A/N: This is an Avatar fanfiction I came up with over a year ago. I've been agonizing over this chapter pretty much since day one, and I think it's about time I posted it! To elaborate on the summary, this is a story about the four members of the royal family: Azula, Ozai, Zuko, and Ursa, and what happened to them after the end of the show.

I did read the Search and Promise comics, but I wasn't completely satisfied with what they did with these characters' backstories. Still, I think the comics had something good going on, though they ended up taking it in a direction I wouldn't have gone. So in this story, I included the elements that inspired me and used them in the ways I thought were better. But as for the plot itself, this story will do something different from the comics. Mainly, it will be a continuation of the show, but focusing on these four and the time after Sozin's Comet. All the other characters we know and love will also be there, like Aang, Sokka, Katara, etc., and some OCs to color things as well. I hope it'll be something you'll enjoy!

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- THE REAL SUBJECT -

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1. Waking Up

It was the end of her world. The blazing trail of Sozin's Comet had faded from the sky, and down below, the last of the battle's flames were turning into a cloud of smoke that drifted up over the silent plaza. It should have been the site of her coronation, the place where she would have begun her reign as Fire Lord for a long and prosperous lifetime. Now, the wooden columns that surrounded the square were scorched black and the red pavilion roofs had gaping holes from where her fire blasts had hit. And she was lying on the floor, hands chained to a metal drain, her face turned awkwardly towards the blank wall behind her. She had broken down there just moments before in front of her enemies, in a strange combination of fire and tears.

…

("We can't leave her like this. We have to get her inside.")

("I know. I'll get the Fire Sages. They'll take her back to the palace.")

…

She had finally been defeated.

…

("Let it be known that the Fire Prince has won the throne from his sister, the princess. By trial of Agni Kai, he is now the lawful Fire Lord.")

…

Finally, the thing she had feared above everything else had come true. She was nothing. Her sea of strength was a withering pond, her stronghold of calm a fragile mask, one that had shattered the minute she had put it to the test. Her composure had dissolved into a flurry of raging flames, her perfection knocked out by a sequence of falls and fumbles, letting the disease that had lurked inside of her soul seep out and spread through her body. The thing left behind in the aftermath was a shadow, a ravaged shell of hatred and torment.

The monster they had always known her to be.

Now, blinking her wet and reddened eyes, she looked up.

…

("Wait, what is she doing…?")

…

Heat radiated from her hands and began to simmer the chains. The metal lit up with an orange glow, then with a tug, she snapped her wrists free. The sense of destiny and purpose with which she had set out to fight was gone. Stumbling to her feet, she turned away from the ruined plaza and ran.

…

("She's getting away!")

("Stay here, Zuko. We'll pin her down.")

…

She ran and ran, bursting out into the quiet city and tore through the network of empty streets. She heard the sounds of people rushing after her, but her own breath and footsteps soon drowned them out. The only thing she wanted was to get away, to scramble out of the pit of hell that had engulfed her and get back to sanity. She would run to the end of the continent if she had to. She would plunge to the bottom of the sea. She would do anything, if only it would undo what had happened and bring her back to who she had been before.

The footsteps grew louder from behind. Someone blasted a jet of water at her feet, but she stumbled back into balance and slipped away. She no longer cared whether or not they were gaining on her. Her surroundings were blurring and her thoughts were spinning into a frantic craze. She was in another world.

All they would find from her back in the real one was a broken mirror and a fallen brush. But as for what had happened there, they would never know.

Like a flame, she had ended in a whisper.

…

…

…

("Wait, where did she go? I just lost her!")

("There! On the roof!")

…

…

("She's about to jump!")

…

Flight. Freedom.

…

("No!")

…

And then she was falling.

…

…

…

…

…

("Katara! What happened?")

("She tried to jump from one roof to another and she fell. The Fire Sages put her to sleep before she could run away, but she's still hurt.")

…

…

("We cannot be certain about her condition, my prince. The run was more dangerous for her than the duel. We will keep her in this trance for as long as we can, but it won't last forever. You must make a choice…")

…

…

…

The voices lingered for a little while longer, growing fainter and deeper. Then they slipped away.

...

For a long time afterward, there was nothing. Not pain, or sounds, or movement. The storm of emotions that had churned inside her mind began to subside, the memories of battle slowly dwindling until they vanished like a forgotten thought.

Her mind sailed through a progression of dreams. She saw vast forests and rushing rivers, her vision skimming over miles of treetops and sparkling water. She saw tanks chugging through open fields, groups of faceless soldiers marching beside her veiled palanquin. There was the enormous metal drill she had driven to the edge of a city wall, its interior lined with pipes and rivets, eliciting a constant hum as it moved on towards its goal. But she was starting to forget what that goal had been. Names and conversations tumbled through her memory — people to chase, plans to finish — but all of them spun into the same conglomeration of nothingness.

Soon, she felt a sense of exhaustion wash over her, and imagined how glad she would be to go back to her room and sleep. Take off her rigid shoulder plates and boots, slip on a comfortable robe and ease into her bed. Simply like the end of a day that had stretched for too long. Her room would be sunny and quiet, for once devoid of servants who always worked so hard to please her, but truthfully took away from the time she wanted to spent by herself. She'd pour her own water for a change, close her own curtains, and sleep for as long as she wanted to. Then she'd wake up, and without telling anyone, she'd slip out.

She'd walk about the palace alone. She'd withdraw deep inside it, to a place where the halls were empty and she could lose herself in the maze of columns and carpets. How often she had done that as a child… peered through open doors, snooped around dusty furniture that stood so patiently awaiting its users. But now she never did anymore. Because she knew that the people who had occupied those rooms were gone. The years had whisked them all away, and as she grew up she had gravitated towards the frontal wings, the ones that glimmered with life and activity. The old places gave her a nervous, musty feeling that she didn't like.

Still, the pull from her mind never quite went away. Her footsteps pattered quietly as she moved through the shadowy corridor, surrounded by looming walls and a long floor streaked with moonlight. She hadn't been in this place for years. It was the inside of a separate house that stood by the palace, where she had lived as a young girl. She passed through the familiar spaces, somber recognition stirring inside her. Finally she reached the end of the hallway and turned. Before her was a shorter path that led to a closed door. Her old room. The wall to her left was lined with tall windows, with white curtains that billowed out from a breeze she couldn't feel. They were like ghosts, gracefully undulating, completely silent.

She stood in place for a long time, watching them move. And right then she got the feeling that something was approaching her. She turned around, scanning her surroundings, but didn't see anyone else. And yet before long, the presence seemed to reach her. It grew so tangible that she could feel it hanging in the air like mist and sense its watchful gaze reflected in the shine of the decorative vases. And she recognized it… it was the same thing that had been tugging at her mind when she was lying in the rubble, something that had followed her even as her pursuers had fallen behind.

And now it was here.

Her heart accelerated and she tensed for a confrontation, feeling around the rim of a recognition that she couldn't fully grasp. But before long, her concentration began to slip. The hallway began to dim, the walls and floor fading into the shadows, then they seeped out further to swallow the tables and vases. Soon the entire room vanished, and in its place a reddish-black expanse spread across her vision. Her closed eyelids tightened.

She was lying on her back now, her body spread out over a soft, dense surface. Her arms lay loosely at her sides. She wasn't moving, but it seemed that something beneath her was, producing a smooth, constant whir that sounded like wheels.

"… Everything is ready. You can bring her in…"

"… loosen the cords…?"

"… no, not yet… have to wait a little longer…"

The voices drifted in and out of earshot, accompanied by distant footsteps. But even as she began to distinguish their words, she couldn't recognize the people they belonged to.

She waited for a few more moments, but the sensations didn't change. Instead, they grew clearer, to the point where she could hear a number of bodies shifting around her and could almost feel the rubber wheels gliding along the floor.

At last, she gathered her focus and opened her eyes. The darkness cracked to reveal a slip of white light, followed by some hazy shapes. She started to pull herself up. But instead of a body, she felt a foreign, ten-ton weight budge from its place, triggering flares of dull pain in her joints and muscles. The feeling was so shocking that she immediately let herself go, letting her head sink back into the mold it had made in the pillow. Fear prickled inside of her like an electric spark. That couldn't be hers. It couldn't be her.

Swelling with defiance, she moved again, convinced that something was holding her down and confusing her perception. She tried to kick her legs, but all they could manage was a quiver, like the limbs of a stone sculpture that was crumbling to pieces.

The pang of fear came again, spreading and blossoming into painful sparks.

No…

A quiet rasp rose in her throat.

The coats and boots marched on.

No, no…

She felt her face contort. A warm, bitter wave welled up inside of her, blurring the voices and sounds, then it washed over the world and pulled her under.

...

The next thing she knew, she was sitting alone in the darkness, face buried in her hands.

"No, no, no, no!"

She repeated the word senselessly, like a child, cringing as hot tears spilled down her face. There was no one there to hear her now, so she let them fall freely, pouring out all her rage and anguish and listening to their wobbly tones resound through the silence.

Then unexpectedly, another voice emerged from the darkness.

"What's wrong?"

It sounded like it belonged to a young boy. She couldn't see him, but he sounded strangely close, hardly an arm's length away from her.

She gave a sniff in response. "I'm dead. I know I am! I was fighting someone back in the city and I lost. They're taking my body away now. They're going to put me in a tomb and burn it!" She covered her eyes again and let out another wail.

But moments later, she heard the boy laugh. "Open your eyes, silly!"

The girl paused through her tears, mouth trembling. She didn't want to believe him, didn't want to respond to the gentle touch of hope he was giving her. And yet, she couldn't push his presence away. The more time that passed, the more tangible it became, to the point where she could sense someone standing over her shoulder. Finally, she did as she was told. She began to blink rapidly, adding to the effort by rubbing her eyes. Gradually, patches of sunlight began to slip through her fingers, and when she lowered her hands from her face, she saw her a watery blue surface shimmering in front of her. It was a small pond. She was sitting at the edge of it, on a bank of ashy black sand, surrounded by a meadow of tall green grass.

The girl blinked in amazement. After a moment, she rose to her feet.

The wheels were gone, the bed was gone, and so was the strange, broken thing that lay on top of it. There weren't any rips or burns in her clothing, and her hair was pulled back neatly from her face, leaving just two front tresses to stir with the breeze. She turned around, and wherever she looked, she saw the same picture — miles and miles of hilly land stretching all the way to the horizon.

Someone grasped her shoulder. "There you go!"

The girl spun around. Two amber eyes met her gaze, and she jumped back in surprise, finally registering her companion in full height. He was boy about seven or eight years of age, though for some reason she was as small as he was. He was dressed in dark red and maroon, his black hair pulled up into a topknot. He smiled at her in relief. "I was getting worried about you. You've been sitting there for hours. I tried waking you up, but it didn't seem like you noticed me."

The girl blinked in confusion. "What... what happened to me? Where am I?"

"Where does it look like?" the boy replied. "You're back where you were before. That must have been one crazy dream you were having, though. I found you sitting here this morning and you were mumbling about all sorts of stuff… something about a phoenix king and the end of the world. Sometimes you'd move a bit, like lift your arms and wave them around funny. Other times you just looked up, like there was someone standing in front of you, but then you turned around to talk to them. You didn't look like you were having a good time."

The girl felt her heartbeat quicken. "So none of that stuff happened? I was just dreaming?"

"Well, it seemed more like a nightmare from my end." The boy gave a nervous chuckle. "But there's never been a Sozin's Comet here, and I've been here forever!"

The girl looked at him blankly. After a moment of silence, she pressed her hands to her temples and shook her head. "No… that's impossible. It can't have been a dream. Everything was so real! Something was chasing me. I felt it watching me in the palace!"

"I was watching you," the boy offered.

But the girl shook her head harder. "No, it was someone else! I'm serious! It was after me and it was about to get me!"

The boy gave a pause. "Well, whatever it was, it can't catch you now. You're officially in the clear." He looked around the empty hills, then cracked a smile. "Heh. In the clear. Get it?"

The girl lowered her hands from her face. She started out at the landscape in frustration, but the emotion began to fade as the silence of the meadow replaced it. Had she been fighting? Now that she thought about it, all she could remember were a few fire blasts and some flurries of color. Then it all blended in with the rivers and the countryside from her dreams, and those were starting to become hazy too. The only things she could feel now were the warmth of the sun and the subtle sink of the soil as she shifted her weight.

The girl looked back at boy, who was watching her with his arms crossed, looking more humored than concerned. "What is this place?" she asked.

"It's my meadow," the boy replied. "I live here. I like it because I can do whatever I want with no one ordering me around." He found a rock on the ground and nudged it around with his shoe.

"Yes, but where is this? Are we in the Fire Nation?"

The boy frowned. "What's that?"

The girl lifted her eyebrows. "The Earth Kingdom?"

"Never heard of it."

"What do you mean?" said the girl. "Don't you know the four nations? The people fighting the war?"

Now the boy's puzzled expression became streaked with disbelief. "What war?"

"The war between the nations! It lasted for a hundred years!"

The boy began to laugh. "That really must have been some dream!"

The girl stood with her mouth hanging open, and when she finally managed to collect herself, she shook her head. "You're weird!"

The boy shrugged. "Well, I'm not the one who was talking to myself."

The girl gave a hmph and turned away. But a few seconds later, she looked back over her shoulder to study him again, while he knelt down and began to draw in the sand. For what little he knew of the Fire Nation, the boy looked just like a royal child, with a golden flame clip on his topknot and an elegant trim on his collar. She turned back to him all the way, finally deciding to speak. "Who are you?"

The boy drew himself up proudly, laying a hand on his chest. "I'm Quin the Quester," he replied.

"Quin the Quester?" A smile tugged at the girl's lips and she lifted a hand to cover it. "Why would you call yourself Quin the Quester?"

"Because that's who I am," the boy said. "I quest for treasure and save kingdoms and unlock mysteries!" He leaned forward into a warrior's lunge and punched forward an arm, almost as if to shoot a flame. Then he straightened, concluding the form by pressing a fist into his palm. "I tried Wen of the Wilds for a bit, but that made me sound like some kind of jungle man who haunts villages." He raised his arms and let his mouth loll open. "Wooooooo!"

The girl gave a full-blown laugh, clutching her stomach.

"So who are you?" the boy asked.

The girl's face fell, and after a moment of silence, she found herself looking away from his eager gaze. "Well, if it was a dream like you said… then I guess it doesn't matter."

Quin considered this. "Oh. Well, that's okay. You don't have to think of a name if you don't want to. I just keep mine because I like to narrate what I do." He brushed some sand from his knees and stepped away from the pond. "But now that you're here, we can be a double team! There's lots to do around here. We can go rock-skimming and rope-jumping and fishing… Then when it's nighttime, we can play Scavenger Hunt. That's when we go around and look for an object. I've always wanted to play Hide and Explode too, but I could never get another person."

The girl frowned. "So there's really no one here but you?"

Quin nodded. "Yep." But then he paused, and tilted his head to the side. "Well, there is the old man. But he's never around for long, so he doesn't count."

"Who's the old man?"

"I don't know," Quin said. "But he likes to take walks around here sometimes. I always see him carrying flowers." He squinted and looked out into the distance. "You actually missed him by a couple minutes. He left when I was still sitting with you. I wanted to follow him that time to see where he'd go, but you seemed more important."

The girl lowered her gaze, feeling both heartened and guilty. "Oh. Well... maybe we'll see him again."

"We should. He always comes about every other day." Quin turned back to her. "But in the meantime, I gotta show you around. This could be your place too. We'll share it together." He paused. "If you're not going anywhere else, I mean."

The girl gave a shrug. "I don't think I am."

Quin brightened. "Then come on!"

He reached for her hand, and after a brief hesitation, the girl took it. Almost immediately, she felt a sharp tug and laughed as the boy began to pull her down the hill. The sensations were firm and real, much more real than the broken, disconnected memories of the palace. Indeed, the more time that passed, the more she felt those things evaporate and vanish. Instead, her perception took in the boy, his voice and his radiant smile as he began to talk and point things out, nearly too fast for her to keep up. And she took in the meadow, which seemed to have no bounds and was completely empty except for them.

Occasionally, however, Quin revealed to her what seemed like signs of human presence. First, there was a Pai Sho set at the top of one of the hills, which he said he had found there a long time ago. It was set for two on a flat boulder, but since the boy could never find a playmate, he played a game he called Solo-Sho, which involved moving the pieces in complex sequences to make patterns. The girl sat with him while he explained the game, staring in astonishment at the colorful checkerboard, at the stone slab that was perfectly round, perfectly sized for the game.

Next, Quin took her to a group of large stone disks standing on their sides and showed her how he climbed on top of them. He tested his balance and leaned over the edge, peering upside-down through the square hole in the center. "Hey there!" he said.

The girl laughed in response. But as Quin sat up and began to try hopping from one stone to another, she found her gaze lingering on the perfect, identical squares, swearing to herself that they reminded her of something.

Quin led her onward, following what seemed to be a mental compass. Though to the girl's eyes, the low-lying hills didn't reveal much - only more rocks and occasional clumps of flowers. The blooms came in a palette of colors, from pink to orange to violet, though the majority were white like the clouds. After a while, she and the boy reached another pond. This one was larger than the one where she had been sitting, but had the same black sand at its banks. Quin meandered over to it and sat down, as if it were a habitual resting point. The girl followed suit, kneeling down by the water. The surface was still as ever and provided a mirror-like reflection of her face.

"Funny I saw you by a pond," Quin murmured. "Sometimes, when I look at them long enough, I see things too. Almost like visions of different places. One I saw a lot was this swamp-forest. It's got all these weird black trees and sandy mounds coming out of the water."

The girl's eyebrows climbed. "How's that possible?"

Quin smiled. "It's the water. It's got a special power. It keeps a connection." He reached into the pond and began to skim his fingers through it, making little waves.

The girl continued to sit still, carefully studying her reflection, but beyond it all she saw was the dark sand bed. She sighed in resignation, then her thoughts revved up again and she began to tap her chin with her finger. "So, could you actually go to the places you were seeing?"

"I don't know. I've never tried." Quin reclined into the grass and looked up into the sky, squinting slightly. "But even if I could, I wouldn't. This is the only place I want to be."

The girl hugged her knees to her chest. "I remember being somewhere else."

"Where?'

"Home."

"Where's home for you?"

The girl thought for a moment, but for some reason she couldn't place her finger on it. "I don't know. It's definitely in the regular world, though."

Quin cracked a smile. "The Fire Nation?"

"Yeah."

He frowned. "So, what other nations are there?"

"The Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads," said the girl. "Each group of people lives together."

"And why were they fighting?"

The girl paused. For a minute, she pictured a red comet streaking across a sky, but then her mind went blank. "I don't remember."

Quin looked at her with a lifted eyebrow, but said nothing and settled back into the grass. After a moment, the girl followed suit, lowering herself down onto her back. The sky was bright and dotted with clouds. But right then, another image came to her mind - red haze, white smoke. And fire. Comet fire.

" ... How bad is it?"

"… not sure… need to start the procedure immediately…"

Fear panged inside of her. The voices had sounded from the back of her mind, almost like they were tapping through from another world. And yet, the meadow was still there. She still felt the grass shifting around her and the solidity of the soil beneath her. The girl sat up slowly, looking around. Maybe it had been her imagination…

Beside her, Quin sat up as well. He seemed content as ever and had found a twig to play with. But the girl was uneasy. Once again, she felt the peculiar sense of disorientation, as if half of her mind were somewhere else. She hardly noticed that she had begun to stare at the pond again, until suddenly, a flash of red appeared on the water's surface. It lasted no more than a second, as if a kite had flown by overhead. But then it came again, this time slow enough so that she could make out a shape. It was a long red sleeve, rimmed with a gold cuff.

She wanted to call Quin over, but she found herself unable to move. All she could do was stare at the reflection of her own eyes, wide and bright amber, and right then, she saw the hazy outline of another face appear. But before it could materialize clearly, she heard a shout.

"It's him!"

The girl jerked upright. She tore her gaze away from the water and looked at Quin, who was on his feet, jumping and pointing. "It's him! It's the old man!"

The girl rushed to his side and scanned the hills. "Where is he?"

Quin let out a sound of frustration. "You just missed him. He went behind that hill. Come on!" He grabbed her hand.

The girl broke into a run after him, gaze darting across her surroundings, but she couldn't see anyone else. Quin however seemed to be following a surefire path. He slipped away from her and got ahead by several yards, but as he reached the top of a hill, he stopped. He stood in place for a while, looking around, then stepped down with a shake of the head and came back to her.

"Nah. We're too late. He's gone." Quin shoulders were drooped in resignation, clearly one he had felt many times before.

The girl looked at him quizzically. "But you just saw him. How can you tell?"

"He disappeared. He was just walking, then he went behind a hill and never came out." He sighed. "I guess there's always next time."

The girl followed him as he started to walk away. "Why do you want to talk to him so badly?"

"I don't know. I have a feeling that he can tell me something. Or at least hold a decent conversation... I haven't had one in a long time."

"Then why stay here? Why don't you go someplace with more people?"

"I haven't had much luck with that." The boy's eyes drifted up to the clouds. "See, I wasn't always here. I tried living in a lot of other places, just plain towns and villages. But for some reason, I never felt like I belonged there. People would always sort of pass by me, and they'd never answer me when I talked to them. They hardly even looked at me. One day I was standing by a crate of apples watching two guys talking. And one of the apples fell, so the merchant bent down to get it. His hand went right through me. Like I didn't even exist."

The girl lifted her eyebrows. "Wow."

Quin gave a somber smile. "You can guess that made me angry. So eventually I just gave up and left. I told myself I wouldn't stop until I got somewhere where I'd never see another person again. I just kept walking and walking, and at one point I started feeling like my feet were climbing up something. And when I looked down, I saw that I was going up a really high slope. And then I got to the top and saw this place." He brushed his hand across the grass. "And here, it's different. I think about everything that happened and it doesn't seem so bad anymore. I don't want to go anywhere else because I don't need to."

The girl tilted her head to the side. "It can't always have been like that, though. Don't you remember anything that happened to you before?"

"Not really." Quin paused. "I mean, I guess I must have lived somewhere, but I don't remember where. And I don't remember anybody I might have known. Or could have known, even." He looked off into the distance. "For as long as I've been here, I've never seen another person come around. The old man's the only one who does. That means this place is real to him, just like it is for me. And that has to count for something."

After a moment, the girl set her eyebrows together. "Come on. If he was going in that direction, then he wouldn't just suddenly change his mind. He probably just found a faster way to go." She started forward, then looked over her shoulder to get the boy to follow. After a moment, he did.

The sky began to grow cloudy in the distance. The children kept going, rounding the top of another hill, and when the girl saw what was on the other side of the mount, she gasped.

Laid out at the basin of the hill was an enormous flat field filled with bulbous white flowers. It stretched ahead of them for a great distance, until it reached a towering wall made of white stone. The wall seemed like it had been a part of a larger structure before, with a sturdy shell and a square-toothed rim, but ended in a sagging, crumbling ruin on both ends.

The boy's eyes widened. "Whoa."

The girl stared at it in shock, speechless.

They carefully descended the hill and waded through the field. The flowers were all identical, bobbing indifferently as the children passed through them. The boy continued to turn his head as he walked, eyes wide in amazement.
"Wow. I've never seen this place before..."

They reached the wall and stopped, peering up at the rim. Then the girl's gaze alighted upon a plot of soil beside one of the wrecked sections. Someone had evidently been gardening there: there were a number of pots standing together, holding leafy plants, and various tools laid out beside them.

"That must be where the old man goes," she said.

"Must be…" Quin agreed.

They approached the garden and Quin knelt down. He picked up one of the pots, which held more of the same white blooms, and studied them. A somber expression crossed his face. "It's not like I don't wonder what it would have been like if I had stayed," he spoke up. "I know that if I lived in the regular world before, I must have had a family. And I'd go looking for them now if I could, but I don't even remember who they are. And it feels like it's been so long that they won't recognize me either." He dropped his voice. "I don't even know if they'd want me back... I mean, I must be the one who left them. And they've probably moved on from me already."

The girl stared into the boy's eyes as he said this. They were a light amber, and seemed older than he was.

It took a good deal of effort to pull away from his gaze, but nevertheless she did. She turned back to face the wall. And as her gaze ran over the cracks in the stone face, something in them triggered a disquiet. It started out as a small pang, but soon it swelled into a sharp desperation, like a wave advancing over the shoreline.

"… check complete, condition stable."

"Loosen the cords and we'll begin."

The colors of the world sharpened and outlines blurred. The girl felt her throat close up, and she turned back to the boy, breathless. "What's happening to me?"

The boy's expression clouded. "I don't know." His gaze went to the wall again. "Sometimes I wonder what I'm missing out on, though. I get this feeling that it's something important. And I know I probably didn't even appreciate it while I was there. I just kept obsessing over stupid little things instead of thinking about what really mattered. Because if I had, I'd probably still be there."

The girl kept looking at him, her voice barely a whisper. "What matters?"

The boy lowered his gaze. "I don't know. Just life, I guess. Being with people, talking to them." He looked up at her. "I think it's good that you remember other places. Maybe that means you can still go back to them."

The girl stared at him blankly. She didn't want to go back. She didn't want to remember. All she wanted was to stay in the meadow, but for some reason it kept feeling like something from outside was pulling her away.

She started to lift her hands to her head, but stopped midway and clenched them into fists. She felt a rush of dizziness, then the strange sensation of opening her eyes, though she was perfectly sure they had been open before. The horizon blurred into a hazy stripe. The wall faded behind a bright white light, and when she blinked again, the rest of the meadow was blotted out by shadows. She found herself looking up at a dark ceiling, where a large white lamp hung over her head.

The motion had stopped. The clanks had stopped. The bed was standing still, and she was lying on top of it, wearing what felt like a thin, long curtain. She shuddered, and in response she felt a strip of tightness around her wrists and ankles.

She wasn't in a sarcophagus. She wasn't in a burning room. That might have been comforting before, but now she had no doubt she was somewhere she shouldn't be.

The girl squinted and turned her head to the side. This time, she saw a little more — white coats and arms shifting nearby.

"Get the water ready."

"Disinfecting the other side…"

Hands placed something wet and cold over her stomach. Without a moment's notice, a sharp, brilliant pain erupted from the spot, like a burn from molten magma. She tried to scream, but what came out instead was a low, hoarse moan.

"... waking, she's waking!"

"We can't… her wake up … injuries too severe…"

"… give her more of it…"

A moment later there came a puff of air, and a sweet, heavy scent washed over her. The white light blurred, and she felt a sickening drop as her head lolled to the side.

She fell back into the grass, her back striking a bumpy hill. When she opened her eyes, she found Quin kneeling beside her. His eyes were wide with concern.

"Hey! Are you okay?" He clasped a hand around her arm and pulled her up. The girl got to her feet, skin still prickling from the memory of the pain.

Quin helped her brush some dirt from her clothes, then backed up to let her collect herself. "That was really strange," he said. "You sort of… froze." He did an imitation of a person seizing up.

The girl shook her head. "Something's wrong. I keep seeing this room…" She rubbed her temples. "They're doing something to me. I think they're trying to…" But she paused, unable to finish. She just looked at the boy, who after a moment offered a smile.

"Hey. It's okay. If anything, you'll just end up back here again."

The girl looked at him. "Do you promise?"

Quin nodded. "Promise."

She did not respond. Quin held out his hand again. "Come on. Let's keep going."

She followed him through the grass, limbs heavy and shaky. In that span of time the sky had darkened over their side of the meadow, groups of clouds collecting over the hills. The wind had picked up and was stirring the grass, though beyond the wall it was still sunny.

"Looks like there's going to be a storm soon," Quin said. "We better keep going. We might find a place to wait it out."

The girl followed him past the wall and they rounded the crest of another large hill. Here the land took a gradual plunge, tracing a path of dead grass and soil that finally became a rocky valley. It cut through the green like an open wound, the soil hued red and the trees gnarled. In the distance she could see the wrecked remnants of a plaza. Red pavilion roofs rose up from a large stone square, their surfaces charred and chipped. The walls that surrounded them were dirty and crumbling.

A sudden realization took over and her breath caught in her throat. "That's the place… that's where I was fighting."

Quin's eyes widened, but he didn't say anything.

They descended into the valley and approached the plaza, passing under the eaves of one of the buildings. Without being aware of it, they trailed off in separate directions. The girl saw a storm drain on the ground and went towards it. She knelt down, threading her fingers through the square gaps, but it was dry. She tested a nearby door that wouldn't budge and found a metal chain lying forgotten on the floor. Finally she stepped back out into the open arena. Here there were two long channels running down the center, groundwater splashed around their rims. She approached one of them and peered inside, but instead of a shallow pit she was met with a bottomless black hole.

She began to ponder the situation, but right then something sliced into her mind, tinting her vision red. The hands were back again, dabbing her with something cold that sent painful heat ripping through her skin. The girl doubled over, gritting her teeth. Maybe it would stop. Maybe if she kept still, they would think she died, and go away. Maybe, maybe…

Several more flashes of pain followed, each one like a jab of fire that scorched her insides. The girl clenched her fists, and when the pain faded, she relaxed with a heavy breath. What had they done to her? What had they reduced her to?

She stifled her breath again, feeling her eyes well with tears. But a moment later, she blinked them away.

"No," she muttered. "No. You're not through with me. I'll show you." She straightened and looked up at the sky. "All of you!"

...

Another scream split the silence. Hands recoiled away from her.

"Did she just talk?"

"She's supposed to be unconscious. Give her more mist."

"Maybe we should do the bones first?"

"No. These burns are too severe. Some of them have been infected already, and if they aren't healed now, it might become systemic."

"What did she break, again?"

"Wrist, arm, collarbone, ankle… nothing we can't fix. But she must have been pushing herself to the limit. She's overworked, physically and mentally."

"Poor thing. So young…"

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!

"Hold her down! She's convulsing!"

"Get the mist, quickly!"

"She already has too much in her, if we just keep going it'll end sooner—"

"No! We have to treat her like she can wake up at any moment. There's no telling how long the serum will hold out."

Hazy noises sounded in the background. Her eyelids pulled open at different degrees and she saw a bright lamp floating overhead. She began to fidget, feeling the mattress crinkle beneath her. But before she could do anything else, there came another puff of scented air, and something swooped down to strap her arms and legs to the bed. Simultaneously, her hands and feet were covered with what felt like heavy leather bags.

She fought unconsciousness as long as she could, feeling the water travel up to her shoulders and neck. The bursts of pain were duller now, but she clenched her fists against them, snarling senseless words. At last, she slackened with exhaustion and sank back as the world faded away.

"She said something again!"

"What was it?"

…

"Revenge? I don't understand..."

A pause.

"But you know. She almost killed them."

...

Killed who?

In the back of her mind, the girl spat. How dare those voices talk about her without even referring to her.

She slammed her eyes closed and waited for the plaza to return. Moments later, she saw herself stepping through a tunnel, emerging into full sunlight at the center of the arena. She looked around for the boy, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Quin?"

She turned round in place, scanning the buildings.

"Quin! Where are you?"

But the plaza was silent. She stood alone at the center of the arena, while in the meantime the sky continued to darken above her. Any minute now, the rain would come.

Not knowing what else to do, the girl sat down, crossing her legs in her customary pose, and began to think. The people had her captive somehow, and now they were doing something to make her submit to them. But she wouldn't let them. She would stay in the plaza as long as she could, even if it meant being destroyed along with it.

Slowly, she took a breath. "Okay, voices," she said. "It's going to be either you or me."

She took a deep breath and exhaled, anchoring herself to the landscape as much as she could. But before long, she felt something slice into her mind again. She grabbed her head in preparation for the pain, but the pain didn't come. What came instead was a presence, one that she recognized, one she became so acutely aware of that it momentarily drowned out the rest of her thoughts.

A long shadow rose up on the ground in front of her, and the girl felt herself freeze. She turned around, feeling the sink of dread, and there it was. Standing behind her, like an apparition, was the presence she had felt in her dream, in the rubble after the battle, in the real palace she had left minutes before it. It was the woman from the mirror. She was wearing a red robe, with long golden cuffs that draped down from the sleeves.

"Darling…"

The girl stared at the woman in horror. Then a second later, she snarled and shot a blast of blue fire at the apparition. But the flames dissipated as soon as they reached the woman's body, revealing her in the same state as before.

The woman looked at her with tired, saddened eyes. "It's me."

"Go away!" the girl shouted. She shot another blast of fire, then got up without a second thought and ran away. She zipped across the arena, passing the storm drain and hopping from the pavement onto the barren land. Somewhere in the realm beyond, the sounds from the voices and machines began to escalate.

"Finishing up…"

Her surroundings blurred and danced. The girl bit her lip and ran faster.

"Coming along well…"

FASTER!

Stumbling and sputtering, the girl reached the ravaged valley. She looked up and saw the massive slope looming in the distance, a slide of rocks and gravel that lead up to the meadow. There, atop the ledge, she could still see a stripe of sunny green land, and found herself filled with a sudden desperation to reach it. She had to. Maybe, if she did, everything would be all right.

Eyes set on her target, the girl quickened her pace. But the slope was too far away. The energy was draining out of her, her body slowing like a failing machine, and the faster she tried to run, the more sluggish her motions became. Soon, she was reduced to a lumbering walk. Then she came to a stop, and stood in place at the center of the valley, teetering. Finally, she collapsed, hands and knees falling into the dirt.

She had lost.

Somewhere far away, a finger brushed her shoulder.

"It's almost over, darling," a woman's voice whispered.

The girl gritted her teeth. Darling. How dare they.

She lifted her head, looking up at the meadow with exhausted eyes. Her mouth trembled. Seconds later, she heard a whisper of wind as someone approached from behind. The girl turned back, where the woman from the mirror stood over her, the hem of her robe brushing over the gravel. Her face was somber and worn, like the scorched, diseased land she had come from.

The girl rose to her feet, meeting the woman's gaze with a snarl. "You think I don't know what you're doing!" she said. "You think you've trapped me here. You think you have me pinned. But you're wrong. You can chase me and hunt me all you want, but I'll always get away. I'll fight you to the end."

She lifted her arms out in front of her, assuming a fighting stance.

At the same time, the woman reached out with her hand. "Azula…"

The girl smiled at the sound of her name. "Azula!" She bent her arms, sweeping two arcs in the air with her hands, and blasted two jets of blue flames from her fingertips. The fires combined into a single blast that swallowed Ursa whole, then rose and spread into a flat screen that obliterated her view of the plaza. Before the fire could fade, Azula turned around and lowered her fists to her sides, preparing to rocket herself away. But right then she felt a faint upward tug as the mysterious force from outside made itself known once more. She stole a glance at the sky, sensing the people that were moving around her body, louder and clearer than before.

She made her decision.

Azula lifted her arms, bending a tongue of blue flame in the air, and began to spin herself around in a circle. She kept the flames going, letting them gather in strength and volume, until the ring of fire that was forming around her nearly encased her body. At last, Azula stopped herself on her toe, pulling the mass of fire beneath her, and blasted off from the ground with a resounding boom. The force of it sent her rocketing upwards into the air, where she continued to fire flames from her fists and feet, looking up in anticipation as she got closer and closer to the clouds.

Her eyes flew open.

She lifted her head from the pillow, and the first thing she did was open her mouth and shoot a jet of blue flames at the ceiling. But a moment later, the fire was pushed down and spun into a ball, then with a single clap, a pair of hands dissipated them into the air. Simultaneously, several other arms pinned her down to the bed, and moments later, something heavy was wrapped around her like a cocoon, preventing her from moving.

"There. All set and ready to go."

Azula looked down at herself and glimpsed a bed, where the rest of her body was wrapped in a thick, heavy blanket. Someone gripped the bars of the bed and rolled it speedily down a hallway, turning her into another room. It was filled with hazy shapes, who were scurrying around, adjusting equipment and folding sheets. In the middle of a side wall there was a large empty space. Her bed was wheeled into it and parked.

Overhead, the face of a different woman swam into view and smiled.

"Well, honey, you gave us quite a fright back there. But fortunately it's all over now. Welcome to your new home."