Valkyrie

Fractured: Part One

How long had it been? How many years had she spent in darkness? She used to mark the days on the wall, but the longer she stayed, the less she seemed to care. Besides, there wasn't enough wall left.

Hearing her back crack as she stretched, the withered woman cursed under her breath and moved to the other end of her cell. This was routine; waiting for food to be given, before retreating into the furthest corner to devour her meagre meal like she were a rat. A disgusting way to live. No, worse. It was pitiful. 

"My time will come."

It was the mantra that kept her through the days soaked in sweat and sick. Slowly, she started to muster up that same old signature laugh, the one that used to make people tremble. In response, the guards outside struck the gate with their fists, cutting it short. Apologising with a rat's timid squeak, she skittered away.

"Snake," one murmured.

She felt her shoulder shake as she stifled another laugh. Snakes were crafty. Beautiful, even. No matter how long they waited or how much skin had been shed, they always got their prey.

Much to her chagrin, she had little else to do other than listen to the idle chatter as the guards swapped shifts, passing on the responsibility to another unlucky soul. It was the same old drivel, one was going on paternity leave, another had started a long distance relationship with a Water Tribe belle, the usual. Back in the old days,  some had even had the nerve to try to provoke her, but those that had were swiftly replaced. She was to be ignored. Forgotten.

But she did not fade away so easily.

She heard the ruffle of bars, and along with her food came the whisper. The sweetest of songs that her crooked ears had been dying to hear for the longest time

"Hail Fire Lord Azula."

Eagerly picked up the bowl, the dead eyes of a half cooked fish stared back at her. It was discarded, left to rot with the rest of her dignity. Looking closely at the rice, she saw a shimmer of red and pulled the object with all the care she could muster. It was like being handed a diamond ring.

Grinning wildly, she stood and adopted a pose long since dulled yet never discarded. Her rusty joints cracking back into place as she extended her fist out, embers starting to form around her knuckles. She had been out of practise for many a year, that kind of lapse would cripple a lesser firebender, but she was not lesser.

She was Azula

The embers extended out to the paper and soon all was caught in its glorious blaze. The guards barely had a moment to react before the once still prisoner was consumed in a veil of flame. 

No, she would not fade away.

***

The explosion was small, but its impact was cataclysmic. The Boiling Rock was soon on high alert, and the sound of a thousand feet could be heard clambering their way through the corridors. When word spread of whose cell has been torched, panic began to set it.

As the fiery commotion continued to brew, Azula made her way along familiar corridors and cracked her neck in some much needed places. She was already eighty eight, her body decrepit, but she knew that it was enough. Adjusting her eyes to the false light of the prison's interior, she was encroached upon by the the cattle that were the approaching guards, gathering together in a half-baked defensive formation. She let her smile resonate. There was fear in their eyes. 

Without hesitation, she charged forward. On reflex, the guards' unleashed waves of fire from their fists. However, to their shock, the half-dead prisoner tossed herself over the flames with unsightly grace and landed right before them, like a ghoulish spider baring its fangs. It was enough to break the guards' formation, and she took the chance to raise her leg, bringing it down with a trail of fire in its wake. Two poor souls felt the full brunt of it, as blue flames melted their armour and consumed their flesh. Not giving them a chance to rest, she began to let out a slew of familiar movements. Muscle memory did not fail her, and soon the blue fire was consuming the entire corridor. Oh sure, they resisted, but ultimately they were saplings by comparison. The few that managed to outrun her reach were already fleeing for their lives, screaming for help.