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Azula was standing victorious in front of the Earth King's throne, every timbre of her being with an assuredness sculpted by years of perfection as she looked down the steps at the next phase approaching.
"Now comes the part where I double-cross you," Long Feng said instead of a pleasant hello, the vermin confident, unknowing ot how he had entered what was really the dragon's nest. "Dai Li, arrest the Fire Nation princess!"
None of the Dai Li agents moved. It was as if they had become deaf.
Just as I predicted. Azula almost smirked. Instead she remained poised, hands behind her back, standing above everyone as it was always destined.
Long Feng glanced at his men, irritation in his green eyes. She could read his face. He merely thought it was a small error, like a servant daydreaming and missing a lunch order.
"I said, arrest her," Long Feng said in a stern tone long used to dealing with incompetences. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded.
"It's because they haven't made up their minds," Azula said smoothly, taking almost a pity on the old man as he looked at her sharply with his belligerent, slimy green eyes. "They're waiting to see how this is going to end."
"What are you talking about?" Long Feng demanded. And yet despite how firm he sounded, there was the barest hint of a tremour hiding behind the slight aspiration of his voice.
Something was slowly dawning for him. It started in his eyes and slowly spread to the fine lines of his face.
He's getting it now, Azula thought, the edges of her lips ever so slightly curving up.
"I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power," she informed, her resolute voice echoing off the jade stone of this foreign farce of a Royal Chamber. "But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is-"
"Why?"
Azula almost blinked, the softness of the question catching her off-guard. Long Feng himself blinked too, the surprise in his green eyes showing he hadn't realised he'd spoken a thought aloud.
"What?" Azula asked sharply, narrowing her amber eyes.
Long Feng seemed to swallow, a certain Earth Kingdom stubborness entering his eyes and dragging him forward. "Why does it have to be you?" he asked sourly, barely keeping from gritting his teeth.
Azula stared at him. "Because I'm the princess," she said simply. This fool really doesn't get it...
"Of the Fire Nation," Long Feng said coldly, in utter disgust. His green eyes slid back to what were his men. "Do you really think she'll honour her promises to you? Do you really?" he demanded, outraged.
The Dai Li were silent, unreacting and still as statues. Yet Azula could see a couple of the men's eyes twitch to the back, a small shifting, bristling.
Insolent peasants, she thought in irritation, clamping on the urge to strike this common braggart in front of her down. "A princess always honours loyalty," she replied calmly instead.
Long Feng turned to her, green eyes burning. "I heard you wouldn't even honour fighting an Agni Kai against your own brother despite him requesting one," he argued firmly. "I thought that tradition mattered to you people?"
Another twitch seemed to permeate the crowd of men behind him.
"Oh, one doesn't have to accept an Agni Kai with an inferior, Long Feng," Azula drawled, amused at the continued follies of this uncultured worm. "You wouldn't understand, of course."
"I suppose I wouldn't. After all, I'm just an Earth Kingdom man, born with nothing. An orphan," Long Feng said, his eyes burning with heat almost like a firebender. "I imagine all your traditions are beyond me. Princess."
What game is he playing? Azula narrowed her eyes, trying to parse the sentence. She knew he saying something, obviously. Yet her sharp mind, surprisingly, struggled to understand it exactly as if it was just out of reach.
Yet as Long Feng spoke, his voice gaining elements of oily smoothness, some of the men behind him began glancing around.
"So, what are you going to do with Ba Sing Se?" Long Feng sighed, looking calculatingly tired and amenable. "Burn it to the ground? We've intercepted many letters saying this is what your Fire Nation wants to do. Especially when Sozin's Comet arrives."
Azula paused, her cold eyes flicking over the faces. "We can avoid all that," she said levelly, with a smile. "As I said earlier, "Today is a matter of life and death"."
"You said "Seizing power today is a matter of life and death", reportedly. I was given a copy of your speech. It was very... rousing," Long Feng drawled, his eyes pensieve. He chuckled. "I think I can understand your power now."
Azula raised an eyebrow. "Oh."
"You truly are an incredible princess," Long Feng said, and Azula almost smirked. "I just wonder, when Fire Lord Ozai comes to this city with his foreign army, will he share your sentiments?" he said innocently. "After all, he's the one who's really in charge, isn't he?"
Azula squinted at him. "I act in the interests of my father," she said coldly.
"I sympathise," Long Feng said with a smile, ghastly green eyes gleaming. "And if your father arrives and orders you to kill us all, those loyal to you included, would you do it?"
Azula could feel all of their eyes on her. All these Earth Kingdom men. The air seemed to wait with bated breath.
"...My father would never order that, Long Feng," she lied.
Azula had made an uncustomary, rare mistake. She knew it intrinsically in her bones, being the gifted orator she was. She'd paused a second too long before giving her answer.
"Oh, princess, I don't think that's true," Long Feng said in an amusement, as the colour seemed to drain from the face of Dai Li agent beside him.
Azula narrowed her eyes and changed tactics. "Long Feng. This city will fall. Whether it will be through peace or bloodshed is up to you all," she said smoothly. "Sozin's Comet is almost upon us and I, as princess, can show you all mercy. All you need to do is choose. Will you choose prosperity, or pointless struggle against the inevitable?"
There was a silence. You could almost hear the cogs turning.
"And your father will co-operate?" Long Feng asked curiously, staring directly at her.
"Of course," Azula said smoothly, trying to not show her irritation at the impertinent wording. "He only has the best interests of the world at heart. We all do."
Long Feng looked thoughtful, glancing back at the Dai Li. "...Are your best interests in his heart too?"
Azula blinked, the question taking her off guard. She stared at Long Feng, completely bemused. Yet a part of her stomach twisted uncomfortably...
"I suppose we'll find out," Long Feng drawled.
Suddenly the ground beneath Azula's feet sank like quicksand. She instinctively tried to leap up, but then it hardened around the tip of her boots, making her flail.
She grabbed the railing of the throne agily, blasting two jets of blue fire. Long Feng only just managed to throw himself out the way.
Meanwhile a Dai Li agent caught it in the side and the face. He screamed through flame and smoke as he flailed and burned, the smell of burning flesh filling the room.
Suddenly her arms were grabbed. Two Dai Li agents were already behind her, twisting her offending hands painfully back with rock gloves.
"Let go of me! You fools!" she yelled as the rest of her weight sat awkwardly and she was forced to her knees. More Dai Li agents joined, coming up from the openings in the ground all around her, practically obliterating the Earth King's throne in their rush to restrain her.
No, no, no. This isn't right, Azula thought as she thrashed, but every movement twisted her wrists and ankles worse. Hissing in pain, she couldn't believe it at all. This can't be...
Long Feng stood up, dusting his robes off. He looked almost shaken for a moment, his green eyes realising how close to death he had come.
Then it disappeared behind a confident mask of smugness. He looked at her for a long moment.
"You can't understand it," Long Feng decided, almost sounding like he talking to himself as a strange gleam in his sickly green eyes shone. "You're just like them all. Just with new tricks."
Azula glared from her hands and knees, despite the hammering of her heartbeat and a racing mind. She tried to firebend, but her wrists and ankles kept getting twisted painfully away by the earth encasing them.
"I have to thank you for capturing Katara of the Water Tribe. I'm sure we'll be able to get the Avatar back in line with her help," he began, walking a little bit closer to her, cautiously. "He's stopped you people before, hasn't he? Let's see if he can do it again."
"You won't get away with this! You fools!" Azula yelled, outraged, and hoping he'd get close enough for her to blow fire in his face.
But Long Feng kept his distance. His green eyes were wary, calculating, like an old deer dog used to being bitten.
Then there was a pinch of a knife at her throat, making her freeze.
It was then that Azula realised. She was outnumbered. Surrounded. In a Palace she was only vaguely familiar with, in an almost endless-seeming city she still did not know. She was mortified to feel her eyes begin to glisten as she realised that this must, actually, be true failure.
Her mouth fell open, but the silent scream didn't come. All she could do was stared wide eyes at all the hostile men surrounding her.
She could only hope Mai and Ty Lee would come soon.
"You're upset," Long Feng realised, laughing almost breathlessly as his men loyally further secured her, practically submerging her in the ground, blades of earth at her throat. "We can't have that of an esteemed guest as divine as yourself. Maybe when you join your friends at our new facility, you'll feel much better."
Azula's heart sank at the words.
As she was taken away, she wondered if she'd ever see her father again.
He won't abandon me, she thought, surely.