trans_9 | Helpless.

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Helpless.

In the back of her cell Azula slumped against the wall. Between the pale exhausted look on her face and the empty eyes gazing at the transparent wall of her cell she looked dead to the world.

She knew something was wrong with her. That much was painfully clear no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise. But she wasn't crazy! No. Never. Not the Princess of the Fire Nation, not the rightful heir to the throne.

She was just...sick. Yes. She had caught something. Like when a fever got too strong or when one drank too much wine.

No, she had been infected! That had to be it. That's when things began to go downhill. Mai must have had some kind of poison on her knives, or maybe the servants back at the palace...

The palace was gone. That's what everyone kept telling her. The fire nation, the world was gone.

Her father was gone...

She hadn't seen her father since he left to complete his destiny and take over the world. Only through what Zuko and the Doctors had told her did she know his fate. A war criminal.

His powers stripped...just a man now.

She still could create fire for now. But what if the Avatar tried to take it from her like he had her father?

What else could they take?

Images flashing through her mind. Medications, procedures. Those unsettling tentacles that belonged to the voice in her head, the world around her. "Stacy" How dare she speak in such a kind an loving voice? Azula knew better. Azula knew what sort of damage love could bring.

What was the voice plotting to do to her while it spoke so sweetly? Her mind? Not if she had any say! And why shouldn't she!? She is Princess Azula! From Birth her destiny was perfection and greatness. The heavens above had sent to the planet the perfect girl, born to the man destined to rule the world.

...or so they'd thought.

But he was gone, they were gone the world was gone! Azula too...must be gone.

Yes, that made more sense didn't it? Azula had died...no was killed. MURDERED! Murdered by those so called "Doctors" that had promised they wouldn't hurt her. That they only wanted to help her! Zuko probably gave them the order! Kill her so he wouldn't have to worry anymore about the only loyal family their Father had left.

Father...

These thoughts and more swirled about in her fractured mind but her body never moved, barely blinked. You couldn't even really tell she was breathing.

This was all that was left, of the Proud Princess Azula.

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Midna scoffed. "Oh, come on. Is that a royal head on your shoulders, or an Ordon Pumpkin? I distinctly remember telling you I wasn't going to hurt you."

After a moment she looked around again. "Who designed this place, anyway?"

Her eyes clouded over once more and she seemed to deflate a little more, "Vengeful spirits of the lost, beings of otherworldly power who's time has long since past. Unwilling to simply move on they remain lurking out of sight tormenting the living." Ramblings now, based on no actual knowledge. "Zuko may have even had this wing built just for me...my dear brother." She hissed like an angry cat at the thought. "Don't say his name to me!" She spat despite the fact that she had been the one to say it.

Midna shook her head, slowly. "Boy, what happened to you?" If Azula had been exclusively groomed for absolute power and had that power slip through her fingers, she might indeed be upset. Furious, even. But would she be insane?

"Ghosts are ghosts. They're only shades of the living. So why let them torment you?" The question was almost as much to herself as to Azula.

"Because they can't be stopped." Her voice was a whisper now, a quiver...a tremble, "Spirits are weak, they are of the past. The only thing history is good for is learning from it and after that it ceases to serve a purpose." And oh how she loved history. So many victories that her nation could take credit for.

"Eee hee hee. Can't be stopped, huh? Well, I guess if you see it that way." Midna had helped dispatch plenty of ghosts, but probably not any of the type that haunted Azula.

"So. What'd you do to land yourself in here?"

She blinked slowly and her eyes seemed to focus again as she thought about it.
"He turned his back on me...fool. Thought he could trick me and protect that backstabbing emotionless girl. But he can't save her from herself. She'll kill me because it's the smartest thing to do. The only way. Kill the monster and get back to their pathetic meandering lives."

"He? Oh, your brother, huh." Midna crossed her arms, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling in thought. She had no clue who this 'backstabbing emotionless girl' was, but it sounded like someone had tried to kill Azula. But who had made the first move?

Midna looked back at the girl imprisoned in the barrier, eyes bright. "Do you want to die?"

Why was everyone asking her that question? Hadn't she made herself painfully clear?

"There is nothing left for me in this world except revenge against those who destroyed my life."

"Sounds kind of boring." Actually, the whole revenge business reminded her rather uncomfortably of her own thoughts after Zant had pulled that little coup out from under his hat. Helmet.

"Don't they teach princesses how to do anything else in the Fire Nation? Like, I don't know, basket weaving?"

That earned her a very dry look.

"My reason for existing was to be the greatest firelord there ever was. I was raised from birth to be my father's right hand. The perfect weapon. But that's all gone now. The world has no need for monsters. They'd rather follow a fool to his doom and give up all the power and comfort they had. Mindless simpletons."

If Midna noticed that dry look, it apparently didn't bother her.

"Well, I don't think most people would want a 'monster' to lead them around. That's just personal experience talking, though. So. Everyone was going to follow your brother around instead? How come?"

"Because they fear him." She burst out, "As they should any member of the royal family. They obey because that is all they've ever known. It is all they can do!"

Thinking of her brother there, in that throne...wearing the crown...

"It should be MINE!"

Maybe it was because Azula had never threatened her kingdom. Maybe it was because Azula was a stranger, or so unpredictably despairing, confused, and full of rage that it was difficult to attribute real malice to her. But...

"I feel sorry for you," said Midna, softly. Since no one else was around to watch, she transformed into her other self: tall, alien, cloaked in the black-and-green fabric favored by her people.

"A man much like you besieged my kingdom, letting his ambition spill out even unto the realm of light, whose inhabitants had never once given him harm. He was blinded by ambition, enraged that the power he had so long coveted had slipped through his fingers. But someone stopped him. Just as someone stopped you."

"The circumstances of your birth do not entitle you to anything. The purpose of a ruler is to protect their people, to serve and protect them. If someone stole the reins of power from someone like you, it was the kindest gift they could bestow."

Azula was shaken by these words and indeed began to tremble glaring at the woman before her, for the first time rising to her feet. She never even processed that Midna had shifted forms.

"I, ALWAYS acted with my nations best interests in mind!"

"Really? 'They obey because that is all they've ever known. It is all they can do.' That doesn't sound like a ruler who holds her people dearest to her heart. That sounds like a woman who holds herself above all else. Your wishes are their wishes. Am I wrong?"

Midna smiled a little sardonically. "They chose to follow your brother, did they not?"

There was a time when Azula would have had the perfect counter for this, but that time was washed away in a sea of blue flame. Now she was emotional and furious.

"From my birth my loyalty was to the Fire Nation!" She insisted her eyes blazing with wild insanity, "What has he EVER known about loyalty? He was defiant! He was weak! The only reason he's even ALIVE is because grandfather was betrayed!" She was raving now.

"Dishonorable scum! If the kingdom knew him how I knew him, if they knew how close we were to total victory...

Midna put her hand up to the barrier, still speaking quietly.

"And still, they chose him. Your beloved Fire Nation decided they no longer required your loyalty. I do not know your brother; I don't know what kind of man he is, or what decisions he has made in his life. But I hope that one day, the two of you can understand each other."

With a shriek of fury and a wave of flame against the barrier she turned with a huff and retreated to the corner sitting down still shaking with anger. No one understood, they were all as insane as her brother.

Looked like Midna was dismissed. She returned to her imp form and floated off, looking back over her shoulder once before leaving.

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Helpless.

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Wrong icon whut?

XD

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