Sleeping on frozen, jagged rocks was not Ty Lee's first choice. Then again, she'd gotten used to comfort during the many years she'd spent on-and-off in the Fire Lord's palace. At thirty-five, she was still in better shape than any of her fellow Kiyoshi Warriors, so that was something. Her joints were getting a bit stiff from the cold, though, and staking out outside Omori's hideous walls for a week with no sign of activity- other than a few messenger hawks- made her impatient, which was why she was meditating now. The cave they were sheltering in gave them a good view of Omori and its' surroundings, but between the regular wall patrols and the lack of terrain to provide cover, the Kiyoshi had been unable to get any closer to the fortress.

Ty Lee hadn't seen anything worth reporting back so far, at least nothing that Zuko couldn't find out by observation balloon. Before they had left, the Yuyan Archers told her that Takeo occasionally sent out small scouting parties, although she couldn't understand why: there was nothing to forage for in the dead of winter, and since Zuko's troops were not deployed on land yet, there were no enemy camps to sabotage. But since the Kiyoshi had arrived, no new patrols emerged from Omori. Hence her week of sleeping on frozen, jagged rocks.

Ty Lee wasn't complaining, though. It had been a while since either Suki or Mai had found her a mission that promised real action. Both women were busy training the next generation: Suki her pupils, and Mai her daughter. Ty Lee loved them both dearly, but being regulated to captain of the guard dimmed her aura. She loved socializing and she loved intense action, and these were hard to find in the ultra-formal, extremely secure Capitol. If she were a bit more ambitious, Ty Lee would have made a play for Suki's job; she might not have her leadership skills, but she was a more talented fighter, and extremely popular among the younger Kiyoshi Warriors. But Ty Lee could never do that to Suki, especially now when she and Sokka had just split. She simply fell back into her usual role of following and delegating orders.

That didn't stop you at the Boiling Rock, though...

Ty Lee shook her head. That hadn't been ambition, it had been love and trust versus love and fear, and that was no choice.

"Ty Lee." A voice broke through her thoughts. "Jeonsa saw movement on the western mountain track. Two Fire Nation soldiers, heading towards Omori."

Ty Lee opened her eyes. Although she knew her fellow warriors' faces by now, it was still jarring to see them without their traditional mask of war paint. "Are they Zuko's or Takeo's?"

Jeonsa knelt in front of her. She was the newest addition to Ty Lee's team, coming from the western edge of the Earth Kingdom. "I didn't see any insignia on their uniforms, but their armor was black and bronze-"

"They're Takeo's. Zuko's troops wear red and bronze armor, except his personal guard." Ty Lee stood up. "Good eye, Jeonsa. How close are they to our cave?"

"About half a mile. If they pass by, they'll be able to see the canvass over the entrance."

"We'll need to take them by surprise." She smiled encouragingly at her pupil. "Ready to put those chi-blocking lessons to good use?"

Jeonsa swallowed nervously, then smiled back. "They'll never know what hit them, sifu."

Tucking her long braid under her hood, Ty Lee pulled a scarf over the lower half of her face and stepped out of the cave entrance. Immediately she was assaulted by ferociously cold night air, despite her insulated white jumpsuit; the cave might not be very hospitable, but it at least kept them out of the wind. Jeonsa followed her out, gesturing at a narrow track carved into the mountain's western shoulder. Not far off, two figures in furs and light armor were trudging in the direction of Omori: scouts. The skull-like eye visors of their helmets marked them as Firebenders.

Picking her way along the rock-face above the path, Ty Lee settled into a crouch, ready to spring. As the muffled sound of boots crushing snow drew nearer, she glanced at Jeonsa, who had climbed down a jagged outcrop and come up behind the two Firebenders. She tapped two fingers against her left shoulder, then her neck. Jeonsa nodded, took a deep breath, and darted forward, her soft-soled boots muffling her footsteps. At the same moment, Ty Lee jumped, dropping directly onto her victim's shoulders. The impact nearly knocked the wind out of her, but as they both hit the ground her fingers found the spot she was looking for, at the base of the neck between the helmet and cuirasse-straps. The rebel was unconscious before he even had a chance to struggle.

A yelp of alarm and a whoosh of flame behind her told Ty Lee that Jeonsa's strike must have missed. As she spun around, she realized she was only half-right; Jeonsa had managed to chi-block the Firebender, but on the leg rather than the arms. Although struggling to stay upright, he was wildly hurling jets of fire at Jeonsa as she circled around him, looking for an opening. As he raised his arm again, Ty Lee caught his wrist from behind and jabbed two fingers against the pressure point in his opposite shoulder, paralyzing him.

Jeonsa hastily withdrew a length of cord from her belt and lashed the unconscious scout's wrists and ankles together. "Sorry, sifu." Her expression was forlorn. "I don't understand why I missed, I knew exactly where I was supposed to hit him-"

"It's impossible to anticipate everything." Ty Lee waved it off as she bound her own prisoner's limbs. "You still managed to disable him, no problem. Let's bring them up here and see what they can tell us."

In the short time it took them to bring their victims back up to the mouth of the cave, the east wind began to pick up. Shielding herself under an overhang, Ty Lee crouched over Jeonsa's captive, who was alert despite his paralysis. "You know, it's not the best weather to be going for a hike." She remarked conversationally. "I mean, even for a Firebender, you're really pushing it."

The scout's expression changed from defiant contempt to confusion in about two seconds. "Eh?"

"I mean, I get that Takeo wants you to see what the Fire Lord's up to, but think about the risk. You're heading out into land that hasn't been properly charted since the Air Nomad Genocide, risking encounters not just with local wildlife but enemy scouts, airships, artillery... and he only sends two of you?" Ty Lee shrugged and brushed snow from her hood, carefully keeping her face covered. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you volunteered for this as some ridiculous plan to win back a bit of ... 'honor?'"

"Either that, or they were looking for a chance to defect." Jeonsa added casually. "Any direction's the right direction if they were looking for the Fire Lord's mercy; they're completely surrounded by air, land and sea."

The sneer returned to the scout's face. "That's what you think. If we wanted to evacuate Omori, we could do it at any time."

"Oh?" Ty Lee cocked an eyebrow. "And how you'll accomplish that while you're completely surrounded is...?"

"You'll have to wait until the battle." The rebel snorted. "I'm not stupid enough to tell you what General Takeo's plan is-"

"But apparently you are stupid enough to tell us that there is a secret evacuation route." Jeonsa tweaked his nose and glanced at Ty Lee. "Wonder if the entire garrison knows about that? If the scouts were aware..."

"Could be." Ty Lee pretended to nod in agreement. "Maybe we'll pick up a few deserters whose tongues are a bit looser than this one. He's probably told us all he's able to, anyway."

The scout's abashed expression faded, and a smug smile crossed his face. "It doesn't matter whether you learned anything from me... since you won't live long enough to tell about it anyway!" He suddenly threw his body sideways and thrust his bound hands at Jeonsa's face in a Firebending gesture, but nothing happened. She snagged the cords around his wrists and jerked, slamming his face into the ground.

"You really think it wears off that fast?" Jeonsa snorted. "Clearly, you've never encountered chi-blocking before. I thought Takeo's scouts were supposed to be 'veterans of a hundred campaigns'-"

Ty Lee cleared her throat, and Jeonsa clamped her mouth shut. The reference to chi-blocking was too specific, even if the prisoner missed it; chi-blocking was a fairly common technique now, but during the war only a handful of people had known about its' existence. Including Takeo.

His nose bleeding, the young man glared up at her. "If you're going to torture me for information, get on with it. We've been conditioned to resist your worst-"

"Oh, please." Ty Lee scoffed. "We're not barbarians." She nodded to Jeonsa. "Knock him out, then follow me. We're going to need a closer look."

Moving to the back of the cave, where a single lantern had been fitted into a socket in the wall, she pulled a small scroll from her belt. There was a faint thump behind her; seconds later, Jeonsa appeared at her shoulder. "You're going to look for that 'evacuation route', aren't you?"

"Seems like the best choice, if our plan is to save lives during the battle." Ty Lee unrolled the scroll and held it up to the light; it showed the architectural designs of Fort Omori. "The wooden keep at the center is just for show. Most of the fort is an underground maze, but the surface walls and towers help the defenders see attacks coming from nearly every direction- except here." She tapped a tunnel entrance near the southeast corner of Omori. "This entrance is hidden near a frozen spring that feeds into the fjord, at the base of the mountain. Since the mountain overlooks Omori itself, the architects didn't bother putting a tower overlooking this entrance. If they needed a view of enemy positions from that direction, they could just send scouts up the mountain instead."

"Wise of them to consider that an enemy might come over the mountain." Jeonsa shrugged. "Unwise of them to rely solely on scouts, though. Especially given how easy they are to chi-block."

Ty Lee chuckled. "Older Army officers always assume that benders are the biggest threat. And from what Mai and Zuko told me, Takeo's always relied heavily on benders in his campaigns."

"He's commanded Omori since before the war ended, though; he may have made upgrades that aren't shown in these plans. You shouldn't go alone, sifu, I'll get the rest of the team together-"

"No, we can't all go. If we want to achieve stealth- and trust me, we do, Mai will kill us if we give ourselves away- we need to keep it as few as possible." She flashed another encouraging smile. "Besides, I wasn't planning to go completely alone. You up for another hike?"

The younger woman looked uncertain. "You really want me as your backup, after I just missed my first strike and almost gave us away?"

"Hey, nothing improves your skills like experience. Nobody gets it perfect the first time around; you should hear Suki talk about when Sokka came to ask her for combat lessons." She put her hand on her pupil's shoulder. "You can do this, Jeonsa. Ready to show Takeo what a couple nonbenders can do?"

Jeonsa still looked nervous, but she clasped her hands and bowed her head. "You got it, sifu."

Ty Lee briefed their comrades on her plan, telling them that if she and Jeonsa didn't return within twenty-four hours, they were to inform Mai and evacuate the cave to be picked up by the Air Fleet. Masking their faces again, she and Jeonsa stepped outside. The wind had died down a bit, and the snow was falling more slowly, in large, fat flakes. If Ty Lee hadn't been heading into such a dangerous situation, she would've stopped and appreciated just how beautiful the scene was- apart from the ugly stain of Omori in the background, anyway.

The two Kiyoshi Warriors picked their way along the southeastern slope of the mountain, beyond the path the scouts had been following. Not being encumbered by armor like the Firebenders, they made good progress, quickly crossing a ridge and finding their way onto some kind of game trail. Ty Lee made out several faint hoof and paw-prints in the snow, though she couldn't identify which animals they were. As they gradually went higher, they began to glance about for signs of human activity. The peak of the mountain had once held a wooden signal tower, but one of the Fire Lord's airships had scored a direct hit at the start of the siege, demolishing it. However, Takeo had quickly built a better-concealed replacement halfway down the slope. Fortunately, Ty Lee had discovered it by accident on her first scouting trek near Omori. How the sentries stayed warm without fires was beyond her. She and her team had observed the position for a full day, and saw neither smoke nor light. But the rebels were definitely there; the garrison rotated periodically.

As they neared the outcrop where the new tower stood, Ty Lee gestured at Jeonsa, and they strapped snowshoes to the soles of their boots, muffling their footsteps. Their jumpsuits might give them some camouflage in the snow, but without the howling of the wind, they had to proceed even more quietly than usual. At least three voices were coming from inside the wood-and-canvass structure. Oddly, despite there being no sign of fire or smoke, Ty Lee could smell scorched stone, and feel heat.

She waited beside the door as Jeonsa scaled the parapet of the tower, then rapped lightly on the wall with her fist. The first man gave a groggy exclamation of confusion as he pushed open the screen and stepped outside, his furs askew and his armor missing altogether. As soon as he slid the screen back into place, Ty Lee jabbed the pressure point on his neck; he was down with barely a sound. She dragged his unconscious form behind the wall as his comrades called for him, mockingly. When he didn't respond, there were suspicious mutterings and the sounds of buckling on armor; the other two would be more alert.

But this time, Jeonsa was ready for them. As they came through the door, she dropped from the roof, looping her legs around the first one's neck; in the same movement, she struck out with her folded tessen fan, the steel edge striking the other sentry's temple. Both were down and out in a matter of seconds.

Ty Lee nodded approvingly. "Much better. Check to see if one of them has an updated schematic of Omori." She slid back the screen and glanced inside the enclosure. Instead of timber, red-hot stones were gathered at the center of the fire pit. Hence the warmth and the smell of smoldering rock.

Jeonsa followed her in, triumphantly brandishing a piece of paper. "Turns out the original tunnel has collapsed. One of Zuko's airships dropped a bomb directly onto the entrance, so they had to dig a new one. It's about twenty yards south from the original."

Ty Lee nodded, taking the schematic from her. "Hopefully, that's also their evacuation route. I'm gonna head across the spring to check it out." She stepped back outside and glanced eastward at the dark horizon, then down the slope at Omori itself. "It'll be dawn soon. Keep an eye on these ones for me; any new ones show up, you put them to sleep too."

Jeonsa frowned. "I should come with you-"

"In case I do something stupid, like try to drag Takeo out of there single-handed?" Ty Lee cut her off. "I appreciate that you're committed to Mai's orders of only observing, Jeonsa. But if we really want to bring Mai any worthwhile information, we need to know what's going on in Omori, inside as well as out." She forced an encouraging smile onto her face. "Just keep the back door open in case I need to bolt quickly, okay?"

Jeonsa looked annoyed at being regulated to sentry duty, but she reluctantly nodded. Ty Lee would have been willing to let her come further after the successful takedown, but she knew Mai was right; she needed to avoid unnecessary risks to her student's lives.

Ty Lee descended the slope with little difficulty, picking her way among scattered groves of pine trees until she finally reached bank of the spring. Flattening herself against a boulder, she scanned the area. A sizable crater on the other side of the ice marked where the old entrance had been. So, twenty yards south... her eyes fell on a small, deformed pine that was bent double. The snow around it was piled into curious drifts...

Sliding lightly across the frozen water on her snowshoes, Ty Lee crept over to the tree and gently shook its' trunk, dislodging a heavy blanket of snow. Several branches sprang free from one of the drifts, revealing a steel trapdoor fitted into the ice and rock below.

"Perfect."

Leaving her snowshoes under the tree, she lifted the trapdoor and descended into the tunnel. It was a good thing her eyes were accustomed to the dark; even compared to the keep and towers of Omori, this passage was barely lit. Luckily, Ty Lee was an excellent climber even when she could barely see, but she quickly realized she needn't have worried. Depressions for foot and hand-grips had been cut into the walls, deep and precise... almost as if done by a machine. Clearly, Takeo was not short of wartime technology.

There was a sudden rise of temperature, and Ty Lee hastily flattened herself against the wall of the shaft. Two Firebending officers passed through a horizontal tunnel directly below hers; luckily, they were too deep in conversation to look up.

"...Shingen's about ready to explode." The shorter one remarked. "If he's this hotheaded before the action even starts, Takeo should never have promoted him to colonel."

"What did you expect?" The second replied. "Shingen's a good officer, but everyone has their weaknesses. Anyway, he'd probably be angry about the Mudslingers even if one of them wasn't screwing that Combustionbender girl."

Ty Lee's ears pricked up at the word 'Mudslinger', an old wartime slang for Earthbenders. A pit of uneasiness began to grow in her stomach. She dropped silently into the passage behind them.

"Well, between you and me, I don't trust them anymore than he does. My guess is, the Mudslingers are planning to defect to Zuko once they reach Hira'a."

"They can't join Zuko, because there's no way he'd guarantee their immunity. Either way, if they appear on Fire Nation soil without any warning, he'll probably become paranoid like never before. If he pardoned them, they're free to talk, and they'll reveal the whole Omori secret. Besides, their boss probably thinks the fewer people know about them until he's ready to strike, the better."

"Sounds like you've been reading up on 'Neutral Jing'." The taller officer chuckled. "Probably isn't going to help you much if you're not a Mudslinger, though."

"Well, doing nothing seems like a worthless tactic, unless nobody knows you're there. That is how the Dai Li always survive, isn't it? By making sure as few people know about them as possible."

Ty Lee clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp of shock. Fortunately, the Firebenders didn't hear her and kept walking. She leaned against the wall, feeling sick. All too well, she remembered the coup in Ba Sing Se (and her own role in it), and most of all the grim, merciless faces of the Dai Li. But no trace of them had been found after the war. Of course, Ty Lee hadn't been present when the Dai Li were banished from the Fire Nation- she and Mai had been imprisoned at the Boiling Rock for...

She shook her head. There was no point going down that track of memory lane. So Takeo must have somehow found the Dai Li, and convinced them to make an alliance with him. And apparently they were heading for Hira'a, the birthplace of Zuko's mother and stepfather.

It didn't make sense. If there was one place where Earthbenders would give Takeo a critical advantage, it was here, at Omori. His garrison was mostly Firebenders, whose power was weakening as the Winter Solstice came nearer. Opposing him, Zuko's Army, Air Fleet and Navy were an even mixture of Firebenders and nonbenders, backed by armor, air power and artillery. Earthbending would be ideal for deflecting bombardments and defending the underground tunnels against enemy advances. So if Takeo had the Dai Li at his disposal, why were they being sent to a remote corner of the Fire Nation, were there was nothing of any strategic value?

Unless... they were planning to kidnap Zuko's mother and use her as a hostage. Now, that was worrying to think about. The Kemurikage had already managed to kidnap Kiyi twenty years before, and Zuko had only managed to rescue his half-sister with help from Mai and Aang. Takeo, despite being away from the Capitol City, had known about the Kemurikage uprising; he had even sent troops from his garrison to help Zuko put it down, while at the same time sheltering the fleeing members of the New Ozai Society. Now, he could be using the kidnapping as inspiration for his current plans.

Kiyi was't a child anymore, but a powerful Firebender living in the heavily-guarded palace; she could look after herself. Her parents were another matter. Ursa and Ikem were nonbenders who had been trained in stagecraft, not combat. Besides, they spent most of the year outside the Capitol, either at Zuko's estate on Ember Island, or... at Hira'a.

Ty Lee's aura turned an unpleasant shade of orange. Zuko had spent the first year of his reign fighting to find Ursa and bring her safely home. Her kidnapping was exactly the sort of thing that would unhinge him, make him do something impulsive and/or stupid. The airships needed to turn around and head straight to Hira'a... but she would need proof to convince the Air Fleet Commander, without Zuko or Mai to vouch for her. Keeping her ear tuned for footsteps or voices, she pulled out the updated plan of Omori and squinted at it. If she turned left just ahead, she would be heading straight for the main barracks; that would do her no good. The direction the officers had taken led up into the outermost wall. As for her right... that led downwards, to a dark square simply labeled 'the entrance'. It hadn't been on the plan Mai gave her. Which meant it was worth investigating.

She headed down the passage to the right, hugging the steel braces and ventilation pipes along the walls as it became steeper and wider. The temperature began to rise, and she heard shouts and clanging noises ahead. After descending along multiple switchbacks, and twice heading into dead-ends, Ty Lee noticed a faint, reddish glow ahead. Keeping as much in the shadows as she could, she turned a corner and found herself at the top of a rock-cut staircase, leading down into a vast, circular chamber. There, she saw the reason for the ventilation pipes.

A circular pit, about forty feet in diameter and encircled by a rope-and-post barrier, had been hacked into the stone floor. At least thirty Firebenders stood around its' edges, using their bending to disperse the steam that was rising from its' depths. The clanging sound came from a pair of steel cranes whose pulleys were rotating, drawing... something... upwards. Somehow, she had a feeling this was the evacuation route her prisoner had implied. The question that remained was: where did it lead to?

Movement beyond the pit caught Ty Lee's eye. A figure in familiar dark robes was coming out of a tunnel at the back of the chamber; a wide-brimmed, tasseled hat hid most of his face. It seemed not all the Dai Li had been sent to Hira'a, after all. She watched as he anchored his stone-encased shoes to the edge of the pit and descended into the depths. The pit was another question she needed to answer, but with this many benders guarding it she would need to request backup from Suki and Mai. For now, she needed proof of the Dai Li's presence.

Keeping a wary eye on the Firebenders, she descended along the edge of the stairs. Luckily, they were all focused on the task at hand, and as a bonus, the steam gave her some extra cover. Reaching the doorway the Dai Li officer had come from, she found a long corridor lined with rough, rock-cut chambers. All were blocked by stone slabs; from the way they simply erupted from the floor, they must have been raised by Earthbending. There was no way she was getting in without explosives, which would either give her away or collapse the tunnel. Ty Lee ground her teeth in frustration. All this way, and she was held up by a damn door?

Something polished on the floor caught her eye. Crouching, she spotted a small bronze tassel, a plume of green silk trailing from it under the nearest slab. Must have come loose from an officers' hat when he left in a hurry. There was her proof of the Dai Li, on the ground right in front of her. She grabbed it and tugged until the silk cords tore free, then stuffed the tassel into her boot. It would have to do. Now, she needed to get the Hell out of here.

As she crept back through the pit chamber, the impulse to somehow sabotage the cranes crossed Ty Lee's mind, but she ignored it. For that, she needed Sokka's mechanical expertise. Anyway, she'd promised Mai, Suki and now Jeonsa that she wouldn't do anything stupid or impulsive. What she'd already found out was a game-changer for Zuko; it wasn't worth pressing her luck further and risking capture.

It seemed to take her forever to re-trace her footsteps to the exit passage. When she finally turned the right corner, she almost ran directly into a Firebender. Luckily, he was even more surprised than she was. All he had time for was one slash with a fire-dagger before his limbs were paralyzed; she finished the job with an axe-kick to the jaw, knocking him flat. Scurrying up the tunnel, she opened the trapdoor and poked her head cautiously over the snowline. No one was on her stretch of the wall, thank the Spirits. Climbing out, she closed the trapdoor and scattered snow over it. She was unable to bend the pine tree back to its' original position, though; hopefully, the next snowstorm would weight it down enough. The sky was clear, so she couldn't rely on snowfall to muffle her footsteps.

Strapping her snowshoes back on, Ty Lee glided back across the frozen spring and dove behind a snowdrift, in case any fire came from the outer wall. Amazingly, no one seemed to have seen her. She picked her way from boulder to boulder until she reached a steep cliff. Going around it might be a little safer, but climbing it gave her a shortcut to the snow-capped trees. From there, she would have good cover all the way to the sentry tower where Jeonsa was waiting for her. Switching the snowshoes for climbing spikes on her belt, she began to scale the sheer rock-face. Her foot slipped briefly, causing a shower of small stones and ice shards, but she was out of range from the wall by now, and she made it to the top without real trouble. Now, if she just stayed behind the rocks until she reached the treeline...

Rila's keen eyes made out faint movements on the slope, about half a mile from Omori's eastern wall. The figure was far too nimble to be one of Takeo's scouts. Besides, this one was moving away from the fortress, whereas all the rebels had been ordered to retreat to Omori.

Takeo had sent her out to provide anti-air cover for their returning scout patrols. Having seen no airships over the mountain track, and growing increasingly bored, she had returned to the bank of the frozen spring to wait for her comrades. Genpei was gone for the time being, and that irked her more than she expected. Despite his naive idealism for the Dai Li, she missed his gentler nature. There hadn't been much gentleness when she was growing up.

If Rila hadn't stopped to rest, she might never have noticed the falling pebbles and ice, then the one who caused it. What a piece of luck. She knew what fate spies suffered if they were taken alive... and Takeo would demand that the spy was taken alive, if he found out about it. No question that they had to die if Takeo's plan was to succeed, but torture seemed unnecessary... except for someone like 'Fire Lord' Zuko.

Rila fixed her eyes on the rocks beneath her target's feet, lining up her forehead- and the tattoo covering her ajna chakra- with the climber. She could still make them out faintly through her peripheral vision. This was a bit further than her usual range, so she would need to charge it longer. She inhaled deeply through her nose, feeling the kinetic energy build into a crackling sphere at the base of her spine. Exhaling the reserves, she breathed in again, three more times, focusing on the chakra point in her forehead, and closed her eyes. She no longer needed her peripheral vision to find her target; it was as if the eye tattoo over her ajna chakra gave her actual second sight. The image of the figure scuttling over the top of the cliff sharpened in her mind, and she felt the briefest moment of pity; they would never see it coming. Again, at least it would be quick.

She inhaled a final time, tilted her head back slightly, feeling the energy build to the point that it would kill her if she misfired. Then she snapped her eyes open and thrust her arms downwards in a Firebending gesture. The energy sphere rushed up her spinal cord, exiting through her ajna chakra.

For a split second, there was a smell not unlike black powder, accompanied by an odd sound. There were two faint pops, almost like logs crackling on a fire, and then the shock wave slammed into Ty Lee at point-blank range, throwing her back against the rock-face. The boom of the explosion followed right after, louder than the roar of a dragon, deafening her.

Ty Lee was too stunned at first to even notice hitting the rocks, rolling down through the snow and jolting to a halt against a scorched tree stump. Blinking rapidly to clear the spots of light from her vision, she tried and failed to prop herself upright on an elbow. Shakily, she put a hand to her forehead; her fingertips came away stained with rock-ash and blood. She wracked the corners of her brain for an explanation. Some kind of new artillery? But she would have heard another explosion beforehand, as the shell was fired...

A pale, concerned face suddenly appeared in front of her, outlined by a white hood: Jeonsa, thank the Spirits. Her lips moved urgently, but no sounds came out. Ty Lee frowned, then remembered that the explosion had deafened her. She tried to pull herself upright, and pins and needles filled her limbs, especially the left arm she had landed on; she would have some lovely bruises tomorrow, if they made it back to the cave alive. Jeonsa threw her arm over her shoulders and hoisted her upright. Ty Lee let out a muffled yelp (or she thought she did; she couldn't hear her own voice) as a searing pain shot through her right side. She glanced down as they hobbled away from the stump, and winced. The fire of the explosion had seared her hip and lower ribs, leaving a raw, blistering patch of skin beneath the scorched material of her jumpsuit. She gritted her teeth as they struggled up the slope, hugging every piece of cover they could in case their attacker fired again.

"At least it's not numb." She felt her mouth move to form the words, and this time was relieved to hear them, faint though they were. "Can I rest a moment?" Jeonsa nodded and set her down next to a huge fir tree. Ty Lee gingerly pressed a handful of snow against her wound. "I'd be in worse shape if the burn was so deep that the nerves were gone."

"It still doesn't look good, sifu." Jeonsa's forehead was furrowed in concern as she slapped some medicinal herbs and a field dressing over the burn. "We need to send a hawk up to the Air Fleet as soon as we're back to the cave; they can bring down an observation balloon to evacuate you."

"Don't be ridiculous." Ty Lee stood up shakily, wincing again. Her head was still ringing, and she was hurting all over, but she was reasonably sure that her injuries weren't life-threatening. She patted her shin hastily; the Dai Li tassel was still stuffed securely into her boot. "We need to get word to Mai and Zuko first, what I found in Omori will affect the entire battle."

"You can tell them yourself when you're at the hospital, or tell the air fleet while they're transporting you-"

"Jeonsa." Ty Lee grabbed her wrist, ignoring the pain to her left arm. "Mai sent us, as opposed to anyone else, because she knows we operate by stealth. I have a commitment to her and Zuko, both as the leaders of my Nation, but also as my friends. The information I have needs to reach them right away, and not through anyone else. I'm writing that message and sending the hawk off myself, today; then, you can worry about evacuating me. As long as you can get me back okay?"

A reluctant smile crept back onto Jeonsa's face. "Not to worry. I've carried much heavier loads than you when I lived in the Earth Kingdom."

"Hey, watch it." Ty Lee chuckled as Jeonsa helped her upright. "No one's agreed to being carried-"

Her voice was drowned out by the thunder of the next projectile, which slammed into the tree just above Jeonsa's shoulder. The explosion threw both of them outward and down the slope again. There was a flash of fire, the outline of something huge and jagged rushing toward them, a blinding pain to her right temple, and then everything went black.

"Looks like they made it pretty close to the outer wall." A harsh voice broke through Ty Lee's unconsciousness. "Look where they fell. Rila must have seen them coming and taken them out. See those impact craters in the rocks? That's what triggered the landslide."

"It coulda been our artillery-"

"Yeah, sure. With Takeo threatening to flog us if we use 'even a single shell' before the battle? Besides, you heard that boom earlier; only Combustion bolts make a sound like that."

Combustion bolts.

That Combustionbender girl.

Ty Lee's left eyelid flickered open; the right one seemed stuck, probably glued shut by the blood from her forehead. She made out a number of figures in dark, bulky clothing, edged in bronze. More of Takeo's scouts; this was not good. Shakily, she started to move her arm towards her belt ... and a boot pressed down firmly on her injured wrist, causing her to hiss through her teeth in pain. She glanced up and saw a hulking young man with ragged side-whiskers leering down at her; it was one of the sentries she and Jeonsa had knocked out.

"Looks like this one's still alive after all, Sergeant." The sentry chuckled. "I guess she missed the worst of Rila's Combustion bolt."

"No, look at the way they fell- together, until they hit the slope again. The younger one must have shielded her from part of the blast."

The younger one...Jeonsa!

Ty Lee forced her right eye open and struggled to sit up, but the sentry twisted his heel; she hissed in pain again. He conjured a fireball and raised his hand over her head.

"Enough of that." The harsh-voiced sergeant growled.

"Ah, come on, she needs a taste of her own medicine-"

"She'll get it soon enough, when Takeo interrogates her. The more you damage a prisoner beforehand, the less likely we gain any information."

The sentry reluctantly took his boot off Ty Lee's wrist, and she sat up. Her side hurt a bit less, thanks to Jeonsa's dressing and the cold, but her head was worse. The snow had stopped falling, and faint rays of daylight had turned the clouds from ink-blue to iron-grey. She couldn't have been unconscious for more than twenty to thirty minutes. The second explosion had triggered a minor avalanche, and the deep snow around them was scattered with blackened rock shards and scorched fir branches; twenty yards up the slope, the fallen tree was mostly buried. At least twelve of Takeo's scouts stood around her, plus the three guards from earlier.

Then her eyes fell on a female scout with dark red-tinted hair, a katana tucked loosely into her belt. Ty Lee recognized the five-clawed dragon design on the katana's hilt immediately. She had watched Suki present it to Jeonsa after she completed her training as a Kiyoshi warrior.

For all her experience in lethal combat, Ty Lee had never taken a life before. Her chi-blocking technique was specifically meant to incapacitate, not kill, and she was so skilled at unarmed combat she'd never felt the need to resort to her sword. But if she'd been able to react fast enough at that moment, she would have snapped the woman's neck. Her aura went red. She forced herself upright, reaching for her own katana with her uninjured arm, but the other two sentries grabbed her wrists. Ty Lee struggled against them, but her grief and anger couldn't give her the power Aang had with the Avatar State.

The scout with Jeonsa's sword chuckled. "Nice try, sweetheart. Were you gonna avenge your little friend? Not much point, really, I didn't kill her; the avalanche did the job for us. All I did was help myself to a souvenir." She ran her finger over the polished guard of the katana. "Maybe I'll take yours too, keep a full set."

"Not before I have a look at it, you won't." The sergeant crouched in front of Ty Lee and took the sword from her belt, examining it's single-edged blade. "This sword is from Kiyoshi island, off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom. I saw them used when I went there on one of Takeo's raids, thirty years ago. Nowhere else makes blades of this shape, and not even Master Piandao uses this quality of steel." He glanced at Ty Lee with idle curiosity, tapping her tessen fan. "This is Kiyoshi-made, too. The Kiyoshi have worked more for the Fire Lord than the Earth King since the war ended... but you're not a Kiyoshi Warrior, are you? You're Fire Nation, I can see it in your features."

"The Kiyoshi take in any nonbenders, not just Earth Citizens, you traitor." Ty Lee spat.

"Regardless..." The sergeant wiped his face calmly. "You remind me of someone..."

"Me, too." The woman strode over, grabbed Ty Lee's chin and brushed the soot and blood from her face, then pulled her braid out of her hood. "Grey eyes, dark brown hair in a plait, long neck, pale complexion... this is that brat that used to follow Fire Lord Azula around, until she betrayed her at the Boiling Rock! I recognize her from wartime propaganda." She gave Ty lee a look of contempt. "And you're so high and mighty as to call us traitors?"

"Ty Lee?" The sergeant frowned. "You're not serious."

"If you don't believe me, look at this." The scout tapped the end of Ty Lee's plait, which was decorated with an ornamental jade ring stamped with the Royal Seal. "Regardless of who she is, she's working for Zuko and Mai personally."

The sergeant nodded, sheathing Ty Lee's katana and tucking it into his belt. "We'll take her back to Omori, see what we can get out of her. If you're right, Takeo will be pleased; one more hostage for him to use against that upstart Zuko."

Ty Lee was still boiling with rage and grief as the woman tossed her over her shoulder like a sack, but the sergeant's words registered vaguely at the back of her mind. One more hostage? It seemed her suspicion was correct: the Dai Li had been sent to kidnap Ursa.

All she knew was that she couldn't let them take her back to Omori. Suki's anti-interrogation techniques only went so far, and Ty Lee might betray the location of her Kiyoshi comrades under torture. She had a poison capsule hidden under her right wristband, but couldn't reach it with her injured arm. Besides, if her fate was sealed, she'd rather try to take one of her enemies with her, for once. For being so knowledgeable, these scouts were pretty arrogant. They knew who she was, and they didn't even bother to bind her hands?

As the woman stepped between two ragged pine trees, Ty Lee suddenly reached up and jabbed her sharply in the side of the neck. Injured and exhausted though she was, her fingers found the chi point she was looking for. As both she and her captor fell to the ground, a sharp pain surged through her ankle, but she ignored it. The sergeant shouted in alarm, but he was behind the other scouts, unable to act. Ty Lee snatched Jeonsa's katana from her victim's belt and raised it over her head.

Before she could bring it down, a burst of flame struck her shoulder and knocked her flat, the katana flying out of her hands. The sentry with the side-whiskers loomed over her again, his face twisted with malevolent rage, his upraised hand still encased in fire.

"NO!" The sergeant bellowed. "We need her ALIVE!"

But to Ty Lee's relief, the sentry didn't hear him. She recognized the look in his eye, a look she'd seen in the eyes of countless beaten opponents, a look that was probably in her own eyes right now. There would be pain, but it would be over quickly, and her other comrades would be safe.

But the Firebender's hand never touched her. A metal-capped boot heel slammed into his jaw, hurling him backward.

A grey-cloaked, hooded figure had descended on the scouts, Jeonsa's dropped katana in it's gloved hand. Landing in their midst, it hurled the blade directly at the sergeant's face, impaling him right through the visor of his helmet.

The other Firebenders roared in shock and fury at the death of their leader, and spread into a wide circle around the newcomer. Each conjured a flame on their fists. The cloaked figure pulled a long, oddly-curved blade from its' belt and brandished it in a defensive position, then beckoned mockingly with its' other hand.

"Nonbenders." Sneered the sentry as he struggled upright and spat out a broken tooth, blood trickling from his mouth. "When will 'ou learn 'our place?" He glanced at the other rebels. "What're 'ou waiting for? Kill 'im!"

Flames surged from all sides, torching the phantom in a bright inferno. It dropped in a crumpled, smoking heap, and the sentry gave a chuckle of satisfaction as he stepped forward. "Well, looks like 'at one was all bravado and no- 'ey!" He had kicked at the burning cloak, and it fell apart to reveal nothing underneath it. "Where?!-"

A black-garbed arm looped around his neck from behind, its' knife cutting his throat in one swift stroke. The hooded figure leaped away from the body and rammed its' weapon into another victim's chest. The rest of the scouts attacked, firing indiscriminately, but in their panic most of their shots went wide, as their opponent struck again and again. Streaks of crimson stained the snow.

Ty Lee had been shocked by the unexpected, brutal arrival, but now she realized the rebels had all taken their eyes off her. Her head was throbbing, her vision unsteady and her body battered and torn, but she wasn't done yet. She struggled into a crouch, ignoring her limbs' protests. As one of the rebels retreated past her, she unfolded her tessen and slashed at his shins, cutting through the bindings on his greaves. Stumbling over his own loosened armor, the scout fell at her feet. Snapping her fan closed, Ty Lee raised it to make a fatal blow.

But the red glow of her earlier rage flickered, as she saw her victim's face. He wasn't much older than she and Mai had been during the last year of the war, had scabs on his jaw from early attempts to shave. His eyes were dilated in terror, silently pleading for mercy, even though he had no right to expect it.

Ty Lee hadn't joined the war of her own free will, she'd been coerced... and partly thanks to her compliance, Fire Lord Ozai had nearly succeeded in bringing the entire world under his tyranny. Everyone should have a choice...

But her rescuer didn't seem to share that opinion. As Ty Lee hesitated, the hooded figure stepped across from her and made a lightning-quick slash with its' curved knife. The scout's final breath drove the lifeblood from his throat. Ty Lee looked away, tasting bile at the back of her mouth. She didn't know what to think; her emotions and energy were both spent.

Glancing around them, Ty Lee made a quick body count. All thirteen dead, most of them Firebenders. She might not like how it was done, but still, impressive. Warily, she turned back to her rescuer, trying to peer under the low-hanging cowl. "What...Who are you?"

Her benefactor didn't answer, simply gesturing up the slope. Ty Lee tried to stand upright, but fresh pain shot through her ankle; she must have twisted it when she chi-blocked the woman. The phantom paused a moment, then strode over to the sergeant's corpse and pulled Ty Lee's sheathed katana from his belt. Removing the sword and stripping the belts off two other bodies, it fashioned a crude splint around Ty Lee's lower leg with the scabbard, then grabbed her right arm and hauled her upright. Ty Lee's head was swimming, but she was able to manage a one-legged sort of hobble. Her injuries would still heal, but only if they got to shelter.

As they turned uphill, toward the half-buried tree, Ty Lee noticed something protruding from under the shattered portion of the trunk, where the Combustionbender's attack had struck: a scorched hand and forearm, clad in the same winter-white camouflage she was wearing.

"Wait." She whispered, her voice catching in her throat. Her rescuer glanced in the same direction, shook its' head, then relented and helped her through the snowdrifts until they reached Jeonsa, pinned across her ribs by the tree trunk. Even without her neck lying at an unnatural angle, it was clear that she was beyond saving; her face was a deathly shade of grey.

Ty Lee felt tears brimming in her eyes. Jeonsa had been trying so hard to impress her and Suki from the beginning, had conquered her own anxiety so well on the approach to Omori... all that potential, all that enthusiasm and loyalty, snuffed out by a damn tree. She reached for the trunk, forgetting how heavy it was, how little strength she had left. Her rescuer quickly pulled her away, shaking its' head and gesturing back toward Omori.

They were right. Someone would have either heard or seen the battle and would probably send reinforcements to investigate. A cynical voice at the back of Ty Lee's mind congratulated her on causing some sabotage after all, but she had no reason to feel triumphant. Before the hooded figure could hoist her upright again, Ty Lee reached out and closed Jeonsa's eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. She pressed two fingertips to Jeonsa's brow and bowed her head for a moment, silently asking Avatar Kiyoshi to look after her newest acolyte in the Spirit World. Then she allowed the phantom to lead her away.

Her scabbard-splint scraped a rock as they moved above the treeline and onto another game trail. The motion sent a jolt through her injured ankle, but also caused the Dai Li tassel to dig into her calf. She was amazed it was still there, and it reminded her of why this awful night had happened in the first place. But she couldn't finish her mission alone, and her rescuer seemed to be taking her northeast, away from both Omori and the cave.

"My comrades are camped that way..." She started to point west, but the figure shook its' head impatiently and continued hauling her up the slope. Ty Lee wanted to protest, but she was too exhausted; even the splint was no longer enough to keep her on her feet. Her eyelids fluttered closed...

The gentle crackling of flames gradually brought her back. Ty Lee sat bolt upright, half expecting another Firebending attack, but there was no one else inside the cave. Her rescuer must have carried her the rest of the way. She winced when she tried to move; she'd been right about the bruises. She was wrapped in some kind of pale grey animal hide. It reeked of wet fur, but at least it was warm. She patted her boot and was relived to find the tassel still there.

The cave wasn't very large, nor did it look frequently used. Snow was piled halfway over the entrance, and she could faintly make out stars in the darkness outside; she must have slept through the day. Most of her gear, except her scabbard (still splinting her leg) was piled neatly by the wall. Glancing to the rear of the cave, she saw a haunch of meat hanging over the fire on a spit; a small, jagged crack in the ceiling provided a smoke-hole. Next to the fire were a crudely-carved wooden pot with a lid and a pine-bark cup. She dragged herself over to the fire and tentatively lifted the lid; steam rushed out, along with a smell of some kind of mountain herbs.

A scraping sound behind her made her spin around. Her hooded rescuer (now wearing a different cloak) approached the fire, kicking snow from its' boots and removing its' gloves. Picking up the pot of tea, it half-filled the cup and placed it in front of Ty Lee. She lifted it, sniffed it warily, then drank, coughing. It was bitter stuff, far harsher than anything she had tried at Iroh's tea house, but it cleared her head a bit.

She glanced at the phantom, who had drawn its' long knife and was cutting into the roasting meat. "Thanks... I guess? Who are you, anyway? Why'd you bring me here? I appreciate your help, but I really need to get back to the Fire Nation..."

The figure set down the knife and turned fully toward her for the first time. It pushed back the cowl to reveal an ornate blue-and-white noh mask, adorned with ornamental brass horns and fangs.

Ty Lee groaned. She'd seen that particular mask before, a long time ago, and she knew who owned it. If Zuko himself had come to rescue her, she would never hear the end of it from Mai.

The "Blue Spirit" reached back to untie the bindings on the mask. Ty Lee braced herself for a volcanic scolding from the Fire Lord as the disguise was removed.

But though the golden eyes were virtually identical to Zuko's, the left one wasn't encircled by a scar. The sculpted features were narrower and more weathered after twenty years, and the brown-tinted black hair was no longer arranged in a sleek topknot and tresses, but hung in poorly-trimmed locks. But Ty Lee knew that face anywhere. Her heart seemed to stop.

"My, my, Ty Lee. How far you've come since the days of the circus." Azula remarked, brushing snow from the edge of her cloak.

This one took especially long due to technical issues with my computer, apologies for that...