Chapter 16: The Message

Azula watched her mother with fascination. Her voice was cold, yet an aura of heat pulsed off of the woman, a burning rage barely controlled. Ursa made a motion with her hands, and a ball of flame leapt to life in one palm, glowing with a searing white fire like none Azula had ever seen before.

"I believe you owe me a life, Ozai," Ursa said.

Ozai did not cower or attempt to beg. He drew himself up straight. "Do I, Ursa?"

"That was the agreement, was it not? I would give you Azulon in exchange for the safety of Zuko and Azula. Not only have you not protected them, you have nearly killed both of them – Zuko by your own hand, and Azula by the corruption you seeded in her soul." She turned her head to one side, regarding him. "In fact I believe you owe me a life for each of our children, but as you have only one to give, that will have to suffice."

Azula moved, throwing herself in between Ursa and Ozai. "Stop!" Corrupt? she thought. Is that what I am?

Ursa drew back slightly, her eyes focusing on her daughter as if she had only just remembered the girl was in the room. "Azula, my dear – you should not be here right now."

"You promised me a meeting with Father. You interrupted us."

Ursa spoke gently, but the rage in her eyes did not dim. "I said you could have some time with him in private, darling, and you've had that. Enough to say goodbye."

Azula was taken aback at the death she saw in her mother's face. Her mother had always been the quiet, gentle one; her father the face of power and command. She barely recognized the woman who stood here now, blazing in righteous fury. "What are you planning to do, Mother? Kill him – " -- in cold blood clearly wasn't the right term – "with him a helpless captive? He can't even firebend to protect himself."

"Your father understands, Azula. He has always known I would kill to protect you and your brother. It was he who made me a murderess to begin with." There was an undercurrent of anguish in Ursa's voice. "Please, dear. This is for the best. Return to the Sages. I will come see you …after."

"After you've killed Father, you mean? I won't let you do that."

"Azula." Ursa's voice was gentle. "My dear, you cannot stop me."

There was a crunching, rending noise, and the roof of Ozai's cell split open. The rock ceiling yawned wide to let the small shape of the Avatar pass through. "I can, Lady Ursa," he said. "And I'm sorry, but I have to." With a wave of a hand, Aang pinned Ozai to the wall of his cell with shackles of rock, then took up a defensive stance in front of the man.

Ursa pulled herself up straight, fury and disbelief mingling on her features. "You should not interfere in this, Avatar. Ozai knew his life was forfeit the instant he threatened either of my children. I paid for this, with my body and my soul."

A second hole opened up in the ceiling on the outside of Ozai's cell, and Zuko dropped through, followed by the Avatar's earthbender girl, and, to Azula's surprise, Lu Ten.

"Mother," Zuko said, "No one has more right to vengeance on Ozai than you do." He shot a glower at his father, who glared back. "But I can't let you kill a defenseless prisoner of mine." He sighed. "Apparently part of being good is being nicer to your enemies than they would ever be to you. Or so Aang says. And I have to trust him on this point. He's a lot better at being good than I am."

Ursa looked at her son, and at the Avatar. Then, reluctantly, she let the ball of flame in her hand flicker out. "You knew this would happen, didn't you?" she asked softly.

"No, actually," Aang said, an apology in his tone. "I mean, we knew you had good reason to be, um, upset with Ozai, but we were here to listen in on his talk with Azula. We didn't expect you to show up."

Ozai flashed a glance at Azula, one that clearly said, I told you so. Once again, her hand touched the slip of parchment in her pocket.

"Mikka came and told me what Lu Ten asked him to do," Ursa said. "I thought it probably had something to do with Azula, though I didn't know what. When I got to her cell, the Sages said the Fire Lord had come and taken her away. I made a guess at where they would go."

Azula frowned at Lu Ten, who had the grace to look sheepish. "You set me up?"

"It's not like that," her cousin protested. "I really did want to help you see Ozai. I wanted you to see what he'd become. Zuko would only agree to the meeting if Toph was nearby to listen in, that's all."

Toph rapped a fist on the rock wall. "Sound travels through stone really well," she commented. "We were upstairs the whole time."

"It was to protect you as much as anything," Lu Ten insisted. "Ozai's still dangerous, and your firebending is messed up. If he'd gotten his hands on you he might have tried to hold you hostage."

"Why the charade?" Azula asked, not able to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She had been a fool, thinking that Lu Ten might be an ally. He was already under Zuko's control, it seemed.

"We thought you and Ozai would speak more freely if you thought we didn't know about the meeting," Zuko replied, with a shrug that clearly said I couldn't care less about your privacy. "We hoped to learn something."

Azula caught the brief, tiny smile on her father's face. She hoped no one else had. "You should let Ursa kill me," Ozai said, in a silky, malicious voice. "Let her murder me here in my cell. Let her make a martyr of me."

Toph tapped the wall, and a rock gag sealed itself over Ozai's mouth. "Thanks, Thumper," Zuko said, giving his father a poisonous look.

"No problem. Didn't want to listen to him any more myself."

Ozai kept his eyes on Azula. See how they humiliate me? they seemed to say. A clean death would be better than this.

Zuko reached out and clasped both of his mother's wrists. She bowed her head, not meeting his eyes. "Please, Mother. I don't want you to do this. I don't want him to make you a killer twice over. I just want us to, to – leave him behind. I think we can, if we try." He looked at Azula, who met him with a steely gaze. "At least, I think you and I can."

"But I must free Azula from him, too," she said, her voice low and sad. "As long as he lives, he will try to involve her in his plots. With him gone, there is a chance – "

"A chance for what, Mother?" Azula snapped. "For me to become – what was it you said? – uncorrupted? Do you think I don't know what I'm doing?"

Ursa looked at her, sorrow in her eyes. "That's exactly what I think. You don't know. But you have time to learn, my darling. You're still a child. There so much you haven't seen yet –"

"I am not a child!" Azula's voice cracked like a whip. Everyone in the room looked at her. She wished she had her firebending so she could show them all exactly what they were dealing with, but although her rage roiled in her belly, it brought none of the strength with it that it used to. The fire remained unreachable.

"I don't think you're a child," Zuko said, looking her in the eyes. "But then, I know you better than mother does."

"You don't know me half as well as you think you do, Zuzu. You should remember that."

"I know you well enough, Azula."

She allowed a predatory grin to steal over her face. "Really. Well. We'll see, won't we?"

"Stop it, you two!" Ursa said. "You're squabbling like eight year olds!"

Zuko looked embarrassed. Azula did not.

"Mother's right," Zuko said. "There's no point in this. It's time we all got out of here, I think. Lu Ten, please escort my sister."

Lu Ten moved to take Azula's arm, but she glared daggers at him, and he dropped his hand. "Look, Zuli, I didn't mean to –"

"Shut up. And don't call me that." She turned her back on him, pulling her hood over her face. She didn't want to look at him. She didn't want to look at any of them, even her father. Because her mother was right, of course – he had tried to involve her in his plots.

She didn't know, yet, whether or not he had succeeded.

Azula put her hands in her pockets as the guards opened the doors to let them out. One hand brushed Roku's crown, still giving off a gentle warmth. The other touched the cool, dry parchment with Ozai's message on it.

An attack tonight, it said. Be ready to escape. And there was an address in the seedy part of town. A contact, no doubt. A place to go. A refuge? Or just another kind of cell? Was this like a Pai Sho game, where she could be either a lowly peasant or a lofty Lord? Which was she? Which one did her father think she was?

Could she choose not to play at all?

She stole a glance at Lu Ten as they went up the stairs, followed by her brother and her mother, who were talking in low tones. The Avatar and his earthbender remained behind for a moment to restore Ozai's cell.

I wish you had been a real ally, she thought at Lu Ten.

And then they were out the prison door and onto the street, all four of them cloaked despite the warmth of the summer evening. She looked up at the sun, craving the light even as it disappeared down the sky.

And caught, out of the corner of her eye, the glint of a dozen arrowheads glimmering off a nearby roof.

She froze, struggling with her choices.

In that moment, the arrows flew.

To Be Continued

Author's note: This one's a trifle short since I had a busy weekend. There'll be more next time, promise. Meanwhile, enjoy your cliffhanger!