AN: Big apology to those who sent PM's in the past couple days; I only just checked them now and am getting back to the few of you as quickly as I can.

That being said, the response I got last chapter was crazy overall. Thank you guys so much for the support and thoughts, it's such a great rush getting to hear what everyone thinks. I've said it before and I'll happily say it again; you guys giving your support, sending PM's and dropping reviews makes this the most fulfilling thing I've ever worked on and a tremendous thanks to all of you guys doing so. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 15: The Not Knowing

Mai pulled Ty Lee aside the first chance she was able.

The group had broken up to very quietly settle in for what would surely be a quick respite through sleep. Katara was looking after herself and Zuko who had both been battered rather badly; Mai had let him go to her with a reserved kiss and a furrowed brow. She wasn't pleased that he hadn't told her about being approached to take down Sasuke and it had been very possible that he could have been killed. She would have directly interfered if Sasuke hadn't trapped them in a flaming cage for the majority of the fight.

Sokka went down with a strange amount of quickness as though he hadn't slept in days. Mai caught Suki looking at his prone form with concern before gently lowering herself to lie beside him. Aang had wandered over to Appa in company of his flying lemur, clearly looking to be left alone as he settled to sleep on board the giant bison who had seemingly dozed through all of the previous commotion.

Mai noted all these things with a mental note, but her gaze rarely left Azula as the princess distanced herself a ways from the rest of the sleeping quarters and turned away from them all as she lay down. Mai had seen what had just transpired and as Ty Lee followed her to the safety of the trees where they could talk without fear of being overheard, she looked over her shoulder for Sasuke. He hadn't been anywhere in sight, nor had Toph and it wouldn't have surprised Mai if they were once again butting heads or trying to sort out some differences. Toph's infatuation with Sasuke was nearly as odorous a feeling as Azula's, but Sasuke seemed hardly the type to reciprocate any such feelings, regardless of the person.

Unless…

"Did you see it?" Ty Lee practically demanded as they stopped a ways into the blackened woods of the forest, moonbeams gazing through the broad leaves above them. Mai tightened her lips before replying.

"I don't know what I saw." Ty Lee ran a hand anxiously through her hair.

"They kissed. I know they did," she said in practically a mumble as though she were terrified to even consider the prospect.

"You don't know that either." Mai was doing her best to try and avoid the possibility of certainty even though she had clearly seen Azula's face and knew by her movements and expressions exactly what she was trying to do.

Ty Lee didn't look remotely convinced and Mai couldn't blame her. "We need… we should ask him. Azula won't say shit to us, but Sasuke would tell us if they had."

Mai snorted. "You sure about that? What makes you think he would be okay just coming out and talking to us about something so personal?"

Throwing her hands in the air, Ty Lee took some steps away, looking more consternated than before. "I don't know, Mai! Maybe because she forced it on him? Maybe because he doesn't know how to react? We warned him away from her and told him to leave her alone, but our problem shouldn't have been with him, it should have been with her!"

She jabbed a finger back the way they had come. Mai waited a moment while Ty Lee's frenzied attitude died down a bit before speaking in a slow and measured voice; her own worries about the situation notwithstanding, she needed her friend to be as level-headed as possible.

"We've always known that Azula is possessive of people. She's always treated you and I like commodities, ever since the academy. Now for the first time, she's finally experiencing something where maybe she can't have another person in that way, where she can't just… acquire them. Maybe we should let her feel this one out."

Ty Lee gave a hugely mocking laugh then and Mai held up her hands with a grimace, but she was ignored.

"Are you kidding me, Mai?! Azula isn't normal, she doesn't think or feel like you or me! This isn't you kissing him, or me, or Katara or Toph, or any other girl on the planet! Azula doesn't know how to handle this if she's rejected and it was impossible to tell from her tonight exactly what she was thinking! We leave this to Sasuke and he rejects her outright, she'll never accept that; she'll either run after him until it kills her or she'll try and kill him! Either way, it…"

She seemed to catch herself and she reined in her emotions as she finished her thought in a more calm tone, "… it doesn't end well."

Mai watched Ty Lee for a long while as she tried to rationalize her own feelings towards the situation. It was bad, no matter which way she looked at it and her friend was right: it had been nothing short of wishing on a star that Azula might somehow be able to work through having her heart broken in a normal manner. If Sasuke was merely humoring her advances and was eventually prepared to turn her down… that hardly boded well for either or them, nor anyone in a mile radius of that confrontation.

"Alright. Let's go see if we can find him."

Ty Lee blinked at her in surprise and then looked around as though the mere suggestion was taboo. "Really? Right now?"

Mai shrugged. "If we can catch him before he dozes off anyway. I don't think we should wait on this any longer than we have to."

It was clear that while Ty Lee was hellbent on finding out if a kiss had truly happened, she suddenly wasn't really about the idea of approaching Sasuke about it on such short notice. Nonetheless, she paused a moment before giving a tight nod.

"I saw him walk a ways towards that fallen tree near the far side of camp. The one facing that's just on the edge of the forest parallel with the ocean."

Ty Lee fell into line behind her and they started to walk in the direction that Mai had last seen him. As they walked, the acrobat asked, "How do we even ask him something like this?"

Grunting, Mai replied, "I don't know. I was gonna let you ask him."

Her friend made a noise of indignation humorous enough to warrant Mai a short chuckle.

"Me?! Why would it be me?! I haven't hardly said two words to him and none of them were particularly pleasant if you don't remember!"

"Look, Ty Lee, I'm just saying, as long as you're the one who has the hots for—"

She cut herself off as they broke the tree line and found the massive fallen piece of arbor she had been referencing. Ty Lee had started to demand angrily that Mai finish her thought and nearly ran into her back as she looked down at what had stopped Mai in her tracks.

Against the wood of the downed tree, Sasuke and Toph were sleeping soundly. While Sasuke's head lay against the wood, Toph was resting against him, her hand on his chest and right leg half pulled over his lap. They both looked so incredibly at peace that Mai found herself watching her breathing to make sure that it wasn't too loud. Though with the calm, but consistent rushing of the tide and the swaying of the trees, Ty Lee was able to speak quietly and hardly risk waking either of them.

"I'll be damned."

Mai made a soft noise of amusement. "Maybe we don't need to worry that much about Azula after all."

Ty Lee gave her a look. "What is she, like thirteen?"

Turning away from the resting pair, Mai started down the beach back towards the camp and Ty Lee dogged her footsteps. "So? Sasuke can't be older than us, fifteen or sixteen. Give it a couple years and maybe she'll take him right out from under Azula's nose."

Making an anxious noise, Ty Lee didn't seem convinced, nor in the mood to reciprocate Mai's joke. "Even if that was the case, we would still have to deal with a pretty pissed off Azula and that's just as bad as if he went and told her himself that he thought she would be a total waste of his—"

Mai stopped and turned to put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Ty, relax. We'll get a chance to talk to him soon and we'll get our answer. There's no point stressing over it now though, so let's just try and get some rest for now, huh?"

It took Ty Lee the longest time to finally nod her head in dismay and move towards her sleeping attire and blanket. Mai watched her go before turning to walk a little ways down the beach, wanting a couple minutes alone with her thoughts.

She had done a good job putting on a sarcastic and uncaring front in front of Ty Lee, but the fact of the matter was she was glad for the dark as it hid her shaking hands. That entire situation had been entirely too close and she was having trouble even just wrapping her head around it. First and foremost, she was furious at Katara for not consulting anyone other than her boyfriend on what she had been preparing to do; if Sasuke had been in any worse of a mood, who's to say he might have gone overboard in dishing out more than just a beating to her and Zuko, and perhaps whoever else struck his fancy. She was mad at Zuko too, of course, but she knew how Katara could be and imagined he had probably also assumed it had been for the best. But Zuko could be an idiot and it was clear that he, along with Katara had vastly overestimated themselves.

The second factor that had her reeling was just how curiously amenable Sasuke had wound up being to the whole fiasco. He had just gone through an attempt on his life and just like that, he was now sleeping close, perhaps too close, to someone closely allied with the person who had just tried to exterminate him. He had toyed with Katara and Zuko like he had toyed with Azula only nights ago, and he had done so almost… playfully. It was impossible for her to tell how he was able to pull off what he had, with hyper realistic clones of himself that seemed to be made out of water and being able to move around faster than the eye could follow. Mai remembered when she and Azula had tangled with him at her uncle's prison and was able to recall the encounter well enough to know that this had not been the same young man she had had been able to stick a knife into during that engagement.

But she supposed she could guess why his mood was rather good; after all, he had finally gotten the information he had so aggressively been trying to purloin. Now, he was free to hunt Ozai down come the morning and with Aang having backed his quest in order to keep Katara from continuing to oppose Sasuke, he had as open a window as he could ask for.

"Is Toph with him?"

As though summoned by her thoughts themselves, Mai snapped her head up to see that Katara was standing ankle deep in the night surf, eyes gazing towards the star-studded horizon. She felt a wave of anger towards the waterbender rush through her, but kept her tone measured as she replied, not feeling any need to lie about what she had seen.

"They're sleeping together."

Katara's head twisted so suddenly it was as though it had been snapped by an invisible assassin and Mai put a hand up. "Not like that. They just seem… to enjoy one another's company."

That having been clarified, Katara nodded and turned away again without another word. Mai stared at her for a long while, trying to think of what she wanted to say. In many ways, a one on one with Katara was exactly what she had been looking for, but in the moment, she couldn't think of anything prudent to begin a conversation. For her benefit, however, it was Katara who spoke up after a few seconds.

"I'm sorry I dragged Zuko and all of you into that."

Regardless of whether or not she meant the apology, Mai couldn't help but reply, "You should be."

Katara didn't seem to take offense at this, but made no effort to elaborate on her behalf. She simply stared out at the ocean, looking deep in thought, almost distant like she was in a vivid daydream. Mai stood a distance behind her, trying to decide if there really was anything she wanted to talk to Katara about.

Once again, her companion broke the silence before she did. "Do you think I'm wrong?"

Mai looked at her, "In wanting to kill Sasuke, or wanting to make sure it's Aang, fully prepared, who faces down Ozai?"

Katara shrugged, "Both I suppose."

For this, Mai needed a couple seconds. Days ago, she would have been right alongside Katara in looking to cut Sasuke's throat after the stunt he had pulled at the prison and how he had so viciously penetrated her mind, her thoughts, her feelings. But despite his utter contempt for the idea of camaraderie and his relative rudeness and bluntness, every action he took was like he was fighting his own battle to keep from opening up. He had saved her, Azula and Ty Lee from the capital itself, he hadn't killed Azula when he was in his complete traditional right to do so, he had saved them from General Ako and his assassins, he had protected them from the island natives and he had returned to them when he truly had no reason to do so. And Mai hadn't forgotten the almost normal afternoon they had experienced, complete with Sasuke having a water fight with Aang and a relaxing dinner in which Sasuke had told that stupid joke. Things had changed, drastically, since she had first encountered him at Boiling Rock.

"I can't tell you whether or not your emotions are right or wrong, Katara. I think in going behind everyone's back to try and snuff him out, that might have been enough to turn people against you and I'm betting you can imagine why."

Katara's voice came out almost low enough to be a whisper, "I was just trying to protect everyone."

Feeling tired of Katara's self-righteousness, Mai looked back to make sure that she was far enough away and not going to wake anyone if she raised her voice slightly. "Katara, is it possible that any of the things that Aang accused you of were true?"

Not wanting to lose her train of thought or lose the will to say it, she carried on.

"Sasuke scares all of us. That's certainly true and anyone who says otherwise is lying. I just saw Toph lying with him, but I know there's a part of her that will always remember how he killed all those tribesmen, how powerful he is and how violent he can be. She's fighting herself in how scared she is, I know it. Azula is the same way, but she's not hiding it behind a sense of affection like Toph; she's obsessing over him and its drowning out those thoughts of how he beat her half to death during that Agni Kai. We're all scared of him, Katara, but you have to stop pretending like the only way of dealing with him is extermination."

She gave a short laugh of disbelief as the reality of it all came crashing down on her. "I mean, he's saved all our lives, more than once. Do you think if he really didn't care about us that he wouldn't have cut and run when the chief advisor gave him his information? Think about it, you made him promise to come back in return for passage back to our airship, but he didn't need it. With the presence that the Fire Nation navy had at that festival, he could have easily stolen a skiff or another smaller brand of airship and been on his way. But he came back. Why?"

Mai didn't have the answer herself, nor did she really want it; it was eating at her enough imagining that Sasuke might have been just as interested in Azula as she was in him, just hiding it better.

"You have to let go of at least some of that fear," she breathed out with finality. "Never turn your back on him, especially not after what you pulled tonight, but…"

She didn't know then how to quite describe what she was feeling, but said anyway, "I don't know, go look at him and Toph. That might give you some perspective."

Silence fell after that with Katara not so much as offering a word of response, and Mai left her alone standing amongst the tide. She lay down next to Zuko who was already fast asleep; she looked at his face which looked so peaceful in the moonlight and felt a rush of tears spill over her eyes without any warning.

Zuko, you idiot… don't you dare ever do anything like that again.

She nestled close to him and put an arm around him as she tried to doze off for a while herself. But she couldn't quite shake off just how much she had come to Sasuke's support just then; she hated him, didn't she?

Though he had been staring at the city walls for the better part of an hour, Obito had trouble reminding himself that the massive stone barrier of Ba Sing Se was even real. It loomed higher than even the surrounding mountains seemed to be and though they were still a couple miles away, its size and scale was nothing to scoff at.

Iroh looked both proud and sad as he eyed the same walls. "Ba Sing Se. Perhaps the greatest city amongst all the Four Nations.'

Obito allowed himself a moment to be impressed. "You weren't lying, old man. That's one hell of a view."

Laughing, Iroh urged his mount onward. "Well, it's certainly a sight for our weary eyes. Our journey is finally at an end."

Realizing that while they had only been traveling over a couple of nights, Obito found that it felt much more like he and his companion had been traveling for months. He had grown quite fond of Iroh, his conversation, his cooking, his personality and overall company had been the strangest and most unexpected blessing.

"I suppose trekking across a desert for days on end and our only company being giant, talking owls that are trying to gut me does add a bit to the overall grandeur of the thing."

They progressed in silence a while longer and Obito was able to make out what looked to be hundreds of tents surrounding the city's outer wall. "Are those the camps you were talking about?"

Iroh's expression became one entirely of pity then. "Indeed. What the Fire Nation will not take in, is left outside. Families surely starved for food, refugees just looking for safety, and suspicion and they are cast aside."

Obito shook his head. "These Fire Nation guys sound like real great guys."

Turning to him then, Iroh asked, "Put yourselves in their shoes for a moment, my young friend. If you knew that you had to protect your hold on the city at all costs, don't you suppose that barring access to all those who rouse suspicion would be prudent?"

Putting his hands up, Obito shook his head, "I'm not trying to insinuate anything regarding wartime tactics. I'm just saying that between Earth Nation soldiers pillaging from refugees to Fire Nation soldiers treating them like rats, doesn't exactly look good for either side."

"Often times, war brings out the worst in a people. They do what they can to survive, but their resentment for the conflict makes them cruel and plays on their greed and fear." Iroh's words were certainly not lacking in the old man's traditional wisdom that Obito had come to expect over their travels and he laughed.

"Even in times like these, still spouting wisdom like it's bad oxygen," he said and his older companion shrugged his shoulders.

"I do what I can."

They continued on and as they came to the top of a hill that ran down a couple kilometers into the first section of the tents, the scale of the operation struck Obito. There weren't hundreds of tents, there were thousands; he could see dots that were certainly people milling about, looking almost like a heat illusion but there was no denying that the camps were likely overcrowded. It did a number on his empathy, but he had to remember his own goal. The woman in his dreams had told him to seek out Ba Sing Se, that his answers lay within the city, and Obito wasn't looking to wait much longer.

Iroh suddenly reined in his mount to a halt and Obito's almost collided with it.

"What's the idea, old man? We're almost there!" he said, but Iroh had a distant expression on his face.

"I'm afraid this is where we must say goodbye, my friend."

Obito suddenly remembered why Iroh had been traveling this way in the first place. He had spoken of friends that were camped outside the city and how they were the reason for his journey. And though he remembered this now, Obito wasn't sure he wanted to leave the old man's company just yet; for all his worrying about traveling with a companion, he had grown quite fond of Iroh.

"Well, at least see me to the city gates then," he finally said, but Iroh shook his head with a curious amount of vigor.

"I don't think that would be wise."

Cocking his head, Obito asked, "Why not?"

Iroh didn't answer and Obito knew that the old man had never been one to be lacking for words. Truly enough, the whole situation didn't feel right to him and he decided to come clean with just how he was feeling in regards to his companions caginess regarding the city.

"Look, something about the city has you rattled. Or is something to do with the Fire Nation? I can't see why even their most greedy and bullying soldiers would go out of their way to go after a geezer like you. You're worried for some reason, and I'll be honest, I'd really like to know what that reason is. Why's the city got you so worked up?"

Iroh turned on his mount to look at him and gazed about the surrounding craggy hills and dunes as though he were expecting someone to be trying to listen in.

"You must understand before I tell you this, Obito, that no matter what I did in my younger years, I—"

Somehow, Obito saw it before it happened and he leapt from his own mount with as much speed as he could muster. He saw a look of surprise pass over Iroh's face before he tackled the old man off his mount and into the soft sand. Above them, an arrow that had been soaring just towards his companion's head whizzed by and disappeared over the ridge. Obito rolled to his feet and after ensuring Iroh was behind him, he drew his katana and directed it towards where the shot must have come from.

He was disheartened to see that it had hardly been a traveling band of robbers like he had guessed. Over the ridges came over two dozen Fire Nation soldiers, all outfitted with an impressive array of armor and weapons. Masks surely meant to intimidate covered their faces as they approached the pair of them, some of them speaking to one another as they moved forward.

"Is that Zuko? He looks too old to be him."

"No, the scar's on the wrong side."

Before they got too close, Obito raised his weapon and called out, "Something I can do for you gentlemen?"

The majority of them stopped advancing, save for a single one of their number, his adorned shoulders indicating a higher rank than that of the surrounding men. His voice was deep, if a tad nasally. "I am Captain Gokan, chief of perimeter security of Ba Sing Se."

Cool, Obito almost said sarcastically but knew that any kind of sass might endanger their lives.

The captain continued, "You are traveling on restricted road: this path is only authorized for Fire Nation personnel."

Behind Obito, Iroh asked, "How are weary travelers such as ourselves supposed to make it to the city then without any sort of proper passage to follow?"

The captain crossed his arms, his voice unmerciful at best, "Hardly a problem we can associate time with."

Obito could tell that this was about to get ugly. Whatever the captain's motive, he was going to surely place them both under arrest or just try to kill them outright. With the amount of people that surely already occupied the internment camps, cutting down the number before it even grew probably seemed a good deal.

But with my eyes…

No, he didn't know the extent truly to which they helped him, nor was he certain that they would provide him an edge that wouldn't be noticeable to any other patrols. Iroh had cautioned him of the power they seemed to grant him and while he had before just accepted them as a part of his own natural biology, he knew that the old man was right. He needed to be more careful and more cautious in how he used this remarkable gift, but in this instance, he didn't know that he had a choice.

Tightening his grip on the handle of his sword, he faced off the men before him. He closed his eyes a moment and reopened them, the world suddenly becoming much clearer. He could see which of the men were comfortable with their swords and spears, and which preferred their bending as their primary offense. He could see which ones of them were arrogant, which were confident, which were professional, which were green. He could piece together the exact mental state of each one of them just by meeting their eyes. And it was clear that his sudden enhanced periphery hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Sir, his eyes…" one of the men uttered nervously. The captain's own eyes behind his mask were narrowed and confused, and he spoke haltingly then as though unsure of how to proceed.

"Stay calm. Just a trick, doesn't mean anything."

Please, come and see how wrong you are.

Obito hadn't even realized he was now standing combat ready when Iroh put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't do this, Obito, it isn't worth it to—"

"Old man, when you see a break, you take it."

He had no desire to sit there and have a discussion with Iroh on the morality and consequences of fighting these soldiers, and he was entirely expecting his companion to push the subject. But slowly, the hand retracted from his shoulder as Iroh quietly backed down and Obito took a slow, measured breath.

Ahead of him, the captain said, "This is your final warning to lower that weapon and—"

The element of surprise was one of the other few things Obito had up his sleeve and the captain had barely gotten halfway through his ultimatum before the soldier standing directly in front of him spurt blood onto his commanding officer. Obito's blade ran right through his open mouth and out the back of his head, and as each and every man around him reacted with the surprise that he had would have expected such an action to have, he withdrew the sword from his first casualty and neatly flicked it across the throat of the man most adjacent.

His speed that his enhanced eyes granted him was his strongest advantage. Two men down in the blink of an eye and the stunned and frightened reactions he was getting from the rest of the troops was enough to tell him he had more than enough time to carry on before needing to defend himself was even going to need to be an option.

Maneuvering tightly and close to the men as to deter their comrades from attacking, he zigged and zagged through their number, jabbing and slashing at every opening he could see. Not all his blows were struck with the intent of being fatal, but a quick slash through an Achilles tendon or biting his sword into the meat of a solder's exposed wrist did just as much good in disabling them as killing them outright. In moments, he was surrounded by a storm of screams and blood, and Obito felt perfectly at home.

For a moment, he was able to just be caught up in his own prowess and the sick pleasure that battling a large group of these men head on gave him. They were helpless to stop him or even slow him; every move was a precise stroke of the brush without which the painting could not be completed.

But as he continued to spin his way through them, a new feeling had begun to grow in his gut. He had felt it when he had been chased by the robbers, and he felt it now, just as he knew he had felt it before. An anger, a despairing rage was beginning to rise in his innards, almost like a black mass that was growing outward and taking his entire body under its command. He felt horribly saddened and unspeakably furious at the same time while he whirled amongst the soldiers who might as well have been thin reeds blowing in the wind for all the good they—

"Obito… I can see now why Madara chose you."

"I see…

"I am…

"… in hell."

He froze then as the words that he knew to be memory flashed through his mental passage, reverberating and reminding him of something, something that had made him feel so angry, so sad…

Obito found he didn't even care as his suddenly motionless body was struck by a great blow over the back of his head and he dropped to his knees, vision blurring. He could hear Iroh yell something, but another strike and he succumbed to the darkness, the soldiers, the sand, the city, all seeming suddenly so completely unimportant. Because Obito remembered a last thing then, a name. Simple, beautiful and unbearable to even remember upon.

Rin.

Sasuke sat near the rear of Appa's saddle, watching the island they had briefly called home disappear against the horizon. He was genuinely surprised that the bison was able to handle this many people, since supposedly, his usual load had only been four people plus a lemur. Now, laden with ten people, the bison still seemed able to fly through the air with relative ease, though Aang had warned ahead of time that they might need to take an extra break or two to give Appa a chance to rest. Just exactly how a giant hairy beast was able to simply fly through the air in utter defiance of gravity was beyond Sasuke, but for his current purposes, it seemed a moot point to pay it much mind.

They had awoke to briefly pack and eliminate traces of their camp just as the sky was just beginning to brighten. By the time the horizon had glinted pink with the approaching sun, they had taken to the sky in the direction that Azula had indicated. If her father was aboard his command ship, it would have been because he was preparing to make his move to invade the Earth Nation properly; she surmised that at the beginning of their flight that her father surely intended to take the Earth Nation's continent with the arrival of Sozin's comet being only days away. He would amass his superior navy and air fleet as deep in the canals as he could and then strike during the arrival of the aforementioned comet. Knowing that he was aboard his navy's commanding vessel was key; if he wasn't in the capital, it would be much easier to contest the security of a great many ships with their power spread out. Sasuke on the command ship on his own would likely be an easy task and it was one he was hoping he would be able to get away with.

The overall mood aboard Appa's saddle could be described as apprehensive at best, and that emotion likely stuck for a number of reasons. Katara had proceeded during the morning hours as though nothing had transpired the previous night and was now choosing to entirely ignore Sasuke as though he weren't there. He rather preferred this, but her clear coping mechanism was worrisome for how reliable she might be if they were suddenly to fall under attack.

Suki had gravitated towards actually staying relatively near Katara rather than Sokka, Sasuke supposed in an attempt to keep a close eye on her. Sasuke couldn't tell, nor did he care all that much, but it seemed as though she and Sokka were a fair bit more distant around one another than he remembered them being when he had first arrived. It wasn't for Suki's lack of trying; he had seen her on more than one occasion try and press against him or go in for a kiss, but it was though Sokka had just resolutely shut down. He rarely spoke and seemed content to just go along for the ride, not at all the emotion he usually would expect out of Katara's brother.

Aang was doing his best to appear optimistic about the endeavor, but Sasuke could tell the kid was a barrel of butterflies. He would mix up names, calling Sasuke 'Azula' at one point to the bemusement of just about everyone else, and seemed to be very much on edge. It didn't matter greatly though how worried Aang was, Sasuke had every intention of keeping the Avatar from the absolute frontline of this operation if he could.

Azula herself had parked herself exceptionally close to Sasuke, close enough that he could have turned his head to the left, leaned forward slightly, and been nose to nose with her. After what she had done last night, he supposed this didn't surprise him, but when Toph had climbed aboard and sat directly on the opposite side of him, he had definitely taken exception to that. Not because he disliked her company, but he could tell that the animosity between her and Azula was spiking based on the expressions they were making. Any moment, he might have expected them both to start tugging him back and forth like two children fighting over a favorite toy.

How annoying, he thought, but paid their contention little mind other than that. He was sure they would sort out their problems in time, though he hoped not violently.

Across from him were Mai, Zuko and Ty Lee, all of whom looked they had a great deal on their minds they wanted to say as they eyed Sasuke with the girls almost uncomfortably sandwiching him. But with the current fact that everyone was in such close proximity, not one of them apparently had words they were comfortable with everyone hearing.

Hours seemed to tick by with both exceptional speed and sluggish pacing. Sasuke kept himself occupied by sorting out everything he wanted to demand of Ozai in a list that ranged in varying levels of importance. He wanted to know about his people, why they had been killed, why he was the only one spared, how he had come to be in a Fire Nation temple without his memory, among other things. Ozai's lying would be forced aside this time, and he would have his answers.

Eventually, around midafternoon, a small grouping of rocks ranging from the size of Appa to being the length and width of a small village appeared, jutting out of the deep blue ocean beneath them. Aang called out that they would take a respite there and give Appa a chance to recharge; while he was indeed capable to carrying such a mass of people it seemed, it was not in his power to do so for a great period of time without slowing down. Minutes later, they disembarked on the largest massive rock and split up to either stretch out in the sun or take care of their business.

"How long do you imagine this will take?" Sasuke asked as Zuko brushed by him to find a rocky crag to hide behind and relieve himself.

Aang gave Appa a look and the bison opened its massive mouth to give a short bellow. Turning back to Sasuke, Aang replied, "About an hour should do."

Shaking his head at the kid's uncanny ability to understand animals in such a clear way, Sasuke looked up to the sun, trying to more appropriately gauge how this would play out as far as timing. At the rate they were moving, it would be the dead of night by the time they reached the area where Ozai's fleet was presumably resting. The perfect time to strike under the cover of dark, but also potentially the more risky time frame as well. Sasuke waved at Aang in thanks for the answer and walked off, slowly treading by the smooth igneous spires that rose from their little hideaway.

At night, Ozai would likely the most expectant of a sneak attack and rightfully so. The dark was a blanket that could be thrown over just about anything, to smother an undertaking that would be impossible to manage during the brightness of daytime. He would have countless guards, hidden assassins waiting for prey to walk into their blades, ships upon ships stocked with firepower enough to flatten an entire island.

It doesn't matter.

Not for the first time, Sasuke had to remind himself that he was unspeakably powerful compared to these people, and much more so than he had been when he confronted Ozai in the royal palace. His chakra flow seemed wider, more flowing and less restrictive with a much greater amount to draw from. His speed and strength was seeing a rise in potency as well as he had experienced against the island natives, and jutsu returned to his memory by the day. Never the actual recollections of how he had obtained these techniques, of course, but the ability to conduct them was returning with a gradual consistency. His transformation jutsu for example that he had been able to employ at the festival was just one of—

A hand reached out with startling precision and caught him by his loose shirt's collar, yanking him around the side of a larger spire of volcanic rock. At once, he was pushed up against it, feeling the sea soaked crag behind him wetting the back of his clothes as he stared at the person who had so roughly pulled him to them.

"Did you do it?" Mai whispered furiously. Ty Lee was behind her, arms crossed and eyes intense. Sasuke moved his eyes from one young woman to the other before reaching up and gently taking Mai's wrists off his shoulders. She inhaled at his touch, but allowed him to guide her arms off of him.

"Don't do that ever again," he said in a low voice and she seemed to cave, at least momentarily as he added, "As to your question, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Looking ready to bark it at him, Mai instead ran off to the left and right, looking around to see if someone had perhaps come close enough to be in earshot. When she looked convinced that they were alone enough and the crashing of the ocean just beneath them was enough to drown out their conversation, she turned back to him and snapped.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Last night, Azula got awful close to you. And it wasn't hard to tell what she was trying to do, but we couldn't tell from the dark if it actually happened."

He knew where this was going, but Sasuke couldn't resist the slight joy that playing dumb gave him in that moment.

"I helped her stand up if that's what you're asking."

Ty Lee stepped up beside Mai, teeth bared. "Did you kiss her, Sasuke?"

It was something he found that he had actually done a fairly good job at pushing from his mind, though being reminded of it now was enough to make his heart jump. As he looked at the two women who both looked to be seconds away from tearing their own hair out in anxiety, he felt what he supposed might be pity. Despite Azula's utterly selfish and abusive nature, these two still cared about her, as hopeless an endeavor as that might have been.

"She tried to kiss me, yes."

Ty Lee made a noise that sounded like someone had just slammed her in the shins with a steel pipe. Mai nodded slowly and seemed to be trying to contain her own emotions before she asked, "And?"

And what?

That would have been the obvious response that so quickly sprung to Sasuke's mind, but as he looked at the suffering that was very clearly written on both their faces, he found he couldn't bring himself to be his traditional snarky self and instead opted to just answer her question. As he looked back into Mai's eyes, he couldn't help but be impressed by how beautiful she was when she got so intense like this.

"I stopped her."

Ty Lee closed her eyes and Sasuke saw a tear leak from one of them and he ran his tongue against his teeth in a move of utter bewilderment, a move that they both fortunately couldn't see.

She really cares.

Mai turned to Ty Lee and put a hand on her shoulder. She half-looked back to Sasuke, looking herself like a great relief had been lifted off her shoulders.

"We're sorry. We just… had to know."

Sasuke shrugged. "Sure."

He remembered just how upset Toph had seemed the previous night when she had snapped at him about Azula getting up on him. It was clear Azula's attitude and personal feelings towards him were hardly just a concern of his own, which was certainly an annoyance in and of itself. Ahead of him, Mai and Ty Lee walked slowly away without meeting his eyes, both looking ready to pass out from mental exhaustion and Sasuke waited for them to pass before walking the opposite direction.

On the other end of the island, about a hundred yards from where they had landed, the spires stopped rising from the slab's surface and Sasuke was able to fully feel the sun beating down on him as the crashing of the waves roared in his ears.

He wondered what was burning at his insides more, the fact that Mai and Ty Lee were both so utterly loyal to someone who was so dismissive of their friendship, or the fact that he had lied.

Azula somehow seemed sure that there would never be a moment going forward that she wasn't going to be thinking about it. It had occupied her thoughts as they had woken that morning, as they had loaded up and during their entire journey thus far. It was an act that she hadn't been sure she wanted to perform on anyone in such a capacity, but not only had she finally found that person in Sasuke, but she had gotten it as well. And why shouldn't she have? She had never been denied anything before that was of her desire, and his lips were no exception.

It was as much a show of ownership as it was one of passion; with that move, Sasuke had been bound to her through some wordless contract and this was Azula's first step in securing him.

Unless…

There were those doubts again. He hadn't reciprocated the brush of her lips, he had simply allowed her to so that she might develop some false sense that she had claimed him. This was just his way of getting her off of him long enough for him to pursue his own goals. It was the same thing he had done and was doing with Toph, facading affection enough to meet his own gains.

It was with difficulty that Azula kept herself from shouting in frustration, and blowing a firestorm into the sky. She should have been feeling elation, satisfaction, perhaps even joy after what she had done. But instead, her concern that Sasuke was as much using her as she was him had only increased. Aggravation of the most hideous kind was eating her insides alive and she wanted to tear off her clothes, her skin, to find that frantic pulsing inside of her and snuff it out for good. The anxiety did nothing but diminish her perception, her focus, her—

"Azula?"

Her attention.

She turned to see Mai walking up to her, a nervous look on her face. Azula managed to stop her fists from shaking and unclenched them like pliers, the sweat on her palms cold as they were swept by the ocean breeze.

"What?" she fairly snapped. She had no time to be bothered in any capacity, she needed to keep reflecting on herself and Sasuke; surely she had missed something, some piece of the puzzle that would make everything clear, that piece that would tell her exactly how she could finally win Sasuke over and—

"Azula!"

She blinked and looked back at Mai who had snapped her fingers in front of her face. Her childhood friend was looking perplexed and frustrated.

"I asked, have you talked to Sasuke since last night?"

This was more than enough to gain Azula's attention then and she straightened her back in indignation. "Is that any of your business, Mai?"

Gritting her teeth, Mai looked behind her to where the rest of the group was starting to congregate back near Appa a couple dozen yards away to prepare to disembark.

"Cut it out, 'Zula. I saw what happened last night."

Azula bristled at this, but smiled arrogantly, feeling a sting of pride in her gut. "So? Are you going to tell me that what I did was wrong?"

Her friend shrugged, "Depends why you did it."

Blinking and widening her smile in disbelief that Mai was overstepping this far, Azula leaned forward. "It does?!"

Stepping away and running a hand over her face, Mai looked more than a little distressed. "You kissed Sasuke because you're trying to own him. You're doing everything in your power to convince him to be with you. Everyone in your life you've been able to buy over because they stand beneath you in the societal pecking order, or through fear and intimidation. You did that with the other girls at the academy, you did it with soldiers and officers, you'd do it to us if you thought we'd get knocked down by it."

Azula glared at Mai, waiting to hear a point in all this.

"But Sasuke is the first one you've wanted to hold under your thumb that you haven't been able to win over by the usual means. He's not beneath you, he's not loyal to you, and he's much more powerful than you. So you've been doing all these things to try and convince him, and yourself, that you being with him is the best thing that could happen. You fought him to show your toughness, you strive to be near him to show your affection, you took a public lashing for shit's sake to show him your resolve. And last night, you kissed him because you thought that would be the cherry on top and he would finally accept your control and give you his loyalty."

Azula sneered, "I don't think I'm seeing an issue with your reasoning. Why say all this if you already know what's happened and why?"

A dark smirk crossed Mai's face then. "Because it didn't work. Sasuke is just as personally mysterious as ever, not telling anyone how he's feeling. I just went with Ty to ask him about last night—"

"You what?!" Azula snarled, her heart suddenly starting to hammer. Mai carried on as though she hadn't heard her.

"And he denied that a kiss ever happened. He's not willing to admit it happened."

It was as though a freezing dagger much like the one Katara had used last night had sunk right into Azula's gut and she could only stare blankly at Mai for a moment.

"He… what…?"

For some reason, she just couldn't comprehend it; of course, Mai and Ty Lee should have had no business sticking their noses into her business like that, but if what she said was true… had he really not cared to admit what had happened? Why?

Why?

"I don't think you and Sasuke belong within a hundred miles of one another," Mai said flatly. "But if he's really what you want, if you think that this could be more than just possessing him, that you might be able to love him… this isn't going to work."

She turned away and added a last thought over her shoulder as she moved to rejoin the group.

"You both need better than one another."

The numbness Azula felt wouldn't dissipate for quite some time after that.

"Hey."

Sitting on a raised piece of the crag, Toph was able to tell Ty Lee's footsteps coming a mile away; her light pace and bouncy treading was something that had become instantly recognizable to her.

"Hey," she said back. In truth, she really didn't want company of any sort, but she would have been lying if she didn't admit that Ty Lee had grown on her surprisingly quickly since the Fire Nation women had joined the group. She had come to Toph's aid during General Ako's attempted invasion of the temple and ever since, Toph had found she enjoyed the acrobat's company and it seemed clear that the feeling was at least somewhat mutual.

As Ty Lee sat down next to her, she asked, "Did you just talk to Sasuke?"

Through the rock, she felt the girl tense up. "Why would you think that?"

"You've got a way that you walk after you talk to him. I've felt it before and not just from you." Toph assumed that Ty Lee would be more than comfortable lying to her, but instead she heard a loud sigh next to her and a dejected one.

"It was that obvious, huh?"

Toph rubbed the stone beneath where she sat. "When you're like me, you kind of go about things a different way. I can't see people's expressions, but I can tell just as much if not more from what they feel like."

For a moment, they sat in silence before Ty Lee said, "Yeah, I talked to him. Me and Mai both."

"What about?" Toph tried to sound as uncaring as she could, but there was a tremor in her voice that she couldn't keep from coming through. If Ty Lee noticed it, she didn't say anything.

"Well… we saw him last night with Azula. They were a little close to each other and Mai and I just wanted to know if… well, Azula wouldn't admit anything I'm sure, so we decided to ask him."

All at once, Toph's heart was hammering against her chest. It was torture to even consider the question, but she still quietly asked, "And?"

She knew Ty Lee must have been looking at her carefully with how long she took to reply.

"He said that nothing happened."

It was a small comfort as he could have easily been lying, but Toph still let out a relieved breath of air that she tried to disguise as a shaky sigh. This didn't seem to fool Ty Lee.

"Toph… I know that you… have feelings for him."

Curling her toes in an effort to keep a miasma of anxiety held off, Toph chewed the inside of her mouth nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The laugh that Ty Lee gave then sounded almost sad.

"C'mon, Toph, none of us are that stupid. Maybe you think that just because you don't talk about it, we don't notice, but everyone sees the way that you look when he's around."

Knowing that further trying to lie was a waste of time, Toph instead adopted a defensive tone. "So what, I'm not allowed to have a crush?"

Ty Lee laughed again, this time more genuinely. "Not at all. I mean, honestly… he is really cute."

I knew it, Toph thought.

"But he's also one of the scariest, most unpredictable people I've ever met," Ty Lee added.

"No worse than her royal highness," Toph retorted and she could nearly hear Ty Lee wince.

"Fair enough. I guess I just don't want to see you get hurt because of him."

"Didn't you hear me last night?" Toph demanded. "He would never hurt me."

"I know you think that," Ty Lee replied. "And I hope you're right, I really do. Just do yourself a favor and keep your guard up, huh?"

Toph didn't know what to say to this. She knew that she would be wise to be wary of Sasuke, to always keep in mind what she knew he was capable of, but so much of her just wanted to push all that to the side. Her head had nearly drifted into the clouds last night as he had allowed her to cuddle up next to him; despite her tears, it had been one of the most thrilling moments of her life, and she wasn't sure why. Ty Lee was right, but Toph didn't want her to be.

"You two, come on! We're mounting up!"

Suki's words carried over the rush of the ocean and Toph felt the rest of the group starting to gather near where Appa had been resting. Ty Lee got up from the rock first, putting a hand on Toph's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. Before she could let go, Toph reached up and grabbed her hand, squeezing it back; she could feel Ty Lee's surprise, but for Toph, being able to feel this kind of measured closeness with someone else was a gift she rarely pursued. And as she got up to follow her new friend over to Appa, she realized that despite what she said, her proclamation hadn't been true.

Because in actuality, Sasuke was hurting her every minute of every day.

"Our spies have come back with the same report on all fronts," the lead scoutmaster said. "Based on the gathering of certain peoples and the confirmation that members of the Order of the White Lotus are within the city limits, we can only assume that the retaking of the city is imminent."

Ozai looked up from the reports and stroked his chin.

"Does anyone have an estimate on the window we're looking at?" he inquired. His scoutmaster looked to his military advisors before replying.

"It's difficult to say, your highness, but given what we know, Ba Sing Se will likely fall back into the hands of the Earth Nation before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, perhaps within mere hours from now."

Considering this, Ozai leaned back in his throne. Aboard his flagship, he was being briefed by all of his most accomplished and efficient military men and women, and this news that Ba Sing Se would be retaken seemed to have them all worried that he was about to explode angrily and begin errantly executing officers. But the Fire Lord found that the city of Ba Sing Se was hardly something that was that great of a setback. In reality, it was also not even at the forefront of his thoughts.

"Very well. Pull the troops that you can out of the city and away from the internment camps. If the forces are as you say they are, unnecessary losses that can be avoided should be."

His generals bowed their heads. Ozai turned back to the scoutmaster. "You said that my brother was spotted as well?"

"He was, your highness, but he was able to evade capture. We can mobilize a force to try and apprehend him alongside the other White Lotus members if—"

Ozai waved a hand dismissively. "Not necessary. Let my brother play his little games; if he wants to disappear then let him."

His gaze moved towards his lead admiral.

"What news from the island?"

The admiral stepped forward and bowed before replying.

"Your highness, preliminary reporting seems to have been only somewhat off in regards to actual facts. The festival was indeed interrupted by a group of young radicals, your daughter among them. According to multiple eyewitness reports and his own admission, the warden of Boiling Rock prison was head among the soldiers to capture her, and he proceeded to have her flogged before the prisoner Shen."

The atmosphere of the room darkened and a stifling weight seemed to settle over all. The admiral swallowed as Ozai slowly looked up.

"He had my daughter whipped."

"Yes, your highness."

"Like a common thief."

"Yes, your highness."

"And he confessed to doing so?"

"Yes, your highness."

Ozai could only stare before he waved a hand after several arduous seconds. "Carry on. What of my chief advisor?"

"Several bones broken and badly shaken up."

"He was interrogated?"

"From what we've been able to gather, yes. He's passed out due to shock now, but he's on a vessel here now and we will be able to question him further then."

"Very well."

Ozai processed all that he had heard and asked, "What of the others? The ones with my daughter?"

The admiral pulled free a scroll of her own and looked down what was surely a list of details that had been reported on.

"You highness, we suspect that the young earthbender suspected of training the Avatar was among them as well as another girl who we believe to be the Kyoshi warrior who escaped from prison last week. And the last… well, we have reason to believe it was the boy."

It wasn't necessary for her to clarify; the subject of almost all of Ozai's orders to research and track had ceased being the Avatar in recent days and had become the boy who had been able to stand against Ozai himself. But now…

"So, he and my daughter are traveling alongside the Avatar."

He stepped away from the table with an air of finality. "This will make wiping them out that much easier."

Waving a hand at the lot of them, he turned back to the massive window the overlooked the bow of his ship.

"Dismissed."

As his group of top individuals bowed low and began to exit, they were nearly knocked aside as Ozai's chief of security came practically running into the room. The utter insubordination for charging in on a meeting of this sort without being invited, nor announcing himself might have been enough for Ozai to order him struck dead, but the moment he spoke, all thoughts of punishment were erased.

"Sir. He's arrived."

Clasping his fingers together with eagerness, Ozai grinned. "Excellent. I will see him now."

His chief of security gave him a look of surprise. "Sir? Now?"

His smile disappeared as he adopted a look of annoyed aggravation. "Yes, now. Make sure he is allowed every comfort, he is not to be treated as a prisoner."

"But… sir, he killed several of our soldiers and—"

"Another word and I'll have you beheaded and thrown into the ocean."

The chief of security swallowed, bowed deeply and followed the admirals, generals and advisors out the door that slammed shut with a ringing boom, leaving Ozai alone in his massive study.

He turned back to the window to see the very person in question being urged on deck from a scouting blimp. The fastest type of airship in his fleet, Ozai had ordered this particular person to be escorted here with the greatest of speed upon learning that he had not only been traveling with Iroh, but also upon learning just what he was.

Sasuke… I don't believe you are as alone as you think.