Story Avatar the Last Airbender: Path of Fire Revised (completed 8/15)

Chapter 19: Into the Fortress

Ursa was awakened by the sound of someone pounding on her door. She was surprised- normally Jian Chin only came in the evenings- but her training for the Fire Lord's court took over and prevented her from showing it. Rather she rose smoothly and pulled on a robe before her captors entered. The guards had keys and could come in at any time they wished, but by the warlord's orders they had to give her a warning first- and even then they almost never actually entered when he wasn't present.

The door opened, and Jian Chin marched in, flanked by his guards. Looking at him, Ursa was surprised- he was wearing a suit of old but ornate armor and appeared to have actually made some effort to tame his appearance. It did little to reduce his brutish image, but the mere fact that he'd done anything in that respect had Ursa worried. The warlord was as solid and predictable as his element; if he was changing his routine at all, it obviously meant he was up to something.

"Jian Chin," Ursa said coolly. "You're early today. Is there a special occasion I wasn't aware of?"

"You might put it that way," Jian Chin rumbled. "I've recently come into possession of information that will make me the most powerful man on the continent. I was hoping you would be willing to accompany me to Ba Sing Se- and perhaps be crowned as my queen when the city falls to me."

Ursa couldn't help but laugh rather more wildly than she intended. "You're mad," she said. "Or such a fool that you might as well be. The Dragon of the West couldn't take Ba Sing Se, and he was ten times the general you'll ever be. Or is this another of your empty boasts?"

"Boast, yes. Empty, no," Jian Chin said with a smile. "Three nights ago I was given a map that will let me bypass the walls and go straight into the palace itself. When the palace falls, so will the city, and I will be Earth King. We're leaving today- come with me, and be my bride! I'm offering you a kingdom."

"I would sooner die," Ursa spat, veneer of politeness gone. Jian Chin recoiled as though she'd slapped him- clearly that wasn't the response he'd expected.

"I'm sorry to hear that," the warlord said softly. "But if that's your answer, you won't have a choice. When I'm Earth King I will do whatever I want- or take whatever woman I want to be my wife. You won't be able to stop me." With that he motioned to his men, and they turned together and left the room.

Ursa sat back on her bed and stared at her hands. Jian Chin was a fool if he honestly thought this mad scheme would work, but in any event his entire domain would now be in motion. If she wanted to escape, now was the time to do it. She just needed to plan how.

"It's an awful feeling, isn't it?" a cold voice asked. Ursa looked up and was surprised to see a young woman in a dark cloak standing by her bed. Shadow clung to her body, and there was an unreadable expression in her strange eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ursa told her. Her mind was racing. Who was this person, and how had she gotten in here? Had Ursa herself finally gone mad under the strain and was imagining this conversation? There was no way to be sure.

"Being powerless," the girl explained, gliding over and studying Ursa's face intently. "Knowing that someone else has taken complete control of your life, able to think but not to act. To be a slave."

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Ursa asked, standing and pulling away from the stranger.

"I'm no one important," she said. "I just wanted to see you- to see what kind of person you were. I couldn't help myself- I was curious."

"Curious about what?" Ursa was breathing deeply now, preparing to unleash fire if the intruder made a threatening move.

"What her mother was like," the girl said. "I saw the father, but I was curious to see what kind of woman would give birth to that creature. I must admit I'm disappointed."

"Her?" Ursa asked, then realization dawned. "Azula? How do you know my daughter?" She knew in broad strokes what had happened in the world during her imprisonment- she knew that the War was over and her son Zuko was Fire Lord, but she'd heard nothing about the ultimate fate of Azula. Probably Jian Chin didn't know himself.

"Azula and I are acquainted, and soon we'll meet for the last time," the girl said. "That's all you need to know. Like I said, I just wondered what kind of mother would raise such a child, and now I know. You're weak and powerless, sitting by and allowing a monster to raise Azula to follow in his footsteps."

"You know nothing," Ursa hissed. "You do not know what I sacrificed for my children or my family. And you are a fool if you think I'm going to sit back and let Jian Chin decide my fate."

"If you insist," the girl said with a shrug. "Oh- one more thing. Azula is coming here to save you- for her own selfish reasons, of course. But she isn't going to make it. I'm going to destroy her slowly, and then destroy every last one of you pampered, arrogant, corrupt nobles. I just thought you should know."

Ursa felt anger and fear blaze in her simultaneously. It had been a long time since she'd seen her daughter, and she didn't know what the girl had become in those years- though Ozai had done an excellent job of molding her in his own image already before she'd been banished. But for an instant, none of that mattered. Ursa's protective instincts were in full force, and it took all of her self control to keep from throwing fire then and there. "If you're so intent to destroy us," she said in a barely controlled voice. "Why not start now, with me?" A part of her almost wished the girl would- then maybe Ursa could defeat her before she killed Azula and Zuko.

"Oh, I have," the girl said. "Think on what I said- you don't have anything better to do other than letting it sink in."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Ursa leapt to her feet, had thrust before her. A thin bolt of fire lanced from the tips of her outstretched fingers and shot towards the intruder, but it never struck. The strange girl only gave a cold, triumphant smile and swept her cloak around herself; shadows seemed to writhe in the air for a moment, and when Ursa’s vision cleared the girl was gone, leaving the fireblast to impact harmlessly against the stone wall.

///

Azula stood on a rise and stared out at the fortress of Jian Chin. Just a few short months ago she had faced the mad General Azun in another ancient place- the Obsidian Citadel- and she couldn't help but contrast the two locations now. The Citadel had been otherworldly, a jagged black-glass mirror of the Fire Lord's palace. It had been impressively eerie and mysterious, a peace of the spirit world torn from its origin and planted in the realm of mortals. Jian Chin's fortress, by contrast, was clearly made of the stone of this world, and was so ancient that it was almost falling apart. Still, there was something almost regal about the place- in spite of its obvious flaws, this was a building that had seen the rise and fall of dozens of empires and the reigns of hundreds of kings. Azula thought it wasted on a barbarian who was no doubt incapable of learning from the mistakes of past conquerors. Anyone who styled himself after Chin the Conqueror was clearly in dire need of a history lesson.

"So that's it, huh?" Ty Lee said from beside the princess. "We've gotten in to worse. Should be fun." She took a moment to stretch her arms as if limbering them up for the day’s struggle.

Captain Shin held a hand over his brow and studied the town at the base of the fortress. "You might want to think again," he said. "There's something going on down there- I can't tell what from this distance, but there are a lot of people gathering down there."

"That could be made to work to our advantage," Azula said. "It's easy to get lost in a crowd, as long as the crowd isn't specifically looking for you."

"What do you suggest we do?" Shin asked.

Azula looked down at her clothing- filthy from her rough handling by the Dai Li and her duel with Long Feng- and smiled bitterly. "I think we're all covered in enough dirt to pass for peasants. We're going down there and seeing what all of the commotion is about. It could provide us with the cover we need."

The three walked down the rise and towards the town, attempting to seem as casual as possible. Azula couldn't really bring herself to adopt the downtrodden gait of a true peasant, but she doubted it would be an issue- most people around here wouldn't recognize royalty if it was standing directly in front of them. She did keep her head lowered, though- even to the uneducated, her golden eyes were at best a talking point and at worst a giveaway.

The outer portions of the town were empty as they made their way towards the center. As they neared the edge of the crowd, it became apparent that not everyone was there by choice- soldiers in mismatched armor stood around the edges, and every so often one of them would forcibly drag more peasants up. At the base of the path leading up to the fortress stood a handful of men in gaudy robes who appeared to be passing out crude swords and spears to the populace.

"Azula, what's going on?" Ty Lee asked quietly. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I," the princess replied. "This looks like conscription. Jian Chin is planning to attack someone- the question is, who?"

Captain Shin grabbed a nearby man by the arm. "Excuse me, friend," he said, "but my companions and I were just passing through this town when we were rounded up by soldiers and forced over here. Care to explain what's going on?"

"Well, I don't know more than you, probably," the man said. "Guys in the robes up there made a speech a bit ago, but I kind of tuned it out. Too much talk's bad for the stomach, you know. But I think I heard the word's Ba Sing Se and Earth King." His brows furrowed. "It was definitely some kind of king."

"Ba Sing Se?" Azula asked incredulously. "Jian Chin must be insane if he thinks he can conquer the Earth Kingdom capital with this rabble." Azula seemed to be cursed with an improbably high number of encounters with the mad during her travels- part of her thought darkly that the universe must have a sense of irony.

"Maybe he's not," Ty Lee said. "Long Feng got away, remember? Maybe this is where he ran to."

"You're right," Azula mused. "Maybe he intends to use Jian Chin as a puppet ruler. Arrogant fools are remarkably easy to manipulate, after all."

A shadow fell over the princess, and she turned her head to see a tall soldier looming over her. "Did I just hear you calling our glorious leader a fool, girl?" he asked ominously, fingering a warhammer that hung from his belt.

"No, no you didn't!" Ty Lee said, pushing herself in between the soldier and Azula. "My friend was just saying that you'd have to be a fool to try and fight him." She smiled widely and batted her eyes.

"Well, uh, that is true," the soldier said, rather taken aback.

"I mean, with big, strong warriors like you fighting for him, how could Jian Chin lose?" Ty Lee let her smile widen just a bit more, her eyes alight with apparent awe.

"That's very right," the soldier said. "Good day to you, ladies." He walked off, apparently continuing a patrol around the edge of the crowd. There was a noticeable bounce in his step that hadn't been there before.

"That was utterly demeaning," Azula said softly.

Ty Lee shrugged. "Well, it worked, didn't it?"

Azula sighed. "I suppose it did. Now that he's out of our way, though, we need to get inside the fortress. I have an idea." The princess began to push her way through the crowd, a confused Ty Lee and Captain Shin following behind.

She reached the robed men with the weapons- apparently Jian Chin's ministers, or whatever he had that passed for ministers- and marched up to the one in front. "Thief!" she shouted at him in a voice carefully filled with righteous indignation.

The man looked at her confusedly. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. "Now go away and let me work. These people won't arm themselves."

"Of course they won't," Azula snapped. "They can't- you and your kind have taken everything they had and used it to line your own pockets. Well, they've had enough!"

"You are raving," the official said coldly. "Guards, remove her from my presence."

"Raving, am I?" Azula shrieked. "Then explain this!" She hurled herself on the man, knocking him backwards. Quickly she pulled herself back to her feet, a pouch she'd pulled from under his robes in one hand. Raising it over her head, she tossed the pouch into the crowd. It landed in the middle of them and split open, revealing gleaming gold and silver coins.

"See!" Azula said. "That's wealth his kind stole from you- and there's more where that came from!" As one, Jian Chin's oppressed subjects- many of whom had only seen a single gold piece in their life, if they were lucky- surged forward, some going for the already spilled gold, others charging the robed officials. Azula ducked away from the budding riot and began to hurry up the pathway. Ty Lee and Shin joined her shortly.

"Very clever," Shin murmured. "Instant riot- that will take a while to calm down, even with bending."

"I know," Azula said smugly. Looking back, she saw the soldiers wading into the rioting crowd. "We'd better hurry, though- I don't know how long it will be before they have it under enough control to notice us." The other two nodded, and then they were hurrying up towards the fortress.

As they reached the top of the path, they saw that the gate was open, but guarded. Four large men with hammers stood beside it, and Azula noted their bare feet. Earthbenders.

"Who are you and what do you want here?" their officer barked at the three figures. "You can't come in- Lord Jian Chin doesn't want peasants tracking filth all over his castle."

"We're here to warn Jian Chin," Azula said. "There's a riot down there- it's completely out of control. You need to send more men at once!"

The guard laughed. "Nice try, missy. We can see the riot just fine- the soldiers who are already down there are quite capable of handling it. Now go away and leave important business to those of us who can actually think enough to handle it."

"Excellent advice," Azula said, allowing her voice to slip back into aristocratic tones as her eyes narrowed. "You should consider taking it." The princess lunged forward and shot one hand out- a thin jet of blue fire blasted from her fingertips and struck the lead guard, knocking him back against the wall where he lay still.

"Firebender!" one of the other guards shouted.

"Aren't you a master of deduction," Azula muttered. In a louder voice she shouted to her companions "Take them!"

One of the guards pulled his hammer from his belt and charged forward, but before he could go more than a few steps Ty Lee was in front of him, smiling perkily. The man stopped, jaw open- and then the acrobat felled him with three quick jabs. He collapsed to the ground, a dumbfounded expression frozen on his face.

Another guard charged towards Azula, hammer at the ready. She dodged away lightly and then caught his wrist in one hand, twisting it at an impossible angle. The man screamed and dropped his weapon, and the princess followed up with a fireblast to the face. He collapsed to the ground, screaming and rolling about as he tried to douse the flames. Behind her Azula could hear grunts and punches, and turned to see Shin in the process of disposing with the final guard.

When the guard was down, Azula motioned to her companions. "Hurry," she said. "Someone will have heard that." She ran through the open gates and came out in a wide courtyard overlooked by a balcony. A beefy man in armor and a ludicrously small crown stood there, looking down at her interestedly.

"Well, well," he rumbled. "You must be Azula. I heard you were coming."

"Jian Chin, I presume?" Azula asked as Ty Lee and Shin came up behind her. "Tell me where I can find my mother, and I'll let you live."

Jian Chin laughed. "You think you can threaten me? I could crush you with my bare hands!"

"We'll see about that," Azula muttered. Crouching low to the ground, she drew a deep breath and ignited jets of fire beneath her hands and feet. She shot into the air and flew up to the warlord's balcony, landing lightly in front of him. He stumbled backwards, a shocked look on his face.

"Still think you can crush me?" the princess asked conversationally.

"You may be strong, but you are only a child," Jian Chin growled. "I will show you true power!" Centering his stance, the warlord raised his hands clenched his fists. Beneath their feet, the entire fortress began to rumble.

"Careful with that," Azula said. "Power's no good if you don't know how to use it. Allow me to demonstrate." Quickly she brought her hands up, blue sparks flashing around them. Quicker than the eye could follow one hand shot forward, fingers extended, and a bolt of lightning lanced towards Jian Chin.

But the warlord was a powerful earthbender, and his fortress was made of stone. The balcony itself rose up to defend him, catching the bolt before it could strike. The lightning blasted the stone into pieces, but none of it struck its intended target. Then Jian Chin smiled and pushed, and the wave of rubble shot forward. Azula tried to leap out of the way, but she was slightly too slow. She was thrown off of the balcony and landed lightly in the courtyard.

"Now!" Jian Chin roared. "Before she can fly again." Azula bent down to ignite her jets again, but as she did so she saw who the warlord had been talking to- earthbenders who had stood hidden around the courtyard. The princess was still assessing this new threat when they bent down as one and pulled.

Azula braced herself for an attack, but it didn't come. Instead the ground itself turned over beneath her feet in one massive slab, and the princess of the Fire Nation found herself being hurled down a long tunnel into darkness.

///

From within her room Ursa could hear the sound of fighting and the groaning of the earth. Knowing that this was her chance, she hurried to the door and pressed an ear against it. Normally there were guards outside, of course, but they had run off to join their master when the fighting started. There was nothing keeping Ursa here now except for a lock.

Raising two fingers, the Fire Nation noblewoman focused her power and produced a small, white-hot flame. Carefully she pressed it against the lock and breathed deeply. After a few moments the smell of smoke filled the room, and the lock had melted into something utterly useless for its intended purpose. Ursa allowed herself a triumphant smile and pushed hard on the door. It gave way with ease, and she stepped out into an empty hallway.

If the strange girl who had been in her room earlier was right, then the fight Ursa was hearing was probably with Azula and whatever companions she'd brought with her. The noblewoman's feelings about her daughter were mixed- she had been Ozai's favorite and had inherited many of the darker aspects of his personality, which he'd done his best to nurture – and Ursa could not deny that she had seen a troubling reflection of some of her own traits in the young girl as well. What Azula had become in the years since Ursa’s banishment might well be something terrible indeed. Even so, she was still Ursa's child as much as Zuko, and it wasn't in her nature to abandon her if she had any say in the matter.

The shadow girl had called Ursa weak and powerless, but with the combination of her own escape and her daughter's peril she had a goal that gave her strength. For the first time in years, Ursa felt hope. Surely if the girl knew that, she would be furious. The girl had tried to destroy her with doubt, but she'd only strengthened her resolve. For all her talk, she obviously didn't understand the Fire Nation royal family at all, and certainly not the woman who had once assassinated a Fire Lord to spare her children.

Filled with purpose, Ursa walked down the hall towards the sounds of fighting.

///

And now the climax begins! Mostly this is pretty straightforward, but a few talking points are noteworthy here. First, we see that Wei Ming overplayed her hand in her taunting of Ursa; attempting to break her with fear and despair, instead she kindled a determined fire. My version of Ursa isn’t the warrior her husband and children are, but she’s still a very dangerous woman and now has incentive to bring that side of herself to the fore.

And Jian Chin’s own incompetence at ruling bits him indirectly in this chapter as well. He mostly rules with brute force when he deigns to notice his subjects at all, and the result is a ramshackle domain held together mostly by violence and the threat thereof. Most of these people are about a hairsbreadth away from open revolt on the best of days, kept from doing so only by their fear of their overlord, but with Jian Chin himself nowhere to be seen, Azula was able to read the situation right and whip up a riot with minimal effort. After all, unlike her adversary she knows that sometimes finesse can get you what brute force can’t.

Of course, Jian Chin isn’t without resources either, and now Azula has fallen (literally) into a trap. You can probably guess just who is waiting for her at the other end…

-MasterGhandalf

 

Chapter 20: Duel in the Dark

Azula fell down a long tunnel, rolling and beating against the sides of it as she descended. None of the injuries were particularly damaging, but the constant jolting and bumping kept her from concentrating enough to firebend, or even take much in of her surroundings. All she could tell was that she was falling at an incline through a tight space. Finally Azula was spilled out onto a level surface.

Quickly the princess scrambled to her feet, looking around intently to try and understand where she was. Azula could feel that she stood in a large open space, but the darkness still hung too thick for her eyes to make out any more details. Raising one hand she called a bright blue flame into it, illuminating the area around her enough to confirm her suspicions. She was in a large cavern, obviously some distance beneath Jian Chin's fortress.

Suddenly she was struck from behind and sent sprawling facedown on the stone, her fire sputtering and flickering out. Azula could feel the weight of whatever had hit her resting on her back, and then a hand grabbed her hair and lifted her head slightly up.

"You're mine now, princess," Wei Ming's voice hissed in her ear. "Tell me- how does it feel to be helpless?"

///

Ty Lee's mouth opened in a stunned cry as the earth swallowed Azula up. Before the ground had even stopped moving she launched herself into the air, jumping on ledges and the heads of startled soldiers as she made straight for Jian Chin. The warlord stood with an easy confidence and directed the men who stood on the balcony with him to engage the acrobat. His expression changed to terror as she lightly dodged their attacks and felled each in turn with a series of quick blows. Blanching, Jian Chin ducked through the door at the rear of the balcony and pulled up a wall of stone to seal it off.

Before Ty Lee could even attempt to react she was forced to dodge a very large rock that came sailing past her head. Apparently with their leader no longer on the balcony the other earthbenders were now perfectly willing to open fire on it in an attempt to pulverize the acrobat before she could take down any more of them. A second boulder- larger even than the first- came shooting straight for Ty Lee, and she barely managed to leap off the balcony before it was smashed to pieces.

She really didn't envy whatever soldier got stuck with the job of telling Jian Chin about that particular bit of unplanned remodeling.

Ty Lee landed on the ground of the courtyard and dodged the falling rubble as she ran over to stand beside Captain Shin. Looking up, she saw several of the surviving earthbenders leap down from the walls and land across from them, pulling up several boulders and preparing to launch them. "What do we do?" she asked quietly. "Azula's gone!"

"Keep fighting," Shin said simply. "Stay behind me!" Ty Lee ducked low behind the captain as the earthbenders launched their projectiles. Concentrating intently, he blasted each with carefully positioned fireballs, causing them to explode harmlessly before reaching their targets. Shin grunted. "I can't keep this up forever!"

"On it." Ty Lee sprang to her feet and ran forward as the earthbenders 'reloaded'. Dodging under the floating rocks, she came up and managed to immobilize two of them before the rest retreated backwards and formed the earth around them into a wall. The acrobat hurried back to Shin.

"Quickly," the captain said, motioning towards the door to the main part of the building. "Inside!" He and Ty Lee both turned and ran, reaching the door and slamming it behind them before the earthbenders could react.

Both paused for breath inside the fortress's entrance hall. "I bet they won't shoot any more big rocks at us while we're in here," Ty Lee said, "but they'll be coming though that door in just a minute. You're the officer- what do you think we should do?"

"All we can," Shin said. "Find Princess Azula and Lady Ursa, and get them out of here. And if we see Jian Chin- take him down."

"Sounds like a plan." Ty Lee and the captain nodded at each other, and then together hurried further into the fortress.

///

"I've been looking forward to this more than you can ever know," Wei Ming hissed in Azula's ear.

"I'll bet you have." With a sudden jerk, Azula arched her body and rolled over. Wei Ming was taken by surprise and knocked off of her back, and both girls quickly pulled themselves to their feet. The princess lit a flame in her palm and held it up again- in its light she could see her nemesis standing a short distance from her, both blades drawn.

"I should have known you wouldn't go down without a fight," Wei Ming said. "But you can't win here. There's no sunlight in these caverns to fuel your firebending, princess- and even if there was, how could you hope to defeat someone you can't even see?" Stepping away from the light, the shadow-girl melded with the darkness of the cavern and vanished. "This is my domain."

"Don't push your luck," Azula said. "I defeated the Avatar in a cave, after all. You took me by surprise once- why not just quit while you’re ahead and spare yourself a lot of pain?"

"I will never quit," Wei Ming's voice hissed from seemingly every direction. "Not until you're dead!" Azula strained her eyes and more importantly her ears, attempting to pin down her foe's location, but when the attack came it still caught her by surprise. Seemingly from nowhere the other girl slammed into her side with a flying kick and the princess was sent sprawling to the ground. She sat up slowly, wincing- she was pretty sure she'd heard something crack when Wei Ming hit her. Either way, her side hurt.

Bringing one hand up, Azula launched a jet of flames towards the direction from which Wei Ming had come. The only response was taunting laughter. "Look at the perfect little prodigy," the shadow's voice said. "She can't even hit me."

Azula knew that she needed to keep Wei Ming talking; she might not be able to see her, but if she could hear her she’d have a way to track her movements anyway. "Why do you hate me so much?" she demanded. "I don't even know you!"

"But I know you," Wei Ming hissed. "Oh yes, I know you, Azula. Raised in the lap of luxury, taught that all the world revolved around you, your whole livelihood built on the suffering of others. What did the sacking of a thousand villages mean to you- you never had to experience pain? What did the conquest of a peaceful kingdom mean to you- you never had to deal with being under anyone's control but your own. Spirits, you make me sick! But you're going to learn about suffering now, princess- I'm going to teach you. And you will beg for death before the end!"

"I never beg," Azula gasped out through the pain in her side, and launched another fireblast, more intense than the last. She thought she'd gotten a good read on Wei Ming's position, and smiled when she was rewarded with her enemy’s enraged and painful shout. Looking out into the darkness, she could see the shadow casting off her burning cloak and hurling it aside.

"You will pay for that," Wei Ming snarled.

"So you can burn," Azula said as casually as she could under the circumstances. She pulled herself back up to her feet and stood with one hand on her aching side. "I figured your immunity wasn't absolute when you said why you brought me down here- to weaken my firebending. Why would someone who is impervious to bending care to do that? It just needs to be intense enough that you can't bat it aside." Azula’s eyes narrowed, and she allowed a cold smile onto her face. “In fact, I don’t think you’re nearly as powerful as you let on. You’re fast, strong, and skilled, but not that much more than me. You can do that vanishing trick wherever there’s darkness, which I have to admit is impressive, and you can knock firebending out of your way, but I think that’s it. If you had any more power over shadow, then down here, in this cave, you’d have had plenty of opportunity to use it. Maybe compared to most people you’re something scary, but I’m not most people, and compared to someone who’s fought the Avatar, I just don’t think your little tricks measure up.”

Wei Ming snarled inarticulately and seemed to pull the shadows back around herself, vanishing completely from Azula's sight. The princess spun around, trying to guess from what quarter the attack would come, but the other girl appeared suddenly by her side and caught her free arm in an unbreakable grip. Pulling Azula backwards, she slammed her forward so that she struck the rock wall of the cavern head on. The princess stumbled backwards, shaking her head to clear it, and struck back, catching Wei Ming's arm with a fire dagger. Smoke rose and the shadow screamed, her violet eyes blazing with hatred. Pulling one of her knives from her cloak, she lunged forward faster than the eye could follow and pinned Azula's shirt against the cave wall.

Pulling herself up, the princess kicked out and launched a fireblast from her feet towards Wei Ming. The shadow dodged around them and struck Azula's legs hard, causing them to drop painfully back against the wall. The violet-eyed girl drew her other knife and advanced to within inches of Azula's face.

"You're going to suffer, like I suffered," she said. "I lost everything that I ever loved, bit by bit, but that's not something you can understand. You don't love anything or anyone but yourself, do you? So I'm going to make you feel pain in every way I know how- and then I'll break your mind, like mine was broken in Ba Sing Se, and you'll have to watch helplessly as I bring your wretched nation to its knees. I'm not sure I have the technique quite right, of course, but we have time- and there's no one here to hear you scream."

"And they call me crazy," Azula muttered. As Wei Ming recoiled from that, the princess formed a ball of fire in her free hand and prepared to slam it into the side of her opponent's face. Seeing what was happening, Wei Ming caught her wrist and forced the flame down against the wall, and then grabbed Azula's head and slammed it back into the rock. The princess shook herself, her vision gone blurry and disoriented.

Wei Ming brought her knife up. "Now, now," she said softly. "We can't have that, can we? It's time for you to learn something your parents clearly never bothered to teach you- misbehaving children must be punished." Quicker than Azula's blurred vision could follow she raised her knife and sliced down across the side of the princess's face. Azula could feel the searing pain lance along the wound and the blood that dripped from it.

Clearly this approach wasn’t working- in this darkness, Wei Ming was so difficult to follow that countering her attacks was next to impossible. But the fact that she was vulnerable to particularly intense bending gave Azula an idea, even if executing it felt uncomfortably like a last result. She'd never tried the technique she was about to attempt, or even heard of it being done, and she knew full well that it might kill her. Even if it did, it would end things on her terms, not the horrible half-life of which Wei Ming spoke. Screwing up her will and fighting to keep the blurriness at bay, the princess began to move her free hand through a familiar pattern.

"Really, Azula," Wei Ming laughed, "flailing helplessly just doesn't suit you."

"I'm not flailing," Azula snarled, "and I'm never helpless." Her hand came up, trailing sparks, and Wei Ming had just enough time for her eyes to widen in horror before Azula seized her hand and released the lightning charge.

Wei Ming screamed in agony, and after a moment Azula joined her. The lightning shot through both their bodies, filling the air about them with a strange blue-white glow. For an instant they seemed to hang there suspended in time, not enemies but two girls linked by soul-numbing agony. Finally Azula could contain it no longer. She released Wei Ming's hand and her own concentration. The lightning exploded, and the shadow was hurled across the cavern where she lay in a crumpled heap. The princess was forced back against the wall, and her head struck back against the rock. She knew no more.

///

Captain Shin looked slowly around the corner, making certain that none of Jian Chin's earthbenders were in the hall ahead of them. When he saw that it was clear, he motioned to Ty Lee and they both went down it.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" the acrobat asked. "I don't mean to be rude, but we've never been here before and it's starting to feel like we're lost."

"I'm hoping that if we get far enough away from the fighting we can catch one of them alone," Shin said. "Then we can make them tell us where Ursa is being kept- and maybe even where Jian Chin sent Azula."

"Oh," Ty Lee said. "That makes sense."

Shin suddenly stopped and held up a hand for quiet. A figure in a green hooded robe had just come out of a side passage and was hurrying in their direction. The captain grabbed Ty Lee and pulled her back against the wall, and as the figure approached he jumped forward and grabbed its arm.

What happened next was something that neither Shin nor Ty Lee expected. The figure's free hand came up and released a jet of orange flames that were mostly absorbed by the captain's armor, but still sent him stumbling back towards the wall. He looked up in surprise and prepared to firebend himself, but at that moment the figure cast back her hood and Ty Lee's jaw dropped. She quickly interspersed herself between the two firebenders.

"Lady Ursa, remember me?" She asked rather frantically. "I'm Ty Lee, Azula's friend. We're here to rescue you!"

"Ty Lee?" Ursa looked from the acrobat to the captain in bewilderment. "I honestly didn't expect to see you here. I would apologize for firebending, but your companion attacked me first."

"I thought you were one of Jian Chin's people," Shin admitted. "Really, it is I who should apologize, my lady."

"Time for that later," Ursa said. "We need to get out of here before Jian Chin realizes I'm missing- he's fixated on the idea of making me his queen, and he'll tear the fortress apart to find me."

Ty Lee made a face, but Shin shook his head. "Too late- the warlord knew we were coming, and he's done something to Princess Azula. We need to find her before we can leave."

"So Azula is here," Ursa said, half to herself. "That shadow person was right, then."

"Shadow?" Ty Lee asked. "Wei Ming is here too? This is really bad- we need to find Azula fast. Wei Ming's crazy, and she hates Azula- and just about everything else."

"Too late," a deep voice rumbled. The three spun towards the sound- Jian Chin himself stood there behind several dozen of his soldiers. Crouching, they all threw out their hands and strange-looking stone bars shot forward. They slammed into the wall, trapping Ty Lee, Shin, and Ursa. Jian Chin stepped forward and regarded them with mock sadness that seemed slightly genuine when he looked at Ursa.

"A pity it had to end this way," he said. "I am disappointed in you, my dear- I thought you would have realized the glory you could have at my side." He shook his head and motioned to his men. "Bring them to the courtyard- the other two will die there as an example of what happens to those who defy me, but Lady Ursa will come with us to Ba Sing Se. Seeing me claim my throne may change her mind- and if not, then she will learn she has no real choice in the matter."

As the guards extracted the three prisoners from the wall, they could do little more than struggle helplessly.

///

Azula groaned and came back to herself slowly in the dark. She could feel pain lancing up and down her body- from the lightning in general, but also from her side and the back of the head- and her face. Bringing up her free hand, she felt the still bleeding wound, a bloody line running along the side of her face from temple to chin. Some part of her was able to appreciate the irony- no matter what happened, that was going to leave a scar.

Pulling away from the jagged cut, she reached up and pulled Wei Ming's knife from her other sleeve. Her arm was sore after having been held in the same position for some time, and she rubbed it for a few moments. Then, looking down at the knife, Azula thought of its owner. Igniting a small fireball for light, she stepped forward slowly, looking around and wincing with every other motion.

She saw Wei Ming laying in a crumpled heap nearby. Azula hurried over and bent down over her enemy, to make certain she was dead- and then pulled back in amazement. At first she thought it was only a trick of the flickering blue firelight, but no – it was becoming increasingly obvious that Wei Ming's appearance was changing before her eyes. The unnatural pallor was deepening to a more normal tan color, and her hair and clothes were losing that otherworldly sheen; soon, they were no longer a shadowy cloak, shirt, and pants, but merely dingy brown rags. The strange girl coughed and opened her eyes, and Azula saw that they were no longer violet, but a common Earth Kingdom green.

"Where- where am I?" Wei Ming gasped out. Then her eyes focused on Azula and narrowed with familiar hatred. "You!" she snarled and tried to lunge, but before she could even pull herself all the way to her feet she collapsed, shaking. The lightning had done its work- whatever strange power she possessed had absorbed much of the damage, but what got through was enough. Azula guessed that the girl had minutes left, at most.

In that time, the princess needed answers. "Who are you?" she asked, steadying herself against a stalagmite.

"My name is… I'm not sure," the other girl said, a confused look on her face. "Joo Dee? No, that's not right. I remember being called that, though, and then I was left alone in the dark, and someone else came and opened me up and poured herself inside. Wei Ming? No, that's her name. Not mine." She doubled over, coughing. “Not mine,” she finally repeated in a whisper.

Azula didn't know what to think of this person who lay trembling on the ground before her. Wei Ming had been a terrible enemy, but in defeat there was something about her that was pathetic- almost sad, in a way. Was this what Zuko and the waterbender thought about me after the last Agni Kai? The princess wondered. It was a disturbing thought.

"You were a Joo Dee?" she asked absently, forcing dark thoughts away. "That's how you knew Long Feng. Where is he? Did he put you up to this?"

"Long Feng?" The girl seemed to think for a minute, as if trying to match that name to a face. "He's dead. I killed him- we killed him. He was part of my revenge, like you. But all that's so fuzzy now."

"You're dying," Azula said without sympathy, but also without malice. She had no pity for her foe, but seeing her like this made it hard to find any joy in her downfall.

"I am?" the girl asked. "Yes- I feel it. You got me pretty good, there?" She raised a trembling finger and pointed at Azula's face. "But I got you too. For the rest of your life you'll look in the mirror and know that… you're not perfect, that… an Earth Kingdom peasant could do that to you. I guess that's a pretty good revenge, huh?"

She coughed again- harder this time- and then sank down to the cavern floor. Azula listened to her breathing, and could tell it was slowly fading. Then the girl- Wei Ming or whoever she really was- looked up and smiled. "I remember now," she said, so softly that Azula had to strain her ears to hear. "I'm…" her voice trailed off before she could say her real name. One final breath rattled in her throat, and then she stilled, dead at last. Her features seemed at peace in a way they hadn't been in life, and that sad smile was still on her lips. The princess remembered the death of General Azun, and the ghastly smile that corpse had worn, but this was different somehow. Wei Ming's body didn't seem horrible like the general's had- just sad.

Azula surprised herself by bending down and shutting her enemy's green eyes. As she did so, she sank to her knees, suddenly overwhelmed by emotions she couldn’t name, and a feeling of overwhelming sorrow, though whether for her adversary or herself she couldn’t say. She didn't know how long she remained there, kneeling beside the body of someone who'd been trying her hardest to kill her. Maybe it was because of the fact that she was too tired- and in too much pain- to stand. Or maybe some part of her felt pity for the girl who'd been torn from her home and turned into one of Long Feng's soulless puppets before being taken over by some other force to be used as a tool for unknown ends.

For, Azula realized in a sudden moment of disturbing clarity, she too knew what is was to be another’s tool, and to be cast aside when one’s purpose had been served.

"Banish such thoughts, my daughter," a cold voice said from behind her. Azula turned slowly, somehow not surprised at all to see her father standing there. "Wei Ming was your enemy- now she is no more. That is all there is to it. Forget her."

"I can't." Azula touched the still-bleeding cut on her face. "She nearly killed me, Father- a peasant nearly killed me. That's not how you said life was supposed to work. We were the strong, and we had the right do whatever we pleased."

"We are the strong, Azula- don't let one aberration convince you otherwise. See what these peasants become without us. Clearly they need to be ruled over by a stronger hand- our hand."

"Or maybe if we'd learned to moderate ourselves we wouldn't create enemies like her," Azula said. "All my life, I thought I was as close to perfect as was possible. What did it matter if I hurt someone else, or even killed them? They weren't important. What could they do to me? Well, I've been learning the hard way that that isn't true. Mai and Ty Lee, Zuko and the waterbender girl- they all defeated me, left me convinced that everyone who knew me was plotting against me. But today I nearly died at the hands of an Earth Kingdom peasant I'd never met before, purely on the basis of my reputation. She didn’t hate me because of something I’d done – that, I could understand. She hated me because of what I was, and what I stood for. That's the sort of thing that makes you think, Father. And what I've realized is this- if we act like tyrants, we create our own enemies. Sure, a lot of them may be pathetic, but somewhere out there is someone who could defeat us. If we want to have long, health lives and reigns, maybe we shouldn't go out of our way to give those people reasons to hate us. You'd still be Fire Lord- and alive- today if it hadn't been for the War giving the Avatar reason to come after you."

Ozai scowled. "Of all of my family, Azula, I never thought to hear you espouse such weak-minded drivel! Clearly you've gotten soft and weak since we last talked."

"Or maybe for the first time in my life I'm seeing things clearly," Azula said. "I let myself be blinded by arrogance and selfishness, but you yourself taught me that a good ruler sees what must be done clearly, without concern for personal attachments. You meant attachment to anyone but yourself, but I see now that's an attitude that could kill you. I will not repeat your mistakes."

"Insolent little girl!" Ozai snarled, raising his hand to strike her. But as it came down, Azula caught his wrist.

"You said that you would always be a part of me," she hissed, "But that doesn't mean I have to listen to you. You're just a figment of my mind- go, and leave me alone!"

"Never!" Ozai snarled.

Azula narrowed her eyes, focusing all of her considerable will. "Leave. Now. You are dead and gone, killed by the same girl who now lies dead in this cave, this peasant in whom I’ve seen more of myself than I’d wanted to admit. You have no power over me any longer. After all my life, I am finally free of you. Go!"

She closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, Ozai was gone without even a shimmer in the air to mark his passage.

"Goodbye, father," she muttered. Climbing slowly to her feet, wincing at the pain, Azula looked up at the roof of the cavern. Her mother was up there somewhere, and Ty Lee- and Jian Chin. She still had a goal that was unfulfilled, and one enemy who hadn't yet been faced.

Breathing deeply, Azula focused her will and forced intense heat out through her fingers. Pressing her hands against the cavern wall she began to climb, blasting her own handholds from the rock as needed. It was difficult work, and she had to stop several times to rest, but she refused to give up now, to surrender to pain or exhaustion. Whatever else she had become, she was still a princess of the Fire Nation, and she would not give in.

Steeling her will yet again, ignoring everything that might distract her from her goal, Azula climbed.

///

And so ends Wei Ming, and her death marks a turning point in Azula’s life. Wei Ming is fundamentally a tragic character, and her end reflects that, coming back to herself only to die moments later, barely even given time to remember her own name – honestly, there probably wasn’t enough of the original girl left to keep her alive for very long after the spirit departed, even discounting the lightning damage.

Their fight, and final conversation, awakened something in Azula, though – for the first time, she’s grasped at least part of the importance of conscience, and though she remains incredibly loathe to admit it, managed empathy for an enemy. As has been a recurring motif for Path, this inner conflict played out in Azula’s interactions with a hallucination, in this case of Ozai, and by refusing to allow him any more influence on her life, she has crossed another significant milestone. The Wei Ming fight itself was intended to be vicious and brutal, two skilled, deadly young women trying their hardest to kill each other, and yes, Azula is going to be carrying that scar with her for the rest of her life. She and Zuko have something in common, now.

Two enemies are down, but one remains. Azula has one major duel yet ahead of her before this fic ends, and Jian Chin, who has now captured Ursa, Ty Lee, and Shin, is her foe. That, however, is a story for next chapter…

-MasterGhandalf

 

Chapter 21: The Warlord

Hands bound by stone shackles, Ursa was escorted into the fortress's courtyard, Ty Lee and the soldier whose name she hadn't caught at her side. Despite her situation, she held herself erect and still, not allowing the warlord's men the satisfaction of seeing that she was shaken. The soldier was glaring at his captors with an expression that could have set a tapestry on fire, and Ty Lee's face was scrunched up in concentration as she wiggled her hands, trying to pull herself loose- to no avail. Finally the three captors were marched through the door and into the courtyard, Ursa wincing at the unexpectedly bright light. Jian Chin stood there, flanked by his closest lackeys. He shook his head sadly as they approached, though the effect was belied by his victorious smile.

"I'm disappointed, Ursa," he said. "You should have known better by now than to try and escape me."

"My only regret is that I didn't try sooner," she replied coldly. "Now tell me- where is my daughter?"

"Dead, most likely," Jian Chin said, waving the question away. "Not my problem any longer, and that's all I care about. You shouldn't miss her, either- evil little creep, from all I hear. The world is better off without her."

Ursa's eyes narrowed dangerously and her hands began to smoke. "The world should consider itself fortunate that you were never a parent, Jian Chin," she said. "What lies between Azula and myself isn't your concern- she is my daughter, and if you hurt her, I swear I will kill you."

Jian Chin laughed. "Really, Ursa- if you were capable of killing me you would have done it years ago. Enough of this talk!" He raised a hand and motioned his earthbenders forward. "Kill the two intruders. When they're dead, we're going to go to Ba Sing Se and bring it down. I will be king, and then you will be my lords."

The earthbenders stepped forward and planted their feet, drawing sharp stones up from the ground and pointing them towards Ty Lee and the captive soldier. The acrobat began struggling more intensely against her bonds, while the soldier simply faced forward, face expressionless. Ursa closed her eyes and looked away.

The ground rumbled beneath their feet. Jian Chin and his men stumbled backwards as a crack formed in the middle of the courtyard and blue-white light flashed in its depths. "What's going on here?" the warlord bellowed. "Who's doing that?" his men shook their heads confusedly.

The ground rumbled again and then the courtyard burst open, cobblestones shooting into the air along with bolts of lightning. A figure pulled itself slowly from the hole, wreathed in fire. Her clothes were torn and filthy, an ugly gash ran down one side of her face, and as she pulled herself to her feet she seemed to hold herself strangely, as though she'd been injured. Despite it all, Ursa recognized her daughter.

Azula turned slowly to face Jian Chin, the expression on her face so terrible that the warlord backed up a step before he caught himself. "Your friend failed," she said quietly. "Wei Ming is dead. Release my mother and my companions now, or join her. Your choice."

Seeing Azula for the first time in seven years brought a storm of emotions to life in Ursa. All too well she remembered the child who had from an early age internalized everything that Ozai believed about the place of royalty and the Fire Nation in the world and the ruthless methods necessary to ensure that. But at the same time other, more primal instincts were stirring. Whatever else she was, Azula was her daughter, and if Jian Chin wanted to hurt her, he would have to go through Ursa to do it.

Unfortunately, the fact that she was bound rendered her little more than a helpless observer to the coming battle. Ursa could do nothing but stand anxiously and watch.

Jian Chin backed away slowly, his eyes never leaving Azula's. "Kill her," he shouted to his earthbenders when he was safely out of range. They raised their boulders and prepared to launch them, but Azula only laughed. The sound was high and cold, and it set everyone in the courtyard on edge.

"Coward," the princess hissed, and Jian Chin recoiled as though struck. "I'm one girl, weak and injured, and you hide behind your men like I'm the Avatar himself come to punish you. If you had any real courage you'd kill me yourself so that everyone could see that you're greater than the infamous conqueror of Ba Sing Se, but apparently you're so afraid of losing to me that you won't dare. You're a disgrace to the title of warlord."

"Liar!" Jian Chin roared. "Call me coward again and I'll crush you with such force that they won't even be able to identify your remains for proper cremation!"

"Tedious threats," Azula said. "They'd be more effective if I actually thought you were capable of following up on them. But when I look at you, I don't see a fearsome warrior who will go out to bring the Earth Kingdom to its knees. No, I see a weak and foolish man who lets his own province fall to ruin because he's too busy dreaming of a war he'll never have the courage to actually wage. You're pathetic, Jian Chin- but then, what should I expect from a man who takes his name and inspiration from one of history's most spectacular failures?"

The warlord's mouth worked incoherently for several moments, and then he strode forward purposefully, seizing a warhammer from one of his men and brushing the rest aside. "I will destroy you so utterly that when history speaks of you from this day on out it will tell only of how you fell at my hands," Jian Chin snarled.

"Dream on," Azula replied.

Beside her Ursa could hear Ty Lee mouthing words of encouragement to her friend. The Fire Lord's former wife paused a moment to take in the whole scene- the two combatants, the guards, the other captives- before breathing deeply and focusing all of her will into blasting herself free of her bindings.

///

As Jian Chin stepped forward to face her, Azula was keenly aware of the pain lancing through her body and the exhaustion that threatened to claim her. Blasting her way free of the cave had taken a great deal of her strength- willpower alone was all that kept her on her feet now, and considerable as that was it wasn't infinite. Despite his lack of subtlety, Jian Chin's raw power would have made him a formidable opponent at the best of times- she didn't stand a chance of overpowering him now.

That meant she had to outthink him instead- and Azula already had a general idea what she needed to do. The trick would be executing it.

Jian Chin roared an inarticulate battle cry and lunged forward, pulling a large boulder free of the ground and batting it at his opponent with the hammer. Azula ducked to one side, wincing at the pain in her ribs, and allowed the projectile to smash into the wall of the main fortress. She looked up at the warlord and shook her head. "You'll have to do a better job than that."

The warlord raised his hammer high and struck the ground with it, sending out shockwaves that rocked the courtyard. Azula saw many of the soldiers standing there rocking back and forth on their feet, trying to stay stable. She decided it was best to avoid the problem entirely- focusing what remained of her power, she launched herself into the air and landed atop the outer wall.

"You can't escape from me up there, girl!" Jian Chin roared. "I'm an earthbender and this whole fortress is made of stone- it's all my domain. There is no escape." To prove his point, he dropped into a crouch and shoved his hands high in the air above him. A column of stone shot from the ground and curved up towards the wall, striking it near the top and breaking off a large amount of stone that rained to the ground below. Azula ran further along the wall to escape the attack.

"Very impressive," she called down. "It would be better if you'd actually managed to hit me, but you're definitely improving." Jian Chin shouted again and began hurling boulder after boulder at Azula. She ducked back and forth to avoid each one, ignoring the pain slowly building in the back of her awareness. He was doing exactly what she wanted now.

The fortress which the warlord had so foolishly claimed was built over a network of caves- Azula knew that very well, having just recently been in one of them. Doubtless years of earthbenders had shored the place up to keep it from collapsing, but unlike a firebender, Jian Chin couldn't create the element he needed to fight from his own body's energy. All of those projectiles he was throwing were coming from the stone that shored the fortress up- now all the princess had to do was strike the right spot and bring the whole unstable mess collapsing on his head.

Of course, the trick would be doing it without killing herself, her mother, and Ty Lee in the process. But then, Azula had always been good at tricks…

A flying boulder suddenly clipped her shoulder, bringing her to her knees with a pained cry. She heard Ty Lee's startled shout from the courtyard below, but she ignored it, focusing entirely on the here and now of the battle. The sound of rocks grinding reached her ears, and she looked up to see Jian Chin rising to the top of the wall, riding on a pillar of earth.

"Nowhere to run, little girl," he said. "You're mine now."

"Never," Azula said. She hurled herself out over the courtyard, catching herself in midair with fire jets and drifting gently to the ground. Jian Chin looked down at her in bafflement, and the princess shot him a proud smirk. Then she took careful aim and blasted the bottom of the wall with all the strength she could muster.

She really thought that lightning would have been better than fire for that particular task, but she didn't trust herself to handle that dangerous form of bending with her failing strength. Still Azula had to admit that the results were every bit as spectacular as she could have hoped. The fire exploded when it struck the wall, tearing a massive hole both above ground and, more importantly, below. It pushed the already unstable earth to the breaking point, and with a groan the wall and half the fortress slid down the cliff side.

Jian Chin's eyes widened in sudden fear as he realized what was happening. The warlord barely had time for a panicked shout before his support was torn from under him and he went sailing through the air. Azula rushed as close to the edge of the destruction as she dared and looked down. She saw Jian Chin land on the cliff side amid a rain of stone which quickly buried him. His final cry faded with distance as he fell, and then was suddenly cut short.

Azula turned slowly to face Jian Chin's surviving soldiers and their three captives, all of whom were staring at her in openmouthed awe. Once she would have enjoyed those expressions, considered them little more than her proper due, but now she simply lacked the energy to focus on or appreciate such things. With her opponent gone, there was nothing to keep exhaustion and pain at bay.

Azula collapsed onto the shattered ground of the courtyard and darkness swallowed her.

///

At the sight of her daughter's fall, energy jolted through Ursa's body. Fire shot from her hands with incredible force, bursting through the stone bonds that held her. Shaking herself easily free of the nerveless grip of the soldier who held her, she rushed across the courtyard and knelt at Azula's side. She was still breathing, barely, but the combination of injuries and sheer exhaustion seemed to have taken their toll.

A shadow fell over her and Ursa looked up to see Jian Chin’s second-in-command, Xang, his expression unreadable. She rose quickly to her feet and held out a hand in warning. "One step closer and I'll burn you," she said. "All I want now is to leave with my daughter."

To her surprise, the man nodded. "And all we want now is for you to be gone. You firebenders are all trouble, whether as enemies or captives. We don't want anything more to do with you. Go, now, and don't return."

Ursa raised an eyebrow. "What, no mad avenging of your fallen lord?"

"Jian Chin was lord because he was strongest and because he paid," Xang said. "Now he's gone and we have no lord. There was no loyalty we felt to him powerful enough to bind us to a dead man."

Ursa nodded. "I understand." She looked over at Ty Lee and the other firebender. "Release them too, or we don't have a bargain."

Xang nodded and motioned to his men. They snapped their fists together and the stone bindings fell to dust. Ty Lee hurried over and knelt beside Azula. "Is she going to be all right?" the acrobat asked Ursa.

"I don't know," the noblewoman admitted. "We need to get her away from here." She glanced over at Ty Lee's companion. "I'm sorry, sir- I didn't catch your name."

"Captain Shin of the Fire Navy at your service, my lady," he said with a polite bow. "I agree that we need to remove the princess from this place. With the warlord dead, I don't believe it's completely stable- literally or figuratively." He bent down and picked Azula up in his arms. "I'm the strongest- I'll carry her."

The three hurried to the gate- which now hung crookedly open after the groundquake Azula had triggered- and stepped outside. They walked down the path and through the small town, which was in a state of chaos. They had largely avoided being hit by falling debris due to their position, but everyone had seen the collapse and wondered what it could mean. Shin's military bearing and the flame that Ursa held in one hand, however, prevented anyone from bothering them.

They made it through the town and into the forest. There Shin laid Azula down and knelt beside her, studying her intently. "Can you tell what's wrong?" Ty Lee asked. "Her aura looks funny- all flickery-like."

"I don't know about auras," Shin said, "but I know a little about battlefield injuries, and this doesn't look good." He ran a hand along Azula's head. "She hit this pretty good, and from the way she was acting I think she's got damaged ribs too. The cut on her face is nasty but not dangerous unless it gets infected. The real problem is that she used up too much energy firebending her way out of the cave and then fighting Jian Chin. Trying to bend at all with the head injury would have been bad for her, and to fight like she did – well, I’m not sure her chi could endure what she did to it. I can't say anything more for sure- I'm no healer. Just a soldier who's seen a lot of people get hurt before."

"Do you think she'll make it?" Ty Lee asked, her tone uncharacteristically subdued.

"I don't know," Shin admitted.

Sudden fury awoke in Ursa- not at Shin, but at Azula's condition in general. "She will," the noblewoman said, kneeling at her daughter's side. "I don't know why but she came halfway across the world to find me and save me from Jian Chin, and she's my daughter. That's enough for me, no matter what else she did or Ozai may have made of her. She will live!"

"Lady Ursa…" Captain Shin began to say, but if there was anything else Ursa didn't hear him. Not entirely certain what she was doing, she placed her hand on Azula's chest and bent her will on her, focusing all of her royal willpower and years of pent-up frustration on one idea- that Azula would survive.

For a moment that might have been an eternity Ursa knelt there with her daughter; the two of them seemed to hang suspended in a void, alone and entirely apart from any greater world. She could feel Azula’s heartbeat, hear the breath that was becoming ever more faint, and then she became aware of something else as well, a heat that played along the back of her neck and seemed to be only the edge of some far greater power. The sun, Ursa realized slowly, the greatest fire of all, an inferno that would blind anyone who stared at it for too long, and yet without which life could not exist. A single source with many aspects, yet upon which all the world depended, which had the power to destroy… and to create.

And all at once, Ursa drew in a deep breath and realized she understood.

Sudden brilliant yellow light burst into being around her hand and passed over Azula's body. Shin and Ty Lee fell back, shielding their eyes, as the glow burned brighter and brighter. Ursa sat perfectly still in the center of it, unwilling and unable to break contact with her daughter, caught in the shining link that bound herself, Azula, and the sun. Finally the light faded and she let her breath out in a long sigh. Ursa blinked slowly, looked down at Azula- and was stunned.

The cut on her face was gone, replaced by a jagged but well-healed scar. Her skin had become a slightly more healthy color and her breathing more even, and Ursa could see that rather than being unconscious, Azula was now merely sleeping. A slight smile, untouched by her years of ambition and hate, curved her lips. It was just an illusion, Ursa knew, brought on by pleasant dreams, and she honestly didn't know what kind of person her daughter would be when she awoke. It had been too many years since they'd last met.

"That was amazing," Ty Lee said, awe in her voice. "How did you do that?"

"Impossible," Captain Shi breathed. "Firebending cannot heal- it is a weapon that only has the power to destroy."

"I don't know," Ty Lee said. "I heard Zuko once talking about something he learned during the War- that fire is life and death, creation and destruction, all in balance, or something like that. Maybe this is something similar?"

"Zuko," Ursa said. She knew that her son was Fire Lord now, but little else of what had happened in the years since her banishment. Suddenly she missed him more than she could put into words. "I'm ready to go home."

"I think we all are," Ty Lee said. "Let's wait here for Azula to sleep off that healing, and then we'll start heading west."

"My men should have disposed of the Dai Li by now," Shin said. "We can meet up with them up the coast. Jian Chin may be gone, but in these lands we can use the extra protection."

"Agreed," Ursa said. Standing slowly, she turned and looked towards the west- towards the son and the city she couldn't see, but knew were there. "I'm coming," she whispered.

Behind her, Azula slept peacefully for the first time in months.

///

The defeat of Jian Chin marks the final duel Azula faces in this fic, and though she doesn’t realize it, she uses much the same tactic Aang employs against Zhao in “The Deserter”. How do you defeat an opponent you know is stronger than you, but isn’t smarter? You trick them into defeating themselves. At the end of her strength, Azula couldn’t match Jian Chin blow for blow, but she could use his own strength against him – which is also a rather waterbender way to fight, not that she’d care for the comparison!

We never see firebending healing in the show (though the old Fire Sage in Korra performs a somewhat similar technique), but it always made a certain amount of sense to me that it would exist, considering the Book Three revelations about the Sun Warriors and the true nature of fire as an element. Giving this power to Ursa made thematic sense to me as well, though in this revision I dedicated a bit more time to her internal struggle and revelation before discovering the ability to make the moment feel a bit more earned. I feel that firebending healing is harder than the waterbending equivalent, and more dangerous to the patient as it involves basically supercharging their chi – Azula should count herself lucky that her will to survive is so strong! The addition of this constructive ability to an art that is generally seen as purely destructive also relates into her development as well – after all, Azula is someone who has spent her lifetime using her skills and intelligence for evil purposes, and is now being forced to explore new aspects of herself. What, exactly, those aspects might be and what she will have learned from her confrontations with Wei Ming and Jian Chin will have to wait until she awakens at the start of the next fic – but just because the obvious wounds have been healed and she’s no longer in immediate danger doesn’t mean she won’t be carrying lingering scars (physical and otherwise) from these encounters.

With this chapter’s end, the main action of Path of Fire is over. Only the epilogue remains, in which the dead do not lie peacefully, and the true identity of a spirit will stand revealed…

-MasterGhandalf

 

Epilogue: Possession

Jian Chin still lived.

This fact was a source of amazement to him- he'd felt his body break as he struck the cliff side, and it had been damaged further by the massive amount of rock that had fallen on it. No matter how he'd survived, he knew that it was a moot point- he could feel himself being slowly crushed, and his life was ebbing from his body. He might have minutes left, if he was lucky.

The warlord groaned and tried to curse, though nothing came from his mouth but a wet cough and some blood. He was Jian Chin, the greatest warrior in the world! It wasn't supposed to end like this. It just wasn't fair…

It doesn't have to be this way, said a soft voice that seemed to rise from the very stones. I can save you and lead you to glory beyond your wildest imagining. Accept my offer, and Chin the Great will be forgotten- it will be your name that is the standard by which earthbender conquerors are judged!

Jian Chin tried to focus his blurry vision; he thought he saw a figure standing over him, shaped like a man but somehow… more, and yet he couldn't make out any features save for a pair of cold, bright eyes whose colors shifted even as he watched. "Who… you?" he managed to gasp out.

The voice chuckled. A simple spirit who recognizes greatness when it appears. For decades I have waited and watched for a champion to wage the ultimate war and conquer all the mortal nations beneath their boot. I thought that the Fire Lords might do it, and the Fire Nation's General Azun when they failed. They all disappointed me, and so I come to you as you stare across the border of life and death and stand open to my voice. We've met once before, when I shared the body of the girl you knew as Wei Ming. She was nothing more than an untrained commoner when I found her, and I was able to make her one of the most fearsome warriors alive. You I could imbue with the strength of a thousand earthbenders!

"Why should… believe you?"

You're alive, aren't you? The fall alone should have killed you, but I intervened. I can't keep you alive for long, however, unless you allow me to inhabit your flesh as I did with Wei Ming. Then our spirits and wills shall become one, and you will have all the power you need to bring this world to its knees. Are you interested?

Jian Chin gave a broken smile. "Yes," he breathed.

The indistinct figure wavered and was gone. For a moment nothing happened, and then the warlord's body was wracked with agony more intense than anything he could have imagined. He felt as though something was drilling into his skull, shoving aside his thoughts and identity and restructuring them to its own liking. He'd thought he was too damaged to speak above a whisper, but now Jian Chin was screaming at the top of his lungs.

It was over with the same suddenness with which it began. The pain was gone now- Jian Chin felt healthier and stronger than he ever had before. Flexing his muscles, he burst free from the rocks piled atop him and landed on his feet, whole and alive. Power ripped through his body- he felt like he could have moved a mountain, had he been so inclined.

Now even the Avatar cannot stand against you, the voice said in the back of his mind, now sounding very like his own. Jian Chin flexed his arm and knew it to be true. For a moment he considered climbing back up to his fortress and annihilating his would-be-killer, Azula, but another plan was forming in his mind. Having apparently risen from the dead and wielding earthbending that was powerful beyond imagining, it would be child's play for him to raise an army and take Ba Sing Se. Then the Avatar and the Fire Lord- and the Fire Lord's sister- would come straight to him, and he would destroy them all before the eyes of a horrified world.

Jian Chin smiled, and the voice in the back of his head gave its full approval. "Do you have a name, spirit?" the warlord asked conversationally.

Yes. I am called Zhan Zheng. Jian Chin's smile broadened. The name of his new benefactor was one he was well familiar with.

Zhan Zheng. War.

TO BE​

CONCLUDED​

And so the true identity of the Azula Trilogy’s Big Bad at last stands revealed – Zhan Zheng, the spirit of war. I’ll talk more about him (or her, or it – ZZ is a chaotic being who can’t really be pinned down by mortal classifications) in my commentary for the next fic’s prologue, but when developing this character I knew I wanted a supernatural evil who would fit into the Avatarverse’s cosmology, not simply be a transplanted western-style devil, and who would foil Azula in interesting ways. Now that both its minions in the two completed fics failed, ZZ is ready to take a more direct hand in things, and the world may not be ready for what it has in mind.

Speaking of villains, Jian Chin isn’t out of the game yet, and now he’s far more dangerous as Zhan Zheng’s vessel. Of course, what he thinks he’s getting out of the deal isn’t necessarily going to be what he’s actually getting; neither Azun nor Wei Ming exactly had an equal partnership, and Jian Chin isn’t bright enough to pick up on the fact that he just got played, especially with ZZ flattering his ego.

In any event, Path of Fire is now complete, and in many ways it’s the Azula Trilogy fic I’m most pleased with; Wei Ming is one of my favorite OCs, and I’m very pleased with what I was able to do with Ty Lee, Long Feng, and of course, Azula herself. The next and final installment of the Trilogy is Soul of Fire, in which the story will be pulled back a bit to see a wider view of what’s going on the world, and to bring Aang back into a major role as well. Of course, this is Azula’s story at heart, and she’s going to have a lot of soul-searching left to do regarding her relationship with her mother, who she is now that she’s rather definitively rejected her father’s influence, and what her role will be in the conflict to come. For the Spirit of War is on the move, and old enemies will have to come together to make their stand against it. But what hope will they have against a god?

The revised and polished Soul of Fire should be on its way soon!

-MasterGhandalf