A/N: This chapter is dedicated to the one and only person on this planet who shipped my guinea pigs. You know who you are o.0 Since this does seem like an uncharacteristically early update for me, I'm doing my best now to update FETL every two weeks, so the next update (hopefully) will be Valentine's Day weekend (but no promises cause there's a VDay bash and I have a competition that day.) Anyways, on with the story!

Chapter 29: Impending Armageddon Part 2

Last Time:

"Now, all I have to do is call your beloved boyfriend, blackmail him into handing himself over, and then-"

The door to the underground compound slammed open with a metallic screech.

"Not today, Azula!"

Katara's head whipped to see the voice behind her.

"Sokka? Suki? Toph?"

"I am going to use this drill and set off that eruption at just the right moment. Sozin's Comet is coming and is going to be the most powerful it has ever been in the last hundred years. With it, the Water District will sink, the Earth Kingdom will submit, and all victory and glory shall belong to the Fire Nation!"

Ozai smirked at Zuko.

"And you, son? I want you to help me do it."

Earlier that day…

Azula's gaze swept the room, taking in who was present in the cafeteria.

On one side of the room, the nerds. The lowest class of high school hierarchy, in her opinion. The marching band kids, computer geeks, even that weird kid who found random guinea pigs on the internet and shipped them.

Azula clicked her tongue, sending the tiniest strike of lightning over to the gadget-filled table, grinning devilishly when she heard a yelp as a computer malfunctioned.

"Pathetic, honestly. Almost not even worth it. Almost."

Her line of sight turned to the next rung of the ladder, the club kids. Slightly better than the nerds, albeit not by much. While smaller in number, far more annoying. Theatre kids, choir, all the artists who thought they were all that when in reality they would amount to nothing, not if she had anything to do with it.

"And to think Ty Lee almost ended up there," she shuddered.

Then there was her table, the table simply superior to all others. The sharks in a world of minnows. This was where true power was. The children of the most powerful people in the world, all together at this one table- the Fire Nation royals, the future prince of the Northern Water District, the son of the Chief of the Southern Water District, even a Beifong- the only family richer than her own, even if she hated to admit it.

Even if there had been recent… dissent in her group, Azula knew that these were the people that would ensure her world domination.

After all, why lead by example when you can lead by fear?

She chuckled darkly, staring at the final group in the room- the Outcasts.

Once quite small in number, really only having that conniving Water District peasant, now held two of her keys to power- her treacherous brother and the Avatar himself. The Avatar himself, the more crucial of the two, would be near impossible to get back. She had seen just how smitten the airhead had been with the peasant.

This would not do.

No, this would not do at all.

"Zuly? Are you even listening to me?"

Ty Lee's voice snapped Azula out of her pensive trance, a devious thought popping into her head.

"Of course, Ty Lee. In fact, you've just given me a grand idea."

Ty Lee's head tilted to the side, innocently wondering what her friend had in mind.

Azula smirked.

"We're going to have some fun today."

4 Hours Later

"Zuly, are you sure about this? I mean I know we've done this kind of thing in the past but it always seemed so… harmless compared to this."

Azula whipped around to glare at Ty Lee, the silence almost deafening in the halls of the underground bunker.

"What was that?" she hissed.

A blue flame danced on her fingertips.

Ty Lee's eyes widened with fear.

"N-nothing Azula. N-nothing at all."

"Good."

She turned back to her phone, taking extra caution to make sure the Beifong, Kyoshi Warrior, and the peasant's brother were off the planning chat. She would not have any inferior ruining her plan.

Mai stopped and glared at Azula, putting herself between the firebender and Ty Lee.

"Lay off, Azula. Ty Lee's got a point. This could land all of us in serious trouble."

Azula's amber eyes glittered dangerously, turning back around.

"Serious trouble? And I thought you didn't have a sense of humor, Mai. I'm the princess of the Fire District. The only non-disgraced heir, which is much more than I can say for my dear brother- your dear boyfriend. They can't and won't touch me. Remember that, Mai. It will serve you well."

Mai's anger swelled before she immediately forced it down.

"A lady does not show her emotions or speak out of turn. She merely smiles and nods when spoken to," her mother always used to tell her.

"Whatever you say, Azula," she deadpanned. "Whatever you say."

Fast Forward 2 Hours

Sokka anxiously paced around the fortress, trying to process.

"Meathead, would you calm down? You're making me nervous!"

"We should all be nervous! That's my fucking sister out there, Toph, and it's my fucking fault she's being targeted!"

Suki put her hands on her boyfriend's shoulders, making him come to a stop.

"Sokka, what Toph means to say is that worrying won't do any good. If we want to find and help Katara, we need to calm down, put our heads together, and think."

Sokka sighed. "You're right, you're right."

"Yes, I am. Now think. You've known Azula longer than any of us. Why would she be doing this and where would she be doing this?"

Sokka sat down on one of the stumps, racking his brain for any information that might be useful.

"Come on, Meathead," Toph grinned. "You're a master detective. You can do this!"

Sokka half-smiled back at her, starting to think aloud.

"Alright. Azula doesn't go after people for no reason. She's manipulative that way. She always has a purpose, an endgame, whether it be making sure her opponent can't run for student body president or going after her father's dissenters. So, what does Azula want most? What are her priorities?"

Suki opened her mouth to answer but Sokka continued.

"Power. She loves power and control. To get that, she's been after Aang for a while. She figured that after high school, they would get married and she would have the most powerful guy in the world ruling beside her."

"But Aang's not like that," Toph cut in. "He doesn't care about that shit. Azula's kidding herself if she thinks Aang will marry her for power."

A lightbulb popped in Sokka's head.

"Exactly. She's had no problem kidding herself about that. She figures that she can convince him anyways. But what changed? Katara. Katara changed."

Suki and Toph looked at him in confusion.

"Think about it guys. Before, I bet Azula figured she could convince Aang to do all that because he feared her. But then Katara came along."

Sokka faltered, thinking back to what he said about the Avatar the night of the dance.

"As if it's not fucking bad enough that you're trying seduce my baby sister, but you have the AUDACITY to define it as an actual relationship when spirits knows you're just going break her heart like all the other ones!"

He winced, continuing.

"Azula knows that Aang loves Katara more than he fears her. She saw how smitten he was. She saw how much he cares. She knows that as long as Katara's in the picture, Aang won't want shit to do with her."

"So that's it?!" Toph exclaimed. "Azula's gonna fucking kill Katara and we can't do anything about it?! She's going to die thinking the people who were once her best friends wanted her to?!"

Suki gasped in horror, clutching her mouth.

"No, no. That can't be it," Sokka shook his head.

"While she's not above murder, what good would that do her? Aang still wouldn't go with her knowing that she killed Katara. Hell, he'd probably go 'yip yip avatar state' and destroy her once he found out. No. That can't be her endgame. She doesn't-"

Sokka gasped.

"I know where we need to go. But we need to be quick."

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Mai deadpanned, staring at the chips in her matte black nail polish.

"Because, Mai, the Fire Nation's glory needs to be shared with the world. We are the superior nation and we need to help the others realize that. To do that, we need the Avatar on our side."

"But Azula, how is kidnapping his girlfriend going to help?" Ty Lee questioned.

Azula cursed under her breath, questioning the spirits how she got stuck with these two.

"You see, Ty Lee," she began in a sickly sweet voice. "Aang has made the grave mistake of loving that peasant more than he fears me. This puts a bit of a kink in my plans of world domination. Therefore, we need to… force his hand, so to speak."

"Are you absolutely sure this is going to work, Azula? What if it doesn't? He's the most powerful person in the world, you know." Mai asked.

Azula scoffed.

"Please. That may be his title but he is as weak-willed as his people. Believe me, I learned that quickly. Besides, even if this goes awry what are you going to do about it? Throw a few of your butter knives at me? I'm sure your father wouldn't like that. And your mother especially would be oh so disappointed. Just imagine Tom Tom, having to grow up knowing his sister has been cast out for treachery to her country."

Mai shook her head.

"I'm not fighting with you, Azula. You can stop now."

Azula smiled.

"Wonderful. Now, let's continue."

"Sokka," Suki panted, slowing down to catch her breath. "Can… you… at... least... tell... Us… where… we're… going?"

Sokka slowed mid-sprint as well, transitioning to a jog as he noticed how tired the other two seemed to be.

"I'm like 90% sure that Azula is going to take Katara with the intention to blackmail Aang. She's going to threaten him with hurting her, make him sign a contract or something, and then hurt Katara anyways."

Toph spoke up, also breathing heavily.

"But how… how would she do that? We're minors. It's non-binding."

Sokka shook his head.

"As the Avatar, Aang can sign agreements, contracts, the like because he's underage. If there's an emergency act that needs to be signed into world law, they can't very well wait a few years for him to turn 18, so a law was passed in Kyoshi's time, I think, to ensure the Avatar could still sign stuff."

"Shit. So what do we do?" Toph asked.

Sokka halted to a stop, gesturing to the clearing and the trapdoor in the middle.

"We're going to go down there and stop her before she can even contact Aang."

Toph's eyes widened, feeling the enormous structure underneath the ground.

"Sokka… what the hell is under us?"

He whipped out his trusty Boomerang and used it to pry open the door with a loud screech.

"Get enough dirt from up here aboveground, Toph. You're about to find out."

The three slid down the 10-foot ladder, one after another, pausing to take in their surroundings.

"Woah…" Suki whispered.

Steel hallways split in two directions, one on either side of them. The metal beams, quite literally supporting the weight of the earth, lined the tops of the corridors and glinted in the small stream of sunlight still coming from the opening.

"Sokka…" Toph murmured.

"I know."

Sokka began walking slowly through the hall to their left, carefully treading as to not make any sudden noises.

"Azula told me about this place once. Figured I probably couldn't do much damage, even if I told someone else. It's the perfect stronghold. It's where they used to keep Earth and Water district prisoners during the raids."

"Why here?" Suki asked.

Sokka grimaced.

"The place is entirely metal. Not a speck of dirt or water. Waterbending and earthbending would be useless. There's no escape."

Suki whispered, "Perfect place for Aang to find Katara. Azula easily bests him in terms of firebending so he'll only have one element to lean back on- air."

Sokka nodded, perking up when he heard the familiar cold sound of Azula's voice. He gestured for them to be quiet, tiptoeing down the passage and putting his ear to the first door on the right.

The three remained absolutely silent, listening to what the firebender had in store for Katara.

Azula chuckled darkly.

"Well, he'll regret the day he ever thought to try and love you more than he feared me," her muffled voice went.

"In fact, I was planning on letting you go, but now I'm thinking I'll enjoy watching you two witness each other get tortured."

Sokka gestured with his fingers, tapping them on Toph's shoulder so she could understand as well.

3…

"All I have to do is call your beloved boyfriend…"

2…

"Blackmail him into handing himself over…"

1…

"And then-"

0!

The chamber door slammed open with a metallic screech.

"Not today, Azula!"

Katara's head whipped around to see her brother and former best friends.

"Sokka? Suki? Toph?"

A/N: I know that probably wasn't what most of you wanted but I needed to truly develop the threat that Azula was/is. Next chapter will be them saving the day and Zuko revealing Ozai's plan to the Gaang, promise! Until then, dear readers, read and review!