Azula lay on the ground, unable to move any of her limbs, and shouted her head off about treason and reinforcements.

It made it very hard for anyone else to hear themselves think.

"What happened?" Aang asked, loudly.

"We were ambushed by Azula and Ty Lee," Zuko explained. "Ty Lee chi-blocked me, as you can see, and Azula was about to blast Mai with lightning when Ty Lee saved her."

"IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE CALLING IT?" An incandescent Azula raged at them. "I CALL IT TREASON!"

She would have gone on, had Earth not covered her mouth and stopped her from speaking. Toph didn't cover her nose, so she could still breathe, but the tirade was suddenly cut off. Everyone present liked that.

"What do we do with her?"

"We can't take her prisoner. We don't have a convenient prison cell in Ba Sing Se waiting for her this time, and if we try to take her with us we'll have to waste time and energy looking out for her."

"Plus she's clever and would probably escape and cause trouble."

"She would probably end up killing us in our sleep!"

"Well, there is a way we could get her out of the way permanently..." Mai insinuated.

"No. We are not doing that." Aang replied firmly. He was an air nomad, after all, and to him all life was sacred- even the lives of those who would not show him the same courtesy.

"We could make sure she can't follow us and then fly away." Toph suggested.

"It's not a permanent solution, but it's the best one we have without doing something drastic," Zuko agreed.

Toph stamped the earth, and Azula's wrists were immediately encased in rock, which fastened them to the ground. "There, she's not getting out of that without help- by which time we should be long gone."

Aang shot a blast of flame into the sky to get the attention of the war-balloon, which would hopefully eventually find Azula, before they all ran for it, Zuko still supported by Mai and Ty Lee, leaving Azula lying defeated and alone in the clearing.


The first thing Suki saw as she became conscious once again was Sokka's face above her.

"Sokka?"

He looked overjoyed for a second.

"Suki! You're awake! I was worried for a bit there."

Suki looked around. They were in a cave, in a forest, with the evening sun visible outside and a fire burning in the middle of it. Appa sat in one corner. There was nobody else present.

"Wait, Sokka... the invasion! What happened?" She asked, although given this wasn't the interior of the Firelord's Palace she suspected that she wasn't going to like the answer.

Sokka's face fell, once again confirming it.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" He asked.

Suki touched her forehead, and remembered an impact of an arrow there, as she had stood atop a barricade. "Yes."

"We failed to break that barricade, and then were surrounded by a second Fire Nation army attacking us from the other direction. We escaped, the rest of the army surrendered."

"Including the Kyoshi Warriors." Suki's throat was tight.

Sokka could only nod.

"I should have been there." Suki was their leader, and they looked to her. She should be there, sharing their hardships to get them through it.

"Suki, you got shot in the head! You were unconscious! You can't blame yourself for this." He looked at her sadly. "It was my fault anyway."

"Telling me I can't blame myself and immediately blaming yourself for it? That's very hypocritical, Sokka."

"It's true."

"It's not true- and it's not important. I may feel like I need to be there for my friends, but I'm not. You may feel like you're to blame for the loss, but you're not. What is important now is the fight ahead."

Sokka hugged her, seemingly reassured. "Thanks Suki."

The two of them sat in each other's arms in silence for a very long time, just happy to be in each other's company. Eventually, a thought occurred to Suki. "Where are the others?"

"Mai and Zuko went for a walk, and then we heard shouting so Toph, Katara and Aang went after them to see if they needed any help."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Suki made an effort to get up, but before she had a chance to the rest of Team Avatar returned.

"Suki! You're awake!" Aang said enthusiastically.

"It's good to have you back!" Added Toph. Katara smiled at her.

Zuko, who seemed strangely stiff, came next, flanked by Mai and-

"What's she doing here?" Suki pointed at Ty Lee, who waved at her.

"Oh, Ty Lee is on our side now."

"How did that happen?" Sokka sounded incredulous.

"Azula forced me to choose between her and Mai. I chose Mai." Ty Lee hugged Mai as she said this, and Mai even smiled a little.

"Great, so are we going to take in anyone from the Fire Nation who wants to join us now? At this rate, we'll have Azula joining us!"

"Sokka, have you seen her fight?" Mai said angrily. "She'll be very valuable to us."

"Fine," Sokka, who had seen Ty Lee fight, grumbled.

"Oh, speaking of which, we should probably get out of here. Azula is lying chi-blocked and immobilised just down there-"

Aang gestured down out of the cave entrance.

"-and it's only a matter of time until she gets free and comes after us. So we should go."

"Already?" Sokka began to complain, but he accepted this reasoning and began to help Suki up.

It was getting dark outside.


King Bumi stood on the great walls of the city of Omashu, and looked across the canyon. On the other side, firebenders shouted impotently at him. Some tried to blast him with fire, but he was out of range.

"You'll have to do better than that!" He called to them.

The day of the eclipse had been a very productive one for him.

He had started it as a prisoner, in a metal cage high above the ground, as the Fire Nation had believed that this rendered him powerless.

They had, it turned out, been wrong.

Eight minutes of Bumi finding new and inventive ways of smashing the Fire Nation later, Bumi had been freed, the bridge connecting his city to the outside world had been destroyed, and the vast majority of the Fire Army that had been occupying Omashu found themselves on the wrong side of it. The great statue of the Firelord, that had taken pride of place in the centre of the city and had towered over everything around it, now lay as smashed wreckage at the bottom of the canyon. Bumi preferred it like that. Perhaps he would keep it that way.

Still, while Omashu was free, the surrounding environs were still crawling with Fire Nation troops. It was only a matter of time until the Fire Nation came back.

Just then, a squawk alerted him to the presence of a messenger hawk.

"Hello," Bumi greeted it. "What's the Fire Nation doing sending me messages then?"

However, when he saw the paper it carried, his interest was piqued. He slid it out from its holster and unravelled it. Something fell out, as he read its contents. It just had a few words on it; Bumi's name, a place, and a date. Bumi looked down at the object that had fallen out, and broke out into maniacal laughter.

It was a Pai Sho tile.


Author's note: A few things. First, FanFiction has been acting up and not updating chapters, but in the last couple of days my last chapters, which were affected, have shown up, at least for me, which gives me hope that at least on some level it has been resolved. If someone who gets the notification for this and reads it could confirm if it is working, that would be greatly appreciated.

Secondly, we are drawing ever closer towards the end of this story, and it does indeed have an ending.

And thirdly, I have a pretty fleshed out idea for what my next story will be after this.