Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, you already know.
No Laughing Matter: Part 3
Katara and Sokka had much less trouble escaping the audience hall than they were expecting. Granted, the stampeding mob of people trying to get out all at once was dangerous, but it quickly became obvious that however strong and vicious Azula's cronies were they weren't particularly bright. Azula apparently wanted most of the crowd to leave, but it also Azula made sure that the competent ones were on the stage with her. They were sure they were both prime targets - to be captured, not let by – but the mooks at the doors were too busy threatening the crowd into running away faster to notice them. They were somehow able to slip by easily despite both of them being held back practically carrying their companions. Jin had for some reason totally frozen once everything went into a panic so Katara had to literally drag her out, while Sokka led the Earth King, who was only slightly more used to dealing with a crisis and what's more was wearing bright, regal attire that any capable person should have recognized, but went almost completely unnoticed.
Not that they were complaining, mind you.
As they hit the door when one of them finally connected the Earth King's attire to the man he was supposed to capture, but by that time it was far too late to stop them from leaving. He did try to catch them regardless, but he didn't get far before Katara water whipped him around the shins and dropped him to the ground. In the time it took for him to get to his feet they were long gone.
When they left, however, it became clear that as dim as these minions were they did have some sense in the way they were using the fleeing crowd to their advantage. Sokka and Katara suspected Azula had given them specific instructions: letting the crowd just charge out in the panic was a stroke of genius. The real city guard, or at least a group of soldiers they hoped were the real city guard, were at a loss to charge in without hurting the massive mob of innocent civilians, to say nothing of being swept away by them, and once one exit was empty of cover they quickly bottlenecked it, effectively stopping an effective raid.
As a result of the deadlock, in the meantime many of the real guards instead spent their time helping civilians rather than trying to get in. Once the four of them were clear a large group of them came up to them almost right away and started tending to the Earth King, checking to see if he was hurt and almost entirely ignoring his two rescuers – not that they blamed them. As the soldiers carted him off to what they hoped was the safety of the palace the Earth King turned back and nodded gratefully to them, leaving Sokka and Katara to breathe a sigh of relief and wonder what to do, while Jin stood off to the side silent and pale faced.
"We have to go back and help." Katara panted heavily, but her words were just as determined as ever.
"You're right, but how? These guys are surprisingly organized. We can't get in through the entrances without sacrificing way more soldiers than we should."
Katara took a deep breath to finally shake off her panting. "What about the wall. We could climb over and attack."
Sokka rubbed his chin in thought, while Katara checked over a hyperventilating Jin to calm her down and make sure she wasn't hurt. "That could work… but not probably not too well. I'll bet most of those guys are firebenders, and they'll be watching the walls. Once our heads peek over we'll be sitting turtle-ducks. Plus, you can conjure up some waterbending whenever you want, but I don't have any weapons, remember? And I don't think any of these soldiers will spare them."
"What do you suggest then?" Katara turned her head to her brother while still trying to stop Jin from panicking. She patted Jin calmingly on the back, and the girl slowly started to breathe easier.
"Well… climbing over an unnoticed spot in the wall would work, but those soldiers could probably only get one or two guys over, and the way they barrel around with that heavy armor they'd probably get caught right away. We need, well… us… but maybe a little sneakier. Plus, I need some weapons… Hmm…"
Katara groaned. "You're not thinking of using that armor again…" she reduced her voice to a whisper and spoke close to Sokka's face, so that not even Jin could hear them.
"Why not? It worked last time. And remember, if I showed up in the suit in situations like this it would only help Zuko's plan for the whole thing."
"It's halfway across the city, in case you've forgot. Unless you guys stashed it somewhere nearby
"You know… maybe Zuko did do that!" Sokka's eyes lit up with a sudden idea. Katara's eyebrows merely raised.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember what he told us before he left? Secure everything… but then he mentioned the tea shop down the block."
"You think he hid the suit in a tea shop? Come on, Sokka."
"No, I'm serious. The guy who runs the place is an old friend of his uncles. They're all very close – Zuko's always trying to get me to join him for tea there. He invited us all tat one time, remember? Iroh's known the guy for decades, they fought side by side in the war. If there's any place around here he would trust to hide the suit just in case, it'd be there."
"Ok, fine. If you say so. We check the tea place quickly and then we get in there and get rid of Azula. I really don't like leaving them all in there alone with her any longer than they have to."
"Well, Zuko, Iroh and Mai aren't totally useless. We at least can count on them slowing Azula up. But… Katara, I think one of us though head back with the Earth King?"
"By 'one of us' you mean me, right?" Katara glared at him. "No. No way. Absolutely not. I'm not leaving all of you here when you need me. We don't even know if she wants the Earth King – it looked like she just wanted Zuko."
"We can't take that chance. He's got guards with him, but Azula's… crafty. Remember what happened last time she got involved with him. One of us can take this alone – it'll be hard, but we've got three allies in there already. But if Azula's got a force attacking the Earth King you're more powerful than I am, especially when it comes to attacking lots of people at once. It's got to be you."
Katara remained silent, then squeezed out an extremely reluctant sounding "I hate to say this, but that makes sense. Too much sense. Fine, but you better-"
"I'll be careful. And I'll get them out in one piece. I'll take Jin with me to the shop," he that girl looks like she could use a cup of tea right now." He gestured at said girl, who was quietly watching everything around them, to follow him. She gave a start and hurried up next to them, shuddering slightly. "Come on," he said to her, "we're going to try and fight, but I think you ought to get somewhere safe first." The nodded mutely but deliberately.
"All right," Katara said, "let's go. The longer wait the more likely Azula could do something…" she trailed off, unable to finish the thought. "Sokka, you're plenty powerful yourself you know. Make sure you don't get yourself killed."
Sokka smiled and turned away, calling over his shoulder. "I will. You be careful too." A similarly shouted "I will!" came back to him, but he didn't turn back. He and Jin ran towards the tea shop as fast as they could. There was a lot of truth to what Katara said, who knows what Azula could be up to?
As they ran Sokka turned to the girl alongside him, who looked much calmer. She was no longer breathing heavy, but she still looked a bit pale. "Are you alright? You kind of freaked out back there."
"I… yeah. I'm fine," her voice was a bit quavery, but sounded stronger that it would've been a few minutes ago. "It's just… I was a refugee, you know? When everything went nuts and those soldiers started tearing the place apart, I just felt so terrified, I can't explain it. I guess it brought back some bad memories."
"Don't I know it," Sokka grumbled, "why can't this sort of thing just be over already, you know what I mean? It seems like every time we get some peace and quiet there's somebody trying to turn us into worm food – can't they let us have a vacation?"
Jin laughed. "I'm glad I don't have the life of constant fighting you guys have," she said as they reached the tea shop's door, "I don't think I could take it."
"Well, aren't you the lucky civilian," Sokka grumbled, but with a smile nevertheless.
When they entered the door Jin went to take a seat, while Sokka rushed up to the owner. "Please, tell me Zuko left something in here for me! A fire bucket, some really sharp silverware, anything! I'll take it!"
"You're in luck, Mister Sokka…" the elderly man gave a grin like crinkled paper, "for there is something waiting for you in the basement. Prince Zuko said it may very well come in handy today, and it appears his intuition was spot on…"
"Suki, Toph, are you alright? We… whoa…"
Aang and company rushed into the area Toph and Suki alerted them from fearing the worst, but what they saw upon entering was far from negative.
First off, the chamber was huge, at least fifteen times as big as the ornate room they had just left, with multiple layers even. It was wide and had two levels separated by ladders. On the other end there was another tunnel leading out, but that was far from their attention, because secondly and most importantly the room was covered inch to inch with writing of all kinds: symbols, pictures, letters and everything in between. Some of it was indecipherable, but all of it seemed to emanate with some kind of purpose.
Aang tried to make sense out of all of it, but the sheer size of it impressed him. "They're… they're…"
He was interrupted by Suki approaching them from the side. "As far as we can tell it's history, but most of the older stuff we can't make hide or hair of. We think they were in a rush cleaning the place out. This must've been some kind of library, but all the books are gone. They didn't get around to wiping all of this away, but some of the walls are defaced or wiped away. We're betting that's the most important stuff"
"I… wow…" Aang said breathlessly.
"How lucky for us that they were… sloppy…" Chon noted evenly.
"This has got to be the biggest library I've ever seen," Aang said, finally able to form full sentences. "Besides Wan Shi Tong's, of course."
Chon started in surprise again. "You've been to Wan Shi Tong's library? Where did-"
"Sorry, Chon," Aang cut him off with a solemn shake of his head. "I don't think I should reveal where it is to anyone. Not that anyone could reach it any more anyway."
"But…"
They were interrupted yet again by a triumphant Toph-like shout from the level below. "Guys! You have got to come check this out!"
They all rushed down the nearest ladder – except Aang who simply flew – towards where the shout came from and found Toph excitedly looking over a heavily detailed section of the wall. Looking around, they saw that this particular branch of writing stretched all the way around the room.
"What's all this stuff?" Ty Lee wondered. Toph turned to them with an excited grin – she looked like a kid in a candy store.
"I've been looking at some of this stuff, I think it's instructions! You know, like the styles behind their spiritbending! A lot of this stuff is-"
"Wait… I thought you couldn't read?" Ty Lee said tactlessly. Aang inconspicuously shoved her. "Hey!"
It said a lot about Toph's character that she seemed completely unfazed and merely rolled her eyes. "Because this stuff is engraved into the walls I can 'see' it pretty well. My parents did try to teach me to read when I was growing up, for all that it's worth. I think they thought this whole blind thing would blow over someday. Hrmph. I'm not great at it, but I can understand and recognize enough of this this."
"Oh, well that explains it." Ty Lee said brightly.
Toph turned back to the wall as Aang shoved Ty Lee again. "Anyway, as I was saying, a lot of this stuff isn't just bending bending, it's… it's just crazy. A whole new level! The guys we fought in here were barely using this stuff to the fullest. Or maybe they were, but it was just so natural to them that we didn't notice."
As the only other person there who had been at the battle, Aang took it upon himself to nod grimly. The others merely listened on with resolved silence.
"A lot of this is old. Like, really old. Written in ways I don't think any of us know about. But there's also a lot of newer stuff, and notes on the older things. It's… well, this is just amazing! Just think of what we could do with this – we could use their unfair little tricks against them. They wouldn't know what hit 'em!"
Aang shuffled uncomfortably. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea…"
Toph gave him a blank glare. "You're kidding me Twinkletoes. Why not?"
Aang walked up to the wall and ran his fingers along the writing. "These arts are revolutionary. Totally alien to what we are today. I could learn a bit of spiritbending, but I'm the Avatar – it's the same way I can learn all four elements, my soul is open to it. But anyone else… anyone else trying to force these powers onto themselves would risk disrupting their natural spirit."
"Fine, let's not dive into it, but we still ought to learn a few tricks. That won't hurt anyone, except them."
"No… I don' think so. That would be even worse. To incorporate any of these into yourself you would have to have dedicated your life to the discipline of spiritbending. Without those foundations, you wouldn't be able to control it. There are some advanced firebending tricks here, some advanced waterbending, earthbending and even airbending. We might be able to learn those, but it would take a long time. Years even, if at all. They're deeply steeped in spiritbending, and it would be a really bad idea to try and learn them on the fly."
"But…"
"We should still take these." Suki stepped in the conversation to try and moderate. "We can still learn from them, even if we're not about to start trying to be spiritbenders. We need to learn how these people work so we can fight them. These are the best bet we have to fighting them."
"Hey, I'm not saying we shouldn't take them and learn from them, I'm just saying…"
"Yeah, I know," Suki said. "It's too dangerous. Way too dangerous. I can't even begin to comprehend some of this stuff, though granted I'm not a bender. But hey, even if we can't learn their styles we can try to emulate them – remember how you told me Zuko's Uncle made a new firebending technique based off of waterbending?"
Aang stopped to think. "It's possible… we ought to keep that in mind. But we should still be careful."
"Yeah, whatever you say." Toph sighed.
"Now, how do we-"
"Hey!" Everyone jumped - none of them had noticed Chon leave the group to look around the chamber when the argument started. "We've got company!"
The whole group rushed to where Chon was, and from their position they could clearly see two vague figures standing in the other passageway out of the library. Chon had already entered an earthbending stance and Toph moved to join him, her mind racing. How did they get here without me noticing? She thought, was I just that distracted by that writing? Or… did they cut off my sight again. She almost shuddered involuntarily, but stopped herself. Next to them, Aang started flying up towards the passageway, while Suki and Ty Lee drew their weapons.
"I guess that proves this is some pretty important stuff! No way are they gonna kick us out of here this time," she said with her usual cocky conviction. "But I'd love to see them try."
"I think it's too late for that." Chon said slowly. "Can't you feel it?"
Toph sensed out with her earthbending, and a moment later her eyes widened. "He's right, they've hit the tunnel with what feels like a precision tidal wave. The whole room is going to cave in!"
"What?" As if on cue the room began to tremor and shudder. Toph didn't need earthbending to sense the danger now.
"What do we do?" Ty Lee shouted.
"First, we cut them off." Chon moved swiftly and earthbended the passage between them and the figures shut.
"I'm gonna try and hold the room together," Toph strained to speak, and beads of sweat were already running down her face.
"No…" Aang put his hand on Toph's shoulder to stop her. "I'll do that. You're more precise with your earthbending than I am. Do you think you sense this whole room and copy it later?"
Toph's eyes widened, and she wasn't the only one: Suki looked surprised at the very idea, and even the usually impassive Chon sent the two of them a look. "Memorize the whole thing? Are you nuts."
"Toph, you're the most skilled earthbender I've ever met. I've seen you copy with perfect precision a whole army of figurines. You've got to do this, we need this knowledge," Aang had already started to hold the room up in Toph's place and desperation starting to enter his voice.
"Alright, I'll try." She closed her eyes and began concentrated.
"Hurry!" Aang said. Bits of the ceiling began to break off and fall onto the ground around them – it was clear that no matter what they did they were running out of time.
"You guys get out!" Aang called to Suki and Ty Lee.
"No way!" they chorused. "We're not-" They were interrupted by an enormous rock falling from the sky right on top of them – Chon managed to knock it aside at the last second.
"It's too dangerous!" Aang shouted. "You guys get to safety, I'll hold it up as long as I can!"
"No way, Twinkletoes." Toph shouted. "I know how much you love to play the hero, but we're not letting you kill yourself over this. I can't remember all of it, but I'm pretty sure I can copy a decent amount of it – now let's go!" At that, she grabbed Aang by the collar, pulled him alongside the rest of them, and with a swift movement launched them all through the air and into the tunnel they entered from. They hit the ground running and ran as far as they could away from the library, which collapsed into itself with a wave of dust and rock.
They soon doubled over in coughing fits as the dust filled the whole tunnel system, forcing Aang to use his airbending to clear up the air though it took quite a while for them to clear their lungs as well.
"Wow…" Toph quipped as soon as they were able. "Déjà vu, eh?"
There was silence for a few moments. Then Aang laughed. Then Ty Lee joined in. And before long they were all laughing uproariously.
"I can't wait to tell Sokka," Aang said as tears of humor glimmered in his eyes.
"He'll be totally jealous that we got all this action and he ended up at that boring ceremony." Toph chimed in.
Aang laughed even harder in response "I bet right now he's sitting around just wishing he could be here with us. I don't think I'll rub it in too much. Hehe!"
At Around That Moment In The Fire Nation Capital
"Don't worry, my dear friend," Azula said maniacally, as she drew the flame closer to Mai's face. "This won't hurt… me!" She laughed gleefully as she prepared to drive the flame into her captive's cheek, while Zuko desperately prepared to do something very stupid…
And then suddenly a foot came out of nowhere and struck the crazed ex-princess in the back. Both she and Mai fell to the ground apart from each other. One of the guards ran to detain Mai while another went to help his boss to her feet, though she refused. Instead eyes vindictively met that of her attacker, who she recognized as the same gray-clad warrior she had met at the island.
"How dare you!" Azula grumbled as brought herself up. She was only barely smiling. "That's no way to treat a lady."
He bent down into a combat stance in preparation for the worst – it was him against five armed guards plus an insane firebending prodigy after all, plus any number of guards in the theatre who could join in at any moment. "I don't see any lady here," he said with a lot more confidence than he should have had.
"Come now!" Azula mused. "There's no reason to insult Mai like that…"
He blinked in shock. "No, I didn't mean-" He shook his head as he realized he'd been led, but it was enough to make Azula fall into laughter again.
"That's so much fun," she grinned. "So… we meet again. 'Wolfbat-something or other, wasn't it?" His eyes narrowed, which she took as a yes. "Seems kind of ridiculous if you ask me… but then again who am I to talk." She started cackling again.
"Let's see if you find this funny." He reached to his side and pulled out a pair of heavy metal balls attached by a rope – with a few quick spins he tossed it to the side, directly at the legs of one of the guards training his sword on Zuko. The guard panicked and fell over and in the confusion Zuko stomped on his head, knocking him out. As they reacted to this, Wolfbatman turned again and threw a small bat-shaped boomerang at the guard detaining Iroh – it hit him straight on the helmet and knocked him back, and just like his nephew Iroh sprung into action. Meanwhile, Mai reached into her sleeve, pulled out a small, thin knife and plunged it into the leg of the distracted guard holding her.
The nobles and foreign dignitaries on stage took this opportunity to run offstage, much to Azula's displeasure. "Oh, poo." She whined, "don't you know how long it takes to round those up when they're panicked like that?"
"No," Wolfbatman said, "but I think I know how long it'll take to round you and your little band up, princess" He gestured to the four remaining fake guards on stage, who were now fighting a losing battle against Mai, Iroh and Zuko. Azula stared impassively at them. "I think you should give up now, if you know what's good for you."
She glared at him angrily, then smiled a particularly leering smile. "I think you should know who it is you're dealing with… first off I'm not a princess any longer. I think of myself more as a kind of humorist. And boy do I have a joke for you… heheheahahaha!" She summoned an enormous wave of blue flame and flung it at him – he barely dodged in time to avoid it and ended up on the floor. Before he could adequately recover she was already sending more attacks his way – and he couldn't dodge them all. One shot hit him in the stomach and he fell backwards, and she was leaping into the air to press her attack in an instant.
"Darn…" he growled. In an effort to break off her attack he threw another wolfbatarang at her, but she dodged over it with a burst of flame from her feet.
"Woohoo!" she shouted as she catapulted through the air. "Rocket jump! One of the best little tricks you can have, don't you agree?" She leapt behind him, but he was still trying to get to his feet. With a grin, she created another ball of flame and took careful aim. "Now, watch this… boom, headshot!"
There was no way he could move in time to dodge. He could only sit there and watch as what looked like his doom came hurtling towards him… and was blocked by a red burst of flame coming from the opposite direction. A moment later, a familiar hand reached down to help him up.
"First rule of fighting Azula." Said Zuko. "Be careful. Be on your toes, I can't do this alone."
"Whatever happened to 'there's something off about her,'" Wolfbatman said, bringing some of Sokka's usual complaining to the fore. "You know, how she was so unbalanced that she kept making mistakes?"
"I don't know… but it's like there's something different about her now. I can't explain it, it's like she's found… clarity in her madness."
"That's… not good."
"Who are you telling? I'm the one who had to deal with her before you showed up."
"How rude!" Azula interrupted, pretending to be offended. "I am standing right here! I think I ought to teach you some manners. HA!" Another burst directed straight at the two of them.
"To the sides!" Zuko shouted, and the two warriors scattered, this time staying on their feet. Zuko countered with a shot at Azula's chest, while Sokka slid down aiming for her legs. She backflipped over the two to dodge and sent a ring of flame emanating from her feet for good measure, knocking Zuko back. Sokka managed to dodge the hit and returned with a strike to her gut, only to have a kick to the face in retaliation.
"You know Wolfy… can I call you Wolfy?" Azula chuckled and spit out a little bit of blood from her mouth. "You're not half bad. Here I thought Zuko and his little band of friends were the only ones with half a brain around here. Where did you find this guy, Zuko? No, don't tell me, I'll guess…"
Zuko didn't give her a response and instead stomped the ground, sending a trail of flame across the floor. Azula leapt away from it and sent a fireball back, but missed and hit one the guards Mai and Iroh were fighting.
"Whoops! Well, good thing those guys are cheap!" She dodged another wolfbatarang, but fell to the floor as a bola wrapped around one of her legs. She quickly tried to recover, but the her two opponents took the moment to rush her. She had lighted both of her hands to knock them back when the combat came to a screeching halt with the arrival of a half dozen more of her henchmen. Zuko and Wolfbatman back up for a moment, but Azula did not take the moment to gloat.
They all stared at the newcomers for a moment. In the meantime, Azula got to her feet but continued to gawk. "What are you doing here?" she asked in oddly calm confusion.
"We're here to help!" said the closest one in a gung-ho sort of voice.
"You're here to…" she smacked her face with her palm. "Please don't tell me you're that stupid!" She pointed to the other side of the theatre – her men had needed the cooperation of all of them to hold the entrance. With half of them gone, the real city guardsmen were rushing into the building. "Why would you-"
She was interrupted as Wolfbatman took the opportunity to rush forward and strike her in the chest. She fell backwards and hit the ground motionless.
He grinned at the nearest henchman. "Thanks for the opening!" The man had a moment to look distraught before receiving a kick that sent him off the stage. Meanwhile, the scene quickly turned away from Azula's favor. Mai and Iroh had finished off their guards and were preparing to take down as many more as they could – but to their credit many of the smarter ones were taking this opportunity to leave. The scene became mobbed again as the guards filtered into the stage – in the confusion Sokka turned to where he'd left Azula, only to find the spot empty.
"Wait… Azula, she's-"
"She's gone." Zuko said darkly. He and Sokka shared a significant look. "She'll be back. You should make tracks too. And thanks." The two of them nodded to each other, and Sokka turned to escape back over the wall before any of the guards could ask him any questions.
Before he left, though, he made a glance the spot where Azula escaped. A small smiley face was burned into the ground. His eyes narrowed.
"Until next time, Azula. We'll be waiting…"
In A Rush: Don't have time for a decent Author's Note. See you at the epilogue.