Chapter Nine: Three Lightning Strikes

Zuko's trial did not go as anticipated.

It would have gone far differently if Azula had listened to her sweet little spoil of war and not attended. It would have gone far differently if Zuko did not have a bitter sensation of acid in his mouth about the fact that Mai did not want his help.

How could she not need to be rescued?

He thought it would preoccupy him until he actually stood in a throne room that felt strange and alien; it was nothing like how he remembered it. Perhaps because there were so many people gazing at him, scrutinizing him before he was even able to say a word.

Of course he knew that this would not go well. Of course he knew that he would be executed at the first opportunity.

He glanced up at Azula out of the corner of his eye and she averted her gaze. That made little sense to him, but the sounds of the trial began before he could say a word.

"You look ashamed, Prince Zuko," father said and the words were well chosen. Shame, the use of his title instead of any familial connection, yet the sort of thing a father would say after catching his son breaking a vase.

Zuko took a deep breath. "I deny nothing."

It sounded as formal as he could make it. A few other words, a few quick questions here and there that Zuko barely managed to keep up with.

"If you deny nothing," said the Fire Lord and the room became silent, "then why do you think I should allow you to live? That's the question here; that's the point."

"I think that it's up to all of you if I die or not, and I don't care because what I did was against the law but it wasn't a choice I was given." Zuko glanced up at Azula again, as if she had something to say on the matter. "I'm pretty sure that the grounds on which my sister is allowed to keep a traitor involved in my work alive and well because her concubine, girlfriend, I don't know the right phrase, had no choice other than working with the rebels. Because she was stranded from the Fire Nation."

"She was penalized by a year of torture. Would you like that?"

"I had four."

"You can't think that chasing the Avatar to keep you busy compares to the abuses of the Boiling Rock," and that was Azula's voice shaking, and that was Zuko smiling slightly to himself, because he knew that if he was going down today, he was going to bring his sister and father with him.

"Right," Zuko said before looking away and not giving her a chance to give a persuasive speech. "I won't stand down today because I'm not stupid enough to think that I was going to avoid death for very long once my mother wasn't able to stop it anymore."

Oh, and there was Ozai faltering for a split second amongst the disruption of the crowd.

"That has nothing to do with your crimes against your nation. You could have chosen against them, and everyone here is aware of that."

"I stood by the people who were loyal to me. More loyal than the Fire Nation ever was. And I'm not going to back down at the last minute."

"The inflexible steel breaks first," Ozai said, although his calm demeanor was troubled.

"If this is a kind of negotiation," Zuko stated with more confidence than he has had in a very long time, "I'd like to know if you want anything other than my death, Fire Lord Ozai."

"That is what I want because it is what you deserve. Just like your traitor uncle, and your traitor friends. If you don't want to give your loyalty up to the dead, it seems you should join them," said the Fire Lord and it seemed that he thought those were winning words.

They were, Zuko supposed, of the trial. But the trial was going to end with Zuko's execution or brutal imprisonment no matter what the disgraced prince said, and so he decided to say exactly what was on his mind.

"I guess I got pretty attracted to the dead, since I was dead the day she was born. Or maybe I was dead before then, since I'm pretty certain she was created as a replacement. It just took a lot of time to get rid of your mistake," Zuko said, the words he had practiced over and over in his mind for them to sound strong, articulate, to say what he wanted to say. "The whole reason you even thought it was a national priority to keep looking for me when I wasn't exactly that much of a threat to you was because you wanted to erase your own mistake. Go ahead. You can now."

The silence in the room deafened.

It was broken, however, when someone struck. No one could see exactly who lashed out first with a red blaze that consumed the room in a violent heat. Because Zuko had just charged away from the guards holding him in place, and neither father nor son wavered to kill each other right there and then.

As the smoke began to clear, the absurd sight of Zuko's hand lunging forward, an angry fire moving up over his elbow, was enough to stop Ozai for a moment. The boy could not have possibly learned that by gardening.

Three more steps, three near collisions, and the chaos meant nothing to them because they were alone against each other.

Zuko forced himself forward with no thoughts of defense or care for what he did, because he was dead anyway. And the lack of desire for survival was an advantage in any fight as he knuckles bled and his heels wanted to snap.

The block had Ozai holding his son's wrist, or maybe the other way around.

They both stared, and one of them was going to strike until the fight ended prematurely with the crack of lightning.

Zuko was hit and fell to his knees with the blinding pain surging through him.

Twice more. Twice more before he was unconscious.

Azula held up her hair with one hand as she attempted to splash her face with the cold water.

The rest of her was smoky and pulsing with adrenaline, and she needed it more desperately than anything. She stripped off her clothes and washed the rest of herself a little too hard before dressing again and sitting down on the foot of her bed.

She did not kill him. That was ridiculous. It was a necessary act to stop he and father from both dying at each other's hands.

Of course, her daze was interrupted by the entrance of an unwelcome family member.

"You should have killed both of them," Mai said and Azula thought she heard that wrong. It was not how any sane person would react.

"Why?" Azula asked and Mai stared at her for a moment.

"You really don't know? Huh. If you killed them both, it would look like an accident, and you'd be Fire Lord," Mai said calmly as if she were not talking about the deaths of her family.

Not that no one had killed for power before. Perhaps Mai was more adjusted to the royal family than Azula herself was.

"I love my father," Azula said and Mai slowly shook her head, because it was so shallow, hollow and rehearsed.

"I know you do. But not more than you love power," Mai said before gently shutting the door and walking to Azula. "He's concerned about Zuko."

"Because he's dead?"

"Because he's dead, but his body vanished."

"Stop fucking with me."

"I'm not. I'm guessing that it was someone with some kind of vengeance or one of his idealist friends." Mai hesitated. "I don't want to celebrate it, okay? I don't think he deserved that, but I'm not going to lie about the fact that it's better him than me."

Azula did not know what to make of that. "Better him than you? Who would kill you? There would be no reason."

Mai shrugged.

"I don't know, but it's not like anyone is ever safe here." She did not seem to care much about that true assertion, but Azula did not mention it.

The princess just leaned forward and kissed Mai because it was the only thing in her life that was not changed by the comet. Mai was always there, and never changed much, not the way they touched each other, or her opinions.

The comet made Ty Lee a rebel, the comet brought Zuko home to his destruction, the comet took everything Azula had known to be true and burned it with the Earth Kingdom.

And how was she supposed to handle that?

She could, however, handle the raw sex.

Ty Lee woke, screaming and tearing at her blankets.

The visions in her dream were more devastating and confusing than they had ever been before. She had such chills and a burning sensation that she could not handle. Ty Lee choked on tears and sobs that she did not have the state of mind to conceal.

Despite her lack of lucidity, she did see the door open, and her captor came in. Maybe not her captor; Ty Lee did not know what she was to Azula. All Ty Lee knew was that life hurt but she had to keep going because she believed that everything would be okay in the end.

"Do you need anything?" Azula asked coldly, the words still uncomfortable in her mouth despite how much she has put into helping Ty Lee get better.

"Just more nightmares," Ty Lee whispered before lying sideways across her bed and trying to sink deep into the blankets. This world was real and the other was not, and Ty Lee had to remember that.

"Are they getting worse?" Azula asked and she attempted to be compassionate despite her struggles.

Ty Lee sighed softly. "Yeah. But things get worse before they get better, right? They always do."

Azula did not believe that, but she allowed Ty Lee to. Ty Lee stood up, shaking on her feet, and walked towards the mirror and the dressing screen that she cast shadows on.

"Look at me," Ty Lee said through her tight throat. "I look awful. My face is so red, it's horrible! I can't believe you even can recognize me! Oh, and my lip is bleeding; that's just awful. No mascara; I look sick or something!"

She rambled for a while after that, and Azula had begun to realize that Ty Lee was moving away from living in a dream world to trying to take back the one she used to have before. Azula could not necessarily blame her, although hearing the shallow rants and fake laugh was more unnerving than the howling and clawing at herself.

"I can put in a requisition for a make-up kit," Azula said icily as soon as Ty Lee was done blathering on and on in order to keep herself from crying. In order to keep herself from sinking into the vivid hallucinations.

"You should. Oh, and these pajamas are so gross. I've been telling your dumb guards that, but they are. Oh! And I'm so bored! I need something to play with if I'm going to be your pet," Ty Lee said as her voice escalated, escalated and escalated.

Azula examined her hands for a few seconds as she tried to think about whether this Ty Lee was an improvement. No, this Ty Lee felt like Ty Lee and therefore was an improvement. Ty Lee used to care about those things, and even if she was just pretending, it consoled Azula.

"What did you dream about?" Azula asked, and she had no idea why she did, because the last thing she wanted to hear about was some boring dream.

Ty Lee dropped her hairbrush and that crash was the only sound in the room for too long.

"I dreamt about the city burning. And I dreamt about the spirits and so much fire, so much of it and..." Ty Lee shook her head. "It must just be memories of the comet. Except... the city was Caldera and I was so helpless as I just stood there like I always do and didn't try anything to stop it."

Ty Lee's lip trembled and she tried her best not to cry.

"It was a dream," Azula said coldly and Ty Lee accepted that.

"Azula, you're so sad looking," Ty Lee said airily as she poked at the Pai Sho tiles. She sucked at playing, but she did it anyway because whenever she was alone her thoughts got out of control.

Which was not okay. Ty Lee talked so much because she did not want to think for too long or about anything that made her feel uncomfortable. Azula was a temporary seal on the wounds, and Ty Lee accepted it even she was a slave.

"I'm what?" Azula asked, leaning back with her shoulders rolled into a position of power.

Ty Lee chewed on her fingernail before saying, "No. You just look tired is all. Everybody does though and stuff. I heard about those gross weird natural disasters in the east. Or the west? Yeah, it's the west."

Azula did not say much. "Well, I've had trouble sleeping lately. Maybe you could make it easier."

Ty Lee rubbed her finger on the lotus tile once before complying to Azula's guised request.

Azula stared at the flowers.

It had been a week or so since Zuko was proclaimed dead and that uncertainty ended. The rebels were contained in prisons or as such things as Ty Lee, or executed. Father should have been so comfortable, but he was not.

She thought he was becoming somewhat paranoid, but she avoided him and drifted through the palace, wondering if she should have done what Mai continuously denied saying. Ty Lee got board games and Azula played them with her and tried to ignore the purplish exhaustion in Ty Lee's eyes.

Azula stared at the flowers and realized that they were actually weeds.

"Does no one take care of this place?" Azula asked the vacant courtyard before exhaling the humid, brisk air of the morning. "It's shameful to leave the palace in such disarray."

Princess Azula kicked at the dirt to cover up the weeds, but she bit her tongue.

They looked like an eyesore that could not be ignored.

She glanced over her shoulder and knelt down to try to figure out just what these flowers were supposed to be. It was because she wanted the palace to be prettier, of course, because she wanted to brighten up such a dull dismal place. It was because she wanted to avoid continuing the torture of trying to help Ty Lee heal when Ty Lee did not think she was broken.

Azula picked the weeds and burned them.

The morning was even more quiet than the ones on which she would bend for hours.

Plants never complained or talked back, after all.