"You're certain about this?" Zuko questioned, walking slowly with Ty Lee beside him. They were near the balcony, below was a waiting and curious crowd. "You haven't seen it before."

"I know." Ty Lee swallowed nervously. "But that's how Azula wanted it and that's how it's going to be."

"Well there's still time to back out of it. I can make something up on the spot." Zuko offered, his hands rested on the handles to the balcony doors. Once open there was no going back.

"I can do this." Ty Lee insisted. She recalled a few of Azula's pointers and hurriedly straightened her posture.

"Then so be it." Zuko took a deep breath and swung the hinged oak doors wide open. A thunderous applause greeted him. Mai joined Zuko on the balcony but gave Ty Lee an encouraging smile on the way out. The acrobat was reminded just how regal of a couple they were. "Good evening!"

More applause.

"Thank you all for taking time from your day to gather here." Zuko gave the crowd a thankful bow. "Under normal circumstances a gathering would not be held but I have been informed that many of you wished to hear from the princess."

There was a resounding shout of agreement.

"I regret to inform you that the princess herself has not been able to make an appearance today." Zuko paused. "However, a dear friend of mine will be delivering her words."

Zuko gestured to Ty Lee who hesitantly journeyed out onto the balcony, in her hand she clutched multiple pages of parchment. The crowd gave a timid applause before slowly dulling.

There was, thankfully, a microphone mounted to the railing-a new invention made by fire nation engineers. It was by no means perfect but it certainly helped amplify voices.

With shaking fingers the acrobat carefully unfolded the pages. "I should introduce myself I suppose. Uhm, my name is Ty Lee and I have been a long time friend of Lord Zuko and the princess'. Which is why I was given this."

Ty Lee held up the speech as if they could read it. "The princess has trusted me to deliver what she's written. I don't believe I'll ever live up to her public prowess but...I will do my best."

The crowd was silent, listening, and waiting for what was to come. The acrobat glanced down at the parchment and steeled her nerves.

"It may seem foolish for me to send someone else before you, but I know that I am not so loved as it may seem, and though times have changed my face will be associated with lies."

Ty Lee paused. She wasn't sure what she'd expected but she didn't expect the intro to be so somber.

"My face and legacy shall not hinder my words and therefore I have trusted someone much kinder than myself."

The acrobat smiled faintly.

"It is not lost on me that I am a creature of destruction and hate. It is not lost on me that I have brought down a hand of violence upon every nation within these oceans. I have always deserved your hate, I have always deserved the fate that befell me, but I ask that you try to understand me as I have tried to understand you."

Ty Lee glanced up from the speech and looked to Zuko. He gave her an encouraging nod seemingly entranced as was the crowd.

"My youth was a disastrous tragedy that dwarfs any play you have seen in the commons. As much as my father told you I was a prodigy he told a partial lie. While my skill was above average there was suffering that came with it. From the moment I could walk I was locked in the training rooms. Countless hours were spent perfecting each individual move until I could no longer keep from collapsing."

There was a murmur of surprise that rippled through the commoners.

"From there I lost my rights as a child. There was no time to play, no time to be nurtured by any loving hand. Studies became my life as did bending. My father demanded I adopt a creed, one he promised would deliver me to the throne as a rightful heir far better than my brother. "

Ty Lee did not stop in her speech until she would finish.

It was a necessity that I turn away from any distraction. Fire lords were not distracted by silly desires to walk among the market stalls. It was a necessity that I should not be weak. Fire lords did not cry, they did not show empathy, they were the epitome of a strong nation. It was a necessity that I hate my brother. Fire lords were to rise above everyone, they should destroy anyone that considered themselves an equal. Dominance was the answer. It was a necessity that I did not trust because a fire lord that trusts surely dies. But most importantly it was a necessity that I follow his orders.

When I was young I killed a man at my father's command and I did not hesitate. When I was young I allowed him to use me as he pleased. When I was young I was nothing besides his device. The details of what transpired behind these walls are too gruesome to explain in more depth.

And while I suffered, my mother sought to protect my brother from the tragedy that I was slowly becoming, and in the process I was forgotten. My little mind learned a false sense of love and affection but still I yearned for her to love me as she loved my brother.

I was foolish enough to scar myself in hopes that I would be coddled as Zuko had after a training accident. For once my plans did not work. When my mother left I was alone once more.

There was no one to teach me what it was to be a girl. I could not turn to my father for advice and in my pride I refused the help of servants. My entire existence was a lie that you did not know.

Beneath my power, beneath my biting remarks, beneath my strength, I was a broken child. I was used and thrown aside by my father and it was then that every truth I knew came crashing down. He did not love me as I had imagined. He did not care an ounce. All the times he told me I was better than Zuko, were lies. I was worse than my brother. I was not banished, I was left to die when the avatar sought to stop our nation's assault. 

My years of therapy have done little to ease my troubled mind. I cannot shake my desire to die, my desire to be numb, my desire to be a phantom within these walls. For who am I? I am not the princess you once knew, I am not the conqueror of my youth, I have done far greater things than many can dream. What is left for me besides sorrow?

While my past does not excuse my actions I beg that you forgive me. That you be patient as I learn to stand on my feet, not as a weapon, but as a person. I will not be perfect, it hurts to say that I never was.

My initiative for the United Forces is a promise that I am striving to be what I was not in my youth. It may take years but one day I will emerge as a person you would not fear but befriend. Until that time, please, do not demand more than what I can willingly give.

I have spent too much of my life expending my well being for the sake of others. Whether those others were of an evil aura or not, I have given away too many pieces to recognize myself anymore.

In the end, I leave you with this: I am who I am, I cannot change the past, I will never deny that I have done irreparable harm; but I am who I am and that is a visionary who has only ever served the nation she was born in.

Forgive me,
For I am not your princess, I never was. To my father I was his weapon and to you I was an abuser. There is no title to my name. There is no more princess.

Ty Lee slowly folded the papers as they had been before and hastily wiped the tears that rested on her cheeks. The silence was something she had never heard before. The fire nation was never so quiet as it was in that moment.

The acrobat turned to Zuko and gave a curt nod before retreating inside.

— — —
Azula sat perched upon her windowsill, eyes closed, listening to the words of her own writing. If she wanted to she could lean forward and leave the kingdom with those words. Leave them with the promise that she was not their princes.

The breeze ruffled the loose strands of hair that framed her face. The moment of peace came to an end when the bedroom door was pushed open. "Azula?"

"Shh." The princess held up a hand. "No need to fret."

"Were you listening?" The acrobat worried, wondering if the words she'd said had triggered something within the princess as they had before.

"Yes." Came the soft drawl of a reply. The princess still did not open her eyes. "You did far better than I expected."

Ty Lee stood there for a moment, blinking, had she been sincerely complimented. "I didn't do anything besides read."

"Hmm." Azula mused, swinging her leg in the open space. "Sometimes reading is better than reciting. There's more within the voice."

The acrobat very hesitantly climbed into the remaining space and leaned against the window frame as the princess had. "What's brought you to the window?"

"I had the fleeting urge." Azula admitted. "But then this delightful breeze came and I decided I'd rather sit and feel it."

"Well," Ty Lee sighed, "I'm glad you didn't."

"Why?"

"How many times do I have to say it's because you're my friend?" Ty Lee frowned, wishing that Azula would actually open her eyes for once.

"Because I like hearing it." The princess mocked, but Ty Lee could have sworn there was a bit of truth to the words.

"What were you thinking of when you wanted to..."

"Us, as children, with Mai and Zuko. Simpler times. How I used to scale palace walls and trees never having the fear of falling." Azula rested her head back against the window frame. Ty Lee noticed the elegant slope of her jaw as light fluttered on pale skin. "I always had those fleeting thoughts of what it'd be like to jump. To feel the wind tear at my clothes, to feel it sting my eyes, and it always made me smile."

"Azul-"

"For so long I never knew why but I understand it now." Azula's eyes fluttered open and lazily found their way to meet the acrobat's. "I've always been in love with falling because of the freedom in it. There was never a chance that anyone could catch me, if I wanted I could stop myself, and if I didn't..."

Azula shrugged. Ty Lee seemed to understand, "You like the choice of controlling your own fate."

"Yes." The princess nodded.

"You can control it in other ways. In ways where you don't taunt yourself with death." Ty Lee fidgeted with her fingers.

"I know." The princess closed her eyes again. "Which is why I'm here isn't it? Not down there."

"What do you have control over that isn't falling from a window?"

"You." The word, if taken out of context and tone would seem threatening, crazy, but it was spoken with an odd softness. "I can determine what you mean to me. You are not my blood and therefore our standing isn't already decided. You are not tethered to my family as Mai is due her relations with Zuko. I do not have to accept you as a brother or a future sister."

"I see."

"I can have you as my friend, a mentor, a companion, a simple acquaintance if I choose." Azula smiled to herself. "There is flexibility within our standings."

"I thought you didn't like change?" Ty Lee frowned.

"Unpredictable change." Azula corrected.

"You said I was unpredictable."

"Which is what makes you predictable dear Ty Lee." There was a small chuckle that resonated from the princess' throat. "I can control this, as I can control this setting. If I wanted I could turn you away. I have the freedom and choice to do so."

"So I'm just some sort of object to you." The acrobat couldn't help but feel deflated.

"No. You are no object. You are...like a candle. Something substantial, needed, a source, an outlet. Should I light you, you will lead my path in the dark, and should I snuff you, it means not that I have thrown you out, but that I need not project my pain upon you. That you will remain until I need you once more."

"Azula, I cannot stay here forever." Ty Lee did not wish to bring up the topic but Azula made it seem as if Ty Lee were a permanent fixture in the palace. "I have duties of my own."

"Of course." The princess' eyebrows creased slightly together. "Do you think candles never melt? I have always known that you will leave, it's your nature, our personal nature can't be changed."

Those words were in stark contrast compared to the speech Ty Lee had delivered moments before. Azula had made it seem as if she believed all people could change who they used to be and yet, here she was, stating that it was impossible. "But you said-"

"I know what I said." The sentence was curt and Azula's tone had clearly shifted. Something, whatever had brought the princess peace, was gone now. "I know."

Ty Lee stood carefully and straightened her attire. "There's still time. Perhaps another day or two. I can still help you, only if you wish, meditating is something easy to learn."

"I'll consider it. Please, I'd like to be alone again." The acrobat took the warning and let the princess be.
— — —
Azula's throat tightened with sadness. What had she expected? The acrobat had slowly begun to win her over once more only to disappear.

The breeze had disappeared. Azula no longer found peace in her spot at the window. She stood and drew the glass shut before she could think of darker ideas.

It was true that the breeze had called her to stop but the breeze brought with it a scent from the past. It sprung forth childhood memories that Azula had forgotten.

Of course, the princess knew who the scent belonged to, she'd positioned herself to watch the speech, and the wind had drifted along carrying with it the perfume of a pink clad girl.

Even as the acrobat sat in the window the breeze continued to bombard her sensitive nose. And then it stopped, and with it, Ty Lee assured that she would stop as the breeze had.

And as the gentle air gave pause Azula was reminded once more of who she really was and just how unfair fate treated her. The trigger had sprung the trap and she no longer felt content but bitter.