To the Guest who reviewed last chapter - Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know you liked it! Hazuki would be 19 years old at the beginning of this fic, yes, and the fic is a bit of an AU for both fandoms, though I try to be as close to canon as I can. But in this version, Lilith still has the Hat and Hazuki was never returned home.
I'm afraid I just don't presently have the time to write this fic out in it's entirety, it's simply too massive and I need to focus more on my original stuff. But I still really love the plot for this story and I decided that I'd at least give you guys a summary of what I had in mind for it. Keep in mind there are of course some details missing, but this is basically what would have happened:
I left off as Zuko and Hazuki had just discovered the world of Fantastica, with Zuko being transported into the book and given the AURYN, while Hazuki follows his fate by reading the book.
Zuko would have gone on to explore Fantastica, and meet key characters from the remnants of Bastian's version of Fantastica, who unfortunately would be disappearing into the Nothing. He would have gone in search of the Childlike Empress who chose him, meeting various characters and places along the way, to ask her why and what he should do to save her and her world. He would find her just as the last of the Nothing threatened to swallow them both, and she would tell him that it was his job to bring Hazuki to her through the story, and that Hazuki, an Earth-child, needs to give her a new name. Hazuki of course wants to suggest 'Hatsumi' first, but the Childlike Empress refuses to be named after another Goddess, and tells Hazuki to be more original.
Hazuki almost draws a blank under the pressure to come up with something, until Zuko 'yells' at her through the book that he's about to disappear if she doesn't hurry up and come with something, that he had to do all the hard work this time while she just sat back and read about it, so she'd better not let him disappear when all she has to do is think up a name. Just in the nick of time Hazuki finally screws her eyes shut and cries out, "BLUE STAR!" ('Blue star' is a theme that would have reappeared a few times later in the fic.)
When she opens her eyes again, Hazuki finds herself and Zuko before the Childlike Empress, who thanks them both for their service. She takes back the AURYN from Zuko, is about to give it to Hazuki, but Lilith shows up and insists on taking it herself. Lilith explains that she likes to "write"/create stories/worlds, but isn't quite as fond of reading them. (Eve is the one who prefers to "read"/visit stories/worlds, although they are capable of doing both if they want to.) She wanted to create a world for herself in the Neverending Story-book, but she didn't want to do all the "required reading" beforehand, so she passed the task to Zuko and Hazuki.
When the Childlike Empress reluctantly mentions that she had hoped Hazuki would contribute, Lilith replies, "If boring old Hazuki almost popped a vein just thinking up a name, do you really think she could write a whole world's worth of a story? Only certain humans can do that, and Hazuki isn't one of them. She likes swinging a sword around, so let her get back to doing that and let me whip up a world here!"
The Childlike Empress finally agrees and hands the AURYN and the last grain of sand of Fantastica to Lilith, and Lilth sends Zuko and Hazuki on their way to the next world - Oz.
The first time Hazuki went to Oz before she met Zuko, it wasn't in any serious peril. She actually had a nice few days of sightseeing, palace sleepovers and tea parties with Dorothy and Queen Ozma. I also gave thought to making a joke of Hylia/Zelda from the Legend of Zelda series being there too, with her and Ozma belonging to an interdimensional princess/queen/sorceress/minor-goddess club, of sorts, which includes other characters too like Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle. (BTW, Hazuki has heard of the classic book/worlds of Wonderland and Oz and Neverland in her world, but all the other fandoms in this crossover are ones that for whatever reason doesn't exist or doesn't exist yet in her world.) Might not have done it if I really wrote it, but, meh, thought I'd mention it anyways.
However, the second time, she arrives in Oz to find that it's in disarray, and Queen Ozma has been usurped by the Gnome King and is nowhere to be found. Hazuki and Zuko must bring return Ozma to the throne to return order and balance to Oz.
Without realizing it, they actually run in to Ozma right away, but they don't know it's her because she's disguised in the form of her male alter-ego, Tippetarius aka Tip, and Tip doesn't remember being Ozma so he's not much help at first either. Eventually along their journey, Hazuki begins to remember/recognize certain mannerisms in Tip that he shares in common with Ozma.
But she's not 100% sure, so she doesn't say anything at first. Somewhere along this journey I was going to have Hazuki and Zuko get into a verbal fight, and Zuko would get uppity and remind Hazuki that he completed the last journey without her. But then she'd be real quick to put him in his place by telling him, "How dare you! Do you really have no idea? Every time you were in danger, I was truly afraid for you! When you were sad, I felt sad too, and every time you triumphed, my heart was glad for you! I didn't just sit back and read about it, I was there with you!"
Zuko would feel bad about that and eventually apologize, and they'd be stronger friends for it. Eventually they would come across a mountain where Dorothy is being held by the Gnome King, encased in a gigantic emerald. Tip cries seeing her, and that's when Hazuki knows for sure that he's really Ozma. She knows that Ozma and Dorothy were in love with each other, and the Gnome King laughingly tells them that only a kiss filled with pure love can break their spell. And since they are seperated by the emerald, they cannot kiss and therefore will never break their spells, and he shall remain king of Oz for all time.
However, Hazuki foils his plans by suddenly reaching over and kissing Tip. Her love for Ozma and Dorothy is not the same kind of love they shared for each other, but her love is pure and true, and it returns Tip to her natural form as Ozma, and restores her powers and memories. The emerald encasing Dorothy turns into emerald sands, and falls away harmlessly from Dorothy, who awakens and falls into Hazuki's arms. Ozma then uses her power to defeat the Gnome King and restore Oz to it's true state, and when she's back on her throne, she presents Hazuki with an emerald crown, and declares her an honorary Princess of Oz for all time.
Hazuki is about to politely refuse the crown that Ozma places on her head, but then Lilith magics her and Zuko back to the Great Library, where she's just putting away the newly completed Neverending Story. She takes the crown from Hazuki and puts it on underneath the Hat, where it disappears, saying that it will look better on her than Hazuki.
Hazuki doesn't really care and just wants to get to the next world, so she lets her. But to her shock and horror, Hazuki soon realizes that the next world Lilith has placed her in is some version of 'Earth' that is right in the middle of Germany during the holocaust. She quickly explains to Zuko what this means, and reminds him sternly about not using his powers there. He'd been able to get away with it in the last couple of worlds, but she lets him know that this is a terrible war going on and that they are surrounded by humans that don't understand their abilities and will demonize them for it.
And not just their abilities, but also their appearances as 'Asians' (In Zuko's case, he merely strongly resembles one) makes it hard for them, and they almost get into trouble with some racist individuals. But thankfully, they are rescued from the situation by Edward and Alphonse Elric (the ones from the 2003-2005 anime/Conqueror of Shamballa-verse), who hide them back at their place.
When they get back to the Elric Brother's place, Edward says that he gets a vibe off the two of them, 'by the look in their eyes', that they come from other worlds like him. They're all still surprised when they all admit it, and the sit down and talk about their worlds. Edward and Alphonse tell them about Amestris and alchemy and all their adventures thusfar.
But then Edward gets sad and angry as he explains their current situations. They want to help people as much as they can but things are so dangerous now. Edward sadly tells them about a young man down the road who actually had a secret girlfriend, but he was perceived to be effeminate so he was taken away in the night to a concentration camp because certain people thought he was gay. Then just a day later, his girlfriend was taken for being Jewish.
Hazuki then admits to them that she comes from a world where these things happened just a few decades in her world's past, but that things unfortunately are not much better, only with even more advanced warfare. She goes on to explain that her adoptive father and mother, Doctors Azuma Takashi and Azuma (maiden name Midorikawa) Akane, are actually both homosexuals who were best friends in medical school, and decided to marry each other for appearances to keep each other safe from the scrutiny of their judgmental families and peers. Though they hid who they really were from many people, they never lied to their daughters about it, and the doctor's "real" husband and wife (Takashi's husband is named Watanabe Ken and Akane's wife is Miyamoto Keiko) would often stay with them during holidays. Hazuki always thought of it as having two moms and two dads, and considered herself very lucky.
(If anyone is interested, Ken and Keiko's names are more or less random, but Takashi and Akane were names I chose for a certain reason. Azuma of course is canon, and means 'East'. Takashi can mean a few things, but two of them is 'tall', which he is, and another is, 'obedient to their parents', which I felt make sense. Akane means 'brilliant red', and her maiden name Midorikawa means 'green river'. It's a visual name depicting the sun over a green river. And when she marries, her name then means the sun in the east. Also, regarding the spelling of Hazuki's name, I know there are several versions including 'Hatsuki', 'Hatzuki' and even 'Hadzuki'. I chose to go with Hazuki because it was the first spelling I saw and it was easiest to write all the time. Anyways though, back to the plot.)
Edward and Alphonse tell her she's lucky too, and tell them about how their mother and father died, but they still always felt at home around their precious people, especially Winry, whom they both miss terribly. Zuko awkwardly mentions that some of his family wasn't the greatest, but some of them (Iroh and his mother) really was, and that he was grateful to his precious friends too, whom he thinks of as his 'real family'.
They all have a sigh missing their old homes, but then Lilith shows up unceremoniously, drinks Hazuki's tea and steals one of Zuko's biscuits, and tells them she can send them to the Gates of Amestris, but that they'll have to pay a price to get inside the Gates. The Gates will decide what they take and from whom, Lilith has no say in it, and she demands Hazuki and Zuko go because that's where her next payment is located.
Edward and Alphose immediately agree, and Zuko and Hazuki reluctantly do too, putting on a brave face since Edward was the first to step up when he's already missing two limbs. They get to the Gate, the Gate opens, and they pass through. When they land on the other side, Edward, Alphose and Zuko are all fine, but Hazuki is screaming like murder and covering her face with her hands, blood gushing everywhere. She's missing her right eye.
Luckily for them they've landed just outside of Winry's residence, who of course rushes to help Hazuki the moment she hears her, and directs very strange, somewhat scared looks at Edward and Alphonse instead greeting them with joy at their reunion. They soon find out why, because unluckily for them, they're not in the right Amestris. They're now in the Brotherhood-verse, where that world's Edward, Winry, their children, and Alphonse and Mei Chang were sitting down to a Sunday brunch when they were interrupted by Hazuki's screams.
Everyone's pretty freaked out, but Brotherhood-Edward invites them in anyways. B-Winry stops Hazuki's bleeding and patches it up, but there's nothing more she can do. The eye is completely gone, and unfortunately there isn't sufficient technology to replace eyes, only limbs.
Hazuki is understandably pretty depressed about this turn of events, and Zuko tries his best to make her feel better. It doesn't work so well, so finally he concedes that it is a pretty lousy deal, but that she can't let it get her down forever. He tells her about all kinds of people he's met who had various disabilities who managed to to amazing things, notably Toph of course, and eventually she toughs it out and gets on with life like the soldier she is.
Shamballa-Edward and S-Alphonse stay a few days, trade stories about their adventures with B-Ed and B-Al while Hazuki heals. Then Lilth shows up again, going, "Oh whoops, I didn't know there was TWO Amestrises, lol my bad~" And Hazuki of course gets pretty pissed about that, and tells her that she knows she's no saint, but that she doesn't deserve being treated this badly. But Lilith has no sympathy, she's just like, "Bitch you should be glad they didn't take BOTH of your pretty blue eyes~"
So this time Lilith sends them through the right Gate, and the Gate Children grab at Alphonse, taking a year of his lifespan from him, essentially making him the same age as Edward. They again find themselves outside of Winry's house, but this time it's the one they're looking for. S-Edward, S-Alphonse and S-Winry have a tearful reunion, and Zuko and Hazuki both have a moment of longing to be back home in their own worlds, and hold their loved ones again.
Edward and Alphonse thank Zuko and Hazuki wholeheartedly for getting them back home. They use their newly regained alchemy powers to create a parting gift for them, a pair of metal bracelet cuffs, one for Hazuki and one for Zuko, etched with the words, 'Never forget' and the date that they'd returned to their world on.
Lilith then once again magics Hazuki and Zuko to a dimensional crossroads, where she demands they give her the bracelets they'd just been given. Zuko and Hazuki are more reluctant to do so this time, because they had grown fond of Edward and Alphonse and wanted to keep their gifts from them. They finally do hand them over, but Hazuki makes a point to tell Lilith that her cruelty disgusts her, and that she clearly made the right choice in not giving her love to the vindictive goddess.
Lilith tries to play it off all, "Like I even care..." But she clearly looks wounded, and feeling vindictive back because of her eye, Hazuki tells her she knows that Lilith is lying and does care. That pisses Lilith off big time and she tells Hazuki, "You know what? I wish goblins would come take you away, right now!"
Lilith then sends them to the world of the Labyrinth, though Zuko and Hazuki are separated and placed in completely different areas. Zuko is placed at the beginning of the labyrinth, and Hazuki is placed right in the middle. Hazuki falls under a haze, half of her consciousness under a spell by the Goblin King, Jareth. Jareth is still stuck on Sarah, 'the one that got away', big time, but he's smitten by Hazuki's beauty and wants her for himself. But Lilith tells him she's got Goblin Remorse like Sarah did, and they come to the agreement that Lilith can have her again if Zuko can find his way to the middle of the Labyrinth and get her back.
Lilith tells Zuko to hop to it and he gets on his way. He meets a few of the classic Labyrinth characters along the way, but he also meets an OC in the Labyrinth too, a young woman who at first is disguised as a goblin. When Zuko retrieves her disguise, he's shocked to find that she looks identical to his sister Azula, but she's incredibly timid, basically the opposite of Azula in personality.
She tells him that her name is Xing Lan (Chinese for Blue Star), and that she came from an Earth-world. She was born to a middle-class Chinese family under the One Child Policy, and she had an older brother who looked just like Zuko, only with no scar and no humility. Her older brother was treated like a little prince, like he was perfect. But Lan, an 'oops baby' and a girl besides, was always criticized harshly and treated as if she were expendable, hidden away from the world. Her brother mistreated her the worst, and no one would ever tell him not to. Lan tearfully tells Zuko how her father once told her, "Your brother was born lucky. You were lucky to have been born." Which of course strikes a nerve in Zuko.
Zuko asks her if it was her brother or father that wished her away, and Lan tells him it was neither them nor anyone else - 'Labyrinth' was her favorite legend and she always daydreamed about going there when times were tough. Eventually, at her darkest hour, she wished herself away, and she'd do so again in a heartbeat. The endless walls of the Labyrinth was the only place she ever truly felt free.
She ends up helping Zuko navigate through the Labyrinth and find the center, where he breaks into the palace to save Hazuki. Jareth has Hazuki under his spell and has convinced her that her world was much worse than she really perceived it, and that she'd be happier with him, right where they were.
Zuko yells for the 'Real Hazuki' to wake up, he knows she'd never go for a guy like Jareth, and his plea stirs her deep inside. She shuns Jareth and tells him the famous line, "You have no power over me!" With that, the spell is broken.
Jareth is devastated at first, but then Xing Lan approaches him. She tells him how his world was a beacon to her in a dull, harsh reality. She confesses that she's loved him as long as she's known him, and that she never wishes to leave his world and go back to her own. Jareth realizes that she's the only human who ever wished themselves to his realm, the only one who ever truly wanted to be there forever and never regretted it, never wanted to go back to their old world. He falls in love with her too, and he embraces her, amazed that he had finally found his one true Queen. As much as he loved Sarah (And as much as I love Sarah/Jareth) and all the others that came before her too, Lan is the first one that loved him and his world back. Lan's rags and goblin disguise is magically replaced by an elaborate gown, and they kiss.
(I probably would have been a smart-ass and tried to fit in the words, "Baby, just you shut your mouth." somewhere in that exchange as well. XD)
Jareth gives Hazuki a parting gift for the trouble he caused her, one of his magic crystals. After that, Lilith magics them back between worlds, and takes the crystal from her. Hazuki looks into the crystal before giving it to Lilith, and sees a vision of Hatsumi, and of her parents. Lilith sees her true love, Yami.
Lilith then drops them off in Neverland, where Zuko and Hazuki are temporarily turned into children, the equivalent of about eight or nine years old. While they are in Neverland, they are restored their youth. Zuko doesn't have his scar, and Hazuki has both her eyes again. They go on adventures, hang out with the Lost Boys and Peter Pan and foil Captain Hook's plans. Neverland is basically a reprieve for Zuko and Hazuki, a break in between worlds and the last and worse world they have yet to face.
They're having so much fun, in fact, that they forget about their old worlds for a while. But the memories of their home start coming back to them, and they know they must keep pushing forward, or else they'll be frozen in time in Neverland forever. They have barely just committed to this idea when Lilith plucks them back, and for once, she's not looking smug, in fact, she looks really scared, and it's easy to see why - The Hat is missing.
Lilith tells them in a rush, "Forget about the pixie dust, we've got WAY bigger problems!"
Apparently Lilith made a deal with someone and severely underestimated them, and they ended up being even more powerful and ruthless than her. Lilith demands they get back the Hat and promises to take Zuko back home if they do. But Zuko refuses to agree until Lilith promises to bring Hazuki back home too. Lilith reluctantly agrees, IF they can get the Hat back.
The next world they are transported to is a dimension where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is real. Or perhaps I should say, was. This world is a dystopian future version of Harry Potter, set over 70 years after the epilogue.
Voldemort's little magical tantrum didn't just make a mess for the wizards. He and his Death Eaters royally pissed off a lot of muggles and caused them to take notice of the wizarding world when they otherwise would have left it alone. Instead, in the confusion and chaos of the Battle of Hogwarts, elite individuals (basically ninjas) were sent to break in and steal as many DNA samples of the various magical people that were present that day as they could get their hands on.
Some of these samples were tinkered with by top minds in high places. Some were sold to the highest bidders to mix their own DNA with, and a few were stolen with this purpose.
There are many OCs I have in my head for this scenario, but I'll just go over the main players. The one that stole Lilith's Hat is called Shaula (a -blue star- in the constellation Scorpius) Vega. She is the biological daughter of Severus Snape and a random muggle female chosen by the American geneticists that created her. Shaula is the most powerful of a magically symbiotic quartet of characters, which includes Shaula's twin brother Antares, and a set of boy and girl twins, Weston and Easter, that were made from Sirius Black's DNA and another random muggle woman.
Each has their own personality and abilities. Antares has very little magical power, almost a squib, but he has a special gift for empathy. He's surprisingly social and women are attracted to him despite him not being much of a looker. He's not a genius but he has a lot of good sense. He's funny and has a great personality, and develops many meaningful friendships.
Weston, despite being Sirius Black's son, is a LOT more like Snape in personality. He's naturally good-looking unlike Antares, but he doesn't care to keep up his appearance much because he's always tinkering with some kind of technology, plus he's asexual and doesn't give a shit about dating. He and Antares have a deep platonic friendship, but he doesn't seem to get along with anyone else, mostly because he's sarcastic all the time and a rude bastard. I'd like to think he's basically the second coming of Nikola Tesla.
Easter is Sirius' daughter, but she looks and acts a LOT like Bellatrix. Her special ability comes from being obsessively devoted. On her own she has no direction, but she clings to Shaula and lives to make her happy. She will do anything Shaula wants her to do, and as long as Shaula wants her to, she can do just about anything.
Shaula is a gigantic magical powerhouse, virtually a goddess of war. She would call Voldemort a bitch to his face, eat him for breakfast and shit out something more powerful than him by lunch. This is because her power is essentially the exact opposite of his. Where Voldemort split his soul into pieces and attached them to material objects, Shaula multiplies her powers by connecting herself to living beings. She draws off of the powers of her symbiotic twins especially, but she bonds with several other powerful people in her life too. She's socially charming like Antares and a mega-genius like Weston, although she pretends to be dumber than she is so she doesn't frighten people away, unless she wants to. Shaula eventually becomes a rock star, an actress and a sex symbol, and even becomes the first female POTUS before the Earth went to hell in a hand-basket, due to a deadly epidemic. And all that's even only who she is on the outside...
As I mentioned, Shaula is the one who 'stole' the Hat, which she refers to as the 'All-Seeing Eye', and claims is rightfully hers at this point in time. But there are two other powerful Hats, the All-Hearing Ear and the All-Consuming Mouth.
The All-Hearing Ear belongs to a woman who is the biological daughter of Harry Potter, with DNA that was stolen by the group of ninja-peeps that were -supposed- to hand over all the DNA they took to the government, but kept some for themselves. She was raised as an elite assassin, and she went along with it to survive, but keep down she is a caring soul that doesn't really want to hurt people. At first she is given no name, people merely know her by scary nicknames that circulate around ("The Girl with the Scars" being the most common, due to her many, many scars...) but eventually she chooses to call herself Beatrix. This is a nod to the author Beatrix Potter, and also because 'Beatrix' means joy. After all the trauma she goes through (she is nearly killed and blinded when she runs away from the assassin's that raised her) she still chooses 'joy'. After she is blinded, she gains abilities like Toph's, and learns to 'see' by hearing and feeling vibrations. Hence, the All-Hearing Ear.
Also, I see Shaula 'Snape' and Potter's daughter as being kind of equal-opposites or rivals of each other. Beatrix Potter was shut away most of her childhood, but when she broke away and started hiding in normal 'civilization', she eventually started hearing about Shaula through her music and other media. She envies her, but Shaula actually secretly envies Potter because of how powerful she is, and at the same time, not. Getting to who Shaula is on the inside, she is the Bearer of Light in the Darkness. And Beatrix is the Bearer of Darkness in the Light. It used the be the other way around in their previous lifetimes, but Shaula cast a spell as a girl that switched their fates... So, whether Beatrix likes it or not, that's her role in life - To bring darkness and death to those she deems worthy of it, in the world of light. And Shaula, when she sleeps, she bring the salvation of the Light to those in the Darkness...
(There was also going to be a romantic plot between Beatrix and Antares, not essential to the plot but I thought I'd mention it anyways coz they would have been so gosh darn cute.)
Last but not least is the All-Consuming Mouth. Some of you might have guessed this already, but this is actually none other than the 'Sorting Hat'. This Hat belongs to the descendant of Neville Longbottom, a boy named Jeremy King. (This name was inspired by the song "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam, from the line, "King Jeremy the wicked ruled his world") Shaula would have been presented as a very strong/independent sort of woman, with no need for men, and she still IS like that, but it would have eventually been revealed that she has always been hopelessly in love with Jeremy, who has always worked in the shadows to help her achieve her goals. At one point he even goes as far as to (very convincingly) fake his own death so he can better serve her. They laughingly tell the others, "We see what we eat, and we eat what we see!" This is the nature of their relationship, and it doesn't need to make sense to anyone but them. However, the truth of the matter is, Shaula actually promised to let Jeremy 'consume' her once he helped make all her ambitions come true. One would think this would be a bad thing for her, but she's quite convinced that she's going to enjoy it.
Long story short (because this last chapter would be pretty ridiculously long if I didn't summarize as much as possible) the three Hats of power join forces and save their world from basically the equivalent of the Devil. At some point during this time and place, Hazuki and Zuko would become trapped in a pretty bad situation that they don't think they're going to survive. In the time they think they have left, they confess their biggest regrets to each other. Zuko tells Hazuki about the horrible things he's done to people, and Hazuki tells Zuko how she loved Hatsumi, her own adopted sister, in a way that was grotesque and shameful.
Zuko tells her that she should forgive herself, that there are MUCH worse things people can do than love someone too much. Overcome by emotion for him after everything they've been through together, Hazuki pulls him into a kiss, and thinking they might die soon, they kinda 'get lost in the moment'. Once the danger passes, they later agree it shouldn't happen again, but they don't regret that it did happen either.
(BTW, I did once get an anon who wasn't happy with my portrayal of Hazuki as anything but a strict lesbian. Just FYI, I agree that Hazuki would definitely prefers females over males almost all the time. But really, in canon she's only shown as being obsessed with Hatsumi alone. She doesn't pay attention to anyone else, male or female. So I think it would be reasonable to assume that Hazuki COULD like at least SOME guys, if she got to know them like she gets to know Zuko.)
After defeating the evil that was threatening her world with Hazuki and Zuko's help, Shaula finally agrees to give the Hat back to Lilith, though not before playing a humiliating game of keep-away first. Lilith doesn't like the taste of her own medicine, but she swallows the bitter pill so she can get the Hat back.
As she promised, Lilith gets ready to send Zuko and Hazuki back to their home worlds. Zuko and Hazuki have a tearful goodbye, and hug and kiss each other. They promise to never forget each other and what good friends they became, the adventures they had and the people they met, and what they learned from each other. And then finally, before they can change their minds, Lilith sends them back. Shortly after she does, Eve shows up to take the Hat back from her. After all, Eve reminds her, she did almost lose it.
When Zuko gets back to his home, he appears in the middle of his palace. The servants immediately gasp and shout that he's back, and Mai is summoned to see him. Aang and the gang are there too, as well as Iroh, and they all look worried. They tell him he's been missing for a week, and they ask him what happened. Just shocked that he's back, Zuko tell them the truth about his weird adventures, which of course leads them all to look at him as if he's crazy at first.
They urge him to rest, and then they talk among themselves. Most of them are sure he's delusional, but Toph believes his story, and informs the others that he might not be telling the truth, but she knows he definitely isn't lying. Iroh seems more worried than the rest though, and they ask him why. He explains that he was worried about Zuko, so he hired June to smell him out, but June told him that his scent was nowhere to be found. For the week that he was gone, Zuko was -truly- gone, off the face of their entire planet. Aang also points out that Zuko looks as if he aged at least a couple of years, not a week. Everyone has a good shiver-down-the-spine over that.
Mai goes to Zuko's room that night, and Zuko confesses to her what happened with Hazuki. He tells her that he knows he can never make it right, and that he has no excuse even considering the circumstances, and that he understands if she wants to leave him for it. She tells him she SHOULD leave him if he's telling the truth, but she just can't bring herself to believe his crazy story either. She finally relents, "I'm just glad you're back, and that you're okay. Let's just get on with our lives already."
They get married as planned and lived happily with each other thereafter.
When Hazuki returned home, she found herself in the very same room she was last in when she left. Her sword is once again just a normal letter opener. The feeling of finally being truly home again washes over her and she has a deep cry.
She goes down the stairs and sits down on her living room couch, and falls asleep there. A few hours later, she wakes up to a crashing sound - Her mother and father are at the doorway, and they've just dropped the groceries they brought home in utter shock.
They don't bother to pick them up, they rush to their daughter, crying with both sadness and joy. They ask her where she's been the five years she was gone, and she tells them the truth at first too. But she realizes they cannot believe her. Seeing Hazuki, alone without Hatsumi, after such a long disappearance and missing an eye, they of course assume the worst happened to them, and that Hazuki's fantastic tale is a coping mechanism to block out memories she can't bring herself to speak of. They can't bring themselves to speak of it either, they don't want to cause her any more grief.
And of course, they're only completely supportive of her when they find out she's pregnant.
A few months later, Hazuki gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy - She names them Hatsumi and Zuko.
And I'd like to think she eventually settles down and raises them with a nice young lady, perhaps that one kohai that had a crush on her and tried to give her cookies once. =P
Well, hope you guys liked the ideas! Let me know what you thought. ^^