Chapter Twenty-Four: Revelations and Rebels
"Something feels wrong," comments one of the guards protecting Ty Lee.
"We're in the middle of a war. Maybe something is."
Ty Lee squirms and the first guard turns to his ward. "It's nothing to worry about. You're a sweet girl. A soft girl. Bad things don't happen to sweet, soft girls."
Ty Lee's voice trembles as she says, "But they do. They do. That's why I don't want to be soft and sweet anymore. I want to be—to be fire and bloody knuckles and glass shards and I want people to be afraid of hurting me."
Before the guard can reply, the door loudly shatters into splinters and Ty Lee screams. She sees the waterbender prisoner and the flash of weapons as the guards move to disable her, but then they seize up, clearly panicked. Ty Lee sits but does not know how to run from the sudden threat. Their limbs dance like puppets.
Puppets. The prisoner looks like a puppeteer of living, human beings. They have no choice but to obey her will as she bends the blood in their bodies.
Ty Lee cannot breathe; her throat constricts from sheer fear.
"Get out of here," says Katara. "Get to the lifeboats. I'm taking the ship."
"Why are you sparing me?" asks Ty Lee, bewildered. She may have been part of the rebellion once, but now the world sees her as loyal to Princess Azula.
Katara shakes her head lightly before she speaks. "I'm not going to do this to a woman potentially pregnant with the Avatar. Get up. Get out. Before I don't have a choice."
Ty Lee rushes to obey.
As she runs, she tries to fight away the thoughts that she knows she could have stopped Katara in her tracks with chi blocking.
She could have ended the rebel rampage.
But she didn't.
Maybe her love for Azula did not kill the spirit of the rebellion in her as much as they hoped.
[X]
Katara finds Azula earlier than she had even hoped.
"I am going to give you one chance to leave this room and amend this horrible mistake that shall only end in your death," says Azula.
Katara shakes her head. Azula slides slowly into a fighting stance but gives Katara a few moments to reconsider thanks to the time they spent in the Dragonbone Catacombs.
Katara says smoothly, "They say you are made of hurricanes and that you have a dragon's heart. They say you bend lightning with more command than the clouds above. They say you can turn mountains to dust and bring kingdoms to their knees. They say you bring order to chaos and chaos to order. And they say all of that is because storm cells run through your veins instead of blood."
"Fuck you, peasant," snarls Azula.
"They were wrong. You don't have storms in your veins. You have the same blood as anybody else." Katara raises her hand and twists her fingertips.
[X]
Ty Lee runs through the ship, pregnancy be damned, seeking Azula. She refuses to leave without her. The raucous noise on the ship reveals something chilling; Katara released all of the prisoners from the lower decks. They are seizing control of the ship, from what Ty Lee steals glances of between frantic paces.
Finally, she hears a scream. Her wife's scream.
She starts to run, despite her protruding, heavy belly and the pain in her feet. She needs to fight through it to get Azula and get out of here.
When she enters the room from whence the scream came, she sees Azula's body being contorted on the floor as tears of pain flow through her eyes.
Ty Lee's heart stops. She feels like someone just stabbed her in the gut.
She turns and sees Katara.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Ty Lee let her go. She never should have done that.
But she is suddenly certain of something very pure and true as she looks at Azula being tortured by the bloodbending.
She is certain of it in the way someone is instantly aware of the sweetness in a drop of honey.
She loves Azula.
She loves Azula.
She loves Azula.
And she is going to protect her with her life.
With vehemence and passion, Ty Lee sends two punches to Katara's shoulders and one to her gut, paralyzing the waterbender, leaving her helpless on her knees.
She runs to Azula's side and kisses her deeply.
They did kill the rebel in her.
Love is stronger than hate.
[X]
Meanwhile, in a rebel camp, "Wine?" offers June.
She sits with Mai in her tent, a prisoner now a guest. She holds the bottle up as she looks at the woman she once thought she might love. But Mai had done something between changing too much and not changing at all.
Nothing is the same as it was years ago, when they used to fight side by side.
"Always," is Mai's casual reply.
June pours two glasses. Mai holds hers up for a toast and June does the same.
"To the guilty and the hollow."
"I'll drink to that," says June.
They finish their wine in silence before June gives Mai a strange look.
"What?"
"I propose a drinking contest," suggests June as she swirls her glass around.
"Lady or Tiger Monkey?"
"You read my mind." June shoots a cocky smirk in Mai's direction.
June rummages in her pocket and withdraws a silver piece. She holds it up to the light and then sets it on the table.
"You know I've never lost a drinking game," says June.
Mai fills the glasses and picks up the coin.
"There's a first time for everything."
They both almost smile.
[X]
Meanwhile, at sea, "Come on," pleads Ty Lee, helping Azula to her feet as Katara lies paralyzed on the floor. "There's no one sailing the ship anymore. Katara released all of the prisoners and they're rioting. We have to get to the lifeboats."
"Let me catch my breath!" snaps Azula, but Ty Lee does not release her.
"I'm not letting you die here, I'm not letting myself die here, and I'm not letting our baby die here. Come on, please, I'm begging you."
Azula sneers brutally, but composes herself and runs with Ty Lee to the upper deck.
And they find out within moments that they are utterly screwed on a catastrophic level.
Ty Lee screams. Azula stands in stoic, saddened silence.
The azure sea shakes and froths with a rage unlike any Azula has ever seen on a ship. No one controls it. No one can stop it from colliding with the infinitely tall, intensely jagged cliffs ahead.
Azula gazes out at the humongous tower of rocks. The ship rocks and sways as it drives straight at then with a breakneck force.
They are screwed. They are completely and utterly screwed and there is nothing she can do.
She squeezes her eyes shut and exhales.
The rocks become closer and closer and closer as the waves violently rock the ship.
She turns to her wife.
"Ty Lee," says Azula, "I need to tell you something. I'm in love with you. I'm not sure exactly when I fell but I did. I love you. Genuinely, with all of my heart."
"I love you too," whispers Ty Lee in complete earnest.
They embrace tightly as the ship crashes.
[X]
Drunk, Mai having beaten a rather sullen but impressed June at the drinking game, the two women, a prisoner and a rebel, lie naked in bed together after a frantic and sloppy tryst.
"I still can't believe you beat me," drawls June.
"What can I say? Depression and being locked up in a palace all the time with nothing to do gave me superhuman alcohol tolerance."
"Am I better in bed than the Supreme Emperor?"
"Yes," Mai casually replies.
"I imagine a rebel would be more talented at pleasing a partner. His type is only good at violence, not the… tender side of sex."
Mai bristles. She has no idea why but all she wants at the moment is to come to her husband's defense. Even after all she knows he has done.
"As if the rebels are any better. Both sides of this war have plenty of blood on their hands."
"It's hard to find the moral high ground when we're all standing in the mud," says June. "But I'm nothing like your husband and you know that. It's why you just let me fuck you, isn't it?"
Mai lies back. She does not know what to say to that.
Her vision begins to spin from the alcohol as June rests her naked body against that of her prisoner.
Absentmindedly, as she drifts half to sleep, Mai traces June's tiger's bride flower tattoo with her fingertips, a subtle — or in some cases not so subtle — symbol of her allegiance to the rebellion.
She cannot help but remember what Zuko told her not long ago.
"You're the worst kind of traitor; you have every option to help people, or to take real action with your political power, but you just lie back and think of yourself."
Mai closes her eyes and rests her head on June's chest.
She loves Ozai. She loves June.
She hates Ozai. She hates June.
She does not know how to keep the pieces straight anymore.
[X]
Azula lies in the water, sore and breathless, helpless to the waves that rock her.
She thinks she might drown. Princess Azula never wanted to die in water, to die this way.
Her mind slips to conquering Ba Sing Se, the victory that earned her everything she ever dreamed of having.
She feels the rush of conquering the city. She feels the fear of being fourteen and asked to lead an army on the most significant invasion since the destruction of the airbenders.
She sees the charred stuffed toy on the side of the corpse-laden street. Her eyes lingered on it a little too long, but she found no regret in her heart for the child lying dead between his parents.
Azula just focused on rounding up anyone trying to fight back and asserting the occupation.
Still, that child's milky dead eyes stayed in her head, stuck there, wedged there, as she demanded the Earth King's surrender.
The cold blue water turns to icier blood around her.
She sees children. Dead children. They bob up in the ocean beside her, and move towards her as she floats, inert, atop the waves.
The dirty little Earth Kingdom children, bloody, with dead eyes, slain by the Monster of the West and the soldiers under her command, seize her with their grubby hands and drag her under the water.
They tug on her in their violent revenge, pulling her deeper.
Deeper.
And deeper.
Darkness engulfs Azula at last.
[X]
The Monster of the West opens her stinging eyes to see a beautiful, drenched pregnant woman kneeling at her side.
"Azula," pleads Ty Lee, brushing soaking raven hair out of her wife's face, "Azula, are you okay?"
"I am still breathing," she croaks. "I guess that counts for something."
"Thank the spirits." Ty Lee kisses Azula's salty forehead.
"Where are we?" asks Azula, groaning as she sits up to survey her surroundings.
"An abandoned fishing village. It doesn't look like anybody has lived here for a really long time." Ty Lee glances around and frowns.
"Fantastic. Just my luck." Azula grinds her teeth as her eyes gleam with raw anger.
"What do we do?"
"We need to find shelter and get through the night. There's rain coming. Then I will make a plan to find our way to civilization. Just keep your head and follow my lead and we will get out of this travesty in one piece."
"Okay." Ty Lee kisses Azula on the forehead.
They get up and start searching through the dilapidated houses for a soft place to land.
Finally, they find a place to spend the night; an abandoned shop with a bedroom upstairs that has one of the only intact ceilings in the village.
Azula finds candles to light, then strips off her clothes, hanging them to dry, and begins to twist the water from her hair as Ty Lee settles on the bed, resting her hand on her belly and closing her eyes. She has never been more grateful to just sit down.
"Are we going to make it? Are we going to survive this rebellion?" whispers Ty Lee.
Azula finishes wringing out her hair and sets her hands firmly on her hips.
"I am the seed of kings and conquerors, and so too is the child inside of you. You must not forget that."
Ty Lee nods.
"I believe you." Pause. "Or, I believe in your confidence, and that's good enough for me."
They both begin to snuggle into the dirty, stale bed.
[X]
In the middle of the night, as the candles Azula lit burn low, Ty Lee turns to her. Azula opens her eyes and gazes at her wife.
"Can I ask you something?"
"I suppose."
"How do you know you love me?"
"Because after all we've been through I hate everyone else in this world but you," whispers Azula. "And, I know you had no choice in the matter, but I am glad you are my wife."
"That's sad. Sad but beautiful."
"Well, we are both beautiful and sad, and so are our stories." She suppresses a shudder as she thinks of the burnt toy and dead family in Ba Sing Se. "I need to start making a plan."
Azula starts to sit up but Ty Lee hesitantly and gently takes her by the wrist.
"Before you make your plan, can't we just be sad and beautiful together for a while?" whispers Ty Lee.
"Yes. Yes we can."
They fall asleep side by side, fingers touching softly.
[X]
In the morning, Azula rises from the bed and puts on her now-dry clothing. She turns to Ty Lee, who still lies in bed, eyes half open.
"I am going to find breakfast and formulate a plan. I already have a few ideas and this town has to have something to eat in it. I will return soon. Stay vigilant."
"Yes, Princess. Thank you," says Ty Lee warmly. She closes her eyes and murmurs to herself, "Mmm, breakfast," as she drifts back to sleep.
She does not know how long she sleeps; she just knows that crashing and screaming wake her. She tries to jump into action but the gradually growing baby belly momentarily holds her back. She hears Azula cry out and then the sound of lightning. Baby be damned, Ty Lee shoves herself to her feet.
She runs down the stairs and sees Azula in the middle of combat with Zuko and Katara.
Azula glances over at her as she blocks shards of ice and shouts, "Ty Lee! Take cover! I am not letting you risk my baby!"
The moment's distraction of Ty Lee's entrance is all Azula needs to turn to Katara and throw a powerful bolt of blue lightning directly at her.
Zuko dives in front of his girlfriend without a second thought.
The lightning collides with his gut and he falls to the floor with a cry of pain.
Katara rushes to him and turns her waterbending from an assault on Azula to a method of healing.
Azula nods at Ty Lee as Katara heals the wound to the best extent of her abilities.
"Thank you, Katara," croaks Zuko.
She crumbles over his body, gasping out through her tears.
In that moment of weakness, Ty Lee takes her chance. She Chi blocks them both before they have the chance to fight back.
The Blue Spirit and Painted Lady now lie side by side, paralyzed, weak and — for now — defeated.
Azula takes a moment to check on her wife before confidently striding over to her victims. People who could have been allies if it were not for Katara's stunt on the ship. Azula hopes she regrets it now.
She smirks down at them. They glare. Ty Lee cautiously watches.
"Anything to say for yourselves? We could have worked together, but, unfortunately, you messed with the wrong monster." Silence. It irritates her. "Nothing?" demands Azula, setting her thumb under Katara's chin and lifting her up to meet her cobalt eyes. "Nothing from you?"
Katara spits in her face, and then quickly looks away.
Azula just turns to her brother. He will be far, far easier to provoke.
"Oh, ZuZu. You look just bursting to say something."
"She saved your wife. She saved your fucking wife!"
"And you fucked that wife, so, I just call it even. You will both be executed at dawn. If I were you, I wouldn't waste my last few hours crying about it."
Azula kisses Ty Lee. "Keep an eye on them while I get something for dinner. Jab them if they try to act up."
"Of course, Princess."
Azula strides away.
[X]
Katara and Zuko lie paralyzed in the fishing village house. Ty Lee has jabbed them twice, and it seems like there is little chance of escape. They have remained silent until this moment.
"Talk to me, Zuko. What's on your mind?" whispers Katara.
"Seeing her with Ty Lee, pregnant Ty Lee. I can't stop thinking about this fucked memory from when I was a kid."
"What was it?"
"When I was about seven, the family found out one of the palace cats was pregnant. Azula cut open its stomach to see the kittens inside. When she showed our mother…" He inhales sharply and shakes his head. "I know she's fucked up. She's a born psychopath. But sometimes I wonder if she internalized being called a monster so much. By me, our mother, our uncle, even our father once or twice, that she decided subconsciously that if people thought she was a monster, well, she would be the best damned monster the world has ever seen. And so she became the Monster of the West."
Ty Lee's eyes begin to glisten with tears as she hears that statement.
So much emotion overcomes her that when Azula returns and smugly begins to eat in front of her prisoners, Ty Lee, starving as she may be, does not find herself able to touch the meal.
"Why aren't you eating? You are pregnant. You need to eat," says Azula.
Ty Lee says quietly, "Do you ever want to stop? To stop being the Monster of the West? Do you ever regret it? Want to change it?"
Azula snorts derisively. "Why should I apologize for being a monster? No one ever apologized for making me into one."
Ty Lee does not know what else to do but kiss her.
Azula inhales sharply at the soft insistence of Ty Lee's mouth.
They both sink deeply into the kiss, lost in bliss if only for a little while.
Zuko furrows his brow as he watches them.
[X]
Ty Lee's life has always been divided between two states: either fear or love.
It has certainly been made clear by her experience in this arranged marriage.
She currently is torn between both as she guards the prisoners and Azula fortifies the perimeter. As Azula strides by her, Ty Lee gently grabs her arm.
"Are we actually going to execute them?" she whispers, glancing swiftly at Zuko and Katara to make sure they do not overhear.
"No. But I want to wear them down with the threat of it. I may be a monster but I am not an animal. I am asserting control, not killing them. Not until we need to do so."
Azula breaks away and continues her work.
Dawn persists in slowly arriving.
[X]
Meanwhile, in the Colonies, in a camp well hidden in the vast forests, June walks into the tent where Mai sleeps and punches the nearest furniture.
"The fuck?" demands Mai, sitting up in the makeshift bed.
"Fire Nation military activity is in the area. We don't know if they're onto us yet but they may be. We'll have to move camp again tomorrow."
"So what if there's military activity? Who gives a fuck?"
"You should. If they find us they'll arrest you."
"Maybe I don't care if they take me back. I don't want to be there but I don't want to be here either."
"You couldn't make yourself care about anything but yourself if you tried, could you?"
"Probably not."
"You love him, don't you? You actually love that son of a bitch," says June sharply.
"I don't love him. I love whatever keeps me breathing for another day."
The sound of artillery firing just outside of the camp interrupts the tense conversation. June and Mai run outside as quickly as they can, running right into a powerful invasion of their unprepared allies.
They join the fight, but it does not last for long.
Mai struggles violently against the two men holding her as she watches two others shove June to the ground, half-burying her face in the dirt as they snap her wrists into handcuffs.
The Fire Lady tries to throw a punch at the general in front of her but he grabs her wrist.
"We're here to bring you and your body guard back to your husband. Resistance is futile. We have already neutralized the camp. My Queen, be reasonable."
"Eat hot coals," snaps Mai.
They ignore her outburst as they place her in handcuffs.
[X]
When daybreak arrives in the fishing village, Zuko weakly fights the paralysis from Ty Lee to touch Katara's hand.
"I'm sorry," he says softly.
"No," whispers Katara. "I was the one who betrayed them. I'm the one who should be sorry."
They manage to exchange a brief, broken glance before Azula and Ty Lee drag them outside.
A few moments after Azula rests them on the dirt and stands menacingly, she bursts into laughter.
Zuko and Katara stare at her, baffled.
"Ty Lee and I aren't animals. Did you really think we were going to kill you this-" She suddenly topples to the ground, unconscious.
Ty Lee pivots, ready to attack, but a dart hits her neck as well and she collapses onto her wife.
Zuko and Katara are immobile targets, and taken down by the invisible predators instantly.
All four fade into dizzy darkness.
[X]
Azula wakes to a splash of water on her face. She coughs and sputters and struggles against her handcuffs as she takes in her surroundings. She is in a dungeon of stone, surrounded by four men with dark green masks over their eyes.
"Who are you people?" she demands viciously. They smile. Smile. She fights harder against the cuffs.
"We are the real rebels. The ones who take real action."
"I take plenty of real action, and so does Zuko," snarls Katara. One of their captors does not hesitate to harshly slap her across the face. She bares her teeth but they do not even flinch.
Ty Lee asks weakly, "What do you want?"
"Two bargaining chips," the man in the middle says, looking at Azula and Ty Lee, "and two examples," he continues, glancing at Zuko and Katara.
"Examples?" asks Zuko coolly.
"Yes. I hope you have a strong constitution, because we do intend to torture you to death."
Zuko moves protectively towards Katara and she is too stunned to resist the sexist action. Ty Lee edges closer to Azula, both not certain which fate is worse; the torture or the existence as something with which to bargain.
Now, they all suppose, the fortitude of love truly will be put to the test.
He shoots them a crooked smile before leaving them in the care of two buff, silent guards.
[X]
Meanwhile, Mai finds herself in a prison of her own. She stands cuffed to a pole in a tent at the Fire Nation camp. They took a few other prisoners, including June, before killing the rest and destroying the rebel camp.
The bearded general strides in carrying a box. He sets it at her feet.
"I have something for you to change into, something proper for a Fire Lady."
"Of course," coolly and dryly remarks Mai. He is unfortunately undeterred by her tone. "Then what?"
As he slowly undoes her handcuffs, he explains calmly, "Your former bodyguard and a few others will be taken for interrogation, and you will soon be returned safely to your husband."
In the following silence, he undoes her handcuffs and hands her the dress. He steps several feet away and turns his back, but she notices the stolen glance as she undresses.
And it gives her an idea.
"When will my husband arrive?"
"A few hours, my Queen."
"I bore easily. I expect you to give me a way to pass the time."
"I'm afraid I don't have any idea what interests you."
"Have you ever played lady or tiger-monkey?"
"I can't say I have."
"It's a drinking game. You flip a coin and if it's lady the other person drinks and if it's tiger-monkey you drink. First one to quit loses."
"You're a girl who knows how to have a good time, I see, but I'm much larger than you. It isn't much of a contest."
"It isn't a contest at all without a prize."
"And what would that be?"
"If I win, you let me see June. If you win, you can kiss me wherever you want."
"I have some sake in my bag."
They play the game with the sake as Mai maintains a painful flirtatious façade.
"Lady," says Mai, batting her eyelashes — an act which makes her almost gag — after flipping the coin.
After a wobbly toast, he downs the drink and begins to sway in his seat before his eyes lull and his head collides with the table.
The Fire Lady rises from the table and keeps focused on her captor as she slowly, slowly backs out of the tent.
Mai has nearly escaped when her back slams against a muscular chest. She whips around and the man easily removes the blade from her hand.
"Ozai," is her soft murmur of realization.
She cannot believe her eyes. She never thought she would see him outside of Caldera.
"Why are you not in the Fire Nation?"
"My daughter was in a shipwreck, my wife has been kidnapped, my soldiers have been useless at recovering any of you. I needed to take matters into my own hands. My Nation is safe for now in the hands of my court and I assure you I have complete control even from afar. The rebellion is a threat to everything I have worked for and I must handle them personally."
"Are you going to find Azula next?" Mai hates herself for being worried about her stepdaughter but she is. She is.
"By all accounts she escaped, and The Monster of the West can care for herself, but the rebellion crossed the line by harming her in such a way. The war against these ungrateful colonies is beginning and I am leading it. You will accompany me."
After a brief silence, Mai dares ask, words slightly slurred from liquor, "Are you angry?"
"No, I am not angry. I am furious."
"I played along with them to protect myself. Nothing more."
"That is your greatest talent, isn't it? Playing along to protect yourself."
She kisses him.
"Yes, yes it is."
[X]
Azula does not know how these people consider themselves to be better than Ozai or Zuko and Katara's little pacifist friends when they have a torture chamber in their hideout.
Her brother struggles against the captors as Katara curses them. The room is packed with an audience as they guide him to a block in the middle of the room.
"I'm a rebel. Like you," states Zuko, refusing to tremble, refusing to give them the satisfaction of letting himself show his fear.
"You are still the Fire Lord's son," growls the leader of this new breed of rebels.
Azula screams when she sees the blade fall down on her brother's wrist, slicing his hand clean off with a burst of blood. Her flame burns blue as it melts through the handcuffs in a display of firebending greater than any she ever before has shown. She runs forward in a pure, virulent, utter rage, blue flame and crackling lightning licking at the ceiling.
Only a few rebels escape her wrath as she kills every human in sight. Katara and Ty Lee press their backs to the walls, cramping their hands in the cuffs but too afraid of the fire and lightning to care.
Azula pounces like a tiger-monkey onto the man who cut off her brother's hand.
She tears his mask from his face to look at the fear in his eyes, her own wild from rage.
He pretends to be unafraid as he croaks, "What are you going to do to me, little princess?"
"I am going to show you why they call me the Monster of the West."
She raises her fist.
[X]
Zuko screams in agony as his sister cauterizes his wound. He leans to the side, overcome by dry heaves as Azula steps back.
She grabs the cuff keys from a charred corpse and liberates her wife and enemy both. She does not want Katara free, but she does not want to leave her here and let these bastards win any prize. Azula hates these so called rebels even more than she hates the Painted Lady.
Azula walks over to Zuko as a confused and stunned Katara helps Ty Lee to her feet.
Zuko, delirious from shock and loss of blood, seized his sister's hand with his one unharmed arm and pulls her down to kneel beside him.
"Do you remember the stories grandfather told us? The ones about the strength of our ancestors?"
"Of course," quietly replies Azula.
"Remember what you would always say?" Zuko asks.
Azula takes a deep breath to suppress her tears. She needs to hide them. She needs to evade any emotion for her brother in case she needs to kill him one day. It probably will happen. "That I wanted to be an Empress just like that. But you said something different. You said you wanted to be a hero, just like that," says Azula.
"I'm surprised you remember anything like that," croaks Zuko, studying her closely.
"Why?" demands Azula, furrowing her brow.
"I figured you wanted to just forget about me. I'm an embarrassing connection for the Monster of the West to have," says Zuko.
"It is your blood in my veins. Tell me how I am supposed to forget. You are my brother, no matter what you have done."
The room falls into silence as Azula steps away from him and moves protectively towards Ty Lee.
"Come on. We have to get out of here," at last says Katara as she tenderly helps Zuko up.
No one argues with her.
[X]
Once the four escape the hideout carved into the side of a mountain, they look out at what brazenly faces them.
The landscape ahead would daunt the bravest of adventurers and most hardened of soldiers.
But the foursome has no choice other than to face it.
"We part ways here," says Azula. "Both of you leave quickly before I change my mind about sparing your lives."
Katara takes a deep breath of the fresh air and says, "I can't believe I'm saying this but look out there. We're stronger together."
Azula scoffs. "My wife and I do not need a scarred cripple and a peasant slut slowing us down. I am losing my patience for you rebel scum already so I suggest getting out of my sight."
Ty Lee taps her wife. "Azula, please let them come with us."
"I do not take orders from you," says Azula harshly and Ty Lee flinches as if something were thrown at her.
"We've seen what they can do," says Ty Lee, nervous to be so bold, but certain it is necessary. "I want to go home and I think they can help us."
"I refuse to trust them again," snaps Azula, fingers twitching with the desire to hit the overbold fool of a girl.
Katara takes another daring step forward. Azula cannot believe the gall of those who surround her. After what they just saw her do they think they can convince her to team up with rebels who betrayed her regardless of what happened in the Dragonbone Catacombs.
Katara says calmly, too calmly, "I never trusted you in the first place but I made the offer to help you two in exchange for you helping me and Zuko."
"Why would you do that if you do not trust me? Perhaps the mood will strike me and I will kill you both in your sleep."
"Because I have hope that you'll do the right thing. Maybe you ought to have hope that I will too."
Azula frowns. "Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have."
"I have never seen you shy away from danger before, Princess Azula."
Azula examines Katara uneasily. She glances at the landscape and then to her brother, and lastly to her trembling, pregnant wife. She has no doubt she can dispose of the rebels whenever she pleases, and they may be useful in making it through the treacherous landscape if they play nice.
And so finally, she extends her hand.
Katara waits a beat, then reaches forward to shake it.
And so, the Monster of the West and the Painted Lady forge a tenuous and temporary alliance.