Zuko, Fire Nation
It had been two months since the Avatar and his uncle had defeated his father and had taken over the fire nation. Over that period he had made contacts in the colonies and had linked up with Ty Lee, Mai and loyal portions of the army like the Yuyan archers. The three of them had made it to the capitol, Zuko had been planning to retake the fire nation but after seeing what transpired when he was gone that seemed unrealistic.
Zuko had decided that he would just attempt to rescue Azula and get to the colonies, while he didn't exactly get along with Azula at least it would be some form of normalcy for him, something he had never thought he would wish for but he did.
The three of them walked through the streets and it didn't recognize anything he remembered. The streets that were once covered with children and families playing and filled with the sounds of crowds of people talking, the streets are now silent and the few people seemed to be too scared to talk and there appeared to be a substantial amount of foreign soldiers mostly made up of southern water tribe and earth kingdom soldiers.
Times like this made Zuko glad that he had come disguised, as the three of them made it to the house they had been told their contact had said he was out Zuko only hoped the contact is on their side.
Toph Beifong, Fire Nation
Toph Beifong now sat in the firelord's palace, something in the past she never thought she could have done. Her life had taken a path she never imagined it would, she went from being a blind daughter of an important earth kingdom family to teacher of the Avatar to now helping write the peace treaty that would rebuild the four nations and frankly it wasn't exciting for her.
Yes this was important and she thought this would be interesting but it mostly seemed to be squabbling between the earth kingdom and Fire Nation over who controls what island and the movement of people, additionally the water tribes of north and south squabbled with everyone over who could have their navy where. All this arguing was interrupted by Toph yawning and everyone took notice which led to Iroh who was firelord now saying "perhaps we should take a break, I'll have someone make all of us some food." Some of the others grumbled but did as they were told until the only ones left in the room were Toph and the Fire Lord himself.
As soon as all others were gone Iroh gave a sigh of relief and said to Toph "thanks for that, meetings like this can get very tense." Toph chuckled and said "yeah don't mention it, besides it was getting kinda boring for me." Iroh then said "yeah I suppose so."
Toph then said "is something wrong." Iroh then responded "you could say that, I am not exactly happy about taking the throne, I had wanted to have my nephew take it but he has taken a different road and when the time came I was the only one who could."
Toph then asked him "okay and do you know where he is now?" Iroh replied "no, but I still hope I will be able to reach him or that he will be able to find his way."
Toph responded "well I hope so too." Iroh then chuckled and said "well I guess I should go see our guests, I wonder what kind of tea they like." Toph responded "well let's find out."
Kori Morishita, Fire Nation Colonies
Kori was on one of the larger vessels coming into the harbor of Yu Dao, this ship was previously a fire nation warship and was being moved between the fire nation and the colonies on the pretense of bringing colonists to the fire nation, while in reality had been used by yu dao and other colonial resistance to the occupation to bring in loyalist military units, weapons and other supplies for a planned uprising. Kori had felt despair when she heard the announcement that the fire nation was defeated and the Avatar had planned to force all fire nation nationals to return to the fire nation. She knew he probably wasn't being malicious but the action would at best force her father to move to the fire nation and at best have her entire family move to a place she has only seen a few times. During this time she had been approached by the former crown prince Zuko and his friends to lead a resistance against this, for months she had been united disaffected former soldiers, Ozai restorationist, fire nation ultranationalist and those who followed the former crown prince.
While many of these people had different goals the she had worked with the crown prince to unite these different groups into a cohesive resistance, she had recently worked with him to infiltrate the fire nation so that he could free his sister from prison, she had heard tales of her skills so she was hopeful that she could help but was still worried about other stories she had heard. She had to focus as she got off the ship as she moved through the harbor, the others on the ship had the job of unloading the supplies and she just made her way to her parents, as she entered the home she gave her father a hug and her smiled and said "Kori, it's good to see you've made it home safe." she then said "it's good to see you are safe too, how's the preparation going with Sneers?"
Her father then recollected himself and said "things are going well and he is doing a good job, he had been using his training from his time during the war with our troops, additionally that industrialist's nephew has been setting rails for our troop movement that is reaching near completion, now tell me how did the mission with the fire nation go?" Kori responded "It went well, the crown prince says in the following days they will begin leaving with the princess, additionally the Yuyan archers agreed to join us."
Her father then walked outside onto the balcony and said "that's good let's just hope it's enough for the war."
Sokka, Fire Nation
Sokka was in the harbor to the capital of the fire nation. The place had become so quiet, the people had become hostile to the occupying forces and he couldn't exactly blame them. There was a period where people were kind mostly due to being tired after years of war but now they were hostile as they realized things were going to change.
Sokka couldn't exactly blame them as he knows he would probably act the same if they occupied his home. He was at the harbor after breakfast and he was told to go by his father. In the harbor was one of the many ships that was given to the water tribe by the new firelord, where a fire nation emblem once flew now a water tribe symbol flew.
As he relaxed his father came Sokka smiled and his father smiled back, Hakoda then said to him "Sokka, I want to know I am so proud of all you and your sister did I want you to know none of this would have been possible without you."
Sokka then said "yeah I know Dad, now can you tell me why you called me here?" Hakoda then said "ok Sokka, you may have noticed that negotiations have dragged on so I am having to move a few things up that I had planned to start once negotiations had ended." Sokka, a little confused now asked his father "Dad what are you talking about?" Hakoda answered "I want you to go south and begin rebuilding, from what I've seen the world's far more advanced than our tribe and I want you to lead the reconstruction efforts." Sokka who was worried at the thought of leaving his father again said "no, I don't want to leave you again, what if something happens to you!" Hakoda responded "Don't worry Sokka, your sister will still be here so I'll be safe and I really need your help to start rebuilding, can I trust you to do this."
Sokka nodded and said "yeah Dad, just stay safe okay." Hakoda responded "Don't worry Sokka I will." They then gave each other a hug and Sokka got on the boat and began the journey home.
Zuko, Fire Nation
Zuko and the others made it to what appeared to be a weapons shop or more accurately what used to be a weapons shop as the shop had become nearly barren of any weapon that it may have been carrying. Mai sat in one of the few sturdy chairs and said "well let's hope our contact actually is here."
Ty Lee replied "He'll be here I just know it, right Zuko?" Zuko replied "he will be here, he has to, we have come too far for this to end up failing." Ty Lee in an attempt to cheer him up said "of course he will, we have been so careful in finding out where Azula is we have to succeed." Mai agreed saying "I mean she isn't wrong but I have a question Zuko, why are we working so hard to save Azula I mean we all know she isn't the best to work with." Zuko answered "well maybe it would just feel a bit normal after all that has happened having Azula would make things feel a bit normal and besides you can't say she won't be helpful for what's up ahead."
Mai then shrugged and said "I guess I can understand that, just hope this works out."
As she said that an old man entered the room, the man had certainly been quite old and had certainly been in the military both from his scars and that he had the tattoos of the Yuyan archers. The man said "and I thought my issues with the royal were over and now I have to deal with Ozai's brat." Zuko confused by this followed the man as he led them into the back of the shop and took out of the map and told them "I had hoped that my service had been over but it had appeared that I must save Ozai's daughter, now I've market good entrances to the palace that none of the people running the place certainly know about, from what I know she is being held in the dungeon and from the sounds clearly not cooperative."
Mai then asked the man "how do you know so much about the palace old man?"
The old man chuckled and said "well early into Ozai's reign I was the head of the Yuyan archers and I've still got a few contacts in the palace."
The three were a bit shocked about this but the man began shoving them out saying "now you three get ready you will want to do this fast as I hear they will be moving her soon." Mai and Ty Lee began leaving but before they could all leave the old man told Zuko "if you ever want to know what happened to your mother from what I know a man named Ikem he was the last one to know where she was." Zuko, confused by this as he was pushed out of the shop, now had a new determination to succeed since he now finally knew something about what happened to her mother and now a person to look for, someone named Ikem.
Azula, Fire Nation
Azula had been stuck in the prisons of the capital city, for how long she couldn't say. She knows where she is, it is pretty high in the air but if it weren't for that fact she was familiar with this place she wouldn't know that as there were no windows and she had no chance for escape as her legs and arms were held in chains and cuffs that were too dangerous to try to break through.
She spent most of her time alone except for when some came to visit her and it's not exactly like these were pleasant as there was always the occasional soldier coming to insult her although some were quite different, the earth king came early on and he seemed like he wanted to convince her to joining her but it was unsuccessful. Azula thought that he probably was new to the manipulation game after meeting him, later the southern water tribe chief came and he treated her with disdain. How the southern water tribe chief treated her would set the tone for most other exhibits except for one, the Avatar.
The Avatar appeared to be kind and unlike the Earth King he seemed more genuine but she wasn't exactly sure as she had never met anyone who had been this way to him. Azula had somewhat enjoyed this but today seems like it would be another boring day but then she heard the sound she had heard before, it was the sound of someone being knocked out, she listened closely and then heard the door open and someone came in, this person wore completely black except for it was the blue spirit mask.
Azula said to this person "Well if you are going to kill me, do it."
The mask then came off and to her amazement it was Zuko who said "well I have gone through too much effort to do that."
Azula, now shocked said "Zuko, what are you doing here?" Zuko then unlocked her, helped her stand up straight and said "Getting you out of here." Zuko then led her into a tunnel she didn't know existed, as they quietly went through she asked him "So Zuzu what's the plan?" Zuko responded "well first let's get out of here and then get out of the fire nation." Azula listened and they then got onto a roof. They saw a fire nation ship, once they made it on Azula was swarmed by Ty Lee who gave her a hug and said "missed you Azula." When Ty Lee finally let go Azula said "alright, I know everyone missed me but I would like to sleep in a real bed for the first time in months."
Azula then went below decks and found one of the larger rooms and collapsed on one of the beds and decided for tonight not to focus on how they would survive tomorrow but just on getting to sleep.