This is a story about two women, who being in love with the same man transformed from mild-mannered lovers from afar into the darkest sort of villains to protect him. This is their story, of how they were Transformed by Love. Alternate ending starting at the Western Air Temple and going beyond the finale.
Zuko left the capital. This time of his own free will. Soaring away he felt a new kind of freedom and felt a rightness about what he had decided to do. No, he wasn't at peace, not yet, he still had to get them to accept him, but he was sure that this time, that tracking them and finding the Avatar was a matter of his destiny and restoring his honor. There was nothing he could think of that was more honorable than to betray his nation and attempt to right the century of wrongs it had committed by teaching the Avatar the life blood of his nation, firebending. He stared ahead into the clouds and the sun, keen eyes on the Avatar's bison, ready to challenge the future he had chosen for himself.
Now that the Invasion had ended and the prisoners were being locked away, the citizens were let out of the underground bunker, and Mai was returning home. As she walked she couldn't help but think of Zuko. She never believed in premonitions, but she had a funny feeling, a "women's intuition" as her mother would call it that something wasn't right at her home, she gazed over to the palace and the feeling increased. Worried, she sprinted home knowing that the palace would be locked and barricaded against the Avatar, ' Who would probably get in anyway ' she thought. She opened the door to her house and was taken aback by the cold air, apparently the servants had let down all the curtains before they had left. The hot air was all trapped outside, wanting to preserve this momentary coolness she closed the door quickly and walked through the shadows to where she knew her room was. She saw a strange, unfamiliar shape on the bed. Unsure of what it was, she approached it and slightly tied back a curtain. When she saw it was a scroll her insides felt like they dropped into her feet, and she started trembling, the feeling of foreboding had returned. Instinctively, she picked it up and began to read.
After her grand ousting of the Avatar, Azula walked to her father's bunker doors and rapped quickly three times in succession, hearing no reply she let herself in. What met her eyes amazed her. There was no one there, but there was a half-circle of scorch marks on the rug at the throne's feet. She wondered,' Why would her father light the rug on fire, was it a soldier trying to protect my father? If so, then who tried to attack him? I distracted the Avatar, who else would they send to fight him?' A voice told her to consider Zuko, but she dismissed that silly thought. A little troubled, but sure of her father's might, Azula turned around and walked out of the bunker and toward the path that would lead to the palace.
The air around the bison was silent as its riders. It seemed to carry the same sad aura that they felt, even the wind blew tiredly, whilst the sun raged bright and triumphant. Soon they were told by Aang that Appa would need to "touch down, he had a busy day, and gets tired carrying so many riders." After a few minutes more of struggled flying they landed in a nearby field. Everyone got off of Appa tiredly and left their things on the bison, surely he could carry just those, after all, they were tired too. If what Aang remembered was correct, they had a bit of walking to do before they reached the Western Air Temple. It was only an hour past noon, they had a long day ahead of them, made longer by their sorry defeat at the Invasion.
Zuko watched them touch down. He could tell by the way the bison was flying that it was tired. As he gazed further ahead he discovered he knew where they were going. With a sigh he succumbed to the bittersweet memories of his previous, accompanied journey to the Western Air Temple.
Mai sighed angrily as tears were already streaming down her cheeks. She flung a kinfe at the door, effectively closing it with a slam and threw a lighter, sharper one at the tieback holding the curtain open. If she was going to cry, she would make sure no one would see, she decided to throw an extra knife at the door, where the door met the wall, and wedged the knife in the crack to keep it from opening easily. Unless they wanted to shove open her door, she would have to let whoever decided to bother her in. Sighing again she thought to herself, 'Zuko is the only fool, the only brave, stubborn, self-righteous fool who I would fall more in love with for leaving me. Jerk.' She was mad at him of course, but she was too overwhelmed by sorrow and self-loathing to act out her self-righteous anger. Her mother did always tell her to pounce on her oppurtunities, and the next time she saw him, she promised herself, "I'm going to take that opportunity to tear him apart" for confusing her carefully defined loyalties and emotions this way. "Well," she thought aloud, "I better pull myself mostly together before Azula storms over to find out if I know what happened. I better keep this note, so she knows I wasn't wise to his plan, although I wish I had been, maybe I could have convinced him to let me go with him."
Azula sat before her father's throne, shocked. She knew Zuko would crack under the pressure somehow, but she figured he would hire an assassin to go after the Avatar and his motley crew, not join them himself. She was upset that he told Father that she had lied to him, Father was upset too, but after she had explained herself he said that he was "mildly impressed" with my plan, "but that you are never to lie to me again". I had to wonder, did Mai have anything to do with this, I can't see Zuko planning his escape to logically, nor with such foresight. I told Father of my concerns and he dismissed me saying "Take care of your friend's loyalty problems like you did your brother, don't get me involved in such petty grievances, I have a Final Battle to plan." With that he urged me to go, time to pay a little visit to Mai. Maybe I'll take Ty Lee the honest to a flaw, aura-reader with me. She'll tell me if Mai is telling the truth.
'What are we going to do now?' Sokka thought drearily. He was the "Plan Guy" and his plan had failed. He had to think of something quick before everyone lost hope. As they came to the Western Air Temple it dawned on him. Maybe we don't have to think of a new plan, but just put the finishing touches on the old one. Defeat the Fire Lord before the Comet comes, plain and simple, at least to say, but I'll discourage... challenge myself with the details later. Now we have to convince Aang that he can't lose hope and retreat back to a twelve year old Airbender kid. He has to stay the Avatar if we are to have any chance of winning this war. All we need now it seems is a firebending/jerkbending teacher to complete his avatar requirements, or at least it sounds that simple. One more weapon to throw at the guy never hurt; if its his own weapon, even better.
Now that he knew where the Avatar was headed he slowly pressed ahead of them in his war balloon. He would set down in the forest nearby, and climb the cliff side to the temple and take a rope down. He had been here before, so he was sure of his way around, but he was still nervous about what to say to them. After he elegantly crashed landed through the trees, he set up camp, just in case. It also gave him time to think. Shortly after his landing and setting up camp, he took a rope and climbed the cliff to the temple. He thought that they would be appearing soon and decided to wait for them. Memories haunted him, but he could only reassure himself that he was doing the right thing now; however as he saw them descend on the bison to another part of the temple, Zuko's courage lost the battle with his guilt and he ran.
Mai knew Azula was testing her, that's why she made little attempt to clean her tear-stained face. Being as Mai wore no facial powder it was hardly noticeable, but Azula and Ty Lee saw like a messenger hawk, and Ty's aura-reading saw through all lies. That coupled with Ty Lee nearly tackling Mai with a hug when she saw that she had been crying and Mai handing Azula the note, kept Mai safe from any form of treachery. Mai was briefly thankful that Zuko had the sense to not attach a map or anything traceable about his destination, although that also meant that she couldn't follow. Mai was too overwhelmed by her no longer repressed emotions to care about Azula's personal and nearly insulting line of questioning. Mai just nodded and cried, speechless.
Azula took this as a symbol of Mai's loyalty to her, seeing as how Mai was so distraught over her idiotic, weakling, fool of a brother. 'Heir to the throne, well not anymore Zuzu, you messed up royally this time, and now Father's not leaving you a fool's errand of a redemption quest either,' Azula thought to herself rolling her eyes at Mai's emotional display. Mai had to move on now, she would never do something foolish that would compromise her family's position, and Zuzu was never coming back, alive, unless he was to be brought to a public execution. "He's gone Mai, he left you, and this time there's no hope of him coming back. I'll give you today to pull yourself back together. Tomorrow I'll send Ty over to fetch you, we have a world to conquer Mai, and when you are your stoic self again, you can rule by my side." Azula watched as Mai held her breath then, sucking up her tears, and nodded, with a strange look in her eyes, like she was envisioning the future, our glorious future, where the Fire Nation rules supreme. With this vision Azula in her head, Azula motioned to Ty Lee to leave, and walked out Mai's bedroom door, she knew Ty Lee would catch up with her in a minute, she was reading Mai's aura, and Azula could question Ty Lee later about what she had seen feigning concern for her other "best friend". Azula considered them more as useful allies than friends, she had seen what friendships had done to people in the Academy for Girls; and although she knew how to be a friend, she preferred to detach herself from the actual sacrifices that friendship required.
'Something's wrong with Twinkletoes' Toph thought aboard Appa as they chased Aang around the temple. 'He's not acting like himself, he's acting like an irresponsible, excitable kid. Well, I now he is those things, but its like he's reacting wrongly to the failure at the Invasion. He went from being overly stressed out, to responsible adult, to making painful sacrifices and heartfelt speeches, but now, its like all that maturity disappeared. Its like he's trying to convince himself that the world will go on if he spends all day flying about and playing in the all-day echo chamber. I'll have to straighten that boy out if Sugarqueen doesn't.' Toph was ready to open her mouth and do it, now that she was off of Appa and could feel him on the ground again. She didn't however, because her foot count came up with an extra pair, and Toph didn't like to be surprised. She decided not to get onto a battle stance, because the extra pair of feet's racing, fluttering heartbeat seemed nervous and non-threatening. Whoever this was, it felt like they were trying to regain their calm before steeling themself for battle; Toph didn't like that feeling, but rather than react, she thought that judgment would be better left to the seeing people. She decided instead of capturing this person that she would point them out. Strangely, the person stepped forward, uncertainly, as she called out their hiding place. When she heard who it was and felt the Gaang's heartbeat and battle position reactions she got in a stance as well. The stance was a precautionary measure. She could tell Zuko wasn't in any stance to fight, and now that he had been found out his heartbeat steadied, and slowed slightly, as if knowing that they were going to attack calmed him, weird kid. Things got even weirder when he started apologizing, his hello was hilariously awkward, but no one laughed. When he started talking the accusations flew, he denied nothing, and took the attacks in a weather-worn way that interested Toph. 'This isn't how someone reacts when they're going to attack you,' she mused. She about wanted to get her ears checked when he offered to teach Aang firebending. She was even more shocked when they refused to take him as a prisoner. 'I mean come on, how much easier can he make this for you guys?' Toph thought outraged. Sometimes she wonders why she joined such fools, and wishes that everyone could read truth with their feet.
"Stupid, Stupid Stupid!" Zuko berated himself the rest of the day, and as night fell he got ready to sleep, planning how to earn their trust and attempt to get them to understand him the next day, because apparently his impressions and Uncle self- pep talk were alot of help. He fell asleep as the sun set and wondered why he has to struggle and fight even in dreams; can't he ever get a break? As he resigned himself to a night of fighting his inner demons he heard a branch break, someone was coming. "Who's there?" Upon hearing her voice, Zuko jumps up realizing he firebended prematurely. When she tells him that he burned her feet, he reflects on his own burn and his guilt overwhelms him to try and help her even though she is flinging boulders at him. Eventually he fails to move in time and is thrown back towards his camp, winded. When he catches his breath he realizes that Toph has disappeared into the bushes beyond his night vision without the moon. Feeling guilty and frustrated he throws himself on the ground and shouts to the spirits "Why am I so bad at being good!?!" He would struggle with this question for the rest of the night, and as the sun rose he made him way to the temple, racking his brain for someway, somehow, to apologize to the earthbender and to get them to trust him, now that he had injured one of their own. As he walked he stared at the ground and when he heard the loud screech of an eagle hawk and saw a glint of light in the forest he hid behind the trees and approached the source. When he saw the assassin he had hired he felt panic flood through him. How would he stop him, he had to save the Avatar if the world wanted any chance of surviving his Father's ruthless plan. Filled with new determination and a near suicidal sense of duty, he tracked the assassin carefully, petitioning Agni and Avatar Roku to help him save possibly the last Airbending Avatar.
Mai sat in the dark of her room, wondering when she had last stopped to consider what she felt was right and wrong. Azula made the war sound glorious, but she had seen the state of the Earth Kingdom on her travels. She had heard of the refugees living in near squalor in Ba Sing Se's lower ring. Her parents had tried to detach her from the war, but they couldn't keep her from listening. She saw the fear and vulnerability in the eyes of the Kyoshi Warriors, she had seen in their leader the same self-righteous fire that Zuko tried to quench coming out of the war meeting with his father. For once she was at a loss of what to do. Her mother had been sure to raise her to respond politically to any situation; but politics, she knew, was a practice of abandoning morals for selfish ambition. Thinking back on what Azula had said, she realized she only had a day to decide. 'Is this how Zuko felt?' she wondered. He left the day after the final grand war meeting. Everything now was to be carried out by the various generals, admirals and captains. Mai had to decide, she knew there was no logical way that Zuko was coming back, unless the Avatar managed to defeat Firelord Ozai and displace Azula for the throne. She could try to escape to the Earth Kingdom and find him, but the possibility of her escaping was slim and even if she did she would be always on the run from Fire Nation troops who would have a warrant out for her, a deserter and traitor to the princess. The political thing to do would be to cut her losses and ally herself with the winning side, which now clearly looked to be Azula and Firelord Ozai. However, she didn't want to give up hope that Zuko would make a difference. Recognizing that thought for the treachery it is, she knew she had chosen her side. She could only hope that she was a good enough actor to fool Azula and that Ty Lee wouldn't rat her out. With treachery came insight apparently, she now saw that Azula was just using Ty Lee and herself, and that revelation was enough to make it so she didn't have to fake her anger, which Azula would assume was directed toward Zuko. She would sit a while longer, musing and reflecting on this new moral world that had opened up to her, and then she would go to see Azula to present the facade and effectively "seal the deal" on her traitorous decision. What she would do besides thought-crime at this point remained a mystery, but hopefully fate, which she grudgingly believed in, would clearly present her an opportunity and even more hopefully it would connect her with Zuko.
Azula was impressed, which is a hard thind to do. "You have decided well Mai, keep that rage, let it fuel your fighting desire for conquest, for revenge." Azula praised. "I intend to." Mai responded sharply looking away from Azula with cutting eyes. "Well, Mai, Ty Lee, we have war plans to attend to. The generals aren't going to get it right themselves." With that Azula walked out of her room in the palace and towards the wing where the war plans were being carried out. Her pace left no doubt that they would be visiting the airship field and Fire Navy docks later that afternoon. It would be a long day, and the plans were only beginning. Azula had self-appointed herself to oversee all of them; to keep her informed and to review for flaws in plans or flawed people. Both of which she intended to dispose of.
They had gotten too self assured, Sokka realized, when Combustion Man attacked. Now that he looked back on it, Sparky Sparky Boom Man was too demeaning a name for the amount of danger he put them through. It went unsaid that they were surprised to see Zuko swing in to the rescue. Well, attempted rescue, all he did was manage to divert the blast and the attention of the assassin he hired, who then proceeded to blow him off the cliff side. Poor Zuko, almost, Sokka wanted to feel sorry for him, but he figured that was karma, which he didn't believe in but thought that Zuko would. Sokka didn't quite like entrusting his life into the hands of something he couldn't control or petition for a change with his great intellectual arguments or suavity. It also went without saying that if it wasn't for the recent danger Sokka would have been gloating over his awesomely skilled shot that took out Combustion Man. The third surprise of the day, the first being that Toph showed up with burnt feet and the second being that Combustion Man found them, was that Zuko had survived Combustion Man's point blank fire attack off the cliffside. The guy climbed up a vine to a floor fragment. He just doesn't know when to quit, the poor guy must really have a reason for doing this if he is going through all this trouble. Maybe we should hear him out; worse case scenario, it would give us an excuse to attack him again. Here he comes, time to roll out the guilt/ammunition wagon. Wow, Zuko is actually making sense, and acting like he finally decided to use his brain and open his eyes to see just who his Daddy really is. I really was suprised Katara said yes, but I can see why. Aang needs a firebending teacher, Toph was right. 'Not that I'll ever tell her that'. Of course, I was the one who had to show the (air quote Toph) "reformed prince that is no longer a heir because he turned traitor" to his room. Talk about awkward, I didn't even really have to lead the guy, he just trailed behind waiting for me to show him to an open door. Also, he was quiet and smiling, which I've never seen without a fiery attack sequence behind it, not including the fact that this was no "I'm going to smite you" smile. After letting him know about lunch later I walked out talking to Aang and as he turned the corner flying off on his air scooter I heard footsteps down the hall. I turned around quickly, suspicious of Zuko's sudden change. I saw Katara, with a face looking like the way it did when I told her that I lost her favorite penguin-seal doll to the ice flow sea. That also happened to be the day we found out she was a waterbender. I don't like to remember the fit she threw that day, so in the name of self-preservation, namely seeing how long I would need to cater to her later tonight I followed her to Zuko's room listening from around the corner to what she said to him. Listening to Katara I was surprised at her, I never expected her to threaten him with his life. I had little doubt that given enough reason she would find a way to kill him, even though Zuko was one guy who was hard to pin down and kill. I almost felt sorry for him, but I figured he deserved it when Katara walked out of his room. What I wasn't prepared for was Zuko's sigh and the crashing sound of a body falling back on a bed. I almost laughed when I heard him coughing on the dust. When suddenly his room lit up like a bonfire I rushed to hide under the window to listen in. He sighed "much better, all sparkles and no scorch marks, good." I managed to keep myself from laughing at the sparkles part, but how was I to know that dust+fire=glass. Then I heard him pick something up and lay on the bed again, only this time he seemed to be talking to himself, or whatever he was holding I guessed. As I walked away I heard him whisper, "Uncle, I really wish you were here right now. You know how to act around these people, how to be... normal. I guess I never realized how much I needed your wisdom till I didn't have it. I miss you, and I hope I'll see you again." Now I'm leaving depressed, but not over Zuko, oh no, but over the fact that what he said reminded me so much of the way I felt towards my own father. I could only hope that the Fire Nation would be civil with the leader of the Invasion and the Southern Water Tribe.