Story Avatar the Last Airbender: Heart of Fire Revised (Completed 2/17)

Chapter 20: Heart of Fire

The entire throne chamber seemed to hang suspended in time as Azula sat on the throne with her finger pointed at Azun, her call for the Lord General's arrest still echoing through the air. The Army of the Risen Flame stood still, the officers looking from the princess to the general and back again, their expressions hidden by their masks. Zuko's mouth was opening and closing in a manner Azula found distinctly like that of a fish. Azun himself, though, seemed almost completely composed, though from where she sat Azula could see the question in his eyes.

"What is the meaning of this, cousin?" he finally asked, his voice carefully neutral.

"Do I need to explain myself to my subjects, General? I don't believe I do."

"Then don't think of it as explaining yourself to your subject," Azun said. "Think of it as explaining your rejection of something you have wanted your whole life to the man who devoted himself to getting it for you!"

Azula sighed. "Very well. Short answer- because it won't work."

Azun pulled back. "What are you saying?"

"You seem to be asking that question a lot, cousin. I'd think the answer would be obvious- the Avatar has taken my brother's side. Didn't you ever stop to think about that? He defeated my father, the most powerful firebender alive, while he was at the height of his strength."

"You defeated the Avatar yourself!" Azun snapped. "I heard the true reports of what happened under Ba Sing Se. You nearly killed him!"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Yes- and if he defeated my father, he obviously became much more powerful- and he's had another year to get stronger. A fully realized Avatar isn't an opponent I'm interested in facing, thank you. I have no desire to be on the losing side."

Azun stepped back from the throne, a storm of emotions crossing his face. "This is not right," he muttered. "This isn't what you promised! You must have known what would happen. Why did you lead her to me?"

Then the Lord General smiled, his eyes burning with feverish zeal. "Ah, yes. I see it now. I was so convinced that it must be Sozin's direct descendant who would realize his dream, but that was never to be. You did this to show me that I alone have the will to lead this nation to its destiny. I am the true heir of Sozin!"

"You're insane," Azula said conversationally. "Believe me- I know. Now then, soldiers- arrest him. Now."

"No," Azun said in the ringing voice he must have used to issue orders on the battlefield. "She is the traitor- to her nation, to her blood, to her own identity. I am your general still. Arrest her!"

Zuko lowered his head and his body shook slightly. Azula guessed that he found both of his enemies shouting orders while the army did nothing to be rather amusing- she knew she would have in his place. Still, she had more important factors to consider, and kept her gaze fixed on Azun. "They're not going to listen to either of us, you know," she said casually. "They've been following you for a long time now, and they seem to think you're some kind of prophet. But you've been prophesying about me, telling them all about how the two of us will lead them to glory- and they believed you. But now we’re at odds with each other, and they have no idea who to listen to. Looks to me like you did your work too well."

"Then it seems," Azun murmured, "that we must finish this ourselves." Quicker than the eye could follow, the Lord General dropped into a crouch and released a fireblast that shot towards the throne. Azula threw herself to the ground and the blast passed over her, though it knocked the obsidian throne from its pedestal and sent it flying back into the wall, smoldering. The princess was on her feet in a heartbeat, staring at the general with burning golden eyes.

"So it's to be an Agni Ki?" she asked.

"Not a formal one, perhaps," Azun admitted, "but an honor duel nonetheless."

"Honor," Azula scoffed, and then she sprang into motion, sending a lightning bolt arcing towards her cousin. Azun dodged with ease- though no longer young, it was plain that years of campaigning and firebending had kept him in superb shape- and replied with a blast of his own.

Azula knew that Azun was a master- perhaps not on the level of her father or uncle, but he certainly possessed self-control and tactical abilities that many firebenders sorely lacked. She had known going in that he would be a dangerous opponent, but she was confident of her ability to defeat him. This fireblast that he unleashed now, however, was a wave of flame that was unlike anything the princess had ever seen, except on the day of the comet. She managed to redirect the flames around herself- barely- but she was shaken. Where did he get such power?

Was some spirit truly aiding him? Memories of a dream threatened to surface in Azula’s mind, but she forced them down. That would make things difficult, but not impossible. The Avatar was dangerous because he had the powers of all four elements- Azun might be unnaturally strong, but he was still only a firebender, and Azula knew the flames like they were a part of herself. She knew people, too- Azun had a weakness, somewhere, and she would find and exploit it.

Azun blasted her again and again, but Azula deflected the flames each time. The general must be getting frustrated by his inability to hurt her- and yes, the look on his face between blasts confirmed it. Now was the time. "I have a question for you now, General," she said. "You say you're a man who cares about ideals and the will of the spirits- so why do you keep fighting when you know that the Avatar, the agent of balance, is against you? None of the other generals cared about Sozin's dream- and if you think Father did, you're a lot dumber than I ever took you for. So why fight?"

"Because this world needs us," Azun said. "You know that. People are chaotic by nature and need strong, uncompromising rule for their own good. The Fire Nation has achieved such rule, and therefore it is our destiny to share it with the world. You are royalty- you know this better than most!"

Azula shrugged. "Do they? I'll admit I never bothered to check, and I never particularly cared. Face it, Azun, we did what we did during the war for power and glory. The dream? Nothing but a pretty face Sozin put on it for the masses. And you bought it- hook, line and sinker. You did horrible things because you believed in the rightness of your cause- I've seen your war record. You won more victories for the Fire Nation than any other general except for the Dragon of the West- that was the only reason Father tolerated your dangerous fanaticism. But it was all a lie, wasn't it? Deep down inside you knew that you were fighting for an empire that couldn't care less about order and peace. But you couldn't give it up, because Sozin's dream had become your life. Without it, Azun, you're nothing."

Azula knew she'd struck a nerve. Azun howled- a ghastly sound- and fire shot from his mouth and outstretched hands. He wasn't thinking clearly now- this was her chance to strike. Leaping forward, the princess dodged among the columns of flame and struck Azun in the chest with a flying kick. He went down hard.

"Yield," Azula said, looking down at her opponent. The general smiled.

"Never," he hissed and seizing her leg, pulled it out from under her. Azula was back on her feet quickly, but now Azun was as well- and he held a drawn blade pointed at her throat. Mentally the princess kicked herself. She'd forgotten the sword.

"A sword in an Agni Ki?" she asked. "Azun, you cheated! I must admit I'm impressed."

"I said it was an honor duel," Azun replied. "Nothing about a formal Agni Ki."

"Well then," Azula said as she ducked away from the blade and began to call lightning into her hands for a second time, "things just might get interesting."

///

The soldiers had gathered around the combatants in a rough half-circle, watching intently but not interfering. Honor duels were a respected tradition in the Fire Nation, going back to the earliest Fire Lords- none of Azun's warriors were terribly interested in intervening in a battle between their leader and the princess.

Still, Zuko found that both of his guards were now concentrating far more on the duel than they were on their prisoner. The Fire Lord waited until he was absolutely certain that the General and his sister had their undivided attention, and then he struck. With his arms held behind his back, Zuko couldn't accomplish any serious firebending, but lighting small flames around his hands was certainly possible. It singed the back of his robes, true (though he'd never much cared for them anyway, now that he thought about it), but it also caused some serious discomfort to his guards' hands.

Both soldiers yelped in surprise and pain, and their grip on Zuko loosened slightly. That was enough. The Fire Lord tore himself from the guards' grasp and struck both of them before they could react, sending them collapsing to the ground. Azula and Azun seemed to be doing a rather good job of taking each other out- Zuko wasn't sure he believed his sister's apparent change of heart, but with the duel going on in the background he felt it very likely he could make his escape. He was certainly no coward, but Zuko knew full well that he couldn't defeat a thousand firebendrs by himself.

The Fire Lord turned to thread his way through the crowd- and found his way blocked by Ki Mong, looking every inch the ruthless Fire Nation officer in his armor and mask. "You're not going anywhere, pretender," the big colonel rumbled.

Zuko dropped into a firebending stance. "Try me," he said. Ki Mong seemed to smile beneath his skull-mask and dropped into a stance of his own as he and Zuko began to circle each other. The Fire Lord was certain that he was a better bender than the big man, but Ki Mong's size and strength would compensate for that. Zuko needed to do this fast and intense.

Ki Mong lunged first, his fist burning with fiery power as he aimed for his opponent's already-scarred face. Zuko dodged aside and shot a fireblast of his own, which the big man caught and dissipated. Ki Mong growled- the sound echoing within his helmet- and struck again with as much physical power as fiery intensity. Zuko was thrown to the floor, but as Ki Mong towered over him he kicked out with both feet, releasing a wave of flame that sent the colonel stumbling backwards.

In an instant Zuko was back on his feet again, striking at Ki Mong with a flurry of fast, powerful blows. Unfortunately, the other man seemed almost made from solid steel and absorbed the punishment with ease. Catching one of Zuko's fists in his open hand, the colonel began to squeeze tightly, while a chuckle rumbled from behind his skull-mask.

"You're good, boy," Ki Mong said, "But you made a mistake. I'm stronger than you, and you let me get a grip. This ends now."

"Yeah," Zuko said, "but not for me." Grabbing Ki Mong's wrist with his free hand, the Fire Lord planted his feet firmly and heaved with all his might. His opponent's eyes widened in surprise as Zuko managed to pull Ki Mong off the ground and send him hurling towards the obsidian wall. With a muffled crunch the colonel impacted and fell to the ground, unmoving. Zuko winced and flexed his wrist, trying to ease the pain that now shot up his arm. Ki Mong was certainly heavy…

Hearing movement behind himself, Zuko spun- and found himself face to face with several dozen Rising Flame soldiers, each holding a weapon or preparing a fireblast. The Fire Lord scowled angrily and prepared to fight. It looked like he wasn't getting out of here quietly after all.

///

Mai wasn't given to excessive displays of emotion, but she had to quietly admit that the Obsidian Citadel was impressive. One couldn't get a true sense of the scale of the place from the air, but from the ground it towered above her like some hulking, glossy black monster. She noted the central spire bore a distinct resemblance to that of the Royal Palace, and several of the outlying towers resembled Fire Sage temples. One could almost believe that the place had been built by spirits.

Mai, accompanied by the Avatar and Katara, walked boldly up the pathway leading to the Citadel's main gates and stopped. A guard peeked over the edge of the wall and pointed his sword down at them- Mai thought it a pointless gesture, though it conveyed his general intentions well enough.

"Identify yourselves!" the guard ordered. "What is your business here?"

Aang stepped forward. "I'm the Avatar!" he shouted up to the wall. "I'm here to save a friend!"

Several guards were gathered now, and they all seemed to be pulling something out of their armor. Mai had a sickening suspicion that she knew what they were. "Watch out for the darts!" she warned as the guards raised the blowguns to their lips and fired their poisoned projectiles.

Effective as the paralyzing darts were on the unwary, they proved phenomenally useless on opponents who were forewarned. Katara called a whip of water from out of one of the pouches at her side and used it to strike the darts from the air; Aang spun his staff and the resulting gust of wind sent them straight back towards their owners, who ducked frantically. Mai herself stood back and watched the show- she would be needing all her blades inside.

The guards seemed to realize that their attack had failed- now they were pulling out bows. Aang looked up at them and frowned slightly, then he pressed his hands together and closed his eyes. At first Mai thought the young monk had gone insane – this was no time for meditation! – and then she saw Katara's face and realized what was coming.

Aang opened his eyes and they flared with brilliant power. A wave of earthbending shot out around the Avatar, causing the ground itself to buckle. The Citadel's walls seemed undamaged- perhaps there was something in the spirit-made obsidian that resisted the bending- but they did rock severely. The guards stumbled backwards, and the wooden gates were torn free from their hinges and collapsed.

"You do know how to make an entrance," Mai observed as she and her companions hurried inside. The courtyard was surprisingly bear of soldiers, except for the guards who were even now hurrying towards the central building in fear. Quick as thought Mai drew a pair of blades and hurled them at the last soldier- they caught him on the sleeves and pinned him against the wall. The Fire Lord's betrothed hurried forward and held another blade to the man's throat.

"Where's Zuko?" she asked.

"Everyone's in the Throne Chamber for Azula's coronation!" the man gasped. "Lord General Azun wanted to make certain that the Fire Lord was there to see his sister take the crown."

"Azula's coronation?" Aang asked, apparently having returned to himself. "Didn't she already have one of those? I thought it didn't go very well."

"It didn't," Katara said. "I was there. But it sounds like we need to get to Zuko fast."

Mai pulled her daggers loose from the captive soldier's clothing but continued to hold him at knifepoint. "Take us to Zuko," she ordered.

///

Azula and Azun both heard the ground rumble beneath them, and the princess knew what must be happening. "Sounds like you have some uninvited company, Cousin," she said.

"I will destroy you, and then I will deal with them," Azun promised. He called up another huge fireblast, but this time instead of releasing it as a huge wave he focused it into a tight beam before releasing it. Azula knew that there was no way even she could deflect such concentrated power, so she ducked beneath it and let it strike the wall behind her. The blast didn't stop there but burned its way through the rock, leaving only a small, neat hole to mark its passage.

Azula moved her hands again through the familiar pattern and channeled the pure, destructive power of a lightning bolt. This time she aimed not for Azun but for the ceiling above him- the lightning blasted several large chunks of rock loose and sent them falling straight towards the Lord General's head. Azun looked up and summoned his fire again, sending it burning through the chunks of falling obsidian, leaving him unharmed. Azula had to admit to herself that she was impressed- this kind of raw power was unbelievable.

Of course, it was all more proof that something very strange was going on here…

"Are you sure that's the best you've got?" Azula taunted. "We're supposed to be having a firebending duel, and you haven't even made me break a sweat. I am disappointed."

"No, Princess," Azun replied, "I have barely begun to fight!" He cupped his hands and began to form a ball of fire between them, so intense that it was already beginning to burn blue. This was the first time in her life Azula had seen firebending that matched her own in color (though she'd heard stories about how her grandfather Azulon had done the same in his youth), and she prepared herself to dodge again.

Then the doors of the Throne Chamber were slammed open, and every person in the room spun to see three figures standing there. The first Azula recognized as the waterbender girl who traveled with the Avatar; the second was Mai, knives at the ready. Between them, though, stood the Avatar himself, eyes glowing in the fullness of his power.

///

In the darkest depths of the Spirit World- places so incomprehensibly alien that even the strongest mortal could not journey there and return with his sanity intact- a being stirred in anger and surprise. Its great Enemy- the Avatar himself- had come to one of the places in the mortal world that the spirit's domain touched, the place where it now shared a portion of its power with a mortal pawn. This was not meant to have happened yet- the princess, the spirit’s true gateway to the physical realm, was to have faced the Avatar after accepting her crown, but things had gone wrong somehow. The spirit was not yet ready for this confrontation.

Still, it had many plots and many allies- pathetic Azun and his vaunted army had been only the smallest part of them. The spirit was young for its kind, but compared to mortals, it was eternal; it could wait for its triumph at a later time. For now it withdrew itself to its own domain, abandoning Azun to his well-deserved fate.

///

A great blast of wind knocked the soldiers closest to the door aside, and their comrades pulled away in horror as the Avatar and his two companions passed between them. Their loyalty to Azun was great, but all had heard the story of the downfall of Ozai, and even now whispers were rustling among the ranks. Did the Avatar need to touch a man to rob him of his bending, they wondered, or would it just take a glance? Either way, they weren't interested in finding out.

From a corner of the room Zuko threw aside a warrior he was grappling with and began to force his way through the ranks. "Mai, Aang!" he called. "I can honestly say I'm glad to see both of you- and Katara too," he added, noting the look on the waterbender's face.

Mai caught Zuko in a tight embrace, then backed off and looked him straight in the eyes. "If you ever get yourself captured again," she said intently, "I'm chaining you to the throne myself."

"What about them?" Katara asked, motioning towards the princess and the general. Azula and Azun stood still, half facing each other, half facing the new arrivals, both looking ready to leap into action at any moment.

Mai drew a knife. "I think we can take both of them," she said.

"I'm not sure we'll have to," Zuko said, to general amazement. "The first thing Azula did after taking the crown was order Azun's arrest, and they've been fighting ever since. I say we let them finish it."

"I think she just doesn't want to share power with him," Katara put in, glaring at Azula murderously. "Or it's a trick. Either way, I don't trust her."

"Neither do I," said Mai.

"You are all traitors," Azun snarled, looking quite mad with his now- disheveled armor and blazing eyes. "You do not understand the glory to which I can lead the Fire Nation- none of you! But I will defeat you all myself if need be. Destiny will not be denied!" He raised his hands again and launched blasts of fire at both of the royal siblings- and then stopped, staring. His fire was no longer blue, but had returned to its normal red-orange- and it seemed to have diminished in intensity as well.

"No!" Azun shouted. "You cannot desert me now!" He looked up to the ceiling and shouted incoherently, shooting off blast after blast of fire- all of it red. Finally he lowered his hands in defeat and looked at his enemies with dark eyes.

"It's over, Azun," Azula said. "Whatever spirit you think was helping you is obviously gone, and without it, you don't stand a chance. Didn't I tell you that you couldn't win?"

Azun looked from face to face, and seemed to compose himself again. "All my life," he said, "I have devoted myself to my nation. I believed in what Sozin declared- this world needs peace, enforced by the sword if need be. Without strong rule, it will all fall back to chaos again- just wait. It won't happen tomorrow, or next year, or maybe even in ten years, but it will happen." His gaze found Aang. "You will be called on again to prevent world war before your next incarnation, Avatar. That I see clearly."

Azun stepped forward and drew his sword again, holding the blade before him with both hands. "Today I see that I am alone in my commitment. The royal house craves only power; my soldiers are too cowardly to intervene on my behalf; even the spirits themselves abandon me when the fight grows hopeless. But I tell you now I will never surrender. I have gambled and I have lost, but I will not become Ozai, sitting powerless in a cell and wallowing in self-pity. When future generations speak of General Azun, good or ill, they will say this at least- he was a warrior to the last!"

Aang seemed to realize what Azun was about to do and made as if to hurry forward, but the Avatar was too slow. Azun looked about himself at allies and enemies and smiled a sad, bitter smile. Then he reversed his blade and plunged it into his own heart.

///

And so we come to our final confrontation. Azula is good at separating her rivals from their minions, isn’t she – she did it in canon to Long Feng, and did it again here to Azun (though in this case, Azun himself helped that happen – his propaganda did emphasize her rightful authority, after all). One on one, Azula and Azun’s duel was one of youth and talent versus age and experience, but once Azun realized he’d been abandoned, it was all over (I think Azula could have beaten him even without Aang’s arrival, but he’d have made her work for it).

I’d initially toyed with the idea of the spirit giving Azun the power to bend multiple elements, but switched it over to a simple powerup because that felt like a cliché. The spirit can enhance a bender’s powers, but it can’t provide them with more elements (which makes sense with what we see in “Beginnings”, actually – whatever this thing is, it’s no Lion Turtle) and that’s just as a sort of remote power-up. When it’s actually inhabiting someone, bender or non, the effects are much stronger and much… stranger. That, however, is a topic for another fic…

There’s more going on in this chapter- Aang’s apparently become something of a boogeyman for Fire Nation loyalists, and Zuko got his own big fight with Ki Mong – but most of it is fairly self-explanatory. I largely left this chapter the same from the original, as I was fairly happy with it, but I tweaked some things about the spirit to better fit where I ended up going with it rather than my original ideas.

Azun commits suicide. It’s pretty dark for the Avatarverse, but seemed appropriate – he was a true believer to the end, and I think he wanted to end things on his own terms even when he knew he couldn’t win. Despite what my characters have said, I don’t think “insane” is quite the right word for him – he’s not meant to be mentally ill – but as Azula herself pointed out, he’d tied his life and beliefs to a bad cause, and when that cause failed him, he had nothing left to live for.

Next time, our heroes (and Azula) have to deal with the fallout…

-MasterGhandalf

 

Chapter 21: Peace

General Azun crumpled to the ground, a satisfied grin on his face that was so at odds with his sudden death that it made the entire scene all the more shocking and macabre. Zuko knew from his history lessons that ritual suicide had once been common in the Fire Nation, though it had been largely stamped out by his grandfather and father, who needed to keep enough soldiers alive to fight a world war- one of the few good things he felt his predecessors had done for the nation. Seeing the practice carried out before him, though, was another matter entirely.

Ki Mong arose slowly from where he had been lying and spun towards his enemies with fire in his hands- and stopped dead, staring at the fallen form of his commander. The big colonel gave a strangled cry and collapsed to his knees, tossing his helmet aside so that all could see his tear-streaked face. "Forgive me, my lord," he murmured. "I could not save you."

Zuko tore his eyes from Azun and marched over to Ki Mong, Mai, Aang, and Katara following behind. "Listen," he said, "your commander's dead, and his deal with my sister fell through. I need to know- are you and your men ready to surrender, or is my friend here going to have to take all of you out before you realize you've lost?" The Fire Lord motioned to Aang, and the Rising Flame soldiers shifted nervously.

Ki Mong glared up at Zuko hatefully. "That won't be necessary," he spat. "You win, bitter as it is for me to admit it. As acting general of the Rising Flame, I surrender."

A mocking chuckle sounded behind him. Zuko turned and saw Azula, who had removed the Fire Lord's crown and was holding it lightly in one hand, seeming rather amused. "What do you think is so funny?" he demanded.

"Oh, I was just wondering how exactly the four of you are going to escort a thousand or so prisoners back to the Capital all by yourselves," she replied.

In an instant Katara stepped forward and called a long rope of water out of her pouch. It shot towards Azula and wrapped around her wrist, then pulled her back against the wall, hardening into ice as it did so. The deposed princess looked at her binding with a critical eye and shook her head.

"I can melt through this in seconds, you know," she said. "You want to fight me, waterbender? Some friendly advice- wait until the full moon."

"Really?" Katara asked. "The way I remember it, the last time we fought, you were all juiced up on comet- and you still lost."

At the mention of that disastrous Agni Ki, Zuko felt the lightning-inflicted scars on his torso throb- and a look of utter agony crossed Azula's face, brief but unmistakable. With her free hand she tossed the crown at her brother's feet. "Take it," she spat. "Much good it'll do you."

Aang stepped forward and looked at Azula with a quizzical expression on his face. "You were fighting Azun when we got here," he said. "Why? Were you trying to help us?"

Azula gave a single bitter chuckle. "I was helping myself. I knew the fool wouldn't be able to win where my father couldn't, and I wasn't interested in taking sides with someone I knew was going to lose. He disagreed."

"Either way, you can't have thought we'd just let you walk away after everything you've done," Mai put in.

"Right now, I expect all of you to leave me alone!" Azula snarled suddenly, her eyes flashing with a hint of madness. Her bound hand flashed with blue flame, reducing the ice manacle to steam. With a last look at her old enemies, the princess turned and hurried from the hall.

"I'll go after her," Zuko said, but before he could move he felt a hand on his arm.

"I think you need to be here right now," Aang said. "I'll catch her." The Avatar hurried from the chamber, moving with an airbender's uncanny speed.

When he was gone Zuko sighed and looked around himself at the soldiers who had once formed Azun's army. "You know who I am," he said, "and you know who that was who just left. Azun told you that we were your enemies and that we would lead the world to ruin. He also said that the spirits were leading him to victory. He's dead now, which means he was wrong about that- and he was probably wrong about a lot of other things too.

"I know you've done some terrible things that he told you to- but we all did terrible things during the war. I know I did. I can't lock all of you up, and I'm certainly not going to kill you all. Instead, I'm going to give you a choice- you can swear loyalty to me and become part of my army, or you can go to prison. Your choice."

"I may be your prisoner, but I will die before I serve you, pretender," Ki Mong said. "Your father must surely be ashamed that he sired such a weak-willed son."

"I'm sure my father's ashamed of a lot of things I've done," Zuko said. "The last year or so, I've been taking that as a good sign." Ki Mong spat in disgust, but said nothing.

In the end, a full third of the men refused to swear loyalty to Zuko- the others, though clearly uncomfortable, clearly decided it was better than being dragged off to the Boiling Rock or some equally unpleasant place by the Avatar. Their first task, Zuko said, would be to escort their comrades back to the capital.

"Are you sure this is smart, Zuko?" Mai asked. "They fought against you. Can you trust them?"

"All my army fought against me at some point," Zuko said. "At least most of these men did it because they genuinely believed they were fighting for something. But when we get home I'm having Akai split them up and put them in jobs where they can't do any harm."

Zuko turned back to Azun's fallen form. The Lord General seemed smaller than he had in life, a crumpled, broken thing, apart from that ghastly grin. Zuko looked at him for a moment, then bent down and covered Azun's face with his cloak. "Azun served with Uncle at the siege of Ba Sing Se, back when he was still the Dragon of the West," the Fire Lord said. "He said that Azun used to be a good man, but he became obsessed. Of course, that's why Father kept him around- he was totally loyal to the Fire Nation and kept winning battles anyone else would give up on. But I guess it was too much for him, in the end, and in the end, he just… broke."

///

Azula stood on the wall of the Citadel, staring up at the sun, allowing its light to bathe her. The sun was the greatest of all fires and the source of a firebender's power- she could feel its presence in a way few others could, though she'd heard that waterbenders had a similar relationship with the moon. For now the sun's light helped her hold the torment inside at bay. When fighting Azun, everything had been so clear and focused- now she felt she was losing control again. Azula certainly hadn't intended to blow up at her brother and his friends like that, though she had to admit the look of shock on their faces made it almost worthwhile.

Her dream, or vision, or hallucination or whatever it was of her mother had said that her life had been a path to self-destruction and she needed to change to save herself; some part of Azula knew that those words had come from deep within herself, and they bore the ring of uncomfortable truth. Well, Mom, Azula thought, I did change. I saved Ling and Joti and used my power to help the Fire Nation and stop Azun- and if anything I'm feeling worse.

“There’s no escape from it, is there?” she whispered, holding her hands in front of her and staring at them. “The madness is part of me now, and it will never go away.”

Azula heard footsteps behind her and spun around, thinking that Zuko had followed her- but it was the Avatar. He smiled at the princess like they were old friends rather than bitter enemies and lightly hopped up on the obsidian battlements.

"I don't want to talk," she snapped. "Certainly not to you."

The Avatar shrugged. "That's okay," he said. "Do you mind if I just sit here for a while?"

Azula realized that nothing she could say would dislodge him, and was reasonably sure that if she moved he'd just follow her, so she said nothing. For a long time neither of them spoke. Finally, though, Azula could take it no more. She turned to the Avatar and said, "Why are you here? You obviously don't want to gloat, and there's no way you can pretend we're friends."

"Maybe you're right," the Avatar replied, "but your brother attacked me more times than you did, and in the end I was able to win the war because I learned to think of him as a friend."

"I'm not like Zuzu, Avatar," she said. "Ask anyone who knows us. He's the fool with the honor fixation- and I'm the monster." The words were bitter… my own mother thought I was a monster… but it was merely the vocalization of something she’d always known. Azula fully expected the Avatar to agree with this assessment. After all, she had killed him once, under Ba Sing Se. But his words surprised her.

"I don't think you're a monster," he said.

Azula snorted softly. "Then you clearly haven't been paying attention."

He looked at her, then, with that gaze that managed to hold both a child's carefree innocence and the wisdom of centuries. "I don't think there are very many people who are monsters," he said. "The monks always said there was good in everyone, even if it was buried deep down inside, and I don’t think a person could survive if they were all bad all the time. Maybe you have done bad things, but right now I think you're lost, and you're hurting a lot, and I just want to help."

"Help here having the meaning of 'send you back to Zuko's little madhouse?" Azula asked. "Sorry, I'll pass."

"No, I mean help," the Avatar said. "If there's one thing I learned from Zuko, it's that it's never too late to find a new path. You could keep acting like you did during the war, but that would just lead you back to where you started- locked up. Or you can try and change and turn your life around."

Azula shivered. That was almost exactly what her dream-mother had said. Then she shook her head, logic returning. "I tried that," she said. "I took down Azun, maybe helped stop a civil war, but I still feel like a barrel of blasting jelly that could go off at any minute."

"I didn't say it would be fast or easy," he said. "It wasn’t for your brother. It takes a long time to change, and sometimes it hurts."

Azula laughed. "Oh, and you're one to talk. What would you know about any of this? You were probably born a little goody-goody."

He looked off into the distance. "When I'm in the Avatar State," he said, "I sometimes feel like I'm being pulled apart. I can hear the voices of all my past lives, and they're all telling me different things. It's hard to control, sometimes. But I did learn how to control it, and I think you could too. It’s all about balance, in here." He touched the center of his chest lightly. Then his gaze snapped around, and he looked down into the courtyard and saw Zuko, Mai, and the waterbender coming. He jumped off the wall and rode a puff of air down to them.

"Well?" Zuko asked.

"I don't think she's dangerous," the Avatar said. "At least, she doesn't mean to be right now. But there's still something kind of scary about her, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah," Zuko said. "I do. And I don't trust her."

"I am not going back to that asylum, Zuko," Azula shouted down at him. "If you try to force me, it won't end well." She flexed her fingers and sent blue sparks dancing down them.

"Well, you can't just let her go, either," Katara said. Mai nodded in agreement.

Zuko looked at each of the three in turn, and then hung his head. When he raised it, Azula could tell from the look on his face that he'd reached a decision. "Azula," he said, "Aang says he doesn't think you're dangerous anymore- I don't agree, and I don't think you do either. But you did help defeat a traitor who could have sent the Fire Nation back into civil war if he'd lived. You will return with us to the Capital, and you'll be stripped of your authority, written out of the line of succession." Azula's fists clenched, rage surging in some buried chamber of her mind, but she fought it down resisted the urge to interrupt. "You will be allowed to live there under guard- and if you try to escape from that, Aang can do to you what he did to Father. Do you understand?"

Azula jumped down from the wall and landed lightly. It wasn't the freedom she'd hoped for, but it was better than she had right to expect- and certainly better than the alternative. The thought of losing her bending once again sent a thrill of horror through her body. "I understand," she said.

Zuko and Mai turned and went back into the Citadel, leaving Azula alone with the Avatar and his waterbender. The girl looked at her suspiciously, but the Avatar himself seemed to have become fascinated by the structure around him. Of course, as the Great Bridge between the mortal and spirit worlds, the Citadel probably spoke to him in ways an ordinary person couldn't understand.

Ignoring Katara's suspicious look, Azula walked over to stand beside Aang. "You said you learned to control the Avatar State," she said. "How?"

"I can't really explain it," he said. "But in the end, I guess you just have to know yourself well enough to find peace."

Peace. It wasn't something Azula had ever been interested in, beyond the peace of rigid control. Somehow, though, she felt this was very different, and something she was far from achieving. Still, there was no challenge yet in her life that Azula hadn't been able to overcome in some way. She didn't doubt she could cross this hurdle too, given time.

She could do no less. Her sanity was on the line.

///

And so we come to our final full chapter for the first act of the Azula Trilogy. Azun’s army is dealt with fairly easily, thanks in large part to Azula’s actions last chapter – they were essentially a cult who just saw their cult leader have his authority and legitimacy underlined, be defeated in combat, and then kill himself, and it more-or-less shattered their morale. Even a fanatic like Ki Mong didn’t have much fight left in him at that point. Of course, the presence of the Avatar helped too – just ask Chin the Conqueror about what the Avatar State can do to even a big, well-equipped armyJ.

As for Azula herself, her conversation with Aang remains one of my favorite bits in the fic. Aang is a fundamentally good-natured soul who always wants to see the best in people – as can be seen when he tries to reach out to Zuko as early as the first season, when he had little reason to see the banished prince as anything but a straight-up villain. Now that Azula’s no longer a direct threat, and obviously in some distress, he’s willing to try and talk things out with her. Of course, letting the Avatar play therapist isn’t really something she’s thrilled about, but it at least gave her some ideas of where to begin.

And so for now Azula’s going back to the Capital to be placed under house arrest, no longer the villain but certainly not a hero either. I’d initially intended to just write one fic, but I didn’t like where Heart leaves off as a place to end Azula’s story. A completed redemption arc for her felt like it needed more room to breathe.

In any case, there’s just an epilogue to go, and the revised Heart of Fire will be complete!

-MasterGhandalf

 

Epilogue: Spirits

"I'll admit she did better than I expected."

The spirit who spoke still wore the form of the man he had once been, and looked much as he had when he had died – a tall man, old but hale, with sweeping white hair and beard. He was clad, however, in the robes of a high lord of the Fire Nation rather than the simple sleeping clothes he’d died in, and atop his head was an artifact of the royal house that only the crown prince should wear. The physical copy of that artifact had been given to the spirit long ago by the man who had once been his closest friend, and he wore it still in remembrance of the person that man had once been. "She did what she did for herself," he continued, running a hand along the back of the great dragon who crouched by his side. "But she had realized now that the path her life had taken was no longer capable of sustaining her. It was enough to save her from him- this time."

The dragon bent his great head beside the spirit and nuzzled him lightly; a question seemed to shine unmistakably from his reptilian eyes. "This time, you wonder?" the spirit who had once been an Avatar named Roku whispered. “Yes, my great-granddaughter may have ruined his plans, for now, but that is not the end of it for good. He will find another way – and indeed, he may have pieces in motion already that I cannot see."

Roku turned from Fang and looked out from the top of the mountain on which they stood, from which it seemed that all the spirit world was laid out before them. "He can't give up," the former Avatar continued. "His existence is on the line. And he may yet find a way to turn Azula to his cause before this is done. They are very alike in some ways. Of course, that is to be expected, considering exactly what he is.

"I warned Sozin. I told my old friend that he was shifting the world out of balance, but all I accomplished was that he made certain I was dead before embarking on his war. He tried to break the Avatar Cycle by destroying the Air Nomads- and that atrocity still echoes in both worlds.

“Sozin was a fool to think his actions wouldn't have consequences. Even a small disruption of the balance can turn peaceful spirits into monsters – even young Aang knows as much, from his experience with Hei Bei. What the Fire Nation started with the Air Nomads and continued for a century was far worse. I warned Sozin that what he was doing was wrong. But he wouldn't listen, and then it was too late."

Roku sighed and turned back to Fang, resting one hand along the dragon’s snout. "If even the smallest disruptions of the balance can create horrors, what of a century of war? He was born from the fires of the Air Temples and nurtured by a hundred years of conflict. For all that time he was quiet, basking in the light of human evil, but no more. Peace has been restored, and the power that fuels him is slipping away. Now he is putting forth all his power to ensure that the mortal world falls back into chaos- and when it does, it will take this world with it.

"Leaving him alone ruling over nothingness," Roku finished sadly; Fang made a sound deep in his throat that was too low for even his companion of nearly two centuries to interpret, save that it seemed at once comforting and foreboding.

"My time is done,” Roku said quietly. “I can roam free of Aang’s mind at times, but only in the Spirit World, and I have little power left to call my own. Even you, old friend, can only interact with the living rarely, when the solstice is upon us. It was my mistakes that let Sozin become what he did, but it shall be others who at last put to rest the last remnants of the evil he set in motion. We can only hope their strength will suffice.” He paused and looked to the sky, and in the clouds he seemed to see the images of his great-grandchildren, and of his successor, and of others whose images remained yet unclear. Somehow that gave the old Avatar a measure of comfort, and he found himself smiling softly.

"It will be," Roku said. "It must be."

NOT​

THE END​

///​

And so the first part of the Azula Trilogy comes to and end with an epilogue that pulls back the focus and sheds a bit more light on what, exactly, has been going on. This scene was rewritten heavily from the first version, in which Roku was conversing with Agni the Sun Spirit – I removed him here, feeling that I relied too much on this non-canonical character during my early Avatar fanfic-writing (though I still consider his existence probable, if only because of how the firebenders’ relationship to the sun mirrors the waterbenders’ relationship to the moon, and we know the moon has a spirit). I decided it was easier to just have Roku talking to himself, using Fang as a medium to bounce his ideas off of.

We learn a bit more about our spirit big bad here as well. I knew that pitting Azula against a superhuman force of evil was something I wanted to do from the beginning of writing these fics, and I’d initially toyed with using Koh for the role. That idea I abandoned quickly – I think Koh works better as a sort of creepy, enigmatic neutral than outright evil, and his grudge is with the Avatar rather than the Fire Nation royal family anyway. I knew a western-style devil wouldn’t fit in the Avatarverse cosmology (before anyone mentions Vaatu, he resembles the Zoroastrian Ahriman far more than he does the Christian Satan – pet peeve) and I also knew I didn’t want something that would detract from the villainy of the Fire Nation or trivialize it in the broader context of the world. Making the spirit’s nature and origins tied to Sozin was a logical choice – exactly what it’s the spirit of won’t be revealed quite yet, but it’s probably possible to guess fairly accurately.

Next fic, we’ll be picking up with Azula as she starts pursuing one of the dangling plot threads from the show – what became of Ursa? (Keep in mind that the first iteration of the trilogy was written long before “The Search” was a thing, and my Ursa ended up significantly different from the canon version). However, Azula’s madness is beginning to slip free of its bonds once again, the spirit who backed Azun’s army is not done with the fire princess yet, and there are enemies arrayed against her who want to make sure that Ursa is never found.

All that and more when the Azula Trilogy returns in the revised and updated version of its second installment, Path of Fire.

-MasterGhandalf