Setting/Summary: Azula has spent years in a mental hospital, after being released into Ty Lee's care she must recover as well as redeem herself for her bloody past. Takes place after the great war, takes only the events of the original 3 season series as canon (so the setting is kind of alternate universe, though I do alter some minor details from the series to better fit the story). I would also like to note that I take events in a realistic light. Meaning that events from series are taken as they would have actually happened had the original media not been a kids TV show.

Rating: T for violence, referenced torture, dark psychological, and sexual (in the future) themes. Rating will most likely go up in later chapters.

Author's Note: This is my first fanfic ever (so input is appreciated! ^^). It was inspired by an artwork which is listed on my profile. I really struggled (and continue to struggle) with the character development. Try as I might, I cannot believe that Azula is truly some heartless psychopath that is incapable of emotion, or that Ty Lee is some air headed idiot that doesn't understand the world around her. Ty Lee's outburst on Ember Island about her situation, and Azula's final hours in the the third season (as well as her own admission on Ember Island) forever changed my perception of both characters. So the Ty Lee and Azula you see here are the adults that have spawned from my imagination.

Notes added at a later date: The first three chapters are something of a psychological setup. I think build up and development are some of the most important things in any media, so the first three chapters function as an emotional/psychological setup for Azula. Also, updates are very irregular. Sorry about that, but it's a mixture of personal writing style/preference as well as time constraints.

The characters and premise are not mine, but this story is. Enjoy!

She screamed, she bent fire at the sky, she cried. In the last hours of her would be reign everything she had ever tried to hide had been brought bubbling to the surface. It hadn't mattered to her how many thousands witnessed her slow descent into insanity, but she herself was faced with the painful truth, the truth she had tried for so long to burn away in the fires of battle.

The ghosts that haunted her wouldn't leave, the visions that plagued her wouldn't stay quiet. What had she done to deserve the ire of these people? Why were they hounding her, even now, after so long? She had despised them before, and she despised them now.

Uncle, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, and her mother. She didn't care how much pain she had caused them, she had tortured two of them herself… even if their blood had mixed with her tears. Had Ty Lee seen her crying? Had Mai thought to pity her even as she beat her within an inch of her life? The idea was positively revolting. She might have expected their pity had she known how things would turn out, but she hadn't the clairvoyance to know that they could so easily return to haunt her.

Almost all of her time was occupied with trying to block out their voices, trying so hard to ignore their pleas. It was like with each repeated declaration of compassion her soul was slowly being torn apart. Their voices haunted her day and night. They didn't give her a moments peace, and it had only gotten worse after she had been confined to a cell.

With no light aside from a few candles, suffering from sensory deprivation she had slowly begun to lose what little ability to cope she had left. It was a chore to think, it was a pain to move from her bed, she cringed on the inside every time the door opened, not knowing who would enter next.

She had seen her father walk through the door multiple times only to spit contempt at her. She had seen Zuko victoriously walk through the door to offer his sincere apologies and wish that she get better. The worst was her mother. Azula had lost count of the times she had quietly walked through the door and sat down beside her bed. At first Azula had greeted her mother with with all the coldness and indifference she could muster, but that never lasted long. Ursa would begin to talk about the person she had been, who she was now, and everything in between. Azula would grind her teeth, clench her eyes shut, and manage three words. They had become her mantra when her mother visited her:

"I hate you. I hate you! I hate you!"

She would stumble off of her bed, collapse from the weakness in her limbs, and manage to bend fire at her mother. Only after she disappeared into silence would Azula allow herself to open her eyes again. She knew she would come again. The fear, the helplessness, and the other emotions made her sick. Her body would rebel, trying to empty the imagined toxins from her body. But Azula already knew before the spasms took her: she had nothing left to give.

She had been lost in her own mind for so long that it took her what seemed like weeks to realize that she was looking at seemingly real, but different surroundings. Had the air in her lungs ever felt so cold? Was the light from the window a trick of her mind? If it was she hoped that it would all end soon.

Even if she seemed to be in a different room, the darkness had not left her. She could still feel the ghosts lurking at the back of her mind. She brought her hands to her head only to find her wrists shackled to the edges of her bed. She bit down to keep herself from screaming. Now she was even chained in her dreams? It was only fitting, she told herself. She had wrought her own failure, and her mind was weak.

Something was dripping downward from her mouth. Red was beginning to appear on her chest, even if her eyes weren't open to see it.

"Stop... please." said a voice.

Azula jerked her eyes open and turned her head to glare at the person she already knew was there.

"You. Why is it the empty headed traitor who must haunt my dreams? I don't care about your useless dribble, I only ever listened so that I could use you. The least you could do would be to disappear so that I can suffer this in peace." Azula was speaking through gritted teeth.

It had always tortured her to know that Ty Lee was the one that haunted her mind the most after her mother. Her mother was dead and gone, she despised her mother... but Ty Lee... she would have spit fire in her face if she hadn't been trying not to choke on her own blood.

"Azula, please... just... do you know where you are?" Ty Lee said, as if she were honestly expecting an answer.

Azula looked away from Ty Lee and realized she was looking out the window. What she saw shocked her beyond what she would have thought possible. In all her dreams, this one place had remained untouched, unrecalled by her wretched conscience as it sought to throw up every little memory as a stumbling block. It was almost as if her mind had been avoiding this place, trying to forget what had happened here so long ago... forget the truths she had spoken, and the ones she had heard.

After a while she heard Ty Lee's voice again, it was distant as if calling from out over the waves she could see beyond the window. Azula snapped her mouth shut and jerked her head around to look at Ty Lee.

The girls face was distraught, there was worry written on her features, and her eyes showed a combination of sadness and hope.

"I didn't know how you would react... it took forever to convince Zuko and Aang to even consider letting you stay here. And even then..." she stopped short, moving her head around slightly as if to get a better look at Azula's face.

The realization was slowly beginning to dawn on Azula... could this be real? It had to be, never before had she dreamt of Ember Island, never before had she dreamt of Ty Lee clad in green... her mind had never seen fit to conjure up anything like it. When had she ever seen Ty Lee wear green?

Her eyes wouldn't focus. She wasn't crying, but her surroundings seemed to repeatedly blur and then become clear again. She stared off into the distance trying to desperately right her vision, but nothing was helping. In a moment of weakness she raised her hand and felt the distracting tug of chains again.

This was beyond cruel, this trick was... but it wasn't a trick, and that was the worst part.

Finally her vision went beyond blurring, and she felt herself falling to the sound of Ty Lee's voice. Shortly after Ty Lee's voice had gone silent it was replaced by others, as if to send her faster into the depths of the abyss.