Chapter Four: and beauty stayed his hand

VI. Denial

"It didn't go well, Ty Lee," Mai says after twelve torturous hours at the whims of the tribunal.

Ty Lee knows that. Ty Lee knows that she has just screwed both she and Azula over to the point of no return, no matter how hard she tried. She is sweating, and she feels like sitting down and crying, but Ty Lee has to deny all of that and continue to press forward. Accepting her defeat is not an option.

She remembers the moment on that sharp, pointy beach when she decided that she and Azula should run away together. That their castles in the sky were completely reachable, if only they had the guts to climb up the dangerous trees to reach them. But the branches snapped from under them, and only now do they feel the worst of the fall.

The worst like Azula's potential death and Ty Lee's potential life imprisonment.

No... not potential. Imminent. Imminent is the word Ty Lee keeps thinking of even though she is trying to keep herself happily contained within denial.

"Hey Azula?" she says.

"What?" The princess does not sound amused, and she has that sharp volcanic sand in the palm of her hand.

"Wanna run away?" Ty Lee asks as she looks out over that horizon.

"Fine." Azula scoffs and lets the sand fall from her open palm.

"I'm serious," Ty Lee insists fiercely. The sun is rising and Ty Lee knows that she want this.

"You're in denial. There's nothing you can do, and you know it. I am stuck here, and if you help remove me, you're guilty of treason. I doubt you can convince them that I kidnapped you this time," Azula says coldly.

But Azula played along in the end. Ty Lee wishes she had not made that suggestion in the first place. Because they really could have a life together. They really could have had it all on that island, and Ty Lee screwed them both over.

Azula has already heard about her trial when she sees Ty Lee entering. Ty Lee is not with guards this time, and she is sweating profusely. Princess Azula wants to pity her, and she does not want to hate her. But Azula no longer gets what she wants.

Ty Lee does not know what to say at first. She does not know if she would ever know what to say if she did not think of, "Hey Azula?"

"What?" Azula snaps with zero patience. She looks into Ty Lee's eyes that sparkle with tears and wants to feel remorse. She truly wants to.

"Wanna run away?"

"Fine." Azula rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and looks away.

"I'm serious," Ty Lee states, and she means it.

"You're in denial. There is nothing you can do," Azula replies, and she means it too.

"Oh, let's do it! Let's go on a romantic killing spree across the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom or wherever you feel like! We make the rules, remember?" Ty Lee says as she remembers the sweet taste of Azula's lips and the beautiful madness that she surrendered to.

"I am uncertain if you noticed the bars between us but I don't think we make the rules anymore." Azula sneers and tries again to break Ty Lee's eye contact.

"Ugh. You're the one in denial. Let's do it. Let's get married this time. Let's get married for real and argue about curtains again," Ty Lee says with an admirably delusional force.

"Sounds great. Mail me the itinerary." Azula walks into the shadows of her cell and does not reemerge.

Ty Lee pretends that everything is fine.

VII. "No, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."

Ty Lee scrambles because she does not have much time. She needs to find something, anything, to prevent the execution that Zuko keeps apologizing and apologizing about. There has to be a way to save she and Azula both.

It is their last night on Earth together, if Ty Lee fails.

She finds Iroh. They both find Azula.

[X]

"Right, because you only believe in second chances when they somehow benefit you!" Azula shrieks from behind the bars as Iroh refuses.

He couldn't help it. It was the right thing to do, and he knew it. They were young and in love, but he could not set them free and betray his nephew.

"That is not ─" Iroh does not have the time to respond with his reasoning because he can feel the static in the air and the shift in energy.

He can feel the lightning on Azula's fingertips.

Ty Lee can see so many people when Azula moves for this death blow. But it is not calculated; Azula is crying and Ty Lee is crying and Iroh is moving for a counterattack.

"Azula, please..." Ty Lee whispers. "Azula, please..."

She does not yell over the Agni Kai that has broken out at the drop of a hat in the prison corridor. She just whispers, but it is enough for Azula to hear.

They lock eyes in the flickering bright blue light and Azula releases the lightning. It angrily collides with the wall on the other side of the room, and a flash of red fire moves to retaliate against an attack that was not completed.

Azula stands down and steps back as Iroh reins in his flames.

"I don't want this to be how you last see me," Azula says and Ty Lee looks at her. "I mean, of course you find it devastatingly sexy. You think there's something very hot about murderers, don't you?"

Ty Lee whimpers. "Azula..."

"But going out in a fit of rage about this man is too ridiculous. Come here," Azula says, holding out a hand as Iroh watches tensely. "Come here now, Ty Lee."

The ex-Kyoshi Warrior obeys, walking to stand in front of the bars. Their hands touch very slowly and the touch electrifies them both. Azula kisses Ty Lee fiercely on the lips, the hard, cold bars pressed painfully against her cheek.

"Azula..."

"Tell me about that ridiculous happily ever after you kept going on and on about. The one about living on an island with children."

"I want three," Ty Lee whispers.

"Two."

"Boys."

"Girls."

"Two, one of each," Azula murmurs.

"And I'd really like yellow wallpaper even though you hate it."

Iroh blinks away the tears in his eyes and decides that he will not let this be their last night on Earth together, as they expect it to be.

[X]

Zuko hears the news in the morning. He feels a certain rage within him, and then agony, and then just sadness. He knows those emotions too well, and he has to deal with them before the public demands answers about the two girls who died for love... or something like it.

Iroh would do anything to avoid this, but watching Azula's eyes on that particular girl who somehow did something inexplicably powerful to slay the monster Ozai had made was burned into his mind. Zuko could know that Iroh had fulfilled his promise to Ty Lee when the words tumbled from her lips to him and not the pit of crocodiles that were interrogating her. He could but Iroh knows that his nephew would seek her with what he would presume to be her best interests at heart.

All the same, Iroh does know how harsh this lie will be on everyone else.

Zuko... Zuko weeps and Iroh struggles to keep his mind clear and remember what is important. Zuko weeps for bodies that are not really dead; Zuko weeps because he thinks his sister has killed herself, as he had feared for so long.

And Iroh feels monstrous for it.

"I'm sorry," Zuko whispers, and even the tears streaming from his eyes are not enough to make this up to people. "I'm sorry about what happened and if I could have done anything to stop it I would have."

"Zuko," Iroh whispers as his nephew stares at his feet with a vacant expression and glassy eyes. Zuko is silent until Iroh gives him that look. "It isn't your fault."

"Whose fault is it then? The razors? The guards? Her head? What? I was the one who caused this." Zuko seems so certain, but Iroh is silent for a few brief seconds.

He should tell his nephew and everything inside of him wants to tell Zuko. Seeing him suffering is one of the most painful sensations the retired general has faced; but he gave Azula nothing in her life save for his word right now.

It is the only way she will get her second chance, and so Iroh just says quietly, "It wasn't the razors, nephew; it was beauty that killed the beast."

That is not a lie. It never was.

End