part three
At the Fire Nation Palace

Once again, Azula's fingernails dug into his shoulder as she pushed him forward and led him, this time, into the throne room. Ozai was seated arrogantly on the throne, wreathed in flames, with the entirety of Parliament flanking him; he looked a lot more ominous now than he had at the dinner table.

He tried to look at the guards, hoping to see a familiar face - he'd overheard talk of infiltration, and he wondered if Diana had been found out, or if his friends had come for him - but in the long shadows cast by the orange fire, he couldn't tell who any of the guards were.

"Fire Lord," Azula said, and there was something just a bit different about her voice, too subtle and too fleeting for Aang to identify. "The Avatar."

Ozai stood up, face impassive. "Avatar Aang," he said, the picture of congeniality, "have you heard of the tragedy on St. Albans?"

"No," he replied slowly, and Ozai pursed his lips, glancing quickly to Azula, whose grip on his shoulder tightened just a bit. Was he supposed to know something?

"The Pax has been released into the atmosphere there, against Parliament's explicit wishes," Ozai said, like nothing had just passed between him and his daughter. "Do you understand what this means, Avatar?"

"No," he answered, grinding his teeth - but this had to be what Kyoshi had warned him about, the poison in the air. If it had been released... He glanced sideways at Azula, but she looked straight ahead blankly.

"The Pax is a chemical," Ozai explained tersely, and Aang could feel the Fire Lord's blood pressure rising with anger, his heartbeat pounding faster through the ground, and his newfound sense was almost overwhelming, "that calms the population. It was released into the air processors on the planet without Parliamentary - or my - approval sometime within the last two weeks. Do you know anything about who might have given this order?"

He blinked - was Ozai trying to frame him? If so, he was being downright stupid. How could he have given any orders from his cell? "No," he replied immediately, and Ozai whirled on him.

"No? And yet, your little ship left for St. Albans almost a full day ago," he said accusingly, and then turned to the Parliament. "I believe that the Avatar is trying to bring down our regime by painting us as monsters."

"How would I even do that?" Aang asked, and Azula's fingernails dug deeper into his shoulder. He winced in pain, and then turned back to Ozai. "I've been locked up in a cell! I don't even know what this Pax stuff is!"

"It's a chemical," one of the Parliament members repeated, face shadowed, "that calms the population until the point that they lose all will to survive. It was intended to help weed out aggression, at which it was a failed experiment. Fire Lord Ozai, you really expect us to believe that a twelve-year-old boy with no knowledge of the inner workings of our government would do such a thing? From a prison cell, no less?"

"All the more reason for him to do it," Ozai explained coolly, apparently unaffected by the unspoken accusation. "The people will not believe that it was him, they will blame us - "

"They will blame you!" another Parliament member shouted.

"No," Ozai countered, "Prime Minister Wong, they will blame us. I assure you," he said, and his heartbeat was rock-steady, "that I had no part in the order to release the Pax."

Aang's eyes widened - Ozai... wasn't lying. He really hadn't... All of a sudden, several things fell into place at once: Ozai genuinely believed that Aang had somehow ordered his friends to do this to their homeland - that was why he'd been so angry when he'd claimed ignorance. Aang had thought for a while that Ozai's plan was to convince the people that the Avatar was a barbaric relic of a dead past - because he honestly believed that Aang was a barbaric relic of a dead past. The claim he was making lined up with Ozai's view of Aang - but if Ozai hadn't made the order, that left only one other player, and the Parliament thought of Azula as the innocent second child of the Fire Lord, who had nearly been killed by her brother while trying to save her father. They would never suspect her.

"You expect us to believe you?" Azula said, outraged, and Ozai whirled around, something unnameable on his face.

"Princess Azula, you speak out of turn," one of the Parliament members said, and Azula scoffed.

"Don't you see, Prime Minister DavĂ­d?" she asked savagely, sounding as betrayed as Ozai looked. "He's trying to paint himself as innocent, to paint the Avatar as some horrid force of ancient evil." Aang froze - since when was Azula on his side? "He thinks to convince the Alliance that we are better without the Avatar, that he is mere barbarian and should be locked up in ice again - I tell you now, Fire Lord Ozai did give the order to eradicate St. Albans, with the explicit plot to frame the Avatar for the horror. It's a thin scheme," she added, sighing, and shot her father a look of malice. Had that been her original plan, he wondered, the one that she had mentioned not needing anymore? "He thought it would work because he thought so little of you, the Parliament, and even less of the Avatar.

"I, however," she continued, stepping forward, "agree with the Parliament's thinking that the arrival of the Avatar should herald a new dawn, a union between the power of the past and the technology of the present. The Fire Lord's sabotage is an ugly blight on this regime, do you not agree, Avatar?" she asked, and Aang's gut clenched shut. She wasn't - no, this wasn't happening. "The Avatar is granted power by the gods themselves, and his authority is above ours. What say you, Avatar Aang?" she challenged, pointing to her own father. "Fire Lord Ozai has condemned a planet of fifty million people to death, and he has done so without remorse, then blamed you for it. What will you do?" She sounded hysterical, terrified, desperate.

"Princess Azula," one of the Parliament members said soothingly, and then Ozai snarled.

"You're lying!" he hissed. "I've done no such thing - you suggest that I - " he began, but his voice was lost in the growing chaos from the rest of the Parliament standing and arguing over what was to be done, what had even happened.

Alone of all of them, Azula's voice rang loud in the room. "Avatar, what is your judgment?" she asked, then turned to the Parliament. "We cannot think to stand in the way of the gods," she called. "The Avatar has insight that none of us possess - he alone knows the entire truth, and he alone stands ready to lay down judgment."

"The Avatar is a relic!" Ozai shouted, and Azula looked at him disdainfully.

"As the Water Tribe was a relic?" she countered coldly, and looked to Parliament. "This can be contained," she said in a low voice. "There is no saving St. Albans, but there is a chance to save the Alliance from civil war. The people will demand judgment, and we must give it to them," she added sorrowfully, turning to Aang again. "Your people demand judgment for this crime."

"Fire Lord Ozai," a Prime Minister in green said, "is this true? You gave the order?"

Azula had played so utterly the part of the dutiful daughter - the Parliament wasn't even considering that it might have been her order: she was merely the Fire Lord's daughter, a woman of no consequence. Parliament had been so perfectly blinded by Azula, and she was using it for all it was worth. And here he was - the most powerful being in the known universe - helpless against it.

"I did no such thing!" Ozai yelled, but his tension and fear and sudden realization of the depth of his daughter's betrayal made his voice waver, made him sound guilty.

"He lies," the members of Parliament muttered amongst themselves. "If this truly is the jurisdiction of the Avatar," the green-clad minister mused, "then what does the Avatar say?"

Everyone turned to him - he could tell the truth, but they'd never believe him. They were looking to him for confirmation, not answers: they'd already condemned Ozai, they just wanted him to be the mouthpiece. Still, he had to try. "Ozai isn't lying," he said firmly. "He's telling the truth."

"Then it was you who gave the order?" the same minister asked, and he shook his head.

"I didn't! Azula - it was Azula!"

Azula put on a face of utmost betrayal, and turned to the Parliament. "I would never," she said emotionally, voice wavering like she was near-tears. "I regret what part I did play in this, for not speaking out against my father sooner. I had thought - " she began, but broke off, shaking her head. "I was wrong," she said firmly, "to place my trust in my Father, and I will pay for that mistake, I know. Please," she begged, turning back to him, "don't believe his lies."

"You're the liar," Aang replied angrily, and Azula stepped back, tilting her head.

"Members of Parliament, have any of you ever known me to be a liar?" she asked quietly, sincerely, and murmurs of no, Princess Azula swept through the crowd. "The Fire Lord, however, he is a well-known player of the political game, and known to lie when it suits him. Avatar," she said, turning to him with pleading in her voice but ice in her eyes, "the time to act is now," she cried. "Before word reaches the rest of the system about what happened, we need to show them that we are in control, that we have already contained the cause!"

"Stop lying!" Ozai shouted, fire spilling from his lips, but several soldiers ganged up on him, holding him back from lunging at Azula.

"After I protected you from Zuko," she said quietly, sounding for all the world like a heartbroken daughter. "Now I see he was right - you do need to be stopped. What say you, Avatar?" she asked again, barely above a whisper, turning to him. Her facade was so good, he almost believed it - if he hadn't been in the cell on her ship, if he hadn't seen her smirk, if he hadn't heard her claim that his power was less than hers, if he hadn't felt her rage when her father stole her plan... he might have sided with her. "What does the legendary power say should be done?"

"I will not kill him for you," he spat, and silence fell hard in the room. For a single moment, Ozai looked almost relieved, and then Azula turned away.

"I suppose I was wrong to trust in the Avatar," she said softly, "as I was wrong to trust in my father. Does the Parliament agree with my verdict?" she asked, and a wave of assent came from the Parliament. She nodded. "Therefore, as the Princess of the Fire Nation, I hereby find Fire Lord Ozai guilty of genocide," she called, voice still wavering but eyes hard and cold, and swept her hand into the air - no! Aang thought, recognizing the form in the split second before the lightning crackled in the air around the princess.

"With the power vested in me by the Fire Nation and by the Parliament of the Union of Allied Planets, I hereby sentence you to death for this crime," she said coldly, and brought the lightning down on her father.


At the Water Tribe city of Sarqaq on St. Albans

The tiniest thread of hope still remained as they touched down in the same ravine as the last time they had been there, but Bee knew better than to think that the Water Tribe might still be intact. She was well acquainted with hope, and with despair, and she recognized the sense of foreboding as they suited up to check on the glittering, icy city - it hadn't failed her yet, no matter how many times she'd wished it would. She'd felt the same sense of foreboding when she landed on Serenity Valley, all the way back to when she'd signed up for the war, and when she'd walked into Azula's tower.

But then, Bee was used to fighting battles she'd already lost. And besides, there was still a chance that some people remained to be saved.

Sokka stood at the walls and pounded on the little door they entered through last time, but no one answered.

"We're not being followed," he said tersely, and turned to the Duke. "Blast the door." The Duke nodded and placed a charge, and they all stepped back as he set it off. Sokka was the first one through the wall, rushing into his home city - only to stop dead in his tracks. "We're too late," he said, voice blank of emotion, as the others filtered in behind him and saw what had stopped him: the body of the man who had greeted them when they'd first arrived, at his station like he'd just lain down to sleep.

"Check for survivors, see if anyone's still standing," Jet said, but Bee glanced to Haru, who shook his head ever-so-slightly.

"He's been dead for a few days," Haru explained. "Azula must have released the Pax as soon as she had Aang."

Sokka whirled on him, face ugly with rage. "Don't you dare - " he snarled, but Jet stopped him.

"We'll look, Sokka," he said gravely. "And we'll lay the dead to rest."

"Sir," she replied, a prickly fear crawling up her spine, "that'll take hours, time we don't have."

"Bee, we've got time," Jet said, and she shook her head.

"No, sir, we don't," she countered, panic rising in her gut. "Remember the report? A tenth of a percent? They'll find us," she said, "we need to get off the planet and return when the palace team has placed Zuko on the throne."

"If someone's still alive - " Sokka began, and she turned to him.

"Look around you!" she cried. "We are too late. It only takes a couple o' days to die of thirst, it's been over a week since the Pax was released. There's no one left to save."

"What if we quarantine the - the tenth of a percent?" Sokka asked, and her heart hurt to see his desperation, his fear. "Could we somehow clear the - the stuff out of them?"

"No," Jet replied. "If that worked, Reavers'd stop being Reavers after a while on their ships."

"Can we try?" Sokka cried, but Bee knew he was too smart to believe it. He was just breaking at the sight of his desolate home.

"Put all of us at risk?" Longshot asked, glancing at him; Longshot, who knew better than any of them what Reavers did, who'd watched it happen to his father. He turned to her, and she could see that he, too, felt the crawling terror rising within. "We don't have room to quarantine anyone. We can at least find the central terraforming station and cut the Pax - that way, it'll be safe to return later, and maybe recolonize."

"We have to get off the planet," she said desperately, glancing around, feeling the eyes of madness upon her - they were coming, she just knew it. "Jet, we have to go - now, before they find us."

"You don't leave allies on the battlefield," Jet murmured, and she wanted to scream.

"This isn't war, Jet!" she cried. "This was a massacre, planned out by Azula. We can't do anything here, but we can get out and get the word out - but only if we leave now."

He watched her carefully for a moment, and then nodded. There weren't many times that Bee would openly defy Jet, and he knew that if she was doing so now, it was because she was scared. "She's right," he said. "Let's get off this planet."

Even as he said it, she knew in the pit of her gut that it was going to be too late.