The final chapter. It has Tyzula at the end, but it's fluffy. If you don't like it, sorry, but I find the ship cute.
144 ASC
Zuko stood next to his daughter, his greying hair done in its usual topknot. However, something was missing from it. The usual crown he wore was not present behind his topknot. Instead, it was in the Fire Sage's hand.
The black-haired woman kneeled on the platform before the coronation plaza. The Fire Sage took the crown and put it in Kazura's topknot.
"All hail Firelord Kazura!" He announced. The Fire Nation citizens in the plaza went wild for their beloved Crown Princess, now Firelord.
Kazura raised a hand.
"Please." Her voice was soft at first. The crowd died down, eagerly awaiting the customary speech of a newly crowned Firelord. "First of all, I want to thank you for everything you have done to help my father restore our nation." She looked at Zuko, who smiled encouragingly, knowing what his daughter will say. The former Firelord had chosen to retire and give the place to his daughter, preferring to travel around the world again with the old gang, solving disputes not just in the Fire Nation or Republic City.
"But as many of you know our nation would not be this prosperous now without the help of someone I still love and cherish and hold dear in my heart." Kazura said loudly, firmly. "Her name was Azula, princess of the Fire Nation for twenty-eight years until 114 ASC, daughter of Ozai and Ursa, great-granddaughter of both Firelord Sozin and Avatar Roku. She was a hero, but more importantly, she was my aunt." Kazura said. The whole crowd hung onto every word she spoke. "She was my mentor. She taught me the basics of my firebending." She said. Everybody knew the prowess of Kazura, daughter of Firelord Zuko and Fire Lady Mai. She was a legendary bender, the best in the world after Azula passed away. She was admired by children all around the world, feared by criminals, and respected by even the haughtiest of adults.
"I would not be here if not for her, and neither would my father." Kazura said again. "So I would just like to say—"
"There's a spirit approaching." The Avatar stepped up, cutting Kazura off with an apologetic expression. Then his expression contorted and he breathed fire out.
A roar could be heard all around the caldera.
"That…sound…" Zuko gasped.
"A spirit dragon!" Aang exclaimed, frowning. Soon, a white dragon descended upon the plaza, heading straight for Kazura. The people screamed, but the dragon ignored them. It curled around Zuko, Kazura, and Aang.
Honey amber eyes bore into Kazura's own, and a memory was triggered.
"Go on, you can hold her." A low voice encouraged. She felt herself move from rough hands to soft ones, and glowing honey eyes stared into her own.
"What are you going to name her?"
"Kazura."
"A-Aunt Azula?" Kazura whispered. The dragon gave her something resembling a smile.
"Azula?" Aang and Zuko whispered, astonished. The white dragon sighed in a distinctive voice.
"I'm surprised it took you that long to recognize me, but I suppose I didn't use my signature trick." The Azula-dragon's nostrils flared, and the coronation flames turned blue. Azula breathed over Kazura, and a soft blue glow encompassed the woman.
"There. That is my gift to you, Firelord Kazura." Azula said. She unfurled herself and went to hover over the crowd. "I will be waiting by the turtleduck pond after the coronation."
Kazura finished giving her speech, although it held a rushed quality. As the people left the plaza, murmurs rippled through the crowd. In the years to come, Kazura would be known as 'Firelord Kazura, Blessed of the Blue Flames' in the Fire Nation, marking her as one of the most prominent Firelords in history.
After the coronation was over, Kazura rushed to the turtleduck pond, feeling like she was five again, waiting for her aunt to join her at the base of the big tree. Her family and friends were already gathered there, but the dragon was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is she?" Ursa asked.
"Mother." Azula's voice traveled into everyone's ears. Then, to everyone's shock, Azula walked out from behind a pillar, decked in the armor she so loved back when she was fourteen, only it was fitted to her mature form now. Kazura noted with amusement that her aunt only looked twenty-eight, then age she died, while she was now forty and the sovereign of their nation.
"Oh, my baby girl." Ursa started to stand but Azula was there in an instant, laying a solid hand on the old woman's shoulders. She gazed into identical eyes. Her mother was still beautiful despite her age, and Azula pressed a tender hand to her mother's wrinkled cheek in a wordless gesture of love.
"I am afraid I cannot be here for too long. I am here to bid my farewell." She said, kissing her mother's forehead. Ursa was crying silently.
"I love you, Azula." Ursa whispered.
"I love you too, mom." Azula finally whispered back, a genuine smile lighting up her sharp yet feminine features. She rose and made her way to Mai and Zuko. She offered a hand to Mai.
"We've had our fair share of…disagreements." Azula spoke. "And now you've been family for so long, I think a truce is long overdue." She said. Mai shook her hand with just the slightest trace of a smile on her lips.
"Indeed it is, Princess Azula." She said. Azula smiled wryly at the title and looked at Zuko.
"Brother. I would have laughed at whoever said you would become Firelord and rule better than any ever had before…and probably throw them in prison too." Azula smiled crookedly, and Zuko mirrored the smile. He opened his arms, and Azula stepped into them, and they hugged for the first time in their lives as true siblings. "But now?" She laughed. "I honestly could not picture me on the throne as much as I try."
"Thank you, sister." Zuko said, gratitude overflowing in his words. "For everything you've done for me…after you turned seventeen, of course." He joked. Azula smirked, and turned to Iroh.
"Uncle. I have nothing to say except that they do not make tea in the spirit world half as well as you do." She said to the old man, who beamed, knowing it was Azula's own form of saying that she loved him.
"Do not worry. I will be joining you shortly. If I remember correctly, your favorite brew is still Pu-erh?" He asked. Azula grinned at his blunt statement. It was astonishing how tenacious Iroh was. Truthfully, she had expected her uncle to have joined her sooner, but apparently not.
"Of course."
She then turned to others. "Sokka, Toph, and Aang." She started. "It has been a real pleasure to work with you all in keeping Republic City safe." She smiled. Then she shook hands with all of them, Suki, and Katara.
At last, she turned to Kazura.
"Just…look at you." Azula said. Under her aunt's gaze, Kazura didn't feel like a grown woman with experiences in everything at all. "Is there something you wished to tell me?" She asked.
"Nothing escapes you, Azula." Kazura spoke. Azula smiled proudly when she heard her name spoken without the 'aunt' or 'auntie' in front. "We are married, yet both Bumi and Iroh are in the United Forces."
"Shame they're not in the Fire Nation's navy. I trust that our nation's military still precedes any other military?"
"Of course." Zuko spoke up with a certain pride in his voice.
"Good." Azula said. "One of the only things you did right." She teased Zuko, who rolled his eyes. She placed a hand on Kazura's shoulder.
"I love you, Kazura, and I'm so proud of you." She said. "And when you firebend, you may find that something has changed." She said somewhat mischievously. Kazura raised a hand and conjured a fireball. It blazed blue with a white-hot center. She regarded her aunt with wide eyes.
"Have a good reign, Firelord Kazura." Azula smiled, and leapt into the air. Her body glowed and elongated into the form of a dragon. The elegant creature swooped down and circled the group gathered there.
"I will see you all again. Until then!" Azula said. They watched her fly higher into the skies, eventually disappearing into the glare of the sun.
However, Azula didn't make her way to the spirit world immediately. There were two more people she had to talk to. First she made her way towards the prison that housed her father, sneaking in in human form. She made her way to his cell and knocked out the guard outside of the door before walking in.
"Hello, father." She said calmly. The aged and worn man looked at her with dull golden eyes.
"Azula?" He asked. "What…how are you so young? Last time Zuko came to visit me he looked Iroh's age at the end of the war."
"I died when I was twenty-eight, father, but I'm not here for small talk. First I have a question for you—did Zuko ever take mother and Kazura to visit you?"
"Kazura had just turned ten when they took her to me. She is remarkably like you." Ozai said. Azula smiled. Good.
"I like to think that influenced her life the most." Azula said casually. "But again, I'm not here to talk about her. Oh, wait, before I get to the point, she has just been crowned Firelord today." She said.
"Zuko abdicated?" Ozai raised an eyebrow.
"You could say that." Azula said vaguely. "Now, I came here to give you an offer." She said.
"I'm listening." Ozai said.
"I came to take you to the spirit world." Azula said.
"You mean, to kill me?" Ozai asked, rasping out a laugh.
"Simply take your spirit with me back to the spirit world." Azula said. "After all of the things you did to me, I still love you." She regarded him seriously. "So I'm giving you an easy way out. It will not hurt, and you will not have to spend the rest of your days rotting in here."
Ozai pondered it for a long time. Azula didn't understand—if she were Ozai right now, she'd pounce at the chance.
"So? I don't have all day." Azula had someone else she needed to visit.
"The answer to your offer is no. If I had to die, I die on my own terms, not when someone offers me the easy way out." Ozai said evenly. Azula was too stunned to reply for a few seconds.
"You're a fool." She finally said. "This is about honor, isn't it?"
Ozai didn't reply, but turned his back to her. Azula sneered at her father.
"Have it your way, but whatever was left of your honor was destroyed when you were defeated by Aang and got your bending stripped from you." She said coldly, turning away from her father. "Goodbye." She said with a note of finality in her tone, and strode out the door, slamming it behind her.
When night fell, the moon found Ty Lee crying in her room. She didn't turn when the door opened.
"Suki, if you're here to—" She started.
"Ty, it's me." Azula said softly. Ty Lee whirled around.
"Azula!" She exclaimed. Then her eyes narrowed. "What do you want?" She asked harshly. Azula made her way to Ty Lee, placing a hand on the acrobat's arm. Long, slender fingers curled around a pale arm.
"I'm sorry." Azula said. "You must be crying because I didn't address you today." She said perceptively. Ty Lee sniffled, refusing to look at her.
"What I had to say to you was too important and private to be said at the time, Ty." Azula looked at her best friend. Glistening grey eyes looked into her own, hurt and curiosity mingling together. Azula swallowed. Even though she was not truly alive, she still had trouble saying it. "Ty, I…I love you." She said in a breathy whisper. Ty Lee froze under Azula's touch, and the latter quickly drew away. "I'm sorry I never said it before I went, Ty. I just thought that you would have liked to settle down with a boy and have lots of children and—" She was cut off by Ty Lee pressing her lips against hers. All of a sudden they were fourteen again.
The kiss was short and sweet, and when they broke apart, Ty Lee looked years younger. Azula ran a hand through Ty Lee's long chestnut hair.
"I love you too, Azula. Why else do you think I'm not already settled with a boy, as you put it?" Ty Lee said with a sad smile. "When you were gone I was in denial, both of the fact that you were dead and that I loved you. I've learnt to live with it through the years, but that doesn't ease the pain."
"I am here now, Ty, and that's all that matters." Azula said sweetly.
"Spend the night with me." Ty Lee said. "I just want to be with you for another night." She begged.
"Of course, Ty." Azula said. The two of them made their way onto the rooftop where they often visited when they were younger and just sat there watching the starry sky. They talked well into the night, and when sleep overcame Ty Lee, Azula held her in a warm embrace.
The next morning Suki found Ty Lee sleeping on the roof, and woke her.
"Ty, why are you sleeping on the roof? And what's that in your hand?" Suki asked. Ty Lee blinked and sat up, stretching. She was surprisingly agile for her age. She opened her hand and there sat a pearlescent white dragon scale with a slightly blue sheen to it when the light hit it just right. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she closed her eyes, holding it to her heart with a smile.
"An old friend visited last night." She said softly. Suki blinked, confused, then gasped with realization when she made the connection. She then smiled and helped Ty Lee up.
"You love her, don't you?"
"Always." Ty Lee said, and as the sun rose, she swore she could see a white dragon soaring in the beautiful blue and orange sky.
"I'll be waiting, Ty." A voice resonated in her head, and a smile lit up Ty Lee's face. Suki had headed down before her, and so she raised the scale to her lips, kissing it softly.
"I know."
-Fin-
Could not resist the famous line by Snape. There you go, and if you actually read this to the end, I applaud you. Thanks for staying and drop a review if you can!