2 years after escaping their dreaded orphanage and the terror trio that consisted of 3 girls they had completely erased from their minds, Vonna and Senko lived in the village of Hun Li. It was a village with an apparent moon monster in it. Every full moon, people disappeared if they were outside at night and because of it always being on a full moon, the townspeople were saying that they were being abducted by a monster dubbed as the moon monster. To avoid the chance of being its next victims, Senko and Vonna built a log cabin on the other side of a forest to live in as they believed the abductions were only occurring in the town. They did feel safer when they moved out of their apartment, but it wasn't just the missing people stories that drove the married couple to move out of the town; nearly everyone in town was afraid of Vonna and they often heard not so silent talk when in town about her being the so called moon monster and that she had killed the abducted and washed her hair in their blood and that was why it looked red. They would've gone somewhere else, but they decided that that was the coward's choice and they chose to stay to prove that they weren't what everyone thought.

It is currently late afternoon and Vonna was in her cosy wooden home boiling some water in a kettle for some Jasmine tea. As she poured the boiled water into 2 cups, she heard the sound of the front door opening and closing and then footsteps coming her way. A strong left arm went around her waist and spun her around to face who had walked in.

"Hey gorgeous." said her now husband Senko with a smile. Vonna gave a soft laugh before the 2 leaned in for a passionate kiss. When they broke apart, Vonna turned around to grab the 2 cups of tea while Senko walked to the left of the kitchen and opened the door that lead to their pantry. Vonna now realised he had 2 sacks with him making the sound of cash instead of 1 as he emptied them into a giant safe. She came over and said "Okay, I was going to ask "How was work today?" but I think the answer to that's clear enough."

Senko stood up and held out his hand for his tea "I got a raise and there was also a competition to make the best ornament out of wood in an hour. There would then be an auction show and mine had the highest bid!"

"That's incredible! So what was it you made that got the highest bid?"

Senko led her to the living room while taking a sip of his tea. He then pointed "4 of that."

Vonna looked to where he was pointing and her jaw dropped in awe. What she saw on a table was a small carousel made of pine-coloured wood. Vonna slowly put her cup down and picked up the handmade ornament and saw the 4 different animals to ride on as she turned it around in her hands: there was a turtleduck, a tigerdillo, a dragon and a flying dolphin fish; all 4 animals with reins on their heads, fancy saddles almost covering their bodies and a little thin pole going through the centre of their backs.

"I made one in just 15 minutes, so I decided to make another 3 to pass the time. The 3 families I sold them too were really happy. They went for 500 gold pieces each. Shame it doesn't move on its own or make music like an actual one though." came Senko's voice. Vonna set it back down on the table and turned her head to Senko cupping his chin with her hands "It's still lovely darling."

"Yeah." Senko said now looking away from his wife. All Vonna could make was him looking mildly upset. Vonna then knew what he was going to say, but refused to believe it "Don't tell me we were refused again."

Senko gave a sigh and then looked right into Vonna's eyes. They were completely void of hope "We were refused."

Vonna could no longer be upset at this. She just gave a frustrated "Ergh" and then stormed over to the sofa and sat down on it "What excuse could they have possibly have used this time? I actually want to know!"

As Senko walked over to join her, he explained "I went there on my own this time like you said so they couldn't use excuses such as "Your wife is under suspicion of the abducted townspeople" or "Your wife's chosen appearance would be a bad influence to young minds". Now, their saying we're too young to adopt children."

Vonna scoffed "That excuse is just absurd! 1: if that was what they truely thought, they would''ve said that the first time we went there! And 2: you turned 18 a week ago! That is literally the youngest grown up age which means you can adopt legally or at least be put on the waiting list!"

It truely was, to use Vonna's vocabulary, absurd. Around a year and a half after moving to Hun Li, Senko and Vonna were doing so well in their lives ignoring the fact that everyone in town was afraid of Vonna and doubted her claim of innocence. But the spark they had between them was beginning to weaken and become dimmer. Neither of them wanted to separate or break up, but they didn't know how to re-ignite it. Then, Vonna realised it when she passed the town's foster home and saw a couple coming out with a new edition to their family; their lives were great and perfect, but what was the point of a great and perfect life when there is no one new to share the experience with you? After talking with Senko about it, they made the decision to adopt. Not because they couldn't have biological kids, but because they knew what it was like to be orphans and thought it would be nice for a third orphan to join their family and they could give said orphan the life that they wanted as kids; one with a loving mum and dad.

But that was 3 months ago. Every time they went there, they were refused to be put on the wait list mainly because of the accusations against Vonna as well as her physical appearance scaring anyone who laid eyes on her.

Out of the blue, she heard an amused "Huh" come from Senko. She turned and saw him smiling.

"What's funny?" Vonna asked, for some reason thinking he was laughing at her complaining. Senko said "I was just thinking... when I went to the orphanage today, there was a boy named Vosrue I met when I was leaving."

"Really?" Vonna asked now interested since they had never even met any of the kids there before. "And what was this Vosrue like?"

"Honestly, he looks like a combination of us; he has your lovely tanned skin and my undeniable good looks." he said mockingly smoothing out his hair with his hand while fluttering his eyes. Vonna couldn't hold in her laugh. As she did, she playfully pushed his left shoulder as he laughed with her "And also, unlike everyone else, he isn't afraid of you."

Vonna's laughing stopped "Honestly?"

"Yeah I know; I couldn't believe it either. He even thinks you're innocent and he's only around 5 or 6 years old." That meant a lot to Vonna. Hearing that there was someone in town wasn't scared of her... it was almost unbelievable. She now wished she had went with Senko so she could've seen this boy too. "Well he sounds like a very smart child."

"He is." Senko continued as he pulled Vonna over to lie on his body and hugged "You know, he asked me in his little cute voice "Why don't you have your own kids like other mommies and daddies?"" he said in his 4 year old voice. "I told him how we could, but how we were in foster care all our lives and we wanted a loving mum and dad to take us in like anyone else in that situation would." Vonna closed her eyes and snuggled into Senko's arms further as he continued "He gave me an idea."

Vonna's eyes open and she looked up at him "He suggested that they couldn't refuse people who were already parents."

"Wait." Vonna said sitting up "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Senko looked away from her "Look, I know we agreed to not have biological kids, but right now, it seems like our only way to become parents."

"Senko, the whole point of not us having a biological child is so we could help orphans who are currently in the situation we were in as kids... sigh... and even if we did go with that suggestion and it worked, any adopted children probably wouldn't feel properly apart of the family. Plus, I'm worried that if we did have children of our own that we'd change our minds on adoption and that's something I want to do and it seems like us wanting to adopt is the only reason we have on having our own child."

Senko's face remained calm and a smile was starting to form as he spoke "I know; I had the same thought at first because I really want to adopt as well... which is why I asked Vosrue if we did have a baby and then we got accepted on to the wait list, if he'd like to join our family and be a big brother." Vonna sat up and didn't take her eyes off Senko as he finished his sentence "He said he would."

Relief flushed over Vonna as she and Senko stared at each other. Senko grabbed Vonna's hand as she added "And also, deep down, we both want a child of our own. We can't enjoy witnessing Vosrue's first words, first steps, first birthday or first anything because it's too late. But we could with our own baby and no one can stop that. I know it'll be hard to handle the smelly nappy changes; the crying; and, mainly for you, the 9 months of pregnancy... and I also know we want that."

"We do." Vonna said before kissing him. What felt like an eternity filled with the feeling of bliss couldn't have been longer than a minute before Vonna said as Senko picked her up bridal style and headed for the bedroom "But one child is all I want. One child created between the 2 of us and then any other kids we want are to be adopted."

"My thoughts exactly." Senko said quickly as they entered the bedroom and fell on to the bed for a night of unforgettable love.


9 months later:

Vonna was at home on her cosy armchair finally finished painting the carousel Senko had made. She thought as she placed her brush down and put her hand on her pregnant stomach that the bright colours would make it more baby friendly. So she was happy that for her 18th birthday 10 days ago that Senko bought her art supplies and she was proud of her work. The outlines of the roof part and the little ball on the very top were painted with a glittery gold; the roof was a candy cane mix of light pink and light blue with dark pink fire nation insignias on the blue and dark blue insignias on the pink; and the main inside was painted completely light brown so that the animals would stand out. The animals were painted to look realistic with the poles going through their backs being painted with silver and thin, horizontal, white lines and their saddles and reins were painted in royal red and yellow.

Vonna smiled and brought the hand on her stomach up and down slowly and said in a cooing voice"This will be the first decoration of your room. Yes it will."

Truth be told, there wasn't a kids room in the first place. Senko had somehow managed to build 3 new rooms for the past 9 months; one for the baby, one for an older child if they could adopt one (hopefully Vosrue) and one for Vonna to give birth in as she thought a home birth would be more relaxing and doing it in a room they didn't already love and would hate to be turned into a gooey, slippery mess. Also, she didn't think any of the nurses in the town's hospital would want to deliver "her" baby.

The door opened and Vonna looked up to see Senko come in with more baby supplies. She asked "Just how many more baby supplies do we need? We're only having one baby."

"Maybe so, but wait until it's time to change the nappies; it's gonna stink as the baby get older and you're gonna thank me for buying this many scented candles and air freshners." he said pulling out a long red candle out of the bag and an air freshner can out of another bag. As he set them in a corner, he came over and saw the newly painted carousel. "You finished it? It looks great!"

"Yeah, just now. Would've been sooner if their hadn't been a few contractions earlier." Vonna said placing her hands on her stomach and move them up and down a little.

"Wait, doesn't contractions mean that the baby's coming?" Senko said looking worried.

"That's what I thought, but then they stopped so I'm guessing I was just experiencing false labour."

After a long pause of silence, Senko then looked up from her stomach and asked "Look, are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"

"YES, I'm sure I don't." Vonna said with some force on her tone. As the day of delivery neared, Senko had been urging her to change her mind about a home birth and she understood why since they were about to become first-time parents anyday now and neither of them knew how to deliver a baby and could only rely on the books they had bought. But no one trusted Vonna in this town, so why should she trust them with her first baby? And somehow, she felt Senko would be okay with delivering their baby.

"I'm sorry." Senko said "I'm just worried. You know, something could go wrong since we never done anything like this before."

"I'm scared too darling, but I feel a lot more calmer in my home and with no one who doesn't trust me anywhere in sight." Vonna said taking her hand off her stomach and on to Senko's right shoulder. He then smiled and sat on the left arm of the armchair and he and Vonna leaned in and kissed.

"AAH!" Vonna said pulling away and panting in and out. Senko then saw she was clutching near her stomach and quickly got off the chair "Vonna! Is something wrong?"

Vonna began to speak "I- OH!" she said. Her face looked like a Kemurikage with eyes and a mouth. Senko panicked, but this time spoke more clamly and assertive "Vonna, say something. What's going on?"

"My water broke."

Senko's assertiveness disappeared from his eyes and was replaced with a mix of worry and joy "That's means-"

"The baby's com- AAAAH!" was all Vonna got out before it was then constant agonising screaming.


"Then, what happened?" Zirin asked. Vonna's story was possibly the lengthiest, though Shiki secretly disagreed as she didn't tell the girls all of her story. They still couldn't believe that Vonna had a baby, though they did believe it explained her bond with 13 year old Shiki. Perhaps she thought of the girl as a surrogate child to replace the one she lost to kidnappers.

"I had the baby... a baby girl. She was so small... and so beautiful." Vonna said with her throat starting to bottle up with tears that were shed from her eyes "She had my hair and chin, her father's olive green eyes..." Vonna then wiped her eyes in took in a breath in attempt to stop the crying. It didn't work. "And we didn't even spend 10 minutes with her before our home was attacked and set on fire as we came out of the room with her in her daddy's arms."

"Your home was attacked right after you had a baby?" Tanni asked in horror. It seemed like nothing the girls had heard before. They were hoping it was a fairytale that would end with a happily ever after, but it wouldn't as Vonna continued "Senko thrusted her in my arms and pushed me out of the house as the roof began collapsing. He for some reason stayed in and tried to put the fire out inside, but it was... (sniffle)... it was too much for him to handle."

Vonna now seemed to be hiding her eyes as she couldn't stop crying from the thought of what happened that night she lost her home, her family and her freedom "As I tried to get up, 2 people completely covered in black from head to toe took advantage of me still having not recovered from labour and ripped my daughter right out of my grasp and fled. Our burning home attracted the town's officials and I tried to explain to them how my daughter had been kidnapped, but they only focused on me telling them how Senko was in there. They then dragged me away and didn't believe I had a daughter... they just wanted an excuse to get rid of me and sent me to the asylum saying I had killed the only man I ever loved and pretended to have a kidnapped daughter... no one believed me at all... they just saw me as the scary girl with the scary blood-coloured hairstyle."

Shiki then put her short arms and tiny hands around Vonna's neck and hugged into her as the older woman softly cried. Zirin thought what happened to her family was horrible, but not even watching your entire family die right before your eyes could compare to knowing that your child was being raised by false parents and would never even know the truth about her birth mother or how her father died saving her life. Then, she remembered something Azula had confided to her "Vonna." she said and didn't wait for her to look up "Azula told me something about this spirit in Hira'a; this spirit wasn't only able to give people new faces; it was able to find her mother who had been missing for almost a decade. Perhaps if we found the spirit, she could locate where your daughter is."

"And then what?"

"Then... maybe you could go to her a-and tell her the truth about you; how you're her mother, how her father died saving you both from a house fire."

"Yeah... you might even be able to find Vosrue as well if you asked that too." Shiki added in attempt to try and help with young adult women as most children do.

"Look ladies." Vonna said reverting back to her posh accent as she was retreating back behind her walls "As much as I would want to find my daughter, she probably has a great life with a family that genuinely loves her and I doubt she would want her perfect reality to be crushed with the knowledge that she'll never meet her birth father and that her birth mother allowed her to be taken away from her in less than the first 10 minutes of her life."

"Well, how do you know she has a great life?" Tanni asked. Fenang then asked after her "Not to sound so dark, but how do you know she's not dead?"

"Because 2 people don't run off with a baby just to kill it and my daughter was adorable; my guess was Senko talked about me being pregnant to people who thought they were saving her from the horrible shame that was her biological mother."

There were uncomfortable glances between the 2 girls for asking those questions. Pashi then brought up Tanni's question again "But how do you know if your daughter's happy with the life she has?" Vonna gave no answer. She appeared to be considering the possibility that maybe... just maybe, her daughter didn't have a happy life. Maybe she could somehow sense she stood apart from her so-called family that stole her away from her blood family and whenever she asks them about the subject, they lie to her. Then, Vonna's face sunk and she said "Look, the chances of my daughter not being happy with the life she was stole into over a decade ago are about the same chances of dragons still existing in the world. And we all know the last one was killed by Azula's uncle."

They nodded, starting to give up on convincing the stubborn mother who wasn't given a chance to be a mother. They were all looking down

"But..." Vonna said that caused everyone to look up at her face "... I guess it... couldn't hurt to just check when we have the time in Hira'a."


Azula breathed with relief as she finally reached the palace. She didn't waste too much time as her sighting by Mai's family would surely be reported and Azula guessed that Mai would go directly to Zuko herself as soon as she recovered from the spare sedatives the princess had. She now walked on the rooftops to save her energy as she would need to propel herself on to the roof of her former home in the fastest way possible. As she walked, she was going around the palace until she saw the window of the room she needed to go to; the guest bedroom that her mother's new daughter was staying in. She took a few steps back before she charged and jumped off. She felt herself falling and with all the fire she could muster at night, Azula shot out a massive blue fireball from her fists and feet for a split second and managed to land on the balcony's edge. She opened the window and walked in expecting to find the 5 year old in bed. But the room was completely empty. Mother was probably being over-protective of the child even more after what had happened tonight and Zuko probably told her that her monster of an eldest daughter was the one responsible for the kidnappings in the first place. She opened the door and poked her head out. No one was coming and so she walked to the room she needed to be in; her old bedroom.

She was about to walk in when she saw the door was open a little. She removed her mask and hood and pressed her ear on to the door to listen into the room in case someone was inside. She heard soft crying coming from inside. Azula guessed it was her half sister Kiki or Kylie or whatever her ridiculous peasant name was. Perhaps she wasn't the fighter she appeared to be in the bunker. But what was she doing in her old bedroom?

Azula's teeth gritted and her fists balled up. Zuko probably hated losing that fight against her in the crypt and wanted some form of victory and he closest he could get to was giving his new little sister her room. Azula couldn't have the brat screaming if she saw her; she would have to be knocked out while Azula left a message for Zuko explaining herself and also the death of cousin Lu Ten. She looked into her hands and saw she only had one sedative left. She would have to make it count. So, she pulled her hood up, put her mask back on her face with the sedative in her hand and swung the door open quietly.

But once she was in, Azula froze and underneath her emotionless mask were wide eyes with small pupils and an open mouth in shock at the sight before her. Sitting on the edge of her bed hugging and crying into a pillow wasn't a 5 year old girl recovering from her kidnapping. It was...

Ursa.


Notes on this chapter:

Hun Li is a made up name given to the fire nation town Team Avatar are in in the episode "The Puppetmaster"