A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Glad to know people are enjoying this. Special thanks to Pink Bead Girl for awesome beta-ing, and 12D3 Gorillaz for letting me bounce ideas off you.

oOo

Zuko opened his eyes, shook his head clear and checked inventory. Phew, all limbs still there. He wasn't sure if it had been the sight of his assassin being bested by that blasted boomerang, or Azula getting knocked off the airship by an invisible gust wind and falling hundreds of feet, but one of them had pushed him over the edge. Probably both.

oOo

It hadn't gone as badly as it could have. Or as well. He had leapt off the airship when the first volley from the cannons and the assassin forced the Avatar and his group back behind the barricade. Odd for supposedly peaceful monks to have such strong metal barricades in place so high up.

Not that the little idiot would ever wonder why.

The Dai Li joined him to prevent any escape attempts over or under ground, with Mai and Ty Lee hanging back a little; waiting as backup. Bending and blasting jelly explosions kept the targets pinned down on the one side, Azula waited with the airships ready to shoot down any attempt at flight, and with himself and the Dai Li moving in it would be only a matter of time.

But then that thrice damned boomerang came out of nowhere and struck the assassin from its wide arc. The sudden unexpected blow to the head made him lose control and the energy that would have been focused and fired off erupted chaotically instead. Right in his face. Zuko knew how that felt. Quick reflexes and a metal arm saved his life but lost said arm and most of the skin on his right side as he turned away.

The distraction and new opening to the side let the apparently healed sky bison fly off with a shield of rock, courtesy of Toph, and the Avatar leap off to knock Azula clean off the airship after her first blast was stymied by the rocks bent in place. Zuko watched in mute horror as she fell, unable to help her in any way. But then she regained her control and righted herself with controlled blasts from her hands, and then feet. She slowed for a moment and then stilled, wobbling as she tried to balance on fire, midair.

She was flying! But then gravity fought back when her focus was on staying upright and not slipping, and she started losing altitude. He could almost see her annoyance as she was forced to concede and jet towards the cliff, hairpiece and shoes used to slow her descent against the sheer rock.

She was safe.

He turned to watch his targets fly, too far away for his lightning to reach, and couldn't stop himself from trying one last shot. He held his hands out as if to contain a small fire between them, and breathed deeply. Pulled the energy up as he had felt the assassin do, except to his hands instead. Gathered it up from his palms, fingertips, chest and breath, forced it to be tighter, hotter, more intense, more, and then with a grunt and a short sharp push, sent it shooting in narrow beam to strike the sky bison. Or so he hoped.

oOo

Unfortunately, he didn't know if the attack had landed. The second he had thrown the energy, some of it had backfired. Hell, he didn't even know if the attack had even left his hands. All he knew was he had tried and it had exploded, though apparently not too much.

The scorch marks in front of him and the smell of smoke coming off his clothes were much better than he expected. Maybe it had worked?

It was when he tried to get up that he realised his hands weren't moving quite like they should. He looked down at his palms and finally noticed the angry red marks burnt from the base of his palms fanning out wards to his fingertips. That was odd, why couldn't he feel...? Ah, there it was. Burning, stinging, stabbing, aching, hot throbbing pain. That was a good sign, meant it wasn't quite so bad.

He managed to sit up and cradle his hands. The Dai Li were standing at the edge of the cliff and making upwards motions. It took the muddled prince several seconds longer than it should to realise they were bringing his sister back up. A stretcher was brought his way by combat medics from the crew. He waved them off towards the unconscious assassin but submitted his hands to burn medicines and bandages before joining his sister.

She looked so different with her hair down. Powerful and wild with her hair blown about by the high breezes. He wondered how she would look with her hair styled like this, and without the lipstick to make her look older. Beautiful in a more natural way, he guessed. Innocent too, if she could keep from smiling.

What would she look like if she smiled properly?

Her eyebrow quirked and he realised he had been staring at her face and lips for a little too long. He could tell she was dying to make some perfectly timed snarky comment, but there were too many outsiders here. She'd have to wait til later. Oh joy. Maybe she'd forget, or let it go. Maybe he'd sprout dragon wings and fly to the sun.

"Did I at least hit them?" She eyed his bandaged hands and nodded. "You missed, they dodged to the right, but your beam exploded mid-air and caught them in the blast. You wounded the bison again; little Zuzu is just full of surprises lately." He snorted. "Says you. What's flying like?"

Azula considered it for a moment. "Like treading really thin water, and balancing on a couple crates in the river. But you almost got them."

The disheveled prince smiled a little. It had worked. Some more practice and this new technique could be even better than lightning. Quicker to prepare, at least for him, longer ranged, more precise and explosive, it was a deadly firebending form. And he had wielded it. More or less. Maybe with some protective measures in place, like a set of specialised body armour, he could practice and perfect it. By the look on his sister's face, he better make it two sets. The standard suits for explosive training, with some extra metal reinforcement perhaps. He took another look at the scorch marks.

Maybe a lot of extra metal.

"Maybe we should wait until we can practice it safely. The assassin could teach us about it once he recovers enough. And I'm pretty sure I came close to losing my hands." Which would not be good. He wouldn't be ale to wield his swords, which was fun, or a brush, which was necessary. Some things couldn't be trusted to scribes and servants.

oOo

"True. Perhaps we should return home so you and your pet can get better treatment. I must admit you have found quite the firebender. What we could do with a few dozen with that skill..." Her eyes went distant as her mind filled with visions of synchronised firebeams and Dai Li working together to bring down cities. Not that there were any large enough left on the continent to require such force. Maybe if all the rebellions united and made their own? A girl could dream.

oOo

Zuko bit back his sharp reply and thought about it. His hands weren't so bad right now, but that would change for the worse if he had to actually do anything with them. And it might be best to personally make sure the assassin was treated with the best care; there were several significant bounties out on his head, someone might get ideas. But they were so far from home, to go all the way back would give the Avatar weeks...

"The Boiling Rock. We should go there instead, it's much closer." And I have an idea. Azula gave him a considering look before nodding and moving to board the airship. Zuko followed soon after, Dai Li falling into formation behind the forgotten Mai and Ty Lee.

The non-bending girls exchanged glances at the recent developments. Things were getting much more serious, much more deadly. Best to stick a little closer to Azula. She'd never let them actually get hurt.