Chapter 50
Progress

"The lot of you will stop this senseless fighting by order of the Earth Kingdom. Do you hear me? Settle down you lot!" Bumi shouted, as he bashed his way through the fighting people. "Who's giving orders around here?"

Sokka grinned hearing the voice of an old friend. The fighting did not cease instantly but the confusion spread like wildfire. The soldiers weren't sure who their orders should come from.

"THEY KILLED KING KUEI!" Someone shouted.

"Now I highly doubt that." Bumi laughed.

"THEY WERE PROTECTING HIS KILLER!"

"THE FIRE NATION WISHES TO OPPRESS US!"

"They have no such intention. I've just had a nice chit chat with the Fire Lord." Bumi disagreed.

-

"Sokka, where's my sister?" Zuko demanded, pulling Sokka close.

"She's inside. She's been in there for a while. Aang went after her. The Earth Kingdom ganged up on her and captured her again." Sokka explained. He'd barely finished the explanation when he noticed that Zuko had already dashed off, running towards the palace. A flurry of soldiers rushed to block his path.

"I advise you to stand down, I don't want to hurt you but I won't let my sister be put to death for a crime she didn't commit." Zuko snarled.

"She committed the crime. Everyone knows it. She's crazy and you unleashed her. You let her out to destroy us." Someone shouted.

"You're content to hide behind her treachery." Another voice shouted.

"I don't have time for this." Zuko shouted. There was no point in trying to reason with a crowd who had already decided what they would believe.

Hurtling forwards, Zuko punched a stream of fiery shots to clear a path. Haru was running along behind him throwing up walls to lessen the sides they were attacked from as they moved.

"Hang on Azula. I won't fail. I promise." Zuko murmured to himself.

- -

Azula leapt nimbly over a desk that had been shoved at her. She kicked a stream of blue flames at the guards attempting to close in on her. To her annoyance General Kawamura had made his exit claiming he had no time for her foolishness. She ground her teeth, highly annoyed by the insult. Every time she made it close to the door he'd disappeared through, she was cut off. The guards refused to go down.

"AZULA!" Aang's shout caught her attention for the moment.

"What took you so long?" She smirked. "Take care of this rabble I have bigger fish to fry."

"No, wait, Azu…" Aang's shout ceased seeing that there was no way to stop her. Guards were coming after both of them but the divided attention gave her the advantage she needed to shake them off and bust through the door.

"COME BACK HERE YOU COWARD!" Azula shouted as she raced down the hall.

- -

Kawamura smirked as the princess broke into the private chamber he'd been waiting in. She was doused in a pool of water Hiromu had felt the need to rig the door with.

"Ha, let's see how strong you are now." Hiromu shouted. "Can't bend lightening at all now, can you?"

Kawamura rolled his eyes at the childishness of his companion. He didn't need to handicap but it didn't hurt either.

"Please, you've clearly underestimated me." Azula shrugged rolling her eyes. With a smirk, she raised her body temperature high enough to make most of the water on her body evaporate.

"Sad little prank but it's pleasing to know you're so scared." Azula grinned before rushing at them. "Time to die."

- -

Zuko crashed into the palace and immediately had to duck as bit of office furniture blew by his head. Recovering quickly, he assessed the situation. Aang was surrounded by Earth Kingdom soldiers, fighting fiercely.

Moving into the room, he kicked forward a desk that was slanted in the middle of the room. The desk burst into flames and crashed into two of the soldiers attacking Aang. Aang turned sharply to see Zuko standing behind him.

"Hey, Zuk…" Aang was cut off as a picture frame hit him in the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Pay attention!" Zuko shouted. "It's like you didn't hear a thing I taught you in the last couple of years."

"Sorry." Aang apologized attempting to rub his head and keep fighting.

"Where's my sister?" Zuko asked.

"She went after Kawamura. He ran through that door." Aang said tripping over a floor board that had been raised.

Zuko had been intending to go after his sister but Aang's clumsiness was going to get him killed. Leaping over a couch that was hurtling towards him Zuko rushed the soldier who had thrust it in his direction. He punched the man in the gut, pivoted and kicked another soldier in the gut as well. He was attempting to not use fire to injure anyone so that there could be no claim that the Fire Nation was here to kill anyone.

- -

General Kawamura's upper lip curled in disgust seeing Hiromu twitching on the ground. He hadn't been able to get out of the way of the princess's lightening attack. Kawamura was surprised that the girl had spared the advisor's life. He would survive but he was pretty much useless to Kawamura now.

Kawamura rolled his eyes hearing Hiromu's choking cough. This sound did, however, prompt the general to cover his nose and mouth again. The office they were fighting him was slowly being consumed by flames. The curtains had caught easily and even the room was aflame now. The wooden furniture was either destroyed or on fire. He was running out of things in the room to throw at the girl. A growl of irritation rumbled free of this throat as he decided brute strength was going to have to be his angle.

- -

Katara sat quietly, attempting to hide her annoyance. No matter how many times she said she was fine she was still check on every couple of minutes by the retinue she'd been left with. In her opinion the traveling hadn't been nearly difficult enough to cause concern. She'd been checked by one of the medics to be sure she and the baby were fine after the earlier fall and been declared fine.

Now, all she wanted was to know how the fighting was going. It was quite upsetting to have to sit the fight out but she understood. Drumming her fingers on her thigh she tried to ignore how minutes felt like hours sitting here waiting for news.

"Can't we get a little closer?" She asked.

"I wouldn't advise it my lady." Captain Wei responded. "I'm sure most of the fighting has ceased anyway."

"Then why can't we get closer?" Katara replied.

"Smoke inhalation is no good for you."

"I don't see any smoke. The goal is to not set anything on fire, remember?" Katara smiled.

"In the event that there is smoke, you're better off here. I'm sorry but those are my orders, your highness."

Katara sighed but decided there was no point in arguing. Crossing her arms she sat back again and tried to occupy her mind with other things to help her pass the time.

- -

Azula was growing frustrated. Time in a cell had apparently slowed her down after all. That was the only explanation she could come up with for why Kawamura wasn't dead yet. He'd managed to evade each of her attacks. In fact, he'd managed to hit her.

He'd shattered a wooden file cabinet and sent the shards after her. She'd managed to dodge most of it but a shard had nicked her as it flew past. A trickle of warm blood oozed down her cheek, enraging her further. Regardless, she found herself thrilled by the excitement of the fight. The adrenaline pumping through her veins made her feel happy and alive.

Sweeping back a strand of hair she ignored the growing heat of the flames surrounding her. Fortunately growing up in the Fire Nation, the smoke inhalation was bothering her less that her two opponents. Hiromu was still too hurt to get up but he'd managed to crawl out of the way of the flames for the moment. He was no longer any sort of threat to her so Azula focused her attention on Kawamura.

The general was well trained and was using the smoky haze to his advantage. He was hiding himself in the thick smoke and striking at random. To her shame, as the smoke increased, she was having trouble finding him in all the smoke.

"Stop hiding coward." She called out.

"It's called strategy, little girl." Kawamura sneered.

His voice was surprisingly close, closer than Azula was comfortable with. She whirled around to attack him but he'd already closed the distance between them and grabbed her right arm. In an instant she raised her body temperature to burn his skin. He yanked his hand back shocked by the heat but not before landing a solid kick to her center sending her flying out of the back window.

The glass shattered easily leaving a series of cuts over her neck and arms. She hit the ground hard but rolled quickly and leapt to her feet, narrowly avoiding being stomped into the ground by Kawamura. Her back was killing her from the fall and the tiny glass shards that were now wedged in her back stung but she wasn't going to let Kawamura know that. The back of her head hurt and she could feel some blood oozing from her scalp. She hoped the glass was the only reason her head was bleeding but now wasn't the time to think about that. Using her peripherals she scanned the area quickly noting that she was completely in his territory and behind her there was no light, the garden wasn't lit and it was the night of the new moon. If she could keep him in front of her, she'd have to light from inside to guide her but if he got behind, she'd be playing a shadow game.

"Damn it." She whispered.

She lit a small fire in her hand and glared at the general who was illuminated by the background of the burning room.

"How good are you at fighting shadows, princess?" Kawamura smirked.

"You'll see soon enough." She growled, launching a fire ball at him.

He leapt to the side and rolled into the darkness.

She shot a blast of lightening at the tree he'd ducked behind. The tree split in half and burst into flames, helping to light the garden.

- -

The last of the fighting soldiers dropped to the ground causing Aang to sigh in relief.

"Good work Zuko. We make a good team." Aang grinned.

"Will you get serious?" Zuko snapped.

"I was only compl…" Aang froze hearing a loud crash from up the hall.

"Azula!" Zuko shouted, forgetting Aang and running in the direction of the crash.

Aang followed close on his heels. He could feel that she was fine but it bothered him that he could also feel her pain. He didn't know what hit her but he knew she was pretty banged up.

'Hold on Azula. We're coming.'