AN: Thanks for reading.

After eluding the Avatar for a few weeks, Azula wanted to take her kids on one last vacation. She knew that her luck just might run out.

"Where are we going Mommy?" Hiro asked.

"Somewhere I used to go as a child."

They made it by boat to Ember Island and found a cottage that they could rent. "I used to play here on the beach with my brother. Maybe you and your sister could play here too." She turned to Rei. "It's important that no one sees your blue flame. Turn it down if you need your bending."

"Yes Mommy!"

She kissed her daughter's forehead, and they ran outside with their father.

Azula had a lawyer to meet with. She had to plan for the worst.

When she came back to the house, her kids were ready for lunch. "How about we go to the turtle crab shack?"

"What's turtle crab?" Hiro asked her.

"It's delicious." Her kids knew nothing of Fire Nation food. She would have to teach them.

Haru hoped that they worked this all out. He needed them too. He was nothing without his family.

Katara was livid when she saw the letter. "Of course she's starting trouble."

"Well, now we know where she's headed," Sokka said. "Let's watch the ports for her."

Zuko's hitman follow the Fire Lord's friends. They would lead him straight to Azula.

They tried port after port, just to get no news at all.

"Maybe she went to Ember Island," Sokka suggested.

"You think she's trying to lead a coup from the beach?" Katara said.

"Maybe she's just waiting for us to go away or be dealt with."

They headed to Ember Island and started to search the beach.

After two days of looking, Aang was tired. He knew they couldn't quit, but he was losing patience with his wife saying negative things all day, and Sokka complaining he was hungry.

Finally, they saw something. They had just eaten dinner and they saw a boy playing with sand.

"It's an earthbender!"

Aang approached, and it was Hiro. He saw the bald man and ran away. "Rei let's go!"

The children ran away from the house, trying to keep the Avatar and his friends away from their mother. Unfortunately, Sokka turned to see Azula running the opposite direction.

Azula got to a boat but was having trouble getting it to start. The boat was run by coal, but it had been sabotaged. She kept adding flame, but getting nowhere. Finally, she smelt something. "That can't be good," she said to herself.

"Azula, please just turn yourself in," Aang called. "We don't want to fight you."

"Stand back," she yelled. "This thing is going to blow."

Of course, Katara approached, trying to freeze Azula in place with the water. Azula had to melt it to get away, and she knew she was in trouble.

Sokka asked, "What's that smell?" just as the boat exploded.

Haru screamed as he ran towards the dock. "What the hell did you do?"

"I didn't," Katara stammered. "I don't know how it …" she had no idea how the ship exploded but it did.

"MINA!" Haru screamed. Just like that, she was gone.

The hit man left, mission accomplished.

Zuko got a letter that his sister was dead. The ship exploded accidentally.

"How unusual," he said.

Mai shook her head. "Those poor kids. Why couldn't she think of them?"

"It's Azula," he said dryly.

But even Zuko didn't expect what happened next. Two days after he received word that Azula was dead, he received word that Haru had died as well.

Aang saw the whole thing.

"I just can't do it. Mina's gone. Our baby's gone. How can I look my children in the eye and tell them that I failed them? It is all my fault. My family is destroyed and it's all my fault."

Before Aang could stop him, Haru jumped off the cliff, leaving to join his wife in the afterlife.

Now her kids were orphans.

Aang felt sick to his stomach.

Katara was mad at him. "How could he be so selfish?"

"He was devastated," Aang said softly. "And I couldn't help him." He didn't know what he would do if he lost Katara and she had been pregnant. Haru didn't believe for a second that Azula wrote that letter. He insisted she had been framed, and she died because of it.

Hiro couldn't stop crying. Rei was furious. She was too upset and angry to cry. She just kept looking out the clouds, wishing for the impossible.

Ursa couldn't believe it when she heard Azula and Haru were dead, but she hoped she could get to know their children. "Maybe I could raise them with Kiyi," she offered. Kiyi was only 12. It would be like she got two younger siblings.

The day before the funeral, Zuko went to Boiling Rock.

"Zuko, what brings you here?"

"Your daughter is going to be buried tomorrow."

"Is this my invitation to her funeral?"

"Are you kidding? It would be a total debacle if I let you come."

Ozai turned to him. "What a shame? The rest of the family is going and I'm the only one who will miss her."

"Then why did you tell me to kill her?"

"I did no such thing Zuko. I told you everything came at a price. To keep your Crown, you were ready to sacrifice your own sister."

"I had no choice. She was pregnant."

"You killed a baby too. I guess you're more like me than you thought."

"I'll never be like you."

Ozai laughed. "Hmm. So that's it. Ursa II is the only heir now."

"Unfortunately, no."

"What?" Ozai frowned.

"She had two children."

"Are they firebenders?"

"One of them is."

"Then why kill her if she had already produced an heir."

Zuko didn't answer.

"You didn't know. She was smart enough to keep her daughter a secret. Oh, the webs we weave when we are trying to deceive."

Zuko left without another word.

It was the day of the funeral. Ursa insisted on a royal one for her daughter since she had never been convicted of treason.

Zuko gave in. What difference did it make now?

Rei wore a white dress, the color of mourning in the Fire Nation and was furious when she saw the Avatar and his friends there.

"Why is he here?"

"He came to pay his respects," Iroh said.

"Respects. He's the one who killed them. If he hadn't chased my mother around the world like an escaped bearded cat, she'd still be alive. My father would still be alive. I would be looking forward to being a big sister again, and not saying goodbye to both of my parents."

Aang froze. He didn't expect her hostility, but it wasn't surprising.

Katara just got mad. "It's not our fault. If your mother hadn't tried to take the throne."

"My mother didn't care about the throne," Rei yelled back. "She cared about being a good wife and mother. She cared about the younger brother or sister we were supposed to have, the one that you took from us. You didn't care about my mother when she was alive. You have no right to be here now." She had a defiant look in her eyes, her mother's look and her mother's eyes.

"The same goes for all of you. What kind of mother walks out on her kids?" she yelled at Ursa. "What kind of brother tries to take away his own sister's family?" she continued her rant against her uncle. "And what kind of uncle sits around and brews tea and stuffs his face all day while everything's falling apart? None of you were here when it mattered. What business do you have being here now?"

She ran off.

Ursa could have sworn it was her five-year-old daughter yelling at her just now. Iroh was thinking the same thing. No one said anything until Sokka said, "Is that what Azula was like as a child because I could picture that."

Mai had been greeting Ty Lee and missed the fighting. "Where's Rei?"

"She needed a moment to be alone," Ursa said.

"That was the understatement of the year," Katara said bitterly.

The soldiers marched. The urn was empty since Azula's body was never found. The sages presided over the ceremony, the head sage giving the eulogy.

"I remember the day she was born," he said somberly. "Her parents named her after the Fire Lord.

I remember when she first learned to firebend. Her blue flame was the first in 100 years.

I remember when she learned to throw lightening and when she conquered Ba Sing Se, but most of all, I remember that she loved cherries and she really hated the pits.

I may have forgotten a lot of things in my old age, but I'll never forget the Fire Nation's brightest star or how the brightest stars always go out first."

Ursa was sobbing. Iroh held her, finding tears for his niece that he didn't even know he had.

It was a symbol of respect to firebend a dragon shape to fly over the funeral. No one was more surprised than Iroh when Rei took a breath and released the dragon over all of them. At the tender age of five, she could do what many thrice her age could not. She was even more advanced than Azula had been at this age. Iroh was determined to make sure she didn't meet the same fate.

After the funeral, they went to hear the will.

Azula's lawyer came forth. "They prepared a will in the event they both died within three days of each other. They wished all of Haru's inventions, the ones that do not belong to his employer, be donated to Omashu University. They wished that his model sky ship collection be left to his father. They wished that any possessions Azula had in the palace be given to her mother and she could distribute them as she saw fit and last but most certainly not least, they wished that their children be left in the custody of Ty Lee and their …"

"What?" Zuko interrupted. "They left their children to Ty Lee?" Why would they leave their children with such a simpleton?

Ty Lee stopped crying out of confusion. "They what?"

"When was this will written?" Ursa asked.

"Just two weeks ago. They left a letter to explain why Ty Lee. If I can finish the reading."

"Of course Counselor," Iroh said, surprised by the news, but maybe it was for the best.

"They also left to Ty Lee their home and their bank accounts, so she could take care of their children. If she declines to take custody, they wish that Haru's father take the children and the assets as he needs them."

Ty Lee's hands trembled as she opened the letter. Mai held her hand.

Dear Ty Lee,

I promised myself that I would be the kind of mother that never left her children no matter what. If you are reading this, then I was dead wrong.

Only she would tell a joke after she's dead.

I know the quip was in bad taste, but I'm dead. What are you going to do about it?

Seriously, though, I know you are the best possible mother for my kids. You are the only one who remembers what I was like before my father started teaching me to be mean, before he instilled upon me the megalomania that was my downfall.

My children are going to hear a lot of things about me. Most of them are bad. Much of it is true, but I want them to know about the little girl who I once was and you're the only one who can show them.

I'm sure Mai is doing an excellent job with my niece, that she will get groomed to take the Crown and learn perfect manners and grammar and be well educated in both the arts and the sciences, a perfect Princess.

I want the opposite for my children. I want them to go in the backyard and get messy playing. I want them to make friends with common children. I want them to have little tea parties with their toys and walk on their hands and do all of the little things I thought were stupid, but I took for granted. I want them to be happy and I fear if they grow up in the palace, they will only know rivalry with their cousin and competition.

I want them to remember going to the circus and eating too many lychee nuts or a really weird looking bearded lady. Most of all, I want them to stay best friends, something Zuko and I couldn't do.

I know it will be hard, and its not the life you signed up for, but you would do a wonderful job with them. They need someone like you and I think you need them too. You've been a warrior for far too long. It's time for you to relax and enjoy the simpler things in life.

Rei is stubborn like me. Hiro is a sweetie like his father. Together, they are a bundle of trouble, but only the best kind. They are close to Haru's grandfather. I know he will help you with them, and they do enjoy spending the summer at his house so maybe they can still do that.

I know you will do what's right because you always did before. I know I have no right to ask this of you, but I'm dead, so you can't yell at me for it.

I never stopped loving you. You were the best friend I ever had.

Azula (and Haru but mostly Azula)

Ty Lee cried for a good ten minutes before she spoke. "I'll take them in."

"This is absurd," Zuko said. "They are apart of the royal family and they should live in the palace."

Mai had read the letter over Ty Lee's shoulder and started to mourn the friend she used to have. "If we died and Azula became Fire Lord, would you want her to raise our kids?"

"That's totally different."

"No it isn't. If I died, I'd want our kids to be with Ursa or Iroh. I would want my wishes to be respected, and Azula deserves the same."

Iroh agreed. "I think they should stay in the same home. This is enough of a shock without them having to move."

With everyone else in agreement, Zuko had no choice but to let the girl who threatened his reign return to the Earth Kingdom. He found his control of the situation slipping through his fingers.

Rei was surprised to learn Ty Lee would be coming to live with them. She had never heard of the girl before her mother died, but her mother wanted it this way, so she nodded in agreement.

They prepared to leave for the Earth Kingdom.

Katara still insisted Azula was guilty. "Zuko had the letter." She produced it.

Azula's lawyer took a look. "This isn't her handwriting," he insisted. He showed them the will and Haru's father's letter, explaining why they didn't give him the kids. "Her handwriting changed over time. It's similar to that letter, but this letter looks like it was written by her years ago. I authenticate letters all the time. It was a good fake."

Katara's stomach sank. "What did I do?" She still didn't know how the boat exploded, but now she wondered if they ever should have been chasing her at all.

"Who would fake a letter?"

"Maybe the loyalists did it," Mai said. "To drum up excitement."

"I guess so," Aang wasn't sure if he would ever really know the truth. He did know it would be a long time before he chased anyone again. This was just terrible.

Sokka had one thing to say before Rei and Hiro left. "I know this doesn't bring her back, but I am so sorry." He was on the verge of tears. Sokka had promised himself he'd never break up a family again when he learned how many fathers died on Sozin's Comet when he crashed the airships, but then his own wife left him and now Azula and Haru were dead. It's like trouble just kept following him.

"Do you have any children?" Rei asked him.

"I have a son."

"Make sure he grows up with you."

Rei and Hiro left with Ty Lee. The warriors said they would ship her stuff to her. Ty Lee couldn't believe it. All this time, Azula had been married to Haru and they had a family. Just like that, it was gone.

The first few months were a struggle for the former acrobat. Rei argued at every turn. Somehow, Hiro got dirt everywhere earthbending in the house. She couldn't train either of them in their element, but Haru's father could help with the earthbending.

Ty Lee needed a way to relate with Rei. "Did your mother ever tell you about how we met?"

Rei looked at her blankly. "She never told me who she was."

"Oh right. Well I was about your age and your grandmother had invited me over for a play date. She wanted your mother to have some friends her own age. When I got here, she was practicing in the yard. She would practice her firebending day and night, wanting to impress her father and her namesake when I appeared, a girl in a pink dress and her hair in a braid."

"Don't tell me you still wear your hair the same way as you did when you were six."

"Your mother had the same hairstyle from when she was six until she came here. Topknots were deemed for boys, but she always pulled it off. Anyway, when I got to the palace, she stared at me blankly. 'Mother, who is this girl?' she said, not even looking at me."

"Her name is Ty Lee and I want you two to be friends."

"Why?"

"Because little girls have friends their own age."

"She bores me."

"You haven't even tried yet," Ursa told her.

"What can you do?" she asked me.

"What do you mean?"

"Can you firebend?"

"No."

"Can you fight?"

"No."

"What can you DO?"

"I can walk on my hands." I started to walk on my hands.

"How is that useful?"

"Well, I don't know."

"Come back here, when you can say why you are useful."

"Her mother wasn't very pleased. I was just confused. No one had ever asked me to be useful before. I didn't think I had to really know how to do anything. Your mother had a way of bringing out the best in people. With her, I learned to do things I never thought were even possible."

"Then why do so many people hate her?" Now that Rei knew Azula had been her mother, she listened for the name left and right, hearing all of the terrible things that people would say about her.

"Her father raised her to take over the world. He was mean. He would hurt her to make sure she did what he said, and he taught her to hurt other people to get them to obey her. She was afraid of him, so she hurt a lot of people, to make sure he got what he wanted."

"Why didn't grandma stop him?"

"She couldn't. He was the prince and she was only the princess because he married her. She had no real power."

"Like Aunt Mai."

"Well, I hope Zuko is much better to her than Ozai was to Ursa, but Mai's only the Fire Lady because they are married. She doesn't have any direct power."

"Maybe the Fire Lord shouldn't have so much power. If he had to listen to other people, then Ozai wouldn't have been able to try to take over the world."

She was only five, but she was so bright. Ty Lee couldn't believe it even though she saw the girl every day. "I know, but once someone gets power, he or she seldom wants to give it up. You need a leader who is determined to be fair."

As Ty Lee shared more about Rei's mother, the girl began to trust her more. She started opening up about her favorite memories of her parents and telling Ty Lee about all of the things her mother was supposed to do with her. "She said she'd teach me how to throw lightening. She could hit a coin from 20 km away." She was also supposed to get her ready for her first day of school, take her to her first dance and do her hair on her wedding day. Ty Lee promised to do her best with the last two. "I can't throw lightening myself, but maybe we could find a book on it when you're ready."

She did, however, teach Rei and Hiro about aura reading. They were a bit too young for chi blocking, but they understood the basic idea.

Sokka was back at the tribe with his son. It was their first autumn without Suki and Sokka was very somber.

Kanna came to see him. "I'm worried about you. You've been in a rut since you got here."

"I should feel better. I have my son and he's absolutely amazing, but I can't stop feeling like a failure because Suki's not here and I can't stop picturing two kids who don't have their parents anymore because of me. I just feel like a failure."

Kanna sat down with him. "Well sitting in here depressed isn't helping. I think you should travel before the winter sets in. Find some inspiration. Pull yourself out of this rut."

"You're right Gran Gran." You usually are.

Sokka took his son on a trip. He didn't plan the destinations. He just started visiting islands. They got to Ember Island, which was fine until they left the crab shack. Once he saw the dock where Azula had died he freaked out.

"We're going to get back on the boat Hakoda."

"Yes Dad." He knew not to ask why his father wanted to leave. He seldom appeared scared, so it must be bad.

He had sent a letter saying they could stop by Kyoshi Island if she wanted to see their son, but he had received no answer. He stopped by anyway, only to hear from the dockworker that he was not allowed on the island.

"Maybe we'll see your Mom on the way back," Sokka lied as they continued on their way not wanting him to think his mother didn't want him.

They made it to Gaoling and decided to visit Toph. She had finally given birth to baby Lin.

Her husband Satoru answered the door.

"Hey Sokka! Hakoda! Come in."

Lin was napping. Toph came to the door. "Snoozles, baby Snoozles, what's going on?"

"I thought we'd drop in and see how you were doing."

Toph was a lot different than she had been during the war. Her voice was lower. Her body was fuller and she still had some baby pudge from Lin. She seemed less energetic than usual.

"Is this a bad time? You look tired."

"I'm always tired. I just gave birth last month."

"Oh yeah. She was late."

"Like three weeks. She wanted to camp out."

"How is she?"

"Well she eats and sleeps and poops all day. Maybe I should have named her Snoozles!"

"Haha! She's healthy I hope."

"Yes and she'll be an earthbender when she's ready."

"Congratulations!"

"Eh, she'd be awesome anyway."

They started talking over some tea. Hakoda was tired so Sokka put him down for a nap too.

"So what brings you to Gaoling?"

"I was trying to find a way out of my rut. Gran Gran suggested I travel and I ended up here after they wouldn't let me on Kyoshi Island."

"They wouldn't let you on the island?" But what about his mother?

"I don't know what to do. I want Suki to be in his life, but I can't make her. I feel like I failed him."

"You're a good Dad, Sokka. Just keep trying and be as much of a parent for him as you can. He needs you."

"I know." Toph could tell there was something else on his mind, but he didn't mention it.

He stayed in Gaoling for five days, showing his son the rumble where he met Toph, the street gamblers who cheat, the fall festival, and he won his son a stuffed badger mole.

Toph only went out for a little bit each day. Lin was still at the age where she needed to be home pretty much all day and she got tired easily, but Toph hated feeling like a couch potato.

On Sokka's last day in town, the two old friends got dinner. "Something's been eating away at you since you've been here, Snoozles!"

"I just, I can't stop thinking about this summer, about Azula and Haru."

"Their deaths weren't your fault."

"You didn't see it," not that she sees anything. "Rei just turned five and instead of having a birthday party with her parents and her brother, she was 'burying' her mother and her father."

"It's not like you knew the boat was going to blow up. Azula didn't know it either."

"I think she did know. She told us to get back, that the ship was going to blow, but Katara advanced anyway. She used her firebending to try and not get frozen and that's when the ship blew up. She must have realized something was wrong with it when she couldn't get the engine started."

Even Toph's eyes dropped. "I didn't know that."

"It's not like we ever talk about that day. I think the others just try to pretend it didn't happen."

Toph wasn't sure what to say. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"No, but maybe I should. From the beginning, it was all very odd. No one's seen her in six years. Let's just check on her, but it spiraled out of control quickly. Katara started banging on the door. She fled. We had to get her kids to the neighbor. Haru took his kids to his father's and he fled. We went back to the Fire Nation. Zuko gave us this letter that we thought Azula had written."

"What do you mean you thought?"

"It was a letter planning a coup but according to her lawyer, it wasn't really her handwriting. It was an imitation. Anyway, we thought she was planning a coup so we went looking for her at Ember Island and then it all went down."

Toph was suspicious. "Who would fake a letter from her?"

"We're not sure. I think the worse of it was when they read her will. When I learned that she wanted Ty Lee to have her kids, and she just wanted them to be happy and have fun I realized how much of mistake we made. I mean it was clear we screwed up. Haru jumped off a cliff he was so upset, but she really changed, and none of us saw it until it was too late."

"Maybe you should go visit."

"Ember Island. I already freaked out there."

"No, I mean Ty Lee. I don't expect Azula's kids to be running into your arms, but I think you need to get over this, and I can't think of what else you can do."

Sokka frowned. "I think will head up to Omashu, but I don't know if I can just show up on their doorstep."

"You probably have a point there. Haru's dad is a nice guy. Maybe you should visit him."

Sokka rented an ostrich horse and took it to Omashu. His son was excited to be on one for the first time that he could remember. "Ostwich horse!"

Sokka kissed his son's head. "Let's go buddy."

It took them almost a week to get to Omashu. They stayed in inns along the way. When he did get to Omashu, he realized this was the city where he first saw Azula and Ty Lee for that matter. He showed his son around, taking him to see the caves and the mail chutes where Aang would play. He wondered how his brother in law was doing and decided to write him a letter.

Dear Aang,

I've been travelling over the past month or so with my son, trying to show him the world before winter and get my head on straight.

I saw Toph in Gaoling. Her baby is adorable and will eventually be a fearsome earthbender like her mother.

I haven't come across too many familiar faces other her and Satoru. I'm in Omashu now and I'm not sure where I will go next. Should I stop by the Air Nation before I come home?

I hope all is well with you, Katara and little Bumi. Send them my love.

Sokka

Aang hadn't been having such a good time either. He struggled to stay on top of his duties and help Katara with their son and she had been not quite herself since she learned that Azula was innocent. She remembered the pain of losing her own mother and couldn't handle the realization that she caused another girl the same misery and even worse, the girl had no father.

Most of the world saw Team Avatar as heroes, but for one little girl and one little boy, they came and then their parents died. Katara wasn't sure if she could ever forgive herself and in her grief came anger and a short temper.

Aang struggled too. He was supposed to help people. He was supposed to prevent tragedy but instead a young mother died, her children devastated, her estranged mother beside herself. He somehow took a fractured family and made them even more broken.

He still never talked to Zuko about it. It was like the Fire Lord pretended it didn't happen, that Azula never happened. Aang wanted to think it was his way of grieving or he was in too much shock to react, but deep down, his friend's coldness was disturbing to say the least.

Aang wondered if he should visit Iroh and see how he's doing.

The Prince had become much quieter since Azula died. He was always one for stories and tea and he still partook in them, but he felt this emptiness he hadn't felt since Lu Ten died. He never really liked his niece but underneath the bitter resentment, he loved her. He didn't know what was worse, not being there in her time of crisis or not realizing how much she cared until he saw her daughter.

The girl was a prodigy, just like her mother. She was outspoken and aggressive, but underneath she was passionate and loving. He realized Azula had been the same way but the love got lost in all the darkness. She had started to find the light again, but it wasn't enough.

It was too hard for him to visit the palace. He would just see Ursa crying or Kiyi being quiet instead of playing. Little Ursa was too young to really understand it, but Mai was somehow more quiet than usual. She would get the occasional letter from Ty Lee saying that Rei learned a new move or Hiro was trying to eat his weight in fudge, but mourning her former friend took more out of the Fire Lady than she ever thought possible.

Mai put on a brave face and acted just the same. If Zuko noticed her anguish, he didn't talk to her about it.