Sokka groaned. Completely surrounded by some of the best earthbenders in the Earth Kingdom, the fight was going to be much more difficult than some of the past ones that the gaang had issued, with various personages, of various nations. Each and every one of the avatar's friends stood stock still, as Zuko followed suite, and the avatar himself was barely breathing through the sheer concentration that would be necessary to win this battle. Finally, Zuko could take it no more. Attacking first was his strength, his nature, Aang knew, and it was agony waiting for something to happen. The prince pulled back his fists, and slammed the air in front of his with such power and energy, that it seemed the whole world would collapse with just one of his blows. Then, the first earthen fist flew towards Zuko at top speed, which he lightly sidestepped, remembering his first little encounter with them as an enemy. The Dai Li had returned fire, and were now advancing on the scarred teen for a full attack. Glancing up, the avatar was fairly certain that he saw the prince smirking. Then, simultaneously, every Dai Li agent lifted up a round earth kingdom wheel with a square in the middle, and lunched it towards Zuko, ran directly towards one of them, and jumped, once again proving that he could reach a distance to rival that of Aang's kind, and used his fire jets to push him to one side, flipping over Long Feng to expose the Agent's back to the fire.

Whirling around, Long Feng sent a large rock bolder flying from the earth, quickly followed by two of the signature Dai Li earthen fists, hoping to catch the banished prince off guard, but he could not; the boy seemed liable to dodge anything that was thrown at him, smash others, or even reduce a couple to smoke and ashes. Suddenly a glimmer caught the sharp golden eyes: leaping over Long Feng, he jumped to avoid a large boulder, and did a summersault over another green-clad man, and as he landed, he pulled twin dual swords from the sheath slung over the agent's back. Now, he had his one weapon that made him extremely dangerous when he couldn't bend as a refugee in the earth kingdom, and he had his fire. If he could now just wield the two together, like he had in the town where he had met Lee… He set a stance, with one sword behind his back, preparing to strike, and the other placed in front of him, so that he could easily defend at the same time. He glanced back at the group travelling with the avatar. Each was holding his own against the Dai Li: The water tribe boy was flinging his boomerang in odd directions about the room, catching some of the green men off guard. He also was knocking some over the closer ones over the head with a large white and blue club, which Zuko could only guess was a traditional water tribe weapon. His sister, the waterbender was taking on much more of a challenge: at least three times as many agents were on her, trying to get past her defense, and avoiding her offense- something it was difficult for fire to do, it wasn't a very defensive element, the prince reflected inwardly. The girl in blue caught a boulder and turned it on the attacker, and knocked another agent off his feet at the same tie with a water whip-ouch, he knew what that felt like, anyway.

The short earth kingdom girl was lifting boulder at least three times her size into the air, proving her inhuman strength for her small size, and trapped other agents into the ground, but she was at a disadvantage: the opposition could bend everything she could, except- was it his eyes playing tricks on him, or did she just fling a sold bar of metal, the remainders of what had blocked off the entrance the his escape and the waterbenders, not twenty minutes ago. Nice. The avatar himself was using mostly air and agility, but stood his ground against most attacks, using mainly, the scarred teen noticed, water and air, not earth, except to defend, and definitely no fire. Figures, that fire would be the one element he knew nothing about.

It only took his brain about two seconds to take this all in, but that was all the time the Dai Li agents needed to close him in. Glancing about for an opening, he noticed the first of a series of large bricks and earthen fists coming at him from the corner of his right eye. Curse them, for coming in on his bad side. Then, he saw his opening: he could jus slip between two widely placed earthbenders on the left side, grab hold or a large, glowing crystal sticking up right from the rocks at a seemingly odd angle. It was thick, and more importantly, it looked like it could hold his weight.

Just as the missiles were about to reach him, he sprung into action. He slid in between the gap, through an agent's legs and reached up and grabbed the crystal he had spotted protruding from the rock, and swung up, avoiding the next boulder, into a handstand position on top of the glowing rock. Then he pushed, hard, and launched himself into the air, allowing his hooked boots to catch on a jag in the ceiling, and doing a midair somersault before landing all the way on the other side of the room, from which he could easily send some flame in the earth kingdom men's direction, which he then did, allowing the fire to creep around like an octopus tentacle, to sneak up behind an unsuspecting agent, before grabbing the surprised man by the ankle or arm and flinging them up into midair, and letting them drop again, and painfully depositing them on the hard earthen floor. The Dai Li agents were not fazed; they merely stood up and began to attack again.

Zuko saw that if he were to completely stop the Dai Li attack, he would have to either kill them, which he wouldn't do if he could avoid it, disable them completely, like Ty Lee could… now there was an idea, with only one small problem-he hadn't the faintest idea how. Then there was ignoring them and running, which was weak, and there was… Iroh. His uncle was still trapped. He leapt up in the general direction he had last seen the old man in, and was immediately showered with boulders in every shape and size. Glancing across the room, he noticed the small blind girl was taking care of that problem, and the Dragon of the West turned his full fury on the opposition. Suddenly a large boulder came at him from behind, completely knocking him off his feet, sending him flying onto the floor, where rock shackles immediately sprung up, trapping him. He stayed stock still, hardly daring to breath, and even as he listened, the entire room fell silent. That was when he felt it. A pulse, beneath the floor, like a large heart beat was flowing, like a river of fire, and it was taking him with it… like a life. Using his senses as a firebender, Zuko reached down into the beating, and discovered what, deep, deep down inside the earth, had caused they crystal catacombs of old Ba Sing Se. A volcano. It was alive.

Aang watched as Zuko was knocked down, supposing that his fight with Azula had began to catch up on him. He was subdued, but once again, didn't seem mad. In fact, he didn't really seem like anything, he was just starting at the floor, his one good eye wide. The avatar was disturbed-Zuko had really been acting weird recently. He stopped. All the Dai Li agents were now staring as well. Even Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko's Uncle had stopped moving. Until Toph grinned. She whispered something in Iroh's ear, who replied with a somewhat desperate air about him. Toph punched him.

One of the agents made to grab the Prince, but as he did, Zuko thrust up his arms, breaking through hi bonds, and a startling stream of magma jumped up at his will. Aang watched with horror, remembering his previous incarnation Avatar Roku, and how the Fire Nation Avatar had died. Watching as the prince pulled up more lava, and jumped on the stream, the fight broke out again, with all the opposition on the prince. The magma swirled about, and Zuko sent large streams at various agents, and just before it hit them, he withdrew the heat, but not completely, trapping them against their own element.

A couple minutes later, the entire room was glowing a bright orange, and Zuko was winning the long lasting fightn, when Aang felt the volcanic gasses seeping up around him.

"Guys!" He yelled. "Come on, we need to get out of here!" Katara reacted, pulling Toph's arm, and clapping her hand over her mouth. Sokka followed suit, but Iroh stayed put.

"Come on Iroh! We need to go!" Katara yelled.

"I'm not leaving without my nephew!" He retorted, and set off for the thickest of the flames. Toph jumped away from Katara's grip, and but on a spectacular display of earth bending, pulling the old man away, catching his hands behind his back, and forcing him to follow them. She left no room for protest, as hard as the dragon tried.

"Your stupid nephew will be fine. He doesn't even seem affected by the poisonous gases." Toph hollered, and set off at a run. The gases were becoming overwhelming, and Aang couldn't last that much longer without fresh air. After some short minutes, they neared the end of the passage way they he had made previously, when the sound of an enormous explosion echoed from below. Lava burst up at them, only to be drawn back. Panting. Zuko ran up behind them, carrying Azula. setting off a large explosion that destroyed the pathway they were just leaving. Breathing heavily, he quickly explained what he had been doing.

"Everyone down there will live. I let the volcano calm down to what it was again. Azula will be taken care of for a little while, and then imprisoned, I guess. The Dai Li will no longer follow her, of that much I'm sure. Anything else, ask later. Right now, let's get outta here."

Nods followed this, as the group was released into the fresh air of the earth kingdom city. Only then did the young avatar let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, as the gentle breeze swept across his face and he was slightly elated. He turned around, and the first thing he noticed was that both Iroh and Zuko were gone, with Azula.

"Hey!"

Katara whirled around, and Sokka got whapped full force in the face with her long braid.

"What! Are you ok? Did something happen? Answer me!"

"It's nothing. Just Iroh and Zuko are gone."

"Twinkle toes, it wasn't that hard to figure out. Really." Toph threw in. "And they took lightning gir. With them."

"And I know where they went to. Before Azula caught me, I saw both of them working in a tea shop in the upper ring, right on the other side, so our paths didn't cross until I had traveled all over looking for Appa and putting up posters and flyers. When I was done, well, that was when I saw them." After a moment's hesitation she added, "I was about to go in for a cup of tea. It's called the Jasmine Dragon."

"So, let's go tomorrow. Sound good?"

"Sure thing, and on the way, let's see if we can't find a butchers, all right? A warrior needs his meat!" Sokka's comment was met with groans of despair, an especially loud one escaping his sister.

"What! I'm just saying!"

The entire group had by now started walking towards their assigned house. People stared at them as they passed, but they didn't seem to care in the least. All they wanted was to get to a warm bed where they could spend the night, and to get their quickly. The next day was going to be very stressful.