From Mortal To Divinity

As Azula stands in front of her teacher, she can't help but feel annoyed at her inability to form a complete opinion on him. On one hand his teachings are already making a difference, and she can feel the improvements. She's a little faster, stronger, her endurance is better and she can execute her katas a little faster in their spars, in which she has yet to even touch him. The margin of improvements are small and may seem insignificant, but she can tell that they make a difference in their spars.

On the other hand, his teachings completely go against her father's teachings. She can see where he came from when he mentioned to strive for improvements and not perfection. She hadn't seen any improvements and her previous teachers had told her that she executed everything perfectly, even her father had said that she had been executing everything perfectly. Was he simply wrong or did he know how she could still improve and simply decided not to tell her.

Neither possibilities bode well. If he was simply wrong then what else could he have been wrong about? If he knew then why didn't he tell her? Was it to test her or did he simply decide not to inform her? No it wasn't a test, he always tells her when something is a test. If he simply decided not to tell her, then what are his reasons? Why would he want her to be weak? Before she can think further her teacher interrupts.

"This past week has been for me to see where your limits lay so that I may design a suitable training regimen for you" came his usual emotionless tone.

"Now that I have a measure of where your limits are and how far to push you without completely breaking you, let's begin" he says.

Taking a closer look at his face, Azula isn't sure if she saw a smirk at the edge of his lips, or if it was a trick of the light.

"Let me first start off by telling you that I have nothing to teach you currently firebending wise. Your katas and breathing technique are excellent and the only thing holding you back is your lack of creativity and the fact that you are still growing."

"What do those have to do with my firebending?" she interrupts

"Why don't we sit down first. This explanation might be long" he says

Nodding, she follows him to sit on the ground in a meditation position.

"While firebending relies far more on breathing over the body itself, the body still plays an important role in how you fight. You and I, for example, have very streamlined builds, as such we focus more on moving around the battlefield and outmaneuvering our enemies. Firebenders with stockier builds would focus more on standing their ground and completely overpower their enemies with an endless barrage of fire. Since our bodies are still growing, our fighting style isn't really set in stone. In the next few years I may gain muscles that hinder my agility, forcing me to adopt the fighting style I mentioned earlier." he explains.

That makes sense, Zuko has never been able to move as agile as her, so he had to focus on improving his power. If the body can't keep up with the mind to execute the movements, then just attempting them could prove to be more detrimental than beneficial. If her brother attempted to fight like her, then he'd be more likely to pull a muscle rather than executing the moves.

Turning back to her teacher who had been quiet to let her finish her thoughts, she asks "What about creativity? I've been creative in my firebending. I've made wh.i.p.s and disks and many other moves that aren't standard in firebending."

"Not true. Your moves are standard firebending techniques, you just need to know where to look." he begins. "Your wh.i.p.s for example, if you go to the boiling rock you'll notice that all of the guards use them to punish prisoners. Your charged blasts were used by the Southern Raiders when they still existed, and the disks you use are the standard firebending technique to cut rocks."

The more she listens, the more she realizes that she actually knows nothing about the Fire Nation military, other than what people tell her. Now that she thinks about it, she knows nothing about the outside world other than what her father tells her and what she asks the servants about. She doesn't like it at all, she'll need to rectify that. Perhaps her teacher would be willing to teach her. However, asking for help would be admitting that the flaw exists to him, and she isn't really too keen on doing that. However, just as the thought crosses her mind, she can hear her teacher's voice telling her 'Never let your pride dictate what you do, it has caused the downfall of many great and powerful people'. He had been pounding it in her head the past week.

"Now is not the time to ponder about your ignorance. We can address it later." he says.

She nods her head, and he continues "Creativity wise, you act as if your firebending katas are rules set in stone that you must follow, otherwise you won't firebend. That is a major misconception. While every bending discipline has a set of motions that work best for them, it doesn't mean that firebending without them is impossible. In my first year on the front lines, I met a captain who was able to create a fire wall by watching earth benders and translating their movements into ones that would work with fire bending. The technique itself made for an excellent defense, something that traditional firebending lacks."

"What!?" exclaims Azula skeptically.

Everything he said contradicts all of her previous teacher's lessons.

Before she can voice her doubts, he gets up, moves into a modified waterbending stance, and proceeds to firebend an actual wave of fire. The wave itself is about as wide as the Agni Kai arena and about two feet taller than her. Looking at it, the only way she can see to defend against it is to either jump over it or split it to go in the middle. Going over would leave the person vulnerable, and having experienced his flames before, she knows for a fact that she can't split that wave.

Turning to face her, he continues to speak as if nothing happened "I created this technique by studying a waterbender's motions for pushing and pulling waves. The technique itself acts as a perfect blend of offense, defense and a set up for later moves or retreating. This is what I meant by creativity. From now on I'll be teaching you different techniques from waterbending and earthbending motions to just plain brawling, and you have to pick some of them and implement them into your fighting style. I won't tell you what to pick and will only help when you ask for it. As for your physical training, we'll keep that up and increase it once you adapt to it. Do you understand?"

Still somewhat dumbfounded, she answers with a nod.

"Good. Get up, it's time to begin."

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Panting heavily, Azula can't help the smile that spread on her face. She did it, she finally managed to stalemate him. Granted, he was still holding back, the important thing is that from now on he will stop holding back. It took her three months. Three months of blood, sweat and frustration.

It started out as simply learning waterbending katas, earthbending katas, and katas that no matter how hard she tried she couldn't place where they came from. According to him, they were specifically designed for close quarter combat and not for bending. That however didn't deter her from incorporating some of it to her firebending or vise versa. She's particularly proud of her inclusion of fire daggers in her use of Muay Thai.

Once she knew the katas to the point of doing them in her sleep, they would spar until she started to incorporate some of her newly learned katas into her fighting style. Once she had a budding personalized fighting style, he started to completely beat her in their spars, somehow stopping just before she hit her limit, until she no longer needed to think and her body just naturally used every kata she learned depending on which one fit which situation. In the end she even invented her own firebending technique based on earthbending. Based off the move earth shield, she creates a fire between her and the attack. Unlike earth benders however, she completely encircles herself with the flames in three hundred and sixty degrees. She calls it the spiraling wall.

However, not everything is going well. Kagutsuchi's teachings have a habit of contradicting her father's, and it's starting to affect her. She can feel an inner turmoil brewing inside her. Her father teaches her that to be feared is to be respected and that if someone doesn't fear you, then they don't respect you. However, Kagutsuchi claims that fear and respect are separate and that you can respect someone without fearing them. Normally, she would dismiss anything a tutor says that contradicts her father however, she can see his teachings in effect. The way the soldiers admire him, talk to him and have no problem fulfilling a request of his. Sometimes they're not only fine with complying, but they're eager to do so, especially when he uses them to demonstrate a new technique or kata to her.

Where the soldiers are eager to interact with her teacher, they seem reluctant to even be anywhere near her father. His presence seems to instill a deep sense of fear into their hearts. Originally, she didn't see the problem with it, not until Kagutsuchi asked her a question. How long until fear is overridden by a deeper emotion such as hatred, and how long until that hatred is used to fuel a rebellion. According to him, someone had leaked the true reason behind Zuko's banishment, and ever since then the soldiers have been wary of her father. Their reasoning being that if he could treat his own son like that, what's stopping him from doing worse to them. Worse even, if he reacted in such a severe way when Zuko was defending the lives of his soldiers, the people that willingly gave their lives for him and the nation, does Ozai not care about them? Does he even care about the nation and its people?

Azula doesn't want to admit it, but Kagutsuchi's words struck a sense of fear in her. After thoroughly thinking over the events of Zuko's banishment, she came to the conclusion that Zuko's only mistake was trying to withdraw from the Agni Kai. Yet even then, her father's response was too harsh.

Ozai however, was in the wrong from beginning to end. First, why was that general's plan even an option? Military wise the Earth Kingdom already outnumbers them, so sacrificing soldiers should be the absolute last option. Even if they weren't outnumbered, sacrificing soldiers would make the military doubt their superiors and lower morale. Second, why was their father the one facing Zuko? It was the general that was Zuko's assigned opponent. Even if one claims that Zuko disrespected the Fire Lord by speaking out of turn, as Ozai's heir and son, a warning would have been enough. Zuko's punishment was unnecessarily cruel. It served no bigger purpose other than making him suffer.

That leaves her with a set of questions that she's afraid to even consider, let alone ask. What about her? What will he do if he no longer finds her useful? Does she even want his acknowledgement now? Was he the reason why her mother thought that she was a monster, because she wanted his approval and emulated him?

Before more questions can make themselves known, Kagutsuchi's voice interrupts her train of thought "What bothers you so much?" he asks.

As she opens her mouth to deny being bothered, he once again interrupts her "Before you deny, know that I can feel the flow of your chi, and it's currently in turmoil."

"My mother believes that I'm a monster. I was wondering if my emulating father might have been the reason. Did I drive her to that conclusion?" she asks.

"I'll be honest with you." he begins.

"Your parents are horrible parents, both of them. Your father is easily angered, domineering, and insatiably power-hungry. He lacks empathy, is not the understanding type, and never regrets, forgives, or changes his mind about anything. He believes morality to be a sign of weakness, finds peace and kindness laughable concepts, possesses little to no empathy and rarely shows any interest in the feelings of others."

She turns to look at him, completely in shock at his lack of respect for her father.

He ignores her and continues "Your mother on the other hand is neglectful, foolish and short sighted. Her attempt at shielding Zuko from your father left you to your father's tender mercies. He took the opportunity and began molding you into his perfect weapon to be used and discarded when no longer useful. He may not have done it yet, but eventually he will. Your mother on the other hand, mistook your cry for attention, by being emotionally abusive toward everyone, as the making of a monster, then washed her hands off you. Be honest with yourself Azula, you wanted the same love and attention that your mother gave to Zuko."

Still somewhat in shock, Azula begins to think back to her childhood and asks herself, What did she want? Why did she act in the manner that she did? After thinking it over, she came to the conclusion that she did in want her mother's love. She was jealous of Zuko and all the attention he received from their mother. Yet where does that leave her now? Her mother is missing, and after having her eyes opened to Ozai's nature, she wants nothing to do with her father.

Now that she thinks about it, all of her goals have revolved around getting either her father or her mother's approval. What does she, Azula, want? Who is Azula?

"You're only fourteen Azula, you still have your whole life ahead of you to decide who you want to be and what you want to do" came Kagutsuchi's voice.

"You're right, however I already made my decision. My name is Azula, princess of the Fire Nation, I will be the best version of me I can possibly be, I will earn my people's respect and lead the Fire Nation into a glorious age, even if I have to pry my father's charred corpse off the throne" and as the words left her mouth she could feel her inner turmoil resolve itself and her chi begin to flow much smoother.