"You don't have to lie to us. The truth is evident," Savir said, his tones giving the impression that he was being permissive to even bother mentioning it. There was no real way to quantify how nervous Aang felt in that moment, as he blocked the path between the Ghorkalai and Appa, as though he were trying to hide the massive beast in his shadow. Toph and Zuko were close at hand, the latter looking somewhat sullied by whatever Irukandji was oozing when the spirit fell unconscious.
"It's not what it looks like..."
"It looks like an air bison with a saddle loosely tied to its back, that you've referred to by name. I fail to understand what I'm taking out of context," Savir said, his patience obviously beginning to run out. "That is an airbender's beast; they heed only airbenders."
"Yeah, but..." Aang said.
"You're right. Appa is mine," Malu cut in.
"Malu! Don't..."
"A Storm King yet living? Or should I say two?" Savir asked, very, very flatly. Aang sputtered, even as Zuko and Toph formed rank behind him, obviously looking ready to launch into attack against their benefactors if needs be. Zuko looked particularly begrudging, but for all that, no less ready.
"The Storm Kings are eight hundred years dead and you know it!" Malu contended.
"One 'Air Nomad', then," Savir said. He turned to Aang. "And I wonder what that makes you."
"I'm just a waterbender, honest!" he claimed.
"A waterbender who consults with firebenders on firebending forms. A waterbender who sneaks off with the lightning-bearer to train in secret. A waterbender who can bound as though the wind itself were carrying him. Yes. Waterbender," Savir said. The crowd behind him began to fall silent, even as the confused sound of two Tribesmen – and the annoyed sound of one Si Wongi – came over that silence. The rest of Team Avatar, as Sokka so eloquently put it, had gathered here, standing off against the people who had saved them from Azul's machinations.
"Look, we'll just go..." Aang said.
"Really? And what will you do when you go?" Savir asked. "Fly over the mountains, leave Azul behind? Flee with your tinker, flee to your army of rebels and partisans?"
"Hey! Leave Aang alone! He's done nothing to hurt you in all the time he's been here!" Sokka contended.
"Tribesman, please," Savir said, with a tone granting more respect to the words than he had toward Aang. "This is a matter of Ghorkalai, decided by Ghorkalai."
"Yeah, well... As goes Aang, so go the rest of us," Sokka declared. And there were unanimous nods from all present, save for the stern glare of Nila and the shaking face-palm of Azula to one side of the group.
"You command a great deal of loyalty and respect from your followers, your friends. Your family, kith and kin. You travel atop the beast of the airbenders. You waterbend to save a firebender's life, while the whole time learning her trade from her. You travel with a representative of every martial element, and with you, comes calamity. I know who you truly are, traveler."
Aang swallowed, as Savir stared down at him with very sharp, bright eyes.
"You are the Avatar," he declared. There was a ripple of hubbub from that declaration, that flowed back through the gathered nomads, until the words on all lips were 'Avatar, Avatar this, Avatar that'.
"You've made a mistake," Aang said.
"I've made no error. The signs are quite clear," he said, pointing at Aang's head. His eyes went wide, and he clapped his hands over his brow, only to find that he was, in fact, still wearing his headband.
Only now, he showed the blue arrows on the backs of his hands.
"He's made no trouble. He's even helped you," Zuko said, tones tight. "Extend the privilege of separation, and we'll be on our way."
"You ask properly for privilege, young Prince," Savir said. "And yes, it was obvious who you were, too. There are not so many Zuko's in the Fire Nation that you could vanish amongst them. But while you do ask properly of privilege, and of one which would demand that we allow you leave with the same peace that you've given us in your stay, I'm afraid that the privilege isn't available at this moment. There is more at stake by far. If there is dishonor to our traditions, I will gladly bear it."
"You have to know that what you're about to do is wrong," Katara said.
"What is wrong, but a difference of opinion?" Savir asked. He looked to the old, hard looking woman who for some reason had a mattock still hanging from a loop on her back. The woman gave a brief nod. Then, all turned toward Aang, silence reigning once more. "We cannot allow you to leave. Not now."
"You'll have to stop us," Toph warned, her fists clenching, and the stone beginning to rumble ominously underfoot. It was obvious that she was going to have to attack wildly, because with those boots on, she wouldn't be 'seeing' very well.
"Toph, no! I don't want to hurt anyone!" Aang stressed, trying to placate this situation before it turned into something that nobody would be able to stop, to recover from. Before something irreversible happened.
"Tell me this one thing, Avatar," Savir said. Flames began to kindle above Zuko's fists, in preparation for what was to come. Katara just looked too weak by a half to fight. Sokka's hand was on Space Sword. Nila's was on her gun. Savir took a few steps away from the mob, until he was no more than two yards away. He looked at them, all in turn. His gaze sweeping across the group before him, perhaps finding it lacking. He settled his gaze on Aang only at the end. He took a deep breath.
Then fell straight to his knees.
"Can. You. Save. Us?" he asked, his voice almost breaking.
Aang blinked, so ready for carnage and melee that the sudden end of the threat left him somewhat off balance. Everybody else seemed likewise confused and confounded. And every bit as put off balance. "F... save you from what?" Aang asked.
"You must see it. How could you not?" Savir asked, his arms spreading wide, to the grey in the sky and the white drifting toward the ground. "The eldest of our shamans warned us of such times, that if the world has gone mad, it is only the prelude to the world dying. Can. You. Save. Us?"
"I'm trying," Aang said, his voice wavering. Savir looked so... so desperate. The crowd behind him was as still and silent as a tomb, with only the whispers of the breeze, the snapping of fires trying to push back the cold intruding onto that silence. Appa obviously found that silence objectionable, and let out a plaintive bellow. "I swear. I'm trying everything I can. But... I don't now if I can. Imbalance is just so different from anything anybody's ever faced, ever fought. I don't know if I can destroy it. But I'm going to try, that I swear. This world is not going to die quietly, and it will not die gently."
Savir nodded. "If that is the case, then the Ghorkalai will serve as your spear and your shield. And if needs be, your kukri in the dark," he said. The silence broke then, as the people began to voice affirmations. Hundreds of people, desperate, all, looking to him for a future. And he wasn't sure if he could give them one. But he had to try. "What can we do?"
Aang stared at them for a moment. Then, he looked at them. A glance back to Zuko. His brow rose, like he was getting an idea. "Aang. They know the land better than any network of spies ever could. We won't need the Seamstress..."
Aang nodded, and turned to Savir. "Please, stand up," he said. Savir did so quickly. "We need to stop the World War before the end of summer. If we don't, then the world dies then. And even if we do, that just buys us weeks at most. After that... we have to find a way to fight the unfightable."
"As the Ghurkas always have," Savir said, solemn and stolid. His eyes were as cold as the sky.
And they were probably the best shot that anybody had, at this point.
If only he had more time...
Chapter 13
The Assassins
People were digging in within the city of Grand Ember. The tripoint flame had been torn from the banner rods and lay limp in the streets, and in its place, loose sheets of melancholy blue, waving in the wind that drove either wet rain or snow, depending on what time of day it was, along the rooftops of the thousands living there. It was the greater, the broader, the more cosmopolitan of the twin cities of Greater Ember Island, and by far the older. Fire Fountain City looked across the straight to Shinzo, the mainland. Grand Ember, though, looked out onto the archipelago which shared the name. And at the moment, that name was anything but Fire Nation.
"What was that you said, about popular rebellions?" Jet asked, entirely too sweetly. Mai just glared at him. He scratched at his faintly stubbled chin. "Something about 'doomed to be inevitably stamped out as soon as somebody starts paying attention to it'? Because that's the weirdest thing; I could have sworn that the Blue Turbans just won an honest to the gods fight against Zhao's army."
"Laugh it up," Mai said darkly, which was to say she said it in her usual tone.
"I also remember something about 'any rebellion that succeeded being funded by somebody rich'?"
"Hah. Hah."
Jet let out a guffaw, watching how the horde that moved through the streets, unified only in the blue turban upon their collective heads, split and flowed as water escaping through wet sand. Despite being very clear that people were coming and leaving that swarm as it progressed through the town, hunting down those who would not throw down arms and standards, the size of the swarm remained roughly the same. And some of the people joining that swarm did so by coming straight out of houses or shops. Butchers, shouting in anger, waving their knives. Fishermen thumping gaffs to the streets, punctuating a strange sort of music that they made, moving through the oldest remaining city in the Fire Nation.
"Has there been any word from the Avatar and the others?" Jet asked, his jocularity fading swiftly, so that he gave the question the solemnity it was due.
"No. Azul must have them by now," she said.
"Hey, don't think like that," Jet said, taking her hand and pulling her a bit closer to him. "If you expect the worst, then the universe has a weird way of meeting your expectations."
"I never took you for an optimist," she lied.
"Of course you did," not rising to her bait. He looked out to sea, and strained his eyes at the coming of a ship into the harbor. That they'd gotten in unhassled was strange. There were a great many naval men amongst this ever-swelling rebellion, and fishermen knew exactly how to board a boat, in a way that would have put Embiar marines to shame, if the Embiar hadn't made such a frequent practice of just hiring fishermen for soldiers. "But that's something that requires a bit of attention."
All told, this was something that was beyond Mai's comprehension. Everything she'd ever known about history, about populist rebellion, said that this should have been ground into ashes weeks ago. And yet it was only gaining strength. The Army had mobilized fully against their rabble, but the rabble had won the day. It beggared the imagination. But at the same time, Mai was home, in the Fire Nation, and it was snowing. She'd just about given up on the universe making any kind of logical sense. She followed behind Jet, moving through the mostly abandoned streets, walking on what blue banners weren't caught by the wind and thus pooled on the ground, a cascade frozen in the snow. The path was swift, as Grand Ember had been well planned out.
Pity almost half of the old city was under the water in the port, now.
The two of them reached the great wharf just as lines were being cast out, pulling the black-iron steamer to a point where its gangplank could be laid to the jetty. There were no few Blue Turbans waiting with Mai and Jet, and from the looks of them, they were still ready for trouble. But the mutterings that spoke to concern and readiness almost burst when the first man stood at the top of the gangway, and looked down on those below.
"Chit-Sang? Is that you?" one of the Blue Turbans who was close enough to see with certainty mentioned. The very large, bulky man gave a nod, then waved behind him. Others wearing the rough red jerkins of prisoners of the state began to file out behind him. The first were middle aged, mostly, and looked to have become prematurely grayed by their experiences. The next swarm out were... well, they were Water Tribesmen.
"Of course it is. I heard that you were a bit annoyed at the Fire Lord. Thought I could help," he said.
"You know this guy?" Jet asked the one who recognized him.
"Sure I do! That guy used to give me half of my business!" he said.
"What was he? An arms dealer?"
"Traveling soap salesman," Chit-Sang answered, moving toward Jet and Mai. He looked the two of them up and down, a hard eyed look for a hard faced man. "So you'd be 'the last Loyo Lah'. What does that make you?"
"Interested in her well being," Jet said.
"Chit-Sang, stop bothering the locals," a woman said, coming down between knots of Tribesmen. She looked quite different than the others, in that she was auburn-haired where she wasn't grey, and her eyes were a smoky blue-green. And there was a seeming miniature version of her, teenaged and rough clothed, right behind her. "You would be Mai? Good. I am the Matriach of Kyoshi Island. My daughter, Suki," the girl nodded. The older woman cracked a smirk. "We're here to join your rebellion."
"Well, there's plenty of room, these days," one of the Blue Turbans said with a guffaw of his own.
"Well, your presence is a help, but... who are all the Tribesmen?" Mai asked.
"Oh, I think I know," Jet said, his eyes hard. "They were the kids stolen from the South Water Tribe. Katara mentioned 'em."
"I'd tell them not to join the fight with us, but I think I know them a bit better than that by now," Suki said with a roll of her shoulders.
"But there's somebody that I think you're going to want to meet personally," her mother said. Mai's brow drew down.
"Who could that possibly be?" she asked. The crowd of older prisoners ebbed once more, and at that point, Mai saw him. Her eyes went wide, her jaw dropped. "...Uncle?"
She'd only met him a few times in her childhood, and always thought him a boring, humorless man. The intervening years hadn't done much to improve her own humor, and nostalgia took care of the rest. Neither was he attractive even now, since he looked like a man who... well... spent the last half-decade in prison. He stared at her, though, with eyes so much like her own. There didn't seem to be words. None to say what either was feeling. Mai pushed through the line of Blue Turbans, only to be arrested for a moment by Jet's hand. She looked back at him, and he had a subdued, distant smile on his face. He gave her hand one last squeeze, before letting her go on. She knew what he was feeling right now. Something like an envy he wouldn't want to feel. Because he would never get this chance.
"Mai..." her uncle said, his mouth working as though he were trying to find the words that she couldn't. "...you've gotten so big."
Mai wished she wasn't going to snivel, and if anybody ever asked her about it later, she would outright lie. But she couldn't deny that she was weeping when she crashed into his chest, and the last member of the House of Loyo Lah besides her self held her close. And if anybody asked him, if he cried? He wouldn't lie, because it was clear to any present.
They were family, and after so long and the tides of impossibility itself, they were together again.
A Week Later
"Is... she ever going to wake up?" Katara asked, eyeing the woman who, despite her best efforts, still looked like a woman who fell down a mountain and hit every rock on the way down. Considering that Katara's best efforts were, if she wasn't too proud to say so, very good, it was telling just how degraded the body had become. She was practically unrecognizable. Only because Aang had told her – under the proviso that she not inform Zuko or Azula – who this was that Katara knew that this was Irukandji and its Host.
"I have to believe that she will," Aang said. "At least she's not... oozing... anymore."
Katara nodded, looking out toward the edge of the wandering encampment, where lightning was regularly launching out across the snow-covered ground. It was strange, that the day dawned with the clouds far enough apart that the sun could be seen, only to have it reflecting off of snow, here in the Fire Nation. If nothing else, it meant that Katara would never lack for ammunition, but like everybody else, she was more than a bit disturbed by it. "If Azula finds out who she is, she's probably going to try to kill her," Katara said.
"No, she won't," Aang pressured. "She's... well, she's just got a lot on her mind."
"Teaching these people how to throw lightning bolts. You know, if they hadn't gotten on their knees and begged you to help them, I wouldn't think we could trust them."
Aang nodded, his gaze distant – and to Katara's dismay, directed toward that lightning-kissed field – as he pondered. Finally, he turned to her. "This, all of this? This is what I've been saying for the longest time. The only way that we can save the world is if all Nations are working together. I've already got the Air Nomads on my side..."
"All two of them," Katara said with a nod.
"...and if Azula's right, then your father is going to be on his way with the Earth Kingdom's army soon. And now... now we have the Fire Nation working with us. I just wish I knew how to..." he shook his head, letting it fall into his hands. "It just feels like we're trying to swim against the tide. Even if we beat Zhao, stop the war before Sozin's Comet comes back, what then?"
"Then, you'll dust yourself off, pick yourself up, and come up with a way to save the world," Katara said confidently. "I know you have it in you. You always have. You just need to let yourself see it."
Aang smiled a bit, a tired smile, at her. "Thanks. If nothing else, you never let me wallow."
"Of course not," Katara said with a smirk. "What else is a big sister for?"
Aang chuckled at that, and got to his feet. "I've got a feeling that I should probably be out there, trying to figure out how to throw lightning bolts."
"I thought Zuko was teaching you how to do that," Katara said.
"Yeah, but..." he looked away guiltily. Katara sighed and shook her head.
"Just go," she said. It was much like Zuko had told her; Katara was as much as Aang's sister, but she was not his owner. And if he wanted to make a monumentally stupid move like romantically pursuing the firebender who'd invested no small amount of time in his attempted murder, that was his move to make. No matter how obviously terrible it was. Aang grinned and bounded away.
Katara moved back through the camp itself, but she found she kept rubbing at the scar on her neck. If Aang hadn't been the Avatar, she'd have died on the carpet of Azul's palace. Some days, it was hard to think that the boy barely into his teens who bounded with utmost glee toward the source of so many lightning-strikes was also the only power in this world who could prevent its utter annihilation. She was distracted, at least, by the appearance of the other airbender, who seemed to be in the process of teasing her older brother's girlfriend.
"I'm just saying, that if he's a bit too much to handle, there's a lot of things you can do to distract his attention," Malu said.
"Go die in a hole," Nila said, as she tried to rasp out the barrel of her firearm without interruption. "I did not ask for your opinion, and would not have answered your question had not..." she then looked up, and saw Katara. "...never mind."
"What did he do?" Katara asked.
"What didn't he!" Malu said with a licentious grin.
"The airbender is being perverted. It is nothing of the kind," Nila said, annoyed... as usual. With a shake of her head, she rose to her feet. "Perhaps in the insane presence of Sato I will find a relative peace."
"Aw, we were bonding!" Malu said brightly.
"Die. In. A. Hole."
Nila then stalked away with all of the grace and elegance of an enraged cat. Katara could only shake her head. "Why do you do that to her?"
"Because she needs somebody to get her to loosen up," Malu said. "Your brother can't shoulder that entire burden on his own. So what's up?"
"Clouds, usually," Katara answered. "Why?"
"I... Never mind. It's an Air Nomad thing. What's going on in the camp?"
"Aang's infatuated with the girl who wanted to kill him a few months ago. Zuko's brooding. Toph is picking fights with people twice her size and three times her age. Business as usual," she related.
"Gods, I hope not. Business as usual had something big and evil inside me. I like the non-status-quo, thank you very much," Malu said. She did shrug. "But if there's one thing, at least we're a step ahead of where we were when we went into that awful city. Sato and the Ghurkas? What are the chances?"
"They're not Ghurkas, they're Ghorkalai," Katara corrected.
"Where do you think the Ghurkas come from, Katara?" Malu asked, idly thunking her on the head, until Katara swatted the hand away. "They were famous even in my day. There was the old saying 'if a man tells you that he doesn't fear death, he's either lying or a Ghurka', and I figure they were that way since the fall of the Storm Kings."
"It's like all of the furthest bits of history are coming back, all around us," Katara said. "It's a weird feeling."
"Weird bad, or weird good?"
"Just... weird," Katara said. She shook her head. "You know something, I'm kind of impressed by you, Malu."
"Really?" the airbender asked.
"Yeah," Katara admitted. "You were dropped into a world that you didn't know, tried to do the right thing, and when that turned out to be wrong, you did everything in your power to make it right. I can't imagine what I'd do in your position."
"Oh, you'd be fine," Malu said. "Mostly because you're not a shaman so you'd not get Hosted and have Big Evil inside you."
"That's a good point," Katara said. The two of them passed Toph, who was looking sullen and annoyed – once again, business as usual, these days. "Hey, Toph. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Don't mother me! I've already got one!" Toph said, obviously upset about something. Katara gave a glance to Malu, who likewise noticed the obvious, as Toph stomped away in her boots.
"Should we talk to her?" Malu asked.
"Probably... but when she's calmed down a bit," Katara agreed. After all, she'd learned that there was nothing that pushed Toph's buttons more then demanding something that she didn't want to give, even if it was obvious to anybody that she'd be better off if she just... Katara took an internal breath, and cut herself off before she became truly patriarchal. "So. You don't trust Azula either, do you?"
"The firebender? She scares me a bit. I can see why you're glad to have her on your side."
"Glad? Me?" Katara asked. Malu offered a laugh at that, and the two continued through the 'town' that had pegged in for the day, before they shook off yesterday's storm and continued on the path. But they didn't pass unnoticed.
Miles away, on the berm that supported the tracks that even now lay bare and uncovered despite the inches of snow on the ground, a man with a red-painted face stared through a lens, into the heart of that colorful settlement. "Yeah... that's the Avatar," he said quietly. He looked back to those who were waiting for confirmation, and for opportunity. One, a mountain of a man, who was by his own mistakes missing an arm and leg. The impressive firebending technique he'd developed had, in the former Yu Yan's opinion, more than made the sacrifice worth it. Another was a slip of a woman, golden eyed and scarred faced. There were more scars on her than on the Yu Yan's entire squad. And the way she twirled the knives in her fingers told that she'd not gotten those scars by negligence or carelessness. The last was an Easterner, dusky skinned and shaven headed, who bore a firearm upon his back. It had a mouth that widened into a bore thick enough to stick both thumbs into, a weapon to spread carnage far and wide at a single strike of match to blasting-jelly.
The former Yu Yan rubbed at his chin, and the narrow beard that clung to it. This could go very wrong, very fast, if they didn't do this smart. He himself was a firebender, as was the silent giant with the burning eye tattooed upon his brow. The Easterner claimed to be a 'sandbender', for whatever good that would do them all here. At least the firearm was impressive. But they were in the midst of hundreds of damned Yubokamin.
"We've got to time this proper," he said, to the others. "Get them away from the Gorks. Don't let any run. I want the whole bounty, savvy?"
There were silent nods from all the others, but the silence was not a usual state. Usually, the assassin would be muttering darkly on something or other, while the Easterner made frequent and unsubstantiated claims of his greater skill and prowess with his weaponry compared to the once-member of the Yu Yan Archers – utterly ridiculous, it had to be said. He was glad for the silence, at the moment. Because soon, there would be a lot of noise, and a lot of fire. He flicked his head into a nod, and the assassins began to move, hitching up white cloaks that the woman somehow had the forethought to bring, and vanishing against the snow.
The lighting tore away from Azula's finger. A second later, it tore away from Koinahim's as well, which left Azula standing, somewhat stunned. Mostly, because a second after that, the older woman managed a launch one of her own. Some were still stymied, but that two had learned after only an hour of training – at a technique which had taken Azula months to perfect – was either disquieting, or very very useful. "Well. You seem to be grasping the basics of it more quickly than I had feared," Azula said, still not really up to giving an unqualified compliment. That would come with time, she figured.
It was still so strange being a 'good guy'.
"It's... remarkable," the young Ghurka in all but title said, staring at the smoke that wafted off of his finger, and at the path of melted snow that tracked under where his bolt had flown. "There's so much power there. More than I thought possible."
"You see why I said you were 'keeping up' with me," Azula said. "That is an ability which can turn a conflict in an instant. Unlike flames, which are themselves invaluable for offense in any form, they can be warded. There is only one technique which can protect you from lightning without the power of the Avatar behind it, and trust me, that bastard Zhao doesn't know about it."
"What is this technique?" Phu asked, still waving his hands from how they constantly burst and popped from his failed attempts.
"I'll show it to you later, once you've mastered creating lightning," Azula said. Now this was strange as well. The last person she trained how to firebend was Chiyo. And she'd done so with such a begrudging manner to her that it was like pulling teeth to get her to practice... at first, anyway. These people jumped in with both feet.
"Azula! Are you still teaching the lighting-throwing-thing?" Aang's voice broke her concentration, and turned her away from her pupils.
"If you're going to learn the style, could you at least call it by its proper name?" Azula said, palming her face. Zuko, standing off to one side, looked unforgivably smug about it all. Aang seemed to trip over himself – not literally but figuratively – and came to a halt.
"Oh, right," he said. He then bowed with an old-fashioned Fire Nation salute. "I would be honored if you would teach me the secrets of lightningbending, Sifu Hotman."
"Sifu what?" Koinahim asked. Azula had to scoff.
"Just... ignore him," Azula said, eyes firmly at a roll. She turned to the Avatar. "The last time you tried this, you ended up blasting yourself into somebody's wagon. While she was bathing."
"I said I was sorry," Aang said, his eyes to the floor.
"And the time before that, you blasted yourself so frequently that when you limped back into camp, a walking bruise, your waterbender accused me of torturing you," Azula continued.
"I told her what happened! It's not my fault she didn't believe the truth," Aang said, defensive.
"And the time before that, when you actually fell off of the Western Air Temple, and would have died if you didn't have that ridiculous glider so often close to hand," Azula continued, to the growing sniggering from the other students.
"But I'm... better now," Aang claimed, blushing furiously. Azula gave a world-weary sigh. He wasn't going to be turned away, that much was obvious. And to be frank, he could use some firepower in his arsenal.
"Very well," she said, singsong of tone. "But if you return to camp looking like a tortured prisoner, it will be on your own head, with these people as my witness," she said, a hand waving to the Yubokamin who had learned the technique with such stunning swiftness.
"We'll leave you to your trouble student," Phu said with a roll of his eyes. She shot a glare at him, because he was making an implication, but she could as much call him on it as freeze the sun in the sky long enough to melt this damned snow. Still, the protectors of the mobile town gave her respectful bows and turned back toward their home.
"It must be nice to be teaching again," Aang offered.
"Again? The only time I ever taught somebody in my life – before you – was my child. I'm not a teacher. I never was," she said, her teeth grit. But in response to that, Aang opened a hand, and floated a globe of golden fire above its palm.
"I wouldn't say that," Aang said. "Because of you, I've learned more about firebending in the last month than I had in the half-year before that."
She gave a shrug. "You're not wrong," she admitted. After all, she had heard how this twerp knocked three adult criminals on their respective asses in a matter of seconds, back in the city. Certainly not what she would have expected from him, last time. "Fine. Let's try it again from the top."
"I'd be a bit more cautious, Zuli," Zuko said from his place to one side, where he'd been silently watching the whole affair. Aang flinched a bit, no doubt wondering if he was always that sneaky. Azula knew for a fact that he was. "Lightning can be tricky, dangerous, and painful."
"If he hasn't learned that by now, he'll need a new brain, as well as another teacher," Azula pointed out. "And don't call me Zuli."
Zuko just chuckled richly at that, before coming up, and taking a place beside her. "Fair enough. Aang, horse stance."
"Aaaaw," Aang muttered, before slowly lowering himself into what was widely held as the least pleasant stance for firebending. Mostly because it was... but Azula didn't feel like informing the Avatar of just how useless the next few decades would prove the training regimen to be. If he wanted to learn her form of firebending, he was going to have to earn it.
Nila barely kept her balance after the blind one walked into her. She tutted, and looked down to the monumentally annoyed earthbender. "I suppose I ought say 'watch where you are going', however it would be a pointless exercise," she noted with a smirk.
"Say that again! I'll punch your kidneys out!" Toph snapped, pointing to Nila's right. The Si Wongi just chuckled at her outburst.
"You are not faring well with the cold, I suppose," Nila said.
"Boots suck. Snow sucks. EVERYTHING SUCKS!" Toph exclaimed.
"I have some sympathy for you. Snow is indeed a terrible affliction that I would not wish upon anybody, and the way it travels down into footware is a damnation from the most high," she admitted. She looked around. "Where are you going?"
"Around. Somewhere where I don't have to be beset by... old women, cooing over me."
"How terrible," Nila said.
"I know!" Toph agreed. "Just 'cause I'm blind doesn't mean you're allowed to pinch my cheeks and... URGH!"
While Nila had a strongly developed sense of schadenfreude, she had learned over the last few months exactly how far she could afford to push it, especially as it came to the earthbender before her. "Come. We shall depart this gaggle of ninnies and vagabonds. The country shall, if nothing else, be quieter," Nila said.
"Finally. First worthwhile offer I've heard all damned day!" Toph said, trying to trudge after Nila but constantly having to adjust her path. The boots she was wearing truly did seem to hamper her vision. Nila had a thought.
"Earthbender, remain here for a moment. I need to collect something."
"Stay here? What do I look like? A pet?" Toph asked, crossing her arms angrily before her. Nila, though, didn't feel like responding. Instead, she kipped through the crowd, to the wagon that was being offered to her for the time being to live in. Sokka was sitting on the step, taking a whet-stone to a boomerang which had obviously been dulled by time and ill-maintanence.
"Hey! I was wondering where you'd gone... what are you looking for?" Sokka said, having to switch tracks as Nila instantly plunged past him into the interior of the wagon.
"Something... ah!" she said, pulling the barrel that she'd filed into obsolescence in an attempt to perfect its rifling. She held it before her, and Sokka just got a confused look on his face.
"You... want me to sharpen your gun?" he asked.
"No, you sweet fool. I need this for reasons that will take longer to explain than to undertake," Nila said, wrapping the top of the metal tube in thin wool.
"Alright, I guess. But why do I have the sneaking suspicion that this is going to end in bluh..." she decided to cut off Sokka the most enjoyable way she knew how, by pulling him into a breath-stealing kiss that left him waving on his feet when she pulled away primly and began to walk away. "...alright, my fears are assuaged."
Nila had a small smile on her face as she returned to the earthbender who, despite her protestations, had remained where Nila bade. "Earthbender! Take this," she said.
"Take what?" Toph asked. Nila rolled her eyes and pulled one hand from a protective armpit and slapped the metal into her palm. She hissed and dropped it, causing Nila to have to pick it back up. "Damn that's cold! What is it?"
"A metal tube," Nila said.
"And what am I supposed to do with it?" Toph asked, managing to produce the most skeptical of faces despite obviously never having seen one to emulate.
"Prod the ground," Nila said helpfully. Toph gave her a scowl, but took the cold metal to hand and thumped it into the ground next to her boot. She then froze stock still. She thumped it again, and blind eyes widened, mouth slowly sliding agape.
"...Nila, you're a genius."
"Of course I am," Nila said.
"I CAN SEE! KINDA!" Toph exclaimed.
"I only regret the epiphany had not come earlier," Nila said.
"You and me both, lady," Toph said, beginning to pick her way forward with the four foot tube marking her path. Honestly, that was too much barrel to begin with. Three and a half was more than sufficient. "Man, this feels so much better; I can see that rock I was going to trip on."
"To the wild, then," Nila said, moving with her rifle wrapped upon her back, the extra barrels weighing her down a touch more. "I feel you would be better company than the airbender today."
"Why? She getting annoying?"
"Getting?" Nila asked. Toph gave a belly laugh at that. If there was one thing that Nila appreciated about this earthbender, it was that she never misconstrued Nila's humor. "No, simply being unforgivably perverted. Let her get that out of her system with the Tribesman."
"I thought you wouldn't want her around Brain?" Toph asked.
"The other Tribesman," Nila corrected. She paused, as the two were walking into the white hills that struggled to return the grasses to the fore, trying to melt away in the temperatures which remained close to, but above, the freezing point. The smoking from the volcanoes to the north and east vanished into the grey of the cloud-cover. Her gaze grew more critical, though. For just a moment, she thought she saw something. Something... Well, something that sent her instincts into high-gear. But whatever it was, her sweep of eyes didn't reveal it. Just mounds of snow, pressing on to the horizon, or else vanishing up into the mountains.
And so, she walked with the earthbender. If nothing else, Beifong was good company.
"...which confuses me. It's almost like your brother doesn't have any sense of shame!" Malu said.
"About what? Being naked? Why would he?" Katara asked.
"Because... people tend to?" she asked.
"Not if you're a South Water Tribesman," Katara said. She shrugged. "While Dad always said that people had their own rooms, and didn't all sleep together in one bed to not freeze to death, up in the north, I can't say I believed it until I reached Kyoshi Island."
"You Tribesmen are sure weird," Malu said with a shake of her head.
"You're the ones who are ashamed of their own bodies," Katara said with a patronizing smile, mostly because of the reaction it got from the airbender. She burst into laughter. "You're not wrong, though; Sokka is a goon, who goes half-dressed a lot more often than he should."
Malu just shook her head, possibly at the insanity inherent to Water Tribesmen. Katara couldn't say with certainty. The two of them continued for a moment without words, listening to the Ghorkalai as they packed everything in, and prepared to depart from where they'd hunkered down. She could see some who weren't of the local stripe, standing aloof from the preparations. Mostly because they didn't have anything to prepare. The other waterbender shot her an easy grin, turning to face the two ladies who approached. "Well, if I'd known such beauty approached, I would have fixed myself up a bit."
The Azuli woman just shook her head, face in palm. "Oh, you're too kind," Malu said, blushing a bit. Possibly because she was the kind of girl who had been too focused to be... well, a girl. Back before the whole running for her life thing.
"Kori, you're a pig," Maya said. "Please tell me that he's not representative of your race."
"No. Thank the gods," Katara said. Kori nevertheless laughed at that.
"I fear that we're going to be taking a different path than you, sweetheart," he said, addressing Malu. "I hope you won't miss me too much?"
"Kori, I swear to Agni..." Maya began.
"Oh hush, people will start to think we're an old married couple," Kori said.
"I should certainly think not," Maya said.
"What? Where are you two going?" Malu asked.
Maya looked to her, then glanced down at the slush around her boots. "For the first time in my life, I don't need to keep looking over my shoulder for my father to be there. I'm free. And I don't know what I want to do."
"While I would so desperately love to come join you in your suicide mission, I'm sure you've got everything well-at-hand," Kori said smoothly. He then paused, and turned to Katara. "Well, except about your sister. Sorry about that."
"Sorry about what?"
"Oh, she's gone nuts," Kori summarized in the most brutal way possible. "Downright ugly, as I hear it. On the plus side, she didn't get press-ganged into working for Zhao; she would have just thrown a lightning bolt down his throat, which would have gotten her killed, and that would have been terrible."
"Wh... where is she?" Katara asked. Kori only shrugged.
"Sorry. Wherever she went, she didn't tell anybody. Probably for everybody's sake. Can't track a spy if you don't know where that spy is going, if you catch my drift," he said.
Katara breathed deep. "I'm going to have to find her," Katara said. She locked bright blue eyes on to the dark blue of the waterbender turned Fire National. "Where would she go? You know her better than just about anybody else. Or at least I'm pretty sure you would, since you thought she was your sister for a decade."
Kori sighed, and rubbed his face, for the first time no longer looking smug and distanced. He leaned, and stared down through the ground, before turning back to her. "Well... If I know Yoji – yes, Hikaoh, whatever – then she's probably clinging to something that she holds dear. And that counts to three; firebending, the Children, and the Fire Lord. The middle's out of her reach right now. The former is pretty much a part of her... so I'd say she'd be looking for the latter."
"Hikaoh is trying to what? Save the Fire Lord?"
"Sounds kinda crazy, doesn't it?" Kori asked. He nodded, though. "And crazy though it sounds, it's probably what's happening. If you find Ozai, you'll probably find your sister."
"Why don't you help her?" Malu asked. "Y...Hikaoh trusts you."
Kori shook his head. "Yeah but... enough to turn her back on her own identity? I don't think she trusts anybody that much. Not since Omo got dead."
"You can still try," Malu said.
Kori only shrugged. Katara was about to say something, but the hubbub took a turn, the tone turning from one of jovial industry, to one of alarm. The people began to mill closer to their wagons, leaving gaps in between for men and women in their prime to move through, taking mattocks to back and pushing toward the edges. "What's going on?" Katara asked.
"Fire on the eastern horizon. That's Ohu-clan's territory," a strapping, unshaven man said, as he pulled the weapon/tool of choice from the wagon that the teenagers had congregated around. "It's not just the wildlife that can get nasty out here."
"You think somebody attacked your neighbors?" Katara asked.
"Seems like. That's a lot of smoke," he said. Katara looked where he was looking, and could only see a faintly darker grey smudge rising above the level of the wagons and the distance beyond them. They had eyes like fire-falcons, these Yubokamin did.
"Should we help?" Katara asked. He instantly gave a warding motion.
"Stay here; I can't reproach y'skills from your war, but this is Azul, and it breeds a cruel kind to live in a cruel land."
"He's got a point. Anybody who can survive Azul can survive literally anywhere," Kori pointed out. Maya nodded knowingly at that. And neither one looked like they had any intention of heading out.
"Well, I'm not stuck on the ground. If nothing else, I can help you spot the bad-guys!" Malu offered. The man looked concerned for a moment, then sighed and nodded. He thrust a finger toward her, though.
"I don't to see one foot of yours on the ground, though. Danger enough in the skies of Azul that I don't need you fallin' to the ground of it," he declared. Malu grinned, and half-pelted away, before stopping herself.
"Um... Tell everybody not to be worried about me, alright?" she asked.
"Why would they be?" Katara asked. Malu smiled, and gave Katara a brief, if warm, hug, before she bolted off through the gaps in the crowd to where Appa was probably still sitting in its rut of snow. Katara had a feeling that she'd probably be healing people back from the brink again today, instead of sending people there with her element. Strange, when she left the South Pole, she just wanted to fight the Fire Nation, with everything that she had. Since then, she'd... matured, maybe. It had to be that, otherwise she'd never have been able to understand that she was now using her waterbending to heal Fire Nationals, and felt good for doing it.
"Are they falling for it?" the woman asked, her voice somewhat raspy. Not surprising considering there were two scars across her throat where somebody tried to give her a second – and third – smile. The former Yu Yan put the lens to his eye, sweeping it from where the two Easterners, of whom one had scared away fully half the other bounty hunters, to the Gorks that moved swiftly through the snow toward the bonfire that they'd set well out of sight. They'd piled it high with rope and pitch, giving it the oily, black smoke that one would expect of burning, say, a wagon.
"They aren't going with them," the former Yu Yan noted. The targets were staying with the town on wheels. That complicated things. But all of the warriors worth the name were out. While a Gork non-combatant was a combatant anywhere else, they'd be too busy protecting the important things – kin and livings – to fight back when they struck. And, after all, the targets weren't Gorks. "We'll adapt."
"I should think you would," the woman said, flatly. There was a scowl pulling at the brutal scar that extended the edges of her mouth half-way to her ears in an 'Azuli Grin'. "What about that Wonk's trap?"
The former Yu Yan pondered a moment, then shook his head. "No reason to get the Gorks after us. Cancel, and reset. He can pick off the other Easterners, instead," the former Yu Yan decided. She nodded, and started to send flashes of light via mirror to where the outlander was waiting. This wouldn't fall apart, not on his watch. All he had to do was decide when to strike.
That hulking, one armed and one legged mute would make up much of the difference once he did.
She was honestly getting tired by the time that Aang picked himself off the ground for what had to be the fiftieth time. With a groan and a shake of her head, she wondered what she'd done in a past life to deserve this sort of punishment. The answer was obvious. "No, no no!" Azula said. "If you keep doing that, you'll blow your own finger off before you get lightning to come out of it."
"I don't get what I'm doing wrong," Aang said, as he began to make the motions again. Azula grabbed his hands and held them still, a stern shake of her head to his face.
"Stop. Just... stop. Whatever it is that's keeping you from casting lightning isn't going to get solved today. I'm exhausted, physically and mentally. We can try this... some other time."
"Oh. Okay," Aang said. He blinked a few times. "You can let go of my hands now."
Azula did as though they were magma, growling under her breath. In the amount of time that it took the Avatar to fail lightningbending, one of the nearby children managed to figure it out. She was seriously beginning to wonder how she ever lost to him. Or worse, got killed by him. Then again... that was a different man, and a different time. She palmed her face, and looked out across the snow. "The only thing I can hope for at this point is that you don't need to throw lightning to save the world. Because if you have to, we're all doomed," Azula said.
"I'm learning. It's just kinda hard," Aang said rubbing fingers which were raw from all the explosions which had buffetted them.
"Hard is learning how to heal with firebending so your daughter doesn't have to suffer with a broken leg. Hard is learning how to see with firebending so you can escape from a collapsed mountain that the Avatar accidentally dropped on you. This," she motioned to a finger which she pulled crackling power into, "isn't hard."
Aang stared at it for a moment. "You can heal with firebending?"
"Not the point," Azula said. She let out a growl. "If you weren't progressing with your other techniques, I'd just say to hell with it and let Zuzu teach you."
"Where is he, anyway?" Aang asked.
"He left to do something more productive. Planning. Plotting. Possibly scheming," Azula said. Aang hung his head again.
"You're mad that we still haven't come up with a plan, aren't you?"
"I'm not angry, I'm just frustrated," Azula admitted. And wondered why she admitted it. This would have been a perfect opportunity to needle him with a lie. With an internal shake of her internal head, she looked to the mountains. "There is an army that's going to land on these shores very soon, and when they do, they'll be at the mercy of that smug jackass, without any way to reach Caldera City before they run out of food. In a blizzard, apparently, because the universe now seems to be openly mocking us."
"We'll figure something out," Aang said, giving her hand a squeeze, before she pulled it away with a 'what the hell are you doing?' expression that slid right off of him. The two of them then turned, only to find the village a bit further away than they remembered. "Huh. Guess they've started moving."
"Do you always voice the obvious?"
"Somebody has to," Aang said brightly. Azula just shook her head.
She puffed out a breath, and started walking toward the wagons which hadn't started shifting out on the road, perpendicular to the odd smudge of smoke on one horizon. "I do have a thought, though," Azula said. Aang turned to her. "Your spirits. Agni explicitly said that she wanted you to save her. I'm guessing that your moon and sea spirits would fight at your side..."
"If we had them..." Aang said morosely.
"Please. I've met Yue... in another lifetime, but still. If anybody was going to save a manifested god, it would be her," Azula said. Complimenting a Water Tribesman? What the hell was going on with her today? She paused in her stride for a moment, but shook her head and continued on. "So between those two, I believe you'll have the start of an army to deploy against Imbalance just as we deploy one against Zhao."
"I don't think that's going to work," Aang said. He shrugged. "It'd just eat them."
"Eat the sun? I don't think so," Azula said. Aang raised a finger, to make a point, but his eyes went wide. With a thrust, he rushed past her, a hand extended, as the whiz of something approaching reached her ear. There was a meaty thwack, and Aang fell ground beside Azula, an arrow impaling the palm of his hand. Azula instantly turned and sent out a wave of azure flame from the source of that attack, but couldn't see anybody to blame. "What did you do that for?" she shouted.
"You're welcome," Aang said, with sarcasm which was remarkable for him at least, as she pulled him to his feet, her other hand dripping blue flames. "He was going to shoot you!"
"So your first instinct is 'You know what, I'll grab that arrow!'? Are you insane or just moronic?" Azula demanded, trying to find out who'd fired that arrow. Whoever it was, they'd gotten very close to putting it through the joint of Azula's shoulder. She knew from a different lifetime, not personally in this instance, that such a wound would paralyze the limb for life without a very skilled surgeon at hand.
"I didn't have a lot of time to think about it!" Aang snapped back. Oh, showing backbone was he? She'd make a worthwhile man of him after all, it seemed. His eyes darted wide again, and this time, instead of just reaching out to offer his other hand in sacrifice, he pulled the snow and compacted it into a transparent shield, one which caught the arrow after it had traversed half it's length. And from the angle, Azula had an origin. One that was remarkably far away.
The shield dropped into water even as Azula rushed forward, lightning coming to her fingers and launching toward that distant target even as it splashed into the ground. There was a tiny shift of white against white, where that bolt landed and sent black soil flying up to mar its perfect whiteness. She twisted her arms, another lightning bolt sliding into the ready, which she released the instant she felt it was right. However, between the distance and the difficulties of hitting a moving target, the bolt tore up the gravel berm of the train-tracks between she and he, before crackling electrically along the long metal rail.
"Move. Now," Azula said.
"What if there's more of them?" Aang asked. Azula groaned, as she'd not considered the possibility. Today was a bad day, she decided. A distinctly non-Azula day. That was her excuse, and she was sticking to it.
Azula grabbed the shaft and twisted, snapping the head off, before pulling the arrow out in one yank to the pained scream of the Avatar. She waved the bloody shaft in his face. "Then we'd better move fast."
"That really hurt!" Aang said, his fingers clawed of it, and his eyes beading. But he didn't look like he was going to just lay down and cry over it. His posture was that of a man about to attack. It wouldn't have been two months ago. Azula considered that a small, but notable, victory.
"Which is a lesson to not let it happen again," she threw the shaft away, igniting it in mid air so it fell as a waft of ashes. They moved, and for a wonder, they moved together.
"You can stop skulking about, Sokka, I know you're there," Toph said, a grin still on her face. Nila broke off, mid word, to turn and see her boyfriend approaching, a mildly-put-out expression on his face.
"You've ruined the surprise, Toph," Sokka said.
"Half the fun," Toph clarified. That grin turned from self-satisfied to licentious faster than Nila wanted to think about. "Soooo. I hear you two are the topic of much conversation these days?"
"To who?" Sokka asked. He turned to Nila. "Hey, they told me to warn you guys that they're going to be moving on pretty soon. They're on the edge of Ohu territory, and that means that they can't cross over until they send word, but there's more weather coming and its a thiiing..." He shook his head.
"And here I thought Fire Nationals to be the masters of coherent thinking," Nila harangued.
"That's what Tribesmen are for," Sokka said with a scoff.
"Not as I have heard," Nila mentioned. Toph, though, stopped grinning, and her expression became very confused... and alarmed.
"Uhh... guys? You're probably going to think I'm crazy, but do you see a ship coming?" she asked, a darkly expectant rictus on her face. Instantly, Nila turned to the distance. There was so much white that seeing anything worthwhile would require an act of providence. But with a squint, and one hand to cut what glare there was, she caught just a flicker of movement, as Toph turned, the rod firmly in her hand, toward... what looked like, for the white around it and the white almost concealing it, to be a burning eye floating above the snow.
Even in the distance, she could sense his angry intake of breath. Sokka, though, reacted fastest of all of them. With a scoop followed by a dive, he hurled himself and all with him aside and into the snow, an instant before a series of pops sounded in the air, detonating in a line toward where they had stood. It passed beyond them, striking the ground which would have been at their backs. Instead, dirt and snow flew up in a blast, pelting those lying amongst the whiteness. Nila glanced aside, seeing that the nearest wagon to the detonation had its bearer buck and in doing so, caused the vehicle to snap a wheel-spoke.
Toph, though, was the first up. She heaved herself up, plunged that rod into the ground, then stepped past it, her fists clenching in, then thrusting forward in a brutal double punch. When she did, the ground erupted before her. Line of sight was instantly lost, as the snow filled the sky once more. It was even more thoroughly lost when the stone did likewise in an angry, churning morass that sped toward their attempted assassin. Another intake of breath that Nila more felt than heard, and a second detonation, which reached into the center of Toph's tidal-wave of stone, blasting it to bits and causing Top to recoil back, having to regain her footing and grasp on the rod which gave her 'sight', of a kind.
"That isn't good," Toph said.
Nila snarled and pulled her rifle from her back, swinging it up and sighting down it, waiting for the snow to clear. Until she could see the eye that hovered so conspicuously now that she knew to look for it. And the instant she did, her finger pulled tight, and the hammer fell.
Click.
Eyes widened, and she looked at her rifle. Misfire! Damn this infernal snow!
"Run!" Nila snapped, and she felt herself being hauled back by Sokka. She didn't begrudge him manhandling her in the name of self preservation. In fact, she lauded it. Another angry intake of breath, and this time, Toph ground to a halt, digging in her great nail to root herself, before squatting almost to the ground, and thrusting up. With a rumble, a great shelf of surprisingly pale rhyolite shot up, sending even more snow swirling. An instant after it had, there was another popping bang that approached, and blasted that wall into rubble in a single instant, and sent all three rolling from the force of it.
"How do we fight this guy? He throws explosions with his brain!" Sokka screamed, as he pulled Nila to her feet. She scowled at the breach of her firearm. Now it was hopelessly damp.
"I recommend you find one!" Nila shouted. Sokka stared, his jaw tense, before he reached to his back and pulled his boomerang from its case. He pressed a kiss to its flat, before cocking an arm back. And he waited. Toph finally shook some coherence into her head, and pawed her way to where the rod had landed, regaining an ability of perception, just as the muffled clunks of the approaching explosion-bender burst through the snow. Even as it did, Sokka snapped his arm forward, and the boomerang cut its path through the air. Nila was already dragging the others into movement, but Sokka kept his eyes back. That dreadful intake of breath... Then, a thwak as the boomerang pegged him in the head.
Again, the loud pops sounded, but instead of describing a line directly toward Nila and those with her, they seemed to flit around the assassin in the snow, throwing up a cloud of it, before a final detonation sent forth a great white wave.
Sokka readily caught the weapon as it returned, but he was still watching behind him. "Do you think I got him?" he asked.
A metallic clank, and the shaven-headed mountain, who now cast aside a burnt white robe, glared silently at them.
"I'm taking that as a 'no'. RUN!" Sokka shouted. Nila felt no desire to disagree.
Zuko's head turned instantly when he heard the first explosion. He'd heard a lot of the Si Wongi's gunfire, and knew it well enough that he could tell with some certainty that it wasn't one of hers. He glanced to his wagon, debating whether he should bring his dao with him. Considering the spate of good luck he'd been living with for the last few weeks, he had to assume that it was going to go catastrophically wrong; he took the blades. He'd finished hooking the belt into place, and was preparing to draw the blades when something plopped densely into the slush near his feet. Something that hissed.
There would have been a groan, if Zuko had time for it. Instead, all he had time for was to sweep his flames into a shield, so that when the bomb exploded, it sent him flying rather than tear him apart. It landed rolling, skidding to a halt his hands and knees in the muck, only to look up, and see the most mutilated woman he'd seen in his entire life. Her entire face seemed to be a testament to how badly scar-tissue could form – and he had some first-hand experience with that, considering his defunct left ear.
The woman stared down at him, half way between imperious and dismissing, before a flick of her hand brought a wicked knife into it. She slashed down with it, obviously intending to lance the back of his neck and paralyze, if not instantly kill, him. Zuko took a page from Toph's book and neglected silly dodges and evasion, opting to hurl his weight straight forward into her. The impact of his rocketing tackle dislodged the knife before it could do more than tear his shirt, and slammed her into a wagon's side. He flashed to his blades, intending to draw them out with a sweeping cut, only to have the Azuli woman check the draw with a stinging elbow to the back of his hand, causing his grip to fail. She then headbutted straight forward into his nose with a crack, and then followed with a punch that only by an unconscious twitch aside hit him in the side of the neck rather than flat in the voice-box. He staggered back, and a moment later, felt a jabbing pain reach into his ribs, as a shuriken dug into the gap.
"Assassins!" Zuko managed to shout, defying the woman's intentions. He finally got his blades out, and she was now twirling blades along her fingers as the two began to circle. "Zhao sent you, didn't he?"
"I'm not paid to talk," she said, her voice raspy.
"I figure you aren't," Zuko said. "Did you really think you were going to win alone? Against me and my sister?"
The smile on her face, extended wide by the rifts of scars that tore away from the corners of her mouth, was anything but kind. "Who said I was alone?"
Zuko's heart sank, when he realized that he should have figured that out sooner.
She wasn't carrying bombs.
A glimmer of movement in the corner of Zuko's eye was all it took to send him moving. The dark-skinned man swung out, a veritable cannon in his hands. Zuko managed to dodge aside just before the blast sounded, and sent slivers of wood exploding in every direction from the impact site. The beasts of burden, tethered to the wagon, let out a terrified shriek, and began to charge, only to slam into another wagon a few yards away and cause the whole rig to flip. The people were openly fleeing, which was prudent, but there were still a lot of buildings which wouldn't be able to keep up. Mostly because they weren't fighting in the open.
Zuko got to his feet, and even as he did, he had to swing his blades up to deflect a knife which was streaking toward his face. He backed away, keeping an eye down the 'street' that he was backing into. When he saw the dark-skinned man with the cannon in hand round that corner, this time he did let out the disappointed groan that he'd been holding in. The gunner didn't fire, though. He put a bomb up to his teeth and pulled something loose, causing grey smoke to drift from its stem. Then, a hurl, to send that device straight into the son of the deposed Fire Lord.
He could call it an act of massive fortune that when he twisted his blades out again, that they bisected the bomb in mid flight. Fortune, or poor craftsmanship on the bombers part, but either way, when the fuse burned down, there was only the tiny pop of a fragment of explosive going off rather than the flesh-rending bang of the entire thing.
"He's quick, this one," the dark one said in Tianxia, a smirk on his face.
The woman appeared next on high, and sent down a fan of knives at the prince, a fan which he wasn't able to wholly deflect. One bit into a shoulder, shallowly. Another raked along his forehead, shearing the hair as it went past his ruined ear. He staggered back, having to squint to keep the blood from leaking into his eye. He wasn't going to win this alone. Hell, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to survive it alone. There was living lucky, and then there was losing dead.
The woman on high was pulling her arm back, a fresh fan of blades 'twixt her fingers, when a blade raced up and hit the side of her head. While it, too, was only shallow and didn't breach her skull, the woman nevertheless recoiled from sending more blades at Zuko, to have to attack whoever'd attacked her. Zuko looked forward, to the Eastern gunner – had to be Si Wongi, Zuko figured – just as the man finished reloading his gun, and bracing it against his hip. Zuko took off running, barely managing to round a corner, before the hellish blast sounded, and the corner of the wagon was blown off, scattering wood into the paths between the wagons yet to leave. From within, Zuko could hear the terrified screaming of a woman and at least one child. But from a quick glance, they hadn't been hit, only startled. That was good... for the gunner's sake, at least.
The woman jumped down at him, and he barely managed to parry his way out of a gash which would have opened him from neck to navel, rolling to his feet, backing off, until he bumped into somebody. He'd almost slashed that obstruction in half before realizing that he'd ended up back-to-face with Maya Azul.
"Don't just stand there! Get out of my way!" the noble shouted, brandishing her own blades, and a deadly look on her face to match the brutality of the other's. Zuko grabbed her and hauled her one street over, though, against her squawked protestations. "Hey! What are you doing?"
"That woman isn't alone, and the other one will kill you and anyone near you if he finds you while you're distracted!" Zuko snapped. He looked around. "Where is that damned waterbender?"
"Which damned waterbender?" the boy fluent in Zuko's native tongue asked, sarcasm in his words if not his face. He winced a bit at Zuko's already numerous injuries, before leaning out 'round the corner. He withdrew with a clipped yelp, clapping a hand to a wound, pulling a shuriken from his forehead. "Ah, damn it," he muttered, then tossed the implement away. "You've got a problem."
"You don't say," Zuko answered flatly.
"There's somebody attacking from that side as well, and I'm pretty sure I heard lighting getting thrown over there," Kori pointed out, wiping aside the trickle of red that the shuriken had birthed. "We're surrounded."
Well, that explained Zuko's recent good luck. It'd been saving up to backlash today. Maya seemed about to say something, but interrupted herself by flinging a dagger past Zuko's face. He turned, and by his razor-honed reflexes was able to deflect the knife that tore toward him, and was rewarded for his aptitude by watching the knife ram straight into and through that woman's cheek. She pulled it out with a grimace which showed more teeth than such an expression ought, for obvious reasons, before hurling that knife, red with her own blood, back. This one, Zuko couldn't quite block, and slammed into Maya's chest, causing the young woman to stagger back, eyes bulging. Kori twisted his hands, and with a great twist, a coil of snow reached up and rammed, casting the woman from her rooftop perch and hurling her out of sight. Zuko was already scooping the woman, blades held carefully in one hand, so that she wouldn't have to walk and jostle the wound.
Kori pulled the knife as Zuko retreated, and instantly flattened a hand onto the wound... inadvertently giving the Azuli royal a grope. Kori at least had the decency to notice this, and turn a look to Zuko. "Better to beg forgiveness than bury a body. This is going to feel strange," he said. Then, the blood that was welling up around his fingers started to glow. Zuko stopped paying attention at that point, since the intention and effect was clear.
"We've got to lead them away from the people..." Zuko said.
"Is that in any way a sane plan?" Kori asked. "Without cover, they'll blast us to bits!"
"Would you rather take your chances against both of them alone?" Zuko snapped back. The waterbender winced, then sighed. "That's what I thought."
The whiz of the arrow's approach was barely enough for the Avatar to hinge out of the way, and in so doing, force Azula out of its path as well. It slammed into the wood of the hastily abandoned wagon, sticking up like a nail of death. She could see easily enough that the wagons were breaking from any formation, spreading in all directions as to most swiftly be away from where they were now. That meant that whatever was happening, happened within there as well.
"Have you stopped bleeding yet?" Azula asked, turning her attention back to the white that was constantly needling them, probing their defenses. The archer against the snowy hell. Then again, as a Fire National, snow and hell went together somewhat naturally to Azula.
"What?" Aang's voice was almost shrill, but then again, he was as on edge as she was. Somebody was trying to kill him, and likely cripple her if she understood the source of this assault properly. And she liked to think that she knew Zhao well enough to know his style. Brutish, thuggish even, but frustratingly enough often effective.
"Because I would appreciate some help with this, and having a hand down is a handicap you can't afford," Azula said.
"It really hurts," Aang said.
"I know it does. Now stop babying it," Azula told him. Some part of her still wanted to leave that archer to put arrows into him until he more resembled a land-urchin than a man, but another part of her... well, she wasn't going to think about that utterly insane portion of her psyche right now. Too much depended on not getting killed. Or worse, captured. Another whiz of approach, and this time, Azula took the charge, lashing out a swift bolt of lightning to intercept and explode the missile before it even came close. If she'd had the muscle-memory she'd developed as an old woman, she'd have been able to arc that bolt straight back to the arrow's source. Pity. She would have to make do.
Aang flinched back, rubbing an ear. "Did you have to do that right then?"
"Would you rather have a new hole?"
"There's no need to be so snide!" Aang shot back. And that honestly made Azula smile a little. She'd beat the Avatar into a worthwhile man if it killed him. The last thing that she needed was him to be all... well, what he was last time. Not with a world like this one. Another whiz, and this time she just leaned aside and let it pass her by. Aang, though, let out a whistle that sounded more like blowing air than anything else. And she knew what that meant.
"So we're fleeing?" Azula asked.
"What are we supposed to do?" Aang retorted.
"I don't know, hunt them down so they won't be a threat again at a point of utmost inconvenience?" Azula answered.
"They'll never be able to..." Aang began, and then fell silent as the realization hit him. "...Dang."
"And you're finally starting to develop a mind," Azula said. A bellow sounded from somewhere out of sight, a place marked by detonations and shouts of terror. One entire horizon was obscured with flying white, something having so distorted it through blasts and shocks. She had a fair notion who was doing that; she'd know the sound of that firebending style anywhere. She grabbed his sleeve and pointed. "We're going to need to get them out of there. They won't be able to..."
She was cut off by an arrow hitting her in the hip, dropping her into the snow with a snarl of pain. She feared that the Avatar would just flinch, and then lock them in ice until his beast appeared, heedless of the fact that Yu Yan were trained to kill bison as well as their riders.
She didn't see what she feared. The instant she fell, there was a shift in the Avatar's face, away from fear. Into wrath.
With a thrust, following the dragon style and somehow more than it, he threw out a blast of flames that went so far beyond what Azula was capable of that it left her gaping in awe. He blasted that fiery rope along the line of the Yu Yan's estimated position, scouring the land and blasting snow into steam. When he released his assault, his first action was to stoop down and pull her up to him. She barely had time to be shocked before she found herself hoisted over his shoulders. He didn't have the best of balance, as she was still stronger than he was, and though they probably shared the same weight, his most certainly wasn't muscular. But still, they moved. Another hopelessly high whistle, and a groan to answer it, as Aang began to carry her at an ever increasing pace, toward where the snow was detonating. At first, Azula could only be confounded by this, but she didn't succumb to flabbergastation so easily. Even with the jabs of pain of the arrow scrapping her hip with every movement, she still turned her eyes toward the snows where the Yu Yan had feathered her.
Which was why she saw him, just as he popped up at the edge of the snow, steam rising off of him, and bow in hand. Without a proper footing, or even being able to draw in a worthwhile breath, she had to make do, as well. She cast out a chop, a compact, swift slash of blue flames that pressed out without spreading, and more importantly without slowing. The Yu Yan had to release his shot around it, which meant that it flew high and wide of the Avatar's path, and then dodge the attack himself.
"He's still trying to shoot us, isn't he?" Aang asked, sounding already somewhat out of breath. Either that or just strained. Probably the latter.
"Do you want me to tell... watch it! That really hurts! ...you or would you rather live in blissful ignorance?"
"Do you always talk this much when people are trying to kill you?" Aang asked, puffing between every third word.
"I think I'm picking up a bad habit," Azula muttered grimly, and yelped as Aang stumbled a bit. But they continued toward the mute assassin in the distance. Her life was insane.
There was a lot of pandemonium, and a lot of explosions, but none of it made a lot of sense to the waterbender who was at the moment giving her time trying to load the fleeing wagons. She would have rushed to battle, such as it was, but there was one deciding problem.
Katara couldn't be three places at once.
"Go on, it's going to be fine," she said to the child she hefted up to his mother in the back of the wagon. There was a crack of a whip, and then the wagon started to take off, the rear door not even closed until it was a dozen yards away.
"We'll remember our word!" the driver shouted, before turning his attention forward, and fleeing with all haste. Katara looked around, but at this point, found herself somewhat at a loss for her next task. There was only so much helping she could do before everybody who was going to get away, had.
"What do I do?" Katara asked.
The question was answered by a bright streak dropping out of the sky and landing in a great plume of slush and snow that splatted over Katara. With a wan expression, she made an off-hand gesture and it all slid off of her in a great mass, just as Malu rose from her energetic landing. "Katara! It was a decoy!"
"I'm pretty sure I've figured that out," Katara said, pointing toward the popping bang in the distance.
"Well come on! They're going to need our help," Malu said, pulling Katara into movement, directly toward said popping bang.
"But what about the others?" Katara asked.
"They're all heading to Toph and your brother, trust me," she said. "Now run!"
The blast which Sokka flinched away from this time came from behind, instead of ahead of them, which was both surprising and a little bit concerning, to be honest. Toph was bruised and sweating bricks, her thick clothing ripped and shredded from the fellow with the sparky-sparky-boom head constantly making mince of her barriers. And the nest of wagons that they'd been retreating toward had up and left them, which was in one way good – less people getting hurt by a stray brain-explosion – but in a lot of other ways bad.
"Curse this snow, curse this wet, curse this thrice cursed continent!" Nila seethed, as she tried to get her rifle to fire, backing away from the Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man who gave them no time to recover or rest. Just a constant, heady advance of iron and explosions.
"That rhymed, you know?" Sokka asked, tension in his voice even if he was defaulting to snark mode.
"Not the time, Tribesman!" Nila shot back, although not literally, as her gun wasn't working.
"I hope you're coming up with a clever plan to save our lives back there, Sokka," Toph said.
"Yeah, but it's a lo—ook out!" Sokka had to tackle Toph to the ground, as a heavy blade almost slammed into the side of her neck. Instead, it barely nicked Sokka's shoulder, and missed Toph completely. There was that snuff, then the popping of incoming explosions, to which Toph slammed her fists down into the dirt. That moment, Sokka felt like the planet punched him in the chest, as faintly green stone burst up, pushing the two of them back and away, only to be detonated by Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man's brain magic. They flailed, both, drifting apart from the upthrust being suddenly aborted. Sokka expected to have a very uncomfortable landing in a moment, but oddly there was only one thought going through his mind as he flew.
Where did that knife come from?
Sokka's landing was... oddly pillowy. He opened his eyes, and found himself hovering an inch before the snow. Then, with a gack, he fell onto his face in the white cold. He turned back, a mask of it on his skin, to see his sister and the other airbender coming. Katara twisted her arms wide, and the whole snow that lay under the five of them pulled away, becoming a great tendril of wintry might. It slammed toward the Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man, only to be intercepted by his namesake. The water burst apart as steam, creating an obstructing wall between them. There was a woman's grunt of pain, and then, as Sokka pulled his boomerang, Angry Jerk, Ked/Kori, and the Angry Jerkette came in through a swirl in the steam.
"Put me down and take your hand off my breast!" Azul shouted, back-handing the waterbender in the mouth, which got him to back off with an 'I'm innocent, I didn't do anything wrong' pose. Nevertheless, there was a hole in the clothes at the noble's high chest, showing that he wasn't doing it purely for entertainment's sake. With a growl, a fan of knives came into each hand of the noble woman, and Sokka instantly dismissed any notions of fragile nobility to her. "I am going to kill that crazy bitch!"
"Which crazy b..." Malu asked, and then hinged back to avoid a spike that had been thrown at her face. Appearing just behind the party of Fire Nationals and Kori, a woman with more scars than remaining flesh appeared, just at the edge, knives rolling around 'twixt her fingers. "Oh great. Could this get any wor..."
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Everybody, Maya Azul included, roared at her.
Sadly, the universe decided that partial efforts were worth full grades, as there came a blast, which caught Sokka in the side and drove him to his chest. He rolled so that the wounded hip was facing up, and could see that something had peppered him, something that burned even in his muscle. Nila's eyes shot wide. "SOKKA!" she screamed. She turned that rifle and pulled the trigger again, to another anemic click. She then let off a stream of profanity in Tianxia that Sokka honestly found quite informative... if anatomically impossible. "Firebender! Heat this!" she roared, eyes on the form that approached.
Sokka could see that it was a Si Wongi, who had a much more inelegant gun in his hands than Nila's. For one thing, even in Sokka's wounded, pained state, he was able to notice that it had a simple back-breach, and also, a bore easily twice and a half what Nila's used. Zuko began to send a stream of flame onto the metal of her gun, to a hiss of rising steam. Another flare of light came from the fog, which had swooped around to surround them, roughly, and Aang came to a stumbling halt in their midst, finally letting Azula off of his shoulders. Aang looked utterly beat, and like he'd been nearly-shot a few times. Azula had an arrow sticking out of the opposite hip from Sokka's own gunshot. And she had to tell Nila that this was a very unpleasant kind of injury. You know, when they weren't about to die, and all.
"Aang!" Katara said.
"Azula!" Zuko's attention wavered, and the flame grew hotter, from a stream into a blast, which caused Nila to reflexively drop her firearm, which went off in mid air. She managed to catch it before it landed in the mud, but only by flopping face first herself.
"I'm fine! The Archer's the real problem!" Azula snarled, her eyes tight. She was probably in as much pain as she was.
"So much money, for such little worms," the Si Wongi man said in his native tongue. He gave a disconcerting smile toward Nila. "Maybe I keep the young one alive? A partial reward is surely reward enough."
Oh, that wasn't going to stand. Nobody threatened Nila! Mostly because Nila herself put a stop to those threats in a pretty unpleasant manner, but the principle still stood! The Si Wongi kept his eye on them as he reloaded his rifle, almost calmly, while Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man clanked out of the fog.
Sokka pushed himself to a half-stand, boomerang in hand. "You guys can't be this stupid," Sokka said, trying to buy time. "Did you really think thr... four guys was enough to bring down the Avatar?"
"He isn't glowing," the scarred woman pointed out, as the last, who looked a lot like one of the Yu Yan Archers, followed in after Aang and Azula, sidestepping until the four of them had the cardinal directions covered. She gave a gruesome smile. "Which means I think we can."
Sokka gave a look to the others. This was going to get bad. Maya and Zuko faced the scarred woman. Sokka got his boomerang ready for a flight at the archer. Maybe they'd be able to hold off Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man long enough for Toph to regain consciousness – she was face-down and groaning on the ground. But...
"Enough of this bullshit," Azula said. And then, she thrust out a finger, toward the Si Wongi. There came a crack of thunder, and a bolt of lighting connected her finger and the tip of the man's firearm. The pulse traveled up the weapon, and terminated inside what the Si Wongi had just placed at its other end. The charge. And without any opportunity to close the breach, that overpowered block of whatever it was that Nila and other Si Wongi used in their bombs could blow up in any direction it wanted. And there was a Si Wongi man standing very close to that explosion. Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man's eyes flashed, and he pulled in an angry breath, staring down their whole group.
The blast, which sent up a cloud of dark grey smoke that seemed oddly... chunky... gave Nila the split second she needed to flop onto her back, bite a bullet, slam it in place, and pull off a shot. The shot was dead-accurate, slamming into the eye in the middle of the man's forehead. The angry eyes of amber turned stunned, deeply concerned even, as the popping began to sound around him. Bursts of untempered and uncontrolled detonation erupted around Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man, until they found a target, namely, the barely-still-standing source of them. A last explosion, this one greater than any that had sounded thus far. When its smoke cleared, there was an iron leg still upright on the ground, but not much else.
Nila rolled over again, heedless of the mud, and slammed the breach of her own rifle shut again, pointing it at the Yu Yan. But the much more impressive sight was that of Aang throwing his arms wide, and when he did, his eyes blazed with burning white light. He started to rise up, suspended on cold air, and the expression on his face was one asking for blood. The Yu Yan dropped his bow, hands flaring wide.
"No amount of money is worth my life," he said simply. "I'm done."
"What?" the scarred woman to his immediate left shouted. "You can't be serious. You!" she pointed at the group. "You think you've gotten free this time, but I promise you, you haven't see the last of L–"
The Yu Yan cut her off by sending his fist into her jaw, and dropping her like a sack of potatoes. "Nope. You've totally seen the last of us," he corrected. He stared at her for a moment, then sighed, carrying her like the sack she'd become. "I'm going to catch hell for this later..."
"So...?" Maya said, confused. "Did we just win?"
A whoosh that sounded above dispelled the fog, leaving Sokka to wince a bit at what had become of the Si Wongi gunner, followed Aang slowly settling onto his feet, and his eyes returning to their more natural grey. Appa dropped onto the muck, landing close enough to Zuko and the others near him that they got covered in mud. Zuko took it with a sigh. Maya seemed gobsmacked into next week. Sokka himself? He limped over to Nila, and offered her a hand up. She swatted it away and got up herself, before scooting herself under his arm, to get weight off of that hip.
"You are not to be shot again, is that clear?" Nila said sternly, but there was a hint to her tone of very real worry.
"What happens now?" Kori asked, pulling the muck away with a single motion.
"We get onto that bison," Zuko said, wiping his face as that was the best he'd get, "and we run away, unless we'd rather be dead tomorrow."
"I... That..." Maya stammered, her eyes the only non-brown part of her at the moment.
"Kuchi! Come here!" Azula snapped. A few seconds later, the little brown beast bounded out from a pile of shrubs, its stub-tail wagging, and nuzzled up to Azula's recumbent form. She looked at the others. "Alright. Now we may leave."
"Did...she just make us wait for her pet?" Sokka asked Aang, who still looked pretty winded.
"Sh. It's an improvement," he whispered back.
And several yards away, Toph rolled onto her back, her eyes pressed shut. After a groan, she let her opinion of the situation be known.
"...Ow."
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