A/N: Another double feature, because I've been forgetting to upload chapters again. Well, that or just busy, one or the other. We are past the halfway point of the Fire Nation arc and drawing ever closer to the end of this story. I must admit, I'll be glad to finish it after all this time. Thanks to Sylvacoer for more peerless editing work and enjoy the show.


It was not a good day for Colonel Kazehana, for a few different reasons. First, the enemy was near. Somehow, a raiding force, possibly more than one, had gotten past the blockade and into homeland waters. In one night, they'd bombarded the primary depot in the Dragon's Tail Islands to rubble, moving inland to demolish a munitions factory before fading away into a fog-covered dawn. A survivor from the destruction of the factory had confirmed reports of a young, female waterbender, one of the Avatar's old companions who had escaped Ba Sing Se, participating in the raid. There was now a noticeable kink in the supply lines, which made Fire Lord Ozai unhappy. And when the Fire Lord was unhappy, the entire homeland army and navy divisions were also unhappy until the situation was resolved. That was the second reason for the state of the day. The third and fourth reasons were sitting behind his desk and standing behind him, respectively.

"I understand you are in overall command of this city's defenses," said Princess Azula. "Summarize them for me."

Kazehana carefully avoided meeting her eyes, or even glancing at the Selfless Warrior at his back, instead looking out at the bustling industry of Fire Fountain City. In his opinion, the recent renaming was in poor taste, but it seemed Ozai had a liking for blatant attempts at flattery, such as the enormous statue of himself that now stood in the town square.

"The city walls are thirty feet high, iron-plated, and in excellent repair," he said, standing as straight as he could. "The last of the reconstruction projects were finished ten years ago when the city was entirely rebuilt so as to facilitate rapid movement of our own troops through it. Thus, vital sectors can be easily defended in the event the walls are breached. Aside from the city watch, which numbers about three hundred, we have the military garrison at Akegata Fortress, overlooking the harbor along the east side of the city. The force complement totals fifteen hundred, including one division of marines and a brigade of engineers. Lieutenant Colonel Natsuki, the garrison commander, holds invasion drills every month for the city and every other week for the troops. The fortress mounts twelve standard throwing-engines and four ballistae modified to carry the new Ripper harpoons to deal with waterborne invasion, all of them are the most modern models available and can outrange any ship-based weaponry. We have two Inferno-class warships and five Purifier-class patrol ships for customs duty and to handle pirate attacks on any of the smaller islands within a day's travel; all of them are currently in port and fully operational. A third warship and two coal tenders are currently in drydock for repairs, but can still put to sea within six hours if orders are given. Between all ten ships, we carry about another thousand marines for boarding actions. Lastly, in the event of imminent invasion, we can assemble the city militia, which would give us maybe another thousand people."

Azula nodded, walking around to stand in front of him so he couldn't avoid her piercing gaze.

"In other words, defenses that are similar to those at Bukigura, before it was destroyed," she said. "Have you learned from this event, Colonel? Tell me, how would you overcome the defenses you have just described to me with only a single Inferno-class ship and whatever resources it carries? Assume the enemy has benders from all three nations and knows how to use their ship to its full extent."

Kazehana knew she could see him sweating as he tried to work through such a complex question in the short amount of time he knew he had to answer it. And to his abject horror, he was coming up with nothing. I'm never going to see my family again, am I?

"I don't know, Princess," he answered quietly, trying to maintain the few shreds of dignity he had left. "It seems impossible any way I look at it."

Azula's voice turned dark and cold as her frown deepened into a glare.

"That is most disappointing. I had hoped I could trust you to carry out your duty and deal with these raiders without my lingering here. I have important matters to attend to back at the capital and I don't have time to be chasing down every last band of rebels in the world."

"Forgive me, Princess," Kazehana said, bowing low, his voice quivering slightly.

"For being typical of most officers and being merely adequate in your position instead of excelling? Fortunately for you, I can hardly hold you at fault for being true to your ancestry. As I said, you merely disappoint me greatly. I am relieving you of command for the duration of my stay. From now on, all senior military officers here will report to me. Inform them that I require their attendance tonight at Akegata Fortress. Perhaps someone among you will show at least a hint of excellence in the face of imminent attack."

"May I ask a question, Princess?"

Azula raised an eyebrow.

"Provided it is an intelligent one, yes."

"Why do you believe the rebels will strike this city next? If they continue to hit assembly points in the Dragon's Tail, that would be much more disruptive to the supply lines than taking out points in the Inner Islands, since all shipments go through the Tail eventually. And while our defenses are similar to those at Bukigura, they're significantly greater, without even counting the civilian militias. Even if they've packed that one warship full, we outnumber them and outmatch them at least five to one, likely more. Why would they choose to attack here with so little to gain?"

Azula's eyes flashed fire as she stood up.

"I said an intelligent question! If you can't answer that one, you are unfit for your post. You know their military assets, approximate numbers, and their last target. That should be enough to give you an idea of why they're coming here. When I return to the capital, I'll see that you're given problems more suited to your intellect to consider. Tell your cousin that if he appoints any more of his useless relatives to essential military posts, there will be consequences."

"I will, Princess," Kazehana said, dull hopelessness in his voice. "If you so command, I am willing to accept whatever post you feel appropriate."

"Yes," she said, "you will. But not before I'm done here. I'm not finished with you yet."

Kazehana swallowed hard.


"So, that's what we're up against," Siensao concluded, tapping the simple map of Fire Fountain City laid out on the table behind the captain's chair. "And I'm sure Azula is there waiting for us. She has time to travel there, crush us, and head back to the capital before the Day of Black Sun and I'm sure she knows we're going here. Obviously, we can't do things exactly the same as we did at Bukigura."

"I don't know how we can accomplish anything at all," Kiviuk said, his face troubled as he leaned over the map. "We can take out their ships as we did before, I suppose, at least."

"No, we can't," Siensao said, frowning. "By now Azula will have figured out how we did it and the proper defense. Besides, she's had time to assemble a whole task force and no matter how bad their tactics are, they still have a lot more throwing-engines and people than we do and they know how to operate their ships. I wouldn't be surprised if she elects to have them converge on us the minute we show up without the correct flag codes or signal flares and force a naval battle, where we're weaker."

"She'd never be that defensive," Reki corrected the merchant. "She'd never approve of a plan like that that has even a small chance of us escaping somehow. No, she'd do what I'd do when wanting someone to take the bait…make it tempting, but not too much so. This task force will be spread out and ready to pounce on us as soon as we enter the harbor and trap ourselves there. But at least one ship will be waiting inside the harbor to make us think she's stupid enough to immobilize part her fleet in favor of static defense. That's not to say a ship at anchor will be entirely helpless, either – it can serve as a battery that can fire at us even after we pass under the arc of the fortress artillery. If we did become involved in a naval battle near the port, we wouldn't win."

"No fucking shit," Ishizuka muttered. "This fortress is some kind of shit-kicker, all right. Take us fifteen, twenty minutes to take out their throwing-engines even if they just let us sling away. And we can't slip my boys and girls inside like before either if the royal bitch knows we're coming. I ain't gonna risk our necks on the chance she doesn't."

"We're not doing anything that we did before," Reki said, grinning. "What's the first rule of battle?"

"Whatever they expect us to do, we don't do," Kyuzo answered, a little smile on his face.

"Exactly," the swordswoman agreed. "No, we're going to change things up a bit." Her smile turned into a smirk. "There's a gap in Azula's knowledge that we're going to use to our advantage. All things being equal, she would certainly win if we go in looking for a fight at this city and ordinarily, I'd say we should hit someplace else. But there's one crucial weakness she's overlooked. Her forces are green."

"Which means what?" Jomei asked, confused.

"It means they're more like me than real soldiers," Kyuzo said, a sad little smile on his face.

"Ah, that makes sense," the miner said, nodding.

"She has the city watch," Reki went on, "The city militia, and the garrison forces at that fortress, at least half of whom are needed to defend it, meaning they can't be used to boost the city's defenses. The vast majority of these forces haven't seen combat and for those who have, they weren't assigned here for an honorable retirement. Good garrison troops are needed in the Earth Kingdom. In the first shock of battle, many of them will break and run. Their fear will infect the others, who will follow them. If they're more afraid of us than they are of Azula, they'll run. She can make a bloody example of the city afterwards all she likes, but in the panic of the moment, they will run. It takes an understanding leader to take a green company into battle and win and while I grant that Azula is a brilliant strategist, tactician, manipulator, and commander, she is lacking in that form of leadership. She is not loved, only feared. Her forces will kill for her but they won't die for her. She's only worked with elite soldiers in all her actions to date, those who can look past her to the nation they serve and who are in awe of her skill. She can have an overwhelming advantage in numbers, firepower, and terrain, as she does here, and lose because her army turned and ran when things got bloody. That's the lesson we're going to teach her. Do you like the idea?"

"What, you kidding?" Ishizuka asked, eyes wide with excitement. "If you weren't spoken for, I'd fucking kiss you for this! I love it!"

"We all owe her payback for Ba Sing Se," Jomei growled, a savage grin on his craggy features. "I like the idea of showing her the Earth Kingdom won't go down so easy."

"And for Omashu," Jura added. She glanced over at Kyuzo, who looked very grim. "What do you think?"

"I think there's no reasoning with her," he said quietly, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "I think she needs to die or be decisively defeated. If you think the plan is good, I trust you. It'd work if I was on the other side and it fits with what I know about homeland citizens. If you don't go after the residential parts of the city, they won't stand their ground, I don't think."

"That isn't what we're after here," Reki said. "Then it's agreed. We hit the city tomorrow at sunset." As everyone got up to leave, Kyuzo wandered out onto the observation deck and Jura followed him.

The former sculptor walked over to stand beside the firebender, as he leaned heavily on the railing, looking out over the glittering sea. One of her long arms found its way around his narrow shoulders and he looked over with a sad smile, copying the gesture. For a little while, the two of them stood together quietly. He spoke first.

"It isn't the killing itself that bothers me," he murmured, "though it does bother me a lot. It's that I think I can live with it. I got past the idea that there's no way to end this that doesn't involve a lot of good people dying on both sides. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, aside from leaving you in Omashu, but I did it. But I always figured…" He hesitated, struggling for words. "I…always thought…I'd never forgive myself for being part of so much death. That just like Reki and Siensao said, it'd weigh me down until I broke under the weight, that I'd just…care too much to even think anymore. But we were all wrong. I can live with it. I'll never stop wishing things had happened differently and that I was a better person, but…I can live with it. Hundreds, thousands of people are dead…and I'm starting to stop caring so much. It's like there's no more room for guilt left inside. Death is becoming…routine. But that still isn't the worst part." He looked down and away from Jura. "I'm doing it all for you. That's what gives my firebending power these days. That's my cause, to survive each fight so I can see you again. And I'm starting to live with that, too. I don't think there's really anything either of us can do about it…but sometimes it helps to talk about these things."

He found the courage to meet her eyes once more, only to find that she was smiling through her tears.

"It's all right," she said in a thick voice. "That's exactly what happened with me and everyone I knew in the Omashu resistance. I was afraid you wouldn't get to this point and that you would break just like you said. And I was afraid that you would, because it means both of us are really monsters now. That's what war does to people. I know I said that before, but it's still true. Just remember that even monsters can love. I still love you. As long as we have that, we can come out of this war and maybe someday get at least a little of our old lives back. Move ahead and forget all this. Maybe that should be our cause now…fighting so that no one else has to fight."

Kyuzo nodded.

"I think," he said, "you're right about that. So, one more fight tomorrow. Let's both come back from it."


Kazehana came sprinting into his former office and nearly pitched forward on his face as he bowed low. He had been down in the courtyard when Azula's summons had come, along with a command to hurry.

"Reporting as ordered, Princess," he said, wheezing noticeably and his face rather red with exertion. "How may I serve you?"

Azula, who was standing by the window looking out over the city and harbor, turned halfway around to spit him with a disgusted glance before returning her gaze to the sea. The waves burned deepest crimson, shading into purple in the fading light of the sunset.

"For someone of your rank to be in such terrible condition is a disgrace," she said. "Have you not been taking part in the mandatory fitness program for all Fire Army members?"

"No, Princess," Kazehana answered, far past caring about his dignity at this point.

"As I thought. Tell me, Colonel, what do you see?" She gestured at the window and Kazehana stepped forward, squinting off into the distance. There was a thick patch of fog on the horizon, drifting towards the city at a noticeable rate, but nothing else that he noticed as different from usual.

"Fog, Princess?" he said uncertainly.

"And what," she asked, "does that tell you? What do you intend to do now that you've seen it?"

"I…well, it seems very odd weather, certainly. It's the middle of the dry season. It shouldn't be there. I suppose we should put the fortress on alert just in case it's an enemy trick." He flinched as Azula turned another scorching glare upon him.

"Your 'odd weather' is in fact a cover for the raiders' captured warship as it closes in on your city. It's meant to keep us from sinking them with the fortress throwing-engines while they land ground troops in the harbor. You were warned that the enemy had waterbenders in their ranks and the blockade ships reported a similar tactic not long ago and when you see it being used upon you, the first thing that comes to your mind is odd weather." She didn't raise her voice, but the biting scorn in her words drove Kazehana back a few steps.

"Be very grateful I'm here, Colonel. If I weren't, honorable suicide would be the least of your concerns. Your entire family would have to be called to account for your miserable failure. I've ordered the fortress placed on full alert and the city is mobilizing. I'm heading down to coordinate the defense personally. Your orders are so simple I'm sure even you can carry them out. Once our decoy ship there in the harbor burns off the enemy's cover, destroy them with the fortress artillery and send up the signal for the ships on patrol to converge here at once. If they make it into the harbor, send out the cutters to lay mines in front of the chain. Fire on them again if they try and retreat. That is all. Do you think you can handle that?"

Kazehana nodded rapidly.

"Yes, ma'am! I can do that! Uh…shouldn't we raise the harbor chains and keep them from landing at all?"

"No, you will raise them after their ship has entered the harbor and trap them here," she corrected him. "I want them dead, not driven off. Your people already have their orders, so don't bother trying to be clever. It doesn't suit you at all."

"No, ma'am," he agreed sadly. "It doesn't."


The Fire Nation flame-cloak was a testament to their ability to turn enemy tactics to their own use. The Northern Water Tribe raiders had a trick where they filled an ice sphere with oil and grease from a dozen kinds of animals, and lobbed it at a Fire Nation company. Naturally, the firebenders tried to shoot it down, and burst the ice shell, igniting the oil at the same time, resulting in a lake of burning, sticky oil showering over their lines. The flame-cloak did the same thing, using blasting jelly on a short fuse to burst a thin iron shell around an oil reservoir. Now, the warship sitting in the city flung a barrage of flame-cloaks into the oncoming bank of fog, and the waves were set alight. The fog swiftly vanished, revealing the captured warship and the last of an enormous watery shield that had protected it falling back into the fiery sea around it as waterbenders flung themselves away from the choking, oily smoke and searing heat.

Atop the fortress walls, the artillerymen grinned and twelve fireballs traced smoky crosshatches across the sky, on their way to the enemy.

Up on the foredeck, Siensao watched the incoming volley of fireballs with a terrible calm. Fully half of their earthbenders stood behind her, poised and ready. This technique was a very old one, in use since earthbending was used for sieges, but it did require perfect timing. And as a non-bender, she could in no way help with that.

"Wait…" the lead earthbender said quietly. The heavy stones plummeted down on them. "Now!"

The earthbenders all shoved upwards with both hands and a mighty shout and all twelve fireballs burst into rubble, some dissolving into pebbles with the intensity of the earthbending force exerted. Siensao let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, then turned her attention back to the battle to come. Reki, I hope you know what you're doing.

As they moved beyond the fiery sea and slid past the motionless warship that was frantically scrambling to reload, the waterbenders were able to begin crafting another fog cloud. That was a critical part of the attack plan, that they not be seen coming.


Watch-Lieutenant Akiko watched the choking bank of fog roll towards them and tried to steady her hands on the hilt of her naginata. She had spent hours sharpening and polishing the polearm's blade, the same as she had spent much more time maintaining all her gear and sweating in the training yard so the male members of the watch would take her seriously. But she couldn't cut fog. And she couldn't cut away the fear growing inside her. Being a watchman, at worst, meant breaking up an occasional fight or dealing with a gang dispute. It didn't mean you had to go up against a hardened enemy strike force that had already turned a fortified base into rubble and was looking for a repeat performance on your home city.

Silent as the grave, the fog swallowed their defensive lines in its cold, wet maw, and now they heard the growing rumble of a big ship on approach. Every breath they took misted faintly as the temperature dropped sharply, going from a warm summer evening to a shivering frost. Waterbenders could be close by right now and they'd never know. Akiko took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

Then a great black shape appeared out of the fog, slowing to a halt just short of grounding itself. The Fire Nation's rhino-hauled ballista that could see the ship opened fire, boom-tip bolts streaking towards the hull where it met the water. They detonated with thunderous cracks, echoing across the harbor, and huge, jagged chunks were blasted away. The Fire Nation forces started cheering…then they realized that what was falling away was a thick layer of ice armor over the black iron hull and the invading ship wasn't sinking any lower in the water. A bright crimson glow lit up the high decks above them.

Akiko heard someone yell, "Launch!" and saw fireballs loosed a nearly vertical angle, rising up to descend upon the defensive lines like falling stars out of the white fog. At the same time, the deployment ramp on the front of the ship hissed and groaned as it descended, slamming onto the stone with a tremendous bang. Enemy soldiers poured down it, screaming challenges. Akiko glanced up to see one of the fireballs nearly on top of her and swallowed hard. Oh, shi-

Then everything went black and red and gold in an explosion of silence.


As the Green Fire's throwing-engines reloaded, Jomei and the rest of the vanguard thundered down the ramp, seeing waterbenders rising from the waves on their flanks, paving the way with thrown shatter-spheres of ice that sowed bursts of razor-edged shards among the enemy lines. The Fire Nation answered with small throwing-engines of their own and bursts of fire arced towards the packed ramp and the high deck of the ship. Most were deflected with water, fire, or stone, but a few got through and he saw one burst up on the deck and heard someone scream. An instant later, they were among the ruins of the Fire Nation fortifications and he and the other earthbenders got to work, throwing up hasty stone walls while everyone else cleared the area of survivors of the first barrage. Even as the mist rose to conceal them, he could see better defenses just ahead along the city streets, barricades bristling with weaponry. But another volley from the ship's throwing-engines would do for those if necessary and so long as the fog held and the Fire Nation didn't push forward again with their boomtips and concentrate their fire—all big ifs—then they were good. He supposed they'd see if Reki's picture of Azula was right soon enough.


As the initial reports flooded in, so many men lost, so much of the docks destroyed or on fire, and the dispersed Fire Nation forces hurried to assemble about her, Azula waited patiently for those few bits of information that would tell her what she needed to know. They weren't long in coming. The enemy ship had landed at roughly where the princess had predicted, coming in as blind as they were. They had set up temporary fortifications and were disembarking their ground forces. Yukari detected large amounts of tunneling in progress, but localized at their landing site. That told Azula everything important.

"They've gone turtle-duck on us," she said, cutting off the latest scout in mid-sentence. "They mean to hold us off while they use their throwing-engines to level as much of the industrial district as they can before running away. Let's make sure they have as little time as possible." She stood up and raised her voice to commanding heights, glaring at the fog as though she could burn it away with a glance.

"As soon as the fog lifts, we're moving up! Yukari, go ahead and scout their perimeter, I want to know exactly what they have waiting for us by the time we're ready to attack! All forces, Dragon's Head formation! Our main objectives are to protect the throwing-engines long enough to sink that ship and take out its artillery, in that order!" Said formation was a hazardous attacking arrangement, with firebenders forming a loose line in front—the 'breath'—komodo rhinos on the forward flanks to charge, encircle, or otherwise break the enemy—the 'horns'—and the demolitionists and regulars closely ordered behind them—the 'teeth'. It could provide an incredible amount of firepower against a stationary target at the cost of its own maneuverability, but was useless for anything else and so rarely used on the battlefield.

The divisions began moving, though much more slowly and hesitantly than she wished. Some of them didn't even know their place in the formation she had commanded. An ugly scowl twisted her refined features into something frightful to look upon. I will not be undone by the incompetence of my subordinates a second time!

"Anyone who retreats without orders to do so" she added, "will be executed on the spot for desertion under fire! Their families will not receive compensation from the Crown for their loss!"

That sent a ripple of fear through the ranks and at last, things began moving along at the bare minimum acceptable speed. Azula nodded in satisfaction, though a strong suspicion was beginning to take shape in her mind. Is this their new weapon? Fear? Ha! If they think they can match me at inspiring fear, they've really messed up this time. I haven't even begun to work on these fools. She saw the red flare shriek forwards and up, and awaited the response with great anticipation. Sure enough, another barrage of flame-cloaks from the ship in the harbor struck true and again, the fog was gone.

Azula watched her enemies revealed with a cruel smile. Yukari was back at her side, having just finished filling her in on the enemy defenses—pitiful things, really—and her own forces were finally in formation and ready to go.

"Firebenders, break those walls and shoot down anything they throw at us!" she shouted. "Demolitionists, follow up and flatten anything behind their walls! Rhinos first through the gaps, regulars behind! Throwing-engines, concentrate your fire on a single point of their hull to pierce whatever's left of that armor! All Fire Nation forces, forward!"

The makeshift division surged forward along the wide streets, spilling out onto the half-ruined waterfront as they raced to the attack.

Up atop the walls, Reki watched the oncoming, overwhelming force. And she too was smiling. Or rather, smirking fit to make the Blood Drinker proud.

"Light'em up!" she shouted down to the waterbenders.

A sphere of the oily, flaming harbor water formed out of the burning waves, then the waterbenders flung it towards the oncoming Fire Nation lines. It burst in a fountain of filthy, fiery sludge among the forward ranks, making the waterfront stones almost too slippery to walk on, let alone charge over at a run. Another sphere followed shortly as the waterbenders got into a rhythm. When they were done, the Fire Nation would have to advance at a dead slow walk across the greasy ground, and the fires, while quickly snuffed by their firebenders, would be adding to the fear coursing through the Fire Nation lines.

Azula was not unduly concerned with her battle plan having collapsed in on itself, such things happened, they were to be dealt with. The growing lack of discipline though, raised her hackles.

"Yukari, clear us a path to their walls!" she ordered. "I want First Company formed behind me, demolitionists, rhinos, and regulars, in that order! How long until the throwing-engines are in position?" This last was directed at Kazehana's second, who answered, "Another minute, ma'am, thirty seconds to get there and thirty seconds to set up and load boomtips!"

In other words, not soon enough to stop them getting off barrage at the industrial district, Azula thought. Well, it serves these people right for being so ill-prepared. If I had a company of imperial firebenders, we'd be through this oil slick and behind their walls already. No matter.

Yukari was in front now, bending stone up from the ground to give their forces a wide path through the oil slick, and the requested forces were forming up behind the princess. Another oily sphere came soaring right towards her. She faced it calmly, then spun in place, weaving a massive wall of fire into place above them. The sphere hit and collapsed, blowing apart into foul-smelling smoke and splashes of oily water that barely got her armor damp. She flicked a few drops from her fingers, steam rising as the remaining water boiled off her, and swept her arm forward.

"Attack!"

Even as she began crossing Yukari's path, the first volley rose up from the enemy warship's decks, targeted on the city's factories.

Azula's force continued towards the walls. Yukari deflected the heavy stones flung towards them, but arrows hissed through the air and the skill of the Tumen archers became clear. They weren't aiming to kill, but to wound, to make the enemy scream and call for help and for their fellows to lose heart. And judging from the way the remaining forces were very slowly crossing the slippery stones to the aid of their princess, it was working.

Then Azula reached the fort and the defenders atop the walls had to jump for their lives as firebenders hurled their element upwards and demolitionists followed up with bombs, some of them overshooting the walls and detonating beyond them. Most of the sappers were unlimbering small casks of blasting jelly to breach the walls.

"I want three gaps, one on each side!" Azula snapped, thoroughly annoyed at how ineffectual her forces were proving. Honestly, do I have to do everything for them? "Firebenders through first, tie them down; rhinos follow, break their lines, and infantry last to finish them off! And watch out for attacks from the rear, they've honeycombed this dock with tunnels!"

The Fire Nation throwing-engines, she noted, were finally in position and ready to fire. Greasy water and too-small rocks wouldn't stop those.

"Fire!" she shouted, and three big chunks of the stone walls were blown away in concentrated burst of firebending. Through them came the soldiers of the Fire Nation, ready to kill. They were met by a second, smaller fort with the defenders now arrayed atop walls once again and the charge came to a crashing halt. The defense was getting pricklier as the invaders retreated, always putting a new obstacle in front of them to bog them down while more soldiers died horribly. And all the while, the fear kept growing and the burden of advancing pressed down. Veteran troops could have borne it and kept going, but these men were getting close to breaking. And most importantly, Azula, despite knowing how to manipulate people, to prey on their fears, to get them to do what she wanted…did not know what to do when fear was the problem and not the solution, or rather, when fear of her was not enough.


Siensao saw the Fire Nation throwing-engines getting ready to fire and those companies who hadn't gone with Azula were, despite significant losses from earthbending artillery—when Jura and her friends weren't defending against the fortress, they had plenty of stone on deck to throw at people—nearly across the oil slick between them and the outer walls. If they actually got to Azula and reinforced her losses, things would go very badly, no matter how hard Reki fought. It was time to ensure the odds stayed unevenly on their side, and they had one solution for both problems.

"Send in the cavalry!" she called down the ramp, and the order was relayed swiftly.

The concealed exits of the tunnels burst open, well behind the fraying Fire Nation lines, a handful of Tumen riders galloping into the open. Behind each Tumen sat one of Ishizuka's irregulars, nearly a third of their firebenders. Against so large a number of enemy soldiers they could do very little. But against the ballistae, locked down and immobile in preparation for firing, with boomtip bolts, they could do a great deal. Spreading out as they galloped along the city streets, the coalition firebenders loosed fire blasts at the greatest possible range they could, aiming for the explosive bolts. A series of blasts rippled across the Fire Nation lines and when they faded, nearly all the ballistae were wrecked beyond repair, along with some of their crews. The Tumen wheeled about and made for the tunnels where they'd come from. And to cover their retreat…

An immense amount of earth and stone pulled itself upwards, away from the ground, forming into the infamous stone giant technique. Jura grinned down at the Fire Nation forces, twenty feet below her perch, and jumped into their midst, tucking the giant's knees up and going into a wild roll, leaving a wide swath of broken bodies behind her. Enough fire blasts and bombs quickly went her way to break the giant apart, of course, but by that time the Tumen had gone and so had Jura, burrowing away. Her tunneling technique was blatant and slow, but it did the job. A short time later, another stone giant began forming by one of the half-ruined warehouses. This, combined with the ongoing earthbending bombardment, the fact that Azula wasn't there to drive them onwards, and the fact that the invaders apparently were only interested in destroying the factories and nothing else, finally broke the will of the Fire Nation. They still had three-quarters of their forces intact and able to fight, outnumbering the defenders greatly, and there was nothing stopping them from pressing forward and winning the day, though at a great cost. But they had lost the will to fight. A few soldiers in the front panicked and ran, throwing down their weapons. And once that happened, the effect snowballed until, why, everyone panicked and ran. Within the little fort, though, Azula's company, the veterans of the garrison troops, fought on.

More arrows, rocks, and bombs rained down upon the Fire Nation from the second wall. Just as before though, the defenders had to quickly retreat before fire blasts and retaliatory bombs, then the walls were breached again, though only in one place this time. Another barrage from the Green Fire's throwing-engines soared overhead. Siensao had wanted three volleys, but was willing to settle for two. Reki couldn't hold out much longer, surely.

Behind the second set of walls was a bare square of ground just in front of the boarding ramp, where the coalition forces gathered to make their final stand. The closed ranks of the Earth Army soldiers stood in the front lines, with the warriors of the Northern Water Tribe behind them, and the Tumen archers behind them. Azula's triumphant smile was on full display. The end was in sight. A lightning bolt or two would be as good as a volley of boomtip bolts at puncturing their hull, grounding their ship here to finish off at leisure, and there was no way they could retreat in time.

Then a small group of fighters leapt off platforms that extended from the second wall, on either side of the new gap, and flung themselves against Azula and the vanguard firebenders. Jomei lost most of his armor to a fire blast, then his hammer came around and the firebender responsible went flying back into his fellows in a bloody bundle of limbs. When Xin came down, he sent a shiver through the ground that made the enemy stumble for just long enough and then the Dai Li agent was displaying the ruthless efficiency of his organization, sliding across the ground on stone shoes to knock the legs out from under one enemy, raise a wall behind himself to block a fire blast, then spin out of the way as he toppled said wall over on the first man. Reki went after Yukari, blurring through the air to clash with the Selfless Warrior in a battle of swordsmanship that had the rest of the coalition forces staring in awe. Ishizuka, Kyuzo, and Kiviuk all had the same target: Azula herself. As they fought furiously, the rest of the coalition forces charged ahead, knocking down their own walls to come to grips with the rest of the Fire Nation troops in a desperate, ferocious attack.

"There's no way out of here!" Reki snarled at them. "Take them all with us to the Spirit World!"

Time seemed to slow down, as it usually did in such a fight.

Jomei and Xin ceased hammering the firebenders as the rest of the coalition took over and rushed to join up with Azula's foes and Reki, respectively. Xin still had no intention of going up against the princess in personal combat.

Yukari, though she wore thin stone armor, received a surprise that was nearly fatal in the opening seconds of her little fight. Using the armor to speed her motions, she struck, faster than any ordinary swordmaster could swing. Reki didn't even have to block. She leaned aside, letting the edge of Yukari's sword whisper by her ear, and struck back, aiming for the Selfless Warrior's hands and wrists, which were not protected by the armor. Yukari wrenched her limbs out of the way just in time, feeling muscles protest mightily, and stabbed this time, with overwhelming force. Reki, impossibly, dodged again, sidestepping the thrust and making one of her own, at the gap at the base of Yukari's neck. Yukari saved herself by bending said armor thin and stopping the thrust, just barely. The stone splintered and cracked and by the time she had moved back, there was an even larger gap. No one is this fast! How is she doing this? This is impossible! Yukari considered tunneling away, but that would require either standing still for a split second too long or turning to dive headfirst into the earth, exposing her back to Reki's lack of mercy. Her future was looking short. And that was before Xin came skating over to join her opponent.

Azula, on the other hand, even against four veteran benders, was outdoing herself. She began the intricate process of gathering lightning, blue bolts crackling about her hands, normally a death sentence in a close-up fight and naturally, all her enemies tried to take advantage of it, reacting instinctively with the fastest attacks they could make. Jomei flung stone, Kyuzo poured out fire, Ishizuka charged straight at the princess, and Kiviuk lashed out with a water whip. Azula almost casually sidestepped and let Jomei and Kyuzo's attacks meet each other, then began a turn. Ishizuka screeched to a halt as the lightning grew stronger and the princess now faced her, but then Azula kept going, brushing one hand against the water whip. Kiviuk lost control of his element, twitching as a powerful shock ran back through the whip to strike him. Finishing the motions with her usual precision, she completed her turn and was then face-to-face with Kyuzo, who promptly dove aside, taking him out of action long enough for her to direct the actual bolt towards Jomei. He had seen it coming and had time to raise a stone wall, but said wall still exploded and knocked him back a few steps.

Then it was Azula's turn.

She chose Kyuzo, as the obvious weak point, to kill first, and unleashed an enormous jet of blue fire at him. He knew that even with his exceptional control, he couldn't block it in the traditional method or contain and redirect it like he'd done with Takeo. So instead, he opted for the least useful and most hazardous method of defense, dispersing it. He brought both hands forward, palms open, and Azula's fire blast, when it hit, exploded into a fireball, flames streaking all over. As the smoke faded, she saw that his palms were singed and red, but he was otherwise unharmed and she'd wasted a chance to kill one of them. They attacked again.

Yukari skated backwards again, ripping a stone sword from the ground, which flew right to her hand. The blade flaked excess earth as she put an edge on it, keen enough to cut nearly anything. Raising both swords, she met Reki and Xin's next assault with one of her own. She slashed right and left, a move impossible to avoid unless the desert warrior blocked one of them and then Yukari would have her. Reki ducked one swing and blocked the other, bracing her sword with her free hand, and even so, the strength of the blow sent her into a roll. Still, she turned that to her advantage, rolling around Yukari's side as Xin let fly with both stone gloves. Yukari flipped backwards, crushing both gloves with her feet, and landed in a crouch, her mind racing. She was an earthbending master, but most of her best techniques wouldn't work due to the proximity of Azula and the other Fire Nation forces. Of those that remained, Xin could probably at least deflect while letting Reki move to the attack and Reki somehow continued to defy logic and remain Yukari's superior at swordplay. Reki paused a moment, seeing the confusion and hesitation in her enemy's eyes.

"There's a weakness about using stone armor to speed your movements," she said, breathing hard, but grinning broadly. "You can't stop any attack once begun. So if you really want an honest test of swordsmanship, ditch the armor and get to fighting!"

Yukari ran through the pros and cons of doing just that in the span of one breath and the decision was an easy one. She let the stone armor fall off, and raised both swords again, making no reply to Reki's insult. The three of them met for what they all knew was the last time. A real fight was over much faster than most people thought.

Kyuzo tried to use his flare technique, but of course, Azula recognized the move and had turned her eyes away by the time it went off. Kiviuk, recovered from the shock, tried something different, sending a rolling wave of water across the ground. The princess leapt over it, burning off a dry spot to land in with a fire kick, shattered Jomei's stone spear that punched up at her with one hand, then at last had time to deal with Ishizuka, who had fire spurting from her heels as she came at Azula again, fire knives lit. Azula decided that the other woman would be the one to die first instead and produced another great gout of blue fire. Ishizuka leapt forward and up to meet it, using the explosive reaction between the blast and her own firebending to launch herself up and over the majority of it. Trailing smoke, she came down close enough to Azula to lash out with a knife. The princess' uncanny brilliance warred against Ishizuka's gutter-fighting tricks and experience for a brief moment, then Azula's sheer power told once more and she forced Ishizuka to leap back, rolling to her feet again. The princess was beginning to grow impatient. I can beat them all, but it will take too much time. Where's everyone else, they should be driving the enemy back and catching up with me by now? And what is Yukari doing? Glancing behind her, she discovered the answer to both questions at the exact moment it became apparent.

The remaining Fire Nation forces had broken. They had roughly equal numbers and better firepower than the defenders and had they fought with the masterful and ruthless discipline of the Fire Army, they might well have carried the day. But the desperate fury of the coalition forces overwhelmed them and they retreated before it, falling back, swept away before turning to run.

Yukari met with Reki for the final time, skating around to keep the desert warrior between herself and Xin, two swords against one and one of those two stone to break steel. The Selfless Warrior stabbed with steel and slashed with stone in a one-two sequence of blows that left Reki nowhere to dodge, for this time, paradoxically, Yukari was moving slower and could change the course of her swords fast enough to track Reki no matter how she twisted or jumped. Or so she thought. Reki ducked the stone sword and met the thrust with the flat of her blade, braced against her own chest, so the point of Yukari's steel sword skittered off with a sharp screech, slewing away from her. The Selfless Warrior's superior strength had betrayed her. Then Reki took advantage of Yukari's near-stumble and kicked high, catching Yukari in the jaw and sending her tumbling gracelessly back. Xin sent another pair of stone fists at her, meaning to at least break a limb.

Yukari turned her fall into a dive and burrowed into the ground, leaving the agent without a target. She emerged a scant second later next to Azula.

"M'lady," she said, her voice slurred and blood from a bitten tongue running down her chin. "W'need t'geback t'our lines."

"So it would seem," the princess replied, glaring about at the enemies surrounding them with sufficient force to burn through iron plate. Jomei and his companions were holding off now, unwilling to press a fight that might yet see one of them dead before the rest of their forces got back. "You," she said, pointing at Kyuzo. "You were taught firebending here in the homeland. I will find your family."

Kyuzo went very pale and said nothing.

"Clim'on m'back, m'lady," Yukari urged, crouching down. She spat out a mouthful of blood and with some effort, her voice cleared up. "We need to leave now."

Azula, taking great care not to hurry, did just that, and Yukari catapulted both of them away. Jomei lowered his hammer with a sigh. That wasn't the toughest fight I've been in, but it was close. And Siensao's got what she wanted. Now we just need to get out of here alive.


As the warship's boarding ramp raised back up into place, deadbolts settling into place with dull clangs, and the engines went into reverse, aided by waterbending to help the massive ship turn about without crashing into anything, Siensao had already gotten back to the bridge. It was more than enough time for Azula's naval reinforcements to have arrived. Sure enough, even as the Green Fire came about, they found their way out being swiftly cut off, the newly arrived Fire Nation ships putting themselves broadside on and blocking off the harbor exit. And they were behind the raised chains stretching across the mouth of the little bay. Through her telescope, she saw mines bobbing there as well. They needed a quick way out and through the little blockade before the Fire Nation turned the harbor into an artillery range. This part, at least, they'd planned for in advance. She didn't even need to lift a finger. Instead, she leaned over to the engine room speaking tube.

"Engines, full steam ahead! Don't break anything, but give us the best speed you can!"

"The Lord of Steam hears you, cap'n and the machine spirits are ready to run! My lady will sprint for you, but you run her into the waves and she'll come for you with iron teeth and an empty belly!"

Translation, Siensao thought, we can't maintain top speed for too long or we'll eat up too much coal. Even with what we took from Bukigura, we only have so much.

"Noted, Sakati," she replied. "In the meantime, best speed, please. Helm, keep us steady on course, whatever it takes. And bring down those chains!"

A single heavy stone, propelled by earthbending this time, sailed out to crush the anchoring point for the thick harbor chain and the great length of metal splashed into the water, clearing the way at least partially.

Kiviuk's replacement, the Fire Nation sailor that handled nautical translation of her orders, nodded gravely. Down on the deck, the real work was taking place.

Kiviuk and his waterbenders, even Nerrivek, were all standing in the middle of the broad forward deck. They were tired from all the bending they'd been doing, but now they were being called on for the greatest feat of waterbending any of them had ever done. With the moon rising higher in the sky and the sun halfway below the horizon, their power was waxing and they reached out to the sea beneath them.

Kiviuk led the way, hands moving up and down in the flowing motions that gathered water. A large swell began growing at the Green Fire's aft and amidships and the ship tilted slightly forwards. Then it kept on growing, becoming an enormous mound of water, lifting the immense weight of the warship atop it and everyone grabbed at the nearest handhold as metal shrieked and groaned and the deck tilted sharply forward, the stern lifting into the air. The waterbenders alone kept their place and all their hands swept forward in a single motion. It was time.

The gathered wave began rolling forward, easily two stories high, with the Green Fire riding high upon them. The helmsman swore and his heavily muscled arms shook with the strain of keeping the wheel steady as the raging wave nearly ripped it from his grasp. Still the waterbenders bent their element and the ship gathered still more speed. By now the Fire Nation ships saw what was coming and were moving as fast as they could, turning to face the wave bow-on rather than broadside-on, which still left very little room to slide between them. The immobile warship in the harbor, unable to do so, was caught in the wash and nearly capsized as it was swept out of their way. Impossibly, Siensao stood up, both hands gripping the back of the captain's chair.

"Take us right between them!" she shouted, taking the briefest instant to point with one hand and nearly pitching forward onto the deck. "And keep going!"

Kiviuk and his waterbenders finally ran out of energy and the wave began to crest, foaming white fountains forming at its top and a deep roar rising into the evening air. The Green Fire rocked from side-to-side as they began the long slide down off the crest of their wave and for a wonder, between the helmsman's prodigious strength and skill and the waterbenders struggling to guide them, they were aimed right where they needed to be. The warship slid between two of the blockading vessels, so close that many people on all three ships heard a brief screech of metal sliding past metal. Then the Fire Nation vessels were engulfed in the great torrent of water, tilting upwards, their decks awash and swimming in an instant and the Green Fire was beyond them, slipping beyond the last dregs of the wave that had carried them to freedom and steaming away at the best speed her engines could give.

Siensao was about to give the order to start making fog again, but then stopped herself as she saw the Fire Navy ships leisurely coming about. One of the smaller, faster patrol ships was darting after them, but not at a pace that would let them catch up fast, just one that would keep them in sight. Azula meant to run them down, to never let them stop for supplies. Well, that was a problem for later. For now, they had done it, they had bombarded part of a major Fire Nation city into rubble and escaped more or less intact, in the face of one of the greatest military minds of the last hundred years. That was something to be proud of.


When Azula was truly, completely, homicidally angry, she did not scream, rage, or spew threats, as she was known to do for lesser matters, when the occasion required a little theatricality. She concentrated all that white-hot anger into her voice and her eyes. Anyone who met her eyes soon looked away again. Anyone who heard her voice flinched and shook. Because they knew that the wrath of the royal family was legendary for a reason. Ozai had scarred and nearly half-blinded his own son when the boy showed a lack of respect, undermining the Fire Lord's authority and threatening the grand strategy of the war. Sozin had destroyed an entire nation when they dared to claim that wisdom demanded the Fire Nation remain poor and powerless, or so the stories went. Azula was about to add her own name to the tale. One might think she already had with the capture of Ba Sing Se, but then, she had not been angry that time.

She stood in the courtyard of Akegata Fortress, with all of those soldiers who had survived the battle at the docks arrayed before her, Colonel Kazehana included. The colonel was red-faced and sweating heavily, this time from fear. The more perceptive noticed that her hands were clenching and unclenching as she paced back and forth, letting the silence press down on the gathering until many wanted to scream for it to be over. When at last she did speak, turning to face them, it was with such concentrated, distilled hate that nearly everyone flinched visibly.

"You," she said, "are responsible for this disaster. You have failed your nation utterly and completely. You are all guilty of desertion under fire, the penalty for which is death. We could have won this day were it not for you." She paused a moment, then continued, still in a quiet, calm, terribly intense voice. "However, I am not in a merciful mood at the moment, so you will not have the luxury of a quick execution. I am transferring all of you to the front lines, where you will spend the rest of your short, miserable lives doing the worst tasks available. If there are none, useless work will be invented just for you. And when you do die, it will be because the general whose division you are assigned to needs bodies for a suicidal attack, which is the only time you will see combat."

She did not smile, which in some ways, was more frightening than when she did. "But before that, your lives here must be destroyed as well so you have nothing to look back fondly on or look ahead to. Your first assignment will be to spend every waking hour rebuilding the industry that you destroyed through your own cowardice. This city is going to disown you. They now have permission to do anything they want to you short of death and once they find out this mess is your fault, I predict they will be very inventive. Children are going to laugh and throw rocks at you and your families for the next ten generations. Within five years, no one will remember your names except as curses. This is the fate you have earned for yourselves." She paused once again, letting out a brief sigh. Then she smiled. "All right, perhaps I'm a little merciful. I won't give your husbands and wives the same sentence. So be glad it's me here and not my father. The Fire Lord is not as forgiving as I am. Dismissed."

She turned aside to Yukari and lowered her voice.

"Unfortunately, I have to get back to the capital or my dear brother will get himself banished again within the week and I can't have that happening before the invasion. I'm assigning you to the naval task force that will be tracking down these rebels. Give Admiral Chan the benefit of your expertise and knowledge of their leaders. He wasn't happy about his shore leave being cancelled, but he's adequate in his position and he'll simply have to do in my place. Do you understand?"

"Yes'm," Yukari said, speaking around a swollen tongue and split lip. "I un'erstan'."

"Good. But don't worry too much if you don't catch them. I have a little surprise waiting for them at the end of their journey. I think you'll like it."