Earth had been growing steadily larger on the view screen throughout the day, and Zuko couldn't be happier to see his home planet.

"It's good to be getting back isn't it?" Katara said from behind him.

"It really is." Zuko stood upright and looked across the command center. A dozen pilots and engineers worked quietly at their stations, tapping at touch-sensitive panels and typing on virtual keyboards. Six small portholes in the front of the room gave view of the vastness of space in front of them.

"It's good to be healing these old wounds," he finished, bending back down to the console in front of him to see the tiny picture of Earth.

"Sir," an Admiral began, bowing to Zuko as he stepped up to him. "We've opened a channel with the Royal landing grounds. We'll park in an LCO until we have landing clearance and a shot at the landing zone, and then make our descent. I expect to be on the ground in one hour Sir."

Zuko bowed in return. "Thank you Admiral Fei. Is the ship prepared to land?"

"Aye Sir."

"Excellent work. Thank you Admiral."

"Always an honor Sir." Admiral Fei bowed again and left. Katara hummed in thought.

"I'm not positive, but it sounds like the Admiral is making fun of you."

Zuko shook his head and turned towards her. "I'll try my best not to banish him for it."

They broke away from the station they were observing and circled up to the raised deck overlooking the bridge. Zuko leaned on the rail.

"How's Sokka's head?" He asked suddenly.

"Oh. He'll be fine. It was just a scratch, really." She started playing with her hair.

"I'm really sorry about that. I know she hasn't been adjusting well but I thought she'd be oka-"

"Zuko, it was an accident. I watched it happen and it definitely wasn't on purpose. Quit worrying about her."

Zuko turned with a raised eyebrow. "Never thought I'd hear you defending her."

"Yeah, well, you have to give her some credit." Katara dropped herself on the railing too. "She's a lot better than she was year ago."

"That's not saying much."

In the bridge in front of Zuko, one of the crewmen started to look around for the Admiral. "Admiral, Sir?" Zuko leaned forward to watch.

"It's the escape pods, Sir. One of them in starting its ejection sequence."

"Is it a malfunction?"

"No Sir, someone is definitely in the pod."

Zuko gripped the railing and leaned further.

"Is there a problem?" Asked Katara who was facing the other way.

"It-" Zuko's mouth was dry. His stomach dropped with sudden revelation.

The Admiral went to his waistband and took a communicator device. "Must be some bad wiring. I'll have someone check on it-"

"You have to shut down that sequence right now," Zuko said imperatively to the crewmember and the Admiral. Both looked to him in surprise. "Shut it down now! Kill all the pods if you have to." He briskly hopped back from the railing and turned to the exit with an obvious haste.

"Zuko, what the hell-" Katara followed him out. Zuko broke into a run when he got off the bridge, sprinting down the long hallway through different stations. "Where are you going?"

"The pods! She's running!" Zuko's heart was pounding but not just from exertion.

Zuko rounded a corner in a quieter part of the ship with a row of red lights running down the right wall. Except for one light, which was not red, because it was green. He sprinted towards it, nearly slamming his face into the view port set into the sealed door.

"Azula!" He shouted, pounding on the polyacrylic window. She looked up momentarily from whatever she was doing, then immediately went back to it. "Don't even think about it. We're shutting down the pod." She didn't flinch. Zuko couldn't see what she was doing, but he didn't like her doing it. From where she was standing in the pod he guessed she was accessing the main control panel.

"Don't pretend you can't hear me in there! Just come out now, we can talk."

Katara stopped far off his right, leaving him a lot of space. He pounded on the window again. "Azula, you won't get far. I can find you, no matter where you go!"

No change. Zuko leaned quickly to see the access panel on his side of the doorway and repeatedly tapped the "Door" button.

"That won't do anything. Once she starts the sequence from inside the pod, it ignores that panel," Katara informed him. He shot her a frustrated glare, then looked back at Azula, then set his open palm on the metal of the door and began to heat the metal. "And that definitely won't help!" she barked, lunging forward to pull his hand off the door. "If she ejects we'll all be spaced."

"I have to stop her! She can't leave!" He pulled his hand back and slammed it against the polyacrylic. "I need to keep my family together!"

Katara stepped back. Azula stopped and looked back at Zuko.

"You can't just run Azula. We're family. We're in this together."

She held eye contact for a full three seconds, and then her gaze dropped to watch the tear running down his face. She rubbed her eye with the back of her hand and went back to the control panel. The red light next to the door began to flash.

"Azula."

Azula closed her eyes, rubbed at them again, then turned to Zuko.

"Azula!" He pressed his hands against the window.

She opened her eyes, blinking slowly.

"AZULA!"

She turned back to the control panel and then there was a yellow flash and a rumble shook the corridor and a harsh whoosh filled his ears. The view through the window was replaced with a starry sky and a rapidly shrinking escape pod. Zuko stared.

"Did she go?" Katara said he turned and pushed past her, back to the bridge.

He burst through the door in command mode. "Track that pod. Predict its trajectory and inform local law enforcement and nearby military outfits to be ready to find her. She can be dangerous but she may not be a threat."

"I don't know what she did to the computer system, Sir, but our mainframe lost control of it before she even started the sequence," the crewman from before said to Zuko as he passed behind him. "I can't get its tracking data but communications are fine. Should I try to raise her?"

"Don't bother. Admiral, did we get landing clearance?"

"Yes Sir, but we're a full sixty degrees from the Landing Zone. It'll be another twenty minutes before we're on the ground."

"Can you request permission from somebody closer?"

"On such short notice, that can't be a good idea."

"Um, Sir? The escape pod is no longer communicating," the crewman interjected.

Zuko turned towards the crewman in surprise. "It what?"

"I was able to get system data from it but it just stopped communicating altogether. Nothing on any regular frequency." Zuko stared.

"Did she brick it?"

"Zuko," said Katara from in front of a view port at the front of the room. "You may want to come here."

Fear and anger boiled inside him as he walked to the view port. Katara stepped aside to let him see.

Their ship hadn't entered atmosphere, so drag effects were minimal and Zuko could see the trail of smoke left by the SRBs that propelled the escape pod from the mothership. The smoketrail arced away, hundreds of meters from the ship, ending in a large grey cloud of smoke that rained smoldering debris.

Zuko tried to put his arms up against the frame to stabilize himself, but they suddenly weighed nine hundred pound each and they just sort of flopped at his side. His stomach flipped in all directions inside of him. He fell one step back.

"She..."

"Zuko," Katara said calmly, setting a hand on his arm. He turned to her.

"Az..."

"Okay, let's just set you down." She glanced around for the nearest seat and spotted a crewwoman who quickly stood up to make room. Katara guided Zuko back, who was still staring out the view port mumbling. "Just relax, Zuko." She mouthed for water to the crewwoman and she disappeared to fetch some.

"Azula just-" Zuko jerked his arm towards the window.

"It's fine Zuko. You're fine." Katara glanced across the concerned faces of the crewmembers, and she could tell that all of them were thinking the same thing.

Azula was dead.