Chapter IV: Duel of Siblings


There was a knock on her door. Irritated that her meditation had been interrupted, Azula opened it and gave the Lieutenant a glare. He swallowed heavily, but gave his report.

"They've left the resort, Princess. I thought you should know."

"What? You just let them leave?"

The man started sweating. "Well no, they haven't actually gone anywhere. They aren't even approaching the ship. They're just standing outside."

Azula narrowed her eyes, deciding she should go check up on those two. Zuko was one thing, but she did not expect any of these fools to be able to handle Uncle Iroh, loathe as she was to admit it. She walked to the end of the deck and looked over the railing of the ship, and almost gasped at what she saw. Uncle was going through a firebending form as he faced the ship. One that Azula was closely familiar with.

Without a second thought, Azula propelled herself off the ship with a burst of flames, causing the Lieutenant to stumble back and surprise. Azula payed the simpleton no heed as she flew over to her treacherous Uncle at an incredible speed.

She wasn't fast enough.

Iroh thrust two fingers out towards the ship, and a massive arc of lightning struck the engine. Ignoring the panicked shouts behind her, Azula sent a bolt of blue fire at Iroh in midair, knowing he wouldn't be able to come out of his form in time to block it.

And then Zuko was in front of him, brushing aside her fire with an ease and finesse that left her shocked and livid. As she landed, she sent two more blasts of blue fire at the two, and Zuko started repelling her attempts in earnest. She could hear the firebenders on board the ship and off of it finally beginning to react to the situation as they started to converge onto their position from all sides. Iroh started fighting them off, and Azula let him. She didn't much care for the lives of her underlings, not that she thought her uncle would have the spine to kill them.

"So you actually saw through my little ruse, Zuzu? I suppose you're not entirely as hopeless as you were the last time I saw you," Azula mocked, knowing there was no point in continuing the charade. Zuko didn't react to the jab. His expression was focused as he continued parrying her elite firebending. Azula had to admit he had improved immensely. Three years ago he wouldn't have lasted this long against her without slipping up at least once. But there was no unfocused rage, no angry flailing, not a single hair out of place in his defense. Not only was his form almost perfect, but it was one she didn't even recognize. Azula had mastered every form of firebending from the basics to the most advanced sets. There shouldn't be a form she was unfamiliar with, much less one being used by Zuko. What kind of bastardized mockery of firebending was her brother using?

An effective one, she grudgingly admitted to herself as he adjusted his footing and dispersed yet another barrage of blue flames. Although this new style of firebending wasn't as aggressive as hers, each move seem to flow into the next, almost as if he was dancing. Leave it to Zuko to come up with something so ridiculous. Propelling herself into the air once again, she descended upon him with a downward arc of fire from her leg, but he spun through the air and summoned a shield of flames to repel it. As she landed, he kicked outwards and sent a wave of fire in her direction, but she stood her ground and parted the flames around herself.

She proceeded to send a vicious series of jabs and kicks in his direction, the fire in her veins responding to her every movement. His stance was firm and unyielding as he blocked each strike, and yet his movements were fluid as he shifted in and out between stances. What was going on? He had never been able to compete with her before! He couldn't have possibly improved more than her since his banishment. He would have been busy chasing an unattainable dream while she practiced advanced firebending forms under the watch of the Fire Lord. She was a prodigy! There was no way he could have been progressing faster than her!

Her movements became more aggressive, though not recklessly so, and she began pushing him back. He still had yet to take a hit, but she was gaining ground now. It would only be a matter of time. As she approached, he cleared away a blast of fire before readying his own in one fist. She did the same as blue flames gathered around her hand.

Their two fists met, and the clash of flames caused a small explosion which sent them both flying backwards and landing a fair distance away from each other.

Azula growled as she rose to her feet, noting with aggravation that Zuko was doing the same, no worse for wear. This was going nowhere fast. It was time to end this. She had one ace up her sleeve that she knew Zuko couldn't have learned, and she was going to use it.

Going through the same movements Uncle had earlier, she separated the negative and positive energies in her chi, causing sparks to come to life around her fingertips. She watched in confusion as Zuko stood there calmly in a ready stance. Why wasn't he panicking, or at least getting ready to dodge? Did he have a death wish?

Well, it was of no consequence, she decided. If he wanted to play it cool, he'd get shot full of lightning. It was that simple.

Having defeated most of the soldiers by now, Iroh looked on worriedly as he knocked out Captain Ling as gently as possible. Did Zuko have the means to deal with cold blooded fire? He had told him not to worry beforehand, that he could take Azula, but he couldn't help but be apprehensive. Every instinct was screaming for him to intercept that strike.

He needn't have worried. As the bolt of lightning shot towards Zuko, the prince held out two fingers and caught it. Uncle could very clearly imagine the electricity following the path of his chi, down through his stomach and out his other arm. He watched in satisfaction and pride as Zuko demonstrated a levelheaded mastery of his own technique. He pointed his other hand, guided, and released.

Azula watched in shock, and dare she say it, fear, as Zuko did the impossible and pointed the her own lightning back towards her. She stared into her brother's face as the blue sparks reflected off of her golden eyes, knowing that the fight was truly over. But in that split second, some unrecognizable emotion flashed through Zuko's eyes, and his fingers adjusted their course, almost of their own accord.

The lightning struck the ground below Azula's feet, and she let out a shout of pain and surprise as the resulting explosion sent her hurtling backwards above the water, where she landed with a loud splash. What remained of her crew hurried to help her out of the bay.

Azula emerged from the steaming water with an infuriated scowl. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she brushed off the support of her underlings and marched out of the water, noting with fury that her brother and uncle were nowhere to be seen.

She had just been spared. By Zuko.

"I want a message sent to the nearest Fire Nation outpost," she whispered, her voice low and dangerous. "Have bounty posters sent out for those two traitors, and get someone over here to fix that Agni forsaken engine."

The highest ranked soldier stuttered an affirmative, before he bowed and left.

Azula's eyes continued to glare at the spot where her brother had been standing, the duel replaying itself in her mind.


Zuko stared down at his reflection in the creek as he took his knife and cut the ties around his topknot, letting his hair fall down around his face. He handed the knife to Iroh, who did the same. As Zuko hefted the supplies they had stolen from the resort over his shoulder, the two made their way out into the wilderness.


A week later

Aang, Katara, and Sokka were admittedly having a tough week. First they'd arrived at General Fong's outpost, which was pretty uneventful. The only problem was that the general paid little to no attention to them, and seemed to need constant reminders about their escort to Omashu. It wasn't hard to see past his facade of informality to the arrogance beneath, and it was even easier to see that he didn't really take their group seriously, despite Aang being the Avatar. When it became apparent that he wasn't inclined to "waste" time and resources giving them an escort, they had packed their things and promptly left on Appa, all three of them sufficiently annoyed that they had wasted their time. It wasn't as if they needed his help. They'd been doing pretty well so far. Sort of.

That led to their following endeavor of trying to fly over the mountains through a veritable firestorm courtesy of a Fire Nation blockade, which didn't really go over well. They ended up taking up a group of eccentric nomads on their offer to lead them through the Cave of Two Lovers in order to reach their destination, which took far longer than it should have, though they did learn some interesting things along the way.

Now, they had finally reached Omashu, and were ready to make their request of King Bumi. Only when they walked over the ridge leading to the city gates did they realize that the city was now occupied by the Fire Nation.

No, this was not a good week for them.


"Please tell me you're here to kill me," Mai intoned as Azula and Ty Lee walked up to her. Azula smirked, and the two old friends embraced.

"Actually, I've come to seek your aid Mai," Azula informed. "I've been having a bit of trouble tracking down a couple of traitors."

"Traitors?" Mai asked curiously.

"I've been tasked with the capture of my dear brother and uncle, and I've decided the best way to go about it is to form a small elite team to follow them." Azula did not mention the fact that she would need help in more than just tracking them down, though she knew it went unsaid.

Mai was an old pro at hiding emotions. Azula was an old pro at reading them. In the short moment of silence following her request, the two traits clashed with such subtlety that any uninformed person would think the nobleman's daughter was simply taking a second to come to a decision.

Azula could detect the slightest hint of reservation in Mai's face though, and knew at that moment that her friend's old feelings for Zuko had never completely vanished after his disgrace. No matter. Her fear of the repercussions should she step out of line would be more than enough to keep that sentiment under control.

"Anything to get me out of this place," Mai remarked dryly, seemingly coming to an easy decision.

Azula smirked again. "It's good to have you back, Mai. Now, what's this I've been hearing about a rebel group?"


Zuko sighed as he walked through the busy village streets, his uncle in tow.

"Something wrong Nephew?" Iroh asked benignly, as he enjoyed the view of the sun setting behind the horizon.

"If we're going to be blending in, we need to be able to defend ourselves without standing out," Zuko said quietly, eliciting a nod from the man. "I was just hoping I'd be able to find a pair of—"

He stopped short as a glint of steel caught his eye. He looked to see a local swordsman walking around with a pair of dual dao swords strapped to his back. Luckily, dual dao were common in both the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, and these looked to be of good quality and condition.

"You there," he addressed the local. As the man turned to him, Zuko noticed the slight twitch of his fingers, but paid it no heed. "How much for those swords?" he asked instead.

The man raised an eyebrow. "Around these parts, swords are part of a man's livelihood. I'm not exactly looking to sell them."

Zuko pulled out a small pouch from his bag. "How does 40 gold pieces sound?"

The man's eyes widened as he took the bag and examined its contents. "Like enough to feed my family for months. You've got yourself a deal, son."

The man handed over the swords, which Zuko strapped to his back. He offered Zuko a nod and walked away.

"Well, there go a third of our resources," Iroh pointed out, though his tone was not chastising.

"He needs the money more than we do, and we need the swords more than he does. I figure it was a good trade."

"Fair point," Iroh conceded. "I suppose it's a good thing we had the foresight to bring our leftover funds from the voyage."

Zuko smiled wryly. "You have no idea. Last time you had to sing and dance for coin."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It's degrading."


The two runaways stopped at a small inn for the night. The innkeeper was a middle aged woman with a kind smile who welcomed them warmly.

As Iroh got settled in for the night, Zuko grabbed a small burlap bag. "I'm going on a walk," he announced, and his uncle gave him a knowing look.

"Do be careful," Iroh warned. "Trouble is not hard to find at this time of night."

"I can handle it," Zuko assured.

"It's not you I'm worried about."

Zuko smiled and bid his uncle goodnight before leaving the room. He'd often wondered how long the man had known about his nightly escapades. It seemed he'd been aware since even before they were on the run.

As he slipped out into the night, he reached into the bag and pulled on a grinning blue mask, before taking to the rooftops. He needed to think.