You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."
Who: Azula, Dream!Ty Lee, Dream!Mai, Dream!Sokka and Suki, Dream!Zuko, What: Th events Boiling Rock When: Not long before Sozin's Comet came. (Also, Monday) Where: Boiling Rock Prison, Fire Nation Status: Complete Rating: PG-13 for violence Warning: Massively major spoilers of majorness for Avatar: The Last Airbender
That was her brother, escaping on the gondola rising into the air away from them. He'd been hiding here. Of all places. Effecting a jail break. Azula smiled to herself. Maybe this was finally it. Ty Lee lept onto one of the gondola's lines and nimbly ran up it. Giving herself a split second to admire the girl, she grabbed handcuffs from a guard, launched herself off the platform with her fire, attached herself to the line and then rocketed up towards them.
Inside and out, they fought, fire and fists, and for the first time Azula knew she meant to kill him. The gondola shuddered under violence of the battle. Far below, the water in the volcano's caldera was almost boiling hot. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Ty Lee and Suki trading blows.
Azula had him. Her idiot brother and his new friends. They fought well, but it wasn't good enough. It was a matter of time.
They'd taken a hostage, the warden, and as they fought, he shouted for the guards to cut the line. The guards jammed a sword into the line to stop it, and the entire structure jerked.
Ty Lee lept to the top of the wire and shouted, "They're about to cut the line!"
Smirking, Azula replied, "Then it's time to leave. Good bye, Zuko." She blasted herself off the gondola and over to the other one going down. Ty Lee backflipped over, following her. She glanced back at Sokka, Suki and Zuko, concerned.
As the guards cut into the steel rope, they were suddenly pinned to a wall by stilettos.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving the jerk who dumped me." Mai fought off the other guards, pinning them down before she released the block on the line, allowing the gondola to continue rising out of the prison.
"What is she doing?!" Azula rocketed down the line as Mai is detained. She was incensed. Waving her hand, she dismisses the guards, "I never expected this from you. The thing I don't understand is why? Why would you do it. You knew the consequences."
Mai's tone was that infuriating mixture of apathy and disrespect, "I guess you don't know me as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."
"No, you miscalculated!" Azula shouted, enraged. What was this? Why was this happening. She'd trusted Mai. She fell into a firebending stance, "You should have feared me more!"
Before she could kill Mai, she felt a jab in her side, then another. In rapid succession, Ty Lee blocked her chi, and thus her power. Azula fell to the ground, eyes wide in shock.
Ty Lee. Loyal, sweet, beautiful, Ty Lee. The fragile thread by which Azula's sanity dangled snapped. I loved you. The betrayal was all the worse as that realization slammed home. I loved you! The rage consumed her, but now wasn't the time. Later. Alone.
"Come on! Let's get out of here!" But it was too late, the two girls were surrounded, and guards were already helping Azula to her feet.
"You're both fools." The princess's voice spat venom and hurt.
"What shall we do with them, Princess?"
Hurt them, kill them, let your men have their ways with them. No. NO. She couldn't bear to see them again, but she couldn't stand to see them hurt or killed. Not like this. Not even now, "Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again, and let them rot!"
They were led away, and Ty Lee glanced back at her. For a single, solitary second, Azula returned her look with one of anguish. Then the ice mask fell back into place, anguish replaced with frigid anger.
Never again. She never wanted to see them again. She was always meant to be alone.
And later, alone, she cried like she never had, before.