Chapter One: An Unfortunate Interruption

Azula had to admit she'd been having fun, leading the Avatar and his little friends on. Of course, her Dai Li agents had been defeated by now. But all the practice at fighting without bending was paying off. She felt the exhilaration of the chase as she maneuvered back and forth, giving them hope of catching her. But each time she slipped away, making them angrier. More determined to get her instead of Father.

It was exhilarating.

"Wait, wait, stop!" said the boy with the sword.

"What is it, Sokka?" said the Avatar.

"Aang, we're running out of time." said Sokka. "She's just delaying us so she can run down the clock. We've got to keep looking." Why was that name familiar?

And just like that, they started figuring out the trap. Azula only had a minute or two left to burn, but if they took the right passage, they might teach Father. She remembered one of her favorite conquests. "Oh, you're Sokka aren't you? I heard a lot about you from my favorite prisoner. She kept on hoping and hoping that you'd come back for her, but after you never did she gave up on you."

Sokka stiffed. He turned around with his sword. "Where is Suki?!"

"Sokka, come on!" said the blind girl. "We can't wait!"

"Yes, do run along now." said Azula. "I'll be sure to tell her exactly how much you care about her."

And then he did run along.

Azula blinked as they ran off. She chewed her lip and wondered if she should pursue. She didn't have bending at the moment. This was an off day for her. Usually she was very good at pushing people's buttons, but obviously, she'd miscalculated.

Finally, she shrugged and turned to walk toward Father's bunker. 'Good thing they went the wrong way.'

She made her way through the halls. She was actually somewhat disappointed with how things had turned out. Usually, she could play people like a game of Pai Shu. Even so, this Sokka was either was brighter than he let on, or had decided Suki didn't matter to him anyway.

Didn't matter to her. Azula would have to pay her another visit soon, just to gloat about this.

The first thing she noticed was that the guards weren't at their posts. What was Father thinking? What if the Avatar had taken the right path? Well, it was all the moot point. By this point, the eclipse had already ended. Or was just about to.

She opened the door and walked in, looking up at the high ceiling. 'Father I've sent the Avatar and his friends on a wild goose chase and-'

And then there was a flaring of light. Azula looked down and saw Father standing in his throne, sending a wave of lightning at Zuko. Everything seemed to slow to a crawl as the bolt of lightning surged through the air.

At any moment the lightning bolt would hit Zuko, burning through his flesh and killing him.

Azula didn't want that to happen.

And then something else happened. Zuko caught the lightning. It flower through him and filled him without harming him. And then it surged out of him, surging above Father's head.

Then he caught sight of Azula and flinched.

It was the flinch that did it. The bolt was directed downward and hit Firelord Ozai straight in the face. There was a scream of agony as the Firelord was hurled against the throne that broke. The lightning faded and Ozai lolled against the throne.

Azula blinked in surprise for the second time that day. Then she walked toward her father, the Firelord Ozai, and checked his pulse. He was, quite, completely, and totally, dead.

She didn't feel anything at all.

Odd. She'd always been looking for his approval all these years. Then again, she'd always had it. So it wasn't like she hadn't achieved that goal. And he'd never gotten her any nice gifts for her birthday. Or at all really.

Come to think of it; their relationship seemed to be entirely Azula giving while Ozai took. She supposed that she might have become Firelord. But then he'd never revoked Zuko's status as Crown Prince. Why not? He had always favored her?

Probably because he didn't care who came after him, it didn't matter to him what happened to the Fire Nation after he shuffled off the mortal coil. That was actually somewhat hurtful.

Oh well, he was dead now.

She looked up to where Zuko was frozen with obvious horror. He really had always been pathetic about this whole thing. It was almost endearing. "...Zuko, I didn't know you could redirect lightning?"

"I can explain." said Zuko.

"Can you?" asked Azula. "If you had that kind of ability all this time why didn't you tell me? Did you learn it from Uncle?"

Zuko blinked and stared at her. "Azula I just killed Dad."

Azula glanced at the corpse. "Oh. So you did. Oh well. We'll say the Avatar did it."

"How can you be so calm?!" said Zuko.

"Oh come on, Zuzu." said Azula. "Father taught me that emotional connections were just arbitrary restrictions. Ones' imposed by the weak in a desperate attempt to keep some kind of control.

"Besides, I was planning on overthrowing him after he wiped out the Earth Kingdom." She was?

"What?!" said Zuko.

"Oh come on, Zuzu. Even with our airships, there is no way we'd ever be able to wipe out the whole continent. Not before Sozin's Comet passed." said Azula. "And it would just enrage the populace."

"Then why did you suggest it?" asked Azula.

"Well obviously so that I could make a big show of killing Father after he did all the dirty work of wiping out my enemies." said Azula. Yes, that was an excellent reason. "Then I'd assume the throne and people would worship the ground I walked on if I only whipped them twice a day.

"So why did you murder Father anyway? Another one of those moral things?"

"I didn't mean to; it was an accident!" said Zuko. "I was going to go free uncle and join the Avatar."

"So you decided to strike up a conversation with the most powerful Firebender in the world?" asked Azula. That was stupid, even for Zuzu.

"I figured that I'd tell him the Avatar was alive while the eclipse was in effect and what I was going to do." said Zuko.

Ah, spite. He wanted Ozai to know things had not gone according to his plan. "Wait, wait, wait, so you want to join up with the Avatar. And your plan to do so is to reveal his existence to Father, thus losing him the element of surprise."

Zuko shifted. "Um..."

"Because if I were the Avatar and I had just finished botching my chance I'd go into hiding." said Azula.

"Well..." began Zuko.

Wow, Zuko hadn't thought things through. Who would have ever seen that coming. "Did you at least learn any interesting information?" asked Azula, deciding to change the subject.

"Well Father killed Grandfather." said Zuko.

"Really?" said Azula.

"Yes, it turns out you weren't lying." said Zuko. "Grandfather was going to make Father kill me. But Mother assassinated him before being exiled."

"Touching." mused Azula. Mother was really beneath her contempt by this point. "Okay, I'm going to lay out the two ways this can go down, Zuzu. Option 1, the guards come in here and find me standing over the body of my dearly departed father. Slain by his traitorous ungrateful son. I become Firelord, and you spend the rest of your life in prison. I'll be sure to visit, by the way, I like mocking you.

"Option 2, the guards come in here and find that the cowardly Avatar murdered Firelord Ozai. While the eclipse was in effect, of course. You were heroically injured defending him. After you make a full recovery, and you will recover, we work something out."

Zuko set a hand to his sword. "Who says I'll take either."

It was said lightning didn't strike twice on the same target. Azula had never been one to let the laws of nature dictate her decisions, though. So when she shot a lightning bolt at Zuko, it struck and slammed him against the wall hard. He fell and lay still.

"Who says I'm giving you a choice." said Azula.

Just a small lightning bolt. Nothing a week in the infirmary wouldn't fix.

Azula paused. What would she have done if Zuko had died? She wouldn't exactly say she loved him. In the weak, unenlightened peasant sense anyway. More in the way you have a favorite dog. You hold it in a certain affection and like stroking it, but it isn't anywhere near an equal. And you don't think twice about putting it to sleep.

Well, there was her answer. "...Hmm, I hope that didn't do any permanent damage." said Azula. 'Guards! Guards come quickly!'

The guards rushed in through the side entrance. Evidently, Ozai had sent them away. "Princess Azula what has happened?"

"The cowardly Avatar has murdered my father and injured my brother!" said Azula. "Get a physician, quickly!" Two of them rushed off. Then she turned to the others. "The rest of you, scour the area! Hunt down the intruders! Don't let a single one escape!"

As the guards rushed off, Azula walked up to the throne. Ozai had been fried to a crisp. "Father I'm so glad you decided to use lightning. I wouldn't want blood all over my throne."

She pulled the body off and threw it down the steps. Then she sat back and stretched. She found a big grin coming to her face. "One or two things have gone wrong, I suppose. But all in all a lovely day."

In the aftermath of their hurried flight from the Battle of the Black Sun, no one was in a good mood. Appa had been forced to land to buy supplies. Haru and the others were staying behind, while the core of the Avatar gang walked into the town.

"I can't believe we failed again." said Aang.

"Tell me about it." said Sokka.

He'd abandoned Suki. Or at least he felt like he had. It had been the hardest thing he'd ever done, but he'd thought they could find out after they beat the Firelord. But they hadn't been able to find him. Their time had run out, and they'd had to run.

Almost everyone had been captured.

"What do we do now?" asked Toph.

Everyone was looking to him to lead. Sokka stood up straight and tried to think. "I don't know. We're going to have to regroup somewhere. Aang, do you have any ideas."

Aang paused. "We could try for the Western Air Temple. It's pretty well hidden. As long as we don't get spotted, we could hide out there for a bit."

"We need time to figure out what to do next." decided Sokka. "Let's just... What's that?" He halted as he passed a flyer taped to a fence.

"It looks like some kind of news bulletin." said Katara.

Sokka moved forward and looked at it. He read aloud;

"Breaking news, Firelord Ozai assassinated:

"During the recent eclipse, the minions of the Avatar launched a cowardly raid on the Fire Nation. Although Firelord Ozai led his forces to victory, he was murdered by an assassin.

"The Avatar previously thought killed by Princess Azula and Prince Zuko at Ba Sing Se, infiltrated the Firelord's bunker. Despite fierce resistance, Firelord Ozai was murdered and Prince Zuko grieviously injured."

"Princess Azula has taken over the government of the Fire Nation in this dark time.

"'I loved my father as much as he loved the Fire Nation and its people.' says Princess Azula. 'And I will not stop until the Avatar have been brought to justice. The Earth Kingdom is ours. Soon the Northern and Southern Water Tribes will be forced to kneel.

"'There will soon be no place in the world that the Avatar can run.'"

"Alright!" said Toph. "We won!"

"This doesn't feel like winning." said Aaang.

"I don't get it. How could Ozai be dead?" asked Sokka. "We never even saw the guy."

"Obviously Azula killed him and then pinned the blame on us." said Toph. "She wouldn't want anyone knowing she killed her father."

"But that doesn't make any sense." said Sokka. "Why would Azula go to all the trouble of fighting us off and then kill him. She could have just let us through."

"...Zuko." said Katara, voice a hiss.

"What?" said Sokka.

"It says Zuko was badly injured during the fighting." said Katara. "He must have killed Ozai with his swords during the eclipse, then been injured by the guards. They must have planned this from the start.

"Now he's pinning the blame on us! That... that... snake!"

"Oh cheer up Katara, this is great news!" said Toph.

"What do you mean, Toph?" asked Sokka. "We're being framed for murder!"

"Of the guy, we were going to kill anyway." said Toph. "Ozai was a legend in terms of power. I mean, did you hear what he did to the South Pole? Nobody could stop him."

"We know." said Katara, an edge in her tone.

"The point is, we don't have to fight Ozai anymore." We just have to fight Zuko and Azula. We've beaten both of them before.

"Our job just got a lot easier."

Sokka looked up. He hadn't thought of it in that light before. "Hey, Toph is right. We can head to the Western Air Temple, train up a bit, and go back to take them out."

"What about Sozin's Comet?" asked Aang.

"Don't worry Aang. We were only trying to beat Ozai before the comet because he was going to conquer the world before that." said Sokka. "What is Azula going to do? Conquer the world twice?

"Trust me, now that Ozai's out of the picture this will be way easier."

It was a war meeting, much like those which had been held before. But this time Azula was in the throne. This time Zuko was in the infirmary. This time she was in command. The generals were looking to her for commands.

Azula leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs with a smirk. "Change of plans gentlemen.

"I've decided that burning down the continent we just conquered won't be very good for the economy. The plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom is off. It was rather indulgent of my lamented father, to be honest."

"With respect, Princess Azula, if not to destroy the Earth Kingdom, what will we use the fleet for?" asked a man.

"Yes," said Azula, "it would be a shame to let Sozin's Comet go to waste, won't it? Very well, we'll lure out the Earth Kingdom rebels with some tasty bait. And when they take it, we'll obliterate them with as little collateral as possible.

"Let's use precision strikes to solve our problems from now on, shall we?"

"That will not take our whole fleet." noted the general. "Shall I reduce the number of battleships we are building?"

"Oh I'm sure we can find a target for the new ships." mused Azula. "For instance, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes."

"It will take more troops than we have to occupy the poles, Princess." said an officer.

"Oh? So it will. No need to occupy those fish eating peasant. We'll wipe them out." Azula's smile widened as she raised a hand and sent forth two bolts of flame. "All of them."

The flames struck the north and south poles. The fires burned brighter and brighter. Then they died, and nothing was left but ashes.

Author's Note:

I recently finished Avatar: The Last Airbender. Great show, though it had some serious problems toward the end. I really think they should have made a Season 3 instead of Legend of Korra. It would have been interesting.

Anyway, I've tried to write several fanfics about the series. But this is the first one I've completed a first chapter about. The others were weird. I couldn't really channel the characters.

I've always theorized that Zuko was the closest thing that Azula had to a morality pet. Yes, she constantly manipulates him for her own ends. But keep in mind that during Ba Sing Se she didn't have to keep her word. She could have easily backstabbed him after they beat the Avatar and removed him as a potential heir to the throne. Plus she does seem to at least be trying to reach out to him throughout the early parts of Season 3.

Which is not to say their relationship is healthy in any sense of the word.

I also theorize that Azula doesn't actually plan anything. Rather she is making her plans up as she goes along and is very good at adapting to new situations.

Enjoy.