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.

38. The Earth King

Aang's eyes opened to the sound of crunching bamboo. His sleep had been so dark, so deep and so unassailable that he'd barely made it two hours into the morning before he was tripping over his own words and his eyelids became leaden. It might have been the 'torture' he'd endured, or something else, but he felt terrible when he came out of the Spirit World. He felt distinctly less so, now. Although, frankly, he had no idea what time it was.

He pushed himself up to a sit, as the rustling of bamboo caused two blades to slip into two hands, one the sole remaining of its owner, the other, a Tribesman very far from home. It wasn't until the source of the noise revealed itself to be another Tribesman that the two swordsmen relaxed somewhat. Katara, though, seemed still on her guard. The newcomer looked Aang up and down, and then gave a grunt.

"So the Avatar awakens at last," he said. He turned to the others. "The Dai Li are sweeping the Reaches, trying to make sure that you're gone. And frankly, I'm a little confused as to why you're not."

"You don't have a lot of faith in us, do you Qujeck?" Sokka asked.

Aang's brow drew down, and he turned to Katara. "Wait a second. Wasn't Lana's son named Qujeck?"

She nodded, and Aang turned his attention back to the low-burning waterbender before him. "You're preaching to the converted, Qujeck," Zha Yu said with a shrug. "If I had any say, they'd be headed anywhere but here as of yesterday."

"You discount their courage and their skills," the Dragon of the East pointed out.

"Sati, we've been over this. This isn't the time," Zha Yu said.

"If not now, then when? When the serpent dies of old age, will that be the proper time? Or will that be too soon, since you will have no sense of his successor?" Nila's mother launched in. It was becoming extremely evident to the young Avatar that Nila, despite any protestations she would offer to the alternative, was her mother's daughter.

"The Dragon is right. We have a unique ability to strike, while the Grand Secretariat is weak," Qujeck pointed out.

"We've lost too much already!" Zha Yu snapped. "Sati, you and yours were held for months, Piandao is crippled, and it took everything we had to get the Avatar out of that maw! What are you trying to accomplish?"

"What, we're leaving?" Toph asked, entering the clearing a few steps ahead of her mother. "Finally. I've seen enough of this city, and I can't even see!"

"I'm not sure," Sokka said, scratching at his head. "I mean, we've got momentum. We have Long Feng and his goons on the back foot. Probably the first time they've been that way in a long while. This might be the best chance we've got of getting the Earth King out from under him, and getting his armies for the Day of Black Sun."

The Dragon of the East turned a nod toward Sokka. "See, the Tribesmen are in agreement with me."

"I wouldn't say all of them," Hakoda said. "Son, you have to know that this is a dangerous game. The Earth King is probably the best defended person on this Earth."

"All I have to do is talk to him," Aang said. "He'll see the truth. I know it."

"That is a foolhardy notion. Anything you say will be twisted by his advisers, pouring poison into his ears with your every word," Nila piped up. "Leave the fool to his fate."

"You will be silent, girl!" her mother snapped. "Do not speak on what you do not understand."

"I wager I understand more than well enough," Nila said, not backing down in the slightest. "You are consumed by pride and you will not allow your failures go unavenged! And your durance under Lake Laogai is what came of it!"

"It was a risk we all took knowing what we stood to gain," Sativa said.

"And what you stood to lose," Katara pointed out, giving a slow nod toward Piandao, with his missing right hand.

"Guys," Aang said.

"I'm just saying, we might have only had one real victory over them, but that's momentum. We should roll with it," Sokka posited. "Am I right, Dad?"

Hakoda held his tongue, but Zha Yu wasn't so mum. "There's momentum and then there's suicide. You don't have perspective on this, Sokka."

"I believe he might have more than you give him credence," Piandao said. "Sokka is right."

"Are you kidding?" Zha Yu asked. "You're down a hand, and..."

"And I still have my mind, my feet, and my knowledge. The young man is right; we might never have as good a chance to defeat Long Feng as we do right now. It isn't a matter of should we take it, but rather, how could we not?"

"Guys?" Aang said.

"So you are infected by Mother's madness?" Nila asked. She threw her hands up into the air. "So be it! I leave you to your fates, however grim! I have done my duty to family!"

"Stop being disrespectful, girl," Sativa said.

"It is not disrespectful to point out a stupid idea as stupid," Nila contended.

"She's got a point, Sati," Bato agreed.

"Long Feng must pay for what he's done," Qujeck agreed vehemently. Eyes turned to him, and he shook his head. "And I don't even mean to me. How many have lived under a pall of terror since he rose to power? This has to stop! And it can stop now!"

"I'm still voting we leave this dump and fly to Omashu," Toph said with a shrug. "Bumi might be crazy, but he's a lot saner than the situation here."

"This is more than just armies," Sokka said. "This is wrong. We have a chance to make it right."

"GUYS!" Aang shouted, causing everybody to stop talking over him, and turn toward him. Silence reigned for a long, long moment. "I know that you don't agree on what to do. And while I'm supposed to be the great moderator, the fact is, I'm just some kid from the South Air Temple. I can't speak for anybody else, but... I think Sokka's right. We have to do something, because we might be the only ones who can. I can't ask anybody else to come with me, but I know I've got to try."

There was silence once more. "Thank you, Avatar," Sativa said with a nod.

"What about them?" Zha Yu asked, tilting his head toward Toph's mother and Nila's brother. "If you all go gallivanting after Long Feng, who's going to take care of them?"

"I can take care of myself," the elder Beifong said, with a bit of defensiveness in her tone.

"Yingsue, it's not that, it's..." Zha Yu began, his tones growing soft, paternal.

"I still feel an urge to call you Papa, but that doesn't mean I'm a child," Beifong said. She paused, breathing slowly, and glanced toward Sharif. "I will keep the young man safe. Do what you must."

"Mom, are you sure that..." Toph began, but Beifong just gave the girl a glance, and Toph fell silent.

Zha Yu, though, sighed, palming his head. "Well, I see things have swung against me," he said.

"That's the problem with democracies," Qujeck said with a smirk. "Finally, a chance to do some real damage to that man's evil empire."

"No," Zha Yu said, cutting the Tribesman off abruptly. "We are there to liberate the Earth King, not to exact a personal vendetta. Is that clear?"

"Who placed you in charge? I thought you wanted nothing to do with this?" Qujeck demanded.

"If we're going to do something stupid, we might as well be smart about it," Zha Yu pointed out. He stepped to the side of the great bison, which was effectively making up an entire wall of the bamboo clearing, as it lay contently munching on shoots while the lemur and the moose-lion cub tussled between its folded in legs. "Avatar, if you're going into that palace, you're going to need us. We know where the Earth King is. Without guidance, you'd be blundering through that building for days. Will you have us?"

"Of course," Aang said, getting to his feet. "And thank you."

"Do not thank them yet," Nila said, slipping the strap for her rifle over her shoulder. "They have yet to achieve anything."

Her mother muttered something at her in Altuundili, which caused Nila to smirk smugly, probably not what the Dragon of the East intended. "Very well," she switched into their common tongue. "Today will see us victorious or dead, with no room for error between."

"That's a grim way of putting it," Sokka said. He extended a hand toward his sister and father. "Sis? Dad? Are we doing this?"

Katara took a moment, then nodded, moving to the bison. Hakoda, though, hesitated quite a bit longer. "Aang, there's something you need to know," he said. Aang raised a brow. "My eldest daughter, Katara and Sokka's sister... she's alive. And she's working for the Fire Nation."

"Remember that firebender at Omashu?" Sokka asked.

"The one trying to kill my sister," Zuko pressed, grimly. He actually got Aang to start, since he'd been so quiet and so still that Aang had completely forgotten he was there. Aang, though, gaped.

"That's Hikaoh?" he asked. Hakoda nodded.

"I can't go with you. I've got to find my daughter," he said. "I'm sorry, but this is something I should have done a decade ago."

Aang nodded. "I understand. Good luck, Hakoda."

"Thank you, Avatar," he said.

Zuko, though, rose to his feet. "I would have appreciated if somebody told me that the Dai Li had taken Azula yesterday," he said burningly to where the recovering Jet and the silent Mai were still in the shadows.

"Didn't want to cause you to freak out, I guess," Sokka offered. Zuko glared, but not at Sokka and the others. Then, he turned, his eyes still down.

"I'm in," he said. "I need to find her."

"So this is it," Aang said, hefting his staff, and laying a hand on Appa's flank. "We're bringing the Earth King into the World War."

"And the spirits have mercy on the fools who do it," Nila said, before giving her grudging support in the only way she knew how: by mounting the bison, and preparing for madness.

---

Chapter 18

The Earth King

---

"... and that's when I told him 'If you're really going to try to hunt platypus bears with nothing more than a bow, then the only trophy you're going to get will be carved into your hide'!" Hua Jin Bai said, around a laugh which sent his corpulent belly to rolling. The others, easily as wealthy as he, if not from the same enterprises, gave their own polite laughter, save for a few cases. Those cases tended to be those who had fought their way to wealth, as he had, or else, those who were mad enough to enjoy the same sorts of diversions.

"You always do have the finest stories, Hua," Bu Yumsun Hong said indulgently. She was about as interesting as cold jook, anyway, so he ignored her.

"Tell us again about your wild adventure with the savage Tribesman in the west," Naru asked, dressed in all her finery as though she were an enterprising gentleman. The impropriety of it had caused quite a stir when she entered the party, but Hua knew her well enough that it didn't surprise him. She went with skirts about as peacefully as powder went with fire. "The one with the wild-eyed barbarians and the hatchetman."

"Ah, yes," Bai said, settling into his chair, his fingers laced on his chest. While pot-bellied, his hands hadn't swollen as most of his sort would have; he didn't allow them. Fat fingers couldn't pull triggers. "There I was, almost twenty five years ago. Working as a trader up and down the coast between Merchant's Pier and Chin. I was just on my way back south, when a boat came over the waves in the teeth of a storm. I only know of one kind of man who'll brave that kind of weather; the Tribesman. I thought it might be a chance for more wealth, since they were always good traders in pelts, and I had more than enough to double my earnings. But not to be, I fear. Because this particular Tribesman and his wild band, they had other ideas. Ideas, I dare say, of piracy!"

Bai was getting right into the story-telling mood, but was caught short when his butler cleared his throat discretely at his shoulder. Hua glanced back. "Yes, what is it?"

"There is somebody at the door for you, sir," the butler said quietly.

"That's odd. I had thought that all of my guests had arrived," Bai mused.

"He said 'he was invited to tour the garden'," the butler continued. At that, Hua's left eye flicked just a bit. Now, that was something he didn't need tonight. Still, he forced a wide smile under his waxed mustache and pushed himself to his feet against the groaning of his chair.

"You will have to forgive the interruption," Bai said genteelly, "but I cannot be a poor host at my own party."

"Oh, we'll be waiting for when you get back," Naru said, raising a glass of liqueur as she did. Bai then turned and headed away from the opulence of his sitting room, filled with the wealthy and well-to-do, and entered a hall filled with tasteful murals purchased from the West. The butler fell in at his side.

"Did you send him away?" Hua asked.

"I attempted to, sir," the butler said. "Since he didn't seem your usual sort, nor one your children would be associated with. He was, however, quite adamant."

"Damn and twice damned. This is the last thing I need," Hua said. He took a breath, and calmed himself. "Perhaps I overthink things. It cannot be for what I assume. We will see what the Lotus requires of me."

"Very good, sir," the butler said, throwing open a door before his master, and showing the way into a tastefully adorned foyer. Within were... things Hua Jin Bai didn't expect. First and dominating the room was a ten tonne bison, which was scratching its back against a pillar. Hua's body locked rigid, trying to think of any reason why one of those beasts would be inside his house, and also trying to think if he had an appropriate firearm to bring it down before it caused too much structural damage. He did, but it might take a few minutes to load.

Then, he started noticing others. One and all, they looked battered, beaten, and weary. Some were middle aged. Others, teenagers at best. But two stood out from all the others, instantly drawing Hua Jin Bai's eyes to them. They were both shorter than average, one considerably so. A Si Wongi woman, and a brick of a man, with respectively green and brown eyes. "What is the meaning of this?" Hua managed to choke out, trying to find some sense in the situation.

"Bai? Been a while," the Mountain King said. "It's time that you repaid that favor."

"No, you cannot be serious. What is that thing doing in my house?" he pointed at the bison.

"Belongs to the Avatar. Now, about that thing we agreed to," Zha Yu said, trying to get Bai's attention back on him, but the old trader's mind floundered.

"The Avatar?" he asked. "Don't be absurd. The Avatar vanished a century ago!"

At that, the bald-headed one with the blue arrows tattooed to his head and hands gave a wave. "Actually, I was just encased inside an iceberg," the gawky teenager said brightly.

"...what."

"That's the Avatar," Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation said, further convincing Hua Jin Bai that he was simply having some sort of unimaginably strange dream.

"I... think I need to sit down," Hua said, letting his weight settle onto a bench which ran beside the door. Because of that, he was in just the right position to see another Si Wongi emerging from his workshops, a keg under her arm. "What – DON'T TOUCH THAT! That's incredibly dangerous!"

"Precisely why I sought it," the teenaged Si Wongi answered. She then thrust a tattoed finger up under his nose. "And you have been most lax in the care of your weapons. Did you not know that you left a firearm loaded in your collection! That is inexcusable!"

"I did?" Bai asked.

Prince Zuko nodded, as well as a girl with milky green eyes. "Bai, look at me," Zha Yu said, snapping his fingers until he turned almost numbly to the Mountain King. "We did you a pretty stern favor a long time ago. And now, the time has come to collect."

"Oh, what do you want?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"We're going to bring down the Grand Secretariat of the Dai Li," another Tribesman said, his voice positively caustic. Hua glanced to him, then back to the Mountain King, then to the 'Avatar' who was standing with a dopy grin on his face beside the royal who by all common sense should be trying to kill him. Hua looked at the madness before him, came to a decision, and awakened the pirate in him.

"What? That's it?" he asked. "I thought you were going to ask for something unreasonable."

When the world went mad, after all, only the truly stupid opted to remain sane.

---

"Yoji, you've really outdone yourself this time," Kori muttered quietly as they walked the broad, clean thoroughfares of the Upper Ring with ease and impunity. Honestly, he couldn't say how she'd managed to pull that off in less than a day, but he was impressed nonetheless.

"You were a fool to doubt her," Omo pointed out.

"I didn't doubt her. I was just pointing out she's hit a new level," Kori clarified.

"The Dai Li have Azula in their grasp. For all we know, they're going to use her against the Fire Lord. That's not something we can allow," Yoji pointed out. She then smirked, pulling up at painted lips. "And if we happen to cause some strife amongst the Fire Lord's enemies in the process, then so much the better."

"The real question is, how do we find them?" Kori asked.

"This is a trick I've been working on for a while now," Omo said, beckoning them into an alley beside a tea-shop. When he was confident nobody was looking too closely, he got down on one knee, and slammed his hand, fingers clawed, into the stone of the ground. There was a strange tremor which ran up through Kori's soles, and Omo's eyes were pressed shut.

"What was that?"

"Figured out that earthbending has a few other uses than just hurling rocks," Omo pointed out. Yoji smiled at that. Omo rose to his feet, striking the dust from his hands. "There's something down there. Deeper than the sewers. If I was going to be hiding prisoners, that's where I'd do it."

Kori was quietly impressed that they were working together as cohesively, after the minor hiccups that they'd had. Omo was definitely helping Yoji focus, which was a help to their task. The biggest concern of the waterbender, though, was something far more fundamental. Something named Hikaoh. He kept the smug smile on his face, but inside, he was sweating cold.

It wasn't just Ogan, and his so-called son. It wasn't the Tribesman in the Lower Ring, managing to spook Yoji, itself a nearly unrivaled accomplishment. No, there was too much about all this which sent Kori's 'Fei Hua Detector' buzzing, too many lies, too many things left unsaid. It was fundamental, it was in the lowest levels of his understanding of reality. Were he any but he, he would have never thought to look, to question, but that was how things were. It was more than her sleeping murmurings of Yqanuac – now that he knew it well enough to recognize it, he realized she had spoken it in her sleep since they were children – or a desperate man's pleas.

Kori was beginning to wonder if Ogan might be right. If somewhere, some time long ago, a boy named Ked was taken from his home, and a Child named Kori was crafted in his place.

If true, then there were certain people who had a lot to answer for.

"The first thing we need to do is find out where the entrances are," Yoji pointed out, bringing Kori back to the moment. "Logical layouts indicate that somebody like Azula would be kept some place where she couldn't destroy her way out. The Zutara ruins are ancient, and probably unstable. Architects, geologists, earthbenders. And we need to work fast."

"Together, or..." Omo asked.

"Of course," she said with a scowl. "Otherwise Kori would doom us all from afar."

"So glad to know I have your complete confidence and assurance," Kori said smoothly, and the girl who may or may not be his sister gave a sardonic smirk at his jibe. And he continued to think over a problem which he could, as yet, find no answer to.

---

It was beyond brazen, to fly into the heart of Ba Sing Se under a naked sky in the broad day light. It was beyond madness to make a full and frontal assault on the Earth King's palace, after all, and everybody involved knew it. The ripple of explosions below and behind them barely penetrated the wind, but that they did at all managed to bring a wince to Aang's face with each successive pop. Each, a bomb that Bai, in his faculty of 'distraction', was using to blow up somebody's house, somebody's business. Aang had made absolutely sure that Bai knew not to set off one of those bombs unless nobody was there. If Bai lied, or was careless... Aang didn't want to think about that.

"If we survive this, I am going to buy us a saddle!" Toph roared from where she was clinging to the bison's pelt. "Riding bare-back is terrifying!"

"Not something I'd recommend," Qujeck chimed in, from beside her where he clung. There was a reason why they were flying low over the rooftops of Ba Sing Se on their approach. Appa couldn't get much more altitude, not with the heavy burden which was laden upon it's back. Aang, though stared ahead at the approaching vista before him. The Dragon of the East, the lightest of the adults involved, leaned forward, pointing ahead.

"This entire structure is the palace. Their defenses around the edges are nigh impassable, but not from the sky. Land as close as you dare to the buildings in the center," she ordered against wind and transit.

"I don't see what the big problem is," Sokka shouted up from his spot. "They probably don't even know that we're he–"

If Aang had been a more cynical person, he'd have palmed his face at Sokka having so obviously and blatantly tempted fate. As it was, he only had the option of pulling Appa into a dive to hurl them all under the path of a block of stone roughly as wide as Appa's belly which hurtled up into the air to strike them all down.

"Air-borne rocks!" Toph shouted.

"How did you see that? You're supposed to be blind!" Qujeck shouted.

Toph allowed herself the moment of panic to reach over and punch him in the kidney, if not as brutally as she usually would, for doubting her. "Greatest earthbender in the world, dunderhead."

"If you say so," Qujeck rubbed his side, but his tone was utter doubt. And the exchange was exactly as long as it took for the next volley to launch into the heavens, seeking to bring down an airborne pest. Below, a veritable horde of black and green armored Royal House Guard were sending out block after block with a discipline and precision which would have been devastatingly effective if it were, say, used against the Fire Nation. Instead, it was trying to kill the Avatar.

Aang shifted his weight on Appa's horn, and the bison took the cues as well as he would have had Aang had time for reins. Doing so, he got the massive, airborne behemoth to start to weave and dodge through the onslaught, even gaining altitude to some degree. But as they approached the 'firing line', the attacks came closer together. More precise. So much so, that he gave a bit of a start when one block which was flying on a near-certain intercept course veered off, wobbling its way toward the ground. A glance back showed Zha Yu retaking his grasp on Appa's hide. "We're almost there! Eyes forward!"

Appa was pulling ever higher as the firing line passed underneath them, and Aang was indeed focused. But not so focused that he didn't see a block flying at him from the corner of his eye. He didn't even rise from his place at the horn. He just cast out a hand, and all of his lessons on pig-headedness and earthbending – where one ended and the other began was something of a mystery at this point – surged forth, and he willed that block to stop. The laws of physics had something else to say on the matter, so rather than simply dropping down to the ground, the block burst into gravel and dust, pelting the Avatar and those with him, but not striking them down as they might have. Appa burst through the cloud, slightly browner for the experience, but perhaps a bit wiser.

"They're not letting up, Avatar!" Zha Yu shouted. He pointed down. "I'll clear a spot to land!"

"What?" Aang asked, not sure he'd heard what he thought he did. Of course, a certain level of surety came upon him when the man released his grip, stood up, and let the wind send him flying off of Appa's back, streaking toward the ground. Aang pulled hard over, trying to get Appa turned about, to get under Zha Yu and prevent this suicide plunge, but even as Aang was turning, Zha Yu was orienting himself in the air, so that he was coming down one fist cocked back, and the other as though gauging his spot. When he landed, even Aang could feel the earthbending, pounding down so hard that the ground buckled down like pudding, cushioning his landing a little bit, if at the expense of the rest of the immediate area hurling itself upward, great cracks and columns of disrupted stone launching upward. Much of the firing line was, in a moment of madness and brute-earthbending, undone.

Aang brought the bison back around, finally reaching the ground. And not a moment too soon. Even as he was settling Appa to the ground, there was a charge approaching, almost a stampede of Ostrich Horses, clad in armor, their riders grim-faced and their lances couched. Aang hurled himself off of Appa's horn and swept his staff out, a great billow of wind causing that entire diamond-shaped charge of cavalry to buckle and get blasted into disarray, their charge muted only a few dozen feet away from where Zha Yu was unsteadily getting to his feet.

"That was a lot easier when I was young," the Mountain King muttered, as the rest of them caught up, and overtook him.

"Don't let the invaders advance! Cut them off!"

The Ostrich Horses were wheeling about, and Aang felt no real desire to hurt animals nor men. There had to be a way to disarm this. So he held out a hand, and let his instincts guide him.

"GLORIOUS BEAST OF THE LONG PATHS, CLOUD OF DUST IN THE SUNRISE

THEY OF METAL SKIN AND METAL WILL;

YOUR TIME IS NOT TODAY.

THEIR WILL IS NOT YOUR COMMAND.

YOUR COURAGE IS NOT ABSOLUTE, BUT YOUR SPEED, IS.

THROW OFF YOUR SHACKLES THIS DAY, AND LIVE TO RUN ANOTHER."

As Aang watched, the words tumbling from his mouth, the wheeling Ostrich Horses began to falter, and then buck and rear, sending their riders to the ground if they were lucky, and dragging them from their bridles were they not, as they scattered in every direction save at Aang and the others. He barely had time to smirk before he was being shoved forward, and a metal ring sounded in the air, followed by a crumbling of stone. Sokka was standing where Aang had been, and a block was rattling along the ground behind him.

"We've got more company," he said, pointing that black blade at the new horde of Earth Kingdom soldiers who had spread out in two great files to either side of their approach, and now bombarded the Avatar and those with him, trying to pummel them all into submission.

"On it!" Toph shouted, bounding forward and beginning to punch the incoming blocks out of the air, before she started acting rather than reacting, and sending her own, smaller, but faster projectiles to intercept the stones mid-air, and burst them far from where they could do any harm. Zha Yu, slowly getting his wits back about him, began to shield himself more directly, summoning a rolling wall, which the stones deflected off of, or simply burst to pebbles.

"Avatar, keep them moving!" the Dragon of the East shouted, as she took a shot at one of the guards. The arrow hit him in the armored shoulder, knocking him back a pace and causing the block he was about to project with his earthbending to harmlessly crash to the ground. Before, a third column was rushing toward them, spears out before them, even as Sokka kept Aang safe by preventing any outside attack from reaching him. He gave a moment's thought how he was going to stop this new charge afoot. He couldn't use the spirits. How could he...

"You all seem famished! Have a lemon!" Nila shouted with a sort of slightly-worrying glee in her own tongue as she sent a swollen, miscolored lemon flying over his head and let it come to a halt right at the foremost soldier's feet. An instant later, the fruit detonated into a greasy brown cloud which had every spearman come to a lurching halt, coughing, wheezing, and pawing at their eyes. Aang gaped at her, and she shrugged back. "What? You asked they not be slain? They are not slain."

"That wasn't nice."

"I never guaranteed nice. Only non-lethal," Nila pointed out, and pulled out another lemon from the bag at her side, tipping it toward him as though to make a point. Aang turned with a scowl and sent out a gust of wind, causing the cloud to get blown aside. Unfortunately, he had to wince as that cloud then caused a similar state in the soldiers standing over there.

"Oooh. Sorry!" Aang said, before he started to press forward once again, knocking down stones that peppered them from the fore with every element at his disposal.

Behind him, there were two waterbenders, standing back to back, water-whips flicking out with precision, but perhaps more force than strictly required. Every time one of those great bludgeons knocked down and stunned the guardsmen, Katara winced slightly. She knew, after all, that these people weren't the enemy. Not really. They were just doing their job for the wrong people. Qujeck, on the other hand, had no such compunctions or compassion. He'd watched good people die for the people these fools were protecting. His largess was leaving them breathing. The two were a study of Tribal Styles. Katara, the brutish forms of the South, effective, but inelegant. Qujeck, the almost sinuous forms of the North, a dance with destruction. But for all that, no more effective than she.

Sokka was on one side of Aang, and he heard a clang of steel on the other. A glance showed Zuko, his eyes burning golden in the daylight. His twin dao were out and he was now on Aang's other flank. "We're wasting time. Cut through!" Zuko shouted. Ahead, through the men and the ornaments of the broad pavilion, there ran a low stream, bridged by a discreet structure which the earthbenders of the Earth King had barricade to within an inch of their lives. This was Katara's time to shine, apparently. She pulled all of the water she was using to club soldiers senseless and formed a ramp of it, and skated forward and up that ramp, over the stream which cut off their advance. Even as she did, she was bending the water in it up and around her, spinning like a dancer, and her momentum was passed to the water almost whole. Such, when she landed, it lashed out like a great spring exploding, and threw the great host of earthbenders off of their perch, down into the stream, some of them outright unconscious. Aang did them a favor and snap froze the waters they were in, and those upstream, with a blast of glacial air, as he bounded over what for him was a tiny gap, and to others, a nigh-insurmountable chasm.

Ahead, the ascent. It loomed up from the pavilion like a man-made mountain... which is essentially what it was, come to think of it. It probably took a while for the earthbenders to get this whole expanse raised above the, admittedly, already raised plateau around it, and even longer still to plunk a palace on top of that hill. Whatever the case, there was a lot of stairs ahead of them, and those stairs were teeming with black and green. Aang slapped a soldier away from him absent-mindedly with a swat of air, trying to think how they were going to get up there, through all of that. Getting back on Appa wasn't exactly the best of ideas, given how many soldiers there were, and – Oh Crap!

Aang actually managed to interrupt his own train of thought when he finally saw the top of the stairway, and to two singularly massive statues of badger moles – it the symbol of the rulership of Ba Sing Se – were being manhandled up by a squad of earthbenders to each. And with a shout lost to distance and din, they hurled those two meteoric projectiles down. Aang spun back, twisting the stone up as he did. Zha Yu, able to see what had Aang so alarmed, and having the reflexes to react to it, helped, drawing up yet more stone, which the two shifted past each other, and formed into a great domed shell, a shield which dwarfed even Appa, as was the intention of it, spreading out and over the slightly baffled friends and allies who were still fighting against attacks from all sides. Their sudden darkness caused at least one to swear. Probably Nila. Then, there was a light bang nearby, and more swearing, definitely Nila.

"What was..." Zuko began, but was cut off when there was an almost world-ending crunch, and the shell that the Avatar and the Mountain King had produced had barely – barely – managed to bear up to the first. And the second cracked it sternly, dust flying in and spraying at their feet. But they weren't dashed to a smear, so that was a win, Aang figured. "Never mind."

"You could have warned me, airbender!" Nila shouted as first Appa, and then all the rest, piled out of the shelter he'd made. She was pouring what looked like milk on the side of her face and her arm, one hand of which looked like it was bleeding. "It is not wise to interrupt somebody using live explosives!"

"Didn't have much time," Aang admitted. "How are we getting up there?" Aang pointed ahead of them, the almost insurmountable climb, and the hordes descending with spears and hammers.

"Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to taking stairs either," Toph said, idly shoving Aang aside and moving to the foot of that great staircase, raising her hands up. Then, with a grunt of extreme effort, she slammed those arms down and in, as though heaving a rug out from under a house. But when she did, every step of that ascent twisted, going from a staggered walkway, to a near-perfect slope. The soldiers, already holding the momentum of their attack, had no way to stop, and began to tumble and slide as there was no longer any place for them to stop. "Alright. Next problem?"

Zha Yu grinned, as she beckoned the others close to him. "You are your mother's daughter," he shouted to cover the distance, short as it was, to her.

"Damn straight I am," Toph said with a wide grin of her own. Then, with Aang twigging to what was coming next, they all started to bend. Between the three earthbenders, there was more than enough muscle to shift a great block of stone upon which Appa and the others stood, and bear it up that slope even as the soldiers tumbled down it.

"Oh, sorry!" Katara said, as one of them almost landed on the platform with them, then slid off with a yelp of alarm.

"We're on your side! Seriously!" Sokka said.

"Do you really think they will believe that, Tribesman?" Nila asked flatly.

"I... Go play with your lemons," Sokka said flatly to her. She then smirked. They were just past the half way point, and the soldiers had gathered at the top, readying an ambush. Not a good one, since Aang could see it coming.

"I might not get another chance to say this, Tribesman, but..." she then grinned. "I am not wearing underwear."

Sokka turned to her, agape. "Is this really the time for that?"

"The look on your face proves that it is," she said smugly, before pulling out a fresh 'lemon', her attention now squarely ahead of her.

"She's nuts," Sokka said to the girl's mother.

"I am well aware," Sativa said with a tired tone.

Aang dropped his earthbending as they drew close, since the forces above were tipping burning oil down the slope toward them. Katara and Aang moved side by side, and in unison, parting the flow of oil and streaming it along the edges of the platform as it raised. The furrow it left in its passage would contain it after the oil missed its mark, so it wouldn't burn the soldiers still tumbling. Aang then diverted his attention once more to the soldiers themselves. Even though the ascent had been slowed by Aang no longer earthbending, they were still going to arrive quite shortly, and needed somewhere to get off in order to do that. So Aang twisted around, a great and spiraling bound, before flicking open the tail of his staff and hurling a blast of air up and at the men waiting above. It was cast so strongly, in fact, that it almost looked like a tiny tornado by the time it sent the soldiers tumbling away, stunned and out of their path.

With a thud, the platform came to a halt, and they were moving again. Zha Yu and Toph both raised up walls, hemming off the flanking maneuver which a squad of infantry was trying to complete. A shove from the two, young and old, girl and man, sent the squads rolling away, clearing the top of the stairway. And with that, they were inside the Palace.

The columns of the outer Palace gave way to dark green and gold, even the floor bearing a faintly olive coloration. There were a spattering of royal guards, decked out in ceremonial regalia which, no doubt, was at least as effective as the rough kit the other soldiers were using. That all proved moot, though, since as soon as Toph entered the room, she slammed her feet down hard on the ground, and pillars rose up to pin those fighters to the ceiling. "Where do we go now?" Aang asked.

"How should I know? I still want to leave Ba Sing Se!" Toph shouted. Zha Yu and the Dragon of the East, though, both pointed in the same direction.

"This way," both said in unison.

"Beats having to check every door," Sokka said brightly.

"You have a strangely high mood," Nila pointed out. "Can we be sure that he has not been brainwashed by the Dai Li?"

"You speak lightly on a dark subject, girl," Sativa said without humor.

"That's something you shouldn't joke about," Qujeck agreed, anger in his tones. They were moving forward, through opulence which had survived since the days of Kyoshi. Some of it longer, although there was admittedly quite a lot lost during the Ba Sing Se Riots. It fell to Aang, Toph, and Katara to deal with anybody whom made aggressive gestures, since they always seemed to be the first to react.

The whole group came to a halt, though, at a wall of bright white robes, and shining scimitars. Aang and the youngers all moved to the front, their own weapons forward. "Stand aside! We're trying to reach the Earth King!" Sokka shouted.

"Then it is my duty to stop you," a woman's voice said sternly from behind that wall of fighters. "Darvesh, remove this affront to our Liege."

"You will do no such thing!" Sativa snapped, forcing her way past Zuko and Sokka, and into the front of that horde of Darvesh. As soon as she appeared, the dark-complected men in their pristine white robes started to glance amongst themselves, their precise stances faltering just a bit. "You are playing tool to a fool, al'Jalani. You will reap a fool's harvest. But do not be so foolish as to consign these with you."

"Is that..." one of the Darvesh asked in his native tongue, as had Sativa.

"It cannot be any other than she," another answered.

"You presume much, peasant from the South," al'Jalani said, and since the Darvesh weren't in locked step at this point, Aang could see her. She was a sour looking woman, sure enough. "I am welcome here. You are a stain on our nation. One which has defamed us for far too long as it is!"

"What?" Katara asked.

"Hell if I know," Qujeck muttered.

"Darvesh, destroy that traitor to our kind," al'Jalani ordered, casting out an arm. Aang gripped his staff tighter, but the Darvesh outright turned to her, confusion in their faces at best, and disbelief at worst.

"You cannot be serious, ambassador. She might be a hateful woman, but she is still a hero against the Fire Nation," one Darvesh pointed out.

"Are you defying me?" al'Jalani asked, her tones becoming shrill.

"We are sworn only to ensure that the duties of Ambassador are undertaken well and smoothly," the Darvesh answered with annoyance. "There is no place which demands we must kill at your word. Brothers, this is no fight of ours."

And with that, the horde of white robed swordsmen put those blades away, and walked into the rooms on either side of the hall, leaving a baffled, enraged, and exasperated Si Wongi ambassador standing alone before the Avatar's group. "Don't push your luck, I guess," Zuko said dryly as he slid his own blades home for a moment, and the others started to walk past the sputtering, wrathful woman.

All but one.

Qujeck paused before her, glaring at her until she turned her attention to him. "What do you want, filth?"

"I've had enough of your hate-mongering politics," Qujeck said, before introducing his fist to her face. She went down like a sack, which caused Aang to wince.

"You shouldn't hit women!" Aang said.

"That, wasn't a woman," Qujeck said, flapping his hand, and he came to join the advancing party. Just as they reached massive, golden and jade-inlayed doors. He stared up at them, his face implacable. "His final line of defense. Let's see where that snake slithers to, now..."

"Is it locked?" Katara asked. Toph walked up and slammed both fists against the foot of that massive portal, and the whole thing bent outward, before tearing free of its hinges and crashing to the floor, rolling slightly. Everybody who wasn't Zuko stared at her in awe, since what she'd just done was, by just about every proper notion, impossible. "W...was that thing filled with stone?"

"Gold and iron," Toph said, patting her hands, smugly, as she advanced. The others shared glances amongst themselves. Except Zuko.

"Oh, yeah. I thought I should tell you that Toph's a metalbender now," Zuko said dryly. "Would have brought it up earlier, but she 'didn't want it spoiled'."

"I thought I'd seen..." Sokka said, raising a finger, but he was quickly left as the others moved forward, content to accept what their eyes told them. Aang was foremost amongst them. The chamber within was vast, olive-stone floored and with great pillars holding a dome overhead, carved with the names and likenesses of hundreds of East Continent gods from antiquity and modern times, a tacit symbol that the rulership in Ba Sing Se was legitimized from below as well as from within.

Everything, from the carvings in the dome, to the statues set into the pillars, to the very cut of the stone in the floor, all drew attention to exactly one place. A dais, raised slightly over the level of the rest of the room, bearing the roughly-life-sized rendition of a badger-mole, crafted out of solid gold. Its claws, cupped together, formed a sort of baldachin over the cushion laden throne itself. And at the very center of all of this opulence, all of these displays of power and authority, was a man. He wasn't a large man. Narrow faced, and narrow shouldered, he didn't look the part of an Earth King, but his regalia couldn't be anything but. The group ran the distance until they were closer to the foot of the dais, so that the room would swallow their words.

"Earth King Kuei!" Aang shouted. "We need to speak to you! This is incredibly important!"

The others gathered around him, not able to keep up with his pace, obviously, but he couldn't begrudge them that. What he could begrudge was the appearance of Long Feng, gliding around the edge of the baldachin, and standing at the Earth King's left hand. "These are the forces I warned would attempt to overthrow you," Long Feng said quietly. Still, the whole room was constructed to make the words on the dais carry all the way to the back wall, so all heard them well enough.

"No we're not! We're actually on your side," Sokka pleaded.

"You have a strange way of showing it," the Earth King spoke, his voice sounding... well... young. Immature. "You assault my personal guards. You damage my palace, panic my mounts, and break my fancy door..." he shook his head briefly. "What reason should I have to trust you?"

Zuko glanced behind them, at the catastrophe left in their wake. "Well, he knows when to call a shovel a shovel."

"If you wish to put any weight to your claims, lower your weapons in my presence," Kuei said testily. Aang glanced to the young, and the old. The old shook their heads. The young shrugged. Aang held his staff out before him, and let it fall to the floor. It was followed by the blades of Sokka and Zuko, the rifle of Nila, and a boulder held aloft by Toph. Aang glanced back to the others, and after a long, obviously unwilling moment, the Mountain King and the Dragon of the East disarmed as well. Qujeck glared hatefully at Long Feng.

"You have to do this," Katara whispered at him. "It's our only chance."

The Northern waterbender's teeth grit, but he forced the water back into his flasks. He certainly didn't look happy about it, though. Aang, though, turned to the king and put on his most winning smile. "See? That should prove that we have the best of intentions, your Earthiness!"

"Detain them," Long Feng said flatly. And in a flash of movement and pressure, and a grinding of stone slamming shut around stone, Aang was detained. So were everybody else.

Well, except for the two oldest, who reacted fast enough – or simply had enough paranoia – to avoid the attempt. The Dragon didn't draw her bow, but she made it very clear that she could, and would, very quickly.

"What are you doing?" Aang asked, completely incredulous.

"We dropped our weapons! We're your allies!" Sokka shouted.

"Yes, and they are obviously going to believe it if you shout it loud enough," Nila said sarcastically.

"Remove these traitors from the Earth King's sight."

"You will not do this," the Dragon snapped. "The Avatar is not to be treated this way, not by you, not again!"

"The Avatar?" Kuei asked.

"Yes. The Avatar," the Dragon said. Aang could see a wall of Dai Li approaching from the shadows, and knew that even with her reflexes, she wouldn't be able to avoid them all. Kuei leaned forward, though.

"You are the Avatar?" he asked with suspicion. Sativa leaned back, confused.

"You do not know who I am?" she asked, mildly insulted.

"And why do you think that is?" Zha Yu pointed out. He, instead, pointed at Aang. "That's the Avatar."

Aang waved his hand at the Earth King, almost effortlessly bursting the bonds, before allowing it to be recaptured. No point in making a needless fuss. Long Feng, though, gave a wan expression. "What does it matter? They are enemies of the state."

"And on what grounds?" Zha Yu asked. "On what crimes? Anarchy? Treason? Sedition? Or have you even bothered writing them out?" the Mountain King broke off, as something large, furry, and brown sauntered up to where he and the Avatar were standing abreast. Zha Yu frowned at the beast in the green vest and funny little hat, up until it started licking Aang's ear. "...Bosco?"

"Hmmm," the Earth King pondered, as the Dai Li got closer. "I am inclined to hear this stranger out. After all, Bosco seems to like them."

Even Aang could tell that Long Feng was fighting mightily not to palm his face. Aang stepped forward, leaving the creature to grunt pleasantly, scratched on its cheek by the Mountain King. "Earth King Kuei, there is a war going on. A war which has been purposefully hidden from you. For the last century, the Fire Nation has been waging a war of aggression against not only the Earth Kingdoms, but all of the free peoples of the world. The Dai Li have kept the knowledge of the World War from you in order to keep power for themselves," Aang said. "It's a conspiracy to control Ba Sing Se, and control you."

Long Feng put on a contemptuous look. "A secret war? How ridiculous."

"It is unlikely," the Earth King agreed. "I certainly would have heard of such a thing. Especially if it had gone on as long as you claim. Why, my father would have spoken to me about it, if it had!"

Sokka pointed at Long Feng. "Your advisor tried to kidnap the Avatar and use him against us! He did the same thing to Toph's mother, and we don't think she'll ever recover from what he did to her! He's kept the entire city under a pall of fear for decades."

"This is all very unlikely," Kuei said, leaning back. Long Feng leaned in to him.

"You are right to doubt them, my liege," he whispered, once again, the words carrying by simple acoustics. "They are part of an anarchist cell which I have been tracking. They must have become desperate indeed to attempt something so brazen. I will remove them and their trouble-making permanently."

Kuei nodded. "I must heed the advice of my minster," he said.

"You are wasting your breath. Long Feng has the leash tightly around him," Nila said bitterly.

"Damn you Long Feng! This isn't over!" Qujeck roared, bucking against the Dai Li which now held him.

"ENOUGH!" Zha Yu roared. He glared at the Earth King. "You may not have heard of Sativa Badesh bint Seema din Nassar, but I know you've heard of me."

"He is just one of them," Long Feng began, but Zha Yu cut him off.

"I am the Mountain King. I crushed the Daughter of Knives at the edge of the Bomei River. I stood with the wounded of Senlin against the blaze in the high summer," Zha Yu recounted. "I ended the rebellion of Xi Qu with a word. If you don't know who I am, then this is no Earth Kingdom worth serving."

"This is..." Long Feng began again.

"The Mountain King?" Kuei's voice perked up instantly, his eyes widening. "This is... unbelievable! I had heard that you were dead!"

"Reports of my demise are... for some parties... sadly exaggerated," Zha Yu said with a smirk, and a significant glance toward Long Feng. "I know that what the Avatar says seems absurd, but even if you don't believe him, believe me. Believe the one who brought your grandfather out of the assassination attempt in the first year of his rule..."

"How old is this guy, anyway?" Sokka asked quietly. Aang had no recourse but to shrug.

"I can prove to you that the Earth Kingdoms and the Fire Nation are at war," he declared.

"That... You must understand. This is very hard for me to believe. I had tea with the Fire Lord only a day ago. He didn't mention anything about a war!" Kuei said, shaking his head. There was a fearful glance exchanged by the party. Oh, this wasn't good. "But... even as much as I must trust my advisor, the Mountain King has earned my ear, through a simple debt of my forefathers. What is it that you would show me?"

"It cannot be shown here, sadly," Zha Yu said.

"Lake Laogai?" Nila asked quietly. Sativa shook her head.

"They will have destroyed the complex by now," she said. "No, he will be shown..."

"The battle at the Wall!" Sokka blurted out. "It's only been a couple of weeks. The Fire Nation had supplies for months!"

"I am not sure what to think," Kuei said.

"He is a traitor and an anarchist," Long Feng said.

"And he is the reason I am alive today," Kuei agreed. "Release them, Dai Li agents. If they have proof. They will show it. If the proof is wanting, then Long Feng, you may do as you recommended."

Long Feng wasn't sweating, but he looked like he wanted to. The bonds dropped away from Aang's wrists, as well as those with him. "That was not much of a victory," Nila muttered.

"Sometimes, we have to take what victories we get," Sokka informed her.

"Yeah, sucks, I know," Toph agreed.

---

Eyes slammed open.

Her breathing was ragged, her throat burning like she'd gargled razor-blades and rock-salt. In fact, every part of her hurt to some degree or another. Her skin felt too tight. Her limbs, creaking on the edge of snapping outright. But the hunger... it was still there, but distant. Like there was a wall, between it and she. The greatest pity was that she could feel that wall buckling, that the hunger would return as inevitable as the dusk. Her gaze was locked low, on her knees which were pointing forward, her legs tucked under her in a lotus position.

Then, she noticed the smell, or rather, the lack of it. So long had she suffered under the stink of blood and worse things that she had grown accustomed to it. Now, it seemed absent, and she was shocked at the change. Her eyes flit, and she could see her hands, clean and whole, laying upturned on her knees. And she wasn't wearing rags, the bearest vestige of a nun's garments. No, even from what she could see, she was clad in a robe, bright yellow and orange, as though fresh from the dyers, the cloth of it gentle across her shoulders as though straight out of the loom.

At this point, Malu was very, very confused.

"You have many questions," a voice said to her. A voice which convinced her that she had finally completely lost her mind. At least insanity wasn't as painful as what came before it, then. "I have only one, so I can wait to answer yours."

"You aren't real," Malu croaked. "You died, a century ago."

Her eyes told a different story, as she beheld the slender, white-bearded and loincloth clothed man who was sitting in an identical pose as she, his eyes serenely closed, a faint twist of a sublime smile on his lips. "Does it alarm you to see me again?" the lay brother asked, as calmly as a leaf slipping through the breeze toward a creek. "If so, then I must apologize. That was not my intention."

"Brother Pathik, you aren't here. I'm just... crazy. I wish I was dead. I wish this was over," she said, her chest heaving, as she admitted what she couldn't have said before. Because it wouldn't let her.

"Shhh," Pathik said soothingly, and her growing sobs somehow died in her throat, leaving her equally confounded, but somehow becalmed. "I have watched over these lands since my airbending brothers fled from the flames. I always felt that there was something important in my destiny, a vital task which I had to perform here. Samsara is woven without the knowledge of such simple men as I. I am simply a leaf on the wind, going where it bears me."

"But... even if they didn't... you would have died of old age," she tried to justify to herself.

"I am old, yes," Pathik said, offering a whisper of a nod. "Others have been older. My task, my destiny, it kept me here."

"But... but I looked for you! Years after the Purge, I searched for anybody! I was alone!" she shouted, eyes welling once more.

A tiny sigh. "In that, I can claim only ignorance, and cowardice," Pathik said with a tone of apology. "But I am a wiser man, now. I know my purpose. I know my place. It is here, and it is now."

"Wh... why doesn't it hurt so bad?" Malu asked, her voice almost failing her.

"I have composed a yoga to focus your mind, to separate your spirit from it," he said easily. "It was a complicated thing. I doubt you were aware as it happened. It was not until the sunrise that it ceased its wailing. It was not until now, that you spoke."

"Can... can you keep it away?" she asked.

"That lies at the heart of my question," Pathik said, opening his eyes slowly, and looking upon her. "I know that you are possessed by something alien and cruel, that it does unimaginable things to you. Some would leave you in this hellish existence, trapped between salvation and damnation, and much closer to the latter, forever. I am not so cruel. I have discovered many things, in the last one hundred years. I have discovered that not only shamans can cast out an unwanted spirit," he gave a limp shrug. "I have also learned an excellent dish for when I am feeling peckish."

"What do you want?" she asked.

"You are in pain," Pathik said. "You do not deserve this."

"I want it to stop," she said, so desperately.

"My question is this," Pathik said, and the gravity of it caused Malu to hesitate before blurting out 'yes anything! Please'. "How much would you give, to be free of the monster which lies within your skin?"

Malu stared at him, her eyes still brimming. "...anything."

"How much would you sacrifice to cast the demon out?" he continued.

"Everything."

"And if you knew that your salvation was the damnation of the world, that to gain your comfort, you would damn all others to the suffering you have endured, would you ask it then?" Pathik finished, his question in full.

Malu stared at him. She wanted so badly to say yes. Anything. Anybody. Everything.

But she knew it was wrong. "...no," she whispered. "...I... if they hurt like I hurt... I couldn't do it."

Pathik nodded. And Malu felt doom set upon her. "That is what I thought your answer would be," Pathik said, his voice barely a whisper.

"Can... can you at least make it so it doesn't hurt anymore... for a while?" Malu asked.

"I asked you that question," Pathik said, pushing through her query, "because I needed to know how much of you was left."

"What?" Malu asked.

"Whatever creature is chained within your body, it has tried to destroy your mind, take it for its own. It has tried to erase your soul, turn you to its ends in all ways. It is obvious that it has failed."

"But... you said..."

Brother Pathik shook his head gently. "If I allowed even one to suffer, then as well to doom the world. The world and the one, they are connected, and they are the same. Every wound you have suffered, is a wound to the world. The easy paths only lead down the mountain, but at the peak there lies treasures beyond all imagining and worth. You must understand the risks," he rose to his feet, slowly, even so, showing that he wasn't even so frail as he appeared. "The task will be perilous. You will be walking a razor edge. And even if you are successful, the wounds this creature has inflicted on you may be too severe. My efforts might only release you to your death."

"I'm willing to take that risk," Malu said, her voice a rasp.

Pathik smiled, then. A gentle, reassuring smile. He walked over to her, cupping her cheek with his hand. "Then sleep, child. The end will begin soon enough."

And Malu's world returned to blackness once more.

---

Azula was growing impatient. She knew that the Avatar should be making his move against Long Feng soon, and when he did, she would be there to pick up the pieces. Pieces she would forge together into a blade she would thrust through its former master's heart. It would be better than last time. This time, there would be no mistakes. She would not lose anybody dear to her.

This time, Ty Lee would be alright.

It was a bizarre thought, one she knew wasn't exactly rational. Hell, she hadn't even seen Ty Lee for... She wasn't even sure. As far as she could remember, the acrobat could be just about anywhere by now. But still, that was what kept demanding her focus. Because, against reason and sensibility, if she did this perfectly, Ty Lee would be safe.

She had to be perfect. Anything less wasn't good enough.

The chamber they had secured her was a far cry from the cell where she was brought to Long Feng a lifetime ago. This was more of a cave than a cell. And come to think of it, it rather reminded her of the pit she'd dropped Zuzu into, last time. A grinding on one of the walls drew her attention, and she forced her back straight from the almost feral pacing she had been doing to keep her mind off of the slow progress of seconds into minutes, minutes into hours. Hours into days? She couldn't say. But the grinding was a change, like the growling of her stomach. She faced the opening portal, and the cadre of green robed Dai Li who were standing on the other side of it.

"You are to be moved," the Dai Li said simply. "Come with us. It will be easier if you don't resist."

Azula gave them a haughty glare, and walked into their midst, for all the world appearing that she was their charge, and they, her bodyguards. And soon enough, that would be a reality as well as a fantasy. She just had to get at Long Feng at the right moment. And that moment was coming soon. The procession brought her through the black stoned ruins, by fortune's base known both to her and to these people as the Zutara Ruins, if likely for different reasons. It passed with bleak similarity, and with as little to mark the passage of distance and time as there was with her growing hunger, and the irregularity of her sleep.

She knew that she was far down. It was a miserable feeling, to be so far from the sun. She couldn't sleep, and at the same time, felt dead on her feet. She knew from practice that she could barely conjure a candle-flame. She had been down here too long. But she couldn't let that sway her. She needed focus for what was ahead. Ahead, though, took a left turn, and entered into a metal-framed door, and within that, a metal-paneled room. She raised a brow at that, but her eyes were quickly drawn to a platter of pedestrian food left on a small, built in table.

"Enter. Eat," the Dai Li ordered. She gave a scoff, ignoring his orders, and passing that threshold at her own pace. She glanced back at them, and they watched her, warily as though of some wild animal. Fitting. As soon as her heel cleared that threshold, though, the door slammed down, locking into place and dropping the room into darkness, until the crystals started to glow from where they poked through the metal cladding, filling the room with a pale green light. A glance, to confirm her solitude, then she descended upon that platter like the wild beast they believed her.

She would have liked to have said that in her hunger, she ate with the poise and grace becoming the daughter of the rightful Fire Lord. Would have liked.

While not foul, it was hardly a feast, and hardly up to even her own personal standards when she had begrudgingly learned to cook, if only to prevent the starvation of both she and her daughter. She had... learned many harsh lessons in her life. Cooking was one of them. Honestly, she'd say she'd gotten fairly good at it. But that was a lifetime ago. Now, she had to focus on important things. Bringing down Ba Sing Se. Killing the Avatar. Making sure he stayed dead, this time.

Somehow, that would make everything better again.

"I know you're still there," Azula said to nobody, and to herself. "I can feel you... slithering around. Trying to weaken me. Confuse me. It won't work! I am stronger than you!"

Silence answered her.

"Fine. Stay quiet," she snapped, her eyes still locked on her plate. She was yelling around eating. Not exactly dignified, but the fact was, at the moment, Azula didn't care. "It's too late to stop me now. I already have everything in motion. Even your manipulations can't stand in my way," she broke off to take a very deep swig of the water from the included tankard. "So why did you envy me so? I can understand it, there are a lot of good reasons to. I'm older, wiser, and more powerful than you could hope to become on your own. It must have eaten away at you to know that you wasted all those years in weakness, getting doted on by Zuzu of all people, when you could have been making yourself stronger, carving an empire out of a hostile world on the strength of my own back. You're pathetic. A broken, worthless child. Azula, the little monster who mommy and daddy never loved."

"That isn't true," a voice came from behind her.

It wasn't the girl.

"Please. We both knew that Zuzu was the only one who you ever paid attention to," she said, pointedly not turning to the voice, which sounded so much like Mother. Just the girl trying something new to fool her. "And I don't even know why I'm bothering to talk to you. There's nothing to say."

"Azula, why are you talking like this?" Mother's question sounded confused.

"Because you made me like this!" Azula screamed, pushing away from the table hard enough that the tray almost slid off of its top. Yes, the illusion was a multifaceted one, it seemed. It wasn't her own weak, tiny self which faced her, but a facade of the mother who never loved her. Who thought she was a monster.

And in a way, she was right. Azula stood her ground against that illusion. "So what do you want now? To convince me that I'm wrong? To tell me that my only chance is to buckle under to whatever you offer? I'm not that stupid. You only offer weakness and defeat."

"Zuli, I don't understand," the image of her mother said.

"Don't. Call. Me. That," she hissed through grit teeth. "I don't care what you have to say. You are as much of a liar now as you've ever been. It was never about me. It was always about you! Trying to use me in your little games!"

"Azula, stop this at once!" Mother shouted, her face not fearful, not withdrawing, but actually somewhat angry. "You're screaming like a madwoman and it is making no sense whatsoever!"

"And why should I agree to anything which the traitorous bitch who killed Grandfather has to say?" Azula said, rolling her eyes and her words dripping with venom. She turned aside, preparing to return to her long-overdue meal, but was frankly stunned when she felt a slap crash into her cheek. It actually caused her to stagger a step to the side.

"I did it for you!" Mother shouted, tears beginning to run down her face, as she looked at her daughter. And then, to her hand, and she went deathly pale. "Oh... Oh, no, I shouldn't have done that."

"You realize how quickly the illusion fails," Azula muttered. "Leave me to my solitude, you pathetic liar. You've got nothing to say that I want to hear."

But she didn't. She just slumped to the floor, and started weeping. And Azula ignored that figment of her divided mind, returning to the mechanical task of eating. She had to focus, ignore that pathetic image, and prepare herself. She swallowed, glancing down to her plate. Still some left. Then, she glanced back up, at a pair of furious golden eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" her younger self asked. Demanded. In a rage.

"Your trick failed," she muttered.

And the girl reached forward, grabbing one of the bangs which framed Azula's face, and hauled her attention aside – well, it was that or have her hair pulled out by the roots – to the other image behind her. "You think I did that?" her younger self thrust out a finger at where Mother was weeping, her face in her hands.

"Of course you did," she answered.

"Then why am I standing here?" she asked acidicly.

Azula glanced to the girl holding her by her hair, then back to her Mother...

Her mother.

...oh.

---

"So this is a train? It is very... public," Kuei said, flanked on all sides by his guard, leaving precious little space for the rest of Aang's group to sit at the front. Zuko scoffed at that comment.

"This isn't a train," he said. "The Grand Azul Line, that's a train. It's third class is better than this... trolley."

"You've never been on a train before?" Katara asked, interjecting over Zuko.

"I've never been out of the palace!" Kuei said with enthusiasm. Aang glanced to one of the guards, who offered a meager shrug, and Aang let it drop.

"Wait a second. How can you be Earth King if you've never actually visited anything that you're supposed to rule?" Sokka asked.

"It is a complicated thing," Sativa said. "Best not ponder it."

Nila, on the other hand, leaned toward him. "The power of the throne has... declined, of late."

"What? No it hasn't!" Kuei said, a little confused. "My rule is just as sure as my father's, or his father's."

"But you've never been to... Omashu, say?" Sokka pressed.

"No Earth King has ever been beyond the Walls," Kuei said.

"Categorically untrue," Nila muttered to Sokka.

"No, it isn't! It's what I was always told!"

"By whom?" Sativa asked.

Kuei rose a finger, "By my advisors and educators..."

"Which included..." Zha Yu prompted, not even bothering to look back.

"Long F... I begin to see your position," Kuei said, that finger wilting.

The tram continued to speed along its tracks, propelled by the earthbenders behind it, and racing over the fields and villages of the Western Reaches. Aang couldn't help but watch those villages as they shot past them. It was a strange thing to consider, that there were whole communities which never uprooted; people who never went more than a few dozen miles from the place they were born in their entire lives. And even then, it was likely that despite being sandwiched between two rings of walls, welcome beyond neither, this place, these people, probably lived as well as any could dare to hope.

"So you really have no idea that there's been a war for a hundred years?" Zuko asked the Earth King, his tones flat and very dry.

"It flies in the face of all logic!" he said. "I mean, they have a fraction of our population, a sliver of our agricultural base! It's not a question of why they'd go to war with us, it's a question of how!"

"Trust me. My family has a long history of fighting yours," he said.

"And why is that?" Kuei asked.

"You should know, if you had tea with the Fire Lord," and there was venom in those words. Kuei, though, seemed oblivious. Ahead of them, the Great Walls loomed, and the track started to ascend so that it could reach the actual upper level of that great bastion. Aang winced slightly as he saw the smoke which still wafted above the ramparts, the occasional thud in the air of something heavy hitting something solid.

"If you still think that we're not at war with the Fire Nation, this is going to come as something of a shock," Aang said, as the tram came to a stop, nestled in a shielded nook, just beyond the edge of the wall. He moved out of the tram first, as was his nature, and guided the others behind him, through the claustrophobic hallway which lead out of the stone bunker the tram took shelter in. The sun glared into the darkness, and erupted into a tableau of mayhem.

Aang bounded up onto the crenelations, balancing as easily as breathing, as he swept out his staff slowly over the entire scene. Soldiers hefting battered, burned, and lacerated soldiers into the towers, where they could be seen to as much as could be offered. Earthbenders furiously bending, trying to undo grievous harm done probably minutes ago by the exploding projectiles of the Fire Nation, holding the Great Wall together through little more than their grit and perseverance. Archers, not wearing the colors of the Earth Kingdom and thus possibly mercenaries, firing down on the battleground from on high. And there was the sound of shouting, of metal rattling against metal. The sound of engines thundering. The sound of machines being torn apart.

Kuei was pale as a widow's dress as he walked to the edge of the wall, staring down onto the pandemonium. The tide of battle below was slow, especially compared to what it had been when the machines – which still stood in various degrees of destruction along the Wall – had been spearheading the assault. But it was probably more fighting than the young Earth King had ever seen in his life. Fighting that he likely couldn't even conceive of. "...My word..." he said numbly, staring out over the carnage.

"What are you doing, bringing the Earth King here?" Long Feng's voice pulled Aang's attention to the man who approached from... seemingly within the wall it self, frankly. "This place is a dangerous point of contention from the bandits and anarchists outside! You are putting him in needless danger!"

"Anarchists? Bandits?" Sokka asked, incredulously. "I've gotta say, I'd be pretty scared if I ever found bandits who had enough guys and money to throw an attack at the Great Wall."

"Weak story, serpent," Sativa said flatly.

"The notion that this is a Fire Nation attack is what is a weak story. You are manipulating events to suit your story! I would not be surprised if all of those men who are fighting our brave soldiers are here at your beck and call!" he pointed an accusing finger at the Avatar.

"Quick question," Sokka asked of Kuei, who slowly turned to face him. "Have you ever noticed how there's so few Air Nomads around, right now?"

"Wh... yes. I guess..." he said.

"Have you ever wondered why that was?" Sokka asked.

"I heard there was a..." he began, but he slowly turned toward Long Feng. "There was no plague, was there?"

"If my people ever contracted a plague, we had a thousand ways to avoid contracting it," Aang said earnestly. "And besides, if we had a disease, one that could wipe us out, don't you think it'd have gotten everywhere?"

"You still have no evidence that this is proof to your theory," Long Feng said.

Nila, though, produced a telescope from a pouch at her side, and handed it to the Earth King. "If you would entertain me? Turn your gaze thusly."

She pointed the pale, confounded royal to the wall, and pointed into the distance, where the tents of the enemy were barely visible across the grey, dead landscape of the Wasteland. He rose the lens to his eye. Aang knew, both from his sharp eyes, and first hand knowledge, what the Earth King would see.

"...a three point flame. Black on red," Kuei said. "The... the Fire Nation is at war with us."

"This is a fabrication. I warned you about how devious these anarchists are. We must return to the Palace before it is too late," Long Feng stated. But Kuei looked to him, and shook his head.

"Not today, Grand Secretariat," he said, color starting to return to him. "I... I was a fool for far too long. Too trusting. Too content. And this is what it got me. Dai Li, arrest the Grand Secretariat, on charges of High Treason against the Throne and people of Ba Sing Se."

Aang's eyes shot wide, as he faced the two Dai Li who had escorted Long Feng. Frankly, Aang was a little shocked to notice them at all. He hadn't even seen them when they arose with Long Feng. They shared a glance, then as one, cast out a net of chains. A net, which caught and entangled Long Feng, hauling him back into their grasp.

"What is this! You cannot be serious!" Long Feng shouted. "You cannot do this! You need me now more than ever! More than you can even conceive!"

"Remove this traitor from my sight," Kuei said, sounding somewhere between disgusted, disappointed... and afraid.

"Hoooyeah! Long Feng is loooong gone!" Sokka shouted, thrusting out mocking fingers at the arrested manipulator. Nila turned to him, a scowl on her face, as he let out a braying laugh. "Oh, I've been waiting to use that one."

"Then perhaps you should have waited longer. It might have decayed and allowed a better jibe to arise in its place," she said.

"Must you ruin every moment?"

"It counts highly amongst my list of pleasures in life," she agreed. Qujeck, though, simply glared at Long Feng as he was borne back to the elevator which had brought him up.

"This isn't over," the waterbender said coldly.

"Of course it is," Aang said. "Long Feng is finished. We've won."

Qujeck shook his head. "I'm not that much of an idiot. He's got a plan for this. Mark my words. It won't end, Avatar, until that man is dead."

---

The Grand Secretariat's orders were quite distinct, and very clear. While it was clear even to an agent such as Guhn that the Avatar's plot surely had help from amongst the inner circle, it was shocking indeed to find who in particular had dragged so much attention away from the Earth King's palace. That cause now lay in chains, being dragged by a bruised and burnt Guhn, toward where their more publicly known headquarters lay.

"You should have seen the look on your face when that lemon exploded," the corpulent trader guffawed, even as he was manacled and beaten black and blue. "Say what you will about her manners, that girl has a flare for the dramatic!"

"Shut up, Bai," Guhn said as he continued to shove the traitor ahead of him.

It was fortunate, in Guhn's eyes, that he wasn't higher in the hierarchy than he was. As it stood, he only had to deal with the vandals, rather than have to fix what the vandals destroyed. The path of chaos that Bai had cut through the Upper Ring staggered the mind; it was almost as bad as the storied Dog Rebellion, only delivered in less than an hour by a few dozen. Any Dai Li who tried to apprehend those explosive-toting anarchists found themselves beset by specialty bombs filled with lung-clogging and eye-burning fog.

Guhn had had a very rough, very long day.

"Do you think that they'll increase the tariffs to cover the damage?" Bai asked. "There was quite a bit."

"I'm sure that we'll take it out of you, one pound of fat at a time," Guhn muttered. The time for Dai Li professionalism ended about a dozen explosions ago. Guhn just wanted to hand this traitor over to the Secretariats, then drink himself unconscious until his next shift. He was fairly certain that, at this point, he deserved it.

"So harsh. It was all in good fun," Bai said with a bloody grin.

"Good fun? The White Rose district is practically a ruins!" Guhn snapped, giving Bai a shove so that he went face first into a stationary wagon. Bai, madman that he seemed to have become overnight, laughed uproariously at that. Guhn stared at the chuckling Bai for a moment, before reminding himself that this bastard wasn't Guhn's problem anymore. Soon as he was handed over, let the higher ups deal with the crazy person. "Keep walking."

"You know, back in the day, you would have never caught me," Bai said, spitting some blood onto the street as Guhn continued to drag him along.

"Then fortunate for me that this is my day, and not yours," Guhn said, a scowl on his face. Gods above and below, it hurt to even scowl with that vile powder stuck to him! "And your fortunes are going to take a turn, I fear. Since we didn't catch your accomplices, we're going to have to extract them from you. I hear, it's not a kind process."

"Oh, I've had worse," Bai said with a scoff. Guhn sooo wanted this day to be over.

That desire was not helped when somebody barreled into his back, sending him forward into Bai, toppling the latter, and then sending him atop the overweight anarchist. "Out of my way, Smokey!" a voice taunted him. Guhn looked up, just in time to see blue turning a corner ahead. Guhn snarled, and pulled out a second set of manacles, before hooking the chain of the one confining Guhn's arms behind his back to a solid bronze post which held up an awning.

"Stay here!" Guhn demanded, before taking off at a run.

"Like I had a choice," Bai pointed out, but Guhn wasn't listening. For all he knew, this was one of Bai's accomplices from before. Thus why he chained Bai to a metal pole; it couldn't be bent. He rounded that corner, and saw the man in blue dart down a darkened section of the alleyway. Gritting his teeth, Guhn pursued, his battered body perhaps not offering quite the dexterity the Dai Li were renowned for, but for all that, it was still far better than most would assume. He reached that intersection, and saw the figure in blue at its end. This alley was capped by a wall, and the thug had no way out. Guhn lashed out with a pair of earthbending kicks, casting away the stone shoes he was wearing. With that, he was essentially disarmed; his gloves had been used up during the mayhem. Guhn smirked as the first hit squarely in the back, and the second scored higher, smashing into the figure's head. But to Guhn's surprise, the head didn't snap forward, nor a grunt of surprise and injury fill the air. No, that head... popped off and rolled into a corner. Guhn's eyes drew wide.

Silently as a snow-tiger, a Tribesman dropped from his hiding place, clutching to a relief carving, and padded up behind the Dai Li even as the attacks were being launched. So when he stared, stunned, at what was before him, there was no time to react before that Tribesman hooked a crook of a boomerang under the foot bearing all of the Dai Li's weight, and heaved, sending the man face-first into the stone of the alley. In an instant, the Tribesman was dropping down onto the Dai Li's back, driving a knee into his ribs and compacting his lungs, but that was just to keep him off balance. Then, a blade appeared before the Dai Li's eye, burnished blue of Tribal Steel.

"If you don't want what happened to him to happen to you, you'd better tell me what I want to know," the Tribesman demanded. Guhn gave himself the luxury of turning his head, looking back. The barbarian crushing him was middle aged, with a close beard running along his jaw, his hair bound in a fairly traditional way, and hints of burns peeking out from the neck of his clothing.

"...I need a drink" Guhn muttered into the dirt. This day just got a lot longer.

---

Azula stared at her mother.

"How?" she demanded.

"Oh, Agni's flame, what is wrong with you?" her younger self said, giving the older a slap in the face. It stung as though she'd done it to herself, with her own much stronger hands. "The first time we see Mother in years, and the only thing which comes to your mind is 'Oh', and 'How'?"

"I thought you might be more interested than I was," Azula muttered to her younger self. "After all, she can't have treated you any better than she treated me."

"Zuli, what is going on?" Ursa asked, her eyes still filled with the tears she had barely started shedding. "Why are you talking like that?"

"I'm the one asking questions here, Mother," Azula snapped, her fists clenching tight. "After all, you've given up any right to ask me anything the day you tore our family apart!"

"Zuli... Azula... You have to understand. I didn't have a choice," Ursa said, her voice slowly regaining control, but it was still flooded with... emotion.

Azula remembered that sound, the way she was speaking. She'd felt that way before.

No, not now. "Stop distracting me," Azula hissed at her younger self.

"I'm not doing anything," the girl said smugly.

"...I'm not trying to distract you," Ursa said, confused. "When you got sick, I was terrified. I knew what Azulon would do if he discovered that his son's favored heir was... 'defective'. I listened to him when Ozai spoke to his father. He tried to offer your life for his brother's rightful throne."

"We both know that's a lie. The only one in any danger in that family was Zuzu, and that's because he was born worthless, and will die worthless," Azula muttered.

"Azula! Don't speak that way about your brother!" Ursa said sternly. Now there was the Ursa that Azula remembered.

"I think I've got the right," Azula snapped back. "Father would never spend my life like that."

"That we agree on this fills me with shame," her younger self said with a look of disgust.

Ursa shook her head slowly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "Then you don't know your father like I do. He wasn't always so ambitious. There was a time where he honestly would have done anything for the good of the Fire Nation. But... things stagnated," she explained. Lied. "Zuli, I know you don't want to hear this, but it's the truth; Ozai wanted you gone, because he thought it was the best thing for the Fire Nation."

"That's insane!" her younger self shouted, quivering with disbelief. "You're lying! Father would never do that to me!"

"So he's a patriot at heart?" Azula asked sarcastically. "So, please regale me with the story of how you selflessly murdered an old man in his bedroom and fled into the night a step ahead of justice."

"It's more complicated than that," Ursa said. She sighed, then looked Azula in the eyes, with eyes so much like her own. "Zuli... Killing Azulon was Ozai's idea."

"That's a lie!" both of her said, but the younger one with much more vehemence.

Ursa shook her head. "I wish it wasn't. I wish I didn't have to see the look in Ozai's eyes when he told me that he was going to have to kill his own father. It hurt him. In ways I'm not sure you understand," Ursa said. She let out a quiet, bitter laugh. "Even then, he was trying to do what was best for the Nation. Saving his children from a vain, demented old tyrant."

"Don't paint yourself as noble in this," Azula snapped, pushing her mother back with a single finger in the center of the older woman's chest. Older, but not much bigger, all told. Between the mass Azula put on in muscle and her own earlier-than-remembered growth spurt, she was almost eye to eye with her Mother now, rather than only when she met the woman again decades from now... from then... Tenses were increasingly becoming a pain. "You just wanted your favorite child to live, so you killed him without a second thought."

"Yes," Ursa said, which Azula smirked at. Ursa sighed, and shook her head. "I swore – I swore! – that I wouldn't repeat my mother's mistake of loving one child more than another... but Azula, I did all of this for you."

"Try again with something which doesn't sound ridiculous."

"It's the truth, Zuli," Ursa said, stepping closer to her daughter once more. "I didn't want to lose you. I didn't want to lose you or your brother to that insane old bastard. If I could trade my life for my childrens', I would have. And in my way, I did."

"...Mama? Is that true?" the little girl asked, her eyes starting to water.

"Oh, shut up you gullible little bitch," Azula ordered her younger self.

"What?" Ursa asked, taking a step back from her.

"Damn it, why won't you listen to her!" the girl shouted. "My parents fought for me, to save me! Me, not you!"

"And the fact that you buy into this pointless drivel is all the more pathetic," Azula continued in her sing-song mockery. But a look of horror dawned on the girl's face. "Oh, what now?"

"Who are you talking to?" Ursa asked, a look of suspicion on her face, but Azula wasn't paying attention to her at that point.

"...Father... offered to kill me?" the girl asked. She shook her head. "No, that can't be right. Father loves me!"

"It's time that you grow up, you pathetic child," Azula barked. "I learned that Ozai didn't love me when he left me for Zuzu to pluck like a turtle-duck. Welcome to the real world. It's time to accept the fact that our father is a bastard and get on with our lives."

"No!" the girl shouted, and then kicked Azula in the chest, hard enough to send Azula stumbling back against the wall. Ursa's eyes went wide at that, but once again, Azula wasn't paying attention. "This is wrong! Father loves me! I know it!"

"You're a fool. I've been letting you keep your illusions 'cause they didn't get in my way," Azula muttered.

"Shut up!" The girl said, kicking out Azula's knee, so that she dropped to a squat, before driving a fist straight into Azula's nose. "Shut up shut up shut up!"

Azula blinked away the stars from her eyes from the hit, and offered a sadistic smirk to her younger self. "Now you know why I am the way I am, stupid girl. Welcome to reality."

"Azula, what in Agni's name are you doing to yourself?" Ursa asked, by her expression aghast.

"Nothing," Azula answered, slowly getting to her feet. In the blink of an eye, the girl was gone, her frustrated sobs echoing in the room after her exodus. "Now leave me alone. You've got nothing to say that I want to hear."

"...Zuli, please, talk to me. What is going on?" Ursa asked. Begged.

Azula stubbornly sat down at the table, and began to eat once again. She had better things to worry about than the girl's temper tantrums, or her mother's lies. Important things. Taking over Ba Sing Se, killing the Avatar, making sure the Avatar stayed dead. She thought, and she ate.

"...what happened to my daughter?" Ursa asked at Azula's back.

Azula didn't feel like answering her.

---

Kuei stood for a rather long time, staring at his throne and the baldachin above it, and Aang wasn't sure what to make of his expression. Conflicted, yes, but there was a lot more to it that the young monk simply didn't have the weight of years and experience to decode. But he held his tongue, unlike Sokka and Nila, who were taking turns inventing new and insulting monikers for the now incarcerated Long Feng, respectively zany and dry. Finally, Kuei reached up, touching the golden badger-mole claws, and letting out a hiss, pulling back a finger, pricked on old but sharp metal.

He turned, then, and sat, his face in his palm. "I cannot believe I have been so stupid, for so long," Kuei said, his head shaking slowly. "All this time, I thought that I was skillfully ruling the greatest metropolis on this Earth... but the truth was, I was just dancing to the jerking of my puppetmaster's strings, never bothering to look up and see the puppeteer himself. If I was a king of a realm I deserved, I would be a king of fools. And now that my eyes are open... I can't help but wonder how we can even move forward. We're at war! With the Fire Nation!"

"Might be a century out of date, but at least you're seeing the truth now," Zuko said. He pointed behind him, past the Avatar and the others near him. "With the might of Ba Sing Se, we can bring an end to my father's tyranny."

"You would trade a Fire Lord for an Earth King?" Kuei asked.

"No. I would take Father's place on the Burning Throne," Zuko said. He shrugged. "I don't want a war, with you or anybody else. I just want this all to stop."

"This is a difficult situation you've put me in," Kuei said, chin upon fist. "Even Ba Sing Se's massive garrisons would have to be stripped practically bare to fight a Fire Nation the likes of which you've described. And there is little guarantee that the war would even end if we were successful."

"Zuko is as good as his word," Aang piped up. Kuei gave a glance to him, but winced a bit.

"I am sorry, Avatar, but if nothing else, Long Feng has taught me that I cannot believe everything I hear. It is too much, with too great a chance of failure."

"Maybe not," Sokka said, breaking off his jibing with the Si Wongi girl to move to Zuko's side. "When the sun is eclipsed by the moon, the firebenders lose all of their abilities; they'd be rendered helpless for as long as the sun was missing from the sky. It wouldn't be the first time a firebender army got routed by a Day of Black Sun. We just need to know when, and strike when they're at their weakest."

"Do you know when this day is?" Kuei asked, suddenly quite interested.

"Not yet. But now that we're not having to jump through a thousand hoops to find anything worth knowing, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to find out," Sokka said. Behind them, there came the sound of footfalls, and Aang glanced over his shoulder to see General How approaching the Earth King. He looked at the group gathered, somewhere between shock and awe, and then lowered himself to a knee.

"I don't know..." Kuei said quietly, still addressing the Tribesman and ignoring the general in line with Aang.

"The Fire Nation isn't going to stop hammering at your walls until they crumble, and they march soldiers through your streets," Sokka pointed out. "You can either sit here and wait for that to happen, or you can take a chance, seize the initiative, and go on the offensive. It's in your hands to end the World War. Yours... and his," Sokka said, waving a hand toward How.

"Earth King, it is an honor to finally meet you," How said. "I am General How of the Great Wall Defense Force."

"The Avatar has mentioned you," Kuei said. And he shook his head again. "What kind of Earth King have I even been, that I don't know my own military leaders?"

"The kind that Long Feng wanted," How said. He turned, and clapped a broad hand on Aang's narrow shoulder. "Bless you, Avatar. You have done the impossible. I feared that we would be living under Long Feng's tyranny for the rest of his days."

"This isn't over," Qujeck pointed out, from where he was leaning in a pillar's shadow. "Keep watch over him every hour of every day. He's got a plan to reverse this setback, mark my words."

"I am sparing no expense and taking no chances in his incarceration," How said. "He will be on trial in a matter of days. For his crimes, I wouldn't be surprised if he faced execution in a week."

"You don't have to..." Aang began.

"He does," Zuko said with a nod. "I know his kind. They won't stop coming, ever, until they're dead. And even then, you have to spend a week with their corpse to make sure that they're not faking it."

"That's... a bit harsh," Aang said.

Zuko blinked slowly, then turned to Sokka. "How've the burns healed?"

"I see your point," Sokka muttered, rubbing at his chest with the heel of a hand. Aang didn't, but he didn't press it, either, since Sokka's mood seemed to have taken a nose-dive. "I'm sorry, Aang. But he's too dangerous. The longer this takes, the more chance he has to ruin all that we've managed to achieve here."

Aang glanced to his feet. "...doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Then don't," Katara said quietly from Aang's other side. "Just because it's necessary doesn't mean we have to agree with it, or enjoy it," she got a distant look on her face, no doubt thinking of the Spikerim, and the fall of Summavut. "But we can't turn away, either. Sometimes, it might be better to do the wrong thing, than to do nothing at all."

Aang didn't have anything to respond to that. How moved to the foot of the Earth King's dais and beckoned in from the door. "Long Feng's offices have been raided and his personal effects have been seized. We don't know if any of this is of use to you, but we have found some things which might be of note."

A clerk approached with a collapsible table and opened it, setting a box atop it. How reached inside, and extracted what seemed to be an arrest warrant. "Sokka, Katara, I think this might be most of interest to you," he said, handing them a sheaf.

Katara flicked through them quickly, and Sokka's eyes began to widen. "Katara, these are the guys! The guys from home!"

"I see Sajuuk and Ogan and..." Katara shook her head. "Why were they arrested?" she asked.

"I don't know. But we are releasing them as soon as possible," How said. He gave them a bit of a shrug. "It might do them well to see a familiar face."

"Yeah," Sokka said distantly.

"Um... have you heard anything from our father? Chief Hakoda?" she asked. How frowned, then examined the box once more.

"I'm sorry. There doesn't seem to be anything in here about him. Why? Is he missing?"

"He said he had to find our sister," Sokka said. "Is there anything on her? A girl named Hikaoh..."

"She said her name was Yoji," Katara interrupted. How shook his head.

"You must understand, there is more in those offices than can be run through in a month. These were just the gems most visible in the dross," How said. "And you have an important task, Sokka of the South Water Tribe. You must find the Day of Black Sun, before it's too late."

Sokka nodded, then handed the papers he'd taken back to his sister. "I won't let you down," he said, seriously, before turning and starting the long departure. How then handed something to Zuko.

"Troubling sightings leaving the Great Wall only days ago," How said. Zuko looked at the scroll, then turned to Aang, and tossed it lightly to the airbender. Aang opened it, and his eyes widened at what he beheld.

"Is... is that what I think it is?" Aang asked.

"If you think it looks like a Storm King flying fortress, then yes," Zuko said. He turned to How. "How many?"

"Only one, but..."

"But Ozai will be making many, many more," Zuko finished for him.

"I don't suppose there's anything for me in there?" Toph asked wryly.

"Miss Beifong? No, but there is a letter which has been directed to a Yingsue Beifong. Do you know her?"

"That's Mom," Toph said, taking the thing, then handing it to Katara, due to the obvious shortcomings of being blind. Katara scanned it.

"It's from your father, Toph," Katara said. "He's still in Ru Nan, but he says... He wants you to be safe. A lot of this is for your mother, but that keeps coming up."

Toph scoffed and shook her head. "Dad's such a weenie."

Nila, in that brief interlude, had moved up to the box, and taken something from it. Aang tried to lean around her, to see what it was, but her harsh glare drove him back when he attempted. "Sorry. Never mind," Aang said.

"Best you didn't," she said coldly, before walking out of the room.

How then carefully lifted what looked like a long tooth out of the bin. "One of our shamans claims this is a spirit artifact of some kind. As the Avatar, it should be in your hands."

"Thanks, I guess," Aang said, as the tooth was passed to his hand. But the instant it hit his skin, it started to blacken and crumble, causing Aang to go rigid and still. He glanced up toward How, who was likewise struck still. "Oh no! I didn't do anything! I swear!"

"...What just happened?" How asked.

"I... I don't know," Aang said. He dropped the crumbling ash to the floor, where it continued to grow finer and finer, until it just seemed to vanish completely. "...I hope that wasn't important."

"Now we might never know," How said. "But if it was, then we'll have to make due without it."

Aang nodded, and turned his attention to Katara, and began to talk about old friends, old family, and new responsibilities.

He didn't notice that the frosty nail in one of his pockets had started to beat subtly, like a second heart outside of his chest.

---

Long Feng stewed. He knew he had little recourse at the moment but to cool his heels. Trapped inside an iron-clad cell under the Royal Palace, he was now a prisoner in his own prison. There was a degree of irony in that.

So much had gone wrong, so quickly. All because of the Avatar. He had been shepherding the greatest city on Earth toward a secure and plentiful future, and now, it was going to crumble away to nothing because an idealistic fool kicked over something he shouldn't have. Long Feng wished he could have said it was an act of spite on behalf of the young Avatar, but he was at least more honest with himself than that; The Avatar did as he did, not out of spite, but out of naivety and the direction of foul council.

Badesh once again. She had been, in her way, the architect of his ascension to power. Kuei's father, Huo Wa, had been a divisive figure, but he wielded his authority like a cudgel. The Dai Li wasn't about policing, then, it was about trying to save Ba Sing Se from its ruler. Too many people listened to Huo Wa when Long Feng knew better. Too many people were willing to follow where he lead, no matter the blood-tides of Hell which awaited them down those paths. It was irony again, that Long Feng had beseeched Badesh, almost two decades ago, to help end that fat, brutish tyrant.

Destiny played strange games, it seemed.

After Badesh killed Huo Wa, and a significant portion of the man's extended bastard family collaterally – as the man had been known for his brutish tastes as much as his brutish temperament – the crown essentially defaulted to Kuei. A boy. Not even a well educated one. Simply the boy who hadn't tried to kill Badesh's troupe of assassins on their way out. The one not groomed for rulership. The fool.

That stung almost as much as Long Feng's current predicament. Had a stronger, saner Earth King ascended, so much of what Long Feng'd had to do in the last sixteen years would never have been needed! But no, he had to be saddled playing regent in the shadows for an insipid layabout. Every thing that Long Feng had done was to keep that fool safe and away from anything which was fragile and important, to prevent an all-out succession crisis, to keep Ba Sing Se running smoothly.

To keep the World War from reaching into the walls.

There was a rattle at the door, and a panel slid up, before a tray of food slid along the floor. Long Feng turned a glance toward it, but he felt no hunger. He just felt empty. A failure at so vital a task; he was more than the beating heart of Ba Sing Se, he was its directing brain. Without him... chaos.

"Sir," a vaguely familiar voice came from the door. "The Five Generals and the Earth King have declared you an enemy of the state. The Dai Li remain loyal to its Grand Secretariat."

And as a beam of light, cutting through the clouds, Long Feng's spirit was lifted just a little. And a small smile came to his face. "What has happened?"

"The Avatar is pressing forward on the Black Sun invasion, sir," the Dai Li agent said. Long Feng rose to look through the bars of the door. The man was dressed in the attire of an Earth King's Royal Guardsman, no doubt removed delicately from a cooling corpse. "Your trial begins the day after tomorrow. Most expect your execution would be several days after that. We have other ideas."

"Excellent," Long Feng said. "Keep me apprised on the situation as it develops."

"Of course, Grand Secretariat," his faithful agent said, before turning and walking away once more. Destiny may well play strange games, but it could never be said that Long Feng was a simpleton when it came to such games. Now that he had a hand at the board, he frankly relished the opportunity to see this game's conclusion.

Ba Sing Se would be safe, secure, and under control once more. No matter what.

---

Nila had stopped walking, so far away from the others, so far away from any others, that they couldn't have found her without the blind one's ability to see through walls. Given the wooden flooring, though, even she would be stymied. She stopped, because some part of her had declared 'no further. Not one more step', and as much as rationally she wanted to press on, there were some things which she simply didn't have the strength of spirit to overwhelm.

She stopped, and she slumped into a chair in a quiet, unattended room, her breathing heavy, as she reached into her pocket, and pulled out the signal of her worst fears, her worst predictions. It was a tiny painting, no larger than a palm, framed carefully, of a white-haired woman dancing. Latifah. Even though Nila had never seen the woman so much as twitch in her admittedly short lifetime, it was obvious who the subject was. And doubly so, since Nila had noted Ashan carrying this with him, glancing at it from time to time.

He never let it out of his grasp.

A wracking sob hit her chest, as she pulled her legs up and pulled them close, as though through simple compression, she could curtail her weeping. No avail. Why? That was a question which kept repeating in her mind. Why must I keep losing friends? There was no answer to that question, though. And the girl who tried to intellectualize everything, to rationalize everything, could do nothing to make sense of, let alone prevent, her own helpless weeping, her own mourning.

Nila finally, after days running on adrenaline and anger, gave herself permission to grieve.

---

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