A/N: Thank you SO much for the awesome comments you all give me. Please keep them coming! Sorry to my younger readers, cause there's gonna be an f-word in this chapter but this story is rated T, and I just found the moment...appropriate. I couldn't word it any other way. So, don't worry, this isn't a super cussing story, but there will be words like that sometimes. Sorry it's short also, I'll try to make it longer next time. Hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

Song: "BAR-BA-SOL" (yes, it's spelled like that) by David Cook.

Why?: Well...there's really no specific reason, it's just a good rockin song. xD

Chapter Four: Choosing Sides

The Fire Lady soon caught up to the moving carriage and rode inside, accompanying her silently worrying son.

She lowered her hood and gave him a small smile. He tried to smile back. She saw it was forced.

"What's wrong Zuko?"

Everything. He wanted to say, but instead shook his head and looked out the window.

Ursa softly sighed and reached into her inner robes to take out the faded black and gray picture again. Zuko's eyes drifted to the scar-less face in the drawing.

"I've carried this picture with me ever since...well, a long time ago."

Sentimental tears shimmered in both of their eyes. Zuko swallowed his back and whispered in a rough, low voice,

"I've wondered...worried and thought of where you could have been...all these years...I was so alone Mother."

Her warm hand caressed his scarred cheek, "I know darling. I know. I'm so sorry. A second in my life hasn't gone by without me regretting having to leave you. But it was the only way."

Zuko simply nodded but another thought suddenly crossed his mind, "What about Azula?"

Ursa's sad face turned slightly panicked, "What about her?"

Zuko's eyebrows furrowed, puzzled that his mother never once mentioned her. He knew she favored him more but she never stopped loving her only daughter.

"Why...I mean, I know she can't leave the prison in her mental state but...have you even seen her?"

The Fire Lady gently dropped her hand and turned her face away from her son's expression-observing eyes, "I didn't have time. I have kept a lock of her beautiful hair with me also, along with your picture, but...I just can't save her Zuko."

Zuko never considered the relationship Azula had with their Mother. He always simply saw her as the evil annoying little sister that was always trying to get him into trouble and how Ursa had tried to punish and teach her. He now wondered though. Wondered why she couldn't try to save her only daughter. So, instead of wondering he asked,

"Why?"

Ursa slowly met Zuko's eyes, so similar to his father's, and replied simply,

"It is too late for her. I could only try to save one of you."

And right then, Zuko understood, just how much a mother could impact a child.

Azula wasn't born a cruel blood-thirsty monster. She was made one.

~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~

One drop.

A droplet of cool water splashed onto the dirty concrete with exaggerated slowness.

Two drop.

Everything stunk in this place. There were no windows, no pure breathing air. All you could smell was mildew and decay. She felt that out-of-body experience again. Like her body was there, but she was simply a visitor. She was looking, but could see or feel nothing.

...Three drop.

A covered tray was shoved in front of her and the glazed over curtain was lifted from her eyes. The former Fire Princess threw aside the cover and picked up a slimy piece of unknown meat. She examined it for a moment, then scowled and threw the meat away while shoving the tray back.

"You call this food? If I had my way with this fucked up Nation, I'd have beheaded whoever calls himself cook in this place."

The guard tending her at the moment, looked up and down at the well-worn figure that used to be the much feared and revered Fire Nation Princess. Now only traces of the old Azula remained, buried somewhere deep, when the meds the prison mixed into her mush weren't active. Parts of her former fiery and dictating personality would surface now and then, and she held a sort of regal nature despite the fact she was locked in a forgotten rat-hole and dressed in the lowliest of rags. Some of her beauty hadn't completely worn off though, through the greasy long black hair that covered most of her face, you could still see the fullness of her red lips...and the dangerous gold in her almond shaped eyes.

The guard made a mocking sound, for all he saw was the crazy weakness that had overpowered her mind. He pushed the tray back again and shut while locking the small sliding shelf.

"I'll make sure to file a former complaint your Highness."

He walked off, chuckling, while Azula watched with an evil glare. She eventually became hungry though, and obliged to the foul food. After she finished, she wiped her mouth with the back of her already dirty sleeve and leaned against the always cold wall and let the memories flood in.

Mostly she spent hours replaying the Agni Kai with her brother, but more than that, she would think about her father and the ghost she saw in the mirror of her long-lost traitorous mother. She could almost hear her words now...

No. I love you, Azula.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, vulnerable pain and anger etched deep within the cold gaze.

Liar.

Ursa's graceful yet sad face reflected back. - I do.

Though the voice wasn't real, Azula covered her ears and shut her eyes as she pulled her knees up and rocked back and forth.

Suddenly, screams were heard. Azula thought it was her own voice at first, but then another, louder, pain-filled scream filled the silence and Azula sat up, instantly curious. Feet ran, then stopped, and were followed by painful groans before a large limp noise vibrated on the floor.

This happened a few times before she heard just calm and casual footsteps approach. Closer...closer...and closer. Until they stopped.

Azula squeezed her golden eyes, trying to see past the wretched darkness. But she could only decipher a dark figure of medium stature.

"Who are you?!" Her voice both questioned and demanded.

The voice of who responded was sly and equally as demanding, stepping closer to the fire-proof bars with each word,

"Who are you? Where are you from? Why...are you doing this? All these questions that the lowly ask really have no meaning. Do they...Princess?"

Azula lifted her nose in the air and eyed the stranger with almost admiration,

"I suppose not..." she was about to say more when she caught a glimpse of his complexion, which was darker than a Water-bender's, yet not dark enough to match a moonless night sky. For some reason, Azula was perplexed with this.

"Princess..." his voice whispered. He was now closer than any of Azula's visitors dared be. And he was calling her by her royal station, her given birthright that no one could take away from her.

Azula was eating all this up like a hungry lost child and tentatively reached toward the bars until she was mere inches from the shadowed face. A fingertip grazed the side of the bar, and as quick as lightening, a tiny zap of power shot to her hand.

Azula hissed the same time she jumped back. She had forgotten these bars had recently been equipped to send electric shocks and put the abused finger in her mouth as she huddled in a corner, glancing every so often at the observing shadow. He finally broke the agitated silence.

"I have a mission for you Princess."

Azula perked up at this, but then narrowed her eyes hauntingly, "What's the catch?"

The mystery man couldn't help but chuckle, "You have not even thought to ask what the mission is before accepting it."

The former heir to the throne stopped sucking her finger and sat straighter.

"I do not need to ask a stranger who comes in the middle of the night, murdering my guards, but then refuses to give me his name, instead a face. And comes to me with a supposed mission which must be foul and against Zuzu or the government. I may be insane, but not stupid as many believe."

Then suddenly her brilliant eyes mist over. She whispers mysteriously,

"Though appearances can be deceiving..."

She glances back and forth between the figure and her hand.

"Indeed." The Shadow mumbles, and speaks his next choice words louder,

"This mission will only ask very little of you. To help put things back into proper balance. Say such as an eye for an eye, an arm for an arm, a heart...for a heart."

Azula blinked twice, uncomprehendingly. He sighed and took out the precious sapphire stone he'd been holding before, and dangled it just between the bars.

"Settle some unfinished business and you'll be free."

She crawled closer to the bars again, only this time she didn't put out her hand. Just gazed at the stone that was hanging from a simple thick piece of black lace. Something was so familiar about that necklace...but trying to remember seemed like trying to see through a dense fog.

"Do you accept?"

Everything started to seem like a dream. The meds they had given her earlier in the food were starting to take effect. Azula only nodded, putting all her focus in the intricate design on the inside of the stone, getting nothing but flashes of lightening in her memory.

The necklace was suddenly gone, and with it, the memories. She snapped out of her trance and into annoyance at the shadow face.

"Do you accept this mission?" He asked again, this time deadly serious.
Azula felt that hungry feeling again. As if she was starving, ravishing, for something she could not have. Something that was taken away from her, and she wanted it back. Oh...how she wanted it back.

Golden eyes snapped into their old focus, and the fiery Princess replied,

"Hell yes."

~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~

Hours later, the sun was finally rising, and Katara was the first to greet it with a bag slung over her shoulder and a frying pan in one hand as she loomed over Sokka and waited for him to wake up.

Half-asleep blue eyes slowly opened and Sokka screamed at the top of his lungs when he saw his little sister standing over him like that.

"Good morning Sokka." She actually managed a genuine smile.

"Katara! What the hell!?! You almost gave me heart attack! What were you planning on doing with that thing?"

He pulled the covers up to his nose and eyed the frying pan with fear. Katara set the pan on the his nightstand and shrugged, "Oh, that was only for if I needed to whack you sober."

The tribe warrior sat up and glared, "Wow, thanks for loving me so much."

"You're welcome. Now go get dressed, I have both of our bags ready and waiting."

Sokka sleepily nodded until he heard the word our and jumped out of bed with just his underpants on. Katara put a hand out to block her eyes as Sokka grabbed a pair of pants and hastily put them on.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on! Our meaning we meaning....us?!"

Katara blankly stared at him with a priceless look on her face. "Yes Sokka, that's usually the meaning."

He scratched his messy hairdo and Katara handed him a comb.

"Don't get smart Katara, you know what I mean! You told dad just a couple weeks ago how it was practically impossible for you to ever leave the Fire Nation at this time and now your just all up and rearin' to go!"

The Water-bender finally softened her eyes and voice, trying to make her brother sympathize and understand.

"Things...change, Sokka. The Fire Nation won't miss me much and I need to go back home for a little bit."

Sokka's expression instantly softened as well, as he started to get the hint, "Oh...ok. Um, is there something going on between you and Zuko?"

Katara felt her defenses rise for her love but held herself in and shook her head while looking away, "No. I just need to be home right now."

Sokka finally decided whatever his sister was hiding or going through was beyond him. So he let the issue drop and went off to finish dressing.

They left the house in half an hour and when they met their father at the air-ship port, Hakoda had a similar expression as Sokka when Katara explained her sudden interest in going back to the South Pole. But he accepted the change of plans graciously, happy to have his daughter come along, though deep in his heart he knew something was wrong to make her come back.

He didn't ask though, and as they all boarded the giant air-ship that would take them and several others to the southern-most Earth Kingdom town, where there, they would take a ship and travel by sea to the Southern Water Tribe, Katara stayed silent. Keeping her turmoiled thoughts to herself, knowing her father and brother cared but wouldn't understand.

She had to go to the source of the enemy. She had to do this alone.