Avatar: The Last Airbender – Smoke and Shadow

Before you can even get your bearings, the mist parts violently. Four dark, cloaked figures—the Kemurikage—drop silently into the graveyard, surrounding you on all sides.

The ambush is instantaneous. You unleash a fierce volley of fire to drive them back, while Aang slams his foot into the dirt, sending a wave of earth rushing toward the attackers. Beside you, Kei Lo draws his knife, while Mai sends her daggers flying through the fog toward one of them. The cloaked figure dodges all the blades and delivers a brutal kick that sends Mai crashing backward onto the ground. She manages to throw a dagger and graze the hood, only for the Kemurikage to open the mask and reveal it's Azula.

"Nice throw, Mai! You've been practicing!" says Azula.

"Azula! Where are you hiding those kids?!" Mai raises her voice toward her.

"Tsk tsk. Manners, manners! Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Azula replies mockingly.

After that she smugly reveals that she and her "new friends" took their inspiration directly from a childhood sleepover, dressing up as the very dark spirits that used to give Mai nightmares. "The Kemurikage are dark spirits of legend, born of fear, anger, and revenge. My kind of ladies."

"Shut up already!" Mai snaps and throws more daggers at her, only to be struck down by Azula's blue lightning.

"Purple isn't really your color, Azula!" Mai distracts her with those words, and Kei Lo tackles Azula from behind.

"Who is this imbecile?!" Azula is surprised and angered before shooting him with a jolt of lightning. She grabs Kei Lo's collar, a ball of blue flame in her other hand ready to inflict more harm. "Please tell me this isn't your new boyfriend, Mai! Zuzu wasn't all that great a catch, but, dear, you're really slumming it!"

"Azula, please! Leave him alone!" Mai yells.

You then warn her from a distance to listen to Mai.

Her gaze slides over to you with a look of belittlement. "Zuzu! Trying to win back your ex-girlfriend by defending her new boyfriend? That's just sad."

You then clash firebending flames.

Azula takes the opportunity to flee the battle.

You rush over to Mai first to check if she's okay.

"Don't worry about me! Go after that nutcase!" she says, pointing out the direction where Azula is fleeing.

Leaving Mai, Kei Lo, and especially Aang to hold the line against the remaining Kemurikage, you sprint into a dragon-headed, tortoise-shell stone masonry structure, which is a crypt.

Descending the stairs, you find her sitting on a stone sarcophagus.

"Hello, dear brother," she says, blue flames forming above her upturned palm. "Any idea whose crypt we're in? It belongs to the first Fire Lord's most trusted adviser. Rather fancy, isn't it?"

After a brief exchange where you point out she seems "better," she sneers that she is not just "better" but "stronger!" and charges with twin blue flame daggers from her hands, trying to slash you before you dodge her and counter with your own twin dagger flames.

The clashes of red and blue fire illuminate the ancient stone walls. The clash is fierce, but she finds an opening and kicks you, sending you to the ground. She then moves her weight above yours; one hand clutches your throat, and the other holds a dagger-like blue flame, ready to stab.

She leans in close, the manic, weightless clarity in her eyes more terrifying than any weapon.

"Me standing over you like this... why does it feel so familiar?" her voice echoes off the crypt walls. "Oh, that's right! Because this is the way it's always been!"

You raise your voice and tell her that getting rid of you won't put her back on the throne, and she should just accept that she will never be Fire Lord!

"Accept it? I've embraced it!" she says, that look of craziness returning. "I know I will never be Fire Lord because I'm not meant to be Fire Lord! You were right all along, Zuzu! Once I discovered my own destiny, that voice in my head finally shut up! I've felt weightless ever since... free. Maybe for the first time in all my life."

You stare at her, bewildered.

She leans her face close to yours. "My destiny, you see, is to make you into the Fire Lord I tried to be—one who's strong, who rules through fear!" she declares, a twisted smile spreading across her face.

"Can't you see? It's already working! In the last twenty-four hours, I've shown just how ruthless you can be. Deep down inside, you're still one of us. You can deny it for a little while, but eventually, you will become just like me... and then, in a sense, I'll be Fire Lord again. Take your own advice, Zuzu, and accept it. It's who you are."