Chapter Text
When Azula was young, she still wanted nothing more than to look cool in front of her friends and potential-future-underlings. Mai and Ty Lee were invited to visit Caldera Palace after Azula took a liking to them at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. They were daughters from noble families, so the palace approved. Azula would train them to be her ultimate tools. It helped that they were, reluctantly, amusing.
For example: Zuko tackling Mai into the fountain after Azula set the apple on her head on fire? Priceless. She needed to involve her brother in her playdates more often, if that is what happened.
She hadn’t expected Mai to develop a crush on poor Zuko, but that was fine. Another tool at her disposal to embarrass the them and keep Mai in line. It helped that Ty Lee found the entire affair so cute, making Mai flush and lower her head in shame. Nothing would come of it, after all, so what was the harm?
Zuko watched Azula uneasily. Mom I don’t want to play with her. But she always found a way. Back then, Azula was less focused on tormenting Zuko and more focused on getting what she wanted. In this case, she wanted him to help her break in her new toys. Mai and Ty Lee had to be perfect, after all. Her perfect loyal friends. It would be a shame to discard them and waste their potential, so she had to make sure they knew that she was the smartest, the prettiest, the most powerful. They had yet to disappoint. Ty Lee especially lathered compliments upon her, making Azula preen.
Ursa approved of Azula making friends. Azula was careful never to poke them when her mother was around. She didn’t understand the process of crafting loyal underlings. Her father did – he nodded solemnly and encouraged her when she told him no she isn’t making friends, she is securing ties to noble families, and that was justification enough for constantly asking for Mai and Ty Lee to come over. They weren’t friends. That wasn’t permissible. But allies were.
Ursa disapproved of a lot of things. She hated when Azula spoke sharply, with a twist to her words that would make Ty Lee cry, or when she left gifts on Zuko’s pillow just to make him scream. She didn’t like Azula very much. Whenever Azula repeated what her father had told her about things like power and ambition or court politics, which Azula personally felt were very sensible, her mother was there with a scolding on her tongue telling Azula to get that nonsense out of her head before it poisoned her. Ursa wasn’t very powerful in court. There was a reason for that, and a lesson to be learnt.
While Ursa was babying Zuko and feeding the turtleducks with him, Azula was training. Her instructors were not kind, even to a Fire Princess. Sometimes she watched Zuko with envy and wished she could join in, but that wasn’t allowed. Azula had potential. She had power. She couldn’t waste it by spending time feeding turtleducks, of all things. Not when she had so much work to do to become a firebender worthy of her father’s pride.
Besides, her mother never allowed her around turtleducks. Something about her treating them too roughly.
Azula spent more time spying on people in the palace than she technically should, with her schedule, but she promised herself it wouldn’t take more than an hour each day. If Zuko could have his little Blue Spirit outings he thought were so secret, then she could have her own. She learned a lot of things that way. That the advisors had never liked Lu Ten as second in line to the throne, too soft and kind even for the way his teeth flashed like a dagger in the dark when he smiled. Like that the serving girl in the kitchens had a thing for one of the guards, and isn’t it tragic how that news spilled out and got her fired? She should have been more careful not to let anyone overhear.
When Azula saw her father entering the throne room to meet Fire Lord Azulon after Lu Ten’s death and the collapse of the siege of Ba Sing Se, she followed, creeping behind the curtains.
She told Zuko that their father wanted to kill him not to scare him, but to keep her toy safe. She wasn’t done playing with Zuko yet. Azula didn’t want their father to break him before she was finished.
Ursa saw it another way. She always did.
What is wrong with that child? she whispered, thinking Azula couldn’t hear.
She did. And she remembered.
When Ursa disappeared and Ozai was crowned Fire Lord, Azula didn’t shed a single tear.
Being third in line to the throne was a lot more interesting than being fifth in line but involved a lot more lessons and courtly etiquette. Her mother wasn’t there to press her hands down and tell her quiet hands, princesses don’t wave their hands around excitedly. The Fire Lord declared Azula’s firebending progress more important than etiquette and makeup. Something twisted inside her when she heard, but she was relieved she didn’t have to sit through more poetry and calligraphy lessons. Azula dedicated herself to her history and geography lessons, with firebending being most important of all, but it didn’t stop her from making the servants straighten her hair and apply makeup to her face. She always had to be put-together. Azula was the favoured child, the prodigy. Everyone knew that she was better than lame old Zuko, and she had to look the part with her hands on fire.
Zuko was always kind. Azula scorned it, mocked it, never understood it. He was as bad as Ursa at court politics. Maybe that was why they both fell from grace.
Zuko was banished on a scorching summer’s day, but Azula felt cold watching. It was probably the righteous vindication coursing through her. She smirked when he fell to his knees and begged for mercy, laughed when their father set his face on fire. That was what was expected of her. It proved once and for all that she was the superior sibling. That she could stare suffering in the face and remain unaffected. She would become the Crown Princess and eventual Fire Lord. Zuko was nothing. Their mother wasn’t there to protect him anymore. (Or Azula.) She could focus now on being the heir father wanted while Zuko chased 100-year-old ghosts.
He was always too foolish for the palace. He should have spent less time feeding turtleducks with their mother and more time learning from their father, as Azula had.
Azula watched the ship leave the harbour, carrying her burned brother that her father had cast away for speaking out of turn. She felt nothing.
It didn’t take her long to realise that without Zuko there to make her look good, she would have to work twice as hard for twice as long. Her father was a busy man. She couldn’t waste his time. She couldn’t disappoint him either, or he would find an excuse to get rid of her just as he did to Zuko. If Azula missed her brother, she made sure it never showed.
Lo and Li started teaching her lightning when she was thirteen. The same age Zuko was when he was banished. It was the first time she had thought of Zuko in months, and all she thought was Agni, he was pathetic.
Lightning was about precision and control. You had to be in charge at every moment, ordering it before it ordered you. Destroy it before it destroys you. A pre-emptive strike against nature itself.
They warned her it might be months before she could summon even seed lightning. Their eyes told her they expected it sooner. So Azula spent her days in the courtyard firebending, then learning to adapt her forms to wield cold fire. It hurt her hands and her arms and some days she walked away shaking, but she hid it, because Princess Azula never shows weakness. Not the heir to the throne. They expected lightning, so she gave them lightning. By the end of the year she could summon it at a moment’s notice.
Her father smiled when he heard.
She was fourteen when he sent her after Zuko. Poor boy. He truly thought father wanted him back, that they could ever be a family. He was deluded. Azula took full advantage. He was even more pitiful than she remembered, and she would feel bad if she was the kind of person who felt guilt, or pity. Mostly, she wanted to put him out of his misery with a fireball to the head, just as you would put down a komodo-rhino with a broken leg. She couldn’t leave him alive to embarrass her, after all. Father may want him alive but Azula knew the second they reached the Fire Nation, he would slip her a note to give her permission.
Zuko escaped. His determination surprised her in a way she was not often surprised. She had thought his spirit would be more broken after learning father doesn't care for him. She was preparing to go after him when father sent a fire-hawk instructing her to chase the Avatar instead and forget about Zuko, so that's what she did. She chased the Avatar across the Earth Kingdom, shot lightning at her uncle and laughed at Zuko’s despair, shot lightning at the Avatar and watched him fall, then offered Zuko his only chance to come home.
He took it. Any idiot would.
Zuko was wary around her. Always had been, always will be. He held his breath around her, just waiting for her to reveal his secret. It was nice to have the screw-up brother back in the palace. In comparison to him, Azula seemed to shine even brighter. She didn’t even mind the advisors all carefully calling him a loyal son, Avatar-slayer, murmuring praise behind their sleeves, because Zuko knew the truth and so did Azula. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out and the Avatar was found alive. Zuko’s days were numbered. She would let him enjoy it while he still could.
(A miscalculation – Azula had vouched for Zuko and lied to her father’s face. One last act of loyalty to the brother who would soon be disregarded. Ozai was not prepared to overlook this.)
Azula is in the gardens with Mai and Ty Lee when they come for her. She is smirking at Ty Lee’s attempt at making Mai smile, Ty Lee making a fool of herself while Mai’s expression remains stubbornly deadpan. Azula knows Mai has at least five knives hidden up her sleeve, and she cocks her head to the side as she ponders what it would take to make Mai use one against Ty Lee. Maybe she could make them spar. The two non-benders with their distinctive styles.
That isn’t how they work. There is no use to making them spar together except for her own amusement. She wouldn't make them do it any more than she would make them spar against her. She needs their respect. Mai's grudging admiration and Ty Lee's adoration. She has that, but more importantly she has their terror. Mai and Ty Lee are loyal because they fear her. Loyalty stems from fear - everybody knows that. It is the first lesson she learned in court at her father's knee. But there is a fine balance, a knife's edge. Push it too far in either direction and they will break. Azula needs her tools, her weapons. They make her shine, like Zuko used to with his mediocrity. She rescued them, one from boredom and one from a fear of being unremarkable, and they owe her. Fear mixed with admiration.
Mai glances over at her, carefully neutral, but Azula can read the lines of her body. She is uneasy. Good. As long as they are afraid, they will remain loyal.
If Ty Lee notices their silent communication, she either doesn’t care or is too smart to bring it up.
The guards come.
“Princess Azula,” one says, and she laughs but the laughter dies in her throat as she takes in the situation.
Muscle memory borne of years of combat mean Mai and Ty Lee flank her on either side, irregardless of their little spat. She trained them that way. Mai appears wary, eyes narrowed as she prepares to strike. Ty Lee’s eyes are wide and a little confused, keeping her fists close to her chest even as she readies herself to take them down. She looks like she hopes she won’t have to.
Azula’s mouth twists. “What is this? Do you really think you can attack your princess without the Fire Lord executing you all?”
She adds a haughty laugh. The one she used to practice in the mirror. It needs no more perfecting now, and the guards at the back exchange glances. Their leader continues undeterred.
“Princess, you are currently under arrest for treason.” Azula bristles. Mai and Ty Lee silently prepare for action, quick hand signals behind their backs determining who will take which guard. Predictably, Mai wants to take the talkative one. “… By order of the Fire Lord.”
The moment the words leave his mouth, Mai throws her knives and pins him by the sleeves, almost acting on impulse. Ty Lee darts forward to immobilise him and works on the rest of the guards while Mai grabs Azula by the arm and drags her away. It is a presumption Azula should arrest her for, but she can’t find it in herself to move. Her father? Treason?
Mai is shouting in Azula’s face now even as she drags her forcefully away from the conflict.
“Azula, we don’t have time! We need to get you out now.” Like it never even occurred to her to simply let the guards take her away, even after she threatened Mai’s family and mocked her for her liking Zuko. She must still be more afraid of Azula than she is of the Fire Lord.
The guards begin to overwhelm Ty Lee. They call for backup. It should be funny – one non-bender beating all those guards. But even Ty Lee can’t hold them off forever.
Mai stops, and spins Azula around to look her in the eye. Mai seems almost frantic. It is the most emotion she has ever seen from the girl. It is funny. She should be laughing. Should be doing a lot of things right now, like fighting, like blasting all those useless, pathetic guards away, like taking Mai’s hands off her arm and reclaiming her control of the situation. Except she never had control, did she? Did her father know, all this time? Was he simply waiting? Did he finally decide he wants Zuko now, a puppet, someone to manipulate, rather than his perfect weapon?
Azula tries to summon her fire. It refuses to answer.
“Azula, you need to leave,” Mai says again, like Azula didn’t hear her the first time, even through the haze that has descended upon them. “The Fire Lord wants you dead, we all know what charges of treason mean-“
Something stirs within Azula. She tears Mai’s hands away from her and the girl steps back, away from the twin daggers of flame blazing in Azula’s hands.
“Let him try,” she sneers, and stalks off on her own. She has a plan. She always has a plan. She can fix this, she can, she just needs time and evidence and if she throws Zuko under the komodo-rhino then maybe she can still walk away from this unscathed-
Except she can’t. She knows she can’t. She tells Mai and Ty Lee to keep fighting, to hold them off long enough to give her time, and she doesn’t seem them nod but she can hear the fighting continuing, so at least they haven’t betrayed her yet, her perfect tools in a way father has decided Azula is not-
Zuko is in her room. Zuko is in her room with a bag and a set of swords strapped to his back, face grim and determined like it was him being arrested for treason, not Azula.
The world makes a little more sense now. They are being punished together for their sin.
“Go away, Zuko,” Azula scowls, and pushes past him to collect her things. She doesn’t have much, never needed much, just useless trinkets that suit her status. She doesn’t have time for Zuko right now.
“Are you packed?” he asks, instead of going away.
Azula rolls her eyes. “Of course I’m packed, dear brother. I was planning on taking a little vacation anyway to celebrate the annihilation of the Earth Kingdom. This is no different, really.”
Lie, but Zuko was always terrible at distinguishing lies from truth. Then again, even Azula cannot tell if she is lying sometimes. And how did Zuko know she was being arrested?
Unless they told him when they came for him, too.
Zuko pries open the window and looks at her expectantly. There is something she is missing here. She feels confused. This must be how Zuko spends his days – always missing the bigger picture. She doesn’t enjoy the feeling.
Zuko sighs. “C’mon, Azula. If you want to get out of here alive, we’re going to have to sneak out.”
If you want to get out of here alive. A hint? Did they not come for Zuko, after all? Did father decide to forgive Zuko, give him another chance, while Azula is being cast aside?
And there’s that familiar determination in Zuko's eyes. Azula can hear the guards approaching. Too bad they weren’t dumb enough to skip her room because now she must burn them to a crisp and fight her way out like a true Fire Princess would, like Ozai’s daughter would, like Zuko is too much of a coward for no matter what Ozai says-
Or she can leave with Zuko. A simple choice. Azula should not hesitate for as long as she does in making it. Leaving with Zuko? But she’s already a traitor accused of treason. What else can her father do to her? She’ll return, she will. She is still his loyal daughter. The prodigy. Heir to the throne and youngest wielder of Cold Fire in centuries. She just has to prove her loyalty and he’ll want her back. If she drags Zuko down with her, he will see once again that Zuko is still the same useless, pathetically weak boy he set on fire and exiled.
Zuko sees the narrowing of her eyes and thinks she is joining him. That she has come around to his side. Really, it is simple math. Father wants her in prison for that tiny little lie she told for Zuko. She doesn't know what his plans are yet, if he simply wants to leave the palace or desert the war entirely. But Zuko is a single-minded idiot. Dum-Dum. He probably wants to find the Avatar. If she can make Zuko take her to the Avatar, then she can burn or chain the lot up and hand-deliver them to her father. It will prove that Zuko cannot be trusted, but Azula can. He’ll take her back, then. He must.
Azula prepares her best worried, vulnerable little sister face. She doesn’t take Zuko’s hand, but she does leave through the window. Maybe if she were thinking more clearly, she would understand the implications, how it may look to the guards bursting through the doors. But she doesn’t. Too terrified her father is really abandoning her this time and too focused on planning how to regain control. Really, that determines her fate right there.