Welcome to chaos. Things really start getting bad now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything associated with it except my fanfiction.

Azula stood in the doorway of Hakoda's home. "What do you want, Azula?" Katara barked.

Much to Hakoda's surprise, Azula did not react to their discovery of her except that she smiled a sinister smile.

"Oh, nothing, peasant, except to replace your loser of a leader with myself," Azula asserted smugly. "Soon the Southern Water tribe will be mine, and from there nothing can stop me from taking the Northern Water Tribe. In fact, the Northern Water Tribe is being attacked at this very moment while you two are dilly-dallying and wasting your pathetic efforts."

Katara quickly stood in front of her father, taking a waterbending stance. "The first part of your demand will be the only one to come to pass, Azula. Nothing you want will happen for you, Azula, because I will prevent it. Nothing will happen to my father, so long as I am standing, and I am in my zone, Azula. It's the dead of night, with Yue's blessing shining over us, and I am standing on a vast continent made of the element I command. You can't beat me, no matter how hard you try. Now is your last chance to stand down, Azula. Even when you were at your strongest,"

Hakoda suddenly experienced a flash of uneasiness. His daughter never let anyone get away with saying "peasant" to her. She was proud of her culture and her heritage, and he remembered belatedly that in whatever incident that Azula called her a peasant, she would always retaliate. But not this time. The air felt colder than usual for some reason.

His blood turned even colder when Azula laughed an somewhat amused, mostly bored laugh. "How typical. Of course, what should I expect from you? You think you're so high and mighty, protecting that pathetic chief of yours. How ironic it is that so long as you're standing, your father will fall."

"What are you even talking about Azula? I won't let you hurt my father."

"But what will stop you, peasant, from killing your father?"

Katara narrowed her eyes. "Stop playing games Azula. You won't win."

"Quite the contrary, you've lost before you've begun, peasant. But as a Princess, I will respect your wishes. I'll stop playing games."

Hakoda could see that Katara was on high alert, and so was he. Azula was too cunning, and she was never straightforward with her tactics.

However, he did not expect, of all things, for Azula to say, "Katara, kill your father."

Apparently, Katara wasn't expecting Azula to say that, too. She blinked. "What did you say?"

"You heard me, peasant. Kill your father."

Katara scoffed. "Azula, what are you talking about? Have you lost your mind again? Are you insane? I would never kill my father, not even if-"

"Katara, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai."

Hakoda looked in shock as Katara stiffened, quit her fighting stance, and said, "I am honored to accept his invitation."

Azula grinned. "Great. Now, don't make me repeat myself again, you filthy peasant." she spat out this last word. "Kill your father."

"Yes, my Firelord."

He was too numb, too much in shock, to be able to react in time to the ice shard she bent his way, and he was stabbed straight through the chest.

He collapsed painfully, barely aware that Azula was talking to Katara, telling her more things to do. Azula then walked up to Hakoda and burned the area around the wound, and leapt out of sight while Katara walked out the door.

What... but how...

And then he realized what must have happened. Strange behavior... obeying some person's every command? Didn't my children talk about how the Dai Li had brainwashed someone that my daughter used to have a crush on before Zuko, and then Aang?

His eyes widened in his pain and with everything fading around him. No... I must tell someone... danger... please...

"Help. Come," he croaked out, straining his voice desperately in the middle of his tumultuous home.

But he knew no one would hear him. It was cold, it was the middle of the night, and he would not be discovered until morning, when it would be too late. He wouldn't be able to tell the others what happened...

Then he faintly heard his daughter scream frantically for help. Through his relief, he smiled a painful smile. Even though he wouldn't make it, at least the others would know what they were facing against.

I'm sorry, Katara... and I forgive you.

Azula frowned at what had transpired in the dying chief's home.

Katara had been brainwashed most thoroughly by the Dai Li Agents. If nothing else, the post-indoctrination suggestion that Katara blindly obeyed was proof that the session Katara was subjected to had done its job. So then why did she still hesitate to kill her own father.

Ah. That was it. Her own father. Stupid watertribe peasant. Only such lowly filth would ever harbor emotions such as love. No wonder that peasant hesitated.

Hence the new orders she gave her slave.

"You have just walked in to see your father on the ground, with his chest stabbed. You will cry for help, and do your best to heal him. But nothing you do will be able to save him. You will start crying sometime after the others arrive. You were not implicit in his assassination. And once you're done and everyone is off of you, you will come to my ship to await new orders."

"Yes, Firelord Azula"

Katara had bowed, accepting everything her Firelord had told her. Now, Azula was anxiously waiting on her ship. Although she hated to admit it, she needed that filthy peasant. She had been the sole reason she was able to conquer two-fifths of the political world in two weeks - soon to be three.

And once she had finished what she needed to do with the peasant right now, she would be able to claim her right to the Watertribes' thrones.