Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Destined Love, Interrupted

Azula had always been very invested in family.

It was a beautiful night in Ba Sing Se, the last days of spring bringing a warmth and clearness to the air that encouraged couples to go outside and look at the stars or make excessive amounts of eye-contact or whatever people liked to do on romantic excursions. (Kissing was usually involved, she knew. She had written that down in her research journal.) But there was also just enough of a lingering chill to encourage the couples in question to stay close and maintain body contact- unless they were both Firebenders, but Azula was the only female Firebender around, and she certainly wasn't looking to get romantic with anyone right now.

(There would be plenty of time in her 30s to learn to talk to boys, pick a mate in accordance with the latest eugenics, have her first kiss, get married, and start producing royal heirs, in that order. Except for that last part, the whole process could be accomplished in less than a week, she was sure.)

No, tonight was not about her. It was about her brother, dear Zuzu, at last back in the good graces of the Fire Nation but completely unable to rejoice in it. The death of the Avatar and the fall of the Earth Kingdom apparently weren't enough to distract him from his Zuzu-ness and convince him to return to the Fire Nation in victory, but he was a boy, so there was at least a 37% chance he could be distracted by a sufficiently attractive girl. Azula happened to have one on hand she knew aligned with Zuko's morose tastes, thanks to over a decade of evidence, and as always a combination of destiny, genius planning, and hard work were achieving her goals in an elegant and effective manner.

She was sure absolutely nothing could derail her plan!

Nothing!

(A chill wind took that opportunity to make a traitorous assault on the back of her neck. She frowned, took a deep breath, and warmed herself with a flare of her inner fire. Stupid meaningless wind.)

Azula watched from the bushes in a cozy corner of the Royal Earth Garden (which would really have to be renamed, now that the Earth Kingdom had fallen; perhaps the Victory Garden? The Fire Lord Ozai Garden? The Avatar's Last Stand Garden? So many fun possibilities!) as Zuko and Mai came in through oppositely positioned gates and spotted the little dining area she had ordered constructed near a fragrant plum tree.

A red canopy with plenty of lanterns hanging from it created a welcoming little shelter that evoked the comfort of the Fire Nation and would hopefully give her big brother a hint. A table had been set out (with a white tablecloth, because green simply would not do and the pink one was just tacky) where a delightful dinner had been laid out around a trio of lit candles. Azula did not know why a lit candle would make people amorous, but she could definitely approve of being excited by flames, and if one candle was good, then Zuzu probably needed three to get him out of his own head.

After all, he had informed her earlier, just as she had finalized plans for their return to the Fire Nation, that he had decided to remain in Ba Sing Se. To do what, she couldn't fathom, and if she couldn't figure it out, then Zuzu certainly had no idea. He was just being his usual contrary self, and she knew the fix for that.

(Well, she knew two fixes, but burning the other side of his face seemed excessive. Ha!)

In the warm light, as the breeze filled the space with the honeyed scent of plums, Zuko and Mai noticed each other and came to simultaneous awkward halts. It would have been a moment worthy of the theater, if they both had not proceeded to both squint at each other in confusion.

Hidden beside Azula in the garden foliage, Ty Lee (who had provided minimal assistance with this setup and invited herself along to observe) grinned and made a high-pitched sound almost inaudible to the human ear. Azula made a shushing motion, but the enthusiasm was infectious, especially given the success of the plan so far, so she turned away to hide her own grin.

Over in the light, Mai broke eye-contact with Zuko and made a show of looking around the garden. "Where is everyone? Azula told me that Admiral Liang was visiting and wanted to join us for dinner. All of us."

"She told me the same thing," Zuko said, his voice flat and each word bitten out. "She's up to something..."

Mai, who was a good girl deep down and could take an obvious hint even without an overt threat of violence, moved towards the dinner table. "Well, the food doesn't look that awful. I guess we shouldn't let it go to waste."

The sat down opposite each other and immediately began divvying up the dishes, all without making eye contact again or speaking another word.

Typical. But Azula was prepared for this. Behind her bush, she moved Ty Lee out of the way and motioned for one of the Dai Li agents skulking in the shadows, the one who had claimed he played a good pipa. Perhaps a little romantic music under a conveniently picturesque plum tree would clue Zuko in to the rewards on offer from life back in the Fire Nation-

And then the plum tree erupted in a shower of fruit, petals, and unholy light.

And then a girl tumbled out of the explosion and smacked into the dinner table hard enough to knock it over as lanterns fell from their hooks and the canopy tipped over. Zuko and Mai dived out from under it, ruining their nice clothes by rolling across the grass to a decent attack range, and came up brandishing flames and knives.

In her bush, Azula sighed. She'd put a lot of thought into selecting that tablecloth.

Also, now her brother might stay in this stupid conquered city and marry an earth-peasant or something, and that would just be embarrassing for the whole family.

In a way, Zuko was almost grateful for his dinner with Mai going up in flames and plum-blossom petals. His last dinner with a girl had involved a misguided attempt at juggling and a jar of shrimp paste smashing open all over his head, so an assassin being the one to make the mess was a big step up.

Not that this dinner with Mai was like his date with Jin. For one, Mai already knew him- as well as anyone could know him, he supposed. And she had known him for quite a while, all the way back to distant childhood memories of the first family vacation to Ember Island, to an encounter on the beach that had probably been arranged by one or more power-hungry parents, to days of innocent friendship that eventually became more.

Except another way this wasn't like Jin was the mystery. Those days had, in truth, been so complicated. And so much had changed since then. How did Mai feel about him now? How did he feel about her? And why, if he cared so much, hadn't he talked to her even once in the weeks since he had restored his honor under Ba Sing Se?

Speaking of questions, Zuko was starting to wonder why this dinner-interrupting assassination attempt had started with an exploding tree.

The assassin groaned something like, "Not funny, Kya!" and stood up. The Royal Earth Garden was dark now with the torches smothered, but the moon and stars and burning tablecloth shed enough light to reveal a surprisingly short height and a visage twisted by severe squinting. Her age was hard to tell with her face like that, but she was perhaps younger than Azula.

Zuko decided she was right. Whoever Kya was, this wasn't funny at all, not after what had happened to the Avatar under Ba Sing Se. So he threw a fireball at Squinty's head.

She could see that much, at least, and deflected the flames with a swipe of her hands even as she gasped in clear surprise. She was a Firebender.

Zuko knew how to deal with other Firebenders. He kicked out a wave of flame which would look like it was moving on the same path as the fireball- but a twist of his leg arced it downward towards Squinty's feet. Most Firebenders in a solid defensive stance would be forced to stumble out of the way, breaking their root and source of strength, leaving them vulnerable.

But instead, so quickly it had to be a reflex, Squinty threw herself into a leap, peaking in a twisting kick which sent her own arc of flame expanding at Zuko's head.

That-

That was one of Azula's moves!

How did-

Wait-

Fire was still approaching his head.

Except now it was too late for Zuko to do anything but backpedal frantically, trip over a bush, and fall into the foliage with a roar of surprise and frustration.

Okay. He was off to a rough start in this fight. But he didn't have shrimp paste in his hair, so he still considered himself ahead.

Mai leaned over him with no expression on her face and said, "Good try. You can relax now while Ty Lee and I take care of it." And then with a swish of her robes and cape (he still found himself surprised at how good she looked in Ba Sing Se greens), she was in fighting motion.

Zuko hadn't seen them in action in a while, but it turned out Mai and Ty Lee had grown into a perfect duo. They mixed long- and short-range attacks, both of them so well trained that their coordinated movements were as natural as breathing. Mai filled the air with blades that were almost invisible in the dim light, nevertheless demanding the target's full attention if she didn't want to die. Meanwhile, Ty Lee cartwheeled on a safe path through the metal storm that would take her within arm-reach, at which point this fight would soon be over, given her qi-blocking abilities.

But somehow Squinty had taken a position through which not one blade was passing, despite the darkness and her own obvious poor vision. And that position let her meet Ty Lee while still in the middle of a cartwheel. They bumped into each other, and Ty Lee recovered masterfully, twisting and flipping to her feet and striking with her usual precise precision. And yet none of the hits landed, Squinty deflecting every single one with diverting palm strikes of her own. Amidst all the activity, Squinty somehow also knew Mai was coming up behind her with razors in each hand, even though even Zuko only noticed at the last moment. Squinty ducked under one of Ty Lee's strikes to spin and throw a jab of her own at the inside of Mai's right elbow, followed quickly by another to the left.

Mai's arms fell uselessly to her sides, blades dropping the ground and clattering.

Mai hissed, "You got me instead of her!"

Ty Lee backed away in obvious horror and said, "No I didn't-"

(At the same time, Squinty babbled, "Wait- Mo-")

And that's when Azula burst out of the shadows with blasts of fire beneath her feet, getting right up close to Squinty and landing a flame-less palm strike to Squinty's solar plexus. The girl's breath burst out of her with a pained cry and she dropped to the ground, curling up and hugging herself in agony as she tried to catch her breath.

Zuko hauled himself out of his bush and approached the former battlefield. On the way, he passed by the smoldering remains of the dinner setup and spotted something glittering in the wreckage that wasn't a piece of plate or candleholder. He leaned over and picked up a pair of delicate spectacles made from golden wire.

He dropped them in a pocket and came to join the others. "What are we doing with her?" He summoned a flame in his hand to shed some light on the situation, and then scowled at his inadvertent mental wordplay. He preferred to do that kind of thing on purpose.

The light revealed Azula stroking her chin like she was posing for a portrait. "I suppose that depends on who she is. Do you recognize her?"

"Why would I?"

"Well, I thought you knew all the young teenagers trying to destroy the Fire Nation. There's certainly been enough of them crossing your path."

The fire in Zuko's hand flared and then flickered, and he focused on keeping his breathing steady. For a moment, he had almost been able to forget about everything- the Avatar, Uncle, and the ship would be leaving tomorrow for the Fire Nation. His shoulders sagged, but he covered it by angling his hand to shed more light on the still-wheezing Squinty.

He said, "I don't- actually, she does look kind of familiar. But- I don't think I've met her?"

"Helpful as always, Zuzu."

Squinty looked up at him with something like horror on her face. (But he was used to that, after the last few years.) She tried to say something like, "D- Da-" but she still couldn't catch her breath. Azula must have hit her hard.

Mai leaned over her. "Well, I sure don't know her. But as fun as this guessing game is, why don't we just wait for her to answer our questions?"

Zuko had to admit it was a sensible suggestion. Mai had always been good at keeping things from getting too dramatic. He recalled that, back when they were kids, some people had called her a 'mood-killer,' but Zuko knew that moods could be very dangerous and sometimes had to be put down for the good of society.

Azula crouched down beside Squinty. "Well? Any time you'd like to begin explaining yourself, you have a ready audience. Or, I suppose we could just starting lighting bits of you on fire until you scream something informative?"

Azula, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy moods a little too much.

Squinty's breathing steadied, but her gaze was as wobbly as it could be as she tried to focus on Azula. "M- master?"

Azula smiled. "Not officially, but I am considered somewhat of a Firebending prodigy."

Squinty gawked for a long moment, then went limp on the garden grass and sobbed, "I don't know what's going on!"

Zuko could sympathize. Sometimes he wanted to weep when confronted with Azula's arrogance, but even more relatable was the confusion and frustration in Squinty's voice. He'd lived it since Azula had killed the Avatar and told him that he had restored his honor and could go home.

And the worst part was that he didn't even know why he wasn't happy.

But at least there was no shrimp paste in his hair.

He'd always been something of an optimist.

Izumi -- Princess of the Fire Nation, heir to the Burning Throne, daughter of Fire Lord Zuko the Redeemer and Fire Lady Mai of Ten Thousand Hidden Blades, sole Firebender pupil of The Azure Scourge, honorary Kyoshi Warrior, and Mommy's Little Plum Blossom -- had no idea what was going on and she wanted to go home and her family had attacked her and none of this was bully!

The pain of that final blow had been bad, yes, but seeing the people she knew look at her with such disdain had made her lightheaded. Dad had looked so terrifying, scowling like that, worse than Izumi had ever seen him before. Mom was wrong, her eyes so dead and her gaze so flat -- even while attacking -- like she didn't even consider Izumi to be human.

Izumi had never noticed an absence of love before. Sure, there were lots of people who didn't love her, even a few who outright hated her (mostly without ever meeting her), but this was like she had lost something she never realized could go missing. It was a nightmare, this world of twisted shadows that she couldn't even see properly without her spectacles, and it was all she could do to stop herself from crying again. She was distantly aware of being carried, of being thrown in a chair and her hands and feet being bound by stone, of a sharp voice stabbing at her with questions she didn't understand.

No.

No.

She would not let this destroy her.

She was Princess Izumi of the Fire Nation, heir to a legacy of such strength that it could afford infinite kindness! Maybe she got pulled into some kind of evil mirror world like out of an old Avatar story or one of Bumi's stupid lies, but she could handle this. She was just a few years shy of adulthood. She would not be defeated by malicious illusions with no basis in reality.

She sniffled, focused her mind, and pushed away her despair. And the first words she heard were the sharp voice saying, "Perhaps we'll leave her to you, Mai. Why don't you show her how versatile knives can be?"

Wait what?!

Izumi squinted. She was in some kind of fancy receiving room decorated with green tapestries and statues of very intense badgermoles, but not as intense as person looming over her. And that figure looked a lot like Mom, except somehow thinner and drabber and for some reason wearing an elegant green outfit with a cape but no crown. Even with her bad vision, Izumi could detect the lifelessness in this Mom's eyes.

Mom turned her gaze away from Izumi and drew a tri-blade from her sleeve. She placed it on a standing tray to her right. Then she drew a razor disk from somewhere in her robes and put it next to the other blade. Then a series of long needles. Then a stiletto. Slowly, Mom proceeded in this way, laying out a variety of knives and other steel.

Was-

Was Evil Mom going to hurt her?!

That-

That couldn't-

-could it?

This was not bully! Not bully at all!

Then Dad burst into the room, and for some reason he was also wearing green, over a brown tunic. He looked to Mom, who paused in her work, before turning to Izumi. He cleared his throat and said, "I am too- um, weak and kindhearted to allow a girl your age to be hurt. Please, tell us- um, who sent you to kill us? Give me something so that Mai doesn't need to get- uh, harsh?"

Evil Mom covered her mouth with her hand, leaned towards Evil Dad, and whispered, "Good delivery."

And Evil Dad cleared his throat again and hissed out of the side of his mouth, "Thank you."

Izumi blinked.

Bully! Something she recognized! They might be weird mean monster versions of themselves, but Mom and Dad were still complete dorks who whispered too loud. Perhaps she could reason with them.

Taking a deep breath, Izumi stuck out her royal chin and said, "I didn't come here to kill you. I don't even know how I got here! I was at the Western Air Temple with Bumi and Kya. And it was daytime even though it was storming! And then I'm here and it's night and you all attacked me even though I didn't do anything to you and you're acting like you don't even know me!" She tears welling up in her eyes again, but mentally shooed them away and hiccuped instead.

Evil Dad said, "How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Evil Mom snorted. "Liar."

"I'll be fourteen at the end of the year!"

"So," Evil Mom said, twirling a razor around a finger, "you're thirteen. And I don't know anything about the Western Air Temple, but if you know King Bumi, then you must have been to Omashu recently. Er, I mean New Ozai."

Izumi blinked. "King Bumi? New Ozai?!"

"And," Evil Dad said, ignoring her outburst, "she's a Firebender and knows our fighting styles. I can't explain why she has no memory of it, but she sounds more like a lost tourist than an assassin."

Evil Mom nodded. "Plus she's an immature crybaby who can't act her age."

Izumi winced. That hurt almost as much as Evil Dad's punch. "Am not!"

"Azula and Zuko just killed a warrior younger than you who didn't cry when he was in trouble," Mom said like she was talking about what they had for lunch. At a surprised glance from Evil Dad, she added, "It was the fully empowered Avatar, so it wasn't like they were bullying anyone."

Izumi blinked. "Well, obviously they weren't being good if they were killing someone." She shook her head. Dad would never kill a kid, even with his sister helping him. What kind of weird nightmare reality had she-

Wait.

Ba Sing Se?

Avatar?

Everyone being so small and cute even though they were mean?

This was kind of like Dad's stories! How when he was a teenager he made a mistake and sided with the Fire Nation against Uncle Aang, but then he realized he'd been wrong and helped save the world! And Mom had supported the Fire Nation until her beautiful love for Dad led her to change sides and help him, bringing Auntie Ty Le along! And the real villain was Dad's sister, who couldn't handle that their father was evil and continued to hurt people until-

Well, that was a longer story and Izumi was only really involved near the end, but the important thing was that when Azula was just a teenager she had conquered Ba Sing Se before bringing Dad back to the Fire Nation and-

Izumi gasped.

Too many details lined up. But it didn't explain why everyone was being so mean. Unless-

Was this- was this not a weird nightmare mirror world? Had Mom and Dad and Auntie Ty Lee once been just as mean as Azula? Had Uncle Aang died at some point? Could Avatars do that?

Dad grunted. "She's scared again." He took a deep breath and stepped toward Izumi. "It's okay, I can protect you from Mai and her knives if you tell us the truth. I- uh, think this is all a misunderstanding, but you have to tell me the truth about how you got here."

Mom sighed. "Zuko, she's probably more scared one of the dreaded slayers of the Avatar than me." She turned to Izumi and brandished a knife. "I don't use these on kids. Usually. But I can protect you from Zuko and Azula. Mostly. You just need to tell me how you got here. As much as you can remember."

"She doesn't need to be scared of me," Dad moaned. "I'm not going to hurt her!"

"You did kick fire at her."

"You threw knives at her! And anyway, she was attacking us!"

"You mean crashing into the dinner table and then crying like a baby with a dirty diaper? And believe me, I know that sound."

"She wasn't crying like a baby! And since when do you spend time with babies, anyway?"

"I have a little brother now." She gave a little smirk, and Izumi automatically smiled in anticipation of her version of a joke. "Don't kick fire at him if he cries when you finally meet him."

But Dad didn't seem to have brought his sense of humor along with him to this violent interrogation. "I kicked fire at her because she came out of nowhere to explode a tree and knock over the dinner Azula obviously set up so that you could seduce me into going back to the Fire Nation!"

Mom just stared at him for a moment, her face not moving. Then she said, "Fine. I understand now."

Izumi's stomach turned to lead. She knew that when Mom got like that, she was pissed. "Please don't be mad at each other! It's okay, I'm still very intimidated by Mo- Mai and want to tell D- tell Zuko all my secrets! For real!"

Mom and Dad turned to stare at her.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Azula said as she stepped in through the room's door. "You two can't even do a proper 'Good Guard, Bad Guard' routine. Listen to her, she's taking pity on you and was probably going to feed you more lies! Perhaps it's just as well that dinner was cut short."

Auntie Ty Lee trailed in after her and made some kind of motion. Izumi squinted and decided it was probably a friendly wave and not a Sun Warrior hex-gesture. She went to wave back but remembered that her hands were encased in some kind of stone behind her chair's back.

Azula stood over Izumi and continued, "I don't have time to turn you over to the Dai Li to be broken. I have a ship to board tomorrow, and their methods are slow. So I have a choice before me. I can either accept that I'm not going to get any answers before I return to the Fire Nation, if you aren't just insane, or I can cut my losses right now-" She held up her right hand and blue flames burst to life over it, combining with the green crystal lamps to turn the room a shade like Auntie Toph's face after riding a dragon. "-and take another child's life this week."

"She's not bluffing," Mom said as she leaned back against a stone badgermole and crossed her arms.

Dad looked away, the blue light making the unscarred part of his face look unhealthily pale. His fists were clenched at his sides.

Izumi swallowed. "I already told you, I was at-"

"-the Western Air Temple and then flew through the air on a cloud of rainbows to the Earth Kingdom, yes. I heard all that. I find it a tad unbelievable."

"Er, I never said I flew anywhere and there were no rainbows-"

"I was exaggerating for comedic effect!" Azula moved her burning hand closer to Izumi's face. "You are being mocked, in case you are too stupid to understand my considerable wit."

The fire was really hot, which shouldn't have been a surprise, especially not for a Firebender, but for some reason Izumi felt like she was meeting her element all over again. She was starting to sweat, and her own Firebending wasn't any help with her arms and legs locked into place. If Azula didn't believe her, maybe she could come up with some kind of plausible lie? What else was going on back during the Hundred Years War?

Azula frowned. "I can see in your eyes that you just decided to deceive me again. Oh, well. I suppose I'll never get the full story behind this." She moved her hand even closer-

Dad said, "Azula, don't-"

-Azula rolled her eyes-

-Mom turned her face away-

-Izumi cried out-

-and Auntie Ty Lee shouted, "I figured it out!"

Azula drew her hand back and turned to Ty Lee. "You know what's going on with the intruder?"

"Huh?" Auntie Ty Lee frowned. "No! I don't know anything about that. I just figured out how to find out!"

Dad said, "How?"

"I have special powers!" Auntie Ty Lee twirled on one foot until she was facing him, then leaned forward and smiled (causing him to take a big step back). "I can see auras and sense emotions."

Mom groaned. "No, you can't."

"Of course I can." Auntie Ty Lee spun again and waved dismissively at her. "This girl is so expressive and I am so charming, I can combine her reactions to my interregional- um, my interruption- I ask her questions and my magical ninth-sense will piece together the truth!"

"You mean your sixth-sense." Azula let the flame in her hands go out.

"Sixth? You mean most people only have five senses?" Auntie Ty Lee tapped her chin. "That explains so much."

Mom said, "Not that I care either way, but are we really entertaining this idea?"

Izumi was wondering the same thing. But when she looked at Azula, she found her with her Calculating Face on.

"Ty Lee might not have any magic powers," Azula said, "but she is quite perceptive in her own way, and her delusions about how it manifests don't impede her. In any event, we can always burn the girl alive later. Why not let Ty Lee try? After all, I gave you and Zuzu a chance, however miserably you bungled it."

Maybe it was the relief of not having her face burned off, but Izumi couldn't help giggling. "Zuzu?"

Dad scowled at her, but Azula ignored it all and said, "Very well, Ty Lee. You may proceed. I expect this will be most interesting."

But Auntie Ty Lee averted her gaze and twiddled her fingers together. "I need you guys to all leave the room so I can be alone with her."

"What? Why?"

"I can't do it while people are watching." Auntie Ty Lee brightened and held up her hands. "You know! Like how it's really hard to pee when you know someone is listening?"

Azula immediately made a face. "What?! Would why- No. Never mind, I don't need to know! Very well. You have the room. We'll wait to hear from you." She pushed Mom and Dad out as she fled. Mom threw one last glance at Izumi.

Then she was alone with Young Auntie Ty Lee.

Auntie winked and whispered, "Azula hates thinking about bodily functions that don't involve catastrophic organ failures."

Izumi could only think to say, "O-kay."

Auntie grabbed a chair and sat down in front of her. This close, Izumi's vision was mostly able to focus properly. It was strange seeing such a young version of a face she knew so well.

While she stared, Auntie continued to keep her voice low and said, "Azula is trying to listen and she won't give us much time alone. But if we're careful, we can have some nice girl-talk."

"O-kay."

"And by 'girl-talk' I mean we're going to talk about your pre-dic-a-ment."

"O-kay."

"How far into the future are you from and which of us are you descended from?"

"O-" Izumi's brain caught up with what Auntie had just said and she promptly choked. After coughing up the next syllable and some of her dignity, she managed, "Wh- what?"

Auntie patted her head. "It's okay, dear, I'm here for you. Us time-travelers have to stick together."

"Y- you- what?!"

Auntie made a shushing motion. "You talked about the Western Air Temple. My family visited those ruins on vacation once. There's a grove near the hanging temples, with every tree bearing a different kind of fruit. It's cute, or it would be if anyone was taking care of it."

Izumi forced her jaw to stopping hanging around like dead weight so that she could properly respond. "The sacred Xunqiu Grove."

"Oh, is that the name? Did they finally put a museum near the temple like the guide was talking about?"

Izumi honestly had no idea how to respond to that. If this was during the war -- and everyone thought Uncle Aang was dead -- how could she explain anything? That Uncle Aang and the Air Acolytes were restoring the Western Air Temple with her dad's blessing? That she was friends with Uncle Aang's kids, and she and Kya had run and hid from Bumi to mess with him, ending up in the forest above the temple cliffs? And that a storm had come in unexpectedly, and they tried to take refuge beneath the trees in the Xunqiu Grove? That they had been beneath the plum tree when the thunder started, and Izumi was worrying if she'd have to try to redirect lightning for the first time?

How could she explain the feeling that had creeped up on the back of her neck, the same feeling she had whenever Master demonstrated lightning-bending? How she'd pushed Kya away and then there was a light so bright it made everything go away and then it was dark and she crashed into something hard and someone with Dad's Firebending style was kicking flame at her and Kya was nowhere to be seen but Izumi couldn't see anything anyway because she'd lost her glasses and then Mom and Auntie were-

No, wait, Auntie had been there for that part.

Actually, maybe Izumi could just start with the storm? "So, does lightning not mix with the grove? Because there was all this light and I thought I'd fallen into the Spirit World or something! But then- I'm here! And everyone is young and Mom-"

Auntie's eyes practically lit up. "I was right!" She reached a hand out and brushed Izumi's face with her fingers. "I can see so much of Mai in you. And you have some of that same nervous wet-owlkitten quality she had before she got good with knives and found her strength."

Izumi felt her face warming. "I- I thought she made up that she was shy when she was little- you know, so that I'd feel better about not talking my entire first day at the Academy."

Auntie giggled. "Oh, for sure, she didn't talk at school, either. I think the first time I heard her voice was when she threw rocks at the nasty girls trying to beat me into the ground."

"That's how you met?! Bully!" Izumi nearly stood up before she remembered her arms were bound around a chair and she was technically a prisoner being interrogated. "She just told me you met at Pre-Academy and you seemed interesting."

"Oh yeah, she was a real hero, and those girls were definitely bullies. I was a little too trusting back then." Auntie's smile twisted into a smirk. "Now -- quietly, so Azula doesn't hear -- please tell me that Zuko is your daddy. That would be so wonderful, and you're kind of cute in the way he is."

Izumi found her face growing even warmer, all the way up to her ears, and tried to keep her expression strong and professional. "What's so wonderful about it?"

"Wow, yeah, Zuko's definitely the father. He and Mai go together so well! I'm relieved that worked out. Or works out. Ugh, time travel talk is so annoying." Auntie sighed. "Well, the good news is that there's a chance we can still get your parents together and we won't have to figure out what will happen if you don't get will-be-borned."

It was probably lucky Izumi had been blushing so much, because at those whispered words, her blood went ice cold, so she ended up a very pleasant room temperature. "What do you mean, I won't be born?"

Zuko tried to stop himself from pacing, but it never seemed to stick.

He'd stare at the closed door, behind which Ty Lee was doing something weird with Squinty. Then he'd look at Azula to see if they had to tolerate this presumption and wait out in the hallway like servants. Azula would roll her eyes at him, so he'd look at Mai to see if she was willing to stand with him against this disrespect. But Mai would keep playing with one of her knives, ignoring him in a way that felt like she was paying a lot of attention to him. That would get him antsy, and he'd start pacing again until he realized he was supposed to be avoiding that. And then the whole thing would repeat.

Zuko knew he had patience, but for some reason it wasn't answering his summons right now.

It didn't help that he had a theory about why Mai was not-quite-ignoring him. He hadn't meant to yell at her like that. The way she'd suddenly withdrawn, so differently than how Uncle had always reacted to-

Uncle-

To divert himself, Zuko took the spectacles he'd found out of his pocket and examined them. Although the green crystals gave everything a pallid appearance, the spectacles were clearly well made, the lenses precisely cut to fit tightly into the golden frame and the arms curved at the end to hold solidly on the ears. Despite the thinness of the metal, it seemed to be fairly solid, so maybe it was just a gold coating on something stronger.

He held the spectacles up to his face to look through the lenses. They distorted the world in front of him.

There was probably some kind of relevant metaphor in that, but Zuko had never been very fond of poetry outside of the theater.

"Trying to take up the Earth King's sense of style?" Azula said.

Zuko lowered the spectacles and glared at her. Now she wanted to talk. "What do you mean?"

"He wears spectacles of a similar style." She folded her arms and gave him a look. "I thought that perhaps you wanted to evoke his image, since you're set on staying here in his city."

"Don't mock me, Azula. I'm nothing like that coward of a king."

Surprisingly, she nodded. "True enough. That's why I don't understand why you want to stay here. There's nothing to be afraid of back home!"

"I'm not afraid!" He felt a burning in his chest, and huffed a cloud of black smoke to balance his Inner Fire.

"Then why stay here?"

"Why are you so concerned with whether I go or stay?" Zuko stuffed the spectacles back in his pocket and turned away from his sister. "Maybe you're the one who's afraid of something."

"Me?!" Azula barked a single, loud laugh. "I don't really care what you do, since you're generally so worthless. It's just neater if I bring you back along with the rest of my victory."

At that, Mai raised her head a little, although she still didn't look at anyone. "But you did put all that effort into getting me to seduce Zuko. Too bad for everyone I'm apparently a really bad temptress these days."

Zuko turned his face away so that no one, especially not her, could see his wince. He didn't know why he had accused her of trying to seduce him. He didn't really think that. But he had been so mad, and he knew Azula had manipulated that whole situation with the dinner. Still, the way he had said, the way he had included Mai in the blame-

But he knew where her true loyalty lay, even if they had found a way to be happy together before he was banished.

Zuko started pacing again.

"Yeah," Auntie Ty Lee was saying, twisting on her chair so that she could sit on top of its back, "I almost wiped out my whole family line when I had my little incident. My sisters were running around the temple being loud and kicking up all the dust, and the tour guide was going on about where the Air Nation armies had trained, and it was just so boring that I went exploring and got lost. It started to rain, and when I found the grove, I sat under the cherry tree. Rain always puts me to sleep, so I started to drift off, but then I was started by the sound of thunder and a bright light- and then I fell into a bath tub set under a cherry tree in a private garden in what turned out to be the age of Fire Lord Yosor."

Izumi blinked. "That was a long time ago! He was the Fire Lord who had Avatar Szeto as his Grand Advisor!"

"Yeah, something like that. Anyway, my great-great-great-lots-more-greats-grandmother was about to leave on a journey across the Fire Nation to meet my lots-of-greats-grandfather for the first time and marry him by arrangement. I fell into her bath in a burst of pink petals and spooked her. She thought I had to be a demon and bad omen- understandable, but at the time it seemed kind of mean. Once I figured it all out, I tried to explain I was just a time-traveler, but that got them even more upset because time-traveling demons are worse than regular demons, I guess. So my Lotsa-Greats-Grandmomma wouldn't leave her rooms in the tower of her family's mansion, no matter how much they asked her to come down. Even her childhood friend Samdhup, an Air Nomad who was supposed to escort her to her wedding, couldn't get her to come out."

Izumi was trying to blink her way through all the information, but it was just making her dizzy. "So if she didn't marry your ancestor, you couldn't be born?"

"Yeah. I wasn't thinking about that at the time, though. I was still kind of young to wrap my head around this four-dimensional stuff."

"Four- what?"

"Don't worry about it. Like I said, I didn't. I was a good girl and just wanted to help make everyone happy again. It was only later that it popped into my head that I was guaranteeing my own life. And then the real demons showed up."

"Real- what?!" Izumi put a lot of effort into not thinking about her childhood fears of the things that might lurk in the dark corners of the Fire Palace and almost entirely succeeded. "Are you saying I'm going to get demons?!" She checked around the room, and the only thing even remotely demonic were the badgermole statues, and nothing that round and cute could be dangerous.

Auntie frowned and slipped back down onto the seat of her chair. "I hope not. I'm not entirely sure if it was a time-travel thing or they just had demons back in Fire Lord Yosor's time." Auntie tapped her chin. "Well, after a few days I convinced Nomad Samdhup to sneak into her room and try talking to her face to face- you know, since they were lifelong friends and so close. I was going to spy, because they were in there together for a long time, but then I was found by the demons again. I'll just say it got really scary but just when it seemed like all hope was lost-" Auntie paused. "Is this as tense as I hope it is?"

Izumi nodded fanatically. "I am on the edge of my seat for reassurance about the demons."

"Good! Well, when it seemed like all hope was lost, the demons melted into flower petals and I was safe! Lotsa-Greats-Grandmomma had come out of her room and agreed to go get married. And I guess that fixed things!"

Izumi wasn't so sure. "Bully for Grandmomma. So you're saying that restoring your ancestry destroyed the demons. So- what, they were there to kill you because you weren't supposed to exist?"

"I like to think so. It means I'm a demon-buster!" Auntie giggled, but then leaned forward with a glare. "But don't call my Lotsa-Greats-Grandmomma a bully! She was very nice once she came out of her room, even though she still thought I was a kind of demon. She even let me ride in the sky bison with her to attend the wedding." Auntie's glare snapped into a grin. "That's how I got home! The wedding was performed by a Fire Sage in an old temple- and the temple was surrounded by cherry trees. And guess what happened!"

Izumi tried to back away, but she was still stuck in a chair with her hands and feet bound in stone, so she had to live with Auntie's nose practically touching hers. "Um, since you consider this guessable, there's probably some obvious narrative structure, so I'm going to go with a thunderstorm? Like when you were at the grove? And you were in or near a tree at the time?"

"Wow! You're right! You're smart and know some nice words." Auntie leaned back again. "I woke up back in the grove, in my time, soaking wet and with my sisters painting bad words on my face."

"So one possibility is that getting your ancestors together created the conditions for you to find your way back home. Or I guess you could have lucked out. But it also might have been a dream." Izumi squirmed shrugged as best as she could with her arms bound behind the back of her chair. "Uncle Sok- er, I mean that someone my parents know says that dreams are psychological manifestations. Maybe you just had anxiety about your family and I'm not going to get chased by demons for dropping in on my parents' first date?"

"Huh, your uncle knows some weird words, too. But how did I know that Greats-Grandmomma had an Air Nomad friend named Samdhup? No one else in my family had ever heard of it until we found pages of her journal hidden in one of the walls of our house during a renovation!" Ty Lee pointed at Izumi. "Gotcha! Also, when did your mom and dad start dating?"

"When they were teenagers in Ba-" Izumi's mouth went dry. "Sing-" She tried to croak out the last word, but couldn't.

"Se," Ty Lee finished with a nod.

"Say what?" Dad said as he burst into the room.

Izumi startled so hard her chair fell over.

Zuko had only been able to wait so long with Azula's condescending attitude and Mai's unspoken hostility. Ty Lee could just learn to deal with having someone watch her exchange gossip with strange little girls who squinted too much and for some reason were on the floor still bound in their chair. He heard Azula and Mai following him in.

"What," Ty Lee said.

Zuko stopped short. "What?"

"You said to say 'What.' I thought it was a royal order."

Both Squinty (still on the floor) and Mai snickered at that.

Zuko clenched his fists. "Don't ridicule me."

Ty Lee actually drooped in her seat. "Sorry. I was just trying to have some fun with you."

He sighed. Now he probably looked like the bad guy to all the girls. He tried to lighten the mood with, "So what have you learned? Is it like Azula said? This girl traveled through the air on rainbows?"

Everyone stared at him. Finally Ty Lee said, "Um, no. Azula said she was joking about that, remember?"

Zuko felt a headache coming on. He looked to Azula, who was leaning against one of the badgermole statues. "Do you want to take over?"

"No need. You're doing just fine, Zuzu. I'm rooting for you."

"Ergh." He pinched the bridge of his nose against the pressure building in his head. "Ty Lee, just please tells us what you learned."

"Honestly, nothing all that interesting, compared to the rainbows." She stood up and moved to pick Squinty and her chair off the floor. "Just an embarrassing story about Mai's cousin Mimi being sent to Ba Sing Se when they heard about our victory here as part of the Sozin Youth League, and a journey she mostly doesn't remember because she caught pentapox in New Ozai and has been feverish and hallucinating for most of the last week."

Mai said, "My cousin?"

Azula said, "Pentapox?"

Squinty said, "Sozin Youth League?!"

In the silence that followed, Zuko felt the need to point out, "That doesn't explain how she got into the garden or why the tree exploded."

Ty Lee shrugged. "The fever still has her a little addled. But I guess it's also possible she's a demon from beyond time and space who can pass through walls."

At the word 'demon,' Zuko noticed, Squinty winced.

Zuko looked over to Mai. "Do you really have a cousin named Mimi?"

Mai's face revealed nothing. She just said, "I have a lot of relatives whose names start with M. Why doesn't Mimi here explain how we're related?"

Zuko thought it was a good test. He crossed his arms and loomed over Squinty. Playing the 'bad guard' was more his style, anyway. "Well? Answer her!"

Squint/Mimi blinked up at him. "Oh, well, Mo- Mai's mom is Michi, who is cousins with Mingzhu, whose daughter is Mui, who is my mom."

Zuko looked back to Mai. "Did you get all that?"

"Yeah," Mai sighed. "And those names check out. But I could have sworn Mui's daughter was still a kid."

Zuko looked down at Squi- Mimi. "She is, though?"

Mimi stuck her tongue out at him. Little brat! Zuko was about to do the same before deciding it wasn't dignified enough for an honorable prince.

Honorable prince.

Zuko suddenly felt very tired. Why was he involved in this mess involving a stupid kid, anyway? "Well, Azula? You're the one who really cares here. Are you buying any of this?"

His sister didn't immediately reply. She stared at Mimi for a long time, and then her gaze flicked back and forth to Mai a few times. Finally, she gave a long look to Ty Lee before finally saying, "It makes as much sense as anything. Mai's family does seem likely to want to keep an eye on her in our hour of victory, especially if she's going back to the Fire Nation without them. And of course we can't underestimate all the reports of this new pentapox plague. As long as she's not contagious, I see no harm in letting her recover with us on the journey back home."

"Really?" Zuko could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Isn't it all a little convenient for you?"

Azula's eyebrows rose. "If it bothers you so much, you better come along with us. You can protect my pretty friends from this flying rainbow demon like the big strong prince you are."

Ty Lee laughed. "Rainbows again! Good one, Azula!"

But it was Mai who Zuko had glanced at when Azula had said 'pretty.' And her sharp eyes had caught him.

Feeling his face warm, Zuko turned and headed for the door. "Protect them yourself! I'm staying in Ba Sing Se, and that's final!"

But Azula just said, "Where are you going? We still haven't had dinner, what with all this drama."

"I'm not hungry! I'm going to bed early!" Zuko slammed the door shut behind him, and figured he could decided if he had just told the truth once he was away from his stupid sister and her transparent manipulations. This was why he didn't want to go back to the Fire Nation.

Yes, that made sense. He was sure of it.

Izumi's jaw was hanging open. She'd never seen Dad act like that! He was taking a tantrum like a child! And he was calling her a kid?

She was brought back to reality by one of the green guard people -- the Dai Li, Mas- Azula had called them -- removing the stone bindings from her wrists. She quickly stood up and flexed her arms, then took a defensive stance with her back against the wall and a view of the guard, Azula, Auntie, and Mom.

She tried to keep her voice even as she said, "So, uh, what now?"

Azula stood up from where she was leaning and tugged her tunic straight. "Now I suppose you chaperone your cousin and do honor to your family and the Sozin Youth League with good behavior. Also, that squinting is unbecoming in one of my traveling companions. The Earth King wears spectacles, too, and left behind quite a collection in one of his bedrooms. The Dai Li here can show you, if you'd like to try them to see if they work for you. I am going to get some dinner, and I wish for some time to think, so I will be eating alone."

Izumi knew that Auntie Ty Lee's story hadn't fooled Azula at all. But she watched as Azula walked off without another word- or even so much as an intimidating scowl.

All this, and demons might be on the way, too.

Izumi gave a long, deflating sigh.

Auntie giggled, "See, Mai? She even sounds like you!"

"And she does have our chin," Mom said. She went over the standing tray from earlier and began collecting all the blades she's left there. "I guess it's Family Time again. (Ugh, and here was I looking to having the house to myself all summer.) And- what? You follow me around to make sure I stay out of trouble or something?"

Izumi was in no mood for Mom's mood. "Nope. I don't care what you do. I'm going to go see if any of the Earth King's glasses will let me see." She looked to the Dai Li guard. "And I can find my own way, thanks."

Then she ran off in pursuit of her daddy.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

Mommy's Daddy's Little Girl

Zuko was used to being unable to find any time alone.

He had started his life living in a palace, where a resident could never get more than whispering-distance from a servant, guard, or annoying/homicidal little sister. Then he had lived on a navy ship, where the metal walls were so conductive to sound that apparently the whole crew could hear, to name a random example, a young man psyching himself up while he shaved his head in the morning with affirmations about being able to defeat the Avatar. His time as a fugitive in the Earth Kingdom had involved spending nearly every hour with Uncle, except for a brief journey that he could barely remember aside from the fact that he'd been starving for most of it, and then they had lived in Ba Sing Se together in a too-cramped apartment and-

But he wasn't going to think about Uncle. That traitor. Not anymore.

And now he was back in a palace (albeit one captured from the Fire Nation's enemies and hastily redecorated with as many red banners as they could find on short notice this far west), where there were of course servants and guards again, as well as creepy Dai Li agents who looked a little too interested in what everyone was saying. Zuko had even caught some of them drawing lots to see who got to 'guard' Ty Lee.

But all of that was a normal kind of not being alone.

The squinting girl chasing him through the hallways of the Earth Palace was a new, very prominent manifestation of the old problem.

"Stop following me," Zuko growled.

"I just want to be your friend!" Squinty Mimi shouted back.

He told himself that the sound of the Dai Li agents chuckling was entirely in his imagination. "I don't want any friends!"

"Well bully for you- you're doing a great job so far!"

This time, the laughter couldn't be written off as hallucinations, not if he didn't want to be locked up somewhere for the safety of himself and squinty little girls who didn't know when to quit. "I'm not a bully! Go be friends with Azula! She seems to like you."

"I have a better idea!"

"Good! Go do that, then!"

"We should both go have dinner with Mo- Mai! She seems really nice -- I mean, I know she's nice because she's always been so kind to the younger cousins and there's something like sixty-two of us -- and I bet she'd enjoy being in your glowing company!"

Zuko skidded to a halt. Mimi collided with his back and Zuko reflexively reached around to catch her so that she wouldn't fall, but she turned her momentum into a spin and ended up in a Firebending stance with both arms outstretched, one aimed at Zuko and the other covering the nearest guard. It was a stance that Zuko knew Azula favored, executed perfectly.

Huh. It must be a popular style among girls these days.

Ambitious, manipulative girls who like to stick their noses in other peoples' business. "Mai doesn't want to have dinner with me, and I don't want to have dinner with her!"

Mimi snorted and straightened from her stance. "You mean you don't want to do what other people tell you to do, because you're a big baby."

"Where did you get an attitude like that? Mai barely even has a pulse."

"My dad, I guess." She crossed her arms and gave him a squinty glower that was almost aimed in the right direction. "How about you?"

Zuko answered by shoving her out of the way and stalking around the nearest corner. Thankfully, she didn't follow him down this hallway, although he did hear some echoes of her mumbling, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..."

He didn't know which of them she was talking about, and he didn't want to.

Izumi was still calling herself stupid as she tried on another of the Earth King's old spectacles in one of the palace's more sumptuous bedrooms (although for some reason this one had a banner hanging on the wall with a picture of a caped badgermole flying through the sky, as well as some ink drawings of fashionable ladies). This set almost made the world look right, but they were so small she had to go cross-eyed just to look through the lenses, and the arms didn't quite reach her ears. "Stupid."

She took another pair from the tray which proved to be better-sized for her face, but these lenses were so powerful that it was like looking at the world through a zucchini-shaped bowl. "Stupid."

She put on another pair that were just about perfect, but for some reason the left lens was tinted red and the right lens was blue. She put them on the bed with the other discards. "Stupid."

Why had she said that to her own father?! She should have just said that Mom had more attitude than he thought, and wouldn't he like to get to know her better and enjoy her spiky sense of humor? She should have said that everyone liked Mom, even Aunt Toph- no, wait, that hadn't happened yet.

She definitely shouldn't have made him think about Ozai. Especially not now!

This probably had something to do with being thirteen. She still wasn't quite used to it. She shuddered to think what being sixteen would be like.

"Stupid!"

The door to the bedroom opened and someone slipped in who looked like Auntie Ty Lee, but squinting revealed her to be slimmer and cuter- the young Auntie who right now was Izumi's sole ally in this mess. She closed the door behind her and said, "So, how is it going with getting your parents back together?"

"Well-"

"I only ask because your aura is a color I only see on the bottom of my shoes after rainstorms, I have no idea where Zuko is, and Mai locked herself in her bedroom with a big tray of desserts that isn't going to do her nerves any favors."

Izumi sighed. "Well, that's your answer, then. I tried convincing my dad to have dinner with her, but he was being uncooperative and then I kind of said something really nasty to him."

Auntie cocked her head. "Something nasty enough to make him go to Mai for comfort and headpats?"

"Not quite."

"Aw. But don't worry about it. Azula never quite figured that trick out, either. Maybe you'll get it next time."

Izumi frowned. "How many next-times do I have? Before when you were telling me about your time-traveling, you said something about demons coming after you because your ancestors were in danger of not getting married like they were supposed to." She let herself fall down on the nearby bed. "Mom and Dad were supposed to have their first date in Ba Sing Se, but that obviously isn't happening now, thanks to me. So here come the demons, I guess! Bully for me!"

Auntie Ty Lee came over and sat down on the bed. "I find that it helps more to focus on solving problems than your hangups about bullies or whether demons are about to eat you."

"Eat m-"

"Anyway, how was all this supposed to go? Because Mai and Zuko didn't exactly seem like they were enjoying dinner before you arrived- but that's not weird for them, either. Could have gone either way, really."

"Well, I'll tell it as I heard it a million times." Izumi motioned towards the ceiling like a Narrator character starting off a play. "In the days before Dad was banished, they had been each other's first friends, a childhood companionship that blossomed into something a little more, the beginning of a romance without quite being one."

Auntie gasped. "They were each other's first friends?! I've barely seen them talk! Mai just blushed at him whenever he was around and made humming noises, and Zuko only really started paying attention to her when she got taller than me and Azula, so I figured he just never looked down and noticed all the girls there because I was way cuter and friendly than her, no offense."

"Oh, I know you are! But they told me they first met on Ember Island, when Mom could barely talk. They ran around the beaches together all day, and Grandma told me they ended up napping together. Then when Mom's family came to the Capital, they were so excited to see each other again and played together every day for a while!"

Auntie gave a squeal so high-pitched that some of the spectacles on the tray cracked. "That's the greatest thing I ever heard! But how have I never known this wonderful secret history and why didn't they say a word to each other the whole time I knew them?"

"Maybe they got shy?"

"Well they're not shy now! They grew up and learned how to stab people! They should have been making out as soon as they laid eyes on each other!"

Izumi grabbed a pair of the spectacles and put them on her face so that she could push them up her nose like an intellectual, even though they were so strong they rendered her completely blind. "It's simple, my dear Auntie. Dad didn't feel right about everything that happened in Ba Sing Se, and he believed himself to be completely alone in life, but Mom reached out to him and reminded him of the togetherness they had enjoyed and could enjoy again. She was Dad's light in the darkness! They shared their first kiss and committed to each other, returning to the Fire Nation together."

Auntie scratched at her head. "Mai was- is- will be a light in the darkness? Wow, who would have thought? But go back to the part where Zuko doesn't feel right about everything here. I can see that in his aura, and- sure, I can definitely understand having mixed feelings about everything with his family. I mean, I ran away to join the circus and I wasn't marked and banished! But usually Zuko only defies Azula about either super-petty things or really important things. So what exactly is going on here?"

Izumi tossed away the spectacles she'd been playing with and wondered how much she could really say, here- and how much she even knew. She was well aware that Auntie Ty Lee had been loyal to the Fire Nation until she had to betray it to save Mom's life from Azula. And Mom had been loyal to the Fire Nation until she had to betray it to save Dad's life from Azula. And Dad has been loyal to the Fire Nation until he had to betray it to help save the world from Sozin's Comet and Ozai, but not Azula that one time for a nice change of pace. But she had never heard about this business of Uncle Aang being dead. And she was a bit fuzzy on all this 'fall of the Earth Kingdom' stuff, since it had lasted only a few months until Uncle Iroh-

Uncle!

Izumi snapped upright on the bed. "Bully! I know this part of the story!"

"Oh, good!" Auntie Ty Lee clapped. "Let's go save a Zuko!"

"Oh, no, we're not there, yet. I know the important part, but I still need to learn more about all of this- this context." Izumi put on the best pair of the Earth King's spectacles that she had found, which still left the world a little fuzzy and warped. "Where is Uncle Iroh?"

Auntie shrugged. "In the dungeons somewhere, I guess."

"That's what I was afraid of." Izumi gave a sigh.

"You sound so much like Mai when you do that."

Zuko was not a big believer in coincidence. Tricks and manipulations, especially when Azula was within flame-spitting distance? Yes, absolutely. Destiny and divine mandate? Of course, at least when royalty and/or a mission to find the Avatar was involved. Subconscious expressions of deep-seated trauma? Well, he'd had at least one dream about having no scar, a shaved head, and Airbender tattoos, and the less he thought about that one, the better.

So which of those had brought him to the door of Mai's bedroom?

He'd been walking without any aim, other than trying to avoid Squinty Mimi, and after what seemed like hours, he'd ended up here. He hadn't been thinking about Mai; he hadn't really been thinking at all. The movement had been the goal, a journey without a destination. But all journeys had to eventually lead somewhere, he supposed. And now he was here, getting philosophical about nearly walking into a door.

He should leave. Mai wouldn't want to see him. He couldn't think of where to go, but once again, movement was all he needed to worry about right now. He turned to escape-

The door opened and Mai stepped out holding a tray with a collection of empty plates on it. She stopped short when she noticed him and stared.

Zuko stared back.

Without taking her eyes off him, she crouched down and put the tray on the floor next to the door where the servants could take it away later.

Zuko continued staring.

Mai stared back as she stood up again.

Zuko said, "Uh-"

Mai said, "This is very awkward, and I don't like it, so it stops now. Say something natural."

"Er-" Zuko swallowed the casual and very smooth greeting he was sure he was about to say without any awkwardness at all. "I- I don't know why I'm here."

"That makes two of us." She quirked an eyebrow.

"Are-" He swallowed with some effort. "Are you mad at me?"

The other eyebrow rose to join the first. "Do you think I am?"

"I do. I- after Squ- Mimi showed up, it- we- felt different? I mean, us being around each other felt different than at that dinner trap of Azula's." He let his gaze fall to his feet. "And that felt different than before- you know, back home. With us."

"I see." Her face settled back down into absolute blankness. "And is that something you expect me to fix?"

"N- no! I- just- felt bad about it."

Mai blinked. "Oh. Go on."

Uh, oh. Zuko had rather been hoping that he'd covered everything he needed to. He was very experienced at making people like him again, but unfortunately that was all in a highly specific Avatar-centric method which wouldn't apply here. "And- and I know you have to do what Azula tells you. So I- I don't think you should feel guilty for doing what she wants. I don't hold it against you."

Mai's held tilted a bit to the side. "Zuko, I want you to know that I'm really trying to understand you. And I think you just made a big guess about what I want to hear. Is that right?"

"Yes!" He nearly wilted in relief. "How close was I?"

"I'm even more mad at you now."

"O- Oh. Then- I should go?" This somehow felt even more awkward than their earlier staring contest. Someone being mad at him was almost never this quiet and subdued.

Mai didn't answer right away. Eventually, though, she gave a single, very deliberate nod.

Zuko made himself return it. Then he turned and walked away.

He still had no idea where to go.

The door to Mai's room closed behind him with an unexpected slam.

Izumi waited beyond the corner of Uncle Iroh's dungeon cell, listening for Auntie Ty Lee's distraction and hoping that no one was about to die. Auntie had been very vague about how she was going to divert the guards, and given how weird and evil the rest of Izumi's family was acting, she was taking her mother's usual advice and mentally preparing herself for the worst in the hopes that everything else would seem better by comparison.

So it was with no small amount of relief that she heard Auntie making echoing ghost noises from somewhere unseen (and very good ones, too) which prompted the guards on duty to go looking for a disturbance while assuring each other with shaky voices that it was just the wind they had never heard before in this sub-basement.

After giving it a five-count like Auntie Suki had taught her, Izumi made her way around the corner and over to Uncle Iroh's cell.

Unexpectedly, she found herself stopping short of the door. There was a slot-window with a sliding cover, so she wouldn't need to find a way to unlock anything, which was good, and also wouldn't need to perform a daring infiltration through an air vent, which was a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, she just stood there.

She was getting to see Uncle again.

For the first time in about three years.

Because that was how long he had been dead.

He was the first person Izumi knew to die.

But he wasn't getting any deader while she hesitated here. Well, technically he was, since he was alive right now and aging normally, but not at a faster rate than any other old person locked in a damp underground cell. And who knew what this Uncle Iroh was like, considering that Mom and Dad were evil Avatar-killers or something and Auntie Ty Lee was an Ozai-follower and Azula was Azula but more energetic. However, the one part of this reality which neatly matched the stories she'd heard was that Dad and Uncle had been estranged until everyone wised up and joined up with Uncle Aang. So he was probably at least kind of close to being the Uncle Iroh she had known before he passed away. And now he was on the other side of this door with no idea who she was.

Izumi sighed. This was a whole lot of nonsense to deal with at her age.

She knocked on the door, opened the viewing-slit, and squinted through it.

She gasped.

He was just Uncle. He was sitting cross-legged at the far end of the his cell, eyes closed and back against the wall and legs folded in front of him. He had the same gentle stillness and the same regal bearing and even from here she could tell he somehow managed to still smell like tea and that bit of funk from his sandals. He was even wearing robes in the same style he always did in the Jasmine Dragon.

"Uncle," she found herself squealing.

His eyes opened and met her gaze.

He didn't smile. He didn't laugh. He didn't call her 'niece.' He didn't run over to the door and try to hold her hand through the door-slit. He didn't offer her tea.

He just frowned in confusion.

Right. Like everyone else, he didn't know her. Now. Yet. How should she introduce herself? As Mom's cousin Mimi? Did he know who Mom was? Perhaps he, like Auntie Ty Lee, had a convenient history of time-traveling and would believe whatever cockamamie story she told him?

Yeah, probably not.

"Um," she eventually said, "you don't know me, but I need your help with Zuko. That's, of course, why I called you 'Uncle.' Because he does. Of course."

He closed his eyes and said nothing.

She glanced to the side to make sure the guards weren't coming back yet and then continued, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Uncle kept his eyes closed and stayed silent.

"Can you talk? Can you hear me?"

He was as still and silent as a lukewarm pot of tea.

Izumi frowned. This was Uncle, right? He could be a very good listener, but this was ridiculous. Why was he ignoring her?

Well, if she really wanted to know, she could think through it, right? Mom always said that a minute's thought could save an hour of words.

Uncle didn't know her, here, now, yet. He was in jail. She was dressed like a Fire Nation princess. A Fire Nation ruled by his evil brother. He'd come here to Ba Sing Se to hide from Ozai, but the war had found him in the form of his oldest niece, Azula- who took away his nephew. A nephew he'd traveled with, trained, supported, made tea for, and cheered up consistently with regular music nights, according to his stories. A nephew who was now returning to Ozai's service, and Uncle probably didn't know what would become of either one of them.

Wow, this was a very depressing story if you didn't know the ending.

Uncle Iroh wasn't going to be able to help. Not like this. Not now. It was up to Izumi.

Before she left, though, she whispered through the door slot, "D- Zuko will figure it out. I know it seems like he's given up, but he hasn't. He just needs to realize it. He'll figure out who he really is and what he needs to do. And he'll do it. I promise you that. If you wait for him, he'll come back to you." She waited to see if that would have any effect, but Uncle might as well have been asleep, except for his straight back.

Izumi grabbed the cover to the slot to close it-

"Thank you," Uncle said.

Izumi smiled at him and slid it shut.

Mai was not having a good night.

Actually, she was not having a good life, overall, but this specific night was being extra frustrating and something about it seemed to be personal. She didn't know what she had done to this night to tick it off; she had never even met this night before now! But for some reason it was acting like she had murdered its father or something, even though she was doing her best to stay out of its way and not bother it.

First it had been Azula's painfully transparent attempt to trap Mai and Zuko into a romantic situation, something that Mai would have been more than happy to accept as a natural nonoccurence but which didn't work at all when forced. Case in point, Zuko -- who had barely deigned to talk to her since unceremoniously rejoining the Fire Nation -- now thought she was some kind of professional spy-temptress-assassin-girl seducing boys on Azula's orders, even after she had gone to all the trouble of dressing nice the whole time she'd been in Ba Sing Se and had only ever kissed drawings she'd made in her secret notebook.

And Zuko didn't even realize she'd be upset by such an accusation.

Then there was all this weirdness with Cousin Mimi. Mai would have sworn that Cousin Mui's daughter had just learned how to read, but there was no denying that Mimi looked like a member of the family. Actually, she looked close enough to be Mai's secret illegitimate sister, and that thought had given her a tiny existential crisis which had only been resolved by having dessert for dinner.

And then there was Azula's easy acceptance of the whole matter, even the part Mimi about catching pentapox, and that was confusing because Mai had been under the impression that it wasn't real. But she had to admit she didn't really keep track of Earth Kingdom plagues, nor had she bothered to ask about the details of all the rebel stuff back in Omashu, and inquiring now would just make her look stupid in front of Z- everyone.

So yes, it had been a rather trying night. And now, of course, they had this new trouble.

Mai leaned against the wall opposite the room where Zuko had been staying here in the Earth Palace and watched while the Dai Li tore it apart looking for clues. Unfortunately, instead of answers, they were mostly finding clothing that had been folded a little too precisely for a teenage boy.

Mai allowed herself another sigh and looked around for something to distract her.

And so she spotted Ty Lee and Cousin Mimi turning the hallway corner while talking quietly but with great animation. They stopped short when the Dai Li tossed a drawer they had just finished emptying out into the hall.

It was Cousin Mimi who, squinting through her undersized spectacles, spoke first with, "What's going on?"

Mai motioned at the bedroom. "They're searching the place. In about a minute, they'll realize they haven't checked under the bed yet, and then maybe their reaction will be funny. Better hurry up if you want a good seat."

The Dai Li in the room must have heard her, because they all stopped for a moment, exchanged sheepish glances, and then hurried over to lift the bed up and check underneath it. When that didn't reveal anything but a lost green sock, they went back to their ransacking.

"Oops," Mai said, "you missed it. But it didn't turn out to be very funny, anyway."

For some reason, Cousin Mimi actually smiled. That was worrying, because the only people who smiled at Mai's attempts at humor were either trying to placate her or were promising some kind of retaliation in the near future. But Mimi just said, "And what are they looking for?"

"Zuko."

Cousin Mimi's jaw dropped. She glanced at Ty Lee, whose wide-eyed expression was also unusually concerned, and then back to Mai. "What happened to him?"

Mai offered a twitch of a shoulder as a shrug. "Don't ask me. The last I saw him, he was walking away from my bedroom. (Um, I didn't let him in, so don't read too much into that phrasing.) Fifteen minutes later, the Dai Li who had been assigned to keep an eye on him reported to Azula. Apparently, Zuko slipped away and the great secret police of the Impenetrable City can't figure out how."

The Dai Li in the room all gave her annoyed glances, but Mai could only hold up her hands and say, "What? Did I say anything inaccurate?"

She hadn't, so of course they decided to ignore her and get back to work looking for clues as to where Zuko might have hidden himself.

Meanwhile, Cousin Mimi was turning her head from side to side and squinting through her borrowed spectacles like she expected Zuko to be standing just out of sight. The kid said, "And you're just doing nothing about it?"

Ty Lee winced.

Mai, however, gave no reaction. Why bother? She simply said, "I'm overseeing the search here in the palace. Azula took a contingent of soldiers into the city to try to beat him to the monorail station."

Ty Lee scratched her head. "So she thinks he's trying to get out of the city? Why, to get away from us?"

Mai decided to be circumspect about the matter. "Or to run to something potentially treasonous." She had to admit it was a real concern. Azula had been so happy about the Avatar's death that she'd actually thrown a little dance party the next day to celebrate (and the sight of Azula attempting to dance was one that would haunt Mai to the end of someone's days, hopefully not her own), but Zuko hadn't shown so much as a sliver of satisfaction, never mind happiness or even relief. Perhaps he had gone to find the Avatar's friends to apologize or something.

He wouldn't run away to join up with them.

Right?

Cousin Mimi was being very quiet, staring at her own shoes with no focus in her eyes.

Mai shoved her anxieties into the dark recesses of her own mind at knifepoint and said, "You didn't happen to murder him and hide his body, did you?"

Cousin Mimi didn't so much as look up. "Not that I recall, but I'll check with my secretary."

Mai actually snickered before she managed to strangle the reaction and pack it into the same compartment as her worries. At least the kid had a really good sense of humor. That made one person in the entire family.

Besides Mai, that is.

Then Mimi turned on her heel and began rushing away.

Mai called out, "Where are you going?"

"To go find my f- find Zuko. I know where he is."

Ty Lee raised a hand. "Should I go with you?"

"Nope! We don't want to spook him."

Mai felt like she had missed something. "Um, Azula said that no one else was to leave the palace. You're not leaving the palace, right?"

Mimi kept speed-walking.

Mai sighed and hurried after her. "Can you tell us where he is?"

"It's better if I handle it."

What in the name of the First Fire was this kid doing? She'd barely known Zuko for five minutes!

Mai put a little force in her voice and said, "I can order the Dai Li to stop you. I can stop you, and that will be even less pleasant."

Mimi came to a halt so quickly Mai nearly bumped into her. The kid spun around so quickly that Mai instinctively took a step back and reached for her knives-

-but Mimi wasn't attacking. She was clasping her hands like a beggar and giving Mai puppy-goat-dog eyes. "Pleeeease?! I promise I'll bring him back quickly and without trouble and won't tell anyone and no stops on the way there or back!"

Ugh. Now she was looking like Tom-Tom.

And if there was a chance she could bring Zuko back without any Avatar trouble-

But why did it have to be alone?

Mai turned to Ty Lee. "What do you think?"

Ty Lee immediately brightened. "Your cousin is a wise kid. I think you should let her give it a try. It's not like the timeline could thrown into more chaos at this point, right?"

Mai sighed. She was not having a good night, and Ty Lee's usual silliness wasn't helping. "Fine. But be good! Just there and back, okay?"

"Bully! I promise!" Cousin Mimi actually gave a littler celebratory hop. "Thanks, Mo- Mai! You're the best!" Then she ran off.

Mai decided to indulge in another sigh. She turned to Ty Lee and asked, "She's very annoying and mysterious. Why do I kind of like her?"

Ty Lee stared back blankly. "I have no idea how to answer that."

"Yeah, that's about what I expected." Oh, well. She might as well get a seat with a good view in case Mimi really did bring Zuko back and embarrass the Dai Li for the third time tonight.

That might almost make up for having a jerk like Zuko hanging around again.

Izumi had known she'd be able to find her dad in the Jasmine Dragon, but definitely hadn't expected him to be washing tables in the dark when she got there.

She could understand why no one else had guessed it. For her, Uncle's teashop had been a home away from home, the place her family always returned to whenever they were in the Earth Kingdom, a perfect excuse not to have to stay in the Earth Palace with those headache-inducing crystal lanterns. It was a place of warmth and family and safety as long as you didn't go out where the customers could see you and assume you were an unusually young waitress who was late bringing their order.

This Mom and Auntie Ty Lee probably didn't even know the place existed, or if they did, it was in the vaguest terms. And Azula- well, Izumi had no doubts that Azula knew all about the Jasmine Dragon, but her way of thinking was a bit too strategic to consider it first, to favor it over more practical considerations like the city's egress points. Azula hadn't fought Dad enough yet to realize he was the opposite of strategic, but admittedly betraying his ideals to side with the Fire Nation against Uncle Aang was a bit misleading.

And so it had to be Izumi to come and get her daddy. No one else would understand why he was even here.

But the table-washing was a bit of a puzzler. Dad didn't even do that when he enjoyed coming to this place.

"Hi," Izumi said into the darkness. She squinted at the floor to make sure she wasn't going to trip over a chair or something as she walked in, but everything was very neat.

"I got the chairs upright again," Dad mumbled. "I had put them up on the tables when we closed for the night for the last time. They must have fallen over when the walls were brought down."

Izumi didn't need to ask why he would bother. She had just been talking to Uncle, after all.

Dad straightened from the tabletop he'd been wiping and nodded at it. "It was covered in dust." He looked up to Izumi, her shadow in the moonlight covering the undamaged side of his face, leaving only his harshest features visible. "Why are you here?"

Well, apparently he'd been good at that kind of drama as a teenager, too. No wonder everyone hung around with someone so grumpy. "You kind of disappeared from the Earth Palace and got everyone worried. I figured you'd be here and covered for you." She crossed her arms and straightened her borrowed spectacles so that the blurry and distorted world wasn't blocked by a thumbprint. "You're welcome."

"And why would you help me?"

"I told you! I want to be your friend!"

"Why?!"

"Um, you're- the crown prince? And being friends with you comes with- lots of- um, political power?" Even Izumi could tell how hard she'd failed to make that work. She'd been warned about people trying to befriend her for power, but she'd never been very good at making friends. Honestly, she was lucky her parents' friends had so many kids who were forced to spend time with her.

Dad made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh at her attempt. "Do you want to try that again?"

"All right! Fine! You want to know the truth?" Izumi took a deep breath. "I'm doing this so that you and- you and Mai spend some time together and get along."

He was silent for a long moment. "That doesn't clear things up at all. You're saying it's your family chasing power? With me?"

"Well-" She squinted through her spectacles again, but they were too weak and it was too dark in here for her to see the details of Dad's face. "Hold on a second." She took the spectacles off, walked right up to him, stood up on her tiptoes, leaned into his face, and narrowed her eyes.

He took a step back and blanched at her. "Um-"

"Oh, good, you're not making a mean face." She settled back on her feet and smiled. "Because she's my family and she likes you so much and I think you can make her really happy! And you know what?"

He took another step back. "Uh, what?"

"I think she can make you happy, too!" Izumi smiled at him. "She's so pretty and she's the funniest person I know besides Uncle S- my uncle, and she cares a lot about everyone in her life and will do anything to help them and she's so gentle and smart and great! She understands everything! You should really give her a try, I highly recommend her."

He took another step back. "Um. That's- that's nice, but I- I don't think she wants to be my friend."

"Oh, of course she does." Izumi waved his objection away. "She likes everyone."

"We're talking about Mai, right? Not Ty Lee?"

"The one with the knives and the great hair."

"Yeah, that's her. She seems mad at me."

"Oh, you probably did something to deserve it. But give it time, she'll forgive you." An idea struck Izumi. She looked around at the dining room of the Jasmine Dragon, and even thought she couldn't see any details, the shape of it was the most familiar thing she'd not seen all night. "I think your uncle Iroh will, too." She gave a reassuring smile.

Dad gave her a long look. Then he snapped forward and grabbed her by the front of her tunic, yanking her off her feet so he was breathing smoke right in her face as he rasped words that were also blasts of heat, "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"I- I know he loves you. And he-" Izumi swallowed. "He doesn't agree with what you've done. Which is a good loyal Fire Nation thing, I guess? But that doesn't mean you two can't be family to each other again, someday. Unless you stay here in the Earth Kingdom and keep hiding."

He said nothing. This close, she could see every detail of his face.

Izumi said, "I'm sorry, that was mean. But I'm also sorry that it's true. I know you and your uncle will find your ways back to each other. But you have to try. I believe in family, so that's why I have to try for you."

Dad stared into her eyes and let out a growl.

Then he dropped her and turned away from her. "Get out."

"I-"

"GET OUT!!"

Izumi got out before she could even think about it.

Mai hated dawns.

There was no need for the sun to be so ostentatious and arrive like a princess at her own self-organized surprise birthday party (and yes, that had been every bit as awkward for the guests as it sounded). It would be much more respectable for the sun to sidle up into the sky behind a cloud and just get on with its business, no light breaking across the horizon and coloring the lands and seas and all that business. So she usually tried to avoid seeing the dawn at all, never mind being up and dressed and waiting to board a navy warship when the sun started rising. But then, it had been a very disappointing twenty-four hours.

She waited with Ty Lee and Azula on the Royal Earth Dock while General Iroh was dragged up the ship's loading ramp in chains. She thought the dragging was a little melodramatic, as he had been walking along without resistance all the way from the dungeons, but Azula had probably been looking forward to this and wasn't going to do it without a proper dragging.

Mai heard heavy footsteps and turned to see Cousin Mimi trudging up to join the group. Her hair was tangled, she had bags under red swollen eyes, she wasn't wearing her spectacles, and she was sniffling. Mai took a step back. "You're not sick, are you?"

"Nooooo," Mimi moaned. "Zuko yelled at me last night. I didn't get a wink of sleep."

"Really," Azula said. "I would have thought the whole world was used to Zuzu's attitude by now. But to get to more important matters, you saw Zuko?"

"Yeah." Mimi sniffled again. "I think he's staying behind in Ba Sing Se."

Ty Lee gasped. "Are you sure? And we're just going to let that happen? What about the future? What about true love?"

"Wow," Mai said. True love? That had progressed fast. "Zuko's been really popular with the ladies, lately. Good for him." And also good that Mai had decided not to talk to him anymore.

Azula reached over and patted Ty Lee's head. "There, there. I agree, it is highly annoying that Zuzu isn't coming back to the Fire Nation, but as long as he isn't running off and doing something rash, I suppose he can sulk a bit longer here. Perhaps I'll return in a month and see if he's sick of living in this fetid city at the height of summer."

"Clear!" called out a solider from the deck of the warship. Ex-General Iroh was ensconced securely in his cell. It was time to board for the journey to the Fire Nation.

Mai led the way, eager to be done with all this drama and dawns and Zuko's cheer squad. Ty Lee fell in beside her, and Mimi sniffled and stumbled after them-

"Where," Azula said, "do you think you're going?" She grabbed Izumi's tunic and yanked the kid to a halt.

Mimi started to say, "I-"

"I know you were sent to keep an eye on your cousin, but I never agreed to take you into my royal retinue. You might have even chased Zuko away. Perhaps I should just leave you here to either explain your failure to your family or make your own way to the homeland. Or perhaps you can restore your honor by getting him on a ship for me. After a proper punishment, of course."

Mimi squinted at Azula. "I-" She looked to Mai. "Maybe- maybe you can stay, too?"

Mai snorted. "Pass." As if Azula would let her out of her sight now, anyway. If Iroh decided not to go quietly after all, it wouldn't be the soldiers on the ship who would make the difference. And the Avatar's crew was still out there with the Earth King and a flying bison; they could be ready to attack their ship at any moment. And why would Azula allow something that would make her latest victim feel better?

Azula was a big believer in growth through adversity. The growth being the optional part.

Mimi again said, "I-"

And then the hero arrived on his steed.

The sound of an ostrich-horse's running came first, drawing everyone's gaze to the road and the cloud of dust approaching. At the cloud's head was a birdsteeds, one of unmistakably royal quality with the size and glossiness of its feathers, probably taken from the Earth Palace without a receipt. And riding the overgrown chicken was Zuko himself, staring ahead at the dawn like he was aiming for it.

He pulled his ostrich-horse up near the ship and hopped off, marching towards the group with clear purpose.

Then he stopped, hurried back to the birdsteed, grabbed his carry-on sack, and jogged over to them. "I'm here."

Azula instantly let go of Mimi. "Zuzu! Good morning! So good of you to join us. Uncle was just-"

Zuko turned to Mimi and said, "Here." From his sleeve, he produced a pair of delicate golden spectacles and shoved them in her hands. Then he turned away and marched up the ship's ramp.

Mai snorted. "I guess he didn't have a fun night, either. So, are we done with the drama? Or do we need to make some kind of grand goodbye speech to Ba Sing Se before we go?" Azula had probably wanted one, and by suggesting it, Mai had probably ensured it would be cut from the program. And by keeping things moving, perhaps Mimi's own troubles would be passed over.

Ugh. What was it with Mai and weird cheerful stray girls? Why couldn't she collect cats like a normal weirdo?

"No, we do not." Azula nodded and followed after Zuko. "Let's go, girls. All you girls."

Mimi put the spectacles on her face. "I can see! Bully!"

Ty Lee squealed, "You can see! Yay for bullies!"

Together they clasped hands, did a little dance, and chased after Azula.

Well, so much for being done with the drama.

Mai couldn't help but feel that she was missing something. Something that Azula and Ty Lee seemed to know something about. Something that Zuko was involved in. Something that revolved around her strangely likable cousin. Something Mai was being left out of.

Whatever. It was probably something annoying, anyway.

She followed the rest of the group headed straight to her appointed cabin to hide from the dawn and sulk gorgeously.

Izumi watched from the deck of the warship -- an actual war-era destroyer gleaming like new -- as Ba Sing Se was left behind. A contingent of the Dai Li were still gazing after the ship, maybe missing Azula already, so she waved goodbye to them, even though they dumb and jerks and some kind of evil secret police according to the history books.

After all, why not? She was in a good mood. True love had won. Dad was coming back to the Fire Nation with Mom, and getting them together would just be a matter of pushing their faces near each other until they started kissing. All was well, and the timeline was safe, as was Izumi's future existence. And once that was done, she just had to find a temple like Ty Lee had and use it to get back home. No big deal. Not with the help of her loving and stable and only slightly evil (but that would get better) parents.

Above Ba Sing Se, a breeze carried a swarm of pink plum blossoms out to the docks. They settled on the ground behind the formation of Dai Li.

How picturesque. It was a perfect way to leave the city.

And then, without any wind, the plum blossoms gathered.

They tumbled towards each other and clustered together, forming a pile that grew upwards. They formed a pillar about half the size of a man, behind the Dai Li, and then began taking a shape. It was an unpleasant shape, with two reverse-hinged legs and gangly arms and an oversize head. Still, as unpleasant as it was, it could almost be seen as funny at this distance.

Then it opened a pair of eyes that reflected the dawn with blood-red light, and it seemed to be looking right at Izumi.

Another breeze came along, scattering the plum blossom petals and carrying them out to sea.

Towards the ship.

Izumi screamed and ran and didn't stop running until she was hiding under her mother's bed. Which was a bit awkward since Mom was already there trying to lounge in a pouty way, but Izumi still managed to stay put for the whole morning.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

Izumi Be Good

Izumi did her best to raise a cup of water to her lips.

She was on the mess deck of Azula's warship, sitting at one of the perfectly polished tables, and between the ship's bobbing and her own full-body trembling, she felt she did fairly well that she only got some of the water on her spectacles and face and tunic and the table and the bench and also Auntie Ty Lee- and almost a whole sip into her mouth!

"Sorry," she managed after swallowing with only a minimal amount of choking.

"It's okay, I'm used to it," Auntie Ty Lee said as she patted Izumi's back. "Before I found my place as lead acrobat at the circus, I had to work the dunking booth on weekdays, and let me tell you, those little colony kids can throw. Feeling better now?"

"I think so. For three seconds there I wasn't imagining the demons trying eat me." Izumi shakily tried to put the cup down on the table and missed completely. It clattered in the large metal space, startling her so badly she fell off her bench. At least now she could reach the cup without bending over. That was nice.

Not nice enough to make her forget the demon she saw on the Ba Sing Se dock or the way it seemed to be chasing after this ship and presumably Izumi along with it. But- she was sure there was supposed to be a but here, or at least some wordplay involving butts. But she was trembling too much for her brain to put a thought together. The latest science from Ba Sing Se said that shaking brains around was bad, although a little light stirring probably wouldn't kill anyone.

"Well," Auntie Ty Lee said as she reached down for Izumi, "at least we know the demons are related to the time travel. I had always wondered if they just had demons made of flower petals back when my Lotsa-Great-Grandma lived, but now that you've seen one here, my mind is finally at ease about that."

"Bully for you." Izumi let her shaking body be hauled up by her Auntie (as if she had a choice) and draped over the table. "Sorry if that sounded sarcastic but I'm too terrified to put any emotion in my voice."

"Hey, I get it. It's like that time I mixed so much sugar into my tea I swear I was able to fly. Too bad all the vibrating ruined my steering. That wall was a lot harder than it looked." Auntie sat down on the table next to Izumi's head. "Anyway, at least we know how to solve the problem thanks to my own wacky but heartwarming adventures- and we're already working on it! We just need to get Mai and Zuko together -- romantically, hee hee -- and as soon as your conception is inevitable, they'll melt away. Wee!"

Izumi sighed with the power of 2.5 Moms. "Let's focus more on getting them to start dating and less on my conception." But Auntie wasn't wrong, and after four hours of trembling under her mother's bed, being dragged out screaming, and then brought by Auntie to the mess deck for some water, the sheer terror animating her body was becoming a bit tedious. She made herself sit up next to Auntie on top of the table. The transgression of sitting on furniture not intended to support butts (ah, there it was, kind of!) without Auntie Toph's permission helped calm her nerves a little. As a bonus, she managed not to fall off. "So what's our plan? How do boys and girls start dating?"

Ty Lee frowned. "Aren't you thirteen?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"Huh, considering your parents, I guess it isn't that surprising." Ty Lee leaned over and put an arm around Izumi's shoulders. "Anyway, usually it starts with one or another saying, 'Hey there, kissy-muffin. What say we start spending way too much time together and enjoy more physical contact than is appropriate for our age?' or something like that. Then the other says yes and it's a set deal and they kiss. Simple! Honestly, the part most people find hard is figuring out ahead of time if the other person is going to say yes. Or so I hear."

"You hear?"

"Well, I guess maybe there's someone out there who wouldn't say yes to me, but I have nothing but pity for those poor fools."

Izumi thought about at least hinting at some of the stories she'd heard about her Auntie's melodramatic life on Kyoshi Island, but decided against it. Aside from the usual concerns about spreading demon-spawning levels of information about the future, she was pretty sure she'd get in trouble for having heard some of those stories. And they might still be illegal in this time.

"And since we know my parents are going to say yes, we just have to get one of them to ask?"

"Exactly! So we get them near each other-" Ty Lee let go of Izumi and stood up on the table with arms outstretched like she was summoning applause. "-and put them in a mood so that romance is inexplicable!"

Izumi blinked. "Inexplicable?"

"Um- in- inextricable?" Ty Lee wilted a little.

"Huh?"

"It happens whether it wants to or not?"

It took a moment for Izumi to realize what she was being asked. "Ah! You mean inevitable!"

"Yes!" Ty Lee dropped so that she was sitting next Izumi again. "You're so smart, just like your mommy. You got this!"

Izumi smiled. Now that Auntie mentioned it, she was aware she was fairly smart and certainly knew a lot of words. If Ty Lee could defeat the demons, surely Izumi could do it, especially with help. "Yeah, maybe I do got- er, have this!"

"Yeah! So, what do your parents like to do as a couple?"

"Oh, lots of things!" Izumi hugged herself at the memories. "They like to read to each other, and go see plays and concerts together, and they spend rainy days playing Destiny or Pai Sho with each other, and of course they love putting on peasant disguises and going to festivals although Mom refuses to hide her shiny hair so we keep telling her everyone probably knows she's a noble, and they somehow even have fun going over intelligence reports together and joke about how they're going to assassinate everyone they don't like, and of course at parties they have to practically be dragged off the dance floor-"

That's when Auntie Ty Lee fell off the table.

Of course, it was Auntie Ty Lee, so it was a very graceful kind of falling that landed her on her feet like a very big pink cat. But any self-respecting cat would have pretended to be fully in control, that it had purposefully fallen as part of a long-reaching plan beyond the comprehension of creatures such as humans. Ty Lee, in contrast, couldn't have looked more bewildered if she'd heard that in the future her friends enjoyed a spot of human sacrifice on the weekends.

"Dancing?!"

Izumi blinked. "Yeah?"

"Mai dances?!"

"Yeah?"

"With Zuko?"

"Yeah?"

"And he dances?!"

"Yeah?"

"With Mai?"

"I think I already answered that?"

Ty Lee stared off into space for a long moment. Then she grinned and said, "Bully!" before she devolved into giggles.

Zuko had never actually been aboard a Royal-class warship before, and while he supposed the name should have been a clue, he was still surprised to find a triple-throne on the bridge.

Azula was seated in the highest one, in the center, overlooking the bridge crew at work. Mai was curled up with a book in the throne on Azula's right. That was odd- mostly because she wasn't royalty, but also because Zuko wouldn't have figured her to like 200-year-old romantic comedy novels. Still, he wasn't going to fall into one of his sister's traps by making a fuss about it. He just went over and sat down in the throne on Azula's left.

She turned a cold look on him. "That's Ty Lee's seat."

"Ty Lee?" She got a throne and Zuko didn't?! Well, he may have agreed to go back to the Fire Nation with Azula, but he wasn't going to let himself be pushed around this whole trip. He sat up straighter, folded his arms over his chest, and said, "She can come and move me if she wants it so much."

Azula curled up a leg and rested her head on her knee. "You know, I think I'd like to see that. Very well, Zuzu. You may continue to warm Ty Lee's seat for her. I'm glad you've found a use for yourself so soon after the end of your exile."

Zuko turned away from her before he could be drawn into a pointless argument with his sister.

Instead, he decided to risk getting into a pointless argument with the girl seated next to her. He leaned over so he could look at Mai and said, "Hi."

She turned a page of her book without looking up.

Zuko leaned over a little more. "You didn't need to turn that page yet. You just did it to make a point."

Still without looking up, Mai said, "You can't possibly know that."

"Ah," Azula interjected, "it's easy to figure out by observing your rate of reading and page-turning. You turned that one fifteen seconds sooner than you should have, given the visible density of the text on the page. Even a moron like Zuzu could calculate that much."

Zuko looked at his sister in disbelief. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mai doing the same.

Azula smiled at them.

After a while, she stopped smiling and got off her throne. "Princess leaving the bridge!" She stalked off, muttering, "It's not my fault everyone else is illiterate and stupid and bad at maths."

That left nothing between Zuko and Mai but a big empty space and an empty throne.

Zuko did his best not to read too much into any possible symbolism there. He thought metaphors were like vengeance-seeking siblings- only any fun in stories. "Are you still mad at me?"

Still without looking up, Mai sighed, closed her book, and slapped it down on the arm of her throne. She ended up staring at her lap. "Yes, Zuko. I am still mad at you."

He shifted so that he could face her directly and leaned over the empty throne to try to bridge the symbolic gap between them that he refused to recognize. "Can we talk about why? Please?"

Mai looked at the cover of her book and traced a finger across the printed lettering. "Is that why you came here? To try to confront me?"

"We're going back to the Fire Nation together. And I want- well, I at least want there to be peace between us."

"Unfortunately, there's something you haven't considered about this." She looked up from the book and met his gaze.

Zuko had looked Mai in the eyes before- many times, over their lives. In fact, last night at Azula's set-up of a dinner, he and Mai had experienced eye-contact over candlelight and the layout of a sumptuous meal. But here, now -- in the limp mix of the glow of the ship's lamps with the sunlight streaming in through the bridge's front viewport -- something about Mai's eyes nearly knocked him out of his seat. There was a sparkling life there that both captivated him and seemed to want to throw him out a window simultaneously.

He said, "What?"

"That maybe the only reason I was wasting any time on this stupid throne was because Azula wanted a companion so that she didn't look ridiculous- and now she's gone." Mai stood up with a suddenness that bounced her hair-tails over her shoulders. As she stalked past him, she shoved her book in his hands and said, "Here. Remember not to turn the pages until you've read all the words on them."

That left Zuko alone on the bridge with two empty thrones and a book he'd already read back when he was twelve.

Well, alone besides the crew, who were staying mercifully silent and not making eye-contact, just like some teenage girls he could mention.

He sighed and opened the book to start reading.

"Dancing is illegal in the Fire Nation?! What kind of dragon-droppings is that?!" Izumi reflexively covered her mouth with her hands, but then remembered that not only were her parents not in the room, they were too young to take her to task over poopy language.

"It's true! And also really stupid!" Auntie Ty Lee did a little wiggle that wasn't quite a shimmy. "Even Azula took the opportunity of being in Ba Sing Se to try dancing. Be glad you weren't here yet to see it. The Fire Nation hasn't really done a lot to teach people about peaceful forms of expression, you know? I danced all the time once I got to the colonies, and I didn't go blind like they said I would!"

"Blind?! Why?”

"I dunno. But just the idea of Mai and Zuko dancing-" She giggled again. "They really do it all the time? In the Fire Nation? What could possibly change so much before you're born?"

Oh, only the return of the Avatar, the crowning of her father as Fire Lord, the end of the war, and whatever friend-laden process had turned him and mom from mean grumps into doting parents and benevolent rulers except when it came to tolerating poopy language. But Izumi could hardly talk about all that.

So she just said, "I guess people relaxed a little more once the war ended."

"Aw, that's nice."

"Yeah. Too bad we can't do get them to do it, then. They always look so young and joyful when dancing together." Izumi sighed. "I guess we'll have to either find some intelligence reports talking about potential enemies of the state or a deck of cards we can lock them in a room with."

"No, wait!" Auntie Ty Lee jumped back on the table and gabbed Izumi's hands. "The future may already be changed, and I am not going to miss my chance to see my two most anti-social friends dancing in public. We're still on the river- not even at Chameleon Bay yet! So dancing isn't illegal here!"

Izumi stared.

Auntie stared back.

Izumi grinned

Auntie grinned back.

They ran out of the mess together, leaving an empty cup of water forgotten on the floor.

Mai had just about reached her cabin when Ty Lee and Weird Cousin Mimi ran past her like Azula herself was after them. When the Fire Princess didn't turn up with murderous intentions and/or flaming hands, Mai decided to wait in case an alarm was sounded for an enemy attack or a storm (if storms were even a problem on rivers) or Zuko getting a clue or something equally disastrous.

The only thing that happened was that Mai looked like an idiot standing around in the hallway of a royal warship. She sighed and took a step towards her room-

Ty Lee and Weird Cousin Mimi came running back in the other direction. Mimi was carrying a sack containing something very stiff about the same dimensions as a human body.

Mai hoped that people weren't dying without her being involved. This was probably going to be a very boring voyage, and she would hate to miss any possible excitement.

Still, no one said anything to her and the alarms still weren't ringing, so she went into her cabin and laid on the bed, but she left her door open in case anyone or anything wanted to attack her. Instead, an hour later, Ty Lee came by with a handful of sealed envelopes and threw one on the bed before running off again.

Mai picked it up. It wasn't sealed, but it did smell like Ty Lee's favorite perfume. She opened it and drew out the folded paper within.

In lettering much nicer than Ty Lee had ever managed in her life, the paper declared that tonight after dinner would be 'Music Night' on the main deck, where off-duty crew and passengers were welcome to 'begin our journey back to the Fire Nation together with the joys of song and rhythm.'

Ugh, pass.

Then Mai noticed a note at the bottom of the paper, this time in Ty Lee's distinct brushwork: 'Mai please I won't make you play the pipa but if you don't at least show up for the first hour I will tell Zuko about the face you drew in your notebook with all the lipstick marks over it.'

Wow. You just couldn't trust anyone these days.

Also, how did Ty Lee know about that diary when Mai had burnt it years ago and she had never trusted anyone enough to tell them about it?

Zuko arrived on main deck after dinner, after the music had already started, late enough to make it clear he was present under protest. His face started hurting at the semi-familiar sight of various off-duty officers and engineers working their instruments while others gathered eagerly around them, and he realized that not only was he scowling but it was getting harsher by the moment. He hadn't attended a single music night back on his own ship (well, certainly not more than five!), and the fact that he was being forced to attend this one was an unforgivable offense.

(And how exactly Ty Lee had known about his secret stash of 'Lady Rei' picture novels when he had only acquired them during his exile and had lost them when Zhao blew up his ship?! Even Uncle hadn't known about them, and he couldn't imagine telling anyone after that betrayal. Also, in case Ty Lee did end up blabbing to Mai despite his showing up as requested, he had to find an opportunity to explain to her that he only read them for the adventure stories and hardly ever looked at the pictures.)

A portable firepan sat near the band, pushing back the darkness of the night so that everyone could see what they were doing- and also ruining their night vision in case of attackers or spies. Zuko was about to bark out a reprimand but remembered at the last moment that he wasn't in command here. Well, not specifically. He had his honor back now, so he should be able to give anyone orders now as royalty, right? People like Zhao couldn't-

"Hi, Zuko!"

He managed to stop himself from shooting a fireball at Squinty Mimi- although she was no longer squinting now that she had her spectacles back.

He unclenched his fists. "Mimi. I should have guessed you'd be here."

"Aw, you know me so well already! Come on, everyone is standing awkwardly over here and I know how much you love that!"

'Everyone' turned out to be Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai, and they were indeed standing at the edge of the firelight in a way that did not belong at anything called a Music Night. Azula was squinting at the band and saying, "...completely out of tune, and I have my doubts that those strings are made of proper silk. The tone is all wrong. Oh, hello, Zuzu."

"Azula." He took came to a stop close enough to the group to converse easily but not quite close enougth that he could be considered a part of it. "What's so important about this that we all had to be blackmailed into coming?"

"What are you talking about? I'm here because I heard there would be world-class rhythmic performance. I expected Ty Lee, and Mimi isn't surprising, but the fact that you and Mai came didn't make sense until you mentioned blackmail." She leaned over to Ty Lee and whispered loudly, "You'll be sharing the material, of course."

"Oh," Ty Lee squeaked. "O- of course."

Zuko tried his best to glare murder at her. If Azula found out about his Lady Rei collection-

The band finished their current piece and took a water break. (It better be water- but wait, Zuko wasn't in command on this ship.) Azula frowned at them and said, "So where's this special performance?"

As if in response, Mimi drew a long polished knife from each of her boots.

Zuko blinked. "What's going on?"

Mimi spun one of the knives in her hand as casually as if it was a pair of chopsticks. Except Zuko always fumbled that trick and dropped the chopsticks, but this girl managed it as easily as if she had been trained by a weapons master. And yet she was just a thirteen-year-old Firebender, wasn't she? "I want to dance with someone." She grinned at him.

Zuko prepared to refuse her, no matter what blackmail material anyone had on him, because he was not going to humor some little girl's crush even if she threatened him at knifepoint-

Mimi turned to Mai and held out one of the knives as if presenting a bouquet of flowers to a lover. "For you, my lady."

Mai's eyebrows drew together, but she must not have been able to resist a good blade because she took it without hesitation.

Mimi bowed and offered her hand with a flourish. "Would you do me the honor of performing an 'Edge in the Air' form together?"

The musicians started playing again.

Mai's eyes, glittering in the firelight, flicked to Zuko for a moment.

Then she took Mimi's hand and said, "Sure, why not? At least it won't be boring."

They spun out together into the empty space between the musicians and the firepan.

Zuko watched in fascination as they let go of each other's hand and bowed to each other. Then, to the beat of the music, they turned their backs to each other and advanced a step at a time, each one paired with identical slices of their knives. The weapons moved so fast, and were so polished, that they seemed to leave glittering trails in the air. After several steps, they spun again to face each other and threw their knives in lazy arcs.

They caught each other's blades, used them to stab to their left, trade-tossed their knives again, and worked them through a series of slices, each of their steps matching the beat of the music. It wasn't quite a dance, but as the training sequence became more complicated, the resemblance grew and grew. And throughout it all, they kept tossing their knives back and forth, creating a glittering cloud around their bodies. They hadn't even known each other twenty-four hours yet but they could communicate the exchange of blades with nothing more than a glance. It was like watching the students of a shared master- or even a master and apprentice.

How were they this good together?

Although, if Zuko had to pick, he thought Mai was the more graceful and interesting. But before he could wonder about it further, Ty Lee grabbed one of his hands and said, "Our turn."

He and Azula said, "What?" at the same time, and they looked in surprise to find Ty Lee had grabbed both of them. While Mai and Mimi did their knife-dance, Ty Lee pulled both of the siblings close to the blazing firepan and began moving. It was the most bizarre thing Zuko had ever seen- Ty Lee was doing a lot of stepping, but somehow she wasn't actually going anywhere. There were long steps and kicks and crossed legs and lots of bouncing, and none of it at all interrupted her ability to hold Zuko's and Azula's hands without pulling them all over the place.

"What," Zuko blurted out, "is that?"

"The Chung-Ling Shuffle. They like to do it in the western colonies."

Azula was observing Ty Lee's feet carefully. Very slowly, she began copying one of the movements over and over, a kind of going-nowhere stepping. She was getting it fairly well, so Zuko immediately started trying to do the same thing to prove he was just as capable. It took a moment for the movement to become comfortable, and soon he was doing a very basic 'shuffle.' Tempted to grin, he looked over at Azula again, and found that she had already incorporated several additional kinds of moves. Typical.

Ty Lee was nodding, though. "You're both doing great! Now let's trying moving around a little." She began pulling them in an arc around the fire, something that complicated things quite a bit, but nothing Zuko couldn't handle. He wasn't quite sure what people saw in this 'dancing,' but it wasn't that hard, not for someone had run and flipped across the rooftops of Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring. Perhaps he wasn't doing this as gracefully, but he was sure he made a better Blue Spirit than Azula, so he could let her have this one.

Azula, in turn, was grinning with lots of teeth and was starting to get 'creative' with the patterns she was mixing. She even managed to use one kick to knock a waltzing engineer out of her way.

Zuko, though, was beginning to feel silly. He looked back to Ty Lee and said, "Why are we doing this?"

Ty Lee stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "What? You don't like dancing with a pair of pretty girls?"

"Azula's my sister."

"Well, your sister and a pretty girl, then?"

"But I am very pretty, Zuzu. And, it seems, a dancing prodigy- I leave them burning and then I'm gone!"

"Good for you." He looked back to Ty Lee. "Really, what is the point of all this?"

Ty Lee blinked innocently at him and tilted her head back and forth in time with her shuffling. "Dancing has to have a point?"

"It does when people go out of their way to get me involved."

Ty Lee's eyes went wide for a moment. Then she smirked. "You're more observant than people give you credit for. But don't worry, I'm not smart enough to have a point." Abruptly, she let go of Azula's hand and yanked him so hard he went stumbling past her.

Visible behind her, Mai was catching a knife again, but her eyes were wide as she noticed him and she held up her hands in defense as he tried to stop from cashing into her-

-he stepped on something that said, "Ouch!" in Mimi's voice-

-there seemed to be twice as many limbs in this whole mess as there had been a moment ago-

-cold hands clutched Zuko's-

-and in his right hand he could feel a leather-wrapped handle-

-and he came to stop in something like a shuffle holding Mai's hands with their bodies just short of touching. The shock on her expression mirrored his own surprise, and one of the polished knives was pressed between a pair of their clutched hands.

Zuko whipped his head around to see Mimi and Ty Lee twirl away.

He looked back to Mai. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

Mai blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then her face settled back into a blank dullness, although the firelight was making it look like her cheeks were blushing scarlet. "Not at all. I'm still trying to figure out if I've been assaulted or mugged or just plain pranked."

"Oh, good." Zuko sighed in relief. "I hate it when I'm the only one who's confused."

It was then that he realized his and Mai's hands were still intertwined and he was rocking his body in time to the music. He went still, but he didn't pull his hands away. Hers were soothingly cool, and her fingers felt so delicate.

He looked into Mai's eyes.

She stared back at him.

Azula shuffled around them. "One side, losers! Also, you are under orders to dance. I enjoy how much better I am than either of you." She shuffled away.

Mai rolled her eyes and -- still holding on to Zuko's hands -- began swaying her own body with the music. "There. I think that meets the minimal requirements."

Zuko followed suit, and they were moving stiffly in sync like the world's two biggest metronomes. "Thank you for not running away again."

"Ugh." Mai broke eye contact looked away into the night. "It's easier to pretend to dance if I'm with you, and I have a strong suspicion that if I try to leave, Ty Lee and Mimi will just find a way to get me back here again."

Zuko gave a snort. "They've been working very hard to put us in the same company. Mimi was even trying last night to get me to have dinner with you again- oh, no." He couldn't help wincing at his realization.

Mai looked at him again. "What?"

"I just figured it out." He swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth. "Why you're mad at me. I said that dinner in the garden was you spying on me for Azula. But it wasn't, was it? She was trying to play matchmaker, just like Mimi and Ty Lee. You were just as much of a victim of them as me, weren't you?"

Mai lowered her eyes, and her lips pressed together to form a thin line. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"Eh. Thank you."

With that cleared up, Zuko felt a bit lighter on his feet. He took a step, moving Mai along with him. She gave him a thoroughly scandalized look but made no resistance, and soon, they were moving along in a rhythmic motion that would have gotten them arrested in the Fire Nation. "I'm glad that's settled. But why didn't you just explain it to me?"

Mai took a step back as they moved, putting them at a little more distance in what Zuko hoped very much wasn't a glaring metaphor. "Why should I have to explain?"

"Because I didn't understand. And it's hard to- to get along if we don't understand each other."

"I'm not sure we do yet." Mai pulled at him so that they started to rotate as they walked and swayed, something that might even be illegal in the colonies. "Zuko, you've been gone a long time."

"I know. And- and I know you've done a lot of growing up. I recognize that. And I don't just mean- you know, like all girls do."

"Oh. Well, thanks for noticing the 'girl' way, I guess." Mai sighed. "Honestly, I don't think I've grown up all that much. It's the way you've changed that I'm not so sure about."

Zuko came to a stop in his surprise, and so was nearly yanked off his feet as Mai continued the dance. "Um, changed how?"

"You're- you're sharper."

"Oh, thank you. I've had to do a lot of thinking and planning and that's really-" Zuko thought of something and gave her a look. "You're not saying I'm smarter, are you? Is this a metaphor about knives? I don't think metaphors belong outside of theatrical dramas."

"No, Zuko, it's not about knives. I do have other interests, you know." Mai allowed her next step to draw her closer to him again. "And sure, you're probably more clever now. You actually figured out why I'm mad. But what I'm trying to say is that you used to be so kind, and- and I'm not seeing that in you, anymore. The way you accused me of manipulating you for Azula- well, the closest thing I've seen to you being kind is when you practically threw Mimi's spectacles at her this morning."

Zuko let himself move a little away from her again as he thought of a response, and- aw, ashes, he was metaphoring, wasn't he? This was what came of dancing and self-expression and art. Such things should be left to trained professional actors who knew how to handle such dangerous material, and who could be safely shunned from regular society if they became infected.

Still, he left that distance in place as he said, "Everyone grows up, and it's not a kind world. And we learn who we can trust as we grow up. It's called maturing."

"Oh, really?" Mai's grip on his hands tightened painfully, and hopefully she wasn't metaphoring, too. "You can't trust me?"

Zuko gripped back with the same force and blurted out, "Well, we used to be friends before Azula could even talk. But then when she started going to the Academy, you spent all that time with her and never even talked to me anymore! The only time I got to spend with you was when Azula was forcing me into one of her bullying games that you'd help with!"

Zuko came to a halt as he realized what he had just said. Did he really think that? Well, if not, then he probably wouldn't have said it.

Mai stumbled to a stop a moment after him, their hands still joined but their arms at maximum extension. The music carried on, but neither one was moving to it anymore.

It turned out it was very hard to metaphor and dance at the same time. No wonder neither was considered fit for polite society.

"Not bully," Izumi hissed to Auntie Ty Lee and stopped pretending to dance.

"Good bully or bad bully?" Ty Lee let go of Izumi and turned to peek around the fire to where Mom and Dad had come to a stop. "They look like they're about to start wrestling, and not the lovey-dovey kind! What do we do?"

Izumi took a deep breath. "It's time for our backup plan."

Auntie blinked. "Are you sure?"

Izumi shook her head, but nevertheless ran over to where the band was playing.

It hadn't taken much cajoling to get them to do their part. Once Izumi explained the concept of a music night -- and Ty Lee had forged a royal edict from Azula promising that no one would be put to death for participating -- they had been eager to celebrate the start of a victorious journey home. Now, as Ty Lee interrupted their song and waved another forged royal edict at them, Izumi ran over to where she had stashed her big sack.

She could do this. Perhaps it was even why she had come to the past.

She yanked at the sack and ooh that was heavier than she expected. Usually, she had servants to do this part of her. She dragged it over to the band and untied the opening. Then she pulled it down to reveal the gayageum she had borrowed from the captain, who for reasons he hadn't wanted to get into always traveled with a traditional 12-string zither. Since she had been enabling so much blackmail already, she had taken the instrument and hadn't mentioned the sticky parts that smelled like beer.

Izumi pulled the rest of the sack off and laid the gayageum out on the deck in front her.

She had never minded inheriting so much from her parents, like her good looks and appreciation for sharp metal and a love of overly dramatic gestures, but as she had grown, she had learned the various ways she was also her own person. She didn't get a thrill out of risking her life, she liked to laugh even when other people could hear her, and of course there was her difficulties with Dad's style of Firebending. Similarly, she had never really been interested in learning to play the pipa lute or the tsungi horn. It was the sound of the gayageum that had tickled her ears.

Neither was she much of a fan of classical music.

She kneeled behind her instrument and said to the band, "Water Tribe riff in B, watch me for the changes, and try to keep up."

Fortunately, her parents had learned to love more varied music as well. And she'd never seen them have as much fun as when they had danced to this song at Auntie Suki's ascension celebration.

She worked the gayageum with both hands, banging out an introduction to let the band -- the rest of the band -- find their way in. They came in piecemeal and hesitant and each playing a completely different pattern, and now that she thought about it, perhaps a 'Water Tribe riff' wasn't as well known in this era as it was in hers, unless a 'riff' was some kind of ridiculously evil torture device designed for use on captured Waterbenders. Even so, they eventually found a beat they could agree on and she threw herself into the melody. It wasn't until she had started training with her true master that she had been able to Firebend without thinking about it, but music had always come much more naturally. She chased the thrill of wild swings, seeking something that people would feel compelled to dance to, assuming that her parents at this age and state qualified as 'people.'

But she had high hopes for them.

Mai's eyes were stinging. It probably had something to do with whatever they were burning in the firepan. It certainly couldn't be because one of the people she liked best in the world was laying bare her lifetime of cowardice.

"Zuko, those games weren't just about making your life miserable. Azula is more efficient than that." She wanted to wipe at her eyes, perhaps pretend that the breezy river air had gotten something into them, but her hands were still trapped in Zuko's grip. Instead, she yanked him so that they were in motion with the dance again -- now a lot faster and for some reason Mimi was up there with the band, flailing at a gayageum and making it wail like a sack of either very angry or very amorous owlcats while the rest of the performers tried to hide the atrocity with a wall of noise -- and twirled them so that her face was in shadow. "If I had talked to you, if I had been in your life the way I wanted, she would have found a way to make it so much worse for both of us."

"You-" Zuko stared at her, but then his gaze was pulled away as he tripped over his attempt to keep up with this fast-paced song. "You were protecting me?"

"No. I was protecting myself. You were a bonus. I didn't choose her over you, she-" One of her feet hooked Zuko's and they nearly tumbled into the firepan. "What is with this ridiculous music?!"

They extricated their legs and then had to jump apart to avoid Azula's attempts to keep up with the accelerating beat of the music. Once she was safely gone, Zuko stepped right up to Mai and hissed, "So if anyone in my life can be taken away and I can't be as kind as you think I should be to every interloper who comes along, what's the point of us trying to be in each other's lives?"

Ty Lee shuffled around them, swaying her head and arms from side to side, and called out, "Wow, what interesting 'music!' I bet it would be really fun to dance to with someone I've loved all my life and but now I can't get over myself enough to be happy and just dance!"

Mai finally wiped the tears she hoped no one could see. "No point at all, apparently."

She stalked off for her cabin.

Behind her, Zuko kicked over the firepan, scattering the burning bricks within and plunging the deck into darkness.

Dancing was stupid, anyway.

Izumi tried to keep the song going, but the rest of the band fell silent and in one case tripped over his xiao flute. Auntie Ty Lee ran after Mom, Dad stomped away in the direction of the rear of the ship, and Azula finally stopped shuffling like a maniac.

To the darkness, Izumi said, "I guess you're not ready for that yet. But I still love you."

On the other side of the river, another Fire Nation warship was moving in the opposite direction, literal ships passing in the night. And on the deck of that ship, Sokka stood in his stolen Fire Navy armor and wondered at the noise and light on the other ship and why it had suddenly stopped. If this was a prelude to an ambush, it was an odd choice to go quiet after they were already visible to the enemy. But the Fire Nation did things backwards, a lot of times.

Even so, nothing happened as the ships drifted past each other, and then they were out of sight.

Well, he'd still warn Dad and Bato about it, anyway. After all, he didn't want to die. Nor did he want his friends or family to die. Aang wasn't even necessarily fully alive again, after the debacle in Ba Sing Se, and getting him killed before he could be fully alive would be losing ground at an unacceptable rate, if they were going to win this war.

Sokka was very good at that kind of math. Someone had to be.

Hours later, Izumi was still sitting on the deck, plucking idly at her gayageum. The moon was providing enough light for her to see the strings, but she didn't need it; she knew them by memory.

She had the blues, and both the Water Tribe and Air Nomads had taught the Fire Nation how to express them. And also the term, once the confusion about clothing was cleared up.

Not that she'd paid much attention to those kinds of songs, being a generally happy child and not particularly moved to lament her early troubles with Firebending via music, so she was mainly making do by plucking some chords and singing, "I got the blues!" to the empty deck. Her intervention was driving her parents further apart, and while she had never experienced the feeling of being unwanted, she strongly suspected that not doing anything right now might be the best thing she could do.

"I got the bluuuuues!"

The wind picked up, ruffling her hair, and she had to resist the urge to look up for an Air Nomad. Uncle Aang wasn't here to cheer her up. Well, not the Uncle Aang she knew. Everyone was saying he was dead, but that couldn't be true, and maybe even at his current age -- somewhere around her own, by her calculations -- he could sense when people needed his help and had the willingness to reach out.

So she looked up in time hopefully to see the wind bringing a cluster of some kind of flower petals towards her.

In the moonlight, she realized they were plum blossom petals.

And they landed on the deck to form a shape with arms and legs and a head with glowing red eyes.

Izumi screamed, "I got the scareds!" and scrambled away from the gayageum, shooting fire beyond her.

But the thing had been joined by others, all bounding towards her at the speed of the wind. Every time she caught one with a fireball, the surviving petals flew on the heated air to join with the other creatures to make them larger and faster. And the wind was bringing more and more to join the chase. The one in the lead reached towards her with fingers that were long and multi-jointed and somehow very sharp despite being made of blossom petals-

-and a crack of lightning lit up the night to burn away all the creatures in one ear-and-eye-and-maybe-nose-splitting blow.

Izumi crashed to the deck at Azula's feet.

The princess looked down at her and said, " "

Izumi tried to smack the ringing out of her ears, but she was trembling so bad she wound up slapping herself in the face a few times before her hearing cleared up on its own. "Wh- wh- at- t?”

"I said I wanted to thank you for such an enjoyable evening. But now I think it's time we were truthful with each other." Azula put her hands on her hips. "You're a time-traveler, yes?"

Izumi wasn't sure if she nodded, shaking as she was. The world certainly did a lot of going up and down, at least.

"Ah." Azula smiled. "I was right. Then before anything else, I have one question: are you my daughter?"

Izumi managed to say, "N- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n- n-"

"No?" Azula finished for her.

"Y- y- y-"

"Okay, I get it." Azula let her arms fall to her sides. "Well, that is a relief. Now, why don't we have a little chat, little time-traveler?"

"B- b- b- b- b- bul- l- l- l- l- ly?"

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

Problems and Petals

Zuko had decided that he wasn't really fond of boats.

In the abstract, at least, he had no problem with them. Floating on the water seemed useful, and was definitely more pleasant than drowning in it. The benefit of crossing oceans was a bit more debatable, at least now that he had seen the condition of the Earth Kingdom close-up, but he could at least admit that there were definite possibilities in the idea. And he found that boats tended to have very pleasing shapes and definitely looked good in paintings and reliefs. That was all fine.

But he was finding that actually being on a boat was never pleasant, at least for him, and he would probably consider it unlucky if he believed in luck as something that could override hard work, vision, and teeth-grinding stubbornness. He'd loathed the three years he'd spent on his Avatar-seeking warship. That phase of his life ending in an explosion which had nearly killed him was only appropriate (and also very painful and more than a little inconvenient). The less said about the time he had spent on a little raft with only Uncle, drifting from the North Pole back to the Earth Kingdom, the better- especially regarding the bathroom situation. They got very cold winds up there.

And now he was on another Fire Nation ship, one that was supposed to take him back home in glory and comfort with regularly cleaned bathroom facilities shielded from the wind. Yet he was being disrespected and manipulated by every teenage girl around, and for some reason their number was growing. On top of all that, he'd been forced to dance with them tonight in a humiliating contravention of modern Fire Nation law. Somehow, being on a boat kept leading to the worst experiences of his life- not counting the time his face had been lit on fire. But that had led directly to all his experience with boats, so it probably had an honorary inclusion, and he was very big on Honor.

Not to mention what his experiences on all those boats had revealed about himself. When he first boarded the ship that had taken him into his exile, it had been because of all the ways he had failed as a prince and Firebender, things he had never considered before that. After he'd scrambled aboard that raft for a windy journey across arctic oceans, he'd been forced to acknowledge that he was not an Avatar-chasing machine and did indeed have human weakness, something that no young man wants to face. And tonight on this ship, Mai had informed him that he was no longer a nice little boy.

Why did that one hurt just as much as the others? Even phrasing it in a purposefully diminishing way in his thoughts didn't help.

Perhaps it was who had said it to him.

As Zuko chewed on that thought and found it getting caught between his teeth, he leaned on the main deck's rear railing, pretending to watch the receding Earth Kingdom lands as the ship passed into Chameleon Bay, the last gateway before the ocean. The symbolism of watching a whole geographically-defined phase of his life fall out of sight was not lost on him, one more suffocating metaphor in a night full of them, and it was almost a relief when there was a strange flash of light somewhere behind him.

It briefly overpowered the poor moon and stars who had cleared their schedules to spend all night illuminating Zuko's misery, followed by a crack of sound that usually indicated either the start of a war or another of his little sister's attempts to make friends. He turned around ready to finally try redirecting some lightning, only to find himself alone. But something was burning on the other side of the conning tower and bridge, so perhaps Azula was annoying someone else for a change. Maybe this was the sound of her flirting with someone, after all the dancing she had done tonight; rhythmic movement was a slippery slope to all kinds of unpatriotic hedonism.

He wanted desperately not to be interested, but he'd never really picked up the knack, so he found himself walking over to see what was going on and if it might kill him anytime soon. He passed around the conning tower to find the last of several little fires fading and Azula dragging a trembling Mimi below decks. So no flirting, unless his sister's preferences tended in ways that Sozin had outlawed a century ago.

Ignoring the matter of his sister's possible attractions because he very much wanted to, Zuko approached one of the smoldering piles on the deck. He picked up a piece of something which was had survived only half-burnt and found it to be a round, pink flower petal. Had Mimi tried to give Azula flowers and been rejected via lightning? Had Azula tried to give Mimi flowers and a bolt of lightning to go with them? Which of those was weirder? Did Zuko even want to know? No, he did not?

No, he did not.

At least someone seemed to be having an even worse experience on this boat than he was. But, somehow, he wasn't reassured by that.

Izumi wasn't sure where she was expecting Azula to drag her, now that her being a time-traveler had been exposed. Perhaps the ship's brig (although having a cell near Uncle Iroh might have been comforting and at least there was a chance of good tea) or maybe just tossed into the care of Mom and Auntie Ty Lee to be prepped for an execution.

She certainly hadn't been expecting to be brought to Azula's cabin and sat down gently on the big bed.

And that Azula proceeded to bring a hairbrush over and begin working it smoothly through Izumi's hair was so improbable it might have been a hallucination. But then, so was time travel, so if Izumi was going to start treating improbable things as if they weren't real, she had to start a lot further back than a hairbrush.

She elected to roll with it and say, "Wh- what are y-you d-doing?"

"Comforting you. Soothing physical contact and relaxing music in the aftermath of a traumatic experience is an effective way to minimize mental and emotional damage." Azula hummed what sounded like the first verse of Fire Army's old official march. "Those creatures clearly terrified you. Just relax and let me brush your hair for a while. Doesn't it feel nice?" She hummed some more of the march, the bridge verse that no one sang anymore about civilizing lesser nations with modern plumbing and purging fire.

"It d-does. Th- th- thanks." With the only available versions of Izumi's parents being cranky teenagers, this was probably the best she was going to get.

"Thanks are not necessary. I need you able to communicate clearly if I'm going to interrogate you."

"I- i- i- interrogate?" Izumi yanked away so quickly the hairbrush was thrown straight up into the air.

Azula caught it again with one hand and no change of expression whatsoever. "Oh, don't worry. I am not expecting violence to be necessary. You seem the type to speak aloud every thought in your head, and we're natural allies in this situation. The time for hiding your status as a time-traveler is over. Just tell Aunt Azula what's going on and we'll all be better off, some of us more physically than others."

"O-oh." Izumi decided to take that at face-value. Azula was a very capable ally when she wasn't betraying anyone, Izumi knew from experience, and this Azula being only fourteen did not seem to reduce her effectiveness at all. But how did show know about the time-traveling? Had Auntie Ty Lee blabbed? Or- "Are- are you a t-time-traveler t-too?"

"Ha! No, no. I have managed to keep myself firmly in my own temporal realm, thank you."

"Then how-"

"I read. More people should." Azula put a hand on top of Izumi's head, moved it into what was evidently the proper position, and began brushing her hair again. "But, granted, most people don't have access to the forbidden scrolls of the Fire Sages. Nevertheless, there is much inspiring and insightful speculative-fiction available to the masses, and I think its literary merit is often unfairly maligned."

Izumi tried to turn around and stare at Azula in shock, but her hair was firmly in the grip of the royal hairbrush, so all she did was give herself a nasty hair-yank. "Ow! Um, fiction? So you read stories about time-travel?"

"One of my favorite novels is 'A Caldera Hotman in Chief Sol's Court.' Have you read it?"

"Uh, I don't think-"

"It's about a man from Fire Lord Sozin's time who is transported to the height of the Sun Warrior civilization as remembered in legend. The author was very humorous, and I adore good satire. It's a shame he had to take it too far with one of his later works and get himself executed, hm?"

"Um, yeah. Ha, ha. Bully. So-"

"I think bullies are almost as unfairly maligned as speculative fiction. But yes, between your laughable attempts to hide the truth and the signs I recognized from the classified records of the Fire Sages, I realized what you are." Azula paused in her brushing. "The violent guardian spirits made of petals from flowering tree-buds is a distinctive feature in every verified case. I don't suppose you know why trees, specifically?"

"U- um, I-I-I- was under a t-t-tree that- that g-g-got st- struck by l-l-lightning?"

"Oh, do stop trembling every time I mention the monsters." Azula increased the pace of the brushing and Izumi did her best to keep her head and back and sanity straight. "Be calm. Don't worry. I will protect you from your fears. After all, you are my niece, aren't you? Zuko's spawn?"

"Y- yeah."

"I hope your name is not Mimi."

"N- no, it's I-"

"Do not tell me. Let's stick to only what it's necessary for me to know."

Izumi sighed. It seemed she couldn't completely relax yet, even aside from a teenage form of the world's most dangerous terrorist currently brushing her hair.

Azula chuckled. "And judging by that sigh, Mai is your mother."

"Why does everyone say that? I don't sound like her!"

"I tease. (If that's what you'd prefer to think.)" Azula set the brush down, running her fingers through Izumi's hair to spread it out more. "There were other clues, most prominently that knife dance you two did together. Her style is so evident in your movements that she might as well have stamped her seal on your face. What other mother would teach such knife-play to a Firebender daughter? Also, that chin of yours is a big giveaway. Well done, posing as a member of her extended family. But then, that was Ty Lee's idea wasn't it?"

"Er-"

"Don't worry, I recognize that her deception was necessary to prevent further disruption of the timestream and thus protect you from the things we aren't going to talk about because you're a coward. Her punishment won't be fatal. How do you feel about braids?"

"Uh-" If it came to it, she could try chewing her own hair off and make a run for it. "If you think they would look nice?"

Azula made a pleased sound and began separating out streams of Izumi's hair. "So! Mission summary! According to the Fire Sages' records, the reason you're being hunted is because of said unsaid disruptions. You come from the future, but your existence is hinged on certain foundational history. Without that history, you have no foundation. (Metaphorically. Your use of makeup is vastly superior to your mother's. Hopefully she learns.) And thus to save you, we need to re-establish the foundation. And, without telling me too much, I think Zuzu's little tantrum at Music Night indicates a problem with your parents. A problem you have been trying to fix, and to phrase it generously, you have not been entirely successful. Am I wrong?"

"N- no. And it's okay, you can say I'm a big failure."

Izumi felt the braiding halt. There was a sharp yank on her hair, and she found herself pulled backwards to find Azula looming over her. "Never," Azula whispered, "say that about yourself. Do you understand?"

"Um-" Flashbacks of Izumi's Firebending training flashed before her eyes, and she dearly hoped the focus of the memories meant she was just having a traumatic moment and not that she was about to die. "Y-"

"Excellent." She smiled and loosened her grip. As if nothing had happened, she began braiding again. "Well, however we assess the situation, I think we can all agree I'm better suited to resolve the problem. Now, planning phase. You can sleep here. I will guard you through the night. Tomorrow, you can stay in this room with all the books you want while Ty Lee takes over as your protector. We shall say you are ill."

"Um, Auntie Ty Lee is with Mom, helping her-"

"Ty Lee has more important duties, now." Azula patted Izumi's hair. "There, perfect braids." She stood up and began pacing next to the bed. "I will undertake an intelligence-gathering operation about the problems between Zuko and Mai, and then create an action plan to resolve them. Any questions?"

Izumi blinked. "Uh, just one. You're really going to do all the work for me? Why?"

Azula stopped pacing. She turned to Izumi, and slowly a grin stretched across her face to reveal straight white teeth. "Children are the future. And you a Fire Nation princess who has survived to be a teenager despite being far too much like your unfortunate father. Ty Lee was right to try to hide you from me, because I am very good at drawing conclusions, and I see a victorious future for my family and homeland in you. That is a future I want to lock into place."

Izumi blinked again. "Oh. Bully."

"If you insist, but I prefer to think of myself as someone gifted with strength and will, called by fate to use those qualities to make other people live better lives."

"Huh?"

"What?"

Izumi went to sigh, but a reflexive thirteen-year-old quality stopped her from any action that might get her compared to her mother again. She suppressed the sigh and said, "Never mind. So, uh, thank you?" She was overcome briefly by a yawn. With Azula guarding her, perhaps she could sleep.

"You are welcome. Have a good night, 'Mimi.' Dream of victory." Azula turned to go.

Izumi took off her spectacles, wrapped them in one of her handkerchiefs, and put them on the small table next to the bed. She went to lay down-

Azula paused at the door and said, "You called Ty Lee your 'Auntie.' What do you call me, in your time?"

"Uh- well- if it's not bad for you to know- I call you 'Master.' Is- is that okay?"

She couldn't see Azula's expression without her spectacles. Azula simply said, "If I don't object then, I can hardly object now."

And then she left Izumi alone. Sleep came in moments.

Mai had decided that she wasn't really fond of boats.

Her first experience with them had been the happiest, when she and her parents had taken a ferry to Ember Island. It was one of her earliest memories, and notable not just for being a new and exciting experience that didn't involve keeping quiet while her parents talked at boring people, but one for which she and her parents actually shared an enthusiasm. Mai had been excited because they were sailing on the water just like in the picture books and going to a place where she could play in the sand and the surf; at the time, her only experience with water had been the domesticated kind which came in cups and bathtubs, so the idea of experiencing the wild variety was intriguing.

As for her parents, she had puzzled out later in life that they didn't really like beaches at all, but vacationing on Ember Island was a status symbol. So they had been thrilled to be miserable there, a trick Mai had never quite figured out, but she knew a few good tricks involving knives, so she figured it balanced out.

To everyone's delight, Ember Island had been where she first befriended Prince Zuko, at the time fourth in line for the Burning Throne at three years old and very proud of his new baby sister. Mai hadn't understood the first part and didn't care about babies. She was, after all, only two. But she knew that Princes were heroes from dramatic stories and news announcements (and sometimes both at the same time, she figured out later), and Zuko turned out to be both kind and adventuresome. The only way he hadn't really met her preconception of royalty was by being only a year older than her, but her parents had clarified that princes could be children, too, and would one day grow up to be heroes of news announcements. Mai had accepted it with only slight skepticism.

Perhaps she should have expected all the boats in her life to pale in comparison to what and/or where that first one had brought her. There was the boat that had taken Zuko away three years ago; Mai had a personal vendetta against that one. The boat that had taken her family to the Earth Kingdom, to bring glorious civilization and such modern inventions as oily smog to Omashu, was akin to a kidnapper in her mind. And the boat she was on now, the one taking her, Zuko, Ty Lee, Azula, and Mimi back to the Fire Nation, was practically a prison.

She couldn't leave. Not without being a Waterbender or Airbender, and she had missed those particular opportunities, somewhere. And she was forced into proximity with-

"Hey," Ty Lee said, "is that Zuko?"

Mai sighed into her breakfast of sweet tofu pudding and answered the question by not answering it: "Why couldn't we just stay in my room and let the servants bring us food? It worked out pretty well for me yesterday, aside from those extra-hot fire flakes delivered to the wrong room, but I hear that guy is recovering and should be able to taste again in a few weeks."

"What, you don't like going out to eat?" Ty Lee grinned at what she probably thought was a witticism.

Mai made a show of around the mess deck, where she and Ty Lee were sitting a bench at a sticky table near soldiers and sailors who were nursing hangovers (apparently 'Music Night' had been only the start of the festivities for the crew) and drinking tea with hot sauce in it. She said, "Too fancy for my tastes."

Ty Lee giggled and rolled her eyes. "Well, your cabin need to air out a little, anyway, what with that incense we burned to cast the Sun Warrior hex on all men, and it still smells like the marshmallows we tried to roast over the candles to get you to stop crying-"

Mai made a cutting gesture across her neck to let Ty Lee know that they were not to speak of any tearful lamentations that anyone may have been doing in her cabin last night. Then she remembered she was covered in knives, so she made the same cutting gesture with an actual blade to really drive the point home, the point in this case being at the tip of the knife and the home being Ty Lee's throat if she didn't shut up.

Across the mess deck, Zuko was scanning the room. His gaze found Mai just as she was moving her blade in front of her neck. She quickly slipped it back into her sleeve, lest he get the wrong idea. She felt her stomach clenching.

He broke the staring contest first, heading towards the serving shelf to grab a bowl of something and stalking off with it.

"Ooh, that was a good sign," Ty Lee whispered.

Mai decided to indulge in an incredulous stare. "Huh?"

"Sure! He could have stayed in his room like you wanted to do. But he came out here!"

"So?"

Ty Lee turned Mai's own incredulous stare back on her with disturbing similarity, considering their faces were completely different shapes. "He obviously came to see you!"

"But- but he couldn't know I'd be here!"

"He found the Avatar." Ty Lee sat back and pointed her chopsticks at Mai. "Finding you on this ship can't be that hard in comparison."

Mai found herself at a loss for words. The statement demanded recognition as either genius or complete dragon droppings, and neither path would take this conversation in a pleasant direction. So she stuck some pudding in her mouth and pretended she had nothing to say.

Unfortunately, it was the type of cowardly retreat that everyone always said went against the Fire Nation's entire philosophy. Ty Lee took the opportunity to seize some conversational ground and plant a flag of conquest by saying, "You should go talk to him and apologize."

Mai choked on her pudding. "Apologize?! For what?"

Ty Lee sighed -- one that sounded suspiciously like Mai's own -- and leaned over the sticky table to put a hand on Mai's shoulder. "I understand that he was hurtful last night. And also a jerk. And a big baby when he kicked over our fire. And-"

"I get the idea. You're not saying anything you didn't say last night before you dropped that flaming marshmallow in my lap."

"I told you I was sorry about that." Ty Lee took a breath, put a beatific smile on her face, and continued, "And now that you're feeling better, I can say that like how I totally didn't mean to set you on fire with a misplaced toasted treat, you accidentally hurt Zuko, too. You said truths that needed to be shared, but they were just as painful for him, and now it's time for the healing and kissing to begin."

Mai carefully lifted Ty Lee's hand off her shoulder and placed it flat on the sticky table. "He's the one who said he couldn't trust me not to betray him."

"After you-" Ty Lee tried lifting her hand off the table and failed. "Um, after you said he wasn't a nice person anymore. Why is my hand not coming off?"

Mai put her empty pudding bowl down on the table next to Ty Lee's hand. "Well, he isn't nice anymore. And I will always obey Azula, just like he threw in my face, so he's right not to trust me. So for what part of that should I bother apologizing? That we're apparently both awful people?"

"Not if you don't want to fight again, but I understand that you might not be very experienced at apologies. And if you don't know how they work and you actually have friends, think about how stuck he is right now." Ty Lee tilted her head to the side (and tried to discreetly tug at her hand free). "Just because you two have differences doesn't mean you can't find a way to work around them. After all, you're not nice and we're both loyal to Azula, but we're friends, aren't we? If you apologize for being hurtful, he can take a hint and apologize back, and then you both can start finding your own path together."

Mai once again found herself with nothing to say. She tried to have some more pudding, but found that it was all gone. She also found that she had no argument, not unless she was going to deny that she had let Ty Lee spend the night in her cabin with marshmallows and hexes and unfortunately placed candles. It was almost like she had walked into a trap, but Ty Lee couldn't be that clever, could she?

Then Azula's voice rang out coldly from behind Mai with, "I am glad to hear you two are so faithful to me."

Some nearby soldier called out, "Princess on the deck!"

All conversation stopped. Everyone stood up and bowed at the waist, and there were an audible number of winces from those who were still working on the hangovers.

Mai stood and turned and bowed as well, much more silently. Ty Lee also bowed. Out of the corner of her eye, Mai saw Ty Lee's braid get flipped onto the table surface and heard a soft, "Uh, oh."

Azula's eyes found Mai, a fairly easy task with them right in front of each other. "You may rise. I heard you strained yourself dancing last night."

"Um, no, I didn-"

"You should rest up in your cabin all day today. I need you at your best when we get to the Fire Nation."

Mai only needed to scrape off only a thin layer of gilding to find the iron order underneath. "Understood."

"Mimi is ill, no doubt something she caught from the rabble in Ba Sing Se. She is convalescing in my cabin. You shall have no contact with her, lest the sickness spread."

"O- kay." Mai studied the princess's face. It looked like Azula was wearing a little extra makeup around her eyes. Perhaps hiding something?

But Mai wasn't going to ask. She hadn't survived this long as Azula's companion by stepping into obvious traps, not unless not stepping into the trap was the real trap. Fortunately, it looked like Azula wasn't feeling multi-dimensional this morning. Maybe the princess had a hangover, too.

Azula turned her gaze to Ty Lee. "I have a special assignment for you. Report to the ship's quartermaster and requisition torches, flares, travel lanterns, some firepans, and plenty of fuel. Then meet me on the deck for further instruction."

"Yes, Azula," Ty Lee said in a subdued voice. She tried to rise from her bow, but ran into the obvious problems when her hand and braid revealed their own close relationship to the sticky breakfast table.

Mai sighed. "Permission to help free Ty Lee before I shut myself away from all the weird secret missions I'm not supposed to ask about?"

Azula's eyes twitched. "Granted."

Zuko could have really used an Avatar to chase right about now.

It wasn't that he had particularly enjoyed following a dishonorable terrorist around the world and getting dropped on his head all the time for his efforts, but at least it was something to work towards. It was a goal, an endpoint to which he could draw a clear line from his current position. Once he got there, granted, he tended to get beat up and/or thrown off buildings. But had only needed to win once, so as long as he had kept trying, victory was statistically inevitable. It was as simple a situation as he could have asked for.

Now, he had no goal but to simply exist while he was carried to the Fire Nation on this stupid boat. It wasn't like he could fail to go home, at this point. He had tried that back in Ba Sing Se, but somehow he had let Squinty Mimi talk him into returning to the capital with Azula.

Well, he supposed there was one possible goal. In theory, he could try to make peace with Mai. But there was no clear line to that goal, especially since she apparently hated him so much she had waved a knife at him when he just started thinking about joining her for breakfast. Even capturing the Avatar seemed easier, thanks to an education filled with lessons on fighting, restraining, and humiliating people. No one had ever told him how to handle both liking and loathing the same person, nor that such a state was even possible. The Fire Nation was very big on clear distinctions between allies and enemies, even though Uncle sometimes hinted that things could sometimes be more complicated than that. But he was in a prison cell and Zuko wasn't, so the matter seemed fairly settled.

As the day wore on, Zuko climbed up to the ship's main deck simply for lack of anywhere else to go. He found the ocean sprawled around the ship on all sides, no land in sight.

Had he been in command, he would have probably picked a longer coast-hugging course that would minimize time away from a safe landing, as long as time wasn't an issue. According to the captain, however, Azula didn't consider such strategies to be efficient. Her orders were to sail straight across the ocean to the western coast of the Fire Nation's Capital Island. If the ship hit a storm and sank beneath the waves forever, Zuko would at least have the satisfaction of knowing it was because of her mistake.

So, naturally, there was nothing but bright sunlight, pleasantly warm breezes, perfectly calm seas, and no classically grizzled sailors complaining about aching old injuries or the scent of hurricanes on the wind. There were several lit firepans scattered at points around the deck, and Zuko could almost believe Azula had used them in an unholy ritual to summon pleasant weather, a trick he really could have used several times over the last three years. The ship would probably reach the Fire Nation with zero problems and in record time.

No, the only problems he had to deal with were entirely of his own making. He had turned Mai into some kind of knife-wielding enemy, as opposed to a knife-wielding friend or just a knife-wielding person-who-hung-out-with-his-sister, and come to think of it maybe he shouldn't take the knife part personally. Uncle Iroh was down in the ship's brig, and the less Zuko thought about that situation, the better. The crew didn't seem to know how to treat Zuko, which was fair because he didn't know how he should be treated either, given that he technically hadn't fulfilled the terms of his banishment. Mimi, he heard, had caught some kind of horrible wasting disease and would be dead by nightfall.

(Since Zuko had experience with sailors and how they tended to exaggerate, he judged that Mimi probably had a head cold or an upset tummy. Maybe she just got seasick or pulled a muscle dancing. Could that be why Azula carried her into the ship last night? But then what was with the lightning and burning flower petals?)

And Ty Lee-

Zuko watched as she passed by, sweeping up what looked like ash and a few half-burned blossom petals. Even stranger, not only was Ty Lee quietly cleaning instead of seeking attention, but she had a quiver strapped to her back filled with unlit torches, two bandoleers crossed over her chest stocked with military flares, and a pair of fist-sized lanterns dangling from her belt by coiled chains like meteor hammers.

"Hi," Zuko said warily. It wasn't a word he typically used, finding that a growl or aggressive grunt could often accomplish the same thing with less work, but a little extra caution seemed appropriate in this case.

"Hi," Ty Lee said wearily, as she swept (literally) past him.

"What- um, what are you doing?"

"Top secret mission." She glanced over at him and added, "Don't kick over any of my firepans, please."

"Wait, your firepans?" So Azula wasn't controlling the weather? Well, statistically speaking, there had to be something she couldn't control. "But what-"

"Top secret mission," Ty Lee repeated. She pushed the pile of ash and flower petals through the bottom of railing and over the edge of the deck. "And sorry, I'd love to hang out, but I need to make another patrol of the passenger quarters." She handed him the broom (why?!) and trotted off to the stairs that would lead below decks, taking one of the lanterns at her side and unwrapping the chain.

Zuko stood on the deck, holding a broom, and began to suspect that someone was playing a trick on him. The crew on his own ship had tried to 'prank' him- once, about a year into their shared exile, and they hadn't tried a second time. But who would bother with such a-

"Ah, Zuzu, there you are." Azula stepped over, took the broom out of his hands, and threw it overboard. "A little tip: if you want people to know that you're royalty, don't walk around with cleaning implements in your hands. The way you slouch, someone could get the completely wrong impression."

Zuko was almost relieved to be bullied by his little sister. At least that was normal. "What do you want, Azula? What's going on around here?"

"I-" Azula sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, this is going to sound stupid. I need to talk to you about your love life."

His first urge was to run. But if he wanted to know what was going on-

"What exactly," he bit out, "do you want to know?"

Mai had a few minutes to dread her fate before it arrived.

It started when the air-vent in her cabin, a little square of grating high on the wall above her bed, began emitting worrying noises: clanking and a steady shuffling, never a good thing to hear coming from a wall (especially when the other side was your parents' room, thankfully not an issue on this ship). Mai immediately thought of deadly assassins or ship-bound rats and prepared some appropriate throwing blades with more than a little apprehension. If it was the assassins, that would be no problem, but rats were filthy and if she pinned one then she'd have to touch it get her blade back. She hoped dearly she was about to be assassinated.

Then there was a louder clank, followed by the metallic echo of a voice hissing a word that wasn't actually impolite, but nevertheless was said in a very impolite way.

Mai didn't put her blades away, but she did relax and lean against the far wall. This would be more hygienic than rats, but would it be more interesting than assassins?

Eventually, the sound drew right up to the vent cover. A shadowy hand pressed against the grate. It kept pressing for a few moments. Then it retreated beyond sight, only to come back as a fist to pound against the cover. This, too, proved ineffective. There was some more shuffling, some more childish words said in an adult manner, and then a second hand emerged from the darkness to join the first. The two hands together proved to be as effective against the grating as phrases like 'dragon droppings' were to express frustration.

After a few seconds, the grating echoed with, "A little help?"

Mai put her blades away and said, "You didn't have a plan for this part?"

"The cover came off a lot easier in my cabin."

Mai nodded. "You probably had more leverage back there."

"Bully for me." More shuffling. The squeak of leather or rubber against metal. The hands both pressed against the grating again, this time with much more strength. The little criss-crossed lines of metal creased the smooth skin-

The grating popped off, Dear Cousin Mimi popped out of the vent, the grating fell onto Mai's bed, Mimi fell onto the bed hard enough to pop her spectacles off, a rat ran out from under the bed in terror, Mimi lunged unsuccessfully for her spectacles and face-planted into the grating, and the rat ran in circles on the floor around the spectacles.

Mai applauded. Against all expectations, events had proved far more entertaining than assassins.

"Thanks," Mimi said, pushing herself up and rubbing her nose.

"What can I say? You seem to have no limit to how much you will humiliate yourself in entertaining ways." Mai opened the cabin door long enough to let the rat out, and then closed it again quickly. "You're missing a boot, by the way."

Mimi looked at her left foot and discovered the bare stocking there. She glanced back up at the air vent, and then let herself flop down to lay on the bed. "I'm going to miss that boot. We've been through a lot together."

Mai went over to the bed and sat down next to her guest. "Are you here to kill me on Azula's orders? Is that why she said you were sick and I shouldn't have any contact with you?"

"No. It's something you'll never believe and doesn't really affect you unless we mess up and then everyone on this ship will definitely die."

"Oh, good, then I don't have to think about it." Mai laid down next to Mimi. "And to be rude, I'd rather an attempt on my life than another painful, awkward, and ill-considered attempt to match-make me and Zuko."

"You mean not to be rude."

"I meant what I said."

"Oh." Mimi squinted up at the ceiling. "Well, that's not why I came."

Mai blinked and turned her head to look at her guest. "No?"

"Nope." Mimi turned to meet her gaze. "Honestly, I was bored in my cabin and wanted to go exploring. Azula left some guards at the door, so I found other ways of getting around."

"I'm surprised you could fit in those ducts."

Mimi sighed. "I almost didn't, and you saw how it ended. I think I've finally reached an age where I'm going to have to give up traveling through cramped metal pipes. But I had a good run."

Mai gave a snort of amusement. "No wonder your parents sent you chasing after me. You must give them headaches."

"Heh. Funny, but we actually get along pretty well." Mimi gave a wistful smile. "Apparently my antics are 'precocious.' My friends are all jealous because they get in trouble for that kind of thing, but honestly, their behavior is a lot worse than mine. Especially Bu- this guy I know."

Mai tried to imagine Cousin Mui being amused by children not behaving -- any of them, even her own -- and came up blank. "Lucky you." She faced away from Mimi and looked up at the ceiling. "And in your desperation for amusement, you came to me?"

"Well, Ty Lee's off doing things for Azula, Azula is off doing things that will probably spell doom for us all, and Zuko is off doing dragons-know-what and at this point I'd rather not know." After a moment, Mimi added, "And your cabin was the closest one by air-duct."

Mai glanced at Mimi out of the corner of her eye, and found a completely deadpan expression.

Mai broke out into laughter. "Okay, we are definitely related."

Mimi giggled along with her. "Why do people keep saying that? Did you not believe the backstory I didn't remember when I first showed up in an exploding tree and had to have Ty Lee explain to you?"

Mai found that she couldn't stop laughing.

Mimi turned and propped her head up on her elbow. "And look at this face! When I was sent to assassinate the Fire Lord's children and their weird companions, I went to a lot of trouble to steal the soul of one of your cousins so I could copy her face and infiltrate your group. (Not that such a thing happened to anyone I know.) How could any doubt effort like that?”

Mai rode her giggles to a satisfied breathlessness. "So you really came just to hang out? No weird schemes?"

"No schemes. I just want to spend some time with my m- cousin."

"Well, how about a game of pai sho, then?" She got up off the bed and went to the trunk where she kept a portable game set. "Fair warning, though: I mainly play as something to do with my hands and attention while I engage in sarcastic, withering commentary on anything that pops up in conversation."

"Bully!" Mimi hopped and grabbed her spectacles from the foot of the bed. "That's my favorite way to play!"

Mai put out the little table with the board carved into the top and unlatched the leather case with all the playing pieces. She was about to set up the game, but then remembered something. She went back to her trunk and brought out a knife so polished, it nearly glittered. "Here's your knife back. You know, from the dance we did last night?"

"Ooh, thanks!" Mimi took it back, admiring the blade for a moment, and slid it into her remaining boot. "My mom gave that to me."

Cousin Mui gave her kids knives? Before Mai could ask about that, Mimi turned back to the air vent she'd popped out of. "But you just reminded me that the other one is in the boot I left up there."

Mai sighed. "Fine. Take you boot off, I'll kneel down, and then you'll stand on my shoulders. I have some long knives you can probably use to reach it and drag it out. After that, we'll play pai sho."

"Bully."

"You keep saying that. I'm not going to ask why."

If Zuko's little sister was going to try to humiliate him by rubbing his face in his failures, he at least wasn't going to make it easier for her. Before he would tell her anything, Zuko brought her back to his cabin so that no matter how humiliating things got, at least there wouldn't be an audience.

True, it also meant there wouldn't be any witnesses if she murdered him and threw his body out a porthole, but Zuko considered it worth the risk. Mostly. It helped that he was good at both faking his death and swimming.

They were kneeling across from each other at a low table. A pot of tea and two empty cups sat between them. At some point, the cups might be filled, and even further beyond that, there was a chance of someone sipping from them. But so far events had been so nonsensical that Zuko wasn't making any solid plans.

"So," he said in the awkward silence, "what is it you want to know, exactly?"

Azula looked miserable. "You and Mai haven't been getting along since Ba Sing Se. Normally, I wouldn't be concerned since neither of you get along with anyone, so getting along with each other might very well be some kind of mathematical impossibility. But you two are even more miserable than usual, and Mimi's little romance-oriented machinations seem to have made you rather two upset with other. I will tolerate no conflict in my social circles that I did not put there."

Mimi again. Zuko still wasn't quite sure what she was doing in their lives, but Azula was clearly still supporting her. And now she was trying to clean up Mimi's mess. Well, Zuko was sick of going along with it. He probably should have stayed back in Ba Sing Se.

"So what?" He glared at his sister. "Who cares if Mai and I are fighting? What, are you anxious that you're not going to marry me off to one of your spies? Is that why you turned Ty Lee into the most heavily-armed janitor in Fire Nation history?"

Azula snorted a laugh. "Really, Zuzu? I picked Mai to lure you out of Ba Sing Se because you seemed unhappy and I know you enjoy her. I was trying to do something nice. You think I need to use Mai to place a spy in your life? She lies like a war balloon, swooping through the sky to drop death upon our enemies."

Zuko frowned. "What's a war balloon?"

"It-" Azula waved the matter away. "Never mind, I'll have someone give you a full briefing when we get back home. Let it suffice to say for now that it's a thing which flies, so it doesn't lie. So that means Mai is bad at falsehoods. Get it? It's a play on words."

Zuko understood the joke, now that it was explained, but felt no need to laugh. So he didn't. He sometimes had trouble with humor, but he was clear on that part, at least.

Azula rolled her eyes. "Anyway, my point is that I have no need to waste a loyal friend on spying on you. Pick any girl in the Caldera to marry and I will have her more loyal to me inside of a week."

Zuko couldn't help but wince at that. "Just like you took Mai from me when we were kids. Just like you always do."

"I-" Azula's eyes went wide. "Is that what has you moping and grumbling and kicking things and calling Ty Lee a janitor? If it bothered you that much, why didn't you ever try to take Mai back? She was right there the whole time when we were kids! You only get to keep what you can hold onto; that's what Father always tried to teach us. But clearly you never listened."

"Apparently," Zuko snarled, "I was too nice for something like that!" He swept the tea set off the little table in a direct display of his current not-niceness and stood up to turn away from his sister. It was just as well he hadn't poured anything. "Mai said she used to like how nice I was, but now that I have my honor back and I'm who you say I'm supposed to be, she thinks I'm too mean and wants nothing to do with me!"

There was no immediate reply. Instead, he heard Azula's boots on the metal floor, and she came walking around him into his view. She craned her neck to directly meet his gaze, her eyes searching for something in his face. Then she leaned back, her gaze going unfocused as she became lost in thought, and started stroking her chin as she stood there.

Zuko sighed. "What?"

"What?" Azula looked up at him again with surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm trying to figure out if you're joking. You didn't laugh at my pun, so we might have very divergent senses of humor. I don't want to sabotage your attempt by asking you to explain it to me."

Zuko clenched his fists at his side. "I wasn't joking."

Azula stared at him for another moment, and then said, "You aren't. Huh. And Mai said this, or are you just assuming things?"

"She told me herself, last night when we were dancing."

"How perverse." Azula turned away from him and began pacing across the cabin. "I would never have expected her to be attracted to weakness. I thought she just didn't know enough boys and you happened to be weak. I never thought there was a correlation."

"I'm tempted to thank you sarcastically, but I hate sarcasm." Zuko shook his head. "So why do you care?"

"The future of the Fire Nation is at stake!" Azula spun and stared at him like he was crazy, which considering that he was a willing participant in this conversation, might be true. "When you get home, you'll be the crown prince again. The woman you marry could be Fire Lady some day. And weak offspring you have -- jittery, soft-hearted, interested in the weirdest music -- could be Fire Lord some day!"

Zuko took a step back from her. "This isn't about you talking yourself into killing me or trying to usurp my birthright, right?"

Azula raised her hands to massage her forehead. "Not unless you really deserve it." She sighed, spun on her heel, and headed for the cabin's door.

"Wait!"

Azula looked back. "What?"

"Um, as long as we're talking- I've been wondering- what's going on with the flower petals and Ty Lee running around with torches sweeping up ash?"

Azula's eyes narrowed. "Do you read much speculative fiction?"

"Never. It's often so dry and lacking in character."

Azula snapped, "You're dry and lacking in character." She took a breath, and then continued in a much calmer manner, "Then you're probably familiar with the kind of stories where someone falls in loves and coughs up flowers until she dies or gets married?"

"Sure, I've read a few like that. It's improbable, but-"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Then something like that, but not as dumb." She stalked off without another word.

Zuko frowned. So who was coughing up flowers and who were they in love with?

It was difficult to not ask her mother how her love life was going, said no person ever.

Izumi carefully placed a pai sho tile on her poised thumb, waited just long enough that her next movement would be a surprise, and then flipped the tile into the air. It spun in a fast-moving arc, turning end over end, and-

-a knife snatched it out of its path and pinned it against the cabin wall. The wall being made of metal had in no way impeded the blade from sinking into it like a crude joke at a fancy party. And, just to finish the presentation, the tip of the knife was going right through the middle of the painted fern on the tile, not even a hair off-center.

"Bully!" Izumi clapped. "Ten for ten! You're on fire!"

"Not yet," Mom drawled, "but the day's not over, so I might still manage to fatally annoy a Firebender. Especially if Azula finds out I'm sheltering you."

"Ooh, and you're at the top of your wordplay game, too!" Izumi put her hands to her cheeks in mock amazement. "Is there anything you can't do?"

Mom smirked at her. "Are you trying to flatter me into a favor? Because that will absolutely work."

"I will keep that in mind." Izumi went looking for another pai sho pile she could throw as a target for Mom. They had gotten tired of playing pai sho a while ago, and it turned out that the teenage version of Mom had absolutely no respect for anyone's property, including her own. She was completely okay with ruining her own pai sho set for a few laughs.

Izumi was having fun with it, too, in a transgressive kind of way, but there was a part of it that made her a little sad if she let herself think about it. Did her real Mom not destroy things for fun because she had other, healthier ways of enjoying life? So what did this say about her teenage years?

Well, Izumi knew at least part of what it said. She was directly responsible for Mom and Dad fighting, after all.

That was why it was so easy to not pry into her feelings about Dad, about this conflict between them, about whether Mom was ready to reconcile with him. To be his light in his darkness, or let him be her light in her darkness, or do a sizzling back-to-back team battle and switch up which darkness they were fighting. Mom was happy now, she and Izumi were having fun together, and Azula and Auntie Ty Lee were working to keep the demons from doing any demon things.

Ultimately, there was a selfish element to it. Izumi had not been having a good couple of days, and finding a way to make her mom happy again, at least temporarily, was a relief. So she would continue to enjoy this day, trust in her family and friends, and then together they would find a way to restore Izumi's future and bring love back to her prehistory.

As Dad always said, you have to follow your heart. Nothing else could tell you the right way to go.

Azula leaned on the railing at the pointed bow of the ship, watching in satisfaction as the horizon failed to grow closer in an optical illusion almost as compelling as the lies she herself could spin. She had been told that the ship was making good time, and if the winds or the waves or sea monsters or whatever stayed with them, they'd reach Fire Nation shores in two days. She had made the correct choice when she decided that hugging the coast was for sissies.

She was wise, but she was also tired after working all last night and today on Mimi's behalf. Future Girl didn't need to know how many of the demons Azula had destroyed en route to her cabin in the small hours of the morning, nor how many Ty Lee had burned and cleaned up today. After all, Izumi hadn't been the one to read the secret research of the Fire Sages and understand the true nature of the demons. And if this next part went well, Azula would be free to turn in early tonight and catch up on her rest. However, said next part would be wise not to keep her waiting for long-

A wind buffeted her, bring a swirling collection of blossom petals right up to the ship. The petals twisted and whirled almost like a flock of birds, riding the winds one moment and then moving against them the next. The petals settled over a spot on the railing right next to her, slowing into a patterned array that formed the impression of a bipedal body.

It was a phenomenon Azula had come to know well. And unlike most of last night, she did not shoot lightning at this one. Nor was Ty Lee around to hit this one with a flaming torch or swing a burning lantern into it.

The creature, if it could be called that, did not move.

Excellent. It understood the situation. Without looking at it, Azula said, "So what's your offer?"

The being was silent for a long time. Azula had considered it likely that it could understand human speech, but there was no guarantee, and-

'We are not used to negotiation.'

The voice had come from nowhere, but it was audible nevertheless. A nice trick.

Azula was not inclined to play games, though. "Really? And here most of our spirit stories are about the agreements humans make with your kind, and the consequences thereof."

The floating petals that made up the being's form rippled in a way that very much looked like an awkward shrug.

'We, specifically, find that violence is sufficient to meet our needs. But we believe that to each their own.'

"There is wisdom on both sentiments." Azula supposed the creature's statement could be taken as a threat, but she didn't think it was meant that way. Even spirits could be graceless conversationalists, it seemed. "If you would prefer to stick to your usual methods, I am certainly willing to go back to how we've doing this. Although I burned many of your kind through the night, and Ty Lee seems to be holding her own quite well."

The wind picked up with a sound that could have been a sigh.

'We cannot divulge details, you understand. It would defeat the entire purpose. Then we would be forced to deal with you directly.'

"Well, you would certainly have to try, granted." Azula smiled while keeping her gaze on the path forward. "And I am entirely aware of the nature of your concerns. But I'm going to need something. Convincing me is your problem, not mine."

'Fair enough. A new future is in play due to the interference of The Remnant. It is why we are trying to remove The Remnant. We make no pretense of judging human happiness, but the future on the current course more closely aligns to what the people on this watercraft claim to desire. Restoring the timeline of The Remnant would deviate from those desires.'

Azula considered that for a long time. This was critical. She turned the wording back and forth in her mind, probing it for all possible meanings. She preferred speculative fiction, but she still had plenty of knowledge of legends and ghost stories, and those all agreed that the wording was very important.

Finally, she straightened off the railing and said, "That is an interesting way of phrasing things. I think I understand. And all you would require in turn is Mimi's life?"

'The Remnant.'

"Very well. Thank you for your offer." She bowed to the spirit and turned to walk away.

'Are we to take that as a refusal?'

Azula stopped. "I haven't made a decision yet. I will give your offer all due consideration and let you know. Until then, further attacks would make me ill-inclined to side with you. After all, there's no rush, is there? Mimi and her parents are in my possession. We have all the time in the world." She turned a smile to the spirit-

-only to find that she was alone at the bow and there was not a single petal to be found.

Well, she thought it was witty.

But if it came down to it, she would rather have victory than an audience for her genius humor.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chapter Text

Fear and Lightning in the Fire Nation

The Fire Nation loomed ahead in the dawn light, which was impressive work for a brown smear just visible above the ocean horizon. Izumi leaned against the ship's bow railing with Azula, Ty Lee, and Young Mom beside her, feeling like the tiny brown smear ahead somehow had a weight blotting out everything around it: the gray-blue sky and the blue-gray sea and the gray-gray metal deck beneath her. Maybe it was just because it wasn't gray.

Or maybe she had just been staring in the direction of the rising sun for too long and was doing permanent damage to her eyes and color perception. She blinked a few times until she could detect the streaks of red in the clouds and sea again.

But no, the color didn't really matter, and that smear didn't somehow loom. Izumi knew exactly what it was doing. The trick was that most of its visual weight wasn't even present at this point in time. She had, quite understandably, been doing a lot of 'four-dimensional' thinking lately, as Auntie Ty Lee called it. The Fire Nation itself wasn't a problem for her- even aside from having been born there thirteen years ago in the future (ugh), she'd been in danger since she arrived in this era, and going to the Fire Nation wasn't going to make things any worse. No, it wasn't a three-dimensional problem (her usual kind), where approaching this specific geographical location would cause any problems.

But the other people on this boat? Mom, Azula, and Auntie Ty Lee outwardly seemed to be as bored and tired as any other teenage girls would be with nothing to do for entertainment but watch a dawn, but Izumi knew enough family history to tell they were on the receiving end of a lot of looming right now. And since these people were prerequisites for her existence, she was inheriting the full load of that looming.

And then there was Young Dad. He came across the deck to stand beside Mom at the railing and said to her in one great rush, like a speech he'd spent too much time rehearsing, "Good morning how are you feeling not coughing up anything unpleasant like flower petals I hope."

Izumi put her hands over her ears to protect herself against the awkwardness. Ty Lee covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Azula planted her face into her hands and massaged her closed eyes in clear frustration.

Mom blinked at him. "I can say two things with absolute certainty: I am not coughing up flowers and this is the first time I have ever been asked anything remotely like that question."

"It's the first time I've ever asked it." Dad looked over at the rest of the group. "Is that Capital Island up ahead?"

Azula said, "Don't you recognize it, Zuzu? Ah, but you probably have never seen the capital coastline from this particular position. Because you, like so many before you, were too cowardly to sail to the Fire Nation across the ocean from the eastern Earth Kingdom. I, on the other hand-"

Izumi ignored what was shaping up to be one of this Azula's fairly standard self-aggrandizing speeches and instead wondered how Dad knew about all the problem with flower petals and associated demons, even if he was associating them with the wrong girl and storytelling conventions.

Azula had told Izumi last night that the flower-petal demons attacks had abruptly stopped and then hinted with no small amount of subtlety that her cabin could use an airing after several days of her being locked in it for her own protection. Not that Izumi had been a prisoner, exactly, but losing one boot in the ventilation system had been enough for her, and talking her way past the guards was too much trouble and also very hard when people didn't know she was a princess. Hence she was out here at dawn getting some fresh sea air and being loomed at by her Homeland, the past, the future, and maybe even the present.

Perhaps the cessation of the attacks was a good sign. The demons had only (only!) been trying to murder (and/or eat; she wasn't entirely clear on that point) her because she had rendered her own existence an anomaly on the timeline. So perhaps this peace meant her parents were once again on the temporal path to falling in love and getting married and having a near-sighted time-traveling child and-

"Congratulations on your sea-faring wisdom, Azula," Dad said, finally bringing his sister's speech to an end, "but if Mai hasn't been infected by some kind of unlikely flower disease, then why did you have her and Mimi locked in her cabin for the last few days?"

Mom's eyes met Izumi's. No words were spoken, but the warning was very clear to let the experienced liars successfully fail to answer the question. "Mimi was ill," Mom said, "and since I was physically weakened by all that dancing we- I did, I was resting in my cabin for my safety. Azula can vouch."

Dad's eyes went to Izumi as well. His gaze asked a whole bunch of questions which could effectively be summarized as, 'Seriously?!'

(It's a good thing Izumi knew these people so well. She wasn't sure eyes were usually this eloquent to strangers. That might explain why none of the people she was related to had very large social circles.)

But Azula had been clear that the less information everyone had about the situation, the more likely Izumi was to happen(ed), and with the demons gone, that strategy seemed to be working. Azula was, like with her decision on what direction to sail her little homecoming voyage, either right about everything and smarter than everyone else (as she claimed) or so lucky that she could make all the wrong choices and still win (as Dad liked to claim). Either way, she was definitely the smart bet here.

So Izumi said to the young and angry version of her dad, "Um, yeah, I was sick. But not- uh, coughing up flower petals? Summer's starting, so maybe it's just the season for flowers, heh, heh. And Mo- Mai was- um, not sick, but- um, all danced out? Sure! And Azula totally didn't order us to say any of that!"

Behind Dad, Azula sighed. Auntie Ty Lee patted her back comfortingly.

Dad stared at Izumi. She felt herself cringing under his gaze; this was even worse than the way he looked at her the time she had repeated what Ming at school had said about the Earth Kingdom being filled with uneducated mud-people. His stony displeasure was colder than when she had admitted who exactly she had finally found to be her Firebending master. The roiling heat of his stifled anger was worse than the time she had idly asked how he thought turtleduck soup would taste.

"Fine," he bit out eventually. "You can all keep your secrets. And stay away from me!" He turned and stalked off.

"Wait!" Izumi called after him. "We'll- uh, let you know when we reach Capital Island? I'm sure you'll feel better when we can finally get off this ship and you can spend time with M-"

"Don't bother!" Dad didn't even slow. "It's not like we're going to find a party waiting for us as soon as we disembark."

"There's a party waiting for us as soon as we disembark!"

In his cabin, Zuko pressed his pillow over his head in an effort to drown out the sound of Ty Lee's voice through the door. Unfortunately, such a thing didn't work retroactively, so he was left with the unlikely words very much heard and understood and living in his brain. He got up off his bed and yanked the door open. "What are you talking about?"

"There's a festival! It's the first day of summer, so the people are going to celebrate the harvests and weather and how firey the season is and-"

Zuko shut the door in her face and spun away to look out his cabin's porthole. He saw, beneath ominous gray skies, the expected navy base where the ship had docked to take on coal and other supplies for the rest of their journey around the Capital Island coast to their ultimate destination of the Royal Caldera. There were soldiers and maintenance crew and seagulls. What he didn't see was anyone ready to throw a party, either at him or just in general.

He mumbled, "She was just trying to trick me. I knew it was just a normal navy base."

"Um, no." Ty Lee popped up behind him and pointed over his shoulder. "There's a town next to the base."

Zuko nearly jumped out of his skin but it turned out to be attached to him. When his heart called back down to its regular anxious perma-pounding, he unlatched the porthole and leaned out.

Sure enough, further along the coastline, he found a large town. It sat atop a bulge of cliffs. Beneath them, the ocean lapped at a meandering strip of sandy beach covered in green dune grass and thin, straggly bushes with a touch of blue coloring on their leafy branches. The light colors were broken up occasionally by scattered dark stones of obviously unnatural shape, perhaps the remains of some even older settlement.

It wasn't a common look for the Fire Nation coast. Zuko tended to like the ugly beaches where he could be alone and stare morosely out across the sea, as opposed to the pretty kind full of tourists and designated swimming areas. But for some reason, this particular empty beachside view put an uneasy weight into his stomach. It almost loomed. Perhaps that was just another symptom of his unease, what with his finally returning home, the Avatar, Uncle, Father, Mai, and- and everything.

Yes, he was probably just stressed.

Zuko let his eyes slide off the view of the beach and back up the cliffs. The town was the expected style of light-walled buildings with pointed red roofs, but in support of Ty Lee's claim, there were purple banners and flags raised, and red confetti was fluttering through the air. Large dragon puppets danced their way through the streets, or else this town had a very strange predator problem.

He bit down on a growl. He hated parties, color, and especially puppets.

Ty Lee popped her head out of space just above him in the porthole and said, "So, while the ship refuels, do you want to go into town and enjoy the festival with a dark-haired morose but pretty girl at your side who thinks sullen silence is super sexy, showing her that you can be a kind person when you're not being defensively cranky? I'm talking about Mai, by the way."

Zuko twisted to look up at her. "Mai wants nothing to do with me. That's probably why she's been hiding in her room all this time, isn't it?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On whether saying no violates orders to not talk about classified secret mission stuff."

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "What exactly is happening on this ship? And what does it have to do with Mimi?"

Ty Lee's eyes went to the left. Then they went to the right. Then she said, "Classified," and yanked herself free of the porthole. By the time Zuko got back into his cabin, she was gone.

He slammed the porthole shut again. He was going to have to go to the party to find out what this latest weirdness was about, wasn't he?

Mai wanted to do something interesting, but instead she was stuck sitting on the bed in her cabin, waiting to see who was going to ambush her and try to get her to go to the stupid festival. Because not being dragged kicking and sighing to a peasant party wasn't going to be an option on this boat, she knew. Weird things were going on and for some reason she was seemed to be involved.

She could try to get out of it, or at least delay the inevitable. But then people would get manipulative, and honestly it was just a lot easier to go along with things. That applied to social situations just as much as an imperialist war. After a few days hiding from Zuko in her room and hanging out with Mimi, she was ready to stiffly apologize for saying mean things the other night and then never talk to him again. It might even give her inner peace or something. Inner peace seemed really popular these days, so who was she to pass up such a great opportunity?

"Hi, Mo- Mai!" Mimi stepped into view.

Mai sighed. "Fine, whatever, I'll go to the summer party thing. But I'm not wearing flowers."

"Who said you had to wear flowers? I'm not wearing flowers."

"No one, but when I scripted this in my head before you arrived, it was Ty Lee who came to ask me, and that girl loves her fertility symbols."

Mimi's brow scrunched. "Flowers are fertility symbols?"

"Of course. Didn't they teach you that in school? It's one of the reasons I hate them so much- in addition to all the color, the excessive odors, the way they attract the less interesting variety of insects, and how they die and leave a dusty mess when you forget about them for a month."

Izumi just stared at her.

Mai arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"You- you hate flowers?"

"Is that a surprise? I think it fits perfectly with my well-crafted image."

"But- y- my mom always says-" Here Mimi flattened her voice in an odd way that made it sound very breathy. "- 'The presentation and arrangement of flowers shows how people can imbue actual meaning into even the most natural and shallow expressions of beauty. In that way, we can put meaning and love into anything.' Just like that."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Ugh, gag me with an entire bouquet of hydrangeas."

Mimi blinked, gave herself a full body shake, and took a breath. "Teenage you is so weird."

"Compared to baby me?"

"Um, yes. Because you've never been older than your teens." Mimi affixed a smile on her face with visible clumsiness and made a valiant attempt at leaning nonchalantly on the bed. "So. This festival. It would be a good time to make up with Zuko. Yes?"

Mai sighed. "I hate you all so much. I knew someone was going to say that."

"Oh, bully! So I don't have to go through the whole debate and instead we can focus on how to apologize to D- Zuko." Izumi motioned at her. "You strike me as the kind of person who would benefit from rehearsing your attempts at kindness. You know, just an impression I got."

Mai stood up from the bed and struck a pose like one of the Ember Island Players making another ill-fated attempt to be true to one of the classic tragedies. "Oh, sweet prince, I beg your indulgence for my poisoned words of yore, casting us as enemies amidst the cruelties of this world. 'Twas ill-considered of me to give spoken life to the harsh truths hidden in our hearts."

"Wow, Mai! I am Prince Zuko and usually cranky but I think that was a very nice if strangely-worded apology." Mimi sprang up from the bed with a grin. "I'm sorry for being a mean jerk to you, too. I am going to be nice from now on because I have everything I think I want at this point in time plus a pretty girl wants to hang out with me. Here, let me buy you a greasy fried plum with too much powdered sugar on top! Are we friends again?"

"Yeah, sure. I do like fried things with too much powdered sugar." Mai relaxed out of her pose. "I think that was a good rehearsal. You really nailed Zuko's character."

Mimi took a bow. "Thank you. Although maybe we can work on the dialogue a little."

"All the books I read have romantic plotlines which sound exactly like that. But I admit the Royal Academy last stocked its library during Sozin's era."

"Well, you have always liked your books. But maybe we can get Azula to help?"

Mai considered that. "She does like putting words in other people's mouths. But will she actually help with this?"

"Oh, me and her have been getting along. She's on my side." Mimi smiled. "I have a really good feeling."

Azula estimated that there was an 80% chance of rain later in the day, judging from the cloud-cover and humidity, but probably not a strong downpour. She had to decide whether to bother bringing an umbrella to her final victory over Time itself.

But she had time to mull it over while she arranged the details of her plan. Her first stop was the ship's bridge. "Oh, captain!"

The rest of the bridge crew stiffened at the sound of her voice, as they should. The captain bowed to her and said, "Yes, your highness?"

"I want to give my compliments to you and the crew. We made excellent time and there were no problems with our unconventional course."

"Oh, uh, thank you, your highness!"

"I think you all deserve a reward." She tapped her chin and pretended she hadn't already scripted this whole exchange. She was very good with dialogue. "Perhaps we should delay loading the supplies so that the crew can enjoy the local festival? It looks quite 'fun.' I'm told there are puppets, and who doesn't love puppets- aside from Zuzu?"

"That would be- ah, quite welcome, your highness. Once again, thank you!"

"Wonderful!" She smiled back at him, a sweet one and not the kind which showed off her perfect teeth. "I'll leave you to manage the details, but I'm sure you'll want to have the ship manned by a skeleton crew during the height of the festivities, probably with your laziest subordinates or someone equally unreliable, and make sure they're not stationed anywhere near the cargo hold."

The captain's posture stiffened again. "Oh, uh, er, I can certainly-"

"I'll leave you to it, then." With that settled, Azula moved on to the next item on her list.

First she went to Mimi's cabin, and when that was found empty, she moved on to Ty Lee's. To her mild surprise, no one was there, either. They were moving even faster than expected, but any good plan could account for that.

Azula went on to the last option, and sure enough, all three girls were in Mai's cabin. Mai herself was seated on her bed while Mimi and Ty Lee seemed creating some kind of conversation-flowchart on a chalkboard. Mai seemed to be trying to pretend that nothing was happening with only mild success.

"Ah, I see you're almost ready," Azula said as she walked in. Smiles greeted her from the two-thirds of the room who indulged in that particular facial expression. "I am so glad we can share in this experience. I've never been to a peasant festival before, and I must admit to a little morbid curiosity about the human sacrifice at the end, as barbaric as it may be."

"Um, peasants don't do human sacrifice at their festivals, anymore, Azula," Ty Lee said. Then she added, with a nervous giggle, "Unless the harvest has been really bad."

"Ah, such a shame. But I suppose even primitive superstitions must move with the times." Azula sat down on the trunk opposite the bed. "So. I assume all this effort is because Mai has decided to resolve her tedious feud with Zuzu."

Mai laid back on her bad and glared at the ceiling. "Yes. Before we all return to the capital, Ty Lee and Mimi have convinced me that it would be better for us all to be reliable allies again."

Azula approved of how Mai completely failed to mention her romantic inclinations, even if it meant telling something approaching a lie. It would make this next part easier. "That is wise. I will, of course, do what I can to help."

Mimi winked at her and said, "That's great! I have some dialogue ideas I'd like to run by you, and we were thinking that you could play Zuko in our rehearsals since you scowl like him, and-"

"First, let's talk logistics." Azula leaned forward and smiled. "Mimi, you will stay on the ship."

Mai and Ty Lee both blinked at the news. Ty Lee's pressed her lips together and Mai raised her head observe the proceedings without actually sitting up. Just as Azula would expect them to do.

But Mimi, making Azula wonder if they really did know each other in the future, immediately whined, "Awww, how come?! I can be a big help, and I've been stuck in my cabin all this time, and I'm really good at spotting the kinds of pickpockets these festivals usually get, and-"

"That," Azula said pointedly, "will be enough."

Mimi finally read the room, including the bibliography, and noticed how quiet Mai and Ty Lee were being. She bowed her head and said, "Sorry."

"Think nothing of it." Azula smiled again. "Your value is not in question. But as much as we would like to imagine this going well, we have to plan for every contingency. And in the case of- well, complications, it would probably be less disruptive if you remained here. I promise I will check in on you. This way, we can immediately take action to recover from any setbacks, rather than having to retreat and regroup. Do you see what I'm saying?"

Azula could see that Ty Lee did. And Mimi did, judging by the frustrated twist to her face, even if she hadn't admitted it to herself yet.

Mai, however, was a bit too clever for her own good. "I know I'm not the most social, but this is starting to sound like battle-planning, and not how we like to ironically treat social occasions too seriously for a cynical laugh."

Azula blinked. "What are you talking about? I never treat anything too seriously, never mind for a joke. It's not even funny."

Ty Lee laughed. When she saw that no one else was, she stifled it and mumbled, "Sorry. You're right. It's not funny."

Azula elected to give it all due attention and completely ignored it. "Mai, I understand your confusion, but unfortunately you're inquiring about state secrets."

"State secrets?" Mai did her own read of the room, or at least glanced at the table of contents, and let her head flop back down on her pillow. "Well, if you say so. At least this time I'm not getting locked in my room."

"Cabin."

"Whatever."

Azula nodded at this restoration of the natural order and good vocabulary. "And Mimi? You understand?"

"I-" The girl sighed in that way that made her sound so much like Mai, despite her strange up-beat, outgoing personality. (Clearly, the Mai and Zuzu of the future were letting Ty Lee do too much babysitting.) "Yeah, I understand. You're the brains of the operation, so I'll follow your lead."

"Perfect. The rest of the plan is easy. Mai, just don't stab Zuko when he approaches you. Ty Lee, just be your loyal self." Azula stood up and made a show of straightening her tunic, even though she had been so graceful in her movements that it didn't need it. "I'll handle the rest."

With that, she was off to her final appointment. She made her way to the main deck and went straight to the bow of the ship. She leaned on the railing at its pointed center, her posture exactly as it had been two days ago when she had made contact with the murderous flower-petal entities.

Her allies.

This time, the view was of a wild shore overlooked by gray cliffs and covered in stubby beach-plum trees. They must be in season; Azula spotted clusters of the small blue and purple plums amidst the green leaves. The scattered dark stones across the beach were more difficult to analyze, their unnatural shapes having been altered by so many years of weather as to make them unrecognizable.

A wind blew at her back, making the leaves of the plum trees wave like peasants begging for mercy.

'Is this the acceptance of our alliance?'

Azula didn't so much as move. In her her peripheral vision, she picked out twin sentinels perched on the railing on either side of her. Like before, their goblin-esque bodies were formed out of flower petals fluttering and twisting on a nonexistent breeze. She noted that, this time, the petals were white.

"I admit," she said, "that you make an enticing case. However, after some thought, I realized you would be gaining something quite definitive, while my own gains would be more nebulous and long-term. This gives me pause."

The entities exchanged glances.

'Pause is not a refusal.'

"No. It is not." Azula watched the wind caress the distant plum trees. "Since you are unused to negotiating, allow me to make a suggestion: you can sweeten the deal by offering me something more immediate. Something to reassure me about my long-term gains."

Their next response proved they weren't entirely naive:

'Perhaps you have a suggestion about that, as well.'

Azula gave her prettiest court-smile. "One elegant form of bribery is to take care of an unpleasant task, one which might have bothersome consequences, on behalf your business partner. For example, I despise weakness, and while you will be removing Mimi from the present time-period, I have decided that I do not want the future of the Fire Nation to be inherited by any version of her. There are several ways to guarantee it never happens, but Zuzu needs to be brought back to Father- and it is probably in the Homeland's best interest if he remains capable of siring heirs. Therefore, Mai is surplus to requirements. Remove her for me and I will rescind my protection of Mimi."

'We do not usually inflict violence beyond pursuit of Remnants. But that does not mean we are incapable. You have a deal."

"A pleasure doing business with you, I'm sure." Azula straightened from the railing and gave a nod to each of the entities on either side of her. "I will isolate your targets for you. Then all you have to do is what you do best."

The petal-entities exchanged glances again. Even though they didn't have eyes.

'And that is?'

Azula sighed. "Kill people."

'Ah. Yes, we can see how you would come to that conclusion, considering your three-dimensional perspective. Your confidence is appreciated.'

Well, at least they were enthusiastic. And it turned out that Azula would be getting to witness a human sacrifice to the spirits, after all. How fun.

When they all met out on the main deck, Izumi made one last check of Young Mom, confirming that her clothes were unwrinkled and she didn't have any stray flying lemurs hanging onto her. She couldn't do much about Mom's expression, but a wink and a whispered, "Bully!" did elicit a brief smile. Maybe this would work out after all. She added, in a whisper to Mom, "Trust me, he is kind. He just thinks he can't be right now. But you can bring it out of him."

The look Mimi got back in return was skeptical. Mom said, "If you get locked in your room again, do me a favor and stay out of the vents. I don't want you dying before I get back and stinking up the place when your corpse starts to rot. Here, Azula doesn't know that one of these is better than any key." She slid a stiletto out of her sleeve and pressed it into Izumi's hands. Izumi decided to take it in the spirit it was intended and slid it into her own sleeve with the closest she could muster to a smile.

When Young Dad arrived on the deck and looked at Mom, he gave a weary nod. "Uh- so, are we supposed to just pretend we're going to a summer festival and nothing weird has been going on?"

"That's the impression everyone has been giving me." Mom raised an eyebrow at him. "But at least it's more interesting than attending festival without weird conspiracies going on in the background, and maybe if we're lucky, we can weird everyone else out in revenge. Don't you agree?" Without waiting for a response, she clasped her hands within her sleeves and headed for the passenger ramp down to the pier.

Dad hurried after her.

Bully! Izumi hadn't been sure, but this Mom did know how to flirt. Kind of. Good enough for Dad, anyway. She glanced over at Ty Lee and got a gesture of confirmation. Ty Lee trotted to catch up to them, leaving Izumi with Azula.

She noticed that Azula was holding an umbrella. "Is it going to rain?"

"Almost certainly." Azula started walking, but instead of moving towards the ramp and the others, she went over to where the center of the deck had been opened to reveal the main cargo bay. Mimi went over to join her and looked down into the space- it was almost entirely empty. "Before I go, I want to thank you for your efforts. You are not as generally capable as I usually demand in my subordinates, but you tried what I believe to be your best, and I genuinely appreciate the glimpse of the future that you have given me."

Izumi frowned. "It sounds like you're saying goodbye. Do you think- if this works out with Mom and Dad- I'll go home?"

"Oh, no, I'm sure that part will be even more complicated." She glanced at the ramp to the pier, where the others were just passing out of sight. "Fortunately, we won't have to worry about it."

"We won't?"

Azula smiled, shook her head, and then used the curved handle of her umbrella to hook Izumi's right ankle. A single yank sent Izumi tumbling over the edge of the deck to fall into the cargo bay.

Izumi reflexively twisted in midair, the momentum flipping her into a somersaulting spin, and a quick kick produced enough flame and counter-force that when she landed in a crouch, it was only slightly less painful than the sudden, unexpected, but completely in-character betrayal she had just suffered. Izumi looked up to see Azula give her one last salute with the umbrella before walking away.

Izumi got a running start and tried to jump, but even with a Firebending-boost, she wasn't able to get anywhere near the main deck. It felt as far away as the top of the Fire Palace. A few more tries got her no closer.

"You jerk!" Izumi shouted as she ran to one of the cargo bay's doors. She didn't know if Azula could hear her, but she was choosing to be an optimist about the situation. "You flying hogmonkey! This is why you lived in a cave for a year!" The door was missing its hand-wheel and so couldn't be opened. All of them proved to be in the same condition. "Dad was right about everything he said about you, you- you lying, betraying, conniving little ashlick- wait."

This certainly felt like a betrayal, but what was actually going on? Why had Azula just trapped her in the cargo bay when she could have just as easily ordered her to remain in her cabin? Izumi tried calling for help and shooting some fire-flares but no one responded. Where was the ship's crew? What was this?

From somewhere far away came the echoes of thunder. Then the rain started.

No.

Not rain.

Drops of water weren't falling into the cargo bay.

It was flower petals.

Izumi realized that her adventure through time had taken a most not-bully turn.

Mai considered herself very good at giving people opportunities to be kind. By being as unpleasant as she could be in any possible situation, she provided a perfect occasion for other people to display true selfless kindness without expecting any kind of a reward in return.

Unfortunately, Mimi claimed that wasn't going to work for Zuko. Mai had to be the first to be nice in this instance. In a way, Zuko was giving her an opportunity to display true kindness- although Mia had to admit to her self that she was hoping for something in return from him.

She and Zuko were walking side-by-side up the path to the town, the silence between them almost as heavy as the sea-salty air and a lot drier. Ty Lee was a discreet distance behind them, at least on average since she kept catching up to them and then halting again when she remembered she was supposed to be giving them privacy. Mai tried to take advantage of the fleeting solitude(s) to add some words to this whole awkward situation, but she never quite succeeded. She was good at adding knives to awkward situations, but that probably wouldn't work this time.

The path leveled off and they reached the outskirts of the town. There were a few people ambling around and patting their bellies, crowns made of plum blossoms on their heads. The torturous echoes of people having fun somewhere much too close began to drift over the red rooftops. There were no puppets yet, but surely it was only a matter of time. The fear of having an even bigger audience for this whole situation finally prompted Mai to say something:

"So."

Not the most eloquent start, granted, but Zuko turned to regard her in an expectant way, so it seemed a good start.

Mai took the next step with, "I-"

"I'm glad I caught up with you," Azula said as she jogged up beside them, her umbrella hanging from her back on a strap like a sword. "Well, what shall we start with first? Peasant food or peasant games? Assuming of course that the human sacrifice really is off the table."

Mai blinked. "Where have you been?"

"Mimi needed some guidance. So, what do you say, Zuzu? You have experience doing filthy peasant things, yes? Which activities might the rest of us be able to tolerate without retching?"

"Try taking a flying leap off the cliffs," Zuko muttered, forgetting that Azula would probably survive such a thing and might even consider it as close to fun as she ever got without headpats from her father. He increased his pace to stomp ahead of the rest of the group.

"Thanks, Azula," Mai drawled. "The humidity and the peasant festival wasn't enough, now Zuko is cranky again."

"Oh, don't worry, there's plenty of time to talk to him. And if he's mad at me, he'll forget his issues with you." Azula glanced behind them. "Ty Lee, why are you lagging? Pick up the pace."

Mai sighed. Maybe she could see if the festival would fit her in as a last-minute human sacrifice.

Izumi did nothing as the evil monster-petals rained down around her and began forming shapes of bodies. She knew from experience that lighting the things on fire wouldn't help, and her parents had always been very clear that the only time she or any Fire Nation citizen should light things on fire was if they knew for sure that it would improve a situation. Otherwise, wars could get started, and wars rarely made anything better. Empathy, though- empathy could make things better, dad had insisted.

And then Mom would always add, with a small smile, that if empathy didn't work, a good knife in the right place was more efficient than a war.

So Izumi stood trembling and frozen while monsters took shape all around her and waited for some empathy to come along and kill some monsters. She couldn't fight, and she couldn't run with the hold's doors locked-

Wait.

Mom was right! A lack of empathy could always be solved with a knife! Or something like that!

Izumi slid her new stiletto out of her sleeve and dashed for the nearest hatch. The handwheel had been removed to keep it from being opened, but there was a nice hexagonal hole where it was supposed to be. Without slowing her run, Izumi screamed her primal rage like Dad liked to do and hit the door in a rushing stab. Because it was one of Mom's knives, the blade jammed straight into the door's heart up to the hilt. And also because it was one of Mom's knives, it had a really good grip that Izumi could use to wrench the mechanism into a rotation.

As the petals fluttered into the shapes of claws around her, Izumi gave one last turn and the door swung open. "Yesssss," she cried as she ran through and headed deeper into the ship's bowels.

The petals flew in after her, a snaking storm slithering sibilantly in her wake.

"Nooooo," she cried as she ran even faster.

A distant roll of ominous thunder and a flash from the gathering dark clouds marked Zuko's arrival at this annoying summer festival. But much more concerning was that a moment later a boy crashed chest-first into Zuko's right leg and left a smear of raw egg on the side of his pants. "What the-"

"Sowwy," the little brat tried to mewl adorably despite the yolk on his shirt. It was ruined when the kid focused his gaze on Zuko's face and blanched in the usual mix of terror and disgust. "Oh, wow, that part isn't my fault. Best'a luck to ya, buddy." He ran off while wiping at his shirt, and was almost immediately set upon by other children attempting to body-slam him.

Zuko shook his head. "What was that about?"

Ty Lee popped up on his left with, "It's a game! Kids wear eggs in little knit holders around their necks to prevent disease during summer, and they make a game out crashing into each other to break each other's eggs."

Zuko blinked. "Why?"

Mai appeared at his right and said, "Nature ensures we can identify stupid children with no future by making them naturally inclined to messiness. It's why I try to minimize my contact with kids."

Ty Lee frowned. "I always loved getting messy and painting myself colors."

"And thus we have proof by demonstration."

("Hey," Ty Lee muttered. "Why is making fun of me the way everyone is always trying to lighten the mood?")

Zuko felt his face doing some kind of unfamiliar twisting and realized a moment later it was a smirk. "I seem to remember you throwing mud at me once or twice, Mai. And it made quite the mess."

("Oh, right," Ty Lee sighed, "because everyone I know is a jerk. And yet I love them anyway.")

"It made a mess for you," Mai retorted, stepping out in front of Zuko. "I stayed clean. I think that makes me the smartest one by default."

Zuko crossed his arms over his chest and leaned over her. "And what kind of a prize do you get for that?"

("There are no prizes for the egg-crushing contest," Ty Lee put in to herself, "but neither of you care about that and I'm not about to interrupt you two finally figuring out how to flirt.")

Mai met his gaze and opened her mouth to reply-

"Oh, look," Azula said loudly, stepping between them, "a weighing station. I wonder why that's here?"

"It's another health thing," Ty Lee put in, taking Azula's arm and starting to lead her away. "People get weighed at the beginning of summer for luck and wellness, and the person working the station speaks good wishes for each person. I love weighing myself, especially when other girls can see. Why don't you and I go over and see who we can torture with our petite but fit frames-"

"That sounds wonderful," Azula said. "Let's go, girls! Zuzu, feel free to observe and laugh at everyone else's jealousy." She grabbed Mai's arm and started dragging both her subordinates along.

Zuko scowled at their backs, and not just because Ty Lee apparently considered herself low-weight after the way she had been standing on his head earlier. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was fairly certain he was somehow being victimized. But he wasn't going to let people mess with him anymore. He stomped off after the girls-

-and another off-balance child bounced into his left side and smeared another egg on his pants. "Oops, sorry for the- whoa, what happened to your face?!"

Oh for-

Izumi had heard, in some of the military history lessons which were supposed to someday make her a great Fire Lord (or at least one who wouldn't embarrass her tutors if anyone for some reason asked her about the intricacies of the ancient Battle of Banaat), that no plan survived contact with the enemy. Well, Izumi had initially planned to run for the main deck of the ship so that she could make her way ashore, and she thought it was a very good plan. Someday, future Fire Nation princesses might receive lessons about it and the very smart girl who thought it up.

Except the first set of stairs she encountered were going in the opposite direction she was running, so she would have had to turn around to use them, but since the cloud of flying magic flower petals behind her were forming clawed hands and ripping bits of her shoulder-cape with each swipe, her legs made the overriding executive decision to keep running and take whatever paths didn't end in closed doors. By the time Izumi thought to involve herself in the decision-making process again, she had lost track of whatever plans her legs were acting on.

So, not having any idea where in the ship she was now, she had affirmed to her satisfaction that her tutors knew what they were talking about. Bully! If only she could remember any of their other lessons right now.

She slid around another corner, grateful at least that even with no one seemingly on this ship, the lamps were all on and bright. She didn't think she had the constitution for a monster chase in the dark. But with everything cast in the overwhelming red light, she didn't realize until it was too late that she was heading towards a hopefully-not-literal dead end. She skidded to a halt, ran back to the nearest door and slammed it shut with a spin of the hand-wheel, and then took a moment to realize she'd been out of breath for a few minutes and flopped to the ground while she gasped for humid, fetid air.

She was in the brig.

(Which was a bit worrying because it was, by definition, rather hard to escape from.)

Wait. She knew people in the brig. Or, specifically, one lovable old grandpa-esque uncle who the history books said was some kind of legendary tactical genius and also a zen spiritualist or something! Exactly what Izumi needed at precisely this moment! Bully!

"Uncle!" she cried, checking the cells through their meal-slots until she found the funky-and-also-tea-smelling one with a familiar figure in it.

He roused from what could have been a meditation in the center of the room, raising his head to meet her gaze. For a moment, Izumi was drawn back into the maelstrom of regret and bitterness rumbling behind his eyes, but then hand-wheel on the brig's door began spinning with a rusty metallic squeak.

"Uncle," she squeaked in a similar register, "no time to explain but I need your help because a bunch of flower spirit monsters are trying to kill me and maybe eat me too and Firebending doesn't take them down fast enough and they don't stop coming and Azula is trying to feed me to them for some reason and I'm mature enough to admit I need help so pretty please help!"

The brig door creaked open, and Izumi took a moment to run back and kick it closed before more than a few petals could get in. She lit them on fire to be sure, spun the hand-wheel again, and then ran back to Uncle's cell.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "You are the girl who was kind to me in Ba Sing Se."

"Yes!" The brig door began opening again so she dashed over and body-slammed it closed. This time, she felt it pushing back and kept up the pressure. "And I need," she called back, "some bully strategy for fighting spirits right now!"

Uncle hesitated before calling out from his cell, "Bullying spirits is not usually recommended-"

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, PEOPLE, LEARN SOME MODERN SLANG!!"

"You know," Uncle said slowly, "you really do remind me of my nephew Zuko when he is stressed-"

"Great! I'm so happy I take after my d-AAHHHHH!!" The door burst open and sent her flying. Before she could even hit the floor, the storm of petals filled the hallway.

By the time she did crash, the monsters had formed with their hideous proportions and glowing red eyes. They stood in a circle around her, trapping her in place. She kicked herself into a spin and unleashed a tornado of flame to expanded to consume their legs, but they didn't so much as stumble before more petals came in and reformed their bodies. They loomed over her like statues and raised their hands to reveal the impressions of over-sized blades formed in the negative space within the petals.

Izumi made a valiant attempt to dig into the metal floor that accomplished absolutely nothing but some broken fingernails.

And then Uncle called, "Jump!"

Izumi sprang up and kicked a big of fire to launch herself above the monsters' heads-

-and then the entire hallway exploded into a tempest of electricity that consumed every bit of flower junk in sight.

Izumi landed with a thump on the hot floor, her whole body smoking and her hair standing out with enough static charge to pick up Radio Omashu. "Wow."

"Well, don't just sit there." Uncle strode past her with a scent like ancient moldy tea leaves. Izumi looked back at his cell to find the door hanging open. "I'll shut the main hatch, but I fear we don't have much time before more of the creatures arrive, and you're going to have to master the art of the cold-blooded fire in that time."

Izumi blinked, "I- what?"

Mai returned from the weighing station (and if she noticed how many food stations were clustered around it, she was holding her natural cynicism in check enough not to comment on it) to find Zuko fending off a vendor who was brutally attacking him by politely offering a steam clay cup: "Seven-families tea, young man? The leaves are the fresh summer crop!"

Zuko had his hands up and a haunted expression on his face, so Mai decided to take pity on him. She trotted over, grabbed his hand, and cooed in her best Ty Lee impression, "Ooh, babe, I'm hungry! Let's get some-" She quickly scanned the food stalls, spotting plum kebabs, sugared plumbs, rice cooked in plum juices, steamed beans with plumbs, and- "Uh, how about some of those unhealthy-looking sugar-added frozen plum ice things down the street? Uh, babe!"

"As long as it isn't tea," Zuko muttered as he let himself be rescued.

Once they couldn't even so much as smell any fragrant steam, Mai said, "There, the evil tea can't hurt you now."

"It's not that I'm scared of tea." There was a long pause, and then he added, "It just brings up memories."

"Bad memories?"

"Well, memories of some kind. And it hurts my head to try to figure it out."

"So don't. Just let yourself be rescued."

"My hero," he said.

Mai gave a snort that was almost a laugh and let herself slow. They were completely out of sight of both the tea vendor and the weighing station, even though the festival crowd was really starting to thin now. The clouds above were ominously dark and another echo of thunder sounded closer than it had been before.

Into the humid and perhaps soon-to-be-rainy silence, Zuko ventured, "So, uh, how much did you end up weighing? If it's not weird or rude to ask."

"Most girls might object, but I play a trick with it." Mai raised an eyebrow. "With or without my knives?"

"Whichever you prefer. I was just making conversation." Zuko threw a smile on top of his offer of a quasi-joke.

Mai decided to accept. "I may have 'forgotten' to take off my knives. Even with the minimal amount I'm carrying, if I get weighed again in a few weeks, I'll be able to tell everyone in the Caldera I lost weight just in time for the Ember Island tourist season. So I can enjoy too much dessert without Ty Lee harassing me about it."

"Well, then, why not get started now?" Without taking his eyes off her, he came to a stop and motioned to the shaved-ice stall they'd reached.

She stopped in front of him. Without taking her eyes off him, she said, "I'm sorry I said you're not still kind."

"What changed your mind?" Still looking at her, he tossed a handful of coins to the man running the stall. A paper cone with a ball of purple ice shavings was deposited in his hands a moment later, and he promptly held it out for her.

("Excuse me," a man mumbled, shuffling around them to deposit a block of ice smelling of river water behind the counter.)

Mai took the treat gently and felt the chill right through the paper. "I don't know that I did. But I guess you can't be too bad if I hurt you by saying it. And maybe I should get to know you now before making any sweeping judgments about how you've changed."

"Thank you. I- I want to live up to how you remember me." Zuko's gaze was locked on her as he was given a second ice cone of his own.

"Happy homecoming," she whispered to Zuko and lifted her shaved ice.

An array of emotions flicked over his face, finally settling something like a smile, and he lifted his ice as well. "Thank you."

("Sorry, just gonna-" A woman reached around them to trade some coppers for her own frozen treats. "Sorry. Thanks.")

Mai tapped her ice against Zuko's, and then took took it back for a syrupy mouthful. The whole time, their eyes were locked on each other. Mai saw a distant flash of lightning reflected across his corneas, making it looks like his eyes were twinkling as he leaned forward to lick up some of his own ice. The plum juice was sticky and sweet and Mai was only aware of it because she was thinking about how it would taste on Zuko's lips.

But before she could consider turning that idea into reality, there was a cry of, "Watch where you're-" and an armored body softened not at all by an outer layer of beautiful red silks bumped into her and Zuko both, dumping their cones of sticky, freezing, soggy purple ice all over the front of Mai's robes.

"Oh, dear," Azula said. "I blame you for this. You're standing right in front of this stall, forcing everyone who wants some naturally-flavored shaved ice to go around you. I was nearly run over by a peasant ignorant of the fact that some member(s) of the Royal Family are not yet at their adult height."

"I'm so sorry for you," Mai managed, the cold wet slushy feeling spreading through her robes in a way not at all like the pleasant coolness of knife-blades against her skin.

Azula, for her part, winked. Then grabbed Mai as if holding up a wounded battlefield comrade and cooed, "Oh, Mai, how unfortunate! Quickly, we need to get you a change of clothes!"

"Eh," Mai said, wondering what exactly she was supposed to do with a wink and the knowledge that this was all part of some nebulous plan in service to nebulous goals of decidedly nebulous sanity, "maybe I should just go back to the ship. It looks like it will probably rain soon, anyway."

"Oh, no, no! We've been trapped on that ship for so long, and you've been having such fun with Zuko, here," Azula soothed, brushing at some of the ice still clinging to Mai's robes and soaking them even further. "I saw a shop with some rather nice fabrics nearby (just down the street, two lefts, a right, down another block, three rights, two lefts, across from the noodle place). I'm sure you can improvise something, yes?" She winked again.

Oh, right. Azula had plans for today. Well, no use fighting it. It had gotten Mai this far, and things weren't going badly, exactly, frigidly-soaked clothes not withstanding. So, sure, why not?

"Well, you know how much I like taking ownership of my appearance. Where is this shop?"

Azula took her arm and began dragging her away from Zuko. "I'll show you. I should really go check on Mimi again, anyway."

"You can't send Ty Lee?"

"Oh, she's busy at the weighing station. You know how she is about showing off."

Ty Lee had to admit that the view was good. From up here, she could see the mostly-empty plaza, the tavern where most of the ship's crew had disappeared a little while ago, the festival vendors who were packing up their stalls, and the man who was supposed to be operating the weighing station crane but was just leaning against his sign and smoking a pipe.

Except, when Ty Lee was high up, she usually preferred to be on her own two feet, no matter how precarious her perch. She very much didn't care for being tied up and stuck in a little rope seat at the end of a rickety old crane that was serving as a balance scale for the festival's weighing station.

"Um," she called down to the man with the pipe, "maybe if I untied my safety restraints, I could just climb down the crane. Then we wouldn't have to wait for the- the, uh, 'cert-i-fied repairman' to come help me."

The man didn't even look up at her as he puffed his pipe. "Sorry. New royal safety edicts. Passengers are legally prohibited from unfastening the restraints during crane operation. Also, only certified experts are allowed to perform maintenance and repairs on crane machinery."

"Oh, um, okay." This was turning out to be the worst festival she had ever been to. She wanted to be out there helping Mai and Zuko to create a future with an anxious little bespectacled child in it, not hanging around here with a boring old guy and what seemed like an imminent rainstorm. Why did the crane have to break and get stuck while she was getting weighed, when Azula and Mai had no problems.

Wait-

Ty Lee watched as the man puffed his pipe again and counted what looked like a sack of gold coins. The were a lot more coins, of unusual shininess, than she would have expected for a festival guy in a random coastal town.

A thought occurred to her. A nasty thought that she very much didn't want to be true.

"Did you say a new royal edict?"

A drop of water landed right on the top of her head.

By the time Mai had replaced all the bits of her outfit that were wet and stained, it had finally started drizzling and the festival was all but over. The streets of the town were empty, and it seemed that Azula hadn't stuck around to wait for her. Even the proprietress of the fabric shack shut down and locked up as soon as Mai walked out.

That was just great. She dashed over to what had probably been a vegetable vendor before it closed up and stole the lid off a barrel of cabbages. Stabbing a long knife into the center created a nice handle she could use to hold it over her head and ward off the weather, her own improvised umbrella. With that problem solved, she just had to figure out why she was standing alone in the rain.

If Zuko and the others hadn't come to find her with the festival functionally over, were they themselves too dumb to come in out of the rain and were still waiting for her somewhere? Or maybe they had gone back to the ship and left her here to drown?

That might actually be a stroke of luck. It meant no one would see Mai in the colors she'd been forced into. The stupid fabrics shop had been practically ransacked by earlier festival-goers and didn't have anything in white, so she'd had to replace it with an ostentatious gold robe. The closest thing to a black bijia sleeveless jacket she'd been able to find was in ash gray, but with the sun behind the clouds it was dark enough that hopefully no one would be able to tell the difference.

What was nearly unforgivable, though, was that there hadn't been a morose burgundy outer robe available, or even a proper crimson, and Mai hadn't been about to wear an imperial red while standing next to Azula in case she looked better in it. No, it came down to a choice between a purple robe with a sword-print on it and a rouge one with butterflies- something that Ty Lee might have worn during a more depressed mood as long as it exposed her midriff. The sword print seemed to be the obvious choice, but something about the butterflies intrigued Mai. Their wings looked like her hinge-blades, and she'd always liked insects, especially the ones with wings who could fly away.

After only a moment of hesitation, Mai had picked the rouge butterflies.

And now she was probably going to get soaked again anyway. She started back towards the main square, carefully holding her barrel-lid umbrella over her head and keeping her pace slow.

Fortunately, the rain maintained its light drizzle. She caught a few people dashing for shelter, some last vendors with high entrepreneurial hopes who had stayed until the last possible moment and now were trying to outrun the rain. Not like her, who had everything under control. Now if she could just find her way back to the village square. Was that three lefts and a right, or two rights, three lefts, and a boat-ride back to Ba Sing Se?

And was the rain coming down harder?

Mai blinked. No, it wasn't. The sound on her little barrel lid wasn't getting any more intense. It just looked like it was, but there was actually something else in the air.

Flower petals.

Lots of them.

Mai picked up her pace. Something felt wrong, here.

She didn't see any more people. It was like the village was completely locked down.

She chose a random alleyway and turned into it. She emerged onto a street she was pretty sure she'd never seen before, and the somehow there were even more flower petals in the air, swirling in a way that somehow didn't match either the raindrops or the wind at all.

Across the street, a goat-dog was sheltering in the remains of a box. It poked its snout out a bit and began barking aggressively at the sky.

Well, that was a good sign. Mai either wasn't the only one seeing this or the only one going crazy.

The the petals began clustering, forming groups in the sky before easing down to the ground. There, they swirled in the rain and rose up in the hunched shapes of monsters with long-clawed hands.

The goat-dog went quiet. Mai looked at it, and it looked back with a clear, "I don't need to bark, right? You're seeing this, too?" expression on its little blunt face.

Mai felt compelled to nod at it.

Then a pair of red lights started shining in the heads of each creature, blazing eyes that all settled on Mai.

Now would be a good time for Zuko or Azula to show up.

The creatures leaped at her, claws first.

"Cold-blooded fire," Uncle explained, "is an old name for Firebender's lightning. Unlike other Firebending, it is not fueled by our emotions, either positive or negative. It requires knowing ourselves well enough to separate our internal energies, and then having the control and strength to bring the yin and yang back together at the moment of release and embrace our emotions once again."

"Yeah, I've heard that," Izumi replied. "Dad is still trying to learn how to create lightning, and he's talked to me about it, especially after- well, my master is good at it and he probably thinks I might know something to help. I was just wondering why you think I can learn it. And also why you're knocking on that vent covering."

"Good, good, then you probably know the basics already. And the knocking is to determine how big the duct-work is and if it I will fit." He produced something vaguely knife-shaped from his sleeve and began using it to unscrew the vent cover.

"Is- is that a shank?"

"I think of it as an improvised tool capable, in some situations, of inflicting violence. I made it from the dried sediment at the bottom of the tea served to me and some dedicated low-heat Firebending. Interesting that you know the term 'shank.' Do you parents have experience with prisons?"

Izumi pinched the bridge of her nose. She was beginning to understand some of the stories she'd heard about Dad and Uncle. "It runs in both sides of my family, apparently."

Uncle popped the grating off, revealing a ventilation shaft much bigger than the ones Izumi had gotten stuck in a few days ago. (She'd have to learning that knocking trick.) He set it down against the wall and said, "How interesting. You are a very unusual young woman, in addition to be well-informed on sensitive topics. How did you anger the nature spirits?"

"Er, I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it."

"Fair enough. But you're still going to have to learn to fight them." He smiled at her. "Lightning is the only weapon powerful enough to defeat these enemies, and unfortunately we cannot rely on my being able to stay at your side until the problem is solved." His smile faded. "That is something I should have known about Zuko, as well. But I appreciate your kindness in Ba Sing Se, and- and I sense a connection with you, despite your shady prison-inclined lineage. So I will teach you to defend yourself."

"Thanks." Izumi felt her muscles unknot a bit, knowing that Uncle was going to help her. Learning lightning seemed impossible, but if anyone could teach her, it was him. There was just one thing nagging her: "But, um, what's with the ventilation shaft?"

"Well, the angry spirits are on the other side of the hallway's hatch. So we need to find way out. Also, because if you mess up lightning as badly as my nephew, or if your aim is a little off on this metal box of a ship, I could die, and if you were correct in Ba Sing Se and Zuko will remember who he really is, I would prefer to be alive to see it. So you can try shooting lightning for the first time outside. No offense." He grinned at her.

"Er, none taken?"

"Excellent! In you go!"

A few minutes later, they were making their way through a cramped maze of ductwork. It struck Izumi as conveniently-sized for people to crawl though up until she spotted some of the additional piping running along the walls and realized it has been designed for human access, a proper maintenance shaft. It probably wasn't a good idea to have such a thing running near the brig and made a note to check if that was-slash-would-be corrected by the time she was-slash-would-be born, assuming she would-be-slash-was surviving this ordeal.

As they crawled, Uncle said, "So how far have you gotten with lightning before now?"

"Peace of mind, rising above emotions, separating energies, arm motions, boom."

"The good kind of boom?"

"The kind that Mom won't let me do anymore because I lost too many pairs of spectacles from the explosions near my face."

"Ah. Make a left turn here." Once they turned the corner, Uncle continued, "That's the turmoil in your heart. You try to rise above your emotions, but they're still present in your bending, tangling with the energies you're attempting to direct and pulling them out of your control. Many of our people, I think, underestimate how little control we have over emotions."

Izumi sighed. "So, what, no one can create lightning unless they're like Azula and have broken emotions?"

"Er, I just used lightning to save your life in the brig."

"Oh, right. Sorry! But- but how do you just shut off your emotions like that?" Izumi turned to look back at him.

"Oh, I don't do any such thing." Uncle paused in his crawling to tap his head. "I just recognize the separation between myself and my emotions- but also the connection through which I can choose to embrace them. And also choose not to, at the right moments."

Izumi perked up. "That makes sense. I'll just do that!"

"Excellent! But- well- there's a trick to it."

"The nice kind of trick like a magic show?"

"Sure, that sounds good." Uncle pointed at her. "You must know the emotions in your heart and have the strength to act against what they are demanding of you. My nephew is held back by the pride instilled in him by his father. And the emotion I see most in you is fear. Especially when monsters are trying to eat you."

"So they are trying to eat me?!"

"Just an expression. I have knowledge of spirits, but aside from the ones I offered tea, I don't know much about their dietary habits. But now you have me curious!" Uncle gave something that sounded suspiciously like a happy sigh. "Truly, life is a constant opportunity for learning."

Izumi, at least, cherished her ignorance on this point. But perhaps that just spoke to Uncle's point: she was indeed afraid of being torn to pieces and devoured. In fact, she had quite a bit of anxiety about just the 'torn to pieces' part. Not to mention being stuck in the past and having to ensure her own existence. That would be nerve-wracking for anyone, except maybe Bumi because he was an idiot and also had a complicated relationship with his own existence.

Izumi had been trying to overcome her fear like it was her enemy, seeking confidence and allies and plans and protection. It had been a lot of work. But what if Uncle was right and she could just stop letting her fear affect her? Not defeat it, not push it down, not even covering it up by whistling a happy tune or remembering her favorite things (grass-colored rhinos and a small monkey-poodle, palace gongs and temple bells and dumplings with noodles)- but to really separate from her fear and act independently of it.

Fighting by not fighting. No wonder Dad had never really gotten it.

As they crawled through the maintenance ducts, Izumi gave it a try, closing her eyes and continuing forward even though it was dark, cramped, and likely to come to a dead end. She felt the fear, but thought of herself as existing apart from it, or at least in a different neighborhood in the same city. She felt the energies coursing within her and gave them an experimental poke with a metaphorical finger.

Nothing happened, but that made sense since she wasn't actually trying to shoot lightning. And nothing exploded, which was always good news to receive in any situation.

Then Uncle said, "It would be wise, I think, if we could pick up our pace a little."

"Why?" Izumi opened her eyes.

"Well, there seem to be more flower petals floating through the air here than I would normally expect in a maintenance crawlway."

Izumi embraced her fear like an old friend, screamed, and crawled so fast she left scorch-marks on the floor (as tended to happen with Firebenders).

But no, that wasn't the way. Not according to Uncle. If only she could-

Azula was in a good mood when she reached the ship, despite the rain starting to come down and the inconvenient way the wind was pulling at her umbrella and keeping her from maintaining its most efficient angle. Still, her plan was working so far. Ty Lee was literally tied up at the weighing station, Zuko was honor-bound to wait for Mai at the remains of the festival no matter how much rain fell on his stupid head, and Mai herself was either dead or well on her way to being sacrificed for the glory of the future Fire Nation royalty.

If Azula was lucky -- which her daddy always said she was and his word was literally law -- she might be in time to see what would happen when Izumi died. Would it be a normal death leaving a corpse, or would she fade away into motes of light or somesuch when her heart gave its last beat?

Azula stepped off the path from the village and onto the dock. The ship was bobbing there quietly, except for the sound of the rain against its decks, so perhaps the fun was already over and Azula's problems were (un)history.

Then the ship exploded in a burst of fire, metal, and plum blossom petals.

Azula was normally quite quick-thinking, but she could only stand on the docks as the fire burned and the debris rain down amidst the actual rain. She continued standing there as the remains of the ship sank beneath the waves. She moved only when her umbrella caught fire from one of the falling embers, and then she just used a simple hand-motion to put it out.

She finally reacted when something bobbed to the surface, paddled over to the dock, and climbed its way up to flop on the ground at Azula's feet and lay there panting for air. It was a soaking-wet girl with thin golden spectacles still somehow on her face. "Mimi?"

The time-traveler opened her eyes and look up at Azula. "You?"

"Yes. What happened to the-"

"You jerk!" Mimi snapped up, slammed a fist into Azula's stomach, and shoved her off the pier, charred umbrella and all.

The plunge into the cold water was initially a rather fraught experience, as Azula was experiencing several conflicting instincts- including trying to catch her breath and warming herself with her Firebending, both of which required air in her lungs which she did not have and was not immediately available. However, it just went to prove the value in proper preparation and education. And people said that waterboarding herself continuously in the days prior to setting sail to bring back Zuko and Uncle was 'weird' and 'extreme' and 'cuckoo crazy nut-bunnies.' She suppressed her panic with practiced ease for the second time this mission, held her breath, swam to the surface, and emerged into the rain. As she started climbing back onto the pier, she resolved to send those people gloating letters.

By the time Azula got back onto land, Mimi was gone. However, one of her business associates was gathering in the form of flower petals which dodged the increasing rain to form rippling a figure. She drew herself up as much as she could soaking wet and said, "I hope you noticed that at least one part of the plan I left in your care is having trouble. Should I be concerned about the other parts?"

'Time is on our side. We can drive the targets toward each other and eliminate them with maximum efficiency.'

"Well, if you count the cost of a royal navy ship efficient." Azula glanced at the burning, sinking hulk as she straightened her tunic and did secret calculations in her head. "I look forward to seeing how you plan to make up for your failures thus far. But first, I should probably see if any of the ship's skeleton crew or my valuable royal prisoner survived. The work of a princess is never done, it seems."

TO BE CONCLUDED

Chapter Text

Back in Time

Izumi hadn't been trying to sink a Fire Navy warship. It just kind of happened that way.

She had been in the maintenance shafts of Azula's ship with Uncle Iroh, capably dealing with a potential fear of dark and cramped spaces like the mature almost-14-year-old woman she was, when the flower-petal monsters had found them again. That fear had been a little more insistent and attention-seeking, especially when the claws began forming out of fluttering plum-blossom petals near her face. Maybe she should have stuck with Firebending, even though that had been of only limited effectiveness before. But Uncle had been talking about how she could finally successfully generate lightning, and it had been on her mind, and he had been so confident that she could rise above her fear, and lightning had proven much more effective at killing the monsters than anything else, she's been fiddling with her emotional energies anyway and-

And maybe she shouldn't have given it a try right there in the maintenance shaft right next to the gas lines.

At least she had been a good student when her daddy had taught her how to protect herself from massive explosions with shields made of fire. He'd said it was a tactic important to the continuance of their family because they kept getting into situations that should kill them and especially situations involving ridiculously large explosions. Izumi hadn't quite believed him at the time, but she firmly intended to apologize the next time she saw him- if she didn't die a horrible death here in history or erase herself from time by getting her parents killed, of course.

Izumi really hoped that Uncle was okay. He had been in the maintenance tunnel, too- but if she had survived, he could have, too. Probably. Or maybe she had already undone her own existence by breaking up her parents and now Dad would be evil forever because he didn't have an Uncle Iroh to help him.

It was a good thing it was now raining as she ran back to the village. It was too wet for tears.

She didn't really have a plan at this point, just that she had to get away from the demons and Azula, and they were both back at the dock. (Why had Azula sided with them?! Sure she was mean and kinda homicidal, especially as a teenager, but why would she want Izumi dead?) That the only road available to her led uphill to the clifftop village and festival where her parents and Ty Lee had gone was a fortunate bonus.

She put her all into her running, but her 'all' right now was her 'three-eights at best and only if we are rounding up,' thanks to all the fleeing she'd done through the ship earlier. And there was all that with blowing up the ship and swimming to the pier and climbing up the pier and punching Azula and running away before anyone realized she'd punched Master. Izumi was on the verge of collapsing and she had to find help- if the others were still in town, if she could get their help without alerting them to the fact that she was a time-traveler, if Azula hadn't done something to them, too. Lots of iffing, there.

Well, Izumi's father had raised her to be an optimist, fear of explosions notwithstanding.

Thankfully, her mother very much hadn't raised her that way, so she was ready, as she passed by a junk depot near the dock area, when some of the raindrops turned out to be wet flower petals which formed a murderous time-demon right in front of her. She dodged around its claws- or at least she tried to. She was slower than usual and a clawed hand found her, slamming her down onto the ground despite being mostly made of air, knocking what little breath she still had out of her lungs. While she gasped, the monster's long, sharp fingers had pierced her clothes to nail her to the stone road.

Wow, so this is how Mom's enemies felt. This snorts ash!

The monster loomed over her with its glowing eyes, raindrops falling through the outline of a head to fall on her face like teardrops. It raised is the other clawed hand in a dramatic and tactically inadvisable fashion in preparation for skewering her-

-and then a stream of what seemed like liquid fire arced across Izumi's vision to wash away the formation of flower petals.

No longer pinned, at least until more monsters formed, Izumi got to her feet. Nearby, the liquid fire had pooled at the side of the road and was still burning. Izumi extended her own inner-flame and could feel that the blaze was consuming a fuel of some kind- a fuel that- smelled delicious?

Before she could reconcile that with reality, both Young Dad and Young Auntie Ty Lee rushed over to take defensive positions around her. Oddly, Auntie was wearing some kind of cabinet with makeshift rope straps like a backpack, and she holding a hose which extended from the bottom; with one hand, she had the nozzle pointed at the flower-demons, and the other hand held an active, hissing military flare. She was also wearing a red headband to gather her braid up against the back of her head and had twin streaks of dark grease under each eye.

"Dare I ask," Izumi said, "what is going on, or is that going to break my brain?"

"What?" Ty Lee pressed the lever on the nozzle of the hose and sprayed some kind of delicious-smelling oil past the sizzling flare, creating another stream of deadly liquid fire. "Haven't you ever seen a homemade 'fierce-fire oil cabinet' before? What do kids who can't Firebend do for fun where you come from? I made this one from a fried rice cooker at a stall I kinda robbed back at the festival."

"Less talk," Dad bit out as he reached towards one of Ty Lee's leftover burning puddles and turned one of the taller flames into a whip he used to lash at their attackers, "and more fighting whatever these weird things are."

Izumi peeked around her saviors and saw that an entire army of flower-demons was gathering to circle them. So that was bad. But at least now Dad and Auntie Ty Lee (War Form) were here to help. She took her own Firebending stance and the other two shifted to add her to a triangular back-to-back-to-back formation. As she punched out a series of fireballs, she said, "Can I at least ask how you knew to come rescue me with weird flame-spewing weapons from our nation's horrific past?"

Without so much as blinking, Dad incinerated a flower monster and replied, "Would you believe we weren't looking for you at all? (And I sort of forgot you existed?)"

"-huh?"

Fifteen rainy minutes earlier, Zuko had stalked over to the weighing station at this podunk town's summer festival to find Ty Lee strapped in the dangling seat of a fully extended counterweight-crane. She was working on the knots in the safety restraints which were keeping her in the seat. If it really was true that getting weighed at the beginning of summer was good luck, then her use of her weight to shame other girls must have incurred some exceptionally bad karma.

"Why are you still up there?!" Zuko breathed out and steamed away some rain soaking his clothes. "The whole festival has been shut down from the weather and everyone left!"

"That man under the tarp," she called down as she pointed at the base of the crane, "says Azula issued new royal safety standards for public weighing stations at festivals and now we have to wait for a certified expert from the capital to come fix a gear-thingy so I can get down! But if I can just get this knot I can just jump down, but it's really tight, and it's been forever since I last crewed on a pirate ship and had to do rope-stuff so I'm-"

"Wait," Zuko barked out before this could become another Weird Ty Lee Story. "Azula stranded you up there? She sent Mai away from me and now I can't find either of them! And she made Izumi stay back on the ship. And there's been all the secrets and odd talk about flower petals! Something is going on. And I think it's more than her usual torture of everyone around her for giggles."

Ty Lee took a moment to reply. "I can neither confirm nor deny any speculations about classified operations or what makes Azula giggle."

"Whatever! Just get down here and help me find them."

"But the royal safety standards! And really tough knots!"

Zuko let some of his frustration boil through to his skin to dry off more of his clothes. Then he turned to the man hiding behind the crane's controls and said, "I have a new royal edict for you about cranes, festivals, safety standards, and what happens when I get frustrated near wooden structures."

The man stood up and took a cautious puff of his pipe. "Does that come with a royal grant supporting local culture?"

"So, with Ty Lee freed and no more gold in my pockets," Dad finished as he sliced sizzling twin fire-daggers into a line of demons, "we headed to the ship to see if Mai and Azula had decided to go back and get out of the rain like sensible people. Which I don't think any of us are at this point." Dad threw the daggers, turning them into fireballs which exploded in the middle of a cluster of demons. "Instead, we found you running up the road and being attacked by these things. Can someone tell me what's going on now? And why are these monsters made out of flowers?!"

All the pieces fell into place in Izumi's head, a nice reversal from all the breaking her brain had been doing since she'd arrived in this time period. (Well, except for Dad's question about the flowers. She'd given up on that part making any sense.) Azula had already betrayed Izumi, and now she had stolen Mom away to do something horrible to her because- um, well, that was a good question. Why was Azula doing all this? And what were her plans for Mom?

"Mo- Mai is in trouble," Izumi said as she kick-swept an arc of fire over the rain-battered road to burn demons from the feet up. "We have to go save her!"

Ty Lee fired another burst of flaming sesame oil through the rain, dealing out death to the monsters and making the world smell delicious at the same time. "I agree! But how do we find her? I don't suppose you or Zuko have some kind of special spiritual bond to her that can guide us through danger, confusion, a poorly laid-out town, and all this rain?"

"Er-" Izumi tried projecting some spiritual powers she might have acquired when she wasn't paying attention, but just ended up giving a quiet burp. "Nope. We'll have to search the whole city, and we'll have to do it quickly because-"

"That way," Dad interrupted, pointing down a side street and then using the same finger to shoot a fireball at a demon which had tried sneaking up on him from the side.

Izumi blinked. "How did you know? Do you have a spiritual bond with M- Mai? That's so bully!"

"I don't believe in spiritual bonds." Dad gave her a look that made her reflexively check if she had put her elbows on a table which wasn't here. "I just spotted a big cloud of flower petals moving through the air in that direction- the opposite direction that the wind is blowing."

Izumi squinted through her glasses and supposed there might be some flower petals moving through the distant raindrops in the sky above that street. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I've spent a lot of time looking up for hard-to-see things in the sky."

"I believe him," Auntie Ty Lee put in as she torched another demon. "And even if he's wrong, we don't have time to be right! Or something profound like that! Let's just hurry and save Mai!"

"Wait!" Enjoying a moment where she neither had to run nor fight nor scream in terror had given Izumi's brain a chance to start working again. It told her that more running did not sound bully and there was probably a better way to travel that hadn't actually killed Kya that one time so hopefully it wouldn't kill anyone this time either. "I come from a land where science has made important discoveries about speedy travel!"

Not waiting for Young Dad and Auntie Ty Lee to ask questions or express polite (or not so polite, in Young Dad's case) disbelief, she ran into the nearby junk depot and began looking for solid wooden planks, nails, small round objects, and a whole lotta luck.

As she began gathering parts (and the other two defended her from being eaten), Izumi sent a silent hope for Mom to stay safe for a few more minutes, pretty please!

Mai was going to die.

She was going to try her best not to, but she was pretty good at maths (especially three-dimensional vectors and how to make a knife intercept someone's face), and the odds did not seem to be in her favor right now. There were too many enemies, she had no reliable way to fight back against them, and she was being forced to fall back to a less fun strategy, the hurried and thoughtless tactical retreat.

In other words, running away.

Mai might be good at maths and the geometry of remotely stabbing people, but her strategic instincts hadn't quite matched up. When the weird creatures made of floating flower petals had attacked her, she'd done the obvious and attempted to apply sharp metal to the problem- to no effect whatsoever. Hence the running. Unfortunately, that hadn't proven to work much better against enemies which could literally ride the wind.

(Perhaps she shouldn't have let Azula do most of the fighting against the Avatar. But it had seemed like so much work at the time compared to the more stationary Earthbender or the less clever Waterbender. And the weird Water Tribe guy was just fun to bully.)

So she'd gone with the last of the three major strategies she knew about, and the one she liked the least- sheltering in a defensible structure.

Hiding.

Except Mai was in a shopping district that had closed up due to weather. All the buildings were empty, all the doors were locked, and all the windows boarded up against the pounding rain. She had gone from locked door to locked door, dodging claws made of nothing but given shape by the positioning of magic flower petals, wanting to try to get back to her friends but having enough strategic sense to realize she was being herded downhill to the edge of this cliff-topping village. Finally, the sight of glass peeked through the rain and she'd thrown a knife to shatter it just a moment before diving through the falling shards. She'd moved so quickly that even her new butterfly-print robes had scarcely been scratched by the sharp glass.

She found herself in a long, shadowy greenhouse full of flowers and very much real butterflies. Rain hammered against the glass walls and ceiling.

Mai was definitely going to die. But she wasn't about to go peacefully, so she scrambled into the greenhouse and hid behind a table covered in rows of potted panda lilies.

The enemy flower petals rode the drafts in through the hole she'd made. They mixed well with the petals being kicked up by the invading stormwinds from the all the plants around, and the butterflies' flights took on more frantic and likely annoyed energy. She'd taken refuge in the home of the relatives -- perhaps even predecessors -- of the very things trying to terminate her.

The only way she had left to track her hunters was by the red glow of their eyes in the darkness.

One by one, their bodies formed to stalk down aisles, perch on tables and ladders and shelves, or even stand as sentinels in front of the building's doors. One approached in the aisle next to her, so she pulled herself underneath the table and carefully picked her way around the legs and cross-supports. Good thing she was predisposed to wearing dark colors. When she was sure she wouldn't be spotted, she pulled out a razor disk and whipped it spinning into the darkness.

It clattered loudly against something on the other side of the greenhouse. When the crimson beacon-like gazes of the monsters turned towards the sound, she rolled under another table. After several moments enduring the hammering of her heart, an organ she didn't like to admit she possessed but which she would prefer to stay functional for a good long while, she started crawling her way under the long table towards the far side of the greenhouse.

The rain against the glass kept up a steady drumming which was both reassuring and maddening. Lightning flashed outside, briefly drowning out the red lights of the stalking eyes and turning the butterflies into pieces of night.

And inverting the shadows inside out.

Including the shadow Mai was currently calling home.

When she could see properly again, she found the crimson gaze of one of the creatures fixed on her. Its strange non-body pumped as it surged down the aisle next to her table-refuge. Its claws came up and down again through a potted array of dragon's tears flowers and tabletop- and almost her, too. She threw herself into a roll and came up into a cloud of panicked butterflies, whipping her head around to find herself at the center of attention of a very not-panicked and distressingly professional group of monsters.

Mai backed up against a shelving unit which cut the aisle in half. As claws reached for her, she turned and grabbed and scrambled and climbed. Soon she was crouched on the top shelf, but the monsters had grouped all around the floor beneath her, cutting off any chance of leaping to freedom. She started crawling forward, thinking to hop to another shelving unit, but found more of the flower-petal constructs standing there, before and behind her, waiting maliciously.

Lightning flashed again, leaving her unable to see anything for a moment except a swarm of red eyes moving closer.

Mai pulled a pair of knives, knowing that they wouldn't do anything but not willing to die without at least trying to stab something.

They reached for her-

-she swung her blades-

-the sky lit up beyond the glass walls of the greenhouse-

-but not with lightning-

-glass walls shattered and rained down amidst the flowers and butterflies-

-fire lit up the dark and burned away the flower petal bodies of her attackers-

-and a pair of wheeled boards rolled into the greenhouse. On one, Zuko and Mimi were perched together. On another, Ty Lee had some kind of flame-throwing weapon that she was using to turn the place into an inferno.

Mai looked to nearest monster to find it somehow looking just as confused as she was for a wave of flame disintegrated it.

Mimi propelled her board by pushing with one foot against the ground and skated in front of Mai's shelf. She turned it to skid to a stop that sprayed only a little of the rainwater soaking her, reached out a hand, and said, "Come with, Mai, if I want to live!" She winced, and then corrected, "Sorry, I mean- come with me if you want to live."

Mai supposed it wasn't an entirely stupid way to be rescued. She took Mimi's hand and hopped down onto the board behind the girl. She bumped into Zuko, tried to give him room only to bump into Mimi, and settled into a middle-ground where she could feel the body heat of both of them in an unpleasant way. "Kind of cozy with three of us on. Now what?"

Mimi hopped off the board and joined Ty Lee on hers. "You push, Zuko throws fire. Easy, right?"

Mai looked back to find a bedraggled, soaked Zuko staring back at her with a pair of steaming fireballs in his hands. The heat she was feeling was no longer unpleasant.

He said, "I like your new clothes."

She looked down at the rain-soaked rouge robe she'd been forced to wear after her accident with the flavored ice and said, "Okay. I guess now I like them, too."

"Oh, that's nice. I- uh, came looking for you." He threw a fireball at a monster coming close to them.

"So I see." She put away her knives now that she was pressed up tightly against a boy with an ability to destroy the creatures trying to kill her. "The timing wasn't completely awful."

"Thanks. Um, do you want to board-skate with me?"

"That doesn't sound boring at all." She turned around, pushed against the ground like Mimi had done, and found herself rolling along with a lack of friction that appealed to the side of her which had taken up with sharp knives, arrogant princesses, foreign terrorists, and gorgeous princes with anger issues.

Mimi did the same with the other board as Zuko and Ty Lee applied flames to the problem of the monsters. (Where had Ty Lee gotten a fierce-fire oil cabinet and why didn't she bring one for a friend?) Mai would have liked a little more grip between the board and her boots, but she could manage. Mai followed Mimi out the hole in the wall and found that the board was a bit wobbly on its mounts, but that allowed her to steer by leaning. She could work with this, especially since she didn't quite tip the whole board over with her first attempt at a turn, and what didn't kill her gave her more opportunities to almost die.

When they emerged from the greenhouse, Mai found that the rain hadn't lessened at all and the ground was a lot more uneven when rolling over it than walking on it. Zuko hooked an arm around her waist for stability and she pretended that she didn't notice. She called ahead, "Where are we going?"

Mimi leaned around Ty Lee to look back at Mai. "Would you believe I had absolutely no plan beyond getting to you to save your life?"

"Absolutely, without hesitation, yes. But I appreciate you got as far as the 'saving my life' part. Also, what is going on?"

"I want that answered, too," Zuko called out as he leaned forward to join the conversation, which put his chest in extensive contact with Mai's back. (She pretended not to notice and kept pushing their board-skate.) "Why are we fighting hostile foliage and what do they want with you'n'Mai and why is Ty Lee so good with that fierce-fire oil cabinet and where is Azula?!"

Mimi blinked, opened her mouth to presumably offer either a full and satisfying explanation or a really great batch of lies, and then screamed and swerved her board-skate to the left around a leaping monster which Ty Lee hurriedly incinerated. Mai did her best to follow, but the way the board kept moving forward unless someone took action to stop was surprisingly troublesome.

Mai leaned hard to try to turn left but the board tipped, Zuko cried out and let go of her to spin his arms, and the side of a building chose that moment to interject. But Mai dug her boots against the board-skate and gave a twist of her body and the board turned and its wheels struck the wall and for a moment it felt like gravity was no longer below her and then the world righted itself with a bounce Mai felt in her teeth and she was now rolling in a safe direction again except for all the monsters gathered in an ambush and Zuko fell into her hard enough to make her own arms spin.

He yelled, "Look out!" and threw fire, leaving Mai to quickly get her arms tug her arms in close and out of the line of- well, fire. (It was a good thing he was cute.) In the absence of other ideas, she elected to make her board-skate go faster, always a reliable choice for safety in her experience.

Speed-whipped raindrops, flower-petal claws, an overly bouncy stretch of road, and more than a few flames later, Mai and Zuko emerged into a smooth roll along a narrow alleyway with their mortal existences intact and only a little worse for wear. At least the close walls would give them cover from the monsters if Mai managed not to crash.

There was a clatter above and then Mimi's board dropped down from one of the rooftops to land with a disgustingly rainy splash in front of Mai. Ty Lee weaved with her flame-hose and Mimi leaned around to call back, "Sweet wallride! I didn't know you're a skater!"

"Is that what I am? I can't wait for my mother to find out. Where are we going now?"

Mimi pointed ahead. "This lets out in a storage enclosure near the closest cliff edge. So kind of a cramped, hazard-ridden deathtrap situation, but- haha, I'm sure we can- er- maybe die screaming?"

"Never give up," Zuko interjected from his place behind Mai. She was once again aware of how close he was and how warm he felt. "The only way you can lose is to give up."

"You don't need to become an optimist just to make us feel better," Mai retorted. "Also, I think you forgot about dying. That's another way to lose. In related news, there's another army of those monsters waiting for us at the end of the alley and some more coming down from the roofs."

Mimi screamed and whipped back around to see where they were going.

Ty Lee shot some flaming oil to incinerate the monsters ahead.

Zuko shouted, "Down!" and redundantly used a hand on Mai's head to shove her down before he used his other to unleash his flames above them. Then he squeaked, "Oh ash up up up up!" and yanked Mai to her feet by her brand new and thoroughly ruined robes just as they rolled through another flaming puddle left by Ty Lee's weapon.

Mai nodded her thanks and replied, "Off."

Zuko blinked. "Huh?"

Mai pointed to the board-skate they were standing on, drawing attention to the fact it was now on fire and scorching their boots. Then she shoved him so that they both tumbled off the board and rolled to the stone floor of the backlot. Mai shook off her disorientation (and more than a little rainwater) and looked up to see Mimi come to a skidding stop in the courtyard's center. Ty Lee immediately hopped off and took her pyromaniacal campaign against the monsters on an acrobat tour of the place. Mimi ran over to help Mai up, and a moment later Zuko was standing at their side protecting them with his Firebending.

While she had a moment of relative safety, Mai got the lay of the land. It was as Mimi had said, a haphazard enclosure formed by the backs of a handful of buildings and a wall that presumably kept morons and/or wandering two-year-olds from wandering off the cliff edge. It was hard to tell over the fall of the rain and the roar of flames, but the call of the ocean may have been echoing in the distance. There were piles of boxes, large overfilled sacks destined to burst and spill at the worst possible opportunity, a wagon full of molding cabbages, dangerously high stacks of barrels, stray piles of lumber just asking for someone to walk away with it, and a large cart with something steaming in the back and "K. Lee's Manure Hauling" ominously painted on the side.

And Mai's flaming board-skate was rolling towards that last one.

She quickly pinned it to a stop with a knife. Her Auntie Mura had told enough stories at family dinners about what happens when open flames meet industrial-strength fertilizer. In retrospect, that may have been why Father had stopped inviting her over.

Then Ty Lee cartwheeled past the manure cart and came to a stop right behind it, immediately shooting liquid fire in all directions at the monsters spontaneously coalescing in the courtyard. Mai dodged around the monsters and flaming puddles to grab Ty Lee by the shoulders and guide her friend away from manure, somehow not dying horribly in the process.

Then Zuko and Mimi combat-rolled next to the cart, coming up throwing fireballs at the monsters like Tom-Tom threw the peas he never wanted to eat. Groaning, Mai threw herself into a leap over their heads to land near the wagon of cabbages. She pushed it in between the Firebenders and the manure cart as a shield. She thought about bringing over some of the barrels as well, but couldn't be sure they weren't full of some booze with a ridiculously high alcohol content. That would be just her stupid luck at this point.

Satisfied that they were at last in more danger of being killed by the monsters than flaming poo-poo, Mai drew some knives and stepped over to her friend and cousin and guy-who-inexplicably-made-her-stomach-flip-and-lips-pucker, ready to join the hopeless fight with them. She didn't want to die, but if she had to, this wasn't a bad crew to do it with. Maybe their blood would mix together when they were shredded by these monsters. That would be kind of fun in a horrible and unthinkable way. Much better than being incinerated by a fertilizer explosion.

Mai stepped between Zuko and Mimi. Ty Lee rolled to crouch at her feet, brandishing the fierce-fire oil cabinet. Mai grinned at the monsters, despite being soaked by the rain, and said, "Let's finish this."

Then a small bolt of lightning came out of nowhere to strike the manure cart.

Mai hated manure.

Sound became solid and the rain turned to heat and the darkness became light and a truly awful smell drowned all of reality. It was like being hit by a sky bison but a million times worse in every way, including the stink.

Then, when the physical world returned, it was nothing like she remembered. There was no ground beneath her, no friends beside her, no objective to focus on. There was just a roaring wind and the unceasing rain and a rock-strewn beach rushing up to meet her; something about all that seemed important but her thoughts were as adrift as the rest of her.

She fell, wondering what would happen next.

Dimly, the concept snuck up on her that maybe she was about to die, but she had trouble sticking any further thoughts to that. It was too slippery in her head right now, and the ground was approaching very quickly-

And a strong, warm body slammed into hers with a sobering solidness, wrapping around her like a heavy blanket. There was heat and a roar and somehow she was floating. She immediately knew whose arms she had to be in. She didn't know if he was somehow flying or if time had slowed to grant them an infinite instant. Perhaps she had been saved or perhaps she was going to die. Either way, she knew what to do.

She kissed him.

Zuko had been so surprised to find Mai's lips on his own that he almost let them both crash to their deaths on the beach below the cliff.

There was a taste of the sweetness of plums to her, one that drove thoughts of the rain and the sea and the burning manure right out of his senses, but the rightness of their selves being joined this way went beyond any of the physical characteristics. It was the breaking of the dawn across the cold wilderness, a waking from the worst of his nightmares. The fall from the cliff no longer mattered, nor the strange monsters trying to kill them, nor even the war or the Avatar or Uncle or Father or the fact that they were falling-

No, wait, kissing Mai was amazing, but the fall from the cliff was indeed a high-priority matter.

Yet all of a sudden he no longer felt the chill and dampness of the rain, or the exhaustion of the fighting and running, or the confusion of having a day at a festival turn into a war with monsters. He found a heat and power that he hadn't felt since the fight with the Avatar below Ba Sing Se- maybe even great. Such power was as surprising as finding Mai's lips pressed against his own, for in his heart there was no fury, no desperation, nor even good old animal savagery. It was a familiar feeling, somehow, but never before had he associated it with power.

And so at the last minute Zuko was able to kick a concussive wave of fire downward that sent crystallized sand flying and let him and Mai crash with only an unpleasant jolt and a collision between their front teeth.

Ow!

He pulled back from Mai and found that he was quite out of breath, probably because during the kiss he'd completely forgotten about breathing and that was rarely a good idea while Firebending.

Still in his arms, she looked up at him and rubbed at a tooth. "Ow."

"I was thinking the same thing," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Did we blow up?" She blinked.

He nodded.

"We fell?" She looked up at what had once been a very solid, squared cliff and now was a jagged triangle.

He nodded.

"You saved me?"

"I-" His lips moved soundlessly for a moment. "I didn't think. I just knew I had to."

She nodded. "Sounds about right. And I don't mean that in a mean way about you not thinking. Then I kissed you." Her cheeks colored, a color that went very nice with her new rouge robes. "I wasn't thinking, either, but- well, is it corny to say it's when you're at your most heroic that I've always found you most fascinating?"

Heroic?

Him?

Thoughts of the Avatar and Uncle and everything under Ba Sing Se fell on him like the rain, but Mai gripped his arms and drew him so close that no drops could fall between their faces.

"Yes, Zuko," she said, "my hero."

And with her deep eyes and sharp face filling his gaze, he could bring himself to believe her. "I- I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again."

"Then make sure you always find me." She gave him a smirk.

In turn he gave her another kiss.

It was the only answer he trusted himself to give.

But no answer lasts forever, especially one limited by the need to breathe. Also, the monsters probably weren't going to give them the time they need to properly establish whatever this relationship was. Zuko's lips parted from Mai's, and someone started clapping.

Zuko and Mai turned as one to see that Mimi and Ty Lee were serving as their audience (the theater aficionado in Zuko was flattered, but the teenage boy in him wanted to throw fistfuls of sand at them and tell them to get lost). Mimi was the one providing the applause, while Ty Lee was clasping her hands in front of her heart and grinning with all her teeth.

Zuko scowled at them. "What are you so happy about?"

"Happy friends," said Ty Lee.

"True love," said Mimi.

"No more interpersonal drama," Ty Lee added.

"Our lives being saved, some of us in more ways than one," Mimi finished.

"Just in time," Ty Lee put in, "because I lost my fierce-fire thingy when we crashed down here and I miss it."

Zuko looked to Mai. She shrugged. He looked back to Mimi. "How exactly are we saved, Ty Lee's lack of dangerous improvised fire-throwing weaponry aside?"

"Um, the demons- are gone?"

"Those demons?" Zuko pointed at the clusters of flower petals which were clustering across the beach into the suggestions of monstrous bodies with claws at the ready.

Mimi paled. She looked to Ty Lee. Ty Lee looked to Mai. Mai looked to Zuko. Zuko looked ahead and said, "Run."

Mai held Zuko's hand as they all ran.

Azula watched her friends run, fully confident that she was in control of this situation and she would soon be getting everything she wanted.

Fully confident.

So what was this ambivalence keeping her from fully enjoying the show?

Not that she was just a member of the audience, anymore. She'd shot a bolt of lightning at the manure cart, nearly killing Mai and destroying most the back-alley hideaway. The rest of the place had fallen to the beach below in a rain of flame, stone, and the rather unpleasant contents of the cart she'd turned into explosive fuel. Perched at the edge of the newly shortened cliff-side, Azula waited as a trio of demons appeared to float in a triangular formation around her and then said, "There. They all seem to have survived, but they'll be stunned and their defenses are broken. Let the slaughter begin. Remember, Zuko should be left alive, and Ty Lee isn't without value, either."

She should have been feeling more triumphant, or at least have that comforting sense of superiority she enjoyed so much. But, for some reason, all she felt in that moment was wet and cold and tired, and she wasn't even in the mood to indulge in droll sarcasm and wonder if it was because of the downpour she was standing in.

'Our part of the bargain will be fulfilled shortly.' The voice, as usual, existed on its own in the air, unconnected to the any of the three demons and somehow not at all dimmed by the sound of the rain.

"See that you do. The agreement was that you would handle the violence. I do not appreciate having to involve myself to make up for your lapses. You are close to incurring a debt."

It was difficult to tell, between the rain and the lack of true form to their bodies, but it seemed that their frames flinched at that last word.

'The one whose survival you required is interfering. He is protecting The Remnant and the one who would have been her maternal progenitor. He is a capable defender.'

Azula expected to have trouble thinking of Zuzu as capable, but she remembered all too well the battle beneath Ba Sing Se. She herself could not have prevailed against the Avatar and his Waterbender without Zuko's help in delaying them until the Dai Lee's arrival. It didn't take much to bring back the memories of her fight alone against the pair, and it was even easier to remember when she had dueled the Waterbender alone- when a liquid blade had pierced her defenses and came close enough to cutting off her head to take a snippet of her hair, when those arcs of water had easily doused her flames to capture her limbs, when-

-when Azula had been lifted off the ground by those water-tendrils, all her control gone, and she would have been dashed against the ground with bone-shattering force if Zuko had not chosen that moment to switch opponents, rescuing her and taking on the Waterbender until the Dai Li could arrive.

Yes, she had arranged to separate Mai from Zuko before the attack for a reason. And now he was involved.

Zuzu was embarrassing her in front of her new four-dimensional allies.

"My brother is my responsibility," Azula bit out, feeling like she had a rock in her stomach. She wasn't sure why, as his performance against the troubling Waterbender aside, Zuzu was not good enough to defeat her in a fight. "I will make up for the difficulties he is causing."

The spirits collapsed into petal-filled winds and flew down to the final battle.

She let her gaze follow the twirling flower petals down to the beach below, where they were almost lost in the beach-plum bushes sprouting from the sand. Through the foliage, Zuko and Mai were running along with hands clasped, Mimi running behind them and Ty Lee bringing up the rear in a cartwheel. They grabbed some stray plum branches which Zuko and Mimi lit on fire, and then all headed for the remains of the cliff that Azula was standing atop.

Where were they headed with torches?

Quite a bit of debris was scattered along the shore amidst the beach-plum bushes, more than Azula would have expected from just this one explosion- but no, it wasn't all debris. Some of it was the black stone likely left from some previous and vastly inferior civilization. In fact-

Carefully leaning forward in case gravity decided to get insistent with the rest of the plaza, she peered down along the new cliff's edge. Instead of the plain rock she expected, a building had been uncovered. It was set into the cliff and extended into what had to be the hills beneath the village. The building was made of black stone which stood out from the rest of the rock and had the unmistakable look of Sun Warrior architecture.

(Most people didn't recognize it, since the Sun Warriors were extinct and their weaknesses purged from modern Fire Nation society. That was as things should be, but it was the duty and pleasure of royalty to know even the darkest histories.)

Everyone managed to reach the temple alive and took shelter within, Zuko and Mimi leaving their flaming branches at the doorway to create a barrier which would at least temporarily keeping the time spirits out.

It was just a delaying tactic and soon both Mai and Mimi would be dead, Azula was sure, but her stomach unclenched a bit at seeing the struggle continue.

Why?

And how was it that she wasn't in flawless touch with her own emotions as the paragon of mental health she knew herself to be?

She was winning! The chase was nearly over, and she'd managed to roust the crew of her destroyed ship out of the village taverns to form an only slightly tipsy security perimeter. It was only a matter of time until either Uncle turned up or enough of him to confirm death. She'd have to explain the lost warship to Father, but she wasn’t ashamed of her actions, and she was sure she could convince him that there was apparently at least one female in this world willing to procreate with Zuzu and it was worth any cost to make sure they didn't bring Mimi into the world.

Mimi.

Unless-

Unless Azula has misjudged-

No.

Unless Azula had miscalculated-

No, definitely not.

Unless Azula had made a-

No.

She couldn't have made a mis-

No.

She was simply incapable of making a mista-

NO.

That word was entirely off the table. Just because she had made all these plans about removing this stupid slip of a nearsighted girl who called called Azula her 'master.' And who had survived in a dangerous past despite her obvious inadequate upbringing. And so far persisted despite Azula's betrayal, holding onto life against an endless army of paranormal killers. And destroyed an entire Royal-class warship while trapped within it and them swam for shore unhurt. And had just been standing near exploding fertilizer and then fallen off a collapsing cliff and was now nevertheless still capable of running for shelter without so much as a stubbed toe.

Azula stood in there in the rain for a long moment. Then she flipped herself over the edge of the cliff and scrambled down the face of the hidden temple.

It was time for her to fight her own battles.

Izumi should have been happy that Young Dad and Young Mom were finally-

-finally-

-surrendering to the love that was their past, future, and now present. Her existence was finally ensured, but it was more than that. The love was back in their eyes- not for her right now, sure, but they were no longer glaring at the world as if expecting it to crash down around them the first time someone sneezed. There was a relaxation to their forms that almost made Izumi willing to try giving them hugs, even if their teenage incarnations weren't exactly their best selves. Actually, their teenage versions were pretty bad, but they had their moments.

But she had a tough time celebrating stuff when time demons were still trying to kill her.

"Why," she hissed as quietly as she could in a panic to Auntie Ty Lee, "are they still attacking? You said your time demons went away when you got your ancestors together."

"I did say that," Auntie agreed in a whisper. They were both sitting on the roots of a plum tree, one of many which were lining the walls of the weird underground temple and somehow thriving despite the lack of sunlight, air, and good soil. Still soaked from the rain and completely unbothered by it, Ty Lee reached up and yanked a plum free of its branch to take a bite.

Izumi had no idea what this place was or why it was here. It looked Sun Warrior-y, at least in the shape of massive size of this chamber, but the black coloration of the stone -- matching the ruins scattered across this island's beaches -- didn't look like the ruins her father had shown her at all. It gave her the chills, and not just because she was completely soaked and the stone was cold. Between the demon army, Azula's earlier talk of human sacrifices, and the big alter at the far side of the room beneath the largest of the plum trees, Izumi wasn't exactly finding the situation to be a source of confidence- even if it did offer some tasty snacks while they waited to make their epic last stand.

She waited until Auntie got three bites into her plum to see if something helpful was forthcoming before she said said, "So?"

"So this is pretty weird, right?" Auntie took a fourth bite of her plum and raised her eyebrows. "Maybe the spirits who govern time didn't notice Mai and Zuko kissing."

Izumi put her head in her hands.

"Sorry," Auntie whispered. "But I just know what happened on my time trip. I probably seem really smart, but I'm not a spirit-talker or vichar adept or exorcist or anything like that. I'm just doing my best."

Izumi made herself lift her head and nod. "I know. I'm sorry. I just- I don't know what to do now!"

From the front of the temple, Dad called out, "What are you two whispering about back there? Our fire barrier is almost out of fuel. Did you find anything else to burn?" His voice echoed exactly like it did in the Royal Fire Throne Room back home, and Izumi tried to take some conform in that.

"Sorry," Auntie sang back through another bite of plum, "these trees are still alive. You already got all the dry branches, and everything else is stone."

"And trying to burn that sappy wood will just have us breathing smoke," Mom added from beside Dad, right where she belonged. She was still holding his hand.

Dad continued, "Then Mimi should get up here. We're going to have a fight soon and we'll need our other Firebender."

Auntie finished her plum and tossed the pit over her shoulder. She stood and whispered, "I do wonder where Azula is."

Izumi sighed as she got up, too. She doubted a punch to the stomach and a dip in the bay had taken Master out of whatever this was. Had Azula figured out a way to protect the demons from the power of love? And why was she doing this, anyway? Did she hate her brother that much, in these era? Was she jealous that she would haven't have any- but could she have deduced that from anything Izumi had said?

She and Auntie joined Dad and Mom up at the front of the temple. Dad said, "One Firebender on each side of the temple. Mai and Ty Lee are the more maneuverable, so they can draw the monsters in and position them for the me and Mimi to take out."

"Good strategy," Izumi chirped, taking a position opposite her father. "You're a natural leader! Having a girlfriend must agree with you."

But Dad ignored her, his attention instead on Mom. And she was saying, "Good enough for now, but what's our next step? Outlasting them hasn't worked out so far."

"I don't know." Dad shook his head. "I don't know why this is happening, I don't know what these things want aside from hurting you, I don't know what they are, I don't know what any of the people in this weird forgotten temple (myself included) have to do with this, and I don't know what else I don't know."

Mom sighed. "That's a lot of not knowing. And I'm right there with you." She looked over to Ty Lee. "Anything you want to add?" Her eyes flicked to Izumi. "Or our my cousin whose arrival brought secret missions from Azula and random piles of burned flower petals on our ship?"

Izumi raised her hand. "I would like to say that I don't want to die."

Beside her, Auntie shrugged. "I just work here."

Mom sighed again, and this time Izumi could kind of hear why people said they sound alike.

A rainy breeze blew in through the temple's entrance, pushing the last of the flames down, and a storm of flower petals followed to fill the massive space. The flurry broke apart into individual shapes with glowing red eyes and claws and scatterings that a good imagination could turn snarling visages- and Izumi had a very good imagination honed by years of picturing monsters in the palace's dustier corners.

There was no end to the demons. And that seemed like a definite end for the people in this temple.

Izumi said, "So much for the power of love," and unleashed her flames.

Mai respected that Zuko's plan was probably the best option available to them right now, but that didn't mean she liked it even a little bit.

The main problem was that this plan kept her on the defensive. She normally didn't do defensive, except when it came to denying her gentler emotions and that was standard Fire Nation stuff. She was much more of an offensive warrior, using her precision and speed with flying sharp metal to take down enemies quickly and intimidate anyone considering taking up work as an enemy in the near future. But monsters made of floating flowers were immune to flying sharp metal. (She'd checked.) Mai had absolutely no offensive options against them unless she wanted to rely on wordplay and try to give offense with whatever insults she could come up with. But she just didn't have the energy right now, so she just dodged and ran and jumped, avoiding the monsters while luring them in range of the flames of Zuko and Mimi. She also pointedly ignored that there was little point to all this.

To make matters even worse, Mai began to suspect that the monsters were focusing on her and leaving Ty Lee alone. Then she tried to make herself be fair to her best friend and acknowledged that she might just be cranky from all the fighting and defensive activity, coloring her perception of how often she was being attacked.

Then she started really paying attention and confirmed that the monsters were targeting her, giving attention only to Ty Lee when she got in the way of their trying to kill Mai.

"This is no fair," she called out as she threw herself into a roll towards Zuko and let his Firebending incinerate the latest four monsters trying to rip her to shreds. "Why am I the popular one? Can I tag out to catch my breath or something?"

Zuko leaped right over her, kicking out a wave of flames as he did so, and landed between her and the swarm of flower petals. "It's not just you. They're also after Mimi!"

Mai flipped upright just short of the plum trees lining this weird space, making note that she could try climbing them if she ran out of space, and looked over at the other side of the temple's space. Her maybe-cousin-maybe-the-source-of-all-this-nonsense was being so overwhelmed that it was all she could do to defend herself. Mai could barely even see the kid behind all the flames she was throwing out to defend herself.

And no Firebender could keep up that level of activity for long without either overheating herself or running out of breath.

Mai sighed. She had more than enough to deal with right now, and she hated being a hero.

But she went to save her weird cousin anyway.

As she ran past Ty Lee, she used a stiletto to cut the unfashionable headband off her friend's head, then wrapped it around the blade, all while dodging the monsters that tried to manifest in her path. But Zuko was watching out of her, running just behind her and send his fire curving around without ever burning her, and she took advantage of that to dip her knife-wrap into the flames and set it on fire.

Okay. Now she had a flaming knife, at least for a little while.

Mai and Zuko arrived at the inferno that was Mimi. Mai barely slowed her run as she swung her fire-knife at the swarm of flower petals, doing her best to keep the monsters from forming.

Zuko took control of Mimi's fire and threw it outward in a burst which cleared the air above her for a moment, allowing her to collapse to her knees. Mai took her in one arm and used the other to hold out her flaming stiletto like a ward. Zuko pressed his back against Mai on the same side with Mimi, the two of the forming a living fortress around her.

In the moment before the monster attack resumed, Mai leaned over and landed a kiss on her lips.

"Now, now," Azula's voice echoed through the temple, "let's not have anymore of that."

Mai whipped her head around to see the princess striding down the center of the temple, showered by flower petals. She was gripping Ty Lee's limp body by the head.

"Azula? What are you doing?" Zuko said.

"What," Mai bit out, feeling an uncharacteristic anger that she didn't mind showing to this crowd, "did you do to Ty Lee?"

Zuko glanced at her, and then he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, worry not, she's merely unconscious. Consider it a way of protecting her." Azula laid Ty Lee down beside one of the plum trees. "I'm doing this for the greater good of the Fire Nation, not any personal pleasure, and there's no reason to hurt any of you more than necessary."

"You-" Zuko stepped forward and pointed at his sister. "You're working with them? That's why you've been so secretive and manipulative and made us go that stupid festival in the rain?"

"Why?" Mai asked.

Azula shook her head. "It won't matter in a moment. Not to you."

And then the storm of flower petals returned.

Mai hugged Mimi close while she swung what was left of her burning knife. Zuko was punching and kicking and spinning and doing everything he could to burn everything around them. Between the two of them, they managed a stalemate with the monsters.

Eyes still closed, Mimi muttered, "Mom, is that you?"

"No," Mai said as she burned monsters. "I'm Mai."

For some reason, Mimi giggled at that, still without fully waking up. "MoMai, I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed that I went back in time and flowers were trying to eat me. It was terrible."

And then Mai heard Azula charging her lightning. She snapped her gaze back as the princess' arms swung around her, the jagged cold fire crackling around her.

"Well, kid, you're about to die by lightning right here in good ol' Ozai's reign, if that makes your feel better."

And then Mimi squeaked, "Lightning?!" and sprang out of Mai's arms and directly into line with Azula's gaze.

Mai and Zuko screamed and reached out together but neither of them could move fast enough.

Izumi didn't even think about it. She just moved the way she knew she had to.

She'd felt like she was dreaming for a while there. She'd been squeezed between her mother and father, held securely in their arms and protected by their bodies. It had been hard for her mind to pierce through the exhaustion to remember why this was such a relief or what they were protecting her from, but it didn't matter. She'd been back where she belonged, finally.

Even Mom's voice and the tingle of electricity in the air didn't fully wake her. She just knew she needed to act.

Not to save herself.

Not to defeat her enemies.

But to save her family.

Izumi sprang out from between her parents just as Master had taught her, forsaking Father's lessons on stability and calm for the soothing motion of leaps and spins. She opened her eyes to find herself still in the dark temple, still beset by a storm of flower petals forming shapes like demons, still trying to see through sweat-smudged spectacles, still filled with the fear that never quite seemed to leave her.

But that fear couldn't completely fill her. There was a heat that kept her gaze locked on this young Azula and her ears attuned to her parents' cries for her to get out of the way.

And in the space between those feelings, the fear and heat, she found the path for her Inner Fire to unleash all its power.

She channeled it with motions of her arms just like her Father had taught her, motions that even he hadn't been sure of because he'd never managed to create lightning himself. This time, instead of a tension in the air that inevitably led to an explosion in her face, there was the crackle of her own electricity that reached up to dance and embrace her just as her parents had before when they rescued her.

Azula's eyes went wide, flashes of her own birthing lightning reflected in them.

Izumi met that gaze and put a promise in her stare.

And then-

-weirdly-

-Azula smiled.

And Izumi knew, against all odds and expectations and desires for righteous justice, what she had to do.

Both of them moved as one, flinging their arms out to guide the electricity into twin bolts. But they weren't aiming for each other. They both aimed at a spot on the floor exactly halfway between them, creating an explosion which sent heated rock and fire flying upward into the storm of flower petals. Demons screamed and burned as their burning petals fell to the ground

Izumi ran back to her parents and grabbed their hands and pulled them back towards the fading explosion. At the same time, Azula covered them, each step bringing a punch or kick that sent precise arcs of blue flame into the body-shapes of the remaining demons. Izumi let go of her parents came to a stop just as Azula did, each of them taking identical attack postures, their arms all pointed in different directions. After a moment, her parents also straightened and put their backs to the shorter girls, forming a full circle of impenetrable defense, Dad taking his own high-guard stance and Mom twirling a nearly burnt-out makeshift knife-torch with the promise of a killing throw.

The smoke cleared to reveal whole family (or what would be Izumi's family in the future if they actually survived this and time didn't unravel) back together, united against an external threat, even though Izumi still thought Azula was a jerk and was going to make a point of 'accidentally' stepping on her foot later.

The air was mercifully free of petals for a moment. Then a breeze lifted some up from where they had been singed and scattered on the floor, forming three darkened shapes that turned three sets of glowing red eyes on the royal family.

Azula didn't know if these were the same three monsters from the conversation earlier about their mutual debts, but she knew it didn't matter. These creatures were collective.

And, for now, so was Azula's family.

'This is a violation of the arrangement.'

Azula didn't relax out of her stance. "I have made a new arrangement."

And although it was only sealed by a mutual glance between her and Mimi, it was true. It had been forged when she saw that the panicky, near-sighted girl was capable of bending lightning. Azula had no idea how such strength could coexist with all of Mimi's weaknesses, but it did. No one else in all of the Fire Nation but the Royal Family could summon the cold fire, and even if Zuko never lived up to that legacy, his daughter apparently would. Where even the supposedly great Dragon of the West had shrank from a challenge, Mimi had survived everything thrown at her to the point of exhaustion and still found the power and will to stand against Azula with equal power.

And if Mai was capable of producing a daughter like that, then Azula was certainly not going to throw her away without a very good reason.

Azula was glad she had caught the truth of the matter in time.

She had no desire to think on how close she had come to missing it.

So instead she prepared herself to fight-

-and was disappointed when the monsters let out an utterly inhuman screech and faded away, leaving nothing behind but piles of rotted flower petals.

"BULLY!!"

Izumi couldn't help herself. Any fight she didn't actually have to fight was worth celebrating- well, okay, maybe just those she got to win.

Master and Dad and Mom, on the other hand, held their stances for a few moments longer, scowling at their dying enemies for having the gall to lose ahead of schedule, and then they finally acknowledged their weird out-of-nowhere victory and allowed themselves to fall to the floor in exhausted heaps.

Izumi decided that sounded good, too, and happily collapsed. She ended up in an awkward crumple not far from where Dad was twisting his head to scowl at Azula and say, "What arrangement were they talking about? What's been going on?"

Azula didn't even open her eyes. "Oh, it's rather complicated and nothing you need to worry about, but I've been working very hard to protect us from some malevolent spirits. That required a certain level of- deception. You're welcome."

Both Mom and Dad glared at her, but then Mom hissed, "Ty Lee!" She climbed to her feet and ran over to where Auntie had been laid. After a moment, Dad hauled himself up with a groan and followed her.

Izumi took advantage of a moment alone with Azula to say, "That's dragon dung. Why did you betray us? Or is it a compulsive thing and you just have to betray someone every few hours? They might make a tonic for that."

Azula finally opened one of her eyes and surprisingly had it giving out a very solid glare despite its partner not showing up for work. "You earned an alliance with me. I recommend you that you appreciate how rare and beneficial that is."

"And what did you do the spirits to make them go away?" Izumi pushed herself up a bit and tried to give her best Displeased Fire Lord expression, hoping the fact that she had glasses instead of a massive facial scar didn't take anything away from it. "Were you just sitting on a way to destroy them all this time?"

Azula's other eye opened, but her face lost all hostility and defensiveness. "I really have no idea. I expected to have to continue fighting them. This- this doesn't make any sense."

"Auntie Ty Lee kind of implied they only attack when the things are too messed up for me to exist in the future," Izumi though out loud. "But the monsters didn't leave when Dad and Mom got all kissy. They only left after after you rejected them to side with-"

Izumi trailed off and Azula's glare came back in full force.

It wasn't just about making people fall in love. The future was built on all kinds of family, it seemed. And a future without Azula having at least a little tinge of bad-mannered loyalty to her brother and friends wasn't a future where Izumi could be born.

Izumi shook her head. Maybe that was too sentimental. Maybe it was just that history wouldn't happen right unless Dad and his sister could get along for at least five minutes at a time. Maybe Azula had to annoy Dad into spilling some tea on Mom at a critical point to lead to their eventual marriage. Maybe Azula's involvement was purely mathematical.

But maybe Izumi's Master was important in more ways than one.

"You loooooove me," Izumi cooed with a grin.

"I do not. I merely came to recognize you as a worthy heir."

"You finally got your head out of your ashmaker because you loooooove your niece."

"And now I am seriously reconsidering my choices." Azula gave a snapping kick into the air that returned her to her feet, then turned on her heel and made her way to where Mom and Dad were helping Auntie Ty Lee to her feet.

Izumi stuck her tongue out at Azula's back, and then allowed herself a smile. Perhaps the seeds of this family's future happiness were buried further back in the past than any of them had realized.

With a happy but exhausted sigh, Izumi got back on her feet and trotted after her to join the others.

Auntie Ty Lee gave her a big smile as she approached and said, "Zuko says I have only a mild concussion!"

"Uh, good for you?" Izumi clapped, and Auntie actually bowed, nearly tipping over until Mom caught her by her outer skirt.

When Auntie Ty Lee was back on her feet, she looked to Izumi and her face fell. "I guess it's time for you to go, now. Before there's more trouble."

Izumi's smile drooped as much as everyone's rain-soaked hair right now. It was true. If the time demons were really gone now and her future restored, then she should get back to the future as quickly as possible so that nothing else got messed up. But how? Auntie had said that she only was able to go back when-

When she had gone to a temple for her ancestor's wedding and was caught in a thunderstorm near a tree.

Izumi looked around at the temple they were all in. The plum trees lined the walls, leading up to the alter at the back where the biggest tree of them all was somehow thriving. She heard the rain and thunder outside.

She shrugged at Auntie. "It's going to be hard to get a bolt of lightning in here."

"No," Azula said, rubbing her hands together, "it's not. You're my ally, and I'll do what I can to help you."

"What," Dad barked, "is everyone talking about?"

Mom leaned against him, putting arm around his shoulders, and added, "I'm usually very good at taking orders to be ignorant, but this is getting ridiculous. What's going on?"

Izumi looked at her parents -- these mean and obtuse and utterly beautiful teenager versions of them, anyway -- and realized she was going to miss them. "I- I'm not actually your cousin. I'm- I-"

But what could she say to keep the future on track?

"A rogue spirit," Azula finished.

Everyone's gaze snapped to her.

"She is?" Dad said.

"She is?" Mom said.

"I am?" Izumi said.

"That's a good way of explaining it," Auntie Ty Lee said and more nodding than was strictly necessary.

"Yes," Azula replied with a straight face that wasn't at all suspicious. "She's from a plane of existence not our own, trapped here due to spirit politics. Normally, I'd be scandalized at the idea of getting involved in supernatural matters, but we did just kill the Avatar, and a certain amount of repercussions must be expected."

Dad flinched at that but didn't say anything.

Azula continued, "Mimi here is a minor love spirit who came into conflict with less savory enforcer entities, and I had to manage the situation carefully to reach a peaceful conclusion that wouldn't end with all of us cursed. I have achieved that with my usual elegance and aplomb, and as endearing as Mimi can be, it's time for humans and spirits to once again part, as is the natural order of things."

Azula turned to Izumi, put a hand on her head, and said, "It's been educational. Farewell."

Izumi bowed formally. "The honor has been mine."

Azula nodded and turned away-

Izumi tacked her with a hug and whispered in her ear, "Thank you, Auntie Azula." Then she let go and stepped back to give a completely professional nod.

Azula stared at her for a long moment, and then went over to the center of the temple, began taking deep, steady breaths, and started moving in the form that would allow her to summon lightning.

Auntie Ty Lee stepped forward to wrap Izumi in her own crushing hug, her voice thick with emotion as she said, "I'm so glad I got to meet you. I know I can look forward to a bright future." She sniffled, let go of Izumi, hiccuped, hugged Izumi again, actually sobbed in her shoulder for a few seconds, and then let go and ran out of the temple wailing, "I can't handle goodbyes!"

"Thanks," Izumi called after her. "For-" She had to stop to deal with own little sniffle. "For everything!"

Then it was just Izumi and her parents.

Mom sighed. "Was any of what Azula said actually true?"

"Enough of it," Izumi managed to laugh. "The stuff that matters, anyway."

"Well, I don't do sentimental goodbyes and since you're not actually my cousin I see no need to even feign emotional investment in this." Mom nodded at her. "So I'll just say to be good, but not too good." Her lips might have quirked in something like a smile.

Izumi returned the expression. "I might quote you on that."

Dad stepped free of Mom's embrace and looked Izumi straight in the eyes with a frown. "You."

Izumi found herself standing a little straighter.

Dad nodded. "Thank you. For- for what you did. Whatever you did." His head inclined towards Mom. "For this."

Izumi couldn't stop herself from throwing herself at him in a hug that made him stumble back a few steps. "It was my pleasure. For real." She held on until he gave her an awkward pat on the back, and that was enough of a difference from how her father usually responded to her embrace to remind her that it was time to go.

She released him, gave one last wave to Mom and Dad both, and ran over to the alter beneath the tree at the far end of the temple.

Azula was surrounded with electricity now, keeping it circling her with arm motions that reminded Izumi of how Kya would practice her Waterbending. Yes, it was time to go home to a time when the crown princess and a Waterbender with an Airbender father could have fun together.

Izumi climbed up on the alter and sat down in the center. The big tree loomed over her, filling her nostrils with the fragrant scent of ripe plums. She smiled and, unable to resist one last bit of drama, called out, "I'll be back."

Then Azula fired her lightning and everything went light.

Zuko squinted against the glare and raised one arm against the wind that suddenly picked up within the temple. With the other arm, he grabbed Mai to pull her close to him.

The tree had somehow absorbed Azula's lightning rather than being blown apart by it. The crackling cold fire danced up its trunk and all along the branches, tendrils of light jumping up to reach between branches and form shapes beyond human recognition. The crackling grew louder and the hanging plums exploded into sparks to shower the silhouette that had once been Mimi.

Then a globe of dark light erupted from that silhouette’s heart to fully enclose her form, something like a storm raging in the center until an explosion at its deepest point turned the glowing darkness into pure true light.

It took a moment for Zuko's vision to clear, and when the temple returned to his sight, Mimi was gone and the giant plum tree was somehow unscathed from Azula's lightning. But there was a portion of the alter missing where Mimi had been sitting, a precise circular and curved crater glowing with residual heat.

He supposed that supported the wild story they expected him to believe.

"What," Mai said from next to him, "do you suppose she meant by that?"

Zuko could only shake his head. He didn't understand any of this. He didn't even understand relatively simple matters like the war and the Avatar and Uncle and- Well, he still had a lot to think about, and rogue love spirits were hardly a big concern now that they weren't nearly getting him killed.

He realized he was still holding on to Mai, so he guided her to turn and walk with him out of the temple.

Azula caught up before they even reached the door. "I suppose this means you two are now an official romantic pairing."

Zuko ignored his little sister.

Beside him, Mai said, "What makes it official? The kissing? Or do we need to get some kind of a vow witnessed? Or file some paperwork?"

"Must you," Azula groaned, "respond to everything with irreverence?"

"Serves you right," Zuko found himself putting in, "for keeping us in the dark about all this."

Mai giggled -- actually giggled -- and dropped a kiss on the corner of lip. Azula gave a loud swallow and hurried ahead of them.

Well, at least one thing made some sense in this world.

They emerged on the gloomy beach to find the rain reduced to a haphazard drizzle and Ty Lee sitting on a round rock that was making snoring sounds. Beyond her, armored Fire Navy soldiers -- or at least most of them were wearing most of their armor -- had formed a perimeter around the temple.

No, wait, that wasn't a rock Ty Lee was sitting on-

"The soldiers guys found General Iroh," Ty Lee called out a cheerful wave. "I explained it's all over and Mimi is gone so he said that's good and needed to take a nap."

Zuko blinked and turned to Azula. "What happened? How did Uncle get free?"

"Ah, yes, you were in town when Mimi destroyed our ship. We're going to have to wait here until another one can be sent for us." She gave her head a tilt. "I suppose it's a good thing Uncle survived. It's going to be hard enough to explain the lost ship without causing additional spirit trouble. What do you think- we report that a freak storm destroyed it and swear the crew to secrecy on pain of treason?"

Zuko looked at his sister.

Then he looked to the girl in his arms. Mai looked back with mischief in her eyes.

So he ignored everything he was annoyed, said, "Do whatever you want," and proceeded to make out with his girlfriend.

"Aw," he distantly heard Ty Lee say, "they're so cute together."

"I can tell this is going to get very old, very fast," Azula muttered before she marched off to take charge of the situation like she always enjoyed.

And most of him, at this moment in time, found his own little bit of happiness. One that might carry him into an uncertain future.

Elsewhere, elsewhen, a homesick girl woke up in a comfortable bed. Her eyes opened with all the speed and smoothness of a cranky sky bison, finding herself in yet another temple chamber. But this one wasn't dark and damp and smelling of plums. This one was light with the reflected glow of the sun off white stone and caressed by the breeze that must have been sneaking in behind the sunlight. And the smell was a mix of nearby forests and steeping jasmine tea.

She had barely lifted her head off the pillow when she heard her Dad -- her real Dad, voice deeper and warmer in a way that unlocked a lifetime of reassuring memories -- say, "There's my little girl."

Cold and steady hands helped her sit up and Mom leaned over her to coo, "Are you okay? Anything hurt? You really scared us."

Izumi looked up the familiar faces, their love for her practically glowing from them. They looked at her like she was their world, and she realized she was home.

"I'm fine, Mom." She wiped at her eyes. "I'm happy I'm back."

Mom stared at her. "We're still at the Western Air Temple. But we can take you home if you want. We can have the Royal Physician look over you."

Izumi leaned back on the pillow and took her Mom's hand. "Here is good enough. I bet I had Bumi and Kya worried."

"We'll let them know you're okay," Dad said. "You just rest. Here, you should have some tea." He turned around to busy himself nearby with the clink of tea-ware.

Mom laid her other hand on top of Izumi's. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you remember what happened? With the tree?"

Izumi couldn't help but grin. "I remember. But do you- do you remember Mimi?"

Mom's eyes went wide and Dad dropped the teacup.

"Bully," Izumi laughed. "I told you I'd be back."

END