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Book 2: Earth

Chapter 19: The Veil

The titanic nun stared down at him, her face impossible to read. Aang wondered if she judged him, examined the weight of what he had done and what he failed to do. Part of him wanted her to pass judgment on his heavy heart just so he could be absolved of the burden for a fleeting moment of weightlessness. The knot in his back twisted painfully and he took a deep breath, matching her meditative position.

But she did nothing except continue to sit among her lichen robes. She hadn't moved from this spot in the Eastern Air Temple in centuries, but plenty of it had changed around her. All of the occupants had left long ago. The bison nursery had fallen to rust and weeds. Even the guru who had tended to this temple had vanished and signs of disrepair had already set in. Rainwater pooled in the nun's lap from the hole in the roof above her head.

Soft footsteps approached Aang, stopped beside him, and sat. He knew it was Katara without opening his eyes.

"Any luck?" she asked. She joined him in looking up at the nun, her voice hesitant, as if afraid to interrupt his meditation. "I know you've been trying all around the temple grounds…"

"I don't even know if she's Avatar Yangchen or just one of the sisters here."

It had been a fruitless endeavor; part of his journey to reconnect with his past lives however he could. But all had been as silent as this statue.

Katara put her hand over his. "You'll be able to find them again. I know it. Don't you remember what the swampbender said, three years ago?"

The old Aang would have laughed when he recalled the memory, but instead his words came out deadpan. "That thing about pants?"

"What? No." She leaned in closer to him, her shoulders brushing against his, and put a hand to her chest. "Those who are gone never really leave us. I've been holding his words close to my heart."

At her words, his arms and legs throbbed with restlessness, with electricity. He stood and his response came pouring out.

"If they never really left me… They'd be here to help. They'd give me the power to end this war so we don't keep losing people and we won't just have to be content with holding them in our hearts. I'd rather be able to hug them and laugh with them but the Avatars abandoned me and they're not coming back. I've failed. Worse than ever before. And I don't think there's any coming back from this. Not now, not ever."

"We can come back from this, Aang. We have to." She rubbed at her arm, her head lowered so her hair spilled over her shoulder. "Because I can't… we can't accept the alternative."

He turned away from her. He wanted to say he was sorry, that he could fix this, but he was so close to just giving up forever. "Part of me wishes we could all just stay here, in this temple. Hidden away from the world."

"It's a nice thought," she said. The smile she gave him wasn't an encouraging one, or joyous. Just melancholy. "Maybe we could."

"No," he said. "The war would find us. It always does."


The world sped up again all at once.

Aang dropped his lotus position, leaning forward toward the guru so his palms pressed flat against the earth. "Go home? I can… I can do that? But how?"

Pathik wrapped his hands around the clay cup of onion banana juice and tipped it just slightly toward Aang. "I think you know what I am about to say."

His eyes fell to the cup in Pathik's hands and he remembered the first time the drink had been offered to him. He thought back to the swirling pools of water with its flow impeded by muck. "I have to open my chakras again, don't I?"

"Your chakras are more muddled than ever. You've been bogged down by fear and guilt and grief. You have lost so much in so short an amount of time. Part of you has found a sort of strength - a sort of meaning - in your suffering." Pathik smiled. "That's good… it's the first step to recovery. To renewal and growth."

Aang clenched his fists, cutting off the guru before he could continue. "Wait, what do you mean? I was meant to suffer that much? That I had to lose all those people important to me in order to find the meaning of true strength?" He stood, the rage building inside of him, years of pain that had boiled to a breaking point. "That I had to fight and live in fear for three years, fleeing from place to place, never knowing what comes next? Who I might lose next? All so I could say I've been enlightened?"

The guru sat still, like a statue. "Everyone on this earth processes their pain and their feelings differently. For some, they may find that meaning in their pain. Let it out. Let it go."

Aang's chest heaved and he felt like he couldn't breathe in enough air. He wanted to rip the cup of onion banana juice from Pathik's hands and hurl it at an obelisk so it would shatter. "Well, that's not good enough for me. I don't want to 'find meaning in suffering.' I want to find meaning and strength in love and life!"

Pathik folded his hands in his lap, serene in the face of Aang's fury. "You have done the same in many of your past lives and you will in the next."

"They're not me." Aang paced around the meditation circle, feeling trapped like a tigerdillo in a cage. "They may be my past lives but they're not me. You're wrong."


"If you leave now, you won't be able to go into the Avatar State at all!"


The memory came back to him, unbidden. At the time he'd been so afraid, so angry at Pathik for trying to make him let go of Katara. Aang stopped and fixed his gaze on the old man. "And you were wrong once before," he said. "After I left here last time, I did go into the Avatar State. Just once, for a moment, and I haven't been able to do it since… But that was enough. It told me enough." He clung onto that hope for so long, all that time, just so he could tell himself he could do it again one day. And he had been able to go into the Avatar State again, but only after coming to this world.

Pathik closed his eyes and smiled. "Was I wrong? You clung to the girl you loved as the most important thing in the world. You let your love cloud your judgment, hold you back. At the time, she was not your anchor to the world, but your shackle. And you did let that go all on your own to control the Avatar State, however briefly." Princess Azula's lightning put a stop to that.

All of Aang's anger drained away, leaving him feeling empty. "For a while I thought you tried to say I couldn't find love, couldn't be with someone to one day start a family. But then I learned about Roku, and how he had been able to marry." But all that had been was a misunderstanding all along.

Pathik nodded. "Roku never let his connection to this world hinder him from doing what he needed to do. His duty as the Avatar."

"So you never meant for me to forget her completely." That comment triggered another memory: his knowledge of the thought chakra at the crown of the head. "When I opened the last chakra, you told me I couldn't have any worldly attachments."

"Skipping ahead to the last chakra already, are we?" At that, Pathik chuckled. "There, my friend, I will admit that I was wrong. I have since learned that an Avatar's responsibility is to the world - that you can never truly achieve enlightenment because that requires complete detachment. For you and no one else, opening the thought chakra signifies a connection to all the cosmic energy in our world, a connection to your highest Self, the spirit at the source of all your power. But never complete detachment." He inclined his head toward Aang, like a bow. "So, please, forgive me that mistake. And my comments about finding meaning in suffering - I had not intended to offend you."

Aang let out a sigh. It was tiring to hold onto all that anger.

"Even at my age, we never stop learning," Pathik continued. "I would say your past lives are also capable of mistakes, even now, long after they are gone."

"Like their mistake to send me here. To this world. They didn't expect all this to happen." Aang gestured wide as if to somehow encompass everything that had happened on his journey so far.

"They had good intentions," said Pathik. "Have you learned what they intended for you?"

Aang wondered. "They wanted me to see the world from a different perspective…" After all his time here, hadn't he done that? He had come to accept Azula as a friend. He had seen the darkness that all nations, and all people, had been capable of all along.

But that couldn't be everything, couldn't be enough. All that, just to learn to accept? To forgive others?

Pathik closed his eyes and took a deep breath as if steeling himself for what lay ahead. "Back to the subject of worldly attachment… To go back home, you may not need to open all of your chakras again. You just need to follow your attachment to the world."

He thought of Katara at once. Of Sokka. Toph. Zuko. "That's all?"

"Life is an illusion, and so is death," Pathik said, and the echo of a different man's words reverberated in Aang's ears. "But… as I have told you once before, the greatest illusion in this world - in all worlds - is the illusion of separation. Your home is still with us, just within reach. Beyond the veil that marks the worlds' separation, currently thinner than ever before. All you have to do is walk through it."

Aang reached for the energy around them, the touch of the Spirit World brushing against his senses. A chill, but also something warm. Chaotic. Alive. Never before had he felt it so close. "Beyond the veil…" It felt thin. Dangerously so, like something could spill out from behind it. It felt more potent than any solstice.

"But… you can only be attached to one world." Pathik opened his eyes again. "Right now, you are split between this world and your own, and that is causing all of them to be unbalanced. So it is time to choose."

He felt, then, as if he had been slapped in the face. "What do you mean? There's a choice?"

"You could stay here. If you want."

"Forever?"

"Forever."

For one wild, irrational moment, he pictured it. Choosing to stay in this world of his own volition. Helping to end the war and forming a new life here, with different friends. He thought of Azula - brave, fierce, loyal Azula, who loved him. He'd still have Zuko, Toph, and Sokka. Suki and Bumi and Iroh, alive again, even if they had changed a little.

Pathik continued and Aang stared ahead without seeing him, hearing his voice as if from far away. "If you chose to stay in this world, once and for all, balance would restore itself. The worlds would go back to the way they were, and you would live here permanently."

But then he thought of Katara and the spell broke. His vision of a life in this world shattered to pieces.

"I still have attachments to the other world," Aang said, and the irony of his statement was not lost on him. After all this time, it was still Katara who tied him to the world and this time she would guide him back. "To my world. I can't leave them. If I stay here, they'll all die without me."

"Perhaps," said Pathik. "I cannot predict the future. But if you want to return, you have to leave now."

"Right now?"

"As soon as possible, before the storm comes and the Spirit World does more than just brush against this one."

His heart throbbed heavy in his chest. He would never get the chance to say goodbye… but maybe it was better this way. Aang didn't want to think about what it would be like to tell his friends that he'd never see them again. Zuko would be sullen, but accepting. Toph might use anger to hide her sadness. And Azula…

She knew. Before he left to meet Pathik, he'd noticed her dismissive behavior, that something had been on her mind when she pushed him away to go to the Eastern Air Temple. She figured it out all along and knew there'd be a possibility he wouldn't come back. The realization hit him with all the force of an elephant koi.

How could he have been so stupid as to fail to notice her pain?

Aang hugged his knees. "What'll happen to this world when I leave? What'll happen to… me?"

"Life will go on here," Pathik said. "And you will make it home. Your world wants you back, so it will be easy."

"No," Aang said. His voice came out low and barely discernible at first but gained in volume as he found his words. "I mean… the other me, the one native to this world. The Aang whose life I took. He had memories before I came along, and friends. He had a life, he was sent to the Western Air Temple. He met a girl there and was best friends with Kuzon and Bumi." He rarely thought about these memories; it felt too much like intruding on another person's privacy. "This was supposed to be his destiny, to fight against the Water Nation, but I took it from him."

At those words, Pathik looked every bit his age. His shoulders sagged and his wrinkles seemed to deepen. "That may be, perhaps, the most regretful part of this whole situation," he said. "As I said before, I cannot predict the future. It may be that he would simply wake up as if from a long sleep with no memories of your time in his body. Or it may be that he is gone forever, and when you leave the Avatar spirit will pass on to the next in the cycle."

"Will it hurt him?" The childish question escaped Aang's lips. "Dying, like that?"

Pathik sighed, but his words came out soft and comforting with a wan smile. "It will be as quick and easy as falling asleep."

Aang stared down at his hands. Back when he first found himself in this world, he cursed his body for being weak. For being younger than he'd been used to. But he had no right to do that to the other Aang, to take his body. His hands shook when he thought of the possibility that he'd taken his other self's life. "If… if that's true, then I can't leave. Not yet. If there's any chance at all that the Avatar spirit would go to the next one in the cycle then I can't abandon everyone here. They would never win the war in time for Seiryu's Moon to arrive and they'd go through the same pain we all did."

He clenched his quivering fists, his decision made.

"So you choose to stay here, forever." Pathik nodded and stood. Aang had never seen him look so stiff, his body heavy.

"No," Aang said. "Not forever. Just long enough to finish what I need to do."

Pathik folded his hands behind his back. "Then you continue to threaten all the worlds. The barriers between them will progressively weaken. The Spirit World will fall to chaos and bleed over into every world it touches, the veil blown away. If you continue down this path you won't be able to go home at all." He swiped his arm as if to punctuate his point. "And you'll never be able to control the Avatar State attached to two separate worlds, as you are now."

Of all things, a grin flashed across Aang's face and he stood, staff gripped in one hand while his other rested on the hilt of his meteorite sword. "You've been wrong before, last time when you told me I'd never be able to go into the Avatar State. I'm going to take the chance that you're wrong again, even with all those odds stacked against me."

Pathik stood still, tense, his beard rustling in the wind that blew through the meditation circle. The gale howled through the stone obelisks, producing a kind of music the nomads treasured once upon a time. For a moment, Aang thought Pathik meant to oppose him, but the old guru's shoulders slackened in defeat and he smiled. "Well, Avatar Aang, if you mean to persist on this path I cannot stop you. I admire your tenacity."

"I'll take whatever the universe tries to throw at me," he said. "And I'll throw it back. I'll keep fighting until both of my worlds are safe."

"Then go," Pathik said, gesturing to the sky with a grin of his own. "Do what you must. Bring balance to all the worlds. There's no time to waste."

Aang bowed. "Thank you, Guru Pathik," he said. Without waiting for a response, he sped off to Appa and held out his arm for Momo to perch upon, ready to go back to Ba Sing Se. Back to his friends.

"Good luck, Aang," Pathik called to him. "For all of our sakes, I dearly hope that I am wrong."


Zuko awoke with a sharp pain in his chest and his head. He tried to open his eyes but his vision felt clouded and bleary, and without warning his chest heaved and he twisted on his side to cough and retch the water from his lungs. When he finished, he noticed that the stone underneath him was cool and pressing his forehead to it felt soothing on the aches and helped him think clearly.

"About time you're awake."

Zuko whirled to the source of the voice so fast it made him dizzy and he groaned, but when his vision focused he zeroed in on Katara standing far enough away from him to avoid any initial firebending blasts. He pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly, but before he could do so much as take a stance she jabbed her arm forward and his whole body pressed flat against the wall behind him.

A man standing next to Katara that Zuko hadn't noticed before stomped forward and gestured at Zuko, rock cuffs pinning his wrists and ankles so that his arms stretched out on either side of him. The man was wrapped nearly head to toe in cloth the color of sand in a style of clothing Zuko had never seen before. Even his face stayed mostly obscured.

"Thank you, Ghashiun," Katara said.

Beside him, Zuko found Jet bound in the same way, glaring daggers at Katara and the earthbender named Ghashiun. He took the moment to gather his bearings, to figure out where they were and try to formulate a plan of escape. Katara held them in a cavern Zuko knew to be deep below the city, green crystals in clusters together to provide their only source of light. A tunnel extended beyond the rounded bend that Zuko could see, so he knew that this cavern wasn't completely cut off from everything else. Rescue from either the Creeping Crystal or the Freedom Fighters could be coming.

But Zuko wasn't the type to give up so easily and wait around for someone to come save him.

"What's wrong, Katara? Keeping your distance in case I manage to shoot you with some fire again?" He smirked, trying to appear confident. "I see you managed to avoid getting a second scar, but how about it? Let me down and fight me again, without your bloodbending. Maybe it's our destiny to keep dueling it out."

She bristled and took a few steps closer, uncorking her waterskin in one quick movement. Water coated her left arm and froze, coming to a sharp point that she wielded like a blade. "Keep talking like that and I'll make sure your destiny ends, right then and there. Permanently." She stepped closer and before he could even think about hitting her with his breath of fire again she gestured with her free hand and his head jerked to the side, exposing his neck to her blade. The ice pressed against his throat, a cold finger that could pierce his jugular at any moment.

Steam rose from the point of her makeshift weapon and Zuko grinned again, letting the heat from his body dull her blade.

"You're audacious, I give you that," she said, offering a smile of her own. Hers felt more dangerous than anything he could ever hope to achieve. "But you're in no position to fight me. Tell me where the Avatar is."

"That's what you wanted all along, isn't it?" Jet asked, hatred oozing from his expression. "You played with me all along so I'd lead you right to the Avatar!"

Katara turned to him next and her dangerous anger, brimming just below the surface and sharpened to a point that she aimed at Zuko, changed to something else. The shift was smooth and immediate, her tone light and haughty and mocking. "And you fell for it so easily, didn't you? You thought I was just some girl you could charm to obey your every whim, too blinded by your self-righteous crusade against the Water Nation to realize I'd be the one to take you down."

Zuko grit his teeth. He needed Katara to be angry. If she got angry, she'd get sloppy. And maybe she'd slip. Maybe then he could take her on or escape.

"But you needed to use bloodbending to take us down," Zuko said. "And now you have an earthbender on your side. Sokka would fight us fair instead of using some crony to hold us like this."

She spun on Zuko again. "Don't speak to me about Sokka. And you're the one who held him in chains."

"They were far more generous to him than I would've been," Jet said, his voice low and just as dangerous as Katara's. "I think waterbenders are better off dead than prisoners."

In one motion, fast as a chameleo-cobra, she formed an ice spike and hurled it at Jet with enough force to embed it into the wall. It sliced his arm on the way, making him hiss in pain. "Be careful or I'll decide I don't want any prisoners either." Katara turned back to Zuko as if Jet were no more annoying than a spider-fly. "Now, are you going to tell me where the Avatar is?"

"Don't tell her anything!" Jet snarled, pulling against his bindings. "If you're planning to invade the city he'll stop you. All of us will."

"He's around here somewhere," Zuko said, directing the full force of his glare at her. If she knew Aang had left Ba Sing Se she might begin her attack. He didn't flinch away from her stare. He thought if he had Prince Zuko's scar it would've been more intimidating. "How am I supposed to know where all my friends are? I'm not a control freak like you are."

Her eyes narrowed, barely perceptible. "You know nothing about me."

Jet kept writhing against the wall in a feeble attempt to free himself. "I know that you're a lying, conniving…"

"Shut up, Jet," Zuko said. He didn't want to hear hypocritical accusations from Jet right now, not when so much more was at stake.

"Yeah," said Katara, keeping her eyes locked on Zuko. "Shut up, Jet." She threw another ice dart at Jet without looking and this one pierced him in the leg.

This time, Jet only grunted - apparently it had not pierced him deep. "Trying to silence me now? Typical waterbender. Just fight us fair, you cowards!" Zuko couldn't even see where Katara and the earthbender Ghashiun had hidden their swords, but he wasn't sure if Jet had noticed their weapons went missing at all.

"I'm getting really tired of hearing you," Katara said. She held a hand out to Jet and touched all of her fingers together, forcing his jaw shut. "And you know what? For good measure." She swiped her arm and a flurry of ice shards from her waterskin whistled through the air at him, stabbing him all over. Zuko heard a muffled cry of pain from Jet but he couldn't open his mouth to scream or shout. Jet's veins protruded from his temples, his head locked in place by Katara's bloodbending. It looked like even just being held there hurt him. "How about it, Zuko? Ready to talk?"

Rivulets of Jet's blood dripped down to the cavern floor, catching in little crimson grooves that Zuko couldn't look away from while the sounds of screams fought to escape from Jet's throat.


Azula expected to find Zuko home when she and Toph returned from the investigation of the Roku Warriors with Mai, but Sabi was the only one to greet them when they entered. The lemur glided down from the rafters to land on Azula's shoulder, chattering something at her that she couldn't understand. Azula picked her up by the scruff of the neck and held her an arm's length away, but the lemur continued to wriggle and writhe and try to communicate.

Aang was better at this sort of thing - the lemur tended to avoid her most of the time in general - but Azula peered at Sabi in an attempt to discern her unusual behavior. "Toph, do you know what it is trying to say?" she asked. "I wonder if it's hungry. You speak monkey, don't you?"

Toph punched her in the arm but Azula saw a hint of a grin. "You don't know a thing about animals, do you?" She pressed her palm to the floor. "She sounds panicked about something, but I don't know what. Nothing seems wrong here."

Sabi lowered her head and made a soft cooing sound. Azula, rubbing the arm that was sure to form a nasty bruise, supposing the creature could be kind of cute sometimes. "Perhaps it's just jealous of the new lemur," she mused, and her face softened for just a moment. "Not that it matters anymore," she added. The cold feeling that Aang wouldn't return from his meeting with the guru still weighed heavily on her.

"Think Zuko's still meeting with the Council of Five?" Toph suggested. It had taken them the better part of their afternoon to track down all the Roku Warriors that Mai had recalled to the city and they discovered no evidence of an infiltration among their ranks. Nonetheless, Mai still insisted on traveling by rail to the Sanctuary Gate to see her other warriors still stationed there in person, so Azula and Toph decided to head back.

"I am supremely unconcerned with the whereabouts of my big brother," Azula said, inspecting her nails. Still freshly manicured from when she had them done before the welcoming feast. "Maybe he sought out Piandao to play with swords or something."

"I can tell you're lying," Toph sang with a self-satisfied smirk. "C'mon. I hate to say it but we should probably check with the palace, just in case."

Azula rolled her eyes and let out a huff, but acquiesced. Perhaps it was better to be safe.


Dai Li agents and royal guards both stood sentinel at the entrance to the war chamber, which both girls found to be odd at first, but when they entered they found a full meeting of all five members of the council, the Grand Secretariat, and the ministers. The atmosphere felt heated. Everyone bickered like children; the Council of Five wanted to retaliate against someone - anyone - they could pinpoint as the culprits behind the attack on the palace the other night while the ministers argued to impose a curfew on the city and Wu sat with her fingers massaging her temples as if nursing a headache. Azula thought it a wonder that the whole city didn't hear them fighting; this war chamber, in the highest levels of the palace, had a whole back veranda open to the cloudy sunset, overlooking the palace gardens far below.

Azula leaned against a black marble pillar and waited. A hapless scribe sitting at a little writing desk next to her nearly leapt out of his seat in surprise when he noticed Azula and Toph but went back to his hurried scrawling in what Azula thought was a feeble attempt to record everything.

"We need to post more soldiers on the wall!" General Muku, the intense-looking general with a metal-plated headband insisted.

"Increase patrols in the Lower Ring!" shouted General Zhu Zhang, equally as intense but twice his brawn. She slammed her fists against the table, making figurines on the enormous map laid across it quiver. "The attackers would have fled there!"

General Yo Gan Jin tutted at her. "No, no, you fool of a Zhang! It's clearly an outside attack! Waterbenders!"

"None of them used waterbending, you old crackpot."

"Zuko's not here," Azula whispered to Toph as they watched, both too amused by the proceedings to interrupt. "He'd be sitting in silence, too much of a pushover to get a word in with all of this."

"The Dai Li should continue investigating any people among the Lower Ring with an existing criminal record," squawked an old minister that Azula had met at the party and found too unpleasant to remember his name. "Particularly those neighborhoods with high populations of sandbender expatriates."

Another general, Fa Lan, twirled his long mustache around his fingers. "I still believe it to be Long Feng and his forces from Jie Duan. The motive is there!" Based on what Bumi and Kuei had told them, Fa Lan seemed to be closest to the right answer.

General Fong let out a long sigh and held up his hand to silence all of the ceaseless bickering. Azula was surprised when they stopped - she had no idea he had commanded that much respect from them all. "Wu, have your Dai Li learned anything about the Creeping Crystal?"

Azula didn't react to the question, but she felt Toph shift just slightly on her right side. They'd been about to leave, dismissing them all as a lost cause, when Fong's question pulled Azula back in. Wu still didn't know they'd been in contact with Bumi and the former king.

Wu inclined her head toward him. Today, she wore a hat with a rectangular black mortar, like a sort of crown, with beads that tapped together when she moved her head. "The Creeping Crystal has remained silent in the past few weeks," she said. "We still know regretfully little about them."

"I see," said Fong, leaning back in his chair with something like disappointment.

"As I was saying, those sandbenders…"

The arguing continued as if uninterrupted, but a messenger scurried into a room bearing a scroll that he handed off to a magistrate, who unrolled it, read it, and strode around the table to whisper in Fong's ear.

"What was that about?" Toph asked Azula under her breath. "That guy seemed excited about something. Or nervous." Azula eyed the magistrate closely to try and read his expression.

Fong sat up again, his face grave. "News from the Fire Nation," he said, palms pressed flat against the table. "As of yesterday, Jie Duan has been conquered by the Water Tribes."


Beneath, him, Lake Laogai shimmered like fire in the sunset, its waters tranquil as Aang passed by overhead. He had the thought to return here on his way back from the Eastern Air Temple to inform Bumi to keep an eye out for Katara and Sokka's machinations. After landing Appa on the lakeside, he rounded the shores to feel out the vibrations around it, searching for the secret tunnel that led to the headquarters beneath the lake. His earthbending senses had improved over the last few weeks - he found the entrance after only a few minutes of searching and descended with a triumphant grin on his face.

The energy in the tunnels and secret rooms felt much different from the last time he had been there. Before, they'd been on high alert after the palace attack, earthbenders and soldiers in a motley of different types of armor and clothes bustling back and forth. Now, he saw men and women pass by with scrolls tucked under their arms or overseeing the various refugees that had been filtered into the city in secret. One of them pointed Aang in Kuei's direction, and that path led him down into the catacombs.

He found the co-leader of the Creeping Crystal in a cavern half lit by green gems with the other half lit by a guard holding a torch. Kuei examined the remains of a stone archway set into the rock framing the cavern's exit, in front of which stood a statue whose face had crumbled away eons ago. Bosco slept at Kuei's feet, his breaths the only noise in the cavern. The guard nodded to Aang when he entered and got the former king's attention, who turned around and greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, Aang," said Kuei. "Were you looking for Bumi, by chance? He's working alongside our earthbenders to form a new tunnel arrangement leading to our headquarters."

"I was," Aang said, shrugging. Bosco let out a sleepy grunt and adjusted. "But that's okay. I just wanted to let one of you know that I've been a little worried about the Water Tribes attacking the city soon."

"Is that so?" Kuei asked. He tapped his chin, thoughtful. "Do you have any reason to believe this attack is forthcoming?"

Aang scratched the back of his head. "Er… just a feeling. But my feelings usually tend to be right."

Kuei nodded and smiled again, adjusting his war hammer slung to his back. "I see. Bumi told me to trust your judgment, so I will. If they come, the Creeping Crystal will aid you in battle - and I will fight alongside you on the front lines myself if need be."

Aang's eyes jumped up to the mighty war hammer. He still found it hard to believe that this was the same King Kuei he knew in his world - a timid, naive man who barely knew his way around a political discussion, much less a battle. "You know how to use that weapon, huh?"

"Oh, yes," he said, adjusting his glasses by the corner. "I took it up five years ago once I stepped down from the throne so I could protect my people. I'm no earthbender but I still wanted to do my part. We're a fearsome sight, so they say - Bosco and the Warrior King, riding into battle." He gestured to the sleeping bear and turned back to the archway, which had ancient words scrawled on it that Aang hadn't noticed before, faded away by time. "But if you ask me, I'd rather be known as a Scholar King. I've learned so much about my nation's history since coming down here myself to study it."

Aang scrunched his eyes in an attempt to read the worn away writing. "What does it say?"

Kuei grinned as if excited to talk about his latest discoveries. "It describes this as the entrance to a mausoleum. There used to be a building here but it was forgotten long ago and centuries of history got built above it. I'd like to begin excavating soon, but the tunnels mostly collapsed and I want to try to avoid destroying anything else as we navigate through it."

"A mausoleum?" Aang asked. "For who?" He fought the urge to step back from the archway, which suddenly felt creepy; he sensed the same kind of spiritual charge that he felt in the meditation circle at the Eastern Air Temple and wondered if this might be a place that intersected with the Spirit World.

"This ancient queen, I suspect," Kuei said, indicating the faceless statue. "She wears armor, so I thought her to be a simple guard at first, but she is made of a more expensive stone than the terracotta figures we usually see down here, which indicates a higher rank. And she wears a pin on her lapel, do you see it?" He pointed closer and Aang saw a groove in the rock that seemed roughly flower-shaped. "That suggests that she is royalty and, with the armor in mind, a fierce fighter. Adding that all together, she is likely to be High Queen Xi Ma of the Onyx dynasty or Queen Li Quorong, her aunt. Both in a dynasty long before my family, some fifteen hundred years ago."

"Wow," Aang said, impressed. "You really know your stuff!" He had never heard of any of these people.

Kuei beamed at him and was about to respond when hurried footsteps resounded down the tunnel toward them. Aang closed his eyes for just a moment to cast out his seismic sense - a man in sandals approached, one he didn't know, but the stranger didn't seem to be aggressive or even panicked.

Another piece of history stepped into their cavern - a Sun Warrior man, of all things, shirtless except for a gilt-brass gorget that shimmered in the torchlight, matching bracers, several long beaded necklaces, and golden bands around his biceps. He wore his black hair like Prince Zuko did when Aang first met him - shaved except for his phoenix tail, pin straight and smooth as silk. Aang had a hard time placing his age; he saw no wrinkles in the dim lighting and his vibrant golden eyes were sharp and inquisitive.

He gave both Kuei and Aang a short bow - not subservient, Aang was pleased to see. "Kuei," he said. His eyes slid over to Aang, and a warm smile smoothed his sculpted cheekbones. Seeing him closer, Aang placed the man in his thirties or forties. "I bring news. But first, I am honored to meet you, Avatar Aang."

Kuei held out a welcoming hand. "Ah, Aang, this is Xai Bau, an associate of Bumi's who has been staying with us for a few weeks now."

Aang bowed in greeting. "I didn't expect to see someone from the Sun Warriors here," he said.

"My people like to remain hidden," Xai Bau said. "But I still cling to the ancient ways, like your friend Bumi." His eyes twinkled and Aang realized the meaning behind his words - White Lotus. "But more on that later. I have come to inform you of Jie Duan's fall to the Water Tribes."

Kuei crossed his arms and Bosco stirred, grunting and yawning awake. "Long Feng… any word of his fate?"

Xai Bau shook his head, his phoenix tail swaying. "Regretfully, your scouts reported nothing of him in their messenger hawks. The Water Navy continues to blockade the Fire Nation mainland but the Golden City has mounted a counteroffensive."

Kuei grit his teeth and for a moment Aang saw a bit of the Warrior King in him. "That fool… if only he'd stayed here instead of splitting our people even further. Now all of his citizens - many of them my people - have nowhere else to go." He rubbed his temples. "I wonder if Long Feng weakened himself due to his petty desire to attack the palace the other night."

"The Great Divide has widened," Xai Bau said, and Aang hoped he meant in a metaphoric sense but with everything going on at once he couldn't be sure. "Let us hope the Golden City does not forsake them only because they are from a different nation."

Aang frowned. "They wouldn't do that." He had faith that Ty Lee would push to do everything in her power to help those in need even if they were Earth Kingdom.

Xai Bau looked at him and Aang felt the warmth of a hearth fire. "How can you be so certain? Does the world not feel split to you more than ever before? Even a tribe of my own people have fled to the highest peaks of the Earth Kingdom a century ago due to a simple disagreement, whom to my understanding you have met before."

Aang pondered his point and had been about to reply when Bosco growled at something in the darkness and a squeaking animal emerged from the shadows beneath the archway. All five sets of eyes in the room turned to face the other tunnel only to find a fox back on its haunches with its tail puffed out, defensive.

"A fox?" Kuei asked. "What could that be doing down here?" At the sound of his voice, the fox squeaked out another cry and turned around to run back where it had come from.

"A knowledge seeker," Xai Bau said, his voice almost reverential. "How fortuitous."

Aang knew those foxes. A sense of foreboding fell over him and he wondered at the accuracy of Xai Bau's assessment.


"Jie Duan has fallen? That means they can't have been behind the attack on the palace!"

"Does this mean the Golden City will ask for aid?"

"Think that snake's still alive or did he surrender to the Water Tribes?"

The war chamber erupted into an uproar once Fong broke the news of Jie Duan's fall. Azula stayed silent, churning with the long-term ramifications of such an event while the city's leaders argued the short-term. Despicable as he was, Long Feng led one of the few bastions aside from the Golden City still standing in the Fire Nation. With Jie Duan's fall, the rest of the island nation was sure to follow. She clenched her fists and could only hope that her village would remain unnoticed or be logical and yield if the navy came again to their shores. Despite the Golden City holding most of the Fire Nation's power, they did nothing to unify the people; they didn't lead. So many towns and villages would be done for.

She knew her people would fight. There was no honor in yielding as soon as the enemy showed themselves. And they would die.

"They're all like children," Toph muttered, angling herself to the side as if to pick up on individual voices better. "This reminds me of a Freedom Fighter dinner, everyone shouting above one another to make their voices heard. But nobody's listening."

Fong's voice, once again, broke through the din. "Grand Secretariat," he said. "Offer us your wisdom again." Something about his words sounded disingenuous to Azula, like they were layered with a tone of sarcasm. "You told me once, privately, that you believed Long Feng to be behind the attack on the palace banquet?"

Wu folded her hands over one another, her multitude of rings and bangles rattling together. "I did. And I still believe so. General Fa Lan and I, at least, seem to be of one mind on the matter."

Fa Lan scoffed. "I did say that earlier, but it's obvious I was wrong in light of what we just learned. Why would Long Feng send his men here while the Water Navy laid siege upon his city?"

"That lily-livered…" Toph's voice came out low and deep with anger. "His backbone just folded in on itself as soon as it suited him."

Azula stayed silent, waiting to see how this would unfold.

Wu seemed affronted. "Well, how am I supposed to know the answer to that? Despite their hidden faces, my Dai Li agents recognized the fighting style of those who used to be among their ranks." Behind her, her two Dai Li guards - a man and a woman - nodded in agreement but said nothing.

General Muku leveled her with a stern glare that reminded Azula of a bullfrog. "You've been nipping at shadows ever since you've been appointed to this office, Grand Secretariat - seeing enemies where there are none, even making up some of your own… I need not remind you of your secret evil Pai Sho group."

A chorus of laughter rose up around the war table from the generals and ministers alike. Wu scowled at them all. "Made up? You think the White Lotus is made up? We have evidence of them forging entry documents for potentially dangerous refugees, allying with daofei groups outside of the city, and most of all, infiltrating every level of our society, likely to spy on us! There are Water Tribe members in their ranks - who do you think they're passing their information on to?"

Azula was careful not to narrow her eyes too much, just in case someone saw her and thought she might know more about the White Lotus. She wondered where Wu had gotten that misinformation, though part of her also knew parts of what Wu said were technically right. Beside her, she felt Toph stiffen. Things were getting bad and Azula had an idea of where this might be going.

"I think she's just deflecting the blame away," Fa Lan said, pointing a finger at Wu. "The attackers fight like Dai Li? Well, we have Dai Li right here in this city - look at their history! Look at who leads them now!"

"Guards," Fong said. "Bring in Agent Nagi."

Royal guards trooped through the door with a struggling woman in a Dai Li uniform held between them. Azula had never seen her before.

Wu stood and faced the door, her chair scuffing loudly against the floor. "Nagi?" She shot a glare at Fong. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Nagi has been arrested for releasing a prime suspect in the attack on the palace the other night," Fong said, his voice calm. "A sandbender from Si Wong - her brother. And a possible Water Tribe male."

"My brother and his friend just did something stupid," Nagi said, composed but with dark eyes narrowed in anger. "You suspect him only because he's from Si Wong. They had nothing to do with the attack!"

One of the ministers piped up. "It makes sense to me! How else would the attackers sneak into the palace unseen if not through inside help? She's stationed in the palace, isn't she? I've seen her before!"

"She's telling the truth," Toph said, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Everyone in the room seemed to notice her and Azula for the first time. "I can tell when people are lying!"

General Muku folded his arms. "Can you? How convenient. It is commonly known that the people of the Si Wong Desert have a solid reason to want to consolidate more power. This war has been nothing but good for them - with the waterbender attacks expanding their desert, it expands their regional boundaries. More refugees going to that blasted place increases their influence. There are whispers that they've formed a whole city of their own! What if that power gets to their heads and they set their sights on Ba Sing Se next for more territory?"

"Esteemed companions of the Avatar," Fong said, steepling his fingers together. "Please, stay out of this."

"That is a ridiculous accusation!" Nagi protested, staring at Muku with indignation. "How dare you?"

General Yo Gan Jin stroked his long, white beard. "This Nagi reports directly to Wu, does she not? I think it prudent to launch an investigation into them both."

"I agree," Fong said, closing his eyes. "I am sorry, Wu. Guards, take them both into custody!"

Wu looked around in alarm as the guards closed in on her, closing their grips around her arms. Her Dai Li escorts stood back and did nothing, which surprised Azula - no loyalty there. "This is an outrage!" Wu exclaimed. "We all know you're just putting on airs and this is an arrest. You have no evidence!"

Azula had to clench Toph's shoulder hard to keep the earthbender from attacking everybody right then and there as the guards took away Wu and Nagi. "Not now," Azula whispered into her ear. "We'll get Aang." If he even comes back…

"I am genuinely sorry, Wu," Fong repeated, letting out a long sigh. "I have truly enjoyed your friendship. But shouldn't you have foreseen this?"


"Katara, where did you and Ghashiun go? I'm getting sick and tired of these extended disappearances!"

Sokka stood with Suki at his side when Katara returned to their apartment late in the evening looking even moodier than usual. She walked right past him and Suki, ignored Sokka's words, and looked out the dusty window into the night. He thought she had dried blood on her sleeve but couldn't say for sure in the dim lighting. Ghashiun didn't come back with her, Sokka also noticed.

"Katara, what's going on?" Suki asked, her voice softer than Sokka's.

"My source for the city's underground routes led to a loose thread I needed to cut," she said. "That Freedom Fighter turned out to be a companion of the Avatar."

Sokka slapped his forehead as he pictured them, all of them, in disbelief that they'd somehow found his sister. "Freedom Fighter? Don't tell me your source was a guy named Jet! What happened?"

"He led me to where the Avatar's been living in the city," Katara continued, her pacing erratic. "But only the firebender boy was there. I had to get rid of them both - Ghashiun sealed them up in a hole underneath the city somewhere. But now we have to begin the attack before the Avatar finds out they're missing."

"So tonight's the night?" Suki asked. "Want me to go tell Yue to mobilize the men? They should be in position!"

"But there's still so much we don't know yet," Sokka said. "Katara, you have to see reason. We can't rush into this." He hadn't told her about running into Gran, the story of their mother… He needed to move, to do something, but he didn't know where to begin or how to say it. Part of him also inexplicably worried about Zuko - despite being enemies, the other boy didn't deserve to die like that.

The other part of him remembered the torture that Jet and his gang basically put him through, and the pain, the tiny cuts all over his arms and legs that Sokka did a rough job of healing. They left scars that would eventually fade, but the memory of them never would. Maybe Jet could stay down there.

"No," said Katara, her voice firm. She stared at Sokka so directly and defiantly and so unlike the women of their tribe that he didn't have the words or the strength to push back against her, especially since he also saw a bit of their mother in her eyes. "I'm starting to think you're trying to delay the attack, brother. A full moon is only four days away - I did like your plan to wait until then, but this will have to do. It's close enough. Relay the orders for the raid to begin immediately."

"Wait," Sokka said, holding out his arm. Katara looked at him as if about to blow up and he clenched his hand and dropped it back down to his side. "Just… tell the men not to hurt the bystanders. The vast majority of the people in this city have nothing to do with the war - they're just trying to live their lives in peace."

"And greed," Katara added, narrowing her eyes at him. But she sighed. "Fine, I'll give the order not to hurt the oh-so-innocent townspeople. We'll hold the city hostage until the leaders surrender, but I can't promise no one will get caught in the crossfire. When did you get so soft, Sokka? Did Gran-Gran get to you?"

She said it mockingly, but Sokka remembered his grandmother's words. "Yes," he said. "I suppose she has."

"I'll go with you, Suki," Katara said, heading to the door. She looked at Sokka with something like disgust but otherwise ignored his response. "Guess I'll give our men a little inspirational speech before we begin."


The earth rails didn't normally run so late to the Lower Ring, but as an important guest to the city and a companion to the Avatar, Mai had certain privileges. The carriage was empty except for Mai, two of her Roku Warriors accompanying her, and an official escort meant to guide the trio to the Sanctuary Gate. Soon, they would reach the Lower Ring station, where they were to make one more transfer on a rail to the Outer Ring and eventually Sanctuary Gate, to Mai's other warriors.

"I'll never get over how pretty the city is at night," said Xiao, a young woman who was by far the most bubbly of the Roku Warriors. She let out a dreamy sigh. "It's like a bunch of twinkling stars, but on the ground." Despite her demeanor, Xiao was the most proficient among them at close-range fighting with her knives. Round-faced and good-natured, with hair done up in two buns, Mai once found her annoying but since leaving their island she'd come to appreciate the other warrior more.

"Crescent Island is pretty at night, too, you know," said Lu Mao, a willowy, easygoing boy, best at imitating demeanor and accents to blend in on spying and infiltration missions. "You just have to look at the village from the beach."

The earthen rail slid to a stop and all four occupants looked around in confusion. Mai stood, eyes narrowed in suspicion as she directed her gaze out into the night.

"I'm sure it's nothing," said the guide, a pretty woman who introduced herself as someone named Joo Dee at first, but quickly corrected herself as if breaking an old habit and now Mai didn't know what to call her. "Perhaps just a stray rock in the track."

"I dunno about that!" said Xiao, pointing out of the window to a Middle Ring neighborhood. A fountain froze over and then exploded outward, blowing chunks of rock and ice everywhere. In another part of the city, Mai saw a spout of water shoot up from a well and Lu Mao spotted at least three more. Men in blue rode in the water pillars, spilling out to Ba Sing Se's streets in droves.

"Water Tribe!" the guide exclaimed, gasping. "They've finally infiltrated our city?"

Mai went over to the carriage door and slid it open and listened to the sounds of panic outside as warriors assaulted the city. "Xiao, Lu Mao, let's stay together," she said, leaping out the door onto the roof of a building below. Both obediently followed and all three drew their weapons. "We'll have to stem the tide as best we can until help arrives."

At first, they fought as they did best - from the shadows, flitting from roof to roof and alley to alley to take out as many enemy warriors as they could. The Water Tribe attacked as if in a berserk rage, aimless destruction their intent at first until Dai Li agents started to fight back. Warriors wielding spears, clubs, and machetes led the way and waterbenders emerged from the underground after them. Their behavior didn't seem right to Mai - from her experience, the Water Tribe preferred guerrilla warfare and devastatingly effective but carefully planned tactics instead of attacking all at once; she wondered if they'd been especially restless and eager for fighting.

Earthbending civilians emerged from their homes to help but many were cut down. Mai didn't know when fire entered the equation but entire city blocks went up in flames in moments. She suspected it to be a countermeasure against the waterbenders but all it did was add to the chaos as wood burned and groaned and collapsed and smoke stung at her eyes. The abundance of fountains and ponds in the Middle Ring added to the waterbenders' ammunition and she knew it would only be worse in the Upper Ring. She could only assume the same things happened all around the city.

Earth Kingdom soldiers were the slowest to arrive onto the scene - the first sign of an organized counterattack. By that point, the waterbenders and warriors had spread and joined up with their own who came up from other parts of the city. They blockaded with water and ice, more than holding their own despite being in the Earth Kingdom's stronghold. All the walls were useless, now; the bulk of the Earth Army stationed at the Outer Wall and beyond would never make it to the inner city in time to make a difference. Aang might not either, Mai knew.

She fought and she struggled, picking up her fallen knives and needles when she could and throwing discarded Water Tribe weapons instead when she couldn't. She knocked out one Water Tribe warrior with his own boomerang that didn't come back to her when she threw it and dodged around another warrior's spear to leap back into the shadows of an alleyway. Xiao disarmed the warrior with the spear and knocked him out with a hard hit to the head even through his wolf helm while Lu Mao joined Mai in the alley and replenished her stock of throwing weapons with more that had been scattered around the battlefield.

"We have to regroup with our warriors stationed at the palace," Mai told them, pressed against a wall and breathing heavily. "Hopefully someone will send word to our own at Sanctuary Gate. But we need to find Zuko and the others, too."

"You got it, Cap'n!" Xiao said with a grin, pumping her fists.

They'd been about to move into action when the ground rumbled. Mai thought it to be an earthbender attacking at first, but it continued, making the buildings around them quiver. The trio emerged from the alleyway, looking around - sounds of battle faded away as everyone stopped in confusion. "An earthquake?" Lu Mao wondered.

Where water had emerged from wells and fountains in spouts, now sand erupted in pillars dozens of feet higher than the water did. It was as if the Si Wong Desert itself heaved up from underground, spilling all over the city. The ground under Mai's feet lurched and she almost lost her balance, but she grabbed Xiao and Lu Mao's hands and ran for higher ground toward the center of the city. Far away, loud crashes thundered out as buildings toppled and people screamed. A gong sounded out an alarm but faded away just as quickly. Mai's blood pumped as she ran, shouting at everyone to move - to keep moving, keep running, something far worse than the attack seemed to be happening… She had no idea who she urged forward, whether they were Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom.

A cloud of dust came from the walls separating the Middle and Lower Rings and for a moment Mai thought the walls had fallen. It rolled over the city like a sandstorm, blinding and choking. Stone ground against stone somewhere far off, adding to the cacophony.

She wondered, for just a moment, if earthbenders could have done this. But this quaking was too great, too powerful to be the work of humans. An Avatar, maybe? Was Aang here? Could he have done this? He wouldn't… unless something even more terrible had happened.

Dust, dirt, and sand obscured her vision but Mai pulled her friends into an open door to escape the rolling clouds. A shopkeeper ushered them inside - a girl scarcely older than them. She shuttered the windows as soon as the three of them made it to relative safety indoors. Coughing and sputtering, all three Roku Warriors found themselves covered in a layer of dust and sand from head to toe, specters who had wandered into a flower shop.

"What happened out there?" the shopkeeper asked, eyes wide with fear. The quaking had stopped and Mai judged this building to be structurally sound.

Mai turned to the shopkeeper once she recovered enough to breathe. "Do you have rooftop access?"

"Um, yes! In the back."

Mai leapt over the back counter toward the back room and a set of rickety stairs, Xiao and Lu Mao hot on her heels. She found a door and covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve before she pushed it open. Her first feeling upon coming to the rooftop was inexplicable melancholy - she found a garden full of all different kinds of flowers rendered the same color by the powder, strangled under a layer of sand. For a moment, the whole city felt smothered in silence and dust.

Toward the wall to the Upper Ring, a sandstone tower that wasn't there before broke the skyline, taller than anything else in the city except for the walls themselves. Situated at the top of it, standing on a minaret, was a massive, monstrous barn owl, of all things. Its wings spread, flapped twice, and it took off in a soaring lap around the city.

Next to Mai, Lu Mao gasped. He wasn't staring at the tower or the owl, but out across the city. The dust had settled and Mai's eyes widened in horror at the scale of the destruction. All around the Middle Ring, whole neighborhoods collapsed, an expanse of rubble and open pits that led to darkness. The tunnels and catacombs underneath the city had caved in, taking the city above down with them. No words came to Mai's lips at the sight.

A voice echoed out in the sky and it took Mai a moment to realize that it came from the owl.

"If I can't have my library in the Spirit World, then the human world will have to do… again. Even if I have to wipe out this entire city to claim it."


Author's Notes: Sorry this one took a little while, but I wanted to finish the Book 2 finale chapter and post these two relatively close to each other! The next one will come soon. So far, I've been able to stick with weekly updates since I picked up the story again and I only broke that streak because I wanted the next ones to be posted close! I'm not quite done with the Book 2 finale yet, but it's easily the longest chapter yet and I'm thinking of splitting that into two parts of its own - but I'll leave it up to you all: do you want one giant mega chapter next or would you prefer it to be broken up in two parts?

As far as my Book 1 fix-ups go, I've made some edits to Book 1 Chapter 3, "The Western Air Temple." Check it out if you like!

Also, the links to all the art, media, and the comic by Axxonu are now up in my profile! I guess the best way to do it on this website is to just type out the link with spaces.

Please don't forget to leave a review! I left a tiny little Harry Potter reference in this chapter because I couldn't resist (hey, I can still appreciate her stories from a distance even if the author herself is awful now).