Gold-flecked
Warnings: Spoilers for the finale, implied Ty Lee/Azula.
The prison block was dark and cold despite the torches lining the stone walls. She shivered as she stood outside the cell door, a look of uncertainty crossing her face. She knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do, visiting her, but she needed closure. She needed to see what had become of her one-time leader.
Even now, her heart ached at her own treachery. But she'd been needed, in the way her leader never had required of her. She couldn't turn her back on her best friend, even on the pain of death. Still, a part of her, the part that deeply, truly cared about the prisoner behind the door, regretted what she'd done. Maybe if she hadn't, things wouldn't have turned out this way. Maybe her leader would be the one on the throne, maybe they could've had a happy ending.
No. She knew it could never have happened. But she still wished, in that traitorous part of her heart, that they could've been happy together. Even when all logic told her that her leader had never even respected her, she still wished on every star she saw at night.
It was all hopeless now, though. Her leader was here, now, behind bars, and she had a new life, one where people valued her and needed her. She'd never had that before and it felt... fulfilling in a way that being a lackey never could be.
She opened the door as silently as she could, so to not wake the girl inside if she slept, or at least to try not to rile her up. The girl was tied in chains still, a muzzle over her mouth, her hands locked behind her back. She was still dangerous, after all, and it wouldn't do if her keepers were burned due to negligence on their part.
Now, the girl was curled in one of the corners of her cell. Her once beautiful hair was matted, dirty, tangled around her shoulders, the unevenly cut portions of her fringe frizzy and curled. The clothes on her back were still the same ones she'd been brought in, the tattered remains of elegant embroidery and silky cloth, once a perfect outfit for a future queen. Her skin was dirty and slightly singed even now, a week after her defeat at her brother and that Water Tribe girl's hands.
From beneath the oily strands that hung in the girl's face, two wide, crazed eyes stared hard at her visitor, unwavering, glinting with flecks of gold.
She gulped under the girl's heavy gaze.
"Azula," she croaked out, looking at the wall behind Azula's head. In her peripheral vision, she knew Azula was sneering underneath the muzzle.
"Ty Lee," Azula greeted with a snarl. The sound of her voice sounded tinny, metallic, muffled, but no less powerful than it had once been. Now, however, there was an undercurrent of what Ty Lee knew to be Azula's insanity, clouding her very being with it. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"
If Azula had ever managed to figure out how to firebend through her eyes, Ty Lee would already be dead.
Ty Lee shrugged. "How are you?" she asked, changing the subject.
A harsh, unrestrained, uncontrollable laugh bubbled from Azula's throat, and she threw her head back in throes of debatable mirth. "I'm locked up in a cell, Ty Lee, with a muzzle on my face. How do you think I'm doing?"
Ty Lee grimaced. "Stupid question, huh?" She tried to sound as she used to: happy, flippant, clueless. From the look on Azula's face, she knew she'd failed. She'd never been the best of actresses, not when she faced this girl, this girl who had undone her and remade her into someone she didn't like.
"You never did look good in green." If it had come from anyone else, Ty Lee would've thought them trying to change the subject, but Azula was trying to hurt her, like she always did.
"It helps to wear face paint," Ty Lee agreed, cocking her head to the side.
Azula snorted. "Are you happy with the Kiyoshi Warriors?" she spat, rage building in those eyes that were cold and hot at the same time. "Were you happy when you betrayed me?"
"A part of me wasn't," she answered honestly. "A part of me will always know you as my friend. I'm sorry this happened to you."
"You put me here!" Azula accused, shaking her head violently and lunging for the cell bars, stumbling to keep her balance. "If you hadn't betrayed me, I would be Fire Lord! I would be ruler! This is all your fault!"
Each statement was like a knife to her heart. She didn't think she'd ever stop thinking of the what ifs and Azula's incriminations only made it worse. It was hard to believe otherwise, that this wasn't all her fault, that it could've been avoided if she'd just let Azula imprison or kill Mai. But the Avatar would've fought Lord Ozai anyway, the airships would've been destroyed anyway, they would've lost anyway, she told herself. If Azula had been Fire Lord, would it have really changed a thing? The Avatar would've gone for Azula next and she would've been left more of a shell than she was now.
"No," Ty Lee murmured softly. "The Avatar would've defeated or killed you after he stopped your father," she told Azula, refusing to look the bender in the eye. "Do you really think that would've been better?"
Frustrated tears ran down Azula's face as she struggled against her chains, against the bars of the cell, looking for all the world as though she'd like nothing more than to wrap her hands around Ty Lee's throat and watch the light in her eyes go out. "If I'd had you by my side," cried Azula, fury lacing her words, "we could've defeated the Avatar and I would be ruling the entire world now!"
Despair twisted Ty Lee's face, a look that was alien to her features and made her brow ache. "Is that really what you think?" Her fingers pulled at the hem of her green sleeves, fidgety and nervous. "What could I have done that would've changed anything?"
"You would have feared me! Your fear would've given me strength! I could do anything if you feared me!" Azula hissed, the metal of her mask clinking against the bars as she tried to push her face between them.
"Fear?" Ty Lee asked. She frowned. "I've never stopped fearing you. You terrify me, Azula."
"No, that's not what I mean." There was a sort of confusion in the firebender's eyes, as though she wasn't sure of what she meant herself, hidden beneath the anger and insanity. She shoved her shoulder in the empty space between the bars, struggling harder. "Why did you leave me?" Azula wondered, rage and hurt and an unholy glint in her eyes. "No one's ever allowed to leave me. I hate you."
Chewing on her lower lip, Ty Lee choked back a sob. It hurt to see Azula like this. It hurt to hear the words she so often thought to herself in private spoken to the world like this. And it hurt to realize that she recognized this part of Azula, the cruelty that could not be attributed to her mental state.
Steeling herself, Ty Lee moved forward with an innate grace, kneeled on the grimy floor in front of the fallen princess. She touched the tips of her fingers to Azula's furrowed brow, brushed dirty strands of hacked fringe from crazed eyes. "I'm sorry," she said, emotion clogging her throat. "I'm so sorry." She pressed her lips against Azula's forehead, feather light.
Then she stood and left the prison, never looking back.