Oh dear god ugh, I live! So yeah Draconian Cal here, for all of you wondering what the hell took me so long to bloody update well… DARK SOULS ATE MY LIFE! I swear I had meant to update so much sooner than this but I bought darks souls and well… life slipped away. Well that and I had food poisoning from some bad snitzle, however the important thing is I'm back and NEW CHAPPY yay! *clapping noises* For all you hoping that Ty Lee and Azula would have some sort drama filled moment, uhhhhh your gunna have to wait till next chapter so I can explain more stuff. I was kind of missing a way to connect the story so far to the plot, hence this and the next chapter. Anyway enough rambling!

Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Questions Unanswered

Numb, the entire body unaware of everything. The mind not processing the outside stimuli, the body not reacting, everything simply felt dead to the world. That was had felt when Ty Lee fled from the room, how she still felt now. The guards had come in to escort her the minute the gray eyed girl had left the room. In a strange way Azula had felt a numb sense of pride that she still warranted a full escort force but that was overshadowed immediately by what had happened.

Her mind seemed to fixate on the events prior; similar to the way one fixates on a nightmare yet hopes to forget it as soon as possible. Yet it occupied her thoughts all the same, she simply could not bring herself to understand one simple thing.

'Why wouldn't she look me in the eyes?' This question ate at her very being.

'Am I really so appalling to her? Am I no longer worthy to even be looked at? Am I no longer human to her? Am I just a monster?'

The gold eyes for the briefest of moments felt a hot stinging before it was banished by sheer will. Azula knew the answer to her questions, she needed no one to tell her, she knew. She knew but refused to understand. Even as had descended from on high and let the dark consume her mind, she knew. Knew what it was she was becoming. Knew what she did, knew what she was.

'She looked at me like I was a monster because that's what I am, I am a monster.' Somewhere in the darkest, coldest corners of her mind she felt the oily black madness stir, just a little. It was smiling, she could tell.

Thinking back to it she shouldn't have been surprised by it at all. It was to be expected, it made sense. As soon as Azula had replied to Ty Lee the girl had averted her gaze as though someone had slapped her. Her normally gently smiling features were contorted with sadness and discomfort, and something that the former princess could not place. Azula had unsteadily gotten to her feet to see if she was alright, however the moment she stood Ty Lee had taken a few steps back, fear clear on her face. Without a further word and only one more scared glance at Azula the brunette had fled the room.

It was this that threatened to devour her; it was this that troubled the black haired woman so. That the one she had cared for the most had fled from her, had fled in fear. The only thing she had every placed any real emotion in, the only one she had ever truly trusted, was frightened of her. Yet she still had hope, vain, naïve hope that somehow it was not as it seemed and that she would one day still be able to be happy.

So wrapped in her thoughts that she did not even notice the guard in front of her had stopped until she collided with his armored chest plate. Rubbing her forehead to clear the pain she glanced up at him, for indeed he was almost a foot taller than she, and saw he was proffering a strip of pale white cloth. She took and shot the guard a quizzical eyebrow.

"The room we are taking you has large windows." His voice sounding like someone was beating a bass drum. "Normally this wouldn't be a concern, but it is the middle of the day."

Azula once again looked at him still slightly confused as to what he meant. The man then let out a small sigh of frustration.

"Where it over your eyes so the light doesn't blind you. " He said, clearly begging to lose any patience he might have had.

Nodding at the logic of the idea Azula quickly fastened the cloth over her eyes; it was thin enough to see with ease but no so thin as to offer no protection from light. Once she had it fastened to her liking they moved on to the sliding paper door ahead of them. This led them to a small yet well light room that resembled the royal meeting hall yet was smaller and not as richly furnished. It was most likely a council chamber for the lower ranking nobles and generals of the Fire Nation's army to discuss matter of importance. Apparently the matter of importance today was she.

She was grateful for the strip of cloth covering her eyes for the room was indeed bright, painfully so for herself. As she was led in the Guard who had given her the cloth, she assumed he was the captain, gestured at a number of cushions placed on the ground. Clearly saying she was to have a seat and wait for whoever it was wished to see her to arrive.

The captain gestured for his men to leave and they did so with a brisk solute before turning and leaving the room. The captain then took up a spot blocking the main door with his enormous frame. Azula with nothing else to do began to take stock of the man. Trained to fight as she was, she always took a measure of anyone who could be a potential threat, the small mountain blocking the door was sure to qualify as a threat to most anyone.

He was tall, with a well-trimmed goatee, dark black eyes with only the faintest of wrinkles begging to form on the edges, and sharp features that seemed to go well with his military garments. However his garments were what made her pause for a moment, for he wore the armor of an elite fire guard, the personal body guards of the Fire Lord himself. This brought the barest of smiles to Azula's lips, if she had to deal with people; at the very least, she understood how to deal with Zuko.

As the silence that had blanketed the room began to become smothering Azula turned her mind from her surroundings to a certain gray eyed acrobat that still made the gold eyed woman heart ache ever so slightly. Her she was again being haunted by Ty Lee, but Azula did not mind so much, it was a welcome change to the silence. However, soon her day dreams of Ty Lee's beauty turned instead to the events that had occurred no so long ago.

It still made her throat tighten at the memory of Ty Lee's fear. 'Then again it's not surprise she fears me, not after what I did. But… it still hurts…' she mused rather mournfully. 'It may hurt but at the very least, it isn't my entire fault, you dragged me down and made me do those things as well, I lost her. I lost her because of you!' she thought angrily.

She directed this particular train of thought at the oily black still slithering through her mind. It was one of the rare times she attempted to provoke it, tried to get a response from it. She needed an enemy at the moment, something to blame, something to hate, something to push all of her anger and hurt at. If not the demon in her mind, then what else?

What she was expecting from it was perhaps an angry snarl of sorts, a shot at her failure, a blow about her inability, perhaps something even as simple as a growl. Anything she could use to further justify her loathing of it. What she received though was not a growl, an insult, even snide remark, no instead she received something she had never received from it, was a question, a legitimate question. Not a mocking question that would only serve to make her ever more hopeless, but a question born of curiosity.

'Let me ask you something princess… why do you keep lying to yourself?'

The question was simply stated, the voice lacking all of its usual arrogance and loathing. It was not snide, not angry, not sarcastic, and it wasn't insane, it sounded almost rational. This was what startled Azula. On the outside she maintained her calm composure, but internally her mind was reeling. Not once in all the seemingly infinite amount of time she had been locked in that prison of dark and stone had it ever posed a question. Azula did not know how to react her mind had simply frozen.

All she could do was to respond wordlessly 'What do you mean?'

She could practically feel it smirking as it replied 'Well if you don't know then I don't think it would be a good idea to spoil the surprise, after all, that the best thing about a surprise, the surprise!' With that it fell silent.

Azula barley had time to compose her now scattered mind when the sound of the door sliding open jerked her from the realm of her mind into reality. A smirk that had been so long absent from her face made a rare appearance as Azula's golden eyes observed the figure in the doorway.

"Well if it isn't Zuzu, happy to see your dear sister again?"

Fire Lord Zuko did not look pleased.

So yeah that was this chapter, things will begin to really pick up next chapter so don't worry if you think this is far too dull it does get better I promise. If you enjoyed R&R, if you hated leave CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Thanks! Until then CIOA!