Chapter 3: Perfection is a Dead End.

-Yu Dao-

Azula looked at herself in the mirror and then looked at the wanted poster across the street outside her window. Fiddling with her hair, she noted that it was still long enough to where if she put it in her Fire National top knot, she'd give herself away.

"I'm going to need a completely different hair style." She said to herself as she walked outside and had a brief flash again—something that had been becoming more and more common the past few days.

The flash in question was one of the Kyoshi Warrior Suki, and when she took her clothes to blend in the earth kingdom. This made her shake her head, feeling displeased with her past actions. But, it did give her a pretty good idea.

'Hmm, she does have nice hair. Maybe I should copy it." The former princess thought. She then went to find Touya so she could explain her idea to him. Upon hearing it, he nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. That would really help in terms of blending in." He noted. Azula smiled, glad he understood, before she suddenly felt herself have a bad headache—and the image and Voice of Ursa started hitting her again for the first time since her injury.

"Azula." The voice said in a motherly tone.

"Why are you speaking up now?" The former princess asked as she held her head. However, before the queen could answer, Touya snapped her out of it by shaking her shoulder a bit.

"Hey, Azula." The boy said as his face turned concerned. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I… heard my mother's voice." She replied, trying to get her head cleared out.

"Uh… Does that happen very often?" He asked, thoroughly creeped out by the statement. This made the girl cross her arms indignantly.

"I'm a recovering amnesiac who had schizophrenia and hallucinations before losing my memory, Touya, what do you think?" The princess hissed.

"... Right. Dumb question." The firebending boy admitted sheepishly. "Anyway, let's get your haircut." He told her.

"Yeah, Let's." The girl nodded with a huff as the two left.

(Elsewhere)

In the Fire Nation, everyone was gathered in the royal palace to discuss why they hadn't heard anything about Azula as of late. They were feeling concerned that she was forcing whoever she was hiding with to say nothing out of fear.

"I mean, it certainly seems like something she'd do." Sokka noted.

"Yeah, but there's one problem with that, babe." Suki pointed out. "According to Tai Lee, the boat that she escaped on was going to one of the colonies. So even if she did force someone to harbor her, the police would have noticed that something was up by now." She added. "I mean, she's not exactly the same calm and calculating bitch we used to know anymore."

"Yeah, it's been over two months now, we probably would have heard something by now." Toph added.

"Or there's something else that we're unaware of." Katara mused.

"Forgive me for my skepticism." Mai deadpanned as she looked at the waterbender. This made Katara look at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The girl questioned, which caused Aang and Zuko to tense up as intimidating blue and black auras floated around the two girls—like a cat fight was about to break out.

"Um, uh… Maybe Azula experienced something and is a new person?" The airbender interjected, hoping to stop a cat fight from breaking loose while unknowingly hitting the nail on the head.

"Hold on, what do you mean by that?" Zuko questioned. "My sister isn't the kind of person to change that easily." He added.

"I know, but something has to have happened, right?" Aang asked rhetorically.

"I mean, I guess…" Zuko nodded. 'It would explain the inactivity.' He thought to himself. "Well in any case, we still need to find her. Before something really bad can happen." He added.

(Elsewhere)

Back in Yu Dao, Touya and Azula walked into a barber shop. It was relatively simple in design, and had a mixture of earth and fire with decor of the former.

It was actually similar to a boutique and spa that Toph and Katara went to in Ba Sing Se. And right now, Azula was getting her hair done so that she could blend in with her new surroundings and not get caught.

Off to the side, Touya watched as the barbers worked. The redhead wondered just what kind of hairstyle the amnesiac was going for. It personally didn't matter to him since she looked gorgeous either way.

'Wait, where'd that come from?' He thought in confusion. The boy didn't feel too turned off about it, he always thought she was beautiful, but then again, who wouldn't?

"So, any particular reason why you decided to cut all this gorgeous hair?" The hairdresser, an earth kingdom woman in her sixties, questioned.

"Nothing serious. I… just decided that it was time for a change." Azula replied, the statement about her reasons being a half truth.

"Doesn't everyone?" The woman mused as she expertly cut Azula's hair. The princess as the symbolic representation of her old self started to slowly fall off of her head and to the floor, and it made her feel… oddly free.

However, as this feeling of freedom started to settle in, another image of Ursa settled into her view, reflected in the mirror in front of her.

"That's my girl. You're becoming a brand new person. Keep going." The apparition of her inner thoughts said with an encouraging smile.

"How do I know that's what you really think of me?" The girl questioned flatly in her mind, recalling briefly how the woman would always say that there was something "wrong with her".

"I always hoped that you'd find something to give you that gentle push to help you become an amazing person." Ursa said before her expression turned flat. "I really wish it wasn't memory loss, though." She added, her voice as flat as the look on her face.

'Well isn't that ironic.' Azula thought with a sweatdrop. "It can't be helped now… But I can still feel it, my head feels like it's about to split." She groaned mentally, the conversation causing her a horrible headache.

"I'll get out of your hair, then." Ursa said before she vanished. It was at that moment that she snapped back to reality, right as the hairdresser was putting the rest of her hair into a Fire Nation top knot with a red tiger eye gem flame. This allowed the three to see that the former royal's haircut looked like Suki's when she was in her Fire National disguise.

"Beautiful." The older woman smiled as Azula got up and faced Touya. "Well? Don't you think you should tell her how she looks, young man?" She asked as the boy just stared at the girl, slack jawed.

"Amazing…" He uttered, causing the former princess to blush. She then walked up to him and pinched him on the cheek.

"Well? Isn't it customary to show a lady off after she gets a makeover?" The girl questioned.

"I guess so." The redhead chuckled as he took her arm and the two walked out together.

(Later)

That night, Touya decided to take Azula to a local tea shop in the colony and ordered them both glasses of sweet hibiscus/rose/lavender and plum black tea and a few special fusion Pastries: Earth Kingdom Vanilla bundt cakes with special Fire Nation flaming lava chocolate filling.

"Oh man, they never cease to make these delicious." Touya sighed in bliss as he took a bite of his pastry.

"Yeah…" Azula nodded, though her expression was rather crestfallen as she tried to cheer herself with the delicious dessert and tea. This was quickly noticed by Touya though.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked her, making her tense up.

"I just… I wish I'd had moments like this before." She sighed sadly. "I didn't have moments like this in the past, remember?" She added.

"No no, I'm aware." The boy nodded. "What's worse is that your parents didn't even bother." He added, this made the Princess's grip on her glass tighten.

"Exactly." She hissed. "All my life. Every. Single. Day. I worked and worked to make sure that my skills were perfect. It was always perfection, I had to be my father's perfect daughter, perfect princess, perfect weapon." She growled. "And after all that, what does he do when I'm supposed to get my reward? He abandons me and leaves me with his scraps to keep me quiet so he can have all the glory for himself!" She nearly yelled, her tea becoming warm in her hand and azure wisps of flame flicking out of her mouth.

"Hey, calm down! Don't cause a scene!" Touya hissed, causing her to snap out of her anger and calm down.

"I… I'm sorry." Azula said as she could feel tears start to sting her eyes. "I just feel… So angry!" She hissed. "I never showed emotion like this before. Emotions are a sign of weakness, imperfection." She continued.

Touya seemed to be thoughtful for a moment. "No, don't be ashamed." He told her before he thought a bit harder as looked at him in confusion. "Now, the Fire Lord pressed you to be the perfect Princess, you said?" He asked. When he got a nod in reply, he continued. "Well, I'll have to tell you the honest truth as I see it. In this world, nothing perfect exists." He declared, getting her attention.

"What?" Azula asked, wondering where Touya was going with this.

"Cliché, I know. But as someone who's body is itself imperfect, I realized early on that it's just the way things are." The redhead continued. "That's why ordinary men pursue the concept of perfection, it's infatuation." He continued. The blue flame user listened intently to his words. "But ultimately I think we have to ask ourselves: what is the true meaning of being perfect? And do you know what answer I came up with?" He asked her.

"What's your answer?" Azula asked, growing more intrigued.

"Nothing! Not. One. Thing." Touya told her, much to her surprise. "The truth of the matter is I despise perfection. If someone is truly perfect, that's the end of it. The bottom line becomes, there's no room for imagination. No space for intelligence, or ability or improvement. Do you understand?" He questioned.

"I… I think so." The girl nodded, recalling how angry and frustrated she always felt when she tried to have perfect form, or the perfect grip on a situation and always failed. And as a result always felt like she was aiming for nothing at all.

"You see, to ordinary people like me, perfection is a dead end, a condition of hopelessness!" The blue flame boy continued. "That's why you should always strive to be better than you were before, but not perfect!" He added. "Prodigies agonize over the attempt to achieve perfection. That's the kind of creatures we are; we take joy in trying to exceed our grasp, in trying to reach for something that—in the end—we have to admit, may in fact be unreachable! In other words…" He trailed off as he lit a small fire in his open palm—the Sapphire flames dancing on their faces—and stared into it.

"Yes?" Azula questioned as she looked at him, his words causing her very sharp mind to start to piece together what he was saying, and seeing just how wrong her entire world view was.

"People may think we operate on the same level, but they're wrong. The moment Ozai and you started talking about perfection, you both embraced an impossible concept. That's why you both lost in the war." He declared.

That seemed to make things click in Azula's head—like someone turned a light switch on in her brain. It all made sense now; the reasons for why everything seemed out of reach, the reasons behind her shortcomings… It was all because she had embraced the impossible!

"And it's this poisoned mind set that made me not understand how love and compassion could possibly be better than fear, loyalty and power?" She gasped.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Azula." Her friend nodded. "But what you just said is exactly correct." He continued.

Azula felt sick, in a sense. She'd spent the majority of her life doing something wasteful because her own father was a fool! She then remembered how Mai and Tai Lee betrayed her because of how she treated them, her new perspective bringing her understanding of it all.

'So… This is what regret feels like.' The princess thought as she finished her food, but soon felt herself lose her appetite.

Touya saw this change in demeanor and decided to try and cheer her up. "Come on, I know a place where I can cheer you up." He told her as he took her hand and got up.

Azula looked at him and smiled as she got up with him. "Thank you, Touya." She smiled with a blush, which was copied by the boy as they walked away, hand in hand.

(Later)

It was evening now and Touya decided to take Azula to a place that always cheered him up when he wasn't feeling particularly good mood wise. That place being a foundation in the center of the city that lit up in a truly beautiful way at night time.

However, when they got there, the candles were unlit and dark.

"How about we sit while we wait for it to get dark?" Touya offered as he sat down on the edge of the fountain and patted the spot next to him.

"Alright." She shrugged as she took a seat next to him. They waited for about an hour before the sun went down, and the cold of two benders stood up.

"Here." He told her as he gave her his jacket before he noticed that the lanterns weren't lighting like usual. "Hm… Better fix that." He muttered before turning to Azula. "Close your eyes for a moment." He instructed.

"... What for?" She questioned.

"You'll see." He replied.

"Fine…" The girl sighed as she closed her eyes and kept them closed, allowing the fellow blue flame user to light the lanterns with his fire, making the area and fountain to be bathed in an ocean blue glow.

"Okay, open your eyes." Touya told her, prompting her to open her eyes, and they went wide upon seeing the azure flames coloring the area, creating something truly memorable.

"Amazing…" She breathed in awe. As she continued to stare at the beautiful sight before her, Touya meanwhile was nearly floored by how beautiful the girl looked in this new blue bathed flame lighting.

'She really is gorgeous.' He thought as the amnesiac girl continued looking around.

She then looked at the redhead and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Touya looked at her, then side to side, then at her again. Feeling really confused right now.

"Um, Azula? What're you doing?" He asked.

"You made me realize a lot of things today. And during the past few months, you helped me grow into a better person. I'm happy you helped me so much." She said before she, without thinking, kissed him square on the lips.

Touya was very startled by the ex-princess' action, but a part of him felt… overjoyed by it. Slowly, he let himself return the kiss, his arms wrapping around Azula's waist.

A few minutes of silent bliss passed between two as they continued to kiss, the blue dragoness leaning up into the boy's mouth as her tongue prodded his mouth, either asking or demanding for entrance.

Touya conceded, and allowed Azula to explore his mouth with her tongue. He felt it touch just about every inch, and he was actually enjoying it.

The two gasped as they pulled apart, completely out of breath, with their breath being visible, eyes half lidded, and a single strand of saliva joining their mouths.

"Wow…" They uttered quietly just loud enough for them to hear each other. However, seconds later, the flickering of the fire around them caused them to realize the position they were in—and have a bit of a mental cold shower.

With a squeak from both of them, they separated and looked away from each other awkwardly. Neither party knew what possessed them to do that, and didn't know whether or not they wanted to know.

"Uh, let's go ahead and go home." Touya offered.

"Best idea I've heard all day." Azula nodded as the two walked home together.

(Timeskip)

In the Boiling Rock a few weeks later, Mai was looking over the ship logs with her Uncle the Warden for the barges that left the prison for the colonies with guards who were going on leave. Mainly to see if there were any that had more than was originally intended head count wise.

"There's something I don't understand, Mai." The man said, getting his niece's attention.

"About what?" She asked.

"Why are you going out of your way to find the woman who ultimately betrayed you. After all, for all you know she could have died at sea or was killed during one of her mental breakdowns." He explained. "Given all the grief she caused you, if she is gone, you should be happy." He added.

"I think it's more for the sake of whoever she's found herself hiding with than anything else." The knife thrower shrugged. "Wait… Look at this." She said, pointing at the records of the barge that was to travel to Yu Dao the day Azula escapes. "This boat was supposed to only transport 34 soldiers and guards, right?" She asked.

"Hm… The head count for this barge has one extra…" The Warden noted with a frown. "Do you think this is the one?" He asked his niece.

"It's gotta be." Mai nodded as she rolled the scroll up. "I have to bring this to Zuko. And we have to move quickly." She added as she walked away.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile in Yu Dao, Azula was busy working at her new job. More specifically, she was working as a hostess at the local club that Touya worked at as a guard.

"Well, this feels a lot more different than I thought it would." The ex-princess sighed quietly.

"You get used to it eventually." Touya, who was nearby, told her. She'd been working at this job for the past couple weeks or so and had been doing fairly well for herself. However, her headaches and hallucinations were starting to get worse and worse, one particular episode even causing her to go into a full blown seizure.

It was growing more and more difficult to blend in as a result. One wrong move could blow her cover, and she'd be imprisoned again.

Hours passed and Azula was bringing the last round of drinks to the rather drunk patrons, when one of them gave her a lustful leer.

"Hey there sweets, why don't you come over here and sit on a real man's lap for a minute?" He offered before he gave her ass a lecherous squeeze. "Rest those pretty legs of yours." He added.

This caused Azula to have a flash of being attacked by Mai and it sent her self defense reflexes into overdrive. She quickly grabbed his hand by the wrist and started twisting it away from herself in disgust.

"I'm not interested." The girl hissed dismissively, twisting his arm even harder and making him cry in pain. "So don't touch me." She added.

"I'll take it from here." Touya said as he took the drunk and escorted him outside. "No harassing our employees." He told the man before going back into the club. However, as he did, he soon saw Azula walking towards the back with a wobbly posture, before she started clutching her head as she walked out the door.

He quickly rushed after her to make sure she was fine. When he walked out the door, he found Azula leaning against the wall clutching her head. Touya was quickly by her side.

"Azula, Azula are you okay?" He asked her in concern, trying to get her to answer him.

"Stop… Stop… Just stop talking! I don't want to hear it anymore!" The girl yelled angrily before she shoved Touya away and suddenly ran off into the Woods outside of the colony's walls.

"Azula, wait!" The redhead yelled after her. "Damn it!" He hissed before he ran off after her.

-With Azula-

Azula ran through the woods, haunted by the bombardment of voices and images of people jumping at her at every corner, as if trying to scare her into her grave.

Sociopath, liar, manipulator, heartless, ruthless, fear monger, worthless, faithless, crazy, Monster. These were the things that the voices and figures all called her as the ringing in her head became too much and she fell to her knees in an open circle shaped clearing surrounded by trees… Right as Ursa appeared once more as her daughter started to lose her strength.

"Mother… Please… Help me…!" The girl begged, tears flowing down her face as she reached her hand out to the hallucination—the pain in her head became unbearable.

The image of the former Fire Nation queen knelt down in front of her, her face full of motherly concern. "Calm yourself, Azula. You're almost there, just a little bit longer." She told her daughter.

"Why…? Why do you hate me…? Why won't you help me?" The girl sobbed as the touch seemed to help a little.

"I never hated you, Azula." Ursa told her. "Trust me, it will all be over soon." She continued as she leaned down and kissed the former princess on her forehead. I love you, Azula, I do." She added.

This caused the last of Azula's missing memories to flood back to her like a Tsunami, with the last being of her mental breakdown—which caused the girl to scream once more before falling unconscious.

(Later)

Hours later the sun bathed the unconscious princess as she woke up from her horrible experience from the night prior… And realized that she didn't feel anxious anymore. It was like that one last spell from her recovering mind, allowed it to completely recover itself. She was healed!

"Huh…?" She uttered as she looked around before seeing the image of her mother, who was smiling at her.

"You've done it, Azula my darling. You've become your own person." Ursa told her. "I'm so proud of you." She added. Azula's eyes began to water as she ran towards Ursa and hugged her tightly. "It's alright my love, I will be with you always, go—and live the life you want to have." She told her daughter as she hugged her back.

"I—I miss you, mother!" The princess sobbed as she clung to the hallucination as it started to fade away. It was at this point that Touya arrived, following the sound of her voice. He didn't know how to react to the sight of Azula hugging a tree, but figured it was another episode.

"Azula…?" The boy questioned as he walked up to the crying girl, who slowly turned to him and slammed herself into him, hugging him tightly. "Hey, it's okay, I got you." He told her, holding her close. "What happened?" He asked as he started wiping her tears away and stroking her hair.

"I-I… I think it's s-s-stopped… Sh-she's gone… I can't hear my mother's voice anymore." She choked out. Touya sighed as he held her close.

"Well, regardless of if it is over. I'm afraid you're stuck with me from here on out." He told her as she looked at him. "Unless, you'd rather be somewhere else, or with someone else?" He added, realizing that at this point she really didn't need him anymore.

"No… no. I think I'll be staying here from now on." Azula replied, relaxing in his embrace. "I think it's finally time to stop doing what I need to do, and do something I want to do for a change." She added.

This surprised Touya as he looked down at her, while she looked up at him and gave him a flirtatious smile that was much more like the ones she had before her breakdown.

"And that includes what, exactly?" The boy asked nervously as she got into his lap and hugged his neck.

"Well, how does loving you sound?" She asked him. "Does that seem like a good start?" The princess grinned at him as she pressed her forehead to his.

"U-um… U-uh…" Touya stammered, unable to come up with a response. Azula chuckled softly as she rubbed her nose to his.

"I'll take that as a yes then." She smiled before she kissed him for the second time, this time much more passionately, which caused the two to moan as they embraced each other.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile with Aang and the others, they were all racing to reach Yu Dao as soon as possible, now that they knew that Azula was there, they had to act fast.

"I really hope the damage isn't too bad." Zuko gulped.

"Well, seeing as we haven't heard anything from the colony, we could probably say that Azula's probably either managed to hunker down, move on to a new area or… Possibly get herself killed." Tai Lee stated with a gulp. "Urg, that just made my positivity drop." She shivered.

"Either way, we have some searching to do when we get there." Sokka stated.

"To be honest, I'm not sure I want to know what's happened to her all this time." Mai said as the group kept flying on Appa to Yu Dao.

Dragon Emperor0: Well, I think this chapter was rather eventful.

ThermalsniperN7: Azula managed to snap out of a poisonous mindset thanks to Touya delivering a cold, hard truth. I'd call that a huge leap of progress.

Dragon Emperor0: And it seems that the two also managed to figure out how much they liked each other rather quickly. Though given that Azula was capable of having a quick crush on that Chan guy from the beach, I'm not at all surprised that she fell for Touya so quickly.

ThermalsniperN7: I guess so. And with how things are going, it'll end very differently. Anyway, see you guys next time.