Daughter of Hate

by Blutus Mindpretzel

The war is over. Azula's motives remain unknowable as her child stands to shake the foundation of everything built since the fall of Fire Lord Ozai. For Toph, Mai, Aang, Katara and the rest, the world is an even more dangerous place than it was when they were children. And despite being long since gone, Sasuke's impact continues to shudder their world, perhaps more than they know.

35. Chapter 35

AN: Sorry again for the delay… might take some time to get back into the proper swing of things, but I'll try and keep everybody in the loop as we go here. Life be making things like routine difficult sometimes, interrupting a good thing you've got going just cuz XD. Hope everybody enjoys, regardless of the delay!

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Chapter 35: Clouds of War

As he tried to keep his mind from spinning, Sasuke found that he at least had the wherewithal to swiftly cast a jutsu as he spoke to the child in a low and firm tone.

"Say that again."

The small, weak figure lowered its head and repeated itself.

"I am Koloss."

Through his jutsu, Sasuke could sense no lie coming from the being, though this clarity did nothing but raise more questions in his mind rather than answer them. Koloss seemed to notice his confusion being projected and they cocked their head again not unlike a curious dog.

"Were you expecting something other than myself?"

Sasuke found himself not able to come up with a good reason to be dishonest; he felt Soza's grip near his waist tighten and he reached around to put a hand around the back of her neck, squeezing it in what he hoped felt like an assuring fashion.

"Koloss was indeed the being we set out to find," he said plainly. "We were informed however that the being in question was massive, a gargantuan creature, that was created in order to harness and hold the power and energy that allows for the connection between these two worlds to exist at all. Its size was to be reflective of that power and when we found this enormous giant buried mostly in ice… I had thought we were on the right track."

The child before him almost didn't even seem to be receptive of his words and leaned back against the wall near the corner it was tucked away near. The single melancholy eye that was visible blinked slowly, glazing over as it seemed to drift deep in thought.

"Is that what they've started to say about me…" it murmured quietly and Sasuke felt his daughter tense beside him.

"Are you saying that we're lying?" she asked sharply and Sasuke cast her a quick look.

"Soza, quiet," he said in a low voice and he felt her eyes look up to him as he kept his gaze locked on the child in front of him.

"But, dad, what if—"

"I said, quiet," he repeated, his voice a touch icier than he had intended for it to sound. Soza seemed cowed well enough by this and she swallowed, falling silent at his side.

Koloss didn't seem to notice Sasuke's brief exchange with his daughter, still looking to be lost in thought. Sasuke wasn't even sure he wanted to persist immediately but at the thought of an army of spirits on the doorstep of the Northern Water tribe, he ignored any nudging in his mind towards being sensitive.

"How long have you been here?" he decided to ask. "Are we the first people you've talked to in quite some time?"

His questions seemed to register with Koloss and they turned their eye sadly back to him. It was a strange look; while Sasuke could tell that they weren't trying whatsoever to guilt trip him or otherwise, it was impossible not to feel some deep sense of empathy for the frail being before him.

"In quite some time…?" the child asked him, its voice still soft and wispy. "You two are the first humans I've ever laid eyes on."

Sasuke had to blink a few times at this piece of information.

"Then…" he started, but Koloss seemed to understand where his line of questioning might be going.

"I don't predate humanity," they said softly. "I just simply have never been in a situation where I've been able to set eyes on a person. Just myself, this room…"

It looked remorsefully at the unorthodox throne.

"… that throne."

This struck Sasuke as a strange thing to say and he interrupted.

"Let me understand this," he said firmly. "You've never been outside this room?"

The child shook their head again, like the tolling of a depressed bell.

"Not in many an age."

Soza seemed to forget the silence that Sasuke had instructed of her and she seemed to swell up at his side with something like indignation.

"A person can't survive on their own for that long!" she snapped. "You would have needed food and water and—"

Sasuke opted this time to tighten his grip on where he had his hand resting on her neck, and she didn't need to be told twice as to what he was indicating and her voice trailed off into quiet. It was clear the situation as a whole had her quite riled up and Sasuke could understand why; after such a period of searching, of being completely alone and without anyone but one another to keep company, to see this strange, horribly unhealthy looking being was obviously doing a number on her. Her aggression was all she could do to mask her unease and potential fright. Much like her mother, Sasuke supposed, the last thing Soza wanted to do was show any sort of weakness.

She needs to keep calm though. I'm just as much at a loss as she is, and we can't let ourselves get wound up and make stupid decisions because of that.

"I get the feeling you don't require the things that a human needs to survive," he remarked in a tone that he forced into sounding casual. There was nothing about this that wasn't causing him to be drawn completely tense, but in the case that Koloss was set on edge by Soza's agitated words, he needed to appear as calm and amenable as possible.

"I do not," the child replied. They seemed completely unperturbed by his daughter's aggression, almost as though it had no bearing on her being there at all. "My being doesn't require sustenance for my being is all the sustenance I need."

More cryptic words, but it was still clear that Koloss was speaking just the only way that it knew how.

It doesn't know that it's speaking in riddles. What it's telling me now is all that it knows.

"When you say an age," he pressed, "how do you mean?"

"A great many of what you people might call lifetimes. Centuries perhaps."

There was mild confusion in the child's voice and Sasuke watched as its eye tilted upwards, slipping back into a state of deep thought. He tried to think of how he might be able to spur it into remembering something a touch more accurate.

"Do you remember any being known as an Avatar?" he asked. If there was something to that end, he might be able to figure some bearing as to just how long Koloss had been present.

For the first time, the child's mood seemed to darken, though not in a menacing way. It lowered its head and extended a sickeningly thin arm to its side to pick gloomily at the floor.

"How could I not?" they asked. "If not for Wan, my predicament would not be as it is. Were I even to have a predicament at all."

Sasuke wracked his brain for any memory of the name Wan, trying to piece together where exactly he might have heard such a name if at all.

Wait…

When his memory twitched and he remembered hearing the name, he furrowed his brow.

"Avatar Wan, the first Avatar?" he asked slowly and Koloss rolled its head back and forth with extreme slowness as though moving along to the tempo of a silent lullaby. It struck Sasuke that the child truly did look quite tired on top of everything else.

"Yes," it murmured. "The one that started it all. The one that bridged the gap between man and spirit, and the one that set all this in motion…"

"All what in motion?" Sasuke persisted, eager to get as much information out of this bizarre being as he could. His mind was buzzing in a rather helpless kind of way, and he was praying that the more answers he received, the more clear things might become since as of now, everything was a complete mess to him.

This wasn't what we were supposed to find. We were told and we read of a monstrous being that possesses this energy, and yet here all we find is a child claiming the same name as the monster we were sent to find.

But Sasuke knew that at the end of the day, all he needed to do was find the power source. That was all that he was here for.

"This matter," Koloss answered gently. "This eternal conflict. Surely you've sensed it, or heard about it? What but conflict has come of the mating of the physical and spiritual world? Benefits exist, or so I might imagine, but has the ruin caused by this endless struggle not proven the lack of worth for something…"

It paused and seemed to think for a moment before finishing its thought in a whisper.

"… like myself?"

Before Sasuke could think of an answer or anything to say in reply, once again, Soza fired up from at his side.

"This should put you at ease then," she said fiercely. "Since we're here to go ahead and make it so you never have to worry about—"

Speaking clearly over his daughter, Sasuke finally turned to look down at her.

"Soza."

She looked to him, and he saw that eagerness once more in her eyes.

"What?"

He moved his chin towards the door towards the antechamber just beyond.

"Wait in the other room."

Her expression changed from excitable to shocked and hurt with a speed that might have been comical in a laxer situation.

"What?!" she burst out. "But I'm—!"

"I've told you several times now to mind your tongue and you don't seem to have any interest in heeding me," Sasuke said to her smoothly. "Wait just outside the door; only come back in if someone or something else approaches the antechamber."

She didn't move, simply standing before him and staring dumbfoundedly at him as though she couldn't believe what he was asking of her.

"That wasn't a request," Sasuke added, and he watched as his daughter closed her mouth and tightened her lips, cast a quick angry glance towards the frail looking child ahead of them, and stomped from the room with all the theatrics of a temper tantrum. She yanked the door shut behind her and it closed more forcefully than was necessary.

As the echo of the door slamming faded away, Sasuke sighed quietly through his nose. In truth, he had been readying himself to order Soza from the room for a different reason entirely, but her blustering on had nearly spilled far too soon the true purpose of their visit. If she wasn't going to be able to control her feelings, then she was much more detrimental than helpful in being present with him.

"The girl is quite… assertive," Koloss said quietly and Sasuke turned back to the child.

"She gets that from her mother," he remarked, surprising himself that he even had the wherewithal to make what was essentially a joke. Based on how the weak and rather helpless being before him didn't seem to react, the humor was clearly lost on it.

"She brought up an interesting point," the child said, straightening its back and Sasuke could practically hear the creaking of its bones. "You might have been the first in perhaps thousands of years to find me, but I know not your purpose for being here."

Sasuke tried not to feel too upset with his daughter for alluding to the reason they had been seeking out the being known as Koloss in the first place as he knew he had to play his cards carefully.

I still know so little about this person… nor do I even know his connection to the energy source I'm looking for.

"Well, considering that we've found someone named Koloss who completely goes against the descriptions we've been given, I'm not sure that our purpose for being here is the same as it was," he lied.

"Mmm," the child said almost dreamily, as though it were trying to keep from falling asleep. "You heard stories of a gargantuan being by my name and that's all, is it?"

"That's about right," Sasuke replied evenly. He said nothing more as he was silently hoping that this would warrant enough for more of an explanation, and to his relief, that seemed to be the child's thought as well.

"It seems my story has been somewhat twisted down through the ages," it said. "I suppose when my parents left me here, they didn't give much thought to how the world would regard me, or the story of my birth."

"And what story would that be?" Sasuke asked without being able to help himself. He cursed the fact that, just barely, he heard some of Soza's eagerness in his own voice. Koloss turned their single eye towards him with an almost measuring gaze.

"Will this change anything?" it asked. "Will your mission become any different than it is now?"

Though it wasn't directly addressed, Sasuke winced internally as he heard the allusion towards the nature of his being there.

"I'm not sure," he replied, as fairly as he could. "But I would like to understand perhaps a little more why I'm talking to you and why the giant I was supposedly looking for is part of a glacier rather than walking around like I expected."

He was certain that this wasn't going to be enough for Koloss, but the child only gazed at him with a tired, honest, and piercing eye. Sasuke could sense no judgement, no spite, no fear of any kind, and he began to wonder if the frail being really did understand at all what he and Soza were doing there. After a long bout of silence between them, Koloss began to speak.

"When the physical and spiritual world connected, a tree was birthed in the spirit world to allow for that stability between our worlds to exist. Without the tree, there could be no union, but it also meant that there needed to be something rooted here as well, something to act as a catalyst for that power, just as the tree was. My parents were perhaps surprised when they attempted to take that power to the physical world only to find that it took on a life of its own."

Sasuke didn't need to cast any jutsu to know that truth was what he was hearing. There was a vague bitterness underneath the child's exhaustion that couldn't have been missed and it resounded with the verity of its words.

"My parents couldn't believe that the great energy source they had taken over had solidified into such a weak, frail being… but how could I not have been frail and weak when the bond and harmony between our two worlds has always been nothing but? I came to life to shelter something that was already so hopeless and shriveled a connection. Even back then, the relation between our two worlds was fraught with fractures."

Its parents… that has to be Raava and Vaatu.

"But my parents chose not to judge me for my physical nature. Knowing the gravity of what I possessed, they crafted me a form to reside within, an enormous body the likes of which knew no match with which to defend myself. They lectured me on my importance, and I accepted their words like the foolish creature that I am."

Things were started to fall into place in Sasuke's head, though he was surprised to find that he very much wished they wouldn't; the story that was shaking out wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"I strode across the earth as a behemoth, relishing the importance I held. But this… this would come to grow stale. I questioned my purpose and responsibility, and I took these concerns to my parents. When they affirmed in me what my reason for existing was, confirming that all I am is a vessel, I grew… consternated. I lashed out. I was enraged. But even with my body, my parents were able to force me into submission."

With horribly shaking legs, the child somehow managed to force itself to its feet. Sasuke couldn't help but take a step forward, extending a hand as he did. In a way, Koloss repulsed him in how sickly and frail they were, but he was almost certain that its legs would snap under the weight of its dangerously thin body. The child didn't seem to notice him and gingerly, quakingly trudged towards the throne.

"My transgression of anger and denial was enough for them to question their decision. They drew my great form far north, beyond the sight of man. They destroyed my ability to control it, and as it crashed onto its back to never walk again, the form that had given me such freedom and power became my prison."

Its hand extended and brushed the arm of the throne.

"My tomb."

The hand fell back to its side, and it stood before the strange chair, looking at it as though deciding whether to take a seat.

"Years, ages passed. My parents never came to see me again, though I sensed their conflict, bound to them eternally as I am. Their unity only seemed to last long enough to place me here it would seem."

Sasuke sensed a presence behind him and he turned to tell off Soza for coming back into the room when he had explicitly ordered her to stay outside, but instead found himself drawing Kusanagi.

Before him stood a half dozen of the suits of armor that he and Soza had encountered throughout the labyrinth of the giant's body, but now, rather than just being pieces of the armor piled in sets, a dark purplish energy held the pieces together like a body. Said bodies rippled and flashed with the deep violet coloration and Sasuke was vaguely reminded of his Susanoo. Pitiless glowing eyes stared out at him from the armor, and he adopted a readied stance with his sword and looked past them towards the door where he had seen Soza walk through.

"Your child is fine," Koloss said wearily from behind him. "These are my closest friends. I suppose they are more my guards than anything, but after a while, the terms sort of blend. They were attached to the ceiling, watching over just as they always have."

Sasuke didn't trust this at face value, even though all he sensed from the child was truth. He remained with his back to Koloss and his sword extended ahead of him. The energized suits of armor made no move towards him, simply stood in a row as though awaiting orders.

"They were all a parting gift from my parents, as much as you can call them that," Koloss quietly continued as though Sasuke's tension was something it was completely ignorant of. "They became the cells of this body and, on my command, will fight with every bit of strength they have to protect me. For a time, spirits and men alike did come to try and breach my giant form to possess my great energy, but I never saw a one of them. These armors were more than enough to take care of them."

"And that's what they're here for now?" Sasuke asked as lightly as he could. "To 'take care' of us?"

"Why do you think you're only seeing them now?" Koloss asked.

Quite suddenly, the purple energy wisped away in nothingness and the sets of armor clattered to the floor. Sasuke stared at them before turning back to Koloss to see that the child hadn't turned to face him, its bandaged head still looking at the throne ahead of it.

"They do not act without my command. Nor do they materialize without my command. I chose to have them to protect me for so many years because I was afraid of those coming to possess what I have. But after thousands more of silence and loneliness… perhaps you and your daughter were permitted entrance because I have no more desire to remain locked away as I have been. Perhaps I just wanted to see a human for myself and to speak with one."

Sasuke wasn't content to leave the armor all lying on the ground behind him, but he found himself slowly sheathing his sword anyway.

"You're not human then?"

Koloss raised its right arm out ahead of it slowly, staring at the appendage with its fingers hanging loosely and limply.

"Perhaps I possess the form of a person, but no. I am anything but."

Gently, it slid back down to the step just before the throne, seeming as though it had decided not to take a seat after all. It sat down next to the arm of the strange chair, resting its forehead against the front of it.

"I don't understand," Sasuke said almost automatically. He realized that he was trying to stall for time that he didn't have as he twisted his mind for the words to say next.

"I am the power you seek. I am the energy that unites the spiritual world and physical world. The stories passed down naming the giant shell I reside in as being myself are what happens when you leave man to assume the tales of his ancestors are pure and utter truth. I am not what you expected, but I am what I am. I am Koloss."

It was a hollow statement, nothing short of a defeated sigh. Sasuke watched as the child's eye closed slowly and it rested against the throne, looking as pathetic and weak a thing as he had ever seen.

And yet he knew that what he had heard was the truth.

It was truly as jarring as anything he could have found. He would have almost rather he had been forced to fight a giant for all the issues that this was now posing to him. At first, he hadn't been able to sense it, but as Koloss had spoken, he had reached out with chakra and tried to sense for any sort of power that might further indicate truth, and he had found that despite the frail form, the child radiated an energy unlike anything he had felt. The closest thing he could remember was that power he had felt emanating from the gate that Madara had opened using Aang's blood, a strange and rather nauseating force. Had he continued to probe at Koloss, having to feel such an incredible essence emanating from the child, it might very well have caused such a sense of illness once more. Despite its weak and unsettling appearance, there was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that the creature before him possessed great power indeed.

Power it never wanted, and power it likely regrets that it even possesses.

Sasuke had heard the child's story and couldn't help but feel pity. A being born out of necessity to vessel a power it likely didn't fully understand, to be punished in its immaturity for being angry with the responsibility set upon its shoulders. Spending century after century locked away in the giant body that had once been its access to freedom, unable to leave and unable to die.

No matter what it is at its core, human or not… this was no punishment it deserved.

Koloss almost seemed to be ignoring him now, having raised a delicate hand to run along the body of the throne as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world, even as its eyelid drooped sadly. Sasuke wanted to offer it some comfort, or some semblance of peace, but nothing he could say or do could take away the trauma that no doubt such a long period might do to someone, especially a being who was unable to actually expire by natural means.

And at the end of the day, he knew deep down that nothing had really changed. In truth, this had rather just made things easier.

Its fingers slowly dragging over the throne, Koloss's body slowly drew in breath and released it, just the simple act of that alone looking to be something that labored it quite badly. The child didn't say anything for a time and nearly a minute passed before it quietly spoke again, not turning to face Sasuke.

"Why do you hesitate?"

Kusanagi's tip was angled towards the back of the child's neck. Sasuke had moved forward as fast and as silent as was possible and placed himself in position to end his quest in a single fell of the blade. With one blow, he could extinguish the life of the frail being and disperse the energy that it held within. The tip of the sword quivered and Sasuke looked at it with furrowed brow. His entire body was tensed and despite the relative chill of the giant body's insides, he felt sweat beading down his temple. Drawing in a deep breath, he held steady and prepared to bring the blade forward with a quick and precise jab that he would then lift out, severing the spine almost entirely.

Another second passed. Then another, then another.

"Mercy?" Koloss inquired quietly in a voice that was nearly a whisper. "I hardly think you have the time for such weakness."

Realizing that his eyes had been closed, Sasuke snapped them open and glared down at the bandaged head that still remained facing away from him.

The child was right. It was weakness, nothing more. He gazed intensely down at the point he intended to strike.

This was rather the real reason why he had asked Soza to step out, he knew. Sasuke grimaced, his teeth clenched as he willed Kusanagi to move.

What would his daughter think of him?

---

Toph pressed a hand tightly against her back, her arm tucked over her shoulder as she shouted directions over the raging of the wind in her ears. Within the past few minutes, the mark had begun to burn, and she had been quick to start screaming such in order for Katara and Aang to hear her.

Just as they had said would be necessary, Toph had no sooner reached the rear of the palace before she was urged into a sort of compact and tight sleigh before Katara and Aang had followed her in and they had rocketed off far faster than Toph would have ever thought they could move. She had tucked down to take as much cover as she could and for all the cold and wind that shrieked past her, it rather felt similar to flying. She couldn't see of course, but she wondered if her two friends were created surges of frozen water beneath them or if they were just guiding them effortlessly over the glacial tundra. Toph might have asked but she was both concentrating a great deal on her mark and also far too cold to think of trying to talk.

Minutes became hours quickly and Toph could feel the cold getting to her. Her teeth chattered as she clenched her body tightly within her coat. Through the sleigh, she could feel Katara's exhaustion from bending at such an intense level for so long. Aang didn't seem to be having that same tiredness, but Toph supposed considering that he was the Avatar meant that his bending energies surely allowed him to last longer than others.

It must have been near nightfall by the time Toph finally felt her mark burn to life. She had cried out and leapt forward to put her hands on both Aang and Katara to ensure she had their attention. From there, hours more passed as she guided them as best she was able, her near numb hand pressed to her back.

I wonder what Jin and Ty Lee and the others think is happening, she thought as the feeling of her teeth chattering resounded over and over in her head. Ursa too, and Azula. They're probably all stressed out of their minds, knowing that something is so wrong that we had to just leave as quick as we did.

Azula would no doubt be furious that she wasn't taken as well given that she too had a seal from Sasuke attached to her skin, and Ursa was surely pacing the halls as they spoke, fretting over her lover and granddaughter. As Toph's mind drifted to Soza, she had to catch herself before her anxiety flooded her and she fell into what might have been quite the dark place mentally.

Soza will be fine. Sasuke will take care of her.

---

Mai opened her eyes as she heard the sound of sharply raised voices resounding from the hallway. Yawning, she waited a few moments to see if the voices would go away, but when the didn't, she grumbled, kicked her feet over the side of the bed and grumpily stood. Reaching for her nightrobe, she threw it on and tied the sash at her waist before opening the door and poking her head into the hall.

Jin and Ty Lee were standing at Suki and Sokka's door, both of whom looked like they had been roused from sleep as well, or at least the crest of it. Jin seemed to be trying to get Ty Lee to calm down, but the woman seemed past the point where she could be so reasoned with. Mai stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her rather loudly, and all four of them turned to look at her. She fixed them with the usual flat gaze that she often used and crossed her arms.

"What's going on?"

She hadn't been so lost in the throes of sleep that she had forgotten that there was the very tangible threat of spirits looming, but she knew that if the spirits themselves had been the cause of this disturbance, she would have been since awoken and in a much more urgent manner than hearing voices outside her door.

Ty Lee looked at her with a desperate look in her eyes that just about immediately caused Mai's protectiveness to rear its head and she quickly walked over.

"Are you hurt?" she asked quickly as she put a hand on Ty's shoulder. Her friend swallowed and shook her head.

"I'm not—"

As she looked into the fear and nervousness on Ty Lee's face, Mai's now swiftly working mind could come to only one conclusion.

"What did she do?" she growled through gritted teeth, her hand tightening on Ty's shoulder. Her friend looked bemused for a moment before her face devolved into a miserable expression and she shook her head swiftly, her ponytail swinging from side to side.

"This has nothing to do with Azula, Mai!" she cried, and Mai quickly looked to Jin for confirmation. The brunette gave Ty a worried look, but nodded along to her words.

"It's Toph," Suki said. She sounded much more calm, but her look was moving from annoyed to concerned herself and she crossed her arms.

"I haven't seen her all day," Ty Lee clarified nervously. "I've seen her every day since Sasuke left multiple times, but I didn't see her this morning when we got up, I couldn't find her during the day, and I didn't see her at dinner either. And she's come to bed with Jin and I every night."

"And let me guess," Mai muttered. "She's not there now."

Ty Lee anxiously nodded, genuinely looking like she might be sick.

"Weird," Sokka remarked. "Do you have any idea when last she—"

Rounding the corner rather suddenly, Aang looked and saw the group standing there, and quickly approached.

"Has anyone seen Katara?" he asked, sounding a touch worried himself. "I thought she would be with the strategists still, but they've all retired for the day and they all told me that Katara wasn't even present at the meetings today. And she was gone before I woke up today."

Sokka furrowed his brow.

"That's weird," he said. "I didn't see her today, but I would have thought…"

He trailed off and scratched the back of his head, looking genuinely ashamed.

"Shit. Everything was still so busy, I didn't even think to go and check up on her."

Suki gave him a reproachful look, even as she took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"It's not your job to keep up with her just because you're her brother. I'm sure she and Toph are fine, maybe they went off to have a girl's night, just the two of them."

It was a nice sentiment, but with how tight lockdown was within the palace right now, it wasn't very realistic. The whole of the Northern Water tribe seemed to have caught onto the fact that things were not at all as they should be; from the times she had been out on the terraces, Mai had looked down at the city streets to see the once bustling avenues occupied only by Water Nation soldiers. Tangith had done a strong job in keeping any sort of panic from breaking out, and she wondered if he was playing this off as a lengthy drill of sorts, installing curfew within the city for the time being. But to that end, all of the chief's staff, advisors and top military men were restricted to the palace, not allowed to leave under any circumstances, and Mai and the others had fallen under a very similar umbrella. She had attempted a couple times to stray from the palace grounds and had been rather harshly reproached for trying to do so.

Toph and Katara wouldn't have been allowed to leave the palace either. I doubt even Zuko or Aang could get away with trying something like that with the lockdown the city is going into.

As though summoned by her thoughts, the door to Zuko's room opened and he stepped out, rubbing his eye and looking rather annoyed himself.

"Something the matter?" he asked and Mai flicked an eyebrow at him.

"Pajama party. You're just in time."

He looked back at her with something like surprise in his eyes registering briefly and Mai felt that she was rather surprised at herself as well. That might have been the first time she had joked with him in months.

"Katara and Toph are missing," Ty Lee said rather urgently, and Mai shot her a look before turning back to Zuko.

"No one's seen them today," she clarified to Zuko and watched as the Fire Lord's expression went from annoyed to concerned. He crossed his arms and looked about at all of them.

"No one?" he asked and when they all shook their heads, he only looked more put off. Almost immediately, he started to turn and walk away from them.

"I'll go and let the guards know," he said firmly. "They'll run a search through the palace."

Mai almost raised her voice in a snap, but caught herself, feeling confusion in the pit of her stomach.

Why was I about to stop him?

Ty Lee seemed to only be getting more and more agitated as the seconds ticked by, and Mai reached out and pulled her friend into a firm, but comforting hug.

"She's fine, Ty," she assured her. "Everything's going to be fine."

When her friend started to murmur somewhat frantically in her ear, Mai started to realize just how scared Ty Lee really was.

"What if she went and did something stupid? She's been hurting so much recently, I can't… it's my fault, Mai. I broke her heart, I know I did. And it took her disappearing for me to realize it."

"What are you talking about?" Mai murmured back almost automatically. She shouldn't have been encouraging Ty's fears, but her realization that she didn't understand what her friend was talking about forced the question.

"I did it with Sasuke," Ty whispered back. "The boy that she hasn't stopped loving for over a decade, and I knew it. I knew how she felt and I still went and did that with him."

Her arms around Mai suddenly tightened with a hateful bitterness.

"And I never said sorry. I never even thought about what I had done to her until just an hour ago when I realized she was gone."

She gave a wet laugh and Mai felt the warmth of teardrops seeping through the shoulder of her nightgown.

"How shitty a friend can you get?"

Feeling something resembling her own panic, Mai decided to quickly cut this off as best she could. There was no doubt in her mind that Ty was likely still wallowing in guilt both over the Azula situation and what she had done with Sasuke, and she didn't need to be feeling guilt about Toph being gone as yet another factor in her bottled up misery.

Dammit, Toph… why now?

"None of that," Mai said quietly to her in a firm voice. "You're going to feel pretty stupid saying all this stuff when it turns out Toph just found a basement somewhere to practice her earthbending."

Ty gave another wet laugh, this one sounding a touch more genuine.

"If you're right, Mai, I swear, I'll—"

Another door opened behind Mai and she heard the soft sounds of slippers on the hard floor before the same door closed.

"Is something the matter?"

Mai's teeth clenched behind her lips and she slowly allowed herself to release Ty Lee to turn around. The voice was unmistakable, but even if Azula hadn't said a word, Ty's reaction would have been more than enough to give away her presence.

In just a single moment, she had felt as much fear in a single tensing of her friend's body as might have been possible. Ty's whole form had given a single, severe shake that was only noticeable to Mai because she was holding her.

She's still terrified of her.

Mai's lips tightened and she turned to face Azula. As she did, she saw Suki and Jin out of the corner of her eye making similar movements, stepping just slightly inward, ready to block off the path to Ty Lee if it was necessary.

Azula stood in her own nightgown, her arms crossed and with a raised eyebrow, looking properly and despicably beautiful. Mai hated how a person like her was allowed to be as stunning as she was, though as Azula's eyes met hers, she knew that wasn't all of what had her so angry.

You rotten bitch… was it happening even back then?

Three or so years after Sasuke had left, Mai had hit her first rocky patch with Zuko and had been storming about the Fire Nation bitterly, as a young woman in her late teens might have done. At the time, she had remembered being so upset that she was practically looking for the fight when she had run into Azula. It had taken the princess all of a few seconds to discern what the problem was and a vile smirk had twisted its way onto her face.

"Oh, Mai. So trusting that my weak and pathetic big brother could ever properly satisfy you. Why don't you stop by the palace tonight? I'll help take your mind off things."

Mai could remember being so surprised that Azula hadn't decided to act on the fact that she had found Mai in such a flustered and vulnerable position; she had been ready to lash out at Azula in that moment, expecting the princess to pounce on her when she had seen her friend in such a state, but the invitation had surprised Mai more than anything and she had accepted. That evening, Azula had treated her to some of the finest liquor available in the Fire Nation and, after Mai had been properly buzzed, Azula had surprised her by taking her hand.

"I think you'll like this next part."

The princess had almost greedily smiled and brought them both up to her room and when the door had opened, Mai still remembered how stunned she had been to see Ty Lee lying naked on the mattress. She had smiled at Mai, looking both flushed and sheepish; Azula had walked to the bed, stripping as she had and when she reached the side of the mattress, she had turned back to Mai, smirking.

"Who better to take your mind off your woes with my brother than your two best friends?"

Mai had partaken that night, letting both Azula and Ty Lee pull her into bed as the alcohol blurred her very perception of whether or not what she was experiencing was even real. She remembered how good it had felt and how much she had been able to just forget what had been plaguing her with Zuko.

The next morning, neither Ty Lee nor Azula spoke of what had happened, and Mai didn't seek them out again for another round with the three of them again, almost as though the night might never have happened; the evening had sparked Mai's interest in women, and while she never once felt truly romantically attracted to another female, her trips to the brothels in the Fire Nation's red light districts had proven to her that they did just as good a job in satisfying her desires.

But that night… I knew then that Ty Lee and Azula had been intimate. And I just left it at that.

No thought was spared towards her two friends beyond that and Mai often could find herself forgetting that she even knew that piece of information. But she had known that such a relationship was possible. And she had known that it existed between Azula and Ty Lee to some degree, even if it wasn't one she knew. Just another reason to be furious with herself for letting Ty Lee be abused under Azula's thumb for so long.

With Jin and Suki on either side of her, she made sure that Ty Lee was well behind her as she stared back at the princess.

"Not a thing, your highness. Apologies for interrupting your rest."

It was perhaps the exact same response a palace servant might have offered Azula, but Mai's words were laced with complete insincerity. She glared back at Azula as the princess's eyes narrowed.

"Clearly something must be amiss to have amassed such a gathering this late," Azula replied smoothly, her voice like a serpent's tongue flicking in Mai's ear. "Has something happened with Sasuke and my daughter?"

It did Mai good to know she wouldn't have to lie on that front. Azula could sniff out a falsehood as well as anyone could hope to, and if she thought that something might be being hidden about her child and her obsession, there was no telling just how she might lash out.

"No, Toph and Katara haven't been seen all day is all," Mai said in a tone that she hoped sounded dismissive enough for Azula to lose interest. It wasn't like the princess cared much for any of them, and especially not either of the two women who had just been mentioned.

But instead, Azula took a step closer.

"Is that so?" she asked slowly, her eyes darting around at each of them. She took another step and Mai could feel the entire group tensing up. Jin and Suki both moved a little further towards each of Mai's shoulders, both looking ready to pounce, and Mai made ready to shove Jin aside if things turned violent. There was no denying her fighting spirit and protectiveness of the people she cared about, but against Azula… well, there would be no Sasuke to save her this time.

"I don't suppose anyone has considered the possibility that they went looking for Sasuke?"

Mai's brow furrowed and she saw her friends looking at one another out of the corner of her eye.

"No…" Sokka said carefully. "Should we have?"

Azula's perfect lips bent upwards to smirk at them as a parent might regard an ignorant child.

"The earthbender's feelings are hardly a mystery, and I don't think it's any secret either that your sister has been giving him quite the series of looks in recent days," she said.

"That wouldn't be reason for them to just run off north on their own," Aang said, though Mai could hear the trickle of worry in his voice and she felt more anger bubble up at Azula as well as pity for Aang. She knew that he was very easy to be subject to doubt, even when the situation indicated anything but, but Mai also knew that Azula likely was prodding the situation intentionally. The more people she could rile up, the more people she could have on the lookout for the women that she believed might be trying to snatch up Sasuke from her.

Women like…

Mai didn't even finish the thought as she clenched her fists.

"Aang's right," she said firmly, trying not to let her anger get into her voice. "Regardless of any feelings they might have, or reasons they might want to talk to him, they wouldn't go charging off like that just for something as simple as that."

Azula gave a shrug that Mai knew was meant to look casual.

"I'm just suggesting a possibility," she said with some of that sickening charm that Mai knew she so loved to lace her words with. "I'm certain such an instance is unlikely, but if no one has really seen them…"

She trailed off, letting her suggestion settle more doubt in the air and Mai found that even she was feeling some worry that Toph and Katara might indeed be out of bounds, if not chasing after Sasuke, somewhere just as distant and dangerous.

They wouldn't do that… would they? They know how dangerous it is, especially for us; the spirits know that we're the closest ones to Sasuke, and if they were off on their own, and got captured…

Inhaling deeply through her nose, she opened her mouth to tell Azula off for trying to instigate something like this, no longer willing to hold back her anger from her voice.

"Azula, that's quite enough."

Mai slowly closed her mouth as the person who had beaten her to chastising Azula came walking up behind the princess.

Ursa looked quite tired, but there was a focused energy in her eyes that Mai knew was indicative of the fact that she was alert if nothing else. Her presence was still so commanding, even when she looked like she hadn't slept in a day. Immediately, Mai felt concern for the older woman; she was walking up just behind Azula, who was still several meters away from the group. The princess's animosity with her mother was well known by all, and Mai had found herself surprised on more than one occasion that Azula hadn't snapped and tried to commit matricide with all the stress and tension plaguing all of them. Even now, she tensed up as Ursa moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with her daughter and Mai waited for Azula to whirl and scream at her mother or reach for her throat.

But to her utter shock, Azula actually looked cowed. She looked anything but satisfied, but she turned her eyes down and looked off to the side, not saying another word.

Mai's brow furrowed and her mouth hung slightly agape; she exchanged looks with Suki who looked equally bewildered, and Mai could see that everyone else was wearing similar expressions. The only one who didn't seem to pay the bizarre interaction any mind was Ursa herself who regarded them all without a trace of the confusion that was being shared by all.

"What's this about Toph and Katara?"

Aang reiterated what had already been exchanged among them and Mai watched as Ursa too seemed to start growing anxious looking.

"That doesn't sound like either of those two young women," she said as Aang finished talking and Ty Lee clutched her fists to her chest.

"Do you have any ideas, Ursa?"

It was clear from her tone that she was looking for any reason to not think that Toph and Katara had gone off on their own or worse, and while she was annoyed that her friend hadn't accepted her own reassurances, Mai could grudgingly understand why Ty Lee was asking Ursa. The older woman exuded that exact sort of maternal aura that could allow one to look at her and find her very presence comforting, as though one could turn to her for an answer to anything.

As Ursa looked back at the distraught young woman, Mai could tell that she hated having to give the answer that she did.

"Where they might be? No. But I also don't want to put stock in the idea that they might elsewhere within the palace or the city by default."

Mai tightened her lips angrily.

The last thing Ty needs to hear right now is that they're further away than that, quite possibly in danger.

"But we cannot jump to conclusions," Ursa then said, her voice genuinely stern. She looked at Ty Lee with a fixed intensity that spoke to the seriousness of the words she was delivering. "Keep calm, Ty Lee. Zuko will alert the guards and they will surely scour this palace for Toph and Katara, and then the city should they not be found. They present a considerable risk in being lost, I'm sure the chief will see it that way. But for now, they could turn up just a few floors beneath us for all we know."

She looked around at all of them; Azula was still standing at her side looking reservedly daunted and Mai was still finding difficulty believing what she was seeing in that regard.

What happened between them to make Azula back down like that? Was it something Sasuke did?

"Why doesn't everyone get back to bed?" Ursa continued. "I'll stay up and wait for the guards to report back and wake you all if there's anything that comes of—"

"No," Mai said sharply. She felt everyone's eyes turn to her, but she maintained her gaze ahead of her, looking pointedly at Ursa. The older woman, despite what she was doing to comfort them all with these gentle assurances, still looked deeply tired and Mai wasn't going to allow her to stay up while the rest of them napped the remainder of the night.

"I'll stay up. You need your rest."

She had expected one of two things: either Ursa would contest her point and say that she really was just fine in staying up, or she would graciously thank Mai for taking up that burden. What Mai did not expect was for Ursa to stiffen, almost unnoticeably, but quite seriously. Her expression tightened as though someone had pressed a knife against her back and she didn't so much as blink as she looked back at Mai, who let the moment sit awkwardly for second after second, until it became awkward and she couldn't hold her tongue.

"I can see the dark under your eyes," she said. "Who's to say you wouldn't just pass out standing up while waiting for word back?"

For another worrisome second, Ursa continued to look perturbed before she finally lowered her chin in a slow nod, seeming to agree.

"Yes. Yes, you're right. Thank you, Mai."

"No problem," Mai replied, but as Ursa turned rather unceremoniously to walk back to her room, she could still see the stiffness in the older woman's steps.

What the hell was that all about?

"Ursa's right, Ty," Jin said, stepping close to her friend and putting a hand on her shoulder. "We should try and sleep for now; worrying isn't going to do us an ounce of good."

Ty Lee looked like she wanted nothing more than to contest this, but Mai cut her off before she could even open her mouth.

"Toph's going to be have quite the laugh when she turns up and sees how stressed you were getting over nothing," she said rather bluntly, but Ty seemed to be shaken just enough by her words to look at her with something like reproach, which quickly became something like distant appreciation as she seemed to understand what Mai was trying to do.

"Thanks," she said to both of them and turned slowly back to her room and Jin followed close behind, throwing a glance over her shoulder at Azula.

"How about you, Aang?" Mai then asked. She wanted to follow Ty Lee as well, but it wasn't lost on her how nervous Aang might have been about Katara's absence. Looking at the Avatar, she saw that he didn't quite look anxious in the same way that Ty did, but rather there was a strange sort of fear on his face that he looked like he was trying quite hard to hide. He seemed to almost jump when she addressed him, looking to her and swallowing.

"What?" he asked, a little too quickly. She looked at him carefully before reiterating.

"If Katara isn't around, I'm sure you're probably a little worked up too."

He took stock of her words and gave a quick nod.

"Yeah, yeah, I am," he replied, his voice sounding rather dry. "I should… yeah, I should get to bed too. I'm sure they'll turn up."

As she watched him, Mai remembered the conversation she had shared with him and found herself quite hating the fact that there were so many people still standing around just then. If he was stressing just as much about Sasuke too just then, even though Mai could tell that he was mostly concerned about Katara, then that wasn't a good recipe for his mental wellbeing. She could see the almost pleading look he gave her then, and she knew immediately what was wrong.

He spent the day off on his own, worrying about his feelings for Sasuke. And in that time, Katara somehow went missing. And Aang's thinking that if he had just not let her out of his sight this morning when they woke up…

That was the sort of guilt that she knew he couldn't be letting himself drown under right then. Angry she couldn't do more, she stepped forward and gave him a hug, hoping it was quick and firm enough that it wouldn't appear out of the ordinary. Though her signs of physical affection were rare enough that she knew the rest of the group was probably eying her with at least some measure of surprise. She pulled away just as quickly and squeezed his shoulder.

"Yeah. They will."

With that, those remaining bid another good night, Aang heading to his room, Sokka and Suki retreating into theirs, Suki comforting a rather anxious looking Sokka, Jin and Ty Lee heading down the hall the other way, and Mai turned to look to where Azula had been standing.

The princess was gone, just as her mother had left. Not a word to any of them as Mai might have expected, but she was finding that she was feeling in an agitated enough mood that she didn't think she would have minded jabbing a few words Azula's way.

What in the world had happened to her that had let her practically buckle before her mother's word like that?

---

Soza stomped up and down the hallway, slowly letting the echoing sound of her steps mellow out her anger.

She hadn't obeyed her father when he had told her to wait outside in the antechamber and had found herself walking a few hallways away, a distance enough that she was somewhat far from the room that her father and that weird, malnourished freak were talking, but near enough that she knew her way back to the large, decorative door when she needed to return. But for now, her mind was racing with indignance and frustration, and Soza hadn't been able to help herself putting a good bit of distance between her and her father.

She thought back to all the times that Toph had upset her, calling their training sessions early, saying something that got under Soza's skin, anything to make her try and think of how she might be able to surpass this anger, but nothing came close to quantifying this painful moment she was experiencing in her relationship with her father. Toph was the person she would expect to think up something like that about, but when Soza really stopped to think about it…

Not her.

Her thoughts instead reluctantly drifted to her mother and she grit her teeth when she remembered the night that she had gone racing desperately into her mother's room, imploring her to see reason. How she had tried to kill Gilbert but been stopped by Toph who was taking the blame for what she had done. That frustration she had felt at her mother's denial was the closest thing she could imagine coming close to the anger she was feeling towards her father now, but somehow, it still didn't even really seem to come close.

She was most angry that she couldn't really figure out why she was frustrated.

I just want to show him that I'm worth his time, that I'm worth anything. I know he's got so much to deal with, but I'm just trying to help.

Soza shuddered to even imagine a situation where he had rather openly told her off in front of more people than just a strange and weak creature. She could feel the shame in her cheeks at being scolded in front of Toph, or her mother, or any of the group they had been traveling with. She truly didn't feel that she was in the wrong for speaking out to that Koloss person, but her father had clearly felt otherwise. Soza heeded his words out of…

Not respect.

It wasn't respect. She respected her father, but that wasn't why she had chosen not to put up a fight back in that throne room.

Just another attempt to make him accept me.

Her father had already made it clear that he was fearful of what might happen should she be given proper training and access to the abilities she possessed as his child. And Soza knew that if she could just earn his trust and his commitment, she would be able to convince him that he hadn't anything to worry about.

I won't go using it recklessly. I've only used that stuff because I needed to, I didn't have a choice, I didn't…

Soza stopped walking and felt her knees wobble slightly as the didn't seem to quite understand her need to come to a complete stop. She looked down and felt the ringing silence in her ears as the echo of her steps faded into nothing. Jamming her eyes shut, she grit her teeth and tried to rationalize in her head what she was trying to convince herself of.

She thought about how repulsed she had felt to feel Gilbert's hand on her body, touching her the way he had. She thought about how he had openly disrespected her, her mother, and the royal blood they shared. She thought about what he had been willing to do to Toph, and she thought about what had happened to her friend that night on his orders, more or less. She thought about how he had tried to shoot Auntie Ty and how her mother had taken the shot instead. She thought to every awful thing he had been preparing to do, betraying them all to the spirits and allowing their world to fall into potential ruin.

But no matter how much she hammered all these terrible things about in her head, she couldn't bring herself to say what she knew her mother would.

"He deserved to die a hundred times over."

Maybe. Maybe that was true. But that wasn't what Soza felt driving her insides completely apart with bitterness.

Gilbert might have deserved to die.

But he hadn't needed to.

Soza had been able to break free of his grip and completely annihilate the one advantage he had in that moment. The hand cannon device that he had taken from her grandma had fired its single shot, and there was nothing he could use to prevent the Avatar and Katara and Fire Lord Zuko and everyone else from bearing down on him with all the power of a train. He would have been captured in about an instant, and forced to spill all of the awful things he had done in betraying them and then left in a cell to either rot or wait to be executed for his crimes.

Soza hadn't needed to kill him then.

But I couldn't… I couldn't help myself.

She had seen her mother's body on the floor, felt the violation Gilbert had laid upon her, and known in her heart that he was running with this whole scheme purely for his own future benefit. There had been nothing Soza had wanted more then to blast him off the face of the earth then and there, and her Amaterasu had answered her livid and vengeful call with driving efficiency.

And so, she had killed a man.

And she hadn't needed to.

Soza leaned back against the strange wall made up by that strange unidentifiable substance that seemed to compose the entire inner workings of the gargantuan body. It felt strangely warm against her back, a contrast to the chill air that existed within the halls, causing Soza's breath to mist from her mouth when she exhaled. Opening her eyes, she looked down at her hands and found that they were shaking.

I killed someone.

She had wanted to feel pride after the fact. When Gilbert had collapsed before her, his screams dying away into nothingness along with his very being, Soza had wanted to feel affirmed and proud and victorious. But that had been so far from the case.

When she thought back, she could remember the numbness in her fingers and the nausea in her gut. She remembered nearly falling apart in a nervous panic, and only through Toph and her father's quick action had she been able to regain control of the black fire that had so quickly fled her very control. Her hurt had only grown worse when she had remembered what had happened to her mother, and she had rushed forward miserably to collapse over her prone form, silently imploring that Katara's efforts would be enough to keep her mother from being taken away. It had been very easy to push Gilbert's murder from her mind with all that had gone on then, and Soza had found that she had done a very good job in keeping thoughts of it at bay.

But it still lingered, the creeping, uneasy fact that she could never quite put entirely aside.

I killed someone.

No matter who it had been, or how deserved, she had taken a life. And Soza knew that it had been affecting her from the day it had happened.

Hiding between her attempts to train with her father and rushing about all across the northern frozen plains, she had been able to keep her feelings to herself. But now, Soza realized she had all but backed her mind into a terrible, horrifying corner. She found that her hands were shaking rather badly and she jammed them under her armpits in an attempt to hold them steady. Why did this knowledge speak so horribly to her? That a person had died by her hand, it should have meant nothing. Like the growth into womanhood, was this not just the natural progression of a person? Based on what she knew, her parents had likely amassed a considerable body count, was she not just a member of that fold now?

So why do I feel so… sick?

As she jammed her eyes shut again, she envisioned her mother standing over her, arms crossed and looking down with reserved disgust. Soza grit her teeth at the thought. How could she ever hope to confront this topic with her mother? She would surely see it only as Soza knew she was supposed to: a triumph and a necessary step towards her maturity. But the more she thought about it, the more Soza found that she rather was feeling a considerable amount of loathing towards herself, for reasons she couldn't help but wonder whether or not they were valid.

I should have gone to Auntie Ty, or Toph, or…

Her eyes flicked open and she felt more of that loathing towards herself slither upwards.

Father.

He might have had his attention and focus stressed over a great many things, but who would be better to talk with these feelings about? She had seen just how worked up he had gotten over the idea of Soza being forced into a situation where she had to fight for her life, let alone kill, so what could be expected of him other then that he would gladly sit down with her and listen?

It was resentment, Soza knew deep down, that had kept her from even considering this possibility. Everything her father had done that she had seen had been brimmed with intent and purpose. He fought, he killed, he made decisions in an instant, decisions he had known to be the only option available. Who better to ask then him, but even though she had done everything in her power to respect his decision making, Soza knew that his words to her had cut deeper than he understood. He had expressed his concern for her, but Soza had known that the concern she had felt was just as much directed towards his distrust of her abilities and temperament as it was to her safety and the safety of others. It was possible that he would perhaps find her internal grievances about her grisly act to be yet another show that she couldn't be expected to control herself or understand how to even try.

And worse still…

Would he find me a coward?

Soza pressed the palms of her hands flat against her temples.

Stop it!

She could feel her starting to lose her cool the same way that she had felt it when Amaterasu had gotten away from her; the black fire had seemed to take on a life of its own, its own sentience every time she had brought it into existence. It never failed to bend to her will, but Soza knew this was only because of the fact that someone had come to her aid each and every time. The fire never failed to threaten her very being, nearly swallowing her in its rage. Just like those moments, she could feel herself becoming unhinged, and it frightened her. Unhinged the same way that…

Her mind trailed off into near blankness as all other thoughts faded except for two in particular.

In her mind's eye, she could see her father, screaming in rage at Kyoshi and the spirits when she had first seen him in Ba Sing Se, covered in the blood of Gilbert's men and his eyes dancing with hate. And she thought to the howls she had heard from her mother on the bridge of the airship, sounds she never thought would be possible to be made by the usual regal, commanding, and dominant person that she had called her mother for her entire life. Soza remembered how hatefully she had listened to that same person decry her own mother and scream blistering threats, all while she had admitted that her own daughter only existed due by methods that were anything but moral.

She thought to the hate of them both and felt suddenly so terribly small as she leaned against the hallway's edge.

Hate… is that all that I'm destined for?

For a moment, she nearly considered accepting this grim suggestion. It made too much sense to be denied or ignored, but after several silent seconds, she clenched her fists and grit her teeth.

No. Maybe her father did hold a great deal of hate, and who could blame him after all he had gone through? He had also shown Soza a caring and understanding that she hadn't even known she had needed, even if she didn't understand or agree with how else he had treated her in recent days.

I have a father… who's willing to talk with me. Who I know won't… won't judge me like mother. And I'm ignoring the fact that I can just go to him and tell him how I'm feeling.

Soza pressed her hands against the wall and pushed away, her body straightening firmly as she looked back towards where she had left her father in the room with Koloss. Just as she settled with herself in her head to go and speak with him the first chance she got, she heard a distant echo that caused her to spin on her heel, her heart leaping into her throat.

It had been silent for so long that any noise at that point that hadn't been her own footsteps or breathing would have certainly been enough to surprise her. She couldn't even tell what the initial sound had been but as a sound became audible, growing louder and louder, and nearer and nearer, echoing and pounding towards her, Soza entered an offensive stance, flickers of blue fire snapping to life at her fingertips. Having disobeyed her father as she had, she would need to make a hasty retreat to reach the room he was in, but she had no desire to go crawling behind him again just because she thought she might need help.

I'll take on whatever this is all on my own… then he'll see, he'll see I can handle myself and then—

She realized the pounding sound was footsteps a moment before a person rounded the corner to the hallway she was in, perhaps one of the last people Soza would have expected to see. The fire went out in her palms a moment before the person collided with her, wrapping her up in an intensely tight hug. Soza would have recognized the smell of earth and grass in an instant.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Toph said, her voice muffled as she buried her face in Soza's shoulder. Soza needed several more seconds to get past her shock of seeing her friend before she also felt relief wash over her and she threw her own arms around Toph, holding her tight. She didn't say anything for fear her voice would break out of the sheer relief of seeing someone she knew; something about the days and days of being out in a frozen hellscape with just her father, no other people, no buildings, no sign of any sort of civilization had her heart pounding at being able to see her friend when it had honestly been starting to feel like the only two people in the world were her and her father.

Behind Toph, Soza could hear more footsteps approaching and over her friend's shoulder, she saw Katara and Aang both come to a halt just behind Toph.

"Soza, where's Sasuke?" Katara demanded, sounding entirely out of breath. Soza needed to slightly disentangle herself from Toph's embrace to point behind her.

"One hall down, two lefts and then a right. There's a big door there, and through it we found—"

The Avatar was past her before she could even think to finish her sentence. She looked after him, watching him zip off and around the corner almost faster than he was able to keep track of. Finally pulling away from Toph, she looked to her friend with concern.

"What's going on? Why are you three here, what's the matter? How did you—"

"Aang sensed something through his spiritual energy," Toph replied quickly. Soza noted that her friend's eyes were shining with tears, a glistening that the earthbender was quick to wipe aside. "He knew that you were in danger, and so he and Katara used their bending to quickly get us out here, and I was able to pinpoint where you both were."

"You found the giant?" Soza asked and Toph seemed to look slightly shaken at that.

"Because it was on ice, I couldn't sense it until I was standing on it… it's… it's unlike anything I've felt before. Part of it is made up of earth, that much I know. But I've never felt anything so large before, not with the shape of a person…"

"We don't have time for this," Katara snapped. "We can talk about this all once we're safely back in the Water Nation."

Toph nodded, seeming to snap out of her reverie. She turned to Soza, looking deeply serious.

"She's right, we can't waste any more time standing around," she said. "We're leaving."

As she realized that the two women meant to be leaving right that second, Soza felt her body stiffen up.

"Wait," she cried. "What about my dad?!"

"Aang went to go get him," Katara said, her voice lacking of any sort of empathy towards Soza's concern. "He's going to help Sasuke deal with whatever he has to, and then they'll both be right behind us."

"I'm not going to just leave him!" Soza yelled, trying not to hear how high her voice was raising in pitch as she started to panic. "He's my dad!"

Katara glared down at her for a moment, and Soza was sure she was going to snap at her, or call her a stupid little girl for getting so pointlessly worked up. Then, the waterbender's shoulders seemed to slump slightly and she let out a quiet, frustrated sigh, but there was a softness in her eyes then that Soza could see glistening there.

"I understand that you're worried about him," she said in a voice that was clearly demonstrating her desire to remain sounding calm. "But if there is anyone who you shouldn't be worried about to be on their own, it's your father and…"

She paused with a strange look on her face as though she had forgotten who Aang even was.

"… the Avatar," she finished, somewhat stiffly. Toph's face seemed to tense slightly at Katara's curious lack or articulation, but she seemed to brush it off quickly.

"Leave Sasuke with Aang," she told Soza, putting a hand on her shoulder. Katara's going to start bending us back to towards the capital, and they'll both catch up with us. Hell, they'll probably beat us there."

Soza looked back to Katara with a deep distrust and something that might have been loathing. She knew just how much the Avatar's lover detested her and her mother, but as she looked at Katara now, she couldn't quite find any of that same distaste that she would have expected to otherwise see.

In truth, the waterbender looked exhausted. Her eyes were almost glazed, her posture loose, and all that superior and authority driven air that she usually conducted herself with seemed to be absent.

"We need to go," Toph reiterated urgently. "Come on, Soza."

She took her hand and gave her a light tug. Though she would have gladly trusted Toph's word at any other time, Soza couldn't keep from looking back over her shoulder to where the Avatar had headed after her father. This was all happening so fast, and she couldn't wrap her head around the idea of turning her back and leaving when she knew he was still back there. Something was certainly wrong, but it felt even worse than how it had been described to her.

"What's coming?!" she yelled, spinning and turning to look angrily at Toph and Katara. "How do you know?!"

"We'll talk more about it when we get back!" Toph said, raising her voice for the first time. "Please, Soza, the longer we stay, the more we're all in danger! Sasuke just the same!"

Soza flinched at that.

I'm putting dad in danger.

She spun on her heel again and looked down the curious, bizarre hallway, her heartbeat thudding along with the seconds that passed, and she waited for Aang and her dad to come racing around the corner, ready to leave alongside them. She waited to see her father's grim and determined expression as he walked up to her, smirking down at her and ruffling her hair as he did, something they both knew she found rather aggravating.

Come on, Soza. We've got to get going.

She waited, but her father did not appear.

"Soza, we need to—"

As Toph started talking again, clearly about to reaffirm the seriousness of the situation, Soza jammed her eyes shut and felt tears leak from the corners of her eyes.

"I KNOW!"

Her words echoed around them and she tried to keep from giving a sob. She didn't know what was wrong with her, why the idea of leaving now was so horribly a thing to imagine, but she knew it was just her overworked head playing tricks on her. Of course her father would be okay, and of course they would all be just fine.

She turned and glared fiercely at the two women; Katara seemed to almost recoil at the anger sprouting from Soza's gaze, and even though Toph possessed no vision of her own, her body tensed as though she had been able to sense the grim fury emanating towards her.

"Let's go," Soza snapped and followed after the two women as they moved further and further away from the Avatar and from her father, her heart still splintering for reasons she couldn't surmise.

---

Sasuke stepped from the throne room into the antechamber, feeling as hollow as the booming echo that sounded when the door slammed shut behind him. It was a curious feeling; he had become so accustomed to being tied up in knots of anger, hate, anxiety, and much else, that this empty sensation within him was almost alien, like he was walking through a dream. The setting certainly supported this notion, the bizarre place they had found themselves, the strange revelation of the Koloss they actually had managed to find, the whole scenario itself. It could have been a dream he was just barely able to rationalize, and he might not have known the difference.

Especially not now.

His whole world seemed to be fuzzy, both to his eyes and mind. It was as though a part of him had been rooted to the very room he had just exited, leaving behind a piece that clung to him like an anchor, never quite letting him pull freely away. He supposed that made sense.

He leaned back against the door, closing his eyes as he imagined what was on the other side of it. Sasuke found himself thankful, not for the first time, that he had sent his daughter from the room. She had known what they were there for. But would she have had any chance of truly understanding it?

Sasuke sure knew that he didn't. He didn't get it one bit, why what had just happened made any sense.

What am I becoming?

He pressed his eyelids shut for just a moment, forcing himself to accept the reality that this was in fact not a dream, but rather something he needed to be taking more rationally than he was.

Find Soza.

It occurred to him that she hadn't obeyed his order and had left the antechamber. He had taken it at face value that Koloss's word of not letting its ethereal soldiers interfere with them was truthful, and from there, it wasn't hard to deduce that she had stormed off in a fit of anger towards her father. Sasuke couldn't even muster the energy to sigh at this assumption, and instead he pushed somewhat limply away from the door and started towards the antechamber's open doorway.

He crossed the room slower than he guessed he probably should have been moving, but somehow, he couldn't force himself into moving any faster. It was as though something was pulling him back in that room behind him, still holding him back. By the time he was even halfway across the room, the dome of it looming above him, he felt as though he had been walking for an hour.

His eyes perked up as he heard the soft sound of footsteps slowly moving his way from the hallway beyond the door. Something about just hearing the sound was enough to return his full functions and he straightened his back, increasing his face to a brisk walk as he moved closer to the door from the antechamber into the hallway. The footsteps continued to pad ever closer and he fixed his mouth in a tight line.

"Soza, get in here," he called out firmly, not looking to take any of her attitude right about then. What he had just experienced was not something that was letting him feel anything resembling patience.

"Now," he added sharply. The steps continued towards him at the same pace they had been, and he felt a ripple of anger pass through his gut that he knew had much less to do with his daughter, but was still being triggered by her disobedience, nonetheless. He saw the shadow of her small, slender form moving around the glowing lights of the blue hallways, edging its way slowly towards him.

Not right now, kid… get your ass back here, and then we'll—

About a dozen long paces from the door, he stopped dead in his tracks as the shadow eclipsed the body it was being cast from. His feet suddenly became almost magnetized to the floor as the numbness that he had felt from leaving the throne room shocked his body into further paralysis.

Before him, Soza indeed appeared. She stopped just as she had, but the girl he saw before him was not the same girl who had stormed from his sight minutes before.

Her form was clenched up as though her muscles her tensed, and as she stood there before him, Sasuke saw her knees quaking. Her hair was strewn over her face and he could see lower lip quivering behind her black locks. Her Fire Nation noble clothes were torn and savaged badly, cuts and bruises littering the skin that was now wholly visible to him, her shoulders, chest, arms, all covered with abuse. The inside of her thighs had streaks of scarlet sheeting down towards her ankles and there was another, clearer liquid dripping from directly between her legs, forming a milky puddle on the floor directly beneath her. He finally caught a glimpse of her eyes glistening out at him, shining with tears and shame.

Sasuke found that his hands were shaking as though by the will of a monstrous earthquake. His breathing was shallow and barely getting any oxygen to his head as his stomach churned violently.

I… I didn't… she… how could…

The starts of thoughts opened over and over in his head, dying just as quickly, never letting a coherent mental strain work its way through his mind. His mouth was dry as a desert and he felt chill after chill ripple up his spine as though he were in the throes of a terrible fever. This shouldn't have been possible, everything about what he was seeing screamed of implausibility in his head.

And then something so much darker was creeping through his bones.

He had felt hatred before, and he had felt rage before. Yet somehow, these concepts seemed monstrously dwarfed by the black emotion that was starting to splinter through his veins, creeping along and tugging at his very being. Sasuke grit his teeth so tightly that his head hurt and finally a collage of thoughts began to blister his conscious, darkening everything around him.

WhoeverdidthistheyaregoingtofuckingdieI'llfuckingkillthemforthisI'llneverforgivethisI'llkillthemI'llkillthemI'llburnthemaliveuntiltheycan'tevenscreamanymoreI'llkillthemI'llkillthemI'llkillthemI'll—

When his daughter spoke, the blackness vanished as fast as a candle being snuffed out. The dark receded and all that Sasuke could see was Soza, barely able to stand, before him.

Soza continued to shake and shiver where she stood as she drew up an arm weakly to reach for him.

"Dad…" she moaned out, her voice cracking. "I'm sorry…"

Life erupted back through Sasuke's body and he sprinted forwards. Nothing else mattered just then, not his hate, not his rage, just his daughter. He had been so ready to give into the darkness and tear apart the world for what he had seen, he hadn't even once thought to Soza after the sight of her had inspired such hate within him.

He reached out for her as he drew nearer, ready to let her fall into his arms where he would speak every word of comfort he knew, anything to give her even the tiniest bit of solace. The world blurred as tears burned from the corners of his eyes, unbidden and unstoppable as they streaked along the sides of his head.

My daughter, my child, Soza… what have they—

As he slid to a halt in front of her and went down to a knee, opening his arms to embrace her, moving forward to wrap her up to shield her from the world, there came a strange sensation in his midriff.

Sasuke winced slightly, and his body trembled. Near his ear, Soza spoke, but it wasn't her voice that whispered into his ear then.

"I am sorry. That you could have fallen for something so obvious."

Soza pulled away from him and Sasuke saw her grinning wolfishly at him as her hand twisted a kunai into his stomach. She shoved him in the chest and Sasuke collapsed backwards with the blade still buried in him, gasping as the striking of the ground caused pain to spike through his form.

"What…" he managed in a rasping tone. "What are you…"

His daughter's body was continuing to shake before him, but much more violently now. Sasuke watched as her limbs twisted and bent in strange ways, her back arching and snapping from side to side as though possessed by some unnatural force. Then, as though it was experiencing a disgusting metamorphosis, Soza seemed to split apart and a massive, centipede like shape twisted outwards, spiraling into the room as its massive body thudded on the floor. At the head of its being, a familiar masked face peered down at Sasuke who felt the black hate return to his head just as soon as he locked eyes with it.

"You…"

Koh gave his great body a shake as though glad to be free from the form of a human. The insect like body arched and leered down at him, monstrous and disgusting.

"Yes, indeed. You are no less difficult to fool, demon. You could have looked upon me with those true eyes and known the fact of what I was immediately, but your heart overwhelmed you. Seeing your child so hurt, so shattered, how laughably simple it is to bend you just I might any other human. All your power and you could do nothing to stop this from happening because of your pathetic, misguided emotions."

The spirit looked around and released a strange rattling sound.

"You came all this way in search of a legend... just for this?"

Pushing himself up and surprised at the effort it took, Sasuke bent double on his knees, ripping the kunai from his body and gasping again the pain rushing through him. He looked down at the perfectly forged weapon, his head starting to spin with an uncontrollable dizziness.

Where… did he get… this?

"What did you… do to me?" Sasuke hissed out, clutching at the wound in his stomach. Something was terribly wrong and he knew he had been stabbed with something much more deadly than just an untarnished blade. Koh released a rasping laugh at his question.

"Nothing that will likely last forever, but something that will surely ensure you will be right where we need you to be for a touch longer. For, unless I've missed my guess…"

Koh's body suddenly lashed out towards Sasuke who just managed to bring an arc of Chidori to life to slam down before him. The beastly insect moved out of the way just in time for the blue burst to come spiraling down in a chaotic rush of energy, exploding an entire piece of the antechamber. Koh looked at the destruction for a moment before looking back to Sasuke.

"Yes, indeed," he hissed again. "Your power is no less potent than it was moments ago. I wouldn't be able to touch you now if I tried, you still are far stronger than I. But…"

Sasuke tipped forward, dropping to his hands and knees and gagging.

"… your body is simply going to be struggling to keep up. That poison on the kunai is not something I can even begin to understand, but it's going to hurt you, Sasuke Uchiha. You will be killed by it, if you don't hold tight to whatever grounds you to this life."

The world spun sickeningly and Sasuke tried to keep his mind focused as Koh continued to speak somewhere above him.

"I thank you for delivering your daughter so efficiently to us; it will be simple enough to collect her now that the strongest thing protecting her has been neutralized. We will deal with both her and the other and then, if you're feeling up to it, you can come try and claim some revenge. I know its in your blood to seek such a thing."

Something in Koh's words stood out to Sasuke and he weakly lifted his head; Koh's monstrous form was a dark blur shifting in and out of focus as waves of nausea pounded at him.

"Both…?"

There was no smile to be seen, but Sasuke could hear it in the spirit's voice.

"Oh, my dear Sasuke, did you really think you could hide that from ussss?" he whispered, holding on the last word in the question with a deep hiss. "You couldn't keep well enough to yourself and you have now damned the woman you might very well love. I paid her a visit before coming to you and confirmed our suspicions."

Koh's head lowered closer still to him until it might only have been a meter away.

"She will be drug out before the rest of your ill-fated friends and we will gut her life an animal, spilling the child you have given her into the snow. And when we have crushed all life growing within her, we shall then cut her throat alongside your daughter, and it will just be you left."

There came a rumbling slithering sound as Koh's body moved from the room towards the hallway.

"Grieve while you can, Sasuke," the hissing voice said as it drew away from him. "There will be only revenge waiting for you."

And like that, Sasuke could feel he was alone. He had forced himself to try and stand, but whatever had been on the kunai wasn't something that his chakra flow was having any luck flushing out. That shouldn't have been possible, but as the world spun worse and worse around him, he started to wonder what it possible could have been. He could still use chakra, he could still fight; he just was in such a place that the very idea of even standing was as impossible a concept as jumping right into the sun. What it was that was debilitating was only attacking the base functions of his body, for he could still feel all his chakra and strength and abilities still present within him. He was just as strong as he had always been, but whatever had tipped that kunai was damaging him to the point of immobility and he didn't understand why.

But Sasuke had no choice. He had to stand. He had to move, he had to run. Soza was in danger.

And so was Ursa.

He… knew… how did he… know?

It wasn't a mystery to figure what Koh had been talking about, and Sasuke knew that his anxiety would be doing a much greater number on him then, had his body not been actively shutting down or so it seemed.

Roaring in a voice that cracked and shattered, he forced himself to his feet with an effort that caused his sight to blacken, and he crashed back to the ground in a gasping heap after only a single step. The world didn't cease with its constant spinning and darkening and as his mind started to splinter at the seams, Sasuke dugs his fingers into the ground hard enough to crack the nails.

I… can't… give up… not now…

But he couldn't move. Strength, balance, focus, all was leaving him. And as the darkness finally settled like a blanket or a shroud, the internals of his mind bellowed in agony as his last thoughts were of his daughter's face.

---

"Um… excuse me?"

Mai turned from her musings to look and see the woman she knew to be named Lorna having approached behind her. Wetting her lips, Mai straightened her back and regarded her with something that wasn't quite contempt, but something damn close. After what Lorna had done, it was clear she expected to be treated this way as she brought a hand up almost nervously to twist at a strand of her deep red hair.

Mai wasn't looking to make small talk, and she certainly wasn't in the mood to listen to whatever it was the person who had blocked off her, Suki, and Katara had to say.

"What?" she asked bluntly. She had been standing at the hallway's junction that led from the hall that all her friends were sleeping into the deeper recesses of the palace and had been on watch there for hours now. Every time she thought she had heard footsteps, she had eagerly turned, but it must have either been someone moving elsewhere in the palace, or her tired mind was just playing tricks with her. It had been all she could do to try and keep herself awake by daydreaming about simpler days, going out for drinks with Ty Lee and Zuko, spending time with Soza as a younger child, and she had even caught herself thinking to Sasuke more than once.

"I… couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about earlier… with all of you in the hallway…"

"Eavesdropping?" Mai asked rather loudly. "Funny, I would think one of the chief's advisors would have better things to do."

Lorna looked around somewhat anxiously and Mai found that she enjoyed seeing the woman who had appeared so uptight look uneasy.

"My sincere apologies for doing so," she said, her eyes still darting around her. "But I heard that two of your companions were missing."

This was enough to keep Mai from snapping off another passive aggressive remark and she felt her eyebrows sharply slant. She could tell immediately that something was up just by the way Lorna was acting and she wondered if this was about to be the best clue she had gotten all night.

"What do you know?" she asked, not wasting any time. Lorna did one last look around before straightening her back and releasing a short exhale, her lips tightening.

"Early this morning I saw both Katara and Toph at the east gate. They were leaving the palace."

Mai curled her lips and turned her head upwards, swearing violently at the ceiling. She had wanted more than anything to believe that both women were still in the city, but the east gate only had one way that it pointed and that was to the road that led north out of the city.

What the fuck are they doing?!

She remembered what she had promised Ty Lee and let out a dark chuckle.

She's going to kill me for saying that.

"Why didn't you stop them?" she said, still directing her face wearily towards the ceiling.

"I had no reason to," Lorna replied plainly. "Mostly because… well, they were with the Avatar."

Those words didn't make any sense to Mai and she turned her head back down, her brow now knitted in confusion.

"What are you talking about? Aang was here tonight, looking for Katara; he hadn't seen her all day."

Lorna raised her hands in a gesture of peace.

"I am only telling you what I saw. The two women and the Avatar taking one of the recon sleighs out of the east gate."

Mai turned her eyes down, her mind immediately running wild.

Aang? What's he playing at? He had seen them both, but he didn't say anything? Why? Where were they going? And why in the world wouldn't he think to—

Feeling a chill running through her midsection, Mai unconsciously placed a hand over her stomach.

"Oh no."

Lorna cocked her head, looking curious.

"What is it?"

Not replying, Mai ran her tongue over her dry lips, feeling a strong sense of revulsion running through her.

No. No, no, no.

She turned on her heel, looking to run up and down the hallway, banging the doors and waking everyone to tell them what she had just heard. There was only one reason why what Lorna had told her could make any sense and it had her almost sweating in a sudden pitch of panic.

Suddenly, there were three deep blasts of what sounded like a horn that must have been the size of Aang's flying bison. They were far off, but most certainly audible and Mai didn't think she had ever heard such a thing before. She looked to Lorna who she saw had gone pale.

"What's that?" she asked quickly and the woman only shook her head slowly, fists clenching at her side before she turned and sprinted off down the hall. Mai had a split second to decide whether or not she wanted to follow, but as she hadn't remotely finished questioning Lorna about what she had seen, she took off in pursuit.

Tangith's advisor was fast and Mai found herself having to exert herself considerably to keep pace. They streaked up several flights of stairs, through several large rooms, and down a fair few halls; Mai noted palace servants anxiously scrambling about and Water Nation soldiers barking out orders and assembling just about everywhere she looked. Things seemed as though they had been thrown into a considerable state of chaos.

Finally, Lorna took a sharp left turn and burst out onto a terrace overlooking the entire city. Gasping for a breath, Mai slid to a halt beside her.

"What's got—"

She couldn't manage more than those two words as she looked out over the city.

On any normal day, one could look past the outer wall that made up the edge of the city's perimeter, where the ships docked and commerce was mostly conducted, and see the ocean stretching out southward from the capital. Mai had come out several mornings around sunrise to enjoy the magnificent view and just let herself get lost in her thoughts. On this morning however, with the sky pale but not yet fracturing with sunlight, it was anything but a welcome sight.

Stretched out from one side of the city to another, thousands of shining figures of various forms and sizes were assembled. They were holding a specific formation and the further back Mai looked, the larger they got, giants the size of buildings in some cases. Above them all, an enormous ray like creature cast a looming shadow over the entire bay like that of a mountain. And in the very front, standing just ahead of the amassed army of spirits, Mai could see Kyoshi and Yangchen even from that distance, stoic statues ahead of their forces.

Even as far away as they were, Mai expected to hear some sort of sound, but there was nothing in the morning air, just a quiet, cold silence. It somehow made things even more dread-inducing as she felt a lump form in her throat.

They're here.