Chapter Twenty Four: Cornered
The Avatar left Ba Sing Se, and Azula has just gotten there. To make things even worse, Long Feng has double-crossed him and aligned with Azula, who now controls the Dai Li. Azula also has agents in his own palace, in his own capital city. He can kill Long Feng, but he doesn't hold any power anymore. Azula controls the Dai Li now. Of course, Long Feng still doesn't know it.
He can deal with Azula now, but that means letting the Avatar escape. He can't just simply kill Azula like he would've killed Long Feng. Long Feng is a prisoner; Azula is a guest of honor of the Earth King himself. Killing her would risk his agents' cover, which means risking Ba Sing Se. Zuko realizes he can't fight on two fronts at the same time. On the one hand, Zuko needs to topple the Earth King by taking over Ba Sing Se before the Day of Black Sun and capture the Avatar in the process as well. On the other hand, there is Azula who is threatening him and his rule. He needed advice.
"Uncle," Zuko entered the living room in his uncle's wing, where he found Iroh sipping some tea enjoying every drop of the hot liquid. "I'm sorry to interrupt." Zuko started saying.
"Please, sit down." Iroh hurried to say, and signed for Zuko to sit, giving him a cup of tea.
Zuko thanked his uncle before getting down to business. "I need your advice. What should I do about Azula?"
His uncle took a long sip of his tea, before returning the cup to the table. "The storm is coming, and it is inevitable." Iroh simply said.
"So what? Am I supposed to give up?!" Zuko asked, outraged, yet keeping a calm tone.
"No Zuko, you just need to survive the storm." Iroh calmly said, pouring another cup of tea. "You cannot control the weather, but you can get deeper until you reach the eye of the storm."