An enormous block of ice floating in the sea shatters, and a young boy steps forth. Others meet him, and then they flee from a ship of steel, cutting its path through the water. A familiar face is on its deck. Familiar, and yet so distant, burned to bare recognition. This face tracks them through the world.

All of the world, through places only seen in books, for what need was there to leave the imperial capital. Yet the boy grows mightily in ability, and crushes, in the farthest northern waters, an entire fleet of ships with his own might. Countless losses.

And then another familiar face shows, and in tandem hunts both the burned one and the mighty boy. There is some measure of success there, but not in any permanent measure. Though struck down, the mighty boy lives, and the burned one slips away from a gilded cage.

Father takes a new crown. And she is given the old one. Yes... that is her, isn't it. Fire Lord... it isn't a goal she is unfamiliar with. Success is gratifying, even as Father offers a new and greater goal in the same breath, making the success minimal.

And so swiftly after, she is defeated by the burned one and a mere barbarian peasant. All of Father's power is stripped from him, and the burned one takes her throne.

Azula's eyes open from the dream, only to discover that she is dreaming still, a great spirit looming before her.

You have seen.

"Zuko. Zuko on my throne. That boy... the ash on the wind myth that Father set him to chasing. For the illusion of escape, and mercy, if nothing else. All that I have seen would come to pass?"

You understand. This is the script set forth.

"Why? Why show me this, spirit? The Avatar is a bridge between our world and your own, what reason could you have to give an anemy tools against him?"

A bridge. Not the. You assume much. What reason have any, to offer aid to one, to the detriment of another?

"You have something to gain." Azula realized, grimly.

As do you. Unless the script set forward is pleasing to your eyes.

The spirit vanished, but its words lingered.

It is yet to be seen, if you are suitable enough. But many pieces are already nudged into place.

"Wait. When will the Avatar emerge? When will Zuko locate him?" Azula demands, mind already whirling to make plans within plans.

He already has.

Azula's eyes opened in truth.

xxx

It could have been a dream, of course. Azula had never been one to put too much stock in spirit-tales. But if so, it was a troublesome dream nevertheless.

Lost little lamb Zuko coming out so far ahead, despite all expectations to the contrary. Less trained and capable of leading. Less powerful and less skilled in bending. Less clever, less intelligent, so inferior in so many ways, despite the good fortune of being born first, and male.

Troublesome enough to keep it in mind, even if it was merely a nocturnal bout of paranoia. For such a result to come to pass, why Zuko would almost have to be in the favor of the spirits. Very much in their favor, indeed. Though it would seem, not all of their favor.

If only things could have been dismissed as merely a bad dream. But she's made a point of collecting certain reports and rumors. Dueling with Zhao, incidents in relatively neutral territory, ah. Zuko had been a busy boy, and that was just the start of things. And whispers, just tiny things nothing official, of children and a great, hairy, flying beast that could almost be mistaken for the now-extinct sky bison that Air Nomads had so favored...

Coincidences, possibly. The news that Zhao's fleet has been utterly destroyed in the seas off the Northern pole, however, is far too much to be mere happenstance.

So, presume that the dream, or vision, whichever it should be called, had proven to be true to this point. Extrapolate from this that, with nothing changed, it would continue to prove correct...

And the sum of the parts led to an unfortunate conclusion. Zuko: Fire Lord. Father: a pathetic wretch of a failure, with both his bending and crown removed from him. And who knows how she would end, after being brought low by Zuko and some barbarian working in tandem.

Just barely a likely enough story to be theoretically possible, at the least, where Zuko would never be capable of defeating her in single battle. But serving as a distraction while someone else got the drop on her.. yes. Yes, that might be something that he could manage, if he proved cunning enough to think of it. Beyond her expectations of him, at least. Likely the only reason it would have worked. Which meant that with advance notice it wouldn't.

But it wouldn't stop the little Avatar from stripping away her father's bending, and his pride, and his political power away all with the same stroke. ... It was hard to admit, but the simple thought that such a thing was possible, that he would be defeated... humiliated in such a way...

It made the man seem lesser. How pathetic of him, to fall in such a fashion. How worthless. How disgusting. How could something like that be the Fire Lord?

Not sentiments she voiced, of course. He was her father, after all. More importantly, it would be grounds for accusations of treason, and the mand would immediately take measures, despite the favor he held her in. No, because of that regard, he would move all the more swiftly, and to more lethal response.

It was, after all, how she would respond to a son similar to Ozai, were she Fire Lord. Disappointing incompetents such as Zuko could simply be swept under the rug and ignored, if no valid reason could be given for their removal. Elements that could prove dangerous, however, would have to be eliminated immediately and without mercy, whether an excuse could be provided or not, and couldn't be left loose in case they might be used...

The way that Zuko might be used.

And why not use Zuko? Clearly the idiot had some sort of backing by the spirits, some mystical fountain of luck, to again and again come within a taste of his goal, even if it would forever be snatched out of his jaws before they could be clamped down. Why not turn that to her own ends?

For starters, it would be blatantly going against Father's will. But then, her eagerness to do his bidding had been slacking even before, a vision of how matters would fall out from beneath him in the end was simply the straw that broke the racoon-camel's back, in that regard.

So Father wanted Zuko to conveniently break the terms of his exile, so that there would be an excuse to be rid of him now that the fool's quest set to him might have a slim chance of success. Previously, she would have agreed with the thought, if only to tie up the loose ends and remove the only real potential barrier towards her being the heir of the Fire Lord.

But Zuko had apparently proven enough use, in the future, or in the vision or dream of it, for her to somehow slip him back into Father's good graces, if only the barest outside edges of them. She could only wish that memories of what she had seen, understanding of it all, could be clearer, but that much at least she had managed to interpret. There's no reason not to get started with that early.

Of course, there's only two options for this mission: success or failure. Which means she would have to fail, which sticks in her throat. Well, time to consider that later, she supposes.

The only real issue would be arranging things so that dear little Zuko and Uncle managed to slip through the snare she would set out for them, but have it be equally clear that it was in no way her fault that they had evaded the trap.

Because he might be a fool who had failed, and without intervention, would fail, but her future would not be well served by languishing in a dungeon for the treacherous crime of going against the will of the Fire Lord.