Night Twenty: Yes
In the evening, in the Fire Nation royal palace, Azula unties her hair and begins to hum as she stars smoothly combing it. Suddenly, Mai walks in, interrupting her.
"You've entered a weird stage of grief," dryly comments the Fire Lady. "I didn't know anything like it existed."
Azula tosses her hair over her shoulder and laughs derisively at her brother's bride.
"You couldn't understand if you tried."
"No, no I couldn't. She was my best friend, and I can't be happy about it."
"You're never happy," snaps Azula.
"I doubt the other mourners want to see you like this."
"Like what?"
"Blissful."
"I can feel how I damn well please. Now leave me be."
Mai does not obey. Azula's lips twist into a wicked snarl, but the Fire Lady still does not back down. Mai never feared her and Azula will forever hate her for it.
"I won't tell you how to feel."
"Good."
"I just want to make sure—"
"I have not lost my mind again?"
"I just want to make sure that you're not so happy because you're going to kill yourself."
"Oh," muses Azula, "I always did like your bluntness. It is refreshing in a world where everyone fears being straightforward with me."
"I know I never seemed like it until Ty Lee went into that coma, and I hate admitting it, but I do care about you, Azula. All of us do."
"You pity me and care for me like you would a wounded animal," says Azula sharply and Mai sighs. She does not know why she tries with this bitch. "But that cannot distub me. Now, I am going to tuck in my daughter and I would prefer to be left alone."
"Fine," says Mai apathetically.
Azula rises and goes to Mizuki. She begins to tuck the little princess in and Mizuki suddenly grabs her mother's hand.
"Will you stay with me tonight? I keep having nightmares."
It makes Azula's heart ache because for the first time in her life she has been gifted with the sweetest of dreams.
"I will stay with you tonight," agrees Azula.
And, to her daughter's joy, she makes good on her promise.
睡美人的镜子
Ty Lee spends ages undoing her braid.
She hums to herself. Zuko interrupts her, knocking on the door to make sure she is not in the middle of changing.
"Hi, Zuko," Ty Lee says, flashing a smile his way.
"I'm glad you're feeling more like yourself," the Fire Lord stiffly says. "Hearing you hum again is good. But… you miss her… I'm sure you miss her. I miss her."
"Of course I do," Ty Lee says. "But I have her in my head and my heart and she will be there forever. You know?"
Zuko does not, but he nods and bows out. Ty Lee continues combing her hair, wincing between song notes as she hits every kink along the way. The next person to interrupt her is Mizuki.
"Mama, can I stay with you tonight?" Mizuki pleads, edging nervously into the room.
Ty Lee stands up and lifts Mizuki into her arms. She hugs her tightly.
"Of course you can." She releases Mizuki from the embrace and sets her down.
"Thank you, mama," Mizuki says, beaming.
They curl up together and Ty Lee falls asleep while thinking about the beauty of the dreamworld she will soon enter.
睡美人的镜子
The women anticipate their home, their beautiful paradise, but instead, they stand in the deep nightmare they entered not long ago. They walk through the mist and find each other, staring with wide eyes. They thought they won.
This haunted version of Caldera, smoky and twisted and sick, lays before them. Ty Lee rises onto her tiptoes and sees the palace they both fought their way to. The only good thing about this horrid world is that it is where Azula and Ty Lee learned to love each other again.
They walk to that familiar sign: Welcome to Hypnagogia.
Blue fire lights Azula's palm as they hear those unearthly howls of the frightening creatures that pursued them last time they were here.
They begin to run as fast as they can. They run through the strange shifting temperatures and Azula drags Ty Lee across the rushing water. They crawl when they must across the ground, the monsters at their heels every step of the way.
When they reach the palace, they stagger to a stop. A huge wall of fire blocks them off. Ty Lee shies away from it. Her mind flashes with the memory of how she received scars from a careless woman who lost control too many times.
Azula holds up a palm and stops the fire. Ty Lee shakes her head and keeps stepping backwards.
"We'll wake up. We'll wake up and we don't have to go through the fire," Ty Lees stammers.
Azula turns around and locks eyes with her. "I can get us both through."
"It—it might be a bad idea. What if something makes you lose control." Ty Lee freezes in place but she wants to run.
"Do you trust me?" Azula asks, holding out her hand.
"Yes!" Ty Lee shouts, and she grabs on.
They burst through the wall of flame, Ty Lee screaming, and cross a dried up, dilapidated courtyard to enter the palace at last.
Azula and Ty Lee run together to the throne room. A shadowy figure that makes no sense stands strong in front of them.
"Who are you? Get away!" Azula orders, lighting her hands.
The creature shakes its head. "I own this world. I am the spirit who watches over it. I allowed you to build your home, and now you had to prove you deserved it."
"If this is your realm, tell us what it is. Tell us if it's real."
"It is the wall between two mirrors. It is the boundary between parallel universes. Some couples find this place when broken apart, and they must fight to stay here. The wraiths that chased you are those who I deem unworthy," says the creature and Ty Lee grabs onto Azula's hand, frightened. They cannot become those monsters. "But I deem you two worthy. You may have your happily ever after, if it pleases you. All you have to do is not use my gift as a crutch, and still live in your own universes. I do not exist to serve as decadence. Do you consent to these terms?"
"Yes," the women say almost in unison.
And the beast fades into the air, and the world of hypnogogia fades around them, replaced with the home they built.
Both women exhale a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?" Ty Lee asks her love.
"Yes," Azula replies.
And they walk to their paradise.