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.

18. Chapter 18

AN: I'm so thrilled I was tooting my own horn just a couple chapters ago about how happy I am about the consistency of these 10000 word chapters and I go and make this one which is easily double that. So, sorry about the bloated length, but I guess I just need to be ready for these things to happen sometime. Hope you all very much enjoy regardless of that!

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Chapter 18: Reunions Part 2

The moment she saw him, Yue could tell that he had been looking for her just as she had been looking for him, but as she and Sokka met eyes, it was clear that neither of them had perhaps thought far enough ahead as to what to do when they actually succeeded in finding one another. Yue had run into Siado after leaving the bridge and as he had spent a little more time than her on the airship, he was able to tell her where the barracks were, and Yue deduced that Sokka might have gone below in an effort to get some rest as Ursa had suggested they all do. She had made it below the main cabins to find them, but after not finding Sokka among them, she had turned to leave only to find him entering the area as well, coming to a complete standstill as they met eyes.

In her head, Yue didn't know what she had wanted to say to him. While Ursa and Katara had been hammering Roku with questions while everyone was aboard the bridge, it had become quite difficult to push his presence far enough back in her mind to focus on what was being said. And even as she had started her search for him afterwards, Yue had been able to think nothing in her head other than that she needed to find him; it was of her thinking that once she found him, the words would come naturally. That was what she kept telling herself even as her body seemed to practically be shivering with anticipation.

Maybe he'll say something else first… I don't know why I'm thinking this is going to be so hard.

It hit her the moment she saw Sokka that she maybe wasn't thinking just about him.

"Hey, Yue," Sokka said and with that casual greeting contrasting with his look of still wide eyed shock, Yue couldn't help but smile. It wasn't possible for her to ignore just how much of a man Sokka had grown into: tall, handsome, muscular and with the start of some clean facial hair, he possessed all the physical elements that Yue had no doubt would make any young woman swoon. But it was the childlike glow in his eyes, that youthful energy that still seemed to practically radiate from him that Yue felt herself drawn to as Sokka matched her smile.

He's still the same boy I was falling in love with.

"Were you looking for me too?" he asked and Yue felt her heart skip a beat almost involuntarily at his words.

"Yeah, I guess I was," she replied and Sokka paused a moment as he looked deep into her eyes.

"You look incredible," he finally said and she could hear that boy in his voice as well. "You're wearing your hair down these days, I see."

It took Yue a moment to react to his words, but as she considered just how completely irrelevant hair styles were at a time like that, she couldn't help but feel that affection she had once felt for him twinge again.

Same old Sokka, catastrophe strikes and he just still tries to add levity.

She opted to join him.

"Are you kidding?" she replied, dragging a set of fingers through her silvery hair that fell over her shoulders and down her back. "Do you know how much of a pain it was to get it all worked up like that? When you're royalty, they never tell you that requires an hour in front of the mirror every day."

Recognizing that his attempt to ease the situation had been accepted, Sokka's smile grew.

"It looks good. You look good," he said, and Yue did her best not to redden in the cheeks. Sokka's smile faltered then and he slowly shook his head.

"I can't believe I'm talking to you again," his voice coming out as barely more than a whisper. "I can't believe I'm seeing you again."

Yue nodded, understanding his shock and disbelief all too well.

"Because of who I was, how I had become partially a spirit so to speak as a result of my ties with the moon spirit, I wasn't so much human that dying meant I was completely removed to the afterlife," she said. "In the spirit world, I couldn't move on entirely, and so I decided to keep my ear pressed to the ground there and when it started to become apparent that an invasion was being planned, Roku approached me and asked for my help."

"Being part spirit and part human," Sokka asked. "Is that how you were able to come back to the physical world as yourself?"

"That's how Roku explained it," Yue replied. "And that's why I've aged physically the same way you have."

"I'll say," Sokka said, giving her a playful look up and down, and Yue laughed along with him. For a perfect moment, they chuckled together before the sound faded into a tinny echo that resounded around the barracks. They looked at one another a second longer before Sokka spoke up again.

"That sword up top… you can really use that thing?"

Yue raised an eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean?"

Sokka threw a look over his shoulder as though comically expecting to see it there behind him.

"I mean, that's one heck of a sword! I don't even know that I could swing around something like that!"

Flicking her eyes briefly to Sokka's biceps, Yue cracked a fresh smile.

I somehow imagine you wouldn't have too much trouble.

"The blade is imbued in spirit energy and as such that makes it more so like it's an extension of my person rather than what it would feel like to you."

"I'd feel it's full weight?"

"Correct."

She raised an eyebrow at him, her smirk persisting.

"But just because I get out of having to manage it's full weight doesn't mean I could take you to the ground right now with ease."

Sokka crossed his arms and gave another hearty chuckle.

"I believe you."

Silence fell between them again and Yue watched as Sokka's smile slowly faded away and the shock in his eyes slowly spread across his whole face.

"Yue… I don't know what to say. I'm…"

He was unable to finish his sentence immediately and gave a great swallow before completing his thought and even then, his words were stilted.

"I'm… I'm sorry I didn't wait for you."

Shaking her head immediately, Yue forced down a swallow of her own.

"You don't mean that."

Sokka's lips drew into a tight line and he looked to be fighting down a great of emotion as Yue suddenly felt so far away from him even though they were merely ten or feet from one another.

"I do. And I'm not trying to say that this has anything to do with Suki. I just want you to know that I… if I had known that you weren't… gone, I don't know that I would have—"

It was then that Yue suddenly realized just how much pain he was in and a wave of guilt washed over her, not unlike the ones she had been dealing with all evening.

"Oh, Sokka, I'm not holding anything against you," she practically moaned. "How could you have known?"

"I just…" Sokka said, suddenly appearing as though he was unable to even look at her, his eyes dropping to his feet. "When this is over… I can't… Yue, I'm sorry. I love Suki and nothing in this world could change how I feel about her."

Feeling almost something like panic flooding her gut, Yue quickly walked towards him, raising her hands in horror at what she just now realized she was pressing on him.

"Sokka, please, please, I'm not trying to do this to you, I'm not trying to force you to make a decision like that!"

He finally looked up to her as she stopped just in front of him, a sad smile breaking out as he looked down at her desperate expression.

"I wasn't implying you were, I'm sorry for saying it like that, I just… Yue, I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say, or do. I can't imagine what you're feeling or going through right now, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry I can't give you more than just a stupid apology."

Yue took him by the forearms and waited until he met her eyes; she needed to keep her breathing steady to keep her voice from shaking.

"This is enough," she said as firmly as she could. "I don't even know what to think about being… alive again. But you being here, you…"

She gave a short laugh, that she knew was dangerously close to being a sob.

"… you just being here at all, this means a lot."

It might have been overdue even at that point, but Sokka finally pulled her into a hug. Yue had been wanting to wrap her arms around him well before then, but knowing where he was coming from with Suki kept her from doing anything she thought might make him uncomfortable. But to be held by him again was the most relieving feeling Yue had felt since she had left the spirit world. Letting out a sigh that she did her best to put all her frustration, anger and fear into, she held him as tightly as she dared.

"I'm sure your father would be happy to see you again," Sokka said. "I think he stepped down as chief of the North Water Tribe but is still very prevalent."

The thought of her father caused Yue to feel her knees go weak at what that would feel like to be reunited with him.

"I want to see him again," she murmured against his chest. "But… this has to be finished."

Any hope she had been feeling plummeted into oblivion as reality stabbed itself freshly back into her mind.

"The part I played in what's happening to my world… I can't forgive it. I have to make things right," she said through gritted teeth. Sokka gently brushed her hair back and turned her chin up to look at him.

"But it wasn't your fault. They used you, right?"

Yue blinked up at him, feeling a very strange sensation rippling through her that she realized was tentative gratitude.

"You believe me…?" she asked quietly and Sokka surprised her with a laugh.

"You said that you didn't know what you were really put back in the world to do, and I believe that," he said simply. Yue said nothing for a long moment, and she finally shook her head slowly.

"How?" she whispered. "I've been with the spirits for so many years now; I could have been convinced to act against the people of the physical world, been instructed to gain Sasuke's trust and betray it!"

Sokka made a face that she knew immediately was mock contemplation before breaking into a fresh smile.

"Nah. You're Yue, you wouldn't do that."

She waited another long moment before practically tackling him with a second hug that caused him to grunt in surprise.

"Thank you, Sokka," she said, jamming her eyes tightly shut.

"No problem," he said, and she could tell he was smiling. Yue needed a long period before she even felt the ability to speak return to her.

"I just wish Sasuke felt the same way," she breathed and Sokka said nothing in reply to this at first. Eventually, they broke apart and Yue saw a much more serious look on his face, bordering on concern.

"How long have you known him?" he asked.

"About two months," she said, pulling in a deep breath and trying to keep from getting any more emotional. "Roku pulled me through to where Sasuke was, camped out all on his own on an island far to the west. And from there… it was just me and him for weeks until we met Ursa and her crew."

Sokka's lips pulled back in a pained expression.

"Yikes, weeks of just Sasuke? What was that like?"

His reaction was enough to bring another smile to her face, but she surprised him with her response.

"I've never met anyone like him. Immediately, he just wanted to shut himself off and only talk to each other when we needed to, just have me be the guide and him be the follower. But… Sokka, you knew him when he was younger."

"I did. He was just like you're describing," he said with a nod, and Yue's smile softened and she felt memories glaze over her mind. She remembered lying on her back under a starlit sky as their campfire dwindled beside them as she would cautiously probe him with questions. She remembered riding on horseback over the larger islands from port to port, and silently watching as he slowly began to open up more and more to her, no matter how much she knew that he would have denied it.

"I was getting through to him, Sokka," she said, and her voice broke on his name. She found herself blinking away tears, and couldn't figure out why she was suddenly getting so emotional; why would this be something that would move her to crying?

"You said you knew him, but the day I met him… I've never seen anyone who was laboring as much as he was. You could tell instantly that he was cold and didn't like so much as even talking to people, but every time I looked into his eyes, I could see all that guilt and pain and hate… it was my job to guide him, but I couldn't help but want to get through to him, and I tried so hard!"

There was so much anxiousness that Yue felt pour into her words then; having been only traveling with Sasuke for an extended period, she knew there was nothing she could have said to him then, and Ursa she had only recently felt like she might be alright loosening up around. But the trust and relief that Sokka practically emanated were enough for her to want to just say everything she could while it was just the two of them.

"I know he has problems," and she managed to smile weakly as Sokka gave a short bark of a laugh. "But what he's been through… what he's seen, what he's lost, how long he's been alone, I just want to… I want to help him, Sokka. And now, because of what Kyoshi said, I don't know if he'll ever let me in again."

Saying this allowed her to release a sigh that was equal parts relief and agony; Yue hadn't realized just how much of this was eating her from the inside out. She had sensed these persistent wild emotions for Sasuke since the day she had awoken in his makeshift hut, emotions that had intensified after traveling with him for so long, but it was a completely different kind of release to let these thoughts out rather than just battling them over and over in her head.

Sokka maintained silence for a few seconds after she had finished talking and when he did speak up, Yue could tell that he was choosing his words carefully.

"Did he tell you anything about when he was with us? Years ago, and when he left?"

Realizing that the majority of what Sasuke had told her had been bits and pieces about his life before being thrust unexpectedly into their world, Yue blinked and shook her head. Sokka smirked in an expression that she could tell was hiding more emotion than he was willing to show.

"When Sasuke left, he was at a point where a lot of us were still struggling with who he was as a person. Yeah, he had just won the war for us and saved our lives on more than one occasion, but I think everyone very much had their own thoughts and opinions on him. My sister for example… well, you remember Katara, right?"

Yue smiled. How could she forget the girl who had walked into her city and called out their most distinguished waterbending instructor to the point where he relented to her demands for training and then gone on to become perhaps his most prodigious student?

"Of course."

Sokka made a face like he was watching an awkward conversation play out.

"She… well, she and Sasuke never really hit it off. And I mean that in a pretty rough way."

He scratched the back of his head like he was struggling with whether or not he should reveal more before seeming to shake it off.

"She tried to kill him."

Yue blinked again, and felt her mouth slip slightly ajar.

"Katara… tried to kill…?"

Nodding understandingly, Sokka continued, "Believe me, it was as crazy a moment for the rest of us too. She had got this idea in her head that Aang needed to be the one to end the war, to be the one to cause the Fire Nation to lose and to be the reason Ozai went down. And in a way, Aang was, even if Sasuke had done most of the fighting on that last day; no one tried to open up to Sasuke quite like he and Toph did, Azula… well, that's a very different story. But I think Sasuke would have left on his own path long before he did if Aang hadn't been there. It was weird how well the two of them seemed to get along and I think indirectly, Aang was the reason we won the war, because of how things became between him and Sasuke."

His face darkened.

"But I don't think that was really why my sister was so infuriated by Sasuke even being there at all; there was something about how strong he was, how alien his powers were, and just how impossible he was to get along with that…"

He seemed to bite his tongue again before the rest of his thought spilled out.

"I think she might have liked him. Like, in that way."

"So she tried to kill him?" Yue asked in disbelief and Sokka put up his hands.

"Hey, look, my sister is just as much an enigma to me as anyone else. I just might be able to read her motivations a little better."

He walked over and leaned against the metal bunks where which Fire Nation crew members had surely once slept.

"Anyway, that's just an example of how Sasuke affected our group. But the day he left, he said it was because he needed to protect all of us. When the war ended, a lot of things were up in the air. Ozai was dead, there had been an extremely chaotic day that ended the war, and I guess we all knew that the politicians wanted someone to blame. Sasuke said that if he left, everything could be pinned on him and we could be protected. He also said he needed to start looking for a way home as it was, and there was definitely a mixed reaction to him leaving. I was bummed to see him go because I… oh, hell, Yue, I know he's got a good heart in there. I think that was how I could tell that he was omitting probably one of the more important reasons he had for leaving when he did."

"What was that?" Yue asked quietly. Sokka smiled at her again, though this time, there was a very noticeable sense of melancholy to it.

"He was scared that if he stayed, he might open up."

He rubbed a hand over his forehead and Yue could see how exhausted he was.

"There was definitely something happening with him and us. He very clearly had spent a lot of his life shutting himself off from other people, but just then… yeah, he was starting to realize that he might actually be able to just… be honest with us and let us into his life. Like I said, he and Aang already had something going, Toph had the biggest crush on him that I really don't know if she's over…"

Yue felt a strange twinge in her gut.

"…Mai was kind of the same, but she was holding back because of Zuko I think, and I think he and Katara were actually getting to a point where they were alright with one another and Zuko was getting there too, but—ah, none of that matters."

He looked at Yue with tired eyes.

"My point, Yue, is that if you think you were making progress with getting Sasuke to open up, know that you probably were. Because I saw firsthand what that was like. And if you want to pursue that…"

His gaze dropped to the floor as he thought back to what they had all just been made privy too.

"He just met his daughter, he just found out that he was tricked into returning to the Nations, and he is probably blaming himself for everything bad happening to our world right now."

Sokka shrugged.

"I don't know if there's every been a time he's needed someone in his life to talk to more than right now."

He met her eyes again and Yue could see a lot of unspoken words in their youthful glow. He had heard the things she had omitted herself, the hinted suggestions that there was more to her pain than she was letting on. But Sokka would never ask her to talk about that, not if he knew that it would hurt her. He was still just as good of a person as she remembered.

A last moment of silence lingered between them a touch longer before Sokka blew out a sigh.

"Well, while I wasn't lying when I said I was looking for you, this is actually where I had intended to wind up anyway. Zuko and Azula's mom doesn't look the type to be trifled with, so I'm going to get as much sleep in before everyone's supposed to be back up top like she said."

Kicking off his boots, the threw his legs up onto the less than comfortable looking mattress and made to lay down. A second before his head hit the pillow, he looked at her and gave her one more smile.

"You got it, Yue. You didn't betray him, you didn't do him any wrong on your own intention, you have nothing to be frightened of from him. Sasuke might be a bit of an idiot, even more so than we boys usually are, but he'll believe you."

It took everything in Yue's power not to walk over and wrap her arms around him again, and she instead settled for a warm smile.

"Thanks, Sokka."

Leaving him to his rest, she left the barracks, walking with much more purpose than she ever thought she might muster, eager to find Sasuke and speak with him. She knew that with just the two of them alone, just as it had been where were traveling, it would become so easy to talk to him. She thought distantly to the fact that she actually quite missed the days of when it was just the two of them. Shaking her head, she brought herself back to reality and focused only on talking to Sasuke. Sokka was right, he would believe her.

He had to believe her.

---

Sasuke hated how intoxicating it was to see her again, to be that close to her and still feel such a sense of unease. He couldn't think of a single person he had met in his life who had been able to inspire such a wide range of emotions in him, but he was able to maintain a darkly neutral expression and keep his tone in its usual low register even as his insides starting roiling about.

She fully turned to face him, her eyes staring deeply into his, her expression almost that of a wife who had finally seen her husband return from a long venture. Sasuke found himself needing several moments to get past the fact that, despite all these negative feelings burning within him over what she had done, she was still so completely stunning. Her piercing, gorgeous eyes, her lean and curved frame, her sharp and almost predatory face, her flowing and perfect hair seeming to almost match the shadows behind her. But it took Sasuke only a few moments to look past these physical attractions that he couldn't help be drawn to that he stopped to look at who he was really talking to.

There came a twinge of something almost like fear when he found that even when reminding himself that this was Azula, he couldn't find himself completely dismissing the idea of his attraction.

Still, he was able to ignore this, and maintain his composure.

"Let's step out," he said, immediately deciding to test the waters. Azula said nothing for a moment as she seemed to consider the order he had just issued before the barest smile seemed to pass over her pristine lips and she slowly sauntered his way, brushing past him to step out into the hallway. Sasuke stared into the room a moment longer, looking between Soza and Toph before exiting as well, closing the door behind him.

Azula was leaning against the wall of the dimly lit hallway, eyes looking expectantly at him, a smile now fully visible on her face. It looked to Sasuke's eyes that she was taking this far from seriously, at least in the sense he needed her to.

"I was waiting for you," she said softly, her voice slithering over his ears, but there was an overtone of affection that held dominion over a tone that Sasuke was sure to anyone else would have come out as pure menace. "I knew you would come to me in time, that you would want to finally see me again. Just you and me."

"Want has nothing to do with it," Sasuke said sharply. "You know better than anyone what we need to talk about."

Azula slowly cocked her head back and forth as though mockingly thinking over the idea that might perhaps be unsure as to what he was referring. Sasuke felt his lips starting to curl at the obvious disregard she was showing.

"Don't play stupid," he growled. "I couldn't be in less of a mood to deal with this right now, not when…"

To his horror, he realized that his voice had started to break just then at the idea of talking about Soza.

No. Not in front of her.

But she had of course heard it; Sasuke watched as Azula's eyes widened and her face became aglow with concern, though not enough to cause her smile to fade. She pulled away from the wall, taking a step towards him, her eyes looking deeply into his.

"Oh, Sasuke… I know how angry you must be with me."

She neared him further, close enough that they were standing nearly nose to nose. Fully grown and matured, Sasuke found that they were very nearly the exact same height. Azula reached out and gently took the front of his cloak and Sasuke could feel her fingers wrap around the fabric, her nails scraping softly against his chest.

"But don't you remember that day, Sasuke? The day you told me that you would never love me?"

Sasuke reached out and took her the wrist attached to the hand that was starting to caress him as he stared unblinkingly back at her.

"I will never forget that day."

Azula looked back at him, his words seeming to have a strange effect on her as her breathing deepened and as she stared into his eyes, Sasuke could see that her cheeks seemed to be flushing.

"Then you know why I had to do what I did… you denied me, and I had no choice."

He bared his teeth as he started to snarl back.

"I denied you because—!"

Releasing a moan that was both melancholy and sensual, Azula pressed her forehead against his chest; Sasuke was forced to briefly relish the incredible aroma of her hair before she pulled back and looked up at him again, her face awash with emotion.

"Sasuke, please, don't think I'm blaming you for what you did, what you chose!"

An almost manic bubbling of laughter rippled out from her throat.

"I know there was so much that was forced upon your shoulders, your desire to protect, the pressure put on you by those pathetic council officials, and…"

She trailed off, swallowing, and looked at him closely as her voice dropped in pitch.

"You can tell me now, Sasuke: which of them was it? Was there more than one?"

Sasuke felt an angry boiling in his gut as he growled her name.

"Azula…"

She didn't seem to hear him, her nails biting even deeper into the skin of his chest then even as her expression remained the same, looking at him closely for any sign of a reaction.

"I know Toph was trying so hard to seduce you even as at her age… she's maintained that in the years since you've left, you know, acting like she's never cared for romance with anyone else, I know she does it just to spite me… but was Mai involved as well? It was impossible not to notice the look in her eyes anytime you would say anything to her, the way her eyes lit up, she never looks at anyone like that, not even Zuko…"

"Azula," Sasuke said more firmly, but she paid him no mind still.

"Mai always wanted someone stronger than Zuzu, pathetic little boy that he still is… Katara too, did she hide her desire for you behind all that animosity? The way she mistreated you, was that all a front? I was certain it was, I don't doubt that even having been with the Avatar for so long, she—"

Reaching a breaking point, Sasuke grabbed her by both wrists and forced her against the wall, pinning her against it. This was enough to cut her off and she looked up at him, her breathing still coming in heavy, her mouth slightly open as he glared fiercely at her.

"Shut your deceitful, venomous mouth," Sasuke said, his voice quivering with fury. Azula's eyes widened at his words, but she complied with his words, not saying another word. Sasuke continued to hold her there while he spoke, his voice low, surprised that he was able to keep himself from shouting.

"From the day I met you, I knew that you were fucked up in the head. Maybe beyond any fixing. The way you treated other people, the way you treated me, the way you treated yourself. I thought if I just ignored you, if I just let you… if I let you persist, eventually you would wear yourself out. That you would grow up. But I knew on that day that I had terribly underestimated what you were."

"It was because I loved—" Azula started, but Sasuke put a hand over her mouth, flinching at her word choice, and roughly shoved her head back against the wall.

"I'm not finished," he said. "I was so focused on so much else that I failed to see what you were. Because of what you are, because of how you were raised, you had been made into a monster, and I wasn't able to see you for that; all I saw was an emotionally stunted girl who hadn't begun to truly mature mentally, who maybe never would."

He was overcome with a very sudden urge to move his hand to her throat, but he abstained.

"But for you to do what you did… how did you do it?" he suddenly found himself asking. He had been pondering this since the moment his relation to Soza had been revealed. He took his hand away from Azula's mouth, and much in a contrast to how she had been acting, she said nothing in response to this, only continued to look at him deeply in his eyes.

"I would suggest you start talking," he said in a more than menacing tone. Azula looked at him for a moment longer before she obeyed, her voice quiet and inquisitive.

"Sasuke… how could I not have done it?"

"That wasn't my question," Sasuke snapped and Azula tried to reach for him again, but he slapped her hand away and drew it back as if to strike her. Her eyes tracked the motion of his hand and Sasuke found his insides curling with realization as he saw the desperate glow in her gaze.

She hasn't changed. At all.

"How did you do it?" he growled, annunciating each word angrily. Azula continued to look at the hand he had raised for a few moments longer as she responded in accordance with his demand.

"I got you intoxicated the night of the gala," she said. "A copious amount of drinks and a touch of a drug of my own, taken from the Fire Nation wares, one to further soften you and make sure that you didn't remember what had happened."

Deep down, Sasuke had known that the story was bound to go something like this, but he still couldn't keep from feeling a numbness in his bones that his fears were being confirmed.

"I took you to my room and I took what I had to," Azula continued, a desperate edge entering her voice. Sasuke swallowed slowly and took a step away from her; such a simple explanation that posed such tremendous ramifications. Was this what had pushed Kyoshi over into believing that an invasion was the only way to correct the physical world? Had Soza's birth been that final straw that now had so many lives in danger?

"I would never have done this if you would have just listened to me back then!" Azula said, her voice raising in pitch. "All I wanted was for you to love me the way I loved you! I know you denied that's what it was, but I would never have had to take you like that if you had just opened yourself up to me!"

Sasuke heard her voice but the world was becoming dangerously numb to him. He had fully planned on confronting Azula over this, but now that she had told him what had happened, he suddenly very badly wanted to be alone again. It shouldn't have been surprising that Azula had completely and openly admitted that her method of conception had been rape, but the idea that he had been used like that was making him feel sick to his core.

How could I have been so careless? Made such a mistake?

It was his fault that this had happened, this moment of weakness and vulnerability he had shown her, enough to be placed in such a helpless state… it was difficult for Sasuke not to vomit just then as he considered this, his mind doing everything to keep him from believing it as truth.

In an instant, Azula was pressed against him again, her hands on his shoulders as she drew her face quite close to his.

"I never wanted anyone else the way I wanted you! If you had just listened, it could have been you and I and Soza; the world would never have denied us anything we wanted! I was of the age that I could demand marriage by royal law; the primogeniture right granted Zuko would have meant nothing, nothing our powers combined could have ever stood against! I could have ruled over my nation with you by my side, the world would have bowed to us! But you forced this on me, you forced me to use you like that!"

She gave a wild gesture towards the door they had both just exited.

"I've tried to raise her right! I used Toph to try and awaken her and I succeeded!"

Sasuke's sickly burning thoughts suddenly came to a grinding halt as he froze at her words.

"What are you talking about?"

Azula let out a short laugh again, another manic sound.

"You told me the night I was with you: you told me that only with great mental trauma could one's eyes be awoken. I didn't know if she inherited that ability from you, but from the moment she was born, I knew I had to try! I've spent years allowing Soza to grow close to Toph so that I could create the perfect moment to have Toph hurt enough or killed to the point that Soza's eyes would awaken, I remembered exactly what you told me! When Toph tried to kill Gilbert, I convinced him to request a branding prior to her execution to hopefully create better odds that Soza would be affected enough to—

Sasuke knew that doing so would only exacerbate the situation, but he couldn't help himself. He drew a fist back and hit Azula in the gut with as much force as he dared; with chakra now openly flowing through his veins, he could have hit her well hard enough to permanently damage her internal organs, and he imagined that if she had kept talking for much longer, he might have. As it was, Azula gave a great gasp of pain and bent double, falling to one knee as she clutched at her midsection.

"You depraved maniac…"

Sasuke stared down at her as she panted at his feet, but after several long moments, she turned her head up to look him in the eyes again, the only pain reflected in them being that of emotional distress.

"Sasuke… what do you want from me?"

He glared down at her, practically feeling his eyes burn before he bent down to get as close to her as he dared, watching her eyes widen with every word he spoke.

"What do I want? I want to hurt you, Azula. All you've done with your life is hurt others. You cause other people to suffer because of your pride and greed, and I don't know you've ever felt a sliver of remorse for it. I don't know if you have any idea what it means to hurt like what you've done to other people."

She opened her mouth to no doubt try and bolster some defense against what he was saying, but Sasuke drew his foot back and kicked her clean in the ribs. Azula let out a short shriek of pain and Sasuke reached down to grab her by the hair and press her head against the cold metal of the wall; he knew he shouldn't be doing this, but the amount of savage satisfaction that hurting her caused him was a vicious form of ecstasy he hadn't known existed. While she continued to gasp for breath through her pain, he kept talking.

"I want to put you on your hands and knees, and beat you until your back is black and blue. I want to put my hands on your throat and choke you until you are a moment from passing out and then hit you in the stomach until you're vomiting. I want to take the same iron they used on Toph and burn every inch of your body until your voice breaks from screaming, I want to make you hurt so badly for what you've done to that girl you dare call your daughter, and for what you've done to everyone else in your life who's suffered because of you."

Azula's breathing came in shaky inhales and exhales, but her eyes flicked over to his and he saw that same terrible glow in them.

"Then why don't you?" she whispered.

Sasuke released her and she slumped against the wall as he stepped back, straightening and glaring down at her.

"Because I would never enjoy it as much as you would."

The hunger in Azula's eyes confirmed his belief, and she pushed herself to her feet with all the grace he would expect of someone of her stature and presence. She looked no more like she had just been struck twice and more so like she had just bent down briefly to collect something off the ground.

"Sasuke…" she said quietly. "You know that I would give my body to you for whatever you desire. After what I borrowed from you, it's the least I can do."

She lifted her chin slightly, the dim glow of the hall throwing the smile on her face into even sharper relief.

"And if you feel the need to punish me, I won't resist."

Again, she started to approach him.

"I know I've earned it," she whispered in a tone that was impossible not to take as seductive.

This is still just a game to her. She bore my child and it's all still some power game.

Sasuke's heart was starting to hammer due to a great many factors; he was furious at Azula for all she had done, so much so that he was almost shaking where he stood. He was frustrated at the fact that he didn't think there was a thing he could say to get through to her, and he could tell that his angry emotions were doing nothing but further inducing a sense of excitement in her.

And worse of all, he thought he might have been feeling some excitement himself, even if he didn't dare try to identify why.

Azula slithered near to him once again and to his surprise, she pressed her hands against him with sudden strength and pushed him against the wall, gently but firmly. He gazed into her eyes as he grit his teeth, trying to pinpoint the most apparent emotion on her face, but there was so much raging in her eyes that it was damn near impossible for him to say.

"I'll be whatever you want me to be Sasuke. If you need someone to hurt, I'm here. If you need someone for pleasure, I'm here. If you want to leave this airship and go back to pulverize Kyoshi, I'm with you."

The mere suggestion that clashed so much with what he had spoken to Jin about before was enough for Sasuke's eyes to glaze over briefly and he was caught up in the idea of doing just that, going back on the mental promise he had made not to abandon them all again. He pictured leaping from the airship and tearing through the night sky, heading right for Kyoshi's throat. His vision became completely absorbed in this fantasy, the only touch of reality being Azula's silky voice working its way into his ears.

"Sasuke, I can tell you know that is the only way to end this. Let's go together, we can end this war in a single night, you know you have the power to crush them all."

He heard his own voice reach out hollowly.

"I can't. I can't leave everyone again."

Azula made a derisive noise as Sasuke watched himself tackle Kyoshi to the ground, a blast from his Susanoo blowing aside Yangchen and Koh.

"Please, these people? You know as well as I that everyone aboard this ship already resents you just for coming back. They never cared about you when you were here, it took you walking out of our lives for them to remotely admit that they might care about you. And now that you're back in their lives, they'll just blame it all on you again."

Sasuke watched as Chidori crackling from his palm brough Kyoshi to her knees. In his ears, Azula's voice seemed closer, and more seductive.

"You think there's a single one of them right now who's not silently cursing you for coming back? You save their lives, and all you achieve from them is resentment. You've seen it before; you know I'm right."

Driving his hand completely through her chest, Sasuke watched as the glow in Kyoshi's eyes faded while she stared hatefully towards him. He thought to Toph's falling body as he felt her life drain around his arm and Azula's voice was now barely even a whisper in his mind.

"But I know why you did it… I know that you care…"

I wanted to protect them. What I did then, I did to protect them, and what I do now, I do to protect them. But—

His daydream flickered aside as he blinked it away. A warm sensation against his lips had roused him from the fantasy of his exhausted mind, and as he swiftly reacquainted himself with his surroundings, he realized that Azula was kissing him.

As she held him against the wall, she had fully pressed her body against his, her legs on either side of his thigh as she gently grinded her midsection against him. While she worked her lips hungrily against his, she released deep, quiet moans while reaching up with a hand, her palm against his cheek, thumb brushing just under his eye and her fingers stroking his neck. Sasuke couldn't ignore the warmth he felt spreading against his thigh and he had to remind himself that he was still in control of his own body.

He grabbed her shoulders and made to push her away, his thigh pressing between her legs much more intensely, and it was impossible to mistake the nature of the louder moan she released then.

"You're an animal," he snarled, grabbing her wrist and forcing her away from him with a twist. Azula's moan briefly lapsed into a cry of pain as she applied pressure to his grip, but it took only a moment for her to look back at him, and her smile returned as she repeated,

"Whatever you want me to be."

Pulling her roughly to the side, Sasuke threw Azula to the ground. Standing over her with rage and something like genuine worry pumping through his veins, he looked down as she continued to smile up at him, endlessly ignorant to his fury towards her.

"If you are whatever I want you to be, then I want you be truthful, as difficult a task as that might be."

Azula made no attempt to get up, but she moved to a sitting position, leaning back on her hands and cocking her head almost challengingly at him; Sasuke bit his tongue angrily as he wondered if this was how she had looked at him in bed when she had done what she had to him so many years ago.

"I've never lied to you, Sasuke. The benefit of painting my own truth to any situation has no measure to being honest with you, and I would never dare wrong you like that."

The dripping irony of that statement might have made Sasuke spit out a humorless laugh had he not already been quite so livid.

"Then answer me honestly, do you—"

Sasuke felt his voice seize in his throat, as he realized the gravity of what he was about to ask. He had been so focused on the fact that he was talking to a monster, much less a person.

And even less a mother.

"Would Soza mean anything to you if she had a different father?"

It was only as he got the last of the words out did he even consider that he might finally have asked a question that might have finally been enough to get under Azula's skin, but he realized quickly that this had been far too late in coming. Azula remained on the metal floor of the airship, her face becoming somewhat blank as she stared up at him. Then, as if possessed, she shot to her feet, her eyes suddenly flashing dangerously, and her lower lip quivering, though her words remained almost as sickly sweet as they had been to that point as she raised a shaking pointer finger.

"Are you asking me… are you questioning my love for my daughter?"

Sasuke, feeling some semblance of venomous satisfaction, crossed his arms.

"Only because of what you did to me to have her."

Something clearly snapped then and Azula's voice rang loud, echoing off the hallway as she shouted. Her face burst into furious mania, but as Sasuke watched her eyes dance with the same angry fire he knew that his held, a monstrous smile spread over her face.

"YOU DARE ASK ME IF MY LOVE FOR MY DAUGHTER IS CONDITIONAL?! ME, PRINCESS AZULA?! AFTER ALL I'VE DONE TO REACH THIS POINT?!"

Through gritted teeth, she sucked in a vast breath of air as she seemed to at least come to some semblance of the hysteria she was displaying, and she brought her voice back down to a regular speaking voice, but Sasuke couldn't have missed the fury it still held. He watched the anger dance around her face and he realized how much he loved seeing her finally agonizing over something, over anything.

"I thought I could give you up, Sasuke, and I thought I had. I thought that Soza would be enough for me to get over you, and I truly have been happy to have her as the only truly important person in my life, and I've grown to love her more than you could possibly understand."

Sasuke replied icily. "I don't need to get into your head to know that you still don't have a fucking clue what 'love' actually is."

He had hoped this would provoke her further, but Azula seemed to have either ignored him or completely missed his words entirely, continuing to furiously ramble, the topic of her daughter already seeming to be flowing from her stream of thought.

"But I see you again and I know that I've done nothing but lie to myself for every day that's passed since you left."

She threw her head back, releasing a noise that was both a frustrated snarl and a wild laugh as she dug her nails into her scalp. As she brought her head back down to look at him again, he saw a trickle of blood streaming beside her ear where she had cut herself.

"I never wanted to do what I did to you, Sasuke, you have to believe that. I drugged and raped you because I knew that I would never be strong enough to change your mind, but I couldn't lose you completely. I did what I had to in order to make you a part of my life forever."

Her anger towards him seemed to have been completely consumed by her desire in a matter of moments, her eyes now only flashing with desperation as her voice hissed with madness.

"Come back to me. Be mine. I will give myself completely to you, for you to use however you want. You and I, we can be complete."

As his mind triggered on the one thing Azula had failed to mention, Sasuke looked into her desperate eyes and said harshly,

"You forgot Soza."

Azula's eyes bulged in shock and fury, and she lowered her gaze to the floor, mouth opening and closing as she seemed to try and rationalize the fact that, after what she had said, she had completely forgotten her daughter in her equation. Finally giving her head a vicious shake, she looked back to him, laughing almost nervously.

"Of course she's a part of this! I didn't… I would never forget her, I just…"

She fumbled over her words and then the shaking smile on her face faded into a snarl. While she made no sound, Sasuke found she looked almost primal, the way she was glowering at him.

"You would deny me… again?"

Taking a step towards him, she slid to her knees, the seductive edge to her movements seeming to clash with her utter desperation.

"Rape isn't the right word, not when I did it out of love, but I had to force it from you, and I had to know that you wouldn't remember it, otherwise that would have just been another burden on you, don't you see? I let you go so that you weren't be weighed down, I knew that was what you wanted! But you still came back, didn't you? And everything I did to try and show you how much I love you, does that not—?"

It was quite likely a number of things then that caused Sasuke to snap himself. Part of it was surely the idea that Azula had fully intended to cause excessive suffering, perhaps fatally, to Toph. Another part of it was surely the fact that she kept trying to use love as an excuse for her behavior, something Sasuke wasn't sure Azula had ever felt in her life. Part of it was no doubt just he couldn't get through to her whatsoever, not when he had denied her over a decade ago, and not now.

But Sasuke realized that the most damning reason of all was the fact that Azula had spent their daughter's life grooming her to be hurt enough so that her Sharingan could be awoken.

She was Soza's mother, and she had intended from birth to cause her enough trauma to awaken her eyes. Those damned fucking eyes. She had neglected Soza's mentality and childhood to keep getting ahead.

Azula had traded Soza's wellbeing for power.

Knowing that he couldn't kill her no matter how much he wanted to just then, Sasuke clamped his chakra flow off just before he broke into movement, knowing that one good hit from a fist fueled by chakra and anger would be well enough to break her body entirely. Roaring in unleashed fury, he lunged forward, grabbed Azula by the hair and threw her to the ground. Before she had even fully been laid out, he mounted her at the waist, reached down with one hand to take her by the throat and keep her steady beneath him; he ignored the look of wild excitement that flashed through her eyes as well as his own desire to choke that sick smile from her face.

I have to know.

Despite what she had said and despite the fact that Sasuke had felt no mistruth from her words, he knew that Azula couldn't be trusted. It made far too much sense, her explanation, but his mind just couldn't believe it, that she would have gone that far to achieve personal victory. He applied a sudden burst of pressure to her throat and Azula gasped as her eyes widened; Sasuke lowered his face closer to hers and activated his genjutsu, diving into her mind.

As he slipped into the dark and wild rush of Azula's mind, he had fully intended to tear his way through her memories, making it as mentally agonizing an experience as he could for her until he found what he was looking for. While his consciousness flashed through her mind, the idea of her screaming in pain beneath him in reality was a thought that nearly crippled him with satisfaction. But to his surprise, the first memory he found, the one that was at the peak of her mind, was the one he was looking for.

He found himself standing in a dimly lit room, spacious and rather luxurious, and he recognized it as one of the rooms from the royal palace in Ba Sing Se, considering how much it resembled the room he had remembered waking up in after the end of the war. Unlike other memories he had plundered from individuals in the past, the memory was very clean and sharp, almost like reality might have been; usually, surroundings were morphed and unnatural rather like a dream might have been. When people recollected memories, things were always different in them compared to the time they were actually created, furniture and walls in different places or shifting and curving in ways that should have been unnatural. But the only oddity to this memory that Sasuke could find was the edges of the room were completely swallowed in darkness; this memory had been tightly and preserved as accurately as possible with little thought made to any surroundings beyond the actual subject, and the darkness around him felt rather foreboding. There was no time given for him to adjust to his surroundings as his attention locked onto the subject of the memory.

Sasuke saw himself lying on a large bed, his body almost limp and lifeless looking, though as he looked closer, he could see tensed muscles in his torso and limbs. That being said, his expression was blank, his eyes flicking in and out of the present while drool slid from the corner of his mouth. His cheeks were flushed and he was making strange sounds that sounded like something not quite human trying to replicate the sounds a human made. It was very clear that this memory of himself was far from in a lucid state of mind.

Azula was on top of this limp and inebriated form that he had once taken, naked save for the stockings and garter belt she wore. Her motions were wild, but rhythmic, her face a mask of pure pleasure and excitement, cheeks just as flushed as the boy beneath her. Moans lashed out over the black obscured walls as she ran her hands all over her breasts and thighs before sliding them over his chest and face as though eager to touch all that she could in that moment. Her tongue hung over her lower lip, a final sign of the utter ecstasy she was wrapped in and Sasuke realized he had seen enough. Tearing himself from the room, he erupted back into his own body and blinked back to reality, desperate to free himself from what he now knew was truth.

Azula was beneath him, sucking in deep breaths as sweat beaded down her face; the process Sasuke had just performed had surely taken only seconds, but the lack of care he had shown to her had clearly been of some discomfort to her as her wide eyes looked hazily up at the ceiling. Now freed from her own mind, she started to readjust to reality as well, and her eyes fell on him as he straddled her form. A smile started to creep back over her face as she gazed up into his face.

"And now you know it's true. What can I do to make my love for you—"

Sasuke felt a strangled yell force its way from his throat and he drew back a fist to hit her.

"Stop saying 'love'!" he shouted, but before he could dish out any of the release that he so badly wanted just then, he heard the sliding of blade against sheath, and felt the pointed touch of metal against the back of his head.

"Sasuke, get off my daughter."

---

If she had looked back over everything that had happened over the course of the last twenty-four hours, Ursa would have allowed herself to think that she was handling the situation quite well. Explosive revelations kept making themselves known to her, and after her heart to heart with her son, there had been a part of her that had wondered if perhaps the worst was over. The two of them had decided to search the ship for Sasuke and confront him about the circumstances surrounding his child, and while they hadn't needed to look far, after hearing what she had heard, Ursa knew that her assumption of being past the worst of the facts to come out had been severely underestimated.

Zuko stood just behind her, but neither of them had seemed able to say anything to make their presences known, and their standing at the end of the hallway hadn't been enough for either Azula or Sasuke to take note of them. It was a testament to their shock that neither of them had made a move even after Sasuke had practically tackled Azula to the ground and looked into her eyes with his own flashing, something that had been enough to make her scream. The sound of her daughter crying out had been enough for Ursa and she had left Zuko's side as he stood poker-straight, still seeming to be paralyzed. And as Sasuke had drawn back a fist, she had gotten near enough to draw her sword and angle it against his neck.

Her command seemed to go ignored, but she knew that while Sasuke hadn't turned to acknowledge her, he had heard and felt enough to not bring his fist down. He remained atop Azula, his breathing coming in deep and labored as did hers beneath him.

"Now," Ursa clarified, her tone not at all matching the sickness and disbelief that seemed to be rippling throughout the rest of her body. Without a word, Sasuke took his hand from Azula's throat and stood, stepping away from her; he met Ursa's eyes and she could see the thundering pain that was surging there, and she found a feeling of pity just the same one she had felt at the inn pass over her. Still, this was not the time to get emotional, not when there was so much at play, she thought as she sheathed her sword.

Azula's expression had been nothing short of wild, but as she set her eyes on Ursa and Zuko behind her, that expression faded into one of reserved disdain. She drew herself up much more slowly and with a noble sense of dignity that Ursa couldn't help but associate with her late husband. It was impossible not to see Ozai being channeled through her daughter, from the smooth and almost predatory movements to the fearsome glow in her eyes.

"I see my loving family has come to intrude," she drawled, straightening her back and tossing her hair over her shoulder. By her movements and reaction, it was as though she hadn't just said the things she had said, nor had she been forcefully held down by her throat and nearly struck.

It was the first time Ursa had been face to face with her daughter since she was a child, a moment she had just recently experienced with Zuko, but had she truly not heeded her son's words, so much so that as she looked at Azula, her child, her unease was starting to overpower her love?

She's my daughter.

And yet, that fact could never erase what Ursa had heard, and that knowledge spurred her first words to Azula in the form of a question, spoken in a voice that trembled ever so slightly.

"Is it true?"

She watched her daughter unblinkingly as Azula furrowed her brow briefly at this query before she tilted her chin back, her lips pulling over her teeth in a look of unreserved disgust.

"So, this is what you've come back to do, mother? You spend my entire childhood treating me second rate to that pathetic excuse for royalty…"

Azula jabbed a finger over Ursa's shoulder.

"… and after leaving us for the majority of our lives, you come back… to lecture me?"

The sneer became apparent then.

"That's too humorous to even be a joke, mother," she remarked and waved a hand dismissively. "Go back to spending time with your favorite child, I haven't the time to be—"

Ursa found herself nose to nose with Azula in the blink of an eye; her mind was racing as a memory had leapt into it unbidden. She saw a nine-year old Azula rolling her eyes as Ursa attempted to gently chide her after she had attempted to trip Zuko when he had been coming down the stairs.

"That wasn't just rude, Azula, you could have seriously hurt your brother. Those are not the kind of things that you should find funny."

Azula looked to her, raising an eyebrow as she crossed her small arms.

"Who said I thought it was funny?"

Ursa looked into her daughter's eyes now just as she had then, the woman before her now no longer a child, though Ursa feared that might have been only what she sensed through sight only.

"Is it true?" she repeated through gritted teeth and she could tell that even Azula's nonchalance towards her was at least somewhat shaken as her daughter's sneer became a thin line, even as her eyes danced with challenging fire.

"Is what true?" Azula replied with a flick of her eyebrows and before Ursa could even muster up words to place into a reproachful snap, she carried on.

"My actions are my own business. That pertains even to what I did long ago. But now that you suddenly have decided the lives of your children are something worth paying note too, you think you can just storm into mine and start demanding questions?"

"Your actions here have pertained to well more than just you, Azula, and you know that," Ursa whispered angrily. "I think I'm more than deserving to know exactly why I'm a grandmother."

For a moment, they glowered at one another and Ursa could tell that Azula had reached a point in her life where she wasn't used to backing down to anyone, nor even getting the amount of resistance towards anything she had done that Ursa was presently providing. Nonetheless, she seemed even less likely to back down than ever, keeping her eyes fixed on her mother's.

"I hold a responsibility to myself and to my bloodline. I was presented with a chance to strengthen both the latter and our nation, and I did what I had to do to ensure that. If I could go back to that day, I would do it again. And either way, I don't recall you being present at the most difficult time in any of our lives, mother, so quite frankly, I don't give a damn what you think you deserve. What happened between myself and Sasuke is our business, as is our relationship."

She took a step even closer to Ursa to the point that their noses nearly touched.

"If is fucking adorable that you think you can just insert yourself back into all this like you have any right to."

Ursa allowed herself a moment to feel feverish chills run down her spine before she risked a look over at Sasuke. He stood near the wall of the hallway, back to everyone present and eyes downcast. His stance was as much a confirmation to what Azula was saying as anything could be, and Ursa forced herself to look away from Azula and back to Zuko. He had been freed from his shocked state, though even as he had moved forward a few paces, he had a pained, and sickened look about him that Ursa was sure was reflected on her own face. Swallowing, she turned back to Azula.

"You're right; I don't have any right to try and be a part of your life again after being away for so long. But despite that, I have every right to try and protect the people I care about."

She raised a finger as she had done so often when her children were young and needed to pay attention to her.

"You need to stay away from Sasuke. Things clearly are at a point where you both can't be trusted alone."

It was very clear she had hit the pressure point because all at once, Azula's condescending and arrogant nature was sapped into one of apparent outrage, her eyes widening, brow furrowing and mouth becoming a jagged snarl.

"You really think you can say whether or not—?!" she started furiously but Ursa carried a commanding tone over what would surely have been raw indignation from her daughter.

"Zuko, I have no right to ask you a favor, but would you mind escorting your sister back to her cabin? I think these two need to be separated for the time being."

As though he had been waiting for an order such as that, Zuko was at her side in an instant, staring daggers at Azula.

"Gladly."

Ursa watched her daughter carefully and for a single rather terrifying moment, she could see Azula sizing up the situation and determining just how easily she could take both her and Zuko if that was what it came to. Then, the princess cast a sideways glance towards Sasuke and even in such a brief moment, Ursa could see those furious eyes soften considerably. Still not looking at anyone, Sasuke remained where he was, a shadow facing away from them and Azula seemed to take something from that. Lifting her chin again, she released a sharp, haughty exhale from her nostrils and turned away briskly.

"I hardly need an escort," she snapped and took only a step away from them before stopping and looking back over her shoulder. So dimly lit was the hall that Ursa saw her daughter only merging with the darkness, save for a single eye, glowing with enough hate to make Ursa's stomach churn.

"Don't go near my daughter," Azula growled and disappeared into the bowels of the airship. Ursa needed a moment to recover from the clear animosity she had just been the target of before looking weakly towards her son and doing her best to muster something of a smile that suggested she was in any semblance of control.

"That could have gone better," she remarked softly and was distantly heartened to see Zuko return her sad smile.

"I'll make sure she's not making any detours," he said quietly back and paused only long enough for Ursa to put as comforting a hand on his shoulder as she could manage. The energy even a gesture like that seemed to instill in him was enough to make Ursa's heart sing just slightly over all the pain that currently was engulfing it and she watched her son follow in the steps of his sister. Zuko glanced at Sasuke as he passed, a very emotional but reserved look on his face before he too disappeared into the dark metal hallways.

Ursa took in a deep breath as she did her best to return feeling to her body. There had been a fear that seeing Azula again would be of considerable harm to their relationship, but she could never have prepared for what she had heard.

Sasuke didn't leave anyone. He hadn't known what had passed between them. My daughter used him to conceive and he was none the wiser.

She swallowed bile.

My daughter.

Turning to Sasuke, she propelled herself back into the moment and tried to find some form of stability. She needed to talk to him, to make sure that he wasn't as out of sorts as she was. Though if he too had just learned of the fact that he had not only been raped for conception, but also had been unaware the event had taken place at all…

I need to be careful.

"Sasuke?" she asked, probing if he was even present in reality himself, or perhaps deeply lost in his own head. As she heard her own voice, she realized it was the same harsh and biting tone that she had used with Azula and she grit her teeth at her carelessness. She made to step towards him and reach for his shoulder just as she had with her son, but while her mind urged her towards him, her body didn't so much as budge.

Ursa blinked and looked down towards her feet stupidly, as though expecting to suddenly see restraints holding her in place. It was a foolish act, because she knew every piece of her that didn't want to approach him was all due to what she had just learned.

Do I not want to talk to him because of what Azula has done? Or is this… something else?

A stab of frustration towards how ridiculous she was being gave her enough of a kick to move, and she neared Sasuke while refraining from touching him.

He might not need that right now.

Ursa remembered how when the previous captain of the Bjorn had used her, how unclean she had felt afterwards, not wanting to touch anyone or anything. It wouldn't have surprised her if Sasuke was feeling something very similar.

This might have played into how surprised she was when Sasuke turned to face her, and she saw regret in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said and Ursa found she could only stare at him for this comment.

"Why?" she managed after a few seconds and he shook his head, looking towards the ground, not seeming able to meet her eyes.

"I let this happen. I should have known what Azula was capable of and I—"

Immediately, Ursa knew she didn't want to hear any of this.

"Stop," she said sharply and he did so, though he kept his eyes down.

"Don't you dare apologize for what my daughter has done. I… I am just as much at fault, for leaving her at such a young age and leaving her in Ozai's care. Though even still, I never would have guessed that she would have…"

Ursa grit her teeth, furious at how weak she was being right now. No matter how much this was hurting her, it was surely nothing compared to how much pain Sasuke was dealing with. And he was also somehow feeling guilt on top of everything else?

"I was just speaking with Zuko and the both of us… we came to the conclusion that you had conceived with Azula and left. I never even considered that you might be blameless. So, if anyone is to be asking forgiveness, it's me."

Sasuke grunted, a small noise that might have been the start of a laugh.

"Don't worry about it. Not like I've been particularly open with what I've dealt with."

Hearing the muttered resentment for himself that she knew that he must have been carrying for so long, Ursa felt the fear she had accumulated while thinking about talking to him vanish. No matter what he was, what mysterious and alien force he represented, he was still just a hurt and damaged young man that had found his way into her life. Finally finding that she was able to touch him, Ursa reached out and took him under the chin, slowly lifting his gaze to meet hers.

"It's alright, Sasuke."

She tried to put as much maternal instinct and comfort into her tone as she could, feeling that same urge again to ease his pain however she could. Looking into his eyes, she gave him a warm smile and watched as his own expression softened. Then, she felt both a sting of surprise as well as a hot flush through her abdomen as he suddenly moved his face towards hers. For the briefest moment, their lips touched before Ursa pulled backwards, her eyes widening as she looked both up and down the hall, half-expecting to see someone there.

"What are you doing?" she hissed as she put her hands on his biceps to hold him in place should he try for another kiss. Sasuke blinked at her, looking almost confused at her indignation.

"What?" he asked. "Is that not the relationship we have?"

"It is," Ursa said in a low voice. "But right now? Honestly? With all that's going on?"

She saw a light seem to flicker and leave his eyes, replaced by the darkness that usually was present in them. He shrugged off her grip and took a step away from her, his voice back to the usual dark and reserved register that he normally spoke in.

"So it's just when you feel like it," he said, in a tone that somewhat mockingly sounded like was clarifying something. "You just push yourself on me when it suits you and not the other way around."

Hardly believing what she was hearing, Ursa's mouth fell ajar as she blinked at him in shock.

"That is not what this is about! Of course I want to be able to—"

"Forget it," he muttered and brushed past her. In the course of him taking several steps down the hall in the opposite direction, Ursa felt a rush of thoughts through her head as she realized that she quite badly didn't want for him to walk away like this.

It was such a strange move for him to have thought appropriate to make just then, however, when such chaotic and trying times were upon them. Ursa couldn't figure out what had possessed Sasuke, usually such a reserved person so void of showing emotion, to do something like that.

But as she thought about it, the random and wild pieces in her head dropped into place.

No. It makes perfect sense.

She hadn't known him long, but based on what she knew of him and what she had heard from Zuko, it was clear that Sasuke wasn't used to opening up to anyone. But just days ago, Ursa had urged him into doing just that, and he had revealed more about himself than she suspected he had revealed to anyone in many years. She had then given into the rapidly developing feelings for lust she had for him, and he had reciprocated her that night, and she had felt more fulfilled after their time together than she had since well before she had met Ozai. And it was so clear to her that night, seeing his flushed face beneath her, that this was not something Sasuke suspected he would ever have done.

He opened up to me. He offered himself to me the same way I offered myself to him.

Ursa turned to look at Sasuke as he walked away from her, and she saw just how alone he looked.

Even though so much of what I was doing was trying to comfort him and make him feel safety and relief… I never considered that I might have succeeded.

Sasuke hadn't tried to kiss her just then out of lust. Well, surely that might have been part of it, but…

I gave him peace of mind, through body and soul. More so than he might have ever received from another woman, and surely more than my daughter ever gave him. And right now, he needs that. And I'm pushing him away.

"Sasuke!"

As she called out his name, she watched him stop and slowly turn to face her, his expression looking like he was expecting a stern talking to. Ursa drew in breath to calm herself, realizing that her heart was thudding rather aggressively against the pulse in her throat.

"I'm sorry," she said, and Sasuke made a slight face.

"Are we just going to spend the whole night apologizing to each other?" he asked and it took her a moment to realize he had just told a joke. Imagining that this was something of a rare occurrence, she allowed herself a short, genuine laugh before following up her apology.

"No, I just… I am sorry. I think there's a lot weighing on my mind right now, my homeland has been besieged by otherworldly forces, the young man I slept with happens to have powers perhaps at the level of a god, and I just found out my daughter raped you to become pregnant."

Very slightly, Sasuke cocked his head to the side as if to signify that he understood; Ursa realized how what she was saying sounded, and hated how it sounded much more like she was making excuses for herself rather than what she wanted.

"But Sasuke, Zuko told me about why you're here, what forced you to enter our world. What you've had to go through. And I know that none of what is happening now is your fault, you never wanted or intended for any of this."

She walked to him, feeling a need and desire to be close to him while she said this.

"And I'm sorry for pushing you away like that when it's clear you need someone to lean on right now."

With that, the glow returned to his eyes and Ursa felt relief spread through her insides even as she gave a small smirk.

"Even if I don't think we should be doing anything like that in a place that doesn't exactly have much privacy."

Sasuke seemed to accept that and lowered his gaze with a nod, respectful of her wishes. But as Ursa stood in front of him and looked at the hurting, exhausted and lonely young man in front of her, she was overcome; cursing, she grabbed his collar.

"Hell with it."

Briefly becoming completely uncaring of the idea that they might be seen, Ursa chose to risk the several seconds it would last and pulled Sasuke to her, their lips meeting as she cradled his head in one hand and put the other around his back. Any feeling that spoke to the strangeness of their relationship was banished as Ursa gave in and relished the pleasure that Sasuke's intimacy gave her as well as the warmth that comforting him allowed for. He seemed only briefly surprised that she would so willingly renege on her own words, but quickly kissed her back just as strongly. And purely in just even the way his body seemed to slacken just slightly, Ursa could feel the relief that this moment was giving him. She thought to the pressure and weight of all that had been forced upon him and the reality that he now had a daughter who had been brought into this world without his consent, and without his knowledge. Ursa couldn't fathom feeling sorry for herself then, not when the reality of Sasuke's pain was so clear to her. And so she held him and offered her comfort just as she had at the inn, letting the touch of their lips siphon away as much of his suffering as she could.

But distantly, as Ursa held him in the shadows, she couldn't help but feel guilt. She remembered her own words to Sasuke after the night they had shared.

"…please don't be naïve enough to think I've fallen in love with you."

She gripped him tighter, hating herself for how she felt, no matter how badly she wanted to feel otherwise.

It's not like that… it can never be like that.

She tried to keep herself from moaning against his lips as one of his hands pulled itself up along her waist, over her breast and holding long enough to briefly fondle her, and then reaching back to tuck behind her neck, holding her against him. Ursa would allow herself a few more precious seconds before she drew away from him, relishing the warmth that he was somehow so good at allowing her to feel. But no matter how she tried to just lose herself completely in him, the splinter of ice embedded in the warmth of her insides could never be forgotten.

Oh, Sasuke… I'm so, so sorry.

---

Yue leaned against the metal hallway, just at the corner before it turned, trying to imagine a world where she had walked into the bowels of the airship just a few minutes later than she had. But it had been precisely at this time, and so she had seen what was taking place just around the corner. She didn't think that Sasuke or Ursa had noticed her, but there was a part of her that wanted to walk importantly around the corner and just see how they might react to her sudden intrusion. Yue knew that she would never be able to manage that, but it somehow felt like it would be more fulfilling than standing just out of sight from the both of them, silent as a ghost.

Her mind felt numb and pained, and she tried to wrap her head around why.

Why do I care? I knew this was happening. I knew what they were doing.

It was true, she had known, but…

I hadn't seen it.

It was such a different thing to see them together that way, so different from the assumptions she had made in her head, images that had been drawn unbidden.

It's not like they're… doing anything else. It's just a kiss.

And Yue started to realize how much she hated even just that.

There was something terribly distressing to her about how the two of them together looked. Sasuke was someone that Yue had known from the moment she met him to be completely in control, cold to all attempts to accept any sort of other dominant personality to induce his actions. For weeks, Yue had toed this line, learning what she could and couldn't say, and what she even dared to try and do with him, whether she just followed his lead as he expected, or suggested otherwise. By the time they had reached the edge of the eastern sea, they had reached a point where Sasuke had actually gone from all but blowing her off to actually seeming to accept her thoughts and ideas, and taking consideration of how she felt.

And now, with a woman he had met only something like a week ago, he had completely allowed her to take him in her arms as they kissed. She couldn't avoid seeing that image in her head, just how much she seemed to have control of him.

Why? Why her? What is it about her that lets you just… crack open like that?

A swelling began in the pit of her stomach, a burning and painful sensation that she remembered feeling once before. She remembered lying on her cot in the inn, and just as she was drifting off, she had heard something faint, a sound that she wasn't quite able to ignore. Her brow had furrowed and she had slipped from her covers to walk to the door and enter the hall; a few paces down and she had stopped outside the offending room, the sound from within being what had kept her from dozing off. From there, as realization settled on her, that was when she had felt this feeling before, hearing Ursa's deep and sensual moans and as Yue had backed away from the door, she hadn't been able to get away fast enough before she had heard what definitely sounded like a groan from Sasuke as well.

Standing in the hall of the airship now, Yue felt her fists clenching.

Why her?

It didn't take her long to figure that the reason her anger was feeling so mysterious and foreign was because her mind was resolutely refusing to acknowledge why it was that she was so upset.

Unable to bear it any longer, she stormed off back the way she had come, trying not to think about the way that Ursa had been holding him.

---

Sasuke dogged Ursa's steps as they head back towards the bridge of the airship. She had held him in that kiss for well longer than he had been expecting to receive, but as he walked behind her, he felt easily the best that he had felt since a time he couldn't remember.

It was strange to him that just a kiss and being held had somehow been somehow even more releasing and relieving than a full on bout of sex, but he had begun to piece together exactly why that might have been. He remembered how fixated he had been on his own frustration and fury when she had approached him that first time, how even then a wild desire for violence had burrowed its way into the back of his mind and kept him from completely losing himself to pleasure the way Ursa had seemed to fall into. He had entirely shunned the idea that the comfort and intimacy that she offered would ever be anything that would grant him the respite that his isolating and frustrated personality had so much more preferred. Sasuke remembered how she had lain down next to him and held him while she had fallen asleep and how he had kept himself from ever relaxing entirely before he had left the bed upon hearing Ursa's slow breathing that indicated she was well in the throes of rest. He had been so against the idea of accepting satisfaction from any outside source, and he hadn't dared to figure why.

But when he had unleashed his fury on those men in the city hall, when he had screamed years of frustration at Kyoshi and furiously tried to crush her, he had realized that it had been pointless. Sasuke hadn't felt the release he had been expecting, nor had his wild desire to achieve fulfillment on his own been remotely realized.

Have I outgrown that?

No. He had never needed it in the first place. But he had resisted the one thing that had given him any true semblance of peace and happiness, so caught up he had been with the idea that he hadn't needed anyone else to feel satisfaction. And when he had confronted Azula and been unable to shake the feeling of heated desire that had involuntarily swept him, being alone with Ursa just minutes after the fact had done nothing but forced that desire into action. He had needed to know if what she gave him was real.

Sasuke reached behind his head to give it a scratch, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

It wasn't just real. The way I can just… let go with her.

As they walked, Ursa glanced back at him and smiled.

"You're going to need to stop blushing before we get to the bridge."

Sasuke let himself give a small smirk at her words, but as she looked back forward, he furrowed his brow. What had been that look of sadness she had just fixed him with ever so briefly?

Stupid, he chided himself. He knew how tactless he was, but was he really so dense as to not be able to figure out what was bothering her? She had told him after all.

Unable to help himself, his own thoughts drifted to Azula who he knew was surely just as much on Ursa's mind as his. He had known that confronting her wasn't going to be easy, but for her to be so much the same as she had been back then was…

No. She's worse.

Sasuke had to remind himself that Azula had been left to her own devices for over a decade, and her sick mind had likely done nothing but progress in its depraved descent. If she had done as good a job as he knew she must have been able to present herself in a composed and amenable light, who knew how much she had delved into the darker side of her persona that Sasuke had seen so much of when she was a child.

But here to see her face to face and to know that things had only deteriorated was something else entirely. Sasuke had been utterly focused when he had gone to find her, yet had found himself so disarmed by her looks, her ferocity, her madness. He grit his teeth and looked down, wanting to snarl angrily, but didn't want Ursa to know just how out of sorts her daughter had them both.

Worse than faltering in his confrontation, he had lost control. He had exposed her deeds, and forced her to reveal the truth and yet all she believed was that it had been nothing short of a necessary act. She had seemed proud of what she had done. There was nothing there that she believed was wrong. Her daughter was a child born of rape, and her mental health had been put severely at odds because of Azula's obsession with him. That wasn't to mention how she had set Toph up years in advance to be hurt or killed to spur this change in Soza on. And all of this, Azula had practically glorified.

In a sense, it was a mercy that Ursa had arrived when she had, just another thing he had to be grateful to her for. He hadn't been about to beat Azula's life from her, but it would surely have been messy however he had chosen to give in to his anger. Now, Sasuke could only shake his head and try and fathom how of everyone he had ever known, Azula was the only to put him this much on edge, despite the fact that he could snap her neck like a twig.

And how he had wanted to hurt her… it was baffling to Sasuke how he could dream such sick dreams of violence and yet when he honestly believed he had every right to punish Azula for what she had done, he hadn't. Was it because what he had said, that she would enjoy taking his blows more than he would enjoy unleashing them? Maybe, but Sasuke knew that wasn't all of it.

How have I allowed this to persist? No matter what Ursa says, I let this happen, I allowed Azula to take advantage of me, and she's more dangerous than ever. How did I let the chance to deal with this just…

His thoughts trailed off as he furrowed his brow. What was he thinking? He was thinking about this conflict like it was over, like there was nothing left to be done.

Oh, you and I aren't finished Azula. I don't know what it's going to take, but I'm going to deal with this.

The only pressing issue to that end was actually figuring how he was going to go about doing that. Clearly, he needed to steel himself much more than he just had, for this most recent encounter had gotten far too out of hand. He needed to control her, not the other way around.

But how? She's not normal, nothing close... how do I deal with something like ths?

He thought about how badly he had wanted to beat her, to hurt her, to torture her, and the maddening fury that had come when he realized that was just what she had wanted.

She's dangerous to everyone. I don't even want to think about what lasting damage she's done to Soza.

There was a solution, Sasuke knew there was. He didn't dare consider it, but it hovered in the back of his mind nonetheless.

I wanted to kill her. More than once. Wouldn't the world be better off if she was gone?

But Sasuke couldn't bring himself to think about this answer. Not because it would be hard he imagined to do, but because... still, after everything she had done, Sasuke still didn't know what to make of her. Not truly, not honestly, even in his own heart. Because when he had seen her memory... he had felt something that wasn't rage, or disgust, or hate. Something much more dangerous... almost rousing.

And that terrifed him as much as anything.

But despite that, Sasuke's anger still surged through him over what she had done, to him, to Toph and to their daughter.

The next breath he pulled in shook.

Our daughter. She and I… we're parents.

It was still such an alien concept to him, but Sasuke knew for a fact that he was going to have to come to terms with it sooner or later.

We'll figure that out after this is over, he told himself and immediately cursed in disgust mentally. Another excuse.

Stopping outside large metal door to the bridge, Ursa looked back to him, her expression deeply serious. She reached to his cheeks and stroked them gently causing Sasuke to growl and swat her hand away.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine," he said. "You doing that's only going to make it worse."

This caused a small smile to crack on her face, albeit a brief one before her serious attitude resumed.

"I don't suppose I need to tell you to not so much as hint to what is happening between us. I can barely believe I'm still considering a casual romance with you after finding out what's happened between you and my daughter, but for the sake of everyone here, I think it's very much better off being kept between us."

Sasuke thought to Azula, to Zuko, to everyone else aboard and pictured them all reacting to the news coming out that he and Ursa had been intimate together, and the thought caused him to wince slightly.

"Don't worry, I had planned on keeping that well under lock and key."

Ursa nodded, gave a small smile and her head twitched forward before she pulled back just as quickly, her mouth turning in a frown.

"And then here I go almost kissing you again," she muttered and it was Sasuke's turn to smirk at her expense.

"Keep it in check," he said, and then blinked in surprise as he realized he had just teased her.

I don't do that, he thought blankly, but Ursa only returned his smile and pushed open the door to the bridge.

Sasuke had to blink away the sudden bright interior that the pair of them walked in on; the bridge, unlike the interior of the ship, was very well lit and he had been both outside under the night sky and under the dim glow of the ship's hallways and rooms long enough that the light stung his eyes briefly. As he followed Ursa inside, he could see that the bridge itself was relatively clean and simple in design. A main console where there rested the primary wheel and a fair few levers and switches was in the center of the space, looking out over glass windows that stretched around the bridge in a curve, looking out into the black of night. Another couple levers were placed on the ceiling as well as a large and heavy handle, and Sasuke saw Siado and one of Ursa's other respected crew members, Ario, looking over a chart on the metal table behind them, the only furniture in the room. They looked up as he and Ursa entered the room and Siado immediately called out.

"Captain! You should take a look at this."

Immediately crossing over, Ursa didn't so much as give Sasuke a glance back which he supposed was part of her idea to maintain an inconspicuous narrative to their relationship. Still, it felt a little odd to be so immediately abandoned, particularly after he looked around and noted who else was present.

Ursa had told him on the way there that she had asked everyone to regroup on the bridge after a couple hours and it appeared that her words had been taken to heart. Sasuke looked around at Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka, Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai, Jin and Suki, all of whom were looking right back at him; it was difficult then, even for Sasuke, to keep from squirming at the many sets of eyes that found him.

Aang's eyes were full of both intrigue, worry and sadness and Sasuke found that, despite the fact that he had grown like a week, the Avatar still seemed to emanate the same tense and frightened outlook that Sasuke remembered seeing in his face all those years ago. He still remembered how Aang had approached him the day before he had left, expression fearful and pleading, begging him not to go and it could not have been more clear then that this was the same boy.

Beside him, Katara's overall appearance nearly caused him to chuckle darkly, because despite having matured into an incredibly striking woman, she was looking at him with the same intense eyes that he remembered from that time ago, her face serious, her back straight. But as he looked closer, he could see a softness around her eyes, something he wouldn't have expected to see, and he thought back to the conversation they had shared after he had pulled her from the wreckage of the Azulon, perhaps one of the only productive exchanges the two of them had experienced. Sasuke recalled the softness and almost maternal comfort she had extended to him then and he could read on her face now, just barely. He wondered if she was feeling any of that now, or if her only thoughts for him then were those of anger.

That anger was much more apparent on the faces of Suki and Ty Lee, both of them seeming well less than happy to see him. Suki looked much more reserved in her feelings, but her crossed arms, narrowed eyes, and tight lips told the whole story. Ty Lee was leaning against the wall and wasn't facing him directly, but the glare she had fixed him with out of the corner of her eyes spoke of the venom she felt for him. Beside her, Sokka was a much more mellow picture, though even while his stance and expression was less accusing than those around him, Sasuke could still see a caution and wariness in the young man's eyes. Zuko also looked like was trying to hold back some emotion, but Sasuke could tell it was difficult for him.

I suppose he did just find out his sister is a rapist.

Mai was almost an enigma for Sasuke to look at. She looked only occasionally at him, and while her eyes flickered with the same anger and tension that Sasuke was receiving from others, her entire composure and expression was rooted in much more fear than anyone, by a long shot. Her entire posture was screaming of a person who was deathly afraid of something, not at all the Mai that Sasuke remembered. She had her arms pulled over her stomach as though she was trying to fight back a severe stomach ache, and he wondered if she was sick. Regardless, her entire persona was not what he expected out of someone like her who, just based on her overall appearance, he would have guessed to hold herself in a similar sense to Katara.

Jin was perhaps the only one who wasn't regarding him with some sort of fear, or anger, or both, and as he met her eyes, he watched her look around nervously. It took him a moment to discern that strange look, but it clicked pretty quickly for him when he noticed that she was the only one of them missing a very specific emotion in her eyes. From the most toxic glare from Ty Lee to the calm reserve of Sokka, every single other person on that bridge, save for Zuko, Jin as well as Ursa and her crewmembers, ignorant to the silent standoff as they were huddled over the map, was looking at Sasuke with resentment. There was certainly some of that to be had for the carnage he had just so willingly exacerbated, and surely some blame there that they held for him considering Toph's condition, but there was one thing that Sasuke would be hard pressed to consider otherwise that was affecting their attitudes toward him.

They all think I knocked up Azula and ran off the next day.

Part of him wanted to cleanly just out Azula then and there; regardless of whether or not they believed him, at least getting that off his chest would perhaps bring him a touch of satisfaction. And if there were doubts about that, which he found ridiculous to even fathom considering all these people knew Azula just as well or better than he did, he could always threaten showing them all Azula's memory which would be all too easy of a combination jutsu to perform. Not that he particularly wanted to show anyone what he had seen, but based on the look Ty Lee was giving him, he could already imagine her nastily denying his claim in favor of believing he had wronged Azula.

Yeah, of course you would believe that… I remember how you stuck to her side like glue, like you didn't know exactly how twisted she was… might do you some good to finally just see what really happened between her and I, the culmination of her obsession and the lengths that she…

He trailed off in his angry musings as Ursa nodded in finality and withdrew from the table, giving Siado and Ario both a nod that was retuned and they both left the bridge. Realizing he had been clenching his fists, Sasuke released the tension in his arms and tried to will out some of the anger. He knew this was all still compressed fury at Azula that was still rotting in his gut, and there would be a time to deal with this.

"Based on our calculations, we're moving due west towards the Fire Nation," Ursa said, addressing them all. Sasuke noted that she hadn't bothered to wait to see if Yue or Azula would be joining them. "This ship's speed is such that we're making considerable time and it could be assumed that we would reach the capital by as early as the morning hours."

She walked to the console and looked into the dark night ahead of them, her eyes focused and calculating and Sasuke could tell she had fully fallen into her mindset of a ship captain, plotting out many different courses and the pros and cons of each.

"Obviously, this is just to suggest where we could be, should we decide our course would be best directed that way."

Looking between them all, her eyes came to rest on Aang, and Sasuke watched a touch of pity cross over her face.

"Forgive me for my boldness, Avatar, but I must address you frankly," she said with a bow and Aang gave a small, shaky laugh, raising his hands.

"Please, there's no need for that," he said with a smile and based on how his and everyone else's expressions had changed to passive respect as they turned their attention to Ursa, Sasuke could tell that whatever meeting they had partaken in earlier that he had been absent from had been enough to gauge a certain level of respect for the captain; still, Sasuke could see the veiled suspicion on the faces of Katara and Suki, though they too remained respectfully quiet and attentive. Ursa raised her head and gave Aang a smile back as he the Avatar added, "There are no betters here on this bridge as far as I'm concerned; you and your men got us safely out of Ba Sing Se, and I am more than happy to listen to whatever your ideas might be."

Ursa nodded in affirmation before speaking her mind.

"The world has been plunged into chaos, clearly; there's no easy way to get past that fact. And it's clear that the brunt of the this invasion has been spearheaded by the belief that Sasuke and Soza both need to be destroyed. Would you agree with that?"

Aang nodded.

"Obviously, there is to be no concession in regards to this to the spirits, so the two options left to us are to fight, or to retreat until a better plan can be created," she continued and Aang fidgeted where he stood.

"We can't fight," he said weakly. "Not until we know what we're up against, the spirits have already made it clear that casualties are not at all something that they're concerned about, and we can't—"

Holding up a hand, Ursa gave him a reassuring look.

"Alright, no fighting. In that case…"

She peered over towards the map again before elaborating.

"I'm entirely open to suggestions, but it seems to me that the best option we have right now is to get far enough away from the spirits that we can't be followed which will give us time to organize and figure out a best plan of action. Right now, we have no way of knowing they aren't going to be able to find us since I doubt any of us really have any good idea the extent of their abilities."

Pausing, she looked around as though waiting for someone to suggest otherwise but everyone shook their head in agreement.

"I would propose then that we fly west as fast as we can. We briefly make port in the Fire Nation if we can, refuel, and load up as much supplies and extra fuel as the ship can hold. From there, we west towards the sea."

Sasuke waited for someone to insinuate the dangers of crossing the sea, but Ursa must have at least somewhat informed the others on where she had been for so many years so the idea might not have seemed so outlandish.

"We make land on as deserted an island as we can find and work from there. But regardless, I believe distance is our best advantage to create right now."

"I agree," Katara said firmly, and as she stepped forward, Sasuke could tell that a decade or so had done nothing to dampen her natural desire for control and leadership. "Protecting Sasuke and Soza comes first and getting them far away will be our best bet to ensure that."

Sasuke started to feel himself getting uncomfortable. While he understood the sentiments being passed around, a part of him was growing displeased with the emphasis being placed on his protection.

Soza, of course… but I don't need protection. I don't want anyone here putting themselves in danger because of me.

This hardly seemed to be something that was on anyone else's mind however as Sokka spoke up in wake of his sister.

"We don't know just how the spirits will work their way through the Nations, but if their point of entry is Ba Sing Se, then pretty much taking off in any direction is a good call since it puts them to our tail. And even better if you have some idea of where a good place would be to head towards."

"We need to have someone watching all sides of the ship," Zuko said as he stepped forward as well. "The spirits seem to possess a natural blue glow, and if we see a telltale sign of that in any direction, we'll know we're being followed."

Sasuke toned them out as Ursa started to tell her son that she had men on it already, feeling strangely indignant towards what was being said. It was rather odd, he thought, that no one was asking him how he felt, considering that he was half of the reason why this venture was even necessary. It wasn't that he wasn't appreciative of what was happening, but he found himself almost waiting for someone to ask him his opinion; rather than that, it was almost as though he had blended in perfectly with the wall as talk continued before him.

"It's settled then," Ursa said, as she finished agreeing with Suki's sentiment that they should maintain a distance initially from the capital's port before descending into the city. "We'll chart for the capital with all the speed we can manage."

Everyone seemed accepting of this and Sasuke finally felt his frustration hit a breaking point as nods and generic words of agreement were exchanged without so much as a glance in his direction. He started to step forward himself then, opening his mouth and preparing to clear his throat, but before he could make so much as a sound, a new voice was added to the mix.

"So, just like that, you're calling this?"

Sasuke turned towards the door to the bridge as everyone's attention moved that way, and he saw Yue standing in the door, wearing perhaps the most grudging expression he had ever seen her wear. There was a dark look to her face as she looked past everyone and Sasuke realized she had a glare fixed on Ursa. She stepped onto the bridge, leaving the door wide open and swinging behind her; seeming well aware that she had taken the attention of the room, she took a couple slow paces before jutting her chin towards Ursa.

"You didn't even ask Sasuke what he thought, and you're just going to act in what you think are his best interests?"

Ursa's expression was hard and stern as was her voice, but Sasuke could see the flicker of concern in her eyes at this peculiar intrusion. He himself couldn't help but find this rather hostile behavior from Yue rather disconcerting and any thoughts of his own indignation were already all but forgotten.

"We're doing what's best to keep him, and Soza, safe," Ursa replied, her voice as hard as iron. "Do you have some objection to this plan?"

Starting to pace around the room towards the center console, Yue looked up towards the ceiling and shrugged passive aggressively.

"Funny that you're thinking to ask this now."

Sasuke felt his eyes narrow in Yue's direction; this was most unlike her and he tried to figure where this was coming from, this sudden animosity she was directing towards Ursa. The other occupants of the bridge had become still and quiet as the awkward tension sapped the life from the room.

"Yue, if you have something you'd like to say, now is the time," Ursa said, her voice growing chilled.

"Would it matter if I did?" Yue suddenly snapped and Sasuke tensed. "Ever since we met you, things always get done your way, isn't that right? No plan goes unless you approve, though you're always the one coming up with them anyway."

Sasuke, who hadn't believed Ursa to ever have been anything but helpful and a positive influence throughout the course of their journeying, stared at Yue in disbelief.

"Yue, where's this coming from?" he asked in a low tone and her eyes locked on his with an almost startling ferocity.

"And let me guess, you're just going to go along with what she says? Would be just what I'd expect out of the two of you at this point."

This sudden situation was only growing worse and Sasuke did his best to muster up some calming words, anything he could say to ease whatever anger Yue was feeling. But before he could so much as get a word out, Ursa's voice cut through the room like the slash of a blade.

"I don't know exactly what it is that has you so out of sorts, Yue, because you have always been much more rational and sensible than this. If you have some problem, I'd suggest spitting it out. Otherwise, mind your tongue, because we don't have time to waste on some emotional nonsense that you might be dealing with, because this is about Sasuke, not you or I."

Sasuke knew for a fact after so many times in his life getting a vicious backlash for his words that he was a man of little tact, but even he knew that Ursa's response was perhaps not the best choice of words in a situation like this. The room briefly seemed to somehow grow quieter and Sasuke watched as Yue's eyes widened with indignation and her lips curled in anger. She seemed to struggle with her words for a moment, as though trying to come up with an appropriate rebuttal before clenching her fists and locking them at her side in an almost childish gesture of rage.

"Him? Him? Is that why you slept with him, because it was about him?!"

Sasuke suddenly found himself wishing that he had was still back in Ba Sing Se fighting who knew just what spiritual forces could be brought to beat against him. Anywhere would be better than standing precisely where he was just then.

Yue only continued to look forward angrily for a moment longer before the anger disappeared from her face, replaced by what was clearly shock at her words as she clapped a hand over her mouth. Hardly daring to, Sasuke flicked his gaze over at the rest of the bridge.

Ursa could have been carved from stone for all the movement and expressiveness she bore just then, as her eyes remained locked on Yue. Her expression was a striking contrast to the rest as Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka, Suki, Jin, Ty Lee, and Mai's mouths all had dropped open to some extent and Sasuke reflected distantly that the lot of them would have looked quite comical had the situation not been what it was. Most everyone looked nothing short of shocked, but there was a severe mixture of indignant fury on Zuko's face as his cheeks flushed bright red, his hands balling into fists as he stared at Sasuke. Sokka looked like was trying very hard not to find the idea humorous and Katara's brow had furrowed intensely. Aang had his hands balled into fists and pressed against the sides of his head as his ajar mouth became one of tightly clenched teeth and Ty Lee's body had gone slack, her mouth perhaps open the widest of anyone there. Suki looked almost pained in her shock and Jin's expression was nothing short of dumbfounded, pure and simple. Mai had met Sasuke's eyes for the longest stretch of time since he had walked onto the bridge, her sick expression seeming to have briefly vanished and as she looked at him, her expression all but asked Sasuke the word, 'Really?'

As Sasuke looked at everyone however, he watched as eyes turned past him in Yue's direction and widened even further. Wondering what could possibly have happened to make them look even more shocked than they already were, but as he joined them in looking back forward, he realized that their further exaggerated expression were perfectly justified.

Azula stood in the open door that Yue had left, her hands shaking at her side, her mouth slightly open as her lower lip trembled, her eyes glowing with a monstrous hate that Sasuke wasn't sure that he had ever seen before. Her eyes were locked on Ursa and Sasuke watched as mother and daughter looked at one another, and he finally saw some resolve crack down in Ursa's eyes.

Oh, perfect, Sasuke managed to think sarcastically before a furious shriek exploded from Azula's throat and she burst onto the bridge, fire bursting from her palms.