Chapter 1: Your eyes sparkle like the moon
Azula was exhausted. Her vision blurry, her mind scrambling and her muscles screaming from fatigue. For the past 4 hours, she's been going through what was supposed to be her usual routine, diligently reproducing the katas that have been drilled into her for years now. Being only 9 years old, she has demonstrated an unprecedented amount of potential in the art of fire bending, earning her the approval and aspirations of her father.
The day had been going well so far. Waking up with the sun, empowering her through the clear skies, tormenting Zuko with his pathetic crush on Mai, burning her instructor's eyebrows off his stupid face, and, more importantly, her mother hasn't gotten on her case yet. Everything was going great, all things considered. Only one more thing to get through to completely declare this day as perfect.
Azula's father has been personally inspecting her progress on her firebending ever since she started proving her superiority over her brother. And now, as the sun shines brightly through the royal courtyard, basking it in an admittedly beautiful shade of light orange, Azula is heading towards the the training grounds, where her father awaits her most recent performance displaying her progress.
Unfortunately for her, a certain group of turtleducks, along with the very familiar voice of her mother, catch her attention for a split second, but just enough to imprint the image in her mind. Her eyes narrow, and her fists tighten.
Zuko is, as always, feeding the stupid animals in the pond next to their mother. A smile plastered on both their faces, as they laugh and talk about unimportant things. Against her better judgement, Azula lets the pang on her heart to linger for longer than usual. She has blurry memories of a time where she would form part of that little group, a time before her bending emerged and their family resembled what the definition of the word entailed.
Of course, those times are gone, and Azula has a duty to perform. A destiny to fulfill. She has no time for sentimentality nor longing for useless things such as family anymore. She has power and wealth beyond anyone else, and she'll use it to bring the Fire Nation to glory by winning this war.
With a shake of her head, and a deep breath, Azula composes her features enough, before she strides with her usual air of nobility towards the entrance leading to the training grounds.
Two royal guards stand on each side of the fiery curtains, sporting the symbol of their element. Paying them no attention, she goes through them, mentally going over her routine. Every simple movement, hammered to perfection, going through her mind as one bead of sweat rides her forehead before dropping to her right cheek.
Maintaining her air of confidence, she kneels before the sitting form of her father, body glistening with sweat, most likely finishing his own training. The fire surrounding the arena imposingly roars higher and higher, until it settles into its usual magnitude.
A smile rides her father's face, eager to observe the leaps her daughter has achieved this past month, knowing she would never dare disappoint him, unless risking unleashing his wrath. "Ah, Azula." Her father starts as he leans forward, anticipation in his eyes. "I trust your training has been going smoothly. Master Kunyo has nothing but praise for you and your talent. Unlike your disgrace for a brother, I know you would never dare disappoint the expectations placed on you by being born into this family."
Azula raises her head with a smirk of confidence. "Of course Father, I have continuously raised over any obstacle and trial placed upon me, and I intend to continue. Soon enough, there will be no doubt who truly deserves the title of your heir." She stands, sweat pooling on her head, as she quickly retraces every step from her performance.
"Very well" he leans back, scowl back in his face as he makes a signal with his right hand. "You may begin."
Everything was going well so far. Aside from that slight inconvenience of having to witness the other two members of her family, everything was shaping up to another gratifying day.
Azula went through every memorized and perfected step. Fire punch here, a kick there, and a leap here for extra flash. Her movements were graceful, yet exerted power and dominance in each blast of heat. Everything was great. She couldn't mess this up. She was going to impress her father once again, and put Zuko and her stupid Mother in their pla-
That was Azula's last thought before her body lands on her side, her arm cushioning the impact with a thud, and a startled noise.
Azula froze in confusion, not knowing what just happened. She could only feel the pain riding her arm, a pulsating burning in her leg and the penetrating gaze from her father.
How could this happen?
Attempting to stand up, Azula quickly realizes her right ankle was the cause of that burning pain.
Azula bit her lip harshly as she stumbled to her feet, weight shifted almost completely to her left leg. She bows down, anxiety clouding her features.
"Father! I-" She starts, but is quickly interrupted.
"Start over." The now furious prince commanded, the fire surrounding them burning higher than before.
Azula stares wide eyed for a second, before she nods and starts over from the beginning.
It isn't long before Azula puts enough weight on her bad ankle and stumbles with a grunt of pain.
"Again." She hears as she scrambles to her feet once more. Dread pooled on her mind as she tried to imagine what her father was thinking. Was he disappointed? Angry? Both?
She shakes her head and wills herself back into her stances. Once again, her ankle screams in agony, and Azula is forced to power through. She bites her lip hard enough to draw blood, stifling any sound of pain that wanted to come out.
This went on for 4 hours.
By the time Azula got through her routine, sweat combined with tears created a small puddle where she was standing, with the taste of iron invading her mouth. Not daring to look at her father in the eye, she bows to one knee, shutting her eyes shut, and clenching her teeth in pain.
Her father remains quiet for what felt like an eternity, with his usual scowl tracing his features. He then stands and makes a move to leave, but not before directing something to Azula.
"Don't dare disappoint me again." He said, leaving Azula as the fire roars once more, before extinguishing, leaving the spacious room quiet, only quiet sobs echoing through its tall roofs.
It is only once Azula's tears dry up that she stands. Cleaning her face with her sleeve, she trains her expressions to her usual ones. She walks out, her puffy eyes clouded, her mind not noticing any of her surroundings.
Walking through the palace required an excruciating amount of effort, as her right ankle began to swell more and more, until her shoes started biting into them.
Not daring to show any more weakness, she lowers her gaze enough to cover her eyes, and walks with as much dignity as she can while trying to hide her limp.
The usually intimidating and increasingly frightening presence of the princess was gone, with the palace staff whispering with each other about what could've happened. Once again, Azula felt that pull to cry, but quickly bites her lip again to suffocate it.
Her pace quickens, trying to get to her room before anymore of those peasants dare look at her current form. If she allows her image to be tainted more than it already is, she's sure her father wouldn't think twice of banishing her. Or worse.
She is relatively successful, as she reaches for the door of her room, until someone calls out to her.
Ursa couldn't believe what she was hearing. Walking through the palace halls usually meant a quiet stroll accompanied by the occasional voices of one of the servants or magistrates who have business with the Fire Lord.
But today, the voices were louder. The whispers heard throughout were laced with fear and apprehension. The tension in the air was palpable, with gazes refusing to meet her own as she made her way towards one of her children's rooms. It was unusual for Azula to head straight there after her usual firebending demonstrations. Typically, she would head straight to the courtyard, where Zuko usually was, to boast about how much their father praised her and not him. It was these usual occurrences that lead to the increasingly frequent scolding she felt forced to impart to Azula.
Throughout the past couple of years, she has felt her relationship with her only daughter deteriorating quickly. Ever since her husband took her under his wing, her personality was starting to become terrifyingly close to that of her father. She felt lost, not knowing how to protect her daughter from becoming a monster like Ozai. But there was only so much she could do against the authority of the a prince of the Fire Nation. She was forced to sit idly, as she watched the daughter she loved so much turn into such a ruthless and mean spirited girl.
Her mind was troubled by these thoughts as she doubled a corner into the hallway where Azula's room resided. It is there that she spots a small figure limping and sobbing, heading towards the room. Quickly recognizing her as her daughter, she rushes forward. "Azula!"
"Azula!" she hears behind her. The voice clearly belonging to her mother as she freezes in panic.
Not wanting to face her mother she quickly opens the door and attempts to shut it behind her, but the quicker hands of her mother grab her by one arm and turn her around.
Studying her daughter's face, Ursa's expression turns from concern to that of shock.
"Azula! What happened to you?!" Her mother said, as she looked at her completely, noticing the blood in her mouth.
Confusing her mother's tone of concern to that of reprimand she shakes herself free from her grasp and pushes her before locking herself in her room.
She limped to her bed and buried her face on her pillow, letting all the bottled screams she managed to hold so far to be drowned into the soft fabric, with her tears quickly staining it. She hears noise coming from outside her door. Her mother most likely. She ignores it until they stop after a while.
She stays like that for who knows how long, until she sees the full moon shining directly into her room.
She stands up, and limps towards her window. Her ankle feeling unbelievably tight in her shoes, Azula feels tears once again coming out, and now, in the solace of her room, she lets them fall freely to the ground.
She disappointed her father, and her mother loves Zuko more than her. She feels alone. She feels tired. She wants to run away but knows she can't. She thinks how Zuko, despite being inferior to her, has more than what she has. Clenching her fists, she slams them with a bout of fire to her window, smashing it to pieces. She aims next towards the wall before a sound startles her. Looking for the source, she scans the gardens just outside her room, with the moon barely allowing her to see past some of the foliage.
Not seeing anything, she starts turning around until a sudden movement catches her attention.
Once again, she looks, now focusing in the area she felt the movement come from.
Nothing again.
She feels her frustration growing, thinking her mind might be playing tricks on her, as if mocking her.
Wishing to prove it wrong, she jumps out of the window, grimacing in pain as she tries to avoid putting weight in her ankle.
Thinking it could be some sort of intruder, her eyes perk up in slight anticipation. With everything that happened, she knows scorching someone into an inch of their lives would help ease here frustrations. Even with one working foot, she believes she could take a dozen lowly bandits who dare sneak into the palace.
Her mood now risen, she walks gingerly through the garden, heading towards the last spot she noticed the movement. Her steps are quiet and precise, as she ignores the shooting pain from her lower leg.
Now at the spot near one of the bushes, her eyes catch an object glinting with the light of the moon. Going closer to inspect it, she crouches down and picks it up. She holds it so that the moon illuminates its shape. The object was round, like a pouch, with some sort of silver lace holding it closed. Her curiosity gets the better of her and she pulls on the lace, opening the pouch.
Azula starts looking curiously inside, until a massive amount of dust explodes out of it.
'A trap!' She thinks as the dust clouds her senses.
Hearing steps approaching her quickly, Azula starts to run in panic. Her ankle screams in pain, but she ignores it, the adrenaline in her body taking over.
She runs aimlessly, hoping to escape whatever perpetrator wished to take her out. Suddenly, she notices a blade coming directly into her head, as she avoids it with a crouch and sends a powerful jet of fire from her fists towards the figure, but when she expects a shout of pain from the intruder, she never gets it.
The dust starts clearing, as Azula finds herself in a particularly secluded part of the garden, surrounded by thick bushes near one of the walls surrounding the palace.
The moon shines bright as Azula scrambles around, trying to spot any bout of movement that might threaten her. But instead, a figure, holding a curved, long blade, with its tip held towards the ground at an angle, walks slowly up to her.
Azula recognizes the stance and getup. She has secretly seen her father deal with assassins before, whether it's hiring them, or fighting them. And right in front of her, the moon highlighted the completely black garb, paired with a mask that covered everything but the eyes. She readies into one of her stances.
"Who sent you?!" She asks, trying to appear as tall and intimidating as she can, ignoring the way her legs are shaking and her voice quivers. Of course, this doesn't work, as there is only so much a 9 year old girl can do to appear intimidating, not to mention her voice is still squeaky and childish.
The assassin doesn't bother answering as they prepare another attack towards the princess.
Azula attempts to counter by shooting fire from her fists and kicking a jet of fire in a wide slash, but the assassin dodges by through the blasts, and somersaults skillfully under the fire kick.
The gap between them quickly closes, and Azula can't help but panic at this. Her fire starts coming desperately out of her three working limbs, but they are all dodged or countered. With one last stand, Azula settles into a crouching stance, legs far apart, as she connects her index and middle finger from one hand with the other's.
Azula has seen her father produce lightning before, as she vowed to become the youngest to ever produce it. But every attempt so far has been a complete failure. Her last attempt ended with an explosion in her face, and her being slammed to a wall, so she refrained from it until her firebending had gotten stronger.
But now is her last chance to try it, for if she fails, she'll die at the hands of some scum assassin, most likely sent by one of the nobles trying to undermine her father.
She moves her arms in circular motion, separating the energies within her body. Her body hurt along with her swollen ankle, but she knew her stance couldn't falter. She slowly starts feeling the surge of energy pooling in her body, trailing her arms, and settling in her fingertips. She has gotten here before, so now the only thing left is concentrate it enough so that the pull of the energies becomes lightning.
But as she fails to notice the spark of electricity she feels her heart hammer in her chest, as her mind starts filling with doubt. The assassin stands a couple of meters away from running their blade through her body. Closing her eyes, she starts moving her left hand towards her incoming killer, banking her last hopes of surviving into this final chance.
Azula's eyes open in surprise, as the assassin is thrown to one of the walls by a giant torrent of water.
Her concentration broken, Azula falls to the ground, her eyes focusing on an approaching figure, as they produce a movement from their arms and blast the assassin with more water.
Regaining some of her bearings, Azula realized that she could run away, alert her father of an intruder and that would be end of it. But as she stares into the striking blue eyes from her mysterious savior, the moon making them almost sparkle, she finds herself incapable of moving.
'But how could a waterbender be here… And why are they helping me?' Azula thinks as the figure in front of her challenged all of the things she's heard of the war and the peasants who fight it from the other nations.
But her thinking is quickly interrupted, as the assassin stirs to their feet and rushes towards the waterbender. They make to slash towards him, as she noticed the waterbender to be a boy, but he deflects the strike with quick swipe of their arms, generating a diagonal streak of ice in the path of the blade.
The battle goes on like this, with the assassin aiming to end the boys life with one slash, while the other uses his waterbending to deflect or push the assassin back. Azula finds herself mesmerized by the boys movements, as if he's moving along with the water rather than controlling it. If she didn't know any better, she wouldn't have noticed how the assassin was gaining ground on him, as each strike of the blade shattered the boys balance.
The sound of metal striking ice resonates through the night sky, the temperature dropping as freezing water started splashing around Azula. Her eyes remained trained to the fight, with the assassin delivering what seemed to be the decisive strikes. Fear clouds her eyes knowing that once the boy dies, she would be next. She tries to firebend, but her hands felt freezing and her legs to weak to move. She looks around her, trying to find something, anything she could use.
But it's too late, with a resounding shatter, the boy loses his balance and falls in his back. The assassin stands back before rushing towards the fallen waterbender. She wants to close her eyes, not wanting to see the bloody spectacle that would follow, but her eyes remained focused.
The boy scurries backwards, panic set in his eyes, he feels his death quickly coming, until his hand lands on a ledge. He turns around and finds himself staring at his distorted reflection, as the pond he was drawing water starts shaking in turbulence. Azula sees the approaching blade as the assassin looked to strike directly at the boy's heart.
But then, as quick as blade itself, the boy screams as he pulls all the water from the pond and traps both inside a what seemed like a spinning ball of water. Azula looks in amazement as the assassin is dragged mercilessly around the sphere, with the boy right in the center of it, seemingly bending the water around them. It was the first time Azula has been left speechless by another's bending.
Once the figure of the assassin flowed limply around the water did the boy finally let go of the sphere, both landing on the ground. He looked exhausted, as he fell to his knees and put his hands on the ground. His panting is the only thing Azula hears.
Realizing the fight was finally over, Azula finds herself not knowing what to think. For one she is grateful that the boy saved her from the assassin. On the other hand, she feels angry that some waterbender managed to defeat someone she couldn't. She was supposed to be a prodigy, the future of the Firenation, and she allowed a peasant to one up her with seemingly better control of their element. Her fingers curl, and her jaw clenches in frustration that she doesn't notice the boy no longer being in the ground and rather approaching her.
Azula lets her mind drift in frustration until a shadow stands in front of her. She looks up in surprise, and finds the same blue eyes that just managed to defeat one of the Fire Nations best trained assassins looking down at her with concern, a small smile adorning his features.
The boy looked to be about her age, a year older at most. He had a darker complexion, not quite what she's seen from waterbender prisoners, but in a way resembling those of the Fire Nation. His hair was drenched but noticeably black, with the light of the moon giving it an almost dark blue glow. She's pulled from her thoughts as the boy crouches and takes her hand in his. Azula almost feels like pulling away but, for some reason, she finds herself unable to move as the blue eyes in front of her stare into her golden eyes.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked her.