"There is no compromise! He will attempt to come after us and we must be prepared."

Bao backed up in the shadows as Hakoda stood to counter an elderly member's argument.

"Sending her away is not the answer," Hakoda announced. "If any of you want that to happen, don't think for one second that the Fire Nation still won't control us the way they do."

"Princess Azula is our leader just as Sokka," Pakku, Kanna's husband, mentioned, "We can't be afraid for our lives at this moment. My gut feeling tells me what Azula revealed. Her father needs the Water Tribes but not her anymore. He has that demon as a daughter."

"And there is talk that he is planning on making her princess," another attendant added.

Bao watched Hakoda's tired eyes. Anyone would be stressed handling twenty of the Northern Water Tribe chieftains and warriors along with Chief Hakoda's ten council members and thirty warriors. Again, Azula could not attend the meeting since her work as Katara's medic in training kept her around the villages for long hours of the day.

"Illah isn't his true legitimate heir," said another chief who controlled the Eastern settlement of the tribe. "He wouldn't kill Princess Azula. Why don't we try to negotiate-"

"She's not going back there!"

The room fell silent. Sokka's voice echoed out. The elderly chief, Anouk, bent his head and looked away. Bao watched the tall figure sweep a glare over the crowd as he stepped down the platform over the center where he could see each and everyone in the communal igloo.

"My wife stays with me," he said, his hand trembling, "I will order for everyone to evacuate the Northern front. I will take her away-"

"There is no need for that." Hakoda placed his hand over Sokka's shoulder. "We will fight for her. Azula has done so much for the Water Tribe and has been instrumental in our alliance. If she were not around, we would not be unified...and it would be a loss if we let her go."

"My apologies," Anouk said.

Like the rare flower in the ice lands, known to wilt under the cold, Bao remembered seeing Sokka's and the former princess' bond bloom.

For the most part, Azula and Sokka couldn't see one another during the day because of their busy schedules. People questioned their quiet demeanors, especially when it came to Sokka, who had built a reputation with his charm and boisterous nature.

Bao almost thought that his nephew and the princess were just friends. Until he began spotting them alone near the abandoned vessel, far from the village, bare and tongue tied near a makeshift camp fire.

After that, Bao paid close attention to the light touches they shared. The way Sokka kept his hand on the small of his wife's back, Azula reaching over to wipe something off his lips or how Sokka was adamant about Azula being guarded by three warriors when she left to a neighboring village this morning.

This revelation made Bao's recent efforts a bit more difficult.

He looked through the crowd, spotting Koah, whose dark eyes flickered as he walked up towards Bao.

On his way out, he stopped to whisper in Bao's ear, "Three days."


"Good morning, my love."

Ty-Lee watched her mother walk into her guest bedchambers. Ta-Min looked dolled up in red and gold silk. Ty-Lee had on a thinned white slip. The gold snaked mirror standing on the vanity reflected her bruised body. The king wanted her last night.

When Ty-Lee didn't respond, Ta-Min walked to ivory doors leading into Ty-Lee's eighteen hundred square feet closet, a size just as big as her simple bedchamber.

All gowns tailored by Royal Plaza's finest costumiers covered each crevice, with glittering heels aligning long shelves that stretched over white walls. Ta-Min yanked the garment bag she put there last night, slipping past Ty-Lee to dump it on her soiled four poster bed.

Ta-Min whistled for two maids to enter the chambers. They came with white washcloths and scented oils. Their deep pockets had soap and scrubs, everything Ty-Lee needed to put on a new face and start her day.

"No," Ty-Lee murmured. "I can dress myself."

The maids froze.

"You are the wife of the Phoenix King, Ty-Lee. He rules the entire world. You will have his son, just as the Fire Sages predicted and you will be glad your father gave you to him. Lord Ozai adores you-"

"You don't need to tell me that again," Ty-Lee said. "Now get out."

"How dare you speak to me that way?"

"Leave."

In another time when she'd been younger, she would not have said these things. But she grew older and richer. Born into a family of six girls, she ran away to the circus to escape her home only to find out the world she roamed freely had turned into a cage.

Her mother reluctantly turned. Ty-Lee stared at the stunned maids setting up.

"You can leave too."

Ta-Min opened the double doors but froze at the masked figure in front of her. Ty-Lee didn't react to Illah like everyone else in the palace did.

"Excuse me."

Her mother left with the other maids, careful to step around the personal guard. Once their steps faded, Ty-Lee watched the young girl amble inside.

Illah removed her mask, revealing darker skin, golden eyes and a soft smile.

"Father, just sent me on my first mission," Illah said, walking to sit on the edge of Ty-Lee's bed. "I'm not nervous but I didn't think-"

"You deserve it."

Illah nodded. Ty-Lee's chest tightened. She wanted to pray at that moment, even when she didn't believe in the Phoenix King's Agni and old fire sages.

Sometimes, there came a point where Ty-Lee could make a clear difference between Azula and the girl. Azula had always been cold and calculated about her actions, no matter how vicious they seemed.

Illah was the exact opposite.'


Azula sighed as Sokka pecked the corner of her lips before he kissed her.

She had a long day today, treating two patients along with one who needed an amputation from a nasty bite by a polar bear. The patient unfortunately suffered from an infection in the leg, and Katara needed her to cut it off with a fire blade.

Azula put Sokka's guards to good use holding the man down.

She left the session sweaty and tired, satisfied when the man's wife put him to rest with crushed pepper berries. Once she returned home, she jumped into Sokka's arms when she found him alone at the watchtower.

"I missed you today..." he murmured, palming her waist while she sat on his lap. The small tub they sat in stayed warm. "...and your bending too. I had a horrible bath this morning."

She laughed, sharing another kiss with him. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Do you have to keep working with Katara?"

"It's been my only job since I came here," Azula murmured. "I like helping her tend to the ill, even when I don't get to do it much."

"I'm getting jealous."

She smirked. "You don't have the balls to tell your sister that."

"Stop acting as if I'm actually terrified of her!"

"You scream anytime she gets to train with you."

"No I don't!" Sokka scowled. "I yell. Men yell."

Azula laughed, her body trembling in the warm waters. She didn't notice Sokka staring at her in a way that made her quiet down. He took her chin, drawing her face forward for another numbing kiss. She palmed his hardened chest, tracing small scars and a rigged three-lined one that cut diagonally on his chest.

"What? Do I laugh funny?"

Sokka grinned. "No. You sound beautiful."

A bear lion wandered in the ice lands and took refuge in a cave. It was cold, starving and suffering from a slow death. Azula never knew how a creature from places like the Earth Kingdom ended up here, but the lion took Sokka by surprise once he entered the cave to hunt a seal. The lion mauled him so badly that it took ten men to take it off him.

She and Katara had worked day and night to heal him, with the other woman closing most of the wounds with three buckets of water while Azula burned off the wounds that still oozed blood. This happened three days after Katara discovered her ability to heal.

"I'll keep you warm tonight, " Azula said.

"Oh really? I've got conditions."

"You're lucky I can stand you enough to mind your conditions."

Their deep breaths filled the hut. Azula moaned when Sokka's hands dipped in the waters in between her legs. She suddenly remembered what she wanted to tell him all week, but couldn't get a chance to. Sokka had left so early in the morning to head out. All she remembered was his quiet whisper and kiss on her cheeks before he disappeared.

"I have something to tell you,"

Sokka pulled back, his blue eyes hazy. "We're not talking about your father."

Azula scoffed. "You spoiled the moment. It wasn't him by the way."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Shut up, before I boil you in this tub."

Sokka's lips clamped shut. Azula leaned down to kiss his nose. "We're having a baby,"

"What?"

Three years spent in the Southern Water Tribe had been the best thing that ever happened to her, but she'd lived and settled with Katara's diagnosis about her being barren for so long, certain she could live with it.

And at a time where it's dangerous for her to have a child, Azula found herself stunned when Katara explained why she fainted during their morning training session two weeks ago and vomited each time she smelled something 'funny' on their job trips.

Her voice trembled as she said, "Sokka, say something."

"I'm thinking."

"What the blazes could you possibly be thinking about?!"

Sokka's lips lifted in a wide grin. "Names."

She let him lean forward to take her lips.

"How about Kya?" she asked.

"Nah, Katara's got dibs on that one."

She scoffed. "Noatak…for a boy."

"Nice, but I got a feeling it's a she."

Azula hummed. Sokka grasped her cheeks.

"I got a better one," he murmured, letting his nose touch hers.

"What would it be?"

"Ursa."

Azula wasn't sure if she still remembered her mother, but she heard more than once that she had typical Hir'ra features. When her mother left the palace, she did not know that Azula had been awake and felt the kiss on her cheek. Azula awoke the next morning, lost in her mother's fading jasmine scent.

"Hey, come on…" He leaned up to wipe her tears, kissing her forehead before pulling her into a tight hug. "We'll be okay, I promise."

She sniffed, still gazing at him. "I'd do anything to keep this with you. Anything…but I truly am terrified-"

"I know, but I'm not going to sit down and let him ruin anything, especially after you've just told me you're giving me my first child."

Azula looked away, rolling her eyes the more he tightened his hold, "Look at me."

She did.

"We'll be fine. I got you."

"...alright."

Sokka stole her lips, silencing her as he reverted back to touching her under the waters. The water heated up. When he lifted her hips to enter her slowly, she moaned through the kiss, shuddering when he took her hips and set her against the edge.

The last cold winds dissipated in the hut.


Ty-Lee kept her hands in her robes, watching the girl just as a mother turtleduck to her ducklings would do. Illah had a private coronation, as Ozai wanted. He sat by her side, whereas Ty-Lee squirmed.

The fire sage took the golden crown from a flamed podium. Illah sat on her knees while the man gave it to three maids, who represented the three prongs on the piece.

"Ozai, firelord to our nation for ten years, Phoenix King forever more. You are father of the great Azulon and Avatar Roku's grandchildren, husband of Ursa and Ty-Lee, conqueror in the Hundred Years War and the Great Battle of Ba Sing Se. We crown this child today in acknowledgement of her right to the throne. She will succeed her new legitimate father, King Ozai, ruler of the world."

Illah wore the crown.

Other sages and politicians repeated the same. Ty-Lee watched Zhao stand in the shadows with his arms folded. She knew what he and the rest of the nation thought.

Ozai took Illah and her father off the streets of Fire Fountain City's auction post. Soon, her father died from an illness in the palace, leaving the child alone. Because of her growing erratic and violent behavior, Ozai threw her into a pit with twenty other training boys. Illah killed three boys before the rest ran off.

She became Ty-Lee's personal guard, then Ozai's favorite accomplice and loyal servant. Now, she was Ozai's heir, the safest one out of the true heirs.

Ozai rose.

"I proclaim you princess of the Fire Nation and lieutenant general of this fleet," he announced. Ty-Lee didn't hear any noises from the crowd. "I trust that you will serve me well, especially on this mission."

Illah bowed, her forehead touching marbled floors. "Yes, my king."

Next, she looked up to Ty-Lee, who smiled in her direction.

"Hail Princess Illah!" the crowd chanted.

Ty-Lee clasped her hands together.

Kiyi. Her name is Kiyi.


Important Author's Note –

First off, wow. I really want thank everyone who reviewed, favorited and followed. I know, it's been long before I updated but i was editing the story. It would take time to update but that's why I will post long chapters. Thank you Alex, jimmix, Alex the Digital HellReaper, , vienx.001, RDF-73, BlueLion, tacaloking, and Finally An Available Username. I don't intend to leave this story. It's just that the editing part of the chapters takes a bit to finish.

Thank you so muchriatheriver, for reaching out to help beta the chapter! Thank you to Timebomber for finding the time to look over this for me.

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