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Chapter Text

Cries filled the room as the second child of Ursa and Ozai was born. A nurse grabbed them in a blanket and brought them to the bathing sink.

Despite their fussing the child didn't cause much trouble.

"She's a girl, healthy although small," One of the nurses informed Ursa.

Ozai looked at the child with no love. She was a small thing, much like her older brother was. It was really no matter in the end. Physical strength and appearence had little to no help if someone was a good bender.

Young Zuko still had yet to firebend, and Ozai was getting impatient. Hopefully this one was better.

"Name?"

"What do you think, Ozai?" Ursa spoke softly. Ozai looked the small girl and thought for a second.

"Azula, named after my father of course."

Growing up Azula remained small. At 3 Azula sparked while Zuko at 5 years still hadn't. Ozai took a liking to the younger, believing her to be the better of the two.

Ursa didn't do the same. She didn't choose a favorite as she didn't want either of her children to feel as if though they had to be better than the other.

At four years old Ozai was already trying to teach Azula bending practices, while ignoring Zuko who had recently sparked for the first time.

"You're six and you just sparked, you're not good at all," Azula had taunted to her brother.

Ursa walked over and picked up the younger.

"Now, now, it's quite common for young benders to get their first sign of it at five or six, you're just a early bloomer, now you should apologize to your brother."

"Why, he's weak, Dad said so," Azula questioned. Ursa felt a realization git her. Of course Ozai would try and pit them against each other.

"Well, don't let him know I told you, but you dad didn't spark until he was seven"- she paused for the resulting gasps -"yeah, he doesn't want you to know, but is he weak?" Both of the children shook their heads, shocked at the news.

Azula's young brain was impressionable, so what ever her father told her, she believed. But mother had told her other wise. She didn't know who to believe. But father said Zuko was weak and herself was special.

So Azula decided to try something. She wasn't going to do any good at firebending. She if Father really though Zuko was weak if he progressed past her.

Despite being barely four Azula knew more than she let on. With books at the palace library she learned about all sorts of things. In many books lies and deception showed itself, so Azula had an idea of how to do so.

When lessons started for the four and six year olds, Azula made sure to first progress past her brother, but after four months of being the superior she made it seem as if she had started to slow. Although she practiced it and perfected it by herself, she let her brother surpass her in lessons.

The change wasn't very noticable at first. Ozai started to talk to Zuko more and Azula less. Then it seemed as if he had forgotten she existed.

Azula kept her discovery to herself. She let herself surpass Zuko again, and Father favored her again. Although she was now the obvious favorite now she disliked her father.

He so blatantly pick and chose what traits were strong and what were weak, and switched them if he so do pleased.

When he said that the turtleducks were weak and she hit them with bread, the mother chased her, and proved to not be weak. Later when watching Zuko do the same in front of Mother and say that Azula did it first, mother had lectured both children on the importance of not being unnecessarily cruel.

Azula in turn said what Ozai had said. Ursa explained that it was wrong. Azula searched in the library to determine who to believe.

Turns out neither was entirely, at least not to her. No, you should bot be cruel but sometimes it is necessary even without explainaton, but turtleducks had strong bills and stronger shells, so while they weren't apex predators, they weren't weak to any extent.

From the Azula decided to do her own research. When it came to the war and how it started, its reasons and other stuff everything was all weird, as nothing connected. The air benders had an army, but their temples had steep falls and lots of open space, so the Fire Nation could have easily been pushed to their death. It wasn't making sense to Azula no matter how it was stated.

When word came that Lu ten had died, Zuko was sad, and Azula could understand why, but didn't really know how to comprehend it.

So what he died, people died in war all the time, and its not like she was close to him. She voiced as such to her mother, who never lied when it came to things like this.

"Azula, people feel sad when others they know are gone. You weren't close to him so it's understandable that you don't know how to feel about his death, but imagine if someone you cared about died."

Azula imagined Zuko dying before she could stop it. Only the fact that tears only brought a scowl and a punishment from their father kept her from showing her tears and sadness. The paint in her chest felt empty and she hated it, so she simply shut hup her thoughts and detached herself from her emotions.

When Father met with Azulon, Azula found it hard to forget and ended up following them.

So many things happened that it was hard to keep her head on correctly. First father brought up that Uncle Iroh was still grieving and could not be trusted as fire lord if he was so upset from a little death. Azulon had gotten outraged and yelled, it was something Azula wouldn't forget for years to come.

"If you think this of your brother, then you shall lose your firstborn and see how it truly feels."

Azula left quietly as she could, and then ran to the parents room. Panicked she tried to explain the situation to her mother. Ursa heard her and understood through Azula's panicked breath and voice that sounded close to tears.

At that moment Ursa knew what had to be done.

"Remember that I will always love you, and that you don't have to be what your father wishes for you to be," Ursa said, while kissing her daughters head. Azula looked confused but nodded.

"Okay now lets go to your brothers room, I'll make sure Azulon doesn't hurt him." Ursa said picking up the eight year old as if she weighed nothing. Ursa gave the same speech with minor edits to Zuko, and promised them both that she would keep them safe.

The next morning Azulon was found dead, and Ozai was proclaimed Fire Lord, as Iroh couldn't in his grief and their mother had disappeared into the night, and neither child knew if she was still alive.

They prayed to Agni that their mother have a safe journey whether that be in the spirit realm or somewhere on earth.

Chapter Text

Azula was 8 when she lost her mother and cousin, and with how she recovered she may have well let is go.

Her uncle may as well be dead, considering he was out exploring something, or so her father said.

Her heart felt heavy when she thought of any of them, with and emotion she couldn't place, and she she figured it was just normal. She thought of them late at night when Father couldn't yell at her for going blank as she called it. When she went blank her mind was practically empty or containing only fragments of thoughts, whether that be fleeting imagines or broken sentences.

Usually it was very simple to bring herself back, but at times it took minutes to even make sense of what she saw. The proof of not bring herself back fast enough to please her fathers expectations in bending burned and blistered on Azula's upper arms.

Ty lee and Mai never said anything in the blanks, just kept playing, perhaps thinking Azula was thinking. Her just not paying attention to them, which wouldn't have been surprising.

When Azula thought about it, she remembered her mother sitting motionlessly at the pond, and perhaps her mother blanked as well.

Despite not knowing the correct term for her blanking, Azula got the sense most people likely didn't do the same as her. Although she had caught her older brother curled up with tear tracks down his face while blankly staring at a wall. When Zuko got like this he usually tried to hide so Azula found him in many spots.

During the day Azula worked on her bending, already on the advanced sets. The teachers whispered about how she was a prodigy, and it filled her with pride.

Zuko took to learning about swords and how to use them, trying to get their fathers praise for excelling in something.

Ozai saw this as an opportunity to send him away to Sword Master Piandao under the guise of wanting to help him grow.

Zuko was ecstatic for the opportunity to learn more. And to beat Azula in something as she didn't want to do swords. Even if she had wanted to she wouldn't take that away from Zuko.

Azula saw through Ozais caring guise and knew he just wanted his 'failure' of a son out of the way. More time to teach Azula meant less time for her to become a master.

In the year he was gone Azula had learned how to grow her fire hotter than her fathers. It grew to was blue color, showing the power behind it.

Her teachers had taught her about lighting bending as well, but she couldn't quite do it yet. She knew how because they went quite deep ito it, but was still in the process of learning.

Her days were long and hard, and without Zuko to talk to or to tease there wasn't much she could do in her free time. Most of her free time was spent trying to make shapes with her fire, like the performers for festivals.

Ozai saw the festivals as a waste of time, and the performers as wasted use of firebending and thus had stopped letting the kids visit the festivals.

The turtleducks were being cared for by Azula as well, despite the fact she didn't care much for the small things.

She read up on the agni kai rules, as per her fathers request.

They stated:

If a person forfeits they cannot be counted as a participant in the duel, and as such cannot have fire turned upon them

Persons under the age of 16 cannot be challenged or challenge those above the previously stated age, and those under 10 cannot participate at all

Persons who fight against a turned back after they have lost shows no signs of honor, and disgrace Agni's name.

Persons who use Agni's name as a sole attempt to harm someone and not as a fair fight disgrace their own fire

Persons may use any item they wish in an Agni Kai

Challenging those who do not serve under Agni is unallowed

And many more, but she made sure to remember the less remembered ones, as to make sure people could not trick her and make her look bad.

Father quizzed her upon the more known ones, and seemed to not care for the lesser ones.

"'Zula!" Azula turned a smile on her face. She knew the voice although deeper.

"Zuzu," Azula greeted back, as she opened her arms. They were now full of 11 year old boy.

"You're not much taller than me, better speed up or you'll be shorter soon," She teased. Zuko pouted  and stood up straighter of just to prove the 3 inches he had on her.

"One day I'll be so tall you'll have to stan on you tippy toes just to see my stomach."

"Sure." Sarcasm laced her voice.

And that was that before Ozai came to greet his children. He was disappointed Zuko had finished so fast, despite the fact he should be proud of how Zuko had mastered in such a short time.

Ozai had always done his best at keeping the two children far apart from each other, wanting Azula to do nothing other than obey him and be the best bender, besides himself of course.

Another reason for his planned separation of the two was because he believed Zuko would taint Azula with his inferior skill, and emotions.

Ozai wanted nothing more than a weapon to do his bidding, with no emotions to get in the way. Emotions make a bad leader in his book, as they tend to want to make everyone happy instead of becoming a ruler.

But seeing his children interact felt like a punch to the gut, as it was becoming clearer than ever that his plan was failing. Azula obviously cared for her older brother even when given the motivation to hate or even just dislike him.

Ozai felt his fist clench and his face twist before pushing his anger down, and began to make plans to have his perfect weapon. What better way to separate sibling than to pit them against each other, or more accurately to make one hate the other.

And so the following months he make small remarks, saying that Azula was doing better at this than Zuko was, or that Azula did more than her brother.

Azula knew what Ozai was trying to accomplish, and felt her fire threaten to burst from her hands at every small comment he made, wanting nothing more than to blast flames at Ozai and go on a rant about how Zuko was better than Ozai in most ways.

Zuko had began to smile less, loose focus more frequently for longer, and skip training, which resulted in more comments from Ozai. Azula knew it was a matter of time before he stopped trying altogether and knew she had to put a stop to her fathers plan.

They next comment Ozai made had caused Zuko to abruptly leave the room, and Azula followed ignoring her fathers calls for her to return.

"Hey, Zuzu wanna know something?"

"What is it?" Zuko question, although he kept walking away. Azula quickly closed the distance, wich caused Zuko to look at her and quickly look away grumbling.

"Dad's only doing this because he needs to make sure his crown child doesn't get to worked up in their feeling," Azula lied.

Zuko looked back as his eyes widened and then he nodded eyes lighting up, believing every word from Azula mouth.

To him it seemed obvious now, because why would his own dad want to put down the crowned prince?

Didn't make any sense to Zuko, who still believed Ozai loved him.

From then every comment Ozai made was responded with Zuko agreeing readily to him.

This confused Ozai, as he could not see why anyone would be fine not being the best.

Azula just smiled at her fathers failed plan, vowing to never let anything go between her and her brother. After all Ursa had left, hoping her children would be kind to not just each other but to others as well. Azula was not planning on letting her mother down once again.

Ozai grew frustrated with the lack of proper, in his mind, response from Zuko and dropped the plan as it wasn't working obviously.

Zuko took this as he passed the test, and felt a warmth in his chest.

2 more years past with Ozai trying, and failing, to separate the sibling and they just grew closer.

Their uncle had returned in those two years and helped teach Azula lighting bending, which she mastered. Iroh didn't praise her as he Zuko. She didn't like that fact but didn't care at the same time.

There was countless meeting her and Zuko had tried to sneak into, never succeeding, but once Zuko had convinced Iroh to let him join one.

Afterwards Zuko found Azula and gave her a rundown of what had happened.

Azula felt something off and went to Ozai.

"Father, Zuko has said that he is to be challenged to an Agni Kai, is this true?" Azula asked, with a weight settling in her stomach when Ozai smiled.

"Yes, and it is to be with me," Ozais smile grew, and Azula knew something wasn't right.

"But it is against the rules," She began to try and explain. Ozai simply shushed and pushed her out of the room. The weight grew.

Azula had attempted to tell her brother, but he would bot listen claiming he needed to prepare.

When her father walked onto the platform which Zuko was residing upon she winced and felt her fire want to run rampant.

Zuko turned and his eyes grew wide, and his face turned 5 shades whiter. He knelt and begged for forgiveness, saying it was not Ozai he meant to insult and disrespect. Zuko claimed to be Ozai's loyal son.

Zuko's pleas fell of deaf ears and Ozai cupped Zuko's face and lit it on fire.

Azula went to just and fight her father, if only to stop her brothers horrible screams, but Iroh held her back. She turned and tried to summon her fire to get him to let her go, but by then Ozai had let go of and unconscious Zuko.

Azula felt tears fill her eyes and blur her vision. She kept fighting like a caged animal, and Iroh saw no choice but to knock her out.

Azula's last thought before she fell into darkness was I'm going to kill him.

Azula was 11 when she almost lost her brother, and she wasn't letting it go.

Chapter Text

Azula visited her brother as much as she could, without thinking of what her fath- no, what Ozai would think. She didn't care that Ozai may get angry and punish her, Azula just wanted to be with her older brother.

Ozai grew angrier with Azula as the days past and she didn't show up to lessons.

"Azula, what is the meaning of this?" Ozai shouted when she yet again refused to show up.

"I'm staying with Zuko, he needs me and I want to stay. You did this to him, why would you even care what I'm doing here with him?!" Azula started strong and quiet, but was at a shout by the end.

"You do not speak to be that way, unless you want to end up like that child," Ozai said pointing at Zuko while threatening moving closer to Azula.

She flinched back before seemingly steeling her nerves.

"Yeah, you gonna burn half my fucking face off? You gonna try to get rid of me because I said one thing you didn't like? Well try I fucking dare you," Azula yelled getting into a fighting stance, ready to goad Ozai to move outside the room if they needed to be.

"If you want to be with him so bad, then you can have what you want," Ozai said so suddenly that Azula shocked backwards, face still angry, but also confused.

"Prince Zuko and Princess Azula, you are now banished from the Fire Nation until and if you can return with the avatar! It starts in a week, be prepared. All you will have is a boat with a crew."

With that Ozai left the room. Azula crumpled to the floor. Zuzu's burn wouldn't even be healed fully. They would have to try to find the Avatar without hurting his eye more. Azula knew this was supposed to be a wild goose chase, but she couldn't just tell her brother that, she had to slowly tell the idea to him and then tell him in full.

And sure being banished doesn't take away your royalty, so Zuzu was still the Crown Prince, but not being able to return hurt Azula too. This was where most of her memory's resided, wether good or bad, with mother or fa- Ozai.

Azula was also sure that Ozai wouldn't give them a very good boat or crew.

With no doubt in her mind that Ozai had already been planning to get rid of Zuko, Azula went to pack some of his most important things, resolving to take some things she thought that she shouldn't and things that wouldn't be practical.

Moving to her own she also grabbed money. She didn't bring much of their cloths, as they wouldn't be good for life outside of the palace. She brought some knowing Zuzu liked the feel of some of the cloths and it helped calm him.

Azula snuck back to Zuko's room to see Iroh leaning in a chair watching Zuko.

When Azula opened the door Iroh stood before seeing Azula and sitting back down.

"I don't know if you've heard but me and Zuzu got banished, Father didn't like that I wanted to spend more time with Zuko, so I go with Zuzu," Azula explained, not caring how her uncle felt about it but knowing that if he tagged along, the support would be greatly appreciated.

"I heard about my nephew, but not of you, Azula."

"Yeah, well it happened today because I spoke back." Azula said with her eyes staring straight at Iroh.

He thought that perhaps she was thinking about how to twist this to her advantage, or how to take down Iroh as fast as possible.

In reality Azula was trying to convey her worry for Zuzu, and try not to seem weak in front of someone she didn't know if she could trust.

Zuko, the dumdum, would trust their uncle in a heartbeat if given the chance. Azula wouldn't, knowing where it could end her up.

However, Azula was never very good at expressing her emotions good enough. She knew this, and knew that Zuko could read her better than anyone else. Most others couldn't read her, so she didn't expect it from Iroh, and didn't get it either.

The week passed fast, and in a blur, with Zuko rarely waking up, not even for half an hour at a time when they had to leave. He didn't wake up when they moved him to the ship.

The ship was small, and old, but in relatively good shape. The crew on the other hand were obviously thrown together.

But, oh well, its isn't like she could do anything else about it. And she didn't regret coming with Zuko, or screaming at Ozai, either.

Azula looked out at the sea. It had been two weeks since the Banishment and she was waiting for her brother to wake up more than he did.

"I wish he would wake up, it's boring without him," Azula said, head resting on the back of her hand.

"Well, Azula, my nephew needs time to recover because of what happened with your Father," A voice replied.

Azula turned, knowing it was Iroh, but not wanting to have her back facing him.

"I am well aware of the damage he has sustained, and I am aware of how much energy it takes to heal ones self."

"Of course, I didn't mean to imply otherwise, just wondering when you two got so close," Iroh responded to the 11 year old.

"We have been since before mother... Left. But you have failed to notice I suppose. It's no matter of course, with Father around it made it hard to show outright affection for Zuko. Surely you understand, Uncle Iroh?" Azula mused, looking at her nails.

Iroh looked at the girl, feeling as if she only used uncle to mock him in a way. While she did, he didn't know that.

She only did it because Iroh never really refers to her as niece. Only as Princess, Azula, or both. It doesn't bother her much, but she is a bit peeved with the way Iroh shows his blatant favoritism, similar to Ozai.

It's much less abusive, and not used as a weapon, but Iroh sees Azula as someone like her so called Father. She knows this and dislikes it greatly. It wasn't her fault that Ozai preferred her, or that she was better than Zuzu.

Azula was fine with Zuko being Iroh's favorite, especially after Lu Ten died, even if it caused her heart to feel heavy. But with his dislike towards herself, Azula couldn't stand him. It was as if he thought her unable to be human.

"Well, Azu-" Iroh began.

At that moment Zuko stumbled onto the deck looking around frantically.

"Lala, where's Azu-" He paused catching his breath, his voice raspy from disuse, and possibly damage. He turned and spotted her.

"Zula, why did you come?" Zuko rasped, not believing that his father would do something to Azula.

"Zuzu, I'm banished as well. Father saw it fitting to send siblings together for this," Azula said, knowing Zuko would deny that Ozai was in the major wrong.

"But, he- you- you're a master at firebending, you didn't disrespect him."

"I did when I refused to train and to stay with you instead," Azula said walking to her brother.

"But-"

Before he could finish the medic ran through the door.

"Prince Zuko-" a pant "-you need to rest-" another "-and not move around so much."

Zuko looked back at Azula, seeing the worry she tried not to disguise as much as usual. She nodded and waved her hand at the medic.

"Do as they say, dumdum. If you get hurt more we will never get anywhere, and it will be boring."

Zuko nodded at his younger sister and moved to follow the medic. He stumbled, before Azula grabbed his shoulder and righted him.

"Thanks, Zula."

"Sure, Zuzu."

Bringing him back to the medic was uneventful. After setting him down Azula looked at Zuko. His head was shaved besides the phoenix tail, as is customary after one has dishonored themselves. Azula wishes she could tell Zuko that it wasn't his fault, that Osai isn't a good parent.

But she couldn't without Zuko denying anything of the sort, or possibly even hating Azula. She couldn't tell him that their conditions to get unbanished weren't the same.

For her, all she had to do was leave Zuko and sink his ship. Zuko had to do the impossible and hunt the avatar, whoever they are.

The avatar hasn't been seen in 100 years. It is rumored that the air avatar died with Sozin's attack, but then the water or earth or even fire avatar would come forward to end the war. If that was in defence of or against the fire nation is up to the person truly.

Azula often wondered why people who oppose the fire nation would wait for an avatar. It wasn't like they couldn't possibly take down the fire nation if they worked together, and if the water tribes allowed women to fight. She means, look at her.

But Azula supposes this is better, if no one tried to. Sure her father was a bad person, but the war wasn't wrong. It started because of the air nation being violent. That's what it said in all the books she found. They couldn't all be wrong could they.

Turns out they could. It was a month later and they had gone to the Western air temple. As they looked through the rooms they found nothing, until they did.

They opened the door and the light smell of burnt fabric hit their noses. Looking inside the saw skeleton after skeleton. Azula saw it for what it was, A Massacre.

Zuko didn't, he saw the evidence that their nation did what they had to. To win.

They continued with Azula feeling more uneasy about this. They opened a room and they saw the cribs first.

It was obviously a nursery, but more so was the scorch marks on the walls and floor, the burnt wood, and most importantly the little skeletons, only possible to be owned by a baby.

Zuko looked shell shocked and threw up. Azula eyes teared up, as she stood there with even more proof that the fire nation wasn't all good. Or even at all.

Azula was suddenly very glad she and Zuko snuck up here before Iroh could. He would've hid the bones, and other things to 'protect' them from seeing this.

She looked at the rooms closely after that and saw no signs of fight from the air benders, and only struggle to get away, to protect the younger ones.

The more Azula and Zuko saw the angrier, yet sadder, they got.

Both thinking how could their nation do this, and still preach about being the best one.

Parents, or even just adults maybe even some older children, (children!), carrying the youngest towards the stables in an attempt to get away.

They followed the trail to the stables themselves, seeing multiple peoples bones intertwined with the bigger animals.

"How... How could they do this? How could we accept this? Do you think they know Zula?" Zuko asked his voice getting strong in the middle but shaky and soft in the end.

"There's no way they didn't. Some of the books date to 90 years ago. That's when people would know if the air people were actually violent without cause. They've been lying to us. To all of us! The whole fire nation can't know! It's propaganda!! WE HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THIS! IT'S OUR DUTY TO PROTECT THEM!!" Azula shouted.

Unbeknownst to her, her eyes glowed an eerie blue while the winds around her swirled, her fire warming the place.

Zuko watched with wide eyes following his little sister.

"Zula, calm down, you're gonna hurt the place," Zuko ran at his sister, the longer she was like this the higher the chance something bad could happen.

He got to her and grabbed her arms, to which made her more aware of her surroundings. Azula slowly calmed down and her eyes faded to the normal color.

Once she had gained her awareness back Azula felt bad for almost hurting the place further.

"Um, Zula, what the fuck what that?"

Oh right Zuko was still there.

"I dunno, airbending?"

"Yea, and Last I Checked you were a Firebender."

"Things change," Azula said with a shrug, too tired to even comprehend what actually happened.

"M'tired now, lets go back down, before I get angry at this horrible things again."

"Okay," Zuko said, defeated at this point, resolving to talk about it when his sister was more aware of anything.

They walked back down the cliff, Zuko making sure Azula was on the side with a wall. Once Zuko brought her to her room, and set her down on her bed.

"M'night Zu."

"Night Zula," Zuko whispered.

Chapter Text

"Wait a minute, I fucking airbended," is the first the Azula says when she shoots awake at dawn.

"Yeah, you did, what the FUCK was that?!" Zuko yelled also having shot awake at dawn, only to immediately wince at it pulling on his almost healed burn.

"I don't know? I guess I'm the avatar considering that's the only way to bend multiple elements," Azula was having a crisis at this point, hands on the side of her face looking at her lap.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. I'm the avatar, oh dear fuck. Nope nuh-uh not dealing with life wake me up in a hundred years,"

"You don't get to just Do That, Zula. You're the Avatar. I would need to capture you to return to the fire nation. Father would be proud he just wants the avatar on his side and you are so it'll be fine," Zuko said, rambling slightly.

"Zuzu, big brother, you are dumb. Do you want to take the chance that Ozai won't just kill me right there to stop me from ever being able to even possibly take him down? You might be right, but father could still see me as a threat. We can't tell anyone, please Zuzu?" Azula ranted, knowing for a fact Ozai would kill her.

She couldn't tell that to Zuko due to not shocking him to much and scaring him away. She just hoped that she was able to make Zuko not turn her in.

Zuko did not know that Ozai would kill Azula the first chance he got after seeing she was a threat and she had disobeyed him. Zuko however saw a scared little sister and decided that, no he wouldn't turn her in.

After all, he has most of his family here, and after a few years, when Azula saw that father was a good man, then they could return home.

"Alright, Zula. I won't bring you to Father. Maybe he'll just let us back in a few years."

"Maybe."

They decide not to tell Iroh.

Azula is fine with this, not knowing if he would rat her out to Ozai or not. Zuko is a horrible lier, and cannot keep secrets well. Nor can he keep his mouth shut that easily, as proven.

"Zula, lets go to a temple and see if there are any scrolls for airbending!" Zuko gasped later that day.

"Shut up, Zu, you're being to loud," Azula whispered sharply. Zuko looked away sheepishly before speaking again.

"Sorry, but we can go see if there are any scrolls," He whispered this time.

"Zuzu, dummy, the airbenders didn't keep scrolls where we could get them, and if they did they got ... burned... So it doesn't matter," Azula whispered, hesitating around the word burned.

"Oh, well, there should still be something for you to learn. Then after air its water. That's how it goes, right?" Zuko doubted himself. Azula was used to this, as Zuko got more and more unsure of speaking or if it what he said was right, due to recent events.

"Of course it is. You know it by heart by now, and yes, I know its because you want to help me," Azula said, interrupting when Zuko tried to speak.

"Of course I want to help my little sister," Zuko said, patting Azula's head.

Azula grumbled and push Zuko's hand back towards him. He responded with tickling her now open side. Azula shot away by kicking Zuko. Her kick wasn't very hard, but right in his stomach.

"That's what you get, bitch," Azula glared at Zuko's groaning self, laughing after a second. He weakly glared at her before curling up again.

"What happened?" Iroh asked.

"He tickled me so I kicked him."

"Princess Azula, that is not how you should treat your siblings. It could really hurt someone," Iroh responded to her.

"I know how to kick without really hurting," Azula said, scoffing at the implication she would hurt her brother that badly.

"Yeah, we were playing around, Uncle Iroh. Zula wouldn't hurt me badly on purpose," Zuko said still laying on the ground, but now in a starfish position.

Azula raised an eyebrow at Zuko.

Zuko shrugged. Azula shrugged back. Zuko shrugged back at her. Azula narrowed her eyes and shrugged back again. They continued until Azula kick Zuko's side. Zuko curled up again.

Azula smirked in victory.

Iroh watched this whole exchange with his eyebrows raised. Perhaps he thought Azula wasn't a copy of her father. Perhaps he still did and was wondering why she would play.

But Azula didn't know what her Uncle was thinking, so she let her thoughts rest.

"Anyways, Uncle, we're going to the air temple today," Zuko said, knowing Azula made him not tell Iroh what they did. Zuko wasn't going to go back on Azula ever, but she still needed the reassurance.

"In a while nephew, patience pays to those willing to work with it," Iroh said, stalling until the all clear of having no bones left.

Azula and Zuko nodded, and then exchanged looks behind Iroh's back. Zuko shrugged yet again, before running off.

Azula smiled, before chasing after him.

Soon the signal came for all clear, and Iroh escorted his niece and nephew up the temple. They saw everything they had before, this time devoid of the air nomad skeletons.

"So, is there anywhere to see how they airbent? Like scrolls, or carving?" Zuko asked as they walked. Azula sent him a look before Iroh turned.

"Why would you need to know that?"

"Well, we were just wondering because the Avatar will have to learn airbending, somehow, or already know. We need to know their moves to make sure that we aren't running in blind," Azula said, cutting off whatever answer Zuko had been wanting to say.

Iroh nodded, "I suppose there might be carvings. But the scrolls were always a mystery on where they could be. You may go on your own to look, I'm not as young as I used to be, these bones don't like walking."

After Iroh sat, they sibling left him be looking over the cliff.

"So, there might be carvings and if we get lucky, like extremely lucky, we can find scrolls for you, Zula!" Zuko said excitingly. He just wants to support his younger sister. Even if it means to lie to Uncle and Father.

Azula nods, before turning down a hallway. Zuko follows closely behind, trust her to be able to guide them.

They enter a room to find the walls covered with soot, top to bottom. Wiping away a small section showed an indent that when traced seemed to be a symbol.

Continuing they found the symbol was of air. It clicked that this was the air carvings, all covered in soot. When Zuko and Azula tried to wipe it off, some pieces wouldn't budge, while others stopped. The ones that stopped had the rock be assaulted by fire so much it melted into itself.

Zuko looked at his hands in shame, while Azula regulated her breathing to keep from getting too worked up.

"This is what we do. This is what Ozai allows to keep happening. We see it in earth villages, in the decimated southern water tribe. Even in our nation," Azula said.

She turned to Zuko, "The war needs to end. And not in our nations favor."

Too stunned to really say anything, Zuko just nodded. Looking at it, there was no was their Father didn't know. For him not to know would put him in a bad light as well, but Ozai had always prided himself in his nation. He paid attention to the small struggling towns, and said they'd be better burnt down.

As they stood in the ruined room, the Siblings knew what they had to do. They had to take down the fire nation. Firelord Ozai had to be out of power. If Iroh helped or not would mean nothing. They had a corrupt leader to depower.