The Return

by tubendo

The ice of the South Pole hides many things, and when Azula and Sokka are confronted by something far greater than themselves, the strength of their relationship is tested, and the Princess has to decide whose path she will follow: the path of her father or the path of freedom. (Sequel to Into The Fire)

14. Chapter 14

Rain was probably a pain for anybody that wasn't a waterbender, but luckily for Katara, she had actually figured out a pretty simple way to deal with it. Raising her hand above her head, she created an invisible covering over them, off of which the water that fell down would flow, keeping her, Sokka and Aang dry on Appa's saddle. Of course, she had come to realise how straining it was, as the rain became heavier and the thunder began to roll in. Aang joined in to help her, but even with their combined efforts, they'd eventually get quite tired. She had agreed with Sokka when they woke up that morning that they shouldn't delay themselves, but now she realised that it would be hard to keep it up all day, especially if the rain kept falling at the rate it was. She looked him in the eye, and he sighed, knowing what she felt without her having to say anything; it was rather obvious with both her hands up above her, struggling to keep the water at bay.

"Okay, maybe we can take a break." he conceded, the Water Tribe girl narrowing at her eyes at her brother's wording.

"We? You're not doing any of the work, Sokka." she growled, his eyes widening as he realised his mistake.

"Okay, sorry, sorry." he tried to sound as apologetic as possible, "We just need to find someone to shelter."

"We've been flying over woodland and plains for hours now. There's nothing here." Aang admitted, before grimacing, "And I think I know why."

"I think we all know why." Katara agreed, gesturing to their left, which would be approximately north-west if her brother's guidance on cardinal directions had been accurate, "Zhao and his goons are in control of this whole area, and before the Fire Nation won, they probably cleared this whole area of people."

"That sounds like a very Fire Nation-y thing to do." her brother turned his eyes away, "Well, there might be some place that doesn't have people but has shelter. Like a cave."

"How are we going to find a cave all the way up here in the air?" Aang asked him, raising a very good point.

"Okay, I see what you mean." the Water Tribe warrior sighed, "Let's just keep a lookout. There can't just be... nothing. People are everywhere, even at the South Pole, and look at it. No sun for half the year and all you get to eat is fish and seals." he explained, Aang grimacing.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound very nice." he conceded, Katara raising a brow, slightly offended by such a presumption; of course, he hadn't been brought up like they had, used to the climate and the unusual day-night cycle, but for anybody else, it had to be rather unusual.

"Don't give him the glares, Katara." Sokka chided her, obviously knowing what was going through her head.

"I wasn't." she turned to face him, trying to assure him that she wasn't annoyed by Aang's comment, even if she felt a slight offence by it.

"Sure." he sarcastically quipped, not sounding persuaded by her assertion, the Water Tribe girl turning away, annoyed by her brother's reaction; it was almost like he was trying to agitate her.

She turned her attention to keeping the water off of them, knowing that was more important than her gripe with her brother; she couldn't see anything off in the ground below them, nowhere to take shelter. She sighed with frustration, unknowing of how long she'd have to keep up her bending; it was a good exercise of her fortitude, but she knew it was really unnecessary. They would be better off resting, given Appa was already tired after almost flying for a whole day straight, his only break being when they stopped by a stream to refill their water skins and attend to their bodily functions. The sky-bison was much lower in the sky than he'd been at daybreak, and she was sure that he'd get so tired that he'd just go and lay somewhere, despite the rain. She didn't want that to happen, so instead, she kept a keen eye out for any place they could stay.

She heard the sound of thunder above her, making Katara's eyes dart up, looking at the roof of water that she and Aang had created, trembling with fear; she knew it was possible they could be struck with lightning, and without their firebending master, she knew they had no way to deal with it. Not that Azula could actually redirect lightning, but she was sure if she put her mind to it, she could replicate the technique her brother had used against her all those months ago. The fact the thunder was so loud made her more worried, and she shook her brother by his arm, wanting him to put in a little more effort to find some place for them to stay.

"Sokka, actually look instead of sitting there like you're asleep." she prodded him, her brother turning his eyes to face her own, his expression serious.

"I think I can see something, Katara." he told her bluntly, without any annoyance in his voice, gesturing to their right, where she could see something sticking out of a wooded area; it was so far away, and out of her area of focus that she probably never would have spotted it.

From the shape along, she was sure it had to be some kind of house or even a village; whether it was inhabited was beside the point; they simply needed to find some place to hide out while the rainstorm came through. She raised her voice to get Aang's attention, "Look! There's something over there."

His eyes darted over to where Sokka had first gestured and his expression brightened, "I can see it." he grinned, before moving to grasp Appa's reins, "Can you hold the water for a bit while I get Appa over there?"

She gave him a nod, raising both of her arms up to hold back the rain, as the sky-bison's path shifted drastically, moving now toward the structure she could see quickly growing larger in its apparent size. Sokka leaned over toward the edge of the saddle, his eyes narrowed down at the building, which quickly became apparent as a kind of barn or shed, similar to the ones she'd already seen in the various villages they'd visited so far. Nearby was a smaller house, clearly Earth Kingdom in design, and from the state of disrepair, she assumed it had been abandoned for some time. The whole farm seemed to be abandoned, with its fences all but withered away into the long grasses that filled the clearing between the two structures. There were fields nearby, grass growing there too, instead of the crops she'd expect. When Appa reoriented around the clearing, she could clearly see the burn marks and damage on the buildings, telling her that the Fire Nation had been the direct cause of the abandonment. She didn't know why they would have attacked a seemingly random farm out in the middle of nowhere; there were no nearby villages, at least from what she could see, so she assumed that the house and farm had originally housed multiple families, probably serving some purpose which she couldn't discern. There was simply no reason for such an isolated farm to exist, even if it was now abandoned; it weirded her out, and she was cautious to get off of Appa as he landed in the clearing, nearby the barn, which looked large enough to snugly fit the sky-bison.

"This place doesn't look right." her brother spoke up, having the same thought as she did, "This is a weird place to have a farm. I mean, I'd understand an abandoned village, but this is just one farm." he observed, before he climbed off of Appa's saddle, out into the rain, jumping down onto the muddy ground below them, "Appa, could you do us a favour and get in the barn. That'd keep all our stuff not ruined, thank you." he gestured into the barn while looking at the sky-bison; whether he actually understood Sokka or not, he did move to get inside the barn.

The Water Tribe warrior strode toward the ajar doors, kicking them open, revealing an empty interior; it was surprisingly clean, despite the fact it had been abandoned for some time. The ground was a little wet inside, probably just from the rain seeping through, but other than that, it didn't seem very different to the barn she'd seen Azula's guards staying in. She got off of Appa's saddle as soon as they were inside and stretched her arms out, glad she could stop bending.

"Finally, some place to relax." she admitted with a relieved tone, glancing around the barn, trying to find some place she might be able to sit around, though she was disappointed by the amount of puddles, "Or maybe not. Maybe the saddle's better." she conceded, Aang snickering, obviously amused by her quick shift in judgement.

"Appa's saddle is always better." he assured her, jumping down to lie on it, "Now we can relax in here until the storms over."

"Are we going to have some food?" Sokka spoke up, making her raise a brow at him.

"Are you cooking?" she quipped in return, not having any intention to do so herself.

He looked at her with a disenchanted face, his lips pursing downward as he realised he wouldn't be getting any lunch cooked for him, "No."

"Then no. You still have some of that jerky left. Eat that if you're hungry." she dismissed his complaint, "I'm not cooking until later. I can't be bothered."

"What are you going to do then? Just sleep around and be lazy?" he asked her, the Water tribe girl raising her chin up, thinking that was actually a good idea.

"Well, I could do that." she conceded, "But I think I'll do some meditation and properly practice my waterbending. It's not every day you get all this water coming down out of the sky to use."

"Huh, good point." Aang's brows rose up, before he pulled himself back up from the saddle, "Wanna try out some forms?"

"In a bit, I'd prefer to meditate a little. Practice what Azula taught me." she excused herself from immediately getting into the practice, knowing that she was a little too exhausted from keeping the rain off of them earlier to get right back into it.

"Maybe you can show me. I used to do meditation a lot with Monk Gyatso, but I think I use some more of it. Maybe it'll make me wiser."

"I don't think that's how that works." Sokka retorted, "I think you actually need to experience life to get some wisdom. You're twelve."

"I've experienced a lot already." he argued in return, "I'm not just any twelve year old. I'm an Air Nomad. Air Nomads see the world, and even if I haven't been everywhere, I know a lot about it."

"What, where the best animals to ride are?" he smugly questioned him, the young Avatar nodding along.

"Yeah, of course I-" he began, before he realised Sokka's ploy, "do..." his voice dropped to a mumble, "Okay, I can see what you're saying, Sokka."

"Thank you." he raised his chin, obviously thinking himself victorious in their little argument; a bit cheap, given that Aang was twelve and definitely wasn't as good as arguing as either Katara or Azula.

"Anyway, we're going to meditate." Katara spoke up, regaining the Avatar's full attention; he gave her a small smile, showing that he intended to do so with her.

She climbed back up onto the saddle, before she got herself into a comfortable, seated position; she glanced out of the barn, taking note of the water that fell down.

"Pay attention to the rain, Aang." she advised, "It's not just relaxing. It can help you get in tune with your waterbending. I think this is the closest to what Toph was talking about when she said you have to get into your element. Well, she phrased it as throwing me into a lake, but I think that's what she was trying to say."

"Huh." he scratched his chin, "That actually makes sense. When I meditated with Monk Gyatso, it was always out in the courtyards, where it'd be windy. So I could get in tune with it." he agreed with her idea, before straightening his posture as he crossed his legs.

"So, can you feel it?" she asked him, the young Avatar closing his eyes and nodding.

"Yeah, I can feel it." he agreed with her, Sokka clearing his throat; Katara turned her eyes over to the side of the barn, where her brother was leaning up against the wall, seemingly bored.

"Could you stay quiet, Sokka? This requires a bit of concentration."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll shut up." he assured her, pulling out his bone dagger and playing around with it; she turned her attention back toward the rain, and like Aang, closed her eyes.

"So... just breath in and out, and try and feel the rain. How it flows." she guessed, knowing that just like any kind of water in nature, it was in motion.

It came down from the sky, splattering down on the ground and spreading around, forming puddles, streams and eventually rivers which emptied into lakes and the sea; everything seemed to flow, when she thought about it enough.

"It doesn't stop. It keeps moving. I can feel it moving around." Aang spoke with a quiet voice.

"That's right." she made a small smile, "Now, we've got to breathe with it."

He simply made an approving grunt rather than speaking, and the two of them began to take deep, drawn out breaths, in synchronisation with each other, listening out to the rain, focusing on its pattering and making sure that they were breathing as it fell. Shallow, constant, but calm- not harsh like a fire, or steady like earth, or constantly erratic and free like air. It flowed, one way or another, downward, toward the ground, toward the sea- wherever it went it was no different. Katara smiled, feeling a sense of oneness with her element; she raised her hand up, not opening her eyes, and simply sensing toward the rain. Feeling it pool up, she drew her hand in and out with her breath, and felt the water move closer to her. She let it move up and above her head, letting the amorphous blog of water take shape as a sphere; as round as she could make it, she noticed that the water began to spin, despite her efforts. That proved one thing- water wasn't just something that constantly moved in motion, it was almost inclined to do so, as if that were part of its nature. She was amused by this thought, thinking in a way, every time she bent water, it was really just going where it was meant to go, and that all she had done was guide it on it's path; it was an unusual think for her to consider, and she turned around to face Aang, who was look at her, eyes full of awe.

"Wow, did you do that on purpose, Katara?" he asked her, the Water Tribe girl shrugging her shoulders.

"Not really." she conceded, before she raised her hands up toward the orb of water, parting it in two and forming two smaller orbs of water, which like their larger whole, continued to spin around, somewhat erratically, "I mean, I just took the water and this is what it became- no, what it is."

"It's always flowing." he deduced, taking a deep breath before he took the orb of water in her left hand, coiling it around him, where it formed a thin, rotating stream of water that came around him, encircling Aang as he continued to breathe, "Is this what we're trying to do?"

"I... I honestly don't know." she conceded, "I know less about bending than I know about fishing, or hunting, or cooking- pretty much everything else I can say I know about, I know more about it than this."

"Wow, so humble of you to acknowledge that." Sokka sarcastically quipped, and Katara swung her right hand, allowing the rotation of the water to move into real motion as it coiled around her before whipping her brother in the side, throwing him to the ground.

He grunted, and shook his head as he tried to regain his bearings, "Hey, that was a bit of an overreaction, Katara."

"There's no need to be sarcastic all the time." she argued, her brother turning to face her with a glare, seemingly more annoyed than his tone had suggested.

"You need to stop doubting yourself." he argued in return, surprising her, "You keep thinking you're not that good at waterbending, but you are. Maybe not good like the masters you keep imagining in your head, but you're good." he declared confidently, the young Avatar glancing toward him with a similarly surprised expression; it was rare for Sokka to dish out a genuine compliment like that.

"You're giving Aang advice, even if you don't really understand it yet." he raised a hand, "Now, I'm not saying you're right, but you seem to have gotten a hang of this whole waterbending thing. Don't act like you're incapable- you're not."

"Not anymore." she raised her chin up, knowing that she ought to have learned waterbending, or at least gained some more confidence in her outlook on it, a lot earlier, "Th-thanks, Sokka." she conceded, "I overreacted."

"Yeah, you did." he nodded, before he eyed Aang's ring of water, "So are you going to do something with that?"

"Hmph." he mumbled, "I don't know."

"Well, I think that's a cool trick." she conceded, knowing that what he'd done was a little bit more refined than just holding an orb above his head.

She reached out behind herself, back out toward the rain, and pulled out her own string of water, immediately taking a waterbending stance to help it move along, carefully, instead of erratically throwing it around. She kept her breath steady, and once she sat back down, she replicated Aang's move, now having her own string of water which rotated around her upper body.

"Did you want to practice some forms too?" he asked Katara, who made a preemptive yawn; though she wanted to try some later, she was still a little too tired to do so.

"Not right now. I think I just want to rest for a bit, recollect myself." she explained herself, before she turned her attention to Sokka, who was climbing back up onto the saddle.

"Well then, I might as well join in."

"You want to meditate?" she asked him skeptically, thinking that her brother would disregard something like meditation as a waste of time.

"Well, I want to relax. I'd prefer to do that that just mull over there, slowly going insane to the sound of rain hitting the roof." he gestured up toward the leaking roof, which luckily was clear above them, not dripping any water down onto Appa's saddle, though clearly other parts of the barn weren't as lucky.

"I think the sound of rain is relaxing." Aang spoke up, "It's like the fresh morning breeze. It just makes you want to stay in bed." he grinned, Sokka shaking his head with a disappointed look on his face.

"Uh, yeah, because the morning breeze is cold and makes you shiver, and rain just makes you wet. Who wants to be cold and wet?"

"A waterbender?" Aang asked Katara, who shook her head.

"I come from a place that is only cold and wet, and I can tell you, I prefer the inside of an igloo." she argued, her brother nodding along in agreement.

"I miss our igloo, and Gran Gran's cooking." he pouted, "I hope the Northerners actually know how to cook and aren't just a knock-off Earth Kingdom."

"I'm pretty sure they can't get rice and pig-cows at the North Pole." she noted, knowing that even if they were richer and less threatened by the war, the North Pole was just as isolated and desolate in terms of the climate.

"Fair point." Sokka conceded, before licking his lips, "I should have some of my jerky." he noted, nudging past Aang to go pick up his bag of jerky, "So, how exactly do you meditate, anyway?"

"You sit and breathe slowly, and then you think." Katara simply explained it to her brother, glancing up at the ring she had created around her, "And in the case of a bender, I guess you get in tune with your element."

"So I just have to think, huh?" Sokka mumbled, "Is she right, Aang?"

"I mean Monk Gyatso said that meditation was always best to keep away bad thoughts. To clear your mind." he explained to the Water Tribe warrior, whose eyes flickered, turning to his sister with a relieved look.

"I think I could use some of that." he acknowledged, before he crossed his legs, imitating the two of them, sitting across from them both by the edge of Appa's saddle.

Though he got into position, and even closed his eyes, Sokka seemed to be rather reckless; instead of focusing on the rain, all she could pay attention to was her brother shuffling around or scratching his buttcheeks.

"Could you not?" she requested, probably with a more agitated voice than she would have liked to, but it got the point across.

"Urgh, fine." he raised his hands up, before he crossed his arms over his chest, "Could you give me some tips?"

Aang opened his eyes and turned to him, "The first thing is breathing." he clarified, "You need to draw out your breaths. Like this." he raised a finger, breathing in deeply, though loudly enough that Sokka could clearly see and hear what he was doing, "And you hold for a few seconds." he clarified, doing just that, before he breathed out, "And back out." he spoke with a whisper as he did so, before clearing his throat, "Then you just repeat that. It'll make you all nice and sleepy if you do it for long enough."

"Did you usually fall asleep when you meditated back in the Southern Air Temple?"

"Uh... of course not." Aang clearly lied, before he breathed out once more, "Okay, maybe sometimes when nobody was watching. I like an afternoon nap... sometimes." he spoke with a whisper when he clearly didn't need to, before refocusing his eyes back toward Katara, "Your water's steady." he noted, the Water tribe girl not even looking up, simply closing her eyes again.

"I know. You should focus more or yours before you accidentally let go and hit Sokka." she warned, the young Air Nomad gulping as he realised that possibility, his stream becoming a little less lax and more concentrated, speeding up somewhat- perhaps that was a suggestion of his emotions.

She knew that Ty Lee loved to read auras; before she left, she'd like to give everybody random, out of the blue aura checks. Surprisingly enough, they were usually quite accurate judgements of their emotional states, at least from what she said when she told Katara what her aura was. She wondered whether people's bending, or least how their bending came out, was indicative of their emotional state. After her whole argument with Azula on Kyoshi Island, she was inclined to say yes, though she couldn't be completely sure of it; firebenders seemed to rely on strong emotions to power their bending, which in the case of Azula, seemed to be her fear of losing Sokka.

She raised a brow to that thought, considering in leaving him behind, the Princess might weaken her bending, knowing Sokka was gone. Or perhaps, in converse, in not knowing what his current state was, she might become more nervous and instead heighten her bending abilities. She wondered if the gold fire had ever come back, and she secretly hoped it would; she didn't know if Sokka knew about it, but she guessed that he did. Turning her eyes to her brother, she decided to ask him some questions; unlike with that time with Azula, she wasn't going to try and probe his mind. She actually wanted to help him relax, after what had happened the morning prior.

"Sokka, what's on your mind?" she asked him, hoping to get an honest response.

His expression shifted from one of calm indifference, which had come about from his slowed breathing, to one of suspicion, "Why do you want to know?"

"I want to make sure you relax. That's the whole idea, remember?"

He tensed up slightly, before nodding, "I got that." he confirmed, his eyes narrowing at her, "What do you want me to say? That I'm hungry and I'd like you to make lunch."

"This isn't about your material worries, Sokka." she rolled her eyes, before chuckling, "Or maybe it can be. I don't know. Is that the most pressing issue? You're eating jerky right now." she observed, her brother self-consciously pushing the bag of jerky away from himself.

"It is pretty pressing." he argued in return, before sighing, "But you do have a point." he conceded, making her smile, glad that he wasn't in denial; he was far better than Azula in that regard- he wasn't just going to get angry and defensive whenever she inquired on his well being, "I'm thinking about where we're going, what we might run into. I'm the boss now, and I don't want to stuff up."

"Responsibility is not fun." Aang simply commented, making Katara wince, remembering that was one of his own problems; it had both caused him to run away from the Southern Air Temple, as well as causing the fiasco on Kyoshi Island, "But, you've just got to take it."

"Yeah, I know." Sokka admitted, "I just don't have-" he began, before cutting himself off, looking up toward the ceiling, "Never mind."

"I know what you're thinking, but I'm not going to force you to say it." Katara admitted, "What do you need to do is to accept it. That's how you can... keep your mind away from it."

He sighed, before turning his eyes toward her, "This sounds like a bit of a deflection, Katara." he crossed his arms, "I know you're still all angsty and torn up over Mum. That doesn't mean you can just tell me to suck this up. She left yesterday."

Katara winced, knowing her brother was right; that was what she knew when it came to having that sense of longing, of having no control, but it wasn't the same. Their mother was gone, but Azula would come back- at least, she said she would.

"Sorry, Sokka." she conceded, "I know she'll be back. She doesn't leave with unfinished business, does she?" she asked him, making her brother momentarily smile, agreeing with that sentiment.

"She doesn't." he confirmed, before glancing away, "I know I shouldn't worry. It's Azula- she's the most powerful firebender alive." he acknowledged, before grimacing, "But I can't feel like she's going into something with a crazy plan that mightn't work. I mean, we thought conquering Yu Dao would be easy. Scare the Mayor, make a deal with him, and then silently take power in the city. Then Zuko showed up, Azula got cocky, and well... I think you both know what happened because of that."

"You can't predict or foresee everything." Katara argued, knowing that was impossible, "You just have to hope. That's all we can do when it comes to things like this."

"I just feel so... powerless." he admitted, looking down with wide eyes and a silently ajar mouth, "I..." he mumbled, before sighing, unable to put his thoughts to words.

Katara took a deep breath, taking the water that she had been bending around her and forming it back into a sphere, before she threw it back out into the rain, behind her; her brother looked up at her with surprise, and she placed a hand on his shoulder, softly grasping it.

"Don't worry, Sokka. Be strong, that's what she would want you to do."

"No, you're right." he sighed, looking up with a noticeably more hopeful look, "I'm gonna make sure we get to the North Pole safely."

"And what are we going to do?" Aang asked him, the Water Tribe warrior narrowing his eyes at him.

"Follow my orders. It can't be that hard." he argued, the Water Tribe girl raising a brow at her brother, remembering something from his story that might form a good argument against such a request.

"And what happened to the last people who followed your orders?" she asked him, her brother raising a finger, trying to think of an argument before his eyes widened, remembering what she had.

"Urgh... that was like nine months ago, Katara. Are you really going to hold it against me?"

"You all got knocked out in a hallway because you thought fighting 'the most powerful firebender alive' was a good idea." she clarified, making him cross his arms, annoyed by her claim.

"It wasn't like I knew that. I had no idea who she was. That's the Order of the White Lotus' fault, not mine."

"Okay, Mister Tough Guy, I believe you." she responded smugly, her sarcasm not rubbing off well; she decided to back-up a little bit, and gave a counter to her own claim, "But you did escape Yu Dao with an unconscious Azula, sneak into Pohuai Fortress, stop Azula's army from being attacked and got all the way back home on a little boat with only her for help." she listed off his accomplishments, "So, actually, I'm more than willing to follow your orders... just don't boss me around, got it?"

Sokka raised an eyebrow at her request, "But aren't those two things the same?" he asked her with a skeptical tone, confused of the ambiguities between being bossy and being the boss.

"Tone and situation, Sokka. It's all in the tone and situation."

---

Azula hated the rain, and she hated it enough to walk into an Earth Kingdom village to look for shelter; they had always intended to come through, but she had no intent of staying there for any longer than need be. They did not need to buy food, nor did they require water, as the rain provided them with enough by simply holding their water flasks to the sky. She knew however, that neither she nor her men would tolerate being stuck out in the rain, even if it was practical, if not desirable for them to continue moving along to try and reach Zhao's base of operations as soon as possible. Looking at the town, she could understand why the Admiral hadn't tried to destroy it; there really wasn't much there to begin with. A few dozen poorly built houses, made of wood and mud brick, along with some clay fired roof tiles, which had to be the most 'civilised' looking thing she could see in the entire village. Though, as she eyed around at the few commoners she could see idling, all of them under ledges or balconies to hide from the rain, nobody in the village seemed to be going hungry, or in any obvious way harmed by the war, though the village clearly wasn't rich. The Fire Nation occupation would make sure of that; if they weren't part of the Fire Nation in fact, they wouldn't have access to the trade that most of the Fire Nation's military expansions allowed, nor would they be able to trade with the other, isolated and 'liberated' portions of the country, though she was sure those places were even worse off, run by bandits or bandits who acted like they were loyal soldiers of the Earth Kingdom.

"This place seems... okay." Ty Lee observed, sounding only slightly nervous as she strode along beside her with a cloak folded over her head; it made her look rather stupid in the Princess's eyes, though she didn't mind her own appearance, as she she was staying dry.

Azula, on the other hand, was drenched wet from the rain pattering down on her hair, something that frustrated her somewhat; she had left her cloak back on Appa's saddle, along with a few other things of hers, such as her Water Tribe garbs, which she realised would be rather practical once she reached the North Pole. She instinctively touched her top-knot, taking note that it must have become somewhat dishevelled in the rain.

"Does my hair look bad?" she asked her friend, who looked back at her, giving her a reassuring smile; it was the opposite of actually reassuring her that her hair was good- it only made sense to give her such a smile when it was ruined, but she didn't want Azula to feel bad.

She simply groaned, shrugging her shoulders as she eyed around, "There has to be a tavern in this town. Somewhere we can stay dry."

"It will probably be near the centre, wherever they have their market, your highness." the Captain clarified, turning back to face her, "So, just straight ahead."

She nodded, knowing that his judgement was probably right; she glanced around, noticing that the people were looking at her. She didn't look like a Princess, however; she just looked like an ordinary Fire Nation teenager with her friend, walking with a number of serious looking Fire Nation men, who like her, were dressed in plain clothes. None of them were armed, though that was out of virtue of their choice of weapon; all of them except Ty Lee were firebenders, and she herself had chi-blocking, which meant she didn't need a weapon. She knew that the locals would still be nervous, probably not trusting anybody who was Fire Nation; she just hoped, however, that they'd be kind enough to let them shelter in their tavern, if it existed. For all she knew, the village could be that poor and untravelled that it lacked one.

Continuing along, she turned her eyes back to Ty Lee, wondering how she felt about travelling into such a village; her earlier comment suggested that she felt uneasy about it, so she decided to ask her, if only to make sure she didn't act all rash and nervous. They were probably safe, given that it was unlikely anybody would recognise her as the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation; the only reason they'd be attacked was for being Fire Nation, not because of her position as a contender to the throne.

"Are you worried, Ty?" she asked her friend, whose expression shifted to one of confusion as she looked back her way.

"Worried? Me?" she looked at her skeptically, scoffing at the suggestion; her abrupt reaction seemed to be masking her true feelings, which wasn't clear to Azula, "We're fine, Zula. This place isn't that bad."

"It's not as friendly looking as that last village." she commented quietly, her friend looking at her for a few moments before nodding, confirming that she held the same belief.

"Yeah... I mean, nobody really likes the Fire Nation." she admitted with a whisper, before smiling, "But that's what you hope to change."

"That's true." she smirked, knowing that, or at least, hoping that an inadvertent effect of her plans for the world would be a shift in the views the rest of the nations held toward her own, "One day, we should be able to walk into villages like this without being stared at."

"I thought you liked having all the attention on you." her friend noted with a smug look, elbowing her; Azula rolled her eyes, knowing that she was right.

"I do. This is just the wrong kind of attention."

"Hmph, good point." she acknowledged, "We've got to act cool and calm." she noted, her way of phrasing it making her sound like she thought doing otherwise would be dangerous.

"We'll be fine." she assured her friend, "Don't worry. What you should worry about is the Admiral." she suggested, knowing that Zhao was the greatest threat facing them, even if he himself didn't know it; she wondered what he might have thought when she was found to be alive and well, and she realised, he mightn't have as high an opinion of her after she joined the Avatar of all people.

"Yeah." she mumbled, before her expression brightened, pointing down the path ahead of them; they'd already walked into the village proper, and she was gesturing to a large building that could only be a tavern; unless it was some kind of noble's manor house, which she certainly doubted would be located right in the middle of town.

Azula pursed her lips upward, glad they'd found it, noting that the rain had been getting heavier as they'd gotten closer to the village; perfect timing to get inside, in her eyes. She strode forward past the Captain and the other guards leading them, gesturing for them to follow with a finger movement- she hoped that they remembered those from all the training they had done, and it seemed that they understood completely as they calmly followed after her, the Princess leading the group to the doors of the building. She pushed them open, and looked inside, seeing that the tavern wasn't very full, giving them a lot of space to sit and relax; the other patrons and the bartender looked at them with surprise, and she felt self-conscious of her wet hair once more. She tried to ignore that thought as she strode forward, placing her hands on the bar.

"Good day." she simply addressed him, "We'd like to take shelter here while it's raining out. Do we need to buy something to do that?" she asked, knowing that such a policy did exist with a number of establishments that she'd already visited on her journey north across the western coast of the Earth Kingdom.

"Uh..." he mumbled, looking at her awkwardly before he eyed the group moving inside behind her, "Yeah, I recommend you do buy something." he told her suggestively, though it was clearly stating a rule, even if it wasn't phrased like one.

"Okay, what kind of basic dishes do you sell, then?"

"Jook." the barkeep acknowledged, "That's pretty much it, unless you want to eat some vegetable stew." he noted, narrowing his eyes at her, "But you don't seem the type."

"Hmph." she crossed her arms, almost impressed by that quick judgement of her character; she might usually be offended, but today, she was intrigued, "Yes, jook it is."

"Brilliant." the bartender smiled, eyeing the group, "For everyone?" he asked, the Princess scoffing.

"I'll pay for myself. They can pay for themselves." she clarified, not having the spare money to go out and buy all of her men a crappy lunch for the sake of just not standing in the rain, "How much for one serving?"

"Uh, only four copper." he explained, making Azula raise a brow skeptically; though she wasn't as much a haggler as Sokka, she was certainly skeptical that was a fair price, though she hadn't seen the bowl size yet.

"How big are your bowls?" she asked, the bartender's eyes narrowing, probably surprised by the question; he obviously didn't get many outsiders, that being, new people, in his establishment.

"Uh..." he mumbled under his breath, before he knelt down, pulling out a bowl that was about the size of both her fists curled together, which, in her opinion, would be a decent serving of jook, "That's how big."

"Yeah, three copper." she refused, "I know I'm not from around here, but we're hungry and you obviously don't have that many customers." she argued, "Are you really going to make us pay more?"

"From the look of youse, you're ash-makers." he concluded, "Why should I give you a price-cut?"

"I see." she crossed her arms, "Well, I hope you remember who's protecting this village. I don't know any of those people personally, but I'm sure they wouldn't like to hear a fair and decent traveller like myself being gouged for my coin by your establishment."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a fact. I'm heading in that direction, and people like to talk, even in the Fire Nation, would you believe?" she joked, knowing for a fact that the whole propaganda machine gave of an aura of Fire Nation citizens being unquestioning of their government and its actions.

She knew that some people, especially in the nobility, were clearly more skeptical of the war effort than what people like Katara would make out her country to be.

"But I won't push it. Fine. Four copper it is." she conceded, knowing it would be better to not act like herself for once and just suck-up whatever overpriced crap she was given.

"Uh, thanks, I guess." the bartender leaned back, surprised by her shift in judgement; she placed the requested currency down, before turning to face her men, "Go buy yourselves for lunch. Everybody's paying for themselves today."

"Even me?" Ty Lee asked, the Princess letting out a quiet groan to voice her annoyance.

"Don't tell me you didn't bring money." she slumped her shoulders over, frustrated by the suggestion that her friend was confident enough to do such a thing.

"Well... I did, but I thought you'd have more."

"Being in charge of group finances doesn't make me magically have more money, Ty." she rolled her eyes, before turning to face the bartender once more, "Will somebody come and give me my food?"

"No, I'll call out. Is there a name, or do I just call you snarky Fire Nation lady?"

"Saila." she narrowed her eyes at him, "My name is Saila." trying to hold back the offence in her voice; even if his judgement wasn't wrong, she usually would only tolerate such bluntness from her friends.

"Okay, Saila." he crossed his arms, "You can let your friends order now." he suggested, the Princess turning her heels, annoyed enough already by the bartender; she was feeling in the mood to throw a fireball in his face, but she relented, knowing for certain it wouldn't end well for any party involved.

She sat herself down at an empty table, making sure to choose a table next to the wall, so she could lean herself back onto the wall while she waited; she glanced back over to the counter, and saw Ty Lee cheerily ordering her own things, before she turned around and sat right across from her on the table.

"So... we'll just stay here for lunch?" she asked the Princess, who eyed around at the other patrons.

"Until the rain stops bucketing outside." she clarified her own position, not wanting to go back out while she would end up getting drenched, again; she was still damp, water dripping down from her messy hair over her face. She decided to pull her bag off of her back, and from it, took out a small bone brush that Sokka had carved her a few months prior, as a gift. She actually couldn't remember why he gave it to her, but she appreciated it at the time; any way to maintain her immaculate appearance was well appreciated in the bitterly cold and windy South Pole. Ty Lee eyed it intently, gesturing toward, as if she were about to touch it; Azula instinctively pulled it back away from her friend and began to brush it through her hair.

"Nice brush." she commented, "Did you make it?"

"No, Sokka did." she clarified, "It's made of seal bone."

"It's pretty." she noted, "I'm sure you appreciated getting that." she added, making another random judgement on her relationship with Sokka; at the very least, it was accurate, but that did not mean she appreciated the comments about her relationship that came off her friend's tongue at random.

"It's useful." she simply acknowledged it, before continuing to brush it through her locks, straightening them out to get rid of the frizziness she knew would come from it getting wet, "What did you order?"

"The same as you, plus some tea." she explained, licking her lips, "It's been a while since I've had some good tea."

"Didn't you get tea back when we went out for lunch the other day?" she asked, the acrobat cringing.

"That tea was bad. They put too much... something in it." she simply explained her distaste, "Hopefully this tea is better."

"Are you blind? This village is dirt poor. Why would the tea be any better here?" she questioned her logic, Ty Lee giving her smile to reaffirm her confidence, raising two fingers up, one one each hand.

"It's not about the place, Azula, it's about who makes it. You can have all the right ingredients, but the tea will be bad if the person making it doesn't have any idea what they're doing." she explained, Azula leaning her head back at sighing with annoyance, finding her friend's commentary particularly similar to the kinds of things she'd heard her uncle say in the past.

"Ergh, you sound like my uncle when you say things like that."

"But it's true." she argued, "You need to know how to make tea. It doesn't just come from getting some leaves and hot water."

"Of all the things we could argue about, this is probably the one thing I really don't want to." she simply told her friend as she looked back at her, turning her head toward the bar as she remembered what she'd be eating, "I'd rather have a quiet discussion while we wait for our terrible lunch."

"It won't be that bad, Azula." she assured her, making the Princess narrow her eyes at her.

"You were just complaining about how the last place we visited had horrible tea and somehow you're confident we'll get a nice meal?" she questioned her once more, breaking apart her rationale for thinking so positively.

"Okay." she mumbled, "I see what you mean. But I'll enjoy it anyway. A nice hot meal instead of being out in the rain."

Their attention was drawn by three of Azula's guards moving to sit down on the table beside them, the guards keeping their professional distance from the Princess, who placed her hands up on the table and straightened her posture, wanting to seem the least bit serious while she was in their presence.

"What'd you guys get?" Ty Lee decided to make conversation, the guards glancing amongst each other.

"I'm pretty sure everybody's getting the jook." one of them simply noted.

"Plain and simple." another spoke up, pouting slightly, "I miss spicy food, honestly."

"I haven't had a good amount of spice in two months.' the first guard spoke up once more, before he smiled, "Hopefully when we get to the base, they'll give us their rations. At least those have spices in them."

"Navy rations are not that good." Azula spoke up, surprising her guards, who looked at her with interest.

Ty Lee spoke up, taking the opportunity to launch into a new conversation, "When did you eat navy rations? I thought you only had your fancy dishes on your ship." she guessed, the Princess nodding along.

"You're right, Ty Lee." she confirmed, "I had the rations after Katara stole them from a Southern Raider vessel. We had broken onboard, and she and the villagers must have gotten on and taken whatever they could before they set the boat adrift." she clarified, her guards looking at her with slightly concerned faces.

"When did you fight them?" one of her guards dared to directly address her, the Princess narrowing her eyes, thinking back to that night; Sokka had gone off hunting with his father and a large bulk of the men, to get some food to celebrate Bato's return- she was all alone, and she had to fight them off.

"More than two months ago now." she admitted, "I was asleep when they arrived, and they tried to kidnap the children. I believe they wanted to enslave them for whatever war-effort plans they had. I stopped them with the help of Katara and the Water Tribe warriors that were present."

"Did they know who you were?" one of her guards spoke up once more, obviously intrigued by the situation she had found herself in.

"Initially, no. They figured out once I started bending and shooting holes in their ship with lightning. That was the first time I generated lightning since Yu Dao."

"So, you're ready to do it again." she heard a voice speak up, glancing to her left to see the Captain standing by the end of the table.

"I can fight fully, Captain." she assured him, "Don't worry about that."

"I would never doubt your capabilities, yo-" he began to address her, before his eyes darted to the left, looking at the other patrons, who had taken some interest in them.

"I'd drop the formalities, Captain. Or should I say, Renshu." she addressed him by his first name, the Captain shuddering with unease.

"That's the first time you've said my name." he acknowledged, before he walked past Ty Lee and his men, sitting down along the table from them.

"Don't get used to it. We'll be back to proper formalities once we reach Zhao." she warned him, to which he let out a light snicker.

"I don't intend to." he ensured her of his steadfast loyalty and the seriousness with which he took his duties; of course, the other guards were quite serious, but he was a calibre above them- even if he could act causal and even show a sense of humour at times, he always ready to fight, and do his duty, without any questions.

She turned her eyes back to Ty Lee, remembering that they had been discussing her fight against the Southern Raiders, "That was just before I met him."

"Aang." she mumbled his name, "You already told me that one."

"I have." she nodded, "I have no intention to repeat that story, especially in public." she clarified, before turning her eyes up toward the bar, "Hopefully my meal will be ready soon so I can get it over and done with."

"Jook isn't that bad." her friend assured her, "I mean, it's not the best thing to eat, but it fills you up every time."

"I don't want to feel all bloated when I have to be alert, Ty." she retorted, "Remember we're still in dangerous territory around here. Even if the locals seem uncaring enough, some bandits are probably waiting to pounce at us."

"Don't worry, I can handle some bandits." her friend cracked her knuckles, "I won't lie, I'm looking forward to fight with you at some point."

"We did at Crescent Island, remember?" she raised her hand up, noting the last time they had fought together, where Azula had gotten injured; her shoulder was still a little sore, though she had recovered all movement in her shoulder and upper arm.

"Yeah, but that wasn't a real- uh- together fight. We need to go back to back against some bad guys." she argued, the Princess pursing her lips up in thought of the enemies that may await them; not just Zhao and his goons, who they had the intention of avoiding a fight with, but the Dai Li and even the Order of the White Lotus, who if Jeong Jeong's plot had any indication, didn't trust nor like her.

In the distance she heard the voice of the bartender call out her pseudonym, "Saila." he spoke up, just loud enough for her to hear; although, she decided to express her thoughts on Ty Lee's comment instead of getting up right away.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to that. Just don't wish on it too hard- we want to try and deal with the Admiral as cleanly as possible."

"I got that." she nodded, before she turned her eyes over to the bar, "I think your food's ready, Zula."

She rose up to her feet, striding past a few of her guards who were just walking back from the bar, having ordered their own meals; they simply nodded at her as she walked by, before she bee-lined right for the bar itself, spotting the bowl of jook, steaming hot and waiting for her. She noticed the bartender walk by, and he gestured to the bowl before attending to something else, proving that it was her meal; she picked it up noting that it was hot enough that it hurt to touch the bowl. Despite being a firebender, Azula was in no way heat-resistant, though she was able to use a quick technique by bending a small flame in her hand and drawing the heat of the bowl into it, before dispersing the small flame into the air. She did it with her hand facing down, to ensure that nobody saw the little bright blue flame she had created. Picking up the bowl, she smiled, noting the temperature of the ceramic to be far more tolerable, and she took it with her back to the table, eyeing the other patrons for a moment; they didn't seem that suspicious of her, but their gazes seemed to go her way whenever she walked by. She realised perhaps that it was her somewhat revealing attire; though a crop-top and pants were completely normal in the Fire Nation, given its hot climate, she realised that people in the Earth Kingdom would be a fair bit less tolerant of such clothing. Most the peasants she had seen on her journey so far covered themselves up quite modestly with their drab robes and tunics. Sitting herself back down across from Ty Lee, she placed the bowl in front of her, and looked over to her friend, who was looking at her intently.

"What?" she asked her, unsure what was so interesting about her appearance.

"Your hair looks nice." she explained, the Princess instinctively touching her hair, and realised that she had pulled it out in the process of brushing it; her shoulder length tresses fell down over her face, her bangs taking a more natural shape around her face.

She touched it, and noted the shape of her hair and bangs, realising that it was rather similar to the style that her mother wore; that made her feel uncomfortable immediately, and she quickly grasped her hair by the sides and back, and pulled it back up into a loose top-knot, which was how she preferred to have her hair when she wasn't trying to give off a regal appearance suiting of her rank. Azula looked back down at her food, and sniffed it, noting the bland smell, and she pulled the spoon out of the bowl, taking a bite from it.

"How is it?" her friend almost instantly asked her as she put the spoon into her mouth; it wasn't very nice, in her opinion, but the taste was tolerable and the texture fine enough that she really couldn't complain either.

"Okay." she simply noted, "Probably not worth the four copper pieces I paid."

"What a rip off." one of her guards groaned under his breath, his expression becoming more uneasy as he realised the Princess had been looking at him; Azula had a feeling that was how most of their interactions were going to go, given her rank and title, even if it really wasn't enforceable at the present moment.

"It is." she simply agreed, before turning back toward Ty Lee, "So, I hope you enjoy your tea, because I don't know if it'll make up for the jook."

"I'll be fine." her friend reassured her, though her expression after she spoke suggested that she wasn't looking forward to the meal, at least not as much as she had been.

Azula placed the spoon back in the bowl of jook, scooping out some more before she chewed it down; because of the texture, she could eat it quickly, though she tried not to, knowing that she wanted to sit inside for as long as the rainstorm lasted. She was sure it would be more impolite to sit inside all afternoon, waiting for the rain to pass, having eaten her meal quickly, than to eat it a little slower.

Once her mouth was empty, she decided to make conversation with Ty Lee once again, but her efforts were immediately frustrated as she rose up to go get her bowl of jook and cup of tea; as she strode off, the Princess instead turned to her guards, who were quietly chatting amongst themselves, and she decided to make an effort to listen in to said conversation.

"So, you're telling me you got a girlfriend, Shan?" one of her guards spoke up, the guard she assumed to be called by that name looking rather flustered at the suggestion.

"N-no... not a girlfriend. I went on, what, one date." Shan assured his comrades, who looked at him skeptically.

"But that was last week. So you might still get a girlfriend." Yi spoke up, before the Captain cleared his throat, getting their attention.

"We mightn't be going back to the village for some time now, if we ever do go back." he warned them, the guards looking at him with surprise.

"So... where are we going?" Yi turned to face her, the Princess smirking.

"Well, once this whole Zhao issue's dealt with, you'll be mustering with the rest of my forces. I have to teach Aang firebending, but until then, I will stay with him and the others. We need to attend to a few things unrelated to the Zuko problem." she explained her intentions, speaking as quietly as possible while still being intelligible to her guards; they were surprised by her open addressal of the matter, or at least, she assumed that from the ajar mouths and wide eyes on their faces.

"Such as?" the Captain asked her, prodding the Princess to continue her exposition.

"Well, I'm going to deal with the Ba Sing Se problem again, although I intend it to be permanent this time." she clarified, making her guards' expressions shift to ones of worry.

"So, destroying the Dai Li?" he asked her, to which Azula smirked, confident that she could do just that with a little help.

"Oh, I may be instigating it, but I don't intend to do anything of the sort." she raised her hands up, before she turned her eyes to the left, seeing Ty Lee returning to the table; she sniffed in her direction, noting that the tea was surprisingly aromatic, though she was sure that was just because she'd been smelling dirt, mud and rain all day.

"What are we talking about?"

"My plan to fix the Earth Kingdom." she told her bluntly, making her friend hold back a laugh.

"Oh, yeah, that's a thing." she acknowledged, sitting herself back down in her spot; the Princess turned back to face her guards, who were looking at her with even more confusion than before.

"What?" she asked them, the Captain clearing his throat once again, placing both hands on the table.

"Well, that's just a bit of a surprise, given what we were doing last time."

"Trust me, I'm trying to achieve the exact same thing, just from a different perspective." she assured him, knowing that her new plan for the Earth Kingdom was actually quite similar to her old orders, as she would be dealing with threats to the peace; the Dai Li were once again that threat, but the peace she was thinking of was a very different one to that which her father wanted her to uphold, "The Earth Kingdom is in need of a new government. Captain, I believe it's time I told the guard the story of Chin the Conqueror." she addressed Renshu, whose eyes widened with surprise.

"That story?" he scrunched his lips up, his voice sounding curious, "Why Chin the Conqueror?"

"Because I believe it's relevant to what I seek to do." she clarified, before turning to Ty Lee, "You ought to hear this too, if only to understand what an Avatar shouldn't do." she told her friend, who nodded along.

The acrobat took a spoonful of her jook and began to eat it; she didn't seem as disapproving as the Princess of the meal, though that didn't concern Azula- everybody could have their own terrible opinions on food while she had her correct one.

"Ahem." she cleared her throat, "A few hundred years ago, a man named Chin revolted against the rule of the Earth King of the time, who was seen as oppressive by the people of his country. He led an army to conquer, or in his eyes, liberate the people of the Earth Kingdom, and bar taking the city of Ba Sing Se, he succeeded."

"So, is that what you want to do?" Ty Lee asked her, "Just, uh, conquer the Earth Kingdom."

"Of course not. That'd be a waste of my time. I seek to become the ruler of my own nation, not this one." she clarified, trying not to mention the Fire Nation or Fire Lord while she was in an Earth Kingdom tavern, "The problem he faced was Avatar Kyoshi. She didn't like him trying to conquer her home peninsula, and then she defeated him in battle, killed him, and split said peninsula off with the power of the Avatar State, becoming what I believe is now Kyoshi Island."

"Huh, so that's why there's an island named after an Avatar." Ty Lee's eyes widened, before she facepalmed, "Oh, you guys went there a few weeks ago, didn't you?"

"Yep." she nodded, before turning her eyes back to her guards, seeing that she got herself sidetracked, "But back to the point. Supposedly, she believed that Chin was a tyrant just as bad as the Earth King, and thus she stopped him in his tracks."

"Isn't that kinda what the Avatar's meant to do?" the Captain narrowed his eyes at her, "And why the Royal Family went to find the Avatar. Because he might overthrow the Fire Lord?" he asked, the Princess nodding.

"I believe so." she nodded, only inferring that from the documents she'd read in Ba Sing Se, and not from anything her father had said; she guessed that was the intention, and because of the Avatar's bending prowess and such a knack for deposing tyrants, he was the number one enemy of the Fire Nation, "The thing is, that didn't stop the problem. The people of the Earth Kingdom, especially in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se where the Earth King's power and authority was absolute, still hated him. And so, like Chin, they rose up, and tried to storm the palace. Avatar Kyoshi made a deal with the Earth King, that she would create an organisation to protect the cultural heritage- which I think is really just a fancy way of saying the noblemen's estates. That became what we call the Dai Li."

"Wait... seriously?" Yi turned to face her with an amused face, "So a past Avatar created that organisation that we had to go beat into the ground a few months ago?"

"Precisely." she nodded, "You see, the problem is, the Dai Li perpetuated the same problem that had already plagued the Earth Kingdom before any of these things occurred, a lack of central government. In Ba Sing Se, they ruled in the stead of the Earth King, or at least, I assume they did, but everywhere else, warlordism became rampant. The armies my great-grandfather was so easily able to destroy with his great armies weren't so great in comparison, because of this exact problem.

"So you're saying Avatar Kyoshi indirectly doomed the Earth Kingdom?" Renshu concluded from her explanation, which was the exact conclusion she desired.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Chin tried to unify the Earth Kingdom, the Avatar killed him. The peasants tried to reform the government, and the Avatar created a means to prevent that from ever occurring." she explained, before clapping her hands together, pursing her lips upward, "So, I propose that we do what should have been done a few hundred years ago."

Ty Lee gasped, taking a sip from her cup of tea before she placed it down on the table, "Wow... you almost make the Fire Nation sound like the good guys fixing the Earth Kingdom."

"I actually believe that was what my great-grandfather intended, though I believe his original plan to be rather shortsighted." she conceded; Fire Lord Sozin had a good idea, but he went about it in the wrong way.

Conquering the Earth Kingdom would be a waste of time if it would only lead to more deaths, and more poverty for the people of its country; the colonies might have improved the lives of some, but that was minuscule in comparison to all the refugees the Fire Nation had forced from their homes.

"I see, your highness." the Captain raised a finger to his chin, scratching it in thought, "So, we will... well, we'll do the people of the Earth Kingdom a great favour."

"More than that." she argued, "This is something nobody has ever done. All I need is the right person to set it off."

"Aang." Ty Lee's eyes widened, "You know, Azula, you're really good at making crazy plans like this."

"It's my favourite thing to do. Honestly, Sokka helped a lot with this one, so you ought to thank him when you see him again." she admitted, making the guards break down laughing.

"Wait, seriously, the Water Tribesman thought it was a good idea to try and do all of this?"

"Do you not remember-" she began to question them, before she realised that they had not been privy to the borderline death-threats she had given Sokka for daring to suggest the Earth Kingdom commoners were justified in their desire to revolt against the Fire Nation, "He suggested something similar, back when we were in Ba Sing Se. This is just a natural progression of his insane ideas that I believe are worth my interest."

"Yeah, that sounds like Sokka." Ty Lee acknowledged, turning to face the guards, "I haven't known him long, but he's a guy with big ideas."

"Big ideas like- wait, was it him who came up with blowing up the Royal Barge?" Renshu asked her, the Princess shaking her head.

"I believe it was his father, Hakoda. You remember, the man Sokka thought you were trying to kill?" she asked him, the Captain turning his eyes away, still embarrassed by his defeat on the Royal Barge all those months ago- given how unskilled a warrior Sokka had been at the time, she could understand why he would feel so ashamed about it.

"Oh, so what are the Water Tribesmen actually like?" Shan turned around to face her, "Your highness, you spent a few months with them. You must have good knowledge of their lifestyle and culture by now."

"I think I do." she nodded, "They are commendable in their own areas. The Southern Water Tribe is perhaps as progressive as our own nation, at least when compared to the backwards people of the Northern Water Tribe." she acknowledged, only having heard things from hearsay and then from Kanna, via Katara, which didn't give the kindest painting of said culture, "They are also a very resilient, honourable people. They aren't as selfish as many of the nobles and townsfolk of our nation, and strive to serve their villages to the best of their ability. Something I desire for our own nation."

"So, they're like us." Yi concluded, "I mean, everybody here serves you because they believe in you, in the Fire Nation. They hold that same belief in each other."

"I would say that's an accurate judgement." she nodded, actually surprised that one of her guardsmen could say something so considerate of their actual situation; she sometimes forgot that many in the Fire Nation weren't as single-minded and unquestioning as the education system made it seem.

"Maybe you should start eating, Zula." Ty Lee spoke up, "Your food will get cold."

"Hmph, you're right, Ty Lee." she nodded, taking her spoon into her meal, "I apologise for my long winded exposition. I simply believed you all ought to know what you are getting into. That is my duty as your leader."

The guards nodded along, tilting their heads down toward her in respect, making her smile before she took her spoon into her mouth; even if her lunch was crap, she knew that her men were good- not in the feeble way that Katara saw the term, but in a more heart-felt way. They served her out of respect, and acted with volition rather than out of blind loyalty. That was all she could ever ask for, and if she could build that same respect with her fellow countrymen, she would be content to rule her nation until the day she died.

---

Glancing out toward the gray clouds above them, Sokka could only sigh; he wanted to actually get to the North Pole, if that was what he had to do, as quickly as he could, but it seemed that the world was against him. He knew that the rain would have to let up eventually, and with it, they'd be on their way toward their destination. They still had many days of flying ahead of them, though Sokka was sure that with any less interruptions, they'd arrive within the week. He was surprised by the thought, given the climate of the area they were in wasn't that cold, yet within a week, they'd be at the North Pole, which he assumed would be just like his home, except with more rules and some stuck-up waterbenders. He turned his glance to his left, taking note of Aang and Katara, who were pretty much playing around with the rain water; they were training their bending, and he guessed that was better than nothing, but Sokka couldn't stand to be doing nothing.

He wished Azula was there just to demand he do something; he needed to be preoccupied, otherwise the boredom would set in, and Sokka got grumpy when he was bored. Not as much as when he was hungry, but he would not be in a good mood after spending a day idling around. Katara's meditation helped somewhat, but that just made him worry about Azula, and he had decided he'd rather do something than think about her constantly. He loved her, but being constantly worried about her, he knew that was unhealthy; he wasn't that thick headed to think that obsessing over a person and their safety wasn't a little over the top when it was the only thing on one's mind.

Sokka's eyes turned to the abandoned house he could see across the field from them, and wondered if it would be worth investigating; he guessed that whatever had been in there had probably already been taken either by the Fire Nation or by some bandits. He did think, though, that it was interesting; in the same way that the prison, and the Dai Li tunnels it connected to, in Ba Sing Se were interesting. He wondered what might be inside, and felt suspicious about the place they had decided to take refuge in; he knew the Fire Nation had attacked the place, but it didn't make much sense. They weren't building a colony in the area, nor did the settlement seem to be large enough to play part in the war effort.

This interest overcame him, and he decided to step out into the rain, and approach the house; this immediately garnered his sister's attention, and she immediately stepped toward him, "Where are you going?"

"To look around." he simply told her, glancing back toward her and Aang, who both looked at him with slight confusion; they were too engrossed in their bending to be bored, so they obviously didn't understand his frustrations- of course, they didn't have a crazy Fire Nation Princess on their mind for every waking moment of the day, either.

"Okay, don't get lost in the forest or something." Aang suggested, the Water Tribesman scoffing at his suggestion.

"I'm just going to the house. Don't worry." he reassured them, before he continued to stride on through the rain, preferring to get through it as quickly as he could, instead of getting drenched.

Eyeing the house, he took note of the decay that it had undergone; it obviously hadn't been abandoned for that long, maybe only a year or two, but that time showed. Plants were growing everywhere, and the exterior of the house showed some small damages that seemed unrelated to the Fire Nation's attack. When he reached the eaves of the house, he took a deep breath, glad that he was out of the rain; Sokka then glanced in a nearby window, noting that it was covered by dirt stains, making it very hard to look inside. He sighed, realising he'd have to go inside; he knew that was going to be a bad idea, unsure what kind of animals might be nesting inside. He remembered the abandoned house in the mining village he and Azula had taken shelter on their first night together, and knew that must be worse than whatever he was looking at. The Water Tribesman strode along the eaves, approaching the front door of the house, which was pushed slightly ajar; when he reached to touch it, he suddenly heard the sound of thunder above him.

"Trying to get all ominous on me, are you?" he called out to the clouds above him, "Well, I'm not afraid. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe isn't afraid of anything." he declared defiant of whatever tricks the weather was trying to play on him.

He pushed the door open, and suddenly, it pulled a little harder than he thought it would, from the wind gusting behind him; once it flew open, Sokka froze, unsure what to do, now looking inside of the house, which was dimly lit with decaying or broken furnishings strewn around the place. He couldn't really see anything of interest, so he decided to take a closer look. Crouching down by the entrance, he examined the floor, taking note that there were only a few singe marks from firebending on the floor; obviously the Fire Nation had been inside, though what they were doing, he couldn't be sure. They didn't burn the house down, that was for certain.

"What were they doing here?" he mumbled under his breath, standing up a little taller before he eyed down through the room to his left, which was poorly lit due to the dirt covered windows, though he could see clearly enough to not trip over the broken furniture.

Sokka noticed that there was a relatively undamaged table sitting in the centre of the room, only going up to the top of his boots in height, which had a few empty cups on it; Sokka leaned down, taking interest in the cups, which looked to be used for tea. He could smell the tea on them, though the cups were cold. He wondered when he would next have the opportunity to drink some tea, knowing that some good tea might help him calm down a little, in regards to his constant worries about his girlfriend.

Rising back up to his full height, the Water Tribesman continued to walk through the room, stepping over a broken wooden chair before he glanced into the next area of the house, which looked to be the kitchen; there was barely anything in there, only some broken furniture and a cooking area, which consisted of a stove, chimney and an area to set a fire. He approached said chimney, smelling the ash, which gave off the smell of burnt meat and wood mixed together; he liked that smell, though he knew it was distracting him from the really interesting part. The fireplace still had some wood beside it, though it was currently empty and only had ashes inside. He turned his head around, glancing through the kitchen once more, thinking that the place seemed like a good place to cook. He considered suggesting to Katara that they make their lunch there, as no matter how creepy it might have seemed, the fireplace was still functional.

The Water Tribe warrior then slowly strode into a hallway to his right, that he presumed would lead to the living areas of the house; Sokka first reached a doorway that was broken, and saw a bed that had been thrown up, its sheets still on. Where there might have been some personal belongings or mementos was empty, which didn't surprise him; whoever had lived inside must have fled and taken whatever they could. He glanced back into the hallway, taking note that there were a fair few more rooms; the house was big enough to fit either a large family, or perhaps, a few of them. Making his way down the hallway, he glanced into another room, which was a similar sight; a bed thrown upside down, and some clothes splayed over the floor; there was what he assumed had been a drawer for clothing, which had been broken apart, seemingly on purpose.

"Somebody must have been looking for something." he concluded, "But what? These people must have just been farmers."

He strode down further, and made his way toward the rear entrance of the house; he glanced first to his left, into another room, which caught his interest as he looked inside, taking note of an unusual sight; the wooden wall was broken apart, and behind it, there was dirt, spilling out, like the ground had come out and broken the wall. He guessed that might have been from earthbending, having seen what the wielders of said element could achieve; ripping the soil out from underneath to destroy a wall seemed possible, but somewhat stupid. If earthbenders were fighting the Fire Nation, why didn't they just use earth from outside. They obviously didn't, as despite the rest of the damage, the windows seemed to be in better condition, just like at the front of the house. Destroying only the furniture confused Sokka greatly, but with only his instincts to go on, he could only continue his idle search. It was better than sitting around while Aang and Katara practised their waterbending, that was for certain.

He looked back down through the hallway, and approached the rear door, noting that it was too ajar like the front entrance had been; if people had been escaping, he honestly wouldn't have expected them to have the courtesy to half-close the door. Perhaps others had already looked around the house before him, looking for supplies. That would explain why all the 'things' seemed to be missing. A kitchen with no pans, pots or dishes for cooking and eating; a bedroom with nothing but some old clothes. Sokka strode closer to the door, before he heard an unusual sound outside; he though for a moment that it might be some kind of animal he could eat for lunch, snooping around; he immediately drew out his bone dagger, thinking if he could take it by surprise, that'd be a quick meal. He then pushed the door open with a kick, making a loud cry.

"Hiya!" he exclaimed, before he realised that it was not the kind of animal he was expecting; instead of some small forest creature he could whack and cook up for dinner, it was instead an ostrich-horse, tied up to a post.

"What the..." he mumbled, confused why there was an ostrich horse at an abandoned house; his eyes widened as he made the realisation he was looking for- the house wasn't abandoned, people were living in it, which explained the tea cups, the seemingly fresh ashes and chopped wood.

He turned around at once, and realised that he ought to alert Aang and Katara; as much as they probably didn't want to fly off on Appa, going into somebody's house and occupying their barn was certainly not a good idea, and as easy way to earn the ire of whoever lived there.

"Who... where?" he mumbled under his breath as he strode back into the house, making his way down the hallway; he increased his pace as he realised the occupants might be out hunting or something, and that it was only a matter of time before they returned home.

Suddenly, he lost his balance and felt his left leg flick up, Sokka raising his hands to cover his face as he fell straight down onto the ground; he grunted as his head struck the floor, despite his best efforts to cover it. Sokka became a whole lot more worried as he turned his eyes back to his feet and saw another pair of feet; glancing up, he saw an Earth Kingdom girl in ragged robes, with a cloak around her shoulders, wielding a dagger, pointing it right toward him.

"Stay right there." she warned him, the Water Tribesman trying to pull himself back, knowing that he had to get out before they did something horrible to him.

"I'd rather not. I have a sky-bison flight to catch." he declared, the girl stepping closer with her dagger in hand as he tried to get away.

"What's a-" she narrowed her eyes at him, before she snarled, seeing that he was actually trying to run, "Stop!" she demanded of him, Sokka not looking back as he ran down the hallway once more, before once again, he was struck, this time by an arm flicking out from a doorway; he fell straight down onto his back, and groaned with pain as he realised his back was sore.

"I wouldn't try that." he heard himself addressed by what had to be the voice of a man, one around his father's age; he glanced up to see a bearded Earth Kingdom man in similar robes to the girl, kneeling down over him with a machete in his hand, "I don't want to hurt you friend, but when Fire Nation looking folks come stepping into my camp, I can't help but react with force."

"Camp?" he raised a brow, glancing around the hallway, momentarily looking toward the girl, who was stepping closer, "This isn't your house?"

"Of course not." the man scoffed at his suggestion, "No, I don't have a house. It was burnt down by the Fire Nation two months ago, along with the rest of my village."

"I- wait- what?" he turned his eyes up to him, "Then why are you attacking me?" he raised a brow at him, the man leaning over, aiming the machete toward him.

"I can't take any chances." he admitted bluntly, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he asked him, the Water Tribe warrior glancing back down the hallway, knowing that he was travelling with one of the most wanted people in the world.

"My name is Sokka. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." he explained, making the man lean back, his eyes narrowed with confusion.

"The Southern..." he began, before he turned to the girl behind him, "They still exist?"

"I think so, Dad." the girl nodded, gesturing toward him, "I don't think this guy is lying."

The man knelt down beside Sokka, who could have chi-blocked him, but decided to wait, knowing that it would be a little rash to just jump and attack him; the man and his daughter were clearly refugees, fleeing the Fire Nation.

"Also... my friend outside, who you may or may not have already seen, is the Avatar." he explained, making the man look at him with a perplexed face, an awkward silence falling between them, before he broke down laughing.

"Buwahaha! You've gotta be kidding me! The Avatar?! Who'd believe that?" he mocked the Water Tribe teen, who raised his hands up to stress.

"I'm not joking." he assured him, "Trust me, I got really confused when he showed up at my village too."

"You mean to tell me the twelve year old boy out there is the Avatar?" he asked, the Water Tribesman narrowing his eyes as he realised what his words implied.

"So you were spying on us." he concluded, the Earth Kingdom man rising back up to his feet, sheathing his weapon.

"I want to keep my family safe." he simply told him, "Well, I want proof." he admitted bluntly.

"Dad, stop it. Does his guy look like he's lying?" she asked him, gesturing toward Sokka, who made a cringed smile at being referenced to.

"I can't tell." he simply told her, before gesturing toward the front of the house, "Start walking, Water Tribe."

"What, so am I your hostage?" he asked him, knowing he could easily beat the man before him; his form was flimsy when he was holding the machete toward him, and his nonchalant attitude was not suggestive of him being a soldier, or at least, having been one in the past.

"I want you to show me this Avatar." he declared, before turning around to face his daughter, "Stay here, Xia." he warned his daughter, whose expression tensed up, before she nodded.

"Don't do anything stupid, Dad." she warned him, the father tapping Sokka on the shoulder.

"Go along now."

He rolled his eyes, and strode down the hallway; the man was acting a little full of himself, which was giving the Water Tribe warrior a decent reason to chi block him, but he decided against it, knowing that it probably wouldn't end well. He didn't want to scare a bunch of refugees when there was a chance he could help them. He was pretty sure if anybody was living in an abandoned house, as dishevelled as the man behind him, they had to be in dire straits; Sokka had not always been the most altruistic person, but he knew that helping others out did benefit him in the past, and he was in no mood to change his mind on its benefits.

"Where are you from, anyway?" he asked him, the man narrowing his eyes at him.

"It doesn't matter." he snarled, "My village is gone."

"Did you-" he began to ask, before the man pushed him forward again, obviously not wanting to answer any personal questions.

"Just show me the Avatar." he demanded, the Water Tribesman sighing as he continued along, walking toward the front door.

The man must have been through some bad times, or perhaps he was just a dick. It was hard for him to tell, but he was sure that getting one's village burnt down would likely do that to a man. He approached the door, and pulled it back slightly to allow him to step outside, where he could see Aang and Katara by the entrance of the barn, continuing their waterbending practice.

"There he is." he gestured to the young Air Nomad, who currently wasn't wearing his disguise, rather just dressed in his simple orange and yellow monk robes.

"That's an Air Nomad?" he narrowed his eyes, "But aren't they meant to be bald?"

"He grew out his hair to hide from the Fire Nation." Sokka raised a finger, "Now, I'm going to approach them, so don't act like an idiot or both of them are going to knock you out with water whips."

"Water whips?" he looked at him with slight concern, "Is that a waterbending form?"

"Yeah." he nodded, before gesturing for the skittish Earth Kingdom man to follow him; he stepped out into the rain, looking up at the sky above them, before he followed after the Water Tribesman, who continued to approach the other two, who stopped their practice as they saw him being followed by a stranger.

"Uh, Sokka, who's that?" Aang asked him with an understandably concerned voice, the Water Tribesman gesturing behind him as he approached.

"He didn't give me his name. He's a refugee. He and his family are hiding in that house." he gave them all he knew about him, the man continuing to follow behind Sokka with a slightly embarrassed look on his face; he probably had wanted to introduce himself, when the time came, instead of getting that rather sloppy introduction.

"Uh, hi there." the young Air Nomad waved with a smile, "I'm Aang." he simply greeted him, the Earth Kingdom man narrowing his eyes at him, slowing his approach as Sokka reached the barn, "What's your name?"

"Kuo." he finally spoke up, before turning to Sokka, "He said you're the Avatar. Is that really true?" he asked, the young Air Nomad nodding, before he grinned.

"I can prove it to you." he declared, before he reached into his pocket, pulling out his marbles; the Water Tribe warrior cringed externally at the sight of the twelve year old's giddy grin as he showed off the marble trick, which seemed to surprise Kuo.

"That's- that is airbending." he acknowledged, his expression shifting to one of surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"Going to the North Pole. To learn waterbending." he explained, the man's eyes narrowing with confusion.

"But aren't you two waterbending right now?"

"Yes." Katara clarified, "But we need a master. We only have a scroll to work with."

"Oh..." Kuo mumbled, raising a finger to his chin, realising what was going on, "I'm sorry for- uh- knocking you to the ground." he apologised to Sokka, who raised a hand, not worried about what happened in the slightest.

"Don't mention it. I get why you were so afraid of somebody walking in there." he admitted, before narrowing his eyes, wondering what had led them to the abandoned house, "How long have you been hiding there?"

"Only three days now." he admitted, before looking back, "I'm with my daughter, wife, brother and two nephews." he explained himself, which confused Sokka, seeing that he didn't see the other aforementioned people.

"Where are the others?" he asked, the Earth Kingdom man scratching the back of his head.

"Hiding in the house." he explained, "My nephews were under one of the beds. You didn't seem to notice them, though." he acknowledged, "Why were you looking in the house?"

"I'm bored." he told him the blunt truth, "And I thought there might be something of use in there for us."

Kuo nodded, not amused by his words, though his expression shifted to one of interest as he turned to face Appa, who was aroused from his rest by the appearance of somebody new, "What's that thing?"

"My sky bison." Aang spoke up, "Appa's his name. He's friendly, so don't worry if you want to- uh- pat him." he gestured toward him.

"Uh, no thanks." he awkwardly refused the offer, "I think I ought to go back to my family and get moving. We obviously aren't safe here." he admitted, the young Air Nomad's brows rising with thought.

"Wait." he raised a hand toward him, "We can help you. You seem like you're in a bit of trouble."

"You mean-" Kuo's eyes widened, "You want to fly us on your sky-bison?"

"Yeah." he nodded, "I don't have to take you far, but we can get further away from the Fire Nation. I know you don't want to be anywhere near them."

"I do not." he nodded, before making a small smile, "Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I can accept it. We're just travelling through. You don't need to help us."

"We don't need to." Katara acknowledged, "But we can. Where do you need to go?"

"I heard that Gaochao was a safe place for refugees. It's a town up near the mountains. Supposedly a bit of the Earth Kingdom Army that's left controls it." he explained, which made Sokka raise a brow in thought; he hadn't ever heard of the place, but he was sure if it was relatively close by, it'd be on their map.

"Gaochao, huh?" he asked, before glancing up to Appa's saddle, "Just give me a second." he excused himself as he darted over toward the sky-bison, immediately climbing up his side to get on top of the saddle; Sokka then quickly clambered over to the rear of the saddle, where he pulled out their new map, which he was glad Azula didn't take, seeing that it was still of use in avoiding the Fire Nation Army.

Unfurling the map, he ran his finger across it, looking around toward any indication of mountains on the map, and then for towns; it was rather obvious when he spotted it- 'Gaochao - Earth Kingdom occupied', was what the map said. He smirked, figuring out where it was relative to them, knowing that they were to the north-east of Hungu; they could only be a day's flight from Gaochao at the very most, and it was on the way to the North Pole.

He glanced back over toward the others, "We can do that." he grinned at them, "You wanna go to Gaochao, let's go."

"Wait, seriously?" Kuo's eyes widened with surprise, "Like right now?"

"As soon as you pack up your things and this rain stops, we can start flying." he explained as he climbed down from Appa's saddle, before he approached them, "We have to go in that direction anyway."

"Th-thanks." he looked at the Water Tribesman with awe, "I didn't think you'd be so-" he trailed off, before shaking his head, "Thanks." he simply smiled at him, giving Sokka a curt bow.

"Oh, there's no need to bow." he assured him, "I'm not royalty, buddy."

Aang elbowed him in the side, smirking at him, "Yet." he whispered, making the Water Tribesman cock a smirk.

"Good point, Aang." he patted his friend on the shoulder, before turning back to face Kuo, "So, are you guys alright? I mean, you looked pretty scared just then. Did the Fire Nation try and attack you guys recently?"

The refugee man turned his eyes away, which showed the kind of fear Sokka understood personally; ever since his mother was killed by the Southern Raiders, he felt nervous constantly about the Fire Nation attacking- it was only when Azula returned to the South Pole with him that he felt that nervousness fade, as he felt confident that she could protect them from the Fire Nation.

"They split up our group." he admitted, "After our village was attacked, the Fire Nation hunted us down. I think they wanted to enslave us or- I don't even know. I haven't seen my son in weeks, and my sister-in-law is missing too." he explained, the expressions on all their faces shifting ones of shock; Sokka didn't know what to say, but one thing stuck with him.

"Your son." his eyes widened, "How old is he?"

"A bit older than the Avatar here." he gestured to him, "He wanted to fight them, to make the Fire Nation go away. But I told him to run." he sighed, placing his hands together, "I really hope he's alright."

"I-" he began to mumble, "Where was your village?" he asked him, the man turning to face him with confusion.

"Why does it matter? They're not going to be there." he sighed with frustration, trying to hold back the anger he felt; Sokka knew he would struggle to do that- anybody would.

"No, I mean, was it around here? Was it near the Fire Nation Colonies? Where was it?"

He sighed, taking a deep breath, "To the west of here. It was a beautiful country, but the Fire Nation had been fighting over it- thinking it was theirs to take. You must know they're trying to kill each other at the moment."

"I know." he admitted, before he turned away, feeling a shred of guilt; even if he had no control over the events that had led to the Fire Nation's civil war, he had played a part that had ultimately led to the present situation, just as Azula, her brother and the White Lotus too.

"Sokka, you don't think Zh-" Katara began to ask him, before he raised a hand, cutting her off.

"Yeah, it was definitely his people. Her people." he admitted, knowing that the men who had probably burned Kuo's village to the ground were the ones who had sworn loyalty to his girlfriend all those months ago.

"Who?" Kuo asked him, Sokka immediately shaking his head.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that your family gets to safety." he explained, before taking a deep breath, "And don't worry about your son."

"Wh-why?" he asked him, a look of fear growing on his face, "Are you trying-"

"No. I don't think he's dead." he stressed, looking Kuo dead in the eye, "The Avatar isn't just mastering the elements. We're going to make sure wherever he is, that he and everyone else the Fire Nation has captive will be free."

"Th-that's very brave of you."

"Brave?" he raised a brow at the suggestion, "I'm not brave. I just know what's right. And the many suffering because of the stupid decisions of the few is not right".

---

The pattering of rain on the roof above them continued on, and Aang was unsure if it was going to let up before the day's end; he still had hope, however, that it would, and that they could leave the eerie farmhouse. They had all come inside the old house to meet the Kuo's family; there was his wife Lian, his daughter Xia, his brother Tai, and his two nephews, who were actually about the same age as Aang himself, one older, named Shi and the other a little younger, named Ho. The family were all a little skittish, except the two boys, who actually seemed to be in a good mood, probably because they'd been stuck without anybody to talk to for a few weeks. Katara had made them all lunch, and Lian had been more than willing to assist her in making something on the stove inside.

The young Avatar sat around the table in the front room with his legs crossed, sitting beside Sokka, who was exceptionally quiet, though he was sure that wouldn't last too long; he probably just didn't know what to talk about. Perhaps he didn't want to make the refugees feel uncomfortable by talking about something like their adventure so far, which visited upon the thing they probably didn't want to have to think about- the war.

"So, Aang, can you bend more than just water and air?" Ho asked him, breaking the silence; Aang turned to face him, giving him a smile.

"Well, not yet, but I must be able to bend earth and fire as well. Every Avatar can bend all four, once they've learned them." he explained, the boy's eyes widening with awe.

"Wow, I can't bend even one. It must be really cool to bend four." he noted, making Aang chuckle, feeling a little embarrassed that he was so amazed by it; Aang had gotten used to thinking of his position as the Avatar being a burden, or if not that, then simply a danger to those around him.

"I guess." he made a small smile, "But," he raised a finger, knowing he could bring Sokka into the conversation with one simple trick, "even if you can't bend, there's things you can learn to do. Isn't that right, Sokka?"

The Water Tribe warrior's eyes widened, surprised by his words, before he smirked, "Well yeah. Being a warrior doesn't need any bending."

"What can you fight with, then?" Shi asked him, "Have you got a jian? Or some dao?" he asked, the Water Tribesman shaking his head; he didn't know how to fight with swords, at least not yet- that was on his checklist of weapons to learn how to use.

"Well, I usually rely on my most prized weapon." he declared, drawing out his boomerang, "Mister Boomerang." he looked at it with a wide grin; he treasured that weapon like Aang treasured Appa.

He was surprised that a person could love a physical thing that much, but Aang knew it would be hard to understand it; the other nation's were far more into material possessions than his people. All Aang had were the few things on his saddle, his staff, and the clothes on his back. That was until he joined up with Sokka, Katara and Azula, who brought with them the wonder of tents and more clothes. He had grown to like his Fire Nation disguise, though he didn't wear it when they were out alone, knowing that it was a little too stuffy, and inhibited his airbending forms somewhat. Enough that he decided to only wear it whenever they had to go to towns and villages where it would be safer to disguise themselves as being Fire Nation commoners instead of the ragtag bunch they were.

"What's a boomerang? Is it like a knife?" Ho asked him, the Water Tribesman shaking his head.

"No, no, you throw it. I guess you could throw knives too. This one time this girl pinned me to the ground with just knives and these weird sticks she shot out of her robes." he acknowledged, making Aang raise a brow; he was guessing he was referring to Mai, Ty Lee and Azula's friend, who he hadn't heard that much of- mostly of her association to Zuko as his girlfriend, and potentially, the future Fire Lady.

"Huh, really?" he heard Xia speak up, looking at them with interest; she'd been idly sitting on one of the less-damaged chairs in the room, and sat down on the floor, across the table from Sokka with an intrigued look on her face, "A girl throwing knives. I didn't know girls were allowed to fight."

"Well, I don't know if she was allowed to carry that many knives on her, but she did it anyway." Sokka chuckled, before he raised his weapon up once more, "As I was saying, you throw the boomerang, and because of how it's shaped, it flies in a circle if you throw it. So it comes right back to your hand."

"Nifty." the Earth Kingdom girl commented, before furrowing a brow, "But if it hits something, does it come back?"

"Uh..." his mouth openly slightly ajar; Aang had seen for himself that that wasn't the case- it didn't make Sokka any less an effective fighter, seeing that he could use his chi-blocking or club up if he didn't have his favourite weapon at hand.

"You have other ways to fight, Sokka." the Avatar elbowed him, "Tell them about the chi-blocking."

"You say that like I should start chi-blocking them." the Water Tribesman shot him a suspicious glare, Aang raising his hands in defence.

"I never said that." he assured him, "Don't chi-block anybody, please." he requested, Sokka scoffing at his words.

"Yeah, I didn't plan to." he assured him, before turning his eyes toward Xia, who seemed a little confused by their diversion.

"What is chi-blocking?"

"Where you jab certain points on somebody's body, which are on things called your chi paths. If your chi paths are blocked, you can't bend with any part of your body away from the path, and it can paralyse limbs if you hit the right points." he explained, the eyes of all three widening with interest.

"Wait, so you can make somebody's arms go all" Shi slumped his arms over, making it look like he couldn't move them, "like this?"

"Uh yeah, pretty much." Sokka nodded, Xia furrowing a brow at him.

"That's interesting." she mumbled, "Where did you learn how to do it?"

"Well, somebody explained the basics to me, and I just figured it out myself." he admitted, making her look at him with confusion.

"You can't be serious." she refused to believe him, turning to face Aang, "He's not being serious, is he?"

"Well, I think he did. But he got beat up a lot to get better at it." he explained, before turning to face the Water Tribe teen, who looked embarrassed by Aang's words, "That's right, isn't it?"

"Urgh." he groaned as he covered his face in shame, "Y-yeah, that's right, Aang."

"Sokka, are you okay?" Katara called out to her brother, Aang raising his head up to note that she was standing up by the corner of the room, peering in from the kitchen.

"Yeah, Katara, I'm fine." he raised a hand, "Aang's just making me look like I can't fight." he explained himself bluntly, the young Air Nomad placing a hand on his own chest, not believing that was the case.

"You can fight, Sokka. I saw you on that Southern Raider ship like everyone else did. You kicked their butts, and they could all bend." he assured him, the Water Tribesman pursing his lips up slightly in appreciation.

His sister approached, clearing her throat, "We're just about ready to serve lunch."

"Lunch?" Sokka raised a brow, "I love lunch." he grinned, making her chuckle.

"Yeah, I know, Sokka." she nodded, before gesturing for them to get up, "Come on. We used Lian's recipe, so I think this fried rice will be good."

"Oh, Aunty does make good fried rice." Ho's head jolted up, grasping his brother by the arm, "Come on, Shi."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." his brother nodded, rising up to his feet, Aang and Xia doing the same before they all turned around to file into the kitchen, behind Sokka and Katara.

Making his way in after them, he made a sniff of the fried rice, and licked his lips, finding the aroma to be quite enticing. Lian was standing by the pot, handing over bits bowls of rice, while Katara moved to grab a single bowl, walking back toward Aang with it in hand; she gestured it toward him, making him realise that it was for him.

"Oh, that's mine?" he raised a brow, before smiling, "Thanks."

"I made you a separate bowl so you didn't get any meat." she explained, making him blush, actually surprised that she went out of the way to do that when they were really intending to help the refugee family.

"Th-thanks." he repeated himself, before gesturing back toward the living room, "Did you want to sit and eat lunch with me?" he asked her, the Water Tribe girl making a small smile.

"Of course, Aang." she assured him, before she turned around, "I just have to get my own bowl first."

He nodded, and turned his heels, returning to his spot where he had been sitting, placing his bowl down on the table, before he pulled the chopsticks that were already in the bowl out, and began to eat with them, taking bits of the fried rice into his mouth, clump by clump. He licked his lips after taking a few bites, finding the meal to actually be quite delicious; if all Earth Kingdom food was like it, he would be sure to have it more often. A few moments later, Shi and Ho returned, and were followed by Sokka, who was already chowing down on his meal as he walked over to his old spot.

"This is pretty good." the Water Tribesman commented, before he turned to face Xia, who was following behind him, "Your Mum's a good cook." he acknowledged, the Earth Kingdom girl stopping for a moment before she smiled.

"Yeah, she is." she agreed with a curt nod, before she sat down across from Sokka, "Your sister doesn't seem to be half bad either." she added, Aang grinning.

"Katara's a really good cook." he acknowledged, "Your Gran Gran taught her how to cook, right?" he turned to face Sokka, who nodded.

"Yep." he confirmed, before licking his lips, "Just thinking about Gran Gran's stewed sea prunes makes me more hungry. I'm so glad we're going to the North Pole just so I can get a taste of that stuff again."

"So, you're going to learn waterbending." Shi spoke up, narrowing his eyes at Aang, "What are you going to do after that?"

"Learn earthbending." he clarified, cocking a smirk, "I've already found my master. Her name is Toph, and she's the coolest earthbender I've ever seen." he explained, Ho raising a brow with interest.

"What's cool about her?"

"She's a master earthbender, but she can't even see. At least not with her eyes; she can see through her earthbending instead." he explained, the expressions on all three of the refugee's faces shifting to ones of amazement.

"You're kidding." Xia mumbled, before she picked up a bit of rice with her chopsticks, "How did she learn to do that?"

Aang furrowed a brow, "Honestly, I have no idea." he admitted, turning to Sokka, "Something to do with being one with her element or something like that."

"I think she must have had some kind of master. A powerful bender isn't a good one without a master." he noted, making the young Avatar's eyes widen, surprised by his wisened comment on bending; he mulled on it for a moment before he realised where he must have drawn such a conclusion from.

"Did you learn that from-" he began, before Katara walked into the room, with one finger at her lips.

Aang's jaw dropped as he realised what he had almost said; Sokka sighed, taking his chopsticks into his mouth once more, his mood soured by him saying the one thing he should have avoided. Katara moved around and sat beside the young Avatar, who glanced toward her with a slightly cringed face; she gave him a sympathetic smile, before she turned to eating her meal.

"So, what kind of bending moves can you do then?" Ho asked him, "Can you make a tornado with airbending?" he asked him, making the young Air Nomad chuckle; he'd never tried that, and knowing his own strength, he guessed you'd need a lot of airbenders to achieve such a move.

"I can't do a tornado." he conceded, before cocking a smirk, "But you know what I can do?"

"Oh, here we go." Sokka rolled his eyes, Aang ignoring his reaction as he pulled the marbles out of his pocket.

"Check this out!" he grinned at them, spinning the marbles around in his hands; all of them, even Xia, were amazed by the sight.

"How can you move it so accurately?" the Earth Kingdom girl asked her, "That must be hard."

"It is." he acknowledged, knowing that the move required a lot of precision to achieve, even if it wasn't very practical.

"Well, there's cooler things you've done with your airbending." Katara added, "Remember when we were training the other day and you used it to throw Sokka into the air like he was a leaf in the wind?" she grinned at him, the Water Tribe warrior scrunching his lips, not approving of that memory being brought up.

"I landed on my own two feet, thank you very much." he retorted, "So your move failed." he turned to Aang, who grinned.

"Well, you didn't hit me, did you?" he questioned him in return, the Water Tribe teen's face twitching as he held back his frustration.

"Hmmm." he mumbled with a slight growl, before he placed another bit of fried rice in his mouth, "You're lucky this lunch is delicious."

"I sure am lucky. Who doesn't want to eat a delicious lunch?" he asked the others, Ho raising a hand.

"It is delicious." he grinned brightly, "I want to eat more."

"I don't think there is any more." Katara conceded, "We split it up evenly."

"Aw..." he pouted, Sokka chuckling.

"I know that feeling, buddy." he conceded, "What I would do for a banquet."

"I think you'd do anything for food, Sokka." Aang argued, the Water Tribe warriror crossing his arms.

"I think I would." he agreed with him, "I need food to survive, Aang." he argued, making his sister raise a brow.

"Yeah, so does everybody else." she added, making him narrow his eyes.

"Well, I just care about food more, okay. There's nothing wrong with that." he argued, "You guys think food's important, right?"

"I wish we had lunch like this everyday." Shi acknowledged with a slight pout; they mustn't have been getting enough food, and Aang could clearly see their bony hands and noticeably hollow cheeks.

"Maybe when you get to this town, Gaochao, you might be able to get more nice food." Katara suggested, "I'm sure there'll be work there for your dad and your uncle." she guessed, Xia's eyes darting away in thought.

"Refugees aren't treated well." she admitted, "I remember back in our village, when people came fleeing the Fire Nation, most people would just turn them away. Even we did. We just didn't have the food or the space to spare for them."

"Maybe Gaochao isn't like your village. Maybe there's enough work and food for you guys." Sokka acknowledged, "But if it isn't, I wouldn't worry too much."

"What, is us starving not a problem?" she narrowed her eyes into a glare, obviously offended by his suggestion.

"No, you won't be going hungry much longer." he argued, "Because the Fire Nation will be gone from this part of the Earth Kingdom, permanently."

"Is Aang going to do something about them?" Shi asked, the Water Tribesman turning to face him.

"Kinda." he commented, "Aang is only one kid. He's a great bender, but he won't be able to make the world change by himself."

"We're going to make a lot of friends." the Avatar spoke up, "We won't give up. I won't give up."

"Wow, you're pretty confident for a twelve-year-old." Xia commented, making him laugh off her words, a little flustered by the compliment.

"Well, I'm a hundred and fourteen, actually." he clarified, making the kids all look at him with perplexed faces.

"A hundred and fourteen?" Shi mumbled, "How does that work? You just look like a twelve year old."

"My body's twelve years old, but I was born a hundred and fourteen years ago, before the Hundred Year War even began." he explained, before turning his eyes to both Sokka and Katara, the former making a cringed expression.

"Yeah, it's pretty confusing." he acknowledged, taking a bite out of his fried rice once more, "Avatar stuff is weird."

"Avatar stuff is weird." the young Air Nomad agreed, before taking a clump of fried rice up with his chopsticks, before eating it whole, "Ever since I found out I was the Avatar, all I can think about is the weird stuff I don't even know about that might happen. I could just accidentally hop into the Spirit World or something and have no idea how to get out."

"Can that happen?" Xia narrowed her eyes at him, the Avatar nervously glancing around.

"I really don't know, that's the problem." he admitted, before taking his chopsticks, grabbing a bit more of the fried rice, and eating some; he knew that would be a distraction from his worries- his fear of the unknown and what he couldn't control was what truly scared him.

Aang had once thought the freedom to fly wherever he liked was something that could make him safe from those kinds of fears, but when he became the Avatar, there was no escaping the weird things that came with it, and the responsibilities to- destiny, the monks had called it, but he had refused their call, and the Air Nomads paid the price for his greed. He looked down with shame, knowing that his fears had driven him away, and left the world without any hope for a century. Even if things like Sokka and Azula working together were happening, that didn't mean the world was necessarily much better. They were just two people; maybe they could change the world, but they couldn't do it without people believing in them- believing in him. He turned his eyes up, and gave a small smile to the refugee children; they deserved the hope that had been stolen from them, and he was sure, that with enough time, and the right people, the world could be made a lot better than the one they were born into- a world of war, suffering and chaos.

"Aang, did something happen?" Katara asked him, tapping his shoulder, the Air Nomad shaking his head.

"No, no, I'm fine." he smiled at her, "I was just thinking about things."

"Being the Avatar?" she asked him, to which he smiled.

"Yeah." he confirmed, "I know what I have to do." he added, sure in himself.

Sokka patted him on the shoulder, "Well, that's good to hear, Aang." he smiled at him, before gesturing to his bowl of fried rice, "Are you going to finish that?"

"Sokka!" Katara raised her voice at her brother, "That's his lunch."

"I just wanna know." he raised his hands, "It's better that it doesn't go to waste."

"I'll eat it." he assured them, "Then we're going to go, right?" he asked the Water Tribe girl, who smiled, giving him a nod of reassurance.

"The rain might lighten up soon, then we can go." she assured him, Aang smiling at her before he turned back to face his bowl, deciding he ought to eat all the food quickly so Sokka stopped giving him his dagger eyes; he knew he wanted his meal, because Sokka always wanted more food- he was Sokka, after all.

"What's it like to fly on your- uh- flying thing?" Ho asked Aang, who was chewing down some fried rice; he swallowed it, already knowing what to say.

"Uh, fun." he smiled, before he narrowed his eyes, thinking of a better answer, "I find it fun, but you've got to hold on tight. It can be a little rough if you're not an airbender." he admitted, before turning his eyes to the dirty window behind him, "But if there's not too much wind, we'll be fine."

"How high can you go?" the boy asked again, making him grin.

"As high as Appa wants. We try to stay under the clouds, because the temperatures there stay a little better. It gets weird when you get high up." he explained, before taking another bit of fried rice into his mouth; he momentarily glanced toward Sokka, who licked his lips as he saw him eat it.

"Sokka, stop being weird." Katara chided her brother, making the other three giggle, Aang holding back a laugh as he tried to eat his meal.

"Yeah, please?" he asked the Water Tribesman, who pouted, turning his eyes down.

"I just want some more food." he admitted, his sister raising a finger as the Avatar moved to take another bite from his bowl, which he was getting closer to finishing.

"Don't you have some jerky in your bag, back on Appa?" she asked him, his expression brightening.

"Oh, you're right." he admitted, before turning his eyes away, "I'll just, uh, wait for Aang to finish then."

He took another bite of the fried rice, gulping it down before he turned to face the Water Tribe girl beside him, "Do you need help cleaning up after this?" he asked her, making her smile.

"Yes, I do, actually. Thanks, Aang." she patted him on the shoulder, before she rose up to her feet, "I'll be in the kitchen, but you can help take our food bags back to the saddle, if you want." she explained, the young Air Nomad nodding along.

"Yep, I can do that." he agreed to her proposition, before turning his eyes back down to the bowl as she left the room, "This is really good rice."

"Yeah, I know." the Water Tribe warrior beside him lamented, before he turned his eyes to Xia, "Do you think your mum's gonna make some more before we drop you guys in Gaochao?"

"Maybe." Xia mumbled, "We do need to eat something tomorrow."

"Wait, so no dinner?" Sokka raised a brow with confusion, "That's horrible. You guys need to have dinner."

"I don't think we have enough food for that." Shi acknowledged, "The last place we tried to get food from, they tried to take all our money."

"Did you let them?" the Water Tribesman asked him, the boy shaking his head.

"Nope. Dad knocked that guy out. Just punched a few teeth out." he explained, making both Aang and Sokka look at each other with surprise.

"Huh, so your dad can fight?" the Water Tribe warrior raised a brow, Shi shrugging his shoulders.

"Not really. He just got angry, that's all." he explained, before the Air Nomad scooped up the last of his fried rice, and chewed it down; placing his bowl on the table in front of them, he smiled brightly.

"That was a good lunch." he grinned, "So, are you guys going to pack your things?" he asked the refugee children, who looked at him with slight confusion.

"Pack our stuff?" Ho raised a brow, "We're already packed."

"That's even better. We can head out as soon as that rain lets up." Sokka clapped his hands, rising to his feet, "Aang, I'll help you with those food bags."

"Thanks, Sokka." he smiled at him, picking up his bowl before he turned to follow after the Water Tribesman, making his way toward the kitchen.

He made his way over toward Katara, who was using her waterbending to rudimentary clean the dishes she already had; she turned around to see them approaching, and she smiled at them.

"Ah so you both decided to help, great." she commended them, before gesturing to the bags that sat nearby, "Just take them back to Appa. We used Lian's cookery, so we don't have to worry about taking that just yet." she explained, before gesturing for Aang to hand her the bowl in his hands; he gave it over before he turned to grasp one of the bags, raising it up into his arms, realising that it actually was pretty heavy.

"Ooh... this is a little..." he groaned before letting out a small smile, knowing there was a little solace with such a heavy bag, "At least we have a lot of food."

"You bought it, remember?" Sokka elbowed him, his eyes widening as he remembered his shopping trip the day prior.

"Oh yeah." he mumbled, surprised that he had forgotten that so quickly; the whole deal with Azula leaving really made the other things that happened that day seem irrelevant, "Well, let's go." he told the other boy, who followed right after him, making their way to their right, down the hallway to lead them back to the front door.

When he reached the door, he pushed it open, and glanced outside, noting though while it was still raining, the clouds were clearing up, suggesting that it was about to stop raining, or at least, stop raining for a short while. He glanced over toward Appa, and took a deep breath before he began to run over toward the barn, deciding that he ought to get through the rain as quickly as possible; though he could have tried to bend the water, the weight of the bag was so straining that he couldn't even think about bending at the same time, at least at the concentrated degree such a move would require. His feet splashed up mud, though he didn't worry about that; with his new waterbending training, he was sure he could figure out how to clean his robes. He quickly approached his sky-bison, who turned around to greet him with a groan.

"Hi, buddy. We'll probably be leaving soon." he told the sky-bison, before he glanced around the barn, "Where's Momo?"

"Probably off doing Momo things." Sokka explained, "We had all the food bags inside, so maybe he went off to try and find some nuts or fruit."

"Probably." the Avatar nodded, before glancing back out into the field, "I just hope he's alright."

"I wouldn't worry. Momo's a smart little guy." Sokka assured him, before he moved over toward the saddle, "Now, how do I throw this up without ruining anything?" he spoke his thoughts aloud, making Aang chuckle, placing his own bag down before he approached the Water Tribesman.

"Sokka, I'll just bend it up, don't worry." he explained, moving into an airbending form, channelling the air behind him into a funnel, which coiled underneath the bag, making it float up in the air, out of his friends hands.

"Wow." he gasped, "Airbending is pretty cool, you know?" he turned to face the Avatar with a look of awe.

"It sure is." he grinned back at him, before dropping the bag up on the saddle; he reached for the bag that he had dropped beside him, and began to bend it too, spinning his hands around to make a small airscooter underneath it, which allowed him to propel the bag up onto the saddle; it wasn't that soft a landing, though it was softer than what it would have been if he'd thrown it.

Sokka glanced at the bag dropping down and slapped his hands together, signifying that they'd done the work they were asked to do, "Good job." he smirked, before licking his lips, "Now, let's go get that jerky." he declared, Aang humoured by his friend's attempt to climb up onto the saddle; he realised that without airbending it was a little bit of a struggle to pull oneself up with just the help of Appa's thick fur.

Once he got himself up, he fumbled around, looking for his bag for a few moments, before he pulled out a bit of jerky, like it was the greatest treasure he'd ever found, "Aha!" he grinned, before taking a bite, "Mmmhm... that never gets old." he turned to face Aang, who shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know what's so good about jerky. It's just dried meat." he spoke his mind, the Water Tribesman placing a hand on his chest, seemingly offended by his words.

"What? Just dried meat? It's salted meat, actually, and it's delicious." he declared confidently, making Aang chuckle, unable to take him seriously when he was acting all cocky over something like his favourite food, "It's not funny. Jerky is delicious. I know you won't try it because of the whole vegetarianism thing, but trust me, you're missing out." he stressed, the Avatar stepping back.

"I guess I'll just have to take your word for it." he conceded, before turning his heels, "Are we going to head back inside, or are you going to just sit here and eat jerky?" he asked the Water Tribesman, who raised a brow, before she shook his head.

"No, no, I'll come with, don't worry." he assured him, "I just want to savour it a little." he explained, before taking another bite.

Aang snickered, turning his gaze around back toward the house, thinking for a few moments about what they'd learned that day; he guessed that being generous and considerate really did help. It was a great tool, and if they used it well enough, perhaps others would start to listen to them. He knew the refugees deserved better, and he remembered something Sokka had said a little earlier, before they had gone to have lunch together.

"Sokka, did you mean it when you said we were going to free Kuo's son?" he asked, the Water Tribesman raising a brow, immediately drawn out of the near trance he'd been in while enjoying his jerky.

"Did I..." he mumbled, before he slapped his hands together, "Of course I did, Aang. I wouldn't lie about something like that. We are going to save the world, remember? Free the Earth Kingdom, end the war, stop the Fire Nation's oppression." he listed off their goals, making the Avatar nod along.

"Yeah, we are gonna save the world!" he raised a fist into the air, roused by Sokka's idealism; the Water Tribe warrior grinned at him for a few moments, before clearing his throat.

"But first, we're going to need to buy some more jerky."

---

The intimidatingly tall tower that sat in the distance was giving off the wrong kind of aura to Ty Lee; she knew that the Fire Nation military wasn't very nice before she had joined her friend, but now she could see why everyone was so afraid of them. When they had stark tall towers, their tiles painted red, with sharp edges pointing out everywhere an architect could think to place them, they just gave off a kind of haughty darkness that she would admit she was familiar with. It had old Azula written all over it, but to her luck, old Azula was a thing of the past, though she noticed that new Azula seemed to want to act like her old self when it suited her. They were still walking through the outskirts of the Fire Nation settlement, which would be inaccurate to describe as a town, as really, it seemed to be a massive, permanent camp for the Princess's former army, which was now loyal to her subordinate, Admiral Zhao. Perhaps he was just a subordinate in name, though as soon as Azula identified herself to the guards they had met by the edge of the settlement, they immediately gave her deference; people still respected her, perhaps off of what they imagined her to be rather than from knowing her as a person, as she did.

The Princess held her head up high as she walked down the well trodden path, soldiers looking at her with awe as they walked by; she had explicitly changed her hairstyle back to her old one and draped a cloak around herself to give herself a more regal appearance, rather than continuing to feign being a commoner. The soldiers knew who she was, they all must have, after all, she was meant to be their Fire Lord; Ty Lee's eyes narrowed at the thought that everyone might start calling her Fire Lord Azula, which seemed a little funny, seeing that all she had done was walk into a Fire Nation settlement, but it was starkly different to the ones they had visited before. It was a settlement loyal to her, at least in theory, and with each following gaze of awe and kneel of respect, she was beginning to believe that loyalty was practical as well.

She heard them whisper variations of the same comment, "She's here."

Azula was there, and she was acting like it; no longer was she the cautious girl, trying her best to blend in with the crowd, but Princess Azula- the teenage girl who saw herself the rightful ruler of the Fire Nation. She turned to face her friend, giving her a thumbs up, knowing that she must have been enjoying the respect.

"Yes, Ty Lee." she smirked at her, "This is what it feels like to be me."

"You must really miss this."

"Oh, just a little." she declared with a cock of her chin, before she glanced ahead, "I wonder if they'll let me right inside the fortress."

"You're their Fire Lord." Renshu spoke up, "If they didn't, that'd be treason- I think."

"I think you're right, Captain." she raised a finger, before she continued to stride along, "That's good to hear. I doubt anybody here is stupid enough to commit treason."

As they made their way along, deeper into the settlement, Ty Lee took note of the various degrees of fortification there were as they approached the centre. There was a ditch and wall ahead of them, though there was a clear entrance, guarded by a few dozen men, who looked out in interest toward Azula, obviously not having recognised her just yet, given that they hadn't gotten out of their way. As they approached, their expressions shifted, and they dropped to their knees, realising who she was.

"Oh, good. I don't need to shoot some lightning into the sky for them to get to the memo." she smirked, her friend watching as the defending troops got right out of their way as they made their way through the gates.

As they made their way through, Ty Lee made sight of a large number of soldiers in an open field, doing training exercises, all of them either firebending or using some kind of weapon as they did so; they didn't turn their attention to Azula immediately as she made her way past, though some turned around to watch them as they continued on their way toward the tower, where they knew Zhao and the other commanding officers would be.

"What are you gonna say to them?" she asked her friend, realising she hadn't asked what her big entrance would be; sure she'd acted all cocky in front of the first few soldiers they met, but that wasn't what Ty Lee had been thinking off- she had to impress all of her highest ranking followers to ensure that they'd stay on her side when she did what was necessary.

"Something about the duty they hold to their nation. Officers eat that stuff up like it's fire flakes." she smirked at her, "I'm their rightful Fire Lord, who will liberate their country and bring peace to our world. I will give them the future they deserve; no man here ought to spend the rest of his life kicking Earth Kingdom peasants to keep himself fed."

"That's... inspiring." she smiled at her friend, thinking that she had a good argument; Ty Lee couldn't imagine who would disagree to a brighter future- that was how the Fire Nation had always framed its war, so if she framed peace that way, with a lot more reasoning, anybody would agree with her, "That's something that could inspire the people."

"That's the idea, Ty Lee." she assured her, before turning her attention toward the gates of the fortress, which they were quickly approaching.

"Your highness," the Captain turned to face his superior, "should we go with you inside?"

"Of course, Captain. Even without your armour, you are my guards. You will do your duty, especially when we're here." she gestured around them, before he nodded, he and the other guards taking more serious stances and expressions.

They were her personal guards, after all, and had been trained to be the kind of intimidating people that could scare anyone;they didn't have their scary helmets, but that didn't mean they weren't tough firebenders. As they approached the gates of the fortress, a few guards strode forward, wearing more armour than the other ones she had seen, suggesting that they were personal guards of some higher ranking officers.

"Y-your highness." one of them addressed her, with a somewhat nervous voice; understandable, given it was probably his first time meeting her.

He and his comrades bowed down low in respect, though once Azula gestured toward him, he raised his eyes to meet her own and spoke up, "It is an honour to receive you here. The Admiral and all the other leaders have been waiting patiently for your return."

"Do you know what happened in Yu Dao?" she asked him simply, the soldier's eyes widening.

"You are still the rightful Fire Lord, no matter the outcome of that duel." he explained, before bowing down again, his voice trembling, "Sorry, I apologise, your highness, if I offended you in any way."

"You didn't." she crossed her arms, "Is Zhao here?"

"Yes, the Admiral is currently attending to his fleet plans in his office." he explained, gesturing to the gates, which immediately opened up for them, "My men and I can escort you there, if you require our assistance."

"I have my personal guard here." she gestured to her men, "These men were hand picked by Fire Lord Ozai to protect my life." she narrowed her eyes at him, "I don't need any extra muscle."

"Of course." the man bowed down to her in respect, "But, uh- you may need some directions." he admitted, the Princess rolling her eyes.

"Just tell me where his office is. I don't have all day." she growled, now annoyed by his nervousness; Ty Lee felt some sympathy for the man as he stepped back, trying his best to keep a straight face.

"His office is in the western wing of the fourth floor of the tower. You can't miss it." he assured her, the Princess sighing.

"Four fucking flights of stairs." she mumbled under her breath, before turning to face the officer, "Thank you for your guidance. Please, return to your duties." she simply gestured toward the post where he and his men had been standing, the soldier immediately getting out of the way, allowing Azula to enter.

As they strode through the gates, Ty Lee eyed around, watching as the gazes of those inside the walls turned to them; they didn't move away, and some of the people stopped what they were doing to simply watch her. They had no warning of her return, and yet, she was there; just like the acrobat herself had experienced back at the circus. That thought made her think back to her sisters, wondering how they were faring without her; maybe they missed her, or maybe they enjoyed having more attention for themselves- she couldn't be sure, but she knew that they were probably okay. Ty Lee had willingly got herself into a dangerous situation; even if everything she had seen so far suggested the soldiers present were loyal to Azula, even after her absence, that might have mostly been out of fear, rather than because they actually respected her. But she was sure of one thing- the Princess would earn their respect, and she would earn it righteously. She did not need to invade a country or topple a government to earn their respect, even if that might achieve the same result; she had the power of her fiery tongue and indomitable glare. Being the daughter of Fire Lord Ozai added to that, as well as her reputation, but neither of those would compare to what she would bring to the table. She was different, in all the right ways, to her former self.

When they reached the doors of the tower, the guards there did not relent to open the doors, obviously understanding who she was; they bowed in respect as the group walked inside, Ty Lee smiling at the warmth she felt inside. The interior of the tower was far warmer than the areas outside, which made sense; they were the Fire Nation Army, so they'd like their base to feel more comfortable for people from the Fire Nation who were more used to the hot temperatures of the homeland. As they made their way down the hallway, the Princess strode past individuals, who, given their attire, had to be officers of the army or navy, which took double takes when they realised they were walking past Princess Azula. She couldn't hold back her confident smirk, which was made more justifiable by the reactions she had received. People were truly shocked to see her arrive at their base, after she'd been gone for many months. Perhaps some people had really believed her to be dead, though she doubted that was the case by then. Everybody must have heard about what happened near Omashu, or their intervention in the naval battle between Ozai and Zuko's supporters.

"The fourth floor." Azula sighed as they approached the stairs, which formed a wide, open stairwell which reached up the height of the tower, "If only they could make some way to avoid stairs."

"Flying?" Ty Lee raised a brow in thought, making her friend look back at her with confusion.

"Why would you need to fly?" she asked her with confusion, "I simply need to climb a few floors. Some kind of hydraulics ought to do it. I'm no engineer, so I'm not going to make assumptions, but it seems possible. If War Minister Qin put the resources into making a drill to go through the walls of Ba Sing Se, then I'm sure some resources could be spared to rid us off the frustration that is stairs." she argued, before she turned her face away, obviously a little embarrassed by her tirade.

She had gotten frustrated, seemingly out of nowhere; that was a tell-tale indication to her friend that she was nervous or afraid, and given what she had intended with Zhao, she could understand why she'd feel that way. As they made their way up the staircase, Ty Lee glanced behind them, seeing a few officers walking by, who looked their way with interest; when they noticed she was looking their way, they immediately turned their eyes away. They didn't fear her, but whatever reaction might come from the Princess if the acrobat dared to say they were staring at the Princess. She turned her attention back ahead of herself, walking up the winding staircase; Azula was walking faster than the rest of them, and she had a pretty good idea why. They were there to get something done. When she reached the top of the staircase, the Princess was forced to come to a halt, though she didn't seem to mind, as she was standing before some person that Ty Lee didn't recognise, though the Princess obviously did.

"Ah, War Minister Qin, it's good to see you again." she smirked at him, "I see you chose the side of victory."

Ty Lee held back a laugh, realising she'd just mentioned him; from the way she had just spoken, it sounded like she was very approving of his position on her side of the civil war.

"Uh, yes, your majesty." he bowed to her, "I was not informed of your arrival."

"You are now." she simply told the Minister, before her guards and her friend filed up around them, which intimidated him.

"Uh, well, I am glad that you have finally returned. I look forward to the day you achieve absolute victory over your brother." he simply acknowledged, the Princess smirking.

"As do I." she agreed, before she narrowed her eyes on him, her serious composure not failing, "I actually had a request of you."

"How may I serve my Fire Lord?" he bowed, opening his arms wide to show his willingness.

"I need the schematics of that flying contraption I heard your master inventor was working on." she simply asked him, the Minister's eyes flickering with thought.

"Oh." his expression brightened, "I am glad you have taken an interest in it. I thought it would be a great tool on our march of progress, your majesty."

"I simply need to know how high it can fly." she clarified her question, the Minister furrowing a brow.

"As long as you have fuel and heat in the balloon, it will continue to rise. We have a few prototypes built right here at the base. They were based on a design seized from the Northern Air Temple when the army expelled the refugees there a few months ago; the Admiral declared that they may harbour traitors, so they had to be expunged." he explained, Azula sighing, which suggested that she had wanted that inventors help; Ty Lee guessed that it had something to with her plans for Ba Sing Se, or even to take down Zuko.

"Oh, that's disappointing." she admitted, before turning to face up the stairs, "I will likely see you again, War Minister. Take care." she simply raised a hand to dismiss him, which suggested that she was to leave, which she did, continuing up the staircase toward Zhao.

As the acrobat walked by him, she noted the confused look on his face; it seemed that he had noticed that Azula had changed as well. She followed after her friend, walking up alongside her once she had squeezed through the gap between the guards, who were walking in file up the stairs.

"Zula, did you want that guy's inventions?"

"Well, I just needed the aircraft." she explained, smirking as she seemed to consider her plans, "That is all I need for my trick. Zhao will love my plan so much that there's no way he'll refuse."

"So, no invasion of the North Pole." she concluded, "That's- uh- good news."

"Indeed. No need to waste manpower on a campaign that would ultimately be unsuccessful." she acknowledged, before she sighed, "But you are right. I wanted to see whatever things the inventor had made. If some were of use, perhaps I could use Sokka's great mind to figure out some practical applications for them. Not just for fighting, but for rebuilding his tribe."

Ty Lee's eyes flickered, realising that Azula's intentions weren't always about herself; the sense of altruism, or perhaps just a desire to pay back the Southern Water Tribe was surprising, and genuinely awe-inspiring. She spoke so casually of doing such great things, like she had once spoken of things like conquering Ba Sing Se; she held the exact same mind-set, even if she had very different intentions for her future. Perhaps not all too different, as she still wanted to be Fire Lord, as she always had; that was the end game for her, from the beginning. As soon as Ty Lee met her, she had thought that she was the girl who might become Fire Lord. At that time she'd known nothing of the line of succession, and by the time she did, Azula was second in line to the throne instead of fourth.

For a few years, she had been the Crown Princess, and if she had not fallen to her own lightning in Yu Dao, then perhaps she'd already be ruling the Fire Nation, with Sokka by her side, his surprising amount of wit and wisdom helping her become a better Fire Lord than she ever could have been alone. She narrowed her eyes, knowing that future might still be upon them, though she wished truly that it didn't come at the price of Zuko's life; he didn't deserve to die, at the very worst. He and Mai didn't deserve to have their lives ruined by the Princess's ambitions, no matter how noble they were. Ty Lee knew she shouldn't worry too much, but ever since she had learned about Azula's ambitions and Mai's position as the future Fire Lady, she couldn't help but feel a little conflicted.

As they made their way further up the stairwell, the acrobat continued along beside her friend, trying to think of something to say; she didn't know what to, so she decided to ask her the most generic question possible, "How do you feel?"

"Ready to play the game I was born to." she smirked, turning her eyes to her friend, "Ty Lee, the throne is nearly within my grasps. All I need is to get the power I unrightfully lost." she explained, "First the fleet and the army here, then the colonies, and finally, I'll take the throne. I'm not going to fool around, not this time." she declared honestly, Ty Lee's jaw dropping in awe of her friend's determination.

She had learnt exactly not what to do, and she was set on not repeating her mistakes- she had grown, and at the same time, she was falling back toward her old self; perhaps that was simply because she had lost her authority, and Azula with authority was a very different person to Azula without.

"And what about that Ba Sing Se thing?"

"Oh, I'll give the Dai Li a whipping for good measure, and then the Earth Kingdom will see the liberation they have always deserved." she smirked, "I will write the wrongs of this world, and perhaps, the world might see me in a different light. I can be feared, but I can also inspire awe and respect. If I could do it for a single Water Tribe savage, the whole world can't be that hard."

"I don't think you can make the whole world your boyfriend." she concluded, making her friend chuckle, before her eyes widened with shock; glancing back toward her guards, who immediately tensed up at being looked at, and probably more so because of what they had just heard- what she had just said.

"We didn't hear anything, your highness." Yi assured her, before the Princess sighed; her expression made Ty Lee tremble, as she realised she really ought to have not said what she did.

"For fuck's sake, Ty Lee. You really didn't need to say that." she growled, her friend pouting; it wasn't fair that Azula couldn't just have her relationship with Sokka, and people could respect that.

"But you're pretty much the Fire Lord. Who's going to stop you from having a boyfriend?" she asked her, making her friend look at her with annoyance, though her expression quickly shifted to one of smugness.

"Oh, you are right." she agreed with her, "You are certainly right." before she crossed her arms, "However, I need to retain an image. I am a principled woman. I will not have people look at me and think I just want to help the other nations because of him." she argued; she raised a good point- people would be quick to judge her because of her relationship with Sokka, even if that wasn't the only reason she'd changed her perspective on so many different things.

"Well, it isn't just because of him. the Southern Water Tribe kept you safe." she acknowledged, the Princess nodding, before she sighed.

"Not everyone is as understanding as you are. People come to conclusions- that's just how people work." she lamented, the acrobat crossing her arms.

"Well people are idiots sometimes." she declared, to which her friend could only nod; she thought that of a lot of people, and Ty Lee would acknowledge that a lot of the time, her point of view was justified.

"And we can't do much about it." she admitted, before she continued to pace up, her strides becoming more hastful as they neared the fourth floor; she turned her eyes back to Ty Lee, smirking, "But sometimes, that idiocy can come to our advantage."

"There's always a good side to everything, Zula." she confidently reanalysed her claim, knowing that she could phrase something in a marginally nicer way, even if it covered up what they were about to do.

They were going to be doing dangerous and conceited things; of course, it was all for the greater good, but that didn't make them any less questionable. As they reached the fourth floor, the Princess turned to her left, looking toward what Ty Lee assumed was the western wing of the building; her cardinal directions had gotten all muddled when they took the long winding staircase, so she just trusted Azula knew where she was going.

"This way." she simply told them, leading the group along toward a set of metal doors, in front of which stood two guards; they didn't immediately recognise her, but when they did, their forms shifted from cautious to absolutely terrified in the span of a second.

They straightened their backs and bowed toward her, "Your highness."

"I'm here to see the Admiral. Is he home?" she asked, the guards nodding, before they stepped out of the way.

"You can go right on through. I'm sure he will understand your interruption." one of the guards assured her, gesturing for her to enter; he obviously feared reprisal from Azula far more than he did from Zhao, which was telling of her reputation.

The group strode in, Ty Lee going in right after the Princess, watching as the man she'd heard so many damning things about finally made sight of Azula; his expression was of utter shock, completely amazed to see her. He didn't necessarily seem happy, simply perplexed by her random arrival; there had been no warning, unless one were to count Azula's appearance on Crescent Island as a warning.

"Pr-Princess Azula." he gasped her name, rising to his feet as he looked at her, speechless.

Instead of addressing him, the Princess strode closer, and gestured for him to sit down once more, which he did, "Admiral, how have the months treated you?" she asked him, his right eye, the one that seemed to work, given his left was forced shut by a burn scar, darting down to the table in front of him, scanning across the documents he had been reading.

"I- well, things didn't go as planned." he admitted; Ty Lee refrained to laugh at the biggest understatement of the century, given that Azula had nearly died, according to Sokka's recount, and his attack on Yu Dao had threatened their lives after the threat of the duel had subsided.

"Oh, you could say that." Azula acknowledged, pretending as if she wasn't infuriated by his actions that day, "But, things have changed, Admiral Zhao."

"I know." he admitted, his eye darting up to meet her own, "Your father is alive."

"And does that change your loyalty, Admiral?"

"No." he shook his head, "I have awaited your return, so we could achieve victory with you at the helm. Fire Lord Ozai's time has passed." he simply declared, a shocking comment, but an expected one, given the Princess's position being compromised by the very fact her father wasn't dead, as her brother had proclaimed to the world all those months ago.

"I have returned." she declared, "And I seek victory, above all else, Admiral. What have you done while I was in hiding?" she asked him, the Admiral placing his hands together on the desk.

"Building up our strength. The Earth Kingdom commoners aren't as hardworking as good Fire Nation citizens, but their taxes and labours have paid off. We have an army, trained and armed to face off against your pretender brother."

"How ready?" she asked him, "I don't believe you have control over that much territory, Admiral."

"We could not push too far west, lest your brother sent in some armies to crush us. We had to bide our time, dealing with earthbender rebellions. They've grown more eager with each passing month. The eastern Earth Kingdom is in chaos, and nobody has heard anything from the Fire Nation military government you put in established in Ba Sing Se for three months." he explained their situation, "I have tried to make sure the commanders- your commanders, have not wasted their men. We couldn't, not when the threat of annihilation was around the corner."

"You have the most ships out of any of the Admirals, loyal to my brother or not." she acknowledged, "The Northern Fleet still exists, correct?"

"We lost many ships in the Mo Ce Sea after Yu Dao. The enemy was willing to batter us, despite our numerical advantage. We moved back to the West Lake to hold it down, as to prevent your brother from trying to retake Ba Sing Se, though no ships have ever come through, according to my reports. Despite our control over the waters, your armies were cut off by a defensive line through the colonies, and well, they came here instead. Some of them went south, defected to join your father's supporters, but most of them remain here."

"I am disappointed about the defections, but not surprised. My father's survival has changed our plans somewhat." she admitted, the Admiral's eyes widening, glancing at the guards and Ty Lee, who stood behind her.

"How exactly, may I ask?" he requested, the Princess cocking a smirk.

"My brother is due to be assassinated, overthrown or a mixture of the two. Whether those attempts succeed is beside the point. The chaos of my father's forces trying to seize power will give us good opportunities to make ground on Zuko's loyalists, and if we thoroughly defeat them enough, perhaps those that had decided to support my imprisoned father will change their minds on who is the rightful Fire Lord."

"Do you have a time scale on these plots?" he asked her, the Princess shaking her head.

"I am not privy to them, and don't intend to be." she conceded, "I do, however, intend to incite discontent amongst our countrymen. If I can prove myself a more competent Fire Lord, and offer my future subjects a better future than what my brother has given, then they will be far more placatable when we arrive to liberate them."

"I look forward to the day that happens." Zhao smiled at her, the Princess's expression of confidence not faltering; she was fooling him to make him think he'd have any part in that, though he had every reason to believe it- he had upheld her forces and waited patiently, and thought he would reap the benefits of said patience.

"Oh, it will be a good day." Azula declared proudly, before placing her hands down on his desk, "Now, how would you like to defeat the Northern Water Tribe?"

His expression brightened for a moment, before he leaned back, the shock on his face understandable, "Wait, you want to help me defeat them?"

"I don't want to help you, I want to make a means for you to achieve your aspirations, Admiral. You want to conquer the Northern Water Tribe, don't you?"

"Well, yes." he nodded, before his eyes narrowed, "I have a plan, but it will involve going some place dangerous, in the heart of the Northern Water Tribe."

"Well, I have to speak with War Minister Qin about something, but I believe I can assist you on two fronts."

"Being?" he raised his hand, the Princess placing her hands on her hips.

"I have a plan for you to be able to reach the Northern Water Tribe undetected." she declared, before she raised her chin up, "And I've spent the last few months at the South Pole. I know how to live and fight in the extreme cold; I can train an elite force to deal with the environment, as well as the threat waterbenders might face to us."

"If my plan works, you won't need to worry about waterbenders for much longer, your highness." Zhao declared with a grin that Ty Lee could only describe as one of pure malice; he wanted to destroy the Northern Water Tribe, and waterbending itself- the former was undeniably cruel, and the latter was disturbing and near unimaginable, "Well, speaking of the South Pole-" he spoke up, before the Princess cut him off, raising a hand.

"I had to dispense of the Water Tribesman." she admitted, though it was a half-lie, "He didn't agree with my plans to regain my throne, so we went our separate ways." she added, a complete lie, in comparison to her first one.

"Oh." the Admiral's eyes widened, before he smirked, "That's a shame to hear."

Ty Lee found herself roused with anger from that simple pursing of his lips, and restrained herself from doing anything rash. He was taking pleasure in knowing Azula no longer had Sokka by her side, probably because he saw the Water Tribe warrior as a degrading influence, while the acrobat thought the complete opposite. Sokka completed Azula in a way nobody else ever had, and to suggest otherwise infuriated her; the Princess was finally happy, and she had sacrificed that happiness for her aims, all for Zhao to mock those sacrifices with his shit-eating smirk.

"Don't fret about him." Azula assured him, another lie, "I don't need his guidance to achieve my dream any longer."

The Admiral raised a brow, "Oh, did you want mine?"

Azula scoffed openly at his words, rolling her eyes, "I don't need anybody's advice, Admiral." she declared, before she placed her hands down on his desk, leaning closer to his face, "And I'd prefer to take some from you once you actually win a battle." she warned him rather openly.

Zhao was not angry, but afraid of her after those words, leaning back in fear as he realised she was addressing the one thing she had avoided; his horrific failure in Yu Dao, which may have been even worse than how Sokka had detailed it, the Water Tribesman probably paying more attention to Azula than the carnage the Admiral inflicted.

"I apologise, your highness." he dropped his head down in shame; whether that shame was real, Ty Lee could not discern, but his fear had to be real- everybody was afraid of Azula, though some for different reasons than others.

"There's no need to apologise, that is in the past." Azula reassured him with a fake smile; her lies were setting him up, to make him believe that all was well, despite what he had done, "I believe you are more than capable of making up for any past grievances. I know you have a fiery determination, Admiral. I want to see it put to good use." she declared confidently, which made his uneasy, ashamed face straighten.

For that last bit the acrobat couldn't be sure of the truthfulness; it sounded like nice words to prop him up, but it might have been the little shred of respect Azula dared to give out to him.

"Thank you, Princess." he nodded at her, sounding genuinely thankful that she hadn't gone onto a tirade at him for his failings; the old Azula would have mercilessly thrashed him with her firebending for his incompetence, but the new Azula had a cruel mercy awaiting him- she would not be the one to smite him, in the end.

"I do not need your thanks." she retorted, before rising back up to her full height, moving away from the desk, "I need some quarters for myself, my guard and my friend here, Ty Lee. Have you met her before?" she gestured to her, making the acrobat's eyes flicker; she didn't know what to say, so simply put on a fake smile and waved.

"Hi." she addressed the Admiral, who looked at her with slight confusion.

He probably didn't understand what a cheery girl like her was doing in a place like the base they were in; if he did know, he would be far more afraid than he had been when Azula gave him the slightest bit of anger.

"Uh, I believe I may have seen her at the palace before." he acknowledged, "But that must have been years ago." he conceded, the acrobat shrugging her shoulders; she knew who he was from Azula's frustrated tirades about him as of late, but she had never actually met the man.

"Are we going to go rest now? My legs are killing me, Zula." she asked her friend, knowing that acting casual and uncaring of the situation would stop Zhao from getting any more suspicious.

"Of course." she nodded, before she turned back to face Zhao, "Is there some place my friend and I can get a massage. I haven't been to the Royal Spa in nearly a year, and I'm dying for a back rub." she asked, the Admiral making a cringed face.

"Uh, no, I'm sorry. I could ask the servants if any of them are skilled in such areas, if that would assist you." he admitted rather bluntly; he seemed like he was willing to help, perhaps to just ensure that he was in Azula's favour and not out of it.

"That would be helpful, Admiral." she conceded, before she narrowed her eyes at him again, "Now, our quarters. I assume there must be someplace spare in this fortress of yours."

"Well, your majesty, it is your fortress now." he conceded, the Princess cocking a smirk, obviously happy that was the case, "If you ask one of the servants around, they'll be glad to offer their Fire Lord and her companions somewhere to stay."

"Well then," Azula turned to face her guards, "which of you would like to sleep somewhere that isn't a barn tonight?" she simply asked them, somewhat jokingly, though they took her words seriously; they straightened their postures and bowed toward her.

"We would be honoured, your highness." they all said at once, showing Ty Lee that even after all their months away from her, they still knew how to give Azula the proper respect she deserved.

The Princess placed her hands behind her, and began to stride out of the room, and was quickly followed by the guards, who moved in file behind her. Ty Lee piqued her head up, realising that she had to follow; she momentarily glanced back toward Zhao, taking note of his intrigued look, and wondered what he was thinking. His face shifted as he realised she was paying attention to him, and she immediately turned around, hoping that he wouldn't become suspicious. She couldn't ruin Azula's plans with a few idle looks; that'd just be a stupid way for her march to victory to go awry.

"Come on, Ty Lee." her friend prodded her to come along, which she did; striding past the guards, she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder as they turned back toward the staircase.

"I think that went well. He almost looked like he was going to crap his pants at one point." she noted, the Princess snickering.

"Well, I was just testing the waters there. He's still scared to death by me; I assume everyone is."

"Is that a good thing though?" she asked, the Princess cocking her chin up; her devious grin told Ty Lee that her confidence had not faltered- it had been heightened.

"Anything is an advantage if you're smart enough to see it's worth."