Our Blood Boils

Death-n-Decay

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA.

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AN: And here comes chapter nine! As usual, reviews come first.

Spikesagitta- Of course. Who indeed.

Lebensender- Pairings… so very important. Only time will tell what they all shall be!

Ravenxxx007- Well, you can make it official by clicking my username then clicking vote now. It's right at the top of my page, shouldn't be hard to find.

Hell7Born7Terra7- Iroh should have known better, that's for sure. And good idea… I'm not sure what I'll do yet, but that's definitely a possibility.

blazeice9967- Well thank you.

truefortune- Yes. You should have. But oh well, as long as you're enjoying the story…

Wolf- Thanks!

.94- Well, I doubt it's the best story ever, but thanks for the compliment!

Midnight72955- Well, thanks! Apparently, many quite a few agree. Still waiting on that first negative review. (Now watch as one magically appears…)

MaddiMastermind- Poor Zuzu indeed. I appreciate the enthusiasm.

Now. As I mentioned earlier, and I believe in the last chapter as well, I've posted a poll. Click my username and it's right at the top of my page. I figured it would be easier than trying to tally up the votes from reviews… plus, I might get more votes this way, and therefore better results. On to the chapter!

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"So, have any of you gotten any ideas on what to do about the Avatar here?" Iroh gestured towards Aang. They were back in the village now, merely walking around. The people they went by looked nervous, which was to be expected as three of the people with them were clearly Fire Nation.

Katara nodded, "I was thinking that we should go to the North Pole. We can teach Aang water bending while we make our way there, and possibly find some allies as well. There's no way Aang can master all four elements before the comet arrives, so were going to have invade with a large number of people."

Iroh looked thoughtful, "Seems like a good idea. Water benders would be great allies against the fire benders…"

Katara shook her head, "It's not fighters I'm looking for there. It's healers. And there's plenty of them in the Northern Water Tribe. Fighters can also be useful, but the healers are more important. Aang should be good enough with water bending that we can find him an earth bending teacher by the time we're ready to leave the north."

"I see. Very sound reasoning. But, I must wonder… what about fire bending?"

The blood bender sighed. She knew where he was going with this. "We can't bring Zuko along, yet. I'm assuming that there are people that check on your progress?"

"Yes… well, it's more like pay us a visit so they can mock us, but they do check on our progress, yes."

"We want to try and keep the Fire Nation in the dark as long as we can. Which means that you and Zuko will have to meet with them. Then, you two, as well as Ursa, should try and make your way to Ba Sing Se. We'll be heading there after we're done in the North Pole to get the Earth King on our side. It won't be too long after that that we'll be ready to invade the Fire Nation. Whatever we can teach Aang by then will have to do."

"You seemed to have really though this out." Katara didn't respond. She just continued to walk. She had six years to think about everything. And a certain someone. It wouldn't be too far from now, that she would finally see Azula again. Not to mention Dormin, Ty Lee, and Mai. All they seemed to be missing from their group was an earth bender. Her thoughts once again focused on her fire bender, and what she might be doing at that very moment.

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"Something wrong, Azula?" When Mai had arrived that morning, she thought the fire bender would be training as usual. Today, however, she was sitting where the weapons specialist was crying not too long ago. Staring out at nothing. It was odd, seeing Azula like this. Almost scary.

Said princess did not move. She didn't even seem to realize Mai was there. She was lost in her thoughts. She had felt something… awaken. It wasn't a bad thing, whatever it was. Why would she feel it though? Because she was a descendent of Roku? If that was the case, it most likely meant that the Avatar had returned. If that happened, though… No. She wanted to have her revenge. She would be the one to kill her father, who tried to destroy her life.

"Azula?"

Hearing her name, she jumped slightly in surprise. "Mai, don't sneak up on me like that."

Said girl rolled her eyes, and sat down next to the fire bender. "Well, you didn't say anything the first time I said your name. You were too deep in your mind, apparently. What were you thinking about? Your future wife?" She added that last part in with a smirk on her face.

It was Azula's turn to roll her eyes, "Don't you ever get tired of teasing me? I get it, I've fallen for Katara. I get it. What do I need to do to get you to stop with that?"

Mai looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she grinned, which looked very scary on her for some reason. "Promise me that the first thing you'll do when you see is run over to her, throw your arms around her, and kiss her. And I don't mean a quick peck, I mean with your tongue."

Azula could only stare at her friend. She tried to say something. But nothing would come out. She felt her eye twitching madly. She also wanted to strangle Mai. Very badly. But her body refused to respond to the commands she was trying to give it. All she could do was stare at Mai in disbelief. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Azula was finally able to respond. "You can't possibly be serious, you crazy bitch."

"I am serious. You've been longing for her forever. The longer you hide how you feel, the worse off you're likely to be."

Azula sighed, and decided to lay down. Mai just kept staring. With a smirk. That oh so very annoying smirk. "What if she doesn't feel the same way though?"

Mai lost the smirk. Sighing, she laid down next to Azula. "Well, somehow, I doubt that. I never told you this, but she told me that she liked you when we were younger." The dark girl didn't know what possessed her to lie like that, it could end up coming back to bite her if somehow Katara was not interested in the princess. She doubted it, but anything could happen.

Apparently, lying was pointless. "Mai, I've been an expert in the art of lying for years. I believe the saying goes 'don't bullshit a bullshitter?'" Mai nervously swallowed. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you… too much." The fire bender flicked her friend's forehead. "You know what? I'll agree to this ludicrous idea of yours. Not like I'll be losing anything if I do it. Except maybe Katara's friendship… well, she would probably just pretend nothing ever happened. Actually, if it's obvious that she doesn't like me that way after the kiss, I could probably just play it off as some sort of joke or something…" Mai opened her mouth to say something, but then decided against it. "What?"

Mai smiled lightly, and pretended to be inspecting her nails as she said "Well, I was going to say you might also lose your sanity after something so devastating, but clearly you've already lost that a long time ago…" Then she jumped and tried to run a way as fast as she could.

Azula just watched her retreating form, before laying back. She would pay for that. Oh, how she would pay.

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Dormin was standing outside the tavern, waiting for Jin. She wasn't going to be out for two hours, but at the moment, he had nothing better to do. Well, that was up until he noticed another shadow moving across the rooftops. He got a good look at this one, and it was clearly another abomination, possibly the same one as before. He didn't bother with subtlety this time, He got on the roof with a lot of people watching him. He heard them mutter about how the Dai Li were going to take him away, but they were on his side anyway. All that mattered was chasing the creature in front of him.

It had noticed him and tried to speed up, but the shadow bender would not give up easily. He managed to chase the beast without losing sight of it all the way up to where there was another opening to the dark world. A very large opening. And something had come out of that opening. Two somethings, actually. One looked like a bulky human, with large claws in place of it's hands. So large, they could easily be dragged across the ground. This one had it's claws on the edge of the opening to it's world, indicating that it was the one that opened up the gateway.

It wasn't that one that worried him, though. It was the other one. A shadow dragon. It was a bit smaller than the first one he had faced, but that wouldn't matter. It could fly, breath fire, and had really sharp claws and teeth. He couldn't let the beast get away, it was obvious what it would try to do. But he had to take out the other creature as well, before it made the opening wide enough for something bigger and more dangerous.

He had no choice. It was time to introduce the Dai Li to the abominations.

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They were just about all set to leave. Sokka and Aang were already on Appa, with all the supplies they were given. Katara was saying her last goodbyes to the small group of people in front of her. This group included Iroh, Ursa, Zuko, Kya, and Kanna. "Well… this is it, I guess." Katara sighed. She was a little nervous. Her mother wrapped her arms around her.

"I really wish I could come along…" She felt Katara nod her head.

Then Iroh cleared his throat, "Perhaps you should. You told me her healing lessons hadn't gone so well, and they will likely end up fighting our soldiers along the way."

Kya looked back at Iroh, "But what about the people that get sick here? I can't just leave them…"

Iroh shook his head, "It may be better that way. By healing them every time they so much as get the sniffles, you make their defenses against such things weaker. If they do get sick, they're better off getting over it on their own, at least every now and then, to make sure they can build a resistance to sickness and get sick less often."

Katara smiled, "He has a point. Although, I still say he's a bit stupid for such a wise old man…"

"And how am I stupid?"

"You made a bet about what I would say to Zuko when I first saw him. You should have known better than to think I wouldn't yell his nickname. Isn't that right, Zuzu?" She looked pointedly at Zuko, who very maturely stuck his tongue out at her. She turned back to Kya, "What do you say mom? I could use another girl around with these two idiots already here," She said, jerking a thumb back in the direction of her brother and the Avatar.

Kya wasn't sure what to do. She then felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see that it was Kanna. "I think you should go with them. Someone's going to have to make sure that Katara doesn't do anything too drastic, after all."

Katara rolled her eyes, "I am not that bad." Everyone looked at her in disbelief. "Okay, yeah, that was a pretty bad lie, I know…"

Kya smiled, "Alright. Just let me get a few things and I guess we'll get going…" She hurried off to their home, and Ursa walked over to Katara.

"You be careful out there. As much as I hate to admit it, a lot of the soldiers in our armies have no mercy at all." Katara just raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I know you'd like to think you're even worse, but your brother here is still alive, even though you complained about how annoying he was before you had to leave. Now, there's something I want you to do for me next time you see Azula. I have a feeling I won't be there for it…"

Katara stared at Ursa suspiciously. "What is it you want me to do…?"

The Fire Lady smirked, "I want you to give her a nice and long kiss." Katara's jaw dropped. She tried to respond, but her jaw wanted to stay low. "You were a bit obvious with your crush on her when you were younger." Katara used her water bending to throw a snowball at Sokka, who could clearly be heard snickering from on top of Appa.

"Alright, fine. I'll do that. But if she lights my ass on fire, I'm coming for you." Katara turned around and saw her mother approaching with her own supplies and a waterskin. "I guess that's everything then. Unless you have something you want to add, Zuzu? You've been silent the entire time."

He sighed. "If you do end up meeting with my sister somewhere, make sure she's alright. She's only had Mai for the past six years."

Katara frowned, "What do you mean? What happened to Ty Lee and Dormin?"

Ursa looked at the ground. "Ty Lee ran away from home and joined a circus in the Earth Kingdom…" Katara's mouth twitched into a smile, but it quickly vanished when Ursa continued, "And Dormin was murdered by the Fire Lord."

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"So, we need to destroy it's heart in order to get it to stay down for good, right?" Dormin nodded at the Dai Li agent. There were ten of them around him, and they were looking at the bulky clawed one, as well as the dragon. "And once we kill it, you want us to secure the shadow until you have finished with the dragon and can seal it?"

"That's right. On my signal…" Dormin raised his hand, ready to bring it forward as soon as both creatures could be caught completely unaware. Once they both had their heads turned away, Dormin swung his arm down, and all of them leaped into action. The Dai Li sent rocks at the creature trying to widen the portal, and Dormin leaped onto the dragon, drawing in the shadows in the environment to make a spear and cloak. The spear was obviously his weapon of choice, but the cloak was meant to hide his identity, in case word about this got to Long Feng, as it likely would.

While the Dai Li were busy trying to pierce the heart of the much smaller beast, the dragon that Dormin had hopped onto had decided to take off into the air. That's when Dormin realized just how much more difficult fighting the dragon in the real world would be. No shadow walking meant much more limited movement… for him, anyway.

It was difficult to hold onto the beast as it flew through the air. There wasn't anything like some spikes or bumps jutting from it's back. Dormin needed to get it grounded before it managed to get him to fall off. Apparently, it wasn't smart enough to do a barrel roll. Being careful as to not lose his balance, Dormin slid across the massive creatures back over to one of the wings. He thrust his spear into the wing, causing the dragon to roar in pain, and violently shake. Dormin managed to stay on the beast, and started carving his way through the wing, intent on cutting it off. The dragon started jerking around, trying to knock it's attacker off, but it only helped give Dormin help in cutting through the wing.

The wing Finally fell off and faded into a shadowy mist. Then Dormin realized that he realized he forgot about how high up from the ground he and the abomination was. It was going to be a very rough landing.

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The flying bison soared through the air. Katara hugged her legs, still shocked about what she had been told. Kya held her daughter, not saying anything. Sokka had fallen asleep, and Aang was on Appa's head making sure they stayed on course. He wanted to stop by one of the air temples first.

Katara wasn't sure what to do. She felt rage and depression clashing within her. She wanted to tear something apart. She also wanted to break down into tears. She was leaning towards crying her eyes out, as she didn't want to tear anyone on the flying bison apart… well, she'd probably destroy Aang if he wasn't the Avatar. They apparently needed him.

She didn't want to cry either, though. She just wanted to bottle everything up inside. She knew she couldn't do that though. Bottling things up almost never turned out good, and she didn't want to risk hurting someone she actually cared about if everything broke loose.

Then she heard her mother whisper in her ear, "It's alright if you want to cry. I'm here for you."

She decided to listen to her mother. Kya continued to hold her, comforting her mourning daughter as best as she could.

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Dust and dirt clouded the air. Rubble was scattered in various places. Fortunately, no one was in the area when they had crashed into the ground. Dormin stood shakily, and limped over to the dragon. The abomination was slowly regaining it's senses, so he had to act quickly. People had started gathering around, to see what had landed in their city. Evidently, not many people noticed the dragon flying above their city moments ago.

There was a Dai Li agent standing nearby, but Dormin recognized him as one that was loyal to him, so he motioned for the agent to come over. "I need you to send a rock in to destroy the beast's heart when I decapitate it, alright?" Receiving a nod, he moved over to the neck of the beast. The agent got into position in front of the monster. Like with the last one, Dormin used the shadows around him to make a great sword, and swung it down, though it took much more effort this time as gravity and his injuries were taking their toll.

With the head removed, and dissipating into nothing, the earth bender near him quickly made a particularly sharp rock fly through the open neck of the beast right into the heart. The body shook violently for a few moments, before becoming completely still. The body quickly became a mist, then nothing at all. Dormin sighed in relief. That was, until he noticed two things. Jin was looking at him. It was shortly after noon, apparently. That… and his cloak of shadows had been lost when he crashed landed with the abomination.

Jin had her arms crossed, and was tapping her foot rather impatiently on the ground. And she was glaring at him, though it seemed more like a playful glare.

"I can explain this. Just don't start sending rocks at me, alright?"

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AN: I think I'll end it there, even though it's a bit on the short side. Sorry for not updating for so long, I decided to take a break from the typing so that I wouldn't drive myself crazy. Then I wouldn't be able to finish this story. Now, I will repeat this once more, click my username and vote in that poll for who Dormin will end up with! Seriously, only three people have actually voted so far, from what I've seen. Jin's winning. Lets get some more votes in! And not in the reviews, I won't be counting those. Until next time! And don't forget to review!