Author Notes:
This is somewhat of a half-fanfiction/half-guesswork. I'll leave all my headcanons, and as many of my biases as I can, behind me and am try and guess how "The Search" will go. Feel free to throw in your two cents any time you wish.
The Promise will do it in three volumes, I'll try to do it in six chapters. Onward!
The cell was small, cold, dark and isolated. She'd care, if she could bring herself to, like she once did. But that was long ago, a lifetime away. The man who she once idolized and would follow without a fault was now a mess in drags. She couldn't care. Maybe if she could bring herself to she wouldn't feel so cold and lonely, but she couldn't. It was the way of life really, monsters don't get a happy endings; it is beyond their grasp.
The man, her father, looked up. There was certain power between his motions, as if he was still in some form of control, as if a powerful person lay underneath him. Maybe he was right, in his mind, considering his expectations.
The reality was not what he expected; it was not Zuko. With Zuko he could play, Zuko he could tease, Zuko he could manipulate. Zuko was soft. Zuko was cowardly. Zuko was weak. This was not Zuko; this was a woman in royal clothes he knew very well.
She could see it in his eyes: the realization that his game was up. He could no longer talk or annoy his way out of the situation. In front of him was the infallible tool he crafted. Slowly his posture softened, his domineering aura dissipated, the illusion of control wasn't there anymore.
"The guards outside were relieved from duty, they'll be back in a few hours." That was a lie, the guard outside the door was doubled, but he needed one last push, he needed to know that right now he was not safe.
The moment hang between them, silence so think you could cut it with a knife.
"She's on Lu Pao island."
As soon as she exited the room guards swarmed around her, making sure that she'd be unable to escape. Flanked from all sides the petite, pale woman slowly started her march towards the visitor room where her brother waited, a victorious smile on her face. Her plan was going well and now Zuzu could do nothing about it – with all his power, all his wealth, everything the crown entitled him to he was completely at her mercy.
The irony, a man wrapped in silk was at the mercy of a girl who spent the better part of last year in a straight jacket. She chuckled, no matter what her brother never changed. Poor Zuzu...
When she entered the visitor room she held her head high, as if coming back from a victorious campaign, her posture screamed victory. It was having the effect she wanted, she could see it in Zuko's eyes – he knew she has what he wanted. Now all he had to do was ask, and she'd wait for it. Let him beg her for it. It was a standoff-ish situation really, who'd crack first.
A moment pass, then a second, then a third, then Zuko's patience ran out.
"Well?"
"I know where she is." She gave him a coy smile, the 'I'm-not-telling' one.
"Where is she?"
Azula kept her silence, just that irritating smile on her lips.
"Tell me!" The Firelord's temper flared.
"Tsk-tsk, patience Zuzu, patience, I can easily guide us there."
"Out of the question."
She wasn't bothered by that; she expected it. Azula just shrugged her shoulders as if it was the most trivial thing and kept smiling at him. She was getting what she wanted.
"You will tell me what I want to know and then get back to the asylum."
Almost...
"This is not what we agreed on!"
A little more...
"WHERE IS MOTHER!?"
Her smile widened, she'd won.
"Guards, take her away!"
As she was being led away from him she turned her head and said in her coyly, sing-song voice.
"Do visit when you change your mind."
Zuko watched as the bison descended from the sky on the main plaza. He watched as his friend jumped down and petted the beast and as he greeted him wholeheartedly. Then he embraced him.
"Aang it's good to see you, what are you doing here?"
"Oh you know, had some business in the area, decided to drop by."
"Katara?"
Aang rubbed the back of his neck, in his signature way when he was talking about something he sort-off knew.
"She's at the South Pole, they needed her for something." His eyes drifted somewhere, obvious they explained it to him, but Aang hardly paid attention. "So how are you doing?"
As always, Zuko's face explained it all.
"That bad, huh?"
"I was so close to finding my mother, so close."
"What happened?"
"The gambit with my sister didn't pay off."
"Why not?"
"She won't tell me, she wants to "guide" me there."
For a moment there was a puzzled look on Aang's face.
"Why not?"
That stopped the Firelord dead in his tracks.
"What do you mean why not?"
"Well...why not use her as a guide?"
"Because...I don't even know where to start. She's a liar, all she ever did was to destroy me, she hates me, she can't be trusted she's...Azula!"
For a moment it seemed like Aang didn't know what to say or do.
"Why don't you let me talk with her?"
His friend gave him a weird look.
"You never know Zuko, maybe she just wants to meet her mother too."
Zuko was looking at him as if Aang has gone completely insane.
-0-
The girl was not what he expected, or remembered. The young woman's gaze wasn't as piercing or menacing as it once was, her eyes were drifting, as if staring at something beyond him. Her hair was nicely made-up, probably because of her recent visit to the former firelord, but it looked like it wasn't properly treated in a while. Her skin was paler, she seemed to have dropped a few pounds, although he may be remembering wrong. If the staff didn't tell him that was Princess Azula, he wouldn't know.
Her straightjacket was making him uncomfortable. They told him it was for his own protection, but...
"Hi" The Avatar started.
She stared at him for several seconds, blinking in surprise, that was unexpected. Why would the Avatar be here? To take her bending? No, he would have done so long ago if he wished? To threaten her? Not Zuko's style. To gloat? A year too late. What was he doing here?
She just kept staring at him puzzled.
"Zuko said your dad told you where your mom is." Now that he thought about it Aang felt somewhat inadequate for this "And that you wouldn't tell him." This was the first time he was trying to extract information "Why?"
Then her face changed for puzzled to angered.
"Why should I?" The response was sharper, more hostile than Aang anticipated, or Azula wanted to deliver.
"Because he's your brother."
The girl started to laugh, it wasn't an innocent, or even a pleasant laughter, it was somewhat disturbing, as if she was laughing at a bad joke you weren't supposed to laugh.
"Aren't we a happy family?"
"Don't you want to see your mother?"
Azula's smile vanished
"It's my mother, what do you think?"
"Then why don't you tell Zuko?"
"I don't trust him."
-0-
When Aang entered the room Zuko got a bad feeling, people don't come from Azula with smiles on their face and when they do you'd better run.
"Zuko, I solved the problem."
"She gave you my mother's location."
"No, she'll guide us there."
Closing author notes:
As I said this is somewhat of a guessing game for me, let's see how much of "The Search" I can guess, therefore I think it's only fair for me to explain my line of thought. One of the first things "The Search" will begin with is Azula pulling information from Ozai, since this was the cliffhanger "The Promise" left us with. Now in this scene Ozai get's to face his own creation and he knows that unlike Zuko, Azula IS going to do something horrible to him if he doesn't cooperate, so he gives in. There is a short moment in which he is trying to swallow his pride, not assess the situation, he knows Azula can make him talk, he made sure of this, so he gives in – even in his current state he doesn't want to end up eating through a tube.
In the second scene Azula refuses to give the information to Zuko, why? Because she knows her brother is going to throw her in the asylum if she does, something that the girl doesn't want. Now I'd like to back off for a minute towards the animated series and The Promise.
A lot of fanfics (mine included) tend to portrait Zuko as a caring or sympathetic brother, however if we look at the series this really isn't the case. In the whole two seasons the two of them are together he shows sort-of-sympathy towards her once – when she was falling to her death and even then we can compare that scene to the one where Zhao died. Zuko extended his hand towards Zhao, he did not give his sister the same courtesy.
Furthermore we can clearly see that for the most part Zuko is jealous of Azula, the attention she gets, her achievements, her talents – he shows dislike towards her for those things. So I guess while we want Zuko to be a better man, he just isn't as good as we want him to be, remember, he wins the "Not-as-much-of-a-jerk-as-you-could-have-been" award, not the "Aang medal".
Which leads me to "The Promise" and the post-series admittance of Azula. Initially I though, like most people, that Zuko did this in hopes she get's better, but I seem to have changed my mind on this. Zuko did it because it's the humane thing to do, he's not a bad guy, but he might as well be planning to throw her in jail afterward or never thought he'd have to deal with her again.
When we see them talk in Part 3, it is clear that he's visiting her for the first time. They speak completely formally, business like, there is nothing indicating care or understanding, given the way Zuko acted or behaved, he didn't sound much sympathetic to her situation.
Which is why Azula doesn't tell him the location – she needs help, help that the institution can't provide – Zuko is not going to give it to her, he doesn't want to deal with her. Thus Azula's role as a major character is formed – she blackmails her way into the main cast.
We also see the new dynamic – Zuko is the one dominant in the relationship, Azula is at his mercy. However personality wise Azula doesn't got well with being submissive, so she tries to use any hook she has to create some form of authority. On the other hand Zuko is not that good at commanding, so despite the fact that he does have power over his sister, he is still being led by her.
Now when Aang suggested "You never know Zuko, maybe she just wants to meet her mother too." he is pretty much being his naïve always optimistic self, but in this case he is right. Why? Because we see the first character development for Azula that happened between Sozin's Comet and The Promise. She doesn't have a crafted master plan, a complicated, carefully calculated strategy, she is willing to throw all her chips on a blind hope given to her by an unreliable source – even if she is unwilling to admit it to herself.
Lastly you'd noticed that Azula doesn't trust Zuko, she said so herself. Why? When he joined the Avatar Zuko became the first person to betray her trust, seeing how "Trust is for fools", Azula isn't willing to play the fool twice.