A/N: And she feels like home. If the shoe fits, walk in it, everywhere you go. Love and be loved. Read… and review!

The Most Powerful Being on Earth

[Late Summer/Early Fall 122 AG]

Ty Lee is dreaming.

It's not a fantastical dream necessarily, but it sure beats the nightmares of the person knocking on Azula's door and coming to kill the love of her life. She's dreaming of a little house out in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere far from prying eyes and ears. Somewhere safe and warm and lovely. In this dream there is water nearby; scenic views of the ocean. She grows her own food in the gardens all around them, not just a tiny one out front like in Lanxi. There are two or three children running around. It's a dream she's only recently had, and the number of children changes from time to time. It's a dream that's different than the dreams she had in her youth and young adulthood, but pleasant all the same.

In her dream she lies in bed and watches as an old, greying woman makes dinner while dancing around their son and daughters. A teenage boy and two younger girls this time. She hears something over her shoulder and rolls over to see what had clattered.

It's darker now. Harder to see. The dream has shifted. She sits up in bed and stains her eyes. The same woman is climbing through her window, but younger. She turns back to look for her, dancing with the children, but they are not there. They are gone. There's a shut door and shadows. She finally realizes that she has awoken from her dreams. She turns back to the window.

Now perfectly still, just hidden away in the shadows, is the outline of a female figure. The one she saw in her dreams. No longer grey, but black haired and less lines on her face. The window remains slightly ajar as the intruder breathes slowly and quietly. Ty Lee tries to focus when a light gust of wind sweeps by outside. The curtains billow in the wind and the spirit of death comes into full view, appearing from the shadows and in the moonlight.

"It's you, isn't it?"

The spirit steps forward. She looks like a daydream, dressed in earthly tones. Ty Lee sits up, smiling, and reaches her hands out, grabbing the air.

"Are you going to cuddle me now?" She asks to the woman by the window.

She laughs. She steps towards the bed and as she does she replies, "Next time I show up out of the blue, you won't hear me."

"Did you really climb in my window like some forlorn, secret teenage lover of mine? Do your parents know you're visiting me, young lady?"

Azula climbs into bed and falls into the arms of her sweet wife, grabbing hold of her for the first time in months. Part of Azula wants to ravage her body, while another part just wants to lay there, in her arms. The comfort of the cozy bed wins out. Ty Lee nuzzles her head into Azula's petit bosom, while Azula rests her head on the crown of Ty Lee's head, the brunette hair strands tickling her face, the sweet vanilla smell flooding her nostrils. It's heaven, for a while. Azula's eyes are closed for a little, but she finally opens them to talk.

"We're being watched." She whispers. "I was finally found."

"Was it Zirin?" Ty Lee asks, face still buried in Azula's breast.

Despite their odd placement in bed, they're both still quite serious. There's a blase attitude to it all. Like a housecat, knowing it must chase a mouse, but too comfortable to actually get up and do it.

"No," she replies. "It was some old associates. The Red Lotus."

"Them?" Ty Lee asks, followed by a chuckle. "Not who I expected. Your uncle doesn't think too highly of them as a threat."

"My uncle is a fool to underestimate them. "

"Do they know you're here?"

"They may. They showed me photographs, but not one from here. It was Caldera."

"Makes more sense for them to have spies in the Capital, rather than here on the island," Ty Lee comments. She then adds, "Still, I've been telling them for years we should fortify ourselves."

"Lin might be alive."

"Lin!" Ty Lee responds loudly. "No? Alive? That would be incredible!"

Azula is quiet. She's thinking.

"So," Ty Lee finally asks the question. "What do you want to do about it?"

"I've had time to think about it and I have some ideas," she starts. She scooches in bed slowly until at last they are eye level again. She looks into those luminous grey eyes. "But you're also impacted by this. I want your help, if you'll give it?"

Ty Lee smiles. She nods her head. They talk about their ideas and how to take down the most powerful man in Republic City. They talk all night long, until the sun comes up, like two teenage lovers.

After a long and unusually hot late summer week had left many of the plants and grass fields around Kyoshi Island dried out and dead, the sudden rain storm was a welcomed sight by all. The quiet contemplation of sitting by the window and listening to the rain drops pepper a home created an auditory experience that could not be replicated by anything in the world. It is a pleasant day for almost everyone on the island.

Almost everyone.

"Fucking rain, I hate this." Suki grumbles to herself.

The indomitable leader of the island is running through the town square, headed home. The exposed earth mixed with rain forms muddy puddles all about that Suki dodges like they're landmines. She loses focus on the last bit before reaching home and steps in one just before her front door.

Suki enters her home and quickly locks the door behind her. She removes her shoes and organizes them by the door, mud and all. She slowly walks into her kitchen, trying to shed her rain cloak when she stops in her tracks. Sitting silently at her dining table, staring at Suki as she struggles with the cloak, is a spirit from beyond the grave. She crooks an eyebrow at her as Azula takes a sip of tea that she's helped herself to from Suki's cupboard. When she finally swallows she smacks her lips together. She's content for a moment as the women just stare at each other. Finally, she speaks.

"Your perimeter defenses are shit."

Suki can't help but chuckle. She takes a step towards the seating, "Kyoshi give me strength. Have you changed your hair at all in the last year? It doesn't look any different than the last time I saw you."

Azula, like Suki, ignores what was just said and continues with her own talking point.

"I recommend you build fortified outposts amongst the trees. Made of metal so you don't have to worry about benders ripping them down or melting them. They could relay sightings to a centralized location and keep the whole island safe simultaneously."

Suki stops in front of her. She furrows her brow as she tells her, "What you're describing would take years to build."

"Even if it took you 20 years to build, it would be worth it." She tells her with determination. "Keep things the same and in 20 years someone could infiltrate your home and kill you. Or they could be spotted and stopped."

Suki folds her arms across her chest.

"Your choice," Azula conceded, lifting the tea up again. "I would start building if I was you."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to sit down." She replies as she takes a sip.

"Asuna, I just," she pulls the chair out. As she sits down she replies, "I hate when you do this shit."

Azula looks deep into Suki's eyes. There's even a hint of a smile drawn into the lines on her face. It's a cool expression, calculating but knowing something that Suki doesn't know. Amused but focused. The rain splatters against the house providing the background noise. A few seconds spread out the silence uncomfortably. Finally, Azula spins the yarn.

"I've got this idea in my head. A story I want to tell to people. It's not about me, but it could be applied to me, or you, or a lot of people. It's meant to be symbolic of a lesson I want people to learn."

Scratching the back of her head, Suki offers, "You mean like a parable?"

"A parable? Yes, I think that's it," Azula nods as she stares out into space. "The parable of the fisherman."

"Fisherman?"

"Yes. It's a great story. It starts with a man who is rather happy-"

"What is this about, Asuna? Really?"

She pauses before asking, "Are you ready to learn everything that happened to me in Republic City?"

Stunned, she asks, "You're surrendering your secrets?"

"I'm trading."

"With your secrets?"

"A man's life for my secrets."

"His life?"

"I believe him to be in great danger."

"From? What? Zirin and the Kemurikage have scattered."

"Zirin was backed by someone else. Someone more powerful."

"Is this the mobster that Ty Lee has harped on for several years?"

"One in the same."

"Yakone."

"You know his name?"

"I do. There's been whispers. I asked you about him during your interview, if you'll recall."

"There's more than meets the eye with him. A type of bending I've never seen."

"You're certain he's a bender?"

"Positive," she replies without hesitation. She adds, "I fought him at the height of my power. And lost."

Suki chews her lip. This is all very contradictory to the intel they've meticulously gathered on Yakone over the last near decade. She wonders if Azula is lying. It wouldn't be the first time. But the seriousness with which she speaks doesn't belie falsehood. Finally, for her to say she lost to Yakone is something truly noteworthy.

"Alright. I'll bite," she eventually says. "Tell me about the man."

"His name is Lin."

"Not very helpful."

"He's a fisherman."

"Ah! The source of the parable? That narrows it down."

"He was also at my wedding."

Turning her head ever so slightly. Enlightenment encroaches. "The man who stood beside you?"

"Mhm."

"How much does he know about you?"

"He knows more than you."

"Mmm." She hums, dissatisfied.

"He knows more than 'the world's foremost intelligence officer.'"

She nods.

"He knows more about the Dragon Empress than anyone else on earth. He might even know more about her than me."

"So why all this then? Why not just look for him yourself?"

"I don't have the resources you think I do. Not anymore. Besides, I'm never stepping foot in Republic City ever again."

"Be careful, Asuna. 'Never' is a long time."

"I also have other matters to attend to elsewhere."

"So why me?" Suki asks.

"Because you're the most powerful being on earth."

The rain continues to pepper the home rhythmically. This mystifying if not engaging back and forth comes to a crescendo. Azula pauses a long while, much longer than any other point in the conversation, as she eyes up Suki. She finally leans back, eyes still focused on the woman in front of her.

"You lead the Kyoshi Warriors. The Fire Lord bends his ear to you. You helped make Republic City, not just build it. Stopped my father in his tracks. You have the hand of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, even if you don't always have his heart. A personal friend of the Avatar. You even have the power to bring a dead woman back from the grave."

Another pause comes as Azula turns her head ever so slightly.

"No one alive wields the kind of influence you do. If you can't find Lin, then he is truly lost."

It's quiet for a moment.

"So. I find this Lin. And you'll tell me everything? No more tricks?

Azula shakes her head. "You'll learn everything you want to know."

"And meanwhile you'll, what? Be here?"

"For now. But as I said, I have matters to attend to."

"Does the Dragon Empress rise?"

"No, and if you must know, I'll be searching for Asuna."

"Gaoling proved fruitless?"

"Not entirely. I have a lead, deeper into the Earth Kingdom."

"Well, how long before you go?"

"I'll only stick around for a few days."

"I see."

"So, will you do it?"

She doesn't reply.

"Suki of Kyoshi Island," Azula summons her once famous bravado. "Hunter of Dragons. The Most Powerful Being on Earth. The Pretty Girl. Will you answer the call?"

The formidable rival narrows her eyes. She doesn't want to admit it, but hearing the titles satisfies something in her. A deep, primal feeling. She tries to ignore it, but she finally receives a drop in the bucket of understanding what it must have felt like for Azula. A young woman, at her apex, incapable of being captured or even tracked. Being introduced by titles she had accumulated through her various exploits. The ruler of all she surveyed.

Suki laughs. She knows now that she's trapped. Azula has propped up her ego and then played her perfectly. It would be supremely impressive if it wasn't so Agni damn frustrating. So instead of getting angry, she laughs at the mastery. Laughs at the manipulation. The Puppetmaster lives on.

"Alright," she finally concedes. "I'm in."

Winter/Spring 123 AG

A few days turned into a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a few months. Azula did not forget the call of Avatar Asuna, or The Widow's voice telling her to go to Ba Sing Se. She just put it off for a while, living in domestic bliss with her wife on Kyoshi Island. It was, in a way, perhaps the happiest time of her life.

They spent the months being unabashedly in love, albeit they still hid away from the rest of the world. They read books and cooked fancy meals together. They played silly games and reflected on their love story. Azula met with Suki a few times to discuss the perimeter fencing project. Suki made arrangements to begin a small ops search for Lin. Ty Lee read more about the equalist movement and wrote some anonymous opinion pieces for The Republic Times. She thought about writing to Aang to do something, but hoped instead she would run into him at some point. She knew she could apply pressure to Zuko the next time she was stationed with him.

They also had lots and lots of bedroom time, more so than they'd ever been able to have before; Not all of it occurred in the bedroom either. Some was in the kitchen. Some was in the woods. Or the bathtub. They attacked each other like the horny, lovesick teenagers they never got to be. It was blissful and eye opening and wonderful for the pair of women approaching the age of 38. All of their time in Lanxi had been spent in spurts. These few months were the closest they've had to living together and they were not wasting any time. It was somewhat challenging hiding Azula on Kyoshi Island, and explaining away why Ty Lee was disappearing from time to time, only for her to go to Nokizo Village, but it was well worth it for the time they had together.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing to happen for the wives was the introduction of the matrimony bands as a new-age form of wedding ceremonies. They'd existed in the Earth Kingdom for some time, but their popularity had exploded recently. A way to show any and all that came across them that their heart belonged to another. The Water Tribe had betrothal necklaces that has existed for as long as one could remember, but the Fire Nation had no such customs. Matrimony bands, with silver and gold and glittering rings and all, had gone from Republic City to the Fire Nation and now the world over.

It took some convincing but Azula was finally swayed. Making the decision was hard, as Ty Lee would have to acquire them alone, meaning they had to agree on a general principle of band, rather than seeing them in-person together. Suki assisted, wearing a terrible disguise as they traveled to a nearby village where no one knew who they were, so they could pretend to be the married couple. Suki had more fun than she was willing to admit pretending to be Ty Lee's wife. In the end, Ty Lee brought home a simple golden band, with no frills. She felt it best captured Azula and her personality.

Ty Lee eventually worked up the courage to tell Azula about her dream of having children. Azula was always opposed to the idea, too scared to fuck up her future children the way Ursa and Ozai had done to her and Zuko. She tried to communicate this and Ty Lee understood. They agreed to table the conversation for a more stable time, when they could stop running and settle down. It was nice to dream about it for a while.

But the dream finally ended one day. Azula finished reading every text in the Kyoshi Library about past Avatars. The sad and sobering truth fell upon her until one day, finally, late in the winter, she packed her bags. She retained her scarlet sandbender outfit. She prepared munitions and kissed her wife goodbye.

The search of Avatar Asuna would continue for Azula. As a teenager she conquered Ba Sing Se. Now, on the cusp of turning 40, she leaves Kyoshi Island to return again and conquer it once more.

A/N: This chapter's OST is "Traveling Song" by Ryn Weaver.

Love always. Tyzula forever.

Notorious