After leaving Ember Island, Ursa eventually found herself in the colonies. At first, she contemplated staying there so that she could be somewhat close to her children, and possibly sneak them out of the palace, before she quickly struck that idea down. She was banished from the Fire Nation. And while she didn't think that Ozai would send someone to kill her, she didn't want to risk being seen by anyone who might recognize her. Plus, she didn't want her two children to live a life on the run with her. Ozai would be relentless in trying to get his two heirs back. Ursa refused to put the two of them through any danger. They would be more safe back in the palace with their father than they would be out on the road with her. Hopefully.

Where to go, then? At this point her best option was to go to the Earth Kingdom, but the question was where in the Earth Kingdom. For a moment, she thought about going to Omashu, but was unsure if they took in refugees. There was one other place, however, that was practically a safe haven for refugees. Ba Sing Se. Were they even taking any right now, though? They were still recovering from Iroh's 600 day siege, after all. The likelihood of them still accepting refugees at this point was pretty low. Only one way to find out, she supposed.

She had managed to find herself on yet another ship, this time not as a stowaway. Ursa had decided to try her luck and asked the captain if she could board with them, since she had overheard them talking about going to the Earth Kingdom and that was exactly where she was going, but she unfortunately had no means of getting there without help. To her utter shock, the man didn't seem to recognize her at all (her cloak really was a good disguise after all) and told her that she could travel with him and his crew. The crew were a pleasant bunch and thankfully didn't harass her, but even so Ursa mostly kept to herself. She wasn't exactly in a talking mood.

A few days later, they arrived at a port in an Earth Kingdom town. Ursa thanked the captain and got off the ship. Her next order of business would be to find out how to get to Ba Sing Se from here. There were plenty of shops in the area, so perhaps it would be best to ask one of the store owners. She walked into the nearest one that she could find and walked up to a man who was standing behind the counter.

"Excuse me. Do you know of a way to get to Ba Sing Se from here?"

"Sure do! The big ship that we have here takes people to this place called Full Moon Bay, and from there all you need to do is get yourself a passport that will allow you to board a ferry that will take you directly to Ba Sing Se. In fact, the ship should be leaving soon so you better get a move on."

"Thank you very much." Ursa said before turning around and walking out of the door. She looked around in search of the ship the man had told her about, and sure enough it was exactly where he said it would be. She quickly made her way over to the ship, and before she knew it, they were off to Full Moon Bay.

A few days and one passport later, Ursa was starting to get tired of being on ships. At least before long, she would be in Ba Sing Se.

Ursa was not prepared for what she saw when she arrived in Ba Sing Se. It appeared as if nobody knew about the war (which made absolutely no sense. They had just been attacked! Iroh had laid siege to this city for six hundred days. How was it possible that nobody knew about it?) whenever she mentioned it every time someone she met asked her "what brings you to Ba Sing Se?"

She had been under the impression that people came to this city to escape the horrors of the war. Clearly she had been wrong, or someone lied somewhere. Or…

Or there was a dark secret lingering in Ba Sing Se. A dark secret that she couldn't even begin to fathom.

Consciousness slowly crept up on the tiny princess. Azula groaned as she opened her eyes, slowly blinking as she tried to take in her surroundings. Where was she? From what she could gather, it was dark, and there were people around her. And she was being held in someone's arms.

Wait, being held in someone's arms?

Azula slowly looked up to see who was holding her, and found her mirror staring back at her. Well, not exactly staring since the woman was currently asleep. Her mother. And if that was the case, then that meant….

She was home. She was safe.

A wave of relief washed over Azula. She had managed to get her and her mother to safety. Or wait, did she? She couldn't remember. All she knew was that her body hurt like hell. What on earth happened to her? Perhaps waking up her mother was a good idea. She should know what happened.

Azula gently tapped her mother's arm, "Mom. Mom, wake up. I need to ask you something." she whispered.

No response. Her mother continued to lightly snore. Should she try smacking her? Maybe a smack would work. She slowly moved in her mother's arms, reaching one of her own arms up and moving her hand towards her mother's cheek. The movement made her wince. Maybe this was a bad idea. But she had to know what had happened. Finally reaching her mother's face, she slapped her. She wasn't sure how hard it was considering that her hands were currently tiny, but it seemed to do the trick, because her mother snapped to attention almost immediately.

"What on earth? Who slapped me?"

"You're finally awake! What happened? How did we get back here?"

Azula watched in anticipation as her mother blinked slowly, looking down in shock, as if she was surprised to see that she was awake. Why? Wasn't it normal for people to sleep? That's when she noticed something else.

Her mother's eyes were slowly filling with tears.

Which didn't make any sense to Azula. Why was she crying? There was nothing about her question that would cause the older woman to cry. Perhaps it had something to do with the brainwashing-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Ursa embraced her in a bone crushing hug, crying in relief. What followed were words that Azula couldn't quite make out, and a dozen kisses to her head. She didn't know how to feel about that. She wasn't used to so much affection, especially not from her mother.

"My baby is awake. You're finally awake." Ursa said tearfully.

"Why the hell are you crying? Who cries about their child waking up from a nap?"

"I'm going to let that curse slide for right now."

The commotion woke the others from their sleep, and they all looked at the scene before them in shock. Azula was awake at last. They turned to look at Sokka, who, predictably, had tears in his eyes as he watched the scene before him.

"You-you're awake."

Azula turned at the sound of his voice. And smiled. Looking at her now, he realized that Ursa was right. She really did have that look on her face only when she was talking to him. He couldn't recall seeing Azula looking at anyone else that way.

"Oh good, you're all awake too. You mind helping me out of my mother's arms? She's kinda crushing me."

Sokka chuckled as he moved closer to them, and slowly pried Azula out of Ursa's arms. Only to then pull her into a bone crushing hug of his own.

"Ouch! Hey, I didn't mean for you to hug me too! Put me-!"

The feeling of something wet dropping on her face stopped her mid sentence. Sokka was crying.

Azula had no idea why these two were crying just because she woke up from her nap (at least, that's what she assumed it was) but she did know one thing: she didn't like seeing Sokka cry. Deciding not to say anything else, she closed her eyes and hugged him back, not caring that the others were watching them.

Sokka was all that mattered to her right now.

Soon after Sokka released her from his hug, Azula found herself in her mother's lap once more as she listened to the others explain everything that had happened from the moment she had been captured and all the way up to now. From what she could gather, they had snuck into a party thrown by the Earth King, in order to find out what had happened to her. They were eventually captured by the Dai Li, which is when they met Long Feng, who told them that he had been the one who had her kidnapped. He struck a deal with them, promising her safe return if they left the city. Thankfully they didn't believe him and decided to look for her, which is when they met Jet and his companions (who they had apparently met earlier on in their travels) who then led them to Lake Laogai, where she and Ursa were being held. The more they spoke, the more she started to remember. She had managed to get her mother to remember who she actually was, effectively breaking the mind control that Long Feng had over her. She broke free of her chains and the two of them attempted to escape, only to be stopped by the Dai Li. Attempting to fight them off, only to knock out only one of them. Getting pinned to a wall by the remaining four Dai Li agents, who attacked her relentlessly. Her mother standing in front of her with her arms spread out in an attempt to protect her, only for Sokka, Mai, and Ty Lee to arrive and defeat the Dai Li agents. After that, everything else was a blur. At least now she knew why both her mother and Sokka had been crying upon seeing that she had woken up. She had taken quite the beating.

"So what's the plan now? Go after Long Feng and kick his ass?" she asked them.

"Ahem"

She turned around to see her mother giving her a look. Azula huffed.

"Are you going to do this every time I curse?"

"Stop cursing and we won't have this problem."

"I'm not actually a little kid, you know. I'm fourteen!"

"That's still a kid's age, Azula. Besides, you're currently in the body of a six year old. You wouldn't want to draw weird looks from people because you're cursing, do you?"

Azula frowned, but she had to admit her mother had a point. The last thing that she wanted to do was draw any unwanted attention towards them. Especially while they were in this city. She turned around to look at the others when she heard someone chuckle. All of them seemed to be holding in a laugh.

"And just what is so funny?"

"The fact that you're being scolded by your mother for cursing, tiny princess, that's what's so funny!" Toph exclaimed, unable to hold in her laughter any longer. Azula glared at the other girl but didn't say anything. She did cross her arms and pout, however.

"Hey, you didn't say 'don't call me that' when Toph called you a tiny princess!" Ty Lee observed.

The others stopped laughing upon hearing this. Now that was weird. Azula usually got annoyed whenever Toph or Sokka called her that.

"I…actually kind of missed being called that." she admitted sheepishly.

Ah. Now it made sense. She had been in captivity for quite a while, after all.

Nobody noticed Sokka getting up and silently slipping out of the house upon hearing that. Nobody but Azula, that is. Did he feel guilty over what happened to her? She made a mental note to talk to him later.

"To answer your question, we've decided to go and see the Earth King once you've fully recovered. We're going to expose Long Feng for the conniving snake that he is, and then we'll tell the king about the invasion plan." a voice that she didn't recognize said.

Azula looked in the direction the voice came from, only to see the boy named Jet glaring at her, his other two friends watching her warily.

"I get the feeling that you don't like me. Not that I care, of course. If you want to kill me, however…that's a different matter altogether."

"You're right, I don't like you. Your family is responsible for the war, the war that took my family away from me. As far as killing you, I already promised that I wouldn't attack you or your friends and mother. We have to work together if we want to save this city from its corruption."

Azula nodded. At least he was willing to put aside his hatred for the Fire Nation for the time being.

"I'm not going to ask you to forgive my country for all we've done, because you have every right to hate us. I do want to thank you, though. You were the one who led them to Lake Laogai, right?"

"I was brainwashed at the time, but yes, I was."

He was brainwashed? That sounded like it was right up Long Feng's alley. He more than likely used Jet as a way to lure them to where she was being held, only to capture them himself, or possibly kill them.

"Brainwashed or not, I'm still grateful for what you did. So, thank you." she said to the boy, who nodded but said nothing else.

"Oh yeah! We forgot the best part!" Aang exclaimed.

Azula looked at him, puzzled by what he meant. The best part?

"Momo became a lord!"

…..A flying lemur became a lord? What on earth was Aang on about?

Seeing the confused look on her face, Aang continued, "Sokka and I were practicing talking like a noble so that we wouldn't stand out at the king's party, and I addressed Momo by calling him 'Lord Momo of the Momo dynasty'. He even started walking around with one of our blankets over him! It was really funny."

Azula turned to the lemur and smiled. He hadn't climbed on her at all, which she assumed was because he didn't want to hurt her any more than she already was (if only her mother and Sokka had that same thought process) but the moment she gestured Momo over to her, the lemur almost immediately ran into her lap.

"So, you're a lord now, huh? I always knew that you had it in you, Lord Momo." she said, gently stroking his head, causing Momo to move closer towards her and curl himself into a ball, looking at her.

"I made you worry a lot didn't I, Momo? I'm sorry. I won't do that again, I promise."

Mai snorted, "I doubt that."

"Shut up, Mai!"

"Make me."

Azula glared at the older girl, who looked right back at her.

"You do realize that glaring at me won't scare me, right? You're currently six years old, that look isn't scaring anyone. If anything it'll just cause someone to call you cute, much like I assume Ty Lee wants to do right now."

They all turned to the mentioned girl, who, sure enough, seemed to be holding herself back from rushing towards Azula and hugging her, gushing about how cute she was. Azula sighed and slowly got up, causing Momo to quickly climb onto her shoulder.

"I'm going outside. I'll be right back."

"Outside? Why?" Katara asked

"...Did you not notice your brother walking outside a little while ago?"

"He went outside?"

Azula smacked her forehead. Idiots, all of them.

"I noticed, but I decided to leave him alone. Didn't seem like he wanted company. And if he does, it certainly won't be from me." Toph said, smirking in Azula's direction.

"I noticed too, but I didn't say anything to him for the same reason as Toph." Mai said.

"Did anyone else notice?"

They all shook their heads. Azula sighed as she made her way to the door.

"You guys seriously need to work on your observation skills."

"I….actually kind of missed being called that."

That one sentence hit him like a punch to the gut. If he had been more vigilant, paid more attention to their surroundings, she wouldn't have had to miss being called that at all. Because she wouldn't have never been captured to begin with. Wouldn't have gotten hurt the way she had. Spirits, she could have died and it would have been his fault! He could have lost her the same way that he lost Yue. He wouldn't be able to handle that if it happened again.

"Hey. Want some company?"

Sokka turned around to see Azula standing behind him, Momo on her shoulder. Seeing the two of them together again brightened his mood for a moment before he was reminded of the last time they had been together.

"What are you doing out here? You should be resting!"

"You're right. I should be resting. Since a certain someone decided that they wanted to sit out here and mope, however, resting is going to have to wait. So? What's the matter with you?" she asked, even though she has a pretty good idea of what it was.

"What you said a little while ago…it got to me. When you said that you missed hearing us call you 'tiny princess'. You wouldn't have had to miss hearing it if I had been paying more attention to our surroundings. If I had asked you why you were constantly looking around instead of assuming that you were just taking in the sights. It's my fault that you got captured."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes it is! We both know that's the truth, so don't try to lie to me just to make me feel better-"

"I was the one who told you that I was going to wait outside, idiot! Or did you forget about that?!"

Whatever Sokka was going to say next died in his throat the moment those words left her mouth.

"I'm the one who decided to go and see who was following us on my own, because I didn't want anything happening to you in case something went down. I figured that if one of us had to get attacked or captured, better me than you. You're the team leader, after all. I-we can't afford to lose you. You're the one who came up with the invasion plan, a plan that needs to get to the Earth King as soon as possible. Between the two of us, you're the valuable one."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing right now. Azula really thought that she wasn't valuable to the team? Her of all people? She was a powerhouse!

"How could you think that you aren't valuable? You're probably the strongest bender on our team aside from Aang. And that's not the only reason why you're valuable."

"Yes, well, my strength doesn't exactly matter right now. Thanks to this stupid body I get tired easily, my firebending is hard to control to the point where I'm practically useless in a fight. How exactly is that being valuable?"

"Azula…don't you get it? Your firebending prowess isn't the only reason why we all think that you're a valuable part of the team. You are the smartest person we know, aside from me of course. Nobody can match our brain power when we work together."

"Well aren't you a cocky little shit."

He chuckled, "Don't let Ursa hear you say that. And another reason why you're valuable? Because you're Aang's firebending teacher. And don't even think about saying that you haven't agreed to that, we both know that's pretty much set in stone at this point. So don't ever think that you aren't valuable, ok? If you ever feel like that again, I'll be here to remind you just how valuable you are."

"...you're a hypocrite." she mumbled

"What? I didn't hear you."

"I said that you're a hypocrite! How dare you sit there and lecture me about how I don't feel valuable when you yourself don't feel valuable?!"

Sokka looked at her, stunned. She had actually noticed that? It always seemed as if nobody did. Like nobody had cared to notice.

Azula noticed the look on his face and scoffed, "Did you really think that I wouldn't notice? Whenever we get into a fight, you always get this look on your face. As if you were wishing that you could do more. As if you wished that you had been born a bender. Not to mention the way that you've been acting ever since I woke up. You have this guilty look on your face. You blame yourself for what happened to me. In fact, you probably think that you would have been the better choice for the Dai Li to capture, because you feel as if you bring nothing to the team. Even though they wouldn't have captured you anyway, since they were after me from the start."

Her words made Sokka flinch. He clenched his fists in his lap and began shaking with anger.

"I keep on thinking back to that day. Thinking about what could have gone differently if I had just made you come inside the restaurant with me, or if I had noticed that we were being followed as well and decided to follow you. When I think about the second scenario? I can't picture a way for me to have saved you, and I hate it. The only reason why I even managed to get the jump on those agents in Lake Laogai is because they didn't see us coming until it was too late. Sure, I managed to briefly stun them with my boomerang, but what good is that in the long run? There's no way I could have handled four Dai Li agents with just my boomerang and club. The only reason why we even won was because of Mai and Ty Lee, mainly Ty Lee with her chi blocking. But I can't do that! How am I supposed to keep my promise to protect you from your father and brother and uncle if I couldn't even save you from getting kidnapped?! Even if I was there with you I wouldn't have been able to do anything!"

He ended his rant, breathing heavily. He hadn't meant to say all of that to her. The last thing that she needed was him unloading his grievances onto her. No matter how good it felt to finally get all of this off of his chest.

"You really need to learn how to follow your own advice. What was it that you just finished telling me? Oh, that's right, that my bending isn't the only thing that makes me valuable or strong. My intelligence makes me strong, too. Why can't that be the same for you? You're also an effective leader. I am absolutely confident that without you, Aang and Katara more than likely would have died by now, what with all of the dumb detours they seem to like to take. You keep them grounded and remind them of the bigger picture, and you don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. You also came up with the invasion plan. You did that, not anyone else. And what you said before, about not paying more attention to our surroundings? Sokka, I don't know if you realize this, but I was trying my hardest to make sure that you didn't notice that something was wrong, because I didn't want you to follow me and possibly get into danger because of me. And yet you noticed it anyway. You have a strength that nobody else on this team does, aside from me: your intelligence. That is your greatest strength, Sokka. That's what makes you so valuable, among other things. Your brain is your strongest weapon. Don't ever forget that, ok?"

Sokka didn't say anything as he mulled over her words and took them to heart. Perhaps this was the pep talk that he needed. A talk that he needed for a long time now, he supposed. Even so….

Even so, he wanted to get stronger, so that way he could better protect himself and the others should they need it. To better protect Azula until she returned to normal. While she was right about his intelligence being his greatest strength, he knew that he would need more than that if he wanted to be more useful in a fight.

"I…I can't lose you, Azula" he said quietly, hoping that she wouldn't hear him.

Judging by the look on her face, however, she had.

"You can't…lose me?" She repeated what he said. Did that mean…?

Sokka looked at her. He could have told her about Yue, how losing her had left an impact on him, and how he couldn't handle it if Azula suffered a similar fate to her. He could have told Azula how he felt about her. Instead, he decided to do neither. He didn't want to drop that kind of emotional bomb on her. Not when she was still recovering. That was the last thing that she needed to worry about. And there was still that small doubt in the back of his mind that told him that she didn't feel the same way about him.

He shook his head and stood up, "It's nothing, forget I said anything. Come on, let's get you back inside so you can rest." he said, making his way over to her and grabbing her hand before leading her back towards the house.

"Wait, Sokka!"

He didn't wait, though. He ignored her protests as they walked back inside the house, shutting the door behind them.

Azula definitely considered Sokka to be a fool now. If he really thought that she'd just forget about what he said, then he had another thing coming. Besides, it's not like she didn't have an idea about the deeper meaning behind his words.

The only question that she had to answer now was if she felt the same way about Sokka.

"Oh good, you guys are back." Mai said.

The two of them turned to look at the older girl, who gave them a once over before speaking again.

"Seeing as you look better than when you left, Sokka, I'm going to assume that your talk went well. Speaking of talking, I have something to say to you, Azula."

"Me? What is it?"

Azula looked at Mai, who looked back at her. Neither girl said anything. Surely Mai was joking, right? There was no way that she actually meant what she just said. When Mai didn't smirk at her to signal that she was indeed joking, Azula lost it.

"I've been doing some thinking, and I realized that I've been way too lenient with you. You don't listen and always run off, despite the fact that it's currently dangerous for you to do so for obvious reasons. So maybe doing this will make you reconsider running off like that again."

"I-you aren't my mother! You can't tell me what to do, right mom?!" Azula said, turning to the woman in question.

"Well, you have been cursing a lot as of late. Perhaps some punishment is in order. And besides, this works out perfectly. If you're grounded then that means you can put your full attention into getting better. Of course, this also means that you can't have mochi for a while."

Sokka and the others laughed, but they quickly shut up when Azula glared at them.

Azula wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She really hoped that she would be able to return back to normal soon.