Aang wanted to look for Bumi nevertheless. Since Bumi was his friend he had to find out what happened to him. But the others weren't as enthusiastic. Sokka wasn't even sure if Bumi was still alive. It was impossible to enter through the main-entrance now anyways. But Aang knew a secret passage, they reached by crossing the canyon around Omashu on Appa, flying low to prevent detection. The passage turned out to be the sewage-system of the city, and Sokka obviously hadn't yet learned to stay clear of doors or other things opened by Aang. He was splashed completely by the stinking, slimy water. "I don't enter this, if Aang does not bend an Airbubble around me." Zuko decided, after he had taken a short look at Sokka.
So they went on, Aang ahead, protecting Zuko with an Airbubble, followed by Katara, who was kind of supposed to waterbend the sewage-water away from herself and her brother, but seemed to have forgotten about her brother at all, for as they arrived at the end of the canal and finally crawled onto the streets of the city, Sokka looked like a swamp-monster. Aang actually cried out in horror, as he saw him. Katara quickly waterbended away all the slimy water and Aang blow-dried the watertribe-boy, but Sokka was left with two wired looking animals that were stuck to his skin.
They went off easily once Aang tickled their heads. The creatures were called Pentapocks and they left little red circles on Sokka's skin. As soon as they were ready to walk on, some soldiers encountered them, asking them harshly what they were doing outside after curfew. Katara hastily assured the soldiers that they were already on their way home, but suddenly one of the soldiers noticed the red circles on Sokka's neck and stopped them again, asking what was wrong with the boy. "He has Pentapocks." Katara explained quick-witted "Very contagious." Sokka hastily played along, playing very sick, muttering something like "I'm dying…"
"And deadly…" Katara added. "Very deadly." Zuko nodded "I'd hurry home and wash my hands if I were you…" "Pentapocks?" one of them asked "Hasn't your cousin died of that?" he turned to the other soldier. And they hurried away from the little group. "Some people are just really dumb, aren't they?" Zuko muttered. "Well, good for us…" Katara shrugged as they went on. "They will hide Bumi somewhere where he can't earthbend…" Aang muttered "Something made of metal." "To be honest, I don't think we will find him…" Zuko sighed "They wil keep him out of sight, to demoralize his people, won't they?" "What do you suggest then?" Aang snapped at him. "Well, find his people…" Zuko shrugged "Maybe they know where he is… We can't really ask Firenation-soldiers, but maybe some earthkingdom-citizens will help us…"
"And how do we find them? Knocking on random doors?" Sokka put in. "I don't know…" Zuko answered "Do you have any better ideas?" "We can't wait until morning…" Aang huffed "They will notice we aren't citizens then…" It was evening, so they were kind of save, but deserted. "Let's split up and look for Bumi or some citizens." Katara finally decided "But try not to be detected by Firenation-Soldiers…" "Alright." Aang nodded, and so they went their own ways. Zuko tried to stay in the shadows. He felt saver there. He also tried to peek through windows to find someone who would help them find Bumi, but he found nobody, until he entered another street, and suddenly heard voices drawing closer. Voices of girls. One of the voices made him shiver…
"I really don't think the Avatar is so easily trapped in a cave…" the voice that made Zuko shiver stated "And I don't believe in curses. Despite maybe my dear brother being one, but well." "I don't mind them coming here…" another, very monotone-sounding voice stated "At least then something happens here for once." Zuko hid deeper in the shadows. His heart raced but he dared not to move nor run. "It will be fun to see Zuko again, won't it, Mae?" another voice, very bubbly and childish sounding said. They knew him? Was that a good or a bad sign? "If the rumours are true…" the first voice put in, and three girls suddenly came into sight. The first one he recognized from his visions. She was the one that made him feel angry and dumb. The other two he didn't recognize.
One was dressed in red and black and looked pretty… monotone. There was absolutely no expression on her face, not the slightest indication on what she thought or how she felt, the other one was dressed in pink, mostly, and she was pretty and smiled. Her long hair was braided and she hopped more than she walked. This one seemed overall happy. And then there was the girl of his visions, the girl that made him shiver. She had a golden circle on top of her head, holding her hair in a topknot. Her expressions expressed disgust and pride. She wore slightly modified armour of firenation-soldiers. Black, red and gold, instead of only black and red. "We don't know yet if Admiral Zhao really saw my dear brother, or if he saw someone else, just imagining it was Zuko…"
"Are we sure they will come here?" the happy girl asked "I mean… I wouldn't run into a fortress of my enemy…" "They are looking for the Earth-King…" the monotone-sounding girl answered "We got the information from our spies." "Then we need to make sure they find him…" the girl who had claimed Zuko to be her brother smiled evilly "And we better prepare a trap too." Zuko held his breath as they passed him. "We will make sure that they won't escape this time…" Ok, now how to get this information to the others? – Zuko wondered. They just agreed to split up, not how and when to meet again. "This better be good…" the monotone girl stated, before they vanished into the next street. Zuko was not sure if he should follow them to find Bumi and risk detection, or try to find the others and warn them. He decided for the second option.
He ran into Katara after a while. "They are awaiting us." He told her hastily "They are setting up a trap!" "Who is?" Katara asked back. "I don't know… Firenation…" Zuko shrugged "I overheard them. We need to warn Aang…" "Alright, follow me." Katara said and started running. Zuko followed her. They spotted Aang soon later on the roof of one of the houses. Katara waved for him to come down and he did. "Zuko heard someone talking about setting up a trap for us." Katara said. "They want to use Bumi as bait…" Zuko added "What shall we do?" "Not run into it?" Sokka's voice suggested from behind them, as the water-tribe boy closed in. "We can't leave Bumi with them…" Aang complained. "We can't simply run into their trap either…" Katara sighed "We would need a diversion…" "I don't think a diversion would help…" Zuko sighed "Not this time…"
Suddenly the floor beneath them gave way and they fell. All four of them landed somewhere underground, like an underground city. "We can help." A man said "We are trying to reconquer our city since it was taken…" He went on with how King Bumi decided to give the city up to the invasion and do absolutely nothing. So the city was taken without a fight. Worse, King Bumi got captured without lifting a finger for his own defence. They hadn't seen him since. But they weren't willing to give up without a fight. Aang tried to convince them to leave the city and retreat to live to fight another day. Since they wouldn't win the fight now, and even if they would have to pay a high price. And most of the people agreed with him, but wondered how to get out. "Pentapocks…" Sokka suggested. So they went to gather some of the little squids. "This could be our chance for a diversion…" Zuko told Aang "If we manage to create a mass-panic we might be able to at least talk to Bumi without getting grilled…"
Sokka was telling the people what to do and how to act, once they had all been marked by the squids. "But we can't leave quietly…" Zuko put in "We need a panic… Like, people screaming and being hysteric, telling the plague is spreading and taking their loved ones, stuff like that. Be melodramatic. Pretend like you knew the end is near…" Aang nodded. "Good idea… The Firenation will start to panic too, and will try to get rid of the infected…" They waited until they figured out where the trap was set. They had hung Bumi at the highest spot of the city, in a metal-coffin-kind of thing. Then they gave the sign for the panic, while the group made their way up towards Bumi.
The plan almost worked perfectly. The screaming of people was soon spread all over the city, and their infected people showed great talent in playing sick. Soon enough the Firenationsoldiers were busy to make sure the infected and the screaming were finding their way out of the city. And then Zuko saw two of the girls from before rushing to meet the chaos underneath. So as they arrived at the top there was only one girl left to guard Bumi, and this girl was the gloomy one. "Hi." She stated. "Let Bumi go!" Aang shouted at her. "Azula knew you would come." The girl continued "Though she got distracted by your little game down there." Katara opened her waterskin and started bending water out of it, but the girl was quick, throwing some hidden knife at Katara. Zuko blocked it with one of his swords just in time. "Nice." The girl commented. "I can return the compliment." Zuko growled "Now, please let us pass." "Have I changed so much?" the girl asked "I mean… you definitely have, but…" "What are you talking about?" Katara snapped at her.
"She's trying to buy time!" Sokka yelled and went into attack. But the girl was calm, quick and she seemed to know her ground. She stepped aside as soon as Sokka had reached her, and the boy shot over the edge of their level and went falling. "I'm Azula's friend." The girl explained, looking after Sokka for a while "I was at the palace now and then, when we were kids." "Good for you." Katara hissed. "Diversion…" Zuko whispered at her "So Aang can get to Bumi." Aang and Katara nodded, and so Katara and Zuko charged at the girl, to get her busy, while Aang was aiming for Bumi. This in fact worked. The girl was not good enough to take on three opponents at once and had to concentrate on the ones attacking her. Aang managed to reach Bumi and with Airbending he broke the coffin free from the metal chain it was hanging on, sending it on a speed-slide down the delivery-system.
"Sorry, but I think we have to go." Zuko put in, as soon as Aang was gone, and he pulled Katara after him, away from the girl, towards where Sokka had vanished. Sokka was one story down, trying to climb the wall. Katara caught his sleeve and the three started running, while the girl was sending her knifes after them. As they ran they could see Aang and Bumi rushing down the slides, while someone was following them, a girl bending blue fire, while they soon found the happy girl and the gloomy one on their heels. Meanwhile the chaos down on the ground-floor was nearly perfect. "How do we get out of here again?" Zuko asked after a while of running. "Uhm…" Sokka mumbled, looking at the mess at the entrance "Where is Appa when one needs him?" "We need to get rid of our pursuit first!" Katara cried. So Zuko flung around, sending a Fireball towards the girls behind them.
It sure rid them of the two girls after them, but it brought the third one off of Aang's and onto theirs. "Didn't made it any better!" Sokka complained at once, as they suddenly were the targets of blue fireballs. Zuko had all his hands full on blocking the attacks, so he stopped running. They didn't knew where to anyways. "So it is true that the Avatar had managed to get a Firebender on his side…" the girl sneered "Interesting…" Zuko tried to ignore her talking and concentrated on dodging her attacks. "So you won't talk to me?" she went on "Too bad. I've heard you ran into Admiral Zhao. He wrote us about you, claiming you to be my brother… Zuko…" Still Zuko didn't reply. "So, are you?" she went on, after a while "He also claimed you have lost your memory." "Then how could I know if I am?" Zuko finally gave back. "Father wants you to return home, Zuzu." The girl went on "We miss you at home." "Why would you attack me then?" Zuko gave back "If you'd wanted me home?"
It was then that they both noticed that they were alone. The watertribe-siblings had vanished, and so had Aang. The girl finally held her fire. "I'm Azula, your sister." She said "You went on a task to find our Archenemy, the Avatar, three years ago. And as I see, you did find him. But somehow he got you on his side, mingling with your mind so to use you against your own family. I understand he must be very powerful. But we can help you. Just come home with me…" "Aang didn't mingle with my mind." Zuko corrected "I lost my memory before he appeared. It was due to an accident, not due to him. And I saw what this war does to people. Aang is trying to stop it and bring peace back. I want to help him. Because I think it is the right thing to do. I don't remember you, nor anyone else of my family, and if it's true what I have heard about my father, I prefer not knowing him."
"So what? You help the Avatar kill your own father?" Azula asked. "Aang wouldn't kill…" Zuko put in. "Then what? Ask him to step back?" Azula laughed "Father will never surrender. He is the Firelord, not such little earthking-whimp. If you want this war to end, it's either for the world to accept our supremacy, or for father to be killed." "We will find a way." Zuko promised "Without killing." "Zuko!" he heard Katara's voice from above, and there was Appa not far away from them. So Zuko turned and jumped onto Appa's saddle, feeling Aang's help with Airbending a bit, so he did in fact reach it, and they took off, leaving Omashu and Azula behind.
"Where is Bumi?" Zuko asked. "He didn't want to come." Aang explained "He decided his place is in his city and he will wait, until the time is right to take it back. He also told me to find an Earthbending-Master who would wait and listen before he strikes… Do you think we can ask the badgermoles?" "I don't think he meant that…" Zuko said. "Who was that girl?" Katara asked. "Her name is Azula, she claims to be my sister…" Zuko sighed "I remembered her face, but…" "What did she tell you?" Katara went on. "She wants me to come home, but I'm not sure if she truly means that or not… And she mentioned something else…" Zuko answered "To win the war we will have to end the firelord… She said he wouldn't step back, so we'd have to kill him…"