Zuko sat cross legged in his room, breathing in and out slowly, controlling his inner fire, watching as the flames on the candles in front of him grew bigger and then dimmed with each breath he took. He had noticed lately that his control of his firebending wasn't exactly the best, and that he sometimes put more power into his attacks than he would have liked, so he decided to do some meditation. He remembered seeing Azula do it every now and then, on the rare occasion where he would catch a glimpse of her training. If he did this daily, Zuko figured that it would help him get stronger. Strong enough to have his father send him out to fight in the war, and to find his sister.
It had been almost three months since Azula's "death" and a lot had happened in that time: his father training him on a daily basis, spending more and more time with Mai and Ty Lee (especially Mai), his mother slowly withdrawing into herself and barely speaking to anyone outside of him and his father (something that worried him greatly) , and finally, the death of his grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon. It happened about two weeks ago. He had apparently died in his sleep. A few days later, a funeral was held. Since there was still no word about Iroh's whereabouts, his father had been crowned Fire Lord, making Zuko officially crown prince. Zuko couldn't deny that he felt a small bit of happiness that his grandfather was no longer alive. The old man was the one responsible for what happened to Azula, after all.
Speaking of his sister, he missed her. Something that Zuko never thought would be possible. She had been nothing but an annoyance to him, taking away their father's attention since she was better at firebending than he was. He often found himself wishing that she would just disappear. Now, though? He wished that she would come back. That Azula would just reappear in the palace one day and say that it was just one big joke, that grandfather had never wanted to kill her. He wished for it everyday, but as each day went by, his wish remained unfulfilled. Soon, he would be able to make that wish come true himself. The moment he completed his training and he was old enough, his father would send him out to find Azula. He would be able to bring her back home with him. Hopefully she hadn't been kidnapped by the Earth Kingdom, or even worse, by the water tribe peasants. Zuko didn't know which outcome was worse. The thought alone fueled his desire to find Azula even more. The flames around him started to grow in size, and Zuko quickly calmed himself down before he accidentally burned something. Thinking about the what ifs about Azula wouldn't help him at all. He just had to hope that she was alive somewhere. It was Azula after all. There was no way that she'd let herself get captured or killed. Not without putting up a fight.
Later on that day, he went to go train with his father. Zuko had been shocked when the man said that he would still train him, seeing as he was now Fire Lord, Zuko thought that his father wouldn't have a lot of time to spend training him.
"I may have a lot of responsibilities now that I'm the Fire Lord, but you are still my son. I'll always have time for you", Ozai had said when Zuko asked him about it. That response put the biggest smile on Zuko's face.
His father had shown him an advanced set that he had began to teach Azula when the incident happened, and as he suspected, Zuko wasn't able to get it right at all. He would find himself flinching whenever he screwed up, waiting for his father to yell at him whenever he made a mistake, but it never came. Instead, Ozai would calmly tell Zuko what he did wrong, demonstrate, and then instruct him to do it again. These lessons would usually last for a few hours, his father not wanting him to stop until he at the very least partially got the technique right. It would end with him feeling exhausted, but Zuko endured it. If it meant eventually finding Azula, he would do anything his father asked him to.
Eventually, Ozai told him to stop for the day. Zuko bowed, thanked his father for training him, and went to his room for some much needed rest. On his way there, he saw something that made him stop in his tracks.
The door to his sister's room was wide open. And standing inside was his mother.
He walked slowly to the door, not wanting to frighten her. As he was getting ready to walk into the room, the sound of crying made him stop.
Zuko peaked into his sister's room and saw his mother's shaking form, clutching one of the stuffed animals that Azula had back when she was a baby. His heart clenched at the sight. He wanted to go up to his mom and tell her the truth, that Azula was actually alive, but knew that he couldn't. His father had made it clear that he wanted it to be kept a secret from her for now. Perhaps it was because he wanted to surprise her when Azula returned? That was probably why. Zuko couldn't think of any other reason as to why his father wouldn't want to say anything about it to his own wife.
He backed away from his sister's room and made his way to his own room, one thought going through his mind.
Don't worry, mom. I'll find Azula and bring her home. I promise.
When Mai and Ty Lee came to the palace the next day, they could immediately tell that something was wrong with Zuko. He looked tired and seemed as if he would fall asleep at any moment. Eventually, the two girls couldn't take it anymore.
"Are you ok, Zuko?" Mai asked
"What? Of course I'm ok! Why?"
"Because you look like you're about to pass out!" Ty Lee exclaimed, looking at him worriedly.
Oh. That's what they were worried about?
"Guys, I'm fine, really. I've just been training a lot more often lately, with my father. I want to get stronger as quickly as possible. I need to get stronger as quickly as possible."
Mai and Ty Lee looked at each other, confused. They could understand him wanting to get better at firebending, especially now that he was his father's heir, but why did he seem so desperate?
"Why do you need to get stronger so badly?" Mai asked.
Oh, right. They didn't know. He contemplated telling them for a couple of seconds, before he ultimately decided he should. His father only said not to tell mother, so telling Mai and Ty Lee should be fine, right? It's not like the two of them would say anything to his mom.
"I'm going to tell you guys something that HAS to stay between us, understand?"
The two of them nodded.
"Well, remember how I was saying that I had this feeling something was ...well, off about what happened to Azula? Turns out I was right! Azula's alive!"
"WHAT?!"
"Shhh! Not so loud!" he said in a whisper, looking around to make sure nobody heard them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that nobody else was there.
"Sorry"
Zuko glared at them, "Anyway, I went to talk to my dad about it, and he told me everything. He said some things that angered my grandfather, and as punishment, my grandfather was going to kill Azula. We were actually in the throne room, listening in on the conversation, but I eventually left. Azula stayed behind, which is how she found out about everything. When my grandfather got to her room, she was already gone. So in order to cover it up, he made it seem as if it was an assassination attempt on his life gone wrong. Nobody knows where Azula is, or if she's even still in the Fire Nation, so my father said that he plans on sending me out into the war once I'm old enough to find Azula and bring her back home. And in preparation for that day, father has been training me personally. That's why I have to get stronger. I need to be prepared for whatever happens out there, and to be able to protect Azula. I don't want anything else happening to her."
The two girls looked at each other, stunned. Azula was alive? That put a smile on both of their faces, glad to hear that the girl hadn't been killed after all, and that Zuko had been right. Mai heard sniffling and turned to look at Ty Lee, who had tears in her eyes. They fell down her cheeks, and she started crying. Mai did something that she seldom did: pulled Ty Lee into a hug. Mai felt tears in her eyes as well. She tried to hold them back, to no avail, and found herself crying alongside Ty Lee, although not as loudly as the other girl.
Zuko looked at them, thinking that he definitely made the right choice in telling them the truth. They needed-no, they deserved that. It wouldn't make up for the fact that they wouldn't be able to see Azula for a long time, but it was something to put their minds at ease.
A thought occurred to him. What if he brought them along with him when the time came for him to set out on his mission? He was sure that the three girls would be happy to be reunited, and this way Azula would have her friends to talk to while they were sailing back home to the Fire Nation. Of course, he would have to ask his father if it would be ok for him to do this. Hopefully the man wouldn't be mad at him for telling Mai and Ty Lee the truth. That could wait until later, though. He moved closer to the two girls and wrapped his arms around them, pulling them into a hug. They wouldn't feel sad for too much longer.
Zuko would make sure of that.
Ursa found herself going into Azula's room more and more as of late. Sometimes with a plate of mochi and sometimes without. There would always be two pieces of mochi on the plate: one for Azula and one for herself. It was one of the few things that Ursa used to do with Azula, before the relationship between them became distant. When Azula was really little, Ursa would come into her room with two pieces of mochi on a plate, one for each of them, and she would read Azula a book, play whatever game Azula could come up with, or she would tell Azula a story. That all began to change when Ozai took a more keen interest in Azula the more her firebending grew stronger, and as a result he pushed Zuko away, who he was disappointed with since his firebending wasn't where he wanted it to be. This caused Ursa to gravitate more towards Zuko, trying to make up for the gap that his father had left. Doing this meant that she spent less time with Azula, and her daughter's sudden change in attitude certainly didn't help matters at all. There was a line drawn in between them and Ursa had no idea how to cross it. She hadn't understood her daughter's change or what had caused it, so she decided to put all of her focus on Zuko, one of her two children that she could understand. She would tell herself that she would have time to figure out what was going on with Azula.
If she only knew how that time would be tragically cut short.
Everyday Ursa would beat herself up over the fact that she wasn't there to protect her daughter. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Azula's final moments must have been like. How terrified she must have been. If Ursa could, she would hunt those assassins down herself and kill them. Ozai has assured her that the Yuyan Archers had been sent out to find and kill them, so she could only hope that they could get the job done.
Speaking of Ozai, she found herself spending more time with her husband as of late. It shocked her, seeing as how the two of them had become distant. She supposed that it was because of what happened to Azula. She sought Ozai out for comfort, seeing as he would also understand the pain that she was currently going through. Azula had been his child too, after all. They would talk for what felt like hours, sharing their favorite memories about Azula, something that Ursa appreciated greatly. While talking about Azula did hurt, she found that it also helped her in a way. It felt like she was keeping the memory of Azula alive, to make sure that she would never be forgotten. To make sure that Ursa herself would never forget her. Perhaps that was why she found herself visiting the girl's room, knowing that her daughter wouldn't be there to greet her at the door. And that she never would again.
"...And that's what happened. Can I bring Mai and Ty Lee with me when you send me out to find Azula, father?"
Ozai looked at his son, feeling the urge to scream at the boy but he calmed himself down before he could. In all fairness to the boy, he never said that he couldn't tell Azula's friends, just his mother. So long as the two girls didn't mention this to anyone else (and he was sure that they wouldn't. Azula wouldn't surround herself with idiots, after all.) then everything would be fine. His plan could still work. Speaking of his plan….
Zuko just presented him with another brilliant idea.
There was always the possibility that Zuko would be unsuccessful with convincing Azula to come home with him, considering what the relationship between the two of them had been like. She more than likely wouldn't believe a word he said. If her two friends were with him, however, that would get Azula to let her guard down, especially if they both vouched for what Zuko would tell her. Azula wouldn't suspect anything was wrong in that scenario.
Looking at his son, Ozai nodded, "That is an excellent idea, my son. I'm sure that your sister will be happy to see her two friends again as well."
Zuko smiled, "That's the same idea I had!"
"And what an excellent idea it is. I'm proud of you, Zuko."
He wasn't lying either. Ozai really was proud of his son. Proud of him for making what he had to do so much easier.