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TEN

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Bloodstain

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It was the sound of horror that awakened the palace—or at least the Dai Li agents stationed right outside the Lady Ty Lee's bedroom. They were alert, prepared for the very worst as they barged right into the unlocked door. The mindbending effects varied from one person to another. They went with the procedure, always expecting that there would be side effects but the sight the met them was baffling and almost induced a cringe from the stoic men. Good thing, they were elves.

"There was no visible sign of injury. Lady Ty Lee herself did not seem harmed. Just disoriented." Squad Leader number three effortlessly kept on par with Azula's hurried pace. For the life of her, Azula could not recall his name. "But in order to be certain, we have already sent for the Water Pixie, Hama. She should be attending to the Lady's needs now."

"And this got you guys so worried because?" Finally, they reached Ty Lee's bedroom door. Azula barely got an hour of sleep after the agents concluded the mindwipe session to be complete. These past few days sure were quite hectic. Damn.

"There was blood everywhere. Human... blood, princess. A lot of it."

The words made her pause from turning the knob. She felt herself involuntarily shudder. There weren't supposed to be any side effects. "Blood?"

"There was no wound. At least, not that we can see. From her clothes, I mean." The normally infallible elf seemed quite flustered. Red-faced and embarassed, he lowered his head. "Nor did we find any evidence of an assailant."

Azula cocked an impatient eyebrow.

"But the stain on her clothes seemed to centre the most around her... trousers... I mean, the lower part of her body. There was none around her torso. But... " The blush on the man's face worsened.

Then it hit Azula. Oh.

Of course. Ty Lee was a human. A human in the brink of adolescence. A fruit that is about to ripe. An animal that was about to mature. There was nothing much to read about the subject. Humans did not really feature the female anatomy and its mysteries much in their literature. Or in general, females. Those misogynistic bastards! But she heard June mentioning this monthly visitor before. It was supposed to be natural. Some human thing that happens to every normal girl. It was an oversight to suppose that Ty Lee would be any different. She was twelve and prone to as much hormones that even the underworld youth was unfortunately abundant of.

This would be disgusting.

"Stay here." She barked. From his audible sigh of relief, the man seemed just more than glad to comply.

And Azula understood the reason why because when she opened the door, an almost unspeakably pungent smell overcame her senses. It smelled worse than Death itself. For the first time, the unconscientious Princess of the Underworld found herself utterly revolted with the smell of human blood.

"Princess" A voice greeted and Azula found herself looking at the old waterbender that had always been in the palace for as long as she could remember. Hama, was it? Sounded about right. Ty Lee was awake, wide brown eyes trained towards her guardian. She was not wearing the same garments that she had passed out with just a few hours ago. She probably did not even remember that part. The Dai Li assured Azula that it had worked. It always did.

No side effects.

This never failed. No history of that, Princess. Ty Lee would forget. Ty Lee would forget about that human she seemed to care about so much, just as the human had already forgotten her.

Why? Azula had asked herself many times. Why would Ty Lee go so far as defy her, Azula of all people merely for the sake of a human peasant she only met the day before?

What did you do to Suki? What did she do? She just did what she always did to humans! Why would Ty Lee suddenly care?

Why?

Why?

Azula avoided those inquiring, protuberant eyes and the same parted lips she had tasted through smoke and tears. Instead, she turned impassively towards Hama and gave the ancient waterbender a perfunctory nod. "I believe it happened." It was not a question.

"I knew it was bound to." Her tone of voice was much too jolly for Azula's comfort. "I just did not expect it would be this soon. You were twelve, weren't you, Lady Ty Lee?"

Azula frowned, not one to appreciate being blatantly ignored. "Yes. Yes, she is."

The impertinent old woman did not seem to accept that as an answer. "Lady Ty Lee?"

"I am twelve." She squeaked, still looking at Azula. Her eyes held a note of something Azula has never seen before. It was familiar. The eyes of someone demanding information and doubting what was given. Suspicion. She remembered now. The same eyes as Ursa gave her when her idiot of a mother was accusing her of something.

Azula...

Did you do this?

Coldly, Azula met her eyes. When, as fully expected Ty Lee shrank in her glare, it did not give Azula the satisfaction she thought it would. Once more, she turned back to the old pixie. "I believe it is about time to inform Ty Lee that this is normal, waterbender. That this is just some disgusting human thing." And this was absolutely out of her control too, she did not add.

"Ah yes, yes. Of course, Princess." Azula absolutely did not approve of the comforting hands on Ty Lee's shoulders. Hama gently whirled the girl around, leaning down as she appeased the dejected and still confused girl with a tone Azula bitterly recognized to be motherly. One tooth was missing from her comforting grin. Disgusting. "You are menstruating, Lady Ty Lee."

"Menstruating?" Another glance was thrown towards Azula. The amusement and surprise about Ty Lee being able to pronounce such an alien word dissolved through the unfamiliar look on Ty Lee's face. Fearfully, it flitted back to safety. Ty Lee looked inquiringly at the waterbender but the expression of distrust in her eyes was etched in Azula's mind.

A slow, sagely nod. Hama spoke like an authority to the subject. "Do you remember about the books you read about how when young imps come of age? Menstruation is the human equivalent of what lusting for blood is for demons."

"It is?" This idea did not seem to ease Ty Lee's tension one bit. Azula could understand. Those were horrible choices of words.

"It is the closest to it, anyway."

"Does that mean-?" The horror in her eyes flashed. Ty Lee was not given the chance to complete the sentence.

Azula raised one finger and sharply eyed the one thousand-year old woman before her. The slave, to her chagrin did not even so much as flinch. "I might as well do the explanation. You did not seem to be doing a good job of it."

"I am sorry, Princess." Insincere, Azula evaluated the apology with some ire. The nerve.

"Dismissed." She huffed, not missing the slight smile she could only describe as malicious etched on the woman's wrinkled face. Right then, she was sure. It was not just her imagination anymore.

The woman wanted her to see that.

Filing this incident on the back of her mind, she turned back to her ward.

Ty Lee was at the other side of the still stained bed when Azula sat on the other. She crossed her legs, inhaled and exhaled. The metallic, very unpleasant smell was overpowering. She thought of anything, something that she remembered about this subject, only to come up with explanations no more attractive than what the damn pixie had inconsiderately spouted.

"Now, Ty Lee..."

"So, it was not caused by what you did to me last night?"

The words were punctuated by a hard look never seen from the young human before. Silence. Long, stunned silence. Ty Lee waited. Azula deliberated. "What are you saying-?"

"You..." Ty Lee hesitated briefly before ultimately narrowing her eyes with resolve that she could never attribute to the flighty young human. Ty Lee never questioned her like this before. "You breathed smoke on me."

She was not supposed to remember that.

The girl before her should be the same human who sulked in her birthday , insisted they play stupid board games and read all about dragons. Not this fearless, tactless girl who blatantly questioned her motives, scolded her on her actions. Ty Lee was supposed to be the human who waited for her eagerly at the doorway, who embraced her in ways no one else in the castle seems to. Ty Lee is supposed to be that one person who loves her, who adores her, not for being the clever and beautiful Princess Azula who conquered races and led armies hands but only as the Azula who she was forever thankful to. It was why Azula kept her alive all this time. It was why...

It was why Azula appreciated her.

And even with the long pause, the normally silver tongued Princess could not contain a sharp, shocked gasp. "You remember..."

"Of course, I do." Ty Lee sounded... angry. For the first time in her life, Ty Lee levelled Azula the look one would grant a person who was undeserving of anything good in the world."Why shouldn't I?"

It was as if the world stopped. Azula clenched her fist and asked herself the important question. How could this be? She was not supposed to...

She was not supposed to...

She was never supposed to look at me like this.

Not like how everyone else looked at her.

How could Ty Lee remember?

All of a sudden, the door opened—no, it was almost pushed off the hinges. Her bodyguard was on the doorway, backed with a man she immediately recognized as the Royal Firebender that must never abandon his post at the Gates unless...

Mai was panting heavily as she drawled out two damning words Azula thought she would never, ever hear in her lifetime.

"We are under attack."

...

...

"Empires such as theirs can rise back even in the face of the mightiest adversities. Threats do not matter, for even the men who insist for liberty only desires to wrestle for power. These impure motives are destined to fail in the will of the fire, as ill as its origin may be. No, empires such as theirs are only fated to crumble from the inside. For this is the only way..."

Ursa closed her eyes. The bald, oddly muscular monk placed the scroll on the cauldron of blaze and it sparked upwards, as though calling to the guidance of the heavens that once denied its protection from the innocent ancestors of these good people a thousand years ago.

"... this is the only way we will put out the flames of cruelty, of the sheer violence that have enslaved the world that we should be basking in. That have killed our people!. For this empire to crumble and fall from the inside. We will take this war as Ba Sing Se was taken. We will take this war in the only we know we could. This is done in the place and honour of the long gone Avatar..."

There it is. Ursa held her breath. This is it. The plan. The plan. Against Ozai. Against everything his ambition represented.

Against Azula.

The substitute for the long gone Avatar.

She shut her eyes once more and waited with bated breath as the man who called himself Zaheer proclaimed.

"The White Lotus has failed us."

She refused to think of the daughter she had abandoned without turning back. Her path has been so misled, just as her brother's has been, forked by the way only a child raised like them can only pass through. But these are sacrifices that Ursa found that she was willing to make for the world, even as she failed to ever get used to the guilt.

"But the great flower Lotus blooms twice in the Underworld. There is salvation still and we are that Salvation." A dramatic pause. The crowd of outcasts wait. These people, pushed away from their homelands. Red Lotus, they call themselves. Hope, they want to believe themselves to be. "We are Freedom!"

The torches flare. Ursa's eyes widen. There was a firebender too?

How many were on their side?

"All Hail the Lotus!"

The people answer with an intensity and determination Ursa was quite certain she had never experienced before.

...

...

The palace was in full alert.

Azula could not believe she had been this distracted about everything to actually overlook the safety of her own turf. She had been so focused, so driven to squash down the probable threat her ever-omniscient foresight has warned her to be wary of. The thing with the ghouls might still be years away to be realized, for all she knew. And yet, she had lost sleep, with her concentration compromised, while she played around with humans. She was so distracted, she forgot about all these pests who never gave up trying to break their walls down.

"They have some kind of new machine that can go underwater." Mai's commentary proved to quite helpful this time around. Azula watched with creased brows as her men—and these were the elite—were thrown around like weightless cards helplessly. They were on the defense. Defense! Azula could not believe this is happening.

"It allowed them to go through the Gates of Azulon and sabotage everything around the vicinity of the Royal Palace for the past couple of days. We are yet to hear about the citizens that might require rescue and provisions. Evacuation is out of the question right now." Then Mai went ahead with her infuriating way of stating the obvious once more. This damn woman liked riling up feathers that were already burning. It was very unhelpful. "We are short in manpower even with your Dai Li around."

Azula's eyes flashed.

"That is not a disadvantage, Mai." She admonished, not appreciating all these. Mai was absolutely hopeless in the audacious motivation side of warfare. The men within earshot were getting so visibly queasy, any more of her friend's negativity could render them useless for what she still had in store."Not at all."

Mai, frustrating as ever, knew that of course. "Enlighten me then, Princess."

"We'll proceed to the first line of defense. It should be sufficient. I am sure these barbaric creatures would not even have the honour of seeing the second." She titled her chin and gestured for her generals to listen closely. "Now, do exactly as I say."

In the frenzy of defending the country her father had entrusted her with (while pondering on the dire consequences: "This negligence is unforgivable, Fire Lord Azula."), Azula totally forgot about the very unpredictable charge she left in her room.

She was distracted, indeed.

...

...

Whatever Azula tried to do with her, it did not work.

But she remembered it being an unpleasant sensation, perhaps perverted. Even now, she felt lightheaded, reliving the feeling of her head being picked around by monotonous words and green, creepy lights with every step of the way towards Suki. The palace was in full alert. Though she would not describe the strain in the postures of the servants pandemonium just yet as Azula was never the type to easily panic. Instead, she was confronted with hushed whispers between the slaves and barks of orders from an authoritative voice she did not recognize.

But it was easy enough to get past anxious, edgy elves who were conflicted with desires to be rescued and fear of being branded as traitors. Ty Lee did not realize these nuances yet. The politics of war eluded her. For the moment though, she only enjoyed the ease in which she was able to proceed towards the Hell Chamber, unhindered and not fussed by elves who feared Azula.

Azula.

The demon princess was her beginning, her everything. For the longest time, the life that Ty Lee ever knew was only her and the world she ever knew was the one with Azula in it. This girl that she was thankful for everything of. This girl that she loved more than anything else in the world. And yet, she found this views challenged by the existence of a mere human. Now that she could put a sympathizing identity to someone Azula would kill without hesitation made the deaths she willingly ignored in her naiveté more than a distant memory.

Those girls, those humans Azula killed...

They deserved to live too. Suki does.

This was a dangerous thought, the young human decided as she ran through the basement hallways two steps at a time. She could remember everything before she passed out. You leave me no choice Ty Lee. There was the taste of smoke, the smell of fire and the feeling of Azula's lips on hers as darkness claimed her senses. She remembered her mind being thrown into a heavy haze, the fog of unknowing trying to consume her. But she fought through it. She fought it. Because something in her told her she should. Something stronger than the voice who told her to stop.

Then there was blood.

Even before Azula had arrived, Hama was already filled with the assurance that this was absolutely normal. It was just a human thing, she said. It would only be for a couple of days, she said. The bleeding has not ceased yet but Hama had her wear some kind of cloth to staunch the flow in the meantime. "I'll help you change it." The woman had offered, much to Ty Lee's relief. Even at twelve, she had the inkling she could trust anyone else in the palace with this. Not Mai.

And definitely not Azula.

Only one more right turn and she felt like she could pass out. Hama had warned that too much physical exertion would be taxing for her "condition". So much for normal then. It hurt and her lower body could barely bare another lap anymore. She gave herself a minute to unwind. Above her, she could feel the earth shake.

Azula could handle that.

It never happened before but Ty Lee could confidently pronounce that this sort of things were far below Azula. For now, she decided to take advantage of this as a distraction. Plan: free Suki. She had to see her. Then, she could go and cross the bridge. Azula would be displeased. No, Azula would be furious. But she could deal with that.

Ty Lee told herself she could deal with that.

The fleeting thought of what Azula might do to her once she got wind of what she was up to made Ty Lee realize how much she feared Azula after all. She feared her. She feared everything she stood for just as much as she loved her for everything she was.

She was grateful then, that the temperature underground was not as unbearable as it was earlier. The sweat gathering on her palms was discomfort enough.

Wait. Then the telltale lead ball drops.

It was supposed to be hot here. Really hot. It was called the Hell Chamber for a reason, of course. It would be too much to think it was just for style. Elated by this observation, Ty Lee snapped up and headed straight towards the Dragon Double Doors that burned her hand a couple of hours ago. The gates to hell were imposing and just as fearsome as ever. But its proximity was not as smouldering as it had been. Ty Lee realized that this was becoming much, much easier than she initially dreaded it would be.

It was a welcome respite for all these confusion lately. At least, she has a pretty clear idea on what to do now.

She reached for the knobs and pushed it open.

She was not burned.

She was not burned.

Suki, here I come.

,…..

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No human can survive here.

But the thought was gone like mist, replaced immediately by Azula... Azula... Azula. And nothing else but Azula. The vision of golden eyes solidifying into a short, slender but strong figure. Azula, who she must obey. Azula, who she must serve. Azula, who she must give her life to. Her master. Her creator. The creature's tongue ran into her protruding fangs, tasting blood. Her master's blood. Where was she? Where was master? She was hungry.

She did not remember her name. She did not remember anything beyond Azula and everything she was made to know about her. The creature could not look back into her humanity for she had none of that anymore. She did not know it yet. But tonight, Suki was no more. Azula called her that, was the only thing she could process right now. Hence, I would call myself Suki as well.

Azula was her beginning. Azula was her everything. Azula was her master. Azula was her life. The taste of Azula's blood still lingered in her heightened senses, wafting in her mouth. She panted, rattled on her chains. Azula... She wanted to see Azula.

The door opened.

But it moved with a resounding groan, very much unlike the smooth retraction she had seen already a couple of times whenever one of those green-clad men would check up on her. Instead the door seemed to collapse, right before her eyes and the green glow that once bordered the sides of the huge rock that covered her cell dimmed into nothingness.

For now, the most that this reborn creature could expect was the intruder to be her master, herself. Or the other one. Mai? But the ghoul who was once a human named Suki would be met with the first disappointment in her memory as a monster.

Instead of Azula, Ty Lee emerged from the cracked concrete, looking rather startled. "I just touched it." Suki registered her stunned whisper with her sharp hearing. The human girl was bedraggled and exhausted, a inconspicuous bandage wrapped around her right hand. Behind her, she could see the frame of the green-clad man she saw just an hour ago, prone and grunting on the floor.

"What did you do to him?"

The question seemed to have surprised the dopey-looking human. Suki knew who she was. It was part of the innate knowledge she seemed to have the moment she woke up. She knew everything she needed to know about Azula somehow, like an instinct. She knew this was Ty Lee, Azula's human ward. She knew this was the one she was never supposed to interact with. She knew this was Azula's most precious person.

She knew she was jealous.

She did not know this was Ty Lee, the friend Suki had when she was still a human.

But she was no longer one. And everything that embodied her humanity was rudely taken away from her. All Suki could manage now was to squint at this human girl and state without recognition: "You were not supposed to be here."

The girl's mouth was agape and she looked even more stupid than ever. Why was this girl alive underground anyway? The temperature was horrible for even... the elves. Right, the elves. For a human, it would be downright suicide. Something about an active volcano. Another thing about escape being impossible. Suki felt she somehow knew that... she was not sure.

"I came here to save you." The ghoul heard the human say and she had to admit, she did not expect that. Save her? Save her from what? She tried to lean closer to this child spouting nonsense but the chains around her wrists were preventing her to. She could break out of it. She knew that. She was strong. She was a demon, after all. But Azula said, no ordered, her to stay this way.

"I am so glad you are okay."

"I am." Clang. The irritating sounds her restraints made seemed to draw the human closer to her. In a second, Ty Lee was at her side, inspecting and peering around her. This girl. This stupid, stupid girl was the most precious person to Azula. This girl looked like she pitied her. This girl appeared regretful. Suki found out that she detested that.

"This is harsh. I am letting you out of this."

This girl smelled good.

The instinct to sink her teeth to this daft, little, stupid human girl's creamy flesh over rid her master's orders. It was the desire to feel that ecstasy once more, even though her blood did not smell half as good as the pure one that flowed along Azula's veins.

Chains and all, Suki pounced.

...

...

She saw fangs.

Suki had fangs.

The gold eyes were wide and crazed in a way she had only seen once before. There, in the streets of Whitechapel. It was then that Ty Lee finally knew what Azula did to Suki. It was then that Ty Lee knew Suki was dead.

She was out of her chains and stronger than Ty Lee expected her to be. The guttural moans she emitted was an unearthly cry and the unnatural strength in which she found herself pinned to the ground was something even her well-trained limbs could not hope to combat. But the flailing of Suki... no, this monster's arms, were no longer as frenzied as it had been a second ago. She tried to remember anything, anything that the human Suki had told her about ghouls. But Suki's salivating mouth was now curling to a chilling smirk and Ty Lee found herself transfixed to the countenance that was so unlike the bubbly, the optimistic, the good...

And so unlike the feral, wild creature she had seen back in the human world.

"I wonder, what is so special about you?"

The voice was not Suki's. The voice was not that of a friend who hoped to protect humanity against monsters. It reverberated around the room like an omen. Of death. It was an omen of her death.

"Princess Azula liked you so much. I know that. How did I? I just do. I hated that. Why do I? I just do." She trailed off but was still running her fingers on stray strand of her brown hair. Suki made a deliberate motion of licking her lips. "I drank her blood you know, just as she did mine. It was an exchange. It was... a bond. It was... heavenly. It was the best thing ever. But then, it was my first taste. Hmmmm... Let's see how yours come to compare."

She bared her fangs. Ty Lee flinched and struggled some more.

"But I'm curious." She did not even realize she had already closed her eyes. Ty Lee felt Suki shift slightly as she set herself on Ty Lee's stomach. Both her legs weighed her down. No escape. Omen of death. "Who was Azula to you?" A finger feathering her chin. "Your saviour? Your keeper?" Tilt. "Your beginning? Just like mine?" She leaned closer. Dangerously. Ty Lee felt warm, reviling breath ghosting on her neck, "And am I not allowed to slurp your blood? Are you hers? Would she pin you down like this? Touch you like this someday?" She felt fangs grazing her skin. "Would she...?"

A tongue run swirls on her throat. "Would she kill you like this?"

Sharp teeth pierced through. "Would she bite you like-?"

"Suki."

The torches blared. And the room was warmer than it was earlier. The voice was familiar and in the instant that Ty Lee recognized it, Suki leaped off her.

"My Princess!" She sank to her knees, rigid and alert. Her bloodlust seemingly to have evaporated into thin air. Suki was prim and proper. Suki was impassive. Suki was like a demon. This was not the Suki she knew. This was not. "I overstepped my boundaries."

"For this you deserve punishment." And there was a spark of blue flames as Azula snapped her fingers.

Screams. Suki screamed as the flames licked on her skin. Ty Lee could only helplessly watch as the girl she once called a friend burned into the deep pits of hell.

Azula stood beside her and raised her hand to cover her eyes. "You've seen enough."

"What-?"

"She would regenerate. I did try this already. She was the perfect ghoul. She could control her urges, she was powerful. She heals fast. A few burns like that would be history by tomorrow. But she needed to be put in her place. She must not do that. Not to you." A pause. Azula had her eyes closed. "Never to you."

And even with the hand obscuring her vision, Ty Lee could still make out the sparks of electricity crackling from Azula's other hand.

"You need to be put in your place too. The things that you would want to protect might end up hurting you. So choose wisely. I do not know what happened. You were never supposed to remember all these. You need to go back to bed, Ty Lee."

Lightning.

"This won't hurt but it will not tickle either."

And she let the spark go, flying towards Ty Lee in top speed. She knew what would happen then. She would be out cold, like Azula always did with her. Steam and smoke did not work anymore. So she would resort to this. She would kill her. Perhaps, Azula was always meant to.

But the lightning fizzled out before it reached her.

(TBC)

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I was asked by reviewer, mpowers045 whether Ty Lee ever gives Azula "the talk". It would be hilarious if this is just a slice of a human girl's life with demons who never age (I wish). At this point of the plot, it is impossible for me to incorporate that. Instead, I took the next best thing: menstruation. Then it got plot heavy because I realized that is a nice way to discover things after rewatching the Carrie movie remake. I think at this point, you know what this means. I fell victim to the Twilight trope even in the earliest draft, you see.

And oh: Oh Suki.

Drop a word :D