Mai

It all went wrong after we discovered Azula was pregnant.

Aang and I argued, pacing the length of the long-abandoned storage room we'd claimed for ourselves.

"I want to wait," he said.

"It's not like being a mom will magically make her a better person."

Aang's jaw set. "I can't kill a child."

"Wow, Aang, that's really sweet. Are you going to take out Azula right after she gives birth, or will you wait until the kid's walking?"

"Could you do it?" he asked.

I turned away.

"This is Ozai's grandchild," I pointed out. "If Azula dies, he'll probably be its regent. At the very least, he'll have a hand in raising it, and this will start all over again."

"You just want to kill Ozai."

"Yeah. I do."

I turned back to watch him as he sat on a barrel, his head in his hands. He seemed like an ordinary kid, if ordinary kids planned political murders. But there were moments where I saw something else in his eyes, or someone else, and it scared me.

In the end, I went out alone.

Between midnight and the hour before dawn, the palace was still and silent. The smallest noise would have alerted the guards, but I was very quiet. And I remembered the servants' route into Ozai's chambers from my previous escape.

He was asleep, bare chest rising and falling with every breath. He looked so much like Zuko that for a second I couldn't breathe, but I forced myself to advance. Standing over him, I drew my sword.

And stopped.

It should have been easy. This was the man who had scarred and banished Zuko, who had created Azula. And I had spent years teaching myself not to feel. Spent hours persuading Aang that this was necessary, that it would be easy.

I was so, so stupid. I wasn't a killer, not the cold-blooded kind. Maybe if he was attacking me. Maybe if I was in danger.

Ozai opened his eyes.

For a second, he looked disbelieving. I thought he might laugh.

I should have done it then.

Before I could react, he threw me back against the wall. I had my darts in my hand, but the impact sent them awry. One embedded itself in Ozai's shoulder.

"You're as stupid as my son," he said.

I pulled myself to my feet and raised my sword, but he already had a weapon to hand, something like a very small cannon. I took a step forward. He fired.

I bit my lip as my right leg exploded in white pain, but I stayed on my feet.

"Is that - the best - you can do?" I asked, struggling for breath. "Typical bender - arrogant - Zuko could have done better-"

He needed to reload. My blades were ready. I took aim just as the guards burst in and pinned me to the floor.

That sent another wave of dizzying pain through my leg. I felt weirdly distant as the guards hauled me to my feet, bound me and led me towards the prison.

"No," I heard Ozai say, "take her to the throne room. Let my daughter see what her friend has done."

Just outside the throne room doors, someone called, "Stop!"

Ozai said, "This isn't your concern, Prince Chan Li."

"No? A trail of blood leading to the throne room struck me as very concerning. So to speak. Who is it?" Firmly, but not roughly, he raised my head.

"The Lady Mai," one of the guards told him. "She escaped from prison last summer. I guess she's been hiding in the palace all this time, waiting for a chance to attack Lord Ozai."

"Maybe," said the prince. He took my sword from the guard. "Isn't this Master Piandao's work?"

"It's mine." My voice was slurred. "He was my master."

"It's beautiful workmanship. And the knives, too." He took my wrist holster from another guard. "Assassin's weapons. It's a shame you weren't better." My eyes widened slightly. He gave me a flicker of a smile. Turning back to the guards, he said, "Has the Fire Lord been told?"

"She's in the throne room," said another guard, approaching and kneeling. "Captain Yun is trying to wake her."

Chan Li's jaw set, and he exchanged a wary glance with Ozai.

"Clean her up," the prince said. "And treat that wound before she bleeds out."

He turned to enter the throne room, but Ozai caught his arm and swung him around.

"You realise, of course, that Azula planned this," I heard Ozai say, but then a medic began treating my leg, and the pain overtook my desire to eavesdrop.

"You've lost a lot of blood," said the medic, wrapping a tight bandage around my leg, "but the bullet didn't hit any bones or major arteries." He gave me a sympathetic look. "Sorry. Bleeding to death is probably better than what you'll get."

Once more I was pulled upright and marched into the throne room. I saw Azula's silhouette through the flames, made alien and distorted by her pregnancy. I forced myself to look up, and tried to fake a bravado I didn't really feel.

The flames parted and Azula advanced towards me. She was in her sleeping robes, with her hair down, and I wondered for the first time why she had taken to sleeping in the throne room.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the soldiers back away from her.

"Tell me what happened," she said.

"Your plan failed, Azula," said Ozai. "Your assassin hesitated."

"My assassin?" Azula's gaze was distant, and the slight crease between her eyebrows deepened. She turned her back on her father and looked back at me. "Where's the Avatar?" she demanded.

There was a worried murmur around us, and Prince Chan Li said, "Azula, our last reports put the Avatar in Ba Sing Se."

"He's here." She pulled me to my feet. "Uncle said they were coming. You and the Avatar, right? Who else?" One hand closed around my windpipe. The other cupped a white-blue flame. "His friends? Ty Lee?"

She let go of me. I started to fall, but Chan Li caught me, restraining my arms but holding me upright.

"Tell me," Azula ordered.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. "I came alone."

"Liar."

"I came alone," I repeated. "I was going to kill Ozai, then you. I didn't tell anyone where I was going." I gave her a smile that I hoped was cynical and knowing. "They probably would have stopped me."

"Liar." Azula's cry echoed through the throne room. In the awkward silence that followed, I could hear her knuckles crack as she wrung her hands. With a visible effort, she folded her hands into her sleeves and said, "I know the Avatar is coming. Now. Tell me the truth."

"Azula," said the prince carefully, "how do you know?"

She ignored him.

"My uncle wants me to show him mercy," she told me, "but first, I want the Avatar to look me in the face. So tell me where he is."

"Azula," the prince began, "Fire Lord."

Ozai said, "She's lost her mind. The taint of her mother's blood-"

Azula trembled. Her lips might have wobbled, or it might have been a trick of the firelight. I thought of those nights Iroh spent meditating. His journey into the Spirit World.

"-and set up a regency," Ozai was saying, "until this country can have a true leader again."

"With you as its head?" Chan Li demanded, pushing me towards another guard. "A father who scars and banishes his son has no business leading a nation-"

"How dare you speak of that?"

"Silence!" Azula screamed, and her fire whip scorched through the air. "You'll have to kill me before you take my throne-"

"That can be arranged," said Ozai.

There was a whisper of wind above us, but I was the only one who heard it. I held my breath, resisting the urge to look up.

"The physicians can confine you until your child is born," Ozai was saying. "I only hope your madness isn't passed on to the next generation."

"Treason, Lord Ozai?" asked the prince. "If you're lucky, maybe the Fire Lord will just banish you."

"My mother," said Azula suddenly. "You sent her to an island in the northern archipelago."

Ozai flinched. He didn't say anything, but his surprise and fear were plain on his face.

"You told me she was dead!" Azula looked around, eyes wide. "Come out," she said, looking up, "let's end this."

I heard one of the guards mutter, "Maybe she is crazy."

Then Aang descended from the shadows.