Aang didn't feel the wind on his face, but he didn't feel the ground beneath his feet either. He was going over clouds stretching off to the ends of the earth…maybe beyond that. He found himself seeing…or sensing…a world where possibilities still had shape. Where concepts like 'infinite' and 'void' still meant 'lots' and 'a big black blob'. Where time was still a matter of going backwards and forwards along a straight line. These would fall away…given time…but for now Aang was simply getting used to the idea of dispensing with gravity. It wasn't hard. He was an Airbender…maybe not for much longer but that made ideas like 'drifting' and 'disconnecting' a little easier to grasp.

It occurred to him that he wasn't flying Appa, like he usually did when these clouds appeared. Of course not. He didn't need his companion. He could have been flying Appa if he wanted to, but he was fine flying on his own. The clouds were bathed in colour…it didn't matter which one…and they lacked clarity, making them look more like floating cotton than water vapour.

The clouds…they were familiar alright. The subject of plenty of sleepless nights. The clouds ahead of him especially so. They coalesced into something black and heavy, thunder cracking and almost solid with moisture. He knew it was supposed to mean something…something bad…but the meaning escaped him. Even as Aang delved into the maelstrom, arms spread, he was aware that he was supposed to be feeling dread, but he wasn't sure what that meant anymore. And he was spreading his arms? He didn't need to spread his arms. Ah well…it felt good.

The clouds enclosed him in darkness. Thunder cracked and boomed, but even if lightning coarsed near him, it seemed dim and distant, like sounds coming from over a hill or through a blanket. He looked ahead, but looked around, behind and besides…around him were people he knew. The people he left behind. The Air Nomads.

They seemed happy. He was sure they were okay.

The figures doubled and trebled. They were joined by people Aang knew and some he didn't…but of course he knew them. There was his mother, dressed his blue. There was his mother dressed in green. A small child, a Prince of the Fire Nation, he remembered bouncing him on his knee. That wasn't long ago, he recalled.

There were his friends. Toph, Sokka…Kuzon and Bumi. They seemed to be talking to each other, the same age as each other. That was nice, it'd help them to get along, he felt. There was Zuko. Aang couldn't tell what he looked like. He metamorphosed at a pace he couldn't keep up with. Aang was seeing everywhere, and Katara stepped into his vision. She didn't seem to notice him, and just wandered from cloud to cloud. Sometimes she was in blue and sometimes she was in red…there wasn't much distinction between the two.

They seemed to be getting along. He felt it was time. One of the figures stopped to look at him, the only one who noticed him. She grinned.

Aang was facing everywhere when the lightning in the clouds coalesced and coursed through his back. His back was everywhere too.

The figures drifted away, and the clouds parted. A clear sky came over him as Aang fell. He fell for forever and a second. The sea was warm. It was such a familiar feeling, this sensation of plunging, slowly into the water, letting go of whatever secured him. He didn't take Appa's reins with him this time. Good, nothing to fall back on. But he didn't remember the water feeling this warm. Nothing dramatic was going to happen, no sudden urge to get away or get back. He was already away. And already back. He just felt like drifting off, becoming the ocean, losing the sharp distinction between his skin and the water. It was so silly and illusory, this physicality, this insistence on separation. It just made everyone feel lonely. Aang didn't want to be lonely anymore.

Through the haze of the water, there was stillness. No voice stirred, no bubbles bubbled. But something was here, something that shouldn't have been here. He looked dreamily into the water, and there ahead of him, floating completely still, was a range of masks. They were fixed and determined, numbering in the dozens, easily countable if Aang had the faculties left, but their sheer physical presence in this realm was disquieting. Their round pale faces and black eyes stared at Aang. They might have been accusative if you wanted them to be, or sad, or indifferent, or even contented, but accusation was definitely the aura coming across. Aang's body was held up in the water, clothes rippling and eyes blinking. He had clothes to ripple and eyes to blink, in this place. The masked creatures didn't speak.

Our children.

They didn't speak. It was something else. A feeling. An intuition.

You promised to protect our children.

Icicles were dragged up Aang's spine. There wasn't much difference between action and metaphor here. Just a sense that something was wrong, very wrong.

Give us back our children.

Aang was starting to panic. There wasn't anywhere to go in this water. He huddled himself. The water was cold.

GIVE US BACK OUR CHILDREN.

The water was so cold…


Toph was half-awoke by a low whine from the direction she supposed the bed was in. Her head swivelled around towards the sound, which was unmistakably from Aang's throat, and deduced it to be something like shivering. The blind Earthbender was weighing whether or not to wake Katara, who was asleep on the stool beside the bed, body leant over the blanket, but after a short while the shivering died down, and Aang just went back to being unconscious again. Toph lingered. She wanted badly to know what was going on with his body, if it was like the other times he'd faded out of existence, physiologically speaking.

That little interruption over with, Toph swivelled back to what she was doing. She had spent the night sitting cross-legged in front of the hull, trying to figure out what it was about this particular metal that made it so different to that particular metal. She had risked punching it, and after several goes of this had been asked to stop since their room was attracting some unwelcome attention from sleepless fellow passengers. What little she had managed to detect from these outbursts was utterly useless…fragments of earth so small that it barely qualified as more than dust specks. Bending that might have resulted in a hole the size of a pin-head inside the hull, and even that would have been an achievement.

So now she did what she did best. She waited. And she listened. She waited just like she waited in Gaoling all her life for something remotely interesting to show up, missing opportunity after opportunity just because it wasn't proper for the daughter of a prominent landlord to actually show some backbone, much less such a blind, delicate little girl like herself. And she listened like she listened to every little excuse her parents made as to why she wasn't allowed to do anything by herself. The reasons were elaborate, and so convincing that they convinced themselves. They were sure that any attempt by her to show some independence was going to end in tears. She was not going to give them the satisfaction.

Toph placed a hand on the metal, and tried to internalise what she felt. There was a surface there, and it extended outwards, but she couldn't tell where it began or ended. If she felt it with her fingertips, it felt like five separate squares of metal had arranged themselves in thin air for her fingers to touch. It seemed like she was standing on the top of a tall metal pillar, in the middle of a chasm. Apparently a lot of mystical, spiritual people used the very technique of squatting on tall pillars to find some inner truth to the universe. Jerks. When this was all over she was going to track down every single one of those pillars and submerge them.

She couldn't feel anything on Appa's back, either. But somehow…at least before he lost his saddle…that was better. It was a confined space, and she could tell where the limits were. It's very hard to be surprised when there were only two other people and a winged lemur present to surprise her. She remembered Sokka trying that once, sneaking up behind her and yelling 'flying shark attack!' She'd waited until they'd landed again and then bended mud in his face, flipped him to one side, encased his head in the ground and screamed 'help! Help! Sokka's being slowly and painfully devoured by a giant croco-python!' He…stopped making pranks after that. Nandi was certain for the same treatment if she could just figure out how to encase his head in iron jaws. That would be cool.

Toph sighed and pulled the hand back. It wasn't any good feeling it…no matter what, it was never going to budge. She wasn't as fretful as she had been at first, but she was still frustrated beyond belief. Pounding that wall had been good stress relief for her, so it was getting hard to concentrate with her adrenaline constantly running high. She'd barely slept all night, staying in that same crouched position while she cursed the material facing her. She didn't have a choice. She was not going to keep feeling so vulnerable. She couldn't.

She listened to the metal. It didn't feel like it was there in front of her, but it had to be. There had to be something to give it away to some other sense than the hands and the feet. The air was still and silent. The hull had been getting warm to the touch, so the sun must have been coming up. She listened harder. There was a rumble elsewhere in the ship, the sound of the engines, which made everything clatter whenever they changed speed or direction. The clatter showed itself up in the metal. The screws rattled in their hinges. She could hear where the screws were. That was progessed.

Harder. The joins were sliding, imperceptibly but slightly, from two separate forces, from the sea and from the engine. The sea was the great unknowable, the big…wet thing that stretched for eternity, a massive expanse of void that…best not to think about it, really. The engine, that was a better thing to concentrate on, nice and solid. Where the sea was random and chaotic, the engine was constant and predictable. The rumble came through all the joins, where she could hear the edges, and where the floor began. In her mind's eye, the world became a wire frame. That was definitely progress, but not the progress she wanted. She didn't want to know the edges, she wanted to know…it.

But just as the joins, the solid objects, could be heard at the very edge of her perception, everything seemed to organise itself around the sound of the engine. It was this that Toph concentrated on next. It reverberated throughout the whole ship, and when she concentrated harder she could tell that the ship was built around it. The echoes and surges, the clinks and clangs, all seemed to pulse out of this heart. After a short distance away from her body the sounds dissipated into a riotous jumble, but she could tell what was in the room by using the engine as a marker buoy. If she concentrated on the engine itself, maybe she could tell the layout of the entire ship. It came as something of light-headed relief to be able to tell some kind of shape of her surroundings, even if it was only their room and a couple of other rooms next to theirs, but she'd only achieved this by staying utterly rock still. As soon as she herself moved, all that perception would be gone and she'd have to start all over again. She needed to make the most of what she'd been able to pick up here.

Toph listened even harder. The engine. It wove a web around it, and that web was the ship. Through the web she came to centre, trying to pick out what those individual rumbles that resolved themselves in her stretch of hull actually did. Some became identifiable. There was something constant, that kept a constant pace no matter what, something stuck in one defined place but always moving. Rotating. That had to be it. An axle of some kind, constantly twisting. Then there was a fast, regular swish, that must have been connected to the axle. The whole thing made a turbine. It had to be powered by something. That something surged through, making a high-pitched squeal. Vapour, being sent through pipes. What were they turning? A propeller. The low, repetitive rhythm that drove the ship forward no matter what was pushing against it.

Identifying the sounds led to the objects themselves. She could tell what they were, suspended in space some distance away, the clearest thing in the whole ship. She could tell how many cogs there were, how many pipes led into it, how many furnace doors were open as the coal was piled in, and while still imprecise it was detectable, a large collection of substances that reflected, responded, vibrated and stomped. The substance. She couldn't just hear it, she could feel it, a distant object, peered at through a telescope. The sound had led her towards it, but now the engine was making itself known in its own terms. It was sensual, material, solid.

It was Earth.

"That's it!" Toph cried in joy. Her loud exclamation broke her concentration and the wireframe of the room disappeared, but that didn't matter. The engine remained, diminished but perceivable. No more than the feeling of an ant on the back of her shoulder, but it was there al-right. An island of solidity in a sea of…well…sea.

"Mmmnnnggahhmmm…" Sokka's sleep had been interrupted by Toph's pronouncement, and he mumbled exhaustedly, "…nuuuhhh…Yue, it's Suki's turn ta dance the flamammegghhuuubblll…"

Sokka went back to sleeping in the other double-bed, on the far side of Aang. This made the warrior pretty much the only one of them to get a comfortable sleep last night. With his sudden half-asleep proclamation drifting in the air, Toph felt suitably annoyed to plot yet more arbitrary and random things to annoy the Water Tribesman with. Still feeling elated at getting an ant-resting-on-shoulder's shred of 'sight' back, she smiled as she picked herself up off the floor and felt for the nearest bedpost. Running her fingers along the bottom of Aang's bed, her hand ended up sliding up Momo's back.

The animal wasn't given much time to wake up from his slumber before Toph picked him up and planted him on her shoulder. Purring softly, Momo relented to be Toph's slave once more as she felt out to the other bed's metallic ridge. Finding it, she pulled herself aside into the gap between the beds where Katara was sleeping soundly in her stool. Before her, in the blankets of the bed, Sokka slept soundly.

Toph cleared her throat, "okay, Sokka? You're gonna have to wake up now. I think I've found some way around my problem and I want you to help me get down there. Sure, I could do it easily enough myself, but since you're always so eager to help…" Toph drummed her fingers against the edge of the bed and waited, "'cuz if you don't volunteer your services…I'm gonna have to start poking. Now…I don't know what I'm going to be poking at, so if my finger becomes lodged in your ear-hole, you only have yourself to blame." Sokka smacked his lips as he drifted deeper into slumberland. Toph shrugged, "suit yourself."

Toph prepared both of her index fingers to attack the curled body of Sokka, and proceeded to jab mercilessly. Sokka shifted, mumbled, shook, grunted and generally acted like two bony fingers were prodding him in all kinds of sensitive areas. Sokka made one more attempt to keep sleeping, but out on the fringes of sleepy-time, his mind sensed something was amiss. His nerves acted on impulse, spinning himself bodily across the bed and onto his knees, pulling his boomerang out from under his pillow and muscularly slinging the sharp end at the intruder as hard as he could.

"nnnyyyaaagh!We'reunderattackwe'reallgonnadieI'mgonnakillemallaaaag-NNNGH!" Sokka screeched unintelligibly, glaring down at Toph, then screwing his eyes shut and putting strenuous effort into stopping his boomerang embedding itself in Toph's head. Momo screeched in terror and covered his eyes at the impending doom of the blind Earthbender's skull. Toph didn't remotely flinch even when Sokka's weapon was half an inch from her scalp, still being carried by a momentum Sokka was barely able to keep in check. Only just succeeding in his task, Sokka threw his arms to either side and yelled at Toph, "what do you think you're doing!? You activated my automatic defence reflex! I could have shish-ka-bobbed you without realising!"

Toph pursed her lip in puzzlement, since out of all the talents Sokka held, being a light sleeper sure as heck wasn't one of them, "since when did you have an automatic defence reflex?"

"Ever since you joined the team…" Sokka yawned and scratched his back with the boomerang, asking tiredly, "so why were you digging your fingernails into my flesh?"

"I felt something! Something earthy! I think it's the engine, I can tell where it is!" Toph slapped the side of the bed excitedly, "if I can get down there, I might find metal that I can use! But…well…it's over there." Toph pointed at an angle towards somewhere just above the edge of the floor, beyond which lay the object she was able to detect, "annnnd…I'm over here."

"I take it this is a really weird, roundabout way to ask me to help you downstairs towards the engine-room?" Sokka blinked through shadowed eyes.

"No! Of course not!" Toph reacted angrily, "I don't need anyone's help! I can manage on my own! But…if you want to tag along, then…I guess…"

Sokka stared down the Earthbender with a dulled lack of all warmth or humour. It was going to be a long day. The warrior sighed, "metal you can use, huh?"

"Yeah…not like this cheap, cruddy Fire Nation stuff," Toph stamped her foot on said stuff, "if I just knew what it was I was doing last time, I know I can master it. I'm sure of it."

"'cuz nothing beats the greatest Earthbender in the world, huh?" Sokka mumbled without enthusiasm. Sokka yawned again and rubbed one of his eyes, stepping off of the bed, "alright, I'll just go drown my face in the sink first."

As he stood up to his full length, Sokka noticed that Katara was still sleeping soundly, her head resting on the blanket of Aang's bed as she sat in a stool beside the last of the Airbenders. Aang's blanket rose and fell with the Avatar's breaths, slowly and languidly, as he lay unconscious. Sokka wondered, "all that racket and she doesn't even budge…how long was she up?"

"Almost the whole night," Toph turned her head to one side to hear their breaths more clearly, "I should know, I was up the whole night hearing her walk about, do some healing and sigh really, really loudly. It's like how he was in a coma last time, except now I can't jump at every shift in his heartbeat. She wanted to stay awake in case he woke up, so she'd be there straight away."

"And now, later on when he's more likely to wake up, she can't because she's too exhausted," Sokka crossed his arms, "yeeeaaah…that's real long-term planning."

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Toph sounded uncharacteristically concerned. Sokka made the mistake of keeping silent and letting doubt seep into the atmosphere.

"Sure! Absolutely! He's the Avatar. He's got special powers and everything…he'll be better than fine soon enough, I'm sure…" Sokka drifted off, then stretched his arms, "nnnguh…might as well get going, while I'm still standing up."

"Yeah…" Toph held a hand up to Momo, perched on her shoulder, and petted the winged lemur. The soft purrs the creature emitted did little to assuage her doubts. She turned around and held a hand out for Sokka to take, leading her towards the door beyond the feel of her feet.

The metal portal let some cool air into the brightening, stuffy room as it opened and clunked loudly as it shut. Katara shivered briefly and clutched the blankets closer to herself. Aang didn't move a muscle.


With the sun out of sight on the other side of the rocky ridge, the morning sky was bathed in orange. It was far from the tropics further inland, where the cicadas drilled into your temples with their calling, or the seafront of the islands, where crow-gulls would always blacken your field of vision. Here, deep in the mountains, was nothing but herself. Azula, stripped down to an undershirt and functional skirt, peered down the craggy canyon towards the dark cave entrance ahead of her, savouring the stillness for its serenity. Serenity was something that few Firebenders appreciated, but she knew it to be an integral to the very nature of fire. Before, there is noise and movement, irregularity and disorder, and never a moment of clarity. But after? Stillness. Silence. Firebenders too often make the mistake of considering the violence and temper of fire to be an end in itself, but Azula always kept in mind its purpose. The purification was violent and consumptive, but serenity was always the ultimate end. She never forgot that.

"Your highness," Lih spoke from the top of the side of the ridge, to Azula's right, calmly and methodically, "the challenge before you is the hardest of all the 36 challenges prescribed by the Firebending tradition. The challenge of the Beishaolin caves. This challenge requires every single technique known to Firebending. The sun is reaching over the horizon. You must go through the ridge and reach the Songsham Outcrop before the sun does."

"You will pass the challenge if the sun has not yet emerged over the tip of Dengfeng Peak. Many have attempted this challenge, and few have succeeded. A larger few perish entirely," Loh spoke from Azula's left, also calmly, "this challenge may not be attempted more than once, and never with knowledge of what's to come. We expect you to perform adequately."

Azula paid heed to their advice. It was only ever advice and comment that the nuns gave, never instruction. She'd long since passed the point of needing any. All she needed the two of them for was observation, and for that she deeply valued them. She waited, hands on hips, bare feet planted into the craggy rock, and smiled.

She began.

Her feet found the softest surfaces to touch upon as she ran, but even when stepping on sharp rocks it wasn't troublesome. She never stayed on them long enough for them to hurt. Her arms pointed out behind her, she plunged into the darkness.

A wall of heat met her, but she never dared slow down. It was only heat, after all. At the end of the tunnel the darkness seemed to end and an orange glow lay across the dry cave surfaces. This was the obvious starting point. 'The door' was closed, and so needed 'to be opened'. The basic first step of Firebending. She clapped her hands together and unleashed a wave of fierce blue flames. First method of practice, to 'act as powerful as a sea wave'. The flow of gaseous flames was thick and deep, and tried to reassert itself, but Azula compensated, clenching her fists and 'swinging them as fast as a meteor flies', bursting pure blue fireballs from one hand and then the other, turning her breech into a hole.

'The door opened', and Azula leapt through the ring of fire. Perfect.

What she landed in was a long cavern, pockmarked with holes through which gaseous bursts of fire sprouted randomly. Through the tunnel in which flames burst from either side she needed to embark on the second step, 'leading the way', but to predict where the bursts were coming from she needed to tread lightly in order to hear the tell-tale hiss of fast-moving gas presaging a fire-burst, to 'be as quiet as a mountain', the second method of practice. Even before they burst out, she began to react, flinging her hands across the path of the fire-bursts, bending them away, and as she bended one she needed to keep an eye on the others. The second skill, to 'move her eyes as quickly as lightning'.

Azula became 'the general', and made it to the end without slowing down. Perfect.

Out of the long tunnel she came across a river of lava flowing from left to right in front of her, a sheer wall behind it with a small passage halfway up the side. She felt like she was shoving against a red hot iron, but even though her clothes were becoming drenched in sweat she paid little heed, her breath completely stable. She saw a series of small rocks lying across the river, and knew immediately what was needed, the third step of 'the stance'. She spun just before the edge of the river of lava, 'twisting her waist as quickly as a snake', and sending up a pillar of lava beneath the rock. She 'jumped as swiftly as a monkey does', through the third method of practice, onto each of the rocks, spinning herself to bring up the next pillar of lava, jumping higher each time. As the rocks fell away beneath her, Azula leapt further towards the thin hole, which after one mighty swing she eventually did.

Azula acted as 'the sitting horse', expertly perched upon the bottom edge of the hole. Perfect.

Beyond the hole was another vertical drop, this time towards a thin, crumbly layer of rock. There was no obvious exit, but the ground was punctuated by holes. Realising her task quickly, she 'fell as quickly as a bird flying down', using the fourth method of practice, and thrust her index and middle finger towards the ground, her energy coursing down her arm and through the rock.

She 'pierced the heart', the fourth step, and fell through the hole she made in the rocky floor. Perfect.

What greeted her was another river of lava, this one faster flowing. The rocks actually travelled with the molten blood of the planet, and Azula quickly honed onto a rock and 'rooted her feet firmly to the ground', the fourth skill. In depressing the rock a series of shrill cries came up, and around her bare sweaty feet Azula could see long tendrils of large winged centi-serpents clamber onto the rock and scream at her for destroying their precious eggs on their way to the hatching grounds. Smiling at the opportunity, the centi-serpents sprouted fangs and attacked her. Though the space on the rock was miniscule, she nevertheless managed to 'stand as firm as a rooster' and 'straight as a pine tree', the fifth and sixth methods of practice, while she dodged the poisoned fangs and ringed blue flame around herself, sending the creatures screaming into the lava to get away from her heat.

Azula demonstrated her 'martial skill', the fifth step, and leapt upon the first tunnel she came across. Perfect.

The tunnel climbed up diagonally, so she was past the half-way mark. She eventually popped up into a long, smooth, cylindrical tunnel that ran horizontally in front and behind her. In front was a few small light beams poking through thick igneous rock. Behind was a small orange glow, progressively getting larger and moving very fast, consuming the tunnel in its wake. Azula didn't hesitate as she ran towards the light beams, the heat behind her getting alarmingly close to frying her back, but the thought of perishing never once crossed her mind. She reached the small light beams, red glows poking through thick rock overhead, and 'turned as the wheel revolves', the seventh method, towards the wall of fire close to engulfing her. She was 'full of energy', the fifth skill, and focused it into the flame, stopping it with incredible blue heat and redirecting it through the ceiling and into the cavern above. She used the eighth method, and 'bent with the flexibility of a bow', to dodge the flame before it could incinerate her.

She made the 'short strike', the sixth step, before emerging into the cavern. Perfect.

The cavern was dark, even though Azula saw light beams earlier. The ground beneath her bare feet felt rough and scorched. She grinned as she realised, and waited, using the sixth skill, 'being calm and patient'. The walls of the cavern began to rumble, and Azula became bathed in light. Red light from the enormous and powerful fields of fire engulfing her in all directions, and blue light from the fire she herself spread out to counter-act the fire. She used the ninth method to become 'as light as a leaf', as the waves of fire converged on her protected blue shell and sent her rocketing upwards, towards the mid-section of a high stone pillar.

She acted like a 'plum flower', the seventh step, with only seconds to react. Perfect.

As soon as she landed, Azula's feet could never stay put, as fire burst through small holes on the top of the pillar, upon which a second tall pillar was perilously balanced. Azula spun around to avoid the flames, flicking sweat-drenched bangs out of her face, and saw in the edge of the cavern a long cliff-edge. She figured out the task and set to work undermining the foundations of the pillar, 'using her strength naturally' according to the seventh skill, with her bare feet, all the while avoiding them getting burnt with quick step movements. The pillar undermined, she made like the tenth method indicated and became 'as heavy as a piece of iron', and shoved it towards the cliff, leaping up and running along it as it fell.

She managed the 'shuffling steps', the ninth step, without so much as a scorch mark on her slick, bare, oily skin. Perfect.

The pillar crashed into the cliff and awoke a tremendous beast who had been enjoying a nap on the broad, flat surface Azula found herself leaping onto. She stopped before the arising of the incredulous iguana-rhino, one of the few beasts able to survive down here. It roared at Azula and approached slowly, huffing harshly with the clear intention of doing rather questionable things to her person. Nevertheless she was 'as slow as an eagle that hovers in the air', the eleventh method, and waited patiently for the beast to come to her. Towering above the Fire Princess, the creature opened its jaws and roared, whereupon Azula ducked down, bringing up her foot and unleashing an arc of blue flame right inside the top of the iguana-rhino's mouth. Screaming furiously, the beast reeled back and allowed Azula to leap up onto its foot, using that as a stepping stone for jumping beside the creatures neck and lacerating it with a swing of her fist. The beast turned its head towards Azula to cover its neck, allowing her to grab onto the ridge of his skull and bring down her other fist, drilling blue flame straight into his head, keeping in mind the eighth skill of 'achieving her technique successfully'. The four hits: kicking, punching, wrestling and grappling, this was the physical nature of her technique, but it was what was behind them that was important. Running down the iguana-rhino's spine and leaping off before the beast collapsed, Azula continued running towards the tunnel entrance the beast was covering.

This was the ninth step, the 'continuous fist', a constant attack in only one continuous movement bringing down her opponent. Perfect.

Azula saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and didn't need much prompting for the twelfth method to come to mind, to be 'as fast as the wind blows'. She ran up the diagonal tunnel, and as soon as the first barefoot steps were made the tunnel seemed to come alive. Walls of flame to burst through, bursts of flame to redirect, plumes of flame to protect herself against, some at the same time, all interacting with each other. And she didn't one lose her step. At the end of the tunnel the cool air hit just as much like a wall as the heat did, but she continued to simply burst through.

The tenth step, the 'pattern method', and she'd barely even noticed it had passed. Perfect.

Emerging into the clear air, the patter of Azula's feet didn't slow down as she approached the end of the Songsham Outcrop. Her bare arms, previously pointed behind her, were brought in front one at a time in a circular motion. Two fingers on her left hand stuck together and crackled with energy as they wheeled around, as did two fingers on her right hand as she brought them around her body as well. Her eyes focused forward as the edge of the outcrop cleared away to reveal the tip of Dengfeng Peak. Her fingers joined just before she stopped herself, astride the very edge of the outcrop, and two fingers thrust out to fire across the mountainous gap towards the peak.

The top of the thin peak of rock was hidden in the plume of dust that burst out into the clear sky. A ring of explosions burst forth around the tip, and a long stillness followed as the dust evaporated, before the tip slowly began to slide to one and eventually fall off of the peak, leaving a dust cloud rising into the sky. With the obstruction cleared, the sun shone onto the Outcrop, marking the end of the challenge of the Beishaolin caves…for the rest of eternity.

There wasn't any step of Firebending instruction involved with that. She just wanted to do it.

"You have succeeded in your challenge, Your Highness, though a few have succeeded before you," Loh, having appeared behind Azula, commented dryly, "still, you are unique in ensuring no one will be able to succeed again."

"You have exceeded expectations, Princess Azula," Lih spoke understatedly, "you have performed more than adequately."

Although it did sound like faint praise, Azula didn't mind a bit. What was 'adequate' for Lih and Loh translated into 'physically impossible' for almost everyone else. What the two of them had basically said was that the Fire Princess had achieved absolute perfection in Firebending. Azula remained holding her fingers out towards the sun, the source of her power, acutely aware of the sweat clinging her skirt and undershirt to her body, and the heavy breath being forced through her lungs, and felt disappointed. It still wasn't enough.

Azula's eyes drifted down to see a lone, panting, black-clad figure making his way up the side of Beishaolin Ridge, and relaxed her posture. She wandered down the outcrop towards the bundle of clothes, towels, and a pan of water that the nuns had brought her, and picked up a towel, draping it around her bare shoulders. She ordered the nuns, "return to my Summer Retreat and record this morning for posterity. I'll rejoin you later."

"Yes, Your Highness," the nuns bowed in unison and walked away from the outcrop, having nothing more to advise her with. The Summer Retreat was a decent hour's hike away from Beishaolin Ridge, both located in a range of mountains and volcanoes that Fire Nation higher-ups tended to inhabit during the summer months to get away from the intoxicating fumes of the cities, a short distance away from Nagaoka, in the south of the largest island in the Fire Nation island chain.

Despite what she'd implied to her brother the day before, spying on him was not Azula's only reason for coming to the Nagao Prefecture. It wasn't even the primary reason. She had been planning to indulge in this test of her abilities for some months now, since it could only really be done in the summer. But she still had good motives for wishing to indulge Zuko's paranoia. And there was a larger purpose involved in coming here that the approaching figure would hopefully assist her with.

Azula dipped both her hands in the water and splashed her face, cleaning her sweat off with a towel. Upon hearing the panting and heaving approaching behind her, with her face still enmeshed in towel, she leaned down to pick up another towel and held it out towards her visitor.

"Thank you…your most gracious majesty…" Long Feng wheezed, taking the towel gingerly from Azula's sacred fingers and padding his head with it.

"It's not for your benefit," Azula put the Dai Li liaison in his place with her back still turned to him, "I just don't particularly fancy having to look into an old man's pasty, sweaty, greasy face." Azula draped the towel back around her shoulders and turned towards Long Feng, hands held behind her back, "report?"

"Can't I…?" Long Feng, pausing in the process of dabbing his forehead dry, shut himself up upon realising the obvious answer to his question…no, he couldn't catch his breath first. Gripping the scroll he was holding tightly and gulping harshly, he began, "we've received word that Colonel Yuung has been fully re-educated and…as we speak…is assisting General Gin Hong's Twelfth Army in eliminating the last fragments of the Yalujiang insurgency. Your Majesty's idea about using re-educated insurgents to infiltrate rebel organisations has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. I have a full account of Yuung's re-education process here."

Azula dried her hands on her towel and gestured to the Grand Secretary to hand over the scroll. She broke off the official seal of the Earth King…which Azula technically was anyway…and began reading the extensive and detailed calligraphy contained within, asking distractedly, "anything else to report?"

"The railroad construction is back on schedule, the southern nobles have accepted the new tax code and the Earth Navy has pushed a Water Tribe fleet out of Chameleon Bay," Long Feng truncated, "we're still having some problems with extending our authority into the southern periphery and our islands off the east coast, but I daresay this is the most influence central government has had in the Earth Kingdom since…well…ever, actually."

"We can't sit on our laurels yet…" Azula studied the report, "what happened to the Water Tribe fleet?"

"They retreated without a fight, Your Majesty. According to the latest sightings they're heading to the Northern Water Tribe," Long Feng continued, "on that front, the Earth Navy is busy rebuilding its capacity on the northern shore. Although it has to be said that having a naval capacity at all is still something of a novelty, so it's anyone's guess how it would fare in open battle…"

"Let's not delude ourselves…the entire concept of an 'Earth Navy' is a contradiction in terms," Azula dismissed without once meeting Long Feng in the eye, "concentrate on coastal defence. The Water Tribe is useful as an enemy to keep the Earth Kingdom mobilised, but actual engagement should be left to whatever insane idea War Minister Qin concocts to make up for all the ships we lost last winter."

"I will relate your commands immediately, Your Majesty," Long Feng affirmed, raising an eyebrow at Azula's deep interest in Yuung's re-education report. Unable to keep his silence any longer, Long Feng queried "so…why is Colonel Yuung's re-education so important? It's a very common process for the rehabilitation of troublemakers and the pacification of anti-government organisations."

"Keeping a land of shiny, happy people shiny and happy?" Azula remarked contemptuously, "there's no secret to breaking someone's will. I broke yours. What you seem to have stumbled upon is a way to reconstruct someone's will from scratch. I think I can find a better use for this thing. Have you kept some Fire Nation prisoners of war detained, like I instructed?"

"Yes…the most potentially troublesome and…I believe the term you used was 'physiologically interesting'?" Long Feng peeked around to check if it was really alright to say this stuff out loud, "we've announced that everyone's been released, and the records of those who haven't have been destroyed. But what do you want to do with these prisoners?"

Azula smiled that familiar smile of hers, pausing ominously before delving into the most sensitive part of the conversation by far, "have you ever heard of Pingfang Bay?"

"The only thing we've ever heard of Pingfang Bay is that no one's ever heard of Pingfang Bay," Long Feng answered without hesitation, "it's practically become a cliché amongst the Dai Li. This mysterious null-space that dropped off the map about two years ago. We've made many attempts to try to find out more, but even those who should know about Pingfang Bay say they don't…accompanied by nervous twitching, loud screaming during the night and other such delights."

"Good…the old coot still knows how to do a job," Azula commented dryly, putting the scroll to one side for a moment and addressing Long Feng more fully, "I have a little…project going on. It's something I've been working on for the last two years ever since a certain obstacle got out of my skin. Now I can't get rid of him, and instead of spending my free time trying to squash him like I've been doing the last three months, I think I might as well try to accelerate my little hobby some more."

"By this…hobby…Your Majesty, I don't suppose you mean some kind of Base 77?" Long Feng asked.

"…'Base 77'…?" Azula rolled the words around her tongue, "…'Base 77'…keep that word in mind! It sounds pleasingly, unpretentiously sinister."

"So you wish me to transport the prisoners of war there?" Long Feng returned to the point.

"Eventually, but first…" Azula picked the scroll back up and held it up indicatively, "I want to see how this works first hand. It may be useful to my project in areas I haven't thought of before."

"Do you have a particular target in mind?" Long Feng asked.

"It might not come to that, but there's definitely someone," Azula balanced the scroll thoughtfully, "for now, gather a group of Dai Li at my Summer Retreat and see if you can set up an apparatus there. Make sure that it's easy to transport. I'll be heading into Nagaoka shortly."

"At once, Your Majesty," Long Feng turned to leave, only for another thought to cross his mind, "um…if I may ask…how long are you going to keep your Royal Procession standing at attention in the hot sun while you're out here?"

"They can fall out anytime they want, all they need to do is ask," Azula turned back to the water pan and splashed her face some more. Long Feng grasped the sub-text: they can also be thrown into a volcano anytime they want…all they need to do is ask.

The Grand Secretary made his motions to leave, actively planning to get warmer clothing in light of the blasting sun beating down on the Beishaolin Ridge. As the question of clothing flashed through his mind, Long Feng momentarily pondered how the Fire Princess and leader of the Earth Kingdom could still look authoritative and terrifying even when dressed only in loose, revealing undergarments. Or maybe it was because of the loose, revealing undergarments. It was all very interesting…psychologically speaking.


From the windows opening their shutters, through the white steam snaking out from the kitchen pipes, through the rather irritating 'good morning band' Xuan had organised, through the number of footsteps crowding the decks and the number of slamming doors ringing down the halls, to the burst of energy imbued in the mighty pillar of smoke splitting the sky…the FLS Gang Shen was awakening from its light slumber.

Captain Mayu stepped towards the front of the bridge, yawning as she scratched her back with one hand and held a cup of energising tea in the other. Looking weary, but alert, she gazed down at the increasing number of sightseers venturing out onto the deck, sipping quietly. She asked, "status report, Lieutenant Yin?"

"We're speeding at 25 knots towards Naha Island, no significant problems arose overnight…we should arrive sometime late in the evening, ma'am," the pasty-faced…yet competent…youthful Second Officer reported to the Captain from his position near the telescope, "the engine room's been complaining, though."

"Wan always complains…he doesn't know what tacit acceptance is," Mayu took another sip, taking one last look before walking back towards the door, "good. Maintain current course and speed and look out for trouble. I'll be in my Office…"

"Aye, ma'am," Yin looked back through the telescope at the hazy sea-misted horizon. Mayu opened the door only to find an extremely irate Xuan advancing through it from the other side. She retreated, trying not to spill her tea in surprise.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Xuan was livid, jabbing at a piece of parchment and shouting straight into Mayu's face, "here I was, looking at the features of the Territorial coast disappear when I wake up this morning, and thinking 'noooo, I must've made a mistake'! But here it is, in clear black calligraphic ink! You increased speed without my say-so! We're going too fast!"

"Firstly, sir, I don't need your permission," Mayu responded as neutrally as someone having phlegm thrown in her face could, "and secondly I considered it prudent that we don't stay in the Mo Ce Sea longer than is strictly necessary. I think your customers would appreciate getting to their destination early…"

"Appreciate? Appreciate!? I've offered a complementary breakfast for all the passengers as they journey into dock! What am I supposed to say to them now you're kicking them off the boat in the middle of the night!?" Xuan gestured in exasperation, "the Hong Yu Guo Service is not about getting to the destination in the fastest time possible! It's the journey that matters to people! The service, the comfort, the feel of the open sea…it's an experience!"

"An experience that happens to have extra price tags attached, I've noticed…" Mayu crossed her arms, "there is a war on, in case you've forgotten, sir. As an officer in the service of the Fire Lord it is my responsibility to see that the principles of War Economy are strictly applied. The way things are going, these people will only have half their monthly rations left by the time they reach dock. And in any case, these attackers haven't been caught yet, so…"

"I'm not interested in whatever principles you ascribe to, Captain!" Xuan pointed angrily, "a national company this may be, but it's still a company and our obligation to our customers trumps whatever other considerations you can concoct in that literal mind of yours! The war is practically over! That excuse to keep these people enjoying themselves doesn't count anymore! And we've already discussed the attacks, if I remember! I am a higher authority than you, my dear, so I'm not asking you, I'm telling you…slow this ship down now!"

Xuan fumed for a few still seconds before storming back out of the bridge, leaving an air of heated anger in his wake. With everyone a little dumb-struck at the display, Yin had to wait until the silence acquired a gravitational pull before asking, "ma'am? Do we…have to pay attention to him?"

May blinked, then shrugged, "he's the boss." The Captain took one last swig of the tea and set the empty cup to one side, turning to Yin to order "calculate the velocity required to reach Naha Island tomorrow morning, and reduce speed to compensate."


"This way…" Toph pointed into empty space towards the gradually-approaching object she could feel in the corner of her senses, nearly at the point where she didn't have to stand completely still to be able to tell where it was…although there were more nuanced problems to overcome.

"No, Ming Zhi…that's a wall…" Sokka pointed out, as Toph had raised a finger towards a corridor that was fairly obviously a dead end, down in the constantly-lit depths of the ship at the foot of a near-vertical staircase that hadn't exactly been easy to overcome. Sokka was starting to fear that he was turning blind as well with all these flickering dim lights, and felt rather testy, "you can't walk through walls no matter how awesome you think you are."

"Then make yourself useful and stop being a jerk," Toph pouted menacingly. Momo blinked heavily and rubbed his eyes repeatedly, trying to peer through the dull red lighting and make his retinas stop hurting. Looking down the corridor facing the staircase, Momo saw two figures approach before the others did, and recognised the sight of one of them. Excitedly, the winged lemur began to jump up and down on Toph's shoulder, springing himself for flight until Toph firmly clamped the creature down with her free hand.

"Momo, what are you so excited about?" Toph attempted to calm the enthusiastic little critter down. Upon hearing two sets of footsteps on the metal, however, she got a sinking feeling about who it was Momo had gotten excited about, "…it's not him, is it?"

"Oh hey!" Nandi called out, attracting Sokka's attention, "look, mama, it's the friend I made yesterday!"

"Nandi…no…you are not making any more friends on this voyage until you learn to be more responsible," the slender, put-upon mother chastised her son, then looked up and smiled nervously at the two other people in the corridor, "oh, I'm sorry! I'm sure your sister is a perfectly nice person. It's just my son here doesn't know how to take care of himself. He came in dripping wet from wave wash last night, saying his friends were up to the same thing."

"Oh, no offence taken! Ming Zhi gets people killed all the time!" Sokka smiled as he wrapped an arm around Toph's shoulders.

"No I don't…" Toph said testily, once again blushing from the uncomfortably close contact. She shunted Sokka's hand off and addressed the both of them, "sorry to keep you both, but we'll be going now…"

"Wait! How's Momo doing? That's his name, right?" Nandi drew closer, despite his mother holding one of his hands, peering at Momo. The winged lemur grew excited at his presence, and Nandi smiled, "awww…did he miss me?"

"No, he reacts that way to everyone…" Toph excused Momo's behaviour, reaching behind herself to tug his tail painfully, "he's very emotionally confused."

"Nah, I bet he's just friendly…" Nandi reached out his free hand, and the pained Momo relaxed and leaned forward to be petted. But when Nandi's head reached the lemur's head, Momo's purring acquiescence disappeared and the creature found himself paralysed with shock. His fur electrified, Momo scrambled away from Nandi's hand and hid behind Toph's head, peering out in terror at Nandi. Toph seemed surprised, but eminently pleased at this reaction.

"Looks like Momo's more choosy in his pals than I thought he was," Toph said smugly. Nandi looked confused, but that confusion seemed to dissipate with a soft giggle. It was an odd sort of giggle, starting in his gut before emerging on his face, but only Sokka was in a position to observe this, and it didn't pique his interest more than a little.

"Sorry, I think my hands are all clammy from last night," Nandi excused, shrugging, "maybe I can go get him something to eat?"

"You're going nowhere, young man, except where I can see you," Nandi's mother dragged Nandi to one side and away from the rest, turning back briefly to say politely, "it was nice meeting you!"

"Uh…you too…" Sokka waved lightly at the mother and sun heading down the corridor opposite the dead end. Once out of ear-shot, Sokka wondered aloud, "that mother needs to pay attention to what her son eats. He looked reeeaaally pale…"

"Good, saves me the trouble of making his life a misery if he falls ill," Toph spoke vindictively. She tugged on Sokka's hand, "c'mon, we need to find the engine."

"You have a real problem with empathy, you know that?" Sokka began leading Toph down the corridor opposite the staircase.

"Empathy is overrated…" Toph began, as Momo's hiding behind her head began to bug her, and she began twisting her shoulders around, "Momo…will you stop shivering? He's gone…"

She was interrupted by hearing a giggle emanate from down the corridor to the right of her, where Nandi had disappeared into. It was a strange half-laugh, sounding at once fake and honest. Distracted, Toph paused to listen down the corridor, only for Sokka to tug harder and pull her bodily forwards with a yelp.


"I don't know what to do with you sometimes, Nandi…" Nandi's mother, Kyo, was a good soul, but still more concerned with her son's well-being than was strictly healthy for her, "you're always pleasant and kind and you do what you're told, and yet you keep doing stupid things like this. I'm actually starting to think sending you to the Youth League might be a good idea, Agni help me."

"I'll make everything fine, mother," Nandi said distantly, trailing his mother with one hand held while she stomped ahead down the corridors towards whatever corrective punishment she had in mind.

"Oh you'll make everything fine alright," Kyo muttered towards the end of the corridor, "the war with the Earth Kingdom ends, your father finally gets some leave and you act like this. It's unacceptable, Nandi. If you want to serve the Fire Lord correctly and make your mother happy, you have to start being sensible. And…when did you start calling me 'mother'…?"

Kyo turned to face Nandi only for empty space to be where his smiling, unkempt face should have been. She looked down at her hand to find she had in fact been dragging thin air. Confusion turned to fear, and fear turned to immense frustration as Nandi's mother looked over at the nearest side-corridor and stomped in that general direction, calling out "Nandi! Nandi! Don't you run away from me, young man! Come out here this instant or so help me I'll get Sozin's Comet to come back just to flambé you!"

Kyo disappeared into the side-corridor in her bid to track down Nandi. In the empty corridor left behind was little except the flickering red light and the hum of the engines, but gradually, over some seconds, it was joined by something else. A small drop of water fell onto the smooth, featureless metal floor, followed by another, followed by another, followed by two in quick succession, pinging on the hard surface. The numbers increased, and clear puddles began to form from the droplets falling from the ceiling, the only movement in the long corridor. And then came another sound apart from the pitter-patter of droplets, a tiny, strangled giggle, rising and falling in intensity, sounding almost like weeping but for the wide, empty smile across Nandi's face.

To Be Continued…

Avatar: The Last Airbender Concept and Characters © Nickelodeon 2005-06


Author's Note: I really did not intend for this chapter to take so long to write. I mean...I haven't even been particularly busy. It just seems to be this internet going back to its bad old habits of sucking my free time dry.

And yes, I also didn't intend for this Azula section to be long. I'd only really thought of a short training introduction to Long Feng coming in and now it's turned into this hewge thing where I look up the 10 steps and 24 elements of Northern Shaolin and make an extended sequence of Azula kicking butt out of it. I should shrink it to save space, but now I like it too much. I mean, it's not like my stories tend to have much fighting in them except small bits squeezed in, so I'm just getting used to actually writing a martial arts epic that has martial arts in it.

I'm also sensing a pattern that my Fire Nation sections seem to be more popular than my Team Avatar sections...which this part does nothing to rectify, but hopefully the 'God of Steel' of the title might actually assert itself a bit more soon.