Azula waited behind the secret door, listening to the sounds that filtered through from the room beyond. In the royal nursery, Mai sang to her daughter. "I see fields of green. Red roses too…" Azula raised an eyebrow. For someone who seemed to sound either bored or angry whenever she spoke, Mai had a surprisingly gentle and pleasant singing voice. Of course motherhood seemed to have done strange things to the girl's head. Even stranger things than love.

Izumi didn't seem to be very appreciative of her mother's singing. She kept crying. She did that a lot anyway, but the singing didn't seem to be helping, which made the whole exercise seem kind of pointless. Azula stifled a yawn and settled in to wait. She'd become good at waiting these past few years.

Mai apparently didn't know many songs, because when she got to the end she started the same one over from the beginning. Azula rolled her eyes heavenward. Fortunately, Izumi started to settle down halfway through the second performance. By the end of the final verse, the only sound coming from the next room was Mai's singing. "And I think to myself, What a wonderful world," Mai finished, and silence fell. It would be a more wonderful world, Azula reflected, if babies would learn to go to sleep on schedule.

She could hear Zuko and Mai whispering, but she couldn't make out the words. There was a creak, probably from the baby being set down in her crib. Then the sound of the nursery door being opened and closed. Azula waited until she was sure no one had stayed behind in the room to watch over the baby. She opened the panel from the hidden passageway and slipped into the nursery.

Izumi lay in her crib. She was asleep and therefore quiet, an all too rare blessing in the past months. People kept telling Mai and Zuko how beautiful she was, and the pair seemed to believe it. Personally, Azula thought that the girl looked kind of boiled. Azula shrugged, leaned over to pick up her niece, wrapped her still sleeping form in a blanket, and disappeared once more into the secret passages of the Fire Nation royal palace.

Getting into the prison unnoticed was trickier than getting out of the palace. It was still easier than it should have been. People didn't really believe that heads would roll if Zuko wasn't pleased. That would probably change soon enough. Azula made her way to the upper levels where her father was imprisoned. In her arms, Izumi still slept.

Ozai's cell was spare but far better appointed than what Azula had seen at the Boiling Rock. Better than the cell where Ozai had imprisoned Iroh for that matter. She doubted her father was very appreciative. He was awake, seated at a small table, writing. He didn't look up as she approached the bars.

For a moment, she stood and waited. He continued to ignore her. "Father," she said.

He looked up in surprise and smiled at her. "Azula. I thought you were some other tedious person. I'm surprised to see you at large."

"Zuko granted me parole," she said.

"I hope you've chosen your moment well," he said standing. "It's not likely that they'll give you a second chance to get in to see me." He looked down at the bundle in her arms. "What do you have there," he said frowning.

Azula moved the blanket aside so he could see. "This is Izumi. Your granddaughter."

He raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. I wasn't aware you had formed an… attachment."

"She's not mine," Azula corrected him. "She's Zuko and Mai's."

"Ah." He gave a thin smile. "I see. That was very clever of you to bring her. She will make an admirable hostage."

Azula frowned. She could see the logic in his assumption. She needed to set him straight. "I didn't bring her here as a hostage. I'm not breaking you out of prison."

He frowned. "Then what's the point? I will grant hurting her would hurt Zuko, and I do intend to have my revenge on him. But only when I am in a position to be fully in control of the aftermath."

"I also didn't bring her here for you to have revenge on Zuko. I brought her here so you could meet her."

He sighed. "I would view the long game of making Zuko's heir my ally an absolute last resort." He spoke slowly, as if to a simpleton. "It's not my intention to stay here the fifteen years at least required for her to be of sufficient influence. Even if it turns out that is the only strategy open to me, she's of no use to me when she can't even talk."

"She's not here to be of use to you," Azula said. "She's a baby. Babies aren't useful. They are smell and noisy and entirely inconvenient. She can't even speak, and when she learns she probably won't say much worth listening to. But she's family."

He snorted. "Family? What good is that to me?"

Azula didn't allow herself to react to his remark. "If you can make yourself pleasant to Izumi, perhaps even pretend to like her…" or actually like her, it's surprisingly easy "it is just possible that you might be…" forgiven, like me "allowed greater privileges."

He stared at her. "What has become of you? To think I once thought you worthy to be my successor. And now you come here suggesting I fawn over the spawn of that spineless whelp I once called a son, in hopes that he'll toss me some scraps like a good dog?" He turned away from her with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You know nothing. You're worse than that thing in your arms. At least it has an excuse for being brainless."

Azula looked down at Izumi. "'She'll learn much more than I'll ever know,'" she said, half to herself.

Ozai turned back to her sharply. "What?" he said, annoyed.

She shook her head. "It's from a song Mai sings to Izumi." Ozai barked a scornful laugh. "It's true, though," she said. "She's the future. You're the past. No one misses you." Except me. "Most people like what Zuko has made of the Fire Nation."

"The foolish may," he said. "The weak."

"And the strong ones who want power know that you will never ever be able to give it to them!" Izumi stirred in her arms. Azula closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "If you want nothing to do with her," she said more quietly, "I'll leave. I won't be back, and most likely neither will she."

Ozai stood silent for a moment, looking at her. "Bring her closer," he said at last. "Let me look at her."

Azula stepped close to the bars, turning to hold Izumi so Ozai could see her face. He leaned over and, with great accuracy, spat in Izumi's face. She startled awake and began to cry. Azula hurriedly dabbed at her niece with the corner of the blanket, trying to keep the spittle out of the infant's eyes.

"That is what I think of your so-called future, and that is what I think of family. I have no son. I have no granddaughter. And it seems I have no daughter. And I count it no great loss." He smiled at Azula. "But thank you for bringing her existence to my attention. I'll be sure to grant her my full attention when the time is right."

Azula took another step toward the bars, her eyes narrowing. "If anything at all happens to her," she hissed, "you had better pray that I'm already dead. Because I will hold you responsible. I will take you from this place to someplace no one will ever find you. And you will spend a day, no, a week of agony beyond your imagination for every year taken from her rightful life. I think she's probably supposed to live to a hundred, don't you?"

Ozai took a step back, his eyes suddenly wary. Azula's pleasure was dampened by the fact that Izumi continued to cry. Azula turned her back on her father and walked away from his cell.

"It's all right," she said to Izumi. "He didn't mean it. He'll come around." That's what you did with babies, wasn't it? Lie to them and tell them everything would be all right?

With a baby squalling in her arms, Azula didn't see much point in stealth any more. She left the prison by the front gate, past the astonished guards, and headed back toward the palace. Halfway home she started whispering to Izumi "I think to myself, what a wonderful world. I think to myself, what a wonderful world…" It didn't seem to help, but she kept it up.

Mai met her at the palace gates with knives in her hands and death in her eyes. At least she was alone. They looked at each other for a long moment.

Azula broke the silence. "Where's Zuzu?"

"Searching on the other side of the palace. Don't worry, I don't need help dealing with you. What are you doing with my daughter?"

"Right now I'm bringing her home. I took her to see her grandfather." Azula remembered that Mai's father was still alive, so she added, "The one she never sees. I thought that she might… that he might…" She closed her eyes. "Never mind. It was a stupid idea, and it didn't work out. Look, do you want to take her. I'm not very good at this comforting thing, and she's been crying since before we left the prison."

Mai stared at her. She had clearly expected that she would have to fight for her daughter's return. Which was a fair assumption, you had to admit. Cautiously, Mai sheathed her knives and reached out. Azula handed Izumi over, being careful not to make any moves that might look suspicious. Mai could probably hold the baby with one hand and put a dagger through Azula's throat with the other.

With Izumi in her arms, Mai's expression softened some, but her posture showed she was still poised for action. "How did you get her out of the nursery?"

"Through the secret passage."

Mai closed her eyes, looking like her head hurt. "Of course there's a secret passage to the nursery. Why wouldn't there be?" She opened her eyes again. "And why did you take her out through the secret passage? As opposed to asking, I mean?"

"I didn't think you and Zuko would agree to the visit." Mai just gave her a Look. Azula sighed. "Which is why I shouldn't have done it that way. This is one of those things that normal people understand, isn't it."

"It is."

"How do you learn these things, when no one ever tells you until after you've done it wrong?"

Mai just shrugged. "Come on," she said and walked into the palace. She sent messengers to find Zuko and tell him that their daughter was back. Then she led Azula to the nursery. On the way, Izumi stopped crying, which was both gratifying and annoying.

Mai put Izumi back in the crib. Then she turned to Azula. "Where's this secret passageway, then?" Azula pointed to the hidden panel. Mai nodded. "I'm having that sealed up, first thing in the morning."

"That's fair," Azula said.

"Since you're here, why don't you say goodnight to your niece before you go."

Izumi was quiet but awake. She stared up at Azula with wide eyes. Azula reached down to touch her gently on the forehead. Mai made no move to stop her. Izumi gave a little gurgle.

"I think she needs to hear that song again," Azula said. "The stupid one you were singing earlier, with the rainbows and the I-love-you's."

Mai raised her eyebrow. "Maybe so. Do you want to remain here while I sing it? You've had a busy night."

Azula nodded. "I suppose I could do that."

Author's note:

Pro-Bending Circuit, Season 5, Round 2

Baby challenge: Write about a sad moment for your characters and their baby

Words (excluding author's note) 1992

Prompts used: (object) blanket, (location) Fire Nation Capital, (song) What a Wonderful World