Azula paused when the sky darkened, stopping her trek to gaze upward and squint at the black and purple shadows. That kind of change wasn't normal. In all her time spent in the Spirit World, the atmosphere had only ever changed like this on rare occasions, and it had never been a good sign. This had to be an omen of sorts. A result of Sen's influence extending all the way here and altering things, perhaps? No telling if such a thing were possible, but she couldn't stand here and gawk forever. If the Spirit World was being affected like this, she could only imagine what the physical world was going through right now.

The wind picked up as she resumed her pace. She wrapped her arms around herself and fought down a sudden shiver that raked down her arms. Still a ways to go back to the spirit portal. With any luck, the others were already there waiting for her, so they could be gone from this place as soon as possible. That, and hopefully they'd found success in their task. Azula's own task had been a failure. Koh should have had every reason to take a stand against his brother, and yet apparently his disdain for humans was far stronger. If Korra and the others hadn't found anything, they didn't have a chance left.

A swooping shadow drew her attention away from her thoughts. She snapped into a defensive stance out of reflex, flames igniting in her palms. The shadow didn't attack at first, merely floating several yards above her head. The shadow was a spirit, shaped like a large bird, but nothing like the normal spirits she most often encountered in this world. Most spirits, as she'd come to learn during her time here, were docile and harmless, largely keeping to themselves and ignoring her. Occasionally, you might find some a bit more curious than others, but nothing like the one flying above her now.

This spirit was twisted and distorted, shadowed deep purple with glowing yellow eyes. She had seen spirits like this before during Harmonic Convergence when she had made her escape from the Spirit World, but that had been the only instance. Why would this spirit be reacting like that again now? Another spirit swooped in to join the first, followed by a third. Within moments the swarm grew to dozens. They surrounded her in the air, circling above her head.

For a brief few moments, nothing happened. The spirits simply circled her, as if waiting for her to let her guard down. Not for long. Without warning, the spirits altered their trajectory in unison and dove at her. Azula shifted a step backwards and thrust her fingers above her head. Lightning surged through her and leaped into the sky, blasting the initial swarm of spirits in a blinding flash of blue and white. Echoing shrieks erupted from the swarm, as they parted and scattered. They reunited quickly, coalescing into a singular, massive spiritual form. With a lurching whirl, they dove again. She released another bolt of lightning from her fingers to push them back, but there were too many. They kept coming, no matter how many she scattered.

Azula pulled out of her stance and took off in a dead sprint across a field of sparkling grass ahead of her. Normally, this particular field glittered like diamonds. Now, in the darkened, twisted landscape that was the Spirit World, it flickered like ghostly lights trying to guide her to her doom. She looked towards the sky, focusing on the spirits racing above her. The farther she ran, the more they dove in to attack her. She threw fire into the sky, a desperate attempt to give herself some breathing room, but the spirits kept coming. With a frustrated grumble, she tucked her arms close against her body and concentrated on her sprinting. If she couldn't keep them away with bending, she would have to outrun them.

"Keep away from me, you insufferable apparitions!" she called, as a pair of spirits flew on either side of her. They reached out to grab her with their twisted arms, but she leaped over their grasp. In the same motion, she spun and erupted a wheel of blue flames from her body to push them back.

Should have known something like this would happen. She had vowed never to come back to the Spirit World, and yet she had done so twice now. She hated it, and apparently it also hated her. If she made it out this time, she would never return.

Another spirit made a grab at her. She slid beneath its grasp, leaving a trail of flames behind her. "You're really beginning to piss me off!"

Another crackle of lightning sparked at her fingertips. In mid-slide she turned and fired the shot at the spirits. Her bolt fried the initial swarm, but soon after the energy dissipated a second group spread out and swarmed her from all sides. She spun again and ignited a whirl of fire around herself to force them backwards. Another cacophony of pained shrieks erupted around her. She tried again, but this time the spirits fought back. They released their own energy, pushing the bright blue flames back towards her. Azula shielded herself with a wave of her arms. The fire dispersed. She stumbled. Exactly the opening the spirits needed. They smothered her, forced her to the ground. Within moments, she lost all sense of sight and sound. Darkness overtook her, and no matter how hard she shouted, not a sound came out.


Korra blinked her eyes open. Pain drummed between her ears, eliciting a dull groan from her throat as she slowly sat upright. Blurred silhouettes surrounded her. She squinted, and waited for her eyes to adjust. Clusters of glowing green crystals gave shape to a cavern, complete with a sizable lake fed by an underground river. Hovering wisps of light floated in the air like sparkling dust, adding to the ethereal glow. How far beneath the earth had she fallen?

"Ugh, my head," she muttered, pressing her hands to either side of her skull. The pain flared, carving so deep she feared her head might burst apart.

"That generally happens when you jump down a bottomless chasm," a voice replied. Kuvira appeared through the dim glow and held an arm down to help her up. "Fortunately, I jumped in after you."

Korra grumbled, taking her wife's hand to pull herself upright. "Clearly it's not bottomless, seeing as how we're now at the bottom. Besides, I dropped the scrolls, I had to go after them."

Kuvira narrowed a glare. "What good are the scrolls if you're dead?"

"What good is me being alive if we lose the scrolls? If we don't stop Sen, we're all dead anyway."

Kuvira's expression softened, and she reached forward to pull Korra in for a tight hug. "Just don't go doing something crazy like that again, alright?"

"Yeah, alright." Korra returned the embrace for several moments before pulling away to look around the cavern. "Now, where are those scrolls?"

She found them floating in the underground lake, unrolled and saturated with water. Guiding her arms through the air, Korra pulled them out of the water inside a hovering bubble. She was delicate, careful not to tear or ruin them in any way. When she had them over dry land, she immediately extracted every last drop from the parchment, leaving both scrolls bone dry and perfectly legible. With a relieved sigh, she rolled them up again and stuffed them back inside her shirt.

"Alright, we got the scrolls," Kuvira said, glancing towards the cavern walls. "Now how do we get out of here?"

"Good question." Korra followed her wife's gaze. From what she could tell, the only passage into or out of their current chamber was the narrow opening from where the underground river flowed. "I'm not even sure where we are. Fortunately, if there's anything I've learned about the Spirit World it's that there's always a way to get somewhere. I just hope Katara is doing alright. We left her up there with those spirits…"

"I'm sure she's fine," Kuvira assured, as she took a step towards the cavern wall. Widening her stance, she held out her fists and pushed the earth inward to create the beginnings of a tunnel. "Katara was a master a long time before we were. She knows how to handle herself."

"I hope you're right." Korra heaved a sigh and followed her wife through the newly created path. "Let's hurry. There's no telling how long we've been here, and Sen is poised to make his next move. If we don't move fast, more innocent people are going to fall victim to him."


Shayu stared at the ground, a vacant expression on her face as she wheeled herself through the Fire Nation capital. Her mind wandered, as it always did. She and her mother had been lucky since the events of the Dragon Empire over a year ago. Since Yula had nearly torn the world apart. Fire Lord Izumi had been kind enough to let them stay in the capital, although they'd had to move out of the palace. Just as well. Too many painful memories behind those walls. Best to forget. While they had considered moving back to Ba Sing Se instead, Izumi had secured a lovely little home in Caldera for them. How could they refuse?

Not that the generosity or lavishness of their lifestyle had done anything to make the following year any easier. Shayu had never regained her ability to walk, although not for a lack of trying. The Fire Nation was home to some of the finest physical therapists in the world, but even they couldn't make the impossible happen. No matter her efforts, her legs could not support her, could not move. She'd lost count of how many times she had beaten her fists against her thighs, screaming at them to work. No use. Her legs couldn't even feel the impact of her knuckles, let alone stand upright.

Shayu had cried herself to sleep most nights during the first few months. Not because of her legs, though. Because of Yula. Coping with the realization that the sister she had known, loved, and grown up with was gone and never coming back had been a near impossible task. A part of her still loved Yula. They were sisters, after all. That was not a bond so easily destroyed. Even so, every time she tried to picture Yula the way she'd known her years ago, memories stormed into her mind. The cruelty, the manipulation, the desperate grabs for power. The killing. So much killing. Her stomach would knot and twist every time, pushing her to the brink of vomiting.

For as bad as Shayu had been, her mother had taken things far worse. Ever since the day Shayu returned home in that wheelchair, ever since learning of the horrid things Yula had done, that her oldest daughter would be imprisoned for the rest of her life, Jaya had been a complete mess. "Depressed" was not strong enough a word to describe her. "Broken" was closer to accurate. While Shayu had tried on numerous occasions to cheer up her mother, she'd never succeeded. Jaya blamed Yula's actions on herself, and on her failure as a mother. No amount of comfort Shayu offered could break that mindset.

Then there was the alcohol. More than a few times, Shayu had come home to find her mother passed out on the couch, still clutching a half empty bottle of some drink or another, and at all times of day. Morning, afternoon, night—it made no difference. Shayu hated seeing her mother like that. Jaya spiraled farther out of reach each day, deeper into a seemingly bottomless pit of despair that threatened to destroy her. Shayu only prayed she wouldn't lose her mother the same way she'd lost her sister.

This was one of those days. On a good day, Jaya would be awake early enough to help her daughter get up, get dressed, cleaned, and fix breakfast. Even in her depression, she didn't have it in her to neglect Shayu.

On a good day.

Today, Shayu had awoken alone in bed, her mother nowhere to be seen. After ten minutes of waiting, she realized her mother wouldn't be coming that morning. Getting ready by herself always took so much longer than when she had her mother to help her. By the time she'd gotten dressed and ready to leave, she only had time enough to grab a quick breakfast of toast, already late for her job at the local tea shop. On her way out the door, she'd found her mother passed out in the living room, as expected. This time, the bottle had fallen to the floor and spilled the remainder of its contents into the carpet. That would have to be cleaned later.

As Shayu wheeled her chair around the corner of the next street, she quietly hoped her boss wouldn't be upset she was late. Hiro seemed understanding of her situation, and he'd said before he would be flexible in accommodating her, but still she worried. With the condition her mother was in, her simple job at a quiet tea shop was their only source of income. Even if their home had been paid for by the Fire Lord, she still needed this job. They might not have had to pay for housing, but they still needed food, and clothes, and other basic necessities. Izumi had set them up with their new life, but it was up to them to keep it going.

Or rather, it was up to Shayu.

A scream wrenched her from her thoughts. She snapped her head upright and blinked, eyes darting around the street. At first, she saw nothing. Nothing at all. That was the problem. She saw no one—no people on the normally crowded streets, no satomobiles driving by, no idle chatter in the background. A deathly, unnatural silence gripped the air, a silence broken only by that single scream. A second scream followed, soon joined by continued shouting of many voices. Shayu's heart fluttered, and her hands held frozen on the wheels of her chair.

What on earth was happening?

Shayu forced herself to continue moving forward, breaking free of the paralyzing fear keeping her in place. Spirits, she should be running away from the screams, not moving towards them. Curse her curiosity. She picked up the pace, pushing her wheels harder until she made it around the next corner. Nothing could have prepared her for the scene that unfolded. She noticed the bodies first. Dozens of bodies, all strewn about the street, motionless with dead-frozen eyes staring in blank horror. That should have been enough to repel her in the opposite direction, to return home and hide, but what she saw next planted her firmly in place, unable to look away.

A team of guards stood together, hurling blasts of fire at a single target. The man was tall and lithe, with a thick beard and red robes. A firebender too, as he singularly defended against the guards with all the efforts of a master fighting children. With simple swats of his hands, he deflected their incoming attacks and countered with destructive blasts of his own that sent his opponents scattering. Another team of guards approached from the adjoining street, but a rumbling of earth cut them off.

Tall pointed crags of stone erupted from the ground in front of their path, followed by fissures splitting beneath their feet. A veritable explosion of stone consumed them. Within seconds, the guards were lost in a cloud of dust and earth, swallowed into the ground below. A new figure joined the lone firebender. She was a giant of a woman, nearly two heads taller than anyone else, and wore billowing green robes and armor with a golden headpiece and white face paint. The remaining guards stood their ground against the two combatants, only to be obliterated within moments.

Shayu's heart dropped into her stomach. She shouldn't be here. She needed to leave. Needed to get away. Every instinct told her to turn around and wheel herself home as fast as her arms could push her, and yet her body locked in paralyzing fear, unable to act. She could only sit there and watch, as the two assailants looked her way. When their eyes met, the breath crawled out of her throat in a fleeting, terrified gasp.

"Shayu!"

The voice snapped her out of her trance. With a frantic look over her shoulder, she noticed a man wearing military armor at the head of another squad of guards. "General Han? What's happening? What's going on?"

"We're under attack!" the general replied. "Couldn't tell you by who, but you have to get out of here! Men, don't let them advance! Attack!"

As the new guards raced ahead to meet their opponents, Shayu clutched the wheels of her chair in a death grip. "The people! The people, they're all—"

"General Han shot her a stern look. "I know, I saw them. The city guard is doing everything they can to suppress the attack, but civilians need to get to safety. Where's your mother?"

"She... she's back home. I have to get to her."

Han nodded, and grabbed the handles of her wheelchair. "I'll escort you there. Just stay calm and we'll—"

His words cut out when a thunderous crash tore through the building next to them. The wall blew apart in a cloud of debris, and Shayu lifted free from her chair. The world blurred around her in a violent whirl, coming to a sudden stop when she slammed into the ground. She lay still for a moment. Two moments. A third moment and she managed to breathe deep and push herself upright. She was on her stomach, surrounded by broken bits of wood, metal, and glass. Instinct drove her to stand up, only for reality to cruelly remind her that wasn't possible when her legs didn't respond. Stupid. She couldn't stand. Shaking her head clear, she glanced to her left and noticed the crumpled remains of her wheelchair, now nothing more than a twisted pile of scrap metal.

The next thing she saw rendered her at a loss of words and comprehension. A towering figure emerged from behind the ruined building. Some kind of insect, most similar to a gejigeji. Its sheer size drove her breath back into her throat. It had to be nearly fifteen feet tall, with multitudes of spindly legs skittering across the rubble, and yet its size was not the most perturbing thing about it. The face. That horrific, unnervingly human face. It stared downward, scanning the street with cold intensity. The creature's soulless black eyes found Han stumbling back to his feet, and a sneer snaked across its face. It dashed towards him, pinned the general against the ground with several of its clicking legs, and with a deep breath pulled out a glowing wisp of light from the man's mouth. The insect gulped the wisp into its mouth and swallowed. General Han crumpled to the ground unmoving, eyes frozen open in horror.

An indecipherable screech of terror tore out of Shayu's throat. She gripped her fingers into the dirt and pulled with her elbows in an attempt to crawl across the ground, the only method she had to get away without her chair. It wouldn't be enough. Spirits, she knew it wouldn't be enough. The massive gejigeji skittered closer, its presence looming above her with unmistakable malice. Wet tears streaked down her face as she looked over her shoulder to see it staring at her. This was it. This was how she died.

Before the creature could lunge at her, several balls of fire exploded against its side. It turned, eyes locking onto the four guards attacking it nearby. They threw a second volley of fire its way, but the flames dissipated halfway to their target. Again, the gejigeji inhaled a deep breath. All four guards froze in unison, their mouths and eyes flaring wide. Just as with General Han, glowing wisps of light floated from their lips into the monster's open maw, and each victim fell limp to the ground.

"N-no, please… please don't," Shayu uttered, her words trembling through choked sobs. The gejigeji turned again to her, a grin slashing across its face.

Flames ignited between them, towering towards the sky. A bolt of lightning followed, sizzling against the insect's side. The creature roared with surprise and stumbled backwards, momentarily stunned from the blast. In that brief moment, Shayu felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her and lift her into the air. She instinctively shouted and struggled against the hold, but it was no use. She wasn't a strong person, and the grip wouldn't yield. The world flew by her in a blur. When it finally slowed to a stop, she found herself inside a building. An antique store, from the look of it.

The figure carrying her set her down behind the counter and peered up over the top, towards the window. A moment of silence followed, and the man lowered himself down again to look at her. "Shayu, are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?"

Shayu blinked in confusion. "What? Who...?

Her words trailed off in vague recognition. How strange. She was certain she'd never met this man, and yet the burn scar across his left eye seemed so familiar. The longer she stared, the stronger that familiarity became. He had the face of a young man, framed by long hair tied up in a topknot, and was dressed in a red and gold combat outfit of regal design. She had seen that face somewhere before, but where? The answer surged in a sudden flash, lifting a gasp into her throat. In paintings. She'd seen that face before in paintings at the royal palace. She did know this man!

"Oh my spirits," she uttered, lifting a hand over her mouth in shock. "Lord Zuko?"

"Yes," he replied, with a subtle nod. "I know I look a little different now, but it's me. I'm back."

To say that he looked different was a vast understatement. He appeared at least fifty years younger than when she had last seen him. That was one impossibility staring her in the face. The second impossibility was that he was even alive at all. He should be dead, killed by Yula, and yet here he stood. "How…?"

"It's a long story, and I can explain everything later, but right now we have to get you out of here."

She barely heard him. Instead, she threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around him, holding tight. Tears flowed with renewed strength, gushing down her cheeks. "Lord Zuko! I'm sorry for everything. I'm so sorry for what Yula did!"

Zuko eased a sigh, and wrapped an arm around her. "I know, it's alright. Let's just focus on finding your mother and getting out of here right now, okay?"

Shayu sniffled and leaned back again, wiping her eyes. "What's going on? I don't understand."

"That thing that attacked you earlier? That was Sen, a dark spirit bent on destroying humanity," Zuko explained. "Myself, the Avatar, and a lot of others have been working to stop him, but we haven't been very successful so far. I came here to warn the Fire Nation about him, but it looks like I was too late. The only thing we can do now is try to escape in one piece."

"A dark spirit? That's horrible." A sinking dread burned in the pit of her stomach. How could they hope to stop something like that? "Where's the Fire Lord in all of this? Shouldn't she be helping?"

"My daughter…" Zuko closed his eyes, and heaved a deep breath. "She's already become a victim of Sen's. My grandson, too. Their spirits have been removed, and they're slowly dying because of it. There isn't much time left for them."

"Oh my…" Shayu swallowed and looked away, already regretting asking the question. "I'm so sorry."

Zuko looked up at her again. "Come on, let's get moving. Where are you living now?"

"Over in the East District."

"Alright, let's go." Zuko lifted Shayu into his arms and made his way towards the entrance, peering out the window with caution. The commotion seemed to have died down, at least on this street. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he pushed the door open and fled towards the east side of the city.

Shayu's neighborhood was uncharacteristically quiet when they arrived, a stark contrast to the terror they had fled from only moments ago. She realized soon after they made it outside her front door that it was because there were no people anywhere, same as the street they had come from. Only difference being there were no bodies scattered across the ground here. No telling whether that was because everyone was hiding or because they had run away. She only hoped that spirit hadn't gotten to them.

Zuko kicked in the front door and ran inside the home. He paused for a brief moment inside the main foyer, looking around to locate Jaya. Shayu pointed towards the living room.

"She's in there." Shayu fought back the lump in her throat when they found her mother passed out on the couch, just the same as that morning. Before Zuko could try waking the woman, Shayu pointed across the room at another wheelchair, this one tucked near the corner of the room. "My backup chair."

"Right, here," Zuko said, as he set her down gently in the chair. He then made his way to the couch and gave the sleeping woman a firm shake on the shoulder. "Jaya. Jaya!"

Jaya stirred with a subtle groan, but didn't wake. Shayu pouted at the lack of response, and wheeled herself closer. "Mom! Wake up, please! We have to go!"

Her mother stirred harder this time, eyes squinting tight. When her eyes finally blinked open, Jaya found herself staring straight up at her daughter. "Shayu? What…? Is something wrong?"

"We have to go," Shayu insisted, not quite sure how to explain the situation. "I just… please. Please, get up and let's go, right now."

Jaya squinted at her daughter in confusion. "I don't understand. What are you… ugh… talking about?" She had to pause, pinching her fingers against her eyes. A migraine, most likely, which she usually suffered through the mornings after she drank herself to sleep.

Zuko cleared his throat. "It's a long story, one I can explain on the way, but we need to get you both to safety. We'll head for my airship."

"You…" Jaya stared at him for a long moment, studying the scar. When the revelation hit her, her eyes snapped open, wide awake. "Lord Zuko? Is that…?"

"Yes, it's me." Noting the disbelief on her face, he added, "I know, and that's another thing I'll explain later. But we can't waste any more time."

"Listen to him, Mom," Shayu pleaded. "It's terrible out there."

Jaya opened her mouth to respond, but a distant scream cut her off. She looked to the window. Nothing out of the ordinary, from their perspective. She could hear, though. A second scream followed the first. Then a third. A whole chorus of terrified shrieks tore out, echoing outside their home until panic overtook the entire neighborhood. People sprinted into view, some looking back over their shoulders, others tripping and falling in their haste. Jaya stumbled off the couch to her feet, and took a step behind her daughter to grab the handles of the wheelchair. "Alright, let's go."

When they made it outside, they joined the citizens fleeing down the street. Unlike those who ran and screamed in terror, Shayu dug deep inside herself for every ounce of courage she could find, desperate to hold herself together and stay calm. In spite of her best efforts, her heart pounded wild against her chest. Pandemonium erupted around them. Explosions, trembling earth, sounds of battle, and shrieks of horror, all melded together in a single cacophony of chaos.

"By the spirits…" Jaya uttered, as she pushed her daughter's wheelchair along as fast as she could manage. Keeping pace with Zuko was a challenge, but she didn't let herself fall behind.

"Keep moving!" Zuko stopped at an intersection and turned left, waving them along to follow. "This way!"

The wall of the building next to them exploded outward in a shower of glass and metal. A flash of déjà vu flickered through Shayu's mind, as the blast unseated her from her wheelchair. The world spun wild once again, shifting in and out of focus as she tumbled across the ground. When she rolled to a stop, she found herself staring up at a steadily rotating sky. Strange that it was still moving, when she had stopped. Nausea crawled into her gut. Any more and she might well vomit.

"Shayu!" The voice belonged to Zuko. He ran to her side and assisted her upright, checking her closely. "Are you alright?"

"Fine... I'm fine," she responded, with a slow shake of her head. "Where's my mother?"

Zuko glanced towards the debris from the building. "She's right over—oh no."

Jaya had fallen some twenty paces away, half buried beneath rubble. A thin layer of dust coated her face, marred by a long red line down the side of her skull. The laceration wasn't severe, but blood flowed freely from it, and the blow had left her dazed. Her movements were sluggish, weakly reaching up to grab her head in pain. That would have been bad enough, if not for the giant gejigeji now standing above her: Sen, the dark spirit who had caused this insanity.

"Mom!" Shayu's voice cracked in terror, with the knowledge of what was coming. She didn't want to believe it. Couldn't believe it, even as Sen lowered his twisted humanoid face, opened his mouth, and sucked out Jaya'as glowing essence. "No!"

Before she even had time to process what had happened, Zuko lifted her into his arms. Panic shot her attention around to look at him, a shriek surging out of her throat. "What are you doing!"

"We have to go!" he replied, already taking off into a run.

"We can't leave her! We can't leave my mom!"

"There's nothing we can do! If we stay behind, we'll meet the same fate!"

"No!" Shayu snapped her gaze back to her mother, watching as the distance between them grew. Something broke inside her, as though someone had reached inside her chest, grabbed her heart, and crushed it between their fingers. She was a little girl again, frightened and helpless. "Mom! No! Mommy!"

They made it to the airfield without any further issue. Not that it mattered. By the time Zuko brought her inside the airship and set her down in one of the cockpit seats, Shayu's mind had drifted and shut down. She withdrew into herself and shut out the world around her, staring blankly out the windshield.


As the airship floated over the city, Zuko gazed down out the cockpit window at the chaos below. Half the city had been torn apart with fire and earth. Amongst it all lay the countless bodies of spiritless people. Innocent people who did not deserve the fate Sen had given them.

"Damn this spirit," he muttered, shifting a brief look towards Shayu. The poor girl appeared broken and lost, nothing but an empty shell the way she sat there and stared blankly forward. While Sen had not managed to steal her essence, he had stolen something else from her perhaps far more precious. In such a short time, Sen had already destroyed so many lives. Too many lives.

And it would only get worse from here.


Azula awoke to the agony of pain lancing through her entire body. A disoriented grunt found its way into her throat, as she blinked her eyes open and forced herself into a seated position. The room started to spin halfway there. Her vision warped and undulated, shifting out of focus with a sudden lurch that sent her falling straight back against the mattress. Pain continued to throb, forcing her to grit her teeth. Slowly, mercifully, the throbbing subsided, and she sat up again. This time, she made it all the way upright.

What on earth had happened? She remembered spirits, and darkness, and then… nothing. Everything was blank. Where was she now? She squinted her vision clear and looked around. The room was small and quaint, like one you might find in a small home in some quiet village far away from civilization. She sat tucked in bed, surrounded by old, antique furniture and paintings of spiritual landscapes. A tea set sat on the bedside table, complete with cups and a steaming kettle. Jasmine tea, judging from the scent. Only reason she knew that was because her old fuddy duddy Uncle used to make it all the time. The scent brought back a whirlwind of memories, memories she didn't care to reflect. No, she wanted to know only one thing right now.

How did she get here?

"Oh good, you're awake." The voice belonged to a young woman entering the bedroom. Azula's vision blurred momentarily, but still she recognized Katara making her way across the room to sit in the chair next to the bed. "Try to take it easy. You still need to recover."

"Katara?" Azula shrugged away the woman's hand when it touched her shoulder. "Ugh, I'm fine, thank you very much. What happened?"

"You were swarmed by dark spirits and passed out," Katara replied. "Same thing happened to me."

"What, and you saved me?"

"No, actually. The same person who helped me did, and then he brought us back here." Katara raised a hand to pull out the water in her hip flask. As the water coalesced into a glowing bubble around her hand, she leaned forward and pressed it to Azula's abdomen. "Now just hold still for a minute."

Azula tried to pull away, although she didn't make it very far before her head began to spin again. "I said I was fine."

"Would you relax? I'm checking on the baby."

"Oh… right. Of course." Azula paused with an unsteady blink, still trying to regain her full sense of awareness. The baby. She had almost forgotten. "How is it?"

Katara smiled, and pulled her hand back. "The baby's fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Good. That's good." Azula heaved a steady sigh and let her eyes close again. The dizziness in her mind slowly began to settle. "Now, who exactly did you say helped us?"

A different voice answered her. It came from the doorway, where someone new had entered the room. "Ah, good, you are awake. You've been out for quite some time. I was beginning to worry."

Azula's eyes snapped open. She knew that voice, from so long ago. Even after so many years, it hadn't faded from her memories. She gawked at the figure now standing in front of her bed, uncertain if the plump, bald man with a long gray beard was really there or if she was seeing things. "Uncle?"

Iroh smiled at his niece, folding his hands together inside the sleeves of his robe. "Hello, Azula. It's been quite some time, hasn't it? How have you been?"