Author's Note: More to come soon. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

After three days of travel through the Earth Kingdom, Azula stopped to rest in a small town. She was tired from walking in the sun and from the still painful burns covering her body. Looking around, Azula spotted a noodle stand, which she approached at a slow pace. The townspeople she had encountered so far had regarded her warily. The red clothing she still wore identified her as a Fire Nation citizen, but the banished princess couldn't bring herself to trade them for green. After her fight with Ozai, she felt lost and torn, but her national pride remained strong. The feelings about the war were in flux. On one hand, she didn't want to blow things out of proportion. Just because her father was wrong about Ty Lee didn't mean he was wrong about everything.

As she bought a bowl of noodles and sat away from the other customers, eating in silent contemplation. On the other hand, Azula thought, if Ozai was wrong about Ty Lee, what else was he wrong about? Sighing, the fire bender wondered what to do now. She needed direction, a goal to focus on. She'd toyed with the idea of tracking her brother and the Avatar down, but being banished didn't mean her past acts were erased. They would regard her as an enemy and Azula wasn't quite sure what she would do if she were to find them. She also didn't want to face Ty Lee until she knew what to say to the acrobat.

"I'm madly in love with you and I committed treason to keep you safe, but I still want to be Fire Lord someday and rule the world. That would go over well," rolling her eyes, Azula ceased muttering to herself and collected her bag to resume walking. Every face around her was unfamiliar and a deep sadness was growing in Azula's chest. Every face she could possibly see now was going to be unfamiliar and potentially unfriendly. She had no allies.

Azula stopped at that. Ozai had been more than her ally. He had been her mentor, her king. Without him, she was no better than Zuko. Zuko, who had also been banished for defying their father. In fact, Azula thought, Ozai had banished their entire family, other than himself. This sparked something in Azula's mind. One difference between her and Zuko was that before her banishment, she'd been privy to a wide array of information, including the location of the island Ursa had been sent to. Turning on her heel, Azula began to walk west, back towards the coast. She'd wasted a few days time, but it wasn't like she had a deadline to meet. The banished princess had no idea how her mother would react to seeing her, but one benefit of coming to terms with her feelings for Ty Lee was recognizing that she couldn't be such a monster if she was so willing to but the acrobat's wellbeing before everything else.

This belief sustained Azula through the next two weeks as she traveled southwest of the Fire Nation to the bustling Colony city of Jukai. At least here her clothes were not out of place. The banished fire bender knew better than to ask around for her mother. Her father had told her once that part of Ursa's banishment required she live as a peasant. Azula said a quick prayer to Agni and simply wandered the town, conserving her money and passing the time by watching a group of street performers that frequented the city's main square.

After five days, she caught a break. As the afternoon wore on and shops began to close for the day, she saw a woman who reminded her strongly of her mother talking with one of the performers. The young man said something and the woman laughed. This confirmed for Azula that she was looking at the banished Fire Lady. Of all her memories of childhood, Azula would never forget the sound of her mother's laughter. Casually approaching the pair, Azula waited patiently until the young man waved at the woman and went to rejoin the other performers.

"Excuse me," Azula began.

The older woman turned and started. "Oh my. I'm sorry, dear, you look like…" The woman shook her head.

"Like your daughter, all grown up?" Azula smiled crookedly, her heart pounding in her chest. She never thought she'd see her mother again.

Ursa stared for a moment and then began to blink away tears. "Azula?"

The fire bender nodded and immediately found herself enveloped in a hug. Hesitating only a few seconds, she embraced her mother tightly.

"I can't believe it. What are you doing here?" Ursa pulled back and held Azula at arms length, taking in the sight of her grown daughter.

Azula frowned. "I… need your help. Can we talk somewhere more private?"

Ursa nodded and led Azula to a small tea shop down the street. Azula smiled at the thought of another one of her relatives being a tea-freak. Once inside, Ursa motioned for Azula to sit and took out a teapot. "So, what can I help my only daughter with?"

Azula sighed. "Father banished me."

The teabag in Ursa's hand fell to the counter. She turned and gaped at Azula. "What? Why? Why would he banish you?"

"I defied him," Azula said simply, eyes lowered.

"But, you were always…"

"His perfect child?" Azula asked bitterly.

"Well, yes." Ursa shakily resumed making their tea.

"I… I suppose I should explain. Do you remember my friend Ty Lee, from the Academy?" Azula looked over at her mother.

Ursa paused for a moment and nodded. "Yes, is she still so happy-go-lucky?"

Azula smiled. "Yes."

"She was a cute little girl."

"She's beautiful now." Azula allowed time for this comment to sink in.

Ursa left the tea to steep and sat opposite her daughter. "So you discovered love after all."

Azula nodded. "Ty Lee doesn't know how I feel. I," Azula paused, blushing, "never found the words to tell her. I sent her to Earth Kingdom, to keep her safe. Father, he saw my love for her as a weakness, of course. He ordered me to kill her so that my judgment would be unclouded."

Ursa reached out and gripped Azula's hand. "And you couldn't do it."

Pushing the sleeves of her shirt up, Azula revealed some of her new scars. "Father was not pleased."

The former Fire Lady wanted to be surprised at her husband's violence, but merely nodded and fetched their tea. "What can I do to help you, Azula?"

"Let me stay with you until I figure out what to do next." Azula accepted a cup of tea from her mother with a nod of thanks.

"Of course, stay as long as you like."

"I don't know what to think anymore, mother. I want to still believe in the war, in what father raised me to think, but if he could be so wrong about Ty Lee, if he could attack me… It's put a few things in perspective." Azula shook her head.

"Well, you should take your time figuring things out, Azula. I've wanted to keep the shop open longer for the other merchants and the performers to stop in at night. If you work here with me, I should be able to and you can take all the time you need to put yourself in order." Ursa sipped her tea, regarding her daughter thoughtfully.

Azula nodded slowly. "Thank you, mother."

The two banished royals smiled at one another and Azula felt muscles relax more than that they had since she'd left the Fire Nation capital. As they finished their tea, Ursa stood and gave Azula a quick tour of the shop and the small home above it.

The next several weeks pasted slowly for Azula. Her days were filled with learning to apply her diplomatic skills to serving customers and her nights were full of dreams. Dreams that alternately featured deadly flames and loving gray eyes. News of the war filtered into Jukai slowly. Ursa and Azula exchanged looks when one customer recounted what he had heard from a relative in the capital. Ozai was stepping up his efforts to capture and kill the Avatar and all enemies of the Fire Nation. He had authorized deadly force for the smallest of infractions throughout the army and the Colonies and had made up lies about Azula's betrayal, claiming she had tried to usurp his throne. For that part, Azula was grateful.

One day, as Azula returned from fetching fresh tea ingredients for her mother's shop, one of the street performers approached her. The same young man, dressed in the deep reds and browns of the Colonies, who Azula had first seen speaking with her mother waved to her as she neared him. His dark skin suggested some Water Tribe blood, though Azula couldn't be sure.

"Hey, Aluza, I have a question for you." The young man smiled at her charmingly.

Azula nodded at him, a small part of her wishing she didn't have to lie about her name to the street performers and other customers. "What's up, Harui?"

"One of the girls said she saw your fire bending the other day. Is that true?" Harui asked lightly.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" Azula shifted the bag of supplies on her shoulder.

"Great! We're going to be doing a private show for some of the city leaders at the end of next week and we need a fire bender to help us out. Would you be interested?"

The banished princess considered this. The life she was beginning to build in Jukai was not a permanent solution, but it wouldn't hurt anything to help out the performers. Azula nodded. "Sure. What do I need to do?"

Harui pumped a fist in the air. "I knew you'd say 'yes.' Okay, so we're acting out the myth of the Nation-less for the leaders of the city who are at least skeptical of the Fire Lord. We have Zan playing Ozai, but we need another fire bender to play the part of the 'true Fire Lord' the myth describes. Think you're up to it, Aluza?"

Azula kept her face blank, but her mind was racing. She nodded quickly, "I'd love to. Just stop by later and we can talk over the specifics of what I'll need to do. I need to get back," motioning to the bag of tea leaves, Azula stepped past Harui, who waved and headed back triumphantly to the other performers. Once inside the shop, Azula carefully put away the supplied she'd been sent out for and waited for a moment to take her mother aside.

Before Ozai had pulled her out of the Academy to privately train her, Azula had been an avid student of Fire Nation history and myths. The myth of the Nation-less spoke of a time when the Fire Nation was under corrupt and doomed rule and of a 'true Fire Lord' who would rise form the shadows and, with help from the other nations, claim the throne and restore the Fire Nation to its highest glory. Most often, the myth involved a vast war and the 'true Fire Lord' ushered in an era of peace. Azula considered this and the fact that the myth also, notably, held that the corrupt Fire Lord would be too powerful for even the Avatar to defeat. Ozai certainly seemed to fit that description.

"Azula?" Ursa spoke softly, noticing her daughter's distracted state. "Are you okay?"

The banished fire bender prodigy nodded slowly. "Yes. I think I'm starting to figure out what I want to do with my life, mother. I need a few days to fully collect my thoughts, but I think we need to talk soon." Moving back to their waiting customers, Azula smiled softly and considered the possibilities before her.