The Princess and the Peasant - (An Azula Epic)

Interlopers

In a frozen landscape sat a desolate military base.

At its epicenter there was a control room with countless soldiers and staff members madly at work.

As a cacophony of multiple voices in the form of several languages chattered into the air.

In the far distance a bright light was shining through the frigid horizon.

And in the center of the room stood an imposing man in a brown military uniform.

His hair was light blond, and he sported a neatly trimmed goatee.

And his eyes were a harshly detached blue.

And last but not least, there was a large diagonal scar on his left cheek.

"Sir! The other squadrons are moving in!" A soldier called out from his work station as his commanding officer clenched his gloved fists over the metal railing.

"Capture Number One-Hundred and One. But no matter the cost, retrieve, and detain Number One." Colonel Reynolds ordered in a cutthroat voice with his hardened eyes staring relentlessly ahead while his subordinates yelled out in affirmative.

As a small venomous smile slowly found its way to his lips.

At long last she was within his grasp.

And this time...

'You will not escape me this time...Number One.' Reynolds thought with a smirk upon his lips as he clutched the rails underneath his eager palms.

And after that was done, he will be ready to make his play.

Two weeks before Elle's arrival in the Fire Nation.

"She's the one, Elle. Saito Sayomi." Naoki spoke in an unfeeling voice with her emotionless brown eyes staring obsessively back into her childhood friend's widened amber eyes.

"Saito... Sayomi." Elle breathed in a taken aback voice while Naoki's machinelike brown eyes gazed hauntingly back into her soul.

"Yes. She is a young woman of great talent. They say that she is one of the first people discovered to possess gifted abilities. You may have heard of her." Naoki answered in a cold voice from where she sat against the balcony railing while Elle numbly nodded her head.

"I...I have. Who hasn't?" Elle stated in a soft voice while Naoki's unnervingly sharp gaze still gazed back into her eyes.

"Their objective was to replicate her talent...they were trying to use us to create a successor to her legacy...to create supersoldiers like her and that man...Strados." Naoki explained in a chilling voice with her brown eyes staring back into Elle's overwhelmed amber gaze.

An unsettling moment of silence passed through the air as Elle sat there with her mouth ajar in uncertainty.

Before she swallowed the lump that was in her throat while she turned to peer back into her childhood friend's fixated gaze.

Just as a light breeze swept through the air while she nervously bit her lip.

"W-what...what are you going to do, Naoki?" Elle questioned in a timid voice as she glanced upward when Naoki wordlessly stood up above her.

Only to find herself shivering once again when the supersoldier turned to glance back down at her with an utterly frozen stare.

"I am going to kill her, her family and everyone else that she cares about. And that man Strados as well." Naoki declared in a monstrous voice as she grasped onto the railing with her right fist.

The younger girl sat in a speechless quiet with her amber eyes gazing up in a combination sympathy and horror.

Just before she jumped in fright when Naoki abruptly began to crush the wooden railing beneath her powerful fist.