He watched as the battle unfolded in front of him in the courtyard, the heat of the flames reaching even him, hidden behind the nearby pillars. It was fascinating to watch, beautiful and terrible at the same time, how the blue and red flames clashed, and burning higher and higher, waves of heat rolling away burning the skin on his face slightly. It left him speechless and in awe, yet slightly shivering too.

And when Azula charged her lightning, he knew she would not shoot it at her brother, whom he recognized as Li with a hint of satisfaction, but at Katara who stood a short way off to the side. His first instinct was to shout out, and run for her, but then he saw the shift in the fire nation prince’s gaze, and then his body moving out of its’ own accord, and for a terrible split second Jet thought the boy would not make it in time. Fortunately and unfortunately, he did, but then the princess charged at the water bender, and he knew he had to do something to stop her, but it was impossible without being seen by the fire-bending prodigy.

The rebel distanced himself from the battlefield, quickly rounding the courtyard while keeping in the shadows of the buildings, silently approaching the two fighting figures, when he saw Katara trapping the princess of the fire nation inside a wall of water, and then chains her. He watched in fascination as the water tribe girl bound the broken princess in chains, and then left to look after Zuko, and he watched as the princess broke down completely, screaming, breathing fire, and finally…crying.

Something inside of him started to sting at that sight, despite his knowledge that she, more than anyone else, he knew, deserved this fate. But then he saw a vision of himself, torn with anger and grief, unable to see what his actions were causing, and how much it hurt his friends. It must have been the same for her. She must have known nothing but hate and fear, feeling it as well as causing it. How was she supposed to do anything else?
With this realisation, he knew without a single doubt what to do.

The moment Katara and Zuko got up and left the arena, to check what was happening outside, the former freedom fighter emerged from the shadows and approached the sobbing heap chained to the floor. Gently he placed a hand to her face, and stroked the tear-stained hair out of her pale face, then her cheek in a reassuring way. Her movement was sluggish, he noticed and slowly freed her of the chains, making sure not to cause any noise and attract any attention. Quickly he covered her mouth, to prevent her from giving themselves away, but he realised that she was about to lose consciousness, so he took her in his arms and carried her away, going unnoticed in the abandoned palace.

The palace was long abandoned, as the princess had banished everyone except for the sages to crown her fire lord, and him. Their escape was fairly easy, even with the royal capital being overrun with soldiers of the other nations as he left the city the same way he had left it the first time, through the rocky mountain paths and out of the volcano. No one saw them, no one stopped them, and when the disappearance of the most dangerous prisoner was finally noticed, Jet had already taken her away with a small airship that had been hidden away in case of emergencies. He took them away; away from the fire nation until they reached whale tail islands, (though at that point of time he did not know that that was the name of the small isle he had almost crash-landed the airship on).
The whole night it had taken them to reach this part of the world, and luckily, they went undiscovered, for which he thanked the spirits, as well as for the fact that Azula had remained unconscious the whole time. Now that they had made it, he climbed out of the airship, and quickly surveyed their surroundings. When he was certain that they would be safe, he took the limp body of the fire-bending prodigy and carried her to the next village.


She awoke with a gasp, immediately sitting up and reaching out to somebody, anybody she could hold on to, but there was no one. The silence spread in the small and shabby room she was in, leaving her with an uncomfortable feeling, and panic slowly starting to rise inside her. Her breath came in small gasps, as she frantically looked around the unfamiliar surrounding, for anything she could recognize but there was nothing, an edge of hysteria building now. Just as she was about to scream, she heard footsteps approaching her room, and the door opened to reveal her former prisoner, a tablet in his hands with plates and dishes with food. His look was surprised at first, but then changed to a smile, no traces of malice or contempt towards her. This was confusing enough for her, without the unfamiliar surrounding but her voice refused to come out, so she simply grasped the sheets in which she was covered (she only noticed then that she was only wearing the garments under the armour) and stared at the former rebel. “I suppose you want to know where you are and how you got here,” he said, a chuckle in his voice, “the former I will tell you, but the latter doesn’t really matter, since we’re going to be stuck for a while.” She must have stared at him for quite a while without speaking, since he added “at least for now.”

He too was not wearing the armour, leaving him in the “undergarments”, which suited him rather well, and she noted how the colours brought out the obvious tan. It made her wonder if that was the reason why nobody had tried to kill her yet, because even in her broken state, she knew that her father had not succeeded to defeat the Avatar, much as she had failed to defeat her worthless brother and that water bender. “We are on Whale Tail Island, and yes, they do know who you are,” the young man said, conveniently leaving out smaller details, which she knew he knew were of importance to her. Yet there was nothing she could do, inducing fear in the people had proven to be a useless weapon, everybody had left her-
A strong hand gripped her chin and forced the princess to look up, into grey eyes that were filled with worry. “Don’t think too much, just relax for a while, be normal,” he said, as if he knew what she had been thinking. Probably he did, he had been with her for only a short time, but knew surprisingly well what she liked, how her mind worked. Now he was telling her to forget, be normal. How did she do that? She had no idea what normal was, if what she had seen and lived for fourteen years was not normal. A pressure on the bed caught her attention, and only now did she notice that he had sat down beside her, stroking her hair with such tenderness, she closed her eyes and sighed.
“Why do you do this? You could have left me there in their mercy and you would have gotten your revenge.”

The silence that followed was thoughtful, and when she looked at him, he was frowning in concentration, carefully picking his words. “Because it didn’t feel right to leave you there, I admit that I would have been the first to have you executed on the spot, but-” he looked into her eyes, “you know the fire moths?”
She blinked at the sudden change of subject but nodded reluctantly, “they’re pests, always gathering around candles, the palace always tried to keep them away, but they kept coming back.”
He grinned, a hint of his old was creeping back into his features, and Azula found herself drawn to this smile. “Did you notice they’re always in pairs?” he asked again, but this time before waiting for an answer, he went on, “their correct name is Axylia Putris, the fire moths. They’re a male and female moth, drawn to the fire, knowing that it will burn them, but at the same time unable to live without it…”

His story struck a chord inside her, was he implying something? She looked him in the eyes again, and saw a mischievous sparkle, yet knew what he had been hinting at. A smile started to build on her lips, as she realised that they were indeed a lot alike, and now that she was becoming a “normal” girl, she had plenty of time to find out just how much they had in common.