Of Fire

by FeiFei08

A child was born to the princess of the Fire Nation, a miracle that has the spirit world rejoicing. But will Azula accept the child that is hers or will her Ty Lee leave with the child and never return? And what is her purpose in this world?

4. Chapter 4

Of Fire

Chapter 4

"What?" Azula inquired rhetorically, as she looked out one of the many windows and saw the night sky. "That can't be. It was just…I was just gone for a little while!"

The Fire Lord looked his sister over, noticing that she was covered nearly head to toe in dust with two canvases in her hand. "Where were you?" he asked calmly.

"I found this hidden room," she started. "I suppose it used to belong to mother."

"Mother?" Zuko parroted. "You found one of mother's old rooms?"

Her eyebrow lifted. "You knew about it?"

Zuko shook his head. "No, I only heard rumors about it. You found it?"

She nodded. "It had these in it." She showed him the painting of him and Mai, keeping the one of her and Ty Lee out of his view. Though, he paid it no attention as he took the painting from her. "Mother did it."

"I kind of remember seeing her painting. But, I didn't know she was this good." He looked at his sister. "Can I keep it?"

She smirked at his childish behavior, and then shrugged. "Go ahead," she replied, as if it was hers to give away.

Once he realized his behavior, he coughed in his hand and placed a hand on his sister's shoulder. "You were in that room all day."

She debated whether or not she should tell her brother about the non-spirit she had seen. Then thought better of it, the last thing she wanted was to return to the asylum. Then it clicked, her missed time probably had something to do with that creature she had seen. Before her facial features could mimic her thoughts, she shrugged. "I guess I fell asleep." She touched her robes just now noticing that they were covered in dust. "I should probably take a bath."

Zuko nodded with a soft chuckle. The walk back to Azula's room was silent, Azula unaware as to why Zuko had insisted he escort her. She ordered the maids waiting outside her room to get the bath ready as she entered, bidding goodnight to her brother. Closing the door behind her, she realized how empty her room felt without Ty Lee there. With a heavy sigh, she placed the painting on her bed and the journal on her vanity and disrobed, leaving the clothes on the floor, knowing that someone would pick them up, and walked into her bathroom. Though she hadn't seen them enter, there were servants and maids filling the tub with warm water. She sank into it, letting her muscles relax as the warm water soothed them. When the bath was filled and the maids and servants gone she sighed heavily but not of relief, only exhaustion.

At first she thought about Ty Lee. It brought a faint smile to her lips, though that smile didn't last long. Ty Lee had left and she wasn't sure where she should start looking. She guessed she could start at her parent's house, but if she were Ty Lee, she wouldn't go there. Not with the way they treated her, like the black sheep. And even though she was the princess of the Fire Nation, they still never let her forget little things she had done, like join the circus. The last time they had visited the family was before Detia was born. True, they had seen them the week after the little monster's birth. But that was only because the Fire Sages insisted on baptizing the baby.

Azula smiled fondly at the memory of Detia being handed to her grandmother, who was 'informing' Ty Lee about the hardships of taking care of a child and all the wrinkles and weight she would gain from it, and immediately starting to cry. But once the acrobat took her from Ty Lee's mother, the baby stopped crying. That was one thing they could agree on, Azula didn't like Ty Lee's family either. They hadn't seen the family since then. Azula sighed, having no idea where her acrobat would go aside from there, and in her mind, Ty Lee being there was as likely as it snowing in the middle of a Fire Nation Summer. It was so hard getting into that silly acrobat's head.

So instead, the princess thought about the promise she had supposedly made with that creature. She concluded that it probably happened on the day she died. That brought up other thoughts. Had her father actually killed her? She didn't put it past him. Whenever she didn't do something the way he wanted, he would punish her, usually violently. She had no doubt that if he had gotten angry enough he could have over done it and accidentally killed her. Shaking her head, she decided to think about something else. Like back to her promise and what her end of that promise was. It had to be something great. Her life was saved for it, after all. She couldn't think of something that would be equivalent to her life.

She sighed again and got out of her bath, wrapping a robe around her slim form. There were simply too many unanswered questions. Walking into her empty room, she exhaled sharply, glancing at the painting on the bed, before sitting at her vanity and deftly picking up her brush. With practiced hands, she ran the brush through her dark hair, pulling it into a loose ponytail when all the knots were out and moving to the couch in the room. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but was surprised when sleep found her so quickly.

Azula found herself in a place where her father often trained her when she was younger. At first, she didn't realize she was dreaming, but it quickly dawned on her when she saw her father storming down the hall towards her, carrying a child – which she assumed was her when she was little – by the forearm, well dragging really. There were no guards or servants around when he threw the little child, who couldn't have been more than three, on the ground. She watched passively as he started yelling at the younger version of herself. The princess often remembered her father yelling at her when she had done something wrong, so this dream was really nothing she hadn't seen before.

Her younger self cowered as Ozai towered over her, telling her how useless she was, a disappointment to him and the Fire Nation. The young princess started to cry, tears trickling down her eyes, and this only made him angrier. His red-orange flames flew towards her, barely missing, as he yelled that she was weak and unworthy to be alive. And like any intelligent being with any form of survival instincts, the little girl turned and ran. Azula grimaced, that was the worst thing her dream self could have done. Her point was proven when her father roared and shot a bolt of white hot lightning right at the child, hitting her square in the back. There was no scream, which surprised Azula as she watched in horror as her dream self's body twitched then stopped. There had always been screaming. Whenever she shot someone with lightning they always screamed, but then again – aside from the avatar – the people she shot with lightning always got back up eventually.

Ozai looked at the still form, turned and said to the air, "Hide her."

The scene changed and Azula found herself in the room she had found earlier that day. It was clean now, but there was nothing in it, aside from a long table and a chair. In the chair sat her mother holding the hand that attached to the body that lay lifeless on the table. Ursa's eyes were dry, like in her journal, but she looked like a person who could no longer cry. A person who had come to the point in grieving where crying was useless and only insulted the memory. "Is that me?" a voice said from behind her, causing her to turn.

Standing by the wall was a transparent version of the body that lay on the table. The little dream spirit wasn't alone. Another person stood beside her, holding her hand. This almost looked like the person in her mother's picture. The non-spirit her mother painted but there was a difference. The creature beside the child didn't seem sad at all, almost happy. Her white hair reached just past her shoulders and curled slightly at the ends, white bangs curving to the structure of her face, kind of like Ty Lee's hair when it was down. And they were the same height, looking almost the same age. Though, the creature's eyes had a touch of maturity that Azula's did not. "That's you." The creature replied. "You're lucky to have such a caring mother."

"She looks sad," the three-year-old noted.

The creature nodded. "She is. She just lost her only daughter, after all."

Azula's dream self turned to the white-haired girl. "So I'm dead?"

The creature smiled warmly. "Not yet. I'm going to bring you back to life."

The child nodded then frowned. "Why would you do that? What's the catch?"

Azula smirked at her own behavior at such a young age. The creature's golden gaze turned to meet the young spirit. "There's no catch. You have people who care about you a great deal. Your future could be great."

"There's no catch?" The creature shook her white head in the negative.

Ursa sniffed, drawing the children's attention. "She loves you so much. I'm envious."

"Don't you have a mother?" Dream Azula asked innocently, though the question took the creature by surprise.

After a minute, the creature answered, "No, I've never had a mother."

"Never?"

"Never," the creature confirmed.

"Then I'll be your mother!" Dream Azula decided, causing the real Azula to choke on air.

"What?" The creature seemed just as shocked. "But you're significant other is a…"

"It doesn't matter." She waved the comment off. "You're a spirit or something, right," the child said with an air of finality.

"Or something," the white-haired creature answered.

"And you can be reborn, right?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Then it's settled. I'll be your mother when I'm old enough, and you'll save my life now. It's an even trade I think."

The white-haired girl laughed. "That's far from an even trade, but I'll accept."

"Good," the dream Azula replied happily, "then it's a promise."

The creature's golden gaze turned to the real Azula, bearing into her like a brand on her soul. In that very moment, it couldn't have looked more like Detia if it had wanted to. "It's a promise."

~x~

Azula jumped into the world of the living, falling off the couch she had fallen asleep on. She laid on the floor for a second, a regal hand on her brow as she thought about her dream. The princess hadn't thought that the promise would be one she would initiate. Honestly, she thought it would have gone more like the creature saying 'I can bring you back to life if…'. But if her dream was correct, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it was, then she had offered the promise. The creature was going to bring her back to life regardless of any offer her younger self would have made, but her younger self seemed to think that the creature needed something in return. She supposed it was only fair. "It was just a stupid dream," she scorned, sitting up from her position on the floor.

With a heavy sigh, Azula stood, dressing herself in her normal clothes. She exited her room intent on going to the garden and practicing her katas, like she did every morning. But instead, she stopped at Detia's room. It had been cleaned up. All the toys Azula had never seen her playing with and the clothes she had never seen the baby wear had been put back in place. Gingerly, she touched the crimson red crib, thinking that she had never seen the little monster actually sleeping in it. Detia was always awake whenever Azula saw her in it, which wasn't often but still. Then thinking that Detia probably didn't need a crib anymore, the monster seemed to have no problem getting out of it. Her thoughts drifted to her dream and the creature that had saved her life. If her dream was true then that creature saved her life and would have done it for nothing, but she promised to be its mother, to love it. If that creature was Detia, which it probably was, then she was doing a poor job of keeping that promise.

A creature saved her life, wanting nothing in return, and she repays it by hating and scorning it. "I'm a terrible mother," she thought out loud then smirked. 'Guess it runs in the family.'

"That goes without saying." A voice said from the door, a monotone voice that she recognized.

With a scowl plastered on her face, Azula turned to her brother's wife. "Mai."

"Azula," the assassin remarked as she entered the room. "This is actually the last place I'd thought I'd find you."

Azula rolled her golden eyes. "What do you want Mai?"

The Fire Lady shrugged. "I was going to talk to you about your daughter and Ty Lee. But I decided against it." That earned her a lifted eyebrow. "The boat to Kiyoshi leaves in three days. There are no other boats going, and Ty Lee didn't want our help getting there."

Now Azula was confused, why was Mai telling her all of this? "So, Ty Lee is still in the city," she commented, not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"More than likely," Mai remarked, crossing her arms and leaning against the door frame. "What were you doing in here?"

"Thinking," the Princess answered automatically. "We should probably get rid of the crib."

"What?" Mai almost snarled, but Azula chose to ignore it, as she turned to look at the crib.

"There's no reason to keep it. That little monster," she said with a hint of affection (that Mai caught) "Doesn't seem to need it. She gets out of the thing easily enough. So I was thinking of replacing it with a bed."

Mai nodded. "So she's coming back?"

Azula tilted her head at her old friend. "Why wouldn't she? That's the only way to get Ty Lee to return."

"Yes, because that's the only reason," Mai offered with a slight smile, which made Azula scowl.

"Believe what you like." The princess shrugged nonchalantly.

Mai smirked as Azula walked towards her to exit the room. "Oh, Aang will be here sometime this afternoon. We received a bird from him not too long ago, stating his location. You'll be informed once he arrives."

Azula humphed in acknowledgment, walking past her sister-in-law to tell a servant to remove the crib. Mai smiled inwardly. It would seem that her dear sister was finding herself attached to her daughter. That was good news to everyone really. Zuko would be ecstatic when he found out. That is IF Mai decided to tell him.

~x~

Azula sat at the desk in her study, reading her mother's journal for lack of better things to do. The journal and her mother's flowing scrip kept her mind off other things like Ty Lee, Detia, and the non-spirit. She had spent a good thirty minutes trying to figure out what that white-haired creature who saved her life could have been if she wasn't a spirit. Nothing logical came to her, so she decided to give up for now, maybe the avatar could shed some light on the problem, and read her mother's journal.

Her mother's journal was like a fairytale version of the way things used to be. The entries were far between each other. One could be from the day Azula was born and the next could be when she was two years old. In the entry written on the day of her birth, Azula nearly threw the book across the room. Ursa wrote her feelings about that day, how much she loved and adored her daughter. How she would always look out for her and take care of her. She wrote how they would have the closest mother-daughter bond ever. Azula growled and had to set the book down in order to stop herself from harming it. There were a few entries after her birth about vacations. Ursa wrote about their vacations to Ember Island and the nasty storm that had washed up an old sunken boat. And how Zuko and their cousin pretended they were pirates with a plank of wood as their treasure. Azula had only been a baby then, so she didn't remember. It amused her nonetheless.

After the happy vacation entries, there was the one where she died. She skipped that one, seeing as she had already read it. The next entry Azula noticed that her mother's tone towards her changed. Ursa still wrote how she loved her daughter, but she also wrote how she was afraid of her as well. After her death, Azula's fire bending skills increased rapidly, her mind was quicker and sharper. And her eyes never seemed to gain the same spark they once held, only getting colder. Ursa wrote that these things scared her; she believed her daughter was truly becoming a monster. The older woman hated herself to admit these feelings but still started to show favoritism to her son. At that admission, the book nearly burned to ash in Azula's hands. Somewhere, buried deep down in whatever was left of her heart, Azula had hoped that she had misread her mother's attitude towards her. That when Ursa called her a monster it was in the same affectionate tone she was using with her own daughter. But it wasn't. And while it was true that her mother did love her, Ursa still viewed Azula as a monster.

The princess sighed heavily, calming her raging temper, and placed the journal down. She wondered what her mother would think of her now. What she would think of Detia, the little monster that saved her life. Then she wondered why she even cared. Her mother was just as bad a mother as Azula was. The fact that she had subconsciously called Detia her daughter did not register in her mind.

The caw of a messenger hawk caught the Princess' attention. She turned to her open window to see the red bird perched there with grace and dignity. With a lifted eyebrow, Azula stood, walking over to the bird and retrieving the message strapped to its back. Just as she was about to unroll the message, there was a knock on her door. The princess stuffed the letter into her robes and turned towards the door. "Enter," she ordered coldly.

"Your Majesty," the guard who entered addressed, "the Avatar has just arrived and wishes to speak with you as soon as possible."

Azula nodded once as she walked towards the guard. She couldn't help but smirk when he straightened rigidly at her approach. The princess walked out of her room then turned to the guard. "Well, where is he?"

"Oh, of…of course. He's in the Fire Lord's Study," he said unsteadily.

With a slight nod, the princess walked to her brother's study. Before entering the imposing office that once belonged to her father, she stood at the door. Inside she could hear the voices of the young Avatar, his water peasant, and her brother. She rolled her eyes, 'This is going to be fun,' she thought sarcastically.

The instant she entered the room everything went silent. The Avatar smiled warmly at his friend's sister. Azula had to resist the urge to snarl at him. He was here to help her after all. The water peasant seemed to have better sense, and though she hadn't outright glared at the princess, her eyes told of her lack of forgiveness and trust. She was smart. Zuko looked the same as ever as he stood to greet his sister. "Azula," he said warmly. It was times like these when she remembered that she should be Fire Lord. "Come sit."

She sighed inwardly, forcing the thought to the back of her mind. With a nod, she greeted the Avatar and his peasant then took her seat beside her brother. Still smiling, the Avatar started. "So, you wanted to know whether or not Detia is your daughter, and how it's possible." Azula nodded, already feeling somewhat bored. "Well, how about I start from the beginning."

"As you wish," Azula remarked coldly.

Aang shrugged it off easily, but Katara glared slightly at the woman. "Okay, so right before I heard news of Ty Lee's pregnancy, I went to the spirit world and found the oddest thing. Everyone was celebrating. I asked Roku when I found him what was going on. He told me that the Balance of the Gods was finally being reborn," he started rapidly, becoming increasingly uncomfortable under Azula's hawk-eye stare.

"Balance of the Gods?" Azula questioned.

"Yeah," Aang replied, rubbing his neck. "The Avatar is only the balance between humans, which is the four nations and the spirit world. I have no say in what the Gods do. They would laugh and possibly kill me if I tried to interfere with their dealings." Azula's lip twitched as she suppressed a smile. Aang didn't catch it. "But anyways, Roku told me that the Balance of the Gods could stop all wars between the four nations because she or he could get to the roots of the problem."

"Where has this balance been?" Azula asked.

"I don't know."Aang answered after a moment's thought. "The legend said that the last Balance and her people were massacred. But that was before the Avatar was created, so I don't know if that's true. They say that she was very diplomatic and kind but just. Legend tells that her people were the best diplomats in the world."

"She?"

"Yeah, the last Balance was a woman. In the spirit world, there were old worn out paintings of her, but one couldn't really tell what she looked like," Aang sighed; this was much easier when he told Zuko. He didn't ask any questions and only listened.

"I see. And what element is it that she can control?" Azula inquired.

"I'm not sure. They said that she didn't use her powers much," Aang replied, feeling stupid for his lack of knowledge.

"So they were celebrating the return of the Balance. Who I'm guessing would have to be a god," Azula offered to get the boy talking again.

Aang nodded. "Yeah the balance is a god. The spirit who was telling stories during the celebration said that the Gods of the elements, the most powerful of the gods – and this includes the Balance – are born in extraordinary ways when they choose to be reborn. He said that they choose a person with certain qualifications when the person is born or shortly after."

"What kind of qualifications?" Azula inquired, interrupting him again, with a lifted eyebrow.

"I...um…I don't know," he remarked. "They are different for each god and they change a lot." He was feeling even stupider under Azula's cold, questioning gaze.

Azula sighed, "Continue," she nearly ordered with a wave of her hand then promptly tuned him out when he started to talk again, this time about the celebration itself.

Her mind whirled with what little information the Avatar had given her. To put it simply, she had learned that the gods were showy and wanted the whole world to know they were coming into it by being born in an extraordinary way. Azula easily consented that, if she had that kind of power, she'd want the world to know she was coming too. As for the how, being a god answered that question. With nearly limitless fabled power, the gods could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to. Though that begged the question, why her? True, she was the Princess of the Fire Nation, and the greatest Fire Bender in whole world. But she wasn't Fire Lord, and though she would never admit it out loud, she's wasn't the greatest of people. She was stubborn and hardheaded and manipulative and controlling and always had to be right and making herself depressed with every adjective she added to that list.

So, why her? She'd just have to ask, there was no way she could get into the mind of a god. If that's what her little monster was. The paper in her robe crinkled against her chest, drawing her attention to it. She looked around at the people sitting with her to see if any of them were paying attention to what she was doing. Aang was still telling his story, though his focus was shifted to Zuko. Katara was watching her like a hawk, but she didn't care what that water peasant thought. So, Azula slipped the rolled up paper through her sleeve, silently opening it and casually reading it under the table. She didn't recognize the slightly choppy script but kept her features neutral as she read the short letter.

At the end, she chuckled, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I don't think I give that little monster enough credit. She's definitely resourceful and crafty."

"Who are you talking about?" Aang asked innocently.

"No one," Azula answered as she stood, surreptitiously slipping the letter back into her robes. "As thrilling and informative as this little meeting is, I have a prior engagement I simply cannot miss."

"Azula?" Zuko questioned with authority that made her want to hit him.

She sighed inwardly and headed to the door. "I really can't miss this, Zuzu. Maybe we'll finish this chat when I get back."

Azula waved with a sarcastic smile as she left the room. She took in a deep breath once the door was closed behind her then, with a determined look, ran towards the entrance of the palace, running into Mai as she did. Mai, along with Lu Ten who was walking at his mother's side, only looked at her sister-in-law as the princess rushed through the palace, not saying sorry or anything. Not that Mai was expecting her to, though. The palanquin was already waiting for her when she left the palace gates, and though it would have been faster if she ran, she decided to take it instead. She absolutely refused to seem improper in front of her people and running was not something noble women did. Besides, she had plenty of time; it was only a little past noon.

~x~

Detia sat in the library of her grandparent's home. It had only been two days, and she was ready to kill them. She wondered if it was within her power to banish them. Ty Lee had been oddly complacent, and every now and then, Detia would catch a twinkle of a tear in her mother's eyes. There was no doubt in her young mind that her mommy cried herself to sleep at night. And the constant verbal jabbing at her person that her family did was not helping the young acrobat in her emotionally state. And it never stopped; if it wasn't her sisters telling her how wrong everything about her was, it was her mother.

They never let Ty Lee forget 'mistakes' she made in her life. Like joining the circus or visiting the fallen princess every day after the war. When her oldest sister mentioned that, Detia saw the memory Ty Lee dredged up of Azula bound by her wrists and ankles in a room not tall enough for the princess to stand in, a muzzle over her mouth as she ranted and raved to the things only she could see, her hair disheveled and matted, clothes torn and burnt. Her mommy remembered how she would hold the princess and how the princess would cling to her. It was because of Ty Lee that Azula got better mentally and managed to come back to herself. The princess was who she was today because of Ty Lee. Because of this devotion and unwavering love Ty Lee had for her soul mate, Detia was proud of her mother, proud to be called her daughter. No matter what her aunts or grandmother said.

It had angered the little girl when they would poke at Ty Lee about Detia. Apparently, they believed that Detia being mute was a fault of Ty Lee's and constantly told Ty Lee that she shouldn't have cheated on her lover if the only thing it would produce was a child who could not even speak. Yi Min had stated it first, and the rumor caught like wild fire. But anytime anyone would say something to that effect, Detia would promptly shoot scorching white fire at them. The little girl had caught the table on fire merely by looking at it just the night before when Jai Li inadvertently called Ty Lee a whore. She hadn't used that exact word, but it was implied. And Detia would have none of that. Ty Lee had gasped at the white flames, thinking that maybe Azula had found her. But the Princess was nowhere in sight and Detia was the only one who wasn't concerned about the small fire, only glaring at her aunt with a wicked smirk – that looked distinctly Azula – across her youthful face. The acrobat smiled, patted her daughter's hand, and the flames died.

It wasn't enough that they harassed Ty Lee; they also found an odd sense of joy harassing Detia. Constantly, the older of the sextuplets would demean the mute child. Once one of them had dressed up like Ty Lee to see if Detia would come to them. Apparently, all of the other children had gone to the parent the adult was not. Detia, who talked with her mind and recognized people by their thoughts, was not confused. It also helped that she was beginning to see soft colors emitting from people. Her brows furred together when the woman who looked like her mother called her. Carefully, she studied the person, though she knew right off that it wasn't her mother. With effortless ease and grace, the child stood and walked over to Li Ming. The woman stooped to hug the child with a hidden smirk. Detia causally walked over to Li Ming, stood on her tip toes, removed the royal crown that was her mother's, and then turned to Ty Lee. The child lifted the golden emblem and its needle to her mommy. Ty Lee smiled smugly as she took the thing that named her princess of the Fire Nation and hugged her daughter, telling her with her mind that she was the best daughter in the universe.

She did have to admit that her cousins weren't so bad. But there were just so many of them, and that many minds coming at her at once hurt her head. This was why Detia spent most of her time in the library. She could barely read and couldn't write the first day she found the library. In the palace, she had had no interest in the library, being able to clearly speak with her parents. But now, she spent hours reading old books and scrolls. And no one bothered her because no one bothered to look in the library for her, aside from Ty Lee. After that first day, she had decided to write a letter to her wayward parent.

Getting the messenger hawk to go to the person she wanted was slightly challenging. But she found that she could talk to animals, well command them anyways. She didn't understand one caw from the next. The bird cawed as if it understood, and once the letter was slipped into the barrel and sealed shut, the bird took flight. And now she waited in the library, thankfully by herself. She could barely feel Ty Lee's mind, but she wasn't surprised considering the acrobat had let her sisters convince her to go shopping. She wondered how her sweet, happy mommy could be related to these brownnosing, backstabbing Lion-Sharks. Detia chose to ignore that fact and picked a random book from the third shelf, the highest one she could reach without help, and began reading.

It was two hours before she heard the familiar twisted mind of her other parent. 'About time.' the nearly one-year old thought to herself as she stood, racing to the door before Azula could knock.

Slight surprise showed on the princess' face when the door opened before she could even knock. But the surprise quickly faded when she saw the little white-haired monster standing in the door, looking up at her with slight annoyance. Azula shrugged but gave no explanation. The little girl sighed slightly, took Azula's hand, and drug the woman back to the library. Detia sat at a small table, motioning for Azula to do the same. The princess did, sitting in front of her assumed daughter rigidly. She had never actually examined the little monster before, but now as they set in front of each other not saying a word, Azula took this chance to do just that.

Detia's golden eyes, a shade Azula reluctantly admitted to be the same as her own, stared back at her calmly. The princess frowned when she realized that aside from the white hair that fluffed out at the ends like Ty Lee's and the height, Detia looked just like she did when she was three, Detia of course being the height of a one-year old. With the same high cheekbones, same sharp, straight nose, and the same golden slightly slanted eyes, they even sat with the same straight-backed posture. 'Are you done?' Detia's voice rang in Azula's head, causing the older woman's frown to deepen.

"I won't apologize," Azula started.

'Good, don't,' was the girl's surprising remark. 'I wouldn't want them,' she nodded very slightly to the open door, where someone, Azula couldn't tell who, was watching, 'to have anything on you. They are not to be trusted.'

"I'm aware," The Princess agreed.

The little monster nodded, 'Then don't speak,' she said evenly. 'Think what you want to say to me. I can still hear you.' Azula lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering if the little monster always had that ability. 'I have. I've always known what you think about me.'

The frown returned to the princess' red lip. Deciding to give this way of communication a try, Azula thought. 'That's not something I want to talk about. We can discuss it later.' Detia nodded. 'Did you send me this letter?' Azula placed the rolled up note on the table, again Detia nodded and Azula smirked. 'Clever girl,' she thought, forgetting that Detia could hear her. 'Tell me,' she paused, 'how did you get the bird to come to me?'

Detia shrugged. 'I just thought really hard at it and it flew off.'

'I see,' Azula remarked, really getting into this talking without saying a word. 'Ty Lee plans to take you to Kiyoshi Island, correct.' The little monster nodded. 'The boat leaves in only a couple more days, why contact me? The both of you would be away from this family then.'

Detia scoffed and rolled her honey eyes. 'The last thing I want is to live as an earth peasant, especially in a place named after a former Avatar. She speaks highly of them, but they are still earth peasants. If I wanted that, I'd have been born into an earth peasant family.' Azula couldn't help but smile at the child's attitude, so like her own. 'And that's not what mommy really wants.'

'What?' Azula thought, her smile fading.

'She tries to hide it from me, but leaving you was the hardest thing she's ever done. Every night she cries herself to sleep then mumbles your name. It doesn't help that this family, who I don't think she's really related to, they probably adopted her or something, berates her for marrying you.'

The Fire Nation Princess' face hardened in a stone cold glare, though it wasn't directed at the small child. "They do, do they?" she said aloud, her thoughts much darker.

Detia had to tune the darker thoughts out as she nodded with both the spoken words and what thoughts she had seen/heard. 'They say that if she was only going to cheat on you, then she shouldn't have spent so much time with you after the war and gotten married to some nice nobleman like her sisters. As it stands, with a child like me as baggage, there's no way she'll find a decent husband. This is all their words of course, not mine. Besides, she loves you. She doesn't need to be with anyone else.'

With her sharp manicured fingernails digging painfully into her palm, Azula tried to calm herself, not that it was working. 'She would never cheat on me!' she yelled loudly in her head, ignoring the child's last comments.

'I know,' the child concurred. 'And your notion of my conception is just as ridiculous. No one could ever take advantage of her.'

This calmed Azula somewhat as she eyed the white-haired child, the streaks of yellow highlighting the white strands like bolts of lightning through clouds. 'I don't know if I believe that anymore,' the princess admitted.

A white eyebrow lifted, 'An epiphany?'

'Something like that.' She smirked at the little monster and her use of words she shouldn't even have heard before. 'A memory really.'

Both eyebrows raised as Detia saw the memory through her mother's eyes. 'I don't know anything about that, yet,' the little monster replied after watching the scene.

'Oh?' Azula asked, 'Wait you saw that?'

The little monster nodded. 'Yes, but I have no memory of it.'

'How much can you do with your mind that you don't tell anyone about?' Detia shrugged at Azula's question.

'A lot,' Detia replied.

"I see," Azula said aloud again, catching the hint of a sleeve by the doorway. 'Can you tell me who are watching us?'

Detia didn't as much as glance at the doorway when she answered, 'Mommy's parents. They think that I'll tell you something bad about them if you spend too much time with me. They already have someone in mind to marry her off to if she really leaves you, which she won't, of course.'

'Of course,' Azula agreed. 'In the note, you said that, if you had to, you would stay with these people.' Detia nodded. 'Would you really sacrifice yourself like that?'

Detia's golden eyes stared into her mother's. 'I would do anything to make my mommy happy. She deserves to be happy. And if that means that I can't live with you, because of your misguided beliefs, and have to stay here with these people, then I will.'

'All to make her happy?'

'You'd do the same.'

Azula nodded slightly, she would do the same and she knew it. It was just one of those things she didn't like to admit. So, she decided to change the subject. 'When did you learn to write? And when did your vocabulary grow like it has? From what I've read a one-year old should barely be able to speak.'

Detia tilted her head slightly, 'I'm in here most of the time, and I've read a lot of the books. I don't speak verbally, so that statistic does not apply to me.'

"I see," the Fire Nation Princess remarked. 'Why do you think you're my daughter?'

The little monster paused, her expression unreadable. 'Because only you and Mommy can hear me. No one else can, yet. The only connection I see between us is that we're related by blood directly. You are my parents.'

Azula nodded, choosing her words carefully, though Detia could hear everything that she was thinking. 'Why us?'

'I don't know the answer you want me to give. The memories I have of my past life are not that current.'

Azula's charcoal eyebrow lifted, 'But you do have them?'

'Some. At least, what I think are memories. They couldn't be anything else.'

'Does Ty Lee know about any of this?'

The little monster shrugged. 'Not really. She knows that I can hear her thoughts and that she can hear me, but we don't sit and have conversations like you and I are doing. She wants me to be a baby, to act like one. And I will be that until I can't lie to her anymore.'

The princess nodded. 'You shouldn't lie to her at all. She'll be hurt if you keep this from her,' she scolded lightly. 'You should tell her as soon as possible.'

Detia chuckled lightly, though her lips did not turn up into a smile. 'Yes, mother,' she said with no sarcasm in tone.

'You'd better,' Azula remarked, thinking that her little monster could at least learn from her old mistakes.

She nearly gasped when she realized what she had called Detia and met the child's golden eyes. For once, the little monster was quiet. She examined the girl again, this time not with her eyes but with what she knew of her. Putting aside the fact that Detia could not speak verbally, the little girl was everything Azula could want in a daughter. And yes, she had thought about it before, though she never thought it possible. Detia was intelligent, speaking in tones that most adults Azula knew didn't use. She already knew how to write, though it was a bit choppy. But she wasn't even a year old yet, so that was okay. And she could read, apparently.

The little monster was cunning and resourceful with a sharp mind. She was already learning to firebend, and from what little Azula saw, her forms weren't half bad. She was a prodigy, just like herself. They were so much alike. They even had the same problem with their mothers. Both of their mothers thought they were monsters. Azula flinched as the thought hit her; she was just like her mother. 'But she's my little monster.' Azula thought to herself, not noticing how Detia perked up a little. 'There's a difference. Well, there will be."

Detia smiled slightly, things seemed to be looking up for her.

TBC

A/N: I don't really hate Ty Lee's family as much as it seems. You just have to remember that Detia is an 11 month old who can read minds and loves her mommy. People think really mean things. So naturally she would dislike them.