Chapter Text
Five years.
It had been five years since Azula had known anything other than the inside of her cold cell. She did escape and had lay low for a while, at some point in the early years of her imprisonment. But those damn Kyoshi warriors found her and brought her back to the Fire Lord.
She gave him credit to have at least tried to pretend he cared for her enough to give her help she supposedly needed, but ever since the accident she had been thrown out in this cold cell to keep her fire bending in a safe level, according to the Avatar words.
Zuko had only stared at her.
Azula knew she wasn't in the Fire Nation anymore, this kind of cold was something that could only be from one of the poles, but which one of the two was her new home, she wasn't told.
Five years without feeling Agni on her skin. Five years of staring at the same metal door in hope of anything happening.
She took a deep breath centering herself on the lotus form she held. The material of the clothes she wore were too light for any other person to sustain that kind of cold and the blanket they had given to her was just for the sake of saying they gave her something, because it was thinner than her clothes.
The temperature was terrorizing her in the past few days, each day had grown more and more cold, and her malnutritioned body was struggling to keep up with the energy she burned with the constant use of heat bending.
She let out a shaking breath, the heat of her body was starting to low and she could already feel the extremities of her body starting to hurt. Azula stared at her hands, she only had two options ahead of her, she could request a meeting with Zuko and maybe he would help her, or she would just accept that maybe this was the end for her.
“ You know Zuko would help you Azula, your brother loves you .”
A tired sight escaped the princess lips, great , she thought, just what I needed now . She lifted her head and the hallucination of Ursa was in front of her, just like the first time she appeared in that mirror before her coronation.
“Not know, mother.”
Another deep breath, this time to try and keep Ursa’s voice out of her head. Which Azula knew was basically impossible since her mother was a fabrication of her own faulty mind. But the freezing temperature was too much, she couldn't focus on her thoughts and that only made the hallucination voice louder.
“ I love you Azula, I love you Azula, I love you Azula… ”
She got up with difficulty, almost falling on her knees. The princess walked slowly to her making shift bed and laid down, covering herself with the blanket. Maybe if she could get some sleep Ursa would go away and she would save some energy to use the heat bending…
Or she could just sleep and wait for nothing, she has never done anything for her to be accepted in the spirit world and honestly, that scared Azula. Not the thought of her soul swimming into the nothingness, but her soul being brought to suffer ever more than her current state.
Maybe if she could've done something sooner, or tried to escape and got killed by one of the soldiers, she could've had a more appropriate death for her legacy. The crazy fire nation princess dead because of the cold, what a perfect irony.
Just like that, silence and what could only she hope would be peace.
…
Suddenly a warm sensation started spreading through Azula’s body, making her furrow her brows. The extremities of her limbs continued to hurt, so she wasn't dead or her heat bending was stronger. Definitely wasn't the guards helping her, they would prefer to let her die than get help on their own to keep her alive.
Azula opened her eyes, blinking a few times and took a look around her cell. Nothing was different from what she remembered, only for a few new trays of food by the door. I must've slept for a few days , the fire bender thought.
A movement against her body made her snap out of her thought, looking down at the lump that was attached to her. Had it been under different circumstances, Azula would jump up from the bed and attack whatever thing this was against her, but now due to her lack of strength the only thing she could do was place a hand on the thing.
The lump moved, a pair of golden eyes stared at her own golden eyes. Suddenly the person, she guessed, jumped from her hide stop against Azula's stomach to attach to her neck in a strong hug.
“Mom! I-I was so scared… Y-you w-weren’t moving a-and so, so cold…”
Azula could feel tears running down her skin, her hand froze mid air and the breath caught on her throat. My mind definitely had given up , the princess thought, but that didn't feel like the other times when Ursa, or Ozai, had been materialized by her brain. No, that felt too real and the warmth that they were transmitting, it wasn't like nothing her mind could do.
With a shaking hand on their shoulder, she pushed the body away from her and with a last spring of strength, she lit up a small flame to look at the person's face. The girl, Azula identified that much, didn't even flinch at the sight of the blue flame. There was a familiar feeling on the face of the child, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
“Mom? Are you okay?”
Her voice was low, almost a whisper, the small hands were still holding Azula's shoulders. The girl was clearly holding back her tears.
Then, she knew it. The tanned skin, the brown hair decorated with little braid hoops and the blue tunic involving the girl body, that child was a exactly copy of that fucking waterbender. What didn't make sense was that pair of golden eyes and the warmth emanating from her like she was a fire bender.
The sound of a heavy door opening caught her attention, making her move her attention from the child to the light and wind that entered the cell. The cold wind hit her body with no mercy, making the flame on her hand disappear and her body shiver despite the heat from the child against her.
As her eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight, she noticed two figures staring at her on the edge of the door. Katara and Zuko. She scoffed at the presence of the two, rolling her eyes. Of course they would only show up to visit on mine deathbed, just to get that last gloated look, to rub in my face who-
“Mama!”
Her thoughts were interrupted at the happy tone of the child, making Azula look at her. The girl smiled at her before detached from her and ran off to hug Katara’s legs. At this point Azula had given up trying to understand what was going on and accepted that it only meant that they were pranking her.
“C'mon, you gotta help mom! I'm worried about her!”
Azula was again brought out of her thoughts by the voice of the child, she blinked a few times to focus her vision and saw the girl pulling the hand of a freezed Katara, and pointing in the direction of Azula.
The princess had only the strength to look at the confused faces of the other adults, before her body gave up and she hit her head against the thin bedding, and her vision grew black.