A/N: sigh, FFN is being iffy with the reviews again for me (get it together, website!) but I will try to respond in the Monday update from the jumble of emails I've gotten in my inbox. If you do me the courtesy of commenting, then it's never a bother :)

WARNING: Mention of rape. Violence. Executions.

Chapter XIX - Confessions

"Any last words, snow savage?" sneered the crimson-clad soldier, glaring at the blue clad warrior lying on his back, at his mercy.

Sokka grinned, completely failing to pretend to be in fear of his life. The grey of his warpaint, now dried well on his face, creased and cracked around the corners of his mouth.

"Look behind you."

The Fire Nation warrior paused for a second, clearly lost. Why would the Tribesman even think to try such an obvious ploy? Who did he take him for? "You don't seriously think-"

He didn't have time to say much else, as a blue clad figure leapt over him, twirling her lithe gymast's body, land left two bone daggers sprouted in the crook between his neck and collarbone. He keeled over, trying to gasp for air as blood rushed into his throat. When Azula yanked the knives from his body with the sickening squelch of flesh ripping, the only breath that escaped him was his dying one.

"You know, the leap was a little dramatic," grumbled Sokka.

The Princess rolled her eyes, which was more than a little unnerving in the white-and-black warpaint Sokka had traced over her features. "Please, savage. Your entire stock and trade is built on deception and flair."

The Water Tribesman picked himself up, dusting off his fur armor. "Well, take away the theatre and all I am is a guy with paint on his face," he said reflectively.

Azula smirked. "Indeed. Rather disappointing without all the pomp and circumstance," she teased. "Now come, let's deal with the officers."

It was Sokka's turn to smirk now. Oh, what a terror they were together in battle. They had sliced through the men on the deck like a knife through hot butter, and now only men of relevance on board were the captain and his subordinate officers. Like two wolves on a hunt, they climbed the deck stairs to the observation tower, where the officers had barricaded themselves. As far as they were concerned, they were under attack by two non-benders, and the iron door of the room would be impervious to entry.

Sokka scanned around him to see if the coast was clear. The other ship was starboard to this, and they would not have a clear view of the portside stairs or the entry. Not a living or conscious soul lay underneath them. He gave Azula the nod, and she took off her left glove, lighting a powerful blue fire in her palm.

The officers inside must have been horrified to see someone melt their way through the door. They steeled themselves for battle, and as the latches and locks that held their guardian in place melted away, some uttered quick prayers to Agni for their souls.

It was surprising that when the door flung open, nobody walked inside. Instead, a small gray sphere flew in, with a short fuse of rope attached to it, and a blue flame quickly burning it down. Only one officer recognized what it was, but he had only time to let out a strangled cry of fear before the firebomb exploded, obliterating the officers inside the room.

Azula stared into the room after the smoke dissipated, observing the carnage and mayhem with a raised eyebrow. Turning to her companion, she asked, "why didn't you do that when you were attacking my ship?"

Sokka shrugged. "Time was of the essence and so was stealth. Bought me enough time to rig the ship engines, didn't it?" He looked away for a moment, as if considering something else. "And also, because I wanted to enjoy the kill."

"And now?"

"Now we have another ship to worry about," he grunted, evading the question. Azula suppressed a small smile inside. She wasn't happy that he was evidently guilty about his previous emotions, but she found a twinkling of hope in recognizing the remorse and the willingness to change within.

"Good boy," she said, licking her lips, which were formed into a seductive smile. "So mission oriented, it thrills me."

Sokka looked at her like she was mad – well, so she was. "Come on, weirdo. This time we have to be careful to get rid of everyone without causing too much damage. The evacuees will need it."

She nodded. "And quickly, before the officer on the battlecruiser realizes what we're up to."

XXXXX

Aang and Katara moved swiftly underneath the brush, sneaking their way to the outskirts of the village.

It was a pretty place; it had been once, anyway, before the sacking. Bodies lay strewn about: mostly Earth Kingdom villagers, many clad in green but some in blue furs they'd traded with the Water Tribe for. It was an amalgamation of women, children, and elderly, and only a handful of men. Katara thought sadly of her village, where the fathers had gone off to war, leaving the mothers and boys and girls behind. This could have been them, all because she'd been careless and giddy the night of the feast and let that bastard Prince capture her. Thankfully, even though Aang and Sokka had been captured, and Azula nearly ruined because of it, they'd managed to survive.

Not all of us, she thought bitterly, thinking of the body of the boy and his wailing family, and the families of the dozen other braves who'd wept and cried for the loss of their loved ones who'd given their lives in defense of their home. She gritted her teeth, finding another gear of motivation.

This war had to end.

Aang could see her emotional turmoil; the Airbender gently rubbed one of her shoulders with his hand. "We'll save anyone we can, Katara," he said, gently. He received only a mute nod in return, though Katara was trembling less than before. If Aang didn't know any better, he could have mistaken them for tremors of fear, but he knew Katara too well now to think of it like that. The only thing emanating from her right now was a bitter rage. It dawned on him how she and the Princess were rather similar in some ways, namely how fearsome they were when riled.

If anyone could wage a rebellion and bring peace to the world, it would be those two. He and Sokka may as well simply be along for the ride with their lovers.

Lovers?

The monk blushed a little. Surely, it was not too far from the truth to term the Princess and Sokka as lovers, not after the saucy display by the little river with the razor and the unbridled passion the two shared when looking to the other – spirits, they have a way of blocking out the existence of everyone else but each other – but could he call Katara his lover?

He wasn't sure that it was love, not yet, but he certainly hoped that it was blossoming in that direction.

Focus on the now, Aang. It was as if Gyatso was speaking to him from the grave, pulling him back down to Earth.

Katara nodded at him, and they split up, according to their plan. The village wasn't large, and most of the houses were lined up against a main avenue that ran from Aang and Katara's landing point to the mouth of the bay. To call it an avenue would be an exaggeration; it was little more than a well trod path. Only a few houses were strewn about elsewhere, the majority of which were on a similarly unpaved path that crossed the main avenue in the middle of the village.

Aang took the houses on the right and Katara took the houses on the left. They planned to rendezvous at the place where they'd landed. There was a small side path that led back down to the beach where Azula and Sokka were no doubt busy capturing one of the two corvettes to use as a evacuation boat.

The first house Aang entered was empty, at first, but a peek through a screen into a bedroom revealed two dead people, seemingly man and wife. Aang tried to suppress his emotions, but he couldn't help but let a bitter tear roll down his cheek. The poor people were young, no more than in their mid twenties, and they'd been brutalized. The man had been burnt by a firebender and the woman had multiple slash wounds. Aang muttered a quick prayer to the spirits for their peace and moved to the next house.

There were no corpses there, but there was a live Fire Nation troop threatening two young children with his ji halberd. Aang's eyes darkened furiously, like stormclouds on the horizon. He swung his staff in a brutal uppercut, causing the wind to launch the Fire Nation soldier up into the ceiling with a dull thud, then dropping him on his back. The man stirred for a moment, before unconsciousness overtook him. Aang tried to calm himself, for the sake of the children, who were now whimpering in a corner. The older sibling, a girl with black hair and hazel doe-eyes, protectively shielded her younger brother behind her, away from the stranger. Both of them were frightened out of their minds, though the girl tried her best to show no fear.

Aang composed himself, hoping none of the anger in his eyes showed. "Hi. My name is Aang," he said, his voice low and gentle. "I'm an airbender and I'm here to help you. What are your names?"

The older girl, no more than eight, looked at him distrustfully, but the boy, who couldn't have been five, whispered back to him. "S-shang. My name's Shang, Mister."

Aang smiled, hoping his eyes expressed the same kindness that his face did. "It's nice to meet you, Shang. And what about you, miss?" He turned his attention to the girl.

"Lia," she muttered. Her eyes lost none of their distrust, but Aang hoped that her willingness to share a name was a sign he could work with.

"Okay, Shang, Lia... do you know where your parents are?" Aang regretted asking almost as soon as he'd said it. The boy started to whimper and cry, but the girl pointed at another room, her eyes glassy and dead. Aang's vision followed her finger; the door was slightly ajar, and Aang could tell from the crimson stain now coming from under the gap of the door and the stench of death wafting from the room that the parents hadn't made it. He grit his teeth, trying to shut out all thought of Gyatso and all his people, now nothing more than bones and dust atop a mountain.

"Don't worry, guys. My friends and I are here to help. I can take you to a safe place, and then when the coast is clear, we'll all take a big boat over to the Earth Kingdom, where it's safe!" He tried to put on an enthusiastic face, but his heart broke for the children. This would scar and haunt them for as long as they lived.

I turned my back on all these people. This is MY fault.

X*X*X*X*X

"It's time to announce him to the world. It's the only way to stave off the storm brewing on the horizon, Gyatso."

"He's still just a boy."

"He's not a boy, not to anyone in this room other than you. You know this, but you're blinded by your love for him as any father would for his own child. Aang is a grown man now, even by our lax standards. In the Water Tribes, they make men out of boys when they're fourteen or younger."

"Because of NECESSITY! How can all of you not see that?"

"And it is necessary now! The world needs him."

"He's still not ready."

"He'll have to become ready. Part of growing up is confronting situations that you may not be entirely prepared for, Gyatso. And that's not something you can shield him from any longer, no matter how much fatherly love you have for him."

Aang gulped. Panic overtook him.

He wasn't ready. How could he be ready? He didn't want this. He'd never wanted it.

He backed away slowly from the door of the elders' chambers, and when it was safe, he burst into a sprint, tearing down the hallways back to his room. He quickly stuffed his pack and grabbed his staff, stashing only the essentials for a trip. He needed to get away, or else the terror clawing at his throat would overcome him entirely. Aang retreated, sticking to the shadows of the hallway, trying to find the least inhabited exit out of the temple to the Sky Bison sanctuary.

When he found Appa, he cried into his friend's fur for a minute before pulling himself up to the saddle. He needed to leave, but it wasn't any easier to acknowledge what he was doing.

He felt like a craven. This was cowardice. But he couldn't stay here, not right now and he knew that.

When he was well away from the Sky Temple, tearing southwards, the climate getting chillier and the clouds darkening as a furious storm gathered overhead, the guilt finally overcame his shame. he thought to himself that perhaps he'd return - this was only a temporary leave of absence. He would return and confront his duties.

Lightning flashed overhead, and the rolling roar of thunder accompanied it seconds later. The sea below raged.

When he went underwater, his last thoughts were of Gyatso and his own cowardice before the Avatar Spirit took hold, encasing him in the ice.

X*X*X*X*X

Aang and Katara managed to comb the outskirts of the village, rounding up the survivors and shepherding them back to where they'd landed. It was a rag-tag rabble, mostly children and women, and one elder - a stocky old man in blue furs, like a Water Tribesman, but clearly Earth Kingdom in origin. He wore his grey hair bound up and his beard was long and grey. He had a kind expression, like a grandfather's, but it was marred by tears and sorrow in his face.

Aang was speaking to him when Katara sidled up.

"... and I think they've rounded up the other elders in the center of the village." The old man was rubbing his temples with his hands. "I saw them gathering kindling, but for what purpose..." he trailed off.

Aang nodded and shared a glance with Katara. "This is Elder Oyaji. He's a leader of this village," he told her. Katara put her hand on the man's shoulder and gave it a small, comforting squeeze.

"Elder, we're here to help. My brother and our friend is going to commandeer one of the Fire Nation corvettes and we're going to get you all out of here. We need to know if there's another bay that we can evacuate the survivors from."

Oyaji shook his head. "No, the only bay of note is the main one. The Island is fairly jagged on all sides." He sighed. "How could this happen to us? We've stayed out of the war for so long. I thought it would be safe to let the Kyoshi Warriors go. Suki asked me over and over if it was fine, and I gave her assurances... what would she think? These were her people as much as they were mine." The old man's chin moved tremulously.

"I can't begin to imagine how you feel right now, Elder. But you have to remember that this is no one's fault other than the Fire Nation's." Aang put his hand on the man's other shoulder. "If there is anyone else to blame, it's me."

The old man blinked away an unshed tear, looking Aang in the eyes. "Why you, boy? What could you possibly have to do with this?"

Katara could see the guilt and pain in Aang's eyes. He pulled himself up, stiffening his spine, and cleared his throat before speaking. "I'm the Avatar. It's my responsibility to protect this Earth, and I've been gone too long. If the suffering here is just a small piece of what's going on in this world, then it's my sworn duty to make it right. To make up for my absence."

The old man looked at him strangely, as if he didn't believe his claim, but Katara nodded reassuringly at him. "It's true, Elder. Aang was trapped under the ice for a hundred years, but it's not his fault." She fixed Aang with a glare, as if daring him to blame himself again. "But now he's here. We're going to make sure the Fire Nation doesn't do this to any more innocent people."

The old man shook his head. "Oh, but they've done it to so many already, miss. I'm afraid you're a hundred years too late." Aang withdrew his hand from the man's shoulder, looking down at his feet.

After they parted, Aang spoke to Katara, unable to meet her eyes. "We should go check out the village square. Oyaji said they had captives, and we need to gather the last of the survivors and get them safely to the bay anyway. Sokka and Azula are prob-"

He felt a soft touch on his chin, pushing his head up. Katara was looking at him, her deep blue eyes shining with some sort of feeling he couldn't make heads or tails of.

"Aang. Please don't blame yourself. You're here now, and you can help make this right," she whispered.

"I'm fine, Katara." He wanted to look away from her. That azure gaze was far too piercing. It made him feel naked.

"No. I need you to know this, Aang. It's not your fault. It's only theirs," she said bitterly, pointing at the Fire Nation battlecruiser.

"You don't know, Katara. You don't know how I ended up in the ice."

"Then tell me. After. I'll listen to every word you say, without judgment, and I promise to be fair. But for now, I need your head here, with me, not in the sky."

He nodded. "The people first."

She gave him a small smile, holding it until he had no choice but to return the smile himself. She cupped his cheeks and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, bringing a rosy-cheeked blush to his face.

XXXXX

The raid on the second ship was much less stealthy.

The firebomb they used in the observation deck of the first corvette surely alerted the sailors on the second ship to their presence. Azula didn't see the need for stealth. It wasn't important, not when her and Sokka fought like this together.

Of course, the Princess would find it romantic that she and her companion were a united terror on the battlefield. Together, they were like a dance or a poem, flowing beautifully, playing off each other, waltzing to the flow as if it was simply natural. When they'd leapt onto the deck of the second ship, it was as if time was in limbo and there was nothing but the two of them. Azula didn't feel the need to use her fire even once. Sokka didn't fight with much grace, but his fluidity and quickness made him a flash. She had enough flourish for the both of them - her attacks were like that of a practiced gymnast. Though she'd never be as flexible as Ty Lee, there was no wasted movement. Every motion was calculated from beginning to end, every attack aimed perfectly to incapacitate or kill.

She and the Wolf sung a silent song of death, punctuated only by the grunting or screaming of their victims. Their duet was communicated in silence. She read him perfectly as he read her. When Sokka pulled out a smoke pellet, she knew what to do. When Azula jumped up his back and off his shoulders, launching an aerial attack, he went low, smashing the knees or tearing at the feet. They were two bodies controlled by the same mind. She felt her blood rush, never feeling so alive as she did now. The pursuit of perfection had been drilled into her, and when she fought before, she always felt constrained by something she couldn't explain. With Sokka at her side, perfection was natural, and she felt free and open. Oh, how she had missed this. It was just like the pirate ship.

Those that weren't dead, they tied up and threw onto the shore, leaving only a frightened engineer and navigator on board, who they stashed into one of the brigs until they could get the evacuees on board. The two leapt off the deck, onto the beach, and charged into the village.

The huts in the front were all set ablaze, their thatched roofs charred and flames licking and feeding off the wood walls. They encountered only minimal resistance when they went in, but what they saw horrified them.

Villagers by the dozens lay strewn across the path. Some were bleeding out, close to death and beyond rescuing. Others had already passed on, their manner of death violent in every instance. A woman lay with torn clothes and blood stains streaking across her face and seeping through her clothes where raping and pillaging monsters had desecrated her, her unseeing eyes open and her mouth warped into an expression of agony and pain. Sokka knelt over her, blinking, tears dropping from his face. Azula felt a stone lodge in her throat. She put her hands on his shoulder, and even through the fur armor she could sense the tension there.

The powerful take, and the weak suffer. It is the natural order of things, my daughter, said the Ozai voice, laughing with a cold sneer.

If her father was here, she would have killed him without compunction. With glee.

"Sokka," she whispered his name, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the dead woman. He'd taken her limp hand into his, stroking it as if trying to coax her back to life. Azula felt her heart tear in two.

"This is how I found her," he said, his voice a tremor. Azula knew he meant Saira.

"I'm sorry, Sokka." She knelt behind him, putting her arms around his shoulders and burying her face into his back. "I'm so sorry."

She let him choke out a few sobs, for this woman and for the woman he'd lost, and all the others who'd died or suffered worse at the hands of violent animals - violent animals that served her father, and only months ago, had served her. The rage of responsibility and the fire to accept it rose in her.

When they moved on, Azula knew what she had to do. They arrived at the main square of the village, a small trodden central area that stood at the center of the cross paths that defined the village's structure. They peered from behind a large building that stood at the corner, hidden from the eyes of everyone in the square. Here there were more bodies, but there were also soldiers, building a large bonfire. There were several long stakes tied in the center of the bonfire, each with two or three people tied to it, struggling against the restraints and crying as loud as they could into the gags placed around their mouths. A large statue of a woman, with white face paint and green armor, lay in the center of the fire. Azula's perfect composure broke, and she lit her palms ablaze in a moment of rage. Sokka squeezed her arm, and shook his head when she looked at him.

"Trust me, I want you to torch these soldiers as much as anyone here, but we can't risk setting off the bonfire. If it takes even a second too long to put out, all the people on the pyres could die."

Azula sighed, but she knew he was right. She willed the flames to die, and as she did, she caught noise of a rustling behind them. She spun around and Sokka brandished Boomerang, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Azula relaxed and Sokka lowered his weapon when they were greeted by two pairs of eyes - one grey, one blue.

"Did you find survivors?" Azula whispered.

Aang crept closer, nodding his head yes. "They're waiting for us where Katara and I landed. Do we have a ship ready for them."

Sokka grunted. "The one on the right side of the bay. The engineer and navigator are still alive, and they're not benders, so the villager should be able to get them to take them where they need to go. How many survivors?"

"We didn't do a full headcount, but I'd say there are about thirty," Katara muttered. "Sokka... it's a bloodbath there. They spared no one. There was this one baby-" she shuddered at the thought. Aang put a hand on her shoulder.

"We can't do anything for the dead," said Sokka. His grip tightened around the handle of his club, and his body tensed again. Azula could sense the coiled rage in him; it had built steadily since the woman in the street. "All we can do is save the people on the pyres and get them out of here and to the mainland."

Katara nodded. "Do we have a plan?"

"I counted fourteen soldiers. Shouldn't be a problem, but we need to make sure that they don't have time to set the bonfire ablaze," Azula said. "Judging from the crests, I'd say three are firebenders, although there may be others. The markings aren't always uniform from fleet to fleet." She gestured to Katara. "You may want to stay at the edge of the fight."

Katara's eyes narrowed. "I can fight just as well as you, Princess."

Azula laughed mirthlessly. "Let's not measure manhoods, Katara, we're not the boys. It's purely strategic. You're the only one who can safely put out a fire. I can only redirect another firebender's fires, but there's still a risk that I might torch something else. Aang's airbending can put it out, but conversely, all it takes is a stray gust to spread the fires into an uncontrollable inferno."

Aang made a noise of agreement. "Azula's right. You're our best chance if the worst should happen."

"You can still fight, Kat. Just watch the pyres first," Sokka said. Katara finally acceded, seeing her companions' points.

"Fine. You three will handle the soldiers?"

"Aang and Azula will," Sokka muttered. "I'm going to try and free the people on the pyres. I can always give some ranged support with Boomerang."

"It's a plan. Aftewards, I'll fetch the survivors," Aang said. "Katara can look for any food supplies that they can bring, and you and the Princess can escort them to the ship."

The companions nodded in agreement. Aang blasted himself as noiselessly from the ground as he could, landing on top of the building with a soft pattering of feet. Katara, Azula, and Sokka lined up at the edge of the building, ready to charge into battle.

Aang made the first move. He leapt from the roof of the house, right into the center of the square. Shouts of surprise from the soldiers rang out, and Azula took it as her cue to leap from the side of the building. None of the soldiers were looking in their direction, distracted as they were by Aang's sudden foray. She caught the first soldier completely unawares. He didn't have time to yelp as she slipped both knives into the gap between the plates protecting his ribs. She leapt on top of his shoulders, wrapping her powerful thighs around the back of his head, and twisted her body, snapping his neck. She leapt off him like a flash of lightning, and he fell, dead before he hit the ground.

Sokka and Katara were right behind her. The Waterbender whipped out a thick tendril from her waterskin, knocking a man off his feet with a snap to his ankles. He cried as he fell out, and the soldiers closer to them and further from Aang turned to them in alarm. Sokka was on the fallen man quickly, slamming his club into the chestplate. There was a sickening crunch and the man spat blood from his mouth with a strangled cry.

Azula moved on to the other soldiers. The next one was barely a man, visibly trembling as she shoved a dagger into the unprotected rear of his knee and up to his rear. He cried and fell, hamstrung, unable to move. As she did, through the corner of her eye, she saw Sokka leap atop the bonfire, sawing at the ties of the captives on the pyres.

Aang was like a gymnast with his staff, leaping over and around people, buffeting them with blasts of air. He engaged a firebender who was skilled enough to send blasts at Aang's feet and hands, trying to throw him off his balance. One blast landed at his feet, but Aang harnessed the expulsion of air from the blast, using it to create a springboard that launched him over the head of the firebender. He was too slow to turn around, and by the time he did, Aang swept his staff, knocking him off his feet. He uppercutted the air with it, sending the prone firebender flying into the wall of a house, where the man slumped without stirring.

One of the Firebenders, in a panic, sent firebolts in all directions. One lit the bonfire, and it began to blaze furiously. Luckily, Sokka had already gotten the captives lashed to the nearest pyre off the pole, but the fire was spreading wildly, leaping from wood pillar to wood pillar. It caught onto the statue of Kyoshi, and it would only be a matter of seconds before the fire caught up with Sokka and the remaining captives.

Azula saw this and redirected some of the fire onto a hapless soldier who screamed as he began to burn, but it was spreading beyond her ability to limit. Katara felt a wave of panic-fueled fear - the water in her waterskin wouldn't be enough to put out the flames. She desperately looked around, trying to find any source of water.

"Katara, the well!" screamed Azula, pointing. Katara's eyes widened and she leapt into action. Stirring the waters, she erupted a stream of water from the natural aquifer underneath, blasting it sky high before bringing it back down in a dousing splash. The flames sputtered, and Katara did it once again, putting the flames to rest. Sokka would be soaked, but better wet than a charred corpse.

With the newfound abundance of water, it was only a matter of seconds before the surviving Fire Nation soldiers were subued, although Azula ruthlessly stabbed the remaining Firebender. He was a risk they couldn't afford to let live. Sokka finished untying the last of the captives, and he shepherded them off the pyres and onto solid ground, where they huddled, some sobbing, some offering their thanks profusely.

"Aang, you'd best go get the survivors. Bring them here. Katara, go look for supplies." Sokka said. Addressing the now-freed villagers, he told them to go assist Katara in search of supplies. Before any of them left, they gathered the remaining Fire Nation soldiers into the center of the square, propping them against the wet kindling they'd set up as a bonfire. The villagers dispersed at his command, and Katara and Aang trotted off to accomplish their respective tasks, leaving Azula and Sokka alone in the village square with the living Fire Nation soldiers.

"Zula..." he began, but the Princess strode towards him, putting a finger to his lips.

"No. I'm not letting you."

"Let me finish, woman," he said with a grimace, though he knew full well she'd already read his mind before he could speak it.

"No, Sokka. I'm not letting you abandon your path before you even take your first steps on it."

His eyes lit with an azure flame. "They're animals, Azula. They all deserve to die. Look at what they did to Sai-" he stopped himself, realizing what he'd let slip out.

Azula's eyes softened. She took Sokka's hand in her own. "They will face justice for what they did to that woman, Sokka. I promise you. They'll face justice for what they did here to this village. But you're not going to be the one to hand it out, not right now. You don't have it in you. Anything you do to them would just be vengeance."

Sokka's shoulders slumped and he leaned into her, their foreheads touching. "Look at what they did to these people, Zula." She could feel him heavier than he'd ever been, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

She cupped his face with her hands. "I know. But I'm not letting you fall, not with how far you've come, my wolf." A flash of lightning coursed through his eyes as he met her gaze. "It's my duty."

"Your duty?" he whispered hoarsely.

She nodded. "You're the one who said it to me. I can wallow in guilt or I can begin to take responsibility. This is my nation. These soldiers are my people. They are mine to punish. Now go, go help Katara or go help Aang. You don't need to be here for this."

He nodded, separating from their embrace, though as he pulled away, their hands remained intertwined. She gave his a small squeeze before letting his fingers slip out of hers. He began walking briskly away from the square. When he was out of sight, she turned her attention to the soldiers, holding up her palm. She let a blue flame dance from end to end, weaving in and out of her fingers.

"Do you all know who I am?"

One man cleared his throat. On his shoulder, she could see a sergeant's insignia. "You're the Princess."

"Very good."

"How can you be here helping these scum? Our fleet was sent here to save you and instead we find you a traitor!" shouted one man, forgetting his superior. Azula fixed him with an iron glare, and the man seemed to shrink.

"I am not here to explain or justify myself to you, soldier. I am the heir to this nation, and its honor is my responsibility. These past hundred years of madness my ancestors have strung us along a path of madness and destruction that has resulted in nothing but pain and atrocity. I plan to remedy that, and that begins here. Who speaks for you?"

The sergeant answered. "I do, Princess."

"Very good. Sergeant-?"

"Matsuo, Princess."

Azula nodded. She paced back and forth. "You all must answer for your crimes against the people of Kyoshi Island. As far as I can see, you are guilty of murder, rape, arson, robbery, burglary, and a litany of other offenses minor and major. Do any of you deny it?"

The sergeant looked ready to say something, but the man who'd shouted earlier again interrupted. "I deny it! This is war, and these people are the enemy! Enemies don't get the protection of law!"

Azula shook her head. "Sergeant, are there any Earth Kingdom troops here on the Island?"

The man man looked down. "No, Princess."

"Only civilians?"

"Yes, Princess."

"It doesn't matter!" shouted the regular interrupter. "Anyone who isn't Fire Nation is the enemy. They're all scum, cockroaches, and worse. That bitch back there-" he gestured towards the dead woman Sokka had wept for "- should be happy I even saw fit to pull out my-" he didn't have time to spill any further vulgarity, as Azula shot a bolt of lightning towards him, causing him to scream in agony as the shock coursed through his body. It wasn't enough to kill him, by design.

"I find you guilty. And tiresome," she snarled. This time, she shot lightning from each of her fingers, and the man didn't even have the chance to scream as thousands upon thousands of volts of lightning ravaged his lifeless body.

Returning her attention to the remaining soldiers, she scanned their eyes. The sergeant still looked down, his shoulders slumped in a clear sign of guilt and acceptance, but the other men regarded her with pure terror in their eyes. One of them started sniveling for mercy, and the others joined him, begging for clemency, but Azula ignored them, choosing only to address the sergeant.

"How do you plead, Sergeant Matsuo?"

The man still refused to meet her eyes. "I've been in this war for fifteen years, Princess. Done some things I ain't proud of. I knew I was doing wrong, but I figured it was my Fire Lord's command. Agni would forgive me for following orders of his chosen." He finally looked up at her, his hazel eyes inscrutable. "You can't do anything to me the voices in my head don't already torture me with every night when I try to sleep."

His mention of the voices struck a chord inside her, but she buried it inside.

"And your men? They ask for clemency."

He shrugged. "We all ask for a lot of things in this bitch world, and we don't always get it. You highborn bastards talk pretty about war and superiority and send us out there to do the killing so that you don't have to dirty your hands. You, on the other hand, have your hands plenty filthy, don't you?" His looked at her with something akin to respect, which made her skin crawl, although she kept an expressionless face. He spat at the ground by his knees. "Figure if I'm going to get executed, at least it won't be any pansy lord who's never seen the horror of war, sitting high in his pretty castle or palace with his fancy parties." His men shouted over him, decrying him as a madman, begging for individual mercies. Azula hardened her heart.

"Very well. Sergeant Matsuo, and the men under your command... as the Princess of the Fire Nation, the rightful Fire Lord by the grace of Agni, for the crimes listed before, I do sentence you and your men to die."

The begging for mercy continued. One man threw herself at her feet, though she took a step back to avoid him. "Mercy, Princess, please!" his voice was a pleading crackle. For a moment Azula almost found a well of pity, but she thought of the dead woman, the pain, humiliation, shame, and agony she must have endured before her death, and the way Sokka looked when he saw her - entirely broken. The pity dried up, leaving nothing but a desert of emptiness.

"I have none to offer. I can give you only fire and blood," she said, her voice dispassionate.

With that, she brought a lightning storm down upon the men, ending them all in a crackle of yellow-white cold fury. They screamed loudly, but only for a moment before they died. It was likely a quicker end than some of them deserved.

She gazed at the charred corpses left behind, men with cracked and darkened skin sizzing in the remnants of their ruined armor.

You must feel good about what you just did, hissed the Ozai voice. I can sense pleasure. You are a killer, aren't you, my dear? Oh, how proud you've made me.

But she knew the voice was lying. She could sense the panic in it, as if it was terrified to lose ahold of her. She felt no pleasure, no pity, no emotion at all, not even satisfaction. All she felt was that one wrong upon a mountain of wrongs had been righted, and that something akin to justice had been done. A weariness set in her as she realized the colossal task she'd undertaken.

XXXXX

After they'd assembled the remainder of survivors with all the spare supplies they could find, Aang and Katara shepherded them to the commandeered corvette. Azula trailed a little behind the group, and Sokka walked with her. He'd seen the charred bodies in the square, although he said nothing to her in the moment. He could sense the yawning emptiness inside her.

For a moment he thought to say something, but he didn't. Whatever there was to be said, they could always talk about when it was just the two of them with the promise of privacy. For now, trailing behind the refugees, there were no words that needed to be exchanged. Instead, he drew closer to her, their shoulders brushing. His hand clasped hers, and she widened her fingers for him to interlace his. She looked at him, and the crackle of life in her golden eyes was enough to promise him that his gesture didn't go unappreciated.

When the survivors had been settled into the ship, a quick discussion with Oyaji resulted in the mutual decision that they would accompany the refugees on Appa to a port village and then onto Omashu. The battlecruiser had finally managed to figure out what had happened on the island, but they were unable to pursue the speedier corvette or Appa. They sent a few half hearted volleys of blazing catapult ammunition at them, but all of them fell short. Sokka's assumption that they would be unable to pursue them was correct, as eventually the battlecruiser made an about face and began to steam away south, ostensibly to rejoin the fleet they'd split off from.

It was well into the night when Azula first spoke to him. Appa had taken a break from flying, floating alongside the corvette now instead. Katara had gone aboard the corvette to check on the survivors and tend to any wounds, and Aang - praise the spirits for his ability to read a room, Sokka thought - had accompanied her, most likely just to give them privacy. They were sitting at opposite ends of the saddle, not front to rear but rather side to side ends. Both of them had removed their warpaint, sitting there barefaced.

"I killed them," Azula said. It was a statement, but also an invitation to question.

"I know."

"You know why I couldn't let you do it."

"I know," he repeated.

"How does it make you feel that I did it anyway?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure. Why did you?"

She looked away. "Justice."

He snorted. "What passes for justice in wartime?"

"I gave them a chance to speak. The leader said he knew what he was doing what was wrong."

"I doubt his men were pleased."

"No, they weren't. They begged for mercy."

"And you had none?"

She was quiet for a moment. "I thought about it. Then I remembered that woman. I thought of you, and I thought of Saira."

Sokka stiffened. "I'm sorry about that."

She rubbed her shoulders as if cold. "Why are you apologizing for it? If anything, I'm sorry that you had to see something that reminded you of her in that way." She bit her lip as she looked at his ashen, grave expression.

He twiddled his thumbs aimlessly. "I said sorry because I didn't want to color your justice. It should be dispassionate."

"I know. It was. I took no satisfaction in doing my duty. It was a wrong I had to right."

There was silence between them again. It only ended when Azula cleared her throat.

"Sokka... come here." She prided herself on not pleading, and even now it wasn't so much a plea, but Sokka could tell that it was more than just a request. She wanted it, and so did he.

The wall between them broke. He couldn't get to her faster if he tried, the two of them launching into each other's embrace. She was warm, far warmer than anyone had any business being. Though it wasn't frigid, there was still a nip in the air, one that disappeared when Azula's heat warmed him. They laid down there together, pulling a thin blanket to cover them both. One of his arms was splayed round her waist, pulling her in close, while the other stroked her cheek. Her head lay against his chest, her hair down and her headpiece discarded. Sokka's stray forelocks, now out of their wolf's tail, tickled her forehead.

"Are you okay, 'Zula?"

She nodded into his chest, her nose tickling his sternum in an up-and-down motion. "I'm fine. I just needed to make sure that you didn't stray from your mission."

"My mission?" he said with a quizzical smile.

"Yes, Ser Sokka, your mission. You're to be a knight."

He laughed into her hair, inhaling deeply as his body rumbled against her. "You know that knights have to sometimes fight and kill, right?"

"Yes, but only in the name of justice and for the defense of innocents. When you take life, I only want you to do so for the right reasons. I was afraid that if you sentenced those men, you'd do it for the wrong reason. I want you to be true to the best version of yourself that you can be."

He was silent for a moment, before a thought entered his mind. "Did you ever imagine that this is where we'd be two months after I attacked your ship?"

It was now her turn to laugh. "If someone told me as much, I'd say they were insane. All I wanted to do then was to follow in my father's footsteps. I didn't blindly believe in all our propaganda, but I never had reason to believe in anything else. I was convinced of my own greatness, and all I wanted was to prove that I was more than a worthy heir to the throne."

"You are a worthy heir to that throne, Princess. You're the only worthy one in more than a hundred years. I'll do everything I can to make sure we get your ass in that seat."

"I suppose there's nothing I can do to convince you that I'm a terrible person," she whispered.

"Nope," Sokka responded. "Maybe you did some terrible stuff before I met you, but everything you've done since says otherwise."

"How do you know that this is who I really am, not the person I've been for the last nineteen years of my life?"

He shrugged, and she laughed. "Really convincing, Sokka."

"I just know. Don't ask me how. I'm more convinced of it than anything I've ever been convinced of in my life," he murmured.

"Mm." She was quiet for a moment. "Sokka, I have something to tell you."

"Shoot."

"I hear voices in my head," she confessed, deciding to bite the arrow and just let it out.

"I know. You talk in your sleep sometimes," he said nonchalantly.

She pulled a few inches away from him, looking up into his eyes with a slight shock. "What?"

"I used to hear you in your sleep, back in the village. You spoke to your parents."

"You knew this whole time?" She was mortified.

"I did. I didn't push you, not after I saw your training scars. I thought you'd tell me when you were ready to tell me. I had a feeling, back when you told me about seeing your mother on the pirate ship."

She groaned into his chest. "You think I'm insane."

"Not any more than I am, Princess," he said with an amused chortle. He gasped a little as he received a punch and a tiny static shock for his effrontery. "I'm serious. I know you have demons you struggle with. The way you were raised in that palace of yours was fucked up. Although, I gotta say you came out better than your brother."

"Jackass," she grumbled. "You're just making excuses for me because I saved your sorry life on that pirate ship." Her hand slipped into the gap of his tunic, feeling out the scars on his chest, tracing the burn marks she'd left in an attempt to save his life. Eventually her hand came to a stop above, his heart, feeling it beat steadily and powerfully.

"Mm, that you did, but that's not why I'm here with you right now."

There it was again, the unspoken element of the bond that tied them together. What was it about the word that made everything so difficult, when in reality all the underlying emotion was already there?

Azula decided to take the leap. "So then why are you here?" Their eyes met, blue on golden, and Azula could swear she saw the moon and stars above twinkle against his sapphire irises. Her hand felt his heartbeat raise just a smidge.

"Same reason you are, Princess."

Pause.

"I'm not going to say it first," she whispered.

"Pride? Princess can't tell the peasant first?"

"No. I just... don't believe. It won't sound real from me."

"Then let me make you believe." He tilted her chin up with his hand and gently guided her lips onto his, pulling her into a kiss that sent her spiraling into the heavens with all her senses aflame. It lasted for what felt like an eternity, and she only pulled away with a soft sigh because she needed to hear the words.

"I love you, Azula." No fire felt so good as the one inside her heart when she heard those words, threatening to engulf her in an inferno of bliss.

She didn't say it back then, but the kiss she pulled him into left no doubts as to whose her heart belonged to.

After he'd fallen asleep, snoozing into her hair, causing her to smile as she traced the muscles of his chest and snuggled her head into the crook of his shoulder, she could have sworn she heard Ursa's voice whisper that she loved her too, before sleep came for her as well.

A/N: ooh those three little words.
Don't worry, Aang's angst will be dealt with soon. Needed to give Sokkla their moment here.

As per the schedule, you can expect a Monday update! :)