"Hello," he said. Azula lifted an eyebrow with a cheerful countenance & teased, "Why so formal?" Ozai sighed but smiled, too. The question had sounded rhetorical, anyway.

"It's…I've been saving this for a long time, but I figured I'd tell you, now that it's been done," he spoke in multiple breaths. From the words, Azula guessed it was a good thing, but it probably had a likelihood of surprising her. "Then I too have a question. Why did you test the robot in public that day, which led to me officially becoming a superhero?" she responded, the brightness of her face appearing to have toned down.

"Firstly, have you had any solid idea for why I asked you to come with me? To New York?" her father asked.

"To help you with the company & all…& get a job at L.Y. & soon take your place & carry your legacy of animal robot factories forward," she answered draggingly, but she ruled out the intention to insult him. Still, she had initially refused to travel abroad.

He chuckled in response, "No. I can't force a horse to drink even if I've dragged it to the water's edge!"

"You're joking, right?" She sounded serious again, words flowing with average quickness.

"Your powers. People here love them. I got you to tag along to find a place to fit in here. I had considered this after…the accident, although the FF hadn't yet been formed. Your mother & I & our friends worked to make L.Y. Weapons grow & go international, for three reasons."

"I'm listening," she filled in with extremely intent eyes.

"The first two are to help keep people safe, & to provide for anyone in need in our family. Which you would probably guess correctly. But these aren't the most important." He took a deep breath for he uttered, "I'm doing this primarily for you. To make up for your life all these years. I knew how hard it was to you to mingle with kids after it happened, & I felt the same tug in my chest as you did."

Azula was definitely perplexed now, "Dad, wow…you…" She stuttered a number of times.

"Your superhero license is my 'sorry' for what I did to you. When you got your powers, word spread at home about us being dangerous. &..about me being cruel. Apparently, it was even in the papers but the authorities didn't allow it to go on; we were lucky they did their job to protect us. But the beauty of the people here even back then was they welcomed anything 'new' to them, however strange. I had my eyes fixed…on bringing you here when the company was big enough, to see if you yourself could somehow do the people well with your unique abilities. That happened when you jumped off this building that day, & fought beside the FF." He was smiling now.

"Go have fun being the Blue Dragon," he concluded.

She wasn't crying, but couldn't help but throw her arms around him very tightly. "Thanks so much, Dad," she added to her loving gesture.

She was touched by what he said next, "The best thing about this is you are the reason why L.Y. is doing so well today." He let go of her before walking to the living room bookshelf. Interestingly, he took out a beautiful book: his Bible, which he read far more often now that they had settled down comfortably. The growth of the Christian faith was quite significant in their home country since the loosening of restrictions on religion by the People's Republic. But government authorities still often tightly controlled religious practices, much to Ozai's annoyance. Back then; they'd meet up with relatives & pals in "unregistered" house church meetings (Iroh, Ozai's brother, was incessantly laughing about the term "unregistered"!). Ambitions to travel abroad were coupled with his dislike for sporadic persecution against such Christians in Mainland China.

Flipping in a quick second to a section of the book (which he didn't bookmark!), & traced a finger across part of a page which read, "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

Ahhhhhh…., Azula reflected on the verse. It seemed to hum in both their minds. They felt a nice feeling, sort of like a feeling of possessing something that could last eons.

"What about keeping L.Y. weapons in operation, though?" she suddenly querried.

"Don't worry. The company isn't necessarily a must for family members to inherit. Our friends can help."

I hope reader's understand what's going on. If you ain't clear, please drop me a line & I'll tweak this chapter.

As for the cause of Azula's powers, I'm going yet deeper into it in a future episode. Thank yous XDD