Chapter Nine – Zuko & Ty Lee

"She's pregnant. She's not lying about it," Zuko says for the tenth time. For some inexplicable reason, no one here seems to believe a girl who is visibly seven months in. He supposes Azula's past hasn't done her credibility any favors. "You have to wait until she has the baby. Then you can swoop in like komodo vultures."

The friends and not-so-friends looking to him do not seem enthused. Zuko doesn't get it.

No, no, he does get it. It felt from the first moment like Azula was using the baby as an unborn human shield. Zuko started to relax about it as time passed, but he can understand why everyone is doubtful.

"She's mentally fit for a trial if she's mentally fit to have a baby and be loose in your house," Suki says coldly and Zuko clenches his jaw.

They all agree with her over him.

He doesn't blame them.

"When?" he asks quietly, slipping out of the power position he was holding.

"We voted on next week," replies the head of the Kyoshi Warriors and an important ambassador – two titles that mean arguing with her will be difficult. The third title is his close friend – which is somehow even harder to fight against.

"I'll tell her." He stands.

Ty Lee is worried. She is now less frightened of the trial in five days and more frightened of the princess. Azula is cracking very slowly, but it is becoming visible the closer the two of them become.

But the thick of it starts when Azula is thrown into such a panic that she rises from bed and runs towards the door. Ty Lee had been keeping guard of the princess, as everyone close to Zuko was, and she is so glad it happens on her shift.

Because the princess breaks the door open, leaving her knee bloodied, and flies towards the exit.

"Where are you running to?" Ty Lee shouts before realizing she should probably keep quiet. "Azula!"

The princess stops, Ty Lee stops pursuing her. Azula's hands rest on the door and she has a look of realization on her face.

"I can't get out, can I?" she whispers and Ty Lee swallows. Her throat feels scratchy and dry from the nerves she has been stuck with all night. "I can't get it out, can I?"

Ty Lee realizes something bad. Azula is talking about her baby.

That complicates everything. Azula has had panic attacks in front of Ty Lee over the past months and when they were young too. But if this one was triggered by the baby inside of her, Ty Lee just won't know what to do.

"I had a dream about dragons and spirits." Azula doesn't clarify and Ty Lee doesn't ask. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe, Ty Lee. Take care of me. Fix me. Get it out of me. I can't breathe."

Ty Lee tries to keep calm, soft and slow, like she is interacting with a terrifying monster. It always makes her feel bad that she has to be like that, but she does and there is no changing it. Or, at least, if there is a way, Ty Lee has not found it yet.

"I can't take it out of you."

"Then get away from me!" Azula thrusts both hands forward and Ty Lee barely dodges the fire in time. Azula breaks open the door barricading her from the outside, keeping her in her prison under the orders of everyone ever.

Ty Lee has no choice but to follow her. She has to get her back inside before anyone sees.

Azula doesn't run, thankfully. She sits down on a bench and tries to catch her breath to no avail. The stars are somewhat pretty tonight, Ty Lee notices, but the princess is staring at her feet.

"I'm sorry you feel trapped."

"I am trapped. I would to gnaw my leg off to get free."

"Please don't do that. You're just scared," Ty Lee whispers.

She sits down.

She stays with the princess.

There is no other choice.

There never has been another choice.

After the incident with Azula breaking down two doors and sitting in silence for three hours, Ty Lee wars with herself nightly about whether she should go check on Azula or not. Azula's reaction is impossible to gauge, but it probably would not be good. The princess is only the type of crazy that protects her; she is the type of crazy that hurts her and Ty Lee doesn't know what to do to stop that hurt.

She gives in on the fifth night, because hearing Azula in so much pain is just too much for Ty Lee to bear. The Kyoshi Warrior forces herself out of bed, her feet dragging and her eyelids drooping, as she fumbles through the dark hallway and twists the knob of Azula's door.

Locked. Of course. "Azula," Ty Lee hisses, knocking gently. The silence inside is somewhat disconcerting, and Ty Lee knocks louder. She still receives no response. Ty Lee pounds viciously on the door. "Azula!"

It is then that she can no longer be polite, because the panic is surging within her. Adrenaline coursing through her veins, Ty Lee punches open the locked door, leaving it in sad ruins, and she forces her way inside. Azula is lying, twisted in her bed, her hands resting on the very small bump protruding from her lower belly.

"Azula, are you okay?" Ty Lee dares to ask, and she gets no answer.

Spirits, Ty Lee does not understand why life enjoys punching her repeatedly so much. There are three days until Azula will be tried for war crimes. Azula could speak so well, save herself with words, but not when she is this fucked up.

How could anyone think she is okay enough to stand trial?

"Azula," Ty Lee says again. She realizes she had not said Azula's name in a very, very long time before she got the letter and came to stay until the baby was born. It is a very pretty name, and Ty Lee likes how it rolls from her tongue. "Azula... Azula, please. Is it you? Is it the baby? What is it?"

The utter silence is disconcerting. The way Azula is not saying something cruel or hurtful, or isn't at least looking at Ty Lee.

Ty Lee does not know what the intruders used to chi-block the royals. Maybe there are aftereffects. And so Ty Lee takes her, very gently, and tries to help her lie down. But then there is screaming, screaming like Ty Lee has never heard. The footsteps pounding through the hallway as Azula just does not stop, does not stop screaming, are drowned out.

Until Zuko is inside, only in underwear, his hair down and messy. Ty Lee looks up at him and neither of them care about his partial nudity, because although Azula has stopped screaming, it is very, very clear that she is no longer there.

"What happened?" Zuko demands coarsely.

Ty Lee just shakes her head. Azula's breathing is strange, rattling as if she is in a fight, although Zuko cannot remember a time Azula was winded, save for perhaps her final battle with Katara. He moves to her and she moves, her fingernails clawing at his face and causing him to recoil.

"You're upsetting her," Ty Lee whispers, as if that is not painfully evident already.

Zuko steps back slowly, unsure what to do. He is already agonized over the deliberations about his sister's life. Azula... Azula sick... the pregnancy is struggle enough for the Fire Lord to keep in mind when he is more worried about her imminent trial.

"I want it out of me," Azula says perfectly clearly, perfectly lucidly. "Please."

"Azul... I don't get it. You were so excited," Ty Lee whispers, having never been this scared in her life. Where is Mai? Where is that bitch right now?

"I want it out of me. Now."

Ty Lee and Zuko are silent and breathless.

Two mornings before the trial, "Will you talk to me?" Ty Lee begs, although she doubts Azula will respond. The princess kind of just glares and lies there and sort of sighs when Ty Lee attempts to do anything. She is pretty sedated.

Doctors, doctors Azula is very likely not keen on dealing with. Dressed in light reds, making Ty Lee uncomfortable as she tries to force the memories out of her mind. They must be worse for Azula.

"Don't pressure her," says the woman who is clearly in charge. She has been rolling her eyes at Ty Lee for an hour. "It won't do any good."

"You won't take her away." Ty Lee is not asking; she is telling.

"No, I have no intentions of doing that if the Fire Lord does not order it," says the woman as if this is so mundane. Ty Lee wants to murder her. She wants to rip her limb from limb and has no regrets about her violent thoughts.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Ty Lee shouts the second question before remembering herself and murmuring hasty apologies. Azula is still, curled on a chaise lounge in the palace, completely silent and not fighting against the drugs in her veins at all.

She seems to be perfectly fine with being incapacitated, which has never been a characteristic of the princess, even at her worst.

Ty Lee has seen her thousand-yard stare plenty of times. Azula was never mentally fit in the first place, and it only progressed with age before she snapped.

(Before Ty Lee made her snap. Agni, Spirits, oh...)

But she is just gone. Just gone. And the only thing she has said in nearly two days was the demand to remove the child. She can't... want that, can she? Ty Lee does not...

"Stay with her, if you can," the doctor instructs, as if Ty Lee would ever do anything but stay with Azula. "She seems comforted by you."

Ty Lee is pretty certain the doctor is lying to keep Ty Lee from going off the walls.

But she gently takes Azula's hand and hopes that it will do something.