Disclaimer: See Chapter 13.

Timeline note: This chapter takes place a short time after Chapter 11.

(Unfortunately, Lavanya Six was not available to beta this chapter [but you should read her fics if you haven't already]. If it's worse than normal, that's why.)

The Adventures of Avatar Azula

An Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic

Zhao frowned as he looked at his new subordinates.

Many rumors swirled around Colonel Mongke and his "Rough Rhinos," both good and bad. The good: They were an elite task force. The bad: Everyone except the leader got killed in an ill-fated attack on Omashu a few years back. The good: Mongke managed to acquire a new set of five who were supposedly even better. The bad: They were all siblings, and their mother was one of the deserters after the army besieging Ba Sing Se was routed by Avatar Shen. (Talk about ill-fated attacks…)

"It is an honor to work under the illustrious Admiral Zhao," Mongke said.

Zhao grunted. Mongke had been his own boss for years; he probably resented being put under someone else's command. Well, who didn't? "I am blessed to have the services of a team of your caliber."

"Shall I introduce them, then?" Mongke gestured, and the five soldiers behind him stepped forward. Zhao frowned again—only two of them were standing at attention; one woman was slouching, and the other two were even whispering to each other!

"As you may have heard, they're all siblings," Mongke said.

Zhao gritted his teeth. "Are you going to ignore your squad's insubordination?" he asked the man.

At least Mongke had the decency, or perhaps the good sense, to look somewhat apologetic. "I've tried my best, but they don't take well to that kind of thing."

The slouching woman giggled. The whispering ones continued whispering.

Zhao shook his head. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in days; he wasn't in the mood to deal with this. "Whatever. Go ahead and introduce them."

Mongke nodded. "The oldest is Jun. He was in the Yuyan Archers before I picked him up, you know."

That much was obvious from his face tattoos. Apart from that, the man was fairly nondescript. "Why'd you leave?" he asked.

Jun was silent, but the short woman with low-cut hair next to him finally stopped slouching, though it was just to elbow him in the ribs. "Big bro here missed his siblings and wanted to be with us again," she said, winking.

Zhao glared at her. "Is that how you address your superior?"

The woman shrugged. Zhao turned his glare to Mongke. "That's Osami," Mongke said with a resigned tone. "She's actually the first one of them I met."

"I tried to slit his throat and steal his stuff," Osami said casually, twirling a dagger in her hand. "Before I could though, we were attacked by some Earth Kingdomers who were pursuing him or something. Anyway, he said if I joined him I'd be able to make a lot more money than if I robbed him, so." She shrugged.

Zhao looked at Mongke for an explanation. He didn't get one.

"So then I told him," Osami continued, now twirling a dagger in each hand, "I had this little sister, see, and she has like monster strength. Might be helpful, yeah?"

Zhao had to admit she had a point as he looked at the third member of their motley band, a giant muscular woman who towered over everyone present and had a warhammer almost as big as herself strapped to her back.

"Colonel Mongke said he'd wipe my record clean if I worked for him," the woman said, her voice rough and deep.

"Record?" Zhao regretted saying it as soon as the word left his mouth, but it was too late now.

"You could say we broke Suzue out of prison," the thief Osami said conspiratorially, who for reasons inexplicable was now balancing a knife on her head, blade down, while still twirling those daggers.

"Dare I ask what these two are like?" Zhao gestured at the long-haired duo who had been whispering amongst themselves this entire time.

"Hiro! Hina!" Mongke barked. The two of them stopped talking to each other and faced forward, thank Agni, but they were still grinning widely.

"Are they twins?" Zhao asked. They looked almost identical, and with that long, flowing hair and those immaculate robes, they looked more like actors in a kabuki play than soldiers. He couldn't even tell which was the male and which the female. At least in kabuki you knew they were all men.

"You are correct, Admiral," Mongke replied. "And despite the way they look, I assure you that when working together they are the most fearsome firebenders I have ever had the pleasure to witness."

Zhao had a hard time believing that, unless Mongke had very limited experience with firebenders. The two were whispering to each other again, and this time they were even giggling.

He fought the urge to groan. First he was assigned the mindless duty of collecting new weapons from that coward squatting in the Northern Air Temple, and then he was given these jokers to command? Was his Admiralty just for decoration?

Chapter 14

The Northern Air Temple

"So what can I do for you, Avatar?"

Azula raised the cup of tea to her face, smelled the distinctive scent of coal smoke, and did her best to set the cup down gracefully. "You know very well why I'm here. Don't play dumb."

Sometimes, the lack of visual cues still gave her trouble in social situations. Not this time, though; a blind deaf toddler could read the man sitting across from her. "I, I only designed weapons for the Fire Nation in order to protect—"

She raised her hand to cut him off. "I'm sure that's a very interesting story, but all I really want from you right now is to stop doing it."

Truth be told, she already knew the story and it wasn't very interesting. Some time ago, a man named…actually, she didn't remember his name. Whatever. Anyway, some flood destroyed his village, blah blah blah, eventually he managed to lead the survivors to the Northern Air Temple somehow. Apparently he was some sort of genius mechanist, so the Fire Nation accosted him to design weapons for the war effort. As the former Princess of the Fire Nation, Azula had naturally been aware of this state of affairs, and had informed her new…allies of this fact at the South Pole. So they had decided to make him the final stopover before her ragtag band reached the Northern Pole.

"Avatar." The mechanist's voice was trembling. "Trust me, I would if I could, but…"

Azula idly tapped her fingers on the tabletop in front of her. "You know, I noticed something while chatting with your, I suppose I should call them 'villagers'? None of them even mentioned working for the Fire Nation." She gave him her sweetest smile. "Does that seem odd to you? You'd think they'd know about it."

Once again, she didn't need eyesight to read him perfectly.

"…They'll be here in two days for more blueprints," the mechanist almost mumbled. "If I don't give them any…"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Azula said while standing up. "If they attack, they'll have zero chance of success."

"Why do you say that?"

She stomped her left foot down with authority. "We're on top of a mountain with only one narrow path leading to us, not to mention it's covered in ice. With Master-class benders on your side," she grinned at him, somewhat less kindly, "this might be the most impregnable defensive location in the world."

"So you see with earthbending?" Teo asked.

"Something like that," Toph responded.

Azula had given the people here some story about how they saw a Fire Nation army approaching before they came to the Temple, and how the army 'probably wants to kill you all to use this as a base of operations for conquering the Earth Kingdom.' Then she forced Toph and the others to play along. Well, whatever.

"Wow, that's awesome," Teo said with a wistful tone.

Having arrived at the right spot, Toph began the work of digging another ditch. Azula had assigned her the task of making the road up to the Temple as treacherous as possible. Teo had come along for fun.

"Why so gloomy?" she asked as she slowly kneaded the ground out, piling it up into a wall on the side nearer the Temple. "Can't you fly with your chair?"

"It's not as simple as that. I need gusts of air to ride on, so I can only do it outside and I don't have full control."

"Well, my 'earthbending sight' has some limitations too, you know."

"But it's good enough that your everyday life is almost unchanged, right?"

Toph had dug so many ditches by now she barely had to pay attention anymore (the dirt practically moved itself), so she was able to consider that. "I guess. I dunno. I was born this way, so I don't ever think about it."

"I know what you mean. I've been like this since before I can remember, so I don't really mind it most of the time. Still though, I can't really deny it makes my life much more difficult."

Toph grunted. She had reached a particularly hard area of ground; she had to move it up as a single unit instead of making it flow like sand, and that required more effort. "Everybody's life is difficult," she said after she flung it in front of the ditch. "Back in my home city, there are tons of people who barely have enough to eat. On balance, I'd say you have it pretty good here."

"I wasn't denying that. I'm just a little jealous of you, that's all."

Toph thought about her mother forbidding anyone from visiting her, about her father telling her—in front of the Avatar—that she was going to be watched every hour of every day. She thought about Azula's plan, and what she'd have to do tomorrow… "Guess I can't blame you for that," she said.

Zhao sighed as he entered the elevator that would take him straight to the mechanist's room. Admittedly it was much more convenient than trudging up that damn mountain, but it still took a while, and really anyone could do it. But of course it wouldn't be proper for a low-ranking soldier to negotiate with such an important war asset, no matter how cowardly that asset was.

The Firelord (glory to his name) said Zhao was only doing this because he "happened to be in the area," but he still couldn't help feeling like it was some sort of punishment. At this rate, he was never going to get the chance to invade the Northern—

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the elevator stop. Well, might as well get this over with, he thought. "I'm here to collect—"

A blast of water blanketed him, forcing him backward and freezing him to the wall.

What the hell!

"Zhao. It's been a while."

He instinctively turned to the owner of that voice, and his blood ran hot.

The Traitor to the Fire Nation. The Avatar.

"What are you doing here!" he yelled.

"I have no reason to tell you that," she said dismissively. "All I want to tell you is that the mechanist here," she gestured at the man, who was doing a terrible job at concealing his fear, "is working for me now."

"Don't you mean with you?" a young girl slouching on a chair asked.

The Avatar shrugged. "Anyway, as such this temple is under my protection, so if you try to invade it you will all be killed. Naya, you can let him go now."

A dark-skinned woman nodded, moved her arms, and the ice encasing Zhao melted away.

Zhao rubbed his arms and considered his options. Being in the same room as the Avatar was a rare chance, and he was angry enough to be highly tempted to make an attempt at capturing her right now…but he was also clearly outnumbered. Besides, he had an army down there, and the Avatar was basically trapped on this mountain. Despite her bluster, Zhao realized that he actually had her just where he wanted her.

He wasn't sure why she hadn't killed him, but if she didn't before she probably wouldn't now. So he allowed himself to say, "Before the day is out, Avatar, you'll be on a ship and sent back to your father. This time, I doubt he'll leave it at your eyes." Savoring the momentary look of rage that passed over the Avatar's mask of indifference, he turned to the mechanist and said, "You really tossing your lot in with her?"

The man didn't say anything and looked down. Zhao rolled his eyes.

"I really suggest you leave now," the Avatar said in a low voice.

"Pray to whatever primitive spirits you worship," Zhao told the gathered audience, "because you'll be meeting them soon enough." He sauntered to the elevator and took it down.

As the ride went on, Zhao's grin grew wider and wider. He would kill enough people that the mechanist would back down and rejoin him, wipe out the Avatar's little escort, and bring the Traitor herself back to the Firelord. His punishment had instantly turned into the greatest chance for glory he ever had. The day was looking very up indeed.

"Hey, where's Sokka?"

"He and the Mechanist hit it off somehow," Azula responded. "Idiots of a feather flock together, I suppose. Anyway, they're working on building some sort of flying balloon."

"Huh. Well, any little bit helps, I suppose," Toph said.

They were sitting a short distance away from the temple. Azula had melted the snow surrounding them already; if she hadn't, their bare feet would've gone numb from the cold, which would not have been good for their sight.

Toph spoke up again. "By the way, is there a reason you let that commander guy go?"

"Zhao?" Azula scoffed. "I met him a few times in the Fire Nation. Trust me, he's more use to us alive than—"

"It's started," Toph interrupted her. "I can see they're approaching the first trench."

Azula grunted. Toph was still smug that Azula's tremorsense didn't extend as far as hers did. "Alright. Kalu, go inform everyone. We'll start the bombing at around the halfway point. Might as well have them tire themselves out first."

Most of war was waiting, but this battle was even more waiting than normal. Her battle plan required a large number of enemy soldiers on the mountain to achieve maximum efficiency. Thanks to Toph's previous handiwork, it was going to take a while for that to happen. A good, long while for all the civilians to get even more nervous before their first battle.

Well, all they have to do is glide above the enemy and drop stuff, Azula thought. We're the ones who have the dangerous part.

It took an hour for the enemy to reach the halfway point, at which time Azula ordered the bombing raid to commence. Kalu and Naya talked to a few of the bombers as the operation was proceeding, and reported that it seemed to be going well. They were barely taking any retaliatory barrages.

That's weird. Is Zhou keeping his firebenders in reserve? What for?

"Um, Azula?" Toph asked beside her.

"What?"

"Does the Fire Nation own some sort of mobile house?"

Azula thought for a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I can see a really big metal…thing moving down there, so—"

"She probably means the Tundra tank," Kalu broke in. "The Mechanist showed me some blueprints he had drawn up."

"Never heard of it," Azula said offhandedly. "Must've been after I left. What are they?"

"As Toph eloquently put it," Kalu said pleasantly, "they are big metal things. They run on treads and encase soldiers inside, usually firebenders—there's an opening that lets them see and shoot fire to the outside."

Azula nodded. "I don't see how they'd be much more effective than ordinary soldiers in this situation—"

She was interrupted by the sight of many hooks digging into the corner of the cliff the temple was on.

"They are also equipped with grappling hooks," Kalu said.

"They're climbing up the mountain," Toph added.

Azula sighed, then shrugged. "Looks like we'll have to unleash our grand surprise early. It's a shame, but what can you do. Toph?"

"Ready."

Azula stood up. "Then one, two, and…"

In sync, they put their left foot forward, did the proper katas, then stomped their right foot down.

The mountain rumbled as the fractures they had set up in advance ruptured. Earth pushed against earth, stone smashed stone, and the cliff broke, sending waves of rocks cascading down the mountain, crushing all in their way. After less than a minute, the Fire Nation force on the mountain had been effectively routed.

"Well," Azula said while rolling her shoulders, "that's likely the end of it. Honestly, two master-class Earthbenders on top of a mountain is just…" Her voice trailed off as she noticed Toph was not as happy as she had expected. "Toph?"

"Y-yeah?"

She raised an eyebrow at the other girl's hesitation. "Is…something wrong?"

"No, not really. It's just…" Toph's voice took on a strange tone. "How many people do you think died just now?"

Azula quite honestly could not believe she had just asked that question. "Are you kidding? This is war, you know. If they won, what do you think would happen to—"

Her angry rant was interrupted by another round of hooks implanting themselves into the cliff corner. "Kalu?" she said, her voice threatening.

"I perhaps forgot to mention that they carry two sets of grappling hooks."

Azula pinched her nose. "Well, I guess we'll have to be more precise this time around. Ready, Toph?"

The other girl didn't respond. "Toph!" Azula repeated, her voice loud enough that it was probably heard across the entire mountaintop.

"S-sure. I mean, yes, I am."

"Then let's do it. One, two…"

This time, the katas were different. Only the earth the hooks were attached to was knocked away, sending the tanks hurtling down again.

Only to reattach themselves with (presumably) the first set of hooks a second later.

"…Okay, I probably should've seen that one coming. Kalu, tell the civilians to get inside. The real battle is about to start."

"Sure thing. And by the way, it's counterbalanced by water, so I recommend freezing the axles." With that, Kalu ran off.

"If you don't want to kill anyone, Toph," Azula said bitterly, "I suggest you leave now."

"I don't want to kill anyone," Toph responded, just as bitterly. "But I'll do it anyway."

"As you will."

Zhao punched the side of his personal Tundra tank. It hurt. "An avalanche!" he roared.

"I warned you this might happen, Admiral," Mongke said, with an infuriating told-you-so tone.

"I've never seen an earthbender cause an avalanche before," Zhao said. "Even if she's the Avatar, she's only fourteen. How was this possible!"

Mongke shrugged. "She is the Avatar, as you say."

Zhao paced, fuming silently. After a minute or so, Mongke said, "Admiral?"

"Don't bother, I know what you're going to ask me." Zhao waved his hand. "Fine. Send your little group up. What harm could they cause now?"

Mongke bowed absurdly low. "Your wish is my command, Admiral." He ran off.

Sure it is, Zhao thought. This battle was basically as good as lost. He glared up at the mountaintop, the temple not even visible from down here at the bottom. All his work, so many good soldiers lost, just to get back some cowardly designer who probably wasn't even needed anymore, if he ever truly was. If only the Firelord had listened to him, he might've already have killed the Moon…

Azula had not intended for the enemy to even reach the top of the mountain, much less do so with tanks. It was impossible for them to be supported by foot soldiers at this point, and she couldn't imagine Zhao had too many of them. But still, the only people here who could fight them here were her, Toph, Naya, and Kalu (and Kalu probably wouldn't be of much use against machines).

Kalu had told her to freeze their axles, but it was hard to do that from far away, and she would rather not get close to the things if at all possible. So she spent the few seconds it took the tanks to finish scaling the mountain trying to come up with a better stratagem.

All she could think of was 'all-out attack with firebending.' Which did tend to work in the past. The only other possibility was to try bending lightning at them, but the last time she had tried to bend lightning had…not ended well.

She breathed in deeply, went into a stance, waited for the second the first tank would finish climbing up, and launched a huge blast of fire as soon as it righted itself onto the mountaintop.

A loud scream of pain graced her ears, confirming the fact that the fire had entered the opening in the tank. Pleased, she bent the ground underneath it a short way upwards and back, sending it toppling off the mountain. Most likely the tank's operators had more things to worry about now than rappelling back up to the top.

Wind currents brushing against her skin and a slight increase of heat in the air alerted her that a fireball was approaching. She snuffed it with a wave of the hand and a gust of wind, then counterattacked with another blast of fire. The tank she aimed at stopped, but she didn't hear any screams of pain this time, so she stomped one foot, then the other, raised her arms, and sent the ground under the tank upward, flipping it over and landing it on its back.

She was pleased with herself for about a second, before it started moving forward again.

A thought suddenly popped into her head: Well, look at that. The Fire Nation really is centuries ahead of everyone else when it comes to technology. Do they really think they can win this war?

She shook her head furiously. What the hell was that! The Fire Nation is the enemy now! Angry at herself, she raised her hand up, bringing a large mound of snow with it, then slashed, drenching the tank in question with water. Breathing in, she airbent a veritable tornado at the tank, freezing all the water and rending it immobile.

Azula panted. Whatever pride she might've felt was overridden at shame of having let her emotions take advantage of her like that. She couldn't waste that amount of energy to destroy every tank.

And from looking, there was a lot of them. Naya was doing well, but her abilities lay more in precision than in brute power; she could only attack one at a time. Kalu, of course, couldn't do that much. And Toph…

"What in Agni's name are you doing, Toph!" she shouted.

"I'm trying to deal with these tanks," the other girl grunted. "You should too."

"Really? Because from what I'm seeing—" Azula paused to launch a stream of fire at the newest tank that breached the cliff, burning the operator and sending the tank hurtling back down the mountain in one go—"you're throwing rocks at them! Yeah, that'll work well."

"I'm trying to block the opening."

"You can't see the opening!"

"You have a better idea!"

A tank was getting near them. More careful this time to only use as much strength as necessary, Azula covered its axles with water and blew on the water to freeze it. "How about you bend a big boulder up and crush them?"

"That would take too long and require too much energy." Toph spoke in a monotone. "This is more efficient."

Azula could've slapped her, if she wasn't too busy deflecting fireballs and counterattacking with her own flames. Despite their efforts, the tanks were only increasing, their attacks were becoming more constant, and the situation was starting to look quite bad. "Cut the crap! You just don't want to kill them, do you?"

"No!" Toph screamed, and Azula could've sworn the ground under them swayed a little. "No, I don't! Just now was the first time I killed anyone, okay! I'm sorry that I'm not an unfeeling monster like you!"

The next thing Azula knew, her hand was stinging from its impact with Toph's face, the other girl sprawled on the ground from the impact.

Agni damn it! This isn't the time, Azula! She felt she should say something, but she couldn't think what. Instead, she tried to bend some more water onto a tank, but doing that while simultaneously blocking their attacks was difficult even for her.

Toph stood up and mumbled something.

"What was that?" she asked, slowly making an icy claw grasp one of the tank's axles.

"I said fine! If you want death, have at it!"

Toph stomped one foot. A piece of earth rose up. She stomped the other, and a second piece broke off. They flew, the air currents on Azula's skin telling the story, slamming into two of the tanks and sending them flying—into each other. They collapsed in a heap.

Azula froze the second axle.

"What was that you said about throwing rocks?" Toph was as smug as Azula had ever heard her.

"Do that some more, and you can brag as much as you want."

The situation wasn't actually as bad as Azula had feared. Zhao had basically sent all his tanks up in one go. The attack was already starting to let up, and with the work of Azula, Toph, and Naya (and even Kalu managed to somehow sneak into one of them and take out the soldiers inside), the remaining tanks were destroyed.

After Naya took care of the last one, the four of them gathered together.

"Do you see any more of them?" Naya asked.

"I think there are two more coming up," Toph answered.

They were all panting heavily (except Kalu); it had been a taxing battle. But it was almost over.

"Alright," Azula said. "When they come up, Naya and I will take care of them, and the battle's over. We won't even need Sokka's balloon thing. Ready, Naya?"

She guessed Naya was gracing her with a withering look. "Is that an insult? Of course I am."

"Just making sure. They're almost here."

As the tanks crested the cliff, Azula did the proper katas, moved the water up, and—

Just in time, she felt the arrow. She desperately bent air at it, and managed to deflect it…almost. It grazed her right arm.

"Get back, Naya!" she roared, and bent a high wall of rock in front of them as a stopgap measure.

The others ran toward her. Naya spoke first. "What's—"

"If I'm right," Azula interrupted, "that was a Yuyan Archer."

Silence greeted that statement. "Are you sure?" Kalu asked.

"The aim was too good. We'll have to be careful with these ones." Her brain whirred. She opened her mouth to start giving orders when she stumbled, and had to put a hand on her earthbent wall to support herself.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked.

"Oh no. No, you're kidding me," Azula murmured, grasping the scratch the arrow had made.

"What's the matter?"

Azula gave a weak, ironic smile. "That arrow was poisoned."

"What did you say!" Toph shouted, as Kalu ran toward Azula and crouched down.

"You heard me. How is it, Kalu?"

"There's only so much I can do on the battlefield." Kalu's voice was as strained as Toph had ever heard it. "How does it feel?"

"We don't have time for this," Azula said. "Do as much as you can to arrest its spread." Kalu started pulling things out of his pockets. "We'll just have to kill them quickly. Toph!"

"Y-yes?"

"I'm…having a little bit of a hard time concentrating. How many are there?"

Toph gulped, and trying her best to ignore the knots her stomach was tying itself into, focused on her tremorsense. "Two tanks. Four people left them. I…don't know if the archer's one of them."

"How many—unh!" Azula stumbled a little, but she righted herself quickly. "How many of the tanks are moving?"

"…One. I think."

"So the other was abandoned. That's…" Azula was panting now. "That's something. Okay, we need some intelligence on them, so—"

Suddenly, the temperature around Toph went from 'cold' to 'blazing hot.' She almost felt like she was being cooked alive for a few seconds before it went away again just as suddenly. "What was that!"

"Huge waves of flame erupted from the sides and top of the wall," Kalu said.

"Firebenders," Naya grunted. Then, sounding surprised, she said, "Azula?"

"…How much fire was there?" Azula asked.

"As far as the eye could see," Kalu said.

"…That shouldn't be possible," Azula mumbled. "I've never seen someone bend so much fire. Not even me."

Naya said, voice hard as steel, "So we have a master archer with poison arrows, a firebender stronger than the Avatar, and at least three others?"

"We don't know because we have no information!" Azula shouted, banging her fist against the wall. "And if we try to get information—"

Her point was punctuated by another few seconds of intense heat.

"They've got us pinned down," Kalu said.

"Toph! What are their movements?" Azula demanded.

Toph gulped and concentrated. "Two of them are standing directly opposite us. The other two are each moving to one of our sides, diagonally. The tank is far back and to the left."

"Alright." Azula leaned against the wall and slid down. "The flame attack was centered on us, so the two opposite us are probably firebenders working together. Toph, bend some rocks and harry the ones who are moving. They'll probably—unh!—dodge but we shouldn't let them go unmolested. Naya…um, get some icicles ready to send at anyone who enters your field of vision. Kalu…keep treating me, and when you've done all you can try to get a look at the field without getting yourself killed."

Another blast of fire. This one lasted twice as long as the previous two.

With sweat dripping from her body, Toph stomped her foot, knocking four rocks up out of the ground.

"Alright, little Avatar. I've done all I can."

Azula's breathing was rough and ragged. Her tremorsense was grainy and weak, like it was for the first few weeks she had been learning it. She couldn't feel her right arm at all anymore, and she had to focus most of her concentration just to think. "What's the prognosis?" she asked, making her voice as low as she could.

"I used waterbending to arrest the poison's spread," Kalu said, voice similarly low, "but I need a few days to cleanse it from your system. For now you should live, but you'll probably slowly get worse until I put you to sleep."

Azula nodded slowly. "Alright. Play along." She stood up, cleared her throat, and addressed the others. "I'm not sunshine and roses, but Kalu says I can fight. What's the situation?"

"Is that true, Kalu?" Naya asked.

She looked at him expectantly. He would understand: the fewer of them who knew how badly off she truly was, the better. "She is the Avatar, after all," Kalu said.

After a pause, Naya said, "We're at a stalemate."

"I can stop them from moving forward by smashing rocks down in front of them," Toph said, sounding almost as tired as Azula felt, "but that's about it. And they're still—"

A drastic increase of temperature indicated that the firebenders had launched another attack.

"—doing that."

Azula bit her lip, and her hand (the left one, of course; she couldn't move her right) unconsciously rose to her eye socket and started scratching it underneath her eye covering. She didn't feel like stopping it. "All right," she said, focusing on sounding decisive and fully awake, "we need to cause some sort of breakthrough. Maybe I can use airbending to—"

"Uh-oh," Kalu said.

"What? What is it?"

"I dunno," Toph said.

Kalu said, "Look over there," presumably for Naya's benefit.

"…Looks like Sokka and that mechanist finished the war balloon," Naya said.

"And that's bad?"

"They're kind of sitting frog-ducks," Kalu pointed out.

Azula thought for a moment, then realized in her present condition more thinking wasn't going to help much. "All right. New plan: come with me, then kill the bastards."

With that, Azula dove to the right, outside her earthbent wall.

Naya didn't have time to think—all she could do was follow the Avatar. Which was, of course, the point.

As soon as they went outside the safety of the wall, a tsunami of flame raced toward them. The Avatar rotated her left arm in a wide circle, and right before the fire hit a bubble of air gusted around the four of them, shunting the fire to its sides, top, and back.

It was an island of breath in a sea of flame.

"Did you think this through!" Toph shouted, her voice barely carrying over the roar of the flames and wind.

"No time!" the Avatar shouted back, arm still rotating, the sweat falling off her body visible even against the backdrop of red and orange. "Follow!"

She started running forward. Naya and the others had no choice but to obey.

Suddenly, the fire stopped.

Something caused Naya to move. Maybe it was instinct honed through years of combat, maybe it was intuition as a result of her constantly trying to predict the enemy's movements. It might even have been spiritual inspiration. Whatever it was, Naya started moving as soon as the fire cut out, and shoved the Avatar onto the ground.

As she was falling down herself, an arrow passed a hair's breadth over her head.

"Wall!" she shouted before she hit the ground. Toph must've understood her, because an earthen wall rose before them just in time to block the next blast of flames.

She stood up, and helped the Avatar up as well. She expected protestations that 'I can stand up by myself,' but instead the Avatar just said, "Take the wall down on three, Toph."

Naya swallowed. She couldn't imagine the Avatar was pleased that she had pushed her down. "There was an arrow—"

"I know. Now shut up and follow. One," she started rotating her arm again, "two, three!"

The wall came down. As soon as it did, the fire stopped. This time nobody needed any help to duck.

As perhaps should have been expected, this time the arrow didn't come immediately. It only appeared after they had already hit the ground.

Another wall arose just in time to block it. There was no way they could've dodged from a prone position.

The Avatar gave an incoherent scream as yet another wave of fire crashed against the rock barrier.

She stopped after a few seconds, but Naya and Kalu were speechless. Even Toph only said, "Azula?"

"I'm poisoned, our only reinforcement's going to be shot down in seconds, and we're completely pinned down as long as that archer's there!" The Avatar was almost screeching now. "Don't you understand? We're all going to die!"

Naya looked at Kalu and Toph. Kalu's face was ice. Toph was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. She looked back at the Avatar, her forehead resting on the wall, hair in disarray, right arm hanging uselessly at her side, for the first time in Naya's memory looking more like a person than a force of nature.

Naya's mouth started moving. "We need to take out the archer, then?" it said.

The Avatar barked a short laugh. "Yeah, but I can't think of a way to—what are you doing?"

Naya moved to the edge of the wall. Some of the fire licked her skin. She bent down, picked up some of the snow, bent it into water, then ice. More specifically, three small icicles.

The flames went away a second later. As soon as they did, she stepped outside.

From the previous arrows' trajectories, she had a very good idea of where the archer was. As soon as she entered the enemy's visibility, she threw her icicles.

As time slowed, she saw the archer. He was inside a tank, a larger opening than normal cut to allow him maximum visibility and flexibility with his aim.

His attack had started before hers did. She got a very good view of the arrow as it approached her, until it finally sunk into her stomach.

The last thing she saw before black overtook her was her icicles entering the archer's chest and neck. The last thing she felt was satisfaction.

Azula wasn't sure what emotion she experienced when she saw Naya step outside, then fall down. Whatever it was, though, she shoved it somewhere deep inside. It wasn't valuable in the current situation.

"The archer?" she demanded.

Kalu hesitated, but he knew better than to do it for long. He approached the edge of the wall. "I…think he's dead, but—"

Azula clenched her fist. "Then it's time for the endgame." She stomped her foot, breaking the wall up out of the ground, then pushed her hand forward, launching it at the firebenders.

The air told her some more projectiles were coming at her, but they were much larger and slower than arrows. She airbent them aside with one swipe of the hand; when they hit the ground, she saw them to be something like daggers.

It was taking an effort even to stand up straight now. Even with the archer dead, they were still at a disadvantage with those firebenders out there. How could she…?

The decision was taken away from her when she felt and saw the next fire attack.

This one wasn't a huge wave like the others. It was much more concentrated—about as wide as herself—and far hotter. This thing would punch right through her wind and would probably blast apart any of her earthen walls. In which case, there was only one thing to do.

She stuck her left arm out and used her own firebending to make it stop.

She didn't have the strength in her to swipe it aside or to weaken it. All she could do was prevent its movements. And even then, the amount of ki she had to put into her arm was straining it to the breaking point. She had no idea how much longer it would last before it became as useless as her right.

The two other enemies started running toward them, and all she could do was hope Toph and Kalu could fend them off.

Kalu could finally take a good look at their adversaries. But he didn't have nearly enough time to conduct an adequate analysis. So he stuck to the surface details.

With Azula holding off the firebenders, he looked at the other two. One was a small, lithe woman holding a knife in each hand. The other was a giant with a warhammer.

He knew which one he would rather fight.

"I've got the one on the left. Watch out for the right woman's warhammer," he told Toph, and walked toward the knife woman, wielding his own dagger in his right hand and an elementary water whip in his left.

He attacked her with the whip when she came in range. She ducked and rolled under it, then sprang up to aim a knife at his throat. He managed to block it, but her other knife sank into his side.

His left hand bent some water out of his pouch and used it to push her away. Racing back, he used more water to apply emergency healing to his wound. But the woman recovered quickly, and he didn't have enough time to finish before he was forced to block again.

Her arms were blurs. He could barely keep up with one of the knives, and the other easily cut through any feeble ice barriers he made. It cut into his arms, knees, torso, thighs…

This wasn't working. He was no fighter. In a few seconds he would be dead. He needed to approach this from a different direction.

His dagger moved down and right to block her next blow. But he went too far, and his left was now wide open. Grinning, the woman slid over to his left side, knives aimed at his waist and armpit.

Exactly as he had wanted her to do.

His left leg kicked forward, moving the snow she was standing on with it. Off-balance in the middle of her attack, she slipped and fell onto her face.

As she fell down, she managed to stab one of her knives into his foot. He ignored that, and moved his arms forward in a grand sweeping gesture, sending the snow and his enemy with it a good distance away, back toward the firebenders.

Suddenly the world spun around him for a second, and Kalu barely managed to break his fall with his hands. Blood was dripping from his many wounds. He was absolutely winded; he was not a good fighter, and that tussle had sapped most of his remaining energy.

At this point, it was all up to…Sokka.

We're all going to die.

Toph didn't have time to argue as Kalu dashed off. She was tired, cranky, worried about everyone else, and pissed off at just about everyone (especially herself) because they were all probably about to die.

Somehow she managed to force her concentration onto her opponent.

She could tell from her footsteps (Her? Kalu did say "woman"…) that whoever she was, she was big. Toph tried bending the ground under her to trip her up, but she was built so heavily she wasn't even fazed. Next, she tried bending up a wall, but the woman immediately smashed it to bits with her (according to Kalu) warhammer.

For the first time in her life, Toph was faced with a one-on-one fight she wasn't sure she could win.

The enemy was close now. Toph dodged backward just in time to avoid the warhammer's downward swing, but the tremors from the impact caused her to tumble to the ground. She tried bending the ground up to encase the enemy's hammer and feet, but she couldn't make it strong enough fast enough; the woman broke out of it easily.

She scrambled up and dove out of the way of the enemy's next attack. She avoided it again, but not by as much as last time. She fell from the tremors and rolled some distance along the ground.

The enemy was right next to her now. Unable to think of anything else to do, she encased herself in rock.

The hammer came down. It bashed in her shell and struck her chest. All the air in her lungs going out at once was almost as painful as the ribs it cracked.

But she wasn't dead, not yet. And she didn't need air to earthbend.

She slammed her fist against the earth, digging a boulder out of the ground, then sent it flying at her enemy. The woman was too occupied with preparing the finishing blow to notice. It crashed into her and sent her flying, right into the wall she created next.

Toph finally breathed in, then cried out in pain. She tried to stand up, but couldn't summon the energy. She was barely even able to see anymore.

Even dying is probably better than waiting to die…

Azula couldn't help screaming in pain and frustration as her feet slid backward a little bit more.

She couldn't see. She couldn't think. She had no idea what was going on. By all rights she should be unconscious or dead by now. Instead, here she was, barely managing to block the most powerful firebending move she had ever experienced, Ozai included. And as soon as she flinched, she would die.

So I won't be killed in a grand battle or in a duel by my father, but by someone I've never met before on a spirits-forsaken mountain defending people I don't even care about. Lovely.

In her current state, she couldn't deny the temptation to just…let…go…

A small sphere descended onto the battlefield.

It had originally been Azula's suggestion, though Sokka and the mechanist had refined it thoroughly. It was a small bag filled with a fluid that contained explosive properties if it came into contact with fire. The original plan had been for Azula herself to set it off, but she was presently occupied. However, a suitable substitute had made itself obvious.

As the bag came into contact with the enemy firebenders' attack, the mountaintop rang with the cry of fireworks.

"Yes!" Sokka shouted. "I told you we needed to wait for the right time!"

Whether by design or serendipity, both Kalu and Toph had managed to push their opponents close enough to each other that all four remaining enemies were caught up in the explosion. But, unless they got extraordinarily lucky, there was still one stage left in this battle.

As soon as the explosion sounded, Kalu ran over to Azula. Unsurprisingly, she had finally passed out. So he stood her up and, though it wasn't medically good for her, poked a few pressure points with his dagger that made her legs stiffen, enabling him to stand her up.

When the smoke cleared, he saw that the two firebenders were on the ground unmoving. That was good news, at least. But the other two were still standing, albeit ragged-looking, and needless to say did not seem happy.

However, they still had the war balloon above them, and to the enemy the Avatar looked awake. The warhammer-wielding giant seemed like she still wanted to fight, but the knife woman said, "Come on, Suzue. Take Hiro and Hina with us and let's go. No sense dragging this out longer than necessary."

Kalu watched as the giant picked up the firebenders, climbed into the empty tank as the knife woman entered the one with the dead archer, and they rode the vehicles down the mountain.

He allowed himself to close his eyes for a second, breathe in, and breathe out.

Then he tapped Azula's pressure points again, letting her lie on the ground, and ran over to Naya to assess her condition.

Warriors got to rest at the end of the battle, but a healer's work was never done.

When Azula regained consciousness, she was lying on some sort of bed. That explained why she couldn't see very much, at least.

"Would anyone happen to be here?" she asked, voice raspy from lack of use.

"Oh, you're awake, little Avatar," Kalu's voice said. "Would you mind keeping still? I was in the middle of an examination."

Azula sighed inwardly, but she knew better than to argue with him when he was treating her.

A few minutes of poking and prodding later, Kalu said, "Alright, done."

"How am I?"

"Basically healthy. You didn't have many physical injuries; just the poison, really, and I'd already flushed that out of your system. Now I think you just need some rest—that battle was fairly taxing, to say the least—but you should be up and about in half a day or so."

She nodded. "How are the others?"

"Toph has a few cracked ribs, but waterbending's good at healing that kind of thing. I got to her quick so I was able to set her bones and start them healing relatively easily. She's already walking around. Her chest area will be sore for a few weeks as the ribs heal, and it'll probably be uncomfortable to breathe during that time, but she should make a full recovery eventually."

"…And Naya?"

Kalu paused. "She took a poisoned arrow in the stomach. That's extremely dangerous even if I had gotten to her immediately. Because of the delay caused by the battle…"

Azula nodded again. He didn't have to say it.

"…she'll be bedridden for a few days," Kalu finished.

"…Bedridden?"

"Yes. What did you think I was going to say?" He seemed inordinately pleased with himself.

"But, you said—"

"Don't get me wrong, an arrow in the stomach's no laughing matter, but it's not fatal if it's treated in a reasonable timeframe. And the poison was meant for you, little Avatar, which means it wasn't fatal; the Firelord wants you alive, after all. She'll be fine."

Azula clenched and unclenched her left fist; her right arm still felt weak. "As soon as I'm better, I am going to kill you. Haven't decided how yet, except that it'll be very long and painful."

Kalu laughed and patted her head. "Looking forward to it. Now I'm going to go check on Naya. You should get some more sleep, little Avatar." He was still laughing as he walked out of the room.

Azula tried to get into a comfortable position and swore to herself that she was never coming to this mountain again.

Zhao crossed his arms and tapped his finger on his elbow. "Explain to me, if you would, why you didn't shoot down that balloon."

The man in front of him gulped. Mongke told him the two firebenders were pushovers if they weren't together, so he was taking advantage of that fact. "We thought we should eliminate the Avatar first—"

"You mean capture, I assume?"

"Y-yes. Capture."

"And yet the Avatar had blocked your attack. Don't you think you should've changed strategies instead of continued doing the same thing?"

The man looked away. "I'm here, soldier!" Zhao barked, and he swiveled his head back. Zhao noted with approval the fear in his face.

"Well…she was weakening, so we kind of thought, she'd probably give out in a few more seconds…"

"And after 'a few more seconds' had passed?"

His eyes darted down for a second before meeting Zhao's again. "…We thought that surely after a few more seconds—"

Zhao put his hand up. "I've heard enough. Go back to your Colonel and wait for further instructions."

He didn't need to be told twice. He scurried off faster than a rabbit-squirrel.

Zhao let out a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. He had to admit, assuming their story was accurate, they had done a better job than he had thought they would. But they made several stupid decisions, one of them died, and most importantly they lost. What was supposed to be a routine job before he met up with his main fleet had turned into a disaster. When the Firelord heard about this, he'd probably get demoted.

When Zhao thought of that, he roared in anger and frustration. No! I've worked too hard and come too far to fail now. Not when I'm so close to achieving my destiny…

But as he thought about it, a smile started forming on his face again. Word wouldn't reach the Firelord about this battle for a while. Certainly not before Zhao reached his fleet. And when word did reach him, what if it was counterbalanced with news that he had taken over the North Pole and killed the Moon…?

He called for a runner. "Send word to the officers," he told the courier. "We're meeting up with the main fleet."

"Yes, sir," the man said.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said before the runner had left.

"Yes, Admiral?"

Zhao grinned. "Tell them to bring warm clothing."

After Azula was (somewhat) fully recovered, she confirmed the details of their arrangement with the mechanist—design new weapons for the Earth Kingdom instead of the Fire Nation, not exactly complicated—and then was prepared to finally leave for the North Pole.

"Ah, before you go, Avatar, there's one more thing I think I should tell you…" the mechanist said.

She sighed. "What is it?"

"Most of the time, the Fire Nation didn't give me detailed instructions for which weapons they wanted me to design. There was…one exception."

She wasn't liking his tone. "Yes?"

"Approximately a year ago, they asked me to design a…drill."

"A drill?" Her tone conveyed doubt.

The Mechanist was even more nervous than normal. "Yes. A giant drill, to be specific. I…can only really think of one use such a machine could have. And…well. Some of the people here fly out to do trade and the like, and one of them told me they received information that the Fire Nation brought a giant drill to the Earth Kingdom a few days ago."

Azula considered the matter, but not for long. "I'm going to have some choice words for you once this war is over," she growled and stormed toward the door.

"Wait!" the Mechanist yelled.

"What!"

"…You can take the war balloon."

So it transpired that Azula found herself traveling with Toph and Sokka (Kalu stayed behind to treat Naya) back to Ba Sing Se, riding in a balloon, fuming the entire way.

End Chapter 14

Author's Notes: It's been much longer than I wanted it to be, and I have no real excuse. All I can do is apologize and hope to do better in the future. I really do want to finish this before the year is over.

The next chapter is probably going to be relatively short, but I'm excited about it—it's an idea I've had since I was writing Trapped. So that one shouldn't take long, maybe even a week (but no promises). Unfortunately I have a number of things I need to do in August, and then graduate school starts up again which always drains time and energy. So we'll see how things go.

As always, I highly appreciate every review that I get. Please give me constructive criticism if you have any. Also, just for your information, reviews can often guilt-trip me into writing new chapters quicker (I mean that in the nicest possible sense, understand).

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.