Three teenagers walked into a Fire Nation town, with orders given to them with extreme urgency and with vital importance.

"Sokka really wants his dinner today, doesn't he," Zuko shook his head good-naturedly as they made their way towards the food market.

Team Avatar had, in the wake of the catastrophe of the Black Sun, resolved to lay low for a bit and wait for an opportunity. Maybe the Fire Nation would make some mistake, and they would be able to exploit it. To this end, they had all put their Fire Nation disguises on (and one had been... acquired for Ty Lee, who had not been on the team when they had raided the Fire Nation's laundry the first time.)

Now, Ty Lee was hanging off Mai's arm, wearing the most garish combination of red and orange she could find. She had decided against pink, simply because that might make her too recognisable. Mai's other hand was being held by Zuko.

"... Your aura is so much brighter lately!" She was saying to them.

"Whose, mine or Zuko's?" Mai asked.

"Both! But mostly Zuko's."

They both nodded politely. "Thanks!" This was a drastic step up from how it had always been; previously, neither Mai nor Zuko had believed in auras and they had not been shy in letting her know about it. They did seem happier now than they had been when they had returned from Ba Sing Se, but of course Ty Lee had not spent much more than a few minutes with them since they had defected. The fact that most of those minutes had been spent fighting one another had not helped.

Just then, they turned a corner to see a checkpoint, manned by two extremely bored looking guards, blocking the road into town.

"Since when did the Fire army run checkpoints to every small town?"

"Since a group of eight of the most wanted teenagers in the world began running around, I'd imagine."

One of the guards looked up as they approached. Zuko deliberately kept his head down, allowing the brim of his hat to fall over his scar.

"What are your names?"

"My name? My name is...er... Lee." Zuko had learnt a simple lesson from going incognito, and it was one he had given the rest of the group often; when in doubt, give your name as Lee. There were a million Lees.

"What about you two?" The other guard sized up Mai and Ty Lee.

Mai spoke first. "I'm Sakura, and this is my friend..."

"...Lee!" Ty Lee said enthusiastically.

Mai and Zuko exchanged a look.

The guard peered at them suspiciously. "So both of your names... are Lee."

"Yes, you're not the first to comment on it!" Zuko replied hurriedly.

The guard sized them up for a good ten seconds.

"Right."

"As long as that's cleared up!" Mai went to push past them.

"Have a nice day... Prince." The guard said.

"What?" Zuko whirled.

"Oh come on! Those were the most obvious fake names I've ever seen, and that hat doesn't hide your scar as much as you think it does. You're under arrest."

Zuko sighed. "I was afraid you would say that."

He swung his arm out and towards the guard, intending to launch a wave of flame at him. Instead, only a tiny spark came out of his finger, which landed on the ground right in front of him. Everyone stared at it for a good five seconds before the guards erupted into raucous laughter.

"Oh this is too good. Is something the matter?"

"He has performance issues! I can sympathise," the other told him.

They advanced towards him, intending to grab him, but before he could do anything Mai and Ty Lee sprang into action. One guard received a knife butt straight between the eyes and collapsed while the other was swiftly chi-blocked.

"Thanks," Zuko said.

"What was that?"

"I don't know?"

"You're the Firebender around here. How come you all of a sudden can't firebend?"

"I don't know, but we should tell the others. I'm teaching Aang firebending so he probably needs to know."


"What do you mean, you came back before you got food?"

Sokka's outraged shout echoed far and wide.

"Priorities, Sokka! Zuko can't firebend any more!"

"I have my priorities straight, thank you very much. I'm hungry."

"We'll deal with that later. In the meantime, why don't you demonstrate, Zuko?"

Zuko punched the air, and a tiny flame burst to life and fizzled out just as quickly.

"That is a problem," Katara mused.

"How about you learn from the original masters of firebending?" suggested Toph.

"What do you mean?"

"When I was young, I ran away and was found by a group of badger-moles, who taught me to earthbend. The badger-moles were the original Earthbenders, and humans learnt to do it by watching them long ago. It's why I'm the greatest earthbender to ever live."

"That's not going to be possible, I'm afraid."

"Why?"

"Because the original firebending masters were the dragons, and they are extinct."

"They're extinct?" Aang looked dismayed. "That can't be right, they were alive and well before I was frozen."

"The Fire Nation hunted them for sport during the war. They viewed killing one as the ultimate status symbol."

"Oh."

"And the last person to achieve it was my uncle."

"Iroh? I wouldn't have thought he would have been capable of such an act."

"Why do you think they call him the Dragon of the West?"

"I didn't know they called him that, but fair point." Aang said sadly.

"So if we can't ask the dragons, then what do we do?"

"We could find Iroh or Jeong Jeong and try to get them to teach Aang- and Zuko." Katara suggested.

"Impossible, we don't have time for that. We don't know where they are," Sokka replied.

Uncle could be in Fire Nation prison by now. I have no idea what happened to him after the fall of Ba Sing Se," added Zuko.

"Well then what do you suggest?"

"If you're looking for old firebenders, how about the Sun Warriors?" Mai spoke for the first time.

"Sun warriors?"

"An ancient civilisation of Firebenders. They died out ages ago."

"Then what help will they be?"

"They left behind ruins didn't they? They wrote stuff down. Even if no people remain, there are things they can tell us."

"It's worth a try, I suppose," said Suki.

"I'll go with Aang," Zuko stated. "We're the ones who need to firebend."

"Do you know where you're going?" asked Katara.

"Vaguely."

"How reassuring." Mai said dryly.

"It will be fine," replied Aang. "We'll find this place and Zuko will get his power back."

That was it- the plan was decided. Aang and Zuko said their farewells and then wasted absolutely no time in departing for the ancient home of the Sun Warriors.

Sokka wasted no time in making for the village once they had gone, muttering something about doing it himself, and Katara hurried after him.

Toph yawned. "I'm tired," she declared. "A long day of being awesome will do that."

She stomped off to make a tent for herself.

That left Suki, Mai and Ty Lee, which was awkward, to say the least.

"So..." Suki broke the silence. "You can chi-block?"

Ty Lee nodded. "I taught myself to do it in the academy- we needed ways to keep up with firebenders, and that was mine."

"I was impressed on the day we fought," Suki continued. "I decided that I wanted to learn how to do that."

"Oh, that." Said Mai. After all, the day they had fought had also been the day the Kyoshi warriors had defeated them and essentially sentenced them to weeks in jail. It was only thanks to the intervention of the Blue Spirit that they had been freed.

Suki sensed what the point of contention was. "Oh, sorry about that. It was nothing personal, but you did attack us first."

"I didn't want to, it was Azula," replied Mai. "As far as I was concerned, you weren't the Avatar, and you weren't Zuko, so you weren't our problem."

"Shall we just agree to blame Azula and leave it behind us?"

"Sounds reasonable." Mai accepted the offer. "Besides, she would have done the same thing if she had captured you."

"Anyway, chi-blocking: how?" Asked Suki eagerly.

"It's easy once you know how!" Ty Lee was pleased to show her skills off in a context that didn't involve trying to kill or capture someone.

"It's all about getting close enough to hit certain spots on the body and arms. Do it fast enough and you can cause people to lose control of their limbs."

She demonstrated in slow motion, with hits that had she actually been trying would have chi-blocked Mai. Suki copied her.

"Good!" Ty Lee encouraged her. "Keep that up and-"

Suki never found out what would happen if she kept that up, for a tremendous explosion threw them all several feet.

"SOKKA! STOP PLAYING WITH BOMBS!" an irate Toph shouted.

However, the culprit was not Sokka. Instead, a huge man stood on the high ground overlooking their camp. They saw him breathe in deeply,

before a burst of energy came from his forehead and exploded in the middle of the camp. Suki, Mai and Ty Lee barely got into cover.

"What do we do?"

"Mai, force him to keep his head down, we get close and Ty Lee chi-blocks him?" Suki suggested, her Kyoshi Warrior tactician instincts kicking in.

"Sounds good." Mai stood up, for just long enough to launch a flurry of knives towards the stranger. Wordlessly, he dodged out of the way of most of them, and blasted one clean out of the air. The knife was vaporised immediately.

"Doesn't he know how much that thing cost?"

Suki and Ty Lee, meanwhile, had begun to sprint towards him, but the man quickly recovered and sent a beam of energy straight at them; Ty Lee vaulted out of the way, followed by Suki as it detonated the ground right beneath where they had been half a second earlier.

A second burst forced them to return to cover.

Toph!" Suki called. "We need your help!"

"What is it-wait, who is that?" Toph asked as she placed her feet on the ground for the first time and detected the newcomer.

"Bad news!"

"I'll give him bad news!" And Toph burst out of her rock shelter, aiming for shock and awe. The ground shifted beneath the man, throwing his next shot off; it missed and smashed harmlessly into the rock. At the same time, Toph punched the air and stones began firing themselves at him. The man again succeeded in shooting down a couple but was forced to dive for cover. Toph continued to pummel his location with rocks, but the man poked his head up over the ridge and fired at her again.

The explosion missed, but was close enough to pick Toph up and throw her a fair distance. She dropped to the ground, disorientated, and the barrage of rocks ceased. The man once again drew himself up to his full height, took a deep breath, aimed, and was encased in ice before he could fire.

Behind him, Katara stood with her arms outstretched and Sokka beside her, having worked their way up behind him.

"Was that guy bothering you?" She shouted down to them.

Upon closer inspection, the man turned out to have a metal arm, and a tattoo like a third eye on his forehead. Neither Mai nor Ty Lee had ever heard of such a firebender before; the ability to create explosions with the mind was a new one to everyone.

The more pressing concern was who had sent him though. And, given that they could not leave, what they would do with him.