"Where is he? Where is the Fire Lord?" Aang demanded, all of us maintaining our defensive stances as we prepared for whatever might come at us.

"Hm, you mean I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings." Azula drawled as she got up from the throne she had been lounging on, taking a step towards us. Her eyes flickered towards me and mine narrowed harshly in response, keeping my face as calm and collected as possible as I felt a distinct air of animosity and hatred from the princess. Well, we'd never really started off on the right foot and I guess now she considers me a true traitor to our nation. I guess we won't be braiding each other's hair anytime soon.

"Stop wasting our time and give us the information. You're powerless right now so you're in no position to refuse." Sokka demanded, brandishing his sword threateningly as Toph stepped forwards.

"And stick to the truth. I'll be able to tell if you're lying."

"Are you sure? I'm a pretty good liar." Azula challenged before her face lost all emotion and became as plain as a blank portrait. "I am a four hundred foot tall purple platypus-bear with pink horns and silver wings." I looked at Toph expectantly who had paused before tilting her head in acknowledgement.

"Okay you're good, I admit it." With a sharp movement, Toph bent the earth under the stomp of her foot all the way to Azula, causing it to rise up and encase her completely so that she wouldn't be able to move though oddly, she didn't try to dodge or escape. She just stood there. "But you really ought to consider telling the truth anyway." Smirking, the rock around her began to crack before it crumbled away altogether, leaving the rest of us stunned as the princess brushed the dust off her armour.

"When I left Ba Sing Se, I brought home some souvenirs." She explained as two Dai Li agents dropped down from the ceiling in order to stand in front of her, clearly on her side. "Dai Li agents." I couldn't help but smirk.

"Got bored playing with ordinary dolls, princess?" I asked her which made her mouth twitch in irritation. Aang blasted them with an air slice only for it to be blocked by the Dai Li who moved two massive slabs of stone to form a wall between us, blocking the attack. Aang demolished it without any problem, but another stone wall burst upwards and cut us off from Azula, though Aang was able to jump around it, Toph launched herself upwards and burst through the rock, leaving Sokka and me behind. "You couldn't make a door a little lower Toph?!" I yelled to her as Sokka and I looked up at the gap in the rock which was too high for either of us to reach. We looked at each. "So…want to climb on my shoulders?"

Having no other choice and wanting to help as we heard the sounds of rock crunching and hitting things as well as the occasional gust of air, I ran to turn my back against the stone wall then cupped my hands as Sokka dashed forwards, placing his foot into my hands so that I could push him upwards with his momentum to lift him up so he could climb on through. By the time he'd climbed through and had positioned his legs through to the other side, things sounded like they were really heating up on the other side. He turned around to pull me up, offering his hand but I jumped and encased my hands with water, forming them into ice hooks as I then began to scale the wall myself.

Just as Sokka was starting to slide through, Azula herself came flying through from the other side, smirking down at Sokka who froze up and stared a little fearfully, staying perfectly still as a Dai Li agent, Toph and then finally Aang followed in the same way as they chased after Azula. I grabbed Sokka and dropped down, descending on the water I had before I moved it back into the pouches, racing after the others with Sokka as Aang called to Toph. "I can't pin her down. She's too quick." Damn it, I need a river or a lake, even better the ocean. I can't do much with just two pouches of water, now I started to understand how frustrated Sokka must have felt sometimes.

Toph broke off from the rest of us as we continued to follow directly after Azula and the Dai Li agent, Aang breaking through the blockage of stone that had been left at the door so we could all follow. Without warning a lump of rock burst outward and hit the Dai Li agent, throwing him off balance and he slammed against the grove of a steel support beam as Toph appeared, smashing his rock gloves then bending the metal to trap him inside so that he wouldn't cause any more problems for us. Now with a direct line to Azula, I flung some water forwards and spun it, making it snap around her legs and form ice, making her trip up and hit the ground as I caught her. Dang, I was getting pretty good with my aim.

"Wait!" Sokka yelled to us as Aang, Toph and I prepared to corner Azula who turned onto her back and smirked, slamming he feet onto the ground in order to break my ice trap so I retrieved it, knowing that I couldn't afford to waste a single drop of water as Sokka cautioned us. "Aang, Toph, Kayo, stop attacking. Don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this fight!"

"Not true, I'm giving it my all." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Honesty doesn't suit you princess, because it's so obvious you're lying."

"You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!" Toph pointed, though Azula just looked at her condescendingly.

"Um, right. I think your friend just said that genius, and since you can't see, I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes." Annoyed at her, a quick lash of my water whip slammed against her forehead, making her whole head rip backwards from the force as I left a rather pleasing bruise on her brow which made her growl angrily at me as she clutched it. "You little peasant! I've just about had enough of you!"

"I'm used to spoiled rich royal brats like you." I answered coolly as I brought the water back into my pouch like I was sheathing a sword. "I lived with Zuko for almost a year, after all." Her eyes narrowed darkly at me.

"Okay, so what do we do? Just ignore her?" Aang questioned as Sokka straightened up.

"We don't have a choice. We just have to get out of here and find the Fire Lord on our own somehow." We all turned away from Azula, planning on seeking out another part of the bunker where the Fire Lord might be hiding when Azula called after us tauntingly.

"It's a trap. Don't say I didn't warn you." The younger kids paused and looked back but I placed my hands on their backs and guided them forwards as Sokka told us to ignore her, until the princess picked the right string to pull which made Sokka snap. "So, Sokka's your name right? My favourite prisoner used to mention you all the time." This made Sokka stop and turn around, clearly growing angry as he instantly understood the hidden meaning behind Azula's words. "She was convinced that you were going to come rescue her. Of course, you never came and she gave up on you."

I saw real tears fill Sokka's eyes as he became overcome with pain and anger, taking me by surprise so much so that I didn't even try to stop me as he released a furious bellow and rushed at Azula with his sword in hand. Toph blinked and quickly moved, firing a rock at Azula to smack the princess's hand then trap it against the wall, forcing her to drop the blade she'd been holding in her sleeve so that when Sokka reached her, she was defenceless.

"Where…is…Suki?!" Suki? Sokka's girlfriend Suki? Oh no, we don't have time for this.

"Sokka! The eclipse!" I yelled to him, reaching out to try and pull him back but he just shoved me off of him, grasping hold of Azula and yelling in desperate fury.

"Where's Suki?! Answer me!" Aang tried to help me, telling Sokka that there was no way Azula would talk but Sokka refused to back down. "Where are you keeping her?!" Azula remained tight lipped and smug, knowing that she was the victorious one here and just when we heard a loud explosion somewhere down the hall, she turned her head with a light sounding voice.

"Oh. Sounds like the fire bending's back on." Before she could kick her leg upwards at Sokka I grabbed him by the back of his armour and hauled him away from the blue flames before Azula blasted fireball at us, this time Toph coming to our rescue as she slammed against us and threw us to the ground. Breaking free from the wall, Azula dove straight for Aang who leaped back from her fiery heel strike, all of us getting back up to face her as we naturally grouped together until Azula stood back up and pointed. "Dad's all the way at the end of the hall and down the secret stairway on the left. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to see you now." Is it just me who thinks it weird to hear the Fire Lord referred to as 'dad'?

Breaking free and running away, Sokka grasped his head in frustration. "I fell for it! I used up all our time."

"It's not your fault, Sokka. Azula was ready for us. She had every move planned out." Toph comforted as I nodded in agreement whilst Sokka hung his head hopelessly.

"That's right, you were worried about Suki. We all understand."

"But now it's too late."

"Maybe it's not too late." Making us look at Aang as he looked down the corridor to where Azula had directed us to find the Fire Lord, he then looked back. "The eclipse is over but I can face the Fire Lord anyway."

"No. I don't think that's a good idea."

"But I'm ready! I came here with a job to do and everyone's counting on me."

"Aang, he knows we're coming. He'll have all of his elite fire benders ready to fight us, and we'll soon be overwhelmed. If we go in there now, someone is going to get hurt. Badly." I reasoned with him, placing my hand on his shoulder as his face contorted. "I know how much today meant to you, but right now, we need to focus on protecting ourselves and getting our friends out of here so we can fight another day when we're better prepared."

"Kayo's right Aang. The Fire Lord knew we were coming this time. We thought we had surprise on our side but we didn't. It just wasn't our day. What we need to do now is go help our friends." Toph added, helping me out as Aang hesitantly sighed in acceptance.

"I guess you guys are right." Understanding how defeated Aang must be feeling, Sokka joined me in comforting him, placing his hand on his other shoulder.

"You'll have another chance. I know you will." Turning around, Sokka got us all moving in order to head out of here, though I paused for a moment with a shudder and a whimper of concern.

"Does this mean we have to cross the lava lake again?"