Well, here we are with the next chapter and my final installment to "Day of Black Sun". Just a warning, this is roughly double the length of any other chapter so far, so be prepared. More stuff happened in here than I thought needed to at first, but it's all setting up for one heck of a show coming soon.

So, without further ado, remember the disclaimer and enjoy!

Chapter XXV: Day of Black Sun--The Eclipse/Endgame

Midori grunted with the weight, even as she marveled how light the girl felt as she and Lihui supported Suki between them. The bear-man continued to confidently walk on ahead, scattering all but the most foolish guards with a glance, and the rest fell to his sheer strength. As they reached the gates to the prison, Midori had long ago come to the conclusion that he wasn't simply a bear-man in appearance, but really some kind of spirit that had taken human form to pass in this world. Arrows seemed to just miss, spears were turned away, blades would not touch him, and the guards seemed either unable or unwilling to use bending against him.

As they approached the heavy front doors, the bear-man simply glared at the gate-keeper and the doors slid open with a rusty groan. The man simply stood on the prison steps for a time, his eyes closed and the wind tossing his long hair around his face. Finally pushing back his hair, he turned to Midori and Lihui.

"Follow me." The man said before turning to the path that led away from the prison compound. As they left the forbidding structure behind, Midori couldn't help but notice that the path was cutting back on itself, heading back towards the mountains they had just come from.

"W-where does this go?"

"Back to the city, my young companions. But don't worry, I have friends there. They will help you." As they started up the side of the great rock wall, a flash of light made the bear-man stop and look around.

"Hmm, it seems this invasion is doing much better than I predicted. Come, we must reach my friend's home quickly if we do not wish to be caught in the fighting." Taking Suki from the two girls, he cradled the listless Kyoshi in his arms as the two girls fell back in step behind him.

"Aang, we've got a problem!" Sokka yelled up to Aang, who brought his new glider--courtesy of Teo's father--down to a skidding halt in front of the warrior.

"Aang, it's--"

"Ashani, I know. I've been looking for her, and she's not here." Aang said, before turning to meet Katara and Toph hurrying up to him as well.

"Aang, the eclipse only lasts for eight minutes, we have to do this now."

"Yeah, unless you blockheads wanna tangle with more guys like Tin Man. Just so you know, Katara, I still think you--"

"Toph, for the last time, I did not heal your nose crooked. Now come on, we can be there with plenty of time if we use Appa."

"I--I guess you're right. Hakkoda, keep looking for Ashani, but do whatever you have to do!"

"Will do, Avatar Aang! Watch yourselves, especially you two!"

"Got it, Dad!" The bison launched with a low roar, carrying the four kids from the top of the crater wall. The city stretched below them, sprawling estates testifying to the powerful nobles that made the city home. The Royal Palace, however, dwarfed them all from the center of the crater, the red and golden tiles on the roof bursting into flame in the afternoon sun. With a low roar, Appa angled down to the gleaming building, Aang's hands turning white as they held the reins.

A blast of air and stone tore the massive doors from their frame as the group rushed into the ornate entrance chamber. With not a soul in sight, Aang motioned for caution as they advanced into the building. Finding naught but empty rooms, Aang began to feel like he was missing something, something obvious and very dangerous.

"Aang, something's wrong. Shouldn't there be, I dunno, guards in the Palace?" Sokka prodded a tapestry with his sword, as though expecting a soldier to come bursting from behind it.

"I know something's wrong, but we don't have the time to figure--"

"Hang on, everybody freeze!" Toph's shout caused Sokka to jump about a foot in the air, but they all obediantly stood still as the Earthbender kneeled down to the floor. A slow smile spread across her face as she abruptly slammed her fist into the ground. When the dust cleared, a slanting tunnel had been punched into the floor, and Toph's arm could be seen waving them downward.

"I caught something as we were walking in, but I didn't believe it at first. Now I think I know what's going on."

"Didn't believe what at first?"

"There's a whole city's worth of tunnels down below, and I bet a whole city's worth of people in them. Also, I'm sensing a large complex directly under us that's made of metal."

"An emergency bunker! It's genius! Even if the city gets invaded, they would have to actually go down into the earth to hunt everyone down, and in the meantime I bet they have escape tunnels going every direction! This is amazing!"

"Sokka, are you calling Fire Nation architects geniuses? Come over here, let me check for a head injury." Ignoring his sister, Sokka enthusiastically jumped into the tunnel, closely followed by Aang.

Toph just shrugged, "Whatever makes you happy, lunkhead. I'm just thinking about how much fun I'm going to have completely surrounded by bendable stuff." With that, she disappeared into the ground, Katara giving the chamber one last look before following.

"So, do you think the Avatar knows what's going on yet?"

"I don't know. Maybe. All I know is that sitting down here doing nothing is a waste of time."

"But with the eclipse--"

"I know, I know. Firebenders are useless during the eclipse, but I'd like to think I can hold my own with my swords. I just feel so helpless down here while the invasion is literally right over us."

"Come on, Zuko, lighten up a bit. Your father just wants you to be safe."

"He wants me out of the way, you mean."

"Whatever, I know your dad's been kind of...off lately."

"Off? He's put his favorite daughter in burn wraps, and even though he knows I didn't capture or kill the Avatar he's treating me like I'm some kind of war hero!"

"Relax, okay? You sound like you'd rather he hated you."

"...It's what I'm used to. Anything else doesn't feel right."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"It's okay, I'm sorry for yelling earlier. It's just...while I was in the Earth Kingdom with Iroh, we may have not had it easy, but there was always something worth doing. Now that I'm back, I look around and see nothing that's really worth it. Everything's going towards winning this Agni-cursed war, and I don't want any part of it."

"Does your father know you've gone subversive?"

"Blast it, Mai, I'm being serious!"

"So am I. You know what'll happen if anybody finds out."

"Yeah, and your point? Can I help it if maybe I actually had someone who cared about me for once, who took an interest in me beyond pointing out my weaknesses and shortcomings? Iroh was more of a father to me than the glorious, all-powerful Fire Lord Ozai ever was!"

"Calm down, someone's going to hear. Listen, even if you feel that way, there's not much you can do about it. Iroh's in prison and your father controls everything in this city. Even if you did get him out, where would you go?"

"It doesn't matter, I just--"

"Yes, it does matter. If you don't have a plan going in, you're probably not going to come up with one as you go. It just doesn't work that way."

"Well, why don't you think of a plan?"

"I did, but it can't work yet."

"Why not?"

"Because of Azula. I don't know what's going on between her and your father and until I do, I'm not going to cause any more trouble."

"So you're letting my uncle sit in prison for Azula? Azula doesn't need your help, she doesn't need anyone's help. She's better off on her own."

"If you would just calm down and look at the whole situation for once, you'd see that there are political moves and power games going on under your nose and that Azula figures in nearly all of them. Listen, I'd love to stay and argue all day, but I'm getting tired. I'll meet you tomorrow at that big festival thing, okay?"

"Wait, you're going to the festival?"

"I've heard there's going to be some good entertainment, including an Agni Kai match between Azula and somebody. Sounds interesting, so yeah, I'll look around."

"Okay, I'll meet you outside your room tomorrow. See you then."

"Bye."

"This'll have to be the last door, Aang. We've only got two minutes until the eclipse is over, and it's probably going to take us that long just to get back to the surface."

"Okay, let's try--" A frightened squeak cut him off and they turned to see a young man duck into a doorway. He wasn't quite quick enough, however, and Sokka wedged his sword into the closing crack and rammed his shoulder into the door. The door crashed against the wall to reveal a young boy flattening himself against the back wall of a storage room. Sokka reached in and hauled the boy out to stand nose-to-nose with him.

"P-please d-d-don't hurt me! I-I'll tell you w-w-whatever you need to k-know, I just w-wanna g-get home!"

"Tell us where the Fire Lord's hiding." Aang commanded.

The boy looked confused for a moment, then frantically started gesturing down the hallway, "M-my brother said the commander was in a room down that way, it was down this really long staircase that said it went to the kitchens and it had a huge Fire Nation symbol on it I swear!"

"And how does your brother know anything? Come to think of it, how old are you anyway? Shouldn't you be in the army or something?"

The boy shook his head quickly, "I-I'm thirteen, b-but my brother's in the army and they said my mom needed me at home, and my brother's in the army and they're th-the only ones who know anything about w-what's going on down here."

"Alright, you've been helpful. Go back to hiding." With that, Sokka shoved the boy back into the storage room and pulled the door shut, then turned to Aang, "Well?"

"Well, what? You heard him, down that way, look for a long set of stairs that supposedly goes to the kitchen."

"No, I meant do you still want to keep going? We've only got a minute-and-a-half left, and--"

"We've come this far, I'm not backing down now. Everybody on the surface is counting on us to win, we have to win." Aang took a few steps down the hallway before turning back to look at his friends, "You guys coming?"

"Right behind ya, Aang. Let's kick some Fire Lord butt!" With Toph's enthusiastic support, Aang led the way down the hallway, slowing only to scan for a sign of the staircase. Finally finding a sign reading "Kitchens" next to a solid-looking metal door, he skidded to a halt and was nearly run over by Katara.

"Well, the kid did say, "Kitchens". You ready?" Recieving only a quick nod, Sokka grabbed the metal latch and shoved.

And kept shoving.

"Umm, a little h--"

"Move it, let the master work." splaying her hands across the door, Toph stood in silent concentration before bringing her arm back and thrusting her hand into the center of the door. A massive crack appeared, then widened as her other arm jabbed in. With a shriek of pulling metal, followed by the crash of the locking mechanism falling out onto the floor, the Earthbender triumphantly pushed through the demolished metal slab to stand in a dimly lit passageway. As Aang joined her, he let out a frustrated sigh.

"This doesn't go anywhere! It's just a dead end." What had at first appeared to be a true passage now revealed itself to be a small, bare room made of rock. As he began sliding back through the door, however, he felt Toph's hand close on his arm and roughly jerk him back to stand beside her. "Hey, what did you do that for?"

"C'mon, Aang, don't tell me you've slacked on your training that much! That wall isn't supposed to be there. Watch!" Grabbing the stone wall in front of them, she pulled and the entire thing gave way to reveal...

"Stairs! We found it!" Sokka's gleeful shout probably saved Aang from a rather frank appraisal of his training schedule, and he took the opening to brush by Toph and airbend himself down a flight of stairs ahead of the others. The stairs seemed endless, constantly cutting back on themselves or heading off in a new direction, twice heading back up only to drop off sharply again. Nearly falling down one of these surprise drop-offs, Aang came face-to-face with a massive door. This time, he did get run over by Katara, with Sokka and even Toph following not too far behind. After disentangling themselves, with several apologies and leaving Toph rather irate and Aang and Katara both rather pink in the face, the group stood in front of the door, emblazoned with the Fire Nation crest.

"Forty seconds."

"Be quiet, Sokka."

"I'm just saying--"

The door was blasted inward by a mixture of air and stone, and the group ran into the room with weapons drawn. Then they froze, looks of determination quickly giving way to confusion and apprehension.

"What, surprised to see me? Well, don't be. Father told me to kill you, and you don't argue with Father."

"Umm, actually we're kinda surprised that you've gotten rid of a lot of that armor you're always wearing." Sokka's observation was at least partly true, and Azula's mouth twitched in an amused smile as she leisurely spun in place. Most of Azula's usual armor was indeed missing, in fact it seemed she was wearing it more for show than anything else. She had on gauntlets which reached almost to her elbows, and a chest-piece that had attached plates guarding her shoulders. Some kind of protective wrap covered her waist and upper legs, and she wore a simple set of boots that approached her knees. In the gaps between pieces, pale yellow fabric could be seen fitting snugly to every bare inch of skin.

As Katara waved an experimental hand over her brother's face, Azula's ghost of a smile fell back into her usually severe expression. "Unfortunately, I don't have time for you to stare. Dai Li, get rid of them." As shocked as they were, the gang was still able to dodge the stone hands that shot from the ceiling as four Dai Li agents literally fell upon them. As Katara lashed out with her water and Sokka's blade rang from stone impacts, Azula simply looked on with an amused grin.

"Oh, and when you kill them, make it painful. I deserve some satisfaction from this."

"Chief Hakkoda, the eclipse will be completely over in only twenty seconds and I see no sign of the Avatar." The Mechanist was sweating profusely as the afternoon sun began to reclaim its place in the sky, and Hakkoda couldn't help but repress a shiver that threatened to break his calm exterior. Sokka and Katara were with Aang, they would be safe. But why hadn't they returned by now? Surely a helpless old politician couldn't take this much time to subdue?

"Something's gone wrong. They should have been back by now."

"Don't worry, Hakkoda, they'll pull through. Nothing's ever stopped them before, and I for one think those kids have a better chance down there than we do up here. Now, we need to prepare the defenses." Bato tried to move the chief from his spot, but Hakkoda gently slid his arm off and remained where he was.

"No need to worry about defenses, my son and that young Teo lad have already seen to it. The tanks have been set up in a ring, with earth walls locking them together. They'll provide shelter and we can fire through the side ports in the tanks, plus we're standing on a practically endless supply of ammunition. I say we trust the Avatar and wait here." Recieving a tired nod from the two Water Tribe warriors, Tyro left to find Haru, as Bato replaced his arm on Hakkoda's shoulder.

"We're all worried about them, but they'll make it through. Sokka's smart, he won't let anybody get hurt."

"Bato, please, it's--I-I don't want to lose them. Not now, not when we're so close to having this war done with, when I'm so close to holding my children and not having to worry about anything beyond what the next day's fishing trip will bring in. Sokka's--he's nearly a man now, and I, I don't want--"

"It's going to be fine. Right now, though, the men need to see Chief Hakkoda, and that means no doubts. Come on, if your son's half as hard-headed as you are, then there's nothing to worry about."

The wall next to him exploded as Aang scrambled to get out of the way of multiple incoming earthen pillars. Across the room, Toph was holding off three of the agents at once while Katara was locked in a battle of wills over control of several mud tentacles that were currently trying to restrain both of them. Sokka had abandoned his opponent to join the two already facing Aang and now was charging a very relaxed Azula. The reason for her calm was soon made apparent as a stone spire burst from under the Water Tribe warrior and he very nearly found himself impaled upon several more spikes aiming for his gut. Rolling away from the assualt, he noticed one of the Dai Li was hidden in an alcove near the ceiling. Plan...

As he dove into another evasive maneuver he reached for his club, and as he came to a stop he hurled it with every ounce of strength in his arm. The expression on the man's face was almost as satisfying as the resounding crack! as the club struck home. The man and weapon fell together, and Sokka rescued his club just before it followed the Dai Li into a ragdoll flop onto the floor of the chamber. Turning with both sword and club in hand, he faced the Princess and watched about six emotions play across her face before it settled into one of supreme irritation. Abruptly, however, the corners of her mouth twitched upward and she let out a shallow laugh.

"What's so funny?" The nonplussed warrior asked, tightening his grip on the weapons.

"Oh, it's not really funny. I would say...ironic. You see, just this morning I had a very entertaining conversation with one of my favorite prisoners, and she finally realized that you weren't coming to rescue her. Oh, if only you had been a day or two earlier, but oh well, you can always find anoth--" Her next words were cut off as Sokka brought his club up and into her shoulder. Letting out a sharp hiss, Azula fell back from the blow and lashed out with a kick that the warrior shrugged off, bringing the club down on the extended limb and sending her to the ground. Holding the tip of his blade in her face, he kneeled down to look her in the eye.

"Where. Is. Suki?" He was vaguely aware of an earthen explosion somewhere to his left, accompanied by several yells and a very un-manly scream from somewhere else, but his attention was focused solely on the Fire Nation princess.

"And just why should I tell you?" The princess hissed, before her eyes widened to roughly the size of moon-peaches.

"If I press any harder I'll draw blood, and I really don't think you want that. Answer the question, Azula."

"Sokka, calm down, I don't--" In the split second that Katara distracted him, Azula made her move. Pulling her head back, she shoved the blade away and punched him square in the mouth before flipping up off the ground and catching him again with one heel. Landing several feet back, she turned to run before a small spike of stone sent her sprawling again.

"Alright, Azula. I think we all know that without your little guards surrounding you, there's nowhere left for you to go. Just make this easier on all of us and--wait a second, why are you wearing those?" Following Katara's finger, Aang saw only the pale fabric covering Azula's stomach. He looked up quizzically at the Waterbender as Sokka stood up again, rubbing his face.

"Wearing what? You're going to have to be more specific."

"Those wraps. I recognize them now, they're burn wraps."

"Oh? And just how would you know anything about Fire Nation medicine?" Azula shot back, rubbing her elbow from the fall.

"L--a man in the city took us in, and he had an extensive first aid set. His wife showed me what everything was for." Katara reached into a pouch on her belt and emerged with several different items, "These are for chills, this is a medicated bandage that won't come off if it gets wet, and these, umm, I'm not sure what these do but I know what I'm talking about, Azula. The burn medication in the bandages stains them that pale yellow color."

"Okay, fine, so you do know a little. I guess even peasants can be taught. Well, this has been a wonderfully educational conversation, but I'm getting tired, so--" Bringing her foot around, she blasted out a wave of flame that forced them all back. Taking the opening, Azula punched a blast at Sokka. The warrior dodged it easily enough, but not the knee that caught him in the temple and sent him sliding across the floor. Not satisfied, the Princess produced a flame whip as she turned and lashed out at Katara. The whip was blocked, but it did manage to distract her for a crucial moment. Long enough for a barely conscious Dai Li to fire his rock glove into her back.

"Katara!" Aang immediately broke off his attack to cushion Katara's fall as Toph buried the offending agent in the floor. Azula pressed her attack, sending blasts of flame in wide arcs. Aang spun his staff into an air shield to block the attacks, but his defensive action was doing nothing to actually end the fight, and Azula seemed inexhaustible. At the edge of his vision Aang saw a small explosion of dust along the ground, and Azula suddenly stiffened, then collapsed onto her hands and knees as Toph walked triumphantly over to her side.

"Woah, Toph, what did you do?"

The Earthbender smiled sweetly, "Oh, nothing much, just ground a wave of very tiny stone daggers into her skin. I heard what Katara was talking about earlier, and since her skin's sensitive anyway..."

"Toph!"

"Alright, alright, don't go all soft on me, Twinkle-Toes. I can take 'em out, watch." With a hand gesture, a puff of dust rose from across the bandages and Azula jerked again before attempting to push herself to a crouch. Unfortunately, she only got as far as "attempting" before Toph kicked a supporting arm out from under her and she fell again.

"Alright, fine, you win. What do you want, to use me as a hostage to make Father listen to you? Well, you'll be sorely disappointed--Father wouldn't be caught dead negotiating with the likes of you." Azula spat out, before spitting out a mouthful of dirt, "Honestly, you might as well kill me now and save yourselves the trouble later."

"As much as I would enjoy that, you're not worth it." Sokka had rejoined Aang and Toph, holding his head and supporting Katara, who was holding her back with an obviously pained expression and couldn't seem to stand up straight without wincing.

"What are you talking about? I'm a Princess, I'm royalty, do you realize what killing me would do to the Fire Nation?"

"From what I've heard, it might make your dad a little miffed. Then again, if he cared enough to do this, I'd say he wouldn't really mind one way or the other." This got a reaction, as Azula's head snapped up and she locked eyes with Sokka.

"What did you say?"

"I said I know what happened. We've got a 'connection' with some of the Palace staff and he told us everything. Well, at least the important bits, like how you insulted your dad and he got a little mad about it or something and then just went plain crazy."

"You will not talk about my father, the Fire Lord, in such a--" She seemed to choke on the words and simply spluttered for a moment before Sokka gently pushed her into the gap of a steel support pillar. Picking up on the hint, Toph immediately bent the sides of the gap inward, pinning Azula's arms at her sides and leaving the furious and bewildered royal with a decidedly lost expression on her face.

"See ya around, Crazy Fire Witch." With that, Toph led the way as the group began leaving the room. As they reached the doorway, however, Azula yelled across the room.

"All of your friends are either dead or captured! And I can guarantee there will be retribution for this!"

"Huh? Oh no, the eclipse ended two minutes ago!" Sokka looked down with alarm at the little timepiece as Aang felt his brain freeze up around one rather significant fact.

"We left Appa out on the steps of the Palace, what if he--" Nearly knocking over the others with the blast of wind, he rocketed out of the room and promptly crashed into the arms of several waiting soldiers. Slamming down his staff to blast himself free, he felt his arms nearly wrench themselves free of their sockets as someone maintained an iron grip on the staff. Spinning around, he felt cold metal wrap him in a bear hug from behind and bindings snap around his feet. As a foul-smelling rag was forced into his mouth, whoever was behind him began hurriedly whispering.

"Listen, Avatar Aang. Your allies are being rounded up as we speak, and your bison has been caged just outside the city. I know this is uncomfortable, but it's the only way anyone will believe us. Now listen," This was punctuated by a vigorous shake, and Aang became slightly frantic as a piece of cloth was wrapped over his mouth and nose and a hood was jammed over his head, "We're going to get you to someplace safe, someplace where we can work out what your next move should be. Relax, don't resist, and everything will work out fine. If you want to make this interesting, be my guest, but I shoud warn you, it's the middle of the afternoon in the middle of a dormant volcano and we just got our bending back."

"Oh, and one more thing." The voice became a low growl and Aang could feel a tinge of fear begin eating into him, "I keep four knives on me at all times, plus a variety of useful little monsters depending on the situation, and I don't appreciate having some Water Tribe tramp give me a good show of what a heart attack might feel like. Now, I can be extremely creative in how I use those knives, and I've got a pretty good knowledge of human anatomy to help out. I would normally despise myself for months afterward for doing this, but you're the Avatar and personal principle has to be put aside for the greater good. To make it simple, if you won't go along for your own safety, think of your pretty little friend. Understand?

"Uhh heggkk yuhh!"

"I know, kid. I know. Move 'em!" Aang felt a sharp prod in the back and began walking, before an arm on his shoulder spun hiim around roughly and pulled him to a stop in a different direction. He could hear laughter following this, and he seethed as he tried his bonds and found that he could do little more than wiggle his fingers. Forced along by nudges in the back and pulls at his shoulders, he quickly lost any sense of where they might be. Several times he was roughly pulled to the side and found himself crushed against a wall. Finally an arm pulled him to a stop and the hood was unceremoniously pulled off, revealing Ling standing next to a very nervous Ashani.

"Got 'em out fine, now we need to be getting back to our posts. See ya tomorrow, sir!" As his bonds fell away Aang spat out the gag and spun around to see a small crowd of cloaked figures round a corner and disappear. Turning angrily to Ling, he opened his mouth only to be silenced by Katara's hand on his arm.

"Look, I know that wasn't pleasent, but we don't have time to be angry with each other." Aang noticed Katara was now wearing a faded red cloak, as were Toph and Sokka.

"I know that you're probably confused, and I'm sorry. My boys said they could pass your friends off as Rank Guards if they were found, but not you. Too recognizeable, so they had to make it look like you had been captured. The point is, those were my boys, and that was most definitely not according to the Fire Lord's plan, so there's nothing to worry about. That 'invasion' plan of yours fell through, so we have to get you somewhere safe for a while. Follow me."

"No. I'm not going to hide again. There are too many people who are counting on me, and I'm not about to let them down again." Reaching for his staff, he remembered that it had been taken by the soldiers.

"If this is what you're looking for, you're not getting it." Toph hefted the staff slung across her shoulders.

"And why not? That's my staff!"

"You can't go out there, Aang. You would just get hurt and captured."

"And then probably killed." Sokka pointed out, earning a glare from his sister, "What? We all know the Fire Lord's through playing around, and he's starting to go nuts anyway." He walked over and pressed a hand on Aang's other arm, "It isn't what any of us wanted, and I had hoped we wouldn't have to use my little plan, but--"

"Wait, you came up with this?"

"Yeah, I did, in case the invasion didn't work." Sokka ignored Aang's glare as he steered him over to the adults and transferred him to Ashani, "We can do this, we just need to get out of sight for a bit and get into a position where we can do some damage. It's just like the drill--if we want to finish this, we've got to do it from the inside."

"Not sure what you're talking about, but we've stood here long enough. We'll be safer back at my home, it's not too far from here." Aang sighed, then pushed Katara and Sokka's arms off and walked to the edge of the tunnel, head down.

"For what it's worth, Twinkle-Toes, that guy didn't mean what he said."

"Huh?"

Toph walked up beside him, "I may be blind, but I've got pretty good hearing to make up for it, and I heard what Tin Man was telling you about Katara. Well, don't worry, he was lying through his teeth. 'Course, you would have been able to tell that yourself if you hadn't been slacking off in your training. As soon as we find a good spot, you're gonna be catching up and then some, got it?" Aang just flopped down onto the ground.

"Come on, Avatar, we need to be going. Eventually, someone will figure they need to search around here, and I want to be safely at home with a good alibi cooked up. Also, I need to talk to you about something that you could really help with." Ling reached down and gave Aang and arm up as Ashani and Katara exited the tunnel, whispering urgently about something.

"What, is there something else I'm supposed to fail miserably at?"

"Now we don't have time for that kind of attitude, Avatar. You won't fail, because my boys are going to be backing you up on this one. We've got a...personal interest in this going off without a hitch, and trust me, if anything goes wrong it's going to go wrong big. We'll need all the help we can get, so that's where you and your friends come in."

"What can we do if those guys can't handle it?" Aang said, pointing back to the slowly shrinking tunnel entrance.

"Guess we'll find out together tomorrow."

And thus ends my little three-part mini-saga-episode-thing. And a notice to all thirty of you that have made it this far, it's probably going to be a while before the next chapter. As in, probably the middle to end of May. Gotta love college.

Stay true, faithful readers, and I shall return!

--NullChronicler--