Aang continued to fight Azula. But he was tiring, while Azula was barely starting to pant. Aang's speed was starting to slow, and his shirt had already been partly burnt by lighting.

At that moment, a huge tornado from the ground came blasting straight towards Azula. She took a surprised jump backwards, and lost balance. Aang took the chance to tilt the building with Earth bending, and Azula went tumbling to the ground.

Aang was just about to finish her off when he heard a cry for help. He instinctively turned around and saw their ship on fire.

Shyu was mercilessly shooting fireballs at the oncoming Fire Nation soldiers, while the Freedom Fighters were in various degrees of injuries; still fighting their hardest.

Hokada was rocking the boat with his water bending, attempting to put the fire soldiers off-balance, but it worked on their own people too.

Aang jumped off the building and went to help his ship. Toph also ran up to the ship and sent a fissure up the metal ship, causing a score of Fire Nation soldiers to topple into the water.

With Toph and Aang now on the ship, the Fire Nation soldiers were slowly being pushed off-board. However, Katara and Sokka were now left alone in the midst of the port city.

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Katara bended out a string of water from her pouch, and whip lashed a couple fire soldiers, while Sokka bonked an ignorant one on the head. Yet, they kept on coming.

Finally, Azula came up and said, "How nice. I wonder what your father would say if you two died?"

Katara looked back at the ship where Hokada was fighting the Fire Benders with immense skill and mastery of the art.

Azula smiled. She lifted her finger to point straight at Katara's heart. "Let's kill the Water Bender first…the one who cut my hair in Ba Sing Se. Remember that?" She taunted.

At that very moment, Azula tripped, and shot a bolt of lighting straight into the ground.

"What just happened?" She screamed. The score of Fire Benders moved aside, and King Bumi calmly strode into the center of the circle.

He cackled. "Azula! Why, don't you remember me? I held you when you was only a baby."

"I don't want any Earth Bender filth on me." Azula said.

King Bumi kicked some dust straight at Azula's face, which she dodged. "I said: I don't want any Earth Bender filth on me!" Azula screamed.

King Bumi just cackled again. He slid his right foot outwards, and pushed out his left arm. He then turned his head upwards. The soldiers surrounding them were suddenly pushed forwards.

A huge amount of soldiers were flung straight into Azula, who tried to escape. The pile of soldiers landed in a heap, with Azula at the bottom.

A bunch of soldiers suddenly stood up and ran back into the circle, while many just ran off. Azula hit a few unlucky ones as she stood up.

She had an evil glare in her eyes. "Bumi." She simply said.

King Bumi laughed again. He threw a pebble at Azula, who didn't even attempt to dodge it. Azula then yelled "Retreat! Everybody! Let's go!"

Then, she turned to look at Bumi. "This isn't over yet." The then ran off with the rest of the soldiers.

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In the distance, Aang heard a the distinct voice of Azula cry out "Retreat! Everybody! Let's go!"

"Now why would she retreat?" Aang asked.

"I dunno." Duke said and walked up to him. A few of the soldiers on board ran off, but most of them stood there.

"Well? Shoo. Your commander yelled the 'Retreat' Command." Shyu said.

The leader of that group of Fire Benders walked up. "We never liked Azula. And we don't intend on following her orders. We will stay here with you." He bowed down. The rest of the men followed suit.

"Then why were you fighting us so hard?" Shyu asked.

"Because she would have had us executed…But we're safe now. I hope we haven't inflicted serious injuries on anyone."

"No…just Jet. He has a deep gash on his right arm."

"I'm Lieutenant Xin." The man said, and shook hands with Shyu. Then he went up to Aang and shook his hand vigorously. "It's such an honor to meet the Avatar."

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Over time, many Fire Nation troops showed up. They had defected Azula's initial army. Many of the injured or wounded also stayed with Aang.

Noki had finally revealed herself to Aang. She was the one who shot the tornado at Azula. Aang thanked her for it.

Then, Noki introduced Aang to Carly, Sam, and Freddie.

Freddie immediately ran straight up to Aang and pulled out a map. The Duke brought out a table from inside the flaming ship and set it on the deck. Freddie sat down, and set up the map using markers.

"You see here? This is a valley called Xibei Valley. It is one of the most protected forts in the Earth Kingdom, and probably the last one now." Freddie pointed.

"What about it?" Aang asked. "Its in North West Earth Kingdom. How can we launch an attack from there?"

Before Freddie could answer, Lieutenant Xin came running onto the deck of an adjacent Fire Nation ship. "Aang! I just remembered, we have a prisoner down here."

"Who?" Aang yelled back.

"His name is General Iroh. The Dragon of the West. I'm not sure if you've heard of him…

Aang just stared in disbelief. From what Katara had told him, Iroh had saved his life. Toph also looked glad to see Iroh again…

I am so sorry for leaving you there, but I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. So, how did you like this chapter? Please Review!!!

Plus, Marching Band in the rain was NOT FUN. But we did get police escorts. :)