Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Precious Illusions ❯ Once ( Chapter 1 )

Author's note to begin it: This is a warning of sorts. I couldn't get this idea out of my head, pathetic, yes, but I'll explain the fic anyway. This is a rant fic of sorts. It's in story form and it explores all the questions (well the most pressing ones) and irritations I had about the avatar show. I'm still a fan, but some things bugged me. Like, are there really no air benders left? Can a race truly be completely destroyed with no trace? Why can't I feel anything but frustration towards Azula? I didn't even feel pity toward what her character had become. And the fact that the Avatar seems set on making as much sap in it as possible. So while I answered these I also made the fic as annoying as possible. As in, yes, I made as many mistakes while writing in this story as possible, sans grammar and spelling which I botch up without doing it perfectly. An example would be two of the stories main characters in this fic are original characters. There's a lot more, but you'll have to find them yourselves (if you read it). So this fic is done, I'll update it every two weeks, if I forget and you care just nudge me and I'll get it up as soon as I see the message. Oh one more thing. I don't know if this tradition bothers me or not, but I am going to make the title of every story a song that relates in some way to the chapter.

Pick-Up Lines that come in with the chapters:

Your body is like an hourglass, and I really need to know what time it is.

 

Disclaimer: Is not mine, I could never make up something so beautiful and predictable as it, though I do wish I had Zuko (I would lock him in my room and never leave). It belongs to Nickelodeon (I think) and its creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

 

Warnings: language (the f word is used twice in the fic), a bit of violence, emotional turmoil, insanity, yuri (light and far away), shoujo ai, mentions of shounen ai/yaoi. Original characters, made up avatar creatures (that's all the warning I can think of off the top of my head).

 

Song: Once by Caleb Kane

 

Chapter One

Once

 

Azula hated them all. Her traitor brother, her weak father, her frightened mother, and that damn redheaded ghost girl. Hazy gold eyes glared at the opposite wall where a transparent girl, about Azula's own age who was sitting in the corner crying.

 

The former Fire Princess's clothes hung limp on her body. Once she had been great, a pampered princess, the Fire Lord. Now… now she was her own brother's prisoner. A brother so weak he hadn't even had the courage to face his own father. Her clothes felt ridiculously loose on her starved frame and chains constricted all of her movement. Ever since that day she was always cold, colder then she had ever been. And why was she kept under such tight lock? Because when the avatar had come and seen her, chained by the water tribe's girl's antics, he had looked at her and shook his head. He couldn't take her fire bending, they weren't sure why.

 

“Oh, stop crying already, you insufferable twit,” snapped Azula glaring at the stupid hazy girl. The thing just wailed harder. Azula sighed in frustration. “You know you're the real reason my mother started thinking I was crazy!”

 

The crying stopped abruptly and the girl turned and looked her. She just stared at the fallen princess. Azula started to feel her anger return as the girl just continued to blink at her for what seemed like an hour. Right before she blew her top the girl finally seemed to have found her voice.

 

“Have you looked in a mirror lately? There's no way that anyone would think you were sane. What the hell'd you do to make it so that even months later your hair looked so… wrong?” the ghost had a serious death wish. Azula strained against her bindings, growling. The girl blinked stupidly again.

 

“It's time to go,” she said and then sighed. “I'll be back tomorrow.”

 

“Don't bother,” said Azula curling back and trying to find some warmth in her frozen body. Azula swore that her body shook all the time now, just too little for anyone to notice but herself. She glanced up long enough to catch the ghost girl practically floating out the door. The former princess glared. Stupid ghost girl that had started this whole insanity rumor. Azula saw a spirit, it wasn't that weird. Though whatever the girl looked over must be pretty lame considering her personality. Azula smiled. Yeah, something really lame like a single blade a grass, or pansies, or some sort of weed. That was it, she should be watching over her weeds, not annoying Azula.

 

Yeah, it was the ghost's fault -- her fault for making Azula's mother look at her that way. Azula's mother would have loved her otherwise, seen her for her genius like her father had. Her brother would be dead now and her friends wouldn't have abandoned her. She wouldn't have… no the only way to control people was through fear, she knew that. Mai had been speaking nonsense. The only reason the stupid girl hadn't learned her lesson was because that damn Avatar had come along and set her free, free to have a stupid affair with her moronic brother.

 

Her mother shouldn't have saved Zuko. Stupid woman had signed her own death warrant, or banishment, since at the time her father had still been a little sentimental. She had made a sacrifice for her son, and what does Zuko do, he turns around and makes her sacrifice useless by being banished by his father. Yet the mama's boy still ended up on top. Every plan she and her father had made, they'd had spies everywhere, earth benders, water benders, all of them, they had all betrayed the Fire Kingdom.

 

She and her father were right. The world needed to be reborn. The phoenix would have been a great rebirth to the world. The weak would have been swept away. Hell, only fire benders and a few scattered earth benders would have been left. That would have been for the best. Who needed a bunch of wishy-washy's and airheads anyway?

 

But no, everyone had turned to the avatar so easily. How quickly their loyalties changed. This is what she would have prevented. She would have made it so that all her subjects were loyal to her. So that even if she was compromised in some way they would still stay by her, do what she had said. Instead they easily turn to the new Fire Lord and the Avatar. They were probably all thinking how perfect it had been. They had been waiting for her and her father to fall so that they could keep their lands. Her people had probably just waited knowing that they would not be worthy of her ruling and she would have seen that.

 

Those fools, she could see them… they were here, all of those fools she'd banished, all those traitors so close to the throne. They were outside her cell. What were they doing here? No, she knew why they were in front of her cell, they were here to gloat. To show that they had chosen the supposed `right' side. They were all there looking at her with disgust, triumph, and pity. She hated all of them; they didn't deserve her as the Fire Lord.

 

“No daughter, it is you who doesn't deserve them,” her father's voice was firm as he came out of the throng of people. Azula's eyes widened. “I told you to protect the homeland and instead you lose to a water bender. Tricked, and here I thought you were smart enough to rule.”

 

“Father,” she whispered. No, she wasn't a failure. She was his hope, she was his favorite… no she had never been the favorite. She was a girl. Her father hadn't wanted a girl to take the thrown, he would have gladly had Azula be the traitor then he would have banished her and never looked back, he would have never accepted her back the way he had Zuko.

 

“You're doing it again,” Azula's head snapped to look into the ghostly green eyes of - well… the ghost girl. She seemed concerned, but quickly smiled. “The thing where you stare out at nothing with wide eyes. Better not get caught in your own head silly. Or maybe that's how you fall asleep.”

 

“Why are you back so quickly?” snarled the Fire Bender, watching as the ghost went to her usual area to sit.

 

“Being in this cell for so long without light has definitely disorientated your grasp on time. It's been three days since I last came here. Sorry, but going to you over such a long distance really takes it out on my spirit,” Azula wasn't sure what the girl was talking about, and wondered idly if it really had been three days. Could she believe something she was seeing that no else could? But she had always seen this phantom. Even before her supposed break down. Azula laughed humorously. Now she believed those bastards that came in here at the beginning. Who had told her because of whom she was and the pressures she'd been under and her upbringing had finally driven her over the edge. What did they know about her anyway?

 

“You're doing it again,” said the spirit in a bored voice. “It's polite to stay sane while you have guests. You can go back to being trapped in your own head after I leave.”

 

“Well, I suppose that's good, I'm here for the rest of my life so if time slips away that quickly. That way maybe it'll…” what could she say. There was no silver lining in this situation, not that she could see.

 

“I'm sorry I haven't been around for the last few days,” her voice sounded sad. Azula glared at the girl. What did she think she was doing?

 

“It's not only that it's tiring for my spirit, but my brother just died the other day. It was so - sudden,” the ghost girl sighed, it almost sounded like a sob.

 

“What do you care? You're a spirit, what, was haunting him the only reason for your existence?” asked Azula with a sneer. The girl glared at her and the princess sighed. “Look, I can't sympathize with you. My brother put me in here, I would do anything to see him dead and me placed as Fire Lord in his stead.”

 

She looked to the spirit and blinked when she saw the other was looking at her with soft eyes. The ghost was looking at Azula, fiery princess Azula, fear of all the nations', one of the greatest fire benders, like she was endearing, like she had just said something cute. Azula was not cute; no one had ever seen her as anything sweet. Her mother had tried to make her sweet by buying her dolls and the like, but those had never worked, she had a tendency to burn said dolls. She was a tyrant, a strong individual, a force to be reckoned with. Nothing about her should make someone soften like that, like she was something sweet and utterly endearing. And now the ghost was giggling, as if her glare was the funniest thing she'd seen, like it added to Azula's overall cuteness. If she could have, Azula would have killed the stupid giggling ghost right there. But she was tied up, and not sure how she could kill a spirit, how would she even go around doing it?

 

“Azula…” the ghost cut off abruptly and sat cross-legged, as if she was meditating. Azula snapped her head a to the cell door that opened to reveal the Avatar. Seemed he had come to pay her a visit. Had they finally deemed her too much of a hazard to keep alive?

 

“Hello Azula,” the Avatar said. Azula glared at the bald golden boy.

 

“Your voice is cracking Avatar, finally reached puberty?” asked Azula, her voice cruel and heartless. The Avatar blinked, not sure how to respond.

 

“Um well, Katara says…” he trailed off and Azula wondered how they had lost to such an idiot.

 

“Your still spineless aren't you Avatar?” spat Azula. The boy's eyes hardened. He just looked at the fallen princess. He looked as if searching for some answer in them, Azula hoped all they did was give him the hate she felt for him. Maybe his goody-goody heart would die of so much goodness being transferred to him.

 

“I don't understand,” said the boy eventually, his back straight but his voice soft and confused. He almost sounded regretful.

 

“It's better to ask a question if you want an answer. Unless you can suddenly read minds,” said Azula without much care. The Avatar looked at her again, then at the ground and then at the sky. Whose guidance was he seeking?

 

“You seem sane again, well, saner then when you first came in here,” that cleared everything up. Good news to everyone, the Avatar was a loon. “You're more dangerous now, and yet it's not as clear cut. With your father I knew the right thing was to take away his fire bending, but I can't with you, something about it seems… wrong.”

 

Azula turned from the boy. That was interesting information. So the Avatar felt that she had some purpose, how… interesting. Foolish boy, if he felt that she was a threat with her fire bending he should take it away, or kill her. Actually now that she thought about it, she would rather die than live without her fire bending. She was cold enough as it was. The Avatar sighed in a self sacrificing sort of way.

 

“Anyway, that's not the real reason I'm here,” he said and shock his head.

 

“Oh, then what prompted you to see someone as lowly as me?” asked Azula with a sneer.

 

“The guards said they have been hearing some disturbing sounds from your room,” the Avatar said finally.

 

“Well, you did claim I was insane,” sneered Azula.

 

“No, like there was another voice,” Azula laughed without humor.

 

“Who would come visit me? The only person who ever cared about me is also caged in this damn prison,” snapped Azula though in reality she was surprised, no had ever even heard a whisper from the spirit before. Damn time for them to start hearing her. She was Azula's only visitor in prison, the only thing keeping that fear of Azula deep in the Avatar. Because while Azula was proud she knew that the spirit was probably right, she did get lost in her own mind, and without her she was sure she would be stuck there permanently.

 

The Avatar had gone silent again; she was surprised he wasn't demanding to know who was visiting her. Not that Azula would tell him the truth, or maybe she would, not like the moron would believe her.

 

It was then that she noticed that the Avatar had his gaze on her spirit. He was looking right at her, not through her, she existed to him. The ghost girl didn't move. Her hands resting gently against knees and her eyes were closed. She looked as if she were meditating. Azula tried to calm her racing heart and fixed her gaze back on the Avatar who was still looking in interest at the ghost. The spirit existed on some level.

 

“Is that it, or are you going to just stand there all day?” demanded Azula. “What did your girlfriend dump you and you have to see one tied up and forced to do what you say?”

 

Anger suddenly flared in those grey eyes. Then it was gone. It seemed she wasn't worth it. Azula sneered at the boy.

 

“Goodbye Azula,” it was final as the Avatar left. But he paused long enough to do what seemed like a small prayer and swiped his glider so that it caught Azula's ghost and made it disappear. The boy looked back but didn't say anything. Azula just stared at him in bland irritation, and then he was gone.

 

Azula waited, breathing slowly and trying to calm her racing heart, it wasn't possible, she couldn't just die, that wouldn't be fair. But the more time that passed the more fear entered her that her spirit girl would never return to her. The Avatar had taken away her final constant and it drove fear deep into her heart. The ghost girl was gone and she wasn't coming back. No, no, she had, she had disappeared for years at a time but she had never been gone, she couldn't be gone, that wasn't possible.

 

Azula felt as if she would shake apart. No, she couldn't lose the only person who was always there. Who she couldn't threaten, but who still choose to be around her. The Avatar, this was all his fault! He had ruined her plans and now he had destroyed her last grip to the past where she was someone. The Avatar and her brother had to pay, and they would one way or another. She would see to it, they couldn't take everything from her, they couldn't just get away with all the pain they had caused her.

 

Cool metal dripped down Azula's hands, she stood. Her body felt freezing cold, but as she reached forward and touched the bars they melted under her touch, giving her space to walk freely from the cell and head toward the iron door. Her feet were gentle against the ground as she continued forward. She walked, blue firing flickering over her body, sparing her clothes from its heat. She would not be disgraced.

 

The floor sank under her bare feet and the air shimmered with heat. Her gold eyes were unfocused and she walked with a small tilt. Her feet were silent and she could hear two guards coming around the corner. She turned and the guard's eyes widened before their bodies were covered in fire and the only thing left as Azula walked past where they had been was a pile of ash. She made her escape out of the prison, no one knew, though it would only be a matter of time before they figured out she had escaped. The former Fire princess smirked she brought her hands, needing to light a fire, watch it ravage everything. She blinked in surprise as she saw her hands were already a deep fire blue. She couldn't feel the heat; her body was as cold as it was in that damn room.

 

Azula smiled in triumph. She truly was the greatest fire bender ever. She was power, she would kill everything that the Avatar held dear and then she'd kill him. She wasn't sure where'd she'd start or how she would go about accomplishing her goal, but she was determined, she would make him suffer for eternity. If he caught up to her, well, hopefully he'd have his friends, her brother, and his girlfriend, she'd force him to watch them die and then she would kill him.