Arriving at Zilang was a pleasant enough experience for the princess and her small entourage. Chief Colonial Overseer Dae and several of the garrison's men greeted her amidst the setting sunlight with all the formality and respect her station warranted, alongside a generous helping of heartfelt veneration. Azula allowed herself a smug smile as she watched Ty Lee and Mai boggle at the reception they were getting.
"Welcome back to Zilang, your highness. Your brother, Prince Zuko, has arrived in the afternoon and has gone up ahead to the 11th's barracks."
"Thank you, overseer." Azula was about to turn to her friends when a commotion caught her eyes.
"Hey, isn't that your brother, Azula?" Ty Lee pointed out, and the princess frowned. Further down the main road, Zuko was following Uncle Iroh, and both carried themselves with varying tenseness. Her brother's shoulders and head were slumped into…defeat? While their uncle was uncharacteristically stiff with irritation for perhaps the first time Azula had ever seen him.
She watched as both men disappeared into a nearby inn, raising further questions. Surely the barracks would have space reserved for dum-dum and uncle?
Something was amiss here.
Her friends took the hint as well, and turned to Azula with silent questions in their eyes. The princess shook her head. "We'll have to find out what has happened." Azula was about to get Ty Lee and Mai to follow her into the inn when she noticed another curious sight.
The captains of the 11th were leading a small group of soldiers, marching with the clear intent to, if not kill, then cause grievous harm. Even Ren and Sungho were part of it. The townsfolk wisely got out of their path, though the mob actually split and flowed harmlessly around an elderly couple caught in the middle of the road.
The wheels in Azula's head began to turn.
"Come girls, I need answers."
Her bodyguards followed after, along with Overseer Dae and his own armed entourage. The soldiers noticed Azula, and immediately the air changed and they wheeled towards her. They came to a stop as she drew close, and bowed as one.
"What is the meaning of this?" Azula demanded sternly, sweeping her gaze across the soldiers who were unusually tense.
What did dum-dum do?
Mozi answered, his usually stoic face now twitching with anger. "I apologize, your highness. But Prince Zuko has done a great offense to our colonel."
"What do you mean?" Dae asked.
The major exchanged glances with the captains, and then he sighed. "While Colonel Xing and Prince Iroh were trying to calm him down during a…bout of emotion after receiving the Fire Lord's decree, Prince Zuko gravely insulted our colonel." Mozi gulped, his gaze flickering over to Dae before returning to Azula.
Ren's voice cut in, as harsh as her scowl was. "That ingrate called Xing an orphan, Azula. Said that he couldn't know the disappointment of a father."
Azula stared blankly at the major as she processed the words.
"I'll call on my men, we'll-."
The princess snapped out of the daze to raise an arm and stop an angered Dae. "Hold, overseer." Azula turned back to the mob of soldiers.
"Tell me exactly what happened."
And they did, with all the meticulous detail of a scout's report.
Zuko had just been treated for his adventures in the North Pole. Xing and Uncle Iroh were waiting for him. They tried to break the Fire Lord's decree gently to him, but dum-dum was already in a fit. Then they gave him the scroll to read for himself, and her brother broke down. When Xing tried to stop Zuko from doing something rash and instead have him rest, her brother snapped at him with that insult.
It wasn't the word that offended the men and women here, but the weighty spite and insinuation against their little brother that riled them up.
That, and the fact that Xing seemed genuinely affected as he excused himself for the evening.
Azula felt her blood run hot and her heart go cold as she turned towards the inn her brother had entered.
"Ty Lee. Mai. Wait for me at the governor's mansion. Overseer Dae, guide them." She fixed them with a piercing gaze. "You will not take any further action, you will tell no one what you saw and heard, am I understood? This is a…family issue."
Her two friends and the overseer nodded and left, leaving Azula with the offended men and women of her 11th Regiment. Together, they headed towards the inn, where only the captains followed the princess in.
"Innkeeper." Azula picked out the establishment's owner easily enough, and tossed him the heaviest pouch of coins she had with her. "In case you have to rebuild. I suggest you evacuate the building, save for my brother and uncle. Quietly."
The innkeeper and his staff broke into a scramble, while the patrons present hastily slinked out the building as fast as they could.
"Captains, with me."
Azula climbed the stairs in measured, forcefully even steps. Her mind was a clamor of emotions as she fought to rein in the urge to simply immolate the place, and pick the ruins apart to find her brother and properly cremate whatever's left of him.
She could see herself ordering her insolent brother to be dragged back to the barracks and made into a training aid.
She could have him defenestrated out of his room, and then have the troops toss him out of the port or city gates.
She could-
The princess had to draw in a slow breath to center herself.
She was not her spiteful father.
She was not her idiotically reckless brother.
Azula forced herself into an eerie calm as she headed to the door the owner had so helpfully pointed out to her. She lifted a hand to knock, but paused to turn to Mozi and the captains. "Nobody leaves or enters this room without my say so."
Silent nods answered her, and the princess knocked on the door.
*****
As disappointed as Iroh was at his nephew's conduct, the appearance of his niece filled the old prince with cold dread.
"Azula," he began, but the girl placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him aside with surprising strength.
"I'll say this once, uncle. Do not interfere- Actually, nevermind. Mozi, Kai."
The strong arms of once friendly faces reached in to hold Iroh back as the other captains of the 11th Regiment entered the room to block off all exits. Zuko sat straight on the bed, utterly petrified as he stared at his sister slowly walking over to him.
"A-Azula-"
Azula snapped forward and swung a palm wreathed in blue flames, slapping Zuko so hard that he was knocked to the ground. Iroh felt real fear for his nephew when he heard the cold contempt in Azula's voice.
"You've said enough for today, brother. Now shut up and listen."
The girl bent down to grab her brother by his collar to lift him up to his knees and glare down at him. "You know, I was supposed to begin our reunion by apologizing." Her eyes flickered to Iroh for a moment, including him in the conversation. "I already bowed to Ty Lee and Mai. You remember my old classmates, right? I offered them my deepest, genuine contrition at my honestly disgraceful behavior last time. And I was supposed to offer the same to you. I would have gotten down on my hands and knees to seek your forgiveness for all I've done to you."
Wisps of smoke began to snake up from the collar of Zuko's robes before Azula let go and stepped back.
"But it seems that I'll have to postpone that apology for another time," she growled. "At least this time, you'll deserve the wrongs I'll inflict on you."
Zuko opened his mouth, but froze again because of his sister's glare.
"I'm not done, brother." Azula turned and paced away from Zuko, glancing at Iroh for a brief moment. "When you were exiled, when you were stupid enough to fall for our father's trap, did you know the amount of planning my Xing and I exchanged in our letters?" She looked over her shoulder at her bruised brother. "Do you know how much he prepared to ensure your safety? How much he asked of me?"
Azula turned, focusing her full contempt at the young prince. "Do you know how much resources I've invested in the courts and the colonies to keep your stupid little hunt afloat? The favors I leveraged so you always had a friendly dock ready to receive you? Or governors convinced to reserve a portion of their supplies for your use? Shipwrights paid to remain in the colony so your ship would get repaired with all haste?"
Iroh was surprised at the revelation; He always thought their smooth resupplies and priority reception were due to their status as princes. Come to think of it, he rarely required reaching out to old friends for assistance, save for manpower and more novel requests.
Zuko opened his mouth, but then slumped with resignation.
"Xing asked me to aid you, and so I did. He believes you had an important part to play," Azula said with a derisive snort. "Still does, I bet."
She shook her head as a brittle smirk formed on her face. "He doesn't think I see it, but Xing has been laying plans for you far more extensively than he has for me. If I didn't know him as I do now, I'd have thought he's infatuated with you."
At both princes' confused looks, Azula let out a dry chuckle. "Up until just now, you were included in our plans for the future. You'd have played a vital role, in fact."
She strode towards Zuko to kneel before him, smirking as he flinched back. "I want you to listen carefully and know this, Zuko. You could've been made Fire Lord. If the conditions were right - and we were doing a rather good job at getting there - I'd have stepped aside and let you reclaim your place as heir to the Fire Nation. At worst, if we couldn't engineer it, if it couldn't be helped, I'd have given you the colonies as your domain and left you to rule it as a second Fire Nation in all but name."
The princess sighed and then rose back up, Zuko's stunned wide eyes following her movements. "Of course, all of that has gone out the window. Your pathetic tantrum has proven to me that you're not fit in any way to lead, let alone rule. You'd think that years hunting the Avatar would build some character, but you're no better than the bootlickers in the palace."
Azula shook her head again. "Besides, you wouldn't appreciate what we've done anyway. All you care about is for daddy's nonexistent attention."
At those words, Zuko shot up. "Reclaiming my honor is all I have left!"
Iroh felt some relief that his niece didn't retaliate this time, but instead sighed heavily.
"Stupid, blinkered idiot." She leveled him a look that made the prince take a wary step back. "All you have left? All you have left?"
Azula's hand went up to point at Iroh. "Who's that then? Is uncle worth nothing compared to your so-called honor?" The finger swept across the room. "Is the open welcome of the 11th nothing to you? You'd throw anything and everything real you have, just for something that doesn't exist?"
"You take that back!"
"Make me, you whiny brat."
To Iroh's horror, Zuko tried to do just that and lashed out with a punch. It was an overcommitted strike, one fuelled by rage, and Azula was aware of that. She sidestepped the attack and slapped Zuko in the back of his head as he passed her, knocking him off balance and causing him to tumble to the floor, right by the feet of an unmoving captain.
"I might have been a bully back then, but you're still pathetic."
Iroh tried to step in, unwilling to bear the escalating danger in the air. "Please, Azula, your brother is still coming to terms with your father's recent decree."
Surprisingly, she looked at him with a sad, fragile smile. "Oh, I know, uncle. But that's on him." She lightly kicked at Zuko as he tried to rise.
"After all, I didn't take it out on Xing when he forced me to realize that I was nothing but a tool." She walked towards Iroh, her eyes flickering with chained rage even as tears started to well at their edges. "I didn't insult him because I finally knew that not only did my own mother fear me to love me, but my father never truly cared about me at all. I didn't fail to appreciate all that's been done for me just because I finally knew what I was worth."
The pained, protective grimaces from the captains around him told the older prince that this was something of a sore topic for them.
Azula's voice began to betray a tremble, and Iroh saw the signs of her tensing all the way up.
"All the Fire Lord cares is that I perform better than my brother, that I make my brother look bad. I'll be made Fire Lord, not because of what I am, but because my father would like to see how Zuko would squirm and weep. I am his excellent daughter, only because he can lord that over his son."
Iroh felt a pang of guilt that tainted the sympathy he suddenly felt for his niece. He'd been so focused on his nephew, he realized, that he overlooked her own hardships. He had missed the subtler signs of hurt in Azula in favor of the more obvious ones on Zuko.
"Oh Azula…"
The girl raised a hand to stop Iroh from continuing, and he watched her ruthlessly crush her welling emotion. "I've dealt with it. My Xing and the 11th helped me deal with it… Are still helping me deal with it."
She turned back to her brother, who had gotten up into a pained crouch. "Just as Xing was trying to help you. Except I wasn't immature enough to insult him for being a reliable friend."
Zuko once more made to reply, but his sister talked over him. Even with her back turned to him, Iroh could feel the cold spite radiating from Azula. "Father might have loved you, loved us, once, but that was a long time ago Zuko. Now, the only way you can ever earn his approval is by dying in a futile attempt to reach for the nonexistent pardon he's been dangling in front of you. If you don't believe me, ask uncle when you finally have the mental capacity to. Maybe he'll stop coddling you at last and teach you how to actually move on."
The girl sniffed as her brother directed his horrified expression at Iroh, who could only grimace in reply. She regained Zuko's attention by standing right up in front of him.
"But that's for another time. Right now, I'm going to give you two choices, brother." Azula leaned in, causing the young prince to almost stumble as he leaned back in return. "You'll be at my regiment's barracks tomorrow morning. You'll get on your hands and knees and beg Xing for forgiveness for all the 11th to see."
Iroh felt all Azula's anger and spite condense into something far greater, far deadlier as she took a step back from Zuko. "Or… You do not show up at the barracks by midday. Then I'll give you a month's head start, and after that, you'll be a target for the scout recruits of the 11th. I'll even make sure they bring you back alive, so that I can drag you to the palace to see father smiling at last as I humiliate you."
Azula shrugged with mock casualness. "If you're lucky, he'll execute you right after that for breaking your exile and being in his presence."
The false levity lasted for barely a second before it was quickly replaced by her cold, restrained rage.
"Regardless, after this, regardless of what you choose, I'll rescind every order and drop every favor I have in the colonies that protects and supports you. There'll be no reserved supplies, no donations, no mysterious helpful messages or 'accidental' gossip to overhear. The governors will no longer turn a blind eye to your presence, and the generals and admirals will be barred from loaning you any men or assets."
Azula paused for a second to let her words sink in before she continued. "My 11th Royal Regiment will no longer have their gates freely open to you. Any unauthorized entry into their camps or grounds will be considered trespassing and punished as such. You'll only have access to their healers on my approval, you'll have to pay with interest any supplies you plunder from their stores. By your own careless words, you've lost the friendship and respect of the 11th."
She paused again, watching Zuko slump in despair. Iroh was about to interject, to plead on his nephew's behalf, but then Azula spoke again.
"However. I'm not as stupid as you to simply waste all the investments made on your sorry ass." Azula drew in a breath, probably to calm herself judging from her pose. "If you decide to grow up and stop clinging onto your delusions of honor and father's love, I might allow you to earn forgiveness by deeds. I'll leave that to Mozi and the captains to figure out. Xing will be kept from interfering, or he'll end up coddling you."
Iroh saw his niece give a cold, sharp smirk. "Until then though…"
Azula suddenly lashed out, sending a fist straight into Zuko's guts and almost folding him over. "That's for disrespecting my Xing, for hurting him when all he's ever done was look out for you. Next time, I'll let the whole regiment do it. With their daggers."
The princess stood straight again and brushed the bangs of her hair back. "I hope to see you tomorrow morning, Zuko." She gave a glance around the room, and flashed a wry smirk at the officers in it. "Huh, and I didn't set anything alight… Go me."
Azula then turned to give a polite nod at Iroh before heading for the door. "Good evening, uncle. For my brother's sake, I hope you're able to talk some sense into him for once." She was about to step through the doorway when she froze and looked over her shoulder.
"For what it's worth, I will apologize for all I've done…eventually. Whether it'll be when we're both older and wiser, or if it's over your gravestone, that'll be for you to decide."
The hands on Iroh finally let go and the captains of the 11th followed their princess out, leaving the princes alone in their room. Zuko slowly crumpled to the ground, tears staining his cheeks as his arms wrapped around his stomach that Azula had just buried her fist into.
After all he'd seen and heard, Iroh didn't know where to start to pick up the pieces.