Appa flew onwards, away from the caldera, for the next couple of hours, and not a word was said by anyone on his back.

As Aang sat in front in silence, Katara and Sokka leaned over Suki, Katara using her water healing technique. The rest sat there, staring at their laps and not wishing to make eye contact. Their mood, which had been so optimistic not one hour earlier, was foul.

Which, Zuko knew, was entirely justified. What had just happened was one of the worst military catastrophes in history, at least as far as he knew, and it was made worse in that Sokka, Katara and Suki had all lost people, who surely now languished in Fire Nation prisoner of war camps- if they were lucky.

What would happen if they were not lucky did not bear thinking about.

Eventually, Aang deemed them to be far enough away from the caldera and began looking for a place to land. They found the entrance to a cave in the middle of a forest, and so deciding that it was out of the way enough, Appa put down there.

Zuko lit a small fire in the middle of the cave as Suki was placed near it, and then they all sat there. Nobody said anything for a very long time.

"So... what now?" asked Mai, breaking the silence for the first time since they had left the Caldera.

"What now?" Replied Sokka, in an outraged tone. "We've just suffered a terrible defeat, Katara and I lost our father and many of our friends, I almost lost Suki, we may have lost our best chance at defeating the Firelord and you ask what now?"

"Yes," Mai replied coolly, meeting his glare. "We may have lost the battle but we did not lose the war. We will not, however, win it by sitting in this cave feeling sorry for ourselves. So what now?"

Sokka's head dropped. "I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Toph pressed. "You are the planner, are you not? Even if you gave yourself the title."

"I did, but I only led several thousand people into a disaster. I'm not the plans guy any more."

Katara instinctively moved to sit beside him. "Don't blame yourself," she told him. "You did beat one Fire Army."

"No, blame Zuko."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Why?" Zuko asked, though he suspected he already knew.

"Zuko here decided that his loyalty to Azula was higher than his loyalty to us, and so refused to use the Dai Li brainwashing against her."

"You were going to use the brainwashing against her?" Mai looked shocked.

"It wasn't about loyalty!" Zuko tried to defend himself. "It was about methods! I want to win this war, but not by doing something terrible!"

"Oh really? Something terrible like getting an entire army captured? Although I wonder if you consider that so terrible..."

Everyone else looked on in shock. Even Toph seemingly didn't know what to say.

"Are you calling us spies?"

"Your words, not mine."

"Look. I did go into this knowing there was a very real chance you wouldn't trust me, but believe me: I did not tell the Fire Nation anything, and I did not make any decisions intending to make us deliberately lose."

He looked at Toph, knowing that she would back him up. The Earthbender nodded, satisfied that Zuko was telling the truth.

Katara did not acknowledge this, though. "I knew trusting you two was a mistake. We were doing well until you showed up."

Zuko wanted to point out that given what had happened to Ba Sing Se, that last assertion was entirely wrong, but he said nothing. Perhaps a few months ago he would have begun a shouting match, but he suspected that they did not need one of those right now.

Instead, he stood up. "I don't have to listen to this," he announced. "I'm going for a walk." Mai stood up beside him, and together they walked out.

They travelled for a few minutes, until they were sure they were far enough away so they could not be heard.

"Do they seriously think we somehow sabotaged them?" Mai spat furiously once they were far enough away. Zuko had never seen her this worked up.

"I don't think so."

It was true. He was certain that at least Toph believed him, and the others hadn't taken Katara's side either, but that could be because they were still digesting what had happened. "They'll come around."

At least, Zuko hoped they would. Getting thrown out of Team Avatar would complicate matters.

Just then, a shadow passed over them. Zuko and Mai looked up to see the largest war-balloon they had ever seen passing lazily overhead. "They're looking for us," Mai said. "And I never knew they made them that big."

"Correction," said a voice behind them. "We already found you."

Zuko barely had time to comprehend that this was Azula's voice before a succession of quick punches slammed into his side. He saw Ty Lee jump away from him as his legs gave out and he crumpled to the ground. She made no effort to do the same thing to Mai.

"I must say brother, every time I think you're smarter than I give you credit for, you proceed to prove me wrong." Azula stepped out from the shadows, as Ty Lee came up beside her.

"What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to clean up what remains of our opposition- that's your merry band of peasants. Starting with you. I'm going to arrest you, and take you back to the capital. I wonder what father will do to you. His punishment was severe enough when you were just a failure but now you're a traitor too? You're in for a world of pain."

Mai stepped between the two siblings, a knife in her hand. "Oh I don't think so, Azula. You may be a firebending prodigy, but one step closer and you will end up with one of these between your eyes."

Azula laughed. "Oh Mai, don't worry. I'm not going to arrest you. And I would never underestimate your skills. It's why I picked you to come avatar hunting with me. And it's why what I have to do now is such a shame. But Zuko needs to be taught the consequences of his own actions."

Zuko realized what Azula was driving at. "No!" He shouted, trying to move, to do something, anything. But his body would not respond, and he could only watch as Azula began to move her arms, blue sparks lighting up at the tips of her fingers. Mai prepared to throw a knife, and at least to go down fighting.

"Like I said, Mai, you should have feared me mo-ah!"

Azula crumpled to the ground, losing control of her lightning which shot out of her fingers, hitting a nearby tree which burst instantly into flame.

Behind her, Ty Lee stood, still in a fighting stance.

Both Mai and Zuko stared at her, disbelieving, for a second.

As soon as Azula comprehended what had happened, she began to scream something about being surrounded by traitors.

"I'm sorry Azula," Ty Lee whispered sadly. "But you were going to take my friend away."

She then ran over to Mai. "Are you OK? We should get out of here! I'm so sorry, she told me she was going to arrest you!"

She looked at Zuko. "Oh, and sorry for chi-blocking you."

"It's fine, it's just been that sort of day."

As Mai and Ty Lee went to help him up, there was a crash and Toph, Aang, and Katara burst into the clearing.

"We heard shouting- what on Earth?"

It must have been a bizarre sight. Azula lying on the floor, shouting like mad, while Mai and Ty Lee stood either side of Zuko and supported him. His legs were dragging along the ground.

"Oh, hello." Ty Lee greeted them brightly.

"It looks like Ty Lee is on our side now."

The girl turned to look at Azula one more time. She then turned back to them and nodded. "Yes, I suppose I am."