Sokka sighed deeply as he was leaning back in Appas big saddle, a pout on his lips. "Did we really have to go already?" he asked. "I was going to show dad my new awesome skills!"
Aang looked at Sokka with the possible biggest puppy eyes he had ever made. "I'm so sorry Sokka." he said. "I just have a feeling. A really really bad feeling."
Katara sighed deeply. "It'll be okay. We can meet up with dad again pretty soon. If this is keeping Aang up, it's probably better to check it out. Just in case."
Sokka rolled his eyes. "We have been gone for five days." he said. "What could possible happen in five days? Things are fine!" he said as he turned around to look over the Saddle. "You'll see. Zuko will be drining his tea. Toph will be laughing with her parents and things will be fi…."
There was quiet. "Sokka?" Aang asked. "Is something wrong."
Slowly Sokkas turned to them, his eyes were wide and his mouth open.
Katara blinked as well.
"Please tell me I'm hallucinating." Sokka whispered. "This gotta be a joke."
Then both came to Sokkas side, the side where Ba Sing Se was and in the distance.
There was red! Banners hung across the wall, parts of it broken down, and smoke coming from even further away inside of the city.
Aangs eyes widened. Katara gasped as she held her hands to her mouth and Sokka was looking.
"We were gone…. For five days!" Sokka exclaimed as he turned to the other two. "What in the name of Tue and La! You got to be kidding! Ho-How?!"
They were all to stunned to speak as they all looked then finally Sokka turned to Aang.
"Aang… I am so sorry for doubting your bad feelings. It wont happen again." Sokka said.
"That's okay. Honestly I was hoping I was wrong and you were right." Aang replied in a whisper.
Sokka swallowed as he looked again. "We need to land. If we try to fly over them they'll spot us."
Katara swallowed. "What… What do you think happened to everybody?" she asked. "Toph and Zuko." she swallowed. "Iroh, Kui, the fire nation refuges. Smellerbee and the freedom fighters. Suki is supposed to be there too now!"
"We'll figure it out." Sokka said. "We wont just leave them there. Right Aang?"
Aang nodded and looked down then he gasped. "Hey what's that?!" they looked to the other side and saw a dust cloud moving at incredible speed.
Sokka blinked. "Some new fire nation machine?" he asked.
"Let's get a closer look." Aang suggested as he jumped up on Appas head and turned the bison to get closer.
As they moved closer Sokka squinted his eyes and then he gasped. "TOPH?!"
For true enough, there was the little earth bender, skating on earth at breakneck speed and Aang screamed. "TOPH!" as he got Appa next to her. "Toph you're okay!" he screamed.
Only for Toph to scream in shock and fall down. "
Aang squinted his eyes. "ufff."
"You idiot!" Toph shouted as she sat up. "When you are in the air I can't see you!"
"I'm so sorry." Aang gasped as he jumped down from Appa to offer Toph a hand. "What are you doing out here? How did you get here?"
"My idiot parents send Yu and the Xen Fu to kidnap me!" Toph shouted. "I walked into my parents house thinking I was going to see them and then they trapped me in a huge metal cage and took me out of the city!"
"Wait." Katara blinked. "So your parents weren't even there?"
"No!" Toph exclaimed with her arms in the air. "Stupid assholes." she crossed her arms.
"When was that when they took you?" Sokka asked.
"Same day you guys left." Toph muttered. "I went to the house right after."
"Oh…" Sokka halted. "So you don't know how the fire nation managed to take the city?"
"They… They did what?!" Toph shouted. "How?! I wasn't even gone that long!"
"We don't know. We just got there too." Aang said sadly. "But there are fire nation banners hanging on the outer wall and parts of it is broken! Fire nation machines is getting inside."
"WHAT?!" Toph shouted. "What about Zuko?!" she asked panicked. "And Uncle Iroh! Their bounties are as high as Aangs! Zuko are you up there in the saddle?" she asked.
"I'm sorry Toph. We just came from the outside." Aang said. "We don't know anything."
Sokka sighed deeply. "We need to find a way to get inside." he said. "It's not going to be easy. It looks like Ba Sing Se is going to be crawling with fire nation soldiers. And we can't use Appa, they'll see us."
"Oh I know how to get in." Toph said.
"You… You do?" Aang asked.
"Yeah. Remember when Zuko asked me to do that favour that took me all day?" Toph asked. "I made a tunnel going from our house all the way to the outer wall."
There was stunned quiet as they all looked at Toph.
"Go Zuko." Sokka had to admit.
"Yeah he was afraid Azula was going to try and take the city. Though only after we left did he think it would become a thing. Still he wanted to make sure that the refuges had an escape route just in case." Toph said.
"And Zuko is also the one who insisted that we buy ourselves some earth kingdom clothes." Sokka commented as he hoisted up his bag for show. "Man it's a good thing we got Zuko to join the group!"
Katara now jumped down on the ground too to face Toph. "Are you okay? Do you need any healing?" she asked.
"I'm fine." Toph assured.
"How did you manage to escape?" Aang asked Toph. "If they put you in a metal cage… I mean."
"I taught myself how to metal bend." Toph grinned.
There was quiet as they all looked at Toph.
"What?" Aang asked.
"I am the worlds greatest earth bender and don't you forget it!" Toph proclaimed. "Do we have anything metal. I'll show you! Sokka you got a sword now right?"
"You're not bending my sword!" Sokka shouted.
Toph shrugged. "I'll show you later then. Come on I'll show you to the tunnel."
"Give us a second to change." Sokka asked. "It's better we walk from here on of. Appa has to find a place to hide himself."
Aang sighed deeply as he walked to Appas head and padded his snout. "Sorry buddy." he muttered. "Thank you for carrying us this far. If I need you, I'll have this." he pulled out his bison flute. "Take really good care of yourself and stay hidden all right? Fire nation is dangerous."
Appa nodded his understanding as he roared and Aang smiled.
"That's a good boy."
It was an annoyingly long walk to the wall and the tunnel. But as Sokka had said. It was necessary.
Thankfully the tunnel opening was not at any of the wall parts which had been torn down. And then it was another very… very long walk in a very dark tunnel
Good thing Aang had gotten himself a fire bending teacher earlier and he provided them all with a warm light.
It still took forever though, until they felt the tunnel starting moving upwards again… Which meant they had reached the half way point.
Finally… Finally they reached the ending where wooden floor boards covered the exit. Easily removed by Sokka.
As they moved up, the light proved it was afternoon all ready. And the house… Was empty.
"Looks like every one got out." Aang said. "That's good."
"That or they have been captured by the fire nation." Sokka asked making Aang bit his lip and sadly as he stepped into the living room it looked like Sokka had been right.
Everything was trashed… tables flipped over. Shelves pulled down. Art work smashed.
"The house has been raided." Sokka stated as he looked around.
"No shit Sherlock." Toph rolled her eyes then she got quiet and she twirled around raising her hands in a bending stance. They all did only for Toph to halt. "Guys wait! IT'S ZHAU-LI!" she shouted and true enough.
The young former fire nation soldier came from the shadows looking wide-eyed up at them. "You're back!" he gasped. "Thank Agni!"
"Zhau-Li you look awful!" Katara gasped. "What happened?!"
Zhau-li swallowed. "A lot…" he swallowed then he gasped. "Ms Beifong!" he exclaimed. "How?! You escaped?"
"Yup." Toph stated.
"Thank Agni. When you didn't come home Prince Zuko he…" Zhau-Li swallowed. "He went looking for you. He was worried and then… He didn't come home either!
"What?" Toph asked. "What would Yu and Xen Fu want with Zuko?"
"What?" Zhau-Li asked. "No! Princess Azula took Zuko! I thought she had taken you too… And she took General Iroh. I'm sorry I." he swallowed. "But I managed to get the Earth King out. He escaped with the others." he halted.
Sokka looked seriously at Zhau-Li. "Let's get out of here and then tell us everything." he asked and Zhau-Li nodded.
Quickly they exited through the back entrance and ran down the smaller streets until they found an empty shed and went inside.
"Okay seriously. What happened?" Sokka asked and Zhau-Li swallowed.
"Well…. It began when Toph never came home." Zhau-Li said as he sat down. "Prince Zuko was worried. So he went looking and… By night time. He wasn't home either."
"He… He went looking for me?" Toph asked.
"Yes. He was really worried." Zhau-Li said. "And when he didn't come home either… General Iroh requested that the royal guards help him look for both of you."
And then he told the whole tale. The ransom note. Iroh teaming up with General How to face Long Feng, how it had been a trap. The Kyoshi warriors being Azula and her friends in disguise and how they had teamed up with the Dai-Li to spread them out and take the palace.
The battle in the throne room and how he had managed to escape by a hair.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me." Zhau-Li asked. "The General asked me to run."
"There's nothing to forgive." Katara stated firmly. "If you had not been there. Things would have been much worse."
"Yes! The king is safe and you got to tell us what had happened." Sokka said.
Toph swallowed as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Zuko..." she breathed as she squinted her eyes.
"So… Ba Sing Se has fallen." Sokka breathed. "Zuko said that means… The fire nation basically won the war. The entire earth Kingdom is now under fire nation control! And their army."
"In prison." Zhau-Li informed. "Ones the fire nation soldiers marched in the royal guards were out matched. General How and all his men were to either swear allegiance to Princess Azula or be thrown in jail… Most of them picked jail."
"Any idea where Zuko and Iroh is?" Aang asked seriously.
"I'm sorry. It has been kept a secret." Zhau-Li said. "How-ever I must ask. We must safe them! In the fire nation the punishment for treason is death. I have no reason to believe that Princess Azula or Fire Lord Ozai will show any kindness to them. The way she spoke of Prince Zuko… There was hatred in her eyes." he said. "True hatred."
They all quieted then Aang looked up.
"Of course we are going to safe them." Aang said and everyone nodded determinedly.
"How-ever after that… We have to leave." Sokka said. "We can't take back Ba Sing Se. It's over. We must rescue Zuko and Iroh and then we must flee."
They all swallowed but then nodded.
"Okay." Aang replied.
"Hello Zuzu." Azula smirked as she walked into the cell where Zuko was hanging by his wrists. "You're still hanging in there?" she asked in a mocking tone.
Zuko glared up at Azula, a deep frown on his lips.
"Now. How does it feel?" Azula asked. "You are alone now. And no one will be coming for you. Don't worry though, father will be looking forward to see you." She said. "At your execution that is. I'm sure it'll be quite the event."
"Azula. I don't know why you hate me. Why you always hated me." Zuko stated. "I don't know what I ever did to you. But this is petty."
"Hate you?" Azula asked. "You're my brother. Why would I hate you?" she asked as she stepped up to him. "When everyone just adore little Zuzu."
Zuko huffed. "You're not making any sense." he stated.
Azula shrugged. "Doesn't matter I suppose. After all… I won." she smirked.
"It's not like you're surprised. You always win." Zuko rolled his eyes. "So seriously. What do you want? Why are you here?" he asked. "I get it. I'm a pathetic looser who let myself get caught. Are you done?"
Then Azula grabbed Zukos face and held it in a painful squeesh as she hissed. "What did she ever see in you?" she asked.
Zuko hissed.
"Why was everything always about you?!" Azula asked as she let go only to slap Zuko across the face.
Zuko hissed and then he looked up again meeting Azulas burning and hateful eyes.
"Well no more Zuzu." Azula said as she turned around on her heels. "It's over."
As Azula left Zuko frowned deeply. What had she been talking about? Who was she talking about?
And somehow it was just weird seeing strains of Azulas hair being out of place.