A/N: In a very effortless attempt, I still do not own Avatar...darn...so far this has been my favorite chapter to write,so I hope you enjoy it. Please leave comments.

I used dialogue from the episode "Zuko Alone"

Chapter 10

Ursa

I am not a bender or a witch or anything like that, I am just a mother who loves her children with everything in me. Until a point we were a normal and happy family. I was married to the second crowned prince of the Fire Nation, Prince Ozai, and when we met he was full of so much ambition and ideals for our country, he was a true patriot. Just like his brother, Iroh. Ozai loved his older brother, growing up he told me they were the best of friends, he always followed and stayed right at his brothers' side. Always. They supported each other through good and bad like siblings should. When we met he wanted to instill that principle into our own children when and if we were to have them. With time, we did and they are the most beautiful children ever brought into this world. Things were not always surrounded by darkness like people may think, we were happy once...

"My brother will change this land for the better when he is Fire Lord." He would often say, "The Dragon of the West, that's what they call him...a name of pride and honor."

"Iroh is a wonderful man, and so are you..." I'd assure him when and if he would ever doubt himself.

"He and his wife are going to have a child soon..." He said with a smile. "I went to a fortune teller in the capital, she says it's a boy."

"That's wonderful, dear." I nodded, still smiling at his enthusiasm.

"Uncle Ozai...haha! That sounds good."

Sooner than we imagine, Lu Ten, Iroh's only son was running around with his Father and Uncle. It was funny watching them run around like kids with the boy. By this point Ozai and I were happily married with one child expected to arrive shortly, and he did, the second new born prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko. He and Lu Ten would grow up to be wonderful husbands and fathers, like their own.

"Aunt Ursa can I hold the baby?" My four year old nephew asked with his father right behind him. Looking at Iroh I smiled and then looked down at the boy.

"Of course you can."

Iroh sat down and put the boy on his lap, gently I put the baby in his arms and they held him together. Lu Ten looked down at Zuko with an amazed smile on his face, looking up to his father they shared the smile.

"He's beautiful." Iroh said to me. "How many times have people said that he has your eyes?"

"Does he? I thought he looked more like his father..."

"That may be...but there are more to a persons eyes than the way they look, it's like a window to their soul, and Zuko's I can tell is very much like you."

"Thank you, Iroh." I blushed.

"I'm glad you had a son Aunt Ursa, when he gets older me and him can be friends and play all day." Lu Ten said as Zuko reached up and pulled at his cousins' hair.

"Hey! What's wrong with your old man?" Iroh joked in protest.

"Well..." Lu Ten said seriously. "You are kind of old, Dad."

Zuko, my little boy, who I spend most of my time with, he will be a great man one day. He doesn't think that but I know it, it's in his eyes, he's so gentle and kind and reminds me a lot of my grandfather at times. Then there's my baby girl, Azula, she's very much like her father...stubborn but strong in mind. She is a quick learner and very witty, with some direction she will be a fine woman when she grows up. As long as I am alive there will always be an abundance of faith put into my children, no matter what.

Then everything changed when Iroh went to Ba Sing Se...

Ozai spent a lot of time with our daughter, I never questioned it much until I found out he was already training her in the art of Fire Bending. He didn't start training Zuko until he was a little older and that was before Azula even knew how to really walk. There was a two year difference between them, Zuko was around five when Ozai started to teach him basic skills, but a year later, when Iroh was off and on in battle in the Earth Kingdom, Ozai started training our four year old daughter right behind my back. I begged him not to work her too hard, he would get too into it with Zuko and he would run to me after a lesson crying his eyes out from random training accidents. Nothing too serious, just a few burns that healed up in a day or two, but the way Ozai fights he could really hurt one of the children one day. A few years went by and things were getting strange at home, Azula had been acting out more often than any normal child. She talked about her grandfather being overthrown soon, her own Uncle not fighting hard enough to win over Ba Sing Se, things that a normal child should not think about. Ozai was acting stranger too, also casting out his brother every now and again, questioning his methods on the war front.

"If...Uncle doesn't make it back from war then dad would be next in line to be Fire Lord wouldn't he?"

"Azula we do not speak that way, it would be awful if Uncle Iroh didn't return.." I explained to her firmly. "And besides...Fire Lord Azulon is a picture of health."

"How would you feel if cousin Lu Ten wanted Dad to die?" Zuko jumped into the argument.

"I still think our dad would be a much better Fire Lord than his royal tea loving kookiness..." Azula casually replied burning the doll Iroh sent her.

It was well over a year when we received word that Lu Ten had been killed in battle during the seige, telling Zuko would be hard, he was so close to his older cousin before he went off to fight in the war. Before I told the children I had to speak to Ozai, he did not know yet. When I told him his response was incredibly unlike the man I knew...

"So Iroh's bloodline has run dry..."

"How can you think of that when your brother just lost his only son? Your nephew..."

"I am a loyal subject to the Fire Lord first and an Uncle second."

"Ozai..." I searched for the words to say to him. "How can you be so cold?"

"I'm going to arrange an audience with Fire Lord Azulon..." He walked away from me.

The man I loved was dead.

"Why are you doing this?!" I yelled after him.

Ozai

...Because all of my life until my coronation I was always second best to Iroh, the one person I adored more than anyone growing up. Deep down I always wanted him dead. I could do better on the throne than he could. Yes, I was excited he had a son, and that his ambitions at first were the same as mine but Iroh changed dramatically during the 600 day seige of Ba Sing Se. Not even when Lu Ten died, long before then. Why did it take so long for him to just pull out when he did? He was gone for almost two years before we heard anything of his sons death and his failed return home with the excuse that his men were tired and homesick.

"I am your humble servant here to serve you and our nation...use me." I said to my father before Iroh's return from the Earth Kingdom.

"You dare suggest I betray Iroh, my first born?" I still hear my fathers insulted tone against me. "Directly after the demise of his only beloved son? I think Iroh has suffered enough but you? Your punishment has scarcely begun." The old man shot a ball of flame towards me which I dodged, facing away from him as I fell I saw a small figure run out of the room. "Zuko..." I growled.

"Perhaps you must know the pain of losing a First Born son, by sacrificing your own."

"Father..." I started to argue.

"Your punishment will fit your crime! You know what you must do now go. Get out of my sight!"

I left that night with one intention, suffocation, if one sacrifice redeemed me then fine the boy would go. I didn't train him well enough anyway...

"Ozai." Ursa's voice came from behind me like a nail digging into the back of my neck.

"What?" I replied, completely annoyed by her presence.

"Is what our daughter say true? Are you going to kill our son?"

"Sacrifices need to be made to make this world a better place."

"Your world or the real one?" She demanded. "Why did you have to take on the throne?"

"To make our family stronger, Iroh has basically betrayed this Nation by running out on his troops after his son was killed. No leader does that. Not a real one."

"So that's where Azula is getting it from..." She stepped back. "You...you can't do this."

"No...but you can." I thought of something brilliant. "You have a choice...kill Fire Lord Azulon...or kill your son."

"You can not make me choose!"

"It's either that or I kill him, and that was an order from the Fire Lord himself, so who are you really out to get? Me? Your devoted husband...or Fire Lord Azulon, the one who ordered me to kill Zuko as a punishment for questioning my place in this Nation?"

"No..."

"Make. Your. Choice."

Ursa

Reluctantly I made my decision and agreed to murder Fire Lord Azulon. I was only a small level fire bender so obviously an Agni Kai was out of the question, but there are other methods of murder according to my once beloved husband. We would poison him when I would meet him later for tea. We would often do that, the Fire Lord and I, we had a brilliant relationship. He loved my family, my parents, children and me. After his argument with Ozai he called upon me to meet him later for tea, Ozai knew already and put his plan into action. He sent one of his loyal servants into the outskirts of the capital to get the poison, which I would slip into the tea. This would kill Azulon quickly but he would still feel it happening as if it were a slow death.

"I'm glad we could have this time to talk." Azulon said as I sat across from him quietly, the deed had been done while his back was turned.

"Ozai told me what you said to him." I managed to cough out. "You don't really want him to sacrifice Zuko do you?"

"Ursa..." He sighed. "I..."

His face grew pale and his breath was short, this was it...Clutching his hand over his heart he fell over, breathing as hard as he could manage. Looking up at me he knew he had been betrayed. Eyes growing wide he reached for me and I took his hand. I did what I thought was best for my little boy. Ozai stepped inside and said the deed had been done and he forged his father's will, leaving him the throne, revoking Iroh's birth right. I shook and cried at what I had done to Azulon, Ozai helped me to a standing position and whispered into my ear...

"Traitor." And I knew from there what I had to do...I had to run.

I left Zuko with only a few words...

"Mom?" He said groggily as I woke him up.

"Zuko...please my love listen to me, everything I've done I've done to protect you. Remember this Zuko, no matter how things may seem to change never forget who you are."

And I turned and I left him there, that was the last time I had ever seen my son. Leaving the palace I saw another stray from her room, watching me leave...

"Mom?" Azula stepped forward. "What's going on?"

"I'm going away for a while darling, you be good now."

That is all I left her with, nothing so touching as what I left with Zuko. I feel ashamed for that but there is nothing I can do about that now. Maybe one day I'll get another chance to make things right again...

Azula

Zuko and I grew up in the same place but in extremely different climates compared to each other, extreme love and hate. From our father Zuko was banished long before he was scarred and forced out of the Fire Nation, but to our Mother he could do no wrong and had a vast amount of potential. He was not the only victim in our parents little game, on the opposite side of the fence I, like my brother, was just a pawn, my Mother treated me like a monster before I ever learned to bend, but my Father...I was his whole world, I was "born lucky" a picture of perfection to him and I could do no wrong. He treated me the way Mother treated Zuko, but the difference between my mother and father, along with myself and my brother, is that Mother and Zuko were inseparable, and though I was his favorite I never shared a loving bond with him the way Zuko did with her. They would walk through the royal gardens for hours and talk about nonsensical things and feed turtle-ducks. I would get so angry over it and would torment Zuko at every turn. I wouldn't hurt him, I'm not that despicable, no, I would just tease him about Mai's strange infatuation with him and in the end that got them together. So...You're Welcome Zuzu... Anyway, the only time Mother made time for me was when she would scold me for picking on her beloved baby boy. Sometimes it just didn't seem fair. When Zuko would call me and my friends crazy, or refuse to play with us because we were girls doing "stupid girl things", that was irritating that he would say that. We offered him a chance to be with children his own age and he would pass it up to be a mama's boy. Whatever...

You have no idea what it's like to be the daughter of Ozai. Not that I minded after a while but do you have any idea what it is to be his prize child? I often thought about asking Zuko that every time he bitched about Father not loving him enough. Sometimes I thought he was lucky. I trained every day in several forms of fire bending and even harder at memorizing every bit of Fire Nation History along with the bits and pieces of the Water Tribes Earth Kingdom and Air Nomads. All of this I did from the time I learned to walk and talk to the day I was imprisoned. Every day I was Ozai's daughter, a symbol of perfection, but there is no such thing as instant perfection, you have to work for it. It was expected of me to be perfect, so I worked for it, every day. When I was young I would think less of myself, that I could never be half of the person I am now. No one knew the weakness I held when I was young because as I grew older and stronger and became too proud to show any signs of weakness, but in those weak moments...that is what made me actually have some kind of love towards my mother...

"That is not good enough. Do it again!" I could still hear him say that in his typical irritation that he showed towards me when I was little.

I was learning the basic bending sets, drilling through the same ones over and over. I was only six years old, and all I wanted to do was go out and play with Zuko...yes...Zuko...I hadn't started school officially yet and he was all I had. He, of course, was with Mother. I'm so bored with these drills, I want to either do the next set or stop for the day, but I was too afraid to say that to Father...

"But Dad..." My big mouth started and I just saw the ominous look in his eyes and I took my stance again. "Yes, sir."

"Good." He nodded and continued to watch.

Most times he would only watch for a little bit and would then leave to do other things. As long as I was diligently learning everything he told me to learn I was in the clear compared to my brother. I was still his favorite, the one that was born lucky...I remember it became later in the day and I was still drilling that same set, my entire body was sore from it but he still wanted me to keep going.

"Daddy I'm tired...I want to go to sleep."

"Sleep is for the weak." He said firmly. "You are not weak."

"But it hurts...a lot..." I cried rubbing my sore wrists.

"More of you will hurt if you don't keep practicing. Now." He approached me as I involuntarily collapsed. "Get up. I said get up!"

"Ozai." Mothers voice came from behind him, he turned and I saw her coming up to him with an angry look on her face. "That is enough. She's done for today."

"Where's your son?" He mocked her.

"Our son is where he needs to be, in bed fast asleep, which is exactly where Azula is going now." She picked me up and rubbed my back. "You can't keep working her like this, she's just a little girl."

"She has to grow up sometime, and when she does she will be ready." He said and he stormed off.

She just held me for a while, swaying me back and forth slowly as she stared after Father like she always did when they argued. Carrying me to my room she gently put me down on my bed and just sat there with me gliding her fingers against my temple and lulling me to sleep. As I started dazing off she started talking to me, I'm not sure what she said but her voice was so mellow and comforting that it made the ease into sleep a lot less stressful. Mostly, I would have trouble sleeping, tossing and turning, aching from too much drilling during the day, if I slept it would be dreamless, the only time I would have any dreams worth remembering it would be when Mother put me to bed. Rolling onto my stomach I hugged my pillow, burying my face in it and as I fell into a strangely sweet dream.

"Zuzu?" I saw my brother,Zuzu...since...quite frankly I still could not say his full name correctly yet, who I was conditioned to despise with my Father, standing alone in the garden.

"Zula?" He turned to look at me. "Where's mom?"

"I don't know..." I kicked at the ground and started turning away from him. "Where's dad?"

"I don't know..." His voice trailed off. "Want to go play?"

This was different, definitely a dream, Zuko asking me to play with him? Usually we were more stuffy towards each other and distant, very distant. We were always destined to be enemies, that's just how it was, but not now, not in that moment. For now we were safe to be...friends? I turned back and looked at him, he smiled nervously back at me and I smiled. Our smiling was soon swept away when we took baby steps towards each other looking around for our parents, as if being friends was honestly so forbidden. Once we finally reached each other it was so calming, I don't remember us talking to each other, just playing, doing cartwheels, laughing, running around the garden. It was...nice. It wouldn't last though, it was a dream plain and simple, and soon I would have to wake up and be Ozai's daughter again...and again...and again...and soon I will become the monster that my mother will despise, and I will never dream peacefully again.

So now I'm on the run again, it was not easy fighting Ty Lee the way I did. My bending was not hurting me so much anymore and I was able to fight with ease. The fact that it was her made it difficult, the one person that, instead of bringing me down to earth which most ideal leaders need she, brought me up into the skies with her. She has the free spirit of an air bender, at least from what little I studied about them in school. Typically that's how she is, beautiful in so many ways and full of so much spirit...so it was hard...very hard...

"I know you're watching me..." I could see her out of the corner of my eye watching, waiting for me to let my guard down and sleep. I knew she was here for me, and I must admit I was surprised at how quick it was for her to actually find me. Last time it took her much longer. I knew what would happen, I knew there would be resistance...I had a mission, my mind has never been more clear as to what I need to do. I need to free my father and reclaim the throne, but how do I do it? That is the only thing that my mind lingers on, well...not the only thing...I frustrated myself thinking about everything so chaotically so I moved into my tent and waited for a while before doing anything else. Ty Lee would come down soon and I would have to deal with that, changing into my regular clothes I snuck out of the side of my tent into some bushes and watched from on top of some rocks to see Ty Lee's next move. She came down from her hiding place and approached my tent with caution, she was treating me like a threat as she should, but what I did not expect to see was right there dangling out of her pocket.

"Restraints?" I thought to myself. "So do you plan to fight me..."

Quickly and silently I worked my way behind her and jumped down from the rocks, she did not turn to face me until I spoke...

"Are those for me?"

She turned and just stared at me, almost taken back at how I looked, I suppose small differences make a big impact on people. My hair was down, that was all, when I was little I did not like to wear my hair down because people said I looked just like my mother. They all made the same face, shocked at first at the uncanny resemblance, this was the look Ty Lee gave me in that very moment and it pissed me off. So with out thinking I got into position and shot a flame at her. She flipped away and I followed her with a succession of more powerful flames. She snapped out one of the restraints after settling on a rock above me. She took a moment to decide her next move and jumped down right in front of me, I stepped back and blinded her with a blast of fire ending just before it hit her face, going on instinct I flew through the flames and jabbed her in the stomach. A thick cloud of smoke covered us and I stepped away from her and circled her like a vulture flying over its prey. Stealthily coming up behind her I grabbed her upper shoulders, closer to her collar bone and neck and dragged her along to get the both of us out of the smoke. She tried to grab my arms but that opened another window for me to dominate her, I took the restraints from her and forced her arms behind her back, tying her up with her own pathetic weapon against me.

"Azula!" Her weak cries sounded from behind me, "Stop this! Please!"

"So you're going to beg now are you? Do you really think I'm that stupid Ty Lee?" I stepped in front of her again and waited for her response.

"Please...just stop this..." She begged, nearly crying.

"You've betrayed me before and you plan to do it again don't you?"

"No...I would never...why would you assume..."

"Assume? ASSUME?!" I roughly grabbed her elbows pulling me up to face me and clasped my hand against the restraints on her wrists. "Then what is this?!"

"We need to go to Ba Sing Se..." She coughed.

Like before, and always at this point, all I thought of when I looked at her was how she betrayed me all those months ago. She is the reason that I am not right where I need to be in my life right now, had she just let me do my job neither of us would be here. We would be back at home in the Fire Nation living together in the palace, and by now I'm sure Mai and I would have been on each others good graces again. I felt hurt still that all she could think about was her stupid mission from my brother The so called Fire Lord. I wasn't anything to her but a job.

"I wish you could understand why I'm doing what I need to do." She said softly. "I need my life back. Maybe one day you'll want to be apart of that life. Until then..." And I walked away from her, hearing her call after me, pleading to let her free...but I can't. I want to, I just want to untie her and just hold onto her but I can't. The intentions between us are now clear. She is my enemy now, not my lover, I'm just a job to her...nothing more than a monster.

Zuko

Sometimes I still think of the Agni Kai against her, the tables had turned, I walked in knowing I would win. Sometimes I miss when we were younger, even though she was always a brat towards me and mom and dad's clear favorite we still had good times. Sometimes...

It did not feel real, like a dream, we would be alone playing in the garden, even if it was only a dream..it was that dream that gave my gut instincts a hopeful feeling towards my sister. She never seemed happy, just satisfied, which when you think about it they are two completely different things. She was always satisfied with her accomplishments and her praise from Dad, but she didn't seem at all happy with out situation. The favoritism... I think at times it was trying for both of us having to live in a world of both love and hate in their deepest extremities.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked as she walked up and stood beside me.

"I'm not sure...I should be worried about my fathers escape but...I'm not...I'm more worried about Azula."

"You put so much faith in her...why?"

"You don't know her like I do..." I said, turning from her and walking away.