Ty Lee didn't move when she finally woke, didn't risk inhaling deeply or shifting her eyelids. It was a dream, it was a dream, it had to be a dream-

"Trying a variation of Zuko's 'Azula always lies' mantra, are you?" A cool, smirking voice drowned out her thoughts, sent her heart racing. "It didn't work for him when we were kids, and it won't make a difference for you now. I'd use power of persuasion, but why bother when the proof is... right in front of you?" There was a light clack of a wooden bowl being set down in front of her closed eyelids, and a waterskin touched her lips. "Drink, then eat. You've been asleep another two days since you passed out again. Your body will fester and fade without fuel. I know you're awake. Have you forgotten who taught you everything you know about stealth?"

She didn't move. She couldn't. After twenty years... and of course, her attitude hadn't changed at all. Ty Lee could feel a fresh throbbing at the base of her skull. She didn't remember how-

And then, she did. Right after Azula took off the mask- Zuko's mask- Ty Lee had reflexively tried to chi-block her. Of course, Azula had anticipated that.

"You could've set me down a bit gentler." She tried to keep her tone indifferent, to keep the shock out of her voice. She was so dehydrated that the words came out as a feeble croak.

"Not much motivation to be gentle, when your first reaction was to attack your rescuer. Which, of course, raises the question: why did I come to your rescue, anyway?" The voice sounded childishly smug for a moment. The leather neck of the waterskin rapped her lips. "Drink."

Gritting her teeth, Ty Lee opened her eyes, snatched the waterskin away and guzzled from it. She kept her gaze on the wall, where the firelight was throwing grotesque shadows. One of them circled around the fire and dropped into a sitting position.

"And now, you're too afraid to even look at me. Have I really become that terrifying?" The voice chuckled. "Not what I was going for, but it's nice to know I haven't lost it. At least my face is still the same, unlike poor Zuzu's. Are you still that timid teenager, so afraid of offending anyone because you just have to make friends with everyone, even your enemies?"

Ty Lee set down the half-empty waterskin, pushed herself carefully upright, and took a deep breath. Then she turned. Azula was sitting upright on her heels, the same pose the Fire Lord traditionally held when sitting on their throne. Her clothes- mostly made of yeti-ibex hide- were worn out, but serviceable. The odd knife she had used to kill Takeo's scouts hung in a sheath on her belt, along with several small, leather pouches. The Noh mask of the Blue Spirit lay beside her.

"How did you get that?" Ty Lee blurted out, then wanted to kick herself. She was finally face-to-face with her childhood friend, the one who had given her nightmares for five years after she disappeared, and the first thing she asked about was a stupid mask?

Azula didn't seem surprised, though. She lifted the painted and polished piece of wood so that the firelight reflected off its' bronze-ringed eyeholes. "When we took Ba Sing Se, I had the Dai Li dredge Lake Laogai before we went home. The... treatment they used on Joo Dee could have been very useful, in Father's hands. It would have ensured no one ever challenged the Fire Nation again."

Ty Lee felt her stomach turn. All too well, she remembered the blank, dead eyes of the young woman Azula had installed as her puppet over Ba Sing Se. "That's... how they held control."

"Precisely. I was a bit surprised that they never bothered to use that technique on their Fire Nation war prisoners. Then again, given how often that idiot Long Feng underestimates his opponents, it's no wonder he only ever used it on his own people. Anyway, the Dai Li had a facility beneath the lake. Unfortunately, after the Avatar discovered their little trick, they flooded it and damaged it beyond repair; Long Feng was too hasty about trying to hide his treachery from the Earth King." Azula ran her long, pointed nails over the surface of the mask. "I did find this, not far from the shore, though. Recognized it right away, but I wasn't really interested in finding out why Zuzu decided to toss it in the lake."

"And of course, returning it to Zuko would be completely beyond you." Ty Lee heard a snide bit of sarcasm enter her own voice, then clamped her mouth shut. Azula's golden gaze snapped from the mask to her face in an instant.

"Why would I have given this to Zuzu?" Azula smirked. "I figured I'd use it to play a joke or two on him and Mai when we got home, but then he betrayed us and joined the Avatar before I got the chance. Besides, he stole it from me originally, the day his exile began."

Ty Lee frowned. "I never saw you wear that when we were kids-"

"It was a gift from my mother." Azula replied curtly, her tone clearly indicating that the subject needed to change. "It was the only thing I ever got from her that seemed too... depressing to burn."

Ty Lee looked away, lifting the waterskin to her mouth and draining it. She'd occasionally seen Azula's difficult relationship with her mother Ursa during their childhood, and it was one of many reasons she had pitied her friend. Ursa had always given most of her love and affection to Zuko... if only to compensate, because Ozai's cruelty toward his son had began years before he scarred Zuko's face.

By contrast, Azula had never been abused by her mother, but Ursa's showering favor on Zuko had darkened her aura. And rather than trying to mentor Azula as she did her firstborn child, Ursa frequently shut her daughter down whenever she said something tactless or malicious. No wonder she'd been drawn to the one family member who didn't shun her for being herself; it was just that that person turned out to be a power-hungry megalomaniac. But, still... Azula had kept the Blue Spirit mask, all these years. It couldn't just be to remind her that her mother 'thought she was a monster'.

"You could have just followed Zuko when he was in exile, and taken the mask back. That would have been easy enough for you to accomplish, even on your own."

Azula gave Ty Lee a look of contempt. "That would have shown attachment. Attachments are a weakness, as Zuko proved by stealing it in the first place; he was trying to get even with me for all the things I stole from him over the years. That dagger our uncle gave him, Father's approval, his position as heir to the throne."

"But why not burn the mask anyway?" Ty Lee tried to use a scornful tone, but her voice betrayed her curiosity. "If you really saw it as a weakness, you would have cut it out a long time ago."

"Because I'm not the same person you faced before-" Azula abruptly cut herself off, her eyes swiveling to the cave wall. She hastily turned back to the fire, but her head cocked to one side, as if listening for something. Ty Lee glanced in the direction of the entrance, but she couldn't hear anyone approaching. She turned back to Azula and opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, when the Princess suddenly hissed, "Don't you dare lecture me on how one should and shouldn't treat their peers."

Ty Lee flinched. Azula's features weren't as gaunt and haggard, as they had been in the asylum. In fact, except for her slightly hollowed cheeks, she looked perfectly healthy. But her voice suddenly became harsh and guttural; a wild, unfocused look entered her eyes, one Ty Lee had seen before, and her aura flared a poisonous, purple shade. Whatever the last twenty years had done to her former friend, it seemed that her mind hadn't completely recovered. Ty Lee decided to play along, to see if Azula would reveal more.

"I wasn't implying anything-"

"What are you talking about? You didn't say anything, just sat there with your mouth hanging open. Same as the last time." Azula's voice had already reverted back to its' usual light, mocking tone. Ty Lee was startled by how fast she switched back, but her resentment at the dismissive insult overrode her caution. She pushed herself fully upright, shrugging off the blanket.

"Depends on what you mean by 'the last time.'" A voice at the back of her head was telling her it was suicide to goad Azula like this, but she couldn't stop herself. "Do you mean when I knocked you down at the Boiling Rock, or when I wheeled you out of the insane asylum a year later? Or, was it when you attacked us in the Capital, with your little posse of Kemurikage impostors? And here you are, still clinging to that stupid mask, still clinging to the fiction that your mother is afraid of you. Looks like the other way around, from where I'm sitting-"

Azula's golden gaze instantly snapped back to Ty Lee. Her hand twitched, and the flames between them turned blue and flared a foot higher. Ty Lee raised her arm hastily to shield her face from the burst of heat.

"Don't push your luck, Ty." The Princess' voice became dangerously soft. "Don't make me regret saving you out there."

Ty Lee swallowed and glanced away, picking a strip of meat from the wooden bowl and chewing on it. Inhaling deeply through her nose, she willed herself to sit still, and meet Azula's unblinking eyes. She hadn't felt fear during her capture on the mountainside or when she'd been facing death, only rage and grief for Jeonsa. She couldn't show any fear now, couldn't surrender to the control Azula held over her through childhood and adolescence. If Ty Lee gave in to that, all of Suki's training was for nothing.

And besides, Azula's last remark had reminded her of something. "Why did you attack those scouts? Better yet, what are you doing in the Air Nomad lands?"

Azula looked pensive for a moment- an unusual expression, for her face. "...As far as your second question, I've done my fair share of traveling the world since our last encounter in the Capital. These mountains seemed a reasonable stop to make-"

"Fine, don't tell me the truth. You weren't going to anyway, were you?" Ty Lee let scorn enter her voice, even though she knew it was dangerous. She braced herself for an explosive response as she continued. "Zuko was only partly wrong when he said you always lie- you do sometimes tell the truth, but only when it gives you more advantage than a lie."

Azula didn't seem offended by this remark; instead, her mouth curved into a smile, as if flattered. "By that logic or otherwise, I've never had to lie to you, Ty. I might have left some things unsaid, but you were always sensible enough to figure them out. Use the logic Mai and I gave you, and figure this out. What could I be doing near a mutinous Fire Nation fort, on the eve of my brother's little showdown with a renegade General?"

Ty Lee froze. There was only one way Azula would know about Zuko's conflict with Takeo... and when it was happening. "You're with him. He's using his defiance of Zuko as a cover to restore you to the throne."

Azula threw up her hands. "Finally! The coin drops."

"But even by that logic... again, you killed almost a score of your own troops, just to save me. Why?"

"'Always keep your enemies confused, turning on each other, ignorant of your designs.' Grandfather Azulon taught me that, before he was reduced to a doddering old fool."

"So which enemy are you trying to confuse at this point? Zuko, me... or Takeo?"

An enigmatic smile flickered across Azula's lips. "...You're catching on. But since you've been asking all the questions so far, I think it's my turn, now. What were you doing around Omori?"

"What, you're gonna torture me if I don't answer?" Ty Lee felt her muscles tense involuntarily. She wouldn't last long, that was her one consolation.

"Relax. I don't need to know. Though, I can guess well enough: Mai's having you do her dirty work for her, now that she and Zuzu are busy with my brat of a niece?" Azula chuckled as Ty Lee sputtered angrily. "I've been watching the passes around Omori for days, making my own considerations for the upcoming battle. I'm guessing you were doing the same thing, for another faction. You really haven't changed that much, after all: you've just exchanged one master for another."

"Mai's not my master, she's my friend." Ty Lee narrowed her eyes. "She doesn't threaten or coerce me."

"She's still the one giving the orders, and you're the one following. Rather the way things were between us, if you recall. So what's changed? You're still a puppet, letting others do the thinking for you-"

"At least I'm not a prisoner in my own mind." Ty Lee cut her off. "When you fought Zuko during your little Kemurikage uprising, you told him your mind was clearer than ever. But you never really healed, did you? You still see things that aren't really there, things that frighten you, even though you'll never admit it."

Azula's eyes flashed, like an oven door opening, but this time she didn't reply. Her gaze was unfocused again; her left hand raised slowly, a sapphire-colored fire dagger hovering over her fist. Ty Lee tensed, but the Princess didn't attack. Her eyes were fixated on the same patch of cave wall as before. Then, just as her fist was level with her shoulder, her fingers uncurled, and the dagger dissipated. After a pause, Azula slowly turned back to Ty Lee.

"...What?"

"Who is it that you see, when you're lost in your own mind?" Ty Lee blurted out, though she thought she knew the answer.

Azula stared into the flames. "Ursa." She whispered, after a long pause. "But she's not the weakness she once was; she's just a distraction, and I can see right through her. I can see right through her." The last words were repeated in a rapid whisper, more to herself than to Ty Lee.

"Would you like to see her? The real her, not the one in your head." Ty Lee leaned forward. "She's not in hiding anymore-"

"I know perfectly well where she is." Azula cut her off harshly. She drew her long knife and began slicing a strip of meat from the roast. "I saw her years ago, when Zuko and I went looking for her. She had a new face, a new life and a new child, none of which interested me."

"You saw the person she was disguised as, to keep herself safe from your father." Ty Lee interrupted. "She was still herself, underneath. The Kao no Okasan spirit restored her features and her memories, just after you fled. She looks the way she did when she was banished-"

"Are you trying to goad me into hunting her down?" Azula hissed angrily. "Because that's what I plan to do, if I come face-to-face with her again. The only reason I didn't kill Ursa in Hira'a was because her new face didn't have any connection to my life. When Zuko and I first went hunting for her, I thought I could get her out of my head, for good, if I cut her down. But because she'd already given up her own face, her own memories to that spirit, I thought I didn't need to anymore." She sucked in a deep breath. "I was... half-right. She doesn't come to me as often as before, but she's still a distraction. Because the last time I saw her, the real her... we both had different features."

Ty Lee nodded slowly. "...You saw her again when you came to the Capital, didn't you? Except that time she couldn't see your face, because you were hiding behind a Kemurikage mask."

"It had to be one she wouldn't recognize." Azula shrugged, glancing at the Noh mask lying by her feet.

"That's funny... because most of the time you were in the Capital, all Ursa would ask about was you."

"Because she was afraid of me-"

"Spirits, Azula, stop it!" Ty Lee snapped. "She was never afraid of you, she was afraid of Ozai, and what he did to you and Zuko! But she isn't afraid of him anymore, and you don't have to be either. You could come to the Capital and see her-"

"Enough." Azula cut her off. "You think I'm a fool enough to go to the Capital now, when I'm at the cusp of victory?"

Ty Lee scoffed. "I could never change your mind, Azula; I'm just giving you other choices. I doubt anyone's ever tried to give you options, probably because you scare them too much. It was always you changing other people's minds, not the other way around. Zuko, me, the Dai Li, your Kemurikage cohorts... all the people you ever forced into submission through fear or cunning." A thought ran through her head. "You're probably planning to double-cross Takeo in some way or another after all this plays out, aren't you? The same way you betrayed Long Feng in Ba Sing Se."

Azula grinned. "Oh, you don't know the half of it, Ty. And you certainly won't be learning anymore from me." She pulled the wooden pot and bark cups from a nook in the cave wall. Removing a sprig of herbs from a pouch on her belt, she began shredding them into the cups. "This tea will help us get a reasonable amount of sleep before we start off tomorrow. We can't move right now, the storm hasn't broken yet."

"I'm not going anywhere with you-"

"Suit yourself. I won't force you." Azula waved her hand dismissively as she walked toward the mouth of the cave. "You were always a survivor, before. What did those Kiyoshi women teach you about surviving alone, injured in a mountain cave, near the winter solstice?" She swept a clump of snow into the pot with her arm, then held her other hand underneath it, conjuring blue flames to melt the snow into water. "One thing I have enjoyed about my years in exile, alone: the choices that the wilderness gives you are so simple. Survival, or death: these are always the only answers. If Zuko had spent his exile alone, as I did, without Iroh plodding after him, he might have learned that."

Within minutes, the water had come to a boil. Azula half-filled both cups, then approached Ty Lee, set a cup in front of her, and drained her own. "You'll have to learn the same lesson quickly enough, if you choose not to come with me tomorrow."

Ty Lee woke with a start. The fire was a pile of dying coals, and the cave had become bitterly cold. Raising her head, she saw the faint outline of Azula on the other side of the coals, wrapped in her cloak. She lay curled on her side, facing the wall. Her legs were bent slightly, as if ready to spring into battle straight from her sleep. Given her behavior earlier, that was probably something that happened often.

If Ty Lee was going to explore her escape options, now was the time. She hadn't drunk Azula's tea, so her head was clear, but whether Azula really was sedated or not, she would need to move quickly but silently. She pulled down her boot, made sure the Dai Li tassel was still there, then examined her ankle. It was still a bit swollen, but she managed to stand upright and put weight on it. Healed enough to walk, but not run. Her side and head were feeling better, too, but her arm still hurt like Hell. She wasn't in shape enough to fight if the Princess or the rebels caught up with her, but she could find another hiding spot and stay there... perhaps long enough to somehow signal one of the Fire Nation airships.

Gritting her teeth, she dragged herself across the floor as quietly as she could to her sword and travel gear, then hobbled toward the cave entrance. But one glance outside, and she realized her hope was futile. If there were any landmarks on the slopes nearby, they were impossible to see through the whiteout of the storm; it was so dark, and so near the solstice, that she couldn't tell how close it was to dawn. She would freeze long before she got anywhere near Omori or the Kiyoshi encampment- assuming Azula didn't track her down first.

But strangely, Ty Lee wasn't overwhelmed by her old fear of Azula. Part of it was more than a decade of rigorous training and discipline under Suki. But more importantly, the Princess seemed more interested in talking with her than anything else. Her attitude was the same as before, but the old Azula wouldn't have bothered to provide food and shelter for someone who she knew was working against her. Would she?

If Azula wanted her gone, she could have simply left her to die on the slope with Jeonsa, or not rescued her from the rebels to begin with. Indeed, Ty Lee was still dependent on her for... nearly everything. If she was going to warn Zuko, waiting for the right opportunity was the only option, for now. The rebels in Omori had been wrong; Neutral Jing was not a tactic just for Earthbenders.

Ty Lee hobbled back to the firepit and held out her hands, but the coals' feeble warmth wasn't enough. She paused, then glanced at the space between Azula's back and the fire-pit. Insane even to think about, but bodily warmth was something she'd used with her Kiyoshi comrades before, and she knew it worked. Azula twitched in her sleep, inhaling sharply; her herbal tea was keeping her asleep, but not at peace. Had she ever been at peace, really? Not while Ty Lee had known her, but maybe in her earlier years, before Ozai's influence became too strong...

Shivering, Ty Lee laid her katana and gear against the wall again, dropped to her hands and knees, and slowly wiggled into the narrow space. Immediately, she felt warmer. As she was arranging her hide-blanket around her shoulders, her elbow accidentally bumped Azula's left shoulder blade.

The Princess let out a sharp gasp, her body twisting sideways, her hands raising automatically in a defensive position. Without thinking, Ty Lee reached out and wrapped her fingers gently around Azula's wrists. She should have remembered, from all those childhood years spent sparring; Azula was always more protective of her left side. As the other woman struggled, hyperventilating, Ty Lee pressed herself lightly against her back, silently begging the Spirits not to let her Firebend in the confined space. She might collapse the cave on them both.

As Azula jerked sideways, nearly rolling both of them into the fire-pit, Ty Lee found her chin pressed into the hollow of her shoulder, her lips next to her ear. "Shhh, shhh." She whispered softly, as if to a child. "It's all right, shhh."

After what seemed like an age, Azula's hands began to relax, but her breathing still seemed a bit fast; perhaps she was awake, wondering what on earth was going on. Ty Lee wasn't sure about that herself. She could feel adrenaline surging through her veins, but Azula didn't seem about to attack. They hadn't been this physically close since... well, the Kemurikage crisis didn't make a happy parallel. She reached out to touch a silky lock of the dark hair, her fingers working it into the shape of a tress-

Azula had her left wrist in an iron grip instantly, heat pulsing through her fingertips. Her head turned slowly, until she was facing Ty Lee; her eyes were open. "I don't wear it like that anymore."

Ty Lee winced as she pulled her injured hand free. She felt a sense of disappointment as she moved away from Azula, around the fire. "Shame. I always thought it made you look happier- even in battle."

"Why would I be happy about something that reminds me of the past?" Azula replied curtly. She sat up, shook the cloak off her shoulders and reached for a few sticks of wood, which she tossed into the fire-pit. "Especially if it's associated with you, in any way. I certainly don't need a reminder of my greatest mistake."

"Your greatest mistake?" Ty Lee raised an eyebrow. "So, the great perfectionist admits she 'miscalculated?'"

Azula's eyes flashed, and a tongue of blue flame leaped from her fingertip to the wood. "You think repeating Mai's taunts gives them any weight? My 'miscalculation' was in ever trusting either of you."

"You had every reason to trust us, right up until that moment. If you'd actually opened up to us at Ember Island, you would have understood why-"

"What, and give you a weapon to use on me later?"

"You're only paranoid about that because it was your favorite way of tormenting Zuko." Ty Lee sighed, pressing her fingers to her forehead. "When we last saw each other in the Capital, you punched me in the jaw-"

"Self-defense is a fairly automatic response, when an attacker is trying their best to to chi-block you." Azula cut her off. "Which is exactly what you were trying to do, at the time...rather like two nights ago when I took the mask off. That's not counting the two times you chi-blocked me while I was in restraints. I imagine that was an amusing reversal for you? To have me completely at your mercy? Or was that just a pathetic attempt to re-live the sensation of when you betrayed me at the Boiling Rock? It's not paranoia if it's based on experience."

Ty Lee flinched. She should have known that would come up, sooner or later. "I'll admit, I felt guilty for almost two years after the Boiling Rock. I even wanted to apologize to you, but at first I didn't know if you were lucid enough to recognize it, and later you were gone-"

"Excuses."

"Yes, fair enough. But if you're expecting me to recant what I did at the Boiling Rock, the answer is still no. I wouldn't have acted differently. Unless you had left me a choice."

"You had a choice, the same one I gave you when I got you out of that circus." Azula glared at her. "I needed you to have my back at any cost, or be gone."

Ty Lee reddened slightly, then shook her head."You were going to kill Mai-"

"Of course I was!" Azula roared. Once again, the flames turned blue and flared twice as high. "She helped Zuko escape, she refused to fear me! I had no further use for her. You had no further use for her."

"Use?!" Ty Lee spat. "She was your friend, Azula, not an object or a slave! We were both your friends, your only friends. We were loyal without you having to browbeat us-"

"Only as long as you feared me. Once that variable was removed, your loyalty was worthless, as you both demonstrated."

Ty Lee looked down. "...Not true."

She felt Azula's sharp index fingernail press into her chin, lifting her face until she was staring into those hypnotic golden eyes again. "What was that?"

Ty Lee swallowed. She hadn't felt fear, when the rebels captured her. Now... she remembered why she had followed Azula in the first place, why she had been forced to make her choice, and why she still carried the guilt. "You're right, I did fear you. Mai feared you too, though not as much as I did. And you played on that fear to control me, the one time I ever turned you down." She searched Azula's eyes for any hint of remorse, but her expression was indifferent, waiting for the next bit of information.

"But... that wasn't the only reason I was willing to follow you, when you came to the circus." Ty Lee took a deep breath. "Do you remember our second year at the Academy, when we were nine?"

Azula scoffed, letting go of her chin. "It was the year after Father took the throne. You really think I forgot that?"

Ty Lee nodded. "That first day of class, you rode the palanquin to the grounds rather than walking, like you did in our first year." Azula stiffened, and Ty Lee felt her aura turn jet-black. "When you stepped off, and one of the silk hangings brushed your left shoulder... you flinched. I'd never seen you flinch, before." She took another deep breath. "I knew you too well to ask about something that you would see as a weakness, and Mai was too busy studying to even notice. But... you were hurt, physically hurt, and badly. I knew that was impossible, in a fair fight; no one your age could have hurt you, and no one older would have been stupid enough to try. Your mother was gone by then, and only one person could have been punishing you-"

"Correcting me." Azula cut her off, curtly. Her eyes had a glassy, dead expression, no longer focused on Ty Lee's face. "He was correcting my weakness. I showed weakness after Mother fled. I cried, because she didn't say goodbye to me the way she did to Zuko. She helped kill our grandfather to keep Zuko safe, and then she disappeared in the night without a word. Later I cried, and he found out." She turned her face toward the wall. "Father gave me the same offer he would give Zuko, two years later. Except that because my weakness hadn't been public, the Agni Kai didn't need to be public, either, so no one knew about it. Unlike my brother, I wasn't weak or foolish enough to refuse a fight, even if I lost." Her fingers undid the leather laces of her jacket's collar and left sleeve. As she pulled them back from her shoulder, the firelight caught a burn scar, stretching along her upper back.

Ty Lee felt her stomach turn. Challenging a thirteen-year-old to a Fire Duel for interrupting a meeting was brutal enough. Challenging a nine-year-old for crying? After losing their mother, probably forever?

"Needless to say, it didn't happen again." Azula continued, but her eyes were still alarmingly glassy, as if she was trying to shut down any sort of emotion. She yanked her jacket back into place, pulling the laces hastily through the holes. "I could have warned Zuzu about that, before he interrupted the war meeting two years later. But of course, by then he only listened to our fat old uncle, not to me."

"I always knew something was wrong." Ty Lee whispered. She felt her throat tightening with pity as she imagined what Azula had gone through. Her mother gone without a word when she was nine, a brother who had always been a rival, a father who praised her only when she was perfect and burned her if she was anything less. "I wanted to help you, Azula, I always did. But I didn't know how-"

"Of course you didn't." Azula snapped, turning back toward her. "You were a nine-year-old airhead who was trying to separate yourself from six siblings by constantly being cheerful."

"Yeah, and after you brushed me off enough times I knew you didn't want my pity. But when you came to me five years later, at the circus, I thought I might have another chance to reach out to you. Instead, you strong-armed me into joining you and Mai to hunt for the Avatar." Ty Lee locked eyes with Azula. "But even if you'd left the circus without threatening me, I'd probably have come after you in a day or two. I pitied you for your suffering, yes, but I was also fascinated by you. How strong and relentless and brilliant you were. And I saw that there was another side of you, too. The side you let us get a glimpse of on Ember Island, even if it was only for a moment, even if you pretended it didn't exist. I wanted that side to get stronger, too. I wanted to help you, because I loved you, Azula. I didn't really care whether the Fire Nation won the war, but I would have kept helping you and loving you, to the end... if you hadn't been about to kill Mai. You forced me into an impossible choice, because I loved her, too. You can't force someone to choose between two people they love, not if it ends with one of them dead. And there was no contest between you and Mai, even at the height of her skill. You didn't need me to 'have your back'."

"Oh, how I wish that had been the case." Azula's eyes narrowed angrily, but she looked away again. "Those visions of Mother... they started right after I put you and Mai in the Boiling Rock."

"I'm sorry." Ty Lee felt the corners of her eyes getting hot. "I know that's long overdue, so I don't expect you to accept it... or understand it. And I don't expected you to apologize in return. I wouldn't have acted differently, but still... I'm sorry. I wanted to help you, and all I did was hurt you further by coming with you." She waited for a scathing response, but Azula stayed silent. "I...I need to sleep." She started to move away.

Azula's fingers found hers and squeezed them, gently but firmly.

"Ty... will you please stay with me?" Azula's voice was barely a whisper. "The tea helps my body rest, but the dreams it brings..." She broke off. "When you were holding me... it somehow brought me back. Please."

Ty Lee stared at her. She had seen Azula pretend to be weak before, when it gave her an advantage. But there was nothing feigned now. Azula was in pain, real pain... and asking for help. She never asked for help, she always tried to squash whatever problems came her way... or denied them, when they overwhelmed her.

Ty Lee wasn't going to abandon her now. She squeezed back.

"Time to go, Ty."

Ty Lee opened her eyes. The fire was out, but light was coming from the cave entrance. She sat up and turned around. Azula stood at the lip of the cave; a massive raven-eagle with a scarred face was perched on her arm. She plucked a small scroll from its' harness. "News from the battlefront. Not that I'm going to read it to you. If you're coming, collect your gear and I'll help you walk."

Ty Lee looked away. If Azula was going to pretend last night hadn't happened...well, that was entirely like her. She would never allow anyone to find a weakness. She still didn't understand that sometimes it could be worth it to be vulnerable.

Either way, it would never have been enough to distract Ty Lee from her plan. An idea had come to her, in the night. "If I go with you... what guarantee do I have that I'll be safe?"

"No one will hurt you or question you, as long as you're with me. I give you my word."

Ty Lee chuckled, mirthlessly. "And that's worth... what, exactly?"

"Have you really forgotten so quickly?" Azula stroked the bird's neck, then handed it a strip of dried meat. She turned her golden eyes to Ty Lee. "As long as you were with me, when we were hunting the Avatar, no one looked twice at you. I'm the only legitimate claimant left to the throne; Takeo needs me for his plan to succeed, otherwise he and all those fools in Omori are doomed. All the ones who saw you spying are dead, and even if Takeo knew you were there, he wouldn't dare refuse me."

Ty Lee hobbled to the cave entrance, buckling on her gear as she went. As she stepped into the daylight again, she pretended to itch her wrist. Azula might be familiar with most Kiyoshi armor and equipment, but Suki had made upgrades since the war. The wrist gauntlet now included a sparker... and underneath it, strips of wood tipped with rare magnesium, used as signal flares. She slid one from under the gauntlet to the inside of her glove, then dipped her hand into her boot and retrieved the Dai Li tassel. Glancing up the slope, she saw smoke coming from the crack in the cave-roof. She was nowhere near as good a shot as Mai, but that looked within her reach. It was a good thing she was ambidextrous...

"When did you get the eagle?" As she spoke, Ty Lee scanned the skies for any sign of Fire Nation aircraft. But given the storm last night, the balloons probably weren't up yet, and Zuko would keep the airships closer to Omori itself.

"Magnificent, isn't she? I found Natsu when I came back to the Western Air Temple, at the start of my exile." Azula scanned the scroll carefully, then burned it. "She's been my hunting companion, ever since."

She pulled a scrap of paper and a piece of charcoal from her belt and scribbled a message, then slipped it into the eagle's harness. As she turned away to launch Natsu into the air, Ty Lee hastily struck a spark and lit the wooden end of her flare. She lobbed it at the smoke-hole right-handed, at the same time letting the Dai Li tassel fall from her left hand to the ground. The flare landed a few inches from the smoke-hole, then rolled behind a rock. Natsu screeched as she circled away, but when Azula turned back, the smoke was already mingling with the remains of last night's fire.

"You're going to need to help me on the steeper slopes." Ty Lee kept her eyes carefully away from the cave-top, not wanting Azula to follow her gaze. "I won't be able to climb easily with one arm."

"Here." Azula tore a strip off her cloak, fashioned a sling for Ty Lee's left arm, and pulled her right arm over her own shoulders. "We need to get going."

As they turned downhill, away from the cave, Ty Lee breathed easier. When the flames reached the magnesium, it would burn brilliant red... and hopefully, catch the eye of a balloon pilot or a scout. It wouldn't tell them much, but the tassel was something... and it was better than Azula or another enemy finding it on her later.

She wasn't sure if she considered Azula an enemy, now. An unpredictable threat, yes... but also a victim, of her parents, her ancestors and her upbringing. Last night...she had changed, in the last twenty years. If a worst-case scenario happened, if Zuko were forced off the throne, could Azula be convinced to spare him?

Either way, she didn't want to see Azula broken, the way she'd been after Katara had defeated her. Ozai might have claimed the title of "Phoenix King", but it was his daughter who burned as bright as the mythical bird. If she could just be reached, somehow...

"You never told me one thing about the Boiling Rock." Ty Lee blurted out. Azula didn't bother to glance at her, but her eyebrow raised, as if amused. "When Mai defied you, you tried to kill her. When I defied you to protect her, you threw both of us in prison instead."

"Mai was who she was." Azula replied. "I should have known from the beginning there was no way to mold her, but I put that aside; she didn't need to be coerced. She was already willing to embrace her darker nature." Her voice seemed to soften for a moment. "You... you were always mine, from the moment you entered the Academy. You were afraid, but you were always willing to be led, to allow yourself to be expanded, to become something more than the last of seven sisters. You were to me, what that dead Kiyoshi girl was to you. A legacy unto oneself, someone that nobody else could take credit for building up. There was no way I was ever going to kill you."

Taken aback, Ty Lee reddened slightly and glanced away. She didn't know whether to feel flattered or repulsed. "If dominating and bullying me all my life was your idea of 'building me up'-"

"More of Mai and Zuko's words. They never understood, how harshness makes one stronger. And it made you stronger in the end, didn't it, Ty? You were willing to defy me, the most powerful presence in your life. It made Zuko stronger for a while, too, but then he threw it all away after he took my throne. After he decided to find the 'balance' between mercy and ruthlessness." Azula's voice sounded almost sad. "You don't have to make the same mistake as him, Ty. I know you're trying to find a way out, but the choices are the same that they've always have been. Survival, or death."

She gestured in front of them as they came to the edge of a rocky outcrop, overlooking the coastal mountain range. In the hollow between the next two peaks, the armored towers of Omori were just barely visible. Far beyond it on the horizon, a line of dark, rounded shapes were growing larger and larger: Zuko's Air Fleet. Below them at the mouth of the fjord, the Fire Navy was no longer patrolling the coastline. The warships were steaming towards the shore, ready to deploy troops.

Ty Lee frowned. She couldn't have been unconscious long enough for the attack date to be here already... unless Zuko had changed his mind and decided to strike ahead of schedule. Which he probably had, thanks to whatever shady mission the Dai Li were carrying out in Hira'a. Her heart sank; her warning, if anyone found it, would come too late.