Chapter Text
The hollow bellow of a watchman’s horn startles Zuko awake. He’s on his feet in seconds, crossing his room to snatch his dao where they hang over the empty fireplace.
He crosses the room and presses an ear to his door, listening in the hallway. There is the sound of running guards, their armor clinking as they hustle down the hall. This area must still be secure.
Zuko opens the door and steps out, where Suki is already waiting.
“Zuko,” she says, her eyes deadly serious. “Bad news.”
“Assassin?” Zuko guesses.
Suki’s mouth hardens into a thin line. She turns around briefly to watch more guards rush down the hallway. “I’m not sure what her intentions are. It’s your sister.”
“Azula?” Zuko gasps. The last time he visited his sister at the mental institute, she hadn’t spoken a word to him. She’d just stared a bit past his ear, her eyes unfeeling.
Suki unfurls her fans. “She was headed for your room before a watchman spotted her. She is already in the main palace. We thought she was an assassin, at first, until she started throwing blue fire. It’s definitely her.”
“The institute is days away. When did she escape? Why was I not notified?”
Suki shakes her head. “I don’t know. But we need to get you somewhere more secure. I have no doubt she’s coming for you.”
Down the hall, the patter of the guards’ boots is interrupted. It’s replaced by the ringing of swords being drawn out of sheaths and shouting.
Suki curses and grabs Zuko’s arm. “She’s made it here already! Come on, Fire Lord.”
Blue fire flashes around the corner where the fighting is, and Zuko rips his arm away from Suki. “Call the other Kyoshi warriors. Azula won’t stop until she finds me. None of the guards stand a chance against her. I’ll hold her off until you come back.”
Suki’s brow furrows, she digs in her heels. “We’ll restrain her after you’re safe. I’m not letting you face her, she’s too strong.”
Zuko shakes his head. “That’s exactly why I have to face her! Now, are you going to follow orders or not?”
An arc of lightning blast from the hallway, and Zuko hears someone scream in pain. He doesn’t wait for Suki’s answer, he just starts running.
As he turns the corner, he sees his sister, awake and alive for the first time in months. She’s gripping the face of a guards helmet, slamming his head into the wall. The man crumples at her feet.
She turns around and her eyes catch Zuko’s, wild and terrified. “Zuzu!” She yells when she sees him. “Help me!”
Zuko realizes that although Azula is no longer catatonic, she is definitely still not in her right mind. “All of you!” He shouts to the hallway, to the few guards that are still standing, “go! I’ll talk with my sister.”
The guards hesitate, but Azula’s arms drop at her sides and she begins to sob, fat tears falling down her cheeks.
Zuko approaches her and takes her hands. Her hands are pasty and pale, her fingernails are jagged. She looks thinner than the last time Zuko had visited her.
“Azula,” Zuko whispered, a pit in his stomach. When had she gotten this bad?
“Zuko!” Azula wails. “Mom’s going to kill me!”
Zuko stills, his back rigid. “What? Azula, mom is gone.”
“No,” Azula insists, shaking her head violently. “She’s alive. She’s following me. She hates me, and she’s going to kill me.”
Zuko’s mouth hangs open. He is floored. He’s never seen Azula like this, not even the day the war ended, during their Agni Kai.
Azula seems incapable of stopping herself. Her words flow out of her. “I have her letters. I read them all. Everything made so much sense. Mom always liked you better because you’re not his son! She never loved dad, or me. She loved you! You’re her real son, you’re that man’s son. And now you’re Fire Lord. Now her plan is almost complete. There’s just one, tiny little problem in her way!”
“Azula, what are you-”
“Me!” Azula gasps, her hands gripping wildly at the collar of her loose robes. She’s smiling, like she has discovered some secret.
Zuko stares at her. Her hair is tangled and matted. Her face is red and blotchy from sobbing. Before, Zuko said Azula looked “off.” Now, she just looks insane.
“She’ll kill me any day now. It’s a matter of time.”
Zuko hears metal fans flicking open behind him. Suki’s voice rings down the hall. “Step away from the Fire Lord.”
Azula’s wild eyes tear away from Zuko, the smile falling from her face. “Oh,” she gasps, just a small intake of breath.
Zuko holds a hand out, palm towards the Kyoshi warriors, stopping them. But it’s too late.
Azula begins to laugh, throwing her head back to the ceiling. Her chest heaves with the effort, she sucks in great lungfuls of air.
“Oh, how stupid of me! I’m acting like you, Zuzu! So daft of me to come to you for help. To trust you. You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“Azula-”
“You locked me in that institute and pretended to visit me once a month so no one would question you when Ozai’s real heir suddenly dropped dead. When the poor, mentally unstable princess so tragically passes away. Oh, the poor Fire Lord. He did everything he could…”
“Zuko!” Suki protests behind him. “Get behind us!”
“Don’t!” He orders. “Don’t hurt her, she doesn’t know what she is saying. Can’t you see she’s lost it?”
That sets Azula off even more, and she clutches her belly as she laughs and laughs. When she gets herself under control, she manages to splutter: “drop the act, Zuzu. I admire your commitment, though. Up to the bitter end! I didn’t think you had it in you. Well, I’m not going to make it easy.”
She steps back and rips a bolt of lightning between her fingers, her smile is all teeth.
Many things happen at once. Zuko is tackled from behind and thrown to the stone floor. A bolt of lightning arcs over his head, and eight metal fans are thrown in sync. Azula dives out the window, and the sound of shattering glass echoes down the hall.
Zuko throws Suki off of his back, because he knows it was her that tackled him to the ground, and stands up to throw himself out the window.
He rolls out into the garden and gets to his feet in time to watch Azula scramble over the palace walls.
Zuko is hunched over a map at the low tea table in his bedroom. Suki carefully positions little markers that represent his troops.
“We’re not going to capture her,” Zuko says, his stomach hollow.
Suki nods, looking grim. “Not without using deadly force. It’s not too late to rescind that order.”
“I can’t.” Zuko mutters. “I can’t kill her.”
Suki nods, and says nothing.
“Did you hear what she came to tell me?”
“Just the end of it. Something about someone trying to kill her?”
“Our mom. She was obviously crazy, but I think I pieced together her point of view. She’s convinced herself that my mother had an affair, that I’m a bastard, and that she is the true heir to the throne.”
Suki scoffs. “Isn’t that a convenient delusion?”
“She believed it. She thought I was in on it. She thinks I want her dead.”
Suki pats Zuko’s arm. “We’ll find her, eventually. We’re on an island. Where can she possibly go?”
Zuko nods, his eyes dry. He sags forward.
“Get some rest,” Suki suggests. “I’ll wake you if there are any reports about her. I promise.”
Zuko nods and watches her leave the room. She closes his door silently, and he hears whispers in the hall as she speaks to the guards posted outside of his bedroom.
Zuko stands from the tea table and slips into his bed, where he stares at the red canopy above him. His heart squeezes in his chest. There have been many times in his life where he lay awake at night, bitter and alone. But tonight, it was different. Before, he thought his family hated him, didn’t want him. Now, Azula felt that way too. And it was his fault.
The truth is, he really did lock her away in that institute. Because he didn’t want to see her, or think about her. He only visited once a month to ensure she was still alive, and to tell himself that he was doing this for her own good. He’d abandoned his sister, and now her mind is broken.
Zuko throws the sheets off of himself and perches at the edge of his bed, his bare feet settling on the carpet. Azula is insane, but she’s smart. She may end up killing someone. Or telling the wrong people her story. People who may believe her. People who are looking for an excuse to take Zuko off the throne.
If anyone looked into his past, what are the chances that Azula’s imaginings had a grain of truth? She’d mentioned letters. Were those just part of her delusions, or was it possible that Zuko…
In a sudden panic, Zuko stalks back to the tea table and throws the map to the floor. The miniature troops scatter across the room. He pulls a sheet of paper from the drawer in the table and begins to write.
Uncle,
Azula escaped the institute. I’ve never seen her like this. She’s convinced our mother is trying to kill her. She broke into the palace today to tell me that I’m not our father’s son—that mother had an affair.
You knew mother for decades. Is there any truth in Azula’s words? She said she read letters, that’s why she has these suspicions.
I have troops looking for her now, but I need to know. Am I Ozai’s son?
Your nephew,
Zuko
Zuko rolls the paper and stamps it with a wax seal. He walks to his bedroom door, opening it again. Suki is standing guard, alongside Ty Lee. They both look at him, disapproving.
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” Ty Lee reminds him.
“I know,” Zuko agrees. “But please. Can you send this letter? To Ba Sing Se. It can’t wait.”
Ty Lee nods, and takes it.
Zuko bids them goodnight and closes the door. He drops back into his bed and stares at the canopy until dawn breaks.
There is no sign of Azula for three days. Then, guards at the institute find a dead hawk in the woods three miles from the campus. Its wings were burnt and the message it carried was missing. Azula had intercepted their warning to the palace moments after her escape. She’d known they would send one.
Suki and Zuko leave for the institute at once.
“She had a plan,” Suki reminds Zuko as they enter Azula’s ransacked room.
“I’ll find her. I have to.”
“How?” Suki demands, spreading her palms out. “If we keep bumbling around like this, eventually someone is going to get hurt. Azula will come back. Or worse, she’ll make friends.”
“We’ll find her,” Zuko asserts, massaging his temples. His headache is getting worse.
“We need to put out a missing person report. The people deserve to know she has escaped. It’s been three days, Zuko. They’ll find out either way! The civilians here already know. How long can you count on their silence?”
A sharper pain stabs through Zuko’s thoughts. For three days, he has had little sleep. He’s barely had time to eat. Suki isn’t wrong, she just doesn’t fully understand the security risk. If the people see that he can’t even keep his sister in order, how can they trust him to run an entire nation?
“Azula is crafty, I get it,” Zuko mutters.
“She’s not just crafty, she’s brilliant. Even I can admit that. I know she’s gone off the deep end, but she’s probably the smartest person you and I know.”
Zuko huffs. “We have the entire palace’s resources. I know we can find her, we just need one more day.”
Suki shakes her head and glances around the room. It’s small. There is no window and the door is metal. The walls have been reinforced with steel as well, to prevent any “accidental” fires. Even still, there are places stained black with soot. The furniture is sparse, just a single bed and a chest of drawers. The drawers hold extra robes and socks. There is nothing else.
“Do you really think you can outstrategize her? After she escaped from this place? Some metal prison surrounded by guards?” Suki asks.
Zuko clenches his fists at his sides, suddenly angry. “If you don’t think I can do it, just say it!” He shouts. “I get it, Azula is perfect and smarter than me. But I’ve escaped her before. If you can remember, I escaped a metal prison myself, you were there!”
Suki is quiet, staring at Zuko. He takes several long breaths and then his shoulders droop. “I’m sorry,” he says, “I don’t mean to yell.”
“I’m sorry too,” Suki replies, her eyes sincere. “You don’t need my criticism right now. You need my help.”
“You have helped.”
“I know. I’ve done everything I can to help. Which is why I know that there’s nothing more you or I can do. It’s time we call in some favors.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zuko,” Suki says quietly. “Who is someone we both know that could contend with Azula’s intellect? Who can outstratigize her? Who was the mastermind of our metal prison break?”
Zuko’s eyes widen in understanding. “Oh.”
“Send a hawk today.”
Dear Sokka,
I know you’re busy in the South Pole. I’m sorry for pulling you away from your duty. But I need your help, if you can spare it. Azula has escaped, and she’s really lost her mind. It’s been three days. It’s only a matter of time before something happens.
If you’re too busy, I understand.
Zuko
Dear Zuko,
I’m on my way.
Sokka