Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender or its characters

He could feel the cold floor under him, he could feel the cold wall behind him and he could feel the cold in the air around him. The temperature had fallen recently but he still refused to use the blankets given to him. They had been requested by the new Fire lord, his traitor son and he would not lower himself to receive anything from him. He might not be Fire lord anymore, he might not be the Phoenix King anymore and he maybe in prison, but by refusing he could assert some control over his situation.

While he involuntarily shook from cold in his cell, a figure approached making their way through the guards. He raised his head at the door opening, but instead of seeing a guard coming to bring food or just sneer at him, he was faced with a woman he thought was gone long ago.

"Ursa" He whispered her name half in fear she was just an illusion. His princess, his woman, his wife. When he had first met her, he had been largely free of the ambition, the need for power that would later dominate him. He had loved her and she had loved him back, she had been a perfect wife and had given him two children. But his jealousy over Iroh had grown, the need to prove himself as the better son and later the better heir took over his heart. Soon all he could think about was getting to the top and proving to everyone he was the better choice. His ambition nearly killed his son and drove her away. Instead of grieving his loss he hid it and tried to convince himself she was nothing a pawn used and now thrown away. Now she stood in front of him, alive and with fire in her eyes. His heart soared for the sight of her was more powerful than his mind could turn his heart against once more.

"You're alive" He moved to the bars, he longed to reach his hand out and touch her.

"Yes and I've come with a question for you" Her eyes once so warm so loving, faced him with ice. He just nodded.

"Why Ozai? I left, I sacrificed my way of life and my soul to keep my child safe by committing murder for you. Then once my back is turned you destroy both my children, our children." Both? He knew she would have issue with Zuko's banishment but not Azula.

"I expected you to be angry over Zuko. But Azula?"

"Azula is my daughter, I always loved her and I always will. But you, you saw her talent and shaped her as a weapon, a tool to achieve your own desires and your own ambition. Did you think I did not see what you were doing? You feared me, my influence as her mother, so you created fear. Everytime I got close you pulled her away, you whispered into her ears that I believed her to be a monster. You fuelled her paranoia and convinced her fear and control was the only way for her to live and interact." He knew she expected him to fight back, deny and argue but the fire of his soul could not withstand the fire of hers. In his years as Fire lord he had coveted ultimate power and his daughter had been his weapon so often. So he said nothing and only watched as she moved closer, close enough to touch but all hope of that had died. She had come here as a revenging mother, not a loving wife.

"I left hoping your ambition would end with your coronation as Fire lord, now I laugh at how naïve I was. How naïve I was to think you could ever be the father they needed. Azula needed love not power, as Zuko needed to be loved not stripped down and left fighting for his honour at 13!."

"He needed to learn" The voice as well as the sentiment behind it even sounded pathetic to him.

"He was a boy, your son. He loved his country and for it you scarred him and banished him. I lived in seclusion, fearful if I did not detach myself I would soon be running back. The first time I saw my son, I didn't want to believe it was him. I did not want that scar and that suffering to be a part of my son. But when I saw it, I knew it was you and I knew you had finally become the monster I feared you would become." She spoke softly but the emotion in her voice and her eyes stripped him to the bone like whips, lashing him to the soul. Without his power, with his wife standing there recalling his crimes not at the world but at his children, he had no where to hide.

"And while our son was disgraced and banished to find the Avatar. You continued with Azula, poisoning her soul, shaping our daughter in your image. Do you know what happened to her? She believed only fear was needed to keep loyalty and when that failed she began to see treachery everywhere. Your training, your lies and your manipulation pushed her to the limit and now her fragile mind is almost broken and I do not know how I can try to help her." Her voice so impassioned quietened for her final plea. "So please Ozai, tell me why?"

"I became blinded by jealousy, everything became about what Iroh didn't have. I loved you, but I would be lying if I said Iroh's own status as a husband was nothing to do with it. Zuko's birth was not just the birth of my first born son but also another equaliser to me and Azula's was a triumph. My jealousy prompted me to see Azula's talent and nurture it and her to become my advantage. My jealousy is what drove me to speak out after Lu Ten's death and it was what drove me to consider killing my own son to reach my ultimate triumph over Iroh." He could not look at her, not now. "I continued to nurture Azula as my advantage but my relationship with Zuko faulted as I saw Iroh try to step up. I resented that, all I saw was Iroh trying to take a part of my triumph. When he spoke up in the meeting I could not help but see Iroh in his speech and in his thinking, I reacted in anger. You had always been the heart of our family and without your influence, my ambition took over and my children became pawns."

"Would you take it back? If I freed you right now, and gave you that time again, would you change anything?"

"Yes"