A/N: Alas, I'm back. Sorry for the ridiculously long wait (school, computer troubles, writer's block: I won't bore you with the details). I hate abandoning fics so I'm going to finish this. I swear it. I'm sorry if the last chapters aren't as good as the earlier stuff. I haven't written in a while (as you know). I'd like to thank and credit Angela for beta reading this chapter. Eventually, I'm going to go through and clean up all the other chapters. I know there are a lot of typos, I didn't go through them very well because I wanted to post really fast but once the story is done I'll clean the entire thing up.

Also, check out my new fic Crossing the Line. When I finish this one I'll move forward with that one.

Chapter 48
Battle On

Kawamura couldn't help but smile as he watched Azula charge up the streets towards the palace. He'd underestimated the girl but he wasn't beaten yet. Perhaps he wouldn't have her killed but brainwash her to do his bidding instead. She had incredible talent.

"Close the gates and put reinforcements on the wall. Send men to capture the avatar and the princess, take care of the others. If they get inside the palace wall, I assure you, there will be hell to pay for the failure," Hiromu's voice rang out, cutting into Kawamura's thoughts.

'Once the Fire Nation has launched a full scale attack, we will have reinstated the war and the Earth Kingdom will reign supreme this time,' Kawamura thought to himself. He smiled, tipping his head in the direction of the fire nation princess. 'Couldn't have done it without you.'

"What will we do with the avatar when we've got him? We won't have the people's support to kill him," Hiromu asked nervously when everyone else had left the room.

"I suppose we'll need to further turn the people against him then, won't we?" Kawamura said.

"If they didn't stop trusting him for killing our king, what more can we do?"

"Is he not leading the Fire Nation in right now? He's aiding a murderer and attacking Earth Kingdom soldiers. If that is not a sign of his loyalty to the Fire Nation, then I don't know what is," Kawamura shrugged.

"It will be questioned; why stop Ozai just to aid his son?" Hiromu insisted.

"Because Ozai wanted him dead, whereas his weak son, on the other hand, is willing to share the power. What young boy wouldn't think of unlimited power as 'cool'?"

"Perhaps the Avatar, who was raised by monks!" Hiromu argued.

"What was he denied as a child? His identity and worldly things, and he's carrying resentment because of that. Sheltered children are easy to bribe. What does the Fire Lord have to offer that the avatar wants?" Kawamura asked, turning to face Hiromu.

"I don't know. They're both master benders, and he's the avatar with no monks to guide him so I don't really think there's anything stopping him from taking the worldly things that he wants," Hiromu sighed, getting tired of this lengthy conversation that wasn't finding them a decent solution to their avatar problem.

"The girl, Hiromu," Kawamura snapped, rolling his eyes.

"What girl?"

"The Fire Lord's wife, the Avatar is in love with her. In exchange for his help, the Fire Lord could easily release her of her vows and then she becomes the Avatar's girl again."

"Do you think the people would believe that?"

"Of course they will. People do crazy things for love, especially twelve year old boys."

"You're a genius."

"I know. Now go spread the word: The Avatar's a traitor. We can't have traitors running around making the laws," Kawamura said with a devious grin.

- -

Irritated could hardly begin to describe Azula at the moment. She was growing tired of the endless fools who thought they could stop her. If she wasn't playing nice for Aang's sake, she'd have mad life simple and killed them all but apparently nice people only knocked out their enemies because "they're only following orders." She snorted at the idea, 'weak.' Aang shot her a look.

"What?" She shrugged innocently.

"I heard that," Aang told her.

"Sorry I called you and your little friends weak." She yawned. The adrenaline from being able to fight again was giving her such a rush. She needed to do more than just stun people or knock them out; she wanted a fight to the death. She wanted to make Kawamura pay. Her frustration was increasing; she'd never had to fight fair before or be sympathetic to soldiers who were just following orders. Niceness was becoming extremely difficult. Couldn't niceness be put aside during times of war? All her life she'd been taught that this kind of sympathy was nothing but weakness.

"Every life is sacred Azula," Aang responded.

Azula wanted to be good but good was getting them nowhere. This fight could have been over by now but her talents were being wasted. She loved her brother and she liked Aang, but perhaps she couldn't do it. She had said everything Zuko did she could do better, but it wasn't in her nature to be good all the time. She was a fighter and currently she wasn't really fighting; she was toying with people.

Perhaps she couldn't be the ultimate good but the next best thing. If all things take time, then perhaps she needed to reevaluate her decision to be good. Maybe more time spent with Aang would help her to one day understand the concept of true goodness, but she hadn't had enough time. Her pride had been wounded when Kawamura had managed to capture and humiliate her. Bad habits were hard to break and right now all she wanted was to kill. She would spare these men but she needed a plan to get inside. Too much more time out here was going to extinguish her resolve to be good person into a million pieces.

Azula recognized that her need to release pent-up energy and frustration was always going to be a problem for her if she wanted to be good. Her talents weren't being patient or sympathizing with others; they were plotting and scheming and winning wars. Her paranoia didn't have to be a bad thing, for she could learn to control it and mold it into something useful. In the future, she could put her talents to good use by helping her brother with defense and militaristic strategies for the Fire Nation. She hoped that that would be enough to help her find balance between the good she wanted to achieve and the constant itch she had to be actively scheming and watching everybody.

- -

"LADY KATARA!" Kaili's voice called from the lookout wall of Omashu.

Katara smiled and waved as Zuko scowled beside her.

"Don't be mean, Zuko. He's probably been very worried and you know there's nothing going on between us. He's not interested in me in the slightest," Katara cooed, patting Zuko's hand.

"You don't know that." Zuko grumbled.

"Yes, I do." She corrected.

"How do you know?" Zuko challenged.

"He told me."

"He could have been lying."

"Nope, there's a girl but she's not me."

"Really?"

"Really. So cool it." She said, lifting up on her toes to kiss his cheek. He rolled his eyes, pretending to find her affectionate display childish but grinned to himself when her attention was back on their destination.

"I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU! I'M SO SORRY I FAILED YOU." Kaili shouted as he ran towards them. "I would completely understand if I were to receive a silk cloth your majesties."

"Silk cloth?" Katara asked, as Kaili bowed low before them.

"Uh…" Zuko stalled for time. It wasn't a tradition he was proud of but his great grandfather Sozin had been infamous for it. "It's a sort of punishment…death sentence…type of things. Where one is given a silk cloth…rope…of sorts to…you know…"

"That's barbaric." Katara said flatly.

"I don't know, I'd think beating someone to death was more barbaric at least if they get a silk rope they can go say good bye to their families and decide where they want to hang themselves rather than…I should just stop talking shouldn't I?" Zuko mumbled, seeing the expression on his wife's face.

"You really should." Katara told him pointedly before turning her attention back to Kaili. "You are not getting a silk cloth, accidents happen. You were hurt, which reminds me, how is your head?"

"I am recovered and ready to serve you, my lady," Kaili answered as he bowed again.

"I really wish you'd stop doing that," Katara sighed.

"Stop doing what?" Zuko asked, watching Kaili. The other man had shown all the proper respects of a shamed guardian.

"The bowing and honorifics, it's really not necessary," Katara replied.

"Uh…" Kaili wasn't sure how to respond. His eyes lifted from the tips of Katara's shoes to glance at the Fire Lord.

"Do whatever she wants." Zuko sighed, waving his hand carelessly through the air. He was surprised at the smile that blossomed across her face at the simple decree. Had he really made her that happy? He supposed it was possible since she'd complained about not having friends and not liking the idea of servants in the past so perhaps this small gestured counted as his newly changed self. He'd take whatever points she offered.

Kaili was quick to get off of his knees and offer a half bow to both monarchs. Court respect had been pounded into his brain since childhood and he couldn't completely rid himself of the practices in a day.

"King Bumi and my Lord Iroh are waiting at the palace," Kaili informed them.

Zuko nodded and proceeded with Katara towards the palace. Kaili followed half a pace behind out of respect. Katara tried to convince him to walk with them but he insisted he still had to honor his duties to the Fire Lord.

- -

"They just keep coming, don't they?" Sokka breathed.

"Their military is bigger than I thought it would be. I hope Zuko and Katara hurry up with the Omashu soldiers," Suki agreed.

"Hmph, this will be done before they get here. Get out of my way, I'm tired of being toyed with. Kawamura can stall no longer!" Azula shouted.

Haru's eyes widened as her fingers snaked through the air and her hair lifted, crackling with a static intensity.

"Hey guys! You might want to…" Teo called.

"RUN!!!" Sokka shouted, bolting away from Azula.

Everyone, including the soldiers they were fighting, dove out of the way of the huge stream of lightening that burst forth from Azula's fingertips. They ducked and dove out of the way of falling boulders that had been blasted free of the wall surrounding the palace. A gaping hole now stood open to Azula.

"That's better," She said with a triumphant smirk.

Everyone stood stunned for a moment until someone shouted. "DON'T LET HER GET INTO THE PALACE! FIGHT, YOU FOOLS, FIGHT!"

Azula rolled her eyes. 'How annoying,' she thought with a sigh. Running forward, she came to a sudden halt, using the momentum to spin herself around and kick a burst of blue flames at the people coming towards her.

"Where's Kawamura? Tell him to stop hiding and come fight me," Azula demanded as she punched and kicked her way forward.

"Sokka, what are you doing?" Suki asked, seeing Sokka just standing in the road staring ahead with a confused expression on his face.

"Trying to remember," Sokka replied with a frown.

"Remember what?" Suki prodded.

"Did we ever actually win a fight against her? Or did she get stronger sitting in prison?" he mused.

"SOKKA! That's not important right now," Suki said, grabbing his arm and pushing him forward into the battle.

"I was just wondering!" he shouted over his shoulder to her.

Suki laughed as she launched herself into the fight as well.

- -

"They're a bunch of children! How difficult is it for you, all of you trained soldiers, to capture two children? Don't you have any heart? She killed King Kuei, avenge him!" Hiromu shouted at the general standing before him that reported the loud bang everyone had just heard was the palace wall being blasted to pieces.

- -

"Iroh's explained everything to me and I've got a team assembled and ready to go," Bumi announced before Katara or Zuko could open their mouths to begin speaking. "Let's get going. We're going to miss all the good stuff."

"The fighting isn't supposed to start until we give the signal," Zuko pointed out.

"But if this Kawamura is as cunning as we think he is, I'm sure he knows all about your little infiltration squad."

"Oh no," Katara groaned. She hadn't thought of that earlier. She hoped the others weren't in danger.

"Aang and Azula are already on their way over, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." Iroh soothed.

"Especially not with Azula there, she's just itching to take down Kawamura." Zuko added.

"You're right, but then so is King Bumi. If we don't get moving we're going to miss the entire fight." Katara smiled.