A/N: Hi everyone, this is my first published fanfic, yay! I've had this idea of Ursa confronting Ozai ever since I read The Search. I've always liked writing their interactions, especially how they would size each other up post-war. Takes place Post-Search. Reviews will be much appreciate, I would love to know how I'm doing in my writing and how to improve. Thanks, and enjoy the show!

~Not Me~

"I'm surprised you came here"

Ursa was surprised herself.

She was unsure why she had decided to come to the Capital Prison, what strange delusion compelled her feet to follow the path down to the lowest cells. Why she had an unfathomable desire to stand amongst the candlelit filth. Why she needed to see him. But she wanted an answer to a question she should already know.

"Well, it's always a pleasure"

The low voice echoed about the small room, threatening to tighten around the poor woman's heart; every word dripped with menace, as if to invoke a new horrible memory with every syllable. But there was something else about the voice that Ursa could not miss; it was much smaller than before. The arrogance and the pride, all of it was still there but somehow it sounded weaker, less confident, less like him.

The woman stood still, simply looking into the cell and the huddled figure in the corner. The single small candle did little to assail the darkness, but there was no mistaking the eyes staring out, the sharp golden irises searing into hers. The silence was long, clearly making the man uncomfortable as he shifted back and forth, silently demanding a response from his new visitor. She always knew he hated being ignored, hated being left in silence by another. Seeing his eyes blaze as she continued to stubbornly remain silent gave her some comfort.

"Does the esteemed Fire Lord know you have come to visit his disgraced father?"

Silence. Ozai sizing up the woman in front of him. She wasn't a strong person, Ozai knew how easily she can be broken. But he was expecting her to at least flinch at the mention if the child she left to be mutilated by him. What game was she playing? He leaned forward only slighting, the candle lighting falling on one side of his face, the deep shadows on his now gaunt face making him seem far more menacing than, he had to begrudgingly admit, he actually was.

"I guess not, although it is nice to have a new visitor. Zuko can be quite tiring. I had enough of philosophical ramblings on peace and order when I was with Iroh".

He leant back into the shadows, trying to show an air of flippant nonchalance that would be sure to annoy her. "Good to know he's got a new son".

Silence. She had to break sometime, somehow. Her resolve was insulting him with every second. She would have to make her reasons known. Or did she just want to see how far he had fallen. The gall of this woman he thought.

"If all your going to do is stand there, then I would at least appreciate you bringing some tea".

His demeanor was crumbling, he had never felt this much humiliation before. He felt as if he was being dissected, probed without words, watched with contemptuous silence. He deserved far better, even Zuko showed some respect. His back straightened, attempting to reflect the all-powerful deity he once was. "Or did you come all the way here to see a monster in a cage?"

Silence. His hands curl around the air, as if to pull words from her mouth in an effort to make her speak.

"Talk to me traitor, its why you're here? To boast about your new life".

Silence. He won't lose, he is stronger than this!

"ANSWER ME!"

The howl tore through the air like a blade aimed at the passive face of his taciturn visitor as Ozai launched himself from his recluse corner and onto the bars of his cell. His teeth bared, his eyes flashing, his hands gripping the steel as if to pull them apart and tear his wife asunder. He retreated, silently admonishing his loss of control but most of all frustrated that not even the screaming of a madman had made Ursa move a single muscle. He had to reluctantly admit the woman was much stronger than last he saw of her. He sat with a scowl in the very centre of the room, deciding to no longer hide himself by the darkness, his eyes scanning the woman for any sign of her purpose or reason for coming to see the man she hated above all else.

"Well then, since you seem so relaxed already, why not we have a nice chat."

He leant his elbow on his knee, looking thoroughly drained. He felt he wasn't going to win this conversation, so if she is going to just remain silent and not yell at him, he might as well enjoy mocking her. It was, back in days long past, one of his favourite past-times.

"I hear you found that stupid actor who was your lover, I'm sure you had plenty of time to even start a family...useless non-benders am I right? What did Zuko say her was name again? Kiwi, Kiya? Some other ridiculous commoner name"

"Why?"

The soft voice cut Ozai's off with a peaceful suddenness he was not expecting. It didn't sound accusing, angry or even self-righteous; it just sounded sad. The question hung in the air as Ozai processed how to answer; though the conversation was not going as planned, he was expecting this question to be asked as soon as he saw her walk through the door. He wanted to mock Zuko's fate, or perhaps make light of the situation, something petty maybe to elicit some reaction from the stoic woman. But he was too tired to play those types of games anymore, and anyway, the hard truth would be just as painful as any of the mockery he tried before.

"Zuko knew what the consequences..."

"I'm not talking about him!" Ozai paused, and looked up to see Ursa's eyes glisten with the beginnings of tears, her lips pursed and her fists clenched. This was a sudden shift in her attitude from before, what changed? Not Zuko it seems. He hadn't prepared for her not to ask about the weakling. Why else would she be here? His eyes lowered to his hands, trying to figure out what answer she wanted, or more importantly what her actual question even *was* . His confusion was not lost on Ursa, something that made her blood boil. How dare he not see what he did!

"Why her too, why did you have to make her suffer too!"

Sudden realization hit Ozai like a wave, this was something he certainly did not expect, and something even less he wanted to talk about.

"Azula?" His force contort with genuine confusion.

Why would Ursa come asking about Azula, when has that woman ever cared for that child? Ozai knew his young daughter was someone Ursa hated, because she hated him and Azula was like him. Why would she care what happened to her? But what made the question seem near impossible to answer was that Ozai honestly thought he did nothing wrong to that child, he turned her into a whirling fiery hurricane of azure destruction. A weapon so precise and beautiful that the Fire Nation will forever remember her as the greatest fire bender to ever live. He had nothing to answer for. This was Ursa's game, and he had no idea how to play it.

"Why do you care? She's nothing like you, and she's too much like me for you to care."

Ursa's eyes drop for the first time since they locked with Ozai's, her face contorting in shame. Her was mind awash with painful memories of her past life as Noriko and her daughter's fury as Azula burst through the roof, intent on ending her life right then and there. It was in that moment, that Ursa discovered her greatest folly.

"You refuse to see people for what they truly are Ozai. That's always been your problem."

Her eyes raised again, no longer with their previous strength but with a strange sense of determination. If he could not see what he did, she will make him see it. It was his fault, his monstrous nature, his weight to bear. Not me. Not me. Not me.

"When Azula came to kill me in my home, when I looked into her eyes, I saw something I never saw before. Perhaps I should have seen it; perhaps I didn't want to because she was like you. But I saw it there..."

Ursa felt the tears flowing, her eyes clamped shut in a vain attempt to stop them. Ozai look at his former wife in disgust, he hated seeing people cry, it was the greatest show of weakness.

"You saw what exactly?" He asked with contempt, and perhaps some curiosity, his head resting in his hand.

"I saw pain. In one moment I saw how much she hated me for leaving her. How much she wanted me to be there when I wasn't."

It was his fault! Not mine. Not her's. His!

"She said I wanted to kill her, and I did. I wiped her from my mind. I killed her and Zuko. But at least Zuko had your brother."

Ursa was becoming agitated, any semblance of control she had before lost as she began to pace back and forth, tears falling from her face onto the filth on the floor. Her hands clenching and unclenching. His fault. His.

"What I did to Azula though, was something I should of known was unforgivable. I left her to you. I know better than anyone what being alone with you is like. And even as Noriko, I knew she deserved my life for that. But she didn't take it. She ran. Just like me".

After a deep breath, Ursa wiped her eyes and body shuddering at her own awareness that her daughter and herself were much more alike than she realized. After a while in silence between the two, Ursa looked into Ozai's eyes, almost pleading for another answer. It was him.

"I ask again, why did you have to make her suffer?"

The grin that smeared Ozai's face was one that Ursa remembered, and it made her shiver, nothing made her want to flee more than that smile. Ozai on the other hand was ecstatic; he was disappointed in his daughter's weakness and inability to kill on sight of her target sure, however it was that emotional weakness that gave him this small victory. And stuck in a prison cell, he had very few victories he could relish in. Ursa had played her game, showed her hand and had no more moves to play. Ozai only had one. He only need one. He crept to the edge of the bars and peered up at the now shivering Ursa and with the sweetest smile he could summon, more terrifying than any menacing snarl he said:

"I didn't make her suffer my wife, not one day did I want to,"

His head cocked as he looked up at the tearful face of the traitorous woman. Gotcha

"But all her life, you did".

The door slammed shut as Ursa all but ran down the corridor, the cackling laughter of Ozai echoing in her mind as she finally realized why she had come here for the answer. She wanted to absolve her guilt, convince herself it was Ozai, only Ozai. But for all the horrific crimes he had committed, this was hers and hers alone. It wasn't him.

She collapsed against the wall, sobbing as she gripped her hair and slid to the floor.

The only person who could forgive her, the only one to help her come to terms with what she had done, was Azula. But she was lost.

A fitting punishment Ursa thought. Her daughter was all that she wanted to see again, to say sorry for all the things she had done to her. Yet like herself all those years ago, Azula has run away from her painful old life, desperate to forget the face that caused her pain. Like mother like daughter.

Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me.

All me...