I know this is not the best chapter (far from it), but my head was just not fully on it. However, I still hope you like it. Please leave a comment if you can.
Thank you for all the favorites and follows. They mean a lot!
The island in which the town of Ido was located, stood around a two-day ride on Appa from Caldera City.
Up in the front sat Aang, the Avatar, grabbing the reigns of the flying bison as he tried to meditate. The atmosphere on the saddle, however, was very tense. Lee Ten sat next to Azula, who was sitting next to Zuko against her will. Suki sat far away from the Royal family, and the braided-haired woman sat close to the Kyoshi Warrior. The Water Tribesman sat far away from everyone, as he seemed very uncomfortable with everyone.
"Zuzu, could you be so kind and take these shackles off of me? I promise I won't jump off the beast…again." Azula asked her brother, recalling the last time she took a ride on the ten-ton animal.
The Fire Lord scoffed. "Don't think that I'll believe your lies Azula."
"Out of the two of us, I should be the one with the trust issues Dum-dum. Just unshackle me and we can talk like a family. It's been, what, fifteen years since we've talked? I want to know how everyone is doing but feeling like a prisoner will not help the conversation get started." Azula reasoned.
"I think you should unshackle her. She hasn't done anything wrong Zuko." The woman with the high braid said.
"Ty Lee, you can't possibly mean that. She has blood all over her clothes!" The scarred Fire Lord exclaimed
"If I may," Azula began to say. "I had just finished performing surgery when someone came running telling me that my son was insulting the Fire Lord in the middle of the plaza. Forgive me for not having clean attire."
"Maybe you should unshackle her." The Water Tribesman voiced. "If she truly wanted to hurt any of us, she would've hurt Suki when she was staying at her house. Besides, I don't think she would do anything that would endanger her son's well-being."
"Ugh, fine." Zuko complied, grabbing the keys and unshackling his sister. "Don't even think about running away."
The princess rubbed her wrists. "Please Zuko, why would I even run away? I'm not a lunatic anymore."
"So, you're Ty Lee?" Lee Ten pointed his finger at the woman sitting next to Suki.
Ty Lee nodded. "Yes. And you said your name was…"
"Lee Ten! Now that I think about it, we have similar names. Weird, right?"
Ty Lee lowered her head a little bit, both in embarrassment and sadness.
"Lee Ten…" Azula warned her son.
"Fine, I'll try not to be so passive-aggressive. What's your name?" The boy asked the Water Tribesman
"Oh, uh, Sokka." The man replied.
Lee Ten grinned. "So, Sokka's your name. You know, my favorite house guest told me all about you and your boomerang."
"What?"
"I never told you his name!" Suki yelled from the other side of the saddle.
"You didn't, but you just confirmed my suspicions." Lee Ten reclined his back on the saddle. "It's fairly easy to discern once all the pieces are there. You told me your ex was from the Water Tribe, and that he used the boomerang. So far, you two have not shared a single word in or outside the saddle, and constantly avoid each other's gazes."
"He's like a mini Azula." Zuko murmured
"You only say that because you haven't gotten to know him." Azula smiled
From Appa's head, the Avatar turned around to face the group.
"Are you a firebender Lee Ten?" Aang asked the teenager.
The fourteen-year-old nodded with his head. "Yeah, but mom said I shouldn't use it much."
Everyone, with the exception of Suki, turned to the princess in surprise. This was the firebending prodigy they were talking about. A woman who was raised to think that everyone who was not a firebender was ultimately inferior, and that the purest form of power was shown from your inner fire.
Azula shrugged her shoulders. "I've changed my ways. Lee Ten's too smart to rely solely on his fire."
"Yeah, plus it gets really tiring. Three kata's and I'm already way too tired to keep on going." Lee Ten added
"Why don't you train more and build up your stamina?" The Fire Lord asked
Lee Ten snorted. "You think I wouldn't have done that if it was an option? I knew you were an idiot, but I would've expected you to be at least smarter than this. On the bright side, now we know that you're not consciously trying to screw up the Fire Nation."
"Lee Ten, stop insulting the Fire Lord." Azula sternly told her son
"But mom-"
"No buts. You're a citizen of the Fire Nation, and therefore it's your duty to show respect to the Fire Lord."
"But you called him dumb!"
"I can do that because I'm his sister. I'm the only person in the whole Fire Nation who's allowed to do that. Am I understood?" Azula explained
Lee Ten sighed. "Yes mother."
A few minutes of silence passed. The group tension was lower, but still high.
"Zuko," the Avatar said. "I don't think Azula is guilty of any crimes you wish to condemn her of. I also don't think it's right for you to imprison her for crimes she committed twenty years ago. Why don't you just let her get re-acquainted with life at the palace and then let her help you bring the Fire Nation back to prosperity. I think it would be a good way to bring back true balance."
"Aang, you know I can't let her free. The last time she was free, she hurt the one person she swore never to hurt." Zuko replied
"But you saw how the people of the town defended her. She has helped that town for fifteen years and became a person of great value and trust. There's no doubt that she has changed for the better." The Avatar reasoned.
"You can't seriously be contemplating this! It's Azula! She imprisoned me and brought down Ba Sing Se!" Suki yelled, tired of the indecisiveness.
"Ty Lee also did those things." Sokka added. "And didn't Zuko burn down your village? If he could get a redemption, why shouldn't Azula have that chance?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe because when we gave her that chance she went and cheated on Ty Lee!"
"I'm sorry," Lee Ten began to say. "but I personally don't think that someone cheating is a cause for imprisonment. From what I'm hearing, the only reason you all want my mom to be in jail is because of personal reasons."
"She brought down Ba Sing Se!" Suki yelled
"It was war. And may I need to remind you that it was a bloodless coup? If you imprison her because of that, then you should also imprison General Iroh, who actually laid siege in Ba Sing Se. Catch me with that double standard I dare you."
Sokka chuckled.
"What's so funny Sokka?" Zuko snapped
"He's like a funnier version of Azula. I like him. Must be the Water Tribe running in his veins."
"I see it." Ty Lee said, speaking for the first time in a while. "They act extremely similar."
Lee Ten mockingly bowed down.
"Ouch!" the teenager said suddenly. "Can someone take off my shoes?"
"Do it yourself." Zuko said.
Before anyone knew it, Azula had sprung into action. She laid her son down as evenly as she could and got rid of his shoes. His feet and ankles were very swollen, and the boy began to apply pressure on his chest.
"It hurts more than before," Lee Ten said in between breaths. His breathing quickened, and the fourteen-year-old began to cry.
Azula grabbed her son's hand "I know it hurts. You'll be fine soon. Just stay with me, ok?"
"What's happening?!" Sokka panicked
"Avatar bring the beast down!" Azula ordered, turning her attention to her son. Without thinking twice about it, the Princess of the Fire Nation took her son's shirt off and placed it behind his head as a ragtag pillow. As soon as she did this, Appa had landed in the middle of a Fire Nation forest.
Everyone around stiffened when they saw the scar on the boy's chest. Zuko unconsciously touched his own scar, product of the same person and with the same shape. Aang's breath stopped for a second, as he realized that the person he had been defending might not be so good after all. If she could do that to her own son, then what couldn't she do?
Azula did not pay mind to the people around her. She was completely focused on healing her son, who was sweating from the extreme pain he was feeling. As she closed her eyes, the princess put her right hand on the scar and her left just on top of the stomach. The princess took a deep breath and focused on the energy flow on Lee Ten's body. She found that the heart was overextending itself, and this seemed to be the cause of the imbalance.
Using her special technique, Azula put her hands just above Lee Ten's body and began to swirl them around in opposite circles. Little by little, the quickened heart palpitations fell at ease, and the boy was finally relaxed. He was unconscious after such an attack, but Azula still grabbed him and hugged him close to her.
"You're ok now." Azula comforted her fainted son, but she knew she only said it so she could calm herself down.
"Is anyone going to ask what the fuck that was?" Sokka asked, still flabbergasted from the events that had just transpired.
"And why did he have a lightning scar?" Zuko added
Azula sighed "Lee Ten has a weak heart."
"From what I heard, it didn't seem like that."
"It's not figuratively. He literally has a weak heart."
"So, you shot him with lightning because he wasn't perfect?"
Azula turned around to face her brother. Her face was furious, literal steam coming out of her nostrils.
"What kind of monster do you think I am? I would give my life for Lee Ten."
"Then why does he have a scar? Only you and Uncle can conjure lighting…and I doubt that Uncle did that."
Azula placed her son down, wiping the sweat beads on his forehead.
"Lee Ten's birth was a hard one. I was alone in Ido, but thankfully, a woman named Dr. Misa helped me through it. I spent countless hours in agonizing pain, losing so much blood that Dr. Misa thought I was going to die. Then finally, after so much pain, Lee Ten was born. But he wasn't crying, or moving, or even breathing. He was born without a life. I used chi reading to check what was wrong and concluded that his heart was not working properly. I tried to use other tactics, but when Dr. Misa told me that there was nothing I could do, I panicked.
"I had almost no energy, yet I took what I had and I shot him with a small amount of lightning, which caused him to scar. But after that, he began to cry. However, because his heart was injured during that, he's now compromised in what he can do. That's why I prohibit him from using firebending. It takes too much energy, too much chi that he constantly needs for his heart to function well." Azula told the story.
"Oh…I'm sorry about that Azula." Zuko said
"Don't apologize for something you have no control over. Apologize for state of the Fire Nation."
"What do you mean?"
Azula turned to her brother with an amused look.
"You really don't know? I told my son to shut up before, but he was telling the truth. While you were stuck in the palace playing peacemaker, the Fire Nation has been suffering because of your negligence. And truly, every decision you make seems to have a negative effect on the people. I'm talking like this after spending time, years amongst the common citizens. I have no intentions of being Fire Lord. That wouldn't bring me peace, and that is not my destiny. My destiny is helping the Fire Nation as best as I can. I did that by healing people, but now that you've taken me away from Ido, I want to help the Fire Nation be a better place to live from the best position possible. But, you don't trust me, so I'll just go to trial for treason."
Zuko didn't reply. He felt ashamed of himself, both because of the apparent effect his rule had on the Fire Nation, and because he truly could not trust Azula. Objectively, his sister seemed to have changed for the better. She had a son whom she cared about, the people of Ido had wanted to protect her, and she hadn't really been as insufferable as she was before.
But all of this couldn't really compare to the years of mental torture he received from her part. All of his childhood, Azula had been one of his worst tormentors. How was he supposed to simply forget about that and move on? The last thing he had done that, she had gone and hurt Ty Lee by cheating on the acrobat. Zuko knew how much Azula loved Ty lee, or at least how much she said she loved her. If she could willingly hurt someone she loved so much, then what was to say she wouldn't just betray him when it is most convenient to her?
"Azula, do you think we could begin to fly again?" Aang asked Azula in his signature mediator tone.
The princess nodded, still looking at her son as any worried mother would her child.
"Yes, but please don't make it so we fly so high. I think he had difficulty breathing at such altitude, which could've affected the rate at which his heart pumped blood. It's just a theory, but I don't want him to get worse."
The Avatar nodded and ordered his bison to fly. They were just above the tree tops, so high enough so that the journey would be faster than going on foot, but not high enough to threaten the heart of Lee Ten.
Azula put her son's head on her lap as she stroked his brown hair tenderly. She felt someone approach, and when she lifted her head, saw Sokka with a coat.
"I don't know if this will help, but whenever I feel sick I always put this on." He said
"You're giving me something that's filled with germs then…"
"No! I mean, I clean it, so it shouldn't be dirty with germs. It's more for comfort. Maybe it's psychological, I don't know, but it does help. At least it helps me. So, I thought that it could help him be cozy when he's feeling bad? Well, he's unconscious, so I don't know if he'll know, but-"
"Thank you." Azula interrupted the Water Tribesman ranting. She grabbed the coat and put it on Lee Ten.
Sokka smiled. "It's no problem. If you think he needs anything else, let me know."
"I will." Azula smiled back, which didn't go unnoticed by Suki.
The Kyoshi Warrior narrowed her eyes at this.
"Who's his father?" Suki asked.
Azula stiffened. "I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to know."
"Why wouldn't you want to know?" Sokka asked
"It's complicated. My actions that day led me to hurt the person I loved the most in ways I didn't think were possible. But, he also gave me my son. Because of what happened, I finally found my destiny and got over my abuse. I regret it, but I also don't. If I were to see his father, or knew who his father was, I fear that I may relapse again. I can't do that, not now that my son depends on me."
Zuko put a tentative hand on her shoulders and squeezed a little. Azula turned to face him, without moving her body.
"You've really matured Azula."
"Of course I have. Despite not having a good model, I'm not a negligent mother."
"I'm not going to make you go to trial once you get home."
Azula's eyes widened. "You're not?"
Zuko shook his head. "I may not trust you, but I also believe that you've changed. It's not fair for me to imprison you without evidence. It would make me a tyrant, and I like to think that I'm not one."
Azula smiled. She didn't expect Zuko to trust her. She knew he never would truly trust her. However, this was as close as they would get from having a tolerable relationship, and after being alone so much time, she was willing to take it.
"Azula," Ty Lee spoke up
The Princess of the Fire Nation turned to the acrobat. Anybody could see that they both missed each other dearly but were still hurt by what had happened all those years ago.
"Ty Lee," Azula replied. "How have you been? Suki told me you were with someone named Kim. I want to congratulate you, even though I'm sure you're too good for her."
"What? No, I'm not with anyone right now." Ty Lee replied confused
"Really," Azula turned to the Kyoshi Warrior, who glared at the princess at every moment she had the chance to. "well, it seems like someone has taken my crown as the best liar out there."
Ty Lee began to talk before a fight could break out between Azula and Suki.
"I was thinking that we could maybe grab a cup of tea and talk. It's been a long time since we've done that. And, you know, since Zuko isn't making you go to trial now, I think it would be a good idea?"
"Oh," Azula sat surprised. "I suppose we could do that, yes."
"But-but what would happen to Lee Ten?" Suki intervened. "He doesn't know his way around the palace, and would most likely want to be close to Azula when he's there."
"Lee Ten can manage himself well." Azula declared
"Still, you never know what could happen in the palace. Someone could try to assassinate him or kidnap him."
"I have to agree with Suki," Zuko said. "The palace is safe, but he will be new to it and should probably need someone to chaperone him. With his condition and all, he's very vulnerable."
"Just because he has a weak heart doesn't mean he's weak. Lee Ten has managed by himself while I was at work and while he was at school, so I don't see a problem by him being alone in the palace."
"Wasn't he beaten up at school?" Suki asked
Azula crossed her arms. "Yeah, because they ganged up on him. He can handle himself just fine."
"Azula, I don't to run the risk of him being hurt." Zuko said
The firebending prodigy was about to reply before being cut off by Sokka speaking.
"If you want, I could spend time with Lee Ten. I could teach him about the Water Tribe, so he could get to know that other side of him. I could also teach him to fight without the need of bending, and how to use my boomerang! I think it would do well for him. I'll protect him if something comes up, but I'll also be teaching him different techniques on how he can defend himself. What do you say?"
Azula smiled.
"I think that would be greatly beneficial to him. So, Ty Lee," Azula looked at the acrobat and smiled. "remind me of the tea once we get to the palace."