AN: Wooh I did it, posted in less than two weeks, as promised. Is it really an achievement if it was already written, though? Oh well, here's the next chapter!

Thanks everyone for the favorites, follows, and comments! They really do make my day.

Chapter 8: The Rubble

He had ended up in the throne room, where Mai and Ty Lee were also sitting on the steps of the dais. Ty Lee got up and hugged him. "I'm so happy you're safe and joined in for this Zuko! And Mai is too even if she doesn't look it." Mai was expressionless and not even looking in their direction. "With all four of us, it'll be just like old times." She grinned and clamped her hands together.

He'd never really thought of them as a four; they were Azula's friends it had been the three of them and him occasionally. But apparently to Ty Lee they had been four because she indeed looked happier than usual.

"You look terrible." Mai drawled. And he figured he probably did: his hair was down, he hadn't had a full night's sleep in days, his black clothes were dirty, and he probably looked ridiculous limply holding a hair tie in one hand and a mask in the other. Not to mention that the last time they'd seen him, his face had been a good deal more symmetrical.

"Oh, your hair fell out. Aww, I kinda like it this way, its so shaggy!" She flicked at a bit of his fringe and watched it swing. "What do you think, Mai?"

She grunted and tilted her head forward so even more of her face was hidden under the shadow of her bangs.

"Here, I'll fix it for you." She pulled him over to sit on the steps and quickly tied his hair back up to a top knot, some how making it feel very secure without it feeling like the hairs were pulling out of his scalp.

He didn't sleep at all the next few hours, he was too on edge whether from Azula's proximity or just that his task was yet incomplete. The throne room was surprisingly familiar with its columns on either side of the central aisle, although the back wall was bare stone without a curtain. He wondered why Sozin had built the throne room to resemble this one.

At some point, the girls had left and comeback with the bear, which was just as weird to see as it had been to hear about. Ty Lee had spent the time since teaching gymnastics.

"How are you?" Mai asked from the other side of the column they were both leaning against.

"You know, alright." Did she want the whole story or was it just the polite acknowledgement of his presence that they hadn't gotten around to yet. "You?"

"Fine."

"Its…uh…nice to see you."

"Yeah." He heard her shift and caught her face in the periphery to his right. "Zuko, I—"

"Good morning." Azula came in through the side door. "Hope you got some rest, Zuzu."

He hadn't but he stood up with his swords and took a few steps down. "What are you planning to do with the Dai Li after this?"

"Keep them, of course. They may be earthbenders but their instinct is so firebender."

"You can't."

"Sorry?"

"No, they're going to be disbanded."

"And why would I do that?"

He paused to think of a reason that would convince her. She thought they were valuable as skilled fighters, which they were, but. He reached down for the mask he had left by his former seat. "Do you really want a private army that I can dwindle the number of?" He held the mask over his face to highlight his point.

"Good point, if a weakling like you can beat them it just shows that they don't need much to control this city. I suppose their not worth it." Zuko tried not to rise to the insult, he was getting what he wanted and being called weak by Azula was nothing new. "Now come on, we have things to do: the Counsel is meeting as we speak and His Cookiness should be arriving at the tea room. Sure you don't want to come?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. But Zuko, don't mess this up."

He grit his teeth, but there was something he needed to say before she went. "Azula," she turned her head with an impatient raised eyebrow. "Cousin Lu Ten is alive. I found him in the Dai Li headquarters."

"Oh, Zuzu." She sighed. "You got played. Lu Ten was flattened by five tons of rock being dropped on him. The third of his unit that survived attested to it and Uncle saw it with his own eyes. He's dead."

"He's not."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She left.

When he pushed through the doorway out of the throne room, he found a cluster of Dai Li that he was expected to work with for this. There was four of them. Was there already a plan? Was it all on him? Knowing Azula, the latter seemed likely. A basic plan was formed, they were five going against five, and he didn't trust the agents, surprise would be advantageous and he wanted to keep an eye on them.

They had gone out along the palace's exterior to wait in the colonnaded roof of the Council chamber, and he approached the sturdy, studded door. He kicked it open with a bang that brought the attention of everyone of the generals to him. Stepping into the open, he shifted his weight onto the back foot and brought his arms up and a ball of fire collected infront of him. He pushed out and the flame rushed forward like a wave, crashing against and spreading around the strategy table and pressing the generals into a group on the open side. The Dai Li dropped and quickly detained four of them, feet sunken and hands clasped in iron bonds, or in one instance hoisted into the air with four shackles. The fifth moved as soon as the flames faded, and moved away from the others, sending a bit of the table at Zuko. Jumping over it, he responded with new flames, fisting bolts off as he approached. Kicking off another large piece of rock, he kicked forward with the other foot and blasted the general's chest. The blow was side stepped, and when he landed, he felt his hand sink into the floor. Pivoting, he swung his body around in a spiral of fire that spread out around him low, and breaking the general's stance long enough for a couple of Dai Li to hog tie him.

The problem became that he was still stuck with his forearm in the floor, and with only agents to help him. His free hand went to the knife strapped to his leg as he eyed the earth benders. He was trapped at their discretion and he had spent much of the last week causing injury to their fellows and petitioned Azula for their disbanding. They followed her but what was he? Was this her plan, to get rid of the Council and him at once?

The agent standing nearest him, next to the bound general, met his eye and they stayed in that strong contest for a few minutes. He saw the man's foot raise and he closed his eyes prepared to be swallowed by the ground. When the foot landed, he could still breath, still feel light, and his body rocked back slightly as his arm was pushed out of the stone. He opened his eyes and blinked at the agent. They exchanged nearly imperceptible nods; this was his one and only favor from them.

Standing, he looked around the room at the generals struggling in vain against metal bonds, those that had been immobilized by sinking their feet had since been freed and shackled. He really had expected this to be harder. Unsurprisingly they all glared at him.

"Your city has fallen," he announced, glares intensified and unimpressed looks came from under helmets at this bit of bravado. "Right. Let's find cells for them."

The agents moved in unison stepping their right feet forward and moving their hands out, folding them one over the other. A large section of floor folded over and the generals fell into the depths of the palace's apparently extensive underground. The form concluded with bringing their hands together infront of them and pushing down, and they sank to join the generals.

Zuko was left alone in the Council hall. If he had wanted to observe the incarceration, it was obvious he was not going to be included. The city was officially under Fire Nation control but he still had a task to complete. Standing at the open portico that overlooked the royal complex, he surveyed the sky for the frustrating white beast. There was nothing, and nothing to do but wait.

Turning back to the council room, he took a moment to investigate the abandoned war map on the table. It showed the current military advance of Fire Nation troops, now engulfing the region around Omashu, the central water way to the Serpent's Pass. Some light blue caught his eye at a coastal bay. What was more concerning was movements of the brown blocks representing Earth Kingdom troops in the direction of the western most coast still held by the Earth Kingdom. It looked like an evacuation of loyalist troops, but why would they be doing that if this take over was a surprise, and the Earth Kingdom didn't have a navy aside from their alliance with the Southern Water Tribe two years ago, which he knew only because of reports he was not supposed to have seen. What were they planning?

He returned to the throne room. Azula had already returned from her 'trap,' she was leaning against a column arms crossed. It would look nonchalant to anyone other than this room's three other occupants who knew the tension in her back and shoulders meant she was fuming.

"What took so long?" She snapped.

"The Dai Li took away the Council of Five. I was looking around. Are they planning something? The map showed…" He trailed off nothing both Ty Lee and Mai were looking at Azula, which meant they knew something but it was up to Azula to tell him. And that was unlikely. "Anyway, how did yours go? Did you—did you get him?"

"You weren't wrong, the Dai Li are useless." She pushed off the column. He was fairly certain that was the closest he'd ever get to his sister saying he was right.

"So, he got away?" He asked, not entirely sure how he felt.

"I hope he broke something in that fall." She muttered. "Those simpletons had better find him. Until then, we wait." She took a seat in the throne.

"I'm going to stand watch." He walked out to the portico at the top of the steps, the guards that had been there at night were absent.

So there had been some sort of trap laid for Uncle—and presumably himself originally. She hadn't mentioned Lu Ten so he must not have been there. How had Uncle gotten away? Had he been injured I the process as Azula had suggested? Despite his frustration with the man, he was hesitant to wish harm and conflicted about the prospect of Uncle's capture. He was angry and couldn't stand even the thought of seeing him at the moment but the idea of anyone in Azula's hands was shudder-inducing, particularly given her long distain and the incident in the desert town. He couldn't understand the reluctance the back tracking of assistance. Had he done something? Was it just because of Lu Ten? Or had it always been like this and he'd been fooling himself that there was someone he could trust—could depend on?

He brought his hands up to the sides of his head, fingers searching for something to pull, but no loose ends were there and he remembered it was up. They fell back to his lap.

"It suits you better than your old phoenix plume."

He jumped at the voice and spun to see Mai standing with a tray. "Thanks." It still felt alittle foreign up there. The scent of tea reached him from the pot on the tray. "Is that the Ba Sing Se blend?" He still thought it was a stupid name.

"I don't know. One of the Dai Li came back with a box of teas." She sat on the top step and put the tray between them. It held a pot, three overturned cups, and a few plates stacked with foods: roasted and cured meats, sweet and savory rolls, and fruit. He was suddenly aware of being very hungry, his last meal had been a very light dinner during the lull between the evening and night rushes. "Azula frightened the staff into getting us some food."

"Thanks." He took a roll and quickly ate it before more gently turning up two cups, taking up the pot by the handle he poured them each a cup with not a drop spilt. Setting it down, his free hand picked up few pieces of meat.

"That was very-" She cut off and he looked up at her, half-eaten cured meat in hand. She was holding a pair of chopsticks out to him across the tray and presenting him an openly judgmental look.

"Oh." Blushing furiously set down the tea cup in his left and accepted them.

Her hands free, she lifted the bread plate to reveal clean, empty plates. He noticed that while there were three cups there were only two plates. Mai had also seemed to notice and glared at the dishware as though it had done her personal affront, then transferred the glower to the hall she had come down. He thought he heard a muffled high-pitched giggle, but it was probably just birds. He accepted the plate thrust at him with undue—or so he felt—force. He managed to rearrange himself into something more resembling polite and proper eating posture.

They ate and drank in silence for a moment, she'd taken a few pieces of fruit and a sweet roll and was eating slowly as though she'd already eaten the real meal.

"So, what have you been up to? You weren't with Azula back in early Spring, or about a month ago," although it seemed unlikely she and Ty Lee could get there from the Fire Nation so quickly, "—or I don't know were you?"

"My father was made governor of Omashu—or I suppose its New Ozai now—back at the end of winter. Azula showed up with Ty Lee in Spring, there was a rebellion and the Avatar kidnapped my brother." She said all this is a deadpan voice, as though none of it was any more interesting or out of the ordinary than getting up in the morning.

"You have a brother?"

"Tom-Tom, he's two."

"Oh." He'd never really thought about how things might've changed in over three years. But he realized there must be a lot, if there was one person he didn't even know about there must be other things.

"He's fine, thanks for asking." Her voice was just as even and bored, but this sentence held a new chill to it.

"Oh, yeah. That's good." There were a few beats of silence during which he tried to look apologetic for the slip up. "I'd heard Omashu had been taken."

"Have you been?" She asked in the same noncommittal monotone voice, but the chill was gone and maybe it was even a little warmer than before. Was that actual interest she was expressing? She'd gotten harder to read, and grumpier. Though he supposed that just might be due to being a teenager.

"No. What's it like?"

"Eh. Dull."

"Heh. So is most of the Earth Kingdom." He agreed, pouring tea into their empty cups in the same practiced way that was ingrained in his muscle memory.

"When did you learn to do that?"

"I've uh been working in a teashop since we got to the city." That bit of information won him a huffed laugh and a momentary down cast of her eyes that looked like they closed.

"Really?" She asked eyes up and face composed. He held her cup out to her. They were eye to eye for what he realized was the first time. She'd been avoiding looking at the Upper half of hi his face, he was so used to people doing that—or its opposite—that he hadn't noticed. But her could see her eyes trembling with the effort not to shift to his left.

"You can look at it you know. Its just my face." He'd long come to terms with its presence, that it wasn't going anywhere, that it was just what his face was now. Although, exactly what that meant still escaped him at times, it was part of him yes, but it was a mark too of something that could be washed away even if it couldn't, it had formed his identity through most of his adolescence. No one needed to know about that little conflict though. And if that last sentence had been more confident than he felt, well he was tired of people's two reactions particularly from people he associated with normalcy.

"Oh. Ok." Her eyes stopped trying to focus on just his one eye, and her posture relaxed slightly even as it minutely shrank. "Sorry. Its just I never saw it, after. I didn't know what to expect." That was not an excuse he'd heard before—normally people denied either their staring or avoidance—but he supposed that was true for her. Had she been at the Agni Kai? There'd been a crowd but there was only a handful of people that he knew had been there. He remembered Zhao's expressed disappointment that it had not been worse on their first encounter after the bandages had come off.

They spoke together "Were-"

"Can-" Her empty hand hovered just above the cup he was still holding out to her. Everything paused for a moment.

The bird noise came again, he thought it was coming from the forest of columns, backed up by Mai's intense glare into the shaded area. But he heard a more interesting, familiar sounds, the low grumble of a great flying beast. His head spun in the opposite direction to Mai's to scan the sky for the big white spot. There, coming down toward the plaza.

"They're here."

They both stood and made haste for the throne room.

PS AN: My beta called this cliffhanger. I didn't mean to do that to you all, it just seemed like a great end point. Also, I still need to rewatch Crossroads again to figure out how things get altered or stay the same.

This was sort of the lull before the storm if you will (aside from the paranoia and internal conflict), but those of you who wondered how things could get worse after ch 7, well... yeah...

Also, I did not expect to enjoy writing Ty Lee so much, she is exactly the hyperactive bubbly person I need to get the rest of this mopey cast where I want them.

The reluctant, awkward picnic, because the show kinda just has them together after a brief timeskip, I'm giving Maiko an adjustment period.

Hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you're thinking as we get closer to the end of the arc.