Azula couldn't stop sobbing and Zuko and that waterbending bitch continued to stare at her. He tried desperately to stop and just proceeded to start hiccuping fire until several men came and took her away. Maybe she was the one that was supposed to leave all along?

She closed her eyes as a pungent liquid was poured down her throat. She'd heard them whispering of Mountain Springs Asylum. That couldn't be right. She wasn't crazy. She just saw people that were dead.

The last thing she saw before the carriage door shut was her Father, his arms crossed and a look of disapproval on his face.

Zuko had taken her place. He had defeated her, even though he cheated. Of course, she technically cheated too, but that was another matter entirely. Why should ZuZu get to keep that water peasant girl when she couldn't have Teo? That was just... unfair.

An old doctor prodded her and she felt the dull ache of being chi blocked. If Ty Lee was an artist at chi blocking, this man was a fumbling buffoon at it.

Ty Lee would have never made it hurt so much. Nor would she have left her internal fire on. Azula felt like she was burning up on the inside as she was wrapped in a jacket, the sleeves strapped and buckled behind her.

She felt delirious as she was walked into the building. When had she gotten here?

Strong hands sat her in a chair and started pushing it.

It had to be Teo's chair.

She could still see the blood all over it.

She screamed.

And screamed.

And continued to scream until someone picked her up and carried her into into a small room with a threadbare cot.

"Sure glad ZuZu sprung for the best," she found the words spilling out of her head as she got drowsy.

She curled up on the fireproof blanket and tried not to burn from the inside out.

Bureaucracy did not speed up after the war ended. In fact, it ground to a halt as hundreds of clerks and minor officials tried to re-organize their offices and the country into a peacetime economy. The Fire Nation was in utter chaos, which was only slightly worse off than everybody else. Bumi had not been pleased to learn that his son had been "Misplaced" among the population of Boiling Rock. They did not know where he had been sent to. His arrest warrant had been mis-filed.

Six months after Zuko had become Fire Lord and the Mechanist was still in prison.

Bumi sighed and stepped out onto the balcony of his palace, watching his city from his high vantage point. He was not without purpose though. He was waiting for a message from Aang. Hoping that the Avatar could take some time out of his schedule for a personal request.

"Grandfather?"

The old king smiled and turned, seeing his youngest grandson (he was not counting his great-grandchildren at the moment) enter the room. His wheelchair glided along the polished tile quietly as he came to a stop nearby. "Yes, Teo?"

"I was wondering if you had an answer. For what we spoke of before," he said respectfully. Even after six months of living in the palace, Teo had not broken his habit of speech. Many of his advisors loved how polite the boy was. But it just made Bumi sad.

"I have. But I'm afraid it isn't possible just yet. I had one of my soldiers track down the village where you were born. There are some living there still and they may remember your Father being with them. I have put in an official request to the Office of War Prisoners of the Fire Nation for papers documenting yours and Lumi's arrival in the Fire Nation, but it doesn't seem that anybody can be bothered to do anything official about it. I have been able to grant you citizenship of Omashu temporarily, but travel is still restricted between nations." He sighed and sat down on the bench on the balcony. "No one seems to know where they put your Father."

"Oh. So when you go looking for him yourself, you'll be leaving me behind?"

"I... yes. I'm afraid I have to. If you like, I can arrange for you to stay with one of your aunts? Or a cousin? They all want to get to know you."

Teo just shook his head. Though officially, Omashu had been taken over, several of Bumi's son-in-laws and grandsons had been involved in the rebellion and the war in other parts of the Kingdom. A few of them had been hostile to the idea of Teo and Lumi's part in the Fire Nation's war effort. But despite his upbringing, Teo had been very sheltered all his life. He did not know how to interact with regular children his age.

"I have a present for you."

"Why?"

"Isn't it your fifteenth birthday?"

"Oh. I suppose it is today."

Bumi smiled and turned, heading back through the throne room. He had learned his lesson early on to not grab onto Teo's wheelchair. The pair of them went down the long hallway and Bumi opened the door to a room at the end. It was a large workspace, which had tables set at both a sitting and standing position. Large glass windows along the opposite wall, with a wide balcony just outside. "I had this workshop created for you."

"Workshop? Why?"

"Because I know how much flying means to you. And you need space to build and design your new glider. If it is not to your liking, we can change it."

"No... no, it's... it's great. I just. Haven't felt much like flying in a while," Teo ran his hand along the pristine wood of the nearest workbench.

The old king turned and sat down opposite his grandson. "I know there have been a lot of changes in your life recently. But things will get better." Bumi gently lay his hand on Teo's arm and received a quick nod. "Now... tell me what we will need to build first?"

"I'll... I'll make a list."

Azula had been good. She had been allowed to sit in the garden for at least two hours a day when the weather was nice.

Today she lay in the grass and stared up at the treetops. The grass made her head itch. A lice outbreak had forced the doctors to shave all the patients' hair. Azula had been no exception. Her head was covered in short, dark fuzz. Her clothes had thick straps on them. They laced in the back instead of the front. That was how they had kept her from removing them easily.

With her bending blocked, she felt hot all the time. Like there was nowhere for the fire to go, so it consumed her from the inside out. She did not have any visitors since she came here, real or imagined.

It was like the entire world had forgotten about her. She wondered if this was like being dead.

"Azula? It's time to go inside now," a nurse stood over her, blocking the sunlight.

"It's too early," she sat up anyway, letting the dizziness wash over her. She hadn't felt right since she arrived here.

No, that was untrue. She hadn't felt right since she had returned to the Fire Nation.

"You have a visitor today."

"Who?"

"Please Azula, we don't want to keep him waiting."

Curiosity kept her quiet as she followed the nurse. Since her admittance, they had avoided sitting her in wheelchairs.

She sat down at the table in the small room, ignoring the two guards that watched her every movement.

"Azula?"

She shook herself from her thoughts as the man stepped inside.

"Mechanist?"