Azula vs. Cinder Fall

## Description

*These two young women may serve a greater evil, but nothing will stop them from turning up the heat in this Fatal Fiction. Who will win between the Fire Nation princess and the murderous Fall Maiden?*

## Interlude

Hiro: When it comes to any villainous group, there never fails to be one individual woman who can just as cruel and evil as her peers.

**MBStarscream: Add in the fact that they also have control over a certain element in their hands, and you've got some pretty deadly femme fatales.**

Hiro: Princess Azula, of the Fire Nation from Avatar.

**MBStarscream: And Cinder Fall, the power-hungry Fall Maiden from RWBY.**

Hiro: I'm Hiro Hamada.

**MBStarscream: I'm MBStarscream.**

Hiro: And it's our job to examine both warriors' strength, abilities, weapons, and weaknesses to see who would win in a fight.

## Azula

Hiro: One of the four nations of the world, the Fire Nation lived alongside its contemporaries of water, earth, and air. This peace was broken a hundred years in the past, when Sozin, ruler of the Fire Nation, set out to bring the world under his grip; decades passed and his grandson Ozai ascended to the Fire Lord's throne.

**MBStarscream: Whilst aiming to achieve victory in the war started by Sozin, Ozai fathered two children: Zuko and his younger sister Azula. She lived an extremely rich life and was spoiled but was not sheltered by any means. She was discovered to be a fire bending prodigy at a very young age, which made her Ozai's favorite child.**

Hiro: Azula was taught about politics and how to be a successful ruler, leaving her brother with their father's contempt. She went to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, where she first met her best and only friends Mai and Ty Lee. When her exiled brother proved unable to successfully capture the Avatar, Azula stepped in to command the search while also taking an active role in winning the Hundred Years War once and for all.

**MBStarscream: Azula quickly proved a capable leader and exemplary strategist, nearly capturing her fugitive brother before convincing him to join her and even successfully killing Avatar Aang. Perhaps her greatest triumph was in seizing control of Ba Sing Se, a greatly fortified city which withstood attempted invasions for the past hundred years.**

Hiro: But in spite of those victories, Aang's resuscitation and Zuko's defection to the Avatar's side began Azula's downfall. Azula recruited Mai and Ty Lee into her mission, but their betrayal against her began to crack Azula's sanity. She grew increasingly manic and even her father crowning her as the new Fire Lord did not comfort her.

**MBStarscream: When she was beaten, dethroned, and imprisoned by Team Avatar, Azula saw confinement in a mental health facility before eventually escaping custody. Accepting that she would never be Fire Lord again seemed to bring Azula some peace, although her sociopathy remained fully intact. Most recently, she honed her abilities even past her former prime as she posed as the Kemurikage spirit in a plot to make Zuko a more ruthless Fire Lord.**

Hiro: Azula has shown to be a formidable warrior. Her skill in firebending has impressed even Ozai and Zuko, two strong firebenders in their own right.

**MBStarscream: Azula demonstrated and mastered fourteen arts of firebending, to the point of turning her flames blue, making her a firebending prodigy. She can use her flames in various ways, such as jets of flames, whirling disks, and blades of fire.**

Hiro: Also notable was her ability to produce a greater amount of flames than most firebenders without tiring, as she was shown to be able to maintain successive assaults for long durations of time. She had also demonstrated the skill to condense her flames, enabling her fire to cut clean through various objects. When formed into fireballs, the flames served to be rather concussive, able to firmly pulverize objects such as stone.

**MBStarscream: Azula is able to generate powerful shields of swirling flames which can withstand the full force of four simultaneous elemental attacks and a boomerang, and is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during her fight with Aang. Azula is also proficient in the highly difficult technique of creating and guiding lightning, a sub-skill of firebending that can potentially kill its victims.**

Hiro: She can perform minute flickers of lightning, which she used to both temporarily blind Zuko or disarm Sokka of his boomerang, as well as produce large, compressed balls of lightning, as exemplified when she created such a ball to send away a swarm of moth wasps, who were attracted by the intense light. After learning of the ability to also redirect lightning, she applied herself to the technique and came to master it as well.

**MBStarscream: Azula is highly skilled in combat, as she could disarm Suki and knocked her off her feet without bending. She also had some skill with hidden weaponry, as she intended on using a shuriken knife during the eclipse. Her acrobatics and use of a hidden shuriken knife were apparently skills she picked up from Ty Lee and Mai, respectively.**

Hiro: Azula is very agile, able to run up walls and perform mid-air twirls. She dodged Aang and Toph's bending attacks with little to no effort using high jumps like Ty Lee, ultimately making Aang admit she was too fast to hit. Her physical strength is also adept as she can perform a planche, supporting her body in a horizontal position just by using her arms, with little effort.

**MBStarscream: Azula is remarkably intelligent and a tactical genius. Despite her young age, she is arguably the most competent and dangerous planner and strategist in the entire series. She was also highly manipulative, often stringing people along without them even realizing it.**

Hiro: With these skills, Azula has certainly proven herself. She's matched the likes of Zuko, Iroh, Katara and Aang, defeated two Kyoshi warriors with ease, and tracked her brother and uncle without any leads.

**MBStarscream: She's led a bunch of looney firebenders in hopes of overthrowing Zuko, electocuted Aang while he was in full Avatar mode, and took over a city that had withstood siege for a century.**

Hiro: But Azula does have her own flaws, her mental stability for one. She is very unstable, possibly as a result of guilt, lonliness and sadness. She's also a perfectionist, not taking it well when things don't go her way, and has almost lost to Zuko despite being the stronger of the two.

**MBStarscream: But she's still quite the powerhouse in the Fire Nation. I don't think it's hard to see why daddy admired her skill.**

*Long Feng: [Bowing to Azula, resigned] You've beaten me at my own game.*

*Azula: Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.*

## Cinder Fall

Hiro: Starting life as an orphan in Mistral, Cinder Fall faced harsh bullying and overwork every grueling day. But things started to look up for her when a Madame came by and adopted her, taking her to the Glass Unicorn hotel in the City of Atlas.

**MBStarscream: There, she was introduced to her two stepsisters and was given the run-down of how things were gonna work. Clean the rooms, deliver food, all that jazz.**

Hiro: Somehow, Cinder had waken up from one nightmare to another as she was heavily mistreated, overworked and abused by her stepfamily, even forced to wear a shock-collar to keep her in line. Her only friend of sorts was Rhodes, a seasoned Hunstman who would come and go to the hotel while Cinder endured her torture.

**MBStarscream: When it was only a few more years until Cinder would be free from this hellhole, Rhodes gave one of his swords to Cinder as a weapon to use when she would join a Hunstman Academy. He would soon realize what a mistake he made when he walked in on Cinder strangling her stepmother after murdering her stepsisters with the very sword he gave her.**

Hiro: Left with no other choice, Rhodes tried to detain his former pupil, but was ultimately killed by her in combat. Broken by the abuse she went through, Cinder was led down a dark path as she craved as much power as she could get.

**MBStarscream: So when the witch queen Salem promised her that she could have anything she could've wanted if she worked for her, she was on board. She quickly rose up as she recruited members for her cause, enlisting Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black and Roman Torchwick.**

Hiro: She had Roman conduct several Dust robberies in Vale and recruit the White Fang, while she and her subordinates posed as Haven students and hacked into the school computer system. As she launches the Battle of Beacon, Cinder killed the Fall Maiden and claimed her power while killing off Ozpin and Pyrrha Nikos, the latter's death resulting in Cinder being exposed to Ruby Rose's hidden powers manifesting.

**MBStarscream: The power of the Silver Eyes left Cinder heavily injured, losing an eye and having to replace her arm with a Grimm one. Once fully recovered, Cinder was ordered by Salem to seek out Raven Branwen and convince her to hand over the Spring Maiden so they could acquire the Relic of Knowledge. But Cinder deviated from the plan by arranging to help Raven kill her brother Qrow if she and Vernal could help her get the Relic of Knowledge, leading an ambush as she overpowered Jaune Arc and fatally wounded Weiss Schnee during the Battle of Haven.**

Hiro: Once at the vault holding the Relic of Knowledge, Cinder killed Vernal for the Spring Maiden's power, only to learn too late that Raven was the real Spring Maiden all along. In the ensuing battle, Cinder was defeated by Raven and sent falling down the vault while frozen, but not even this kept her down for long.

**MBStarscream: In the aftermath of the Haven battle, Cinder resolved to regain Salem's favor by taking the Relic from Team RWBY. Joining forces with Neopolitan, Cinder set out for Atlas to claim the Relic and exact her revenge on the girl who disfigured her.**

Hiro: And she had plenty of skill to be a fearsome threat to our heroes. Like anyone in Remnant, Cinder comes with an Aura, the manifestion of a person's soul that shields her from attacks grants her a minor healing factor. To go with her Aura, Cinder's Semblance, called Scorching Caress, allows her to super-heat object and manipulate their shape.

**MBStarscream: The most notable instance of Cinder's Semblance is during her fight with Pyrrha Nikos, in which she disintegrates her opponent with Scorching Caress. So far Cinder has been seen using her Semblance to create various glass-based weapons from dirt during combat, as seen during her battles against Ozpin and Amber, where she formed glass projectiles by kicking and melting dirt and particles into the air to reshape into spikes.**

Hiro: Since being injured by Ruby's Silver Eyes, Cinder has had her organic arm replaced with a Grimm limb known as a Shadow Hand, which is able to stretch long distances and drain Maidens of their power. The Shadow Hand can also regenerate itself if it's ever amputated, at the cost of causing Cinder incredible pain as it heals.

**MBStarscream: As the Fall Maiden, Cinder holds one fourth of the powers Ozpin had carried, including his powerful control over True Magic. As such, she is able to preform various supernatural feats without the use of Dust, such as changing the weather, controlling the elements, flying, creating forcefields, and drastically increasing her strength and durability.**

Hiro: Cinder is quite skilled in both unarmed combat and swordsmanship, using such skills to fend off numerous Atlas Soldiers at once and easily defeating them without being hit once. She could also out-duel both Winter Schnee and Penny Polendina simultaneously in their battle, and later casually fend off the entirety of Team RWBY with casual ease.

**MBStarscream: Cinder's marksmanship skills are shown during her infiltration of the CCT and her plan to capture Amber's powers. She is capable of launching three arrows at once with great accuracy and pragmatically exploiting any advantage whenever possible, such as launching an arrow in Amber's back just as the latter was about to kill Emerald. Cinder has shown to be quite stealthy as well, having sneaked around a guard to easily knock him out and escaping Ruby when the latter encountered her on her mission and fought her.**

Hiro: Cinder's weapon, Midnight, is a Dust-created and glass-based weapon with multiple forms created. The weapon consists of a pair of blades which combine to form a bow. In Sword mode, the weapon is a single-handed weapon similar to a European seax or a Moorish scimitar.

**MBStarscream: The blade is broad and has multiple cutting edges, although the blades must be relatively light to enable the user to keep them balanced when using them in their designed dual-wielding form. In Bow mode, the weapon uses a straight bow design with a hand-grip built into the frame and is capable of producing multiple broadhead-tipped arrows that detonate on impact. The arrows are able to reform themselves if something should shatter them before they hit their target.**

Hiro: Cinder is truly a dangerous foe. Her machinations led to the Fall of Beacon, during which she took the lives of Ozpin and Pyrrha in battle.

**MBStarscream: She kept up with Ruby, survived a battle with Raven Branwen, infiltrated Atlas with Neo, overpowered Penny and Winter simultaneously, fought Penny while she had the Winter Maiden's power twice, and obtained the Relics of Knowledge and Creation.**

Hiro: However, Cinder has her own weaknesses. Her Aura can only protect her for so long before it's depleted, and continuously using it will leave her more vulnerable to damage. And while stealing the Fall Maiden's power made her far stronger, it gave her a crippling weakness to the Silver Eyes.

**MBStarscream: Cinder's Aura also can't protect her Shadow Hand, as Grimm totally lack souls, leaving it susceptible to other weapons and Silver Eyes. And just because she's a Maiden doesn't mean she can't be bested by other Maidens, as Raven and Fria will tell you.**

Hiro: She's also seriously egomaniacal, and can underestimate her opponents or bask in victory at bad times. But you can't totally fault Cinder for being as arrogant as she is; the various feats she's pulled off certainly make her a strong member in Salem's Inner Circle.

*Cinder: You Atlas elites are all the same! You think hoarding power means you’ll have it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier! And I refuse to starve.*

## Fatal Fiction

*Mario flips a coin.*

Hiro: Well, Azula gets a point in terrain, but can she count on this advantage to triumph over Salem's fiery subordinate?

**MBStarscream: It's gonna get hot in here, folks!**

*Fire Nation Royal Palace*

In the dark night, a lone woman strode the hallways of her castle, playing around with a small burst of fire. This woman was the Fire Nation's ruthless princess, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai. **Azula**.

Outside, several guards were guarding the entrance to the palace in hopes of keeping out intruders. Just then, the guards noticed a tall and slender figure stepping towards the palace. Suspicious, one of the guards shouted towards the figure. "Halt! Who goes there?" His question was met with silence from the figure. Suddenly, the figure conjured a scimitar in their hand and lunged at the guards at unnatural speed.

Within seconds, the guards' bloodied corpses lay on the figure as their killer pushed the door open and walked inside the palace.

Meanwhile, the flames in Azula's hand disappeared as the woman suddenly had a feeling. Like she wasn't alone. Sensing an intruder, Azula called out. "I know you're there! Come out!"

A feminine voice chuckled sinisterly.

"Nicely done, girl."

Azula spun around, finding a fair-skinned woman with one amber eye and ashen-black hair standing before her. The woman wore a left eyepatch that had straps that ran both above and below her right eye. She sported a black tank top and shorts that were mostly covered with a black shoulder cape worn over her left arm, all of them having gold trimmings, and a blue feather accessory over the right side of her chest. She also had a black and gold band over white bandages, a black band on her right wrist, black knee-high laced heeled boots and two earrings.

But most striking was her left arm, or rather what was in its place. The woman's arm was not human, sporting a black color and long nails that resembled claws. After staring in surprise for a moment, Azula stepped towards the woman and spoke in a warning tone of voice. "I don't know who you are, but you face the new Lord of the Fire Nation. Leave now, or you can burn."

The woman, **Cinder Fall**, only laughed at the threat. "Lord? No offense dear, but you hardly look the part."

That hit a nerve. Azula stroked two fingers across her hand, creating a sudden burst of lightning from her hand. "You're going to regret that!" She scowled.

Still smiling, Cinder pointed her hand at Azula as fire blazed from it.

This was gonna get heated, figuratively and literally.

**FIGHT!**

Cinder swung her hand across, sending a torrent of fire blazing towards Azula. Azula nimbly jumped to the side, rolling across the floor before jumping up, throwing a burst of fire from her hand. Cinder, however, opened her palm, neutralizing the fire effortlessly. Azula swung her leg across the air, absorbing the flame with her foot before thrusting her hand out, sending a streak of lightning crackling at Cinder.

Just as Cinder jumped to the side, Azula threw her leg up, launching a ball of fire right at Cinder, the Fall Maiden screaming in pain as she dropped onto the floor. Blue fire engulfed Azula's hands as she launched it at Cinder, earning more agonized screams as Cinder rolled away. Scowling angrily, Cinder charged at Azula, and the two started exchanging blows. *Fwoosh! Fwoosh!* Red and blue fire spewed across the floor, igniting everything in the surrounding area. Kicking Azula away, Cinder formed a bow and arrow out of thin air and starting firing arrows at Azula, who jumped across the room to dodge the incoming projectiles. She knocked one arrow away before jumping up, attempting to kick Cinder.

But right before her leg could hit Cinder's head, the villain managed to catch it before pushing Azula back. Cinder started trading blows with the princess, both women fighting fiercely. Azula managed to punch Cinder in the stomach and then knock her down with a kick. Cinder clutched her torso as she got up a bit, then conjured her scimitar as she pushed herself up and ran foward.

As Cinder swung her weapon, Azula jumped over her and landed behind her, before shooting a stream of blue fire into her back. Cinder glared back at Azula as the sister of Zuko ran towards her, hoping to knock the scimitar out of her opponent's hand. But Cinder stepped back as Azula threw a punch and started slashing at the young warrior with her scimitar. As Azula dropped to her knees, Cinder grabbed her by the throat with her Shadow Hand and pinned her to a wall, walking forward as the princess struggled in her grip.

"I'm afraid this is the end for you, young girl." Cinder said in a mockingly soothing tone as she approached, scimitar in her organic hand ready to finish the fight. Unable to free herself from Cinder's Shadow Hand, Azula whipped out a dagger and stabbed it into the Grimm arm, resulting in Cinder's eyes widening as she let out a scream. Releasing Azula's throat, the Shadow Hand stretched back to its owner as Cinder clutched it in pain, dropping her scimitar to the ground. Seeing her opening, Azula propelled herself towards Cinder using a jet of blue fire from her hands and started assaulting her with strong blows, ending with a palm strike that pushed Cinder back.

Gritting her teeth, Cinder spread Dust through the air before forming them into floating shards of glass, which then flew at their target in a spreading motion. Azula, however, dodged the shards as they shattered against a wall. Azula gathered blue fire in the shape of a wheel and sent it rolling along the ground towards Cinder, who flew upward and breathed out a long jet of fire down at Azula like a dragon. But this attack was blocked by a flaming shield conjured by Azula. Once Cinder disabled her fire breath, Azula created a thin whip of fire and lashed at Cinder with it, the whip wrapping around her leg. Slamming Cinder into the ground with her whip, Azula jumped up and sent a blue fire ball down at Cinder, who rolled out of the way.

Azula landed on the ground right as Cinder got up, and lunged at the Maiden, getting a good punch into her face. But Cinder blocked her opponent's next punch and hit Azula with a punch of her own. Cinder blocked several more attacks from Azula before knocking her back again. Cinder charged at Azula, but the princess kicked upward as an arc of blue fire followed her leg, launching Cinder into the air. The Maiden landed on all fours, and began spawning dozens of glowing hot glass swords on the floor around herself.

Cinder thrust her hands forward, making the glass swords launch themselves at Azula. Azula propelled herself into the air with two jets of fire from her hands and sent a bolt of lightning down at Cinder, which hit the ground as the megalomaniac jumped backward. As she landed on the ground, Azula started launching fireballs at Cinder, who conjured a sword to block them. Cinder jumped up and swung her sword down at Azula, who caught the blade with one hand and tossed Cinder aside. As Cinder got up, a fireball knocked her sword out of her hand, forcing her in hold in pain. This gave Azula a chance to attack Cinder up close, punching her multiple times.

The servant of Salem managed to punch Azula in the gut before thrusting out her Shadow Hand, grabbing onto Azula. Cinder then turned around, slamming Azula into the ground, before lunging forward and driving her leg into Azula's back. As Azula was sent flying up into the air, Cinder conjured a bow and arrow and aimed upwards, unleashing a repeated rapid fire of arrows onto the Fire Nation princess. Azula gritted her teeth as she felt the glass shards cutting through her skin. Cinder launched herself upwards, flying up into the air.

Azula spun in the air, recovering from the attack, and did an axe kick that generated a burst of fire, hitting Cinder in the head and causing her to crash into the ground. Azula sent a bolt of lightning down at Cinder before she landed on the floor beside the downed woman as she tried to get up. Walking around to stand in front of her, Azula conjured blue flames in both hands as she looked down at Cinder. "You should've left this palace while you had the chance."

Suddenly, the ground started glowing underneath Azula's feet. With a chuckle, Cinder balled her hand into a fist.

BOOM!

The force of the explosion launched Azula away, the martial artist hitting a wall and falling to the floor. Cinder got to her feet and walked forward as Azula tried to push herself up, groaning in pain. Barely standing, Azula had no time to react as Cinder's Shadow Hand stretched towards her.

A bloodcurdling scream tore out of Azula's throat as claws pierced into her chest. She looked down in horror at the Grimm arm as Cinder continued approaching. "I hope you enjoyed your power while you had it." Cinder mocked. But her face started falling as she realized something was wrong; no power was coursing through her arm. Not a drop of it. "W-What?" She asked. "Where's your power?!" Was this the Spring Maiden incident all over again?

Through the pain, Azula smirked at the shocked Maiden. "You won't take my firebending, fool."

Cinder snarled. In a fit of anger, she tore the skin off of Azula's chest, exposing the heart and lungs beneath with the screams that entailed. Tossing the torn skin away like paper, Cinder conjured a large spear out of thin air and pulled back her arm as Azula held her chest in pain. With all of her strength, Cinder threw the spear. Azula's heart burst as the spear pierced through it and out her back, the princess letting out a final gasp of pain. Cinder briefly imagined that Schnee girl in Azula's position as the princess tried to grab the spear, but quickly faded as the spear disintegrated.

Azula's eyes rolled back as she fell onto her face, all signs of life leaving her within moments. Still not satisfied, Cinder released a stream of fire from her hand, setting Azula's body ablaze. Watching her burn, Cinder smiled as her anger melted away. With nothing to say, Cinder flaw out of the palace as it burned with what was once its princess.

**FATALITY!**

## Results

**MBStarscream: Burn, baby, burn!**

Hiro: Azula unfortunately didn't have much to help her win this fight. She might have been faster via keeping pace with Aang, but Cinder just held more of the advantage in many ways.

**MBStarscream: Azula may have been a cool firebender, but there was no way she could bend or control Cinder's magical weapons. Cinder was the older and more experienced fighter, as well as the stronger of the two, keeping up with a fellow Maiden like Raven.**

Hiro: Cinder's Aura also made it very hard for Azula to really damage her and allowed her to take any punishment Azula could dish out. If it can shield Cinder from Maiden-level attacks, as shown with Raven, there wasn't much Azula could do to break through it.

**MBStarscream: Both had other stuff to use other than just fire, such as lightning for Azula, but Cinder had some good counters to her opponent's firebending via control over elements like air and ice. Azula would also really need to beware of that Shadow Hand, which could easily end the fight at any time even if it couldn't take any of her firebending power.**

Hiro: Overall, Cinder's durability, strength, experience, and range options spelt certain doom for the Fire Nation princess, fighter that she may have been.

**MBStarscream: Azula just got burned to *cinders*.**

Hiro: Cinder Fall wins.

## Advantages

### Cinder Fall (Winner)

* Exploding weapons give her some good methods of long range pressure since Azula can't manipulate them
* More experienced
* Stronger
* Better defense/durability due to Aura
* Shadow Hand gives her some good mid range options
* Air manipulation and ice are both good counters to Azula's firebending
* Much more capable at close range