Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[Spring 121 AG]

"Alright, let's end with updates. What has been going on since we last met a few months ago? 

"I can start us off?"

"Thank you, Lomin, that would work."

Sitting at a collection of tables in the Kyoshi Library is a council of eleven women of various ages. Sunlight stripes the room through the window slots. It's stuffy, the warm weather coming earlier than expected after a cool and foggy morning. All the women, from the eldest senior to the youngest girl, don the traditional garb and makeup. Only their headpieces and place at the table deviates from one another and denotes their position. 

"In this last season, we saw six of our elders pass away in our main village," Lomin starts, sighing. "Conversely, we saw nine newborns. This marks our sixth season in the last seven in which we saw growth. Our population count is now at a post-Decimation high, and we've finally reached the low of the six years of pre-Decimation numbers. We've got a good storage of crops and supplies. The spoils of the Earth Kingdom's investment in Republic City have finally come to pass for us."

"Excellent," Suki nods. "Detailed as always. Next?"

Neken clears her throat and sits up straight. "As mentioned at last season’s meeting, our group was tasked with renovating the Northern Air Temple. Things are going well since renovations have begun."

Hearing her friend go, Kare pipes up, "Not much for me to report. I was stationed in Caldera this past season and there really isn't much going on. The Crown Princess is fit and healthy. She'd make a fine Kyoshi Warrior."

"Certainly." Suki replies.

"Ahem," a small voice gets the attention of the leader.

"Yes, Milong? Anything to report?"

Milong bows her head slightly towards Suki. "Well, uh, no, I don't have much to report, as usual. But if possible I'd like to talk after the meeting with you?"

A little surprised, Suki nods. "Yes, of course."

Hoyo goes next. "Crops haven't come back as well as we wished on the Eastern Shore. May need your presence to assist."

"Noted."

A girl with grey eyes and brown hair sits forward. "I recently heard a rumor about a Republic City mobster-"

"That's enough, Ty Lee."

There's a tense silence in response to Suki cutting her off. Finally, Koro adds, "Well, Huwan is struggling, although we did recently take in a Fire Nation refugee."

Ears pricked, Suki asks, "Did you put her through processing?"

"Yes, ma'am. We did our homework. Fully vetted her. She's clean."

Suki holds eye contact with Koro for a moment. Finally, she turns to the next Kyoshi Warrior. "Soph?"

"Nothing to report."

Suki narrows her eyes at this but looks to the next one in line. "And you, young Soye?"

The eight year old sits up still as a board. "Our island has three more girls ready for training."

"Excellent. And what have you, Lane?"

"Well, a lot has happened since last season," she huffs. "The famed Kemurikage dispersed from Republic City, motivations unknown."

"I heard. Have you located their cell?"

"No, Ma'am. The rumor has it," she trails off.

"Hmm?"

"Well, the rumor has it that the head of the snake was cut off."

"And you don't believe it?"

"It's just," Lane pauses. "If they were, they're not acting like it. If they were rogue, we would've found them. If they were leaderless, they would've slipped up by now."

"Any sightings at all?"

"A podunk village between here and Chameleon Bay."

"What did they do there? Burn it down?"

"That's just it. They didn't. And it just… it doesn't make any sense?"

"How so?"

"The villagers concede that they came to pass, but no one will speak on what they wanted. It's like the whole village agreed to remain silent on their motivations."

Snorting through her nose a bit, Suki shakes her head. "That's ridiculous."

"I agree," Lane shrugs. "Part of me wonders if the villagers killed them and buried them in secret. But that wouldn't make sense either, the leader of this place is a piece of work. He would've put their skulls on spikes on the bridge into the village. It's like they just… vanished."

Lomin interjects, "What an unceremonious ending to them. After nearly twenty years of tormenting, they just puffed away like smoke?"

Suki shakes her head. "Keep your ear to the ground. I've fought the Kemurikage in different forms and in different fields over the years. Perhaps they're hiding in plain sight, amongst the villagers of that village. Or another village that we haven't heard from yet. It's what they do best."

"We will, Ma'am."

Suki looks around the room at her fellow warriors. She finally says, "That will be all. Council adjourned."

The group is exiting the room while Suki and Lomin whisper to each other. Lomin notices a meek girl approaching and nods towards her. Suki turns around and sees the black haired girl fidgeting, rubbing her hands together again and again. Suki turns back to Lomin and motions for her second-in-command to make her own leave. 

"Hello, Milong. How goes things?"

"They're well, Ma'am. As well as can be, no doubt about that."

Suki forces a smile. "Tell me, Milong. What is on your mind?"

"Well, um, I-I believe that I've come across something important."

"Don't hem and haw. Out with it."

"There's a new villager and I saw her wielding blue fire."

Suki's expression changes. Her whole body shifts as she becomes more attentive. "You saw what?"

"Yes, well, as you know, I know you know, but there isn't much going on around my post. So when I heard someone had moved into that old space that Ty Lee once occupied, I decided to investigate."

"You spied on them?"

"No!" She replies instantly. The look on Suki's face says she disagrees. Milong sighs in defeat, "I suppose."

"Was it a woman?"

"Yes."

"What did she look like?"

"She's older than me, about your age. Dark hair. Short. That's about all that I've seen of her."

"You're sure it was blue fire?"

"I believe so, yes."

"You know what that would mean, right?"

"I remember when she came to this island, Ma'am."

"Then you know we can't be wrong about this. The consequences could be dire."

"I understand!"

“Especially because she’s been dead for many years now.”

“I know, Ma’am. But still,” she makes direct eye contact. She doesn’t waver. “I saw what I saw.”

"Who else have you told about this?"

"No one."

"Okay. Let's keep it that way for now. I need to investigate this but we may need to get my husband or maybe even the Avatar involved. At the very least Earth Kingdom soldiers and the other Warriors."

"Should I rally troops from the mainland? Write to the nearest battalion? Or warn the other girls?"

"No. No, let me investigate first. I don't want to cause a panic if you were mistaken. The hysteria would be too much."

"Yes, of course. That’s partially why I didn’t bring it up in front of everyone."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Milong. This is the kind of thing that could get you free of that post eventually–if you're correct."

Her blue eyes sparkle when she hears this last bit. Suki dismisses her soon after. Milong returns to her post on the Nokizo Village Island with daydreams in her mind of finally coming home.

The trip to the Nokizo Village Island is not a simple one. Suki boards a row boat and makes her way to the island, pushing against the water and coasting when possible. Despite the warmth outside, the coolness of the water gives her a bit of a chill. She wears a red scarf and in between rows, while coasting, she pulls it closer. She doesn't bring Lomin or Ty Lee or anyone with her. She doesn't even invite Milong. This is a delicate matter and others should not be brought into it. 

'This is my plight to carry.' She thinks.

After rowing for a while she finally arrives at the dock. She secures the boat with rope and turns to face the island. There's a watch tower that sits up at the highest point on the island, above even the tallest homes. She treks up the small hill into a dirt path, tred into the grass. It winds its way up through the little village. There aren't many homes, at least a few of them sit empty. It's a quiet place, somewhere that a listless poet could get lost, and tired soldiers could come to rest.

Suki walks up to the one story house, which is somehow even more secluded from the other homes, on an island already hidden from the rest of the world. She last visited this home many moons ago, when her friend needed to be brought home from the brink. She stands outside and tries to peer through the window sills. She sees no one. She hears nothing. She scopes out her surroundings. Finally, she approaches and knocks.

No answer.

Quiet enough to not attract attention, but loud enough for someone inside to hear, "Anyone home?"

The wind whistles and she swears she hears a rattle inside.

She tells the old home, "This is Suki, is anyone home?"

The door cracks open suddenly. Through the slit a single amber eye peers out. A tuft of raven black hair cascades down. She judges the intruder.

"What do you want?" The woman whispers through the crack.

Suki leans into it, eyes lining up with the amber ones. She stares into the eyes as she whispers back.

"You stupid bitch, you got spotted by the one Warrior on the whole island."

"Fuck!" Azula curses. "Does this mean I have to leave?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Guess we'll find out."

Azula groans and gently smacks her head into the door crack. After this she looks back and their eyes meet again. She asks her, "You wanna come in, Pretty Girl?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Azula unlatches the door and opens it wide. Suki enters the house and the amber eyed woman notes, "I was wondering when you would finally come see me. It's been a few weeks now."

She closes and locks the door after Suki enters. The auburn haired woman walks in and mumbles, "Been meaning to, just haven't had the time."

Azula considers a jab about if it was Ty Lee living here she'd come to visit. Instead, a flair of red catches her eye. She grabs it and pulls the owner back. Suki turns and stumbles into Azula's arms. She whispers to her, "I love your scarf."

Suki grips the clothes of her one time enemy. She holds onto them tightly, and looks up into her eyes. They're only inches away, as she whispers back, "If you ask nicely maybe I'll get you your own."

A smile curling on her lips, Azula replies, "My wife should be able to tell you that I only know how to do things roughly, Pretty Girl."

Suki grips Azula's wrist and begins to twist, "Maybe I like it that way, Empress?"

In one fluid motion she twists the wrist away from her, firmly but not forcefully. Azula uses her free hand to smack Suki's hand and free her own, laughing loudly. She turns and leads her further into the home, still laughing. Finally, she asks, "Ahhh, so, who's the girl that found me?"

Suki sits down at the kitchen table while Azula sets to making tea. Suki crosses her legs and tucks her scarf away. She answers, "Her name is Milong."

"Milong?" Azula asks, while doing her task. She begins speaking in different accents and different ways to pronounce the name. "Milong? Mi-long? Mil-ong? M-ilong?"

"Yes, Milong." Suki doesn't play along.

"So, how did Milong come to this most glorious post?"

"Don't you want to know how she made you?" She asks as Azula comes and sits down across from her. She slides her a cup of tea.

Suki lifts it up and sips as Azula replies. "I don't care about my mistakes. I want to know what led her to search. Know your enemy first and the rest is easy."

Suki takes a long sigh. She launches into the tale. "She was sentenced to Nokizo because she was a deserter."

"Deserter from what?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does." Azula insists, sipping from her own tea.

Suki groans. "There was a killer. They called them a 'butcher.'"

"How many people did he kill?"

"Only one confirmed."

"That's a shit butcher."

"Or a great one."

Azula leans in.

"He was spotted on the island. Milong was ordered to keep eyes on him. But she was rattled and when push came to shove, she deserted the island."

"How do you know he didn't chase her out?"

"Because she returned and confessed to her sins."

"I would've beheaded her on the spot." Azula says without blinking.

"I showed her mercy." Suki defends her past actions.

"Killing can be its own mercy."

Suki rolls her eyes. "I'd like to see you in my shoes; you be the one to decide whether to spare a life or take it. I don't think you'd find it so easy."

Azula shrugs as she leans back. "I see your point. When I was the Empress-”

"Was?"

"-I had a hard time escaping my own empire. It's difficult to be the one to make the hard choices."

"I'd like to get back to the 'was' part of this, that you so simply breezed past."

Azula continues to ignore her barbs. "But ultimately, I've killed more for less. So I would've beheaded my dear, sweet Milong."

"A war general in an armchair. A pai sho player with soldiers. You discard their lives because you've never been the one at risk."

"Haven't I? Perhaps you've forgotten my father, the beloved and peaceful Ozai. Gave me all the warm hugs I could ask for."

Pivoting, Suki counters, "You don't know what it was like, rebuilding this island."

"No, but I certainly had a hand in keeping it afloat."

"After Koh's Disciples, I needed people. Bodies. The people needed hope."

"There's a thin line between needing something and being desperate."

"Ha!" Suki reproaches her head in laughter. "Desperate? You don't know desperate. You're the Crown Princess, the Dragon Empress. You've never been desperate a day of your life."

Azula grows hostile, "I went to the other side of the world in search of being forgotten. And you couldn't let me go."

"Tell me, Empress, were you desperate when you killed Ayon?"

"I know Death." Azula fires back. "I've courted it in many places; I've seen it in every corner of this Earth. Ayon met Death in my arms; but I repaid that debt tenfold when I saved you and your precious island from annihilation."

Suki sits back, calming down.

Azula continues, "The least you could've done was bring me on board when I asked."

"I was younger then. More vengeful. I resented you for lying and saying Ty had died."

"To be fair, I thought she had."

"It's not very funny."

"I wasn't joking."

"Do you know what it was like for her? For me? When she finally clawed her way back here, exhausted and barely alive. It was terrifying."

"I know exactly how it felt. Relief. A weight off my chest. On your island or that city. It was relief."

"Does it bring you relief for me to tell you that Zirin is dead?" Suki pivots again.

"Not even a little bit." Azula doesn't break stride. 

"No?"

"Because she's not."

"Every report out of the city says-"

"Says what?" Azula cuts her off. Chuckling to herself she asks, "That a Queenpin died mysteriously without a body or a trace?"

Azula raises her eyebrows and waits for Suki to reply. Suki leans back and nods in acknowledgement. She looks away and then back at those familiar golden eyes. She offers, "The Kemurikage have scattered to the wind. A snake without its head, as my council said today."

"They came right for me. Not even you were so audacious."

"They left the village standing, in case you were wondering."

"What else became of the village?"

"Nothing. At least nothing of report. They kept your identity a secret to my closest collection of warriors. I'm truly surprised."

Azula doesn’t say anything in response as her mind wanders to the little dragon of Lanxi, her resilient father, the 'uncle' with missing teeth, and a dauntless leader who sucked at Pai Sho. She felt an ache in her stomach but paid it no mind.

Suki cuts into her daydream. "I have always wondered how you did it."

"And I've been wondering how Ty Lee lived on this shit island for three years. This is bigger than my old place, sure, but so dreary!"

"Azula."

The black haired woman turns to look at the brunette sitting across from her. The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors stares at her with all the sullen seriousness of a woman who had seen and survived war throughout her lifetime.

"What happened in Republic City?" She asks slowly. Azula stares her dead in the eye and doesn't reply. She continues, "If Zirin is truly dead, then you're the last living person on Earth who can tell the story."

"Is that so?" Azula strings her along. She questions, "What do they say of the demise of the Dragon Empress?"

"I'm more interested in hearing it from the Empress, herself."

"I've never even told Ty Lee about what happened in Republic City. But you think I'm going to tell you?"

"With every fiber of my being. I want to paint the picture throughout history. I know it in my very bones that you'll tell me."

Azula chuckles some more at this. She reminisces on Ty Lee's bravado as well. "You non-benders always impress me. You always find a way to unearth some unearned sense of confidence. Even when faced with insurmountable odds. It's admirable, honestly."

"Do I detect a little equalist in you?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. Equalist?"

"The idea that benders and nonbenders should be equal?"

"That hardly seems radical."

"They stand opposite of bender supremacist, who believe that benders are inherently greater. That's an oversimplification, but I think-"

"Well they're right too," Azula juts in without hesitation. "I am better than others."

"Well, speaking of unearned confidence."

Azula can't help but laugh at Suki's barb. The brunette asks her, "Surely this isn't your actual first time hearing of these things?"

"No, you're right. I've heard them before," she acknowledges. "I just never cared to sit down and discern the two."

"Tell me," Suki says when the thought comes to her mind. "Did you ever run into Laling in your Empress days?"

"That was the woman in Cranefish Town, yes?"

"Indeed."

"Hmm," she chews on it a second. "Not that I'm aware of. My empire may have had dealings with her, but none that I was consciously aware of or personally involved in."

"Fascinating. So you think it's possible Laling or other people engaged with the Dragon Empress without ever actually meeting you?"

"I'm sure. There was always more going on than I knew."

"I can relate to that. Managing the Kyoshi Warriors feels like that often. So much going on, always a new challenge."

"Which brings us back to why you're here. Protecting the hidden identity of a 'dead' woman who is actually alive, from a living woman who should actually be dead."

Shrugging, Suki replies, "Something like that."

"So, does this mean I have to leave?"

Now Suki is the one who chews on the question. She thinks it over. Finally, she replies.

"No, but you need to be more careful. Maybe talk to her to throw her off your obnoxiously suspicious trail."

Azula leans back and stares at Suki. She ponders the woman, who is so wrapped in her own head that she doesn't pay it any mind. Until she feels the eyes of the woman across from her. She turns her head ever so slightly at Azula.

"Yes?"

"I'm just surprised. You've kept my secret to this point. From so many, least of all your husband and close associates. Some of the most powerful people on the Earth."

"Hmm," she hums. "Sokka keeps his own secrets. But besides that, I'm surprised too."

"So then why have you?"

"The story your wife wove when she first admitted it to me and your brother. It was as obvious to me then as it is now."

"What's that?"

Suki picks up her cup and what remains of her tea. She swishes it around a bit. It's a bit of theatrics. She holds Azula's attention as she pauses for effect. Finally, she looks right into those golden dead eyes.

"That the Dragon Empress will never rise again."

Suki tugs her scarf closer as she approaches the door. She turns, the floorboard creaking on the spot as she does. Azula nearly walks into her, stopping just short. She starts up then stops. She looks the woman up and down as she pauses. Finally, she relays her message.

"I promised Ty Lee that I'd keep your location secret. But if Milong found you, others will too. Maybe not for a while, but someday. You can't be here when that day comes."

Azula reaches her hands up to Suki's neck. The brunette doesn't blink. Azula grabs the scarf and fiddles with it. Without returning the eye contact, she tells her, "I'll make my arrangements."

"And Ty Lee?"

"If Zirin is out there, she's safer here."

"And if she's dead?"

Azula finally compromises a little. She offers Suki a crumb. "One of my closest allies has gone silent. Deafeningly quiet."

"And that's what's convinced you she's still alive?"

"Whether she's alive or dead, my contact disappearing is all the more reason to leave Ty Lee here."

"So where will you go?"

Azula stops fiddling with the scarf. She looks at Suki's eyes. A sly smile spreads upon her lips.

"I think I'll go in search of Asuna," she replies. She cocks an eyebrow. "You mentioned once that she was a gender betrayer. Where did you learn that?"

"Just knowledge that was passed down," Suki shrugs. Azula frowns. Surprised, Suki continues. "Did you think it was written down? She lived and died hundreds of years ago."

"I've found writings before, and I hope I can find more."

"Hmmm," Suki hums as she turns back towards the door.

"Yes?" Azula asks as she follows.

"I may know a good place to start then."

"Well, keep it to yourself for now," Azula chirps as they arrive at the door. "We'll chat next time you come to visit."

Suki grabs the door handle and turns sideways to look back at the black haired woman. "Should I tell your wife she can make her way?"

"You don't need to do that." Azula waves her off.

Suki opens the door. In the dark of night, she makes out a figure approaching. It's a tall, thin, fit, feminine physique. Hair falling down her back in a classic, braided ponytail. She makes her way for the secluded house that she once called home. Suki chuckles to herself and shakes her head.

"Of course," she mutters. She turns back to the occupant. Quietly she tells her, "Farewell, Empress."

"Until next time," a smile curls on Azula's lips. "Pretty Girl."

Chapter Text

[Late Fall 121 AG]

Azula sits in a chair in the kitchen. The wind howls outside, and all of her drawn in window sills rattle, supplying a white noise of sorts. She wears a patched together green and beige half-jacket, covering up her brown crop top, with white trim, wrapped tightly around her bosom. She has green, baggy pants, with a matching white trim from her top. Finally, her arms are wrapped in white bandages, starting from her elbow, all the way down to her knuckles. Her hair is short, barely reaching down to her ears. As she listens to the wind, her mind wanders once more.

She doesn't know how long she's been here. The time has passed so quickly, yet so slowly. Every day is the same, from beginning to end. It doesn't even really feel like days are going by or that she is living her life. Every day she is alive, but she doesn't think of herself as living. She is simply existing. Simply sifting through the static of every single day. She lies down in the sands of time as they pass over her. Those sands overcome her and make her feel like she is buried alive. Completely trapped by the circumstances of her life. No matter how much she tries to move or fight against it, the weight never shifts. It just remains heavy and holds her down, never giving her room to breathe.

When she first came here, her friends and allies had wanted to protect her. Make sure she was safe, away from the eyes of the world. They hid her in plain sight, but in doing so, she was forgotten with time. Now, no one can find her. No one is looking for her. 

She's tired and wants to rest, but all she's done the last few years is rest. She's been so lonely. She's grown boney and frail from the diet necessary for her where she lives. All she knows is this place, as if it's been her entire life. Whatever the reason she originally came here, it's been forgotten now. Her purpose has been lost and now there are only these four walls. Now there is only the wind and the rattling windows.

A sudden knock on her door startles her and jerks her out of her trance. She looks to the front door with surprise and anxiety. She rises, and slowly ambles towards the door. 

She comes to a stop as the knocking continues. She pulls it open and before she can react, a dark figure blows her away in a hail of fire. She is engulfed in the flames and within seconds she vanishes from the Earth.

In a fit of sweat and fear, Ty Lee sits up in bed. She breathes quick, successive breaths, hands instinctively reaching around the sheets. She feels her way until she can grasp the woman beside her. She does not stir. She does not move, except for shallow, rhythmic breathing. Ty Lee pauses a moment, the reality of her nightmare settling upon her. 

The one who knocks had come for Azula, but only in Ty Lee's dreams.

"Alright, last one," the man announces. "Everyone smile really wide and say, 'Avatar Aang!'"

Ty Lee settles into a split on the ground. She wields one fan in front and one behind her. Standing just behind her, Neken and Kare look down in surprise. Neken closes her fan while Kare holds it open near her face, her free hand balled into a fist behind her back.

Unaware of the theatrics behind her, Suki settles one hand on her hip, and wields a collapsed fan in her right hand. Beside her, on the farthest right of the man, is Lomin. Posed as she would imagine her namesake to be, she leans forward, on one knee, and from her lower position she opens a fan and stares up at the huge contraption they call a 'camera.'

There is a massive, all-consuming flash of light. All five women are dazed and shake their heads. The blast stains their eyesight for a minute or so. Meanwhile, the cameraman begins packing his things up. He announces to the room, "Excellent! Thank you all so, so much for your time and cooperation. A copy of the photograph will be made available for you all, and the other copy will go into the Avatar's special project for his son. Thank you again! I'll stick around if anyone has any questions."

The cameraman sets to taking apart what he can of his device and closing up shop. Suki approaches him and they exchange some pleasantries. When she's left, Ty Lee stops pretending to fiddle with her footwear. She hurries over to the young boy, who couldn't be in his mid-20's yet, by Ty Lee's best estimation.

"Hello!"

Surprised, the boy looks up. "Oh! Hello. Can I help you with something?"

He recognized her as the prettiest one of the bunch. He looks at her honeyed lips and begins sweating a bit. Ty Lee senses his aura changing. "That's an awfully cool machine. Did you use all of your material up on our photos?"

He looks down at his supplies and then back up at the woman. He tries to act casual and calm. "Oh, of course not. No, no. Keep a few rounds in the chamber, in case I ever need it."

"Excellent!" She replies. "Would you be interested in coming back to my place to-"

"Yes," he replies too quickly.

"-take a picture for me?"

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Oh, well, I'm not really, supposed to-"

"Whatever they paid you, I'll double it."

"I look ridiculous, Ty."

"Oh stop! You look so pretty!"

"My hair is much too short for this!"

"You'll appreciate this later and can thank me then."

"Umm, excuse me, but are you ready?" The young man interrupts the lover’s quarrel.

“Yes!” Ty Lee replies.

“No.” Azula answers.

“Alright,” he says with a sigh. “Well, I’m really not supposed to do this, and I probably-”

Seeing the writing on the wall, Azula cuts him off. “That’s fine. We’ll take it.”

Ty Lee stands behind Azula but leans forward and wraps her arms around the collar of her beloved wife. She wears her Kyoshi Warrior outfit, sans the face makeup. Azula wears a burgundy traveling cloak. Halfway down the arms it has a seam that crosses into pink. The lining is a light purple, pink color. Her arms are crossed over each other, both in defiance of her wife, and to also help give her some stability. Ty Lee looks directly at the camera with a giant grin, so pleased to be with her wife and be posing for this picture. Azula tries to hide her smile, but glances back at the camera with a bashful look at the last second. 

The room is consumed in a flash of light. Ty Lee saw her fair share of them earlier in the day, so the shock value has worn off on her. For Azula though, she is momentarily blinded and stunned by it. The flash fades but she experiences a sensation where she still sees the flash of the light popping into her vision. In all of her years of lightning bending, she has never experienced this before.

"The spots will go away soon," her wife whispers in her ear. Ty Lee snakes her hand down Azula's arm and clasps it. She tells her, "I saw them in the morning. Give it a minute or so, they'll stop."

Azula closes her eyes and even then she can still see them flashing. She tries to calm herself and listens to her beloved. She takes a deep breath and when she opens her eyes, the spots are still there. But in the seconds that follow, they grow faint, and fade. They disappear into nothing with time. Just as Ty Lee had assured her they would do.

Once she comes out of this moment, Azula turns to the cameraman. She asks him how it works, how it captures a moment and turns it into a painting.

"Well, it's not a painting, Miss. They call it a picture."

"Oh, such an important distinction." She chides him.

He chuckles politely. He holds up his devices for her to examine and then explains, "Yeah, not much of a difference in name. But yeah, I don't completely understand how it works. To the best of my knowledge, it's like this: the box, that's called a camera. The camera captures the light in the room and stores it. The 'picture' is the light reflecting off of surfaces."

"Fascinating," Azula marvels, looking at all of its mechanisms and parts. "I still don't get it, but the technology is mesmerizing."

"Yeah, cameras are pretty new. We're still making them better and learning how to improve them. It's only been a year or so with them available on the open market, but the Avatar spared no expense," he comments. After a pause he laughs to himself. "And apparently your, um, wife, didn't spare any either."

Azula hears him comment on how much Ty Lee spent but it doesn't register. She is caught up on the other part of his sentence. The 'Avatar' part of it. She wonders what the airbender is up to these days. She asks herself questions about why he would want pictures of the Kyoshi Warriors, what was he planning, did he know she was alive, had Zuko sold her out. Questions left unresolved at this time. She considers asking the picture man questions about his assignment, to investigate, but she resists.

Ty Lee and the boy have a discussion about the photo he took for her. She pays him extra for him to keep this a secret. He explains that it will be a few months before the picture arrives and that it will come by mail to this address. After the niceties run out and conversation dries up, they dismiss him.

No sooner had they been rid of the boy did someone come knocking once more. Azula goes to answer the door but Ty Lee cuts her off. She winces a little at the idea of Azula opening it, given her recent nightmare. When the door opens, the old, familiar leader of the Kyoshi Warriors strides in, carrying a small parcel.

"So quick to open the door with a dead woman inside? What if I was Katara? Or Sokka? Or the Avatar himself?" She says as she removes her jacket.

"I doubt they'd come knocking for me at this point. Just come in, elements humming, ready to mow me down."

"She's right, I should've been more mindful."

"Oh hush, Ty, I'm just teasing you both."

"To what do we owe this pleasure, Pretty Girl?"

"Pretty girl?"

"I just wanted to see you off."

"See me off or show me the door?"

"Why can't it be both?"

"Can we get back to the 'pretty girl' reference?"

"Where are you off to again?"

"Gaoling, at your recommendation."

"Ah yes! You'll love the library. It'll keep you busy for weeks, months."

"You're early to see me off, I don't leave until first light."

"Then I'm right on time. We all know you'll be gone before the sun comes up."

"Not to detract from my point, but she's right. Now about-"

"Don't worry, Darling. She might be pretty, but she'll never be my wife."

"Sounds like a challenge?"

"Oh are you up for it now?"

"Spirits, maybe I am? Being married to Sokka isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Ty Lee leans into Azula and wraps her hands around the firebenders right arm. "I don't share very well. I'm really selfish like that."

Ty Lee purrs as she lowers her nose to the base of her wife's neck. Azula turns her head ever so slightly to frame it for Suki, wearing a devilish grin. Suki finally admits defeat, closing her eyes and shrugging. She opens them again and looks at Azula. She extends the parcel in her hands towards the shorter woman.

"Here."

"What's this?"

"A parting gift."

They all stand in the foyer beside the door as Azula carefully unseals the edges. She finds a small, flat box under the wrapping. When she lifts the top off, underneath is a red cloth. She looks back at the warrior with raised eyebrows.

"I told you that I'd make you a scarf, so I did. You might not need it, depending on where you wander. But better to have it."

Ty Lee's eyes grow wide with admiration. She nearly levitates at the overload of cuteness. Azula picks the scarf up and slowly tries to wrap it around her neck. Ty Lee helps her. When it's done, just hanging around her neck, Suki steps forward. She closes it around Azula's neck and tightens it.

"You know," Suki thinks out loud. "I once wanted to secure a knot of rope around your neck."

"Now you gift me a handmade scarf and tuck it in like a parent."

"My how the times have changed," Suki says while stepping back and admiring her work. She smiles and nods at a job well done. After a moment's pause she continues, "Well, I won't keep you. Your last night together for some time. I'm sure you two will be at it like animals."

" Wild animals," Azula corrects her with a nod.

"Agni, please." Ty Lee rolls her eyes.

" Feral, wild animals." Azula says with an obnoxious grin and a wave goodbye.

"Be safe now. And do come back. I need to learn more about your time from when you lived in the city."

The wives wave farewell as Suki makes her exit. They look at one another for a brief moment after the door closes. Only midday but for their last day together, they were sure to make it perfect. They smile at one another and then set off to do all of their favorite things together.

Ty Lee shoots up in bed, breathing heavily.

She turns but Azula is gone.

She left before first light, just as Suki said she would; just as they all knew she would.

The one who knocks had come for Azula in her nightmare once again.

There's a moment of sadness that her wife has left again. Ty Lee frets not, for the woman always comes back.

Like she was invincible.

Like she was inevitable.

She rolls back over and tries to forget the dream.

[Winter/Spring 122 AG]

It's been almost a year now since that fateful day. Azula can still see Yasuko's eyes across the blue fire. Can still feel its heat and the cool breeze. She remembers it all so clearly. Then that hawk dove from the sky and delivered the most devastating blow since Zirin left a permanent scar in her palm. 

It's been almost a year now since she's last heard from Lin. He used their code phrase for when one of them needed to go dark. She can’t bear to face the truth; that he's likely dead and gone. At the bottom of the Yue Bay or in a landfill outside the city, somewhere that no one will ever find him. The thought pains her so.

Azula walks uphill, on a dirt path. She thinks about her old friend and what could've possibly killed him, or at the least driven him into hiding. Even as Suki joked about it, Azula knew it meant something bigger. That she was still in real, present danger. At any given moment, someone could take her life away, like they did to Lin. Until she knows what happened to him, she won't accept any form of travel that isn't her own two feet; even if that means wandering the world, walking the dirt paths, and running up that hill.

She comes to the crest of the hill and a clearing opens up. Down below she sees the town of Gaoling, after nearly two months of travel. She pauses and drinks it in. This moment reminds her of the bridge to Lanxi. She recalls turning on that classic Azula charm and winning them over. The same way she had won over so many others in her life, as the Crown Princess, and the Dragon Empress. She's almost excited to do it again.

She makes her way down the hill.

[Spring 122 AG]

Azula sits alone at a dusty library table. The rising sun breaks in through the blinds, against her back, casting a shadow across her latest text. She yawns and then smacks her lips lightly as she idly traverses the paragraphs. She scans the page and turns it over, looking for the next clue. She pauses to scribble something on her scratch pad of notes before returning to her work. A minute later, a frail old man approaches her table, carrying a book.

"I saw you leave last night," he croaks to her, disturbing her reading. "So did you sneak back in after I closed, or this morning before I arrived?"

Without breaking stride or looking up she replies, “The couch in the reading room is softer than the one in the temple.”

With a ‘tsk’ he replies, “Ayy. You really slept here last night?”

“Not the first time.”

“You haven’t moved out of the temple yet? Perhaps you should come stay with me.”

“Ah yes, that will go over well. ‘Old Man Welcomes Young Vagrant Into Home.’” He laughs in reply before she continues, “No, Muhong, I'm not long for Gaoling. This may come as a surprise to you, but things haven't gone according to plan here."

"Gaoling has not been kind to you."

Azula yawns. "Really? What gave you that idea?"

"My home is better than this, I believe that, Asuna. I assure you."

"Please, call me by the name Gaoling has given me: Lady in Red."

He chuckles and she follows in laughter. His old eyes twinkle as he offers compassion, "They never gave you a chance."

She shrugs and reflects. She replies, "Not everyone trusts fire benders in the Earth Kingdom after the war. It is what it is. Plus, I didn't do myself any favors, huddled at the edges of town like a damned spirit."

"That war ended a generation ago, but many of the children at the time, they've grown older now. And they remember, looking to the sky and seeing two suns and a rain of fire."

He pauses as he remembers. Azula remembers it differently and feels the pangs of guilt. Her mind begins to run away with the memories. Muhong saves her from herself.

"You know, there weren't any Earth Kingdom casualties from that day?"

Azula continues staring out at space in reflection but nods. She turns to him and replies, "I did hear that, and I'm grateful. The people of the Earth Kingdom did not deserve what my Nation tried to bring to them."

He nods his head but places a hand on her shoulder. "It's quite alright, Asuna. Not like it was your idea."

She does not respond.

"Nonetheless, those younglings are adults running the town now. So they do not forgive what they can not forget."

Asuna looks back at him finally and replies, "And I can't blame them for that. They don't have to forgive me for what I did or didn't do. But I also don't have to continue to stay here and endure their disdain."

He nods. "Well said, Asuna. How much longer before you finish all of our texts on Avatars?"

"Two weeks, maybe more, maybe less. Depends on if I sleep here or the temple." She replies with a playful, yet hopeful tone.

"Ha!" He laughs and shakes his head. "Guess you'll be here for three weeks then, because you won't be sleeping in my library again!"

"We'll see about that."

"And where will you go when you leave?"

"Well, you see," she says as she gestures to explain. "This old nutcase in Gaoling once told me about a library in the Si Wong Desert."

"Ah!" He begins to turn away to get back to work. "Well, Lady in Red, if you're in the business of listening to nutcases in Gaoling, allow me to offer that you start that search in the Misty Palm Oasis."

The old librarian shuffles away as Azula mumbles to herself, "Misty Palm Oasis, huh?"

[Spring 122 AG]

Ty Lee carries the lightweight package into her bedroom and shuts the door behind her. She approaches her window, something she had put in 8 years ago. She recons what she can survey, then slowly draws the curtains closed, enveloping her in a soft darkness. She steals one last glance before shutting them entirely.

She turns and places it onto her bed. She carefully slits the envelope open and then withdraws the gift from afar. Even without the light she can clearly see the shining bright spot of her life. In perfect pixelated color was the image of herself in her Kyoshi Warrior outfit, sans the face makeup. The image version of herself leans forward and wraps her arms around a brooding, amber eyed beauty with raven black hair. The lady in red and burgundy, with a lining of pink, wears the ghost of a smile. Ty Lee has it at long last.

"Proof." She whispers to herself.

Proof that Azula was real and alive and with her. The first photograph of them together. Ty Lee prays that it won't be the last. After another moment of admiring it, she carefully scoops it into her palms, as if it were a newborn. She gets up on the bed and moves the tapestry on the wall behind her headboard. Using her free hand she reaches for the spot she knows. Imperceptible to the naked eye, she lightly pushes on the compartment, which springs open after the applied pressure.

Ty Lee pulls her secret drawer out. Inside are a treasure trove of trinkets and affects given to her by Azula. Their marriage certificate, signed by Zuko himself. Every letter they'd ever exchanged. A handwritten note that read, 'Sorry, baby.' The map where Azula had drawn out where to find the bodies. The original, first draft copy of Azula's poem 'Breathless.' So many other things, all of which Azula told her to burn. None of which Azula knew that she kept. All of which she hoped to someday show to her wife… and perhaps their someday children.

Ty Lee carefully places the photograph atop these other items. She admires it for another moment, then slowly places the hidden compartment away. She pushes it into place, replaces the tapestry, and then lies back down on her bed. She lays down and does what she does best: she daydreams about her wife coming home at last, knocking on her door.

Chapter Text

[Late Spring/Early Summer 122 AG]

Figures clad in cloaks gather in mass on the outskirts of town. They are poised to descend upon the sleeping land in a haze of smoke and shadows. They have raided dozens of villages, perhaps hundreds. Steal the young girls, just like Yasuko, and bring them into their fold. Raze it down and burn it to the embers. Those who oppose them will meet their end. It is the way of their lives. Not a threat, but a promise.

Lanxi will burn.

A distant, drawn out, two-tone whistle.

"Remember: No bending." Zirin's voice echoes across the construction site.

The Kemurikage advance and in a puff they vanish, as Azula awakens from her nightmare.

Asuna of Lanxi climbs the steps into the all too familiar building. She pushes open the door and a bell rings up above.

"Welcome to the Gaoling Community Library. How – oh it's just you." Muhong settles back down after realizing it's just the Lady in Red.

"Don't sound too excited now."

"What's there to be excited about? My most invested patron in years is leaving me today!"

"Don't be sad, Muhong. We all have a time to go."

"Aye! Mine much sooner than yours, I'm afraid. And what's this? You've cut your hair?"

"Indeed," she replies, reaching up and feeling about the scalp. "It'd gotten too long.

"Too long!" He shouts, incredulous. "It barely reached the base of your neck!"

She comes to a rest at the front desk, and he joins her. She tells him, "As I said, too long."

"I suppose," he replies with a smile and a pause. After another moment he continues, "Now, what can I help you with on your way out of town?"

"Wanted to come pay my respects. It's been horrid, but you made things slightly less so."

"Ah yes, the highest compliment anyone can be given."

It is an odd thing for Azula. She trusts Muhong with more information about herself than she does a stranger selling her a ticket on a train, or a ride on a boat, or renting her a mongoose lizard. Her travels are something that she does not trust with others, because they can be traced. The conductor can be found. The captain can be coerced. The ranchers can be bought. But, she rations, ‘Who would come looking for the Dragon Empress in a library in Gaoling? Who would come ask this old man about a dead woman?’ It is all perfectly illogical to share her ‘Asuna’ name and her destinations with Muhong. And yet, it makes perfect sense.

"I've also come with a question."

"I expected as much."

"I've mapped it out-"

"Your path to the Misty Palm Oasis."

"Right."

"Go on."

"And there's a branch point where I can take three paths."

"Yes? And what are those paths? There's only one direct path, as far as I know." He replies as he strokes his gray beard.

"There's the path through the mountains."

"Indeed. The only path."

"But to safely traverse I would require a sherpa."

"Ah! Which will cost money. Something you have sparingly little of."

"Unfortunately."

"Have you come to beg for coin?"

"I would never."

"Then what do you want?"

"There are two other paths, one back towards the coast. Towards Omashu, and Kyoshi Island."

"Uhh," he stammers. "Yes, that is an option. One of them anyway."

"Or to the Northwest, back towards Lanxi."

"Yes!" He agrees. "Towards your home."

She pauses and licks her lips. She asks him, "If I were to go west, back towards Omashu, how much longer would it take me than if I went east, towards Lanxi?"

"Considerably longer."

"How much?"

"I'm not understanding, Asuna."

"Humor me."

"You're family and home are towards Lanxi. You could go there and perhaps find a way to cut out most of your travels. There are surely mountain passes in that direction that could take you right into the Misty Palm Oasis."

"How much?"

"Why won't you go home?"

She stares him down with her amber eyes. She refuses to answer. He squints and shakes his head.

"How much?"

He mulls it over. "On foot?"

"On foot."

"You're going hundreds of miles in the wrong direction. And not just any 'hundreds of miles.' Without a mongoose lizard, you're looking at hundreds of miles in the Si Wong Desert. That's two to four months in the blistering heat. The kind that kills men and leaves the survivors as a shell of themselves."

"Luckily I am no man."

"You will not survive, Asuna of Lanxi."

"My whole life I've been told what I can't do; what I couldn't be."

"If you go back towards the coast, you will never arrive in the Misty Palm Oasis."

She stares into his gray eyes and smiles.

"Then I shall truly become the legend of the Lady in Red that Gaoling deemed me. Vanished into the Si Wong Desert, never to be seen again."

She smiles and taps his desk. She turns on the spot and walks towards the exit.

"I’ll send a card when I arrive, just to gloat from the other side.”

“I hope to receive it some day!”

“I'll remember you, Muhong!” She shouts over her shoulder. “I hope you'll remember me."

He smiles at her youth. Her sense of invincibility. He shouts back, "I shall tell all the legend of the Lady in Red!"

She disappears out the doors and into the great beyond.

A few weeks after exiting Muhonh's library, drenched in sweat, Azula treks through a dense forest. It's been a tropical journey to this point. The early summer weather wore on her more and more everyday. She continues to find new uses for the red scarf that Suki made for her. Today she wears it as a bandana, keeping the sweat from her forehead contained.

She comes to a stop at a crossroads. She stands there a moment realizing what she has come to finally. She pulls out her map, not because she needs to read it, but rather to review again and delay a little longer. She looks up.

Over the mountain range.

Lanxi.

Omashu.

She can not afford a sherpa, nor would she want the burden of another on her journey. Prying, asking questions, learning about her. That simply wouldn't do.

Going towards Lanxi would be the quickest route. She would not have to go towards her old home. She could route around it. She could avoid the temptation. She did not need to raise the alarm of Zirin and the Kemurikage spotting her, not within at least a hundred miles of the booming with trade, seaport, village.

Lastly, the longest route, towards Omashu. She would effectively go around the mountains, swinging wildly to the west, then swooping around to come back southeast into the Misty Palm Oasis eventually. The voice of Muhong echoed in her mind, warning her against this path. Assuring her it would delay her and potentially be the death of her.

In her mind, there was something louder than those words of warning. It was the sounds of screams as Lanxi burned to the ground in her nightmares. The muffled gag of Yasuko being dragged away from Lonou's lifeless body. Zirin's laughter as town she helped build up was snuffed out.

The spirits had not come for Lanxi yet. Azula felt responsible for that, because she had abandoned them and severed all contact. She could not risk going back towards the place and putting them all in danger.

'If Muhong is right, at least only I have to die, rather than all of them.'

She closes the map and tucks it away. She fixes her bindings and stares at the branching paths. She goes towards Omashu.

A hooded wisp of a figure marches through the quiet town. They keep their head low to avoid detection, but all the same the townspeople see them. They stop what they're doing and whisper to each other. They grumble and complain; bemoan the state of affairs. How far their once proud town has fallen, to see such riff raff walking about in broad daylight is a condemnation not only upon the visitors, but of their home. The figure climbs the steps and pushes open a pair of doors.

"Welcome to the Gaoling Community Library. How may I assist you?”

"Yes, hello," they greet Muhong. "I'm looking for a woman. She's an old friend of mine. I got word she may be here and I came as quickly as I could. She may have gone by the name of Asuna?"

"Ah!" Muhong exclaims. "Our very own Lady in Red."

"'Lady in Red?'" They cautiously ask.

"Indeed. You've missed her, I'm sorry to say. She left a few weeks ago."

"That's a shame. Did she happen to say where she was going?"

"Actually," Muhong says, with a drawn out smile. He is only too glad to reconnect the ‘old friends.’

[Late Summer/Early Fall 122 AG]

The afternoon is bustling along as the innkeeper, Lahuon, tracks his notes. The bell jingles as the door opens up. He looks up at the entry and a figure hobbles its way towards him. They appear to be wearing the garb of a sandbender with thick goggles and traditional wrappings. Lahuon recognized it instantly as the vestments of the Hami Tribe, apart from one thing. Rather than the traditional tan and brown colors, this person wore red.

"Welcome to the Misty Palms Inn. How may we be of service to you today?"

Removing the mouthpiece that protected their lips, the stranger approaches. "I need a room for tonight. Maybe longer."

They swore it was the voice of a woman, but they couldn't be sure. He asks, "Surely. We have just one room left for the night.'

"Fine."

He pulls out his quill and drags the notebook closer. "We charge a fair rate. I can get you the keys right now, but we may have to ask you to check out tomorrow and change rooms."

"Alright," she dismisses him, growing impatient.

"I just need a name."

There's a pause as she thinks. She tells him the one she is most comfortable with using.

"Asuna."

He finishes filling out his paperwork. He pulls the key and offers it to her.

"Well, Asuna, welcome to the Misty Palms Inn. I'm Lahuon, the Innkeeper. If you need anything, please let me know!"

"Yes, I do have one question." She replies as she snaps the keys from him. "Who can tell me about Wan Shi Tong's Library?"

He gulps and looks around. After a brief back and forth on the matter, he finally leans forward and whispers, "The Widow."

Asuna asks how to find her and who would know more about her. When she gets her answers, almost as quickly as she'd come, she is back out the door and into the town square. Like a palm full of sand, blown away with the wind.

"Let go!" The frail, middle aged man shouts. "Let's talk about-"

"Shut it!" Rihor, a burly man, holding him down, face to the table, replies.

Benah has been in precarious situations like this before, but often with an escape route. This time, as he struggles against his captor in the bar, he is unsure of what to do or how he'll escape. The voice of another man speaks to him, unseen.

"You gotta lot of balls showing yourself back 'round here again. The Widow's been itching to get you back for a long time."

With a quick and loud thud, the edge of a blade crashes into the wooden table, inches from Benah's face. Here in the Misty Palm Oasis, such happenings are not out of place. No one moved to help either party. They just keep their head down, and out of the way. "Dead or alive, she'll take your head."

"I have coin! I can pay -"

"This isn't a negotiation. This is about more than getting paid for us. You stepped to the queen, ran scared, and now dared to show your face again? No sir. This is about pride."

The dark skinned, tall man named Gomao leans down so his head is against the table and his eyes meet with Benah's. "I'm thinking we cut you up and bring you back, piece by piece."

"Whatever she's paying you, I-"

Suddenly, the saloon doors burst open. Rihor and Gomao turn to look at who has entered. A small, fragile figure stands in the doorway as the doors swing shut behind them. They are clad in traditional wrappings of a sandbender, but they're made from a red fabric rather than the typical Earth Kingdom tones. Gomao notices the ever so slight jutting out of the chest, leading him to believe it's a woman.

The unknown figure steps in and stares at the group without saying a word. There is something tense about the air in the bar. All the other scavengers and patrons look ever so slightly up from what they're doing to observe. After a moment, the figure looks away and steps towards the bar. They motion for a drink as they sit down.

Gomao and Rihor exchange eye contact for a moment. In that second a dozen words are exchanged without saying anything. Gomao nods his head. He dislodges his blade and crosses the room to the bar.

"Say there partner," he shouts to the figure in red bandages. "Looks like you tracked some sand into our bar. That's a big 'no, no' in these parts."

He stops and stands beside them. He turns his head and looks at their side profile. He steals another glance at their bosom and erases all doubt that this is a woman. The barkeep finishes making their drink.

"But that's okay," he says, leaning in. The barkeep slides the drink towards the stranger. She grabs it and holds it. He whispers into her ear, grinning from ear to ear, "You can make it up to me and my friend some way."

The woman whips the contents of her drink into Gomao's face, blinding him. She pushes him away and then kicks him full force, sending him falling backwards. Rihor pushes Benah into a seat and then runs at the woman. She sees him coming and turns her head in contemplation. As if she is wondering, ' Who would be so stupid? '

"Haaa!" He screams.

Rihor swings at her and she dodges with no effort. He tries to tackle her but she spins out of it. With his back briefly exposed, she delivers sharp, precise blows in four locations and the man collapses to the ground in a heap.

"Uhhh." He groans, his limbs suddenly feeling like liquid.

She hears the footsteps behind her. Turning, she steps away as he swings his sword. 

"Rah!" He shouts.

When he misses, he doesn't make the same mistake Rihor made. He lets the sword go and dodges as the woman swings at him herself. He adeptly swings his foot around and takes her legs out from under her. When she hits the ground he kicks her and puts his weight down on her. She pushes him away with her legs, grunting. He finds himself in a favorable position but her right hand is free. She reaches it back and forms a fist.

In an instant, his eyes are drawn to the fist. He could've sworn he saw flashes of light around them. She drops her legs and he falls towards her. She leans up off the ground and her right fist comes towards his body. It crackles with electricity. She connects with his chest and the force of the lightning blows him back, two feet into the air, and off of her. He lands in a heap on the ground beside her.

She grunts and complains. She stands back up slowly and stretches out. The rest of the room watches on in silence. After cracking her back a bit, she walks over to the table where Benah is sitting. He looks on in amazement and marvels as she approaches, "Oh, thank you! Thank you kind stranger! The goodness of your heart can not be-"

Her fist suddenly crackles with electricity again as she stands above him.

"Uh, uh. Well, I have coin! Please, get a new drink, on me! And perhaps something else for yourself?"

He pulls out a heavy, small coin purse and drops it on the table. After a moment he nervously slides it towards her. She does not move towards it.

"You're Benah."

Forcing a nervous laugh, he quickly assures her, "No! Oh, I'm so sorry. You just have me confused with-"

Both of her fists crackle with electricity.

"I don't need you to be breathing for this next part."

He gulps and looks up at her, distraught. The realization sets in that he's traded one captor for a deadlier one.

Asuna enters a dimly lit room and is immediately confronted by two individuals. Large men, who put their hands out to stop her advance. She stops and looks up at them with raised eyebrows and a look of skepticism. 

"Let her through," A voice calls from beyond. Both guards turn to the source. "If the rumors are true, you can't take what she's packing."

"Rumors?" Asuna asks as she approaches. She sits down opposite the elderly woman.

"World travels fast in the Oasis."

Asuna sizes her up. She's an elderly woman, in 60's or perhaps 70's. She has a walking cane and sits in a lush chair. Her robes are like a gown, going to the floor. She wears ornate jewelry on her hands, and a necklace shaped like a fox's face. There's a covering around her eyes so Asuna assumes she is blind.

"What's your name?"

"Asuna of Lanxi. And you are the famed Widow of the Misty Palm Oasis."

"If they say I am, then I am."

"Shouldn't a woman in power such as yourself embrace the titles that the world gives her?"

"They're more trouble than they're worth." She replies and Asuna winces at how much she agrees.

"Tell me," Asuna starts. "Are you an Earthbender?"

"Indeed. But how could you tell?"

"I knew another blind woman who was an Earthbender. Long ago."

"Fascinating. I've never met another, although I've heard legends of one who hangs around the Avatar."

"I'd never heard of that." Asuna lies.

"Well, enough pleasantries. From what I heard you made quick work of some of my men at the saloon."

"They were small men."

"And you brought me Benah alive."

"I did."

"Yet I know nothing about you. How very benevolent of you."

"It's not free."

"No. Nothing worthwhile in life ever is," The Widow sighs. "But how could you be sure I'd even give you an audience, let alone what coin you're trying to extract from me, after you'd already handed my bounty over?"

"Because I'm not looking for coin."

"Hmm," The Widow hums in surprise. "Now that is interesting."

"What I seek is far more valuable to me than to you."

"Then why should I part with it?"

"Because you don't need it, and because I've delivered your most wanted man without effort."

"Try me."

"I seek information."

"About what?"

"Wan Shi Tong's Library."

Laughing into the darkness, the Widow rears her head back. "I see now. You're right, I can certainly part with this information in exchange for Benah. Perhaps I could hire you as a bounty hunter, if all you want is useless information from my days wasting away in The Oasis."

"I'm no bounty hunter."

"Aye. A bounty hunter would get something worthwhile for their troubles."

"As I said, far more valuable to me than to you."

"Fair enough. What do you wish to know, Asuna of Lanxi?"

"Where is it and how quickly can I get there?"

"It's buried alive and you'll die before you make it."

"What!" Asuna shouts.

"Indeed."

"How?"

"Twenty some odd years ago, I was a woman about your age. I've lived my entire life in The Oasis. Never much to brag about the decline of a once proud resort in the desert. But we did have one shining day."

"How is this related?" Asuna cuts her off.

"I assure you it is," The Widow waves her off. "Our shining day was when The Avatar himself and his band of friends showed up. They were searching for information, just like you are now. No one's really sure what they were looking for, but the legend lived on in their brief appearance and exit."

A fury rises in her. "What did they do? The Avatar and his friends?"

"They found Wan Shi Tong's library. Then some of the Sandbenders in the territories nearest here came across them. They traveled with them for only a day or two, but they learned of what happened in that time."

"What happened? Answer me."

"If the stories are to be believed, a young boy, friends with the Avatar, upset Wan Shi Tong."

Azula flashes in her mind to Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe.

"And as a result, one way or the other, the library was destroyed."

"So I traveled all this way for nothing?"

"Feel free to search for it yourself, but like I said, you'll die trying."

"What would The Widow recommend I do instead?"

"What information are you seeking exactly?"

"Does it matter?"

"If you're searching for bending scrolls, those only show up in certain places. But if you're looking for-"

"I'm looking for answers about the past lives of the Avatar."

The Widow pauses. This answer, and the bluntness after playing coy, catches her off guard. Much as Asuna has just moved the conversation forward, she decides to do the same.

"If that's the kind of information that you seek, then I suggest you make for Ba Sing Se. The city contains the greatest collection of libraries and texts on the Avatars on Earth."

"Oh? Really?" Asuna replies, doubtful.

"Really? You don't believe? The Fire Nation has spent hundreds of years censoring the history of the Avatars. Telling stories that even the last airbender was lost. And when he came back? They spouted more lies that he'd been killed in combat in Ba Sing Se."

Asuna continues to be flooded with memories of her past. Sitting here in this dark room, lost in the Si Wong Desert, she finds it both incredibly hard and shockingly easy to believe she is the same woman who once killed the Avatar in battle. It feels both like a lifetime ago, and yet also a defining part of her life. She has spent so much time living her life as Asuna, leaving Azula behind, that when she is reminded that they are one, it is jarring.

"All lies, as we know he overthrew that bastard and his whole family." The Widow continues.

The words get caught in her throat. She must remain calm and collected. The Widow doesn't know who she is or that she's insulting her family. Nevermind that The Widow is mostly right. Ozai was a bastard and her family has never been a source of warm memories. She almost forgets that she herself put 'that bastard' into the dirt.

Asuna forges ahead, "So there's nothing in the Fire Nation that I can trust?"

"That's right. The water tribe isn't uneducated, but it is under educated and has no central library system. Only in the Earth Kingdom can you still find these kind of texts. They used to be on Kyoshi Island, but were moved out long ago."

"And how do you know of Kyoshi Island?"

"It's my business to know."

Asuna asks, "Many years ago some zealots attacked Kyoshi Island. What do you know of that?"

The Widow pauses. She's shocked at how much this bounty hunter knows.

"I heard they made a deal with the Spirit of Death itself. Summoned a blue dragon to kill them all."

Azula doesn't reply. She finds it oddly satisfying that no one can truly place her within the scope of legendary actions taken across time and the world. She wants to be both remembered and forgotten. It's an odd feeling. But at that exact moment, she remembered the one person who knows all sides of her. The one sitting here with The Widow, the one in Lanxi, the one who built an empire, the one who killed the Avatar, and even the one as a child. She thinks about those grey eyes that aren't in Ba Sing Se. She concludes that she'll have to sleep on what to do next.

"Very well. This has been illuminating, but it's late and I must be on my way."

Asuna stands and goes to make her exit. The Widow chuckles.

"Bounty Hunter," she calls Asuna. The woman dressed in red stops and turns back. The Widow says, "I hope what you gained was worth the trouble in the end."

Asuna doesn't reply. She nods her head and replies, for the benefit of the blind woman, "I'll find out in time."

The moon and the stars beam down upon a sleeping desert town. The saloons are alive and well, with song and fighting, and chatter of a masked figure that nearly killed two locals. They raise glasses to toast The Widow. They wonder why she hired a bounty hunter and got them to the Oasis as quickly as she did. They laugh and drink and for a brief moment, forget about the horrors that await their waking existence.

Asuna of Lanxi crosses the town, heading back to the inn so she can rest and recuperate. Plan her next move. Mentally she debates going onward to Ba Sing Se, or returning to her wife on Kyoshi Island. Perhaps it would be best to settle back down on Kyoshi and forego all of the trouble of chasing a dead Avatar. She contemplates and considers and works it out in her mind. She is calculating the decisions when she hears a noise nearby.

Instantly she goes still and balls her fists. A wind blows and with it she could swear she hears the soft crunch of sand beneath feet. She stands beside an alley, no more than 40 feet from the inn she is meant to stay at for the night. She listens, knowing the sand will betray them, and it does. The wind stops and she hears the sand crunching behind her. She lets it get closer so they can't escape. She turns and unleashes a blast of lighting.

"Ha!" She yells and the blast cracks forward.

It hits nothing, only the air. There is no one there. She stands dumbfounded and confused. She looks down and sees no footprints in the sand. Before her eyes can wander to look for the source, her world is covered in darkness. A bag darker than night is thrown over her head.

Asuna quickly lights her fists with lightning and summons blue flames but before she can even raise them, a flurry of fists crashes down upon her. They hit her back first and so she assumes a defensive position, quickly trying to whip her head forward and rip the bag off. A metal pole collides with her knee cap and she falls to the ground. At that moment, from both directions, she feels both wrists grabbed by whips.

"Her hands! Quick! Cover her hands!" One woman whispers to another.

Before she can blow them away, her hands are covered by rock gloves. She can not shoot fire or lightning out of the gloves. It happens so quickly that Asuna can't calculate a response before she is struck by more fists to the back and shoulders. A mob brings its power against her and she is incapable of stopping them. Finally, she feels a fist collide with her face and her body goes limp.

"Quick!" A different woman than the first now whispers. "Her arm! Grab her arm!"

Asuna feels blood trickling down her nose, and is thankful for the black bag extinguishing all the light. She is beaten and weak and she feels her feet dragging across the sand of the Misty Palm Oasis. They travel outdoors for only a handful of seconds before she hears a door open and they enter a cool room. Before she knows it, she is thrust into a chair.

At first she hears whispers, and then footsteps approach her. She knows what has happened. She let her guard down for too long, and the Kemurikage has finally come for her. They caught up and now she must face them head on. A figure comes and stops directly in front of her. She looks up towards them. A source of light tries to break through the sack on her head. She can make out a thin figure, rising above her. She sits up straight and summons all of the bravado that she can muster.

"You found me at last, hmm? Took you long enough. If I wanted to kill your girls in the street, I would have without hesitation. But those are my girls. My Kemurikage. So make no mistake: I am still in charge."

The bag is ripped off of her head. She shuts her eyes quickly, and turns her head away from the figure, as the light from before becomes blinding. She feels something above her chest. The back of a hand rests down upon her collarbones, threatening to take her by the neck.

"Tell me," a man's voice speaks to her. "Do you feel in charge?"

Opening her eyes slightly, Asuna turns back and looks up at the man standing over her. Dark skin, tall and slender. A bald head but full, brown beard. His eyes are grey and as sharp as knives. She has not seen him in over 15 years.

"Xai Bau?"

“Let’s not stand on ceremony,” he starts with a pause. He tilts his head slightly as he speaks. “Azula.”

"So you would set your Kemurikage against us?"

Azula is almost too stunned to speak. She had decided that the Red Lotus would side with Zirin, and thus they were not a safe outlet. She had not heard from them or attempted to make contact in nearly 9 years. Now, she is kidnapped and assaulted in the streets of the Misty Palm Oasis, and brought face to face with their spiritual leader. She quickly considers an answer to his question.

"You have treated me with hostility. And yet you are surprised to receive hostility?"

"Forgive the extreme measures. You understand, I'm sure, the considerable effort it takes to arrange these sorts of meetings."

"And what kind of meeting is this exactly, Xai Bau? A far cry from our last."

"Let's call it a communion. It's been so long, I thought I would check in on the Dragon Empress."

"You've tracked me to here so I doubt you need to meet to know what I am doing. How did you find me?"

"Oh Azula," the 46 years old man laughs and places a hand on her bruised knee. "There is no stone on Earth that I would leave unturned in my search for you."

Azula was just 21 the first time they met. She had felt invincible at that time, and he had been a rising terrorist with an agenda but no method to enact it. Now she sits in a room, surrounded by his acolytes. In their time apart she rose and fell as the Empress, while he continued to ascend. How high exactly is unknown to her, and part of her is even a little surprised he is in any kind of position of power as it is. She spits out some blood and looks up at him.

"Go on then, if you're going to kill me, get it over with."

He laughs jovially. "Ah, you always find ways to surprise me, Azula!"

He smiles at her now. "No, we wouldn't dare kill one of the Founders of the Red Lotus. You're far too valuable to us alive. Especially with your army of Kemurikage now in the hiding after Zirin's dispersal."

"You believe her to be dead?"

"Should we not?" He retorts.

"The world thinks me dead by his hand as well. That is obstinately foolish."

"The world thinks you dead by her hand, not his. A subtle yet vital distinction."

"Does the Red Lotus have a vested interest in a mobster in Republic City? How original."

"That man has no place in the Red Lotus."

"You used to tell people the same thing about me. And yet I controlled you all the same. So how's it, then? Does Yakone control your string now?"

"He is an asset to our efforts in the same way Laling and Koh's Disciples were once advantageous to the Dragon Empress."

"I see," she replies. Azula nods and looks down, sweat and blood dripping down the side of her face. Speaking to the ground she says, "You need him. And you're what? Scared that I'm plotting to destroy him now, to avenge Zirin's death?"

"As I said, this is but a communion."

Azula becomes smug. She has extracted far more from Xai Bau than he has from her thus far. Perhaps he was not all-powerful after all. Perhaps he'd just gotten lucky in finding her. His voice cuts into her thoughts.

"It would be most disappointing if the Kemurikage rose again with their Empress. Against either the Red Lotus or any of our interests. For you see, the Empress' interests are our interests."

She decides to bluff. "So when I return, you expect me to fall in line? Not seek to destroy the man who usurped me and then killed my old love?"

Xai Bau's grey eyes stare deep into Azula's. There is a sullenness to him. She can't help but drink it in. Her lips curl wickedly. She bats her eyelashes at him, sitting up and leaning in. "Now, where did you ever get the idea that I'm the 'fall in line' type?"

"If the Dragon Empress rose against the Red Lotus or our interest in any discernible way, you would be most upset with the proceeding response."

She scoffs and leans back. Her amber eyes roar with fire as she tells him, "I don't fear you, Xai Bau. I never have."

Disappointed with her response, Xai Bau motions to one of his acolytes. They move forward and hand him a folder. He opens it and leans back, carefully studying its contents. He looks back up at Azula finally.

"You don't fear me because you feel like you have nothing left to lose. But you haven't thought this through."

Azula crosses her arms, rock gloves and all.

"You met with The Widow tonight. What if we made you a widow? Hmm?" He asks. He produces a photograph. He drops it onto the concrete floor between them. As it floats down, Azula catches a glimpse of a 38 year old brunette with grey eyes.

"Your wife defending your brother? Or should I call him her brother-in-law?"

Azula stares down at the photo of Ty Lee. It appears to have been taken from afar, while Ty Lee was in Caldera City, stationed in defense of Zuko. She feels her heart beating out of her chest and her throat dries up. She's not breathing enough oxygen in, the stress rising and taking the breath from her lungs.

"Or perhaps I paid a visit to a certain port city along the Earth Kingdom's southeastern shore?"

He drops a new photo on top of the one of Ty Lee. It shows a bridge over an abyss. The outskirts of her old home. She sits back in silence.

"No?" He asks. "How about the librarian in Gaoling? Or maybe visit your old fisherman friend in Republic City?"

He doesn't drop any more photos, instead closing up his folder and sitting up straight as an arrow. Staring into her soul. For a fraction of a second Azula clicks out of her fear at the mention of Lin.

'Is he alive?'

"That's right. You have so much to lose, Asuna of Lanxi."

Azula finally meets his eye contact. It all makes sense to her now. He doesn't threaten her life . He threatens her life . Her wife, the village she rebuilt and abandoned to keep safe, everyone who has ever helped her along the way.

"Keep all of that in mind, Asuna," he tells her. "You've done such a good job staying hidden for this long. Keep doing that. Keep your head down and out of the way."

He scoops up the pictures and puts them in the folder. When he leans forward, her eyes dart to the folder, looking for any sign of Lin. Instead, she briefly sees a photo of Zuko, Mai, and Izumi. He fixes it all together and then looks at her again.

"Have no fear! This is not goodbye. We'll be checking in from time to time. Communing with our former Founder. Ensuring her a long and healthy life."

She gulps and watches him stand up. The light disappears behind him, illuminating his presence over her, casting a shadow over her.

"And remember what I said: There is no stone that I wouldn't turn over to find you. Even at the ends of the Earth, I will always find you."

He begins walking away but stops and turns back around. "Oh, and one last thing. The next time we see each other, I expect a parting gift."

Her mouth is dry but she manages to scratch out, "A gift?"

"Yes, you see the last one you gave to me doesn't work anymore. The Avatar reclaimed it a few years back. A shame really. I loved that view."

He stays standing there watching her. Taking in her appearance, memorizing it another moment. Finally, he turns to one of his true believers and nods. A young, burly, bald woman with a thin, lightning bolt scar over her right eye approaches. She forces Asuna up and begins pulling her towards the exit.

Asuna is escorted out by this woman. Once they are outside of the building the soldier pushes Asuna in the back. She goes tumbling to the ground, the sand and dust kicking up into her face. She feels the rock gloves bend away from her and she rubs the sand out of her eyes with her free hands.

When she opens them at last, they are bleary from the stinging pain of the sand and fear. Yet Azula sees more clearly now than she has in years. She feels burdened with dual purposes.

'Save Lin.'

'Take down Yakone.'

Chapter Text

[Late Summer/Early Fall 122 AG]

Ty Lee is dreaming. 

It's not a fantastical dream necessarily, but it sure beats the nightmares of the person knocking on Azula's door and coming to kill the love of her life. She’s dreaming of a little house out in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere far from prying eyes and ears. Somewhere safe and warm and lovely. In this dream there is water nearby; scenic views of the ocean. She grows her own food in the gardens all around them, not just a tiny one out front like in Lanxi. There are two or three children running around. It's a dream she's only recently had, and the number of children changes from time to time. It’s a dream that's different than the dreams she had in her youth and young adulthood, but pleasant all the same.

In her dream she lies in bed and watches as an old, greying woman makes dinner while dancing around their son and daughters. A teenage boy and two younger girls this time. She hears something over her shoulder and rolls over to see what had clattered.

It's darker now. Harder to see. The dream has shifted. She sits up in bed and stains her eyes. The same woman is climbing through her window, but younger. She turns back to look for her, dancing with the children, but they are not there. They are gone. There's a shut door and shadows. She finally realizes that she has awoken from her dreams. She turns back to the window. 

Now perfectly still, just hidden away in the shadows, is the outline of a female figure. The one she saw in her dreams. No longer grey, but black haired and less lines on her face. The window remains slightly ajar as the intruder breathes slowly and quietly. Ty Lee tries to focus when a light gust of wind sweeps by outside. The curtains billow in the wind and the spirit of death comes into full view, appearing from the shadows and in the moonlight.

"It's you, isn't it?"

The spirit steps forward. She looks like a daydream, dressed in earthly tones. Ty Lee sits up, smiling, and reaches her hands out, grabbing the air. 

"Are you going to cuddle me now?" She asks to the woman by the window.

She laughs. She steps towards the bed and as she does she replies, "Next time I show up out of the blue, you won't hear me."

"Did you really climb in my window like some forlorn, secret teenage lover of mine? Do your parents know you're visiting me, young lady?"

Azula climbs into bed and falls into the arms of her sweet wife, grabbing hold of her for the first time in months. Part of Azula wants to ravage her body, while another part just wants to lay there, in her arms. The comfort of the cozy bed wins out. Ty Lee nuzzles her head into Azula's petit bosom, while Azula rests her head on the crown of Ty Lee's head, the brunette hair strands tickling her face, the sweet vanilla smell flooding her nostrils. It's heaven, for a while. Azula's eyes are closed for a little, but she finally opens them to talk.

"We're being watched." She whispers. "I was finally found."

"Was it Zirin?" Ty Lee asks, face still buried in Azula's breast.

Despite their odd placement in bed, they're both still quite serious. There's a blase attitude to it all. Like a housecat, knowing it must chase a mouse, but too comfortable to actually get up and do it.

"No," she replies. "It was some old associates. The Red Lotus."

" Them ?" Ty Lee asks, followed by a chuckle. "Not who I expected. Your uncle doesn't think too highly of them as a threat."

"My uncle is a fool to underestimate them. "

"Do they know you're here?"

"They may. They showed me photographs, but not one from here. It was Caldera."

"Makes more sense for them to have spies in the Capital, rather than here on the island," Ty Lee comments. She then adds, "Still, I've been telling them for years we should fortify ourselves."

"Lin might be alive."

"Lin!" Ty Lee responds loudly. "No? Alive? That would be incredible!"

Azula is quiet. She's thinking.

"So," Ty Lee finally asks the question. "What do you want to do about it?"

"I’ve had time to think about it and I have some ideas," she starts. She scooches in bed slowly until at last they are eye level again. She looks into those luminous grey eyes. "But you’re also impacted by this. I want your help, if you’ll give it?"

Ty Lee smiles. She nods her head. They talk about their ideas and how to take down the most powerful man in Republic City. They talk all night long, until the sun comes up, like two teenage lovers.

After a long and unusually hot late summer week had left many of the plants and grass fields around Kyoshi Island dried out and dead, the sudden rain storm was a welcomed sight by all. The quiet contemplation of sitting by the window and listening to the rain drops pepper a home created an auditory experience that could not be replicated by anything in the world. It is a pleasant day for almost everyone on the island.

Almost everyone.

"Fucking rain, I hate this." Suki grumbles to herself.

The indomitable leader of the island is running through the town square, headed home. The exposed earth mixed with rain forms muddy puddles all about that Suki dodges like they're landmines. She loses focus on the last bit before reaching home and steps in one just before her front door.

Suki enters her home and quickly locks the door behind her. She removes her shoes and organizes them by the door, mud and all. She slowly walks into her kitchen, trying to shed her rain cloak when she stops in her tracks. Sitting silently at her dining table, staring at Suki as she struggles with the cloak, is a spirit from beyond the grave. She crooks an eyebrow at her as Azula takes a sip of tea that she's helped herself to from Suki's cupboard. When she finally swallows she smacks her lips together. She's content for a moment as the women just stare at each other. Finally, she speaks.

"Your perimeter defenses are shit."

Suki can't help but chuckle. She takes a step towards the seating, "Kyoshi give me strength. Have you changed your hair at all in the last year? It doesn't look any different than the last time I saw you."

Azula, like Suki, ignores what was just said and continues with her own talking point.

"I recommend you build fortified outposts amongst the trees. Made of metal so you don't have to worry about benders ripping them down or melting them. They could relay sightings to a centralized location and keep the whole island safe simultaneously."

Suki stops in front of her. She furrows her brow as she tells her, "What you're describing would take years to build.”

“Even if it took you 20 years to build, it would be worth it." She tells her with determination. "Keep things the same and in 20 years someone could infiltrate your home and kill you. Or they could be spotted and stopped."

Suki folds her arms across her chest.

"Your choice," Azula conceded, lifting the tea up again. "I would start building if I was you."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to sit down." She replies as she takes a sip.

"Asuna, I just," she pulls the chair out. As she sits down she replies, "I hate when you do this shit."

Azula looks deep into Suki's eyes. There's even a hint of a smile drawn into the lines on her face. It's a cool expression, calculating but knowing something that Suki doesn't know. Amused but focused. The rain splatters against the house providing the background noise. A few seconds spread out the silence uncomfortably. Finally, Azula spins the yarn.

"I've got this idea in my head. A story I want to tell to people. It's not about me, but it could be applied to me, or you, or a lot of people. It's meant to be symbolic of a lesson I want people to learn."

Scratching the back of her head, Suki offers, "You mean like a parable?"

"A parable? Yes, I think that's it," Azula nods as she stares out into space. "The parable of the fisherman."

"Fisherman?"

"Yes. It's a great story. It starts with a man who is rather happy-"

"What is this about, Asuna? Really?"

She pauses before asking, "Are you ready to learn everything that happened to me in Republic City?"

Stunned, she asks, "You're surrendering your secrets?"

"I'm trading."

"With your secrets?"

"A man's life for my secrets."

"His life ?"

"I believe him to be in great danger."

"From? What? Zirin and the Kemurikage have scattered."

"Zirin was backed by someone else. Someone more powerful."

"Is this the mobster that Ty Lee has harped on for several years?"

"One in the same."

"Yakone."

"You know his name?"

"I do. There's been whispers. I asked you about him during your interview, if you'll recall."

"There's more than meets the eye with him. A type of bending I've never seen."

"You're certain he's a bender?"

"Positive," she replies without hesitation. She adds, "I fought him at the height of my power. And lost."

Suki chews her lip. This is all very contradictory to the intel they've meticulously gathered on Yakone over the last near decade. She wonders if Azula is lying. It wouldn't be the first time. But the seriousness with which she speaks doesn't belie falsehood. Finally, for her to say she lost to Yakone is something truly noteworthy.

"Alright. I'll bite," she eventually says. "Tell me about the man."

"His name is Lin."

"Not very helpful."

"He's a fisherman."

"Ah! The source of the parable? That narrows it down."

"He was also at my wedding."

Turning her head ever so slightly. Enlightenment encroaches. "The man who stood beside you?"

"Mhm."

"How much does he know about you?"

"He knows more than you."

"Mmm." She hums, dissatisfied.

"He knows more than 'the world's foremost intelligence officer.'"

She nods.

"He knows more about the Dragon Empress than anyone else on earth. He might even know more about her than me."

"So why all this then? Why not just look for him yourself?"

"I don't have the resources you think I do. Not anymore. Besides, I'm never stepping foot in Republic City ever again."

"Be careful, Asuna. 'Never' is a long time."

"I also have other matters to attend to elsewhere."

"So why me?" Suki asks.

"Because you're the most powerful being on earth."

The rain continues to pepper the home rhythmically. This mystifying if not engaging back and forth comes to a crescendo. Azula pauses a long while, much longer than any other point in the conversation, as she eyes up Suki. She finally leans back, eyes still focused on the woman in front of her.

"You lead the Kyoshi Warriors. The Fire Lord bends his ear to you. You helped make Republic City, not just build it. Stopped my father in his tracks. You have the hand of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, even if you don't always have his heart. A personal friend of the Avatar. You even have the power to bring a dead woman back from the grave."

Another pause comes as Azula turns her head ever so slightly.

"No one alive wields the kind of influence you do. If you can't find Lin, then he is truly lost."

It's quiet for a moment. 

"So. I find this Lin. And you'll tell me everything? No more tricks?

Azula shakes her head. "You'll learn everything you want to know."

"And meanwhile you'll, what? Be here?"

"For now. But as I said, I have matters to attend to."

"Does the Dragon Empress rise?"

"No, and if you must know, I'll be searching for Asuna."

"Gaoling proved fruitless?"

"Not entirely. I have a lead, deeper into the Earth Kingdom."

"Well, how long before you go?"

"I'll only stick around for a few days."

"I see."

"So, will you do it?"

She doesn't reply.

"Suki of Kyoshi Island," Azula summons her once famous bravado. "Hunter of Dragons. The Most Powerful Being on Earth. The Pretty Girl. Will you answer the call?"

The formidable rival narrows her eyes. She doesn't want to admit it, but hearing the titles satisfies something in her. A deep, primal feeling. She tries to ignore it, but she finally receives a drop in the bucket of understanding what it must have felt like for Azula. A young woman, at her apex, incapable of being captured or even tracked. Being introduced by titles she had accumulated through her various exploits. The ruler of all she surveyed.

Suki laughs. She knows now that she's trapped. Azula has propped up her ego and then played her perfectly. It would be supremely impressive if it wasn't so Agni damn frustrating. So instead of getting angry, she laughs at the mastery. Laughs at the manipulation. The Puppetmaster lives on.

"Alright," she finally concedes. "I'm in."

[Winter/Spring 123 AG]

A few days turned into a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a few months. Azula did not forget the call of Avatar Asuna, or The Widow’s voice telling her to go to Ba Sing Se. She just put it off for a while, living in domestic bliss with her wife on Kyoshi Island. It was, in a way, perhaps the happiest time of her life. 

They spent the months being unabashedly in love, albeit they still hid away from the rest of the world. They read books and cooked fancy meals together. They played silly games and reflected on their love story. Azula met with Suki a few times to discuss the perimeter fencing project. Suki made arrangements to begin a small ops search for Lin. Ty Lee read more about the equalist movement and wrote some anonymous opinion pieces for The Republic Times . She thought about writing to Aang to do something, but hoped instead she would run into him at some point. She knew she could apply pressure to Zuko the next time she was stationed with him.

They also had lots and lots of bedroom time, more so than they'd ever been able to have before; Not all of it occurred in the bedroom either. Some was in the kitchen. Some was in the woods. Or the bathtub. They attacked each other like the horny, lovesick teenagers they never got to be. It was blissful and eye opening and wonderful for the pair of women approaching the age of 38. All of their time in Lanxi had been spent in spurts. These few months were the closest they've had to living together and they were not wasting any time. It was somewhat challenging hiding Azula on Kyoshi Island, and explaining away why Ty Lee was disappearing from time to time, only for her to go to Nokizo Village, but it was well worth it for the time they had together.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing to happen for the wives was the introduction of the matrimony bands as a new-age form of wedding ceremonies. They'd existed in the Earth Kingdom for some time, but their popularity had exploded recently. A way to show any and all that came across them that their heart belonged to another. The Water Tribe had betrothal necklaces that has existed for as long as one could remember, but the Fire Nation had no such customs. Matrimony bands, with silver and gold and glittering rings and all, had gone from Republic City to the Fire Nation and now the world over.

It took some convincing but Azula was finally swayed. Making the decision was hard, as Ty Lee would have to acquire them alone, meaning they had to agree on a general principle of band, rather than seeing them in-person together. Suki assisted, wearing a terrible disguise as they traveled to a nearby village where no one knew who they were, so they could pretend to be the married couple. Suki had more fun than she was willing to admit pretending to be Ty Lee's wife. In the end, Ty Lee brought home a simple golden band, with no frills. She felt it best captured Azula and her personality.

Ty Lee eventually worked up the courage to tell Azula about her dream of having children. Azula was always opposed to the idea, too scared to fuck up her future children the way Ursa and Ozai had done to her and Zuko. She tried to communicate this and Ty Lee understood. They agreed to table the conversation for a more stable time, when they could stop running and settle down. It was nice to dream about it for a while. 

But the dream finally ended one day. Azula finished reading every text in the Kyoshi Library about past Avatars. The sad and sobering truth fell upon her until one day, finally, late in the winter, she packed her bags. She retained her scarlet sandbender outfit. She prepared munitions and kissed her wife goodbye.

The search of Avatar Asuna would continue for Azula. As a teenager she conquered Ba Sing Se. Now, on the cusp of turning 40, she leaves Kyoshi Island to return again and conquer it once more.

Chapter Text

[Summer 123 AG]

The coalition of garbage men in Ba Sing Se couldn’t have picked a worse summer to go on strike. They came together so that they could fight for better wages and working conditions. Not a soul in the Lower Ring could blame them, even if they were the group most disproportionately impacted by it. The Middle and Upper rings were the most angry and the least impacted. They used earth benders to relocate their trash to the Lower ring, making the smell and issue all the worse.

Compounding matters is the fact that it’s the worst summer heat in a generation. There aren’t enough fire benders around to help incinerate the excess buildup. Everything everywhere on the lower rings smells putrid and the waste collections are becoming an eyesore on a part of Ba Sing Se that already struggled with both issues. It is in this heat, with these aromas, and these conditions that a single man walks into the open space of a marketplace and puts down a stepping stool. He stands up on it as Lower Ring residents buzz on by, not paying him an ounce of attention.

"Rejoice! For you will all be saved!" He shouts over the hustle and bustle of the early afternoon traffic. "The benders of the world will come together to protect us in this, our hour of need!"

"We are but lowly insects amongst these gods! Our mighty city, Ba Sing Se, needs more water benders for the heat of the summer. We need more fire benders to burn away our waste! We, non-benders, need to-"

At that exact moment he was struck square in the forehead by a flying cabbage. He falls off of his pedestal and onto the ground. A collection of people in the area begin laughing and pointing. While he is down on the ground, at least one person approaches and spits at him. Others shout obscenities and counter arguments. 

The whole ordeal makes for an exceptional cover as a middle aged woman with very short, black hair steals fruit from a stand and quickly escapes around a corner, before the merchant is ever the wiser. She snakes her way in a hurry, paranoid that she's just one step ahead of a vengeful fruit salesman.

When she finally feels safe, she comes to a stop in a clearing of sorts. She hasn't eaten in almost two days. Her mouth salivates as she peels back the layer of the orange. The only thing that could possibly stop her is the rustling sounds that catches her ear, from just around the corner.

She quickly turns to the corner and makes eye contact with a peeping boy. Surprised by her catching him, the young boy accidentally falls forward and into plain view. She makes note of his bald head and dark skin. He stands back up and dusts himself off quickly, and when he does she notices that he's tall and thin as a rail. Seeing him nearly wasted away, with sunken cheeks and dull green eyes, she rethinks things. She looks down at her orange and then back at him. She sighs before extending it to him.

"Here, you can have it."

He's hesitant, unsure if he can trust her.

"I ate already." She lies.

He steps forward and for the first time she realizes that he's barefoot.

"Call me A." She tells him.

He reaches out and takes the orange from her slowly. He finally speaks.

"My name starts with an A too."

She guesses that he's probably a pre-teen. Maybe 9, 10, or 11. She nods at him and tells him, "My name is Akola. Akola of Ember Island."

"Akola?" He asks, incredulous. "You're lying. Besides, that's a boy's name."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is. Name one girl named 'Akola.' You can't."

"Me, and one of the old Avatars."

He sighs and shrugs. Finally, he looks down at the orange. He examines it with huge eyes before finally taking a bite. He follows that up with another quick bite, and then a third. Akola nods her head. She turns away, "Alright, I'll leave you to it."

She begins to walk away when he shouts, "Wait!"

“I’m not looking for company, kid.”

He chases after her, walking in her shadows. “What are you doing stealing fruit anyway? Don't all big people like you have jobs?”

“It doesn't work like that.” She dismisses him.

“It does for the big people I know!” He insists.

“We're called adults,” she replies, not breaking stride. “And those people are clearly lucky.”

“Maybe I can repay you?”

She stops and he nearly walks into her. She turns around and looks at him, confused. “You have coin?”

“No, but the big people I know help other big people. Get them work.”

“What kind of ‘big people’ do you know?”

“The good kind.” He says with a smile.

Rolling her eyes, Akola turns and walks away from him again.

“Like you.” He shouts.

She stops and turns back.

“Like me?”

“I know you’re lying about your name.”

“It's not a guy's name!”

“But I can tell you are one of the good people,” he says. Her stomach groans audibly. He continues, “Let me introduce you to more good people.”

Akola was sweating profusely, but she followed all the same. They had taken many twists and turns down back alleys and roads she was unfamiliar with yet. It was going on for almost ten minutes and she began to wonder if she was being led to a certain doom. Finally, just as she was preparing to stop, four children smaller than the 'A' boy in front of her came sprinting out from around a corner, going in the opposite direction of them.

He leads her around the corner and when she emerges, she finds herself in an oasis in the concrete jungle of Ba Sing Se. What lays before her is a small commune with people out and about, enjoying the beautiful weather and company of neighbors. Eight doors all facing the inner square, where children are playing. There’s a water pump and clothes hang drying on a line. Adults stand around talking and engaging. Akola is a little stunned that such a community could exist within the rugged undertow of the Ba Sing Se Lower Ring. And that it has remained hidden from her in the couple of months she has been a vagabond in a city she once ruled.

“Come on, I’m taking you to Mama” The boy says to her, walking forward into the square.

She turns and looks at him. “‘Mama?’ As in your mother?”

He stops and turns back to her. With a hand on his hip he replies, “ Everyone’s mother.”

As she falls in line behind him, Akola can’t help but think she is about to meet Ba Sing Se’s equivalent of The Widow. They cross the courtyard and Akola is distracted by everything going on around her. She observes everything so she can properly analyze their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The boy leads her to a doorway, and when she turns to face it she has to take a step back.

Leaving out the doorway are two figures in long, charcoal cloaks, with bowed heads. For a fraction of a second she is certain they are Kemurikage and her fight or flight senses kick in. She briefly readies a fighting stance. They raise their heads in unison and she realizes they are just civilians. Dirty, poor, cloak wearing civilians. Two of them, one a young man and the other a young woman, who look strangely alike. The man looks up and makes eye contact with her.

"Whoa." He mutters.

Akola realizes that she is still holding her fighting stance and quickly drops it. She stands up straight and looks right at them. She would have to guess they were late teens or maybe even in their early 20's by the look of them.

"Oy," the younger boy says. "Bing and Beng, say hello to my friend."

They both look slowly from the boy to Akola. After a second they shake their heads and reach out their hands in unison.

"I'm Bing." The man says.

"I'm Beng." The woman says.

"Ugh," Akola fumbles with her words before reaching a hand out to shake theirs. They oddly both reach for her hand and they engage in a strange 3-person handshake all at once. "I'm Akola, of Ember Island. Pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine," the man says, but Akola has already forgotten which one he is. "You are beautiful."

Akola removes her hand and just stares at the man. He looks a bit dense and perhaps intoxicated. She replies, "Thank you?"

He hiccups and then confesses to her, "I'm going to marry a woman like you someday."

"That's cute," she dismisses him. Lifting up her left hand to show him her ring finger she say, "But no you won't. I'm taken."

"Gah!" He groans with disappointment. "What man captured your heart!"

"None." She replies honestly.

"Ah!" The woman chimes in. "She's saying you're ugly. Come on, let's not waste this fancy ladies' time."

"It was nice meeting you, Bong and Bang."

"He's Bing."

"And she's Beng."

"Right, sorry."

The two identical young adults step away and towards the courtyard. The boy steps into the house they had just come out of, so Akola follows suit. Once inside it is instantly much cooler. Apart from ducking into stores and public buildings, Azula hasn't found much indoor shade to hide from the sun. She is bathed in the coolness.

"Mama!" The boy shouts.

Akola first sees a rather small, dark skinned boy sitting by the window on the right. He is quiet and looks fragile. Finally sees the woman named Mama. She can't help herself.

'Mother of Agni she’s hotter than the heat outside.'

Akola had thought she would be some older, decrepit woman like The Widow had been. The woman before her is about the same age as Akola. She has light tan skin and thick brown hair, wearing it in a swooping ponytail, while two bangs still frame her face. She has dark olive colored eyes and breasts that are perfect for her body. Akola even feels her cheeks singe a bit just by looking at her.

"Welcome back," Mama greets the boy with a warm hug. Mama notices Akola and when she parts from the hug she motions towards the stranger. She asks him, "Whose this?"

Dispatching her momentary paralysis from the appearance of Mama, the visitor replies, "I am Akola, of Ember Island."

Mama looks at her boy.

"She's lying but I don't know about what yet."

"I'm not." Akola replies.

"If he says you are," Mama says while walking away to fix something, "then you are."

The quiet boy in the corner finally speaks. He's got a squeaky voice that annoys her. "What kind of name is 'Akola'?"

"And for a girl!" The ‘A’ boy chimes in.

Mama shakes her head as she goes about her business and adds, "It is odd."

"Who said I'm a girl? Hmm?" Akola shouts over all of them. They all stop and look at her. They try to analyze her face and her chest. The boy in the chair and Mama both mentally admit that she could pass for a man. 

It is very odd for Akola because she doesn't even know any of these people, and yet they talk to her like a long time friend. She returns that feeling by being more of herself, "And screw you in particular, 'Akola' can be a man or a woman's name."

The boy in the chair makes a face at her and shouts, "Ah, fuck you!"

Shocked that a young boy would throw the 'F' word at her, Akola becomes incredulous. She shouts back at him, "Fuck you!"

"No fuck you!" The boy says, standing up.

"Yeah, fuck you!" The ‘A’ boy adds.

"I'm gonna come over there and kick your little scrawny asses. Both of you at the same time."

"Shut up!" Mama shouts over them.

"Spirits give me strength," she mutters to herself. After the group collectively quiets down she turns to Akola, "Alright, now. Again. What's your name?"

"I'm Akola of Ember Island."

Mama gets mad. "Alright, you know what-”

"Lying!" The skinny boy yells.

"I don't care. I don't," Mama replies, wheeling on him. "If she's lying, and she's here, that means you brought her. So why did you bring her here?"

Very plainly and simply he tells her, "She gave me an orange and said she'd eaten earlier, but she hasn't. She's a good people."

"Good person ." The two women both correct him in unison. After this happens they both briefly look at each other.

"See!" He chirps. "A good people!"

"Alright listen," Mama says, walking over to the boy who brought Akola here. She puts her hands on his shoulders as she explains, "This little man right here? We call him a Lie Finder. You can't lie to him."

Akola vaguely recognizes this. She can't quite place it but something from her youth. She traces it back, as far as she can go, until the words, '400 foot tall purple platypus-bear' come roaring back into her mind. The woman is in the middle of saying something when Akola cuts her off.

"You use Seismic Sense, don't you?" Looking right at the Lie Finder.

He crosses his arms, lifts his nose up, and looks away. He replies while looking down at her, "I don't know what that means and I won't respond to it."

Akola chuckles. She shakes her head as she replies, "You all are spunky, aren't you?"

The dark skinned boy, the one who can’t find lies, interjects. "Lady, don't call us spunky. We don't know what it means."

"It means you're an annoying little shit." Akola replies.

Riled up, the Not Lie Finder flails his arms around in a fist fighting motion. "Oh! Oh, so it's like that, huh? Well you're a Child of Ozai!"

"I'm a what ?"

"It means you're an annoying little shit–but from the Fire Nation."

"That's it!" She yells, pushing furniture out of the way as she moves towards him. "I'd never fight a child, but I'll shake the shit out of you."

"I'm not a child, I'm 16!" He shouts back at her.

"Enough!" Mama strides between them, arms raised, voice as loud as she can make it. She turns to the lanky boy, "Siq. Sit down and shut up."

Siq sees how serious she is and does as he's told immediately. She turns to her Lie Finder. "Aiwei. Get her name or she's out. Now."

Aiwei realizes that the fun and games are over. He quickly turns his attention to Akola and strides up to her, palms outwards and raised above his head to signify he is not threatening. He stares into her eyes and she does the same. Akola tries to remember how to block out the seismic sense. It's been so many years since she had to worry about this or bother with it. Like any old habits, it comes back to her like muscle memory.

"What is your name?" He slowly asks.

She is deliberate in her answer, leaning forward as she replies, "Akola of Ember Island."

He gasps. 

"What? What is it?" Siq asks.

"She's… telling the truth?"

"What the fuck, Aiwei!" Siq shouts.

"She is. But she wasn't before?" Aiwei mutters to himself.

"Spirits." Mama complains.

"I swear!" Aiwei tries to explain.

"Fine," Mama says. "I'll do it myself."

Mama comes and stands before Akola, who doesn't mind the attractive brunette getting close to her. Mama doesn't ask anything though, she just reads Akola's amber eyes. The olive eyes analyze her, making judgements and trying to know where, and who, she has been. 

"Refugee from the Fire Nation," she finally says. Aiwei and Siq both stand at attention, hanging on Mama's every word. "You're probably lying about the Ember Island part, but I don't think you're originally from the Earth Kingdom either, let alone Ba Sing Se. So maybe you are Akola, but you're not from Ember Island, and you're not from around here."

Smugly, Akola just replies, "I am who I say I am."

"She's telling the truth," Aiwei marvels out loud, confused. "How?"

"Because I was telling the truth the whole time."

"How!" He demands to know, fists balled now.

Akola wears a shit eating grin without replying.

"Wait no, Mama, she said earlier, and she was lying-"

"Aiwei! Shut it! Go." She points to the door Akola had come through. She lightly touches his arm, still pointing with her other hand. "You're done. Get out."

Aiwei, resigned in defeat, moves towards the door. He stops beside Akola and tells her, "I'm going to figure you out, Akola."

"Good luck." She hisses back at him, with a wicked smile.

"Siq, you should leave too," Mama instructs. "Go tell you-know-who that we've got a situation here and I will be late."

"Yes, Mama." He replies obediently.

As he approaches, Akola finally gets a full look at him. His skin is dark as night, making her think he might be from the Water Tribe. He's petite, both in height and weight. There isn't a spec of facial hair on him, and his hair is long, held up in a ponytail. He stops in front of her, a mixture of fierceness and amusement in his blue eyes.

"I hope you can stay. This was fun. I'd like to fight you more. Even if you have the name of a 50 year old man."

"Yes, this was good fun," Akola concedes. She tacks on, "And I'd rather have a 50 year old man's name, than look like I'm stuck in an 8 year old's body."

He shakes his head, the game afoot. He smiles briefly and it might be the brightest smile Akola has ever seen in her entire life. It stuns her for a moment before it fades and then he disappears, exiting out the same door she came in from originally. Finally, the women are alone. Mama gives a stern look.

"Alright, what's the deal with your name? And no more bullshit."

Azula will allow it, but only so far. "If I told you my real name, we'd both be dead in a ditch by tomorrow."

"Okay, I've heard that one-"

"No, you haven't," Azula interrupts her. "Not like me."

Mama clicks her tongue a few times. "I see. So, if you're so bad, why give a kid you don't know your food when you're hungry?"

Azula doesn't need to think about it. She tells her, "I'm just trying to do more good than the evil I've put into the world."

This draws raised eyebrows. Mama asks her, "How long have you been living on the streets?"

"A couple of months. Had a run in with some Dai Li but talked my way out of it."

"Bender?"

"Does that matter?"

"It sure does around here."

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not."

"This half truths non-answers bullshit isn't gonna fly. There needs to be trust."

"You expect me to trust you when I don't even know your name?"

"You expect me to trust you when I don't even know your name?"

Azula stops and thinks about this point. Azula, Asuna, Akola. She hid behind many names, just like Mama does. She concedes, "Fair."

"Alright, well I'm putting you down as a non bender with a question mark."

"What's this? For what now?"

"Listen, if you're going to stay in the protection of the Southside, then we need to know who you are."

"Fine. But I want to know more about this benevolent all powerful 'Mama.'"

"Fine. Here's what you need to know," Mama says while gesturing. It is with these gestures that Azula finally sees Mama is wearing her own matrimony band. It is a light gold, but with a bright blue sapphire. "I'm in charge, you're not. I've spent my life on these streets, you are a refugee in my city. I can give you a roof over your head, consistent food, and a job if you have any skills. You have none of those things."

"You're fiery. I love that," Azula says with a smirk. "Do you do this all by yourself?"

"I've got a network." She replies nonchalantly.

"You're own tiny empire, where you control all the strings?"

"I'm just a woman, looking out for people that the Earth Kingdom royal family forgot about."

"Always a friend to those in need."

"Exactly."

“That makes you an idealist."

"I prefer 'romantic at heart.'"

"Tell me your name? You seem so familiar, and yet not."

"Jin," she answers with a sly smile. "Jin of the Lower Ring. But people call me Mama."

"Jin. I like you, Jin. I'll stick with that over Mama."

"Well, Akola, will you be sticking with us in Southside?"

"That depends, Jin. ” She relishes saying the hot Mama’s name.

"On what exactly?"

"You said something about a job?"

"If you have skills, yes. Did you have a job in mind for the skills you haven't displayed?"

With a smile, Akola replies, "Public libraries."

Suki stares at her reflection and can hardly believe she sees it. She looks into a substance that is black as the nighttime sky. By all accounts it should be opaque and nothing should be able to be distinguished in it. Yet she stares at her own eyes reflecting off the surface like some sort of black puddle. It's mesmerizing, the way that even in the darkness, there is still light. She feels that is true of life in general, but most especially her current predicament.

"Have I ever told you the story of how I got that sword?" An unseen voice speaks to her from beyond.

Suki stands up straight and turns around. Striding towards her is her husband and the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka. He is tall and handsome as ever. He smiles broadly and wears a proud look on his face. She shakes her head at him.

"Only 100 times."

"What about the story of how I recovered it?"

"Hmm," she thinks for a moment. He arrives at her location, enveloping her in a loving embrace. They share a sweet peck on the lips. When they're done she answers, "Only 99 times."

He bursts out laughing and she can't contain herself either. They hold this moment together, enjoying the hug and the moment of being reunited. After a second or two, they part and take seats together on the soft couch in his home, with the light breaking in through a high, stained glass window.

Sokka asks about how her travels were coming to the South Pole. Suki asks about current affairs and which villages are causing issues. Sokka recounts power plays by certain families, and bemoans that he never has time to visit the islands off in the northeastern quadrant. It's been a goal for years to do some outreach, but time and attention always draw him away. Nevermind that it's a lawless land out there, being guarded by some old vigilante named 'The Watchkeeper.'

"But you didn't come all this way to hear me rant about that."

"No, I don't suppose I did."

He settles into her arms, nuzzling the back of his head into her breasts. "So tell me, my dear Wife, what was so important and confidential you wouldn't risk putting it into writing."

"I have to ask you some questions," she pauses. His pulse quickens a bit. "About Republic City."

"Hmm? What about it?"

"The crime families."

"Ugh. Don't bring them up in front of Aang or Zuko, unless you want to piss them off."

"I want to go after one of them."

"Egh?"

"Not a family, but one of the mobsters who I think is controlling all the strings."

"What's the point? These mobsters all drive each other out of town all the time anyway. Kill each other off, or redraw territory lines. It's a fucking cesspool and impossible to curtail."

"I know, but this is different."

"How? I mean, no offense, but how serious can this really be? The biggest mobster ever got killed like ten, fifteen years ago-"

"Almost exactly ten years ago."

"-and it didn't stop a thing. They barely took an hour of their time before they were dividing up the city like it was a family dinner."

"And 10 years later we still don't have answers on how that all went down, because someone is being protected. The Fire Lord's own sister was killed and no one has faced punishment. Imagine what else is happening?"

Stammering over his words, Sokka replies, "I-I mean, what is this, Suki? Didn't you used to complain that Ty Lee ranted about this? Have you had a change of heart?"

"I did and I have."

"What happened?"

She pauses. "Someone in Kyoshi Village lost their friend to the violence in the city."

"Ah," he sighs in understanding. "I see."

"Technically, he may still be alive."

"So this has become personal for you now."

"Yes. Exactly."

"So now you won't rest."

"Until he comes home. Until I have answers about what happened to her. Until there is justice served for the innocent."

"All this for a cold case and a likely dead end?"

"All this to finally get the answers I've always wondered."

He rolls over to face her. Their eyes meet and he can see the resolve in them.

"Alright. Who are we going after?"

She smiles at him. She'll have his resources and influence over Toph and the rest of her metal bending police force. All the might of the Southern Water Tribe. She narrows her eyes.

"His name,” she pauses for dramatic effect. “Is Yakone."

Chapter Text

[Winter 124 AG]

Winters in Ba Sing Se were proving to be arid, to say the least. Compared to the Fire Nation, they are freezing; to Republic City, they're frigid; Lanxi, they're good; and Kyoshi Island, they're brisk. Akola was winding her way around the back alleys of Southside, headed to the Base of Operations, the ends of her hair lightly brushing against her shoulders. She makes a mental note to cut it soon before it gets too long. Despite her being bullish on the weather, she dons her iconic red scarf all the same. She reasons that today is a bit biting, so in function, it makes sense. It also looks incredible on her.

She pushes open the door and walks into the warmth and is greeted by the old familiar sight of Jin sitting in the chair by the window. She's reading through some documents with her glasses hanging low on the bridge of her nose. When Akola enters, Jin looks up and greets the librarian with a light, half-hearted smile.

"You're up early." Jin mutters before going back to her papers.

"Yes, well, it's a big day. What with Siq's presentation and all." Akola replies, grabbing some fruit on the dining table.

In the few months since coming to Ba Sing Se and subsequently joining Jin's Southside group, Akola marvels at how much and how little she has learned about its various inhabitants. On the one hand there was Siq, where seemingly daily she was gleaning a newfun fact or pearl of wisdom. The young boy nearing adulthood has become her closest confidant and, while she would not dare admit it out loud, her dearest friend in Ba Sing Se.

Just yesterday, Siq became the first to learn that Akola was actually a fire bender. They shared a living quarters and he had set fire to the kitchen accidentally. By the time they were both aware and on sight, Akola had no choice but to bend the fire into embers. It was a choice of secrecy or homelessness. Surely, Jin and company would've helped out if it came to that, but in a fight or flight moment of panic, Akola saw the simplest answer and went with it. She trusts Siq to keep his mouth shut, and threatened him with mortal peril should he break that trust.

On the other end of the spectrum is Jin, who is an enigma. A woman of many talents, secrets, and mysteries. She doesn't trust easily and it's clear those within her inner circle are sworn by blood oath into secrecy. All of which is fine with Akola because she recognizes that she operates in the same way.

Nonetheless, Akola is curious. She isn't sure if Jin is a ruthless crime lord, like The Widow or The Dragon Empress, or just a benevolent, maternal, mastermind streetrat. Six months in the Southside has her leaning towards the latter, but the former can't be ruled out yet.

"That's right, you're going with him aren't you?" Jin says without looking up.

"Indeed."

"Do you know anything about this invention of his?"

"Not a clue. Haven't asked."

"Hmm," Jin makes a face. "I have and he won't even tell me."

A few weeks back Siq had sent a letter to The Bank of Ba Sing Se with notes about an entrepreneurial enterprise of his. It granted him a brief, 30-minute introduction meeting last week with a representative from the bank, then another with a different rep, and now the opportunity to present his proposal to some high ranking officials. If things turned out well, they could invest in his idea and his whole life would change.

Which made it all the odder that he wouldn't share it with anyone. Akola had picked up that as a non-bender Siq was fascinated with bending and in particular fire bending. He has a hundred thousand questions for Akola after yesterday that she refuses to answer as of yet. He also has a mind for the sciences. Akola assumes he is marrying these two concepts in some way. Even so, if he wishes to keep it under lock and key, Akola will not intervene.

"So who will be doing most of the talking?" Jin asks, putting her papers away and coming to join Akola at the counter. "The old, headstrong woman who knows nothing about the subject, or the boy genius who is as charismatic as that fruit you're eating?"

Akola laughs. "I'm just there for moral support."

"I reckoned." She replies with a shrug.

"Although," Akola says with a devilish smile. "In another life, I used to make presentations like this all the time to people with money."

“What were you doing?” Jin asks with a chuckle. She pushes her laugh to the side as she finishes her joke, “Threatening to kill them if they didn't pay you?”

Jin grabs an apple and bites in. Akola smiles meekly back at her. "Something like that, yeah."

"Ha! You're a strange girl, Akola."

"Please!" She flips her scarf around, "Have I told you how people used to call me the Lady in Red? I insist you call me such."

Jin laughs loudly at this. When it finally subsides she asks, "So, will you be attending the celebration this afternoon?"

"You really are confident in a teenager securing a loan from the bank."

"We're optimistic. We can party if he gets it, and cheer him up if he doesn't," she replies quickly. "And besides, there's a lot of that going around since you came to the Southside."

"What's that? Partying?"

"Optimism."

"I suppose."

"So you'll be there tonight?"

"Depends," Akola replies with a grin. "Do I finally get to meet your partner? The mystery person?"

"Why not call him my husband? You're the only one who insists on calling him my 'partner.'"

"I speak from a lifetime of experience where people assume I'm with a man, especially when they hear I'm married."

"Ah yes. Your own mysterious Ty Lin. When will we be meeting her? Seems unfair for you to finally meet my lover, but not the reverse."

"Maybe someday. But I insist, you first."

The door creaks open.

"Guess you'll have to come to the party to find out."

Aiwei enters the base of operations. He quickly offers his apologies, sounding still half-asleep, "Sorry I'm late."

"C'mon, Book Buddy," she says, grabbing another piece of fruit, this one for him. She walks towards the door he's standing at. "We've got work to do."

"See you both later tonight." Jin says as they exit.

"This just doesn't line up with what we've read so far." Aiwei complains.

The two of them are in the Southside Lower Ring Public Library, where Akola has been working for nearly six months now. They are surrounded by open texts at a table near Akola's station. She's the only one working today, but luckily it's not very busy. The job doesn't pay well but it pays enough for a woman with no debts, and who wants to spend her days reading and requesting books from near and far.

"I think it does." She replies simply.

"No, it doesn't!"

"Then why write this?"

"To get published!" Aewei explains. "They had to put something, so they just put anything using the same tired, educated guesses that their predecessors came up with. Maybe if you got some real books from the middle ring."

"I'm working on it, relax. I don't have much sway yet."

"You mean to say you suck as a researcher and librarian?"

"Alright, how's about this." She ignores his jab. "Why don't you review everything we know, or everything we think we know so far, as facts."

Aewei agrees. He pushes the books and notes all aside. He's been helping Akola for months on this project and he knows most of it by heart now. He recites from memory, "Avatar Asuna was from Ember Island, but is sometimes referred to as Avatar Akola. Why exactly? We’re still not sure."

"Right."

"She, he, they were a late blooming fire bender."

"And as a result," Akola starts.

"And as a result, the world did not know they were the avatar for many years. And because they didn’t know they were the avatar either, they didn’t try practicing other bending."

Picking up from there, Akola adds, "At 16, they attended the Trials of the Dragons, where the Sun Warriors discovered that they were the Avatar."

"By 20, they had mastered all 4 elements."

"She, he, they married a woman named Mareen from the Air Nation."

"They learned lightning bending."

"And became The Spirit of Lightning."

"They rode a dragon named Song."

"Which inspired hope to all who saw them flying by."

"And then Monk Sanzin-"

"Uh, excuse me?" The two are interrupted by a woman who had been in the library, and now approaches their table. She apologizes, "I hope I'm not interrupting?"

"No, not at all." Akola quickly replies and moves away from their research. She takes the few steps through the soft light of the library to the main table. When she arrives, she looks up at the woman and is struck by her appearance.

Standing opposed to her is a woman with light skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. She's rather short, closer to Akola's height, and looks approximately the same age, in her late 30's. Her hair held up in a ponytail that descends with most of her hair, and bangs on each side, framing her face. She bats her massive eyelashes at Akola and then debuts a huge, magnificent smile. Her eyes narrow slightly with a knowing look.

"Are you checking me out?"

Caught in the act, Akola stumbles over her words. "Uh. Um, no!"

"So you're not checking me out?"

"Oh," Akola realizes that she means the book the woman is holding. "Oh, yes, sorry. I-"

"Did you think I meant something else ?" She teases her.

"No. No. No, I," the former crime lord stammers. "Sorry. Please, let me check that book out for you."

The woman across from Akola continues to wear a mischievous grin. She adds, "This place is stacked. But you know all about that right?"

Akola can't help it as she feels her cheeks grow red instantly. "I'm sorry?"

"Since you work here and all?"

Akola is being teased. She's being teased! Openly and publicly, this beautiful woman has no shame whatsoever. She pays it no mind, knowing that Ty Lee would likely lean into this kind of moment, but nonetheless Akola feels a need to be honorable to her long-distance wife. She folds the book over and reviews the cover. She's surprised by what she reads.

" A Modern View of the Fire Nation ?" She reads out loud.

"That's right," she says with a nod. "I skimmed it a little, so I'm gonna take it home. It skips right over Sozin and looks at Ozai and Fire Lord Zuko."

"Zuko?" She asks, eyes darting up.

"That's right," she replies nonchalantly. "His early childhood, his banishment. Helping the Avatar. Becoming the Fire Lord and his reign thus far."

"Agni," she mutters. "They're writing books about this stuff already?"

"It's been over 20 years since the 100 Years War ended. I'm interested to see what the historians say about my homeland."

Looking up again Akola doesn't stumble over her words this time. "Your homeland? You're from the Fire Nation?"

"I am indeed." She says with a genuine smile.

"What part?"

"Right on the border of the Earth Kingdom. Yanxi Village on Tanoshi Island. Right off the coast of Crescent Island, before you would hit-"

"Jang Hui Village, I know the area!"

"Oh, a fellow Fire Nation girl?"

"Yes. A few hundred miles west of you. Ember Island."

"Oh, excuse me, Rich Girl."

"Well, I mean-"

"No no. I've never known anyone from Ember Island who didn't come from money."

"Well, yes. My family was wealthy when I was a girl. But that was a long time ago."

"I see." The woman says, her eyes thinking a bit. There's a knowing look. "Any reason they disowned you?"

"Ah!" Akola stops herself. "I can't be telling all of my secrets when I know so little about you."

"Oh honey," she replies sweetly. "I'm as open of a book as the one you're holding in your hands."

"Ha!" Akola laughs. The bells above the library door ring as new patrons enter. She asks, "How about we start with your name?"

With that luminous smile and an outstretched right hand she replies, "I'm On Ji of Tanoshi Island. It's a pleasure to meet you…?"

"I'm Akola, the rich girl from Ember Island." She says, reaching the hand out to shake it.

"Akola!" A pair of voices yell in unison as they approach the desk.

"Agni." Akola mutters as the twins walk towards her station. "These two drunkards always have the worst fucking timing."

"Well, in that case," On Ji replies, taking the book from Akola. "I'm gonna head out. But maybe I'll see you around, Akola ."

"Akola, you got any spare coin?" Bing asks.

"We'll pay you back next week, no doubt!" Beng adds.

Akola watches On Ji walk away. She had been eye-catching at first. Funny and flirtatious. But most of all, she was interesting and talkative about the Fire Nation.

'Ty would love her.' She thinks to herself as the fraternal twins descend upon her with their latest half-brain scheme to get more cactus juice.

"Thanks for covering for me, Sanae!" Azula shouts as she and Aiwei exit the library and into the sunny streets of Ba Sing Se.

She wraps the red scarf around her neck. She's in a rush, while Aiwei is only along for the ride. She wants to hurry back so she has enough time to take a bath before going to the big meeting with Siq. Akola is busy recollecting what a successful and excellent day that it's been between the research they got done and meeting a native Fire Nation woman too, around her same age.

They are a dozen steps outside of the library when someone catches her eye. Akola looks up and sees a pair of piercing green eyes trained intently on her. What's more is that they look familiar. She takes in the full features. A young, burly, bald woman with a thin, lightning bolt scar over her right eye. It stops her in her tracks when she remembers the woman. She had seen her only once before, nearly a year and a half ago, at a secret meeting where she was bruised and kidnapped in the streets of the Misty Palm Oasis. The women make eye contact and Akola knows that the bill has come due.

"Aiwei," she says to him. He stops and turns back, standing sideways. With a head nod she instructs the young boy, "Go on ahead. I'll catch up in a bit."

"Suit yourself." He replies and takes off without another word.

Azula takes slow steps, barely moving at all, until he disappears from view. Then she turns back to the woman and walks up to her. As she approaches the woman, they make eye contact. The unnamed woman turns and begins leading Azula further into the underbelly of Ba Sing Se. They walk on for about two minutes in silence, getting further away from the general populace. Finally, she slows to a halt and Azula takes the final steps to close the distance. She turns around to face the fallen empress, and steps aside, allowing her entry.

When Azula walks past the woman, she finds a barren street of Ba Sing Se's lower ring. She's not sure if it's barren by nature or design. She takes a step inward and then sees it. Jutting out into traffic ever so slightly is a Pai Sho table, and sitting at it waiting for her is the familiar man with no hair, but a full beard and sharp grey eyes. She strides up to him.

"May I have this game?"

He nods, extending an open hand for her to sit down. When she does, he tells her, "The guest has the first move."

In silence they set to playing their game. By the third move Azula takes a piece, but puts herself in a vulnerable position and ends up needing to retreat from her advance. Despite striking first, ultimately she loses pieces. 

"No guards this time?"

"You complained of hostility last time."

"No fear of being struck down?"

"Now look who brings the hostility?"

They don't say anything for a moment as they both contemplate the board.

"You disappeared for a while there, didn't you?" He asks.

It's noteworthy to her that he didn't know where she was, and admits as much as well. She calculates her move. "Didn't you say something about no stones unturned?"

She takes a piece as he calmly replies, "All signs point to you being on Kyoshi Island. I didn't fret because I knew you just wanted to prepare the perfect gift for me."

She sweats but remains on the attack. "Yes. It's not quite done yet. I wasn't sure when you would come back for it."

He takes a piece and controls the center of the board. He grows hostile but his voice remains calm, "Or perhaps you hoped I wouldn't come back. Or that we'd lost you permanently in your new identity as Akola of Ember Island?"

She moves a piece. "After the Oasis, I had faith you could find me again."

"Do you enjoy it?" He asks with a hum. "This quiet life of yours?"

She looks down at the board and feels herself losing ground, quickly. She's desperate and afraid of making more mistakes. She is both afraid to answer and preoccupied with the game, the silence dragging on for seconds. Finally he speaks.

"Of course you do! We in the Red Lotus relish hiding in plain sight. And so I've realized something, Akola."

She moves and he counters before she can even draw a breath. "There's a threat to you greater than your friends and family and even yourself."

She stares at the board but he has her full attention.

"It's your anonymity. It's being resurrected. Nothing is a greater threat to the Dragon Empress than for Azula to be brought back to life."

She looks at a losing board and every avenue of attack and defense countered.

"So I was wrong in the Oasis; it benefits us both for the Dragon Empress to remain dead. So let's keep it that way, shall we?"

Azula gulps and doesn't reply. He examines a board where she has no recourse. Where she cornered herself with her own actions and inactions. He gloats.

"You know, you used to be deadly when the pai sho chips were low. But somewhere along the way you lost your edge. You became too focused on the present. You became nothing in the endgame."

He stands up and towers over her. She looks up into his cold, grey eyes. "I'll be back in the summer. Have your offering by then."

He turns to leave.

"What do you want from me? What more could I give you?"

He stops and turns back to her. He gives it a thought before settling on an answer.

"The Red Lotus has always had an appreciation for unique talents. Blue fire, lightning, rock gloves, smoke and shadows. I've heard rumors about the Lower Ring. They say there's a woman who has Seismic Sense. Do you know her?"

The legend is mixing up Aiwei's ability with Jin's face of the organization. Of course, no one outside of the Southside could know the truth. Azula considers her options. She lies.

"I haven't."

"Hmm," he groans. "Well, if you want to be left to your peaceful life, and you want the same for your wife, your brother, your little village, and everyone else you care about, then I suggest you find her before we return for the summer."

He begins to walk away but she pushes the chair out from under her, fists engulfing in flame.

"After this there will be no more, Xai Bau. I won't be held hostage by you in perpetuity." 

He turns sideways to look at her. He scowls as he replies. "Why don't you focus on finding that woman first?"

With this he turns and walks away. In the blink of an eye, about a dozen, maybe two dozen acolytes appear from hiding all along the street and fall in line behind him. He had never been alone after all. It is a reminder of the strength and quiet nature of the Red Lotus. Azula watches them all go and struggles to accept what comes next.

Akola is slowly ambling through the streets of Ba Sing Se, headed back to her shared home, lost in a daze. She is replaying everything in her mind. The conversation, the threats, the demands. She thinks of Aiwei and what she will do. She is scared and worried and lost. So much is going through her mind that she doesn't hear someone running up to her.

"Akola! Akola!" The dark skinned boy from the Water Tribe shakes her out of her fog.

She looks up and into Siq's waiting eyes. He looks exhausted and anxious. He grabs her arm and starts dragging her in a different direction.

"We have to go. We're going to be late!"

"Oh," she stumbles over her words and drags her feet. "I don't know if I can still-"

"Shut it, Akola. You're going!"

"I'm in no condition-"

"Best friends don't leave each other behind!"

Akola reluctantly concedes and falls into lockstep with him. He carries a satchel on his shoulder, filled to the brim with papers and books. He's in a hurry but glad to have his partner with him, and even a little smug after she tried to back out briefly. He decides to push her a little with some prodding questions.

"Alright, so I have some questions about your bending ," he whispers that final word while looking about. They make brief eye contact while marching forward and then he adds, "I was reading today, and I've heard it said that some firebenders can also bend lightning . What about you?"

Akola, despite everything telling her not to, can't help but chuckle. She rolls her eyes and shoves him playfully in the shoulder. His exuberance for life is nothing short of contagious, and she can't help but to catch on to it.

"Okay, one more question."

The two friends wait in a stuffy conference room. They had dressed for the warmth of winter and now sweat in the heat of the small room. Akola recognizes this as a tactic of the powerful and manipulative. She has helped to assure Siq several times since entering that this is intentional and to not let his confidence be deterred. The exact advice and help Siq needed to hear.

"No more questions, your presentation is about to start."

His confidence has only led to Siq attempting to fill the silence with more questions.

"Okay, last question!"

"Fine," she concedes, although perturbed. "But make it quick."

"Do you have to do things with your hands to do the bending? Like, do you always have to make a motion?"

"I have to do something ," she explains. "It's not like I can just summon fire or lightning without at least some kind of physical act."

Just as Akola finishes this sentence the door pushes open and in steps a large, older man. He towered over the room like a giant. Akola guesses that he is Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom, his skin too fair to be of Water Tribe descent. She thinks him twenty or so years her senior. He's dressed in an ornate outfit made with the finest material. He speaks with a low, gruff, and serious voice.

"Alright, let's get right down to it. My associates who have spoken with you have been impressed. But for ventures such as this one, they send me in."

"And who are you exactly?" Azula interrupts.

He takes a seat at the table and pulls out a notepad and quill. "Gaaler. Spelled with two A's, not one. Are you the inventor?"

"I'm not, he is."

"Then who are you?"

"She's my-"

"His consult."

Gaaler grumbles. "Very well."

"So what do you do here, Gaaler?"

"You're not the one asking questions today, Miss-?"

"Akola."

"Miss Akola."

"Well, I just surmise, given that you're the one they send in for big projects such as our own, and with how you're dressed, I wondered how much time we're wasting."

"Wasting. The only one wasting-"

"We'll present to no less than the Loan Officer."

Siq remains silent but his heart races as Akola plays the man like an instrument. He raises his voice and shifts his seat to face her, "I'll have you know I'm the Chief Financial Officer for The First Bank of Ba Sing Se."

"Thank you for introducing yourself, Gaaler, the CFO of this bank," Akola replies without the hint of a smile. "May I introduce to you, the inventor… Siq of the Southern Water Tribe."

Gaaler grows angry with the petulant woman but turns his attention to the boy.

"Well, Siq. Formalities and pleasantries aside," he starts with a side eye to Akola. "This is a serious venture that The First Bank is considering. You're asking for a large sum of money up front."

"I am." Siq admits.

"This is a lot of capital for an unproven project."

"It is." Siq admits.

"I'm not keen on giving lump sums to dark skinned boys who haven't even cut their teeth yet in the business world."

This insult ignites some fury in Akola. She rears up to interrupt the racist old man, but Siq gets the words out first. "Indeed. Yet here you are?"

Gaaler settles into his chair. "And yet here I am."

"Because the loan officers and advisors I've met with, who have heard from me and seen what it can do, they have all suggested you approve it."

Akola is disarmed at how shrewd this is of the young man. His tact and guile are not new to her in the last few months, but how adept he is at the game. How well he plays it, with natural talent. Siq flashes his bright, pearly whites and the room is lit up by them. He laughs a genuine, heartfelt laugh and addresses Gaaler. "So you want to meet with me and see it for yourself and know you and your whole staff aren't being gamed."

"Aye," he replies, his patience thinning. "So why don't you get on with it already."

"Excellent," Siq replies. He pushes his chair out from behind him and stands up. He stands at the front of the small room and opens his presentation. "Allow me to introduce you both to Lonlhai Fire!"

He quickly sweeps all of the papers on the desk into a trash bin and quickly posits two vials onto the desk from his pocket. 

"None of these papers are important, yes?"

"That's right." Gaaler replies.

"Excellent. Now, behold, the beauty of-"

He pulls a third vial from his pocket, quickly uncorks it and pours it out onto the empty basket. He pulls from another pocket a match, which he swiftly ignites and drops onto into the basket. 

"Now, hold- ah!"

Akola blinks and shields her eyes as it ignites. In the briefest of flashes of blue fire. She opens her eyes again and the fire is red, but she is certain she saw floom to life with blue fire–a sight she had never seen done before in her life outside of her own hands.

"This is," Siq adds with a smile. "The future of fire."

"Is it true?" Gaaler asks, suspicion and hope intertwined in his voice.

Azula resists every urge to not interject asking is what true. She gets her answer shortly.

Siq opens the first vial and takes a small swig. He slides it across the table. "Hurry now, don't be shy. It's simple drinking water. Both of you, don't delay."

Gaaler takes a sip then hands it to Akola. She sips and confirms the taste before sliding it back.

"Now, as it were, water extinguishes fire," he leads them on. As he begins to tip the vial over the wastebasket. "But what if it didn't?"

The water pours out steadily. Azula isn't sure if it would be enough to quell the fire, but it should've subdued it a bit. Instead, nothing happens as the fire continues. It might even rage on moreso, in spite of the water.

"Lonlhai Fire is the next evolution in fire based technologies. It can't be extinguished with water. If I had a bowl, I'd gladly show you how it burns on top of water, in fact."

Siq opens the second vial and pours it out. It looks like sand and quickly extinguishes the flame. 

"My own invention, the formula for which only I know. Gone are the days whereby fire benders are shackled to the lot of life that they need to be hired for fire duties. Lonlhai Fire can assist with infrastructure and architecture. We can keep fires running throughout the winter for low income families and other destitute individuals. Light fires in the rain to keep people from getting sick. Many other magnificent applications."

He slides the wastebasket across the table so they can examine the inside. Akola confirms it's sand.

"You know this will ruffle feathers," Gaaler tells him. "Putting people out of jobs."

Siq recognizes this clear as day but has to secure the investment. It is life changing coin. 

"I don't see it that way. Perhaps best of all, this frees fire benders up to pursue other passions in life. Instead of being living, breathing furnaces, they can seek out the arts and languages, or whatever their hearts desire."

Akola can't help but see the military uses of it as a weapon, and the danger of putting fire bending soldiers out of work, or rendering them obsolete in warfare. A fire that can survive water and burn on top of it, if used for certain reasons, could be a weapon of war. The ultimate weapon of war, outside of the Avatar themself. A part of Azula wonders briefly how different, how much better or worse things would be if Siq's invention had existed during the 100 Years' War. An invention born at the exact right time in history.

"Why 'Lonlhai'? It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue."

Siq stands at attention. The black skinned boy smiles his trademarked smile at them. He swishes his long ponytail out of the way. With a shrug he explains, "I was born in the Lonlhai Village, on Linlhao Island."

After some blank expressions he goes on.

"If you couldn't tell by my skin, and as Akola said earlier, I'm from the Southern Water Tribe. I wanted to pay proper respects. If this fire of mine is going to burn forever, I want to be sure people know the name of my home. Thus, Lonlhai Fire."

Akola is disarmed at his genuineness. He is himself fully and outwardly. She huffs and shakes her head as she smiles at the teenager who could be mistaken for a child.

"We would have an, ahem, very strict timeline on production. There can be naught an interruption in production if we're going to put this sort of money forward," Gaaler says, leaning in. His head dips and he peers up at the presenter. "Does that strike you with fear, Siq?"

Full of confidence and true faith, he replies proudly, "Absolutely not."

"Where's the formula for this?" Gaaler asks. "We would want assurances if you couldn't keep up with schedule."

Siq points to his head. "This is the only place where the formula exists."

"I was warned of this. Surely you can not expect us to pay you such an obscene amount of money and not have the formula in writing."

"Tell me, Mr. Gaaler, do you fear that I would run from such 'obscene amount of money?'"

Akola smirks. Siq continues, "You've seen it done. You know I can make it. There would be no benefit to me to secure the loan and run with it. Not when I can do more and make more with time, once the loan is paid back with interest."

"Indeed." Gaaler concedes.

A question comes to Akola so she interjects, "Do you fear the venture failing? Is that why you want the formula? Is that what keeps you up at night? Or do you have other plans for the Lonlhai Fire?"

Gaaler laughs heartily. "The only thing that keeps me up at night is owing someone else money."

After a pause Siq puts his hand out. "So what do you say, Gaaler? Let's both sleep easy from now on."

Gaaler contemples the boy. Akola is stunned by Siq's salesmanship and cunning. She is not surprised in the least when Gaaler stands and shakes with Siq to unofficially mark the beginning of their partnership.

The winter air is thick with the smells of smoke. Fires all around the lower ring as strangers gather together. The camaraderie is nice, but the body heat is nicer. Two good friends walk through the streets, chattering about the most exciting news to happen to the Southside in many moons.

"And what's the first thing you're going to buy with all of that money?"

"What do you mean! I'm using it for the business. I've already scoped out a space for rent, between Mama's place and that bar the twins like, it used to be-"

"Oh shut up," Akola admonishes him. "You know damn well-"

"You're right, I'm buying a house. I'm buying the biggest freaking house the Lower Ring has ever seen!"

The two start laughing hysterically just as they arrive for a celebratory party.

Far away from the revelers of Ba Sing Se, a woman warrior and her chieftain husband stand before a wall of string and pictures in Republic City. It's a web of connecting events and individuals. They have spent six months building it out and are no closer today than when they first settled on this objective.

The tides have been rocky, but not anything they haven't endured. In the deepest recesses of her mind, Suki fears the ends to which it will take to unravel the thread. She knows her morals will not allow her to sink so low. There is a higher road, there is assuredly always a better way to find what she seeks. Yet the more they dig, the deeper the earth breaks with nothing underneath.

Suki can't help but marvel at how complex and deep the empire spreads. It would be impressive if it wasn't so terrifying and frustrating.  She wonders if the Dragon Empress had such a far reaching control. A quote echoes in her mind.

'"I'm sure. There was always more going on than I knew."'

A comforting voice cuts through the fog.

"Hey, hey," it gets her attention. She turns to her husband. His eyes like bright blue skies, his smile as warm as the sun. He nods his head. "I'm with you all the way. We're gonna nail this bastard."

She agrees. The Most Powerful Being on Earth will not know rest until her digging is done. Keep going until the truth is unearthed.

"Speech! Speech! Speech" The crowd of mostly inebriated Southside revelers call out. 

Akola spins a cup of cactus juice in her hand as she watches her boy-wonder climbing up on a table. She's never really one to drink, only doing so on special occasions. She reasons this because she's heard and seen it do more harm than good. Bing and Beng, for example, are fine people but their obsessive search after the next drink is not something she ever wants to find herself in. Besides, when you're covering up a lifetime of hidden tracks, it's best to not lose your inhibitions and speak out of turn.

Siq stands on the table now and turns to address all the attendees. He thanks them for coming and encourages them to eat and drink as much as they can. He's thankful for their support and excited about what comes next. After dragging this out, and weighing his words carefully, he steals a fleeting glance at Akola. She smirks at him and gives him a raised eyebrow. He nods.

"Finally, one thing I want to say about all of this. I know everyone is talking about the money and what I can buy and such, but that's not why I got into this. I really am doing this to help people."

This receives loud cheering and claps across the room. He acknowledges them and waits for it to die down.

"You see, before my parents passed, they taught me that when you have an astounding gift, you have an obligation. You must bring it forward. Not hide it from the world. Pretending to be anything less than your brilliant self, with all your abilities," he steals a glance at Akola. "It serves no one. It just makes the world colder."

He pauses, not for applause but to gather himself. The crowd cheers him on anyway. After they stop he finishes, "So here's to warming up a cold world. And here's to my parents from Lonlhai Village. To my parent here, Mama."

This receives perhaps the loudest ovation.

"And here's to the Southside!"

Akola knows that he was referring to her firebending, but the boy has no idea how on-the-nose his speech was for her life. What's more is despite all of their friendship and connection, she learned a little more about Siq tonight. She always knew he was an orphan, but she had never heard him speak of his parents before now. 

"Akola." A warm voice cuts through her thoughts.

She turns and sees Jin. The benevolent and beloved Mama strides up to her, arms outstretched. Akola embraces her and holds her tight. When they part, Jin takes a step back and smiles. "So how much talking did you end up doing? Really?"

"None, honestly." She replies. "I nearly ripped the fucking bankers head off at the beginning, but once he got into his groove, there was nothing to stop him."

"I'm surprised but not entirely. He is rather smart about certain things. So was the invention as good as advertised?"

"It was. It might just change the world."

"Babe!" Someone calls to Jin.

She looks over her shoulder and sees them coming. She turns back to Akola. "Ah yes. As promised, allow me to introduce you to-"

A familiar face approaches much to each woman's surprise. The fair skin and brunette hair and striking beauty appears before her for the second time today.

"On Ji?"

"Rich Girl?"

"Rich Girl?" Jin asks, confused.

"Very funny."

"It's Akola, right? Sorry, Babe, just a tease, that's all."

"You two know each other?"

"Oh yeah, she was checking me out today."

"Was she now?"

"First of all," Akola puts a finger up to Jin. "I knew you were a gender betrayer. I could smell it a mile away."

The three women all share a laugh. They enjoy each other's company and spend the rest of the night talking until the last partygoer leaves. Akola, Jin, On Ji, Siq, and eventually Aewei joins them. They share stories and jokes. Akola protects her secrets but for the night she lets herself be present with them. Fully present and just happy. It's blissful and some of the warmest she's felt since leaving Lanxi, at least in time spent without Ty Lee.

Azula knows that the Red Lotus awaits. She knows that they will not accept anything less than the young boy who sits with her.

'But for tonight, we can just pretend like everything will be okay.'

Chapter Text

[Summer 124 AG]

There is an unnerving power to belief. Believing in something can do the most unimaginable things. Belief moves mountains and moves people. It brings true believers to fight in wars and to die for their beliefs. It would be incredible if it wasn't entirely terrifying. Such is the power of belief, to accomplish the impossible; to bring doubters to the light; to save; and to kill. True belief can do anything. If we believe something, really believe it, then we can never lie when we speak on it. If we believe it enough, we aren't lying: we are testifying.

In a way, Azula is the truest believer to ever live.

She never lies to anyone, she only tells them what she believes. She is everything she has ever said about herself. Azula the Crown Princess. Azula the Dragon Empress. Asuna of Lanxi. The Lady in Red. Akola of Ember Island. It's how she blocks the Seismic Sense. It's how she has survived. It's how she lives with herself. A life of terror, and more blood on her hands than there is water on Earth to wash it all away. She must be the truest believer to convince herself that she is a good person. To even consider the opposite may be true is a weight so great that it threatens to instantly crush her.

So she presses onward, believing. She used the power of her belief to convince Aiwei, Jin, and On Ji that she could get the young boy a bright new life, away from the streets of Ba Sing Se. Some part of her knows it's wrong. She knows she is condemning him to a life of abuse and manipulation. She knows the Red Lotus will corrupt him.

But what Azula believes is entirely different than what she knows.

Akola sits in the studio apartment that she used to share with Siq. There's a soft albeit uncomfortable chair by the door, where she curls up and does something she rarely does: she tries to stifle an onslaught of tears. Thinking of Aiwei and what will become of him weighs heavy on her. What really spurred this along though was not Aiwei himself but what he represents. The Red Lotus takes him from her, takes him from the world. She wonders what would have happened if they had come for her in Lanxi? Would she have given Yasuko up just as easily, if it meant to protect herself? Or would she have faced the wrath of the fire for her Little Dragon? It's been over four years since she left Lanxi in the dark of night. She fears for the girl and what would happen if the Red Lotus went after her, as Xai Bau has assured her he would, if Asuna appeared again empty handed.

She is stuck between a rock and a hard place, metaphorically. She is fighting back tears on an uncomfortable couch, physically. And it is this state of duress she finds herself in when the door to her apartment swings open.

"Hey Akola, do you have any-"

Siq stands before her, having keyed in just a moment ago. It takes a moment for everything to register and he immediately begins to plan an escape.

"Ah, so sorry-"

"What?" She asks, standing up quickly and rubbing the loose tears out. "Do you need something, Siq?"

The young man still kept a key to their old apartment. Akola had rightfully assumed she could be left alone, but the boy from the Southern Water Tribe showing up has been a surprise all around.

"No! No! Nothing that can't wait." He hastily tries to exit.

Siq closes the door and all but runs away. He had never seen Akola cry before this moment and he's still stunned that it happened. He runs through his mind what could cause such a powerful woman to lay in a heap of tears by herself. He wonders if someone she loves had died and if she was quietly in mourning. He doesn't know anything about her family, but perhaps it had been a sibling. Or perhaps, like himself, she has lost a parent. Siq's mind races out faster than his steps carry him away.

In those hurried steps, a seedling springs roots in his mind. An idea begins to form about what to do and how he can help his best friend in her silent suffering.

Dearest Akola,

I'm compelled to write to you with aching, longing hands. My visit this past spring was not nearly long enough. You see, since leaving, I lay awake at night feeling unsatisfied. The coolness of your side of the bed, juxtaposed with the warmth of your body on mine. I miss it so. I'll return in the winter or sooner, if I can.

Your new crew is an exceptional group of people. They remind me of the old ones, but entirely different, and special in their own ways. 

I know the day is fast approaching and it does not come easy for you. I still don't know if it's right, but all avenues have been explored. Just remember:

For every living being self-preservation must come first.

I love you, my dearest.

Yours, Truly,

Ty

Akola stands at the door, waiting for Aiwei. He slings a bag over his shoulder and approaches. He stops at the door to his apartment and takes one last look around, taking it all in. He's trying to commit it to memory. 

The sun is up, but between the buildings and the overcast sky, not much light breaks through. It provides a sort of greyness that envelopes the world around them. It is all that Aiwei sees: a pale grey world that will soon be behind him. A life he will leave behind. Perhaps one he will not miss, or perhaps one that he will look back up on fondly someday. But assuredly, he looks upon it now with ambivalence.

"Ready?" She says to him.

He turns back to her.

"Me and you?" She continues. "It's time we got going."

Aiwei steps away from the door and leaves his life behind. They walk through the filth ridden and trash covered streets of the Lower Ring Ba Sing Se. The grime and the uncleaned stains of beverage and urine line the very walls and floors beneath them. Aiwei had grown accustomed to this city over his lifetime. A relationship of convenience, rather than choice. The decision had been difficult, but not laborious. The only part he regrets is not sharing the news with Siq.

"Don't look so glum. There are worse fates in life."

"Are there?" He asks ruefully at first, before dropping the charade. "I suppose you're right. So what shall we do today?"

"We meet after sunset, so I've got a whole final day planned."

For the first time, a bit of sun breaks through the clouds and the rooftops.

"First, we steal some lunch from the market."

"Excellent."

They walk side by side as she continues, "A light afternoon eavesdropping on the pai sho players in the park."

"I find out the liars-"

"And we try to guess what truth they're hiding."

"I like it. What else?"

"A few final hours in the library."

"A fitting end."

"Before an early supper and then head to the rendezvous."

"We're going to go out to eat? We can afford that?"

"No, we can't. But we're going to do it anyway."

The sun fully escapes the clouds. The path before them opens up. What was once grey and dead, now breathes to life with color. 

"I always liked your hair more when it's short like this." The teenager tells her.

"Oh?" She replies in between bites of her dinner. "And I'm supposed to do what about that?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Aiwei sighs. "It's just a compliment, Akola. Relax!"

The two friends sit at the boys' last supper. Akola has saved money for this moment, treating him to something special for his last day. They treat it like any other meal, but the entire day has been trending towards a more somber tone. By all accounts it was a perfect day for Aiwei, just as Akola had dreamed it up. Yet as each checkpoint was reached, she found herself thinking more and more about the young black haired girl in Lanxi. Her little dragon. It was a sinking feeling, and it is at this exact moment that Aiwei asks her a most jarring question.

"Do you believe in the Spirit World?"

She chews on the question as she chews on her food.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I believe you'll be honest."

"That's a funny thing to say, considering."

"You can say anything, and it will come across as true. But why lie about your own personal beliefs? Between friends, someone I may not see again for a long time. Why should I fear you lying?"

"I see."

"So, do you believe?"

"I believe in many things. Most of all, I believe in myself."

"That's a powerful thing to believe in."

She decides to answer his question and not string him along any further. "I've heard things about the Spirit World in my many years. As a child, I heard legends. As a teenager, rumors. But as an adult, I don't have any experiences. And real life experiences trump all when you get to my age."

"I've been reading about it and I'm convinced it exists."

"You sound like many others."

He laughs and they put their utensils down, neither one still eating.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Excellent, so I'll ask anyway."

"Piece of shit." She chides him and they both laugh.

"Have you always been hungry?"

"Lunch didn't really do it for me either. But this should hold me over."

"I think you've always been hungry, Akola."

Confused, she rebuffs her head. "What are you-"

"I think we've both always been hungry."

She narrows her eyes as realization settles upon her. "Is that right?"

He looks out into the crowds all around them. The Lower Ring is buzzing. He says to no one, "I've always been hungry."

"Don't be fooled by the emptiness of hunger." She warns him.

"Hmm?"

Unbeknownst to the two sitting, a certain set of twins spots them from across the way. The two quietly and quickly work their way towards them.

"You may think that the hunger drives you. You run faster, you work harder, you fight more. The struggle to survive, just to make it to the next meal. But that hunger you feel is masking the emptiness. None of us, Aiwei, can go it alone."

"I see."

"Another word for it is-"

"Surprise!"

Akola jumps a little. Their rendezvous is coming up, but she has feared that they would come to collect earlier. She looks up at the twins in cloaks and grunts.

"Bing! Beng! How lovely to see you!" Aiwei chirps.

"You two again. What are you doing here?"

"We spotted you."

"And decided to come over."

"Always good to see you again, Akola."

The two have a serious reverence for Akola. Perhaps her general disdain for them and disregard for their antics is what drew them to her. Nonetheless, the relationship is a thorn in her side as the degenerates often get caught up into trouble that Akola must either bail them out of, or suffer their consequences.

"What do you two want?"

Bing smiles lopsided, clearly already a little intoxicated. "We're headed to that equalist rally. Heard they're giving out sandwiches."

"And for the cause!" Beng adds, sincerely.

"Hoping they'll have some cactus juice or some bender supremacists fucks that we can fight."

"You two are going to get yourselves or others killed someday if you keep this up." Akola accosts them.

"Aye, if it means putting some of those supremacists shits in the ground-"

"-then we're all for it!"

"Do you agree with them, Akola?" Aiwei asks, curiosity sparking.

"I stay out of these matters, all of you know that."

"The Peacekeeper, Akola of Ember Island." Bing chirps.

"If you don't choose a side, that is choosing a side, and it's the side of those assholes."

"Some of the best people I've ever known are non-benders, including my wife. I just don't care for all of the drama that comes with this."

"Care to join us, then?"

"Sorry, we can't." Aiwei breaks the news. He stands up from his seat and Akola does as well. With a knowing glance he replies, "We were just heading home actually."

Akola nods. The cover story is set. The escape is ensured. The twin cloaks billow in the wind as they depart. Akola and Aiwei disappear into the dark streets of Ba Sing Se as well.

In the pale moonlight, two weary travelers walk through the abandoned streets of the Lower Ring. Their steps are heavy and fraught with thoughts. One of them weighs the potential dangers of handing over a powerful bender to a group of extremists, against the very real dangers they pose to her life and her loved ones. The other contemplates leaving behind everything he's known for a chance to finally quench his hunger. 

"How will we know if they're here?"

"They wouldn't back out now."

"But what if something happened?"

Azula remembers how much control Xai Bau wants over her. How far he's willing to go to get it. As they approach the library entrance she sees it long last. In the shadows, just within sight, is the woman with the lightning scar.

"They wouldn't miss this for the world."

They come to a stop in front of the woman. Aiwei doesn't know any better. He earnestly greets her, "Hello! Are you -"

"No, she's not." Akola cuts him off.

The door to the library opens and out steps a short, tan, bald man. He wears a light cloak for the summer weather. Akola wants to smite him from the earth right here and now, but she knows that would not give her the safety she craves.

"But I am." Xai Bau greets the young earthbender. "And who do I have the pleasure of meeting today?"

"My name is Aiwei, of Ba Sing Se."

"Aiwei. What a lovely name."

"Thank you, it was my grandmother's."

"So, my good friend Akola here says that you have a special talent."

The shadows close in on the group as all of Xai Bau's disciples make their appearance known to Azula and company.

"Aye," he replies. "I know when people lie to me."

"So she says. So the rumors go. But can you prove it?"

"Try me." Aiwei replies confidently, wanting to assert himself and impress.

"That's the spirit. How's about this?" He says with a smile. "My sister was my closest friend as a child, or my hair has always been bald since I was about your age."

Akola cocks an eyebrow at this, both benign nothing's which could be equal parts truth and lies. Aiwei doesn't blink.

"Neither is true."

"I loved my sister, so I'm afraid-"

"My abilities are never wrong. I can't tell who was your best friend, or if you became close after childhood. But you're lying."

Akola turns her attention to Xai Bau, trying hard to contain the smile on her face. Aiwei proving himself in real time was something to see. But her glory is short-lived as the master of Red Lotus turns his attention to her.

"Very well. It is easy to lie to strangers. Harder to lie to friends. Prove you can read her. Tell us all something that we know that the boy does not, and tell us all a lie."

Akola slowly turns to face the boy with dark skin and green eyes. They meet each other head on. Xai Bau relishes this moment as the rest of onlookers consider actions to take. Depending on what she says next, they very well make their decision on what to do with her. This is no casual moment between friends. This life and death.

"I pledge my undying loyalty to Xai Bau," she starts with a pause. She turns and nods towards the man dangling all of the chips. "Or my name is Akola of Ember Island."

The code is clear.

"You're lying about who you are."

Xai Bau laughs audibly. "Incredible. But you've only known her as such this entire time?"

"That's her name," he replies, looking at Azula with confident and whispering eyes. "It's been her name from the start."

"You never considered she was lying?"

"I didn't check for her name. I believed her."

"So it's a bending you need to activate?"

"Yes." He himself lies. "It's not always on. I need to focus. And her name isn't something I ever thought she'd be lying about."

Both things had come across as the truth. Azula knew it. Aiwei knew it. But they shared this secret. They shared this lie. He did not know why she lied, but he understood Akola better than almost anyone so he kept this to himself.

Xai Bau steps forward and puts his hand on Aiwei's back. He smiles broadly while looking at Akola.

"You may not know her name, but I have always known her as The Immortal Soldier."

Akola is thrown back in time. All the way back to that Air Temple. A gamble of high stakes political stratagem Pai Sho. The overnight retreat to further discussions. The alignment of the Dragon Empress and the Pale Lotus. Two names that could be forever forgotten now. But here Xai Bau stood, bringing back another name from the dead.

"Do you want to know why?"

Xai Bau and Aiwei stand side by side and make eye contact. The young boy is still hungry. He protects her now out of respect but he does want to know more about the woman who has brought him to this point. Ever so subtly, he nods his head.

"Because there's no such thing as peace time for her; her life is just one battle after another."

"Are we done here, Xai Bau?" She interjects.

"Yes, Master, we should get going. The night is young, but our travel arrangements await." The woman with the scar says.

"Of course, of course." He waves her off. "Let us make our leave with our young protege. From here on out, you will only know luxuries you had dreamt of before."

"Very well, Master Xai Bau. But before I go, may I say my goodbyes?"

"Yes, but with all of us present."

Once again the gang of villains turn their attention to Azula. However it is Aiwei who speaks first.

"Will you miss me?" He asks.

She yields.

"I'll never think of you again." She replies with a smile.

He gasps slightly. The realization washes over him. He had felt her lie. Perhaps it was her own emotions getting the best of her in the moment. Perhaps she was tired. No matter what, she had allowed him to know.

The True Believer is made a liar.

It's late in the evening when Sokka wakes up on the couch. He jumps awake from a particularly realistic nightmare. Groggily he looks around, trying to reconstruct his surroundings. He recognizes it as Suki's bedroom. The lights are out in the room, but the door is slightly ajar and a sliver of orange-yellow light stretches into the room. The councilman sits up and rubs his eyes for a few moments. He stops and rests his head on his palm trying to recount the night. 

He'd come here in the hopes of having a peaceful conversation. He'd practiced it a dozen times in his mind and thought he knew how it would all unfold. They shared a delicious meal that he made and afterwards he broached the topic: the quiet quitting on a long failed venture. 

It's been over a year of investigating Yakone. At first it was a worthwhile investment as they learned more about his empire. However, as time has gone on, the task has become cumbersome and time-consuming. In order to protect his peace, Sokka had relegated it to something he focused on with his spare time, of which he has sparingly little these days. Meanwhile, it was increasingly taking more of Suki's time, and her attention away from Kyoshi Island. Lomen was practically operating solo for the last two, maybe even three months.

The conversation could've gone better. At one point, his temper got the better of him as Sokka asked Suki where 'this deep seeded desire to prove something' had come from. They've lost money, time, resources, and we're no closer to nailing the low level mobster down. It felt much like the years when the entire Avatar Gang was in search of Azula and how Ty Lee had never been willing to surrender the chase. Sokka remembers Suki falling into similar depths searching for Azula, after she passed. It lasted years . He fears the same will take place now with Yakone.

When things went south he simply headed to the bedroom. At first he was alone with his thoughts. Eventually he lied down and without meaning to he had drifted off into sleep. Then he had a nightmare about fire and lightning.

He stands at last and goes to the door. He opens it and steps lightly across the wood panel flooring. It's late but it's clear where his wife is located. He comes to a stop at the entrance to her office. She stares at the wall of yarn and pictures which has become her home these days. She stands staring at it, holding some news clippings in her hands, trying to piece the puzzle together.

"Suki."

She looks over her shoulder for a fraction of a second, if even that. 

"Come to bed."

She doesn't move.

"In a minute." She replies, not meaning a word of it.

He nods his head. He stares at her for a few seconds, watching her stand as still as a statue. After a pause he finally retreats. He remembers where he is now, but he fears that his wife is the one who is truly lost.

Akola of Ember Island has lost something dear to her. She has sacrificed a young boy and all of his talents and potential so that she can continue to live in anonymity, and her loved ones can be safe and secure. The reach of the Red Lotus had dug deep into her life and clenched into her. Perhaps they were not quite done yet with her, but they are appeased temporarily. As for now, she walks through the streets, headed home, guided by the moonlight.

She finds her door and places the key into it. She opens it and pushes inward. With a flip of her finger the lights come on around her and she stops at the sight that is exposed from the darkness.

Sitting on the table by the door is a large porcelain pot and two dozen flowers sticking out. She stares at it in surprise and disbelief for a brief moment before moving towards it. At first she runs her hands through the flowers. She wonders if they are a gift from Ty Lee, but that wouldn't explain how they got into her small space. Just as she is considering how it is that someone broke into her home she notices a tiny card. She flips the envelope open and pulls the paper from it. A handwritten note left for her.

Akola,

You seemed down this morning. I don't know what has happened, but I am here for you. So is Mama, and On Ji, and Aiwei. We want to help you and support you. If you care to share your burdens, I'll be honored to assist you in carrying them. In the meantime, please consider this saying that my Auntie taught me while I was a boy in the Southern Water Tribe:

Our minds are bountiful gardens, needing to be tended. The thoughts we have every day fill them with seeds and water and care. It is our choice if we grow flowers or if we grow sharp thorns. Spend a little time every day deciding which you will plant.

Sincerely,
Siq

Chapter Text

A/N: And she feels like home. If the shoe fits, walk in it, everywhere you go. Love and be loved. Read… and review! 

[Winter/Spring 125 AG]

In retrospect, she wouldn't be in this situation if she had just done her laundry.

When it comes to big things, larger tasks, such as going to work, or meeting up with members of the Southside crew, or helping Siq, Akola has no issue. She always takes the initiative and never delays. On the other hand, when it's mundane tasks that don't require much energy or effort, she often procrastinates. She finds them tiresome and ill fitting of her time or attention. So she delays things like doing her laundry and in turn that makes her run late to her rendezvous with Jin.

She rushes right along the quiet streets of Ba Sing Se lower ring, a rumbling noise growing closer. Her hurried steps whip around corners and between people walking home in the early twilight. It's winter so the sun is setting earlier and the chilling is biting more. Azula wears the red scarf she so loves, knitted by the hands of the most powerful being on earth, who was the first one to ever successfully hunt her down. Her hair is growing a little too long, reaching once again towards her shoulders and will need to be cut soon. She once thought the winters in Ba Sing Se were nothing compared to some of the other places she lived, and while that may still be true, she has now lived here for over two years and as such her body has adjusted to the temperature.

She hates the winters and the cold, but not as much as she hates having her path interrupted. She rounds a corner in a rush and comes face to face with the 'rumbling noise' in the flesh. A large crowd of gatherers, all blocking her shortest route to their meeting point. There must be dozens of people, maybe even a hundred or more. They are almost entirely middle aged and younger men. They shout obscenities and other such a raucous noise towards some figure who is speaking at the front.

Azula has a choice. Go back the way she came and circle around, costing her precious time, or push her way through them to get where she needs to be. It's not much of a choice. She gets going where she's going.

Azula pushes through the men of varying sizes and shapes. Some are burly and some are scrawny, but they all smell terrible. They're sweaty and completely unaware of a woman pushing past them until she's in their chest and moving them backwards. Even then some of them don't realize what's happening, they just step backwards while listening to the speaker. Azula is about halfway through the group when the words finally reach her.

"This world is broken - but it doesn't have to be."

She continues to push but now she too turns to look at the man and hear what they are all saying.

"Our journey is not complete, your journey is not complete. We have to keep moving forward, together. For those with us now. For those we had to leave behind. We have come this far and we must keep going."

The man at the front has long, slick black hair and tan skin. At night, reflecting off the open flames that light up the stage he is on, she sees his amber eyes. He is lean in muscle and above average in height. His robes are lilac and deep navy. He looks like he'd be a good fighter if he wasn't doing such a captivating job orating. Azula stops in her efforts to listen. For the briefest moment she shares eye contact with him.

"Let us never forget that us benders are the ones who forged this world into what it is – and it is through us that the world will continue to be remade."

Raucous applause all around her.

'Ah! Of course. Bender Supremacist.'

Azula has no such time for their squabbles. She continues working through the crowd as they cheer and chant. She breaks through finally on the other side and walks freely towards her destination.

Azula hasn't given much time or attention to the politics of the Equalist and the Bender Supremacist. She knows Ty Lee feels strongly, as well as many others do. It's a hot-button topic and has been so for years. But she doesn't care for it. She sees value in both sides of the argument, and that sort of ambivalence has only drawn the ire from both sides. So instead of engaging in unpleasantries, she simply avoids the topic or remains quiet when it gets brought up in conversation.

At the very least, she rations, if either side ever became too much of a problem, her brother and the Avatar would surely step in. If they could make time to try and shut down the Dragon Empress, surely they would make every effort to crush any pseudo-rebellions from uprising on either side.

'Those two are all the protection people need from political nonsense. I need to stay focused on my own problems and the challenges we face in the Southside.'

Azula pushes the thoughts away like she did the angry men in the crowd. She stalks through the streets on her way to meeting up with Jin.

"No, no, please, a little slower!" Jin teases her as Akola approaches, steps hurried. "You shouldn't feel the need to rush on my behalf. Not like I've been waiting forever."

"You're still alive? I was hoping you'd die of old age before I got here." Akola cracks back at her.

Jin smirks. "See that doesn't work as well because you're older than me."

"Yeah, but no one calls me 'Mama,' so that makes you older by default."

"Or maybe it just makes you wish you were a mother fucker?"

"Only On Ji gets to call you ‘Mommy.’"

They share a laugh and then a hug. Jin shrugs one shoulder in a direction, "C'mon, the place is just around the corner."

Akola falls into lockstep with Mama and they head to their location. It really is incredible to Akola how far the two have come over the years. When Akola first arrived, Jin was an enigma. An endlessly complex puzzle, impossible to decipher, and determined to remain a proverbial question mark. The leader of the Southside was cold and cool and a different kind of leader from how Akola had been once upon a time.

But as the days stretched into months and the months stretched into these years, as Akola proved herself an invaluable asset to the Southside, loyal and good, and as Akola and On Ji became closer friends, the walls around Jin came tumbling down. Now? Outside of Ty Lee, Jin may very well be her best friend. They're practically inseparable. They round the corner and two cloaked figured bump into them, separating the women.

"Hey!" Akola reprimands the smaller pair. "Watch where you're go-"

"Akola!"

"Mama!"

Jin smiles. "Bing and Beng!"

"You little shits." Akola growls.

"Sorry Akola!"

"We're in a rush."

"We wouldn't be if Akola here had been on time."

"Shut it, Mama!"

"Oh cool! We're in a hurry too."

"Where are two running off to this late?"

"There's a bender supremacist rally."

"So we're going to the counter protest."

"Hoping to score some cactus juice along the way?" Akola chides them.

"Oh no, we drank our fair share just before this."

"We'll get some more afterwards too!"

The identical twins, in their matching charcoal capes, make their escape. If there was anything Akola could count on them for, it was their activism in the community, and their active pursuit of getting blasted. They had a very healthy fear of Akola that she had instilled in them since day one, and her general disdain for their presence was not one they missed. Yet despite this, Akola has a soft spot for them, something they know almost innately, while still wary to never wear out their welcome.

"C'mon," Jin says, rousing Akola from her thoughts. "This is the place."

Akola reads the sign above the door briefly and is surprised.

"A meeting house?"

"Technically, yes." Jin replies as they enter the warm indoors.

They walk into a low lit, very spacious room, adorned with a large, square, green rug, with yellow lining in the traditional Earth Kingdom shades. There is an elevated platform at the front of the room, where folding screens are lined up, with depictions of landscapes around Ba Sing Se. There are yellow mats towards the front, where people kneel and focus on the stage. There's a table by the door, with a tan woman about Akola's age and two small children playing. Up at the front of the room, On Ji is on the stage talking slowly but pointedly.

"Welcome to On Ji's poetry club."

"Poetry?" Akola asks, a twinkle in her eye and a smile dawning on her lips.

"Yeah. You strike me as the type who'd enjoy this."

She lets out a half sigh, half laugh.

"Surround myself with the sounds of tortured souls? Sign me up."

Jin steps into the room and Azula follows. She extends a hand towards the table in the back.

"First timers have to observe, no interaction, no speaking, and no sitting with the others."

"That's bizarre?"

"Yeah, it's a holdover policy. The previous lady who used to run the club and mentored On Ji made the suggestion. I think some water tribe kid crashed the club once, or something like that. Anyway, she made the suggestion, old habits die hard, On Ji kept it. So you'll have to stay back here today."

The woman at the table looks up as the two small boys quietly play around her. She has tan skin, her black hair, and emerald green eyes. She looks a little worse for wear, but nonetheless there is an aura about her that screams poise.

Jin explains, "This is our friend and sometimes associate, Yin of the Lower Ring."

"Greetings Yin." Akola gives a slight bow of the head.

Yin waves absentmindedly behind her and adds, "And those are my two boys."

Akola eyes them up but doesn't go to introduce herself. Something tells her they wouldn't care even if she did. She eyeballs it and guesses that they’re both will under ten years old.

"I'll leave you two to it." Jin says as she departs, headed to the front.

"May I have this seat?" Akola asks her.

"You may." Yin replies and Akola pulls it back. 

"Are you also not permitted to join them or recite poetry?"

"Mine is more self-inflicted, rather than mandated."

"I see, so this isn't your first time here?"

"Spirits no."

Akola removes her scarf, and no sooner than putting it down is it grabbed off the table by a pair of tiny hands. 

"Boys!"

"It's fine." She tells the woman. She leans down towards the adolescents who had stopped. She whispers to them in a tone containing all of the sweetness in the world and eyes shooting fireballs, "But if you rip it, I'll rip you in half."

Their faces white as porcelain masks, the boys slowly back away with the scarf, careful with it but nonetheless leaving with their treasure.

"Aye, I wouldn't have this problem if their father was here. Probably off galavanting with his girlfriend."

"Eh?" Akola chirps. "You say that so brazenly? Or perhaps you're not their mother?"

"Oh, please, don't be confused. I am, and he is. No, he may not be the most faithful, but he's mine."

"If he's not faithful, then he's not yours. I suggest you put him in the ground."

"Kill the father of my children?" She laughs.

"What father? I see none here."

"Fair. Perhaps I should leave him.

"Perhaps? Just perhaps?"

"I love him. If I'm honest, leaving isn't in my blood. And besides, divorce is for rich people."

Akola doesn't say anything, conceding that this is a correct summation, and not wanting to continue wading into this woman's personal life. She feels content to just focus on the poetry being read and revel in the tortured souls. Apparently, however, the woman is not done talking with Akola.

"Now that I've shared far too much about my personal life with you, as Jin said my name is Yin. My boy's are San, he's the older one who wrapped your scarf around his head, and Chow is the younger one."

"They look young. What are they? 7 and 5?"

"Close. Very close. San is 6, Chow is 4."

"Young. Full of life and energy. It's wonderful, and terrible; youth is truly wasted on the young."

"Do you have any of your own?"

"Ah, no. My wife would love to, but-"

"Oh a gender betrayer like Jin and On Ji?"

"Indeed. And damn proud no less."

"We're getting so personal, and yet you haven't even introduced yourself."

"Ah well, I am Akola, of Ember Island. Although anymore it feels more like I'm from the Lower Ring. It's nice to make your acquaintance."

Akola looks away, again hoping the conversation is over, so she can listen to the poems. Yin forces a smile and leans in. She carefully reaches a hand out and touches the top of Akola's left hand sitting on the table, briefly grazing over the matrimony band. Akola jerks her hand back and turns to look back. Yin squints a bit and looks right into her amber eyes. Akola is alarmed by this sudden act and analytical stare down.

"That's not your name, is it?"

Akola forces a fake laugh. It's been so long since she's met anyone new, she forgets about the ubiquitous reply she always gets. Kindly she replies, "Oh, I know. Everyone tells me it's a man's name, but I assure you-"

"No, that's not it. You may be able to get away with that with others, but I know better."

'Agni Above please help me. Does she also have Seismic Sense?'

"I'm afraid I don't-"

"Akola of Ember Island was an Avatar who lived and died just a shade over a thousand years ago. You're using a spirit to hide your identity."

Akola now squints her own eyes.

Yin carries on, "The only question worth knowing is why?"

Akola calculates her options. Moves and countermoves. The words of her old, bald enemy ring in her head about being useless in the endgame. She weighs her options. Bizarrely, she feels at ease around this woman. She trusts her, almost innately.

"You're right. My name isn't Akola, and I'm not from Ember Island."

"I know you aren't. So let's begin again. I'm Yin of the Lower Ring Ba Sing Se. Who are you?"

"I'm Asuna of Lanxi." Asuna assures her.

"Ha!" Yin chuckles. "Called out on 'Akola' so you go with the Avatar's second name. Clever girl! But Lanxi? Now that is original. Now we're getting somewhere."

"You know an awful lot about a dead Avatar?"

"I like to think my knowledge is second to none, but you may make me a liar yet."

"Perhaps we can learn from each other. I've spent years in search of Avatar Asuna. What can you share with me?"

Yin shrugs. "I've forgotten more than I know, I'm afraid."

Asuna sighs. "Our faulty memories commit timeless crimes with countless, forgotten victims."

"But right now I'm more interested in you. Do the others know your name isn't Akola?"

"I'm sure they have their doubts, in fact I know they did at first. But they accept me for who I am now."

"And who are you, exactly?"

"I'm a woman just trying to get by."

"There's more than that though. Akola, Asuna. Ember Island, Lanxi. You're hiding yourself from the world."

Asuna sighs. She tells her, "I can't say much. Suffice it to say that I have a violent background, but I've left that all behind me now."

"Hmm? An ex you're trying to escape?"

"That's part of it. At first it was, yes. She betrayed me and tried to kill me." Asuna examines the scar in her right palm, a finger tracing the line where the blade with the red handle once pierced it.

"Are you aware that there are other ways to handle this sort of situation, besides lying about your name and pretending to be a dead Avatar?"

"How do you mean, Yin?" Asuna asks, true curiosity in her voice.

Yin leans in, a voice of reverence about her. "There is a spirit that exists in the West. As rumors go, there is one who can change your face . Even erase your memories of your past life. Give you a real fresh start."

Azula met the Mother of Faces many moons ago. She had not forgotten. But she harbors her own feelings on the matter.

"I have heard such stories."

"Oh?"

"I even know a woman who used such power."

"And?"

"It is the route of a coward."

"Well!"

"I would never stoop so low as to cheat life. I shoulder this burden because of my own actions, so I deserve to live with it."

She holds out her open palm, the scar visible now to Yin.

"Admirable, but not a choice many would make."

"I am not many. I am one."

"Akola of Ember Island. Asuna of Lanxi."

"Indeed." She nods.

Yin purses her lips. "I'm surprised you know someone who saw the spirit. Myths and legends whisper only one person alive who has come back from it."

"They do? Perhaps it's the same person?" Akola probes.

"Oh, I doubt that. Unless you were somehow familiar with the Fire Lord's mother ?"

"Hmm." Akola hums. "It appears then that there are two someone's who have come back from the spirit."

"I see." Yin replies, but does not believe.

Akola, sensing the doubt and desperate to change the subject, pivots back to earlier talking points.

"If you believe yourself second to none about Avatar Akola, perhaps you can help me?"

"Perhaps?"

"Huwan. Various scrolls and texts refer to Huwan as a place of residence for Akola. Do you know anything about it?"

Yin puts her questions and wonder to the side for now. She takes a deep breath in and tries to answer.

"Yes, well. After the Avatar completed mastering all four elements, it is customary for them to travel the world, usually with a partner of some such."

"Yes, I know this."

"Well, Huwan is where Akola and her wife Mareen settled after their travels."

"Where is it?"

"I'm not surprised you've struggled to find it. Huwan isn't on any maps anymore. Thousands and thousands of miles mostly South, and somewhat West of here. Far below Lanxi. A few days' boat ride from Gaoling, and not incredibly far from the South Pole. It's on Chenyao Island, but on the remote side," She explains.

A thought crops up in Yin's mind. With a smile, she tells her, "In fact, anymore Huwan is a perfect village where someone could go and disappear and never be found again."

The women share a knowing smile. Akola thinks Yin will make for an interesting ally. A clever one, but not necessarily one she can fully trust. She clicks her tongue and asks a question.

"Well, Yin, this has been an illuminating conversation. What other very personal topics can we get into?"

With a laugh, Yin puts a finger under her chin and thinks. She offers, "Hmmm. How do you feel about the Royal Family?"

"-and as if it isn't bad enough as it is, we've got fucking bender supremacist rising up by the dozens in Ba Sing Se. And the government isn't doing shit about it."

"Wow. Well. That was a lot. And if I'm honest, I think you need to get some rest, Suki."

"I need to get a fucking lead, that's what I need. This asshole, 'never lifted a finger' schtick is infuriating."

"Sokka is going to be worried sick if you don't get home soon."

"He's not even here anymore."

"Huh?"

"He left Republic City this morning. Headed back to the South Pole."

"Really?"

"Fuck if I know. He might've gone to Avatar Island, or to stare at his ex in the sky for all I know."

"Are things really that bad between you two?"

"They're not fucking good. Actually, they're not even fucking, let alone good, at this point."

"Well shit. There's your answer!"

"Hm?"

"You need something to take the edge off! Why don't we go get a drink?"

"Don't threaten me with a good time, girl."

"C'mon, let's go. I'm gonna pump you full of more cactus juice until you pass out."

"So I told her that I've seen cactus juice is destroying the lives of the Lower Ring people, and the Monarchy has a fair share of the blame in that, using it to further the cycle of oppression and such, and, well, let's just say she disagreed vehemently."

"You just can't help but to pick a fight, can you?"

"Me? Never."

Akola and On Ji walk home together, having just left the poetry club at the meeting house. As penance for arriving late, Jin offered to stay behind to clean up, reset the room, and lock up for the night. Even though Akola was responsible for their late arrival, because she is not yet a member she is excused from such punishment.

"So what did you think? Wanna join us?"

"Oh yes. You meet monthly I think I overheard? I'll be there next month with a few of my older works. Some things that are a little rough and could use some refinement."

"Oh, I'd love that, 'Kola."

"I can’t wait to show Ty Lin."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

“Most of my poetry is about her."

Walking the opposite way of them is a roving group of four, including three large men and a taller, leaner one. It's late at night, the sun has long since set, and high seated lamps only barely light the darkness. Neither Akola nor On Ji pay them any mind, too wrapped up in their own conversation. But as the two groups draw closer, the leader whispers something only his cronies can hear.

"Speaking of whom, when is she coming back to visit? I want to go on a double date. Maybe get some noodles and just talk. She is so much fun!"

"She's the best, right?" Akola is always quick to prop up her princess, even when she's not around.

"Absolutely! No Siq, no one from the Southside, just the four - AHH!"

As the two groups went to pass each other one of the large men threw his hip, almost naturally, into On Ji and set her falling to the floor. His movement would've been imperceptible to the naked eye, but Akola's eyes are not untrained. She does not reach for On Ji and thereby turn her back on the combatants. She stands ready and stares them down. On Ji looks up at Akola, distressed, hoping for a hand. One of the men leers down at her.

"What's the matter, Miss? Need help getting up?"

"If you touch her again, it'll be the last thing you ever do."

They turn towards the Immortal Soldier.

"Is that so?" The three of them step forward.

"I'll only say this once: Stand down, or I'll put you in the ground."

"Are you supposed to scare us or something?" One hulking bastard stares down at her, practically on top of her.

There's a fire in her eyes that is unnerving in its calmness.

"I should terrify you."

There is a calm and peaceful moment as three grown men stare down a small woman who just left a poetry house. However any doubt that they had harbored about their directive has been wiped away by her attitude and approach to the situation. She digs her heels in while arms remain at her sides, nonthreatening. The one on her left takes the first swing.

In the blink of an eye, Akola’s left hand rises up and catches the fist mid-air. As the eyes of the other men raise to see this, so too does the balled fist of Akola's free hand. With a precise strike she disrupts the flow of his chi, and then she follows through with another lower on his arm. Just like that, his entire arm is lifeless, and with a devious smile she pulls his fist with force, slingshotting his body forward and to the ground beside her. He can't even brace his fall as he collapses into a heap on the floor.

“HANDS!” The assailant on her right screams.

He quickly lunges forward and grabs Akola's right hand with both of his, presumably to prevent her from chiblocking. With both of his hands he forcefully grips her hand and pulls her fingers apart so she can't form a fist. She raises an eyebrow at him and takes a step towards him. She hasn't done this in years, yet she remembers it all so easily. She twists her fingers in his hands and feels the power rush through her body, down to her fingertips.

"Gaaaaaah!"

Like a flash of lightning, the massive human of a man is shocked and electrocuted. He gurgles and tries to scream. Akola lifts her hand up above his head as he falls to his knees, shaking violently. She knows if she holds on for much longer he won't survive. With a flick of her wrist she releases her grip on him and pulls her hand away. He falls backwards onto the ground, convulsing from the shock.

"What the fuck!" The lone remaining goon shouts, standing directly in front of her having watched her dispatch his partners with ease. "What the fuck are you?"

She tilts her head and smirks a bit. She answers the question.

"I'm your worst fucking nightmare."

She pump fakes him, pretending to dash forward but really staying anchored where she is, and he bites hard on it. He scrambles backwards and falls on his ass to the ground. She snickers at him before hearing a slow clapping noise. She turns her attention to the man who set this all in motion. He has long, slick black hair, tan skin, and bright amber eyes. His robes are lilac and deep navy. He is tall and lean. She recognizes him instantly as the man speaking at the Bender Supremacist rally earlier.

"Exceptional. A bender and you've been trained to chi-block? You're one of a kind!"

"And you're next." Akola says, stepping to him.

"Tut tut! Not so fast. There's no need for any further violence. You've earned your peace today with that showing."

"So you're going to run from the fight? Like a coward?"

"Maybe so, but a dead soldier plots no revenge. Only the living can do that. Cowards or not."

Akola growls at him but he doesn't take the bait. She is contemplating attacking this man and teaching him a lesson when a voice speaks to her.

"Akola!" It painfully whispers to her through the night.

She turns quickly to see On Ji, still on the ground, in shock, mouth agape. Akola steps away from the man but he speaks to her again.

"Akola? So that's your name?"

She ignores him, going to the ground to tend to On Ji and examining her for bruises or scrapes.

"Well, Akola, I am Shulun. And you have our respect," he bows slightly to her, but she pays him no mind. After he's done he gestures to his men, "Come along, brothers. Let's leave Akola and her friend to their night."

Once they're gone, Akola rises to her feet. She leans over and extends a hand to On Ji. "C'mon, you're clean. Let's get you up."

On Ji does not take the hand at first. Akola looks up at her face and realizes that the woman is seeing her for the first time in a completely different light. She is scanning Akola and reading her, trying to justify the woman she knows and the display she just witnessed. Akola feels the eyes of judgment upon her. In two years she has never bent in front of anyone besides Siq, and she has not bent lightning at any point. She can only imagine what On Ji is thinking right now.

"Listen, On Ji, I know what you saw may have surprised you. I hope you can understand, I just-"

On Ji launches herself off the ground and into an embrace of the raven haired librarian. Akola wraps her arms around her fellow Fire Nation woman. Akola looks around as she hears On Ji crying over her shoulder. Unsure of what to do or how to process any of this she stumbles upon a question.

"Are you alright, On Ji?"

The only words that On Ji can say in response, the only words she'll say the rest of the way home and in the days to come, reverberate in Akola's ears.

"Thank you!"

Chapter Text

[Summer 125 AG]

The city is alive with the sounds of summer life. In the Lower Ring, people dance as street musicians play for spare change. Merchants entice onlookers to stop by for some of their wares. Snacks and treats are sold, large wind fans blow cool air, which children and adults idle in front of to alleviate some of the sweat they've accumulated. Pickpockets have a field day as visitors from the Middle Ring come to take in the sights and festivities. With the sun already set it is a glorious night for a certain raven haired woman, who is especially glad that she recently chopped her hair down to nearly a pixie cut.

"Hey Akola, where is Siq tonight? Hopefully he's got something to do?"

Akola eyes up a particularly delicious looking jennamites. She folds that idea into her back pocket for after dinner. She turns back to On Ji and replies with a roll of her eyes.

"The boy is bound to his work. Never leaves it for anything."

Jin, leading the way, doesn't break stride and doesn't turn back as she yells over her shoulder, "He leaves it for you, Akola."

A squeeze of her palm and Akola looks over at the familiar grey eyes and wide smile.

"Awww! That's sweet!" Ty Lin adds.

Akola is wearing green, billowy pants, with a sleeveless, green top, with yellow lining. She applied a bit of makeup for the double date night, including a touch of lipgloss for her wife. Meanwhile, Ty Lin wears her traditional braided ponytail, albeit her hair is more done up at the top before the pony. She wears a long, slinking green dress with yellow accents and a black bottom. It's a nice dress relative to the Lower Ring, but not nearly her nicest. Jin and On Ji wear similar outfits, long sleeved dresses that drag on the ground. They are patched and tattered in places. Jin wears a pale green, while On Ji in a subdued burgundy, with pink accents and sharp burgundy sleeves. 

The four women wind through the crowded streets and finally arrive at their destination. A noodle shop, beloved by the permanent inhabitants of Ba Sing Se, which Ty Lin will soon learn why it is a favorite. The manager was a close friend of Jin's and owed her a favor or two. He makes good for the night as he sets the four of them up inside, in the cool air, at a table against the wall. It is a crowded place, very popular, but they have space to spare. 

"Look, On Ji! A moon flower!"

Right on the table is the flower that Akola loved so very much. She can still remember the first ones coming into bloom when she used to live in Lanxi. The gardener in her soars with pride at the sight. She feels a light brush of a shoulder by her wife. When she looks over, they share eye contact and a knowing smile. Everyone sits down together. Against the wall are On Ji and Jin. Beside the Leader of the Southside is the former Dragon Empress, while their more expressive, more energetic, and more well endowed wives sit across from them. A waiter comes by quickly, delivering small cups of 'liquid fuel,' and four sticks of something or other as a complimentary appetizer.

Picking one up Jin offers, "I got the reservation, but Akola here says you're picking up the tab tonight, Ty Lin? Is that right?"

With a special sort of glow in her eyes she replies, "Absolutely! Eat and drink whatever you please. I want for nothing, and so tonight you can pay your share with your company and conversation."

"How generous!" On Ji leans into the grey eyed brunette. With a devious smile she makes eyes across the way at Ty Lin's wife. "Sorry, Akola, but you'll have to find some other way to pay her back since you're such shit company!"

The sarcasm elicits laughs around the table, but Akola is quick to reply, "I can think of a few ways. Later tonight."

The scandalous reply garners an in-kind reaction from the other married couple, as well as a crimson blush from the acrobat. Jin comes up with an addition.

"Clearly she means she'll read you her poetry tonight, in bed!"

"No, no, no-"

"Yes!" Ty Lin replies, excitedly. "That would be even better than the sex!"

"Wow!" On Ji chirps. Akola scowls, waiting for the girl diagonal from her to say something snarky. "That says a lot about your capacities in bed."

"Or does it say a lot about her writing?" Jin offers.

"You know, you two are the bane of my existence." Akola deadpans.

The group laughs together and enjoys the moment. As it subsides, On Ji leans across the table and says, "But really now! That poetry night you've been talking about? When are we-"

"Not anytime soon."

"Oh come on!" On Ji protests.

"Don't bother trying to rush her. She goes at her own pace with these things."

"Well we can be very persuasive." Jin replies.

"Maybe in a few months. But no promises." Akola extends the offering.

"We'll take it!" On Ji exclaims.

"Excuse me, ladies!" The waiter returns. "Terribly sorry for the wait. But can I take your drink orders?"

The pair of married women enjoy an enthralling conversation and delicious food together. It is a welcomed respite from a difficult life. Ty Lin is grateful to have arrived after a particularly arduous trip across the Si Wong Desert. After such a taxing journey, the brunette warrior wants to simply unwind and revel in some familiar comfort. She resurfaces the conversation about love that she enjoys so much.

"I know I've heard it already before, but can you just tell us the story of how you two met?"

"Again, Ty?" Akola asks, surprised.

"Oh come on! I love love. What's one more time?"

"I'm happy to oblige!" On Ji offers with a smile. "It's really rather simple. I was lost, adrift in the world, and Jin was my safe harbor."

"It's a little more involved than that, Dear."

"Please, spare some details." Akola jokes, which earns a playful smack on the hands from Ty Lin.

"No, but really. Alright, so after the Hundred Year's War ended, things got really messy for my family. They were loyal to the deposed Fire Lord Ozai, and we quickly lost a lot of standing, and money."

"Agni rest his soul." Jin chimes in.

"I mean, but does he really deserve that?" On Ji questions, distracted.

Akola feels her pulse pound ever so slightly at this turn in the conversation.

"He died, On Ji. Everyone deserves peace in the eternal sleep."

"Alright, fine. Regardless, my parents were putting all this pressure on me to marry a man and basically secure a place in the New Fire Nation. But I just never connected with any man, ya know?"

"Oh trust me," Akola jokes. " We know."

The group chuckles, but On Ji keeps going. "Yeah, obviously. So things got really stressful, but I had an awakening at some point."

"That you were a gender betrayer?" Akola jokes, again to some laughs.

On Ji keeps going. "No. That came later. I just realized that I couldn't bear the weight of their failures. So I struck out on my own."

"Did you go anywhere else? Before coming here I mean." Ty Lin asks.

"Sure. I wandered about the colonies. I tried Republic City out. But Ba Sing Se is the city of refugees, no matter what they say. Always has been and always will be. So I knew this was the best place for me. I just didn't know how right I would be."

On Ji stares lovingly at her wife. Jin takes up the story from there.

"I was, uh, pretty confused when On Ji showed up. I had dated men, but never women."

"And in the Fire Nation, at this time when I arrived, it was still illegal. And even if I had shirked my duty to my family, I still had never dipped into the 'gender betrayer' waters."

"I'd thought about it. But I just thought it was some passing phase in my life. Boy was I wrong."

"Jin found me lost in the streets and rescued me."

"Sounds familiar?" Ty Lin quips with a quick gaze at Akola, who shrugs.

"On Ji is so empathetic to everyone, while still being a goofball. She was plucky, but also caring, and that was evident from the very get go."

"Jin has such a zest for life that I just found so attractive."

"Then she serenaded me with her world class ehru skills."

"Not intentionally."

"Even so, I was in love."

"And everything felt right in the world, at last."

"When the time finally came, we got married without hesitation."

"Awww." Ty Lin fawns over the two.

Akola smiles at all of this, despite herself. She pokes fun at the group at large, "It's truly too bad we didn't all know each other in our youth. Who knows? We could've been right here in this restaurant as teenagers, all denying who we really are, and we never would've known."

The joke doesn't quite land the way she had intended for it, but it nonetheless earns a moment of silence. Quiet contemplation and reflection as all four women sit and try to imagine themselves here together as teenagers. If the world had somehow been different, if things had been only so, maybe it all could've happened. Perhaps they all could've been happy together, rather than how it had been. Nevermind that Akola and Ty Lin would be known by completely different names in this hypothetical world. Nevermind that, apart from Jin, they all would've had different statues in this world.

At that exact moment Jin raised her left hand and tucked it behind her ear, resting the elbow on the table. Akola steals a glance at it. The matrimony bond on her finger is gold with a sapphire gemstone, glittering in the light of the restaurant. On Ji wears a matching one. Akola reminds herself that On Ji and Jin are married through the Fire Nation, a prospect only possible because of changes to the law, which Akola is secretly, sort-of, indirectly responsible for changing. Just as it was to Ty Lee, On Ji wanted to be married through her homeland, and Jin had been happy to acquiesce.

In the grand scheme of the larger universe, Akola's decision to give up the bodies of the soldier and of Ozai has had a massive ripple effect. On the one hand, it almost assuredly is the reason why the Kemurikage and the Red Lotus were so confident that she was still alive. On the other hand, it had allowed for these two women, who she did not know and had no way of knowing, to fulfill a dream and join their lives together forever.

In that sense, for the briefest of moments, she felt that sacrificing 'Asuna of Lanxi' was worth it, no matter how much she missed Yasuko and company.

Ty Lin grabs her glass and holds it up. She offers, "A toast!"

After a brief pause to recognize what she was doing, the other three all take their own glasses and sit up. They lean in and smile.

"To Fire Lord Zuko. The man who broke with 100 years of tradition, and allowed all of us to get hitched! The Great Lover of Gender Betrayers!"

Akola laughs to herself before shouting, "Here here!"

They clink their glasses together and sip from their drinks. When they're all done, Jin says with a sly smile, "You know, I know him."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Come again?"

"You knew him! You don't still know him." On Ji corrects her.

"I like to think I know him better than anyone who has ever lived."

Akola is all ears, leaning in. "I can be persuaded of that. But why?"

Jin is all too pleased to have their rapt attention, “I went on a date with him too. I even kissed the Fire Lord!"

Ty Lin has a wide open mouth, completely stunned. “Please explain.”

Akola adds, “Jin, I’ve known you for years. Years! How has this never come up?”

Jin looks to On Ji, who gives her an approving nod. She launches into the story.

“It was 25 years ago, and I didn’t know he was the fucking Prince of the Fire Nation until years later. But he and his uncle lived here and operated a tea shop for a while. He told me his name was Lee, and I was just smitten. He was cute and funny and nice."

Akola bites her tongue on a wicked comment about her brother.

"So I asked him on a date, we went to a place just like this, then we went to the Firelight Fountain and kissed. A few years later I saw a painting of the Fire Lord and he had the same scar on the left side of his face as the Lee that I knew. It wasn’t hard to put the puzzle pieces together from there.”

“Fascinating.” Akola whispers in awe, while Ty Lin wears a bemused look.

"And you didn't know at all that he was royalty?" Ty Lin clarifies.

"Nope. To me, he was just Lee from the Tea Shop. I didn't care about him because he was royal or worth a lot of money or any of that. Which is why I feel like I knew him better than anyone, because when you're that anonymous, when you're so far in it that people don't even know your own name? In a weird way, you're more yourself than when you're with your own family."

'Very astute observation.' Azula thinks, while Ty Lee wears an obligatory smile and nod. Both women feel uneasy.

Jin smiles as she looks across the table at her wife. “But that pales in comparison to On Ji here and her little foray with the Avatar !”

The pair turn to On Ji who quickly rolls her eyes. She huffs.

“The short version is he came to my school in the Fire Nation and we danced. That's all!"

"No no no. We need the long version." Ty Lin teases her, squeezing her arm.

"No. No." She denies.

"How's about a medium version? Would that be fair?" Akola asks.

On Ji agrees and weaves her tale.

"It was also 25 years ago, before the Hundred Years War ended. He enrolled at my school under a false name for Agni knows why reasons. But he was quirky, like me, and he had that pet that he keeps. Anyway, we talked and flirted a little. He called himself 'Kuzon.' He hosted a party in a cave and he taught me to dance and then we danced together in front of like 40 people. It was nothing. A couple of days."

"Then what happened?" Ty Lin asks.

"Then I helped him escape from the Dean of my school and his goons who came looking for him. All good fun, nothing serious. Still, it is funny how we both ran into these monumental figures under similar pretenses of ‘hiding in plain sight and lying about their names’ and such.”

On Ji and Jin share a smile and glimmering eyes. They reflect on their journeys and various adventures. They had crossed oceans and deserts and lifetimes to be together and be here right now. Their love culminated in a marriage and matching matrimony bonds with glowing sapphire gems. A life they wouldn’t trade for all of the glory or money in the world. In the distance a pair of matching figures make out the back of Akola’s head and Ty Lin’s face through the window. They make their way for the entrance.

Finally, On Ji turns to Akola. “What about you?”

Azula gulps. Ty Lee asks, “What about us?”

The figures enter the restaurant. Jin leans into Azula. “Have you two ever met the Avatar or Fire Lord?”

They both instinctively laugh to deflect. Akola swears that On Ji’s eyes are piercing her, seeing right through the disguise and clear into the reality. Ty Lin feels like she’s about to be unmasked by Jin. Akola turns her amber eyes to Ty Lin’s grey ones. They ponder how they’re going to answer. The pair are nearly upon the group.

They start, “Well…”

"Onny! Linny!"

On Ji and Ty Lin grin wide, raise their arms up, and in unison, with the same perky energy, welcome them.

"Bing! Beng!"

"Oh Agni." Akola groans as she turns to find them walking up behind her. "Do you two have some kind of instinct that tells you where I am at all times and when is the best time to annoy me?"

"Jinny! Akola." They finish solemnly and bow their heads in reverence.

"Our cosmic energies are always intuned with you, Akola!" Bing smiles..

"That's right, sister!" Beng nods.

"Can't you two see we're in the middle of dinner?" Akola chastises them.

"Oh? Are you all on, like, a double date?" Bing asks, genuinely.

"I think they call that a foursome." Beng corrects her brother, again genuinely.

Akola hangs her head in frustration as the others laugh. Ty Lin raises a hand up to get their attention. "I've been meaning to ask you two. Why the charcoal capes? Every time I've ever seen you two, you've got them on."

"They're super cool, right?"

"We look like bad asses in them!"

"Plus, they were like a gift from our parents."

"Before they died, obviously."

Akola has heard this story before and never understands why they need to clarify that the gift came 'before they died.' She is annoyed further.

"Plus, when we walk they go 'fwish' and that's even super cooler."

"Please, you two, go bother someone else," Akola complains. She adds, "Find a bender supremacist to beat up or something."

The twins, terrified and reverent of Akola, accept this command without argument. They quickly address the group and wish them well, and make their way out of the restaurant, headed for the bar just around the corner. After they're gone though, having been reminded by what Akola said, On Ji seizes an opportunity to bring up an old talking point in front Akola's wife.

"So Ty Lin," she says to the woman beside her. "Can you explain why Akola doesn't consider herself an Equalist?"

"Hmm?" Ty Lin asks, surprised.

"Must we discuss politics? Really?"

"You're a bender supremacist?" Ty Lin asks her wife.

"No!"

"But you're not an Equalist?"

"I don't know!"

"Babe, you know how important this is to me. Why is this news?"

On Ji and Jin share a triumphant, albeit quick eye contact.

"Listen, I agree with their views. Clearly. You should know this. But I just wouldn't call myself one. It's just not a word I would use to describe myself."

Ty Lin has half a dozen things she would say in response, but she stops herself as she notices the mannerisms of their friends subtly paying full attention. She is spared the need to decide a way out when the waiter returns with their appetizers. She files it away, certain to bring it up later in the night.

Bing and Beng stumble up to the doorstep of Siq's storefront. It's been about forty minutes since they departed from interrupting the group dinner. They've been drinking the entire time, and then left in a foolhardy effort to go find their friend. Bing is even still carrying a bone-dry bottle. The lights are low, the area not particularly well lit. It's in the evening and the normally well populated street is practically empty. They know Siq, their old friend, and they know he's been working himself sick. Especially in the last year and a half, after Aiwei disappeared. The twins don't connect these dots, not regularly, and certainly not now. They stop at the door and begin banging on it.

The sound attracts the attention of an equally inebriated firebender nearby.

Akola rarely drinks, usually only during special occasions, and she decided that tonight's dinner was one such night. She drank a decent amount of cactus juice with their meal. Now that dinner has been had and they're all just waiting on the checks, she gets brave.

A little liquid courage convinces Akola to finally ask On Ji a question she has wondered about for so long.

"Ahhh!" Siq yells at them from the other side of the door.

He opens his store door and quickly closes it behind him. "What are you two doing here? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Hiccuping and tripping over their words, Bing and Beng express their gratitude for knowing him. The Southern Water Tribe boy with the brightest smile in the world laughs at their intoxication. He locks his shop for safety as the three of them continue a pointless and confusing conversation. He surmises that the two are asking for money. Suddenly though a man's voice pierces their talking.

"Move it along, fuck faces."

In the poor lighting it's hard to see what he looks like. For Bing and Beng he doesn't look like much except for vague shapes and a rude tone. Siq is clear of mind and looks at him. He's built like a marble statue with large muscles. He has a goatee and harsh face. His long, slick black hair complements his tan skin. Siq opens his mouth to give a pleasant response but Beng beats him to it.

"Fuck off, Ash Maker." She tells him.

"Hey, I-I recognize you two. You're always at those Equalist things. Fucking assholes. And this store is the, uh, the, um,-"

"Place that's gonna put you out of business!" Bing shouts at him, stepping forward and waving a fist at him.

"No! No." Siq moves to stand between the two.

"On Ji, I have a question for you."

"Oh girl, someone cannot handle their cactus juice." On Ji laughs.

Ty Lin smiles at this silliness. Her and On Ji are sober, while their respective wives are more drunk than they've been in a long time.

"What is it?" On Ji asks.

"I-I know that you have studied Fire Nation history. Our history."

"Yes, in my spare time, I've read a book or two. But I'm not an expert."

A sober Akola would be of wiser mind. But the drunk Azula can't help herself.

"Can you tell me what you know about the Kemurikage?

The question unsettles both On Ji and Ty Lee, albeit for very different reasons.

Siq tries to keep everyone away from each other. "Whoa! Let's just settle this like adults. No need, hey, wait!"

"You're a fucking child of Ozai!" Beng shouts.

"Bender Supremacist, blood thirsty, shit bag!"

"Stop it!"

"Say that to my face! I'll fucking kill you!"

The bodies all come together and Siq can't keep them apart. The stranger swats his hands away and that act of aggression is treated as such by the twins.

"Come here you little shit" Beng yells to the empty street.

She puts her hands on the man's arm. He quickly raised his palm up and ignites a fireball. She stumbles backwards and falls to the dirt ground as Siq holds Bing.

He holds the flame up and points it down at her. She shields her body and puts her hands up defensively.

"That's right! On the ground, where you belong. Waste of space!" He yells at her, spit flying through the air as punctuation. He threatens her, "I'll kill you!"

Bing pushes past Siq. He raises his empty glass bottle and swings it down on his head. It cracks open and the man quickly hits the ground, fireball extinguishing.

"No! Bing, Beng, stop! No!" But Siq is too late to stop them.

Bing kicks the body on the ground, a loud thud sounding out. He groans but Bing does it again. Beng stands up and joins in, delivering a blow to the chest and another to the head.

"Stop! Stop!" Siq tries to pull them off.

The twins spit on the man and keep kicking. In the flicker of lights, they can't see the man coughing up blood.

"Hey! What are you doing?" An authoritative voice shouts.

Siq takes one look and sees someone in the distance watching. He pulls Bing and the boys take off running. Beng delivers one last kick and then she follows suit. The stranger, seeing the assailants take off, runs up to investigate.

"The Kemurikage? Now that's a name I’ve not heard in a long time." She leans back into her chair.

"Of course I know the legend of them stealing babies from their cribs. I think everyone who grew up in the Fire Nation and misbehaved were warned about the Kemurikage by their parents. A sort of spirit story to get us to act right, you know?"

She chews on her cheek while thinking.

"Then, all of a sudden, they cropped up twenty years ago. They rose from their graves and, if we're to believe more spirit stories, it was to serve the Dragon Emperor."

Neither Akola nor Ty Lin corrects her.

Jin, wearing a scowl on her face, tries to interject, "I thought it was-"

"Shhh," Ty Lin silences her. "Let her finish."

"This was right around the time I had decided I wouldn't marry for my parent's benefit and decided to leave the Fire Nation. So I missed a lot of that. My family wrote to me about their acts. You would think that spirits born from spite and revenge and such, born into the physical world, would be here to torment us. Which is why it was such an odd thing that my parents told me good things the Kemurikage would do for them, and other destitute folks. All while most people were terrified of them because of their origins, and while Fire Lord Zuko scoured the Earth searching for them. They stretched to every corner of the world, even rumors that they infiltrated Ba Sing Se. Complicated bit. Hopefully in another twenty years or so there'll be more knowledge available that I can read about them. Both the good and the bad."

Relieved, Ty Lee feels her aura release and slide back into a lavender shade. It's quickly ripped from her when On Ji asks her own question.

"Why do you ask, Akola?"

Ty Lin looks at her wife who smiles at the black haired beauty.

"I had my own dealings with the latter day Kemurikage that you mentioned. Just curious what other Fire Nation people think."

"I see!" On Ji smiles. "Well, then, in that case, there is one more thing I should share."

For all intents and purposes, Azula's entire world now revolves around On Ji. She sits forward and waits for the next few words. Time even slows down around her. She stops hearing the background noise, the chatter, the buzz of the world around her. She sees, hears, and feels only On Ji.

"I heard that the Kemurikage are all extinct now, but there's a rumor, from what my family has said and the whispers I've heard, that there is still one out there. Still one left that haunts the Earth."

The table, the room, the city, the world is silent. 

"As the legend goes, there's still one last Kemurikage."

Akola turns the lock on her door and pushes it open, Ty Lin directly behind her. The moment she shuts it behind them though she whips around and yanks the brunette's hand. She pulls her towards, their chests crashing into each other. They don't have to hide themselves or their feelings here. Azula slips a hand up and knots it into Ty Lee's hair. She pulls her into a passionate kiss, their tongues bending to each other. They slip for air and then go back at it. Ty Lee goes on the offensive, moving Azula back, guiding her through the dark hallway towards the bedroom.

In the darkness, Ty Lee accidently leads Azula right into the table by the door. They bump it so hard that something moves. There's a wobbling sound and then the object falls.

"Huh!" Azula gasps at the sound.

Always fleet footed, however, Ty Lee saves the day. She sticks her foot out in the darkness, taking a blind guess at the location based on her surroundings, and catches the heavy object on the top of her foot. Azula flips on the light and Ty Lee sees what she caught.

"Your flower pot!"

Azula, a little drunk and a lot lustful, has a moment of sobriety. She lifts it up and mumbles, "Wouldn't want it to shatter."

Azula takes the porcelain pot filled with moon flowers and fire lilies and puts it back on the table. They share a laugh about it and then head towards the studio's living room. They kiss some more, but Ty Lee has a plan and it involves a serious talk. She asks Azula for some water and her wife is all too keen to go get it. As Azula opens cabinets in the kitchen, Ty Lee starts in softly.

"Quite the dinner tonight! And they'll never know that you're the reason they can get married."

"A secret we'll take to the grave."

"You know, Lin once said something to me, Zuko and Mai-"

"Oh, this will be good."

"He said we're all just playing a part in the legend of you."

"That man was always too high on me. I miss him so."

"Suki hasn't given up."

"I know, you said as much in your letters. But still. It's been years. I feel like we missed our chance."

"Don't lose hope yet, Azula." She says and her wife grows silent. Hoping to pivot and get back to her main point she changes topics, "Did you really not know all that stuff about them meeting Zuko and Aang?"

"Not a clue. Crazy! Absolutely crazy!"

"I know Zuko lived here for a bit with your Uncle. I guess he went on some dates too? Do you think Mai knows?"

"Uh-nuh?" Azula returns with a cup of water for each of them.

"I'll have to ask her next time I'm sent to Caldera."

Azula sits on the couch on the opposite side of her wife, sipping from her cup. She thinks about her life here and tries to imagine Zuko and Iroh here. She feels the buzz wearing off, sadly. She hums to herself before speaking.

"I can see why they'd want to live here. Zuko and my uncle. This is a good place. A great place. It's not Lanxi, but it's home."

"If it was only a thousand miles closer to Kyoshi Island, it would be perfect."

Azula frowns. "I agree."

She stares at Ty Lee's face and is struck with thankfulness like spontaneous lightning.

"Thank you so much, Ty Lee. I know this has been harder. I should really move closer."

A little surprised, Ty Lee doesn't immediately have a reply. She agrees that it would be nice if she was closer but she doesn't want to admit it's a problem. So instead she says, "You move on when you're ready to move on. I'll follow you to the ends of the Earth. As I always have."

Azula reaches her hand out across the couch and Ty Lee takes it. In one hand they each hold a cup of water. In the other hand they hold each other. They share the space, the couch, and loving eye contact. Ty Lee doesn't put it off any more than she already has delayed.

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay." Azula nods. She leans forward and puts her cup on the table.

"This is serious."

"I can tell. What ails your mind, Ty?"

"You said earlier you don't consider yourself an Equalist."

"That's right, I did say that."

"Why not?"

She inhales and prepares to explain. "I just feel like both sides have some merit. As a bender I can and have made a positive difference for others. As the Empress, as Asuna, even as Akola."

"But Equalist don't deny that. We just want equal treatment. You agree with that, right?"

"Well, yes."

"And you agree that benders in power, like the Earth Kingdom monarchy, use that power to abuse non-benders - disproportionately so than non-benders in power. Due in large part because benders can retaliate vs non-benders."

Azula thinks about it. "Well, yes. Obviously. I've seen hundreds of examples."

"Don't you think everyone, bender or non-bender, should be free to pursue whatever life they want?"

"Absolutely. Yes."

"Honey."

"Hmm?"

"You're an Equalist. You believe all the things we believe. You just don't want to call yourself one."

Azula struggles with this. She sits in uncomfortable silence as she ponders the path that Ty Lee has led her down. She wrestles with her feelings and emotions. Finally, she settles on a question.

"Ty, even if I did say I was an Equalist, what can I do, as one person, for the Equalist movement? I'm one person in a sea of people."

"Oh Azula," she laughs. "You don't need me to stroke your ego. But I'll answer anyway: As a bender, you can do far more for the Equalist movement than I ever could as a non-bender."

The thought clicks. Her eyes awakened at that moment. Akola of Ember Island, the Equalist, is born.

Suki sits down at the kitchen table for tea. Lomin pours a pot as birds sing outside. It's a glorious summer day on Kyoshi Island.

"Thanks again for having me." Suki adds as her number two in command sits down herself.

"Of course. Did you hear the news out of Ba Sing Se?"

"Hmm? No? Why, did something happen?"

"I believe so."

"Tell me."

"There was a murder overnight in the Lower Ring."

"Oh? What's that got to do with us?"

"Well, nothing. Yet." Lomin says, taking a sip of her tea.

"I know I've been off-Island for a while, but I'm afraid I don't understand? A murder hundreds of miles away, in a location where it can be quite common?"

"Ty Lee is visiting one of her sisters in the Lower Ring."

"Ah."

"She was scheduled to return in a few days, but I've summoned her home immediately."

"I don't know if I agree with that?"

Lomin inhales deeply. Then, she explains, "With all due respect, Suki, you've left me in charge here. I'm doing the best I can. And I think calling Ty Lee home to answer what she knows about the matter is the best that I can do with this situation."

"I see."

Lomin calms the inner storm. "I'm sorry, Suki. That was uncalled for."

"No, no. I think it was very called for. And pertinent to the conversation I want to have."

Suki takes a sip and Lomin waits. Suki looks out the window and listens. The calmness. The breeze. The distant crashing waves. She loves this island with all of her heart.

"I am considering going undercover in Republic City."

"But-"

"I would leave you fully in charge, taking my place as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors."

"But Suki, I'm not."

"Sure you are. In action you are at least. Just not in title." She assures her. She thinks for a few seconds. "I'm exhausted, Lomin. It's been two years. Yet I've never been more alive. We've got some fresh intel lately, but unless we have someone on the inside, we're probably never going to be able to nail this son of a bitch."

"Surely there's another way?"

"I hope so. We're going to keep playing the angle, but I'm in the process of planting the seeds for a possible undercover op."

"What about Sokka? He surely can't support this?"

Suki chuckles.

"It's like you said earlier about me and this island: he's not even here."

"Oh."

Strained but willing to admit it to her close confidant, Suki looks away. "We're taking a break, for now."

"I see."

"Makes the decision much easier."

"I'm so, so sorry, Suki. I can't imagine."

Suki fights back tears as her emotions swell.

"When would you go?"

"Uh, relatively soon? A couple of months. Need time to create a fake person and origin story to deceive a criminal empire, ya know?" She chuckles to herself. "But also considering yo-yoing it. Going in and coming out in bursts of a few weeks or months."

"I miss the days when the leaders of the criminal empires were out loud and proud about it. Made it easier to know who we were fighting."

"I agree. What I wouldn't give to have an Empress in Yakone's place."

The two share a laugh and the tension is broken. They spend the rest of the morning catching up and talking about the logistics of what it would mean for Suki to truly, openly, abandon her post. It is not an easy conversation, but it is a necessary one.

Akola remembers the day Siq bought the nicest home in the Southside. He could've and should've moved up to the Middle or even Upper Ring, but the boy was devoted to his roots. He named it Lonlhai Fire after his hometown. He chose a house in the Lower Ring so he could remain in close contact with Jin and Akola and everyone else. It's extravagant and spacious, two words no one would use to describe the Lower Ring. The high ceiling and lack of furniture has the unfortunate and unintended effect of allowing a lot of volume to bounce around. In this case, it's the sobs of an 18 year old boy who has witnessed death not for the first time.

"He's dead! He's fucking dead and we killed him."

"It's okay, it's okay, breathe."

Akola consoles him and tries to help him work through what happened. He had called for her to come to his home. When Ty Lin was abruptly recalled to Kyoshi Island in the morning, she had already felt that something was afoot. Then Jin was acting shady and avoidant. On Ji was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't even realized that Bing and Beng were missing all day until she arrived here and Siq connected all the dots for her.

"You didn't do anything. No one saw you. No witnesses, no crimes."

He cries and bellows painfully. "He died right outside my shop, Akola. Right outside my shop."

"Breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth."

This isn't Akola's first rodeo, consoling someone after their first involuntary manslaughter. Siq isn't even in the top ten of the youngest that she's helped in this exact scenario. However, he is the first where she can't openly admit her background and own experiences with this topic.

"Siq!" A voice calls from outside.

A split second later there's a banging on his door. He gets up and rushes to it. Akola follows suit. He swings it open and Jin is on the other side.

"Siq, you need to come quick- Akola?"

"Jin?"

"What is it?"

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Akola counters.

She turns back to the boy. "There's a mob outside your shop. Some of my ant flies think they're going to raid it. I'm off to get some more help, but you should get over there now!"

"No! They can't!"

He goes to leave but stops. He turns back and asks for her aid. "Akola? Please?"

Part of her knows this is all a mistake. He is acting on impulse and emotion and should pull back and reevaluate. But he isn't thinking rationally and he can't be stopped.

And she can't let him run off to die.

"Alright. Let's go."

"For too long, the radical Equalist have sought to take our power! And now, when they can't do that through political games, they KILL US in cold blood!"

Akola is anxious. She and Siq are pushing through the mob to get to the door to his workshop. This is a raucous and loud crowd. She figures there are easily dozens, if not hundreds, of angry men of various ages. She's willing to bet that most, if not all of them are benders.

The mob hold up signs about 'Free Liling!' They make chants about 'Justice for Jakeem,' the man who was killed. There's shouts that 'Equalists are Terrorists!' Most concerning of all though, for Akola, is that the vociferous leader of this mob, starting chants and spewing hateful speeches, is that bastard Shulun. She is calculating how to handle him when they finally push their way to the front of the crowd.

"Well look who we have here!" Shulun greets Akola, who trails behind Siq.

"Please, sir! This is my shop! You need to leave!" Siq tries to reason with him.

"Oh? We need to leave? You want us to peacefully walk away?"

"Yes, please!"

Akola puts her hand on his shoulder, knowing this doesn't end well.

"Well we want Justice for Jakeem!" He shouts and the crowd roars. Quietly now he turns to Siq and Akola. "He just wanted to peacefully walk away, but Equalist couldn't allow that. They saw a strong fire bender and they had to rip his life away."

"Please, sir-"

Akola pulls him back and steps to the man. Under the crowd noise she whispers to him, "Now you know that's now how it went down."

"Why don't you tell us how it went down?" He whispers back. "All this haystack needs is a little flame to set ablaze."

"I'll give you two minutes to clear out before this gets ugly." She tells him. They are practically nose to nose, and Siq cranes his neck to listen in to their battle. The fire in her eyes explodes, "Or else."

"Or else what? You can't chi block all of us, and I doubt you have more firepower than us. Face it, Sweetie. We're not going anywhere."

He turns to the crowd and shouts, "We don't leave until the Equalist responsible are brought to justice."

Siq gets anxious but Akola tells him to relax. She tries to think. She doesn't want to bend in front of this many people. He's right that she can't chiblock all of them, even with all of her fighting skills. If she could just summon some lightning she could scare them off. But there isn't even a cloud in the sky to give a cover. She has to bide time until Lin can arrive with more people.

Siq steps past Akola and grabs Shulun's arm. "Please sir, my shop! I-"

"Don't you touch me, Mud Skin."

Siq stops in his tracks but continues gripping the arm of the man. He had heard such an insult since when he first left the Southern Water Tribe. He is stunned silent by their hatred and Shulun revels in that pain it causes. In the crowd though, a violent crowd sees their leader being grabbed by this boy. One particularly angry drunk takes matters into his own hands. He winds up and tossed his glass bottle through the air.

"What the fuck did you just call him?" Akola steps back up and in between the teenager and the man.

At that exact moment, in the corner of her eye, she sees it too late. In the flicker of torches, through the dark of night, an object hurtles towards her. She doesn't even have time to perceive it, let alone react to it. The object collides with Azula's forehead and the glass shatters on impact. Completely random chance, and a perfect throw, knocks her unconscious as glass flies through the air.

The spray of glass hits Siq and Shulun equally as both men duck away from the remains. With all three of the leaders appearing to be under attack, the front lines of the mob finally give way. They surge forward towards the shop.

"No!" Siq shouts but is too late.

Some of the men grab Shulun and usher him off. Others use fire and earth bending to shatter the glass of Siq's workshop. Siq rises up to try and block them, but he's just a boy. He gets struck in the crossfire. The rabid crowd raid his shop while Siq bleeds and Akola lies unconscious. Voluminous clouds gather overhead quickly.

Azula comes to and gasps as she sits up. She is still in front of Siq's shop, but now the mob of people are all around her. Shulun is gone and so is Siq. In an odd way, everything seems to be moving slow. She feels no pain, but she swore that something hit her. She lifts her hand up and is shocked at what she sees.

Her hand is translucent, with a blue hue. She stands up quickly. She goes to move away but finds herself lighter, and the people around her practically unmoving. She looks all around and it's the same everywhere. The world is turning so slowly that she can perceive with her naked eye that they are not frozen, but also only barely moving.

"What in Agni's name is going on?" She mumbles to herself as she looks around.

One second she was fighting Shulun, the next she has stopped time. She looks around for an explanation but sees something more preposterous than any of the rest of it.

Lying on the ground, right where she had just been, is herself. Her body. With shattered glass peppering the ground around her. Lying on her back, her head flush against the ground, Azula leans down and looks at herself.

"How is this possible? What the fuck is going on?"

Azula stands back up and screams.

"Ahhh!! Whoa! What the fuck!"

A woman stands before her. Translucent with a blue hue just like Azula. She stands at the feet of Azula's lifeless body.

"What the fuck, Lady! WHAT THE FUCK!"

Azula can not understand what is happening in the slightest but she is terrified of all of it. The nearly frozen time, her own body on the ground, floating as some sort of blue spirit thing, and now this woman.

The Unknown Blue Lady appears to be about her age, perhaps younger. She has hair that is a darker shade of the blue and eyes that are a lighter shade. Her hair is worn as two large, swooping pigtails, forming a criss-cross formation behind her head, ultimately sitting on each of her shoulders, to the front, resting on her breasts. She has a thin face and a long neck. She wears old, formal, traditional fire nation garb. She wears a headpiece which has two pronged horns. Her translucent skin is darker than Azula's, and her arms are massive compared to her own.

Suddenly, the woman lifts her head up and cranes her neck. Almost as a command, Azula is pulled forward against her wishes. Up above the clouds quickly swirl together, moving faster than time is moving around them.

"What's going on! Are you here to kill me?"

Azula rapid fires a slew of other questions and thoughts. She doesn't know what's happening or how or why. The woman raises a finger up to her mouth and Azula gets the cue. She goes silent. The woman raises both of her arms and puts her hands on each of Azula's shoulders. They stay there for a moment and Azula finally looks her in the eye. When she finally does, the woman speaks, only saying two words.

"Keep searching."

She gives Azula a push and her floating, blue body falls backwards. She collapses into her own, physical form. The last thing she sees is a flash of light from above.

The clouds swirl into a formation above the mob. Suddenly, violently, a burst of lightning shoots down from the clouds and crashes amongst the crowd. By some bizarre chance, a perfect shot, the lightning strikes the woman who had been struck by the flying bottle.

The mob scatters, screaming, running for their lives, as much as they can, away from the lightning blast and where it landed. What they do not see is that the woman who has been unconscious is jolted to life by the blast from above. 

Terrified of what's happened, the crowd disperses, albeit with difficulty. Those who had been in the shop come sprinting out. The group who had been pushing to the front falls backwards now and runs in the other direction. The lightning blast had been so loud and deafening that many men stay on the ground, covering their ears and heads, afraid of another blast, trying to recover from the boom.

Akola, on the other hand, stands up. She scans the group and then finds Siq, lying on the ground, covered in bruises and some blood. She rushes to his side and checks him for injuries. His arm is snapped the wrong way. He cries once more, but for different reasons now. Unable to comprehend what's just happened, Akola focuses on the task at hand. She looks around as the crowd quickly disappears from sight and yells out into the emptying night.

"Help! We need a healer! HELP!"

No one comes as every healer in the area is actively running from the lightning blast.

“SOMEONE HELP!”

No healer ever comes for Siq and Akola.

Chapter Text

[Winter/Spring 126 AG]

Six months earlier, it seemed like the whole of Mama's empire would collapse on her head. The Bender Supremacist mob had grown to untenable heights and fervor. They were both brash and cohesive. The work of Shulun had led them to a powerful place among the politics of Ba Sing Se, not just the Lower Ring. If rumors were to be believed, it was Mama's own friends who had killed Jakeem, the fire bender murdered outside of the Lonlhai Fire workshop. Whether Mama had personally issued the kill order was up for debate, but nonetheless, in Jakeem's death, Shulun was handed the keys to a tidal wave of popular opinion and was poised to crush Mama beneath his heel.

Until, of course, a lightning blast from Agni themself stopped it all in its tracks.

Since that moment the Southside has not known this sort of peace in a long time. Shulun had seen enough of Akola to know he was no match for Mama's Secret Weapon. He moved on to other parts of Ba Sing Se in the hopes of finding a different footing. One, ideally, without apparent divine intervention on its side.

Much to her chagrin, rumors swirled about the incident, dubbed colloquially as the Sky's Calling. Akola herself could not explain what had happened or how it had been done. She tried initially to open up to Jin and On Ji on the matter, but it was beyond her own ability to articulate. Only Ty Lin received the full story. And now, six months later, Ty Lin is back in the Lower Ring, traveling through the streets with those wives, as they head to Akola's library.

"Alright, Wifey, what can we expect from Rich Girl's first poetry night?" On Ji asks.

The three women walk in lockstep. Although sunfall is approaching, it's so overcast that everyone just dreads the rain, or worse snow. On cue, a strong breeze blows through and pushes back on the women. Ty Lin pulls her coat in closer and thinks on how to reply.

"Well, I'll say this. If it's anything like her first one, I'll be in tears by the end."

"No," Mama scoffs. "You're joking?"

"Maybe you all won't enjoy it as much as me."

"I'm sure we will!" On Ji assures her.

"But I've been with her through everything. From the beginning. So it all means something different for me. Every word is chosen on purpose, everything meant to parlay a feeling."

"Aye," On Ji admits, a little pain in her voice. "And I suspect that some of those feelings may not all be smiles and joy?"

Ty Lin doesn't reply right away. It is true to say that the current living situation is not exactly ideal. It's been two-and-a-half years of Azula living in Ba Sing Se now, and Ty Lee has broached the topic of closing the gap between them. She wouldn't mind moving to Ba Sing Se, they could settle down and be happy. Finally adopt those children they talked about years ago. Ty Lee's small fortune of savings could be used to make life more comfortable in the Lower Ring. However, Azula is, rightfully, concerned about the Red Lotus.

It's been a year-and-a-half since they took Aiwei, two years since Azula had told Xai Bau that she would not be held hostage by him. Perhaps he would remain true to his word. Sky's Calling should've, by all accounts, drawn him and his cronies out to find her. Yet six months later, it has not come to pass.

While Azula has not outright said it, yet, it seems that she doesn't view Ba Sing Se as her permanent home. Perhaps it can be, though, or will be, but right now they simply agree that the distance between the Southside and Kyoshi Island is far too vast. The travel, executed solely by Ty Lee, is burdensome. There's no debating that fact.

Ty Lin looks sideways at the pair beside her. She puts on a brave face. She looks up to the overcast skies and thinks about how no one can see the sunfall behind them.

"Like I said. I've known her since we were children. Our lives have not been ones of perpetual peace. For every glittering sun, there are clouds that can block the view."

The Southside Lower Ring Public Library is a building and an institution that has stood for hundreds of years. Home to many of Ba Sing Se's most unheralded texts, it has in recent years become a bastion of security for the community. Tonight, it plays host to the first of what will hopefully be many poetry nights, smartly titled 'Poems for the Public Works.' All proceeds will go to bettering the library and the food inequality of Southside.

Rows and rows of shelves were moved out of the way to make room and ultimately the space was approved to host up to seventy-five people by fire safety regulators. However, given Mama, On Ji, and Akola's relative popularity amongst the people of the Southside, it's fair to say that the venue is 'beyond' capacity. While some may worry, the three heads of the Southside dragon are unconcerned. They know that if push comes to shove, and the building was to catch fire, they have an ace up their sleeve to subdue it.

The night had started with an 'open stage' portion for any aspiring artists or folks struck by inspiration. It followed with some local poets coming in for free verse, then another who told a narrative poem about a fire ferret, and then a slew of slam poems by various artists. After a rousing applause to the last one detailing the challenges of moving to the city after spending most of their life in the Si Wong Desert, it is finally time for the main event.

Akola of Ember Island steps out onto a makeshift stage to an instant applause. She is both appreciative and bashful. She welcomes the praise but knows it is unearned for the reason she stands before them. She wears a long green and yellow kimono, not usually her style, especially not in the winter, but one encouraged by her wife and friends as being 'hip' and popular with the 'youths.' Her hair tickles her shoulder blades and she reckons it needs to be cut relatively soon. She waves and asks for their silence. Her eyes scan, looking for a long awaited guest, who has still not arrived.

"Thank you everyone for coming out tonight for our event. It's been a pleasure. And with that, our night has ended."

"Booooo!" The crowd jeers.

"Oh? Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think I was going to recite poetry for you?"

The crowd yells back at her, "Yes!"

"Oh, no. No, no, no. That was, I'm so sorry you got confused! I can see why, but no -," she jokes with them.

"Get on with it, Rich Girl!" On Ji shouts above everyone. Although no one knows why she calls Akola 'Rich Girl,' they nonetheless chuckle and laugh.

"Fine! Fine. Twist my arm, why don't you?"

"Booooo!"

"Alright, so this is how this will work," she says, waving an arm to again quiet their rebellion. "I'm not very good at this, but I'll read you some of my personal stuff and then I'll give an explainer or some details. I'm going to start with some Haikus, because our local poetry club is very big on them for some reason, and then I'll end with something a little longer and a little more introspective."

Akola pulls out a small book and flips through the pages. She looks out at the audience. She still does not see Siq in the crowd, causing some concern but not stopping her. She finds her first poem. She takes a breath and then looks out at the crowd.

"This first one is called 'Deathless.'"

The crowd becomes silent and attentive. She takes another breath and begins.

"I have killed myself /
Far more times than I can count /
But my soul won't die."

There's a smattering of finger snaps when she is done. She shifts the weight of her feet on the stage.

"So "Deathless" is just, pretty straightforward, I think. We all, at some point or another, grow to resent things about ourselves. We want to reinvent ourselves and become different. And we often do. But I think no matter how much I change, I'm always me at the end of the day, ya know? For better and worse, I can't change who I am at my core."

Again there's a smatter of snaps.

"You don't have to humor me, they're bad I know," she jokes and they boo her. She sniffles. "Alright, this next one is "Dirt and Dust.""

The room grows quiet.

"So bury me now. /
My bones become dust. But my /
Name will grow bigger."

She adjusts her kimono a bit after and folds the page to the next. "So "Dirt and Dust" is about my belief in our legacies living on after we're gone. We all die at some point, but most people don't realize we really die two times. The first is when we're buried, and the other time is when people forget us, the last time anyone says our names."

There's a growing murmur after this comment. With a smug smile she says, "And so in "Dirt and Dust," in this hypothetical world where I'm dead or someone is burying me, I want it to be known that I know that I'll continue to live on."

The snap and applaud, the group agreeing with her assessment. As she goes to the next set of haikus she smiles. She looks up from the page and tells the audience, "These next two are about a certain special someone. They're fun and cute, and a real reprieve from the doom and gloom of the last two."

The door opens and Akola pauses a beat to look. It's not Siq, so she returns to her page. Meanwhile, in the audience, On Ji squeezes Ty Lin's shoulders and whispers to her, "Ready for the waterworks, Wifey?"

Ty Lin is already wiping away tears, the first two haikus having a deeper meaning than anyone knows beside her and her wife on stage. She whispers back, "Not at all."

"So I'll read these back to back since there's not a lot to say about either one. But, in any case, she knows what it's all about. The first is "Her Eyes" and the second is "How Do I Look?"

"When she looks at me?
The whole world fades away. All
The colors of Grey."

Ty Lin bursts into weepy, heartfelt tears. On Ji wraps her arms around her from behind. Jin puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Ba Sing Se sunset.
Ember Island ocean breeze.
None compare to her."

The crowd is buzzing after these two. Akola welcomes the praise, gesturing to them to get louder and applaud her more. On Ji wants to 'boo' her to bring her ego down, but with her arms still wrapped about Ty Lin, she can't do it. She just continues holding on to their dear friend.

"Alright, that's enough. Thank you. I've got one more haiku and then a longer one. They both are very, very personal. So I hope you'll stick with me through it. This last haiku is called "What makes a girl?""

She gulps and stares down at the page.

"Father, define girl? /
Pretty. Perfect. Cold. Killer. /
No. That's a machine."

There is a more subdued reaction to this poem as the audience digests it. There is some snapping and such, out of a sense of obligation, but mostly the patrons are trying to understand, or moreso coming to grips with the underlying message and what it may mean.

"Yeah, so. I don't talk about my family life or my upbringing at all. As some folks experience, I don't have much love for my parents. They weren't exactly stellar role models, and I'm probably at least a little fucked up myself because of that, as much as I try not to admit it."

There are some head nods as at least some of the audience find solace in her words.

"But my Father? Well, he was a special sort of terrible. Growing up on Ember Island in the thick of the 100 Years War was, uh, tough, to say the least. He was very militant and just a real bastard. And in reflecting on my youth and adolescents, I was struck by this idea of what it would be like if I, today, Akola in 125 AG could talk to him and ask him questions. And then the poem sort of wrote itself from there."

The crowd snaps and claps in acknowledgement of this very personal note. Mama and On Ji share a side glance as they take it in, knowing that they've never gotten such introspection from Akola. There is a message conveyed between them with just their eyes that they agree to discuss this later, in the safety of their home.

"Alright, so, before my last long-form poem, I just want to issue a few thank yous!" She says and the crowd applauds. "Thank Mama for helping to organize, for my former colleague and now boss, Sanae, for allowing me to host here tonight. I want to thank the love of my life, Ty, for coming to cry in front of all of you. All the volunteers who helped distribute flyers and spread the word of mouth. And finally, I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. None of this would be possible without you!"

The applause is the loudest it is all night. Some folks grab their winter coats and jackets and such. Akola turns the page to her last poem.

"Changing it up a bit, I'm going to talk a little bit about this one before I read it. We all hate people who talk when we think a thing is over, and everyone wants to leave and such. So yeah. This poem is called "Comets." It stems really from this moment where someone I used to know, a long time ago, in another life or two, she said something to me. And I know some folks may be concerned or whatever, but she told me that she hoped that I would burn. And every now and then I think about her and I wonder if she's alive herself, if she's out there. People told me she died, and so I wonder how. Did she burn? I don't know. But I just imagine what led me to that point in my life and how different things could've been if just, ya know? Certain parts of my life had been different. Anyway, I'm gonna read this now."

The crowd becomes quiet. Akola looks around once more. Siq never showed. She frowns and worries. She pushes onward.

"Shooting stars burning across the sky /
Give us all hope for our lives! /
Until we finally realize /
They're all just comets flying by. /
Now imagine that it's 95 / 
Childhood friend who obsesses over knives /
Another with big, shining grey eyes /
Convinced herself that she'll never leave the island /
Hoping for anyone who would just understand /
Imagine she wasn't socially awkward and so strange as a kid /
She had a mother and her father wasn't crazy as shit /
She never dreamed she could be a leader, and just lazy as shit /
Fuck flying a dragon into battle, quit daydreaming kid /
Now let's imagine that she wasn't unfit /
And everyone cheered for her, said she was legitimate /
She didn't become a monster, unable to quit /
Imagine she could've gotten out, able to resist /
She could've gone home, not terrified to return /
And no one ever said that they hope that she burns /
Imagine if these had been lessons for her to learn /
Instead, she looks at the sky for shooting stars that are lit /
And she imagines that they're not actually just comets."

The four friends come to their crossroads and prepare to go separate directions. They hug and kiss each other on the cheek, wishing them well. It's cold and no one is trying to unnecessarily extend the pleasantries. On Ji and Jin step back from Akola and Ty Lin, and then wave goodbye.

"Thanks for everything again!" Ty Lin smiles widely at them.

"Thank you for coming out! See you tomorrow!"

The four depart. Once they're alone, Ty Lee throws an arm around her wife to bring her, and her body heat, closer. She whispers in her ear, "That was wonderful, Babe. How about we get warm under the sheets at home now?"

Azula would like very much to do those things. She would love to go back and plunder her tall, nimble, flexible wife. However, she has to put all of the horniness in her body aside as she brings up the cumbersome topic.

"I would love that."

"Mhm." Ty Lee hums again into her ear, sending vibrations down Azula's spine.

"But!"

"But?" Ty Lee huffs, surprised.

"I want us to do something else first. Something not fun or sexy."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. You're turning me down ?! Me ?"

"No, I'm not saying that. I hope we can still do that. But first, I just need us to do something?"

"Like what? What could be so important?"

"Siq no-showed tonight."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"I see now."

"So I'm just worried."

"You want to go check on him and his spooky house?" Ty Lee asks.

"I do. And I promise we don't have to stay longer than we have to in his 'haunted house.' I just want to be sure he's alive and shit. I worry about him, ya know? He's just a kid."

"Fine, fine! But if we get stuck there and I get haunted or sleepy, then that's on you for not getting any tonight."

Azula pulls her wife in and delivers a kiss to her cheek.

"Thank you."

Siq's home sits alone in the Southside, a burgeoning monster of a home compared to the rest of what exists on the Southside. The influx of massive amounts of coin to Siq had not changed him as a person, but it had certainly had a major impact on his living arrangement and home life. While outsiders would see it as a status symbol, Siq looks at it as a goal still to be accomplished. He may have the home, but the bank still owns it, and him, and his production of Lonlhai Fire is the path to eventually owning the place. As for this moment though, Akola and Ty Lin walk around to the back door to knock, a practice that Siq had taught and encouraged his close friends to do when coming to visit. He believed that those coming through the front door are visitors, while those coming in the back are family.

Akola bangs on the door a few times. As they wait to see if he is home, she tells her wife, "Just make sure he's OK. I promise, we'll get out of here in a hurry."

"And if he's not here?"

"Then he may be at his shop? I'm not sure."

Akola and Ty Lin hear a sudden clatter from inside the home. They look at each other and then back at the door. They are wary and defensive now, unsure of what to expect. There are noises that get louder and louder until they're on the other side of the door. Ty Lee digs her heels in, her muscles constraining. Azula does similar in case an assailant awaits them. The door swings open.

"Ty Lin! Sister!"

"Brother!" She greets him, holding the door open.

"What are you doing here? Why didn't you just key in?"

"Checking on you." Ty Lin tells him.

"Key in? We don't have keys." Akola adds.

"Checking on me? What for? And there's a spare under that rock right there." He motions behind them. "In case I ever get locked out. I told you about this!"

"I don't recall us discussing a spare key under a rock."

"I told you, Sister."

"Well, regardless, you completely missed my poetry night, Brother!"

"Aye! Yue have mercy on me. I'm so sorry."

"It's no problem, I was just worried," she waves him off. She quickly tries to escape, "Well, that's-"

"Please! Come in! Let me make it up to you. I've got some cactus juice lying around." He cuts her off and turns around to walk back in.

"No, that's…," but he is gone.

Azula and Ty Lee share a look. Azula shrugs and walks in. Ty Lee follows suit mumbling quietly to Azula, "Not getting any."

When one walks in through the back door of Siq's home they are greeted with the grand foyer. A few steps forward and you turn the corner to find a winding staircase straight up to the second floor. Everything is carpeted and the decorations are ornate. The walls are barren as the workaholic has not taken the time to hang up paintings or pictures, which have become increasingly more accessible and popular. The walls are beige, but closer to white, which hurts the eyes. Up above the spiral staircase, twelve or so feet high, is a glittering chandelier shrouded in poor lighting and shadows that don’t allow for it to shine, punctuating both the class of the space but also the sheer emptiness of it all.

The wives follow Siq through the grand foyer and into the spacious kitchen, a space so big that Akola routinely reminds her 'Brother' that her whole studio space could fit inside of it. As they enter Akola's eyes wander to the counter, with dozens of opened letters spread out. Siq goes right for the cupboard in search of cactus juice. Ty Lin makes herself comfortable at the bar style seating of his island in the center of the kitchen. Meanwhile, Akola wanders towards the letters and leans over to read them in the very dim light of the few candles Siq keeps around. She scans a few words from different letters.

"... as of this writing an overdue balance of…"

"Sincerely, Gaaler"

"... potential for foreclosure…"

"... This first time warning…"

"... will be forced to send to collections…"

"... reserve the right of eviction…"

"Ah! Here it is!" Siq's voice breaks through her reading.

She quickly departs the letters and moves towards the island. Siq puts three glasses down and pops open the bottle of cactus juice he's found. Akola furrows her brow as he opens it, scrutinizing the low light and wondering if she's seeing things. The bottle looks empty, and a moment later she's proven right. He goes to pour some into the glasses and only a tiny bit trickles out.

"Brother, there's-"

"Ah!" He complains. He puts the bottle down and turns back to look through the cupboard. "So sorry, I thought there was more in this bottle. Hold on, I've got more!"

Akola rolls her eyes and then turns to Ty Lin. Behind his back they share a look and then some. Ty Lin shrugs and mouths, 'He's drunk already' to her wife and Siq's best friend. Akola mouths back, 'No shit!' Annoyed that Akola chose to mouth-curse at her, Ty Lin motions with her hands towards Siq with an angry expression, effectively telling her dearly beloved to do something about it. Akola turns to him.

"So," she starts, drawing it out, "Siq, what were you up to all night?"

His head hidden inside the cupboard, he replies, "Ahhh, just, you know, working on, um, some ways to work through supply chain issues I'm having right now."

"Yeah?" Akola and Ty Lin share a disapproving and unbelieving look. "Did you find any answers at the bottom of those bottles?"

"Ah…" Siq sighs as he comes out from hiding. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes." Ty Lin and Akola answer in unison.

He hangs his head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Akola. I didn't even realize it was tonight, I just. I'm sorry."

"We get it, Siq," Ty Lin empathizes with him. "You're going through a rough patch. We've been there. We've really been there."

"I know, I know."

"Just talk to us, Brother," Akola places a hand on his shoulder. "We can't help you if we don't know there's a problem. Is it coin? The bank?"

"No! No, no, no." He denies it, although Akola knows better. "I mean, a little. There's just so many things."

"How's about this?" Akola says, stepping away and sliding two chairs for each of them to sit at, across from Ty Lin. "Just tell us about it all. Go through the whole gamut."

"No, I don't want to burden you."

"You're not burdening us." Akola replies.

Ty Lin adds, "Right. Not an issue. We didn't have any real plans for tonight, so we're here with you for it all."

There's a drawn out silence. Siq hangs his head, drunk and overwhelmed. He has not wanted to bother his friends and now here he is, being a bother in the end anyway. He stews on it, eyes staring at the same space on his counter, while Akola and Ty Lin wait patiently for him to confess. He takes a deep breath in and he is ready.

"Ever since that night, nothing has been the same."

When he pauses again, Akola fills the silence. "Yeah? I know your arm didn't heal right, we've talked about that a lot."

"Yeah. The healer mistreated it and so then I had physical therapy, but I felt so rushed to get it back to 100% that I didn't really focus so it got worse. And as a result, everyday tasks are harder. Writing, bathing, cooking. It's just been horrible."

He pauses again so Ty Lin feeds the space this time. "What else? Was that all?"

"No, there's so much more. My workshop was raided and needed repairs, so I had to halt operations. Then there's like, fuck, this embargo against me it feels like. Like, I know the Shulun and his thugs left town, but it's like they went away and told everyone to stop trading with me, or to hike up my prices."

"It's a ruthless combination of shit all happening at once." Akola comments.

"You can say that again, Sister." He replies.

"You're going through it. But you can come through it still. You can bounce back and end up stronger." Ty Lin inspires.

"Yeah, that's right," Akola chirps up. "You didn't go through everything you've gone through just to come to this point and be stopped, right? So keep going."

This is a winning combination of inspirational barbs from the two wives, working diligently to repair the fractured self-confidence of the eighteen year old from the Southern Water Tribe. They feel tremendous and prepare for him to flash his famous smile that can light up the dark. As the seconds go by, and the smile never comes, they wonder what's going on in his head. He lifts his face up, tears in his eyes.

"I'm just so tired of having to go through everything."

"Oh, Siq!" Ty Lin gets up and circles the island to envelope him in her arms. "Oh, you poor boy. We know."

Through gasps for air, sobbing, and with a strained voice he tells them, "Haven't I been through enough?"

"You have, you have." Ty Lin comforts, running a hand through his hair. Akola watches on with sad eyes, unsure of what to say.

"I just," he whimpers, trying to corral the tears. "I miss my Dad so much."

Akola gets up and grabs some tissues on the other side of the kitchen. She comes back and gives them to him. He wipes his eyes and blows his nose. "I've already started to forget things that I used to do with him, and with my Mom. And I'm worried that some day I'll forget them entirely. What they looked like, what we did together. All of it."

Akola and Ty Lin share the briefest of looks but an entire conversation takes place. Akola knows it's up to her. She turns her attention to the young boy in pain.

"Siq, tell us something your parents used to do that you remember. Anything at all."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it. Trust me."

"Um. I, uh, I'm not sure. I don't know."

"Just anything. First thing that comes to your mind."

"Uh, okay." He wipes his tears and thinks. "My Dad used to tell me he loved me every night before bed. My Mom wasn't the best with emotions, so he made sure that I heard it every day."

"Perfect. Exactly what I was looking for."

"Hmm?"

"Siq, I'll level with you. My Father never did any of those things. He didn't know how to express emotions besides disappointment and rage."

"Uh. I'm -"

"No. Don't say it. That's not why I'm saying all of this."

"Okay."

"Siq," she pauses. He and Ty Lee look right at her. "I love you."

He blinks a few times and then his mouth curls downward and the tears come harder. He shakes and Ty Lin hands him another tissue. He doesn't sob this time, but it's somehow more painful. She continues.

"I don't know that I've ever told a man, any man, that I love them. Maybe my actual brother, but that's not guaranteed. But I love you. You're just as much of a brother to me as my own family."

He bows his head now, the pain overwhelming him.

"And if I have to tell you that every night before you go to bed, to remind you of your Dad, and keep his memory alive? I'll do it. You are a special, special kid. And I hate to see you like this. So whatever it takes, just know that Ty Lin and I are here for you."

"Yes, absolutely." Ty Lin says, running his back as a mother would to their ailing child.

Siq abruptly stands up and wraps Akola in his arms, face buried in her shoulder, tears dying on her kimono. She is surprised at first, but then she wraps her arms around him tightly as well. She rarely allows herself to feel this deeply but in this moment she does. Through broken sobs he replies.

"I love you too, Sister."

Far from Siq's kitchen in Ba Sing Se, there is a similarly emotional meeting in a kitchen in Republic City. Suki of Kyoshi Island stares apprehensively and little cautiously at the tall, goofy, dumbass who has just barged into her apartment. And he's carrying flowers no less. From her kitchen table she questions him.

"What are you doing here, Sokka?"

"Suki, listen. I fucked up."

"You did?" She asks, beleaguered from a long day. "Do tell?"

"I'm a mess without you. I can't sleep, I can't function. I'm a walking disaster."

"Sokka, you've always been that way." She jokes.

He approaches and kneels in front of her.

"I need you in my life."

"You know I love it when you kneel." She half-jokes. "What is this all about? What's with the grand revelations?"

"We drifted apart, Suki." He replies.

"I'm aware." She replies matter of factly. "So what got you like this?"

"I just realized I'm worthless without you."

Laughing, she replies, "Keep talking like this and we'll be in bed in no time, if that's your goal."

"I'm serious!"

"And so am I!"

They share a laugh as she finally breaks him a little bit from his melodramatic moment.

"Sokka, I haven't heard from you in months. Haven't seen you in almost a year. Are you really just walking back in here? Like nothing happened?"

"I don't want to pretend like nothing happened. I want to help move us forward." He stresses, hands on her knees as he stays kneeling before her. "When you went undercover four months ago, I thought I was a free man. I could do whatever I wanted without fear of repercussions."

"That's so promising, I would veer away from saying more on that topic."

"But I missed you so much. I realized how much I rely on you, how much I need you."

"That's more like it." She says with a smirk.

"Then Toph told me you were coming up for air, and I knew I had to get myself over here while I still could."

"Toph told you that, huh? So much for my undercover secret. What else did she tell you?"

"I don't want to talk about Toph," he replies a little too quickly.  "I want to talk about you. About us."

Suki sighs. She laughs a little, almost not believing that any of this is happening. She shrugs.

"Alright, listen. You've obviously gone through something here. And I really don't have time for it. I'm in the middle of trying to topple an empire from the inside. I'm not abandoning it just because you're having some kind of life crisis or whatever."

"Of course not. I would never ask you to!"

"But you already did , Sokka." She replies, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Maybe not with your words, but with your actions."

"I know, I know! I fucked up! I fucked up. Badly." He places the flowers on the table. "You won't quit on it, and I shouldn't make you feel like you have to. I understand and I respect that."

"Do you?" She asks, opening her eyes and staring into his ocean blues. "Do you really?"

"Yes." He replies with confidence. "I lost sight of it for a while, but your determination is something I've always loved and admired about you."

She gulps, surprised at how quickly she's let the emotional weight of the conversation come down on her.

"So please, let me make it up to you. Let me show you, with my words and with my actions now."

Suki had once thought she would be the mother of Sokka's children. Over the last year or so, she thought she would have to divorce him. Now he stands asking for a second chance completely out of the blue and giving her a unique opportunity to reflect.

Her four months living amongst the underbelly of Republic City in Yakone's Empire has been a harrowing journey. There were days when she was worried she might end up on the wrong side of a fire blast. There were times when she feared for her life; other times when she feared having to take someone else's life in her own hands. She stayed up late at night questioning if she had the strength to make the right decisions in exactly the right moments.

In the deepest, darkest moments, she remembered the words of her worst enemy and close friend.

"You are the most powerful being on Earth."

Now she is faced once more with a crossroads moment. Another opportunity to make the right decision at the exactly right time. Her head tells her one thing about Sokka: that he grew tired of her obsession and abandoned her. He may have even been unfaithful. Her heart tells her something else: This man, who she loves, has come crawling back apologizing and saying all of the right things. He wants to make amends. He seeks forgiveness for his misgivings.

Suki stares into those eyes as bright as the sky and as deep as the sea.

"Alright," she says, placing a hand on his. "Let's do this."

Chapter Text

[Summer 126 AG]

Ty Lee knows this nightmare all too well. 

Azula sits in a chair in the kitchen. The wind howls outside, and all of her drawn in window sills rattle, supplying a white noise of sorts. She wears a patched together green and beige half-jacket, covering up her brown crop top, with white trim, wrapped tightly around her bosom. She has green, baggy pants, with a matching white trim from her top. Finally, her arms are wrapped in white bandages, starting from her elbow, all the way down to her knuckles. Her hair is short, barely reaching down to her ears. As she listens to the wind, her mind wanders once more.

A sudden knock on her door startles her and jerks her out of her trance. She looks to the front door with surprise and anxiety. She rises, and slowly ambles towards the door. 

The knocking continues. When the door opens, Azula has no time to react. She is blown away and disappears in a fit of smoke and shadows. Ty Lee pushes herself out of her sleep and up off of her bed. 

The dreaming is done, even if the nightmare pursues her still.

"So, how long before you cut and run?" Yin asks her.

"You think so little of me?" Asuna replies.

"On the contrary, I actually think quite highly of you."

The two are enjoying a warm summer evening at Yin's home. She has seating out in front of her home, where they are sharing a loaf of bread and some butter. The sun is high and the streets are busy with crowds bustling past them. No one pays them any attention as they converse. Azula wears a comfortable green top with white lining and her classic billowy pants. Her hair is short after being cut recently. She is warm and happy and engaged in dialogue with one of her favorite sort-of rivals.

"Is that so?" She questions, an eyebrow raised.

"Indeed," Yin says, taking another bite of the bread. "I think you're a great conversationalist. A poet of some kind. A dutiful librarian. A rival to me in knowledge about Avatar Asuna. Loyal friend. A doting wife. And you're an excellent liar."

With a sly smile Asuna replies, "I won't argue with that list."

The front door to Yin's home swings open and two small boys come streaking out, running up to the table. They've got tan skin and emerald green eyes, like their mother. San, now seven closing in on eight, has jet black hair, while Chow, recently turned five, has a lighter brown shade, similar to his father, Bohai.

"Boys!" Asuna greets them with a smile and opens arms, which they collide into with force.

"San! Chow! Leave us be." Yin commands.

Asuna wraps them in her arms tighter and replies, "No, not yet. I've got something for you, San."

"For me?" The older boy with black hair replies excitedly.

Asuna pulls out a small, thin box, hidden under her chair, and hands it to him. The boy excitedly rips the lid off to reveal its contents.

"Whoa!" He shouts at the sight of a thin, red scarf. "It looks just like yours!"

"Because it is mine, you goof." She rubs his hair.

"You're giving it to me!" He shouts.

"Absolutely." She assures him.

"Thank you! I'll take this on all of my adventures around the world, like you Auntie Akola!"

"Oh you're going to travel are you? And leave your poor mother behind?" Yin chastises him.

He hangs his head and is somber, "I'm sorry Mommy."

"He's allowed to dream, Yin." Asuna replies curtly. She turns to the boy now. "If you want to leave Ba Sing Se, you do it. This scarf will keep you safe wherever you go."

The younger Chow now chimes in to his mother. "I'll stay with you Mommy! I'll never leave."

The boys make faces at each other, with tongues sticking out and fists waving. Yin opens her arms and Chow moves towards them, enveloping his mother in a tight embrace.

"That's my little bubba. Thank you, Chow."

Asuna offers to Chow, "If you stay here so long, perhaps you could start a business like my friend Siq has?"

Chow leaves his mother and starts sprinting back into the house. San gives chase. Chow shouts, "Never!"

The boys run off to play, Asuna's scarf dangling in the wind. Yin watches them go and then quietly says to Asuna, "Giving worldly possessions away? Either you are going to cut and run or you're about to off yourself."

"Did you see the smile it gave him? Plus, everywhere I've worn that scarf I've been known as the Lady in Red. I don't want that for myself anymore."

"Is that what they called you in Lanxi?" Yin pokes at her background.

"No, they called me something different. Some things different."

Yin cuts another sliver of the bread and slathers butter on it. "Lanxi meant something to you. Something that Ba Sing Se, the Lower Ring, the Southside, we could never give to you."

"Don't you ever dream of leaving? Like your son?"

"No," she replies instantly and without thought. "Ba Sing Se has meant everything to me. It is not perfect, but it's home. When I'm here, I feel safe and secure. I wouldn't leave this place even if it was burning to the ground."

"This city fell once before, you know that right?" Asuna reminds her. "And it was in our lifetime, not some long-since-past history."

"It only took the Fire Nation a hundred years," she chirps. Asuna scowls a bit at this comment.

'Well, it only took a few weeks actually.'

"-so pardon me for having faith that it won't happen again. I believe in The Monarchy to provide."

"Ugh. You and the monarchy." She groans, biting into another piece.

"Let's not start on that again. What of you, Asuna? How does this place make you feel?"

Asuna takes her time chewing. It allows her time to think. When she swallows she replies thoughtfully, "I feel like I'm sinking when I'm standing still."

"Now that is profound."

"It's not meant as a critique on the people here," Asuna assures her, taking another slice. "It's just so far from Ty Lin. I just can't see myself growing old here. At the same time, I can't see myself abandoning Siq. Nor Mama or On Ji. Or you."

"You strike me as someone who is drawn to wander."

"If that's the case then I suppose you're right," Asuna concedes. "I'm destined to cut and run eventually."

"Hmm. Perhaps you aren't wandering? Perhaps you are simply following in the spiritual steps of Avatar Asuna. You should Travel to Huwan. Or the Southern Water Tribe!"

"The Southern Water Tribe? What could possibly be down there for me?"

"I take pride in this moment, as I'm about to school you on our favorite former Avatar."

"You do have quite the edge on me in terms of her movements and personal life."

"Asuna moved to Huwan in 1038 BG, and stayed there for most of her life. But she often visited the Southern Water Tribe. Almost like it was a second home to her."

"Hmm."

"There's a reason she learned Water Bending the fastest of the elements. She was meant for their people. Born in the wrong place, she never fit in with the Fire Nation."

Asuna ponders this a moment. She can't say she's always felt that way exactly, but over the decades since her teenage years she is finding more solace in the world outside of Caldera.

"I do feel that I've been in search of Asuna for much of my adult life. It almost feels like she's been beckoning me, or telling me to keep…"

A thought suddenly comes to Azula. A memory of the words spoken to her by a translucent, blue woman. One who told her to keep searching.

"Wait. Yin. Are there any paintings of Asuna? Do we know-"

"AKOLA!" 

"Akola! Please! Come quick!"

She stands up swiftly and turns on the spot. A few feet away are a pair of fraternal twins in charcoal capes. They look out of breath and scared.

"Excuse me." She leaves the table. Yin stays seated, turning her head to the side as she watches them go.

"What? What is it? Is everything alright?"

"It's Siq!" Bing tells her.

"He's, he's in trouble."

"That boulder of a man from the bank is taking his home!"

"Boulder of a man? Bank? You mean Gaaler?"

"Yes, sure!" Beng replies. She continues, "Whatever his name is, he's doing something very bad to Siq right now!"

Akola nods and balls her fist.

"Lead the way."

Bing, his sister Beng, and the fearless Akola come running through the streets of the Southside. Bystanders shout at them, strangers curse them out, and anyone who sees them coming skirts out of the way at the last moment. It is a frenzied pace, and the twins do not have the stamina to keep at it. About three-quarters of the way, Akola takes off sprinting past them and shouts back that she'll go on ahead and they can catch up.

As the sun beats down and her vision blurs with people and shops and homes while she passes them all, Akola develops tunnel vision. She doesn't think about what she'll say when she arrives because she is only worried about arriving. For a woman so adept at gamesmanship and military maneuvering, she finds herself in this moment at a distinct disadvantage.

So when Akola emerges from the streets and comes into the opening out front of Siq's home, she finds herself breathless. She is winded from running halfway across the Southside, and speechless for how she'll rescue Siq in this moment. She observes what's unfolding as she plans her course of action.

Siq is on his hands and knees in front of the massive home. The front doors are wide open as a litany of men and women in suits march in and out, repossessing everything that the teenager owns. There are large truck beds all around with piles of various belongings, being drawn by mongoose lizards. The giant Gaaler stands about a dozen feet behind Siq, snickering. Every few seconds someone approaches him and he barks an order. There are two large, burly men, and two Dai Li agents, all who stand at attention beside him as his protection. He smiles so widely at the sight it unnerves her.

Akola steps forward and moves towards him. She yells to get his attention. "Gaaler! What is the meaning of this?"

"HANDS!" One of the burly men yells, moving to stand in between her and Gaaler.

In the blink of an eye, rock gloves fly from the Dai Li agents and cover her hands. She looks down at them and wonders how hot her fire would have to be, or how much electricity she'd have to conjure to melt them. 

"Ahh! The Consult," he references their first meeting. He turns to his protection, "That won't be necessary. She’s no threat, and besides she can't bend anyway."

"Gaaler," she starts, approaching him and coming to a stop a few feet away. "This is madness. What are you doing?"

"This is called asset management, Consult. Perhaps our Boy Genius should learn some of it?"

"Putting him on the street isn't going to solve anything. He won't be more productive, or cease the blacklist that the bender supremacists have on him. You're just going to make it harder on him!"

"Irrelevant. All of that is irrelevant. He purchased this home and everything in it with our money. Until he's able to provide deliverables, or forfeits the formula, then his possessions belong to us."

Akola attempts to appeal to his humanity. She steps to the side and waves an arm at the teenager. "Look at him. You think he's gonna provide anything ? He's a boy. Barely older than a child. You put him on the streets again and leave him with nothing and he'll die."

Gaaler looks at Siq, on his hands and knees. He steps up and stands beside Akola. The wind blows and the sun breaks through some clouds. He considers what she's said and what she means. What it would mean to leave the boy with nothing. He slowly turns to the woman beside him. He raises a heavy, ring covered hand and rests it on her shoulder.

"Then I should hope he writes that formula down for us before he does."

He flashes a smile at her as wide as the one Siq used to wave. At first she is stunned into silence, but his smile gets under her skin. It crawls up her arms and her shoulders, tickles her spine on its way to her head. She begins to furrow her brow as the rage and fury begin to set in. He's talking about Siq's life like it's nothing. Some loose coin he's forgotten about and has no interest in anymore. She shrugs her shoulder to get his hand off of her and then pushes him. He isn't even phased, doesn't even move. He just begins laughing at her.

"You're a fucking monster."

"I think we all have monsters inside of us. I own that boy now. Sooner or later, he'll give me that formula," he explains with narrowing eyes and a wicked smile. He steps back and starts to walk away, "And all you'll ever be is a Child of Ozai."

Azula wants to torch him right here and now. He's only a few feet away. A raging inferno of fire, or a blast of lightning from this close would surely kill him, even despite his size. Better men have met worse fates, and bigger men have died, and at her hands no less. One by one she rattles off in her mind the lives she has extinguished. Yet at this moment, it would not solve her issue. Gaaler is not a threat in and of himself. He is an institutional threat. He represents the bank, controlling all of the strings. He is just a man. Smite him here, and he'll just be replaced. But he's still just a man.

'A man who just threatened my friend.'

Azula turns and yells at Gaaler as he walks away.

"I am a Child of Ozai!"

He turns back, his bodyguards stepping forward in anticipation of a fight.

"And I will burn you, your bank, your guards, and your family. I'll burn this entire city to the ground if you threaten him again."

He turns fully around and faces her. He walks back towards her and as he does he retorts.

"I command the most powerful bank in the most powerful nation on Earth. You think you scare me? You're nothing."

He arrives in front of her and spits at her feet. He imposes himself above her. He leans in and whispers this last part.

"And besides, your boy over there is a Coin Spring. Sooner or later that conscience will go away and he'll give up the formula."

He leans back and looks at Siq.

"And I wouldn't dare plug that spring before I've run it dry."

With that, the mountain of a man makes his leave. He and his guards, all of the repossession staff, the mongoose lizards, all depart almost simultaneously. In the end, there is only Akola and Siq. She consoles him on the ground until she can convince her Brother to come back to her studio and rest.

Suki taps her foot over and over again in frustration as she waits in an empty, stuffy conference room inside the RCPD. It's been over an hour since someone came to check on her or give her a status update. As an undercover operative, there are supposed to be regulations and procedures for this sort of thing. However, none of it has been followed recently. She hasn't been getting updates the last few weeks. She's not supposed to come to the station, but no one has been responsive, so she's here. But now that she's here, no one will speak to her. She grunts her frustration out.

At that exact moment, the door swings open. She expects to see the Blind Bandit, but instead it's a shorter, smaller, brunette girl that she recognizes as Kiph Oro. Kiph, or KO as most of the force refers to her, was once Toph's scribe. Over the years, however, KO has worked her way up the chain of command, earning the respect of the metal benders and the non-benders on the force alike. She's now the second in command, and her mere presence tells Suki that she's not being granted the proper audience with the Chief of Police.

"Hello, Suki."

"Where the fuck is Toph, KO? I don't have time for her games."

"Good to see you too."

"I'm serious."

"Are you now? I couldn't tell. Maybe if you cross your arms a little tighter, or puff out your chest some more, then I'd know."

"Where is she?"

"We haven't caught up in a spell, have we?" Kiph Oro asks. She clicks her tongue as she sits down across from Suki. "Toph is gone."

"Gone? Like she's out today or she's dead?"

"She's on maternity leave."

‘Surprised’ doesn't begin to cover it for Suki.

"She's? Again? But isn't she-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Suki. That's gossip bullshit that I don't have time for."

Suki is quickly trying to compartmentalize the fact that Toph had another child out of wedlock. She begins connecting dots on the lack of response from the RCPD, potentially since Toph has been gone, and now realizes that she's not talking to the department's second in command, but really it's ranking officer.

"Listen, I generally like you, Suki, so I'm gonna be straight and to the point and save you some trouble. You're here now so your undercover op is done. Toph is on maternity leave until pretty much the new year, so in the meantime I'm suspending your op-"

"Are you fucking serious?"

"- And I am requesting an arrest warrant for Yakone."

"You're out of your fucking mind! You don't have the evidence yet! That's why I'm still-"

"It's my call, Suki. Deal with it."

"You're just trying to secure the Chief position. This is a political move to take Toph's job while she's out."

Kiph Oro shakes her head. "You're being ridiculous."

"No, this is ridiculous! None of the charges will stick. We don't have a case!"

"And if we don't, that'll come out in a court of law. In the meantime, we'll have a few weeks with him off the streets. That'll give us time to tighten the noose on some of his operations so when he comes out, he's missing a few of his best chips on the Pai Sho table."

Suki is hysterical. "You've blown my cover for a half-assed attempt to earn spirit points with the mayor. You're delusional!"

"Enough." KO stops the conversation. "We're done here. Get your shit and get out of my precinct."

Furious, Suki storms out of the office. She covers her head and face all the same, to preserve whatever she can of her undercover identity. She rushes out of the building and hurries home to write to Sokka. All the way back her head circles the proverbial drain of Toph Beifong. She needs the woman back to restore order to the RCPD, but she is on maternity leave of all things. The last time she left on maternity leave she took that leave all the way through to maximize the time with her firstborn, Lin. As she gets closer to her apartment, Suki begins doing math in her head. If Toph recently had the child, then it would've been conceived nine months ago. 

'No…they…no…'

Suki shoves the intrusive thoughts aside. She has more pressing matters at hand. Real, tangible issues that she needs to work through and which can be solved. Toph and the father of her new daughter is not a priority she can afford to focus on right now.

[Fall 126 AG]

Akola walks into the nearly empty bar and spots Bing. He walks up to greet her, cape billowing behind him. It's late in the evening, or perhaps now it's early in the morning, and Akola was asleep when Beng came knocking. She was ready to rip the girl's head clear off, as the twins have an uncanny knack for always pissing her off. Then she got the news and her whole attitude changed. Siq was drunk off his ass, refusing to leave the bar. Akola got changed and walked down the street and around the corner, dismissing Beng so the young girl could go home and sleep. Now that she's here and Bing has kept an eye on him, she dismissed him too.

"Go home, Bing. I've got it from here."

"Are you sure?" He asked with a yawn.

"Yeah. He's not going to reason with anyone else anyway. I'll chi-block him if it comes down to it."

"Alright. Thanks Akola." He bows and takes his leave.

Akola turns her eyes to Siq, the dark skinned, thin as a rail, wide eyed, bright smiled roommate of hers. He moved back in with her after Gaaler took everything from him. In retrospect it wasn't all that surprising, but it is gut wrenching all the same. He had nowhere else to turn so she brought him in and gave him shelter.

The boy is trapped now with only one real way out, a path which he doesn't care to take, and which Akola doesn't blame him. Surrendering the Lonlhai Fire formula had massive trickle down effects on the world, specifically warfare. When she spends too much time thinking about it she unravels at the concept. Right now, she's just focused on her friend who is obliterated and shamelessly hitting on the bartender.

She approaches the bar and calls him out, "Siq!"

Turning to find her he shouts triumphantly, "Akola!"

It takes far too long for her liking, but Akola finally gets him out of the bar. They wander out the door, him trying to slightly escape her, and she gives chase lightly. He starts walking in the wrong direction. She reaches out and grabs his arm.

"Wrong way, Brother."

"I have a secret, Sis!" He flashes his iconic smile and continues on his way.

"Agni have mercy. Where are you going?"

"Follow me!" He insists.

On the one hand Akola is far too tired for his shit to be entertaining this chase. On the other hand, he's very drunk and talking about secrets. Her curiosity gets the better of her.

"Alright," she concedes. "Let's go."

Akola is not amused at where he leads her.

"What are we doing here, Siq? We should go home."

"Shh! Shhhh! Follow my lead."

They stand on the remote end of the Southside, outside the house Siq used to own and live in, before Gaaler and company took it from him. The large, foreboding building has been empty for nearly three months now. It has stood symbolically as a metaphor for the emptiness of wealth, or the struggle for survival amidst impossible odds. Even when you make it out, the world will drag you back down.

Siq walks up towards the back of it and she follows him. As they go she whispers to him, "Siq, this is ridiculous."

She follows him around back and he puts a finger up to his lips. He turns around and walks away from the back door, boarded up and locked. He lifts up a large rock and uncovers a metal object. He picks it up and holds up his trophy for Akola to see.

"They didn't know I made this spare!"

She stares at him dumbfounded during the early hours of the morning. A few dots connect for her and she asks him, "Is this where you go when you don't come home?"

He fits the key into the door and unlocks it. The door only appears to be boarded up, as it pushes open without issue once he's done.

"Did you think I was sleeping in the streets?"

"Yes! As a matter of fact, I did."

She follows him inside and closes the door behind them. The first thing she notices is an affront to her nose, as it stinks like shit. They walk through the dusty, cobweb laden grand foyer, past the spiral staircase and chandelier up above, and into the kitchen. Instantly it's clear to see that he's squatted here before, based on the garbage and makeshift bed made of various blankets and mismatched pillows.

"This is dangerous, Siq."

"I know!"

"And not just because they'll arrest you for it. Having somewhere that none of us know about? What if you had gone missing? How would we have known to check here?"

"Well, now you know!" He smiles as he lounges out onto his sleeping bag. She does not return the smile. He adds, "I only come here occasionally, when I'm really desperate. I'm not foolish enough to use this all the time."

There's a silence as Akola looks around. She almost wants to gag from the smell, she wonders if he's still using the bathroom in the empty house. In his drunken stupor, Siq lays against the ground and begins closing his eyes. He speaks and shatters her quiet.

"I told you a secret. Will you tell me a secret, Sister?"

It is such an innocent question with such heavy undertones and a weight to it that the boy does not understand. Akola rifles through some answers and filters out others. She determines that he's too drunk and too tired to remember any of this anyway.

"My name is not Akola." She confesses.

"Pshhh! C'mon," he says, snuggling into what little comfort he can find in the sheets on the ground. "That’s not a secret. Aiwei used to say that before he…well, before he disappeared."

Perhaps it's the reminder about Aiwei and how she condemned him to a life among the Red Lotus. Perhaps it's the question about secrets and how her entire life is one giant secret. The full weight of Azula's sins bears down upon her for a moment. 

"Will you tell me a real secret?" He asks, eyes peeking open to stare at the woman standing over him.

Akola, Asuna, Azula. They all sit in quiet contemplation, reflecting on a lifetime of lies. A litany of bodies that have been left in her wake. More damage has been done in the last twenty-five years than she ever did on the day of Sozin's Comet. She thinks for a long time, too long. She remembers her life and her life gone.

Perhaps her whole life is not a secret, she thinks. Perhaps in hiding everything, she is truly hiding nothing. She is her most authentic self now, much more than when she was Azula, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. By diving into these names and identities and titles, she has become more 'Azula' than Azula was ever 'Azula.' 

She decides to be honest and keep it simple, even if it hurts him.

"I’m thinking of leaving Ba Sing Se."

She expects him to be despondent. At first he is quiet and she wonders if he'd fallen asleep. After a few moments he finally speaks. He keeps that classic Siq positivity, but there's something in his voice exposing his truth.

"Oh yeah? That's awesome! Yeah, if I could leave I would totally go home to Lonlhai Village on Linlhao Island. And I think you would love living in the Water Tribe."

Akola does not want to fight with him regarding the sadness that is hidden in his voice. She just asks him, "Oh yeah? Why do you say that?"

"Well they're a lot like you," he replies. "They're private people. And unlike much of the rest of your world, they're quite welcoming of gender betrayers, so long as you keep your mouth shut about it."

"Doesn't sound so welcoming?"

"But it's the way of the people. They're secretive and proud. Real 'salt of the earth' type people. They're survivors, the Lonlhai people especially. Growing up, I saw much violence."

"Really? Any reason why?"

"Lots of reasons, but I'm too tired to go into all of that. But I miss it. I miss them. My neighbors and friends," his voice begins to crack as he pulls the sleeping bag closer. "Everyone believed in me. They helped me to escape, to come here so I could do more and make more of my life and now look at me."

He begins crying softly into the blankets. Akola moves towards him, sits down cross legged, and puts a hand on top of his.

"It's alright, Siq. You're going to get through this. I'm going to make sure of it."

"My life is over, Sister. There's no way out. Unless I give Gaaler the formula."

"No. Fuck that and fuck Gaaler."

"Then my life is over!"

"No it's not. Not even close. You have a long life ahead of you, and much to give to the world still. You're just drunk right now and need to sleep."

He sniffles, pulls the blankets over his eyes, and rests his heads down, quiet tears rolling down his face. He asks her something he hasn't asked before.

"Why have you never asked for the formula, Sister?"

Akola doesn't need to think about what to say. The answer is obvious to her.

"Because it's not mine to have."

Akola draws inspiration from elsewhere as well. She recalls from a past life when a King in a cave told her, 'For total power corrupts totally.'

He sobs and sniffles, rubs the sheets against his face and rolls over to fall asleep.

"Thank you, Sister."

She runs a hand through his long, black, ponytail. She rests it on the end, and slowly stretches her legs out to get more comfortable. She decides to make due with the floor, rather than leaving him alone for the night. With no blankets or pillows, she simply lays out on the dusty, hardwood floor. She stares at his sleeping body a few feet away. Before rolling over and going to sleep, she keeps the promise she made to him. She says the words that Siq's Father said to him every night before bed.

"I love you, Brother."

Chapter Text

[Winter/Spring 127 AG]

An extremist who dreamed of bringing the world to heel had once said about Azula that she was a timeless warrior, who could never know peace time. She would go from fight to fight, war to war, until the last recorded syllable of time. Until there was no battle to be had, or until she was dead and gone. That is the future that Xai Bau envisioned for her when he dubbed her the Immortal Soldier.

Sitting here at dinner with her two best friends, this seemed to be especially true. She has found no peace as of late and her mind has been amuck, not just at this dinner, but in general. She barely sleeps and she can't concentrate. She sits dangerously close to the edge of life, cracking open ever so slightly, while the volume in her cup runneth over.

Tonight, her cup hath runneth over many times, hoping for liquid courage to make things more manageable. A very rare occasion indeed, she downs glass after glass of cactus juice, but she reasons that she needs it. She has been searching for a way out, some path of escape, but the man who dubbed her the Immortal Soldier is out there, somewhere, looming. 

What's more, leaving these women, these people, this place, could spell certain disaster for them. Their well kept secret vanishing overnight would be apocalyptic for Mama and her empire of the Southside. She can't shake the feeling that she'd be dooming them and herself if she went running. 

"Alright, Akola. What ails you?" Jin cuts through all of her overthinking.

"Hmm?" She plays innocent.

On Ji collects the plates and carries them to the sink. As she does she tells her, "You never drink. You've stayed far longer than you normally do. You want to talk about something. So out with it."

"Oh," Akola mumbles in surprise. "Is it really that obvious?"

In unison the wives reply, "Yes."

Akola swipes at her hair, just barely above the shoulders. She will need to cut it in the coming months as it once again is growing beyond her liking. She closes her eyes and mentally prepares. Taking a deep breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth. She opens her eyes and confesses, “I've got to come clean about something.”

On Ji and Jin are silent. They sit up a little straighter, they hold their own breath for a moment. For a brief moment they make eye contact. Azula knows that look. She and Ty Lee have shared that look hundreds of times. Words being passed through without thought, without speaking. She wonders what words and thoughts are being passed between the two of them right now. She licks her lips, fidgets with her pants a bit and then brings her hands back together, with one hand cupping a balled fist of the other.

“I am increasingly thinking of leaving the Southside, and all of Ba Sing Se.”

The women at the table exhale. For Akola, there is something off about their body language. They are relieved, and yet not. They seem disappointed, but not by the news. Perhaps they expected some other confession of sorts. 

“Okay,” Jin starts, moving her glass out of the way. “Let's hear the ‘why?’ And why now?”

“Well, it wouldn't be yet. First of all, I can't imagine leaving Siq. But I also just can't see myself growing old here.”

Jin continues her line of questioning, “So you'll just leave? No debts to speak of? Aren't you worried about the First Bank and Gaaler coming after you?”

“Gaaler is the least of my fears if we're talking about what comes next.”

On Ji asks her, “So why are you telling us now? If it’s not now?”

“I want you to be prepared.” Akola answers.

"We should do something about Shulun, if you're going to disappear."

"That won't change anything about Gaaler predatory practices."

"I know," Akola admits. "And I'm open to trying to find ways to handle them. But I need you to know that it has nothing to do with you two."

"With us?"

"I should hope not!'

"We've only taken you in as one of our own."

"And treated you as an equal!"

"Tell me real quick, Akola, have you ever pondered the age-old question: what is more important: the adventure or the achievement?"

"I suppose I have?" She replies, unsure of where this is going. "Ends justifying means and all, I would probably say the adventure?"

"Well I'm here to tell you it's neither."

"Is that so?"

"It's the company you keep along the way." On Ji tells her.

Jin continues, "And we're the company. Us."

They tease her, though there is much truth to their words 

"I know! I know. And I'm forever grateful for you both." She trails off.

"But?"

"But Ba Sing Se weighs on me and on my marriage. Things with Ty Lin are harder from this far away. We haven't been able to have the life that we wanted while I'm here."

On Ji places a hand on Akola's. She smiles knowingly.

"I know that the way I've spoken about moving in from my past life may come across as nothing extraordinary, but it was done with considerable anxiety. I left the only home I ever had wandered the Earth. The weight of my fear bore down on me so much that it was suffocating."

Akola looks into her brown eyes and sees the pain.

On Ji smiles. "But in the rubble of my life, I found a lesson painted by the souls of the travelers: When everything feels heavy, I learned to travel light."

Jin adds, "Ba Sing Se has just been a holdover for you. We've known that for quite some time, Akola. Where will you go, when you go?"

"Huwan."

"Who what?"

"Huwan." She replies with a laugh.

"Where is that?"

"It's near the southern tip of the Earth Kingdom. Truthfully, it's not far from where Siq grew up in the Southern Water Tribe. But most importantly, it's close to where Ty Lin lives. A day's boat ride, maybe less, maybe more."

"Have you not considered going home?"

"To the Fire Nation?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I can't. I just…can't."

"You've been gone a long time, have you?"

"The girl I was when I was last in the Fire Nation is exactly that. A girl. I was foolish and vain. I was headstrong and deplorable. But I was also peppered with traumatic experiences."

"That must have been hard?" Jin comforts her.

"I have to accept some of the blame for what happened to me. I'm far from innocent. If I could go back? And talk to that girl? Try to help her?" Akola looks out into space and imagines what she would say to Azula. To the Dragon Empress. She sighs. "I wish I could shelter the girl I was from the constant shit that I put her through."

"Wise words, and ones that resonate with my own life." On Ji comments.

"Aye," Jin murmurs as they all fall quiet. "I know you're not referring to coming to grips with being a gender betrayer, but what you just said perfectly portrays my own experiences in struggling with acceptance of myself as a woman lover."

"I'm so sorry, Jin. It was easier for me, coming to grips. I can't imagine what it must've been like here."

Jin waves her off. "It's fine. It's good. But if I may, I'd like to offer you some advice. Passing on words shared with me by my father when I told him I was a gender betrayer."

"Please?"

"If it costs you your peace, then it's too expensive."

Akola lifts up her drink, encouraging the wives to do the same. They follow suit and Akola smiles

"To Jin's father, and never again paying too much for our peace."

The three gender betrayers, who share varying life experiences and struggles, brought together here in Ba Sing Se's Southside of the Lower Ring, toast to the wise words of a long since past father. Their conversation becomes lighter, more free, and is spritzed with cactus juice throughout the night. They revel and cheer, and plan for Akola's future departure. Eventually, Akola, too drunk to stumble home, crashes face first into their couch, while the wives retire to bed. Happy dreams fill their sleep with hope that even immortal soldiers can someday find peace.

The next morning the sun breaks through the windows on another glorious day amongst the Southside empire. Its peerless leader, Mama, sits and sips her morning tea. She enjoys the solitude and chance for reflection while her wife sleeps in bed. A few feet over, Akola of Ember Island lazily dazes in and out of consciousness. Jin is contemplating some supply chain issues and how to best navigate them when the soft knock comes at the door. Two in quick succession, then a pause before a third knock. Jin knows what that means and goes to the door, pocketing an orange from the dining table.

Akola barely heard the knock, but she clearly heard the chair scrape back. She rolls on the couch so she can get a view of the door. Mama kneels down then creaks the door open slightly. On the other side of the door is no person, but a child, barely six years old, Akola would have to guess. Yet Jin had kneeled down before opening it. She knew based on the knock that it would be a child.

Mama and child exchange whispers. Mama gives her an orange and the child sprints away. Jin closes it shut and turns back into the home, looking concerned. Akola makes herself known, sitting up off of the couch. At the same moment, On Ji steps out from the bedroom, hair all over the place, as if she awoke when the knock came.

“Who was that?” Akola asks first.

“One of my little ant flies. In the flesh”

“So that’s how you stay informed?” Akola asks. “Three and half years and I didn’t know your ant flies were the children on the streets?”

“I’m sure to never be seen in public with them.”

Akola considers the vastness of the city, how many homeless children there must be, all around, listening to conversations, right in plain sight. It’s genius and a distant, past version of Akola wishes she had thought to weaponize the children of Republic City with sweets and food in exchange for knowledge.

An alarming thought comes to Azula, "Do you use them to keep tabs on everyone? Including us?"

"No," Mama answers instantly. "There's a certain line you don't cross. You all are like family to me. I trust you to come to me with anything serious."

On Ji interrupts her thoughts, “What’s going on? What news did they bring?”

“Siq never showed up for his morning assignment. None of them saw or heard from him recently either. And now no one can find him.”

“Should we go looking for him?” On Ji asks, concern rising.

Akola groans as she lifts herself up off of the couch. She recognizes that she hasn't seen Siq in a week or so. She wonders if this is his first assignment he's missed or if there are more.

“I wouldn’t know where to start?”

Akola walks towards them. “No need. I know where he’s hiding.”

“You do?” Jin asks.

“I do.”

“Do you want some help?” On Ji asks.

“Not really, it’s not that serious.”

Jin makes a face and shirks her head. On Ji nods in response. “I’ll come anyway! You might need help.”

Akola walks out the door. “Better move it then if you want to keep up.”

On Ji slips on her shoes and goes running to catch up. Jin closes the door behind them.

The two women turn the corner in behind the abandoned home.

"So he's just been squatting here?"

"On and off for almost a year. No one can sell this house. It's a middle of Upper Ring type-home located in Mama's Southside in the dredges of the Lower Ring. Who would be crazy enough to buy it?"

"And if I'm right," Akola reaches down around the rock with the hidden key. She lifts it up and there is none. "It won't be here!"

She stands up and walks up to the back door.

"How did Gaaler and company not know about the extra key?"

"He paid some blacksmith to make it off-book."

"Why didn't they change the locks when they took the home?"

Akola grabs the handle of the door and it turns. She's thought the same thing as On Ji and comes to just one conclusion.

"They're arrogant."

The door opens and they step inside. Just as every time before, when Akola walks in she is met first with the rancid smell. On Ji follows and rebukes at the stench.

"Oh my Agni! What on Earth?"

Akola powers through, despite its strength. "Yeah, it's horrible."

This time there is something truly terrible about it. On Ji covers her nose and mouth for fear of vomiting. Akola sniffs and struggles herself this time, despite her experiences. Akola steps away from the door, while On Ji closes it. As the last slices of light from the outside disappear with the closing door, On Ji's eyes catch something on the counter by the door. A slim, rectangular object sits on the edge. The door shuts and she picks it up, finding it to be a paper envelope. Akola takes a few steps further in, the smell becoming nearly unbearable. Through the thin slots of light breaking through the wood slats barring the windows, On Ji reads what's written on the envelope.

'To Whomever, but probably Akola'

An eerie sense of trouble overcomes On Ji quickly. The dangerous ambiguity not quite clear, there is nonetheless a certain dread in the words. She raises the alarm.

"Hey, Akola-"

Akola walks slowly ahead as On Ji closes the door. The smell is the same as before, yet somehow different and unquestionably worse. She forged through the back hallway, headed for the main entryway, and the kitchen, where she'll likely find him. Getting closer she notices a new noise. If she had to guess, she would say it is the buzzing of insects.

She turns the corner.

"Hey, Akola-"

Her eyes become large and they look up to the sky.

Dangling a few feet off the ground are a pair of shoes, leading to legs, torso, and then finally the neck, being cut off by rope.

"SIQ!"

Akola runs forward and grabs the feet against her chest. She does the first thing she can think of, lifting the body upwards, the feet clumsily sliding off of her chest.

"Akola?" On Ji asks as the footsteps approach.

"SIQ! NO! ON JI COME QUICK!"

On Ji takes hastily steps but then comes to a halt in the hallway when she sees it. She gasps and covers her mouth.

"On Ji help!" Akola screams at her. "Come grab his feet!"

The sight and the smells overcome the woman who is not accustomed to death. She falls to her knees and wretches all over the floor. Azula felt her torso get damp while supporting him. Unsure of what, but somewhere in her past she recognized the smell. It used to bring joy to a twisted past life of hers, but this exact moment only brings her horror.

"On Ji! Agni damn it, get up here and help me! He's dying!"

On Ji begins sobbing and sits back away from her vomit, grabbing the floor and pushing away. She mumbles to herself over and over again, "No! No Siq. No, no, no!"

"On Ji, damn it! Akola screams. "Grab his feet so I can cut him down!"

"He's dead, Akola." She sobs, hiding her face, paralyzed on the ground. "He's already dead."

"Fucking shit!" Akola curses as she drops his feet momentarily.

She bends her knees and jumps up, using her firebending to keep her flying in the air, a trick she hasn't done in many years. She inadvertently bumps into the body and then up above it. She grabs the rope with one hand and mentally commands powerful blue fire into her palms with more urgency than even when she fought for her life. The rope disintegrates almost instantaneously.

Cut loose, the body drops to the floor. Akola tries to catch him but his weight slips right through her arms. She falls down to the ground thereafter and starts burning off more rope bits until she can free his neck completely.

"Siq! Siq wake up! Siq you can't die. Siq, wake up!"

There are deep bruises around his neck, so dark they're practically black. 

"Siq wake up!"

She places her hands on his chest, right by his heart, and pumps him full of electricity. His body jumps from the shock, but he doesn't come to.

"Akola stop!" On Ji cries nearby. "He's gone!"

"No he's not! He's not! I can save him."

She pumps more electricity, an amount she fears could otherwise be lethal, but she has no choice. She is desperate to wake the dark skinned boy with the brightest blue eyes.

"Siq! No! Siq! Siq!" She screams in his face, to no avail.

On Ji crawls on the ground towards them. "Akola, stop!"

"NO!" She screams and sits up. "HE CAN'T BE DEAD!"

She puts both hands on his chest, right on the other side of his heart. She pushes everything into her palms and lights him up with enough electricity to kill a dozen men. More power than even when she was cornered in a cave with dozens of zealots trying to end her.

Siq's body elevates off the ground for a full second and a half, despite her hands on his chest, and then crashes back down. He doesn't move. He doesn't open his eyes. He doesn't breathe. He doesn't smile.

On Ji reaches her arms up and grabs Akola, wrapping her body against the Firebender. She buries her face into Akola's shoulder and weeps. It is this act that solidifies it for Akola. This is the moment when reality sets in and crashes down upon her despite all of her wants and wishes.

"Siq," she whispers. "No."

Finally, Akola allows herself to feel the pain. She cries and wraps her arms around On Ji. They mourn on the floor beside their lifeless friend.

It's a few hours later, in the early hours of the afternoon, when Azula finally opens the letter from Siq. She sits, dumbfounded, in a chair at Jin's dinner table, numbly opening the envelope.

First, I want to apologize for the state in which you found my body. I'm sure it was quite a sight, and I wish you peace in moving forward from it.

I'm guessing you found this, Akola, because no one else would've gone in the house, or known about the backdoor, and I doubt anyone buys it any time soon.

Akola, I am leaving you the formula for Lonlhai Fire. I cannot trust anyone else with it. You never asked for it, making you the most worthy to hold it. Do with it as you please.

I know that we called each other siblings jokingly as part of our relationship, but I really did see you as the closest thing I ever had to a sister. You were reliable, and we fought sometimes, and you didn't always support my decisions, but we always came back to each other begrudgingly. Usually with a smile and a sarcastic comment.

I'm gonna tell you a story, because you might be the only one who can understand: I left my homeland and never returned. It was a decision I made with great haste. It was something I never thought I would regret. But here I am, at the end of my life, and I am filled with remorse. I have no way of knowing if my family is gone, or bereft at my leaving, or happier for my absence. I used to hate the Lonlhai Village, and I was happy when I'd left it behind. Now, I would give anything to return and just sit with my family once more.

But I can't go home. I know you have said that you could help me to escape. But I do not believe you, I am sorry to say. I feel completely buried by debt and disappointment and sadness. I see no light or escape for me. My life's work was brought to heel by a greedy bastard banker and a deal I made with a monster. I see no way out, no way to live, before they extract the very blood from my bones. They will take and take and take until there is nothing left of me.

Thank you, Akola, for being my guardian. A watchful protector for all the broken people in life. The greatest protector on Earth, greater even than the Avatar. Knowing you I have no doubt that despite this letter you will devise a plan to avenge me.

And Spirits help any mother fucker who stands in your way.

I'm sorry and I love you,
Siq

Azula is shaking as she finishes the letter. But she does not cry. She does not mourn. She is filled with righteous indignation. Fury that explodes from places she has long forgotten about. The letter makes an audible noise as her hands shake and she bounces her knees. Her mind moves at warp speed working through a variety of plans, moves and countermoves, but everything always ends with Gaaler's head on a pike. She is seeing red in ways that she hasn't in several lifetimes.

The floorboards from the kitchen creak as Jin walks in slowly, cautiously, watching from a distance as Akola's bottled up emotions threaten to spill out. She comes to a stop a few feet away. On Ji walks in behind her and stops a few feet behind Jin.

"What's going on, Akola?" Jin asks her. "What are you going to do?"

Azula doesn't look up right away. She stares at the floor and contemplates her options. But the red is blinding. The blood looks good on Gaaler's office walls. Or perhaps his bones turned black from being charred and burned. Maybe there won't even be any bones left when she's done with him, the way Koh's Disciples once believed her capable of doing.

"I'm gonna find," she starts and slowly she raises her head to meet Jin's dark olive green eyes. "And I'm gonna kill, that greedy mother fucker."

There's a pause and silence. Azula and Jin stare at one another and the only sound filling the room is the distant, dull happenings of the world outside. Jin nods in understanding, but gulps as she prepares to fight against the Southside's most unstoppable weapon.

"You mean Gaaler?"

Azula rises. "I do. And I'm not waiting."

Azula moves towards the door. Jin blocks her way. On Ji looks on frightfully at the sight.

"Don't do this, Akola. There's got to be a better way."

"A better way? Siq is dead because of him. There is no ' better .'"

Azula goes to walk around Jin, but the brunette moves again in front of her.

"Okay! You're right. Not better, but different. There has to be a different way."

"The only way is me burning off his skin, piece by piece, until he begs me to kill him."

Azula again tries to walk around Jin, but the leader of the Southside won't let her pass.

"Move."

"Killing Gaaler won't bring Siq back!"

"I said MOVE!"

Azula walks right into Jin, who puts her arms out, but she is no match for the fire bender. She walks through them and Jin steps back.

"If you kill him, it won't get any better!"

"It'll make me feel better." 

Jin is nearly at the door in her retreat.

"But what about us? What about the rest of us? We knew Siq far longer than you! I brought him in, gave him a roof. You don't see me rushing out to murder the banker who buried him in debt."

"Then you simply lack the conviction to act."

Jin is flush against the door.

"Move."

"What happens after you kill him? Hmm? You get arrested? Put in a cell for the rest of your days, or worse, put to the sword? What then? What happens to Ty Lin? What happens to us?"

"I'll figure that out later. I always have and I always will. Now move, or I will move you!"

Azula puts her hands on Jin's arms and moves closer to her.

On Ji begs her, "Akola, please!"

"MOVE!"

"NO!" Jin pushes Azula and to everyone's surprise she moves her. The black haired firebender steps back a step or two.

"You are feeling right now, but you are not thinking ! Gaaler would be dead but the First Bank would live on. He's just a figurehead. They put someone else in charge, someone worse. Someone determined to make everything even worse. Extracting revenge every day on us because of what you did."

Azula grits her teeth and balls her fists. They warm up, almost coming to life with fire. She heaves a large breath and prepares to fight, until she looks at Jin's face. An angry, scowling expression as tears run down her face.

"You think you're the only one hurt?" The brunette shouts at her. "You think you're the only one who feels like they failed? I failed him! We failed him. But we're not going to honor his memory by spilling blood. We can't."

Azula huffs and puffs. She takes a second to breathe. Words from her past lives finally reverberate in her mind.

If you intend to go after Zirin and this, um, Yakone, then you should start by digging three graves.'

For one moment she is back on that boat, gliding away from Republic City. Standing there with Lin as he tells her that revenge will only consume her, never make her whole. She had almost lost sight of that.

"You're right." She admits.

Taken aback, cautious, not letting her guard down, Jin asks, "I am?"

"She is?" On Ji asks, equally surprised.

"There has to be another way." She says as she thinks through her options now, playing a different angle.

As Azula thinks, Jin takes this momentary silence and adds, "Yes. Another way to do something about Gaaler, without killing him."

Mumbling to herself but also replying to Jin, Azula says, "Replace the head of the dragon, without killing it. Controlling it, somehow. We can't let this happen to anyone ever again. But what's more powerful than-"

She stops as an idea blossoms in her mind. Akola's violent past, Azula's present nightmare. 

"Akola? What's more powerful than what?" On Ji asks.

An organization powerful enough to take down an entire banking system in Ba Sing Se.

'But how do I get in contact with them? How do I reach them? Demand an audience?'

Azula sees the path unfolding in front of her. Powerful political figures and extremists in the city. If he has previously come for an audience with her, surely he was seeing others while he was here. There is one person she knows who he probably has his claws in, beside herself.

"I have a plan." She tells them, to their surprise and delight.

Azula saw red before.

Now Akola will go about seeing the Red Lotus.

[Two Days Later]

It took her some time, but Akola finally found his lair, all the way in the Northside of the Lower Ring. The coward ran as far as he could from her, but she tracked him down all the same.

She walks through the dark hallway and finally comes into a low lit room, filled with velvet couches and throw pillows. Hiding amongst the poor and the destitute, the leader of the Bender Supremacist movement lives in the lap of luxury. A stark contrast to Jin's minimalist lifestyle. He sits in the center of the room at a Pai Sho table.

"Ah! Akola of Ember Island! We've been waiting for you."

There are multiple armed guards, bender and nonbenders alike, all around the room. Azula counts no fewer than five of them. She walks out towards the center of the room to meet with Shulun.

"I was quite pleased to hear your request to meet. Perhaps you've grown tired of Mama and her empty studios? Rather be paid well, sleep well, and take your place amongst the elite?"

She stops at the table and looks down at him. Her eyes dart to the board and then back at Shulun's amber eyes.

"Oh. I see. Perhaps a game, weary trav-"

Azula reaches down, grabs the table by the top, and flings it across the room. The board clatters and the chips bounce all around. The guards take a step in but Shulun puts a hand up.

"No! No. That won't be necessary. This was clearly just an outburst from our esteemed-"

Azula puts her left hand on his shoulder, then rears back her right fist and slams it into his stomach.

"OOF!"

The guards advance, some motioning to bend. Azula throws Shulun out of his chair and he slides along the hardwood floor until he crashes into a wall. Azula, knowing what's about to come, spins and sticks two fingers out in both hands, pointed in opposite directions. Lightning flashes, blinding the room and blasting two of the guards, knocking them onto the ground.

The other three stop and stare at their compatriots on the ground and they're not sure if they're still breathing or not, but nonetheless they are stopped in their tracks.

"They're not dead," Azula assures the room. "But if any of you take another step, I'll put the next one right into your heart and send you to permanent darkness."

The two who were struck by lightning finally groan and roll on the floor. The remaining guards don't tempt fate. With that matter resolved, Azula moves to her target. Shulun scrambles into a sitting position while she closes in on him.

"Wait! Wait, now, we-"

She lifts him up off of the ground, off of his feet, and into the air. With her free hand she delivers precise blows to his arms to make them go numb. She presses him against the wall and pushes her forearm into his throat. She allows him enough airway to breath, but also applies enough pressure that it hurts. She gets uncomfortably close to his face and looks into those amber eyes. He struggles for air and tries kicking her, to no success. She scowls as she gives him a command.

"Call him."

"Ca…ll…who?" He spits out.

"Xai Bau."

The guard closest to them yells at her, "We don't know no Eyebrows, Lady."

Azula doesn't listen to the bystander. She is too busy witnessing the fear in Shulun's eyes. They bounce all around, taking her in and trying to understand. She relishes this moment.

"That's right. I know what it means to have vast amounts of power."

If he could breathe properly he might be hyperventilating right now.

"So, you see, I’m somehow more dangerous than you thought before. And that’s the fate that awaits you if you or your goons ever cross back into the Southside."

Azula enjoys this, perhaps too much.

"But I don’t give a shit about you, Shulun. My fight isn’t with you. So you just call him and we’ll be square. Clear?"

“I…can’t.” He labors.

“You can and you will.” She tells him.

“They...could…kill…me.”

“So take your chances: Them, who might kill you for calling him, or me, who will kill you if you don’t."

Although Azula can see only fear in his eyes, it is not enough.

"And I swear on everything you believe in that when I'm done with you, your body will be buried so deep the Spirits won’t even be able to find you!"

Azula spits in his face inadvertently as she foams at the mouth with rage, choking him and squeezing the life out of him. Finally, she lets him go and he falls to the floor. He gasps for air and uses his knees to move his body away from her, trying to roll and get away, his arms still chiblocked.

“Call him.” She says once more, and then makes her exit.

In Republic City, there is no rest for the wicked. There's no rest for the good. There's no rest for the crooked vandals, the mobsters, the metal benders, the old, the young, the proud, the dumb, the virtuous, the malicious, not even the blind. So when Toph Beifong steps barefoot into her office and senses a woman sitting in the corner, she is not surprised. She simply takes the other step and closes the door behind her.

She sighs and asks, "Who's there? Small feet, lightweight, and quiet as a mouse. Is it you, Suki?"

"It is."

"Woof," Toph groans, approaching her desk. "My first shift back and you're already sneaking into my office. You must be really in a bind."

"Kiph Oro fucked me and fucked us."

"Speak for yourself," Toph replies as she sits down. "KO fucked herself with that failed attempt to arrest Yakone. Cost her the chance at my job. Gave me something to come back to."

"But we're not finished. He's still on the streets, controlling the strings of the city's criminal activity."

"Pisses me off too, Suki. But what else do you want me to do?"

"I need your support for an undercover op."

"Ha! You're not wasting any time, are you?"

"Six months, starting this spring."

"Oh, you're being serious."

"I have a plan. It starts with getting in at the shipment yard in Yue Bay. Headed by a woman named Enong."

"So when KO sent you home while I was out, I take it you didn't take time off for yourself? You just kept working the case from afar?"

"We're gonna nail the son of a bitch, Toph. This is the angle."

Exasperated Toph lets out a long, drawn out sigh. "Suki, if we're going to do this, you can't hold anything back anymore."

"I never have."

"Yes, you have. Whether you realized it or not, you have let your moral highness prevent you from doing what is necessary."

"I see." And Suki knows what she means.

"If you're going in again, this time you have to get in the weeds. You have to be like them ."

There is a tense silence.

"Are you sure you're ready for that?"

Suki doesn't need to think.

"I know, Toph. And I'll do whatever it takes."

Toph laughs.

"What?"

"You really fucking mean it. I can tell."

"So we have a deal?"

"We'll get you in place. Three months."

Suki stands and goes to leave. But she stops at the door. She turns back around. Toph can tell she hasn't left and groans.

"What? I have shit to do, Suki."

"Can I ask one thing?"

"No."

"Something personal."

"Then definitely not."

"Your newborn, Suyin." Suki pauses. "The father?"

Toph is quiet for a long time. She sighs.

"Her father is none of your fucking business."

"Right."

"Speak to Uyora on your way out. Tell her to schedule us a meeting next week with Teejam. The three of us will put our heads together and come up with a plan."

Suki leaves without another word. She leaves feeling professionally triumphant, if not personally unsatisfied.

Azula spent several days waiting for Xai Bau. She knew to expect the Red Lotus to appear when she least expected it, but being on edge the entire time led her to being prepared for exactly when they would come. Nonetheless, she is scribbling on her notepad at the library when the front door opens. She's not unprepared, but her mind is preoccupied with the latest poem she is scratching out.

"Welcome to the Southside Public Li-"

She looks up and finds an uncommon sight, and is instantly sharp about her senses. However, it is not the bald, grey eyes of Xai Bau that approach. Instead, the man is dark skinned, dark eyes, short and thin, and elderly. She recognizes him somehow. He lowers the scarf covering his mouth and approaches the desk. He gets a playful look in his eyes as he approaches.

"You don't remember me, do you?"

She glares daggers at him. "Why should I?"

"Perhaps a hint? You once bashed my head into a table at a bar surrounded by Kyoshi Warriors."

"Ah! Zaso was it?"

"In the flesh." He whispers to her.

"Where is he?" She demands.

"He is occupied at the moment."

"In the city?"

"Not exactly."

"I thought my message through Shulun would've been clear that I needed to speak with him."

"You are speaking with me, is that not enough?"

"I suppose that will depend."

"On what exactly?"

"If you can give me what I need."

He chuckles a bit and rubs his hands together. "Ah! The game is afoot. What could a librarian possibly need from us? Unless, perhaps, she wasn't planning on being a librarian for much longer?"

She remains silent.

"Does she rise?"

"She doesn't."

He squints his eyes and furrows his brow. "Pardon me for not truly believing."

"This is something personal. I need information."

"What kind of information?"

"I've run into some money issues," she lies. "And I need the bank to look the other way."

"Hardly a concern of ours. Haven't you a history of ducking and running when things get too hot?"

She shakes her head. "Not this time. Like I said, it's personal."

"How personal?"

"There's a banker that's digging into my past."

"Then we'll have him executed."

"That won't change things for me."

"You're being awfully troublesome. What is it exactly that you want?"

She narrows her own eyes now. "I want to blackmail him into leaving me and the others around me alone."

"Hmmm," he smiles. "I see. Very good. Very Empress-y of you. Are you sure she does not rise?"

"I'm sure."

"Because if she were to rise and the Kemurikage were to be reborn, then a bill of sorts would come due for her. A bill owed to him. "

"I'm sure."

He puts his hands out defensively. "Fair enough. We're exceptionally busy at this time, but I will see what I can do."

"What you 'can do?' What do you mean? Don't you have something now?"

"Certainly not. I don't know the bank, or the man, or how you'll pay for this."

"His name is Gaaler of The First Bank. And pay?"

"You didn't think your 'information' would come free, did you?"

"What do you want?"

"What he wants, as he told me to relay, is something of limitless potential. Value beyond imagination."

"What exactly is that?"

"Rumor has it a fire that can burn forever. Not even water can put it out. Do you know what I mean? They say a boy, a child, somewhere around here is responsible for such an invention."

Azula does not react, which unfortunately tells Zaso what he needs to know.

"Ah, so you do know. You'll acquire the creator for us. Another one-for-one trade, as it were."

Azula doesn't say anything, as her mind runs away with the fact that she has the formula on her, but she can't give it to them. And Siq is gone, so she couldn't hand him over, even if she wanted to.

"Excellent," Zaso says with a smile. "I'll be on my way then."

"Wait!" She stops him and he turns back around. "What do I do in the meantime? When will you be back?"

He shrugs. "I'm not sure. That's a personal problem for you. I'm sure you'll think of something, you're quite creative. Perhaps plot your revenge in ways that you can without our assistance? We'll be back when we're able."

As Zaso exits the library, Azula can't help but shake a feeling. Something about this encounter feels wrong. Xai Bau never sends others in his place to commune with her, not since her very first meeting. If he's not in the city, Azula wonders where he could be that is so important. What's more Zaso's choice of the word 'reborn' for the Kemurikage stuck out as well. If they're all really gone according to the Red Lotus, then what does that mean for her, she wonders.

She brushes all of that aside for now. Instead, she has to pivot. She has to plot her revenge on Gaaler for when Zaso returns, but also come up with some plan in place for how she will or will not pay Zaso. However, this is where Azula has always thrived.

Amongst the fog of war, she sees clearer than ever.

Chapter Text

[Summer 127 AG]

Jin of the Lower Ring was seventeen years old when she looked to the sky and saw a second sun. It was awe inspiring and a marvel to behold. Ba Sing Se had fallen earlier that year and she watched as Fire Nation soldiers lined the city streets in preparation to fight, and ultimately to die. She was unaware of the Fire Lord and the Avatar doing battle in the West. She had no idea that there was an Agni Kai happening in Caldera. She had no clue how much her own life would be shaped by these events. Rather, at the time, she was busy watching another set of 'liberators' come conquer her home.

Having her city violated at such a vulnerable age had a profound impact on the sprightly youth. She became wary of outsiders and defensive of her homeland. She learned to protect her body first and then her fellow Lower Ring comrades. Once the downtrodden started flocking to her and seeing her as a motherly figure, she quickly ascended the mount of leadership. She felt responsible for them and their wellbeing and began developing a network to provide.

Fourteen years before On Ji crossed into the Lower Ring, Jin was well on her way to becoming 'Mama of the Southside.' Another nine years after that, Akola of Ember Island would be escorted to her door. In those twenty-three years, Mama saved many poor, unfortunate souls through her Empire. Siq and Aiwei may have been lost, but there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of lives touched and positively shaped. Lost youths who were found. Troubled teens who were given a purpose. Perhaps none were as difficult or troublesome as the lives of Bing and Beng.

The fraternal twins were born shortly after the Hundred Year's War ended, in 103 AG in Ba Sing Se, Middle Ring. At the tender age of seven, their parents were slain in a double homicide home invasion. Although the perpetrators were not from the Southside, they were Lower Ring refugees and as a result, when Jin eventually got to know them, she always felt a sense of responsibility towards the twins.

Their parents being Middle Ring did nothing for the fortune of the orphans, who were ferried from one orphanage to the next, due to them closing one after the other - a side effect of the Earth Kingdom's financial policies at the time as pennies were being pinched in the efforts to build Republic City. They somehow came to be in an orphanage in the Southside Lower Ring. They could've conceivably stayed there until they turned eighteen, but the living situation was a nightmare and the trauma they had experienced since their parents death left them hopeless and listless.

At that stage, Mama had begun developing a network and a system around her. She was seven plus years past the awakening she had during the defeat of the Fire Nation by the 'liberators.' Things were in place, there was a 'hum' to her operations, and she had helped a few children, but not ones like these two. Bing and Beng were violent, loud, and obnoxious. No one would mistake them for clever, but give them an objective and they would strive towards it with purpose. At the time, they were adrift in the unsteady waters of adolescence, without a lighthouse to guide them to shore.

Until Mama came to their aid.

Twenty years later, Jin successfully had guided them through to adulthood, keeping them alive and fed, albeit often inebriated. Now, they still wear the raggedy charcoal capes, the last heirlooms and attachments to their parents. They mourn the loss of their old friend, Siq of Lonlhai Village, who passed away a few months ago. They abhor bender supremacists, as it was benders who took their parents away. They believe in cosmic energies, but don't believe in higher powers. They like and respect Akola, who only mildly tolerates them, but as a result they are also terrified of her.

They are the very definition of 'survivors.'

"Bing," the sister starts as they walk through the dark, down the street together. "How much did that old hag give you for pleasuring her?"

Above all else, though, they will do anything for money, doubly so for cactus juice.

"Ay! She wasn't that old," he defends his recent foray of using his body for money. "And not much. She didn't have much either. But she gave me her best bottle of juice she could find."

"Oi!" His sister shouts in surprise. "Where is it? Why didn't you bring it?"

"Left it at home for after the show. For me! "

"You're not going to share? How rude."

"You didn't have to go down on 'the old hag!' So you don't get any."

"Pshh. I've gone down on my fair share of girls and boys, and I always share with you!"

"Shut it, we're almost there and we're already late!"

The twins bicker back and forth, walking into the old meeting house. A large sign outside advertises the rare opportunity to hear from a collection of local poets and surprise speakers. Their charcoal capes flap in the summer breeze just as they are disappearing through the doors.

Unbeknownst to the pair a hooded figure follows them, slipping inside behind the twins, using them to block visibility and remain hidden amongst the shadows.

The last six months Azula has been consumed with a single-minded focus: Prepare the Southside for a world without Akola of Ember Island. Instilling fear in Shulun was a great first step, but there needed to be more. She needed to rally supporters behind Mama and empower her beyond measure. If they were going to lose their best Pai Sho chip, that was fine, so long as the remaining pieces were strategically placed to punish their opponent in the aftermath. In the end, it was Zaso's words that bounced all around her mind and drove her motivation.

"Perhaps plot your revenge in ways that you can without our assistance?"

Tonight's latest event is a massive effort to flush the Bender Supremacist movement out of the city. Azula gathered the best poets in the Lower Ring together, and asked them to consider their place in the movement, and in history. She argued that they have a duty to write and share their perspective, to help usher in a wave of sympathy from the common person. She convinced them that there is no one else on Earth more capable of bringing about 'peace in our time' than the poets and writers of today's world.

It was a compelling case, one that she was about to expand on in her own presentations. From the side of the stage she watches her least favorite twins in capes walk in. From her elevated point on the stage, she can see another figure enter behind them but quickly disappear from view. She saw the brown hood covering their face and she knows already she must have some sort of special guest in her audience. Mama walks up to center stage.

"Our final poet of the night, and the woman who brought us all together, needs no introduction - but I will do my best nonetheless. We are graced by the presence of Akola of Ember Island. Also known by many as The Librarian, or The Lady in Red. She is Ty Lin's wife and Mama's Second in Command. You may recognize her as a Champion of the Equalists. But tonight she is The Southside's Poet."

Azula stands tall as a new set of titles are announced for her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, give it up, for Akola!"

There is a voracious applause while Mama steps aside and Akola steps forward. It has been an outlandishly successful night by any measure. A raucous and moved audience watches as the raven haired, many named woman approaches position zero. She runs a hand across her scalp, the hair nearly gone from her recent cut, and then smiles out at everyone. The brown hooded figure that she spotted earlier stands against the back wall, concealing themself from the crowd, even if Azula sees them clearly.

"Thank you for the introduction, Mama. Thank you everyone for being here. And I'm sorry you have to end your night listening to me."

The crowd chuckles at her self-defecating humor.

"Tonight I only have two poems for you all. So we'll all be out of here pretty soon. Get home to our beds and such. What's more, I normally explain my poems to the audience, or at least key them in on some larger message involved with it. But not tonight. I truly think it'll be fairly obvious."

There's murmuring and whispers in response. She smirks.

"With that, here's "What You Sow.""

Azula recites it from memory.

"The Bender Supremacist Movement is a bunch of bullshit. /
If I have to hear another speech from them I'm certain I will lose it. /
Their base is filled with nonbenders, just a bunch of hypocrites! / 
They don't actually want to improve our lives, their promises are all counterfeit.

And that's just the tip, let's review the government's love of cactus juice. /
Flood the Lower Ring with it so everyone gets substance abuse. /
Laughing from their perches above us while we strangle ourselves, tightening the noose /
We kill each other, and kill ourselves, unable to withstand the abuse. 

And there's no escape door or any kind of exit hallway /
Every single plan or measure is only halfway /
Crooked bankers smile as they give you a loan today /
And if you miss a payment then they'll smile again, as they take your home away.

Now pay close attention: Notice there's no help from the Avatar? /
Helping out the common folks no longer in his repertoire! /
He and the Fire Lord built that shining city, now they just watch from afar. /
The two of them last gave a shit about us when the sky lit up from a shooting star.

So this poem’s dedicated to you, Aang and Zuko /
You do nothing while we suffer oppression, everyone knows /
You're going to see one day, it'll just go to show /
Whether this city collapses, or uprises, you'll have to reap what you sow."

The reaction is a minute of snapping, clapping, and outright applause. These people are some of the most forgotten folks in the entire Earth Kingdom. The words shared by Akola of Ember Island resonate with them deeply. On the stage though, she looks calm and ready. She doesn't react or celebrate. She is grim and patient. She waits for the silence to return. When it does, she speaks again.

"Thank you. My final poem of the night takes a different tone. This one is called "Pray No Longer.""

She looks down for a moment, mentally reciting the shorter poem again. Finally she looks up, and looks out across the room at the hooded figure. They don't dare make eye contact, but she speaks this poem for them and everyone they represent.

"When we escaped, breathless, and free, full of wonder. /
Everyday was a blessing, the hope grew stronger /
Have faith! Take courage! And pray no longer!

Time opens all wounds again. I wandered. /
In the village, whispered tones, asking, "Who has wronged her?" /
Have faith? Take courage? I pray no longer.

Now it is my time to rise again, to conquer. /
Through the shadows of death, I am your stalker. /
Have faith. Take courage. For I am Prey no longer."

Suki pushes the doors open and finds herself finally caught up and alone with her prey. In the distance, the dull roar of alarms are blaring out. In the hallway, a blinking red light illuminates the space. It's the end of the road for the woman she's been tracking. There's a trail of blood on the dirt floor leading up to the door. On the floor, the dark skinned woman with dreads tries to push open a door that has been chained shut. Even if she wasn't bleeding out, the task would be impossible.

Suki stands tall and approaches. Her vision is darkness interrupted rhythmically with bright red. The bleeding woman moans and bleats in pain, exacerbated, she hears the echo of approaching footsteps. As she approaches, Suki reaches behind her back. Pinned against her lower-back, held in place by the waistband of her pants, is her old warrior fan. It slides smoothly out of hiding, and with a flick of the wrist she opens the fan to its full extension. This sound is just the latest to give the woman fright. Yet it's what comes next that makes it official.

Suki whispers through the dark, sweetly to her former associate, "Hi Kurran."

"Oh Spirits…oh spirits." The Water Tribe woman groans as she turns over.

Knowing she won't get the door open, Kurran now leans her back against it. Her lower body is on the floor. She initially had one hand applying pressure to the wound in her abdomen, but now she places a second hand on it to stop the bleeding.

"Where's Lin?" Suki asks, waving her fan about, unconcerned by the blinking red light and distant alarm.

Kurran looks up at her with new eyes. Months and years of confusion and misdirection, all becoming clear in this instant.

"It's you. You're her."

Suki isn't sure if Kurran has really pieced it together. She might be mistaking her for Azula, or Ty Lee. Maybe she does know her true identity, but none of it matters.

"You Kemurikage?" Suki asks.

She extends the fan and rests it on Kurran's cheek, the tip of its sharp edge poking her face. Suki withdraws it and Kurran looks up at her with disgust

"There are no Kemurikage anymore."

Nodding in understanding and agreement, Suki returns to her question.

"Where's Lin?"

"I'm fucking dead anyway," she says through labored breaths. "Why would I tell you anything?"

Suki squats down on her knees. She pushes the fan into Kurran's abdomen, causing her to wince and cry, torturing the girl as blood spurts out.

"Because I can make it quick, or I can make it so much worse." Suki tells her, pulling the fan back.

Kurran pants and sighs. She can't stop the bleeding and there is no escape. No one is coming for her. She knows that. She tries to appeal to her assailant's emotions instead.

"Think about what she did," she says through painful breaths. She pushes through to finish, "How many people are dead because of her?"

Suki doesn't need to be told. She doesn't need to be reminded. She buried some of them herself. It seems so black and white in that essence. Azula is no hero; she's the villain in the history books.

But history is filled with liars. And the world is grey, not black and white. A difficult, painful truth that Suki has had to come to grips with over the many years. A younger version of herself would've listened to Kurran, maybe even been swayed.

"It's your last chance."

But she is not younger. She is the Most Powerful Being on Earth. She lifts the fan up, raised above her head, reared back.

"I'm not betraying Yakone." Kurran assures her.

Suki grits her teeth. She scowls. Her fan flies forward and crashes into the body of the dying woman. The lights blink to light up the dark. Suki only sees red. 

It might not be hyperbole to say that the formula for Lonlhai Fire is the most closely guarded secret on the face of the Earth. The First Bank of Ba Sing Se had devoted almost a limitless amount of resources into backing it. Everyone in the Southside asked for it, except ultimately for one person. Its inventor, Agni rest his soul, had gone to his grave protecting that formula, scribbling it down on a piece of scrap paper on the backside of his goodbye letter. No one alive knew that Akola of Ember Island is now the holder of the scientific proof. One of the most revolutionary inventions in the modern world, capable of profound good and unimaginable evil, and she holds it in her very hands. She wonders what matters more: keeping this formula out of the wrong hands, or her very identity.

The poetry night has recently ended and Azula is off to the side of the stage. People are milling about, chatting, making idle conversation. Some of them want to go up to Akola and express their thanks or ask for her thoughts on the poems she read, the motivation, the background. Some want to ask her to review their latest works, and get the thoughts of the raven haired woman. No one would mistake Akola for the best poet in Ba Sing Se, but she is certainly the most influential person who also happens to moonlight as a poet. No one dares to approach though because she is deep in thought, staring at some scrap paper in her hands.

Zaso had said that the inventor would be due as payment. A prospect that is quite literally impossible, but at the same time the objective is within reach. She stares at the paper for a long time and debates the legacy that Siq wanted, juxtaposed to the reality she wants to create in the world. It's truly bizarre how some scribbled chemistry notes could consume so much of her mind, and the weight those notes have on her.

Azula lifts her head and turns to look at the back wall. Through the gaps in the crowd she sees the hooded stranger, still waiting. A proverbial spirit lingering, waiting for her in the graveyard. She doesn't know who has come for her. Xai Bau, or Zaso, or it could be that lightning scar, mute, muscular woman for all she knows. But what she does know is that Siq went to his death without sharing this formula. She will not desecrate his memory by trading it for a pound of flesh.

Azula moves the paper out of view and holds it at her left side. Imperceptible to the eyes of the crowd, she sends the fire through her left hand. The scrap singes and burns. It melts away, slowly but surely, in her hand. With the touch of the sun, she burns the formula and with it the hopes of evil men. 

Azula stands suddenly. She turns to her right and walks past the idling crowd. She moves directly towards The Stranger. On cue, the hooded figure turns and starts walking towards the exit. Azula does the same, exchanging pleasantries with admirers and friends alike along the way.

She goes outside and watches them disappear behind a corner. She follows, and each step they get a little further away. She does not hurry her steps, she knows they will not abandon her. The Stranger didn't come all this way, watch her show, and wait for her, just to leave her in a cloud of dust. She knows they are staying one step ahead just to avoid being seen together. She takes her time, and she turns a few more corners. Finally they come to a dead end and The Stranger waits, back turned to her, a bench beside them for sitting.

"Do you remember who you are?" The Stranger asks.

They are tall and lanky, but the voice does not belong to Xai Bau. She isn't sure if it's Zaso either though.

"You are the Dragon Empress. And there is only one way this ends."

His voice sounds familiar, yet not. He turns to face her, shrouded in the thick blue darkness of the summer night and clothes sticking to him from the heat. His dark skinned hands rise and lift the hood up off of him. Unveiled, she finds a young man she almost doesn't recognize.

"Aiwei?" She asks, stunned.

"It is indeed." He says with closed eyes and a smile.

"Oh my Agni!" She launches herself at him and embraces her old ward. "How? What? And wait you-"

She realizes now that he called her by her old title.

"You have gone by many names. Akola of Ember Island. Asuna of Lanxi. The Dragon Empress. Or would you prefer to be called Azula of Caldera?"

"You know?"

"I know."

"I'm sorry you had to find out the way that you did."

He smiles but doesn't reply. This prompts her to ask, "What?"

He smiles more broadly now, and as he does so he retreats to the bench nearby. She joins him in sitting beside each other. He tells her, "I can tell you're being sincere."

She cocks an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"

"Yes," he replies, relaxing a bit. "My abilities have grown much over the years. I am far more powerful now than I was when we last met."

"I see." She concedes. "But why have they sent you?"

"That answer is complicated. And I will share but first, tell me. Are the rumors true?"

She knows what he means. She shakes her head and nods. He was solemn before but now he grimaces.

"I am sorry for your loss."

"For our loss, Aiwei."

"Aye," he nods. "Our loss."

A moment of silence passes between them. Aiwei breaks it by saying, "Your poetry was pleasant. Although I think Master Bau would've been, ahem, intrigued to hear your poem about prayers."

"Ah," she rubs the back of her head. "I suppose he would. It wasn't really written for him-"

"That's a lie."

"-but rather for others. Or at least one other."

"You speak of Gaaler."

"I do."

"Do you have the formula?"

"No."

"The truth."

They stare into each other's eyes. Her amber ones mixing with his green ones.

"Did you plan to pay at all?"

"No."

"The truth again."

"Can you help me?"

"I have strict instructions to take payment before imparting my knowledge."

She feels opportunity slipping away. She begs him. "You have to understand, Aiwei. Gaaler killed Siq. He is the reason he-"

"Stop it, Akola."

She is silent and attentive. He frowns and shakes his head.

"You are manipulative and controlling. You have killed and slaughtered. You’ve hoarded coin and favor from every significant being alive. You wielded unfathomable power and influence and held the very world in your lightning infused palm. I know all of this now, thanks to Master Bau and the Red Lotus."

She doesn't argue or disagree or fight back. She doesn't nod or agree or acknowledge. She lets him speak. He searches her with his eyes. Yet through the years and experience, he sees the same woman he once knew.

"And despite all of that, you lived among the homeless and destitute here in Ba Sing Se. You fell in line to Mama, a woman with not even a fraction of your influence. You sat in a library for hours on end with a young boy and researched dead Avatars. And most importantly, you gave that boy a chance at a life he could never have dreamed of, at a great personal cost to yourself.”

He is emotional, even if she is not. She just listens, surprised by the turn it has taken.

"I have a fondness in my heart for you. I am grateful for you."

He pauses.

"And if it helps you to get revenge for Siq's death, then I will help you do it."

"Aiwei, thank you. It-"

"Do not thank me. As far as Master Bau and especially Master Zaso are concerned, this is still a transaction."

She gives a slight nod.

"I will be telling them how we met beforehand and you promised to incite the Equalists of Ba Sing Se into revolutionary acts."

"But…what of Shulun?"

Aiwei flashes a sly smile. He tells her, "I am personally of the belief that there may be greater opportunities with Equalists than with Bender Supremacist. I will simply take your credit for the waves of political upheaval you have assuredly created with your event tonight."

"You and I would've made a powerful duo, Aiwei."

"No need to wonder. We made a powerful duo, Akola."

They share a smile and a soft laugh. As the quiet settles in between them he gets a look in his eye. She reads it and they both become more serious. He places his right fist into his open left hand.

"Now, as for Gaaler…"

Aiwei spills the secrets of the Chief Financial Officer for The First Bank of Ba Sing Se.

After Azula has learned the great weakness of her enemy, they spend some time catching up. She learns more about his life with the Red Lotus, but only so much detail. He is cagey on certain identifying aspects, leaving her wanting for more. She updates him about his old friends in the Southside. Finally, the time comes for him to depart. Before putting the hood back on and disappearing forever into the shadows, Aiwei imparts another gift.

"One last thing, Azula of Caldera."

"What is it?" She asks as they both stand up from their bench in the back alley.

"Master Bau and Master Zaso sent me by my request, but I am still without an escort."

"I noticed, but I wasn’t sure."

"Just as you are at war with Gaaler, the Red Lotus fights its own war right now. We could not spare the energy or the people on you."

"Oh?"

"In the coming months, perhaps when the leaves change and our expected focus will be elsewhere, it might even be possible for us to lose sight of someone as irrelevant to our operations as the former Dragon Empress."

"I see."

"It is something I would advise you to consider, Azula of Caldera."

"Why is that?"

"I have heard whispers."

"About me?"

"About what Master Bau has planned for you."

"Planned for me?"

"Indeed. If they wanted you dead, you would be dead. Instead, the Red Lotus has a design for your life. And I'm not sure it is one you would want for yourself."

Something she has feared as of late, but also an escape. Still, some doubt creeps in. She asks him, "What if you're lying?"

"Now you know how I felt. You'll just have to trust me," he says with a wide smile. "Just how I trusted you."

They share a final smile and then exchange their farewells. Aiwei fades into the shadows while Akola of Ember Island walks plainly through the streets of the Southside. Armed with far more knowledge than she bargained for, she plots out her next few steps in the weeks and months ahead. An escape from the Red Lotus, leverage on Gaaler, and Siq's formula lost to time. All of it at no cost to herself. She feels untouchable at this moment. A sort of power that makes her feel almost divine.

She thinks back to what she told Gaaler.

"I am a child of Ozai."

"I will burn you, your bank, your guards, and your family. I'll burn this entire city to the ground."

Perhaps the Dragon Empress rises once again.

Chapter Text

[Fall 127 AG]

'What does it mean to be broken?'

A thought that Azula ponders late tonight. She is a woman who has been broken many times. The death of Siq is one of such truly heart wrenching times, but only the latest. Her abrupt farewell to Lanxi and Yasuko. The death of Alane. Zirin and Ruki's betrayal and the collapse of her empire. When she thought that Ty Lee was dead. Finding her mother alive, having forgotten her. The defeat at the Agni Kai. The Boiling Rock.

These are the moments that stick out, that brought her to her knees. When she was left cracked and fractured and nothing could make her whole again. Life lost meaning, food was tasteless, and it did not seem possible to continue on.

'And yet…'

And yet she did. After every crushing moment, she found a reason to keep pushing forward. She turned that sadness and rage into an unquenchable fire. She channeled her childhood into being a military mastermind. She transformed her teenage trauma into an empire of fire and lightning. A woman without a home found a village without a leader. Her history was not something to be buried and forgotten.

Azula has been broken. She is broken.

But her being broken is what makes her so dangerous. Makes her so unique. Makes her herself. The cracks are something to be embraced, not erased. There is history in those broken pieces.

Late at night, standing in the hallway to her home, Azula holds up the flower pot that Siq had given her all those years ago. It is her last tether to him. The last piece of him she can ever hold. She holds it in her hands and turns it over and over, as if she is trying to memorize its curves and edges. Every last part of it burned into her brain.

When she is satisfied, she lifts it up over her head and with great force she thrusts it into the ground. The vase breaks oddly, falling into large pieces scattered on the floor. Azula kneels down and picks up the shattered porcelain, careful in how she handles it.

Before, when it was whole, it was just a fancy vase for flowers.

Now, when it is broken, the edges are sharp enough to cut throats.

Jin and On Ji are preparing to retire for the night. On Ji is slipping into her pajamas after a long day in an unusually hot afternoon. Jin is on the couch, already prepared for bed, catching up on some light reading when she hears it. Two quick, soft knocks and then a pause before the third and final knock.

Mama approaches, an unusually late visit from her Ant Flies. She grabs a sweet treat from the kitchen before going to the door. She opens it and a small girl waits for her, eyes wide. Jin kneels down to greet her.

"Hello my child. What's the meaning of this?"

The girl purses her lips and stammers. "P-p-power is out to some sections of the Upper Ring."

Mama furrows her brow. "I appreciate you telling me that, but why does it matter? They'll send some fire benders or maintenance out to repair it and no one will even know in an hour or so?"

The girl, who couldn't be older than six, gulps. She licks her lips, hopeful to get the promised snack, finishes her news dump.

"It's the section where the Fat Man lives."

Suki's legs lumber with every single Kyoshi be damned step. She is in so much pain it is almost blinding, but she keeps going because a realistic end is almost in sight. She fought off assailants and miscreants, and took a whole crowbar to the kneecap, but nothing can stop her now.

The moon is high in the black ocean of the sky, beaming down upon Yue Bay and all of Republic City. However, it is not the moon that lights up the path of the former leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Instead, it is the raging orange fire of the burning waterfront warehouse. She had set fire to it accidentally in an earlier skirmish and, as part of the fallout, a very real prison break had ensued. In this case though, it is the captives of Yakone's shipping operations who have been freed and now run for their very lives.

Toph's metal benders and fire fighters will arrive on scene any moment now, if they haven't already. But Suki chases a scraggly man along the docks who almost disappears into the night like a spirit. Finally, she rounds the corner and finds him, quickly observing that he is hastily trying to untether a boat and make an escape across the Bay.

"Stop!" She yells as she approaches, closing the distance.

He shouts in surprise and jumps a little, but his hands stay on the ropes that tie the boat down. There's silence between them as he keeps working and she slowly ambles up. The air fills with a thick smoky residue and distant flames crackle loudly as the building collapses on itself.

"I know who you are and I can help you."

He jumps onto the boat and takes cover, hands not leaving his work. When he finishes one he runs to the other end of the boat and tries to shake free the knot. Suki limps forward, closing the distance, but still affords him a few feet of space. They both know she could stop him if it came down to that.

"Your name is Lin."

This last comment is what finally stops his hands. He had turned away from her all this time, but slowly he turns to face her now. She sees a long beard and a shell of a man. He is thin as a rail and rather short. His face is scarred from years of physical abuse. Her blue eyes seek through the darkness and discover his emerald ones. 

"You're a fisherman, originally from off the coast of Baochou Village. Fire Nation. You have a wife, Ai Zhou, and two children, Roka and Yuku. They miss you terribly."

Cautiously, Lin stands up and comes from out of hiding. He stands and faces Suki, news of his family drawing his full attention. She says whatever else it will take to earn his trust.

"It's been 4 years, 11 months, and 14 days that I’ve been searching for you. I have blurred professional boundaries, crossed borders, and broken laws. I've hurt and even killed people to get here. I gave up an entire life I used to know in the place that I grew up. I nearly lost my marriage and, to be honest, my sanity. But it brought me to you. I've found you."

Lin, in all of his feeble glory, puts a foot up on the edge of the boat. He stares at her with disbelief but growing faith. She huffs a huge sigh of relief to see him coming out. She gives him the explanation and keys him into the secret she has closely held this whole time. Quietly she whispers through the night.

"The Dragon Empress sent me."

He shakes his head in understanding and a little awestruck. He can't place her in his memory so he asks her.

"I know you?" His voice is weak, stemming from a long period of not using it.

'Victory.' Suki thinks to herself

"Indeed," she smiles slightly as the building burns in the background. "We were at a wedding together. In Lanxi."

Lin steps up off of the boat and onto the dock. With apprehensive but determined steps, all the weight of being a broken man, he moves towards the Most Powerful Being on Earth.

"Damn thing must be broken."

Gaaler's ceiling fan had stopped and the night heat makes it fucking unbearable. He tosses his soft and expensive bed sheets off and sits up. One hand wipes sweat away while the other hand blindly looks for the lamp switch. He fumbles around and then finds it. He clicks and nothing happens. He clicks a few more times and realizes it's not just his ceiling fan.

"Son of a bitch." He mumbles to himself.

Gaaler is a born skeptic, something that he knows has contributed to the success he's had at work throughout his life. He simply does not believe in things at face value, instead choosing to often do his own research, or have backup plans and exit strategies where necessary. As a result, he is prepared for this darkness by having unlit candles throughout his home.

Gaaler lumbers his way out of bed. He stands up, almost grateful to be leaving the heat of his bed, even at the cost of its comforts. He waddles over to the dresser and in the dark he fumbles for the candle he distinctly remembers putting there in the exact case where the power went out. Imagine his surprise when he feels only an empty space on the wooden dresser. He opens the top drawer to pull out a match, so he can at least light that to look for the candle.

Once again he is surprised to find none there, despite all of his searching. Gaaler knows they were there before, he just saw them the other day. He grunts his frustration, wipes the fresh sweat from his bow, and squints his eyes before finally banging a fist into the dresser.

He resolves to go get the candle and matches from the kitchen, which he absolutely knows he saw with his own two eyes earlier tonight after he was done eating. He pulls his pajama bottoms up and tightens them around his waist. He cautiously puts his hands out in front of him and clumsily makes his way out of his bedroom. He moves down the spiral staircase, almost tripping along the way. He is crossing the master living room, hands awkwardly out in front of him, feet slowly inching across the rug, when the darkness is lit up with a flash of blue.

"Gah!" He shouts as he covers his eyes, uncertain of the flame.

"Hello, Gaaler."

The room lights up with dim, orange flames illuminating various candles that have been gathered in the room. The homeowner falls to the ground and holds his hands up to guard against the sudden light. From his kneeling position he looks up at the speaker. His anxiety is already high at the unwanted intruder, but what he sees scares him more.

"Who?! It c-can't be!"

Smoke billows around the room as a short, slender figure towers over him. The trespasser wears a black cloak, which seems to merge with the smoke on the ground. Their head is hung, hiding their face.

"I really like your place here," the voice, female it seems, speaks to him. A hand points to a large window to their side, "I must imagine the sunset view, dipping just below Western Wall in the distance, must be spectacular."

"You're, you're, you're - !?"

The figure raises its head. Under the hood, he stares up and sees a mask made of porcelain, painted half black on one side, and the other with the mark of smokey clouds. It hides her face, but it gives a foreboding sense of horror. The woman's voice rises above his fear and his doubts. She tells him with absolute certainty.

"I'm the Dragon Empress, and I've come for you, Gaaler."

"No, no, no!" Gaaler shouts. "The Dragon Empress is dead! She's been dead for years !"

"Are you sure?" She asks him, while holding out a hand.

Suddenly her palm ignites with a blue flame that was rumored to have been extinguished fourteen years earlier. He pushes up off of the ground and tries to make an escape. When he turns to go out the way he came but he is greeted by a new figure, gliding in, wearing the same cape and mask.

"Fuck!" He screams before turning to his last escape route.

Appearing out of the smoke is another hooded figure in the iconic mask, blocking his exit, trapping him in the living room.

"This can't be happening! Why! Why?"

"Control yourself, Gaaler!" The Dragon Empress warns him. "Now's not the time to panic, my dear friend. That comes later."

He turns back and faces her. She waves a hand at the seat in front of her. He considers resisting and maybe trying to push his way out, but he is a nonbender and hasn't been in a fight in some thirty plus odd years. Just as he's wondering if he can push them out of the way, the Dragon Empress' hand cackles to life with flashes of electricity, practically daring him to make his move.

"Please, have a seat. There's much to discuss."

Nearly wetting himself, he mumbles and cries, repeating, "Why? Why why why?"

"Sit, and I'll reveal all."

He reluctantly moves towards her and the chair. Each step is more labored and fraught than the last. He whines and cries out in fear of the all-powerful figure. Finally, he sits down before her. The other Kemurikage close in on him and gather around the chair.

"What do you want from me?" He begs her.

"I'm going to tell you a story."

There's something exciting about her voice. She's thrilled to be here and at this moment. Behind her mask, she smiles. While he can't see that, he can feel the energy radiating off of her.

"Before my story, a preamble. A quick discussion on names. I am known by many."

He nods his head.

"The Dragon Empress, Mother of the Kemurikage, Leader of the Fire Warriors, Founder of the Red Lotus, Faceless Demon, Puppetmaster, Lady in Red. And many more that I probably don't even know about or have forgotten. It's a funny thing, isn't it?"

"Egh, uh. I? Excuse me?"

"Names. My name, your name. They come and they go. They are often how people recognize us. How they know who we are or what we represent. But they don't always tell the whole, truthful story, do they? Take, for example, your bank."

"Uh. Ah. Empress, I can exp-"

"The First Bank of Ba Sing Se. Big strong name, big strong bank. But that's all it is, isn't it?"

Gaaler remains silent, his fear rising.

"Because this wasn't the real first bank of Ba Sing Se. No. You created it 18 years ago - with my money. A deal you didn't even broker with me yourself, but rather one of my many underlings. So it's not so much your bank, but rather mine ."

"Empress, please-"

"Have you heard the parable of the fisherman?"

He falls quiet and leans back, unsure of where she will take him on this journey. She takes a deep breath in through the nose and exhales slowly. 

"Okay, let's get started then? A fisherman comes home one day to find that everything that gives meaning to his life is gone. Homes are burned, the water is poisoned, fish slaughtered, his boat stolen. Everything that he loved, taken from him. His loved ones. One can only imagine the pit of despair, the hours of Hei-Ran-like lamentations, the burden of existence. He makes a promise to himself in those dark hours. A life's work erupts from his knotted mind. Years go by. His suffering becomes… complicated. One day he stops. The fisherman, who is no longer a fisherman, sees the wreckage he's left in his wake. It is now he who burns. It is he who poisons."

"Empress, please! What-whatever you're planning-"

"These last few years, I have lived among the poor and destitute of Ba Sing Se. I've been planning and plotting. And tomorrow, you begin helping me in the next phase of my planning."

"Of-of course! Anything for you! Anything!"

"Tomorrow, you will make an announcement. You're slashing interest rates for low-income families. You're giving out loan forgiveness for those making less than a certain amount of coin per year. You'll create a tax on the rich and powerful to offset your losses."

"But, but, that's suicide!"

"No, Gaaler, it's salvation. Going against my will would be suicide."

He gulps in terror.

"The first step of my plan is to gut the rich and powerful that trade with my bank. Take their knees out from under them. That starts with you."

Gaaler shakes his massive head in agreement.

"Should you make any effort to oppose my instructions, or to seek to do harm to my allies of the Lower Ring, then my Kemurikage will rise up and crash down upon you and everything you hold dear."

The deathless spirits standing at his side seem to lurch forward, physically imposing themself on him.

"Yes, Empress! Yes, of course!" He pleads. When she doesn't continue to say anything he asks, "What happens next?"

She ponders this question momentarily. After thinking about it she offers, "Shall we shake on it?"

Uncertain and concerned for his own safety, Gaaler cautiously puts his hand out. The Empress leans forward and shakes it. She leans back and he does too. She can see the hope glimmer in his eyes, escaping unscathed. Her eyes lazily drift to her children. She nods her head ever so slightly and they attack.

One punches the back of Gaaler's head, while the other grabs one of his arms and then the other does the same. They pull him backwards, exposing his stomach to their mother figure.

"Stop! What!"

"I can't have you thinking this was some nightmare, or getting your hopes up that I'll leave you alone. So I'm going to leave you a reminder of exactly what I am capable of."

Her right hand lights up the room with her blue flame. She holds it up to his face and he begins squirming, sweating, and groaning, doing anything to escape. The Dragon Empress reaches down and lifts up his shirt.

"No! Please! Stop! I swear, I'll do as you say! I'll do every-AHHHH!"

The Dragon Empress presses her flaming blue hand into his abdomen and holds it there momentarily. His flesh cackles and burns, her hand searing into his skin. She holds it for another second and then pulls back; the Kemurikage simultaneously release him as well.

"Ahhh! You! Ah oh my spirits ahhh!"

She grabs him by the hair and pulls his head back so he has to look up at her. Down below, her hand print is burned into his stomach.

"Every morning now, you'll look in the mirror as you put on your fancy suits and when you shower. When a man or a woman lies with you, they'll see it. The handprint of a woman's hand, etched into your gut. Let this be a reminder, Gaaler. Never forget what I am capable of doing. To you, to your precious bank, to this city."

She releases his head and his eyes fall down to the ground again, his hands hovering over the burn, wanting to touch it, but too scared of what will happen. Meanwhile, the Kemurikage fade into the distance and disappear from view. Up until now the room was filled with the pale, dull, orange light of Gaaler's candles. Now though, they are collectively blown out. Gaaler is left in darkness. The voice of the Dragon Empress speaks to him.

"You know who I am."

Her voice reverberates across his entire home.

"You don't know where I am."

Her voice haunts him. She is nowhere. She is everywhere.

"And you'll never see me coming."

In the thick of night, aided by an unexplained blackout contained to the Upper Ring, a woman scampers between the shadows and the street alleys. She ducks below window sills and vanishes from view just as bystanders appear. She arrives at the border into the middle ring and comes to the rendezvous. She looks all around her, surveilling her surroundings, coming to a stop and catching her breath before she finally feels safe. She walks up to the wooden shed and slowly knocks three times. After a moment's pause two figures appear out of hiding from nearby. They approach her, cloaks billowing along the ground. When Azula sees them, she snaps her fingers at them and holds her hand out.

"Oh, yeah, right!" A woman's voice says

"Sorry, here you go!" A man adds.

The two remove their masks and reveal themselves to be a pair of identical twins wearing matching charcoal capes that go all the way down to their feet. They hand their masks over to Azula and then unzip their cloaks so they return to being their classic capes. Azula has long since removed her own mask, but now she quickly pulls the cloak up over her head. She wears regular street clothes underneath. She slips her cloaks, and both masks into a runaway bag she had hidden at this meeting point.

With all three people safe, and all three outfits hidden into the bag, she slips it over her shoulder and they cross the hidden border into the middle ring. Together they casually walk through the streets, blending in seamlessly into the area as just some strangers on a nightly walk. They make their way for the Lower Ring.

Bing is the first to speak, "You know, I don't know exactly how to feel about all of this, Akola."

Beng tacks on, "For real, yo. The whole thing felt kinda shady, you know, like, morality-wise?"

Bing concurs with his sister, "Totally."

Without breaking stride, Azula reaches into her pocket and pulls out two heavy bags of coin. She walks between the twins through the Middle Ring. She holds them out in front of her, dangling them by the strings, right in front of them as they all walk. The twins look across at each other momentarily and then each reaches up and takes their respective bag from Akola. As they move on they pull the strings and look inside to count the money.

"How do you feel now?"

"Better."

"Yeah, definitely improving."

Two knocks, then a pause, followed by a third knock. Jin opens the door. A small boy, no older than seven or eight, is on the other side.

"What's the latest?"

"Upper Ring power is still out, no one knows why. And um," he stops.

"What is it?" Jin asks, a hand reaching up to brush his hair and assure him it's alright.

"Someone said they saw Akola leaving the Lower Ring."

"Going where? Leaving the city or going to the Middle Ring?"

"I'm not sure."

"Recently?"

"No."

"When?"

"Before the power went out."

"Spirits. Okay. Thank you," she reaches into her pocket and produces an apple and some coin. She gives it to him. Before dismissing him she tells him, "Come right back here and tell me when the power is back on, okay? In an hour, in two minutes, in the middle of the night, whenever it is."

The boy gleefully takes the reward, licking his lips. He nods and then runs off. She closes the door behind him and On Ji approaches.

"What now?"

"Power is still out and one of the Ant Flies saw Akola leaving the Lower Ring. They aren't sure if she was leaving the city or going towards the Middle Ring."

"What do you think is going on, Babe?"

"I'm not sure. Like we said earlier, a power outage isn't anything worthwhile. But that it's contained to a certain area? And that just so happens to be where Gaaler lives? And now Akola-"

Two knocks, a pause, and then the third knock.

"I don't get it." On Ji stammers. "And another knock?"

"I told them to come back when the power is restored." Jin explains as she heads back to the door.

She kneels down to meet the little one and swings it open. She's met with darkness, a shadowy figure rising up above. She turns her head upward and the face of a friend stands looking down at her.

"Hello, Mama."

"Akola!" On Ji sprints to the door and crashes into her with a tremendous hug.

"I'm a little taller, and a little older than your normal Ant Fly." She jokes as Jin rises to meet her.

"Akola, do you know about what's going on tonight?" Jin asks her.

"What do you mean?" She asks as she enters the home, door closing behind her. She carries a black bag on her shoulder.

"The power outage in the Upper Ring? In Gaaler's section? Did you…"

"Hmm," she muses, not answering. "Yes, I did hear about a blackout. Because I caused it myself."

"What?" Jin asks, doubting what she's heard.

"Akola?" On Ji adds.

"I overrode their machines with enough lightning to fry the whole system. They'll have the power back on by morning though, I'm sure. They're resourceful in that Upper Ring."

"Why would you do that? Why would you-"

"And yes, I did visit Gaaler. I spoke with him and we've come to an agreement of sorts."

"Akola? What did you do?" Jin asks as the woman walks to their couch. After no reply is given, she gets anxious and shouts, "Akola! What did you do?"

"I'm not who you think I am." She cuts through everything.

"Uh! Uh. What do you mean?" Jin asks.

"It's you." On Ji mutters. "You're her."

She summons the old bravado. The woman she once was; the woman she pretends to be tonight. Just as she once said to anyone who feared her, she tells them now as well.

"Say my name."

The name was always the part that scared people the most. 'The Dragon Empress' had a way of imposing herself on others. Just the title itself meant something to people. It meant fear, and respect, and danger. A power they couldn't fathom. It was what drew her in initially to the Empire life, but also what eventually weighed on her until she left it all behind. The name is hers and hers alone, for better and worse. On Ji cuts through her thinking by giving the answer.

"Princess Azula."

The raven haired, amber eyed beauty stops. She has been known by many titles, most of which she invoked tonight. But 'Princess' is one she hasn't heard in years. She'd almost forgotten. She turns to On Ji and nods her head.

"I knew it!" The brunette squeaks triumphantly. "I mean, I've always sort of suspected but never knew until now. It didn't make sense because the Princess is dead, they buried her in Republic City, but at the same time there were so many signs."

She rambles as reality settles upon Jin. Azula just nods along as On Ji keeps going.

"You're her . You're the Last Kemurikage! And I, I just, I have so many questions!"

"I'm sure you do. But I'm afraid I can't answer any of them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving Ba Sing Se. Tonight."

"Why?" The wives ask in unison.

"There are people still after me. I can't afford for them to get mixed up with you. So now that I've invoked her name, now that the Dragon Empress rises, my enemies will comb the Earth in search of me."

"What did you do to Gaaler?" Jin asks, getting closer.

"Not just Gaaler. Gaaler, Shulun. The First Bank. You won't be bothered by any of them anymore."

"Shulun? How?" On Ji presses for more details.

"His power broker will be looking into the Equalists for their future endeavors."

"Akola or Azula or whatever your name is, what did you do to Gaaler?"

Azula sighs. She turns to them to explain.

"My empire used to be so vast, that I didn't even know all of its dealings. I had no idea that shortly before I went into hiding, when I 'died,' as it were, some of my representatives came to Ba Sing Se. They made a deal with a gruff, old man with a dastardly vision. Gaaler founded the First Bank with my money. I own him and the entire bank."

On Ji sits down and mutters under her breath, "Oh my Agni."

"Spirits." Jin whispers, the truth settling upon her.

"So I set him straight tonight, with a little help from Bing and Beng."

She throws her bag down. Sitting on top, barely visible through the opening, two porcelain masks with black paint on them. Forged from the remains a certain flower pot.

Jin takes one look at them before asking, "What do we do with these?"

Azula shrugs.

"Hide them. Use them if Gaaler ever turns on you. But I think when you all wake tomorrow, you'll find that our friendly neighborhood CFO is much more liberal in his financial practices."

"What if he isn't? What if he refuses to whatever blackmail you threatened him with?"

"That man pissed himself at the sight of me," Azula says with a snicker. "He won't dare think of double crossing me. But that's why you have the masks. To put the fear of Agni back into him if he does decide to renege."

"Where will you go? How will we contact you? Should we write to Ty Lin?" Jin asks.

On Ji knows better. She replies, "There is no Ty Lin, is there?"

"Well, no, she does exist. The woman you met is real, and we are married. But you're right in your own way. Ty Lin isn't her name. Still, there is someone who can play intermediary for us if you should ever require my presence again."

"Who?" They ask.

"Suki of Kyoshi Island."

"Who is she? And is that really her name?"

Azula chuckles. "It is indeed her real name. I think, On Ji, you'll find her in your history books someday. She opposed me at the end of the War and helped to end my father's regime."

"Incredible."

"And now you can write to her in case of an emergency. She should know how to get the message to me."

"You didn't answer my question though. Where will you go?" Jin asks.

"It's better that you don't know. If you're ever in a pinch, you can truly say you don't know me or where I am. But just suffice it to say that I'll continue my search for Asuna."

Azula spends a few more minutes answering their various questions. They spend more time on their fond farewells. Although Azula has had to do it so many times before, saying goodbye is nonetheless emotional. This time feels different though. When she left Republic City, she barely made it out alive, stowed away on a fishing boat. Leaving Lanxi, her past had tracked her down. She left her life there suddenly and with great remorse. Now, however, she leaves Ba Sing Se on her own terms. She made the decisions, she made the plans, and she will leave to go wherever she pleases. Finally, they gather at the door.

"Goodbye, On Ji." She envelops the musician in her arms. "When they write the history books about the Fire Nation, you hold them accountable for the truth of the matter."

"I will." She assures her. "I could do that better if we had more time together, but maybe another day."

Azula turns to Jin at last.

"Goodbye, Mama," she says as she wraps her in her arms. "May the sun never set on your Empire the way it did mine."

As they separate Jin laughs. "You think the sun set on yours? Even as you used your powers tonight to positively change our lives and the lives of countless others in the Southside and the Lower Ring?"

"Fair counterpoint."

"Goodbye, Akola . I will never forget you, and I will always speak of the legend of your time here."

With that, the door opens and Azula departs into the night. She leaves her life in Ba Sing Se behind and travels into the great unknown ahead. Free of the Red Lotus. Free of her empire. Free to do as she pleases. No longer broken, shattered on the floor. She ventures out, and her first stop will be to deliver the good news to her blushing bride.

Chapter Text

[Winter/Spring 128 AG]

The same nightmare that Ty Lee has been having for years comes to visit her once again. Like all those times before she welcomes it initially, the pleasant view of her wife sitting alone at home. There are variations of it where Azula is with their children, or making dinner. Sometimes it rains, or snows, but most of the time it's just the wind smashing against the home. Azula hears a knock at the door and rises to meet it. When the door opens, her wife is blown away, fading out of existence. The unseen assailant never comes into focus. Ty Lee never knows who is the one who knocks.

From the eternal darkness that her wife fades to in Dreamland, Ty Lee sticky eyelids open now to a different darkness. There's a shut door and shadows. She finally realizes that she has awoken from her dreams. She turns to the window as she always does, hoping to see the silhouette. As fate would have it, tonight she swears she sees it; standing perfectly still, just hidden away in the shadows, is the outline of a female figure. The one she saw in her dreams.

No longer grey, but black haired and less lines on her face. The window remains slightly ajar as the intruder breathes slowly and quietly. Ty Lee tries to focus when a light gust of wind sweeps by outside. The curtains billow in the wind and the spirit of death comes into full view, appearing from the shadows and in the moonlight.

"It's you again, isn't it?"

The spirit steps forward. She looks like a daydream, dressed in earthly tones. Ty Lee sits up, smiling. She smoothes the bed space beside her and pats it down to entice the woman to come hither.

"Are you going to join me or what?" She asks her lover.

Azula laughs. She surges forward and as she does she replies, "I told you that you wouldn't hear me coming this time."

She falls onto the bed in a heap with the most cuddly wife on Earth. Matter of factly she tells her, "I've been here for nearly a half hour watching you sleep!"

"You seem so excited about that?" Ty Lee teases her.

"Last time you woke as soon as I arrived. I'm getting better at this, that's all I'm saying." Azula rests her head on Ty Lee's shoulder, an arm lazily draped across her wife's stomach.

"I can't say I'm surprised by this. The messenger hawk you sent me from the Southside had me guessing you'd arrive right around this time. You're a little late, honestly. Another few days or week and I would've been worried."

"I forgot how treacherous the Si Wong Desert could be, and I'm not as young as I used to be so I moved a little slower."

"Growing old sucks."

"It sure does," Azula agrees, snuggling closer. 

"So, what was your grand master plan for the banker and the Lower Ring?"

Azula produces an object from her inner pocket and lays it on the bed. Through the open windows a splash of moonlight unveils a porcelain mask with intricate details painted in black on it. Little did Ty Lee know that it was made from the remains of a flower pot.

"I'm sure that's a great story."

"Sure was. I'll tell you all the details later."

Ty Lee doesn't protest. She picks the mask up and gingerly, but blindly, puts it on her end table. In the morning, when Azula will assuredly be gone, she'll put it in the safe with all of her other secret 'Azula mementos.' After a few more moments in the tranquil quiet her wife finally asks, "So what have I missed?"

"Hmm," Ty Lee hums as she contemplates the question. In her warmth and comfort, her mind struggles to sort through the cozy hazy. Finally though she remembers and now she snaps out of her sleepiness. "Oh spirits, you actually missed some massive things!"

Azula doesn't move, eyes not even opening, assuming it's some sort of exaggeration. "Oh yeah?"

Ty Lee dislodges her while sitting up on her elbows. Azula grumbles as her wife gets into an upright position.

"Babe, she found him."

"Who found who?" Azula asks, sitting up now and twisting to look at Ty Lee's luminous grey eyes.

"Lin. Suki found Lin!"

It takes some time for the fact to churn through her own sleep deprived mind. She hears the words and calculates the statistical likelihood of them being true. She can't quite figure it out. She asks the simplest question, but also the most important, that comes to mind.

"Alive? She found Lin a-alive?"

"Yes! Yes! Alive! Yes!"

"Fuck."

That's all Azula can muster. She lays back down and stares out into space as she thinks about what could've happened to him. What he'd been through. The depths of despair that he must have fallen into, all because of his connection to her. Suddenly she realizes she doesn't have to wonder. It's possible there's been months since this happened.

"What happened to him? How did she do it? When?"

"It's not exactly clear, but it was in the Fall, right when you were leaving Ba Sing Se."

Azula hums at this. The timing, with what Aiwei had told her about the Red Lotus being distracted during that time, is odd.

"Suki had been searching for him for so long, and somehow finally got a break."

Azula squirms just a little bit. It feels more and more likely that the Red Lotus may have had a hand in Suki's 'breakthrough.' Perhaps Xai Bau had decided to cut ties with Yakone, even though he always denied being connected to the man.

"He and a load of other nonbenders were being trafficked and used as slave labor for a company that wasn't exactly owned by Yakone, but more or less."

"What will happen? To Yakone?"

"Lin is cooperating with the RCPD. It's not public knowledge yet, but from what I've heard they said he's a Bloodbender."

"I've heard legends of Bloodbenders, but they can't use that without the full moon."

"Azula, you've never told me all that happened with Yakone, and I've never asked. Suki told me years ago that if she found Lin that you would tell her everything that happened in Republic City. Will you do that now?" Ty Lee asks, a mixture of hope and fear in her voice.

"No," Azula answers quickly. "I told her she'd learn everything that happened in Republic City and now she will. Lin and everyone else who fell victim to that man will come forward until they put him away."

"I see." Ty Lee replies with a bit of a smirk. "So then tell me : Do you believe he was a bloodbender?"

Azula thinks on it for a few seconds.

"I don't know how to explain it without the full moon, but yes," she finally confirms for Ty Lee. "He controlled my body and stopped my bending. I should've died that night."

Ty Lee takes much solace in hearing this personally from Azula. She is now determined to help Suki and Sokka and Toph and Aang to put him away forever. Azula, meanwhile, feels lighter after sharing the truth. A weight of sorts has been released from her that she didn't know she was holding. The wives move closer together instinctively in the dark. They sit for a while, collecting their thoughts and working through their traumatic past. After a while, Azula finally breaks the silence.

"Ty, if I ask you to come with me to my next stopping place, would you?"

"Absolutely." Ty Lee doesn't hesitate, much to the surprise of Azula.

"That easy, huh? Just leave this all behind?"

"You keep getting into trouble, Azula. It's been too long of us being apart. I'm ready to join you and really start our life together. Maybe even start a family?"

"That sounds…nice."

"So where will we go?"

"I'm torn on that. Probably Huwan."

"Who what now? Where's that?"

"Not far, southeast of here. An ancient hidden village, fading off the face of the Earth in the Earth Kingdom. Or the Southern Water Tribe."

"You won't last a week in all that cold. You're not built for it."

"Then let's hope Huwan is the place. I'll go on ahead and scout it out. Write to you when it's safe."

"That's perfect. I can get my affairs in order here with the girls over the next few weeks, or months.”

Azula planned to leave before sleeping.

"I'm looking forward to a lot more snuggling."

But she's so cozy and snug, she can't possibly go anywhere else.

"And no more fighting."

Yakone is under arrest. Gaaler is under her thumb. Thanks to Aiwei, the Red Lotus has lost sight of her. Not even the Kemurikage are left of her Empire to track her down.

"No more needing to kill."

There's no spirit hunting for her. 

"No more monsters hiding, waiting to burn us down, or attack us in the dead of night."

Prey no longer.

"We're free."

They fall asleep together and get some of the most peaceful sleep they've had in years. The next morning she sets out for Huwan to begin the next chapter of their life together.

[Summer 128 AG]

Azula has experienced this before, many years back when she first came to Gaoling. The ice cold shoulder of a collective community turning their back on her. She found it odd, and unsatisfying, but not entirely surprising. While she had been excited to come to Huwan, it turns out that Huwan was not excited to have her join them. She’s been here two nights, and the sun now rises on a third day. She stands outside of her tent on the outskirts of the town and watches as a tiny figure scampers towards her. A dozen feet away is a cornfield where the village gets most of its crops from provides a weird sort of smell for her that is both fresh and overpowering at the same time.

The first day had gone as well as her first day in Lanxi. She walked into town, right up through the heart of it, and was greeted warmly. They knew instantly that she was an outsider and was welcomed as such. It was special if not unbelievable to be walking through the same village that Avatar Asuna once walked.

An emissary came to greet her, as they always inevitably do in the culture that is the barrenlands of the Earth Kingdom. He told her he'd have to consult with his superiors, mentioned a titled name that she took as pompous. She shook his hand and he marveled at the scar on her palm. That was the entirety of the interaction and she kept it moving. In no time at all, though, the whispers of a short, black haired woman with amber eyes had spread like wildfire. 

Unfortunately, the pompous leader of Huwan apparently was not interested in any refugees. She has not yet met the man, but she intends to seek him out and win him over. Or at least convince him of her worth, which can begin with backchannels of communicating with this child, who comes to a stop in front of her.

The little boy sniffles and then rubs his nose. He spits out into the grass. He must be no older than six or seven. Azula has decided to take a page out of Jin's book and employ the children of the village to keep her informed. Yesterday afternoon she had convinced this one to come to her tent outside the village at sunrise, with promises of sweets. She sits down in front of him, cross legged in the grass. Her sitting is about the same height as the boy standing up.

"Gamun, was it?"

"Yeah." He replies, picking his nose.

"What have you heard?"

"Not-uh, lady. I want the food first."

Azula smirks as she reaches into her bag and produces a jennamite. It was a bad idea to start with her best sweets but she needed to set a good reputation early.

"Smart boy." She says as she hands him the candy.

"Whoa! You were being serious!" His hungry hands grab for it.

"That's right. Now spill."

He begins chewing on it immediately. After a full, successful bite he mumbles through food in his mouth, "The Unbroken doesn't like you."

'The Unbroken. Really overcompensating for something with that kind of name.'

"Why not?"

"Uh, don't know. 'No strangers' my Mom says."

"Your mother is smart."

"The leaders voted last night, I heard my Dad saying. ‘They're gonna make you leave today, or else.’"

"I see," She hums. "Anything else?"

"Hmmm," he tries to think in between bites of the delicious rock on a stick. "Not that I remember."

"Alright, then do me one last thing today. Tell people that I'm a Firebender."

"Are you really? We don't have any of those!"

"I am. Let your friends know and tell old people too," Azula explains. A small smirk develops as she watches him devour the remainder of the jennamite. She informs him, "And if I get to stay after today, you and I can trade a lot more treats like that for information."

Gamun beams as he imagines a future of jennamite.

If Azula could stop the fire from spreading she would. She can't though, so instead it rages and burns down everything in its path.

In an odd case of déjà vu, Azula feels like she's been here so many times before. She sits on a bench, beneath a tree, facing the west, and in the distance watches a forest fire consuming part of the woodlands. She wonders what could have caused it, but from her position she feels safe and unafraid. She contemplates the flames and how she used to believe it was unnatural for them to destroy something so beautiful. Now she is not as certain.

It's still early in the morning when Azula's next visitor arrives. This one is much taller and older than her last. A burly, mountain of a man approaches her tent as she does some light reading. She is busy trying to soak up the mystical ambiance of living where Asuna once lived. She rises to meet him. He stands with his back to the cornfield and crops, relegating him to an odd visual appearance before her.

"Hello weary traveler. I am here to bestow the decree of The Unbroken."

Azula scoffs and crosses her arms. "Are you The Unbroken?"

His response is almost sing-song like.

"We are all unbroken. The Unbroken taught us that Huwan is unbroken by man or myth. That means we are all unbroken."

"I see?" She replies, cocking an eyebrow at him.

He hands the rolled paper he brought with him over to her.

"By decree of The Unbroken, the mayor of Huwan, and by the voting majority of The Wisdom-holders, you are to depart from Huwan by nightfall."

"And if I don't?" She sternly asks.

He rises above her.

"Then you will be displaced." He assures her.

"Bigger men have threatened me with worse."

"Leave, or be displaced, Weary Traveler."

"There's nothing on this Earth that you could send at me that I wouldn't defeat."

"We are not threatening you."

"And I am not threatening you. I am an asset for your Unbroken and your councils and your mayor to use. Go back and tell them as much."

He steps back finally. "Be gone by nightfall, if you do not wish yourself harm."

Azula doesn't blink.

The sun has set. Azula stares at flames once again, this time not a far off forest fire, but instead the campfire keeping her dinner warm. Thankfully the merchants in Huwan are loyal only to their own pockets, meaning she was able to buy some food for the night. She also snuck into the cornfield right beside her and stole some from there. She was worried that if she left her tent then someone from the village would come to do harm to it.

There is much relief for her and much to celebrate. Hopefully her whispering through Gamun and the messenger mountain man has gotten through to the village leaders. No one had come to 'displace' her. No one has come at all. She has successfully called their bluff.

Before long she retires to bed, excited for what tomorrow will hold. There's a hope in her that she can begin the next chapter of her life. One that would be based in Avatar Asuna's home and eventually with her wife Ty Lee here with her.

She falls asleep to sweet dreams of the brunette joining her on this grand adventure.

The first moment of her consciousness is a forceful cough. Azula follows that up with two more. Her breathing is coarse and difficult. Next the smell comes to her. It is not pleasant but rather harsh. It invades her nostrils and assaults her senses. She forces out another cough. Finally, the bad smell and her labored breathing force her to open her eyes and look around. She finds herself surrounded by billowing smoke and fanning flames.

Panic sets in as she sits up quickly. She briefly wonders if this is all a dream, a nightmare of sorts where she is being burned alive. Her senses are so overwhelmed by the heat, the fire, the smoke, and the smell, she determines it must all be happening in real time. She does the sensible thing and lifts her palms up. They get burned slightly by the burning fabric but she is quickly able to extinguish the fire. Even after the burning is done, the tent smolders and the smoke still gathers and she determines to exit. Azula stumbles out of her bedspace and onto the gravel and dirt path.

‘Who the fuck did this?’

She turns back to see the charred corpse of the once beige tent. Wafts of smoke emanate from the remains as Azula stands in a star covered night, as an anger builds for her. She turns to the village of Huwan and sees no one, not any single sight of life. She still feels as though there are eyes upon her. She looks over her shoulder and a reflection of the moonlight catches her eye. She turns around.

It’s dark, hard to see, but amongst the cornfield, maybe twenty feet away, is a figure with a porcelain mask and a charcoal robe, slipping all the way down their body and disappearing into the darkness.

The last Kemurikage.

Azula isn’t sure how to react. Whether to advance on them or retreat into hiding. They tried to burn her alive and stayed to watch the show. She wonders if they’re truly alone or if there are more hiding nearby. She waits for them to make the first move. The masked figure doesn't attack. Instead, they take a step back, further into the cornfields, trying to slip away into the shadows.

A different Azula would've run, but not this one, not anymore.

"No you don't." She whispers to herself.

She swings both of her arms forward, sending high reaching blue flames in opposing crescent formations. They rip through the cornfield and crops and form a circle. The only exit now is from where the Kemurikage had stood initially. Azula lumbers across the road to the cornfield. She has blocked all escape, unless they're a Firebender, and if they are now Azula will know and she can plan accordingly. She enters the cornfield as it burns around her. She can see the Kemurikage through a clearing, looking around for an escape route. Azula puts her lips together. A distant, drawn out, two-tone whistle.

'Whew-whew.'

The masked person stops, recognizing the sound, and turns to face her. The Faceless Demon appears out of the night and steps into the clearing, only feet away. Azula greets her assailant with an old familiar phrase.

"Welcome to where you're going."

The Kemurikage does not reply. They turn their head to the side and observe Azula. They spread their legs slightly, digging their heels into the dirt. Azula looks at the blue flames, engulfing everything around them, surely soon to collapse on them as well. She opens her palms as a sort of peace offering and asks a question.

"Are you one of mine or do you just wear the mask as an impersonator?"

The Kemurikage pulls out a switchblade from their pocket and flips open the blade. Azula understands now.

“Doesn’t matter,” Azula says to the mute. She puts one foot behind her and leans back on it. Her arms swing into a fighting stance. She won’t use lightning, as that would be too easy. Fire and her fists will be her weapons. She tells them above the crackling flames and burning corn, “Apostle or apostate, you’ll burn all the same.”

The Kemurikage runs forward. Azula shoots a fireball from her fist, but the attacker spins away from it, almost expecting it. All of that momentum pushes them forward and they leap through the air with the blade extended downward, ready to thrust into Azula. The firebender dodges this herself, sidestepping as they come to a landing. Quickly though the attacker rises up and swings the blade again, this time sideways to try and cut across Azula’s stomach. She again dodges this with a quick step back.

The Kemurikage’s arm briefly extended out in front of her, Azula sees a chance to block her chakras. She swings four pointed fingers down towards the arm to try and immobilize it. Before she can reach it the villain’s free hand flies out and knocks Azula’s chi blocking hand out of the way. The child of her's swings the blade back around again, wildly trying to stab at Azula, who quickly backtracks, looking for an opening.

When the Kemurikage's arm swings back around to their hip side again, Azula takes it. As they go to swing again, she sticks her hands out and blocks the arm in, preventing it from lunging forward. With her opponent briefly stunned, Azula delivers quick blows to the chest, then grabs their shoulders and delivers a knee to their stomach. The Kemurikage involuntarily leans forward from the blows, switchblade falling on the ground behind Azula.

"Oof." They finally speak.

Azula grabs the top of their head, the edge of the mask and starts to pull. She wants to look into the eyes of the one who tried to kill her. In a flash though the Kemurikage reaches up with one hand and slaps her hands away from the mask, while the other hand claws at Azula's face, nearly getting her eyes. With their head still down, they use both hands to push Azula to the ground.

She hits the dirt and feels the heat of the burning crops growing closer. In the flicker of the fire though she sees something amongst the soil. Salvation and damnation. She almost can't believe what she sees. A switchblade with a red handle. She knows this blade from another life and can't quite calculate the infinite possibilities that this could just be a coincidence.

The Kemurikage lunges down at her and sits on her chest, reaching for her neck. Azula feels them strangling the life from her, one hand trapped under the weight of the assailant. There's so many choices she can make for this instance to escape, but she chooses the most personal. Her free hand reaches to the side and grabs the red handle. She swings it forward and buries it into the Kemurikage's oblique, just above the hip.

"AHHHH!" The mute screams, ear piercingly loud, and Azula can finally determine without a doubt that it is a female voice.

The woman retreats, leaving her dominant position, while Azula gets back up. She cries and whines as she pulls the blade out of her side. She cries and fumes and doesn't see Azula approaching from behind. The Mother of the Kemurikage moves to chi block her in silence but just as she closes the gap between them the daughter turns to see her. Frantic, the woman swings the blade and nicks Azula's arm, then she swings again and finally grazes her abdomen. 

"Fucking enough!" Azula screams.

The woman goes to swing again and Azula shoots fire up from her hands in between them. She staggers back from the flame blast momentarily and Azula chiblocks the arm associated with the hand holding the blade. It falls helplessly to the ground again. By the time the Kemurikage woman looks back up, she's too late. Azula had cocked back her fist and now swings it at them, connecting square with the side of her head, sending her to the ground.

Down, but not out, the Kemurikage is determined to not be defeated. A little dazed she goes to move to get back up when Azula hits her in the mask again. Now disoriented, under the porcelain she spits up blood. She rests on her movable elbow, but can't move her other hand, the one facing Azula.

Azula kneels down on top of her and cocks her fist back, then slingshots it forward to connect with the mask again. The woman under it is protected, but nonetheless takes on considerable damage. Azula rears back again and connects with the mask. She pushes the woman onto her back and hits her again on the porcelain mask, this time connecting right on where the nose would be. The porcelain cracks and the shards on the inside dig into the bridge of her nose. Azula punched her again, her knuckles bloody and the mask now sinking painfully into the woman, causing blood to fall down her face underneath the mask.

Lost in the bloodshed, Azula prepares the killing blow. She knows she has won, but it is not enough to win. She needs to send a message. She rears her fist back and ignites it full of blue fire, then she sends the tingling through her body and channels lightning into her hand.

A sparking, fiery, bruised, and bloody knuckles fist.

She pauses a moment and looks down at the Kemurikage beneath her. The woman coughs and spits up blood. In the pale light of the burning field, blue fire from her fist, and lightning sparking from her hand, she finally sees what she has wrought. The woman is done, the mask shattered and puncturing her nose. Azula heaves quick, short breaths while looking at the body beneath her. The woman groans and rolls her head to look up at her.

Through the singular eyehole, in the dark of night and with the aid of the flickering flames around her, Azula sees the pupil of a black eye shine through. The woman waits for the killing blow. Perhaps she even welcomes it.

"... then you should start by digging three graves…"

"... put more good chi out into the world than the harm you've already put in…"

The blue fire goes out. The lightning stops crackling in her hand. She realizes she isn't fighting for the right reasons. She looks around at the burning field around her. She pushes off of the ground and stands up. The forest fire she could not control, but this one she can. She lifts her palms up to her side and the fire throughout the field begins to dissipate. It slowly dies down, being suctioned away into her hands. Finally the fire is gone and there is nothing but ash and soot. Azula sighs.

She steps away from the woman, from her Kemurikage. She walks a few paces and then stops. She turns back around and thinks about going back, thinks about unmasking them. But the truth is that it doesn't matter who it is anymore. Azula can not stay in Huwan. She speaks to the concussed woman, who is only somewhat conscious and barely alive.

"You burned my tent and left me to die," Azula tells them. "Consider us even."

She walks away as villagers pour out into the field and bemoan their lost food and supplies. She grabs her few belongings not burned with the tent, and leaves Huwan ruined in her wake.

Wife,

Do not come to Huwan. I am currently enroute to the other place we discussed. It was not safe. I'll explain everything once I have settled. I'll write to you often so you know I am well, but we will have to travel elsewhere. I love you.

Yours,
Dearest

[Fall/Winter 128 AG]

Ty Lee had been right about many things in life. Perhaps the most right she had ever been though was this: Azula is not built out of the Southern Water Tribe. She thought she knew harsh colds. It's not even Winter and she's fucking freezing.

In light of Huwan, she returned to her means of avoiding any kind of joint or public transport. As such, she had secured, after great effort, a row boat for herself. Siq's home was Lonlhai Village on Linlhao Island, off the coast of Jaohu Island, the southern most part of the Earth Kingdom. Subsequently, Linlhao is the northern most part of the Southern Water Tribe, and no matter how you shake it out, they're all frigid.

Being so near the water is probably not helping the situation. A tiny island with no nearby Water Tribe islands or land masses, it is a place obscure enough for the former world's most wanted person to disappear quite easily. Although that's not the goal anymore, her scare in Huwan makes her consider that it might be a positive development all the same. It certainly does not help the island, or her feelings of ominous foreboding, that a thick fog covers the coast all around the island, effectively hiding it even as she knows that she's going towards it.

She comes here to get a new start, ideally one with Ty Lee, and where she can connect with both the spirit of Avatar Asuna and the heritage of her old friend, Siq. Her arms finally stop rowing as the boat reaches a dock on the island at last. In a bizarre although not unexpected twist there is no one manning the dock to talk to when she arrives. All the same she anchors it and hops out. She expects to find a map of some sort to point her to the village, but there is none. The wind blows, the fog grows closer, and Azula pulls her thickest shawl tighter around her body.

'Island is fairly small, village can't be far, right?'

Azula wanders the island for two hours and still doesn't find the village. The thick fog, howling wind, and her ill prepared clothing are a deadly mixture. The first time she huffs fire from her mouth into her palms it provides her a great warmth, but she knows better than to keep doing it. Summoning her bending from her chest like that will exhaust her quicker than the chill. She'd be cutting out her lungs to save her hands if she kept it up.

Nonetheless, another hour later she has succumbed to blowing fire into her hands every few seconds. She'd open the gates and now a deluge of poor decisions are pouring out. As a result, she's started shivering, her breathing has become shallow as her lungs shut down, she’s begun tripping over her own feet, and finally vision blurring. She decides to go back to the boat and try to return to Jaohu Island, and come back on a warmer day. But she can't find the boat. She can't find the dock. On an island surrounded on all sides by the South Sea, she can't even find water.

It is cruel of fate to laugh at her like this. She has survived Avatars, betrayals, ambushes by Kyoshi Warriors, a cave full of militant faithful, warlords assassination attempts, a fight with her former Kemurikage most recently, and so much more. All of that meant nothing to the devastating freeze of the Southern Water Tribe and the Linlhao Island. She finds a plot of particularly appealing grass and lays down.

'I'll just rest here. Just for a moment. Just to get my strength back. I'll be up in no time. Then I'll find that boat and get out of here.'

The Dragon Empress has survived a lifetime of outrageous misfortunes, just to die in some damn cold weather. Her body begins to shut down the moment she lays her head to rest. It's only a few minutes before she's unconscious, off to an eternal sleep.

She would have died right there and then, if it hadn't been for a couple of Lonlhai Village parents stumbling across her. A man and his pregnant wife took a long way back from their hunting trip to take in some sights and enjoy the quiet solitude of the island together.

"Should we take her back?" He asks.

"Aye. She'll be dead if we don't." She answers.

"She might be dead already."

She ignores his pessimism. "Throw a cover over her and carry her back with us."

"My coat?!"

"You'll live without, she might not."

"You're too generous for your own good. This woman will probably be the death of us."

Nonetheless, he does as his wife commands. He throws his thick coat over the unconscious woman, then scoops her into his arms. His wife waddles home carrying their child. He waddles home carrying their newfound friend.