Written for Day 4 of Fire Nation Week on Deviantart. The prompt was "Loyalty."

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Ty Lee's eyes flicker back and forth between Mai and Azula, a thousand thoughts and worries running through her head. Azula's aura churns around her, the sea of purple flashing with streaks of crimson red and blue; she's hurting, and no one else can see. Ty Lee doesn't need to look at Mai's aura to know she has resigned herself to death—did so from the very moment she saw the line being cut. They both need her help desperately, and Ty Lee stands there frozen as Azula speaks.

They both need her, but she has to choose. If she chooses Azula, Mai dies, and she knows that Azula will regret her decision—perhaps not at first but soon. If she chooses Mai, Azula will have been backstabbed twice in one day and left with no support, and she can only imagine what Fire Lord Ozai will do when he learns Azula let Zuko and several dangerous prisoners get away and was then betrayed by her friends. But Ozai won't kill Azula, this she knows, and Mai will be alive, and Ty Lee will have the chance to make things right.

As Mai speaks those fateful words ("You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you;" "No, you miscalculated! You should have feared me more!") and draws her knives, Ty Lee still doesn't know what to do; but Azula falls into a Firebending stance, aura churning more furiously than before, and impulse decides her loyalty.

Two swift strikes, and Azula falls with a gasp that tears at Ty Lee's heart. Somewhere inside her, she thinks this is the best way, the only way for things to turn out well.

She prays she's right.