.

Chapter 2: Aftermath

"I wonder, Zuzu. How many people will have to die, before you're ready to be the kind of Fire Lord this nation needs."

Zuko leaned against the balcony, staring out over the caldera city. All was dark, but for the silver glow of the moon above. A gray cloud rolled in front of it, like smoke rising from a fire.

"Zuko?"

Zuko started, and he spun to find a figure standing in the entrance to his quarters.

"Mother?" he said in some confusion.

She looked apologetic as she stepped out from the shadow of the doorway, and into the dim light of the partially darkened moon. "Suki let me in," she explained. "She said you were probably still awake, and I hoped to speak with you."

Zuko nodded hesitantly. Ever since Azula's escape in the small port town of Yunfu months ago, Suki had taken to always taking the night shift herself. They'd had countless conversations about the best way to go about security as far as Azula went, and they both agreed any extra precautions were a good thing. But he knew Suki also worried about his mental wellbeing as well as protecting him from assassins, and she was willing to break protocol when she thought he could use the support. When he was walling himself off from the people he cared about again.

His mother came to join him by the balcony rail, folding her hands in front of her. She didn't speak immediately.

"Kiyi told me you haven't been sleeping well," Zuko said at last. He eyed the faint dark circles under her eyes. "Are you all right, Mother?"

She chuckled ruefully. "She tells you everything."

He picked at the sleeve of his robe in some embarrassment. "Sorry."

His mother touched his shoulder. "Don't be. I'm glad to see the two of you getting along so well. She has a wonderful big brother to look up to."

Zuko stared out at the city, before finally he turned back to look at her with solemn eyes. He had a feeling his mother would not come visit him this way, so late and needing to ask the guards for special access, if there were not something specific weighing on her mind.

She seemed to see that he understood, and the smile faded. In the silver light, for a moment there seemed almost no color in her drawn features. "I need to know."

Her voice dropped even lower, a whisper barely audible over the light breeze. "If there has been a message, a sighting—anything."

Zuko stared back into her eyes. He didn't need to ask for any kind of clarification to know what she meant. As though simply continuing the conversation they had once had aboard a ship finally returning his mother to the capital, the conversation in the throne room, just before he had left to do the unthinkable.

Still he hadn't told her. The truth about what he knew of Azula, how she was connected to the horrible events in the capital, when Kiyi and so many other children had been kidnapped. But—he had to. The time had come.

"Do you remember..." he began. "How I said that the Kemurikage who worked for Ukano were still on the loose? How they were still a danger?"

She gazed back at him for a long moment. At last, she nodded once, just a slight, careful dip of the head.

He took a breath. "Well—"

His mother raised a hand to stop him. "It's all right," she murmured. She turned to gaze out at the city with distant eyes. "I already suspected."

Zuko half choked in surprise. "You—you did?" He eyed her suspiciously, wondering if they were about to have one of those half conversations he'd occasionally found himself having with Mai, back in the days when they were still together, where they both talked in a vague way about something, only to realize later they had both been talking about two entirely different things.

As though reading his mind, she smiled ruefully. "You already had Ukano in custody. I knew you wouldn't just leave the capital to personally pursue the others involved unless—" She gazed at him with eyes deep and sad. "Unless," she said softly, "they were more dangerous than Ukano."

Zuko couldn't meet her gaze. "I'm sorry," he said. Not sure if he was apologizing for not telling her, or for simply the terrible truth of it—that Azula had kidnapped so many children including Kiyi, that she was the one behind the terror.

"Anything more recent?" she asked softly. "Did you find her? Have there been any reports?"

Zuko hesitated. "I did... find her," he began. "But she got away again. More recently than that..."

For months he'd had his soldiers watching the countryside, spies seeking out information, any clue to where Azula was or what she might be planning. They had finally apprehended most of the other false Kemurikage, the girls Azula had broken out of the mental institution in which she had stayed, all except one who he suspected was with Azula now—but as Azula had apparently abandoned the rest of them months ago they had little insight into what Azula might do next. However, not a whisper on Azula herself.

There had been one small report, amid piles of others, that one of the officers had only recently drawn to his attention. A prison break, in which a strange cloak had been left behind—the village was such a small one, no one had initially made the connection between that cloak and the events in the capital. The pursuit of the other institution girls, which had been going on at the same time, must have seemed the far more important lead.

Only one prisoner had been freed. An old woman said to have strange powers on the night of the full moon, with victims who lost control of their bodies...

An uneasy chill always sunk down into his stomach whenever he thought about it. He had never asked Katara about how she had come to learn her most frightening waterbending technique. The fact she could use it seemed to her a deep wound, agonizing and personal, like the night she lost her mother. However—after reading that report, he knew he couldn't avoid it anymore. Katara had returned to the capital the first couple full moons since their confrontation with Azula as a precaution—but now he needed her to be here again for the next one, and he also had to know what she knew.

"There may be something," Zuko said at last. "I've sent word to Aang and Katara to come, and to bring the others, too. I'm hoping we'll be able to come up with a new plan of action."

His mother nodded slowly. Again, she stared out over the city, before at last she asked softly, "When you saw her before—how did she seem?"

Zuko hesitated. "...Better. Not like when you saw her as Noriko. Not as crazy. More like herself, calm, in control."

Zuko wasn't sure whether his mother would take this as a good thing or not. That she seemed more sane when she had decided to kidnap Kiyi and force Ukano to take the other children.

"She still despises me, I suppose?" His mother smiled a little, her tone blandly curious, as though commenting on the passing clouds.

Zuko hesitated, considering. "Actually, I don't think she mentioned you at all. The visions she was having before—I think they were of you. That's why she came after you back then. To... make the voice in her head stop. But she said she wasn't hearing voices anymore."

His mother stared out at the lights below, the torches of the guards extending out from the palace in all directions. At last, she turned back to Zuko, though now the smile had a bitter edge.

"Well, that's something. It would surely be justice if, in forgetting me, she at last found peace."

Zuko never knew exactly how to respond when she talked like this. As though Azula's pain were somehow her fault, as Azula accused her. However, he knew better than to try to contradict her, as it only made her more vehement.

Her face relaxed, the self-contemptuous amusement draining away. "I have not seen her as myself since she was a child," she murmured. "Since that night when I fled. If only I could see her again, now that I remember her."

A prickling chill rose on his skin.

"Not one person you're afraid to lose..."

Zuko reached out, and placed a consoling hand on her arm. "I don't know if that would be the best idea," he said gently. "Maybe once we've brought her back. I think otherwise it would be… too dangerous."

She turned her gaze to him for a moment. In her face, something rippled there in the depths of her eyes. A torment, a regret—

Then she was turning away from him, heading back toward the door.

"Thank you, my son," she murmured. "For telling me. Please tell me anything more that you learn. No matter how... difficult."

"I will," Zuko promised.

She smiled at him over her shoulder a moment, then disappeared back through his chamber, to return to her own room she shared with Ikem and Kiyi.

Zuko turned his eyes back to gazing over the city, his city that he had to protect.

He wondered, as he often had these past few months of uncertainty, what the future held—if he would be remembered well, as a Fire Lord who had brought peace and prosperity to their lands and the world, or if he would be remembered with shame. If, under him, the nation would only suffer calamity and misfortune. For better or for worse, he had spared Azula's life—now would come the aftermath.

"Azula," he murmured into the darkness. "Where are you? What are you up to now?"

A/N: And that's another chapter down. Again, a bit shorter than most will probably be, but I tend to prefer that for the early ones these days.

Note on ffnet's notifications—just a head's up, but if any of you out there have noticed you've stopped receiving emails for updates to fanfics you're following, it may be because in the past several months there's been a new setting added under Account Settings in everyone's profile. Under 'Do you wish to receive email notifications via email?' you have to select Yes, and do so every six months, otherwise it will default to No. (Super crippling change for those authors like me who may go months or years between updates depending on the project, but not much to be done about it. I am also posting this project on Ao3, so feel free to follow there if you prefer, it may be more reliable.)

Thanks for reading! If you have a moment, let me know what you thought, and hope to see you in the next one!

Posted 5/2/23