It did not take much convincing for the Fire Lord to allow Azula to leave on another mission. Although Father did not demand this of her, there was nothing Azula wanted more in the world than to set things right. She'd gone against Father's orders, she'd placed her own good standing on the line, and lied to him for her brother's sake – and for what? Zuko repaid her by throwing her under the wheels and leaving without as little as a goodbye. She'd been a fool, through and through. All that was left was to pick up the broken pieces and salvage what little she could.

She had an idea of where Zuko might be and how she could lure him out. Of how she could bring him home – and this time, in chains. Of how she could make him pay for what he'd done to her, to Father, to Mai. To their country. Father had agreed readily enough, and given her an airship and half a dozen soldiers, and bid her, only, to return to him before Sozin's comet, so that they could become a legend together. Her heart bloomed at the invitation, and she promised to be back so that they could use that awe-some power in tandem.

Maybe she could still put an end to the Avatar before then. Maybe they could still make Father's vision of bringing forth a Fire Avatar a reality. Azula wanted nothing more than to please him, and so although she set out, once again, with her primary goal being Zuko's capture – she hoped dearly to exterminate the Avatar on the way.

Mai insisted on tagging along. She claimed she had a lot of words to exchange with Zuko, and Azula didn't blame her one bit. And though Ty Lee hadn't seemed particularly invested in this mission itself, she'd volunteered eagerly enough when she found out about it, claiming that "he deserves it for stomping on Mai's heart like that". Obviously, she took Suyin with her as well, and setting out with their little group like this once again felt very much like their adventure just half a year ago.

She allowed Su to cling to her arm as they boarded the airship and as it lifted up into their air. The poor girl was shaking, evidently never having been off the ground before, and Azula had to admit it was a little amusing. She herself had only been on an airship a handful of times before, but what sort of princess would she be if she allowed a little height to scare her?

The airship was small; much smaller than her seaship had been. There was just enough room in the barracks for the half dozen men Father gave her, plus Captain Sato who piloted the thing. As for Azula and her friends, they had a meagre two rooms between the four of them, which had initially been a bother, but ultimately Azula decided it suited her just fine. Mai and Ty Lee had no qualms about sharing a bedroom, and she let Suyin stay with her, rather than banishing her to a broom closet. She even had an excuse at the ready, for why she let her handmaid do such an intimate thing, but no one challenged her decision at all, and the excuse went un-said.

"Is it just me, or does the captain look kind of like – oh, what was her name again? That girl we went to school with, you know, with that gross skin condition? She dropped out after our wilderness trip?" Ty Lee mused later that night as they sat down to eat dinner together.

They were sitting cross-legged on the floor of Azula's room, all four of them. Suyin had received and brought in the dinner trays from the men on cooking duty – a plain soldier's meal, of course – and now took to pouring them all tea. Azula picked up her bowl and split the egg yolk neatly with her chopsticks, letting it drip onto the steamed rice beneath it before she made a move to eat any.

The other girls, respectfully, didn't begin to eat or even pick up their bowls until Azula had taken her first bite. Suyin waited until Mai and Ty Lee had done so. Truthfully, she'd quickly gotten used to the food back at the palace, rich and hearty, and missed it now. But their journey wouldn't be long; she wouldn't have to deal with these simple meals for long. Air travel really was a marvel; they would conquer in one day as many miles as a seaship would have in a week.

"Sato Yukari," Azula, who never forgot a name and who had done a thorough background search of every officer with whom she worked, nodded. "Very observant, Ty Lee. Captain Sato is her cousin."

Ty Lee clapped her hands, "That's right! Yucky Yukari! Whatever happened to her? I like, haven't thought about her in ages!"

"She moved to Hichasi," Azula said. "Supposedly to take care of her dying aunt, but I think we all know what really happened."

"Right, right," Ty Lee agreed.

For half a moment, the silence hung between them, disturbed only by the soft sound of chewing and the muffled engine noises belonging to the airship itself. And then, quietly, Suyin piped up with a question.

"...What happened?"

Azula shrugged, "She dropped out, is all. You must understand that the Royal Fire Academy for Girls is a very prestigious and intensely rigorous program. It's not for just any noble girl – she has to prove herself. It's certainly not for girls who cry at the mere thought of sleeping in the woods."

"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot about that! She did that, didn't she? Mai, remember that?" Ty Lee gasped and playfully grabbed Mai by the arm, who flinched at the contact.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. That happened," Mai mumbled in agreement.

She picked at her food, eating a single grain of rice at a time. If it was at all possible, she seemed more apathetic than usual. Or – no. Not apathetic. Distracted? Azula could hardly blame her for that; she felt much the same. Only Ty Lee seemed to be in good spirits, and, having not found any enthusiasm in Mai, turned her sights to Suyin, eyes twinkling and brimming with excitement at the chance to tell a story to the uninitiated.

"So one of our exams, way back then, was to spend a day and night in the forest on our own, I mean, in groups of four, but with no adults. We set up our tents and stuff, and Mai even shot down a, a bird of some kind for dinner, I don't remember what exactly. But Yucky couldn't get her tent to stay up, so we told her she had to sleep without one, and oh, she just started bawling! Claimed she could hear a snake-boar around our camp and she begged us to let her into our tents. It was, like, so funny."

"Oh… you couldn't help each other?" Suyin asked.

"Well now, Su-su," Ty Lee gave her a deliberate, overly sweet smile, "That would kind of go against the point of the exercise, don't you think?"

"Oh," Su blushed and looked down at her tea cup, "Yes, I suppose so."

"How would she ever learn it herself if it was just handed to her like that?" Ty Lee continued, "I mean, long-term, we were helping her. Besides, it was all in good fun!"

Azula hadn't thought about that day in a long time. They must have been around nine years old at that point, and she remembered the excitement that came with this exam, with the bit of freedom with her friends, with the chance to prove herself capable. She remembered telling Father all about it the day after, how she'd returned aglow with her pride and how Yukari had come home a failure. She remembered how he'd fondly stroked her hair and told her she did a good job. She remembered telling Zuko he wouldn't have been able to keep the fire going all night, as she had. That he was lucky he was schooled at the palace with private tutors; that he'd never have made it in a real school.

They'd brawled after that, of course, pulling hair and biting arms, the scent of singed hair enveloping them both. There was no Mother for Zuko to run to to hide behind her skirts. There was no Mother to scold her for her words. No Mother to praise her for her accomplishment. But Father had been proud of her, and that was all that mattered.

"Anyway, she dropped out a few weeks after that," Ty Lee was saying, which snapped Azula out of her thoughts and back to the conversation at hand.

"No wonder," Azula added, rather seamlessly joining in on the conversation, "She wasn't cut out for the academy at all."

"Such a shame… She was actually kind of clever, remember? She'd do my assignments for me sometimes. Such a sweetheart! Yes, we really were the best of friends!" Ty Lee sighed wistfully, nevermind that she hadn't even remembered Yukari's name until Azula had brought it up. Nevermind that they'd made fun of her both behind her back and to her face. Nevermind that they were all glad to see her go.

"Well, I'm glad she flunked out. Can you imagine her being here right now, with us?" Mai finally added, scrunching up her nose.

Azula laughed.

"Oh ewww!" Ty Lee shrieked with laughter. "Su, if you had to do her hair, you'd die. Like, the skin on her scalp was also all weird and flaky and it was so gross. Azula, tell me you wouldn't make Su do her hair! Right?"

"Of course not!" Azula retorted, trying to hide her snigger in faux exasperation. "The last thing I, or any of us, need is to catch what nasty condition she has."

Though she said that, she knew very well that Yukari's mild condition wasn't contagious. But the conversation was fun, and the laughter carried itself and put her into a wonderful mood, and even Suyin, though not laughing along, was smiling. Like this, surrounded by her friends, Azula could almost forget just what terrible thing they were set out to do.

"Princess Azula, it's an honour to receive you," Warden Wei-kuo bowed deeply as she and her friends stepped off of the gondola at the Boiling Rock.

He got up once Azula gave him a nod and motioned him up with a gesture of the hand. Only then did he raise his head and look at his niece, whom he greeted warmly, albeit without a hug.

"Where is she?" Azula asked in lieu of her own greeting.

"I took the liberty of preparing the prisoner you requested," the warden said as he began to head into the prison building, motioning for the girls to follow in after him, "She's ready for you."

Azula nodded. Good, then, they wouldn't have to waste time looking for her amongst so many prisoners. Though, she supposed, it probably wasn't too difficult to find a teenage girl amongst all the brutes in the Boiling Rock.

They followed in after the warden, walking through the long, menacing halls of the prison. For all the talk of its abhorrence, it didn't look as bad as Azula had imagined. It was impossibly hot; the heat from the boiling lake hung in the air and trapped itself in the stone walls of the building. The prisoners were all wearing loose-fitting linen uniforms, but Azula, dressed in two layers of royal garb and her heavy armour, was sweating. It reminded her of the throne room, with its roaring pyre as she knelt before her father. She was no stranger to heat, though, and so even as she felt a drop of sweat run down her back, she could ignore it well enough. Conditions like these weren't worth fussing over.

The warden led her to a single cell. They were joined by soldiers on either side, and Azula held up her hand to her companions, indicating for them to wait outside, to let her speak to the prisoner alone, before entering the cell. There, sitting on a sad, lumpy cot in those awful cramped quarters was the Kyoshi Warrior: Suki.

Her eyes widened as they fell upon her, and then narrowed, "You– I should have guessed."

"What?" Azula drawled pleasantly enough, "Not happy to see me?"

"What do you want with me?"

Suki made no attempt to hide her contempt, speaking each word with a sharp, wary edge. Again to her surprise, the prisoner's condition was nowhere near as abysmal as Azula had expected it to be. The girl was thinner than she had last seen her, evidently having lost weight on the prison's poor diet, but that aside, she looked entirely unharmed. For a reason Azula wouldn't dare admit aloud – she was glad of it.

"Now, don't make such a sour expression. I daresay you'll be happy with my proposition – we can help each other, you see."

Suki pressed her lips into a thin line. Clearly, she didn't believe Azula's words at all, no matter that she was being sincere – or, at least, mostly sincere.

"I'm not "helping" you with anything."

"Really? Don't you want to see your boyfriend again?"

That got her attention, clearly. Her eyes widened, and Azula saw the little breath that hitched in her throat and threw her, just minimally, off-balance.

"Where's Sokka?"

"He should be here soon," Azula said, "We'll wait for him, and I'll hand you over."

Suki narrowed her eyes, "What's the catch?"

"Catch? I'd hardly call it a catch. But I would expect something in return for a prisoner… Or rather, someone."

"He's not going to hand over the Avatar for me," Suki spat. "I won't let him."

"Oh, I know. But I'm sure he'll have no qualms returning to me my brother?"

Suki fell silent for a moment, but then regained her icy tone, "I don't know what you're plotting, but I have no desire to be a part of it."

"Oh, please," she said, "we have more in common than you might think. I believe we can strike a quite amicable bargain here."

But before Suki could respond in one way or another, a knock resounded on the door. A guard spoke up without waiting for Azula's permission.

His voice slightly muffled through the thick metal door, "Princess, forgive the interruption, but there's been– something's happened."

Azula scowled. Really, what could possibly warrant interrupting right this very moment? She had half the mind to tell him off, but hopefully – if he had a semblance of sense to him – there was a good reason for this after all.

"Think it over," she told Suki as she turned to take her leave. The door shut behind her with a heavy click, leaving the girl, once again, alone.

The "something" in question turned out to be Zuko – or more precisely, his capture. It was laughable, really. There was no need for a hostage exchange after all; her fool of a brother had waltzed into the prison with that Water Tribe peasant all on his own, and gotten captured at that. Not a surprise, by any means, for Azula meant to lure them into the Boiling Rock after all, but she hadn't expected them to show up quite so soon. It was stupid of him to get caught, embarrassing, almost – but it made Azula's life that much easier.

"Didn't think you'd see me quite so soon, did you, brother?" Azula drawled, spitting venom at the last word.

He jumped at her voice, as much as he could, anyway, tied to a chair. His scarred left eye was swollen with the promise of an oncoming bruise, but other than that, he looked unharmed, if not dishevelled. He'd been a traitor for a meagre few weeks, and already he'd lost all sense of his royal elegance. Already he looked like a street-rat. At least he had the decency to not wear his hair in a topknot.

He whispered her name, for some reason, rather than shouting it as she'd expected. There was, she realised, a twinkle of hope in his swollen eye.

"You found me," he said, and there was no accusation in his voice.

"It wasn't difficult with you stumbling about the place."

"So…?" There it was again, that flicker of hope – but what about?

"So?" she repeated.

"You've made up your mind?"

"Oh," Azula laughed in bewilderment – or an attempt to mask her bitterness. The audacity! What was he hoping for? That she'd let him go? "Almost. I'm only torn between taking you back alive, or ending this sorry farce once and for all."

For a moment, there was silence. His voice was soft when he again spoke, "I thought you'd understand."

"I thought you wanted to prove yourself honourable," Azula shot back. She could almost hide the quiver in her voice, "I guess we both thought wrong."

The anger – the despair – swelled within her like a wild beast fighting its chains. Should she attempt to control it, to reign it in, she knew she would lose control of it entirely. She couldn't bear to look at him anymore. She couldn't bear to be in the same room as him. Her throat ached in its constriction and she was afraid that if she thought about it too much, she would cry. With nothing else to do to keep her honour, she turned on her heel and left that dreary cell, taking her last words with her.

Zuko could have called out to her. (He didn't.) He could have still begged her for mercy. (He didn't.) He could have still offered up something – anything – to paint himself innocent, to ask her for understanding. But he didn't, and Azula was left with her own words echoing in her head and their bitter taste on her tongue. The guards shut the door closed after her.

"Shall we prepare the prisoner for transport, princess?" One of them asked.

Azula pinched the bridge of her nose. She took in a deep breath and then said wearily, "Not yet."

She'd promised Mai a chance to speak with him privately before their departure. Let them have their moment. It wasn't enough, but at this point, it was the only thing she could give her.

There was nothing to do now but wait. Mai and Zuko would talk for a little while, and then the guards would prepare him for transport, and then they'd be off to Caldera City once again. Azula was not at all interested in a tour of the prison, but she was eager to get her mind off of her brother, and so when the warden offered that some of the soldiers show her around, she accepted readily enough, taking Ty Lee with her.

It really was a boorish place, and Azula couldn't wait to get out of here. The heat was beginning to take a toll on her; her undergarments were wet with sweat, and the stray hairs that didn't quite make it up to her topknot clung to the back of her neck. When the warden showed them the Coolers, the burst of cold air was like a welcome spring breeze. To stay in one of those for an extended period of time was a torture Azula hadn't ever considered before, but a few seconds of that cool air were refreshing.

"Whose invention is this?" Azula asked for the sake of saying something, only half-interested.

The soldier – a senior guard directly subservient to the warden, it seemed – took her words as proof of her interest and started on a long spiel about how the warden had come up with the idea and how his brother-in-law had implemented it. Azula listened with polite interest, but the words came in through one ear and out the other. She really couldn't bother with this. She wanted to leave this wretched place and be on their way home already. Where was Mai? What was taking her so long?

They were halfway through the physical labour department, the soldier telling them about how they put their human assets to work refining metals for the war effort, when all the sudden an alarm blared to life. It was deafening, consuming the building with its shriek, and it took all of Azula's self control to not cover her ears with her hands. She didn't quite manage to hide her wince.

"What's going on?" Azula demanded, eyes narrowed, heart racing.

"I, uh, I don't know–" their useless guide stuttered.

Just like that, the prison came to life, guards shouting, running about. In the midst of the chaos, Azula heard someone say, the warden!

"Let's go," Azula said with a pressing glance at Ty Lee.

She wasn't about to stick around and wait for an explanation; it would be faster to find out on her own what had happened. Her friend didn't need any urging, and together they pushed their way out of the building and towards the prison's courtyard. She could only assume their guide was following them; she didn't look back at him to make sure. It didn't matter either way.

Whatever Azula had been expecting – it wasn't this. Wasn't this supposed to be the Fire Nation's most secure prison? Didn't it pride itself on being inescapable? What then, exactly, was the meaning of the scene unfolding before them? It was absolute chaos. A prison riot. And there, moving slowly above the boiling lake and away from them – a gondola. Azula didn't need to see its occupants through those murky windows to know who was making the daring escape, and her blood boiled.

"Ty Lee!" she called, but her friend didn't need any commands; she knew exactly what to do.

They moved in tandem, running to the edge of the stone platform, nimbly avoiding the useless soldiers who stood so dumbly in their way. There was no time to think. In one moment, they were up in the air – Ty Lee running on the gondola wire and Azula propelling herself on it with fire bursting from her feet. She'd snatched a pair of handcuffs on the way and attached herself to the wire to facilitate her move. There was no way she was letting Zuko get away.

It only took a moment: they were upon the gondola before it was even half-way across the lake. Of course she'd been expecting them to fight back. They were met with not only her traitorous brother, but also that Water Tribe peasant and Suki, still agile even in her malnourishment. She could see the Warden tied up in the gondola, as well as a prisoner she didn't recognise, but those could be dealt with later. Right now, all she had to focus on was the fight.

Oh, but this really was the worst possible setting. Even with Ty Lee on her side, they were outnumbered, and though she was quick, so were her enemies. A punch and a kick and a dodge, dodge, punch, dodge. All the while the lake bubbled beneath them, steaming heat even with them so far above it. One wrong move would send her tumbling off of the gondola and to a gruesome death. It wasn't just a matter of avoiding attacks, but of her own balance, and, of course, of remaining on the offensive as to stop them from escaping–

"Cut the lines!" Warden Wei-kuo cried out.

A moment of nothing – and then the gondola began to rock back and forth with the motions of sawing. Azula snapped her head back to look at the prison platform in disbelief. It was one thing to follow the warden's orders and to sacrifice him for the sake of keeping prisoners from escaping – and another entirely to be willing to lose the princess of the Fire Nation in the same manner. But the guards continued like mindless beasts, and if Azula dawdled for too long, she would meet a miserable end along with her brother.

Still the fight raged on. Between dodging Suki's attacks and keeping her balance on the ever increasingly unstable gondola, she barely had a moment to look away, but – aha, there! A rushed moment of judgement, and Azula guessed she could make it safely onto the other line. There was no other option – she had to make it.

"Ty Lee, retreat!" Azula ordered – just in case.

She couldn't afford to lose her friend in this confrontation. Had it been anyone else, she would have worried they wouldn't be able to make it back, but Ty Lee leapt gracefully to the other line, and Azula followed after her, propelled by her fire.

Her heart squeezed in her chest. Even though her brother was a traitor, this really was a pitiful death. Boiled alive in a prison lake. She'd long since made up her mind to eliminate Zuko as a threat, but in all honesty, she'd hoped to bring him back in chains rather than in pieces. Or, well, after such a ghastly end, she supposed there wouldn't even be any pieces to bring back, unless they managed to fish his bleached bones out of the boiling water. But he'd made his choices; he'd turned his back on them, on their nation, on everything. He had no one to blame for this sorry end but himself, and Azula could do nothing more than suffocate her feelings.

The least she could do was watch as the gondola plummeted into the bubbling lake. It wasn't an honourable end; it couldn't even be called an execution. But she'd award him with what show of respect she could: to witness the end she herself had ordered for him.

And then, all at once, the trembling of the wire stopped. The sawing of it stopped, and as Azula turned her head to the stone platform, so did her heart.

There, wild and panting, stood Mai.

She couldn't afford to be relieved that she was back on solid ground as she stared Mai down. The last she'd seen her was when she passed her by to allow her to speak to Zuko, and after that she'd been gone, supposedly lost somewhere in the prison after Zuko's escape. Had she been the one to free him-? Was that what all this was about? Wanting to come along with Azula to the Boiling Rock, wanting to speak to her brother in private – all this time, had she been plotting behind her back on how to save him?

"What is the meaning of this?" Azula spat.

The gondolas started up again, moving slowly – safely – above the lake. Taking away Zuko and that Water Tribe peasant. Suki. Mai's uncle. It docked at the prison's outside ring, and though Azula didn't look back at them – she knew they'd escaped. They'd be fools to wait around.

The guards Mai had so neatly immobilised had once again freed themselves, and they grasped Mai by the shoulders. Azula waved them off, urging them to step back and give them some room. They listened to her, of course, but even so, they'd only stepped away enough to watch from a small distance. There were half a hundred Fire Nation soldiers observing them, bearing witness to their deeds, listening to what they were saying.

Say you did it to save me! Azula wanted to scream at her. To save Ty Lee. Your uncle. Even if it's a lie! Anyone but him-!

But Mai was impassive. She stood proud and tall, and if she were at all afraid, at all regretful – she did not show it. The least she could do was to act humble, torn in her decision, to show even a hint of uncertainty! Even if she did not mean it. But Mai was a stone and did not as much as quiver before Azula, much less throw herself to her knees before her to beg forgiveness.

"He's a traitor," Mai said evenly, "and a jerk. But I will not let him die. Not like this."

Never in her life had Azula thought Mai was capable of being so incredibly stupid. To admit her treachery in front of her and half a hundred onlookers– the stone was cast. The bridge was burned. There was no taking it back anymore.

"What I don't understand is why. You know the consequences," Azula said slowly, making a real effort to keep her voice steady.

Mai swallowed. She'd gotten so much more difficult to read over the past few years. In their childhood, Azula had always known what she was thinking, but now she had no idea what was going through her head at all. Maybe– maybe she never had?

"I guess you don't really know people as well as you think you do," Mai said. Her voice was level, but each word was inflicted, as sharp as her knives, deliberately meaning to cut and wound. "I love Zuko more than I fear you."

A knife to the heart.

"You're wrong! You should've feared me more!" The words tumbled from Azula's lips before she'd even had the chance to process. Her hand was already at her hip, drawing out a sliver of lightning, the very air crackling with power.

Mai wanted a fight? Oh, she'd give her a fight.

She saw Mai move to draw out her knives again, and then– a shock to her side. Pain bloomed in her flank and, all at once, she felt her limbs give way, and she crumpled to the ground like an unloved, discarded doll. It took her a moment to realise what had happened – what had actually happened. But there was only one person capable of incapacitating her like this, and she didn't even spare Azula a single word, but ran to grasp Mai's hand instead.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Ty Lee urged.

Azula could only watch her so-called friends from the ground, absolutely seething with fire in every nerve of her body. Had the anger left any room for shame, she would have been mortified as two soldiers grabbed her by the armpits and raised her off the ground and to her feet like a baby animal. Another group grabbed her friends and asked what should be done to them. Nevermind saving Zuko, nevermind directly turning against Fire Nation soldiers. They had attacked the Fire Nation princess. The price for such treason was severe, and they had to have known it. They'd forced her hand, and yet, even in her infinite anger, Azula would not– could not possibly order their execution.

"Throw them in prison so that I never have to see their faces again," Azula spat, "and let them rot!"

Azula did not want to imagine how ridiculous she looked as she walked to the gondola. Her arms and legs felt like jelly, completely out of her control. She'd regained enough of her nerves to be able to walk without any help, but the effects of chi-blocking still lingered. The warden insisted she stay in his office until she was all better, but Azula couldn't stand being there any longer than she needed to. She didn't want to spend any more time in this blasted prison where so much of her life had come to pieces. Where her friends had abandoned her. And though the warden offered – Azula knew he did it out of obligation, not kindness. Surely he had no kind intentions towards her for imprisoning his niece. Surely he wanted her out of his sight just as well.

But what else was she supposed to have done? Azula had warned her against it – but Mai made her choice, knowing the consequences. She'd assaulted Azula. Siding with Zuko meant siding against the Fire Nation. There was no coming back from that: Mai was a traitor. And what awaited traitors was death. She knew that. Mai knew that. Zuko knew that.

He knew that, and yet he had barely given her a backwards glance. He left her in the Boiling Rock as he escaped. Mai risked her life for him, saved him from certain death, and he ran off with his new friends.

What a dick.

Even in her anger, she knew she couldn't sentence her for death. Not for this. Not for her traitor of a brother who only claimed to love her. She couldn't allow Mai to die for him. She couldn't allow Ty Lee to die for her, either. Even with her every nerve screaming, even with an anger consuming her like an internal pyre, she did not want them to die.

Imprisonment was not much better. But it was something. At least it was not death. It was the only thing Azula could do for them. The last thing she would ever do for them.

She entered the gondola alone.

It was much too big for one person. It had even been much too big for the three of them, just hours ago, when they'd come here. The ride was long and lonely, but at least it gave her time to recuperate. Her joints felt like butter. Her fingertips still tingled with that painful numbness. She was glad for the seat, and took what rest she could, leaning her head back against the window. Hopefully, she'd be in better shape by the time the gondola stopped. Hopefully, Su wouldn't see her in this pathetic state. Already she shied away from the thought of having to tell her what occurred. Obviously, she'd ask why she returned alone, and Azula would have to tell her that Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her. She could already imagine Su's face contorting into that expression she made whenever she felt sorry for her, her lips tight, her eyebrows furrowed. It was embarrassing. Humiliating. She didn't want comfort; she wanted time to turn back. She wanted everything to be right again. Baring that – she wanted vengeance.

Maybe Su would open her arms and pull Azula in against her breast. Maybe that would make things better. But she doubted it. Nothing could make this better, not really. Her brother left her. Her friends left her. There was hardly anyone else. Just Su. Just her father.

The gondola came to a stop and Azula carefully rose to her feet, testing out her legs. Good; her strength was returning. It still felt so peculiarly odd, like she had to remember how to walk, like this body wasn't quite hers, but it was good enough. She could manage like this. There was a long, rocky climb down awaiting her, and the last thing she wanted was to make a fool of herself and to trip on the way down the stairs, in front of her crew, in front of Su. But as she stepped out carefully onto the rocks, she found that she could manage well enough if she went a little slowly.

"Princess!" Captain Sato's voice reverberated against the cliff's walls.

She wasn't in any mood to call out to him in return. She didn't have the strength to rush down the stairs, either, and took her time with the descent. To hell with Sato – she wasn't about to come running at his command. He, at least, did the decent thing and began a frantic rush up the stairs to meet her halfway. Slowly, the cliffs parted, and she could look down at the little rocky shore where they had docked.

Her airship was gone.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Captain Sato, at least, looked rightfully ashamed, flushed and breathless. He couldn't look her in the eye,"We were ambushed, princess, and overpowered. The prince stole the airship. I'm terribly sorry for my failure–"

"You couldn't fight off three teenagers?"

"Three teenagers and an adult firebender, princess," the captain added, as though that made anything better, "They were very powerful. But–"

"Useless," Azula spat.

"I'm afraid that's not all," Captain Sato said, and his tone was not at all encouraging. It was lilted, as if he were preparing himself for a blow, as if he were preparing, in advance, to flinch. "They– they took Miss Liu with them."

"What?"

"They left a message– a demand, rather. They will return her, three days from now, on Mount Huanma, in exchange for a prisoner: Hakoda of the Water Tribes."