AN: Just wanted to give fair warning and mention that this is where things are going to get a little more violent. Before initially publishing this, I had a lot of thought about whether or not to make this an M rating, but I settled on T for a few reasons. That said, I'd feel remiss if I didn't at least give a heads up that this will get a little more messy moving forward.

And as always, thank you guys so much, you literally make my day every time I get to read a new review and know people are still along for the ride. Love you guys and have a dope weekend!

Chapter 7: The Agni Kai

Katara needn't have worried about trying so desperately to sprint up the stairs and reach the grass plains to try and stop the conflict. By the time she reached the top, her legs burning and lungs heaving for air, it was already obvious to her that stopping this was entirely out of her control.

Azula looked as furious and formidable as she ever had, toned body glistening in the evening sun as she glared hungrily towards Sasuke. The young man hadn't made it much further than the stairs and stood something over a dozen yards from the princess. His face could not have reflected a cooler contrast to the fire burning in Azula's eyes. His hands were loose and hung at his sides as the breeze gently tossed his black hair. He looked remarkably at peace with what was happening, a change from the annoyed aura he had been giving off earlier.

Behind Katara, the rest of the small group piled up the stairs; Sokka, panting harder than she was, put a hand on her shoulder.

"I… told dad what… was going on. He's… got everyone else and… keeping an eye on them. I asked Suki to keep an eye on Ty Lee. No one… will be stumbling in on this… assuming it happens."

Gasping for a long breath, he leaned and popped his back. "Any luck?"

Katara shook her head as her own chest heaved at a much more controllable rate. "I haven't even tried. Look at them."

At her quiet words, she saw Aang, Zuko, Mai and Sokka look to the two soon to be combatants and saw the same hopelessness she felt reflected on their faces. Toph murmured quietly.

"Azula's shaking."

Stepping forward, Mai raised her voice to throw towards her friend.

"Azula, let this go! There's no need for this, your honor wasn't damaged by him! In case you forgot, you were the one who dragged him to the airship before we escaped, so he's just as much in your debt if that's what this is about!"

Sasuke sniffed loudly, something Katara felt did not help the situation at all. When Azula said nothing in reply, Mai spread her arms. "What do you want from this?!"

Azula shouted without taking her eyes off Sasuke.

"I want him dead!"

Silence fell after this, being shaken only by the wind moving amongst the grass. Katara looked to Aang and they exchanged pained looks. Zuko looked on the verge of being sick and he took a shaky step forward to stand beside Mai.

"Please, don't do this. I know what you're thinking, Azula, I can see if on your face."

She seemed to falter just a moment as he added, "You're not sure you can win."

Sasuke spoke up then, adding his detestably cool and low voice to the mix.

"She can't. She lost the moment she looked me in the eye."

Mai shifted her focus then, her face suddenly coming alive with a significant amount of fury. "There aren't many rules to an Agni Kai, but you can't—!"

Sasuke waved a hand dismissively in her direction. "I know, no eye tricks."

Katara thought confusedly to herself, Eye tricks?

Continuing, Sasuke began to pace ever so slowly in a wide arc around Azula, taking several steps one way and then several back again as though she was prey he was about to pounce on, and Katara suddenly realized how utterly out of her depth Azula really seemed to be. Just looking at her would have been a powerfully intimidating sight, but Sasuke's utter apathy and focus seemed overwhelming.

"But she's not able to beat me, because she's not ready to. This is a contest of speed, agility and firebending. There isn't enough there to stop me."

Azula's eyes only glowed brighter, but her readied stance seemed to falter as he spoke.

"You've done nothing but win during your time as a warrior and it's made you weak. It's cost you strength because you've yet to be truly challenged. Those stronger than you, you've been able to avoid, and those weaker than you have fallen. But you're not a fool. You recognize a threat and that's the reason you've challenged me today not because of some bullshit about honor, but because you feel your place as strongest has been threatened. It's killing you not knowing if I'm more powerful than you and so you're here… but you still know that you could lose, so I'm going to give you one chance to walk away."

Katara held her breath as she grabbed her brother's wrist and squeezed it in stress. She hoped beyond hoping that Azula would see some level of reason and back down from this insane investment. For a moment, it looked like she might; the princess's expression wavered for a moment as her stance widened as though she were breaking from it. Then, her brow furrowed tenfold and she stomped the ground, sending up a wave of flame from her open palm towards the sky. Assuming a final, readied stance, she gestured to Sasuke.

"I hope you're ready."

He closed his eyes a moment and sighed. "Do I have to strip down as well?"

When Azula said nothing, he turned to look at the others who gave him varying degrees of shrugs; Zuko gave him a short nod and Sasuke peeled off his shirt and removing his sword and rope around his waist to come down to just wearing his pants. Katara was surprised to find that he did not look as toned and muscled as Azula did; this wasn't to say he was unfit, quite the opposite, she doubted there was any body fat on him period. But his frame was almost modest in how unremarkable it was, though she was sure she was about to become privy to just how much strength he actually possessed.

Stretching his arms, Sasuke resumed his stance of looking utterly unfazed by the situation, contrary to Azula's raised hands and bent knees, ready to spring at a moment's notice. Azula snapped without taking her eyes from Sasuke.

"Call it, Zuko."

He looked incredibly torn for a moment and stepped forward as if to say something else before stopping and gripping Mai's hand tightly. Gesturing for everyone to move back, he followed suit as the small group of onlookers retreated to a respectable distance. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before speaking in a voice that almost didn't sound like his own.

"Fight."

As though she had been waiting her whole life for this moment, Azula exploded forwards and upwards, blue flames erupting from her heels. Within the blink of an eye, she was above Sasuke and drew to life a massive sphere of flame that she sent crashing down on where he had been standing. The fire hit the ground and blossomed outwards in a furious dance of heat burning away all the grass in the immediate area before it even had a change to burn.

But as Azula touched down and all eyes moved to the blackened circle of earth where her attack had landed, it was clear that there had been no victim. Katara had to blink several times; she had to have been seeing things. Sasuke had been standing there one moment, as calm and collected as anyone could be, and somehow, had moved elsewhere without anyone else seeing his movement. She began to look around for him before she heard Toph practically whisper over the crackle of the fire.

"No way he's that fast."

Sasuke's voice was just as composed as it had been before the Agni Kai had begun, but to Katara's bewilderment, he hadn't just moved out of the way of the attack. As she followed the sound of his voice, she saw he was somehow standing directly behind Azula with one hand twisting and pinning her arm behind her back and the other on top of her head, as if holding her in place.

Impossible.

"I told you, you don't have a chance. You don't even know what to look for."

Azula's teeth were gritted in pain as Sasuke appeared to tighten his grip on her restrained arm. With a shout, she brought up her hand at an awkward angle and hurled a fireball behind her. Letting her go, Sasuke twisted and spun away as effortlessly as the wind and landed in the center of where Azula's initial attack had landed. Straightening amongst the scorched dirt, he spread his arms.

"Care to try again?"

Hardly seeming to need the encouragement, Azula raced towards him but instead of directly attempting to get on top of him, she broke off into a tight strafe, intent on keeping her eyes on him. It was clear she was watching for any signs of him moving, to try and see how he had moved so quickly as she unleashed a flurry of firebolts from her clenched fists.

But Sasuke made no attempt to move away, at least not to any major degree. Rather, he bent and curved his body as the attacks neared his body, avoiding every single one of them without his feet even leaving the spots they had been planted. Katara saw Azula's face contort in frustration before she stopped in her attempt at circling him and smashed the ground with her fists. A wave of flame arced from the ground and swept across it, racing towards Sasuke's position.

At what was likely the last possible second, Sasuke moved, but not in any way that Katara had ever seen a person move. He seemed to flicker for a moment and suddenly the fire was behind him, as though she had just moved through it without taking even the slightest singe.

He gazed at Azula an almost contemptible look. "You've got to better than that."

Before she could make any move to respond to his remark, he rushed forward with a speed that Katara wasn't even sure Aang raced around on his air sphere could match. In a flash, he was on top of Azula and had tackled her to the ground; as they both fell to the ground, he pulled his knees up to his chest and kicked off of her to jump high in the air as the princess smashed into the ground and skidded backwards a dozen yards. Sasuke touched down as Azula rolled to all fours, looking as though she had seriously just had the wind knocked out of her.

She pushed herself shakily to her feet and it was clear that hit had done some damage; she wobbled before steadying herself and winced severely as she raised her hands once more. This pain didn't keep her from snarling at her opponent, however.

"What's the point of packing all that firepower of your own if you aren't even going to use it?!"

Sasuke seemed to look mildly confused for a moment before looking to his right and left with his arms spread. "Don't need it."

If his intent had been to spearhead Azula into launching into another crazed frenzy of attacks, it worked to perfection. Shouting with fury, she unleashed another flurry of flaming missiles towards him and he walked slowly towards her, moving and twisting gently to avoid the attacks. It was then that Katara saw that he wasn't dodging her moves, not even most of them; his arms and hands swung gracefully about and seemed to swat the projectiles clean out of the air, but they seemed to implode the minute they struck his palms as though he were absorbing them.

Azula seemed to recognized the pointlessness of her continued effort and ceased her attack. Katara saw that the princess's chest was heaving as she attempted to maintain control of her breathing and likely heart rate; she was blowing through too much energy too quickly and it was already starting to take its toll. Katara didn't need to look at Sasuke to know he was well aware of the advantage he was pressing, but still, he made no overly aggressive move to overtake her.

Zuko stepped up suddenly, fists balled and raised as he shouted, "He's trying to bait you, Azula! Don't play his game!"

Katara, alongside everyone else in the small viewing group, stared in utter surprise at Zuko but he paid them no mind.

"Watch for an opening, don't waste all your energy trying to make one!"

There was no easy way to tell if his words were even reaching his sister or not, but she didn't make another attempt to attack, simply matched Sasuke's movements, pacing in a wide circle and keeping her gaze locked firmly on him.

Sasuke didn't look over to Zuko, but a smirk crossed his face. "That's right, your highness, listen to your brother. I've heard you both are quite close, it would surely behoove you to heed his advice."

He made an expression of mock realization as he looked upwards towards the indigo sky above where stars would soon swim into vision.

"Oh, that's right, you actually rather hate each other, if I'm to understand the situation. Beats me why he wanted so badly to rescue you. Maybe to get a chance to take you out himself."

His hand made several motions too fast for the eye to follow and fire of his own, orange and vibrant in a harsh contrast to Azula's blue flames. It did nothing more than swim almost lazily around his arm, but Katara could tell he was indeed baiting, an assumption she further found proven by his continued verbal jabbing.

"You really don't have much, do you, now that you've been stripped of your position? You're worth only as much as a sacrifice to your father and the rest of your family sees you as a power-hungry violent sociopath. Can't blame them for wanting to distance themselves as much as they have from you."

If Katara didn't know any better, she would have sworn she had seen something like hurt flit across Azula's face for the barest moment as the fire dancing around the plains illuminated her face. Zuko had his teeth tightly clenched, but he looked unable to say more that, or perhaps couldn't think of anything of help to add.

Sasuke stopped pacing and widened his stance, inhaling long and deeply. "I can tell you're alone, and in another now, I might feel sorry for you. But I can also tell you're a monster, you're driven by single goals and you don't care what gets destroyed between here and there, relationships, people, lives."

In the roaring glow of his fire, Katara caught sight of his face and saw that he was smiling, a truly frightening thing.

"Kind of like me."

He turned away and walked another couple steps away as though pondering something important.

"But as it happens, I've just discovered what may be my first big step forward in reclaiming who I am. I have things to do and places to be."

He pointed at Azula, fire spitting and crackling around his arm.

"And you're wasting my time."

Sasuke seemed to say something quietly before a raging tempest of fire spewed outward, razing everything within its massive grasp. Katara had time to see Azula's wide eyes before her figure was completely engulfed in the boiling flame. But as Sasuke waved a hand and dissipated his fire, it was clear that just as Azula's first attack had been left targetless, so too had his.

Azula, who had managed to dip away just in the nick of time, came rocketing in low from his side and with a shout, threw a punch towards Sasuke. He almost managed to completely avoid it, but somehow she still connected with his cheek and his head snapped to the right at the force of the hit. Azula hit the ground and rolled into a crouch where she came up, a smile on her face at the fact that she had finally been able to make contact.

"All right!" Zuko shouted, pumping his fists and Katara had to shake her head at how surreal this whole thing was, Zuko pulling for Azula in any situation at all.

But her eyes returned to Sasuke quickly and it was almost immediate to tell that the atmosphere had changed. There was something sinister in the air as though another presence they couldn't see had just come to stand among them. Sasuke stared at the ground for a moment while he flexed his jaw. Slowly, he turned his gaze up as the smallest trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

"Alright then."

He was on top of Azula in an instant, throwing a knee into her gut. Her eyes widened as she gasped in pain, curling around his leg before he smashed an elbow down onto her back. She crumpled at his feet and he stared down at her coughing form a moment before reaching down and grabbing her by the hair. She cried out in pain through clenched teeth as he hoisted her to eye level.

"Even someone like you might get a lucky hit in every once in a while."

Katara closed her eyes and looked away as he drew back with his other fist and punched Azula across the mouth. Even closing her eyes, the sound it made caused her to flinch regardless and she looked back to see Azula sprawling into the grass. She tried to pick herself up but Sasuke made it over to her and threw a kick into her ribs. Azula yelled in pain and rolled over just in time for him to stomp on her stomach. She curled around his foot and he pulled it back and flipped her over to lie face down on the ground where she remained gasping and breathing hard.

Sasuke looked up to the onlookers, a clear hatred glowing in his eyes. This was not even close to the expression he had led into the Agni Kai with, this was something far more malicious in nature. Katara realized that she was biting her tongue and she saw that Aang looked utterly horrified next to her. Sokka had his face pulled in a pained expression and Toph had turned away, hands covering her ears. Mai and Zuko both looked as though they wanted nothing more in the world than to intervene, but they remained as still as statues, their faces furious and horrified.

Pointing at them all, Sasuke growled. "She asked for this."

Katara looked down and behind him to see that Azula was trying to crawl away, possibly to try and get back to her feet but unfortunately, Sasuke noticed it too. He turned away from them and walked towards Azula's battered form; Aang finally shouted out, "She's beaten, just leave her alone!"

Sasuke shook his head without looking back.

"No, she's not."

He stamped on her left calf and Azula screamed into the dirt as he ground his heel on her. Reaching down again, he seized the back of her neck and lifted her, almost reverently, like he were examining a never before seen animal. Then, he looked back to them.

"When she can't move, when she realizes she is truly, and entirely beaten and submits, then this stops."

Looking to meet her eyes, Sasuke stared deep into Azula's hateful expression.

"How about it? Ready to be done?"

She swore at him and drew back a hand to send a spear of fire to strike him but he reached up and caught her wrist, sending her attack flying high off its mark and into the sky. Then he pulled back that same hand and punched her across the face again. Azula fell to the ground but before she could so much as try and get to her feet, Sasuke was on top of her and he hit her again. She crashed to the ground and tried shakily to push herself up, but he bent down and hit her again.

Katara found that she was shaking. Listening to the dull smack of fist against flesh and hearing Azula's pained cries every time that the awful noise resounded over the plains was enough for her to desperately want this to stop. No matter how much Azula had done to them, no matter what she might've tried, seeing anyone beaten so badly was causing her to feel exceptionally nauseous. Aang had dropped to the ground and was holding his head in his hands; Katara heard him begging quietly. "Please… please stop."

She could see now the utter change that had come over Sasuke. His cool demeanor was still present with almost his every movement, but his face was pulled in something like pure disgust, eyes alive with disdain. There was no more collectiveness in them, it was as though he had become someone else entirely; he was playing with her still, but there was a clear and sadistic edge to his actions. He would let Azula scramble away, and as she would hurl fire desperately at him, he would either deflect or avoid the attack and lazily flash on top of her again, landing another hit.

And as Katara listened to the hits, lowering her eyes to the ground and feeling them burn with tears, she realized how much she truly hated being completely powerless to help someone. Stepping in would only further exacerbate the situation and it was she could do to keep her feet planted where she stood and wish it would end.

It was hurt unlike anything she was used to. Every blow felt like enough for her to fall and not get up, but she stayed standing and rose to her feet when she did fall. Every piece of her being denied possibility of losing, of being defeated. But as Azula yelled in pain as another punch slammed into her gut, she realized there was more to it then her striving for victory.

She realized as her body ached and bled that part of her was relishing this. As her mind buzzed with the physical pain being driven into her, it pushed the true pain that she had yet to accept aside. She had begun to feel it growing and becoming unavoidable following her father's attack against her and her friends, but part of her knew that this pain had been present in her heart for much longer than that.

So as she forced herself to take hit after hit, she allowed the pain to roll over her and felt something almost like relief.

It was one of the more magnificent feelings she could remember having ever experienced.

But through this punishment, reality never quite faded. The reality that she was no longer in charge, no longer in control of much of anything. The reality that all she had were people who had always been willing to be by her side that she had never paid much mind, and that she had a brother who was trying so very hard to be a part of her life.

And overriding all that was the constant and baneful reminder that she still had to beat Sasuke, the only thing that could make her whole again.

Sasuke was only distantly aware of how much worse this had become than he had originally envisioned it. For a while, it had been rather going as swimmingly as he could have imagined; Azula was so tightly wound that she wasn't taking any of his movements into consideration and simply had been tearing through her energy reserves with reckless abandon. Sasuke had rather enjoyed making a show of effortlessly avoiding her attempts to strike him, with all of her anger seeming to only boil further as he remained untouched.

Then, Zuko had to go and open his mouth.

Sasuke had found himself surprised that anyone at all, let alone the brother she apparently was perpetually feuding with, would offer any advice or assistance of any kind. But she had heeded his words and he had chose to go on the offensive himself. He had found himself rather suddenly fed up with the princess, her attitude, the way she looked furiously at him, her obsessive desire to pursue what was really more of a revenge trip than anything, and her detestable drive to fight. And so, he had pulled up an attack of fire of his own to strike her down with.

Then, she had not only avoided his jutsu, but had hit him.

He truly still wasn't sure how she had managed that.

I let her do it, I must have, was what he kept thinking compulsively, but he couldn't be sure. This uncertainty, mixed with his own desire to move on and not be wasting time in a battle for honor, as well as his frustration with taking a hit had driven up a furious heat in him, and he had become entirely focused on beating her into submission. His hits were hardly at full force, but strong enough to deal plenty of damage and hurt for sure. Something had snapped within him and he was content to let it drive him forward, hurt her as badly as it needed to. Still, she seemed entirely intent on not collapsing completely due to pain and exhaustion.

Not that he was sure Azula's body even knew it could lose; no matter how many times he struck her, she still would stagger away or fall to the ground and drag herself back up. Half the time, she would try and connect with some sort of fire based attack, but Sasuke deflected these carelessly, no longer wishing to even waste the time dodging them.

He threw another fist into her abs and she gasped, dropping to her knees at his feet as an unfocused attack sailed above Sasuke's head, scorching the early evening sky. She bent over, fingers digging into the burnt ground as he loomed over her.

"There's nothing left to prove. You aren't winning, and you aren't improving."

Shouting and standing with a surprising amount of speed, Azula threw a fist towards his chin in a furious attempt at an uppercut. He clocked his head slightly to avoid it and then whipped a hand out and grabbed the wrist that rocketed past his head, twisting down. She grit her teeth as he forced her to bow by bending her arm towards him; her bloodied face looked to him for just a moment before he cracked her across the temple with another fist, sending her to the ground for the umpteenth time.

Even still, she rolled out of it and tried to stand yet again. Her first attempt failed as her knees buckled when she was halfway up and she dropped to the ground. As she saw him approaching, she made a noise of anger and pain and scrambled up, wobbling badly as she raised her hands. Sasuke stopped and stared at her, and gave his head a small shake.

"Why are you still trying?"

An almost halfhearted spout of flame burst from her palm which he caught as though it were a piece of rope and threw it aside. His Fire Release: Somatic Influence jutsu had effectively made any fire based attack she threw at him worthless if he saw it coming.

Sasuke looked deep into her eyes and saw how helpless she felt. But still she wouldn't yield. As he stepped closer, she flashed out with a kick towards the side of his head; he ducked under it and smashed his open palm into her mouth, knocking her to the ground once more.

He stared down at her vainly, "This is it, then. Fighting is all you have left and you can't even do that, not really."

With blood dripping into her eyes, she blinked it away and glared up at him hateful. Unblinking, he met her stare and slowly crouched down to get face to face with her and punched her again.

"Your family reviles you, your own father sees you as nothing more than an errant sacrifice."

He gestured behind her towards the small group of nauseous looking onlookers.

"Your brother sees you as just a responsibility. He doesn't know what to do with you, though I bet if I killed you now, it would be a weight off his shoulders."

In a move that utterly surprised him then, Azula turned her face in his direction and smiled at him, her face once more forming into a contemptuous sneer. "Do it then. Kill me."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Kill me like you killed your brother."

Sasuke suddenly found himself once again standing above her, his joints seeming to snap him upright. The crackle of the surrounding fire and the wind through the surrounding plains faded away and he became aware of a buzzing in his ears that seemed to drown out all other sound. From the edges of his fingers upward, he felt an overpowering numbness and he had to remind himself to breathe.

My brother.

The plains, the fire and Azula all disappeared in a rapturous moment as he suddenly saw something else entirely. There were the blasted remains of some building, rubble strewn about as though there had been a gigantic explosion of some kind. The sky was a distant and calming blue with clouds seeming to be dissipating in the distance as the sun beamed down from above.

And before him stood a man.

He had hair as black as Sasuke's with a headband on his forehead adorned with a familiar symbol. His body was battered, dirt and bruises and blood littering it as he stood just ahead of Sasuke. Despite the state of him and the blood pouring from his mouth, he was smiling, eyes happy as he reached out.

"Sorry, Sasuke… this is the last time."

And he was gone. Sasuke was standing again in a field of burning grass, the sky changing color as the day turned to night. To his side, a group of young people, all confused and hurting because of what was happening and just before him, a young woman who was looking up at him from where she had been knocked to, smiling with blood leaking from her mouth.

Turning wildly, Sasuke tried to see where the man had gone, the man that he knew all too well to be his brother. But he was nowhere to be seen, he wasn't to be found, and deep down Sasuke knew why, even as his breathing became labored and he looked desperately about, that his brother wasn't going to be found because he was…

"Gone."

He whispered the words and knew the truth.

"Itachi… what have I done?"

As his brother's name echoed against his ears, he wobbled at the knees. Out of the corner of his eye, he was distantly aware of Azula eying him with surprise at how much her attack with words had worked. She didn't make any move to rise and attack again, he noticed, but he wouldn't have cared if she had. He probably wouldn't even have stopped her. Maybe getting hit by a torrent of flame would be enough to snap him out of the grip of pain that was paralyzing him just then.

"Oh dear, did I go too far?"

Azula's confidence seemed to be returning as she rose to her feet with a grunt of pain. Sasuke looked blankly at her and saw that she was smiling again, that same arrogant and condescending smirk. Fire began to roll to life around her arms and she slowly bent into a readied crouch. Even despite all she had endured, she enjoyed the pain this was causing him and was still, somehow, still thinking of winning. "Poor little Sasuke, you look terribly hurt… don't worry, you'll get to see him again shortly."

She rose into the air, hovering on blue jets of flame.

"Just answer me this: your brother, was he as pathetic as mine? Because if so, I can completely understand why you would kill him, in fact, I—"

Azula made it no further than that as Sasuke's feet propelled him from the ground with as much force as they could muster and he cleanly tackled her out of the sky. They both crashed to the ground and she tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her ankle and pulled her back towards him, moving his head out of the way of a blast of fire that she fired his way. All the while, his thoughts raged madly, but only a spare few words were able to come together in his head.

How did she know?

It gave him great pleasure to pull her up by the shoulder and punch her, much harder than he had been hitting her before. Her head snapped back and struck the ground hard; behind him, he could hear Mai and Zuko both crying out something, but he couldn't tell what it was, nor did he care to. This girl before him, this arrogant, stupid, selfish girl had just all but called Itachi pathetic. Suggested that Sasuke was utterly in the right in killing him.

His hate was almost suffocating.

Looking down at her dazed expression, he flashed several hand motions and muttered to himself, "Fire Release: Searing Touch."

His right hand then glowed with a bright and distinct light. Sasuke could feel the heat from his palm from a significant distance. As he looked down at Azula, his heart beat with fury as he brought his hand towards her face.

This only ends with someone getting burned, huh? Oh, I'll burn you, Azula, you won't forget this, I promise.

The joy in his heart could not be matched as he reached down towards her, but as his hand neared Azula's face, he felt the hairs on his neck stand up and a twinge of apprehension. He had time to only turn his head a couple inches before what felt like two feet slammed into the side of his head. Sasuke felt himself go skidding several yards as his head spun with pain. He rolled to his feet and stood, looking to where he had been attacked.

Azula was lying on the ground, her eyes closed, perhaps finally passed out from the beating that she had taken. Standing just ahead of her, and glaring with fury and fear, was Ty Lee.

Dressed in a breastband the same as Azula, she also wore pants that looked like they might have been Suki's, and her attire that bared much of her skin made it entirely clear how badly she had been wounded. She looked still the worse for wear after the hit she had taken from the Fire Lord, the wound on her shoulder looked painful, a large blackened sore that spread over her shoulder and across her chest. Katara had done a fair job on fixing it up, and Sasuke had gathered that there was still much more work to be done on it, but he would have been surprised if there didn't remain a mark even after.

Despite her weakened look, it was impossible to not see the fierce protectiveness and determination shining in her brilliant eyes.

"You stay away from her. You don't come near her."

Behind her, the rest of the onlookers had moved onto the field of battle, some more aggressively than others. Mai and Zuko joined Ty Lee to form a threesome of defenders standing over Azula; behind them, Katara had rushed over and was already sending her waterbending to work on the unconscious girl while Aang was at her shoulder lending support. Suki had joined the group at a point Sasuke hadn't noticed and she stood hand in hand with Sokka slightly behind the rest, both of them watching Sasuke with trepidation. The only person who hadn't moved was Toph, who was sitting down with her back to the lot of them, hands on her head and face pointed towards the ground.

He didn't remember turning away from them, and it wasn't until he felt the burning in his lungs that he realized he had been running for quite some time. The plains that stretched above the temple seemed to stretch forever and as Itachi's face faded in and out of his head, he hoped he could run for at least that long.

As Zuko watched carefully as Katara ran her hands over his sister's body and performed her healing magic, he tried to drown out the sounds of Mai and Ty Lee aggressively arguing just above Azula's makeshift bed of blankets upon a table.

"… you really are unbelievable, that monster could have killed you!"

"And I was supposed to just stand there like the rest of you chickens while Azula gets her head bashed in?! I thought you or Zuko of all people would have been willing to—"

"Watch it, Ty, this is about way more than that and you know it! Azula went up against him on her own accord and she had every right to except that she would pay for it in blood!"

"And she did! And you all just stood there and watched!"

Mai seemed to take a breather and collect herself. Though his attention was nearly entirely on the healing process of his sister, Zuko had distantly noticed how he wasn't sure he had ever seen Mai get quite so wound up. She exhaled slowly before continuing.

"Ty Lee, try and understand what I'm saying. Something happened to Sasuke out there, whether he remembered something or had some other kind of mental epiphany, it made him take off. But if that hadn't happened, if you had gone in when he was still in that… that place. He might have killed both of you."

Aang, who had been at Katara's back since they had moved Azula back down to the temple grounds, shook his head before quietly saying, "I don't think so. It looked like he was about to burn her. End it, hopefully."

Mai swallowed and shook her head, a grim look on her face. "I don't know. I don't know what I'm arguing anymore."

She walked to a corner of the room and leaned against the wall like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

"I just thought… "

Mai laughed then, an almost hysteric, tired sounding noise. "I really thought I was about to lose both of you."

Ty Lee remained standing over Azula, her chest heaving as she calmed herself in turn. The fierce determination didn't fade from her voice, but when she spoke, her tone had softened immensely.

"I know. And I'm sorry. But I couldn't let him hurt her any more."

Suki and Sokka stood to the side, the latter looking terribly guilty as he spoke up, his eyes fixed on the ground. "I wish I could have done something. I really wanted to, it was really hard to watch him do all that, even if it was Azula."

He looked up, eyes apologetic. "Sorry."

Mai waved him off and Ty Lee sighed. Zuko heard all this, but didn't acknowledge any of it as Suki elbowed him in the side.

"Don't be stupid, you would have wound up just the same way if he hadn't bolted. We all need to be grateful no one else got hurt."

"We still should have done something."

This came from Toph who was sitting in the corner opposite Mai, chin resting on her arms as she held them over her knees. Her voice was terribly downtrodden. "I hated that we didn't. I don't care that it was some stupid battle of honor that isn't supposed to be interrupted, we should have known better and at least tried to stop it."

Ty Lee gave her a look.

"Then why didn't you?"

It wasn't asked aggressively or rudely, but Aang still looked up angrily at this. "Hey, you can't go and—"

But Toph spoke over him, voice cracking as she did.

"I was scared."

Zuko looked up slightly to see that Toph was shaking where she sat, silently crying as she tried to keep the tears out of her voice.

"I've never been scared of anything before. I was never scared of my parents when they threatened me with punishments for misbehaving, I was never scared of any of the men I fought as the Blind Bandit, I was never scared of a single thing the Fire Nation threw at us, but up there… feeling his movements through the ground and feeling just how… just how cold and vicious he was. He scares me."

She buried her face in her arms then and Suki released Sokka's arm to walk over and sit beside her, pulling her into a hug. Ty Lee looked at them for a long while, looking like she wanted to say something before turning her gaze back down to Azula.

For several more minutes, the room became void of noise other than the soft trickle of Katara's water running over Azula's body. Then, with a gasp, Katara fell backwards into Aang's legs who caught her. Zuko felt himself jolt forward as Katara heaved in deep, long breaths, his paralysis finally broken.

"Well?"

It was a moment before she could reply to him without difficulty and Zuko realized just how much effort she had been exerting and just how much she had been focused on the task of healing his sister, and his heart swam with gratitude.

"She'll be fine. Everything was surface level injuries, cuts and bruises, no internal damage that I could find."

With a wince, she got to her feet. "She'll be asleep for a while yet, and she'll be sore when she wakes up. But I've done all I can to heal what was there."

Zuko felt relief watch over him and he fell to his knees, bowing deeply to her.

"Thank you, thank you so much."

Sokka walked over and nudged him with his toe. "Hey, it's all good, don't go making it weird now."

Katara didn't seem to notice and as Zuko got back to his feet, he could see her eyes focused again, but on something much more distant than his sister now. It wasn't hard to guess what it was and Katara spoke to it before long.

"Toph, have you felt anything?"

From where she was sitting, the girl looked up from Suki's arms, sniffing.

"No. I can't imagine he's still running, but he's not close to the temple wherever he is."

Katara nodded firmly. "Good. Then we need to get the others and leave as soon as we can."

Her words weren't unexpected, but Aang still spoke up quietly, his voice hardly above a shaky whisper.

"Are you sure? If I just go find him, talk to him and—"

Immediately, Katara had rounded on him, eyes wide and angry as she jabbed a finger in his direction. "No, absolutely not! You of all people are not going near him!"

He tried to speak up, but she shook her head and continued to snap over him.

"I don't want him anywhere near you. He can run all night for all I care, but we need to put distance between him and us now, he is too dangerous."

Aang finally managed to get a word in edgewise as he looked at her pleadingly. "That's what I'm saying! I go to him, tell him the airship's his and he takes it and goes!"

Katara continued to glare at him as Mai raised her voice. "You said he just wants to leave and go after Ozai!"

With a growl of frustration, Katara whirled away, hair flying around her shoulders in her ire. "But that's just the other thing! How do we let him go if we know he's going to try that?! Only Aang can defeat Ozai and his… meddling is just going to throw a wrench into everything!"

Her implication was clear and Sokka replied to her quietly, eyes watching his sister carefully.

"You think he can do it, can't you?"

Muscles worked their way around in Katara's jaw before she finally conceded with a cross of her arms and a halting nod. "If there's anyone else who has a chance, yes, I would guess Sasuke could, based on what I've seen."

Ty Lee looked at her equally as carefully, clearly not wanting to be the reason that Katara erupted properly, asking her question hesitantly.

"Then isn't that a good thing? Let him try? One way or another, it makes him leave. And if he somehow beats the Fire Lord, then all the better. The Avatar doesn't have to be put in any danger."

Aang muttered something about "having a name" but jumped as Katara did indeed explode at this, shouting now.

"NO, DON'T ANY OF YOU GET IT?!"

She seemed to catch herself very quickly as her voice rebounded off the walls of the temple's inner grounds and she calmed herself again. When she spoke again, her voice was dark and clipped.

"It has to be Aang. It's just this thing that we know to be true. Everyone's said as much, all the written prophecies and texts claim the same thing, even the Avatars that Aang has communed with have said the same thing."

Toph's voice was the quietest of all as it asked the most important question.

"What if they're wrong?"

All the fight seemed to drain from Katara and she looked to the ceiling, sighing long and loud. "I don't know, Toph. Then we've done this all for nothing. But if Sasuke goes and beats Ozai without us… "

Zuko, who had been considering the same thing, finished her thought.

"Who's to say something worse won't wind up coming about with someone as dangerous and unpredictable as him walking away the victor."

She nodded miserably. Mai waited a long moment to make sure that the floor was hers before adding what she had likely hoped to say before.

"But that's the other thing. When… when the fight was over and we saw Sasuke just before he ran off, did any of you guys happen to look at him?"

The collective turned to look at her and she shrugged. "Maybe it's stupid, but… he looked absolutely devastated. I know we were all on edge, and scared, and mad, but when I put all that aside, I realized how totally agonized he looked."

Sokka cocked his head in her direction. "What are you suggesting?"

Biting her lower lip in a moment of thought, Mai began to slowly pace the room's interior.

"Maybe… maybe while he was fighting Azula, something happened. I couldn't see or hear everything, but there were times when they talked to each other, right? That wasn't just me?"

As they all nodded, she continued, "I thought so. What if… while they were fighting, he remembered something or recalled some experience, something that he had forgotten. Zuko told me that his memory is patchwork and full of holes at best. Maybe there's something to that."

She stopped and rocked on her heels. "And who's to say, if he did remember something that messed him up, that going after Ozai is still his goal?"

The possibility of this settled over the group and Zuko reflected on what Mai had said. If Sasuke had really experienced something, maybe things had changed, but if was entirely possible they could get even worse. Maybe he saw something that told him waterbenders had perhaps killed his family and once he settled, he was going to come after Katara. Or maybe he had experienced some twisted vision of the Fire Nation's military destroying something, someone or someplace very dear to him. The possibilities were all rather endless, but as Zuko thought, he couldn't help but imagine all the most awful and dark prospects of Sasuke having some epiphany.

Finally, Sokka spoke up, bringing all their collective musing to a halt.

"We should bring this up with the others. They may not be as involved in the current situation, but they're still part of this group and deserve to know what's going on."

He looked to Aang.

"Can you get pretty high without being spotted from the ground and still be able to… "

He trailed off, but his meaning was not lost on Aang who nodded. "I've got it."

As he made for the door, Katara grabbed him by the upper arm and for a moment, Zuko felt scared of her as she glared almost threateningly at Aang. "You do not let him see you, you do not approach him, you do not speak with him, if you find him. Just try and find where he is, but if you go near him, so help me Aang, I'll… "

It was Ty Lee of all people who cut her off. "He's got it."

Katara looked to her and Aang's gaze moved to the ground and Zuko saw how sad he looked more than anything.

"Yeah, I know."

And he was the first one out the door. Sokka let the moment pass before turning to the rest of them. "Someone should stay with Azula obviously… "

Ty Lee moved over to the side of the princess's makeshift bed and planted herself firmly on a stool that had been there since likely before any of them were born.

"I'll stay."

This wasn't questioned and Sokka gave her a nod before looking to the rest of them.

"Come on, let's go."

Zuko was the last one out the door and he likely would have spent several moments longer staring at his sister before Mai took his arm and led him out. He closed his eyes as they followed after the others, thinking excruciatingly to himself.

Azula… why?

The entire engagement took seconds.

For the traveler, everything slowed to a beautifully slow pace as though the soldiers were moving underwater. Their movements were sluggish and their attacks more than telegraphed as they moved in his direction to pay back his defiance.

The rocks sailed over his head as he slid beneath them and reached the leader before he could even move his hammers back to a readied position. The traveler's sword met him first, entering through his neck and out the back; without a word, the leader fell to his knees and would drop to the ground, but the traveler was long past him before this happened.

As the situation seemed to progress to quickly for them to even really acknowledge, the two more confident soldiers bore down on him, and the traveler's sword came up. The first of the two was slashed through the chest and the traveler rolled around his body to stab the other through the back of his head. Leaving the both of them to collapse as quietly as their leader had, he turned his attention to the remaining three.

By the look in their eyes, he could tell one of two things was about to happen: either they would turn and run, or they would all charge him in a frenzy based on whomever moved first. Regardless, the fear he saw in their eyes was enough to tell him it would be one or the other. The traveler moved his eyes to the man in the middle and smiled.

This was enough to spur action and the one in the center gave a scream of desperation and raced forward, flailing his pike wildly and jabbing every which way. His two companions followed suit, swords drawn and swinging about chaotically.

Five seconds later, the last of their bodies collapsed to the ground.

Drawing a cloth, the traveler cleaned off his blade and sheathed it, looking around for the old man and the woman. As he looked about, he only saw the old man now, approaching him with a sad look on his face that contrasted the previously happy and buoyant attitude he had displayed earlier. As the old man joined him, the traveler asked, "Where is the woman? And her child?"

Sighing and looking behind him, the old man pointed and through the tents, the traveler saw a small gathering of people who had clearly not noticed his brief squall with the Earth Nation soldiers clamoring about and shouting. In the center, he saw the woman who had been harassed by the men he had just killed being dragged among them, tossed about and grabbed by all manner of people. It was clear to see her distress from them, and the traveler put a hand on the handle of his sword and stepped towards the fray, but the old man put out a hand to stop him.

The traveler stared at him, "Why are you stopping me? She's in danger again!"

The old man's eyes were distant and depressed as he looked on to the same spectacle.

"That woman stole both the child and the things she was attempting to pass through the desert with. While the child's parents were attempting to be fitted for travel cloaks, she took the child and their satchel of belongings and attempted to make it past the guards. The Earth Nation soldiers will almost always demand a fee of sorts, and she had hoped that taking the child would move their hearts to pity. I saw her thieving in the market and tried to reach he before the soldiers, but was unsuccessful."

The pair of them continued staring on as the woman was pulled towards the dock, her hair being pulled and clothes being ripped by the furious mob.

"You were still willing to pay to have the woman set free of those men," the traveler stated almost a question and the old man lifted a shoulder and lowered it softly.

"I had hoped to keep the child from being harmed. If the soldiers let her be, I could have hopefully returned the child to its parents without further trouble. If she had taken it, she likely would have left the child somewhere in the desert as soon as she was out on her own."

The furious mob moved out of sight behind some tents and the din of it all began to fade away as the traveler asked softly.

"What will become of her?"

"I cannot say for sure," the old man replied. "She might have a hand cut off, or perhaps will be dragged through the desert behind a mount and handed over to Ba Sing Se authorities if she survives the trip."

Not particularly feeling pity, the traveler looked back at the six dead soldiers who lay behind him, sand slowly wisping over their forms.

"I stood up for a kidnapper and a thief," he murmured. The old man surprised him with a laugh then.

"You also stood up for an elderly man and a baby. So you're two for three and I'd call that positive."

The traveler looked down to stare at the old man, utterly befuddled by his seemingly indomitable positivity. Even with dead corrupt soldiers and women stealing children for personal gain, he still had a smile on his face.

"What do people call you, old man?"

The laughing eyes misted over then as though he had been utterly caught up in old memories. He stroked his beard before giving the traveler a sigh.

"I have been called many things, some of them titles, some of them insulting names and not a one of them of my own choosing. But I would be honored if you would call me Iroh."

The man the traveler now knew to be Iroh looked at him intently. "And you my friend, look as lost as anyone I've ever seen. You mentioned you're traveling to the big city to find someone?"

Not wishing to delve into it any further and reveal how utterly correct Iroh was in his sentiment, the traveler simply nodded. Iroh gave him a warm smile.

"Then I would be most grateful if you would allow me to accompany you."

He pointed to the soldiers and spread his arms. "Someone like me would very much benefit from having you as a traveling companion. As lost as you seem, your skill with a blade is not something you've found missing."

The traveler opened his mouth, preparing to try his best to politely refuse, but Iroh raised a finger. "Oh, and I can cook for you as well. It will take us a couple days to reach Ba Sing Se, and I can promise you, traveling on meager rations will not do your body well. I can make a fairly decent pot of tea as well."

Catching himself, the traveler considered this. His food situation was something close to bare necessities and the satchel of food the old man had picked up from the market looked more than a little appetizing. And on top of that, he found that despite his desire to be alone, having company was a pleasure he hadn't expected to find so appealing.

"Alright then, Iroh. Do you have a mount?"

Iroh gestured to the watering hole where the traveler's ostrich horse also mulled about, oblivious to the chaos that had previously taken place. "I do, he's just there."

The traveler nodded. "Then that will do. We should move on before authorities in the market and aboard the ship no longer are occupied with that woman and find us among these bodies."

"I quite agree."

The pair of them moved to the watering hole and took the reins of their respective mounts; as the traveler checked to make sure his meager supplies were still slung aboard his animal, Iroh handed him a straw hat, or kasa as the traveler had heard the shop owner call it as he had passed by.

"For the sun, my young friend," Iroh said as he adjusted his own. "The sun out here will bake you if you're not careful."

With a nod of thanks, the traveler pulled it over his head and with a snap of his reins, he fell in beside Iroh, their mounts moving at a steady trot. The bay and small market fell into the distance behind them as the sand stretched before them for seemingly endless miles.

The traveler grunted in reaction to the sight. "We'll be lucky to reach the city with you still alive, old man."

Iroh laughed, a charming and wholesome sound that the traveler found was surprisingly uplifting to his spirit. "Don't count me out yet. I've still got life in these old bones."

Under the shadow of his hat, the traveler could see his expression visibly darken. "And I still have things to see to."

The serious look passed quickly and Iroh looked over to the traveler, all smiles once more.

"But of all the things I wanted to ask you about, I think there's something very important I need to ask you."

The traveler internally grimaced; he hoped he wasn't about to out himself in front of Iroh and reveal that he had no more memory of his life than the barest details. The old man had truly hit the nail on the head when he had called him lost, he was lost in more ways than one.

But as he readied himself to disappoint whatever specifics that Iroh was about to question him over, he found that he was asked a question that he hadn't expected.

"What do people call you, my young friend?"

The traveler had to keep himself from breathing a sigh of relief. That was a question he could indeed answer and he did, as he looked back over his shoulder at the now barely visible ocean disappearing under the haze of the desert.

"Obito."