Azula agreed to pay Mai's price.
It could not hurt. She did not see much of an ally in that traitor, much less a friend, but she did see an opportunity. That was worth much more.
She merely had to bide her time until she could begin unraveling their plan.
"Is father still... around?" Azula inquired. She clutched tea in her hands and sat across from her brother. He was pretending to be busy, but not very well.
Zuko averted his eyes. He struggled with the morality of it; the answer mattered more than Azula could imagine.
"Yes." Zuko inhaled and exhaled slowly. "But you can't see him."
"Why not?" Azula demanded, glaring.
"Because everyone thinks you're dead."
"So I have to stay locked up forever? Hidden until I vanish again. . . this time taking a souvenir? A little girl who rightfully belongs to me, to be precise."
Zuko clenched his jaw. Azula did not stand down; it was not in her blood and she would never bow to a false ruler like ZuZu.
They stared each other down until he decided to be the bigger person.
"You won't ever have Izumi. But I won't throw you out of her life either, so long as you don't do anything crazy. I'll find an appropriate way to publicly come clean—"
"Like me burning down half of the factory district? I imagine it would be very explosive."
"Don't do that. I mean, do that. I mean, whatever I say doesn't matter because you just do whatever you want. Which is," Zuko said, pausing for gravitas, "why you will never get Izumi as your own. You're selfish, you're dangerous, and you gave her up."
"I was young when I gave her up, and I did it for her own good."
"You did it because you were scared."
"That is slander."
"It's true. I can understand why you would be scared, but if you wanted to do something for her own good, you wouldn't choose Ty Lee. Her cat once died because she forgot to give it food or water."
"That's a lie. It was a fire ferret."
"What do you want to do?"
"Talk to Aang."
"What? What did you just say?"
"We tell the Avatar, tell him to keep a secret – which he will – and we see what his Avatar opinion is. Doesn't he overrule you or something?"
"You don't think he'll be biased towards me?"
"I think he will do what is best for Izumi. Which is having her mother be her mother."
Zuko thought that would work in his favor. He wondered at first what game Azula was playing, before realizing that she genuinely thought she was so wholly in the right that Aang would agree with her. He supposed it was good that she gave up Izumi, if she had such a skewed idea of what was healthy for a child.
"I agree that we both have biases against each other because of our childhood. Aang will be fair." Zuko knew Aang actually would be fair. If he thought Izumi should be with Azula, he would side with his enemy over his friend.
"He will be." Azula smirked with a twinkle in her eye.
Zuko did not like it, but he did not want to argue.
That afternoon, Zuko had a brilliant idea. He did not voice it, even to his wife, because he could trust no one at this point. No one was looking very kindly upon him after he was forced to admit his lies, and, while he hoped to correct it eventually, he was not risking any other faux pas.
His idea was to give Azula something she wanted. Perhaps if she remembered what their father thought was appropriate, she would be shocked into getting over her Izumi obsession.
Nothing with Azula was certain; this could make it worse.
Zuko did not have a better idea, and so he went to find his sister.
She was watching Izumi play with a distressed expression on her face.
"You asked about our father," Zuko said, sitting down near her.
"Don't try to bribe me out of our meeting with the Avatar."
"I'm not. I just was going to say that I would like you to maybe talk to him and see what his idea of a healthy situation for a child is."
"He was good to me. And I thought you wanted him to still think I'm dead like everyone else."
"I will make an exception, due to the fact that Izumi seems to be an issue you refuse to drop."
"Izumi is why I came here, and I will not leave without her. I find it pathetic that you will not return her to me."
"Don't talk about this in front of—!" Ty Lee interrupted. "Sparrowkeet, go play somewhere else."
Izumi looked up, grabbed her toys, and left the room.
"What was that?" Azula snapped.
"You can't talk about the fate of a little girl in front of that little girl! That's awful! Who taught you two to parent?"
Zuko and Azula exchanged a glance.
"The father that Azula is going to have tea with this afternoon. I'm sure he can help her make the best decisions for Izumi," Zuko said. He hid his smirk, because the moment Azula spoke to their father, she would either ruin herself by following his advice or she would wake many repressed memories to make her sympathize with Zuko's plight.
It was probably going to be the first one.
"Well, you're alive," said Ozai as he sat down across from his daughter.
Her hands were on the table in the palace. She knew she looked like a ghost because she was one outside of this gilded cage. Maybe he looked pleased; maybe he looked apathetic. Azula used to be able to read him, but she was too caught in her own recollections to think about it.
"What a joyous fact," Azula replied. She met his gaze and he did not look away. Neither would do it first; neither would blink first.
"No one bothered to tell me that joyous fact." Ozai studied her and Azula felt a chill, a sickness in her stomach. "No one seems to know, for that matter, seeing as I was at your funeral."
"So was I," Azula had to reply.
"Who couldn't resist watching their own funeral?" he admitted in complete earnest.
"Right." Azula was not sure where to direct this conversation.
She felt sick because she blamed him for her losing Izumi in the first place. Azula gave up her baby because the entire time she was pregnant she could not stop thinking about him. Of course she knew she was too much like her father.
The scars from the slices he inflicted never faded.
But Azula did change her mind. She was here because Azula was her own person now, not dictated by anything but her own mature desires and actions. People grow up after all of this time, and Azula was no exception.
"I think she would be much better off with me," Azula said.
Ozai did not have the reaction Azula expected. He looked an awful lot like Zuko did when he heard that news. "Why?"
"You sound like all of them," Azula snapped with a haughty edge. "She would be because I am her mother, obviously, and she likes me, and I do have a place where we both could live that is lonely even for my liking. I grew up. I am an adult and I deserve my child back. I missed too much of her life."
"That's sentimental." Ozai gave her a moment to look victorious before crushing her with his opinion. "You want to take her to spite Zuko."
"No," Azula snarled. "I want her because she is rightfully mine and Zuko has a habit of stealing things that are rightfully mine."
Well, he could not disagree with that.
"I know the feeling. Perhaps that is true," Ozai said. Azula disliked his false wisdom. Azula disliked how they had so much in common. Everything in common. If she never could be near Izumi or touch Izumi or say a cold word to Izumi, she would probably lose Izumi.
Azula dismissed those concerns. She was better than her father and far more deserving.
"It is true," she said. "I will not leave this palace, I will not stop tormenting her captors, I will not stop slowly seizing control of her life until I walk out of that door with her and never have to return."
He was startled. "You don't want to live in the lap of luxury?"
"Not if I have to share it with her." It was evident that she was speaking of Ty Lee.
Ozai sighed. "That's a very long time to be hung up on a girl who continuously betrays you. Just make Izumi yours bit by bit and coerce them into letting you stay here. Then no one can complain about you ripping her from her home or whatever I'm sure they're calling it, but she turns against her parents. Children are incredibly easy to manipulate."
Azula recoiled. She calmed herself quickly and said, "And I thought your best ideas were exclusively ones you stole from me."
"If you're so caught up on the girl, well, I don't know who wouldn't want you." That chilled Azula to the bone. It reminded her of the negatives.
There were both pros and cons to reclaiming her baby and her father so cavalierly saying that was a con. Maybe it was a pro; she could have the incentive of raising a child better than he did. She did not think of Izumi as an object, right? She didn't!
A sensation on her skin made her snap back to reality.
"Don't touch my hand or I will burn your fingers off." That prompted uncomfortable silence. Azula knew her father gave her decent wisdom and she gave him meager credit for it. She also would shameless steal his ideas, like he did with hers for years. "I could take her back. Everyone has a weakness to exploit. She has a myriad."
Azula wondered why Zuko let this conversation happen.
Azula and Ty Lee get heated and not in the fun way.
Princess Azula was playing with Princess Izumi, thinking fondly of her plan with Mai, and feeling quite proud of herself for being a better parent than Ozai, when Izumi abandoned her in an instant screaming for her mom.
It was not even Izumi so carelessly leaving Azula to embrace Ty Lee.
It was that word.
Azula and Ty Lee stood across from each other in the center of the room.
"I am mom. I am mom," Azula demanded. She knew she was right and Ty Lee was the twisted psychopath now. They flipped roles.
"No, you aren't," Ty Lee said through clenched teeth. Her most terrifying war face still looked slightly like a smile. "You're not even mother or mommy or mama or any of those other words. You always will be, at absolute best, Aunt Azula."
Azula had no words; she had firebending.
Ty Lee had no patience; she had a counterattack.
Both girls had a foul taste in their mouths – the ashes of a disintegrated love.
Zuko never thought he would say what he was about to say.
Why did he have to be the bad guy even when he wasn't the bad guy? Was that normal? Was becoming responsible somehow making him a villain all over again?
"Ty Lee. . ." he began. She looked up at him and he almost changed his mind, but he sighed. "I think your fight with Azula was bad and I think you two should maybe try to uh. . ."
"Get back together?" Ty Lee suggested, sarcastically sweet.
"I think you two should try to be slightly more civil with each other. Of all people, I think you have a right to be pissed off about all of this. It is her who forced this on you so I understand, but she is not going to be the one to step forward and try to make things better."
"Sounds good. I'll go talk to her right now. Maybe we'll kiss and make up."
"Why are you so angry? What did I..." It was too late; she had walked away already.
Maybe she was going to try out his suggestion.
"I am becoming very tired of people knocking on my door. I don't like people to intrude on my—"
Ty Lee opened the door. "Privacy?"
"I could have been undressed. Or sleeping. Or... something else I suppose."
"I don't care about anything of those things. I've seen you undressed, I've seen you sleeping, I've seen you at your absolute worst doing awful and horrifying things. I also don't care that much about your privacy when you decided you wanted to come live in my house whether I like it or not," Ty Lee rattled off and Azula stared blankly.
Azula refused to acknowledge such insolence.
"Do not talk to me like that," Azula said and Ty Lee scowled. Azula then turned to face her and gave her a look of utter remorse. It was an emotion Azula found very easy to fake. "You did me a favor with Izumi. I do find you deplorable for holding her from me, however, I am royalty and should acknowledge those who make sacrifices for my benefit."
"That's delightfully patronizing, but I'll accept." Ty Lee cautiously sat down on Azula's bed. Their eyes met, but this time it was not rage; it was. . . wistful, and Azula knew what to do.
"Did you ever hear the myth of the Water Tribe sirens?" Azula purred and Ty Lee cocked her head, genuinely curious. "You have, haven't you? They were irresistible, and dragged sailors to frigid deaths among the icebergs. The scrolls themselves say that they sang prettier than any sparrowkeet and were more beautiful than any mortal woman. I don't believe in them, but I know that every myth has a basis in fact. There are some people and some vices and some endless songs that haunt a person until they would do anything to follow them."
"Are you implying that your scavenger hunts were on par with Water Tribe sirens, because, come on."
"I am implying that we both succumb to that song in one way or another. Don't tell me I haven't brought out a side of you that you hid for years and years. And, well, I came for you." It was one of the best lies that Azula ever told.
Ty Lee was not sure if she could believe her, but it did make more sense than Azula suddenly deciding to mother her child.
"And Izumi?" Ty Lee asked.
"And Izumi brought out a side in me that no one, including myself, knew I had. I find death by those icebergs fairly satisfying if it means I could follow that song," Azula said and she at last had Ty Lee pinned under her thumb.
It was easy.
Azula was wrong; Ty Lee was both doubtful and hopeful.
"I kind of like that side of you, but I kind of don't want to drown," Ty Lee said. She was not sure if she was any good at this metaphor poem Azula had going, but she could not break her mind free of it.
"If I vanished, do you think I would leave you a way to find me?" Azula asked and Ty Lee took a deep breath. Ty Lee did not know.
No, she did know.
She knew that it had been too long and Zuko was nothing more than a friend or a poor substitute for this girl. They both knew from their foolish games that love was not needed.
So, Ty Lee kissed her, started to undo her robe, decided it was worth it.
Inexplicably, Azula pushed her away. Ty Lee wanted to grab her by the hair and smash her into the floor, because she was the one who started it, like always. Like always!
"Fine," Ty Lee said before Azula could say a word. "I guess you got kinda tired of playing with me, huh?"
Azula did not know why she did it, but she was trying to make that happen. She was clueless about her own actions, but she refused to admit that she was anything but deliberate.
And so Ty Lee fled, leaving Azula wondering if she should call after her. Azula decided that she had Mai's deal to worry about, had her meeting with the Avatar to prepare for. Ty Lee was unnecessary, despite being so appetizing.
The Fire Lady walked through the hallway back to her bedroom, her hand collecting dust from running it over the wall. Ty Lee arrived in the room she shared with Zuko. He was there. That was good.
"Are you up?" she whispered.