Welcome back! I am officially back from my crazy last month (illness, death, and major injuries in the family) and back to regular writing. I hope some of you got a chance to check out the first chapter of a new Maiko piece I posted last week as a gift for making you wait so long for this chapter. If not, no worries. And as always, thank you for your patience and continued support.

One of Zuko's lines in this chapter is lifted directly from the Narnia book Prince Caspian. Let me know if you find it!

More Than Blood Can Stand


Chapter 37: Wins and Losses


Zuko's mind was reeling from the events and revelations of the last ten minutes. His father a fugitive? Mai joining Azula? But before he could form a cohesive train of thought, a servant ran through the throne room doors and threw herself, trembling, at Zuko's feet.

"Prince Zuko - no, I mean," she stammered, bowing so low her forehead touched the ground, "F-fire Lord Zuko." She took a gasping breath and cringed, as if she expected to be punished for the slip of her tongue, before continuing in a small voice. "General Mung's forces are at the palace gate."

The words, quiet though they were, reverberated across the room. There was a beat of profound silence, as both his friends and the injured soldiers scattered around the room took in the information. Then Julong broke the silence by swearing loudly.

"It's not like we didn't expect this," Ryu said grimly. "We knew they would be lying in wait for the sun to come back out."

"But Ozai was supposed to be captured by now," Julong snapped. "It's much easier to subdue the enemy when you have their leader in custody."

"Can't we just talk to them?" That naive suggestion had come, predictably, from Aang.

"Avatar Aang," Piandao said patiently, "this is the Fire Nation. If talking worked, this war wouldn't have lasted a hundred years."

"But this is different, isn't it?" Aang insisted. "Zuko is the rightful Fire Lord. We defeated Ozai. Shouldn't they respect that?"

He had a point. Zuko looked around the room again, knowing that the final decision rested in his hand. In the absence of Uncle, he was acting Fire Lord. It was time he started behaving like one.

"Katara," he said. "Can you help these people?"

She paled slightly and swallowed hard, but she nodded. "Some of them. But it will take a lot of time."

He nodded. "Toph, can you keep these soldiers under control until I get back?"

She cracked her knuckles. "It would be my pleasure."

"Good," he said, then addressed the servant. "Fetch the royal physician and tell him there are injured soldiers in the throne room who need his help. The rest of us will deal with Mung's army."

Four Yuyan archers, one guy with a boomerang, one master swordsman, one firebender, and the Avatar. Against an army. The odds weren't quite so bad as they seemed. Four archers as skilled as they were could do a great deal of damage, Piandao had fought off one hundred soldiers single-handedly in his prime, and if Aang were as good in a fight as previous Avatars... well, it was still a big risk.

The servant hadn't risen yet. Instead, she had prostrated herself again, reaching out as if to touch his feet. "My Lord, please! They will kill you!"

"I'm sure they will try," he said dryly. "But what choice do we have? They will overrun the palace if we don't stop them outside the gates. Now go get the physician," he said again, injecting a bit of steel into his voice. "These men need medical care."

She scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room. He started for the door, too, though at a slower pace.

"With all due respect, sir," Ha Joon said, falling into step next to him, "What exactly is your plan?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I'm hoping we come up with one by the time we reach the gate."

Ha Joon groaned.

"Cheer up," Aang said, well, cheerfully. "We just defeated all those soldiers in the throne room. This can't be that much different."

"Except instead of nonbending new recruits, these will be elite firebenders," Julong said, "and a whole lot more of them."

"And we won't have Katara or Toph," Sokka said. "Still, there's gotta be a way." He frowned, concentrating. "There's just too many of them for us to take them on head-on." Suddenly he grinned, and snapped his fingers. "What about single combat? What if Aang took on their general guy in a winner-take-all kind of thing?"

"That is an excellent idea, Sokka," Piandao said proudly. "But I'm afraid no firebender would agree to those conditions with an airbender. It would be considered shameful. But a firebender, and one claiming to be the Fire Lord, no less…."

Zuko could almost feel the eyes turning to him.

"I could challenge Mung to an Agni Kai," he agreed. "And if I won, that would settle things. And spare the rest of you the trouble of putting your lives at risk."

"No!" Aang protested. "I'm the Avatar, I can't let someone else be the sacrificial lamb-calf. The Fire Nation needs you." He gave the archers a pleading look. "You're his guards; aren't you going to say something?"

"A Fire Lord who can't defend his throne in an Agni Kai isn't worthy of the title," Ryu said quietly. "If he feels this is his duty, we will not stand in the way."

The others nodded in agreement, and Zuko felt a swelling of gratitude for their faith in him. From the look on Aang's face, though, he misinterpreted their show of support.

"Then we're all supposed to sit there and watch?"

"That's the idea," he said wryly, "though now that I think about it, that would be a perfect time for someone to get my mother out of prison. Now that Ozai is out of the city, I think she'd be willing to leave. And I'd like her out of there, regardless."

"I'll go," Lee said quickly.

Ha Joon nodded. "I will, too."

"Your mother's in prison?" Sokka gaped.

Zuko blushed, though he didn't know why. It's not like his mother was a criminal, and he knew that wasn't what Sokka was implying, but it still felt shameful to admit it.

"It's a long story, but yeah. My father put her there."

Sokka's mouth set in a grim line. "Then count me in, too."

"Thank you," he said, bowing, and he meant it. He didn't deserve friends like this. "But all of this depends on General Mung actually accepting the Agni Kai challenge. Otherwise we will need you to protect the palace."

"Where should we bring her?" Lee asked.

"To the east entrance, the farthest spot from the courtyard where we'll be fighting. That way if I lose, you can get her away safely."

"Don't you think you can win?" Aang asked.

He shrugged. "That's what I'm fighting him to find out."


Azula leaned back in her chair. It wasn't like the cushioned lounges at the palace, but for an Earth Kingdom camp it was surprisingly comfortable.

She and Ling had waited out the eclipse inside one of the larger tanks. Not because she was afraid, of course, but because it would be more efficient if Mai and Ty Lee failed at delaying the attack.

Ling had spent most of the eclipse pacing up and down the tank, shaking and flexing his arms, and then staring down at them as if he wasn't sure what to make of his new weakened state. Azula had filed her nails.

She understood what Ling was feeling, of course. It was disconcerting to feel her inner fire weaken, almost as if her chi had been drained out of her body. For someone as powerful as she was, she was sure the feeling must be amplified. But she refused to act as weak as she felt.

A small, niggling feeling in the back of her mind told her that it might have been a bad idea to send away the most powerful nonbenders in their group right before the firebenders all became helpless. The greater part of her, however, recognized that heading off the attack was better than waiting for it to come.

But now the sun was peeking out from behind the moon, and fire surged through her chi paths, and it was all okay because the attack had never come. She had been right from the beginning. As usual.

Ling stopped his pacing, collapsed into the chair next to her and let out a relieved sigh.

"I never want to go through one of those again." He shivered, then produced a small flame in one of his hands, cradling it like it was something precious to him.

"Don't be pathetic," she sneered, though she secretly agreed with him.

He resumed his comfort firebending, and she resumed filing her nails.

The silence was just beginning to be uncomfortable - her favorite kind of silence, because usually it meant that the other person was feeling the full weight of her displeasure - when the door of the tank slammed open, and Ty Lee stumbled in.

Her eyes were puffy and red, her face was puckered in the middle of a sob, and her hair was even beginning to fall out of its braid.

Azula rolled her eyes. "That bad, was it?"

But instead of answering, she ran to Ling and threw her arms around him, her tears falling in earnest now.

He awkwardly put his hands around her, patting her back in a vaguely reassuring way.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"They killed Mai," she choked out between sobs.

Azula sat up, an unfamiliar feeling of horror settling in her chest.

"And you didn't stop them?"

"They separated us. They said they would take good care of her. I thought they meant…" She trailed off, shaking her head at her own naivete. "The next thing I knew they were telling me she was dead."

"We'll make them pay," Ling said soothingly. "We know where they are. They're no match for us now that the sun is out."

Ty Lee attempted to dry her tears. "They abandoned camp as soon as the eclipse ended."

"Cowards," Azula hissed, shocked at the strange sensations overwhelming her, making her lose her characteristic control.

It wasn't that she was shocked at Mai's death; the loss of combatants in military operations was expected.

But she had never in her life lost anyone she cared for. Though Mai had been just as much a thorn in her side as a friend, and though Mai's death was probably as much a result of her own incompetence as the enemy's skill, she had cared for her.

Mai had been her first friend.

She wasn't going to blubber over her like Ty Lee was, but that didn't mean she wasn't sobbing inside.

Ling blew out a breath. "In that case, what do we do now?"

Azula opened her mouth to speak, but before she could find the words Ty Lee pushed away from Ling.

"We follow them," she hissed, her face a hard mask. "And when we find them, we end them."


Mai hated her life.

She had spent months pretending Fire Lord Iroh was dead, lying to someone she loved about it, and watching him fall to pieces over it and hating herself for being the cause of it. Then she came clean, only to be rejected by him. To make up for that, she joined the opposing team and began lying to them in order to keep him safe.

And now where was she? Convincing her last remaining friend in the world that she was dead. Had she learned nothing?

No, that wasn't true. Lying to Ty Lee was in many ways more painful than lying to Zuko, because she had learned her lesson.

Mai was a practical person, and she knew that her only chance of escaping from Azula and helping prevent the genocide of the Northern Water Tribe was to go along with Suki's plan. But it still hurt.

The only sound in the room was the slight rustle of paper as Suki sat at the desk writing a letter to Zuko.

Mai sat slumped against the metal wall of Suki's room, trying to ignore the way the rocking of the ship turned her stomach, but at the same time appreciating what little distraction it gave her from her guilt.

"There," Suki said. "I think that covers all you told me. All that's left is to tell him the information came from you."

"Does he really need to know that part?" she grimaced. The less she was brought into this as far as Zuko was concerned, the better.

"Don't worry. I'll tell him we got it from you while we were torturing you to death." Suki was obviously teasing, but Mai's reaction was swift and instinctive.

"NO."

Suki looked at her in surprise. "I have to tell him something. Otherwise, what reason does he have to trust me?"

"You can't tell him I'm dead."

"He's going to find out eventually," she said reasonably.

"Then you'd better let him know I'm alive, so he doesn't ever believe those rumors."

She knew she deserved the incredulous look Suki gave her, but she didn't care. Zuko might never forgive her for lying about Iroh's death, but there was always the slim chance he would. But if he believed her to be dead only to find out later that she'd lied to him again, there would be no hope.

"You know I can't say that outright," Suki snapped. "If the hawk is intercepted, it would ruin everything."

"If the hawk is intercepted, you really think my being alive will be the biggest of our problems?" She rolled her eyes, though the gesture seemed awfully tame for the level of derision she felt at this suggestion. "You don't think the fact that we know about the invasion plan is a little more critical?"

"All right, fine." She huffed a little, then visibly forced herself to calm down. "The fact remains that if word gets out that you're alive and with us, they won't need to intercept any hawks. Ozai will already know that we expect him to invade the North Pole."

"Then tell him to keep it quiet."

Suki muttered something that sounded like Fire Nation before going back to her writing with rather more force than was necessary.

"There," she said a few moments later, shoving the paper into Mai's hands. "Does this meet with your approval?"

She scanned the letter, her insides clenching at the thought of Zuko reading it. But, she had to admit, Suki had done an admirable job given the circumstances.

"It's fine," she said breezily, handing it back.

"Then I'll go find a messenger hawk."


Zuko stood in the square just before sunset, his back to Mung. There was a large crowd assembled, but he was doing his best to block them out.

A small part of him was surprised that General Mung had agreed to the Agni Kai. He was the one with all the advantages: he had an army, he had control of the capital and the rest of the Fire Nation, and all Zuko had was a handful of (admittedly very powerful) benders and warriors, the palace, and about a hundred prisoners.

But the bigger part of him understood completely. It was part of being a firebender, this drive to prove yourself.

He felt that drive keenly today. This was to be his very first Agni Kai, his first true test.

He found himself wishing that he'd been able to experience this before, when the stakes weren't quite so high. He knew he was a good firebender, and good at sparring, but he'd learned the last few months that theory did not always translate to reality - in so many areas of life, but especially when it came to fighting.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounding of the gong. He let his ceremonial jacket fall to the ground as he turned around.

He pulled his arm back to let out a powerful stream of fire, but instead had to scramble out of the way as Mung sent a rapid succession of fireballs his way.

He had no sooner dodged this attack than he was faced with another. He dug his heels into the ground and used his hands to block and dissipate them.

Agni Kais are no different from other bending, he could remember Uncle telling him. All you need are the basics.

Mung wasn't sticking to the basics, though. He was pulling out all the stops: fancy footwork, advanced firebending moves, and attacks that Zuko hadn't even learned yet. Each time Mung advanced, he felt his stomach sink a little lower. This was nothing like sparring with Hinata at the palace. This was more like fighting Azula at Ba Sing Se. And he remembered how that had gone.

Doubts began to creep in. He should have studied harder. He should have convinced Uncle to teach him more advanced moves. He should have practiced his firebending more while on the run, instead of focusing on his broadswords.

He needed to attack, but Mung was leaving him no opening. Surely he would pause for air soon, or falter, or make a mistake that Zuko could use as an opening. But the assault was relentless.

He dodged hard as Mung sent two fireballs at the same time, barely avoiding the second, and rolling into a crouch several feet away.

Then Uncle's words came to him again. Break your opponent's root. He can't attack without a foundation.

Mung was again advancing, a confident smile on his face at Zuko's less-than-secure position. It wouldn't take much for Mung to break his root.

Unless he was able to do it first.

Using his hands as leverage, he swung his legs around in an arc, sending a ring of fire in all directions, but the most intense point in Mung's direction.

He dodged it easily, but it stopped his relentless attack and allowed Zuko to go on the offensive.

The match was more even from that point. When Mung attacked, Zuko parried. Around and around the dueling ring they went, circling, attacking, momentarily withdrawing.

Zuko's breathing was beginning to become labored, which wasn't good for his bending. Mung, from all appearances, was as energetic as when they'd started. He needed an edge.

He cast about in his brain for some type of firebending Mung wouldn't expect, something that would throw him off guard enough so that he could take him down. The only thing that came to him was the dancing dragon form Uncle had shown him when they'd visited the Sun Warrior ruins.

Mung certainly wouldn't expect that - as far as Zuko knew, only he and his uncle knew that firebending form. But would it be enough?

He didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons. If he didn't do it now, he might not get another chance.

He sent a ball of fire at Mung to distract him, and then he started dancing. With each form, he sent a blast of fire at him, and with each subsequent move, Mung became more and more disoriented, less able to predict what he would do next.

At the same time, Zuko's focus was narrowing to the almost zen-like state that he reached whenever he practiced bending in the style of the dragons. His breathing evened out, his fire became more powerful, and his moves more precise.

By the time Zuko reached the tenth move, a low crouch combined with a firebending kick with his left foot, he had pushed Mung back into the corner. He finished with the last move, a double fisted firebending punch.

Mung stumbled in his attempt to dodge, and landed hard on his back, and Zuko stood over him, victorious.

"I yield," Mung gasped.

Zuko extended a hand to help him up in a daze. He had won. The palace was safe, the capital was secured, and all without putting his friends in danger. The thrill of victory was heady.

They bowed to each other - Mung's bow twice as deep as Zuko's - and he ordered his troops to stand down.

"Caldera City is under your command, my lord," he said grudgingly. "And I am your humble servant."

He did not sound thrilled at this prospect, but the rules of honor dictated that he had to accept his loss, and Zuko was confident that he would.

As soon as Zuko left the dueling ring, Aang ran up to him and slapped him on the back. "All right! That was amazing! You're going to have to teach me some of that firebending. I've never seen anything like it!"

"Indeed," Master Piandao said as he joined them. "I myself have only seen bending of that sort once before." He gave Zuko an arch look that made him wonder how much his uncle had told Piandao about the dragons. "It is powerful firebending. Well done."

He inclined his head, blushing slightly. "Thank you, Master."

He looked over at Julong and Ryu, who thought they hadn't said a word, wore identical expressions of pride on their tattooed faces. Julong stepped forward, bowed, and handed him a rolled up letter.

"Sir, this letter arrived during the Agni Kai. It carries General Saito's seal."

Nodding, he accepted the letter, unfurled it, and began to read.

Fire Lord Zuko,

Though we have never met, I have heard of your brave deeds in the Earth Kingdom, and of your desire to end this terrible war and bring Ozai to justice. As the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, I believe that we have a common goal and can work together in this endeavor, and it is to that end that I send you this intelligence.

As you are doubtless aware, Sozin's Comet will return in but a matter of weeks. Your ancestor, Fire Lord Sozin, used the comet to annihilate the Air Nomads. I have received reports that Ozai has a similar plan: to complete his grandfather's goal of subduing the earth under Fire Nation rule by using the comet's power to destroy the Northern Water Tribe.

You have no reason to trust me, but I hope you will trust General Saito, whose seal is born on this letter, and if not him, the testimony of your own Fire Lady, who brought me this news. You may have heard rumors of her treachery, or perhaps even of her death. I reassure you that neither is true. They are, however, necessary ruses to maintain the illusion that we are ignorant of Ozai's plans. I trust you will respect this secret.

We await news of your plans once we reach the North Pole.

I remain Your Majesty's humble ally,

Suki, Warrior of Kyoshi

So much information in such a short letter. His brain wasn't sure which part to focus on first. He knew which should be his priority. For the sake of the world, for the fate Four Nations, his father's plans for genocide ought to have been the first item he addressed, and he certainly felt the weight of them. But that wasn't what his brain was fixating on.

General Saito working with the legendary Kyoshi Warriors. How had that happened? And did the general know about Hinata's death? How could he possibly face him again, after that?

And Mai… The letter implied that she had been spying on Azula, and that she was not pretending to be dead? That certainly rubbed him the wrong way. Hadn't she had enough of that particular brand of deception? But the Kyoshi Warrior had made a particular point of reassuring him of the truth. He wondered if Mai had anything to do with that? Something about the way it was phrased made him suspect that was the case.

He was relieved that she was safe. Especially if she'd been acting as a double agent to Azula all these weeks, she was lucky to have escaped with her life. But now she was headed to the North Pole with Saito, to prepare for the arrival of Sozin's Comet and his father's army. That was surely just as dangerous for her.

He sat down on the palace steps as if the weight of all the information had made it too burdensome to stand. What was he going to do? His father had to be stopped

But before he could formulate a proper plan, Sokka, Lee, and Ha Joon filed into the courtyard. Their faces were grave, and he felt a flash of trepidation.

He stood up quickly, crumpling the letter in his fist as he hurried down the steps to meet them.

"What's wrong?"

"Your mother's cell was empty," Sokka said flatly.

"What?" The trepidation turned to outright panic. "Where is she, then?"

They looked at each other, and then with a grimace, Ha Joon turned back to him.

"The guards told us Ozai arrived at the prison shortly before we did."

The implication was clear: Father had taken Mother with him, and he was headed with her to the North Pole, with plans to destroy the Northern Water Tribe.

He glanced around at Mung's troops milling about the courtyard, and his heart sunk. There were only three weeks from now until the day the comet arrived. It would take at least a week and a half to travel to the North Pole, and that was assuming no interference from the Fire Navy.

He ought to be spending this time securing the palace and the capital under his control.

Instead, he was going to have to leave it just after he'd claimed it.

"Pack your bags," he said to the others. "We leave at first light tomorrow."