A/N: I don't own Avatar.

WARNING: Stuff is going to happen and it is a bit graphic,not too obscene though. I made it mature for a reason. If you're not comfortable with lesbians doing their thing then enjoy the beginning part of this chapter,then you may feel free to leave. If not, enjoy, r&r and thanks for riding The Cold Flame :-P

Chapter 11

Ty Lee

She took me to an Earth Kingdom village I had never seen or heard of before. There were so many places like this that in our hunt for Iroh and Zuko we would just pass by. Never knowing how close we were to the once beloved Fire Nation Princess and Mother to my beautiful girlfriend. She told me about a way to contact Azula through her dreams, dream weaving, I had heard of it but I never thought it was real...

"So...you're a dream weaver? What happens in the dream state?"

"Well, you find the person you want to see or help in a familiar setting, but it's complicated...you know where you are in the dream but they might not, they might be somewhere else entirely..."

"I don't understand..."

"It is a bit confusing, but you'll see for yourself soon enough..."

"So...why did you want to learn this?"

"When you were all children there was so much going on..." Ursa explained.

"We never really noticed...well...me and Mai at least...but it's not like we're family..."

"No, you were always family to my children," Ursa smiled at me. "But even childhood can't hide the fact that the war affected the four of you before any other child in the Fire Nation and then some. You never had to see raids, attacks on other countries and villages, you never had to go through that kind of trauma, but you all knew it was going to happen."

"How?"

"You all spent so much time at the palace, you were all taught the royal and noble way of sitting still and staying silent, we would all hear it...we would all listen..."

She knew us better than we knew ourselves, Mai and I never really acknowledged what was going on because we never really had to...but Zuko and Azula...it used to drive them to points of no return.

"Dad's having a war meeting today..." Zuko said one day while we were all playing in the royal garden.

"Probably something to do with the Southern Water Tribe..." Azula answered as she sat up against a tree.

"Southern or Northern?"

"Southern, dumb dumb, you know the Northern Water Tribe is nearly impenetrable..."

"How do you guys know about all this?" I asked, standing on my head.

"We're supposed to know." Zuko said, his voice in it's typical annoyed drone.

"They're probably going to burn the place to the ground..." Azula rolled her eyes.

"Probably..."

It wasn't normal, an eight and ten year old knowing the intentions of seemingly ancient Generals of the Fire Nation. Some times the two of them would indirectly talk to one another about the war, different tactics, where and when different battles would take place. Azula always knew more than Zuko. Then sometimes...they wouldn't even look at each other, no talk about war or violence, like it never happened at all.

"I would comfort them...in their sleep." Ursa admitted. "They would never admit it...but the thoughts of war would scare them as children. They were conditioned to act otherwise but conditioning does not always mask a persons feelings, especially a child..."

Ursa

"I would comfort them in their sleep..." I explained to a very confused Ty Lee, only making her confusion worse as I went on. "I used dream weaving to understand their inner thoughts, and I would give them good dreams to feel safe with. Zuko was easier to soothe than Azula...it was frightening..."

"Did she really need it though?" Ty Lee got up on her knees and hugged her arms. "I mean, she was all about the war growing up, she liked it, she was the stronger one..."

"No...she wasn't. She was the more influenced of them, she was the weaker of the two...more corruptible at her young age."

"She was the prodigy..."

"She was Ozai's favorite..." I regretted to say. "And Zuko was mine...they lived in a world of separation, it makes me just as bad a parent to her as Ozai was to him."

"Azula knew you loved her..." I tried to lie.

"No she didn't." Ursa sighed in defeat. "Not when she was awake at least."

Wanting to just dismiss the entire subject I wanted to get back to my lesson with my new found student, the new potential dream weaver. It was harder than I thought, I thought that Ty Lee had grown out of her short attention span like most children do. I had her lay back and would massage her temples, physically, it is the closest you can get to someone's subconscious. This is the first lesson in dream weaving, this is how Master Chung taught me...

"The Temples on the sids of ones head is more than just a vitality..." He explained, gently circling his fingers along mine in a steady motion. "They are a gateway to a persons most inner thoughts...their memories, their ambitions...even their fear...if one has access to another persons mind they have the capability to control the other beings thoughts."

"Mind control?" I became a little tense at the idea, it sounded like something Ozai would be interested in.

"Yes." Chung sighed. "Just like Fire Bending, Dream Weaving has two different sides...good...and evil...but what creates the balance between those two elements are simple and boil down to only two things, who has the power and how they use it."

"I think I understand..."

"You came to me, wanting to learn this, for a reason...What was that reason, Milady?"

"To protect my children..."

He accepted that with a nod and continued to move circles around my temples until I was relaxed enough to fall asleep. Keeping me awake, but just barely, he talked to me about my children and continued to remind me that I needed to protect them and then he started to ask me questions...

"Tell me about your son..."

"He's troubled..."

"How?"

"The things his father says and does...it's just..."

"Say no more." He silenced me. "Now...tell me about your daughter..."

"Azula.." I took a deep breath. "She's not troubled the way Zuko is. Her father adores her..." I half expected him to stop me there as he had before, with some hesitance I went on, "I can tell that the war scares her, even if it is just a little bit, Ozai has her learning different bending techniques, he treats her like a prodigy...she gets so tired..."

"How is her relationship with you?"

"Fragile...she acknowledges that I'm her mother but we don't have a strong bond like I have with Zuko..."

"She will be harder to get through to then..."

Harder, but not impossible. There were a few occasions where Azula indirectly let me into her mind. Chung taught me all of the ways I could protect her and her brother with out actually tapping into their minds and controlling their thoughts. The most I could do was tap into their imaginations and control their dream state, making them more at ease while they slept. So I would give my children dreams of peace between each other and made them forget about the war. It was harder with Azula because the war was all she ever thought about. Ultimately I thought I was helping her, giving her dreams of tranquility, but in the end I just hurt her more. The further I was from her and Zuko, the less I knew about them anymore, and there was no way I could protect them. I was hardly the master that Chung was and could only weave through their imaginations if I already knew specifically why they were suffering. Azula's mind grew into a giant wall I could not get by and Zuko's mind was so full of chaos that helping him was beyond anyones reach. Until now I was stranded...and the only way I had to get to either of my children was through someone else.

Finally getting Ty Lee to sleep I guided her through part of her dream and wished her good luck. To a point I could only do so much before her dream state took over. As this went on she murmured about the desert a bit and I took some mental notes. From behind me I heard soft footsteps stop at my door. Looking over my shoulder I saw a great shadow.

"Iroh...I'm doing all I can...but I need you to go find help...this won't be an easy job and Ty Lee will need some help."

"I know just who to go to." He half chuckled with a messenger hawk on his shoulder.

"The Fire Lord?" I said with a proud smile glowing from my face.

"He is one person...if he is not too busy to help some family." Iroh let the hawk take off. "The other is someone close to The Fire Lord...I'm going to head back to Ba Sing Se, I'm meeting with the Avatar."

Ty Lee

I know Ursa was trying really, really hard to teach me how to find Azula in a dream state but I just did not understand. She insisted that I keep trying and that I concentrate harder, I could tell she was getting frustrated when I kept sitting up saying I couldn't do it.

"You need to relax, anyone can learn to dream weave..." She tried to assure me.

"What if I can't? What if it doesn't work? Why can't you find her?"

Hitting an obvious nerve in my best friends long lost Mother I started to take back what I said, but the way she glanced up at me made me silent once again. It had been years since anyone had seen her and the only one to never say anything about it was Azula. She always acted like she never had a mother at all, that is, until that night at the beach where she admitted some jealousy over how Ursa favored Zuko over her. Even though she covered it up with her uncaring attitude, I knew her better than that.

"I'll try harder..." I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"You've always been good to her, haven't you?" She looked at me with her usual half smile, the one that made even people like me and Mai feel like she was our own mother.

"She's my best friend..."

Her smile turned to a confused frown and she cam behind me and massaged my temples gently trying to get me to fall back to sleep. All the while she reminded me of how Azula was my best friend, we had been friends since childhood and how devoted we were as friends. Friends...Some how it felt like a roadblock that made it harder for me the concentrate. She was my friend though, everything Ursa was saying was absolutely true.

"Do you think I'll find her?" I yawned.

"You will..." She continued massaging the sides of my head, circling my temples gently. "Tell me about your friendship with Azula..." She asked, just to keep me focussed.

"She's my best friend..." I said slowly, trying to relax.

"You're tense, are you ok?"

"Yeah..." I lied, I didn't want her to know the truth.

"Ok..." Ursa sighed then continued, "Try to ease into this...rest and keep your most inner thoughts on Azula..."

"Ok..." I yawned.

Azula was my inner most thought, I always thought of her. As I crept into a somewhat sound sleep, I still heard Ursa's voice guiding me through my dream. My visions were blurry and random, like I was in another world and not just in a dream. The campsite where I last saw Azula was where I started off at... She was not there.

"Go where you know she would be." Ursa said softly, I knew she was beside me physically but in my dream her voice seemed to come out from the sky as though she were watching me from above somewhere. Looking around I was a little freaked out.

"But I don't know where she is." I protested.

"Go where you know she would be." She said again.

My whole world seemed to spin as I tried to think of a place Azula would be. Initially in my search for her I thought she would head back to the Fire Nation, and the only place she would go to would be the palace. The dream world is strange, the thought process could be a faster form of transportation than anything else because I soon found myself standing outside of Azula's bedroom door. My clothes had drastically changed from my kyoshi warrior uniform to my more traditional pink attire.

"Why her bedroom?" I thought out loud.

"Go in." Ursa's voice sounded once more. "I will leave you now to dream on your own, talk to her, find out where she is...any important information she gives you just repeat it the way she says it...the information will relay back to me in the physical world and then we'll be able to find her here. Good luck..."

As her voice faded I took a deep breath and reached for the handle on the door. Pushing the door open I was surprised to find the princess sitting on the edge of her bed staring blankly at the wall. She looked like she was waiting for someone or something to sit beside her and start a conversation or something. I couldn't place it but something was off about her, like she wasn't actually there. Did I do this right?

"Azula?" I whispered as I approached her.

"Ty Lee..." She said back at me. "Where are we?"

"We're..." I almost told her, but remembering what Ursa said about how she might not be in the same place as me in the dream state, I had to rethink my answer. "Uh...I don't know...where?"

"We camp in the strangest places anymore..."

"Yeah...the Earth Kingdom is weird..."

"Very." She agreed.

"Azula...are you mad at me?" I had been keeping that question in the back of my mind since our epic fight only a day or two before.

"Not you." She admitted.

"Then who?"

"Why do you stand there? Come sit by me." She changed the subject and patted the space beside her on the bed.

With no hesitation in my step I moved to her side and sat down, she had no time to think of her next few moves, she just went for what she wanted as she usually did and took both of my hands into hers. Looking at me, her golden eyes gleaming she half smiled at me and leaned in for a small kiss.

"I miss you so much." She said, holding my hands up to her face. "I just want to do what is best for us...I wish you understood that..."

"I do...thats why we're going to Ba Sing Se, so you have time to figure yourself out and figure out what is best for you and for me...if you'll have me."

"I want to go home." She sounded oddly like a child.

"We need to figure out where we are first..." I tried to stay on track.

"The area is incredibly dry...I think we're coming close to the desert...we'll have to be careful..."

"Close to the desert.." I repeated her. "Where are we going exactly?"

"So you're with me then?" Azula didn't seem to trust me completely, though I didn't blame her for that.

"Always." I said, bringing my hands down and holding onto hers tighter.

Her eyes, so golden, still glowed as she stared into mine. It was like she was staring into my soul, as I was staring into hers, making us one person. The feeling was so intense that I could feel hot tears welling up in my eyes, but before any fell onto my face Azula shifted closer to me and we met in a soft and passionately growing kiss. Pushing myself further up on the bed her intoxicating kisses went from my lips to my neck, I let her hands linger freely and she whispered in my ear to not be afraid. Linking hands I felt hers becoming warmer in mine as she moved back up to kiss my lips, pulling away with a smile on her face, almost sadistic like, I looked to her as she pulled away and she held her forefinger in front of me, sparking the tiniest flame on her nail, moving in to kiss me hard she burned a hole in my pink clothed neckline and delicately slid her finger down the center exposing my pale skin. Helping her I brought my arms back as she slipped my top off quickly and pushed me down against the silk bedspread. Trailing hot kisses down my neck and breasts her back arched up as she started removing her own top while my hands gingerly moved up her thighs and waist to begin unfastening the firestone buttons on her pants, and with some aggression on my part I ripped them, leaving only what was left from her knees down.

This is what I have for so long been denied...I kept saying in my head as she feverishly tore the rest of my clothing off as well as her own. The heat was rising between us, both of us doing like we used to...competing...

Azula

...Competing for the top...this is what made my love for her so strong, the fact that I was for once wrong about her. To boys, she wasn't a challenge she was a tease, but to me, she was my greatest challenge in so many ways. She was my first, she took the only thing I could call "innocence" and created the sexual deviance in me that she seems to love so much. Because she pretty much taught me how it works, she didn't expect my dominant personality to shine through like it does with everything else.

None of this felt real, I knew it wasn't, it had to be a dream or something, but I didn't care, if this was all I could have of her I would take it in less than a heart beats time. So I kept kissing her, biting her, leaving small hickeys all over her neck and breasts. With every moan she made I felt so empowered, kicking my boots off onto the floor we kept moving until we managed to get tangled up in the sheets. Rolling around, fighting for who would be on top next. Accidently letting her guard down for a moment I grabbed her wrists and flipped her onto her back, straddling on top of her as I leaned in kissing her, biting her lower lip like I loved to do every time. Deep within her emerged a great moan and I pushed some stray hair our of my face and then worked my way between her legs, leaving hot kisses along her body as I went. Her legs twitched a bit and tensed as I entered her with my tongue, my entire body flushed with a natural warmth like hers, holding my head in place gently she did not want me to stop. Her moans grew louder and thus I became more satisfied...

"You win...You win.." She panted with almost no breath in her. "You win..."

"What was that?" I teased as she let me up again. "What did you say?"

"Azula..." She panted as I snaked my way up to her face again and kissed her neck, letting my fingers do the work my tongue had done before. "You...You win..."

"I know." I grinned, kissing then biting her ear, which she giggled at.

"Azula..." Her soft voice seemed fainter than normal.

"Hmmm?"

"I love you..."

Both of us stared at one another breathing heavily with beads of sweat forming and sliding down our bodies. I moved the stray strands of hair out of her face and opened my mouth to reply but before I could get the chance...

Ty Lee

Something happened...something went incredibly wrong. Her door burst open, flames shooting everywhere. She quickly sat up and half covered in her own sheet she got into a fighting stance, but instead of immediately attacking her intruder, she stood there confused and almost frightened looked.

"Father?" She murmured before fading away into the smoke.

"Azula?" I got up and reached around for her. "Azula where are you?!"

I rushed out of the bed and tried to find her, but the smoke filled the room so quickly, I could feel it filling my lungs, the heat making me dizzy. As I felt my body begin to collapse a strong arm pulled me up by m neck and a deep voice hissed in my ear.

"You will not get in my way." He said, throwing me to the side.

"TY LEE!!" I could hear Azula crying from all over.

"Ty Lee! Get up! Wake up! TY LEE!" Her voice faded from one to the other, I could feel my chest being pounded on and I could no longer breathe.

Katara

She had stopped breathing in her sleep, there were bite marks all over her body that seemed to come from no where. Her clothes were ripped to shreds but by the time we all got there she was properly covered. Ty Lee, an inexperienced dream weaver nearly died in her first attempt at finding Azula. Suki sat above her on one side screaming for her to wake up while Aang was on the other side of her pumping air in and out of her chest.

"Ty Lee, wake up! TY LEE!"

"She's still not breathing on her own..." Aang almost panicked.

"Keep trying." Suki pleaded.

A few pumps and cries later, Ty Lee's eyes burst open, looking dry and red as she coughed loudly and hoarsely for a while. Suki patted her back and a puff of smoke was coughed up eaving us all very confused. We all stared at Ty Lee as her coughing finally calmed itself and her blood shot eyes watered a bit as she said in a croaky voice...

"Ozai...Ozai has her."