Fire Lord Izumi was working in her office when I found her, going through seemingly endless stacks of papers, though she looked up when she heard me come in. "Ah Kanna, is everything alright?" She nodded to her two regular guards to send them to guard the door instead, leaving the two of us alone.

"A report came in just now of an abandoned Red Lotus base. Lord Zuko has gone to investigate and I'm here to make sure you're okay." I said to her and she smiled to me warmly.

"Well as you can see, I'm perfectly alright, though these papers and reports don't seem to be any smaller." She exhaled softly, rubbing her temples as if to ease a tension headache so I suggested that maybe she should take a break, even if it was just to lie down for a moment. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Long Yi? Are you there?" Long Yi was Izumi's chief of staff, something of a glorified butler and he entered the office before bowing respectfully with a kind hearted and open smile.

"You called, Fire Lord?"

"Yes, we'll be taking a short break. Please have tea taken to my favourite spot by the pond, we shall be there in a moment." Bowing again, Long Yi left in order to make the preparations for tea whilst Izumi stood up and walked out onto the balcony where the palace had the best view of the city capital and I joined her. "I love my nation, but sometimes, I wish I were not born to become Fire Lord. There always seems to be another crisis just moments after the last one has dealt with, and reading so much paperwork has strained my eyes these past few years. What I wouldn't give to be able to live a simple life every now and then. My grandfather, Grandpa Iroh, he lived his later years owning a quaint teashop in Ba Sing Se before his pilgrimage to the spirit world."

"I think everybody wishes for a different life at one point or another, Lady Izumi." I said to her thoughtfully. "But wishing for a simple life is natural when you deal with so much stress and pressure. I mean, I wouldn't want your job. I think I'd tear my hair out after the first day. I've no idea how you do it." Izumi chuckled richly, turning to give me a smile.

"Many years of practice and patience. Come, let us have some tea." Agreeing that it was a good idea, I joined her to head out to the gardens. The two guards from the door followed us, but along the way I began to notice something. It was rather quiet. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's nobody here. I haven't seen anyone at all and there should be way more guards than this. Something's wrong. Not alerting anyone else to my suspicions, I carefully looked around until suddenly, two thuds were heard from behind and I quickly turned around, throwing my arm out protectively to shield Izumi as she too turned to see.

The guards both dropped, falling unconscious to reveal a single figure behind them, needles held between his clenched fingers and I saw two protruding out of the guards' necks. "Long Yi! What is the meaning of this?" Izumi demanded bravely as I held my stance, focusing on Long Yi who smirked rather darkly as he walked forwards.

"There cannot be order without chaos. The natural order of the world. This is how it should be, for the world to become free of all oppression and falsehood." Speaking as if he were chanting a creed, Izumi sounded betrayed and hurt as she made a forward motion but I kept her back, knowing that Long Yi was dangerous judging by those needles he was holding.

"Long Yi, you have served my family for years. How could you betray us?"

"The Order of the Red Lotus will not stop until the natural order…"

"Oh shut up, you're like a broken record." I drawled before turning, drawing water out of one of the numerous amphora lining the hallway and launched it in a powerful burst at Long Yi who neatly dodged, rather sprightly for his old age. "Lady Izumi, please stay close to me."

"Yes, I shall do as you say." Long Yi flung several needles in our direction so I made an ice wall, catching the needles before the ice then returned to water, swarming around them before I launched them back, forcing Long Yi to backflip onto his hands and dodge. I was about to go after him when a tingling sensation ran down my spine and one of the spirits suddenly appeared, giving me a warning so I quickly spun around and swung my leg in a high arc, water following the motion to slam against an earth bender wearing Red Lotus uniform and froze him to the wall just before he reached for Izumi.

"Let's go! We need to get you out of here." Grabbing Izumi by the hand I pulled all the water from every single amphorae, washing it over the floor to freeze it into a layer of ice then used the rest to deflect attacks that came our way as I skated, pulling Izumi along with me before I jumped off and ran with her out into the open where there was more space and I could take her to the throne room where we could then use the back passage to escape. Izumi kept pace with me, my hand still locked around her wrist however when I heard the ring of metal, I quickly turned and dragged water to me, standing in front of Izumi as I swirled it around the both of us in a complete circle, catching all the metal projectiles until a line came and snatched my wrists, forcing them together and I yelled as I was pulled off my feet.

"Kanna!" Izumi reached after me with worry before gasping, finding us surrounded by metal benders as well as a few fire benders. All of them wore the Red Lotus uniform, signalling their loyalties to a code that was complete and utter crap, in my opinion. Izumi steeled herself, showing no sign of fear as I was dragged across the floor away from her, yelling as the metal dug into my wrists and cut through the delicate skin. Seeing Izumi in danger, I quickly sucked in a breath before I slammed my foot onto the ground.

It pushed me up, throwing me into the air so I could twist and land on my feet, pulling back against the metal bender who held me before I used every ounce of strength I possessed to tug back. Once I'd gained some ground, I then slackened my grip and flicked the metal wire so that it hit the guy holding the other end, making him cry out as it hit him before I then pulled once more with enough strength to swing him around, giving a yell as I used him to crash against several of his comrades, breaking the circle that had formed around Izumi and started to advance.

The moment there was an opening, Izumi rushed forwards, narrowly missing the chunks of rocks which were pushed at her head, intending to crush her but then an earth bender made the stone rise over her foot, locking her in place but by this point, I'd freed myself and came rushing back. With a powerful jet of water, I washed a few of the Red Lotus members away with a yell, fighting furiously to hold them off as Izumi stood firm, the earth falling away from her feet when I knocked out the guy who'd done it to her.

By this point, several imperial fire benders had arrived, though they were late. They formed a protective line in front of their Fire Lord, who pointed at the Red Lotus intruders as I sprung back, taking a moment to catch my breath. "Seize these intrudes immediately!" She ordered powerfully and I had to smirk, she was totally badass. Iroh had such a cool mom. Returning my focus, I punched forward with a water strike at one of the metal benders, directing his focus forwards so that he didn't see me bending water from behind him which I then knocked against his head, freezing him against a pillar.

"Izumi!"

"Father!" Lord Zuko was back. Thank goodness for that. He quickly released several blasts of powerful fire bending to defend his daughter who remained calm and still until Long Yi crept out of the shadows, a needle in his hand as he tried to sneak up on Izumi from behind.

"No!" Launching myself forwards I swept my hands under and upwards, making the water move with me before I flung it at Long Yi with several ice needles of my own, hitting several of his pressure points in his arm to make him yell and drop his weapon, using the feeling in his arm so that it hung lose and Izumi quickly backed away as I rushed to her, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards me. "Give it up Long Yi. You've lost."

"Damn you!" He bellowed, starting towards me however at that moment, the spirits began to reveal themselves and Long Yi was suddenly faced with the giant wolf-fox that I'd nicknamed Fang. Long Yi yelped in fear and fell on the ground as he slipped on some ice, Fang snarling over him and pressed a paw against his chest to pin him down.

"Good job Fang." I praised, rubbing his fur before then smirking at Long Yi who trembled slightly. "I guess the spirits don't agree with you that chaos is order. Sit still there for a while and behave." Pinning him down with ice, I then returned to Izumi to make sure she was okay. Red Lotus had all been subdued by now, except for a couple who were still desperately trying to complete their mission. Izumi was fine, smiling at me a little breathlessly until suddenly the spirits cried out in warning, making me turn to see. One of the Red Lotus fire benders was making lightning, focusing on Lord Zuko who naturally took up his stance in order to redirect it, however at the last second, the fire bender turned and pointed at Izumi who gasped in alarm. I yelled, quickly moving to block the way and raised an ice wall as the lightning sprung forward with a brilliant burst and crackle of sound.

My ice wall exploded, throwing me back and I hit one of the pillars so hard it made me slump to the floor, groaning softly as my head rolled to the side and I struggled to gather my wits back to me. I vaguely heard a grander commotion, several shouts and yells before I looked up and winced, peering as I saw Lord Zuko rushing for his daughter. The fire bender had been taken out, but one more metal bender remained who had fired several metal projectiles shaped like knives at Izumi. They flew so quickly she wouldn't have been able to dodge them in time, but then Lord Zuko suddenly appeared and stood in front of her, blocking the way and struck the metal bender with so much fire he flew across the entire room. "Father!" Hearing Izumi cry out and seeing Zuko suddenly drop to his knee, I realised something must be wrong.

The imperial fire benders quickly secured the prisoners whilst Izumi brought her father's head back to rest against her as he groaned weakly, holding several wounds where the metal blades had struck. Oh no, no, no no no no this was bad, these were serious injuries. "Kanna, can you help him? Please save my father, save him!" Izumi lost all her composure then, fearing for her father's life as he groaned.

"It's alright, Izumi. Perhaps it is my time."

"No! I won't allow it! As Fire Lord I forbid you to leave me!" Having staggered over to them I quickly dropped down and started to water bend over the injuries, healing and assessing them but with the blades stuck in his body, there was very little I could do.

"If I remove the blades, Lord Zuko will bleed out before I can heal him enough to stabilise him." I began to explain, doing everything I could to try and keep him from losing too much blood by taking one of Izumi's hands and pressing down around one of the injuries to staunch it as I did the same. "One has hit a vital organ, if I pull it out, he'll die before I can heal him in time." Izumi gasped, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks and she grit her teeth with despair. "Unless…"

"Unless? Tell me, quickly!" I glanced around before I then looked at Izumi, focusing on her with calm seriousness and strong will, determined that I was going to save Lord Zuko.

"Unless you give me permission to blood bend. I can keep Lord Zuko from bleeding out and heal him. Let me try, please." For a moment Izumi blinked at me, but when her father groaned again and flinched, she swiftly came to a decision.

"I give you permission. Please, save my father by any means necessary." Nodding my head, I instructed her to pull out each blade when I gave her a signal and she readied herself to help, lying her father down flat so that I could stand over him and began to make pulling motions with my hands. I took over the control of his blood flow, feeling it as it gushed and spurted, having severed an artery but as I began to bend the blood like it were water, the bleeding stopped and I focused on the smallest of senses, having the blood circulate as normal as I focused on the artery first. Once the blade was removed, I stopped the bleeding like I had clamped the artery but with blood bending, then used healing water to heal the injury, joining the severed artery back together and encouraging the flow of chi to accelerate the healing process.

I healed Zuko bit by bit, one place at a time whilst controlling the flow of his blood, keeping him from dying from blood loss and healing his injuries as much as I was able to. The injured organ required longer, as had the artery but after two long hours of constant healing, Zuko opened his eyes and his body was in even better health than it had been before, as I'd also improved his blood circulation and cleared the pathways of his inner chi channels. At first he was amazed, sitting upright and feeling where the wounds used to be only to find mere dips and slight scars from where the flesh had merged back together before he looked at me.

"You were right, Kanna. You were right about blood bending not being something completely evil." I couldn't help but cry with relief, falling to my knees from exhaustion as the spirits gathered around me, cheering in their own chitters and squeaks for me as Zuko reached out to hold my face, brushing aside a tear or two. "Thank you. I owe you my life. It seems once again I would not be here if it weren't for your family. Your grandmother saved me once, and now you have saved me again."

"Oh…it's nothing, you know…just doing my job." I laughed weakly, feeling tired but victorious, looking across to the members of Red Lotus who had tried to kill the Fire Lord. "What will be done with them?"

"They will be imprisoned for conspiracy and attempted murder. Well done Kanna, you are one step closer to bringing Red Lotus down completely, and now I owe you not only my life, but the life of my father too." Izumi said to me, actually reaching over in order to embrace me gratefully. "We shall not forget this." Although Zuko was healed, I warned him that he'd still lost a great deal of blood and he would feel weak for a couple of days so he should rest plenty and refrain from standing up or sitting down too often as it would bring on dizzy spells.

Izumi allowed me to stay and interrogate the prisoners with her, getting as much information as possible from them before she had them sent off to a secure prison where they would never see the light of day again. We handed the information over to the White Lotus, who had joined me in our hunt for the Red Lotus members across the world. It was a slow process, but we were starting to get somewhere. We uprooted them from every nation in every corner of the world, leaving no stone unturned in our search for them.

Zuko and Izumi both saw me off when it was time for me to leave and they kindly gave me provisions to send me on my way, telling me that I was always welcome to return here whenever I wanted, so I thanked them with a bow before hugging them both. Part of me wish I could have stayed longer, but I knew that I couldn't slow down now. We were close to completing our goal, and with the spirits by my side, particularly fang who let me ride on his back to travel, I set off back into the world, determined to see it balanced once more.