This oneshot is a teaser for an (eventual) azutara story, A Small Light in the Dark.

May 101AG

It had been 9 months since Azula had been put in the asylum and there had been no progress with her at all. She stopped screaming and throwing fire, but that was likely due to exhaustion rather than a healthier state of mind.

Six doctors had come and gone, but none of them could offer any solution. The last one said, "Dr. Sing in Ba Sing Se, they say he's a prodigy."

Zuko wrote to him, desperately begging him to come help his sister.

The doctor usually didn't make house calls, but he was a young doctor trying to establish his practice. A good word from the Fire Lord could make all the difference. He could not afford to reject this plea.

"I will need her medical records and her personal history as well as you know it. I need to find someone to run my clinic in my absence, so I will not be able to leave for a few weeks."

Zuko sent the papers he had amassed over the past 9 months and the Head Sage helped him write a personal account of his sister. He wasn't there for three years of her life, so he needed help with that. Mai added what she knew, and they sent it all to Ba Sing Se.

June 101AG

After reviewing the papers and finding a doctor to run his clinic in his absence, Dr. Sing took a sky ship, paid for by the Fire Lord, to the palace. He had never flown in one before. He had spent the money he had opening his clinic and did not have any spare coins for such luxuries, not that he had time to leave the capital city anyway. A lot of people needed his help from Joo Dees to war veterans, and he strived to help anyone he could. Illnesses of the mind were often the cruelest. He had seen many a people decline in horrifying ways during his time in medical school. He hoped he could provide some solutions.

Once they docked in Capital City, he was quickly ushered into a carriage and taken to the Palace right away. If he was having any second doubts, it was too late as there was a royal guard on his left and his right. He felt like he was in some type of protective custody. It was unsettling.

After about 30 minutes, they arrived at the palace. It was large, not as large as King Kuei's, but it was more intimidating given all of the black.

He was lead up the stairs and promptly directed to the Fire Lord's office. All he had with him was a basket and a messenger bag. He would have anything else he needed sent to him.

"Dr. Sing, thank you for coming." Zuko was a tall man. He was still filling out, but he was already broader and more intimidating looking than he had been during the war. Dr. Sing had been warned not to stare at the scar. He wondered what type of psychological issues the Fire Lord had, but that was only out of curiosity. It was not why he was here.

"I do what I can." Before he could explain what his plan of attack was, Lady Mai appeared.

She studied him. He was shorter than the other doctors. He kept his hair short, mainly, so he didn't have to spend a lot of time maintaining it. He was young. "How old are you?" was the first question out of her mouth.

"I am 20." He had just graduated medical school two years before. He started at 15, which was young. Many had more life experience first, but he knew he wanted to be a doctor and went as soon as he saved up the money. It took him two years. His required schooling ended at 13.

"Well, he got a country to run at 17, so I shouldn't be that suspicious." She was anyway.

"I reviewed your sister's medical records. Unfortunately, she was only tested once. The subsequent doctors did not evaluate her again; they just assumed the first doctor was correct. Often times, he is not." She had been diagnosed as a sociopath with psychosis.

"You don't think her diagnosis was correct?" Mai questioned.

"She didn't respond to any of the accepted treatments for those conditions. It's possible that she is an unusually difficult case. It's probable, however, that they were treating her for the wrong condition. I plan on testing her myself, today."

"You want to see her TODAY?" Zuko was stunned. He hadn't send word to the asylum. He assumed Dr. Sing would want to get settled in first.

"You did say you wanted her to get better, and time is of the essence, so I will start today."

They quickly arranged for a carriage to go to the asylum. It was not that far from Capital City. Only the wealthy could afford to have their family members committed. The poor mentally ill often ended up in jail or on the streets.

Mai wondered what was in the basket.

"From what I understand, your sister was always a tomboy. She favored stories of battle to stories about romance and she'd rather firebend and fight than play with little dolls."

Zuko nodded.

"Her mother, of course, was not amused as most society mothers would not be. Her father, however, embraced her atypical nature when most would have steered her away from such conduct."

"And?"

"And, it makes sense that she gravitated towards her father not because she was a sociopath who didn't care about others suffering but because she wanted to be accepted, and her father's conditional praise seemed better than none at all.

Her vicious behavior must have been taught. She didn't learn it on her own. According to the sage, Ozai's training regiment was very strict; most would call it cruelty and she became cruel because she knew how Ozai treated failure. She may have seemed fearless, but I think she was more afraid of Ozai than anyone else was. I find it more likely that she suffers from severe PTSD and that is the cause of her troubling behavior."

"PTS what?" Mai questioned.

"Post traumatic stress disorder. It has become quite prevalent in people who have suffered war-related trauma. Men who watched their comrades die a vicious death or Women whose homes were burned down by the enemy. I would imagine being militarized starting at the age of seven and being beaten for every mistake would be quite traumatic."

"How would you know if it's this PTSD?" Zuko questioned.

"Well, the first thing I am going to do is test her to see if she's a sociopath. If she is not, I'll proceed with the test for PTSD."

"And what test is that?" Mai questioned.

The Doctor removed the blanket that was in the basket. Underneath it, lay a sleeping puppy.

"You brought a PUPPY?" Zuko was baffled.

"People who are sociopathic have trouble empathizing with the needs of others. They don't feel bad when they make people cry. They don't know how to connect themselves to others emotionally. Puppies, in contrast, are like the anti-sociopath. They can connect to almost anyone.

If she is a sociopath, then she will not think much of this little furry friend, but if she is capable of making basic emotional connections, then she will connect with this puppy. His name is Bo."

He had reddish blonde fur, and he was about ten weeks old. He had just been weaned last week.

The doctor signaled for the guard to open Azula's door. Her room was only marginally better than a prison cell. There were walls instead of bars, but they were made of stone and steel. There was no color in the room. There was only a bed and a closet for her clothes. There was no desk, no bookshelf or any books. There was nothing for her mind. No wonder it was so fragmented.

The doctor let in the puppy and they observed her from the two-way mirror on the other side of her room.

She turned when she discovered the furry critter and he unabashedly ran to her.

Zuko feared Azula might kill the puppy. Mai figured she'd ignore it, but for the first time in almost a year, she smiled. She scooped him up and put him in her arms. "You're so cute," she cooed as he licked her nose.

She checked his nametag. "Your name is Bo. I'm Azula."

For the first time in months, she had a normal conversation.

"Like I said, I don't think she's a sociopath."

After giving them some alone time, Dr. Sing went into her cell. Zuko thought he was crazy when he waved away the guards.

"Hello Azula."

She looked up and saw the young man, clearly an Earth Kingdom National, likely a noble since he had clean teeth. "Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Sing. Your brother asked me to come here and help you."

She scoffed. "What can you do that the other doctors couldn't?"

"I don't think the other doctors understood what your problem is. Have you ever heard of PTSD?"

She shook her head.

"I can't believe she's talking to him," Zuko was astounded. Azula had refused to talk to any of the other doctors. The puppy kept her calm. Who would have thought a 4kg creature could make all the difference.

"It stands for post-traumatic stress disorder. A lot of people have been diagnosed with it after the war. The symptoms include night terrors, a reluctance to engage with others socially, reacting violently when others intrude on your personal space, and in severe cases hallucinations."

Azula was four for four. "Can you make the voices stop?"

"I can try. My odds will be better if you help me."

"What can I do?"

"First, you can help me train Bo."

"Surely, you know how to train a puppy."

"Oh I do, but I think training him will help you learn how to forge healthy connections with others. I read your file. Your family didn't provide a healthy environment for you. I think that, along with your father's violent training methods, are why you're here.

I can provide medicine and talk therapy, but I need you to embrace them if they are going to have any chance of working. Can you do that?"

"Azula nodded."

"Then we'll be back tomorrow. Come on Bo!"

Bo jumped out of Azula's arms and followed the doctor out of the room.

Zuko wasn't sure how Dr. Sing got more progress in 20 minutes than six doctors had in nine months, but he was ready to give the doctor the go ahead on anything he wanted to do at this point.

"How long do you think it will be before she's normal?"

"Define normal. There are aspects to Azula that will never be deemed normal, like her preference for girls."

"What?" Zuko and Mai both questioned.

"Was it not obvious to you? She strived so hard for Ozai's approval because she had to legitimize herself. She knew that being a lesbian would make her "weird" in the eyes of the rest of the world. She thought her only way of being accepted was being at the top. No one challenges the Fire Lord, so she strived to be the next one.

It was only another reason for her to never challenge her father. She was afraid if he looked at her too closely, he would see what was right in front of him, that she was more inclined to marry the maid than she was any of the male suitors he had presented to her."

"Did she tell you that?" Now that the doctor said it, it seemed obvious that she was gay, but he never thought about it before.

"You did, with the personal history you sent me."

"But we didn't even know all of that," Mai countered.

"I had to read between the lines a bit, but from what you all collectively knew about Azula, certain things were clear. She targeted you and Zuko as children because she was jealous. She would never be able to openly pursue a girl the way that Zuko could, so she relished in sabotaging your dates. It also gave her a chance to spend more time with Ty Lee, without you two around."

"You think that ..." Zuko didn't even have a way of finishing the sentence.

"I have no idea if her affections were ever returned, but she gravitated towards Ty Lee for a reason, a romantic one. She likely knew she was different from the other girls for a reason, but she didn't know how to articulate it. She likely thought that she should have been a boy before she realized that she was a girl who liked other girls.

Azula's ability to become "normal" as you earlier called it largely depends on her ability to find acceptance in a post-war world, and her orientation will affect that just as much as her actions during the war. I can help her heal her mind, but I can't make the world a more inviting place for her. What she needs is somewhere to go when she's released, something to do, something for her to be apart of. That will depend on what you do when she's ready to leave," the doctor told Zuko.

The Fire Lord was baffled. He had learned too much information at once, and his brain went into overload.

They were already on the way back to the palace. Mai wondered how she missed what a doctor could tell from reading some records. There was no doubt in her mind that he was right. Mai could only wonder how things would have changed if they had known, if they could have assured her that she didn't have to become her father to survive. She wondered if reconciliation was really possible For the first time since Boiling Rock, she wanted it to be.