Several Weeks After Word of the White Lotus' Destruction Had Spread Across the World in a Tunnel Underneath the Fire Nation

"After we were sold out, we were forced to retreat into the shadows and hide from the traitor's forces while we meticulously convinced our fellow citizens that they had made a grave error in supporting the usurper and his regime."

"And while we had to make many sacrifices along the way, we have kept on the righteous path, even when it would have been easier to abandon Sozin's Dream and go into hiding for good like a bunch of sewer rats."

"But tonight is the night we stop hiding and finally rid the world of the blight that is Fire Lord Zuko, along with the parasites that he calls his allies."

"For just as my brother fell apart after Prince Lu Ten heroically sacrificed his life doing his duty, my son has fallen apart due to the traitorous glutton Iroh and his boys club going up in flames in New Ozai."

"So now is the time to strike, and strike hard we will. For even though I can not guarantee that all of us will survive, now is the time since my son will never be weaker than he is right now."

"And after we slaughter Zuko and his allies and win the war, I know that not only will Agni reward us for the sacrifices they have made, but also that I will reward you all handsomely for sticking by me and Sozin's ideals."

"So here is to the promise of a better future."

"Power to the Fire Nation!" Ozai bellowed out on top a worn-out stalagmite underneath one the extensive tunnel networks that connected the various Fire Nation islands, tunnels that only he and his long dead daughter knew about, and tunnels that had proven instrumental in the New Ozai Society's success after Ukano's bitch of a daughter had decided to betray him once again.

And after shouting the slogan, the assembled crowd of over a thousand men started shouting, "Power to the Fire Nation!" causing Ozai to bask in their adulteration before then beckoning them to continue their march towards Caldera City, with his loyal followers quickly heeding his command.

And so the New Ozai Society resumed their silent march towards their day of reckoning, with the former, and so to be restored, Fire Lord leading the way with his right-hand man Lord Ukano by his side.

And while they walked in silence for a couple of minutes, Lord Ukano then struck up a conversation with Ozai, asking him, "Fire Lord, may I ask you a question about my family?"

"It is about your daughter Mai, or more specifically, how are we going to deal with her, is that right?" Ozai nonchalantly responded to his most dedicated follower, causing Ukano to meekly say, "Yes."

Ozai then sternly told Ukano, "You may proceed, though don't waste our time by taking your time to get to the point."

After affirmatively nodding his head, Ukano then told Ozai, "I know that it is true that my daughter has betrayed you twice over, first at the Boiling Rock, and then she sold out the New Ozai Society to your son."

"But it is also true that Mai delayed ratting us out, and it was that delay that allowed the New Ozai Society to survive to live another day. So I am confident that once Mai is removed from the poisonous influence of your traitorous son and the dirt-loving Lady Ty Lee, she will be a loyal Fire Nation citizen again."

"Thus, I ask that you spare her, even though she deserves to be killed for her treasonous actions several times over. And that if she ever conspires or acts against you again, you can punish me for interceding on her behalf." Ukano finished asking Ozai, hopeful that his Fire Lord would show mercy towards his only daughter, though deep down inside he knew that Mai would never swear fealty to Ozai ever again, especially if and when they eliminated Prince Zuko and Lady Ty Lee.

And yes, Lord Ukano lied to his Fire Lord in a desperate attempt to not get his daughter, who he loved despite her numerous fallings, killed due to his need for political power, as well as his nationalism, causing him to form the New Ozai Society.

This was because Ukano still loved his estranged wife and baby boy, and knew that his actions had made reconciling with them all but impossible. But there was a chance, however slim it may be, that he could reconcile with them after Ozai was restored to his rightful throne.

But if Mai was executed by Ozai's forces, then that chance would be forever lost since he would be for all intents and purposes responsible for her death.

But thankfully for Ukano's sake, Ozai decided to show mercy towards Mai, for after taking a moment to mull things over, Ozai told Ukano, "Ordinarily, I would have Mai executed since my policy towards traitors ever since Zuko decided to become the Avatar's puppet and my brother escaped prison is to kill them on sight."

"However, I understand from personal experience that daughters can sometimes veer off the well-trodden path, and so I will allow you to make an effort to capture her alive so you can rehabilitate her."

"Though I have to warn you that I will not risk any of our men's lives to capture your daughter alive, especially considering how dangerous and well-trained she is. So if you want to save your daughter from certain death, it is best that you talk to her before she starts attacking." Ozai said, causing an excited Ukano to give Ozai a quick bow as he thanked him for showing mercy and compassion before then happily humming the pre-Zuko Fire Nation National Anthem.

Meanwhile, seeing Ukano in such a joyous mood caused Ozai to smile as well, but not because of his happiness, but instead because of his foolishness.

This was because Ozai had hated Ukano ever since that mad dirt man "King" retook New Ozai.

For even if Ukano and his men had no warning of the eclipse since Ozai could not afford the resistance finding out that he already knew about invasion plan and was taking steps to not only repel it, but also capture it as well, there was no excuse for one earthbender locked up in a cage that covered his entire body save for his face to retake a city by himself.

And Ozai had especially hated Mai ever since she, along with Lady Ty Lee, betrayed him in the Boiling Rock.

In fact, the only reason why those traitorous bitches were alive today was because his retarded daughter had the bright idea of keeping them alive due to believing that there were fates worse than death.

Though to be fair, before he was mysteriously broken out of prison, there were nights he wished the Avatar had killed him instead of mutilating his soul before having his puppet throw him in a dank cell for life with no means of killing himself so that he could see him undo all the hard him and his ancestors did in bring civilization to the world.

In fact, Ozai hated Ukano and Mai so much that he had already arranged for some of the peasant New Ozai Society members to kill the worthless nobles when they have their little talk, promising them that they will be uplifted into nobility if they successfully rid the world of the dopey nobleman and his bitchy daughter.

Though as he played with his facial hair, Ozai admitted to himself that Ukano's impending doom was not the only reason why he was smiling.

And that was because he was beyond ecstatic that Iroh, along with the rest of his little boy's club, had burned to death in the dirt man's palace.

For not only did his hated older brother, who spent most of his life denying him the respect and adulteration he deserve to get from their nation finally met his end, but also because his passing had destabilized Zuko.

For just like his "real father", Ozai and the New Ozai Society learned from their informants that Zuko was suffering from depression after learning of Iroh's passing and the brutal fashion in which he went out. Moreover, the rest of his gang of misfits were also emotionally hurting due to the Cranetown Massacre, which as much as Ozai wished was his bidding, was not.

Hence why he decided to move now and attack Caldera City.

For the Avatar, Zuko, and their allies would never stand him being on the throne again, and so he would have to take them out. And considering their power was growing by the day as they reached adulthood, his chances of taking them out were growing slimmer by the day.

So he had to capitalize now and pray to Agni that his superior tactics and inmate knowledge of the Fire Nation would be enough to carry him to victory.

And yes, despite what he told his men a couple of minutes ago, he knew better than to assume that victory was assured, for his lack of inner flame served as a constant and painful reminder of his hubris and arrogance.

So, acknowledging the real possibility that he could be killed, or worse, captured alive, Ozai's secondary goal during the New Ozai Society assault of Caldera City was to kill Zuko and the Avatar, or at least make sure that the rest of their lives are just as agonizing as life has been for him the past couple of years by killing their loved ones, especially Ursa, her cuck, and their bastard child.

This was because Ozai hated Ursa for a lot reasons: being forced to marry her due to Azulon believing in that insipid prophecy, her bearing him a weak son and an ultimately retarded daughter, trying to poison their children with her useless peasant morality, her emotionally cheating on HIM with the fucking peasant who he told her to forget about, and her failing to reveal to him her poison making skills until she thought her precious turtleduck was going to die, among other things.

But what drove Ozai's burning desire to see Ursa die a slow and painful death was the insipid speech she gave to him in his cell after she returned to the palace about how he was a small man trying to be big.

Especially since she only had the courage to mouth off to him when he was powerless to put her in her place.

In reality, if Ozai was honest with himself, he hated Ursa's speech because she stated what he had always known about him himself, but refused to acknowledge.

Namely the fact that he allowed his anger and hatred towards Azulon for neglecting him and viewing him as a useless palace rat only good for producing more heirs to warp him to the point that he became a monster obsessed with one-upping his predecessors, even if it didn't make sense, like with the whole Phoenix King debacle for example.

Ozai would also torture Azula to death if she were still alive, not only because she failed to kill Ursa and/or use the letter to start a civil war, but also due to her myriad of failures and lies, none worse than her fall into madness.

For Ozai hated a lot things, things like non-heterosexuals, dirt men, and snow peasants, but there was nothing more he hated than retarded Fire Nationals.

For how was the Fire Nation supposed to promote itself as a nation of prosperity if they had retards around?

Moreover, how is the Royal Family supposed to claim that it has the divine right to rule, and yet produce a retard?

Ozai always thought that no matter how Zuko turned out, at least Azula would make copulating with the peasant all worth it due to her prodigal talent when it came to all things related to waging and winning wars, especially firebending.

But if he knew how both of his children would have turned out, he would have taken his chances in back to back Agni Kais against Iroh and Azulon.

For his supposedly Agni-blessed kids had been nothing but a blight-

It was at this point that the former Fire Lord's musings were interrupted by the sounds of lightning and blood sizzling as people were electrocuted or cut by fire draggers reverberating around the tunnel, all while the tunnel was quickly inundated with smoke.

Shamefully, instead of reacting the way that a Fire Lord and warrior should have, Ozai just stood in place, shocked at what was happening as he had a million thoughts racing in his head.

For the only person who knew where the tunnels were was his long dead daughter, and yet the New Ozai Society was getting assaulted by a small army.

An army made up of smokebending lightning generators, which was supposed to impossible since not only was he the only person alive who knew the lightning generation technique, but also because their assailants had managed to learn how to manipulate smoke, which Ozai had thought to be impossible since every time he tried consciously generating and manipulating smoke in an effort to increase his combat prowess, he ended up hurting himself.

(If Ozai's contacts weren't lying, Lo and Li had apparently died before Zuko could find them, presumably due to the shock of getting banished despite their decades of loyal service to the Royal Family, especially by a madwoman out of all people.)

However, Ozai quickly got over his shock and attempted to help his men confront their assailants, despite the smoke making it hard to breathe or see anything.

But before Ozai could make any significant progress towards where the sounds of lightning seemed to be coming from, the smoke quickly parted, revealing a figure that appeared to be the Kemurikage of legend from those old children stories.

Ozai tried kicking the Kemurikage, but the Kemurikage flipped over him with a gracefulness that he had only ever see in his daughter and her former ally before then grabbing his neck with its feminine, but calloused, left hand while using its equally feminine, but calloused, right hand to cover his face before then bending smoke into his orifices.

And so, as the once again defeated Fire Lord was losing consciousness, he hoped that they would show him mercy and kill him instead of making an example out of him like the Avatar did when he forced him to submit to his will.

The Next Day in an Island Near the Main Fire Nation Island

"Father! Father! I found a bunch of dead people in the river!" Wei cried out, causing his mother, and father, Xiuying and Hui respectively, to rush out of their home. And once they met him, their initial reaction was to comfort him before Hui then told his wife, "Xiuying, call the constable and have him and his men come to the river." with Xiuying quickly nodding her head before heading to the police station to call in her son's starling discovery.

For unlike the other times their young boy made outlandish claims about what he supposedly saw in the river, they knew that this time he was serious since he never cried unless he was seriously hurt or scared.

Thus, after Hui got his hunting weapons, he then had Wei lead him to the river. And once he got there, he too started crying at the sight of hundreds of badly burned and mangled bodies in the river, with only two of them, one belonging to a heavy set older man who was graying while the other belonged to a lithe middle aged man, being recognizable, though latter body was missing its head.

So, after taking several minutes to compose himself, he then held his son's hand as they walked back to the village in order to confirm the validity of his son's report. And as walked, Hui wished that no other village or town would ever be inflicted by such a ghastly scene.

But sadly, Hui's village was not the only one who woke up to such a scene, for across the Fire Nation, the badly burned bodies of New Ozai Society members and their allies in local government showed up in rivers, lakes, and ponds.

Thus the scourge of the New Ozai Society was over, even if the New Ozai Society controlled areas started to fall into chaos due to the loss of any functioning local government and Zuko's inability to project force, at least until he was sure that whoever was behind the New Ozai Society's destruction would not target him next….

The Next Day in the Fire Nation Royal Palace's Throne Room

"Guys, am I a bad person for not only feeling relieved at the New Ozai Society's total destruction, but also glad that they went out in the horrible fashion that they did?" a thoroughly exhausted and emotionally spent Katara asked her friends in a voice thoroughly devoid of compassion or sympathy towards the now gone terrorist group as they sat in a circle in the throne room.

"No Katara, just because you are happy and relieved that the New Ozai Society got the fate they deserved does not make you a bad person, and if anything makes you human." Sokka told his sister as he rubbed her back in an attempt to reassure her, though they both knew that nothing he could say would bring them peace, not after the events of the past couple of months.

For in the span of a couple of months, the siblings had lost their father, their step-grandfather, and Malina, who they had grown fond of and were expecting to eventually become their step-mother, had seen both Water Tribes fall into chaos, chaos that took their grandmother Kanna's life, and have had to deal with the deal with death of Sokka's swordmaster, Piandao, who had barely managed to complete Sokka's training before dying in that horrible fire with the rest of the White Lotus.

"I don't lose sleep when bad things happen to bad people, nor do I feel bad whenever I feel joy that bad people suffer bad fates due to their wrongdoing, so you shouldn't either Katara." Suki told Katara, with the bitterness in her voice apparent to everyone who heard her speak.

For the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors for the past couple of months had to consistently work overtime to protect Zuko from New Ozai Society and New Ozai Society-adjacent threats, as well try to give her friends emotional support as the world they fought for is falling apart and they keep losing loved ones, all while having to deal with recurring nightmares from her time in prison.

"If you fuck around with fire, get constantly told that it can only end in you getting burned, and yet you still mess with it, you can't get mad when people eventually laugh at you for getting burned." Toph angrily said while punching her open left palm with her right fist while smirking.

For the greatest Earthbender in the world hated losing, and yet all she and her friends have been doing for the past couple of months is losing while also losing their loved ones.

For Toph in a short period of time lost both of her parents, which really hurt since they had finally turned the corner in regards to their relationship, her family's wealth and properties, and her metalbending academy.

(After word of Lao and Poppy Beifong's death had spread across the land, the Beifong estate was looted, with Toph not being able to do anything about it due to being stuck in the Fire Nation dealing with the New Ozai Society.)

(And as the Earth Kingdom destabilized, various Earth Kingdom banks had bank runs in which they had all of their reserves forcefully taken by people desperate to feed their families without having to sell themselves and/or their loved ones.)

And yes, the Beifong Metalbending Academy no longer existed, for Toph's Academy slowly but surely disbanded as her students were killed, had to go home to protect their families, and/or left the oldest colonies due to the dangerous situation caused by the instability precipitated by the power vacuum induced by the Cranefish Massacre.

With his eyes glazed, Aang then silently reached out to Katara, who gladly took it and smiled at Aang's attempt to comfort her, even though he was on the verge of breaking down due to all but having his beliefs about the world shattered.

This was because Aang believed that if he deposed Ozai's regime, the world would be able to find balance again since there is no such thing as innately good or evil people, just people who were out of balance, though some a lot more than others, and so most people would be content with living their lives in harmony with each other.

But ever since the rise of the New Ozai Society and the death of all the world leaders save for Zuko, Aang has had his faith in the inherent goodness of people constantly shaken, especially as his Air Acoytles were victimized by various terrorist and bandit gangs, and especially after the White Lotus was wiped out, with Bumi's death hitting Aang really hard since he was Aang's last human connection to the world that existed before he went into the iceberg and Sozin's decided to forcibly spread the Fire Nation's "greatness" no matter the cost.

Though what really pushes Aang to a dark place is seeing his friends suffer, especially Katara.

And this was because if he was honest with himself, he knew deep down that if he fully embraced the Avatar mantle and started killing people, as well as being more proactive in general, things would start to get better.

But Aang also knew that fully embracing the Avatar mantle, especially to degree needed to forcibly restore balance to world as it currently was, would essentially complete the Air Nomad genocide, as well as turn him into a tyrant, instead of the neutral arbiter that the Avatar sprit is supposed to be.

And so all he could do was flail around and win small battles against terrorist groups like the New Ozai Society, but ultimately fail to win the win the war against them.

"The New Ozai Society brought their suffering upon themselves, for even though the Fire Nation "lost" its colonies and had to pay reparations, we got off lightly since we got to keep our sovereignty."

"That and the only people who were punished for the Fire Nation's actions during the war were Ozai and Azula, who were never worth following in the first place, and deserved to be punished for coercing and misleading our people in service of their insatiable need to dominate everything."

"So smile all you want, Katara, for it is not like they, or anyone else for that matter, are going to do anything about it." Mai told Katara before lightly chuckling in an attempt to mask her sorrow and deep self-loathing, though none of her friends were buying it, causing Zuko and Ty Lee to give her a concerned look before attempting to comfort her, only for the noblewoman to refuse their embrace by shaking her head, causing her boyfriend and best friend to leave her alone.

And yes, the young noblewoman was suffering from deep self-loathing since she blamed herself for the New Ozai Society getting out of control the way it did.

For even if everyone told her that it didn't matter since she did the right thing in the end, Mai knew that she was to blame for her father being able to grow the New Ozai Society into a real threat, as well as break Ozai out.

That and even though she agreed with everyone that her father got what he deserved, she still can't help but feel sad that he died, especially in the fashion that he did.

Mai was also sad at the facts that: Tom Tom and Kiyi's childhoods have been irrevocably harmed since they had to be sequestered in the palace due to the New Ozai Society threat; Aunt Mura had to close her flower shop in order to live in the palace with the rest of their family for her own safety; and that Uncle Htun died a little while after the White Lotus massacre in Omashu along with the rest of the Boiling Rock guards and officers in circumstances that the Gaang haven't been able to fully understand, with the only evidence being the fact that that their bodies were covered with smoke and burn marks.

Also not helping Mai's mental state was her having to constantly assuage Zuko and Ty Lee's very different, but related, pain, worry, and anguish.

For Zuko believed that not only did he ruin his mom and step-family's lives by selfishly seeking her out, but also is responsible for Azula's death since he took her out of the asylum when she clearly wasn't well before then failing to chase after her as she ran into the Forgetful Valley, as well for the constant anguish Ursa felt about Azula and her well-deserved fate.

Meanwhile, Ty Lee constantly worried about the "fact" that Azula will someday come back and take violent revenge on everyone who "wronged" her. Moreover, she constantly vented to Mai about how she was angry at Zuko for not only taking Azula out of her "prison", but also having the gall to lose her, though she never bugged him about it since she understood why he did so.

(Mai would bug Zuko about how he handled the whole Azula situation since she also shares the same feelings as Ty Lee, but she doesn't since she also understands why Zuko did so. Not to mention, it would be very hypocritical for her to berate Zuko for his actions towards Azula considering her actions towards her good for nothing father.)

After making sure that everyone was done speaking, the tired and depressed Zuko tried to give words of support to his hurting friend, but could not find the right words, and so instead just pinched his brow and sighed.

Zuko had thought that being a peace-loving monarch who sought to promote harmony instead of warfare would be a (relatively) easy task.

But his reign had been anything but easy, for it has been plagued by constant struggle and strike, from the constant assassination attacks on himself and his loved ones, to the Yu Dao crisis, to his father's breakout, to the Gilak incident, to death of the world leaders and subsequent chaos, to the White Lotus' destruction, and now the New Ozai Society's destruction.

But what kept Zuko up at night, or at least one of the things that kept him up at night, was the fact that he was so weak that his friends and the Kyoshi Warriors have had to essentially babysit him lest he ends up getting overthrown within a week at best, instead of dealing with the chaos present in their home nations.

And speaking of things that kept him up at night, Iroh's death had been devastating to say the least, for Zuko dearly missed his real father and constantly wished he could have helped him instead of being stuck in the Fire Nation.

And Ozai's death also hurt, for even if Ozai hurt him and needed to be locked up for the sake of balance, Zuko had enough self-awareness now to acknowledge the fact that there will always be a part of him that loved Ozai for better or for worse.

Also, the death of Piandao, his swordmaster, had hit him hard just like it has hit his buddy Sokka considering Piandao teaching him the way of the dao swords helped his self-confidence back when he was getting constantly berated by his father and sister for his then lacking bending.

That and his esoteric teachings priming him to be able to not only look beyond traditional sword and firebending forms when it came to combat, but also fully utilize the forms from the other bending arts that he saw during his travels and from watching his friends bend once he realized the error of the firebending supremacist teachings he had been indoctrinated with from birth.

After making sure that everyone else was done talking, Ty Lee then spoke, but not to assure Katara that her feelings were perfectly natural, but instead to ask her friends what they were going to do about the group that had destroyed the New Ozai Society, or more specifically, what they were going to about Azula.

"Um guys, sorry to hijack the conversation, but now that we have made it clear to Katara that she is not a bad person for feeling the way the she does towards the New Ozai Society's destruction, can we please the group that destroyed the New Ozai Society, or more specifically, about Azula?" Ty Lee asked the rest of the Gaang, causing them to stare at her intently.

But instead of wilting under the pressure, Ty Lee continued speaking by then saying, "I know I have no hard proof, but I can't shake the feeling that Azula is behind not only the destruction of the White Lotus, but also the Cranefish Town Massacre and the destruction of the New Ozai Society."

"That and I am pretty sure that Azula is going to come after us next. For I know how Azula thinks for better or for worse, and I know that if I was a disgraced fugitive wanted and/or hated by every major political fraction in the world, I would eliminate them one by one so I could reclaim the power and status that was "wrongfully" stolen from me." Ty Lee said, with her fear of Azula's "impending" return evident to everyone in the room.

Thus, Mai told her paranoid friend, "Ty Lee, you are right we should try to find out who is behind the New Ozai Society's destruction, along with the destruction of the White Lotus and the Cranefish Town Massacre. But you are wrong to believe that they are interconnected, or that Azula had anything to do with them."

"For the only thing that connects all these events is that people were killed with fire, with some of the bodies being covered in smoke. And even if we never find her body, Azula is long gone."

"So please my friend, don't let your understandable paranoia cloud your judgment." Mai told Ty Lee, causing the two of them to start a back and forth about whether or not Ty Lee's theory was unfounded or not.

"Mai, how come most, if not all of the bodies that weren't completely burned have fire dragger slashes on them?"

"Slashing people's throats with fire draggers is an easy way to kill someone, especially if you sneak up on them. Not to mention, non-firebenders could have slashed their victim's bodies using the other elemental arts or with knives before burning the slashed flesh in a false flag attack in order to draw ire towards firebenders."

"Like isn't a major reason behind the chaos in the oldest colonies the fact that none knows who was behind the the Cranefish Massacre, and so everyone blames Fire Nationals, Water Tribesman, Earth Kingdomers, and/or bender supermastics for it?"

"So how did the New Ozai Society manage to constantly stay one step ahead of us unless they had the help of Azula, who has intimate knowledge of the Fire Nation?"

"The New Ozai Society was made up of a wide variety of people from different parts of Fire Nation society, including my father and Ozai himself, so it is pretty obvious why they stayed ahead of us."

"So how did the New Ozai Society manage to get completely wiped out if they had eyes and ears everywhere?"

"Because they miscalculated just how loyal those eyes and ears were, especially since for all the airs they put on, they were just a bunch of terrorists trying to put a loser back on the throne."

"I mean, is it wild to believe that just like his daughter, Ozai miscalculated who was or wasn't loyal to him?"

"So how was the White Lotus overpowered essentially in their own home base unless the group that killed them had Azula actively fighting with them?"

"First off, if the rest of the White Lotus were like Iroh, then I am pretty sure that they were far from the shape they were in at the end of the war considering how quickly Iroh's gut returned after he settled down in Ba Sing Se."

"Second off, maybe they were caught off guard due to, for example, being asleep when their assailants assaulted them, or maybe because they were drunk when they got attacked."

"Like come on Ty Lee, you know better than to assume that a warrior is always operating at peak capacity."

"And finally, I think it is foolish to assume that, even if Azula was still alive, that anyone would be willing to work with or under her."

"What do you mean "foolish", Mai? The only way the Cranefish, White Lotus, and New Ozai Society massacres could have worked is if Azula managed to find and work with an elite team of warriors." Ty Lee pointedly told Mai.

After taking a second to pinch her brow and sigh, Mai then told Ty Lee, "Ty Lee, you know just as well as I do that Azula was never capable of friendship since she never understood the value of bonds beyond the transactional value she could extract from them, not even the bond between siblings or parent and child."

"So how would she be able to convince a small army, let alone one filled with elite warriors, to join her now that she is a homeless, penniless, disgraced fugitive, if she is even alive at this point?" causing Ty Lee to furrow her brows, thoroughly stumped since Mai did have a point.

For why would anyone want to work with Azula, let alone risk their lives and freedom in service of her self-centered agenda?

However, before Ty Lee could come up with a response, Aang told everyone in the circle, "Regardless if Azula is involved or not, it still doesn't change the fact that we have no idea how to track the people behind the New Ozai Society slaughter, just like with the other mass killings."

"So we need to focus our attention on finding the group behind the New Ozai SocietysSlaughter before it is too late since I have strong hunch that the group behind the slaughter won't be happy with one Fire Lord's death, instead arguing about the possibility that most of the bad events of the past couple of years were caused by one group, or that Azula is behind them all." Aang said, causing everyone to nod their head in agreement before staring at Sokka.

This was because Sokka was the idea and strategy guy in their group, and so they were confident that if anyone had a solution to the quagmire that they were in, it was him.

But Sokka quickly told his friends, "I feel flattered that you guys think that I have an answer to the question of who was behind the New Ozai Society's destruction. But like with the other mass murders, I have no idea who could be behind it, or any idea how to find them." before then internally musing on how much easier their lives would have been if June and her shushiru hadn't been killed years ago, which consequently hindered their attempts to find Azula, Ozai, and the New Ozai Society, as well as the group(s) behind the various mass murders.

And so the Gaang sat in silence, thoroughly stumped and nowhere nearer to a solution to the various ongoing crises they were dealing with then when they convened this impromptu meeting in the throne room.

That is until a servant came into the room with a black ribbon package and handed it to Zuko, who thanked the servant before then opening it, wondering what could be in the package as to require the usage of a black ribbon.

Though to everyone in the room's horror, Zuko quickly realized that his communications had been hijacked in order to send him a message. For as the young Fire Lord opened the package, he found his father's severed head, which had an identical scar to his along with a letter nuzzled in his hair.

After taking several moments to regain his composure, Zuko pulled the letter out of Ozai's hair and started reading it out loud after putting his father's head down, shocking his friends into silence.

So what did the letter say to cause such a reaction in the Gaang?

Well, beyond the fact that it was titled "Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown", it said that "they" will launch a frontal attack on the palace one week from today once sunset hits so that they can finally prune the world of the worthless Fire Nation Royal Family and their even more worthless allies before ending the letter by telling Zuko to train hard and sleep well since when "they" killed him, "they" wanted him to be at his best.

So after taking a minute to regain their composure, the Gaang resolved themselves to start preparing for the assault, for as Toph put it, "I am glad that these bastards sent us this letter, for I am tired of getting constantly punked, and so I relish the chance to punk these fools like we punked Loser Lord and Psycho Blue."