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[burnedbrighter]

OOC Information
NAME: Al
AGE: 25
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Beastboy, Jinx, Harley Quinn

IC Information
CHARACTER NAME: Azula
CANON: Avatar the Last Airbender
AGE: 15
TIMELINE: Azula comes fresh from her first year in the mental rehabilitation center.
FAMILY TYPES:
Dark Area: The Darkness in Azula's heart is born from her father's corruption and favoritism. In her is a deep hatred of her family, including him despite the fact that she still loves him and longs for his approval. She has done terrible things in her quest for power.

Dragons Roar: Azula has always been a take charge kind of princess. Ready willing and able to lead either by example or by asserting her dominance over others. After her mental break though she became much more rash and unable to control her temper.

Metal Empire: Before her break, Azula has shown herself to be a cold, cruel, ruthless scheming manipulator of the highest caliber. Able to focus control emotions completely she even mastered control of lightning, known to be a difficult task for those who are not in complete control.

Nightmare Soldiers: Once again we have seen Azula's dark side. A willingness to kill her brother, to aid her father in the domination of their world and mass genocide. She is ready willing and able to commit horrible deeds to get whatever she wants.

WORLD:

The world of Avatar the Last Airbender is a fantasy world full of strange and wonderful creatures, spirits, elemental magics, martial arts and adventure.

It is set upon a world that operates in the way many planets do, rotating around a sun in it's solar system. The largest organized governments have split the continents between themselves four ways...more or less. The Water Tribes rule over the Northern and Southern most land masses. The Fire Nation rules over a modest collection of land masses to the west and the Earth Kingdom has the largest expanse of land to the west. The Air Nomads had the smallest selection of territory in the form of four temples. One in each direction, North, East, South and West. Given their nomadic lifestyle they would travel from temple to temple and through the other nations territories with ease.

The four nations live in balance with one another due to the guidance of spirits existing in a "Spirit world" that mirrors this one. The spirit world often has great effect on the real world and vice verse. It is because of this that the incarnation of the spirit of the Earth is known as "The Avatar" and acts as a bridge between these worlds. He or she is tasked with mastering the four elemental powers that dominate the mortal world, and using their powers and wisdom to keep balance on each world and between them.

The four elements previously mentioned are, as you may have guessed, Air, Fire, Wind and Water. Some people in this world are gifted with the ability to manipulate these elements by will. Over the centuries these techniques have been refined into martial arts and the lessons are passed down from generation to generation. The bending abilities have even been refined into new skills. Water tribe benders have learned to manipulate the temperature of water creating ice and snow, as well as using the manipulation of water and chi to heal people, and the manipulation of water in living things such as plants and blood. Fire benders have learned a powerful technique allowing them to create and manipulate lightning. And in later years a single particularly skilled Earthbender discovered how to bend the minerals found in metal.

Particularly skilled or gifted benders can use these powers without elaborate martial arts. The most skilled can use their abilities with no motion at all

Energy bending is the fifth and most difficult bending to perform. It existed in a time before the Avatar and very few Avatars ever learned it. Even less have ever used it. If your own energy is impure while performing these techniques it can be corrupted and the technique can destroy you. It is however a necessary skill to remove someone's bending abilities, or to restore them if they have been blocked by blood bending.

The technology level at this time in the world is modest. We have seen spring loaded contraptions, steam and coal powered machines, war balloons mechanical tanks and drills. The power of electricity still has yet to be harnessed and records are kept in scrolls and books written by brush and quill. Often elemental powers are required to manipulate some devices such as secret doors in the air temple or the Fire Lord's palace.

The worlds both material and spiritual lived in relative harmony with only the occasional incidents requiring The Avatar's influence, until the greedy and power hungry leader of the Fire Nation struck out to take over the world. The current leader of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Sozin sought to spread his Nation's influence out to the rest of the world using their superior economy, military and technology. This was made easier when the Avatar of that time died and the new one had just been born to the Air Nomads. The Fire nation wiped the Air Nomads from existence in an attempt to find the new Avatar and prevent him from interfering. This attempt failed however as a series of events led to the Avatar running away and eventually becoming frozen in a iceberg for one hundred years while the Fire Nation ran roughshot over the rest of the world. They almost wiped out the Water Tribe in the same fashion and conquered large portions of the Earth Kingdom establishing colonies there.

The Avatar did return though, and with assistance from people of each nation, a rag tag group of benders and non-benders joined forces to aid the Avatar in his quest to defeat the current Firelord so that he could end the war and begin the long road to restoring peace and balance to the worlds of the material and the spiritual.


APPEARANCE:
A pale, once beautiful girl, she has not been well kept since her time locked away.
Her beautiful black silken hair is unkempt and messy, dull and dry. Her once toned and athletic body is slender and weak from lack of movement and malnutrition. Where her eyes once burned with fire and were as cold and sharp as ice, now they are dull and glassy most of the time as she drifts between hallucinations and paranoid fears. When she does focus them it's not usually for long.

When she is in control, and when she has her way she wants to look her absolute best at all times. Makeup, clothes that reflect her importance, not a hair out of place. But in her depression her vanity has fallen by the wayside.

PERSONALITY:
When she's in her right mind, Azula is a cold calculating perfectionist. She is almost entirely incapable of normal emotions and connecting with people because of how her father raised her to be a perfect deadly force of nature. He wanted the perfect children but he did too well. With the mounting pressure of realizing she would never have his approval she has become unstable, paranoid, violent and exceedingly emotional at times especially when provoked. Sometimes it doesn't take much but we all have our bad days.

She loathes her mother, blaming her for all the problems in her life. When she was young and beginning to show her cruel selfish tendencies her mother's attempts at curbing the behavior and tending to Azula's softer hearted brother made Azula believe her mother didn't care about her. She believes her mother feared and hated her and has gone out of her way to ruin Azula's life. Deep down though like with her father, all she wants is the same sort of love and affection her mother had for Zuko. And it's reached the point where even if her mother were to tell her she loved her? Azula would not believe her. How could her mother love her knowing how imperfect and monstrous she is?

Emotional and unstable Azula has drawn further into herself finding herself unable to trust even those she was closest to. She constantly fears assassination and struggles to get even a full nights sleep. She's prone to hallucinations of people from her past, her mother, father and so on. Indeed any time she has perceived that someone has made an attempt on her life no matter how inconsequential or unrelated the action might be she finds herself unable to trust them. In her own world when she was in power she banished every one that she believed she could not trust.

Deep down she has a need for vindication; a need for some kind of justification for everything she's done up to this point. She feels like she was cheated out of the rewards she was promised. Her father's approval, the respect of the entire world as she took her place at his side to rule. And the undeniable power of being Fire Lord. She's lost everything she ever wanted in a short space of time. She's been forced to admit that she is not perfect, and may possibly never be the perfect daughter his father wanted.

Her father raised her to have a strong sense of pride in herself and her nation. She was royal because she deserved to be royal. Her family were the leaders because some people were just better then others. And those who were poor deserved it. Bad luck came to those who weren't strong enough to make to control of their own destiny. And to fraternize with the poor and the common, the ugly and the stupid is beneath her and her family. She believes that surrounding yourself with people of culture, grace and intelligence not only looks better and makes you feel better, but keeps you sharp. And the only reason to surround yourself with lesser people is if they know their place and show you the proper amount of respect.

After her breakdown she became suspicious of so many though she could find no comfort or respite in the company of the upper class or the commoners.

At her core she is ruthless. Very few things are allowed to come between her and her goals, even her closest friends were cast aside when they stopped her from killing her brother. Interestingly enough is she didn't order them dead, only locked away. She couldn't bring herself to see them dead at the time...though now she wonders if that has changed.

Because of her strict upbringing she is awkward in some more simple social interactions, especially with teenagers her own age. If they don't know and respect her it throws her off as she's spent her whole life as a member of the most powerful royal family. She doesn't understand what normal "common" teenagers do and with only a few examples and interactions she's not entirely sure she wants to be like them. Why when she can be pampered as a princess? She enjoys the luxuries it affords and she enjoys intimidating people. Still it bothers her that she was unable to interact with other teenagers normally. She simply told herself it was because she was so much better then them and that it didn't matter.

She has a lack of empathy in the sense that while she believes she understands how people work, and indeed she is great at manipulating people, she has difficulty imagining how they feel for herself. On some level she simply doesn't care or see why she should show concern for other inferior imperfect people. Survival of the fittest and let the weak suffer and serve those more worthy.

Because of all of this, her failures, her breakdown, her coming to the realization that her father used and abandoned her has drudged up some deeply harbored guilt inside her that she's held at bay with her iron will. It's this guilt that allows her to freely admit that she is a monster, sometimes in a joking manner but more often then not lately with complete seriousness. Often this guilt will manifest in the hallucinations of her mother who tries to comfort Azula and sooth her the way Azula imagines a mother should act.

She loves her nation, the culture of it, even the people. She believes everything she did was to better her nation but she also believes they have betrayed her by allowing Zuko to take the throne. She suspects the nation simply allowed her to be swept under the rug and hopefully forgotten like a bad nightmare.

Given the state of her mental condition, her irrational and paranoid attitude, her lust for power and perfection, she is not the most friendly or warm chosen to arrive in the digital world. But losing her fire bending has taken alot of the steam out of her. While she is far from defenseless thanks to years of training, fire bending was her strongest weapon and most prided skill. It will force her to try and focus herself once more.

As such she will be even more afraid of death since she lacks her greatest defense. Once she is aware that she's too weak to hurt even the weaker level digimon she will be wary of them, even her partner. But with enough time and being forced to interact with normal people should go a long way to her healing...provided her partner can keep her under control. First she will need to learn to trust others and accept her imperfections as being acceptable. She will need to learn that needing others isn't a weakness.

Finally and most importantly, she will need to learn there are more important things in life then power.

Of course it helps that she is separated from all the people from her world that would trigger her into a rage. Without her family, or those who overthrew her and her father she will be able to put some distance between herself and the situation. Perhaps gain some perspective that she would not otherwise have while in a treatment facility.

Should they arrive before she has made significant progress it is likely she would plot against them. At worst she might lash out, attack them, but given the nature of power in the Digital World the worst that may come from that is a dark evolution of her own partner. Even if her plot were to succeed finding out that they wouldn't stay dead would make the effort in killing them an act of futility and luxury, only affording her temporary pleasure and costing her far too much in the process if the citizens were to turn on her and decide she was too dangerous to leave loose.

The world of Terminal Tokyo will prove a test of Azula's will, to become the person she once was and claims to want to be again, or to become something new and better. Only time and the influences of this world will tell.

Azula is a perfectionist at heart. Not a hair out of place nor a motion wasted. Her father instilled these very high standards in her from a young age in his quest to mold her into the perfect daughter and weapon. He pushed her to always be better then her older brother, to always be better then she was and praised her successes, nurturing her ego and making her obsession for perfection a deeply valued center of her pride. This is both a positive and negative trait as it drove her to achieve amazing accomplishments at a very young age for example, conquering the city of Ba Sing Se. She derives great pleasure from being flawless and correct.

The drawback to this nature is that when she was forced to admit that she is flawed, that she is only human, it helped add to the eventual mental breakdown. When a perfectionist has failed completely despite all their efforts and planning it is common for them to fall into depression. Privately she is over critical of herself and worked constantly to improve on any imperfections, be it her fighting form, her emotions or plans. If any interfere in a way that she feels has ruined the perfection, she tends to lash out aggressively, over reacting even in a cold ruthless sort of way.

Azula has demonstrated her skills as a strong leader, using her positions of power or sometimes just her pure unfiltered self confidence to dominate the will of others and make them listen and obey her. Those she cannot bully, she manipulates like pawns on a chess board, finding ways to dig at them, to guide them into whatever position she wants. She has shown particular skill at manipulating the emotions and wills of her closest friends and brother. Her ability to issue commands and her tactical skills have proven themselves on par with weathered generals several times her age. Finally, as a leader she is not uncomfortable with getting her hands dirty. Some say the best leaders will lead from behind, others lead from the front lines. Azula is capable of both, showing her skill at micro managing as well as taking matters into her own hands.

We touched on her self confident nature before. This stems from the ego pampering ways of her father and the culture of the Royal Family of the Fire Nation she was raised with. She was brought up to believe that some people are simply born better, with a divine right to lead and superiority coming natural to them. She believes that benders are superior to non-benders and that fire benders are the strongest. Royal blooded people are above commoners and she is always superior to Zuko. Her father encouraged this behavior with such phrases as she was "Born lucky" while Zuko was just "Lucky to be born."

This hubris is another help and hindrance in her life. While it has allowed her the courage and self assurance to take calculated risks, or to act in such a way that everyone believes in her skills and abilities. An example of this was her confident tone and total control of her emotions was strong enough she was able to fool a particularly skilled lie detector while saying ridiculous things that were very obviously untrue.

Unfortunately it's that same confidence that led to her failing to take into consideration that her two closest allies, her best friends, would ever betray her. She believed she had them so loyal to her that they would aid in her attempts to capture her brother. But this turned out to be another step down the road of her undoing as her friends betrayed her, saving Zuko's life and shattering her trust in them. An interesting note in this is that when Mai was the first to betray her, Azula attacked with the desire to kill or at least maim her. She had never considered that Ty Lee would then betray her as well, paralyzing her and saving Mai from Azula's wrath temporarily. Unable to bring herself to command their deaths, Azula ordered the guards to lock them away where she would never have to see them again. Her confidence was dealt a critical blow that day and as we saw her progression after that, it never quite recovered.

Cruelty has long been a staple of Azula's life, be it setting plant life on fire and claiming it was due to the plant not being perfect enough or the way she treated her brother and friends. Her wickedness can very in degrees from jealously, shoving Ty Lee over simply because she was better at performing hand stands, to humiliating Zuko in front of Mai, knowing full well the two had strong affectionate feelings for one another. This behavior only grew as time passed on to the point where she had no problem ruining the lives of others for her own pleasure or progress. She takes delight in showing her superiority by inflicting cruel treatment upon others.


As mentioned previously, Azula is a constantly calculating perfectionist. Each day, each interaction is a military planned battle of wits to her, from how to carry out the orders of her father, to something as simple as a volley ball game. She even applies her strategic thinking to basic social interactions which sometimes comes off as awkward to normal people. Her aggressive nature makes this worse and in time she has intimidated and scared the target of her social warfare. It also makes it more difficult for Azula to make gut instinct based choices as she is so used to plotting and planning out every angle that she can. She has strong warriors instincts due to years of training and practice, but poor social instincts. She can manipulate, but she has trouble relating.

Which leads us to her lack of empathy. While she is capable of seeing and recognizing the emotions that other human beings feel, she finds it difficult to sympathize with them and has little to any compassion for them. Especially if she views them as imperfect creatures, failures or mistakes. This does not help things when she herself eventually cracks and spirals into depression and madness as she finds herself unable to have compassion for herself. She does not show regret for the awful things she has done, though the hallucinations of her mother hint that she may be harboring guilt over them.

Her aggressive nature speaks for itself, having shown herself willing to hurt people physically, mentally and emotionally to get what she wants, even willing to kill them if needed. She does not take well to being told she cannot do something. This nature is another example of the double ended swords of her emotions. On the one side her passion has given her the strength and take charge attitude needed to be a strong leader and to intimidate others. This aggression also took charge when her paranoia and anger got the best of her. It led to her making rash decisions when she was beginning to crack and ultimately that aggressive ruthlessness led to her making mistakes in her final duel with Katara and Zuko. These mistakes led to her defeat and capture.

While we have covered Azula's manipulative nature earlier in this discussion it bares to repeat how incredibly tactical and careful she is at twisting the emotions and desires of others to get her what she wants. From making her brother do what she wants while still thinking it was his choice, to convincing an elite squad of fighters and spies to follow her instead of their leader due to her obvious superiority.

As is common with those of a privileged upbringing, Azula is both possessive and selfish. Her strongest cravings have to do with power and the respect and admiration that comes with it. If she cannot make those beneath her admire her superiority then she will make them fear her wrath. She believes that trust is for fools and that fear is the only reliable method of control. She does not wish to share this power, not with her friends, nor her brother. Only her father is worthy enough in her eyes to share the power that she believes they were born to wield.

This is as good a time as any to bring up her issues with her parents and brother. Azula loves her father as much as she is capable of due to his praise and encouragement while growing up. He praised her aggressive behavior and nurtured her feelings of superiority and the drive to be perfect. She believes him to be the perfect example of just what she should be striving for. And when the day came where he was to set out on his conquest of the world and would not have her by his side, she was heartbroken. He attempted to placate her by giving her the title of Fire Lord, so that she may rule the kingdom while he took his place as world ruler. But deep down Azula saw this as his way of getting rid of her, pushing her to the side the way he did with Zuko.

Her mother meanwhile was forced to admonish Azula's misbehavior as her father saw only her promise and potential. Because of her mother's constant scolding and punishment, Azula thought that her mother simply did not love her and saw Azula as a monster. When her mother vanished to protect them both, Azula saw this as further proof of the woman's treachery. As her sanity began to crack and her grip on reality slip, Azula began to hallucinate seeing her mother in reflections and shadows. The image of her mother was kind and gentle, promising that she always loved Azula. This perhaps betrays Azula's deeper desire to be loved by the woman she has taught herself to hate. Unable to accept that her mother could love her (and that she could in fact be wrong about something she's believed for so long) Azula began to think that all of the recent failures of her life had somehow been orchestrated by her mother. This paranoid delusion is a quick trigger of hers and will often send her into a hyper aggressive state of rash decision making and lashing out violently in an attempt to drive the visions away.


Azula's paranoia began to settle in after the betrayal of her two closest friends and became worse once she held the weighty title of Fire Lord. She began to lose faith in everyone around her from her servants to her guards. Even her teachers whom had cared for her and guided her for years were no longer trust worthy. She began to fear assassination at all times which likely led to loss of sleep. And the less sleep, the more irrational, paranoid and prone to hallucinations she became.

Azula has been shown to fear death by assassination once her life began to crumble around her. No longer in absolute control of her emotions and unable to accept trust, fear crept into her heart and made it difficult for her to focus herself. Death is the great unknown, something she cannot plan for nor train herself to overcome. It comes for all inevitably and Azula does not hold a strong belief that the spirit world will be welcoming to her considering her relationship with the Avatar.

Underneath it all, it's possible that Azula has guilt for disappointing her mother all those years ago and more recently, guilt over being dismissed and cast aside by her father. Perhaps if she was more perfect he would have had her join him. Perhaps if she had been a better daughter he would have had her by his side when he set out to take over the world and things might have turned out differently. It's also reasonable that she feels lonely and closed off from the world, especially once she could no longer trust Mai or Ty Lee. Her own brother was a traitor to the family so she could seek no comfort from him and to admit such weaknesses to her father, let alone herself, would be inexcusable.

Despite her emotional breakdown and her many failures she still has some degrees of pride in herself and who she is. She is still convinced that everything she and her father did was for the good of the Fire Nation and ultimately the world. She loves the Fire Nation, its culture and history. Though she has fallen out of love with its people after months in then Mental Health Treatment Center convinced her that they had accepted Zuko as the Fire Lord and there would be no rebellion of loyal supporters who knew her as the true Fire Lord.

After her mental burnout, many of her more dominant personality traits, most notably her cold, in control attitude weakened in favor of aggressive, rash behavior. When her fears or angers are triggered she finds it much more difficult to avoid acting on those emotions to an extreme degree. Her paranoia has been shown to spring up, seemingly apropro of nothing in particular. This is especially the case in anything she can blame on her mother.

Being locked away has given her time to reflect and she did not like what she saw. Much of it she is still in denial of. The time also allowed her to regain enough control that she is not a raving lunatic or primal ball of uncontrolled emotions. But she still needs time, effort and healing to be able to make progress. She is still highly unstable and highly dangerous to herself and others. She has not and cannot cure herself by willpower alone despite how much she believes she can. Eventually she will have to accept help from others.

Unable to trust the Fire Nation doctors, she was not a model patient and often refused her medication or meals. Sometimes she refused the meals simply because they were not up to her standards, other times it was out of paranoia for what might have been put in them. Eventually, of course, she would have to eat but with her stubborn determination she could go a long while between meals if needed.

Due to the nature of how she was defeated, two of her greatest fears are being rendered completely immobile, and hydrophobia.

HISTORY:

Azula was born as the second child of Prince Ozai and his Wife Ursa, a decedent of the last Fire Nation Avatar, Avatar Roku. From a young age she was discovered to be quick witted, and skilled in the art of Fire Bending. A prodigy as it were. Because of this she became her father's favorite child and he provided her extra attention and affection, in turn neglecting her older brother Zuko. In the same sense her Mother attempted to compensate for that by spending extra time with Zuko and trying to balance out Ozai's lenience towards her poor behavior by being more stern with Azula and trying to guide her away from her less then desirable habits. Picking on Zuko, torturing small animals, setting fire to things, being rude or cruel or bratty to the staff, or other members of the family. Because of this imbalance Azula began to suspect her mother hated her when in fact her Mother loved her dearly and wanted to run away with Azula and Zuko when the Fire Lord was ready to banish her.

Said banishment came about because during the war, Azula's cousin Lu Ten was killed in the war. Her Uncle Iroh, Lu Ten's father, was devastated by the death and gave up on the war returning home to work through his grief. Ozai believed his brother was no longer fit to rule the Fire Nation when their Father eventually passed the title of Fire Lord to him. And so he proposed to Fire Lord Azulon that he be next in line for the throne instead. Azulon was a very old man by this point, and in an onset of dementia he scolded his son for his lack of empathy and ordered that Ozai experience how it feels to lose his first born son.

Azula was always a bit of a sneak, and because she had been eavesdropping on the conversation she immediately rushed to Zuko to tease him about their father plotting to kill him. Zuko, naturally was upset and when word reached their mother, Ursa scolded Azula sending her to her room so they could have another stern discussion. After comforting Zuko Ursa went to the Ozai and begged him to spare the boys life. In exchange she would create for him an odorless, colorless poison that he could use to kill Azulon and ascend to the throne himself. He agreed, but under the stipulation that she be banished from the Fire Nation forever so she would never be tempted to use the poison against him. She begged to take the children with her but he kept them as insurance that she would never return least he hurt them. Miserable and feeling defeated Ursa bid her children good bye with a kiss while they slept. While Zuko woke up and his mother was able to tell her she loved him, Azula slept through the goodbye kiss and Ursa did not have the heart to wake her.

In the wake of Fire Lord Azulon's death, Fire Lord Ozai's coronation and the disappearance of Princess Ursa, Azula felt as though she was vindicated in here suspicions about her mother not loving her and embraced her Father's twisted affection even more so. In turn Ozai would be stricter with Zuko as well and in one case, horribly scarred his face with fire in front of a room full of military and important leaders to the Fire Nation. Azula took a sort of sick pleasure in watching her brother's punishment. And when her brother was sent away on a seemingly impossible quest to find the Avatar, she reasoned that so long as she continued to excel and perfect herself in every way, her father would clearly grant her the throne.

Going back a bit, growing up Azula attended the Royal Fire Academy for Girls where she met who would be her two closest...and really only friends. Ty Lee, and Mai. Ty Lee was the daughter of a noble men and sister to six sisters all sharing the same features. She longed for attention and Azula was happy to give it to her in exchange for adoration and submission. Ty Lee was a skilled acrobat even at a young age and happily trained with Azula in such fields. Azula would sometimes become jealous when Ty Lee was better then her at things like cartwheels and would bully her because of it. But Ty Lee accepted the bullying as a form of affection and that she deserved it if Princess Azula thought she deserved it. Mai was a little more subdued, which is to say alot more subdued. As the daughter of a noble family with very strict rules about how a young lady should act, Mai had difficulty expressing her emotions and was easily bored with things. Azula understood her cynical nature, dark sense of humor and was perceptive enough to read Mai's very subtle body language to determine her deeply hidden emotions. From a young age Mai harbored a crush on Azula's brother Zuko...which Azula would sometimes tease them about.

Though in childhood they had sometimes been friends and allies, time and their father's affection for Azula and disappointment in Zuko drove the siblings apart. The rift only continued to grow with age and Zuko's undertaking of the quest to find the Avatar. Azula became more conceited and power hungry while Zuko obsessed over restoring his honor and earning the love of his father finally.

Zuko's quest to capture the Avatar would ultimately fail, and Ozai saw him as a failure because of it. He also declared his brother Iroh a traitor and sent Azula to capture them both. She trained along the way, as she had trained every day for years and focused on perfecting her ability to manipulate lightning.

Finding Zuko and Iroh in a resort town, sure lured Zuko back to her ship with promises of a heroes homecoming and to have his honor restored. It was only when the captain accidentally refereed to Zuko and Iroh as prisoners was the plot given away. Azula and Zuko fought, and Azula looked to be poised to win, but Iroh intervened and knocked her off the ship allowing them the opportunity to escape. In her anger she threatened the local Earth Kingdom villagers with retaliation if any of them dared to harbor Zuko or Iroh.

Being advised that it would be more efficient to travel in a smaller group then the Royal precession, Azula sought out her childhood friends to join her on the hunt. First was Ty Lee who had to be "Persuaded" as she had taken up a job as acrobat in the circus. She was happy there but could not deny Azula after Azula almost ruined one of her performances. Recruiting Mai was much easier as the Apathetic teen was very bored in her home, the conquered city of Omashu. Next Azula spoke to Mai's father, giving him a dressing down over his poor governing of the city. As tribute to her father and with the authority of her title she renamed the city "New Ozai"

It was here that Azula and her team first encountered the Avatar and his friends. Being unprepared and having not yet coordinated their attacks the girls were still close to defeating him. It was only by the skill and sacrifice of Captured former king of Omashu, King Bumi that they were able to escape. Azula decided then and there that their new target would be The Avatar. Zuko's failure would be her crowning glory.

Using a technologically superior train, as well as Mongoose dragon mounts Azula and her team wore down the Avatar and his team. When the Avatar split up to try and trick Azula's Mongoose Dragons she saw through his trick and tracked him to a small abandoned town. Zuko arrived as well and Azula was forced to fight both of them as Zuko had plans to capture the Avatar himself. Azula dominated the fight and knocked out Zuko in the process. The day would have been hers but Iroh and the Avatar's allies caught up to them and out numbered her. She feigned surrender, but when Iroh let his guard down she attacked landing a solid blow wounding Iroh. In the ensuing chaos of the remaining benders attacks she got away.

The city of Ba Sing Se was one of the last remaining seats of power in the Earth Kingdom and the largest. General Iroh had abandoned his conquest of the city when his son died. Azula took charge from the current leader War Master Qin Azula set to break through the massive protective wall using a highly advanced Drilling vehicle. The Avatar and his team snuck onto the drill and when Azula became aware of his presence she sought him out to try and stop him. In this she failed...rather humiliatingly as well as she wound up covered in a slurry of stone, sand and water when the drill was finally stopped.

This would not be the last Ba Sing Se saw of Azula however. While tracking the Avatar's bison again Azula and her team came across the Kiyoshi Warriors. The two groups clashed with Azula claiming victory though losing the bison. It was of little concern however. Azula had the warriors imprisoned and interrogated. The leader was sent to the Boiling Rock prison while Azula and her team dressed in the Kiyoshi warriors attire and used their disguises to slip into the city and indeed find their way to the Earth Kings side.

Once inside she learned of the Dai Li, an elite security force of Earth Bending warriors who moved swiftly and efficiently. They were plotting to take control from the king, and worse yet the kingdom had plans on how to move on the Fire Nation and attack them during the eclipse of the sun when Fire Bending would be impossible.

Her plans were thrown by this new information but not for long. The clever princess formulated a plan to infiltrate the Dai Li by allowing them to learn of her true nature. When the Dai Li took her into captivity she struck a deal with their leader to give her control over the elite benders so she could overthrow the King in exchange for the Avatar.

Meanwhile the Avatar and his party were also in the city and his Waterbender discovered that Zuko and Iroh were in the city as well. Mistaking Azula and her team for Suki and the other Kiyoshi Warriors, Katara told the girls about it. When she realized her mistake she was taken down and locked in the catacombs beneath the city.

Not long after Azula lured her brother and uncle into a trap by inviting them to the palace to serve tea. The Dai Li almost captured Iroh but he escaped and Zuko remained behind to challange Azula to an Agni Kai. She very casually declined and imprisoned him in the same catacombs with Katara.

The day of Azula's coup came and went without a hitch. The Earth King's highest ranking generals were arrested first. Then Azula captured the King himself. Two more of the Avatar's party were captured and imprisoned as well. When the leader of the Dai Li arrived to double cross Azula, he was disappointed to find that the Fire Nation princess had inspired a fear and respect in the Dai Li that made them unsure of who to follow. In the end he submitted to her superiority after a beautiful speech about her divine right to rule.

The Avatar and Iroh found their way into the prison to rescue their respective allies. But when Iroh sent the Avatar and Katara ahead to rescue the others, Iroh remained behind to make an impassioned plea to Zuko to follow the path of good as he had. This was made more difficult when Azula arrived and the Dai Li captured Iroh. Azula's skillful silver tongue went to work weaving promises of having his honor restored and returning home a hero. Promising Zuko everything he ever wanted and had worked for, she left him behind to face the Avatar and Katara.

What followed was a dramatic and spectacular battle that Azula almost lost more then once. But her manipulations found her an ally in Zuko who joined her side and aided her well in the battle. When the Dai Li arrived it appeared she'd have won.

In a last ditch effort to win, The Avatar sealed himself inside crystal and unlocked his ultimate power, "The Avatar State" but before he could unleash it's full potential Azula fatally struck him from behind with a bolt of lightning.

That would have been the end of the Avatar as Azula had broken the chain of reincarnation. However Iroh arrived to sacrifice himself and be captured so Katara could escape with the Avatar and unknown to Azula and Zuko, resurrect him.

Still the day was mostly won. The last, strongest city in the Earth Kingdom that had stood against the Fire Nation for over 100 years had fallen and they were the victors.

*****************

Placing the easily manipulated and brainwashed former tour guide "Joo Dee" in the place of a ruler, Azula sought to return home to the Fire Nation, but had to manipulate her brother by encouraging his relationship with Mai. While Zuko claimed to see through her manipulations he still complied and the four of them returned home as heroes.

When Zuko appeared unsure that the Avatar was truly dead however, Azula misinformed their father that in fact Zuko had struck the final blow. This would do little to benefit her if the Avatar was truly dead. But if he was not then Zuko would bear the weight of the shame and humiliation. While this was sneaky and manipulative there was an element of support in her actions as it ensured that Ozai would restore Zuko's honor. Later Azula even went as far to warn Zuko that if he was discovered to be having frequent meetings with the imprisoned Iroh, it would look bad and he could bring trouble upon himself.

Azula, Zuko, Ty Lee and Mai were sent on vacation to Ember Island while their father made plans. This gave Azula a short lived opportunity to live as a normal girl since the easy going and simple resident teenagers of Ember Island seemed to not recognize the Prince and Princess of the Fire Nation despite Zuko's very obvious scar. This little experiment in normality began with them being hyper aggressive in beach games with other teens, frightening them away, and ended with the four of them failing to fit in at a party being thrown by one of the most popular boys on the beach. Azula went as far as to laugh at stupid jokes, pretend she was incredibly interested in every stupid thing the boy had to say, and even kiss him all to experience what normal Teenagers did. These actions came off as awkward and forced but the boy didn't seem to mind...until Azula declared they would become the strongest most powerful couple on the beach. He was intimidated and fled.

Later on the beach the four of them sat around a fire and hashed out their problems, each one pointing out the flaws and problems the others had. Mai was distant and closed off because of how she was raised. Ty Lee was desperate for attention because of growing up with so many identical sisters. Zuko feels out of place and uncomfortable in his own skin, angry all the time and he can't figure out why having everything he wanted doesn't feel the way it should. Azula herself betrayed very little. Only that she believed her mother saw her as a monster. She then jokingly played it off by saying that she was in fact, right in that Azula turned out to be a monster.

The celebrated this newfound enlightenment with a trip back to the party to trash the boys house and light it on fire. Azula would spend much of the rest of her vacation at the arcade beating children at a game called "Street Bender" so that she could challenge Zuko to it and win. He wound up breaking the game.

After their return to the Fire Lord's palace the brother and sister attended a war meeting where Azula suggested using the power of Sozin's comet to burn the Earth Kingdom to Ash. Her father adopted that idea much to Zuko's dismay.

When the day of the eclipse arrived, the rag tag army of the Avatar and his allies arrived and attacked. Thanks to Azula's early warning the city had been evacuated, the palace as well and only the military remained. When The Avatar and two of his allies found the Firelord's secret chambers they burst in to capture him only to find Azula. She and her Dai Li agents held off the heroes till the eclipse began and when Azula was finally caught she delayed them further by taunting Sokka with information about the captured Kiyoshi Warrior leader, his girlfriend Suki. It worked and when the eclipse ended her fire bending was restored and she escaped.

Zuko in turn abandoned the Fire Nation after declaring to his Father that he would find the Avatar and join him to overthrow Ozai. Ozai pardoned Azula for lying to him about the Avatar's fate and life went on.

In time, Azula and her friends would visit the Boiling Rock Prison where Zuko, Sokka, Sokka's father, Suki and another prisoner were staging a jail break. The plan seemed to be to escape via the gondolas that brought people into and out of the volcano based prison. Azula and Ty Lee went after them, Ty Lee battling Suki while Azula held her own against Zuko and Sokka. The fight had to be abandoned when the guards began to cut the wire that held the Gondola above a boiling lake that would kill them all if they fell into it.

Azula and Ty Lee returned to the Prison only to find Mai had defeated the guards that were preventing the escape. Because of her efforts to protect Zuko, the entire team escaped leaving Azula feeling betrayed. Mai calmly informed Azula that she had made a mistake and that she loved Zuko more then she was afraid of Azula. Azula set to strike at her but Ty Lee paralyzed her and left her on the ground. Still the girls were easily captured by the guards and Azula ordered they be locked away where she would never have to see them again.

It was because of this betrayal that the stress Azula's brilliant mind had been enduring till now finally became too much and she snapped. Unable to comprehend how love could be more powerful then her abilities to instil fear and control in others her mind fractured and it was all downhill from there.

There was one more clash of Azula and the Avatar's team left, as she tracked them to the Air temple they had been hiding in. She and Zuko fought, her intent to kill him and celebrate becoming an only child. They seemed evenly matched until a strike of hers met his strike and blew them both off the airship they had been battling on. Zuko was saved by the Avatar. Azula saved herself with her hair clip digging into the mountainside in an impressive display of her capability.

*******

Returning home, Ozai crowned himself the new Phoenix King in preparation for his conquest of the world. Azula was surprised and disappointed to find she would not be at his side during this, and he attempted to pacify her by appointing her Fire Lord. It was barely enough however. She believed he was pushing her away like Zuko. That perhaps he might be afraid of her as well and no longer trust that she would be loyal to him. The truth of this matter is purely hypothetical and based in her own rapidly deteriorating mental state. She began to have hallucinations of her mother, talking to her. Trying to sooth her and promising she loved her. These visions did nothing but enrage the girl who would be Fire Lord.

Becoming paranoid and fearing for her life she banished most of her staff including the Dai Li, and her loyal advisors Lo and Li (Though not without attempting to force them to fight one another, apparently forgetting they were not firebenders.)

With no one to aid her she gave herself a rather clumsy and hideous haircut in an attempt to manage her hair when it would not be styled the way she desired. She wasn't sleeping well due to the paranoia and stress, nor eating well and it all was taking it's toll.

On the day of Sozin's comet and her coronation, Zuko returned with Katara in tow and challenged Azula for the crown. Eager for revenge Azula accepted and the fight began. With Sozin's comet empowering them the plumes of fire from this battle rose to great heights and both brother and sister clashed like never before.

But Azula's mind was no longer her strongest weapon. She lashed out at Katara in an attempt to either kill the girl or trick Zuko into sacrificing himself to save her. Zuko did exactly that and took the hit hard. When Katara rushed to save him Azula attacked and kept Katara away from him. In the end Katara triumphed however by luring Azula over a grate where water flowed beneath them. Azula was seconds away from killing Katara when the Waterbender froze them in a block of ice.

It was child's play after that for Katara to chain the princess to the grate and disable most of her fire bending. She saved Zuko and Azula finally gave in to her madness. She was left screeching like a wild animal, sobbing uncontrollably and breathing fire in her fury and agony of defeat.

Having gained and lost everything she ever wanted in a matter of months, Azula was unfit to care for herself and Zuko had her transferred to a high security mental health facility where she would be cared for and they would attempt to fix her. Though their idea of fixing her and Azula's idea were vastly different. The doctors were afraid to completely restore her capacity to think clearly in case she attempted to harm them or escape. She already was short tempered and violent enough as it was. If she was ever as brilliant, cold and calculating as she was once before they would stand no chance. Some even dared to suggest operating on her mind, though they knew the Firelord would never agree to that. It would have to be something they did as a last resort. Azula however overheard this discussion and it only served to drive her paranoid concerns directly through the roof.

Medications and sedatives only did so much, especially when half the time Azula refused to take them. Her paranoia made it difficult for her to trust any of the food they provided and without the aid of the medicines she was barely sleeping for fear of finally being killed. She would rage for hours about losing the throne, about how the kingdom was betraying her and throwing away all the hard work she did during the war to aid them and bring more glory to the Fire Nation.

It was during these first few, incredibly difficult months in the facility where Azula was last before being whisked away to the Digital World.

SAMPLES
FIRST PERSON:
1.) If you could make any reality at all, what would you make?

The reality that SHOULD HAVE BEEN! The world as it should be, with Father as the Phoenix King ruling over all, and I...the Fire Lord. First female Firelord. Respected. Feared. Worshiped! And my traitorous brother would have gotten what he deserved!

Yes...lock him away! Lock him away like he did me. Bound, unable to move. Having to be fed like a child, to drink like a animal! To be forgotten by everyone! A shadow in the back of our minds. A foot note on the glorious history of our nation!

And our nation would be strong! Under my rule with the King's guidance the world will be as it always should have been. Four nations united under two rulers.

And he would be so proud.
*****************************************************
2.) What would you say is your greatest strength?

Strength? HA!

Look at me. The disposed ruler of a nation of sheep. They forgot about me the moment he stepped to the throne. Months I've waited. Where are the cries of protest? Was there no one loyal to their true ruler?
I was a war hero, I completed vital missions for the Fire Lord that would have won us the war! I KILLED THE AVATAR! ME! No one else! With my strategy and skill! No one could match me in fire bending! No one could control the lightning as easily as I could. I worked EVERY DAY to perfect myself. Like a knife for father to slice out his enemies heart.

...and all it took was a moment of weakness. To let my guard down. And those closest to me took all that away.

My plans? Ruined. My skills? Useless. That one moment of betrayal and I was doomed.

My greatest strength was an illusion. Nothing more.
*******************************************************
6.) What would make up your ideal friend?

Friends are a weakness to be exploited.

I had friends once! The only two people I ever met who I could respect like a member of my family. We grew up together, climbing through the ranks of the academy. Destroying any who even dared to oppose us. We learned about each other helped one another. I learned much from them and they from me.

And when the time came for us to serve the nation? We were unstoppable.

And we had so much fun.

Until when I needed them most? They betrayed me. Left me helpless and screaming on the ground as they undid months...YEARS of work.

My ideal friends? Nothing but a memory.



THIRD PERSON:
This world was not her world.

Everywhere she looked, every sound she heard was like the banging of a hammer in her skull to remind her that she was so completely out of her element. Each monster was a twisted form of madness with teeth and claws, or beady little eyes. And they possessed elemental powers, sometimes powers that defied explanation.

And how unsatisfactory were the explanations offered to her? Beings made up of pure information? That she herself was a construct of data now?

And so when the stress of all this change began to overwhelm her she would lock herself in her room for hours. A single door, easy to fortify against intruders.

And in her room she could light candles. The dancing flickering flames proved to center her and give her something soothing to focus on. Even as she felt an ache in her chest for the inner flame that had burned there and always reminded her of her superiority as a fire bender...the candles would serve her in finding peace, despite it being temporary.

Here in the privacy and protection of her room she let the gears of her mind tick away processing all the information she had gathered. Each day more of it made itself known via the D-terminal. What fools these Chosen were to broadcast every petty worthless detail of their lives for all to see. Some of it was more useful then others, but all the information gleamed from this device no matter how apparently inconsequential at the time...could potentially be useful later.

If there truly was no escape from this madness then she would embrace it. She would not only be a part of this world where the basic laws of science seemed to have no jurisdiction, but in fact she would use it to her advantage. She would grow strong again, she would piece her shattered mind back together and become even greater then she had been in her own world!

Rising from the floor where the flickering candle sat she drifted through her room like a ghost. The straight jacket she had arrived in was wadded up and banished to a corner of her closet, but despite not being able to see it, she knew it was there.

"Never again." She promised herself as she shut the door to the closet as if locking that part of her away.

Bare feet brought her to the vanity mirror on the wall. The woman that greeted her in the reflection was almost a stranger. Her gaunt features and the dark circles under her eyes almost made Azula recoil in disgust. But sure enough it was her own reflection and not some ghoulish apparition.

Her arrival in this world had been...messy. The first impressions made upon those who were aware of it were not the best. She would need to find a way to over come that either by making it out to be less then it was...or being so impressive no one would remember it.

She stiffened as a familiar voice whispered to her.

"Just be honest with them. Let them help you Azula."

Her eyes narrowed and the muscles in her body began to tighten like a wound spring as she gazed upon the image of her mother looking at her with those sad watery eyes that had so often been filled with disappointment.

"Oh yes, I'm sure that would make them respect and fear me so much faster wouldn't it?" She spat with venom dripping from every word. How could she have followed her here?! It simply wasn't fair! She had thought she was finally free from her mother and her tricks!

"You don't need to control them." Her mother gently corrected her. "You only need to regain control of yourself."

Unwilling to hear her mother's wisdom Azula lunged for the mirror digging her nails at the place where it clung to the wall and wrenched it from it's holdings sending it crashing to the carpeted floor. It did not shatter so Azula wasted no time in stomping on it from behind till she heard a satisfying "CRACK!"

Again and again she stomped on the larger pieces till the weight and force of her foot on the carpet wasn't enough to crack it further. Now in pieces the simple mirror's non-reflective back seemed dull and lifeless and the exhausted former princess moved to sit on her bed and catch her breath. Her temper had jumped so sharply and her body had become weak from time spent locked away. This breathlessness was another weakness, an imperfection that required ironing out.

The tickling sensation of something wet running along her foot brought her attention to the cut she had received during her quick tantrum. It was a thin slice but deep enough hat droplets of crimson ran along the arch of her foot to drip off the heel onto the carpet. Her eyes were dull and glassy now that the fire of her anger had burnt itself to embers once more.

Begrudgingly she rose from the bed to go and prepare a makeshift bandage. Stepping around the broke glass she knelt down to blow out the candle and scooped it up setting it on her night stand.

She had so much work to be done. And it was more apparent every day that this was just the beginning of what would be a long and difficult journey.