"So where are we going?" asked Sokka, "The Crazy Bitch's letter was kinda weird. I never really pictured you guys 'playing' together as kids, more like 'evil glaring' together. You know the place she was talking about?"

They were flying eastward above the city in a conscripted war balloon, night was falling, and the city below had transformed from a hodgepodge of buildings to a scattered inverted starscape of lights, the fires of the celebrations down below still going strong.

"She's talking about an abandoned district on the eastern edge of the city. It used to be a residential area, but Sozin redirected the underground magma flow away from an area near the palace for development, turning this place into a hotspot. The random geyser bursts and lava flows made it unlivable."

"Shame. It almost makes you start to think that building a city inside of an active volcano is a bad idea," said Sokka.

"Where did the people who already lived there go?" asked Toph.

"Wherever they could, that wasn't Sozin's concern," said Zuko. "When we were kids, Azula said she heard the whole place was haunted, and I was a coward if I wasn't willing to check it out with her. Once we were there, she blew a hole in the ground, surrounded me in a moat of lava, then ran away laughing. Luckily my uncle was suspicious and followed us and got me out. She's joked about it ever since, calling "Deep Fried Zuko" her favorite childhood game."

"...Well….that's just….all kinds of not right," said Sokka.

"Yeah," grunted Zuko noncommittally.

"I mean," said Sokka thoughtfully, "you clearly weren't 'deep fried,' since you weren't submerged in the lava."

"Yeah," agreed Toph, "if anything it be more like 'Poached Zuko'"

"'Baked Zuko!" said Sokka.

Zuko rolled his eyes. To change the subject, he looked again at Aang, who was still sitting wordlessly with his face in his hands.

"You know Aang, this self-pity is really getting annoying," said Zuko.

"It's not self-pity," corrected Aang, "it's self-loathing. In case you missed it, I proposed to my girlfriend with literal, actual garbage. I have never done anything so insulting to anyone in my life. We're over now, I just know it. I should have noticed, there were signs the whole time we were in the library, she didn't call me Sweetie once! She's done with me, and who could blame her?"

"Aang, I'm certainly not an expert in your and Katara's brand of disgusting fairy tale romance," said Toph, "but I'm pretty sure that was more due to with the looming unsolved murder investigation than your choice of engagement jewelry."

"Does she even call you 'Sweetie' usually?" asked Sokka, "I haven't noticed that, that sounds incredibly lame."

"This is exactly what I was telling you about back in the tavern," said Zuko grumpily, "even your relationship problems are ridiculously romantic. Even when you were completely blackout intoxicated, the most embarrassing thing you did was love your girlfriend too much. So you better not expect any sympathy from anyone else in this balloon."

"Yeah," agreed Sokka, also looking annoyed at the Avatar, "You probably also included some nauseating love poem with that bit of junk. This will all amount to nothing more than a funny story you'll laugh about when you propose to her for real one day."

Even though his friends were hardly being sympathetic and were insulting him, Aang did feel his panic start to subside.

"Good," said Zuko, "Now can we please focus on the dead guy and impending war, if you don't mind?"

They landed in an abandoned square, the ground underneath them deformed and uneven from lava eruptions that cooled and hardened again. They were surrounded by half-burned buildings and houses, making grotesque outlines against the stars, moon, and orange glow of the festival lights further west.

"So where is she?" asked Aang, "Her note specified 'after nightfall.' Well it's after nightfall, but how long after nightfall?"

"That's the point," said Zuko bitterly, "She wanted us — or me, rather — to need to be here at nightfall, but she kept it open for us to stay waiting around for her, maybe for hours. She wants me antsy and angry enough that she can easily manipulate me."

And wait they did. They sat in the abandoned square for over an hour, Zuko keeping track of it with the moon as best he could, worried about getting too close to midnight. They were too nervous to talk, and there was nothing to talk about, even Sokka's and Toph's sarcastic comments became less and less frequent.

"I think she's here somewhere," said Zuko eventually, "I feel like we're being watched. We should split up. Aang and I will take a patrol of the edge of the square. Sokka, Toph, stay here and guard the war ball—"

"I'll go with you," Sokka said quickly, "I'm having trouble sitting still." Zuko noticed the quick sideways glance he gave at Toph and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sokka could apparently treat Toph normally, but only when not left alone with her.

They walked off into the night, making a wide circle along the edge of the square, keeping a lookout for any psychopath-shaped silhouettes against the moonlight.

Aang and Toph stood leaning against the basket of the balloon in silence, Toph looking very dejected at Sokka's blatant attempt to avoid her. Aang could practically feel the grumpiness building up in her.

He awkwardly cleared his throat, "Hey, uh...Toph?"

She grunted.

"Did I ever tell you that when Katara and Sokka first found me, Sokka didn't like me?"

She didn't know where this could possibly be going, "Uh….no?"

"Yeah, he thought that I was a Fire Nation spy, or some ancient spirit, or just a crazy person. Even though I was nothing but nice to him and everybody else liked me, he kept trying to get me to leave all day. It wasn't until after Zuko showed up and I surrendered myself that he started to trust me and came to help me."

"Oh….kay?"

"My point, Toph, is that Sokka tends to instinctively lump people into categories when he meets them. Friend, enemy, rival, annoying acquaintance…..romantic interest….but he is capable of looking at people in a new light, it just takes something really dramatic, and it may take him a bit of time."

Toph had gone rigid. "Wow Aang, fascinating story. But it's completely irrelevant to anything happening, I really couldn't care less."

Aang thought he could feel slight tremors beneath his feet, so decided not to press his luck. They lapsed into tense silence.

Meanwhile, Sokka and Zuko were continuing their perimeter, the only sounds the shuffling of their feet in the dirt and Aang and Toph's indistinct voices drifting across the square.

"You know….about what you said, in the library," said Zuko, "for the record...I don't hate my life. I've actually been pretty happy with my life the last few years."

"So….why do you work so hard to come off like a miserable son of a bitch?"

"I don't know," Zuko sighed, "I just get nervous when anyone besides Mai sees me genuinely caring about something. Growing up, letting on to what made me happy usually resulted in Azula burning said thing. Then my decision to outwardly care about something earned me a burned face and a banishment, and then I felt like I constantly had to be a cold, distant hardass to command my ship. Sure, my Uncle could be friendly and relax around the crew because he was the Dragon of the freakin' West, not a 13-year-old exile. Mai was kind of the same way. We've always known how to read each other based on the minor twitches in our scowls that nobody else notices. I guess….Azula has never in her life genuinely cared about anyone or anything, and that's always been an advantage she's had over me."

"But….it's not," Sokka pointed out, "it hasn't been an advantage, obviously. You beat her the day of the comet because you had Katara — a friend — there to watch your back. If she actually cared about people and didn't just brow-beat them into submission all the time, maybe Mai and Ty Lee wouldn't have betrayed her for you, and maybe they would have been by her side during that Agni Kai. Not a good long-term plan to give your allies every reason to hope you lose."

Zuko thought about what he said. "So you don't think I'm making a horrible mistake?" asked Zuko quietly, "Letting Azula go? Am I going to regret this?"

"I don't think so," said Sokka, shaking his head, "Sure Azula's dangerous, but not as dangerous as a war with the Earth Kingdom. As evil, violent, and fish-slapping crazy as she is, as the end of the day, she is just one evil, violent, fish-slapping crazy chick. I don't see Azula starting a movement or anything, if that's what you're afraid of. Even before she went nuts, I never thought Azula could be a leader, she's always struck me as more….middle management material. People only put up with her "maximum terror at all times" approach because she had the backing of the Fire Lord looming behind her, and like I said, even then it didn't always work, she couldn't even keep her best friends loyal to her. And she couldn't keep things together for one day once daddy left her to rule on her own."

After a beat of silence, Sokka felt like it was his turn.

"And also for the record, I don't want you to think I don't realize how badly I messed up. I know I risked everything we fought for for no other reason than to avoid a potentially lame night."

"I just don't get why you keep doing this to yourself!" said Zuko, his frustration escaping again, "For years it's been the same thing, you seek out situations that could kill you or ruin your life. I'm starting to think you're afraid of having an actual normal day."

"I'm not afraid," Sokka said defensively, "I just feel a little….useless. I didn't prepare for this. My whole life, I assumed I'd join my dad in the war and spend the rest of my life fighting. I mean the war had lasted a hundred years, why wouldn't it last another? I never bought into those fairy tales Katara liked about how the Avatar would return and save the world. But then Aang had the audacity to show up and actually win the damn war and now….well now what do I do? I don't have a nation to rule, or a culture to rebuild, do I go back home and fish? This is going to sound insane, because it is, but today, in the middle of a crisis, I felt more at home than I have in years."

Zuko took a while to speak. "Well….I can't say I understand that."

Sokka sighed. "Yeah I know, I didn't expect you to."

"...but Toph apparently does."

Sokka laughed, "Yeah, I think she feels the same way. She left her home to train Aang, but now that that's done, it's not like she wants to go back to that life anyway. We're addicted to conflict and have no sense of self-preservation," he said fondly, smiling now.

And she's really pretty.

Shit. I really can't un-notice that can I?

They eventually circled the whole square and arrived back at the balloon with Aang and Toph again. "No sign of her?" she asked.

Sokka shook his head, "Not a peep. Maybe she expected Zuko to come alone, and she spotted all of us she chickened out."

"In your dreams, peasant."

They all jumped and whirled around at the icy, venomous voice coming from the pitch black alley between the remains of two buildings. Then, she emerged into the moonlight.

It had been over a year since Zuko had last seen his sister, and she looked even worse than she did then. Her once-beautiful hair still matted and tangled from when she would habitually tear it out. Sleepless bags hung beneath her darting, crazy eyes, and she still walked chaotically, like she didn't have full control of her body. She held a wooden box under one arm, but was still set in a fighting stance, and Zuko was more than aware of how much flame she could produce with one hand.

"Step away from the balloon and I'll give you your friend," commanded Azula. Everyone looked to Zuko, who nodded.

They backed up, all four of them keeping their eyes squarely on her, until they were thirty feet away from her, the basket of the balloon directly between them.

"Don't come any closer," said Zuko, "The gold's in the basket. Release him, and we'll let you take it and go."

"That sounds agreeable to me, dear brother," she said, setting the box on the ground.

Zuko frowned further and looked around. He still didn't see any sign of Kuei.

"So where is he? Have you got him tied up somewhere nearby? We're not letting you go until we actually see him."

"Oh, do relax, Zuko," Azula huffed, "nothing so complicated, he's in here." She pointed at the box, and with a hard kick, sent it sliding along the rough ground until it stopped at Zuko's feet.

"What do you…." Zuko didn't know what she was playing at. The box wasn't even big enough to contain a child, much less—

Zuko's eyes bulged

…..No.

No no no.

The box was big enough to hold a human head.

Zuko felt like he was going to be sick.

"You….complete…..monster!" he growled at Azula through gritted teeth, "We did what you asked!"

Azula raised an eyebrow at him. "Zuko, what on earth are you babbling about?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE REST OF HIM!?" yelled Zuko. He dropped to his knees and undid the latch on the box. He threw open the lid and—

"AAAAAHHHH!" he shrieked as a chittering white and brown blur launched out of the box and attached itself to the top of his head.

"MOMO!" exclaimed Aang happily as the lemur continued to climb all over Zuko. He finally took off and flew a few loops around the group before settling on Aang's shoulder.

Zuko, now sitting in the dirt, looked incredulously back and forth from Momo to Azula.

"Wha — what about — but where's Kuei!?"

"Kuei?" asked Azula, the first time in her life looking completely clueless, "the Earth King?" then, her face split into a manic grin of pure glee. "Oh, Zuzu, Zuzu, Zuzu! Don't tell me you somehow managed to misplace an entire king? While hosting him in your own palace? Oh, well that certainly doesn't look good. Truly a glorious day in Firelord Zuko's reign."

"Stop playing games!" Zuko spat at her, "I know it was you! You expect me to believe it's just a coincidence he went missing the same night you got out?"

"Come now, Zuzu," said Azula with her most condescending possible voice, "you really thought I would have even bothered with you if I had the Earth King as my hostage?"

"You thought I was willing to give you freedom, a thousand gold, and a war balloon in exchange for a lemur?" answered Zuko.

"Hey!" said Aang indignantly, covering Momo's ears to shield him from Zuko's words.

"I suppose this also means you didn't kill any Earth Kingdom generals last night?" asked Sokka glumly.

Azula stared for a moment in amazement, and then erupted into delirious, raucous laughter.

"Oh, great Firelord Zuko, as a humble citizen I feel truly safe under your rule. No, I can't say I had the pleasure."

"I know it was you!" said Zuko, pointing a finger at her and getting desperate, "He was killed by a lightningbender!"

All of Azula's laughter disappeared in an instant and she stared daggers at him. "As I'm sure dear Uncle has taught you, bending lightning requires peace of mind and balance of one's internal energies." Her voice turned into a growl. "Tell me, dearest brother, have I appeared particularly balanced to you recently? I haven't attempted to lightningbend in years, and I don't remotely know what would happen if I tried."

"She's got a point there," said Toph quietly out of the corner of her mouth at Zuko, "her heartbeat's all over the place, but not more than usual. As far as I can tell, she's telling the truth."

"But...but…." Zuko stuttered. This couldn't be it. He had banked everything on getting Kuei from Azula. It was the only thing that could possibly excuse detaining the generals.

"You knew about it!" said Zuko, "We haven't told anyone about the murder, but you still knew about it! You said in the ransom letter, the 'horrible event that happened last night!""

Azula scoffed, "I was talking about word getting out about you knocking up Mai before getting married. Not satisfied with bringing shame to the Fire Nation by ending the war, now everyone knows Firelord Zuko also spits on the traditions of proper royal behavior. They might be throwing a party now, but once the Earth Kingdom attacks it will just be one more bit of ammunition against you."

There was a beat of silence as no one knew what to do next.

"Sooooo….what now?" asked Aang, "Do we still let her go?"

Azula once again put on her signature evil grin. She looked positively eager for the double-cross.

"Oh, going back on the deal, oh honorable Firelord? I should have expected as much. I suppose there's only one way to settle this!" She resumed her combat stance and produced two balls of blue flame in her hands. "This rematch was always coming, brother! Now is your chance to truly prove to me whether you're—"

"Go," said Zuko.

Azula stopped. "Wh—What?"

"Azula, I can't even begin to describe how much I do not have time for you right now. Take the gold, take the balloon, and go. Right now I couldn't care less about you being dead or locked up, I just want you gone."

Azula lowered her arms slightly, looking between Zuko and the basket, seeming disappointed. "...But—"

"And I don't need to prove anything to someone like you," Zuko continued. The enormous pressure of going back to square one regarding Kuei combined with Sokka's words made it impossible for him to take her seriously. "I already beat you once, and had a friend to cover for when you got desperate and cheated, while you were alone because you've never had a real friend in your life. You're not a serious threat to me, because all things considered, I haven't been a terrible ruler. You're right that this is the worst day I've ever had as Firelord, but you see, to me that actually means something, because I have actually been Firelord for more than one day.

"And honestly, I'm a little curious. When you leave here, you're not Princess Azula, you're just a fugitive with some coin. You won't have Dad behind you and you won't be able to subjugate people, so you'll have to ask yourself: what even are you without that? I don't expect much.

"Now, you can either blast me for saying all that," he said as her face reached new levels of craziness in reaction to the insolence of his words, "try to fight all four of us, almost certainly lose, and get locked back up, or you can take your chance and get out of my face."

Azula gave him one last scowl before leaping into the basket, blasting new flame into the furnace, cutting the anchors, and rising into the sky. As she disappeared over the rim of the caldera, the group looked at each other as they were left with—

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

No leads. No clues. No plan. And no time.

"Well…..shit," said Toph, "as kickass as that was, Zuko, I don't feel like celebrating."

"What do we do now?" asked Sokka to the group, but looked at Zuko. Zuko didn't say anything, he was struck dumb again by hoplessness. It was less than two hours until midnight. He kept wringing what was left of his hair in his trembling hands.

"Hello?" asked Sokka. "Zuko," he shook him on the shoulder, "What do we do?"

The description of lightningbending requiring balance comes from Iroh's monologue in "Bitter Work." Yes, that doesn't really agree with the finale where Azula is lightningbending while being complete cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but the show itself introduced that plot hole first, so don't blame me.