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.

25. Chapter 25

AN: Wanted to quickly thank the couple folks that have dropped reviews for the first time or said hello over PMs over the past few chapters, it's always really cool for me to see folks who have been following the story quietly just say a quick hi and let me know they're happy to be along for the ride; so happy to have you guys, and thanks for being here!

And to you other beautiful people dropping those reviews regularly, thanks so gosh darn much, it's always the bright spot of my week getting to post a new chapter and seeing what you guys think.

Much love to every single one of you; hope you like this week's update!

---

Chapter 25: Unhandled

Jin sat bolt upright in her bed, her heart pounding a violent pulse in her neck and chest while she tried to pull in deep, calming breaths to settle herself. The quiet of the dark room served to only unsettle her further, and she reached for the knob on the oil lamp at the bedstand and a second later, her room was awash in an orange glow. Being able to see more than just blackness helped her calm down and she slowly bent over where she sat, pressing her forehead against where she had pulled her knees up. It must have just been a dream, one that she couldn't remember, that had caused her to wake in such a feverish panic.

I'm alright… I'm alright…

She took up the mantra and repeated it over and over in her head to match the pace of her breathing and slowly but surely her mind began to stop buzzing with an overwhelming abundance of anxiety. It was the first restless night she had spent in the three nights since fleeing Ba Sing Se, and it didn't make much sense to her that her brief streak of peaceful sleep would be broken on a night in a comfortable room, her friends safe on all sides of her, in perhaps one of the safest places to be in all of the Four Nations just then. Letting out a sigh, she fell back on her pillow, blinking tiredly up at the ceiling. There was no point in letting herself get worked up, especially if it was over a dream she couldn't remember. Deciding she'd keep the light on, Jin started to close her eyes, doing her best to clear her mind.

Wait.

Although now that she thought about it, Jin actually could remember one very specific detail from her dream. There had been someone screaming, a distant, drawn out sound of agony that she assumed must have been what threw her so violently from her sleep. She shivered as she closed her eyes, genuinely glad that she couldn't remember what she had been dreaming about to generate such a pained sound.

Her eyes had only been shut a couple seconds when she heard the exact same scream again and she launched back to a sitting position again, her heart rate lunging again to a furious rate. Her eyes wide and her body suddenly tingling with nerves, she clumsily kicked her covers away and climbed out of her bed. Despite the fact that she was dressed only in her underwear and a nightshirt, she felt a strong urge to be side by side with her friends and so she grabbed her dagger out from under her pillow and rushed to the door, yanking it open and drawing back her weapon in case of danger.

The hall, which was dimly lit, was host to only her for a brief moment before the door two rooms down banged open as well. Jin snapped her eyes in that direction to see Yue with her enormous sword in hand also looking around in a state of worry and similar undress.

"Did you hear—?" she started to ask before another scream came from down the hall to their left and around the corner just as the room next to Yue's opened and Suki came rushing out followed by Sokka who was hastily trying to leap into a pair of pants. Suki regarded the both of them for only the briefest moment before she was running in the direction of the sound and Jin fell in behind her along with her husband and Yue.

As they rounded the corner, Jin saw that the banister overlooking the first floor lobby had been broken; this section of the hall opened over the complex's lobby where more light was streaming from and by the look of it, someone had either fallen or smashed it and from down below in the lobby was where the cries were coming from. Several doors were already opening along the hallway and Jin had only a second to briefly see the faces of Mai, Aang and others before she reached the banister and looked down into the lobby.

Her still mind still shaking off the cobwebs of sleep and the shock that had forced her up in the first place, it took her a moment to figure what she was looking at. For several seconds, she only blinked down at the nearly empty lobby and it wasn't until Suki roared a furious curse that she realized she was looking at Ty Lee on the ground with Azula standing above her, blue fire crackling in her hands. Jin was nearly knocked over as Suki leapt over the side, falling down a good ten feet before landing in a roll to keep her ankles from suffering any damage. Not sure she could handle such a leap herself, Jin didn't have to think about it before the floor beneath them shot up to erect a ramp up to the second floor and Toph ran past her, sliding down the makeshift structure she had bended into existence, her face tight with fear, Soza just behind her. Jin followed alongside everyone else, save for Aang who flew down with a small burst of his airbending.

A moment later, they were all standing in the lobby; Jin only needed a quick glance around to see everyone looking in various states of shaking off sleep, but there was no lack of intensity and focus, even as they all stood there in their nightwear. The only person absent Jin realized, was Sasuke.

"Azula!" Suki bellowed with a venom that Jin didn't think she had ever heard before. The princess stood with her back to them, staring down at Ty Lee's shivering form. Had she not replied, it would honestly have seemed she hadn't noticed them.

"I'm afraid I'm rather busy right now."

Her voice was distant and lofty, almost as though she were dreaming herself. Jin was more worried about her friend just then however, but as she looked down at Ty Lee, part of her wished she hadn't.

Ty Lee's face was steeped with fear and pain, her face wet with sweat as she had her eyes tightly closed, her body curled up and shaking. Her mind fully coming to a waking state now, Jin started to feel her own anger start to come on as she slowly turned her eyes up to glare at Azula's back and the gravity of what was happening truly began to settle.

What did you do?

There was a strange smell lingering in the air, sour and burning, that caused Jin to wrinkle her nose, but she didn't have time to try and figure it out as Toph spoke up too then, her voice also angry and raised.

"Get away from her!"

Azula half-turned her head, her expression set in one of mild disgust, but Jin saw what could only have been madness flashing in her eyes.

For years, Jin had done her best to be wary of Azula and stay out of her way. Her friendship with Ty Lee meant that there was never a way she could entirely avoid the princess, but after their first meeting years ago had resulted in her nearly being murdered, Jin had felt that maintaining her distance was surely in her best interests. Still, she had been able to watch Azula grow up from a distance in a way that she imagined not many others could, save for her other friends, the people that Jin had become quite attached to. Azula had disappeared for a period of almost a year which was revealed eventually to be a result of her pregnancy, but when she had come back, Jin had watched the condescending and superior attitude she had held herself with, and the fake politeness and smiles that always seemed to emanate from her. In a way, they genuinely made her more frightening because no matter how many times Ty Lee had told her that she had nothing to fear from Azula, Jin had always known she couldn't trust even a single smile from the princess. Behind those eyes that could make any man swoon, she knew there was so much more twisting and twirling about dangerously, and she had no desire to ever find out exactly what that could be, what vicious and hateful thoughts might be keeping her going.

And as she saw the fury and wild energy flickering in Azula's eyes then, and heard the airy and malicious tone hissing over the lobby, raising the hairs on her arms, she wondered if Azula perhaps had finally snapped.

"Why ever would I do such a thing?" she asked, her voice floating between that nerve-wracking combination of malicious and casual. "Ty Lee is happy right where she is, as am I."

Jin kept her eyes on Ty Lee who was still curled up, the agony still present on her face. Slowly, she felt the shock of the moment start to give way to her own anger, and she felt her face twisting as so many others were just then. Suki, Toph and Mai all looked ready to wrap their hands around Azula's throat and throttle the life from her body and Zuko's hands were clenching and unclenching, and Jin could see the rawest energy of anyone flickering in his eyes. He looked more scared than anything.

Knowing that trying to talk to Azula just then might have been the most pointless thing she could have attempted, she swallowed down her worry and called out, not to the princess, but to her friend lying on the smooth marble floor.

"Ty! You alright?"

It was a stupid question she knew, but all she wanted just then was even just to hear Ty Lee's voice and know that perhaps this wasn't as horrible a situation as she was starting to fear it was.

From where she rested, Ty Lee's eyes flickered open just slightly and she gently raised her head just a couple inches from the floor as if to see for herself what was happening and Jin's heart soared to see her reciprocating her words through movement. That was, until fury and fear replaced it as Azula's foot came down and slammed Ty Lee's head back onto the ground. A small, feeble cry of pain issued from her throat as Azula ground the right side of her face against the hard surface of the floor, cocking her own head back at them, her expression daring them to make a move as Jin felt herself take an involuntary step forward alongside Toph, Suki and Mai.

"She's doing just fine," Azula intoned calmly. "We've just been having a little… talk, regarding her infidelity."

Suki's face was a mask of pure rage as she shouted across the lobby.

"She doesn't belong to you! She never has!"

Jin felt her own mind swimming in confusion; what was being implied just now?

Azula let out a short giggle that was almost madness in a sound, and glanced down at Ty Lee, still underfoot.

"You hear that? The Kyoshi Warrior thinks that you're somehow more than what you are. Why don't you tell them, dear Ty Lee? Why don't you tell them what you are, and what you will always be?"

A barely audible sound issued from Ty Lee's mouth and Jin saw a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

"Stop that!" Suki roared, more furious than ever. "Your sick twisted mind has you thinking that she belongs to you, but you have no right over her, and it is none of your concern how she lives her life, much less whom she spends her time with! So take your stinking foot off of her before I—"

Somehow, Azula's low drawl was enough to cut off Suki's infuriated shouting.

"Oh, you would of course be so bold as to claim such a thing," the princess sneered. "But what if it was your beloved husband that Ty Lee here decided to fool around with? Would you feel quite so… forgiving?"

Jin found it to be the quite the encouraging sign of their relationship that Suki didn't so much as glance over at her husband before replying.

"The situation doesn't matter. You have no right to be doing this to another person, let alone someone who cares so much about you."

Azula ground her foot more forcefully into Ty Lee's head, who gave another cry from the ground.

"If she truly cared about me, why would she have so sought fit to take her whore self to another man?"

Part of Jin was terribly curious what Azula might have been talking about, but the much more pressing situation was still getting Ty Lee away from the quite possibly crazed princess ahead of them.

"Mother, please…" Soza's voice came quietly, a strange contrast to the aggression and intensity that had been passing between Azula and Suki. "Please stop hurting Auntie Ty, you're scaring me."

As Jin looked at the girl, she saw a flicker of disgust pass over Soza's face; perhaps years of being told that such emotions and feelings were nothing but weakness were playing into her own thoughts just then, but it was clear that the situation was genuinely frightening her. Azula's brow furrowed at her daughter, not looking remotely affected by this show of emotion. If anything, Soza seemed to have only aggravated her more.

"You would do well to watch this, daughter. It's clear I have failed in crushing your fears and trepidations you might have over things like this, but this will surely help correct my errors."

The fire flickered in her hand and Soza pulled her clenched fists up to her chest, and she took a step forward to stand beside Toph.

"No! Mother, this is wrong! If you cared about her, you wouldn't be doing this! Please leave her alone!"

Soza's face reflected the shock she must have felt at both defying her mother's wishes, as well as likely her own surprise that she was experiencing such feelings. Azula's breathing seemed to start coming in more unsteadily as she ground her teeth, her usually beautiful face becoming more and more twisted by rage.

"Mind your tongue, Soza," she said in a threatening and low voice. "When I am finished here, you and I will have to—"

"No."

The voice that cut Azula off then was by far the most calming tone that had spoken yet, rich with command and focus. Jin felt herself lightly brushed aside as Ursa walked past her to stand even a step ahead of even Suki, her face chilled with intensity. There was such a power and control that seemed to radiate from the woman, but Jin still wondered if even that would be enough to quell the wild raging inferno that was Azula.

"You will take your foot off your friend," Ursa said, her voice almost frightening in its own way and Jin could hear the anger she was trying to keep in check. "You will stop this madness, and we will work this out."

Her voice shook a moment then and Jin could hear the desperation in it, so deep beneath the control she was trying to personify.

"It's not too late, Azula… please."

Personally, Jin felt that might not be entirely true as Azula did nothing but stare hatefully back at her own mother. Katara seemed to have a different idea on how the situation should be handled anyway as she growled angrily to Jin's left.

"Enough of this. If she doesn't back down, I'll put her down just as quick as—"

"So eager to act, Katara," Azula called out, her mouth turning in an almost excitedly savage grin. "You're telling me you don't want to know what Ty Lee did to bring this about?"

Her eyes flashed viciously around at all of them.

"None of you are the least bit curious?"

Ty Lee's hand weakly came up to weakly grab at Azula's foot as it continued to force her head against the floor and even though Jin couldn't quite hear her, she knew that her friend was pleading. Mai's knuckles cracked as she squeezed her fists tightly, clenching and unclenching them as she narrowed her eyes at Azula.

"Haven't you been listening, you maniac? It doesn't matter what Ty did, she doesn't—"

Azula's smiled widened as she made sure to annunciate every word carefully of what she loudly proclaimed throughout the lobby.

"She bedded with Sasuke."

Mai didn't finish her thought as her eyes widened with shock. Ty Lee let out a small groan from where she lay and her hand fell limply from where she had been grabbing at Azula; it was clear that she had been trying to beg Azula not to reveal this particular bit of information.

There was a very sinking feeling that Jin could feel on her insides and she looked somewhat despairingly at Ty Lee.

Ty… what could you have been thinking?

Around her, everyone's resolve seemed to have been briefly stunned; Soza was looking confused, Toph and Katara were both looking dumbfounded, and Ursa looked like she was struggling between disbelief and hurt, and trying very hard to hide both. Aang's mouth had fallen open and Sokka had his eyebrows raised though he continued to watch Azula carefully as if still looking for an opportunity to resolve the situation. Yue looked strangely pained, as though she too was hurt, but more so in a way that was causing her to feel more pity than actual hurt for herself. Zuko was now looking more angry than anything, though Jin had a feeling that it wasn't at anyone Ty Lee, or perhaps even Azula that his wrath was directed towards just then.

Suki seemed the only one to not be jarred enough by this news to be briefly paralyzed as the rest were, though her voice did crack briefly as she spoke again.

"Azula, I'm giving you one last chance to get off of her before I come over and—"

"AND WHAT?!" Azula suddenly shrieked and Suki pulled her head back in reproach as her body seemed to adopt an instinctive defense stance. Glaring around at all of them, Azula seemed to have hit yet another breaking point.

"I know what you're all doing! Trying to keep me from him! You're scared, I know you are, of what will happen when I finally make him mine!"

She pulled her foot from Ty Lee's head only to draw it back and kick her violently in the ribs causing her to cry out and curl around Azula's foot.

"Just because I caught her doesn't mean I don't know plenty of you have been trying to do the same!"

Pointing accusingly at Ursa, Jin looked in fright at the manic energy that was pouring from Azula now, this aggressive and wild edge that seemed more dangerous than any number of spirits just then. She felt a similar sort of panicked energy surging through her too as she looked at her disabled friend lying helplessly at Azula's feet.

"You, mother! The only one to be honest about your treachery! Shall I kill you now, too?! Are you ready to pay the price for what you've done to me?!"

Ursa still seemed to be fighting through a flurry of emotions herself, but her expression remained intensely focused as her words reflected none of the turmoil that was likely raging within her.

"You won't be killing anyone today, daughter."

Another crazed giggle resonated from the princess's throat.

"I'd be more than happy to prove you—"

A gust of wind slashed swiftly through the lobby and Ty Lee's body was taken quickly from its place at Azula's feet and rushed to the group; as Aang moved his hands in carefully coordinated patterns to gently lower her to the ground, Katara immediately dropped to her knee to assess the damage as Toph and Suki both stepped in front of her, shoulder to shoulder. Relief rushed through Jin as she moved a step closer to Ty Lee, ready to block her off if need be as she looked at Aang thankfully.

Azula's eyes widened at this and it seemed to take her a moment to realize just what had happened before her lips pulled back spitefully over her lips as she glared at the Avatar.

"You pathetic boy…"

Aang swallowed, but held his ground, raising his hands in a calming gesture.

"Azula, please listen to me. You don't have to—"

The princess didn't even seem to have realized that he was talking the way she cut him off then.

"You as well, Avatar… I've seen the way you look at him. Having some thieving thoughts of your own, are you?"

It seemed a rather bizarre accusation to make, but when Jin looked over at Aang, she saw with surprise that his young, boyish face had gone slightly pink in the cheeks.

"That's not it!" he snapped, but Azula only tilted her head back, smiling further.

"Of course it isn't…" she said, her voice briefly dipping into that airy, distant tone again as her eyes met the ceiling. "Terrible liar that you are. I suppose it makes sense to start with you…"

Yue and Sokka both shouted in warning as Azula's slow movements suddenly accelerated violently, her body whipping like a serpent. A fork of blue lightning sprouted from her fingertips as she thrust her arm at Aang, the crackling energy lighting up her face and Jin could see the hatred there, unadulterated and pure. Her heart leapt in her chest as the blue glare blasted towards Aang and for a moment, it became so bright that she couldn't even see what was happening even as she cried out.

There came a booming crack above her, and Jin blinked the blinding light away from her eyes to see rubble falling from the ceiling to the ground between Azula and the group; above them, a sizzling hole had opened up to the night sky, clearing opened by the lightning.

Zuko stood in front of Aang, his stance proof that he had just deflected the attack and possibly saved Aang's life. The Avatar looked shaken by the near miss, but Zuko's face spoke of nothing but tight anger and determination. He looked across the distance between him and his sister, speaking in a low and commanding voice that was very reminiscent then of his mother.

"Azula… I don't want to have to do this. But if you make me, I will pummel you down into the ground until you can't so much as move. You know how strong I am, and I will not hold back."

Seeming to not be at all taken aback by this threat, Azula smirked.

"Oh, Zuzu, please… you were never a match for me when we were younger and now that you're the Fire Lord and a big strong man, you have any chance to handle me?"

Zuko glared back at her for a moment longer, but before he could respond, Katara let out a yell from behind him. Jin spun about to see that Katara had pushed slightly away from Ty Lee, her expression horrified as she looked between Ty's legs.

"Sis, what's wrong?!" Sokka yelled as he and just about everyone else didn't seem comfortable taking their eyes from Azula, but out of the corner of her eye, Jin could see Katara just shaking her head before she turned to Azula. The waterbender's voice was a broken and furious hiss.

"What did you do…?"

Azula raised an eyebrow, looking to be more annoyed than anything, but the smile on her face spoke to some level of sick satisfaction she was feeling.

"Well, clearly I didn't get to finish, but I was just doing what I could to make sure dear Ty Lee doesn't have any wandering thoughts again in the future…"

Mai, who didn't seem able to handle the lack of a straightforward answer, tore her eyes from Azula and rushed to stand by Katara's slumped and kneeling form. She followed Katara's gaze between Ty Lee's legs and, in a display that Jin had never seen her come close to, Mai slapped a hand over her mouth and screamed. Clearly having her curiosity piqued, Soza started to walk over even with the fear on her face of what she might see; Toph turned quickly and wrapped her hands around Soza to keep her from moving further. Jin looked at the tears in Toph's eyes then and it suddenly clicked in her own head.

The sour burning smell, Azula's words, Katara's reaction and the agony on Ty Lee's face.

And the shame that burned on her friend's face too.

Jin felt herself start to shake as the possibility of what had happened started to become more and more a piece of her reality and she felt her fingers grow numb around the blade she had forgotten she was even holding. Her eyes found Azula and as she looked at that obsessive, wild, and smirking expression, Jin found that she didn't fear Azula in that moment. All she felt was a bitter, pained anger that she hadn't even known she was capable of feeling.

Her heels dug tightly into the ground and she felt the scream leave her throat even as her legs burned with the sudden exertion she forced on them, desperate to reach Azula as fast as possible.

Even as she ran forward, just barely getting past Ursa's hand as it reached out to try and stop her, Jin knew it was foolish. Things seemed to shift into slow motion for her and she saw Azula's eyes widen with excitement before blue flames burst from beneath her feet, propelling her forward with a speed that Jin could never have hoped to match. She brought her dagger up to swing down, but she knew that she would never be able to strike a blow faster than Azula could snuff the life from her. She had given the princess exactly what she wanted, someone with which she would believe to have every justification to cut down for trying to attack her.

Even as a mere second dragged on like a minute in Jin's mind, Azula still neared her with what should have been an impossibly fast speed. The princess was grinning with wild excitement as fire crackled around the hand she was bringing around to no doubt burn right through Jin's body.

You wanted this, didn't you? How long have you wanted to kill me? Would you have done it back then?

All of her rationale caused her body to scream in resistance to what was happening, but Jin couldn't turn her mind off to her anger. It should have been fear ruling her, but the idea of what Azula had done to Ty Lee kept a blinding rage pressing her onward.

If I die… maybe at least I can be the last person she gets to hurt.

It was a strangely comforting thought that perhaps the combination of Azula finally achieving a murder she had so clearly been pining for and Ty Lee's abused self would finally be enough to ensure that Azula would be able to keep from hurting anyone ever again. So as the hand crackling with fire curled upwards towards her, Jin allowed herself the briefest moment of solace as she realized just what was about to happen; her eyes closed almost involuntarily and she found herself furious at her weakness, but she didn't think she was strong enough to see the strike coming as it happened.

With a loud burst of crackling electricity, Jin felt her body grind to a paralyzing halt as the idea of having Azula's hand driven clean through her shook her body into a state of immobility. She remained where she stood, her hand still drawn back to strike, as she waited to start to feel the pain that was no doubt about to catch up to her. She knew that with any grievous injury, shock could often keep a body from feeling the agony that was put on it by anything of that nature.

But still, the pain didn't come. And with a wince, Jin opened her eyes.

Azula's hand was indeed sticking through a torso, but it wasn't hers. As she took in the situation, Jin saw that Sasuke was standing in front of her and her stomach lurched as she saw Azula's hand, still crackling with lightning, reaching through him as blood spilled over it and down to stain the floor.

It took Jin several seconds, but she finally regained control of her senses and she jerked several shaky steps away, eyes wide as she looked on.

She hadn't seen Sasuke approaching and she knew it was likely a combination of his speed and last second timing that had caused his appearance to be such a surprise, but as she stumbled back into Yue, Jin couldn't help but still feel horrified at the sight, even as her mind caught up to what had just happened. She could feel the selfishness coming on, but still couldn't banish it from her mind as she thought to what actually had nearly just happened to her.

Again… it almost happened again.

Yue's arm wrapped around her to steady her, but her body seized at the touch as she remembered Obito's arm doing the same thing.

I almost died again… and again, Sasuke saved me.

She forced herself back into the moment and joined the stunned and likely horrified silence that accompanied the gazes towards Azula and Sasuke, as everyone seemed to almost hold their breath.

Azula seemed to take several long seconds to react as she looked to her arm that had punched clean through Sasuke, then down to the blood on the floor, and then slowly up to his face. From the angle she was at, Jin couldn't quite see all of him, but the intense calmness that she had long associated with being Sasuke's general persona was present, even with an arm through him. As her eyes met his, Azula's maddened expression didn't lose its insanity, but morphed into one of horror rather than fury. Her mouth fell open in anguish as she exclaimed, her voice splintering with pain.

"Sasuke! Why?!"

He said nothing in response to her, but held her gaze, the imposing stare of his dark eyes seeming to double with his silence in bringing more discomfort to Azula, who pulled herself close to him, seemingly oblivious that her hand was still protruding out past his spine.

"Why would you do this?!" she shouted, her voice half-moan, half-cry. "Why won't you please just let me kill them all?! Don't you know what they're trying to do?!"

Her body slumped slightly and she seemed to quiver as her voice became much harder to hear.

"I… can't be without you, Sasuke, I don't know how… please, don't do this to me… don't hate me…"

The tender agony in her voice was something Jin would never have ever thought to hear from Azula, and she watched as the princess reached up with the hand not puncturing Sasuke to reach and caress his cheek.

"Please…"

For a moment, the pair just stood there as Azula gently touched the man who had clearly all but broken her mind just by existing, before Sasuke's own hand slowly moved up towards Azula's face. Jin felt her heart sink as he placed his hand against Azula's cheek and she moaned softly, leaning into the touch and closing her eyes. Her voice came out as a whisper that was just nearly inaudible with how quiet it was.

"Sasuke… I love—"

With a blinding speed, Sasuke's hand moved quickly around to the back of her neck, his fingers curling as he gripped her tightly with his thumb and middle finger. Azula's eyes shot open wide for just a moment before her pupils rolled back and her body seemed to slacken; Sasuke must have found some form of pressure point on the back of her neck just underneath her skull. He bent slightly to let her body fall somewhat gently to the floor and she heard him release an involuntary, quiet sound as her arm pulled back through his torso and a fresh stream of blood spilled from either end of the wound.

For a few long seconds, all was still as Jin's eyes moved between the hole in his body and Azula's unconscious form as time seemed to hold in a suspended state. Then, she remembered to breathe as Aang's voice sounded behind her.

"Sasuke!" the Avatar cried out, as the spell that Azula had seemed to have cast over the wide room seemed to dissipate with her unconsciousness. Without turning to face them, Sasuke waved a hand almost wearily.

"I'm fine. My eyes might still be recovering, but this… this is nothing."

There seemed to be a touch of pain in his words but as Jin looked and listened, a strange sound seemed to emanate from his torso and she realized with shock that the injured tissue she could see seemed to be repairing itself.

"My body can handle something like this rather easily," he said, but Aang didn't look any less alleviated.

"Why didn't you just use one of those weird water clones or something?! Why take that hit at all?!"

Jin could see the corner of Sasuke's mouth turn up, but there was nothing pleasant about the small smile, no humor. Only a regretful pain seemed to linger on his face as though the smile was nothing but a failed attempt to move attention away from the emotion he couldn't hide.

Because she could see the anger in his eyes just as well.

"I wanted her to know that was me," he said quietly, his voice its usual low and dulcet tone. Aang made an angry sound of frustration at this before continuing to shout.

"Why?! What does it matter what Azula thought you—"

Jin saw a flash of movement on her left and her hair was gently tossed by the pure speed of its passing. Sasuke also moved and it was only when he tackled Suki to the floor did Jin feel the missing place in her hand where Suki had ripped the dagger from.

Even with his recovering injury and Suki's genuine strength, Sasuke's somewhat superhuman strength seemed to be enough to be able to restrain her. The Kyoshi Warrior glared up at him before screaming in frustration and trying to whip a leg up to wrap around his neck and pull him down; Sasuke seemed to let the attack hit him and when Suki tried to roll him over, he forced his own weight into the movement and merely caused them to roll to the right a full cycle and Suki found herself still on the ground. Her teeth bared, she looked over towards Azula's body desperately before drawing back her arm and throwing the dagger at the princess. Somehow, Ty Lee managed to let out a hoarse yell, but regardless, the dagger was deflected by a flashing glint of metal as Sasuke's thrown kunai buried itself in the floor and Jin's weapon went skittering away uselessly having been knocked from its trajectory. Suki screamed in frustration as she tried to free herself wildly.

"WHY?!" she bellowed and struggled all the harder against Sasuke. "LET ME GO, LET ME CHOKE THE LIFE FROM THAT—"

Sasuke bent an arm down to jam his hand over Suki's mouth who continued to scream against his palm. This lasted for several long seconds and Jin gently pushed herself from Yue, giving the girl's arm a squeeze of appreciation as she looked weakly at the rest of the group.

Ty Lee had managed to push herself to a sitting position, her face still clenched with pain and her legs tugged together. Mai had her arms around her with her face in Ty Lee's shoulder and Jin couldn't tell if she was crying or not. Katara had slumped onto her rear herself looking uncharacteristically helpless as Toph and Soza seemed to be holding onto one another for support. Sokka had his teeth clenched and he looked like he wanted to run to his wife's side, but he stood beside Zuko who had his eyes closed and his face angled towards the ground, looking to be doing all he could to control his breathing. Aang's fists were clenched, his lips tight, but he didn't move either as Suki struggled wildly against Sasuke's hold. Yue sniffed behind her and Jin could tell she was holding back tears.

Ursa was almost difficult to look at. Jin hadn't known her for very long, but in the days of traveling with her, a very clear sense of control and stoicism seeming to pass in her wake. It wasn't hard to tell why Sasuke had fallen for her; the kind of stability, maturity and security her very presence seemed to invoke was exactly the kind of thing a tired and worn out person like Sasuke might gravitate towards.

But now, Ursa's entire aura seemed to be nothing short of defeated.

She didn't look like she wanted to rush to her daughter's side, or Sasuke's, or even so much that she might have noticed anyone else there. There was just a deep regret and sadness in her eyes that seemed to invoke the idea that she had hit some kind of breaking point in her own mind, and Jin supposed that finding out Sasuke had slept with Ty Lee and that her daughter had clearly gone just about completely off the deep end would have been well enough to cause that.

It took a while, but eventually Suki seemed to wear herself out at least enough for Sasuke to feel comfortable taking his hand away from her mouth.

"Are you calm?" he asked dully and she glared furiously up at him.

"Not even close," she hissed and Sasuke sighed before releasing her and standing up. Suki scrambled to her feet, her eyes only leaving his to spare quick hateful glances towards Azula's form. Jin had known Suki for long enough to know that being pinned like that was surely something that would have bothered her, so skilled she was at hand to hand.

"Sasuke, why are you protecting her?" she managed to say in something like a composed tone even as it shook with fury. "Why, after everything she's done to you, would you protect her?"

Weakly, Ty Lee tried to stand before crying out before making it all the way up, her legs shaking; Jin couldn't even quite bear to look over as Mai put her arm around her shoulder to support her.

"Suki, please… don't hurt her… this is my fault…" Ty Lee croaked and Suki whirled to face her, seeming to completely be ignorant of in how bad of a shape her friend was in.

"DON'T EVEN START WITH ME, TY! YOU SAID YOU'D HANDLE THINGS, THAT I DIDN'T NEED TO WORRY! AND WHERE THE HELL ARE WE NOW?!"

It was by far the most outraged that Jin had ever seen the usually composed and controlled Suki; in a disturbing sense, it was almost like seeing Azula blow up all over again. Ty Lee shrunk away against Mai, fear resurfacing in her eyes even as she raised her voice defiantly which didn't help how weak it sounded.

"I know! I know you're mad! But I did this to myself!"

Toph whirled to look at her friend, baring her teeth and Jin swallowed down indignant rage of her own at the idea that this was anyone's fault but that monster lying at Sasuke's feet. Suki looked like she was about to break into a full spring at Ty Lee for even suggesting it, but it was perhaps the most chilling voice of all that rippled over the lobby then.

"Enough."

Sasuke's face was a mirror of days past, and it brought Jin right back to Ba Sing Se on the day he had faced down an army on his own. Over the last couple days, she had started to know him as someone else, someone who was very worried for the people he cared about, and someone who needed caring very much in turn. Jin remembered how she had felt watching him lay his daughter down and sit beside her, and how happy he looked whenever he was close to Ursa. But as he glared at Suki, he was that same chilling presence that she would never be able to forget, a presence she had somehow believed was gone.

His eyes were hardened and his expression set, his voice a controlled and measured tone; the wound seemed to already be almost fully healed as Jin could see where Azula's arm had torn through his clothes and body as the skin and tissue restitched itself at a furious speed.

"Leave her be, Suki. This is on me."

Feeling a staggering wave of frustration, Jin felt her arms drop limply beside her in disbelief. After all that she had hoped had been instilled in him from her words and the words of others that not everything was his fault, here he still was, breaking this burden over his own shoulders yet again. She might very well have shouted at him if Suki hadn't beaten her to it.

"Oh, don't give me this shit again!" Suki bellowed, walking up and getting nose to nose with him. "I'm so done with you just trying to take the blame for everything, of lapsing into this guilt like it somehow benefits fucking anybody. How is that…"

She jabbed a finger at the weak and pitiable form of Ty Lee.

"…your fault?!"

For a moment, she stood in front of him, breathing heavily and glaring at him challengingly. Jin wished that Sokka would go to her and try to calm her down, but she didn't blame even her husband for not wanting to approach the inferno that was Suki's rage just then.

Her words echoed a way through the lobby and it wasn't until the only sound that could be heard was the wind whistling through the hole that Azula had blown in the roof that Sasuke replied to her.

"How is it my fault?"

Seeming to be the only one able to counter her rage, he took a step towards her and for the first time that night, Suki seemed to back down slightly, taking a step back to accommodate his approach. Jin hated the look in Sasuke's eyes, that apathetic acceptance of something she didn't understand that made his overall reaction to the situation seem even less human even if his words suggested the complete opposite of apathy.

"Would Azula be the person she is now if she had never met me?" he asked quietly and Suki only glared back at him as Jin found words leap from her own throat.

"Sasuke, you existing is not reason for you to be responsible for what she—"

He didn't so much as look at her even as his interruption directly attacked her point.

"Who completely ignored her when we were younger to avoid responsibility for having to deal with her? Who didn't even think to do more than just control her until I could get far enough away for her to not be a problem? Who only used violence as his only method of satiating her? Who believed she wasn't a threat to the point of letting their guard down enough to let her rape him? And who has spent days now ignoring her still to focus on other matters and hasn't even acknowledged what she could do to the people he cares about when she reaches a point like this?"

Suki looked like she was trying to come up with a response to this, but Jin could hear the anger in his voice and knew that nothing that could be said would shake this notion from his mind.

"No, Suki, this is my fault. I never wanted this to happen, but because I did nothing but encourage and allow her sick mind to fester into whatever it is now, Ty Lee was just mutilated and could have been killed. And I can't even allow myself to think what she could have done to others of you if she had thought it necessary."

Shaking her hair aside aggressively, Suki sucked in a shaking breath.

"So what now then? You know now what has to be done?"

These words were as much a challenge as anything and Jin saw both Zuko and Ursa take a step forward as Ty Lee let out a quiet moan. Sasuke stared back at Suki with a cold deliberateness before he replied to her in a low and equally challenging voice.

"I will handle this."

It was as ambiguous a response as he could have given and Suki furrowed her brow at him in confusion. Jin felt her own unease at his words creep into her veins. It fell quiet a moment but as Suki opened her mouth, no doubt to demand what he meant by that, the door the complex banged open.

Well over a dozen Water Nation soldiers streamed in, weapons and bending at the ready. The captain marched up and looked over the scene, to the several people in their nightwear, to the ceiling and then down to Azula.

"What happened here?" he asked sharply. "The patrol saw a burst of lightning come from the roof and called us down here."

Sasuke seemed to have been well ready for this.

"Princess Azula seems to have become unwell. Perhaps due to her exposure to this cold weather, her body has had difficulty acclimating and it's affected her mind as well; she was sleepwalking and tried to attack us when we attempted to wake her."

The captain looked around in mild confusion.

"I've never heard of a firebender having difficulty acclimating to—"

"Well, you have now," Sasuke said curtly. "For her own safety and for that of others, I would like to have her moved, at least for the time being; are there any cells in the palace's sublevels that could hold a very powerful firebender?"

Looking like he was still coming to terms with Sasuke's story, the captain was able to shake himself free and give a short, somewhat distant nod.

"Uh, yes… yes, we should have something like that."

He waved at a pair of his men and they moved for Azula before Sasuke leaned down and picked her up himself, cradling her against his chest.

"I have her," he said and gave the captain a nod. The man looked at him for a couple seconds longer, still seeming quite put off by this whole situation before clearing his throat and turning for the door.

"Very well. We will escort you to the palace. Is there anyone else who needs—"

"No, that's all," Sasuke said abruptly; for a moment, Jin was furious that he hadn't made mention of Ty Lee and the fact that she might need medical attention, but she was quick to realize that if anyone other than who was in that room learned of just what had happened to her, the chaos that could cause for all of them, particularly Azula, would be vast.

Good, Jin thought grudgingly as she thought about Azula being made to stand for this. She knew that the princess had committed plenty more crimes than just this, but it still did her heart good to imagine that she would finally be caught up by one of them.

The captain spent a last moment looking bemusedly over the situation before he turned on his heel with a quick shake of his head. He marched out with his soldiers in tow and Sasuke made to follow him without a moment to spare.

"Sasuke!"

As the soldiers finished streaming out just leaving Sasuke standing in the entranceway with Azula in his arms, he looked back at Suki who seemed to be still fighting down her fury.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she hissed at him and he stared back at her with resolute calmness.

"I will handle this," he repeated and walked out the door without so much as a glance at any of them. The door swung shut as he passed through it, closing with a loud boom just as Suki roared his name a last time.

"SASUKE!"

Her shout and the echo of the closing door faded away together and the room lapsed into silence for a period before Soza practically stumbled towards the door, looking like she had just woken from a coma.

"Wait… dad!"

She started to run before Toph caught up to her, wrapping her arms around the girl and keeping her from dashing out into the cold night. Soza struggled a moment before looking with wide and fearful eyes at Toph.

"Where's he taking mother?!" she asked panickily and Toph started to shush her, hugging her tight and stroking her head even as Soza continued to stutter. "What's going on?!"

"It's going to be okay, Soza," Toph managed to get out. "Your mom just… she's not doing well right now, and Sasuke is just trying to get her somewhere where they can… help her. She's going to be…"

Looking at her expression over Soza's shoulder, Jin could see just how much Toph wasn't believing the words she was saying, but for Soza's sake, she put every bit of genuineness in her voice.

"… she's going to be just fine."

Unsurprisingly, the gravity of the whole situation seemed to still be putting quite the strain on the girl and she only seemed able to clutch onto Toph desperately while she continued to mutter incoherently as Toph held her.

"I… I… I… why did… how…"

Jin looked away as Ty Lee, appearing unable to continue to stay up, slumped against Mai who gently lowered her back to the floor. Having broken free of her own stunned reverie, Katara aided her as Suki stalked past Toph and Soza, not looking at either of them. Jin saw the anger on her face as she headed towards the rest of them, and immediately moved to get between her and Ty Lee, but Sokka beat her to the punch, putting a hand on his wife's shoulder and halting her progress.

"Let me see her," Suki demanded and Sokka shook his head. She grit her teeth and tried to force her way past him, but he held strong, keeping her where she was.

"What's the matter with you?!" she shouted. "I'm not allowed to see my friend now?!"

"Suki," said Sokka, his voice coming out with a distinct edge that he was doing his best to sound in control. "I know you noticed that Ty is in pretty bad shape right now. And if you going over there is just going to make things worse…"

Snarling, Suki tried to rip his hand away.

"What are you talking about, of course I—!"

She cut off as she looked past Sokka towards Ty Lee and Jin followed her gaze. Mai was holding the injured girl in her arms, keeping her slightly propped up while Katara had resumed working between her legs, a gentle blue glow emanating from her hands as moisture pulled from the very air itself to aid her. Aang had walked to her side, his own agonized face tightened with concentration as he offered his energy to Katara and helped her bend the water necessary to help, though he knelt at an angle that kept him from being able to see exactly what it was that Katara was working on.

Ty Lee looked downright miserable, in more ways that one, as a single set of tears slid silently down her face, exhaustion and pain written in every bit of her expression. She didn't so much as look at Suki as she lay in Mai's arms, her fingers twitching beside her.

"I… I didn't…" Suki managed, her body seeming to go somewhat slack before she grit her teeth and pushed Sokka away. She didn't continue towards Ty Lee however and instead marched to the doors that Jin knew led to the stairs and banged her way through them, disappearing from sight. Sokka looked sadly after his wife, but didn't follow her, instead moving over to put his hand on Zuko's shoulder who looked like he wanted to go be closer to Ty Lee, but didn't feel like he should interrupt the moment.

"Should somebody go with him…?" Yue practically whispered as though the very act of speaking might have been entirely blasphemous of the situation. Aang and Mai both looked to her, but it was Ursa that spoke up.

"No."

Zuko finally moved then and looked at her with worry on his face.

"Mom…? Are you sure that—"

"It's fine. They'll be fine," Ursa said without turning around. She hadn't stopped looking towards the door where Sasuke had walked out with her daughter and Jin couldn't quite imagine what was going on in the older woman's head just then. Zuko looked like he wanted to persist, but there didn't seem to be any fight in him and he slumped his shoulders.

Feeling her own body flush with exhaustion more due to mental strain than anything, Jin softly walked to Mai's side and knelt down beside her friend. In a way, her mind was still racing over so much; the suddenness of the situation, the fact she had almost just died, but as she looked down at Ty Lee, everything else seemed to wash away. Reaching down and picking up one of her friend's trembling hands, she brought it to her mouth and pressed the back of it to her lips, closing her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. Opening them, she saw Ty looking up at her as Mai ran comforting strokes through her hair. There was the weakest of smiles on her face and Jin could see just how hard it was for her to keep it together just then.

"Sorry, Jin," she whispered and Jin closed her eyes before burying her face in Ty Lee's shoulder gently. She wanted to give her something, some words to give her comfort, but in her heart, she knew that there was nothing that anyone could have said just then.

---

A skill that Toph had found she had developed over the years was the ability to feel light. No matter how dim, be it from the sun or a candle, she could always sense when there was light against her. Not that she really had any sort of concept of what it actually was, but it was something that she had learned to associate with just the barest amount of it touching her. It was how she had gotten so adept at fighting firebenders, how she had always been able to tell if the moon was out on any given night, and how she knew that as she sat up in bed next to Soza, the lamp at their bedside was still on.

She had been able to get Soza upstairs relatively easily, but by the time they reached Soza's room, Toph knew that she didn't dare leave the girl alone. Though she had wanted rather badly to immediately check up on Ty Lee, she knew that Jin would take care of her; right now, Soza needed Toph more than anything, and Toph couldn't have thought of a single thing she would rather do than oblige. By then, everyone should have been back upstairs and in bed for the night, but she imagined this was not the only room that would have been found restless.

Toph actually had the feeling she would have been able to doze off relatively quickly, but with Soza not having said a word since they climbed into bed together, she didn't want to risk trying to doze off. She had almost expected Soza to demand that she leave, but when Toph had sat in bed beside her, still nothing had come from the girl's mouth; Toph didn't know what it was that she could say to try and break through the horrible fog that seemed to have settled over her, Soza and everyone else since they had all been awoken by Ty Lee's screaming. So, she made herself content to sit beside Azula's daughter and curse the princess in what felt like an unending deluge of outrage that flooded her.

Suki had taken it the furthest, but the rage that she had put into her words and movements was the exact same that Toph knew had been running through her own veins. She had felt Ty Lee's trembling body through the floor, heard her wavering voice that was doused with agony, fear and shock, and heard the shouts of horror from Katara and Mai. Toph's ability to feel a person just through their presence alone had also gained in perception over the years and while she hadn't been able to deduce what had really been done to her friend, it was clear enough to her that Ty Lee had been maimed in a properly devastating way. No injury she had ever been around with Katara had been enough to make the hardened and fierce waterbender react in such a way. And of course it had taken Soza's perfect snake of a mother to cause it.

Just the mere thought of Azula pumped fresh anger through Toph and she genuinely felt as though had she allowed herself to continue to stew on it, the silent ire she was sitting in could have kept her awake for perhaps days. She had spent so many years trying to rationalize in her head that Azula might have had a part of her that was genuinely caring with how she had allowed Toph to spend so much time with her daughter; this was of course ignoring the fact that despite giving Soza time with Toph, Azula never so much as said a word to her, still seemed to get involved in violent controversies and still condescendingly treated the majority of the world like garbage.

So why let me get as close to Soza as she is?

It was a rather frustrating mystery, but the only thing Toph could find solace to care about was what was to be done next. Azula had to be dealt with as Sasuke's reappearance into their lives had sent her on a downward spiral of alarming speed, and if she needed to be sent to a hole until something could be done about her, then so be it.

Toph had to resist growling as she remembered just how helpless Ty Lee had seemed beneath Azula's foot in the lobby. She knew her friend damn well enough to know that if she had wanted to, Ty could have paralyzed Azula about as quickly as she could look at her, and the idea that she seemed to have allowed this to happen to herself was yet another frustrating and worrying layer to the whole matter.

What was she thinking?

It was a sobering moment when Toph suddenly realized that a portion of her anger was not directed at Azula, but at Ty Lee herself. She shook her head gently but couldn't force the thought aside now that the seed had been planted.

Don't be stupid… she's not at fault here.

But the rationale for her anger came on as brutally and unwanted as a freezing rain.

She let Azula do this to her… and she slept with Sasuke.

Wishing that she were back in her room and not sitting beside a practically comatose Soza, Toph dug her fingers quietly into the sheets and clenched her fists on them. She wanted to be able to break something in anger or pace furiously about at the very least. There was so much anger towards herself for even daring to be upset with Ty Lee over this when she was lying in bed with an injury that Toph found she didn't even much want to know about. But that she could have been so careless with Sasuke and so blind with Azula had her wanting to shout the walls down.

I need to calm down… I need to calm down, I just have to be there for her right now, just calm—

"Toph, what's wrong with my mom?"

Soza's words hit Toph's ears and all at once, her frustration and anger drained away. All of her mental attempts to force down how upset she was were nothing compared to the meek and frightened voice that spoke next to her; Toph turned her head and put an arm around Soza who felt as tense and stiff as a board.

Is that the first time I've ever heard Soza call Azula 'mom'?

Though she wanted nothing more than to give Soza some semblance of comfort, Toph wouldn't dare lie to her in response to that question.

"I don't know."

Soza didn't seem to reciprocate or even notice Toph's touch or words and pulled her knees up to her chin. Toph wondered if that has how she had looked to Ty when she had come to her room in Ba Sing Se to tell her to leave Sasuke in the past.

"I know something's wrong…" the girl murmured to herself. In a way, she sounded just as lost as she had when Sasuke had walked out with Azula, still that same aura of disbelief and helplessness, but there was a tangible sorrow there too. It was almost like the feisty, arrogant and fiery girl that Toph had grown to know had retreated far past where she could sense, leaving this cold shell behind.

"I want to help. I want to be able to do something. I hate… I hate feeling so sc—useless."

She had attempted to change her course mid-word, but Toph had heard the word 'scared' about to come out of Soza's mouth and she knew then that the girl was still deeply rooted in her own pride. Even now, she didn't want to admit fear. Toph wanted to offer something more than she was able, but bland comfort was all she had.

"It's going to be okay," she said, pulling Soza to her. She expected the girl to pull back at the touch as they had rarely hugged even in better days, but the lack of resistance made it almost seem like Soza's body was a corpse. She rested her head against Toph, quietly muttering as she did.

"How can you know that?"

The truth was that Toph couldn't be sure of anything, especially not so broad a statement, but keeping it together for Soza needed to be her one and only task just then.

"Because I trust your dad."

Toph had to blink in surprise at the words that had come out of her own mouth; where had those come from?

"You do?" Soza said and when Toph heard the barest touch of hope in her voice, she couldn't keep from continuing on.

"Yeah, I do. I've never been able to really figure him out, but I know that he cares a whole lot about all of us, and he's going to do whatever it takes to help get your mom sorted out."

She desperately hoped that Soza wouldn't press her for more than that and to her relief, Soza simply threw her arms around her shoulders, gripping her tightly, yet another surprise.

"Thanks, Toph."

Only trusting herself to embrace the girl back, Toph tried to keep the angry tears from her eyes.

If only I could hate Sasuke like Katara or Zuko… this might be a lot easier.

---

Ursa didn't know what led her to the roof, other than a strange bit of instinct that told her it was the place to be that night, but when she quietly opened the door onto the top of the complex and saw Sasuke sitting with his back to her, legs hanging over the side of the building, she couldn't help but smile sadly to herself. Fate, it seemed, didn't want her going to bed with so much uncertainty in her heart.

"You come here often, stranger?" she asked quietly as she walked up behind him, and came to a quick halt as Sasuke jumped at her approach and voice. She knew that his reaction time and awareness were on a level beyond that of a human when he was concentrating, so it was clear that his focus was somewhere other than with him on that rooftop.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she said as she walked up behind him to stand just near his side. Sasuke didn't say anything as he continued to look out over the city, full of warm orange lights that glowed against the dark of night. Though she didn't know if it was the best move right then for either of them, Ursa lowered herself down and slung her legs over the side of the building as well. If he didn't want to talk, she figured that just being near him for a while would hopefully make her feel at least a little better.

"No one should be apologizing to me," Sasuke said after a couple minutes. "Especially not you."

Sighing, Ursa looked down at her feet.

"It's true then."

She didn't need to phrase it as a question and Sasuke's silence was enough of an answer as it was. The hurt she had been fighting came back in a pained wave.

"Can I ask what happened?" she gently pressed. Every time they had spoken alone before tonight, Sasuke had been willing to open up with her save for that single moment he had come back from the palace and denied that anything was the matter. Ursa had left him alone and assumed that he had just needed time to wrap his head around some things, but as Sasuke replied dully to her now, she felt her heart skip a beat.

"Would it matter if I told you?"

Ursa had experienced fear already that night in several varying levels, but Sasuke's response hit her with a desperate chill that ran up her spine.

He's shutting himself off.

The moment she had met him in that tavern, she had known that he had spent a good deal of his life closing himself off from others which was partially why Ursa had felt so incredible in getting him to open up. Much more so was the affection she had developed for him, but she had never quite forgotten the pity she had felt in seeing such a person who was so distant from everyone around him. Even when he had been reunited with the Avatar and all of his friends from years past, Ursa had felt some pride in seeing that his reserve still only was completely lost when he was with her.

And yet here now, she could practically see him putting those walls up again. She wanted to grip him tightly and beg him not to shut her out, but Ursa knew him well enough by now to know that such a display might only exacerbate the problem. It was a gentler touch that was required with him.

"I think it might," she replied softly, battling down the instinct to be much more intense with her desire to know. "If there are other women that you also—"

"There's no one like you. Ty Lee wasn't like that," he said abruptly, and even in his cold demeanor, Ursa heard the urge in his voice that had caused his words to come out so quickly.

He's scared too.

"Like what?" she asked and Sasuke's fingers tightened.

"It wasn't love," was all he said and Ursa allowed herself to take a touch of solace in that. She was about to tell him that he didn't need to tell her any more than he wanted to, even though doing so would have hurt her rather badly, but Sasuke started talking before she could so much as get a word out.

"She found me when I was pacing the halls," he said, the story spilling from his throat as though he had been looking for an excuse to let it out. "She was angry with me, she has been since I came back. I didn't want anything to do with that in the state I was in, so I went to one of the spare rooms to get away from her, but she followed me and hit me. We started fighting though I really just tried to keep her off me more than anything, but…"

His lips curled in disgust and Ursa could see the shame in his eyes even as he refused to look at her.

"Ty got on top of me and I got… aroused. I don't know why, I don't know what made that happen…"

Ursa didn't need to know too much about the male anatomy to guess that being straddled by a beautiful and voluptuous woman like Ty Lee, regardless of the circumstances, would likely be more than enough reason to get a rise.

"… but she noticed too and just kissed me. And from there…"

His frustration that he was clearly trying to hide was hard for Ursa to see.

"I can sit here and make excuses all night, but it wasn't anything like us. We were both mad at each other and I… I lost control."

She could tell how difficult that was for him to say; she remembered how she had done her best to calm him when he had gone wild trying to fight the spirits in Ba Sing Se. Despite what she had heard from Kakashi, Ursa didn't know a great deal about how Sasuke had always conducted himself in battle and if in his past, he perhaps had experienced moments where he had lost himself. But even as she wondered if that was what happened with Ty Lee, Ursa wasn't able to shake the hurt.

"Part of this is my fault," she said finally. "No matter what we've said, I never thought to sit down and actually talk over parameters or what our relationship should really mean or—"

"You shouldn't have had to," Sasuke snapped. "The way I feel about you… I've never felt this way about any other woman."

Ursa allowed her aching heart to swell slightly at that.

"I can't let myself get put in a place like that. I was just so… so angry. I don't want to lose you."

Finally feeling comfortable enough to do so, Ursa reached over and took his hand in hers. To know he was that worried and anxious about the idea that this would cause them to split was both comforting and saddening to her.

I can't even fathom what it would feel like to leave him.

He still wouldn't look at Ursa, but he squeezed her hand back as she tightened her grip on his.

"Sasuke, why were you angry? I could tell you were upset when I came to see you at earlier in the evening, and it's clear that whatever you didn't want to tell me then only got worse as the night went on."

He didn't reply and Ursa moved a touch closer to him, feeling her desperation to not be locked out rising up within her.

"I want you to be able to come to me with things like this. I know that you need someone to talk to, and we've been good about that so far, haven't we? You've opened up to me well more than once, right? What's changed? Why can't you—"

As he cut her off, she heard his voice waver.

"It's because I want to talk to you that I was angry," Sasuke growled.

Ursa gently pulled back slightly at this.

What?

Sasuke looked down at the streets several stories below them, looking rather like he wanted to spit down at them angrily.

"I realized… that I've taken things to you when I'm angry, when I'm upset, or anxious, or frustrated and just looked for you to be there. I'm always just looking for my own relief so when you came to me after I got back from the palace and I blew you off… it wasn't because I didn't want to be with you then. It was because I didn't want to feel like I was just using you. To help myself."

Ursa watched him as he clearly started to seem more agitated.

"This isn't how these things are supposed to work, right?! I'm supposed to be there for you too! I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know why I have to feel this way!"

He seemed to catch himself and he swallowed before looking up towards the night sky, letting out a tired sigh as he did.

"I'm sorry. I'm not very good at this."

Though she wanted nothing more than to pull him to her side and hug him tightly, Ursa struggled to keep the resentment she still felt for what he had done with Ty from her mind. She knew she had to be strong for him, but Sasuke's words had hit her exactly where she hadn't needed to be hit just then.

I do need him like that. I thought I could just be there for him, but I need him the same way. He's already done it for me even if he doesn't know it, but…

She thought of something she could ask then, and the very idea of doing so terrified her. There was no reason to assume that the answer she would get would be anything less than honest, perhaps brutally honest, so to so much think of what he might say in reply to this was enough to keep her from asking for several seconds.

"Sasuke, I just want you to be happy. If… if anyone else makes you feel that way, or—"

Ripping his hand from her grasp, Sasuke was on his feet in the blink of an eye, glaring down at her furiously. For a moment, Ursa almost wondered if he was going to shout at her.

"No. That wouldn't ever matter, and it's not true. You make me happy. And I want to be able to make you happy. Because I love you."

The words came out stilted and a flush rose to his cheeks as he seemed to realize just how uncharacteristically sweet the words were coming out of his mouth, but Ursa couldn't have felt more joy in her heart for what he had said. Standing as well, she put her hands on his shoulders as they stood near the edge of the roof, making sure to meet his eyes.

"You've done all you need to do for me to be happy," she murmured as she stroked the side of his face. As she felt the warmth of his skin under her touch, he looked at her in confusion.

"How?"

Ursa pulled him into a hug and held him tightly.

"Saying you love me."

After a couple seconds, Sasuke's arms rose to hug her as well and she felt the intense desperation in his touch and she realized that he might have been just as scared as her. Ursa reminded herself yet again that he was quite emotionally stunted in his own way and there was a chance that he had expected her to leave him then and there, to call off their unorthodox relationship.

"I do," he said, voice slightly muffled as he pressed his face into her shoulder.

"I love you too," Ursa said back gently and kissed the side of his neck. For a while, they just hugged one another as Ursa thought more to just how strange their relationship actually was.

"We should sit down some time and talk about… well, us," she said, breaking apart from him and meeting his eyes. He still looked regretful and angry, but those emotions were being suffocated by the affection on his face.

"What about us?" Sasuke asked and Ursa gave a small shrug as she turned to look out over the city, taking his hand in hers.

"I don't know… I don't know if we need to set up boundaries or rules or anything… I kind of would rather not to have to do that ever honestly."

She could tell that her words were confusing him, but she couldn't quite even wrap her head around her own thoughts to this end. There was so much up in the air, romance aside, how could she try and ask Sasuke to think about this sort of thing when so much was already on his shoulders? And she had seen the way Mai, and Yue, and Toph had looked at him, and that wasn't even talking about the trepidation she felt brought on by her own daughter or Katara.

He's still so young… and I'm his first, his first real relationship. Am I going to deny him the chance to explore this new world of romance just because of how I feel?

A rush of envy erupted in her gut and she tightened her grip on his hand. Damn straight she wanted to deny that, no other woman should have had a chance to go after him. She had been the one to open him up, she was the one to whom he had admitted his feelings and she was going to hold him tighter than she had ever held—

The envy dissolved into fearful shame as she realized her thoughts were all but mirroring the words she had heard from her own daughter.

"How was Azula?" she asked him softly, deciding to change the subject. They would have time later to figure out what this all meant, and for now, she knew that she could be content just holding him as they gave one another their love.

Ursa had spent the time alone after Sasuke had left doing everything in her power to keep of thinking of her daughter and the atrocity she had committed. Even with what she had heard from both Azula and others, she had just tried to assume that this was just her daughter's sadistic and vile attitude that she had matured with over the years, and that there was little more to it than disdain and talk. But to know what she had actually done to Ty Lee…

Sasuke gave a small, rather unfeeling shrug.

"Still sleeping when I laid her down. Hopefully she doesn't go too off the hook when she wakes up in a cell."

Ursa nodded slowly, trying to decide how best she wanted to approach this with him. She realized how much she didn't so much as even want to see Azula for fear of what that would do to her and she found herself very much hoping for an affirmative to what she asked next.

"Earlier…" she said, deciding to just urge right into it. "You said that you would 'handle it.' Were you just saying that for Suki's sake or…?"

She trailed off and looked at his expression carefully.

Sasuke's eyes had glazed over and he was looking off into the distance with a hardened expression on his face. There was a storm in the back of his eyes and Ursa knew that whatever he was thinking, there were dark thoughts aplenty racing in his mind.

"I'm going to deal with her," he finally said, his voice back down into a low and cold register. "I… I have a plan. I don't know if it'll work, but it's all I have. And I have to be the one to do this."

Ursa could hear the apology in his voice and there was another strange edge to it as well.

He's asking permission, she realized.

"What are you going to—" she started to ask before Sasuke quickly moved his pointer and middle finger over her lips, silencing her softly.

"Please don't ask me to tell you. I would, I really would, but don't ask."

His fingers slowly dipped down to her chin and Ursa waited a moment before she quietly asked another question, feeling a foreboding anxiety wisping through her veins.

"What are you going to do?"

Sasuke met her eyes and she could see the pain there at what he was planning, but he was still deeply committed to it nonetheless. He slowly started to open his mouth, but Ursa cut him off quickly before he could say anything.

"Okay."

He blinked in surprise and cocked his head at her.

"Really?" he asked. "Just 'okay'?"

In her heart, no matter what her daughter had become, Ursa knew that the idea of her enduring any hardship would crush her as a mother. But she also knew that her daughter was far removed from the person she had been as a child and no matter how much she wanted to go to Azula and offer everything she had to make things better, Ursa was aware of such an act's futility. No matter what Sasuke's plan was, it was more than anything she could think up.

"I trust you," she said simply. Sasuke looked at her a moment, that cold reserve in his eyes, before he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against her chest just underneath her chin. His pointer and middle finger moved up to gently press Ursa's forehead in a movement that rather bemused her before his hands went to wrapping around her.

"You shouldn't," he said quietly and even though he kept his voice level, the agony in it was unmistakable. Ursa held him close and pressed her lips to the top of his head as he hugged her tightly, his grip like that of a frightened child.

The way he had said those words wasn't like he hadn't believed that she should trust him, but rather that he didn't feel he deserved such trust. In a way, Ursa agreed with that sentiment; she loved him back just as strongly as he did her, but it was clear that the stress of so much was wearing on him badly enough that he was starting to slip and fall. She remembered how he had foolishly run off on his own in the Fire Nation, the blind rage in Ba Sing Se, and now this matter with Ty Lee where, instead of resisting her wild and furious advances, he had reciprocated them. He wanted Ursa to trust him and she could feel just how badly he wanted to be able to be there for her the way she was with him, but she knew she couldn't expect that of him right now.

When this is over… when it can just be him and I… I'll worry about helping him put himself back together. For now, all I can do is love him and be there for him.

Ursa shot down the selfish side of her that was trying so hard to rear its ugly head, and all she had to do was remind herself that Sasuke was now adding Azula to his list of burdens to know what she needed to do. He released a long sigh in her arms and she smiled sadly before gently starting to hum the same tune that she had sang for him aboard the airship, acting just as much as a comfort for her as him as she gently lowered him and herself to the roof, where she could hold him more comfortably. She tried to pull him down and hold her against her breast as she had then, but Sasuke kept his arms wrapped tightly around her and she didn't dare try and pull him away and further down.

It will be okay… for me, for him, for Azula… somehow, this is all going to be okay.

Doing everything she could to strangle her resentment, she closed her eyes and let herself get lost in her love and tried not to wonder if that was all she had.

---

Katara left Aang lying in bed as she moved quietly to the door of their room. She glanced back at him a last time and looked at how peaceful he looked with his chest slowly rising and falling. Gritting her teeth as pain coursed through her gut at the sight, she opened the door and gently slid out into the hall. Closing it behind her, she leaned back into the wooden frame and tilted her head back, closing her eyes. Her body was nothing short of exhausted but with how much her mind was racing, sleep was nothing short of impossible.

She was glad that Sasuke had deliberately made sure that Ty Lee's condition wasn't made privy to the soldiers as, while part of her quite wanted to see Azula finally get convicted for something, it made more sense to keep things as quiet as they could for the time being. Frankly, Azula blowing a hole in the ceiling of their temporary residence was far more attention then they wanted right now. They still didn't know if they were being followed at that point, so Azula all but sending up a flare with their location was hardly an auspicious sign for them.

Deciding for no other reason then it would give her something to do, Katara started down the hall towards the room that currently held her patient. It had taken her another half hour of working on Ty Lee before she had felt comfortable taking a break and picking up in the morning and Mai and Jin had helped carry her upstairs to her room and everyone had quietly slipped back to their rooms for the evening, an air of tension over everyone there. Katara hadn't seen Suki since she had stormed away, and Ursa had been the only one hadn't followed their silent procession back up to their rooms, seeming content to remain standing in the lobby as though waiting for Sasuke to come back. No one had seemed to want to say a word before doors had open and closed, and Aang had fallen asleep at her side almost immediately.

Katara had watched him for a while, reveling at how much he seemed like the same boy she had found in the iceberg, yet they had seen so much since then… so much had changed.

And Azula had just had to say those words…

Part of Katara was running them over again and again in her mind, but that part of her was being completely ignored. She didn't have time to worry about something like that.

Reaching the door to Ty Lee's room, she gently eased it open a crack and peered in. The thin shaft of light reached along the carpet of the room and reached the bed where it climbed up the footboard onto the mattress.

Ty Lee was fast asleep, a pillow tucked between her knees to keep her from closing her legs too much. She was splayed out, her hair a mess on her pillow and the gentle sound of snoring could be heard. Not a thing would have seemed amiss if not for what Katara knew and for the fact that Jin was cuddled up next to her, an arm around her waist. She also looked to be in a deep slumber, content to just hold her friend; Katara knew that anyone else coming to try and lay a hand on Ty would have to go through Jin first and it was a sobering thought to imagine that she likely wouldn't be letting Ty Lee out of her sight for quite some time going forward. Katara pondered this as she closed the door to leave them in peace and continued down the hall, glad to just walk and let her mind run wild while it lasted.

She knew that Ty Lee wasn't weak. The girl was anything but actually; her enthusiastic and upbeat demeanor hadn't changed at all for the most part since they had known one another as children, but Katara knew that a chunk of that was a front as much as she just was naturally like that. Ty Lee wasn't stupid or overly childish, she just very much liked being happy and bubbly, often obnoxiously so. But that wasn't anything against the extremely smart head that she had on her shoulders.

So how… how did this happen?

Katara had never spoken with anyone specifically in regards to this, but she had always harbored a feeling that Azula and Ty Lee had perhaps been quietly involved intimately. She had always hoped that perhaps this was what was keeping Azula's humanity above water, that spending time alone with Ty Lee was quietly helping her as much as anything, but she never could have guessed…

Has it always been this… horrible? This wicked?

Not even so much the grievous injury that had been inflicted on Ty Lee that night worried Katara quite the way that Ty Lee's defense of Azula had. The way she had claimed fault and tried to defend the princess, the only time she had been able to get to her feet. Katara didn't know the depths of their relationship, but if Ty Lee was truly so blinded by love, or fear, or who knew what, then something had to be done about that. Regardless, she didn't want to see Ty Lee anywhere near Azula, preferably ever again.

Caught up in her concerned thoughts, she didn't notice Suki and Mai until she was almost right on top of them.

Katara had taken a turn down the hall towards the kitchen where no lamps illuminated the passageway and it was mostly doused in darkness. Still, she could just make out the two women's features as she approached, Suki standing with her arms crossed in the middle of the hall and Mai leaning against the wall just behind her, eyes downcast. Suki looked just as much ready for war as she had when they had originally stumbled on Azula and Ty Lee and Katara slowly came to a halt in front of them.

"I didn't think anyone else was up," she asked, a fake air of casualness in her voice. She knew that this encounter wasn't by chance.

"We were going to come find you regardless," Suki said, sounding much more no nonsense than Katara was pretending to be. Katara looked past her to see Mai peering at her out of the corner of her eye, looking actually quite intense.

"What's up?" Katara asked, crossing her arms back at Suki. The Kyoshi Warrior pulled in a long, slow breath before slowly exhaling through her nose. It was clear that whatever she wanted to talk about was weighing very heavily on her mind.

"Mai and myself… we're going to take care of the problem."

Katara couldn't believe she hadn't guessed what this had been about, and just hearing it was enough to bring a chill to her spine and a numbness to her toes.

"We could probably do it ourself, but if for whatever reason we couldn't get into the palace, it would be useful to have someone on good terms to get us inside," Mai said quietly. "And Aang and Sokka are obviously out of the question."

"We're going now," Suki added, her voice dangerous and determined. "Are you in?"

It was so much to suddenly have dumped on her shoulders, and Katara had to remind herself to breathe as she turned to the wall as the possibility rushed in her mind. She had considered so many times over the years doing something like this, but it had never been anything more than a passing fancy, something she had thought about it when Azula had snidely brushed her off or said some terribly condescending thing to her in passing. Not once had she ever seriously considered actually going through with any of these dark fantasies, not since they had been children and they had been chased by…

Katara trailed off in her thoughts as she closed her eyes.

Have I really known her since we were kids?

They had been well into their teens by that point, but nonetheless… somehow the idea of going through with this was just as foreboding as it felt the right thing to do.

But still, it didn't take Katara long to come to a decision. She spared a silent apology to Soza and Ty Lee, to Zuko and Ursa for how much this would likely hurt them, but it didn't matter. Suki had put it perfectly; Azula was a problem, much more than that in truth.

Suki's resolve made perfect sense to her. She had no real personal connections to Azula, and it was possible that this hate and resentment had been building since Azula had captured the Kyoshi Warrior and stolen their attire to take over Ba Sing Se.

But Mai on the other hand…

She looked at the sullen girl and raised an eyebrow.

"And you're alright with this? You've known her since you were all knee high to an otter penguin."

Mai's look was enough of an answer even on its own, but her reply solidified her stance; it was difficult to tell in the dark, but by the look in her eyes, she might have been crying minutes prior.

"I loved Azula like a sister. I think part of me always will, but she's not the same person I would have followed anywhere. I know that, and I think I've known it for years, but as long as nothing she did affected me or the people I cared about… I guess I just let it happen. But after finding out about how she got pregnant… and doing this to Ty…"

She shook her head.

"I know there's a part of Azula that's still in there that's good. I know you and Suki probably don't believe that, but it doesn't matter now anyway. Any chance she had to be better than this… it's long buried. And I don't care about trying to dig it up, I don't fucking care anymore. She's crazy and she needs to go down, and I'm not going to pretend anymore that I can save her from her own monsters. She lost that fight a long time ago."

Katara frowned.

"But still, this?"

Mai glared at her.

"You saw what she did."

Katara could hear Mai trying to keep her voice steady and she nodded in reply; she wanted to think about what Azula had done to Ty Lee as little as she could.

"Who'll be the one?"

Suki didn't seem to fighting any reservations whatsoever, and her lip curled disdainfully.

"I'll do it. I could probably do it on my own, but having you two for backup will make things easier if she's awake and… fights back."

Katara continued to nod slowly, and found that she was trying desperately to think of anything she could ask or say to stall time. Even though her mind was telling her to go through with this, and she knew that it was the best course of action, her heart was still tugging against her.

"Should we tell Sasuke? You know, since—" she tried, but Suki shut her down with a disgusted snort.

"Please. Sasuke's a coward. He just wants to take the fault for everything to keep everyone he knows safe because he can't fathom the idea that someone like Azula could be irredeemable. And you know he'd try and stop us."

Katara moved her head side to side.

"…She is the mother of his child. And—"

"I don't care!" Suki snapped. "If you don't want to come along, that's fine. I won't tell anyone you knew about this. But this is happening, tonight."

"You're going to tell everyone afterwards?" Katara asked and Suki seemed a touch uneasy for the first time though she shut it down immediately.

"Not immediately, no. I don't think it will be too hard to introduce the idea that Azula's wronged someone here in the Water Nation, they found out she was here, and took matters into their own hands. I'd never be able to lie about it forever, but until this is all over with the spirits and everything… I'll keep this to myself."

Even despite how hateful she sounded, Katara could tell that the idea of doing something like this to a person she had known for so long was still something that was wearing on Suki.

"Toph has been a better mother to Soza than Azula ever was," the Kyoshi Warrior suddenly said. "She'll get over it."

Katara, who hadn't said a word about Soza, wasn't sure that Soza would ever quite get over something like that, not with how much she shadowed and practically seemed to worship her mother, but she didn't want to say anything that was going to put Suki in a worse state than she already was. Looking at both her and Mai, Katara took a deep breath and nodded. Azula had done well enough to earn this, and Katara knew the people she cared about would be nothing but better off when it was done with. She forced herself to ignore the feeling of guilt and unease that was creeping against her shadow and let out a short sigh before she let her own resolve guide her.

"Let's go."