Draw Victory

It had been a difficult strategy, involving more luck than skill, but Zuko finally reached a point in the game where he could end it in one final move. If he moved one way Azula would lose, but if he moved the other way, he risked her sanity.

He made his move.

Azula laughed maniacally as Zuko finished his move. "You show your weakness brother! With one move you could have crushed me and won this game. Now you shall pay!" Her sadistic glee crumbled as she studied the board for her next move and found that was no moves she could make. "No. This is impossible." Panic rose in her face as she circled the table, pushing her brother aside as if he wasn't there. She was desperately searching for some move she could make. Some way she could escape the trap that Zuko had locked them both into. Seeing none she turned and grabbed onto his tunic, shaking him violently as she demanded a rematch.

"No," he said gently. The pain in her face hurt him more than any attack, but he saw no other choice. Her current gamer persona would have attacked him if he had won and insisted he surrender his crown if he had lost. Either way nothing would have changed. He didn't know what a draw would do to her, but he hoped it would help her somehow. "We agreed on a three round match. You won the first round, I won the second. The match ends with this stalemate."

"No!" she screamed causing the two orderlies outside to rush back in. Zuko gestured for them to stay back. "It can't end without victory! I demand a rematch! The pleading look in her eyes almost broke Zuko's resolve. She was scared of this unexpected ending, as scared as her Artist persona had been when he entered the Gamer's side of the room.

At his final refusal she collapsed in a heap at his feet. He bent down to comfort her and found her other persona, that of the innocent little princess with the artistic talent, staring at him in puzzlement.

"What happened Zuzu?" she asked. "The other me is crying. She never cries."

"I played a game with her."

"But she released control. She never releases control. She's lost games before but I have to wake up before her to have any control."

"We tied," he said simply. "She's going to be very upset about that for awhile. I need you to look after her. Can you do that for me?"

"Why should I?"She pouted. "She's never nice to me."

"She doesn't know how to be," Zuko explained. "That's why she needs you."

"She needs me?" Azula asked in wonder.

"That's right. Because she's a part of you and you are a part of her. Right now she's scared and confused. You need to show her that someone does care about her and that caring for others isn't showing weakness."

"It isn't?"

"No, it's one of your strengths. She needs you to share your strengths with her now. When she's better maybe she'll share her strengths with you."

"And then we can be strong together and wont be grounded any more," she exclaimed.

"I'll have to talk with Father about that," it wasn't a total lie, he would have to talk with Syd-Ni, "but it will help."

Azula straightened like any child who had just been given an important job. "Don't worry Zuzu, I'll help her get better, and then we can come visit you."

He gave her a hug. "I look forward to that day Azula." Then he stood up. I have to leave now, but I'll be back soon." He looked around the room. "And when I do I expect both sides of this room to be cleaned up," he said in a stern voice.

"But Zuzu…"

"No buts Azula. You're a princess and so is she. As such you should not allow yourself to live in such a mess."

"OK," she said reluctantly.

"Don't think of it as a chore," he advised. "Think of it as the first step in helping her get better. When you finish cleaning her side ask her to clean your side. Make it a game. Who can clean the other side faster?"

"But that would mean giving her control and she never gives it back."

"Then make control a victory condition of the game and make sure you win, but don't make victory important. Show her how much fun just playing the game can be." It was a lesson that their uncle Iroh had tried to teach him many times.

"OK Zuzu, I'll try."

"That's all I ask." He gave her a parting hug and left the room with the orderlies. Glancing back just as he walked through the door to see that she was looking around, trying to decide where to start.

"I must say I'm a little jealous," said the head mind healer with a smile as Zuko entered the hallway. "You seem to have done more for her in one day then I've been able to do since her two personalities emerged."

How long have you been watching?" Zuko asked.

"Long enough. After you sent the orderlies out of the room the first time, one of them came to get me. Did you intentionally end that game in a draw?"

"I had to do something Syd-Ni. It's my fault she's here."

Syd-Ni sighed, "You are not responsible for your sister's sickness. I won't lie and say there was nothing you could have done, nor can I tell you what you could have done. I wasn't there. I only know what you've told me and what I can glean from my conversations with both of your sister's personas. Based on that, the blame for her condition falls more on your predecessor then on you. If anything you saved her before she turned the Fire Nation into her funeral pyre."

"But she was fine until…"

"Mai helped you escape from Boiling Rock," Syd-Ni finished. He had heard the whole tirade of self blame before. "Again I can't say for certain, but as I have told you before, I believe she was unstable even before then. If it hadn't been Boiling Rock it would have been somewhere else. She was a disaster waiting for a place to happen. I know that doesn't alleviate your guilt, but I hope you take comfort from the fact that what you have done today may have helped to set her on the road to recovery."

"She mentioned our mother visiting her," Zuko said. I'd like to meet the woman Azula thinks is her."

"I'm sure you would, but there is no such woman. Just a persistent delusion from before your sister came here. A rather nice lady though, based on my conversations with Azula's Artist persona."

"And what does her other persona say about the delusion?"

"Pretty much what she said to you I imagine. Your mother only comes to see the princess not the monster, when she regains her crown she'll never have to see them again, etc. Not true of course. Your mother appears to the Artist more often but she does try to reach both personas. Most of the Gamer's screams of rage are at this imaginary mother."

"Will Azula ever be normal again?"

Syd-Ni smiled at a private joke, "That depends entirely on your definition of normal. Will she ever be the person she was? No, and for the same reason that you will never be the person you were before. Life changes us with every new experience. Will she ever recover from her mental illness and be able to live a life outside this facility?" He sighed, "I wish I could say yes, but I can't be certain. I believe that you've set her on the right path, and I will try to guide her on it as best I can until you return, but the rest is up to her."
"She'll make it," Zuko said with certainty. "She's one of the strongest people I know."

Syd-Ni sighed again, "sometimes the strong people are the hardest to fix when they break." He placed a hand on the young Fire Lord's shoulder in a fatherly gesture of reassurance. "But with your help and support I'm confident that she has a chance."

"Thank you Syd-Ni."

"Anytime Zuko, Syd-Ni replied. "Anytime."

As Zuko and Syd-Ni walked away from Azula's room one of the orderlies still standing by the door noticed a familiar burning smell. He looked through the door's observation window to see that Azula had stopped cleaning and was burning a new picture into the wall behind her bed. A place that had been untouched before as it was within the border between the two territories. He watched in fascination as the new creatures quickly took form. He knew enough about extinct animals to recognize dragons but, as with all of Azula's animals, these were strangely split. The one on the Artist's side had most of the recognizable features of a dragon, the long serpentine body, the regal features, everything but the wings. Those were on the dragon that was being carefully burned into the Gamer's side of the border. This one had a more muscular body and fierce features. Rather fitting considering that persona's temperament. Then he saw something that truly shocked him. She had drawn multiple animals before but all of her other animal pictures were separate from each other, but as Azula finished and moved aside to study her work the orderly saw that these new dragons were doing more then just facing each other. They were shaking hands as if sealing an agreement. The orderly knew he would have to tell Syd-Ni about this, and wondered what the mind healer would say. Maybe there was hope for the child after all.