GOODBYE

Ty Lee does not want to say goodbye.

In so many ways. She has a half-dead girl lying in her bed, a girl who showed up while snow gathered on the trees. Ty Lee does not know what pushed them together. Azula probably has a thousand eyes out there that are loyal to her still, loyal to an empire that is too old to fall so fast.

She does everything she can.

Azula does not say much.

"Don't leave me again," Ty Lee says softly. "Don't leave me again. I guess I left you a couple times and I guess it's kind of mutual and stuff, but you can't go without saying goodbye again."

"If I never say goodbye, that means I'm definitely coming back. Keep that in mind." It is the most coherent thing Azula has said since she showed up this afternoon.

Ty Lee manages to walk out of the room. She cries.

She cries all night long, and as the moon is high in the sky, she dresses herself and walks out into the snow. Her trip to the pretty little luck spirit temple doesn't take very long, and it goes by like a blur when her head is elsewhere.

Ty Lee cuts off her braid.

Azula lives.