Into the Inferno
by Don't Touch My Walkman
Warnings: Lemons, violence, implied rape and torture, and some dark themes.
This is intended to be a reverse Ty Lee healing Azula. Instead, Azula will be forced to heal Ty Lee.
This turns into a romance, I swear. But like moonflowers, this Tyzula grows best in partial shadows.

I felt for the tormented whirlwinds
Damned for their carnal sins
Committed when they let their passions rule their reason.
Dante Alighiere, The Divine Comedy

Chapter One: Ice Water

It was one hundred and seven years after Sozin killed the airbenders, and his great granddaughter was currently finishing the last of her work in what once was the Earth Kingdom before she could return home to the Fire Nation.

She was looking forward to the ability to return to her bed, to her blissful familial life sans Zuko and to royal matters. She had to admit she somewhat preferred the chase of hunting down rebels and searching for Zuko, but she did miss having legions of slaves, hot food and a soft bed.

Azula was standing in the large penitentiary building in Yu Dao in her full armor, looking more intimidating than ever. Soldiers scuttled around her and Mai was toying with a switchblade as if the fact that they busted the rebels most clandestine hideout was boring. To her, it probably was.

"Who was in charge?" Azula asked as she saw the prisoners being pulled into view.

"Zuko's girlfriend, apparently," Mai sighed, studying her nails. She put actual effort into sounding disinterested about Zuko, because triggering Azula's frightening amounts of jealousy was not something she was in the mood to deal with.

"His girlfriend?" Azula cocked an eyebrow.

"Water peasant," Mai replied with a careless shrug. "Waterbender, actually. Not a bad one. Not bad looking, if you... well..."

Azula just smirked at her. "If I well...?"

"Not a conversation to have in public," Mai replied quietly and Azula just shook her head. She was quite eager to get home to more interesting activities in the bedroom, but that did not mean everyone in the vicinity had to know that.

With a slow examination of the pretty Water Tribe girl, Azula thought she liked Mai's offer. It would probably be better than slaves or scared noble girls. If Mai was interested in the first place, of course, but Azula did not blame her due to her delicate condition of late.

"Not Zuko, though," Azula sighed, looking up and down and deciding which of the soldiers she would execute for letting her brother get away. Mai bit her lip, chewing with her canine tooth and savoring the pain. She did not want Zuko to be found, for some inexplicable reason.

But Ozai and Azula were her life now, and Zuko was their enemy. She did not quite understand why they had such resentment, Azula in particular. Yet, Mai valued her life more than the life of her childhood crush, and, therefore, kept her mouth shut.

Mai made a choking sound and Azula whipped around to face her. Their exchanged glance said a thousand words as Azula's gaze was guided to an unconscious body of one of the rebels being locked in with the others.

The unconscious body of a girl Azula and Mai had not seen since they were young.

She was quite stunned by the fact as she watched the prisoners being roughly loaded into crates. It took her a moment to even recognize Ty Lee, seeing as she would expect her in some spa or circus or fortune teller's summer camp, or some other bullshit like that. Not in the fresh catch of rebels from the successful invasion and collection.

Azula received the good glimpse when a girl clinging to Ty Lee was viciously ripped away from her, kicking. The plants around the dark skinned girl suddenly were dry, and she lashed tendrils of water onto the legs of the muscular man holding her, lashing his skin and making him curse and drop her.

Mai had an incredible point; it would be sexy to dominate her.

The cobalt eyes of the rebel lit with excitement, as if she could escape, but she was quickly pinned by projectile knives. Azula smirked faintly at her stepmother and lover, whom set her heel on the rebel's gut and just looked at her.

"I don't think so," Mai said in a voice devoid of the pleasure she felt. And with that she turned to the guards and ordered, "Keep her separately from the others. I don't like her troublemaking."

You don't like that she fucked Zuko, Azula thought, but she liked to live in denial and therefore kept it to herself.

Azula's eyes were entirely fixated on Ty Lee, wondering how this could have happened.

It must be wrong, she must be imagining things.

Azula decided to have her questions answered by an interrogation. They were on the ship to the Fire Nation, prisoners held below deck, some going to the Boiling Rock, others to different locations. It was an excellent bust of the frustrating rebellion... but Azula did not catch her brother.

Ty Lee was led into the office room, drowsily looking around at the maps on the walls and the chair the masked soldiers shackled her to. She looked up, stunned to see Azula, as if she had no idea. As if she were the surprised one.

"Azula!" Ty Lee declared in shock, looking at the princess. Azula was pacing around her, her movements serpentine, like a slender dragon draped in sharp metal, claws included. Ty Lee felt slightly unnerved by the way Azula was looking at her. "It's good to see you."

They examined each other for a moment. So much had changed since they were thirteen. Azula looked stunning, and Ty Lee was beautiful, a gorgeous young woman. Their eyes wandered to places they probably should not have.

Passing notes in class and holding hands in the park did not translate to adult romance. Ty Lee had been in more strange beds than she could count to make do in the Earth Kingdom, and Azula had gone through a peculiar sexual metamorphosis with Mai. There was still that look, like anyone would have when they laid eyes on their first love for the first time in years.

Eight years.

But the analysis of each other ended when Azula clasped her hands behind her back, breathed in and began to speak, her tongue still as silvery as ever and her eyes still a glittering gold.

"So this is why you declined my invitation to come home?" Azula purred, picking at her nails with a loud scratching sound that made Ty Lee's heart palpitate. "You decided to join the rebels. Ty Lee, you were a well blooded Fire Nation woman. Surely, you didn't think my father was abolishing circuses along with earthbending, did you?"

Ty Lee looked at her feet for a moment, unsure what to do. "It's... it's a long story."

"And an interesting one, I'm sure," Azula purred mockingly and Ty Lee could not quite make out what was odd about her tone. "Well, we have plenty of time. Start talking."

The acrobat gulped in response and Azula stared at her intently. Her first crush, giddy moments, pushing her to the ground because she did cartwheels better, pushing her out of a tree when Ty Lee taught her how to climb one for the first time. The memories rushed to Azula before she could stop them.

It burned like betrayal to know that Ty Lee was fighting against the Fire Nation. The country that gave her everything, that by birth she swore fealty to and gave her pledge to every day.

And you swore fealty to me as well, Azula thought, knowing that it was not her nation she was sorry for, it was herself. She always was a selfish girl, after all.

"Azula, I don't want to do this," Ty Lee said softly, batting her eyelashes.

The princess inhaled sharply. "Well people in the Boiling Rock want ice water but you don't see me with a pitcher, do you?"

Ty Lee could only see malice in Azula's eyes, maybe a little bit of pain, somewhere beneath the molten surface. She supposed she had no choice but to come clean; there was no easy way to get out of it.

"I wound up with the rebels like most people do, I guess. Desperation," Ty Lee said, wishing Azula would stop staring at her like that. "The Comet didn't leave me with a lot of options. I was stranded and I wound up getting taken in by this boy─"

Why Azula breathed in like she just got jabbed by a needle, Ty Lee did not understand. The princess was always confusing, but she seemed stranger still.

"This boy, anyway, and I slowly got involved in the rebels. Well, first I was a drug runner, but then I got involved with the rebels," Ty Lee said, swallowing.

"Do you even know the meaning of loyalty? To your country," Azula said haughtily and Ty Lee chewed on her lip. "The worst kind of traitor is the kind who flips just because it's convenient. I'm more forgiving of my brother. At least he did it out of revenge for my father burning and banishing him. You just... felt like it."

Azula turned away and Ty Lee loathed that she could not see her face or try to figure out what she was thinking or intending to do. It was beyond unnerving, and Ty Lee did not know what to make of it.

Ty Lee cleared her throat and said quietly, "I didn't want to hurt anybody."

"Well, I don't want to hurt you," Azula said sweetly and Ty Lee was not stupid enough to not predict what she would say yes. "But what was it I just said about ice water?"

Ty Lee knew that it was rhetorical as Azula slowly turned around, walking towards her prisoner. The princess glanced at the guards at the door and waved for them to leave her. They quickly obeyed as Ty Lee's eyes widened further.

"Do you remember the day we first met?" Azula asked softly and Ty Lee did not know what to make of it.

"Of course," Ty Lee replied honestly. "It's kind of hard to forget."

Princess Azula was eight years old and the school day had just ended. Soldiers were waiting to pick her up, Mai was still holding both of their bags, but Azula had something to do. Something she felt was imperative.

Azula followed her to the bathroom. It was likely unwise to go after the girl she made cry and run away, but she felt it necessary. Tormenting the dumb little noble girl from the colonies was entertaining while it lasted, but Azula felt something alien and new in her gut twist when she saw Ty Lee run away sobbing, her perpetual grin wiped from her face.

She pushed open the door of the room, which was decorated with incense and beautiful paintings of tsunamis and forests. Ty Lee was there, as Azula had overheard from the passing laughing girls, and Azula bit on her lip as she realized she had no idea what she was supposed to say.

"Please go away," Ty Lee whispered, her voice constricted with emotion.

"I didn't..." Azula began and she breathed in slowly. Agni, she had no idea what she was doing. "Do you want to be my friend?"

Ty Lee made a sound between a laugh and a sob. "Are you serious? You-you've been... you... for months and then you..."

Azula was stunned speechless. No one had ever spoken to her like that. And, granted, her only friend was Mai, whom she only knew because she was engaged to Zuko or something. Azula had never bothered to make friends because people were forced to be cordial to her because her grandfather was Fire Lord.

"It's just an offer. Take it or leave it," Azula replied airily with a shrug.

She walked away and just as her fingers touched the door, Ty Lee said, "Yeah. I'll be your friend."

"You know, they say when a girl pulls on your braid she likes you, and if she makes you cry hysterically in a bathroom, she loves you," Azula said with a tiny smirk and Ty Lee furrowed her brow in utter confusion.

Ty Lee was not sure if she was going to be tortured or kissed.

"So you love me?" Ty Lee blurted out before deciding she wanted to throw herself overboard. Her cheeks flushed bright red.

"No," Azula said sweetly. "But I don't have to."

Azula leaned forward and her lips grazed against Ty Lee's. It made Ty Lee feel a surge of fear, the desire to escape. The princess was on her lap before she could do anything, her hands and feet bound, deserted, stranded, being shipped back to the Fire Nation as a traitor.

And there was Azula's fingers stroking her neck, running down her skin and sliding down her sleeves with such fluid motions. Ty Lee did not respond, her eyes closed as Azula's lips touched her cheekbone. Her hands slipped lower, and lower, and Ty Lee felt a most unwelcome burning heat.

Ty Lee swallowed as Azula's nails scratched a straight line down her navel and then moved to her thighs, digging in the inside and dragging down. Whimper, Ty Lee could not help but whimper.

Her hands abandoned the borderline mutilation, sliding to Ty Lee's breast as she dug her hips in deeper, pressed against her, the arousal throbbing. But as she caressed her and grinded against her, Azula felt slightly ill.

Not yet, not yet.

She got up, leaving Ty Lee both in pain and craving in ways that hurt on every level.

"We'll pick this up later," Azula said breathlessly, the shame twisting inside of her chest.

Ty Lee just watched Azula walk away as she pressed her sore thighs together.

After the interrogation that was more of an exercise in absurdity, Azula walked slowly to her cabin, where Mai was currently suppressing vomit, curled into a tight ball with her knees touching her chin.

"How did it go?" Mai asked, realizing how damned difficult talking was when she felt about to hurl up her insides.

"As terribly as you would imagine, of course." Azula lay down beside Mai and pouted her tangerine lips. "I want her, Mai."

"She's our prisoner already," Mai replied, confused by what Azula meant.

"No, I want her personally. Fuck the Boiling Rock," Azula said with a level of conviction that made Mai's muscles tense in discomfort.

Mai ran her fingers across her lips and studied Azula closely. Of course she would be more hurt about Ty Lee than anyone else; it wounded her enough that Ty Lee left her to join the circus in the first place. Her disappearance was something that Azula did not forget, no matter how much her father wanted her to. Ty Lee showing up surrounded by Azula's worst enemies did not do wonders for the princess's copious abandonment issues.

"What do you plan to do with her?" Mai inquired, gripping the blankets as her head feels as if it is spinning.

"Take her home. Keep her as a pet," Azula said and Mai wondered if she was supposed to laugh before she realized that Azula was completely serious. Oh, Agni.

"I don't know what your father would think about that," Mai said casually, trying not to care. It perturbed her that she did care about what happened to Ty Lee. Mai prided herself on not caring about anything or anyone, and on the occasions she found herself with emotions towards a person, she just felt queasy.

And now she was doubly queasy. Morning sickness was the worst misnomer she had ever heard.

"You sound like a mother," Azula said, her lip twisting with disgust.

"Ick. You're right," Mai replied even more flatly than usual. "We can't have sex tonight at all. It feels incestuous now."

Azula paused for a moment and scratched the bridge of her nose. "Well, it is incestuous... technically."

"I'm your stepmother. It doesn't count," Mai said and Azula just shrugged. And then Mai sighed. "Ty Lee is going to be the death of you if you get obsessed─"

"I have never obsessed over something so petty. I simply want to set an example of my standards for loyalty," Azula purred with utter confidence radiating from her. Mai buried her face in the scratchy pillows and decided it was not worth the effort.

"Remind me not to cross you," Mai breathed. "Can you bring me a bucket?"

Azula nodded and rose from the bed.

Azula left her bed and walked onto the deck of the ship as the sun was rising. They were approaching the Fire Nation; she could tell from the wind. She had spent enough time fighting in the Earth Kingdom on her father's bidding to have a sixth sense about these things.

It was somewhat disturbing to her that he simply tossed out his only heir, and she supposed sending Mai with her was just to make it even more risky. Perhaps he had some sort of contempt for his own mortality; Azula did not know.

If he had known Mai was pregnant he probably would not have, Azula reminded herself. She did not find out until they were already at the Pohai Stronghold. Her father had some shreds of humanity in him, at least towards those who were loyal to him.

Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty... and that was why Azula dreamt all of last night about Zuko and Ty Lee.

She inhaled the sun, touching two fingers together in the stale, cold morning at sea.

And she let herself be controlled by the cold blooded fire, the lightning dancing on her fingertips. It cleared her mind, she was no longer ruled by her passions and emotions towards a girl who likely was not the girl that Azula fell in love with as a dumb adolescent.

This was all overcomplicated.

It would make more sense once she could have the advice of her father. More sense when Ty Lee was in the palace and Azula could decide what she wanted to do with her. Then again, the distraction of the little prince or princess Ozai knew nothing of might make things more difficult.

Azula just let the lightning take over her body and soul.

There was time.