Aang reacted fast enough to shield Sokka with a blast of air, but once the flames cleared, Sokka had only a split second to register the livid scarred face flying towards him before he was tackled to the ground, an apoplectic Firelord straddling him. Before he could get his bearings, he was dazed as a fist collided with his jaw. He tasted blood in his mouth.

"YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF SHIT I'LL KILL YOU!" Sokka vaguely heard Zuko's voice screaming as another blow connected just below Sokka's eye. Sokka considered just letting Zuko tire himself out. Fighting back would probably just make things worse, and it wasn't like he didn't deserve a concussion or two, all things considered.

But as Zuko pulled his fist back again, a blast of air blew him backward several yards onto his back, and a jet of water enveloped his wrists and ankles, freezing him to the floor.

"Zuko, just calm down!" shouted Aang, set in his airbending stance between Sokka and Zuko.

"CALM DOWN!?" Zuko roared, having instantly flashed the ice restraints into steam, "They DRUGGED us, Aang!" pointing his finger at Sokka, his face bloody, and Toph who had collapsed to the floor, and was feeling around blindly, terrified and eyes watering.

Katara, meanwhile, was pulling Sokka and Toph up to their feet with each hand. She wasn't resorting to violence, but she seemed every bit as furious as Zuko.

"How could you!" she hissed icily, her nails digging into their arms, "Why would you possibly think this was a good idea!?"

"Oh, why?" Zuko repeated scathingly, "I can answer this one, Katara: because literally everything is a joke to them. They're selfish, juvenile parasites who see other people's lives as toys to play with! He's irresponsible enough to think drugging us is a good idea, and she's insane enough to say 'let's kick it up a notch!'"

"It was an accident!" protested Toph, half-hiding behind Katara, "Sokka said three drops in the bottle, which wouldn't have been a big deal, but I slipped up and spilled a lot more in, Sokka didn't know!"

"Oh well I guess that's fine then!" Zuko spat back at her sarcastically, "I guess it's fitting that you'd rather put all our lives at risk than admit a single mistake, but of course because you didn't suffer any consequences—"

"WE DID IT FOR YOU!" Sokka cut him off. He could take Zuko wailing on his face, he might even agree with Zuko calling both of them morons and careless, he had every right to call Sokka a selfish, irresponsible prick, but he couldn't let him accuse Toph of simply not caring about her mistake. The whole braindead scheme had been Sokka's idea.

Zuko's eyes narrowed even further. Steam was pouring out of his ears and nostrils.

"'For me?'" he repeated with loathing, "You ruined my life, you delinquent!"

"What life?" Sokka shouted back. Katara and Aang were telling him to shut up and not make things worse, but the way Sokka saw it things couldn't possibly get any worse, he might as well go for broke. "By all appearances, you hated your life anyway! What we did was way out of line, Zuko, I totally get if you never want to see us again, I get if you want to take a page from the family playbook and banish us, but you can't blame us for making you miserable because you're always miserable!"

"I have plenty of things I like in my life!" Zuko fired back defensively, "Or at least I did until you came along! Doesn't it say something to you that someone always seems miserable while they're around you? You don't see the common factor?"

"Zuko, last night you managed to make the idea of having a child with the woman you love sound like the worst fate in the universe! That's what being around you means, having all the good things in life mocked or dismissed. I mean for fuck's sake, Zuko, you've made hating Kuei a core part of your personality! What the heck has he even done to you? You just keep going on and on and expecting people to agree with you because you think that deep down everyone's like you! Doesn't it tell you something that your own friends only want to spend a night with you if you're shitfaced, and once you are you suddenly become a likable person!"

"Well I think I'm fine with being the kind of person you don't want to spend time with!" yelled Zuko, "Because if I have to spend one more second of my life listening to your idiotic voice I'll burn the whole world down!"

"Well that's great, buddy, for once we agree on something! I think I'm done pretending that you're any kind of a nice person! You know, I think maybe we've just been grading you on a curve all these years, giving you too much credit just for not being genocidal! Turns out, even if you're not evil you can still be a dick!"

Zuko's eyes flashed and he leapt toward Sokka with two fire daggers erupting from his hands, but once again Aang managed to push him back.

"Zuko, that's enough!" shouted Aang in his Avatar Voice, "They drugged me too. I'm angry, but I don't see how killing Sokka will solve any of our problems right now!"

"It'll make me feel better," growled Zuko through clenched teeth. He pointed an accusing finger at Sokka, and for a second Aang was worried lightning might erupt from it. "I don't have to stand here and be lectured from an obnoxious leech! It's easy for them to write off what he did just because nothing bad happened to them—"

"How can you say nothing happened to us!?" Toph cut in, "were you not listening to everything Ty Lee said!?" Ty Lee, looking back and forth between the two terrified, yelped and took a step back.

Zuko clutched his chest in mock sympathy. "Oh, you're right Toph, how inconsiderate of me? Here I am worrying about destroying my marriage and putting my nation in danger, but you two got laid slightly sooner than you would have otherwise!"

"I—"

"We—" Sokka and Toph stammered at the same time.

"Oh, will you two wake the fuck up already!?" said Zuko, his hands on his head in exasperation, "As if there was any way you two wouldn't get stuck with each other? I mean, who else would ever settle for either of you? No one else in the world can spend twenty-four hours with either of you without wanting to kill you!"

"Oh, but we're supposed to feel sorry for you!?" Sokka spat back, "You've been moping all damn day because you think your marriage is over because you told everybody about a baby! As if that's enough to keep you two from being gloomy and miserable together forever! Wallowing in how terrible life is probably foreplay to you two! I mean, who else would settle for either of you? No one else in the world can spend twenty-four hours with either of you without wanting to kill themselves! You two belong together!"

"WELL SO DO YOU TWO, AND I'M GLAD WE CAN ALL FINALLY STOP PRETENDING OTHERWISE!"

"WELL IF YOU'RE SO GLAD THEN WHY ARE YOU YELLING!?"

"I DON'T KNOW WE'VE GOTTEN A BIT OFF TRACK!"

A moment of silence fell, broken only by them both panting, out of breath as they stared daggers at each other. After a moment, Aang awkwardly cleared his throat and finally relaxed from his combat stance.

"Well….now that we've gotten that out of the way, maybe now we can—"

He was interrupted by the large double doors to the library creaking open. Once again, they all dropped what they were doing and spun around to see who it was, but once again it wasn't anyone with useful information, just one of the kitchen staff wheeling in a cart laden with hot, steaming cuts of meat, which in an instant filled the cavernous room with its savory scent. Everyone looked disappointed except for Sokka, whose stomach growled loudly enough to be heard in Ba Sing Se, and he started openly drooling.

"Firelord Zuko!" said the cook cheerfully, "The kitchen was sent word you requested….some…." he voice trailed off as he saw the look on Zuko's face.

"Thank you," said Zuko curtly, barely containing his rage, "leave the cart there, you're dismissed."

The cook nodded quickly and almost ran out the doors.

Sokka rubbed his hands together greedily, almost getting killed by Zuko completely forgotten, and made a beeline for the succulent cuts of meat. Before he reached his one true love, however, a small, concentrated fireball flew past his ear, hit the floor where the cart stood, and the entire thing exploded.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sokka fell to his knees and let out a blood-curdling wail towards the high ceiling and desperately tried to sort through the carnage for a morsel that wasn't completely burnt to a crisp. He turned around and glared at Zuko. "Just because you've had a bad day, you had to take it out by murdering all that innocent meat? What did the meat ever do to you!?"

"Zuko, we're in a wooden library!" Katara yelled at him as she and Aang rushed to extinguish the flaming crater where the cart had once stood.

"You've got to be just as hungry by now, Sparky," said Toph. She knew she was. "Was it worth it?"

"Yes," said Zuko, matter-of-factly. "I found that more nourishing than any food I've had."

Their patience was finally rewarded when the double doors opened once again and Librarian Izu returned leading a grumpy-looking old man with wispy white hair, a small mouth, and a large, beak-like nose.

Izu stopped for a second, surprised at the scene of Sokka weeping on the floor, a smouldering crater of ruined hardwood floor, and Zuko standing in the back, arms crossed and eyes burning. The old man, however, continued into the room with no interest at all. He seemed grumpily disinterested in everything, as a matter of fact.

"Sire!" said Izu, hurrying to catch up, "While carrying out your orders, I encountered Hawkmaster Akashi here and he says that last night you paid a visit to the rookery. I believe that fits the parameters you set for me."

"The rookery?" said Zuko, worried about who he had hawked to, "What is it?"

"It's the highest tower where we keep all the hawks," said Akashi, "but that's not important right now. I can confirm that the missive you sent last night was delivered and your instructions were carried out."

"Instructions?" said Zuko nervously, "What instructions?"

"I wouldn't know sir, you were the one who made them," said the Hawkmaster, sounding unimpressed, "I just know I got a confirmation note back from the Asylum after you left last night."

Silence fell once again. Everyone was too afraid to speak. Zuko seemed to just stare into the middle distance, Aang was worried he had broken again.

"You're both dismissed," Zuko murmured, "Get out."

The librarian looked terrified, but the old hawkmaster just shrugged and casually strolled back out of the room, closing the doors behind them.

"Maybe it's not anything bad," piped up Ty Lee, speaking for the first time in a while, "Maybe you just wrote Azula a letter giving her the good news that she's going to be an aunt?" She shrugged with an annoyingly bright smile.

"More likely he wrote her a letter gloating that he can lightningbend now," suggested Aang.

"Oh you can?" said Ty Lee, far too cheerfully, "That's wonderful, Zuko!"

"Yeah, all kinds of things to celebrate today," said Zuko bitterly, "Those are probably the best-case scenarios. Worst-case scenario is I sent an order to have her executed or something."

"Would that really be the worst-case scenario, though?" asked Sokka, getting to his feet. Ty Lee smacked him.

"In any case, we've got to get over there right away. Come on," said Zuko, torn between anxiety and gratitude at finally having something to do. He made his way toward the double doors and threw them open, but was instantly blocked as Generals Wi, Yu, and Mi barged into the room, sending him awkwardly walking backwards as they tried to instantly assert their own importance. They were followed by a company of palace guards, looking very annoyed.

"Ah ha!" exclaimed Yu, pointing an accusing finger at Zuko, "You thought you could hide from us, but we are among the top tactical minds of the Earth Kingdom, there's no evasion technique we can't anticipate!"

"You asked the librarian when you passed him in the hall, didn't you?" said Zuko flatly.

"Yes...well….the point is we won't stand for your lies any longer! You told us that the Earth King was absent because he was flying on your bison, but we happen to know that there is no reason he would miss his afternoon tea!"

"That's what made you suspicious?" said Toph.

"Wow, nothing can get past you masterminds," said Zuko.

"You've abducted him because he deduced how you killed General Hu!" said Mi, "Or you've killed him as well!"

Zuko suppress a laugh at the idea of Kuei solving a murder.

"Hu knew what you were up to! He told us of his suspicions that you were moving against the Earth Kingdom! He uncovered something and you killed him to silence him!" accused Wi.

"Oh, give me a break," said Toph.

"I do not need a break, I've been held hostage by your guards all day!" said Mi.

"Do not start that again!" said Zuko. He turned to his own palace guards. "Is it true they've been 'held hostage,' as they put it?" he asked one of them.

"No sire, Lady Mai assigned us to accompany the Generals for their protection," he said, sounding extremely exhausted.

Zuko strongly suspected it was also for the protection of everyone else, but decided to go along with that.

"Generals, I assure you we are making progress on the investigation into General Hu's death. We reunited with King Kuei and informed him of the situation, he's now personally investigating a very….promising….lead….."

Zuko's voice failed him as one final person discovered them in the library. Standing there in the doorway, wearing a terrifyingly unreadable expression, was his fiance.

"Oh look, you're alive," said Mai dully, "Not that I would know, since I haven't seen or heard from you since kings started vanishing and generals started getting murdered. Even though I let you know this morning that I wanted to talk to you. I guess I should have known that you were just blowing me off."

Zuko swallowed hard, and walked slowly to his doom, leaving the generals behind mid-sentence, them looking very indignant. He got close enough to her to speak in a whisper.

"Okay, let me just begin this apology by reiterating that I've probably done much worse than this and you've already forgiven me, so just keep that in mind if you want to be consistent. I mean I did get you thrown in prison one time. Wait, shit, no, don't think about that. The point is I know I promised to keep the baby a secret and I am so extremely sorry—"

"You think that's what I'm mad about?" Mai cut off his rambling, "Of all the shit that's happening right now, you think I'm worried about a premature baby announcement? Thanks for the vote of confidence in my maturity."

Zuko was struck dumb, "Wait….you're not mad? That's not what you wanted to talk to me about this morning?"

Mai sighed, "Make no mistake, Zuko, I am royally pissed at you. But we have much bigger things to worry about right now. That's not why I needed to talk to you this morning. Even if it was, you still had no excuse to blow me off, but I needed to tell you that we received this this morning!" She shoved a rolled up piece of paper into his hands. He unrolled it and started reading. As his eyes travelled further down the scroll, he felt more and more nauseous.

Meanwhile, Sokka was trying to distract the Earth Kingdom generals, but his lie had quickly snowballed. "So Kuei had Momo on his head, Aang was spazzing out on the ground, and I still had half a potato in my mouth—"

"That's enough!" shouted Yu, "Our entire mission to this city was clearly a devious trap! We are returning to the Earth Kingdom, and rest assured, this attack on our king will not go unanswered!"

The generals made to leave the library, but Zuko cut them off in the doorway.

"Guards," said Zuko gravely, "take the generals into custody."

Nobody moved. It took several seconds for Zuko's sudden change in tactics to register.

"That's not what I had in mind, Zuko," Mai groaned.

"How….how dare you!" said Yu indignantly, "You have no right! The Fire Nation will pay for this!"

The guards didn't even move, looking with uncertainty between Zuko and the generals, before Zuko nodded and they took the generals by each arm and marched them away down the hall, shouting vague threats and insults back at Zuko until out of earshot.

"Have you gone completely insane!?" Katara seethed at Zuko, "How did that help anything?"

"We couldn't let them leave the city," Zuko answered, surprisingly calm, "We're on thin ice as it is, if they went back to the Earth Kingdom and started spouting off their suspicions, we'd be at war in a day. I just bought us some time. Once we find Kuei, he can smooth everything over. If we became as friendly last night as people have said, he'll be pretty trusting."

"That's….actually good thinking," said Sokka.

"No need to sound so surprised," said Zuko.

"Yeah, based on their charming personalities, nobody will miss them anytime soon," said Toph, smiling mischievously, "We probably have days before anyone starts asking questions."

"Actually, we have until midnight tonight," said Zuko.

"WHAT!?" everyone else said at the same time.

"The generals weren't the only ones observing the other side," said Zuko, "I've been having their movements monitored since they arrived here. Every night, around midnight, General Mi would send out his own personal hawk. I'm fairly certain he's been sending messages to the rest of the Earth Kingdom military. If they don't keep sending the messages, the army's orders are to mobilize against the Fire Nation on the assumption that the negotiations had been a trap and the Earth King had been killed or captured."

Aang looked unconvinced, "How do you know—"

"It's what I would do," said Zuko.

"See, we need to work on your trust issues," said Sokka. Zuko glared at him.

He turned to Katara and Mai, "Stay here and keep an eye on the generals. Maybe some of Katara's people skills can pull off a miracle. The rest of us need to pass by the treasury and the airfield as fast as we can."

"The airfield!?" asked Katara, "What is it?"

"It's where we keep all the war balloons and airships," said Zuko, "but that's not important right now. We only have until midnight to get Kuei and convince the generals to send the "hold steady" message."

"So why did you arrest them!?" asked Toph, "You said you bought us some time, but clearly not much, we're still not any closer to figuring out—"

"I know who took Kuei," said Zuko resolutely, "And I know who killed Hu. We're going to get the Earth King back, by any means necessary."

He shoved the rolled up paper into Sokka's dumbstruck face. He took it with shaking hands, and started to read, along with Aang and Katara reading over his shoulder. After a few seconds, Toph loudly cleared her throat.

"Oh, right, sorry," said Sokka, and he began to read aloud:

Dear Zuzu,

First of all, let me extend my sincere congratulations on your upcoming nuptials as well as your incoming screaming bundle of joy. I suppose I'm eternally grateful to the kid for filling you with so much sense of familial responsibility that you were moved to release your insane little sister, though I strongly suspect I also owe a debt to whatever substances you partook in last night.

Now, as much as I'd like to believe that our family will live happily ever after, I can't count on you not changing your mind about my freedom once you've sobered up. So, I decided to take out a little insurance policy:

I have your annoying little friend. If you ever want to see him alive again, you'll bring me a thousand gold coins and a war balloon to give me a head start. Meet me after nightfall tonight at our favorite spot to play when we were kids to make the exchange, and everyone will leave happy.

Oh, and please don't get some idea of heroics into your head, Zuzu. I assume you're aware of the horrible event that already happened last night, I'd hate for this loss to add to your heartache and stress at such a sensitive time.

Wishing you well,

Azula.

"Well…..shit," said Toph.

"My thoughts exactly," said Zuko.

"Zuko, you aren't actually considering letting her go, are you?" asked Katara worriedly, "You know how dangerous she is."

"Not as dangerous as the entire Earth Kingdom army," said Zuko, "I don't have a choice, we'll worry about re-capturing Azula later. For now, nothing else matters but getting Kuei. It's already dusk, we need to hurry now."

He turned to Mai, looking shame-faced. Before he could speak, she cut him off. "Later. Like you said, we're short on time, go prevent a war."

He looked slightly relieved, then gestured to Sokka, Toph, and Aang and started leading them out of the library.

Aang trailed them, and as he was in the doorway, he turned back to Katara.

"Okay, I know it's not the most important thing right now, but this is still gonna drive me crazy: if I didn't tell you about Sokka's and Toph's wedding last night, then what did I write to you about? What were you talking about this morning?"

Katara blushed and didn't look him in the eye. Ty Lee smiled. "That's really not important at the moment, Aang, we can talk about that later," said Katara.

"Please?" begged Aang, "It'll let me focus!"

Katara sighed. "It wasn't just a letter you sent me last night, Aang. It was a package."

"A package?" he repeated, "containing what?"

Katara reached into her pocket and pulled out something gnarly. It looked to be a blue paper streamer , slightly torn and frayed, tied into a circle, and hooked into it was a white cork from a sake jug, with a crude attempt at a swirling symbol carved into it. It was obviously a collection of detritus found at Tai's temple. It was garbage, but it was garbage fashioned into a clear, recognizable form:

A Water Tribe betrothal necklace.

Aang gulped. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly as Katara held up the necklace and looked at him sardonically, with a hand on her hip and her lips pressed together.

Before Aang thought of anything to say, Zuko's impatient hand closed around his collar and dragged him down the hall