Azula watched the lethal bolt of lightning fly towards her brother at high speed. She saw him reach out towards it, as if to catch it in some way, to block it, to stop it from reaching him. But she knew that was impossible, because there was no way in the world that anybody could avoid…and then she saw it hit him. She had thought that he would drop to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut, or scream loud enough to wake the dead, but amazingly- he wasn't. He reached out towards it, pulling it in towards him, working with the flow of static energy, two of his fingers pointing on each hand, and he pulled it along with him, the lightning followed his every gesture, and she found those two fingers pointing at an invisible mark right between her eyes.

An audible gasp escaped her lips. Her brother- Zuko- was about to kill her with her own weapon. Her trick had backfired, and now she was going to pay the price, the ultimate price. For a single moment that seemed like an eternity, her golden eyes locked with his, and she could easily read the fierce determination that glowed within his irises, before he broke away, and moved his fingers just the tiniest bit lower, but so that they pointed solely at her legs, so that she might survive.

Chicken. Her brother was chicken. He had never killed anybody, and wasn't about to start with his own sister. She smirked for a split second, imagining her father's face when she returned home, triumphant, with the traitors. But Azula had never been shot with lightning before, and therefore had no real idea as of the speed at which it traveled, so there was no time to jump away from the dazzling blaze that reached out towards her, engulfing her with the inferno she had once commanded with such grace and nobility. She saw it hit her just below the knees, but strangely, she felt no pain. Glancing upwards, the last thing she saw was her brother run over towards her, his shocked face staring down at her with something she had rarely ever seen in him recently. Was it pity? Or concern? She didn't need either of them, they were traitors, he and Uncle Iroh both…Those thoughts flashed through her mind with the speed of the lightning with which she had just been hit, and then the world went black, like a deep hole, and she fell in, and kept falling, and then-nothing.

She was out cold.

Zuko's eyes met with his sisters', for nothing more than a brief second, before the lightning hit her, and she was down. No. He couldn't believe that he had just done it. He didn't mean too—she was his sister, no matter how much he hated her—but he had done it. He had defeated her, but he had hurt her, probably permanently.

He lost control of himself. Rushing over to her, he dropped to his knees beside her, not even thinking that it might be a trap of some sorts. "Agni…" He whispered. Quietly he placed his hand in her forehead. It was warm, and still heating up.

Standing up, he wavered unsteadily for a moment, and realized he was shaking. He made his way slowly over to the sparkling green river that ran underground, and tore a piece of fabric from his cream tea workers apron, which he then dipped into the water, moistening it.

He was completely unaware of the group of people standing there in the shadows, watching him, frozen, ready for an attack, yet so still, it was as if they weren't breathing. He was oblivious to the fact that his Uncle was still trapped in the glowing prison of gem stones; all he could seem to think about was his sister. Moving back towards her, he kneeled again, pressing the damp cloth to her face, in order to slacken her growing fever. He was still alone in his mind when he heard someone clear their throat in the background. He jumped violently, as if someone had stuck a pin in him, reaching a height which Aang had only ever seen an airbender achieve. Whirling around, Zuko automatically shifted into a fighting stance, until he realized that none of the people standing before him were a threat.

Uncle would not attack him, and besides which, (Zuko realized with shame,) he was still trapped inside the rocky prison, disabling the old man enormously. The other group of people was comprised of the avatar and his friends, whom of which he knew never attacked first, unless no other choice was available, and besides which, they all seemed too shocked to take in that Zuko was alive and on the loose, that they weren't even moving. Except the avatar. Zuko gathered that it was the bald monk who had cleared his throat, startling him so. The young boy was staring at the older teen so apprehensively that Zuko wondered that he couldn't see through to the jade wall on the other side of him.

"Would you please stop staring at me like that? It's very unnerving!"

"Right—Sorry, I just…"

"—Whatever." He glanced over the additional personages in the cavern. "Your friends seem to be made of stone. Maybe you should wake them up prior to leaving Ba Sing Se."

"Oh. About that—we can't leave this city until be get this message to the earth king, but that's seeming to be practically impossible."

Aang couldn't believe what he had just said. This was his second-or-third-to-worst-enemy he was talking to! Apparently Sokka couldn't believe either.

"Aang! What are you thinking about, talking to him? He's Fire Nation! He's the prince!! He's tried to KILL YOU, and here you are carrying a conversation with top-secret plans with him, as if none of that ever happened! Come on, we're going back to try again with the earth king."

"Yeah," the blind girl added, "And this time, let's see you glow it up there, twinkle toes!"

Zuko couldn't help but smirk as Dai Li agents began to pour in the room, completely surrounding the cluster of people in the underground chamber. "Well, good luck with that, anyway."

Sokka groaned.

There you go! A double update, for a special treat.

Next up—The fight with the Dai Li. Some more characters involved. Also, please check out my other story, 'Things are never as they seem'. It's 10 fold better, and will be updated more frequently than this one, which I'm just trying to finish off, really.

Thanks!

-Kristoshi Warrior