The little drops of light that trickled in through the darkness of her mind seemed to bring back slowly back to her the thoughts and awareness that she thought had been lost, lost for good. A feeling of warmth swept through her as her consciousness slowly started to spread, and she started to become aware of her body once more. First the neck, then her shoulders, arms, torso, legs, feet. It was a wonderful process as she very slowly became more and more aware of the signals that were coming to her from them.

She expected extreme pain, burns, broken bones. Everything that she could reasonably expect. But rather than her mind being lit up by thousands of desperate cries from the rest of her body, she was instead greeted by just the barest of signals, as though her body was asleep. She could just make out that they were there, still attached, but beyond that nothing.

The little droplets of light, of vary subtle differences and colors, slowly began to merge together and take the form of blurry shapes, blobs of various sizes. Slowly, though, these blobs began to take on defining edges separating them from each other as they became objects and shapes. A glow, a source of light that she could guess at being a candle, sent a small shudder through her mind as she was reminded of fire.

Beneath it, the table it was sitting on began to take form. Wooden, polished. A light brown with a gloss that was reflecting a bit of the glare from the candle sitting on its surface. Another glare behind it caught her attention and her eyes focused as well as they could on it. After a few moments she realised it was a window, the translucent panes reflecting shapes of the room.

Slowly the light faded, the colors and shapes were lost in darkness as her eyes drifted shut once more. She tried to force them back open but found that it was a battle that she couldn't win. A sound, footstep she identified, caught her attention and she stopped trying to see. Warmth spread through her shoulder as she thought she felt a hand on it. The comfort spread through her mind and she relaxed, falling back into the world of darkness.

…..................................................................................................

The second time wasn't as dramatic. It was like waking up. Waking up from a deep sleep, but waking up all the same. The first time had been more like...being born. Coming out of the darkness of nothing and taking in a breath of life for the first time. She had felt like she really had died, and that she had come back. But the truth didn't matter as much as how she felt.

This time when her eyes opened, a very familiar form was sitting beside her bed, looking down at her. Eyes widened as she realized who it was, and slight tears formed as it really clicked that she was still alive. There was a separation between knowledge and actual acceptance of something, and this made her cross the line.

"Suki!" Her tone was excited, but not particularly loud. She tried to say it with her normal voice, the excitement most people expected from her, but it hadn't worked out for her as she felt her chest hurt and the air didn't quite move like she needed.

"Easy Ty Lee." A smile indicated that she was happy to see her, but there was worry in her eyes, and Ty Lee thought she might have some idea of why.

"It was hard to miss the flames raining down into the sea not far off our shore. When we went to investigate, we found you barely alive, most of your bones broken and several burns. We had a few water benders that owed us some favors drop in to help patch you up..." She trailed off, the worry becoming more apparent. "When they didn't find your body Ty, they assumed you escaped. We told them you weren't here...you are one of us after all."

Ty Lee nodded and closed her eyes, taking a breath and giving it a little thoughts. They wouldn't have the right to just knock on the door looking for her for no reason, especially given the fire bending. Which obviously meant...

"Ty, their saying that your wanted in the fire nation. That you and Azula organized an assassination of every member of the royal family and even managed to have Ozai killed." Her eyes dropped to look at the floor and their lids half shut clearly showing fear. "I know that you couldn't possibly have done something like that...but did you help her Ty?"

Ty Lee shook her head as well as she could, and answered in a whisper, but a bit frantically. "I am trying to help Azula, but not like that. Zuko's had her locked in this little bitty cage since the end of the war, just left her there. She was supposed to be getting help, you know? But she wasn't. Zuko was just letting her die and stuff. And me and Mai found out and were going to do something about it, but Azula said Zuko wouldn't listen, and I agreed, you know, he's hard headed..." She trailed off, the pain flaring up.

Suki nodded and gave it some thought before finally replying. "I don't trust Azula, Ty Lee. But I trust you. I think shes planning something and using you, but I know that you didn't have anything to do with the assassinations. You wouldn't have gone along with that..." She trailed off, thinking some more. It was a delicate situation. "What are you trying to do for her, Ty Lee?"

Ty Lee opened her eyes and looked into Suki's. "Shes requested the Avatars intervention. She wants him to come and tell Zuko that he can't treat her like that, that its violating her rights even as a war criminal. And she's right, Suki. She really is. Zuko can't treat her like that...not like that." She slowly crossed her arms over her chest as she remembered. "You didn't see her. She was chained to the wall, her bones were showing through her skin....she was bleeding, and shes still a little crazy."

Suki once again put her hand on Ty Lee's shoulder. "Stop, Ty. I believe you. Even if I don't trust Azula farther than I can throw her, I believe you, and it does seem like something Zuko would do, from what I know of him." She shook her head. "Your doing the right thing, if thats the case. Aang...I mean, the Avatar is the only person that has the right to intervene."

Ty Lee nodded. "Do you know where he is? The faster I can get to him, the better." She started to sit up, and ignored the pain signals going off in her body. It was rough, it felt like her entire body was on fire.

Suki's hand became a little more forceful and pushed her as gently as she could back down. "Ty, rest. You won't make it far like that." She shook her head. "Yes. The Avatar is currently north of Ba Sing Se, helping some of the villages that way recover. The war was hard on them, as it was for all of us. The part of the fire navy that attacked the north pole had been engaged with them before that attack."

A sigh was Ty Lee's response. That was a long way to travel, and in her condition she actually feared for her ability to make it. "Can you help me, Suki? Some supplies, maybe an Ostrich horse?"If she didn't have to do it on foot, she thought she might have better luck.

"Its...this is a very difficult political situation. I don't think you really understand how difficult. We can give you the supplies you want, even the Ostrich horse, but thats it. Any more help than that, and if they find out...we might be looking at another war." She looked at Ty Lee directly. "Because of that, we almost already have one. A squad of fire benders shooting off in Earth Nation waters...the political fallout wasn't pretty. Things are already enough on edge without that."

Ty Lee looked away. Because of her actions...she had almost started a war. It wasn't her fault though, it was Zuko's, wasn't it? He sent them after her, made her a criminal...and Mai was letting him. They had tried to kill her. Was Mai... no, it wasn't possible. Mai couldn't know that Zuko had told them to kill her. She wouldn't have let that happen...but she was letting Azula stay in that cell...maybe she would?

Ty Lee didn't know what to think, so she didn't. There was no way for her to know what was going on back home, in other peoples heads...she wasn't Azula and Mai, she couldn't figure people out like that. Thats something they could do that she really respected, but didn't ever want for herself. She liked just doing, just being. No, she'd concentrate on what she was doing, because she knew what she was doing was the right thing.

"I'm sorry Suki. I really am. But I have to save Azula. I can't just sit by and watch her die." She reached her hand out towards the light coming in from the window. "I didn't mean for everything to happen like it has. It was supposed to be easy. Go get the Avatar, come back. Azula gets moved somewhere and gets real help, gets better. And eventually everyones happy."

She let her hand drop. "Just like that, though...it falls apart. Now I'm hunted, wanted dead I think, by my own country. I was just supposed to be a messenger...and instead, now I'm Azula's Knight." Everything had gone wrong, become complicated. Even if her course of action was still simple.

"Her knight in shining armor." Suki said, with a sad smile of her own. "Your actions and motives are pure, Ty Lee, just like you. Even if your working for the dark queen. She doesn't deserve you...but I know you wouldn't stop what your doing even if I tried to convince you."

Ty Lee nodded. "I've been hearing that a lot lately....shes not as dark as you think, though. There's good in her...and regardless, shes a human being. No one deserves to be treated that way. Not even Ozai was punished that harshly."

Suki nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Ty Lee... One minute." She said as there was a knock on the door. She stood and walked to it, opening it and vanishing into the hall for a few moments. Ty Lee couldn't make out anything that they said, but when she returned she had a smile, an actual, happy smile. "A healing specialist, a very good water bender, will be stopping by to treat you tomorrow. You should be able to leave tomorrow night."

Ty Lee returned the smile, but then it slipped a bit. "Why are the water benders helping me and keeping it quite? Didn't they hear that I conspired with Azula and all that?"

Suki shrugged. "It helps when your boyfriend has a lot of pull with the water tribe. He's currently down in the southern tribe or I'd be making him go with you." There was a slightly serious look on her face, but a playful one at the same time. One of those "He'd do it cause I'd tell him to" that most women eventually came to posses.

Ty Lee noticed that the door had been left open, and that Suki was still standing in it. "Ty...you need to get some more rest. Tomorrows going to be very tough on you, and your going to have to leave under the cover of the night. You need to be at your best...or as best as you can."

Ty Lee nodded. "Good night Suki...thank you so much." If Suki hadn't been there...hadn't saved her, Ty Lee really would be dead right now.

"Your one of us Ty Lee...and one of the best people that I know. I'd do it a thousand times over." And with that she was back out and Ty was left with her own thoughts, that themselves slowly drifted off into the darkness of sleep once more.