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the broken dragon queen
Azula;
PG;
spoilers: season finale;
She has filth on her knees and the faint taste of blood on her tongue. The cuffs around her wrists have bruised her pale skin into a dark shade of purple. She's barely able to move due to the cold ice cell Zuko has made for her.
She had it all. Now even her freedom is a distant shadow.
Ty Lee used to visit her. Sometimes, she still does. The first time she came through that iron door, all shy smiles and kind words, Azula laughed hysterically. Fate was a capricious little child and she was just another victim. She knew many people called it Justice. But Justice was for fools and idealists. Like Ty Lee. Ty Lee, the girl dressed as a Kyoshi Warrior. The brave and noble woman standing before her.
They sat there while Ty Lee tried to feed her. She went on about life, about second chances, about how great everything was. Azula's only thought had been of killing her, burning her precious smile to ashes.
“Take care,” she had said. Azula had been tempted to answer with cold words and an evil smile.
(I will, dear. These walls won't kill me)
She shakes her head to keep her hair from falling into her eyes. It's dirty and messy, all knots and dry sweat. She supposes her face is not very different. Maybe a little mad around the edges. Maybe a little dead.
She would laugh at herself. She would laugh at whoever was in the same situation. However, her brother wouldn't. Oh, of course he wouldn't. He's beyond all that. He's... better. He's the Fire Lord.
She snorts.
Zuko comes to visit. Frequently. He stands there, watches her, pities her. She knows what the world thinks of her. They sit around a comfortable fire, they drink tea, they celebrate peace and then, after all that, they thank the Spirits in hushed tones. They thank them she locked up, rotting and dying in a nameless cell, in a faraway prison, in a forgotten land.
But not her brother. Her brother pities her. And Azula feels so angry, so furious, so nauseated.
“I don't understand,” he says sometimes, “you could've made the world a better place. You had so much power.”
She hates that whatever that's in his voice so much, she feels like crying.
“I still have that power, brother,” she likes to answer, “but I prefer destruction and chaos and death. Suffering is far more beautiful.”
And then Zuko closes his eyes and turns his back on her. And Azula feels something shatter inside her every time. Something she didn't know she had. Something she had thought long gone.
Her cell is made of ice, cold enough to stop her from firebending (but no cold enough to freeze her to death). Water drips from the ceiling and wets the threadbare cloth she wears. Exhaustion embraces her like a mother, her mother, the mother she never had. (She never wonders what could have happened if someone had loved her like Zuko had been loved. She doesn't like to pretend she could have been a good person. She did what she did. And she doesn't regret it).
She hallucinates. She's aware of that. She's gone mad and her mind is fragile as glass. She will take it, though. She will stand the pain and the insanity. She will survive, become stronger and she will raise again. She will.
She hallucinates.
Mai only visited once. She came while Azula was picturing the world at her feet. The girl (the future Fire Lady, how ironic) didn't gave her smiles, or kind words. She didn't even flinch at her pathetic state. She just looked her in the eye and Azula remembered why she liked Mai.
The girl blinked.
“I hope you die here, Azula.”
She just turned around and left. Azula stared at the door for hours and suddenly, she couldn't stop the outburst of laughter.
She will raise again.
Wait and see.
♣
Eh. Right. *rolls her eyes*
Azula;
PG;
spoilers: season finale;
She has filth on her knees and the faint taste of blood on her tongue. The cuffs around her wrists have bruised her pale skin into a dark shade of purple. She's barely able to move due to the cold ice cell Zuko has made for her.
She had it all. Now even her freedom is a distant shadow.
Ty Lee used to visit her. Sometimes, she still does. The first time she came through that iron door, all shy smiles and kind words, Azula laughed hysterically. Fate was a capricious little child and she was just another victim. She knew many people called it Justice. But Justice was for fools and idealists. Like Ty Lee. Ty Lee, the girl dressed as a Kyoshi Warrior. The brave and noble woman standing before her.
They sat there while Ty Lee tried to feed her. She went on about life, about second chances, about how great everything was. Azula's only thought had been of killing her, burning her precious smile to ashes.
“Take care,” she had said. Azula had been tempted to answer with cold words and an evil smile.
(I will, dear. These walls won't kill me)
She shakes her head to keep her hair from falling into her eyes. It's dirty and messy, all knots and dry sweat. She supposes her face is not very different. Maybe a little mad around the edges. Maybe a little dead.
She would laugh at herself. She would laugh at whoever was in the same situation. However, her brother wouldn't. Oh, of course he wouldn't. He's beyond all that. He's... better. He's the Fire Lord.
She snorts.
Zuko comes to visit. Frequently. He stands there, watches her, pities her. She knows what the world thinks of her. They sit around a comfortable fire, they drink tea, they celebrate peace and then, after all that, they thank the Spirits in hushed tones. They thank them she locked up, rotting and dying in a nameless cell, in a faraway prison, in a forgotten land.
But not her brother. Her brother pities her. And Azula feels so angry, so furious, so nauseated.
“I don't understand,” he says sometimes, “you could've made the world a better place. You had so much power.”
She hates that whatever that's in his voice so much, she feels like crying.
“I still have that power, brother,” she likes to answer, “but I prefer destruction and chaos and death. Suffering is far more beautiful.”
And then Zuko closes his eyes and turns his back on her. And Azula feels something shatter inside her every time. Something she didn't know she had. Something she had thought long gone.
Her cell is made of ice, cold enough to stop her from firebending (but no cold enough to freeze her to death). Water drips from the ceiling and wets the threadbare cloth she wears. Exhaustion embraces her like a mother, her mother, the mother she never had. (She never wonders what could have happened if someone had loved her like Zuko had been loved. She doesn't like to pretend she could have been a good person. She did what she did. And she doesn't regret it).
She hallucinates. She's aware of that. She's gone mad and her mind is fragile as glass. She will take it, though. She will stand the pain and the insanity. She will survive, become stronger and she will raise again. She will.
She hallucinates.
Mai only visited once. She came while Azula was picturing the world at her feet. The girl (the future Fire Lady, how ironic) didn't gave her smiles, or kind words. She didn't even flinch at her pathetic state. She just looked her in the eye and Azula remembered why she liked Mai.
The girl blinked.
“I hope you die here, Azula.”
She just turned around and left. Azula stared at the door for hours and suddenly, she couldn't stop the outburst of laughter.
She will raise again.
Wait and see.
♣
Eh. Right. *rolls her eyes*