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)

27. Chapter 27

The rain that was soaking Sokka's cloak would have been far more annoying if it weren't for the knowledge that the people that were marching in his direction had to deal with it all the same. He smirked at the idea of how they'd falter as soon as they faced the traps he and the earthbenders had constructed the night prior. Even if he didn't need to oversee their operation personally, he decided that he ought to make sure they were all ready to be set off as soon as they arrived; he was sitting with a few of Jianren's fighters, who their leader had assigned to be on watch, ready to set off the traps when the enemy soldiers reached them, before they began their own barrage of boulders and ripped up the earth from beneath their enemies' feet.

He had learned each of their names, and a little about their lives, given they had to pass the time doing something; they were all eager to get a little more detail on his and Azula's story, given it was the whole reason they were where they were. There was Yami, an older man who had been a farmer before the Fire Nation had raided his village, and he had been forced to run off, and he was with his son, Mei, who was probably a little older than Sokka, given that he already had a goatee. Both of them were rather dour individuals, and he guessed that had to do with what had happened to their village, and he could see that they had burn scars on their bodies, so he felt that he didn't even need to ask.

With them was Hua, a woman in her twenties who had once been a labourer, but had been forced to run off and join Jianren's group when the Fire Nation forces occupying her village tried to imprison her; she seemed a little nicer than the other two, but was clearly far more concerned about the threat they were about to face than the rain, her eyes constantly on watch. Lastly, there was Gao, a peasant boy who was about a year younger than himself, and probably the most relaxed of the bunch, and he had been able to talk to him about a few things, mostly Earth Kingdom cuisine, given that was something Sokka found some interest in, and which Gao seemed to know a reasonable amount about.

All in all, he was able to remain relatively relaxed, despite the circumstances; at that point, he was simply waiting for the enemy to arrive so he wouldn't have to continue worrying about them jumping out of nowhere. He knew now from his experience with the engineers that the Fire Nation had a lot of technologies that they used to their advantage on the battlefield, and some of those could surprise him. Of course, he was using one of those technologies, mines, to their own advantage, and he could only hope the enemy were eager enough to run right into that trap.

"This rain better stop soon." he heard Mei grumble under his breath, "The mud's going to make earthbending a pain in the arse."

"Well... can't you guys liquify the soil then?" Sokka contended an idea he'd realised might come in handy; rain soaked the ground and caused things like erosion- he knew enough about the basics of that to guess that the water in the ground to be used to the earthbenders advantage, even if they couldn't bend it.

"And what, drown them in mud?" he asked back, the Water Tribesman simply nodding; as much as he didn't like actually condemning his enemies to unsavoury fates, he knew that it would certainly help them.

"Yeah, that." he confirmed his suspicions, and the others nodded, seeming to approve of the idea.

"Well, we can't do it until the explosives go off, anyway." Yami warned them, "Bending before then will just ruin them, right?"

Sokka nodded, glancing out toward the road that sat in front of them, "Yeah, and the pit-traps too. You all put a lot of effort into those... so they might as well be used." he conceded the waste that would come from ripping apart their own traps to try and defeat their opponents, "But if they come for us... what other choice do you have?" he conceded what he knew to be the ultimate dilemma; their plans could just as easily be thrown out the window when their lives were in danger- self-preservation was the driver of any warrior's actions when he was facing a bunch of angry firebenders.

"Not much." Hua conceded, "But we've got each other's backs, right?"

"Nobody's running." Gao assured her, "We're here to beat the Fire Nation, and we're gonna do it."

"You guys remember the escape route... right?" Sokka asked them, knowing that Azula's back-up plan in case things went terribly was the only way that they'd get out of the woods safely.

"Those caves?" Gao grimaced, obviously not liking the idea of going into them, "I can earthbend alright... but that just sounds dangerous."

"Well, if we earthbend the exits shut, there's not much the ash-makers can do." Hua reminded him, "Those idiots will just cause a cave-in if they try to blow the tunnels back open." she added, seeming a little humoured by the idea of how their enemies could miserably fail to catch them, even if they were victorious on the battlefield.

"That's what we need to avoid." Yami warned them, "Failing now will only mean more villages are going to go the way of ours. The Fire Nation won't stop until they rule over all of our land."

"Ozai won't." Sokka corrected him, "These guys... I know you guys mightn't trust them, but they're here to get the same thing you are... the Fire Nation out of here."

"The boss says the base is gonna be ours when we're done with all this." Hua spoke up, turning her eyes toward Sokka, "Is that really true?"

"Well, that's the idea." he assured her, "Jianren isn't trying to play it up; you'll get the base... at least when the fleet has somewhere else to resupply."

"Good." she nodded, before shaking her head, "It's about time we actually got something out of this deal. We nearly got killed by some stupid soldiers the other day."

"I know." he nodded, grimacing at the thought of what would have happened if the fighters hadn't been prepared.

The idea that some of them could have died, or even Ty Lee could have died scared him; Sokka didn't really know many of the Earth Kingdom fighters very well, but he knew that they were good people, and they were doing exactly what he would have done if he was in their circumstances. About a year prior, he was, so he had a good understanding of what was going through their heads; he had been a bit worried every time he and the warriors attacked a ship, and when he realised that he might drown on Azula's sinking ship, he did everything he could to try and survive.

"Are you worried too?" Gao whispered to him, the Water Tribesman turning his eyes to the young fighter, wondering how afraid he might have been; he wasn't sure if he'd ever been in a proper battle before, and he imagined he wouldn't have the best stories to inform his thoughts of it.

"Battles are never good." he admitted honestly, "What matters is that we survive, and we win." he stressed, "And maybe... if we're lucky, the stupid rain will stop." he added, glancing up above them, letting the raindrops splatter on his face for a moment before he pulled the cloak back, tighter than before, "Lucky Katara." he mumbled to himself, reminded that his sister could deal with rain pretty easily, given she was a waterbender.

"Lucky who?" Gao prodded him with another question, Sokka letting out a snicker as he shook his head; he didn't really want to have to explain the disappointing fact of him being born a non-bender while his sister was born a bender, though he was certainly glad he wasn't the one bearing the guilt of what that bending brought.

"My sister." he clarified, "She's a waterbender."

"Oh, so you're the runt of the family?" Hua questioned him with a humoured voice, the Water Tribesman rolling his eyes.

"Not anymore." he muttered, "Unlike her, I could actually fight before I came to the Earth Kingdom." he added, "Water Tribe warriors don't joke around."

"So, you were like trained as a little kid?" Gao asked, "Is that when you got that boomerang thing?"

"Uh... yeah." he nodded, his thoughts not going back to his own training, which was admittedly a little hard to remember, but to when he trained the young boys of his village while the men were away, "I used to train the kids myself."

"Oh." he gasped, blinking a few times before turning to face Hua, "I guess they take war a lot more seriously in the Water Tribes." he gave his thoughts, Sokka shaking his head.

"No, we just have barely any people... even compared to the little fleet of Southern Raiders the Fire Nation sent after us. Everyone who can needs to fight to protect the tribe." he explained the situation for what it was, "The war sucks." he added, exasperated and frustrated that they were just continuing it, sitting by a set of traps that would hopefully take out more soldiers.

He didn't expect to be personally killing anyone, but the very idea of it made him feel like there was no difference between him and the men he was facing; he might not have hated them as he once did, but he was willing to end their lives for the goals he and Azula had set out to achieve.

"Yeah, it does." Hua agreed with him, "That's why we're all here... for one reason or another." she admitted, sounding almost sad about the fact, "Wait." she raised a finger, "I can hear them now." she gestured toward the road, and his eyes widened, realising the time was upon them.

"Get down." Sokka dropped his hand, gesturing for everyone to get into a prone position, and they followed him as he dropped down to the ground; the enemy was near, and sooner rather than later, they'd be setting off the traps.

"How long do we wait?" Gao whispered another question to him, Sokka raising a finger toward him.

"Until they're in position. We can't just take out the front of the army if the rest of them can throw fireballs at us." he warned him, before turning his eyes down the road; he couldn't see the enemy soldiers just yet, but he could hear the stomping and rumbling made by their footsteps and cavalry.

He could even see some smoke coming up from the woods, telling him that they were probably already coming toward them with their tundra tanks, which was exactly what he wanted; if they lost their most effective weapons first, that'd give him and his allies the advantage they needed. As the footsteps, thumping and rumbling became louder, he tensed up, unsure if the bushes they were sitting behind would provide enough cover. He was getting wet from the mud and rain, but he did his best to quieten himself; the wet wasn't his biggest concern, and the rain actually helped by disguising any tracks they might have left on the road, though the earthbenders had already been very cautious to clear everything out after setting up the traps.

When he made visual contact, it was with a few mounted soldiers on komodo rhinos, flanked by units of firebenders, all of which looked ready for a fight. Behind them, he assumed the rumbling was coming from tundra tanks, and he shuffled back slightly, conscious that the enemy might be able to actually see them. Their cloaks were coloured the same as the bushes, so he was sure it would be at least a challenge for them to be made out.

The Fire Nation troops that were waiting in the woods behind them were a little less disguised, but they had the cover of a few fallen logs and the thick shrubbery that sat between them and the road; he knew they would attack as soon as the traps were set off, so he knew that he had to wait for the perfect timing to let off his signal.

Azula would have good reason to berate him if he stuffed up the one thing she expected of him; it wasn't too much to ask, even if it was admittedly nerve-wracking, lying there only a few strides away from Fire Nation soldiers as they marched up the road, completely unaware of the traps they were about to fall into. As they marched on by, a few of them glanced towards the treeline, and he reflexively dropped himself even lower onto the ground, cringing from touching the mud, but knowing that he didn't have any choice in the matter.

"Keep moving!" he heard one of the soldiers order the rest, and Sokka narrowed his eyes, knowing that they would have to time the attack perfectly.

"When the tanks cross the line?" Hua whispered to him, the Water Tribesman not even looking her way as he nodded; that was what needed to be done, and he didn't want to speak when he might actually get the attention of some wayward soldiers, walking just too close to the trees.

The sound of the tundra tanks grew louder by the moment, the mechanical wheels making the oddest sound, only comparable to a kind of massive grindstone, except it wasn't just one grindstone, but dozens, all moving at once, hammering into the ground with the weight of the heavy metal machines. He wondered if the traps might collapse, but he doubted that could happen, given the earthbenders had designed them as such that they would be sturdy until they earthbent. He had a few small explosives with him if things didn't go the way he wanted, but he would prefer not to have to use them against machines he doubted he could even damage. As they came into view, he preemptively shuffled back a bit, concerned the explosions that were about to occur would be more than a little dangerous to be around.

"Ten." he gave the earthbenders a countdown, and they nodded along, pulling themselves up slightly as he counted the seconds down in his head; the tundra tanks weren't slow, and moved past them with haste, so he felt that his count was just about right, before he hammered his hand into the ground, the earthbenders doing the same to signal their comrades on the other side of the road.

"What the fuck was that?" he heard a soldier exclaim, a few men looking around with confusion, before Sokka's entire field of view was blocked by the dust from a line of explosives going off from underneath the road; the rain and mud didn't seem like a worry in the slightest compared to the blast of air and dust that nearly sent Sokka rolling back, digging his heels into the dirt to keep himself steady.

The explosion was less loud than it was violent, but his ears rang as he shook his head, trying to focus on exactly what had happened; as expected, he heard a few metallic crashes as the tanks fell into the hidden trenches below, though he doubted it would keep the machines down for long. That was what the earthbenders were good at, however, and he raised his fist up into the air, shouting the command he'd been waiting all morning to utter.

"Attack!" he commanded the earthbenders, who rose up to their feet, immediately moving into form as they thrust their hands down into the trench, audibly crunching the tanks with the surrounding earth; Sokka drew his boomerang from its sheath, "Oh, I've been waiting for this." he admitted honestly out loud, leaping out from cover as he saw a few soldiers struggling to try and climb out of the pit.

He threw his boomerang at one of them, hitting him in the helmet and forcing him to fall back down into the trench, before Sokka leapt down kicking another in the chest, using him to soften his fall as he dropped down into the trench, a few of the earthbenders joining him. He raced over to his boomerang, picking it up before he tossed it at another soldier, who had tried to shoot a fireball at him; the Water Tribesman smirked as he saw him fall to the ground, and he watched with near amusement as the earthbenders pummelled the tundra tanks even harder, bashing them with boulders and covering them with mud, making it even harder for them to try and drive out of the trench.

He heard the sound of fire flying through the air behind him, and he ducked down to dodge a fire stream, immediately turning himself around, spotting three firebenders who were not even trying to escape; they just wanted to beat him, and Sokka could only open his arms wide, certain that they had to know who he was, with his distinct Water Tribe appearance. If they didn't, he'd still mock them all the same, feeling a little proud of the anger he could incite from them.

"Well, here I am. Come and get me, ash-makers." he prodded them, the three men moving to try and firebend at him at once, presumably hoping that one of their attacks would actually land.

He dropped down to dodge their flurry of fireballs, drawing his club from his back, before he slung it right into the leg of one of the soldiers, audibly breaking his leg; the soldier let out a scream, and Sokka jabbed him in the gut, chi-blocking him as he stepped around, using the soldier as a shield against the following fire-balls. Given he was wearing the same fire-proof armour they were, their attacks couldn't do much if they missed his head, though the thought of getting cooked alive kept a spring in his step. He kicked the pained and paralysed soldier over, throwing him into his comrades before Sokka readied his club once more.

"Who's next?" he simply asked them, the soldiers both running right at him, probably thinking that tackling him and grabbing his arms might do them some good.

They threw him into the mud, and Sokka could only smile, knowing that even if he had dropped his club and they had his arms, they seemed to have misunderstood how chi-blocking worked. It had nothing to do with his hands or fingers, but simply where he hit; that was what made it all the more hilarious as he kicked one of them with his boot right in his bicep, paralysing his arm.

"Shit!" he shouted out, before his comrade was knocked unconscious by Sokka's knee slamming into his head; the most amusing part about their failure is that he wouldn't have got the chance if not for their eagerness to get all up close and personal.

"Hey, I only let one firebender touch me like that, and it ain't any of you guys." he warned them in jest, before raising his hands up to fight the last soldier standing; he tried to jab the Water Tribesman with a suckerpunch to the head, but Sokka was able to weave out of the way, before grabbing his left arm.

Instead of chi-blocking it, he threw his other hand forward, chopping his throat with his bare palm, making the man cough and choke as he struggled to breath; he stumbled back, and Sokka simply stood back and watched as Gao whacked him into the side of the trench with a boulder; the young earthbender grinned at him enthusiastically, and he smiled back as picked his club off the ground, before he heard a shout, his eyes darting back up to the trench, taking note of a line of firebenders, who didn't seem anywhere near as eager to climb into the trench.

"Wall!" he shouted to Gao as he ran toward him; he threw his hands up, creating a wall of earth that barely covered them from the half a dozen fire streams that coursed out of the firebenders' fists.

"Shit!" Gao cried out, clearly afraid for their safety, before he glanced back, "Some help, guys?!" he asked out, and a few moments later, his comrades began lopping boulders toward the firebenders; the soldiers were no match for a barrage of rocks, forcing them to run back and cover away from the trench, giving Sokka the opportunity to recollect his boomerang.

Once he scooped it off of the ground, he eyed up in the direction of the enemy soldiers, "We need to keep them occupied." he argued, before he gestured to Gao, "Can you give me a boost?" he asked, the Earth Kingdom fighter looking at him with slight confusion.

"Throw you?" he guessed, the Water Tribesman nodding; though his comrade didn't seem very enthused to do so, he moved into form before bending the ground right underneath him, shooting it up into the air, allowing Sokka to get a boost.

He leapt over to the edge of the trench, barely able to dig his hands into the dirt; he struggled to pull himself up, realising that he was vulnerable while in such a stupid position. He glanced over, realising a few of the firebenders were ready to attack him, and he decided that he ought to get their attention in another way. With one hand firmly holding onto the ground, he drew his boomerang out and threw it at them, hitting one of the soldiers in the head and throwing him into one of the other firebenders. That proved a good enough distraction, giving him the time he needed to climb up, though he was more than a little annoyed by being covered by mud. He glanced back down at Gao, who had a cringed expression on his face; Sokka was less annoyed at him and more concerned that he was out of cover.

"Get down!" he warned him, the young fighter ducking down to dodge a single fire stream sent his way.

He didn't waste another moment, racing toward the firebenders, ready to chi-block them and retrieve his boomerang; when one of them threw a fireball his way, he weaved behind a nearby tree, and then moved around it, making a bee-line for his boomerang, which was lying on the ground by one of the knocked down soldiers. He rushed toward the weapon, though his efforts were frustrated by a pair of soldiers which tried to attack him with their firebending; he dove out of the way of their flames, rolling on the mud covered road, which was quite slippery because of hte rain.

Though he realised that he wasn't in the best position, he decided to spin himself around, kicking one of the firebenders in the shin; when he fell over, that meant there was only one soldier trying to stop him, and that soldier was eager enough to try and tackle Sokka. He landed right ontop of the Water Tribesman, trying to grapple him by the neck, obviously thinking that choking him out might actually stop him from chi-blocking. Though he was gasping for air, Sokka was able to whack the soldier in the gut a few times; he didn't even chi-block him, simply trying to wind him so he could get off of him.

"Come on!" he snarled with frustration, as he tried to wring himself free of the man's grip. before he decided to grab the soldier's hands, "Oh, you want to keep ahold?" he questioned, before forcefully rolling both of them over, right in the direction of the trench.

He realised what was happening, and Sokka was able to get him to let go, allowing the Water Tribesman to dig his hands into the gravel, barely holding on as he nearly slid down into the pit; his eyes moved to the soldier, realising he was going to have to fall to dodge whatever attack he had in mind.

"You fools." the soldier mocked him, "The tanks are already out." he warned him, Sokka's eyes darting back to see that was the case; the earthbenders were skilled but they could only do so much against such metal behemoths.

"Oh... you thought this was the only trap?" he retorted, before eyeing where his boomerang was; he wouldn't have enough time to climb back up, but he had an idea in mind, "Gao!" he shouted out to the boy who was down in the trench below him, "We don't need this bit of the road, do we?" he asked, noting the immediate smirk on the earthbender's face as he reached his hands forwards; he understood Sokka's request, and the soldier seemed to get it too.

"Oh fuck!" the soldier exclaimed, unable to do anything as he was enveloped by a landslide, Sokka jumping away from the collapsing ground as quickly as he could; along with that soldier, the other firebenders, who Gao and the other earthbenders had been fighting, fell down into the trench, covered in dirt, mud and gravel.

Most importantly, the Water Tribesman could see his boomerang sitting in the mixture of mud and gravel, and he immediately moved to grab it out before the firebenders recollected themselves. The soldier he had just been facing was already dusting himself off, and moved into form as soon as Sokka had his boomerang out.

"You still can't beat us." he warned him, "Why would you even think that trap would work?"

"I didn't. I knew it would distract you guys." he argued, before raising his right hand, "Number two!" he shouted out at the top of his lungs, and a few moments later, a few loud blasts went off in quick succession, and he could see smoke and fire coursing up into the sky up the road, "Ever made a landmine?" he asked the soldier, whose expression shifted to one of fear and unease; usually he couldn't see their faces, but the man's skull mask had been torn off when he fell.

"You bastards." he snarled at him with grit teeth, making Sokka scoff as he raised both his hands up.

"Oh, I hope you're not as rude as that to your future Fire Lord. She's a lot more irascible than me." he warned him, the soldier seeming unfazed by his comments.

"Reinforcements are coming." he warned him, "You're all fucked." he tried to rub in their situation, without the slightest clue of how right he was with his words.

"Yes, they are." he confirmed, before he threw his boomerang into the air, narrowly missing the soldier, though that was on purpose.

"Shit throw." he scoffed, before conjuring flames around his hands, beginning to pummel fireballs at him; the Water Tribesman was assisted by both Mei and Yami, who bent the earth from underneath the soldier and his comrades, sticking them into the ground, and he let out a snicker as he watched the boomerang return, the soldier unable to do anything as he was struck in the back of the head, knocked unconscious.

The remaining soldiers frantically tried to break themselves free, or firebend at Sokka and the earthbenders, but he was able to weave out of the way, and his Earth Kingdom allies were eager to begin their own attacks, throwing rock after rock into the soldier, knocking them into the walls of the trench, or simply throwing them to the ground. One of them charged at Sokka, trying to cut at him with a charged arc of flames, but he simply side-stepped the attack before chi-blocking him in the side, making one of his legs falter as he stumbled forward, caught and ensnared by Mei's bending.

"Not so fast." the earthbender warned him, before letting out a chuckle, "You know, you really know how to be dramatic." he noted, indicating he'd been listening to his little spat with the soldier.

"Oh, I learn from the best." he conceded, acknowledging that his girlfriend's propensity for mocking and prideful speeches had rubbed off on him.

Sokka then retrieved his boomerang, knowing he might need it if they climbed out of the trench to fight more soldiers, who were inevitably going to try and move further up the slope toward the main section of Azula's army. He turned his gaze up toward the other end of the trench, looking at the smoke from the explosions that had presumably disabled the tundra tanks, and realised that Azula's soldiers were massing now, moving along the sides of the trench in formation; at the very end of the trench, he could see the Princess herself, looking upon the devastation as she was flanked by her guards. Instead of trying to embarrassingly wave to her, Sokka conceded himself to give a curt salute, the Princess shaking her head as she obviously saw him. He turned his gaze around, realising that the earthbenders had totaled the Fire Nation soldiers in the trenches, and even those who had come down to assist their comrades.

"Well, I think that went better than expected."

"Hope for the best and expect the worst." Yami proverbially noted the mindset Sokka was at that moment agreeing to.

They had been lucky enough to catch the tundra tanks, and better yet, instead of trying to flank around into the woods, they fell right into their actual trap, the inconspicuously hidden land-mines which sat between the trenches and the centre of their army, which Azula had purposefully sat out in the open to prod getting the tundra tanks to approach. The plan's success made him beam with near glee, simply glad that he hadn't gotten hurt, nor had the earthbenders suffered any casualties.

"Let's go beat some ash-makers." he declared his intentions, and the earthbenders moved into form, creating a path for them to take out of the trench out of the bit of road Gao had collapsed; the group followed right after Sokka, who drew out his boomerang, ready to use it to hit anyone who came their way, "Defensive positionsǃ" he shouted out an order, and as they reached the road, the earthbenders drew out fragments from it, using them as shields.

Ahead of them stood hundreds of soldiers, who were probably about to fight them; Sokka didn't like the idea of being on the front line, but he knew that the enemy was probably far less aware of the extent of their plans that he feared they might have been. It really did seem their plan to root out potential traitors had worked, and despite the small bit of sympathy he felt for those soldiers, he felt a far greater distaste towards the side they were willing to fight for.

The Fire Nation troops were taking forms, led by mounted men on komodo rhinos, and presumably, they were intent on blasting or ramming through their defences; though they were outnumbered at present, he knew the enemy's confidence was misplaced. It seemed that they didn't realise that there were more pit-traps just waiting to be utilised, but he'd told the earthbenders to refrain from using them unless absolutely necessary. Behind him, the main section of the army was already moving down, ready to assist them, and he glanced back, realising that Azula was taking form; usually, he wouldn't be worried about her bending, but he realised what she was going to do, so he raised his hand.

"Drop downǃ" he warned his comrades, who immediately drew themselves down to the ground, pulling their shields above them; the enemy tried to attack them with a flurry of fire streams, but they were no match for a lightning bolt which coursed right over Sokka's head, striking the ground right in front of the enemy soldiers.

If the lightning wasn't intimidating enough, it had set off some of the pit traps, making soldiers fall down, snuffing out their fire streams as they found themselves trapped; he smirked, glad for his girlfriend's impressive firebending a little more than usual, and he rose back up to his feet, realising that the rest of her soldiers were ready to join them in battering the enemy.

"Attackǃ" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and with that, they all charged toward the shocked enemy troops.

Aiming for only a moment, he tossed his boomerang into one of the soldiers' helmets, throwing him back, which was probably better than falling head-first into one of the pits; he then pulled his club of his back, watching as the earthbenders pummelled the enemy with boulders, quickly followed by the soldiers behind them hitting them with a volley of fireballs. Even if they were able to weather the latter with their fire-proof armour, and the rain was making their firebending less forceful than usual, they were forced into a defensive position, throwing up walls of flames to defend their line across the road.

The earthbenders broke through their defences, throwing a few men off their feet, leaving some abusable openings in their line; Sokka jumped across one of the pits, before he ran into the opening, throwing his club into one of the soldiers legs, making him stumble forward and nearly fall into the pit. He watched as more rocks were tossed at the enemy, and he spent his time blocking their attacks with his club and using it to whack their extremities, tripping soldiers over and keeping them occupied while the earthbenders broke their lines.

Azula's soldiers didn't waste the opportunity either, sending fire streams into the enemy soldiers who were open, Sokka forced to lean back to miss getting his eyebrows singed off by one of those uncomfortably close attacks; he glanced back at the soldiers, a little frustrated they weren't trying to miss him, but he dismissed their mistake, returning to his aim of giving the enemy a good show. He didn't expect to beat the whole front line by himself, but simply to give them enough of a problem that they couldn't focus on the real threats. The earthbenders would be the least of their worries when the flanking cavalry arrived, obviously waiting for the enemy army to be considerably weakened before they made their attack.

"Retreat!" he heard one of the soldiers shout out, and Sokka shook his head, knowing that letting the enemy get away would just give them an opportunity to fight again.

He stomped his foot down on the ground, and called on the earthbenders who were right behind him, "Drop them!" he shouted out, and he felt the ground rumble as numerous pit-traps were opened up, forcing more and more soldiers to fall in, and even a few komodo rhinos did; the pits were collapsing so quickly that they had begun to fall into each other, creating more long, haphazard trenches where the enemy was now stuck and well-positioned to be further battered by the earthbenders.

He smirked, before he picked his boomerang off the ground, behind him, thinking that they were in a rather good position to advance; he glanced back, realising that the enemy was moving away with haste, but still clearly in fighting form. His eyes widened, and he gestured to the woods to their right.

"Scatter!" he warned his allies as he began to run for the treeline, and the earthbender seemed to realise what was going on.

"Trebuchets!" he heard the voice of Jianren behind him, "Walls!" he called on his men to raise defences, as Sokka and the Fire Nation soldiers moved out of the way of the road, which was then hit with a quick succession of flaming boulders, which exploded and sent dust and smoke everywhere, once again blocking his field of vision.

Though the flames were quickly put out by the rain, the explosions were more than a little worrying, given that the trebuchets were probably going to continue pummelling the road until they were disabled; he turned his eyes back and watched as the enemy soldiers moved into form, ready to take out the now stunned earthbenders with their firebending.

"Get down!" he tried to warn them, knowing he couldn't do much but just stand back by the trees, hoping he wasn't hit by the attack; he watched with horror as the flames approached, and suddenly, his field of vision was filled by fire, except, the flames were flying upward, forming a massive wall of flames, and most importantly, those flames weren't even orange, they were blue.

His eyes moved away from the fire, seeing the source of the defensive maneuver wasn't the Fire Nation soldiers, who like him had drawn themselves to cover, but by Azula, who had somehow gotten herself right in front of the earthbenders. He beamed at her, relieved by seeing that they were alright, and watched as the flames were all pushed back right toward the Fire Nation army. As the flames began to disperse, Azula stepped forward in front of one of the craters created by the trebuchet shelling, and pointed towards the enemy forces.

"Surrender or dieǃ" she shouted at them, and upon seeing the enemy move into form once more, she shook her head, "Suit yourselves." she commented at their arguable stupidity, and she threw both her hands forward, creating a massive fire stream which coursed forward and struck the enemy forces.

Sokka stepped out from cover, pacing toward his girlfriend, truly in awe of her bending, and he looked toward the enemy, who were barely struggling to hold of her flames with their own bending; when Azula's fire stream petered out, he placed a hand on her shoulder, glad for her assistance, and certain that they would find victory. Her eyes met his own, and she didn't dare smile, given the circumstances, but her confident expression was reassuring enough.

"Thanks for the help, your majesty." he acknowledged her efforts, the Princess shaking her head, seeming unamused by his deference, before she raised her hand up to call on the men behind her.

"Let's finish thisǃ"

---

The start of the battle against the invading army was an astounding success in Azula's eyes; they had neutralised the whole set of tundra tanks the enemy army had sent their way and ensnared much of their ground forces in massive trenches, knocking them out and getting them ensnared in mud. More than that, they had faced very few casualties so far, using the surprise of their compounding attacks to their advantage. Sokka had led the charge with the earthbenders, alongside Jianren, and proved his tenacity to both fight, command and prepare their traps and defences, which had so far proved a great boon, ensnaring dozens of soldiers in pit traps and trenches, with hundreds more unable to trust the very ground beneath their feet as they had drawn back down the hill out of fear of more traps.

However, now as she covered in one of the trenches, she realised that their path to victory was not as certain as she had first imagined it would be; though the rain weakened firebenders, thus giving her earthbender allies a stark advantage, most of her forces were firebending soldiers, with a large minority of non-bending troops to back them up, which was about the same consistency she found with the enemy forces as well. The enemy had more men, but she had more cavalry, which were coming out from the woods at that very moment, covering all the enemy force's flanks. Most importantly, the cavalry was presumably the reason the enemy's trebuchets had stopped firing, but that didn't stop firebenders from lopping fireballs at them, or using flasks of oil to create fire traps which though able to be utilised by her bending soldiers, also posed a threat from the heat of the flames which could appear at any moment.

The trench provided good cover from the enemy attacks, and as she stood there with her guards, ready to cross over as soon as the earthbenders neutralised the front line, she couldn't help but feel a little nervous; Sokka was right beside her, and though he seemed confident, he too was afraid, clear enough by the glances he made to look up whenever an explosion occurred. Even if the enemy trebuchets weren't firing, there were men who wielded the very same explosives Sokka had on his belt, and they could lop a bomb into the trench at any time.

"At least the rain is putting out the fires." Renshu conceded one benefit of the otherwise frustrating weather, "Nobody's going to be immolated today."

"Oh, but they will be getting shot by lightning." she warned her subordinate, who didn't seem to disagree with her intentions in any way.

"Good." he smirked, "It's about time those bastards see what you're made of."

"Oh, I was thinking the same thing, Captain." she agreed with him, Sokka turning to face her with a slightly concerned look.

"You aren't going to jump up and start shooting lightning bolts like a maniac, are you?" he asked, the Princess scoffing.

"Not until the enemy is dealt with." she argued, before her eyes darted up, watching as a flurry of fire streams flew above them, "Jianren, hurry up!" she shouted at her ally, who didn't respond, though she was sure, just being right above the trench behind the defences his fighters had created, could hear her just fine.

"On the left flank!" she heard Yi shout, and Azula's eyes darted out of the trench in that direction, realising that some of the enemy soldiers were trying to go around; Azula charged a fireball in her right palm and raised her arm up before lopping it in their direction, the soldiers immediately trying to run away.

She let out a chuckle at their cowardice, though the explosion that followed told her that it wasn't her they were afraid of; her own trebuchets had just fired on them, with the power of spy glasses and a little wit. The dust and ash that covered them made her cringe as she shook her head, not wanting any of that stuck in her hair, which was already in a terrible condition from the rain. She could have worn a helmet, but they were both clunky and easy for her opponents to grab, so she decided against that; she did however, wear a cloak that covered her from the neck down, keeping her identity on the down low if it weren't for the Imperial Firebenders by her side at all times.

She turned her gaze to the other side of the trench, and realised there were enemy soldiers there too; she raised her fist toward them, shooting out a fire stream, before she shouted at her troops which were recovering from the fighting in the trench, "Attack them!" she made her wishes clear, and the soldiers began exchanging fire balls, one of them flying right toward Sokka, the Princess dispersing it with her own bending, turning the flames blue as they withered away.

He didn't speak, but simply nodded at her before he drew his boomerang out, tossing it at one of the soldiers, knocking him out before he could try and firebend their way. Azula's guards weren't slow to react, grappling a few of them with fire whips and tripping them over before the Princess gestured above them, knowing that the earthbenders would be breaking through quickly enough. She heard the sound of a thundering boom, and realised it was the trebuchet once more, and she heard the sound of Jianren's voice.

"We're clear! Attack!" he commanded his fighters, and Azula shot two fire streams from the soles of her feet, boosting her jump to climb out of the trench; though her bending was barely enough to launch her up, she was able to dig her toe-tips into the soil before pulling herself up.

Her Imperial Firebenders and Sokka all quickly followed her, climbing up the sharp slope to get behind the earthbenders defences, which were now unoccupied as the fighters rushed forward to take on the enemy. She vaulted over the defences, and made her way after Jianren and his fighters, watching as they pummelled the stunned and injured soldiers with boulders or ensnared them in the ripped up gravel of the road. Others tried to defend themselves, so Azula reminded them of who exactly they were facing, grabbing one soldier by the leg with a fire whip, before she pulled his leg from underneath him, the fire whip slinging around the soldier next to him, who yelped and jumped back in fear.

A cascade of chaos would be easy for her to start, as long as she could scare the enemy, so she began bending small, but concentrated arcs of fire, which given the fire-proof nature of the soldiers' armour, didn't burn them, but the force of the strikes threw them back into each other. More men tried their hardest to form a new defensive line, only to find themselves picked off by a quick succession of fireballs from her Imperial Firebenders, who were then followed by the earthbenders, who raised up a line of earthen pillars, throwing men off their feet, and providing them all with an incidental defence in case the enemy actually tried to fire back.

Of course, not being completely incompetent, their mounted fighters pushed forward, the Komodo rhinos climbing over the pillars to allow their riders to shoot fire streams at the earthbenders. The Princess quickly responded by raising a wall of flames, bending their flames into the attack, but it was quickly dissipated by the rain that was still showering down. She then shot two small bolts of fire into the soldier's guts, which distracted them for long enough that they could be flung off by some rocks. The soldiers behind them, who might have hoped their comrades would have given them a fighting chance, were obviously not going to be happy; they would be afraid, just as she wanted them to be.

Sokka stepped up beside her, having retrieved his boomerang, and threw it to their right, hitting a soldier who was running out of the woods, before he and the guards attacked said soldiers. She had momentarily forgotten that they had men to the side, but she stepped into action at once to address the threat. She spun her right foot around before conjuring a fire blast from her sole, spinning around to send it out as a sharp arc which sliced into the trees and slashed the chests of the soldiers. That didn't stop them for long, but the sound of a warcry from her right reminded her that they weren't just fighting a whole army alone.

The soldiers who had been in the trench were climbing out en masse, and their firebending set the whole tree line on fire within a few moments. The flurry of attacks was confusing, but Azula raised two walls of fire on either side of her, before eyeing the pillars that blocked their path ahead. She leapt over one, and Sokka followed right after, the two of them landing in front of about a dozen soldiers, half of them benders and the rest non-benders with pikes.

"Oh, who wants to go first?" Sokka asked them as he moved into form, ready to chi-block anybody who came near them, "Hey, you'll have a chance, I'm not Ty Lee." he jested, making Azula roll her eyes before she pulled up a wall of flames, forcing soldiers to step back from the bright blue flames that coursed up into the sky; she held the attack for only a moment before kicking a fire blast from her sole, shooting a man right off of his feet.

Unable to do anything to them from a distance, the non-benders charged at them, the Princess grabbing the shaft of a pike before kicking its wielder in the shin. She weaved under another pike before pulling the one she had a hold of out of the user's hands, smacking the other soldier right in the head and throwing him to the ground, before she set the end of the pike on fire, the metal blade gleaming and reflecting the flames that surrounded it.

"Just like the seals." she muttered under her breath before she stabbed a soldier in his side, making him cry out as he tried to stab her himself; she blocked his weapon before he found himself chi-blocked by Sokka, and she spun herself around, slashing the calves of a soldier who had tried to stop her guards from crossing the pillars.

The komodo rhinos let out a cry as a soldier accidentally sent a fireball into one, and she immediately jumped out of the way, avoiding it as it charged into the soldiers, who were forced to disperse at once. Azula watched with surprise as she realised the scared creature had done half their job for them, and she readied the pike in hand, waiting for a soldier to try and attack her. A few of them did, trying to shoot fireballs at her simultaneously, the Princess spinning the pike around, using it to gather their attacks into the flames she had already lit on the end of the pike, before she released the flames out creating a short, but powerful blast that knocked one of the soldiers off his feet.

Another soldier came at her with a pike, and she blocked his weapon with her own, before kicking him in the shin; he grit his teeth, clearly pained from the strike before she forced his pike down, thrusting the blunt end of her polearm right into his jaw, making him stumble back, only to be tripped over by a fireball from one of her guards. She then spun the pike back around to hit one of the firebenders who had tried to hit her a few moments prior, and slashed at his leg before tripping him over with the other end of the pike.

Renshu landed down between her and Sokka, letting out a flurry of fireballs which quickly incapicitated a few non-benders as they tried to attack him, while Azula spun her pike around to block more of the flames, though it became clear enough that the enemy had the numbers to stop them if they weren't quick enough. She began creating arcs of fire with the tip of the pike, using the flames to make slicing motions; she didn't even need to cut them with the metal to create hot, sharp slices of fire that whacked soldiers back, and for those with pikes, disarmed them.

"Somebody hit herǃ" she heard a soldier shout at his comrades, making her smirk before she swung the pike at somebody's head; he weaved out of the way, but she was able to whack him over with a fire blast from her sole.

"Good luck." she mockingly retorted, before she lit the end of the pike back on fire, before jamming it into a soldier's leg as he tried to kick her.

He screamed out in pain, and Azula let go of the pike before she shot out a flurry of small fireballs from he fists, forcing the enemy soldiers away for a moment before she was forced to weave out of the way of a fire stream, sending her own right into the creator of the attack, nearly knocking him flat on his behind.

"Azulaǃ" she heard Sokka shout out, and the Princess turned her eyes his way, realising that the other komodo rhino had begun rampaging right in her way, and she jumped out of the way, landing on her side as the animal ran into the soldiers she'd just been fighting.

"Get herǃ" another soldier shouted, and she reflexively shot a fire stream right out of her right sole, the flames washing over a few soldiers who cried out with fear as they tried to bend her flames away.

"This is just annoying." she shook her head, wishing that she could just deal with them one by one instead of having to deal with a flurry of soldiers every second.

"Your highness." Renshu addressed her, the Princess turning her eyes up to see that he was offering her a hand, "Do you need me to set these fools on fire?"

"That's your job." she retorted, and he let out a snicker before quickly moving into action, rushing forward to forcefully block attacks coming her way, knocking out a few soldiers with concise, flame-covered punches to the chin or side of the head.

The Captain obviously knew how to fight well, and presumably had more experience than her, something she didn't like to admit, but accepted as being quite helpful, given she was facing a large enough number of soldiers than they collectively posed a real threat to her safety.

"My job is to keep you from dying, your highness." he clarified as he grabbed one of the non-benders' pikes, "You need this?" he questioned the soldier, before ripping it from his hands, using the pike to whack him in the head before lopping it off at the other soldiers, hitting one which Sokka was fighting right in the side, to the surprise of the Water Tribesman.

Azula covered her hands with flames, feeling like she'd wasted enough time, "Where's your General?" she decided to ask the enemy soldiers, wondering if they'd rat their leader out to save themselves.

Nobody responded, though they all frantically tried to defend themselves, and failed, as she and the Captain pummelled them with fireballs, kicks and their fists; a few of them broke off and ran in fear, while others stopped even trying to fight back, simply raising their arms up to defend themselves.

"Run." she warned them, or rather, requested, seeing that it would be a great help if they all started running away, given how much easier it would make the fight.

Though some of them heeded her warning, others did not, and the Princess began to throw punches in their direction, quickly shooting fireballs from her fists which were able to trip and knock a number of soldiers over, though some of them were confident enough to try and rush her. When they moved to firebend at her, she raised her hands up, creating a wall of flames, before throwing those flames forward, blasting through her opponents' attacks. Once the flames had dispersed, Sokka threw his boomerang at one of the unsuspecting soldiers, knocking him out, before some of the earthbenders began to toss rocks at the soldiers.

The firebenders raised up their own walls of fire, and Azula turned to face the Captain and her other guards, "Rip their fire apart." she told them, and they all moved into form, reaching toward the wall which they drew the fire out of, redirecting the flames up into the sky.

With an opening, Azula and Sokka leapt forward, both of them moving in sync to begin battering the soldiers, her boyfriend using his chi-blocking and club to knock them out or paralyse their extremities, while she used fireballs in quick succession to throw them to the ground or even to knock them unconscious. Though she was moving fast, she found her right hand grappled by a fire whip, the heat of the attack burning her skin underneath the fire-proof sleeves.

She grit her teeth, and sent a kick in the direction of her attacker, smacking him in the chest with a powerful fire blast. Though her arm was freed, a moment later she found her exposed leg caught by another fire whip, and she reached her right hand forward to bend the flames apart before she snarled. She saw two other firebenders trying the same trick and she shot two small fireballs from her palms, whacking them both in their arms, preventing them from going through with their attacks.

"Trebuchet!" she heard Renshu shout out, and Azula reflexively used her firebending to create a blast that pushed her backwards, getting her as far as she could be from the enemy soldiers as a flaming boulder crashed into the surface of the road, smoke and dirt filling the air and making it hard for to see anything at all.

She covered her mouth with her left hand, while creating a fire dagger in her right, glancing around to try and guess where the enemy would come from next; she could hear footsteps nearby, and she dropped down, guessing correctly as a fire stream was sent right over her head.

"Watch out!" she heard Sokka warn her, a little too late to actually help, though he did race past her with his club, whacking a soldier as he tried to approach and attack the Princess, "Not this time, ash-makers." he snarled at them, and she almost laughed hearing that insult leaving his mouth; she tended to forget that he despised firebenders and firebending, and with good reason, but she just happened to be his one exception.

As the smoke cleared up, allowing her to see ahead of her, she realised that they were being flanked on all three sides by firebenders, and Azula knew she had to do something; the earthbenders were tossing rocks in all directions, but even they would tire from the fighting, and there was only a few of them. The soldiers behind her were throwing charged fireballs at the enemy, which were potent enough to take out a few soldiers at once, but the big issue was that the enemy did the exact same thing. She had to weave out of the way of one of these fireballs herself, and Renshu stepped ahead of her, sending a fire stream toward the enemy to warn them from trying it again.

She then threw her left hand forward, taking a charged fireball and malforming it out into a fire whip; grappling one soldier by the head, she threw him down face-first into the road, before she threw the fire whip around, slashing across the chests and arms of a number of soldiers before she was forced to disperse it, raising her hands up to block a fire stream. Parting the attack in two, she grit her teeth, seeing that a number of soldiers were looking right at her, and moving into form; perhaps they thought that with her distracted by the fire stream, they'd have their chance.

"Enough!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, before throwing her hands up, bending the flames of every single firebender in her vicinity up into the air above them, creating a mass of blue and orange fire which she threw back down at the enemy soldiers, the blast throwing soldiers off their feet and smacking many of them right into the ground, as if she had hit them with a boulder.

The soldiers that remained standing looked at her with terror as she began to spin her hands around, feeling her chi gather at her finger-tips, "Die." she condemned them with a snarl, shooting a lightning bolt out from her right hand, which struck a soldier in the chest and threw him into his comrades; the rest of them tried to retake their stances, and she struggled to firebend, having lost her breath.

The Princess' chest was heaving as she eyed the soldiers who continued trying to fight her, and watched as her guards were able to dispense of most of them, and soon after, they were followed by the earthbenders, who ripped apart the surface of the road to both create defences and force the enemy to step back. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, her eyes darted to its source, realising her boyfriend was looking at her with a concerned face.

"Azula, are... are you okay?"

"I'm not as long as they stand to fight." she retorted with grit teeth before she took a deep breath, letting out a fire stream from her mouth to bathe her opponents in her blue flames, which forced them to cower in fear, "They..." he panted before shaking her head, "Move forward!" she shouted at her guards, and anyone else behind her.

They all heeded her command, moving to attack the soldiers who remained in form, and Azula watched with relief as the earthbenders ripped up the entire road ahead of them, throwing soldiers off their feet while the firebenders behind her focused on throwing their attacks into the woods, making sure to hold strong against any flanking attempts. The rain pattered down on her forehead as she looked up, and Sokka held her by the abdomen, making sure she didn't fall over.

"I'm able to fight, you idiot." she chided her boyfriend, who shook his head with disappointment.

"You look like you're about to pass out." he warned her, the Princess shaking her head.

"I need to breathe." she retorted, before filling her palms with fire and taking a deep breath, feeling the air enter her lungs, and with that, her strength replenish, though she knew it would take some time to recover.

Sokka stepped in front of her, looking at the guards and earthbenders as they battered the enemy soldiers, who were clearly on the defensive now, "We're winning." he told her, though whether because he actually thought so or just wanted to make her stop fighting as hard as she had been was unclear.

"We haven't won until they are running from the field." she snarled, before glancing ahead, taking note of the mounted troops that were already surrounding the enemy by the rear; she turned around to face some of the soldiers who had been standing behind her in formation, "Somebody get a messenger up to the trebuchetsǃ I want them firing on the rear of the army. The General's not getting a chance to escape." she gave her order, the soldiers nodding, before one of them saluted her.

"On it, your majestyǃ" he assured her, before sprinting off back toward the trebuchets.

"Isn't that what Ty Lee's trying to solve?" her boyfriend asked her, the Princess furrowing a brow.

"Well, she is, but we have to have a back-up plan." she assured him, before pointing toward the enemy lines, "We're not stopping until they're running... all of them."

"Alright, but you're not going to just run in there and try to beat them yourself, are you?" he asked her, the Princess pursing her lips upward.

"Oh, you're giving me the ideas, Sokka." she prodded him, making the Water Tribe warrior roll his eyes.

"That won't work. You might be great at firebending, but there's a lot of soldiers." he warned her, before his attention was drawn to a fair few soldiers who were collectively using their firebending to try and barge through the defences the earthbenders had made, "Ah shit." he grumbled under his breath, before pulling something from his belt.

She turned her eyes down to see that it was one of the small explosives he'd taken from the cart when he prepped for the battle, and she watched with interest as he tossed it right over the wall of flames her guards had created to defend themselves. There was a moment of silence, before the bomb went off, and she heard the cries and shouts of the enemy soldiers; Azula turned her eyes to her boyfriend, pleased that the bombs were effective, and she pointed toward the enemy lines.

"I think the men could use some more assistance." she suggested, before taking form as Sokka drew out another explosive; she eyed their left and right flanks, noting the enemy soldiers that were still trying to fight off her troops.

She thrust her right fist forward, creating a fire stream which coursed toward the enemy forces on her left; they raised walls of flames to defend themselves, but there was little help this could do when her soldiers were taking advantage of their enemies' blindness. They rushed toward the wall of flames, and parted through it with their own bending before beginning to barrage their opponents with fireballs.

She smirked at their small victory, and turned around to repeat the attack on the right-hand side, creating a fire stream which battered the enemy forces. The enemy pulled up their fire streams once more, just as she expected, and the Princess turned her eyes toward the rest of the flank, realising that most of the soldiers were behind the treeline, and contrary to what she would have expected, they were not trying to surround and cut off her group leading the army.

Her eyes immediately darted up the road, and she realised that the battery of trebuchets, sitting just over the hill-crest, were presumably not well defended barring the few rear guards soldiers who were usually serving as scouts. It would be only a matter of time before they would rush up the hill and take out their artillery, making it far harder for her to attain the victory she so desired.

"Sh-" she grit her teeth, not even cursing as she grasped her boyfriend by the shoulder.

"They're going for the artillery." she warned him, his eyes narrowing as he turned his gaze up the hill.

"Renshu!" he called out to the leader of her guards, "They're going to try and take out the artillery!" he told him, the Captain turning around as he eyed the flanks, observing the facts as they stood.

"Men, turn you fire up the slope!" he called on his subordinates, who moved to firebend toward the flanks instead of toward the mass of the army.

Azula paced over toward Jianren, who was lopping boulders at the enemy troops under cover, and she whistled to get his attention, "Jianren! We're going to head up the hill to protect the artillery. Don't let up. They can't take the upper hand now."

"We'll keep the ash-makers occupied." he assured her, and she immediately turned around, and with that, she, Sokka and her guards rushed back up the road as fast as they could, aiming to reach the artillery before the enemy did so they could be defended.

"Sokka, did you mine the area around the camp?" she asked her boyfriend, who turned to face her momentarily as they waded through the mass of soldiers that were standing on the road, and in their way; they had their attentions on the flank as well, but as long as they remained on the road, they couldn't do much to stop the men running uphill through the woods.

"Uh... yeah, just as you ordered." he confirmed, "I thought that was a worst-case scenario option." he reminded her, the Princess shaking her head.

"We need to set them off as soon as the enemy gets there!" she demanded, Sokka's lack of response indicating that he would follow through with her request.

They raced up along the trench and hole-pitted road, making their way out of the centre of the army as they aimed right for the artillery battery. As she made her way up, she heard the sounds of shouts in the woods, and turned her eyes toward the nearest treeline, able to spot a number of Fire Nation soldiers rushing up the hill. Some of them shot out fireballs, the Princess deflecting the attacks with her own, quickly joined by her guards, who created walls of fire as they moved up the road to block out attacks from the enemy soldiers.

She grit her teeth, realising that sending a signal might give those operating the trebuchets some warning, in the worst case scenario that they couldn't reach the artillery first. Azula thrust her right fist forward, creating a fire stream which soared up ahead of her, blooming out to create a massive burst of fire, which went all the way over the hillcrest. It would be obvious to the men that something was wrong, as it was her blue firebending, and not anyone else's.

When she turned her gaze back to the left, she realised that the enemy was still rushing ahead, and that she needed to try and stop them at once. Deciding she didn't have much of a choice, she turned to Sokka, and gave him the order that she knew was necessary.

"Keep running, and set off the mines when they reach the camp!" she shouted an order, Sokka sprinting ahead, followed by some of her guards as she stopped herself, creating two massive fire streams with both hands, setting the closest trees alight and pushing right into the lines of soldiers.

Her aim was not to immolate them, but to force them to hold back, and give Sokka the time he needed to give those protecting their camp a fighting chance; she felt her breath becoming shallower as she struggled to maintain her flames, though her guards were quick enough to input their own fire streams, coursing off to either side of the road, creating a line of fire running through the woods, forcing the soldiers to fire them. That was exactly what they needed to stop them, so Azula let herself smile as they came forward, attempting to block their attacks and retaliate.

Fire whips were flung out from the woods, grappling the legs and arms of her guards, and one of them got her right arm, though she was able to kick through the fire whips while still maintaining one of her fire streams. She bent the flames around, creating a wave out of the small forest fire they had started, forcing the soldiers to drop to the ground, lest the flames set them alight. She spun herself around, repeating her tactics on the other side, creating a wave of fire out of the already present flames, allowing her to force the soldiers down to the ground.

To her frustration, her guards had begun to falter, primarily because they were being attacked from both sides, forcing them to focus on defending themselves over keeping the fires going. With the rain coming down all around them, maintaining a fire was all the more challenging, and the enemy soldiers were able to break through the flames quickly enough, continuing their march up the hill.

Suddenly, she heard a sound that wouldn't have usually interested her- the sound of thunder. She turned her eyes up to the sky above her, not having seen the flash of the lightning, indicating that the thunder had been very close by. She realised that she hadn't even tried her uncle's lightning redirection technique, and that the battle situation at the very least provided an opportunity to do so. However, she quickly realised the only way to be purposefully shot by lightning would be by being the tallest thing in the area the lightning fell, which would require her to climb a hill, a waste of time and effort.

A little disenchanted by that fact, the Princess grit her teeth, deciding that she would just have to rely on her own strength rather than utilising what nature could provide to her; that was how it had always been, but not, she knew she didn't just have her own bending or wits. Sokka, despite being a nonbender, was a force to be reckoned with, not just because of his chi-blocking, but because he could form new strategies and plans on the spot to deal with the threats they faced. She decided that stalling the enemy had gone on for long enough and pointed up the hill.

"Go!" she ordered her guards with a shout, before she herself broke into a sprint, quickly followed by her guards; the others were already getting close to the hillcrest, and as she ran up, she kept eyeing the woods, constantly wondering whether Sokka would be fast enough.

She found out that he had at least done the job when she was rushing toward the hillcrest, as in a quick succession, the explosives went off, creating blasts of dirt and ash, followed by smokestacks which rose into the sky above. The lines of explosions started some small fires that would most likely die out with the rain, though she saw a few fire streams and blasts ahead of her, suggesting that the explosives had not been as successful as she would have liked.

As they drew nearer, she realised that her guards were already moving into form around the line formed by the explosions, sending fire streams and a variety of attacks from their hands and feet into the enemy, and Azula quickly joined them, kicking her right foot off into the woods to knock a soldier down with a fire of the enemy soldiers must have thought themselves smart to come out of the woods and just try and run right up the road to reach the trebuchets, but in the open, they were no match for her, the Princess raising her hands up create a wall of flames.

She kept her breath steady, holding off the enemy before she spun her foot around, whipping the flames around her into a spiralling mass, holding off the enemy as she blasted them with the spiral, which she thrust in and out with each breath. Knowing what was at stake, the Princess threw the flames out, sending them into the surrounding trees and the soldiers that stood in her way, before she spun her fingers around, feeling the charge gathering at her fingertips; she didn't need a mountain, or her uncle's technique to shoot somebody full of lightning.

"Your mistake." she chided them, before she released a lightning bolt into the ground in front of her, blasting a few men off their feet; when one eagerly came at her, she shot him in the gut with a fire blast before charging lightning once more.

"Oh, a deathwish?" she mocked him, before she shot the man who had been running at her from the other side at point blank with a lightning bolt.

He was thrown into the air, slamming into a tree as Azula grappled the first man by the throat, her hand already covered with flames; his neck-guard had protected him from being burnt, but she tightened her grip before punching his skull face mask, shattering it as she revealed his frantically fearful face.

"Fools." she snarled, before she slammed her flame covered palm into his face, throwing him back with his face set alight, though the rain quickly put the flames out; his screams of pain only assured her that she had actually hurt her opponent.

When another soldier came at her, she used the flames she had already gathered in her palm to create an arc of flames, using it to slice through the fabric of his pants, slashing his thighs. He grunted as he struggled to keep his footing, throwing his hands forward to bend two fire streams at her; the Princess ducked under the attacks before she kicked him in the crotch. He grunted in pain, and she didn't relent to hammer him the side of the head, throwing him to the ground, and knocking his helmet off.

She turned her eyes to the soldiers who hadn't yet tried to attack her, and opened her arms wide, more confident than ever that she would need far more challenging opponents to feel an inch of fear when surrounded by a dozen men. The battle might not have been won yet in terms of ground taken, but they had struck fear into their hearts, and that was enough to save the camp.

"Anybody else?"

---

Ty Lee knew that the plan she had accepted to go through with would be dangerous, but she hadn't expected to be lying inside a hollowed out tree trunk, hiding from enemy soldiers as they tried to run up the hill to go fight Azula's soldiers. The battle had been chaotic to say the least, and even if she hadn't been in the thick of it, the ground had shaken a number of times from explosions and earthbending, and by the time she was approaching the rear of the army, where she guessed the General would be, things had gotten even worse. Parts of the forest were on fire, and she was forced to divert her path all the way around, narrowly missing getting run down by the cavalry Azula had ordered to flank the enemy.

By the time she had gotten into that hollowed out trunk, the enemy was already moving back, trying to defend themselves, which made it harder and harder to actually approach them. They had firebenders surrounding their lines on all sides, and the only luck she found was by hiding in the log, waiting for the enemy troops which were advancing toward her to move past and face off against the soldiers who had come to fight them. The fighting was loud, and she could already smell smoke and ash around her, the fires quickly being put out by the rainstorm that had been bucketing down the entire time.

She remained in there for a minute or so as the soldiers moved past her, before she slowly crawled out, eyeing around to spot the soldiers' backs turned away from her; her gaze then turned up the way she had been heading, and was glad to see that there wasn't anyone waiting for her. The General had to be close by, because she was pretty certain he hadn't already been captured or defeated by Azula, meaning he had to be by the rear, the furthest point from where her friend was.

Ty Lee stepped slowly and kept her head low as she eyed ahead, moving from tree to tree, taking cover by any bushes in reach; embers and rain droplets were dropping down from the sky above, as she pulled the cloak she was wearing back over her hair to keep it clean, and she wondered how many people had met their ends on the road. She hadn't really considered it much, but the idea of her friend essentially ordering perhaps hundreds of men to die was something that disturbed her.

She knew that defeating Ozai was more than necessary; she would even go as far to say it was their obligation, seeing that Azula was the one person who could do it, with Aang's help as the Avatar. Things hadn't really been going their way, given the threat of spies, traitors and the fact most of the country was loyal to her presumed dead brother or her insane father. Now, as they were actually at the cusp of a real victory, all she could feel was anguish for those who were suffering for practically no reason, at the hands of their fellow citizens, no less. Ty Lee hated the situation they were in, but more than ever, she trusted Azula, and that was why she was willing to put herself in danger, and ignore all the pain and suffering they would enact on a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers who had been ordered to destroy them.

As she drew closer to the road, she could hear the sound of shouts; they weren't ones of pain or anger, but mere orders, and frantic ones at that. Ty Lee was sure that the enemy commanders were having a panic once they realised that they were surrounded and that their own trebuchets had been neutered already. They had nowhere to go, and now, she was going to finish things by taking care of their leader. She wasn't planning to hurt him, but merely take him captive and bring him to Azula, so she might be able to make a great spectacle in shaming the man, and prove to her father that she was ready to face him and his goons.

"You have nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide." she whispered to herself, confident that she could achieve what she set out to do.

Ty Lee had her face covered, primarily to disguise her identity in the case that the enemy had reports about her and her chi-blocking skills, but also to strike fear into their hearts. She had painted the mask as a joke a week prior, during an ordinary skull mask into one that looked far more intimidating, with markings that made her look as if she was a furious spirit coming to enact its justice upon them. Such a dramatic look wasn't usually her style, but she knew that winning a fight was best achieved by making her opponents scared to death of her.

When she reached the clearing itself, she made sight of a few wooden barricades set up around some carts, and behind that was the General, and a few others, looking at some maps; whether they were planning an escape route, or some kind of maneuver, she couldn't be sure, but she knew that their actions were futile. Not far up the road from them was the thick of the battle, where hundreds of soldiers were brawling it out, with the addition of Jianren's earthbenders on her side. They were pummelling rocks and boulders in their direction, which made the huddled up forms of the general and his men make a whole lot of sense.

"Somebody, check the flanks!" she heard the General speak up, "We need to find a way out of here, and fast!"

"Yes, sir!" she heard a soldier accept his commands, "Come on, men!" he called on some others, and she glanced to her right, seeing two dozen or so soldiers who had been huddled around the defences moving off down the road, presumably to try and find a way past all the cavalry that was surrounding them.

Ty Lee knew there was no time like the present to attack her foes, and the distraction the earthbenders and trebuchets were providing was more than enough impetus to prod her into standing up, covering behind a tree just by the edge of the woods. A few soldiers ran past her, presumably going to reinforce those soldiers she had hid from, and she remained deathly silent, watching them head off into the woods as she slumped down, hoping her khaki cloak would keep her hidden from any soldier cautious enough to look back.

Turning her eyes back toward the General and his men, she counted their numbers; there were six officers standing there, and she could spot four personal guards, armed with armour comparable to Azula's Imperial Firebenders. However, there weren't any soldiers directly around the General's position, which meant the guards were the only real threat. Deciding that separating her opponents was a good idea, she glanced down to the forest floor, looking for pebbles or anything heavy enough to make a decent noise when she threw it. Noting part of a branch on the ground in front of her, she picked it up, before examining its length. She broke the end off, dropping that to the ground, before she took the thicker portion and aimed it right at the general and his men.

Once she tossed the stick, it careened through the air, hitting one of the officers in the back, making him grunt as he stumbled forward, almost falling onto the table they had been standing around. The General's eyes turned to the treeline, and she covered behind the tree, waiting for the inevitable. One of the guards must have decided to act, because she heard a fire stream burst out, and she ducked down to avoid getting burnt by it. Ty Lee watched from her near prone position as two of the guards approached the treeline.

"Show yourself!" they demanded, and she did not follow through, covering behind the thick tree trunk while they approached.

When they stepped into the woods, they seemed to be frantically looking for her, or some tracks, and one of them shot a few fireballs out into the woods, presumably to try and frighten her. She remained deathly still, waiting for one to step just close enough to her. A human shield wearing fire-proof armour was the best way she could defeat the guards, rather than daring to outrun their flames.

"It must be an assassin." she heard the General speak up in the distance, "Find them, and kill them." he gave explicit orders to his guards for the first time, who had probably just been acting or protocol before that.

"Yes, sir." all of the guards chanted in response, Ty Lee glancing up to see one of them moving to step a little deeper into the woods.

She swung her leg out, chi-blocking his right leg by tapping his chi pathways on his calf, which made his leg give way. Though he immediately spun around, flames in hand, his attack didn't land as she hammered him with an uppercut to the chin; he stumbled back and before his comrade could try and attack her, Ty Lee weaved around, grabbing the man under his armpits, letting him take the brunt of the fire stream.

His armour and body weighed a lot together, but she was just able to hold him up, and shoved him forward into the other guard as he tried to attack her. As the limp body of the guard hit his comrade, who struggled to push him off, Ty Lee leapt around, grasping a low-hanging branch so she could swing at the guard, hitting him in the chest with her right foot, forcing him down to the ground with one foot firmly placed on his torso.

"Didn't you ever learn about dodging... or is that too airbender for you?" she quipped at the guard, who threw his right hand up to firebend at her, but Ty Lee immediately used hier left foot to jab him in the bicep, making his arm go limp.

Before she could even try and knock him out, she was forced to duck under another fire stream, this time coming from one of the guards still protecting the general; she was then kneed in the back by the guard she was standing on, making her fall forward over him. She was able to roll forward, before spinning herself around, eyeing him as he struggled to pull himself back up.

"Sir! It's the chi-blocker!" he warned his superior, obviously figuring out her abilities, before she jabbed him in the gut as he tried to get back to his feet; with his legs paralysed, he wasn't able to do much, and slumped over, the acrobat leaping forward to cartwheel, dodging another fire stream before she planted her two feet firmly on the ground once more.

The two guards were rushing at her, both of them bending fire streams her way, forcing her to duck once more, going prone on the forest floor as she heard the pattering of the footsteps grow nearer. She then rolled herself over, dodging a fire blast which was aimed right at her position, before she pulled herself up, weaving out of the way of another fireball. When the guard got close enough. She leapt up to grasp the branch above her, before throwing her legs out, kicking him in the shoulderblades, which whacked him right to the ground.

The other guard was not as eager, however, and decided to attack her with a fire whip instead, grappling her leg. She grit her teeth, pained from the heat, but she was able to break the hold of the form by dropping down to the ground and somersaulting forwards. The guard aimed his fist toward the ground, trying to hit her before she could reach him, but Ty Lee saw that coming, and grappled the helmet of the guard she'd already knocked over, using it to first block the flames, before tossing it right into the guard's own helmet, knocking him back. He wasn't incapicitated by the strike, but it provided enough of a distraction to allow her to paralyse both his arms with a quick succession of jabs, before kicking him to the ground.

Knowing she hadn't chi-blocked the other guard, she spun herself around, kicking his right arm as he tried to firebend at her, and held his wrist against the ground. Before he could use his left, she kicked his now uncovered head to knock him unconscious. With all four guards incapacitated, Ty Lee pursed her lips, before turning her eyes back toward the General and his comrades, who looked at her with dread. The officers, presumably not expecting a fight, moved into firebending forms, or for those who couldn't bend, drew out blades. She wasn't surprised by that, but she doubted any of them had enough combat experience to be much of a worry. What was a concern, however, was the soldiers who had been retreating back their way, and were now looking right at her as she stared the General down.

"Get her!" he ordered them, and Ty Lee instead rushed toward the General, somersaulting forward to first dodge some firebending from the soldiers before she weaved past the attacks the officers made.

One of them nearly set her cloak and mask on fire, but she was able to chi-block his arm, and used his flames against his comrades as he was unable to choose where he bent; once his flames petered away, she weaved out of the way of another fire blast, and kicked one of the officers in the shin before she moved right for the General, who had already moved into a firebending form. He threw his right fist forward, sending a fireball right at her head, though she had expected such a move, and ducked under before kicking his wrist to chi-block it. He grunted as he drew his now limp hand back, and he quickly realised the danger he was in.

He tried to defend himself by raising a wall of flames, and she turned herself around, noting one of the officers was moving to attack her; she let him come at her, throwing an arc of flames at her face. Ty Lee raised her arm up, letting her cloak be set alight rather than her face, though the rain quickly put out the fire as she threw her foot forward to kick his shin, making him stumble forward. Though he tried to punch her, she was quick enough to paralyse him by a strike to the bicep before his flames could harm her.

She then kicked him once more, throwing him into the wall of flames the General had made; his fireproof armour made sure that he wasn't hurt, and the General's attack was parted, allowing her to jump at him, drawing out a dagger from her robes. She had never intended to hurt him, but the threat of doing so would be enough to scare him into submission.

"You don't need to get hurt." she warned him, before she poised herself to jab him with her left hand; he raised a hand up to hit her with the flames he'd charged in his palm, by she quickly deflected his attack by jabbing his wrist, before she elbowed him right in the face, "But you're making it hard." she chided him, "Or should I say easy?" she decided to mock him, the General struggling to keep his footing as he tried fruitlessly to grasp at his now bleeding nose.

With both his hands paralysed, there wasn't much the general could do in terms of firebending, and he must have realised this as she readied herself to properly restrain him. She had everything she needed on her belt; some chains, as well as a bit of fabric to gag him with. However, before she could do that, her attention was drawn by the firebenders moving around her, ready to attack. Though they were probably more worried about the approaching enemy forces rather than a single person threatening their general, they obviously wanted to get rid of her.

"What?" she questioned them, grasping the General by his shoulder as she held the blade up against his throat.

"Don't attack!" the General pleaded, obviously not wanting to die at her hand; it was a bluff, of course, as she had no intention of murdering him, or anyone, for that matter, but the fact he believed it was good enough.

"We're going to leave." she told the General, "And you're going to have a little chat with the Fire Lord."

His eyes darted toward her own upon hearing her intentions, and he grimaced, "Oh shit." she mumbled to himself, before suddenly, he threw his still mobile right arm into her gut, winding Ty Lee as she barely held a grip of the General's shoulder.

A fire stream was sent out from one of soldiers that surrounded them, and she threw herself and the General down to the ground to dodge it; as it coursed over their heads, in return, she punched the General across the face, just to warn him from doing anything like that again. Her gaze was drawn up to the enemy soldiers who had stepped closer, and were intent on stopping her, even if they were yet to have a way to stop her from slicing the General's throat open.

"Don't step any closer." she warned them all, before her attention was drawn behind her; in the sky she could see a flaming ball, coursing through the rain, which dampened its flames, but made it all the more obvious as the boulder soared towards them.

"Run!" one of the soldiers exclaimed, the soldiers trying to dash away from where the boulder would hit, Ty Lee instead dropping flat on the ground to try and save herself from any debris.

When it hit the ground, everything shook violently as ash, smoke and dirt burst out in all directions, forcing Ty Lee to keep her eyes shut. She felt the dirt raining down on her, and kept her eyes shut as she climbed back up to her feet, listening out for anyone approaching her. She could hear a lot of shouting, which wasn't a surprise in the slightest, and once she opened her eyes, she made sight of the effects of a single boulder. A crater had been left in the middle of what had been the General's planning area, with a number of soldiers and officers splayed over the ground, clearly hurt by the explosion. There were other soldiers who weren't as hurt, trying to help their comrades get up, barely any of them with their attention on her.

She turned around, noting that the General was lying on his back, reaching at his arm which had been cut by some of the debris; she narrowed her eyes at him, before she pointed the dagger at him, "We're leaving." she told him, grasping him his uninjured arm with her free hand, forcing him to get back onto his own two feet.

He tried to push her back, and get himself free, but she just jabbed his biceps, paralysing his arms from the shoulders down; he could fling them around limp, but that obviously wouldn't do him much good. Knowing she ought to prevent him from escaping, she drew the chains from her belt, and bound them around his hands, before tightening them, grasping the chain to tug him along as she aimed to get back into the forest. As she approached the treeline, her attention was drawn by a loud and agitated shout.

"Get back here!" the voice demanded of her, and she noted it had come from one of the guards which he had beaten earlier; he was the one she hadn't chi-blocked, made clear by the fact he wasn't wearing a helmet and that he had a bruise on his jaw.

He rushed in her direction, pushing the injured soldiers out of the way as he tried to assist his superior; he threw a flurry of fireballs her way, but instead of dodging, she just stepped behind the General, letting his armour take the hits for her. When the guard stopped, obviously not wanting to hurt him, she leapt out from behind, kicking him in the right calf to weaken his stance before she jabbed his left-arm; he was fast enough to grapple her with his right hand, and instead of trying to firebend, he head-butted her, causing Ty Lee to stumble back as she lost her focus.

She raised a hand to her now pained head, and realised the guard would try and knock her out, even with only one hand; he ran right at her, tackling Ty Lee to the ground, though she had expected that, and held her right hand right under him, jabbing him in the gut to block his firebending. When he raised his hand up, probably expecting to set her face on fire, he was met with the unfortunate surprise of an empty palm. He didn't realise his mistake quickly enough, and found her fist in his face, audibly breaking his nose.

He lurched over in pain, falling off of her, allowing Ty Lee to turn her eyes back toward the General, who was struggling to stumble away, "Oh, no you don't." she warned him, rising back up to her feet and gripping the chain which she had dropped.

She tugged on it, forcing him to come closer; though he tried to resist, he didn't want to fall flat on his face, so he complied and followed her as she made her way as fast as she could from the soldiers. She heard a few shouts behind her, though she wasn't paying much attention to them. All she knew was that if she got herself back to the encampment, there'd be more than enough soldiers around to stop whoever decided to foolishly pursue her instead of running away, which would be the smarter choice in her mind.

"Stop her!" she heard a voice behind her, not coming from the officer she'd just beaten; glancing back for a moment, she realised she was being tailed by some of the soldiers, led by a few of the General's subordinates, who obviously didn't want him falling into the hands of the enemy.

She tried to run as fast as she could, though it was hard to do when her prisoner was struggling against her the whole way. She drew the dagger out once again, forcing the General closer by shunting on the chain, and she held the blade up against his neck, ensuring the soldiers wouldn't try and just knock her out; if they did, she'd slit his throat, whether she wanted to or not. They did seem to understand that danger, and decided against attacking her at once, though they continued to follow her as she paced up the hill slope through the woods, hoping she'd get somewhere where Azula's soldiers were fighting so she wouldn't have to drag the General back all alone.

However, it didn't seem like she was going to be that lucky, as suddenly, she found herself falling back over what she assumed was a root, falling to the ground; she hadn't slit the General's throat by accident, which relieved her, but the soldiers were now free to attack her. She had to grab the General and throw him down to the ground by kicking his legs out from underneath him, forcing him down to the ground as a fire stream coursed right above their heads.

"You just saved my face." he observed the situation for what it was, and she shook her head.

"Not on purpose." she warned him, before grabbing him by the collar, forcing him to get back up as the soldiers moved around them, trying to find the opportune position to fire at her from.

"Don't get any closer!" she warned them with a shout, not wanting them to get in her path, and prevent her from getting away, with or without her hostage.

One of them threw a fireball at her head, but she was quick enough to shunt the General forward, letting his armour take the hit for her; he grunted from the hit, and another fireball quickly followed, this time from behind. She stepped out of the way of that one before holding the dagger even closer to the General's neck.

"I'm not bluffing!" she warned them once more, before suddenly, her attention was drawn by a number of mounted soldiers who were approaching from her left; there were a bunch of enemy soldiers in her way, but their firebending caught the attention of her pursuers, who were forced to defend themselves with walls of fire or their own fireballs, deflecting the flurry of attacks they received.

Ty Lee took the chance and grabbed the General's neck with her other hand, forcing him to move forward with haste, lest he find his face fall right into the muddy forest floor; they paced on into a mud strewn gully, and she was forced to duck down once more as fireballs were thrown her way. She wished she had a boomerang or something like it; Sokka mightn't have been as good at chi-blocking as her, but he could deal with firebenders from afar, while she just had to run at or dodge them, with no inbetween.

She almost slipped over and fell on her face, but she was able to use the General's weight to balance herself as she trudged up from the gully, making her way right towards the rocky, eroded hill that contained their base of operations. She couldn't see any soldiers nearby other than the mounted troops, and that concerned her. She could already see the caved in entrance which the earthbenders had collapsed to prevent the enemy from using it, but Ty Lee knew where the other one was, just up ahead at the lake.

However, before she could get to it, she had to endure and cower from the fireballs, fire whips and fire streams the soldiers tossed her way in their attempts to wring the General free from her grip; she was forced to hide behind a tree as a pair of soldiers ran up the hill, throwing volleys of flames at her, which landed on the tree and surrounding bushes and shrubs before being quickly put out by the rain that still pitter-pattered down all around her. She could see to her right that the collapsed cave entrance was leaking out water, which had formed a small, but quick flowing stream, telling her there was a fair bit of water behind the boulders and dirt in the way.

"Grab her!" one of the soldiers shouted out, and she decided to push the General right into one of them; though they could have tried to break his chains, the acrobat took advantage of the distraction, jabbing his side and paralysing one of his legs before she kicked him over, causing him to slip down the muddy slope.

She forced her hostage to stumble further up the slope, up toward a cliff face that lined the southern side of the hill. She wasn't intending to climb it, but simply follow it around so she could find the other entrance to the cave system; however, the enemy wasn't making it easy for her, forcing Ty Lee to drop to the ground to avoid two fire streams thrown her way from two different directions. Glancing to the left, she realised five soldiers were coming her way, and that wasn't even considering the one right behind her who might try and go for a killing blow. She spun around to face him, kicking said soldier in the gut; that didn't chi-block him, but he was stalled for a moment as he gasped for air, so she decided to cut their fight short by whipping his legs with the long chain she had bound to the General's hands, throwing the soldier off his feet.

"Argh!" he squealed as he fell flat on his behind and slipped down the slope to join his comrade.

She let out a snicker as he fell back down into the gully, and she continued up the slope, forcing the General back up to his own feet, "We're not stopping now." she warned him, before she was forced to dodge another fire stream, using his armour as a shield once more; he grunted as stumbled over, falling onto the ground, which shook more than she expected it would.

Her eyes fell down to the ground for a moment, taking note that right by where the General was lying was a hole that led down into the cave system below, where she could faintly hear the sound of running water. She turned her gaze back toward the soldiers, wondering if she could try something stupid; Ty Lee knew how to swim, so she wasn't worried about falling in, but the soldiers, there was nothing to say they could. She pursed her lips in thought, and slammed her foot into the ground by the ground, which made it shift underneath her feet; perhaps that was what it felt like to earthbend, but she knew she had no real control, only the ability to make nature take its course faster than it would have otherwise.

The soldiers rushed at her, throwing a volley of fireballs at her, and she whipped the chain out as she leapt forward, tripping one of them over, making them slam face-first into the ground. Another soldier leapt over the chain and tried to cut it in half, but she spun around, kicking him in the arm, blocking the chi-path leading down from his elbow. He was unable to firebend with his right hand, but threw the left toward her, sending the flames he had massed in it toward her. She leaned back, falling onto the ground as a number of the soldiers moved closer, perhaps thinking they could apprehend her.

She could feel the ground shifting below her still, and clearly, it was going to break from the weight of the four people already over the cavity. She spun herself around, kicking the soldier who had nearly set her face on fire, whacking him off his own feet and onto his butt; he shook his head with frustration, but turned his eyes down, presumably hearing and seeing the water through the hole.

"Wait!" he raised his left hand up to his comrades, "Don't come any closer!"

"We can free him!" one of the soldiers shouted, moving to firebend at the chains holding the General in place; they shattered apart, and he fumbled around for a few moments before his head rose up from the ground, looking at Ty Lee with a fearful face, obviously realising the danger they were in.

"Please." he begged, and she gestured toward the firebender who was aiming to tackle her.

"You brought this upon yourselves." she simply stated the fact of the matter, "Thanks." she smirked, before the soldier jumped on her, the ground cracking beneath their feet, the soldiers feeling the vibrations and movements all too late.

Then, in the span of a moment, the ground gave way from beneath them, causing them all to fall down into the darkness; she felt weightless for a moment, though the weight of the soldier above her was soon all too apparent as she slammed into the water below, which felt a lot deeper than she expected it to be. The dirt and rock crumbled into over them, though the soldier above her got the brunt of the earth whacked onto his back while she kept her mouth and eyes shut as she felt herself sinking into the water.

When she tried to push him out of the way, she felt a sudden weight on her legs, and realised it wasn't just the soldier on top of her legs, but a fragment of rock that was weighing them both down. She couldn't see anything, but as she felt around, she was able to touch the brittle, heavy mass on them, and she kicked her legs at the soldier to try and push him off, but he didn't budge, and she could hear him gargling on the water, although, it could have been anyone around her who had also fallen into the cave.

When she finally wrung her legs free, she was already running out of air, but she had to keep her mouth shut, lest she start gagging on the water. Though it took a few hard pushes, she breached the water's surface, and opened her eyes, seeing the light shining down from outside more clearly, though there were a few rocks blocking her view, having fallen in when the ground gave way. She was afraid they might come down on her, so she immediately began wading away, deeper into the cave, where she could hear some grunts and groans coming from whatever soldiers had been spared from getting stuck under rocks or each other.

When she saw some flames light up, she immediately dipped under the water, and she could see in the murky water as she sat below the surface, a coursing stream of orange flames above her head; when she resurface, she realised it was the General, who having recovered from his chi-blocking, was clearly wanting to get back at her.

"You stupid girl!" he snarled at her, his head and right arm the only things she could see, with the rest of his body underwater; the ground was somewhere below their feet, and a dry part of the cave somewhere off in the darkness.

She would find it hard to chi-block him in the water, so she decided that just giving him a right smack to the head would help; reaching him, however, was a problem, as he shot fireballs out every few seconds, furiously trying to hit her. She dived back under the surface to dodge a fire stream, and swam right at him underwater, pinning his chest as she slammed him against the cave wall; when she resurfaced, she already had grappled both his arms, and was staring him down, his facial expressions hard to distinguish in the darkness.

"Stop it." she demanded, "I've had enough of this." she warned him, before she headbutt his nose, making him flinch back and hit his head into the cave wall.

He groaned with pain, but was able to wring his arm free, punching her in the face, whacking her right in the cheek; her mask had been torn off when she fell into the water, so now, he could probably see her face. He wondered if he felt any regret for hitting a teenage girl, but she was sure he had few qualms, given a teenage girl was the one leading the army that he was fighting. She then drew the dagger from her belt, which she had fastened back before the fall; she slashed it up his cheek, not aiming to seriously wound him, but just scare him enough to make him stop resisting.

He squealed out in pain, with a pitch so high that surprised her, "You damn bitch!" he screamed out, and Ty Lee gave him a taste of his own medicine, giving him a fist to the head before she pushed him forward in the water, knowing she had to get herself and the General out of it, lest her captive end up drowning after receiving another beating.

Suddenly, her field of view was lit up as she saw a number of torches, and one of them was blue; in the distance stood Azula, flanked by Sokka and her guards, clearly surprised by the sight.

"This was your idea of an escape plan?!" the Princess shouted at her, and she just smirked, gesturing to the dazed and still agitated General.

"Hey, it worked."

---

The road was pitted with trenches and craters from boulders launched by trebuchets, but the lack of an enemy army rushing up it was something that brought a smile to Sokka's face; though the enemy's superior numbers had posed a threat, they obviously hadn't expected the numerous pincer attacks from all angles, not to mention the fact their General was kidnapped by Ty Lee. They weren't taking any other prisoners, however, and the rest of the army had fled as soon as they could, though part of the army made a valiant last stand, trying to break through their defences by the edge of the encampment, where their trebuchets had been set up. After that, the rest of the army withered away, Sokka assuming that whatever remaining officers ordered their men to withdraw.

At present, the cavalry was making sure they couldn't regroup by hounding their forces down the road into Yi Province, while the foot soldiers were recuperating from the fight, the injured being tended to while others cleared the field of the dead. Sokka didn't like the sight of so many bodies, but he knew that at the very least their victory had been absolute. It wasn't like when his village would be attacked by the Southern Raiders, to only be expelled after men and women lost their lives, only for the Fire Nation to return a few months later to harass them again; the battle they'd won, they had truly won.

He heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him, and Sokka turned to face the Captain, who wasn't wearing his helmet anymore, indicating that he felt comfortable in their victory, "Sokka, she wants you."

He let out a snicker, realising how his words could be misinterpreted, before rising to his feet; he turned around and followed after Renshu, who was leading him back into the encampment. The cave was presently their base of operations, where he assumed Azula was interrogating General Gyoko, who seemed to be rather agitated and unwilling to cooperate despite his present circumstances

Sokka had had to watch as the General's men were stripped of their armour and sent off into the woods after Azula had been kind enough to order her guards to stop them from drowning in the cave. The look on Gyoko's face almost made him laugh; he had thought they might try to valiantly fight back and save their leader, but they just dejectedly left, presumably glad to be alive.

As they made their way toward the cave, he made his way by Jianren's group of earthbenders, who cheerily waved to him, obviously having gained a bit of respect for him after the fighting they'd gone through together. He waved back in return, before continuing on after Renshu, making his way toward the entrance of the cave, which was flanked by a pair of the Princess' guards.

"Sirs." the pair addressed them both with nods, allowing them to step on inside the cave, where he could see that the General was kneeling on the ground wearing shackles, his head hanging down with his hair dishevelled, no longer being interrogated by Azula.

The Princess herself looked rather dishevelled after the fighting, at least compared to usual, though she was presently attending to that issue, redoing her hair and bandaging her slightly burnt arms and hands. He didn't imagine she'd usually do that herself, especially given she was leading the whole army and had a plethora of servants ready to assist her at any moment, but perhaps after all that time at the South Pole, she was willing to do just that without a second thought.

"Good, you're here." she observed, before gesturing to the seat across from her at the table; he paced on over, eyeing Gyoko for a moment before he sat himself down in front of Azula.

"Where's Ty Lee?" he asked, having noticed that she was no longer in the cave.

"A medic is checking her injuries. She got hammered rather hard when she fell in that cave." she explained, Sokka nodding as he recalled when he made sight of the opening where she, the General and a number of soldiers fell in.

"I hope she's alright." he conceded, "That was half my idea." he admitted, and Azula shook her head.

"No, I believe that was the best course of action... after all, it gave us a very useful prisoner." she indicated to the chained up General, who raised his head up.

"Just shut up, you damn traitor." he grit his teeth at her, and almost reflexively, Sokka reached for the boomerang slung over his back; Azula raised a hand, stopping him from doing anything too drastic.

"Now, now, Sokka... I don't need him getting beaten to death in this cavern. I'd rather like to see if I can get anything more out of him." she argued, and he furrowed a brow.

"And what did you get out of him?" he asked, the Princess pursing her lips upward, a clear sign of good news, or at least, useful information to use in their fight against Ozai.

"Oh... I got something." she admitted, "My brother's loyalists are already encircling my father's supporters in the colonies. The reason they came all this way was to make sure they could counter that encirclement, and get rid of me in the process." she explained the reason behind the army's sudden arrival in Yi Province.

"So, I assume this means Zuko's forces are about to thrash them." he concluded, and she nodded.

"Well, sooner or later they will." she confirmed, "And we are going to accelerate that process."

"How?" he asked, Azula looking at him with a smug face as she leaned back in her chair.

"You recall our airship prototype? Well, it soon won't be the only one. Shengchang will be ours by the end of month... as soon as Aang and Katara return, we'll be able to finally deal with the Earth Kingdom problem properly."

"Wait, which one? The rebels that may or may not want to kill us, or the Dai Li?"

"First the former, then the latter." she clarified, before tapping the side of her head, "I wonder how much we can milk Jianren and our alliance."

"They have to trust us now. Once they tell the others, they can't just stand by. We're the ones who will give them back their country, they have to see that now."

"Or we're just lying invaders." she reminded him of the rationale the Earth Kingdom rebels might employ, and he certainly didn't blame them; he barely trusted the Fire Nation as it was, and Azula's leadership was the only reason he felt any kind of confidence in their present campaign.

"Nobody likes the Fire Nation." he gave his own opinion, "But... we need the Fire Nation."

"Reciprocity is the core of your culture, is it not?" she asked, Sokka nodding; that certainly was how they defined themselves, helping each other out to ensure that the tribe remained strong and united, "I'm going to show the world how reciprocity is far more powerful than any kind of threat of annihilation."

"I think you need to persuade people." he acknowledged the difficulty she would be facing ahead, given that she didn't have the best image, from what he could tell, "And when I say persuade, I don't mean threaten to burn their face off if they don't join you."

"I believe I've found wiser tactics in my time away from the world." Azula acknowledged, before chuckling, "And trickery requires persuasion, doesn't it?"

"Persuasion is just trickery without any of the... uh, betrayal." Sokka observed with a chuckle, realising how narrow a gap there stood between the two concepts; she could become a great leader through deceit just as much as she could through a genuine rapport built with allies and her subordinates.

"Well, it is, Sokka." she confirmed, before turning to face General Gyoko, "I am frustrated to learn that some men are too stubborn to see their own failures and accept defeat, and are unwilling to hear my requests."

"What, did you think you could recruit him? You remember what those officers said... the ones who said they were loyal to you." he reminded her of what had transpired less than a week prior, "We have to choose our friends wisely."

"I couldn't agree more." she smirked, before she snapped a finger, getting the attention of one of the servant girls who was waiting to serve the Princess, "I require some tea brewed." she gave her request, and the servant bowed, before pacing over to the small kitchen of sorts that had been set up in the corner of the cave.

Azula pulled her brush back up, running it through her hair again as she eyed out towards the entrance of the cave, "Hopefully Ty Lee returns, and we can celebrate our victory."

"What, do you wanna drink baijiu or something?" he asked her, half in jest, but also a little interested in the idea of enjoying themselves, though he was sure the temperately minded Princess would not stand for that.

"I don't want to incite any foolish behaviour from you, Sokka." she refused, before narrowing her eyes, "Or do you enjoy being the fool?"

"I'm not a fool, at least when I have a plan." he argued, "And today, our plans worked just as they ought to have... though they put up a good fight." he noted the tenacity of their opponents, who had fought till the very end to try and push forward, although ultimately, their army was broken into pieces, and forced to withdraw.

"I didn't expect you to compliment our enemies, seeing how much they want us dead." she noted, and he let out a chuckle.

"Hey, I'm not going to ignore a whole army coming at us and call them stupid ash-makers. If we hadn't had all those traps and flanks set up, they would have destroyed our camp in minutes." he stressed the closeness of the battle; if the tundra tanks had just been driven through the woods instead, even if it had been a slower path to their camp, there was a good chance they would have been the ones forced to flee.

"I know that, Sokka. That's why we came here with a plan. I would have preferred to have defended the base otherwise." she gave her thoughts on his warning, and continued to brush her hair, "Do you think we are in a good position to advance?"

"What... into the colonies?" he asked, and she nodded; he scrunched his lips up, remembering that most of the forces directly in their path would be those loyal to her brother, not her father, "Well, unless you want to fight your brother's supporters, then not just yet." he considered the danger they had in dividing their strength; if Zuko supporters, now presumably Iroh's supporters, were forced to fight Azula, then that would only give Ozai more of an opportunity to abuse the situation to his advantage.

"I don't think we ought to do that... actually, on the contrary, I believe we might be able to persuade them to our side without Uncle's intervention." she argued, making him furrow a brow.

"Oh, okay, what's your master plan?"

"I'd rather not speak about it with the prisoner literally just sitting there." she gestured to Gyoko, and obviously upon hearing that, Renshu and a few of the guards stepped into the cave.

"Do you want him tied to a tree or something, your highness?" Renshu asked, and she shook her head.

"No. He has to be tied to something he can't burn." she warned, and the guards glanced among each other.

"Okay, so a rock." one of them suggested, making the others snicker.

"You know that isn't a terrible idea." the Captain noted, before turning around, "Perhaps I should ask Jianren how he usually deals with Fire Nation prisoners."

"I don't think you'd like the answer." Azula warned him, and he and the other guards seemed to tense up at the thought of what she was suggesting; to break the awkward silence that fell over the cave, she gestured out, "Just go bind his chains to a rock." she decided upon an order, and with that, they picked him up, and dragged him out of the cave, leaving Sokka and Azula sitting there, now with her 'master plan', as he'd called it, to discuss.

Turning to face his girlfriend, he gestured for her to continue, and she raised her chin up as she began to speak, "The other anti-Ozai forces are going to be facing attacks from my father's men, whether from forces here in the colonies, or from forces moving in from the homeland, now that my father has control over the central government." she explained what was coming for them, "Sooner or later, those forces will move to attack us. We need to prevent them from taking the upper hand by taking the fight to them, assisting my brother's forces in defending the colonies. Once we have our victories, they will laud us as the leaders they desire, and the Fire Nation will quickly know whose side I am on."

"The side of the people?" he assumed, and she scoffed.

"My father can make that claim as much as I do. What he can't claim is that he wants to bring peace and prosperity to all the nations, and end the war once and for all." she gave her intentions loud and clear, something he already understood quite well.

"The war has to end for anything to get better." he admitted, before making a smile at her, "Well, maybe not anything." he conceded, eyeing her slightly disgruntled expression, which softened as she realised what he was trying to say.

"I am not here to become your igloo-wife, Sokka." she retorted, reminding him of that rather humorous conversation they had had.

"I never said you wanted to be... or I wanted that. I want you to become the greatest Fire Lord in history... and that isn't exaggeration. I think you could do it, if you really get done what you say you will."

"Reforming and liberating the Earth Kingdom, reinvigorating the Southern Water Tribe and bringing peace and prosperity to the whole world." she acknowledged, before grimacing, "Maybe... maybe Sozin thought he was doing the same thing."

"You're no Sozin." he retorted, "You wouldn't have destroyed the Air Nomads." he argued, and she turned her eyes away.

"Not now... but, I could see her doing it." she acknowledged, with the unusual fact of her referring to her past self in the third person making him feel a little uncomfortable; he understood that she didn't want to associate herself anymore with that person, even though she had changed a lot less than some might have thought.

Her outward image as the cold, calculating and demanding Princess hadn't really broken down, even if she was more willing to use cooperation and deals to get her way over violence; what had changed was her views, at least on the things that seemed to define her own justifications for her loyalty to her father, which had eroded to basically nothing after months at the South Pole, and had been made clear by her choice to help Aang.

If she had just told him to leave the South Pole, and not done anything to try and even suggest they fight the Southern Raiders, then maybe he'd say she still believed she could be that person again. But that never eventuated, no matter how he might have wanted to construe her actions in trying to fool Zhao; she had betrayed Sokka as much as she had the Admiral, but the intentions behind those different betrayals were starkly different.

"You're not her." he assured her, "You saved my village. You chose to help the Avatar. You want to help me rebuild my tribe, and rebuild the nation who you had been sent out to suppress." he listed off a few things he had just been thinking of, "Whatever views you had back then, you obviously don't have them anymore."

"Just calling me misinformed isn't going to cut it." she conceded, before turning her eyes to the servant who was now approaching them with a pot of tea.

She fell silent as the teapot was placed in front of them, and the cups on the table overturned so that they might drink from them. The servant poured them each a cup, before stepping back to let them speak privately, even though they really hadn't even been discussing anything all too explicit or damning of the Princess' image.

"Then what does cut it?" he prodded her, "I mean, you've changed, but you weren't the worst person to ever live before we met."

"I think you misunderstand who I am, Sokka." she narrowed her eyes at him as she picked up the tea, "I never thought of the other nations as being worth my respect, or non-benders either, even if my best friends were. I was told that my firebending made me special- no, superior, and that I was destined for greatness, and that could only be achieved by becoming the ultimate warrior; a master of my element and an unrelenting fighter." she explained things that had defined her, and what she had been taught to do, "I was never going to change, Sokka... I'm just lucky."

"Well, maybe if the White Lotus made you their prisoner, you might have come to appreciate the perspective of others." he suggested what might have occurred if not for her ship sinking, and his fellow warriors being defeated.

"I would have only been angry." she admitted, "Those people were the kind my father wanted me to destroy. To kill them all and make anyone who thought their ideals were righteous quiver in fear and beg for forgiveness... which I mightn't even give." she explained her thoughts, trying her hardest to imagine what she might have been like if not for their time together.

"So, what, I did everything? I mean, I'm a guy who likes credit when it's due, but I think that's overblowing my importance." he argued, knowing that Azula was trying to imply he had been the one to change her mind on everything; that he was the sole source of the new Azula, as if he was this great hero for enlightening her- he couldn't accept that, knowing how smart and intuitive she was already, even when he didn't really like her that much.

"No... you didn't." she agreed with him, "But you were the spark." she contended, her firebending metaphor not missing him, "You showed me that I could deal with people in a way that didn't involve beating or killing them. I kept thinking I could make you my servant... but I guess that's just the fucked up way I think of making friends."

"I mean, Ty Lee and Mai were never your servants, right?"

"Not, but I justified my friendship by their skills and strengths as individuals... though I still respect them for all they are." she acknowledged, before grimacing slightly, "Even Mai's dogged loyalty to Zuko... I can understand it a little better now."

"Well, yeah, they're in love... or were." he clarified, before cringing at the thought that Zuko was dead; he didn't even know the guy, but it just didn't sit well with him that Ozai was willing to just have his own son murdered, even though he had given him mercy instead of doing the same.

The Princess's expression was dour, if not frustrated, and she drunk from her teacup instead of giving a response to his comments; the Water Tribe warrior was not in the mood, nor did he have the energy for an argument about her brother, and what he meant to her, now after all that had happened. That conversation had to happen eventually, but he knew it wasn't the time.

"You weren't heartless, Azula." he assured her, Sokka finding it rather odd that taking the conversation back to such an uncomfortable topic would be less discomforting than actually talking about Zuko, "You never were."

"When somebody tells you that every kind of emotion you feel has to be wielded as a weapon... you find it hard to like or love anything or anyone, other than yourself."

"And do you love yourself?" he asked her, half in jest, and half because he genuinely wondered what her own self-perception was now, after their arguably great victory over her father's forces.

"I am not that up my own arse." she assured him, before she quietened her voice, "Not anymore."

"Wow, that was weird to heard coming out of your mouth." he admitted, making her roll her eyes.

"I'm the greatest Princess ever. I'm the only good thing that's ever happened to you and your tribe and I will be the only one who can fix my nation and the world, because I'm a genius." she forced out what was perhaps the greatest possible claim she could make of herself, though it didn't even sound like she believed it; sarcasm was one thing, but a real disbelief in her own ability was another.

"You... you don't think you'll fail now, do you?"

"I can, but I won't." she clarified, her response a little confusing in and of itself.

"You what?" he narrowed his eyes at her, "You can fail?"

"Everyone can fail... by incompetence, bad luck, or merely circumstance." she argued, "Even me." she acknowledged, "And I know that we haven't had the best circumstances to pursue whatever luck we can find."

"Yeah, that's a bit of an understatement. Your brother almost fried you." he reminded her of what happened.

"And I'm not making that mistake again. When we face my father... it'll be on our terms, not his."

"Uh... you did literally propose that Agni Kai to Mai. Remember?" he asked her, and she face-palmed; obviously she didn't like hearing that her plans weren't all as effective as she made them out to be.

"I have a better planǃ" she declared her own confidence, and he smiled at her.

"Yeah, you do." he agreed with her, "Fixing the world is way better than being Ozai Junior."

"That's not what I meant, savage." she retorted, pointing a finger at him accusingly, "I mean my plan to defeat him is going to work, no matter what ships or soldiers he sends our way."

"Well, that's on the condition that your uncle and all of Zuko's supporters help us." he reminded her how they were planning to actually win the war against Ozai.

"You don't have to remind me. I'm the one coming up with this grand strategy, not you." she retorted, before gesturing to his teacup, "Drink up, before it gets cold."

He picked up the cup, and took a sip, a little amused by her prodding to drink the tea; usually she really wouldn't care about such things, though he guessed she just wanted him to shut up for a bit, so she could recollect her thoughts. Once he finished the cup, he placed it back down onto the table, and eyed her with a sheepish smile.

"Uh... I know you know what you're doing." he conceded, and she raised her chin up.

"I would like you to critique my plans... but I appreciate the support." she admitted with a small smile, her usually serious and cold expression faltering for just a moment.

"Well, you know a whole lot more about strategy than me... even if I am the plan-guy." he noted a simple fact that was clear to both of them, "We just need a plan to, uh, deal with the Dai Li."

"I have been considering that." she clarified, before crossing her arms, "What do you think we should do?"

"Getting to Ba Sing Se is the first issue, and the second is getting some people to actually help us."

"We have Jianren and his men, but beyond that, I assume that King Bumi and his forces might be able to lend their support." she admitted, "There are other rebel groups across the Earth Kingdom that will be willing to work with the Avatar... at least I hope they will."

"People look up to the Avatar, though... I get they might not have much confidence in a twelve year old." he noted something that might become a bit of an issue; Aang's youth and immaturity made it harder than it might be otherwise to persuade people, though he knew that they would trust the Avatar, given his role in protecting the world and peace.

"He's no ordinary child." she warned him, "He, out of anyone, has the status to earn their trust. If he can do that, we can do the persuading."

"Well, I do like a little arguing." he acknowledged, before grimacing, "Just hope that doesn't backfire."

"I'll be the only one shooting fire, thank you very much." she argued, making him snicker at her joking response to what was otherwise a serious conversation.

"If the argument ends in you throwing flames everywhere... I don't think that's an effective negotiation strategy." he warned her, and the Princess nodded.

"It isn't... but if they try to hurt us, then I'll hurt them. I won't do it otherwise."

"Trusting you not to use excessive force?" he raised a brow at what she was suggesting, "I mean, I don't believe it, but I know for sure you'll win. Unless you're fighting somebody with crazy earthbending like Toph, I can't see that happening."

"Ah, speaking of which... she'll probably be coming along with Aang and Katara." she noted with a pleased look on her face, "She'll be of great assistance in those negotiations... lie detection and the fact she's a reputable insurgent against the Fire Nation."

"Not a boot-licker." he noted, before cringing as he realised he was the boot-licker in their present situation, which disgusted his inner warrior, knowing that he ought to be more critical of the Fire Nation; it didn't help that he was essentially being forced to accept whatever stupid policies the other half wanted so they could attack Ozai, no matter if Azula said she wanted to make great reforms and changes to her country and the world.

"I think whatever arguments she has to throw your way might help. Get ready for whatever the rebels have to say about you... other than the obvious stuff."

"What, that I'm a crazy firebender with a tendency to betray all my allies?" she gave perhaps the worst judgement one could make of her.

"I- uh..." he mumbled, not really liking said image, even if it was rather accurate; the context of her betrayals were important, however, as it was unreasonable to think that any Earth Kingdom allies would give her reason for her to betray them, at least before Ozai was defeated, "With good reason. I think they would hate Zhao if you told them about him."

"He's a Fire Nation supremacist who wanted to destroy an entire nation just for a page in the history book... I might respect his resolve, but the absurd thinking behind it, a lot less so." she acknowledged, and Sokka narrowed his eyes, thinking that didn't simply describe Zhao.

"Can't that just as well describe your dad?" he asked, and she cringed at the correlation.

"He... he is." she mumbled, before turning her eyes away, "Who is worthy of my trust?"

"Not your father." he stated the obvious, and she rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me things I already know." she retorted, "I want you to tell me... who is worthy?"

"I mean... we already know what your uncle wants. I mean, you might not agree on everything... but there's a lot of common ground, especially now you're helping Aang."

"That might be true... but he's a man who doesn't dare show his Pai Sho moves." she warned him, the reference a little easier to understand now that Sokka had a grasp of the game; planning ahead was the way one achieved victory in Pai Sho, just like the strategies they were considering at that very moment, and presumably, whatever Iroh was planning to do now that Ozai had seized power.

"But his moves are going to end with your father off the throne... what else could he be planning?"

"To undermine the Fire Nation's chances of choosing its own path."

"But... uh, they don't really get to decide. You do... or your father... or Iroh. Whoever's got the throne does."

"That is true, but when I become Fire Lord, I will take the advice of my ministers, and whatever representatives I can find to explain all matters of industry, trade, service and defence." she acknowledged what she intended to do.

She was able to see that she wasn't omnipotent, or simply the most capable of handling all political problems she'd face as Fire Lord; t was impossible for one person to know everything, as much as Sokka would honestly like to be that person, or for Azula to be, neither of them were anywhere near close.

"I think you're wise to say that." he admitted, and she rolled her eyes.

"Stop kissing my arse." she snarled at him, making him snicker, amused by the fact she didn't want his compliments, but rather for him to rail against any and every little mistake or flaw in her ideas.

"Okay, okay... back to the whole 'trust' issue. We can't trust all the people who are going to help us... they all have their own motivations... including me."

"You want a free Southern Water Tribe. Jianren wants to free his province and help the Earth Kingdom restore its independence. Aang wants balance and to rebuild his nation. I want to defeat my father and become the Fire Lord." she listed off a few things that she knew about things people wanted, "As long as those motivations all allow my own goals to be achieved, there shouldn't be anything wrong with them."

"I mean... what goals are we talking about?" he asked her, knowing that she had a plethora, and many of the people who might end up their 'allies' certainly would agree with some, but abhor others.

"The only one that matters." she narrowed her eyes, "Achieving victory."

"That's just sidestepping the question." he retorted, crossing his arms as he wondered if she was doing so on purpose; perhaps she feared confronting the fact that her plan wouldn't be acceptable to everyone, even if it ultimately would put the world on a better path.

"Defeating my father is what matters now. That's the only way we'll be safe." she admitted, a little more softly than he would have expected.

"I think you're right." he admitted, knowing that was the most important thing for them to do, "But what about the Earth Kingdom?"

"That comes second." she narrowed her eyes, "I know you might want to do what is the best for them... but we can't appease everyone." she warned him, and Sokka shook his head.

"This isn't about appeasing anybody, it's about ending the war." he argued, "What good is empty promises?"

"I will not make empty promises, but I won't make ones I can't fulfil." she argued, before turning her eyes away from him, towards the entrance of the cave; he glanced around, and saw Ty Lee approaching, her face bruised and bandages covering her arms and legs.

The look on her face wasn't one of pain, however, but one of relief; she was glad for their victory, and probably, just glad to be back with them, "Hi." she raised a hand to wave towards them as she paced forward, her strides a little odd, probably because of whatever injuries she had sustained when she fell down into the cave.

"You're already walking well." Azula observed, and she grinned back at her.

"Sure am." she proudly agreed with her before she stepped over to the table, Sokka pulling out the chair beside him for her to sit down.

She glanced around the table, probably just taking note of the cups and teapot they had sitting there, "Oh, you had tea without me."

"I had no idea how long the medic would take." the Princess defended her actions, which was a little amusing given it was such a trivial thing to talk about.

"I don't really care." Ty Lee assured her with a bright look on her face, before eyeing the pot, "As long as there's some left for me."

Sokka picked the teapot up, and she turned over a cup, which he poured some of the still hot tea into; she picked up the cup and sniffed it, before chuckling, "Well... this really was a day to remember."

"Almost dying does that to you." he conceded, making both her and Azula look at him with confusion, "What, I'm right."

"Well, even if you are, we don't need to consider that. Ty Lee had everything under control." Azula commended her friend's efforts, which admittedly were rather impressive; the fact she'd figured out exactly where to get all her pursuers for the cave to collapse underneath them was enough to make him shake his head in shock.

"How did you manage that? I don't even think Azula'd come up with something that absurd." he asked her, the acrobat smirking back at him confidently.

"Well, I'm just as much a genius as her." she bragged, before scrunching her lips up, "I already knew the cave was there... I just had to find a way in."

"And you somehow thought caving in the roof was the best way?" he asked, Azula clapping her hands together before gesturing to her friend.

"The best way to defeat one's enemies is to let the environment do it for you." she argued, "That's basic strategy, Sokka."

"Uh... yeah." he nodded, before shaking his head, "How are you, Ty Lee?" he decided to change the topic of conversation, knowing that Ty Lee's injuries were probably more important than the fact she was able to beat a bunch of soldiers by collapsing the ground underneath them.

"A bit better. It still aches all over... but I mean, we won." she explained, keeping up a smile despite whatever pain and frustration she actually felt, but didn't want to express; obviously she hated being a bad mood, so she was forcing herself to be more positive, especially now that they'd actually won the battle.

"But, are you okay? That was a pretty high fall from what I can tell." he admitted, and she shrugged her shoulders, before sipping from her tea.

"Yeah, it hurt." she gave a blunt, but rather bland view of it, "Having a soldier fall on top of you isn't just a little jab."

"That's what makes your feat all the more impressive. By the time we got there, you'd restrained General Gyoko." Azula observed with a look of pride in her eyes, "You did even more than I hoped."

"Thanks, Zula... but I was just doing, well, what I needed to. We had to stop these guys. We couldn't just run away... I know you'd hate doing that."

"Whatever information he gives us, it's because of your actions." she acknowledged, before chuckling, "If I could give you anything more than tea and proper medical care, I would."

"How about a better bedroom at the base?" she suggested, making Azula narrow her eyes.

"We won't be there for much longer. Shengchang is next, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." she nodded, before raising the teacup to her lips, "We're going to make a whole lot more airships now."

"And make my father wish that he'd won this battle above all else." Azula added, "Making him feel like a fool is something I take pride in."

"Really?" she looked at her friend with confusion, "I thought you wanted to just stop him... not make him look stupid."

"Stupidity and arrogance is weakness, not love." she explained, referring to the idea her father held about emotions, love and attachment, which were admittedly rather disturbing in Sokka's eyes, "I'm going to prove that."

"I mean, I think Yu Dao kinda proves half your claim." he admitted, and Azula shot him an annoyed glare.

"Are you calling me stupid, Sokka?" she questioned him, making the Water Tribesman snicker.

"No, no, just a bit arrogant... but you've learned a lot about that too." he suggested, and she nodded, before chuckling, her expression telling him she had a good idea about where arrogance would lead Ozai after all his effort.

"Oh, but I bet Father hasn't."

---

Toph already knew that going into a town for supplies would be a bad idea, especially given that Aang recalled that he and Katara had gotten attacked there were when they were there last; the young Avatar was quick to argue that they were just trying to help people hurt by a surprise attack from rebel forces, but that just told her they were going into a place where a fight might occur. Though she was usually eager to have a fight, she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about the thought of facing off against more Fire Nation soldiers, especially given they could avoid it; she just wanted to get to their destination, which was only about a day's flight away, just to the north.

It had taken them a few weeks travel northward, but they were finally reaching the last stretch of their journey, now in the north-western reaches of the Fire Nation's colonies, which were, like the area around Omashu, only under partial control, with local Earth Kingdom forces posing a serious insurrection against the occupation. That wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't concerned by the thought of getting caught in the crossfire between Fire Nation forces and her fellow countrymen. She just wanted some rest, a little bored after weeks of training Aang; though he was actually catching onto earthbending better than she imagined he would, he would still need months of training to get anywhere near her level, even with his prodigious ability inherent in being an Avatar.

She didn't need to make him into the perfect earthbender, but the challenge beckoned to her more than anything she'd faced before; Toph bit back at those thoughts by telling herself she needed at least some time to rest and refocus herself. She couldn't spend months on end just flying around the Earth Kingdom, even if that could end up doing great good for the country itself; it would just be intolerable, so she was glad to know they were close by.

Meeting Azula and Sokka again was something that interested her, and she knew that they might be able to provide her with some better insight to their actual plans. The Avatar was only twelve, and didn't seem to have the best grasp of their whole plan, even if he understood the basic steps and the reasons for it; Katara was more interested in helping Aang at that very moment than forming any coherent plan, but Toph didn't blame her for that. She cared more about people than about specific goals, even if she definitely had some.

She decided not to complain as they donned their disguises and plodded down from a nearby hill towards the town, called Huangcha, which from what she could tell, wasn't odd or unusual; she could sense people walking around the streets, and some of those people were clearly soldiers, as she could sense their metal plated boots, though only the closest of the soldiers were in any way distinguishable.

"Did you know we walked right down here a few months ago?" Aang spoke up with his usual bright and giddy tone, "And we went to go buy a map and get some lunch."

"But I thought you said you got attacked." she reminded him of what they had been talking about as they had disguised themselves.

"No, no, that was the next time." he clarified, shaking his head, "That was when me and Katara got pastries... and then the Earth Kingdom attacked."

"Yeah, no I remember the story." she stressed, before increasing her strides, "And is it just me, or is there a lot of soldiers ahead of us?"

"I think it's just a checkpoint." Katara gave her thoughts, "We don't have anything bad on us, so it should be fine."

As they continued on through the woods down to the road proper, it became apparent to Toph that the town's garrison weren't messing around, with a proper checkpoint set up by the road, along with what seemed like hastily assembled palisades around the edge of town. She knew that the Fire Nation were afraid of Earth Kingdom attacks, but what she was sensing was something else entirely. The texture of the earth she was sensing around the palisades as well told her that they had to be fresh, probably put in within the last week.

"Step forward!" she heard one of the soldiers shout out, and she noted the commoners striding forward to get checked; it wasn't anything too complex, just a body search, and from the quiet voices she heard, presumably just some basic questions, nothing that Toph couldn't pass through.

She was good at detecting lies, and after having to deal with her parents and act like the perfect little daughter, she was rather good at dishing them out. She could sense that Katara and Aang were both a little uneasy about what was going on, but she tapped both of them on their backs.

"Don't worry, I got this handled." she assured them, knowing that she would be a better liar than either of them.

They had to stand there for some time as the commoners were paraded through the checkpoint, and she stepped forward as the soldiers presumably eyed them, "What are you kids doing here?"

"Shopping. You know, so we don't starve." Toph retorted, and a few of the soldiers laughed at her reply, which wasn't really meant to be a joke.

"Alright. Could you just show us your bags, please?" he asked, and Katara stepped forward, doing just that, "Thanks." he acknowledged, before stepping closer to them, "Just one more question."

"Yep." Toph nodded, raising her chin up so she was facing him; being blind, she didn't usually look at people when they talked, but she knew that doing so would ensure he knew she wasn't fooling around.

"Have you seen any Fire Nation soldiers bearing a gold standard or unflagged on your trip here?" he asked, making Toph furrow a brow; they hadn't run into any soldiers before reaching the checkpoint, but perhaps it ought to be expected there were soldiers around- the specification of the standard seemed to tell her they were looking for enemies.

"Uh, nope. Are they the guys you're hunting down?" she asked, and the soldier nodded.

"Yes. We cannot allow any enemies of the Fire Lord to escape the province if they can be caught." he explained, "If you encounter any of them, be sure to alert any soldiers at once. They are dangers to both yourselves and any settlements they come across."

"Sure will." she simply acknowledged his words, not really caring for whatever a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers were worrying about, "Can we go through now?"

"Carry on." he gestured down the road, and with that, the trio made their way on into the town; she could notice that Aang and Katara were both taken a little aback, though she couldn't tell why.

"What's wrong?" she asked them, Aang speaking up first.

"Well, the gold standard is the one I'm pretty sure Ozai's forces use." he admitted, "So... that means this town can't be under their control."

"What colour were their standards?"

"The normal colour. Red." Katara clarified, making Toph scrunch up her lips, not liking her tone.

"Well, how was I meant to know that, huh?" she asked her rhetorically, the Water Tribe girl turning away slightly, obviously realising her mistake, "Yeah, exactly."

As they made their way down the street, she noticed that the foot traffic was increasing substantially, approaching what had to be one of the town's street markets; she could hear some indiscriminate shouts and calls out from that direction, but she didn't really know what was going on. Perhaps it was just that one day that they had a big market sale, but she couldn't be sure, being the first time she'd ever visited the town.

"Should we take this path?" she heard Aang mumble behind her, "Maybe another street will be less... uh, full of people."

"We're going to buy something, aren't we?" Toph asked, "That's the market, right?"

"Uh, one of them." he clarified, "I guess we could buy some food."

"Good, I'm hungry." she simply gave her opinion, before striding on ahead, not considering whether they wanted to go or not; they were there, and they could buy something, so they would.

As they pushed into the bustling street market, she sensed around, trying to tell which stalls were selling what. She could only really sense the things people were holding, so she made sure to focus on what was in their hands. She sensed bags, presumably of grain and vegetables, as well as wrapped up pieces of cloth or paper, which she couldn't tell; nothing that she sensed, however, seemed to be street food.

"Hey, there's a stall selling noodles over there." Aang gestured down the street, leading them over to the stall, where they stood in the short line to wait to buy some.

As people paced past them, loudly speaking amongst themselves, the chatter more than a little annoying, Toph turned her attention to Aang and Katara, unsure if she could stand there in silence without losing her patience.

"What else are we doing?" she asked them, knowing that being so close to Azula's base of operations, they'd have to be eager as well to leave.

"Maybe we can just look around for a bit." Aang admitted, his voice sounding slightly nervous, "I think something's happened."

"Why?" she asked, the young Avatar turning his head around a few times, presumably looking around for soldiers.

"Because there's way too many soldiers around. Last time there was barely any." he argued, and she shrugged her shoulders, not thinking it was much of an issue; the only thing she knew that as the soldiers couldn't be loyal to Ozai, they were relatively safe in the town, even if it wouldn't be wise for them to reveal their identities.

"Isn't that a reason for us to leave?" Katara asked him, and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know... maybe something happened... I mean, they're hunting down the 'bad guys'. So, they must have had a fight." he explained his deductions, and Toph raised a finger to her cheek, thinking that he had a good point; the fact that there was a battle meant that things might have been shifting up, though whether that would be in their favour was yet to be seen.

"I think you're right." she admitted, before scrunching her lips up, "There's only one way to find out, then." she admitted, before stepping closer to the people in the line ahead of them; she tapped one of them on the shoulder, a young man, who turned around, seeming a bit confused.

"What?"

"Do you know why there's so many soldiers around? We just came into town, and we're a little confused." she gave him the honest truth, though she left out the reason why they were in the town to begin with.

"Oh... you don't know? There was a big battle... then they all came here. They're all loyal to the new Fire Lord."

"Sorry, the new Fire Lord?" Aang asked, "How many Fire Lords are there?"

"Uh, only two." he clarified, seeming a bit amused by that question.

"Wait a minute." Katara mumbled, turning both of them around with a push of her hands, "Does that mean Azula controls this place?" she whispered to them, and both Aang and Toph nodded.

"I think so." the Earth Kingdom girl gave her opinion, "Who else could it be?"

"Well, that makes things easy." Aang chirpily piped up, "As soon as we get our food, we can go speak to whoever's in charge. They'll tell us what we need to know."

"That's... an easy solution." the Water Tribe girl conceded, before the man they had been speaking to stepped over.

"Sorry, speak to who?"

"Uh, just our friends." Katara bluffed, "Uh, we're here to meet them." she explained, and he nodded, turning around to go order his meal.

"I mean, maybe we are." Aang noted, and Toph raised a brow; she didn't imagine the others would be in the very town they were in, especially given it wasn't somewhere she imagined would be very safe for Azula, who had to have as much protection as possible from assassins or potential invading forces.

Even if they had just defeated an enemy army, Toph had fought enough battles to know that a single battle did not usually determine the outcome of a war, especially when it was over some kind of backwater on the edge of the Fire Nation colonies. She knew that the war over the throne would not end easily, and she imagined Aang would have to master the elements to even try to play a role in that resolution, which despite the Air Nomad's aversion to violence, would certainly not be a bloodless peace.

"Hello?" she heard somebody address them, and she realised that it was the person behind the stall; Aang stepped up, and pointed his finger around, presumably eyeing whatever food was sitting in front of them, somewhat hard for Toph to sense as it was sitting on various layers of wood, up off the ground.

"How much for three bowls of noodles?"

"That'd be two silver." he clarified, and the Avatar quickly pulled out the requested currency, placing it in the stall-owners hand, "You're eager, kid."

"Well, we have things to do." he replied, before the man turned around to prepare their noodles; sniffing the air around the stall, she was sure that it was going to taste nice.

She tapped her foot on the ground as she waited for the stall-owner to turn back around, offering first a bowl to Aang, then to Katara, and finally to her; Toph took the bowl into her hands, and sensed around, wondering where they'd go to eat.

"Where are we going?" she asked them, and Aang indicated down the street.

"There's a place out by the town square where me and Azula sat." he explained, and she noticed that he'd gotten a few odd glances from name-dropping perhaps the most well-known person in the town at the moment, given that it was pretty clear she was behind the surprising number of soldiers in town.

"Uh... maybe don't just mention you know who so much." she suggested, elbowing him before she began pacing down the street, "Well, come on, I wanna actually sit down and eat." she prodded the other two, who followed after her.

They made their way down the street, out from the busiest part where all the stalls were, towards the square that Aang had mentioned, which was easy for her to sense, with the positions of the buildings indicating a large rectangular space that seemed to lack many people, though there was pedestrians around the outside. As they got closer to the square, she noticed some soldiers marching in their direction, making her tense up; even if they were all in fact their allies, she wasn't quick to trust Fire Nation soldiers, given what she'd faced fighting them.

Aang didn't seem anywhere near as nervous, but Katara certainly was, Toph noting her heartbeat hastening as the soldiers walked by them; she obviously had similar feelings when it came to firebenders, and she had a good idea why. She decided not to mention anything, just walking towards a bench as they reached the town square; she just wanted to eat, not ask them about their fears, knowing that really wasn't something she imagined anybody wanted to talk about. That'd just ruin the mood, now that they knew that Azula had taken control of the town.

When she sat herself down, she eagerly dug into her bowl of noodles, just glad that they'd gotten some decent food for once; their avoidance of towns meant they had to subsist on what little rations they had in the saddlebags, which sufficed, but was not really to her liking. Katara could be a great cook, but with no good ingredients, it didn't really matter how much she tried. Their diet wasn't the most appealing, and as soon as she tasted the noodles, her mood improved. The interesting mix of spices was a little strange and off-putting at first, but she quickly got used to it; the others seemed to like it as well, and once she was a good way through the bowl, she decided to take a little break, sensing around them to check if they were being watched.

It seemed that their disguises were once again effective, as people walked by them around the square, completely oblivious to their presence; further afield she could sense guards standing duty, and on the opposite side of the town square, she noted a building that was surrounded by scaffolding. She remembered the story Aang and Katara had detailed to her, and hummed in interest, cocking her head towards it.

"So, that's what they destroyed?" she asked, the others nodding.

"Yeah." the young Avatar confirmed, "It threw us off our feet. A lot of people got hurt... even Katara."

"It wasn't that bad." she assured him, "It was just a bit of a shock." she explained, her heartbeat suggesting she might have been downplaying it a bit, probably just to keep Aang from feeling bad about it; she could already tell from his tone that he was still shaken by the event.

"How'd they react when they found out who you were, anyway?" she asked him, making him cringe and look around.

"Uh... scared, I think." he conceded, "The guards chased us out of town."

"And we were trying to help." Katara added, sounding annoyed by the way they had been treated; unlike when they had gone to free those Earth Kingdom prisoners, it sounded like they had tried to actually help the locals who were in danger, yet the guards turned on them as soon as they knew their identities.

"That's a bit-" she began, before shaking her head, knowing that if it had been the opposite way around, in New Omashu, she probably would have treated some Fire Nation people, no matter how helpful, with similar contempt, "Trust is in short supply when we're all fighting for the fate of our nations."

"You're right." Katara turned to face her, "I'm not surprised... just disappointed."

"I think things are gonna change." Aang spoke up, hopeful as ever, and Toph made a small smile, genuinely just hoping he was right; the conflict had gone on for long enough, and her nation had suffered enough- all she wanted was for some kind of actual future for it, beyond the fighting, poverty, fleeing and oppression by the hands of each other and the Fire Nation.

"They better." she almost threatened, "Or I'm going to have to keep beating heads until the Earth Kingdom comes back together."

"Isn't fighting the problem?" Aang asked her, and she scoffed.

"No, it's just why and who we're fighting." she argued, knowing that there were darker shades of bastard in her own nation, as well as the others, "I don't think I have to tell you who we're gonna have to fight." she simply told him what she thought, not bothering to detail their enemies- they all knew who they were by that point.

She then continued chewing on her meal, enjoying the noodles as she scooped the last of them into her mouth; the meal was good, at least for Fire Nation food, though that made her wonder what kind of food she'd get when she was living in the Princess's place. She pursed her lips up at the thought of it, more glad than ever that a Princess of the Fire Nation had teamed up with the Avatar; it had to be one of the more absurd things she'd seen in her life, but it certainly was going to be an advantageous partnership, especially for Toph.

Ever the strategist, she was imagining what she could get out of an alliance with such a powerful person; she seemed like the kind of person who was going to revamp a lot of things once she got the power she desired, and that meant that Toph could certainly get a lot out of that, both for herself personally, but also for her nation. As they finished their meals, Aang rose up to his feet, facing towards the damaged building, and his heartbeat suggested he was either afraid or excited, though she couldn't be sure.

"Let's go." he told them, and with that, Katara and Toph followed after him, not really having much of a choice; he was the one who could prove he was the Avatar with his bending, so if they were going to get anything out of the soldiers, it was with him they were going to do it.

As they paced across the town square, she sensed around, not noticing any soldiers other than those who were standing guard by the building they were approaching; some of them stepped forward, obviously a bit concerned why a few teenagers would be approaching them.

"Stop right there." one of them commanded them, "You can't come any closer to the hall without good reason." he warned them, and Aang stepped closer.

"I have a good reason, trust me." he told him eagerly, before reaching for his head, presumably pulling the bandana he liked to wear off, "You see?"

"O-oh..." the man gasped out, he and the other soldiers' heartbeats racing upon realising who was standing before them; it seemed that people were afraid of him, and for the Avatar to just show up out of nowhere and reveal himself, it must have been a great shock, "By the spirits. I- nobody would have see this coming."

"Well, Azula would. Because we're coming back to meet with her." he explained the reason for their presence in the colonial town, "Is there anybody we can speak with about what happened? People mentioned a battle."

"Uh, y-yes, there is." the soldier nodded, before gesturing behind him, "Just follow me. I'm sure the Major will be pleased to see that her majesty's allies have returned." he explained as they did just that.

The group paced after him into the damaged building, whose doorway had been replaced by a curtain of fabric, presumably until they could be bothered putting up some actual doors; she only realised this when the fabric hit her in the face, which was a bit of a surprise. After that, they continued on inside, Toph noting that the building was rather spacious, though she could sense the damage that had been dealt to it; ahead of them, she could sense a table where a few soldiers were sitting, and at the head, a man stood up, having made sight of them.

"Is that- well, I didn't expect to see you here, Avatar." he acknowledged Aang's presence, "You probably don't remember me. I'm Major Zhi... I'm overseeing the operations in Huangcha." he explained his role, before gesturing towards the table, "You and your friends are welcome to use our resources as the Fire Lord's most esteemed allies."

"Uh... thanks." Aang awkwardly thanked him, before glancing around the room, "I remember when this building got blown up."

"Oh, you were here for that?" the officer commented, seeming surprised by that fact, "Well, a lot has happened since whenever that happened. Ozai's forces invaded."

"Yeah, we figured." Katara spoke up, "What actually happened? You obviously won... but how?"

"With a sound plan and the advantage of earthbenders on our side. We had waited on the road for the enemy, and they fell right into our trap. The enemy General was captured and his forces scattered. We're still cleaning things up here in Yi Province, but soon, we'll be heading for Shengchang."

"Where's that?" Aang asked, and the Major tapped down on the table, perhaps gesturing to a map, though being blind, Toph was completely unaware of what it might be.

"Three and a half day's ride to the north-west of here. It's a relatively large colony, and the closest with the industrial base that her majesty requires for her future operations." he explained, making the young Avatar tap at his chin.

"Huh... so she does want to invade the colonies."

"Uh, well, we hope it won't be an invasion. We are liberating the people from the rule of the usurper, and those that might have been loyal to her majesty's brother might swear their loyalties to her."

"She has the Dragon of the West's approval, if that's anything." Toph spoke up, making Zhi turn her way.

"The- wait, have you spoken with the General?"

"Yeah, at great lengths about this whole disaster... the civil war, I mean." she clarified, "You ash-makers have really gotten yourselves into a shit situation."

"Well, that was the doing of the Dragon of the West himself, I might remind you." he warned her, making her cringe.

"And where would we be if Ozai was still Fire Lord?"

"Perhaps facing even more rebels... to our luck, her majesty has a far more effective method of dealing with them."

"By making friends?" Aang asked, rather hopefully, and to Toph's surprise, Zhi nodded.

"Uh, yes, she has. The formidable Jianren and his fighters were of great assistance to us, and their comrades who once resisted our rule will hopefully join us in saving these lands from the usurper."

"Well, that's good to hear." the Avatar noted, "I thought I was going to have to go talk with some of the rebels for her."

"Me too." Katara conceded, "Diplomacy isn't her strong suit."

"Oh, you'd be surprised." the Major warned them, before he glanced around the room, "Uh, would you like tea? Perhaps something to eat?"

"We just got lunch." Toph told him matter of factly, "But I could go for some tea." she conceded, turning her head slightly so that she was facing towards Aang and Katara, "How about you two?"

"Tea sounds nice." the Water Tribe girl admitted, and the Avatar simply nodded, before Zhi snapped a finger, probably gesturing for somebody to go get them tea.

"We've been gone a month." she spoke up once more, "More must have happened."

"Well, I am not privy to everything her majesty went through, but I can tell you what she has achieved."

"Go ahead." Aang suggested, "I wanna know what they've been doing."

"Well, she met with the local Earth Kingdom commoners, and saw to their grievances."

"I bet they had a lot to complain about." Toph spoke her mind, knowing that the local people probably were being suppressed harshly while the army was without its leader; she didn't know much about their operations, only having heard snippets of intelligence from Bumi and the leaders of his own army.

"Uh, well, her majesty was open to suggestion. That's what I heard. We had been forced into... a tricky situation before she arrived."

"Tax them or you starve, right?" she asked, her question seeming to make both Aang and Katara uncomfortable.

"Uh..." he mumbled, "Well, that is a blunt way of putting it."

"True, though." she stressed, "No army survives without food."

"And are you somebody experienced with armies, girl?" he asked her, seeming a little offended by her way of talking to him.

"I do, actually. I'm sure you heard about what Azula did near Omashu, right?" she asked Zhi, who nodded, "Well, I was one of the people leading the Earth Kingdom forces... I mean, I wasn't the commanding officer, but nobody messes with me. I don't joke around when it comes to fighting."

"I didn't realise you were Earth Kingdom." he conceded, "I assume you are the Avatar's master."

"Correct." she confirmed, before furrowing a brow, "And you're unquestioning of that?"

"The Fire Lord mastered firebending as an adolescent. I have no doubt that an earthbender could do the same... your attitude makes me think you have something to back it up."

"Great deduction skills." she conceded his wit, before snapping a finger, "But, you were telling us what she was doing, remember?"

"Ah, yes." he shook his head, "My apologies... her majesty and her associates soon departed for Shengchang, and met with a number of civilians who claimed to support her; that meeting was a success, and a deal was struck. They returned to our base of operations, though I hear that they had a run in with bounty hunters... from the former Fire Lord."

"Uh... which one?" Katara asked, understandably confused by the vagueness.

"The dead one." he clarified, before clearing his throat, "They were no match for her majesty and her Imperial Firebenders, and she returned soon after, and ordered our engineers to start building a new airship, like the one she made to travel to the North Pole."

"Huh... another one." Aang mumbled, "Is it finished?"

"I believe the prototype will be fitted out and ready to fly any day now." he answered his question, "We received a messenger about two weeks ago, from the governor of this province, a man named Boei. He offered his loyalty to her majesty out of fear of the invading forces; we then prepared ourselves to repel them... but things got- uh, well, a little chaotic."

"What, did your plan fall through?" Toph asked, and by his heartbeat, it seemed that she had missed the point.

"No it went perfectly." he shook his head, "It was before we left- the earthbenders the Fire Lord had contracted to assist us in building defences to face said army were attacked. It turned out that it had been orchestrated by one of my colleagues, who had feared that we would be defeated in battle. She rooted out the traitors among our ranks by tricking us into believing we were being attacked by the invading army at that very instance. Those who sought to betray her tried to flee, and failed."

"Well, I like her strategy." Toph smirked, thinking Azula's plan to be rather genius; she didn't even need to ask the men who was the traitor, but simply make them believe that they had no choice but to out themselves.

"How many traitors were there?" Katara asked, and the Major seemed to tense up.

"Seven amongst the officers in the meeting, but there were more loyal to their cause. They had been following through with an offer Admiral Zhao had been given... but he never was able to fulfil it... given what happened to him."

"So, that was why he betrayed her back at the North Pole?" the Water Tribe girl asked, and he nodded.

"I believe so. Nobody dared to mention the Admiral's plan, lest we make ourselves look like collaborators."

"Uh... yeah I guess Azula might not react well." Aang conceded with a clearly nervous voice, "Did she- uh... hurt them?"

"Not anymore than was necessary to capture them. I believe some suggested they be executed, but she refused to do so. The men weren't much of a threat to our operations... though it was harder to organise our forces with less officers." he clarified, "The battle happened a few days later in the hills north of here; the enemy was moving towards our base, and we ambushed them on the road. The battle only lasted an hour or so, but once they lost their leader, the enemy army dispersed. We've been hunting them down for the past week throughout Yi Province."

"Huh..." the Air Nomad boy hummed with interest, "So, I guess things worked out for you all."

"Certainly." Zhi nodded, "But we have to keep our guard up. We still don't know if reinforcements will be heading into the province to fight us, but when they come we will need to be ready."

"What about this colony you were talking about, Shengchang? Does she want to attack it right now?"

"Attack isn't the best description of her majesty's plan." he conceded, "She intends to infiltrate the colony with a group of soldiers, and take it over from the inside. Though some recommended against a repeat of Yu Dao, she assured us that the plan would work, as she already has a number of supporters within the city who will be able to assist us. When she has control over the colony's defences, we will attack any remaining enemy forces with our new airship and a number of catapults, to ensure that any hostile forces withdraw."

"So, another battle." Katara observed, "Are you sure you have enough soldiers... no offence, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot more of them guarding the colonies."

"The chaos due to the death of Fire Lord Zuko means that we are prime position to seize control of the colony. If it is still loyal to the former Fire Lord, then perhaps they can be persuaded to our side... that is one of the options her majesty laid out to us."

"And what about the rebels?" Toph asked, "I've been speaking with my former superior, King Bumi of Omashu, and he's planning to send forces north to assist you. Does this mean you can withdraw from Earth Kingdom territory back to the colonies?"

"Uh... I believe that was the plan. Jianren, the leader of the local resistance, has stated his intention to take custody of our base, and protect the local peasantry from bandits and hostile Fire Nation forces." he explained, "But we need a new naval base. That is something our forces are presently engaged with... scouring the colonies for cities that might accept the rule of the rightful Fire Lord."

"Well it's good to hear everybody's working together." Aang acknowledged with a cheerful voice, "Now we can focus on fixing the Earth Kingdom, and making sure Ozai doesn't invade."

"We aren't in the position to stop enemy forces from landing on the continent just yet.. but what remains of Zuko's navy may be swayed to our side. With that, we will hold supremacy over the sea."

"And then we'll get our end of the bargain." Katara added, her ominous tone reminding Toph of what they discuss back at her tribe's encampment.

"The Southern Raiders?" she asked, the Water Tribe girl nodding; Zhi seemed to be surprised by what he had just heard, and placed his hands down on the table.

"Excuse me, what are you talking about? The Southern Raiders are on the other side of the Earth Kingdom from us. I don't see how they're relevant to our plans with the colonies."

"Well, I was told that Azula's fleet would be assisting my tribe in destroying the Southern Raiders." Katara clarified, "Because that was the bargain she made to get our support. All those warriors who are coming to help you and your friends... they're here because they know they can get back what was taken from us."

"I- uh, well, I'm not a navy man myself. You'd have to speak with the Princess to clarify that." he conceded, and Toph cleared her throat, remembering something rather important.

"What was her reaction?" she asked him bluntly, hoping that he'd just know what she was referring to.

"Her majesty's? To what?"

"The death of her brother." she asked, and the Major leaned back in his chair, perhaps taken aback by the morbidity of the topic.

"I am unsure what her feelings on the matter are. That is something nobody else is privy to."

"I mean, does she think she can work with Iroh? You know, the guy who was Zuko's right-hand man?" she asked more straightly, and he seemed to relax himself.

"Certainly. Her majesty explicitly stated her desire to coordinate with the Dragon of the West so that we could expel Ozai's forces from the continent."

"Well that settles it then." she clapped her hands together, "We're going to gang up and beat the living shit out of that crazy bastard." she declared proudly, just glad that things were actually going in their favour; if Azula, Bumi and Iroh all worked together, along with what help they could receive from rebel forces throughout the Earth Kingdom, they'd have a chance to wipe the floor with Ozai and finally end the war.

"I mean, that's not how I would have put it." Aang mumbled, seeming a little taken aback by her attitude, "But... you're right. We can defeat him, together." he suggested, offering a hand over the table, Katara and Toph slapping their own palms over his hand; the Water Tribe girl let out a chuckle, and seemed to be smiling as she responded to his offer.

"The world's been waiting a hundred years for this moment."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Sugar Queen." Toph stopped her, knowing that things weren't in motion until they actually got the people they needed to run the show working on their plan, "We haven't got 'her majesty' and her angry sidekick here with us yet."

"If Sokka heard you call him that, he'd probably try and find a way to get rid of your bending, permanently." she warned, making her snicker; as much as she loved her bending, she admittedly found such an idea rather impressive.

"Ha, I'd like to see him try."