"I still say this is a bad idea, Azula," Ping recited again. Ty Lee held back the urge to chime in as well. Azula had been adamant about this the moment the 11th's scouts brought word of a small force bearing down from the north to potentially occupy a major road, blocking any movement to Ba Sing Se. Small enough that the officers of the 11th had made the mistake to say aloud that they could take them on.
The princess had then insisted on meeting said force to either welcome them to their ranks, or destroy them utterly for being a nuisance. Personally.
Ty Lee saw the fierceness in her aura and kept her peace as the others foolishly tried to persuade her otherwise. After whatever happened back in the throne room, Azula was now a miniature caged sun, just waiting to vent at appropriate targets. And so with Captain Rufen's battalion escorting the Zilang refugees back, the 11th, now almost at half strength, marched on to meet Azula's potential victims.
From what Ty Lee heard from the scout reports, the approaching force turned out to be the entirety of a Fire Nation garrison. "Probably got ousted from an Earth Kingdom city," Colonel Mozi mused.
"That's a lot for a garrison force…they outnumber us by a bit," Captain Ping muttered.
"Some states needed the incentive to be cooperative," Azula responded with a nonchalant shrug. "Or we could be looking at a paranoid and cowardly overseer. I didn't make all the appointments for those postings."
They ended up meeting the fleeing group on a wide stretch of grasslands, the tall grass flowing in pretty waves from lazy breezes. Azula had Colonel Mozi and Captain Ping with her, with Ty Lee, Mai, Suki and some guards joining in to complete the delegation. Zuko was there too, swapping out his robes for a common soldier's armor, to Mai's annoyance. He seemed more than happy to play soldier again, wielding a standard issue spear and a belt-ful of daggers. It contrasted against Azula's silk dress and overall rather courtly appearance.
Ty Lee wondered if they were conscious of the deceptive display; Zuko's warrior aesthetic softened his sister's deadliness.
One of the soldiers carried the flag of parley, and they walked up for a bit before Azula had them all stop and wait.
"What if they're hostile?" Suki asked with only the barest hint of concern, armored in green as a Kyoshi Warrior but lacking the facepaint.
"Then they'd be setting a very bad precedent for any of the home island loyalists," Colonel Mozi muttered coldly.
Fortunately, their opposite number also marched out under their own white flag, and both groups began to move to meet in the middle. As they got closer, Ty Lee picked out the nervous auras wafting from the other group, which spiked further as they themselves got closer to recognize Azula and Zuko.
"P-Princess Azula, Prince Zuko…" the governor - at least Ty Lee assumed the most opulently dressed of them was a governor - sputtered in greeting. But the woman did not bow in deference…nor did any of her entourage.
Not the best of signs, Ty Lee thought, and judging from how everyone at the 11th tensed up, she wasn't alone.
The siblings exchanged looks, and Zuko gave a conceding nod for Azula to speak. She was the colonial minister before the stupidity at the palace.
"Governor. What brings you here?"
"We…we were forced to flee from Zufang, after…certain news reached the city."
Azula's voice became a little tighter. "News, eh?"
"News of your treachery, you ungrateful,unfilial children!" one of the governor's aides spat, an older man with graying hairs and beard. The fiery defiance in his aura was not shared in the slightest by his colleagues, which was interesting. They positively shrank away from him.
"Please princess, we just wish to return home to the islands…" the governor pleaded, bowing this time. "We want no part in this…dispute."
Angry orange spikes shot out from the princess. "Do you speak for just this group of yours, or are you including the soldiers following after you?"
"Err…"
The old man made himself known again, this time daring to point a finger directly at Azula. "You're not the crown princess anymore!"
Ty Lee tensed as she saw how that sentence immediately struck Azula, leaving an ugly blemish on her aura.
"You will not drag in any loyal sons of the Fire Nation into-"
"Silence Hideteki," the governor tried to cut in, but the damage had been dealt.
Azula blinked, the signs of her recovering barely noticeable to Ty Lee, nevermind those that didn't know her as well. The princess let out a sigh, half regretful, half eager as the inky stain on her aura mixed with her anger. "I see. While I commend you for your loyalty, however misguided, I cannot allow you and your men to pass through as is. Leave your weapons here, and I will let you pass unharmed. You may keep your armor, your ostrich horses, and your lives otherwise."
This time a trio of the governor's aides went to subdue the older loudmouth and drag him back to allow her to plead her case further. "That would leave us vulnerable! These lands are dangerous-"
"These lands are only dangerous to the unarmed and the unwary," the princess snapped. "You have a couple of thousand men under you. Armed or not, there are sure to be firebenders among them. Claiming that you'll be defenseless sounds most disingenuous, governor."
"But-"
"Either lay down your arms and leave in peace, or hold onto them and face me and my 11th. Decide now, governor, or I will decide for you."
It was quite impressive how Azula's imperious aura swallowed up the opposing delegation, cowing even the old firebrand with just her steely voice and hard glare. Out of politeness, Ty Lee ignored the sharp tang of a loosened bladder from at least one of the administrators.
Zuko finally added to the conversation, and it was mildly amusing to see how much his attempt to mask his nervousness made his restrained, level delivery sound cold and uncaring. Callous, even. "I would highly suggest you take my sister's offer to leave in peace."
Unsurprisingly, but to the princess' mild displeasure, the garrison force marched through with their spears and shields littering the field behind them.
As the soldiers of the 11th harvested the weapons, Azula stared at the backs of the disappearing force. "Well done, Zuzu."
Her brother blinked at her, apparently oblivious to his contribution. "I just suggested they go peacefully."
"In a tone that promised violence," Mai said dryly, though the wisps of bright red flitted out of her usually dour aura.
Heh, more ammunition to tease her with later…
"Since we're here, we might as well see if there's any more refugees to protect…"
"Are you sure, princess?" Colonel Mozi asked. "You should be returning to Ba Sing Se with all due haste. Prince Xing is keen on meeting with you again."
There was a flare of pink emotions, but Azula quickly stamped down hard on it to maintain her facade of steeliness. "Xing will need to wait. I cannot have the loyal colonists fall prey to the approaching home island armies." She then fixed Mozi with a muted glare. "Would that be a problem, Mozi?"
The man let out a sigh and shook his head, but surprisingly he was smirking. And it wasn't just him, but the other officers as well. "No, princess. Xing was expecting such a response, in fact. It's why we have extra provisions, as well as extra messenger hawks to update Ba Sing Se of our movements."
"And nobody was stupid enough to make that bet," Ping commented drily.
Mozi then saluted, which was quickly followed by every other soldier around him. "The 11th is yours to command, Princess Azula. As you wish, we shall begin refugee security operations."
Ty Lee smiled as she saw how the warm blues and reds bloomed in Azula's aura as she drew strength from the devotion of her regiment. The shows of loyalty over the past few days have been good at countering the lingering foulness from the royal palace. There were still people and things that the princess could still hold dear and rely upon.
Still, there was a disturbing undercurrent of worry in her. It was taking Ty Lee days already trying to figure out the cause, but as the 11th were making camp for the night, she spied her friend sneaking off for some solitude in her tent. Ty Lee dared not make a sound as she saw Azula's shoulders rise and fall in slow, steady breaths. But then the movements became erratic as the princess broke into soft sobs that leaked ugly black tendrils into her aura. Ty Lee saw its source then, the crack to Azula's character dealt from her encounter with her father.
Ty Lee swooped in before Azula crumpled to the ground as she broke down with the slow inevitability of a crumbling cliffside.
"Azula! Azula, what's wrong?"
Her royal friend looked at her with teary, pain-filled eyes, all signs of restraint gone. The darkness of fear and despair consumed her once vibrant aura. "What if…what if he's right?" she croaked as her body was wracked with sobs.
"What if who's right?" Ty Lee asked in a soothing tone as she held onto Azula.
"My father…" the princess croaked hatefully. "What if Xi-"
"Nonsense," Ty Lee cut in immediately. "Don't say that. Don't think that, Azula. By all accounts your father's completely in the wrong. He tried to kill Xing and your uncle, remember? Whatever he thinks of Xing, it's only because he's jealous and petty and frankly, stupid."
The darkness around Azula barely rippled. The princess' sobs receded as she drew in a shaky breath. "B-But…"
Ty Lee couldn't help a touch of sternness in her voice. "You said it yourself: you chose Xing. You had him figure up the best ways to serve the Fire Nation. Xing might be smart, but you're too smart to be led around blindly, Azula." The words managed to cause a ripple, but Azula's aura remained oppressively gloomy.
There was a moment of silence before her friend looked at her with almost childlike eyes under the tears. "Does…does that make me the problem then?"
Oh spirits.
Azula's repressed insecurities were flooding in with a vengeance. How much of it did she have? Ty Lee bit back a sigh as she held the princess by the shoulders and looked past the radiating despair to look her dead in the eyes.
"Azula. Azula! Look at me. All you did was be a better princess than your father could be as Fire Lord. Okay? You took in Xing and made the best use of him and his people. You made the colonies prosper. You cared for them when everyone else did not. It's no surprise that they are now on your side when your father decides to throw a silly tantrum."
Ty Lee made sure to fix a hard stare at Azula - nowhere near as scary as the princess effortlessly pulled off, but it did the job in grabbing her attention and calming down her tumultuous aura. The inky blackness didn't go away though. "You fought back because your father was being very stupid. You did the right thing, Azula."
"But…"
"But what?" she asked with some exasperation, and a half-serious whisper crept into her the back of her mind on whether this was a fair price for getting a more human Azula.
"Would Xing care?"
Ty Lee couldn't help the stunned silence as she blinked at her friend. The heart of Azula's black dread was revealed.
"Would Xing ca-"
She almost wanted to let go of the princess to raise her hands and roll her eyes. As if on cue, there was a soft flapping as Zuko walked in, with Mai in tow. Their presence brought much needed color to the tent.
"Azula?" the former simply said, confused.
Mai on the other hand directed a questioning look at Ty Lee.
"She's…not in a good headspace right now."
"Have you come to gloat, brother?" Azula cut in with a half-hearted glare. "Come to tell me how I've been wasting my time?"
The shocked Zuko sputtered, utterly caught off guard by the scene. "What? No! I'm not- I didn't…"
There was a sigh before Mai grabbed her boyfriend by the shoulder and yanked him out of the tent. "Come on, Zuko. Out." Again, looks were exchanged between her and Ty Lee.
The latter gave a determined nod. She had this.
Ty Lee drew in a breath and braved the heavy despair lapping at her senses like a tide coming in.
"Azula. Xing sent out the 11th to get you. He expected you to be looking out for the refugees and equipped the 11th for that. I think that's more than enough sign that he cares for you, and doesn't give a flying turtleduck about whatever anyone might say."
"But I'm no longer crown princess…" Ty Lee dearly wished right now that Azula had gone straight to Ba Sing Se instead so that she could offload all this straight to Xing's face for him to deal with. She was running thin on the right responses to banish the darkness clinging to the princess.
"You're still a princess, Azula. Last I heard, you're engaged to the prince of Ba Sing Se, right?"
"Would it still be the same?"
Maybe she could get someone from the 11th to fly and get Xing over. Or just fly Azula over to him.
"Yes, Azula. It'd still be the same. Because I bet you that Xing doesn't care whether you're heir to the Fire Nation or not. He loves you because you're you, not because of the royal headdress you're wearing."
Azula's sensibilities seemed to recover from that delivery, as the glum blacks and grays grew fainter. Not enough for Ty Lee's liking though, and she felt annoyance gnawing at her. She hated that it was taking this long, that her friend was stuck in such an ugly and gloomy state.
There should be a sliver of soothing amber reminiscing of happier times, a flicker of warm, calming green at understanding the irrefutable fact that she was still loved…anything that Azula could grasp for comfort amidst the smothering irrational fears that plagued her.
Instead it was just a receding of ugly colors.
Ty Lee hated it.
She hated to see her friend in such a rut. She hated the ugly colors, the heavy, cloying air that weighed on her being.
She hated how suffocating it was, how uncomfortable and offensive it felt to her senses. She wanted to run from the bleak air.
She hated it.
A sense of giddy lightness washed over Ty Lee, a flavor of anxiety she almost forgot. She directed a brittle grin at Azula.
"And if he doesn't? That makes him a shallow, petty idiot no better than your father. And you know what? If Xing decides to be that idiot, then I'll take you instead."
The words came out stronger than she'd like, but Ty Lee felt satisfaction in finally, finally seeing the faint wisps of embarrassed pink flicking out of Azula.
"What?"
But not enough. It was still too ugly.
Ty Lee stared straight into Azula's eyes, feeling her friend tense up in her arms. More shades of pink flitted out of the princess, trailing confused tones of orange. Good. Better embarrassment and confusion than icky, oppressive fear.
"I mean, you're pretty smart and pretty pretty…" She absently noted her voice tightening, and her friend's features becoming more detailed. "Princess or not, that's a great-"
Better some color, any color, than black and greys.
"Hey!"
A familiar voice snapped her out of it. So fixated was she on the gratifying break of Azula's dreary mood, so focused was she on banishing away the darkness once and for all, Ty Lee didn't even care to wonder why her friend's stunned upper face took up the entirety of her vision. Only after blinking away her own confusion did Ty Lee realize just how close she'd brought her face down towards Azula.
It was close enough for her to feel the princess' warm breath washing against her mouth and chin. It was close enough that with a simple jostle, their lips would be brushing against each other. But Azula was a bright swirl of embarrassment and uncertainty now, which was a much better change-
"Hey! Get off her!"
Suki called out again, and this time Ty Lee's awareness returned fully. As she reared back, she turned her head to find the Kyoshi Warrior walking over, a fountain of indigo-ish concern and outraged yellow. Ty Lee slowly let go of Azula, and the princess quickly squirmed away and got up to her feet.
Surprisingly, Suki went straight for her, deep worry in her soft voice as she placed a comforting hand on Azula. "Are you okay Azula?"
"Yes…yes, I'm fine. I was…it was just…"
Suki looked over the princess to be sure, and then turned to Ty Lee with a surprising spike of anger. "What were you doing?!" she hissed.
"I… Azula was crying, and I wanted…" The words rolled clumsily off her mouth, and Ty Lee found herself unable to form the right response. The right…excuse to blunt the harsh spike.
"I experienced a moment of weakness," Azula interrupted, her voice stiff and still fraying a little. "Ty Lee was…was comforting me." Most of the dark emotions were banished or buried away, too. Which was nice, if not for the small licks of confused and angry reds at the edges of her embarrassed pink.
"By kissing you?" Suki finished in an angry whisper, earning no reaction from the other two girls. "Do you know how much trouble you'd be in? Mai sent me to check on you."
"I just-" Ty Lee froze before the full sentence formed. She just wanted to do away with the ugly black aura surrounding her friend, and drawing out the stunned embarrassment had been achieving that.
It got the job done, but…it wasn't the right approach to take, was it?
Ty Lee then felt Azula's hand fall on her shoulder, firm but reassuring. "She didn't mean for it to happen, I'm sure." She turned to find the princess wearing an awkward but grateful smile, her anger barely visible as a dim halo. "Thank you, Ty Lee."
A strange flavor of shame and regret suddenly welled up. "Um…yeah. No problem. And…sorry about that."
Azula forced on a reassuring mask as she took Ty Lee in for an embrace. "It's alright, Ty Lee. I know you meant well." Azula meant it, too, which somehow made Ty Lee feel worse. Then the princess turned to Suki, offering a single, heavy nod. "Though…thank you for intervening, Suki."
"I'm just glad you're alright," came the sighed reply.
Puzzlingly, the wisps of pink were still there as Azula quickly rebuilt her old facade of royal confidence. "Come, we'll talk about this after some rest. Clearly…clearly we all need it."
Ty Lee nodded dumbly at that and followed Azula out, almost completely ignoring Suki's sharp look as she began to ponder over her misstep.