Author's notes at the end as usual.


Azula lay in her cell. It had been the longest day since she had regained consciousness and she was getting bored to tears and her cell seemingly was getting smaller, if she didn't pace up and down it all day counting steps, she could have sworn the little Earth bender was making the space smaller. She began to appreciate the little cage outside the doorway, not only because it allowed her to store her chamber pot in the free air but because it allowed her to do pull-ups with ease.

She had been exercising her fire bending too, but no avail, she could feel something, as if the air in front of her had risen a couple of degrees but she wasn't quite sure, and even at this pace she had a far ways to go before manifesting a visible flame.

But it was the only thing that presently held her mind off her worry. The worry over her friends. She feared that her friends were being tortured for her and Zuko's mistakes and it pained her more than she had thought possible, tried as she may to bury her feelings and telling herself they were the masters of their own destinies and if they were stupid enough to talk themselves into trouble, they must deserve it.

…But Azula knew better, the Gendarmerie had ways of making people talk for better or for worse, and she knew if the Fire Lord wanted certain answers, there would be such answers, that's just how it was.


Marine Major Azka, smiled as he entered the barracks building of his company, he had already had a quick meeting with his superiors, some of them now subordinates to explain the situation, now, it was off to inform the rank and file. The orderly at the door, recognised the former Warrant Officer and looked at his colleague in stunned silence for a moment before he got up and yelled "Officer on deck!" and took a deep bow to Azka who bowed his head in response, "At ease, gather the men in the yard, Sergeant."

"Everybody, formation in the yard, five minutes, hop hop, move it!" there was a buzzle of noise coming from every room in the corridor and a few individual men came running and into the yard, each one giving Azka a quick fire salute as they passed him, some of the men looked at him confused, while some congratulated him on his promotion.

Azka counted seconds and men in his head, at two minutes ninety men had passed him, the sergeant walked up and down the corridor and peered into the rooms. "Looks like all of them, Sir!".

Azka stepped outside to see everyone in three neat columns, from the side he was joined by the company officers and their sergeants. "Good morning men!"

"GOOD MORNING, SIR!" responded the company in unison.

"This is a very special day for me" began Azka, "For us all." he paused dramatically, "I've been newly commissioned with the rank of Major, effective as of his morning, I'm in charge of this, our Elite company of pioneers."

One man raised his fist in the air and let out a loud "Yeah!" Azka chuckled and gestured to the man to calm down.

"The Fire Lord has personally approved our plan, and we're going after the Avatar."

The men cheered, as Azka turned to his officers, "I sent squads of the scout platoon ahead in the pre-dawn to possible hiding places of the Avatar, we should start getting the first messenger hawks early next dawn, the Admiralty has given us a ride of course and we're boarding today at sunset."

"Ay sir!" responded the Lieutenants in unison.

Azka turned to look at the sun. "Also, we have a Commander from Naval Intelligence coming to give us a briefing on our foe, entrusted information so I'd like every officer and petty officer able to attend to do so." He paused and looked over at the Company Captain, his executive officer and gave him a nod and a wink of acknowledgement, the Captain smiled and laughed, "Congratulations, Sir!" and he then turned to the men and ordered, "Gentlemen, Fall out!"

"Ay ay, Sir!" was the response and the men and the Lieutenants were on their way.


If one walked passed, you wouldn't have know they were there, the Pioneer Scouts had used the best part of the day to crawl and worm their way patiently and silently towards the edge of the Western Air temple, a second group was watching with their spyglasses from the other side of the canyon for any sign of activity within the temple.

Toph could feel something was up, the scouts were like the rocks and the trees, moving with the wind, their heart rate so unnaturally slow as they slithered on the ground above that she couldn't quite get a reading on what it was.

"Guys I don't know what it is but I'm getting a really bad feeling, it's like my feet are playing tricks on me." she yelled with a tone of unease.

"Maybe there is some residual nerve damage from your encounter with Zuko, maybe you need to have another healing session?" Katara said reassuringly,

"Maybe, but maybe Aang could fly topside to check out the situation, it just feels weird..." Toph was shuffling her feet and squatting down to feel with her hands for some extra clarity.

Aang looked up over the edge and tried to use his advanced hearing to listen to any noise carried by the wind.

"It's like I can sense flickers of things moving but..."

Aang hushed her as he tried to listen intently but all he could hear was the wind in the trees up above.

Azula yelled from her cell; "Hey, is anyone going to let me out for exercise today?"

Katara looked in her direction screamed; "Shut your yapping maul, bitch! I don't know what my brother was thinking letting you out of your cage in the first place!"

"Hey, Katara, keep your voice down." Aang said nonchalantly.

"Me!? She is the one who was yelling!" Katara retorted in frustration.

"What's going on out there? Are we under attack again?" Azula yelled with no discernible tone, which Katara naturally interpreted it as hostility. "If you don't shut up right now I'm coming over to bend you into a pretzel!"

Azula scoffed, sensing that someone was on the rag retired into her cell.

Teo came rolling in his new glider built out of old air nomad gliders he had found, "Perhaps I should go and take look, so we don't expose Aang too much."

"I don't think that's a good idea either, if there is something up there I don't want you to get hurt."

Teo rolled as silently as he could to Aang's side; "Look, it's the only way to be sure, and I'm expendable."

Katara walked up and slapped him over the head, "Don't say that!"

Aang took a few paces forward and tried to carefully look up over the ledge, he then looked over his shoulders towards the others, "We need to leave this place as soon as Sokka and Zuko return from their hunting trip."

Azula was doing crunches on the floor of her cell while trying to listen to what was being said outside, she pondered if she should spoil the surprise for her captors but in the end decided not to, but she suspected it was some kind of elite unit there getting ready to attack but then again, it hardly took a genius to figure that out. Shame about the cripple not going for a flight, she had rather been looking forward to him having his glider fire bent to shreds and listening to the ever distant scream as he plummeted to the bottom, she wondered how many times he would have to draw breath before the sudden stop at the end, she guessed about three, unless the boy resided himself to his fate and stoically went down, but alas, robbed of that source of entertainment too.

"Screw it, I'm going anyway!" Yelled Teo and he rolled over the edge and took to the sky.

"Okay, this might become interesting yet" Azula thought for herself and watched as the boy rode the rising winds out of the canyon, expecting see him plummet at any time, and then nothing. Ever so often there would be a flicker of a shadow as the glider flew by but after an uneventful few minutes the boy glided downwards and came in for a landing.

"Teo that was beyond stupid!" Katara berated her comrade.

"Hey, if there was something up there we would have known about it before it was too late!" the boy retorted.

"And there isn't anything up there! I flew several runs and I saw nothing!" he added reassuringly.


Azka and most of his officers were gathered in a darkly lit briefing room that had been set-up like any old school classroom with each of the officers sitting at a desk facing the black board and the teacher's pulpit.

A thin, tall, clean shaven man in civilian robes walked into the classroom carrying large bag of oversized scrolls, the men instinctively rose to attention "Good day, Gentlemen, as you were!"

The officers sat down and the Commander started unravelling scrolls which he started hanging on the board behind him like posters. "I've understood that time is of the essence so I'll keep this brief. I am Commander Saiken of Naval Intelligence, for the past year we've been tracking and gathering information on the Avatar and his entourage."

The posters pretty detailed sketches of all of the team members, Zuko and Azula with the exception of Haru, Teo and the Duke, some better than others, Azula's being the most immaculate, Zuko's looking somewhat out of date with his scar crudely drawn on and on the wrong side.

"Well, the Avatar should be well known to you all by now and anything you don't is purely speculation on our part, we actually have no clue how a hundred year old man is masquerading around as a young boy but we believe it's some kind of spirit magic for him to blend in with his company."

The commander pointed at the other team members.

"I heard he was trapped in an iceberg." Interjected one of the young lieutenants.

"Like I said, pure speculation, moving on." The commander pointed at the sketch of Sokka. "Priority target number two, the Captain of the enemy team, we know him as Sokka, a.k.a. Wang Fire. We have reason to suspect that he is either the son or son-in-law of the chieftain of the Southern Water tribe, presently in our custody, no confirmed bending abilities but we have reason to suspect he might be a powerful water bender so be on your guard, he is the confirmed mastermind of much of our misery in the past year, from the destruction of the wall drill and lasts weeks invasion. We want you to terminate him on sight."

The commander moved on to Zuko and Azula, "Priority targets three you already know, the rogue Prince and Princess, nothing really to be said, mostly speculation on when defection occurred but we do believe Princess Azula was instrumental in destroying the wall drill."

Azka snapped his pencil in half in anger.

"Major? Was there something you wanted to add?" asked the Commander.

"Oh nothing, it was just that drill was part of a two pronged attack on the city which we would have been apart of, months of planning called off in an instant because of such treason."

"I see." The commander turned back to his presentation. "Anyway, priority target four, Katara, . Saphire Fire, possibly the enemy Captain's wife or sister, confirmed water bending abilities but we believe them to be within a manageable range. We want her as a hostage to be used against the enemy Captain, unless you manage to eliminate him of course."

Azka studied Katara's picture pensively as he stroked his jaw, until one of his subordinates poked him with his elbow, "No time to get infatuated, Major, cute as she is."

Azka turned to the Lieutenant with an annoyed look as the lieutenant just smiled back and winked but he turned back to focus on the Commander's lecture.

The Commander pointed at Toph, "And last and least, Toph Beifong, the so called Blind bandit, a delinquent scam artist who pretends to be blind, illiterate despite her high born background, possible Earth bender, but like I said, known scam artist, make of that what you may." pausing dramatically he looked out at his crow, "A perfect archetype for the savagery of these people."

He sighed before he continued, "Which brings me to another unfortunate thing, the Beifongs are paying the Fire Lord vast amounts of tribute to capture her alive."

He then spun around to his presentation; "As for any other people in the Avatar's retinue, capture or terminate at your own discretion. Dismissed!"


Ozai was feeling concerned, at first his elder brother had escaped on the Day of treason and black Sun, but now, he had just been informed that there hadn't been one but two outside assisted prisons breaks in the last two days, which normally wouldn't concern Ozai, common criminals were never an existential threat to a state apparatus, but these escapees too, had been dangerous enemies of the Fire Nation, most notably in the more recent escape, the Chieftain of the Southern water tribe and in the former, a dangerous Water tribe witch who had terrorised the countryside for years.

Ozai began to ponder, it had been Azula's idea to burn the Earth kingdom before she and Zuko had ran off to join the Avatar, if indeed the Avatar really was alive, the more he thought, it began to seem like a Water tribe conspiracy. The Water tribe's submarine technology had come as a complete surprise to the Navy, they were easy to build in numbers and hard to detect. In and of themselves they weren't a very potent weapon, glorified mine layers at the most, but within the wrecks had also been found the most devastating secret weapon, the torpedo.

While he was off with the Fleet Air Arm in the Earth kingdom, the Water tribe could launch a devastating sneak attack on the Archipelago, sink the Home Fleet with impunity, blockading. raiding and starving the homeland while the Earth kingdom lay a scorched wasteland of no conceivable use, it would only be a matter of time before the starving masses would turn on their lawful leaders.

"Yes, yes, that's it!" Ozai muttered to himself, maybe the Last Air bender had never actually even existed, War Minister Qin often spoke about a Mechanist in the Northern Air Temple who had been producing gliding machines for years now that were often mistaken for Air Benders. Iroh and Zuko must have made a secret alliance with the Water tribes to fake the Avatar's return in the South pole… But what did Azula stand to gain from this?

He sighed as he conceded that she must have been seduced by the Water tribe "Prince", probably offered to make him his Queen in the ashes of the Kingdom that her father would leave her as a dowry, her children could lay legitimate claim to the thrones of the Fire Nation and the Water tribe with all the incorporated lands of Air nomad territory and the Earth Kingdom, Empress Azula… Queen of Queens. It all started making sense to Ozai now.

He slammed his fist in anger, of course Azula's burning ambition would lead her down such a reckless path.

Ozai slumped back in his throne, it was unlikely those Savages would even keep Zuko as anything more than a puppet ruler anyway, especially after Azula started rearing mutts with a claim to his throne. No… Zuko was always a puppet in this scheme… This had Iroh's handwriting all over it.

Iroh had betrayed Zhao at the North Pole, Iroh had gotten to Azula, it was Iroh, sneaky old strategist!

The flames in the throne room spiked in intensity.

"CALL COUNCIL!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.


Sokka and Zuko had come back from the Boiling Rock, bearing with them Suki and Hakoda, they had to commandeer a small Fire Navy airship that had been carrying interrogators from the Secret Gendarmerie. It had been a harrowing journey, both ways, on the home trip almost blowing up a boiler, to losing trim and almost tumbling over in the air, but despite all of this, it was a joyful occasion for everyone, even Azula, who had heard good news from her brother, Zuko had managed to speak with Mai's uncle, who luckily or unluckily for him, was the warden of Boiling Rock Prison and who had mentioned that Mai was okay, but broken hearted and under heavy Gendarme surveillance but it was still a relief to both siblings even if Mai and presumably Ty-Lee would have to be careful.

Azula sat in her cell and watched the great pyre as everyone was celebrating the triumphant return of the heroes. Zuko had come over to keep her company for a while before retiring to his quarters saying the Gendarme interrogators had done a number on him. Decided rest was the best treatment.

Back at the party, Sokka, Katara and Hakoda were singing old water tribe songs as they drank the century old wine looted from the temple cellars before turned to vinegar. Some of the old shanties were familiar even to Azula, being so old that they were even sung in Fire Navy.

Even though most of the party goers were inebriated to one degree or another, it was quite clear that the adult in the room was drunkest of them all, his running joke during the party to snatch the drink out of the hands of one kid or the other and telling them; "Slow down, you kids shouldn't drink so much." which Sokka found hilarious. Azula rolled her eyes at this display from the confines of her cell.

A song in minor began to echo in the hall as Hakoda and Sokka began to sing the first verse of an old shanty;

"Who can sail when the winds are still?

Who can row without oars?

Who can depart from a loved one, without shedding tears?"

And Katara sang the second verse in response;

"For I can sail when the winds are still,

I can row without oars,

But, not depart from a loved one, without shedding tears!"

Azula listened to the melancholic Water tribe song in silent contemplation, as the other's applauded the performance, whatever the Witch's flaws, she had a good singing voice, even when drunk, which was more than could be said for her male relatives.

Sokka opened a sparkling wine bottle with his sword and was about to drink it when his sister bent the drink away from his mouth and into her own.

The Duke and Teo decided to check out early while Haru and Toph got into a friendly earth bending match which momentarily sobered up the party.

Aang and Sokka stumbled over to Azula's cell with a bottle, Aang was the first to speak, "Hey, Sokka has a thing for you!" Azula's cheeks blushed red and was probably visibly miffed when Sokka handed her the bottle through the bars.

"Last night of captivity, Princess, join the party." Sokka said with an inebriated smile. "Doesn't quite hit like cactus juice but it does it's job."

Azula grabbed the bottle angrily, wondering just what the last comment meant and took a great big swing out of it. "Thought you'd be spending the night with your girlfriend."

"Oh, that comes later!" answered Sokka with a laugh which Aang contracted and they bumped heads in a friendly manner when suddenly Sokka was tackled from behind and pinned to the wall by Suki who kissed him on the mouth and slipped him the tongue.

Azula watched the gross display and decided it was probably best to take another swing before her frown revealed too much.

Suki moved her mouth to Sokka's ear before she spoke, "Sokka, I've waited too long, I want you to take me to bed and-" the last words of Suki's sentence faded into a whisper. Azula was probably yellow with envy by this point and somehow hoped the wine would wash away any visible emotions, she was already one third of the bottle through.

As Suki was practically ravaging Sokka, Hakoda came and took her by shoulder and managed to somehow slobber out; "My son maybe a man now but I don't think I'm ready to be a grandfather just yet!"

Suki and Sokka lit up red like a lunar eclipse and then Hakoda started laughing hysterically, "That's what dad told me and your mother, been waiting to use that one!" He grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and pushed him and Suki away from the cell, "Make me proud son!"

As the pair walked off, Suki's eyes met Azula's for a brief second, but that was all it took. In Azula's mind it felt like a thousand catfights fought in an instant, as if the Kyoshi warrior had transmitted all her disdain and ill will towards her, before with a flicker of her eye-lashes saying, "I got my Prince, what have you got?", an invisible knife cutting through the air and into Azula.

Aang began to walk away too, "I'm going to go find Katara." At this, Hakoda grabbed Aang by the back of the neck. "Before you do, I think I should-" Hakoda paused to let out a burp, "I think I should give you the dad talk."

Aang was visibly embarrassed "Okay Chief Hakoda."

"Yeah, so basically, Avatar or not, you dishonour my daughter and I'll geld you, boy, so... For the sake of the Air nomad nation!" Hakoda said slurring his words before pausing, "What was I saying? Have fun!" he added and the two separated.

"Hypocrite..." Azula muttered to herself as Hakoda headed off to the living quarters. She took another swing from the bottle to help wash away the building tears.


A loud blast woke up Azula, ripping the canvas curtain that had served as her protection from the elements off its hangers and onto her. She looked out to see a single air ship and a bunch of soldiers rappelling down ropes onto the ledge, a jolt of terror overtook her, she was trapped.

She then watched as Aang closed the giant steel doors of the temple with his air bending.

She screamed out for help but she only caught the attention of the soldiers, five of them who came walking before one of them called out, "Evade, it's the Princess!" and they shot flames towards the cage and scattered. Azula jumped back into her tiny outcrop and watched as fire blasts pelted the opening mere feet from where she was pressed tightly against the wall.

"Surrender peacefully princess and we won't be forced to burn you alive!" shouted a voice from behind cover.

Azula put her palm to her eye and started crying, this was for real, her father's forces were hunting her, all the copes of trying to talk to father suddenly rang hollow, as a flame front started licking the cage and Azula started to feel her little hole turning into an airless oven she suddenly felt herself fall back. In an instant it went from hot and light to cool and dark.

"Let's get out of here, your Hotness" It was Toph who taking Azula by the hand led her through the dark tunnel. "Remember to thank Snoozles for this."


Outside Azka watched from the bridge of the airship as his soldiers planted demolition charges on the door of the temple. The enemy had been caught with its pants down, how literally Azka hadn't known but he was surprised by how quickly they had regrouped from the initial shock.

It was hard to tell if the enemy had taken any casualties but he knew that they had to break down those doors before any Earth bender in their group tunnelled them out, as a contingency he had two sections of his own Earth benders standing by topside, to tunnel down and intercept anyone trying to flee if he deemed it necessary. These were Fire Nation Earth Benders, born in the colonies and knew nothing other than Fire Nation, same for the few water benders he had in his elite brotherhood, this was one of the reasons why the Pioneers such an Elite force, you weren't judged by your birth, but by your abilities.

Suddenly one of the shaped charges that had been placed on the door shot back and exploded, its large jet being directed upwards, as happened to the second, third and fourth charge in quick succession, each jet being directed in a different direction, the shrapnel hitting the soldiers and causing massive casualties.

Azka saw this in shock, the steel doors had bulged out where the charges had been placed as if pushed off by a tremendous force. Azka contemplated it for a minute, a well coordinated earth bending attack could have hammered on the door from the opposite side but it was so precise and fast. He turned and walked off the bridge; "I'm going to handle this myself, Captain, you take charge if anything were to happen."


The Gaang had been gathered in the temple. Toph was feeling and tapping the steel doors periodically to get a sense if the soldiers would try again.

Haru had bent an escape tunnel that they were desperately trying to shepherd Appa into. "It's no use! Appa is too distressed! We have to fly out of here."

Sokka looked around at everyone in the room, "Aang, I don't think Appa can make it out of here with everyone."

"Not very far at least." Toph added.

"We have to split up, the A-team flies out on Appa and the B-team goes through the tunnel and flees with the stolen airship." Hakoda said stoically.

"I volunteer for the B-team." Haru said, "someone needs to bore the tunnel."

"Me too." responded Hakoda.

"No!" yelled Katara, "They could have found the ship! It could have been what led them here!"

"That's a risk we're going to have to take." Hakoda said, now with sadness in his voice.

Katara ran over to hug her father goodbye.

"It won't be forever." Hakoda said with sadness, wiping away his daughter's tears.

Teo rolled his glider chair over to Aang

"If you could give me a boost, I can fly out as diversion." Teo said with determination.

Aang contemplated for a moment, he hated putting others at risk but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter, "Okay, we'll fly out together, "Toph, bend us some armour!" he turned back to Teo, "Once we're airborne, we'll split up."

"Duke, Princess, you are coming with us." Hakoda said, pointing to the people he was taking with him.

Toph was bending makeshift breast plates and helmets for Aang and Teo as the B-Team was making ready to enter the tunnel. Suddenly there was a sudden flash and circle of molten metal had appeared on the front door.

"I knew I should have stood guard!" Toph yelled out in frustration, and the cut-out was kicked in followed by a barrage of grenades, Aang quickly air bent a few of them back through the hole which exploded almost immediately because of the fuses being accelerated by the rush of air. Katara used the ambient moisture to freeze the fuse but a fourth one went unattended and rolled to the back of the room, to the tunnel entrance.

Hakoda grabbed the Duke and dove deeper into the tunnel while Azula dove back into the hall and while she escaped the blast, she could feel a searing piece of metal shrapnel pierce her skin just under her ribcage on the right and almost immediately started having trouble breathing, she tried to scream for help but found out she could hardly make a sound. The explosion also caused Momo to take refuge in Appa's saddle.

Katara was helping Toph mount Appa, when Zuko saw something that scared him, a vision of his father peering through the hole in the door looking at Aang, who had turned his gaze towards the explosion. "AANG LOOK OUT!"

Aang turned to the figure standing looking at him menacingly. Suki saw this and jumped as by reflex towards Aang and tackling him out of harms way, but at what cost? There was a flash and she fell to the floor, her legs unfeeling.

Zuko blasted the hole with one of the most intense blasts of fire he had ever mustered, the man hadn't been his father but it had been enough to set him off emotionally.

Sokka had watched as his had lover and emptied his lungs screaming out her name as he rushed over to her. The damage was the most horrifying he had ever seen and as his eyes met Katara's who was watching the two from the top of Appa, he knew she was not going to make it. There was a hole straight through her torso. "Sokka?" she whispered looking him in the eyes.

Sokka mustered a brave face as he picked her up. "You're going to be fine!"

"We have to leave now!" Shouted Aang as Zuko kept blasting the hole in the door and Sokka mounted Appa with some difficulty. The A-team was ready for departure just as another piece was carved out of the door.

"NOW!" Yelled Aang and with a gale force wind, he propelled himself and Teo into the air and the doors began to open.

"Yip yip!" yelled Katara and the bison took to the air suddenly as if understanding the urgency of the situation, roared and was off like never before.

As the gliders shot out Azka made a split second decision and shot a beam towards one of them before a sudden blast of dust and fire overwhelmed his senses as the bison flew past, but the glider he hit, banked sharply to the right and crashed near the the edge of the platform, he heard wood break and pained grunts from the crashed glider and started walking towards the crash site.

He turned his head back and glanced into the temple as the dust settled, it was empty.

"Everyone, back to the ship!" He shouted to his men.

As he got closer to the crash site he could see that it wasn't an air bender glider but something different entirely, a boy was crawling out of the wreckage with much difficulty, probably had broken his back. "Looks like the war is over for you son."

Teo turned his head to look at the impressive figure coming towards him, "Can you feel your legs?" the man asked.

"No..." Teo responded rather agonised.

"Okay, don't move, else you risk making it worse." Azka ordered in a big brotherly tone.

Teo chuckled a bit, "I doubt it… But thanks."

A group of Pioneers surrounded the wreckage, Azka glanced at them quickly and told them, "See to this boy and get him onto the ship quickly, we don't want our quarry to get away from us."


So, shit got real. I actually thought about killing off Teo just to drive home the threat of Azka but that would have just made him into Combustion man 1.9, so showing his soldierly honour thought it made him a less one-dimensional character. Personally I'm not a big fan of OG characters and I don't expect anyone else to be either, if you have disregard for original characters, just try to see him more as an agent of the will of Ozai.

The Commander's briefing was just me having fun with the potential fog of war, though it will serve its own small purpose as well.