The next day, Lady Ursa decides that she'll take Zuko to a nice play and then to lunch and then shopping. About mid morning they set out to get some nice clothes for the play. Lady Ursa is holding Zuko's hand as they walk and Aya follows behind them a few steps.
They walk into a small but ornately decorated shop. Lady Ursa talks to the owner of the shop and they decide to talk more privately. That leaves Aya and Zuko alone, again.
"A... Aya," Zuko starts, "I want to make things up to you."
"Zuko, please just be quiet. I am fine now, and I'm a better person for living through that," Aya snaps.
Zuko walks over to her and grabs her by both shoulders causing her to tense up and close her eyes tightly. "Listen to me Aya, I never stopped considering you a friend. I don't want you to be upset with me."
As soon as Zuko grabbed her, Aya was thrown back into that horrible memory. It was not Zuko grabbing her, but a much larger guard and one of the other two guards was behind her reaching his hands infront of her and touching her. She starts to cry and is told if she makes even a single sound, they'd kill her and no one would miss her.
"Aya... AYA! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Zuko yells at her. He starts to shake her gently. Then he grabs her and holds her to him in a tight hug. "Aya, I'm so sorry," he whispers as the tears continue to flow down her face.
As soon as Aya's eyes open and she realizes that she is not in that dark dungeon, but in a brightly lit generously decorated shop, she pushes away from Zuko and immediately hides her face and the tears, "I told you, no one touches me." She takes a shakey breath, "Don't do that again."
Zuko just puts his arms down, huffs and sits in a chair and thinks to himself, 'Girls... I don't get them at all. I was only trying to make things right.'
Aya turns to look out a window and watches the people walk by. Suddenly a face appears in the crowd that should not have been there, as a matter of fact it should have been far away from this city by now. "Azula," she whispers to herself.
"Stay here. Do not follow me," is all she says to Zuko before she rushes out of the shop.
She tails Azula for about a block until she's sure she's out of range of the shop. She clenches her fist and forms a flame dagger. Silently, Aya rushes up and angles the dagger at Azula's throat.
"You should not be here. I told you to leave," Aya hisses in Azula's ear.
Before Aya can react, Azula formed her own flame dagger and shoved it into Aya's side. "Try to tell me that now," Azula growls as she walks away.
Aya gasps and even as she falls to the ground she mentally berates herself, 'How could I have been so stupid. I was so careless. I should have seen that coming.'
She hits the ground hard and curls up into a ball. 'She must have hit one of my lungs. I can't breathe right.' Since she's in a small back alley, she's fairly certain noone will see her and if noone sees her, she'll die. However, she can't move either, she has no choice but to lie there gasping for every little breath and trying to not pass out from the pain it takes just to breathe. After several minutes of breathing hard and the pain, she loses consciousness.
Zuko sits back in the shop waiting for the return of both his mother and Aya. He becomes irritated after only a few minutes of waiting but then starts to doze off. He sleeps for only a few minutes before his mother returns to the room and wakes him.
"Zuko, wake up my sweet boy," Lady Ursa coos softly while stroking his face.
"Mom, I'm not 5 anymore," Zuko states groggily.
"Zuko, where's Aya?" She asks quietly.
"I don't know. She ran off outside a while ago," is Zuko's reply.
The Lady starts to look worried, "I do hope she's not getting into any trouble. Well, we'll get you measured and fitted a while."