Author's Note: Some scenes in this chapter are written from Azula's perspective. As we all know, Azula is a little...unhinged. Because of that, I really tried to show that in my writing. She's what we call an Unreliable Narrator, so basically, the way she sees the world is skewed, so my writing style here, and some of the things that transpired, are in turn skewed by Azula's perspective of the world.

Azula was brooding.

She hated that word, and hated acting that way even more. It reminded her of her spineless, traitorous brother, with his deceptive golden eyes and taunting words that echoed around her skull if she let them. Mom loved me more, Zuzu's voice teased. She knew you were sick, so she loved me more.

Azula pushed his voice away and closed her eyes against the sight of his taunting face, his thin mouth turned up into a cruel and teasing smirk.

"She might have loved you more, but she always feared me," Azula whispered to his ghost, and then frowned at the familiar words. She couldn't quite remember why they felt like deja vu on her tongue.

The princess abruptly stood up, suddenly overcome by the restless desire to move. Azula didn't brood. She plotted. And sometimes it was best to do that while she paced the open floor of the dark room of her hideout, far away from the prying eyes of those above the ground.

Everything was falling into place. She had received word from Kurai that his men had successfully captured the Conduit and they were, at that very moment, transporting her back to the Fire Nation with haste. He expected their arrival within two weeks. It gave her less time than she liked to bring the Conduit to heel, but Azula was confident that she would be able to do it before the equinox. Then nothing would stand in her way.

And, Kurai had assured her, the Fire Lord was dead.

Azula should have been happy. But she wasn't. Instead she felt that restlessness tugging at her bones. She felt eyes on the back of her neck even when she was alone and her skin prickled as though there was danger nearby.

Something was wrong. Azula just didn't know what yet.

Was her brother truly dead? She wished she had asked Kurai to send her proof. His head in a box, preferably. But she hadn't, and it was too late now. And if he was dead, wouldn't the visions of him have stopped taunting her?

Spirits, did Azula hate those visions. He stood before her, looking down his nose at her as though he was better than she was, the Fire Lord's golden diadem glittering in his topknot. He always turned his left side to her so she was forced to meet that narrow slit of an eye, to see the damage their father had caused, as if to taunt her.

You deserved it, Zuzu, Azula thought darkly. You never knew how to keep your mouth shut. Not like me. That's why I was the prodigal daughter and you were the disgraceful son.

And yet, Zuzu always looked at her as if she were the disgraced one, the disowned, the exile.

Perhaps, in a way, she was. She had been hiding in hovels for the past few years since her escape from that poor excuse of a prison, plotting and devising a plan to get him out of her way. Azula was certain he had tried to find her, but, as with so many other things in his life, he had failed. And when Azula didn't resurface, he must have called off the search and moved his attention to other things.

Like the pretty water tribe diplomat. Azula smiled cruelly. It had been all too easy to get information on her brother through his whore.

"Oh, brother, you weren't thinking with the right head," Azula purred at his visage, sitting on the throne-like chair she had just abandoned. He scowled at her but didn't speak. Azula brought her fingers up, feeling the hum of electricity there. "You made it too easy for me to get close."

Azula assumed her deadly stance and pointed, her fingers straight as arrows, at the chair, at her brother. Lightning crackled at her fingertips, but her brother was no longer there. It was her turn to scowl as her eyes darted around the room. Where did he go? There was nowhere to run.

But she had to let the lightning go.

Azula turned toward the stone wall and released the power from her fingertips. It sizzled through the air and scorched the stonework. Azula could feel its power lingering as static slithered across her skin, raising the fine hairs there.

"You can't hide from me forever, brother." Azula curled her lip in a snarl. Suddenly she spun, arms raised. She could feel her inner fire flowing down to her fingertips. "Where are you?"

Zuzu stood there, his arms folded casually over his chest, his golden eyes gleaming as bright as the insignia in his hair. "Oh, Azula," he drawled, his voice grating in her ears. "Did you forget I can redirect your lightning?"

Azula roared and struck outwards. Blue fire jetted from her fist, but just as before, Zuzu had vanished. Her flames burned hot enough to crack the stone wall. Azula snarled in rage.

"You can't redirect fire, Zuzu!" Azula shouted at the empty room. "Get back here and fight me like a man! You dishonorable coward, you traitorous wretch—"

She felt the ground vibrate beneath her feet and she clamped her tongue between her teeth to keep the words inside, hard enough to taste the copper of blood in her mouth. Azula dropped into a crouch, into a fighting stance, as a panel of stone wall slid open to reveal a young man clad in green robes.

"How dare you interrupt me!" She straightened, planting her hands on her hips and fixing him with a cold stare. The look on his face was one of fear, but Azula didn't like it. It wasn't the right kind of fear; the fear of her strength and power. He looked at her the way a child might look into a dark basement; eyes wide, afraid of the unknown. "Well? What is the meaning of this?"

The Dai Li agent bowed reverently. "I heard the commotion, Princess. I wanted to ensure you were alright."

"I'm fine," Azula snapped. She waved him off with a dismissive hand. He flinched at the gesture and Azula allowed a small smile of satisfaction to cross her lips. She still commanded that kind of fear. "Now leave me be. Do not disturb me unless it is of the utmost importance, do you understand?"

He bowed again. "Yes, of course, your highness." The Dai Li agent stepped back and the wall closed up again, leaving Azula alone.

Alone with her brother, at least.

She turned to him, her mouth twisted into a scowl. He was sitting on the throne again—her throne—twirling something in his pale fingers. Azula realized it was an ivory comb set with rubies and diamonds and pearls. It was her comb from her youth, a gift from their mother.

Zuzu's eyes flashed to hers, burning her with the power of the sun. "She would have loved you, you know," Zuzu said, his tone almost...forlorn. "Had you let her."

"I didn't need Mother's love!" Azula snarled. "I wasn't weak, like you! That's why I had Father's approval and you didn't! I had Mother's fear of me. I had your fear of me."

At her remark, Zuko ceased to twirl the comb as his golden gaze moved from the object in his hands to burn into her eyes. "I'm not afraid of you anymore."

Azula glowered at him. She loathed how much older he looked now. Despised the way his older form made him look more intimidating than the lanky build of his youth. Most of all, she hated how he looked more like their father now than ever before. Her teeth were clenched hard enough that her jaw ached.

"You should be afraid of me!"

Suddenly Zuzu rose from the chair and, quicker than her eyes could follow, he moved to stand before her, looking down his nose at her. His movements were unsettling and inhuman. When had he gotten so tall? Azula didn't know. Or maybe she had gotten smaller.

The princess pushed the thought from her mind.

Zuzu's hand reached for her, almost lovingly, but his fingers ghosted across her cheekbone. She could almost feel his touch, but it felt more like a warm breeze brushing past her skin. Azula jerked away from him.

"Don't touch me," she hissed.

"I could have helped you." He sounded despondent. "It didn't have to be this way."

Azula's face contorted into a mask of rage. "I didn't need your help, Zuko! You needed my help. You were always weak and timid and useless! Father should have killed you the day you were born! It would have spared us all a lot of grief. But no, you came back. You always come back!"

Azula lashed out with her blue flames until the room glowed brightly and sweat drenched her skin from the heat of her fire. When she dropped her hands, she was alone.

She collapsed onto her throne and continued to brood.

Four days had passed by the time the Conduit smelled the salt on the breeze and knew that they were near the sea.

She strained to lift her head to try to get her bearings, but the muscles of her neck protested weakly, and she collapsed back against the scaled hide of the mongoose lizard, rage and defeat coursing through her veins.

The Kage Noshi were keeping her chi blocked and her muscles weak, barely offering her food and water. The Conduit could feel her strength ebbing like the sea at low tide. She knew that she was helpless, and she didn't much like that feeling.

She knew chances of escape were futile. Even if her chi hadn't been blocked, she couldn't budge from the Binds of Confinement. Their ancient magic dug into her hands and burrowed beneath her skin until she felt it flowing along her chi paths, sucking the power in her veins dry. It would take days to recover from the Binds, once she shed them.

And the same could be said for Hiei. They were keeping the two of them separated, and although they could still communicate telepathically, the bonds between them were weakening as their powers drained.

The Kage Noshi were taking all the necessary precautions they needed to haul her across the continents. Not that she blamed them—if she had even the slightest chance of escape, she would have taken it and torn them all to shreds. And even though they looked at her with smug satisfaction, she could also smell the fear in their blood. They knew what had befallen their brethren in Jinsan, and they had witnessed the massacre on the sands of the Si Wong Desert.

They were all well aware that the Conduit was a force to be reckoned with.

As the days passed, the Conduit mused over what might lay in store for her in the Fire Nation. She knew about the crazy princess who had lost her mind at the end of the war. She had even heard of the final showdown between Princess Azula and her brother. But years had passed since then, and she knew it was likely the princess had changed. But whether she had regained her sanity or slipped deeper into madness was unknown.

The Conduit had always known to keep her ear to the ground to learn the going-ons of the world around her. Her predecessors would use that knowledge to root out the best places to start insurrections and mayhem. She used it to keep herself safe.

What the Conduit didn't know, what she couldn't figure out, was what use she was to Princess Azula with her chi blocked and her powers restrained. Without her abilities, the Conduit might as well have been a regular person who was simply skilled with a katana. That alone wouldn't be enough to defeat a fully-realized Avatar.

Unless the princess thought she could persuade the Conduit to join her side? If that was the case, Princess Azula had another thing coming.

"We'll stop here until the sun goes down. Then we'll get on our ship and be on our way."

Kurai's gruff voice brought her from her reverie. The Conduit turned her head to the side to get a look at the leader of the Kage Noshi. His back was uniformly straight, but she could see the side of his mask as he looked at his men. The Conduit was looking forward to taking that mask off and seeing the fear in his eyes when he realized she was going to destroy him.

He used his knees to guide the mongoose lizard. The Conduit watched as they left the main road and slipped into a forest of mangroves. She strained her ears and realized she could hear the sound of the ocean, and the hustle-and-bustle of the docks. They must have made it back to Gaoling, in record time.

They had been travelling fast through the desert. Kurai was a ruthless leader who pushed his men hard, only allowing them to stop for a handful of hours for rest each day. He set a brutal pace that had the Conduit flopping against the mongoose lizard she rode on, unable to protect herself, leaving her bruised and battered. The lizards had an incredible stamina, and she was surprised to see how long the reptiles could go without food or rest. If the Kage Noshi we're exhausted, they did an impeccable job hiding it.

She almost felt a swell of pride. During Tatsuya's time, the Kage Noshi had been much the same. There had been no tolerance for weakness. Apparently, not all of their values had been lost.

Kurai stopped his mongoose lizard. The Conduit could see the dry grass and sandy dirt beneath the beast's clawed paws, but she could see little else. She felt more than saw Kurai dismount. She could hear the other assassins climbing off of their lizards as well.

Hands untied the ropes strapping her to the lizard before she was grabbed by the Bindings. She was roughly dragged off of the rump of the lizard. She landed in a haphazard pile in the dirt, wincing at the painful angle her legs were folded into. The Conduit looked up with a scowl into Kurai's masked face.

"How are you feeling? Thirsty?" He sneered down at her and she bristled. "You know, if you think this is bad, it's nothing compared to what Princess Azula has planned for you."

She curled her lip into a snarl. "And what exactly does she have planned for me, Kurai? I'm useless to her like this."

"So you think." He crouched down to her level and gripped her chin in his hand, hard. His eyes were deep shadows in the holes of his mask. "You don't know everything. The princess knows how to bring you down."

Kurai released her with a hard shove. Too weak to catch herself, the Conduit fell onto her back in the dirt. She stared up at the canopy of trees. Blue sky peaked through the boughs. She suspected this might be the last time she would see it for a while. She didn't doubt that Kurai would lock her up in the hold of his ship in the dark for their journey.

"Tie her to that tree and check her chi. We can't take any chances." Kurai looked down at her. "She's got the look of a trapped animal in her eyes. If she was going to try to escape, she'd do it tonight before we get on the ship." The Conduit could hear the taunting laugh in his voice and her blood boiled with rage. "We can't let that happen."

Rough hands seized her arms and dragged her through the dirt. Her back fell against the rough bark of a tree and a moment later, thick coarse rope was cinched around her middle, so tight she could scarcely breathe. An assassin crouched by her feet and grabbed her ankles. She tried to pull away, but his fingers dug into her flesh and forced her legs to the ground. With a huff of air, she gave up, and watched as the assassin looped the rope around her ankles and cinched it tightly.

A masked assassin knelt before her. The Conduit bared her teeth but the Kage Noshi didn't even acknowledge her. She watched as he uncapped a water skin at his waist and drew water from it, encasing his gloved hands in it.

Despite her disadvantages, the Conduit had been paying attention to the men under Kurai's command. She knew he had a handful of firebenders left and at least three earthbenders. This one seemed to be the only waterbender. Whether he always had been the only one, or if she had killed the others, she didn't know. But he was a healer, too.

"I thought only women learned healing," the Conduit taunted him.

The assassin offered no response. His water-gloved hands reached for her chi paths and she lashed out, teeth snapping like an animal.

"Hold her down," the waterbender commanded, his voice quiet and authoritative. "If she wants to act like an animal, we can treat her like one."

Two more assassins approached. One grabbed her head in his broad hands and pinned her back against the tree. The Conduit strained against him, but it was futile. She had the strength of a child, and he held her down with ease. The second pressed down on her knees until she felt the strain in her muscles, and she stilled.

Helpless, she watched the waterbender press his hands against her chi points, following their path through her body. She could feel his power running through her, but it was weak. It was as if she was losing her connection to her chi, and the Conduit didn't like that very much.

She may not have considered herself to be the most spiritual of beings—she was surely not as in tune with her spiritual side as the Avatar—but the Conduit respected them, and her connection to them, all the same. She was starting to feel her connection to them waning the longer she was constricted with the Bindings of Confinement, and she didn't know if there would be any long-term effects from them. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

The thought of losing her connection to the spirits frightened her in a way she wasn't used to feeling. The Conduit was never afraid. She was the one who incited fear. But without the power of the spirits, who was she? What was she?

It didn't bear thinking about.

The Conduit could only hope that somehow the Fire Lord had survived. She knew the waterbending Master did, but for some reason, the Conduit felt as though he held the key. Somehow, he was destined to live, and he was the one who needed to drink from the Pond. The Conduit couldn't explain it, not even to herself. But she had been dreaming of him in the last few weeks, and she knew fate had bigger plans for him than dying at the hands of the assassins in the desert.

The Conduit looked up and saw Kurai. He stood on the far side of their camp with his arms crossed over his broad chest, watching as his men started a small cook-fire and laid out their bedrolls. As if he could feel her eyes upon him, he glanced in her direction. Behind the black mask, he watched her.

The Conduit wished she knew what he was thinking. He didn't carry the acrid smell of fear like his men did. Whether that made him a fool or just supercilious, she didn't know. But she did know that she wanted to find out what he was afraid of. She wanted to know what made him tick, what made his heart pound in trepidation as a cold sweat broke out across his skin. Everyone was afraid of something. Her speciality was finding out what.

The waterbender pulled back. The water disappeared into the skin on his waist and he stood up. He turned on his heel without glancing at her and went to the assassin who could chi-block. The Conduit watched them exchange a few words, and then the chi-blocker was making his way toward her.

Her instinct told her to fight. She wanted to thrash against the ropes and the hands that held her down, to kick out with her legs and lash out with her teeth. But the Conduit knew better, so she held still, and appraised the chi-blocker with her cool gaze.

The jabs were quick and sent tingling numbness down her limbs. The Conduit sagged against the tree trunk, grimacing. No matter how many times it was done, she never quite got used to the feeling.

"Sit tight," the chi-blocker taunted as he stood up. "And you better enjoy this fresh air while you can. The hold isn't a very pleasant place to be."

The Conduit could barely lift her head to glower at him. But there must have been something in her eyes, a bit of that cold fire, for she could smell his fear. It was light, almost imperceptible, but it was there. That small glimmer of fear invigorated her and she breathed in deeply, inhaling that familiar smell. When she looked up, the chi-blocker had returned to his bedroll. He wasn't looking at her anymore.

Satisfied, the Conduit let her eyes fall closed. She was exhausted, more than she had ever been in her life. Between the sapping energies of the Bindings and the constant chi-blocking, combined with the poor sleep and lack of food and water, she couldn't help but wonder if she was close to dying. Of course, they had no intentions of letting her die. But that didn't mean they wouldn't give her a taste of what it felt like to be on the brink of death.

Hiei's voice sounded in her head. He sounded tired and far away, and the Conduit knew his powers were weakening, too. They had kept him tied up in his bag. And as far as she knew, they hadn't even offered him food or water. If we want to attempt an escape, we better do it tonight. We're running out of time.

"It's pointless, Hiei," she said, soft enough that only her cat would hear. "We're not getting out of here just yet. We need to bide our time and wait for the perfect opportunity."

He didn't offer her a response. She imagined it was taxing for him to reach out to her. They hadn't communicated much in the last few days. The Conduit wanted him to save his strength for when they really needed it.

She fell asleep to the muted sounds of the deadly assassins making camp, and was soon plagued by nightmares. It seemed there was, indeed, no rest for the wicked.

"He's going to turn on you, you know."

Azula scowled up at her brother. He was standing before her throne again. He had changed from the robes of the Fire Lord to the royal armor of the Crown Prince. The red flame diadem glinted in his top knot. He looked younger too, more like the boy she used to know and less like the man he had become.

But the most striking change was that he now bore no scar.

"Who?" Azula snapped. She wished he would go away and leave her be.

"Our father." Zuzu took a step closer to her. "He knows you're stronger than he is. And since the Avatar took his bending away. You're no longer an aid to him. You're a threat."

"You don't know what you're talking about, brother. I am an aid to him. Without me, none of this would be happening!" Azula jumped to her feet and glowered up at her brother. She wouldn't let his height intimidate her. "If it wasn't for me, he would be rotting miserably in that prison while his loyalists cowered in their homes, never having the spine to plot against you."

The corners of his lips turned up. "He's just using you for his own gain. He doesn't care about you."

"That's not true!" Azula snarled at him. "He never cared about you, Zuzu, because you're a failure. I have never failed him!"

"But that's a lie, isn't it? You did fail him. You couldn't defeat me." He sneered at her. "You couldn't even stop Katara, a lowly Water Tribe peasant." His eyes were taunting and cruel.

"Don't you speak to me of her!" Azula lashed out to slap him. There was no fire or lightning in her hand, and it cut uselessly through the space her brother had just been occupying. "The two of you plotted against me to take my throne! It was rightfully mine! Father named me Fire Lord!"

He stood in the center of the room now. He was watching her with a pitying look in his eyes that made Azula's blood boil. She threw herself at him, sending off a blue flame that he sidestepped easily. Azula screeched in fury and launched a volley of fire blasts at him. But they couldn't touch him.

It became a dance of sorts between the siblings. Azula threw blast after blast at him but Zuzu avoided her attacks with the dexterity of an airbender without ever attacking her in return. It was maddening. Azula's face contorted in rage. How dare he taunt her? She was the prodigy, the more powerful bender. She was Father's favorite. How dare he act as though he was better than her?

He was nothing. He was weak, a coward, unable to do what needed to be done. He had undermined a century's worth of work that their forefathers had devoted their lives to, and for what? To be walked on by the peasants of other countries whose greatness could never compare to the Fire Nation? He made her sick.

With a final roar, Azula brought her hands up to conjure lightning. But to her surprise, Zuko's hands closed around her wrists with a frightening force. The roar died in her throat and what came out was a terrified squeak as he forced her to her knees.

Azula looked up, suddenly wary of her brother. In all the years he had been haunting her, he had never touched her.

Zuko loomed over her. His eyes were cold but his hands were hot against her skin, hot enough it nearly burned her.

"The war is over, Azula." His voice was quiet, almost soft. The pitying look was back in his eyes. "It's time to surrender."

"Never!"

He shook his head sadly. "What is there to gain, Azula? If Dad is back on the throne, what use does he have for you? I told you, you're a means to an end. But once you're no longer useful, you become a threat. You're a bender. He's not. What do you think is going to happen?"

Azula stared up into her brother's face, looking for deception, for treachery. But she saw none. He just kept looking at her with that sad, knowing look.

She swallowed hard. She suddenly felt cold, despite the heat from his hands on her wrists. "What are you saying, Zuzu?"

"I think you know." One hand left her wrists and reached out for her face as if to caress her cheek. Azula shied away, but he held her firmly in place. His too-warm palm pressed against her skin. "He's going to treat you like he treated me. He's going to do away with you."

Azula watched in wide-eyed horror as a burn mark began to spread across the left side of her brother's face. She could feel the heat emanating from the burning skin and could smell it as his flesh blackened and blistered. But his eyes never wavered from hers, even as his eyelashes and eyebrows withered away and his skin charred.

Azula screamed.

When three Dai Li agents and two Kage Noshi assassins burst into the room, they found the princess on her hands and knees. Her hair was a sweaty mess that stuck to her forehead, and there were burns on her wrists.

"Princess Azula?" One of the Dai Li agents approached cautiously, staying in her line of sight but a safe distance away. "Are you alright, your highness?"

The princess didn't react. The Dai Li agent glanced sideways at his companions. They all shared an uncertain look. Had the princess finally lost what was left of her mind? Her scream, an unholy, animalistic sound of pain and terror, had sent them running to her aid despite her warning about disturbing her. They had expected her to be under attack. They weren't prepared for this.

"Princess Azula?" The Dai Li agent tried again. "You've been hurt. Who attacked you?"

The others looked around for signs of intruders. There were fresh scorch marks along the walls and floor, but there were no incapacitated attackers, no bodies or blood or other signs of a struggle. Just the faint smell of burnt flesh in the air.

She stirred. Azula sank back onto her knees and raised her hands in front of her face. She looked at her wrists and frowned, as though she hadn't realized she had been burned at all.

The Dai Li agent watched her warily. "Your highness? Who hurt you?"

"My brother." Azula looked up at the Dai Li agent. She looked disoriented. Small. Frightened. "My brother did this."

The Dai Li agent swallowed hard. Behind him, his companions were exchanging another concerned look. They were used to her fiery temper and her strange habits, but this was something else. It was clear that the princess was slipping even further into madness.

Princess Azula climbed to her feet. If her arms hurt, she showed no sign of it. She pushed the damp hair back from her forehead and met the Dai Li agent's leery gaze again.

"Would you like me to fetch a healer, your highness?"

"No." Azula dusted off her black leather tunic. When did she start dressing like the Kage Noshi? She couldn't remember. She fixed the earthbender with her molten gaze. "I want you to take me to see my father."

The Dai Li agent bowed quickly. He did not want to take his eyes off of her for long. "As you wish, your highness."

He turned then, reluctantly, and opened a passage in the wall. He looked back at Azula. The princess squared her shoulders, her mouth set in a grim frown, and she strode purposefully into the dark tunnel. The Dai Li agent peered over at the others before he followed her, sealing the tunnel behind them.

"Do you think he'll make it back alive?" One of the assassins quipped, only half-joking.

"She's slipping again," one of the Dai Li Agents remarked. "She thinks her brother burned her, but the Fire Lord is dead."

"Now she wants to go see Ozai?" The other Dai Li agent shook his head. "What's all that about?"

"She's seeing things that aren't there," the assassin said. "She's always been a little unhinged, but this...this could be dangerous." He jerked his chin toward the scorch marks in the room. "She did all of that."

"Do you think she burned herself too?" The first Dai Li agent frowned. "She seemed out of it just now, didn't she? Could it be a psychotic episode?"

The second Kage Noshi assassin crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's just hope Kurai makes it back soon. There may need to be a regime change."

The Conduit startled awake from a phantasm where she was surrounded by ice and snow and hungry wolves.

She blinked, disoriented for a moment, as she tried to take in the tree branches above her and the smell of the sea to remember where she was. The Conduit tried to sit up, but the coarse fibers of the rope bit into her skin, and she sank back down with a huff of breath.

Night had fallen. The Conduit was surprised that Kurai had yet to rouse the assassins and get them moving again.

She looked around as her eyes adjusted to the dark. A cold sweat had broken out across her forehead and anxiety was twisting into her gut. The Conduit could only recall bits and pieces of her nightmare, but she was certain it was about things she had seen and done before, and about things that had yet to happen.

Movement across the small clearing caught her attention. In the darkness she saw a silhouette stand up. Then the figure was making its way toward her.

The Conduit recognized Kurai's shape before he spoke. It was amazing how well she had memorized the lines of his body and the gait of his step in the last few days. She would never forget him, not even after she watched the light die from his eyes.

She saw he was carrying a bowl and a cup in his hands. The Conduit frowned. He had never brought food to her before. One of the other assassins always had. In fact, Kurai barely acknowledged her at all. She may have ridden on the back of his mongoose lizard, but neither of them were exactly conversationalists.

Kurai sank to the ground in front of her. Even at night, he wore his mask. The Conduit could smell the aroma of the stew he had brought her. Her stomach growled painfully. She was no stranger to hunger, but it had been a while.

"If you spit at me, or try to make a move on me, you won't get to eat," Kurai warned her as he held out a spoonful of stew to her. "And don't even think about trying to bend the water in that cup. It won't work, thanks to the Bindings, but it's only going to hurt you more."

The Conduit gave him a scathing look. "What do you care? I'm your prisoner."

"I don't care. But I'm sure you'd be useless to Azula if you're too injured to fulfill the role she has in mind for you. And I personally don't want to deal with her temper." He held the spoon in front of her lips. "Eat."

The Conduit glanced down at the food. She could see tubers and carrots and a chunk of meat. Her mouth was nearly watering and her stomach had stopped growling and had begun to roar.

She ate.

If she hadn't been starving, the food probably would have tasted bland. Whoever had cooked it was no chef, but the Conduit was too hungry to care. She swallowed the first bite without chewing it. It was cold, too, but she didn't care. When Kurai offered her another bite, she took it.

He watched her from behind the mask. "You've killed almost a quarter of my men, you know." The Conduit swallowed and opened her mouth to say something, but Kurai cut her off with a shake of his head. "No talking. You eat and listen. Understood?"

The Conduit wasn't one for taking orders. Her mouth twisted into a scowl and she studied him for a moment, trying to figure out what he was doing. But without being able to see his face, it was impossible to gauge his thoughts or emotions. At last, she simply nodded.

"It seems strange to know that once, the men I command used to follow you." He held the spoon to her mouth. "Or at least, your predecessor. I've heard things about Tatsuya. About his hand in the Hundred Years' War." The Conduit's eyes flashed to him, and the assassin chuckled darkly. "Oh yes, I know all about how he encouraged Fire Lord Sozin, nudging him down the dark path. Tatsuya is the one who told Sozin all about the comet, you know."

The Conduit watched him closely, but she didn't speak. He offered her another bite of food, and she took it, chewing it thoughtfully as she digested what he said. She knew all about it, of course. The Conduit was able to commune with her past lives just as much as the Avatar could speak with his. Pushing Sozin toward destruction had been the pinnacle of Tatsuya's accomplishments.

"Of course, the Warrior's Guild captured and killed him before he could see it come to fruition." Kurai paused, the spoon just out of reach of her mouth. She could feel him watching her behind the mask. "But you were born then, weren't you? When Tatsuya died, you were born. You've been around for a long time." Finally, he let her eat. When he spoke again, there was a wry humorous temperature to his tone. "You look pretty good for being a hundred years old."

The Conduit snorted and rolled her eyes. She couldn't help herself. To her surprise, Kurai chuckled too.

"But you aren't like Tatsuya or the Conduits who came before you. You ran from your power, from your destiny. You could have done great, terrible things. The Avatar was gone, the war was waging on...imagine how differently it would have been if you hadn't disappeared." The Conduit froze, her eyes trained on his hidden face. He pushed the spoon toward her. "Eat." The Conduit listened. "Why did you?"

After chewing and swallowing, the Conduit answered. Her tone dripped with sarcasm. "Are you giving me permission to speak now?"

Kurai set the spoon in the bowl. He had been squatting down, and to her surprise, he sat down, crossing his legs in front of her as he set the bowl of stew between them. There was enough distance between them that the Conduit couldn't attack him, but she was still unsettled by this whole encounter. What was Kurai doing?

"Yes," the assassin said after a pause. "There are gaps...in the Kage Noshi's history, mostly where you're concerned. After Tatsuya was killed at the hands of the Warriors Guild, the Kage Noshi avenged him by obliterating them. We waited for you to come...but you never did. Why?"

The Conduit was quiet for a long moment. Everything in her told her she shouldn't say anything to this man. He had captured her. He might have been following Princess Azula's orders, but ultimately, it was by his hand that these events had unfolded. She appraised him, taking in his black mask and dark form. In another life, he could have been following her. But she had forsaken the Kage Noshi, she had forsaken the drive of destruction that sang in her blood. And she had done it all willingly.

Finally, she spoke. "I killed the woman who led to Tatsuya's demise. Meriwa." Her lip curled as she spoke the name, as though it left a bitter taste in her mouth. "He loved her more than he loved blood and destruction. And because he lost sight of what mattered, because of his feelings...he met his end. I did not want to make the same mistakes he did. So I left."

Kurai tilted his head, and she could sense his confusion. It didn't make sense to him, and if she were being honest with herself, it didn't quite make sense to her anymore either. The more she interacted with the world again, the more she learned...the more she was coming to realize that maybe she hadn't had as much choice in the matter as she believed.

"It doesn't matter anymore," the Conduit said quietly. "You're taking me to the princess, and unless she is a fool, she has found some way to control me. So nothing I've done, or haven't done, for the past century, matters at all."

Kurai picked up the stew and offered her another bite, but the Conduit shook her head. She found she suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.