I apologize for the lateness in this chapter. Real life got hectic, then I had trouble writing this chapter. It's all downhill from here though!
Azula stepped out onto the street and into the chaos of the riots. She'd never been part of a riot before, so this experience was new. It was loud; the press of bodies around here was suffocating. She found herself pushed along with the mass of people. She threw an elbow into the face of a man tried to push in front of her. For a moment, she lost track of Iroh, but a spout of expertly controlled flames ahead of her let her keep track of the old dragon.
The mob was mindless, men and women with tools, broken furniture and anything they could get their hands on was turned into crude weapons and used against anyone that did not go with the flow of the crowd. Azula kept her flames in check, not wanting to be the obvious target her foolish old Uncle was making of himself. She could pick up several anti-Fire Nation chants and racist remarks about her parentage as well as crude chants turned against the upper classes of the city they were now all prisoners in.
The defensive flames from the old firebender stopped when even more shouting was added to the din of the mob. Crying, screaming, wailing, Azula waded through all of it to try to find the old man again. The princess landed a sharp kick to the back of the head of a man trying to force himself on a shop girl and stepped on top of both of them. There up ahead! A wide girth, a bald head, a crimson mask of blood flowing from a wound in the old man's brow. Iroh was crouched on the ground, stunned from the blow to the head, but at least he'd stumbled away from the thickest parts of the mob.
She saw the cobblestone road lift up in a giant wave and leapt to the side, catching a drainage pipe on one of the old buildings and swung out of the way and into the alley with her Uncle. She knelt down and tore the vest off of an unconscious man and stood over the retired general. "Hold still." She said, dropping her voice and pressed the ragged shirt to the wound in Iroh's head.
"OH! Oh thank you… young man," Iroh mumbled and tried to look up, but Azula stood behind him.
"IROH!"
Azula narrowed her eyes, not expecting her uncle to have an escort. Ursa chided her for not thinking through all the possibilities in this scenario. She grabbed Iroh's hand and made him hold the cloth to his head. She stepped in front of him… not to protect him, but she needed the old fool right now.
A slim figure rounded the corner, skating on the stone tiles with bare feet. Azula dropped into a defensive stance. "Stay back, earthbender!"
The girl with milky eyes dropped her stance. "Azula?"
The princess recognized the Avatar's earthbending teacher and stood. "Impressive that the blind one is the only person that's recognized me."
The young woman threw her head back and laughed. "Well you are a 400-foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings!"
"Azula?" Iroh was finally on his feet and staring at his two saviors. "I did not recognize you in… those clothes. He peered out into the main streets where most of the fighting was still going on. "We need to go now. I believe I know where young Teo is."
He had no idea how long it was since he last saw any of the soldiers that brought him here. He crawled from the damn back corner of the cell towards the bars. He grabbed the bars and pulled himself up to a standing position. "That's better." Teo mumbled to himself as he hooked one arm around the crossbar of his cell and rested his head against the metal bars. He couldn't see much past the stretch of hallway on each side of his cell. He strained his ears to hear any sign of life, but it seemed like he'd been abandoned.
He lowered himself back to the floor and sighed. He spent the last few days (or what felt like days) trying to pry up the wood floors only to tear up his hands and find the subfloor was lined with a rusted metal sheet. If only he were a bender of some sort… though if he were wishing, he would wish for his home to be safe, legs that worked and just for fun, a hundred gold coins and a whole roasted goat-pig. The thought was so absurd he started laughing.
Teo laughed so hard, he hit the side of his head off the bars. "Oww! Spirits!" He swore and held his head. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an abandoned spear. He could feel a sudden burst of energy as he reached for one of the boards he'd pried off the floor. He worked until he could barely lift his arms, trying to move the spear with the strip of old wood. He slowly pulled the spear closer.
Soon. Soon he'd have a way out.
Just.
Another.
Few.
Inches.
Aang urged Appa to fly as fast as he could to Ba Sing Se despite the number of passengers he was carrying. Riots in Ba Sing Se. He thought back to the time Zuko and Keui nearly started a war over the colonies, but not even that had gone into full-blown riot status. And they were just regular people, angry about…
What were they angry about? Aang stepped off of Appa's head and down into the saddle, tapping Sokka to take over. "King Keui, what can you tell us about these riots?"
Keui looked up at Aang then pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "As I said before, Avatar Aang, there has been unrest in the entire Earth Kingdom. We just don't have the resources or the money to pay for imports from the colo- I mean, the Republic. People are starving and there's nothing I can do to help them. Ba Sing Se has been on a curfew but I suppose that won't stop the people from crying out to their King."
Aang looked down at the man, puzzled that the king seemed to be unconcerned that his people were killing each other. "Perhaps once we get to Ba Sing Se, we can organize some aid to those in the Lower Ring, so that everyone will be happy."
"Yes, yes, I'm sure we can find something to make them happy." Keui said dismissively. "Did you know, Avatar Aang, that your acolyte Hei-Won is from Ba Sing Se?"
"Yes, she did tell me that before." Aang sat down next to the king, unsure of where this conversation was going to lead.
"Has she told you about her brother? Heun? No? Well it seems that her elder brother was one of those traitorous Dai Li agents. Once he returned from the Fire Nation, I had him arrested."
"I see. How long is his sentence?" Aang asked carefully, knowing that this was some sort of trap or game. He just wished he was better at this sort of thing.
"Oh, not long. Not long. He will be out of prison soon."
The Mechanist docked his "borrowed" airship at the Northern Air Temple and rushed down towards the main level. People stepped aside or dodged out of his way as he entered the dining hall, which was usually the central meeting place for the entire temple. He skidded along a freshly mopped floor and slid to the long rope that hung in the corner and pulled.
A steam-powered whistle blew, the summoning signal that would call everyone together so that he could tell them the disastrous news. But how could he just tell them that their home was just given to the Air Nation. Not with what he'd seen on his journey home.
"Everyone! The Council of Nations ruled that this temple now belongs to the Air Nation!"
A stunned murmur rippled through the crowd. All the faces turned to their leader.
"In the past, I would say that we could reason with them. But now, we have no choice. On my way here, I saw a large platoon of Earth Kingdom soldiers marching along with a number of Air Acolytes ascending the mountain. We have two choices, my friends, we can either leave our home or we can fight for it! The other nations have already decided that they don't care about us! The Earth King decided we were expendable for so much gas and rocks! The Avatar and the Acolytes only want to force us to conform to their ways!"
The Mechanist held up his hands to hush the crowd again. "I cannot decide on my own, friends. We need to stand united. Do you want to run or do you want to fight?"
Azula crouched low on the table of rock that Toph had summoned. It was an unconventional way for firebenders to travel, Ursa was making noises, but the princess ignored the presence of her mother for now. She held onto Iroh's shoulder with one hand and braced the other against the rock as it sailed above the ground faster than an ostrich horse can run.
"How much further to this lake?"
"I don't know! I'm just driving, I thought you two were navigating!" The blind earthbender shouted back.
"Lake Laogai should be just up ahead and to the left. Then we need to find the secret entrance, which might take time." Iroh filled in, the temporary bandage on his head turning black with blood. He looked alert though, so he must not have been injured too badly.
"Oh that's easy!" Toph slowed then stopped the rock and stomped her feet around like an enraged komodo rhino, then stepped up onto the rock. "There's an opening this way. I don't sense any movement, but that doesn't mean there aren't any guards."
"I can handle anything the Earth Kingdom throws at me." Azula could feel her inner fire blazing at the thought of a real fight. She itched to let herself go after years of hiding herself away and only firebending when absolutely necessary.
Teo's fingers touched the handle of the spear and he let out a sigh of relief. He slowly crawled his fingers further up the shaft of the spear to pull it closer. It seemed like it took longer to drag it close than it had to reach the damned thing in the first place, but when he finally pulled it through the bars of his cell, he collapsed backwards, clutching the spear as if it were made of gold.
"A… a quick nap won't hurt." He mumbled to himself and closed his eyes, still clutching his prize.
He felt the earth shake and a series of distant explosions echoed through the metal-lined hallways, then all went still. Teo stretched his shoulders and crawled back towards the bars of the open cell and held his breath, expecting at any time for the general or one of his thugs to return.
"Maybe… maybe it was nothing."
There was another explosion, much closer this time that shook dust all around him and deafened him. He used his spear and the bars to pull himself upright, clinging onto the support as he caught his bearings. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to prepare for whatever came next.
He didn't notice the water until it was pooling around his knees.
He was going to drown. Even if he did manage to stay above water long enough for the cell to completely fill with water, he was still trapped. No one was going to save him. He was pretty sure that no one even knew where he was. That general had been very clear that he was only an afterthought on everyone's priority list.
If he was going to survive, he was on his own.
He jammed the spear tip between the cell door and its support frame and leaned his whole body on the shaft. It took a few tries but the shaft snapped off, leaving him with the sharp point of the spear. He then let himself fall down into the water so he could start prying at the door hinges with his new tool.
He had to get out of here.