The campfires were dimming out, and everyone was surely asleep. Guan was given the night watch, to make sure nobody would attack. Looking left and right, he finally found something interesting…a brown owl flew out of nowhere, dropped a note from its beak, and flew away. He immediately caught the scroll, the note read:

"I want a word with you in the forests, make sure you're not being followed, and be sure to follow the sound of the guzheng."

With that order on mind, he immediately used firebending to torch the note, tossed it with some firewood into the campfire, and then taking care to ensure nobody was watching, he got up, and turned to leave. "Going somewhere?" asked Azula, not bothering to turn her head, "I'm in need of some privacy," said Guan, "unless of course any of you wants to do something with me in the forest." Azula shivered in disgust before saying, "Go on, far enough for us not to smell anything then." That on mind, Guan walked away.
In the forest, there were many sights, and with so many trees, it's unbelievably hard to navigate, but not for Guan. Thanks to the training his master gave him since the day he was three, he's been able to jump higher and higher until he could jump as high as almost twenty-five feet into the air and land as light as a feather on his toes without any kind of damage thanks to a liniment given before his balance training—that's a common training method among the Shadowbenders: the trainee, from a young age, is weighed down with rocks proportionate in weight to their age and body type on their arms, legs, and back, and the weight increasing as time goes by. If it were to sum up with his training up to this point, he's been training for almost thirteen years of his life, the weight of the rocks stopped increasing at age 16, when they weighed a total of 900 lb today, and as such, he can lift about 112.5 lb on each limb, and the other 450 lb goes to his back, thus giving him the ability to strike hard and fast so that he delivers about as much, if not twice as much, force as a wrecking ball, and giving his firebending shots about as much force as a shotgun.
Listening in on the air as he leapt through the trees quickly, but silently, he heard the faint sound of a guzheng playing—Rin was nearby…he immediately moved on forward, listening as the song got louder and louder until he finally found Rin, sitting down with the man-sized zither at her lap, playing music by plucking its strings. "Sorry about the bat," said Guan, looking downwards at his colleague, who in turn looked up at him, "like I said, the cat and the mouse were gone, so there was nothing else for me to use." "Then improvise!" said Rin angrily, "For me, hypnotizing birds comes easily to me, so I can use any bird as long as it fits with the current environment. Besides, the inner circle wanted me to convey a message to you."
"A message? What'd they say?"
"They've a mission for you, when you've the opportunity. We're all moving out to make an attack on the Fire Nation, and cripple its military force. We won't hit any civilian homes—just barracks, government buildings, and any place where it would be very demoralizing to them to lose. What we want you to do when you have the opportunity, is to draw a map for us so that we know where the aforementioned places are."
"I might not be able to do that. They'll suspect something if I wander about—I'll try to look for a cartographic studio first, see if they have any maps of those places."
"Is it because of that little girl I've seen you speaking with in the garden?"
"Why do you care? We're only colleagues remember? That's what you told me when I confessed of my feelings to you when I was new."
Rin sighed, and said, "Forget about it then. I just don't want you to be hurt, that's all. It's just that every time I look at you, I see my kid brother. I still see you as him—you're his spitting image if he were here today."
Guan looked at her with a look of question on his face, and finally said, "What happened to your brother anyway?"
"It was a famine at the time in my childhood in the outskirts of the Fire Nation. My father sold me off to work at the age of six to put food on the table. At that time, mom was pregnant with a kid, and lo and behold, my little brother came into the world. Back then, my parents could not afford to raise an extra mouth, so they chose to give the baby to a woman who would take him elsewhere. I don't know what happened to him though, as I was then taken in by the organization to put the Fire Nation back in its place at that time."
Guan simply sighed, and said, "What a tragedy…to have this happen to your brother…but then again, it was a tough time, so the parents of that child should already have been forgiven. If the child had died, then there's no doubt that it alleviated him of future sufferings—if he had lived, then may he live a long life. I'll do the mission when I have the chance." At that, Guan simply left in a flash.
Rin watched him jump away, and began to reminisce…among the Shadowbenders, she was the best of the best—she is under the warrior-class, and her specialty lay in assassination, and liberating towns of their soldiers single-handedly. Until that fateful day, she was the top of her class—earning candidacy for becoming a member of the elites. At that time, there was a mission in the Earth Kingdom, and she was posted for it, but the inner circle chose to make some new guy do the job instead of her…

Three or four years ago…

"They said to watch over that boy," said the inner circle representative, "he's a fledgling, so make sure he's able to fly on his own, and report to us on how well he does." "Why am I stuck with this job?" asked Rin in frustration, "They all know I can take this mission on my own, so why do they need this new guy?"
"He's doing this job as his first; a final exam to be accepted into the guild before the initiation ceremony if you will, which is why you need to watch him. He seems to have a lot of potential, and we want to see how he does in using it. Besides, it'll be your practice for being a teacher."
The sound of a flute playing could easily be heard as it got louder and louder, nearing the current location in the bamboo forest. A member of the guild walked on in, playing a flute under the basket on his head, playing a continuous tone that made it sound like the prayer hymn of a farmer. Upon his arrival, he stopped playing, and bowed low before the representative and Rin. "My name is Guan Liu Zhang," he said, "it's an honor." As she looked upon this freshman, she had the feeling that they know each other. That was odd…why would she know of any freshmen? She simply gave a long sigh, and said, "Whatever, I'm taking you with me. You'd better not drag me down."

She couldn't believe it! As she walked towards the same spot in the bamboo forest, she began to ponder as to how this freshman had liberated an entire town of its Fire Nation guards? Just who was this warrior? "Surprised?" asked the representative, playing his three-stringed san xian lute, and his basket having no holes on it—only a slit for the eyes, "I wouldn't be, especially for his background." "What are you talking about?" she asked, "What's in his background that you wouldn't be surprised about?"
As he spoke, the representative was walking down memory lane, "I remember once of a story you told me long ago when I first found you. About a famine, and how a child was given away by your family to a woman. Well we found out what happened to that baby—apparently, the woman was caught in the middle of a robbery, some thieves mistook what she carried to be a statuette of gold, so she ran until she found a shrine, and hid the youngster there before she immediately died from her wounds. The thieves were about to take the bundle, but Guan the Hermit immediately landed in, and scared off the thieves after beating the stuffing out of them. Since then, he raised the boy our way until the day of his death, when the boy turned 16."

Present-day

Since then, Rin had been keeping a close eye on that guy. Learning his end of the story, she came to realize the familiarity she felt around him was because of that reason. It is an undeniable fact that her brother is among the circles, no matter how surprising it is—especially for being someone who can match up to her level easily… "You think we'll be able to pull this off?" asked a voice from behind her, it was none other than the same representative who had brought Guan to her. "He should at least be able to do it Bai," said Rin, "I've seen him grow these past few years. Now all we have to do is to hope he finds us a map. If not, then we'll proceed as planned anyway."
"Yeah, and what was it again? We assault the Fire Nation city he's in, and set fire to all its government and military buildings anyway?"
"Yeah."
"And what of your kid brother?"
"Let's just hope he gets out of this okay—he's the only family I have left, even if I have to keep him in the dark of my true identity…I'll send a pigeon to the inner circle, inform them that the mission has been accepted."
"Please do."

The next morning…

Guan sat around in the lake…it's lonely on his side of the boulder, but for a good reason—the others were taking their bath in the same lake, and so it would be appropriate to not be there. The cold water had cooled his travel-heated body, relaxing his burn scars in the shape of words all over his torso, and alleviated his clothes of the smell of sweat. Now that everything was all good and well, he can relax and sleep a bit in a reclined position. Although, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched back there. Yeah right, as if something like that would happen…but still, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone had followed him all the way to see Rin. Well in either case, he'd best wait for his clothes to air-dry…wait a minute, clothes? As he turned his head around, he had suddenly realized the horrible truth—his clothes have been stolen from the clothesline he had set up, minus the jock strap he has on. As he noticed this, he immediately heard the sound of galloping ostrich-horses. Oh no…they decided to play a trick on him…at least he torched his spy garb and his demon mask and kept his Shadowbender garb before leaving. Now he has to get his court official's clothes back—he'll need them if he'll want to keep his disguise…

That ostrich-horse was very fast, no wonder Azula had chosen him. Oh well, his court official's clothes were dirty, including his hat, but at least he managed to get them back. However, as soon as he got halfway back to the camp, he heard a provocative whistle and giggling. "What's the matter? Aren't you cold?" asked Azula, with Ty Lee laughing with her, "Aren't you ashamed that you're naked? Have you no modesty?" "Honestly," said Ty Lee, still unable to contain her laughter, "I've heard of being proud of yourself, but this is ridiculous!" Of the four ladies, only Kai and Mai did not laugh—Mai, even more so because she did not seem interested, but Kai did that on her own, trying her best not to laugh.
Ah well, better bite the bullet, and laugh with…so Guan forced a smile, and said, "That's right, I'm ashamed…and I have not a modest bone in my body. So sue me—I can't do anything at this point. I mean, look what you've done to my court official's clothes. They're ruined…I'm afraid I'll be naked the rest of the trip until we get to a camping point—unless of course you'd like to see me in the au natural."
Azula heard those words from his mouth, and immediately shot a bolt of lightning at his head, only to watch as he bent his back backwards, thus dodging the shot to his head, and then she shot another bolt of lightning at the ostrich-horse's feet, causing him to topple over face-down. The Azula, moved her ostrich-horse such that its feet were near his head, and said, "Not so wise are you now wise guy? Do that again, and I'll brand you a traitor and kill you. Are we clear?" Guan coughed a bit, but managed to say, "Crystal."
He then got up, dusted himself, and moved towards his bag, and found his black court official's garb while everyone else had galloped off. The only person to remain was Kai, who was watching him intently. He then put the dust-covered court official's clothes in the bag neatly. "Shouldn't you be catching up with her heinous?" he asked, putting on his coat, and then his pants. "I would," she said, "but now, only her friends can help calm her down. Besides, as hard as I tried not to laugh, the least I could have done was to protect you. Actually, your whole body kind of looked…well, I don't know…not what I really expected of a scholar. But then again, you did need to pay for those classes by being a farmer and a hunter, so that would make sense."
Guan looked at her with a look of surprise, but finally said, as he tucked his coat into his pants, "Uh, thanks I guess…but still, how can Ozai do that? It's actually just plain pathetic to raise a kid like that, I mean how can he spoil her like that? Once in a while is fine, not too much punishment, but not too much spoiling either—do it in moderation. But to spoil her all her life?" "I know," she said, "I wouldn't want to live her life—too much confinement you know? Doesn't suit a wilderness girl like me at all."
"So, aside from spying, do you have any other hobbies?"
"Nah, I just like to eavesdrop every once in a while. What about you? Aside from music, what else do you do for fun?"
As he continued, Guan got on his ostrich-horse, and both started to catch up, "Oh nothing much, either admiring scenery, drinking rice wine with a partner, calligraphy, or the tea ceremony. A lot of times, I miss the simplicity of being in the mountains, but I don't take anything for granted."
"You have any friends outside of being a scholar?"
"Ah, not too many. Just a classmate or two in my music class."
"You keep in touch with any?"
"One in particular. In fact, once in a while, she and I would collaborate—she'd play a guzheng, and I'd be playing the flute. We were like brother and sister, very close, much to the point that I decided to ask her out on a date. She turned me down, once saying that she was really happy with only being a colleague in music with me, nothing more. From that point on, we kept our relationship as close to the brother-sister status as we could possible."
"Did you ever see her again?"
"Once in a while I would run into her in the past—and I'd recognize her by the notes she played on her guzheng, really slow and melancholy. In fact, maybe one of these days, I can ask her to play for you if I run into her, and we'll play a piece for you."
"That'd be lovely."
Before long, the sound of an attack had filled the air as everybody stopped their steeds, and watch as brigands descended from the trees, weapons pointed at everyone. "All right now," said one brigand, armed with a spear, "you wenches of the Fire Nation aren't going to go home without something bad happening to you. So either you give us all your money and valuables, and your bodies, or we…"
Before he could finish anything, the brigand's head was blown off with a bolt of lightning, and then the rest of them were seared off by shots of blue fire. Before long, the whole forest was crawling with brigands, closing in slowly. Next thing everybody knew, a member of the brigands was thrown at his comrades, and Guan was nowhere to be seen. Everybody turned and looked around, as even Azula was mystified by his disappearance. The silence was broken when something hit a nearby tree, and the sound of thuds and startled cries of pain filled the air. As soon as the noise had subsided, everyone fell down, stunned by sharp blows to the head, and finally the object lost its momentum, and dropped to the floor…it was only a round and thumb-sized stone that ricocheted off the trees and the brigand's heads, completely stunning them.
Azula was about to shoot flares at the downed men, but something flew from the left to distract her from landing the killing blow—it was a smooth stone this time, this one was as small as a marble, and it hit her on the left wrist to get her attention. As soon as she turned her head, she watched as Guan stepped out from behind a tree, and revealed his presence. Azula galloped her ostrich-horse towards him, and gave him a kick to the cheek using the momentum of the gallop only to watch as he caught her left foot with his right hand in a squeezing kind of grip. "I've been told to expect this," he said, "and although I know it's disrespectful, but don't we have somewhere we have to be now?" "What are you getting at?" asked Azula, "And who are you to try and best me eh?"
"It's just natural hunter's instincts. It's also tactical assertion from being a hunter. And as to my point, the longer we dawdle here, the more time the Avatar has to get away, so aren't we in a rush to chase him? If so, then what are we doing here wasting our time and energy on bandit trash?"
Azula looked back at his grayish-green eyes with the golden colors of hers as Ty Lee gave out the 'busted' whoop. They were near the consistency of jade, but she could clearly see the defiance in them now. She wouldn't give up—as she continued to look into his eyes, she saw a will stronger than steel, a strength that would not falter, and in them, she saw the soul of someone to respect. She won't accept the fact that this guy is somehow superior to her, she won't respect him no matter how much she feels it towards him, and she most definitely will continue to try and break that will and make him suffer. No, she'll just lay low for now—the battle of wills is over in a stalemate.
"Feh!" she said, with spite in her voice, "Who wants to kill some weakling brigands anyway?" As she said that, she turned her ostrich-horse, and galloped away, leaving Mai and Ty Lee with the hung jaws of surprise—this was a guy who actually stood up to Azula, not to mention telling her off. Kai was even more surprised—this was the guy she really liked, and he was able to apparently scare off Azula, a task she thought impossible. Maybe there's more to him than meets the eye…

Finally. They've made it to their destination. The land of Satori is one of the big cities in the mainland well known for having the most military outposts in the Fire Nation mainland empire. It is because the territory that Satori occupies is quite large and is strategically important for the Fire Nation's economy and the delivery of food, supplies, and equipment because it is situated near a beach, the military outposts double as police stations for the different districts of the land.
Looking down the marketplace, he noted that everyone made way only for Azula and then began to go about business as normal. Watching on, Guan could see the damage that Firelord Ozai and had wrought upon the balance that he as a Shadowbender so nobly protects. Even worse, he rallies his people into frenzy—if anything, Iroh should have been the one to take the throne, or anyone not in their bloodline for that matter. Ah well, better keep an eye out for the cartographic studio.
The horizon had many views, but one had caught his attention as they moved on. They were approaching a very large building complex. It was the typical design for most palaces, but what distinguished it the most was its height and its near-gothic design where everything pointed to the top. The keep was by far the tallest part of this castle, with a long beam on top of the roof, ended in two tall spikes pointing towards the heavens. Surrounding the keep was a lake, which would be a last line of defense should the castle walls and the gate be breached. Yes, this would probably be suited to being a summer home to her heinous, thanks to daddy-dearest. There should indeed be a room filled with maps here, particularly for the mission.
It took a good half-hour to get there, but Azula and the other four members of her retinue managed to get to the exquisitely designed throne room. "Since that fiasco in the woods, I think I have a new use for you Guan," said Azula, "I've decided to promote you to the level of an advisor. In honor of your new post, you can take the night off for tonight." Guan looked surprised at this, and bowed on his knees to Azula before getting back up and saying, "Your majesty, that would be an honor for me, to serve as your advisor."
"Also know that I've decided to assign Kai to your service. I'm sure she'll work really hard for you, am I right?"
"Yes ma'am," said Kai, smiling widely, "I'll work hard."
"Good, then you may leave, but I'd like for Kai to stay behind a bit…"
"Sure thing." Upon saying that, Guan turned and left, leaving Kai behind for the evil princess to have a word with her. As soon as he was out of earshot, Kai moved on in upon being beckoned for listening to the whispers.
"Keep a good eye on him. Report to me if he does anything out of the ordinary. I have a suspicion that he's the spy from that night that knocked you out. If you find something odd, then tell me everything you can about him—who he really is, who he works for, what he's doing in my service, everything. Got it?"
Kai said nothing; she only nodded reluctantly and turned to look for Guan. For refusing Princess Azula is about the same as asking for death.

Going into his chambers, Guan had finally found the opportunity to write back to Rin. Especially since he found a gray cat on his bed, with a note tied to her neck. This was the cat he sent to watch over the white mouse a few days ago. He immediately opened the note, and it read, "Many of us are already in the city, if you find a map of the entire Fire Nation, we'll wait longer so that you can bring us the map—try to make sure it comes to us in one piece. Either way, we're going to torch the city's military and government buildings, we've been traversing the sewers pouring a trail of gunpowder towards the aforementioned targets, they await my orders to light the trails. Report if you find the cartograph room, and we'll give you some time to steal a map, and bring it to us. P.S. if you send another bat or a rat, you're dead meat!!!"
Guan immediately torched the note with blue flames, went to the desk, and began to write, "Rin, if you get this message, meet me in the city—I need to make it believable that you're my colleague for disguise purposes. You don't need to do much we're just going to compose something. If that's okay with you, then send me a message as to when and where we meet." Once he finished writing his letter, he rolled it up, tied it to the cat's neck, and sent her out into the balcony.
"Go back to her," he whispered, "make sure she gets this note. Do it carefully—eat the scroll if you're found." At that, the cat immediately landed from balcony to balcony into the blackness of the night…