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Azula's Lost Chapters OR Azula's New Cook	By : DecieverGod Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female Views: 13899 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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An un-summoned silence seems to fill the small iron cell to its breaking point. Princess Azula trying to conceive of why Tatsuya would be imprisoned by the Dai Lee, the Dai Lee trying desperately to understand why their princess knows the Berserker’s name, and Tatsuya; well he wasn’t entirely willing to believe that the Azula who stood in front of him at that moment, was anything more than a fabrication of his mind.

Then the moment passed, and Azula feel back to the cold sharpness that was her nature. “Leave, now.” She spoke and orders, and for only a second did the Dai Lee hesitate. It wasn’t doubt in her that caused them to pause; it was the nature of the order. Such cold words were enough to freeze them in their place, but they bowed, and backed from the cell, dropping the captain and recalling their gloves before closing the door behind them for more their own sake than the princess’s.

Tatsuya fell limply to the ground, his legs folding under him, not from weakness, but from unwillingness to stand. His arms fell to his sides and the broken solider hung his head.

Once her guards had gone, and the proper time had passed to ensure they were as far away from the door as their duty would allow. The Princess knelt to one knee, reached forward, and tentatively, almost unwilling to allow herself to, she swept the greasy tangles from the captain’s face.

His eyes weren’t the same as before. They were darker, though the injury still presented itself, these eyes were finally seeing her. “Tatsuya…” The simple whisper of his name brought him back. The captain’s eyes widened, he blinked for what seemed like it must’ve been the first time in a long while, and lifted his head.

“P-“ His dry lips caught against each other as he tried to speak. “Princess…”

He tried to lift his arm, and reached for her face, but he cast his gaze aside, and pulled his hand back as if touching her would burn. The captain opened his mouth to speak again, but fell silent. He’d betrayed her, and now she was on bended knee before him.

“Tatsuya what happened to you? You were supposed to wait.” Azula only half scolded; despite herself she was showing her relief over the Captain’s safe return. Though perhaps death would’ve been preferable to a return such as he was, to die in service to a royal would’ve been an honor, but to return in such a broken state. It was a blessing he had no family to disappoint.

“I betrayed you Princess… I lied and betrayed you, and I deserve all which has been brought against me and more.” The man seemed near tears. “I disobeyed your orders, I left my post and found entry to the impenetrable city, I sold my service to the enemies of our nation, and worse, my motives were concern for you…” The captain’s head seemed to rock back and forth across his shoulders, wanting to turn back to her, but unwilling to let himself. “I should hold no concern for you… I am… the degenerate son of a twisted man and a broken woman… you…” He turned back to her, nearly reverently holding her image before him as he looked, almost pleadingly up at her. “You’re the daughter of a king and a noble… child of a line of heroes and conquerors and champions and… and…”

He struggled to find his words, and again reached forward, this time, gently pressing his broken hand against the Princess’s check. Her first instinct was to knock it away, but the simple thought of, wounding, the already broken man before her stayed her. And instead she felt herself lay her cheek against his hand, her eyes slowly falling closed as she felt the, simplicity of the captain’s action.

“An-and… you’re perfect.” He was not… capable of lies anymore, he wasn’t even capable of tainting the truth. His words caught not for fear or weakness of them, but for lack of them. He was not speaking that which he needed, he was speaking truth, as near he knew it.

The captain pulled his hand back, and took his eyes from the beauty before him. “And I betrayed you.” His words seemed to sting him as he spoke. “I… I fought in the armor of a noble, I fell as a son of Fire, and I was…” His face fouled itself at the memories of his shame. “I failed as a Fire Bender, I failed and betrayed and lied and, and…” He seemed to tear himself back to look at the princess. “And you’re just… so perfect.”

Tears fell from Tatsuya’s eyes as he tried desperately to redeem himself in his own mind. His princess was there before him, and he was, filth before her. He was a taint to her presence, he held as much place before her as a beggar child held before a king, and still he wanted for her, her scent, her place, her fury, her fire, undeserving as he was he wanted it still.

The princess smiled. And stood before him, her arms crossed behind her as she seemed to loom over him in judgment. The captain held his head low, a death her hands was more than he could ask for. “You still have use to me Captain Shouhei.” These simple word seemed to freeze the soldier in his place, barely able to raise his head to look up. “Despite your failure you’re still an asset to myself and the Fire Nation. I expect you to clear yourself up and present yourself before me by morning tomorrow. I’ll not allow any tardiness and despite your previous actions you are still a solider of this nation, so I expect you to conduct yourself as such. Are we Clear captain?”

The moment seemed to hold itself. Tatsuya’s heart seemed to struggle to take its next beat. Azula stood with a self satisfied smile upon her face. And then, in what seemed a single movement, the captain rose to one knee, crossed his right arm over his chest, and held his left behind him as he bowed before the Princess anew. “I swear to you Princess Azula, my sword, my shield, and my soul itself shall be beholden only to your command. I shall never doubt, I shall never disobey, and I shall always act only in your betterment. I swear to you, Divine Princess Azula.” Vigor, Heart, and most predominately Faith held itself renewed in the captain’s words. He was unbroken, unbound, and reborn. “I am at your command, Princess.”

And there was only one word which rang itself unable to leave the Princess’s mind. “D-divine?” A shifting smile found its way to Azula’s face, unable to fix itself there, and unable to leave until Azula recomposed herself. She raised her hand to her lips and hid the uncomfortable smile until her cool demeanor restored itself. “Yes, well.” She turned toward the door. “I trust that you are.”

Azula smirked a little, half stepping toward the door, taking a moment to recognize the red stains there as long dried half burnt blood, and knocked twice on the iron door.

Tatsuya stood, arms crossed neatly behind his back. He took a swipe at his hair, attempting to reshape it.

The Dai Lee opened the cell, and for a moment the stoic Earth Benders looked rather confused. Azula stood before them cool, collected and calm as ever, and the man they knew as Berserker stood behind her, strapped with near military precision, standing in stark contrast to the broken half-crazed man they had known.

“See to it that the Captain gets any assistance he requires.” The princess smirked, the look on the two guards was absolutely priceless, if they had any doubts about her before, the apparent transformation of ‘Berserker’ had absolved them. “And see to a change of clothes for him as well. Something suitable.”

Azula smirked a little more, leaving the puzzled guards behind as she strolled down the prison halls, her stride a little, though had better believe not noticeably, lighter.

The Dai Lee had left the cell open, perhaps not deliberately, but it was open none the less, and Tatsuya took two steps through the doorway before the guards again turned their attention toward him. The two forces stood there, studying one another. The Dai Lee uncertain of whether or not they should attempt to keep him in his cell any longer. They certainly didn’t look like they wanted to.

But then again, Tatsuya no longer looked as though he should be kept in a cell. His hair, though still unwashed was cast back, neater, the tangled bangs holding the rest at bay. His rags too were adjusted, still rags, but now worn with pride. He looked like a knight playing dress up, or a cast-away noble. Neither of which he was, but as the Dai Lee knew little of him, and less of this ‘new’ him, they almost saluted him as he passed, and did join him in file.

Azula smiled slightly to herself as she strode through the halls of the Dai Lee’s underground. Someday she’d have to have Tatsuya tell her the whole story of what had just happened, but for now it was simply enough that he had been returned to her. And a more apropos moment could not have been found if the Princess herself had chosen it.

Two days later the Dai Lee brought the walls of Ba Sing Sei to knee before the armies of the Fire Nation. The city was once and for all truly in the grasp of the Fire Nation, and though the people shivered in fear, the Fire Nation’s soldiers swarming over their city like Scorpion-Bees looked for a reason to sting. The Princess’s duties were far from finished.

The Fire Nation needed leadership, and once the necessary congratulations and praise were out of the way, it became rather clear that that leadership was coming from her father, and not her. The generals and commanders of the Fire Nation hailed to Ozai as their master, and Azula as their ally. She captured a throne, for her father.

And she was not expected to keep it any longer than necessary. Of course however long necessary was, was very much up to her, the Dai Lee were, apprehensive to say the least about taking order from Fire Nation men, and the Soldiers of Ozai were skeptical about the allegiances held by the turncoat Earth Benders. Now sure enough the Dai Lee were loyal to Azula till their deaths, but the men of the Fire Nation were loyal to Ozai, and though Azula was his daughter, she was not the Fire Lord.

What was needed was a splitting of the hair. Someone the Fire Nation could call one of their own, and someone the Dai Lee would not question. Someone who was not Earth, or Fire, but both.

“…as you can see General the former Earth Kingdom Capital is now completely under our control, thanks in large part to the Dai Lee.” Princess Azula smirked a little as she showed General Shu of her father’s armies around the stolen Palace of the Earth King. She turned and took a comfortable seat in the Earth King’s throne, crossing her legs just to emphasis that she was in power here.

“I agree princess…” The General admired the Earth King’s Throne room as he spoke, clearly he had held doubts about whether a Fire Nation solider could ever stand where he now stood. “It would seem you’ve won us a powerful ally in these Dai Lee.” His tone bore just a sliver of suspicion, half cast glances betraying him as he took note of where the Earth Bender Guards stood within the room. “I understand you’re to be returning to the Homeland once things here are settled?”

Azula fought the urge to roll her eyes, all the Generals were the same, they just wanted her out of their way so they could fight the war their way. Like their way would’ve have taken another hundred years to capture the impenetrable city. “Yes, I’ve grown to miss home in my time in the Earth Kingdom, and with the death of the Avatar, and my brother’s safe return there’s no longer any reason for us to be here.” The Princess smirked a little, eyeing her nails, just to add that slight prick of boredom to her words.

“Well then I suppose you’ll be placing a reagent in command of the city?” And there it was, Shu like most of the Fire Nation, wanted to know who was going to be put in command of the Earth Kingdom Capital now that it was theirs.

Not that it wasn’t an important job, and whomever Azula appointed would be under tremendous scrutiny. If she appointed a general, a commander, or even a war hero, than the city would be run by an occupying force. The people would be treated like prisoners, and any showing of resistance from them would likely be squashed by overwhelming and unnecessary force.

However if she were to appoint a noble, or even one of her family’s oldest allies, then the city would be run as a personal badge of honor. The people would be ignored, and only the most grievous showings of resistance would be put down. Sure eventually the people would come around, and it would be harder for them to find the will to resist if their enemies weren’t shoved in their face every day, but there was a third option.

“Actually the Dai Lee have provided for that as well.” Azula smiled a little and gestured to a rather unnerving woman at her right. “General I’d like you to meet Joo Dee, she’ll be the official reagent in charge of Ba Sing Sei after my departure. She’s really quite perfect for the job.” The princess smirked a little and the brainwashed woman bowed.

“I look forward to serving my Fire Nation hosts to the utmost.” She wore that disturbing smile that even Ty Lee had failed to imitate.

The General adjusted his collar. “Hmph… yes well… I’m sure if she’s your appointee than she’ll do fine Princess.” He was clearly just a little unnerved by the woman himself. Not that it wasn’t a perfectly natural reaction to the disturbingly pleasant woman, she rather gave off the impression that if she were ever to tilt her head, suds would drip from her ears.

“But as to the subject of the Dai Lee…” And again the General showed his lack of faith in Azula. The Dai Lee were Earth Benders, and had already betrayed once, so of course he was going to ask what the Princess planned to do with them now that they were superfluous. “Might I ask whom your ladyship has appointed to lead them in your absence?”

Another, if less public, important position. The Dai Lee were already the most powerful organization in the city, and if whoever was place in charge of them were the least bit disloyal, or questionable, than the whole city would be made more vulnerable. While if their commander lacked the faith of his subordinates, than the power of the Dai Lee could be lost, a man like the General would find it distasteful to rely on the strength of non-Fire Nation soldiers for anything. But luckily the Princess had already given that some thought as well.

And here her answer came striding down the hall to the throne room, Fire Nation Armor on his shoulders, and Dai Lee soldiers at his sides. The man wore ill fitting armor, it wasn’t personal, despite being that of a commander, and a black leather swatch obscured his right eye. Tangled locks fell before his patched eye, and he seemed to carry with him more than the weight of his stride. Something about him seemed, older, than it should’ve been, and little expression shown upon the man’s face.

The General and he exchanged glances as he passed, taking but a few steps father before he and Dai Lee at his sides fell on bended knee before the Princess. “The rioting in the north quarter has been putdown Princess, the Lieutenants of Generals Fong and How were apprehended at the scene; however a third took his own life before being identified.” He ignored the Fire Nation General’s presence so completely, it was almost inoffensive.

Azula leaned on one hand and smirked down and the pawns before her. “Very good Commander, I’m glad you’re here,” As if she hadn’t planned them to return while the General was in her company. “I’d like you to meet General Shu. He’s one of my father’s most trusted soldiers, and will be assisting in the occupation of Ba Sing Sei.”

The two men turned to address each other, each giving the other the Fire Nation’s bow. “General, I’d like you to meet Special Commander Tatsuya Shouhei. Commander Shouhei will be taking charge of the Dai Lee until further notice.”

Tatsuya bowed again. “It’s an honor to make your acquaintance General, I look forward to working with you under Princess Azula.”

The General did not return it. “Yes well… I believe we’ll be working closely once the Princess returns to the homeland.” Instead the elder man stroked the small black beard upon his chin. “Shouhei was it? I’m not familiar with that name. You’re not from the Fire Nation are you?”

“Commander Shouhei is from the colonies General.” Azula responded before the recently promoted captain had a chance. “He served under me during my hunt of the Avatar, and though he was captured by the enemy before the fall of Ba Sing Sei, I would trust him with my life.” The last words seemed to give their speaker a moment’s pause. “Regardless you can be assured that the Commander has nothing but the Fire Nation’s best interests at heart, and the Dai Lee are more than willing to follow him, isn’t that correct?”

The two Dai Lee that had entered at Tatsuya’s sides, nodded their heads, and spoke in unison. “Of course Princess. The Dai Lee are at yours and Commander Shouhei’s command.”

Azula smirked a little and descended from her throne. “Well if that is all General, I’m quite tired, and wish to return to my quarters for the time being. Commander if you will occupancy me?”

“Of course Princess.” The look on the General’s face was simply priceless. Not only had every position he’d thought to ask about already been filled, but with people who he couldn’t help but feel were better for it than himself, and on top of that someone he’d never heard of was now standing at the right hand of the Fire Lord’s daughter, privy to more trust than himself!

It was a good day.

Author's Comment: I went through different 3 near full length version of this chapter until I got something I liked. Hope that explains why it took so long. ;p
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Azula's Lost Chapters OR Azula's New Cook