Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. It turns out December was just as busy for me as November. Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. Hopefully once I settle into a semi-normal routine I'll be back to regular updates.

More Than Blood Can Stand

Chapter 23: Family Matters

Toph's arms ached. She had finally gotten past the point of needing to hang onto Zuko in order to feel secure on Appa, but she still kept a much tighter grip on the saddle than was strictly necessary.

She really hated flying.

But they were close. Just a few moments ago, Aang had called out that he saw the outer walls of Ba Sing Se. She just needed to hang on for a little while longer, and it would all be over.

Around her, the others were chattering about how big the walls were, and how beautiful, and generally ignoring the fact that one among them was not participating in this great bonding experience that was called eyesight.

Not that she cared. She'd never seen anything, and she didn't really see what the fuss was all about. Earthbending was way more sensitive, incredibly useful, and this way she didn't have to care about her appearance. Double win.

Her stomach whooshed into her throat as the saddle underneath her began to change altitude. She bit back a scream - couldn't they warn her? - and dug her feet into the saddle.

But then all the rest of them were yelling, and Toph caught something about a fireball, enough to realize that the soldiers on the wall were Fire Nation soldiers and that they weren't exactly giving them an enthusiastic welcome.

"I'll get them to stop!" Aang yelled from what seemed like very far away. "They don't know who we are yet!"

Appa ducked and swerved from side to side, coming close on several occasions to flipping upside down, and the eventual landing was so sudden, that by the time she slid onto solid ground, she was so queasy and dizzy that it messed with her seismic sense. The world was a blur; she grabbed onto the nearest arm she could find - Mai's, she thought? - as the group began to walk forward, and immediately stumbled over a rock that she really ought to have seen coming.

Ugh… If this spinning didn't stop soon, she was going to throw up.

A man was walking across the courtyard towards them, which she was sure she wouldn't even have noticed had he not been exceptionally heavyset. She couldn't even feel Aang standing beside him until they were almost to the group.

"Prince Zuko," the man said, a quiver in his voice.

"Fire Lord Zuko," Hinata said before Zuko could get a word in.

After a brief pause in which the man might have bowed, he continued. "My Lord, please follow me. General Mak gave orders to take you to him immediately."

"Good," Zuko said, his voice and blurry shape seeming to drift in the general direction of the heavyset man. "The Avatar and I have urgent business to discuss with him."

"Of course." Again the quiver in his voice. What was the man afraid of? So the soldiers had shot fireballs at the Fire Lord. Big deal. They probably didn't know about the sky bison. No harm done.

Except to her seismic sense, she reminded herself, as she stumbled against the owner of the arm she was clinging to.

"What's wrong?" Mai hissed at her.

Ah, so it had been Mai.

"I'm dizzy," she mumbled. "Can't see very well."

She gave an impatient grunt. "Fine. Stick close."

They walked across what Toph assumed was a courtyard - it was about the right size and filled with statues and fountains as befitted a palace - until they approached what looked like a steep hill. Stairs, she thought. Maybe her sight was getting better. If she concentrated, she could almost make out the individual steps and the group of maybe a dozen people at the top of the stairs. Some of the group began to climb them, but Zuko and someone - was it Hinata? - stayed at the foot.

Beside her, Mai came to an abrupt halt, and her arm trembled under Toph's hand. "If she orders me to kill him," she whispered so quickly and quietly Toph could barely make it out, "take me prisoner and get us back to the bison."

"What?"

But Mai had pulled her arm out of Toph's hand and took a few steps forward, until she was standing next to Zuko. "Azula." Her voice was calm, neutral. She bowed. "What a surprise to see you here."

"Mai. It's good to see you again."

Toph prided herself in never forgetting a voice, and she recognized this one immediately. It was the princess from Omashu, the one who was in league with Ozai. At almost the same moment, she realized that the hundreds of statues she'd felt in the courtyard were actually soldiers.

That didn't bode well.

"What is the meaning of this, Mak?" Zuko's voice was harsh. "Why is she here with you?"

Azula laughed. "Poor, dear Zuzu," she crooned. "It appears you're all out of allies." She shifted her weight forward, clearly reveling in how she'd caught them in her little trap. Toph half expected her to launch into a speech, but when she spoke it was short and sweet. "Mai. It's time."

Mai had pulled out a knife before Toph put two and two together. That was her signal! What had Mai said? Take her prisoner and get her back to Appa? That wasn't really feasible right now, with the hordes of soldiers around them, but she could at least handle the prisoner part.

Setting aside in her mind the burning question of why Mai wanted it done that way and why she knew Azula would ask this of her, she ground her feet into the stone beneath her and pulled up with her hands to bind Mai in a stone cage reminiscent of the metal one holding King Bumi. Except that bending so precisely was really hard when people looked like fuzzy blurs. There had been an uncomfortable thud when she'd closed the cage, and there was a slight possibility that she'd knocked Mai out in the process. Her heart was still beating. She'd be fine.

A collective gasp went through the courtyard. Zuko cried out and took a step closer to her. His heart was beating faster than she'd ever felt it before.

The princess's heart rate, however, remained calm. "They are traitors to the Fire Nation!" she cried. "Kill them all!"

And then the courtyard broke into chaos. Fire flew at them from every direction other than up the staircase. Shields went up just in time. Toph's own earthen wall blocked their right and rear flanks, while Aang and Katara's ice walls worked in concert with Zuko and Hinata's fire walls to block the left flank, and somehow they managed to hold off the bulk of the first attack.

But there were at least a hundred soldiers and only five of them who could really fight, not counting Mai and Sokka, because, well, no bending (and of course, Mai was trapped inside what amounted to a stone coffin and was possibly unconscious). Those were overwhelming odds. They could probably hold them off with their walls, but actually fighting their way through them was another matter.

"What are we going to do?" Katara hissed, straining to keep her ice wall in place. The repeated fire blasts were melting it as quickly as she and Aang could reform it, and they were both sweating with the effort.

"We get back to Appa and get out of here," Sokka said. His boomerang was out of its holster, but he was crouching behind her wall, not quite close enough to any of the enemy to be of much good.

"And take out as many of those soldiers as we can on the way," she said, as she upended the earth under the feet of those who had dared to approach them.

"Where will we go?" Hinata grunted. A new wave of fire slammed into his wall. "Back to the air temple?"

"No." Zuko's voice was hard. "We don't run, and we don't focus on the soldiers. They're following orders. Cut off the prickle snake's head, and the tail will die, too." He turned from his fire wall and began walking up the stairs.

"Zuko, wait!" Hinata let out a curse, then turned to Aang. "Can you get the bison over here to pick us up?"

He nodded, pulled something out of his robes, took the deepest breath Toph had ever sensed, and blew it all out.

Nothing happened. Figured. Was she the only competent one in the group?

But Hinata was already running up the steps after Zuko. "Get them all on Appa, then come for us as soon as you can. We're getting out of here, no matter what he said."

Azula's mouth curved into a smile as she watched Zuko ascend the staircase. Predictable, honorable Zuko. He didn't stand a chance. But she wouldn't kill him right away. No, she would have her fun first.

"General Mak!" His face was contorted into a mask of rage. "Explain yourself! What treason is this?"

"The only traitor here," Mak replied, "is you."

Zuko actually paused on the steps. "What under the sun are you talking about?" Azula almost laughed at his confusion.

"You have conspired with our enemies, planned an invasion of the homeland, and are as much a traitor as Ozai." The Dai Li had done their jobs well, if he could say all of this in front of Zuko with a straight face.

"What I have done," he said, climbing the last few steps, "has been for the Fire Nation. I am the rightful Fire Lord, and you will either swear fealty to me or be destroyed."

Mak's jaw clenched. "I will not bow before a traitor to my nation, no matter what crown he wears."

"Zuko!" His ever-present, annoyingly strict guard ran up next to him, gasping for air. "Let's go. We can't win here."

"No." Zuko turned his attention to her. "This is Azula's fault, somehow, and I'm going to finish this now." He dropped into a firebending stance.

"For the love of all things that burn, Zuko, will you listen to me?" Hinata's voice was strained. "You're no good to the Fire Nation dead. We. Can't. Win. Today."

"How right you are." Azula snapped her fingers. "Ty Lee? Capture them."

In a blur that was barely noticeable to the human eye, Ty Lee shot out from her place to Azula's right, aiming for Zuko.

Hinata's reflexes must have been superhuman, because somehow he managed to dart in-between them so that he bore the brunt of her attack, though not before shooting a fireball at Ty Lee's chest. She brought her hands up at the last second to protect herself and cried out in pain, the blast launching her back against one of the pillars at the top of the stairs, where she landed with a crack. Hinata, meanwhile, collapsed into a heap of useless limbs at Zuko's feet.

"Hinata!" Zuko wasted a half second reaching down for his friend - a mistake Azula would never make, and she took advantage of that weakness.

She shot firebolts at him, one after another, and though he dodged them all, she had pushed him back to the edge of the stairs. His left foot slipped down a step, and he flailed his arms in an attempt to keep his balance. If she could just-

But he had already recovered his balance. His face took on that determined look that she hated so much, and he was fighting back. His fire had a warmth to it that she didn't remember. She couldn't quite place it; it wasn't a heat, not in the way that her fire was superheated. No, it was more of a feeling when it passed too close to her, a feeling of warmth deep in the pit of her stomach that unsettled her. It reminded her of Uncle Iroh, and she didn't like to be reminded of him.

She was still the better fighter. She had years of practical battle experience; his was limited to sparring matches.

A blast of fire flew over her shoulder at him. Perfect. Now that Ling had joined in the fight, he stood no chance.

Zuko danced along the edges of the top stair, obviously aware of how close he was to it. He crouched down, kicking an arc of fire and pushing them temporarily back a few steps.

This was incredibly annoying. How had he regained control so easily? And why weren't Mak and his soldiers attacking?

She hadn't wanted to do this. Not yet, at least. Not until he was her prisoner and she had a larger audience. But it appeared to be necessary. Trusting in Ling to cover her, she drew back a few steps and began winding up for her attack.

She separated her emotions from her, removing them to a place where she could recognize them, but they could not impact her bending. She carefully separated the positive and negative energy, feeling the pull of the one to the other and the overwhelming repulsion of each force to itself. It crackled within her, sparking from one fingertip to the other. She pointed her finger at Zuko. He took a deep breath and settled into a defensive posture.

But no. There was a better target. At the last moment she dropped her finger to the figure lying on the ground.

It took Zuko only a fraction of a second to realize what her plan was, and she could see the horror in his eyes.

"No!" he screamed, running forward and bringing his hands close to his body. But he would be too late.

She released the lightning, but at that exact moment a wall of the strangest fire she'd ever seen appeared in front of her. It wasn't Zuko's usual orange-red color, nor was it blue like hers. It was like a wall of rainbow fire, made up of every color imaginable, and so full of that uncomfortable warmth it made Azula sick.

The lightning splintered when it hit the strange fire, sparking in a dozen different directions, including right back at her. She dodged out of its way just in time. The rainbow fire had vanished, revealing the grotesque beast the Avatar flew around on hovering in the air just beyond the stairs. Zuko was hoisting Hinata onto it.

Not losing any time, she began preparing her attack again. She would get one more shot before they were out of range. She needed to make it count.

She aimed. She released the lightning.

The beast dodged, and instead of hitting Zuko, as she'd intended, it flew right into the monster's side. It roared and lost a bit of altitude, but continued flying as though it was merely an inconvenience.

With a growl, she rounded on Mak.

"It's nice to see you doing your part in all this."

He stared at her with an impassive face. "I will not harm the rightful Fire Lord, traitor though he may be," he said. "Not even on your orders, Princess."

Fury burned in her heart, and she would have given anything to have seen Mak killed on the spot. But she needed his men, and she was quite sure that without his leadership, they would rebel.

Fine, then. If she couldn't win this, she could at least make a dignified exit. She spun around and walked into the palace with all the grace that a princess should have.

She was almost to her room when she realized that Ty Lee was still at the foot of the pillar.

Zuko sank into back into the saddle, equal parts relief and dread sinking into him. They'd gotten away safely with no one seriously hurt. He was familiar with Ty Lee's chi blocking technique, so he knew that in another fifteen minutes or so Hinata would be as good as new. And while the lightning attack had obviously injured Appa, he was not so injured that he couldn't fly away.

That could have gone much, much worse. But at the same time, he had lost half his army, and to Azula. Now what was he going to do? He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes and stifled a groan.

"Who was that?" Aang's voice broke through the silence, unusually terse for him.

"Princess Azula," Hinata said in his most serious tone. "Ozai's daughter."

"Lightning…" Toph sounded shaken. "I had no idea firebenders were even capable of that."

Hinata grunted. "It takes an extremely talented firebender to learn it. Lightning bending is very rare outside the royal family."

"Can Zuko do it, then?" Katara asked.

"No." He stubbornly kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see their faces right now. "I can't."

"Oh…" Katara sounded embarrassed. "I just thought because you were the Fire Lord, and it's a royal family trait-"

"Well I can't. I'm not as naturally talented as my sis- as my cousin."

"Wait," Sokka said suddenly. "Wait, wait, wait. Is this the cousin who is also your sister who wants you dead and was probably going to order Mai to kill you?"

Zuko dropped his hands, opened his eyes, and sat up, face flushing. He cast a glance at Mai, but she was perfectly expressionless. He looked around at the rest of the group, who had a mix of shock and curiosity on their faces.

Except Hinata, who was furious.

"That's none of your business," he practically spat. "And how did you even find out about that?"

Sokka raised his hands, placating. "Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Zuko mentioned it to me a few days ago, that's all."

"There's a thing called tact-"

"Yeah," Zuko spoke over him. "It's the same cousin." When they all continued to stare at him, he sighed and waved his hand dismissively. "It's a really long story."

Katara smiled softly back. "We have plenty of time..."

Hinata's head swiveled to her, but before he could say anything Zuko spoke over him. "It's okay. It's not like it matters anymore." He sighed heavily, ran a hand over his eyes again, and said it.

"Fire Lord Iroh was my adopted father. My birth father was Ozai." Or not, a voice inside his head whispered.

The silence stretched on for just long enough that he was beginning to squirm, when Sokka laughed. "That's it? Your uncle is your father and your cousin is your sister? Doesn't seem like that long a story to me. And perfectly understandable. If Ozai and Azula were my family, I'd disown them, too."

The hackles began to rise on the back of his neck. "It wasn't my choice," he said. "I had no say in the matter."

"What happened, then?" Toph's question, softer and gentler than usual, calmed his nerves. She, at least, deserved an explanation.

"When my cousin - my real cousin - died, my father thought that was his chance. He asked for an audience with my grandfather and tried to convince him that Uncle didn't deserve to be Crown Prince anymore, to give the title to him. Grandfather was angry."

It was like a dam bursting. Once the first few words were out, everything began spilling out, faster and faster, uncontrollable.

"He said that Father had overstepped, and that as punishment he should know the pain of losing a son. Father misunderstood him, said he would be happy to kill me if that would placate him."

"What kind of monster offers to kill his own child?" Sokka's face was twisted in revulsion.

The others were wearing similar expressions. Hinata looked particularly horrified, and Zuko realized with a start that only his immediate family knew this part of the story. He glanced over at Mai. Her face was an icy mask, not a twitch of expression, but she did look a bit paler than usual.

"A scheming member of the royal family whose son had never been especially talented at, well, anything," he said in answer. "But I was there, I heard Grandfather say it all, and it sounded like he was ordering Father to kill me. I've wondered since then if he said that to trap Father, or if he really intended to kill me and only changed his mind once he realized Father wouldn't consider it much of a punishment."

He let out a shaky breath. "But whatever Grandfather's motives were, he told Father that I was to be given to Uncle Iroh, to jump over my father in the line of succession, to be treated as Uncle's son. All mentions of my first family were to be stricken from Fire Nation records. The ceremony was performed as soon as Uncle arrived home from the front. I had a new father. No sister. No-" He fought valiantly against the waver in his voice, the tears pricking at his eyes. "No mother."

"The Fire Lord took my mother away, too. That's what you meant," Katara whispered. "How old were you?"

"Eleven."

Aang rubbed a hand across his eyes, and Zuko realized with panic that the Avatar was crying. Katara had noticed, too. "Aang..." She reached for him, but he pulled himself away and looked at Zuko.

"The monks were going to separate me from my guardian and send me to another Air Temple, never to see him again. That's why I ran away. That's how I got stuck in the iceberg." He shook his head. "It must have been so hard for you to live with it all those years. I wasn't that brave."

"It was meant to be, Aang, you know that. If you'd stayed, you would have been killed with the other airbenders." Katara tried again to reach for him, and was again rebuffed.

"I should have been as brave as Zuko."

He laughed without humor. "I wasn't brave. The first thing I did was run to my mother and cry. And I would have run away if I could have. I didn't have a choice."

"You were second-in-line to be Fire Lord," Katara said. "I bet you had more of a choice than you thought."

"You're a fool if you think that." Mai's acerbic voice cut through the group, making several of them jump. "It was because he was a prince that he had no choice. He would not have been allowed to live another day if he hadn't accepted the Fire Lord's will."

Katara scowled. "And how long is he going to be allowed to live now? What was that about you being ordered to kill him, again?"

"If I wanted to kill Zuko, he would have been dead days ago. Trust me, I've had plenty of opportunities."

"That didn't answer my question."

"Leave Mai alone," he said, though a part of him was touched that Katara, of all people, was defending him.

Mai didn't share his opinion. Her hands were balled into fists. Her cheeks were flushed, brows knit, and she looked like she was about to lose control. He'd never seen her like that before. He kind of liked it.

"You want me to answer your question? Fine," she practically growled. "I had the fortune of being chosen as one of Princess Azula's companions when we were little. I grew up with her. She considers me her closest friend. And yes, she wants me to kill Zuko. She told me so before we left Omashu."

His eyes widened at this. It shouldn't have been a surprise to him; he had assumed it. But to hear her admit it in front of them all, as something established so long ago as Omashu…

"But I haven't, and I won't. Because Azula doesn't have friends; she has minions. And I am not going to be her pawn."

Their conversation from back in Omashu came to him, running through his mind as he watched the emotion play across her face.

We are nothing more than pieces in a giant Pai Sho game, being moved where the players will.

Are our pieces at least controlled by the same side?

I hope so.

They were no longer pawns - or, at least he wasn't. He was Fire Lord. Without an army, perhaps, and unable to rule from the palace, but he answered to no one. No one controlled his movements, no one told him what to do. And, maybe, the opportunity to be Fire Lady, to no longer have to answer to Azula, had appealed to Mai, too.

But what if she felt like she had traded one master for another?

He took one of her balled fists and gently pried it open, linking his fingers through hers. She spun around to face him, her eyes still flashing emotion. He resisted the urge to recoil.

"You're nobody's pawn," he said. "Not anymore."

Her eyes softened, but the intensity didn't change. She stared at him for a long moment, and he felt his heart rate increasing and his body temperature rising under her gaze. Finally, she whispered fiercely, "Not unless I want to be."

A spike of heat shot through him, and everything around them faded.

"Ugh, my eyes," Sokka groaned, breaking the spell. "Get a room!"

Zuko didn't take his eyes off her. Get a room? Oh he intended to. The moment they got off this bison, he intended to.