Author's notes at the end;


Azula woke up to find Sokka had already risen, she hadn't pegged him for the early riser and normally she would have been right. He had offered up his sleeping bag while he had slept more austerely wrapped in her blanket, using their woollen cloaks as extra insulation, resting his head on his back pack. Of course nothing had happened though Azula had felt the itch to a couple of times that night as she awoke slightly and could feel Sokka's strong arm press down on her.

She arose, and looked out, the morning sun was already high in the eastern sky as it usually was at those latitudes this time of the year, even though it was high summer, the cold northern winds endeavoured to keep this island as cold and barren as the tundra of the Northern territory of the Air nomads.

As she climbed out she could see Sokka out on the grassy plane, he was training with his sword against what looked to be an invisible man with an equally invisible sword, Azula had an idea, and she walked down to the beach to find a piece of driftwood to fit her purposes.

The tides were still out as she looked for something that could be used a sparring sword or within a pinch be carved into one. What she found was even better, still attached to the wood that had carried it shore, a long slender piece of metal about four feet in length, pitted with rust from years of sitting there on the beach. She broke it off from the wood, obviously it had been some kind of tensioning support for a boat of some kind.

Azula beat it against the rocks to have the worst of the rust fall off and then swinging it around to find a balance point, she concluded it would make due as a sparring rapier.

She walked up the slope that had led her to the beach and to the plane where Sokka was still practising.

He could see his eyes were closed as she approached him. He was holding a defensive ready stance, he would parry and strike his imaginary foe.

"I know you're there!" Said Sokka.

"You saw me coming then!" Azula said gleefully with a smile.

Sokka took a deep breath before answering, "No, I could feel your scent coming down wind."

"Ha! I'm not that fragrant!" She said walking up to him her mock rapier held about forty-five degrees up from her hip, "You liar." she purred seductively, and Sokka smiled, still holding his eyes closed and stance rigid.

Azula touched the tip of her rapier to his chin, "You looked so lonely out here." She circled to his front still holding the rapier at his chin, "Thought you might need some company."

Sokka's eyes shot open and had he was in it. He cocked his head back and parried Azula's sword but he didn't attack. He simply put his sword back into it's sheath and locked it there with his hand firmly on the hilt, Azula took an attack stance and raised her rapier, "Defend yourself!"

Sokka smiled, and suddenly, his sword had flown from his hip, sheath and all, into the path of Azula's makeshift rapier, the shock to her hand almost making Azula drop it, but his legs betrayed how he would attack and Azula parried, but he had counted on it, she had overextended, and though her body was safe, her arm and shoulder were vulnerable, so with a quick succession of pokes, Azula felt her arm go numb. "Damn it, I forgot he learned chi-blocking" she thought to herself but she also knew that in a real fight, her opponent wouldn't have bothered with such intricacies when a simple slash would be equally as crippling and more permanent.

"That's unfair!" Laughed Azula, and decided she would try something to really keep Sokka on his feet, with her functioning limb she began to generate lightning, not a very high current, but enough to cause pain, Sokka instinctively drew his sword from his sheath and raised it to parry for whatever good it would go against the electric filaments emerging around Azula and gathering at her finger tips.

As the lightning discharged Sokka swung his sword in terror, and to Azula's horror, the lightning caught the sword and was redirected right back at her. It zapped her on the forehead and she fell backwards, more out of surprise than anything.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Sokka screamed at her in anger.

Azula raised her head off the ground, "I was just going to shock you a bit, it wouldn't have done anything." She pointed to her forehead which indeed, hadn't taken any damage from the discharge. "Where did you learn that? Did Zuko teach you something?" she shot at him annoyed about having her ace countered by a joker.

"You did, just now. I just acted on instinct."

Azula grunted, "I didn't even aim at your sword."

Sokka looked at his space sword, wondering if it had special properties, the hilt was wood, lined with a hardened sap from an exotic tree grown by Piandao, but it was for shock dampening and nothing more.

"Can we try that again?" he asked inquisitively.

"No!" said Azula, "That really hurt."

"I promise I won't redirect it back at you." Sokka said smiling.

"You're pretty confident that you can even do it again!" Azula said getting to her feet. "Okay, dodge this!" Azula flicked an arc towards Sokka's head but as he moved to parry, the lightning changed direction, and hit the sword before it jumped off and hit Sokka on the head.

"Ouch!" Sokka said slapping his forehead where the arc had struck.

"Did that make you any wiser?" Asked Azula.

Sokka looked at his sword in pain. "Actually, I think it did. Hit me again!"

Azula directed another arc towards him, aimed at his head again, but this time he swung the sword around himself so the when his sword caught the lighting, the tip pointed away from him, and it discharged away, hitting a nearby boulder instead.

"I think with a little practise, I could make this work." Sokka said proudly.

"But how!" asked Azula "I've never heard about swords being able to redirect lightning before."

"It's not just any sword, it's Space sword, forged by Master Piandau himself!"

Azula looked at him surprised. "How the he- A Piandau sword? Ugh, regardless I have never heard of a sword being able to block, let alone redirect lightning."

"You want to go another round?" Sokka said enthusiastically.

"I think we've had enough sparring for now! Come let's get breakfast."

"What, like second breakfast?" Sokka said confused.

"Well, it's my first and I'd like some company." She purred as she walked away making sure to sway her hips more than usual.

Sokka called out in disappointment "But we barely got our pants off!"

Azula laughed at the comment, and gestured for Sokka to come along.

As fortune would have it, Sokka didn't want for appetite and a second breakfast was probably what he needed, especially after the cold crackers and jerky he had had at the break of dawn.

With Azula he had prepared a small fire that hopefully wouldn't be too visible as the daylight was reaching its peak and the humidity of the air becoming relatively low. By burning the fire hot, there wasn't that much smoke to begin with.

Sokka still decided that it would be a good idea to prepare lunch and supper at the same time, just in case, which would be a relatively modest soup that Aang could heat up with relatively little fuzz.

Aang had agreed to circle the in the air as a lookout while Toph had agreed to look for any edible roots that might have been buried on the island. Sokka had fetched water from the sea which would have to be diluted with cloud water to be palatable and Azula dutifully tended the fire.

Toph came back with a bag full of root tubers, "We were in luck Snoozles but I think this is about what we're going to be able to squeeze out of this little island. We can't stay here much longer."

Sokka started to brush off Toph's catch and peel them slightly.

"Where are we headed after my brother and your sister come back?" Asked Azula.

Sokka shrugged his shoulders but began to answer.

"The Earth Kingdom is a large place and we need to gather new allies as Aang learns the elements."

The mixed signal had Azula suspecting he wasn't being entirely truthful, maybe not fully trusting her yet, or perhaps fearing that if they got captured, he wanted no one to know the whole truth, clever but she decided to probe further.

"Isn't it a bit risky? The Fire Nation will be looking for us there." said Azula.

"Unlike everywhere else?" Sokka said solemnly as he dropped the root vegetables into the broth.

"It's unlikely we'll get any help from my parents if they aren't in Fire Nation custody on account of me already." said Toph picking her nose. "But I have connections through them, friends and allies that will help us."

Azula shook her head. "I don't think we should rush it, I think we should lay low some place where we could be reasonably sure no one is looking for us, and though it's not a perfect option." Azula looked up and shrugged her shoulders, "Then again what is? ...I think I know just the place."

"And where would that be, Sparkie?" asked Toph as she picked her nose.

"Our family's summer home on Ember Island, our father hasn't visited the house since he became Fire Lord and no Fire Nation citizen dares to set a foot on the grounds."

Sokka looked up and pointed at Azula with a grin, "I see, hiding under the nose of the enemy!"

"That's right!" smirked Azula.

Just then Aang flew down, "Well, I don't see any smoke on the horizon but it sure smells delicious from up there, when can we eat?"

"Give it about fifteen more minutes." Sokka said. "We've been discussing where we should go after Zuko and Katara return and Azula came up with an intriguing idea."


The next few days passed with not much incident, Sokka usually held watch and Aang trained with Azula and Toph in turn. About every hour or so Azula would bring him a cup of tea to warm himself as he stood on the highest rock at the highest point of the island looking out at sea, once or twice a day he thought he might have spotted smoke to the east travelling northward but if it was, it was so far off on the horizon not to merit immediate concern.

Sokka enjoyed the solitude as he pondered his seemingly cursed existence, he looked back at the camp at his friends and Azula, who was seemingly making tea again which meant she would be coming up in a few minutes, and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. He had sought comfort in Azula but, facts were facts, they were wanted fugitives in a war, she could easily suffer the same fate as Yue or Suki, but so could any of his friends.

He watched as she got up carrying the teapot and two cups in respective hands and started towards him.

Sokka turned back to the horizon, another diffuse plume had appeared that he would have to keep an eye out for. He licked his index finger and held it up in the air to ascertain the wind direction, and estimated the cause of the plume was moving northward, he looked back towards camp and saw Azula was but a fifteen paces from him.

She smiled before she spoke, "Almost snuck up on you!"

Sokka just nodded, letting her have her moment as she came closer.

"So what's up?" she asked.

"Nothing..." he lied, but Azula caught it and scanned the horizon, where she saw the plume.

"You don't have to lie to me, Sokka." she said with an almost arrogant tone as she turned back to him. "It takes more than a little bit of smoke to scare me."

Sokka looked down at the ground in sorrow and sighed, "Perhaps that's the problem."

By the look on his face she understood what concerned him, she got to her knees and put down the cups and started pouring tea into them. "I understand..." she said somberly as she picked up the cups and got up to hand one of them to Sokka. "Up until a few days ago I felt immortal, I have pulled off so many foolhardy things with impunity that could easily have been my end."

Sokka kept his eyes on the horizon and just nodded, before he started chuckling and shaking his head.

He turned to look at Azula, "I still can't believe you took over Ba Sing Se alone."

Azula climbed up next to him and smirked, "I had help." she then turned to look at the horizon. "It was supposed to be an intelligence gathering mission, find the Avatar and capture him, but I saw an opportunity and I took it."

She sighed and took Sokka's hand before she spoke again, "It was an incredible rush, to be out in the field, my cousin, peace be upon him, didn't get to go to war until he had done three years at the Royal War College, and there I was, little old me, out playing at war."

"I know the feeling." Sokka responded. "Going out to fight with my father was my dream, but as it turned out, the war needed me elsewhere."

The pair turned to look one another in the eye and Azula was the first to speak, "Where would you be if destiny hadn't called upon you?"

Sokka just laughed before speaking, "I guess I would still be playing warrior in my village." He shook his head a bit before he asked Azula, "And you?"

"Oh, much the same thing I suppose, I had been studying for my entrance exams to the Naval Academy."

Sokka cocked his eyebrow, "You? Entrance exam?"

Azula laughed, "Of course, it's a prestigious military academy, you have to prove you know, or are at least capable of learning tactics, logistics and engineering, not any pompous dumb-dumb can get in." As she turned her head away from Sokka she winked at him, "...But I would have aced it."

Sokka too turned back to the horizon, the plume of smoke was gone, only to be replaced with another.

After a brief moment of silence Azula spoke again, "We're warriors, we chose this life and the risks and rewards that come with it."

Sokka sipped on his tea and Azula got up, and ruffled Sokka's wolf's tail playfully. "See you back at camp, my vigilant sentry."

Sokka lifted his head and smiled at her, as he watched her walk back to camp where Toph and Aang were preparing supper.

As the sun began to set on the third day, and Aang had came to relieve him for the rest of the evening, they spotted a dot on the horizon, producing no plume of exhaust as it gracefully came towards the island, they could but dare hope and it was.

Zuko and Katara had returned.

As Sokka and Aang helped Katara dismount, Azula went to hug her brother. "Believe it or not, I've actually missed you, brother." Azula said. Zuko then whispered something in her ear as he looked in Katara's direction.

Sokka noticed this odd behaviour from Zuko but for the moment he was overjoyed to have his sister back though he was deeply saddened over the fact that in his weakened state he had allowed his sister to go and spoil her innocence, he wondered if he would be able to tell by looking in her eyes, as if a piece of her soul was missing, but as she spoke, she alleviated those fears.

"I couldn't do it." she said, as she hugged Sokka and Aang. "I wanted to, but I couldn't. I don't know if it's because I'm too weak, or strong enough not to."

Zuko took his sister and slipped away to the side, "Listen, Azula…. Despite our differences you're my only sister and I wouldn't want to see you hurt." Azula was a little bit surprised to hear this coming so frankly out of her brother's mouth, but the last weeks of her life had been something of game changer for them both, but by the choice of words Azula expected a long winded lecture about getting involved with heartbreakers and she held back a sigh.

Zuko looked around him to see if anyone was eavesdropping, "So consider this a warning, Katara has a power that I don't quite understand, and frightens me, when we found the commander of the Southern Raiders, she used her bending to twist and contort the man somehow." Azula had not expected this and looked at her brother horrified, she recalled the night at the Western Air temple when she had tried to escape.

"Zuko, she tried to use it on me back at the Air Temple, it was like she had a grip on me from the inside but couldn't quite grasp me, I've never been so scared in my life."

"So please, don't antagonise her in any way!"

Zuko turned heel and walked off.

"What was that all about?" asked Toph from behind Azula.

"How long have you been there?!" Azula said raising her voice in anger.

"Long enough to hear Zuko warn you about Katara being a blood bender."

Azula stared at the girl in silence, then at the popping veins in her hands.


Azka stood on the bridge of his cruiser and looked out at the sound separating the North-Western most point of the Earth King and the former Air Nomad territories. The winds here were cold and brutal, if it hadn't been obvious to him before why attempts at colonising these parts of the new Fire Nation territories had remained symbolic at best, it was clear to him now.

The tropical seas to the south evaporated more water than the Northern sea so the currents in these straits were strong and treacherous, they had carved away mountains into small rocky islets and shoals, many of them having slumped under water over the march of time and lurking treacherously beneath the surface.

The summer months were the only time you could pass these waters in safety, the icebergs released by the spring thaw had already come down the channel and the long daylight hours meant that you could cruise straight and narrow between the landmasses, which was the safest known path. Still, the turning of the tide could have the ship drifting into unsounded waters.

An Officer approached Azka, nervously, which didn't go unnoticed by him.

"Yes?" Azka asked inquisitively.

The man moved his lips as to speak but nothing came out. "Well spit it out, man!"

The officer swallowed and finally said; "The tides, sir, we have to stop, else-"

Azka looked at the man in stunned silence, "You're the commander of this ship aren't you?!"

"Y-yes?"

"So you do your job and I'll do mine!" Azka shouted at the man. "What's the matter with you, man?! You look like I was about to throw you overboard?"

The man sighed in relief. "I was afraid you would, sir..."

Azka covered his face with his palm, "And why would you think that?"

"The traitor princess, once threatened me with that on this very issue and I had to relent."

Azka started rubbing his forehead, "Let me get this straight? You let yourself be bullied by a teenage girl to put everyone's life, including hers, at risk? I would have thrown myself into the sea in shame!" Azka gestured for the man to leave. "Let me know when we can get back on our way."

The Captain bowed to Azka and left. A few more hours of sailing and they would have been in the clear, a pity, but Azka didn't want to take unnecessary risks with his men.

A quarter of a mile to port steamed one of the battlecruisers diverted from the Western Fleet, the larger more powerful ship wasn't as effected by the tides and currents as the smaller ship but once on open waters again, the smaller ship would be a couple of knots faster as long as the weather stayed calm.

One of Azka's lieutenants walked up to him, "That's the seventh capital ship I've seen overtake us in this sound today, how large is this force?"

Azka looked solemnly at the passing ship, "I don't know Lieutenant but it looks like the biggest one yet."


Azula slept alone again that night, thinking about what Zuko had said about antagonising Katara, that Water tribe witch, as it could include pursuing her brother, even though her brother clearly had a liking for her too, even if he was struggling with the situation.

She tried to get some shut eye, tomorrow they would depart towards Ember Island, hopefully, it wouldn't be too obvious. If anyone was going to check out the beach house, they would have done so already, at least that was her thinking, perhaps she was worried over how eagerly Zuko had taken to her plan, which was never a good sign, her brother might not be stupid, but he was impulsive and didn't think things through, which he had a big ugly scar to remind him of.

She sighed as she twisted and turned on her bed of moss. She was thinking about what had become of her and her father's plan to burn the Earth Kingdom, would her father still go through with it, it had been an ambitious plan, a cruel plan, worthy of her name, it wouldn't take much to cripple the plan anyway, with Zuko having spilled the beans, her new companions had probably already devised a counter-attack, probably on the Airship yards at Kemuri Bay, their blind Earthbender could just break the steel reinforced dam providing the energy for the facility and that would be it, security was a joke as the reservoir was a bustling swimming spot for the local town's people, it was so simple, so easy that no one had even mentioned it to her.

Unless… Azula bolted up. "ZUKO!" She yelled out. She could hear the others stirring, and a faint "What?!" from another shelter. "Have you informed them about my- I mean Father's plan?!". The silence was deafening. Finally Zuko answered, "No..."

Azula threw off her cover and got up, "Oh for Agni's sake!" she exclaimed in frustration as she exited her shelter, "Okay, emergency meeting!"

Everyone groaned and Toph yelled "Can't this wait until the morning?"

"What part of emergency meeting don't you people understand! Everyone get up!"

Sokka was the first one to exit the tent, his hair was down and his eyes weren't fully open and Azula couldn't help but get caught in how extremely cute he looked, but she gathered herself quickly.

"Come on people, we don't have all night!" she barked while clapping her hands together.

"Okay, okay!" said Katara emerging from her shelter with Aang. Zuko emerged with a guilty look on his face while Toph still stirred in her shelter, Azula glared poisonously in the direction of the blind earth bender's shelter. "Get up, you little brat! This concerns you too!"

"I can hear you just fine from here, your hotness!"

Azula grunted in frustration and was starting off towards Toph's shelter when Katara raised her hand to stop her; "Don't encourage her! Just tell us what this is about!"

Azula turned to the group who all sat down in a half circle around Azula, who just sighed and took a deep breath before starting.

"Okay, so it has come to my attention that my brother, in his infinite stupidity has neglected to mention our Father's plans for the Earth Kingdom."

Zuko looked at his sister with a dower expression, "Yours."

"What?!" Asked Azula looking at her brother angrily.

"It was your idea." Zuko said deadpan, as he stared off with his sister.

"Hey, you were the one who said that the Earth Kingdom wouldn't be cowed by conventional force!" Azula responded defensively. "As far as I'm concerned, you're as much to blame, if you're going to blame me."

"Okay, okay, what's this plan? The quicker we get this over, the faster we can go back to sleep!" interjected Aang. Sokka moved his fist out to bump it with Aang's at the mention of sleep.

"Yes, so my Father is planning on using the newly commissioned Fleet Air Arm to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground."

"Impossible, that would take thousands of ships and more fire power-" Sokka said before realising "Oh no..."

"The Comet..." said Aang in half a whisper.

"Exactly!" said Azula almost smugly. "The plan is ambitious and relies on practically all of the Fire Navy, Fleet Air Arm and Army to act swiftly and in unison, else it won't work."

Azula's audience was captive as she scanned the faces of her comrades, her face stopped at Sokka whom she could see was grinding his gears over trying to think of a solution.

"But, I have a plan. We must strike the power dam at Kemuri Bay."

"What will that do?" asked Aang.

"Azula, you're crazy, even if we managed to break the dam, thousands of people could die!" interjected Zuko angrily.

"And if we don't millions of people could die. Really, Zuko?!" Azula retorted.

"What? It was your idea to begin with!" Zuko said as he tried getting to his feet, but Katara pulled him back down.

Azula crossed her arms and looked at her brother; "Cold, hard, numbers, Zuzu." She uncrossed her arms and sat down with the others. "So now you know, and I gave you the plan, destroying the dam will destroy the shipyards and any airships under construction, repair or refit the same goes for any ships that are still on the slipways."

Azula shrugged her shoulders, "Take it or leave it!"

Zuko kept staring at her with fury in his eyes.

"Don't give me that righteous anger look!" Azula told her brother sternly. "You had all the time in the world to tell our comrades and you chose to hold your tongue!"

Zuko raised his finger at Azula and angrily proclaimed "If I hadn't had my calming tea before going to bed, I'd give you such a spanking!" Azula just threw out her tongue in a grimace at Zuko as she crossed her arms.

Aang lifted his arms to calm everyone down. "Okay, enough with the sibling rivalry!"

"I wish Snoozles and Sweetness could be this entertaining." Toph giggled from her shelter.

"What if we didn't have to destroy the dam… At least completely?" Sokka asked alternating between Azula and Zuko. "I mean, even a sufficiently big leak would empty the reservoir and flood the shipyard, right? Giving everyone a chance to evacuate."

"In theory, but it would only slow down construction, not halt it, the destruction of the dam would cause a years long set back." Azula responded.

"Exactly!" said Sokka enthusiastically, "You said yourself that for your Father's plan to work, he'd need almost every ship he could get, so we would only have to be sure that any ships wouldn't be ready in time for the comet."

"Again, in theory, but I don't believe in half-measures." said Azula.

"It's not a half-measure, if we do it right, we're not murderers!" responded Sokka, "The Fire Nation is going to portray us as villains regardless, but the people we save won't forget it, which one of you traitors wants to play a leader for your people?"

Zuko raised his arm at Sokka's question.

"Good!" said Sokka. "We have an attack to plan!"


A lonely cloud drifted in the smog over Kemuri Bay, a large fjord surrounded by steep cliffs on both sides and the ridgelines were topped with hundreds of smokestacks from the numerous factories building for the countless slipways in the valley bellow, a system of cable cars criss crossed the valley bringing coke and anthracite up to the factories and posed somewhat of navigational hazard to the cloud, the thick smog that made it impossible to see from one side of the fjord to the next didn't help the matter.

Bellow, the slipways were filled with ships of all types in various stages of construction. Sokka particularly marvelled at gigantic ship probably over a thousand feet long undergoing final construction.

At the end of the bay was the mouth of a small river, on both sides of the river were small mills and further from the river were the Airship yards, most of them still the skeleton frames but others that looked like they were in the process of being flayed, but were actually being dressed, the red canvas making it look like a bloody hide, it wouldn't take long until they were finished and ready for action. As Sokka's eyes followed the river upstream, he saw it, the dam, higher than the great wall of Ba Sing Se, clad from top to bottom in armour steel. As they moved closer through the smoggy clouds they could see that on both sides of the top of the dam were towers, responsible for the operation of the dam.

Sokka turned to Azula and asked, "What did you say this thing produced?"

"Hydraulic Power, they use the high pressure of the water to drive all sorts of machinery down in the valley, the armour forges, the lathes, mills and drills, pretty much everything." said Azula. She looked at Sokka's stunned face marvelling at the structure. "We're also experimenting with something called Electric current, it's a bit like harnessed lighting." Sokka opened his mouth as to ask but Azula cut him off, "I have no idea how it works! Something about an invisible current of lightning travelling through wires."

The cloud covered bison reached the base of the dam at the sluice gate and Katara and Toph got off. "Remember, wait for the signal!" Sokka whispered so loudly he might as well just have spoken. "We know!" answered Toph and Katara in harmonious unison as Appa started drifting upwards.

As they were three quarters of the way up, which seemed like an eternity, Zuko got up and squatted into position near the front of the saddle, turning to his comrades, "I'll take the left control tower with Aang. Sokka, Azula, you take the right."

As Appa reached the top of the dam, Aang and Zuko were the first to disembark. Zuko looked down at the dam, there was nothing but a narrow road on top of it, but in the reservoir there were people swimming. "Damn it!" exclaimed Zuko. "Aang, you have to get those people out of there! I'll handle the tower."

Azula and Sokka had jumped off and were running across the dam towards their designated control tower and Aang looked in their direction before he looked at the people in the reservoir and without batting an eye flew away on his glider while Zuko ran towards the other control tower.

Aang flew down the middle of the reservoir and created a giant wave which pushed most people out of the water but others were regrettably flushed right back out. Aang looped around and lined up for a run from the other direction, he could see flashes from fire bending coming from both the towers as the engineers must have been putting up a fierce resistance.

As Aang made his second pass most people in the water had either understood the message or at least were terrified enough for their instincts to decide the right thing for them. Aang looked back at the crowd as he landed on the dam, the flashes from the fire bending has stopped from both towers, and suddenly Zuko's voice echoed out loudly from a giant megaphone built into the tower.

"This is Prince Zuko, I am ordering everyone to evacuate the valley! The dam is about to be breached!" as the last reverberations of Zuko's voice died down the sound of giant bells tolled from the towers, three times the bells tolled and if Aang hadn't known better he would have thought the sound alone could bring down the giant dam.

Zuko began repeating his message to the people, adding "We want to save lives." Again the bells started tolling. Aang satisfied that no people were going back into the water deployed his glider and jumped off the edge of the dam.

He flew down the enormous structure for what seemed like an another eternity and glanced at the progress of Toph and Katara, who were carving their way through where the sluice gate used to be and continued down into the town. People were evacuating the work yards, factories and houses at the sound of the bells. Most people were horrified at the sight of the flying boy whom they knew to be Avatar.

"This is Prince Zuko, I am ordering everyone to leave their posts an evacuate, the dam is about to burst!" the giant megaphone carried Zuko's voice even to the depth the valley and Aang circled around, satisfied that people had gotten the message.

As he got closer to the dam he saw that Toph had breached the dam's armour and now clad in rock armour was creating a hole in the dam so wide that one could sail a large boat through it, Katara did her part in redirecting and freezing the water.

Aang gathered all his momentum, earth bent a slab of concrete infront of him and flew straight into the breech, with all he had learned he pushed himself forward with air, redirected most of the water, and simultaneously formed and heated the concrete slab to a concave cylinder around him all in an effort to push through the enormous pressure. As he passed through, he was freezing up water behind him until suddenly, the stream ceased although the pressure still remained high, Aang could feel it but he kept on bending the concrete of the dam and freezing the water in his wake. Suddenly he could hear a low rumbling crack, as the pressure of the ice and Toph's earth bending overwhelmed the concrete structure.

Aang pressed forward as the cracking sound grew in frequency, apparently Katara kept freezing any water penetrating the fissures, and as he looked back in the darkness he had passed the dam on the other side. He changed course, and rocked towards the surface. As he surfaced he looked around to see Zuko, Sokka and Azula had boarded Appa and were waiting for him to emerge.

As Aang boosted himself out of the water and onto the saddle they took off and flew down the dam wall, there was a huge jet of water vapour spraying from the base of dam where Katara and Toph where waiting showering in the streams emitting from the cracks in the dam. Toph had stripped a large section of the dam from its armour, the thick pieces of steel littering the base of it.

"Everybody on board!" yelled Sokka from Appa's reigns as Zuko and Azula helped Katara and Toph onboard. "What took you so long?"

Sokka looked up at the giant structure "Haven't you seen that thing?"

"NO!" answered Toph!

As they gained altitude, the group turned back to look at their work, the dam probably was a write off, as the only thing sealing it was the rapidly melting ice. Azula turned to her brother and smirked, "You can have the honour."

"Gladly!" Zuko bent a blast of fire towards the ice plug that held the water. It didn't seemingly do much but what it did was enough and the plug began to leak, and leak more.

The Gaang watched as two engineers ran up to the base of the dam from the valley only to quickly start running in the other direction towards a climbable incline in the rock, one of the men started bending intermediately in the air as he ran as if signalling something to someone.

"That should hold long enough for everyone sensible to evacuate." Zuko said, and with that the bell started ringing again and a man's voice start shouting through the megaphone; "The dam is irreparably breached, this is not a drill, evacuate immediately!"


Ozai was walking around the palace garden feeding the turtle-ducks when a messenger came walking up to him, slowly. Ozai saw that he was pale as a ghost and shaking in his boots, and his heart sank. Ozai could tell that if he pressed this man any further he would be walking on urine soaked tiles, so he just sighed and said; "Just leave the scroll, and go!"

The man bowed, sighed with relief, put down the message scroll and took off frantically.

Ozai looked up to the sky and took a long hard breath, at days like these he regretted having usurped the throne, if his elder brother hadn't' broken himself out of prison he would have been tempted to go and give him a royal pardon and the crown, until he collected himself. He threw the loaf of bread into the pond and picked up the scroll.

He began reading it out loud as he found he could better comprehend bad news when they were told to him, "From the governor-general of the Kemuri district. I regret to inform that a raid by enemy commandos lead by the traitor prince has severely damaged the Kemuri dam, as well as damaged most facilities and living quarters in the town of Kemuri Bay, human casualties remain negligible due to quick action by the district government but it is feared that rebuilding will take several months."

The message further contained further accounting on the damage and potential costs which Ozai didn't care to read and he burned up the message in his hand in anger.


Not much to say about this chapter, the first 2/3s is basically just a continuation of the last chapter and the ending is the beginning of the end of the story, I especially enjoyed writing the dam buster raid which probably brought some much needed action to what has otherwise been a pair of very gloomy chapters.

Yes, space sword is now a lightning rod, among all its other amazing properties, although I'm pretty sure that in reality the high voltage of lightning would just arc over any insulation on the handle, so don't try at home.