"Well, what is it you want to confess to me?" Zirin asked, knowing how it was hard for Azula to admit her feelings, but wondering what was it she was going to admit. Azula then plucked up the needed courage to say what she had to say "Do you remember when we first met?"

This wasn't what Zirin was expecting Azula to say; now she really wanted to know what Azula was going to confess, so she answered honestly "It's not exactly easy to forget when we did."

"Yeah." was all that came out of Azula's mouth. As the 2 girls locked eyes, they recalled when they first met in the asylum.


Azula was 15 and in a straitjacket in the corner of her completely white bedroom at the asylum; twitching and shaking slightly. She didn't know how long for certain, but she had been in the asylum for 5 months now and hadn't improved since her brother first locked her away in here. It was bed time for patients, but for Azula, it was "Strap me down to an uncomfortable mattress too tight time." As if her mind was on queue, the locked doors of her room opened with 4 muscular male guards and her 2 female nurses coming in. The 2 nurses undid the straps on her straitjacket, then quickly backed out of the way as Azula would get into her usual routine of fighting the guards, giving a few of them minor scratches and burns, but eventually being defeated as they managed to each grab her arms and legs and then hold her down on the bed while her 2 nurses would strap all 4 of her limbs to the mattress so she'd be forced to sleep.

Or at least that's what they hoped would happen; but Azula didn't give them that or any other satisfaction. For almost the entire night, she would scream and pull and struggle against her restraints, not caring that her knuckles were turning white or that her wrists and ankles became red and sore. She stopped only to take in quick deep breaths before resuming her attempts to break free, but to no avail just like every other night. No one knew why she did this every night considering that she was only damaging her wrists and ankles and even though Azula had told them why, they didn't believe her and told that it was all in her head. Azula only continued putting herself through this physical torture for only one reason: her mother. All Azula could look at was a vision of her treacherous mother in the reflective ceiling and all she could hear when she closed her eyes was her mind-penetrating voice "Stop hurting yourself Azula. You'll only make it worse for yourself."

Azula glared at her mother with burning hatred in her almost blood-shot eyes and bared her teeth at the illusion like an animal as she shouted to the ceiling"OH you'd LOVE IT if I stopped, WOULDN'T YOU?! I STOP AND CONTINUE TO HEAR YOUR VOICE IN MY HEAD AND YOU'LL GET THE SATISFACTION OF ME BEING WEAKER THAN YOU! WELL I'M NOT! YOU HEAR ME?!; I'M NOT WEAK LIKE ZUZU!"

The guards who patrolled the hallways at night always quickened their pace when passing Azula's room so they could get away from the sound of her craziness faster. Normally, when patients have night terrors, the guards would use sedatives to get them to quiet down, but they couldn't on Azula. When she first came to the asylum and she had these outbursts at night, the doctors instructed any passing guards who heard her to give her injections of fast-acting shirshu toxin, but they found that after she woke up from them, she was even more violent than before. So they resolved from then on to only use the sedatives on her if it was absolutely necessary.

But perhaps the guards rushing past the ex-princess' room was for the best. For if the guards hadn't quickened their pace and covered their ears, they would probably have noticed the woman behind them sneak into Azula's room. She was dressed in the pink clothing worn by all female patients and had been sneakily wandering about the halls for the past 2 years now without getting caught, though she had been in the asylum for longer. For the past 5 months, she had noticed whenever she was near this particular hall that there was always constant screaming at night, but it was as if no one could hear it. She would've found out what it was sooner if the doors to this hall hadn't been locked, but this time they were open. She figured the guards were too focused on getting away from whatever was making all this horrific screaming from the only door in the entire hall and this could be the one chance she'd get to solve this baffling mystery. As she crawled in and quietly shut the door behind her, she saw a figure strapped down to a bed that was attempting to break free from her restraints. As she got closer, she saw that what was making all this animalistic noise for the past 5 months was a teenage girl. The girl didn't seem to notice her, so she came closer.

Azula took another short break to breathe, but as she did, she saw another figure that she didn't recognise and began to panic. "Who are you?!" Before she could tell her her name was Zirin, Azula then looked back to her mother who began to fade away"WHAT IS THIS MOTHER?! ARE YOU TRYING TO MOCK ME BY SENDING SOMEONE ELSE IN YOUR PLACE TO TORMENT ME?!"

Zirin looked up to the ceiling, but couldn't see anything. She guessed this girl had hallucinations and was trying to get out of her restraints in order to cover her ears. Azula began to struggle again and Zirin looked at the girl's wrists to see that they were red. Seeing how this girl was hurting herself, she came forward and held both her wrists down to get her to stop "Hey! Stop that!"

When the woman touched her wrists, Azula stopped and laid back; not taking her wide eyes off the woman. Azula was thinking how could she touch me? Mother's past illusions couldn't touch her physically, which could only mean..."You're... you're real?" Azula finally said.

"Yeah, I'm real." Zirin replied as she let go of her wrists. After letting the girl calm down a bit, Zirin then said "If you're trying to get out those restraints, push your arms into the mattress and then pull them towards you." Azula thought about this while the girl just watched. She wasn't certain if she could... trust what this girl was saying. Azula had trusted Mai and Ty lee and they ended up betraying her for Zuko. For all Azula knew, she was right; this was one of mother's tricks of giving her hope and then crushing it. Then again, her mother hadn't told her how to get out of the leather straps confining her to the bed. Maybe she could trust this woman. She pushed her left arm into the mattress as deep as she could and then pulled it slowly towards her. She couldn't believe it; she was finally free. She then undid the strap on her right wrist while the girl lit a torch on each side of the door with a fireball and undid the straps on her ankles. Azula sat up and took in the woman before her. She had a tanned skin colour, very long brown hair that was in 2 braids, brown eyes and freckles around her nose and the middle of her face. Azula then asked "How'd you know that would work?"

"It's what I've been doing for 2 years... and not that this matters but... my name's Zirin."

Azula said the woman's name to herself "Zirin." She then asked "You've been here for 2 years?"

"No, I've been here longer." Zirin stated with a plain face that masked her depression of that very sad fact. Azula further asked "How come you're in this nuthouse?; you don't seem crazy."

Zirin didn't want to tell her the truth. She feared this girl wouldn't want her around any more, but she didn't want to lie to her either. So she came to a conclusion: she would exaggerate the truth a little bit "It's more like I'm invisible; I'm invisible to almost everyone, including my own parents. They didn't view me as their daughter; they viewed me more as 1 of 9 runts. Because I was different from all of my other siblings and adopted cousins, they sent me here when I was 14. I thought at the time they just wanted some space and they'd take me back when they ready, but they haven't come back at all. And they committed me to this prison 5 years ago."

"That's..." Azula couldn't find the words to describe that story. It sounded similar to Ty lee's childhood, except Ty lee's parents didn't commit her or any of her six sisters to an asylum for life. Azula then finished her sentence with one word "...sad."

Zirin already felt guilty for lying to this girl. In attempt to distract herself from the guilt, she then asked the girl on the bed "Can I ask what your name is?"

Azula was hesitant at first, but then decided that Zirin had earned it for getting out of her bed restraints "I'm Azula."

Zirin looked up with a little smile on her face "Azula? You have the same name as the fire nation princess."

Azula began to stutter at finding the words to tell her the obvious "Um...well er..." was all it took for realisation to hit Zirin, who said while bowing her head downwards"Oh, er sorry for that princess."

Azula liked that Zirin referred to her as Princess and decided she had earned more"No it's okay; you can call me Azula." Zirin smiled at this.


Back in the present, Azula and Zirin then snapped out of the flashback of their first meeting, almost as if they were sharing the exact experience all over again, and Zirin asked "What does our first meeting have to do with whatever you're gonna tell me?"

"Ever since that moment, you've been my first true friend." Azula stated. Zirin was slightly shocked at this, so Azula explained further "Yes, I had Mai and Ty lee, but I used fear to control them and they ended up betraying me. I didn't do the same with you; I didn't use fear to control you. This is just something I wanted you to know before you go to Hira'a."

Zirin thought this over and smiled a little at this. she felt, in a sense, touched and slightly honoured. Then, she thought over something that didn't make sense "Hang on, I thought you told your brother while fighting him in that crypt that he needs to become a Firelord who rules with fear."

A cheeky grin began to grow on Azula's face as she said "I did tell him that."

Zirin now had the facial expression and feeling of a curious child "So why would you tell him that if you don't believe in ruling over your friends with fear?"

Just as Azula predicted, Zirin asked the exact question she figured she would ask, so she answered "Because I lied to Zuko about that in order to scare him."

Zirin's eyes looked as if they were about to shoot right out of their sockets. Azula then said "Well he did put me in that nuthouse for a year! I figured he owed me some form of payback."

Zirin then pieced together the puzzle of why Azula wasn't coming with them to Hira'a "You're going back to the palace to tell him that, aren't you?"

Azula looked down and said "Yeah I am; I didn't wan to tell him the truth in the crypt as I thought someone else would come down, overhear me and think of me as weak."

Zirin nodded "I get that." She was partially distracted from Azula telling her she was her first ever friend. Then, she recalled something else; something she hadn't told Azula. All those feelings of guilt she repressed when asking Azula what her name was finally resurfaced. Her throat seemed to bottle up after Azula said with a shy smile "Anyway, I'm gonna go now. I hope you and the others can start over and... thank you for being my friend." She watched the princess walk to the door and felt deja vu as she shook her head and called to her "Azula wait."

Azula halted in her steps "You're not going to stop me from doing this."

"No it's not that it's... I haven't been honest with you about something." Azula's smile disappeared. Zirin saw this and began to panic as she said in a voice that sounded like she was about to burst into tears "Well, I-I did tell you some truth; I really did feel invisible in my home life..." Azula realised she was talking about the reason she was put in that mental institution "... but it wasn't my parents who put me in that asylum."

"What were you put in for then if not by your non-caring parents?" Azula asked with caution. Zirin looked Azula in the eyes and said with a single tear rolling down her cheek "I was put in that asylum after they and the rest of my family were killed."