Azula stayed with Madam Tin for three days, collected the meager amount of coins she'd earned doing peasant work and left without saying goodbye. Her face was healing and she knew she would have to do something else quickly. She travelled the road for most of day and stopped to make camp next to a large pond with clear water. It looked like a well-used campsite since there was a recently used fire pit and the logs beside the pond were arranged neatly. Unlike the mountains she'd left behind, this part of the Earth Kingdom was flat and she would be able to see anyone coming a long way off.
"No more pain, Azula," Ursa urged. She had been unusually quiet for the last few days. Perhaps her mother knew not to interfere with Azula's survival.
"No more pain, Mother. I know that you cannot take it. No, this will be much simpler. Silly really. But most city guards are bored and lazy, so I believe it will work." The princess found a flat stone and sharpened the kitchen knife she had kept with her since leaving the temple. Once she felt the blade was sharp enough, she pulled a handful of hair away from her head and swiped the knife through her long locks.
"But your hair!" Ursa protested again.
"Will you never be satisfied?!" Azula grit her teeth and kept on cutting, she cut until she had a large pile of hair at her feet and her haircut resembled the awful mop that Zuko sported while he was in exile. She used the pond's reflection in the dying sunlight to even up the sides.
She then stripped off the worn dress and put on the tunic and pants she had obtained from Ju and Harin. The skirt was torn into strips and she used the long pieces to bind her breasts flat. Once she finished, she looked at her reflection in the pond. "I look like Zuko, but less hideous."
"Do you think it will work?" Ursa's image wavered in the still water, her concerned face appearing just over Azula's shoulder.
"It will work enough to get into the city." Azula sat back down and looked at the pile of hair. She started to braid the long strands into a thin chord, figuring that at least it would be more useful in this form than it was on her head. "Once I get to Ba Sing Se…" she stopped and frowned. What was she going to do once she reached Ba Sing Se? The uncertainty made her stomach turn. She had never been without a long-term plan for this long.
Toph had no idea what to do now. The airship captain and those goons had tried to pass off another man as Teo. They had underestimated her; she could tell the man that slept in the cell had a different bone structure and build. She had to stay calm though, she was in Ba Sing Se alone and if Teo was in trouble (and he probably was), she didn't have the time to waste going back for help.
The metalbender set off for the upper ring and the Jasmine Dragon. Iroh would know what to do.
The next lone traveller Azula passed was unfortunate enough to get his cart stolen. Azula put on the ridiculous straw hat the peasant was wearing and she urged the old ostrich-horse onward. Her journey was much easier from that point onward. She reached the outer wall at nightfall and was directed to wait until those that had travel papers were through the line. She stayed with her ostrich-horse and waited until dark, then picked up her bag and wandered through the shantytown that was set up on this side of the wall. Azula had never seen so many people waiting to enter a city before and started listening to the conversations around her.
"… hear that the city is under lockdown."
"Well my cousin is a guard and…"
"No one is allowed in or out."
"…King Kuei left three days ago for some emergency. Saw his personal airship myself!"
So the Earth King was gone? That was strange, especially if the city were in crisis. Now she had to get inside that wall.
"Hey, man." A scrawny young man about her age came up to her. His cheeks streaked with war paint and his reddish hair stuck every which way. A taller man, his head covered in the same conical straw hat that Azula wore, stood stoically beside the redhead.
"Yeah?" Azula drawled in the country dialect that was popular in the Northeastern region of the Earth Kingdom.
"You need to get in?"
"Why else would I be waiting out here?" Azula looked at the silent man, eyeing the bow and quiver of arrows on his back.
"We can get you in. For a price." Warpaint whispered, walking the disguised princess away from the others, towards the wall that was built around the drill. Even after five years they still had not cleared that relic away.
"I don't have much. Just a few coin and this." Azula pulled out the vial of opium.
"Whoa, yeah we can move that. Come with me. You'll give it to our man inside, alright?" Azula could see the man's eyes light up at the price the drug could get him and his friend. She wondered where Teo had gotten his supply, but shook that thought away. She had already left him behind. Whatever happened to him was of no concern to her.
The two men lead her to the drill-wall where a third man crouched low in the shadows. He had the build of an earthbender, muscled and thick, his weight evenly distributed on his bare feet. The only remarkable thing about him was the hideous mustache that grew on his upper lip.
"Alright, we got a customer. You stand here… and our friend here will get you up to the wall. There's a hatch in the drill. Drop down into it and our guy will collect payment and show you out." Warpaint nodded to the earthbender and Azula was swiftly propelled on top of a rock up to the top of the wall. She rolled off the rock and onto the top of the wall when the rock reached even. There were hardly any guards patrolling this area. It was as if they had just forgotten this part of the city. Then again, she'd still have to cross through miles and miles of the farmland before reaching the lower ring.
She felt a little nostalgic walking through the old drill, not that she wanted to remember her first real failure.
"Hey." A teenager wearing an oversized helmet stopped her progress. "Most of the city guards are protecting the upper ring tonight, so we can get more people in than usual.
"What's going on in there?" Azula asked, holding out the 'payment' for the kid, but not letting it go just yet.
"Are you serious? The high taxes, the riots, the closing of the clinics and hospitals in the lower and middle rings… the government is running out of money and they took it out on the poor. They're blaming it on the loss of the Republic lands but we all know that they've wasted all the tax money on themselves."
Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place; the temple lands were full of natural resources such as coal and gas, but the Earth King couldn't seize the land because of the temple. At least it wasn't just the Fire Nation that suffered economic problems at the end of the war.
"I see. Interesting times." She smiled at the teenager and handed him the vial before slipping out the hole in the wall.
Toph reached the Jasmine Dragon just before the curfew. She tried the door, but it was already locked. She could not feel the usual vibrations of the city. Everything was too still. It felt dead. "Iroh! Iroh let me in!"
The door opened and she nearly fell inside. "Toph! How lovely to see you. What brings you here?" Toph could hear the door locking behind her.
"Trouble. Something weird is happening at the Northern Air Temple and I think it's related to all the weirdness happening here." Toph sat down in the nearest chair.
"These are troubling times indeed." Iroh took the chair across from her as she explained as much of the situation as she could keep track of.
"So without strong leadership the temple dwellers will be at the Earth King's mercy. And Teo was arrested? I suppose that makes sense, but why hide him from you?"
"I don't know. That's the troubling part. Iroh, I think we need to get a message out to Aang."
Azula walked through the empty city streets, her battle instincts kept her focused. She quickly ducked down a dark alley to avoid a group of soldiers marching in formation down the empty street. She stayed as still as she could, finding this whole situation very strange indeed. That's when she saw a familiar face. The man leading the unit was one of her Dai Li agents! Once the street patrol passed, she quickly climbs up the side of the building and lay flat on the roof. She watched the street patrols pass by, mentally keeping track of their movements and making a mental map and plan to get from her current position to a safer place.
On a silent count of three, she started off running, jumping from building to building until she came to the end of the block. She crouched low on the edge of the roof and held her breath as another patrol went past. As soon as they turned the corner, she used her firebending to dim the street lamps and made the jump to the ground. The Fire Princess knew how to roll on impact and was soon up and running again to avoid the next patrol.
She was further into the city, but she still didn't have anywhere to go. With the curfew in effect all taverns and inns were closed.
"Azula, what do you plan to do? We don't know anyone here!"
She ignored her mother again, not finding her the least bit helpful. She looked around for the telltale signs of a flophouse, but instead she saw a small, but ragged Terran Temple.
The Earth Kingdom had mostly given up organized religion, but certain parts of the massive nation were still practicing the so-called "old ways". If she recalled correctly, the little stone and mud temples were still protected under law; they would not be able to turn her away, even after the curfew.
"Welcome to the Temple of Eternal Stone, sir, please make yourself at home while the curfew is in effect." The old monk sat near the door managing to look both serene and annoyed at the same time. Azula could only wish to make that particular face; it was perfect.
Inside the small temple, she saw several men and women stranded and waiting for the curfew to be lifted so that they could go home. Azula found herself in a small corner, where she could keep an eye on the door. It wasn't too much longer that she drifted into sleep as soon as she lay down. The cold stone and hard floor reminds her of the asylum, but she suppresses those thoughts and lets her mind wander to the present.
Azula closed her eyes and saw Teo. She saw him smile down at her from his glider. He even took his hands off the controls to wait for her. "Azula… "
Her dream self picked up her hand and waved it a little, then watched in horror as Teo's glider started to rip, fall apart and then break. She watched Teo plummet to his death, leaving nothing but some shattered garbage and a bloody mess.
She sat up straight, running her fingers through her short, mannish hair.
"I'm going to send you back to wherever you came from. I'm… sure that's an option." The illusion of Kuei haunted her; he carried a torch and a knife in each hand. Azula knew it was only an illusion but it felt so real. Even mores than the ghost of her mother.
Azula frowned. She was going to have to do something about these thoughts.