Responses to Reviews:

Matheus Bezerra de Lima: You have nothing to apologise for, indeed it is probably me who should apologise. It was on hiatus for a year after all. Azula was addressing the group as a whole when she said that, and then speaking in the third person because of Zuko's "Azula always lies" saying. Katara referred to her in the third person to copy her.

RonaldM40196867: Azula has leadership potential, but unfortunately she only knows how to rule by fear. When she was no longer feared by her friends, she immediately lost them and proceeded to double down on a losing strategy and go mad.

As Always, Please Review, and we pick up our story as our heroes have 24 hours to pass the throne of the Fire Nation to Azula or a bloodbath will surely ensue...

Mai knocked on the door. "Zuko, are you in there?" She asked.

There was a moment of silence. And then a muffled voice came from within.

"...No?"

Mai just sighed and opened the door. The Firelord sat up, blinking, as light streamed in. Otherwise, the room was in complete darkness.

"Have you come up with any ideas yet?"

Zuko nodded. "They aren't very good ideas, though."

"Let's hear them."

"I'm definitely not letting my sister within a country mile of the throne. I thought we could maybe send Yuyan Archers after Azula. If we capture the ringleaders maybe they'll go home."

"Or we'll make Azula a martyr," Mai pointed out. A botched raid could enflame tensions and make a bad situation worse.

"The other idea I had was to fake getting my bending back."

"You would lie to your people?" Mai raised one eyebrow.

"Of course! I'm not so naive that I don't know when that can be useful. And Uncle or Jeong Jeong would probably gladly help."

"That might work in the short term, but it's risky," Mai told him. "What if you get revealed?"

"What else can we try?" Zuko asked. "If we refuse, there'll be a fight."

"We might well win it." Mai pointed out.

"And kill many of my own people in the process? That would be playing right into my sister's hands."

He stopped, and then sat bolt upright on the bed.

"I've just had a brilliant idea," he told her. "I need to speak to my sister, alone."

"Go on..." Mai told him, intrigued.


Aang stood on a balcony overlooking the Caldera, with a clear line of sight to where the angry mob was camping out in the streets. Somewhere out there, he knew, Azula was probably feeling very smug about the trap she had them in. And Aang wasn't sure how to get out of it without a lot of people dying. Probably including him.

"Tough crowd?"

He turned to find Suki coming towards him.

"You could say that."

Suki paused delicately.

"I'm sure we'll get through this," she told him. "We always have before." She walked up to the edge of the balcony next to him and leant on the railing, watching the crowds milling about in the evening light.

"Have we?" Aang asked.

"Have you forgotten the siege of the Ba Sing Se embassies already?"

Aang had not.

"But we only dealt with that by allowing the reestablishment of the Dai Li," he pointed out.

"No, we dealt with that by talking them out of it. Twice. Then you brought back the Dai Li to stop it happening again." Suki stated, her tone indicating disapproval of that decision. Aang sighed.

"Toph was right, our weakness is allowing chaos to return. Maybe Sarnai had a point."

"Isn't the Avatar also a diplomat?" Suki asked. "You of all people should know that you can't punch your way out of every situation. And Sarnai is a fool who jumped straight to the most drastic solution."

"So what should I do?" Aang asked her.

Suki shrugged. "Talk."

"What, with Azula? You know how she is."

Suki's face darkened, and Aang had no doubt that the woman was remembering the Boiling Rock. He didn't really know what she had gone through there, she had steadfastly refused to talk about it and he had never pressed the issue. But it was obviously nothing good.

"She's a lost cause," she agreed. "But maybe her supporters aren't. I was here just after the war as a bodyguard for Zuko. I saw the people of the Fire Nation. They were reasonable people, and were as glad to see the war end as anyone else. I don't think they'll be happy to see a leader who risks restarting it."

Aang nodded.

"Like I said, we'll get through this," Suki repeated. "You're not getting out of our wedding that easily."

Aang laughed.


A miniature typhoon, without the wind, raged in the grounds of the Fire Nation Palace, the scene of the climactic battle between Azula, Katara and Zuko during the second passing of Sozin's comet during the war.

A significant amount of water had been removed from the river that flowed through, and now circled quickly through the air above the courtyard, making a deafening noise as shards of ice broke off to come crashing down around the lone figure in the centre of the maelstrom. She was so busy concentrating that she almost didn't see Sokka.

"Katara! Hey-watch what you're doing with that!"

The waterbender opened her eyes just in time to see a block of ice narrowly miss her brother. She sighed, and flicked her wrist, causing the water to stop, and then it flowed away back into the river with another sweep of her arm. In an instant, the storm was replaced by the soft glow of the evening sun.

"Have you been training all this time?" Sokka demanded. Katara nodded.

"You know you don't have to push yourself like this," he told her.

"Yes I do," Katara replied.

"Why?"

"I'm the last bender on the team," Katara told him. "I'm all the firepower we have."

Sokka nodded. "But you're already a force of nature. And Iroh and Jeong Jeong are here, they're pretty good benders too!"

"So is Azula," Katara said. Her brother just shrugged at that.

"You beat her before, you'll do it again. And you won't have to do it alone."

"But what if I don't? What if something happens? I'm not just going to rest on my laurels!"

"Then you'll be ready, I'm sure," Sokka replied firmly. "You don't need to do this. Come, sit down. I'm helping Toph play Pai Sho against Iroh, and we need your help."

"But I can't play Pai Sho," Katara protested.

"Then we'll teach you," Sokka decided. "But you need to relax one way or the other."

Reluctantly, Katara let herself be dragged away. Perhaps some relaxation might be good for her, she thought.

But she was unable to shift the small inkling of doubt that hung around in the back of her mind.