Aug. 26th, 2010 03:15 am
The Madness of Princess Azula
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savvyliterateTitle: The Madness of Princess Azula
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters/Pairings: Tenzin, Azula, Zuko, Aang/Katara
Rating: PG
Spoilers: As indicated above, this story revolves around a character that is appearing in The Legend of Korra. Otherwise, this is set about 11 years after "Sozin's Comet."
The hospital was filled with all sorts of people that truly frightened Tenzin. People wandered to and fro mumbling to themselves, huddling in little groups with their families, and he even saw a few led away in restraints. He wanted to hold his mother's hand, but he was a big boy now. He was five, and he was much, much too old to hold his mother's hand. But, maybe, it was OK to at least stand close to her.
"It's too loud in here, Mom," he complained, "and the people are weird and they smell."
"Tenzin," his mother chastised, "they're humans, just like you and me. We're here to help them."
"Katara," his father called from where he stood with Fire Lord Zuko speaking with the head administrator. He beckoned them over. "They've got some burn victims from the recent fire along the border. They wanted to see if you can take a look at them."
"I'll be right there," Mom called back. She ruffled Tenzin's hair. "Why don't you sit down with the book Uncle Sokka gave you, and I'll be right back."
"'Kay," Tenzin said and watched his mother join his father. They both followed the Fire Lord to see the victims.
He read a couple of pages of Uncle Sokka's book, his latest collaboration with The Mechanist about the inventions they developed during the war, but even it didn't hold his interest for long. He absently kicked his feet, glanced around at the waiting people, and decided to explore.
He found kitchens and the toilets, but nothing really interesting. He was about to give up and go back to his seat when he spotted a door leading to a corridor of rooms. He wandered through and noticed these were patient rooms and all the doors were open. Some of them were reading, a couple were playing pai-sho, and a few more visited with relatives.
The last door was shut and Tenzin hesitated outside it. He heard footsteps and ducked around the corner as one of the nurses approached the door. He heard a lock snick open, and he peered around the corner as the nurse opened the door and pushed in a cart.
"Your dinner, Your Highness," the nurse said. Tenzin crept closer to the door and saw the nurse bow to someone inside and remove a couple of items from the cart. He hesitated, then tiptoed into the room, watching as the nurse fed a dark-haired woman who lay on the bed, then slipped into the closet as the nurse left. He let out a breath and carefully opened the door.
The woman lay in the slightly reclined bed, her dull eyes affixed on the ceiling. Her hand clenched and released her blanket repeatedly, but her breathing was deep and steady.
Tenzin frowned at her. The only thing on the table next to her was a painting, and he picked it up. He recognized Fire Lord Zuko as a young man, it was similar to some pictures that Fire Lady Mai had shown him before. This had to be the Princess Azula, he realized with a shock and nearly dropped the picture. No one ever talked about Princess Azula. He didn't even realize she existed until Aunt Toph made a remark about her and his parents immediately shushed her. He asked Grandpa Iroh about her, and all he said was that Princess Azula had gone away to a hospital and she was very ill. It made his parents sad to hear about her.
"Hello, Princess Azula," Tenzin told the listless figure. He made a little bow, the way his mother told him to in front of royalty. He dragged the visitor's chair to the bedside and perched on it. "I'm Tenzin. My mom and dad know you. Grandpa Iroh says you're very sick. I wish I knew why you were sick, because I'm sure my mom could make you better. My mom can make anyone feel better."
Azula's hand stilled.
"She even healed this really big scar on my dad's back." Tenzin turned around and pointed to a spot on his back approximately where his dad had his scar. "Uncle Sokka says the scar kept him from being in the Avatar State until he fought with Fire Lord Ozai. Bam!" Tenzin punched his fists in the air. "Bam! Pow! Dad and Fire Lord Ozai fought and Dad took away Ozai's firebending. Uncle Sokka saw it and he said it was cool."
"Avatar," Azula muttered.
"Huh? Hey, you talk!" Tenzin scooted closer. "Yeah, my dad's the Avatar. His name's Aang. He's really nice, and he's teaching me how to ride Appa on my own. My mom's a waterbender. Her name's Katara."
"Ka.. Ta.. Ra ..." Azula muttered and began to shake.
"Yup! Katara!" Tenzin blithely continued. "She can also heal. They said she saved Fire Lord Zuko's life at the very end of the war. I bet you were there to see that, weren't you?"
"Zuko!" In a blind rage, Azula tore out of her catatonic state. Tenzin's eyes popped wide as she struggled against the restraints that held her in bed. With a roar, tore one arm free and shot a stream of blue fire at the wall.
"Aaaah!" Tenzin shrieked and scrambled out of his chair. Azula's wild eyes focused on him, and he could see the rage in them building.
"Where is he? Where's Zuko?" she spat.
"He's with my mom and dad!" Tenzin hurried behind his chair and tried to fight his trembling. Any airbending his dad had taught him fled his mind at the sight of the enraged woman. "I'll go get him if you want!"
"The Avatar." The insanity in Azula's eyes cleared, and the cold, calculating look she gave Tenzin was terrifying. "You are to get him now, you little boy."
There was something in her voice that was horrifying, and Tenzin knew that if he got his father, she'd hurt him. He took a defensive stance and tried to clear his head. "No, I'm not doing it! You're going to hurt my dad!"
"Are you going to hurt me the same way your mommy hurt me, little boy? Did she tell you how she froze me in water and tied me in chains to a drain?"
"Mom didn't do that!"
"Oh, but she did!" Azula laughed, an pitch that had Tenzin wanting to cover his ears. "Have your mommy tell you the truth about the last battle, little boy."
"But, she ...," Tenzin managed as Azula shot fire at him. He screamed and dove for the first safe place he could find - the closet. He pulled the door shut after him and clung to Uncle Sokka's book, trying not to sob. He curled into a ball, rocking back and forth as he tried to think of what his dad would do in his place, but all he wanted was his mom.
"Azula!" He heard Fire Lord Zuko's voice roaring above the flames.
Tenzin heard a splash of water and the sound of rushing feet as Azula screamed at her brother, then his mother. After a moment, the closet door opened and his father stood there, smiling sadly at him. "Hey, big guy."
"Dad!" Tenzin rushed out of the closet and hugged his dad around the leg as tight as he could.
"Are you OK?" His mom turned around and Tenzin launched herself at her. She hugged him tightly and he buried his face in her shoulder. Just this once, it was OK to let his mom hug him in front of everyone. He was only 5 after all.
-----
"Mom, what happened at the end of the war?" Tenzin lay in bed, a stuffed bison tucked beneath his arm as his mother straightened the covers.
Katara stopped fussing, then ran her fingers through her son's hair. "What makes you ask that?"
"When she was shooting fire, Princess Azula said you tied her in chains. Did you really do that?"
Katara gave him a sad look and sat on the edge of the bed. "At the end of the war," she said quietly, "Fire Lord Zuko had a fight with his sister over the kingdom throne. Azula hurt him very badly and tried to hurt me."
"Why?" Tenzin asked, horrified.
He was, Katara thought, only three years younger than she was when she lost her mother. She had lived her childhood in war. He was living his in peace. She wasn't about to ruin that innocence and make him think there could be a day when he could lose her. Not yet. "Because Princess Azula didn't realize we were trying to help her. She thought we were going to hurt her. I froze her in water and tied her in chains because it was the only way to stop her at the time. We took her to the hospital and she's been there ever since."
"Will she ever get better? Can you make her better?"
"I tried, once. But, no, I don't think she'll ever get better. Sometimes, people can't get better no matter how much you try to help them."
-----
"I'm sorry for the damage Tenzin caused," Katara told Zuko a few minutes later as she entered his private library.
"He didn't mean any harm," Zuko replied and gave her a smile. "Thanks for helping to contain the damage."
"It helped that we were already looking for Tenzin when Azula started her attack." She glanced at Aang, who stood at the balcony door staring out at the courtyard where Zuko, Azula and Katara had fought more than a decade earlier. "Don't blame yourself," she announced.
"I'm not blaming myself," Aang muttered a bit petulantly.
Katara gave Zuko a knowing look, then joined Aang. "About the only thing you can blame yourself for is providing half of the genes that caused our son to wander off."
"She's right," Zuko said. He had his formal robes off and sat at his desk, staring at the reports from the hospital. He sighed and tossed them down. "It's the most response we've had out of Azula since Mother attempted to visit her eight years ago. That was a disaster too. I'd think anything that would make her responsive would help, but ..."
"I'm not so sure," Katara replied. "You had me try to reach into her mind that one time, to see if I could possibly heal it. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't. It's so dark, it's almost impossible for the light to reach it."
"Maybe it's better that way," Aang spoke up. He wrapped an arm around Katara's waist. "You did what you could, Zuko. She's in a good hospital and the staff treat her with respect. But, she's in her own world now, and in that place in her mind, she's probably conquered the entire world and was the successor to the Phoenix King. I think she prefers it. It'd be cruel to pull her out of it. The world's a better place since the war, but I don't think Azula could cope in it. Your dad didn't."
"I know," Zuko said a bit bitterly. In an act of defiance, Ozai had hung himself with his clothes not long after Tenzin's birth. "Let's go join the others. Toph and Uncle Iroh are here, I can hear Toph bellowing in the courtyard."
"I heard that!" Toph's voice came through the window and Aang and Katara laughed.
-----
In the dark, Azula quietly sang to herself as she twisted the hospital sheet into a noose. She slipped it around her neck, tightened it, smiled, and prepared to ascend to her rightful place on the throne.
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Characters/Pairings: Tenzin, Azula, Zuko, Aang/Katara
Rating: PG
Spoilers: As indicated above, this story revolves around a character that is appearing in The Legend of Korra. Otherwise, this is set about 11 years after "Sozin's Comet."
The hospital was filled with all sorts of people that truly frightened Tenzin. People wandered to and fro mumbling to themselves, huddling in little groups with their families, and he even saw a few led away in restraints. He wanted to hold his mother's hand, but he was a big boy now. He was five, and he was much, much too old to hold his mother's hand. But, maybe, it was OK to at least stand close to her.
"It's too loud in here, Mom," he complained, "and the people are weird and they smell."
"Tenzin," his mother chastised, "they're humans, just like you and me. We're here to help them."
"Katara," his father called from where he stood with Fire Lord Zuko speaking with the head administrator. He beckoned them over. "They've got some burn victims from the recent fire along the border. They wanted to see if you can take a look at them."
"I'll be right there," Mom called back. She ruffled Tenzin's hair. "Why don't you sit down with the book Uncle Sokka gave you, and I'll be right back."
"'Kay," Tenzin said and watched his mother join his father. They both followed the Fire Lord to see the victims.
He read a couple of pages of Uncle Sokka's book, his latest collaboration with The Mechanist about the inventions they developed during the war, but even it didn't hold his interest for long. He absently kicked his feet, glanced around at the waiting people, and decided to explore.
He found kitchens and the toilets, but nothing really interesting. He was about to give up and go back to his seat when he spotted a door leading to a corridor of rooms. He wandered through and noticed these were patient rooms and all the doors were open. Some of them were reading, a couple were playing pai-sho, and a few more visited with relatives.
The last door was shut and Tenzin hesitated outside it. He heard footsteps and ducked around the corner as one of the nurses approached the door. He heard a lock snick open, and he peered around the corner as the nurse opened the door and pushed in a cart.
"Your dinner, Your Highness," the nurse said. Tenzin crept closer to the door and saw the nurse bow to someone inside and remove a couple of items from the cart. He hesitated, then tiptoed into the room, watching as the nurse fed a dark-haired woman who lay on the bed, then slipped into the closet as the nurse left. He let out a breath and carefully opened the door.
The woman lay in the slightly reclined bed, her dull eyes affixed on the ceiling. Her hand clenched and released her blanket repeatedly, but her breathing was deep and steady.
Tenzin frowned at her. The only thing on the table next to her was a painting, and he picked it up. He recognized Fire Lord Zuko as a young man, it was similar to some pictures that Fire Lady Mai had shown him before. This had to be the Princess Azula, he realized with a shock and nearly dropped the picture. No one ever talked about Princess Azula. He didn't even realize she existed until Aunt Toph made a remark about her and his parents immediately shushed her. He asked Grandpa Iroh about her, and all he said was that Princess Azula had gone away to a hospital and she was very ill. It made his parents sad to hear about her.
"Hello, Princess Azula," Tenzin told the listless figure. He made a little bow, the way his mother told him to in front of royalty. He dragged the visitor's chair to the bedside and perched on it. "I'm Tenzin. My mom and dad know you. Grandpa Iroh says you're very sick. I wish I knew why you were sick, because I'm sure my mom could make you better. My mom can make anyone feel better."
Azula's hand stilled.
"She even healed this really big scar on my dad's back." Tenzin turned around and pointed to a spot on his back approximately where his dad had his scar. "Uncle Sokka says the scar kept him from being in the Avatar State until he fought with Fire Lord Ozai. Bam!" Tenzin punched his fists in the air. "Bam! Pow! Dad and Fire Lord Ozai fought and Dad took away Ozai's firebending. Uncle Sokka saw it and he said it was cool."
"Avatar," Azula muttered.
"Huh? Hey, you talk!" Tenzin scooted closer. "Yeah, my dad's the Avatar. His name's Aang. He's really nice, and he's teaching me how to ride Appa on my own. My mom's a waterbender. Her name's Katara."
"Ka.. Ta.. Ra ..." Azula muttered and began to shake.
"Yup! Katara!" Tenzin blithely continued. "She can also heal. They said she saved Fire Lord Zuko's life at the very end of the war. I bet you were there to see that, weren't you?"
"Zuko!" In a blind rage, Azula tore out of her catatonic state. Tenzin's eyes popped wide as she struggled against the restraints that held her in bed. With a roar, tore one arm free and shot a stream of blue fire at the wall.
"Aaaah!" Tenzin shrieked and scrambled out of his chair. Azula's wild eyes focused on him, and he could see the rage in them building.
"Where is he? Where's Zuko?" she spat.
"He's with my mom and dad!" Tenzin hurried behind his chair and tried to fight his trembling. Any airbending his dad had taught him fled his mind at the sight of the enraged woman. "I'll go get him if you want!"
"The Avatar." The insanity in Azula's eyes cleared, and the cold, calculating look she gave Tenzin was terrifying. "You are to get him now, you little boy."
There was something in her voice that was horrifying, and Tenzin knew that if he got his father, she'd hurt him. He took a defensive stance and tried to clear his head. "No, I'm not doing it! You're going to hurt my dad!"
"Are you going to hurt me the same way your mommy hurt me, little boy? Did she tell you how she froze me in water and tied me in chains to a drain?"
"Mom didn't do that!"
"Oh, but she did!" Azula laughed, an pitch that had Tenzin wanting to cover his ears. "Have your mommy tell you the truth about the last battle, little boy."
"But, she ...," Tenzin managed as Azula shot fire at him. He screamed and dove for the first safe place he could find - the closet. He pulled the door shut after him and clung to Uncle Sokka's book, trying not to sob. He curled into a ball, rocking back and forth as he tried to think of what his dad would do in his place, but all he wanted was his mom.
"Azula!" He heard Fire Lord Zuko's voice roaring above the flames.
Tenzin heard a splash of water and the sound of rushing feet as Azula screamed at her brother, then his mother. After a moment, the closet door opened and his father stood there, smiling sadly at him. "Hey, big guy."
"Dad!" Tenzin rushed out of the closet and hugged his dad around the leg as tight as he could.
"Are you OK?" His mom turned around and Tenzin launched herself at her. She hugged him tightly and he buried his face in her shoulder. Just this once, it was OK to let his mom hug him in front of everyone. He was only 5 after all.
-----
"Mom, what happened at the end of the war?" Tenzin lay in bed, a stuffed bison tucked beneath his arm as his mother straightened the covers.
Katara stopped fussing, then ran her fingers through her son's hair. "What makes you ask that?"
"When she was shooting fire, Princess Azula said you tied her in chains. Did you really do that?"
Katara gave him a sad look and sat on the edge of the bed. "At the end of the war," she said quietly, "Fire Lord Zuko had a fight with his sister over the kingdom throne. Azula hurt him very badly and tried to hurt me."
"Why?" Tenzin asked, horrified.
He was, Katara thought, only three years younger than she was when she lost her mother. She had lived her childhood in war. He was living his in peace. She wasn't about to ruin that innocence and make him think there could be a day when he could lose her. Not yet. "Because Princess Azula didn't realize we were trying to help her. She thought we were going to hurt her. I froze her in water and tied her in chains because it was the only way to stop her at the time. We took her to the hospital and she's been there ever since."
"Will she ever get better? Can you make her better?"
"I tried, once. But, no, I don't think she'll ever get better. Sometimes, people can't get better no matter how much you try to help them."
-----
"I'm sorry for the damage Tenzin caused," Katara told Zuko a few minutes later as she entered his private library.
"He didn't mean any harm," Zuko replied and gave her a smile. "Thanks for helping to contain the damage."
"It helped that we were already looking for Tenzin when Azula started her attack." She glanced at Aang, who stood at the balcony door staring out at the courtyard where Zuko, Azula and Katara had fought more than a decade earlier. "Don't blame yourself," she announced.
"I'm not blaming myself," Aang muttered a bit petulantly.
Katara gave Zuko a knowing look, then joined Aang. "About the only thing you can blame yourself for is providing half of the genes that caused our son to wander off."
"She's right," Zuko said. He had his formal robes off and sat at his desk, staring at the reports from the hospital. He sighed and tossed them down. "It's the most response we've had out of Azula since Mother attempted to visit her eight years ago. That was a disaster too. I'd think anything that would make her responsive would help, but ..."
"I'm not so sure," Katara replied. "You had me try to reach into her mind that one time, to see if I could possibly heal it. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't. It's so dark, it's almost impossible for the light to reach it."
"Maybe it's better that way," Aang spoke up. He wrapped an arm around Katara's waist. "You did what you could, Zuko. She's in a good hospital and the staff treat her with respect. But, she's in her own world now, and in that place in her mind, she's probably conquered the entire world and was the successor to the Phoenix King. I think she prefers it. It'd be cruel to pull her out of it. The world's a better place since the war, but I don't think Azula could cope in it. Your dad didn't."
"I know," Zuko said a bit bitterly. In an act of defiance, Ozai had hung himself with his clothes not long after Tenzin's birth. "Let's go join the others. Toph and Uncle Iroh are here, I can hear Toph bellowing in the courtyard."
"I heard that!" Toph's voice came through the window and Aang and Katara laughed.
-----
In the dark, Azula quietly sang to herself as she twisted the hospital sheet into a noose. She slipped it around her neck, tightened it, smiled, and prepared to ascend to her rightful place on the throne.
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