November 104AG

Hei Won had been in therapy for three months now. She had only received letters from the other acolytes. She had not had any visitors. She wouldn't get any visitors until she addressed the issues that led her here.

They tried to talk to her about who she was and what she wanted for herself in life, but she could only see herself as a victim. Aang had been stolen from her. Her freedom had been stolen from her. She owed these people nothing and she made sure to let them know.

During the first month, she mostly threw hissy fits, insisting that Aang loved her and that they shouldn't be keeping them apart. She said she'd find her way back to him no matter what they did and she tried to break out four different times. The guards always found her. She wasn't very athletic, so she couldn't climb the gate and even if she could, the other patients would signal the guards when she'd try to leave. Even they could see how broken she was.

Her voice was tired out by the second month. She didn't talk much at all. Rather, she would stay quiet while her therapist tried to talk to her.

"Have you thought about where you want to go when you leave here?" They were trying to show her that she had a life worth living that they could help her get well so she could get to it, but she would just sit and glare.

Her group therapy was no better. The others would share their stories and their fears but she would not respond. The patients would try to encourage each other, but she would never comment. She didn't consider herself one of them and it showed.

Hei Won always sat by herself at lunch. The other patients, some of them former Joo Dees, would all sit together. It wasn't a very big facility. The patients could all fit at one table.

One day, one of the former Joo Dees sat down across from her.

"What are you doing?"

"Eating lunch with you."

"I eat by myself."

"You can stop pretending you know."

"What?"

"You think if you refuse to talk you aren't one of us, that you're some normal girl who got put here by mistake. You got put here for a reason, and if you don't start looking at yourself to figure out why, you'll never leave."

Hei Won got up and left.

The girl continued to eat in the same spot. She wasn't deterred at all.

Hei Won refused to get in the water during swim. One of the girls said that the doctor was looking for her and she she turned around, she got table topped into the pool. She shrieked, the first time she had shown any emotion to the group in a month and demanded to know who had shoved her.

The other patients simply jumped in the pool, continuing on with their usual games. Hei Won got out of the water. "I'm cold now!"

"You'd be warmer if you got back in," one of them told her.

It was true, but instead, she went right back to her room.

It wasn't until the third month that she finally said something. "I wanted her to die," were the first words that came out of her mouth.

"Who did you want to die?"

"Katara."

"Why?"

"Ever since he left, he only compared every girl he saw to her. As long as she was around, there was hope that he could get her back. I had to end his hope for her."

"But he had moved on to another girl."

"It was only a matter of time before it fell apart. Katara would always be in the way."

"Do you really think that or were you just jealous that he had chased her for so long, but he never really noticed you?"

"What's the difference?"

"If you don't know how you got here, you won't know how to find your way back out. If Katara were here instead of me, what would you say to her?"

"I have no idea."

"Tell me when you know."

Aang had wanted to start his search for the sky bison before the winter set in, but there was a group of sandbenders who had been robbing people trying to cross the Si Wong Desert. The wealthy would fly over it and those with time to spare could sail around it the eastern part of the kingdom instead, but those who didn't have the money or the time would have to try and cross it and risk having everything they had taken from them.

The thieves would even steal their water. If Aang didn't find a way to stop them, people could die. He knew better than to take them on alone. Last time he came across sandbenders, they had stolen Appa. This time, he went with Toph and Haru.

The trio was outnumbered, but they had (effectively) three master earthbenders, one master waterbender, one master firebender and a master airbender.

The first battle was a short one. The thieves had attacked a caravan of dancers on their way to Omashu to perform.

They had been about to take the caravan when they found themselves being knocked out of it by a giant gust of wind. Toph and Haru quickly attacked as soon as the thieves hit the ground. Unfortunately, the culprits were able to make a sandstorm large enough to shield them from view so they could escape.

Instead of chasing them, the heroes decided to help the dancers get across the desert.

They stayed in the plains, living in a Toph made of rock and patrolling the desert until they finally had a chance to spring a trap.

They disguised themselves as a group of settlers, named Aan, Top and Hau.

"Aan, I can't believe you brought all that gold. You should have left it in the bank!"

"But we can buy goods much cheaper in Omashu than we could in Ba Sing Se."

"But there could be any number of thieves here. Or you could just drop it on the ground like you did in Gaoling."

"I lose the food money one time and I never hear the end of it."

They pretended not to notice the thieves surrounding them. When the ringleader demanded they had over their money, Aang handed over a bag, which had a few coins on top, but the rest was made of rock.

"We got ourselves a good score!" Instead of just taking the money, they searched the trio for water, weapons, anything they could use, but when they got to Toph, she quickly metalbended cuffs on the man who grabbed her and the fight was on.

Aang set their caravan on fire, ruining their chance to flee this time as Haru and Toph metalbended restraints on the thieves. The sandbenders fought dirty, trying to get sand in their eyes, nose and mouth, doing anything they could to halt the arrest.

It was no use. Aang had gone into the avatar state to take down the last sandbenders and that was it. They all got hauled to the nearest jail, which was in Gaoling.

By the time Aang got Haru and Toph back home and got back to the Southern Air Temple, it was already December. The sky bison would likely be hiding out in caves for warmth during the winter. He didn't think he'd find any before spring so he decided to post pone the search until then.

"Don't worry buddy. Come April, we'll head right there."

Azula kissed the ground when they got off their ship well she did that in her mind. In person, she did a dance to celebrate "No snow! No snow!"

Katara laughed at her. "You're so ridiculous."

"I can feel the Earth. I can feel my toes. Agni is shining on me again. All is right in the world." She smiled broadly as she pulled Katara into a tender kiss. "I can do that whenever I want."

"That was true before."

"It's even better when my lips aren't frozen."

"You're overreacting."

"You don't understand. There's a reason dragons don't live in ice boxes."

"Other than they'd be too big to fit."

"And I can taste the difference in the air."

"You cannot!"

"Oh it tastes so good!"

Katara rolled her eyes. They made their way back to the palace where Azula was so happy that she hugged a servant. Once she realized what she had done, they turned away awkwardly, both pretending the moment had never happened at all.

Azula was so glad to be back she ran to her brother's office, threw open the door and questioned. "How much did you miss me?"

"Oh did you leave?" Mai questioned.

"I missed your dry sense of humor," Azula said as she hugged her. "And Zuzu, I missed your unfortunate taste in clothing."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Oh it feels so good to be back where there is no snow."

"Ah, I can see why you're so happy now. The cold sounds horrible."

"It's amazing that people survive there without heatbending."

She saw the head sage walking by. "You have a family tree to update!"

Katara poked her head in once the coast was clear. "She's lost her mind again."

"Well, you're her wife, so she's your responsibility now," Mai told her.

"No one told me!"

Zuko laughed. "Oh, I was so cheerful the day she turned 16. It meant she was no longer in my custody."

"Yet she's still here."

"Well, yeah there is that, but I can't get sued because she breaks stuff anymore."

"Wait, can they sue me?" Katara looked around. "Azula! Don't break anything," she called out as she ran after her wife.

"You're terrible," Mai told her fiancée.

"I know."

"It's triple official," Azula told Katara. She showed her the updated family tree.

"When we have kids it's quadruple official."

"That's right."

Katara shook her head. "How about we go to bed?"

"I like the way you think."

"I meant to sleep. I'm tired."

"Oh you will be tired." Azula hoisted her wife over her shoulder.

Ty Lee heard their antics in the hallway, and she missed Aang. He had to go off to catch those sandbaggers. Things hadn't been too eventful at the palace. With the assassination attempts having calmed down years ago, Ty Lee wondered why the warriors were still in the palace, not that she didn't mind living here. She wondered, however, if she would be more at ease at Kyoshi Island. She'd be closer to Aang and the island was so lively.

She asked Suki if she missed Kyoshi Island.

"I do. The palace has been great, but I miss my girls." The girls on the island were growing up so fast. They had been gone for over three years.

"I was wondering if maybe it was time to go back, not immediately of course. Zuko will need a new security team."

"You don't want to stay in the Fire Nation?" Suki was surprised.

"I want to be closer to Aang. Azula is married. Mai is getting married. They're still my best friends, but they've settled down. They're going to be thinking about starting families in a couple of years, and if this is my chance to find happiness too, I want to take it." She couldn't expect to have the same amount of time in their lives as she once had.

Suki would be about the same distance away from Sokka, so it wasn't really any better or worse in terms of how often she would get to see him.

"I have to see how the other girls feel, but maybe you're right. We haven't been on Kyoshi Island in a while."

The girls weighed the pros and cons of leaving.

Pro, they would get to go to their home.

Con, they would have to clean their home.

Pro, they would get the food they grew up eating.

Con, they would have to make it.

Pro, they'd (mostly) be closer to their loved ones.

Con, they'd be closer to their loved ones.

"You'll be closer to the tribe," one of the girls pointed out to Suki. When Sokka did go home, she'd be on the way. If they stayed together, someday, she'd be living there.

At the end of it all, it was unanimous; the Kyoshi Warriors were ready to go home.

The following week, Suki sat down with Zuko. "I think it's time for us to go back to Kyoshi Island."

"Do you not like the palace?" he was confused.

"Oh the palace is great, and you've been more than hospitable, but we were brought here to protect you. No one's attacked in years. We're getting soft. We don't cook our own food, clean up after our selves, and when's the last time we had any real action. We're warriors and I think we've gotten too comfortable here. We should be on our toes and ready for danger.

Also, it's been a long time since we've been back. The girls have siblings who are growing up, parents that they want to visit and we're the Kyoshi Warriors. We are supposed to protect our island.

It also means when we come here, we can be guests."

He knew that someday, they'd have to move on. He just didn't think it would be so sudden. "I understand. Thank you for your service."

"Thank you for having us."

They gave him three months to hire a new security team. Suki would work with the new leader closely and help him get ready for the job.

Zuko and Mia had the fun job of trying to figure out who had tried to kill them before, so they wouldn't be hired to secure them now. Many of the assassins had died, never revealing their sponsors.

"I think we should have Azula help us," Mai said. "She knows who out of these people, who would hire a hit man and who wouldn't."

"You're probably right."

Zuko sent a servant to get his sister. She was in bed with her wife. "I could get used to this."

"What, having sex all the time?"

"Yeah."

"We had a lot of sex before we got married."

"But it's better now."

"You're such a softie."

"Lies!"

"The Fire Lord requests your presence," the servant told her.

"Of course he does. That means I have to put on clothes don't I?"

"Yes it does."

"How unfair!"

When she got to Zuko's office, Mai said, "It only took you 20 minutes to get here this time."

"Well, we were already done when the servant got there."

Zuko cringed.

"Then what took you twenty minutes?"

"I couldn't decide what to wear."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Out of all of these people, who do you think would be the least likely to try to kill us?"

They were looking for a new head of security.

"Not him," she said of the first man on their list. "His brother died during Sozin's Comet." She went down the list, trying to see which names stuck out to her. "His father was a good associate of Ozai's; I wouldn't chance it."

There was only one woman on their list. "Who's Qiu?"

"She's a Lieutenant in the navy. She joined after the war when we started chasing down pirates who were stealing goods we were sending to Yu Dao."

"Hmm. Why is she on the list?" Azula wouldn't have heard of her.

"She managed to break out of the brig when pirates took over the vessel she was on. From there, she killed the pirate captain in an agni kai. As per their rules, she became the new captain where she sailed them to the nearest port and had them arrested."

"Interesting. I wouldn't know her family history, so you'll have to research her on your own, but she sounds more amusing than most of these people." Azula did another once over. "Admiral Chan is incompetent. Don't appoint him."

"He's on the list?" Zuko questioned.

"All the admirals got put on the list," Mai said. "What's wrong with him again, other than his progeny?"

"He didn't tell anyone he was on vacation for two months, and the enemy sent fake instructions supposedly from him. It's how our palace got invaded on the Day of the Black Sun."

"He just left?" Zuko questioned.

"No one knew he was off his post."

"Forget that."

Azula was on her way back to her room when she saw Ty Lee.

"I guess you heard," Ty Lee said to her.

"Was it a secret?"

"No, but I don't think we fit in here the way we used to."

"What's changed?"

"You're married. Mai and Zuko are going to be married. You all are going to go into family mode, and we'll be the bachelorettes who in theory protect you but actually got used to being lazy fat cats."

"You don't think you'll fit in now."

"Not the way that I used to, but that's a good thing. You should move forward with Katara. It just means I have to move forward too."

"What will I do when I need to gossip or a chi massage?"

"Mai can gossip, and I bet you and Katara could both learn how to give chi massages."

"But what about when I gossip about Mai?"

Ty Lee laughed. "You'll figure it out."

"You want to be closer to baldy, don't you?"

"His name is Aang and yes I do."

"Good for you. I wasn't sure if you'd ever settle down. I suppose it would have to be the world's most powerful man to catch you."

"I'm not settling down yet."

"Oh yes you are. You're hooked, and you don't even know it. I was hooked when I moved to Republic City, and it took me three months to see it. When you're moving to get closer to someone, you're settling down."

Ty Lee frowned. "I'm not even 20 yet."

Azula shrugged. "I'm 19 and married. Who knew?"

The two friends hugged.

"Take care of yourself Ty."

"We're not going just yet."

"I know."

"You can visit me you know."

"I could, but it's dangerously close to the snow zone!"

"You're too much!"

"You didn't spend six weeks there."

"Katara spent most of her life there."

"She's a waterbender. Snow for them is like sand for us."

"Yet she goes to the beach with you."

"Stop trying to trick me with your logic."

"Your kids might be waterbenders."

"We shall have one firebender per waterbender."

"You can't decree that!"

"I'm the crown princess. I can do what I want!"

"Who do you think will carry them?"

Azula shivered at the thought. "She has better hips; she should do it."

"What?"

"Hers were made for bearing children. Mine are narrower. They're better for sprinting, like out the room while she's giving birth."

"You're terrible."

"I know. That's where my charm comes from."

"I don't think being terrible is charming," Katara told her as she approached.

"But it is sexy," Ty Lee told her.

Katara looked at her.

"What, bad girls are hot?"

"It's true."

"I'm not bad," Katara insisted.

"Miss. Steals Scrolls!"

"How did you know about that?"

"Your brother talks a lot when he's drunk."

"Curse him."

"I was kind of turned on when Aang told me you could bloodbend."

"What?"

"It was terrifying but in a hot way."

"You were hotter when you were no good," Ty lee told Azula. "You're sexiness comes from your dark side."

"I prefer you good," Katara told her.

"It's better for marriage," Ty Lee said. "But Azula was so hot in her armor."

"I know. It's why I wanted to wear it to the ball last year."

"What?" Katara questioned.

"I figured I'd get more action. What lesbian doesn't love a bad girl with gold in her hair?"

Ty Lee laughed out loud.

Katara kissed her nose. "Then I don't want you wearing your armor any more."

"Even if we're role playing?"

Katara frowned. "You told her about that?" She was embarrassed.

"She knows everything about me. It goes with the territory."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Ty Lee insisted. "A little role playing is totally normal. This one time, I got Aang to dress up as a …"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Zuko said as he came down the hall. "Whatever you two do to each other, I don't want to know."

"You're not even related to either of them," Mai pointed out.

"I know, but Ty Lee is practically a sister and …"

"AW!" She hugged him excitedly.

"Can't breathe Ty Lee!"

She didn't let go right away. The others laughed at him.

Over the next several weeks, they put together their new security team. They liked Qiu's enthusiasm, but they thought she needed more experience before she would be ready to lead, so they made her 2nd in command and appointed her current superior as the head of their new security team.

Qiu was excited to be defending in the palace and double excited to be able to pick the princess's brain.

"I always wanted to join the military, but my dad said no."

"That's too bad."

"He said girls are supposed to get married, not dress up and play soldier, but when you conquered Ba Sing Se, I just knew my dream was possible."

Qiu was sweet, a little clingy, but it was her job to make sure Azula didn't die.

"Make sure she knows that's her only job," Katara eyed the girl suspiciously.

"You can't fight every girl who pays attention to me."

"That's what you think."

"Did I tell you that you're cute when you're jealous?"

Katara frowned.

"Even cuter when you pout." Azula kissed her cheek. "She's just excited for her new job."

"I see the way she looks at you."

"Just because she joined the navy doesn't mean she's gay."

"What about the fact that she checks out your but when you walk away?"

"If I tried to fight everyone who checked out your butt, I'd probably end up in jail."

January 105AG

Hei Won finally had an answer for Dr. Sing. "I wanted revenge," she admitted. "When I threw the dart at Katara, I wanted Aang's heart to break, just like he had broken mine. I wanted her to pay for having his heart for so long."

"How did you feel when you did it?"

"I lost it. Before I knew it, I took the knife, and I was dead."

"Revenge didn't feel so good after all."

"No it didn't."

"If you could do anything with your life, what would it be?"

"I don't know."

"Think about it."

She was finally coming to terms with what she did. She didn't know Koh's true motives, but she knew when he was encouraging her to do bad things and she willingly did them. She needed to confront who she had been to become who she was meant to be.

Over the last three months, she slowly warmed up to the other patients. She didn't sit alone all the time. She started swimming with them. She even learned to play Kuai ball.

She doubted that she'd ever see these people again once they got out, but it was nice to not be alone anymore. She wasn't the only one who needed to start over. She just hoped that when she did, she'd be able to find her place in the world.