Ember Island didn't enjoy quite the level of popularity in winter it had in summer. The trees were bare and the sea winds blew spray like cold knives.

The holiday homes of Fire Nation nobility and military leaders mostly stood empty. The few that were inhabited were mostly so by their families, who were being kept at a respectful distance from the court. The recent end of the Hundred-Year War and the deposition of Fire Lord Ozai had made it a politically and personally hazardous place at times.

Today, however, the eye of that storm was not in the Fire Nation Capital. Rather, he was disembarking from a steel-clad Fire Nation frigate on the military dock of Ember Island.

Fire Lord Zuko, flanked by his Imperial Guard, descended the gangway and pulled his cloak tight against the driving sleet.

Part of his entourage split off to go prepare his family home. He and his dozen firebender bodyguards ascended a winding stairway leading to structure high on an inland hill. It had walls of white stucco and narrow windows like a fortress. It probably had been one at some point, Zuko reflected, but for a century at least it had been the Ember Island hospital.

Zuko's rich cloak seemed scarcely adequate against the wind high up near the hospital walls. All the same, it wasn't just cold that gave him pause.

"Fire Lord Zuko!" A guard announced as the main doors opened to let him pass. The lobby bustled with doctors and nurses in pastel-pink smocks and tunics, and all promptly prostrated themselves as Zuko handed his cloak off to an attendant.

After an appropriate interval, the staff rose again and went about their business, except for one figure, clad in blue, running down the main staircase opposite the entrance. "Zuko!"

"Katara," Zuko rasped, clasping hands with Katara, "It's good to see you."

"It's great to see you too," Katara said, a little out of breath. But the concern and compassion that were her trademarks were very evident in her voice. "You look so…"

Zuko nodded wearily, "So Mai keeps saying." He didn't bother playing the stoic; he knew he had dark circles under his eyes and a case of five o'clock shadow – a phenomenon that was new to him as he hit the age of seventeen.

"It's good you've decided to get away for a while," Katara said.

"Not for long," Zuko replied. "There are too many negotiations that still need done. Uncle and Aang are taking care of some of it, but Aang doesn't exactly have a head for politics, and I've got at least as much to worry about from my own courtiers as from the Earth Kingdoms."

Katara nodded sadly. Zuko asked her, "How are you doing here?"

Katara sighed, "It's hard with Aang away so much. But what we're doing is important: not only are we treating the wounded, but the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation soldiers are actually starting to get along."

"That's great news," Zuko said, smiling.

"Yeah," Katara sighed, "mending their bodies is the easy part though. Some of them…"

Katara seemed to check herself and fall silent. Zuko took a deep breath and asked, "I want to see her."

Katara looked sadly at Zuko. She'd gotten taller since the end of the war, nearly as tall as Zuko himself, but she seemed wilting and careworn. "Alright. I'm sorry, she hasn't improved really." Katara started up the stairs, Zuko falling into step alongside.

"We've kept her as comfortable as possible, and she's a lot calmer than when she came in, but she won't talk to anyone except to bark orders at them. When she first came in here, she wouldn't even let me heal any of the burns or bruises she suffered fighting you."

Zuko winced as he remembered his own injuries from that day. It had been four months ago, but the lightning burn through his torso still twinged now and then.

Presently they arrived at a heavy door, more akin to that of a prison than a hospital. Katara slid the little hatch at eye level aside and looked in. "She's awake. Go on in," and she opened the door.

The room inside was austere: a bed and an armchair the only features to it. The window was narrow and barred. And slumped in the armchair was a ragged-haired, pale fifteen-year-old girl.

"I'll be outside," Katara said, and closed the door as Zuko entered.

The girl in the chair straightened up sharply and glared at Zuko.

"Hello, Azula," Zuko said softly.

Azula's expression was one of wide-eyed anger, and she turned away.

"Mind if I sit down?" Zuko asked. When no reply was forthcoming, he sat on the edge of the bed anyway.

"Are you comfortable here? Are they treating you well?"

Azula snorted, "Comfortable! In my lowly prison cell?"

'Lowly prison cell;' almost exactly Ozai's words to Zuko after his defeat. "Azula, I didn't have you brought here because I wanted to punish you. I wanted for you to have some peace!"

"Peace?" Azula spat. She twisted round to face Zuko, "To rot in this little room? What you call 'peace' I call being caged!"

Zuko sighed, trying to remain calm. He thought she might not understand. How could she?

"Azula, when I saw you last, you were a sobbing, exhausted, paranoid wreck. You'd been Fire Lord for all of a few days and you were ready to collapse!"

"I was being plotted against," Azula growled. She couldn't seem to maintain eye contact and stared furiously at the rug on the floor. "No one could be trusted."

"For you, can anyone be trusted anyway?"

Azula continued glaring at the floor.

"Azula, I've talked to Lo, Li, and the palace staff. You kept banishing them for any minor detail that offended you. You seemed convinced that you were going to be assassinated."

"I was Fire Lord!"

"Sozin, Azulon and our father never dismissed their whole court."

Azula squirmed in her seat. Zuko thought he saw tears rising in her eyes, "You're trying to make me confused! I was betrayed! Mai, Ty Lee, you…"

Zuko found his temper flaring, "When did I ever betray you?"

Azula seemed to find this question offensive. She sprang to her feet, tears now running down her pale face, and she screamed, "You betrayed me to our Father! You told him that the Avatar was alive!"

Zuko blinked. He had indeed told Ozai that the Avatar, presumed dead by Zuko's own hand, was alive. He had told Ozai that Azula had lied to him about it. But as he'd left the Fire Nation court that same hour to seek Aang and join forces with him, he'd never really considered what happened between them when he left.

"Because of you, he left me behind! At the moment of our victory, he left me behind!"

"Azula, it doesn't matter that you weren't there," Zuko said, "he lost. The Avatar defeated him."

"Shut up!" Azula was breathing hard, and Zuko swore some brief puffs of blue flame issued from her nostrils.

"Azula," Zuko stood, spreading his arms in a gesture of peace, "I get it. You're angry because you thought you had life all figured out, and now that's gone. I felt the same way when I was banished. But if you'll just let the people here help – talk with them – maybe you can rebuild yourself."

Azula gave a shrill, derisive laugh, "Rebuild myself? Into what? The meek little courtier? The well-mannered prisoner?" She drew herself up, "I'm a princess of the Line of Sozin, nothing less than the ruler by divine right! You and your Water Tribe peasant want to destroy me!"

Zuko was ready to retort, but he suddenly saw Azula's posture slip, just for a moment. She's pouring so much strength into keeping up her poise and stature…but now she's got nothing to back it up with. Zuko checked himself. "You are a princess of the Line of Sozin. You're also my sister, and I don't want for you to be alone. I'll be on Ember Island all day tomorrow. I thought we could spend some time together."

Azula raised a cynical eyebrow. "And do what? Talk about my feelings?"

"Not if you don't want to. I just want you to feel something other than rage and misery for a few hours."

Zuko stood again and said, "I'll come back in the morning."

"I won't see you!" Azula snapped.

Zuko hesitated, and then said, "Well, I'll be here, if you change your mind."

"The fact is, she's in denial." Katara handed Zuko a cup of tea and sat down. "Her manipulations, her battle-tactics, all relied on her being the authoritative princess."

"But…she was like this even when she was a kid! And when she disguised herself as a Kyoshi warrior…"

"What I mean," Katara interjected, "is that she relied on it. But her self-image was broken by losing to us in the Agni Kai."

"And losing her father's confidence," Zuko added.

Katara blinked, "I didn't think she really needed anyone's confidence but her own."

Zuko sighed, "Maybe her father was to her what Uncle was to me, just from the other direction."

'Her father,' Katara noted, not 'my father' or 'our father.'

"What's new with Ozai?"

"He's got his strength back, although not his firebending. He's been moved to some small apartments on one of the offshore islands, although we're keeping it a secret exactly which one. Too many generals and admirals are still loyal to Sozin's plan of conquest."

Katara looked pensive, "Do you think…I mean, I hate to say it, but would it be safer to…"

"No," Zuko said flatly, "I said I would rule over an era of peace and kindness. I won't go against it like that."

Katara looked relieved, "I'm glad."

"So how's Aang? Your family?"

"Aang's in the Earth Kingdom colonies right now, trying to keep the colonials and the Earth subjects from being at each other's throats. Sokka and our dad are back at the South Pole working with Master Pakku."

Zuko laughed wryly, "Everyone's certainly keeping busy."

Katara nodded, "It's weird, now that the war is over, we all seem to have gone our separate ways."

Zuko considered this, "Ty Lee is with the Kyoshi Warriors, Uncle is in Ba Sing Se serving tea and playing Pai Sho, and Toph is teaching Earthbending in Gaoling. Yeah, it does seem that way. But at least we can send letters, and we'll have a chance to spend time together at the next summit in Ba Sing Se."

Katara smiled a little, and then asked, "How about your family?"

"Mai? Well, the courtiers are insisting we set a date, but I think that's not coming for another year at least."

"What about…your mother?"

Zuko slumped, much as Azula had done, "No sign. Father – Ozai – said she set sail for Ember Island, and then that was the last anyone seems to have heard from her."

"Discreetly," Katara said, "I've told Sokka, Aang and Dad to keep an eye out for her, but there's been no news yet."

Zuko's expression progressed rapidly from surprise to gratitude, "Thank you."

They made small talk for a while longer, and Zuko made arrangements to come have breakfast the next morning, with Azula if she was willing, and with Katara if she wasn't.

Zuko left by the side gate, which had a shorter path to his family's holiday house. Katara shut the door quickly against the draft, after a brief glance out over the sea, toward the little forested island off the coast. Strange, she thought, it seems closer than usual, somehow.