Author's note: Sorry for the change in tense, but the change fit well with the story. Also, this specific storyline will continue next chapter. Read and review, please!

"You won't believe what I just saw."

Holding up with her thumb and forefinger a cloth doll swathed in rosy pink silk, Mai turned to face Azula, who had just rushed into the room stumbling with excitement but quickly regaining her composure, as the firebending princess always did.

In her usual sighing drawl, Mai remarked, "I don't know, Azula, how can what you saw possibly be more entertaining than playing with Ty Lee's dolls?"

Though Mai was clearly being sarcastic, Ty Lee beamed at her; after nearly an hour of her pleading for a playmate, the bored twelve-year-old had finally given in to her request and the two had sat playing dolls since then. After all, Mai had no one else she would rather have talked to, as Zuko had excitedly told her that he was going to ask Iroh if he could listen in on a meeting, since his father Ozai had allowed Azula to for months. The firebender hadn't returned for a few hours, so Mai presumed his uncle had complied.

Though she hid her emotions as usual, Mai studied Azula's expression, her eyes like burning embers as she was unable to contain her news any longer, her smile stained with the superiority of knowing what her friends didn't. Mai sensed this couldn't be good, and wondered why had the council meeting lasted hours longer than usual? Just as she fully collected her thoughts, Ty Lee blurted out,

"Well, spill it! Did you see a cute guy?"

"I saw a certain idiot become a burned guy." Azula laughed disturbingly, her giggling honey-sweet.

Still oblivious, Ty Lee asked, "Huh? What's that supposed to mean, silly-"

"Where's Zuko?" Mai's struggled to keep her voice steady, though she glanced at Azula as if still uninterested in her tale. She was not going to let Azula think she was weak; besides, the story and Zuko's disappearance were probably just a coincidence..

Dusting off imaginary dirt from her gold-colored sash around her waist, Azula continued, "Funny you mention my brother. Well, he finally got fat Uncle Iroh to let him attend a war meeting, but he just had to open his stupid mouth and contradict a general who was only saying the best battle strategy of sacrificing a few hundred soldiers for the greater good of the Fire Nation."

Mai tasted steel and gritted her teeth, remembering what she would sometimes hear Zuko mutter when they were younger:

Azula always lies.

Murmuring the phrase under her breath was almost purely accidental as she clenched the flimsy doll to keep from reaching for her pins.

"Well, anyway, he wasn't allowed to speak up, so he had to face the consequences: Agni Kai."

The doll dropped, its limbs flailing before abruptly hitting the ground, though a sound was hardly heard. Even Ty Lee was visibly alarmed now, her eyes widening as she asked,

"You don't mean...Zuko had to duel the general?"

Throwing her head back in bubbling, sinister laughter, Azula smirked, "No, dummy. Zuko had to duel Dad. Fire Lord Ozai," saying her father's title dramatically for effect.

Azula always lies.

Staring blankly at the blood red wall, Mai mildly folded her hands in her lap and said nothing, appearing reserved but in reality trying to keep from screaming.

Ty Lee, however, was itching to know what happened, and she anxiously asked, "But why would he agree to that? What happened?"

Looking up at the ceiling in dread, Mai mused,

Oh, Ty Lee, she's dangling her story right in front of your nose.

Though in truth, it was only Mai's self-control that kept her from pinning the patronizing princess against the wall to get the truth out of her, and that was slowly draining away.

"Since the little dum-dum thought he'd be dueling the general, he agreed, so of course when Zuko saw his father, the little coward just begged not to fight him. Tears were streaming down his face, he was literally on his knees!" Even Azula was now less gleeful; as she told her story, she became more dramatic, her hair slapping her face quietly as she paced back and forth.

Gesticulating wildly whenever she spoke, Azula resumed, her voice reminding Mai of a cat ready to pounce,

"But Father of course wouldn't let Zuzu be a little coward, so he demanded he fight like a man or receive the consequences. Guess which one he just had to pick? Zuko just kept trying to beg his way out of a public duel, an Agni Kai no less, so Ozai taught him a lesson by burning him, right across his eye, and Zuzu screamed and cried like a baby. Iroh made a huge fool of himself, running to grab him." Azula's last several words spoken were tinged with disgust.

Her ears ringing, Mai went numb, everything around her growing dimmer, hazier for a moment. But what struck her surprisingly much was the way Azula told them as if it all was so rational, so reasonable that a thirteen year-old boy would be forced to fight his own father and then be burned across the face by him.

All for speaking his mind, for being the only person out of dozens at the war meeting to openly find an issue with sacrificing hundreds of loyal soldiers.

Her eyes narrowed as she fixed them on the largest of several fire nation insignias in the room: coal-black flames seemed to twist across scarlet silk, choking the brightly colored fabric until it made itself perfectly apparent, right in the center.

The princess griped, "Now I have to be the sister of someone who's publicly humiliated himself. Ugh, he's shamed himself for good."

"You're lying."

Those two words were barely loud enough to be heard, escaping from the lips of a girl who had for years kept her emotions tightly locked away, that Mai herself looked surprised for a moment before speaking them again, this time with more conviction.

"You're lying."

Ty Lee whimpered.

Azula stared her down with eyes more bronze than gold as opposed to Zuko's, but as Mai glared back at her, she was able to see that color wasn't the only difference between the siblings: Zuko's reflected his emotions, but Azula's constantly radiated guile and superiority. Strangely, the more Mai contemplated that fact, the more empowered she felt. Standing up, she asked,

"Where's Iroh?"

Wherever Zuko was, his uncle wouldn't be far away.

Appearing confused for a beat, Azula then scoffed, "Wouldn't you like to have a cup of tea with this family's fatter coward?"

"Yes. Yes, I would," Mai parried simply.

Azula's eyes widened in realization as she chuckled, "Ah, you want to visit poor Zuzu. Be my guest, I saw Iroh running towards the infirmary, and Zuko being...carried."

Ignoring Azula's words hanging in the air, Mai instead glanced at Ty Lee for a moment. Though the normally cheerful girl's round gray eyes were welling up with tears, she smiled slightly, mouthing one word:

Go.

Striding out of the room and ignoring Azula's taunts and lies, that is exactly what Mai did.