Burn My Dread FES
By Iain R. Lewis
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to Nickelodeon, some of the concepts are similarly inspired by Persona 3 and Persona 4, property of ATLUS games.
"Nateshinakute mienai mirai wo zutto osoreteita. Arukidaseba kawatteku keshiki ni hikari ga sashikomu."
("I've always been afraid of the future. I can't see where it leads to. As I start walking, the scenery around me changes and the light starts to shine.")
- Found Me
Yumi Kawamura
Chapter 25: The Melancholy of Azula Houou
There was a first for everything. For Sokka, this was the first time he'd ever been relieved to see the Tower of Memories. An entire school year had been spent fighting his way through this tower and uncovering its mysteries, but he still wouldn't have said he was relieved to see it, normally.
It just confirmed that he was alive. His hands were scuffed, his sword worse for wear, and his toe stubbed against a pile of debris, but otherwise, he seemed fine. He hoped the others had been just as lucky.
The place was a disaster. The tower rumbled ominously, and he could see rubble raining down outside a small window against the wall. He stared out. The entire ground was consumed with flame, and without hesitation, he knew exactly when he was.
This was the end, but it was also the beginning. Sometimes, it became easy to forget that the two were just two sides of the same coin. That day seemed too long ago; he hadn't thought about it in so long.
The twisted, faceless monstrosities were climbing up outside the tower, swinging onto a balcony that had been cut into the primordial stone that made up much of the uppermost floors. They seemed to be moving intently towards some sort of target.
That day - she had told them to go. She told them she had a bitter work to do.
It wasn't real. He told himself that, he tried to talk himself down. The hordes that had burst through to the roof of the tower had been legion, and he didn't doubt that there were more of those primordial spirits waiting below them that day. Even knowing this was an illusion, he knew he had to move upward and help her fight.
He just hoped he wouldn't regret it.
"I hate this."
Zuko agreed. He hated hospitals. He wasn't sure why, really. He'd spent enough time in them visiting Azula. He'd even come down with more colds than he'd ever experienced previously because of those visits.
Every day, after school, no exceptions.
"Why do I have to come. It's not my fault."
The litte girl across the waiting room from him seemed more than happy to fill up the relative silence of the place. Only a few intercom messages paging doctors seemed to otherwise fill the wordless void. He'd never seen this place so sombre, even the emergency room.
It was a busy night, too. He could hear gurneys being pushed down the halls every now and then. Sometimes he'd catch a shout from one doctor to another. They were dealing with something big. An accident of some sort. He wondered where he was. He wondered when he was.
"Zuzu's the one who was too stupid -"
"That's enough, Azula."
Zuko's eyes snapped up and he looked over at the girl. His heart stopped. She was being reprimanded by a very distraught woman, a woman whose face he hadn't seen in so many years. She looked almost exactly as he remembered. "But I'm tired. We've been here all night!"
"I know you're tired, Azula, but it's going to be a while longer. They're doing everything to help your brother."
"He's fine. He's always fine. This is just silly,' Azula said. "Dad, can we please go?"
At this, Zuko turned to look at the man sitting down behind the mother and daughter. He looked up, his sharp, uncaring eyes always seemed so full of contempt to him, but right now, they just seemed lost. Funny, then, that he'd just gained everything he could have wished for. "You will wait until the doctors come."
"That's boring."
"Ursa," Ozai said, looking at his wife. She seemed to nod in understanding and took Azula's hand in hers and began to lead her away.
"Where are we going?"
"Your father needs some time, Azula. Why don't we go look around while we wait." The girl didn't seem happy with that request, just moaning tiredly. Zuko glanced at a clock. It was well into the morning at four o'clock. She must have been exhausted. He found himself watching them as they walked past him.
He felt a bit awkward when he stood up.
But for whatever reason, he couldn't do anything but follow them.
Azula had a plan. Unfortunately, like most plans, it had been thrown out the window just moments ago. The Moon Scion had appeared in the reflection of Xiao's eye. She'd been lucky to spot it. She'd been lucky not to have been killed then and there. She'd said that thing was crafty.
Now she knew not to underestimate it. Still, she needed a new plan, and she needed it immediately. Xiao's eyes were clenched shut, but she didn't expect the girl to keep them closed indefinitely. She'd already caught her peeking out of the corner of her eyes at things. "Just sit down," Azula snapped, "And I'll tell you when you can open your eyes."
"I'm scared, Azula."
"I'm not," Azula retorted. "It's all a matter of planning." Not that she had one, admittedly, but she'd take it one step at a time. The creature seemed to move at the speed of light from reflection to reflection. Azula grabbed the rusty sword. She wasn't fast enough to hope to slice or slash it, and she had no earthly clue how to lure it in a direct enough path. Who knew what else the thing would hop to if she didn't act quickly.
If it could leap to any reflection, then something as innocuous as a five-en piece could throw off the whole plan.
Then it clicked in her head.
"Xiao, when I say so, I want you to look up in front of you." She scurried over to the counter. The wound was still fresh, but the healing waters had stopped the bleeding. Now it was just a tender cut. It would possibly leave a scar unless she got it tended to further. She didn't have time to worry about that.
The register had been thrown over the counter but she hoped that it still held some coinage. She climbed over the surface and kicked open the register. Coins spilled out of their neat containers onto the ash-covered floor. Among them, a trail of five-en pieces, still holding onto their shine in the destruction, immediately drew her eye.
"Azula, what am I supposed to look at?"
"Nothing yet," Azula said, taking the coins and smirking. She just needed to make sure she predicted the angle right. Xiao was growing restless. She would too, if she arbitrarily was told to shut her eyes with clear instructions to under no circumstances peek. "Just give me a little longer."
"Okay. But hurry! My eye's all itchy."
"It won't be long now." She grinned. This time, she was certain. Sword hefted at the ready. "Are you ready? Look up, straight in front of you, okay?"
"Okay." Xiao did so. She blinked a second, then noticed the spinning, shiny five-en piece. She blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light. "Huh?" She wasn't sure why it was important, The next thing she saw was a sword brought up in the air and a sudden sharp cry.
Azula had been a bit slow with the sword. The girl opened her eyes just as she expected, but the sword was heavier than she took it for. The rust didn't help any. She was fighting against weight and the additional wind-resistance.
Still, she expected nothing less but perfection from herself. And she expected that the split second following her hefting the heavy blade into position, sudden explosions of shadows as the Scion moved from Xiao's eyes to the coin through the blade.
The speed it moved at must have caused it to turn the dulled edge of the blade into a deadly weapon strong enough to cut it in two. She didn't even see the Scion until the mask fell in two pieces at her feet. She made sure to grab the five-en piece. There was no point in letting it go to waste.
"What just happened?"
"The guardian is finished," Azula said, confidently. "I'll explain it later. For now, we should investigate this gate." Xiao stared stunned at Azula, almost dumbfounded. "What is the matter?"
"You killed it? Even though it was living in mirrors?" She sounded mystified, she sounded incredulous, in fact, she sounded downright - "That's incredible!" - ecstatic.
"Not particularly."
"Let's go see if the gate's open!" Xiao said, bounding for the rear entrance with all the energy that her tiny body afforded herself, vaulting over the wooden counter like a lemur. "Oh! Neat! Coins!"
Azula smirked. Apparently, she also had the attention span of one. "Leave them. We'll have plenty of time to take up coin collecting when we get out of this prison."
Xiao looked up from the pile of shiny coins back at Azula, before reluctantly standing up and dropping the coins she'd picked up. "You're right. Let's see what the door's like now!" she broke into a sprint and collided with the gate. "Ow!"
"You need to watch where you're going," she said, tiredly. "If you get hurt, don't expect me to kiss it and make it better." Xiao moaned, rubbing her face with a tired grunt. Azula scoffed. Had she ever been so foolish? The gate no longer seemed to be completely enshrouded in shadow. If anything, it looked like a normal door. No strange markings, no unusual qualities of light or darkness wholly alien to the natural world, simply a door.
And the very best kind of door, as well, one that was not locked. "Wow, it's opened! How did you do that?" Xiao asked. Azula paused. It wasn't a difficult question, in and of itself, only that it brought up more questions than it did answers.
In long, drawn out syllables, she suggested, "I pushed the handle and opened the latch?"
"Oh, I guess that makes sense," Xiao said. "It would have been so much cooler if you were some kind of chosen one, though."
It was an ordinary door, and it led to a very ordinary alleyway, where the garbage had been strewn about in dischord. Whatever destruction had visited this Ba Sing Se had been thorough. "So we're here," she said, "The stench is unbearable, this city is deserted, and we've passed the first of five gates."
"We're making excellent progress, but could you defeat the next guardian even faster?"
"Do I tell you how to do your job?"
"No, I suppose not," Xiao said, rather dejectedly. "It's just, I can't wait for us to reach the way out." Azula nodded slowly. She was eager to leave this place behind and get to the bottom of this maze once and for all. It was just a sense of ill-ease she felt aroud Xiao.
The feeling that she could see inside her head was disconcerting at the best of times, terrifying at others. She hardly knew anything about Xiao, and the girl was certainly not one to talk about herself. "Why were you in this maze, Xiao?"
"Because I've always been here," she answered. "That's why I want to get out of here. I want to see what your life is like, Azula. You're so amazing!"
"So you say," Azula answered evasively. She wasn't usually one to take praise as anything other than empty, but she did not mind allowing her ego to be stroked once in a while. However, this hero worship she received left her feeling no more at ease with this girl.
There was something in the way she went about it. It was almost tactical, one moment, but overflowingly sincere the next. It was hard tot ell where she stood. "We should get moving. This place is stinky."
"You're right. We're headed to the Tram Station?" Xiao paused before nodding with a bit of apprehension. "What's wrong now? You said the mall was the only way to reach the tram station."
"And it is, only, there's another gate between us and there, first," she said. "And that means another guardian." Azula rolled her eyes. It came as no surprise that things would just get more and more complicated. "Come on! We should go!"
Azula followed her down a street filled with looted businesses and overturned derelict cars. The haze of the red sky fell over them as they walked. Empty streets, empty buildings, empty lives - Ba Sing Se without the crowds still felt unnatural. There was a stillness that was an unwelcome addition to the city.
"You shouldn't get so antsy. Ba Sing Se really isn't so much different whether it has people or not," Xiao said. "Isn't that true?"
"Some would say a city is nothing without the people who live in it."
"A city is a series of buildings constructed along a network of roads and tunnels, people are just clutter in a perfect organism," Xiao said, eyes closed, her recitation perfect. "I think that's how it goes."
"Where did you hear that?" Azula's hairs stood on end.
"Somewhere. It was a long time ago, wasn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Azula asked, her voice hollow. Xiao stared at her for a moment, before shrugging and grabbing her hand.
"Doesn't matter. Come on! We've got a long way to go!" It was a long way through the network of streets that made up Ba Sing Se. She could see the tram's tracks in the distance. They seem in relative good shape compared to the rest of the city, but the trams sat motionless atop them. She remembered these streets.
She'd been down them quite often, though she only had the vaguest of recollection of them. She'd always focused harder on how she would convince her brother to rejoin the Bending Club, back then. Aside from the ramshackle apartment he kept, the only constant in his life was that old tea shop.
She wondered just how desolated it looked, even as she knew she was about to find out.
Toph never liked to admit being unable to handle something. She was used to people assuming she couldn't do something because of her blindness, and she made certain that they were always proven wrong.
Unfortunately, there were some things that were a little much to expect of anyone, least of all her. A seemingly furious Azula stood before her and with her she offered the ultimate challenge, the one that Toph couldn't even begin to fathom. "Tell me, Toph, precisely what is it he sees in her anyway?"
That was a tricky question. She'd need some time to think it through. "Wait," she said, stalling for time. "You want me to answer that for you? Really?" She didn't even know when she was. This was beginning to cause her headaches. Sokka could go on and on about his fancy Introduction to Psychology class terms, laying down on her as many unconsciousnesses as he could fit into a sentence, and she still wouldn't be sure why she was suddenly in the past.
"You seem to be quite familiar with both of them," she answered. "I'm merely curious. I can't see the appeal."
"I am, am I?" Toph said. She could feel Azula tense, slowly. She didn't like that answer one bit. "Well," it seemed she needed to come up with something. She needed an answer, and she needed it fast. "Hair."
Too fast.
"Hair? Really? Those, those loopies are somehow fashionable, are they?" She was talking about Katara, then? Well, that made sense retrospectively. She was getting the handle of this question now. She just needed to make a logical leap of faith.
"Yeah, Aang's totally into that."
"Is he." She seemed pensive, processing this new tidbit of information. Toph could feel the cogs whirring in that head of hers. Actually, the challenge seemed a lot less threateing now that she'd tackled the first mystery. "Is he really that shallow?"
Of course, Azula wouldn't make things easy. She didn't even know how she got dragged into this conversation in the first place, it hardly seemed fair. "Of course not. He's got layers, lots of layers. Almost all of the layers, in fact," she paused. "Kind of onion-y in his layer qualities."
"I can't believe you're comparing him to a vegetable."
"Well, excuse me for not having working eyes, Miss Insensitive. I don't exactly get to see all of your various layered objects, I've got to work with what I know."
"Of course, my apologies," Azula said. She seemed tense. "It's merely this ridiculous dance. He is getting distracted." And there was the when! She was definitely making some progress.
"He's not the only one," she said, wryly.
"What are you implying?" She was going to enjoy this.
Yue, in summary, was quite baffled. Somehow, she had hoped she'd been back in the maze, reunited with everyone else, and more than eager to let them know she was all right. Instead, she found herself watching the sun set on the beaches of Ember Island - or some collective memory of Ember Island if Sokka was right - enjoying the pleasant breeze.
They'd been sent echoes of the past before, bearing witness to forgotten deeds and covered up crimes, and she wouldn't be surprised if this was an extension of that. She was not trapped there, she simply hadn't yet seen what she was meant to.
Whatever that was.
She thought back to that young Azula. Perhaps she should find her again, and speak with her. She seemed lonely, somehow, even with her family. It couldn't have been easy, she thought, growing up with expectations. It could be especially trying when your parents didn't understad.
She decided to seek her out. After all, it wasn't like she had any other ideas. The moon would soon be over Ember Island, and the cool sea breeze would chill a girl to her bones if she wasn't careful.
Azula, age six, however, didn't seem to care or mind when Yue found her underneath the full moon throwing stones at the scurrying crustateans that darted out of the ocean. Her aim was sharp, and her focus was unshakeable. So focused was she that when Yue called out to her, she jumped at the shock.
"Who's there!" Azula called.
"It's only me."
"What are you doing here?" she asked, suspiciously peering over at her from the edge of the ocean. "Are you following me? I'm warning you, my father knows people. You'll be dead before you know what happened."
"I'm not here to hurt you," Yue said. She seemed especially paranoid. "I just saw you out here alone and thought you could use the company." Azula sniffed indignantly. "Did you get into an argument with your brother?"
"No."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"As if."
Yue sighed. She sought another avenue of conversation. Azula picked up another stone and tossed it, checking its weight, and then with only a second's hesitation, she threw it at Yue. Yue nearly jumped back in fright when the stone landed right in front of her with a sickening crack.
It was a crustacean, apparently sidling back towards the ocean when Azula had spotted it. It didn't seem like it was going to make it back to the water any longer. "That poor thing."
"It's just a dumb animal," Azula said callously. "Don't tell me you're one of those people who think animals get married and have little families like in the cartoons - please, they're just stupid creatures who don't amount to anything."
"All the same, we shouldn't hurt them for the sake of hurting them."
"As if I care," Azula said. "You sound like my mom. She gets so freaky over stupid things like that."
"Did you get into an argument with your mother?" Azula grew quiet, and started looking towards the moon, large and full in the night sky. She seemed to ponder something for quite some time before turning her head back to Yue.
And then she answered.
She wondered how many of the old regulars in that tea shop knew that the quiet, mature young man with the scar over his eye was the infamous Delinquent Prince of Ba Sing Se. In all the times she'd visited the place, they never seemed to take any notice of it. If they knew, they didn't care, and if they didn't know, they didn't care to find out.
Now, the tea shop was about the only part of the small plaza still in tact. One of the taller buildings across the street had collapsed and rained rubble down, blocking the street and tearing apart the neighboring buildings. "We're almost to the next gate!"
"Good," Azula commented. She looked along the other road. "Why can't we just go around the building?" Xiao peered down the road curiously. "Perhaps we can circumvent this gate and simpy proceed straight to the tram station."
"No," Xiao said, upset, "It's a good idea, but the rest of this place is flooded and there's like so much gasoline in the water that it's all what's the word - like a bug -"
"Irridescent," Azula said, and after a thought, added, "Disgusting." She looked over the road herself. A little ways beyond the corner, the road had completely collapsed and a water main still pumped water into the exposed sewers. She was surprised the water still worked in an imaginary city that had been devastated that thoroughly.
There was definitely gasoline in that water, probably from the cars that had been thrown into the open chasm by the destruction of the street. It looked thoroughly unhealthy. "I suppose we'll have to go through, won't we."
"Looks that way," Xiao said. "Sorry! Anyway, we should hurry. We don't have long!"
"Long for what?" Xiao seemed pushier since they passed the first gate. Azula wrote it off to her being anxious to leave the prison. Still, Azula wasn't going to tolerate it much longer. "We should not rush into this situation. Last time, I got this lovely cut on my shoulder for our trouble. Let's proceed with caution."
"If you say so." Xiao huffed, clearly upset.
She approached the door to the tea house with some great deal of apprehension. The ground was far from stable, and she worried that it wouldn't be able to hold her weight. She stepped lightly, and soon found herself at the door. Relaxing a little, she pushed past them and into the small tea house. Behind her, she heard Xiao squeak and a loud rumble.
"What did you do?" she asked, turning around.
"I didn't mean to! It just happened!" Azula scowled at the sight. Outside, the ground had given way. The rubble settled into a nice pile underneath, and she didn't see them getting back the way they came very easily. It would take a good running start to even hope to leap over the chasm.
Only forward - as if they ever had a choice. The shop was full of overturned chairs and broken pottery. It had been hit hard by whatever had rocked the city so badly, and looked like a burnt out husk. The charred remains of the tables seemed like skeletal shamblers, leaning one way, melted to the ground, and skinny as a shadow.
She wondered if anyone had even been inside. There certainly didn't seem to be any signs of human life there, and it certainly didn't look like it was ever host to it. "This isn't real, remember? This maze makes up fake realities."
Azula paused. On some level she accepted what Xiao said fully. This was wholly impossible. "Of course," she answered, on some levels still unable to accept that this was all a complex illusion. "Whatever created this must be immensely powerful. Imagine what we could do if we could harness that power."
Xiao squeaked, "You mustn't!" She shivered in fright. "It may be listening! It's all around us here."
"I am not frightened of some nebulous force. Whatever power it has over you does not extend to me." She took a deep sigh and looked around. "I suppose another guardian is hiding around here somewhere."
Xiao sighed. She seemed relieved by the change in topic and quickly hurried further into the tea house. "Try the back," Azula called back, "There's a side entrance that way. Hopefully the alleyway hasn't collapsed."
"Got it!" Xiao called back. "I don't see any guardian around here, though."
"I suppose we had the benefit of knowing it was waiting for us last time," Azula said, "We have no idea what this guardian is like. They're insignificant bugs who have to use cowardly tactics to be any threat."
"I found it!" Xiao called without acknowledging Azula. The side door was just the same as the one in the mall. The shadows moved like they were of one malevolent mind. Writhing and pulsing in time with a heartbeat, whatever had created this gate, "It's totally blocked too."
"But where is the guardian?" She watched the room like a hawk, her ears pricked at even the slightest sound. She would know the instant it appeared from whatever hole it hid in. Feet tapped against a filthy floor, kicking up clouds of dust from their long rest. She kicked aside a broken tea cup, searching high and low.
"Do you see it?" Xiao asked, causing Azula to start.
"I'm looking!" Azula shouted back. "How am I supposed to find it if you keep distracting me?" Xiao looked guiltily at the ground like a scolded school girl, and Azula momentarily forgot her temper. "All I mean is this. It could be sneaking up on us at this very moment, so you need to be quiet so I can find it before it pounces."
"But -" Xiao was interrupted by the sound of the door coming off its hinges, smashing against the wall with a clatter "- I found it."
Azula turned around. The scion was the largest one she'd ever seen. The steel mask it wore was the same as the ones she'd seen in the Stars of Solitude, a roughly inscribed 'IV' between its empty eye holes. It was assembled from twisted black metal that seared a burning red in time with her every breath.
It crouched and pushed through the door frame, pieces of the building crashing to the ground as it pushed through the too-small doorway. It was a lopsided abomination, pieces of it were clearly cannibalized from other bits of machinery, making it look almost like a movie monster. The odor of sewage wafted off of it, along with the burnt smell of heat and twisted metal. It heaved a heavy wrecking ball in through the wall.
It stood hunched, and moved slowly towards them, all the while sounding like a car engine. Unsurprisingly, Azula noted, there was one in the center of its chest. "It's ginormous!"
"I see that," Azula said.
"I thought you said they were bugs!"
"I appear to have made that judgment prematurely."
"I'll forgive that, since it's you."
"How magnanimous." Azula glanced around the tea house, before pointing behind the counter, "Get to the kitchen."
"Why? Do you have some sort of plan? Do you want me to assemble a bomb following your exact specifications?" Xiao's eyes were alight with wonder and excitement. Azula shook her head slowly and grumbled.
"No, I want you to hide in there while I deal with this. I can't afford to have you get in the way again."
"It wasn't my fault!"
"I don't care. You're a liability, Xiao, at least in combat."
Xiao sighed, bowing her head, "Okay, okay. But, promise me you won't abandon me here, okay? Promise!" The scion crept to a stop and lifted up its right arm. In place of a hand or piece of construction equipment, the scion had attached a flamethrower to it. The heat from its body only intensified the stream.
Azula kicked off and cut the stream in two with a gust of wind. "Whatever! Just get going before you end up roasted alive!"
Xiao didn't need any further prompting, disappearing behind the counter and into the kitchen. The scion didn't seem remotely interested in her. Its eye sockets focused on her. A wreath of fire surrounded its head, and left a trail of black and ash on the ceiling behind it. The creature was a walking fire hazard.
Azula narrowed her eyes. It was going to leave behind a smoldering pile of ashes in its wake at this rate. She had to be quick.
She kicked off the ground and landed with a wide kick. Large gusts of air kicked up around her, slamming into the guardian, and with the momentum from that, she swept around low, another gust pushing back against its legs. She darted back and smirked.
The scion was not impressed. The wind blew as hard as it could, but it couldn't move the Emperor Scion.
Azula scowled. "You're tougher than I expected." She eyed the gap between its legs and smirked, "But I wonder just how quick you are."
It was raining.
The water felt good against her skin. It wasn't really rain, though, just everyone's memory of rain, but wasn't it enough that it felt cool against her skin? It was nearing the end of fall, from the looks of things. She heard the light rumbling of thunder.
She was definitely alive, despite being flung through a wall made of shattered memories, but she wasn't sure how. The rain felt good, regardless. Even before realizing she had the potential as a bender, Katara always seemed to enjoy ice and rain as much as anyone could.
Thunder, however, was another matter. Another crash followed a flash of lightning. The storm was nearly directly overhead, she realized, and she looked around her. Ba Sing Se always had its share of people about, even during the cold fall rainstorms. She'd often watch them out of her window - rainy days were one of the few times she found time to focus on her schoolwork, and even then she always felt distracted.
As much as she loved the rain, the thunder that came with it brought back unpleasant memories of unhappier days, of days when she barely knew her power at all and was almost powerless to do anything.
Somehow, she'd found herself outside the old dorm, looking in her window, trying to catch a glimpse of herself while hiding as a shadow in the rain. A heavy sigh - her light was on but no one was home - Katara had always wondered what it'd be like to meet herself in one of these pocket worlds. It would be one way to speed along the world shattering.
Whether or not that was a good thing was irrelevent, as far as she knew, until they did that, they were stuck in these pockets of the past.
She started to walk away. There were other places to go to, she thought, and there was nothing to say that there was anything particularly pressing about visiting the dorm. She just felt drawn to it, that was all there was to it; some kind of morbid curiosity, as well.
A flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and she caught a glimpse, just briefly, of a shadow on the rooftops. She stopped. "Oh no," she whispered, "Not now -"
She'd picked up the keys from the real dorm earlier, perhaps they'd work in this one. She was glad she was in uniform, it would have looked really suspicious if some girl had pulled out a large keychain and started trying each and every one of them at the door. Thankfully, it didn't take long to find the right one. It slipped in the lock, and she turned the key. The door swung open.
It was a matter of separating positive and negative chi, Azula told her, it was simply a matter of controlling it. She'd been too cocky, and Katara had felt nervous. She remembered that with alarming clarity. She went to her room to study, but she couldn't focus. She went to Azula's room only to find she was missing. She wasn't in the office, either, and neither were the old scrolls on firebending.
She'd heard the crack of thunder, and her heart had stopped.
Even now, Katara was retracing the path she'd taken. Up the stairs, one final time, and she was at the roof.
It was unusual seeing herself. The look of terror on the girl's face - her face - was heartrending. "Azula, no," she repeated. Azula, looking as still as she'd ever been, had been struck by lightning she couldn't control. "Wake up - wake up, Azula."
She was going to be okay, Katara tried to say. Just believe in yourself, she'd continue, but her words got caught in her throat. It had taken her forever to learn how to use it at will, but somehow instinct had guided her at that moment. Maybe if she just sat and watched -
"Who's there?"
- her younger self would notice her there and react. Even if, and that was a big if, Sokka was right and this was all a construct of some sort of universal memory, it wasn't like Yomi at all. They were not invisible observers, but active participants in these memories.
The girl stared at a girl who looked, though a little older, exactly like her. She stammered out a frightened, "You're a spirit aren't you - but -"
"No, no!" Katara could only shout out a weak protest. "I'm not a spirit, I'm here to help!"
Katara remembered gathering the rain water instinctively, turning the storm into a miracle underneath her hands. She remembered feeling the pleasant glow as she healed the wounds, and brought Azula back from the brink.
Instead, she watched herself gather the rain into a water whip, sliding into a shaky and unstable waterbending stance, and lashing at her mirror image with all the finesse of a rank amateur. Katara wasted no time or effort. Pulling the water back, she looped it around her back and pushed it back forward, washing over herself with one fluid movement.
Katara the younger coughed out the water. She looked even more soaked than before. The rain water washed down her face, and she looked utterly frustrated. "I'm serious, I'm here to help." Azula was in a bad place. She'd been too arrogant and she'd lost control of the lightning shortly after it formed.
"Who are you?" her younger self demanded to know.
"That doesn't matter right now. Azula needs us right now, and you're the one who's going to have to listen to me." The other Katara looked apprehensively at, well, herself, then back at Azula. "I know it's unusual, but you're going to get used to it. Trust me."
The younger girl took only a few seconds to decide. "What do I do?"
"Your face is weird."
"Azula, don't say that to the nice man." Zuko didn't mind. He'd long since grown accustomed to Azula's more, well, direct approach to people. If anything, the little exchange brought him back to when they were a family. That seemed an awfully long time ago, right then and there.
"Well it is," she protested weakly. Ursa brought herself down and whispered something to the girl, who rolled her eyes, but complied regardless. She bowed her head and said, "Sorry for being rude, sir."
"It's okay. I was just - just taking a walk. It's been a long night."
"You don't know the half of it," Azula said out of the corner of her mouth. He was amazed by just how tired the two of them looked. He half expected Azula to fall asleep with her head against her mother's leg like that.
"I'm sorry, it's well beyond her bedtime. Did you know someone from the lab?" she asked. She knew the answer would be yes. There wasn't anyone in this building that didn't know someone from the accident one way or the other.
"Yes, but," he paused. His hesitation spoke volumes to Ursa who bowed her head in acknowledgement. "It's all right. These things happen."
"Wouldn't be here if my dumb brother didn't decide to sneak in," Azula said, her voice muffled by her mother's pantleg. The troubled expression returned to Ursa's face. He'd caused his mother so much pain by being selfish. Azula'd been the one to goad him into it, though - he'd said as such, and the girl received a tongue-lashing she wouldn't forget.
But he could see, beneath the exhaustion and annoyance in his sister's posture, a sort of rigid nervousness. Perhaps even she was worried about him. "So it's your son," Zuko tried to sound as surprised as he could.
"The doctors seem confident," she said, though he wondered why she wasn't so sure of that. Zuko sighed. A mother would worry.
"That's good, then. At worst, he'll have some scars," Zuko tried to play it positively, but he knew full well how scarred he'd be. He'd always have little girls saying he had a weird face, there was no way around that.
"He's such a good boy, I don't know what possessed him to -"
"It's just a fact of life. Kids do things they're not supposed to. Wouldn't worry about it, right, Azula?" The girl looked at him with distaste.
"I didn't say you could use my name."
"Azula, behave," Ursa chided. She began to apologize for her daughter's behavior, repeating the same excuses. It was the same old Azula, though, and sometimes he missed when their sibling rivalry was played out as little more than playground antics. By the time it reached fever pitch, it seemed as though somehow their rivalry became wrapped around the fate of the world. "You understand, don't you?"
He was startled by the question, "I'm sorry, I was just thinking - it's been a long time since I've really seen my own sister, you see."
"I keep telling them to be nice to each other, but that's just how siblings are, I suppose. Once they move out, it'll be different -" how he wished that were true. With a sullen smile, he nodded his head in agreement. It was the little lies we told the ones we loved, he supposed.
"You have a sister, too, huh?" Azula wasn't much one for coincidence, ever, and usually, it served her well. "What's her name?" When Zuko hesitated, she leapt on it, "I bet he's lying."
"Azula, he doesn't have to say if he doesn't want to."
"Her name's," he paused, then finally settled on, "Tara."
"Huh, sounds fakey," Azula said. "What's she like?"
"Intense. Very intense," Zuko said, "We don't get along most of the time. She's got ambition, but sometimes - most of the time - that gets the better of her. She was in the hospital for a long, long time."
Azula looked absolutely horrified. "That's terrible! Why would you let them keep her there."
"She was very sick, for a while. She got better," he added, lamely, "But she couldn't really speak for herself." Azula's face looked pale. She'd always been uncomfortable around the Spiritless, those people whose essence had been devoured by the Spirits who escaped the Spirit World. He never really understood why.
"That's the worst thing!" Azula nearly shrieked. Ursa gave her a chastising glance, but the girl didn't seem to notice. "How can anyone want to live like that?"
"What if they get better?" Zuko asked. "Wouldn't you do anything you could to keep that hope alive?"
Azula didn't seem convinced. She never really believed in having hope for the future, though, in fact, she disliked anything she couldn't directly plan out. Azula always needed control, and he supposed losing that control terrified her.
"I'm glad that she pulled through," Ursa said, "But it sounds like you two have drifted apart." He always remembered her like this, caring and kind even to a complete stranger. But, that was all she was, in the end, the memories of that kindness. Still, he wasn't sad. It made him feel better just to hear her voice, even if he was just speaking to his memories.
"We have," he said, "And it's my fault. But, she's definitely going to be a part of my life from now on."
The scion exuded heat from every inch of its black metal hide. She felt sweat form on her forehead just from sliding past it under its legs. The scion had a large form, too large for the building, and clearly far too large to turn in a timely manner.; Azula smiled in triumph, it was almost too easy.
The winds were on her back, they were at her total command, and she relished in the liberating thrill of escaping the confines of gravity. She leapt into the air and kicked both her legs forward, a blast of wind slamming into the back of the creature's head.
The flames flickered and died momentarily before igniting once again with an increased fervor. It swung to its left, hefting with surprising speed the wrecking ball attached to its arm. The large metal ball swung past, dangerously close, before slamming into the wall. Plaster and steel came crashing down all around as the wrecking ball tore through.
And when the wall came down, the stench of sewage and gasoline wafted up from the sunken street on the other side. "It really opens up the room," Azula muttered wryly. Then, her eyes caught the cracks in the floor below. She pushed a soft gust of wind under foot.
She stumbled as she landed softly. The building shook at the foundation, and the cracks slowly crawled forward. Taking down the wall had damaged the structure of the building. Anymore damage and the thing was liable to crumble, and the floor looked barely sturdy enough now to hold her weight.. She rolled for safety as the guardian shot out another blast of fire.
"Did you get it?"
Azula whipped her head around. Xiao peeked her head out from behind the countertop, her eyes alight as she stared at Azula.
"Almost." She glanced at the scion. It seemed off balance thanks to the wrecking ball. It was pulling at it in frustration. It seemed like it would be there for a while longer. "You should get back to hiding, Xiao. This is going to be dangerous."
"Do you have a plan? Tell me you have a plan!"
"Of course."
"Is it - is it going to rock ultimate?"
Azula's mouth opened to respond but she caught herself before she answered. What did that even mean? Xiao stared at her expectantly for an answer, seeming a bit confused by the sudden hesitation. "Yes, yes it is. It's going to rock ultimate." Whatever that meant, she added silently.
"You could even say there's going to be fireworks," Azula added as she stood up. "Hey. Is this all a scion can do? Whatever created you, I'm not impressed." The creature seemed to respond to her words. With a mighty heft it freed the wrecking ball from the debris.
It stared at her over its shoulder, The black metal body slowly began to turn. Its black metal frame began to heat up, turning brighter and brighter shades of red. The metal tables around it began to turn molten and melt.
Azula frowned. "This may be harder than I anticipated."
"Mom's - Mom never liked me."
"That's not true," Yue protested, but the girl silenced her with a glance. She always seemed so mature and independent, even here, a small child barely even six years of age, her sullen face betrayed a measure of melancholic awareness.
"She thinks I'm a monster." She paused, then added, "And so do you."
"I know you're not a monster. You just have troubles," she said, "Everyone has troubles, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Your mother just worries about you. Mothers worry, that's just how they are."
"You don't see the way she looks at me." Yue hesitated, unsure how to answer, and Azula pounced on that like a hungry lioness. "See? You don't understand. It's all right, I'm okay with it. Not like she's wrong."
"How can you think that?" Yue looked the girl dead in the eye and found her staring back with a clear and sharp expression, almost frightening on a girl that young.
"I don't want to be like Dad," she said, "I can tell he hates Uncle Iroh. I'm not going to let Zuzu get the better of me like that, ever." Yue sighed. Pity the child who knows her parents, or however the old song goes. She was too young to understand the hows and whys, but the underlying emotions seemed perfectly clear to the six year old.
"Your father does not hate your uncle, Azula. He's simply frustrated."
"Oh, he hates him, I know. I heard him," Azula said. "He doesn't notice me sometimes, when he's really mad at something, and I hear all he talks about. Grandfather likes Iroh better, you see." She sat down in the sand and stared at the ocean. "At least Dad likes me best."
"Parents don't play favorites."
"Mine do." Yue sighed. An only child really couldn't weigh in on this. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. I just needed space. People need space, right?" Yue nodded, slowly. "Why are you being so nice to me, anyway?"
"You looked like you needed a friend, and I'm a real good listener. See?" she pointed at the moon, "I'm always watching over you." Azula rolled her eyes.
"You're not the Moon, lady."
"Oh? I suppose you can prove that?" Yue watched the little girl flap her mouth futiley, spluttering out half-thought out explanations and theories. "Do you want to believe spirits are real and there watching over and protecting you?"
She sighed, "I don't know. It's so kiddy."
"It's not kiddy at all," Yue protested. "It may not seem like much when you've got a comfortable home and friends and people who love you, but sometimes, just once in a while, what you need more than anything is hope."
Azula scoffed, and looked at the moon reflected on the sea. "Hope, huh? That's dumb. People who rely on hope are the worst. They're like Zuzu, always daydreaming and never doing anything. I don't need hope."
"Well," Yue said, "It's still there when you need it most."
"Whatever." She stood up, and with a stammer, said, "I'm going back in now. Uh, even if you're not the moon, you're a really nice lady." She gave Yue a small wave and scurried up the beach to the Houou summer home. Yue sighed.
Azula always bottled everything up inside, keeping some measure of control over herself at all times. The only time she'd seen her without that control, she would agree after some hesitation that monster may have been the best word. Resentment, loathing, hate - all of those things had been bubbling over inside Azula for years. Even now, they were there, fomenting.
Yue started to walk when she stumbled. She felt her world shudder and shake and saw the cracks forming beneath her feet. But it felt like an earthquake, tearing up the ground underneath until there was nothing left. The night sky of Ember Island shattered into a thousand pieces, flying into the great abyss, and the sand beneath her sunk down and she began to sink with it. She felt herself with nothing underfoot, falling for the second time.
Azula moved their discussion to the rooftop. It was a lot less crowded than the school's halls, and it gave Azula a good view of the city. She always seemed to like it up there, lording over everything with her smug sense of superiority. Toph sometimes admired that about her. Sure, she was borderline psychopath, but she knew what she wanted and she went for it.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm focused on making sure the rate of Spiritless slows down. The rate since last month has doubled," she said, "It's becoming a serious problem and my father is putting the screws to me to see this finished quickly."
Toph was a bit confused. Double the previous month? Then she remembered, it had been Oma, the Badger Mole Spirit, who had gone about Ba Sing Se preying on couples. Of course the rate would double, she went after two for Koh's one. "It'll work itself out, don't worry!"
"You know, we went through quite an ordeal for you. You could show a little more concern for the job you volunteered to do," Azula said, wryly. Toph snickered. "Anyhow. I didn't come here to discuss the situation with the Spirits."
"Oh right, we're talking about why Aang likes Katara better than you," Toph said, "Well, for starters, she smiles some of the time."
"That has nothing to do with anything!" Azula snapped. "And I smile. I smile quite a lot. I have a perfect smile, my teeth have never had a cavity, and I make sure they are bleached regularly." Toph rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I've never seen it, but Sokka said it was, and I quote, 'Like watching a saber moose lion find its dinner.'"
"Sokka is a moron, we both know that." Azula crossed her arms over her chest. "And like I said, I've rehearsed my smiling to be perfect."
"Yeah, exactly. You have to work at it, and your smile isn't half as electrifying as Katara's," Toph said. "And another thing, you're kind of mean."
"Ruthless, perhaps, but hardly mean. I just maintain a healthy level of professional distance in most dealings." Toph snickered. It was so easy to get her off-guard when it got down to touchy-feely emotions.
"Yeah, but Katara's nice. Like sickeningly nice. I mean, sure, she holds a grudge for a lifetime, and she can be scarier than you when she puts her mind to it." She ignored Azula's protests at being called scary, and waved her hand. "Seriously, she's got you dead to rights when it comes to being pleasant."
"I hardly see how that matters -"
"It so does. And another thing, she's like the most popular girl at school. I don't think you could throw Momo around by the tail and not hit someone who wouldn't drop everything to go out with her. And you want to know why she's so popular?"
"I don't suppose saying no is going to stop you."
"Nope! Totally rhetorical," she said, "She's more popular because she's nice, she's got a winning smile, and she's gorgeous or something, I don't know, I can't see her most of the time. And you're kind of an ogre."
"A - what?"
"You know, people are scared of you."
"I told you, I'm not scary, merely... intimidating."
"You can call it whatever you want, it all means the same thing to me," Toph retorted, grinning. She was enjoying this. Azula was squirming in her shoes. "Anyway. Despite the fact that you smile like it hurts you, you've got the personality of a large angry monster, and you kind of scare him, Aang likes you well enough, I guess. He's like that. It's just compared to Katara? Well, what can you do." She shrugged. "Unless Katara gets a date or something -"
"I see." A sudden calm radiated over Azula. "Anyhow, I'm thankful for your assistance." Everything came crashing to a halt. This was not how that happened remotely, was it? She did not totally get warped through time and gave Azula the idea to throw Zuko at Katara, did she?
She hoped this was really not real.
The place was going to catch fire if it got any hotter. She was accustomed to the heat of the flame, she'd been raised to - she was raised around fire, that's for certain. She couldn't focus on the haziness of her memory while that abomination stood, turning the world around it red with heat.
She would not be defeated by such a creature. No, her pride demanded nothing short than complete and total victory.
It seared its footprints into the floor as it trudged towards her. Not for the first time, Azula wished she could bend fire again. She wasn't even sure why she couldn't. After all, the Avatar Spirit was not precisely limited. The scion raised its right arm and let loose a stream of fire. Azula kicked up another gust of wind, and when it collided with the stream it diverted the flames around her. She could barely stand this heat.
She needed this to end. She needed it three feet back. That was all.
She looked around for something to use to her advantage, something to let her push back against the creature's unbearable heat. The scion stepped forward. Her eyes darted to the wrecking ball and she smirked.
She pushed against the sluggishness she felt in her bones and jumped over towards the left flank. The wrecking ball looked dangerously hot, and it rolled across the floor as the creature turned to follow her. Grabbing her bottle of water, she uncapped it and sprayed the water into the air, where it seemed to evaporate. Without a second pause, she thrust out a series of quick punches, gusts of wind extending forward and brushing against the wrecking ball. Then she jumped and kicked forward. Another flurry of wind followed. The ball buffeted under the blast, the moisture in the air turning to ice as she landed and drew her hands into rigid claws.
The ice was already melting, but she moved quick, kicking off and slamming against the wrecking ball as hard as she could. "Take that!" she shouted as she bounced off with a powerful gust of wind. The wrecking ball swung back and with it, the rest of the creature followed.
As the creature hobbled closer to the edge, it righted itself and swung its right arm out in a wide arc. Fire streamed along after it. Azula jumped, flipping around the stream, before landing with a loud crash. She slid her foot forward and twisted. The earth underneath the tile rumbled. "I win," Azula declared as she stepped forward along the fault and slammed her heel down.
The scion started forward when the first crack began to form around it. Its head swiveled about to survey the damage. The whole building shuddered as the floor started to crumble around it. Azula smirked at it as it began to slowly lumber forward, fighting against the avalanche of tile and concrete.
It reached its arms out to try and anchor itself to solid ground but the wrecking ball fell back down and pulled it along. It made a loud rumble as it tumbled down to the street. Azula's grin widened triumphantly until with a loud bang, a giant plume of fire rose up outside.
"Finished."
In response, she received a wild applause. "Way to go, Azula! That totally rocked ultimate!"
"I have no idea what that means."
"Anyway!" Xiao said, taking Azula's hand and tugging it, "We should see if the gate's open. With the guardian gone, it should be totally gone, right?"
Azula hesitated before answering, "I suppose," noncommitally. She glanced at the smoldering flames on the ground. It was covered in ash, just like everything else in this facsimile of Ba Sing Se. Everything seemed to have been left to burn. "Let's take a look." There was no harm in it, after all. They approached the stairs, and the door that had once been covered in writhing shadows was now nothing more but an ordinary doorway.
"Hooray! I knew it!"
"Great," Azula said. "We can finally get to this tram station."
"There's one teensy tiny problem," Xiao said. Azula sighed heavily. There was always some sort of problem. "Well, I don't know how to work a tram, do you? Because there's no one else but us in this city. Not one single soul."
"It's likely the power is gone, as well," Azula said, "We'll have to walk. It will take some time, however -"
"Oh," Xiao looked disappointed, "I guess I'll have to ride the tram when I get out of here, right?" Azula shrugged. The doorway opened without a problem into a small metal grate landing over an adjacent alleyway. The metal had been twisted by some intense heat, but it still seemed sturdy. Azula probed it gently with the toe of her shoe, then she slammed down on it. There was a creak and a rattle, but the platform held strong.
"It's fine. Let's go." The platform looked like some old fire escape. They climbed down the ladder to sturdy ground below. Azula glanced. At one end, the sunken street was still covered in flames from the creature's impressive explosion, on the other she could see the street that led to the tram station. It seemed sturdy, pleasantly so, in fact. If it were not for the almost skeleton-like remains of a truck, it would actually not have looked too out of place back in the real Ba Sing Se.
"It's amazing how you defeated that thing," Xiao said, "You're really something, Azula, a real genius!"
"I know," Azula said. "My father made sure I was the best there was. He expected great things from me."
"Is that all you remember about your father, now?"
Azula paused, before answering, "I remember he is gone and that he was not as great a father as he could have been. That is about it. Perhaps it's better that way." Xiao giggled cheerfully as she skipped off ahead.
"Come on, slow poke, we're almost there!"
Azula trudged after the energetic girl. It wasn't surprising considering how long the girl had been locked up, though, was it? She didn't know exactly, but she looked about seven or eight, a tender age, she recalled, though not for her. The chance to be free of this loathesome labyrinth would propel anyone forward.
But Azula was getting tired, and there promised to be nothing but more walking ahead. Xiao was already climbing up the staircase to the tram platform when Azula reached the station entrance. The ticket machines had been thrown to the ground, their coins strewn about the ground, giving the dull and scorched ground a little luster.
The turnstyles had been completely destroyed. Pieces from the device had found their way on top of the ticket booth and even outside. "Azula, hurry! We don't have time!" Azula climbed the stairs after Xiao, who peered down at her the entire time with a mixture of curiosity and adoration on her face.
"Hurry hurry," Azula mocked, "Can't we sit down for five minutes?"
"Hey, we may get to!" Xiao said, "Look!" Xiao pointed to a lonely tram, which sat, lights on and doors open almost invitingly. Azula hesitated. "What's wrong, shouldn't we get going?"
"Why does that thing have power? Nothing else in this city does," Azula glanced at it suspiciously, "I think we're better off walking, Xiao."
"Come on, it's fine! Maybe it's been waiting for us!" She skipped over, and peered inside, "Wow, this thing is so cool. I wonder how many people could squeeze inside one of these things. I bet a lot! Do you ride the trams often? I bet you do, it seems so convenient!"
"Xiao, stay away from that. Xiao!" The girl stepped onto the tram and Azula followed after her, grabbing at her wrist. "Xiao, what did I say?
"It's fine!" Xiao insisted. Azula disagreed. She pulled Xiao along to the doors.
"It is not fine. Something this suspicious is clearly a -" The doors slammed shut and the lights went dark. " - trap." Xiao began to shriek, and Azula could barely hear herself think as the noise of the wheels spinning into motion set in.
Something was driving this thing. "Xiao, be quiet. We'll figure something out." The lights flickered on and off, and the door to the next car swung open. "Just get behind me and stay there." She drew her gun, watching the door for signs of movement. After a moment, she lowered the weapon and approached the door quietly.
"What's going on?" Xiao whined.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out. Come on." She stepped through the door as the tram picked up speed.
They were primordial creatures, from before mankind had developed myth and legend. They were the creatures you saw in your nightmares, formless and primal representations of every repressed emotion and instinctual urge in the human body. Sokka had fought them before. They were tough as nails, and they didn't seem to stop no matter how many tentacles he sliced off.
It was times like this he wished his memory wasn't quite as good. They were still hard to kill, even only as shades of long ago. "Azula!" he cried over the hordes. She was somewhere on this floor. He could feel the building shudder.
"... this is how the air will die." The voice seemed to carry through the building. Agni spoke, and with it, the Spirits screeched. They moved erratically, madly, their claws seemed to be moving faster than his sword could keep up. A clean slice removed one of the offending limbs, but it seemed like two more always took their place.
"Come on, Azula, I know you're in here somewhere!"
Gunfire rose above the chaos, A cloud of shadow wafted from his right and he turned to see Azula, body beaten and exhaustion written on her face. He'd forgotten how terrible she looked that day. She'd been in the Spirit World so long that it seemed to have been the last straw on her sanity.
Yet she seemed clear and resolute. She had purpose, a bitter one, but purpose nonetheless. "Sokka?" she sounded incredulous, "I thought you were up there stopping Doomsday. What are you doing here?"
"We're not about to leave you behind, Azula." The girl looked surprised.
"I told you, I have redemption to fight for," she said, "Your job is to save the world."
"Let's argue the particulars later," he answered, "Right now, we've got a lot more of these things to take care of. Weren't those spirits helping out?"
"They're around here somewhere," she said, "It's a little difficult to keep track when the place is as thick with monsters as it is, you know?" she smiled mockingly. He chuckled in response, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head. "I can handle this, Sokka. If you hurry, you'll be able to stop Agni."
"Trust me, we will, just stop arguing and let me help." His sword slid clean through one of the creatures, and he kicked it into the others. The myriad of tentacles, claws, and talons tangled together and squirmed. "This is so gross."
"Welcome to my world," Azula grunted. A blast of fire took out another charging creature that had leapt above its friends to get a swipe at her. "These things are unpredictable at best, absolutely insane at worst."
"I see that. Agni's doing his thing up there. We don't have long until this entire world falls to pieces."
"Pardon?"
"No time to explain." He swiped one clean in half as it lunged at Azula. She fired a bullet between eyes seven and twenty-five of the creature behind him. The two slumped and dispersed into darkness. "Let's just say you'll be safer at the top than you'll be down here."
"I can't. We have to fight until the last breath. You cannot afford to waste your time on these things, as I've been saying this whole time."
"I'm totally splitting my time right now," he answered. It sounded quite witty, if he did say so himself. "Watch out!"
"I see it." Blue flames consumed the creature before it could even swipe at them with its blade-like hands. "If you want to help, try clearing up some space for the dragon to do her work. I'm fine over here."
"I'm here to protect you, Azula."
"I don't need protection, and I don't deserve it either," she said, angrily. "I'm doing my part, Sokka, let me pay for what I've done, all right?"
"And what have you done? You may have been wrong, but that doesn't mean you're evil."
Azula scoffed. "I'm pretty evil, Sokka." She leveled her gun at him. "How much do you trust me not to pull this trigger right this instant."
"Pretty much don't think you can," he said. She smirked and fired it at the creatures behind him. "See?"
"Only because I'm running out of bullets." She sighed. "This was a suicide mission from the start, Sokka. You and I both know that."
"Aang held out hope."
"Aang's a moron," she answered. "All the same - thanks. I'm not sure why you're doing this, but thanks." She kicked azure flames up out of the ground, spinning them around in a wide arc. "Now go and help those spirits before we get overrun again!" She charged into the melee, and he lost her somewhere in the scuffle.
He gripped the cold hilt of his blade tightly and carved a path in deeper.
To be continued.