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Lu Ten, second in line to the Dragon Throne and only child of the Crown Prince, is dead. Crown Prince Iroh must be stricken with grief, having first lost his wife and now his son. Clearly this makes him unfit for the throne.
Firelord Azulon does not agree with her Father and has ordered he kill his firstborn. Azula is not the firstborn, she is fifth in line to the Dragon Throne, this is matter that does not concern her.
Zuko is her brother, the firstborn fool. She should at least give the Dum-Dum a warning.
Maybe it's her fault the fool doesn't believe her- apparently she's lied so much he thinks every word out of her mouth is one. Truly, is he still hung up on the game she played this morning?
Azula cannot stand between her Father and her brother- no matter how much she pulls at the bottom of his robes and begs him not to kill Zuko. He simply strikes her down with a slap to the face and has the guards hold her back as he lectures her.
Not for the first time, Azula is afraid of her Father. If he kills Zuko, will she be next? It's irrational- she's leagues ahead of Zuko, a hair away from the perfection that is her Father.
Azula is dragged to her room thinking her brother is dead. She finds a book on her bed- one that smells of Fire-Lillies. A play about a girl and a mask.
The next morning she awakes with red rimmed eyes, puffy as much from lack of sleep as from crying. A passive mask dons her face.
Zuko is at breakfast, and she is afraid that he is dead. Mother and Father are both gone, so she is alone with a concerned ghost.
Until one of the Firelord's advisors enters, and tells them that Firelord Azulon has passed, his food poisoned by an assassin.
It is in two days that Azula goes from fifth to second on the throne.
Azula smiles, wide and cruel, her painted lips pulling tight against her teeth as she tries to breath through her mouth.
She is her Father's loyal daughter and that means that her Father is always right. She tries to ignore the stench of cooked meat filling the arena.
Loyalty is an empty head and silent smile. She will learn from the mistakes of those before her.
Azula is Crown Princess of the Fire Nation by the time she is eleven. She is a prodigy, her fire burning blue-hot and her lightning striking out with a crack that rings through the training grounds.
Her Father often comes to see her progress, so she must keep getting stronger unless she disappoints him.
No one disappoints the Firelord, a statement that rings loudest for his heir.
She is thirteen and the Firelord is watching her practice. She isn't good enough, hasn't improved since last week. Her flames need to burn faster and her lightning must strike faster.
She is a hair from perfection and that is not good enough. The air crackles as she splits yin and yang energy, drawing them out and around and letting them crash back together.
Lightning strikes the target but it is not fast enough, not precise enough. Not enough because she is a hair out of place.
She has to do better. If she was stronger mother wouldn't have abandoned her. If she were faster, Zuko would still be alive.
Father is watching, always watching. Waiting for her to slip up so he can kill her too.
His eyes burn into the side of his head and she knows exactly where he is.
He sent away Mother- probably killed her for protecting Zuko. She handed him the Dragon Throne on a silver platter and he saw that as treason.
He tricked her Brother, has him stand in a ring surrounded by his council- made Azula watch as he burned half his face off for his loyalty. Zuko had protested against the mindless slaughter of their people, and Father saw that as an opportunity to get him out of the way.
Azula's loyalty is as strong as the rest of her family had been. Her loyalty is her improvement, her agreeance. Father sees loyalty as a weakness. He will see her loyalty and he will punish it.
She is too strong, too fast, and as she looks away from the target, to her Father- she sees the fear in his eyes and knows that she has out done him, knows that he will have her killed.
Lightning lashes out faster- faster-faster. Someone is yelling at her to stop.
Azula does not need to be calm or focused to split the air into lightning. She has practiced it into her muscles, carved it into her bones.
She doesn't stop practising as she turns to Father, eyes locking on to a new target.
Lightning strikes him in the chest before he can so much as twitch a finger.
The air smells of ozone and cooked meat- burning flesh- Zuko-
It doesn't smell like Zuko, he's long gone. Her Father is laying on the floor, guards frozen around him as Azula screams, blue fires dotting the training grounds.
Father is on the floor and he isn't moving. His crown has been knocked from his flesh and his body is marked with blue lines, like veins, like lightning.
Azula breathes in. And out. She reins her lungs under her control and wears the mask her mother left her with.
A single strand of hair lays out of place. She tucks it back.
"Firelord Ozai died in a tragic training accident. Anyone who denies this is a traitor to the Dragon Throne." She says to the guards- two of them, their faces caught in horror- and her instructor. "You can expect a raise after my coronation. Fetch me a Fire Sage."
Four years after the death of her Cousin, Grandfather and Mother. Two years after the death of her Brother. 3 weeks after the death of her Father.
Azula is thirteen when she is crowned Firelord.