Daughter of Hate

by Blutus Mindpretzel

The war is over. Azula's motives remain unknowable as her child stands to shake the foundation of everything built since the fall of Fire Lord Ozai. For Toph, Mai, Aang, Katara and the rest, the world is an even more dangerous place than it was when they were children. And despite being long since gone, Sasuke's impact continues to shudder their world, perhaps more than they know.

47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Going Home

Aang sat around a small table within the Fire Lord's study, utterly still as he did his best to process what he had just heard.

Hasn't even been a week… and yet things just can't even begin to start getting better.

He knew that was a selfish thought, but he didn't care; for the people of the Four Nations, things were getting better. It just seemed that for him and the people that he cared about, that was far from the truth.

For the rest of their world, things were happening at as proper a pace as good have been hoped for. Ba Sing Se's rebuilding efforts were ahead of schedule and Aang had been able to keep the press off of himself, though it had taken some effort. He had been heading north of speak with Chief Tangith about the damages dealt to the Northern Water Tribe's capital but had changed plans without hesitation after hearing the news regarding Ursa.

Arriving in the Fire Nation late into the night, he had met with a strained and almost dangerously anxious Zuko at the palace. It bothered Aang to know that the Fire Lord had tried to return to his work directly after what had taken place, but if there was any hope that Zuko would have looked to lessen the load of responsibility that he had to face, that would have been gone the moment his mother was taken into custody.

"I don't know how I could have let this happen," he had said in an exhausted and angry voice to Aang as they had entered the palace. "I should have known that the High Council would have been looking for an opportunity just like this. It was my fault for giving them as much power as I had, that they were able to go behind my back like this."

After being crowned Fire Lord, Zuko had made to ensure that no power could ever once again rest in the hands of a single person as it had with the Fire Lords preceding him. But with so much else on his plate at the time and Zuko doing all he could to put on a strong appearance of contributing to the rebuilding effort at the end of the Hundred Years War as well as trying to ensure that his nation wasn't gouged to depletion for reparation demands, the council had quietly filled. Older, archaically idealistic men and women had made their way into the posts through sweet-sounding campaign promises and such, as Zuko had allowed democracy to run its course. But in the wake of a war, the people wanted leadership and strength with all the speed that it could to be delivered to them. So, people who had been able to quickly take advantage of the power vacuum had been the ones to claim the positions, and Aang knew that Zuko couldn't force them out in accordance with the image he was trying to give to the Fire Nation as that of a ruler who didn't rule everything with an iron fist. The power he had given up had come back to haunt him on more than one occasion, and with the only person the council seemed to fear being his sister, they were often difficult to work with.

"So, what really is the precedent they have against Ursa?" Aang had inquired.

Zuko had drawn in a deep breath through his nose before replying.

"In all of Fire Nation law, nothing is more final than the decree of a Fire Lord. They are so rarely passed that we even have had some in our nation's past that never once wrote one into being. Sozin wrote several, my grandfather wrote a few, and my father… he wrote two. One was a determination that the war was to be final and that no concessions, truces, or compromises would be made. The war would be fought until its bitter end. The second… was regarding my mom."

They had made their way up the velvet coated stairs, soldiers bowing as they both passed.

"Fire Lord Azulon… he might have been a horrible man, but he was deeply respected and loved by the nation he ruled. You certainly wouldn't have any bearing on what had happened, but when he died, the nation went into mourning. The capital went quiet. People felt lost and hopeless, until my father took the reins."

They entered Zuko's study then, and Aang had sat down across the desk from Zuko, who collapsed in his chair, looking utterly drained and rather reservedly terrified.

"I wonder if at some point he had loved my mom… but I knew he hated the way she treated me, and probably Azula too. He wanted us to be raised as cold-blooded and ruthless, and she interfered with that as our mother. My mom told me what really happened between them; when Azulon demanded my life as compensation for a moment of disrespect from my father, Ozai was ready to kill me. But my mom came to him and begged for my life to be spared and so, seeing an in to the throne, my father hatched a plan. He would let my mom kill grandfather and in exchange, she would be banished while he would ascend the throne. My life would be spared, but my mom, the one person who knew the truth of how Azulon had died which allowed my father to ascend the throne, would be gone."

Zuko had looked out the window into the dark of night, over the city lights with a melancholy and pained gaze.

"He didn't hesitate to tell the entire nation what had happened. In the decree that was read to all, he stated that she had killed Azulon and fled the city, rather than the truth where he had banished her. He further said that she was officially banished from the Fire Nation and, should she ever be found or return to the Fire Nation, she was to be executed. And so, he washed his hands of my mother and became Fire Lord."

He gestured bitterly towards his desk where Aang saw a roll of parchment lying atop it.

"That's the decree. My mom was seen, and when the High Council read that article which was sent all over the continent, they immediately dispatched troops to have her arrested."

Aang nodded slowly throughout the substantial explanation.

"Is it true that Azula tried to attack them when they did?"

Zuko had snorted.

"Tried? She put four of them in a state where they now are in intensive care, and she probably would have started killing them if Ty Lee and I hadn't been there at the time to stop her. And now, because of that stunt, she council has her just as much in the palm of their hand as she could put herself; they said they'll keep the incident from ever seeing the light of day, that is, as long as Azula doesn't openly go against them on this."

That had led right up to that very moment where Aang had asked the damning question.

"And by 'this,' you mean what exactly?"

The gaze Zuko had given him then had been that of a dead man walking and Aang had seen all of the fears and anxieties that had been eating the Fire Lord alive come together in a single, terrible moment.

"They're ordering her execution," he had said finally. "They're... they're going to kill my mom."

---

"Ambassador Yue, I'm sorry, but you cannot—"

Yue ignored both of the guards standing their post outside the entrance to Zuko's private chambers, glaring at them both as she stormed up to the door.

"Are they in there?!" she demanded. "Zuko and Aang?!"

Whether it was the fact that the guards were not used to having to deal with such sudden intruding visitors or the fact that Yue was indeed rather intimidating in her towering rage, they both looked at one another for a moment before the one on the left turned back to her, a mixture of fear and uncertainty in her eyes.

"They are, but—"

All but daring them to stop her, Yue stepped forward and shoved them both roughly aside by the shoulders. Her strength seemed to startle them, and they stumbled back in surprise, giving her just enough time to shove the door open.

As had just been confirmed to her, she saw both Zuko and Aang sitting around the Fire Lord's desk, both turning at the sudden sound of someone barging into the room. Zuko looked miserable and tired, Aang angry and tense, but both were clearly surprised to see her.

"What's going on?" she said forcefully towards Zuko, the look of him being all that kept her from openly shouting. Behind her, the guards came to her shoulders as they reached for her to pull her away.

"Our deepest apologies, your highness," the male guard said, sounding extremely sheepish. "The ambassador caught us by—"

"It's alright," Zuko said, giving his hand a small, but firm wave. "Leave us."

The guards stopped in their attempt to apprehend Yue and stayed where they were for a moment, prompting Yue to look over her shoulder and shoot them both another glare for encouragement. Neither of them seemed satisfied, both with the fact that they had been so surprised, they had failed to keep her from entering, and also with the fact that Zuko was allowing her to stay. But they didn't dare defy their Fire Lord and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind them. Yue might have felt guilt at any other time for antagonizing them the way that she had, but just then, she couldn't have been bothered to care in the slightest.

"What happened?" she said, bringing the volume of her voice down even further even as the harsh edge of it remained.

Zuko looked like he couldn't have been bothered to say what he had likely already been telling the Avatar with as tired as he looked, but Aang looked to Yue somewhat warily.

"How in the world did you get here so fast?" he asked as she moved to stand nearer to the edge of the table.

"I saw that a Fire Nation envoy have arrived with a message for you at the outpost you and I had both come to visit up north," she said. "After you took off as quickly as you did, I tracked the guards down who had been escorting you through the base and made them tell me what they had overheard the envoy tell you. They didn't think they ought to, but a quick reminder of who I was loosened their tongues."

Zuko gave her a small smile that barely shone from underneath the stress masking his face.

"You've only been appointed an ambassador for a few days and you're already well on your way to being a proper politician."

It was much more a joke than a compliment, but Yue couldn't be bothered to smile in return; she was too anxious herself over the matter at hand. She slowly put herself into a chair of her own, looking between Zuko's mostly miserable expression and Aang's uptight and frustrated one.

"I thought this would have been something that could be sorted out?" she said, by way of trying to get the conversation onto the topic she actually wanted to discuss. "When Ursa was arrested, we were sure this would be something that could blow over, we just had to—"

Without any further prompting, Aang launched into detail with everything that Zuko had just told him. The Fire Lord looked even more upset by hearing everything reiterated as though having it told by someone else just further grounded it in reality, but for the most part, Yue kept her attention completely on Aang.

"…and that's where we're at," he said a few minutes later. "The nature of Ursa's relationship to this nation because of what happened with Azulon has her in as tight a bind as she could have gotten herself."

Yue found herself speechless. All of the facts she had just heard were swirling about in the pit of her mind, but while she had retained every last one of them, there was a single fact that permeated her consciousness over and over, like the tolling of a bell she was standing just beneath.

They're going to kill her.

How strange that she could feel such a rush of terror at the thought, for a woman she had known for such a relatively brief period.

It's not the time… it's what we've been through together.

She could remember when she and Ursa had finally returned to Ba Sing Se after weeping in one another's arms for agonizing minute after agonizing minute, the anxiousness pounding her insides as grief for Sasuke was forced aside at the reminder that she very might be facing her own departure from the world shortly thereafter. But when the two of them had reached the palace, Yue had seen no Kyoshi, no Yangchen or Rangi, just their friends scattered in a rather sparse throne room, some crying, some standing to the side, some holding one another. Aang had been sitting on the steps, Katara with her arm around him as he clearly was struggling badly through tears. He had looked up when she had entered, and a smile had somehow slid onto his grieving expression.

"It's okay."

That was all he had said to her, and Yue had immediately understood his meaning. She had felt badly for doing so, but she wasn't able to keep from throwing herself into Ursa's arms and breaking into fresh tears of relief and, despite the horrible pain that she knew Ursa had been experiencing, the older woman had still pulled her into a hug that lasted as long as Yue had cried for.

No… this can't happen.

Her feelings for both Ursa and Sasuke sent her mind into a state of outrage, and she glared across the table at Zuko, finally finding her words.

"Tell the council to go to hell!" she barked. "You've explained why Ursa did what she did to them; she was acting as a mother protecting her child! And you're the damn Fire Lord!"

Zuko laughed bitterly.

"You think that matters to them?" he asked. "This is a free opportunity for them to gain favor from a public that still remembers my grandfather very fondly. The respect I command is nothing compared to what he had, or even what my father had; a decade is hardly any time for a nation to warm up to a new ruler, not with the shoes I've had to fill anyway. And when I've done as much as I can to focus on relations with the Earth and Water Nation, plenty of people have found me to be a weak Fire Lord anyway, they don't think I've done enough for my own people. This will satisfy far more people than it will antagonize, and I legally have no power to do a thing about it."

Yue couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"So you're going to just let them kill your mom?!"

She was so full of anger just then that she couldn't even bother to feel guilty as she watched fresh pain wash over Zuko's face. Aang flicked an angry look of his own towards her.

"Yue, that's enough," he said sharply, but she wasn't having it. The fury she was experiencing just then couldn't be held in, and even if Aang and Zuko didn't deserve it, she had no one else to direct it towards.

"None of this would have worked without her!" she shouted. "Everything that's happened, we would have lost without Ursa and Madara would have the whole world under his spell! She was there for Sasuke in a way that none of us could be, and she kept him strong when he needed it! If not for her willingness to sacrifice herself for Soza, Sasuke might never have discovered the technique he used to save us! For crying out loud, if she had never saved your life all those years ago, who knows where we would be right now! So much of where we are now, we owe to Ursa, the whole world owes to Ursa!"

She jabbed a finger towards the door.

"So why don't you take me to these aging, gutless worms and I'll tell them exactly why they're going to change their minds on sentencing her this way!"

Zuko looked at her weakly.

"Yue, you're not understanding," he said quietly. "It doesn't matter what they do now, because the most crucial part is already done."

He reached onto his desk and picked up the scroll that he had previously indicated read the decree written by his father regarding his mother's crime.

"This has made its way throughout the entire capital, before I could even see it for myself, every single person, from the highest noble to the lowest peasant saw some copy of this. And in our nation, a decree from a Fire Lord is the most powerful binding law that can exist. It's like if a parent tells their child to go their room for misbehaving. The child isn't going to deny that order. That's the same way our nation has always reacted to these decrees and this one is no exception. If I try and strike it down or pardon my mother, I have no doubt that a group of people will form, from supporters of Azulon, to detractors of me, to loyalists to Fire Nation law, so many people would find issue with something like that. They'd march on the palace and even if that was quelled, I would never hold the trust of my people again for committing such an act in total defiance of our nation's practices. Even if I convinced every single member of that council to change their minds, nothing would change. Them on my side with this would do no good."

Yue threw her hands up in further frustration.

"Hell with your job! Break that rule! If you think it will do all that, then pardon Ursa and step down as Fire Lord! Azula can take your place, she'd be next in line for the throne if anything happened to you, right?!"

Zuko lowered his head and shook it, face cast in shadow. Aang looked to her with a grim expression.

"When the soldiers came to arrest Ursa, Azula attacked them. Nearly killed a handful of them."

"And it's been threatened that they'll bring that out against her publicly if she tries anything else," Zuko muttered towards the floor. "She's been able to get away with so much for so many years, but only because of her subtlety, her cunning. That's why the council feared her the way they did, but this… too many witnesses, far too blatant a crime. If they want to nail her for this, they'll get her right alongside mother."

He clenched a fist and pressed it to his forehead and Yue could see him clenching his teeth.

"If she just hadn't… then maybe… maybe we could have done something… but I can't do this without Azula. Your plan is the closest thing I've been able to think of as far as a solution goes, but without Azula able to step in as Fire Lord should I take that fall…"

His eyes flicked up towards her, and Yue could see a challenge in his eyes as they burned intensely.

"… and don't think for a single second that I wouldn't… they'll just impose a regent until both me and Azula were sufficiently investigated and then the throne would be held until Soza came of age."

Dragging hands through his black hair, his fingers dug into his scalp with furious pressure.

"And I promise you, these bastards would try and have her kidnapped or killed long before she could ever become old enough to take the throne."

Finally, Yue started to feel her anger start to diminish, if only to be replaced by a terrible sense of fear that she knew was currently ripping apart Zuko.

"Regardless, Azula's no help to me right now anyway," he growled. "She's been pretty much locked in her room, won't talk to me or anyone else really. Don't even know if Soza has been able to get to her."

Pausing as she tried to think of something she could say as another suggestion, Yue found that her train of thought towards that was dwindling. There were plenty of ideas she was toying with by that point, each one more implausible than the last and she opted to briefly change the subject while she let her mind race.

"How is Soza?" she asked on a whim before realizing that she was rather worried to hear such an answer.

In the days following Aang's speech, the group had started to drift apart for a number of reasons. Suki had taken her leave with the Kyoshi Warriors to return to Kyoshi Island for the time being; despite Aang's attempt to downplay the part Kyoshi had played in the events of the past month, there was clear unrest still amongst the people regarding the Avatar and Suki had felt it would be best to take her warriors and return home for the time being. There they would have been able to regroup, but how Suki might have been able to explain to the lot of them the nature of what Kyoshi had done, Yue didn't know. How an organization, practically a family, so dedicated to the woman could recover from this was a mystery to her.

Sokka had gone along with Katara and Yue back north to get a better fix on the rebuilding efforts in the Northern Water Tribe, and to inform them of the outcome. Chief Tangith had barely seemed to react when they told him the war was over, but when Katara mentioned that Sasuke had fallen as well, he had released a long breath and closed his eyes.

"Such is the way of the warrior," had been all he said.

Yue had gone on to reunite with her parents and they had shared an emotional evening, the three of them rejoicing over the sheer idea that Yue was able to be a part of their world again, and Yue needing a considerable bit of comfort from her mother and father over the loss of Sasuke. She had gone to the chief that next morning, and requested the position of ambassador, and to her surprise, he had accepted. Yue had desired nothing more than to remain as involved in the world as she could, to help further relations between the nations and to help smooth things over following the spirit invasion and such a position appealed to her significantly.

Ty Lee had struggled badly with what she felt she needed to do; part of her had tried to convince Suki to let her come along to Kyoshi Island, but Suki had flat out refused. Ty Lee's place was with the people who needed her more just then, Suki had said, and it hadn't taken much to figure who she was talking about.

Jin had taken it upon herself to almost entirely dedicate her time to being with Toph. No one had expected the earthbender to walk out of what had happened and been in any sort of healthy place, and Jin had practically latched herself to Toph's shadow, keeping a close eye on her and ensuring that she was alright. It had never been outright suggested by anyone that Toph might go as far as trying to hurt herself, but the fear might have passed through them all silently and Yue could tell that Jin was taking such a possibility very seriously. She didn't think that she had heard a single word out of Toph since she the day that Sasuke had left them. To an outsider, she probably wouldn't have appeared to be in particularly dire straits, just very reclusive and quiet, but to anyone who knew her even somewhat, it was a very grim place that Toph was in. Yue would have argued that she was one of the people who knew Toph the least, and even to her, it was clear that she had been in as bad a place as Ursa was.

Leaving Toph to Jin in Ba Sing Se, Ty Lee had instead returned to her home in the Fire Nation alongside Azula, Mai, Ursa, and Soza when they followed Zuko back. Yue had only known of their states in passing from Aang in the days prior, who had visited the Fire Nation before coming north just as she was. Mai seemed to be doing as well as might be expected, though it had seemed to Aang that she was mostly just trying to distract herself in any way she could and through whatever means necessary. Ty Lee had followed Mai around almost nervously, seeming at something of a loss for what to do with herself, such were the states that Azula and Soza were in.

The mother and daughter had apparently become much like Toph; quiet and reclusive, they kept to themselves, hardly so much as saying a word or making an appearance outside of their private chambers. Though Ursa's depression was just as apparent, the older woman had apparently done what she could to support her son in his duties, at least prior to her arrest, but Azula and Soza seemed to have about shut down entirely. Yue could only guess at what it was that had Azula so caught up inside her own head, guilt, anger, sadness, regret as a few, but for Soza… it was easier to imagine what was hurting her. Yue would have been lying if she hadn't spent countless times throughout her waking hours thinking nervously about the girl.

Across from her, Zuko straightened slightly in his chair, his gaze looking preoccupied for another reason just then.

"She's… struggling. I don't know how else to put it, or how to help her. I don't know if Azula even talks to her these days, and I could never have asked my mom to go to her before she was… arrested. With how she and Sasuke were, asking her to talk about him with Soza would have been way too cruel, and I don't know if it even would have helped. I wish… I just wish so bad that Toph didn't care about Sasuke. Maybe then I could ask her to come west and live in the palace with us for a while, just to be with Soza and help her through this."

It finally reached Yue just how overwhelmed Zuko was; he was scared for his sister, his niece, his nation, and above all, his mother. The guilt she felt for grilling him as she had started to properly settle, and she let it hold her in silence of a period of time before she couldn't help getting back on topic as to the same thing she was so horribly anxious over.

"There… nothing we can do?"

Zuko didn't say anything to this, but Yue caught Aang looking at her with a sad and tired glint in his eyes. She sat back in her seat, trying hard to sift through all of her horribly racing thoughts to try and come up with a solution.

"Zuko… we'll give you some time," Aang said, getting to his feet. "We'll be in the guest hall if you need us, but it's late, and… I know it's hard, but you have to try and get some sleep. You'll never be able to come up with a way to help Ursa out of this if you're running on fumes like this."

Wearily rubbing his eyes, Zuko nodded tiredly, still not saying anything. Feeling rather displeased by how Aang had come to this decision for the both of them, Yue turned towards Aang to find him giving her a pointed look that sent her a clear message. Also remaining silent, she got to her feet and followed Aang from Zuko's chambers, past the two guards who both still looked upset, and down the hallway.

After a couple turns, Aang rounded on her.

"What the hell was that?" he asked her angrily. "You don't seriously think that with all that he's dealing with that he needed you screaming at him and telling him he's not doing enough? You really think he hasn't been stressed for days now trying to figure out how to get his mom out of this, and then, out of the blue, he finds this decree that Ozai wrote stating that Ursa, by law, needs to be put death?"

Yue wanted to get angry right back at him, but the feeling was starting to dwindle within her, and she leaned against the wall, crossing her arms and looking down miserably.

"I know," she said, through gritted teeth. "That was wrong of me, I know. I'm just… hell, Aang, how can they do this?!"

Just as she had with Zuko, Yue could tell that Aang could see just how awful she felt and he didn't continue to aggressively interrogate her, opting instead to give a small, grim shake of the head.

"It's law, written into the very heart of their nation. They wouldn't dare try and defy it, especially not when it gives them such a way to get to the heart of the people, like Zuko said. Back in the Air Nation, we had laws like that too, and I know for a fact the Water Nation does too."

Grudgingly, Yue knew that she could name several off the top of her head, but it didn't matter to her just then. Mostly it just fed the aggravation within her all the more.

"The nation doesn't know Ursa like we do," Aang continued. "I have to trust Zuko when he says that Azulon was as beloved as he was, and if the people can have someone to vent towards, such as the woman who killed him, they'll be happy for something like that."

"She's pregnant!" Yue cried out desperately, throwing her hands in the air to emphasize her point even further. "Even if… if there's nothing else to be done, couldn't an execution be stalled until she gives birth?! Maybe then, we'd have time, time enough to figure out something to do…"

Aang released a humorless laugh through his nose, his expression pained and bitter.

"They would see Ursa's baby as an abomination just as they see her," he said darkly. "That would do nothing for her, in fact, it might make things worse for her."

Yue's shoulders slumped and she felt her back slide a couple inches down the wall. She knew deep down that Ursa trying to play the pregnancy card would be futile; those putting her to death would surely just see this added twist as a sign that she was a woman who just found too much time to fool around, especially if—"

"Aang?"

He had seemed to be losing himself in his own thoughts as he looked to her.

"Hmm?"

"What if…" Yue said, biting her lower lip. "What if we told them that the kid was Sasuke's?"

His eyes widened and he took on an expression that was the closest thing to outright panic as Yue had yet seen.

"No," he said in a low voice, looking up and down the deserted hallway as though worried someone might have overheard them. "No, Yue, are you crazy?"

"Why not?" she said, feeling an almost tangible sense of excitement that pressed her away from the wall as she got right to Aang. "What else can we do? You've heard what people are saying… in every nation, there's murmurings that Sasuke's not really dead, that this is all just a cover up for him to go back into hiding."

"It isn't," Aang said though pursed lips and Yue could see just how fresh that wound of losing Sasuke still was for him.

"I know that, we know that," she said quickly. "But the way Zuko put it, it seems like these clowns on this council have only ever been cowed by Azula, because they're genuinely scared of her. Except now, they have really bad dirt on her and have that to use against her. If we just try to play to that paranoia that Sasuke's not gone, and we tell them that it's Sasuke's child, maybe that would scare them into at least—"

"Yue, that doesn't work for several reasons, and you know it," Aang said with a sigh. "First, it's a rumor. There haven't been any concrete sort of claims that he isn't dead, it's just… people spreading stories. And anyone in a position of power knows that."

Yue could tell how much Aang genuinely wanted to believe that things might have actually been as the rumors claimed they were.

"Second, we can't prove that it's Sasuke's baby. Ursa's still just weeks into the pregnancy, coming up on a month is all to boot. They might not even buy that she's pregnant at all."

"But—"

"No," Aang said, and there came a pleading edge to his tone. "Yue, please. There… there might be a solution yet, but for as long as we can, that baby needs to stay far from this. Just think about Soza. The Fire Nation public was completely shocked when it came out that Azula had given birth out of wedlock, and because of how few people know, it will hopefully remain forever that no one knows about Soza's father. People are willing to accept what Sasuke is, because he's dead, not because of what he did for all of us. You connect him to anyone that way, and it's just going to be putting people in danger."

Though she wanted to keep arguing, Yue slowly let herself slump back against the wall. It was clear that Aang was putting just as much thinking into this as she was trying to, and he was doing so from a much more rational place.

"I don't… I don't know if I can let them do this," she said softly, and realized just how clear the implication of her words sounded. Aang's eyes slowly moved up to look at her and when he did speak to her again, his voice was cautious and deeply stern.

"Don't talk like that," he said. "You go and try and pull a stunt like that… you got catapulted back into Water Nation politics because of who you are and there's an entire capital of people who are overjoyed to see you again. You're working on rebuilding your life, getting that time back that you've lost, don't… Ursa wouldn't want you to throw this away, right after you've gotten it back."

"I don't know I give a shit what Ursa would want," Yue muttered. "I just know I don't want her to die."

Sighing again, Aang moved to her side and leaned against the wall beside her.

"I know," he said softly and the two of them stood where they were for a long time, pondering just how things had gotten to this point so quickly, and how, if by any means, they could remedy them.

---

Ty Lee made her way slowly down the hall, her pace betraying her anxiety. For the first time since before everything had begun, Azula had summoned her to her chambers.

It will be fine, this won't be like it was.

That was one of the many reassuring thoughts that her mind drew up to try and give her some semblance of peace, and while Ty Lee truly wanted to believe more than anything that Azula wasn't that same person who would do such a thing to her, she couldn't shake the memories of the abuse that she had suffered before at the princess's hands. Her body quaked as she walked and she felt the very powerful desire to cover her midsection with her hands. The injury she had sustained that day had been healed as much as it could, and while waterbending medical personnel assured her that it shouldn't affect any of her natural bodily functions in the long run…

It will never go away. Not entirely. A reminder I'll carry for the rest of my life.

But even if somehow, for some terrible reason, the changes she had seen in Azula in recent days had somehow given way to her old tendencies once more, what had Ty Lee done to possibly be afforded such a punishment?

It's not like Sasuke's alive for me to screw.

She let out a rather high-pitched and involuntary laugh which was followed by a surging stab of guilt at the joke she had just made. For all the issue she had taken with Sasuke, for hurting Toph and for affecting Azula as he had, Ty Lee had come to terms with the fact that such issues had never truly been his fault and even more surprising to her, she was finding she rather badly missed him.

But still, what could this possibly be about?

If Ty Lee was going to be optimistic and assume that Azula wasn't going to try and hurt her for whatever reason, then she couldn't quite fathom what it might be that she was being called for. In the past, Azula might call her and Mai to her room on nights where she wanted to spend a night on the city, which usually just comprised of her terrifying everyone she encountered, Mai and Ty Lee forced to watch as she used her presence to toy with the emotions of the commonfolk. Sometimes she would just call one or both of them to vent about issues she had taken with whatever subject, and then of course, she would sometimes summon Ty Lee for more physical matters, ones that usually involved a fair bit of panting and moaning.

None of these options made a lick of sense to Ty Lee just then, however. Azula didn't seem at all the person anymore that she was when she would make use of her friend this way, and even if she was, she had completely shut down all over again upon discovering that her mother was being arrested for what she had done to Fire Lord Azulon all those years ago. Ty Lee had felt her writhing and heard her screaming as she had attacked the soldiers taking her mother into custody and, she and Zuko aside, it had been Ursa who had stopped her. She had managed to convince the captain of the guard to give her just a moment to calm her daughter and it had somehow worked, likely because the captain had been just as frightened of the raging form of Azula than any of his other men as burnt and battered soldiers lay at her feet.

"Azula, listen to me! Calm down! Look at me, and calm down!"

It was by far the most force Ty Lee had heard Ursa speak with since Sasuke had died, and it had taken her daughter placing herself in a very dangerous position. Azula had glared into her mother's eyes, her breast heaving as fire flashed in her own gaze before finally lowering her head down and gritting her teeth, the fire crackling and sputtering out in her hands as Zuko and Ty Lee gripped her under the arms. Ursa had put her hands on Azula's shoulders and leaned in to kiss her forehead before turning back and surrendering herself from the battalion that had come to take her into custody.

Azula's fire had entirely extinguished itself then and she had shaken off Zuko and Ty Lee once her mother had been led away. She had walked into the palace without a word and locked herself in her chambers, not responding to anyone who came knocking. To Ty Lee's knowledge, Soza was the only one with access to Azula's room as her own chambers connected directly to her mother's and while Soza had indeed come out a time or two more than her mother had, the girl had looked like a ghost every time Ty Lee had seen her, saying next to nothing and not meeting anyone's eyes.

Ty Lee stopped outside Azula's door, trying to keep her hand from shaking as she raised it. She tried to imagine what it was that Jin, or Toph, or Suki, or Mai, or honestly anyone would say if they knew what she was doing just then. With how protective they had all become of her after the events in the Northern Water Tribe, being at Azula's room now seemed terribly taboo to her.

But I have to know. I have to know what this is about.

Her knuckles only rapped a second time before she heard Azula's voice call her inside. It was too muffled to sense any real emotion and Ty Lee gently pushed the door open and entered.

The only light within the room came from a lamp atop Azula's nightstand, orange instead of the usual blue that Ty Lee associated with the princess. The room itself was not disheveled in the slightest as she might have expected, but it rather almost looked to be too clean, the bed made as it was, not an article of clothing lying anywhere, everything being right where it should be.

Azula herself was pacing back and forth in front of the window that overlooked the capital, looking out of it which was curious, since the curtains were drawn and there was nothing to be seen through them. Her hair was down her back, straight and well-attended as was her state of dress, looking very formal in her casual wear, though Ty Lee wondered if that wasn't due to the princess relying on doing up her appearance in an attempt to distract herself. Her makeup was as pristine as it could have been, and her hands were clasped behind her back with a comb held loosely in her fingers. With a swallow, Ty Lee softly closed the door behind her.

At the sound of it latching shut, Azula looked over at her as though just now realizing that she had just asked for her friend to enter the room. Her head snapped over with a jerking movement and she straightened her back rather stiffly as she regarded Ty Lee as though she were merely another of her servants milling about the palace.

"Ah, Ty Lee. Excellent," she said, but her tone made it sound that anything was 'excellent' at that moment. Her voice was as stiff as she looked, rather like the words were being physically extracted from her.

"What can I do for you, Azula?" Ty Lee asked, adopting a stance that she had many times before, her feet shoulder length apart with her hands hanging openly at her side. At that moment, she couldn't tell exactly what the matter with the princess was, but it was clear that something was indeed off, and she had no desire to say or act in a way that might trigger a beast on edge.

The words too were ones that she had uttered numerous times throughout her life, but Azula looked at her as though she had just asked if the princess wanted a thousand pink flying bison. She blinked several times and her brow furrowed for a brief instant.

"What… can you do for… for me…" she said softly, almost in a voice quiet enough that Ty Lee couldn't pick it up. Then, Azula seemed to catch herself and she cleared her throat, giving her head a small shake as though trying to wake up.

"No, Ty Lee, no, that's not… I haven't called you here for a service you might provide for me."

Ty Lee's mind was suddenly shoved into a not-so-distant memory that still made her feel like it had taken place months ago, and she remembered what the last words she had shared with Azula in private had been. Her heart froze and she felt the words spill from her mouth before she could even think about them.

"No, Azula, I… I'm sorry, but I don't… I don't want to hurt you," she said, feeling her eyes as wide as dinner plates, knowing full well that if she was accurately predicting what Azula was about to offer, that it was the most dangerous thing she could do to deny something offered by the princess. But when she remembered how Azula had offered Ty Lee the ability to hurt her in whatever way she desired, she couldn't think of something she had wanted any less, or could even fathom taking action over.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said again, feeling her voice becoming more and more desperate. "I know that when you told me that I'd be able to, I… I know you were trying to make things right."

Across the room from her, Azula had grown very still as she watched Ty Lee with an imperceptible look on her face which only filled Ty Lee with further fear.

"Please don't think I'm trying to be ungrateful or anything," she said, practically babbling with how quickly her words were spilling from her mouth. "Azula, please don't think that, I just… that's not what I needed for things to be right between us!"

Azula continued to watch her for a few terrifying moments before she finally blinked with a look of mild understanding passing over her face.

"That's right," she said, sounding more to herself than Ty Lee. "Toph did say something about that… I had… I had forgotten."

Quite suddenly, Ty Lee saw tears swimming in Azula's eyes.

"How could I have forgotten…" she murmured and before Ty Lee could even think of something to say, Azula had took a stumbling step towards her and dropped to her knees. It wasn't like the proper and formal way that she had done back in the Northern Water Tribe; it genuinely looked as though the weight of the world had compounded itself atop her and falling down before Ty Lee as she had was all she could to keep it from crushing her. She remained there on her knees, her hands in her lap, her face drawn and intense as she looked off toward Ty Lee's shins.

It was silent for a long time between them, perhaps minutes. Ty Lee didn't dare move from where she stood or say a word. She didn't know what this meant, and she was far too frightened of what Azula might do to risk even asking about such a thing. Instead, she remained where she was, just as still as she could be while she waited for Azula to instigate words between them again and eventually, she did.

"I'm sorry."

Ty Lee blinked as the two words slipped from behind Azula's lips, a whisper that seemed to echo about the room. She knew she couldn't have heard what she just had.

"I'm sorry," Azula repeated. Her hands tightened into fists onto her lap as she lowered her head to look down, her teeth gritting tightly and tears dropping on top of her hands.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to you. I'm sorry for treating you like an animal, like a possession. I'm sorry for ignoring the fact that you held more humanity than I ever had, and I'm sorry I ignored the fact that you only allowed me to hurt you as I did out of love for me."

With every word, Ty Lee felt more and more like she was swimming within a dream. The world around her seemed muffled and dark as though it was actively fading away to allow her to do nothing but focus wholly on the utterly unbelievable thing taking place ahead of her.

Azula. Apologizing. To me.

It was only when she felt the heat of her own tears on her face that she knew that this couldn't be a dream.

"I'm sorry that I treated you as though you were nothing but refuse beneath my foot, worthy of nothing when I was far more deserving of being treated as garbage," Azula said, her voice hollow and brittle. Her hands had started to shake in her lap and while she wasn't trying to hide the fact that she was crying, she didn't look up to Ty Lee as though that were the one thing she was incapable of.

"I'm so sorry… I've never deserved you in my life. I've never deserved Mai, or my brother, or having my mother back in my life, or having the most… the most beautiful little girl as a daughter… but there was no one that I abused so callously, so brutally, as you."

Azula gave a deep swallow and took several measured breaths as though she had grown lightheaded.

"I… I rather wish that you were as terrible a person as me. Maybe then you would deem fit to punish me as I know I deserve. I'm sorry that this… this pathetic apology is all that I can give you."

She closed her eyes and gave her head a slow, shuddering shake as her tears pulled her makeup down her cheeks in black streaks.

"And… I'm so sorry that while I'm trying to tell you this… I just can't stop thinking… about him… and about… my mom."

With that, she exploded into full on crying, her body bowing over her knees as she lost control of herself.

"Azula!" Ty Lee cried, having to blink aside her own tears to keep her vision from blurring. She rushed forward and put her hands around the princess's shoulders and managed to get her to her feet for just long enough to pull her to the side of the bed. As Ty Lee sat down, Azula collapsed against her, burying her face in her chest and gripping tightly at her clothes.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" was all that seemed able to repeat and Ty Lee found she couldn't have cared less if Azula was trying to force an apology past her own internalized fears. The fact that she had heard the words she just had was worth more to her than the princess could ever know.

"Shh, it's okay…" she murmured to Azula, forcing her voice to hold an air of calm. "It's okay… you're going to be okay, you're going to be—"

A clear, unshaking voice rang out then.

"They're going to have her killed."

Ty Lee looked up and saw Soza standing in the doorway that connected her chambers to those of her mother.

The girl looked about as lost as Azula seemed to be, if perhaps a little more in control of herself. Her arms were crossed as she stood in a nightrobe, leaning against the doorway. Soza's expression was fixed mostly in bitterness and pain, but her eyes flashed with anxiousness and pain.

"What?" Ty Lee managed to ask as she ran fingers soothingly up and down Azula's back, who hadn't seemed to notice the arrival of her daughter as she continued to cry quietly against Ty Lee's chest. Somehow, Soza's words hadn't registered to have any meaning to her.

"We were just told about a half hour ago," Soza said, her voice hollower than her mother's by a considerable amount. "Grandma is going to be executed."

Ty Lee's mind buzzed as though she had just been struck over the back of the head with a heavy blow. There were a number of things that she wanted to force out of her mouth, not the least of which was a hasty question, demanding if Soza was certain that this was the case. It seemed such a necessary response to hearing something like that, almost as though it were in Ty Lee's very blood to ask it, but as she felt Azula shaking against her, tears wetting her clothes, and as she looked into Soza's dead expression, she knew that such a question was a waste of breath. There was nothing to confirm and nothing to question on her part.

No. Oh, please, no.

Since she had reunited with them alongside Sasuke and Yue, Ty Lee had found a strong sense of comfort in Ursa being amongst them at all; initially, it had been more so in the hopes that her being with Sasuke would cause Azula not to become obsessed with him again, which Ty Lee knew was a completely selfish reason on her part. But as the days had dragged on, long hard days in which the fear of being attacked by spirits was something looming powerfully in all their minds, she couldn't have found herself more grateful for Ursa's presence. She was a calming being to have with them, a leader with a very tactical head on her shoulders and she had pulled them through some very hard times, all while keeping both her daughter and Sasuke in check. It had finally seemed to catch up with her in the Northern Water Tribe, and then her composure had truly collapsed when Sasuke had died, but as the weeks had gone by, Ty Lee's appreciation and affection for Ursa had exponentially increased.

And even if, for whatever reason, perhaps she was as madly in love with Sasuke enough to hate Ursa with every fiber of her being, there was no denying the good that she had done being in the lives of Zuko, Azula, and Soza. A matriarch that clearly brought every single one of them a comfort that no one could hope to qualify, the comfort of a mother figure for her children and that of a grandmother to Soza. And for all she had done for her family and for the group, she had been brought down to her knees by the loss of Sasuke, even as his child grew within her. Ty Lee could remember being helplessly and miserably unsure of who to feel more sorry for in the minutes following Sasuke's passing as she had seen Toph crying and seen the pure devastation etched into Ursa's features.

But a part of her had started to hope that perhaps, somehow, Ursa would be able to recover from this. Yes, Sasuke was gone, but Ursa had been reunited with her children, met her granddaughter, the conflict was over, and she had a child growing within her to live for. It wasn't as though she had lost some singular thing that was keeping her alive, there was plenty for her, or so Ty Lee had hoped. But now… now…

Why… why?

"Soza, I… are you…?"

She felt her words bubble out of her with no real coherence. She knew she was trying to ask Soza if she was alright, even as she knew that such a question was beyond stupid and insensitive.

All the changes she's gone through as a person and with all her powers, all the things she's been forced to learn, and then losing Sasuke… her father who she just reunited with. And now, without Azula being someone she can really turn to, without Toph, her best friend, now, she has to… to watch her grandmother… be executed?

Pain for Soza, for Azula, for Ursa all crashed into Ty Lee all at once, and she felt so much emotion that she couldn't find herself say another word. She wanted to get up and go hug Soza, but she didn't dare get up from where she sat beside Azula. It felt as though there was a spell between her and the princess and that if she got up, it would break what little remained in keeping Azula together. So, she found that all she was capable of doing was looking at the girl just a short distance away from her and waiting for her to break down just as her mother was currently.

But Soza did no such thing as Ty Lee was expecting.

She remained where she was for a minute or so, regarding her mother with those almost unfocused, pained eyes before slowly walking towards the bed where Azula and Ty Lee were sitting. Slowly turning as she reached the edge of it, Soza slowly pushed herself up to sit on the mattress as well; her hand reached out and gingerly placed itself over the hand of her mother that was clinging to the front of Ty Lee's clothes with a vicelike grip. Ty Lee looked at her, watching in something that felt like awe as the positions of the two seemed so bizarrely reversed, Azula crying like a frightened child and Soza looking sadly on like a defeated parent. Her maturity was once again showing just how much it had been forced to take precedent in her life, something that should never have been necessary.

Until that was, until Ty Lee heard her speak.

"Auntie Ty," she croaked. "Why does this hurt so much? Why does… why is that even though I know we won… it still feels so much like we lost…"

It was an ambiguous pair of questions, ones drenched in the pure horror of someone who couldn't bear dealing with what their life had become. Ty Lee never could have answered them, not the part of them that was asking why it hurt so bad to know your grandma was going to die, or to see your mother so completely helpless and broken, or to feel the stinging pain of losing your father. She only looked at Soza with tears in her own eyes and watched as the girl eventually scooted just a couple inches more over so that she could lay her head against Azula's shoulder and cry alongside her mother.

Sitting in the semidarkness and watching Azula and Soza become lost in their despair, Ty Lee could only look up towards the ceiling and curse her own uselessness. It was so discouraging to remember how much easier her own hurt had been to bear when she was able to pretend that it was just all stemming from a contrived hatred of Sasuke.

You asshole… get back here so I can… just even pretend… that things are that simple again.

---

It was pitch black, but the darkness didn't seem all that unknown. It mostly just felt as though the black was all that there was; there was nothing to hide in it, nothing to be frightened of, and nothing there that could bring harm. It was black because that was what it was, no other reason than that.

So too was the ground, black and firm, though not painfully hard or uncomfortable. One could likely lie there for quite a time and feel rather content, if not for the steady buzz that signaled the return of consciousness. And when had consciousness ever brought more than the unknown that the surrounding black indicated was irrelevant?

Still, it was because of this sense of the unknown that Sasuke slowly sat up from where he lay, trying to make some sense of his surroundings.

It was true that they didn't feel ominous or even necessarily unknowable to him, but the state in which he had awoken was unlike any sleep from which he had before arisen. There had been the rests that were light and fitful, causing him to wake at the merest touch or the slightest sound, lunging to his feet and grabbing for his sword. There had also been rests where he had slept so soundly that waking up took him minutes to properly go through, a bleary haze permeating in his mind and keeping him from waking unless he actively forced himself to.

This state he now was in, however, didn't feel remotely like either or of these two extremes. In truth, it hadn't even felt like he had woken from anything, even though he knew without a doubt that this must have been what happened. He had been lying on his back, opened his eyes, and found awareness again. That was precisely what happened to someone when they awoke. But this time, it had felt… unusual. Like he hadn't awoken at all but had rather just… come into being.

There was no tiredness or the haze of sleep within his mind, something that he had thought was what he was experiencing. But in reality, it just felt as though he was just there, like he had always been, but just now his mind was actually registering it. It was rather annoying for him, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"Blood of Indra."

A voice that sounded both ancient and young resounded behind him and Sasuke whirled on his heel, hand reaching instinctively for his sword, but his brow immediately furrowed in confusion at what he saw.

There was a man sitting before him, seeming on nothing at all, as he hovered a few feet off the ground with his legs crossed. His skin was unnaturally pale in complexion and with light brown hair that also formed a beard around his chin. There looked to be two hornlike growths extending from either side of his forehead wherein the middle sat a vibrant red marking. The white kimono he wore matched well with his pale, rather ghostly appearance, and Sasuke felt very sure that he wasn't looking at a human.

"What was that you called me?" he asked in a low voice, not letting his guard down. The man merely watched him a moment longer before seeming to remember something.

"Ah, yes… you must be confused."

"Confused?" Sasuke replied somewhat dryly. "Yeah, you might say that, especially when I don't—"

Suddenly, there came a pure flood through his mind that was as overwhelming as it was instantaneous, and Sasuke knew then what had been missing from his mind upon his supposed awakening in that dark place.

Memories.

He became quite immediately reacquainted with all of them, from the time he was a child playing with his brother, all the way up until what he had believed to be his last moment alive, saving the people he loved as he took Madara Uchiha down with him. He saw faces and heard voices, felt emotions and feelings, watched years of his life suddenly come thrust back into his mind. Trying to rationalize any one of them just then would have been impossible, so he chose instead to just allow them to take him over until he knew they had to eventually stop.

What might very well have been days later, Sasuke found himself on his knees, forehead pressed to the dark floor of the strange black space he was in. His breathing came in heavy, deep breaths and he couldn't stop from blinking over and over while his hands shook violently.

"I withdrew you from your memories in the hope that your mind would reconstruct itself that much easier," came the voice of the unknown man ahead of him, sounding dulled and far off. "I believe that contributed heavily to your recovery, but I'm afraid that reuniting you with your memories was still bound to be a painful process."

Sasuke didn't reply to this as he slowly righted his torso, though he remained on his knees. He still saw all those faces in his head, but now he knew what had become of him and had found himself understanding the last of the memories he had.

I died for them. And now I'll never see them again.

He remained still for a time longer and then, quite without any sort of control over himself, he bent back over, the muscles in his face tightening as he started to cry.

Sasuke let himself cry for what must have been minutes, not caring that there was an audience of one before him, perhaps judging or staring down on him condescendingly for his weakness. They were the tears that he hadn't been able to shed at the time he had known that the only way to defeat Madara was to destroy himself in the process, the tears he had wanted to cry when saying goodbye to Ursa, to Toph, his daughter, all of them… he didn't know where he was, what had become of him, but just then, everything needed to wait while he drained this emotion from his body.

Eventually, the tears did stop and Sasuke's breathing leveled out to become manageable. A minute more and he found himself ready and able to stand, which he did, looking across the way at the floating pale man who hadn't seemed to have changed expressions from the calm, somewhat appraising look that he had worn when Sasuke first laid eyes on him.

"If I have questions…" he started slowly to say and only then did he see the corners of the man's mouth twitch upwards in what might have been an amused smile.

"Sasuke, if you have questions, I feel it is the very least I can do to answer them."

He knows my name.

Sasuke nodded and didn't waste another moment.

"Who are you? And why am I here?"

Just as wasteless of time as he, the man began to reply without hesitation.

"I have gone by a number of names and titles, but you may call me Hagoromo. It was the name I was given at birth and the one that drew me into much pain and conflict. I am remembered as the founder of ninjutsu, the Sage of Six Paths, and some might call me the father of the ninja world. I referred to you as 'blood of Indra' as you bear the blood that once ran through my son's veins."

He gestured around him.

"This place… it is neither the afterlife or the material reality that men and women lead their lives within. It is a space between that, one of my own creation and my own binding, one from which I have watched all the events of your life take place until the moment only recently when you died in your conflict with Madara Uchiha."

Though he was still trying to grapple with the idea of a man who was in fact the father of the ninja world, Sasuke's mind was forced to a sudden and painful halt at something very specific that Hagoromo had just said.

Died.

"So, I'm dead then," he replied quietly.

"No, that's not what I said," Hagoromo said slightly more softly. "I said that you died fighting Madara. It was my… interference that allows you to be here now."

"What, you saved me?" Sasuke asked dubiously, feeling his insides going quite mad just then as he tried to figure out if he was alive or dead.

"It is more akin to the fact that I've rebuilt you," the floating man answered. "You created your own jutsu through using your eyes, one that allowed you such destruction as to quite literally unravel your own being as well as others. I took your essence and slowly reformed you through the jutsu working in reverse, as is within my power to do so."

His heart thudding hard and fast, Sasuke took slow measured breaths as he drew up the will to ask, "So, I'm alive?"

Hagoromo nodded and Sasuke felt his knees shake. His hand went up to his head, and he relished the feeling of being able to touch himself.

I'm alive.

There was none of the pain that he could remember feeling towards his final moments, that exhaustion and hurt that had been inflicted upon him over the end of the conflict with Madara. He felt as free from that pain as could be, and with his body having been reborn, he supposed that only made sense.

Knowing that he could have stood there in complete stunned silence over the fact that he was in fact still alive, Sasuke forced himself to push on in his questions.

"Why did you save me? Why did you bring me here?"

"I have paid close attention to the dealings that you, and others of your family name, have become involved with in the past decades," Hagoromo replied. "My self-imposed pact to not interfere with the ninja world was shaken when I observed what the Uchihas Madara and Obito were planning, but I could not step in then. I watched as war became a certainty, an inevitable, and then I saw Madara uncover and create the jutsu that allowed him to utilize his Sharingan to step between his own world to another, following his rebirth by the Edo Tensei."

"You at the time were quite caught up in your own quest for destruction and revenge, and were completely caught off guard when Madara decided to pull you into the world of benders and spirits. I saw the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi grapple with remnants of his power, enough to pull through Obito Uchiha as well, her hope being that she could pit the both of you against one another and you would both be destroyed, ending any alien threat to the world she watched over, all while Madara plotted on. I watched this all until your first victory and the death of Obito."

"I watched you struggle with loneliness and pain as you left your friends, people you had come to care about more than anyone within your own world, perhaps save one or two, and traveled the world in search of a way home. Your search was fruitless, but in any case, Madara's planning once again came into effect, and the conflict you now recently remember was forced upon you. I watched you struggle with love, affection, hurt, your own fears and anxieties, all while doing everything you could to protect these people, whom I could see meant more to you than ever before."

He looked closely at Sasuke then.

"Indra's blood, the blood of my son, resides within you. It is a curse that has been passed down since the days that my son lived; he was the true founder of ninjutsu, but history remembers him only as the man who threw aside his humanity in pursuit of leadership and power. From person to person, Indra's blood reincarnated itself and would eventually manipulate all that possessed it, in reckless and selfish pursuit of power. Madara was one such inheritor of this blood, just as you are."

There came a brief moment of silence before a smile split Hagoromo's face.

"And yet, just recently, I watched you defy that curse. You received many an opportunity to abandon your friends, your love, your child, to take Madara's side, to free yourself from the conflict, to act for your own betterment above all else. But every time, you chose otherwise. You remained focused, not on your own wellbeing, but on that of others, even as doing so exhausted and drained you, making you feel at times as though everything you were fighting for was naught but hopeless."

He continued to look on towards Sasuke with something like a mixture of pride and mild bewilderment.

"You defied Indra's curse. You were the best of all those reincarnations. You grew to the point where you could look past that selfishness you had when you waged war against your brother, against the Raikage, against the whole of the Hidden Leaf, in pursuit of power and vengeance. You didn't become the strongest, but you became the best of them, in heart and in spirit."

Sasuke stared back at Hagoromo, processing what he was hearing. All this about a curse, and him being a reincarnation seemed far too wild to be true, but somehow, as he heard the words, he knew that it all was. He didn't feel proud of himself. Rather, he felt rather as though he had failed.

"And still, you seem terribly at odds with yourself," the hovering man said, reading him perfectly. "Why is that?"

Though he had a feeling that Hagoromo knew the answer, Sasuke found himself compelled to reply anyway. Perhaps saying the words aloud would make them easier to understand, he thought.

"Maybe I did do everything I could for them, but it wasn't enough," he said quietly. "I left Ursa with a child I couldn't be there for, I left my daughter without her father again. Everyone I knew, Aang, Toph, Azula, all of them, I had to leave them to save them. I shouldn't have had to. There should have been a way, a way to defeat Madara without having to leave them like that."

He looked up somewhat expectantly towards the Sage of Six Paths then.

"I might be alive, but what does that matter? I've left them."

Hagoromo looked at him for a long moment and without saying a single word in reply, which eventually prompted Sasuke to speak again, feeling a spike of rather raw rage pierce his insides.

"You saw this all happen, you watched it unfold. And you did nothing to change things? Even just to tell me or someone else what was going on, what to expect," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "We were dying, falling apart as we had nowhere to turn, and if things hadn't aligned as they had right there at the end, with Kyoshi, and Kakashi, and Soza, and everyone, then you might be up here just looking down at a world full of sleeping, mindless slaves. What then?"

The pale man didn't seem at all that he had taken offense at Sasuke's accusatory tone.

"When you have watched over the generations that I have, there come to be things that you find you can take certainty within," he said. "I cannot hope to describe the feeling to, since I am no longer quite human myself, and I wonder if many of my feelings are those I felt as a human or ones that I have come to know as a result of what I have become."

His eyes almost seemed to twinkle then as he regarded Sasuke.

"But those feelings were what told me that, despite all the odds and everything that rose against you, you would prevail. Madara would fall at your hand, even if I couldn't see how."

"That's your reason?" Sasuke very nearly shouted. "You just had a feeling I could win?"

Giving a movement that might very well have been a shrug, Hagoromo looked back at him unflinchingly.

"You succeeded, did you not?"

That's not the point, you stupid old—

Sasuke forced himself back from getting angry, knowing that there was no time such an emotion, not while such revelations were cascading down around him. For all he knew, this feeling that Hagoromo spoke of was completely rooted in truth, perhaps just one that Sasuke couldn't hope to understand, just as this strange reality he now stood in was something he could accept, but couldn't quite fathom.

Focus. You're alive. You beat Madara. That must mean—

Unsure of how he might have lasted that long without asking, he fired the question off the moment it entered his mind, ushering a new feeling of nervous anticipation into his gut.

"What about everyone else? Soza, Ursa, Toph, Aang, Azula—"

Before he could run the entire gambit of names that were swirling about in his head, Hagoromo raised a hand in a gentle gesture meant no doubt meant to calm him.

"Fine, they're all just fine. I prevented Kakashi from being damaged by your jutsu and moved him safely back to our world. The others were far enough from your technique that none of them were harmed, they are all just fine. Physically, anyway. Even if their world has survived such a potentially cataclysmic occurrence as Madara's victory, I'm sure I wouldn't need to impress upon you that they surely are hurting at the loss of such a person as you from their lives."

The relief that Sasuke had felt at hearing that they all had walked away unscathed drifted away into a bitter sort of regret. He looked away, trying to rationalize his own feelings.

"Why would they care so much about me…" he muttered stupidly, much more to himself than to the other occupant within the void with him. "I knew them for a matter of weeks when we were kids… then again just now, it's hardly been a month. Why would they hurt so much over someone they've hardly known long at all…"

His fingers tightened into fists at his side.

"Why would I hurt so much…"

"Time has nothing to do with it," Hagoromo told him, rather plainly but not altogether unkindly. "The effect you made on each and every single one of them is what makes such pain so real. While some will no doubt move past the loss of your life within their own, I imagine that others will not."

"Thanks," Sasuke grunted sarcastically. "Definitely makes me feel a lot better."

It fell silent between the two of them for a period of time, Sasuke contemplating all that he had heard and coming to terms with it while his hovering companion in the dark ahead of him looked on in silence. It took Sasuke a long while before he could feel himself ready to speak again.

"So… I beat Madara and I died in the process. You saved me and brought me back to life here. The threat Madara posed is gone."

He looked forward and slowly raised and lowered his shoulders.

"What now?"

Reaching up to slowly stroke his thin, straight beard, Hagoromo regarded Sasuke for a moment longer before answering, seeming almost as though he was trying to imagine the response he might receive to what he was about to say.

"Now, Sasuke, you have a choice."

Sasuke regarded him back just as carefully.

"A choice."

"Yes," Hagoromo replied. "I suppose there are three paths before you now, and you must decide which to take."

Feeling his heart achieve a rather fast-paced and light beat, Sasuke slowly swallowed and looked on in silence, patiently waiting for the pale man before him to elaborate.

"This… this connection. Between the world of our origin and the world you have found many years of your own life to pass within," Hagoromo said, gesturing around him as though it was possible to see both of these worlds from where they were. "Though I have kept myself from interjecting in a conflict throughout my entire existence, I understand the danger that these two places pose to one another. The ability to cross between them, through whatever means, isn't something that I can safely tolerate. To prevent such tragedy and conflict from happening within either as a result of a person or persons moving between, I will be destroying the connection between both. Never again will a person from our world enter their world, or vice versa. Many died as a result of Madara's meddling as he pursued his dream, innocent people whose blood ought never have been spilled. I will prevent that from even being a possibility again."

Sasuke found that he could quite agree with such a choice, though it was quite an incredible thing to imagine such power that was enough to seal the gap between their worlds in such a way. Still, this didn't quite provide Sasuke with an answer regarding the choices he was supposedly being posed.

"To that end," Hagoromo continued. "I believe it is only fair to allow you to choose where it is you wish to live out the remainder of your life before I close off the connection for good."

As understanding finally reached Sasuke, he felt his head grow light and he opened and closed his mouth rather stupidly several times. His body felt numb and weightless as he replayed the words over and over in his head.

"I can… choose."

"Yes," the Sage of Six Paths confirmed. "Should you wish, you may return to our world, the place of your origin. You may find those you cared for there, and right the wrongs that you created, amend that what you can. The war too has ended there, and the shinobi countries live in harmony. You returning might cause a stir, but unless I've misjudged your character, you wouldn't be looking to wage war against the Hidden Leaf any longer. You might find your friends once more and mend the bonds between yourself and them and find your place amongst them. Through you, the Uchiha clan might yet be restored given time. Our world would no doubt benefit greatly should you choose to return to it."

"Conversely… should you wish to return to your daughter, the woman carrying your child, and the others that you've grown to care for as you have. I fear that your presence in a world such as that might invite conflict, but it is not my place to say if that should be enough to make your decision, nor if it will happen at all. If their world is where you wish to return to and find your place within, that too is a choice you are free to make."

Sasuke listened to every word that Hagoromo said, but the moment he understood the gist of what was being offered to him, he felt himself being pulled into his own head, his thoughts spinning and attacking his conscience relentlessly.

I could go back… right now. I could find Ursa and hold her, I could hug Toph, I could… oh, Soza, I could find her and never let her go… apologize to everyone like I should, tell them how sorry I am for what I did, I could just… be back with them.

He saw smiling faces all around him, Aang, Sokka, Mai, Yue, everyone; he pictured himself beside them, walking down some street on the night of a festival with fireworks exploding above them. He could hear Ty Lee laughing, see Suki smiling as she took her husband's hand, feel Aang bump playfully into him while Soza held his hand. He saw the picture-perfect scene so clearly before him then that he couldn't believe that he didn't just shout out an answer then and there.

But then he saw the other side of the coin. He saw his home, his saw Konoha. He saw the sights and vistas that he had grown up with. He saw the people too then that he knew he had always cared for but had wronged so badly in the pursuit he had made of his vengeance. He saw the team he had formed, each of them looking on loyally towards him, willing to follow him into any battle he saw fit to enter. He saw Sakura, looking towards him with a reserved, almost desperate air about her, asking him, or rather begging him, to tell her why it was that he had done the things he had, and why he had never so much as dared to send a glance her way after all they had been through. He saw then the yellow hair of that stupid, bullheaded bastard who despite all of his loud, annoying, persistent, and stubborn traits, had been the only person that Sasuke had found himself truly feeling he might want to call a friend. He saw all of the wrongdoings he had carried out before him and felt the eyes of Itachi upon him and in that moment, Sasuke felt his own eyes widen as he stood in that black place.

What would Itachi say?

He gritted his teeth and pressed his hands to his temples. There was no denying either that truth of being with Soza, Ursa, and the rest, joining them forever in that world; would they ever truly be safe with someone like him around? Would his being in that world just cause more problems for them all?

What do I do?

Closing his eyes, he quietly spoke.

"You mentioned three options… I only heard the two."

There was another pause before he received an answer, perhaps the longest one yet between them.

"I suppose… if it were your wish… you wouldn't have to return to either of the two worlds."

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked forward with a furrowed brow. Hagoromo was looking at him, genuine pity in his own gaze then.

"You have experienced enough suffering to last the lifetimes of many men. You have fought with every ounce of your being and have had to put your life on the line multiple times. You have done so much good in the wake of your vengeance-fueled vendetta that I cannot help but wonder… if you wouldn't just rather… move on."

It was an ambiguous statement of sorts, but Sasuke knew immediately what it was that was being offered to him as his third option. He wanted to promptly dismiss it but found that he couldn't help but think briefly on the idea.

Just end it… finally just have some peace, no more worrying about anyone, trying to protect anyone…

He might have been still a young man by that point, but there was no denying the exhaustion that he felt following what he had experienced throughout the period that was his life. It never felt like there was any rest to be had for him and should he choose to return to either world, there was no guaranteeing that he would be able to find that peace that flickered tantalizingly under his third option. All three choices hovered seemingly before him in that black space, every single one tempting him in one way or another. His thoughts were entirely and viciously unhelpful, barraging his mind with conflicting ideas and reasons for taking any which one. Sasuke felt the muscles in his face pulling and tensing as his head genuinely started to hurt. He distantly appreciated that Hagoromo wasn't demanding an answer as he hovered there ahead of Sasuke, ever seeming to be fully patient as a being such as him might have been.

Damn it all… what do I do…

And then, Sasuke found himself realizing something.

What I want… against what is right.

The thoughts all went away then and he squared his shoulders, the decision made for him in the same amount of time that it had taken him to awaken in that place.

Quietly, he told Hagoromo what he wanted.

For a time, the old man looked at him and Sasuke found himself wondering if he was being quietly judged for the decision he had made. Then, a small, almost satisfied smile crossed over the old man's face.

---

When Sasuke opened his eyes, he found himself having to blink aside a deeply blinding light. He raised a hand briefly to give his eyesight a moment to adjust before he was able to gaze around at where he stood.

Sasuke could never have mistaken it for anywhere else. He knew these streets, the cramped architecture, the warmth that came from both the sun above and the hot street beneath him. He knew the signs and the storefronts, and within seconds, he knew precisely where exactly he stood. It was somewhere he had walked through many times before; it was the most familiar a place he had seen in over a decade.

Though he had imagined that seeing Konoha again would only fill him with a feeling of regret and foreboding, but the nostalgia that sang within his veins was incomparable to anything he had before felt.

He looked up and down the streets, surprised that there wasn't a person in sight milling about the village, wondering what day it was that it would have been so deserted. Sasuke couldn't remember a time where it had been midday judging by where the sun was above his head, and he felt his brow furrow. It wouldn't have surprised him if he had found himself back within the Hidden Leaf and heard a person somewhere scream at the sight of him, pointing and crying out at the sight of such a wanted criminal such as him. But as he slowly started to walk, it was just the packed dirt under his feet that welcomed him back to his home, scuffing beneath them.

Sasuke only had been walking a minute before he finally did hear a voice.

"Yo, Sasuke."

He turned his eyes up and saw Kakashi sitting on a roof above him, book in one hand and his other offering a small wave in greeting. Sasuke gave a small smile in return as his former teacher closed the book and quickly leapt down the side of the building to stand beside him.

"You don't seem surprised to see me," Sasuke remarked as Kakashi straightened beside him.

"I'm not," came the reply and Sasuke could sense the smile behind Kakashi's mask. "I felt… compelled to come here. A very strong urge, you might say."

It wasn't difficult to guess that some slight brush from Hagoromo might have been behind such an urge, but Sasuke said nothing in regard to it.

"Where is everyone?" he asked, looking up and down the street again, his eyes in search of a single other person. "I would have thought I would have had a shinobi enforcement squad on me the moment I showed up."

Kakashi chuckled.

"Well, of all the days that you picked to come back, this was by far the most situationally advantageous for you I would say. The Kage have all come to the Hidden Leaf for a week of exhibition matches at the arena, where all of the village is gathered in or near, in celebration of the Great Shinobi Nations coming together to defeat the army raised by the Edo Tensei. Not perhaps the war that you've experienced, but it was still quite the stride for the five leaders to all come together and enter an era of peace such as this."

He looked to Sasuke then with a serious look in his eyes.

"If you're here, then that means you didn't die either… but what of the world? Their world?"

Sasuke felt some genuine appreciation then to hear such concern in the question.

"We did it. Madara was defeated, I destroyed him with my jutsu. Everyone survived."

Kakashi slowly pulled his head back a touch and slowly took in a deep breath and then exhaled, the relief tangible from his reaction.

"Did we, then… well, that's… very good to hear."

It was quiet for a moment between them before he gave his head a small shake, seeming to remember where he was.

"I have a feeling that you've come back for something," he said and Sasuke nodded.

"That's correct," he replied and Kakashi nodded back.

"In that case… why don't we take a walk."

Complying, Sasuke fell into line beside him, and the pair started to walk towards the mountain that bore the faces of the previous Hokage of the Hidden Leaf. After a minute or so of just the two of them walking, Sasuke could start to hear sounds rising over the rooftops, the distant cries and cheers of what must have been quite the massive crowd. It was off to his right however, which told him that Kakashi wasn't taking him in the direction of the stadium.

"Not turning me in, huh?"

Kakashi chuckled.

"No… I don't think that's something I'll be doing today."

They turned down yet another familiar street towards where Sasuke knew the school that he had spent many a day in must still have been situated.

"That urge I mentioned… it told me that you would be coming back today. I've been back about a week, and I'll be honest, it's been nothing but questions, questions, and more questions… I go missing for just around two weeks without notice and I guess that's what's bound to happen."

"Well… did you tell them you were stopping Madara Uchiha from taking over our world and another world beyond?" Sasuke asked, feeling that he already knew the answer.

"Hardly not," Kakashi replied. "I fed them a fun story about thinking I had a lead that I was chasing all over the country, thinking for sure it was a connection to Obito, but finding it to be a dead end after all. I don't know if everyone bought it, but no one seemed willing to call me out on it being a lie."

They made a last turn and down the road a far distance away, Sasuke could see a very familiar tree beside a very familiar building.

"But that said… when that urge let me know that you were safe and would be returning, it told me to do something else."

They drew nearer still and Sasuke realized that he was finally able to see someone else, the first person he had seen since returning home other than Kakashi.

"I figured that it was worth obeying the urge and… well, he certainly didn't seem opposed to it when I brought it to him either."

The pair stopped a distance of a couple dozen yards from the tree and Sasuke saw someone sitting on the swing that had hung from its branches for as long as he could remember, their back to him and Kakashi. They wore a black coat over an orange outfit and had a red scarf around their neck; atop their head was a shock of short yellow hair.

It was someone he hadn't seen since they were much younger, but there was no mistaking who it was.

"I imagine you have some things to talk about," Kakashi murmured.

Sasuke felt a strange sensation in his gut that hadn't touched him in what felt like forever. His fingertips felt somewhat numb, and his breathing became much lighter, but it didn't take him long to realize that he was smiling softly.

For as he looked at Naruto, just a short distance away from him, the nostalgic feeling within him hit a peak and he tried to wonder what in the world he was going to say to the one person who, through everything Sasuke had done, had never once given up on him.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "I guess we do."