Katara stared with wide eyes at the man in front of her. "Sokka? Is that really you?"

"Of course it is," he replied, flashing a grin and a thumbs-up. "Who else would it be?"

"I don't understand." She stared a moment longer and took a step forward, tentatively reaching out with her hand. When her fingers touched Sokka's shoulder to affirm that he was really, physically there, a soft gasp burst from her throat. "How...?"

Sokka pursed his lips and shrugged. "I don't know, beats the heck out of me. Really, if you think about it, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But hey, I'm not about to complain. I mean, look at me!" Turning towards the mirror on the nearby wall, he grinned at his reflection. "Young again and gorgeous as ever."

"Wait, is that really Sokka?" Toph asked, as she took a few steps closer. Her brow scrunched together, as her blind eyes stared skeptically forward. "I mean, it sure sounds like him, but that shouldn't be possible. Right?"

"I know, I know, it's crazy," Sokka said, "but it's true, I'm here. Boomerang and all."

"Oh, Sokka!" Katara closed the remaining distance between them and threw her arms tight around her brother. The moment his arms wrapped around her in return, tears welled into her eyes. Almost twenty long years now since she'd last seen him. Twenty long years since he had died. To actually see him again, to hug him again... An overwhelming warmth flowed through her, lifting her heart with a joy she hadn't known in decades.

"I wish I had some earth beneath my feet so I could see you," Toph said, curling a grin across her face as she made her way over to join them, "but I guess I can settle for a hug instead."

"Aw, you guys, making me feel all special." Sokka squeezed them tight for a long moment, before pulling away with a smile. "Anyway, the reason I'm here is because my boss wants to see you. He's looking for powerful benders to meet with him, and hey, you two were some of the best."

Toph folded her arms and scoffed. "What do you mean, 'were'?"

Katara paused, giving her brother a curious stare. "Sokka, what 'boss' are you talking about?"

"Oh, great guy, really," he said. "You see, you two have really strong spirits, and that's something my boss needs. He's a little weak right now and needs time to regain his strength, but you could help him with that. Or at the very least give him some extra muscle."

Katara took a cautious step backwards. Many years ago, perhaps, she would have allowed herself to be blinded by the fact her dear brother had returned to life. She was far too experienced for that now. No, something was wrong here. "What are you talking about? Sokka, you're not making any sense."

"Ah come on, don't be stubborn. It'll be good for you."

Katara paused again, glancing briefly towards the box in which Kanna was hiding before refocusing on her brother. "I'm afraid we have to stay here. Why not just sit down and have some tea with us?"

Sokka's gaze darkened, sparking with an aggressive gleam. "You really need to come with me now."

"No." Katara remained firm. Something was definitely wrong. Whatever had brought back Sokka couldn't be of this world, nor could it mean anything good.

With a disappointed sigh, Sokka closed his eyes and shook his head. "You just had to be stubborn, didn't you? Guess we have to do this the hard way."

Katara saw the attack coming. If she were younger, she could have defended herself. Not so much anymore, getting on near a hundred years old. Her reflexes weren't as sharp as they used to be. Her joints ached, and her muscles had weakened. Too slow, too old. By the time she reached out a hand to bend the water from her dropped waterskin, Sokka had already pulled the boomerang from his back and swung it at her head. The blow cracked against her skull, sparking a flash of bright colors into her vision. She stumbled to a knee briefly, before collapsing motionless to the floor.

"Sokka, what are you—" she heard Toph say, but her words cut out with the sound of another cracking blow from Sokka's boomerang. Then, everything went quiet.


Azula ducked low beneath a blast of fire. Flames scorched the air above her, as she twisted upward with a spinning kick at her father's face. Ozai recoiled away from the streaking blue fire that followed. His stance faltered momentarily, allowing Azula to continue her assault and knock him off balance with a burning stream from both her fists. Even as Ozai bent away her flames, she pressed her attack, never letting him regain his poise.

With a whirl of her leg, she scorched a rippling carpet of flames across the ground at her father's feet. Ozai jumped away, his root broken. Azula countered with an instant jab of her fingertips, searing the air between them with a concentrated jet of fire. The burning stream erupted against Ozai's chest and sent him spinning across the ground, his clothes singed and smoking. He flipped back to his feet, but Azula was already on him again. Once more, she forced him on the defensive.

Ozai's eyes flared with increasing panic. In spite of his boasting and cockiness, he found himself clearly outmatched by his daughter. No matter what he threw at her, she had an answer. There she was, fighting against the former Phoenix King in nothing but a bathrobe and bare feet, and yet still she displayed far superior skill and control. Whatever edge he'd once had over her, she had long since surpassed it. Panic turned to anger. Anger turned to desperation. Ozai's attacks became wilder, and his defense less precise. With one final series of brutal strikes, Azula broke through his guard completely and blasted him against the wall with a vicious fireball.

Azula shifted her stance with two fingers extended. "I told you, it's your turn to be afraid!"

Ozai pushed up to his knees and glared at her, his brow lowering over his eyes. "If you think I'm afraid of my own daughter, you are delusional."

"Well, you certainly don't seem as confident as you were a few minutes ago," she countered. A blue spark crackled from her fingertips, as lightning began to charge. "You're just as pathetic as you are cruel. How I ever looked up to a spineless weasel snake like you..."

"You don't know what you're doing, Azula," Ozai chided. "What this means. You're a fool if you think you're going to live a happy, normal life. No matter what you do, you will always be the monster that I created. Sooner or later, you'll hurt the ones you claim to love. Sooner or later, they will pay for ever having trusted you."

"Shut up!"

Azula thrust her fingers forward. Lightning sizzled the air, exploding towards her father's chest. Whatever had brought him back, whatever his reason for being here, it would soon be over. He had tried to torment her again, but he had failed. She had triumphed over him, and now she could be free of him once and for all. At least, she should have been.

A shadowed figure lunged in the path of the lightning and caught it against his own fingertips. Crackling blue ignited the darkened palace, surging a brilliant glow around the silhouette as he pointed one of his arms down the other end of the corridor. The sizzling bolt reappeared, redirecting harmlessly into the far wall. Ice melted and exploded on impact. When the air calmed, the new figure turned to face Azula.

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," the man said.

Azula's eyes flared, trapped in a disbelieving stare at the man. He did not look the same as either of the times she had known him, neither as the kid and teenager she'd grown up with, nor as the old man she had most recently known him as. Rather, he looked to be in his late twenties, or perhaps early thirties, with long hair tied up in a half-knot. Despite never having known him at this age, recognition exploded through Azula's heart in an instant. No mistaking this man. Not with that identifying burn scar scorched across his left eye.

She stared in silence a moment longer, unable to find the words. When at last she did manage to force out something, her voice caught in her throat with a raspy choke, little more than a hoarse whisper. "Zuzu...?"

"Hello, Azula," he said. "It's been a while."

"Zuzu, how... how are you here?"

"Does it matter? Same as our father, I would imagine."

"But why are you helping him?" She shifted a glance towards Ozai. "After everything he did to us, to you..."

"Because he's right," Zuko replied, with a narrow glare. "You're fooling yourself, with this delusion you've built up of being normal and happy. People like you can't be happy. You don't deserve to be happy."

"What...?" she uttered, squeaking out her voice in a weak gasp. "Zuzu, what are you saying?"

Zuko sighed, and slowly shook his head in pity. "You think you've changed, but you haven't. One of these days, you'll break down again. You'll lose it, and you won't get any better. All the people you love? Anraq, Kanna? They'll leave you. They'll take you back to the only place someone like you belongs and they will abandon you there, alone and institutionalized, to suffer in your own despair just like you deserve."

"No!" Azula squinted her eyes shut and clasped her fingers in her hair, frantically shaking her head. "Stop it! You wouldn't say that! Zuko wouldn't say that!"

"You see? It's already started. Your mind is damaged, Azula. No matter how much you bandage it back up, it's only a matter of time before it falls to pieces again."

Azula shrieked out a desperate cry and shrank down to her knees. No, no, no! Zuko couldn't be saying these things. He wouldn't say these things. He loved her, he cared about her. He wasn't cruel like this. He didn't want to hurt her. This wasn't him. It couldn't be him.

"Shut up and let's finish this already," Ozai muttered. "I'm tired of playing games. And for the record, I didn't need your help."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "Right, because it looked like you had everything under control."

"Zuzu, please... please stop." Azula opened her eyes and looked up at him, unable to control the trembling in her lungs. Her breaths stuttered, short and rapid. "This isn't you. You wouldn't hurt me. You wouldn't."

"And why not? You hurt me plenty." Zuko raised his fists and snapped into a firebending stance. "I'm only returning the favor."

Before he could strike, a fireball scorched down the corridor and exploded at his feet, forcing him back a step. Two figures raced into view and put themselves between him and Azula, both taking defensive stances. When he saw them, he let out an annoyed sigh and refocused his posture.

"Well, isn't this just one big family reunion?" Zuko said, glancing back and forth between the two new combatants.

"Get away from her." Izumi slid her front foot forward and tightened her fists.

Iroh moved next to his mother, only for his stance to momentarily falter when he recognized their opponent. "Mom, is that... Grandfather?"

"Yes, and mine," she replied, shifting her focus briefly towards Ozai. "Or at least it looks like them."

Azula blinked up at her niece, still half frozen on her knees. "Izumi? What are you doing?"

"Helping you," she insisted. "Now get out of here. We'll hold them off."

"But, Izumi..."

Izumi snapped a quick glare back at her. "Go. Get your daughter and get out of here. We can handle them. "

Ozai struck first, leaping forward with a spiraling blast of fire. Izumi met him with a blast of her own, and seconds later both Iroh and Zuko joined the fight. Flames ignited the corridor. Azula remained on her knees a moment longer, trapped in a daze. She could help. She should help, and yet something deep in her gut pushed her away, a sick trembling knot that shook her to her core. Zuko's words. They lingered fresh in her mind, already haunting her very soul. Rather than fight, she scrambled to her feet and fled down the other end of the hallway, heart pounding into her throat.


P'Li poked her head over the ice wall that she, Ghazan, and Ming-Hua had taken cover behind. She focused carefully on the approaching guards, each of them maintaining their own defenses of ice in front of themselves. There were a lot, and they were well trained. Each time she unleashed an explosion, the guards doubled up their defense around the point of impact and kept coming, all while several attackers in the back launched a continual barrage of icy projectiles, which forced the three former Red Lotus members back into cover.

"Well, this wasn't part of the plan," Ghazan muttered. "We were supposed to take the Avatar, not get pinned down by every damn guard in the palace."

"Oh would you relax?" Ming-Hua said. "We can get the Avatar later. I'm sure the rest of these morons will be appreciated. Especially those two." Leaning out from the side of the wall, she focused a glare on Tonraq and Tenzin.

"And how exactly do you expect to capture them all?" Ghazan countered. "Would be a heck of a lot easier to just blow them to smithereens."

P'Li expelled another combustion blast down the corridor to slow the advancing guards, and dropped back into cover again as another storm of icy blades pelted the wall. "We just need to hold out a little longer. This will be over soon."


At the other end of the corridor, Tenzin approached at the rear of the guards, whirling a dome of air around both himself and Tonraq for defense. "What on earth are these three doing here? And alive?"

"I don't know, but they have to be stopped," Tonraq said. "Even without Zaheer, they're exceptionally dangerous."

"Especially if they're working with Amon and Tarrlok," Tenzin added, as he glanced over his shoulder. Both bloodbenders remained unconscious on the floor from Asami's earlier attack. "I don't know what's going on here, but it can't be good."

Tonraq nodded, and shielded both of them with another ice wall as one of P'Li's explosions erupted nearby. When the blast settled, they continued forward. "Well, we have them where we want them right now, so if we just keep pushing we should—aaahhh!"

Both Tonraq and Tenzin seized under an invisible grip, limbs twisting and contorting in violent manner. The same hold soon spread to the other palace guards, as each one of them crumpled to the floor in screaming agony. As they went down, both Amon and Tarrlok sat upright with heir hands raised and fingers clenched.

"Did you really think that would keep us down for long?" Tarrlok said. "How very foolish of you to leave us unattended."

Within seconds, Tenzin, Tonraq, and every one of the guards ceased moving and went silent, forced unconscious by their bloodbending. Amon gave his fingers a simple twitch, and the entire group hovered into the air, fit for transport.


Anraq hobbled through the palace, hunched forward with his arms wrapped across his chest. While the ice he had placed over his wound had stopped the bleeding for now, it certainly did nothing to stop the pain. Each step he took sent another lance of agony driving into his ribs, as if being stabbed all over again. Not like he could stop to heal himself. No time for that, especially if Megumi was still in pursuit of him. Wouldn't take her long to catch up with him when he was in this state.

His mind swam with thoughts of dread and confusion. How could Megumi possibly be back? She was dead. He'd watched her die. Even as those denials entered his mind, he shook them away. He had watched Kanna die, too, and yet his daughter had been back for over a year now. Such seeming impossibilities could happen, no doubt about that.

Why, though? Why was she back now, and why did she seem so different? Why had she attacked him? What in spirits name was going on? Where was Kanna? And Azula? Were they alright? Had something happened to them? Was he too late?

A deep grunt burst from his lips, shoving his frantic thoughts free from his mind with a paralyzing jolt of pain. His legs gave out and he hit the floor. Unable to stand, unable to move. He collapsed limp on his front, wheezing desperate, tired breaths. Any attempt and pushing himself back up resulted in an explosion of agony ripping through his side. No use. Just a minute... Just needed a minute to rest, and he could get up again and keep going. Just a minute.

Somewhere through the haze of his warped mind, he heard a voice call out to him. A voice he knew. "Annie?"

"Azula!" With another groan, he forced himself onto his elbows so he could look up at his girlfriend standing above him. She reached down to help him back to his feet, a process that made his head spin and nearly yanked his stomach over the edge of vomiting. "Oh, thank goodness. Where's Kanna?"

"I left her with Toph and Katara." Azula blinked at him, half in a daze of her own. Her gaze was distant, as though her mind was somewhere else. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Oh, sure, fine," he muttered. "So uh, this is going to sound crazy, but remember how I told you about Kanna's birth mother, Megumi? Well... she sort of just showed up out of the blue. Alive. She did this to me."

Azula blinked again, staring at him with that same glazed distance in her eyes. When she spoke, her voice came out in a hoarse whisper, as if not believing the words she was saying. "That's not so crazy. My father just showed up too. And... and Zuzu. They both attacked me."

"What? Are you serious?"

She gave a slow nod. "Yes. I've heard sounds of battle coming all throughout this palace, too, so I'm guessing there's more than just them."

"Oh man..." Anraq grunted out another pained breath, holding his arm around Azula's shoulders for support. "This is insane. What in spirits name is going on?"

His question went answered by a new voice, calling from farther down the corridor. "The same thing happened to us, as well. Our father returned from the dead to attack us."

Anraq turned to see Desna standing there accompanied by his bodyguard, and an unconscious Eska lying atop a floating pillow of sand. "Desna! Good to see you alright. You too... uh, Hari, was it?"

Hari gave a nod, bowing in greeting. "That is correct."

"Eska was hurt," Desna said, giving a worried look to his sister. "We're on our way to Katara to heal her."

"That's where we're headed now," Anraq said. Not only was he in serious need of healing himself, but he needed to get to Kanna. "I can help too, when we get there."

Desna nodded. "Good, let us proceed together."


"Katara!" Anraq called, as he shoved the door open. His legs buckled momentarily, but Azula caught him and kept him upright. "We have injured here! We need—"

His words cut out when he realized he was yelling at an empty room. This was the room Katara and Toph had been staying in, and yet they were nowhere to be found. Nothing but a pair of neatly made beds, a table with long cold cups of tea placed upon it, and a discard waterskin dropped in front of the door. No sign of Katara or Toph. Or Kanna.

"I don't understand," Azula said, as she shifted her gaze around the room. "I left them right here. They should be here."

"They're not here." Anraq broke away from Azula and fell towards the table. "They're not... Kanna? Kanna!"

"Daddy?"

The voice was quiet and muffled, but it caught their attention. Anraq spun around, eyes frantically scanning the room to find where it had come from. "Sweet Pea? Is that you? Where...?"

The door on a small storage box beneath one of the beds popped open, and Kanna crawled out. As soon as she was free, she ran to her father with her arms outstretched. "Daddyyy!"

"Oh Kanna..." Anraq wrapped his arms tight around his daughter, hugging her close. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm okay," she said, with a sniffle. "Master Katara made me hide so I was safe. Then someone came and took her, and Master Toph."

Anraq blinked, furrowing his brow. "Someone took them?"

"That is not good at all," Desna said. "We need a healer. Eska is getting weaker, and she's already lost a lot of blood."

Anraq pulled away from Kanna and forced himself towards one of the beds. "Here, put her down. I'll help her."

Desna raised an eyebrow, a subtle hint of concern lifting into his gaze. "But you are injured just as badly. You need to heal as well."

"I'll be fine," he insisted. "I stopped the bleeding, at least. Sure it stings like a mother, but Eska needs help. Let me see her."

"Very well. Thank you." Desna nodded to Hari, who guided the floating sand pillow through the air and gently set Eska down atop the bed.

Azula watched with unblinking eyes, her thoughts muddied and distant behind an undulating wall of syrup. This was all wrong. Everything was wrong. People coming back from the dead, Katara and Toph taken, an attack on the palace. What did any of this mean? She jolted out of her thoughts when she felt a tight grasp around her legs. Blinking downward, she noticed Kanna hugging her.

"Mommy, I'm glad you're okay," the girl whimpered. "I was so scared."

Azula eased a deep exhale, as she knelt down to wrap her own arms around Kanna in return. "Thank you, sweetie. I'm glad you're okay, too."

Several minutes later, the door to the room opened again, giving way to a veritable parade of new arrivals. Asami entered first, supporting a barely conscious Mako with his arm hoisted around her shoulders. Sinn came in behind her, helping along Bolin, while Korra brought up the rear.

"Got room for a few more?" Asami asked, as she helped Mako down onto the other bed. Sinn guided Bolin into one of the chairs at the table.

"Spirits," Anraq said, lifting his eyebrows. "What happened to you guys?"

"Probably the same thing that happened to you," Korra said, as she sat in another chair at the table. "We were attacked."

"By people who are supposed to be dead, by any chance?"

Korra gave a slow nod, her gaze narrowing with concern. "Yeah, exactly."

"Great..." Anraq hissed a soft groan and turned his attention back to Eska. The water around his hands glowed brighter, as he doubled his efforts to heal her. "What on earth is going on here?"

"I can't say for sure," Korra said, "but Raava claims she felt a powerful spiritual presence she doesn't recognize. It could be that whatever that presence is, it's what's brought these people back. It could be controlling them, too."

Desna glanced towards her with a frown. "That sounds troublesome."

Sinn looked up with a worried stare. "The question is: what is this spirit, or being, or whatever that's doing this?"

"I don't know, but I know who we can ask." The answer came from the doorway, where several new arrivals now entered. Lin followed Kuvira and Kya into the room, dragging an unconscious figure behind her. A strikingly familiar figure, bound with strips of cloth around the wrists and ankles. "Whenever she wakes up, that is."

Korra nearly bolted out of her seat. "Su? I don't believe it."

"I'm not sure I believe it either," Kuvira said, stumbling into the room on quivering legs. She only managed to steady herself after grabbing hold of the table. "Whoever, or whatever, that is, it can't be Su. The Suyin I knew would never act the way she's acting. Would never say the things she said..."

"Kuvy..." Korra stood out of her seat and threw her arms around her wife, squeezing tight. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Me too," Kuvira muttered, with a heavy sigh. "I was in pretty bad shape a while ago, but Kya patched me up."

Kya marched across the room and sat at Anraq's side to look at his wound. Pretty hard to miss, with the bloodied hole that had ripped through his shirt. "Here, let me see that."

"Ow," Anraq groaned, as the older woman pressed her hands against his ribs. The ice plugging the puncture liquefied a moment later, as it began to glow and heal him. "Thanks."

"So, what do we do now?" Asami said.

"We patch ourselves up and get moving," Korra replied. "We have to see if we can help the others still in the palace. Then we find whatever spirit is causing all this and put a stop to it."

"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Sinn asked. "I mean, half of us aren't in fighting shape right now, and we have some crazy powerful enemies running around out there."

Lin nodded. "She's right. We'd probably just end up getting ourselves killed."

"But my father is out there!" Korra insisted. "We can't just leave him. Or Tenzin."

"Or Izumi," Azula added, "and Iroh."

"Or, you know, the palace guards, the other wedding guests, Katara, Toph..." Anraq said. "Everyone, really."

Lin huffed a deep breath and glanced towards the partially open door. She took a step towards it and poked her head outside, looking both ways down the hall. She returned inside a moment later and shut the door behind her. "Maybe for now, we find a safe place and wait for Su here to wake up, get some answers from her? We'd be much better help if we knew exactly what we're up against."

Korra sighed, bowing her head. "Yeah, alright. I suppose we can do that. We should have all the information we can. There's no telling what we're up against."


Standing outside the main entrance of the palace, Sen breathed in deep with a delighted grin carved across his face. He closed his eyes, and focused intently to the events transpiring within. Such a rush of emotions boiling throughout the palace. So much despair, and confusion, and grief. The shock and horror of it, all so overwhelming.

Oh, this was fun. How long had it been, since he'd had the opportunity to torment anyone like this? To play on their fears and their grief? Far, far too long. Feeling it all now almost made the tens of thousands of years locked away in prison worth suffering. Almost.

A quiet cackle surged from his throat. Soon, he would regain his full strength, and no longer would this physical form hinder his power. When that happened, not even the Avatar would be able to stop him.