Hey everyone, this is the sequel to AZULA released almost two years ago (my most popular fanfic). It may be a sequel but I did try to make it stand alone in case you didn't read the first story, though it's still smart to do so. At this point Azula does want to make amends with her family and old friends but isn't sure how to do that. I do not own Avatar the last Airbender and also spoiler for the entire show, the graphic novel 'The Search', and the first story. Please enjoy the show.

Chapter 1: reunion

Zuko straightened himself up, trying to look good. Today was a big day and he needed it to go well. Azula was back. And she claims she wants to make amends. Of course there was doubt in him, their evil father had molded her to such an extreme level. Azula had just run off, still her usual angry and damaged self, then returned almost a week later willing to mend things between them. The palace doctor also had taken a look at her and she had several injuries that he had to fix. But still, she was his sister. And she seemed so different, when she lied to him in the past she used the same calculating and manipulative tone and always seemed in control. When she came back she was completely vulnerable, like she didn't have anything planned out and was desperately trying to get her point across. Maybe, just maybe she was still trying to trick him, but he would never forgive himself if she truthfully wanted to reconcile and he wouldn't allow it.

"Zuko" a familiar voice sounded behind him

"Hey Suk" Zuko said as Suki greeted him with a hug, she wasn't in her Kyoshi warrior makeup because she was still technically on her day off. "You look relaxed, how was your day off"

"Oh it felt so great" his other guard Ty Lee said coming into the room. She then did like eight cartwheels to reach the two of them

"It was good, a little sudden but fun" Suki said with a smile "what was the occasion"

"Hey ugh…" Zuko said in an awkward way "Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph should be here by now any chance you can escort them here"

"Ugh sure" Suki said in a suspicious voice

"Alright!" Ty Lee said jumping in the air "that Sokka guy is cute" she said causing Suki to glare at her. The two of them left the room giving Zuko some time to think.

Zuko heard heavy breathing behind the curtain on the wall, apparently he wasn't the only nervous one, in fact he probably had it a lot easier. He pulled the curtain back and gave her a thumbs up. "Alright I calmed her down a little" his mother Ursa said coming out "we're here if you need us and we're really proud of you" she said talking behind the curtain trying to instill confidence

They went back to Zuko's original position and waited for them to return "Fire Lord, Lady Ursa your guests have arrived, man I love saying that" Suki announced

"Glad to see you again Zuko, we were hoping to check up on you after what happened" Katara said in sympathetic tone

"Yeah Sparky, I know you're going through a lot right now but what's this about" she said, her blind eyes probably would have been rolled "it must be pretty bad if you're freaking out this much"

"Well ugh something came up, we have a special guest who really wanted to tell you something" Zuko said trying not to sweat through his shirt, terrified of how they were gonna react.

"Alright, you ok you seem pretty tense" Aang said with concern

"Well I mean I know it's a big unexpected, it was for me too but I…." he said before his Friends jointly gasped in fear

"ZUKO LOOK OUT" Katara screamed

"IT'S AZULA" Aang shouted pulling out his staff

Zuko turned to see Azula had come out from behind the curtain and looked like she was about to throw up.

"WAIT WAIT GUYS BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING" Zuko screamed trying to calm everyone down, it didn't help much. "I know Azula's here, and she has something she needs to tell you" he said trying to ease them with limited success

"She won't hurt you" their mother said, she said without a hint of doubt

Zuko watched his six friends be completely shaken and confused, but the best thing to do now was let Azula speak

Azula swallowed and took a deep breath "ugh hi….Avatar, Ty Lee, and… your friends" she said scratching her head "well I don't have a lot of experience doing this…. And I don't consider myself very good at it…. But ugh…. I am sorry" she said barely making eye contact

The group just starred in complete confusion "umm what" Sokka asked

Azula took another deep breath "well I don't have a lot of experience-"

"You know what I meant" Sokka said cutting her off

"You can't…. You don't actually expect us to trust you" Katara said dumbfounded with anger "we just saw you run into the woods a week ago, and now you're back and 'sorry' I'm not buying it"

"ZUKO THIS IS CRAZY" Suki yelled "SHE'S JUST HERE TO STAB YOU IN THE BACK AGAIN!"

Everyone had a different reaction. Katara was mostly dumbfounded and a little offended. Sokka was raising his eyebrow at her. Suki was the only one with a hateful glare. Toph looked curious more than anything; she had a strange look as if she was seeing something in Azula. Ty Lee didn't have an expression at all, and at this point she walked to the wall and leaned back. Aang seemed the most conflicted

"Azula" Aang said stepping forward, Azula became visibly nervous "I forgive you'

"What" Katara and Sokka said in unison. "Aang wha…" Katara added

"I don't trust you yet, but I do forgive you" Aang said with a bow

Azula became dumbfounded herself "ugh thank you I…I really thought you'd be the last one to even consider, I mean I almost killed you in Ba Sing Se" she said returning the bow

"Correction, You DID kill him in Ba Sing Se" Sokka added

"What?" Azula, Zuko, and Suki said in unison

"Oh yeah, I technically was dead for about five seconds before Katara healed me with spirit water" Aang explained

"So I killed the Avatar? Really" Azula said with a tiny smile. She then shook her head "WHICH WAS WRONG". This moment made everyone glare at her in an angry or annoyed way.

"So I guess the people you shoot with lightning forgive you the fastest, Ha I should know'' Zuko said trying to create a laugh. He stopped he realized he just made an awkward moment and made Azula feel worse

"Look it's going to take a lot more than sorry to make things better Azula" Sokka said "wait you didn't hire a second combustion man did you?" he said looking around the room

"Who?" Azula asked

"Oh that's a relief" Sokka said calming down

"Zuko You Can't DO THIS" Suki said slowly yelling "she's dangerous, you can't just let her free…"

"She's not just going free right away" Zuko finally said surprising Suki

"Yes, I'm still sentenced to go back to the mental health facility" Azula added "I understand that you all hate me for my position during the war, but if it's any consolation I can live with that" this didn't seem to help her argument at all "look I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I didn't come back expecting to ever be free from prison and I certainly didn't expect any of you to forgive me, but I just wanted to try and it was important to Zuko that I did" she said making Zuko feel nice after all of that. Zuko noticed she subtly glanced at Ty Lee who never made eye contact.

This left the room completely silent. Everyone stared at her in aww. Azula peaked over at the guard who brought her there "ok ah before we can make this anymore blatantly unpleasant I guess I should be taken back to my cell" Azula said before the guard started escorting her out of the palace. Ty Lee went the opposite direction without saying a word.

Zuko faced his friends who deserved a pretty great explanation "alright I guess you all have some questions"

"Well of course" Katara said "when…when did she come back"

"Two days ago, right before I sent you the summons" Zuko answered

"I see" Sokka added "we really need a better messaging system, Zuko could have died in that time"

"Zuko listen to me" Suki said grabbing onto him (and making Sokka a little jealous) "Azula is manipulating you again, you can't even consider going through with this"

"I think he should, people do change" Aang said stepping in "the last time we saw Azula she made a huge gesture, maybe she's finally at a point where we can help her"

Katara stepped in "Suki, if it makes you feel any better I'm mostly on your side but it's not like Zuko's just letting her roam unguarded and buying everything she's saying, he's actually being smart and cautious"

"I know this sounds crazy to most of you and it just might be, but no matter what happened in the past she's my family and she's important to me, if I can help her in any way I want to '' he said, causing Katara to let out a guilty sigh.

"I've got to side with Suki" Sokka inserted "I just feel like we're being way too forgiving way too fast"

"You could make the argument you were way too forgiving for me" Zuko argued

"Oh we actually have argued and concluded that we were way too forgiving of you" Sokka persisted "I'm just kidding buddy…or am I"

Zuko noticed one more friend who hadn't imputed anything "Toph what do you think" he said hoping to get more support

"I think that was way too confusing" Toph said

"No offense Toph but I'm not sure you'll be much help here, isn't Azula immune to your earthbending lie detection thingy" Sokka said

"Well yeah" Toph said "I couldn't detect a lie back then and I couldn't now, but… But something was strange about her just now" she explained "before she was cold and stern, but just now she had a lot more… emotion, care and stuff like that, and there actually was some sincerity, not a lot but some"

"Well I'm getting the Kyoshi warriors to double their efforts around the palace and stay vigilant to keep you safe" Suki said towards Zuko

Zuko sighed, all things considered it actually went better than he should have expected. He needed to help Azula but he also needed his friends to understand what was going on. If nothing else at least he knew Aang at least somewhat supported his efforts, and maybe the others would do the same in time. He also needed to get to work, with all the time he spent focusing on Azula the last couple days he had been neglecting his royal duties, never would have expected they would look so relaxing compared to everything else.

Later that night

Azula looked at herself in her cell mirror. She didn't know if she completely blew it, or if it went as well as it could. She hadn't spoken to Zuko or her mother since she left, so she was leaning toward blowing it. But personally it didn't matter too much, she didn't really care what they thought of her. There were probably thousands of people around the world who hated her and their father, mathematically them forgiving her wouldn't make too much of a difference.

Two guards did their rotation and checked her cell through the door slot, when they were done they shut the slot and moved on. That meant he wasn't going to be back for thirty minutes. However the halls echoed just enough for her to hear what they said "she's back, greeeeat" "she's the last person we should call princess" they didn't know what they were talking about, they were just petty.

Azula felt a presence she knew extremely well by now, she was having another mental hallucination. "Hey" she said to whom she now referred to as her 'ghost mother'. It was an extremely misleading name but it kinda fit. Azula laid down on her bed "I apologized like Zuko asked, didn't do much" she said getting no response in return. Ever since she got back from her 'quest' ghost mother hadn't spoken. She wasn't sure if that meant she was getting better or not, but for now it meant having one less person to talk to.

Azula laid down on her bed, not even bothering to say anything if her ghost mother wasn't going to talk back. Her ghost mother was still there as if she was waiting for something. Why was she so… anxiety filled about this, what they thought didn't matter, she wasn't going to see them again anyway. Their opinions didn't matter in any way. They didn't matter. They didn't.

"AAAAHAHAHHH" Azula said breaking into sobs until she was laying on a soaking wet pillow case "she hates you" she said to herself "that look on Ty Lee's face" she said feeling guilty "she hates you so much".

"Ugh Azula?" a voice sounded

Azula froze and clenched her bed sheets. She slowly turned toward the door to find the Waterbender standing there in the doorway looking at her in confusion "GET OUT" Azula screamed immediately trying to cover her eyes up "YOU CAN'T BE IN HERE, GET OUT".

The Waterbender flinched but didn't abide "No no, I came here to talk to you" the Waterbender said with ferocity, courage, and determination; Azula couldn't help but respect that to an extent. "Look I'm not gonna lie right now I don't trust you, and I am still mad at you for everything you did…" she said before taking a deep breath "but I do want to help you"

This caught Azula by surprise "Ugh you'll have to elaborate"

"When Zuko came to us and tried to make things right I was against him even to the point of threatening his life, and…. I don't want to make the same mistake twice" she said "don't get me wrong I'm not going to let you get away with anything or let you scam me" she took another deep breath "but I have seen some people change, and I know it would mean a lot to Zuko"

"Woah" is all Azula could say. "I never took you for a doctor," Azula said sarcastically, trying her best to make a joke.

"I'm not" she admitted "but I am a healer" she said, bending water up to her hands, the water started to glow in a way that was creepy yet strangely beautiful. "the northern water tribe has had a lot of progress using healing to cure mental illness, I can help heal you if you'll let me" she said warmly "it can be a regular thing, I can keep studying and eventually fully heal you"

Azula was shocked to hear this, and based on the waterbenders reaction this was written all over her. She could be cured, a way to fix what's wrong with her head at least. But that meant losing her ghost mother, and she wouldn't have someone to talk to whenever she needed. On the contrary it meant having her head cleared and possibly mending her relationship with her family more, and maybe even others. "I don't know" she finally said "if I'm gonna be here for the rest of my natural life I may as well…." she was cut off

"Azula what are you talking about, you realize this isn't prison it's a mental institution" the Waterbender said dumbfounded "that means if you get better you'll be released, it's what Zuko intended when he first sent you here"

Azula was surprised by this, she always assumed if by some miracle the doctors could cure her then she'd just be transferred to a regular prison. But Zuko actually intended to set her free, just another thing she completely overlooked that showed he really did care about her. Come to think of it, there were yearly evaluations for the patients but she always saw them as nothing more than a cruel joke. But if they were legit then she actually had a chance of being set free, she had the chance to be a princess again, she had the chance to be a better sister. Azula took one last look at her ghost mom; she nodded, she had her hand over her heart and was gesturing for her to go ahead. She had her blessing "alright" Azula said sitting down.

Azula took one final look at her ghost mom and saw her smile one last time before the Waterbender lifted her hands to her head.

And that's the first chapter, I wanted to give the characters some time to breath before the plot starts. I also want to take this time to apologize since I claimed this story would be released 'a few months' after the original. I had the idea all the way back then but I've been very busy with college and I had other stories I wanted to work on (3 others released since the first Azula story). Anyways I hope you stick around and enjoy this. Thank you for reading and Please Review.