Anger bled strongly through many firebenders' hearts; it was the source of their power, and the angrier they were, the stronger their flames. Other firebenders were not powered through anger, but through fear and anxiety; it was not the most effective way to power one's bending, but it had merit, especially when defending and in a panic. There was another way as well, that being love and devotion; though it wasn't the kind of drive usually listed in manuals as being the best, it was surprisingly useful, especially to the soldiers of the Fire Nation; they loved their nation, and fought hard for it, and many had died for it.

Love could also be a weakness, and that was something that her father had emphasised to her. She knew that her bending was strong, and it had always been so, but now, she lacked much of a drive to fight. Azula seemed to lack much of anything now, and as much as she droned over how she could use her bending to escape the terrible situation she had found herself in, she was beginning to accept that it was going to be a lot harder than that. She did not know where her father was, but she couldn't imagine he was faring that well, given her own condition.

She was shackled and chained to a wall in some recess of the palace's dungeon, where she had been kept for some time; she didn't know how long it had been, given the lack of light, but she guessed it had been a few days, given how many times she had been given food, which was a challenge to consume, given her hands were bound. Her hair was ragged and covering her face, and she was unable to tend to it as her hands couldn't reach it; it infuriated her, and as much as she wanted to be perfect, she was forced to accept her presumably hideous appearance.

For all she knew, she could be there for many more days, and as much as she wanted to shout at the guards to free her, she knew that wouldn't do much good. She had already done that for hours on end, to no avail; she had threatened their lives, their families, and proclaimed them cowards, yet they didn't dare to free her. They were clearly more afraid of someone else than they were of her; the Avatar, the whole reason she was chained up in a dark cell, had been the one to defeat her, with the help of his peasant friends, when they arrived at her palace.

It was a surprise to think of it as such, but it was her palace now, given that she had been crowned Fire Lord before the dirty foreigners came to fight her; her father had given her the title when he left the capital, on his way to finally destroy the Earth Kingdom for their rebellions against his rule, and she had expected for him to return and for there to be great celebrations, coinciding with the return of Sozin's Comet. She had instead received the Avatar, who had arrived on one of the very airships her father had built to rain fire on the Earth Kingdom.

It infuriated her that he had been defeated so savagely, and though she feared for her father's life, she had other things to worry about, such as the fact she was in a cell. The Fire Lord was not meant to ever fall to the position of being a prisoner within the walls of their own palace, and it disgusted her that she had been so weak to be defeated by a mere child. He had mastered all four elements within the span of year, and had somehow figured out how to access the Avatar State in that span of time too, which she was sure was nigh impossible; most Avatars, from what she had heard, only mastered it once they were mature and wise enough to handle such power, but it seemed that a twelve-year-old was somehow worthy enough to achieve that.

Her abilities were no match for his when he had that power on his side, and though she had fought valiantly, attempting to shoot him multiple times with lightning, she was amazed to see that in that state, he could redirect her lightning away into the sky, like how firebenders usually bent fire. It was so impossible, yet so real; she couldn't doubt that the battle had occurred, because the cold stone floor beneath her was real proof of it. Her life had been thrown upside down, when she ought to have been lauded for her coronation, and begun a hopefully long and prosperous reign over her nation.

She knew that she could have run from him, and tried to resist by having her countrymen rise up against him and his friends, but she had been arrogant enough to try and face him with only the help of her Imperial Firebenders; she remembered the pleading cries of Ty Lee, who had asked her again and again to leave the palace with her, instead of preparing to face the Avatar, who she knew would be coming because of a messenger hawk that told her of her father's defeat. Her friend ran off, and she hated her for it; she was all alone when she stood there, facing off against a boy who channelled the power of a god, and now, she was stuck with nobody to talk to, let alone command.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, she missed her friend; Ty Lee had been the one person she could have trusted to stay by her side, and in the face of overwhelming odds, she wanted to run. Run away again, like she had to the circus, and that angered her; the lack of guts she had had left Azula all alone in that cell, and though she doubted they would have been stuck together if she had too been imprisoned, she couldn't help but feel jealous knowing her friend was walking free.

Her chain of thought was broken when she heard the door open of the dungeon, and she jutted her head up, realising how much her neck ached from the position she had been sitting in; she turned her gaze around toward that door, and noticed a silhouette entering the dungeon. She wasn't helped by the darkness in identifying her new visitor; she guessed that they were just another servant, either there to give her food or maybe to have the honour of cleaning her. She certainly wanted her hair fixed up, so she anticipated that event whenever it came around.

The silhouette moved to stand in front of her cell, and she could tell from the frame of their body that they were an adult male, and presumably a soldier; she squinted at him, unsure who he was, or why he was there, but she could tell that he wasn't going to be friendly.

"Who are you?" she asked, before raising her chin up, "Are you here to drag me to a nicer cell?" she asked, genuinely hoping that she would receive some better accommodation, more fitting of her role as the Fire Lord; she was actually unsure if the Avatar and his cronies recognised her position, though she knew they didn't have any alternatives.

"No." he responded coldly, "I am here to make sure you don't escape while you are interrogated." he explained, and she scoffed.

"Oh, somebody's going to interrogate me?" she questioned him back, doubting that they could break her; she was afraid of the Avatar, that was for sure, but she wasn't going to give up intelligence to some random 'tough guys'.

"That wasn't a joke." he confirmed, before he moved to unlock the cell; before he opened the cell-door, he turned around to face the doorway, out of which she could see a glimmer of light, "Come on men. We need to take her to the room." he gave an order, and the door was suddenly pushed wide open; she closed her eyes shut, finding the sudden brightness to be overwhelming.

When she opened them, she was finally able to see properly, and identified the soldier and his comrades immediately; they were Earth Kingdom fighters, and she recognised their specific attire from a few weeks prior. The Day of the Black Sun, when the Avatar and all his allies had attempted to invade the capital and defeat her father; they had utterly failed, and their forces had been captured, and the men before her were without a doubt part of that group.

They probably didn't like her very much, given the role she had played in making sure her father's will was undertaken, and that the prisoners were reminded of their place. The speech she had given that afternoon, one of triumph and victory over the weak and pitiful forces of the other nation, was in stark contrast to her present situation, where those 'weak and pitiful forces' were literally about to drag her to some interrogation session.

She saw the suspicious looks in their eyes, though she was a little surprised to see that they didn't seem afraid; perhaps they thought that their numbers would keep them safe. It turned out that wasn't the case, as she felt the ground rumbling underneath her; the floor of the cell broke apart beneath her feet, and she scrambled around, trying to find her footing, before her feet were ensnared by earth.

She grit her teeth, and considered breathing out a fire stream just to teach them some manners, but held her tongue, knowing that would only incite a violent response that she would not be able to face, given her compromised position. She turned her head around, realising that the chain had been pulled from the wall, and was bound into the mass of earth she was sitting on. She watched with suspicion as the earthbenders surrounded her, standing in form, ready to attack if she responded as she might have wanted to.

"Are you ready to cooperate?" their leader asked her, and she raised her chin up, eyeing the man, whose formidable appearance, tall and wide-shouldered, which might have intimidated others, did nothing but make her consider what they were feeding their prisoners for him to be as strong as he was.

"For what?" she questioned, "I'll just end right back in here when you're done with me." she guessed what would be the most likely turn of events.

"If you cooperate, you won't end up in this cell." he warned her, chiding her like a child; though the man was clearly a lot older than her, she found it more than patronising.

"I am the Fire Lord." she snarled at him, "I will not be talked-down to by the likes of you."

"You are lucky to have your bending." the man warned her, and her eyes widened for a moment, having to comprehend what he just said.

"My..." she mumbled, "What does that even mean?!" she furiously questioned him, not happy to be told things that made no sense to her; she was usually one step ahead of everyone, but now, she was the one who knew nothing about her circumstances and what would come next.

"Tyro, she doesn't know." one of the earthbenders warned his leader, who turned his eyes toward Azula; she grit her teeth, wanting an answer at once.

"Tell me now!" she demanded, and he crossed his arms, looking at her with a cold, though not displeased expression.

"The 'Phoenix King' lost his bending. He won't be bothering anyone else ever again." he explained, before pointing a finger toward her sternum, "If you don't cooperate, the Avatar might take yours."

"M-my..." she mumbled, before she tensed up her legs, ready to rip them out of their earthen bindings so she could break the man's ribs and get through the cell door; she would not lose her bending, the thing that was most precious to her, even more than her throne, "Over my dead body!" she shouted at them furiously, before letting out a fire stream from her mouth, which filled the room with a bright blue light; she saw the fear in their eyes, and let herself smile as she realised that she had a chance to break out, even if it was only a sliver of hope- that was enough.

However, her victory only lasted a moment, as she was hammered in the head by something hard, and she fell down flat onto the ground, unable to break her fall with bound hands; she groaned in pain, tasting blood in her mouth as she tried to turn her head and look up at her captors. The leader was looking at her with a disappointed look on his face; she spat blood from her mouth, and snarled at him with defiance.

"He's not taking my bending." she declared her thoughts plainly, "I would rather die."

"Then don't try and burn our faces off again." he suggested, before raising his hands toward his comrades, "We'll just carry her like this." he decided, and she felt the ground below her levitate once more, and her body be fastened in place by rocky binds; she wanted to try and break free again, but her head hurt too much for her to do much.

Resigning to her fate, Azula closed her eyes, and wished that things could have just gone differently; if her lightning bolt had just been a little higher, the Avatar would have died back in Ba Sing Se, and she would be sitting on her throne instead of lying on a malformed composite of floor tiles, ensnared by earthbenders. She wished that the boy had just died then and there, so she could have lived on in peace, and enjoyed the victory her nation had deserved after all its century-long struggle against the other nations.

She knew that she could have done things differently, and treated her duties with a little more dignity rather than trying to find a smart, witty way to abuse her own strengths. People had died on her watch, and even if she didn't regret it, there were many things Azula would have done differently if she had the opportunity to do it all again. It all went back to her father's stupid mission, which became a whole lot more complicated and frustrating than she would have liked.


A call to the throne room of the Fire Lord was something that nobody would take lightly, though out of all people, Crown Princess Azula, the daughter and heir of the man himself, found that she perhaps could be most at ease seeing her father. Even then, his sharp, domineering glare, and the bright hot flames that made him a silhouette were more than enough to make her nervous; she hated the feeling, but she knew that if her father was calling on her to the throne room, then there was only a few possible reasons for her to be there.

The most likely of them was a mission; she had not done much in her official capacity as Crown Princess since she gained the title three years prior, but that didn't mean her father wouldn't give her a task if it was required of her. He trusted her, perhaps more than anyone else, to carry out his will, and she would do it without any hesitation. That was her duty and honour, and she would take pleasure in making sure the Fire Lord's will was enacted with perfection and punctuality.

As she knelt before him, she patiently waited for her father to dispense his will, and wondered what he might command her to do; there were parts of the Earth Kingdom outside of their control, most importantly Ba Sing Se, and she considered that he might want her to go serve her country as her uncle had before her as Crown Prince.

She would take pride in fighting for her nation, and was sure with all the training she had received, honing her bending to the point where she was undefeatable in a duel, that she would be ready to fight on the battlefield. She was young, but she knew that would not stop her father commanding her to do so, knowing that he trusted her strength fully.

"My daughter, I bear... unfortunate news." he spoke with a calm voice, which didn't seem to correlate with what he had just uttered; bad news was not something she liked, though she knew that even the worst situations could be utilised to one's advantage, if they considered them with an astute mind, "An accident has occurred on your brother's ship while it was in port."

Azula's eyes widened for just a moment, not thinking that the news would have anything to do with her disgraced and banished elder brother, Prince Zuko; she hadn't seen him in three years, and from her best knowledge, was presently pursuing the greatest danger to the Fire Nation, the Avatar, the one individual who could wield all four elements, and had powers that made them a direct threat to their plans to unify the four nations under their rule.

"An accident, Father?" she spoke up, unsure what exactly he was referring to with such a vague wording.

"The ship's engine exploded, and there were no survivors." he explained, the Princess's expression falling for just a moment.

He had just told her that her uncle and brother were dead, which was more than a shock to hear; though her brother was undeniably a coward and incompetent at strategy, bending and lacked any wit to speak of, he was still a Prince of the Fire Nation, and her uncle, General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, was the greatest general in Fire Nation history, who despite his failings in Ba Sing Se, was perhaps the only bender stronger than her father and herself, though Fire Lord Ozai would deny that.

Dying in an engine explosion was something she couldn't comprehend as being realistic, and though she didn't exactly benefit from a potential contender to the position of her father's heir being alive, she knew that Zuko couldn't be completely useless. Though she had remained silent for a few moments, she realised that her father expected a comment, and decided to give one as impartial as possible.

"So, Zuko and Uncle are dead." she concluded, turning her gaze up toward her father's silhouette, "Will there be ceremonies?"

"Yes." her father admitted, though he seemed a little hesitant in saying so, "As members of our household, and royalty of the Fire Nation, they are afforded such." he clarified, before his tone shifted, "However, as much as I would like to forget about this incident, my security advisors have suggested that this be properly investigated, in case there is a conspiracy afoot to kill our family." he explained, "So, my daughter, I am entrusting this investigation to you. Your intelligence and wit are something I take great pride in, and I know that you will be able to find out exactly what happened, whether a malicious attack, or a random incident of bad luck."

"What do we know already?" she asked, the Fire Lord raising a hand up to part the flames, revealing his face to her; he was holding a scroll in his right hand, and held it up toward her, gesturing for her to take it.

She stepped forward, kneeling down in respect to her father as she took the scroll into her hand, before she moved back to where she had been kneeling down earlier; she glanced back up toward her father, who gestured for her to unfurl the scroll, and she did just that. She scanned down the scroll, reading its contents, which weren't very detailed, but told her enough.

It was dated to a week prior, where according to the document, her brother's ship had docked in a port on the northwestern coast of the Earth Kingdom. It details the events known to have occured on the ship, which involved a resupply of the vessel, and the requisitioning of the crew for Admiral Zhao's fleet, which at that very moment was invading the Northern Water Tribe.

The scroll indicated that the only casualties aboard were her uncle and brother, as the rest of the men had already left to be distributed amongst the Admiral's fleet. The more interesting part came next, where it detailed the eyewitness accounts of a massive explosion rocking the deck of the ship, which subsequently sank in port.

A few locals found the body of her uncle, General Iroh, lying on a beach near the wreckage soon after; medical examination discerned that he died of suffocation, but there was no sign of her brother, Prince Zuko. He was assumed to have drowned or been incinerated in the explosion, though there was no evidence of either of these; they remained theories, which confused her, given that her father had just told her her brother was dead.

She turned her gaze up toward her father, "This scroll doesn't make it clear if Zuko is dead."

"There was no body." her father told her what she already knew, "However, the explosion was described as being quite large, as you just have read." he raised his hand up, to indicate a small size with his fingers, "There is little chance Zuko survived if Iroh did not." he stressed, "But, the possibility remains. My son has not identified himself, if he is still alive, and given his position and potential injuries, I find that to be a rather weak explanation." he explained his own thoughts on the chances, before gesturing toward Azula, "But what do you think... from what you have read?"

"That my brother may have just faced an assassination attempt. Whether it was successful or not, is unknown." she admitted her thoughts, "I would have to see the site myself to find the truth of the matter."

"And you will, Princess Azula. I want this task dealt with as quickly as possible." he explained, the Princess bowing her head down.

"Of course, Father, I would never fail you." she assured him, and when she looked back up at his face, she realised that he was going to say something else.

"Once you have investigated this matter, I require you to take up the task that your brother has thus far failed to complete. You must capture the Avatar and bring him here, to the Capital so he may be imprisoned, and no longer pose a threat to our nation." he explained with a calm, serious tone, "I doubt he will pose that much of a threat, but the Avatar will enlist the assistance of whatever savages and enemies of our nation he can find."

"I will destroy them." she assured him, "They cannot stand a chance against me."

"I know you will be victorious, and you will take the Avatar into your custody. It is imperative that he does not die." he warned her, "If he is reborn into the Water Tribes, then it may pose a challenge to our forces to apprehend his reincarnation. I do not want to waste the strength of the comet on the cowards hiding in the North Pole, nor the barbarians in the South."

"Do you not believe the Admiral will be successful, Father?" she asked him, knowing that his explanation implied that they wouldn't be in control of the Northern Water Tribe, and thus, unable to apprehend a potential Water Tribe Avatar.

"I trust in the strength of our forces, but there is the chance the enemy could gain the upper hand. Our nation has spent years fighting against savages without ships, or very few of them. The Southern Water Tribe is the only other nation with any kind of navy, and those savages can barely raise enough men to man a single battleship." he clarified the situation, which was more indicative of a lack of expertise rather than incompetence on the Admiral's behalf, "The North has an army of waterbenders ready to sink our ships and freeze our soldiers. An attack of this scale is only comparable to the Siege of Ba Sing Se commanded by my brother; the chance of failure is real, especially if the men fighting do not have the resolve to complete the siege."

"So, what will you do if he fails?" she dared to ask, knowing that her father would not treat failure lightly.

"The Admiral will face the punishment deserving of an utter failure. He will be stripped of his rank, and we will forget any great deeds he has done for our nation." he explained, before crossing his arms, "He has failed against my cowardly son in a duel, so I have reason to doubt his tenacity."

"What of my brother, Father?" she furthered her questioning, "What if he is alive?"

"Then he will join you, and the Avatar will be yours." he decided, "He may find himself with a new drive if he has survived that attack." he acknowledged, "He cannot fail me again."

She narrowed her eyes, knowing that her father might have been placing too much faith in Zuko; he was a determined individual, she understood that much, but he lacked the same skill and knowledge that she possessed. Perhaps he would be more of a burden to her new task than a help, if he really had survived the attempt on his life.

She couldn't help but smirk at the idea of what might happen to Zuko if he hadn't died, but left all the glory to her. It would be a foolish move on his behalf, but perhaps the most logical, given the threat the Avatar faced to their nation, which she was sure that despite his cowardice, her brother held some loyalty towards it.

"We will see, Father."


Azula did not understand why she was in a tea room of all places, but she was certainly relieved to have been taken out of her stone bindings; servants had come and cleaned up her appearance, and though she had wanted to ask them to do their duty and free her, she knew that would be a fruitless effort, so she remained quiet. Her head still hurt, and she eyed the earthbenders with suspicion; they surrounded the tea room on all sides, and obviously, were expecting her to try and escape. Given her disorientation and her bound hands, she was sure that she would fail if she tried, even if she could try to run with her now unbound feet.

She was still wearing her tattered robes from when she had fought the Avatar, cut and ripped from the shards of earth that had hit her during their one-on-one, along with a few burn marks from his firebending, which she would never admit, was rather impressive for an Avatar from the Air Nomads of all people. As unkempt as her appearance was, she was forced to tolerate it, and even though her hair had been done up, she wished that the servants had gotten her some new robes; of course, to get into fresh clothes, she would need unbound hands, and that was probably something her captors weren't willing to consider.

Her attention was drawn to the doors of the room as she heard them open; she wasn't surprised to see that it was the Avatar and his cronies coming to talk to her, and she turned her eyes away at once, not wanting to give them any of her time. She was still furious over what had happened to her, and how she had been treated, and she would only choose to speak if she could see some reasonable benefit from it; at present, that benefit was lacking, so her lips remained sealed.

"Thanks for getting her out of that cell, Tyro." the Water Tribe girl spoke to the leader of the earthbenders, who nodded at her with a small smile on his face.

"It's no problem... she was pretty agitated, but I can understand why." he admitted, "Perhaps you ought to offer some assurances here, Avatar."

The young Air Nomad nodded, before approaching the table that Azula was sitting at; she refused to look at him, and he eyed her curiously, and the very lack of fear frustrated her. She was meant to be the most powerful firebender alive, yet she was unable to intimidate a mere child anymore; that child might have been insanely powerful, but she was sure he would have remembered she had almost killed him back in Ba Sing Se.

"I'm sorry about wherever you've been staying." he spoke up, and she noted that his regret seemed genuine, "We didn't really know where to put you, because of your bending." he admitted, and she turned her eyes toward him, realising that he had mentioned that on purpose, "I'm not going to take away your bending." he assured her, "I really don't want you to hate us, and I know that will only make things worse."

"At least you're a rational child." she mumbled under her breath, before eyeing his friends, who stood behind him, "What did you do with him?" she asked, knowing that they must have imprisoned her father as well.

"The 'Phoenix King' is locked up in that prison on the edge of the city." the Water Tribe boy answered her question, "He won't ever be leaving there, and without his bending, he won't have much of a chance to."

"How?" she narrowed her eyes at the Avatar, who looked at his friends for a moment, before sighing.

"I learned how to energybend." he explained presumably how he had actually been able to take away her father's bending.

"I have no idea what that is." she bluntly admitted, before turning her eyes toward the door that led out to the garden; it was open, and if she really wanted to, she could run out there, given it was only her hands bound, and with a dislocated wrist, she could probably melt the shackles, even if it burned her arms.

"So..." the Avatar mumbled, before making a small smile, "I hope that we can come to some common ground."

"Common ground?" she mumbled under her breath, still eyeing the garden, "There is no common ground. You want to destroy my nation."

"That's not true." the Water Tribe girl spoke up, "We're here to make sure the war is over, permanently."

"Oh, it is over." she pursed her lips upward, "We won the war."

"Uh... and what do you call this? Winning?" the blind girl asked her, and she chuckled.

"I might be your prisoner, but I doubt the Fire Nation's forces have relinquished control over our rightful conquests, even if you have me locked up here." she explained, and the group looked at eachother with slight confusion.

"That's not true." the Air Nomad boy retorted, "Ba Sing Se is free, and the rest of the Earth Kingdom will be soon enough."

"And how can you stop my loyal soldiers from slaughtering all those peasants who try to take our colonies?" she asked him a rather straight-forward question; the answer was rather obvious to her, though she was unsure if the dimwits before her had gone far enough through their planning to realise the flaw.

"The Council of Ministers has declared an armistice." the Water Tribe boy explained, "So, uh, that's how."

"Do you morons know what an armistice is?" she snapped back at him, "Taking the colonies will require violent force. That's called breaking an armistice."

"Uh..." the Avatar mumbled, before turning to face his friend, "Maybe I can just handle this, Sokka."

"Whatever, you explain to the crazy Princess how things are gonna work." he raised his hands up, and she scoffed.

"I am not crazy." she retorted, finding such a claim to be rather offensive; she was sound of mind, and completely focused on her goal of attaining freedom, and after that, she would ensure that her nation would not fall to the hands of savages.

"Uh, so, we want you to make a peace treaty with the Earth Kingdom." the Avatar explained their plan, and she immediately looked away.

"It's not happening. The Earth Kingdom doesn't exist."

"That's just- the Earth Kingdom's right there on the other side of the sea!" the Avatar shouted at her, clearly frustrated by her comments.

"And do they have any functioning government or state structure?" she asked them, knowing her politics well enough; the Earth Kingdom's last vestiges of government had been destroyed when she took over Ba Sing Se- even if the Dai Li were allowed to retain their authority there, that did not mean that the Earth Kingdom continued to exist.

She furrowed a brow for a moment, remembering that the Dai Li were still loyal to her; though they had fought to protect the palace from the Avatar alongside her, they were defeated. Where they were now, she had no idea, but the thought that they could come and free her from prison was enticing enough to make her smirk.

"Well, the Earth Kingdom will have a proper government soon enough. The Order of the White Lotus freed the Council of Five from house arrest, and the Earth King is probably coming back to his city as we speak." the Water Tribe boy explained what had happened in the city with a little more detail.

She had not heard about this 'Order of the White Lotus' before, but she assumed that they were some insurgency or conspiratorial faction working against her nation; her mind returned back to what the Avatar had actually asked her to do, and she raised her chin up.

"I'm not making a peace treaty with a country that can't govern itself." she declared her thoughts as clearly as she could, and the Avatar's group didn't seem to appreciate that in the slightest, "And I'm not doing anything you say unless you take these bindings off my hands."

"Yeah, we're not doing that." the earthbender warned her, "You're a danger to everyone here."

"Oh, I'm glad you all know that." she smirked at them, not wanting to let down her visage of confidence, "Forget about me for a moment." suggested, glancing around the room to eye the earthbenders who were ready to attack her on a moment's notice, "Do you really think my nation will accept your terms?"

"The Fire Nation will understand the truth soon enough." the Water Tribe girl spoke up, "The war was never a good thing, for any of the nations. The sooner you all realise that, the sooner we can have peace."

"I seriously doubt that's going to occur. Peace is possible, that is true, but what you seek is subordination." she warned them, "You want us to be your equals, and we are not. I am not."

"This isn't going anywhere." the blind girl spoke up, stepping toward Azula, "Should we just keep her in that room until she gives up?"

"That's dumb." the Avatar retorted, "She won't just give up. We need to make a deal."

"Actually, you're right, Aang." the Water Tribe boy agreed with him, stepping closer to the table to eye Azula, "Remember what you said, back on the Day of the Black Sun?"

She blinked a few times, before she recalled what he was referring to; the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, who she knew was an ally of the Avatar and his group, had told her about them, and proclaimed that they would save them once they found out about where they were. Of course, she had sent them to prisons they couldn't access easily, one of which was the most inescapable prison in the Fire Nation, the Boiling Rock.

"Oh, the girl... I can't remember her name." she referred to who he was speaking about, "You want her freed? Do you even know where she is?" she prodded him, sure that he didn't, given the records about imprisonment weren't something that would be freely available, even if they could strongarm the ministers into doing their bidding.

"No, but you do." he told her the fact of the matter, "And I'd guess you'd know where my father is too. He wasn't with the other prisoners."

"I do." she admitted the truth, knowing she could exploit it, "If I free these prisoners, and ensure their safe passage here, what do I get out of that?"

"An actual room to stay in. You won't have to have your hands bound. We can... cooperate." the Avatar decided for his group, "And please... just consider a treaty. There's no other way peace will come between the Four Nations."

She turned her eyes away, knowing that if she gave up her nation's strength, then she'd cripple their future chances against the other nations. That was an unacceptable outcome, so Azula knew that she would have to abuse the treaty process as much as possible to get a favourable outcome. Threatening the other nations with sanctions and tariffs might be enough to get them to fall in line.

Even if the Avatar could be as forward to force her to give up the colonies, he certainly couldn't stop her from closing her nation's markets from those of the poorer, weaker nations. That'd just be stupid, given it went against the principle the Avatar was meant to stand on; balance between the Four Nations was presumably based upon territorial integrity and peace, not how wealthy or strong each of the nations were.

"If my ministers and myself are able to have a say in the treaty process, then I will agree to a treaty. If you force something upon us, I will find a way to break out of my internment, and I will make sure to finish my father's job. You are not a tyrant or a ruler; you are a child." she warned the Avatar, "I will not succumb to your demands, and neither will my nation."

He seemed a little unnerved by her comments, and gulped in fear, before nodding, seeming to accept her proposition, "I think that's fair." he admitted, before narrowing his eyes, "Could we get you some paper?"

"For the orders?" she asked, and he and the Water Tribe boy nodded; she nodded in return, and they turned around to face their friends.

"Well, we need to go get some paper, a seal. That kind of stuff." the Water Tribesman noted, and Azula tilted her head toward the door.

"Go speak with the Royal Scribes. They have everything you need." she explained, before glancing down, "I would do that myself, but as you can see, I am a prisoner, not the ruler of this palace."

The group seemed to cringe at her comment, and the Avatar nodded, "Thanks." he simply acknowledged her words, and she let out a snicker, finding it absurd that she'd reached a point where the Avatar would be thanking her for anything other than not killing him back in Ba Sing Se, which he notably hadn't mentioned at any point.

"What's so funny?" the blind girl asked her, and she simply shrugged her shoulders, before eyeing the garden.

"Oh, that he didn't get rid of my bending." she admitted honestly, eyeing Aang, "I tried to kill you. Did you forget that?"

"No." he narrowed his eyes at her, not seeming afraid of her, despite that fact, "But I know you won't do it again... because you know what will happen." he warned her, and she raised her chin up.

"I do." she confirmed, "You forget too quickly... or are you forgiving me? Are you really that pitiful?" she questioned him, just wanting to try and shake that serious look on his face; offend him, scare him, it didn't matter- she just wanted a reaction.

"I don't forgive you." Aang admitted, his tone suggesting that wasn't a lie to try and intimidate her, and the smile that followed only confused her further, "But I hope I can."

"You're a fool." she snarled at him, before sighing, "But neither of us have much of a choice here, do we?"

"You could just give up." the Water Tribe girl suggested, and Azula scoffed, before glancing back out to the garden.

She knew why not to give up, and why to remain focused on her destiny; she was carving it for herself, no matter the threats the Avatar could level at her.

"No, I don't think I will." she refused her suggestion, "Could I go out into the gardens?" she asked them, glancing at the earthbenders who surrounded them, "I haven't been outside in... well, I actually don't know how long it was."

"Three days." the Water Tribe boy clarified, before turning to face the Avatar, "Are you gonna let her out there?"

"Tyro and his earthbenders can stop her from escaping." he assured him, suggesting that he would actually let her go outside.

"Why do you want to go out there anyway?" the blind girl asked, "You can't escape." she warned her, and Azula shrugged her shoulders aloofly.

"Well, I could try." she admitted the truth, knowing that it would be foolish to try when the Avatar was anywhere nearby, and she was lacking her strength, "I want to go see the turtle ducks." she explained, making the Water Tribe boy snort, clearly amused by her desire.

"The- you've got to be joking." he scoffed, before he elbowed the blind girl, "Ducks!" he exclaimed, "The crazy Princess wants to look at ducks."

"Why?" the Avatar decided to press the question, and she stared him down, remembering why the turtle ducks were important to her; they reminded her of why she was 'the monster', and he was 'the good one', and what little that had done to help their fates- her mother was a fool, that much was certain.

Being good didn't ever do her brother much, and now, she was the Fire Lord, so she could gloat, even if he wasn't there to see her crowned. Being good had only done the Avatar anything because he was the most powerful person alive; she knew that the strong and intelligent were worthy of victory by their inherent virtue, and somehow, despite the odds against her, she could attain that victory over the fools that stood in front of her.

"Because I won."


Princess Azula didn't like walking around in a poor, remote port in the Northern Earth Kingdom, but she had to get to the truth of things. Though she doubted her brother was dead, she had nothing to prove her theory other than the lack of a body in the report her father gave her. The locals were less than helpful, only giving eyewitness reports of the explosion that had rocked her brother's ship; it was said to have had its whole deck blown apart, and the superstructure burnt for hours. That didn't, however, tell her anything about her brother being alive.

From the local Fire Nation military base, she was able to see what had been retrieved from the ship by the first responders; they had picked out mostly clothes, armour, and fragments of scrolls and fabric that could be found in the wreckage. None of these things told her if her brother was still alive, nor who was responsible for the explosion.

Azula was under the presumption that her brother would be in hiding; as a Prince of the Fire Nation, he was afforded the same kinds of privileges as herself, even if he wasn't allowed to return to the homeland. Therefore, it made very little sense for him to hide unless he believed his life was in danger. So, she decided to take another route, going to the records room of the base, where the local soldiers would have taken note of any events of concern. All she had to do was look through the past two months since the explosion, and it only took her a few minutes to find some records of interest.

"A massacre." she uttered the thing the most interesting record concerned; Azula's morbid curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to take that record with her to the office of the local commanding officer, Major Washi, who had been eager to let her look through the collection of debris his soldiers had retrieved.

Walking the halls of the base, she was eyed with awe and fear by the soldiers, who all moved out of her way to let her pass whenever she came through, flanked by a pair of Imperial Firebenders at every moment. When she reached the Major's office, she didn't bother to knock, knowing that her rank gave her a reason to interrupt him whenever she pleased.

"Major." she addressed the man behind the desk, who immediately rose upon her entry.

"Princess Azula. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Not exactly." she conceded, pulling out the record to let him see it, "I want the eyewitnesses of this report." she made her demands clear, and he narrowed his eyes on the document.

"Oh... the massacre from a few weeks back." he observed, he acknowledged, "I believe it was down in the civilian docks. From what my men told me, it had the look of a gang feud. No survivors, all of them killed by firebending and blades."

"Do you know what organisations operate in this town, Major?" she got straight to the point, knowing that if she could figure out the cause of the massacre, then perhaps she could figure if it had something to do with her brother, whose ship had exploded only two nights prior.

"I've heard of small groups of thieves being apprehended, or fences being caught red-handed, but that's all I know of. Nothing too big... but the big ones are better at hiding." Washi conceded, and she turned her gaze away, finding his gang feud theory to be rather lacking.

"This says there were fifteen bodies, and all of them were armed." she observed, "These men had to be lowlifes, but that's nothing to say of their killers." she noted, before glancing back towards the doorway, "I need to speak with those eyewitnesses at once."

"Of course, your highness." he nodded, before stepping away from his desk, "I am just a little unsure what this could have to do with the tragedy that befell your uncle and brother." he observed the apparent lack of connection between the two events.

"I need to know what kind of men were killed... a ship being blown up and a massacre happening within a week at the same port is suspicious to say the least." she gave her thoughts as the Major approached the doorway; he pushed it open, and shouted out into the hallway.

"Somebody get Lieutenant Masao and Sergeant Jun here, right now!" he commanded, and Azula stepped over to the doorway, knowing that it would be faster if she was just led to said men.

"No, take me to them." she spoke up, and a few soldiers looked towards her and the Major, before one stepped forward.

"I know where they are." he declared, "They're on patrol in the market." he explained, and she nodded, before snapping her finger to get the guards' attention.

"Let's go." she simply commanded her Imperial Firebenders, who followed after her as she paced back towards the entrance of the base, which to her luck, was rather close to the port itself and the market that sat adjacent.

Making her way down the hall, any man who stood in their path immediately got out of the way, and those smart enough bowed in recognition of their Crown Princess; she ignored their cautious, if not fearful looks, and focused on reaching the front door as fast as possible.

Her guards pushed it open for her, allowing Azula to walk out into the courtyard, where some of her other Imperial Firebenders were standing about, waiting for her to depart the relative safety of the base. They didn't need to ask any questions, and simply joined the two guards already with her, following after the Princess as she approached the front gates of the base, where the men standing guard immediately pulled them open for her.

The market stood not too far away, down a short slope, between her and the shoreline, where her ship sat in port. It wasn't the most impressive market she'd seen, but that was good, given the smaller the area, the quicker she'd be able to find the guards she was looking for. She paced down the road towards the market, earning some glances from the locals, who obviously must have been confused about her presence, if they didn't already know about what happened to her brother's ship.

When she reached the edge of the market, she immediately spotted four guards walking on patrol, and hoped that they were the ones she was looking for; they seemed surprised by her approaching them, and stopped their casual investigating as the Princess neared them. She pointed her finger about, and asked them what she needed to ask.

"Are any of you Lieutenant Masao or Sergeant Jun?" she asked, two of the men raising their hands.

"Uh... that's us." one of them clarified, before stepping forward, "Did you require us for something, your highness?"

"You were the ones who filed this report." she pulled out the document that had caught her interest, "About a massacre."

The two men's faces shifted to ones of surprise, "Oh." the man who had addressed her gasped, "You're here about that." he realised, "I thought this would be about General Iroh and Prince Zuko." he conceded, and she shook her head.

"This does not directly concern them, but that is what I am trying to discern." she explained, before stepping closer, "I need a rundown of exactly what you saw at the scene of the crime."

"Um..." the other soldier mumbled, "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else."

"Why?" she asked, and the soldier cleared his throat.

"Well, it's not the kind of thing we'd talk about in front of civilians. This is an investigation by a member of the Royal Family, after all." he explained, and she nodded, seeing the merit in his point; letting random commoners snoop in on their conversation would perhaps compromise whatever information they had, given the presumed association of the murders with organised crime.

The soldiers paced out of the market proper, walking between some stalls to stand by the edge of it, which was surrounded by a grove of woodland, though some parts had been cleared for habitation by the local people. The lack of eavesdroppers seemed to make the soldiers more comfortable as they crossed their arms and glanced at each other.

"So, Masao, who's gonna say what?" one of the soldiers, now revealed as Jun, asked the other, who scrunched his lips up.

"I'll explain it. Add in whatever you think is important." Masao suggested, before sighing as he turned to face the Princess, "We were patrolling around the port on the night of the killings, and we arrived some time after it actually happened. Whatever happened, it must have been quick, and calculated, because nobody reported any screams or shouts." he explained, his nervous tone suggesting he was afraid of whoever was responsible.

"And what about the bodies? How were they killed?" she asked, and Jun cleared his throat before speaking up.

"It looked like some of them were killed with their own weapons... seeing that there was just stray blades laying in their chests." he clarified, "Most of them had cuts or burns. It was all precise- aiming for the neck... but some of them, shit, whoever did it must have had some time."

"Explain." she prodded, wanting more details.

"One of these guys... a skinny fellow wearing skimpy looking clothes, his jaw was nearly ripped off, and his neck was snapped in multiple places. He hadn't just been burnt, the guy was beaten to death." he explained, before shaking his head, "It was all pretty damn gruesome."

"I can imagine." she noted with a finger on her chin, "The report mentioned them being criminals... so, what kind of evidence is there of that?"

"Lots of random stuff on their ship... not organised enough to be actual traders. Probably stole most of it... plus they had a few chests of gold." Masao clarified, his description fitting what she imagined would be a group of pirates, though the fact such a group could exist was a shame to the authority and power of the Fire Navy.

"Hmph, and did the killers steal any of their gold?" she asked, the two men scrunching their lips up.

"Uh... only a bar or two from what we could tell... they might have taken some coins, but we couldn't really tell."

"And what kind of criminals wouldn't take any gold they could get?" she retorted, "This doesn't sound like a gang conflict... this sounds like a targeted attack. A blood feud." she suggested, not really knowing much about such conflicts, but having heard about them briefly in her education; they were seen as a great vice of their nation before the state's centralisation, where local nobles would battle each other in petty feuds, usually for rather trivial reasons, though clearly, it was all about power.

"Even then... not stealing the gold was a pretty weird move on the behalf of whoever did this." Jun conceded, "There was a whole lot of it. Masao was telling me he thought they might have ran off before they got the chance to carry it away."

"That's plausible." Azula conceded, before narrowing her eyes, "Is there anything else about these people that you could tell me?"

"Uh... well, some of the gold was really fresh." Masao conceded, making the Princess narrow her eyes.

"Excuse me?" she asked, unsure what he meant by that use of the word fresh, "Do you mean it had been minted recently?"

"Yes." he confirmed, and the Princess furrowed a brow.

"Fire Nation?" she questioned, knowing that the gold could have come from one of the local Earth Kingdom governments, though that was unlikely, given how thoroughly colonised the part of the Earth Kingdom they were in was.

"Uh, yes. Minted in the fourth year of the reign of his majesty." Masao clarified, indicating that the money had been minted very recently; such a dating meant the gold must have been minted within the past few months, which made it all the more absurd that such gold ended up in the hands of who she presumed to be a group of pirates.

She placed her hands behind her back as she turned around, wondering where such gold could have come from, and why so little of it was stolen, "Do you know what institutions have access to such freshly minted gold, Lieutenant?" she asked him, and he remained quiet for a moment, before responding.

"Not really, your highness. I didn't learn much about monetary policy in school." he conceded, and she chuckled, knowing that it wasn't really in the business of random soldiers to know such things.

"Well, there's public servants, subsidised and government owned businesses, and the military. And out here, there's only one of those that could be exchanging newly minted gold." she came to her conclusion, not needing to state it as the Lieutenant understood which one she was referring to.

"So, they were paid by the Army or Navy." he concluded, "For what?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to figure out." she narrowed her eyes at him, "I don't believe it to be a coincidence that my brother and uncle perish a few days before a gang of crooks with newly minted gold are slaughtered."

Masao and Jun's eyes widened as they seemed to come to the conclusion she had already reached, and the latter glanced around, "Are you saying... the murderers had something to do with the explosion?"

"No, that the pirates did... and that they paid a price for their greed."


Upon realising that her father's office was now her own, Azula felt a little more pride and dignity than she had since she was thrown in a prison cell by the Avatar; even if her hands were no longer bound, she still felt as if she was a prisoner, with Earth Kingdom goons following her every step, instead of the expected Imperial Firebenders, who despite remaining in the palace, seemed to be avoiding her at every opportunity. Whether that was out of fear, or because the Avatar had not wanted them near their ruler, who they might try to free, was unclear to her.

She wasn't there to sign a law into existence, or to look over government reports, as the Fire Lord would be expected to, but instead, was being coerced into signing off on the release of prisoners of war. However, it wasn't the kind of coercion she'd been facing for the past three days, as she was the one to suggest the very thing she was about to do; Azula's desire for a deal out of her present situation outweighed any feelings of shame she had for giving into her enemies. Her choices were limited, and the present one at least offered her a way out of the cell she'd been stuck in.

She had been followed by the Avatar's Water Tribe friend, Sokka, the one that Ty Lee seemed to have a thing for, which amused her slightly, though thinking about her friend only made her feel angry that she had fled from the palace. She didn't know how long it would be until they saw each other again, but she imagined it would be some time, especially if she was afraid of repercussions from her cowardice. As the Fire Lord, she would want nothing more than to punish her for her weakness, but even then, she knew that was pointless, and rather hypocritical, now that she had accepted the fact that the Avatar was there to stay, and could not, in any reasonable fashion, be defeated.

"Okay, here's your stupid office. Are you going to write the orders now?" he asked, and she smirked, before pushing the door open.

"You're all such pushovers." she prodded him, before striding into the office so she could take a seat, formerly her father's, and now her own; it was a big chair, and the desk itself was ornate and rather impressive in size, with a fancy inkwell and a number of documents still sitting there from whenever her father was last in there.

"That wasn't an answer." he narrowed his eyes at her, "And I'm not a pushover." he retorted, making her chuckle.

"Oh, like on the Day of the Black Sun. Your enthusiasm to save your love was oh so admirable." she mocked him, just feeling like she deserved a moment to make him feel a little of the anger and shame that she had been drowning in for days on end.

"Shut up." he snarled at her, hammering a hand into the desk, "Just write the letter." he demanded with as calm a tone as he could muster.

Azula pulled out a piece of paper, and a brush with which she could write the orders they wanted her to give; Sokka stepped up beside her with crossed arms, clearly not in a good mood after her prodding, or perhaps, it was because she had demanded she be able to write in her office, rather than in the tea room she had been dragged to.

"Why did you care so much about writing it here?"

"Because this is my office. I am the Fire Lord." she reminded him of a fact that he might have missed from her dishevelled appearance.

"You must just really get a kick out of annoying people." he observed, before shaking his head, "Just hurry up." he demanded, and the Princess raised her left hand as she began writing the orders she'd be sending to the Warden of the Boiling Rock, who happened to be the uncle of her friend Mai.

She kept it wholly formal, and wrote with the authoritative tone expected of her as the Fire Lord; she did not request, but rather ordered, that those prisoners would be released; however, she quickly ran into a roadblock, "What are their names?"

"You seriously don't know her name?" Sokka scoffed at her, "You spoke about her like you enjoyed prodding her."

"Oh, I did, but that doesn't mean I know her name." she retorted, "What is it?"

"Suki, leader of the Kyoshi Warriors." he clarified, and she wrote that down, 'And Chief Hakoda, of the Southern Water Tribe."

"Chief of, or chief from?" she asked in clarification, knowing that was somewhat relevant to how she'd be writing his name down.

"From." he admitted, rather quietly, and she pursed her lips; perhaps the boy wanted his father to be chief of their whole tribe- if he had an ambitious bone in his body, that'd almost certainly be the case.

She wrote down both names, and detailed perhaps the more important aspect of the letter, that those prisoners were to be freed, clothed and escorted to the Fire Nation Capital as quickly as possible, so that she could fulfil her end of the bargain.

"Should I order an airship to collect them?" she asked, and the Water Tribesman cringed for a moment.

"Uh... we kinda destroyed them all."

Her eyes widened, and she came to the realisation that the Avatar and his cronies were not playing around; when they faced her father, they had taken out their nation's most powerful advantage over the others, though she didn't imagine they would be smart enough to demand the factories be disassembled. If that happened, then perhaps, the Earth Kingdom might actually have a chance if the war restarted due to the conflicts that would inevitably occur over the colonies. She turned her eyes back towards the piece of paper, and decided to add a request that a ship be called to escort the prisoners.

"Was there anything else you wanted?"

"For the Earth Kingdom prisoners to be freed." Sokka decided to ask, and she scoffed.

"No." she flatly refused; if they were going to do an exchange, it would involve prisoners from both sides; she assumed that if Ba Sing Se had fallen, then the local governor along with whatever Dai Li operatives remained there would have been captured and imprisoned.

If she wanted to both retain the loyalty of the Earth Kingdom's former secret police, and that of the soldiers who must have valiantly tried to protect the city, she would need to have them freed and returned to her. There was also the reasonable possibility that the Dai Li would no longer be loyal to her if the Earth King was reinstated on his throne, given that he would likely require their services to deal with dissent within his own country.

"What do you mean no?" he questioned, "We are the ones with all the power here." he retorted, reminding her of the rather compromised position she found herself in.

"Even if you are, I will not agree to an unfair exchange. My freedom is not worth letting all of those people free, not when their lives are worth just as much as those Fire Nation soldiers imprisoned by the Earth Kingdom." she explained herself, at least wanting him to understand her logic before he made any more stupid demands.

"So, you want to do a proper prisoner exchange?" he asked, and she nodded, thinking that would have to occur at some point in the future.

"Yes." she confirmed, before picking up her seal, which must have been carved by the Royal Scribes during her imprisonment, given she was indisputably the Fire Lord with her father's defeat; she eyed it for a few moments, just taking in the fact that she was now the ruler of her nation, after all she had done for it.

She then covered it with the usual red ink, before hammering it down at the bottom of the orders, officiating it as coming from her, the Fire Lord, rather than being a fake letter, or one written by the Council of Ministers.

She then rolled up the scroll, and tied it with a black ribbon, which indicated that it was an order from the Fire Lord personally; she offered it to the Water Tribe boy, who despite his caution, took it quickly, and turned around.

"Do you know where you're going, peasant?" she questioned him, and he turned to face her, seeming a bit miffed by her addressal.

"It's Sokka." he reminded her of his name, "And... no. Where do messenger hawks go from?"

"The coop." she stated the obvious, before gesturing towards the door, "If you follow the hallway outside to the right, all the way to the rear of the palace, you should reach it. It has its own courtyard and a sign. It would be rather hard to miss, unless you're as thick-skulled as I think you are."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "I was the one who destroyed the airships... not Aang." he retorted, before clenching a fist, "So, stop calling me stupid."

"I'll call you what I like, dimwit." she retorted with a smirk, before glancing at the earthbenders that surrounded them, "Are they taking me to my room?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Urgh, I guess so. That was the deal." he conceded, and she rose to her feet, pleased that they weren't liars; they would keep up their end of the bargain, and hopefully, soon enough, she'd have all the freedom and power she deserved.

"Good." she simply expressed her relief, before eyeing the earthbenders, "So, take me." she demanded, "I haven't had a proper wash in days."

"Well, your clothes do look pretty terrible." Sokka observed, making her narrow her eyes.

"Do you forget why they look like this?"

"Yeah, Aang beat the crap out of you, that's why." he recalled, seeming rather proud about his friend's achievement, "Lightning didn't do you much good, did it?" he smugly asked her, and she shook her head, still angry about how she had lost despite her firebending skill.

"Whoever taught him that is more dangerous than the Avatar himself." she warned him, making the Water Tribesman chuckle.

"Yeah, well, good luck finding the guy. We didn't even see his face." he recalled, and the Princess narrowed her eyes, finding it almost suspicious that the Avatar would have learnt from somebody he never even properly knew.

"Some traitor, I assume." she observed what was obvious if somebody who could firebend was willing to train the Avatar.

"Call them what you like. Those firebenders who had the guts to stand against your nation's war against the world, they've got all my respect." he argued, before pacing towards the door, "Make sure she doesn't run off. I'm sure Toph will have a field day hunting her down."

"The earthbending midget?" she scoffed, "I could roll her."

"Oh, well, if you did, Aang would probably just take away your bending." he reminded her of the threat that remained above her, and she tensed up, knowing that she had to play her pieces cautiously if she wanted to get out of her present dilemma with the throne and her bending.

"I wasn't intending to escape. This is my home." she reminded him, before following after him out the door.

The Water Tribesman looked at her for a few moments, seeming to not believe her, before he turned his heels, "I'll go send this letter now." he decided, and paced the way she had told him to; turning her eyes to the men who had been guarding her, or rather, making sure she wasn't a danger to anybody else, she decided she ought to ask.

"Have the servants done up my father's room for me?" she asked, knowing that now she was Fire Lord, she was entitled to the royal chambers; the men looked amongst themselves, not seeming too sure about how to answer, before one of them got the stomach to address her.

"We don't... the Avatar was the one telling the servants what to do." he explained, and the Princess rolled her eyes, before gesturing down the hallway.

"Well, I don't want to stand here all day. Are we going, or what?" she asked them, and the earthbenders just paced ahead, the last of the group stepping up behind the Princess, prodding her into moving.

She remained silent from then on out, following the guards down the long hallway which led back towards the throne room of the palace, which she hadn't visited since her father informed her of the specifics of his plan to destroy what remained of the Earth Kingdom. That day was only a week ago at most, yet it felt like so much longer, with how things had changed since then; she was the Fire Lord now, with nobody to help her but the ministers whom the Avatar had already strong-armed into doing his bidding.

Ozai was gone, rotting away in the Capital Prison, where she imagined he might have imprisoned the Avatar if he'd ever actually been caught alive, the irony of which was slightly amusing, if not for the fact it was her own father locked away. Though she knew she might be able to release him from prison with her authority as Fire Lord, doing so would immediately attract the ire of the Avatar; without his bending, Ozai didn't pose much of a threat to Aang personally, though she realised that as the Fire Lord, he now posed the biggest threat to herself. If her necessary compromises earned her distrust and disdain from the elites of her nation, she knew they might try to have her father released so he could be reinstated as Fire Lord, or to his proclaimed title of 'Phoenix King'.

As much as she trusted and respected her father, she knew that doing his bidding was unreasonable now that the Avatar's power had been thoroughly confirmed; everything Fire Lord Sozin feared had come true, and she couldn't help but feel as if her brother's failure was all the more frustrating. She had never wanted him to become Crown Prince again, but at least, if he had found an opportunity to take the Avatar into custody before he could master the elements and take absolute control of the Avatar State, then the Fire Nation could have remained in its position of absolute power over the world.

She could have one day succeeded her father, if she could retain her position as heir over her brother, and bring about a glorious future for her nation; that was stolen from her by the Avatar, and as much as she wanted to fight and destroy him, she knew such thoughts were irrational, and based on her desires rather than what was necessitated by her circumstances. Now, she walked as a prisoner in her own home, defeated and seething with emotions she had never desired to feel.

As they reached a fork in the hallway, the earthbenders led her to the right, taking her down towards her new quarters, which had belonged to her father, and grandfather before him; she smirked, recalling how dismissive the old man was of her, but yet, she stood now as the Fire Lord. He and her uncle were dead, her father was basically useless, leaving her the undisputed ruler of her nation, no matter if the Avatar loomed over her like a nightmarish demon that a child would scurry under the covers to hide from.

The child who had defeated her was by no means a scary, or even vicious person, but his powers made him more daunting and dangerous than any other person in the world. The men escorting her were nothing in comparison, and she reimagined that they didn't even realise how little she cared for their 'guarding'; she was just playing along with the charade because she knew that would get her what she wanted. To be free from the Avatar would require her to remake her image; she wanted to do as little as possible to gain as much authority and respect as she could, and with the headpiece of the Fire Lord still in her hair, and her name known by all her people, she was already halfway there.

"Here it is." one of the earthbenders gestured to the door ahead of them, "If you try to escape, Toph will track you down, and we'll take you back to that cell." he warned her with serious voice and a glare that matched it; she shrugged her shoulders, and stepped towards the door.

"I'm not an idiot." she retorted, "Now leave me be." she demanded, as she pulled the doors open, revealing that servants were already inside, preparing her bedding and moving her things into the room; they immediately stopped as she entered, and the Princess raised a hand, not wanting them to stop; she wanted things done immediately, so she could actually relax and perhaps for just an afternoon, act as if none of the shocking things that she'd had to deal with had occurred.

"Continue as you were." she ordered them, "I want to have a bath." she clarified her intentions, and a few of the servants glanced at each other, before one of them stood up.

"I'll go get the spa attendants for you, your majesty." she assured her, and the Princess strode into the ensuite bathroom, which just like the Fire Lord's chambers itself, was rather expansive.

She closed the door behind herself, and strode over to the screen where she was meant to undress herself; she did so, sitting herself down on a stool, where she was finally able to remove her tattered robes, and let down her hair. Taking the headpiece out of her hair, she eyed it for a few moments, allowing herself to smile as she saw the rather visible achievement she'd made. She was the Fire Lord, and even if a struggle stood ahead of her, she was going to persevere and achieve what none of her predecessors had. The Fire Nation would be stronger than ever, no matter what treaty they had to follow, because Azula knew how to rule, and that she was obliged to make her country the best it could be.

Taking her hair down, she picked up a brush that sat beside her, in a bucket of various toiletry implements, and ran it through her hair. It was still rather dirty, despite having been done up by some servants before she went to speak with the Avatar; so, she took the time to get the dirt and dust out of it, readying it to be washed. She pulled off the epaulettes which sat over her shoulders, so she could untie her tattered robes, wishing that she could have gotten out of them sooner; being restrained in that cell didn't help her in any regard, and given that most would be too afraid to try and undress her, she didn't blame them for that. She didn't want anyone else doing it, so she felt calm, and for a moment, at peace as she sat there, touching the tender grazes and cuts along her extremities.

With that, she took her robes off, and noted the cuts and grazes she had over her arms and shoulders, telling her how much she had been hurt in the fight with the Avatar; at the time it had been hard to notice the pain when she was knocked out, before being dragged away from the courtyard and to the prison cell she had found herself in. She had survived, and now, she realised she had the opportunity to do the things she mightn't have been able to do if the Avatar had done the smart thing and deposed her on the spot. The Fire Nation would have their Fire Lord, and the world would know her as well as her people already did.