Chapter 17: Crossroads

Ty Lee was alone in the courtyard moving through her forms—as she was too tired to spar with anyone today—when she spotted the Fire Lord walking outside. She immediately stopped what she was doing as she locked eyes with her lover, who was clearly distressed. One look at Azula's aura told her everything she needed to know, and she ran to meet her halfway.

Upon reaching the girl, Ty Lee took Azula's hands, shaking with anger, into her own. Rubbing her thumbs along the backs of the firebender's hands in a soothing pattern, she gazed into amber eyes, and Ty Lee thought she had never seen Azula look so angry and confused. Impulsively, she wrapped her arms around the prodigy and pulled her into her body. "What's wrong?" Ty Lee breathed into the girl's hair.

Still tense, Azula let her head rest on the acrobat's shoulder, and her fingers clutched at the fabric of Ty Lee's tunic. "I have Avatar blood in me," Azula whispered angrily, her grip tightening around the cloth. "I have that treacherous blood running through my veins."

Ty Lee furrowed her brow in confusion, more than a little concerned about Azula's mental health, especially in light of all that went on last night. "What do you mean?"

"My mother," she gritted out. "Her grandfather was Avatar Roku."

Ty Lee's eyes widened in surprise. She hugged Azula a little tighter, unsure of what to say. She ran her hands up and down Azula's back in an effort to relax the tense muscles beneath the girl's robes.

They stood together under the late morning sun for long moments, Ty Lee only aware of Azula's breathing and her tumultuous aura—muddied red and dark green—surrounding them. The acrobat gently pressed her fingers into certain pressure points along the Fire Lord's back. After awhile, as Azula's chi began to flow better, the Fire Lord calmed down slightly, her breaths becoming more even.

"I don't know what to do, Ty Lee," Azula admitted in a rare display of insecurity. Her voice was quiet, and Ty Lee thought that it sounded pained.

"You don't know what to do about what?"

"Everything."

Ty Lee continued to move her fingertips along the firebender's back, encouraging proper chi flow, as she pulled back slightly to look at Azula. The young monarch was clearly troubled. "Let's go inside," she suggested. "I think you need a full chi-enhancement session."

"I can't. I have a war meeting in less than an hour."

"Postpone it." Her tone was firm but gentle. "The war meeting can wait. You need some time to rest and think about things."

Azula searched Ty Lee's eyes for a moment before dropping her gaze and letting out a long breath. "Alright," she agreed.

"Come on," Ty Lee said with an encouraging smile, taking Azula by the hand and leading her back to the Fire Lord's chambers.

Sitting silently in his meditation and working to purify his spirit, Aang had just finished working with the pervasive energy in his subtle body when Avatar Roku's soothing voice sounded gently in his mind. "Hello, Aang."

The airbender brought his awareness in front of him to see his previous incarnation and smiled slightly. "Hello, Roku."

"You're doing better, I see."

"I still have a ways to go, but, yeah, I'm getting there," Aang said with a slight nod. "Roku, you said you have a connection to your descendents. Do you know if Zuko is okay?"

The firebender's eyes smiled a bit. "As okay as he can be. Azula has him locked in the dungeon beneath the palace, but he's not in any immediate danger. His mind has remained strong, and he has never wavered in his path."

Aang felt incredibly relieved at the news. "That's good. And Azula? Were you able to reach her?"

Roku nodded gravely. "Through her dreams, I've been able to contact her."

"And?" the boy asked hopefully.

"She's stubborn, just like Sozin, but I know I've made an impact," he said with a rueful smile. "As you know, there are two strains of blood—two strains of spirit—fighting for dominance within her. The spirit of the Fire Lords is stronger in her and has been for most of her life, but she is not at peace because of this. It's been wearing on her recently, and she's been nearing a breaking point. One thing has kept her from slipping completely—the one person who has unknowingly kept the spirit of the Avatars alive in her over the years."

"Ty Lee," Aang nodded as he realized who Roku was talking about. "Through my energybending, I can see more clearly the imprint Azula left on my spirit. There is good in her, but it's buried deeply. It seems to come out more when she's with Ty Lee." He pursed his lips as he paused to think for a moment. "But that isn't enough, is it?"

"No, it isn't enough. She must consciously make the decision to fight against her darker side, like Zuko did. Otherwise, the world will continue to spiral further out of balance along with her."

Aang closed his eyes as the memory of his failure to stop Azula the last time they met, and a wave of guilt crashed down on him. "I wish there was more I could do."

"You've done all you can for now, as have I. The next move belongs to Azula. For now, you must continue to focus on healing your spirit."

Azula had stripped down to her underwrappings and was now laying face down on her bed with her eyes closed. Ty Lee was currently straddling the Fire Lord's backside and gently pressing her palms against points on either side of her spine. Azula's aura was still rather tumultuous, and in this position, Ty Lee could easily feel the other girl's chi with her own hands. This was different from the other times the acrobat had done this for Azula. While Azula was rarely balanced energetically, never had her lover been quite this conflicted before. Pooling her own chi into hands, Ty Lee lovingly moved them along the firebender's body in an effort to balance Azula's energies.

Since they were children, Ty Lee had been aware of another energy in Azula that occasionally wrestled for dominance, and the acrobat had always hoped to see more of it. It usually only happened when in the private company of herself and Mai. And since they became lovers, she had been seeing that side of her more and more. But she still wasn't at peace, and Ty Lee still feared that Azula would end up like Ozai—completely ruthless and only caring about herself and her own power—and that she would lose the girl she loved. After all, one of those energies would have to give eventually.

And now with this revelation of Azula's ancestry, it all made sense, and Ty Lee sensed this might be her best chance to get Azula to find her own path and not the one her father had forced on her and nearly forced on Zuko.

As Ty Lee worked, Azula tried to focus on her lover's touch and not the conflicting thoughts and feelings that were vying for her attention. The acrobat's hands moved up and down her back, palming along her energy lines. Azula's breath deepened as she felt Ty Lee's chi move her own. Slowly, Azula began to relax, becoming only aware of her breath, her body, and the skilled, loving hands touching her.

After an hour of Ty Lee working to balance and enhance her energy, most of Azula's tension and anger faded, giving way to the mental clarity that came from having her chi enhanced. Ty Lee's hands brushed the excess energy up and out from Azula's back three times before coming to rest along either side of the girl's torso. Leaning down, she lightly pressed her lips against the back of Azula's neck before nuzzling against her hair. Azula let out a contented sigh.

"Feel better?" Ty Lee murmured.

Azula hummed. "A bit."

"Good," Ty Lee replied, placing a soft kiss against Azula's jaw before pulling back and raising her hips enough for the other girl to turn onto her back.

As Ty Lee lowered herself back down to straddle Azula's waist, the Fire Lord brought her hands to rest on the acrobat's hips. Ty Lee lightly took hold of Azula's forearms and rubbed soothing patterns along them with her thumbs. Their eyes met, and Ty Lee smiled softly down at her lover. She saw that the tension had faded from Azula's face, but there was still some confusion showing in her golden eyes.

They stayed together quietly like that for some time as Ty Lee patiently waited for Azula to speak.

"Ty Lee," Azula began quietly. "What do you think I should do?"

"About what?" she asked, trailing her fingers up Azula's arms before threading them together with the Fire Lord's. Her thumbs continued to circle lightly against the firebender's skin.

Azula's brow furrowed. "I don't know exactly. I guess it's just strange to find out after all these years that I'm descended from an Avatar. It bothers me."

"I don't think that's a bad thing, Azula," Ty Lee said, raising Azula's left hand up to her mouth and brushing her lips along the girl's knuckles. "Avatars are powerful too, just like Fire Lords."

"Power has nothing to do with it," Azula argued, although her tone didn't carry any sharpness—Ty Lee's feather-light kisses keeping her frustration at bay. "The Avatar is the Fire Nation's number one enemy."

"It wasn't always like that," Ty Lee replied softly.

The words struck a sudden chord with Azula, and she quickly closed her eyes to think. Ty Lee gently lowered their hands to rest against Azula's belly, allowing the Fire Lord to focus.

In the quiet moments that followed, Azula mulled over Sozin's testimony in her mind. Roku and Sozin had been friends—best friends. Yet, somewhere along the way, that changed. "Why did it change?" Roku could not see the greatness of Sozin's vision. Still, he had spared him because of their friendship. Finally, Azula realized the cold truth—Sozin had betrayed his friend and left him to die all for his own ambitions.

It was a trait that her grandfather Azulon had inherited and as well as her own father. She swallowed as she realized a bit uncomfortably that she did as well. She had left her brother to die at the Boiling Rock, and had it not been for Mai, he would have. She had been intent on killing Mai for stopping her, and had it not been for Ty Lee, she would have.

And what for? Just so her father would be happy with her? But she knew her ambitions couldn't be realized if she didn't have her father's favor. And now—now he was gone.

Ty Lee saw the flare of dark blue in Azula's aura then and squeezed Azula's hands a little tighter, pulling her from her thoughts. The Fire Lord opened her eyes to see concerned gray looking back at her.

"You okay?"

Azula sighed and looked at their interlocking hands. "No," she replied quietly before sighing again and looking up at the canopy above her bed. "There's so much to do, but I don't know what do about any of it right now. Roku told me I have to end the war or else I would pay the ultimate price," she finished with a scowl.

Ty Lee chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully for a moment. "Forget about what Roku said for a minute. Do you want to end the war or continue it?"

"I want the war to end. 100 years is too long. The world should be unified under the Fire Nation by now. And I'm so close to doing that."

"That's true," Ty Lee said, gathering her courage, knowing what she was about to say could greatly upset Azula. "But it's obvious the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. If that's what everyone wanted, there wouldn't have been so much fighting the last 100 years. The world is really unbalanced and unhappy. And so are you."

Azula closed her eyes. Surprisingly, she didn't feel angry at what Ty Lee had said. She knew what the girl had said was the truth—she wasn't happy. The only thing that made her happy anymore was the girl currently sitting on top of her, but she knew that wouldn't be enough in the long run.

"I don't know what to do," Azula finally said, once again opening her eyes to look at Ty Lee. The acrobat thought she had never seen Azula look so confused. "I can't seem to make decisions as easily as I used to."

"When did that start to happen?" Ty Lee asked, picking up her tracing random patterns with her thumbs along the backs of Azula's hands.

Azula thought over the last few months, trying to pinpoint it. "The day of Sozin's Comet—after I fought Zuko," she realized. "I haven't really known what I'm supposed to do with him. My father would have expected me to kill him—those were his orders!"

"I remember," Ty Lee said with a sad nod, recalling Ozai's decree after Zuko's defection. It had been reiterated again before they had departed for the Boiling Rock. "So why haven't you had him executed?"

Azula turned her head and glowered at the mattress. She still didn't know. All she did know was that it didn't feel right. It was why she persuaded him to fight alongside her in Ba Sing Se instead of bringing him back to the Fire Nation as a prisoner. She had found a way around Ozai's orders that both immensely pleased her father and gave Zuko what he wanted. And for the first time, she consciously realized that she had been trying to piece back together her broken family.

But that was impossible now.

An unexpected wave of regret welled up in her, and she grit her teeth in frustration at the feeling. Noticing the shift in Azula's aura, Ty Lee tried to soothe her. "It's okay, Azula," she whispered before drawing the firebender's hands back up to her lips and placing light kisses against her fingertips. "Don't worry so much, you'll figure it out. I'll help you if you need me to. It'll be my responsibility once I become your consort, you know," she finished with a smile.

Azula couldn't help but smile slightly in response, and once again felt grateful that she had Ty Lee with her. She slowly disentangled her hands from Ty Lee's and brushed her fingers along Ty Lee's smiling lips. She then wrapped her arms around the girl and pulled her down to lie atop her body until they were face-to-face. Their breath mingled, and Ty Lee's eyes shined with depthless love. Azula gazed intently at the acrobat. She knew she had a lot to think about still, but Azula didn't want to think anymore for the time being. She just wanted to get lost in Ty Lee. She leaned up and pressed her lips against the acrobat's, drawing her lover impossibly closer, and everything else melted away.