Ozai

He felt a strange sense of calm as rage kept feeding him power, Ozai had always been a proponent of using stronger emotions when fire bending because they were not only easier to maintain during prolonged fights but in a war where every recruit could be used to tip the balance it was far easier to train his soldiers to fight with anger. Some like his brother would say that such a fighting style impeded progress and left firebenders vulnerable but that only applied to those people who couldn't think through their anger.

His brief lapse in concentration cost him another injury as the metal coated fist of the blind girl met his stomach, a wave of fire was his answer to the attack and it had the added benefit of killing those who were trying to surround him or at least most of them.

As dangerous as Azula's pet earthbender was the little girl was hardly a problem when she seemed focused on stopping him from killing more people, not that her efforts worked that well. It was time to start his own counterattack and he could spot a perfect target of opportunity.

Ozai pushed off the ground like a comet leaving a burning trail behind him (maybe he should thank the earthbender before killing her for putting up those walls that kept his palace from burning down) and crashed against a group of rebels that were trying to get into a formation, Piandao may have robbed him of one eye but Ozai would make sure that he killed the future he so wanted for his students.

He would hunt them down, and every one of them would perish in a pyre just like their master. Ozai's only regret was that Piandao wouldn't be able to see him kill all of them. The sudden change in his emotions influenced his fire and on the 'shield' the Fire Lord kept around his form.

His fire started decreasing and that angered him which quickly restored their intensity, the vicious cycle of hatred kept his strength up and one day soon, Ozai would show his brother that his idiot philosophy was a waste of time. Speaking of people who were wasting time, Azula had disappeared from his sight and he couldn't concentrate on finding her while avoiding the desperate and frankly pitiful attempts of her little friends.

He was Ozai! Greatest Fire Lord in history whose realm would encompass every part of the earth and every cloud in the sky! Azula showed how useless she was by waiting for an opening to cowardly stroke against him.

"Azula! Show yourself and fight! Demonstrate that at least some of my blood flows throw your veins! I challenge you-" Ozai wasn't able to finish that sentence as a fistful of dirt entered his mouth. He stopped moving and it took him an embarrassingly three seconds to react to what had happened, his brain refusing to comprehend the amount of disrespect such a thing implied.

Then the calm that had prevailed over his mind as he was full of rage disappeared, broken under the impossible hate he felt at this humiliation. Ozai spat out the dirt, he pulled back the walls of flame that had made him a living sun and looked at the person who had dared to disrespect him.

Smiling widely and with a relaxed stance the blind little girl 'looked' at him as she kept bouncing a stone in her hand "You're lucky I decided to use dirt instead of this or you wouldn't have any teeth left"

"RHAAAGHH!" Ozai roared out his challenge as his world became flame, heavy stomps carried him swiftly towards the earthbender, and just as he was about to reach it he heard it, a sound that was as familiar to him as his own voice but he couldn't see where it came from… the revelation struck him at the same time as his right shoulder was pierced by lightning and his body was wrecked by the energy it was forced to endure.

It had all been part of the plan, maybe not as such but he was sure of it. In every fight, against every rebel, Ozai had to guard himself against attacks that wouldn't kill him but leave him crippled and it all culminated in this attack that now threatened to stop his ascension.

He wouldn't allow it! he was Ozai! OZAI THE GREAT! OZAI THE RULER OF THE WORLD.

The moment he could feel his body again the Fire Lord realized he was on the ground his vision was red and he was sure that it had been only luck or the favor of heaven that kept his remaining eye from bursting from the pressure, his limbs twitched erratically but with every passing moment he regained a bit of control, his fingers twitched with fire burning on the tips before disappearing.

His heart was beating erratically and for moments he felt fear that it would stop as he heard a white noise in his ears followed by the irregular beat, then it calmed. He still had energy, he could still fight, and as long as he could fight he could live!

Ozai only needed to rest for a bit more, he just needed to remain on the floor for a little longer before killing at least one of Azula's friends and making his escape. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't win right now, not with his injuries but he could make it hurt.

"That was awesome! I'm not gonna lie I thought you were lying when you said that you still weren't going all out against me" the hideously cheerful voice of the earthbender came from a few steps away in his blind side "Shame that I couldn't fight him head on but at least I punched him and literally made him taste dirt"

The laugh that followed those words almost made Ozai react but he managed to control himself even as his heart started beating faster. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had been found out as the laughter ceased.

"Get back!" The earthbender's warning was useless Ozai sprang up with a jump and went straight for Azula.

With a fist covered in fire he struck her stomach driving out the air from her lungs and didn't stop until her frontal armor was a broken almost slagged mess, sadly he had commissioned it to be weaved with fire resistant cloth and so is treacherous daughter was unburnt, at least for now.

As satisfying as that was Ozai had to keep moving, he evaded the predictable attacks that came from Azula's minions, despite appearances Ozai knew that the unarmed one was the more dangerous of the two so he ignored the biting sting of the daggers to make sure the idiot one couldn't take away his bending. A ball of fire exploded in front of the acrobat sending her crashing to the ground, her head made a very satisfying noise as it bounced on the dirt and if not for the rising of her chest Ozai would think her dead.

Sadly, it seemed that for all his anger the chi in his body was almost completely depleted he could make at most a few more attacks or maybe even a bolt of lightning but nothing that could kill a prepared opponent. Then he gave a good kick at the girl with the knives sending her to the floor, he knew better than to take out the weapons embedded in his body and as he looked at his downed opponents inspiration struck him.

It had worked once before with Ursa, why shouldn't it work again on Azula?

"Ty Lee!" Azula called out from the floor before spitting out blood, Ozai almost sneered at the show of weakness but he didn't have time, with his remaining useful arm he grabbed the would-be assassin by the throat and squeezed.

"Mai! Let her go!" the earthbender pushed forward but simply putting the girl in the way of her attack caused her to veer off and crash against the wall of earth she had raised.

"If you don't want your little friend to end up like the rest of the charred corpses in the room then you will open a path for me to go" Ozai tried to keep the poise of a ruler that he prided himself on being, but his voice was hoarse and unlike what he wanted them to think even choking the girl was proving too much effort.

"You do something to her and I will show off your corpse from a jagged rock!" the earth rumbled as the earthbender pushed forward but her bravado broke the moment he started putting real pressure on his captive.

"Empty threats, you like Azula are weak! Shackled by feelings that-" Ozai felt a sharp sting on his stomach that turned to agony, there on his belly a needle the size of his arm had punctured deep into his body. He had heard of such wounds before from Azulon, about warriors that wasted aways as their very stomach consumed the organs inside their bodies because of a wound like that.
Ozai tried mightily but what was at first something that he could endure quickly turned worse as the girl pierced him two more times before removing the needle entirely.

He screamed,

Ozai couldn't think, couldn't move, he couldn't even call for help. The girl who was his hostage looked at him disdainfully as she cradled her neck and examined the ugly marks he had left on her skin.

No! NO!

It couldn't end like this!

It shouldn't end like this!

"I'm Ozai! Greatest of all Fire Lords! I can't-" a sword pierced his throat silencing him forever, he could feel himself choking, struggling against the foreign object in his throat and against the blood quickly pooling inside his lungs.

"Die" Azula stood there holding her stomach, arm stretched out with a weapon in hand. His vision started to fade, blurry figures were all he could see, and yet the strange look on Azula's face was all that remained in his mind. No one had ever looked at him like that.

His lungs ached for air, his body called for relief and his mind soon followed the call of darkness.


Azula

There was no hiding the pity she felt for her father, even if he was her enemy, even if he was a terrible father, it was a shame that a firebender like him ended up dying because of a sword but it was better than to have him agonizing on the floor. At least this was faster.

Azula let go of the sword and ran over to look at Ty Lee, it grated her to admit that only when she saw her friend so close to death the princess could admit to herself that she enjoyed Ty Lee's company and she would be sad if she wasn't there anymore.

"Is she going to be alright?" Mai asked softly but that was a mistake as she started coughing quite badly.

"Idiot! Don't speak, did no one ever teach you that you shouldn't talk after you were choked" why the erathbender knew that was a mystery.

"Only Zuko has ever choked me and that was because of sex" every word came out painfully and Mai started violently coughing again after she was finished but there was no hiding the smile on her face.

"I don't even know why I worry, if you can say dumb things like that them you're ok" Toph sounded exasperated but Azula also saw that she had a big grin on her face "Well Princess, not everything went as planned and sadly it doesn't seem that many survived but the rebellion is over, we won"

Azula looked at the burning room, at the unconscious Ty Lee, at Mai's bruised throat, and Toph's burned hands. In comparison, she had received the least amount of punishment Azula should have been happy but it made her feel frustrated instead.

"Yes, it's finally over" Zuko would return, they would marry and Azula would rule with her friends at her side. A glorious future awaited her!

Then she started coughing "We should get out of the smoke, I will grab Ty Lee, Mai you should accompany Toph and see the minister to tell him we won so he can send for Zuko, who's going to need to do something nice for us since we took care of everything while he was playing in the snow"

"Oh yeah! I want a palace of rock near a volcano, I'm sure that I can learn to bend magma too!" trust the earthbender to want dirt but Azula couldn't help but smile at the simplistic outlook of Toph.

Then she also started coughing "ok let's get out of here"

A path opened up and Azula saw the light of her bright future at the end of the road.