Chapter 16:
Mai tightly gripped the arm of the quivering princess. Her weight slowed them down, but that was the least of her worries. Mai's heart was pounding, and she was in a daze after what she had just witnessed. She and Ty Lee hurriedly sped through the hallways, dodging servants and struggling to ignore their wide-eyed, horrified stares. They couldn't even imagine how Azula was feeling at the moment. The princess ducked her head, eyes toward the ground. Her dark hair draped over her face, covering her expression. Mai wasn't even sure if she was conscious or not.
Ty Lee carelessly kicked open the door to Azula's room and then lay the princess onto the bed with tenderness. "Azula...oh, Azula!" she sobbed.
Mai swallowed a lump in her throat and slowly walked toward the edge of the bed. Azula's eyes fluttered opened and she peered up at them with such anguish that Mai wanted to turn away...but she couldn't. Mai saw something that she had not witnessed in years. Azula was crying.
The princess did not move, but drops of tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and slid down the sides of her face. Ty Lee sobbed harder, and reached down to dab her cheeks.
"Mai...Ty Lee..." the princess mumbled in a daze. The color had drained from her face, and sweat glistened on her skin.
"Mai, send for a nurse immediately!" Ty Lee gasped.
Without hesitation, Mai swept out of the room. She could hear Azula weakly disagreeing with Ty Lee's request.
Mai had only walked a few steps when she ran into about five nurses, all prepared with washcloths, bandages, and medicine. They were well aware of what unsavory event had recently befallen their princess. In fact, the entire Royal Palace was now clamoring with it. The nurses burst into the room with Mai trailing after them. Ty Lee was bent over Azula, gently stroking her damp hair and desperately trying to comfort her friend.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask the both of you to leave," one of the nurses said firmly.
"No," Mai replied simply.
"Please," Ty Lee begged. "Let us be with her!"
The nurse waved her hand. "No means no. It doesn't matter to me if you are her best friends. The princess is in a critical condition, and we cannot have any distractions while we treat her. If I must, I shall call in some guards to escort you out."
"If you think that a couple of guards can..." Ty Lee began.
Mai grabbed her arm. "Maybe she's right, Ty Lee. We'll just distract them, and Azula needs to be treated right away. The more we argue, the longer it will take for the nurses to get to work."
Ty Lee grunted, and she and Mai reluctantly departed from Azula's bedroom. They headed out into the courtyard, where Ty Lee crumpled to the ground and broke into loud sobs. "I...I don't believe it...I don't believe it," she muttered to herself. "...How could he...?"
Mai wanted to reassure her friend, except that she couldn't think of anything reassuring to say. She shuddered at the thought of what Azula had gone through, and was going through at that moment.
At that time, a large commotion could be heard as the crowd of people exited the palace. On either side of the courtyard, streams of people were filing toward the exit, babbling like there was no tomorrow. Small children jumped up and down excitedly, chattering about the "cool" battle they had just seen, without realizing the impact of it. Some of them were complaining to their parents about why they had "covered their eyes at that last part."
The adults' faces were filled with solemn disbelief and amazement. They spoke in loud, awed tones, confirming with each other repeatedly, making sure that what they had just witnessed was true. One could tell that the moment these people made their way outside, there would not be a single soul in the Fire Nation who had not heard about Princess Azula's fate. The gossip would reach all four corners of the nation.
The snippets of baffled conversations that Ty Lee picked up from the crowd made her distraught. She hated the way the lords and ladies viewed the Agni Kai; they merely saw it as an opportunity to gossip about the Royal Family, to say that they had been inside the palace and witnessed such a sight, the duel between the two most powerful firebenders.
As the crowd passed by, they glanced at Mai and Ty Lee and then hastily averted their eyes. Everyone knew that those were the two best friends of the princess. Surely this event internally damaged them in some way.
"I can't stand it anymore..." Ty Lee wiped her puffy eyes. She jumped to her feet and dashed around the corner.
"Ty Lee, where do you think you're going?" Mai demanded, bolting after her.
The pink-clad acrobat dodged through the crowd of people and ran into a barrier of guards who were edging people out.
"Please turn around," they said gruffly through their helmets. "The exit is that way."
"I must speak with the Fire Lord," Ty Lee said breathlessly.
"You may not. The Fire Lord does not have time to accommodate you at the moment."
"No!" Ty Lee shouted. "Let me through!"
"That's enough of this nonsense," the guard hissed. He jabbed his spear at her, not meaning to kill but to threaten. Ty Lee sidestepped the spear and jammed her knuckles into a pressure point, causing the man to collapse heavily onto the ground.
The other guards, sensing that the girl posed a danger, began to advance, calling upon their flames. Mai jumped in and disabled several guards, pinning them to trees with her daggers.
"Enough!" a voice roared. Fire Lord Ozai emerged from the shadows, a deep glare set on his features. He was now fully clothed, wearing thick scarlet robes. "What is this? First, you rudely interrupt my Agni Kai. Then you dragged my daughter away without my permission. Now you are attacking my guards?"
Ozai gestured for the remaining guards to leave. When they scrambled away, he turned to Ty Lee and Mai, frowning. "Explain yourselves!"
"Forgive me, my lord," Ty Lee struggled to regain her composure. She knelt down and respectfully bowed to Ozai, although each motion was a raging battle. "I wished to speak with you, but your guards tried to prevent me from doing so..."
Ozai's frown darkened. "The fact that you are friends of my daughter means nothing to me. It does not grant you permission to seek an audience with me whenever you wish."
Ty Lee instantly stood up. "I don't care." Her voice shook. "How could you? How could you do that to your own daughter?"
The Fire Lord did not bat an eye. "She deserved it, for the numerous offenses she made against me."
"But...but hurting her like that...terribly scarring her for life...that was cruel!" Ty Lee almost burst into tears again.
"I was disappointed in her. She was proving to be weak, just as Zuko is," Ozai rumbled. "She defied my commands by refusing to kill her brother." The Fire Lord was becoming angrier. "This is not the way I raised her. Because she dishonored me, she faced the consequences. It is only just."
"Just?" Mai growled. "This is what you call just?"
"I have had about enough of you two," Ozai spat. "Azula is no longer welcome at my home, and neither are you!"
Just then, a nurse hurried up to them, dragging her white robes with her. Heaving for breath, she pointed shakily up at the palace. "The princess...she...my lord...and ladies...I apologize...!"
Mai felt her chest tighten with panic. "What?" she snapped. "What happened to Azula?"
"She's gone!" the nurse looked terrified, and not only for Azula, but for herself. She knelt on the ground, pleading. "I am so sorry," she begged. "Please...!"
"Gone?" Ty Lee squeaked, covering her mouth. "Gone as in...dead?"
"Oh no!" The nurse replied quickly. "She disappeared. Her window is open, and..."
"How the hell did that happen?" Mai let one of her rare outbursts escape. "You're supposed to be taking care of her! How did she escape? How could you let her?"
"Forgive me, my lady," the nurse bowed, truly scared now. "But you must have mercy on me! The princess...she...she threatened us with fire, and commanded for us to leave immediately. We did not want to...but we also did not want to disobey our princess...and we were worried for our lives."
"So what happened?" Mai hissed.
"A few minutes after she expelled us from her room, we dared to go back in. We decided that we must insist that she receive treatment from us. But by the time we opened the door, her window was wide open...and she was gone."
Ty Lee let out a small whimper. "Oh no, Azula. What have you done?"
Mai turned to Ozai, knowing she was going to despise his response. "What do you make of this, my lord?" she spat with sarcasm.
Ozai let out a breath. "It seems that my daughter knows where her loyalties lie after all. After I punished her, she realized that if she does not want anything worse to befall her, she must instantly carry out my order. Azula has gone to dispose of Zuko and the avatar. It seems to me like harsh punishments can offer satisfactory outcomes."
Mai ground her teeth, clenching the dagger in her hand tightly. She willed herself not to impale Ozai between the eyes.
"Now, as for you two, get out of my sight," Ozai snarled. He turned around, his robes billowing behind him.
Ty Lee fell to the ground on her knees, gripping fistfuls of grass. "What are we supposed to do?" she sighed in despair.
"Simple." Underneath Mai's characteristic bored tone lay a spark of determination. "We're going to find Azula."
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I hope you guys didn't mind that this entire chapter was a flashback. It was pretty difficult to write.
And pretty please drop a review down in the box! I love your support, it means a lot to me, and motivates me to write (Or type...) ^.^