The two teens sat together in the king's royal bedroom. Azula knew that if her plan was going to work, she needed more to work with. And Wally seemed in the perfect vulnerable position to get information out of. She put on her most sympathetic face, (one she had not used in a very, very long time) and began the first step of every natural-born conqueror's ambition. "So," she said, sitting down in a chair," if I'm going to help you get back to your world, I think I at least deserve to know a little more about it."

Numbuh Four looked up from the fascinating table he was studying immensely. "Oh, yeah. Well, hm," he stopped short at realizing just how difficult explaining his modern life to an ancient Chinese warrior chick would be. "I could never," he paused again, "I could never tell you everything about my world."

For a fraction of a second, the girl's mask turned to annoyance, but then bounced back to fake empathy. "Then tell me what you can, without rupturing my mind or anything."

He sighed, then looked up and thought for a second. "Well, I guess I'll start with the most important part of my life. With an organization," he paused once more, for dramatic effect, of course, "...called the Kids Next Door."

Up studying late,

Slaving away through the night,

The dark princess works.

With her plan in mind,

Experimenting on it.

Mysterious thing.

How can I get there?

I must find a way to go.

To conquer, to prove.

Father will be proud.

I will save Fire Lord Ozai.

I will set him free.

Then he will see me

For who I am, his daughter.

He raised me to win.

I will, I'll succeed.

I'll have all that I desire.

Or else they will pay.

A burst of bright blue,

A vortex opens to her.

Mission accomplished.

Now on to the light.

Now go on to the future,

Where doom awaits them.

Now she opened her eyes. For a moment, what had happened was a blur, but now it was all clear. The princess sat up and realized she was lying in a large field of green grass. She hadn't seen green grass in a long time, not since her last excursion to the Earth Kingdom. Well, there was grass in her garden, but not real grass. This grass reminded her of trips taken when she was a child, when she once fell asleep in it when she was young. How scratchy it was, how it made her itch...

She always hated the feeling.

She stood up and brushed the offending greenery off of her red and brown dress. She started off in no particular direction, but she was going towards the Sun so she figured she was most likely going west, as it appeared to be early evening. She did not stop to spare an unfortunate dandelion crushed beneath her feet as she walked. What had Wally told her? The name of that man for whom she was looking...Father. What kind of a name is Father? Obviously, a name for someone who was too ashamed of their real one to create such an alias. Someone who had failed in their previous name. She knew he was to be found in an elaborate mansion: not a villain of modesty, did it seem. She searched all about, this new place seeming to be one that only wanted to help you get to what you needed to get done, because she found her way there in little less than an hour. Every person she encountered was uninterested in her endeavors and told her where to go with no questions even towards her strange mode of dress; they only wished for her to be out of their way.

When she reached her destination, she murmured to herself, "Hm, that went faster than I thought," and made her way up the steps to the towering front doors of the mansion. It could be grander, she thought, at least in her taste. Not knowing what a doorbell was, Azula knocked on the door with a firm fist. She waited for a few minutes, then she was greeted by a group of unpleasant- and yet somehow at the same time, scarily pleasant- children who opened the door. The five of them stood together, all dressed somewhat alike, their eyes alight with an unnatural dull blue gleam: they all asked in monotonous unison, "Yes..?"

"I'm looking for Father," said Azula. "I've been told that this is his place of residence."

"Hm," the children all thought for a moment, putting their hands to their chins in exactly the same fashion at exactly the same moment. "How old are you?" they asked.

"Fourteen," she replied.

"Wait just one moment, please," they said, and turned around, then walked down a hall.

There was something more than strange about these kids. Something far more than strange, something was definitely wrong. They weren't normal in any aspect, and somehow they seemed both rude and rash as well as perfectly polite and rational at the exact same time. Obviously Father had done something to them, something to make them this way, to shape their minds to his own twisted will...

How deliciously diabolical. A wonderful method of control. Azula had a feeling she was going to enjoy the company of this man, until she took everything for herself and disposed of him, of course. Maybe she wouldn't need to get rid of him, but just subtly keep control of him while casting the illusion of power upon himself. That's definitely a possibility.

The children came back and told her, "He wants to speak to you in his foyer, but he said make it quick because he hasn't got a lot of patience."

They led her through halls and into a comfortable looking room with a few chairs and a fireplace. She could see the shadow of a man, steady and stiff with a pipe in his mouth. It wasn't until he turned around in the chair that she could see that he himself looked no different from his shadow. His whole self- skin, hair, clothes and all- were completely shrouded in a tar-like black. Only his eyes remained visible, sharp and glowing with yellow fire. "What do you want?" he asked in a way that reflected that of his children-gruff words spoken with a well-mannered voice.

"I could beat around the bush and try to ease my way into it, but I'd much rather get to the point," said Azula.

"Good, I've got a splitting headache and my Delightful Children haven't brought me my coffee yet," he grumbled.

"I want to make a deal," she said.

"What kind of a deal? I'm already in league with you teens, what more could you want?"

"Oh, no, I see you've mistaken my position. I'm not a part of any organizations, Mr. Father."

"What? You mean you're not a Teen Ninja?"

"Well, I am a teenager and I am quite capable of ninja-like feats, but no."

"Then why have you come? You have ten seconds to explain yourself or else I'll burn your hair off!" He was getting angry now, standing up and creating a massive ball of fire in his hand.

"No need to get aggravated, I just want to take over the Kids Next Door as much as you do. I was thinking, that with our combined efforts, we stand a great chance of defeating them."

He thought about this for a second, and then went on to question, "And what can you do that makes you of more use to me than any of my professionally trained KND-hating ninja machines?"

"Oh, you'll find out," she said, making a face practically inviting him to launch the flames.

"You're just a waste of my time," he said, letting the fire fly towards her.

Yes, just what she wanted. She nonchalantly caught the fireball in her hand and tossed it back to him as an uninterested teenaged sibling would a stray ball from their little sibling's game of catch.

Those bright triangle eyes of his widened into circles as he realized just what this girl had done.

"Do we have a deal?"

"I still don't even know your name, girl."

"It's Azula. Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. I think you'd like where I come from, you'd fit in quite nicely."

And before they knew it a term was struck that would enable them, two fire-flinging fiends, to wreak havoc upon their enemies together. Just after the official handshake, the Delightful Children entered the room, the short blonde boy in the front holding a beverage tray.

"What took you so long?!"

Trudging through the unfamiliar corridors and dragging his feet along with him, Aang slowly moved into some form of lounging room with two brown leather chairs and a couch. It's a good thing he didn't know what leather was, because the strict vegetarian might not have sit on them if he did. But he didn't, so he did sit on one of the chairs to give his achy legs a rest. He had wandered away from his room in search of his friends, alas, to no avail thus far. He closed his eyes for a moment, and in that seemingly short moment a girl had moved into the chair across from him. He saw her when he opened his eyes, quite surprising him how she was able to move so quickly.

"Hey," Numbuh Three-Sixty-Two said.

"Hey," he said back.

"You were asleep for an hour."

"In this chair?"

"In that chair."

"Where-"

"I told you we would send you to Medical."

"No, you told some guy into a weird machine that you were taking us to Medical. And that's not what I was going to ask anyway. Where are my friends?" He stood up out of his chair and looked at her in an intimidating way. Even without his bending, he was sure his martial arts could beat hers. He was not one to get angry often, but this was almost kidnapping, and he needed an explanation.

"Your friends are all in rooms just like the one you were taken to, I can have it arranged for them to be brought here once they've woken, if you like. They're probably already awake."

"Yeah," answered Aang. "I'd like to see them."

About ten minutes later, the rest of the crew- Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Zuko- all made their way into the room, their demeanors ranging from confused to tired to uncomfortable. The four sat down in the order they came in all on the couch. They were a bit squished, but there was no where else to sit, so it made do.

"Guys!" exclaimed Aang. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," was Sokka's response.

"A man-er, boy, came in and spoke to me and explained everything," said Katara.

"Me too," chimed Toph and Zuko in unison.

"So, what do you think happened?" asked Toph.

But before an answer could be revealed, a blaring alarm along with blazing flashing red lights sounded. Meaningless to Team Avatar, Numbuh Three-Sixty-Two knew immediately what this alarm meant. She jumped up, and her face turned to worry.

"Kids Next Door, battle stations!"

A frenzy was made of all the agents, and the group of foreigners did not know what to do. The Soopreme Leader began to run off, but turned around to see who she thought were her best operatives sitting doing nothing. "Did you hear me? I said, battle stations!" She made a motion with her hand for them to follow her, and one machine that quickly puts you into armor later, they were on yet another space shuttle.

A short, blonde-haired boy stumbled tiredly into the kitchen. Numbuh Four yawned loudly. "Hey, have any of you guys seen Azula?" he asked the four already awake children in the room.

"No, haven't seen her around," said Numbuh Two.

"Maybe she got an early start this morning," Numbuh Four suggested, leaving the room. He then walked back in, took a pastry, and walked back out.

He wandered into his and her workroom, but she was nowhere to be found. Surprisingly, the all-too-important rock was nowhere to be found as well. Even more surprisingly than that, there was a giant, swirling white-blue vortex just floating there in the air.

Just as he was about to take a bite of his breakfast, he caught sight of it. "Hm. Well. Now that's something you don't see every day."

Just then the door opened behind him. The bouncy, green-clad girl of the crew emerged. "Numbuh Four? Hey, they rest of us were wondering-WOW!" Whatever Numbuh Three was going to tell him is now lost to history forever, she forgot it quickly at the sight of the portal and looked in amazement. "Ooh! Ooh! What is it, Numbuh Four? Tellmetellmetellmetellme-oof!" He put his hand that wasn't holding a pastry over her mouth.

"I have no idea what it is, Numbuh Three. I just came in and here it was."

"Ooooh..." She removed his hand, and realizing she was holding it in hers; he blushed and jerked it away quickly. "What do you think it is?"

"Hm, I don't know, maybe a portal to Rainbow Monkey Land?" he commented dryly.

"EEEEEEEEEE-" He shut her off again in the same way as before, this time dropping his breakfast on the ground and using the other hand to cover his ear as well while she continued squealing on underneath.

"No, Numbuh Three. I was just being sarcastic. Well, we were searching for a way to get back home, so I'm assuming she found one. But why wouldn't she tell me...?"

She moved his hand again, and this time clutched the other one as well, gripping them so tightly as to squeeze the life out of a metal bar without realizing that a metal bar isn't alive in the first place. "Do you really think we can go back home?" She was looking straight into his eyes, small tears beginning to form in her large brown ones. A face he, or anyone else, couldn't say no to.

"Yeah, I think that. At least."

She looked as if she was about to burst out in another piercing shriek when she let go of him and bolted out the door. She returned in less than a minute, the rest of the team behind her. At first, the others did not believe it was possible, but now they gazed with wonder at the spectacle. They quickly voiced their excitement, and soon resolved to hop right in. They were going home. Good old, normal home.

Or so they thought.