Appa flies toward the capital city, the moon just beginning to overlap the sun. Once he landed, Toph, Sokka, and Aang jump down onto the surface of the volcano.

"Do you feel anything down there?" Aang asks.

The small earthbender places a hand on the ground, "Yep, there are natural tunnels criss-crossing through the inside of the volcano."

"Anything else, is there a structure somewhere?"

Toph looked at the water tribesman before plunging her hands into the ground, "There's something big, dense, and made of metal deep in the heart of the volcano."

Sokka nods at the information, "Sounds like a secret bunker to me."

Once within the tunnels Toph shouts to Sokka, "This way, that one's a dead end!"

Turning away from the tunnel towards the blind girl Sokka grins, "What would we do without you?"

Not pausing her run Toph smirked and replied, "Perish and burn in hot magma."

The trio continued their run through the underground tunnels passing molten rock, and eerie streams of lava that lit their way. Luckily crossing a cavern filled with active lava vents all over the floor Aang carries the three over a large river of lava and to the tunnel on the other side.

Continuing their dash through the volcano's interior Sokka skids to a stop before a large metal bunker built against the cavern wall and whistles in amazement, "That's some door."

Taking a step towards the door Toph hits the door with her knuckles, producing a metal thud. "Not a problem." The earthbender took a step back before bashing her elbows into the door, fracturing and denting it. She takes another step back, kisses her middle and index fingers, and stabs them through the door. Kicking her leg through Toph widens the opening she finally makes it through the door and takes off down the tunnel again, with Aang and Sokka right behind.

As they run Sokka glances at the time device the mechanist presented him with before the invasion, "Only thirty seconds until the total eclipse."

The three run a little further along the rock tunnel before come to another large door with the flame insignia on the front and top. Aang takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, "I'm ready, I'm ready to face the Fire Lord."

The avatar spins his staff forward and blasts the door off its hinges by a blast of air. The three enter a large ornate chamber cautiously. There is a single throne at the end of the room, but the Fire Lord does not sit there waiting for them.

Azula sits leisurely on the throne, her legs crossed and fingers bridged. She sighed wistfully at the heroes' appearance, "So, you are alive after all. I had a hunch that you survived. It doesn't matter, I've known about the invasion for months."

"Where is he, where is the Fire Lord?" Aang questions the princess.

The firebender stands and descends the dais a hand over her heart, "You mean I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings."

Sokka raises his sword threateningly, "Stop wasting our time and give us the information. You're powerless right now so you're in no position to refuse."

Toph nods in agreement before calling out, "And stick to the truth. I'll be able to tell if you're lying."

Azula smirks in amusement, she knows that she planned to help the fools, but this was entertaining. "Are you sure? I'm a pretty good liar." Her face becomes expressionless, "I am a four hundred foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings."

The small earthbender pauses before mumbling out, "Okay you're good, I'll admit it." She bends the rock from beneath the royal to encase her before continuing, "But you really ought to consider telling the truth anyway."

Rolling her eyes at the blind girl Azula smirked, "When I left Ba Sing Se, I brought home some souvenirs." The girl gives a laugh as the rock prison shatters and she brushes the rubble off her shoulder as two earthbenders drop down from the ceiling beside her, "Dai Li agents."

Aang swings his staff at the two agents, throwing out a blast of wind. The Dai Li bend a stone wall in front and completely nullify the attack. Aang, Toph, and Sokka run towards the wall and a stone structure erupts from the floor where Aang is standing, but he leaps away and jumps off one of the metal beams and flips forward. As the Dai Li begin to attack the Avatar Toph bursts through the stone behind Aang, creating a hole in it. She lands between the agents and bends two pillars of stone up from beneath them as she lands, pushing them towards the walls. The agents land on the walls feet first and bend a pillar of stone down at Toph, who blocks the attacks by bending two stone slabs up from the floor.

The small earthbender thrusts her hands forwards and bends a stream of earth towards the Fire Nation Princess. As the stone reaches the royal the earth pushes her up into the air. The young firebender quickly flips off the attack and lands on the throne smirking at her opponents.

Aang runs towards the confident princess past a Dai Li and spins his staff above his head, letting go of it as he turns forward, winds up, and shoots a powerful blast of air with one hand at Azula. The agile firebender grabs onto the arms of the throne and cartwheels away just before the throne is destroyed by the air blast. Aang dashes to where the girl was and swings his staff, again sending an air blast towards her. Azula runs between two metal beams, she jumps over the blade of air and at the beam, then flips off that one back towards the beam behind her. The princess lands on the side of the beam just before springing off it as another blade of air nearly hits her.

Azula flips in the air before landing safely on the ground where she pauses just before she runs off, Aang chasing after her. She runs behind the metal beams, and jumps onto and off a beam just as Aang sends another air blast towards her. Azula continues running forward and hops from the wall to the beams and up to one of the stone pillars the Dai Li had attacked Toph with. Aang does a small vault with his staff and kicks another air blast at the princess, but misses. Azula slides down the stone beam, and jumps off the wall Toph had created to block the attack earlier and lands on the other one before flipping off of it and landing on the floor.

The young royal turned to glance at her two opponents before she turned and ran towards the large stone wall. One of her Dai Li agents slide down the wall, and when they land behind the princess he bent a pillar up from beneath her, sending Azula into the air towards the hole in the wall that Toph had made. Just as Sokka climbs up into it Azula sails over him, passing just inches above the tribesman's face as he ducks down. The firebender lands on the other side of the wall and runs towards the exit. Sokka tries to climb back down from the wall as the Dai Li agent, Toph, and Aang jump over him and through the hole, one at a time. He drops down and follows after.

Running next to Toph Aang quickly states, "I can't pin her down, she's too quick."

Nodding Toph strafes off to the side and out of sight as Aang and Sokka continue to chase the Dai Li agent and Azula down.

Soon after Aang bursts through a wall created by the agent a stone pillar erupts out of the side of the wall knocking the Dai Li aside and inside the groove of one of the steel beams supporting the tunnel. Toph follows her column out of the wall, blocks the agents attack, and effectively grabs both sides of the beam's grooves and pulling them in, trapping the agent.

Aang and Toph continue to chase the royal but stopped when Sokka called out, "Wait! Aang, Toph, stop attacking. Don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this fight!"

Azula smiles wickedly at the trio before sarcastically saying, "Not true, I'm giving it my all."

Toph glares at the princess, "You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!"

The princess raised an eyebrow at the small girl, "Um, right. I think you're friend just said that genius. And since you can't see, I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes."

The little earthbender stepped forward shaking her fist, "I'll roll your whole head!"

Grabbing the girl's arm Sokka pulled her around, "She's just baiting you again. We have to get out of here and find the Fire Lord on our own somehow."

He turns and starts to walk away and ignores the princess as she called out, "It's a trap. Don't say I didn't warn you."

As the group continued to walk away from her Azula had to think quickly. The whole point in leading the fools this way was to get them to Kiren! The princess then remembered the Kyoshi girls and smiled, "Sokka's your name right! My favorite prisoner used to mention you all the time. She was convinced that you were going to come rescue her. Of course, you never came and she gave up on you."

The tribesman turned to glare at the royal, tears beginning to run down his cheeks. He gives a furious cry of anger as her rushes the princess. Dropping a small blade into her palm Azula readies herself for his attack, intent on not getting shredded by the boy's sword.

Before Sokka reached her Toph raised her knee, which caused a stone to lift into the air. She shot it forward with a thrust of her hands and pinned Azula to the wall by her wrist. The royal grunted in pain at hitting the wall before the tribesman grabbed her shoulder, pushing her against the wall even more and glares into her eyes, "Where is Suki?"

Zuko stared defiantly at his father as he stood in front of the Fire Lord, "After I leave here today, I'm going to free Uncle Iroh from his prison and I'm going to beg for his forgiveness. He is the one who has been a real father to me."

Ozai chuckled sarcastically, "That's just beautiful. Maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure."

Prince Zuko continued as he ignored his father's words, "But I've come to an even more important decision. I'm going to join the Avatar, and I'm going to help him defeat you."

The Fire Lord grinned slyly at his son, "Really? Since you're a full blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait? I'm powerless; you've got your swords, why don't you just do it now?"

Zuko sheathed his swords as he shook his head, "Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny. Good bye."

Ozai stood angrily, "Coward! You think you're brave enough to face me but you'll only do it during an eclipse. If you have any real courage, you'll stick around until the sun comes out." Seeing that his son continued to walk away undaunted by his taunts Ozai smiled maliciously as he asked, "Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?"

Zuko stops in front of the doors and turns around to face his father. Ozai grins triumphantly at his son, already planning within his mind of what to do.

Sokka glared angrily at the princess in front of him, "Where's Suki? Answer me!"

Aang grabs the distraught boy's shoulder, trying to pull the tribesman away, "Sokka, she won't talk."

The warrior hesitates for a moment before returning his gaze to the young firebender, "Where are you keeping her?!"

"Your mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished."

A tear streams from Zuko's eyes as he looks at his father, "So she's alive."

Ozai closes his eyes as the moon slowly passes over and the rays of the sun shine through. "Perhaps, now I realize that banishment is far too merciful a penalty for treason. Your penalty will be far steeper." The Fire Lord quickly opened his eyes and stepping forward he swung his arms out, creating two arcs of electricity from the tips of his fingers. He thrusts his finger forward and fires an enormous bolt of lightning towards his son.

Zuko catches the lightning effortlessly with the tips of his fingers. The prince slides backward from the force of the attack, the electricity surrounding his body and making his hair stand on end. Zuko sinks his body down and pulls his arms in as the energy runs through his body and then thrusts his other hand forward; redirecting the lightning in Ozai's direction.

The Fire Lord is blasted back by the explosion caused by the bolt. As Ozai straightens fire burns in front of the firebender. He looks out into the room, but Zuko was gone.

Azula turns her head away from the angry tribesman's gaze and stares down the tunnel, having heard the explosion she smiled, "Oh, sounds like the firebending's back on." She swept her leg upward, creating an arc of blue fire, making Sokka jump back in surprise. Moving her foot again the princess sends another arc towards the boy. He is saved from the attack by Toph, who jumps in and pushes him out of the way.

Azula flips up and places her feet on the wall. In a burst of blue flames the rock trapping her to the wall explodes. Landing nimbly on her feet the firebender raised her arms in surrender towards the airbender preparing to strike. Aang furrowed his brow and looked inquisitively at the princess.

"I spoke the truth when I said it was a trap," Azula explained clasping her hands behind her back.

"Yeah and why are we supposed to believe you when you can lie effortlessly?" Sokka accused.

Azula quirked an eyebrow at the boy before continuing to speak, "If you knew the ethics behind your friends trick water boy, then you would know she judges a person's honesty from their heartbeat. From our fight my heartbeat is high yes, but it is now impossible for me to school it enough to lie effectively."

Toph looked at the princess slightly surprised before nodding her head.

"Fine, tell a lie right now, and if Toph says that anything is off about it then I get to kill you." Sokka ordered.

Smirking at the boy Azula turned to face the tiny bender, "I hate my brother."

Toph was silent for a moment before speaking, "She's lying."

Azula sighed, "Great now that that's all cleared up we can continue." She glanced sadly at the warrior, "I don't know where the girl is. That lie was to keep you here, away from my father, but not for the reasons you think."

Aang peered inquisitively at the princess, surprised she was talking civilly with them. "If you aren't protecting your father, then why distract us?"

The princess glanced down the corridor before turning back to the airbender, "Because Avatar, you may be powerful but you would lose."

Sokka scoffed at the princess, "And why is that psycho, because your daddy is the most powerful firebender on the planet? We already knew that, hence why we came during an eclipse."

Annoyed Azula glared at the tribesman, "Would you stop interrupting me water boy?" at the boys nod she continued, "I was only protected by two of my Dai Li. How many agents can you predict my father is protected by? If you had gone Avatar, then you would have been captured and killed."

"Then why not let us go fire bitch" Toph asked. "Then your precious Fire Nation would win the war."

"I've decided to think for myself for once, and to stop blindly following my father's orders." Azula explained. "I do not believe that this war can benefit the Fire Nation in anyway." The princess glanced down the corridor once more and decided she didn't have much time left, "Dad's all the way at the end of the hall and down the secret stairway on the left. But if you pass it, and take a left at the fork the second door on the right is far more…valuable, something that doesn't belong."

"What about you?" Aang asked finally lowering his staff.

Azula smiled sadly, "As you'll come to learn young Avatar, palace walls have ears. I will most likely be killed for my treason, but perhaps I'll get lucky. Now go, before the guards find you." Turning on her heel Azula quickly ran away down the tunnel.

Sokka watched the girl retreat before turning sharply towards Toph, "Was she lying at all?"

"She was telling the truth about her elevated heart rate," Toph began. "I could accurately tell when princess sunshine was lying, but the trick is; she wasn't. The only lie she said was the one she purposefully told us."

"Let's go see what's in that door than," Aang responded striding quickly down the corridor, following the royal's instructions.

The trio paused at the large metal door and Toph once again broke through it effortlessly. What was inside shocked them all to the core…Kiren! Hardening his expression Sokka strode toward the unconscious girl, and with a swing cut her down from the cold chains.

He pressed two fingers against her neck and looked up at his companions, "We have to get her out of here to Katara, she's barely alive."