Aang knows that he is seeing something that he isn't supposed to. Though he think that he has seen plenty of that already-really, what is one more thing? Azula leans against a tree with her face buried in her knees, the aura that ebbs off of her is duller than it is more heavily brown than he has seen it in a long while and he doesn't understand. She is free of his hold; free of Sangyul's influence.

He knows that he ought to keep his distance, that he should return to his place by the tree and pretend to be asleep. But he can't bring himself to do it. If he leaves her to fester in whatever it is, he doesn't think that he will be able to bring her out of it.

He takes a deep breath before quietly approaching. He lingers over her for an uncomfortable while, until it becomes apparent that she hasn't taken notice of him or is pretending that she hasn't. He finds himself a seat next to her and give a small throat clear. The only indication that she has heard him comes as a hitch of her breathing.

"Azula, what's wrong?"

He expects a snappish and biting reply or perhaps something cold and dismissive. He isn't ready for her to fix him with a dim stare and softly mumble, "why did you take it?"

He supposes that it was a long time coming, he is rather surprised that she hadn't asked him significantly sooner.

"Because I knew that I could give it back." He replies.

"You wouldn't have had to if you hadn't taken it in the first place."

"And Sangyul wouldn't have left me alone with you if I didn't give him a reason to feel safe."

She musters up a small smirk only for a flicker before it fades away. He thinks that she was going for one of her slow and suave drawls. "I didn't realize that you were the sly and crafty sort." It falls short, somehow sounding twice as dreary as her first remark.

He shrugs. "I guess that you were molding me too." He can tell that his joke has fallen just as short.

"Hardly." She frowns.

.oOo.

It is more like he has syphoned her abilities away from her and used them against her and now he is here acting as though he is some sort of hero, like he has whisked her away from a horrible man. As though he had been planning to do so all along.

"How long, Avatar, would you have let him go if he hadn't forced you to take my bending?"

"I was…"

"We both know that this wasn't for me."

"What."

"You have a moral code; you felt guilty taking my father's bending. You only freed me from Sangyul to free yourself from guilt."

"That's not true!" He exclaims too loudly for it to be anything other than defensive.

"Then why did you let him go so far?" She touches her fingers to the graze beneath her eye. "Why did you wait until he expunged every bit of me that matters?"

"I-I" He sputters. "I didn't. You're still here, the real you."

She shakes her head. "Can you look at me and really believe that? Do you really believe that

.oOo.

A steady unease leaves his stomach queasy. Truth be told he sees anything but Azula in the broken, miserable woman before him.

She has her bending back, she is away from Sangyul, and he is no longer tampering with her spirit energy. He doesn't understand why her essence isn't resurfacing in full. She stares at her palms, at her feet, at anywhere but his general direction.

With all of his might he tries to detect plumes of anger, hatred, or resentment simmering off of her but he can only feel prickles of despair and defeat.

It begins to settle in that he may have done more damage than he had thought. The kind that she won't just spring back up from, resilient as she had ever been. That he had done the permanent kind.

"I really believe it." But he has waited too long to say it for it to be believable. "I really believe that you're still here somewhere." He tries. "You've only been free for a few days, you just have to readjust." He doesn't think that she believes it. Not even slightly. "You're still you." He insists again, "deep down, you're still you."

She holds out her hand and ignites a burst of fire. It flickers small and orange "I'm not."

His heart flutters as she lowers her hand.

His heart flutters because he has only once ever seen a firebender's flames change so drastically. And by all means, it was because the man had changed so unrecognizably. "You're still there." He says again, more for himself than for her. "And I'll prove it."

"How?" She asks. "How can you prove anything of the sort?"

"Because we're going to get you back in fighting shape and then we're going to take Sangyul and his facility down."

.oOo.

Azula, had she anything left in her, could almost laugh. Even Aang, passive Avatar Aang, sounds more like her than she does.

"Does that sound good?" He asks.

"You're in charge, Avatar." She stretches her arms. "You have been for a while now."

"I want to know what you want."

So does she.

She stares at her hands. She does want her fire back, more than anything she wants it back and she wants it back as she had always known it. "It sounds fine, Avatar."

"Are you only saying that, because you think that you have to?"

She rubs her face in frustration and suppresses an audible groan. She hadn't thought that she was, hadn't considered that she might have. But now that he has mentioned it…

Oh, Agni, she wishes that he would stop asking questions. She wishes that he wouldn't give her any reason to second guess herself. "I want my fire back. Does 'getting me back in fighting shape' include getting my fire back?"

Aang nods.

"Then that's what I want." By, Agni, Sangyul better hope that she can't manage. By all means, if she is able, she will come for him. She isn't sure yet, just what she will do, but the man will see suffering beyond what he has done to her.

She is going to take him down.

Yes, she wants that very much. "Your plan will do just fine." She replies. "But you'll have to fill in the holes."

.oOo.

He doesn't tell her, but that will be her job. When she is ready he'll let her flesh out every minute detail, just as she always has. When she is ready…

He smiles at her. At this recovering dragon. At this broken, powerful woman.

Though his stomach does flops he says, "we can start whenever you're ready." Part of him...most of him hopes that she will hesitate just a little longer, perhaps for another day or so. Just long enough to figure out how to train her. But when he extends his arm to help her up, she takes his hand.

"I'm ready."