One thing Azula prided herself on in the group was her medical knowledge. Five years of living with a village healer had taught her a thing or two and, though she wasn't always the best at administering treatment, she was better than the boys. What she was good at was identifying problems, be it illness or injury she knew what symptoms came with what and how to handle it. So although she knew how to recognize pregnancy she didn't think she'd ever need the knowledge considering they moved around and no girl ever stayed long enough, and she didn't plan on having children, well things don't always go as planned. Hariko and her were twenty-five when they finally started dating, and after a month of listening to the others claim that it was about time, things were nice. They stayed together for two years, because twenty-seven was when he walked out.

She had been sick almost every morning for a month, and began fearing what she later confirmed as reality by day three. She also tired easier and when she completely missed two periods she drew the line and accepted her fate, she was about to become one failure of a mother.

It was late at night; ironically Zhang was teasing her about how she had been going to bed early recently as they all sat around their campfire. She sat with her knees drawn to her chest, her arms folded atop her knees and her head buried. Considering she could normally take Zhang's insults and often would throw some back at him, whereas tonight she just looked as though she could be crying, Xiao took pity on her and shut his best friend up.

"Go easy on her Zhang, she's still not feeling great" he said and Jong chuckled.

"You ever figure out what you ate to make you this sick Azula? Must have been pretty rotten" He remarked but Azula only groaned.

"I didn't eat anything," she mumbled, figuring she had to tell them sooner or later.

"No kidding, you've hardly touched any food since you got sick." Xiao remarked and Azula groaned again, albeit quieter, upon the realization that she was definitely going to have to start eating again despite how little she could keep down.

"Yeah, and jobs are getting really difficult with both you and Hariko sitting out." Jong pointed out and although the guys couldn't see it, Azula rolled her eyes. Since leaving the village the group had become more than fighters, as fight rings were starting to close down, these days they were more bandits than anything.

Azula liked this life better than fighting, there were less chances of someone dying and she was a lot more useful. But lately she had been sitting out because too much running caused her to either faint or throw up, then Hariko faked some kind of illness himself to watch after her. It was sweet but at the same time really annoying.

"That's not either of our faults" Hariko nearly shouted at his brother.

"Yes it is" Azula muttered, she felt all eyes on her and for the first time that night she finally looked up. "It's both our faults," she continued, rubbing her eyes as they adjusted to the light of the fire.

"What you knew your food was poison?" Xiao asked, half sarcastic and half serious.

Azula narrowed her eyes at him in frustration but tried not to get too angry, she had learned a long time ago that her friends, boyfriend included, were all idiots.

"No stupid" she said before once again burying her face in her folded arms and mumbling something that was incoherent to the boys.

"What?" Lee asked and she mumbled again

"Still can't hear you" Zhang informed her, she mumbled again.

"For god sake Azula, speak up!" Jong shouted in frustration and for once Azula's own frustration matched his.

She whipped her head up and looked at her friends with a death glare, it was so sudden that even Jong leaned back a little in surprise.

"I said I'm pregnant!" She shouted, for a moment the entire world froze.

The look on each of the guy's faces was a look of total shock; some of them were paler than others, and no one paid any attention to it when Hariko fell over backwards and into unconsciousness.

Lee was the first to recover from the news "You're joking" it was more of a statement than a question; he truly didn't believe she was serious.

"Do I look like I'm joking to you?" She practically growled at her scrawny friend. He gave her a barely noticeable shake of his head as reality settled itself into his brain.

After another few seconds everyone, one by one, turned to Jong. He had warned her about this when she and Hariko first started dating and now they were just daring him to follow through on his promise, to kick Azula out.

"Somebody wake up Hariko so I can kill him" Jong finally growled

"Jong, what about-" Xiao started but Jong stared daggers into his eyes as he cut him off.

"It doesn't matter, just wake my moron of a brother so I can put him out of his misery!" He shouted angrily while getting to his feet.

"Don't you dare" a weak voice interrupted and all eyes turned to Hariko, groggily rising off the ground and despite his obviously spinning head, his unfocused eyes held a fierce determination.

"Leave if you want, but I'm staying with Azula." He promised and Azula looked at him in surprise.

Jong thought for a moment and everyone held their breath, but finally he locked eyes with his brother.

"Good luck" he said and with that he left, and one by one all but Azula and Hariko followed.

Azula rode back to Republic City with Sokka and Toph, and below the deck in a holding cell were her old friends. One staircase divided her old and new life. She was leaning over the side of the boat, her arms resting on the railing as she stared down into the ocean. It was quiet and she was grateful for that, she needed to think. But of course all good things come to an end and who better to bring about that end than Sokka.

"Hey" he said as he approached her

"Hi" she said, mimicking their meeting from the day before.

"It'll be dark by the time we get home" he informed her but she only shrugged in response.

"Good, maybe that way I won't be able to see the water." She commented

"You got something against water?" Sokka questioned, sounding almost offended by the idea.

Azula shifted her gaze from the ocean below her out onto the horizon and gave a sigh.

"Not particularly, it's the boats I can't stand. Spending hours at a time in the same place and seeing nothing but the same blue ocean below. At least when I was younger I could practice my firebending to pass the time, now all I can do is stand here." She told him and she almost regretted it when he sighed.

"Azula-" he started but she cut him off

"Please don't tell me it wasn't my fault," she practically begged, she didn't want him to accidently ruin yesterday.

"I wasn't going to," he said, taking her by surprise. "I was just going to ask you, do you think Bao would've wanted you to stop bending?" He asked and honestly Azula didn't know the answer. "What was he like?" Sokka asked

"He was, the sweetest little boy I have ever met" Azula answered "He was curious about everything, I think that's why he stuck around me. He was limited to that little village, to Rafela's old stories and Cara's familiar games. But I could tell him about the Earth Kingdom, about his own heritage. He liked to hear about the Fire Nation too, and the Avatar, and anyone else I ever knew. But mostly I told him where he was from. About Ba Sing Se and the smaller Earth Kingdom villages I had been to. He loved to hear about the Earth Kingdom soldiers, and I glorified them as much as I could because I knew his father was one, and after awhile I accepted that they were the heroes of the war. He loved to watch me bend and practice his earthbending, he said one day he was going to be as good and earthbender as I was a firebender" she recounted and Sokka smiled.

"He was one ambitious kid" he commented

"Yeah well keep in mind that at the time my bending was weakened and I was about as good as Zuko when he was ten" she snapped.

"Why was your bending weakened?" Sokka asked but Azula only shrugged.

"Rafela said it was something to do with my anger, the fact that I didn't have it anymore. I don't know; it was practically gone for about a year after I ran away then I slowly came back the more I paid attention to Cara's spiritual talk." She explained, not expecting at all for Sokka to understand but to her surprise his face practically lit up.

"That happened to Zuko when he joined us" he exclaimed, apparently happy to have made this revelation.

"Really? How'd he get back to his full power so fast?" Azula asked, she had been a prodigy and it still took her five years to be back to what she used to be, how did Zuko do it in less than a month?

"He found an extinct tribe of Sun Warriors and their dragons taught him a dance" Sokka answered simply. Azula just turned back to the water; she didn't even want to know.

"Excuse me" a gruff voice interrupted, not that there was anything to interrupt. It was one of the palace guards, a few them had decided to make the trip to the city to help with the four criminals below deck. "One of the prisoners is requesting to speak with you," he said, directing his attention towards Azula.

"Tell him I'm not interested" Azula ordered, no way was she letting Jong make any more threats.

"He says it's important, he told me to tell you its Lee." The guard continued and this time Azula considered it.

"Azula you don't owe those guys anything," Sokka told her, as if warning her not to go.

"I know, but out of all of them I think Lee is the only one actually capable of feeling guilt." She said, she was curious about what Lee of all people had to say to her, so she went.

Below the deck was dark and slightly damp, but the lantern in the corner made it easy to see the five holding cells built into the ship, four of which were occupied. Three of the prisoners were sleeping soundly, waiting to wake up in a new prison. But Lee was awake.

"You actually came," he said in slight amazement

"Well ever since Jong forced me into your little plan you've been the only one who didn't treat me like a trader, and back in the day you were nice to me, so I figure you deserve this much." Azula replied.

"It's about Hariko" when he said that Azula gritted her teeth, she still hated that coward.

"Azula listen to me, he wasn't a coward and he didn't want to leave you." Lee pleaded but Azula was stubborn.

"Maybe not in that moment, but a couple hours after you all left his reality set in and he walked out." She told Lee

"And we found his body before the sun even came up" a gravely voice said from behind Azula. The words shocked her, but what shocked her more was the expression Jong wore on his face. It was hard and serious, but completely truthful.

"Our mom may have died after giving birth to Hariko, but at least she went right then and there. Hariko was born with a weak heart; doctors told us he'd be lucky if he lived until fifteen. That's why it took him so long to ask you out princess, he had a thing for you from the moment he met you but he knew that he could go suddenly, that he was already living on barrowed time, and he didn't want to hurt you like that. When it had been ten years since he was supposed to die and still the worst things ever got were he had chest pains if he ran too much, just like all his life, he thought maybe he was safe and he asked you out. But around the time you got pregnant things started getting worse for him, the pain was more frequent and it was worse, he was dying." Jong confessed almost bitterly.

"But he said-" Azula started but Jong, calmly, cut her off.

"He only said he was faking so you wouldn't worry. He was still hoping that he could beat it. That's why I wanted to kill him that night you said you were pregnant, he knew he was dying but he didn't want admit it, and because of that a kid was about to grow up without a father. Sure enough his heart gave out that night" Jong confessed.

Azula wanted to accuse him of lying, but she had never in her life seen his face so honest.

"Why didn't-" she started but Jong knew what she was about to say and answered her.

"You had enough to deal with. You were alone and a few months away from having a baby. It's easier to get over a coward leaving than a loyal man dying" he told her, "I'll admit that we shouldn't have left you, even I know that we were all you had. But just ask Lee, I was wreck after Hariko died and the last thing you needed was to be around that." He told her and she turned to Lee, who nodded. "But Lee' s right, that's all history now and you deserve to know" Jong continued, when Azula turned back to him he was staring at the floor of his cell.

"You were bluffing weren't you?" She asked, although she already knew the answer.

"That little girl is the only thing left of my brother, the only way I would touch her is if I was holding her." He confirmed and Azula smiled, though she wasn't sure she'd ever let Jong close enough to Mika to lay a hand on her, even after this.

"I wasn't bluffing about the plan though, we really were out to murder your brother." He added quickly, as if to save his reputation with her before she regarded him as a softie forever.

"I don't doubt it" Azula said with a small smirk and with that she left the lower deck.