Previously…

Jora and Toph learn each other's secrets, but before they can talk more, Jian comes to the Beifong residence, and warns Jora that she might be in danger. Not wanting to involve her family in her problems again, Jora leaves. After he gives her a strange envelope, Jora discovers Jian betrayed her, and is captured by Xin Fu. Now caged, she opens the envelope, and discovers it's filled with bright red parchment. She tears it up, and leaves a trail for Jian to follow.

Ty Lee and Katara's group find themselves out of food after their supply goes missing, and stop by a Fire Nation island to get more. The members of the water tribe are hesitant to visit a Fire Nation village in their water tribe clothing, so Ty Lee puts on her old clothes and goes alone. After getting food and water, she meets up with Katara, who tells her that Yugoda and Arrluk have gone missing. The two go to find them, but meet an old lady instead. The lady offers them a place to stay. They take the offer, and learn that the old lady is a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe.

Azula arrives at the Northern Tribe, and begins her training the very next day.

Prelude of Fire

Book 2: Self

Chapter 29: Ill Tidings

The cart stopped, and Jora was glad for it. She was nearly out of the bright paper that Jian had left her. Hopefully she could get out of this herself, but if she couldn't, that paper trail was her only chance of being found.

Who would Jian go to for help? Did she ever tell Jian about Piandao? The Beifongs wouldn't help. Lao and his wife weren't fighters, and she'd told Toph not to get involved.

The cage was pulled off the cart and slammed against the ground. Jora herself crashed into the metal, and was then jerked upward as the cage was pulled up.

From the small window, Jora could see a view of her surroundings. The sun was setting now, but enough of it's light poured into the clearing for her to see. There were six figures she could see, all in cloaks. The cloaks were long and black, with red arrows running down the back that twisted to points down the arms, legs, and hoods.

The cage opened, and a piece of rock grabbed her ankles and arms. Her arms were pulled behind her back, and the rock on her legs raised up to her waist.

She looked around, and saw that there were at least thirty of the figures. Xin Fu stood in front of her, wearing his own cloak.

Xin Fu stepped aside and hid in the crowd of cloaked figures. Another cloaked figure approached. The hood covered his eyes and forehead, but she recognized him anyway. He had a still demeanor, so consistent that it looked like he was an unmoving statue, which was only exacerbated by the rough shape of his face. He looked nearly the same as he had fifty years ago.

"Cho?"

The Earth King's face split into a smile.

"How are you still alive?"

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" Cho said with a grin.

"What do you want with me?"

"You'll understand soon."

Cho stomped on the ground, and the rock holding her released and sank back into the ground. A sword was thrown from on of the members of the crowd, and slid next to her feet. She grabbed it, and held it defensively. Cho pulled out his own sword.

"Let's see how good your sword skills are now."

Cho slashed toward her. She sidestepped, and deflected the attack, which left Cho's right open. Before he could recover, she brought her blade down toward his neck.

Her sword hit it's mark, and Cho's neck was gashed open. Blood spat from the wound, and Cho fell to his knees. Jora turned to Xin Fu.

"I guess I'm better than he planned." She said.

A wheezing came from the side. She turned back to Cho. The wheezing slowly turned to laughter, as the wound on his neck seemed to sow itself together. Within seconds, where his neck had been sliced open, the skin was fully healed. There wasn't even a scar.

"I never liked swords. Too light for my tastes. Too reliant on trickery and deceit."

Jora thrust her blade into his chest, and slashed downward. Cho grunted, but even as he fell to one knee, his wound was healing. By the time he stood up, he was fine.

"You feisty bitch. That still hurts." He said.

Jora swept her blade through the air, aiming for his side. The blade stopped suddenly. Cho held the blade tight. She tried to jerk it free, but before she could a pillar of rock flew from the ground and slammed into her stomach. The air left her lungs, and her legs gave out from under her. She tried to breath, but her body wouldn't listen. As she recovered, Cho stood over her, and began talking.

"You don't even know how outmatched you are, Avatar. Without access to your powers you are nothing. And I bet you don't even know why the spirit has abandoned you. To have all that power, and to not know a thing about the true nature of this world… I'll let you in on some of it.

"The avatar is a charade. They believe they're so righteous with their balance nonsense. Where was the balance when Roku let his friend off the hook for slaughtering hundreds before the war began? Where was it when he wiped out the Air Nomads, who swore never to harm even a lowly fly? Where was it when tens of thousands of Earth Kingdom people were killed trying to protect their families from his hatred? The balance is a lie. The world doesn't care about balance, the spirits do, and in their hubris they believed that the weak humans should follow their beliefs. Humans are finished serving the wills of spirits. Without the distraction of balance we can finally begin to start a new era. Look at what the Fire Nation has accomplished in mere decades by abandoning their old ways. Metal ships and carriages that run off fire and heat itself! Medicines better than any the world has ever seen! Water systems that have nearly eliminated infections! Balance did not create such things, humanity did."

"I thought you hated them? Who cares about their creations?"

"I don't hate the Fire Nation. I understand them. Sozin was the first to see it, and Azulon was the first to understand it. We've been stuck as four nations for too long. Don't you think it's strange, that we're separated by our bending abilities? The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, Air Nomads, and Fire Nation: they all just appeared, did they? We don't even follow the same forms of governance. It's almost as if they were constructed so we'd never understand one another. Sozin saw the problem, but had the wrong answer. He thought that he had to destroy the other nations, but that was a mistake. Azulon saw the best solution: break down the nations, and by force unite them together."

"What are you talking about? Azulon wanted to kill the Earth Kingdom!"

"No, they just didn't understand him. They remembered what his father did to the Air Nation, and fought against him blindly. He did what he could to minimize the damage. If he wanted, he could have killed many more."

"Then why didn't he tell me? Why try to kill me instead?"

"Do you really think that you would believe anything he said?"

"If you realized all this why did you continue the war? Why not stop and join him?"

"I didn't continue the war. I'm not Cho, and I was never the Earth King. Cho was an idiot. Azulon tried reaching out to him for peace and unity, but Cho had to have revenge. Azulon knew that nothing he could do would convince Cho, so he had a plan. He knew that Cho was prideful, so much so that he agreed to meet with Azulon to discuss ways to kill you, who had insulted the Earth King by defying him. When Cho met with Azulon, Azulon knew how to soften him up. He sent a beautiful servant to his side. Cho hated the Fire Nation, but a man like him couldn't help himself. The woman was impregnated with Cho's bastard child: me. Of course, Azulon planned it. He planned everything, and he was right. You see, the woman wasn't just Fire Nation, she was an incredible firebender as well. Azulon wanted to test his theory that we become stronger as one, and he was right."

The hood fell to the man's shoulders. He looked exactly like his father, only his eyes were bright and golden.

"My name is Hazuki, and I'll ask you again: Don't you think it's strange that we're separated by our bending abilities? And that the only one who is granted the ability to bend all the elements are also the mouthpiece of the spirits who subjugate us in secret?"

Hazuki held up his hand, and a wave of heat hit her as his body was surrounded by a small whirlwind of bright blue flames. The cloaked figures all tensed up, and Jora did too.

"For so long we've been fed lies by the spirits, because they knew that we would become too strong to control if we came together. I plan on bringing this world together, whether it wants to or not."

"If that's your goal then why kill me?"

"Kill you? You won't be worth killing after I finish."

Hazuki threw his arm out toward her, and the fire spiraled toward her. She lifted her hands to protect her face, but the fire rose into the air harmlessly. While she was distracted, the ground moved from under her, and two pillars grabbed her hands and brought her down to her knees.

She looked back at Hazuki, who took long and slow steps to her, until he was right in front of her.

"For too long the avatar's have enforced the ways of the spirits. I'm going to sever the one inside of you, and you will cease being the avatar. You should be happy shouldn't you? With his influence in you gone, you will be free to learn your natural element without any obstruction."

"What about the other one? Azulon's grandaughter? She's an avatar too. Why not go after her?"

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you just for knowing too much. You'll just have to wonder about that one."

His hand reached down to her.

"Wait!" She said. "How do you know the spirits are lying? What if there's a reason for the balance after all?"

Hazuki's expression stayed stone cold. "If that is the case, then I will be wrong and humanity will suffer. But we will suffer free from the rule of spirits."

Hazuki put a hand on her shoulder, and reached out for her head. When his hand was hovering just a hair from her, he paused, and looked left. Jora turned her head, and saw a man walk from the brush of the forest. She recognized him instantly. It was her son, Lao.

Lao was shaking, and it was obvious to see that he was terrified of being here.

"E-excuse me, Sir. Whatever it is you plan on doing, perhaps I can convince you not to."

One of the cloaked figures took a step towards him, and Lao jumped and moved back. Hazuki held up a fist, and the cloaked figure stepped back.

"What makes you think one man could stop me?" Hazuki said.

"Because, I'm the head of the Beifong family. The only other family more powerful is the Earth King's bloodline itself. And that woman right there is my family. I don't know who you are, or what you want, but one of the last things you'll want is to be an enemy of the Beifongs. If you let her go, we can forget this ever happened. If not, then there'll be a big enough bounty for you that every person in the world will be looking for you."

"And what if I simply kill you before you tell anyone?"

"You won't, because I came here with another. I told him to go back a few minutes ago, and if I don't return, he'll put an even larger bounty on your head. I don't care about your other plans, but you will leave my family alone."

Hazuki laugh rang through the forest. "What resolve you must have! What if I tell you I don't care about a bounty, and decide to kill you both anyway? You must have known that was a possibility, but you showed yourself regardless. A bold move. Unfortunately for me, she's not worth this much trouble. Lao Beifong, I hope you survive what is coming."

Hazuki turned, and as he entered the forest, the shadows looked to engulf him. The other cloaked figures followed him, and disappeared in the same manner. A second late, the rock that held Jora released her. She got up, and Lao ran to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Jora nodded. "Barely a scratch on me."

Another rustle came from the same place, and Piandao came running from the forest into the clearing, sword drawn. He looked around, then sheathed his sword. His breathing was heavy and shaky from running.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I went to the Beifongs to check up on you, but you were both gone when I got there. What happened?"

"I'm not sure." Jora said.

"I know what will happen." Lao said. "We're moving to Ba Sing Se. These guys are trouble, and that's the safest place I can think of to hide from them. I won't have my daughter and wife put into danger."

Jora nodded, and looked back to the forest. I hope you survive what is coming, Is what Hazuki had said. What was he? And what was coming?


"Focus on your body. The water is an extension of yourself. It flows with you. See in your mind that it will move."

Katara focused. The water was moving, but it didn't want to listen to her when she told it how to move. When she tried to push it forward, it went back, or just swayed in the air. The water moved back down to the bucket, and Hama grabbed her hands.

"Here, try it like this."

Hama pushed her hands forward, flowing gently ahead. Then she pulled her hands back, and made a large swooping motion back to the ground.

"See how you never stop? How you flow from the end of one motion and blend into the start of another? A master waterbender is always moving. A river does not stop it's flow, and the tide does not rest. Try it."

Katara lifted the water. This time, she eased it forward, and without stopping rushed forward, back, then flowed it around and back into the bucket where it came from.

"I did it!" She said proudly. It was the first time she had ever been encouraged to learn more about her ability. It felt like a part of her she had always caged was finally set free.

"Great job, Katara. Try it again, and this time move however you like. As long as you are confident the water will listen. Try to find out what does and doesn't work for you."

Katara nodded, and focused again on her bending.

Ty Lee watched it all from the side. She was happy for Katara, but was more worried about what had happened to Yugoda and Arrluk. The three of them had spent hours in the morning trying to find them, but they didn't find anything. No footprints, no broken twigs, not even the boat remained. It was as if they'd never stepped foot on the island.

Katara was acting strange as well. Once she found out Hama was a bender, she was more excited to learn then to find the others.

Then there was Hama. Ty Lee didn't think Hama had any affection for her, like she did with Katara. In fact, Ty Lee knew it. Around Katara, Hama's aura was a deep green. She truly did enjoy teaching Katara her art. But there was a burning red that glowed beneath whenever she saw Ty Lee, and that red bubbled to the surface when the Fire Nation was mentioned.

Maybe that shouldn't have surprised her. Of course Hama would feel anger and resentment towards the Fire Nation. She had lived through the war. She'd seen all her friends taken away one by one, until she was the last one left. Then she was treated who knows how horribly for years before she managed to get out. Ty Lee would feel more than a small amount of anger if it were her. In a way, it was remarkable how forgiving Hama was.

Katara continued her training, and Ty Lee continued to watch.


Airbending had been difficult. Waterbending was much, much easier, and Azula was progressing much more quickly in it. After just a single week of training she'd been able to learn fairly powerful forms. It was actually easier to her then firebending. There was a weight to water which fire and air didn't have, and that made it much easier to control for her. Unlike before, she didn't have such precise control of the state of the water, but that could have just been because she was working in sub-zero temperatures, but it didn't please her nonetheless. On the plus side, she could influence much more water than when she started.

Pakku was a good teacher. He was strict, and gave her no slack when she made a mistake. Lucky for her, she was even more strict on herself, and was used to that kind of treatment. When she wasn't learning from him, she was practicing her fire and airbending. Obviously, her firebending was stunted a bit with the cold, but it was still powerful and her forms were near perfect. Her airbending was alright. It wasn't nearly as powerful as her firebending, but it was still better than anyone else's in the world, so that was a point for her. With all the training, she now had very little time in the day to do anything else, and coincidentally, there wasn't anything to do anyway.

One thing she had learned at the Southern Tribe when she was bored was that her firebending did actually have a few uses when the only thing around was snow and ice. She did it very rarely then, and only when alone, because she knew the insufferable children would never have stopped bothering her if they ever saw her do it.

She went to her room in the palace. It was large, but fairly bland, as would be expected when everything was made of ice, bone, or occasionally wood. Lucky for her, her room had a door, unlike many others in the city. This made it easy for her to find a place for her to carry out her new favorite past time.

She knelt down on the ground, and sent energy beyond her hands. The heat glowed lightly against the ice until it turned to water and steam. The heat spread, and soon a small hole large enough to step in was formed. Azula took off her heavy clothes, and sat down in the warm water. She made sure she didn't let up on the heat, or the water would turn to icy slush in less then a minute. One time she made the mistake of dozing off, and when she woke just a short while later she was frozen in nearly solid ice. It had been hard to explain that day why she had a light frostburn on her whole body.

She also had to be careful not to heat up the water too much, or the ceiling above would begin to melt. It would be hard to explain away an entire section of the palace collapsing, if she even survived it.

A knock thumped on her door, bringing her out of her concentration. She sat still in the water. If she got out, they might hear the water splash.

"Who is it?" She asked.

"Me. What are you doing?" Said Sokka's voice from outside.

"Nothing, why?"

The door opened, and Sokka stepped in, with Yue standing in the hall behind him. Azula lifted an icy wall between them before they saw her.

"Hey! I didn't say come in idiot! Don't you have any manners."

"You said you weren't doing anything!"

"I didn't mean literally!"

"Why is there steam in here? And why does it sound like your on the floor? What are you doing?"

"I was enjoying some time alone, but if you insist on bothering me…" Azula lowered the wall. "What?"

"What are you doing?" Sokka asked, as Yue came in.

"I'm relaxing in an icy tub of hot water, what does it look like? What did you want?"

"Yue was going to show me something, I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Thanks, but it'd take a while for me to dry off. You two go have fun, I'll stay here."

Azula turned back and closed her eyes, waiting for the door to close. When it didn't she looked back, and saw Yue and Sokka whispering, though they quickly separated.

Sokka rubbed the back of his head. "Since you can't come with us, do you mind if we joined you? We've never really felt what it's like to sit in warm water before."

Azula sighed. This is exactly why she didn't do this outside, where she didn't have to worry about melting ceilings.

"Be my guest." She said, "Just don't expect me to do this on request."

The two took off their overclothes and stood at the edge of the ice. Sokka tentatively stuck a toe in the water, and offered Yue a hand. Yue took it and lowered herself in the tub.

"Oh! This feels incredible!" She said.

Sokka stepped down and joined them.

"Wow! It does feel incredible. How'd you come up with doing this?" He asked Azula.

"I didn't invent it. People do it all the time in the Fire Nation, and even the Earth Kingdom has them, although theirs are normally natural…"

"This happens in nature?" Yue asked.

"Well, not in ice, but in rock sometimes there's pools of hot water, yeah."

"How does that work?"

"I don't know. The water just gets hot in some places."

"Weird. That'd be cool to see someday." Sokka said.

"I'm enjoying it here just fine." Yue said.

"What were you two going to do, anyway?"

"Oh yeah, I was going to show Sokka our garden."

"Garden? What type of garden can you have here?"

"It's not really a garden, but it is an oasis of sorts. It's the most spiritual place in the village. There's a pond, grass, rocks, and even a few small trees."

"How?" Sokka asked before Azula could.

"It's a secret. I'll tell you more about it if you come check it out."

"Well, maybe when Azula's finished with her training tomorrow we can all go see it." Sokka said.

"If she wants to." Yu said.

Azula shrugged. "I'm curious enough to. Plus I'll have a place to go to that isn't all boring ice."

The next day started the same as all the others for the past week. She got up, practiced her firebending before anyone else was awake, then went to learn waterbending. Today however, Pakku was not waiting on her.

The large empty field of ice was devoid of anyone. Normally there would be other students who Pakku would train separately, but even they were gone. Did Azula miss an announcement that they would train elsewhere? It was possible, but Pakku never told her. She was sure of that. So what was going on?

Azula decided to start her training by herself. If Pakku was late or forgot to tell her to be somewhere else that was his issue, not hers.

She pulled a stream of water from the flowing fountain and began the techniques she'd been working on the previous day. It'd been the first technique that had given her any real issue. Not so much that she was stuck, but just enough of an issue that she wanted to work on it more to perfect it.

Her movements were close enough to perfect, but the water wasn't moving how she expected it to. It was supposed to act like a whip, but she couldn't get it to crack. It was just flailing around. She knew how to use a normal whip, her father taught her when he let her punish a servant, so it couldn't have been that she didn't understand how the water should move. It just wouldn't do it the same.

Azula tried dozens of times to use the water as a whip. She tried twisting it, twirling it, slow, fast, and even tried freezing the tip. None of it worked. Every time the water just couldn't get enough speed to be dangerous and effective. Something was wrong with fundamentally. She was going about it the wrong way.

How did a whip work? The user moves the whip forward, and the whip begins to follow. The user pulls sharply, and the whip begins to follow. The whip continues forward, but is now followed closely by a backwards pull. It amplifies the flick of the user until it cracks in a super fast flick that can rip through flesh.

The answer hit her as she pictured a whip in her mind. The user begins the crack, but they don't do it themselves. That's what she was doing wrong. She was trying to control the whip, instead of just forming one and letting it function.

Azula shaped the water into the long thinning form of a whip. She pulled it back, then threw it forward before pulling back. This time, she pushed and pulled on the 'handle' of the water whip with one hand, and just held the rest together with the other. The water moved in a blur, and a crack broke through the air, followed by a bit of mist and steam. Azula smirked. Maybe she could incorporate a bit of ice on the end after all and see just how much damage that could do.

"Who needs a teacher anyway." She said to herself.

A clap sounded from behind her. She turned to see Pakku looking at her with a smirk of his own.

"Very good, Azula. Most struggle with that technique even with a teacher explaining it to them."

"Why wasn't there a teacher explaining it to me?"

"Curiosity. You've been learning at an unprecedented pace. You're already better than any of my fresh group of pupils, and they've been under my teaching for three months. Not to mention that they've been waterbenders since birth, and have played around with their powers for quite some time."

"Why aren't they here?"

"They get one day a week to rest. You don't have the privilege. You're learning is much more important."

"Finally someone says it. What's next to learn?"

"Do the water whip again."

Azula would have told another teacher that she already had it down, but Pakku knew how she was. If he told her to do it again, the next technique must be a variant of it. Azula performed the water whip once more.

"Perfect. Now drop the water."

Azula let go of the water.

"Form the whip again, this time, use only one hand. Either one is fine."

Azula did so.

"Now do the water whip with one hand."

"What? How am I supposed to-"

"Try it before you bother me with your whining, girl."

Azula grit her teeth. She put an arm behind her back. How would she even do this? The water needed to be held to shape, or it would just fall to the ground in a splash, but she couldn't control all of it or the whip would be too slow to function. Azula flicked the 'handle' of the whip, but because she also used that to hold the form, it only waved in the air. Pakku chuckled.

"Oh, is the prodigy stumped already? You need me to teach you how to do it?"

Azula frowned, and thought of the problem. She needed to flick the whip, but also had to maintain it's form with that same hand without influencing its movements. An idea came to her. It wasn't exactly like the water whip, but it would function nearly the same way.

Azula moved the water closer, and froze the 'handle.' She grabbed it with her free hand. If she couldn't bend the whip while also bending the handle, she would physically hold the handle instead.

She looked at Pakku, who had a bemused look on his face. The crack broke the air as she flicked her hand.

"Very clever, I'll admit. But the advantage of the water whip over a normal whip is that it reaches much further. Doing what you did you may as well just use a normal one."

Azula cracked the ice in her hand and tossed it in the air before forming the whip shape again in the air. So she had to do it by bending. How could she bend two sections at once? Azula tested the whip, making it wave in the air loosely. As she did, she remembered something she saw a long time ago: a giant puppet of a dragon during a festival. The puppet danced around the town, waving in a similar manner as dozens of people underneath it trotted around carrying it.

An idea struck Azula. Maybe she didn't have to maintain the water with her hands at all. Maybe if she kept the energy there, it could maintain itself, as long as she kept it tethered to her.

Azula stopped the water. Slowly, she pulled back her influence on it, but kept just a thread of her energy threaded through it. The water stayed flowing gently in midair, even as Azula fully pulled back her hand's influence. If she wasn't taught to be more mature, she'd have done a victory dance.

Azula reached out with her single bending hand to the water, and grabbed the end of it and whipped it. The water coiled, and snapped in the air. She smirked and looked at Pakku.

"You see it now, don't you? Water isn't like fire. You don't have to constantly force your will on it. Just leave a memory of that will, and it will flow with your needs, almost as if it is a life of its own. That is what separates water from the other elements. Now, do two water whips at once. Oh, with one hand still, and just for balance's sake, use your right this time."

Azula frowned, but continued with her training without complaint.


Ty Lee sighed. She watched Katara and Hama leave from the window. Hama only taught Katara at night. Their bending was stronger with the moon out, and there was less chance of them getting caught.

At first she had went with them. But sometime during the second week Ty Lee realized she was a third wheel. She didn't belong with waterbenders.

That fact was becoming more and more apparent. While she and Katara had been friends when they first came here, now they barely spoke, and when they did it was quick and impersonal. She wondered what it was Hama and Katara talked about out there. It was no secret that Hama wasn't fond of the Fire Nation. Was she festering Katara's hatred towards them? Maybe that was why Katara didn't talk to her much anymore.

It'd been almost a month since they first came to the island. They haven't seen or heard from Yugoda or Arrluk since that night. Tonight was also a full moon, but Hama wasn't concerned at all about the disappearances, and Katara was convinced to go with her. Ty Lee hoped that they would be okay, even if Katara and Hama didn't seem to care much for Ty Lee. She was used to being friends with someone who was actively cruel to her, so being looked over didn't hurt her feelings as much as it probably should have. It still did hurt her feelings, though.

The inn was dimly lit by candle. The floor creaked and the paint was chipped. It was pretty run down, and not in a warm and cozy way. In fact, despite the warm lighting, the place seemed cold and metallic, even more than Mai's ship, which had been mostly metal. The thought reminded her of Kuzav, the middle-aged laid back captain she had shortly been friends with. She wished even he was here now. She wished almost anyone else was here. Being by herself was too lonely.

Ty Lee headed for the door without thinking much of it. There had to be someone in town that was friendly, and it was only a short walk away. The door creaked loudly, and to shut it Ty Lee had to basically ram it closed. If Katara and Hama took their usual time, they wouldn't be back for another four or five hours. Ty Lee looked to the sky. With the full moon out, the two waterbenders might even take a bit longer, so they could enjoy the surge of power they got during these nights.

The village was surprisingly well lit. Torches were lit outside the stores and buildings, and there were people walking around the streets. Despite the event looking festive from a distance, Ty Lee knew it wasn't. She could just make out some of the aura's. The people were scared and sad, and even angry. As Ty Lee grew closer, she realized that many of them were soldiers. There were some women and children, all of whom looked sad, and many of whom were crying. Ty Lee looked around, confused. What was happening? A pit gnawed at her from inside. What else could be happening?

Ty Lee bumped into someone. She turned to apologize, then realized she recognized the old face. It was the lady that owned the show where Ty Lee bought her food.

"Oh, it's you! What's going on?"

The old lady wiped a tear from her eye, and cleared her throat. "I'm not too sure of it myself. Something happened with the Fire Lord. He's declared war against the Earth Nation."

Ty Lee looked around. War? Again? They had just finished with the longest war Ty Lee had ever heard of, and now they were going back? Why would Zuko declare war? He was irritable and rude sometimes, but Ty Lee knew that he was kind and gentle inside. For him to go to war… What happened?

Ty Lee felt the need to figure it out. Zuko was her friend too, after all. Maybe she could help him. She heard the cry of a young girl behind her.

"Why do they need Kuzo to go! They already have father, it's not fair!"

Ty Lee turned, and saw a young girl around eight years old. Crouched down next to her was a pretty but solemn woman who was stroking the young girls hair and hushing her. Next to them was a young teenage boy, and standing next to him was a slightly large soldier with thick black hair was someone she had just been thinking about a few minutes ago.

"Captain Kuzav?" She asked.

Kuzav turned, and attempted to smile. "Oh, it's you. Ty Lee was it?"

Ty Lee nodded.

"Sorry, but now's not a good time. The Fire Lord is drafting as many men as he can. There wasn't even this much demand for soldiers during the Great War…"

"I need your help. I need to go see Zuko, but I don't have any way to get there. Do you still have your ship?"

"Not the same one, but I own a smaller cruiser. I- I don't know if I can help you though. I can't ignore my draft."

"If you help, maybe there won't need to be a draft. I think if I talked to Zuko, maybe I can convince him to solve whatever problem there is another way. He's not like his father; I know he doesn't want another war."

Kuzav's family looked at her and their father. His wife nodded.

"Go Dad. If there's a chance then it's worth the risk." His son said. Ty Lee could hear the fear in his voice, and she almost wanted to take back her request. If she failed, and Kuzav was caught leaving his post, his family might never see him again. But if he and his son left to war, both of them might never return.

Kuzav knelt down and said goodbye to his daughter. Ty Lee gave them some space to say goodbye, and made a promise to herself to do everything she could to make sure that they would see him again. It was her request, which made it her responsibility.

Zuko, who was usually too timid to even fight, what happened to cause this?


Azula paused her training with Pakku. She'd been at the North for just over a month, and already Pakku had formally declared her a proficient waterbender, which Chief Arnook told her meant that he thought she was a prodigy. There was still much more she could learn however, and Pakku was an exceptional teacher, if a bit frustrating at times, so she decided to stay to learn more.

She hadn't stopped her training to think or take a break. Azula stopped because Iroh had interrupted them. He handed Pakku a letter, which he quickly skimmed over. His expression grew more and more grim as he read it.

"What is it?" Azula asked. Pakku turned and passed the rolled parchment to her. She unfurled it and read the words that were written on it. Her stomach dropped with each word. At the same time, she felt anger, guilt, and more than anything, she felt undeserving of those emotions. This was her fault, after all. She should have seen something like this coming. Iroh was supposed to have stayed, and if he did this likely wouldn't have happened. She should have told him and sent him back. She could have dealt with being on her own.

Azula forced herself to shut out the negative and useless thoughts. She handed the parchment back to Pakku.

"I hope you understand why I have to leave my training." She said.

Pakku nodded. "I wouldn't understand if you stayed. Your duty as Avatar comes first. Besides, you know enough that I can say with confidence that you are ready to train on your own."

She bowed, and he returned it, then she left with Iroh without another word. They would probably not be back for some time to come.

As they walked, Iroh asked her, "And Sokka?"

"He's staying. I agreed to let him help me while I was training. This is too dangerous for him."

They reached the palace, and Azula whistled loudly. A minute later, Zara landed with a crunch on the ice.

"We can get supplies on the way. Let's go now."