"Huh, well whaddya know.." Vzad mused, a rare sound of surprise in his words.
"I'm surprised as well, I was certain she wouldn't do it." Came Nida's voice from next to him. "There's more to that Ty Lee than we originally guessed. Could be dangerous down the road..."
To this, Vzad did not reply, instead he merely continued to concentrate on the scene before him, or rather, what he could make out of it from his angle. He could see the one girl still standing, presumably over the fallen one. He watched as she stooped down and, struggling, lifted the body onto her shoulders, the extra weight causing her to sway a bit before she found solid footing.
"Shouldn't we go-" Nida started to ask.
"No, we have to let her do her part. We go in only if we..." His words trailed off as something in the room caught his attention. He watched as the girl suddenly bolted for the door of the room, not the balcony, and he cursed her out loud. "That sneaky little bitch... let's go."
Without so much as another word he leapt from the tree, Nida one step behind him, and together they silently sped towards the balcony, nothing more than shadows shifting in the night.
"Zuko!"
At the sound of his name, the distraught Fire Lord looked up to see Aang, Sokka, and Toph rushing into the throne room and approaching him hastily. Imperial Firebenders stood in an unbroken line between their Lord and the guests, but immediately recognizing the Avatar and his friends they lessened their guard slightly.
"Is everyone alright? Has anyone been hurt?" He asked, the worry in his voice plain to hear. The three paused before answering, uncertainty drawing itself across their faces.
"Well, actually..." Aang started, already knowing his friend wouldn't like what he was about to hear and mentally preparing to dodge a fireball.
"Well actually what!" He demanded, his easy-to-anger nature already getting the best of him.
"Azula's missing." Sokka informed him before the young Avatar could respond. He added immediately afterwards, in an almost conspiratorial tone, "Ty Lee too."
"So she's already at it again... serves me right." Zuko half mumbled, chastising himself for his carelessness in dealing with his greatest threat.
"There's something else Zuko..." Aang spoke up again, this time an even greater trepidation flashing across his face. "We found blood in her room, a puddle of it right in front of that broken mirror. It was... scary." A shudder went down his spine to accompany his words.
"No..." Whined the Fire Lord, a pitiful, disbelieving hopelessness in his voice. "It wasn't... They weren't... No..." He didn't appear to be speaking to anyone in particular, but his hollow voice and watering eyes spoke volumes to his friends.
"Don't get yourself all worked up just yet, we still don't know who's blood that was exactly. Knowing Azula, it could just as easily have been one of the assassin's." Toph stated in as reassuring a voice as she could. "There's no way she'd go down without a fight, you of all people should know that Sparky."
"And we still can't rule out the possibility that Azula herself was somehow involved here." Sokka rubbed at his chin as he thought aloud, and upon noticing the stares he was receiving, he quickly clarified, "Hey, all I'm saying is, we've dealt with her before, and I wouldn't put it past her that this could all be some elaborate scheme that she thought up while in prison. She did have an awful lot of time to think after all." Zuko gave him a knowing nod, not wanting to believe that scenario, but accepting the very real possibility that it was true.
"We'll start tracking them down right away." Aang announced, knowing the chances of finding their targets alive and well would only go down the longer they waited. "They couldn't have gotten too far yet, at least not far enough to escape Appa and me if we fly. Come on guys!" He signaled for Sokka and Toph to follow him as he turned and made for the door.
"Wait!" Zuko, regaining some small modicum of composure and gathering his thoughts. "Be careful you guys, whether it's my sister or the assassin's responsible here, one thing's for sure; it's going to be dangerous." He finished with a finality that brokered no argument, and the friends all gave each other quick nods of understanding before the three ran for the exit.
Mai dragged her feet as she made her way, worn out and in a less than pleasant mood, towards the bed that so eagerly awaited her. It had been quite the eventful evening, what with the half-assed assault on the Palace. It was no legitimate attack, just a small group of would-be assassin's. So, with tired arms, a few less knives in their holsters and a few new holes in the walls, the Fire Lady decided to retire for the evening.
Well, She thought to herself, a sudden, nagging thought in the back of her mind, It would probably be best to explain what happened anyways. No use getting him all worked up over nothing. A tiny smirked played at her lips as she recalled just how much of a drama queen he really was.
Just as she was turning to head for the throne room however, she noticed the door to her and Zuko's shared bedchamber slightly ajar. A surge of adrenaline pumped through her body, her chest filled with a light fluttering and she immediately drew two of her favored, three-point shuriken. Moving swift and silent, she approached the door and, taking a deep breath, she lunged, exploding into the room with her arms crossed and ready to unleash a sharp, metal hell on whoever was daft enough to hide in the Fire Lord's personal room.
She glanced around the entire room, brightly lit with multiple torches that eliminated any and all shadows, and spotted a suspicious note on Zuko's private desk. Spending as much time as she had with Azula did have it's benefits, she decided, as the painfully obvious bait alerted her to the trap that was waiting.
Mai wasted no time in searching the room, throwing open the closet doors and stabbing into them before even searching, only to be met with air and cloth. Click. She spun around, faster than one could blink, and yet the room remained empty and silent. Her eyes darted too and fro, but nothing had changed.
She searched more obvious hiding spots, and when those yielded no results she even went so far as the check under the bed. Well, it was worth a shot, she decided as she stood and dusted herself off. Satisfied that there was, in fact, nobody lying in wait for the Fire Lord or herself, she sheathed her weapons. Click.That time she was sure she had heard it. Eyes narrowing suspiciously at the still untouched note, she moved towards it slowly, cautiously, all the while waiting for some invisible menace to jump out from nowhere.
When she stood before the desk, still unharmed and alone, she warily picked up the note. Standard parchment, the likes of which could be found in any paper store around the world, and no seal. Nothing at all, in fact, to distinguish for whom it was for and from whom. An evil little thought fluttered through her mind. Well, it doesn't say it's for him, so reading it wouldn't technically be illegal.
Taking time to glance once more behind her to ensure the coast was clear, she carefully unfolded the parchment and gazed at the writing contained within. Her eyes widened in disbelieving horror as she finished the note, and immediately she dropped it and leapt for the door.
Click.
To all the world, it appeared nothing more than a peaceful, starlit night over the mostly sleeping Caldera Crater. A half moon hung low in the sky, and the crisp air was refreshing and cool. In the distant wilderness around the ancient volcano, the background sounds of nocturnal animals serenaded the landscape.
In an instant, the shroud of peace and tranquility was shattered.
An explosion ripped through the night, emanating from the center of the city; the Palace. A massive fireblast sent shards of brick and splinters of wood in every direction as the deafening sound of a hundred thunderclaps all at once reverberated throughout the city in the crater. The fire from the blast could be seen for miles around, and for that brief instant, night was turned to an eerie perversion of day, and all the landscape was painted in the unnatural, pale glow. Those who bore witness to the travesty could only stand in helpless terror as they watched the conflagration rise high into the night, an ice cold feeling running down their spines as they watched the brilliant sapphire eruption.
Aang, Sokka, and Toph had only just prepared to take off into the night when the world around them suddenly trembled violently, and they could feel the heat already washing over them. None of them needed to turn and see to know what it was, and Aang and Sokka both shared a look of pure terror as they watched the blue glow blanket one another.
"No..." Sokka breathed, refusing to believe what he saw, and yet it couldn't be denied. An upper section of the Palace had been completely decimated, blown apart by the savage explosion. They didn't need to know the exact layout of the place to know that it wasn't good.
"Zuko!" Aang exclaimed, and before the other two knew what was going on, he was wind sprinting back to the Palace they had only moments ago exited. Bending the air behind him to create a tailwind, he practically flew back towards the throne room.
"Yes, my Lord, multiple witnesses confirm seeing the exact same thing." An Imperial Firebender was kneeling before the throne, giving his report of what had happened as Aang burst into the room. The Avatar locked eyes with the Fire Lord, and he recognized immediately the look of pure, unbridled fury in his friend's amber eyes. It was a look Aang rightfully feared, remembering it all too well from the time when they were bitter enemies.
"It was an explosion of blue flame, there's no mistake sir. I'm... sorry, Lord." The man finished, drawing back as the wall of fire steadily grew in intensity from Zuko's boiling anger.
"Zuko..." Aang tried to start, and that's when he noticed something in the Fire Lord's hands, something he was cradling as if it were dearly precious to him. It was small, and glinted in the firelight. Stepping closer, Aang tried to make out more details of the object.
It was a crown.
Quite similar in appearance to his own, except this one had two points instead of three. It was the crown of the Fire Lady. It was Mai's crown.
"Oh no..." The Avatar breathed, realization of exactly how dire the situation was dawning on him.
Zuko made no direct response to his friend, instead he merely clenched his fist around the metal trinket, so hard it cut into his palm.
"Jingku." He said, in a calm tone that was even more terrifying than if he had shouted the word, and the man who had reported to him looked up, hesitantly, at his name. "Let it be known, that my sister, Azula," He paused, drawing breath and fighting back tears of anger and pain, before continuing with a dead finality, "is a traitor to the Fire Nation, and responsible for the murder of my wife, the Fire Lady Mai. She is to be hunted down, with every resource available, and brought to justice for her crimes."
"My Lord-"
"I want her brought back here," Zuko continued as if the man hadn't spoken at all, his voice still carrying that terrible, emotionless, blackness to it, and he looked knowingly at Aang as he concluded with, "Dead, or alive."
"It will be done, Fire Lord Zuko." The man, Jingku, acquiesced, knowing full well that anything other than compliance would have been met with annihilation right then.
"Zuko, no..." Aang tried to beg, tried to plead with his friend, but it was to no avail.
"Your Fire Lord has spoken, you are all dismissed." He concluded, and on cue, the wall of fire rose nearly to the ceiling, completely cutting off the man who sat upon the throne from all others in the room, and the world, for that matter.
It was only then that Aang noticed Katara, who had been left to help protect Zuko if need be, standing there with a bitter look of anger and sadness. It was a look that said 'I told you so,' but she didn't need to say it. She knew better than to say it. Instead she walked towards Aang upon seeing him, and without a word she went right past him, out of the throne room and disappeared into the dark hallway beyond.
As much as he wanted to try and argue some reason into Zuko, Aang knew better. There was no getting through to him, no reasoning, not right now anyways. In his current state of bitter anger and hatred, all an argument would lead to would be a fight, one he didn't want to be involved in at that.
So, defeated, the Avatar turned to chase down Katara, just in time to see Sokka and Toph standing at the doorway. They had just missed the decree, but the towering inferno of the throne room told them that things couldn't be good. Their wordless encounter with Katara just moments before didn't help their feelings of dread any either.
"This is bad, isn't it." Sokka said more than asked, to which Aang could only nod his head remorsefully.
"We have to find Azula, and fast." He announced, to which his friends simply nodded. There were times when the sunny attitude, cheery demeanor and all around playfulness of their friend simply disappeared, leaving only a terrible feeling of urgency and dread in their guts. Rare as they were, they did happen. This was one of them.
Back on a mid-sized ship harbored in the Bay of Azulon, Vzad and Nida were collecting their thoughts and thinking the situation over. Failure in a mission was a completely new thing to the former, and he was taking it admirably well Nida thought. Or so he appeared to be, in any case.
"That was quite the gambit she pulled back there..." She commented non-chalantly, deciding even an unpleasant conversation would be better than the stark silence that had previously enveloped them.
"She hasn't gotten away yet." He shot back snippily, sounding only a little more perturbed than he had likely meant. Nida simply raised both hands in a mock surrender, as if to imply 'whatever you say.' "She's got nowhere to go, and even if she did, she'd never get off this island without us knowing."
"You mean the same way she could 'never get out of the Palace' without us knowing?" Nida pointed out, a humorous sarcasm that only served to infuriate her partner further, though truthfully she knew it would and had opted to do it anyways.
"This is different!" Vzad shouted, louder than was called for at this hour, and taking a quick, calming breath, he explained further, "There's no hidden passageways off of this island. They would either have to take a boat, which we could catch, or a balloon, which we could spot."
Nida immediately thought of some holes in this, but decided against it for the time being. Let him have his victories, even in defeat, she told herself. Classic Vzad... she thought, with a sad sigh to herself. "So then, what isour next move, oh fearless leader?"
A wicked grin spread across his face, and he answered plainly, "We go to plan B, dear Nida."
Before she could even ask, and as if on cue, a massive explosion ripped the night sky apart, and both heads jerked back up towards the great volcano. They watched as the blue fireball expanded into the air, bathing everything within sight in an effervescent sheet of azure, and then, just as quickly as it had appeared it dissipated, leaving the night in a dead, horrified silence that not even the insects dared disturb.
"When he gets back, have him cast off and make for open water. I'm going to go study some maps and try to find out what her next likely move is." Without waiting for so much as an affirmative nod, Vzad turned and made his way quickly, quietly into the bowels of the ship, leaving Nida standing alone on the deck, a sad, hopeless longing in her deep blue eyes as she gazed back up towards the column of smoke rising out of the volcano.
"It just... doesn't make sense." Toph said, a painfully obvious bewilderment in her words.
"It makes perfect sense Toph." Came Sokka's adamant retort. "We trusted Azula, and now we've paid for it. I can't say I blame Zuko in the slightest."
On board Appa, everyone had been fully clued in on the situation, Aang explaining the announcement he had heard Zuko make with Katara filling in the missing details of what had happened. Nobody present needed to be capable of feeling heartbeat patterns like Toph to know that the Waterbender was in a mood most foul.
"I just thought she had changed. You guys, she really felt different to me, like... I don't know, not as evil I guess." The little blind girl tried to explain, beginning to feel overwhelmed in this argument by the two Water Tribe siblings who had both appeared to take to the 'Azula is evil and must die' mantra rather quickly.
"She's fooled you before Toph." Katara pointed out bluntly, not even trying to sound pleasant about it.
"Well what about the blood in her room? How do we explain that miss bitchy-britches?" Toph shot back.
"Isn't it obvious?" She retorted with a sarcastic humor, as if any child could figure it out. "She probably killed Ty Lee first, and then went after Mai, the evil bitch."
"She's right," Sokka admitted, cutting off whatever Toph had to respond with as he stated the facts, "If there were any two people Azula would want revenge against the most, it would be those two." He waited for anyone else to voice their own opinion on the matter, but for the life of them, all Toph or Aang could do was agree. It was certainly the most likely scenario. "We have to assume that she's killed at least those two so far, and is prepared to kill more if she has to. The most important thing for us to do right now is find her, and make sure she can't kill anyone else. If that means killing her," Here he paused, giving the back of Aang's head a quick glance but the Avatar never budged, "Then so be it."
A few moments passed by quietly as the sky bison cleared the edge of the volcano and headed due north. Katara, sensing Aang's discomfort with the situation, decided to try some convincing. "I know how you feel about taking someone's life-"
"Violence is never the answer." He cut her off forcefully, the first thing he had said since leaving the Palace and it was probably more curt than necessary, but he didn't seem to care at the moment. "But if it comes down to her, or one of you guys, then we'll do whatever we have to."
He didn't like the way things were shaping up, but if someone had to die, it was sure as hell not going to be another one of his friends.
"But first thing's first," He announced, and all eyes were (more or less) on him again as he said flatly, "I want answers."
Author's Note: Well, there you have it, FF is officially caught up to DA. Oh, and it's a big, evil cliff hanger. Enjoy ^^
Oh, and you'll have to excuse any mis-spacings, I just tossed these 6 chapters up really quick and didn't really stop to check for the infamous spacing issues that seem to plague this site... sigh