A/N: Finally got this second chapter up! Do review! It just motivates me more to continue writing. (:

Thanks for reading!

Azula shakes off the salt from the sea from her hair before pulling up her hood. She steps off the ship and lands her feet on the port of Yu Dao. She stares out at the mass of people from under her hood. When no one stops and recognises her, she lets out the breath she didn't realise she was holding. The smile she can't keep off her face is small but sure.

She had finally arrived in this godforsaken city.

The last time Azula had been free to move about as she willed, this city was under Fire Nation rule, she thought to herself. Then she let out a bitter laugh. Who was she kidding? She had never been free. Not under her father's command and certainly not in the prison she's been in until recently.

However, since breaking free from her last prison, Azula had managed to bring herself up to date on the state of affairs of Yu Dao by listening in on gossipers on the ship. She didn't try too hard at stealth for this though, and she was often caught eavesdropping. Not that it mattered; people were more than willing to share with her the current state of international politics, even as they thought her no more than a common sea wench. The city and its folk were being claimed by both the Firelord and the Earth King, which greatly affected business there, or so they said.

"Yu Dao has enjoyed great prosperity under the Firelords! Why shouldn't it stay that way?" one man had argued.

"Yu Dao is still part of the Earth Kingdom! You cannot cut away the land of Yu Dao away from the Earth Kingdom continent and join it to the Fire Islands!" another had retorted.

Secret debates got really heated on board, but Azula couldn't care less for either side. She just needed to get to the place as quickly as she could before another drunken sailor tried to get his grabby hands on her. She was tired of trying to keep the perverts away without exposing herself as a firebender. She was even wearier of the unending exchange of self-righteous political opinions, possibly more than the captain who had banned all political talk on board after having had to break up one too many fights.

Political turmoil aside, far as Azula could tell, people in Yu Dao and their businesses were still very busy.

The crowds are mainly near the ships, so Azula has to push her way through to get deeper into town. The smell of sweaty bodies carrying cargo and unwashed sailors near the docks had made her want to retch. Luckily for her, the air nearer to the heart of town was fresher, but not by much. Azula takes a deep breath anyway and sets out to accomplish what she came to this godforsaken city to do.

Sokka watches Azula move from stall to stall, seeming to engage in conversation with random stall holders and shop keepers. But as she continued, he realised she was only talking to the elderly. Finally, one old woman tells her something and points Azula in the direction of a row of metal workshops in the next street.

Sokka decides to take a risk. He climbs up the side of a building and gets up to the roof. Here from this aerial view following Azula undetected was easier, especially since he knew where she was headed now. He hops from rooftop to rooftop, which is surprisingly easy since all the short buildings were built close together. Suddenly, he realises Azula is picking up speed and making her way to a more quiet part of the town instead of towards the metal workshops. He quickly hops to it before she can get out of his sight.

The hair on the back of Azula's neck prickles. She's being followed. Just to be sure, she bends down as if to pick up something she dropped and sees a man deliberately looking everywhere except in her direction.

Azula growls in irritation. As if trying to accomplish her purpose here in Yu Dao wasn't hard enough, she now had a tail. So much for staying completely undetected, she thought. Azula picks up the pace just to be sure he is following her. She sees a hidden alley away from the crowd and makes a sharp turn into it. Pressing her body up against the wall, she sets her stance for an ambush and waits for her stalker to follow her.

As soon as he comes into the alley, Azula knocks him out with a few quick blows to the head before he realises she's behind him. The stalker is flat on the ground and Azula turns his body around to get a look at his face. Then she hisses in a breath.

"Dai Li."

She doesn't know this man's name but she recognises his face, even without the uniform. At least now she knew two things. One, the Dai Li still held a grudge. And two, they knew she wasn't in the Fire Nation anymore.

Suddenly there was a 'whack' behind her and Azula sees a second man behind her going down. She peers down at his face. Another Dai Li agent, also out of uniform, and judging by the sharpened stone in his hand, he was going for the kill. But something stopped him before he could get to her.

She looks around, but there is no one else in the alley.

Sokka manages to grab his boomerang without falling off the roof as it came back toward him. He had acted on reflex, quickly throwing his trusty weapon at the man who was about to literally stab Azula in the back. Quickly wiping the small smear of blood on his boomerang from hitting the unknown almost-assailant's head, Sokka realised two things. One, there were really other people after Azula. And two, they knew she wasn't in the Fire Nation anymore.

He watches her drag the two bodies deeper into the alley and she promptly left them there to get away quickly. Still keeping his eyes to her closely, Sokka follows Azula for a while before she turns into the street that was her original destination and is surprised when she enters, of all places, a musical instruments shop right in the middle of a row of metal workshops.

She's there for a long time before she finally leaves, and she leads Sokka to an inn right next to a messenger hawk station. Perfect, thinks Sokka. He can write Zuko a letter on his progress and get a closed space to catch Azula in before she knew he was coming.

But before he could charge into the inn and go after Azula, Sokka realised he had to first remember which rooftop he had put down his travelling pack.

Azula drags herself to an inn where she can rest. Her only lead in her search was getting harder to follow and it had somehow got her to a music shop. The owner, whom the old lady at the market said could give Azula her answers, knew nothing that Azula could use except for another place Azula had to get to in order to find more answers. It's a small village near the base of the mountains, he'd said about the place.

"It's at least 3 days by foot southwest. Faster, if you take an ostrich horse. You'll find her there."

At this point, Azula was tired of the fingers pointing which way she had to go. She just wanted to hit at least a few hours in the sack to make up for the lack of sleep she got on board the stupid ship that got her here. She was going to get some sleep before someone else tried to kill her, the ostrich horse be damned.

It was long past nightfall, and Sokka sat on the rooftop of the inn. The city below was lit up here and there with a few night lanterns. Sokka decides to use the one on the rooftop of the inn to draft his letter to Zuko. He keeps one eye on the window of room Azula was in to make sure she didn't have anymore almost-assailants. If she was just going to sleep here just like that, he was going to take the time to write a letter to Zuko telling him about Azula's two attackers before he planned to ambush her and tie her up in her sleep. He's just about finished his letter when he sees a familiar hooded figure run out into the night through the inn's back door.

"Dammit, Azula." Sokka whispered under his breath as he stuffed the quickly forgotten letter in his pack and jumped down to follow her.

It was getting darker and harder to follow her as they moved out of the city more and into a lesser used road. After walking for a while, there were very few things left to hide behind while following and Sokka was forced to stay further away from Azula to avoid being spotted. Azula was a powerful opponent, and Sokka was still hoping to rely on the element of surprise to help him.

Eventually, he relied on the light from the moon to keep his eye on Azula. Sometimes, she fell out his line of sight, but she always came back into it with the help of Yue. Sokka even managed a smile up in thanks when he loses sight of Azula again. He tries to walk ahead slowly to see if he could catch the sight of her once more, but Azula seems to have disappeared. A cold bead of sweat trickles down his back as Sokka began to fill with dread. Then he freezes.

"What are you doing following me?"