A turning point, the signpost stuck in the road. But the sign had been muddied, parts of it covered, hidden from view. And what had been shown was twisted, so that each of the paths led somewhere other than what they said. Truth be told, all that asides, it might not even have been the right sign to begin with. He had to wonder if it had all be planned, and he had played right into it, or if the opportunity had merely been presented and taken advantage of.
Regardless of why or how, the end result was that the wool had been pulled over his eyes and now he was going to have to deal with it... and deal with anyone that had been responsible for making it happen. He could feel the frustration and anger grow up in him, the moment since he had received the news stretching into an eternity of thought, of the sound of his own mind. But then the blink of an eye, and reality snapped back to its normal flow.
"What do you mean shes escaped?" Zuko's fist came down, hard, on the arm of his throne, and fire blazed up around him. The soldier delivering the news took a step back in fear, the burns covering his body taking a nasty pain from the flickering heat of the Fire Lords anger.
"It was an ambush." He said as the tongues of heat started to fade down like a serpent, rushing their way back towards Zuko as though he was absorbing the flame back into his body. The guard gulped, and the Fire Lord could tell that he was visibly frightened. It didn't matter though. Not this time. He had been there and let it happen, he deserved to feel the fear.
"What do you mean it was an ambush? No one except myself knew who was being transferred. Everything had been arranged so that the left hand didn't know what the right was doing, and your telling me that there was planning in freeing her?!" He slammed his fist again, another gush of flame washing up and through the room, catching a pair of banners hanging behind him on fire in a dramatic display.
What he said hadn't been entirely true though. There had been one other person that had known the full details of his plan, and that was Mai. But she hadn't betrayed him. She couldn't...could she? But how else did it happen? Azula had been isolated from the world, with no possible way of contacting anyone. His own handpicked guards were the only ones that got to see her, and not even they knew that she was being transferred. The only person who could have planned an ambush was Mai.
He waved his hand dismissing his guard and crossed his left leg over his right, leaning back and resting his head on his left arm as he did so. It made sense, didn't it? Ty Lee was the reason they had to do this in the first place, and Mai had been the one to tell him...shortly after she had a meeting with Azula. Could this have been in the works? The attempted assassination could have just been a fabrication, covering and blending into the assassination of Ozai and his own attempted assassination.
He felt a shiver rush down his spine as he thought about it, something resembling dread and betrayal rising up inside of him. Had Mai plotted with Azula and Ty Lee to have him and Ozai killed so that everyone in the Fire Nation would have no choice but to turn to Azula to lead? The more he thought about it, the more he realized it was the only explanation that made sense, given the facts.
Even if his wife wasn't involved, which he was hoping against hope that she wasn't. Ty Lee definatly had a hand in plotting this, and probably the assassination as well. Azula had her send them after himself and Ozai, and a last one after herself to cover it up. Maybe she knew Mai was visiting that day, or maybe the man just had orders to let himself be killed. Either way, it didn't matter. Ty Lee would be punished for her actions.
He stood and motioned one of his personal attendants over. "See to it that the guards are informed that Ty Lee is to be captured by any means of force that is required. Though I would rather her be captured so that I can get he information I need out of her, if it becomes nessisary, she may be killed if she posses too much resistance."
The man hesitated for a moment too long, perhaps getting ready to bow, and Zuko shot a burst of flame somewhere over his head. Angry or not though, Zuko wouldn't harm anyone innocent. Yell, maybe make a scene, but never actually harm. Pride or not, anger or not, he was still one of the good guys. The difference between him and his sister, he thought. The difference between right and wrong was not harming others to get ahead...or just because you could.
The man snapped a quick salute and was off, and Zuko thought he felt a slight pang of regret. Not for Ty Lee, but for his servant. More and more he found his anger getting the better of him. If only he had some time to relax...shrug some of it off. But unfortunately time wasn't willing to give him that, and he was having to manage as he was.
One other matter to attend to. He thought to himself as he made a hard right and exited the side of the audience chamber, heading back towards the palaces personal quarters. He had to speak with Mai and get to cleared up. Even he knew that, perhaps, it was better to wait until he had cooled off before speaking with her, but that was an impossibility now. His hand had been forced.
Taking a deep breath, he pushed forwards, opening the doors to his wifes private quarters and he saw Mai's form rise from the desk she was almost always over, a scroll of parchment snapping closed as she abruptly let go of it from surprise. There was a slight scowl on her face as she looked at him, but it quickly washed away.
"I heard you gave orders that Ty Lee was to be harmed, and possibly even killed." He hadn't given that order but a few moments ago. Mai was a very political person, so he wasn't surprised that she had ears everywhere, even his own court. He had known, of course, but had allowed them to stay so that she could always be updated on the coming and goings, as well as the events as they played out.
"Yes. I take it you knew of the other news as well?" The tone wasn't an accusation, as one might expect from him. Not yet. He was willing to give her a chance, say something that absolved her. He was hoping against hope that she could say some magic words that would make it clear that she had nothing to do with it and he could move on.
Her eyes diverted to the right, worry coming to them. She had already heard the news, which meant she had of course played out the scenarios in her mind. Even if she had no hand in it, she knew how it made her look, and her demeanor showed it. Reservation, maybe a touch of acceptance. Either a guilty party accepting defeat or an innocent one that had reasoned out and accepted the inevitable.
"...Of course, husband." She said, looking into his eyes with a slight pleading look."I know what it looks like, and the only conclusion that you could have reached. This was my planning, my doing. All a plot conveniently tying together to make me look like the guilty party. Zuko...I don't know how, but your sister did this. All of this. She got Ty Lee to go so you would be forced to have her move, so she could have her chance to escape."
"How do I know thats true?" The Fire Lord snapped, finding himself once again hitting an inanimate object to stress his point, and point out his stress. "Everything points to you, Mai. Even if its a plot, there is no way for me to accept with sound mind that you had nothing to do with it! That you didn't betray me." Even the mighty Zuko found himself with tears starting to sting his eyes.
Mai shook her head and grabbed the scroll she had been reading over before storming over to him, past him, and out the door. "Then maybe, when it comes to your wife, you should let your heart do the talking." And then she was gone, past him. Seeking out some place to let off her own steam, he knew, so that she could try to get over it, his lack of trust. And then come back, talk to him then, and try to make things work.
But he had to be skeptical, didn't he? As Fire Lord, more was riding on his shoulders than just his own life, so he couldn't just trust her because her heart said that it was ok. If he listened to his heart, he would call her back, embrace her and kiss her. He would tell her its all right and she would smile at him and say that she knew.
And then she would help him, advise him, tell him was he needed to do to fix this. Azula's following was strong, very strong. Enough people were loyal to her, taking to her side in such a short time, that she was almost untouchable. The situation had become dangerous enough that it wouldn't just be a squad sent in to deal with a small group of people, it would be a full scale battle between armies.
Somehow, someway, Azula had gathered together enough loyal supports, enough men and soldiers from her cell...from being locked in complete isolation from the world... that she had been able to begin a civil war. What they found themselves was the eye of the storm, and Zuko was afraid that he was going to find himself alone.
So thats when he did turn. Turned to call out to her, to make her come back so that it would be ok. So that they could embrace and face his hellspawn of a sister together, a united front. So that Zuko could have the one person that he knew he could absolutely trust standing at his side, watching his back. And they would win, because together they couldn't loose.
And as he was turning, he saw something. Sitting on her personal desk in the corner. Just a faint glimmer coming from a partially opened drawer, but one that he recognized as the seal of his uncle. Curiosity, maybe mistrust given the past hour, seemed to overcome him...control him, even. And he found himself walking forwards against his will, when all he wanted to do was call out to her.
And from the drawer he withdrew a letter from his uncle, a letter explaining that it had been no trouble to call his nephew up for a little wisdom. Something in Zuko stopped, and he felt his heart stop, his body grow cold as reality set in...as he felt his world shatter and everything fall appart.
The parchment fell from his hand as he lost his footing and caught the bed beside him. Mai's bed. His wifes bed. The woman that he had promised to love, and who had promised to love him...
And the woman that was responsible for me being out of town when my father was assassinated, and was one of the only people who would know where to send an assassin to find me.
It took him awhile, a good while, before he could stand once more. When he did, he carefully replaced the parchment exactly how he had found it, and then turned to exit the room. He paused briefly though, staring out the window that he had spent so much time looking outwards at his kingdom from.
The room had been his mother's, before Mai's. He had thought it was appropriate for the woman that he trusted more than anyone in the world, loved more than anyone, to have the room of the other most important woman in his life. Such bitter irony, he thought. Even the people you trust most will hurt you, betray you. No, that wasn't true. Being close to someone, being blind to them, meant that when they did stab you in the back it hurt that much more.
But now that he knew, he could harden his heart, turn it cold. If Mai and Azula wanted to play these games, he could play them as well. He would trust his wife. He would council with her, let her take his words and secrets back to Azula. She would become his unwitting double agent as he fed her false news, and he would line up his dear sister for the take down through her.