Forged In Fire || ATLA

Stupid Boy

The Awakening - Fin.

"So what made you think you could take a life, and just push it, push it around? I guess to build yourself up so high, you had to take her and break her down. She laid her heart and soul right in your hands, and you stole her every dream and you crushed her plans. She never even knew she had a choice and that's what happens when the only voice she hears is telling her she can't, you stupid boy. Oh, you always had to be right, but now you've lost the only thing that ever made you feel alive." - Cassadee Pope (Keith Urban)

TW: Mentions of distressed mental health and implied future pregnancy.

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It was clear to see which parent Azula had picked up her mannerisms from. The Fire Lor walked with his shoulders square and head held high, a sense of superiority following him with each step as he approached the girl before him. It made Aelita sick but still, she did as she was told and looked upon the face of the man that killed her father and maimed his own son.

Ozai's features were rectangular and sharp, his lips thin and only ever seeming to tilt into a sneer or a scowl. His hair was still solid black and pin straight even well into his forties, falling nearly to the center of his back. His matching goatee was narrow, just long enough to skim the bottom of his throat as he stood. The golden eyes he inherited from his own father were as deceiving as his perfect skin, very little damage ever having befallen the former Prince, one of the only members of the Royal Family to have not served in the Fire Nation military. Nearly as tall as he was domineering, dressed in traditional robes of blood red and gold, he was anything but slight, years of mastering his bending turning his body into a machine of brutality.

The Fire Lord grinned, and for a moment the Akira felt as if she were looking upon his youngest son instead.

"You're the spitting image of your father in his youth, Akira Aelita," Ozai spoke down at her. He was only all the more amused when she didn't bite back. "It's the eyes really that mark you as his, full of too much ambition for your own good. Though, I'm not so sure if it's ambition behind your eyes anymore, child, or if it's hatred. They have a similar effect."

"Interesting."

The Fire Lord barked out a laugh as he began to circle her slowly. "Interesting indeed. Many things about you and your family are interesting, Akira Aelita. According to multiple sources, it seems that the accusations brought up against Sukomo Kenshin were false. Did you know that?"

"Yes," She answered simply, eyes staring straight ahead at the wall of fire before her.

"Did it upset you to learn his death was for nothing?"

Aelita didn't bother to lie. "Yes."

"Good, I'd trust you less if it didn't. My delusional Council members seem to think you should've been relieved to learn your father wasn't a traitor, but I disagreed. Only a spineless fool would find positives in such matters, and you, Akira, have always been far from spineless."

Aelita knew it wasn't a compliment.

"It was Zhao all along," Ozai spoke casually and matter-of-factually.

"Yes."

"You fought him at the North Pole."

"Yes."

"You killed him."

"No."

That was surprising.

"No?"

"There are worse things in life than death."