Ten years later brought new innovation; firebenders learning to lightning bend to generate energy and new forms of transport.
Ten years later brought changes in looks; Zuko was taller and sporting a beard. Sokka looked more like his father and Katara more like her mother.
Ten years later brought new lovers and friends. Toph had a brief fling with Sokka. Aang and Katara had a fight and for a brief time Aang was with a girl named Min-Kho.
So why, ten years later, did Azula feel exactly the same. She found herself dwelling still on the things that concerned her ten years back. They haunted her…had a hold on her mind and didn't seem to want to let go. Ten years later and she was still running over everything that had went wrong, everything that prevented her from sitting on the throne.
I banished my guards.
I banished the Dai Lee.
I banished my mentors…
The list continued on. It always started with Mai and TyLee and ended with her apparent inability to control her own mind. Because ten years later it still stung. Ten years later she still couldn't accept the fact that the two people she cared for, had turned on her. Ten years later she still had trouble shouldering the blame.
TyLee had found a boyfriend, a handsome thing. Mai and Zuko were still going strong even after ten years. Azula was still alone. And now ten years later she came to a realization. She didn't hate Zuko. She didn't hate her mother. She didn't even hate Mai nor TyLee. Ten years later Azula decided that she hated herself—everyone else did, so why not?
The more she thought about it, the more hating herself and everything she was and had been made sense. Indeed it was her fault; she didn't know how to treat people in kind so she ended up lower than the ground and with no one to pick her up. She had no one to blame but herself. She puzzled over how she didn't realize that ten years ago. The problem isn't everyone else, it's me.
She tied her hair up into a top knot—the same kind she'd been fond of ten years ago—at least in the past few years, she'd learned to style it herself. Though her hair had grown longer, and she had to leave a good portion of it loose. In that regard, she supposed she had changed. As much as she loathed to admit it, ten years later, she looked mockingly like her mother. The woman who had tried time and time again to reach out to her. But after ten years of trying, the woman's efforts died out. Azula felt her throat constrict as she fought to suppress a sob.
With that, she realized it had been about ten years since she had last cried. A round of tears was well overdue and since she had the palace to herself, she would do it. She would weep over the bitter and lonely woman she'd become.
That was how they'd found her—laying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Fighting to breath correctly through her harsh cries. Every single woe and hardship, every unspoken doubt and unsaid confession of guilt coming out in a horrible display of tears.
Ten years later, the cry for help that she couldn't bring herself to vocalize was tearing from her throat and no one seemed to know what to do with it. She didn't know where to take it, because the truth was, she had no idea how to ask for help.
She didn't know what to do when Zuko took her in his arms and rubbed her back.
She didn't know what to do when TyLee took her hand.
She didn't know what to do when her mother asked if she wanted a hug from her.
So she let her mother pull her away from Zuko and hold her in a caring embrace. All she could do was look pitifully up and the woman and discern the look in her eyes. A mix of concern and…relief? It had to be relief. Because ten years later, her daughter was finally letting them help her.