After Zuko and Mai had said their goodbyes, he, Aang, Katara and Toph got on to Appa and prepared to depart.
"Good luck Aang!" Sokka called after them. "Look after him, Katara!"
"I will! Good luck!"
"I'll punch Ozai for you!" Toph shouted.
And with that, Appa rose into the air and flew away. Aang could see the army recede into the distance behind them, before he turned his attention forwards. Sokka, Suki, Mai and the rest of the army had their job to do, and he had his. Together, the four of them flew in silence, each contemplating what was about to happen, and perhaps allowing themselves to dream about what would come afterwards.
Soon, they reached the Caldera. An enormous circle of rock walls jutted up out of the ground, and nested within it was a city, the home to thousands of people and the seat of power of the Firelord. On one side, Aang could make out a small path leading down to a harbour in a natural bay.
Initial plans for this day had envisioned an attack through that harbour and up the path into the city, but this had eventually been disregarded when it had been pointed out just how well fortified it was sure to be. While the plan they had gone with did entail a much longer march, it was through much more favourable terrain. Plus, with so many earthbenders at their disposal, they could just make their own way in through the walls of the crater.
As the sky-bison cruised over the city, Aang looked down into the streets below. He could see people looking up and pointing, and a few beginning to run.
"Uh, I don't think our surprise will last long..." Zuko said.
"It has to, it's still hours before the eclipse, remember?"
"We don't have hours. Look down, they know we're here, how many Sky-bisons do you think they see fly over here?"
He had a point.
"I know it's a daunting task to fight the firelord before the eclipse, but now it has to be done. And if it doesn't go well we can still wait for the cavalry to arrive and then try again."
Aang and Katara looked at him.
"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Toph said.
"Fine," Aang said. He put Appa into a dive, aiming straight for the entrance of the Fire palace. As Appa picked up speed, screaming towards the ground, Aang stood up in the seat, grabbed his staff, and used it to unleash a blast of air that knocked the doors clean off their hinges. As they came crashing to the ground, Appa flew inside the hallway and Aang jumped off, landing smoothly in front of the throne.
"Your reign ends now, firel-what?"
However, when he looked up, the figure occupying it was not Ozai.
"Hello there," Princess Azula greeted them. "That was quite the entrance."
"You!" Aang was completely blindsided by this development.
"Yes. Me. What about it?"
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the Earth Kingdom! And where's the Firelord?"
"Full of questions today, aren't we? Fine, I'll oblige you, out of pity. I was recalled here a few days ago, because father didn't want me in the earth kingdom with an eclipse imminent."
She smiled. "As for Ozai, he's not here as you can see. But when we recieved word of an enemy army landing nearby this morning, I guessed you must have been behind it and decided to lay on the welcome you deserve."
"How did you know?" Katara asked, joining Aang.
"About your invasion?" Azula sounded bored. "We didn't know about it until the early hours of this morning."
She stood up.
"But did you really think the Fire Nation are such idiots that we would know the dates of the eclipse, an event that temporarily takes away our firebending, and not take precautions to protect ourselves on that day?"
"You don't seem to be taking many precautions to protect yourself," Zuko observed.
"Yes, brother, but the eclipse isn't for another few hours. And as long as I have my bending, I don't need them!"
Azula flung herself at the four benders, and a colossal fight ensued.
Azula was good, very good. She held her own, seemingly effortlessly, against four benders, dodging and whirling and blasting fire whenever she had an opening.
Admittedly, she had a bit of an advantage in that Katara only had the water she carried with her to use, which pretty much restricted her to using small water whips, but it was still quite impressive, Aang had to admit. She vaulted over Toph's head, shooting fire at Zuko, who blocked it with his own wall of flame, and then launched herself off the pillar of rock Toph sent at her at Aang, who blasted her away with a gust of wind.
She dropped to the floor elegantly, and looked around.
"Where are your friends?" She asked. "Aren't there normally seven of you?"
"That's none of your business," Zuko said.
"A shame, but it doesn't matter. You'll all end up in the Boiling Rock all the same- if you live that long," she said nastily. "And those of you who do make it to that point, well, let's just say you will find prison life incredibly unpleasant."
"Speaking from experience, sister?"
Zuko's barb hit home, and a flash of rage passed over Azula's face. She flew at him, infernos in her hands, but was knocked aside by a boulder thrown at her by Toph. She flew into a pillar, landed heavily, and then got up and began to run further into the building.
The four of them looked at each other, and then ran after her.
"Wait," Toph called. "I have an idea!"
"What?"
"She just mentioned prison. Don't you remember what they did to Mai in prison?"
Zuko's face darkened. He remembered all too well.
"Do you think they did it to Azula too?"
"That's it! We just say the phrase!"
"No."
They all screeched for a halt, and looked at Zuko in confusion. Azula vanished into the distance, presumably not believing her luck.
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"I mean no. What Long Feng did was wrong."
"Yes, it was, but it's also useful. We didn't brainwash them, but we can use it to our advantage! Just think, Zuko! What was the phrase again?"
"The Earth King Invites you to Lake Laogai," Zuko offered.
"Yes, that. That's... eight words. Eight words, and Azula is no longer a problem, Zuko! Eight words and we're a step closer to ending the war!"
"I don't care. I want this war over and my sister and father brought down as much as you do, but not like this. She's my sister!"
"She's a maniac!"
"She can be both! And just because she is willing to do terrible things does not mean we should be willing to do them too."
"You know what, fine," snapped Toph. Her patience was exhausted. "Have it your way. We don't have time for this."
"Where did she go?" Aang asked her.
"She went that way!" Toph said, gesturing down the corridor. The four of them took off after Azula.
Unfortunately, though, the Princess had made good use of the time they had wasted arguing about whether to brainwash her. She continued to stretch her lead until even Toph's seismic sense had lost track of her. There was nobody else around.
"Well what now?" Katara asked. They all looked expectantly at Sokka, and then realized Sokka wasn't there.
"We should comb the place," Aang suggested.
"We need to find them, and quickly, and splitting up seems the best way of covering more ground quickly."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Zuko warned. "We are all individually powerful benders, it is true, but so is Azula and she's cunning enough to plan an ambush for one of us."
"What if we go in pairs, then? We can still protect each other and cover more ground."
"It's still not good, but it's better." Zuko sighed.
"I'll go with Aang," said Katara. "You two can go together."
After splitting apart, they then spent the next couple of hours combing the palace, with no success at all.
"I hope Sokka and the army are doing better than this," Aang said as they blasted down another door only to find the room empty.
"Do you think it even matters?" asked Katara.
"What do you mean?"
"The Firelord is not here. Azula said so."
"Are you going to trust what Azula says?" Aang replied. "There's a reason Zuko keeps going on about 'Azula always lies'".
"But what if she is telling the truth?" Katara persisted. "If the Firelord isn't here then we can't defeat him during the eclipse, and if we can't defeat him during the eclipse then what was the point of all this?"
"If we can capture the Caldera, that might still be a success, and we could then force Ozai to show himself," Aang said, in an attempt to convince himself as well as Katara.
Just then, though, they heard a bellow coming from the hallway- where they had left Appa.
"Oh no," Aang looked at Katara and they both sprinted from the room.
The Sky-Bison stood where they had left him earlier, but now he was surrounded by a ring of blue fire that danced around him. His tormentor stepped forward as Aang and Katara burst in.
"Ah,how nice of you to join us," said Azula. "I was wondering when you would show up."
"Let the sky-bison go," Aang demanded.
"For what?" Azula asked. "So that you can fly him everywhere? He makes our jobs so much harder, so I hope you'll understand I can't do that."
She looked back at Appa.
"It seems such a shame, though, him being the last of the species and all..."
"You can't kill him!"
"Are you sure?" A new voice entered the conversation, as Zuko and Toph ran over, also having been summoned by the noise. "She's Azula, she'll do it and feel no regret over it."
Azula tightened one of her hands, and the ring began to shrink, crowding the terrified animal more and more. Aang could see the flames reflected in his eyes.
As the Avatar and his spirit guide's eyes locked, though, an unspoken communication passed between them.
Aang leant forward and punched the air, assuming a (very beginner) firebending form as he launched a fireball at Azula. Azula swatted it aside with ease, but just as she turned around to make a derogatory remark about Aang's mastery of the four elements and Zuko's skills as a teacher, Appa took advantage of her distraction to smash her with his tail.
The Firebending Princess flew into a pillar, and her fire extinguished itself.
"There's nothing here for us! We should get out of here!"
"None of them argued with him. They scrambled on to Appa, who took off and flew out of the doors the way they had come in. Azula got to her feet behind them and tried to launch lightning at them, but it crackled harmlessly past them, and then they were out of range.
However, the attack on the Palace had been a dismal failure. The Firelord was not defeated, he wasn't even there, and they had lost the element of surprise.
Aang watched as the army became visible below them. Clearly, the plan would have to be changed.
