Sorry about the slow updates. I started a new job.

At any rate If you've ever wondered what happens when a schizophrenic goes off their medication, wonder no more. You're about to find out. Again, this is a K+ rated story, but just know in real life it can be a lot worse than this.

Also, there is a spiritual aspect going on here. It's your job to figure out which. What is a hallucination/part of her disease? What is brought on by an evil spirit?

Oh and if you're wondering about Madame June's nightclub, just read Avatar Aang's Big Bachelor Bang, also being updated currently my moi. Just, proceed with caution people because that one is rated M.

"Dominatia, do you think I should send Jezobel on to be with Avatar Aang?" Azula coughed from her bed.

Dominatia's large eye looked at Azula through the glassless window of her stateroom. Azula had contracted a nasty case of bronchitis along with a temperamental stomach virus after falling asleep on the plains. As a result, the princess hadn't done much the past few days, except cough, lie in bed, and vomit. Yesterday she had stopped puking enough to make a brief appearance and congratulate her ladies on their proper conduct during mating season. During that time she'd noticed that Jezobel was alone near the edge of the cliff, her face tucked between her two front legs.

Avatar Aang was too busy to stay at the temple, but according to the book, paired bison should spend a minimum of three weeks together. He had meant to return after a short stop over at Zuzu's, but business in the Fire Nation had kept the Avatar there unexpectedly. She'd gotten a hawk day before yesterday explaining that some pompous dignitaries from the Northern Water Tribe were giving her brother all kinds of fits, and Aang had had to intervene a little more than previously thought. Azula had half a mind to mount Dominatia, and sick or not rattle those dignitaries with a little persuasive illumination.

She would have too, had Dominatia not flat out refused the idea. Azula was too drained from her illness to fight her on the issue, so she'd slumped back into bed and fallen asleep instead. That had been two days ago. Now the problem of Jezobel was presenting itself again in Azula's mind. She'd caught a glimpse of her this morning after throwing up in her chamber pot and exiting her room to dump the vomit off the cliff. The demure little lady was very alone and looking at the sky, as though she were expecting someone or wanting to see someone.

Dominatia warbled that she rather liked the idea of sending Jezobel off to be with Appa.

"Very well," Azula said, "wait a minute while I write the Avatar and Zuzu a note." Aula took a few deep breaths, summoning the energy to move. At last she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She grabbed for the post as splotches of black and white flashed before her eyes.

Dominatia growled at her.

"Yes, yes I'm going slowly! Can't you see me?" True to her word she stumbled slowly towards her dresser and slumped against it, knocking half of its items onto the floor. But the pen and paper she was able to grasp. Her handwriting was messy but she was able to get her point across:

Brotherlord Zuzu and Avatar Aang,

I am sending Jezobel to you, along with Delilah and Inferno. According to the book mated bison should not be separated for a period of three weeks, or it is unlikely the female will conceive (Something about emotional trauma, whatever that means). Therefore, Jezobel should be with Appa. Perhaps that Water Tribe peasant of Aang's can ride her around; Jezobel would certainly do wonders for her anger issues.

At any rate, Zuzu, please welcome these bison I am sending you. I am ill presently at the temple and will likely head for the Earth Kingdom once I am able. I will send you a hawk when I arrive safely and then when I return to the temple.

Azula

Dominatia summoned Jezobel when Azula finished writing. The Bison Lord had just enough energy left in her to tie the note to Jezobel's horn through the window. This done, Azula fell back against her bed, panting with exertion.

Jezobel looked at her, mewling a little.

"What are you waiting for?" Azula gasped, her diaphoretic brow set with aggravation. "To the Fire Nation palace with you! Delilah and Inferno will accompany you there."

Jezobel protested again, but Delilah and Inferno's impatient bellows at the cliff got her moving.

Dominatia waved the three of them off with her tail, then turned back to check on her Lord.

Azula was lying motionless on the bed, a little stream of drool trickling from her lips; she looked unusually pale and sweaty. The therapy bison couldn't tell whether she had passed out or merely fallen asleep. Rampage came beside Dominatia and smiled at her supportively. The two of them began to discuss their Lord's predicament. Lillith and her beau joined soon after the conversation started.

The four bison agreed that Azula wasn't getting any better. Her ability to hold food down had been sporadic at best, and Dominatia couldn't remember the last time she hadn't puked up her anti-psychotics. The bison feared Azula would start hallucinating again soon, which was what happened the last time she went off her psychiatric medication on a whim.

Lillith thought it best to take her to the Fire Nation palace again, but Dominatia firmly rejected the idea. Dominatia bellowed, rather adamantly, that the Fire Nation had outdated guidelines when it came to treating acute psychosis. They liked to straight-jacketed the acutely mentally ill, which only made it worse. The Earth Kingdom didn't do that.

# # # # #

Kuei looked out the window at his garden. The dogwood trees were in bloom, their white petals soft in the evening light. True, they weren't the same species of tree that he'd walked through with Azula those last few days in the Fire Nation, but they were similar enough that they reminded him of them, and more importantly her.

He'd thought of the elaborate necklace after arriving home from the Fire Nation and immediately set the town craftsmen working on it. He never told them who it was for. Only his closest confidants knew he was dating the surly Fire Nation Native, and he wanted to keep it that way, at least for the time being.

But the rumors were definitely flying around the Earth Kingdom. He had dismissed his courtesans for one thing, and they accepted jobs at Madame June's after this. The stately gentleman's club outside of Ba Sing Se was a gossip mill, and it didn't take long for most of the Earth Kingdom to learn that Kuei had fallen in love with some "mystery woman."

Who she was or where she came from was anyone's guess.

Then there were the four craftsmen who had worked on the elaborate necklace for over two weeks. It was rare they got such a detailed and costly order. Their own suspicions branched to other patrons and the Earthbending miners who supplied their materials. One of the miners was a merchant who frequented the Northern Water Tribe and declared that the King was "probably engaged." Of course, that news had spread faster than Ozai's little burn notice during Sozin's comet.

Kuei did nothing to refute or encourage the rumors. He repeated "no comment" over and over again to his press advisor at the palace. But just because he chose to keep his people in the dark didn't mean that he hoped that Azula wouldn't get the message behind the elaborate piece. He knew he was being very subtle, but thought that a good approach for the time being.

So had Dr. Ping. "She is very uncomfortable with human interaction, Your Majesty. Proceed with love by all means; just make sure you do it very slowly and with an awful lot of caution. Remember, she will need her space."

Kuei understood the need for such an approach, but he was growing impatient. He wanted to see her again. When he was with her, he not only experienced feelings of love, he truly felt alive. He could let go, be uninhibited, and she never once judged him for it. He knew Azula never would. How could she? She was crazier than a belfry of wolfbats, and she knew it. In fact she seemed to have embraced her abject psychosis with open arms. She was almost meticulous about her management of her schizophrenia. Kuei suspected that Dominatia was to blame for that.

# # # #

Azula sat bold upright, only half aware of the sweat sleeking her skin and the wild fever permeating her flesh. She felt disconnected from her body somehow, as though she were a ghost hanging onto her earthly form by a thread, or perhaps even floating freely away from it.

There was a strange silver glow about the land luring her, compelling her to rise, filling her with a strength she hadn't had in days. But it was a sinister sort of strength, like when you wake up, suspecting danger, but have to get out of bed to confirm or discount that fact.

She felt the earth shift slightly beneath her feet and realized she was walking on sand. There was a body of water before her. It was a lake, the stillest she'd ever seen. The silver sheath of water beckoned her, the moonlight streaking its glassy surface. The water was remarkably still, the environment devoid of sound, as though her ears were sealed in a vacuum.

She wasn't sure how she got to the place, or even if it were real. The force compelling her was both a physical and spiritual pull that brought her to the water's edge and then suddenly let her go. Azula half fell at the banks of the lake. She certainly didn't give her legs the command to fold and yet somehow they did; then she was left there, staring at her reflection. Strangely, it was without color; everything about her was black and white with a few shades of gray in between, including herself. Her lips seemed a dark black, as did the circles below her eyes. The whites of her eyes encircled her coal black pupils. Her irisis, normally amber, shone a stilted gray.

She closed her eyes and took a breath for some clarity, but when opened them again, the image was no longer shades of black and white, but varying hues of red. She looked away and lifted one hand from the water; rivulets of blood leeched from a long gash painting the length of her arm. She couldn't remember where she had gotten it or when. It didn't even hurt, and she watched with perplex ion, not alarm, as a small river of blood spilled into the red lake before her. As she was wondering about the cut, a force re-exerted itself; only this time it pulled her straight down.

Azula opened her mouth to scream as her body was pulled into the water. The bloody lake rose up to her neck, then her mouth, and finally the garnet depths covered her head. She clawed against the liquid, trying to swim upward, but every strike she made against the surrounding water was ineffective. The oxygen was draining from her body, her lungs were about to explode. She knew she was being swallowed, that soon she would be dying, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was about to black out when she felt a tug at her neck, and a second later she was suspended above the now rippling lake.

At that moment, the sound and color returned to the world. The lake flashed blue, the shore a sandy brown, and Dominatia's fur was an angelic white that surrounded her, lifting her up from the darkness.

A moment later she was on the beach and sprawled on her stomach with Dominatia's giant paw thwacking her soundly on her back, forcing her to vomit the lake water. Then the beast's nose nudged her onto her side. The three others formed a protective triangle around them.

Azula panted into her therapy bison and tightened her grip around Dominatia's paw. She heard Rampage snarling beside them.

She looked up to see the male bearing his teeth viciously at nothing. He was turned toward the lake.