I am kind of short on time, but I did manage to do this sort of in time. My laptop is the biggest piece of trash in the universe...
Hope you enjoy this :)
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109 AG
Most people were destined to take up their parent's jobs when they got older. A baker's son had few choices, a firstborn prince even less. That is how Fen became the best paid assassin in her entire province at only fifteen. Her father taught her, sure, but she had the kind of natural predisposition for the work one couldn't fake. After her father died, people said she was even better than he ever was.
One day, Fen got a new mark. A pirate collective that was becoming too powerful by some people's standards. More specifically, their two leaders, Azula and Wen. Fen didn't like taking on two people at once, but word had it the two never separated.
Finding them, of course, wasn't going to be easy. She snuck on board ship after ship, passing through the area they were last seen over and over again. Nothing. She was just about to give up on her current plan when she heard people yelling the word Pirates again and again in absolute terror. She was aboard a prisoner transport ship, so she only had to go down to the cells and wait.
"Pirates! Hundreds of them! They're everywhere!" A soldier came running down to the prisoners, probably to hide, but he was struck by lightning from the back. He fell and behind him appeared a man and a woman.
That had to be them...
"Outside. Hands raised if you want to live." Azula said as her fire melted the bars holding the prisoners.
Fen obeyed, together with most of the people, and they were led onto one of the two pirate ships that came for them. They were in open water again very quickly, since the waterbenders seemed to be very skilled at speeding up their ships. The prison ship was sinking into the ocean behind them.
As Fen looked around and counted, she realized there weren't hundreds of pirates on the two ships. Maybe a little more than one hundred...
Soon, the pirates who weren't helping with the sailing started splitting up the captives. Adults from the children. Since she was still a teenager and not particularly tall, Fen was sorted with the children. When she looked to the horizon, she saw two more ships, waiting.
The moment all the ships came close to each other, Wen came out of nowhere and froze the sea around them, so all the vessels were connected. He never had to say his name, it was fairly obvious which two people were in charge.
Now that their whole group was together, Wen and Azula sat down onto the big pile of boxes filled with stolen goods and immediately all their people went quiet.
"Prisoners, today is your lucky day!" Wen spoke up, "You are all free people once more. And as free people you face a choice, all of you."
"You can choose to show gratitude to the people who just saved you from a life in prison," Azula continued for him, "Or you can refuse our help and once again be on your own."
"And whatever your choice, make sure you mean it, since the few rules we do have, we take very seriously." Wen finished his piece and waved to two women who dragged out a tied-up man and laid him at the couple's feet. All the pirates reacted to this with loud booing and insults.
"This man was one of us," Azula started, "Until he decided he no longer liked our rules, so he murdered, stole and ran. But even on that ship we found him, like we always find traitors."
"Do you have any defense for your actions?" Wen asked the accused man, but he remained quiet.
"Then there is only one question left... Will it be fire?"
"Or water?"
The crew went wild, shouting one word or the other and it only stopped when the man said, decisively:
"Water."
"Looks like he's more scared of you, love." Wen smirked back at Azula before getting up and rolling up his sleeves.
"Smart man." Azula leaned back, ready to enjoy the display.
Wen ordered the man be untied, because it made for a scarier show if the victim against their inescapable fate. After all, this was useless if it wasn't a lesson. The man looked around in desperation before he saw water flowing up from the sea and on deck in little streams, all collecting around his feet. Water slowly crawled up his body to envelop him whole. The head was covered last, at which point he started kicking, trying to get air.
And Wen allowed him air ever so often, just to make the whole thing painfully long. A horrible way to go, surely to discourage any future mutineers...
When the traitor was gone, Wen threw him into the sea and sat back down next to Azula. They started calling the children forward, one by one, to make their decision. Fen couldn't believe there were children as young as eight who were going to a prison. Guess, they had to eat somehow...
"What's your name?" Wen asked.
"Fen." she stepped out in front of the two leaders.
"Do you wish to join us, Fen?"
"I do." Fen was certain now that was the only way she'd get one of them alone to make her move.
"Good," Azula said, "Any skills?"
"I can clean, and I-"
"Yeah, yeah, very good... Welcome. Next?"
That was... Easier than Fen expected. She walked to the side and carefully watched the rest of the show. She was surprised how many children actually took their offer. She had an ulterior motive, but they didn't.
Next were the adults. She expected even more of them to be interested in the pirates' offer.
"Just so you know," Azula started, "The children who refused our offer will be freed on shore close-by. The adults who decide to refuse us will be sold back to the prison they were headed to."
"So think carefully about what you say." Wen added before waving the first man forward.
"Excuse me, my Lord, my Lady..." the man started muttering.
"We're not that." Wen interrupted.
"Could I ask you to be taken ashore as well? You see, I did what I did bec-"
"Are you a child?" Azula smirked.
"No, my Lady... But I have children and without me they-"
"Perfect!" Wen stood up suddenly and ran to the man, causing him to shudder, "You can bring them aboard. There are plenty of jobs to be carried out that do not involve combat."
The man still seemed hesitant, so Azula decided to drive in the point.
"As long as you fight for us, we will feed them, clothe them and teach them how to write and fight. You won't get a better offer anywhere."
"I guess, I'll join, then." the man said.
"Alright." Wen sat back down, "Next?"
oooooooooo
Later that night, while Wen trained with some of the new recruits, Azula showed Fen around together with some other little kids. Most of them got assigned to help in the kitchen, while Fen was supposedly chosen for a more important job.
"You'll sleep with the other girls down the hall." Azula said before opening the door to what looked like it was her and Wen's bedroom, "You'll mostly work here. You'll be our handmaiden. You do what I tell you, when I tell you. And when I don't tell you anything, you know what then?"
"Scrub the floor, dust, light the candles..." Fen started speaking, but went quiet when Azula waved one of her hands making every candle flame in the room light blue.
"Alright, not the candles." Fen said and Azula smiled slightly.
"You're also expected to wash our clothes and change the linens ever so often... The only thing you mustn't touch is the desk. Don't throw away things from it, don't arrange them, don't even look at them."
"Yes, of course." Fen nodded. This was all nice and pleasant, but she had to do what she was here to do before they sailed too far from shore. Then, miraculously, Azula sat down at her desk, turning her back to Fen. This was it, it had to be done. Fen reached for the knife in her sleeve and made a careful and completely silent step towards her target.
"There's something else you should know, Fen."
"Yes?" Fen froze in place, trying not to breathe too guilty, whatever that meant.
"We have this thing called the Golden Rule, and we're trying to get the word out about it even to those who are outside our collective. Assassins, mercenaries and such..."
Fen didn't like to hear her supposedly unsuspecting victim say the word assassin. But she still didn't let go of her knife. After all, if Azula turned to attack, she'd have to defend herself.
"It goes, if someone offers you money to kill me or my boyfriend, we will pay double for that person's head." Azula said meaningfully, with her back still turned, "With that in place, you see, it becomes dangerous to ask for our heads, stupid even. Then the only thing left to worry about are lunatics and fanatics."
Fen felt a different kind of frozen now. If Azula's offer was genuine, she could earn a lot of money. She could move finally, go somewhere no one knew her. It would also be easier than slaying the two of them. She might get lucky now with Azula, but she would also have to take down Wen.
"I just thought you should know that... Because if you swing at me, all deals are off."
"What? Swing? I-"
"Now, now, dear... What's it going to be?" Azula remained turned away from the girl, but in her mind she was already preparing to push her chair back and fight her.
"I..." Fen started before actually making the decision, "I want to invoke the Golden Rule."
"Good." Azula stood up and turned to face Fen. Then she put out her hand and waited for the girl to turn over the dagger she held in her sleeve.
"You're no amateur..." Azula said, not moving her hand, "Is that all?"
Fen sighed and turned over two little knives from her boots.
"That's it."
"Who hired you?" Azula sat back down.
"I don't know his name. He said you people robbed his home and then burned it down together with his family. He said you were getting out of hand..."
"We're already out of his hand. I know who it is, last week one man got away. You'll go and kill him for us?"
"Yes. I've never failed." Fen nodded.
"Alright. Do you have a contract? Something to prove the Golden Rule applies?"
"No, I don't read."
"Since I know him, his head will do." Azula started walking towards the door, "We were thinking about recruiting some assassins as well, for people who get out of hand. Should you return, I'd put you in charge of them."
"Me? Why-"
"You're not the best assassin that tried to take my life." Azula moved her collar to reveal a small scar on her neck, "This one was quite close. But he is dead and you are not, because you are smart. That's why. And you're young, so you'll learn quickly."
It still baffled Fen how they got to this while she followed Azula out into the hallway. There they ran into Wen who was just coming from the deck of the ship, wiping blood from his hands.
"I was right about her?" he asked.
"Yes. She took the deal. My guy?" Azula asked.
"Oh, yes. But he swung. Total pirate hater..." he put his hands around her, completely ignoring Fen, "That's one for each of us, so I'm still in the lead. 11:9."
"Yes, yes." Azula wiped a tiny drop of blood from his cheek, "And Fen here is a professional. She's going to take care of our loose end form last week."
"I do like our ends as tight as possible." he kissed her forehead and the turned to Fen, "You can go ahead and find Shi, the one with the scar on her cheek. I told her you might be coming, she'll get you to shore."
"Yes. Thank you again for this..." Fen started, but then realized neither of them was paying attention to her at all. They were just staring at each other.
"And remember," Azula added when Fen was almost gone, "If we catch you and the job isn't done, you're dead."
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134 AG
"That sounds horrid." Mai interrupted.
"It was bloody in those times..." Azula started, "Every regional crime lord thought they were the one destined to end us, so ruling included much less sitting around, looking at maps and a lot more... Hands-on involvement. I remember we couldn't get through a single night without, an assassination attempt, a mutiny, a food shortage, a ship taking in water... We worked so hard knowing full well that one above average storm could destroy everything we'd built." she talked about it all with a smile, only later realizing she was getting strange looks, "I suppose you wouldn't understand."
"I do." Katara said just as Zuko was about to say the exact opposite, "I mean, it sounds horrifying, but... I catch myself remembering our time fighting the Fire Lord as good times, and that was during a literal war, when people were trying to kill us every other day, so what do I know..."
"It's like that. Getting our first 50 ships was the hardest, later it became easier. Less dangerous from day to day."
"I bet the Golden Rule helped that a lot. It's quite smart." Zuko said.
"Of course, it is, I came up with it. When we realized it worked so well, we added you to the list."
"Me?" Zuko sounded more surprised than he maybe should have been.
"Yes, all of you. You, Izumi, Mai... The royal family in general. I paid of a few dozen assassins over the years."
"I don't really know what to say."
"What's the matter, Zuzu? Did you think they weren't attacking you because you're such a good Fire Lord?"
"No, just... Thank you."
"It was for the Fire Nation, dum-dum. So that when our empire was stabilized, Wen and I could focus on other things. Like each other. That's when he finally agreed to marry me and then-"
"Wait, wait, wait... You asked Wen?" Mai smirked.
"He asked me first, right at the beginning, but I said I wasn't sure because when a princess marries a commoner she renounces all titles and her right to the throne. I wouldn't be a princess anymore and if something happened to Zuzu, legally I had no more claim to take his place than Katara... Even less so, because Wen was a deserter, so we didn't belong to the Water Tribe either."
"Azula," Zuko interrupted, "I would never strip your title. You're my sister, you suffered our father same as me."
"Well, you'd be dead in that scenario, so it wouldn't matter... So Wen agreed we shouldn't close that door for a silly sentimental formality. But as the years went by, I realized I wasn't a princess anymore, not really. I never planned on coming back, but I did plan on staying with him forever, so I proposed that time. Wen refused, saying he didn't want to cost me my birthright, but I kept asking until he finally buckled. The year Izumi was born."
"Why then?"
"Because before you had an heir the Fire Nation was one slip and fall away from total anarchy. But you two took your sweet time with it, didn't you?" Azula glared at Mai.
"I've been meaning to ask," Katara saw an opening, "You don't wear a betrothal necklace..."
"Yeah, I wouldn't really like one, Wen knew that. But we compromised so I made him one."
"You wanted him to marry you that bad?" Mai asked.
"Not a first, but by the end I just wanted to win. I went to great lengths... You would not believe the pomp." Azula explained and everyone laughed.
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117 AG
"Just a little more... Careful, there's a step." Wen led a blindfolded Azula through a corridor.
"You can change locations all you want... My gift will still be superior." she waved the scroll in her hand.
"Just be patient, we're almost there, love."
Azula tried desperately not to wonder, but the curiosity was killing her. A lot of people would say buying wedding gifts out of joined money was foolish, but the two of them both enjoyed trying to outclass their partner a little too much.
"Alright," Wen stopped pulling forward, "Are you ready to receive your wedding gift, other than me, of course?"
"I've been ready for hours." she slowly pulled the blindfold off and waited for her eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
When they did, she realized they were standing in an enormous room decorated with candles. The rows of high columns and the floor were all made from dark grey, almost black, marble. Everything in the room was designed to grab the attention of any visitor and point it towards the far end, where there were two equal, lavish chairs.
"It's our throne room." Wen said, holding onto his wife's shoulders from behind.
"You didn't."
"But I did..." he took her hand and led her to the chairs, "This is where we'll be running our empire from. All the ships in the fleet, all the spies, all the informants, they'll be reporting here."
"You bought me a throne room for our wedding?"
"No, my lovely wife, I bought you this whole island." he smirked, "It's a little rock in the Fire Nation, no one really cared about it, but we'll turn it into our little pirate hideout."
"I don't understand, who did you get to build this?" Azula looked around in amazement.
"That's the best part. It was an abandoned Fire Sages' temple, built so the mountains hide it perfectly. I just made some adjustments, added a dock..."
"It sounds captivating, but it's dangerous for us to stay in the same place for too long." she took his hand to show him she appreciated the thought, but she feared the consequences far too much. She had so much to lose now, by getting captured.
"I used to think like that too, but seeing what we've accomplished together, I think it's time to put down some roots. What do you think?"
Azula hated it, but the sparkle in his eye was changing her mind.
"It would be good for meetings. We have too many ships to get all the captains together on one of them." she sighed, "What?"
"If someone told me at age eleven that at some point my biggest problem would be that my wife and I have too many ships..."
"672 is too many. They're all over the world, we need a reliable and secret way of communicating, we need to establish some kind of regional leadership because-" she was cut off by a kiss, but she didn't really mind.
"We definitely do, and I look forward to doing that with you... But not now." he smiled, "Now you get to choose which chair you want. Come on, sit."
Azula thought briefly, then went for the chair on the right. She hesitated before sitting down, remembering the last time she sat on a throne. The day of her coronation.
And for your loyalty, I've decided to declare you the new Fire Lord.
Fire Lord Azula!
But seeing Wen beaming at her made it all go away. That was the past and this, this was for the future. She breathed in deeply and sat down.
"Aren't you going to sit beside me?" she asked.
"Not before bragging about putting in those things on the floor that let you make fire burn around you, like the Fire Lord has. Try it."
And Azula closed her eyes, took a deep breath again and as she breathed in blue fire formed a line from their thrones all the way through the room.
"Incredible." she said, "How did you make it happen?"
"Let's see," he fell onto his throne, "I found out about the perfect architect, kidnaped him from the depths of Ba Sing Se, threatened him into designing the throne room and the dungeons-"
"There are dungeons?"
"Only the best for you, love... The most amusing part is, I made sure he designed them inescapable and then I locked him in there in case you wanted to make some changes." Wen managed to grin smugly before Azula pulled him in for a kiss by his collar. Good thing the chairs were close enough for that. He really thought about everything.
"So how am I doing?" he asked when she pulled away.
"Fantastically. I'm a bit embarrassed by my gift now." she handed him the scroll and he opened it. There were a bunch of documents in there, some maps and building blueprints.
"That's all the information I could gather about a training facility on the edge of Water Tribe territory. It caught my attention a few months ago. Rumor has it they've been collecting children that no one would look for, orphans, runaways, and training them for underground fighting. There is even talk about bloodbending training."
She knew he would find this particular cause to be very close to him. They didn't usually do things for anyone else but themselves, even though with their resources and skill they could make a real difference.
"So you want us to, what?" he asked.
"Go in during the day just to be safe. Keep stealth a priority, so just the two of us... Free the children, lock the doors and then-"
"Burn it all down, until there's nothing left." he finished for her.
"Exactly. I thought it would be the perfect first job for us as a married couple. I'm sure we can get most of the kids to join. They'll still fight and die, just not as entertainment."
"Did Shi tell you I tried those fights myself once?" he rolled up the scroll.
"She might have mentioned it... That's why I-"
"I would have told you, it just never came up. I didn't hate them, it was easy money. But not everyone there was given a choice. And we need people... When do we have to leave?"
"Soon, if we want to arrive tomorrow before dark."
"Too bad, I was excited to give my queen a tour of the bedrooms as well..."
"Queen?"
"You know they've started calling us King and Queen."
"Of what exactly?" she chuckled.
"You could be Azula, Queen of Thieves..." he waved his hands for effect, but it wasn't sticking, "Queen of Pirates? Pirate Queen?"
"They can call me Lady Crime for all I care... I just want them to obey."
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123 AG
When Azula quietly sneaked into the bedroom it was close to 4 in the morning. She used the light coming of a small fire in her palm to undress and find her way to the bed, where Wen was already sleeping soundly. She crawled under the covers next to him and quickly fell asleep.
Tomorrow, his face was the first thing she saw. It was like that most days now.
"Good morning, beautiful." he smiled and planted a kiss on her forehead, "Why didn't you wake me when you arrived?"
"It was really late, you looked tired. I couldn't."
"So how was the trip? Tell me everything. Give me the briefing." he laid back onto the mattress and she placed her head on his shoulder.
"It was decent. It took considerably less time to strike a deal with them than I anticipated. Their leader is not an idiot, that was unexpected."
"Rare and valuable, people like that are..." Wen played with a strand of her hair. It was very obvious the both of them didn't like being separated for long. In the early days it was normal. Lots of work to be done, not a lot of people they trusted with it alone. But these days they rarely separated.
"And that was it. That's how it went."
"Then why are you so tense, love?" he asked, "Did you get any new recruits?"
"In a way..." she moved her head onto her own pillow before continuing, "While I was there, I was feeling quite ill, so I visited a healer. And she said I'm pregnant."
"But you can't-"
"That's what I said, before going to see another healer. I finally accepted it, after the fourth one on our way here."
"So you're really-" he turned to look at her, but she didn't do the same.
"Yes. I suppose they were wrong before. Anyway, I scheduled an appointment with one of our physicians for tomorrow, to take care of it." she continued staring at the ceiling, "Since we don't want children."
"Is that something I'm expected to accompany you to?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well, do you want me there?"
"I can handle it on my own. It's supposed to be nearly painless."
"Alright."
"That's settled then..."
Yet it did not sound settled to Wen. And as the quiet seconds passed and Azula did not move or say anything, he was becoming more and more sure.
"Love... Could it be that the reason you waited till tomorrow to take care of it was that you wanted to consider it?" he asked, and she finally turned to him.
"I wanted you to know about it, since you are the father."
It felt incredibly weird to Wen hearing the word father referring to him. But Azula must have felt the same way. Captain sounded weird to him too at the beginning, so did husband and even Wen right after he changed his name.
"But if we were," Azula continued carefully, "Considering it... What would you say?"
"I would say that the two of us are above-average in everything we do. There is no reason to believe we wouldn't excel at parenting as we do at everything else. That means it's up to you."
"I don't know what it is, maybe it's just me hating when other people have things that I don't have, but... I want to go ahead with this."
After she said that, Wen pulled her into his arms.
"Good. Then we'll be expecting the new recruit in seven to eight months." he smirked.
Azula still remembered how one of their enemies almost killed her. She remembered the blade, the man's smirk, Wen's scream. She remembered how he begged her to stay awake as he carried her into the ocean to heal her. Then waking up with their physicians, being faced with a lot of bandages and the fact she'd never be able to have a child.
Wen didn't care about anything aside from seeing her awake again. Neither did she at the time. Accidental pregnancy was just another thing they didn't need to worry about at the time. While other couples were raising children, the two of them were raising an empire out of nothing.
But now that their empire was all grown up, she did have some time on her hands.
oooooooooo
124 AG
When he returned from a mission, Wen found his now visibly pregnant wife at her desk, completely surrounded by books and scrolls. She was making notes about something so dedicatedly he was sure she wouldn't have noticed him in the room for at least half an hour.
"Am I interrupting?" he spoke up. Her hair was down, even though it was daytime. Something was off.
"Oh, you're back. Good." she stood up and slowly waked to him.
"Is that the project about replacing messenger hawks with pigeons?" he pointed towards the desk.
"Oh, I finished that in a day. I'm just waiting for the damned things to be delivered because you cannot simply order three thousand pigeons from one store."
"Obviously..."
"Obviously." she kissed him and then stroked the side of his head.
"Are you petting me?" he pulled away slightly, confused.
"So that was weird to you too?"
"A bit. What's going on?" he asked and instead of a clear answer Azula walked to her desk, picked up a book and started reading.
"In this chapter I will highlight the correlation between parental affection and children's happiness and success." she finished and looked at him, "I'm just not affectionate."
"You're affectionate with me, love."
"That's not the same thing... And I hate giving praise. I'm just very aware of what people are capable of and when they act within that it's not really a surprise. It's normal, it's expected!" she sat down and sighed, "I tried being supportive today, I tried being warm and open at the meeting, but it was a disaster."
"So that's why the hair?"
"I tried to be approachable and empathetic, but it just ended up pathetic. The captains were all somewhere from utterly confused to downright scared." she paused, sitting down at the desk again, "You remember, we talked about this when we first met. How we always hurt people unintentionally, how it's all we're good for."
"I remember." he walked to her from the back and started gently gathering her hair into a bun. Azula decided to close her eyes, if just for a few seconds. Upon finishing the hairstyle, Wen placed a kiss on her cheek and pulled a chair next to hers.
"But that's not the part that worries me." he continued, "I figured we'd teach ourselves that day by day. It'll be a cute little baby, how hard could it be? I'm more worried about chapter nine."
"You read this?" Azula flipped through the pages until she landed on the right one.
"How do you think it got to our library?" he smiled, "It's the only one that is worth reading. I also sent out a few of our people to find us the man who wrote it."
"So did I. We really need to coordinate our obsessions better." she wished this was the first time they've sent two search parties out to find something. Shi thought it was adorable, but the two of them didn't see it.
"Anyway," he reached for the book, "This part is all about how every person learns which norms to follow and which to discard from their immediate social group. And our child will be constantly surrounded by the most hardened criminals in the world."
"Our dearest friends..."
"I know, but they're short-sighted, sadistic and hopelessly defiant to everything, how do we avoid that?" he paused, "I mean, how do we get our kid to believe in anything, in the law, in kings, in destiny, if we don't believe ourselves?"
"We don't."
"But everyone needs something to believe in to feel safe. Governments or the spirits or the damn Avatar or something..."
"I believe in you." Azula took Wen's hand, "I believe in myself and I believe in you. That's enough."
Wen sighed and leaned forward to kiss her hand.
"We teach our child" she continued, "they can believe in us and they have to believe in themselves."
"That's nice, but... The worst thing is, I don't really know anyone who had good parents. Everyone is terrible at it."
"Right? I realized that, so I went negative. I took a bunch of old family dramas from our library and started a list of what kind of behavior to look out for." she gestured to the giant pile of books on her left.
"That's fiction."
"Yes, but it was written by people. Real people with real families. It's not hard to pick out problematic patterns."
"I think you're definitely onto something, but you've overthinking a bit... Between our parents, our friend's parents I bet we can fill that list twice as fast with real examples."
"We are experts in human nature after all..."
"Yeah, you take Shi, for example, so... No physically harming the child." he got them started.
"My father's guilty of that too. No insulting them, that's for my mother."
"Yes. No blaming them for their bending."
"No avoiding, no ignoring."
"You really think it'll work like that?" he asked suddenly.
"We'll make it work."
oooooooooo
Alright, I'm not really that happy with this one, but it was a bit longer than usual and I did NOT manage my time well.
Anyway, I'll be going for 12 chapters I think. That's decent in my opinion.
So thank you for sticking with this for all this time and feel free to express any opinions you may have :)