So thanks for all of your reviews guys, I enjoy reading them and responding to them. I'm already getting a start on chapter 9 so hopefully I won't be keeping you waiting as long this time.
holmesfreak1412: I finally got around to reading part two. Gosh I hope they really do have her undercover, I want an Azula redemption arc.
Tyleepoof: :) Use all the cliffhangers! Worry not, I'm determined to finish this fic before Winter break ends.
Mizuki00: *Whispers* All of them. All the cliffhangers. Every cliffhanger. Thank you. That question is actually going to be answered in this chapter. As far as readers have been shown in Smoke and Shadow he's still rotting in prison lol.
Write Right Rites: *Does the thing* now fill your eyes with what happens. :D :D :D
The Kemurikage flooded in like a thick dark storm cloud. Swiftly and quietly they filled the space of the room, boxing Azula, Zuko, Aang, and the others in.
"I always knew you were a frightened little bitch." Called a voice from the back. Quing's voice of course. "But I didn't think you'd actually try to run."
I'm not running, I'm returning the children you stole. The words rested at the tip of her tongue, but Azula let them stay there. She didn't owe anyone explanations, least of all him. So instead she stood quietly, waiting for a true figure of authority to emerge. Waiting for their leader to finally show her what he could do.
"Still have nothing to say Quinn."
"Quiet, boy" another man stepped up. "We've got more important things to worry about than your petty quarrels. Our leader didn't send us here to mess everything up."
Azula recognized that voice too.
"Father." Zuko grumbled.
So the leader left him in charge of the group. A new kind of anger surged within Azula. Just imagining him sitting in the corner of the dining hall, sipping hot tea as Quing and his friends shoved her around calling her "queer" and "fag" and the like on a day to day basis.
He wasn't there when it all started. Azula told herself. He didn't hear me talk. He doesn't know…
Kiyi bunched herself closer to Azula, pulling her away from her distressed thinking.
"Give me the children and no one has to get hurt." Ozai offered smoothly.
"Someone will get hurt when you have them and get your way." Katara hollered.
Azula's grip on Kiyi tightened.
"And you." Ozai pointed at Azula, "how dare you betray your people." He only motioned to the Kemurikage, but Azula had this striking feeling that he meant the whole of the Fire Nation. She choked down the knot that had formed in her throat and pulled Kiyi even closer.
"Why aren't you by Zu-Zu?" Azula whispered to the child.
"I want you to keep me safe."
Azula scanned the room for Tom-Tom. As expected he was nuzzled up in Mai's arms.
"Alright, have it your way." Ozai backed up into the swarm of Kemurikage. "Attack the Fire Lord and his little friends and get the children."
"You will not take my children from me again!" Ursa roared.
"You don't have a say in the matter." Ozai shrugged, before sending a jet of fire in the direction of Zuko. With that the room came to life. All in one chaotic blur, Katara unleashed her water whip, Aang readied all of the elements he had at his disposal, Ozai slipped into the crowed, Mai let out a flurry of blades, and the Kemurikage surged forward (some dodging Mai's metal rain others taking the offense).
Azula ducked under a sea of reaching arms and stray fireballs, pulling Kiyi along with her. She moved quickly and swiftly, all she had to do was make it into the hallway and she could find one of the secret passageways.
"Ow, ow, you're hurting me." Kiyi whimpered, tears clinging to the corner of her eyes. "You're holding me too tight."
Azula pressed her lips into a thin line.
"I said you're holding too tight."
Azula hadn't the luxury of worrying about that. She didn't really even hear the child through her fog of determination. She slipped under another snatching arm, this time tugging Kiyi up to her chest. How could she be so foolish, dragging the child behind her like that?
"Hey! That one has Kiyi!" Tylee shouted.
"Is that the one who bought her here?" Zuko asked.
"Let's not wait around to find out." Sokka yelled.
Azula felt a hand tugging at the back of her robe and prayed that it was one of Aang's lot.
"Of course not." Azula muttered to herself as she ducked down, placed her own arm above that of her captor's, and twisted out of his grasp. With the fall of his hand came the fall of her hood. She quickly drew it up over her head again.
A sharp cry cut through the battle.
TyLee had been bought down, Azula realized.
And then another cry, this one more masculine.
Probably Sokka.
Her side was slowly falling.
"I got the Avatar!" Called an excited voice.
"Freaking Quing" Azula hissed to herself.
"And I got the boy." Stated another. That voice was also familiar, from where Azula didn't have time to place.
She was very nearly at the exit.
"And I'm going to get the girl." He leapt in Azula's path.
"Like hell you are." She growled, fire roaring to life in her palm. No one was paying attention to her anyhow. No one but the man before her, and he wouldn't be a problem for long.
"No wait!" He whispered hoarsely. He tugged off his mask.
Azula let the fire die out. "Yuso, what are you doing here? They must need all the help they can get…"
Yuso frowned. "Thanks, I can always count on you to drop my self-esteem down a notch or two." He paused. "Give me, uh, Kiyi. Kiyi right? I can get her out of here."
Azula loosed her hold on Kiyi, but only briefly before tightening it more firmly than before. "Do you expect me to just take your word for it? You're still one of them."
"So are you." It was spoken more as a question than a statement. "I don't know what our leader has planned but I know that you and your father want Zuko off of the throne." To Azula's annoyance this accusation was vocalized with much more confidence. "Princess." He added as an afterthought.
She gave him a mildly hard thump on the head. "Quiet!"
Just as conveniently as the Kemurikage seemed to forget about her, they inconveniently remembered her.
"Alright fine then." Yuso muttered. He thrust a ball of fire into Azula's stomach and snatched Kiyi.
"Yuso, I'm going to kicking your ass!" She shrieked at the man as he dashed down the hall.
"Sorry," he called. "Had to make it look convincing. I think you did a good job."
"No really, I'm going to kick your ass." She muttered more to herself, rubbing her belly where the fire made contact. She winced.
A new arm yanked her upright, sending the ache in her middle up into a searing pain. Tears of both pain and frustration streamed down her eyes, leaving her twice as thankful for the cover of the mask.
Azula surveyed the battle scene. It would seem that in the duration of her chat with Yuso, Team Avatar regained the upper hand. With her in the grasp of the Kemurikage, she had a sinking feeling that they just lost it again.
She just had to get herself caught.
Azula felt her captor's hand dig through the robes, into her scalp, tarring painfully at her hair.
"Nobody move or I'll kill the boy." Ozai threatened. With her head forcibly tilted to the ceiling she couldn't see it, but she could feel the crackle of lightning at the soft of her neck.
Azula forced herself not to flitch, to maintain an impassive posture.
To her dismay she heard the shuffle of footsteps, the swishing of a robe.
"I said don't move! That means you Zuko." The sparks danced closer to her skin, some straying from Ozai's grasp, biting her white hot in the neck. "Do you think this is a bluff? I. Will. Kill him."
Him. Azula repeated inwardly. Him. Her father really had no clue.
"I have a plan." She heard Aang call from somewhere else in the room. "But I could really use a distraction."
This could go down one of two ways, Azula pondered. Either Aang would be just as distracted and no progress would be made, or he'd ignore the knowledge he was about to attain and go through with his plan. Even if he didn't, she'd have made an opening for herself.
"This better be one hell of a plan, Avatar!" Azula yanked the hood from head and threw the mask to the floor.
