The pounding at the door startled Kyoshi out of her worrying. The trio were supposed to have come back by now, and every ray of sunlight coming through the window slats only hammered the point home. She opened the door, ignoring the foreboding spots of light on the floor, to find Mai, terrified and alone, outside her doorway.

Nights.

"Where are the boys?" she asked, knowing full well that she didn't want to hear the answer.

Mai collapsed into the doorway. "Captured. By—by the Royal Family."

So they wanted their kid back. She could understand that. That didn't mean they could have him, though.

She guided Mai inside and laid her on the couch, stroking her hair, calming her down, all while her mind started to try and find a solution, a way to get them back. Guards, dungeons, maze-like halls—how would she find them in the first place? And how, exactly, would she get them out?

Her mind buzzed with questions, and in her distraction, her eyes fell on something old and familiar. Makeup and bronze fans and a green dress in the closet.

Perhaps it was time for the Avatar Kyoshi to make an appearance.

"Kaito, please. You know Jet, don't you? Do you owe him any favors?"

The huge man in front of Mai huffed. "Not any that big."

Kyoshi hung back, listening to her sired bargain with Kaito. He'd be important: he and his goons were renowned some of the best in the underworld, and they were willing to ally themselves with causes they saw as good even if the pay was bad. She'd let Mai steer this conversation. She could easily have intimidated him into agreeing, but that wouldn't have given them the guarantee they needed. Fear would create reluctance where she wanted conviction. But she'd dealt with him before. Kaito liked to act tough, but Kyoshi knew his soft spots. He hated the idea of a child in danger. He would gladly destroy anyone who took a wrongful captive. And he was weak to a pretty woman's face.

And, inexperienced as her little Mai might be, she'd already managed to hit all three of those.

"Why should I risk my head for that crazy bloodsucker?" Kaitlyn was saying, probably about Jet. "I'm fond of him, but not that fond. Besides, Kyoshi, ain't he older than you?"

"He is," she confirmed. "But Zuko is only two. Still a kid."

"The Crown Prince, huh?" He whistled. "I suspected when I heard the news, but I didn't think even Jet would be that stupid. Some kid." His fingers started tapping. "Besides, don't y'all only take one sired at a time?"

"There was a complication." Kyoshi folded her arms. End of discussion.

He looked perturbed by that. Nights.

Mai looked lost and Kyoshi started to consider taking over. Not only did her sired have to negotiate with someone she'd never met—she was doing wonderfully, but still—but her two other sires had been captured by maybe the two worst people they ever could have gotten captured by, all at only eleven months. The poor thing had so much on her plate. It didn't help that Kaito was an imposing man, and he often didn't let someone know when he sympathized with them, and sometimes he didn't let them know when he agreed. Kyoshi's years of knowing him let her know that he was about to agree. Mai didn't have that advantage.

Still, Kyoshi hung back. If she got involved now she'd ruin it.

"Please. I don't—I don't know what else to tell you. I just—we need you. I need my sires back." If a dead body could cry, Mai would be crying. Kyoshi knew it, and she was sure that Kaito knew it.

He stayed silent for just a moment, and then he softened, just a little. "Alright. I'll help you two break the Prince out of the palace." He shook his head. "Agni, the stuff I do for you people…"

If Mai's heart could still beat, it would be pounding.

She watched Kyoshi meet up with Kaito, who then signalled for his men to take up positions along the wall near the gates. The night sky was high above her as she perched on the rooftop, the newly risen moon casting silver light into the outside courtyard. The walls to the palace courtyard were huge and tall, imposing in a way she'd never noticed as a child visiting the Prince and Princess. They towered over the group at the bottom, making their expedition seem hopeless, condemning them for even daring to think they could breach the palace walls and get back Jet and Zuko.

Kyoshi had assured her that what the walls said was wrong. Mai had to believe her.

The little figures below her began to scale the wall, unable to get through the gates. It was time to go back home. But she found she couldn't leave yet, hands tightening on the tree branch, an imagined heartbeat thumping in her ears. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't worried for Kyoshi. But Kyoshi would be fine. Kyoshi was Kyoshi! The Kyoshi! She'd split Kyoshi Island from the Earth Kingdom and killed Chin the Conqueror! She'd destroyed entire armies with one blow!

…and she'd done it all with her bending. And vampires couldn't bend.

But Kyoshi had told her to go home, and so she had to go home. She had to trust her sired.

Terrified, reluctant, with tears in her eyes, she forced herself to turn away and begin the journey back to their apartment.

The stones of the wall were rough under Kyoshi's hands, and for a brief moment she wished for the old connection with earth, with the Earth, that dying had severed in her. Raava had left her when she'd convinced her friend, the only one that had lived as long as her, to sink his teeth into her and feed her his blood. She'd said the world still needed her.

And it had, she supposed, thinking back on all the young women and men she'd fostered, rescued, all the monsters she'd killed in the dead of night in revenge for her sires. Just not in the way she'd expected.

But now there was someone else who needed her and the stealth skills she'd gained over her years of unlife. Zuko was inside the walls of the palace, trapped with maybe-well-meaning parents who knew nothing about what he needed, who refused to let him go. Her fingers curled in between the stones as she hauled herself up the wall, Kaito and his men following her, and she began again, even after a week of planning, to map out every possible scenario in her head, anticipating any moves their enemy might make. Where would Zuko be? Where would Jet be? How much could they trust Kaito's floor plans? Most importantly, where would Ursa and Ozai be, and would they be asleep?

She didn't know yet. She'd find out soon.

The palace was imposing from the top of the wall, but she didn't mind—she was Kyoshi, the most powerful Avatar of all time, feared and revered both in humanity's memory and the vampire world. She'd be fine, and so would Zuko and Jet once she got them out.

Kaito and his men began to appear with her on top of the wall, letting down the ropes around their torsos. The climb back down would be a fair bit easier. Guards patrolled below, but they were few and easily taken care of, and Kyoshi slipped into the palace, her colleagues finding other entrances.

The hall in front of her was lined with doors, most likely to the suites for lower-ranking nobles. She didn't find Jet or Zuko anywhere here. So she moved on, going first lower and lower into the basement levels of the palace, slipping into the palace prison like a shadow, eyes and ears straining for any hint of Jet.

"Kyoshi?" a distant voice called. Jet's voice.

"I'm here," she replied, her own voice stirring some of the prisoners around her. "Where are you?"

"Over here, over here, over here," he called as she followed the sound of his voice to a cell identical to all the rest. The iron bars may not have posed a match for the Avatar Kyoshi, but the vampire Kyoshi went instead for the lock, taking out a pin she'd stashed for just this purpose and carefully unlocking the cell. Jet stood silently, crouched, ready to slip out as soon as the door opened. Soon he stalked through the halls at her side.

Those same hallways had changed from stone walls and damp air to torches and finery when she finally found Kaito, who was talking with one of his men. Zuko stood quietly behind him, scared, until he caught sight of Jet.

There were no words spoken. Zuko just pushed aside the men and barrelled into Jet's arms.

"Hey, baby," Jet murmured into his hair. "I missed you too."

They spared a moment for Zuko's sniffles to subside, and then Kaito cut in. "Come on," he said, his gruff voice managing not to echo in the massive hall. "Let's get out of here. How the hell do those Royals even live in such a creepy place?"

It was a little bit before they all reached the main doors, hoping that they wouldn't get noticed. So far so good, right? There had only been a few guards, and Zuko managed to take care of those who did stick around.

Too few guards. Kyoshi's danger senses were prickling again.

"Kaito," she murmured. "Something's up. It's too empty."

He huffed. "No kidding. Everyone get your weapons ready. We might have an ambush on our hands," he whisper-called back to the group.

Thirty seconds passed in near silence.

Then a bell rang through the castle, and just like the disastrous hunt before, guards poured out of the shadowy nooks and crannies. And of course, just like before, the two most terrifying people in the Fire Nation stepped out of the formation.

Zuko seemed to sigh beside Kyoshi. "Mother, Father, why are you still holding on to me? I don't belong here anymore."

"Of course you belong here," Ursa said. "You're our son. You're the Crown Prince." Ozai is silent beside her, studying Zuko with unreadable eyes. "I don't know what those bloodsuckers told you—"

Jet hissed beside Zuko, held back only by the arm that blocked him. "Don't call them that," Zuko said, no threat and no pleading in his voice. "Don't call me that."

"Zuko, please. You're not one of them. You're one of us. You're my—our—son."

"No I'm not." Zuko sounded tired. "I'm not yours anymore."

Jet sidestepped the arm keeping him back and nearly spat at the Royals. "He isn't, trust me. Your son died that night. The Zuko before you is mine. Not yours."

Ursa opened her mouth...and then shut it, seemingly unable to create words in her rage. A tense silence passed.

"Are you sure about this?"

Ozai's voice was deep, smooth, and entirely unexpected, given that it had seemed that Ursa was taking over this encounter. Zuko stiffened. Kyoshi found herself waiting for his answer.

"Yes," Zuko said. "I'm sure."

Another moment of silence. Ozai turned to Ursa. "Perhaps we should let him go. The past few days have only shown us how lost he is to us." Kyoshi would have called it callousness in his voice, but the pain in his eyes told a different story.

Ursa looked at him in shock, still voiceless. The guards began to murmur, unsure of their duty, torn between the loyalties to those who were supposed to be one.

"Well," Ursa snapped finally, "you may have given up on my son, but I won't. Guards! Seize them!"

Kaito stopped. What was left of his men trailed behind him in the street, nursing broken limbs and bloody wounds. "This is our place." A sigh, and Kyoshi turned around to see him staring at her, resignation and bitterness mixing in his eyes. "We lost men tonight. Lost them for your boys. I hope it was worth it, Kyoshi." Then he turned and disappeared inside his hideout, his men trailing after him.

"I wish we could have saved them," Zuko said, a few seconds after the last one closed the door.

Kyoshi sighed. "That would have been nice. But, as a vampire, you...get used to losing people."

They were quiet after that as they headed to the apartment. It was a bit more than a few blocks away, and situated in a run-down bit of the capital, where lots of criminals hung out, where lots of guilt-free food ran around. Kyoshi could spot movement behind the windows, despite the sun beginning to rise. She pursed her lips—she'd hoped that Mai would at least try to get some sleep, but she supposed it was only natural that she'd stay up worrying for them.

"Is that—" Jet said.

"It is. Apparently she's been waiting up for us."

Zuko sighed; he was looking towards the east. "It started at sunrise. And now it ends at sunrise. Maybe that means something."

"We're not in some sort of play, Zuko," Jet teased. "It's just the sunrise. Speaking of which, let's go inside and get some sleep."

Zuko cracked open the door after they walked up—and found himself nearly bowled over by Mai crashing into him. "You're okay!" Her cry was breathless, and she gave off little gasps as Jet wrapped his arms around the two, tugging them inside to collapse on the couch. They began to chatter softly, sobs of delight coming from all of them, revelling in the feel of each other, of being reunited.

Kyoshi watched from the doorway. This wouldn't be for her, not really; she'd had a part in raising Mai, yes, but these three were their own trio. She would leave them alone for now.

It was still her apartment though, so she walked inside and went to bed for some much-needed rest.

Just the epilogue to go, now.