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.

28. Chapter 28

AN: Howdy guys, just wanted to wish those of you celebrating July 4th a very happy weekend, and to please stay safe out there! Seems to be hot and dry in the states, and, well, with fireworks aplenty, that can lead to some dangerous circumstances. Still, now that we're a lot more able to get out, I hope everyone who wants to get out and have a good time does so. And to all those who aren't, hope you have a fantastic time with whatever else you're planning on getting up to this weekend. Hopefully this week's chapter is also something everybody enjoys.

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Chapter 28: Gilbert's Proposal

When Sasuke managed to peel his eyes open, the first thing he noticed was that it seemed as though night had fallen outside. When he had briefly managed to stay awake following his spell with Azula under the genjutsu, he had noted from they grey skies through the window that it must have been about midday. Now, the panes were nothing but black beyond, the only things that he could see beyond were the glints of falling snow that were close enough to the cabin to catch the light as they passed by. The fact that he had slept the day away didn't surprise him, but his hands gingerly moved towards his midsection to feel if his clothes were still on his body. When his fingers met his pants and the clothing there, he released a slow, long sigh of relief through his nostrils before sitting himself up, legs over the side of the bed.

He felt immensely better than he had when he had come out of using the genjutsu, his body feeling much more limber and far less weak. Any aching and exhaustion that had plagued him was long gone, and he now more just felt hungry than anything, and likely would have been able to down an entire pitcher of water to boot. But knowing that he was in a much more positive state than before he had essentially passed out was exceptional news.

Testing the soles of his feet gingerly against the wood of the floor, Sasuke allowed himself to stand and remained still a moment before stretching intensely enough that he had to drop back down to sit on the bed again as blood swam vigorously to his head. A few moments of relief allowed him to take in a rather important fact that had reached him immediately upon waking.

For it wasn't lost on him that he had regained consciousness to find himself lying alone.

Pacing softly to the door of the bedroom, he looked out into the living space. His Amaterasu still burned within the heating system, ensuring the cabin itself was still warm, but the lamps had been turned on, letting soft orange light flicker within the cabin; contrasting with the black of night outside, it created both a rather isolated and cozy feel to the room. As with the bedroom, the light threw relief only a few feet towards the outside, revealing the snowfall in a rather humbly spectacular fashion.

Azula was sitting in a rocking chair, facing the window with her back to him. The chair moved so little it was nearly imperceptible, but Sasuke could tell that it was being gently tilted back and forth with an extremely slow speed. Knowing that speaking first was anything but something he wanted to do, Sasuke slowly walked to the dining room table and pulled a chair out to sit in. He moved to the cupboards and found a large container of water and a glass, and quickly helped himself, downing two full cups before filling his glass a third time and taking it to the table with him. He knew food could wait, though he still was unsure how long he had conducted his genjutsu. Sitting down, Sasuke let himself be wrapped in the darkness and the flickering orange glow of the lights while he looked at the cabin's only other occupant.

The state of Azula was rather odd just at first glance. Sasuke would have expected her to have put her hair up properly as she always seemed to prefer it to be, save for a few times he remembered it being out of her control, but it was down now, around her back and shoulders. She looked like she had started to remove her traditional Fire Nation getup but had given up a ways through and now only bits of her undergarments were visible. Her hands were lain calmly in her lap, not clenched into white knuckles, or with nails digging into her skin, just calmly placed there and not moving.

Her expression was flat, and unreadable. Sasuke had found himself able to tell that even when Azula was trying to keep a passive expression or mood, or at least the façade of one, he had still always been able to get that barest touch, that small flicker of emotion that she never had been able to fully conceal. Now, however, as he looked at her from where he sat at the table only a dozen or so feet away, she looked as impassive and dead-eyed as anyone could have. He couldn't pick up an idea on how she was feeling, nor if she had even noticed him enter the room. It was just as possible that she was in a very deep place within her own head, to the point where she might be far removed from where she was physically. Sasuke found he was well able to accept that, and he let himself be content with sipping his water as the minutes began to tick by slowly but surely.

Sasuke took a moment to allow himself to think on what he had seen with Azula before. It hadn't been something he had been able to take the time to notice any rhyme or reason while under the spell he had essentially cast on her, with so much of his effort ensuring that she wasn't able to break free, nor was she able to try and wrest control from him. He had simply focused on going well beneath the parts of her psyche that ruled her at present, and tried to dig as deep as he could, to find some part of Azula that proved to him that there was something within her worth fighting for, something that condoned his taking matters into his own hands and pulling her away from everyone she knew, both those who wanted her saved, and those who wanted her dead for what she had done and the furthering threats she posed. And lo and behold, Sasuke had found much more than he could have ever bargained for.

To see her utopia was something that he should have expected, even though the sight of his own adult form as her husband was peculiar for far more than a single reason; the idea of being married to such a sadistic and tortured mind was brutal enough for him, but it hadn't escaped his mind that he had found the simple act of strolling through the palace with Azula, even just seeing her so content, had genuinely been rather pleasant. Even Azula's imagined version of an older Soza, who clearly had dove deeper into her darker side as years had gone on, Sasuke had still found himself wrapped up in how much he had needed to keep himself from feeling too touched at how happy the three of them had looked. Because falling next into the proof of Azula's resentment and hate next had all but crushed any notion that this could truly have been a happy future. It was one thing to see Toph, bound and helpless as she was tortured, for Sasuke still didn't quite understand the overall dynamic between the two women, but seeing Azula's mother that way…

Sasuke had foolishly assumed that the resentment he had seen from Azula directed towards Ursa was based on jealousy regarding him. It had never so much as occurred to him in any real sense that there was more to it than that. Not just more to it; the complete and utter crux of Azula's problems might very well have been rooted in her issues with her upbringing, and with Ursa more specifically. It had been his intention to show Azula the love that she shared with people in her life, love that she refused to acknowledge, but that wasn't the love she had needed. She had needed the love she hadn't known was there.

And while Sasuke hardly knew enough about the situation between Ursa and her two children, he found that he couldn't quite keep from feeling a touch of resentment of his own at what he had seen in Azula's deep, deep memory.

He had heard bits and pieces of why Ursa had chosen to abandon her children in order to protect both them and herself, but to see what it very well might have turned her daughter into as this instigating moment in her life, Sasuke found himself grappling with the idea of it all. It didn't make sense to him; he knew Ursa was caring, he knew she was kind, loving and mature enough to know how to treat someone she cared about well, he had experienced this firsthand. So what was this, that had gone so horribly wrong with Azula? Why hadn't she tried to talk with her daughter since they had been reunited? Why hadn't she tried to return to her family sooner? Why had she decided not to speak with her daughter before leaving her quite possibly forever? Sasuke could tell just by how she interacted with Zuko that they had exchanged words and emotions in private, so why had she chosen not to do so with Azula?

It was rather a dumbfounding thought, to think that the beginning of Azula's descent into who she would eventually become could have been possibly spurred by such a singular and simple act.

The pair sat in silence for well over an hour before Azula finally spoke; her voice was flat and low, the bitterness of it being a rather strange departure from the usual mania that had seemed to touch her tone since Sasuke had known her.

"Are we heading back?"

Not a threat towards anyone, not hungrily addressing Sasuke, not dripping with obsessiveness, Azula's voice was almost like something out of a dream to him. Still, he knew it would likely be best to remain as passive and calm as he could, even though he rather badly wanted to poke at her just enough to see what might have truly changed about her since his actions.

"We can. I have a set of flares that I've been instructed to fire southwest, and the carriage that came to get us will make another round once the fact that we wish to be collected gets relayed back to the capital along the outposts. Might be difficult to see with the storm outside, but I have plenty to use in case this one doesn't work."

It was an almost eerily calm conversation as Azula gave a singular nod.

"Fine."

Sasuke took that as confirmation that she didn't wish to be out there any longer, and he moved to the front door where he retrieved one of the flares and a firing device. Azula didn't move as he walked past her and pulled the handle back, stepping outside.

It was a rather chilling sight out in the snow, in more ways than one. While it was most certainly a deeply biting cold, the complete dark in every direction Sasuke looked was enough to make him feel deeply isolated and somehow made the cabin behind him with Azula seem deeply warm and welcoming. He had a feeling that he could cook up a jutsu to blow away the snowfall and clear the skies, but he opted not to for the same reason he wasn't turning to jutsu or anything of the like to get him and Azula back to the capital. Bringing a hand up gingerly to his eye, he winced lightly.

Healing, but still not back at a hundred percent. To think, if I had just taken a little more time to use Izanagi properly, I could have just whisked Azula and myself away with Kamui rather than needing to ask for Tangith's help.

Kamui had been his first thought, to tap into the ability that he had inherited from Obito, but the truth of it was that he had tried to step through into what was essentially his own pocket dimension on the roof of the complex before Ursa had visited him, and found that it to be something with a shaky chance of success at best. With the state his eye was in after Izanagi, he needed to be careful, and it was just another reminder that his arrogance and carelessness with his abilities was putting him at odds with his situation well more than once. Even the genjutsu he had put Azula under was something that had been a touch risky.

Shaking his doubts aside, Sasuke loaded the flare and directed the device upwards before discharging it into the black sky. It burned with a bright intensity and as it traveled up and up to become a bright orange blur in the clouds above, he didn't have trouble thinking that it would be able to be seen from quite the ways away. Feeling the cold of the outside biting at his exposed skin, he turned and stepped back inside the warm cabin, stomping his feet as he did.

Azula still hadn't moved from where she was sitting, rocking ever so gently, her chin inclined just enough to make it almost appear as though she were staring at the door with the expectation that some threat was about to break it open. Walking past her, Sasuke made it back to his seat and slowly lowered himself; the moment he fully touched down, Azula's head turned the barest of a fraction towards him.

"What happens now?" she asked quietly and Sasuke tilted his head back and forth once or twice in consideration.

"Well, I suppose we just have to wait, there's not much we can do other than hope they see the flare and relay it back to come have us—"

"I don't mean about our stupid ride back," Azula snapped. "I meant about…"

The sudden spike of aggression she showed quickly slipped away and she almost seemed to shrink as her expression became almost meek.

"I mean about us," she finished in her quietest tone yet.

Sasuke supposed that he had been considering much of the same himself, even if no cohesive thoughts had come together as a result. As such, he couldn't think of much to respond to Azula's question with, other than rather unhelpful honesty.

"I don't know," he said, and she lowered her head slightly.

"I know that we… I just thought that…" she stammered softly before her lips tightened and she closed her eyes before opening them and looking towards the door and window with the same silent bitterness that she had originally been conducting herself with. Sasuke watched her carefully, feeling some disappointment; he could tell that she had been severely close to opening up before catching herself and retreating back into her reserved virulence.

I can't expect that of her, maybe not ever. She might have seen all kinds of things, things I forced on her, but I don't even know for sure that she's changed, and if so, in what way. Her crying on me might not have been anything more than just her coming down from that shock and fear.

And despite the fact that Sasuke was quite grateful that Azula was no longer trying to seduce him with her serpentlike tongue, nor trying to clamber on his lap and mount him, the realization that he no longer truly knew what to predict or expect out of the woman before him was deeply unnerving entirely in its own sense. He wanted to talk to her, he wanted her to talk to him, but for now, it felt best just to let her be.

He didn't say anything else to her and just continued to watch her. For hours, this continued, neither one of them moving beyond blinking and breathing. Occasionally they would readjust themselves slightly where they sat, but no more words were exchanged and Sasuke took noticed of the black outside lightening into a mellow grey. Morning continued to grow and turn the sky outside into an ashen blanket as snow continued to drift down consistently, and eventually, Sasuke saw a small, darker shape in the distance.

After about another half hour, Sasuke stood and walked to the door to step outside just as the carriage pulled up in front of the cabin. A Water Nation soldier peered down at him from the driver's perch, looking somewhat nervously between both him and the cabin's door, no doubt trying to spot Azula.

"Are you… both ready?" he asked in a somewhat halting tone. Sasuke looked back to the cabin just in time to see Azula walk across the threshold and brush past him to climb lithely into the carriage without a word. Looking after a moment, Sasuke turned his gaze back up to the shoulder.

"It would seem so."

Something occurred to him then, and he decided to ask, "How long has it been since you dropped us off?"

The soldier seemed to look even more uncomfortable then and he shifted where he sat.

"Over four days. We were given orders to only wait one more before coming to check on you ourselves."

While the answer shouldn't have surprised him, Sasuke felt himself almost sway where he stood.

Four days…

The idea that he had been standing over Azula for that long, silently exerting chakra to work his genjutsu, granted him both a deal of clarity and frustration. On one hand, this helped explain away why he had been so completely exhausted following his ordeal, but on the other, the fact that it had been so sloppy and time consuming had him clenching his fists at his side.

I have to be better than that.

His mind immediately started thinking up excuses, blaming it on his weakened state going into it, his digging up such a collection of Azula's memories and finding that last gem that he never should have been able to unearth, that being Azula's memory of Ursa's singing to her before she departed from her children's lives. But he knew deep down that he had been nothing short of sloppy, no matter what way he looked at it. And Sasuke knew why as well.

I didn't need to be that precise… I didn't need to put myself in the genjutsu as well… I could have just triggered Azula's memories and stepped back. But I had to do it that way. I had to be that thorough, cutting into her mind like a scalpel.

Grudgingly, he felt himself nearly smile.

Because no matter what, I'm always going to care about her.

"Thanks," he said, forcing himself from his torrent of thoughts. "Take us back."

He climbed into the carriage and sat down on the side opposite Azula. She was staring out the window, her eyes looking almost dead as she gazed towards the snowfall beyond. As Sasuke watched, her body gave a slight quiver.

"Are you cold?" he asked. "Because we can always—"

"I'm fine," Azula snapped abruptly and Sasuke didn't finish his sentence. In truth, this was yet another thing he wasn't sure he had thought to consider as the carriage started to move, rumbling them softly over the snow and back towards the capital. That iciness, that cold shoulder, that harsh tone, that way she almost seemed to be trying to completely ignore him.

Sasuke hadn't even so much as thought of what it would be like to have Azula hate him. That may not even have been true, but even considering that, compounded with the fact that he didn't know if that was the only change that she had undergone, kept him good and alert for the entirety of the trip.

---

Mai sat across from Ty Lee in the dining hall, her elbows propped on the table and her mouth resting just behind her laced fingers as she watched her friend slowly eat her breakfast. Ty Lee variated from taking bites to eyeing Mai somewhat uneasily before looking down to her food as though that would banish the fact that she was being observed silently. It was minutes of near quiet with the only sound being her silverware against her plate and the almost inaudible sound of her chewing before her face finally twisted in something like frustration as she glared forward.

"You don't have to keep staring at me like some kind of crazy guard dog," she said somewhat irritably. Mai made no reaction to this which only caused Ty Lee to fling a question along an almost accusatory question as a follow up.

"What, are you thinking that the moment I'm left alone, Azula's going to come crashing through the ceiling to strangle me?"

To this, Mai also said nothing, at least initially. The two stared at one another for several long seconds before she gave a low reply.

"If that was your attempt to alleviate all this by suggesting an impossible scenario, you're going to have to do better than that."

Shoulders slumping as she adopted a look of exhausted exasperation, Ty Lee set her fork down as she looked imploringly at Mai.

"Are you serious? You're that worried she's going to just come charging back in here to try and kill me?"

It took some effort, but Mai was able to keep her tone and expression passive.

"The fact that you're not worried about that is more concerning than anything, Ty."

Leaning back in her seat and throwing her eyes to the ceiling in annoyance, Ty Lee crossed her arms. Mai continued before she could be hit with another dose of her friend's aggravation.

"We all care about you. A whole lot. And right now, we all, in not so many words spoken to each other, think that it's best that we keep an eye on you."

Ty Lee snorted.

"You think I haven't noticed? No one's even seen Azula for five days now, and yet I can't go anywhere without someone hounding me. I go for a walk anywhere and I can practically feel Suki or Jin or both breathing down my neck as they pretend not to follow me. I go to my room to rest and Toph just seems to get there right at the same time and asks if she can hang out, and then just sits against the wall not saying a word. Even Zuko keeps checking on me, way more than he ever did in the past."

She cast a dark look across the table.

"And then I have you who's there in every sense of the in between, even when I'm just trying to have a damn plate of eggs."

Despite the fact that Ty Lee's overall attitude towards everything was rather concerning in that she didn't seem remotely worried about Azula, Mai couldn't help but feel some semblance of relief. When she thought back to just how weak and devastated her friend had been the night she was injured, the fact that she had regained a good bit of her natural flare and energy was a very positive sign. It didn't detract from the rather worrying dismissiveness that Ty Lee was directing towards her situation with Azula, but it was something positive nonetheless.

"If being angry at all of us is what it costs to keep you safe, I think we're all more than happy to pay that price," Mai said. She expected her friend to swell up even more angrily at that and for a moment, Ty Lee did exactly that. But any frustrated words that might have expelled from her throat were blown out in a tired sigh as the fight seemed to drain from her all in an instant.

"I know," she said quietly, her shoulders slumping. "I know that you're doing this to protect me. I'm sorry, Mai, I'm not angry with you, or Jin, or Suki, or Toph."

It was disheartening for Mai as she keyed in on the very pointed fact that Ty Lee had all but included Azula's name in that lineup. She didn't specify further either, but it didn't take a genius to infer that the only person she was upset with was herself.

And who can blame her?

Mai hadn't had a proper one on one with Ty Lee since the incident happened, but she had listened around the corner of the hall to hear shouts from her friend, Jin and Toph as a rather sizeable argument had erupted. Though she had wanted to get closer, Mai had noticed Soza sitting just outside the door and hadn't wanted to interject. Still, she had been fairly confident in guessing what the blowup had been over.

It was impossible for Mai to not sit in a wallowing pit of misery and self-loathing to know that not only was Ty Lee actively engaged in a frighteningly abusive relationship with Azula, but it seemed to have been carrying on for quite a period of time. Years had Ty Lee been suffering at the princess's hands, and yet somehow…

I never noticed. I never fucking noticed.

Had she really been so caught up in her rocky relationship with Zuko that she hadn't known to look for signs, for clues, anything that would have indicated what was happening? It hadn't helped that Ty Lee had done a remarkably good job of hiding any pain she was experiencing behind her usual bubbly and outgoing personality which had always usually caused Mai to look away in annoyance and start to ignore her. But aside anything of that nature, this had been happening for years. And Ty Lee hadn't told her a single thing that might have led Mai to believe that it had gotten as horrific as it had.

She didn't have time to hate herself just then though, not when Ty Lee was clearly doing enough of that for the both of them.

"This isn't on you, Ty, it's on Azula," she said firmly as she looked at her downcast friend. "I know you want to believe that isn't true because of how you feel about her, but you know as well as I that what she's done to you, specifically what she did to you earlier this week, is nothing short of abhorrent."

As she saw the desperate look in Ty Lee's eyes as she looked up, she knew that she couldn't force this all down her throat in one go. If there was going to be acceptance of any kind, it would have to be inflicted gradually.

"And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I know what Azula feels towards you. I don't think anyone has the kind of ability to see through her like that. But two things I do know are that she is possessive and she is dangerous. And with how Sasuke is clearly getting her riled up the same way he did when we were younger, that's only going to make things worse."

Mai watched as Ty Lee's expression flickered with shame and she immediately winced.

Nice choice of words, Mai, you fucking idiot.

It wasn't the first time that she had forgotten about what Ty Lee and Sasuke had done the night that Azula had gone ballistic and it wasn't the first time she couldn't help but feel resentment in her gut either.

No, not resentment…

She couldn't even quite dare to think about the jealousy that she felt towards her friend. Mai would never have guessed that anyone would have been able to get to Sasuke with how much it seemed like him and Ursa genuinely had something between them, as strange as it sounded. Ursa might still have looked stunning for her age, but Mai knew she had to be pushing into her forties, and to see her with Sasuke who was in his late twenties to her knowledge along with the rest of the group, save for Toph and Aang to an extent, that was a very strange sight indeed to see him seemingly so head over heels with Ursa. Mai wondered if there wasn't perhaps more to his affection for her, perhaps a desperate desire for companionship that he had been hiding after being on his own for so long, a need for a maternal figure in his life whom he could be vulnerable with, or just someone who could take care of him in bed.

Or maybe he really just loves her.

Whatever the reason, or combination of, it was clear that Ursa was filling whatever roles for him that he needed taken care of in his life. So, it truly was just the most curious thing that he had opted to take Ty Lee when the opportunity had presented itself. Why would he have chosen to have sex with her when he was clearly so infatuated already with Ursa? Why would he shatter this bond that Mai could tell was making him happier than she had ever seen him? What could have caused him to be so enticed by—

"You want to know about it, don't you?"

Mai snapped free of the laboring questions that were surging in her mind and looked up to see Ty Lee looking at her with a small smile on her face, even as her eyes still shone with a remarkable amount of melancholy.

"What?" she heard herself say, and that caused her friend's smile to perk up just a hair more.

"I can see it on your face," Ty Lee said softly with a touch of humor in her voice. "You want to know about Sasuke and me. That's what we're supposed to do, right? As friends? Gossip about our sexcapades?"

Truly at a loss for words, Mai only shook her head a moment, her mouth hanging slightly ajar.

"I… I don't…" she finally managed and Ty Lee gave her hand a small, dismissive wave.

"It's fine. I've seen the way you look at him. It's kind of the same way you used to look at Zuko."

Feeling the heat rising in her cheeks, Mai lowered her head slightly to try and hide the flush.

"That's not true."

Ty Lee laughed, both an obnoxious and beautiful sound.

"Sheesh, Mai, you don't think I got this good at hiding my feelings for Azula without knowing what it looks like when someone's trying to do exactly that, hide their feelings?"

Mai could feel her toes squirming underneath the table as the heat in her face moved to her gut, twisting and turning as she suddenly felt rather naked.

"It's hurt to see how unhappy you've grown over the years. I know Zuko does his best, but I also know that you need him more than he's able to be there for you. I know that you spending time with those women in the high end district brothels isn't a new development."

Her cheeks no doubt as red as could be by that point, Mai swallowed down the dryness that had formed in her throat.

"And even just in passing, I can see that when you look at Sasuke, you're just able to forget everything that's wearing on you. I wish you could still feel that way with Zuko, but…"

Ty Lee trailed off before blinking several times and shaking her head in annoyance.

"Anyway, I know you wouldn't want to talk about that regardless. So, I'll tell you about Sasuke."

Mai almost felt as though she wanted to push back from the table as a sudden wave of frightened anticipation flooded her.

Do I really want to know?

Ty Lee put her hands over one another on the table, looking down at them with a mixture of shame and regret.

"I wish I could just sit here and tell you how awesome it was. And I guess in a way, it was. Some of the best sex I've ever had."

Her gut pitched and swelled even more and Mai grit her teeth behind her lips.

Of course it was.

"But… we only did what we did out of anger. I confronted Sasuke in the hall. I was just… so angry. About everything, about the spirits and what was being threatened to our home, what I could see Sasuke was doing to Toph and what he and Azula were doing to each other."

She smiled bitterly.

"But mostly because of Azula."

Her fingers worked almost feverishly against themselves while she kept her eyes fixed on the wooden table beneath them.

"I could tell he was angry too, though I wasn't sure about what… I went after him after he tried to walk past me and into a room, and I… I hit him. I kept trying to hit him and we both went to the floor. I was on top of him when I realized that he was hard."

She shrugged before saying simply, "And then I kissed him."

Mai listened while not so much as daring to move or make a sound. It was well enough for her to sit there and try not to notice how much she was visualizing herself in Ty Lee's place.

"It was rough from there. Neither of us were gentle with each other, we were just so caught up in lust and frustration. It felt fucking incredible, but…"

She seemed to deflate even more than she already had.

"I kept trying to tell myself that I would finally be able to know why it was that Azula couldn't keep away from him. But all I realized while being with him was just how empty I felt. How I still felt after we were done."

Though her expression didn't change, Ty Lee only seem to be growing more and more miserable as she talked. Mai wanted to tell her that she didn't need to keep going, but she could almost pick up the sense that this was somehow cathartic for her, to share what had happened. Somehow, based on the shouting she had heard, she didn't think that this had been something that had come out with Jin and Toph. Fierce friends as they were, she knew that Ty Lee would never have dared get into any of these details, especially not with Toph present. And now, being able to just talk about what had happened seemed to be something that needed to be done.

"When we finished, I could tell that he was really torn up about it. But I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to care what he might have been going through. I left him sitting there on the floor and made it halfway to my room before having a breakdown in the middle of the hall. Just holding myself and trying to understand what I was doing, what I had done, and what I was feeling."

Mai almost reached for Ty Lee's hand, but restrained herself.

"I got back to my room and Azula was waiting. She had heard enough to know what had happened and… well, you know what went on from there."

She finished her story and joined Mai in silence, both of them looking down at the table rather than one another. Though she knew she was angry at Ty Le for a great many things, Mai kept herself in check on that end. There would be a time to really get into the meat of what her friend was doing to herself, possibly with just as much shouting and anger as had happened with Jin and Toph. But Mai knew well enough that her friend was in very dire straits mentally. If Ty Lee really loved Azula enough to let her torture and mutilate her, that was the most important thing to pay mind to. Azula was the threat, not Ty Lee.

And to boot, Mai had just had the idea of Sasuke having sex forced into her head and she was having some trouble relieving herself of the thought; for now, she needed to focus on the present.

"It'll be fine, Ty," she managed to say, keeping her voice as firm as she could. "Don't worry about what happened with Sasuke, and don't worry about what happened with Azula. You just need to worry about taking care of yourself and healing."

Ty Lee finally looked up to meet her eyes.

"Mai… do you think… where are they? Why have they been gone for five days now, and we've heard nothing?"

It was a damn good question, one that Mai had been hammering within her own head quite constantly. Despite her reserved resentment of Ursa, she had no reason to assume the older woman was lying when she had said that Sasuke hadn't told her where he was taking Azula. It would have been just like him to keep such things to himself, even when it was with the person he might very well have cared most about within their group. It was just his nature to keep things close to the chest, unless he had no choice but to do otherwise. Mai thought back to the day the war ended and how despite the fact that Sasuke had essentially won the day on his own, every decision he had made had been without the regard of anyone else. She didn't even know if Jin had truly forgiven him for putting her life in danger as he had to try and gain the upper hand on Obito; Mai didn't know if she would had their positions been reversed.

"I'm not sure," she said, after a long while. She saw the look in Ty Lee's eyes and was quick to shut it down.

"No. I promise you, Ty, Sasuke did not drag Azula off to kill her."

As though merely putting the thought to words was taboo enough, Ty Lee seemed to stiffen harshly, eyes wide.

"How can you be sure?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper; it was clear that this was something that had been plaguing her likely since the pair had disappeared. "I know that Suki wants her dead; I wouldn't even be surprised if she had gone to try and do it herself before Sasuke had made off with Azula, though… I don't know, I'm not sure she would even do something so underhanded."

Mai fought down a sting of guilt and kept her expression impassive.

"But even still, even with how I feel, I know that… I know Azula is dangerous. I know she's unpredictable. And even when he was an ass, and a jerk, Sasuke always protected us, he always did, no matter how bitter about it we were. But… he wouldn't kill the mother of his child, would he? Even for that?"

It was strange; quite frankly, Mai should've been able to see Sasuke doing just that as an absolute possibility. It made perfect sense given his character, and regardless of Azula's relation to him, despite how they were forever connected because of Soza, eliminating a threat to the people he cared about should have been something well within his nature to do.

And yet, she had no doubt in her mind that wasn't what had happened.

"Sasuke cares about Azula, even after everything she's done, I know he does. In a lot of ways… well, he's just a big softie."

The thought caused her to smile almost involuntarily, and she saw the corners of Ty's mouth twitch up as well.

"He's changed since the day he left us back in Ba Sing Se. He's still ruthless, and deadly, and cold, and… that rage, that fucking rage is still so present with him. But I can tell that his feelings for all of us are playing a much larger part for him, now more than ever. For all the chaos it's caused, his relationship with Ursa seems to have shown him how to open up. And I can just see that he's a better man than I might have ever given him credit for. He'll go to hell and back to try and fix this with Azula, there'll be no easy way out with him."

Ty Lee seemed to have her spirits slightly lifted by this, but her expression dropped just as quickly.

"I took advantage of him," she said quietly. "I put another burden on him, and myself."

To this, Mai could say nothing of comfort. Those were true words and she wasn't going to do her friend the disservice of lying in an attempt to make her feel better.

For a while, she just watched Ty Lee as her friend stared at the table, and after a while, her guilt and misery seemed to solidify into something stronger. Her jaw tightened slightly as her expression set into one of distant resolve. Her fists clenched and unclenched as she seemed to reach some conclusion in her head as she nodded slowly.

"I'm going to have to make things right."

Hearing those words caused Mai's insides to practically flood with relief.

"Yes, I think you will," she said and Ty Lee met her eyes again, and she seemed a completely different person to the one she had been only seconds ago.

"I know that I'm going to have to make things right with Azula when she comes back. I don't know what Sasuke's plan was, or what he's doing, but I know that even with all his power, he can't just change who she is. It's going to take me standing up to her."

Her lower lip quivered a touch then as her resolve wavered, though it never quite collapsed.

"But I love her, Mai. I love her with all my heart. And I can't fight this on my own."

The request was unspoken, a silent plea, and without hesitation, Mai reached out and finally grabbed Ty Lee's hands.

That was never something her friend would have needed to ask her for.

"I'll be there," she said, looking back at her friend unblinkingly. "Whatever you need me for, I'll be there."

Nothing more was said about the matter, but the two held one another's hands for a long while and Mai matched the beaming smile that slipped onto Ty Lee's face as the held each other's gazes. And for the first time in what felt like months, Mai finally felt some sense of clarity.

---

Feeling the air whip intensely at his face, Aang soared about well above the height of any building within the Northern Water Tribe, his glider taking him through the skies as easily and naturally as if it were an extension of his being. He took himself through dips, dives, sharp turns, anything to kick at his adrenaline and play against the stress that was so present, digging its fingers into his chest and stomach.

He knew well enough that they had been more or less restricted to the complex as part of Tangith's conditions for them being allowed asylum in his city for the time being, at least until things were sorted out, but Aang couldn't help himself. There was too much uncertainty in his mind for him to keep to the ground any longer: the chief had said he had sent reconnaissance to confirm their claim of a spirit invasion and yet they had heard nothing; he hadn't been able to find out from either Sasuke or Tangith what their private meeting had been about and he assumed that wasn't likely to change; there had been no sign of a single spirit in over a week, they couldn't have lost them completely; Katara was being uncommonly distant with him and even when they were together, she was about as approachable as a cactus; the people he would normally want to go to for in regards to company and comfort all seemed to have their hands full, Sokka with Suki, Toph with Ty Lee, and Zuko with his mother; Sasuke hadn't said a word to Aang about the fact that he was leaving and the Avatar was furious that he hadn't even so much as—

Aang's flight pitched dangerously a moment as he realized that he had thought of Sasuke's aloof handling of Azula in the singular rather than in regards to them as a group. He righted himself while cursing angrily.

No, I'm not thinking about that right now. Not with everything else that's happening.

Taking a moment to clear his head, he looked down at the palace beneath him and sighed. Considering that he had surely already been seen and his presence in flight had likely been reported minutes prior, he decided to angle downwards and entered a swift dive towards one of the palace's upper verandas.

I can at least pretend I was coming here to visit the chief.

Alighting with the grace of a feather, he touched down without a sound on the marble terrace and turned to look out over the capitol city. From where he stood, things didn't quite look so awful as he knew them to be; he couldn't even see the complex their group was staying at, so far away that it was. If he were able, it would have done his heart much good to just take a deep breath and exhale all the worries and fears he had, just to bask in the bliss of ignorance for a little while.

Aang remembered in the days before he had met Sasuke just how well he had been able to manage that. Being the age of twelve, nothing had seemed like any sort of threat to him, not truly anyway. There were moments of grim clarity, but he knew just how foolishly he had regarded the majority of his travels on Appa's back with his friends as being almost akin to an adventure. And the more time they had spent in the Fire Nation, with the addition of Zuko to their number, he had started to feel that understanding that this wasn't some game, even if he would have liked it to be. Aang had hated the idea of that responsibility and hadn't been able to understand why it had to be on his shoulders to fight a war.

Then, he had met Sasuke, and Aang still thought back often to the first conversation they had shared alone together. Even in the midst of broken and unclear memories, Sasuke had still given him the words he had both been worried about receiving and yet had found he still desperately wanted to hear.

"You're expected to follow through with what others believe to be the natural order of things because of what you are…it's your duty to yourself to listen to your own heart and obey what it tells you, regardless of how that affects others."

There had been something so relieving about hearing someone confirm what Aang wanted to believe. No matter what his responsibility was, he hadn't felt like he could stand there and pretend he was happy to carry it out. Sasuke had helped shoulder so much burden from that point onward, and Aang knew he would never be able to repay him for that.

Ugh… I said, stop it.

Growling, Aang returned his glider into its staff form and stalked moodily towards the palace's insides. He supposed it was rather bad form to just go walking into the palace as he rounded a bend towards the hallways; still, he felt too uptight to care much about—

"Gah!" Aang exclaimed suddenly as he made it around only half the corner before he collided with someone and the jolt startled him more than it physically hurt. He caught himself from stumbling backwards and straightened, looking apologetically forward.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have been watching where I was going."

As he laid eyes on the person he had unceremoniously collided with, his heart felt like it had suddenly shrunk and a numbness crept into his fingers and toes as the person smiled and replied.

"It's I who should be apologizing, Avatar Aang; I was heading down the hall in a bit of a rush myself."

Aang's mouth had gone very dry as he tried to think of how he needed to react to the person he was currently standing only feet away from. His mind was buzzing with a great many reasons for why this might have been happening and not a single one was any more appealing than the last. Behind the person, Aang's peripheral vision caught sight of someone, though he couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away and identify them; as they called out, Aang's ringing ears identified the speaker as Lorna, one of Chief Tangith's top personnel.

"Lord Gilbert! We were just looking for you. The chief would like a word when you're able."

Without removing his eyes from Aang, Gilbert smiled as he waved a hand somewhat carelessly behind him.

"I'll be along in just a moment, just was saying hello to the Avatar."

Lorna took a step forward behind him, her voice sounding out with confusion as she did.

"The Avatar…? But he's not supposed to leave the complex until otherwise—"

Gilbert's hand gave another little wave.

"It's quite alright, Avatar Aang is here on my invitation, I already spoke to the chief about it."

It seemed as though Lorna had a great many more things that she wanted to address about the situation, but she simply fixed the pair of men with a look for a few moments before striding off without another word, leaving them alone together.

Aang felt like he was walking through a dream that he needed desperately to wake up from. Somehow, Lord Gilbert was standing just before him, walking about the palace as if he owned the place.

How? How is he here? How did he know where to find us? How long has he been here? Why… is he here?

Questions flooded Aang's mind faster than he could even propose guesses as to their answers. A rather large part of him that was ignoring his upbringing and peaceable lifestyle wanted to blow Gilbert into a thousand pieces with a burst of bending, and it almost seemed less stressful to consider that option when it kept him from thinking too much about why this actually might have been able to happen.

"I'm very glad I ran into you, actually," Gilbert said. "I know our last encounter wasn't inherently—"

He paused briefly as a palmful of fire glistening in Aang's hand came within a couple inches of his face.

"— positive."

Aang finally was able to settle on his emotions and he let the anger that was directed towards so many wash over him and flood outwards at Gilbert.

"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't just burn your head clean of your shoulders," Aang snarled, his anger pulsing and churning. "You tried to have one of my best friends killed, and you worked with the imposter Sasuke to do it."

Slowly, Gilbert brought his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He still wore his wide and amenable smile, his eyes flickering with an imploring nature.

"If I might say so, your friend did try and kill me. And I hadn't any idea of the imposter's true nature when I agreed to work with him."

Aang was about to roar about how he had still had made sure to have Toph tortured before executing her before Gilbert cocked his head slightly.

"Ladies, it's quite alright. Weapons down, please."

It occurred to Aang that there was a very strange sensation rippling down his back and he felt a chill of metal touching ever so gently on either side of his neck. It took him only a moment to come to the conclusion that Gilbert's swordswomen bodyguards must have come up behind him; again, he had to be impressed by their elusiveness and speed. Even with all his earthbending training that he had received from Toph over the years, he hadn't felt them approach behind him, though he supposed a large part of that might have been the fact that he was so tied up in emotion as it was.

Aang didn't feel the breath of steel move, and Gilbert's eyes flashed dangerously for a moment.

"Now."

There was the sound of soft movement behind Aang and he felt the blades move away from his neck. Gilbert seemed to relax slightly even with Aang's fire still crackling just next to his face.

"That's better."

He looked back to Aang, his eyes regaining that imploring and and inquisitive tone that Aang knew must have been used many a time to sway over politicians, financiers, and the bureaucrats. It was a dangerously disarming look, but Aang had his own share of experience with people trying to persuade him into doing them favors. Though what Gilbert asked for then was hardly some large request.

"Could we have a moment alone? Just to talk?"

It took Aang a moment to realize just how curious he was to hear what Gilbert wanted to talk about; considering everything that had happened since they had last seen one another, what would he want to talk about? What might he know? Still, he didn't find himself feeling anywhere near comfortable enough to have a conversation with the man.

"What makes you think I give a damn what you have to say?" Aang snapped and Gilbert gave a small shrug.

"Hmm, would the nature of Kyoshi's plan appeal to you, for starters?"

It hit Aang like a ton of bricks then that he hadn't even considered that Gilbert might have been in workings with the spirits and he immediately spun about as though expecting to see Kyoshi herself standing just nearby.

"Kid, relax," Gilbert said. "There's no spirits here, just myself. But if you'll just do me the honor of listening to what I have to say, I think we can help each other."

Though he didn't know what was more unbelievable, that Gilbert might have thought he would actually want to help him, or that any word out of his mouth could actually be trusted, Aang found his will shaking down.

I don't have to believe him, and I don't have to trust him. I can listen to what he says and then go right to Tangith and then the others, tell them that Gilbert's here.

And yet, Aang still couldn't shake his curiosity. He cast a look back at both of Gilbert's bodyguards and then glared back at the young lord.

"Fine. But out on the veranda, just you and I."

He took his palm of fire away from Gilbert's face, who nodded immediately.

"Of course, not a problem," he said before looking past Aang.

"The two of you, remain here until I return."

The women exchanged looks, clearly uncomfortable with what was being asked of them.

"My lord, are you sure that's'—" the taller of the two started before being cut off.

"Mie, not another word," Gilbert said firmly before he walked past both them and Aang, looking back with a reassuring smile on his face.

"Shall we?"

Aang remained where he stood for several long seconds before grinding his teeth and moving after Gilbert, leaving both his swordswomen where they stood. The two walked a fair distance apart from one another as they turned back down the hallway and walked a ways before reaching the open archway that led out onto the terrace. Aang let Gilbert step past him and followed him at a cautious distance, his suspicious glare never leaving the lord's back. Gilbert walked to the rail and pressed his hands against it, leaning over and looking out over the city.

"Tremendous view, isn't it?" he said, genuinely sounding as though he meant it. Aang didn't say anything in response to that, but seconds later, he growled out an accusatory question.

"You're with Kyoshi, aren't you?"

Gilbert turned and leaned against the railing, crossing his arms and cocking his head thoughtfully from side to side.

"I suppose officially I am."

His pulse rapidly increasing again, Aang started to look around again before Gilbert chuckled and waved him down.

"I'm serious, you don't have to worry about anyone else being here. The truth of it is that, after you all left, Kyoshi and the spirits basically imposed marital law on Ba Sing Se. They started using it as a forward operating area of sorts for bringing in more spirits and holding as sort of their own base. I, being the opportunist that I am—"

"Vulture, more like," Aang snapped and Gilbert smiled guiltily, though he didn't outright refute the point; Aang supposed that he was doing so to keep the conversation as mild as he could.

"I went to Kyoshi and offered a plan of my own. It was difficult even just getting to see her, but when I did, I informed her that I had an inkling of where you might all being going, and if she would permit me to leave the city, I would go, and then confirm or deny if my hunch was correct."

He spread his arms, his smile widening.

"And here you are."

Aang stared back at him, glaring and unblinking as his insides surged with anxiety. Somehow, Gilbert seemed just as much in control as he ever had; even with all that had happened. The world was no longer something arranged to his making, the way that he operated, working favors and money in a twisted power game, and yet there seemed to be that same cocky spring in his step, that same sense that everything was going according to some unspoken plan. It was unnerving just to look at him, even as Gilbert was putting on as friendly and open an expression as he could.

"So what then?" Aang asked in a low, bitter tone. "You report back to Kyoshi? Have her send the army that she's surely gathered at this point out here to flush Sasuke out?"

Gilbert lowered his head and gave it a shake from side to side.

"I need you to hear me out, Avatar."

He looked up, his eyes almost looking pleading for a moment.

"I might have come here by Kyoshi's permission, I might have informed her that I would return with any information I have, but the truth of it is… I don't want to rat out Sasuke. I'd much rather help him as a matter of fact."

Of all the unbelievable things he had heard thus far, Aang found himself content enough to release a shout of a laugh.

"Yeah. Right. You're going to have to give me something better than that," he remarked coldly, but Gilbert didn't back down. His expression remained set and serious as he spread his hands imploringly.

"I understand that you hold serious reservations towards me. I tried to have your friend put to death and I have a reputation of being an underhanded swindler; I know this about myself, I'm the one who worked so hard to get to the position of power I now have."

His eyes darkened then.

"But things have changed. I know that the world is no longer the same as the one that let me make my millions. I also recognize however that had it not been for Sasuke's advent, I would not have been able to ascend the ranks of society as it was. It was made clear to me then that the world must change when presented the opportunity and right now, the spirits are working in frustration of that end. I hold no feelings towards Sasuke one way or another, but I don't agree in the slightest with how the spirit world has maneuvered to try and change things, revert things."

Turning and looking out over the city, Gilbert's eyes almost seemed to glaze over with a level of thoughtfulness.

"I suppose I don't need you to believe me, nor do I expect you to given the shaky nature of our relationship. I can only ask that you relay a message to Sasuke for me."

It was true what he said, Aang didn't quite believe him, though he found that he sincerely wanted to. He had heard plenty of stories about Gilbert prior to his arrival in Ba Sing Se, and had met him in passing once or twice, mere formalities. Aang knew that the young lord was very good at what he did, and what he did was use words to coerce and twist things to his advantage.

But it's also true what he says about his world. Things aren't the same, and he can't prosper the same way he did.

Aang chewed the inside of his mouth worriedly.

Still, that's no reason to trust him, just because he's looking to gain some new advantage more than anything I would guess.

"Why don't you tell me the message, and then I'll decide if I want to or not," he said, crossing his arms. The fact that Gilbert didn't seem to know that Sasuke wasn't present told Aang that either Tangith was withholding that bit of information, or he hadn't been in the city long enough to try and figure that rather important bit of information out. It was curious to Aang as well that Gilbert would ask him to relay some message rather than just take it to Sasuke himself.

"I need you to tell him that I wish to speak with him," Gilbert said with a wry smile and Aang narrowed his eyes.

"That's really all you're going to give me? And you expect me to follow through with knowing so little?" Aang asked. In the back of his head, he knew that this might be just as good a chance to try and wheedle some information out of Gilbert indirectly himself; if he could get as much of the lord's 'why' as he could, he could lay that against what he was asking for and maybe pick up on Gilbert's motivation.

"I should have guessed that wouldn't hold you over," Gilbert said with a chuckle. "But fair enough, I'll tell you everything I wish to tell Sasuke, but I would still like to say it to his face myself."

"Why?" Aang asked sharply. "Afraid I'll lose something in translation?"

"Not at all," Gilbert said with a smile. "But I believe that telling a person something yourself rather than taking it to them through a messenger or letter is a brazen show of disrespect. You show them that they're not worth your time to tell yourself, unless of course the message is being carried a great distance, which with Sasuke also in the capital, I know that wouldn't be the case."

It's true, he doesn't know that Sasuke's gone, Aang confirmed in the back of his head.

"But for your clarity as well, I will tell you what I intend to tell him," Gilbert said with a slight, respectful bow of his head that Aang didn't return in any shape. The young lord seemed to pick up on that before he started talking.

"I don't know what your plans are here in the pole, nor do I know what your intentions are, and by 'your', I mean your group, Sasuke included. However, I caught a glimpse of things before fleeing in Ba Sing Se and I can tell for certain that things between Kyoshi and Sasuke are well beyond me assuming that they might be able to reach a peaceful resolution unless one is forcibly presented to them."

Aang did his best to look apathetic towards Gilbert's words even as they almost immediately started to intrigue him. Still, he kept his suspicion on high alert.

"The way things are going, the two of them are going to come to a head. And if I have to pick a winner, I'll take Sasuke. As I said, I don't believe in what Kyoshi is doing, and if she falls, I can all but ensure the invasion fails then and there. I've seen the spirits firsthand, seeing them flow through the streets of Ba Sing Se by the hundreds, surely thousands by now, and yet they all hold a reserved air of following orders rather than wanting to be there. There are the violent ones who are clearly relishing being of physical form in order to partake in any carnage they can reach, but if I can tell one thing for certain, it's that their leader is the one who maintains their efforts. The other Avatar doesn't command the same authority and I believe that if Kyoshi were to fall…"

He trailed off, letting his implication speak for him.

"But I don't know if another option might still be possible."

His eyes flicked around then, in the same manner that Aang's had when he had been looking for the spirits he believed might have been tailing along with Gilbert.

"I remember the cold and stoic demeanor that Kyoshi possessed when she first appeared to us all. Despite your pleas, and also those of your friends, she didn't budge in the slightest on the position of killing him and his child. While I'm doubtful she could be swayed… I think the only person who could convince her against her agenda is Sasuke himself."

"So, what are you proposing?" Aang sighed, starting to get even more wound up. It was clear to him that Gilbert was beating around his main point, and Aang wanted it to be out there.

"Well, I think Sasuke should go confront Kyoshi on his own," Gilbert said with a shrug. Aang blinked at him for several long moments before he threw his arms up in furious disbelief.

"Are you serious?! That's your plan?!"

Gilbert winced, holding his hands up.

"Please, just hear me out. If Sasuke is able to get past the army and right to Kyoshi, one of two things can happen. Either some common ground can be discovered and Kyoshi might relent and allow him and his daughter to exist in this world, or, worst case scenario, she doesn't relent, and they fight. And despite the fact that it sounds like their encounters have wound up being rather uncertain in terms of outcome, Sasuke likely would deal with her just fine on his own. At which point, without their leader and main driving force behind the push to have Sasuke destroyed, the spirits would pack up and head home."

He finished his reasoning with a shrug and looked at Aang for a few moments before shrugging.

"Again, I know you might not believe that I have Sasuke's best interests in mind, and I suppose that a large part of this is for my own desire to see the world not be forced back into the old ways. I believe letting Kyoshi's plan move forward would cause that to happen, and I don't particularly care to have any of my hard work be forced into the dirt because she tries to impose a new order of things following Sasuke's removal from the picture. And regardless of how this is resolved, doing so between the two of them I believe would be best, for our world cannot afford another war. I will be happy to lead Sasuke right to Kyoshi in order to have this dealt with and if you have some faster solution to all this that doesn't involve outright war, I'd be happy to hear it. I only ask that you relay this message to Sasuke; his daughter can obviously stay far away from any of that conflict and remain hidden until it all blows over, if you're thinking I'm just trying to hand deliver Kyoshi's two prizes right to her."

It became silent between them then before Gilbert pushed away from the railing and gave a sigh.

"It's just an idea of course… but I would appreciate if you would pass it along to Sasuke. And also that I'd like to speak with him. I wouldn't presume to think that he might even want to speak with me, but regardless of whether or not he chooses to, as well as whether or not he finds my offer amenable, you have my word I won't report back to Kyoshi that I actually managed to find you here. I've already informed Chief Tangith that I stopped by on a personal errand, and should Sasuke turn me down, I will hit the road and leave you all to whatever solution you decide upon."

Making sure to meet Aang's eyes, he inclined his chin intently.

"But please, tell Sasuke that it's urgent I speak with him. That above all else."

He walked past Aang and back towards the palace.

"See you around, Avatar. And thanks," he said before the sound of his footsteps were all Aang heard until the passed off into silence as well.

Walking slowly out to the railing, Aang put his hands on the smooth marble and leaned over the side, trying to regain control of his heart pounding away in his chest. It wouldn't have surprised him if Gilbert had been able to hear it, the rate at which it was going.

What do I do? I have to tell everyone that Gilbert is here, they need to know that. But…

He looked back behind him as though he had expected the young lord to come back.

Did he really come here on his own? Just to see if he could find Sasuke and make this all end on his own terms? Regardless of whether or not he means it, he was right when he said that we can't afford to see another war. After what happened with the Hundred Year's War, I can't stand the idea of putting the Four Nations through anything with the remotest chance of such violence; Kyoshi is already having her spirits take up the fanatic groups to use them for whatever they can. The Talons were more than happy to charge into battle on their behalf and I'm sure the Dwellers would be just as thrilled for an opportunity.

He thought about the idea of Sasuke being spirited right to Kyoshi personally.

Even though Sasuke probably would have the best odds of getting her mind to bend even a hair towards renouncing this whole desire to kill him and Soza, she would never agree to it. With her, the ends always justify the means.

He started to feel more angry towards Kyoshi then he did towards Gilbert then.

If she would just listen…if Sasuke could just talk with her, maybe she'd realize that things aren't so terrible with him being in our world. No matter how cold he can be too, Sasuke only has ever been a threat when he's needed to be. He never would have fought Azula if she hadn't demanded an Agni Kai of him, he never would have gone after those tribesmen if they hadn't tried to kill us, and he never would have faced down Ozai and his army if he didn't care about us. I know that doesn't justify all the people he's hurt, the people he's killed… but is Kyoshi really willing to make this a full blown war if it means she gets what she wants?

Aang put his head in his hands, gritting his teeth as he rubbed at his temples in frustration.

I don't owe Gilbert a thing, and I definitely don't trust him… but he clearly has an agenda in mind for why he wants to have Sasuke go to Kyoshi himself and nip this in the bud.

Lowering himself slowly to the ground, he sighed towards his feet and despite how many times he had told himself not to dwell on it, his mind drifted right back to Sasuke. It would have been too easy if he had been able to keep from thinking about his feelings on top of everything else, but for the moment, he just let his pity for Sasuke's plight swallow him up and render him all but paralyzed as he sat on the veranda alone, wishing more than anything that the two of them could just speak. He definitely needed some advice on how to handle Gilbert.

Sasuke… please, come back soon.

---

Ursa stared at the slowly dimming sky as the reminder thudded through her mind again and again that this was five days since she had last seen Sasuke. Five days since he had disappeared with her daughter after asking Ursa not to inquire as to where he was going, or what he was planning. Five days that felt more to her like five years as she spent her waking hours pacing and trying to keep somehow occupied, while her nights of rest were fitful at best. She sighed, and headed back down the hall towards the dining area.

It was mercifully empty within, and she prepared herself a small meal while being quite pleased that she would be able to have her dinner in peace. She was feeling rather oddly tired over the past couple days, though she chalked that up to her stress over Sasuke and Azula giving her uneasy nights' sleep.

The atmosphere of the complex was intensifying quietly, that much was clear, and it made her desire to be around others significantly decrease. No great outbursts or open frustration or anything of the like, but it was more than clear that many were getting well more than antsy over the waiting. Denying anything to do with Sasuke and Azula's absence, Chief Tangith had sent along word that his scholars had a fair bit of information for Sasuke following his return, but there was no more news than that. No word of when they might be back, no word of any approaching spirits, no word of anything else. It felt to Ursa as though the Northern Water Tribe, or at the very least the building she was staying in, was trapped in time, sucking away at her rationale and injecting stress where it had once been.

Sokka, Aang, Jin, and her son had been by far the most amenable ones to her when she had encountered them. Zuko in particular was being as kind and thoughtful as he could, even though Ursa knew that the whole situation with her, Sasuke and Azula was likely doing a number to him. Still, he was trying to keep that part of him completely hidden and though he never could have kept it completely concealed from her, Ursa still appreciated what he was trying to do. Sokka, Jin, and Aang as well seemed to have some sort of understanding as to how the whole situation might have been affecting her, and they had also been considerably kind to her, another welcome gesture. But Ursa knew that she wanted to be around others just as little as several others of the group wanted to be around her, and so she kept her distance even from her own son. She found that her mood would fluctuate to the point that she would have to catch herself snapping at someone in a completely unwarranted fashion, and she didn't want to be biting off anyone's head who didn't deserve it.

The rest of the women of the group had certainly seemed to give her a different sort of treatment overall, though Ursa could certainly figure why that might have been. Since her talk with Mai in the dining area, the young woman had seemed to be doing her best to steer clear of her; Ursa genuinely wanted to speak with her about it, but knew that would never be a possibility. If Mai had feelings for Sasuke, the last person she would want to speak with about it was her. Ursa had hoped that maybe the situation might cause her and Zuko to reach out to one another, but she never so much as saw the pair together once as the days passed.

Suki was strictly curt and formal when they spoke, and Ursa could tell that there was resentment against her, though they could have been for any number of reasons. Ursa assumed that she had been at the very least concocting a plan to get at Azula, and since that clearly hadn't gotten anywhere as a result of Sasuke's quick action, Suki might have been holding a grudge against her, since she wasn't able to lay it against Sasuke. Were she any less mature, Ursa might have resented her right back for the blame she was bearing just being Azula's mother, but she was well aware that such a title was more than something that would warrant a response like that, especially considering the state of things.

She had done her best to avoid Katara, but it was almost comical how many times their paths would cross in the hallway; they would see one another, freeze briefly, and then straighten their backs and walk right past one another without a word. Ursa felt deeply foolish for resorting to such petty behavior, but she had a fair understanding that any confrontation with Katara at that point would have been nothing but detrimental. After all, she had rather frustratingly shown Katara that she had gotten under her skin previously, and any conversation she started could have been a sign that the waterbender had succeeded in maintaining that pressure.

Toph was an enigma in her own right, and it was clear that there was some level of tension that she bore as a result of Sasuke, but it was different than any of the other girls, or at least that was how Ursa perceived it. She seemed to almost be surprised when they ran into one another, even though Ursa had been led to believe that Toph's earthbending compounded with her blindness made it impossible for her not to tell who was near her, let alone sneak up on her. But whatever she felt towards Sasuke, it was enough to put her on edge the moment Ursa was near her, and even her close relationship with Soza seemed to be suffering at least slightly.

Soza herself had almost seemed to gravitate towards Ursa more often than not, as not having Toph being as receptive as she might have otherwise been seemed to be hindering her need for company, and it was clear that not having either of her parents present was plaguing her. But even as much as she tried to make time for the girl, to talk and just offer her own company, Ursa was finding that Soza was less a person that needed care in her eyes and more just a reminder of the two people missing from her life just then, two people she cared a great deal about. It was stupid, it was selfish, it was perhaps the most disgusted Ursa could have felt thinking about herself as she forced a smile speaking with Soza, but she couldn't help it.

I trust him. I have to trust him.

Her mind moved painfully between these two realities as she tried to figure which one she believed more.

And then…

She knew she had been doing all she could to keep Ty Lee out of her head as well. It would have been impossible and despicable to ignore the apparently brutal and horrible relationship that the young woman had been undergoing with her daughter, especially for Ursa. She had even managed to pick up on signs of it just by the barest interactions between them, but to think that Azula would have gone as far as she did…

Ursa cursed herself as she tried not to think about the fact that despite what she knew, her resentment and anger towards Ty Lee wasn't something that could be satiated by pity.

How could she…

Considering Azula's seeming obsession with Sasuke, it would make sense that the lack of attention was starting to do a number on Ty Lee but for her to have done what she did, Ursa knew that she couldn't so much as begin to understand where the frustration had come from that had caused her to force herself on Sasuke. The way he had told it to her made it seem like it was a spur of the moment burst of negative energy that manifested itself as desperate lust, and Ursa never would have guessed that Ty Lee would have been pushed to such a point. She had known the young woman since she was barely able to walk, and for the years that she had been growing as a child, she had been about as perfect an example of positive energy and bubbliness as could be.

And my daughter drove her to the point that she forced herself on the man I love.

As she sat at the table, Ursa closed her eyes and pressed her laced fingers over the bridge of her nose.

Sasuke…

It hurt her heart to even just think about how she felt about him. More so now than ever because of what he had done with Ty Lee. Ursa had done her best to come up with as many reasons as she could in her head to not hold it against him; he was under a lot of pressure and stress, and Ty Lee's advance had been an outlet for him to vent; it was just an encounter without romantic attachment, so it couldn't mean anything more than that; Sasuke had been on his own for a decade and couldn't possible be expected to now the lines that should be drawn in a relationship; Ursa had been the one to first say that they were in a casual relationship even when they had quickly grown much closer than that, and even when she hadn't decided to talk to him about what their relationship meant until after Ty Lee.

There were plenty of reasons to give him leeway in what he had done, but Ursa still couldn't keep herself from being upset with him.

When he comes back… we'll talk. I'll tell him how this made me feel, because I was too worried about putting more on him on the roof that night.

It hurt Ursa to no end to even just imagine what bringing that up to him then would have done. She could see his face in her mind, blooming with realization and pain as he realized that he had hurt her. Ursa knew for a fact that his aggressive bout with Ty Lee had never been done with her in mind, and she knew with the most certainty she had ever felt that Sasuke would never intentionally do anything to hurt her.

Feeling the corners of her mouth turn up at the idea of just being able to hold him, Ursa let out a long sigh. It was not something that she thought about infrequently, but it still seemed to completely take over her mind when she so much as remotely broached the idea in her head. How she had fallen so in love with someone she had know for only a matter of weeks, and how he had seemed to have fallen so in love with her was so beyond her. Even when she thought back to how much she had loved that young man from her home in the Fire Nation before Ozai had swept in and taken her away as his bride, she couldn't remember ever feeling so light and so at peace the way it did when Sasuke was with her.

Have I just been lonely?

The thought was blown away the minute it passed through her head; she had been given her copious share of options of men as she had grown in reputation as a captain amongst the islands she had sailed among, and had never so much as felt the slightest urge to pursue any of them. It had been a very real feeling that had passed through her when she realized that she was paying more attention to Sasuke other than him being her client.

Oh, Sasuke… please come back to me soon.

"Hey, Ursa…?"

At the tentative voice, her eyes sprung open as she realized that she had been entirely within her own head for the past several minutes and just about anyone could have walked up to her without her noticing.

Yue stood in front of her table, her hands tucked behind her back as she nervously shifted her weight between her left and right foot. As it struck her that Yue had been the one person to avoid her musings, Ursa looked into her eyes and immediately saw that her nerves were in more than just her body as everything about the glow in her gaze betrayed the anxiety she was laboring under. If she had approached the table with the intent of appearing calm, it hadn't worked.

"Is something the matter?" Ursa asked, and as she spoke, she realized how biting her tone sounded. Yue seemed to freeze in her movement for just a moment as Ursa's brow furrowed in confusion at herself.

Why did I address her like that?

She hadn't been feeling that fluctuating mood that had caused her to feel unnecessarily aggravated with others, and yet she hadn't been able to keep herself from practically snapping at Yue.

Unless…

It occurred to Ursa that she couldn't remember coming even close to reconciling with Yue since she had outed her and Sasuke on the airship's bridge. And while Ursa had been very much able to handle that particular bump in the road, it hadn't done anything to make her feel any more amenable towards her. Regardless of whether or not she had regretted it or whatever the case, what she had done had been about the lowest blow that she could have dealt given the situation.

But as she looked at Yue who looked like she was at some sort of wit's end and saw the pureness of her emotions, Ursa wondered if Yue would have been able to handle the situation differently even if she had wanted to. She was such a person given to their emotions and it was implausible to so much as think about her not following her heart in any given circumstance. Her outburst on the bridge was the result of probably more than just jealousy, and Ursa knew that.

For crying out loud, she has been literally dead for the past several years, if I'm to understand her story.

The idea of being made a spirit and then reincarnated into the physical world was reason enough for Yue to be moody and Ursa sighed.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to think of how best to play off her brief jab of hostility. "The situation with Sasuke and Azula and everything… it's just stressing me out a bit more than I guess I'd like to admit."

Yue nodded, even as she looked like she didn't quite believe those words.

"Ursa… if this is about what I said on the bridge…"

"It isn't," Ursa said firmly. "I'd be rather horribly out of line if I was to still be holding that against you considering what else we have on our plate."

She noted that her words weren't exactly an exoneration of what Yue had done, and the young woman seemed to notice that, though she only gave another short nod as a response. Her head turned down as she looked rather still deeply nervous and uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I… I was just hoping to ask you something. Hypothetically."

Having not expected this, Ursa leaned back, cocking her head in mild interest.

"Of course."

Yue swallowed and rocked back and forth a moment before speaking again.

"If something happened to Zuko… and you believed that he had died. And then ten years later, it turned out that he was still quite alive, would you resent him for coming back and showing himself to you? Even after you'd moved on and done your grieving?"

If Ursa hadn't been expecting a hypothetical question, this one about paralyzed her where she sat and she blinked at Yue several times as she stared forward in polite disbelief.

"I don't… I… Yue, where is that coming fr—"

It hit her all at once then, Yue's nervous behavior, the nature of the question, and the hypothetical reasoning it possessed.

Oh my goodness…

She remembered then that someone had said something about Yue's parents being members of the Northern Water Tribe, but she hadn't so much as given the idea much thought. But now as she thought to it…

She has been within likely a mile of her mother and father for days now… and hasn't been able to muster the gumption to go see them… because she's feeling guilty about how that might affect them after they lost her so long ago.

Ursa couldn't have felt any worse for resenting Yue just then as she got to her feet and walked swiftly around the table.

"Oh, Yue…"

Her maternal instincts couldn't have stopped her even if she had wanted to and she pulled her into a hug. She didn't reply immediately to the question and just tried to put as much comfort as she could into the embrace before daring to respond.

"You can't let your fear over how this will affect them keep you from reuniting with them," she said as she gently pulled away. "I know it has to be so scary, even just to think about, but I can't imagine how this has been eating you up."

Yue was looking down, her expression pained and almost embarrassed, but Ursa took her chin and lifted it gently to make their eyes meet.

"If I was your parents, I'm certain the shock I would feel at seeing you again would be insurmountable, but even more intense then that would be my joy. You are their child, and they are your parents. I… obviously can't make you go to them, but I can only urge you with every fiber of my being to walk right out of here and reunite with them. We're living in very dark times, and I know you've been hurting as we've worked our way through them. You owe this to yourself if nothing else."

Though her expression was still more anxious than anything, Yue's eyes betrayed a flicker of hope.

"You really think so?"

Ursa gave her another tight hug before pulling back to smile at her as warmly as she could.

"I do. Please don't feel guilty for thinking that the shock of reuniting with them is worth more than the happiness it will bring to all three of you."

Slowly, Yue's expression started to change and the nervousness lifted into something like gently happy anticipation.

"I just… I couldn't wrap my head around just going up to them and…"

Tears swam in her eyes as her voice cracked quietly.

"I love them so much."

She swallowed and looked up to Ursa, a touch of that anxiety returning.

"Could… could I ask you to come with me?"

Ursa looked down at her for a moment before Yue's eyes widened as she started to stutter out an explanation.

"I know, that probably sounds weird, I just… I don't want to go alone, I don't know why, but—"

Reaching over the short distance between them, Ursa took her hand and squeezed it softly. She knew for certain that the flood of emotions running through Yue just then were probably more than she could imagine, and it was almost rather incredible that she was even able to stand on her own two feet.

"It's okay. I'll come."

Yue looked at her somewhat blankly for several long seconds, and then let out a long, shaky sigh.

"Thank you."

She practically fell into Ursa's arms with relief and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you so much."

Ursa squeezed her back before they broke apart, smiling warmly at one another. It was by far the best she had felt since well before Sasuke had taken his leave.

"Would you like to go now?"

Yue slowly lowered her gaze, her eyes glazing over as she fell deep in thought before she pulled in a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm really ready."

Nodding, Ursa put a hand on her shoulder and started to walk towards the door. As she did, Yue looked back and cocked her head towards the table.

"Are you sure? You didn't touch your food, do you want to finish eating first?"

Giving a shrug, Ursa shook her head.

"That's alright, I—"

The warm feeling that had been moving its way through her completely vanished then and she stopped dead in her tracks. A chill ran up her spine and out over her arms, raising the hairs along their lengths. Her breathing started to come in a little lighter and she felt her head swim for a moment.

"…I'm… not hungry."

No… please, no.

She could feel Yue's eyes on her with concern, though she didn't say anything. It took Ursa several seconds before she turned to look back at Yue, forcing on a fresh smile as they walked side by side from the room.

But she had to force herself to ignore the potentiality that had just crashed down on her reality. It would have devoured her then and there if she had let it.

---

Soza sprinted down the hallway of the complex, feeling her heart pounding with happiness in her throat. She had been standing there when the soldiers had walked into the lobby and spoken with Katara, Suki and Sokka who had been in the room at the time. She had heard the words they said and excitement and exploded within her and she had taken off running.

Toph's room had been first and Soza had stuck her head in, shouting the news in at her and Jin. She had ran into Auntie Mai and Ty in the hallway and told them just as quickly. She had nearly been knocked off her feet as she had run into Aang and he had heard the news just as soon as she had righted herself. Seeing Zuko walking towards the courtyard, she had run up and yanked his sleeve nearly hard enough to pull him off his feet as she gave him an earful as well.

Finally… finally!

The wait had been unbearable the whole way through. Soza had done her best to front towards anyone she had talked to, but her parents being gone without a word to her had been doing a number to her that she might not even have fully realized while it had been happening. The days had slogged on miserably until this very moment and as she ran through the complex to grab her coat, she felt like a different person.

Rounding a bend, she saw the last two people she had yet to see walking her way, their coats also being pulled on. Soza sprinted up to Yue and Ursa, beaming up at them as she did.

"Good, you guys heard!"

They both looked down at her in confusion and Ursa asked, "What are you talking about, Soza?"

Soza threw a look over her shoulder, her smile wide as her hair flew about.

"Mother and father are back!"

Leaving the two of them standing there, she ran past them and beelined into her room, snatching up her jacket before running back out and past the two stunned looking women. She looked back at them in excited annoyance as she did.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?!"

She dashed back towards the lobby and made her way past the others who all seemed to have collected their outdoor gear as well and were headed the same way she was. Still, their movements seemed almost lethargic to Soza and she shouted encouragement at them as she passed by. Making it into the lobby, she saw that Toph, Katara, Suki, Jin and Sokka were already there; she made to pass by them and take off outside, but Toph caught her by the shoulder as she tried to.

"What?!" Soza yelled, looking up at her friend in confusion. Toph was looking down at her with concern.

"If you're going to run all the way to the palace, you need to be careful, you remember how you almost slipped on—"

"Toph, come on!" Soza cried out. "I'll be fine!"

She got the sense that Toph's concern was directed much less towards the icy conditions and more towards something else but she chewed her tongue for a few moments before sighing.

"Alright, go on."

Grinning, Soza slipped around them and ran to the door.

"Don't get too far ahead of us!" Toph called out as Soza burst outside.

There was very little that she liked about the Northern Water Tribe's climate; it was dry where it should have been wet, cold where it should have been hot, and everything about the place was just somehow too miserably stiff for her liking. But that day, as the sun dipped low in the sky, Soza felt herself relishing every bit of the weather that forced itself on her.

She ground her boots in the snow, feeling it crunch beneath her as she sucked in a big breath of air; her heart continued to hammer against her throat, both from the running she had just done through the building and also from the excitement that was practically eating her alive.

Smiling broadly, she blew out the breath into a puff of steam that wisped away through the cold air before breaking into a fresh spring towards the palace; finally, she felt like things were going to be alright.