AN: I own nothing.

I always sorta thought Azula was Bipolar. I have no idea why, but I do.

Third Person POV

Zuko silently absorbed in the news that his sister was permanently damaged. It came like a wave, not entirely unexpected, but it still hit hard.

Regardless of everything, Azula was his little sister. Sure, she had been horrible to him, but not everything was entirely her fault. In fact, if he had had a little bit more sense of self preservation, he might have not gotten tricked into that Agni Kai with his father and would never have been banished to find the Avatar. Had he never been sent to find the Avatar, he might never have sided with the Avatar and therefore remained a pawn of Ozai's just as Azula had.

Of course, there really had been nothing stopping Azula from leaving anytime she wanted. Still, Zuko could not bring himself to hate his sister completely.

Azula was hard to hate at all in her resent state, however.

She was sitting at a low table with and appeared to be in an angry discussion with someone across from her. However, there was no one there.

"I tried, Mother, I tried," she screamed angrily.

"Auzla," Zuko said calmly. Azula looked up, startled. Then her face split into a wide, mocking smile.

"Hello, brother," she said in her normal tone. Zuko sat across the corner from her.

"Azula," Zuko repeated, not entirely sure where to begin. "Er, how are you?"

"ZuZu, I'm locked up. How do you think I am?" Her face fell into a contemplative expression. "Hm, now why would you be here? Is your conscience finally getting to you, ZuZu? Or is there something you need from me?"

"Fine. I need you to tell me what you know about Mother."

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Katara wandered through the hallways of the mental institution aimlessly. She looked at the other patients, but never stared for very long. Their eyes were haunting, some dead, some angry, some horrible sad.

It chilled her to think that several days ago she had been like that. Lost in her mind. She was scared more than she would admit.

If it could happen to her once, it could happen again. And the next time, she might not be able to come back. What had Aang said? He was breaking rules by talking to her and showing her the pictures in the water? If so, he probably wouldn't be able to do it again should the need arise. . .

No. Stop thinking about it. She was stronger. She could handle what life threw at her.

But you couldln't, a voice in the back of her head whispered. What makes you think you're any different now?

Katara tried to shake off those thoughts. She needed to get out of here. Where was Azula's room? Oh yeah, there it was. . .

The door was slightly ajar so she went in without knocking. Zuko looked up calmly at her arrival and merely motioned for her to sit down in a spare chair.

Azula had a completely different reaction.

"You!" she shrieked. "It's all your fault! It's all your fault!" She was on her feet, pointing an angry finger at Katara.

Katara stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide, her brain trying to process this sudden change in demeanor and volume.

Zuko was on his feet as well.

"Azula," he said calmly. Katara was surprised. This seemed like a situation in which the Fire Lord would definitely have raised his voice. "What could she have possibly done to you?"

"Everything," Azula said, her voice no longer a scream. Instead it was deadly quiet and furious. "She's the reason why I'm here. She's the reason why they think I'm crazy. Because I see Mother. But I'm not crazy!" Her voice was beginning to raise.

"If anyone should be blaming anyone, I should be blaming you!" Katara said, ignorant of how ridiculous it sounded. "You almost killed Aang!" Her voice was rising to match Azula's.

"YOU CHAINED ME TO THE GROUND!" Azula screamed.

"YOU PROBABLY GOT AANG KILLED!" Katara shrieked.

"Katara, Azula, calm down-" Zuko said, anxiously.

"YOUR BOYFIREND PRACTCIALLY KILLED HIMSELF!"

"I COULD HAVE STOPPED HIM!" Katara yelled, desperately wanting it to be true. "IF YOU HADN'T- HADN'T TRIED TO KILL YOU BROTHER I COULD HAVE-"

"YOU COULDN'T HAVE SINGLE THING AND YOU KNOW IT!" Azula shouted. "YOUR BOYFRIEND DIDN'T EVEN CARE ENOUGH ABOUT YOU TO LIVE!"

"Really now-" Zuko started.

Katara let out a wordless screech and flung herself at Azula, water from flower vases and glasses of all the patients in the institution cresting into a wave above her-

"ENOUGH!" Zuko finally yelled, angrily sending a large burst of fire above Katara's head and causing the water to immediately turn to water vapor and effectively rain down in droplets over all three of them.

They all stood there, dripping slightly. Katara and Azula were breathing hard and Zuko had a feeling that if someone didn't do something they would probably forego bending altogether and go for the ancient art of slap fighting which Zuko didn't particularly want to get in the middle of.

Fortunately for Zuko, the head doctor burst in right about then.

Of course, Zuko thought cynically. Right after you've determined that there was no actual danger. . .

"Everything okay in here?" the doctor asked nervously.

"We're just leaving," Zuko said, grabbing Katara under the elbow, both to lead her out and to support her. She appeared so shaken that walking was a challenge.

"No!" Azula said frantically. "You have to believe me! I found her! I found Mother! I see her all the time!"

Her eyes were so desperate that Zuko almost believed her.

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"Are you okay?" Zuko asked Katara once they had been walking for a while.

"Not really," she replied, so quietly Zuko barely heard her.

"Azula is insane, you know. Nothing she said means anything. It's not true."

"How could you say that?" Katara said in the same soft tone. "So was I, up until not too long ago. You still believed what I said."

Zuko sighed. "Katara, I knew Aang, Maybe not as well as you, but he was probably one of the best and closest friends I ever had. He was more actually. He was a brother, a comrade. And he could never have killed Ozai so that he could be with you, because then he wouldn't have been Aang. There was just some key element of Aang that wouldn't let him kill anyone. It went past just him being a monk, I think. It was just Aang."

Katara was silent for a while. Then finally she said: "What happened to Appa and Momo?"

Zuko looked at her in surprise. "I think they stayed at the Southern Air Temple. Why?"

"Just thinking."