After the vacation got back to the palace, and Azula had the energy she needed to get the wheels turning. She would advance this country, try and stop her.

Ty Lee and Sokka were getting ready to go to the Air Temple.

"We're going to see Aunt Katara," Ty Lee told Hakoda.

"Aunt Tara!"

She kissed his forehead.

Iroh headed back to his teashop. "I guess I gotta work someday."

Azula said they would try to visit Ba Sing Se in the spring, but it would likely be late spring. She had a lot to do here.

He stopped by to see Lu Ten before he left and Ursa was holding him. "Isn't he adorable?"

The baby smiled at his grandmother.

Iroh kissed his forehead. "I bet you'll be so big the next time I see you." He said his farewell to the rest of the children and then he was headed home.

Mai was wondering if she should write Ruon a letter. It would be kind of comical to tell him about Ember Island, given that they met there and she helped wreck his then best friend's house.

Dear Ruon Jian,

I had a family vacation on Ember Island this weekend and it made me think of you since we met there. This time, I did not have any epic fights with my boyfriend or vandalize a house, but I did eat too many turtle crab cakes and my daughter built an epic sandcastle.

Guess how many people we took on this vacation.

Come on guess…

Including myself, there were 15 of us on the trip, talk about chaos. Who thought it would be a good idea to take two babies, four children, one pre-teen and eight adults on one vacation? Oh yeah, the Fire Lord. Talk about crying babies, disputes over what to eat, and trying to find family appropriate entertainment that wasn't boring.

All things considered, it was a pretty fun time. Don't tell Azula, lest she try to make it an annual event. It will only get crazier as our children get older.

I hope all is well with you.

Mai

She left the letter on her desk, no way am I sending this!

Unfortunately for Mai, she didn't communicate this to her servant, who went through the trouble of sending out the letter for her.

Her letter made it to Ruon Jian a day later, since he lived in Capital City.

He laughed when he got it.

He fashioned the following response.

Dear Mai,

How did you fit 15 people in one vacation house? Did you set up tents in the back and pretend it was a refugee camp? You totally could have worked in a historical lesson and made it an educational trip; it might have qualified as tax deductible in that case.

I'm disappointed you didn't vandalize Chan's house this time. It really should be an Ember Island tradition. Although, I suppose wanting to be a responsible mother is a good enough excuse, this time.

I am having a good time. I got a promotion, which was unexpected, but I won't complain. Now, I get to help brainstorm projects to help rebuild the Fire Nation. I know I want at least one project to involve agriculture, since food supplies have been a problem over the years. I'm not sure if I should focus on reducing water waste or cleaning up polluted soil.

As you can tell, I have the most glamorous job. There's nothing sexier than a man who cleans up the environment, at least that's what they promised me when I took this job. I hope it's true.

I'm sure the Fire Lord will come up with plenty of activities for a group of 15. If you thought Ember Island was something, watch out.

Cheers,

Ruon Jian

When Mai got his letter, she realized that someone must have sent out the one she wrote. I can't believe he read that! Furthermore, she couldn't believe he wrote back. I guess he doesn't think I'm as much of a weirdo as I think I am. Does this mean he's also a weirdo?

Dear Ruon Jian,

We actually fit 15 people in two vacation houses. Apparently, buying the house next door made more sense than bring fewer people on the vacation. This gave everyone a place to sleep, but it made getting everyone in the same place complicated. People kept going in and out of houses. No one knew who was where. Haru wanted to buy the house on the other side in case they have more kids, so maybe they'll try to have an 18-person vacation. Who knows?

Congratulations on the promotion. I know nothing about agriculture, but I'm sure you will do something impressive. I cannot and will not comment on the sexiness of an environmentalist relative to the general population.

The brood is has shrunk from 15 to 11, but that is still a lot of people who live here normally. Every time we get visitors, it's like a full house.

Best,

Mai

While they wrote back and forth, Ty Lee and Sokka made their way to the Air Nation.

Katara was excited to finally have guests. No one really visited them except for Sokka and he hadn't been there in some time.

She cleaned up the temple, making sure everything was in place.

"It's just Sokka," Aang said about to eat an apple.

"He's bringing Ty Lee, and I don't want her thinking we live in squalor; you better put that core away when you're done." I.e. not leave it on the ground and walk away.

"Okay, but she lived in a circus. I doubt she's a clean freak."

Two hours later, Sokka arrived with his fiancée and his son.

"Aunt Tara! Uncle Aang!" He yelled as he ran towards them.

"Hi Hakoda," Katara scooped him up and hugged him. "You're getting so big!"

"Hi Aang!" Ty Lee hugged him and then Katara.

"Where's Bumi?" Sokka asked.

"He's taking his nap. Did you have fun in the Fire Nation?"

"We did," Sokka said.

"He proposed," Ty Lee showed them the ring.

"AAHH!" Katara yelled and hugged Ty Lee, scaring Aang and Sokka. "Welcome to the family. Oh, I'm so happy for you two." She hugged her brother. "It's about time."

"What? We haven't even been dating two years."

"Time has nothing to do with it, oh you to are so good together and Hakoda can have a sibling and aw!" She went into wedding mode, telling Ty Lee all about the tribe traditions.

Sokka wanted to let Ty Lee have whatever kind of wedding he wanted. He already did the full on tribe thing once.

Aang felt reminiscent of when he was engaged to Katara. The Air Nation didn't have formal ceremonies, so he just went with what she had wanted.

Bumi woke up, possibly from his mother's loudness, and Sokka scooped him up.

"Uncle Sokka's here."

"Sokk-uh!"

"I wish I saw more of him."

"You would if you visited more," Katara retorted.

"Sorry. I had to wait for the jeweler to be done making the ring."

"This time. You used to visit more often."

"I got tied up and it's not like you tried to visit me."

"Where would I go, Mr. Nomad?"

"Well, we'll be in the tribe more consistently now." Sokka was so glad to have his life on track. He was in love with an amazing woman, had an awesome son and he would be going back home to his people. Two years ago, his marriage was collapsing and he had no idea what the future had in store, but he liked where his life was now.

Ty Lee was glad to be settling down. Azula was right. Being a warrior for so long was wearing down on her, mentally more than physically. It was great being one of the girls, but she loved having a family of her own and she wouldn't trade it for the world.

This was her first time in the Southern Air Temple. It was really nice.

Zuko started to lose track of the days. He had no calendar and no reason to keep track anymore. His only reprieve is that Ozai got in trouble for fighting one of the other inmates and he's in solitary for the day.

Zuko has a day free of his mockery. He wondered when he became his father. Was it one defining moment or was it a gradual change that was so slight that he didn't know it.

He just wished his punishment would be decided already. Normally, he would have to face a trial, but Zuko had passed a treason law that authorized the Crown to dole out punishment sans trial in the event of an assassination attempt against a royal family member.

Azula could sentence him to life, having his bending taken (provided Aang agrees to do it), hard labor, pretty much anything other than death with no questions asked. If she orders death, there is a hearing, but it would be easy enough for her to win.

The only thing worse that hearing bad news is panicking over worse news. Was she trying to make him sweat? Did she forget about him?

He had no idea what was left of his life or where it was going. He just knew that he was trapped by a glass ceiling. The only way to go was down.

The situation with Suki and the Kyoshi warriors only deteriorated after their meeting. Suki started chugging a bottle of moon peach wine. She had a shift in 30 minutes and often went drunk.

She smelled like wine when she got to her shift. The girl she was replacing was concerned.

"Are you okay? Should I send someone to relieve you?"

"I'm FINE!" she snapped.

The girl reported the incident to Meng. Meng went to go check it out. "Are you drunk?"

"NOOOOOO!" she slurred.

"Why would you get drunk?"

"Why would I drink? I fell in love with a man who promised me the world, just to drop me like a sack of bricks because I couldn't deliver him a firebender. My husband left me. He took OUR son, who calls that circus freak Mommy! I'll never love again!" she sobbed.

Meng was in pain just watching this, but she knew Suki had to break down to get built back up.

She hugged her friend. "We're going to get you some help."

The girls unanimously voted to send Suki to rehab. "We're not kicking you out permanently. You just need to heal. You're been carrying this pain for too long."

She was too broken to fuss about it. She was going to the clinic in Gaoling. Two girls went with her to make sure she got there.

In the weeks that followed the family vacation, Ursa started to feel stronger each day. She knew she could make it through. It would always hurt, but she had to accept that some things were out of her hands and enjoy life's simple pleasures while she could.

She decided she wanted to spend some quality time with both of her daughters and the three women went out to dinner, their first mother/daughters event ever.

They went to the Turtle Duck Palace.

"I can't believe the portions are so large," Ursa said.

"This is a family style restaurant," Kiyi said.

"Then why did we get three different entrees?"

"Because we couldn't agree on one," Azula said dryly. "I'm sure Haru will demolish the leftovers anyway. He's like a bottomless pit."

"Worse than Sokka?" Kiyi asked.

"Not quite, but he is in the same range."

"I bet Hiro's going to be the same way," Ursa said. "And Lu Ten. The men in our family could always eat so much."

"My wrists are thankful that I don't do all of their cooking anymore."

"What would you make?" her mother asked her.

"They love ramen. I'd make the noodles at least once a week, usually twice in the winter."

"You didn't have a machine."

"Nope. They don't sell such fancy things in nameless towns."

"Your town had no name."

"If it did, I didn't remember. I just called it that village near Omashu."

Kiyi snickered. "Even Hira'a had a name."

"What kind of town has an apostrophe in its name?"

Ursa shrugged. "I don't know why it's spelled like that."

"Maybe my fifth child will have an apostrophe in her name."

"You're pregnant?"

"Not yet, but Haru wants to have more kids."

"Do you?"

"I wouldn't be opposed to it, but not right now. I'm much too busy."

"I can't imagine having four kids," Kiyi said. "Maybe one or two, but four."

"We planned on two, and then said, why not one more and then Lu Ten surprised us."

"I think it's nice we have so many kids in the palace," Ursa said.

"You're just anxious that Kiyi's growing up aren't you," Azula teased.

"No," she insisted.

"Before you know it, she's going to have a boyfriend and …"

"No boys!"

"Hey!" Kiyi complained.

"Oh, get ready for some terrible school dances and slobbery kisses," Azula teased.

"EW!"

"When was your first kiss?" Ursa asked her older daughter.

Azula laughed. "I was thirteen."

"Was he good?" Kiyi asked.

"Ty Lee was just fine."

"Ty Lee!" Ursa exclaimed.

Kiyi started bursting out in laughter.

"Everyone else had been kissed, and I wanted to know what the fuss was about so I told her to kiss me. She did."

"Did you order her into kissing you?"

"Define order?"

After their dinner, they went to see a play. "Something tells me this is going to suck," Kiyi said.

"As long as it's not Love Amongst the Dragons."

"I refuse to see that play," Kiyi retorted, having heard her parents' love story too many times.

When they got to the playhouse, they found out "The Crown" was playing.

"What is this?" Azula questioned.

"I forgot. They wrote a play about you when they thought you died." Ursa had donated Azula's diaries to Capital City's College of Arts and Sciences and the theatre department wanted to do a play based on the Princess. Ursa had authorized it.

"About me?"

"Yeah. I guess they had to change the ending."

It was a two-part play, the first part playing tonight. Azula couldn't believe she was going to watch a play about herself, with her mother. Awkward!

They sat in the royal box.

Azula ordered a bottle of wine; she knew she would need it.

The curtain's opened. A woman was giving birth, a nurse holding a toddler and a man was there, pacing back and forth.

"Stop doing that, you're making me dizzy!"

"I just …" Need for this baby to be a firebender, and a damn good one.

"We won't know if he's a firebender until he gets here." The doctor said he might not be.

The doctor came in. "It's time. I need you to push."

She cries out, and a baby is born.

The actor playing Ozai stared at the doctor.

"She's a beautiful baby girl."

"And…" he demanded to know.

"Oh, she's a firebender all right."

Only then, did Ozai hold her. "I will name her, Azula."

The curtain closes.

A five year old is seen trying to firebend.

"I can't get it," he pouted.

An older man came out, Iroh. "Patience Zuko. You have to develop your chi before you will be able to call your fire on command."

They practice some and the boy goes inside. Watching from above is a three year old little girl. She tries and she gets it, a little blue flame.

"Mommy, Daddy look what I can do."

She shows them her fire.

Ursa looks confused. "Why is it blue?"

Ozai grins. "She must be a prodigy."

"What's prodigy?"

A jealous Zuko looks on as Ozai turns his attention to Azula. A rivalry has been born.

Azula comes out at five years old and begins training with her father. He praises her as she learns her katas. Zuko anxiously watches with his mother.

"How come she gets to train with Dad?"

"You will have your turn," Ursa promised him.

"It's not fair. He doesn't notice me anymore."

As Azula watches the play, she starts to reconsider her relationship with her brother. She used to look up to him. When she was just learning to firebend, she thought she would get to practice with her brother. She didn't know she would be replacing him. She didn't know it would tear her family apart.

Ursa and Ozai argue about his preferential treatment.

"When he can control his flame, I will train him. Until then, I don't want to hear any of his whining."

Ursa grabs his hand, trying to continue the conversation.

Ozai shoves her into a wall.

Neither Kiyi nor Azula knew of the abuse Ursa suffered at Ozai's hand, but it wasn't surprising.

The next scene shows Azula at seven years old. She performs for her grandfather who is impressed with her progress.

"She is most advanced for her age."

"That's nothing." Ozai tells Azula to do a complicated move. She couldn't do it.

"Maybe next time," Azulon left.

Ozai was furious. "You got it right yesterday."

"I tripped."

"I will not tolerate failure."

Azula turned around, lifting her shirt and he burned her back with his hand

"Next time, get it right."

"Yes father."

Lu Ten goes to see if his cousin wants to go play and finds her in the doctor's office.

"Who did this to you?"

"It was a training accident."

"Shaped like a hand?"

Lu Ten confronts Ozai. Ozai hits him, but Lu Ten counters, bloodying his uncle's nose.

"You little brat!"

"I'm not afraid of you."

It felt like a lifetime ago when Azula and Lu Ten were close. She missed her cousin.

The next scene they show is with Zuko and Ursa. Azula jealously watches as they play in the garden. She burns a flower. When Zuko tells on her, she is sent upstairs without any dinner. She burns him for snitching, only to get punished by her mother again.

Lu Ten and Iroh go off to war, leaving no one to isolate her from Ozai. She starts to get meaner, lashing out at her brother and her mother.

The pursuit of perfection starts taking its toll on her. She trains before school and after it, afraid of making even the slightest of mistakes. Her friends watch in confusion.

"Why is she so obsessed?" Ty Lee asks Mai.

"I don't know."

The Palace receives word of Lu Ten's death and Iroh's abandoning the siege.

Ozai makes his play for the crown. In the play, he poisons Ozai and Ursa takes the fall. She leaves overnight.

Ozai takes the crown, and Azula is the Crown Princess.

"You are one step closer to being Fire Lord," he promises his daughter.

"What about Zuko?"

"He'll screw up, guaranteed."

Azula and Zuko's rivalry only grows. She becomes a firebending master first and Ozai rewards her handsomely, with her own palanquin.

Zuko bitterly talks to his uncle about her.

"There's more to life than being the best firebender," he tries to explain, but Zuko doesn't get it. Only winning matters.

Azula learns to throw lightening at 12. She closes her eyes and opens them again showing perfect form as a bolt clears the sky.

Ozai watches proudly. "She's just where I need her."

Two weeks later, Zuko gets banished. After he and Iroh depart, Ozai says to himself, with him out of the way, Azula will take the Crown.

Azula never thought about the timing. He banned Zuko, not for what he said but to clear a spot for Azula.

The curtain closed and there was thunderous applause.

Intermission.

Azula and Ursa had downed the bottle, neither of them comfortable with the new revelations. Ursa didn't know Ozai used to burn her. What kind of mother didn't know?

Kiyi is very glad she's not a princess right now.

Act II

Azula graduates the royal academy with her best friends. Ty Lee runs away and Mai has to move. Azula is left alone with her father.

He starts training her to kill.

"This is how you aim for the heart."

A year later, she is sent to arrest her uncle and brother. When she fails, she recruits Ty Lee, using coercion.

Fear and intimidation are the only way to get loyalty.

She gets Mai too and the story continues. They skip over the war scenes without Zuko. The focus is the crown, not the war.

They show Azula getting her brother to join her when she takes Ba Sing Se.

They show the family vacation where Azula is mad that she is being kept out of important war meetings. They show the bonfire where the friends talked out their issues, but not the party or the later trashing.

Zuko defects while Azula is protecting the throne.

Next is the skirmish at Boiling Rock. Azula hated this scene. They portrayed it quite accurately, which is why she hated it.

Azula started drinking heavily after losing her two best friends.

Then, Ozai abandons her to burn down the Earth Kingdom.

Sozin's Comet comes and she starts hallucinating. She bans everyone from the palace only to lose complete control in her agni kai.

They show Zuko's Coronation and her in a cell while it goes on.

Zuko demands to know where his mother is. Ozai won't tell him, but Azula gets the letters.

"This is the only trump card she has," Ozai says to himself while he sits in jail. "I hope she uses it wisely."

Then, the search for Ursa begins. Azula is taken along, and after fighting with her mother, she takes off.

The play ends. Part II will be in four months.

The crowd complains. Now, they have to know what happens.

"So that was an interesting choice," Kiyi said as they got ready to leave. What do you say at this point?

"I didn't realize," Ursa started …

"How realistic it would be," Azula offered.

"Yeah, although I shouldn't be surprised. They did a lot of interviews."

Azula had to admit, "the woman who played me was impressive. She got my stride pretty well."

She had done such a good job that people asked Azula for autographs, thinking she was the actress.

When she signed Fire Lord Azula, the man was confused. "You're signing your character's name?"

Azula produced a small blue flame.

"Oh, forgive me my Lord."

Azula did want to talk to the actress, but not today. She had a lot of thinking to do today.

They took a carriage back to the palace. They didn't speak much. Ursa hoped this wasn't the last daughter day.

"We should do it again, although maybe not a play," Azula said as she retired to her bedroom.

"Why did you marry such a nasty man?" Kiyi asked her mother.

"He didn't exactly present himself that way. I thought he was nice, albeit very direct. It wasn't until my wedding, when he told me not to contact anyone from my past anymore, that I got scared of him." Before, she had only been intimidated by Azulon.

"Well, I'm glad he's not my dad."

Kiyi went to bed. Her sister's antics were starting to make sense.

Azula gave Haru the leftover food.

"I was just about to get a snack. How was it?"

"It was enjoyable. We saw a play, about me."

"Someone did a play about you?"

"It's called the Crown and this is just part one."

"Two plays about you. Was it good?"

"It was very good. I'm not so sure on how I feel about the world knowing about my life in such detail."

Azula thought it made her look like a little girl who had become a monster.

What she didn't realize was the play humanized her. It showed how she had gotten to that point. Most people knew of her misdeeds. Few knew of how she got to be that way.