Three Families

by James Golen

Three Families seek the Avatar. Three Families find the Avatar. Three Families use the Avatar. The story of how three sets of siblings are changed by the Avatar, amidst an endless war. AU, Want of A Nail.

24. Return to Omashu

Two things: One, I'm somewhat bummed that while I did predict that lightningbending would have proliferated by Korra's time, I didn't get to beat them to its utilization in this fic. Still, score one for foresight. Two, I admit this chapter has its weak bits. Eh, not everything can be solid gold. EDIT: Doubly so because apparently I can't remember that Toph is friggin' blind!

---

Yong kept his eyes to the south as the ramps and machinery began to extend, their harsh, metal workings clear even at this distance, mostly because of their great number. Catching his breath wasn't easy, since he'd had to earthbend his way up to the center of the city only after the rampant retreat from the field. He wasn't even sure that the bird which bore him in was still alive; Ostrich Horses could run hard and run long, but there was a limit to any mortal stamina. At least he and his men had ensured the great trebuchets and mortars couldn't get set up in any appreciable number. While occasional balls of flame launched toward the great city of Omashu, they were few and far between, and poorly aimed besides. "We have to decide on our policy, King Bumi," Yong stressed.

"Regarding?" the mad old wolfbat said, one white brow raised as he stared at a Pai Sho board instead of the fact that his nation was being invaded. Yong once again had to tweeze his brow, and shake his head. "It can't be that important. If it was, it'd have been delivered by mail. All the important messages come by mail, don't you know?"

"My king, can you not see the Fire Nation at our gates?" Yong asked.

"Yes, yes, such a trouble. You'd think they'd have some patience, and let an old man finish his game," Bumi said, kneading his crooked beard like it held the secrets of the universe secreted amongst the crumbs of the sandwich he'd eaten for breakfast.

"We have been pushed back into the city; we've lost the fields and the outforts. They must number fifteen thousand strong, with siegeworks and firebenders ten deep!" Yong continued, finally starting to get his wind back.

"Really? Then why are you standing here? Aren't you supposed to keep this sort of thing from happening?" Bumi asked, still mulling over that damned Pai Sho board.

"My king, we were dramatically outnumbered," he said. "The fighting was one-sided and brutal. We retreated so we wouldn't get surrounded and slaughtered in our pillboxes. I have no idea how they possibly got that many men over the mountains without our pass guardians warning us..."

"Maybe they learned how to fly?" Bumi asked.

Yong just stared at him, scratching at his own, much bigger and blacker beard. There were times where it was very hard to understand how Bumi ended up as a king, especially when he said things like this. "However they got past our defenses, they have. Our outer forces might make this an even fight, but those Western bastards will already..."

"Language, young man. There's a reason why people claim that the younger generation has no class. Swearing all the time. It's disgraceful!"

"I..But..." Yong shook his head, and turned to one of the old man's advisers, with a hopeful expression. That adviser, younger than Bumi by almost twenty years, was still so decrepit-looking and creaky that his helpless shrug called to mind the sound of a rusty gate opening. "My lord, please. What are our orders? Do we evacuate? Do we man the walls?"

"The gates, are they closed?" Bumi asked.

"Of course," Yong said. "Closed and buried."

"Well, that's your problem, right there," Bumi got to his feet. "You see, if you put too much effort into defending, then what have you got left? Eh? Sometimes, the best course is the simplest. So you should go down to those gates and..." Bumi began.

"And... what, my king?" Yong asked, but he noted that Bumi was fixated on something in the sky. Yong picked it out from the pristine blue skies, first mistaking it for a tiny wisp of cloud. But as it drew closer, it became obvious that it was a bison, paddling through the air easily as you please. "My king, it's just a bison. We've seen dozens of them this month alone."

"Hrm... Do you remember what I just told you to do?" Bumi asked.

"To go to the gates and..." Yong began, but Bumi cut him off with a flick of ring-decked fingers.

"There has been a slight change in plans. While defending can be tiresome, there are penalties to taking no action when action need be taken which are far higher! Sometimes better to be wrong than to not guess, am I right?" and then, the old man launched into his snorting, cackling laughter. Yong looked on the mad king nervously, before the laughing fit finally died down. "So no, you're not going to open the gates and let the Fire Nation in. Not this time. Maybe next time?"

"Let them in?" Yong asked.

"No, silly young man. Don't let them in," the King of Omashu said, ruffling Yong's hair like Yong was a five-year old who'd said something stupid. But then again, it would take a wiser man than Colonel Yong to understand the thought processes of King Bumi of Omashu. "After all, we have guests, and the Fire Nation would interrupt our dinner. Wei? Could you be a dear and set out a spread? And prepare the bad chambers again."

"The bad chambers or the recently-renovated-chambers-which-used-to-be-the-bad-chambers-but-are-now-better-than-the-good chambers?" Senechal Wei said patiently.

"Mmmm, the other one," Bumi said.

"What the hell..."

"Language, Colonel Yong."

"...is going on here?" Yong finished past Bumi's interruption.

"Oh, I'm just having an old friend over for supper. Make sure to have plenty of lettuce. Flopsy loves lettuce," Bumi said, before puttering toward the doorway, past the Senechal and into the castle which rested in the center of the tri-peaked city of Omashu. And Yong gave one last glance to that bison, which drifted through the sky, and he finally understood something of what the Old Man was doing. Because that bison had riders upon its back, and was coming directly toward them.

---

"I swear to you, I will kill you," Azula grumpily swore once again.

"Can you please make her stop that, it's getting annoying," Katara said from the brow of Appa, where she was piloting the beast over the heads of the force of Fire Nationals which worked its inexorable way inward from the gully serving as Omashu's moat.

"How am I supposed to stop her?" Sokka asked.

"She was talking about Twinkletoes," Toph pointed out, giving Aang a shove with her foot when she did so. "After all, it was his brilliant idea to drag her onto this beast's back."

"So glad you think well of me," Azula said sarcastically from where she was sitting, her legs bound but otherwise unmanacled. After all, Katara 'wasn't about to waste the healing it would take to bring that crazy bitch back to full health', knowing that it would immediately be followed by a then-fully-healthy Azula trying to kill her. Or so she'd intimated to her brother. Sokka, though, saw the whole thing as some sort of comedy of errors, and since he wasn't the subject of it, he couldn't be happier.

"Why do you think I can make her quiet?" Aang asked, his eyes puffy and sunken from the exhaustion they all shared. Between having an impromptu mountain-climbing expedition on their side or being buried in a cave-in on Aang's, it was understandable that they'd all be a bit weary. Even Momo was curled up and sleeping in Toph's lap. Of the lot of them, only Appa seemed chipper. And that was, of course, a relative thing.

"Well, you did manage to survive being stuck with her for seven hours," Sokka pointed out.

"That was seven hours? It felt like days," Azula groused.

"Seriously though, buddy, what exactly are our plans with big, battered, and angry over here?" Sokka asked, leaning in toward Aang.

"I didn't really have a plan. I couldn't leave her down there; she'd die."

"You underestimate me," Azula said. "I've survived worse than getting lost in a cave."

"With two broken arms and a smashed foot," Toph prompted. Azula just glared at her. "Is she doing that stink-eye thing again?"

"Yup," Sokka answered neutrally. Toph grinned at the notion.

"Katara, won't you reconsider..." Aang began.

"Not a chance," the driver of the Air Bison made it very clear.

"But she's in pain and..."

"Don't care, she keeps trying to murder me," Katara answered.

"See? What a lovely girl you've got your eye on," Azula mocked.

"Why does everybody think I'm infatuated with Katara?" Aang shouted as the beast began to dip lower, descending over the protective gulley in the one direction where the Fire Nation's encirclement was not yet complete. "I'm telling you; Katara's pretty much the sister I never had. Doing... stuff... with her would be weird and gross!"

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Toph said sarcastically.

"It doesn't remove the fact that she's a sadist and you encourage her cruelty by silence if not by deed," Azula pointed out.

"Yeah... you haven't seen those two bouncing off each other, have you?" Sokka asked. "I mean, he tore a strip up one side of her down the other after that whole 'pirate thing'."

"Guys..." Katara said.

"I didn't tear a strip off... I just wanted everybody to know that theft just wasn't the right way of doing things, even if it was from pirates. I mean, if we go around stealing from pirates, and scamming scammers, and lying for peace, then how can we possibly hold the moral high-ground?" Aang asked. "I am not going to be what Sozin thought my people were. Even if I'm the only one left, I will be the Air Nomads as they were supposed to be."

"Yeah, but apparently, you aren't the only one, remember?" Sokka pointed out. Aang turned to him, confusion on his face. Unnoticed by anybody in the howdah, the city was growing larger as they descended toward it. "What that cute girl with the Si Wongi said? You know, another airbender?"

"Oh, right..." Aang nodded. He gave a chuckle. "What do you think the chances of us finding her, are?"

"Knowing the way the universe likes to play fast and loose with the rules when you're around, I'm pretty sure it's a practical certainty," Sokka declared, and then waited five seconds for the universe to prove him wrong. When it didn't, he let out the breath he'd been holding.

"How, oh how, did I ever get beaten by you?" Azula asked flatly.

"I know what you're talkin' about," Toph said easily. "It's like they've got lucky-charms stitched into their skin and an ashtamangala parasol shoved up their..."

"O...kay, don't need to hear the rest of that," Sokka cut her off.

"How do you put up with them?" Azula asked.

"Eh, it's mostly about learning how to ignore Sugar Queen, keeping Twinkletoes distracted, and placating Brain before he busts a gasket. Although, when you put it that way, it almost sounds like a full time job," Toph rubbed her chin at the thought.

"Why would I bust a gasket?" Sokka asked.

"Guys?" Katara asked again.

"Oh, please. Every morning since you picked me up it's been 'Toph, get up, the sun rose an hour ago', and 'This dinner would get cooked a lot faster if you helped'. I swear, it's like you've scheduled us down to when we're allowed to use the crapper!" Toph said.

"Yeah, he's got that scheduled, too," Aang pointed out.

"You've got to be kidding me," Toph said. Sokka let out a strangled sound when all eyes but Katara's turned to him, accusation clear in them. "You've been ordering me around? Nobody orders me around!"

"If we didn't follow the schedule we would have never got here by the time these Fire Jerks reached Omashu, and it'd probably have been invaded by the time we reached it!" Sokka complained. Azula, though, just sat back looking smug at the back of the howdah.

"GUYS!" Katara shouted, leaning over the rail.

"What?" Aang asked, after a start of alarm.

"We've landed," she said. And true to her word, when Sokka looked over the rail, he saw that there were quite a few gathered soldiers and officials of Bumi's court, all decked out in green and yellow, all waiting for them. "And that's why you're bad news, Azula. You make everything worse with your presence."

"I could say much the same thing about you," Azula answered sotto.

Aang, though, bounded off the beast which was settling down onto its belly and swung his head to and fro, trying to see someone in particular. "Where is he?" Aang asked. "King Bumi? Where's King Bumi?"

"Oh, I'm right here, don't get all in a tizzy," Bumi's reedy, cracking voice came from the great doors which lead into the palace. Oddly enough, he'd ignored them completely and walked through a wall instead. "I didn't expect you back so soon! If I'd have had some warning, I would have had a proper lunch laid out!"

"Lunch?" Sokka asked. "Don't you realize you're being invaded right now?"

"Oh, that can wait," Bumi said with a dismissive wave. "There's always time for lunch and a cup of tea, after all."

Toph scowled down at the man. "Who is this crazy old fossil?"

"Fossil she says? Girl, I've been earthbending five times longer than you've been alive!"

"Guys, can we please focus on what's important?" Sokka asked.

"Right, he's right you know?" Bumi said, to Toph in particular, before clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "Lunch!"

And with that, and a snorting, cackling laugh, he turned and departed into the dining hall of the royal palace of Omashu. Even Azula was staring at him agape with befuddlement. "That was..." she muttered.

"Yeah," Sokka couldn't help but agree. Then he looked up and down, to the city above and below him. "Good to be back."

---

Chapter 4

Return to Omashu

---

"Wow. Ababa's a lot prettier than you had me believe," Tzu Zi, skirting the crowds which pushed through the ornate gates into the northernmost of the cities of the Si Wongi peoples. It would probably be a day or three before the dunes of sand gave way to rocky wasteland, and then, finally, the naked expanse of the Great Divide. It was a striking difference from the last city they'd been to. That one was pale and majestic, but this one much more colorful and alive. Even its streets were cobbled in some blueish stone, making the street look more a canal than a walkway. Fitting for the River City of the North.

"It's an old city. Very old," Sharif said distractedly, still reaching behind him as though to grab 'hold of Patriarch, even after a month saw the great bird rotting in the ruins of Sentinel Rock. "One of our first."

"Essentially, it was the city of Seema, Hamir, and Nosri, before the First Families broke apart and moved south into the desert because they could no longer stand each other," Nila pointed out with a smirk. "Understandable that this place looks more like an Eastern city than any to the south."

"I was about to say that," Tzu Zi said. The architecture here was still all sandstone and mud-brick, but the colors of green and yellow predominated, and no few of the towers not just on the walls but of the small clutch of palaces overlooking the Divide Spring were clad in shining silver. "It almost feels like we're back in Merchant's Pier. I wonder if this is what Ba Sing Se looks like?"

Nila had to laugh at that. "Not even slightly," she said. "Ba Sing Se could swallow Ababa a dozen times in its Upper Ring alone. But you will see it soon enough. We should probably rest the night and then strike north. I grow tired of these places as much as Ashan does. Is that not right?"

Ashan nodded slightly, but he had a tightness on his face, as he stared toward those silvered towers above the naked and uncovered waters of the Yejim Tajih. "Do you think he's going to be there?"

"Almost certainly," Nila said.

"I don't understand," the firebender said.

"His father."

"I thought he didn't know his father," Tzu Zi said.

"I know my father better than Nila does," Ashan said with some uncharacteristic bitterness. "And I know what he'd done to my mother."

"Leave this be," Nila said, somewhat surprised that she was being shoehorned into the role of social censor. "How much money do we have left?"

"Um..." Sharif dug through the purse which he kept dangling from his neck. "Not much. I don't think we have much gold left."

"Just as well, we couldn't spend it here," Nila said. "Well, there's no point in doddling, with..."

"Wait!" Tzu Zi said urgently, and arresting all three of her Si Wongi companions. Nila quickly reached back to her firearm, her eyes swinging around to mark Tzu Zi's threat, but for the hundreds of people milling about through bright and vibrant streets of this trade hub 'twixt the Si Wongi peoples and those of the Northern Earth Kingdoms, Nila couldn't see anything in particular.

"What is it?" Ashan asked.

"Look at those shoes!" the girl said with glee, her hands flying to her mouth.

"Shoes?" Nila asked.

"I don't ask about these things," Ashan said, his hands up and away, as he conceded the issue.

"Tzu Zi, they are adornments for your feet, and they..." Nila began, but with a happy laugh, Tzu Zi bolted away through the crowds, leaving Nila with one finger raised toward her point, but otherwise somewhat dumbstruck. She slowly turned to Ashan. "They're... Just... Shoes. Are my gender all like this?"

"I wouldn't know," Ashan admitted. "But then again, you're hardly a typical specimen of a girl."

"I take that as a compliment," Nila said sarcastically.

"It was intended as one. Should we not seek her out before she finds herself beset by shopkeepers or married to their sons?" he said, shooting one last glance over his shoulder, a hateful one at those towers over the river's birthplace. That left the two siblings standing amongst milling crowds.

"Is it true this place 'smells funny'? I can't tell," Sharif said, as his own eyes seemed locked on the northern horizon.

"It smells no different than Ibn-Atal. Stop asking stupid questions," Nila ordered.

"They seem to think so," Sharif continued.

"Are you even talking to me?" Nila asked.

"Who else would I talk to? They are not big enough to understand. Isn't that right, Patriarch?"

"For the last time, the old bird is dead. Come. We need to chase down a firebender before she gets into trouble," Nila prompted, and began to hustle her brother through the streets, a ridiculous sight for any to see, since she was so slight and he so bulky.

Unnoticed by either of them, there was a set of eyes which marked their exit from the clear courtyard just past the walls. "Stop you oafs," his voice cut through the din, and the bearers of his sedan halted immediately, lowering it to the cobbles which made up the street. As soon as the clack of the sedan's 'feet' rang against the cobbles, a foot swung out from the draping silk which hid the interior from outside view and interference. "No, it cannot be."

"What is it, my emir?" the bearer at the front asked. The youth inside shot a glare at him, but the man was a trusted agent of his father, and so there were slights which had to be ignored. "You should not be walking about. You know what the physician said."

"I can walk if I please!" the youth said somewhat petulantly. In truth, every other step he took was with a limp, and no small bit of pain. "Did you not see who just moved into that crowd?"

"It shames me that I did not. Who did you see, my emir?" the beih asked.

"The stuck-up bitch who did this to me," he said, moving back into the sedan, and sitting, keeping weight off his smitten foot. "Take me to Sheik Ali. I have business to attend to."

"As you wish, Emir Gashuin," the beih said briskly, and then, with a momentary grunt of effort, the sedan was moving through the crowds once more, toward the palaces of the prince of this city, and toward one youth's revenge.

---

The tension in the room was palpable, and thick enough that one would have to cut through it with an axe. Of course, one of the occupants of the room contentedly munched on his lunch with nary a care in the world to the occasional crashing sounds outside, or the nervous sweat of the people who surrounded him, or even the impatient staring of the guests for whom, by all rights, this feast had been set out.

"Am I the only one who sees how ridiculous this is?" Princess Azula asked flatly from where she sat, between Aang and Bumi. "We're in the process of invading you, and you're having lunch."

"Thank you! Gods, I thought I was the only sane one here," Toph said, throwing up her hands from across the table.

"Yeah, first thing you've gotta know about dealing with King Bumi is that he tends to go at his own pace," the Avatar pointed out.

"His own pace is making it very easy for the Fire Nation to break down the walls," Katara said darkly, and she shot a glare at Azula when the Princess gave a smug smirk at that.

"A man has to eat," Bumi said. "Old or young, boy or girl, it doesn't matter. If we don't eat, then what good are we? Eh?"

"We should be preparing our defense!" Sokka opined.

"It can wait," Bumi dismissed.

"Are you nuts?" Sokka rose to his feet. "They're right there! I could practically throw a rock from the outer walls and hit one of their soldiers in the head with it!"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we can go around being hasty and reckless," Bumi said sagely.

"Reckless? We're not doing anything!"

"Exactly," Bumi answered, as though Sokka had made his own point. Aang looked between the confounded Tribesman and the supposedly insane king. He rose to his own feet with a crunch of his aged back, before coughing lightly and rubbing at his crooked nose. "But I know that I feel a great deal better now that I've got a meal in me. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I'd agree, if I could eat," Azula said darkly.

"Now now, no need to be grim," the old man said. "After all, you're among friends now, and you won't need to worry about your father's depredations inside this palace."

"Depredations? Really?" Azula asked.

"Yes," Bumi said, his tone going distant, and much more sympathetic. "After all, he was quite cruel to you. Throwing out his own family? Hrmph! That's not the kind of thing a man should do."

"He is testing me. Seeing if I'm strong," Azula answered flatly.

"Well, I think I can see the answer to that," Bumi said. Azula's eye twitched at the insult, but he cut her off and drowned her out. "But the young man from the south is right. Now is a time for action! Well, technically, now is a time for tea and scones but since we can't bring in flour from the outlying fields, action will have to do!"

Almost as one, all of the advisors behind the king slumped a bit with relief. "Thank the gods," one of them muttered, then quickly skirted to the front of the King. "Could you please lay out our defense strategy? We only have enough food in the city to last for a month, and I don't know if we'll even get that at the rate that the siege engines are assembling. What should..."

"Oh, you weren't listening were you?" Bumi asked. "Right now, we wait."

"...Wait?" the military man asked.

"Yes, that thing you do when you're not doing anything," Bumi said. He then turned to Aang personally. "I understand things didn't go as well as you'd have hoped in the North. I'm so sorry, Aang. I honestly didn't see that coming."

"Wait a second..." Sokka said.

"That's the idea," Bumi piped up.

"...Your entire defensive strategy is 'cool your heels'?" the Tribesman finished past the King's interruption.

"No, not all of it. Just most of it," Bumi said. "Come on, come on. We'd might as well get some air."

Aang was slightly baffled by the way that this day had gone. From the crushing despair of seeing Omashu, the last hold-out outside of Ba Sing Se so imperiled, to the elation of seeing that it still, for the moment, stood, to the tension of waiting. It was almost too much for his wits to take. The youngest of those present in the room followed after Bumi, but the mad monarch turned and pointed at the others who were starting to file out after them.

"No, not you. You have your own things to deal with, I can only imagine. Please escort the Princess to the Nice Chamber while you go."

"Escort me? Who do you think you are?" Azula demanded.

"A gracious host," Bumi said, and then turned back out to the balcony where Appa was lounging.

"So you've delivered me into the hands of my enemies," Azula said caustically to Aang as she was gently pulled to her feet. "Seeing you proved a hypocrite is almost worth the imprisonment."

"This isn't what it looks like, Azula," Aang said earnestly. "Just trust me on this."

"And why in Agni's name would I do that?" she asked, but then, she was limping away under guard, so there was no answer Aang could give which wouldn't be to the back of her head. He felt his heart sink a little as he turned back after Bumi. What kind of hero was he if he couldn't even convince the girl that they were on the same side? And that in turn got him thinking about what the Fire Lord must have done to make her the way she was now. From gentle artist and poet to obsessed zealot. It was a shame he couldn't have known her before, when he was actually thirteen and not a hundred and thirteen. Before the war and the pandemonium, before the Fire Nation started to spread across the globe, and its ideas began to pervert themselves. To have known her when the Fire Nation was a Fire Nation that the Fire Nation could have been proud of.

Oh, the paths which could never be taken.

"So now that you've ditched the fancy suits, what's the big plan?" Sokka said, rubbing his hands together.

"Have you ever played Pai Sho?" Bumi answered, which wasn't really an answer. Toph, in particular, looked somewhat more focused on the board than the rest.

"Hey, a stone board?" she asked. A smirk came to her face. "I can actually see what's going on for a change."

"I thought someone of your capacity would appreciate it," Bumi said.

"No, I always found it boring," Aang finally answered Bumi's question.

"Eh, you've obviously never played a good game," Bumi said with a wave of his hand. "What do you see here?"

Aang and the others moved closer to the board, except for Toph who didn't need to, and took in the lay of it. There were a great many white pieces, more than double those in black, and were arrayed almost completely around the position of the darker, carefully carved tiles. "I'm not sure what I'm looking at," Sokka admitted.

"You've played, have you?"

"Yeah, from time to time. Bato loved the game," he said. "Katara hated it, 'cause I'd always beat her."

"You cheat!" Katara complained.

"It's not cheating to know the rules," Sokka said flatly. "Our cousin beats her too, and she's six."

"It's a stupid game," Katara said at a huff.

"Why am I thinkin' this ain't a random assortment?" Toph asked, arms crossed before her.

"Astute, young earthbender," Bumi said. "What can you tell me about the arrangement?"

"Well, I probably ain't played as much as Brain, here, but I've heard it talked over ad nauseum. All of the marble pieces have strategic positions which keep the onyx from expanding, or calling in Rim Placements. That's a lotus, right?" Bumi gave an Mm-hm, and she nodded. Aang just couldn't believe her 'earthbending vision' was that precise that she could pick out the carvings on the tiles! "But the concentration of the onyx actually might be..."

Bumi's grin grew a little wider as Toph's blind eyes widened.

"This is Omashu, ain't it?" she asked.

"Clever girl," Bumi said.

"Yeah, but there's a bit of a problem," Toph said. "If you try to tear down their engines – the Breakers – you might win, but you'll lose all of your Bastions and your Brushers – which is probably the walls and most of your troops. It'll be a bloody and costly victory."

"I don't like that plan," Sokka said. "There's got to be a better one."

"Well, there is one thing I didn't have on the board until now," Bumi admitted, and then he rummaged through his pockets for a long moment, before laying down a tile at the center of the black mass at the heart of the board. While Katara and Aang were naturally confused, knowing almost nothing about the game, Sokka and Toph were no less baffled. "It's called The Child, and it's the most powerful piece in the game. Almost impossible to play it, though, since the rules are so stringent about when it can come out."

"That represents... me?" Aang asked. Bumi nodded. "Why do I have a Pai Sho tile?"

"The Avatar has existed longer than Pai Sho has," the king pointed out.

"So what can it do?" Toph asked.

"Offensively, anything," Bumi said. "But it can be struck down as easily as any soldier on the field."

"So how do we leverage the Child – Aang, as the case may be – to save your game and Omashu at the same time?" Sokka said. "Maybe if we..."

"Hold on a second," Toph cut him off. "I think I see how this might work. I'm guessing you don't want to slaughter thousands of Fire Nationals, do ya, Twinkletoes?"

"No!"

"Thought not. So the only other option is to do nothing," she said. And all eyes slowly turned to hers, save the mis-matched pair of the ruler of Omashu. "Offensively, you're pretty much omnipotent, 'specially if you can go all 'Glowing Badass', which I'm not going to depend on, but that won't do much, since it'll still take one arrow to off ya. So you don't do anything... until the right moment comes."

"An ambush?" Sokka said, rubbing his chin.

"Something like it," she answered. "So, how would you reel in the Westerners into a place where we can give them a whoopin' that they're long overdue?"

"I have a few ideas," Bumi said. "I had considered just opening the gates. But then you appeared, and I decided it'd be impolite to host dinner while the Fire Nation was roaming the streets..."

"You know, you've got a better head on your shoulders than your reputation'd make me believe," Toph said.

Aang perked up for a moment, as he remembered something which was said to him before his long exodus to the south. "Oh! I just remembered. Grey Edge at Intercept Nine by Three, takes Soldier at Ring Two by Three."

Bumi let out his snorting chuckle. "The boy still thinks he can weasel his way out of my trap does he? Well, at least he's got spirit," Bumi said. "Well, we'll see how his game fares when you meet him next."

"Next?" Aang asked.

"Oh, I don't doubt that you will cross paths with the Mountain King again," Bumi said. "I'll think up my next move tomorrow, though. No reason to rush things."

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Toph asked.

"They're playing a game of Pai Sho over five thousand miles," Sokka explained.

"...Why?" she then asked. All present, Bumi excepted, shrugged their ignorance.

---

"Wow. The weather's nice for a change," On-Ji said happily as she strode down the gangway. And true enough, it was. Rather than torrential rainfall, the weather on the island of Grand Ember was a humid overcast, and not even the featureless grey mass; for a few minutes, Shoji was fairly sure he could almost sort of see the sun. Somewhat. "Maybe that's a sign that this whole thing isn't as stupid an idea as I thought it was."

"See? Just need to keep a bit of faith and everything will turn out alright," Shoji said with his usual endless enthusiasm.

"Oooh," she said, looking up the streets to the grand Fire Fountain which gave this city its name. It flowed up, spreading scarlet flames like the waving leaves of a tree, its design hundreds of years old, depicting something which Shoji couldn't at the moment remember. Some battle or something. It probably had something to do with the Storm Kings. But that didn't matter; day or night, rain or dry, the Fire Fountain burned, fueled from below by a deep pocket of natural gas. There had been some talk of a redesign of the actual fountain, but Shoji's parents never went into detail about it with him, so he hadn't any idea what it'd be. And besides, a tree made of fire was just an interesting thing to behold. "Look at those..."

"This isn't the time for shopping, On-Ji," Shoji said.

"Don't be preposterous; it's always time for shopping," the girl said, before breaking into a grin and racing up the cobbled streets toward the great market which flourished under the light and heat of the Fire Fountain. Shoji gave a glance back behind him, to the thoroughly made-up Tribeswoman who was being smuggled with him. Human smuggling. Wow, that was something Shoji never thought he'd have to do. At least it was for a good cause.

"I'm surprised she didn't huddle on the boat and wait for it to go back," Huuni said sharply.

"Don't be like that. On-Ji's... well... she's a girl. She thinks differently than..." Shoji began, and then trailed off when he turned to Huuni and was eye to breast with her. "Well, she thinks differently from me."

"She will betray us," Huuni declared. "We should leave her here."

"No she won't," Shoji countered. "She's my friend. I trust her."

"Then you trust too easily and too freely," Huuni said. "Now we should move quickly before somebody notices... Oh, is that silk?"

"Probably, but what does that..." Shoji began, but with a smile on her own face Huuni began to stride up the cobbled streets, hot on On-Ji's trail, toward the markets which peppered this district. Shoji wilted slightly. "Never ever will I understand women," he muttered in his own native tongue.

Even as he lethargically followed after them – his 'trips' with his mother had scarred him off of any pleasant feeling associated with shopping long ago – he could only take a moment to consider the absurdity of what he was doing. He wasn't even too long a teenager, and he was rescuing the damsel in distress. Although, far be it for Huuni to ever admit that she was distressed. And then there were the other things. Like how he could now speak her language as though he were born to it. It was unsettling if he took any time to ponder it. Since he didn't, it didn't cross his mind. But he could still feel something about her. Like she wasn't all the way here. Like that Tribeswoman had a part of her missing, like a doorway without a door, just waiting for something to walk back inside.

And he didn't even want to think about where that metaphor, or the thinking behind it, came from. He was a National. Nationals were skeptics first, secular second, and spiritual never. It was telling that the official stance toward religion was Agni above all, and suspicion above that. Then again, any spiritual people tended to be backwards and superstitious. Like the Easterners, with their many gods and few good ideas. Or the Tribesmen, praying to stars and the moon in the sky. That was why the Storm Kings were such a well-remembered adversary; how can you but respect an enemy who represents the best in you?

"Hey there, kid? Got a hankering for something exotic?" a skinny, green eyed barker sidled up to him, casting a hand back toward a battered looking, black hulled ship. "We've got curios from all of the world, from the Tribes in the North, to the heathens in the south, and everywhere in between."

"No thank you," Shoji said. "I'm just trying to keep an eye on some friends of mine."

"How do you know they aren't already inside, trying to find something to remember their trip to the city?"

"Let go of me," Shoji said. The man seemed a bit more insistent, but on the deck, Shoji could see a portly man with an eyepatch and a big hat clear his throat loudly. The barker disengaged quickly enough after that. Shoji rolled his eyes and continued up the streets. On-Ji was easy enough to find, since she was darting between stalls of shiny knick-knacks which were utterly uninteresting to anybody with external genitalia. "Come on, you can shop back at home."

"No I can't!" On-Ji said. "They've got one shop, back home, and it's only open two days a week! Look at all this stuff! Isn't it pretty?"

"I... Yes?" Shoji attempted, in the hope that it would end this torment sooner.

"So you see my point! I can't let a shopping opportunity like this pass me by!" she then moved over without giving Shoji a moment to correct his mistake of words. "Excuse me? Excuse me! Do you have this in red?"

"This is hell," Shoji concluded. "I've died and now I'm in hell. And it's a lot drier than I thought it'd be."

He shook his head, and as he did, he could just barely spot Huuni in the distance, appreciating a bolt of silk which she held open in her fingers. With a beset sigh, Shoji moved through the crowds until he was within shouting distance of her. But since that was obviously a bad idea, as Huuni wasn't exactly a common or proper Fire Nation name, he'd have to move even closer. She gave an appreciative nod, then pointed into the building, before ducking inside, as the door-girl nodded brightly. It was a moment's worry that the girl might have heard something out of place, but then Shoji remembered that girls hired to work the doors of a business were usually hired for their cuteness and charisma, not for having anything between their ears. Shoji quickly moved up to her. "Excuse me?" he said.

"Looking for a pretty dress for your lady friend?" the girl answered brightly, but with a precision which spoke to rote repetition. "If you are, then you'll find none better than Ui-Ba's Emporium!"

"Actually, I'm looking for somebody inside," he said.

"Really? You're not going to preruse our fine fabrics and finer prices?" she asked.

"I'm just going in, alright?" Shoji said.

"But the blue fabrics are currently buy one and get two free, as celebration of our victory in the north," the girl stressed, still thinking she was making a sale. And some victory it was. It took five and a half years longer than it should have and was a lot dirtier than anybody would have believed. Dad and Mom were quite vocal about it, and the things they said were not exactly patriotic. Of course, Shoji was just glad it was over. By the time Shoji was done with this little trip, Mom and Dad might actually have gotten home from the North. That was a nice thing to think about, pushing aside all of the annoyance of dealing with... this.

"Look, I'm just going to go inside and talk to my friend, then I can come back and see about your fabric. Is that alright?" Shoji lied, as he had great hopes never to talk to this empty-headed girl again. Say what you would about On-Ji, for all her sarcasm and cutting moods, she was a quick witted one. The girl sighed, and nodded.

"Please enjoy your Ui-Ba experience," she said. Shoji turned away, eyes rolling in his head, and pushed through the doors into the building. It was obviously a long established one, its woods still dark from the varnish used to keep wood from cracking in the dry, placing this building at least eighty years old. Not that Shoji knew that off hand. All he knew was that nowadays, buildings were much paler of wood, as they had to proof against wet. The insides were also well-appointed, with two fitters moving between customers easily, and the master tailor sitting on a stool off to one side, overseeing the whole thing like some sort of Eel-hound den mother. Best news Shoji got, though, was that Huuni was obvious in this crowd, trying to get their attention, to ask them something.

Which got Shoji's eyes bugging. He quickly crossed the distance and caught her arm. "Are you out of your mind? You don't know how to speak my language!"

"So? She should speak mine," Huuni answered quietly, making it seem like hers was the only logical course.

"Is this boy bothering you, Madam?" the tailor asked from her stool. Shoji quickly turned, and had to think fast.

"No, I'm her interpreter. You see, she's from the colonies, and you know how they can be," Shoji said with a nervous chuckle.

"Is this true, Madam?" she asked.

"Get your hands off me, child. I have a dress to commission," Huuni said snappishly.

The Tailor shrugged. "I'll take that as a yes. Don't get Easterners in here very often," she noted. "She can pay, right?"

"Well..." Shoji began, but Huuni took the moment to dig into her cleavage and dig out a scattering of silver coins, notably of every strike but local, and hand them over, in a quantity which had Shoji's eyes bugging. "Of course she can," he said, recovering.

The Tailor leaned forward a moment, and shrugged. "Well, it'll not be a top end one. Asuka, you've got a new customer!" the Tailor bellowed. Shoji glanced around, and spotted something he was fairly sure he was going to need.

"Oh," he said, "and could you add this to the bill?"

"Make up?" the fitter, Asuka, asked. "Her skin looks fine."

"Yeah, looks," Shoji intimated. The auburn haired girl nodded knowingly. "And can we do this swiftly? H...My lady would like to be on the roads before long."

"Well, we'll do our best," the girl said, before guiding the woman into the back room. Shoji sighed, and shook his head. This was going to take a year straight off of his life, he could just see it. He looked up, and to the door, and was fairly sure he lost another one.

A Fire Nation soldier, grey of hair and full of sideburn, was standing in the threshold, eyes locked on Shoji.

---

With Nila and Sharif gone to rest in the heat of the sun, Tzu Zi was free to wander. After all, it was generally accepted that noon was a time to do nothing in the desert, but with the sun directly overhead, Tzu Zi felt so energetic and electrified that she couldn't have rested if she'd wanted to. Especially after that long wait in Sentinel Rock. But she still went through the city, the pretty, exotic city on the source of one of the rivers which had cut the Divide, and she did so with an easy smile on her face, and her robes moving fluidly around her.

"Perfumes, fresh from the stills! Attar of Roses! Sandalwood! Mixtures in coumarin that beggar the imagination!"

"Fire Nation Silks! Fresh from the boats at Burning Rock! Every color under the sun! You can't be fashionable without Fire Nation Silks!"

"Don't listen to that silk-hawker! Buy my linens, straight off the looms in Ba Sing Se! Guaranteed to be sheerer and finer than any garbage imported from the West!"

In its way, it reminded Tzu Zi not just of the other market city's she'd been to in the past, but also of home. Back when she and all of her sisters were enrolled in the Royal Fire Academy, they'd all been quartered in the city of Grand Ember, which was about as much of a trade hub as a city could be. So hearing people hawking wares and engaging in creative shouting matches about their products welled up a sting of homesickness in the far-from-home Fire National.

A sting which turned away from homesickness toward sympathy when she saw that even of her party, she was not alone in the streets at this hour. Biting her lip, she hastened her step to move through the crowds which were somewhat lethargically doing their business for the pressing heat. But she never lost sight of the man in question, who sat on a chair before another, who worked quickly at an easel. "Ashan? What are you doing?" Tzu Zi asked.

The boy gave a start at that. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you'd gone out," he said.

"Is something wrong?" Tzu Zi asked.

"Please, I cannot say," he answered her.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's alright, too," she said. After a moment, the curly haired Si Wongi gave a chuckle. "What?"

"I must apologize. It is easy to forget that you are not Si Wongi. We have a way of doing things. We always ask thrice, and if denied thrice, drop the issue. You only asked once," she stammered toward saying something, but he forestalled her. "As I said, it is what we do. You need not. You wish to know my business? I am having something made."

"What is it? A portrait?" she asked, trying to lean around the artist.

"Something like that," Ashan said quietly. His eyes became distant, and he stared off beyond the horizon. "I never saw my mother smile," he said. She let out a sympathetic sigh. "Nor heard her voice, nor knew her motherly embrace. But it is too late for that. At least I will have something to remember her by."

"Why?" Tzu Zi asked. "Is that a picture of her?"

Ashan nodded, then quickly said something she couldn't understand to the artist. Who paused, shrugged, and turned the easel toward the two travelers. The picture was far smaller than the easel could hold, an image which could have fit in the palm of Ashan's hand. Even half complete, she could easily see its subject matter. A smiling woman, with snow-white hair, dancing bare footed in the sand. "Your mother? Latifah?"

"Yes," Ashan said. "Grandfather said she used to love to dance. If I would remember my mother, I would choose to remember her so."

"What happened to her?" she asked gently.

Ashan rotated his finger before him, and the artist turned the easel around and went back to work. He took a deep breath, and she could easily see the pain in his eyes. "My father happened to her," he said.

"Your father?" she asked.

"He did cruel things to her. Very cruel. And was he punished for them? Not even one whit," he said bitterly. Then, a sigh. "But I cannot let such things weigh me. I had family enough for any man, in my grandfather and grandmother. It is a shame of Atum that I could not know my mother, and a shame of Djehuti that justice would not find him for his crimes, but I can only voice my complaints to the Host; I cannot make demands of them."

"Why not? Isn't that what Gods are supposed to be there for?"

"Maybe yours," Ashan admitted.

The artist continued for a long moment, then nodded to himself, flicking out a knife to cut the portraiture from the backing, and then quickly stitch it somehow to a sturdy wooden backing. Ashan offered the man some pieces of silver, which the artist pushed back to the man. Ashan offered again, and was again rebuffed, but on the third offer, the artist 'caved' and accepted his payment. Tzu Zi just watched it with a mildly amused look on her face.

"Yes?" Ashan asked.

"Oh, I just can't imagine Nila ever doing that," Tzu Zi said.

"To my knowledge, she never has," Ashan said, taking one last glance at the picture in his hand, before tucking it away amongst his effects. "Sharif did, once. After his wounding, I don't know if he has the attention remaining. Such a shame."

"What was she like? As a kid, I mean," Tzu Zi said.

"Nila? She was as she is, in many ways," Ashan said. "Come, the day is hot and there is a roof somewhere to keep Re from our heads. To elaborate; she was her mother's daughter in many ways, but to know the truth of that, you must know Nila's mother."

"The Dragon of the East," Tzu Zi prompted.

"Indeed. We call her our Dragon, the Dragon of the Desert, if we refer to her at all. Nila is wrong about many things – the need for courtesy strongly amongst them – but as to how Si Wong treats your gender, she has utter accuracy. I cannot speak for the Dragon's upbringing, her early years. I do know that when she was dug up from the ruins of Nassar, she was a changed human being. Impatient, hubristic, genius, and ignoring of her perceived place. And in that, her daughter mirrors her. As I understand, Madam Sativa was not a kind and loving mother, or loving as you would understand it. Then again, you would likely gape aghast at how parents treat children here. I think Nila's mother showed her love in that she forced Nila to be strong enough to survive. How many other people do you see wandering the world at a mere fifteen years?"

"A few," Tzu Zi said. "I'm still fourteen for a few more weeks."

Ashan gave a chuckle. "How quickly I forget. It must be the hips which confuse me."

"Oh, stop it," she said, batting his arm. There was an eddy of silence around them, and eyes stopped to fall upon the two as they walked. Ashan shook his head and said something loudly to them, which got them turned back to their own business.

"There is one point of my culture you would do well to remember while still upon its sands; no woman may ever strike a man," he said uncomfortably. "The punishment has softened over the decades, but it is still harsh. At least now they no longer behead you for it."

"Then what did you say?"

"That I am your brother, and that I deserved it," Ashan said with a shrug and a smirk. "How you do bring out the good mood in me, I cannot say. I truly believed that I would face this day in a doldrum, but instead, I am without weight or pain. For that, I can only thank you."

"I like it when my friends aren't hurting," she said. He laughed at that, too.

"And so swift to call me friend. I can see why Nila values you so. Speaking of, has she pursued that... odd... romantic..."

It was obvious that he was both extremely uncomfortable about the topic and only broached the subject as he felt it would be worse not to. "Oh, that's sorted out. We're friends. And besides, I'm pretty sure she's not even that way."

"That's a relief," Ashan said. She frowned at him. "I mean, it's good that she's not trying to... I mean, she could find a man to... By the Host, there's no way of completing that thought aloud without sounding like a misogynist, is there?"

"At least you realize it," she said. She found a smile on her face. "You know, I think if she'd been born where I was, she'd be another Nomura Sato."

Ashan frowned in confusion. "Who?"

"You haven't heard of Nomura Sato?" Tzu Zi asked. "...he's... like... the smartest guy to come out of the Fire Nation in decades! He's invented all kinds of cool stuff! How could you not have heard of him?"

"I lived in a desert," Ashan said flatly with a sardonic grin. Tzu Zi had to shrug and admit that he might have a perfectly good reason in that.

"Well, come on then, the rest of them aren't too far away."

"That could be a problem," Ashan said, his grin still on his face, but it no longer reached his eyes.

"Why not?"

"We're being followed," he said.

"Really?" she turned, and saw only the crowd milling about their daily business.

"I am not a welcome face in Ababa," Ashan explained.

"Why? I can't see you pulling a Nila and angering somebody."

"My very existence is vexing to the Sheik, record of a crime he'd rather well bury," he said, and he began to bear her forward. "Come. We can lose them through here."

"Lose them?" she asked. "Hasn't anybody ever told you? The only worthwhile defense is overwhelming offense! Let's sort this out right now."

He stopped, just inside the alley, and stared at her as though she were mad. Or rather, he stared at her much the way he frequently stared at Nila. "I surround myself with powerful women, and who am I to complain when they set my path for it?"

"That's the spirit... I think," she said. "Go stand over there. Let's see who wants trouble."

Ashan nodded, and pulled a knife from the many which hung in slots clipped to his belt. Then, he looked at it, and shook his head, swapping it for a much heavier, larger cleaver. "I'm not wasting a fileting knife on this sort."

She shot him a glance, which had him step back into the slender pool of shadow which fell between the buildings. Shadow against green made their dark robes disappear, and they along with them. Tzu Zi waited a long moment, but before too long, the alley played host to three more men, wearing rough clothing, but skulking in a manner which told her easily enough that these weren't just townsmen taking a shortcut.

"The bastard must have taken the turn," one of them said in horribly accented Tianxia.

"Well, standing about won't earn your silver. Go get him!" another answered, obviously in the tones of a Dividesman. The whole thing had Tzu Zi a little confused, but still, she knew what she had to do. She knew what every whit in her body told her to do. Responsibility was a Virtue, one she never shirked from.

"Looking for me?" she asked. The three turned around, and started seeing her.

"This is not your place, girl. Run back to your father," the first of them said derisively.

"Where is the other, your companion?" the second asked over the first. Ashan answered by stepping out of his own shadow, flanking them. "So the bastard returns."

"You shouldn't insult my friend," Tzu Zi said.

"We're paid to do far more than insult him," that Dividesman said. He leaned back to the others, and gave than an order in their own tongue, which even with Tzu Zi's utter lack of fluency was to the effect of 'kill him, I don't care what you do with her'.

And waiting to hear the order was their first mistake. Canny was another Virtue, and it was said that exploiting the weakness of your enemy was no different than overpowering him, but far easier and cleaner. After all, how could a nation be at war with the rest of the planet as long as the Fire Nation was and survive without brutal and civilization ending attrition without that sort of mindset? But even as the man was finishing his order, Tzu Zi's fists were lashing out, and with them, came the fire.

The blast took that Dividesman in the back, sending him catapulted through the alley, rolling to a stop singed but winded and stunned. The other two obviously had similar training to she, and didn't bother gawking surprised. They simply launched into their own attacks, one per teenager. Tzu Zi quickly shifted her focus entirely onto the one who was coming at her, with some sort of oddly-crooked knife in hand. A slash, toward her, which caught only fabric near her belly as she bounced away. Another slash, this time tearing her sleeve a bit as she was trying to set him on fire. A swipe which added another gash across the stomach of the robes. At this rate, this guy'd have her naked in less than a minute!

She needed some breathing room, a distraction. A thought was given to shouting for 'help from the nasty muggers', but that would have taken more focus than she had to spare at the moment, and the payoff would be too delayed. He was forcing her back into a corner where one building didn't quite match with another, and she had nowhere left to run. I could really use a distraction right about now, she thought to herself, as sweat began to seep down her face.

It came in the form of a flying cleaver. The cleaver embedded itself in the wood next to Tzu Zi's face, which made her flinch, but sure enough it made her attacker flinch more. She took that moment of hesitation to push off the stone behind her, with fire giving her momentum to spare. She drove herself knee first into the assailant, causing him to double onto himself with a 'whoof' of expelled air. Then, she swung her leg out and behind her, igniting a practical rocket of fire to send it spinning down into a brutal axe-kick which she dropped onto the back of his neck. He went face first into the stone, and wisely enough, didn't try getting up.

Tzu Zi looked up to Ashan, and saw that he was not in the best of shape. Although his opponent favored a club over a knife, it just meant that where Tzu Zi made away with near misses, Ashan was getting a gradual and inevitable bludgeoning. She sprinted the distance, launching up, and slammed forward a fist, empowered by flame, toward him. She didn't know how, but the man turned away from Ashan and cast up a hand, and sand seared up from the ground of the alleyway, catching and absorbing the heat of the fire, turning the sand into a fountain of tiny glass beads which harmlessly fell about them. She tried to get her balance back, but she'd been banking most of her balance on smashing the guy away. Now, she was out of position and off balance. And both of them knew it. He advanced, club whipping in his hands...

And was sideswiped by a mass of sand leaping out from the wall next to him at Ashan's command. The assailant staggered for a moment, trying to figure out what happened, and in that moment, before even Tzu Zi could capitalize on it, he was put down by a haymaker punch to the face. Which Ashan then ruined by bouncing around, shaking his hand and shouting pained things in his native language. "Host preserve me, why didn't anybody tell me it hurts so much to punch people?"

Tzu Zi answered him by kicking the slowly rising hatchetman in the ribs, putting him back down. "That's why I kick people," she said. "Come on. They won't be following us."

She started to guide Ashan out, but behind her, the parchment complected Dividesman was getting to his feet. "You can't keep us all away, bastard. You know what comes for you in this city."

"Well, whatever comes, he'll have his friends keeping him safe," Tzu Zi said with a smug look. "Bring it on."

"You will rue this day, firebender. Rue it," he said, sounding light headed. Tzu Zi smirked, and gave a fake lunge toward him, and he stumbled backward, before that stumble became an outright fall. Ashan took her hand and followed her out of the alley and into the street. He was giving her an odd look.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You are more like Nila than I thought to believe," Ashan said.

"Is that a good thing?" she asked, idly picking at her slashed robes as she gave him a glance back.

"I could call it that, yes."

---

"You're looking fairly smug today," Toph said, leaning against Sokka as they stood side-by-side on the walls of Omashu, as the sun rose with the dawn.

"I'm having a good morning," the Tribesman said, throwing caution to the wind and being content for once.

"Yeah, I wasn't really up too late last night. Had to stay focused for my part, and that ain't exactly giving forgiving hours," Toph said. She leaned backward against the wall where Sokka himself was stooped forward, likely since she had no way of perceiving what Sokka was, and thus opted for maximum comfort. "The sun is up, ain't it?"

"That it is," Sokka said.

"Huh. What were you doing last night, anyway?" she asked.

"Well, me, my sister, and Aang visited those ramp-engines while nobody was looking," Sokka said.

"Visited?" she said with a smirk.

"Yup," he said. "And let me tell you, I've never been so happy that I've read a text book in my life."

"Do tell?" she prompted.

"I won't need to," Sokka said. "Just listen."

She turned, then, facing him but an ear cocked over the wall. "You know, I don't appreciate being left in the dark about plans," she pointed out. "Especially ones which might result in my death, or worse, gettin' beat at something."

"Alright," Sokka said, grinning wide as he beheld smoke begin to bellow out of great engines at the edges of the gorge, and the metal began to creak forward slowly once again, pushed by powerful pistons, before reaching their end and gravity locking them into place, unhindered by whatever arrows or boulders were launched from Omashu. "You can hear the ramp-engines, can't you? You see, every day, they extend a bit further, usually about twenty feet a day. And there's a corps of people who sneak around under the panels and add reinforcement, so that the ramp can go further the next day. Kinda ingenious, I must say, and it'd be a real boon for setting up bridges across rivers and such, but..."

"The point," Toph said. "You're worse than my old tutor for going onto a tangent."

"Oh, right," Sokka said. "That rigging's ordinarily invulnerable, since it's got the steel plate over it and no earthbender can hook a shot from the distance they need to worry about. And besides, if I was running them, I'd sloth-snail it to half-way, then sprint the rest. But the thing is, if that substructure were to... say... suffer a catastrophic decrease in integrity?"

"You cut the beams?" Toph summed. Sokka nodded vigorously.

"Yup. And from the sound of things..." he trailed off, as the already unpleasant groaning of metal being shoved across unlubricated metal turned to the wailing shriek of metal pushed beyond its physical capabilities, "they just managed to get past the balance point."

He watched, then, as the whole of the ramp before him began to slump downward. There were numerous shouts from the man at the engines, trying to shut the piston down, but it was too late; the panel had already slid off of the piston's head, but now gravity was giving it momentum. It locked into place with its brothers, sure enough, but the momentum imparted, and the whole structure slowly, steadily, dragged it self away from the cliff-face and into oblivion. After a moment, there was nothing but a few stunned, confused looking engineers on the other side of the gap, looking down as though they had no idea what had happened.

And the same thing was happening in six other places around the city.

"Well, I take it that's my signal to hit the streets," Toph said. She paused, though, before leaving the ramparts. "D'you really think that this'll work?"

"Maybe," Sokka said, looking out across the carnage. As he did, he thought he could see something in the sky, just a speck of red where it shouldn't be, but he dismissed it as the figment of an over-taxed brain. After all, he hadn't had a whole lot of sleep today. And he'd not be getting more before it was done.

He just hoped that Aang was a better actor than he was a liar.

---

Shoji stared at the soldier. The soldier looked dispassionately back. How? How could they possibly know? Tribesmen were national enemies, and they were to be arrested on sight, obviously enough, but how could he know? Huuni didn't look like a Tribesman, not now, not with the makeup. So why was this man here?

"Is there some sort of problem, child?" the soldier asked crisply, taking a step into the boutique.

"W-what? No! No problem, no problem at all," he stammered. The soldier tilted his head, amber eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"You don't sound like you've got no problem. And you don't sound like you're from around here. Are you some sort of runaway?" he asked.

"No, I'm not running away from anything," Shoji said honestly, but perhaps too sincerely. "I'm... on vacation. Shopping trip. You know, buying things..."

"In a woman's clothes store," the soldier finished.

"It wasn't my first choice, but..." Shoji said.

"Agni's flame, there you are!" On-Ji gave a fortuitous showing. "I found something I want to buy. Come on, you're the one carrying all the money."

"And he is with you?" the soldier asked.

"Him? Not a chance," On-Ji said. Then, upon noticing Shoji's extremely worried look, backpedaled as quickly as the situation demanded. "I mean, yeah, we're both here, in this store, I mean, how could we not be? But..."

"Am I going to need to bring you two to the magistrate?" he asked wearily. "I swear, this is just what I needed today."

"Jee? What are you doing here?" Asuka asked as she peeked out from where she was working with Huuni. The soldier, Jee by name, gave a sigh of his own, and faced the seamstress.

"Have you seen Hye?" Jee asked.

"She has nothing to say to you, if that's what you're asking," Asuka said. The soldier sighed.

"I realize things were... cool... for a while, but..."

"Cool? You might as well have left her!" Asuka obviously didn't approve of this soldier, which saw Shoji edging toward the changing rooms. On-Ji, oblivious to the tension, walked casually after him.

"What's going on?"

"Huuni's in there," Shoji whispered urgently.

"The changing rooms? Are you some sort of pervert or something?" On-Ji asked.

"Tribesman! Soldier!" Shoji clarified at a hiss. Then, and only then, did On-Ji get it, and her eyes went slightly wide.

"Look, just let me talk to her," Jee said. "This doesn't need to end like this."

"Well, I'm not sure you've got her best interests in mind," the seamstress was resolute.

"You're her friend, not her mother," Jee pointed out. "I just wanted to give her something by way of apology. That's not too much to ask, is it?"

"Three years!"

"I had no choice!" Jee shouted back. All eyes turned to him, and silence fell in the boutique. The soldier, though, didn't seem to care. "I'm home now. That part of my life is behind me. So you can help me, or you can be a bitter hag, spreading regret like a plague."

"Agni's blood, it's no wonder she speaks so highly of you," Asuka said sarcastically. "I've got a client."

Jee stood there, grinding his teeth, as she ducked back into the fitting room where Huuni was ensconced. "What now?" On-Ji asked.

"Now, we just try to get her past this guy without his noticing," Shoji whispered back.

Both fell silent as this Jee gave them a glance, the paragon of guilt and suspicion upon their faces. And yet somehow, he stalked away from them both and leaned against the doorframe, the threshold to the outside and the freedom it represented. Trapped like rats.

"So what's your big plan to get the barbarian past him?" On-Ji asked.

"I'll... think of something," Shoji said, scratching at his hair.

The curtain to the fitting room was swept open, and Shoji turned back toward it. The first thing he saw was a wave of black hair, spilling down over blue. When Huuni turned, though, his jaw hit the floor. Where her initial clothes were burnt, tattered rags, and her more recent were ill-fitted at best, this blue silken dress looked to have been poured onto her, hugging her every curve like the water it resembled. Huuni stared imperiously down her nose at those around her, her falsely pale skin gleaming in the lanterns and making her seem as elegant as any of the finest daughters of Azul. On-Ji first stared too, then tutted with annoyance and closed Shoji's mouth for him. "Don't drool, Shoji. It's disgusting."

"I... Well..."

"The boy will square off any price," the Tribeswoman said, clearly an order for him, not a placation for the proprietor. But at that, the soldier's eyes instantly snapped to her, and not with awe or attraction or envy. No, they were on her with screwed-in scrutiny.

"Quiet, Huuni, there's a soldier in here," Shoji quickly said in bright tones, but his eyes showing the fear that she needed to understand. He then turned to Asuka. "So, how much is owed?"

"Well, ordinary price would be a hundred and twenty," Asuka said, which caused Shoji to swallow out of outright disbelief. He didn't have that much. Even if he cashed in his return ticket, he couldn't match that price. "But, since she wanted it in blue, and blue's going dirt cheap since that whole mess in the north finished, we'll call it an even forty, alright?"

Shoji let out a laugh of nervousness more than anything else, and dug through his stockpile of silver. That was almost half of the money he'd brought with him. If they all wanted to eat as well as go home, things would be getting very, very tight soon enough. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was get caught by the Fire Nation Army. Considering his parents, considering what the Fire Nation did to Tribesmen... there would come no good of it. The money changed hands, and Asuka nodded at the count, handing it over to the master tailor on her stool. A nod from her, and Asuka let Huuni walk in peace.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Jee asked as the woman drew slightly closer, toward the door which marked their freedom.

"She's from the colonies," Shoji said. "I'm her interpreter since she can't speak Huojian."

"Really?" he asked, then switched tongue to Tianxia, the polyglot language of the east. "Perhaps this is more to your liking?"

Huuni, to her credit, didn't flinch nor bat an eye. She looked him up and down, and with a sneer of derision, answered back, in that same language. "I have nothing to say to your kind," before walking past him, back straight, nose in the air. Jee watched her leave with some suspicion.

"Please, forgive her. She has some... trepidation with soldiers."

"Obviously," Jee said. Then, he turned to face Shoji more directly. "Well? You'd better follow her. No telling what kind of trouble she could get into from not knowing the local language."

"Yeah, I know all about that," Shoji said, before grabbing On-Ji and dragging her out of the shop with him. In a matter of a few moments, they caught up with Huuni, even if he did not dare to look back, to see that Jee still watched them as they left. "Why didn't you tell me you could speak Tianxia?" Shoji asked her.

"That was the extent of the Tianxia I speak," Huuni said closely and unpleasantly. "It doesn't matter. I have proper clothes, and were are close to where I need to go."

"Yeah, we should go," he said, his heart still hammering in his chest. "Before somebody else figures out we don't belong here."

"You're right," On-Ji said, pulling that map from her pack and looking it over. "Wait a second. That mark's right in the middle of the Amrit Forest. That can't be right."

"The forest hides all kinds of stuff," Shoji said. "Come on. Surely, we're out of the worst of it by now."

---

"I had a polite conversation with some of the Sheik's men," the beih said quietly. "They didn't know who you were talking about. They are fixated on the bastard."

"So am I," Gashuin said.

"The other bastard," the beih clarified. "Forgive my impertinent tongue, my emir, but..."

"Any sentence which begins with 'forgive me' isn't one I'm going to be happy to hear," Gashuin said testily.

"A matter of justice is one thing. You risk your health and vitality pursuing this. Rest. Let me and my men deal with the girl," the beih pleaded.

"No," Gashuin said. "I want her to know why what comes upon her has."

"Very well," the beih said wearily. "But my caution is duly given."

"And duly noted," Gashuin muttered. "Well? Don't just stand there, find the bastard girl!"

---

"It is a cunning plan," Bumi said to the other who stood on the wall with him. Nobody was looking toward him, nor the one he stood with. "That Tribesman has a good head on his shoulders."

"I have heard the same," the other said. "I have also heard things of his courage, as well as his canny."

"A good lateral thinker, that's what he is," Bumi said with authority in his creaky voice. "You know the place of the Child on the board?"

"I favor the lotus gambit," the other answered.

"Hm," the supercentenarian murmured. "Well, the trick of the Child is that it's a threat which is better left unused. The Lotus might stab you in the spine, but the Child will be what keeps the opponent's eyes fixed while the Lotus moves behind. A cunning strategy. Especially for a boy who says he's never played the game."

"We all play our games. Some of us are better than others."

Bumi let out a snorting cackle at that. "At this rate, they'll start to think you the old wise man."

"I have been called worse."

Bumi looked out over the walls, to the one path into the city which still remained whole, the ancient stone bridge which connected the Royal Highway – ambitiously named stretch of dirt road that it was – to the 'gates' of Omashu. In truth, an Earth Kingdom city seldom had need of gates, especially if they were as threatened by attack as Omashu had been over the years. An earthbender could make a gate anywhere he needed to, and close it as perfectly as it had never been when its time was done. But a gate-like object had been installed into the walls, and for a very specific purpose; it gave the Fire Nation something to look at.

The Fire Nation was advancing slowly, carefully. Its front rank was a line of Salamander battletanks, and the fighters inched behind them as they cautiously advanced toward that gate. Bumi couldn't blame them. They knew that this had to be some sort of trap. Pity for them, they had no idea just what kind of trap it was. "I'm told that those battletanks use water gyroscopes to keep their balance," Bumi said, idly pointing at one of the great black metal behemoths that trundled forward on its spiked wheels. "I wouldn't have thought of that."

"The Fire Nation has a lot more experience with water than you'd think," the other said calmly, surveying what was preparing to be an outstanding battle. The forces of Omashu were fewer, but had a strong position. The Fire Nation was many more, and had better technology, but lacked a steady footing. Whether this would shadow the penultimate, or the final battle of Chin's war of aggression, only time would tell. Bumi thought back to when the Tribesman was explaining the basis of the plan.

"So you say in your game thing that the Avatar's got all kinds of power, but it's pretty easy to knock out, right?" the Tribesman asked. Bumi nodded happily. "So, that's exactly what we're going to use."

"Wait, use me?" Aang asked. "But, I can't even go into the Avatar State. What am I supposed to do against that many people?"

"You might not be able to, but they don't know that," Sokka said. "And I'm going to safely bet that they don't know what it'll look like when an Avatar goes Glowing Badass, only that there's a certain amount of badassery and glowing involved. So if they want an Avatar, we'll give them the Avatar they've always been afraid of."

His resourcefulness was astounding, and it didn't even take Bumi's word to get people heeding his words. Within hours, the strange devices he'd asked for were not just complete, but constructed just outside the gate, hidden away from prying eyes. And then there were those mirrors he called for. There were a lot of them that he requested, and Bumi had only the foggiest idea what they were wanted for.

"I think the performance is about to begin," the other said, staring at the opening to the fight. Down below, Bumi didn't need to see to know that Toph was doing as she did best; making a royal mess of things. Within a few moments, a shroud of dust began to rise up around the gate, and the grinding of stone against stone reached all the way to the invading line. The tanks continued. The soldiers behind them hesitated, but followed.

"LEAVE, IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES," the call came up from that gate, a powerful amalgam of not just Aang, but about two dozen of Bumi's soldiers and a couple housewives from near the gate as well. The Fire Nation kept advancing. So the young Tribesman put the last gear of his plan into motion. A bonfire, burning bright, and an array of dozens of mirrors behind it, casting the light forward directly into Aang's back as he stomped into the hole of the gate, out of Bumi's sight, and then appearing at its far end, surrounded by a halo of brilliance. Masked by the whirling dirt, two teenaged girls slipped out near him. Aang rose up one hand, and then gave a great slashing motion. As he did, a blade of water struck out from his side, powered not just by he but also a prodigy of waterbending, a fluid knife which clove the wheels off one of the tanks trundling forward. It tipped down, trapped on the path, while the other halted, its hatches opening. From that hatch, vomited fire.

The Avatar stood his ground. With a twist of his hand, a pan of wind and dust caught that fire and twisted it to embers and ash. Then, a grand stomp, and the unnoticed blind Earthbender worked her own skill, sending out a ripple across the face of that bridge, ending with a pillar slamming upward from the outside frame of that vehicle. The waterbender made some sort of effortful motion, visible only because Bumi knew where to look, and when the tank landed upside-down atop its brother, it found its gyroscope frozen, and its orientation locked in exactly the wrong way.

At that, the soldiers behind began to worry.

Aang twisted, and sent forth a wave of wind at the first row, sending them back into the second, then slammed his feet into the ground, cast back his head, and thrust his fists into the air. On cue, the two machines which had been secreted under piles of refuse nearby belched to life, sending up streams of golden fire, belching black smoke as they terminated. Hand it to a Tribesman to invent fake firebending for the non firebender. The false show of firebending ended, the Avatar took one more step toward the opposing side, still surrounded by a halo of reflected firelight, refracting off of dust and flying sand.

If that wasn't enough to start a rout, then nothing was.

And fatefully enough, it was.

Aang didn't progress one more step, but the terror had rippled back through the line as fast as bad news. These soldiers had come looking for a siege and an easy victory. But when faced with an Avatar at his highest strength? They knew where their survival lay, and it lay far, far away from Omashu. In a matter of minutes, the infantry was fleeing from the bridge, and Bumi's own troops were securing it. A few minutes after that, and they were splitting off and vanishing into the valley.

"An impressive fraud," the other said. "And a less than impressive showing from the Fire Nation."

"Not all of their leaders can be a Zhao," Bumi said. "Or a Dragon of the West."

"No, they indeed can not," the other admitted. "Forgive me. If you have no other business, I have some family matters to attend to."

"Don't let me keep you," Bumi said, waving his old friend off.

Bumi laughed, cackled, and snorted to himself as he found himself alone on the walls. He moved toward where the other military men, and the young Avatar awaited him. "That was stupendous! Outstanding! And actually rather funny!"

Bumi's cackling was contagious, it seemed. The Tribesman joined him with his own braying laughter. "Yeah, you shoulda seen the look on their faces, Aang," Sokka said.

"I did," Aang said, not entirely comfortable. "They were really, really scared."

"Look at it this way," Katara chimed in, trying to wipe the dirt off of her face. Toph, on the other hand, didn't bother. "You managed to rout an entire Fire Nation army division with nothing but smoke, mirrors, and a bunch of people shouting. I mean, I don't think any blood was spilled!"

"Well, the guys in that other tank are probably a bit banged around, but 'hell with them," Toph interjected.

Aang seemed a bit cheered by that. "You're right. I managed to stop a terrible battle."

"My king," Yong said, pulling his Ostrich Horse to a halt nearby. "Avatar," a nod toward the same, before turning back to Bumi. "I've just received word from the outer garrisons that the are moving in. They'll be at the inner perimeter within a few hours. We won't be able to hold the Highlands, but we'll still have our breadbasket."

"So that's good?" Bumi asked, with a slightly befuddled tone. It suited him to have people underestimate him.

"Very. Best we could hope for, given the circumstances," Yong said. He dismounted, and handed off the reins. "I do have worries, though."

"What like?" the Tribesman asked.

"How did they get past our outer perimeter without us noticing?" Yong asked. "The soldiers might be able to sneak through the passes afoot, but that equipment wouldn't travel through those paths. Either we have a gap in our defenses, and a fairly substantial one, or they've... learned to fly or something."

"That is concerning," Bumi said, pulling at his sprig of beard. He then shrugged. "Ah, well. A mystery for another day. But today, I feel like having a party! Cake and cheese for everyone!"

As Bumi went cackling away, Aang gave a guilty glance toward Katara. "Look, I know you're probably exhausted, and so am I. I think I'm just gonna take a nap, alright?" he asked, his tone about as trustworthy as a used-boat salesman's.

"Yeah, go snooze," Sokka said with an off handed wave. "You've been up a long time. Come to think of it, I could stand to have a nap myself."

"Looks like it's back to the lazy leading the lazy," Toph pointed out. "Urg! I'm all wired up! I want to go punch a bear or something!"

"You have fun with that, I'm going to do the sane thing and sleep," Katara said. Aang, though, was already gone, and not in the same direction that everybody else was going.

---

All was quiet in the sizable room Nila had hired for the evening. The others came back not too long ago, and were somewhat reticent about what transpired, although it was obvious from the way Ashan flicked his hand that he'd punched somebody. Nila didn't feel like interceding. After all, it was cooking time. And since cooking was just physics and chemistry meeting in a very practical manner, she refused to do it poorly.

"Shouldn't we be going?" Sharif asked.

"It'll be night, soon," Nila said distractedly as she shook the skillet with a cloth-covered hand. It still sizzled nicely, and the smell was glorious, but it wasn't finished quiet yet. So she took a moment to test the weight of several lemons she'd recently bought. Yes, that one would do nicely.

"But... we're supposed to travel at night," Sharif said, still idly stitching at Ashan's only other robe. It beggared Nila's mind how Mother never sent him off to the almsmen, to work odd jobs and support himself. Sharif was quite capable of that; just about any little thing which needed fixing was as good as restored once in his hands.

"Only in the desert, brother," Nila said. "We'll be in the Divide soon enough, and it gets cold that far north."

"Oh... Right," Sharif said. He cocked his head to one side, then nodded, as though agreeing to something, but since nobody was over there, and nobody was talking to him, she was somewhat baffled by it. Still, better to focus her attention on what was before her. Dinner. Just a little browner.

There was a shifting across the room, and Nila glanced over to see Tzu Zi moving toward her, sitting down next to her before the fire. "It isn't quite done yet," Nila said.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "You know, you've become a pretty good cook."

"I had to. You burn everything," Nila pointed out.

"I do not!"

"My work stands for itself," Nila said easily enough. There was a moment of silence. "I assume something is on your mind."

She gave a light chuckle. "And you're getting better at that stuff, too."

"I have a good teacher," Nila answered at a murmur. Tzu Zi smiled at that.

"We're going to be leaving soon, aren't we?" she asked.

"Probably tomorrow," Nila agreed, giving the contents of the pan a flip. Huh. Needed a bit more on the other side. "Does that bother you?"

"No, I'm just surprised it doesn't bother you," she said. "Wasn't it hard to leave Si Wong the first time?"

"No," Nila said. "Liberating. To be away from those idiots, I would have given much. And looking back, I would have taken the same path and made the same choices. More or less, of course. There are a few things I would change."

"Getting kidnapped by pirates?"

Nila grumbled something darkly under her breath. "Amongst other things. But even now, I am further north than I have ever been in my life. Time will tell how much further north we go."

"All the way to Ba Sing Se, I can only hope," she said brightly.

"Yes, but after that?" Nila said. "Ba Sing Se is a destination, but not the end. Well, not unless something kills us there."

"Something's going to kill us?" Sharif asked.

"Go back to stitching," Nila ordered.

"You've got a point. Where would you go next, though? What is even more northerly than that?" Tzu Zi asked. She shrugged. "Would you even want to go to the north? I mean, that place is pretty swamped by my people right now. And if they ever do win at Summavut, then there won't be a Water Tribe left to visit."

"You're right, but not about my point," Nila said. "If there is one thing my return to my home has taught me it is that I do not belong here. The world is vast, and I will find my place in it."

"Oh. That's a pretty good attitude to hold about it, I guess," she said. She paused for a moment. "I really don't know if I should bring it up, but... We kinda got attacked in the street today."

"By the Sheik's men, I assume?" Nila asked, surprised but not really shocked. Tzu Zi gaped at her.

"How did you know?"

"Ashan is not welcome in this city."

Tzu Zi frowned. "Why not?"

"Because he is the eldest child of the Sheik, and Ali does not want a bastard disrupting his dynasty," Nila explained. "It's all politics and backbiting. Ashan is only wise in that he stays clear of it."

"Wait... Ashan is royalty?" she asked.

"Somewhat," Nila said, before taking the skillet off the fire and sliding its contents onto a platter. "Dinner is ready."

"Eat it hot? Are you mad, woman?" Ashan asked. He shook his head. "I'll eat it when it's cooled, like a normal person would."

"Royalty?" Tzu Zi stressed again, as Sharif cut off a chunk of the circular patty and began to blow it cool enough not to sear his mouth. He'd eat it as mechanically as anything else, though; he wouldn't taste it.

"Yes, he is son of the lord Ali of Ababa, 'glorious he', heir to a fortune which would make most entire Earth Kingdom's weep of jealousy. His siring was not kind, as I understand it. But of course, you saw what it did to his lamented mother," Nila pointed out quietly. "Between Ali – Vengeful is he – not wanting Ashan as another heir, and the Sheik's other, legitimate offspring not wanting to share wealth, he is a very unwanted figure in this city. The only reason he has survived this long is, I suspect, that the Sultan has forbade any overt action against him. And before that... I wonder if Mother might have had some hand in his placement in Sentinel Rock?"

"So he's not just a bastard, he's... a royal bastard?" Tzu Zi asked.

There was a long moment of silence, while both turned to glance behind them. But the figure that both expected wasn't there, and the quip was left unuttered.

Nila's eyes went down for a moment, and she felt Tzu Zi give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "It's okay, Nila. I miss her, too."

"I never thought I would," Nila muttered. Then, she cut a new wedge from the platter before her, biting in despite its heat. It actually was quite good. She heard that in the West, they did something similar with dough and tomatoes.

"You know, this is actually pretty good. What's in this?" Tzu Zi noted.

"If I told you, you'd not want to eat it," Nila said.

"Oh, come on."

"Very well. You remember those Mammoth Beetles we use to transport our wagons?"

Tzu Zi swallowed, but became somewhat pale.

"Indeed. Only their brain, though. We don't eat the distasteful parts," she said.

"I think I might be sick."

"Oh, please. Your kind eat potatoes, and those are a member of the nightshade family," Nila said. "Mine won't kill you. Yours definitely will."

"Yeah, but it's different," Tzu Zi said, putting her wedge down.

"You enjoyed it a moment ago," Nila said with a smug look.

"But..." Tzu Zi began, but was cut off when the door to the room burst open.

In an instant, Nila pulled the firearm from where she left it leaning against the table, tucked it's stock to her shoulder, and had the trigger pulled. With a mighty bang, the leaden slug crossed the distance and caught the invading soldier right in the knee, however it landed with the distinct spang of metal being deflected by metal. The man's leg was thrown out from under him, though, and he landed in a shouting heap, clutching his leg.

"What in the name of..." Ashan began, but another was entering the room. Nila got to her feet, the barrels of her firearm a perfect line between her and her target.

"I would stop at the threshold, lest you join your friend on the floor," Nila shouted.

"So you'd use your sorcery against your own people," the veiled figure spat, with familiar contempt and even more familiar voice. Nila sighed.

"Gashuin? What are you doing here?"

"Exacting justice!" Gashuin said, limping to where the armored beih was on the floor. Nila tutted.

"The aim on this is somewhat off. If I'd hit where I was aiming, it would have taken his lower leg right off. I have corrected that error," Nila warned.

"You assaulted me. I demand recompense in the name of the al-Hamir family," Gashuin said.

"I cannot offer it," Nila said. "There has been no crime."

"You speak lies! Only a pardon by the Sultan himself could absolve this, and he would not..." the emir, if not outright Sheik, of that lost hellhole stated. Nila sighed, then reached behind her to her pack blindly, before fishing out what was right at its top. She tossed the furled scroll to Gashuin, who caught it easily enough. "What is this?"

"A pardon for the crime, from Sultan Wahid himself," Nila said, letting the gun drop from its target. "You don't like me, and you will hate me for saying this, but you seem to not know of what happened in Sentinel Rock."

"What do you mean?" Gashuin said.

"Your mother, does she still live here?" Nila asked.

"Why would you care?"

"Because I'm trying to determine whether you're an orphan, you dolt!" Nila snapped. Gashuin became somewhat unsettled by that. "Yes, it is as it sounds. Your father perished in battle against Borte, the Khagan of the Dakongese. The fortress was laid waste."

"That's impossible," the noble said, backing up until he found himself sitting upon the bench by the door. "That fortress was supposed to last a dozen years."

"It was sapped and brought low by her waterbending allies, before being smote out of existence by what I can only call an angry god."

Gashuin's eyes flashed. "You mock my pain?"

"She does not," Ashan said. "I saw things... Did you not see the Eye of Terror in the sky? That was what caused so much carnage. I am sorry, Gashuin. We may not have seen on the same plane, but I know what it is to lose family. My mother... She did not escape."

"But..." Gashuin seemed in utter denial. "He can't be..."

"It is what it is," Nila said. She turned back to her dinner, and continued eating it, ignoring the beih who had ceased his moaning but now moved on into quiet cursing, probably of a broken shin. "But if you try to do as you did again, I promise you, an impaled foot will be the least of your worries."

"You don't know your place," Gashuin said quietly, but angrily.

"You are correct. That's why I'm looking for it," she answered, before moving toward the back of the room, into the room with the cots on its back wall, where she could eat in peace.

---

Azula scowled very hard at the wall of her cell. Of course, it was hardly what one would ordinarily call a cell. It was quite airy, and had five other beds and sleeping surfaces besides the one she was awkwardly perched on. The food and lavatory situation was entirely satisfactory, and for once, she had some blessed privacy, if at the cost of being locked in by a door which was called into existence as needed. She'd spent the first eight hours trying to devise a way out of that prison. She'd spent the next six in fitful sleep, and the cycle repeated itself, since there was no natural light to see by. It was a deeply disturbing prison to be in.

"This is terrible," her younger self said.

"You, complaining? Has the world finally broken your cheerful optimism?" Azula asked.

"Oh... bite me," she said morosely. "I can't feel the sun."

"I've been in worse places."

"I haven't!"

"Well, get used to them. If this is the way my plans go, you'll be seeing a lot more like this," the older Azula said at a grumble. She uncomfortably turned to one corner of the hexagonal room. At that point, she could see something there, something that didn't belong. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" the girl grumped.

"In the corner," Azula clarified. The girl looked up from where she was huddled against the bed, knees tucked to her chest, and gave the corner a glance. "What is that?"

"I don't know," the girl said, then fell silent again, rocking quietly. Well, if that was how she was when she was eight, then she was unforgivably weak. It never crossed Azula's mind that it might be a valid thing; she herself had never been imprisoned away from the sun until she was too mad to care, and then, escaped the first chance she had once her fugue lifted. Much like keeping earthbenders stranded on that offshore rig had crushed their spirits with nothing more than distance to their element, separation from the fires in the heavens was a weighing force on Azula. She well imagined that waterbenders felt the same way when dropped into a desert. With a lethargy and pain which was only partially because of her broken limbs, she limped toward that most shadowed corner, and in particular, to the scratches which dug into the wall.

She leaned a bit down, running her fingers along it. It was strange, but while she could see that arcane and eldritch script, she couldn't feel it. Like it was almost imperceptibly shallow. And they wandered, into the dark. She cocked an ear toward it, and could hear a grinding sound, and breathing in that darkness. Azula's eyes narrowed, and she tried to spark a flame into her hand. It failed, and a sinking feeling of dread ran through her. No, it couldn't be going away again. Was she too far from the sun? Was she so far away from its heat and light that she was cut off completely? The terror rose a little further, to the point where the girl at the bed started to keen lightly, trying to stifle sobs but not entirely succeeding. Azula, though, mastered herself. She was not going to be a weeping child, not just because she had a few hundred feet of rock above her head.

"Who are you?" Azula demanded.

"It's not perfect," the answer came, a voice something quite like her own, but far more ragged.

Azula took a step into that shadow, and willed her eyes to focus onto that darkness, ignoring the light behind her. "You didn't answer my question," Azula pressed.

"I'm not perfect," that voice said again. As her eyes acclimated to the shade, she could see a form, hunched down against the wall, moving subtly as the grinding sound continued. Like she was scraping at the very stone with her raw fingers.

"Obviously," Azula said.

The figure turned, and light glinted off of golden eyes.

"IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" came a shriek, and a twist of the figure's wrist sent a wave of azure flame searing toward Azula, and the crippled up woman had to tip over backward to avoid it, which caused her to let out a helpless yelp of pain when she managed to land on her broken hand and twist her shattered arm.

"Azula!" another voice entered that room, and she felt herself being slowly borne upward. But Azula, as always, opted for combat over accepting help. She elbowed that form hard in the chest, which had the effect of dropping her back down to the stone, itself quite painful again. "Are you alright? You just fell..."

"Get away from me, Avatar," Azula spat, instantly picking out the voice's source once the confusion of the moment passed.

"You should be resting, not... whatever that was," he said, with a surprising earnestness. "Come on, let me help you."

"I require no help, least of all from you," Azula said. She glared at him as she slowly got to her feet and hobbled back toward the bed, sitting beside her younger, weeping self. Agni's blood, had she ever been so weak? "You must want something from me, or else you would have left me to rot."

"I just want to know that you're alright," the Avatar said.

"You're lying," Azula spat. "You want something from me. Ransom to my father? Hah! He knows better than to barter with your kind. He knows what you intend for him."

"Why do you hate me so much?" the Avatar asked.

"Much the same reason you hate me," she said.

"I don't," he said.

"Pardon me as I disbelieve," Azula snarked.

"I have nothing against the Fire Nation. The only reason I'm fighting them is because if I don't, then everything in the world is going to die."

"Now, you're just being needlessly dramatic," Azula dismissed.

"What would it take to get you to believe me?" he asked.

"I will never believe you."

The Avatar frowned for a moment. "I didn't think you were that closed-minded."

"I know where you stand. You want to succeed where your Storm Kings failed," she said, drawing upon dusty memories and spotty history. It was more than inconvenient, sometimes, that the history she'd grown up with didn't apply anymore.

"What if... What if I show you," the Avatar said. "Do you know what the Avatar State is?"

"Your weapon against my people," she said. "Your weapon against me."

The Avatar shook his head, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, there was a tiny flare of white light which surged out of both they and the tattoos on his body, one which swelled until it blotted out the light from the braziers. White. Complete. She flinched back, but in her reduced state, she couldn't evade his touch. But when it landed upon her shoulder and hand, it wasn't the brutal, cruel invasion which she'd suffered before, that knife digging through her heart and into her soul. No... this was different.

It was like bathing in sunlight.

Azula's eyes rolled back in her head, and the power flowed away from the Avatar, and his glowing, water-slicked hands, toward her. She couldn't breathe. She didn't want to. Pain vanished.

When she finally breathed in once more, she found herself leaning forward, eyes practically bulging out of her sockets. She panted for a moment, then shot to her feet, staring down the retreating Avatar with suspicion in her eyes and blue fire in her fist. "What did you do to me, you evil little..." she began, but paused when she saw that the fingernails on her broken hand were all regrown, whole. And that the pain from her wounded hand and shoulder was utterly gone. She paused, her eyes flicking down to the girl beside her, who stared up at the Avatar with rapt attention, mouth slightly agape.

"I don't hate you. I don't hate your people. And I never wanted to be your enemy. I just want this war to end before it's too late for everybody, including you," he said quietly, painfully, before turning and walking away.

The Avatar was walking away. Azula smirked, as that darkest part of her demanded immediate action, immediate motion. She took a step back, and her hands began to spin through the movements, and a crackle began to sound in her skin, not quite enough to snap in the air. But as she finished her second rotation, long before he reached where the door had been left open, Azula suddenly felt a numbness running through her, a weakness sapping her strength. She glanced down, and saw that the younger Azula was holding her hand fast, and fury lit in the girl's big, expressive eyes.

"Don't you dare," the girl said.

"I must," Azula said. But the girl shook her head.

"He helped us. We can use this," she said.

"We can end this," Azula snapped. Come on, child, I'm running out of time, she thought.

"Not like this," she answered. "It will not end like this."

"Don't tell me you believe him," Azula snapped. And with a rumble, her attention turned back to the wall, just in time to see the walls slam shut, the 'door' sealed behind the Avatar's heel. "Oh, look what you've done! When will I have a chance like that again?"

"I'm not sure what to believe," the girl said, finally releasing her death-grip on Azula's hand, and with that, feeling began to spread back through the firebender's arm. "And you shouldn't be, either."

"I will not forget this," Azula swore.

"Neither will I," the girl answered with equal solemnity.

---

The box was up-ended, dumping two dirty men onto the marble floors of the palace in a pile.

"This is your fault," the one at the bottom of that pile swore. "If not for your little obsession, I'd still have my skimmer, and..."

"Obsession? What do you know of obsession?" the one at the top answered.

"I know it cost me grandmother's third favorite skimmer!" the bottom answered.

"Silence!" the impatient sovereign finally shouted, causing both men to stop bickering and notice that they were hardly alone in the room. The room was all white and silver, shining in the light of the morning. Its heart was a throne of finest North Earth Kingdom woods, mounted by a veritable hill of cushions, but upon the edge of that seat was a man. He was fine featured, a man of obvious good breeding and health, but there was something unpleasant in his eyes.

Those eyes were as cruel as the sun upon the sands.

"Look what you've dragged me into now, Udu!" the smuggler spat.

"Well, look who finally grew a spine!" Udu answered.

"You will be silent or you will be headless!" the sovereign pronounced, and as he did, the hiss of blades escaping scabbards put weight to his threat. "Do you know who I am?"

The smuggler became quite pale, and fell silent. "...I do..."

"Good. Then I am spared introducing myself," the sovereign said. "Now, you've got a problem, stemming from this man's inept handling of his grandmother's property from Ibn-Atal. There are a number of ways to rectify that, but few are legal, and in this city, smugglers are dealt worse than harshly. The most obvious one would be to take a child off the street in the Capital. It wouldn't much matter who, so long as it was a girl, with all of her teeth and working limbs. Now, the standard price for a random girl on the black market is one hundred ninety rubble in silver, and the best you'll find without traveling abroad. Factoring the price of a new sand skimmer and the price of goods he forfeited, he could repay the debt with eighteen girls between the ages of twelve and fourteen sold into slavery at normal market prices, and avoid the wrath of his grandmother – a very powerful criminal underworld figure."

"That's nice," Udu said. "Do forgive my language, but who in the name of Nebt-het's Tits is this man, besides somebody who may or may not sell girls into slavery?"

"Do you know what Nemesis is? Beyond just what those plains-addled fools to the South think?" Udu gave a shrug. "It is a righteous infliction of retribution, personified in an appropriate agent. In this case, the last person you wish to annoy; me."

"Udu, please, be silent," the smuggler pleaded. Udu did the stupid thing, and scoffed.

"Since Adin bin Ibtihaj al'Adin has an appropriate attitude, he is spared this," the sovereign said. He flicked a hand, and Udu was jabbed in the back with a blade. Not deeply, but enough to draw out blood and tell him that his lip was not appreciated. "Each inappropriate outburst will be given a more severe response. This is clear, yes?" Udu nodded. "Good. I am Ali, Sheik of Ababa. You have trouble with the Dragon's Daughter, and you, with her son. Bury it."

"But..." Udu said, but was silenced, when Ali glared at him. He swallowed in fear.

"There is another who travels with them. His name is Ashan. He is never to return to this city, under any circumstances. If he does, I promise you, you will not."

"What is it that you are asking of us?" Adin asked meekly.

"The world beyond the walls of the cities is harsh and cruel," Ali answered, leaning forward and darkening his eyes to the point where they seemed pits into Hell. "Show the bastard boy the fullest extent of that. Do this, and you will find service to me quite profitable. Do not, and..."

The rasp of a whetstone against a sword's edge was all the conclusion that sentence needed.

Ali smiled then, and it was not a kind smile. "Are these terms... acceptable?

---

Azula lay on her side, for the first time in a while, her body aching for sleep, but her mind whirring a mile a minute. She had to find a way out. The Avatar was trying to confuse her. Why had he done what he'd done? Was he trying to make her... thankful? Or, more likely, just keep her off guard? If that were the case, then he was a moron, because now, she was fully capable of attacking him again. But that didn't help her here, since she was locked in a room, and she didn't know what to do.

And Azula felt genuine worry at that. She always knew what to do. But... somehow... not now.

Azula rolled to her back, laying atop the sheets of the bed. It was more than comfortable enough. Even when she was living in the Royal Palace, back home, she had scarcely had better sleeping arrangements. Yet she could not sleep. Who was that other girl, that one scratching at the corners? Azula hadn't seen her since, nor before. But there was something... wrong with her. Something incomplete and dangerous. Her younger self was also absent from sight, as she sometimes was. Maybe her other self was sleeping right now. It was hard to say.

Azula shook her head. She had plenty of time to think, to plan, now. She was healthy enough to act as she needed to; it was just a case of knowing when the timing was correct. Her timing used to be so perfect. Now, it left something to be desired. She sighed, and rolled further, onto her other side, itself a comfort which she'd been denied for several days by a broken collar bone. She settled against the pillow for a long moment, before her eye widened, and she gave a clipped shriek of alarm.

She was not alone.

She cast out a fist, and blue fire obeyed her, if not as strong as it should have been. Scarlet blaze batted it aside, and Azula took the moment to back-roll off the bed, keeping it between her and the interloper. But that intruder didn't advance on her, nor counterattack. He just sat there, on the adjacent bed, stroking a grey beard. Azula paused, then lit a fire in her palm. "No... It cannot be..." she said.

"So you do recognize me," Iroh said, his eyes shrewd and calculating. "That is good. Because we have a great deal to talk about."

"What are you doing here?" Azula asked. Then, she amended her question. "How did you get in here?"

"I have my ways," Iroh said. "And you have yours. That is the crux of our problem."

"What do you mean?" Azula asked, suspicious as ever she was.

There was a creak of the wooden bedframe as Iroh leaned forward, his eyes locked on her own. "I know what you are, Azula," Iroh said. "And I'm not happy about it."

---

History Lesson Time!

Subject: The Beginning of Bending, to the Formation of the Monolith.

The world of 3F Avatar is about as old as ours, but it exists in a different solar system, and home to different physical laws. Namely, the soul not only has a quantifiable presence, it also has a purpose in Avatarverse. Now, Bending hasn't been around forever, and definitely not in the form you see it on the shows. Unlike most fantasy media, which is taking place in a 'dark age' after all the really cool stuff has been discovered and subsequently lost, Avatar is a world still moving upward, advancing toward something greater.

The world of Earth in Avatar was initially much like our own, with a plethora of cultural archetypes spread over its surface. They were as varied as the Hellenas who occupied what are now Great Whales, a Grecian culture relatively advanced in its sciences, to the Wiqing, a barbarous peoples centered in what would eventually become Ba Sing Se. But there was one culture centered in the West Continent which had something the rest of the world did not. They practised a form of internal alchemy, a purification of the energy in their bodies, which allowed them to defeat disease and augment their physical might. They were the first energybenders.

In time, though, those energybenders discovered that they could not only control the energy inside themselves, but outside as well. There were two schools of thought to the use of that energy. The Warriors of the Sun used that energy to ignite and use the techniques of the Dragons and the Fire Hawks to create flame, becoming the first Firebenders. Nanuuica, the storied first High Chief of the Water Tribes, used that energy to manipulate the water, using the push and pull of the Moon and the tides to guide her technique. For a brief period, the two tribes of Fire and Water lived in relative harmony, but frictions soon flourished, not long after the first Benders crushed and subsumed the Hellenas. It was decided that the firebenders would have the West Continent, and the waterbenders the southern archipelago which would eventually become Great Whales, before a further split would divide the waterbenders into Eel-worshipers and Moon-worshipers, the latter leaving Great Whales to found the Water Tribes.

Now, these nations were not yet the Fire Nation nor the Water Tribe. They were just the first step toward becoming that. The pseudo-water tribesmen and the pseudo-fire nationals began to influence the East, and with that influx of both the existence of bending, and their culture, the ways of thought prevalent in what would become Omashu began to spread, as they were closest to their Western neighbors, and trade was frequent. But it was still thousands of years before a new element was 'discovered'.

When Oma learned earthbending from the Badgermoles, around the same period, a group of wandering peoples, similar to our Romani, learned the secrets of the air bison. Once all four elements existed in a manipulable fashion, the Avatar Spirit was formed, a human being capable of understanding all elements and philosophies and utilizing all. Why the Avatar was formed is still unknown. The first was a Westerner, and after her death, the next came from the wandering nomad peoples, and the world soon understood the cycle. Bending swept the world, beating out and erasing all cultures which didn't have it, or else subsuming them into the cultures which dominated them. Only a few cultural stand-outs remained, namely Si Wong, who developed sandbending relatively indepenantly of Oma, and held their own.

The Avatar worked in the role which one would expect nowadays of it, until the creation of the Monolith. The Monolith was a culture, founded by an earthbender Avatar, which saw earthbending rise to prominence in the world, gaining dominance over all of the other cultures. How is not known. Why is not known. In fact, the name 'the Monolith' definitely isn't what the culture called itself, but its identity was erased during its downfall. The only things known about it was that it was a terrible blight upon history, to the point where all history before the Monolith is practically non-existent (thus why the calendar counts upward from 'the fall of the Monolith'), and that it was created and ruled over by at least two generations of Avatars. This last bit is only known to the Avatars themselves, and only then, because the earlier and later of them worked together to 'box' the Monolith Avatars, to keep them from infesting later Avatars with Monolith ideas. It was that terrible, and that dangerous, that the world could never afford its like again.

...

But enough history for the moment. Some of the later chapters are getting big again, although not like the bloat I've seen in, say, The Mountain King. Therefore, since I work keeping up a buffer, the chapters I present are taking longer between them. But that's the way I roll, sadly. This was the chapter where you get to know Ashan a little bit better. He's a bit traditional, but he's aggressively good natured. In a perfect world, he'd probably be the protagonist of his own 'Avatar' story. But as it's been made readily apparent, this is not a perfect world.

Also, in answer to something a reviewer pointed out: I had no idea that somebody had whipped up Pai Sho rules. I just made up what I thought sounded interesting. Call it a writer's prerogative. You'll be seeing a bit more of Shoji and On-Ji, and a lot more of Malu in the coming chapters. Don't worry about that. And you'll even see a bit more Zuph in the future as well. Well, something that's kinda like Zuph. It's a bit early to tell. As I've made clear, I haven't reached Ba Sing Se yet, so until everybody has, there's still some question about execution. This is the kind of thing that has to be done right, or not at all. And since I'm not roughly half-a-million words into this story, and a few of you actually do look forward to updates, 'not at all' isn't really much of an option, now is it?

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