The sound of the door opening shook Ty Lee from her reverie. She had just been thinking deeply about all that had happened in the last few weeks – everything, from her rescue of Azula to the moment's inattention that had cost her so dearly in the fight against their pursuers. She'd decided, quite firmly, that she didn't regret rescuing the former princess from torture and death, despite the fact that Azula had later admitted her guilt. She did, however, regret having betrayed Mai so badly. - Twice, even! She wasn't quite sure how she could have rescued Azula without doing so, but she couldn't help thinking that they could have gotten off Ember Island without taking the young woman hostage. But then I would have been injured out there, and Azula wouldn't have been able to help me, she thought. I'd probably have frozen to death, or something. She shifted fretfully in her bed.

- But there was the door. Ty Lee looked up to see the tall, stately form of the Fire Lady entering. Mai's face was more or less impassive, but there was a certain tightness around her lips that told the acrobat that she was angry. She was closely followed by the much-shorter Toph, who had an air of purpose about her. The milky eyes of the earthbender turned toward Ty Lee. "Hey, Bubbles. You feeling a little better?"

Ty Lee nodded. "It doesn't hurt anymore," she said quietly. Her gaze turned timidly to Mai, but the young noblewoman was pointedly not looking at her. Uh, oh. She looked back at Toph. "What...what's going on?"

"Nothing much. The three of us are going to have a little question-and-answer period, since you're up to it now." Toph glanced at Mai coolly. "Go ahead and have a seat, Fire Lady."

"I'll stand, thank you." Mai tucked her hands into the sleeves of her robe and stood tall, looking down the bridge of her nose at her hostess.

Toph grinned. There was something not entirely good-humored about it. "Suit yourself, Mai. I'm sitting down." She caught at the chair she had been sitting in the last time she'd come in, dragged it to a position about midway between her two guests, and straddled it with a businesslike manner. "So, let's hash this out. True or false, your royal highness – Azula's been rotting in prison since the day Zuko took her down in that duel."

"I frankly don't see that this is any of the Earth Kingdom's business," Mai said coldly.

The earthbender snorted. "And since when do I speak for the Earth Kingdom? I'm asking as myself, the Avatar's earthbending master – one of the people who're supposed to be keeping the peace, et cetera, et cetera, and who've been bloody well lied to, if what I'm hearing is right. You can answer my questions now, or we can wait and bring Aang and Katara into this once Zuko's here. Much rougher road that way. Which would you prefer?"

Mai's jaw clenched slightly. "Azula was in prison," she said. "But I don't see why that should concern you at all. Wasn't she your mortal enemy?"

"That has nothing to do with it," Toph retorted. "The point is, your little cuddle-pup told Aang that he'd put his sister into some kind of a mental ward, and she was getting help, and blah blah blah. Which tells me that he thought Aang might object to whatever he was really doing to Azula, and decided to damn well lie to him about it. And you, Miss Chirpy Charmer, might as well have been standing there lying with him, because you knew the truth, and didn't say anything."

The young noblewoman was the very picture of affronted dignity. "As you should know, Lady Bei Fong, there are times in international politics when the truth simply isn't practicable," she said coldly. "I'm not going to tell people things that Zuko's decided shouldn't be spread. Besides, if my husband chose to punish Azula for the things she's done, it's none of anyone else's business. She is Fire Nation, and Zuko is the ruler of the Fire Nation."

"Quit changing the subject." Toph rose from her seat, her childlike face scrunched into a scowl. "I don't do all that political crap. I've already told you what pisses me off here. You've been bloody well lying to us. Lying, to us! Last time I checked, we were supposed to be your allies, mighty Fire Lady. We're supposed to be able to trust each other." Mai said nothing, but her eyes blazed. Ty Lee, sitting silently on her bed, bit her lip nervously. "Now," Toph went on, thrusting her face mere inches from Mai's, "tell me this, Fire Lady. Ty Lee told me that Azula's ankles are so messed up she can't even walk properly. Isn't that true?"

"Yes." The word was clipped.

"And all those soldiers who're out there looking for her have orders to kill her wherever they find her, don't they?"

"So what if they do?" Mai snapped. "Azula's hardly earned anything better. She tried to murder him! Why should he treat her any differently?"

"Because I'd like to think that we didn't all fight and sacrifice and work so hard to bring down Ozai, just to replace him with a guy who'd hunt a helpless, crippled woman in the wilderness, and then cut her down as if she was nothing more than a koala-sheep," Toph snarled. "You know damn well that it's the principle I'm objecting to here! If Zuko wants to axe Fiery Britches, fine. I'll be the first to admit she isn't exactly Citizen of the Year. But he could at least have the decency to arrest her and have her executed properly!"

Ty Lee coughed a bit. "Um...this wasn't really Mai's fault," she said nervously. "She did help me get Azula a bigger cage and a cleaner cell..."

Toph turned her head abruptly, angling her ear toward the bed. There was a long pause. Finally, the earthbender took a step back. Her voice, when she spoke again, was calmer. "Okay. So maybe you're a bit less at fault than Sparky. But this is not all right, Mai."

"I don't have to stand here and take this," the young monarch said angrily. "Azula had precious little stock with me to begin with, and she lost all of that back when she tried to kill my husband. Then she took me prisoner, dragged me out here to the middle of nowhere, slapped me around, and threatened to slit my throat more than once. And you dare to drag me in here and berate me like a child?"

"Point taken," Toph said. "Like I said, I'd be the last person to claim that Azula doesn't deserve to die. She probably does. What I'm objecting to is the lie, and to the killing of an unarmed human being out in the boondocks." There was a short silence. "All right. We're probably not going to get any further with this until Sparky gets here, so let's leave it for now. What's the deal with Ty Lee, then? I take it you're not going to let her loose in the woods and hunt her down?"

Mai's narrow eyes flicked to Ty Lee for a moment. The little acrobat lowered her head, fidgeting uncomfortably. "No," Mai said shortly. "But frankly, even if Azula might be partly your business, Toph – which I don't concede – what happens to Ty Lee is not."

"No, it isn't. Not so long as she's actually being given fair trial and whatnot." Toph shrugged. "I'm not interested in getting involved in your fancy-schmancy court proceedings, or whatever. Do what you want. I'm just worried about what it means if we can't trust you."

Ty Lee saw Mai's face color a bit. She knew the young woman had a strong sense of honor, and that Toph's words were offending her deeply. "I'm...I'm sure that Mai never meant to lie to anybody," she blurted. "She wouldn't ever do that on purpose, Toph!"

The young Fire Lady gave a soft sigh and glanced at Ty Lee. The look was almost pitying. "I'd really rather not discuss this any further in the absence of my husband," was all she said, turning her gaze back to the blind earthbender. "I'm sure he'll be more than happy to address your concerns when he arrives here."

"Oh, he'll address 'em, all right," Toph said grimly. "Sparky sent word asking me to look for you, Mai. He wanted me to work with his soldiers. Now, if I'd done that, and you'd still been with Azula, those soldiers would have murdered her right there, and I would have been partly responsible for it. Zuko doesn't get to tell me something's a rescue mission when it's really a death hunt." Mai said nothing, and Toph gave a grimace. "Yeah, whatever. We'll talk about it tomorrow afternoon, right?"

"If you wish," Mai said coldly. "As I said, Zuko will address your concerns."

There came a soft knock at the door in the ensuing pause, and a servant entered, bearing a covered tray. Toph's blind eyes turned to Mai. "Well, that'll be supper for Bubbles. I'm sure three's a crowd, and all that. You ladies enjoy yourselves." She turned away. "Just don't forget what I said, Mai. I didn't bust my butt to oust Ozai just to throw in another manipulating tyrant. Be sure your little Snuggles isn't forgetting that."

There was silence for a while after the door closed behind Toph. Ty Lee fidgeted a bit. "Mai?" she said finally. "Are...are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Mai didn't meet her gaze. The young aristocrat took the tray from the bedside table where the servant had left it and laid it on Ty Lee's lap. "Here. Eat. You'll feel a lot better after."

The food was good, if more greasy and less spicy than Fire Nation dishes. The little acrobat ate hungrily. Mai sat by her bedside, silent and aloof. She seemed to be deep in thought. After the edge was taken off Ty Lee's appetite, she looked at the young woman tentatively. "Mai? You...you didn't really deliberately...well, lie to the Avatar and his friends. Did you?"

The assassin sighed and glanced at her briefly. "I never directly lied to them, no. But I knew what Zuko told them." Ty Lee's face fell. "Look, why don't you just let me worry about that? I think you've got enough to be concerned about with your own record of wrongs at the moment. You're hardly in any position to stand in judgment over me."

"I wasn't standing in anything," Ty Lee said in a small voice. "I just wondered if..."

"Then drop it." Mai leaned back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest and crossing her legs at the ankles. It was an attitude she had often adopted before being crowned empress of the Fire Nation. "If that mouth that walks wasn't the Avatar's friend..." The gymnast bit her lip, but said nothing. She nibbled on the edge of a dumpling, instead.

After a while, Ty Lee set down her chopsticks. "Zuko's coming here tomorrow. Right?" Mai glanced at her, then jerked her black head in a nod. "What's going to happen to me, Mai?"

The girl's narrow eyes flickered. "I can't say for sure," she said quietly. "I won't be able to shield you from everything, Ty. I don't even think that I should. You'll probably be taken back to the Fire Nation and sentenced there. And I would imagine that will involve some prison time, or maybe exile. Again, though, I don't know. It depends on Zuko, and how lenient I can get him to be."

An idea suddenly dawned on Ty Lee's mind. She gave Mai an innocent smile. "Seems like kind of a waste of time and energy to drag me all the way back there just to exile me," she said. "Maybe you could get Zuko to just exile me now. Then it'll be done with, right? And neither of you will have to bother with me anymore. Then you could think about other stuff."

Mai looked at her sharply. Ty Lee simply smiled, opening her eyes wide. "That might be an option," the assassin said calmly. "And you'd go straight off to look for Azula again, wouldn't you?"

"Maybe. Or I might go and join the circus. I liked that."

Mai was not impressed. "You," she said firmly, "are not fooling anyone." She rose to her feet. "I'm tired. Hauling you all over the Earth Kingdom is a bit more exertion than I'm used to. If you don't mind, Ty, I think I'm going to go to bed."

"I don't mind," Ty Lee said quietly. "I'm kinda tired, too."

The young noblewoman headed for the door. As she went through it, she paused and looked back at the little acrobat. "I'll think about the exile thing." Ty Lee smiled a bit. "Good night."

"Good night, Mai." Ty Lee's smile grew wider as the door closed.