AN: I just wanted to quickly address the very obvious issue of Sasuke's power level within this universe as I've heard much about it, and opinions leaning in both directions.

For the most part, this has been a bit of a struggle as balancing a Shippuden character in this universe has been a colossal challenge; I have had to nerf him a fair bit to ensure that he does not simply show up in this universe and wreak utter havoc as a fully powered EMS Sasuke would. But even then, there stands the issue that nerfing him too much makes him seem rather obsolete as a factor in the conflicts playing out, and I've even heard people say that he seems too overpowered even still, while others have let me know that he doesn't seem nerfed enough.

Just want to let everyone know that I'm really trying to achieve something resembling equilibrium for this character and the universe, and I am aware of the issues this poses. I will continue to try and explain my reasoning and causation through my storytelling, but I did want to make sure I touched on this since it's been the topic of a fair few reviews and PM's.

But that aside, I must of course tell all you guys how happy I am to have you around for another chapter and would love to hear what you think as we get deeper into this project. Again, special thanks goes out to everyone dropping reviews and really keeping me motivated to keep punching this out. Much love!

Chapter 6: Half-Truth

Fitful rest finally being enough to rouse him, Sasuke snapped to consciousness with a sharp intake of breath and he stared at the dark ceiling above, trying to regain his grasp on reality. Because as he found, the memory he knew that he had regained had already receded to nothing more than feelings and vague concepts.

No.

He violently assaulted the recesses of his sleep ridden mind, reaching for any piece that he was still able hold onto, but only the gentlest ideas remained. His brother, betrayed, his family, dead, his life, completely and entirely-

"You should try and slow your breathing down, you sound like you're about to have a panic attack."

Sasuke took stock of his surroundings as he heard the voice pipe up. He was sitting in what might have long ago been the private study of some scholar, bookshelves lining the walls that looked as dusty as time itself. A desk had been cleared for him to lay on, various padding laid beneath to make him more comfortable as he had rested. Light streamed in distantly from somewhere far off, illuminating the room just slightly. Toph was sitting on the desk's side and had a hand on his chest; he distantly noted that her touch was vaguely comforting.

When he didn't reply, she added lightly, "Or, do have a panic attack and make another giant lightning monster."

He listened to her words a few times over in his head before realizing what she was referring to. Kirin had been called into action, he did remember that. But how he had come to be here was another story.

Sasuke grit his teeth; he was tired of passing out and being helpless to the whims of others.

"What happened after that?"

Toph shrugged. "We flew home. Azula hauled you aboard the airship and we took it back here. Lucky you did what you did, along with taking out those guards, I think you actually dispersed the storm as well. Do you come by all that skill naturally or did you…?"

She trailed off as he brushed her hand aside and got to his feet. There were a great many things on his mind and he was rather indifferent to her line of questioning.

How to proceed… I'll need to leave as soon as possible… but where do I even start? As if any of these people will be willing to so much as give me directions when I tell them where I'm going… still, if I'm going to have to make off with their airship again, no reason to not come clean.

Without a word to Toph, he made to walk out of the room; she called after him.

"Hey, Sasuke?"

He granted her the diligence of stopping to hear her out.

"What?"

Toph looked uncomfortable as he looked back to her in the dim light of the room. "Something's wrong, I know there is. You don't feel right."

He blinked in annoyed bemusement, "I don't feel 'right'? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know!" she shouted, suddenly becoming very defensive. "When we went to go the Fire Nation capital, you were… I don't know, you felt calm, you felt in control. Now, I can feel you through the earth and you're all messed up. Your heartrate is wacked up, your breathing is coming in weirdly and I can tell even from your voice."

Her voice dropped several levels of volume and she turned her head towards her feet.

"Please tell me what's wrong."

Her perception was truly remarkable. Sasuke hadn't even stopped to think about how his body might be reacting to his emotions, but her relaying of the information was entirely accurate as he gave himself a once over. Taking a long calming breath to steady himself, he considered ignoring her and walking out of the room. But as he looked at the girl who had not only fought by his side, but done so with an entirely impressive display, he opted to be at least somewhat honest.

"I know what I have to do. When I slept, I remembered things. I remembered my brother, and how he had been used, how he had been forced to commit the most awful sins for the good of higher ups that spared him no care. I remembered what that did to him, and what it did to me. I don't remember else except what was done to us."

Her unseeing eyes were directed his way and he could sense her apprehension as he heard his own voice growing darker with anger.

"So… what are you going to do, Sasuke?"

As the clarity of this answer resounded beautifully inside his head, Sasuke let the corners of his mouth draw back in a smile he knew she couldn't see, even if that clarity was still so vague and unformed.

"I'm going to take revenge."

As he left the room, Toph didn't follow him. After a dozen paces, he thought about going back and making sure she was okay herself, before shaking off this foolish musing and continuing on his way. He had no time to be growing attached to a blind girl.

Utterly worried by what he might face when he approached her, Zuko walked slowly up behind his sister.

Azula had found her way to one of the higher points of the temple grounds, one that was nearly at ground level and had spent the majority of the afternoon staring off towards the horizon, or something Zuko couldn't see. He had walked by her several times to see if she would move, but she never did, just stood at the edge of the temple grounds that dropped off into space and gazed outward. She was wearing an extra outfit that Katara had lent her as the hole that had been scorched open on her royal dress was hardly appropriate to wear.

Zuko wasn't even entirely sure what he wanted to talk to her about. There were things he wanted to say in comfort, things he wanted to say in anger, even things he wanted to say in hate. She was his sister, but he hadn't forgotten how carelessly she had toyed with his emotions, how she had used him, and how she had attacked their uncle. That last thought was almost enough to draw fire to Zuko's palms in a rage, but he kept it down. Mentally steeling himself, he decided to let his heart do that talking; from there, what happened, happened.

He had only taken a single step before Azula's voice sliced through the gentle breeze that flowed through the temple as efficiently as a hot knife through butter.

"You know, Zuzu, if you're trying to sneak up behind me for a kill, I would recommend not making multiple noisy passes and letting me know you're practically stalking me."

Zuko swallowed and straightened his back. "I was not stalking you. And I don't want to kill you."

Azula turned to face him then, typical smirk present on her face. Zuko hated that look, it always came when she would try and bait him into believing something or doing something foolish. He didn't need to be told that his sister was more cunning than him, but he also had no intention of falling for her plays today. He had things that perhaps less that she needed to hear, and more that he needed to say.

Her voice echoed harshly around him and he had to resist wincing at her tone.

"Then I recommend you speak your peace, brother. I'm not in the mood for a lecture, if that's why you're here."

Zuko threw the words at her before he could even think about it.

"Why are you here?!"

She stared at him and he took that as good a sign as any to continue. "The Azula I know would have made off with that airship hours ago. Even if you really have decided to go against dad, you wouldn't be caught dead working alongside the enemy, or worse, traitors. That's just the kind of self-absorbed hypocrite you are."

While he talked, the smile didn't disappear from her face, but it did darken, gleaming with a distant malice.

"And where would I go, Zuko? What could I accomplish on my own?"

Stunned into silence by her own indirect admission to needing aid, Zuko allowed himself to listen. Azula took an aggressive step forward and gestured around her.

"In case you hadn't noticed, our positions have become eerily similar, the only difference being is you have thrown your lot in with these… peasants and their pet god."

Balling his fists, Zuko met her with a step of his own.

"Aang is much more than a pet."

She laughed.

"And much less than a god."

Turning away from him, she looked out towards the vasy blue sky for a moment before asking, "When you were banished, at any point after that, did you ever feel like it was all for nothing?"

The question was as personal a one as she could have asked and it came out of nowhere. Amazed by the mere possibility that his sister might actually be willing to have an open conversation with him about their feelings, he said truthfully, "Many times."

Her eyes snapped back to him, lingering with disgust.

"Because you're weak. Letting yourself be saddled with guilt and feelings of weakness… the only path is forward Zuko, so I suppose whatever my feelings towards you, you have at least found that."

Not willing to let it sit at that, and furious that he had fooled himself into thinking Azula had been willing to have such a sincere kind of talk, Zuko snapped at her back.

"Aang is stronger than you give him credit for. He will be able to take down our father, and when he does, I will be ready to step into his place and take responsibility for what the Fire Nation has done."

Azula slowly turned then and the look that she gave him was almost enough to make Zuko take a step back.

"And that's where you and I truly differ, dear brother. You've let yourself be fooled into thinking that the Fire Nation, our nation, has committed some sin."

Unable to believe that she could truly be this blind, Zuko spread his arms in a placating gesture.

"It has!"

Her face flashed with a burning anger then and Zuko did take a step back then.

"Wrong! You're delusional! We are the people who are meant to reign over the Four Nations, and we will do so regardless of whom holds the title of Fire Lord. If our father is thrown down and his position becomes vacant, it will be I, not you, who takes the throne."

She began to pace and the façade of engaging in word play had all but disappeared. "You would be nothing more than a weak, puppet leader. You would do whatever the Avatar tells you and would back down before the rulers of the other nations."

Not entirely sure of his position, Zuko instead asked.

"And if our father wins?"

Her vicious smile returned and she inclined her head in his direction mockingly.

"Now, now, Zuko, you can't be engaging in defeatist talk like that. But when our father wins, and I do believe he will, I will simply have to… relieve him of his post."

Zuko stared at her, feeling a sinking feeling in his heart that he had hoped he might have been able to avoid.

"He tries to kill you… and you will respond by doing the same?"

Her expression fell into one of derision then as though she had suddenly become disgusted with the very idea of talking to him at all.

"I don't expect you to understand. Regardless of our family falling apart, my father and I are both pursuing the same goal: the furthered glory of the Fire Nation."

Her voice almost seemed to rise then with distant thoughts of glory and honor.

"Whether the Avatar lives or dies, whether our father lives or dies, I will be the one to deliver the Fire Nation to a brilliant new age. The world will fall before me, and that will include you and your pack of mixed blood outcasts if you stand in my way."

She stopped there and Zuko watched her from behind and could tell that she was breathing deeply and heavily as though she had just run across the entire temple.

It was hard to quantify the pain that was currently coursing through him, he couldn't even quite identify why he was feeling it. Azula still, after what had happened to her, had just fallen back into her husk. She would march forward to war no matter the odds or the opponent; it truly seemed like all she had.

As he thought of what Mai had told him in private about what had happened just before they had reached the airship, he asked his sister quietly, "Azula, do you ever get lonely, thinking like that?"

She didn't reply and he could practically see the furious confusion on her face as she kept her back to him and he smiled distantly at the thought.

"I just ask, because… ever since I joined these people, I started to realize what I've been missing. Well, I guess I always sort of had it, I just never looked at it. Uncle gave it me every day, I feel it with Mai and while I haven't yet earned it with these people… I know it's there. I can feel it."

In any other moment, the words would have sounded terribly corny, but as he let them out to his sister, they couldn't have felt more appropriate.

"I'm talking about love. You can see it, the way they treat each other, even when they're arguing. They're not like us, not like how we act, how we feel."

Zuko stared at the back of his sister's head, trying to gauge her feelings purely through her breathing. "You have it too, Azula, even if you're not looking at it. I still love you, no matter even if you go to your grave cursing me for a traitor and a coward. Uncle still loves you I'm sure. And Mai and Ty Lee do too."

He turned on his heel, finishing his thought over his shoulder.

"I know you're thinking me the biggest disgrace that you could ever have, but I feel happier now than I ever had before, even after I thought my honor restored and my life returned to me. And I just wanted you to know that you have that same love, even if you won't acknowledge it."

Azula remained as still as a statue and Zuko, believing anything more he might say would be entirely detrimental to whatever ground he had gained, backed away slowly and then moved to walk down the stairs and leave his sister alone with her thoughts.

When he was far enough away to know he couldn't be heard, he let out a sigh of relief. Trying to make any sort of moral progress with his sister would likely be a process that took time, after all, she had been trained as a machine of war and efficiency, not much else. Their mother might have been able to straighten her out, but after she left them when they were still so young, all Azula had was a distant and emotionless father and a broken and naïve brother.

In a sense, Zuko now knew himself to have been incredibly lucky. Being able to travel with his Uncle Iroh, and to ultimately take away so much from what his father figure had tried to impart on him, and to now have Aang and his company with whom to try and restore his sense of humanity… it was all rather fortunate for him.

You just wait, uncle. When you see me again, you'll know that you were right and that I am changed.

"That was real nice-sounding back there."

He jumped and turned sharply to see Mai coming down the stairs behind him, a light smile on her face.

Zuko felt another rush of happiness as he mentally checked himself for having left out such an important detail in his story of personal redemption.

"You heard all that?"

She nodded as she came to stand beside him and took his hand. "Most of it. I have to give you credit, I don't imagine Azula is exactly the type of person anyone would want to approach with a topic like that."

Glancing over his shoulder as though expecting to see his sister coming down the stairs behind him, Zuko asked distantly. "Do you think any of it meant anything to her?"

Mai cocked her head.

"Right now? No."

He bowed his head with a sigh and she reached out to lift his chin. "Hey, but that doesn't mean I think it won't stick. No, she'll hear those words in her head more often than she'd probably like to, and she might even question if they're right. But right now, she's way too broken to take much away from what you said."

Zuko stared at his girlfriend with confused eyes.

"Broken? I don't get it, I've never seen her more fired up, more intent on standing above everybody else, just like she always is. Yeah, she renounced father, but if that was all him trying to kill her did, she's more lost than I thought."

Taking him under the arm and steering him onward, Mai talked as they strode their way back down towards where the main camp was situated.

"It probably looks like that, but I can guarantee you that's not the case."

The massive chasm that they overlooked seemed to stretch on forever and deeper than the eye could see as they worked their way down the ancient stone stairs.

"She's hiding behind that same old mask of being nothing more than a war machine, it gives her comfort. She doesn't have to think about her emotions, or her feelings, because they don't have a bearing on her predicament, or that's what she tells herself anyway."

Mai sighed, and Zuko could tell that this was something she had spent a lot of time thinking about.

"I've been traveling with her for months. I do as she commands, but that doesn't stop me from gathering all this and knowing what she's doing out here, hunting the Avatar I mean. Azula's running from her loneliness and what I think is this crazy belief that there isn't a person alive who cares about her in the slightest."

Zuko stopped walking to throw his hands up in consternation. "I just was up there telling her how the opposite was true!"

She sighed again and pulled him along still.

"I know, Zuko, but she's not listening, not yet."

There was a pause as she seemed to struggle with wanting to say something before speaking in a defeated tone as though she had lost some sort of internal battle.

"When we were escaping your father's palace, Azula… had a moment. She seemed very confident that Sasuke had put her under a spell, the same sort he had used on us at Boiling Rock. She started rambling about how this was all fake, and how all she had to do was wake up. The burn on her arm that Katara treated was self-inflicted; she was trying to wake herself up."

Feeling a wave of pity roll over his gut, Zuko closed his eyes tightly for a moment as Mai continued.

"When Sasuke, Toph and I finally convinced her it was real, she cried, then and there."

Sensing his stunned expression, Mai nodded understandingly.

"I know, I wouldn't have believed it either. But there was such a pain behind accepting that things had changed for her, and for the worse. In her eyes, the one thing that she was fighting for has abandoned her."

Zuko looked at his girlfriend carefully as he asked, "When my father unveiled what he wanted to do… I noticed when you told the story, you skipped over any reactions the three of you might have had."

Mai laughed humorlessly.

"What was I supposed to do, tell everyone there that Azula was more than willing to die by her father's hand and likely would have if Ty Lee and I hadn't been there?"

She met Zuko's eyes sadly.

"Azula tried to wager our lives for her sacrifice. Ozai didn't want any witnesses to his crime, save for his hidden guard, but I could tell that she would accepted it one way or another."

Feeling sick, Zuko looked behind him again, seeing only a massive empty staircase where they had come from.

"You said she attacked our father too? Why would she if she had just been willing to die?"

A knowing and grim look crossed Mai's face as she replied, "He attacked Ty Lee."

As the significance of that hung in the air between them, Zuko felt another line of questioning start to rise in his mind as he gently put aside thoughts of his damaged sister.

"So, this Sasuke… what do you think of him?"

He was surprised by how quickly Mai replied to him, her face pulling back in relative disdain. "Can't stand him. He's good in a fight, real good in a fight, but he's too dangerous. The kind of power he has shouldn't be able to wielded by one person."

Recalling what she had said before, Zuko asked, "You mentioned something about a 'spell' that he had used on you and my sister before. What's that?"

The look that crossed over Mai's face was enough to give him chills.

"Oh, Zuko, please don't make me think about that… "

She stopped walking and released his hand, walking over to a pillar and leaning against it as she looked out over the canyon. Sensing that his best course of action would be to remain quiet, Zuko stood behind her and waited, letting her decide one way or another how she wanted to proceed. He wouldn't press the issue, despite how curious he was, and also rather angry. If Sasuke had done something this egregious to Mai… he had stated on the gondola that he hadn't harmed her, but there were more ways to hurt a person than physically.

Mai spoke slowly and softly as though worried somewhat might be listening in.

"I don't know how he did it, or what it really was that he did, but… one moment Azula and I were going in for a quick takedown, the next I had looked into his eyes and I was somewhere else entirely. I found out of course later that it was a vision, some horrible dream he had somehow forced me into, but I saw awful things. I saw you being hurt, I saw Ty Lee and Azula getting hurt, I saw my family getting hurt. I couldn't get away form it, not any of it and I remember feeling so much so that I wanted just to die to stop from hearing it and seeing it. Then, I was waking up on the prison ground next to Azula."

Her mouth contorted into a reviling look.

"He's more powerful than you think, Zuko. He can firebend, and he can also pull some mind tricks, though I can't even being to imagine how he does them."

Zuko nodded. "Well, we can add that to the list of things he can do that he shouldn't be able to, like bend all four elements somehow."

At this, Mai whirled to stare at him in absolute bewilderment.

"What did you say?"

Realizing that this wasn't a topic that had been addressed during the meeting they had undergone hours ago, he scratched that back of his head. It was a fact that kept coming back to prod its way into his mind, an impossible notion that he had still witnessed and was trying with no real success to comprehend.

"Sasuke can bend all four elements," he repeated. "We don't know how or why, we haven't exactly had a lot of time with him, and he's not exactly an open book. But I've seen it, we've all seen him bend more than just fire."

Mai took this information in and blinked at him in sheer bafflement, before leaning against the pillar and crossing her arms.

"You must have been seeing things, all of you. Or its another one of his tricks."

Zuko shook his head. "It's not either. When he arrived, there was a moment where he basically threatened Aang, picked him up like he was going to hurt him. Katara, Toph and I all threw our bending at him in a try to knock him out or subdue him, but he whipped my fire to smoke, he turned Katara's ice into a cloud of harmless snow and he shattered Toph's giant slab of earth like it was made of glass."

He gave her a look.

"You're right, he's dangerous, but there is way more going on with him then we know."

Mai wasn't looking at him and seemed to now be staring off into space as if doing so would be enough to give her some reasoning to this dilemma, but she seemed unable to find one. Gathering his self-confidence and his mindset that he believed he might the only one willing to back up, Zuko walked up to Mai and put an arm around her shoulder.

"But I do know this: he saved my sister, he helped save Ty Lee and he helped save you. So, I have to imagine he's not all bad."

She gave him a distracted smile, but leaned into him all the same, accepting his embrace while her mind surely was working at a speed Zuko would have been a fool to try and slow. He opted instead to stand there and hold her, hoping beyond hope that his assessment he had just given to Mai was at least partially true.

Sasuke paced the vast upper hall of the temple, thoughts flying disjointedly through his head. There was so much there that it almost hurt to even try and balance all at once.

He knew it, he knew the truth. Well, enough of it anyway. And while he tried to come up with a solution to acquire this revenge that now purposed his life, anger kept flooding in before he could get in too deep to his musings.

He kept thinking to what Roku had said, that by helping Aang in his quest to throw down the Fire Lord, answers would become clear. Is this what he had meant, that if the Fire Lord fell, Sasuke would be able to put names to the ones that had betrayed him and his brother? Was Ozai's defeat the pathway to justice?

Also, his mind kept turning towards Katara and the rest. Would they even be willing to let him go? Would he have to settle things by force if he was denied?

And on top of that, he truly had no place to start, no matter what happened.

Sasuke growled and sat down on a bench that looked older than a hundred years and put his head in his hands. It truly was maddening to have suddenly been cursed with this knowledge. Part of him wanted it gone, wanted to drift back into the ether and leave him be, but that would never do. What was he without purpose of any kind after all? Standing again, he drew a hand through his shock of black hair, trying to pick a singular point of interest to focus on.

He settled on speaking to the others; it would be a perhaps difficult task, but if he was able to leave with their blessing, it would keep them from chasing him if he left without notice. Based on what he had seen, he had no doubt that flying bison would be able to catch up to him aboard that airship and bring him guiltily back.

Guilt.

And as the single word was repeated in his head, a rush of intense déjà vu roller over his mind as he saw himself once again in the dim light of the temple he had been defeated by Ozai in before his time in the prison.

"Grandfather, we have made good on our attempt to kill their entire family; with aid from high up insiders within the Earth Nation, we've wiped out all but one who of course happens to be the problem child. As our plan no longer requires them, I have cut ties with our Earth Nation insiders, but the fact of the matter remains. What is to be done about the last? Kill him, or perhaps lock him up where he can do no harm… I implore you impart your wisdom on me as I move forward."

By the time, the memory had finished, Sasuke on his feet and after several seconds, he reminded himself to breathe. The remembrance of Ozai praying before a shrine was just as real as the recollection of the priests coming before the Fire Lord and speaking of Sozin's ritual. There was a strange buzzing resounding in his head and a numbness that had spread to his fingers as he considered what he heard.

So that's it then, Ozai.

The nations of Earth and Fire had conspired to eliminate his family, his people. Perhaps because of the danger they posed, the jutsu they could utilize that benders could not, for whatever reason…

I'm the last one.

Purpose, there it was.

Distantly, he heard the soft but firm sound of footfalls behind him and he turned to mert whoever was coming to his way. He hoped it wasn't Toph, he wasn't interested in sitting down and having a heart to heart.

"I've been looking for you."

Of all those in the camp, he was confronted by the last person he would have guessed would be looking for him. Azula stopped walking and turned to face him, her eyes permanently spiteful. Sasuke regarded her with a callous look of his own as they sized one another up.

"Something I can do for you, your majesty?"

He made sure his use of her title was riddled with a mocking nature. Sasuke could tell that the arrogant and entitled nature he had sensed from her before was still present; it was almost entirely unlikely she had stopped by to thank him for risking his life on her behalf.

She turned her nose slightly up in his direction, "There are some things that are owed, and I would see them repaid before I go about taking my father's position as ruler of the new world."

"Bold words," Sasuke said, turning himself to respectfully face her, though he let his face and tone show no similar signs of recognition. "What exactly is it you believe that must be repaid."

Her response was something so characteristic based on what Sasuke knew of her that he was surprised he didn't see it coming.

"You've humiliated me. You beat me in a disgraceful fashion at Boiling Rock prison and now I imagine you think that on top of that, I owe you my life."

Hardly something I even thought about, Sasuke mused, internally amused by her melodrama.

"As my honor has been compromised, I challenge you to an Agni Kai."

Confronted by yet another thing that he had no context or understanding of, Sasuke gave his head a bemused shake. "A what?"

Her nostrils flared as though she believed him to be insulting her. "Don't play stupid with me, boy. You know the traditions of firebenders as well as I. I will meet you atop the temple grounds in the grass fields at sundown. Come prepared to lose."

And with that, she strode away, with every air of the condescending nature he had originally gleaned from her. Sasuke could only stare after her in utter bewilderment before shaking it aside and walking the opposite direction.

An Agni Kai? He had no memory of such a thing, but if it was some sort of contest, he supposed he could humor the princess. Perhaps it was a hand to hand engagement that would end with one person knocking the other down, he could let her beat him if that was the case. Anything to keep her from hounding him about honor more than she just had.

He found the people he needed to talk to very quickly and all thoughts of Azula's challenge faded from his mind. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph were sitting around Appa on one of the upper levels of the temple's floors that overlooked the canyon. They seemed to be in decently good spirits despite the pressing issue of camping with their enemies.

Good, perhaps that will make them more amenable to the idea of letting me take the airship.

As he watched, Katara made some remark that caused Sokka to start flapping his arms like a possessed seabird and shout angrily, while Toph and Aang laughed raucously at whatever had been said. Aang sneezed and blew himself onto his ass, likely as a result of his natural affinity to the air element. Seeing them was almost enough to give Sasuke pause, to consider how young they were and as an extension, how young he was, to be preoccupied in such conflict, and how much innocence remained.

Almost.

The collective mood shifted drastically as he approached, not an unexpected reaction to his presence or so he had found. Sokka and Katara, true siblings, drew themselves up and crossed their arms, eying him intently. Aang seemed more perturbed and hopped on a sphere of air to hover a few feet above the ground, something that seemed to be a nervous habit of his. Toph on the other hand seemed to react the least, hardly moving from where she had been sitting, but with just a look Sasuke could tell she had recognized his presence.

Katara spoke in a low, disapproving tone as Sasuke joined them, her eyes never leaving him. "Would have been nice to know that he was awake, Toph."

The blind girl kicked the floor and absently blew hair out of her face while muttering in reply. "I didn't think it mattered."

Clearly not seeking to push the issue, Katara took in a long inhale of finality as though resigned that she had to talk to Sasuke and addressed him.

"What do you want?"

So much more trying to be friendly about any of this.

Deciding that it was better to lay his cards on the table rather than beat around the bush about this, Sasuke made his intentions clear immediately.

"I'm leaving."

The proceeding reply was a conglomeration of mixed reactions. Sokka let out a sigh of relief, saying, "Good." Katara narrowed her eyes suspiciously, Toph looked up sharply in surprise, shouting, "What?" in an almost perfect mirror of Aang who hopped off his floating sphere of air and initiated his response with the same word.

"What? Why? After what Roku told you?"

He made to look back, but seemed to realize that he was going to get little help from his friends and kept his eyes locked pleadingly on Sasuke.

"You're really, really strong! I know you have to be feeling impatient, but Roku wouldn't lie to you! If you help us beat Ozai, I promise we'll—"

Not wanting this to go any further, Sasuke put a hand wearily.

"It isn't that. Some of my memory returned and I know what I have to do, or at least where I have to start."

Knowing what he was about to say next was going to make him rather unpopular with at least a couple of them, he added.

"I'm going to take down the Fire Lord myself. You needn't worry about him anymore."

This was enough to cause the size of the whole group's eyes to collectively double. Sokka was the first to lift his jaw from his chest and began to sputter angrily. "Didn't you hear what we said earlier?! Aang has to be the one to defeat Ozai!"

Wishing he had mentally prepared more for this line of questioning, Sasuke spread his hands.

"Why?"

Katara spoke in reply for her brother, her voice soft and cautious. Her brilliant eyes were alive with a mixture of trepidation and withheld anger.

"Because only through Aang can Ozai's defeat mean balance will be brought to the Four Nations."

The absurdity of this notion was starting to wear on Sasuke's nerves and he required effort to keep himself from raising his voice.

"How do you know that?"

When none of them immediately spoke up, Sasuke rolled his eyes. Seeing this Aang piped up, though his voice was less than confident. "I've spoken to spirits and previous Avatars, like Roku. They all say the same thing. We've traveled across all the nations and seen more than a few writings that claim the same thing. Everything points to me having to—"

Reaching a breaking point, Sasuke snapped, "Enough!"

He looked around at the four of them and saw how much they seemed to shrink back simply by him raising his voice, save for Katara who looked even more resilient then before.

"The four of you are truly going to rely on the suspicions of dead men and written words? I don't know about any of you, but I've faced Ozai. He is mortal. He is a man. Not some monstrous evil that can only be defeated by prophecy. Now you lot would have been content to just waste away time while this comet approaches, supposedly some great astral force that will make him unstoppable. Wait up until that last minute to try anything, but I have seen what you have not. He can be beaten."

It was Toph who spoke up and asked him quietly, "So why didn't you take him down when we were there?"

Sasuke bristled at that; he had forgotten his weakness, his moment of contemplation that had wasted enough time to allow the royal guard to not only arrive, but gain an edge on him. Ozai had survived that scrape purely because Sasuke had frozen in that moment.

"It was not the mission," he settled on saying, though Katara's penetrating gaze told him that she wasn't convinced. Aang looked up to him, eyes still worried and wide.

"Are you sure you can?"

Sokka gave Aang a look of disbelief. "Aang, I can't even believe you're considering this right now! You would throw aside this chance, this opportunity to some stranger, who we don't even know is telling the truth?!"

He turned to look at Sasuke angrily.

"Why do you even want to go and fight Ozai anyway?!"

But Sasuke wasn't listening. He had his gaze and attention fixated solely on Aang who, after realizing how thoroughly he was being studied, looked away in something that resembled shame. But by then, it was too late. Sasuke had seen what he needed to.

Aang wasn't just feeling unprepared to fight Ozai: he didn't want to fight him period. The very idea of it was terrifying, hence his anxious expressions any time the Fire Lord was even mentioned. And as Sasuke considered it, he supposed he could understand why. Aang was barely more than a child, just the same as all of them, and Sasuke knew what Ozai was capable of, even without the comet's power. He was truly confident in his abilities now that he knew what he was up against. The Fire Lord was nothing against a surprise attack with the appropriate jutsu mixed in, and in a roundabout way, Sasuke was going to be giving Aang an enormous favor.

He looked down at Aang and shrugged, "When I'm done with him, you can feel free to take credit."

This seemed to be enough for Katara who stormed forward and he promptly found her nose to nose with him.

"Shut up! Just shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! You don't know what we've had to go through and you have no right to be talking to Aang like that!"

Aang tried to speak up behind her in what likely was going to be an attempt to calm her down but she was having none of it. Sasuke's stoic expression seemed to only enrage her further.

"You shouldn't even exist! You're some kind of freak outlier that just showed up and is trying to change a course of events that has been set in motion since long before any of us were even born! How dare you act as though you're above all this!"

He stared back at her.

"Are you finished?"

She seemed to recognize how out of control she had just been and backed away from him, pulling in long breaths. "Yeah, I am."

Behind him, Sasuke heard footsteps coming up the stairs and Zuko's voice rang out, curious and apprehensive.

"What's going on?"

Sokka gave an absurdly sarcastic shrug. "Oh, not much, just Sasuke saying he's actually going to bounce and go take down the Fire Lord all by himself."

Zuko came into Sasuke's field of view and he could see that he had brought Mai with him. He noticed rather quickly that she was still fixing him with a resentful and angry expression, but there was more to it now. Was that fear in her eyes?

"What?!" was all Zuko seemed able to manage as his head swiveled between just about everyone present. Sasuke decided to take this opportunity and elaborate on his own thoughts regarding the situation.

"He's right. I'll be taking my leave by the end of this evening in pursuit of your father. I would be leaving earlier, but your sister confronted me and informed me that in order to withhold her honor, she would be challenging me to something called an Agni Kai, which I guess I'll take care of before I leave so she doesn't come and—"

This was as far as he got before the six people around him exploded in an outburst. They were mostly shouts of disbelief and confusion, and Sasuke was surprised as Mai came up to him and got just as close to him as Katara had, her raspy voice dark with fury.

"Say that again."

"Azula challenged me to an Agni Kai at sundown," Sasuke repeated and clarified. Mai stepped away from him and put her head in her hands. Zuko had dropped to the floor and was looking hopelessly lost for direction. Aang, Sokka and Toph were looking like they were running several different scenarios in their heads and Katara remained the only one who looked in control of her emotions, though when she spoke, her voice shook.

"You're sure that's what she said."

Sasuke nodded.

"Entirely."

As silence fell on the group, he watched as they all went through their various stages of shock and asked after a minute or so, "What's an Agni Kai?"

It was Zuko who spoke up from his place on the ground, sounding just as defeated and miserable as his expression might suggest.

"At sunset, you will face my sister in one on one combat. You will be allowed nothing but your firebending and the first person to subdue the other and inflict a burn will technically be the winner."

Realizing this Agni Kai was a fair bit more serious than he might have thought, Sasuke considered this as he asked, "Technically?"

Looking up at him, Zuko pointed at the burn on his face. "My father gave this to me when he challenged me to an Agni Kai when I was younger. He left me with a burn, but people often time take the full measure and… "

He cut off and Mai finished the thought for him. "Kill their opponent, even when they're defenseless and beaten."

"There's no rules against that?"

Zuko shook his head. "None. There are very few rules at all."

Sasuke mulled this over. Of course, Azula would be no match for his ability in overall combat, so he could put her on her royal ass relatively quickly. Burning her though… that hardly seemed necessary. And he certainly was not going to allow himself to be struck down by her in turn; there was an inkling in his mind that she might attempt what Mai had suggested, in killing him entirely. An annoying situation to say the least.

Still, what choice did he really have?

"Well, considering I've already accepted this challenge, I suppose there's no backing down."

Zuko blurted out a humorless laugh, "You do that, and she'll spend the rest of her life trying to put a fire bolt in your back."

Turning away and blowing out a frustrated sigh, Sasuke scowled.

Outstanding.

Being one of the last off the ferry, the robed man looked out over the vast wasteland that stood between him and the city of Ba Sing Se. His journey was half over to reach the Earth Nation's capital where hopefully things might become more clear to him. Several tents and merchants were waiting for the departing men and women and families, selling food, water, supplies and transportation for those who were unsure about making passage to the city.

Those he had traveled with continued to cast him worried and suspicious looks, just as they had aboard the ferry. He supposed the injury to his face would likely have been enough for many of them to eye him with disconcertment; he found it rather unsightly himself when he looked in a mirror or saw his reflection. But if anyone had been wanting to approach him about it, or confront him about perhaps being a runaway solider, the sword he had fixed at his hip likely was what had discouraged any such engagement.

Despite the overpowering uncertainty that wove its way through every fiber of his being, the stoic and confident demeanor he conducted himself with probably made him look the most in control person amongst the refugees and travelers. When he reached the city, he could spend time worrying about his predicament and hopefully start looking for answers. Though with the very little he had, it was all he could do to keep from thinking that even a city as rich with information like Ba Sing Se was supposed to be, it was a shot in a million that he would find anything concrete.

He felt so completely alone, it was rather staggering.

As he mused before descending the ramp off the ferry, something small and hard dropped onto his shoulder and bounced to the floor with a clatter.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry down there!"

The traveler looked up to see an older man waving in frantic apology on the deck above him before jogging around to the stairs and descending them to join the traveler. Stout and bearded with an eccentric expression about him, he smiled sheepishly as he walked over.

"I must be getting careless with my grip in my old age." The traveler leaned down to pick up what had been dropped and found it to be a circular tile with a flower pattern etched and colored onto it. Without a word, he handed it back to the older man who accepted it with a bow.

"Much thanks."

"Mmm," the traveler intoned before stepping down the ramp and preparing to examine his options.

"Are you a soldier perhaps?"

Closing his eyes in distant exasperation, the traveler sighed quietly. Of course, he had happened to run into that one old person who wanted nothing more than to make small talk and share life stories. Turning, he saw the older man trotting down the ramp after him.

"No, just a journeyer."

Eyes lighting up, the older man drew up alongside him and matched his pace as they passed through the crowd of travelers occupying themselves with the wares of the many merchants.

"Ah, I see. Heading to the big city no doubt?"

"Yes."

"And where do you see your journey taking you?"

Rather than annoying, the traveler found the question worrying as he considered what he actually was venturing to Ba Sing Se for.

"I'm… looking for someone."

The old man laughed at this vague response. "No matter our age, that always seems to be the case. A special someone perhaps? A handsome young man like you surely would find plenty of lucky women roaming the city looking for love as well."

Smirking, the traveler gestured to the scarred part of his face.

"Someone looking as mangled as this? I rather doubt it."

"Ah, don't seek yourself short! I'm sure there is a thrilling story behind it and such a story would be plenty enough to bring in a curious flock of women. Looks aren't everything, you know. War injury perhaps?"

Feeling uncomfortable again, the traveler rotated his shoulder awkwardly as they passed by a man selling a variety of food items.

"I…"

Before he could even offer his unsatisfying answer, the older man caught sight of the food wares. "Hold that thought, I'll be back in just a moment!"

He marched over to the merchant and quickly began to talk prices and amounts as the traveler finished his reply to himself, "… don't know."

Gritting his teeth, he looked away. The frustration with his utter lack of knowledge on even himself began to rise again and he had to force it down with a scowl. Not knowing had to be the most pressing and aggravating curse he could have imagined; where he was from, who he knew, what he knew, even really who he was. Having a name was hardly that noteworthy of a thing.

Adjusting his small shoulder satchel, he walked away. It had surprised him how pleasant it had been just to talk with another person, someone who could almost take his mind off his current predicament, and with such a kind demeanor too. But there was little to be gained by fraternization, and the old man would just slow him down on his trip to the city.

Weaving his way through the crowd, he finally reached a vendor that he thought might have a product relevant to his situation.

"How much for a, er… "

The vendor said, "Ostrich horse?"

"Yeah."

"Fifteen silver pieces, friend."

Feeling guilt at exchanging what was essentially stolen money, the traveler nonetheless passed over the required amount and took the reigns of one of the less energetic mounts. He walked it to the edge of the encampment and tied it to a post near a watering hole where several others were refilling from pumps and hydrating their animals. As his ostrich horse took a long swig from the water hole, the traveler paid the owner of the welling system two copper pieces to pump his leather and potted bottle with water. Securing his few belongings to the saddle of his mount, he examined a map he had been handed aboard the ferry.

It would be two long day's ride east as far as be could tell, and perhaps longer if he aimed to avoid the desert. He wiped his brow as the hot sun beat down on him and he rolled up the map; reaching behind him to make sure he still had his sword, he prepared to mount his means of transportation and depart.

"Please, this is all we have!"

He looked over his shoulder to see a group of whom appeared to be Earth Nation soldiers surrounding a woman who was struggling to maintain a grip on her satchel of belongings as well as a bundle pressed to her shoulder that must have been a baby. One of the soldiers snapped back at her, "Fee for crossing through the camp, lady!"

"Without this food, we'll never make it to Ba Sing Se!" she pleaded, but one of the soldiers finally ripped the luggage from her arms and began to root through it with his comrades while the woman fell to her knees, clutching her baby desperately. The soldier in charge jammed a finger in her face.

"Don't give us that! Get out of here before we change our minds and sell you in one of the red light districts!"

Biting back his disgust, the traveler nonetheless turned back to his own situation, putting the crying of the woman and her child out of his head. Around the edge of the camp, people passed by a distance away but spared the situation no more than a glance; clearly, these soldiers pilfering for their own amusement and gain was nothing new.

"Please, gentlemen, have pity."

Another voice joined the grouping, and the travler saw the old man from earlier approaching the soldiers, offering a small bag that jingled as he raised it.

"This is all the money I have, please return the woman's belongings and you may have it."

Several of the men laughed and one of them walked up to the old man and threw him to the ground and wrested away the coin purse. "I think I'll take it anyway, thanks, gramps!"

The soldiers, laughing at their own despicable acts, moved away from the old man and the woman and child, digging through the money and belongings they had just pilfered. It was surely a good take for them, the lot of it would do well in lining their pockets as they returned to Ba Sing Se, they must have thought as they moved to their own mounts.

They found however that their way had become blocked by a single man, dressed in a simple robe with a sword at his side.

"I'd advise you return those belongings," the traveler growled. His anger had jumped to a boiling point with a worrying swiftness, but he was not in the mindset to pay it any mind. Watching the woman and old man be abused had lit a fire in his heart that was the most beautiful kind of distracting. His thoughts about his entire lack of memory, and his uncertainty in how best to reacquire such knowledge were dropped to the side, in favor of a blistering fury that flowed out from his gut, pouring through his veins and filling his body with the most voracious kind of intensity.

The men in charge of the soldiers took a step towards him, head cocked with a look of bewilderment on his face. "Stranger, I'd advise you to move along. This is none of your concern."

He pointed to the traveler's waist.

"Though if you'd like to hand over that sword by way of an apology, I'd certainly be willing to accept."

The traveler remained stationary, as firm as a tree planted before the soldiers. His only movement was to move a hand to the hilt of his sword and push it an inch or so from its scabbard. The soldiers before him exchanged glances, but before they even turned back to him, he already had determined the best way to proceed. Three were lackeys, unsure of how best to act themselves and practically hid behind the other three. Of these more confident men, one was taller and heavyset, a warhammer slung over his back, one was the smallest of the bunch but seemed to conduct himself with an overbearing and condescending air, though even he stayed behind the last of the six men.

The leader had a bald top of his head and facial hair that slid around his chin to slink around and formed into hair on the back his head that flowed down his back. His eyes were small and eyed the traveler with a happily demeaning quality as though he were thoroughly enjoying this situation. He had a pair of hammers that he moved his hands to the handles of, stroking them softly.

"You got some guts, boy. I can tell just from that wound you got on your face. You fight in the war?"

Though he had no way of knowing, the traveler replied evenly. "I've fought in several."

The leader threw his head back and laughed, "Yeah, I'll bet you have."

He took another step forward and pulled his hammers free from his belt. Flicking his eyes behind the soldiers, the traveler was relieved to see the old man pulling the woman to her feet and away from what was about to become a battleground.

Stomping his feet, the leader conjured rocks the size of wicker baskets to spring from the earth which he juggled almost carelessly with his hammers.

"Last chance, hero. Walk away."

His display of earthbending was hardly cause for concern. While the traveler was very much lost on his own path, he had certainly absorbed as much of this world as he could. Benders were cocky in their ability to use their natural gift to be a great deal more powerful than all those who could not control the elements as they did. Most people would shy away from them and steer clear of confrontation, but the traveler was no such type. He watched as the leader's smirk slowly faded and twisted into an annoyed snarl.

"Have it your way," the rocks were launched into the air and the leader drew back with his hammers to send them flying towards the traveler to crush his skull.

The traveler smiled.

Outstanding.

As the grass swayed about her knees, Azula drew in long, furious breaths in an attempt to harness her rage. Stripped to a breastband and her undergarments, she felt as loose and light as she ever had as she blasted several fireballs towards the sky, annunciating each one with a furious shout.

She had challenged many an officer to an Agni Kai over the past several years, and had never once taken them seriously in the slightest. The men she had beaten were always humiliated by her firebending prowess and she had left only a few of them alive. There were times she had heard rumblings that she was too harsh, too demanding and too cruel, but she only thrived with these rumors being passed among the troops. She was a woman to be feared and respected. It was hardly a concern of hers if they were scared into loyalty by her dueling and killing any insubordinate officers. And she had taken great pride and joy in putting on those exhibitions time after time to enforce her will over the Fire Nation's military.

Now, here she was, about to fight a boy who was likely no older than her, and her heart was racing.

Even acknowledging this change in her physicality was an impossibly frustrating notion. Why was he making her feel this way?

Leaping into the air with fire bursting from her feet to propel her higher, she sent a cyclone of fire scorching at the sky with a violent kick. She touched down and watched it spiral into the sky before fading out against the dimming pink glow of the sky. Sunset had nearly come and she had every reason to assume he would meet her challenge. He seemed hardly afraid of her challenge, hardly even perturbed.

Who does he think he is.

Sasuke was infuriating to an inexpicable point for her. He showed no respect, hardly seemed aware of her misgivings for him, and acted even higher and mightier than she did. Sure, he had natural skill and talent that might even rival her own, but…

Azula closed her eyes.

He wasn't truly that different from her. Even really at all. He was arrogant, violent and powerful with a lack of respect for others. Azula knew these were qualities she had, but had never counted them as negative marks to be checked against her. Not until she saw them so vividly reflected in Sasuke.

His eyes showed too that he was no child. Young perhaps, but in his brief lifespan, he had surely borne witness to his fair share of atrocities and war. Perhaps even instigated by Azula or her family.

But none of that mattered. He had insulted her with his actions, and she was going to make him pay for it. Fire against fire, she would prove her dominance and defeat him. Whether or not she was going to kill him was still an uncertainty in her head, but she was sure she would know what to do when the time came, it was all—

Can I even beat him?

She roared and extended her fingertips towards the dimming sky, sending torrents of flame spouting upwards in a glorious fountain of heat. Of course she could, Azula had never lost once to another firebender, not even anything close, not to her withered old uncle, not to Zuko and certainly not to any of them men she had made pay for their rude attitudes and actions. But here she was, about to fight Sasuke and her trepidation could not have been more present.

It wasn't a matter of whether or not she could, it was a matter of ignoring any worry she felt and simply acting upon her anger towards him. Victory would follow shortly, nothing he could do would be able to withstand her rage, nothing he could do would be enough to repel her ferocity. Nothing he could do…

Footsteps sounded behind her, softly ascending the stone stairs that opened up into the grassy fields, steps Azula had ascended herself hours ago. The grass shuffled distantly around a new presence and she straightened her back slowly.

"I'm here, your highness."

And the worry returned just as quickly. Taking a last calming breath, Azula turned to face Sasuke and her own fear.