Chapter Text
Azula was very good at lying.
She was also very good at acting.
She walked to the camp of her soldiers, making her steps unsure and unsteady. She had to look disturbed. For Zuko's sake. For her uncle's sake. The truth could not be discovered thanks to her own weakness.
Once she reached the camp, she stopped a short distance from it, making the soldiers pause in their menial activities. Lieutenant Jee looked at her, eyes unreadable. "Princess Azula?"
She had purposefully dirtied and torn her clothes, not badly but enough to convince them that she had been through something horrible. She staggered, mimicking exhaustion. "The... The dragon... Zuko is..." She thought of what she had gone through, what the fire had looked like and felt like. She thought of the overwhelming emotions, and a lump formed in her throat. Perfect. "He's dead... My father... He needs to know..."
Her legs buckled after that, and she fell to the ground. Just as expected, the soldiers cried out, and strong hands buoyed her up. She faked unconsicuousness, not wanting to be pestered any more with unnecessary questions. She needed more time to think through her responses. Any hesitation with her answers could spell her exposure as a liar, and she couldn't afford that.
The princess remained limp in the arms that carried her, and the rustling of fabric told her she was being laid in a tent. She was laid on a bed with sheets that made her nearly want to actually pass out. She hadn't slept well the night before after everything she experienced, and she could feel exhaustion stretching its fingers towards her.
She heard soft voices in the tent with her, and that's what she focused on. She schooled her features to keep from exposing herself by accident. But she listened to the soldiers and their worried murmurs.
"Prince Zuko..."
"He's dead?"
"The dragon must be ruthless... That explains why only members of the royal family are allowed to slay them."
"He was just a kid..."
"It's a good thing that the Fire Lord has the princess."
"That's true. He may have lost his son, but he still has an heir. That's good, isn't it?"
Azula stopped herself from gritting her teeth. Right, because I was just a spare. Is that what it is? Another soldier sounded concerned. "She collapsed right after finding us... I wonder if she's injured."
"Maybe she just passed out because she was running from the dragon," one of the other soldiers replied. "I am sure watching her brother die was traumatizing."
"I can't imagine what that must feel like, especially for a child..."
"All of you, give her some space." Ah, there was Lieutenant Jee, taking control as always. "Get back to work. We need to pack up and get ready to return to the palace. There's no reason for us to stay here any longer. We can talk more to the princess after she wakes up. But we need to let her rest first."
There was a chorus of 'yes, sir's as the tent flap rustled and the soldiers left. It grew quiet, but Azula didn't dare to move or breathe too loudly. She had a feeling she wasn't alone.
And she wasn't.
There was more rustling, and Jee sighed as he sat down on the floor mats. His voice was quiet. "I suppose things turned out as we expected, Your Highness. Truth be told, neither of us expected the prince to survive an altercation with the dragon. It's just a shame that you had to watch it."
Azula imagined watching her brother be engulfed in flames, or torn limb from limb, and she couldn't deny the nausea in her stomach. But she harnessed that power and stored it away so she could use it in her acting later on. It was a weapon in her arsenal, the sorrow that she would feel if her brother actually died.
Not that she really cared about him, of course. She wasn't allowed to.
The pity she saw on the soldiers' faces later that day when she 'woke up' was disgusting, and it stabbed at her in a way she didn't like and hadn't expected. It was stifling, how they walked on pins and needles around her and expected her to shatter like glass at any moment. The camp was silent, and the deferrence and respect shown to her had dramatically increased.
It just took the 'death' of her brother to achieve that.
Azula was not in the best mood when they returned to the palace, but it only added to her image of a mourning sister. It was nice to see Iroh there, but he looked drawn and exhausted. Had he purposefully kept himself from sleeping to put up the act? Or was it an effect of him imagining his sorrow if Zuko had actually died?
Her uncle was a clever man. That much she had learned in the last few weeks. She knew not to underestimate him anymore.
Turned out he was a good actor, too.
Ozai requested an audience with her, one she couldn't refuse even if she wanted to. He wouldn't take her 'sorrow' for an excuse, she knew. She had to be cold and calculating, just like him. She had to deliver the report and the news of his son's 'death' with no remorse or grief. She had to be the perfect heir for him.
So that was how she found herself kowtowing before him, the flames before him much colder than she remembered being. After seeing the true power of fire thanks to the dragons, she could no longer see his flames as a display of power. The true power lay with the dragon's fire, the one she and Zuko had been gifted.
She knew better than to think she was stronger than him, but... maybe in a few years, with a lot of training... She could surpass him. And then...
"So your brother was destroyed by the dragon," Ozai mused. "Not surprising in the slightest. Where did he encounter it?"
This. This was the hardest part of the lie. It was having to twist the truth to her father so that Chih's family could be safe. So that Zuko and the dragons could be safe. Azula was grateful to keep her brow to the carpet below her, though she could feel sweat prickling on the back of her neck. She kept her voice smooth despite the tension in her. "South of the palace, two days travel by eel-hound. It was hidden in a cave, secluded from civilization. My idiot brother probably aggravated it. It took him a while to find it, but it didn't take long for him to fall by its flames and claws."
She knew at some point she would have to explain in great detail what happened. She already had a plan, multiple points already mapped out. The information was not something she would provide unless prompted, though, so she kept the details to a minimum. Sometimes, overexplanation could be a person's downfall. It could expose their lie, or they could accidentally trap themselves. A liar had to be very detailed, very confident in their retelling each time, and the details could not contradict. Some details would be mentioned at one retelling and not at another, but they could never clash.
"I see. You are dismissed, Princess Azula." Ozai's voice sounded pleased. "Congratulations on a successful mission. I knew you were more trustworthy and reliable than your brother, and that is why I sent him first instead of you. I would have preferred to keep you alive rather than him, and it looks like my wish was granted."
Azula's spine tensed. You're pleased that he's dead. She thought of how Chih treated each of his children, how he loved each of them with his whole being. You don't care that your own son is dead.
She did not fall asleep easily that night, her mind whirring as she thought and thought and thought.
It was a good thing that Zuko had not returned. Her plan had worked.
But it wasn't that she was out of the woods herself. After all...
She had a feeling like Ozai did not believe her.
Mai and Ty Lee did, at least. She hated seeing their tears. She hated when Ty Lee grabbed her into a hug and sobbed, wailing for what had happened to Zuko and what Azula had 'seen'. Born into a family with only daughters and no sons, it was natural for her to take a liking to Zuko. Perhaps she had seen him as the older brother she never had.
The other girl was silent as tears dripped from her chin. Mai had always been quiet, preferring to be in the shade instead of out in the sun playing with the others. But Azula knew about her feelings towards Zuko. She knew, and Ty Lee knew. They had teased her about it countless times. Zuko had been the only boy Mai knew, since they went to a girls-only academy. It came as no surprise when she fell for him. It was a crush, a childish infatuation.
Now... Azula would rather die than mention her brother around the nonbenders.
She tried to play it off, telling them she just wanted to be alone after what she had witnessed. She pretended to be a child with trauma. She didn't want their sympathy or tears or pity. She wanted them to leave her alone, to not talk about it anymore.
They stopped talking about Zuko the day after her return.
They stopped talking in general.
Sure, they would come together to 'play', but a lot of that was them sitting in the gardens, silent while they were each lost in their thoughts. The golden days of Azula's childhood were gone, and she felt it more than she had expected. She hated it. She hated that Zuko's 'death' had had such an impact on her life at the palace. She hated that she could never play easily with her friends. It was like he'd had a bigger role in her life than she expected.
She pretended not to care about his death when around her father or in public. When she donned white robes and bowed as they lit Zuko's funeral pyre, she kept her face neutral, if not satisfied. She could not pretend to truly care that he was dead. Those who knew her before the trip knew how callous she could be towards her brother, how little she had cared about him. Exaggerated affection would expose her just as if she had slipped up in her recollection of the events. So she had to pretend not to care.
It was easier to pretend that she didn't care. Because she didn't.
Even if she was hollow inside without her idiot brother pestering her.
Even if she couldn't sleep well at night.
Even if she couldn't stop remembering the dragon's jaws opening in front of her.
Azula didn't care.
That was a lie, and she knew it.
"Well, now that you're here, you definitely need to help me learn some fighting moves!" Akao told Zuko a couple days after his return from the Sun Warrior ruins.
The young prince blinked a few times. "What...? Don't you know how to fight already?"
"Of course I do, but I want to learn from you! You probably have some awesome combos or sets that you learned in the palace! I wanna learn them from you! One guy to another!" The nonbender looked at him with excitement. "Please? Pretty please?"
The other boy raised his brows. "Sure... Anything in particular you wanna learn, then?"
"Hand to hand combat! I know you're a firebender, but I wanna learn to fight like that without being able to bend. Maybe your firebending moves can help me fight better!"
"Some of them can, maybe, but not all of them."
"Good enough for me." Akao put his hands into a respectful salute and bowed to him. "May we start, Sifu?"
The prince almost snorted, but he nodded. "Sure. Let's get started."
He went through some of his firebending moves, pointing out different techniques to the nonbender. He wasn't sure exactly what Akao was going for with this, or how much of it would really help him. But Zuko wasn't inclined to try and stop him, and... besides, it was nice to practice firebending after learning the true meaning of fire. He saw small streaks of colors in his flames, and that made his heart lift with encouragement.
He did get the feeling after a while that Akao just wanted him to show off his firebending.
They went until sunset, then went inside. Zuko wasn't keen on practicing his entire day away, especially if it wasn't exactly necessary. As they walked into the house, he told the nonbender, "If you wanted me to show off my firebending, you could have asked me."
"No, it was great!" Akao's eyes were bright. "Really, I learned a lot from watching you and trying to practice the moves a little myself. Your moves are firm and resolute, like you know your own strength. I've heard that earthbending is also very solid and firm, but you do have a lot more mobility and flexibility than an earthbender, I think. So maybe something between earthbending and waterbending?"
"Each bending style is its own," Yuka told her son as she was setting the table for dinner. "Firebending is separate from waterbending and earthbending, but it also is similar as you mentioned. Can you help me set the table, please? And Zuko, can you keep the noodles warm for me?"
The two boys went over to help her as requested, and the prince was struck by the domesticity of the home he resided in. It was almost picturesque, and he couldn't believe he had been allowed to live there. He had been sad at the idea of leaving the family, but now... He felt like he had a new family.
Not that he forgot his uncle or sister.
Sometimes, indulging himself, he would write the two of them letters. He kept them under his bedroll, never sending them anywhere. But it was nice to 'tell' them how things were going, what he had learned and what he had experienced. He knew they were okay, hoped they were at least, but it didn't stop him from missing them. His chest ached and grew heavy when he thought of what they were dealing with because of his cowardice, but he couldn't go to them. And they couldn't come to him, either. They had to maintain that distance, physical and emotional, in order to keep everyone safe.
He still missed them.
A small flame danced in his chest, though. A surety of something to come in the future, or at least a yearning for it. Hope. He stayed close to that little flame, nurturing it to fight against the darkness that crept in at times. It was his way of not succumbing to homesickness and sorrow.
Someday, hopefully soon, I'll see them again.
Chih was excited for Zuko.
He didn't outwardly show it much or make a grand expression of it, but he was still excited for him all the same. He was thrilled for the young prince, not just because he was staying with the family now, but also because the Sun Warriors had decided to take him on and train him in their firebending ways. It was a great opportunity for him, and Chih did his best to encourage Zuko to pursue it.
It was going to be hard, though, not having the boy around all the time.
One week, he was with the Sun Warriors. Next week, he was with the family. And then back and forth he would go. Chih knew it could be draining on Zuko at times, having to go between all the time, but the way his eyes would light up as he explained what he was learning made it all worth it. So he never stopped encouraging the boy in his training. Apparently, he was learning and relearning things, and there were some lessons he had to unlearn as well. It could be frustrating at times, of course, but the prince was learning so much and couldn't help but try to explain it to the family as well. The nonbender didn't understand all of it, but if it made sense to Zuko, then that was good enough for him.
Weeks turned into months, and days passed so fast that Chih forgot to stop and take it all in. His children were growing up, Zuko alongside him. They were getting stronger in their own ways, and he couldn't help the pride that wormed its way into his chest. It eased the pain of time passing, of watching children grow into teenagers who would soon turn into young adults and carve their own paths into the walks of life. The pride made it easier to look at his children and smile at them, and he knew he had to cherish every moment with them better.
And just like that, three years passed in peace.
Little did Chih know that things were about to change.
The world experienced a shift, a ripple in its history. Something happened that changed its trajectory in time.
Two Water Tribe kids accidentally discovered an iceberg with a boy in it. A chance encounter. That was all it was.
Or was it?
Was it by chance that the waterbending girl broke the ice and freed the airbender inside?
Later on, Azula would say that it was, if only to mess with the others. Zuko would say that there had to be some coincidence that it was Sokka and Katara who freed the boy. Aang, spiritual as always, disagreed and said that the universe had something to do with it. The encounter could not have been by chance, after all, according to him. Fate had to be involved somehow. Akao believed they were all silly and that the discussion didn't need to happen. Toph would agree with him.
Whatever the case, chance, fate, or what have you, the iceberg split apart, and the boy with the airbending tattoos emerged.
And thus, the Avatar made his return, and the world would not be the same afterwards.