Too Clever by Half

The first time Azula had infiltrated the Earth King's palace, she had the benefit of a very good disguise and distracted enemies. (That is, if the stories she had been told were true. Nothing was certain.) This time, she was going to have to do it the hard way.

Azula spent that first afternoon in Ba Sing Se's Upper Ring just getting the lay of the land, walking the lanes with a facade of busy purpose. It really was a beautiful place, a mix of civilization and nature that was only marred by how artificial it all looked. It was the most uncluttered, open settlement that Azula had seen since she left Kyoshi Island, but unlike her old home, the Upper Ring was clean and paved. It was a little haven against anything more unpleasant than a snotty guest at your dinner party. The homes ranged from small estates with mansions at the center to single-level houses with beautiful gardens and wide rooms. The shops were airy and relaxed, with more servants than patrons, and the restaurants were palatial experiences, boasting expertly-prepared foods from all over the Earth Kingdom.

Azula found it all too seductive.

She had been here before, and could even remember it. When she had been Suki, a lie that walked like a woman, she was invited along with Sokka and his friends to visit Zuko's Uncle Iroh in his teashop. It was one of those restaurant palaces, and Iroh had cleared the whole place when his nephew and company visited. Suki found the ambiance relaxing and delightfully fancy, and she had cherished the chance to enjoy some quiet camaraderie with her best friends. Of course, those visits had tapered off as time went on, and the memories were now faded and lifeless, like an old painting worn away by dust and too much sunlight. Azula could almost believe that those experiences had happened to someone else.

In a way, they had.

She made sure to avoid Iroh's 'Jasmine Dragon.'

The main point of her wandering, though, was to provide Azula with the opportunity to check out the Earth King's palace. In keeping with the themes of Ba Sing Se, it was both protected and hidden by massive walls, too tall to climb and too thick to break through. Azula walked the whole perimeter of the fortress-like structure, but spread the casing out across several visits to avoid drawing attention to herself, and found that there was just a single visible entrance.

The front gate boasted a trio of open arches through which both foot-traffic and even drawn carriages could pass, and they were constantly guarded by armored sentries. The men (they were all men) had no weapons, but their bare feet betrayed their Earthbending ability. Azula suspected that there were additional, secret accesses to the palace grounds, but there was no time to look for them. The longer she stayed in the city, the greater her chances of being caught. For all she knew, someone like June the bounty hunter was already hot on her trail and closing in. (Why did that thought make her stomach hurt?) Azula would have to keep moving, once this task was done.

Despite the danger, Azula had to interrogate the Earth King. She couldn't live without knowing what had been done to her. And if that led to being found and cornered then so be it, but she had no intention of allowing herself to be captured and made to forget again.

No matter what it took.

Azula was almost shaking when she boarded the train again, but she forced herself to stop thinking like that and instead shifted her thoughts to the intelligence she had gathered and the infiltration plan she would have to create. Her feelings of unease were not important. She had a mission. She had to focus on that.

By the time she disembarked in the Lower Ring, Azula had the basic workings of a plan. She just had to buy some supplies, and the rest would be up to her own abilities. The infiltration would happen tomorrow night, while the city slept.

Then she could finally be at peace.

It's a good thing Azula had all those coins in her bag, wherever they came from. (Her feelings of unease were not important. She had a mission. She had to focus on that.) The supplies she needed didn't come cheap, especially since they were mainly sold by the barrel; the Lower Ring was where all of Ba Sing Se's manufacturing was done, and so a good number of interesting materials were freely available for purchase with no suspicions involved. She had to go deep into her funds to pay for everything, and so to save a little coin she chose to spend her first night in Ba Sing Se at a random flophouse.

It was the same thing she had done when she arrived in the city of Yang. Something about that rubbed her instincts the wrong way.

She was sure she had slept on a wooden floor in a cramped city, surrounded by other patrons and drowning in the smell of body odor. That had to be in Yang. It was the only heavily populated settlement she knew she had visited before setting out for Ba Sing Se, and she remembered everything before that.

Yet...

Yet, she didn't actually have memories of her time in Yang. She tried to, but her mind just completely ignored her. There was no feeling of sickness, no curious blank spots like with her time before Suki, just... nothing. She had certain facts in her head, but no basis for them, just crumbs of impressions from her long journey to Ba Sing Se.

Was this a side-effect of what had been done to her to turn her into Suki? Or... or was this something else? It occurred to Azula, as she laid on a futon as thick as a sheet of paper and pretended to be trying to sleep, that perhaps the stories of how the dreaded Princess Azula had gone completely insane at the end of the war might have a grain of truth to them. Perhaps that wasn't just a lie?

Perhaps she was insane right now, and didn't realize it.

Azula nearly had a panic attack right there in her room at the thought, but then she realized that her feelings of unease were not important, she had a mission, she had to focus on that. It might be nothing more than the effects of a head injury. She could see a healer when she got out of Ba Sing Se.

Something about that thought seemed familiar, but the feeling slipped from her mind as she fell asleep.

She woke up with the dawn the next day, and by sunset she had completed her preparations for the mission. Azula set out into the crowded streets with her special supplies, a knife hidden in her boot just in case, and took the train back to the Upper Ring. The sun had gone down by the time she arrived, but the walkways were still populated with people going about their business. Azula decided to find a place to hide out until the night had grown old; fortunately, she knew of a shelter right in the neighborhood of the palace that she could count on to be deserted; Toph had always been quite clear that the Bei Fong vacation estate was the biggest waste of space in the Upper Ring.

An hour or so after midnight, she finally ventured out. By then, all foot traffic in the Upper Ring had faded away, and the night was left darkened and silent while the people slept. Aside from the usual need to not be seen breaking and entering a palace, it would have been quite awkward carrying around some of her 'tools of the trade.'

And so it was time to infiltrate the most secure place on the entire planet.

Again.

Guardsman Quong had always been told that Midnight Door Duty was the most important assignment a Guardsman could be awarded, since it meant acting as the first line of defense against whatever dark forces would seek to use the obscuring night as a weapon against the Earth King. However, Guardsman Quong had been getting random Midnight Door Duty assignments for a couple of years now- ever since the Dai Li had given up the responsibility by way of becoming an illegal organization and disappearing from the city- and the bloom was definitely off the rose, so to speak. In fact, the rose was long wilted, dead, decomposed, and forgotten. The whole bothersome business was really nothing more than standing around in front of the open arches at the main gate for hours and hours, in the dark, while the quiet and generally peaceful Upper Ring slept around him.

The only thing that broke the monotony was the arrival of the regular delivery carts, which were still working even this late at night, but if a squeaky wagon was the most exciting thing in Quong's life then it was definitely time for a change in perspective. Not that Quong would ever complain of such a thing out loud, never mind within the hearing of his superiors. He was a Guardsman from a long line of Guardsmen, and even if the Dai Li weren't around anymore, it was still a blood-born habit not to draw too much negative attention to himself.

There were rumors that, one time, a Guardsman on Midnight Door Duty had been forced to turn away a wandering drunk. Quong wasn't quite sure if he believed such an unlikely story, but that kind of thing wouldn't be a bad way to break the monotony, and it was easy enough to exaggerate into something that would impress the servant girl with the soft brown eyes. But no, nothing untoward ever happened at this time of the night, and for all his boredom, Quong was still a good Guardsman. Thus he stood straight and tall in his rather silly bell-shaped armor, kept his eyes turned out towards the darkness in search of incoming threats, and did his Midnight Door Duty.

At first, he wasn't really sure the glows he was seeing were real.

They materialized out of the distant night, somewhere in the open space between the palace walls and the first row of residential estates: strange moving shapes that were almost like the semi-images that danced in your vision after staring at a candle for too long. Quong blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the little glows disappeared behind his eyelids, and then reappeared when he looked again. In fact, the phenomenon almost seemed to be getting closer, more distinct. Yes, it was definitely approaching. Quong stepped forward and squinted, but couldn't quite make it out yet.

Should he call for help?

Pishaw! Best to ascertain the full scale of the threat, first. It could just be a drunk who lit himself on fire with an errantly placed candle, or something perfectly normal and extremely common like that, and then all the rumors would be about how Guardsman Quong had needed backup to deal with a dying sot.

The shapes got closer, and Quong realized they were much closer than he realized. They were small, was what tricked him. Three little bobbing balls of glow, racing towards him, and-

Quong made out the details of the glowing balls, and gasped in pure fright.

Spirits!

Maleficent specters of inhuman nature!

Their monstrous faces stared with piercing eyes made of pure moonlight, and their features were twisted into fanged snarls as they dashed towards him! They whined for his blood as they bobbed along the ground without actually touching it, and Quong struggled for the will to unleash his own wail of terror, never mind a cry for assistance!

This looked to be the end for Guardsman Quong!

Then the Spirit Monsters danced around Quong's legs, and the fabric of the night itself reached out to cover him while his armor clanged in response like a Spirit Bell and he could only struggle for breath against his constricted neck before he sank to the ground.

Quong's last thought, as reality went away, was that Midnight Door Duty was not so boring after all, but that was not at all a good thing.

Azula waited to make sure that the soldier was unconscious before she untangled her arm from around his neck to let the blood flow through his veins again, then removed her black cloth mask. It had been awkward, getting his neck-guard off while he flailed about in a panic, but well within her estimated range of difficulty.

Good thing she had lined up such an effective distraction.

Azula reached down and petted one of the glowing little pygmy pumas who were rubbing against the sleeping guard's armor. It had been expensive, buying a barrel of the glowing phosphorescent extract; it was made from minerals found in the southern end of the Earth Kingdom, and was only imported to Ba Sing Se for use as a novelty and component in paint for signs and markings that were meant to be visible at night. It absorbed sunlight during the day, and glowed a soft, eerie green color at night. Finding someone who sold it was almost as hard as catching the three pygmy pumas, carrying their cages into the Upper Ring, and rolling them in the stuff so that they would glow like Spirits as Azula herded them towards the palace's main gate.

Still, the results had been spectacular. The armored sentry thought he was being attacked by ghosts, and hadn't noticed Azula running right up to him in her dark clothing. She never would have been able to approach him otherwise, never mind get close enough to rip some of his armor off and get him in a choke hold.

The only thing that had ruined the sense of victory was that it had been Sokka's plan in the first place.

During one his visits to Kyoshi Island, back when Azula thought her name was Suki and delighted in his stories about the war, he had said, "So I told Aang that we could dress Momo up like a ghost so he would fly around the palace guards creating a distraction, while we would blast a hole in the wall, but before I could tell him my brilliant idea for making a bomb out of a basket of apples, Aang very rudely interrupted me and just said we should dress up like busboys. I guess that worked, but I still think that Momo-ghost plan has possibilities."

Azula took a deep breath, and pushed all thoughts of Sokka out of her mind. Her feelings of unease were not important. She had a mission. She had to focus on that. And this was merely the first step in her infiltration plan.

Time for step two.

Azula dragged the guard into the shadows of one of the entrance arches, leaving the glowing pygmy pumas to play. Hidden in the darkness, she began stripping the man of his armor and clothes as quietly as possible. Fortunately, the guard turned out to be a man of fairly average size. The armor was too big for her, as expected, but the extra clothes and padding she brought with her in her bag would make up for the difference. That still left plenty of room to fit extra supplies and weapons, but she would have to leave her sack here with the guard's body.

Azula dressed quickly, and held back a sigh as she was forced to abandon her boots. She'd never pass for an Earthbender while wearing them.

As for passing for a man...

She had bought the glue from the same place as the phosphorescent mixture, and it held the fake beard in place over her lips and chin as solidly as advertised.

Once again not thinking of Sokka and everything that he had taught her, Azula passed through the arch looking for all the world just like a member of the Palace Guard, and walked as quickly across the wide open palace grounds as she could without appearing to be in a hurry. She didn't know how soon the subdued guard would be found, and had to get the most out of this disguise while it was still viable.

Less than perfect was less than acceptable, and for this mission, the only acceptable outcome was not getting caught.

People tended to think of palaces as buildings, but the truth was that they were really more like miniature cities. Even in Ba Sing Se, a city that divided itself into three sub-cities, the Earth King's palace still boasted a significant population and its own economy.

It was also a city that didn't sleep, unlike the rest of the Upper Ring.

Azula's disguise got her across the main courtyard with only minor discomfort for her unshod and uncalloused feet. She passed several soldiers on patrol in armor identical to her stolen set, but kept her cool and didn't react to them. If the guard she had subdued at the gate was any indication, they weren't very bright, but they tried to make up for it in terms of discipline. Azula marched along like she had someplace to be, and no one so much as waved a hand in casual greeting at her passage.

You had to appreciate a security force that could be fooled by putting on a helmet and a fake beard. If it was Azula's way to win by exploiting fears, psychological weaknesses, cultural blind spots, and panic, then Ba Sing Se was truly the most vulnerable of all her victims. The palace's true defenses were the people and city that surrounded it, a cowed and trained civilization that insulated it from the rest of the world. Or so they thought.

Azula ascended the massive staircase in front of the palace and found a pair of guards standing at attention on either side of the main door. She gave a bored nod of her head to them, but the one on the left still held up a hand and said, "What business?"

Azula swallowed. She had been worried about this. Lying was one of her best skills (why did she know that?) but she could hardly speak with the voice of a woman while wearing a beard, and even brief Firebending would be ridiculously visible in the dark of the night. Oh well, that was why she had spent so much time preparing for this mission.

Azula stopped right in front of the guard who spoke, bowed, and came up with a heavy rag in each hand that stank with the sharp smell of fermented seaweed extract imported from the Eastern Gulf. She shoved one rag over the face of the guard in front of her; he took a reflexive breath- no doubt in preparation for an Earthbending attack- and immediately his eyes rolled back and his body went limp. Azula barely got a glimpse of his reaction, though, before she was twirling over to the second guard. He had gotten his hands up in defense, but she stomped the heel of her bare foot on the guard's exposed toes, making him flinch from the pain, and she was able to take advantage of his distraction to shove through his defenses and push the other rag over his nose and mouth.

His eyes rolled back, and he went down with a brief clang.

Azula waited to see if anyone had heard that, but after a few moments, she detected no sign that her actions had been noticed. Leaving the stinking rags draped lightly over the guards' faces, she stood up and entered the palace.

The hallways inside were dark, but not pitch black. Glowing crystals, the cheap light source of choice in Ba Sing Se, softly illuminated the walkways while still giving a strong impression of nighttime. Even in the low light, she could see that the palace was every bit as impressive as the rest of the Upper Ring. There were thick rugs, regular alcoves boasting priceless works of art, and detailed paneling on every possible surface. Unfortunately, what the palace lacked was a sign that would have directed Azula directly to the Earth King's chambers.

Then, as soon as she applied her mind to the problem, Azula realized that she knew exactly where to go. She had no specific memories, but some instinct was pointing her directly on the path to the residential wing deep in the palace. Perhaps it was some remnant of her first infiltration during the war? That was unexpectedly helpful. It was about time that her memory came up with something useful.

Walking the dark hallways, Azula soon learned that she wasn't alone. Other guards patrolled the hallways, and even in the dead of night servants moved about with professional briskness. Azula passed the kitchen area, which was already bustling with a small staff, and later on she encountered a pair of servants freshening up the paint on one spot of the wall. It was a good thing she had planned on a disguise. Sneaking through this building-shaped city would have been impossible.

She almost made it without getting caught.

Azula encountered another guard as she passed into what she had the distinct impression was the most secure area in the residential wing. The armored man stood at attention in front of an open doorway at the end of the hall, and his eyes narrowed as Azula approached. When she was still several steps away, he tensed his body, brought up his hands in a defensive posture, and spoke in a clear voice that shattered the stillness of the night. "Halt. Access by order only. Why are you here?"

Azula frowned beneath her fake beard. She was too far away to shove another chemical-rag over his face, and this guy looked like he really would attack if she tried anything aggressive.

Good thing she had more than one trick up her sleeve.

Literally.

Azula stopped, nodded as if in agreement, and then flicked her hand in the direction of the guard's face. In the light of the dim green crystal lamps, the powder was almost invisible. It was all too easy to smell, though. The acrid scent burned Azula's nose in the same way it was probably burning the guard's eyes, but even as he sucked in enough air for what was sure to be a truly impressive screech, Azula dashed forward and clamped her right palm over the man's mouth.

She could feel his tears spilling down over her hand- tears that made her skin itch- but she ignored the sensation and, with her grip secure, she stuck out her right foot and positioned it against the guard's own leg, then yanked him by the head so that he stumbled over her and lost his balance. Azula quickly moved her left arm under the guard so that he wouldn't go crashing into the floor with armor-rattling force, and spun him so that he would land on his back. As soon as he was down, she tore at the armor around the guard's neck- her other hand still clamped over his mouth- and then leaned her whole forearm down on his neck.

The tears never stopped streaming from the man's eyes as he faded into unconsciousness. Azula had forgotten what the mixture had been called or what crushed seeds it was made from, but the man who sold it to her had been clear in his warning that it wouldn't cause permanent blindness. It would just hurt like a red-hot needle through the eyeball until washed out. Well worth the coins, in Azula's opinion.

She pulled the guard's unconscious body through the doorway, and found herself in some kind of receiving room. There were no crystal lamps here, but enough of the light filtered in from the hallway to let Azula see. She dropped the guard behind a couch of some kind, and then removed her own armor and all her outer layer of clothes, leaving her once again in a simple black tunic. She still had some weaponized compounds up her sleeves, but on an urge also moved her small knife so that it would be tucked into the front of her belt, easily accessible. She decided to forgo the mask, and passed through the room deeper into the set of chambers.

A few empty hallways later, she found- strangely, perfectly- a fancy door exactly where she had a hunch the Earth King's bedroom should be.

She took a deep breath, and walked in.

She would wait no longer for the answers she needed.

He was so small in comparison to his bed that he almost disappeared into it.

Of course, the Earth King was a grown man, taller than Azula, so it was the size of his bed that was really the most impressive part of the view. Azula had to crawl across it to reach her target, and did so without even rustling the sheets. The only light in the room came from the weak moonlight that seeped in through the tall windows on the far side of the room, and so even the small bloom of blue fire that she summoned in her right hand was enough to shade the entire massive bedroom in dancing azure patterns.

He didn't stir at all, his face slack in peaceful slumber, so Azula crouched over him and used her free hand to shake him roughly. He was slow to rouse, and even after he opened his eyes and gazed up at the dangerous source of light flicking in her palm, he took several moments to realize exactly what he was seeing. "You-"

The Earth King got no more than the one word out before Azula pushed her left forearm down on top of his throat, and his speech immediately cut off with a sound like a burp. Azula didn't put her full weight down on him- she didn't wish kill him, or even knock him out like she had his guards- but it was enough pressure to still his voice and leave him with only just enough air to stay conscious.

Azula looked into his eyes and saw the light of her flame glistening in the moist surface. Taking a breath, she offered a small, polite smile and whispered, "I know. You're frightened. You're being assaulted in your home by the most wanted Firebender in the world, and feeling threatened. You think I intend you violence. This is a logical conclusion. I don't blame you for assuming it." She eased up on the pressure, just enough so that it would no longer hurt the Earth King to breathe, and continued, "I apologize for all this, but I wanted a chance to have a little talk with you, and couldn't think of a better way to do that. I accept responsibility for that failure on my part."

Azula waited then, to see how he would react. Predictably, he didn't immediately relax and accept her at her word. He might not have been the smartest man to be graced with the title of the Earth King, and despite his recent corrective efforts he was still a very naive person, but he wasn't a complete dolt. People who attacked you in your bed weren't allies. Yet, as time passed and Azula didn't light his face on fire, he began to relax just a little bit. He tried to speak, and Azula obligingly eased her grip on his throat just a bit. "What," he croaked, "- what do you want?"

Perfect. She had successfully drawn him into the conversation of his own free will. "Thank you for asking. I just want to ask you a few questions, and then I'll leave you unharmed."

The Earth King frowned beneath her. "Questions?"

"Yes." Azula kept her polite smile on her face, despite the redundant question. "You know who I am. But the problem is that I don't. You know what was done to me, but I haven't a clue. You know the girl who took your kingdom from you, but she's just stories to me. I have patchwork memories of two different women in my head, I've been driven from my home and chased across the world, and I haven't the foggiest clue why. I need your help. Am I really Princess Azula? And why was I made into 'Suki?' Please, I need someone... trustworthy... to explain it to me." She didn't reveal why she had picked the Earth King as her best possible source, but that was only because she wasn't sure, herself, but it didn't matter. She was here with the prize in her hands; this was no time to worry about unimportant details.

He stared up at her, his gaze obviously skeptical. "You broke into my palace and attacked me in my bed just to ask me some questions?"

"Please, Your Majesty, stay with me here. And consider my position. I used to be Suki, living a happy life. Then I, too, was attacked in my home. A man who claimed to be my father nearly killed me, and the result is that I suddenly had some of Princess Azula's memories in my head. I had no idea who I really was, but when I tried to find out, my 'friends' attacked me and tried to drug me. Now there are rumors all around that I'm leading attacks on the colonies, rumors that would have me appearing in five different place at once. From where I'm standing, I'm the victim here. I need to know who my enemies are." Azula swallowed, and let the false smile fall off her face. "Is- is this all a plan by the Avatar and the Fire Lord? Are they trying to ruin me?"

The Earth King needed a moment to get control of his dumbfounded stare. "No! They were trying to help you! You were sick, and Sokka was trying to find a way to save your life. They figured out how to give you a new life where you could be happy."

"Figured out?What does that even mean? How could I possibly be given a new life with the old one just wiped out, like it had never happened to me?" Azula felt herself frown. Something about that question bothered her. Something felt just out of a reach, like she had the clues to figure out the answer but lacked the intelligence. Of course, that was ridiculous! She had been pondering these questions for weeks, and barely had a clue to go on. Why would it be different this time?

The Earth King must have noticed her distraction, because the next thing he said was, "Are you okay?"

"Naturally. Please, answer the question."

"It's just that- you're sweating. Your face is getting paler as I watch."

Azula blinked in surprise. Now that he mentioned it, she realized that her face was covered in a sheet of sweat that covered every curve and dip. Why would that be? She was channeling her heat into the flame in her hand, not absorbing heat. A quick check confirmed that the fire was still the same size and temperature as it had started. "I'm fine. Just tell me. How did they turn Azula into Suki? How do I fix myself?"

His look was wary now, and the Earth King spoke his reply slowly. "Sokka discovered that the same sciences used by Ba Sing Se's old cultural guard to brainwash their enemies could also be used to give people healthy new memories. I think that's a good summary, it's very complex. Anyway, he worked with a professor named Dong Min to put you through a modified version of the Dai Li's old... are you listening? What's wrong with your eyes? The pupils just got very large."

As a matter of fact, Azula wasn't listening. She was too distracted by a song, the most wondrous tune in all of creation. It had only a few lyrics, but they each had a world of meaning.

Dai Li.

Dong Min.

-Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min Dai Li Dong Min-

Suddenly, a blanket of peace fell across Azula's mind, and a healthy feeling flooded her body. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to say, "Earth King Kuei. Long Feng sends his greetings. You should have known that no one in the world is beyond his reach." Her voice sounded flat and emotionless in her ears, and the Earth King's eyes were wide with terror, but that was all so detached from her. Her body began moving of its own accord, but that was fine, too, because it seemed to be doing so well on its own, and Azula relished the opportunity to just relax.

She didn't understand why she let go of the Earth King's throat with one hand, and slapped an exploding ball of fire onto his chest with her other hand, but even understanding seemed like more effort than it was worth right now. She could just ride the flow of the song all the way to nirvana.

Then the smell of burnt flesh assault her nose and her mind shattered into ten thousand ragged pieces.

Azula suddenly realized what she was seeing. She was crouched over a dying man who she had just fatally wounded with her Firebending. He was gasping for a breath that wouldn't come, since he no longer had the healthy lungs required to summon it.

This was her fault. Dai Li. Long Feng. Somehow, those old ghosts of the war had gotten to her. She had made a mistake in coming here, but admitting that was still glossing over her failure. Every single one of her choices- going all the way back to Kyoshi Island when she learned that there was no such thing as a Suki- were a cascading series of mistakes that culminated in a man's death.

"I'm sorry," she gasped.

"Kch… kchh… Bsc… o…" The Earth King's gaze seemed to focus on her face for a moment, but then again, perhaps not, since it flickered to the side for a moment. Then he stopped struggling to hang on to life, and went mournfully still.

The Earth Kingdom had just lost its King and Ruler.

Azula bowed her head, still crouching over the corpse, tortured once again by the smell of a burn wound she had inflicted on a human being.

Then she noticed the glint of moonlight at the corner of her vision.

She turned her head and found her own hand holding a knife in the air. It was the knife she had brought to Ba Sing Se, the knife she had brought on this mission, the knife she had tucked into her belt before coming into the Earth King's bedroom.

The knife she couldn't remember even acquiring.

Now her right hand was raising that knife of its own accord, and positioning the blade right in front of her own throat. She tried to will it away, but her arm wouldn't obey. It just scraped the knife's edge against her skin, and steadily increased the pressure.

The metal was cool, nothing like the burning of her own mistakes within her heart.

TO BE CONTINUED