"Do you think that fog will delay the invasion?"

"That fog is the invasion!"

-Master Katara to Councilman Sokka prior to the Invasion of the Day of Black Sun

I wait for the police officers to walk past my hiding spot before I move. Trusting their heavy footsteps and clanking armor to cover what little noise my padded feet will make, I sprint down the corridor. My weapons, carefully strapped to my belt and my back, don't make any noises that give me away. I'm grateful.

I come to a corner of the hallway, and quickly shuffle up against the closest wall. I pull a small handheld mirror out of a tight pocket, and slowly move it around the corner. I don't see anyone, and so I quickly move from my position and silently run down the hall.

I pass doors with large keypads besides them, and I keep idle track of the signs above each door. O-H-7, O-H-8, O-H-9, O-H-10, O-H-11…

I finally reach my destination. I come to a stop before the door labeled O-H-17. I pull out a small metal bowl from another one of my pockets and put it up to the door. I place my ear against the rounded bottom and hold my breath.

Inside I hear only the hum of electricity, and a lot of it. I grin under my dark face wrappings.

From a leather pouch hanging from my belt, I take a short metal rod. I feel my knives try to pull towards the rod, attracted to it's magnetic properties. If that's not a test that this magnet works, I don't know what could be. Except, perhaps, the magnet fulfilling it's role in my escapade.

I look at the keypad besides this door. Rather than fiddle with the letters and numbers displayed on the buttons, I hold my magnetic rod up to it. The metal buttons rattle, trying to break free of their casings and stick themselves to the rod.

After a few seconds, the lights on the keypad flicker and die out, and the door slides open.

Not for the first time, I grin. I half wish someone had been around to see that trick work. The other half knows that if anyone had seen that, I would be dead right now.

I step inside the dim room. The only light comes from a glowing orb that seems to be suspended in the center of the room. Inside of the orb, I can see a faint shadow, but it's impossible for me to make out exactly what it is.

The orb ripples as if it senses my approach, which I know to be impossible. More likely, it's challenging me to find some way to get rid of it. Well, that's impossible too. They say that after enough solo missions, Agents of the Mist can go a bit crazy. That's why almost no one ever stays an Agent for more than five years. The job's dangerous enough without imagining voices or dealing with paranoia.

I take a few steps closer to the orb. I resist the temptation to touch the energy sphere. I've been electrocuted enough by Energybenders to know how powerful those orbs can be. I've also broken into enough Energybender facilities to know how dangerous their security systems can be.

Energybenders can do a plethora of different things with their energy spheres. They can control their direction with a flick of their wrists, they can increase and decrease the intensity of the spheres with a few hand motions, and they can even create permanent spheres.

For the past seven years or more, Energybenders have gotten into the habit of putting their valuables inside of stationary energy spheres. For over four years, people tried to figure out how to get inside the spheres. A large majority of the world, including Energybenders, is convinced that it is impossible to break into an energy sphere without being killed by the electricity.

I bring out two thick adhesive disks from a pouch. A short wire is inbetween them. I pull one of the disks away from the other, and I hear a click-click-click of the wire spool inside the disk being turned. I go to one of the walls and stick a disk on the metal surface. With the other disk feeding out more wire behind me, I go to the other wall.

Carefully, so as not to have the wire touch the sphere, I put the disk in my hand against the wall. I push a button on the disk, and a faint red light blinks from a tiny bulb on it.

I hold my breath. Now for the tricky part. I slowly slide the disk in my hand against the wall over to behind the energy sphere. The second the wire touches the sphere, I let go of the disk. The red light on the disk closest to me intensifies as the wire channels the electricity from the orb into the battery in the disk.

I let out my breath. Success.

I see the sphere start to flicker, and I quickly put a hand below the fading orb to let the object that had been trapped inside it fall into my hand. I look down at it and grin again.

"What in the-"

The voice behind me is my only warning before a spiked metal whip shoots towards the place my head had just been. Upon hearing the voice, I immediately bent my back backwards as far as it could go, and got a nice upside-down view of an armored outline looking at me.

Using my momentum, I make a pushing motion with my empty hand towards the Metalbender. A gust of air is channeled towards him, and he brings his arms up in front of him in an attempt to brace himself.

His defense doesn't work, and he is slammed against the door opposite the dark room. While he's dazed, I slip the object in my right hand into a pouch, and securely fasten the pouch to my belt. I've risked too much to get to this point to lose my prize during my escape.

I sprint out of the room, not bothering to retrieve the wire contraption I used to drain the energy sphere. I hear footsteps coming from both ends of the hallway, which tells me that the guard had somehow called in backup. Or I triggered some other kind of alarm. Both are equally possible.

I look down the way I came. No guards yet, but they'll be coming. Oh well. I push my palms behind my back, and two gusts of air begin to propel me back the way I came. My padded shoes easily slide across the floor, allowing me to move on the smooth surface like an ice skater.

I reach the end of the hallway, and slow down just long enough to turn the corner. The moment I do, I hear shouts, and I see five grey figures moving into my way. They all adopt similar fighting stances. Legs spread, right forearm aimed in my general direction, and a grim determination on each mans face.

Simultaneously, they all take a single step forward and make a punching motion with their left fists. Five metal whips shoot out in my direction. Before they reach me, I duck and continue sliding along the ground. I spin in a circle with my right leg outstretched, and I direct a wave of wind to knock the Metalbenders off their feet.

I leap over their dazed expressions.

A few minutes later, I'm out of the high security facility.

I stop gliding and alight silently on a tall air intake unit. Carefully, I stow my black glider away on my back. It's a redesign of the one the ancient Airbending Nomads used to use. It is lighter, and now it opens without a sound. Airbending Agents of the Mist have black gliders, while the Airbenders that are fighting openly against the Fire and Earth Republic have light blue gliders that are heavier and have places to store bombs and missiles.

I peer down the intake unit. The fan is off, like usual, and I see a dim light at the bottom of the shaft. I hear the tapping of a pen against a piece of paper at the bottom of the shaft. The metal walls must be magnifying the noise.

Gracefully, I fall down the large tube. I'm careful to use only a small air cushion to lower myself; anything larger will make enough noise to alert everyone for about a mile that something weird is happening.

I finally softly land on the bottom of the shaft. In front of me is a hooded figure. His face is obscured from my view, but I know that even if I could see it it wouldn't be of any use. He would be wearing a mask.

"Do you have it?" The hooded figure says in a raspy voice that hints of great age.

"Yes, Minder Hawk." I remove the leather pouch containing the stolen object from my belt and place it in the Minder's outstretched hand. His hand, unlike his voice, is young and firm.

The hand, and the pouch, vanishes into the Minder's sleeve. "Your next assignment is to locate Subject Alpha One." He tells me, his voice emotionless.

I blink a few times. I'm speechless. My stomach feels like it's been hit with a hammer.

"Alpha One?" I ask. I feel rage boil up into my throat. "I've been an operative for over five damn years, and I get assigned the biggest dead end mission-"

"Agent Tengfei!" The Minder says sternly. "Silence!"

I slam my fists against my thighs, and a gust of wind blows around me. I take a few deep breaths, and look at the Minder. "Yes, Minder Hawk."

Minder Hawk is silent for a moment, and then speaks softly. "You are being assigned to Subject Alpha One because you are the only operative who's loyalty to the Confederacy is unquestioned. Your devotion to the cause is why you are being assigned the most difficult of missions. Your expertise and cunning mean that you will make and extort connections that no other operative can even think of.

"This will be your hardest mission," Minder Hawk says solemnly. "And if you can kill Subject Alpha One, the Confederacy can win this war."

I close my eyes and think for a few seconds. When I open them, the Minder is unmoving. "You're asking me," I say slowly. "To kill the Avatar."

The Minder doesn't respond.

"If I do this," I say quietly. "It will be my last mission."

"If you do this," Minder Hawk says, his voice barely more than a whisper. "it will be the last death of this war."

I sigh. "Dump the intelligence at the normal site." Without any other words, I jump in the air and kick downwards with my feet. I rocket back out of the intake pipe, and I use my glider to fly away into the dark cityscape. I feel the cold breeze around me, hear the noises of the busy city below, and think to myself.

Only two people in the entire city know that two people in an intake pipe just decided to change the course of the world.

As the cold night breeze blows against my face, I realize that only one person in the entire world is as scared as I am as to what that change will bring.