I don't care if it hurts/I wanna have control/I want a perfect body/I want a perfect soul

-Radiohead, Creep

"What?!" Aang yells.

"I'm sorry to say…it's true," Zuko sighs.

They're in Zuko's throne room, and Zuko's just told them that Azula escaped the palace late last night. Katara's not taking it well, she's mumbling something to herself. Mai is looking bored, but with a slightly fearful edge. Suki's pacing the floor, not doubt coming up with a plan to retrieve her. Ty Lee, though…Ty Lee's the worst off. She's been alternating between crying and complete silence, which for her is quite a cause for alarm.

"How did this happen?" Aang asks.

"It's my fault," Katara says quietly, and Aang realizes that that's what she's been mumbling all along.

"How is this your fault?" Aang demands in disbelief.

"I'm the one who prescribed her medication. I'm the doctor in charge of her. I'd insisted on it. I didn't want anyone to be to hard on her, you know? I was trying to help."

"I know, Katara, but sweetheart, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is!" she shouts, causing everyone in the room to flinch. "I should have took better care of her. I should of…now she's gone and who knows what she's going to do."

Ty Lee starts crying again and Mai goes over to comfort her, and it's a sweet gesture, despite the fact that Mai isn't all that great with sympathy.

"Katara, listen, Azula's crazy, but she's still smart and manipulative."

"Yeah, no kidding, and I underestimated her."

"You couldn't have known," Aang says, placing a hand on her shoulder before turning to Zuko and Suki "What should we do about her, she could end up causing all kinds of trouble."

"I know. I've already sent a preliminary search party out after her, but she appears to be long gone," Zuko says.

"And she appears to have gone on foot, which means she can't be that far yet, but she's also going to be a lot more difficult to track," Suki adds.

"Don't forget she can fly for short periods of time. She could be in the mountains and we might never find her," Mai says, which of course makes Ty Lee cry more. Mai really doesn't get sympathy. "Shh, shh. Damn, I'm sorry Ty Lee. I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did," Ty Lee says, suddenly looking determined "We might never find her, but we have to try. I know what she's done, ok? And I know none of you are actually worried if she's ok or not, but I am. So we have to do something!"

Everyone falls silent. Aang had never seen Ty Lee get angry before, she always talked about how negative energy messes up your skin, and Aang couldn't help but agree, just a little. More than just skin though, negative energy and pessimism is never good for you, the monks had taught him that and he found Ty Lee to be very much like the female monks of the Western and Eastern Air Temples in that respect. But now she was obviously angry, but he wasn't sure with who, though. With them? With Azula? With herself?

"We do care, Ty Lee," Katara says, genuinely "Or at least I do. In fact, I'll find her myself if I have to, alright?" she places her hands on Ty Lee's shoulders and gives them a squeeze.

"Ok," she sighs "Thanks, Katara." Katara smiles in response and Aang is hit, for about the millionth time, with how much he loves her.

"Alright," Zuko says, "Let's split our resources then. Suki? You, Ty Lee, and the rest of the Kyoshi warriors head towards the Northwest. Katara and Aang? South. Mai and I will go East and check the islands. Shit, I wish Sokka were here, and Toph for that matter. They'd be a hell of a lot of help. Anyway, take as many soldiers as you need. We'll close the borders, no one leaves or enters the Fire Nation. I'm declaring a state of emergency."

"Seems a bit harsh, doesn't it?" Mai asks. "She's just one girl."

Zuko gives her a long-suffering look "Ever think that maybe there are those who will still follow her? Fire Nation citizens who want to continue the war? Azula is just the kind of crazy manipulative bitch who could rally the pro-war factions into into reigniting the war. We can't let that happen. We could be thrown into another world war before this one's really had a chance to end."

"We don't know if that's actually what she wants. Maybe she just wants freedom. She's insane after all, I seriously doubt she's planning to start another war," Mai counters.

"You're right, we don't know. Better safe than sorry, though."

"We'll be diverting a lot of resources to security rather than reconstruction. We'd be cutting ourselves off, you know that right?"

"It's temporary."

"What if we don't find her soon?"

"Then it won't be."

"So we'll halt all the progress being made by closing the Fire Nation's borders?"

"For now."

"What if it's not just for now? What if we don't find her?" Mai demands, agitation clear on her usually expressionless face.

"We won't see an attack coming until it comes. This is the best course of action," Zuko responds with thinly veiled frustration.

"You're taking this too seriously, Zuko. We don't want people to panic over one escaped mental patient. What will the Earth Kingdom think if we suddenly close our borders?"

"Who cares what the Earth Kingdom thinks?! This is the Fire Nation's problem."

"So we don't need Aang, Katara's and the Kyoshi's help?" Mai asks, sarcastically.

"Dammit, Mai! Why do you have to disagree with everything I say?"

"You need someone to tell you you're wrong, Zuko! You're not always right," she says as she stands, turns on her heal, and walks, not at all hurried, which must be infuriating for Zuko, out of the thrown room.

"Shit," Zuko mumbles.

"I agree with Mai, Zuko. At least to an extent," Aang tells him after a moment of awkward silence. He knows that part of Zuko's problem is with Mai and not her ideology. He could tell that he and Mai have the opposite problem as him and Katara. While they struggled to keep from having at each other, Mai and Zuko are growing apart and he would hate to see politics be the thing that breaks them up.

"Give us some time. Let us try to find her before this gets out. Two weeks, at most. If we don't find her by then we'll assume that she's has big plans in mind and consider her an international threat, but what if we find her tomorrow? What will closing the borders do, other than scare everyone?"

After not all that much thought, Zuko concedes "Ok. Two weeks. That's it."

"Thanks, Zuko."

They all get up to leave, but Aang stays behind. "Zuko?"

"What?"

"I feel like I can say this now. We've been friends for a long time and I know you really well. Plus, I'm getting married soon, so I think I might know what I'm talking about."

"Spit it out, Aang,"

Aang sighs "Just…don't let this feud with Mai get in the way of your decision making."

"What? We're not feuding."

"Yeah, you are. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that she's right, Zuko. Just think about that."

He leaves before Zuko can come up with a suitable response.

A plan. Azula needs to come up with a plan. She was always good at it before, when she had Mai and Ty Lee under her control, but- no they're gone. They left her. She's alone. She so alone. It will be ok though. She'll have her revenge. She'll kill that bitch Ty Lee, and maybe Mai, too. Yes, Mai too. Mai started this. Maybe she should kill Zuko, too. It's his fault as much as Mai's, but no, no she'll let him watch. Let him watch her kill his precious Mai.

Azula is holed up in a cave, spirits know where. trying to plot her revenge when it hits: she'll go to Ty Lee's house. Ty Lee, who has parents and more importantly, sisters who look exactly like her. That could be fun. That would be fun. All she has to do is take them hostage, send good old ZuZu a letter stating that Ty Lee come to home, alone, if she ever wants to see her family alive again.

That will get their attention. It's an offer she can't refuse, and then Azula will make her suffer. But first she needs to head forTy Lee's humble little house. Then she'll have her fun. Then she'll have her revenge…

Ty Lee's heart is breaking. Why couldn't Azula simply stay were she was, safe and sound? Ty Lee took solace in knowing that Azula was happy, if you can call it that. No, content is more appropriate, but still. True, Ty Lee had never gone to see her, and maybe she should of. Oh, spirits, maybe this is her fault. If she had gone to visit her than maybe she wouldn't have run away, or maybe she's just thinking too highly of herself. Maybe it made no difference to Azula and maybe this wasn't about her so why does she have such a bad feeling?

"Ty Lee?" she hears Yuko through her thoughts, spirits she's beens so distracted lately. She's standing outside in the palace courtyard waiting for the other warriors and trying to get her aura back to pink, failing, but trying.

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just want to find her before anything happens to her…or anyone else," she added as an afterthought.

"I know. You…really love her, don't you?" That catches Ty Lee off guard. She had no idea that Yuko, or anyone else, knew about her messed up relationship with Azula.

"I…ahh…"

"It's ok. I know."

"I'm just…" and then Ty Lee does something she's been doing a lot lately. She bursts into tears. Yuko puts her arms around Ty Lee.

"I'm so sorry."

"I want to stop, Yuko."

"Stop what," she asks, pulling away to look at her face.

"I want to stop loving her. All she did was hurt me and she's still hurting me. I want to stop loving her, but I can't."

"Real love shouldn't hurt, Ty Lee."

"I know," she whispers.

"Let's go find her."

"What if we don't? What if we can't find her?" she asks, a sob threatening to escape her throat.

"We will, Ty Lee. I promise." And something about the certainty in her voice, in her eyes, makes Ty Lee wholeheartedly believe it. It feels wrong not to believe it.

"Ok," she whispers.

The other Kyoshi warriors join them in the courtyard.

"Let's go, ladies," Suki says. Ty Lee holds her head a little higher and marches purposefully with the other warriors.

She almost doesn't notice Yuko slip her hand into hers and give it a reassuring squeeze.

"We'll find her," she declares again. Ty Lee looks into her pretty green eyes.

"Thank you, Yuko," she says, squeezing her hand back.

Oh, spirits...

So, I wholeheartedly apologize for the lack of actual story progression in this chapter, really I do. I'm starting to get a real feel for where I'm actually going with this, which is good, and what I want to go down is going to require some setup. Well...here's all the setup. I promise, the next chapter will actually have something going on in it. You know, things like the manhunt for Azula, Katara's guilt over letting her escape, and finally a section from Mai's point of view! Woohoo! So, yeah. Also, fingers crossed, the next chapter might even be over 2000 words! Woah! I'm notorious for writing short ass chapters so sorry about that. But hey, the first chapter was, like, 4000 fucking words! That's a new record for me. Anyway, I'm done rambling. Next chapter'll be out next friday at the latest (maybe even before?) we'll see. As always thanks for reading, and please, please, please review. Hate it, love it, whatever, just review!

Love y'all!