A. N. : Next chapter will bring us back to the Gaang, but for now, here's a look at Azula and her state of mind. She's uh, well she's still alive. That's something.

Azula breathes.

It feels like the world in its entirety has somewhat shifted around her. Like everything she knew has been moved slightly to the left, and only she has noticed it. Like someone went through her rooms looking for secrets and tried to make it seem like they were never there.

Mai and Ty Lee shouldn't be there. This isn't – they don't – Ty Lee didn't want to leave her circus for Azula, only followed because the Princess ordered it, so why would she come with what is now nothing but Azula ?

Mai, too, refused to help. Mai betrayed Azula, refused the mercy Azula hoped for like a fool, showed her true colors like Ty Lee did long ago, so why –

They do not care – love is for fools – they do not have to be here – fear is the only way but she can't scare anyone anymore – so why are they here ?

And then there is that man. Qin, the Dai Li Agent. Even if Azula chalks up Mai and Ty Lee's presence to sudden madness, or to stupidity, it wouldn't explain that man. His kind are self-serving, intelligent soldiers. They serve the powerful, and Ba Sing Se was proof.

It makes no sense.

Maybe Azula is the mad one.

Maybe they want to break her even more, maybe Father sent them to ensure she would never cause trouble for him anymore.

That has to be it. That explains their presence, and their pretending like they should be here. Like they are supposed to be here.

Like everything is normal and Azula is crazy for finding anything odd here.

That's what they want, isn't it ? For her to believe she is crazy, enough that she ends up turning into a useless mad woman only good for throwing herself into the sea.

She breathes.

Her gut feels cold still. The food she's been served was as filled with honey as her medicine, so sickly sweet it made her want to puke, but thanks to it her throat doesn't hurt as much as it did when she woke up.

She flexes her fingers, thumb, index, middle, one by one in this order and then back. It is the only exercise her body allows her at the moment. The Doctor said tomorrow his husband would help her do some stretches, to ease her back into moving without risking further injury.

That a master healer of this level would find himself married to a pirate in some backwater village… Surely he too must be mad.

His talent would easily guarantee him a place in the Caldera, a rank almost on par with Lady Doctor Lee Mei Lin, status and power and a house much larger than this shack. And a spouse worthy of him, too.

If he isn't mad, if it isn't insanity that caused him to find himself here, then he is a fool on par with that traitor Iroh, or even with Her.

She stayed by Azula's bedside a few months before leaving, warm hand brushing Azula's hair from her face, wet with fever and sweat. Azula remembers the discomfort and the pain, the awful smell of incense keeping insects away and making her eyes sting.

She remembers Mother's soft voice singing a lullaby to soothe her. Azula forgot the melody long ago, but the stupid child she was found it reassuring. The lyrics were… ah, something to do with the cycle of seasons ?

Something meaningless like that.

There's no point in trying to remember it. Just like there was no point in Mother staying by the side of a sick, useless child. That's what physicians are for. Father never bothered with that sort of trifle and Azula recovered just as well every time.

There's no point in Mai or Ty Lee or that Dai Li Agent being there.

Azula licks her dry lips and tastes honey.

It makes her sick.