AUTHOR'S NOTES—apologies for the hiatus [if that even counts]. Apart from that, I'll give out a few words of comfort, or perhaps a few words of discouragement. Don't worry, Xilingshi is not some fill-in love interest for Aang or anything—or anyone else for that matter. The decision of who gets with who will be made much later on. I'm not even sure if I've decided that yet or not.

AVATAR: THE LAST FIREBENDER

BOOK 1: WATER

CHAPTER 2-2: THE AVATAR RETURNS, PART 2

Southern Water Tribe

Zuko and Azula continued their fierce fighting until Azula began to slowly overpower Zuko. It was not that Zuko's waterbending skills were lacking, but that Azula was a prodigious master and already a deadly force at her relatively young age. Her final move that got Zuko out of her way was a spinning aerial drill kick that knocked Zuko off the wall. He fell to the ground, and was momentarily stunned. By this time, however, Azula had noticed Iroh and Aang. She summoned a couple of Air Warriors to accompany her, and they whipped out their gliders and started flying towards them.

Aang and Iroh put up their guards and sent attacks at the oncoming Air Warriors, but Azula and the two women who flanked her had such swift reflexes that they even prevented even Iroh's attacks from making a mark. When they landed in front of Iroh, however, Azula raised her arms up to indicate that she wasn't going to attack.

"He's who we're after," she told Iroh, pointing at Aang, "give him to us, and your tirbe will be spared. Otherwise, you can proceed to watch it be destroyed."

Iroh said nothing, but looked over at Aang, who in turn looked over the Southern Water Tribe. The other soldiers were still fighting, and even Zuko, who had just been knocked down, was back on his feet and had manned a nearby catapult.

Naturally, Aang did not want to be captured, as it not only was the opposite of an Air Nomad's natural sense of freedom, but also because no person in their right mind would want to be taken captive by an enemy in any situation. However, he had come to the Southern Water Tribe, and now the Air Warriors were letting lose their hand of destruction upon this place. Aang felt like it was his reappearance that had led Azula and her minions here, and as a result, he felt like turning himself in would be the best thing to do.

"You have yourself a deal," he told Azula, "on the condition that you stick to your word and stop the attack on the Southern Water Tribe."

"I will be more than pleased to arrange that," Azula smirked, and as she led Aang away, she had her two cronies spread the word to the rest of the armies to pull back. They did so effectively enough.

"Pull back!" they bellowed, "we got what we came for!"

And with that, they seemed to quickly move out, and just as swiftly as they got here, they were departing back towards the seas. Iroh and those on the ships returned to the mtown center of the Tribes to assess the damage and other such things.

"Uncle" Zuko exclaimed after meeting up with him a few minutes later, "how could you let him go?"

"I didn't let him go, Zuko," Iroh replied calmly, "Aang chose to go on his own accord."

"We're going after him, right?" Zuko asked,

"How do you propose we do that?" Iroh asked, a smile growing on his face; he knew the answer, and it was standing right behind them.

"How do you think I got from the Eastern Wall to the town center so fast?" Zuko smirked, pointing behind him, where Appa was sitting. "hop on."

A few moments and a "yip yip" later, Iroh and Zuko were in the skies. The flying bison was much faster in the air than in the water, and so within a few moments Azula's fleet was once again in few. Zuko landed Appa on a nearby ice cliff, as they did not want to take a direct approach just yet. They would soon learn that they would not have to…

Azula's Airship

Aang was left in a confinement chamber deep inside Azula's airship. Already he began plotting his method of escape. A few minutes later, however, Xilingshi pushed the door open and noticed Aang.

"You've got it good," she chuckled, swinging her staff and combining an Airbending move with it to effectively cut Aang's bonds, "now you should get the hell out of here before they find you."

"You got any idea where they stuck my staff?" Aang asked her,

"probably in one of Azula's personal chambers," Xilingshi answered, "it shouldn't be that hard to find. I'll make a distraction. As soon as you hear the mayhem, run like hell and start searching."

She kicked the door open and ran out. Aang waited for a few moments and then noise of all sorts started sounding all around him. Aang took off, his swift airbending skills giving him an extra boost of speed as he did. He found Azula's chamber somewhat easily, as it was a very large room, but on his way out, several guards confronted him. They appeared to be nonbender rebels that had made allegiance with the Air Warriors.

"Oh come on," he rolled his eyes as he effectively dispatched them and took off, "did Azula really think that Random Guard numbers 1 and 2 would stop me?"

The truth of the matter was, was that Azula was after Xilingshi, and that she had ultimately underestimated the skills of Avatar Aang. She, like many others, had been expecting an ancient master when the Avatar was found, but seeing that it was only a young man of about 16 or 17, it was almost understandable that people would underestimate him. However, he, like Azula, was of prodigious skill, which was why they were near equally matched.

Aang was lucky enough to get to a place where he could take off and fly away with ease, without getting interrupted or intercepted by the guards, or worse, Azula. He did run into Xilingshi, whose face and right arm were covered in flecks of blood.

"What happened to you," Aang jumped,

"Nothing," Xilingshi quickly answered, "just get out of here."

Aang did as he was told, and right at that moment, Azula's cronies appeared and took hold of Xilingshi. She tried fighting back only to give Aang some more time, but once they noticed him flying away, they left Xilingshi and went after him.

"well," Aang muttered to himself, smiling "if they really want to lose at another dogfight, then so be it. It never really gets old…"

What Aang didn't realize, however, was how many things were really working to his advantage in this scenario. Xilingshi was working as an effective distraction, even now that the Air Warriors were coming after him and not her, and moreover, Zuko and Iroh were watching the whole thing, waiting for their opportune moment to strike…