Rituals
I came up with another Azula nightmare fic. :'D Well, "nightmare." *evil laugh*
~~~~
Azula woke up in her bed. She sat up, ignoring the persistent radiating ache in her lower back. She spotted a wheel chair sitting across from her, in it was her brother, Zuko. He was looking at her with a dull expression. He doesn't talk much nowadays. For a second, she's shocked to see him like that, but distantly, she remembers. The agni kai, right. She smirks a little, about to remark that she hit him in the chest, the Dum Dum, only to stop herself. The rules, right.
Rule number 1- Zuko is wheelchair bound, if it walks, it is not Zuko. Do not look it in the eyes, tell it to leave immediately. And leave, if it does not.
This Zuko is sitting in the wheelchair, looking at her. Azula slips on her robes and gets out of bed. She steps closer to him, trying to gauge the scent wafting off of him. It was vanilla.
Rule number 2- Zuko smells like cinnamon and burnt flesh, anything else is not him. If it smells wrong, dump It on the floor and leave it there.
Frowning, she grabbed the wheelchair and dumped it on the ground. It made a slight ‘oof’ as it hit the floor. She scoffed as she left her bed chamber, seeing Zuko sitting in his wheelchair outside her room. He smelled like cinnamon and burnt flesh. She grinned at him, pinching his cheek before wheeling him into the kitchen. He stares at her the whole time. There was no one in the palace, she had banished everyone. Even the royal physician, which was why Zuko couldn’t move anymore. When she reached the kitchen, there were some sweet rolls on a table, still steaming. She poked them with her sharpened nails.
Rule number 3- Check any food, make sure it is not rotting flesh.
Satisfied that it was food, she grabbed one and ate it. It wasn’t her first choice, but it was there. She fed the other one to Zuko. With some prodding, he ate it. That was another thing, he couldn’t move, so she had to feed him.
She sat down next to him, he stared at her. Going over the rules in her head, she knew what she’d have to do next. She didn’t want to, but she had to. She came up with those rules from personal experience, kept repeating them over and over in her head to make sure they stuck. Azula had tried to write them down, but nothing outside her own mind ever stuck. She got up, taking a breath and pushing Zuko along. It was time to check the garden.
As she walked, she spotted a figure in an orange robe along her peripheral. She kept going, ignoring it as it grinned at her.
Rule number 4- Don’t speak to the Air Nomads, they have nothing good to say.
Azula parked Zuko to the side as she walked up to the gardens. There were four graves, one for Mai, one for Ty Lee, one for that waterbender, and one for Mother. She didn't think about Iroh. Three were filled up with dirt. She sighed.
Rule number 5- Make sure to check the graves, sometimes they are empty.
Yes, certainly, it was traditional to cremate in the Fire Nation, but that brought her to the next rule.
Rule number 6- Cremation is useless.
She stomped back over to Zuko, forcing the memory of how she came to know that rule out of her mind. Zuzu looked at her as she pushed him along again. With the graves, the best she could hope for is to kick it back into it’s hole and hope it doesn’t get back out.
“Looks like mother’s having a stroll, Zuzu.” She croaked, her voice having gone unused for so long. Zuko didn’t respond, he never did. In fact, the only thing that let her know he was even still alive was his rasping breath.
She thought about what to do. Zuko was useless, the palace was empty, the Avatar… Well, she’d asked him for his help once before. A time when all of the graves had been empty and Zuko just kept walking everywhere. She’d managed to find the boy, locked away. He looked at her with that wide grin that all Air Nomads had now. When Azula demanded that he help her, he responded by clacking his teeth louder and louder until her ears bled. Which lead her to the next rule.
Rule number 7- The Avatar won’t help.
She could always try and send for Father… No, no she couldn’t. He left the Fire Nation in her hands, he trusted her to handle all of this. She couldn’t just betray the man’s trust like that. He believed in her, she just couldn’t show him he was wrong for doing so.
She rubbed her temples, trying to stem the headache that was forming. Azula took a deep breath, tapping her foot. Zuko was looking behind her.
“Tired of looking at me, Zuzu?”
No response.
“You know, I hit you in the chest, not the head, Dum Dum. I know you can hear me. I know you can talk.” Azula said, biting off an annoyance in her cracking voice.
Zuko just looked behind her, silent and expressionless as ever.
Azula sneered, finally having had enough. She called forth her brilliant blue fire to her palms. “Shall I make both sides of your face match, Zuzu?”
“Behind you.” Zuko croaked.
It was was far too late that Azula finally noticed the acrid smell of rot closing in behind her. She didn’t even get a chance to turn around before cold, clammy hands grasped onto her shoulders, her fire snuffing out immediately. Her arms fell to her sides, she gazed at her brother, wide-eyed. Zuko was now staring at her, the reflection of their rotted mother in his glassy eyes. Something wet clamped onto her head, an intense crushing pain and a loud crunch being all there was before everything cut out.
~x~
Azula awoke in her bed.
Rule number 8- Always pay attention to Zuko.