While everyone was enjoying the joyous wedding, Zuko sat alone in his cell. A man had come to see him again, the director of The Crown, wanting to interview the ex-Fire Lord for the rewrite he had to make to the sequel now that Azula was in fact alive.

Zuko was not exactly happy to talk to him, but it was his only visitor for the foreseeable future.

As the man probed him with questions about what he did and why he did it, he realized he was beginning to sound like a monster.

"I'm not this horrible guy that you are making me out to be."

"I'm just trying to get the facts."

When Zuko looked back at it all, he realized how horrid he sounded: sleeping with his best friend's wife and thinking he had gotten her pregnant, only to ignore her when the baby wasn't his and her marriage fell apart. He hid his wife's fertility from her, allowing her to blame herself for their lack of a firebending heir. He didn't even tell her Ursa II couldn't firebend. Mai had fainted upon delivery, and Zuko was so disappointed, he didn't say anything about it, causing Mai to believe she was a bender, and he never corrected her.

When the dissenting voices got louder, he fought with force instead of trying to address their concerns. He tricked the Avatar into helping him kill his sister, sending a hit man to follow along. Only to have the hit man refuse and then he sent a second one, just to find out Azula already had a firebending child.

He failed to get custody of her and then tried to kill her at the first opportunity only to be thwarted by his sister once again. It had been a trap. Ozai bragged about how Azula had come to see him before Zuko did and he had spoon fed Zuko the idea, knowing it would blow up in his face.

Now, he had nothing to look forward too. All he could say was this, "there was a time when Azula and I were really close. We would play outside together every time. Those days were short lived. Once she could bend, it was all Ozai could see, and all I saw was the emptiness of his abandoning me for her.

I didn't see my mother's love as enough to replace my father's rejection or Iroh's decision to be there for me when Ozai wasn't. No matter what I got, it was never enough.

Because I couldn't let go of my resentment for my father, I couldn't hold onto anything else. I didn't appreciate Mai's love or my friends who would have done anything for me. I just felt like a little boy stuck in my father's shadow.

Yeah, I was pretty upset when I thought Mai was sterile. I wondered what good was she if she couldn't produce children, and when Suki got pregnant, I thought I was in the clear that it would all work out for me. When the baby was Sokka's, the doctor suggested that I was sterile. I secretly had my seed tested, and I was.

I felt like I wasn't even a man anymore, even a creature as stupid as a lemur monkey can get a female pregnant. How would it look, the most powerful man in the country can't even produce useful seed.

When the voices got louder, I had to find Azula. I had to stop her. When Aang sent his letter saying Azula had started a new life and gotten married, I panicked. She might realize this was her chance to come back and take what she always wanted. She could produce an heir and take my Crown. I sent the hit man before I learned about Rei.

He refused, saying she was pregnant, and of course, I assumed it was a firebender and sent another hit man only for it to be the beginning of the end for me.

The only thing that mattered was proving myself as a man and as a ruler and all I did was prove to be a failure, and not because I lost the Crown, but because I lost everything trying to keep it.

I'm not the first person to try to kill for it, and I won't be the last. As long as there is a crown and royal siblings, people will fight for it. That much power is too intoxicating. I got addicted to it."

For the first time, Zuko admitted his wrongdoing to someone else. He thought it was just a show of how weak he was, but it was the first step in his own healing.

The next morning, Ty Lee and Sokka headed off for their honeymoon. She and Sokka were spending the week on a beachfront property in the Earth Kingdom.

The guests started getting ready to go back. Toph realized it had been quite a long trip just to turn around the next day.

"Hey Fire Princess, we're coming to visit." Why not take some time to hang out in the Fire Nation? It also meant Toph would see solid ground much sooner.

Rei was full of questions. "When are you going to give Lin a sibling?"

Toph shook her head. How is she so curious? "Why don't you ask that to Mai?"

"But she hasn't married her boyfriend yet."

"He's not my boyfriend," Mai retorted.

"Are you sure? He sounds like one to me."

"Who is Mai's boyfriend?"

"His name is RJ, well it's something longer than that, but I can never remember."

"Ruon Jian is not my boyfriend!"

"I heard you liked it when he used to flip his hair."

"Ew," Toph retorted.

"Azula, I'm going to kill you."

"But then you'll be in jail and away from your boyfriend."

Ty Lee's sisters decided to stay for a few days and get to know the tribe.

The warriors decided to go visit Suki. She had sent a letter telling them to enjoy the wedding. They decided it was time to get her spirits back up.

Everyone was where they wanted to be or on the path of healing, other than Ozai. He resolved to stay just as he was, whether the world liked him or not.

Spring 110AG

It was nine months later when the Gaang convened in the Fire Nation. The Crown II was debuting and they all wanted to see it.

Ursa wondered if the kids were old enough to go. Rei wanted to see it, as did Hiro. Azula was fine with them coming, but she was a little worried about Ursa II watching her father's downfall on a stage.

Mai had talked to her daughter about it and they agreed if she wanted to leave at anytime, all she had to do was squeeze her mother's hand.

"That goes for both of us," Ursa II said to her mother.

It was a ridiculous size for a theater group, eighteen of them going together. They had to adjust the royal box to fit so many people in it. The children would all be in front, their parents behind them.

The cast was excited and nervous that the Fire Lord was coming with so many people. It was great to perform in front of the people who lived the story, but it put extra pressure on them to be good.

They had been working on this project for two years now. They had done everything they could to get ready. The show was on.

The curtain opened. Azula was running through the forgetful valley, her hallucinations disappearing as she forgot the world that had troubled her so much.

She ran into a man who turned out to be Haru's father.

"Who are you and how did you get here?"

"I don't know."

They depict the pair making their way to Omashu where he introduces her to Haru.

It is a whirlwind romance, both in real life and on the stage. He proposed three months later, and they were excited to get married but … "We're broke," Mina pointed out to Haru.

"I know."

"Why do weddings cost so much?" From the food to the music, even getting the park cost money.

They were walking by when they saw a flyer. "It's a talent contest. The winner gets a free party."

Mina went inside. "Can the party be a wedding?"

"Oh of course. Those are the best parties."

Mina had only a few days to get an act ready. On Friday night, they went to the tavern.

A woman rudely said, "You are wasting your time. I always win the talent contest."

It was a 10-coin entry fee. Mina paid it and there were a lot of people there.

She was almost last; luckily the play skipped these performances.

She got on "stage" and performed the song, "Swimming."

The crowd loved it, roaring applause, and she was announced the winner.

The next scene was the wedding in the park, where Earth Air and Fire performed. Their wedding song was September, and they had never been happier. The guests were their neighbors and Haru's colleagues along with his father. Haru carried Azula off stage at the end of their wedding night. The crowd was whistling.

Ursa was happy that her daughter had such a joyous wedding, but sad that she had missed the actual event.

The next scene was of Zuko and Mai. They reconciled after their break up, and he proposed. Their relationship was in stark contrast to Mina and Haru's. It was prim and proper. She was the expected Fire Lady and everything had been done traditionally, asking her father for her hand, the ceremony itself and the party that followed.

It was hard for Mai to watch. She had been so happy at the time, but it was all theatrics.

After they got married, the play went back to Mina and Haru.

"You're having a firebender," the doctor told her. Privately, the doctor told Haru how unusual that was and asked him if he was sure he was the father.

"Of course I'm sure!"

They didn't realize that Mina had overheard them.

She got a book on firebending from the library and tried it. She was baffled by her blue flame and went to research that next.

"Princess Azula had a blue flame. Maybe a book on her will explain how she got it."

She had no trouble finding books on the notorious princess and was learning all sorts of things about her feats and her eventual breakdown.

"It sounds like she had a rough life." When she got to the end, she learned that the woman had disappeared April of last year, the same time she had been found.

"It can't be."

She looked for a picture of the princess, but there was none in this book. There was however a statue of her at the War History museum. Mina stared at her own likeness carved with stone and when she put up her hair in a topknot in front of the mirror she freaked out. What if Haru leaves her? What if her brother finds her and she gets sent back to the asylum or jail. Paranoia and self-doubt replaced the picture perfect image of her new life until she confesses to her husband.

Haru wonders how he didn't see it before, but once she started to tell him, it all made sense. "It's going to be okay," he said. "There's no reason anyone has to know."

The next scene was of Rei's birth. With her eyes and her father's hair, it was clear she was a child of both of theirs, to her doctor's surprise, and she was the firebender that he had predicted that she was.

The next scene was of Zuko and Mai having Ursa II. During her pregnancy, Mai didn't show any of the signs of having a firebnder, but the doctor said it's not always clear. "I didn't see any signs that your sister was a firebender before she was born."

Zuko accepted the answer, but he was quite displeased when Ursa II couldn't bend.

"I'm sorry," the doctor said apologetically. Mai had fainted, so she was unaware.

"Don't tell anyone about this," Zuko said sternly.

The doctor nodded, not putting it in Ursa II's file.

Zuko and Mai tried to have more kids, but over the next year, nothing happened. Zuko confided to an advisor that he thought Mai might be sterile.

"Maybe you should take on a second wife. Having only one heir is risky."

Zuko didn't have one at all. He started to panic.

The next scene showed Sokka and Suki getting married. Zuko was the best man and one of the warrior's was the maid of honor. Only a few short months later, Zuko and Suki started their affair. He sabotaged her contraception, hoping that she would produce an heir for him.

Mai was ready to puke, hoping this was a scene they made up for the play. Sokka really wanted to punch Zuko in the face right now.

Azula and Haru had another baby. Prince Hiro looked just like his daddy. "He's just like you," Azula said to Haru. "And she's just like me." When she was alone, her character reflected. "I have two children, and they'll never have to fight for the throne."

The next scene showed Suki having fevers. The doctor thought she was having a firebender. Zuko was elated, and Suki thought he would leave Mai for her, especially if she had a son.

Mai started to pity the girl. Suki had been just as deluded about Zuko as she had been.

When Hakoda II was born, however, Zuko's excitement turned into confusion.

Zuko asked the doctor how could it be. Suki was rarely with Sokka at all. "He could have gotten lucky or …."

"Or what?"

"Or, you could be sterile."

"That's ridiculous." Zuko went to get tested and the specialist told him his seed was likely junk. He tried to explain how the waterbending test could be inaccurate, but Zuko stormed out.

Later he convinced Mai to take a fertility test. She did and she came back fine. The problem was Zuko. He destroyed the results and threatened the doctor to stay quiet.

Intermission

Azula requested more wine for the box. They would need it. Ursa and Haru ushered the children to the bathroom.

Azula asked Mai how she was holding up.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't invite Ruon Jian now. What would he think?"

"That your husband is a cad. This wasn't your fault Mai."

"How could I not have known?"

"How would you have known? You trusted him, so did everyone else in his life."

Ursa II didn't understand much of the story, but she got it when her "father" threatened people on stage. It wasn't very nice of him at all.

She hugged her mother before act II. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Honey."

The play started again. Zuko convened his friends and sent them to track down his sister. Next, they were in the Earth Kingodm.

Rei was five and Hiro was three. The boy just learned to earthbend.

"Let's show Mom!" The kids ran back to the house, Rei's chi changing the streetlights blue.

Rei had always wondered how they found her mother. Now it made sense.

The Avatar and his friends appeared. Azula bolted and after a tearful goodbye to her husband, vanished without a trace.

The search for her continued and Haru struggled to decide whether he should help his friends bring her home or not look for her, so they didn't find her.

Azula found herself in the hospital where Combustion Man Jr attacked her. He left when he learned she was pregnant and returned the money to Zuko. He was never seen alive again. A royal guard disposed of the body.

Azula is reunited with Haru and then with her children. She refuses to go home, sure that her brother sent the hit man.

"Why would Zuko do that?"

"To protect his throne. Something must be going on in the Fire Nation. Why else would he look for me after all this time?"

They all left the Earth Kingdom, figuring that the Avatar would look west towards Ba Sing Se. Instead, they headed south towards the palace.

Instead, Avatar wrote back to Zuko, suggesting that they call off the search. "She's married and pregnant now. I doubt she is trying to start a coup."

Zuko forged the letter from his sister and presented it to his friends, convincing them to continue the search. "She must be having a firebender," he said to them, emboldening her to make a play for the crown now.

Aang and the others did head towards Ba Sing Se, only to encounter Iroh who hadn't seen them at all. They tried Gaoling next and then Sokka suggested maybe she went to Ember Island.

"Why would she go there when she would likely get recognized?"

"She would have assumed that we would look away from the kingdom and we did, where we didn't find her."

"She could be in some nameless town," Katara said. "Like the one we found her in."

While Haru and the kids were at the beach, Azula and the lawyers worked on her will.

"Sometimes, you have to be ready to fall on your sword," Azula said as she signed it. Haru signed it later that day.

The couple tried to give their kids the best memories they could while they had the time.

Then, the explosion happened.

Azula escaped along the beach, and Haru hid her footprints. The webs of deception were getting larger.

Haru stages his death and the next scene is Azula's funeral. Rei faces off with everyone.

The young firebender is embarrassed by her actions, now that she knows her mother was really alive and her uncle had arranged the whole affair.

The Head Sage taught Rei how to make a fire dragon for her mother's funeral. He is surprised at how quickly she learned it, and he shed a tear for the Princess that died so young. Rei was just like her.

When the will is read, Zuko is furious and when he visits his father in jail, his old man mocks him for being an idiot.

"Your sister was smart enough to keep her heir a secret from you and to make sure you didn't get custody. I guess she wasn't so crazy after all."

Zuko stormed out as Ozai laughed.

Sokka and Hakoda II travel the Earth Kingdom and after a visit to Toph, find themselves in Omashu where the children first become friends and Sokka and Ty Lee fall for each other.

The perfect "just kiss already" scene is reinacted for the laughing audience.

Iroh comes next and while Hiro warms to him quickly, Rei is more skeptical.

When Haru's birthday comes around, they learn Azula and Haru might still be alive.

The kids demand to come too, Hiro trapping Ty Lee to the ground.

"I can't believe you trapped my feet in rock."

"Go big or go home!"

The kids proved to be the perfect comedic relief for the dark play.

They have the tearjerking scene where Rei is united with her mother again, and they get to meet there little sister.

"Ta Min's going to like me best because I'm an earthbender too."

"She's going to like me best because boys have cooties."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

When Sokka returns, he and Ty Lee venture into the Fire Nation to try and solve the case while Hakoda II stays with Azula's evergrowing clan.

She discovers she's pregnant with Lu Ten. "You love keeping me fat," she accused her husband.

"Now, there is more of you to love."

He hugged her as she rolled her eyes.

Haru looked at his wife.

"We're not having another baby yet."

He pouted.

Katara was amazed that he wanted to go for five.

While Ty Lee and Sokka learned that the resistance was a peaceful one that wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea of Azula replacing her brother, they start to realize that all of the paths lead to Zuko.

Sokka snoops in the medical office and learns of Mai's possible infertility. "Maybe he was afraid Azula would have a son to compete with Ursa II for the throne." They weren't clear on the motives yet, but there was something to the story yet to be discovered.

They show the resistance merging with the loyalists. With Rei available to take the throne, they start talking about finding a regent for her and making the push to get rid of Zuko.

The Fire Lord is angry and freaking out. His father's voice is ringing in his head as he starts to break down.

Azula has Lu Ten II and decides it's time to confront her brother.

She has a challenging reunion with Mai, and together they sneak into the doctor's office. Azula steals Suki's medical file along with Mai's. She has a hunch that together they will tell a story.

Next was a scene that most of the family didn't know about.

Azula and Mai argued over Zuko's guilt, that was to be expected, but Hiro and Rei had been eavesdropping.

Azula heard whispering and opened the door, to see two children fall inside.

"What are you doing?"

"Eavesdropping," Rei said to a laughing audience.

"What have I told you about that?"

"To listen for anything good and tell you who said what."

"Drats I did say that."

"Anyway, I know how you can prove it was Zuko."

Rei suggested that they see if he tries to kill her. "If this is a bid to protect the throne, then he will make a move the first chance he gets." At the tender age of six, she was already learning how to lay traps and solve cases.

Azula objected. "I can't use you as bait."

"So what are you going to do? Ask him about it and hope he confesses?"

Azula frowned. It sounded stupid when she said it.

Next, Azula shows up to Boiling Rock disguised as Ursa.

"Azula, back from the dead," Ozai laughes.

"Want to help me depose my brother."

"Of course. You're my favorite."

Zuko is surprised to see Rei and Hiro playing with Ursa II.

"What's going on?"

"Ty Lee dropped them off for a visit," his wife lied to him.

Zuko went to see his father who fed him the same scheme that Azula had given him.

When Zuko attacked, he thought it was all over, his bloodline set to hold onto the throne, just to encounter his sister.

"Oh the webs we weave when we are trying to deceive."

Azula and Zuko argued back and forth, the whole story unfolding in front of the crowd's eyes.

Zuko moved to strike her with lightening. Azula readied herself to redirect it, but the strike never sounded. Mai stabbed her husband in the back with her stiletto. "You bastard!"

The curtain closes. It seemed too abrupt to be the ending, but then one more scene emerged.

Azula was being crowned Fire Lord. This time, her mother was actually in the room with her.

As she prepared herself to rule, her brother sat in a dark cell. A complete reversal from the end of the first play when the narrator said, "As appalling as Zuko's actions were, they are not unheard of in the royal family. Here and elsewhere people have killed again and again to get ahold of the rare power of the crown.

This battle is over but the war will wage on as long as there are thrones to be had. Maybe you should ask yourself, what would you do for the crown?"

The curtain closed and they began to do applaud the cast, starting with the villagers and the rest of the nameless characters, before the named characters started to appear.

The crowd loudly applauded for Ozai. The actor had made quite a convincing villain. After him came Aang and Katara, Mai, Rei and Hiro, Sokka and Ty Lee, Zuko who may have gotten the loudest applause at that point, Haru and of course, the Fire Lord herself who earned a standing ovation. They pointed to the director and the orchestra.

As they left, Sokka had a question, how did they get everyone in the family to look alike.

Ursa had the answer. "They went to my hometown when they were looking for actors to play the roles. The girl who played Azula, her brother played Zuko and her little sister was Rei. They're a family of thespians."

"They're all gay?"

"Actors not lesbians," Azula chided. "What's wrong with you?"

"No home training," Rei retorted.

Ty Lee glared at her.

"What? Mom gets to say it."

The acrobat was pregnant. Hakoda II would be getting a sibling in a few months.

After the play, Ruon Jian sent Mai a letter, asking her how it went.

"It was hard to watch personally, but the play itself was quite fantastic."

"A little too realistic?" he asked in his next letter.

"Yeah."

He finally asked her out on a date and promised he wouldn't take her to a play.

She agreed and they went out to dinner and a classical music performance.

"I didn't peg you as the classical music type."

"I can't reveal all my secrets at once."

Azula went to visit her brother in Boiling Rock.

He was surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw the Crown II last night."

"I'm sure I looked like a prince."

"You looked like a total jerk, but I looked crazy and evil in the last one, so maybe it's a wash."

"So I can go now?"

"No."

"Why are you here?"

"I realized that a lot of our issues wouldn't have happened without Ozai. That doesn't excuse what you did, but maybe there's hope that you can change."

"Change into what?"

"The Zuko who still tried to help me, after I tried to kill him and his friends several times."

Azula continued to visit her brother, unsure of how helpful the visits were but she was determined not to give up on him. Maybe he would become a better man for it, maybe she was wasting her time, but after watching her life on stage, she couldn't ignore the horrors of giving up on people. She was determined to be different.

THE END