What Sokka expects to see when he turns around is the scene that he left behind: Azula gazing at her surroundings with Momo in her lap.
What Sokka does not expect to see is Momo freaking out because Azula is slowly making her way off of Appa's saddle.
He finds himself feeling a little bit grateful for the straight jacket that she was forced to wear making it hard for her to move.
Not wasting another minute, Sokka quickly makes his way over to Azula and pulls her away from the edge of Appa's saddle before she can jump off. Azula struggles in his arms, desperately trying to break free. When they are a safe distance away, Sokka grabs her by the shoulders and makes her look at him. "Azula, please tell me that you weren't just trying to kill yourself. That's not what you were getting ready to do. Right?"
Azula glares at him and shouts "You are not taking me back to the asylum! You all think I belong there and so does mother! I would rather die than go back there!" And it's true, she would rather die. Death seems better to her than hallucinating mother all day, being subjected to who knows how many daily injections that are supposed to "calm her down" and make the hallucinations go away (they only make them worse. She's told those doctors that before and they refuse to listen and insist that she's the crazy one for thinking otherwise) and being forced to wear a straight jacket all day every day. And then there's the doctor who constantly gives her that look whenever he's near her. She doesn't want to go back to any of that.
Apparently she's said all of this out loud, because the three fools in front of her look at her in horror and shock.
"How-how can anyone do that to you? Did you tell Zuko about this? Iroh?" Katara asks. The look that Azula gives her the moment the question is asked has her dreading the answer. Azula chuckles " Do you really think those two care what happens to me? Your brother told you what he witnessed by the cliff, didn't he? Zuzu was prepared to throw me over it. As for his royal, tea loving kookiness, who do you think is responsible for placing me in that hell hole to begin with? When he found out what happened to me, uncle had me put in there and told me that it was for my own good and that I would get the help I needed. He also said that either him or Zuko would come by to check on me. All lies, quite obviously."
" I don't understand." Aang says, shaking his head." You guys are family. How does a family do this to each other?"
" Have you not met my father? "
Well that sure answers the question
" We're definitely talking to Iroh about this. If he and Zuko are so concerned about you getting better, then they need to understand that the asylum isn't the place for that. You need to go somewhere that will actually help you." Sokka says.
Also if they're lucky, hearing Azula's story may just convince them to shut the whole place down. Assuming they don't think that she's lying, that is.
Katara nods " You're right, Sokka. Iroh needs to know that the asy- institution," she corrects herself. Based on Azula's earlier reaction, the word asylum is a trigger, " isn't what he thinks it is. For all we know, Azula isn't the only person that they're doing this to. And if that's the case, then something needs to be done about it." Aang and Sokka both nod at her words.
" Why?" Azula whispers.
" Hmm? What was that?"
" I said 'why?' Why are you all doing this for me? You", she points at Aang," I killed you, or at least I thought I did. I nearly killed your girlfriend during the agni kai with Zuko. I chased you all over the world, with the intention of either capturing you or killing you. So why bother with me?"
Katara, Aang, and Sokka all look at each other, unsure of what to say. It is Katara who finally responds." In the North Pole, during the siege led by admiral Zhao, Zuko kidnapped Aang and attempted to take him back to the Fire Nation. Luckily for us though, there was a blizzard, so Zuko wasn't able to get very far. When we found the two of them, I was able to take Zuko down and knock him out. Sokka and I were prepared to leave him there in the snow, but Aang didn't want to do that. Despite him being our enemy at the time, Aang still thought that Zuko was worth giving a chance to and didn't deserve to just be left there to die. I gave Zuko a chance in Ba Sing Se, when I offered to heal his scar, hoping that would cause him to join us and help defeat you. And finally, when Zuko arrived at the Western Air temple and offered to teach Aang firebending and help us end the war, we were all highly skeptical of that idea for obvious reasons. And yet we decided to give Zuko another chance anyway. That decision led to the end of the war. So if we can give Zuko all of those chances, in spite of everything that he did to us, why can't we do the same for you?"
Azula blinks, bewildered.
"And besides, it's like I told Sokka when we were in that village in the Fire Nation. I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me."