Chapter 1 Saving a Princess

AN: Hello everyone this is going to be long multi chapter fic about the strange friendship between two very different people Azula and Ty Lee. Just as a warning there will be no romance between them, I'm not ruling out some other romances for our heroines but there will be none between them. Also Azula is going to be Azula, she will not be turning good or forgetting what happened, she is going to want those responsible for her downfall to pay. I'm always happy to read your reviews both positive and negative, and I don't own Azula or Ty Lee or anything in the avatar world, hope you enjoy.

Ty lee was out with her fellow Kiyoshi warriors in a small Fire Nation town just outside the capitol tracking down a lead about some rogue firebenders causing trouble. They had not found much, no real evidence anything had happened in fact. She was sitting in a field of fire lilies as the sun was setting. She had a smile on her face thinking about these past two months she had spent with these girl warriors who had once been her enemy. She had made some really good friends and had some great memories, and was sad that she was going to have to leave during the night.

She picked a fire lily and put it up to her nose and breathed in deep, she knew that by leaving the Kiyoshi warriors and going to do what she was planning her life would stop being as fun and happy it had been since the war ended. These girls who were now her friends would soon become her enemy again and that made her sad, but as soon as she heard the sentence of Azula, she knew that saving Azula was what she needed to do. She knew that Azula thought that she had betrayed her, and was not at all angry at Azula for putting her in prison, it had lead her to make all these new friends anyway. Ty Lee had never meant to betray Azula anyway, it's just she knew how angry she could get and if she had fought Mai she could've killed her and Ty Lee just wouldn't let her two best friends kill each other.

A small tear formed in her eye as she giggled thinking about the three of them traveling the world hunting the Avatar. Cute and gloomy Mai sighing one hundred times a day, beautiful and confident Azula inspiring and terrifying all the soldiers with them, both of them pretending to be annoyed by her perkiness, but she knew they both secretly loved it. Even as fun as traveling as a Kiyoshi warrior had been, and as much as she liked these new girls they weren't Mai and Azula. Ty lee had six identical sisters, but she didn't feel like they were anywhere near the sisters to her that Mai and Azula were. Ty Lee knew most people would think that she was crazy for loving Azula, but they didn't know her like Ty Lee did. There was that part of Azula that perhaps Ty Lee was the only one to see, but it wasn't all hate and fire inside her heart, and now in this new and happy and peaceful world Azula was all alone and sad and miserable, hated by everyone. Ty Lee had been there for Mai when she needed her most and she had done the most painful thing in her life by attacking Azula to save Mai, but now Mai was happy and going to be Firelady, and Ty Lee knew that she had to be there for Azula now in her darkest days.

That is why when she heard that tomorrow the Avatar was going to strip Azula of her bending Ty Lee made up her mind that she would leave the Kiyoshi Warriors and break Azula out of prison. Even though Azula may be dangerous, Ty Lee just couldn't stand to see the most perfect and beautiful and confident girl she had ever met stripped of something that made her who she was. She knew that if Azula lost the bending that was such a strong part of her soul, never again would Ty Lee see the burning red aura of confidence and strength that amazingly Azula had always projected since the day they met. Azula was the only person she had ever met whose aura had never changed hue even the slightest bit, and it would break her heart to see that beautiful bright red light that inspired Ty Lee for years to be changed to the sad gray that would inevitably replace it with such a huge part of herself missing.

As the sun set Ty Lee began the jog of about 5 miles to the capitol where Azula was being held in the prison located in the heart of it. She knew Azula would be heavily guarded, but Ty Lee had incredible confidence in herself that had come from Azula by being chosen as her personal escort and best friend, she knew that she must be exceptional and would not fail her princess now. She got into town and as it was mid evening she went to a tavern to grab a bite to eat as she was not going to assault the prison till well after midnight. At the tavern many young men approached her and as she was flattered by all the attention, tonight she could not let any distractions block her most important mission. She sat in a dark corner, smiling to herself thinking about all the fun times she and Mai and Azula had had, reminding herself why she could not fail.

When the tavern closed at about 1 am she headed off towards the prison, moving quickly and silently. As she approached the prison she ducked into some shadows and observed the guards pattern of movement around the top ring. She noticed that it took about five minutes from when she saw the guard walking in a loop around the top to go all the way around, so when she saw him exit her view she quickly ran towards the wall and jumped on it and scaled the side of the wall using little footholes in about a minute, the way only the most skilled acrobat in the world could do. She quickly and silently ran around the upper ring and snuck up behind the guard and quickly knocked him out with a few well placed pressure point strikes.

She went in the door and looked around, figuring that Azula would probably be on top level as a high profile prisoner. She tried to hide in the shadows as she creeped around and eventually came upon two big burly looking guards standing in front of a fancy looking door. Ty Lee hoped this was Azula's cell and quickly leapt from the shadows. The first guard had been struck in three pressure points by a flipping Ty Lee before either knew what hit them, the other one tried to shoot a fireblast with one hand as he reached for a horn with his other hand, She ducked the blast easily and quickly landed into a sweep kick that knocked him down before he could blow the horn. When he hit the ground she quickly poked him 3 times and knocked him out peacefully along with his fellow guard.

Ty Lee checked their pockets for a key but could not find one, she sighed oh well and took out a a couple small lock picks she had been carrying. Before she left the circus she had been working on an escape act and had gotten pretty good at lock picking. She fiddled around for about a minute then the cell door swung open. She took a step in and saw Azula chained to the wall by several chains, her head bowed down, but it rose up as soon as she had walked in. Ty Lee saw a sinister smile cross Azula's face as Azula said "Oh my a Kiyoshi warrior, which one are you Suki? Not content with my punishment of being stripped of my powers you thought you might take one last stab at beating the great Fire Princess Azula. Well seeing as I've barely eaten for two months and I'm chained to a wall you may have the smallest glimmer of hope of defeating me but I still wouldn't count on it." Azula laughed a dark and menacing laugh. Ty Lee stepped forward and bowed before her as she said "No princess Azula it is me." Azula's smile widened "OOH Ty Lee even better a traitor come here to see the fruits of her treachery, well look on with great satisfaction they've stripped me of everything but my greatness, and not even the Avatar tomorrow will take that from me." Ty Lee giggled and said "Stop being such a drama queen Azula I came here so that the Avatar wouldn't be able to take anything from you tomorrow." Azula frowned and said "Ty Lee I need no one's help and certainly not a traitors, so" Ty lee cut her off " Look Azula I know you are still mad at me for what happened on Boiling Rock, but as much as you may think I was betraying you I wasn't, you are still my Fire Princess and my best friend, I just couldn't let you kill Mai, if I thought Mai was gonna kill you I would've attacked her but we all knew that you would win, so now stop going on about how great you are and how you need no one and let me get you out of here so that come tomorrow night you can still shoot blue flames, and if you still feel I betrayed you well then use them on me, but right now lets just get the hell out of here." By the end Ty Lee was screaming and Azula looked taken aback but she finally spoke. "Fine Ty Lee come here and take my chains off." Ty Lee got up from her kneeling position and used her little lock picks to undo all the chains that had bound Azula. She put her arm around Azula and helped her steady herself on her feet.

Azula shrugged off Ty Lee and said " I can walk fine by myself you know." Ty Lee smiled a little as her bossy confident friend was back "Of course princess" They walked out of the cell together and went out onto the upper ring and Ty Lee turned to Azula and said "You ready to do some sliding down this wall?" "Of course I can there is nothing that Azula Princess of the Fire Nation and rightful Firelord can't do." With that Azula jumped off the side and began to slide down the wall, Ty Lee quickly followed. They quickly hit the ground and started to run as fast as they could out of town. In a few minutes they heard an alarm bell sound and knew that people would be hot on their tale, as they reached the forest Azula turned to her and said, "Let's hop from tree to tree, and not give them any tracks to follow." Ty Lee smiled and said. "That's brilliant Azula, wow I missed you and your great ideas." They spent the next two hours hopping from tree to tree deeper and deeper into the forest, they found a cave and Azula said "Let's hide out in there for a few hours and get some rest we could use it."

They jumped down from the trees and headed into the cave. Azula quickly made a small fire and said "That was the first time I've firebent in almost 2 months, how I missed the power." Ty Lee laid back and smiled to herself, she saw how happy Azula looked and knew it had all been worth it. "So what is with the Kiyoshi warrior costume anyway, trying to disguise who you were when you broke me out?" Azula asked her. "Uhmm actually I had kinda joined them, we met in prison and they seemed fun so I went and joined them." She heard Azula give a disapproving huff as she said this. "So what now, are you going to go back to them or what?" "Well seeing as I just broke out the most dangerous girl in the world I doubt they would take me back, I was hoping to travel with you actually." She saw Azula sizing her up over the campfire. "You betrayed me once Ty Lee I don't know if I can have you with me." "Look Azula as I told you before in that moment I had to help Mai, I knew you might kill her in anger and I couldn't let that happen, Attacking you was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I know friendship and love doesn't mean a lot to someone as powerful and great as you but it means a lot to me. You know I have six sisters but I love you and respect you so much more than any of them, and I know as much as you may deny it I'm one of the only people who you have ever let into your heart, I swear to you that I will be your loyal servant and best friend as you go on whatever quest you feel you need to now that you are the enemy of the world." Ty Lee looked at Azula hopefully as she finished this.
Azula sat there thinking for a few minutes but finally spoke up "What about Mai, you know I am rightfully Firelord and I'm going to do everything I can to reclaim my throne. If she is with Zuko then you may have to choose between us again, I need to trust that you won't pick her again." "Well now Azula she is going to be Firelady and has a world full of allies, and at the moment you have only me, so in the next confrontation you will likely need me more, but if you promise you won't kill her that is all I need to know." Was Ty Lee's reply. Azula sat there for an even longer time lost in thought, then she said "Fine I can do that, Mai doesn't really matter anyway her death will do little for my purposes, Ty Lee I promise I will spare Mai in any battle in the future." Ty Lee squealed in happiness and got up and hugged Azula, "Once again I am your humble servant Princess Azula" she said as she kneeled before her again. "Fine let's try to get a few hours of sleep before we need to be on the move again." Azula said as she put out the fire with a wave of her hand.

They both lay down in the dark and a few minutes of silence passed when Azula's voice broke it "Ty Lee, when you and Mai turned on me I felt like I lost the only two people in the world who were friends with the real me, whatever that is. Ever since that day on the Boiling Rock I've felt so alone, and tomorrow I thought I was going to lose myself in despair." Ty Lee thought she heard some soft tears coming from the princess. "Well anyway what I'm saying is now I know I have at least one person in the world who will have my back at even the darkest time, a true friend, I guess what I really want to say is thank you." Ty Lee felt a few tears of happiness in her eyes as she said "I'm sorry that you ever thought I betrayed you Azula, you are my sister and I love you." She heard Azula turn over and say "Now get to bed we'll be moving at sun up."

AN: I know Ty Lee may seem a little less perky than usual but I think she can be serious when she needs to be and she felt strongly that she needed to save Azula. Her silly and lighter attitude will be there in the rest of the story.