mommy, looking for comfort. Mommy would have hugged me and told me it was going to be okay, and I would have believed her. That's what would have happened, if Daddy wasn't standing there. And she hadn't just promised, to not do exactly that.

The memory morphs into a totally different seen, it was simple earth kingdom village.

Huh? This isn't how the dream is supposed to go!

I burn the houses of the villagers trapping them inside, and making them burn. I watch through a singed hole in one of the walls, with satisfaction, as an old man is crucified alive. I am younger then I am now, by two years, maybe a little more.

The seen changes again.

I'm in another earth kingdom town, this time only about a year younger than I am now. I'm in a large crowd. Suddenly, I just start firing, I don't aim at all, I have no goal, except to kill.

The seen transforms once more.

I'm in Ba Sing Sae, talking to my brother. We go back to the ship, it starts off okay, but just before we were supposed to leave, he figures out why we were taking him home, and we fight, things burn. He burns. Why did I do that? I love my brother, why did I make him burn?

The seen goes black.

I'm standing on black nothing. Everything is blank, and pitch black. "Why?" A voice wheezes from behind me. It's the old man from the burning earth kingdom village. I can see him, perfectly clear, everything else stays the same but him. "Why?" He says again. I don't get it why, what? "Why?" He repeats. He fades away. "Why?" another voice says. I turn around again, and see a young woman. She's pretty, and tan, with brown hair. She has a yellow dress. The lady disappears as quickly as she came. "Why Azula? Why? All we want to know is why." A too familiar voice said from behind me. Zuko. I turn again to face my brother. I only catch a glimpse of him, before like a puff of smoke, he goes. Another image quickly takes his place. It's the girl. The one I killed today. "Why did you make me sleep?" She demands. She goes away, before I can even think of an answer. I'm left in the darkness, alone.

Azula wakes up shaking. She gets out of bed, almost immediately, she had surrendered all hope of falling back asleep, the moment she had started dreaming. She paced her room, back, and fourth, over and over again. Wondering every two seconds, what the hell a dream like that could mean. She stopped pacing only when she heard an urgent knock at her door. Who would dare disturb her at this hour? This was when she was normally sleeping, if she was supposed to be asleep, then they shouldn't be banging on the door. Not that she was asleep but still. "Come in!" She barked. A younger guard came through the door, he opened his mouth to say something, but Azula interrupted. "What do you think your doing disturbing me at this hour?" She demanded. "B-but it's ur-ur-g-gent princess…" The guard stammered. 'Well this better be damn good." Azula said impatiently. "The-the g-girl, the one that was traveling w-with the avatar, is sti-still alive." He stuttered. Azula's eyes went wide with shock.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"