A/N: And here it is! Sorry for posting a day late- as we all know our dear system decided to crash for a while. Sucked. But now, I give you the newest chapter of this fic! This is the last chapter that I have that was actually written out before I started posting, so now all new chapters are going to be written in real time-scary- so if I'm a little slower with the updates, you know why! I will do my best to keep posting every other day, but writing and editing takes time! So yeah. But enough of that, please enjoy this next chapter-and as always thank you for all the reveiws! You guys are the best! Read on!

DICLSAIMER: NOT MINE!

Chapter 16: Mai-day

Aang woke up, ready to start another day of bending practice. Only slightly fetuiged from the day before.

Too bad a bomb landed in front of him.

Before it could really explode, the young airbender used his skills to knock the fire nation bomb back in the direction from which it came.

When the smoke cleared, he was shocked to see three Fire Nation balloons hovering right in front of him.

Another less acuratley placed bomb shook the foundation of the temple.

"Not again!" Sokka groaned as he sat up, wepons at the ready.

Azula woke up, peering at he aircrafts.

Mai.

She growled as she sprang up, rushing up to the young Avatar.

"Get everyone out of here, Zuko and I can handle this." she said coldly, glaring at the moroon-clad figure with gleaming hair that stood atop the observation deck of the head Balloon.

Aang looked uncertian, but nodded, moving towards his friends.

Zuko passed him, looking back.

The young Prince's eyes roamed over his new friends-his new family- with worry.

His eyes lingered on Katara a moment longer then the others, and at the exact right moment too.

Hearing the ceiling crak, the waterbender looked up just as a pile of rocks came tumbling down.

But before they could reach her, strong arms were wrapped around her as someone tackled her to the ground.

As soon as they stopped moving, Katara saw who had saved her.

Zuko.

She desperatly tried to ignore how her heart rate picked up.

"What are you doing?!" She yelled over the sound of crumbling rock.

"Keeping rocks from crushing you." He replied harshly- instantly regretting his tone- as he loosened his grip on her.

"Well I'm not crushed- you can get off me now!" She said as she hefted herself up from his arms.

His arms… Katara shook her head as she stalked away. No time to think of that now.

"…I'll take that as a 'thank you'" Zuko said, pulling himself up as well.

Azula- whom had seen the whole exchange- would have smirked if not for the dire circumstances.

"What is She doing here!?" Zuko asked aloud as he stepped up next to his sister.

"Looks like she wasn't too pleased with you locking her up, Zuzu." Azula muttered, glowering at the balloon that was moving closer still.

Zuko growled and charged into the fray.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Azula yelled, running after her brother. He never thought these things through!

"Getting rid of the Big Blah!" He yelled back, refferancing the name he had given Mai on Ember Island.

Said "Blah" heard her ex-boyfriend and decided she did not like the sound of that.

Another bomb was hurled in the direction of the fire nation siblings.

Zuko went to deflect the blow, but it never came.

Azula and Aang had jumped in front of him, deflecting the attack together.

Well then… Zuko thought to himself as he watched the once-enimies work together to defeat the crazed knife-thrower.

Aang turned to his new friends.

"We can't get everyone out togehter. Appa won't go through that tunnel!" He pointed to a large hole in the wall that had somehow appered in the last few minutes, "We'll get as many as we can through the tunnle, the rest of us will fly out of here on Appa." Aang explained, watching as Mai personally loaded another bomb.

"We have to take care of Mai first!" Azula shouted, running at the Balloon.

Zuko followed, briefly gripping Aang's shoulder on the way.

The airbender watched as the two siblings dissapered into the dust worked up by all the bombs before turning and sprinting back to the rest of his family.

The bomb Mai had previously been loading ripped loose and smashed into the overhang of the temple celing, causing a large pillar to topple over.

Zuko and Azula used the falling pillar as a runway of sorts, Luanching themselves off of it and onto the balloon.

"Give it up, Mai. You're no match for us." Azula said as she landed. She lifted her arms, preparing to strike.

"If I were unable to match you, why did you choose me to help hunt down the Avatar?"

Mai's bored tone was replaced with a snide, throaty one. Almost like she had a bad attitude with a sore throat.

Not far from the truth actually.

"Please, if we were a match, I never would have chosen you."

"Of course not, all you ever think about is climbing to the top. You made sure you were percived as better then Ty-Lee and I. Title is everything to you." Mai said as she produced a gleaming dagger from somewhere up her sleeve.

"Not anymore." The princess replied earnestly as she fell into a stance, her brother following suit.

They both took a moment to ponder how odd it felt to be battling side by side again, only this time for the greater good.

Mai- however- wasted no time in attacking.

She yelled as she thrust the knife in Zuko's direction, missing his arm by mere inches.

Yep. She was loosing it, she never misses.

Azula cut in, kicking the knife out of the goth girls hand, sending it over the railing and into the chasm below them.

Zuko took this oprotunity to get behind Mai, intending to shove her over to the railing.

But she had other plans.

Both the Prince and Princess were surprised as Mai hopped onto the railing and trapeezed her way to the very top of the balloon.

"Looks like Ty-Lee gave her some lessons." Azula grumbled as she used her firebending as a jet- luanching herself up to where her once-friend stood.

Zuko shook his head, watching as the two girls comenced in what could only be called a cat-fight, and clambered his way up the side of the large blimp.

Only to find the girls were missing.

"What…" Zuko muttered, looking around.

He then heard a yell and the unmistakeable sound of a fire blast coming from below.

Peering over the edge, he cuaght sight of the two girls in a free-fall.

Zuko nearly facepalmed.

There was only one thing to do, he figured, as he watched Azula blast her way over to a rock wall, digging her crown-because she still had that for some reason- into a crevice, allowing her to hang stationary against the stone. She looked up to her brother with a near panicked expression on her face.

Mai was still falling.

He jumped over the edge.

Free-falling was a funny feeling, like your insides were floating. But Zuko had little time to think this over as he rapidly approached Mai.

He was grateful yet slightly concerned to find she had fallen unconscious.

Grabbing her, he imitated Azula and used his bending to propel himself and the dead weight in his arms upwards, back towards the balloon.

He got her on deck, laying her down haphazardly as he glanced back over his shoulder. Making sure no guards were on their way up, he looked out over the seemingly endless space below.

The gang had gotten out and were plucking Azula from the mountianside.

Knowing that Appa would not be able to get close to the balloon without getting bombed, he jumped again over the side when he saw them headed his way.

To his compleate surprise and delight-for some totally unexplainable reason- Katara was the one to reach out, grabbing onto his forearms and pulling him into the saddle.

The last thing the group of teens saw was the large Fire Nation balloons retreating into the fog, taking Mai with them.

Azula had never gone camping.

Granted, she had been out in the beauty of nature many times before, travling in order to capture the Avatar had called for that.

But never had she slept outside on a sleeping roll before.

There was that one night outside the air temple before her and Zuko had been accepted into the group, but that hardly counted as camping in her opinon.

All in all, sleeping under the bright stars surrounded by people who had accepted her into their group was an interesting experience.

"Wow, camping. It really feels like old times again, doesn't it?" Aang asked as they were all seated around the fire.

"If you really want it to feel like old times, I could uh… chase you around a bit and try to capture you?" Zuko's attempt at humor was greeted with good-natured laughing from everyone in the group.

Minus Katara.

" ."

Azula-who was seated to the right of the girl- looked at her with a hitched up eyebrow, but the waterbender remained silent, glaring into the fire that burned between her and Zuko.

Sokka raised his cup, jostling Azula in the slightest. She, along with the others turned to him as he said, "To Zuko…and Azula. Who thought that after all the times they tried to snuff us out, today- they would be our heros?"

The group-again, minus Katara- Answered with a "Here, Here!"

Azula smiled but-uncharacteristicly- brushed off the praise, "I really didn't do much. It was more Zuko."

Her brother smiled, looking around their small group, "Thank you, I'm touched. I don't deserve this…" He acknowledged quietly, staring down into his cup.

"Yeah. No kidding." With that, Katara stood, leaving Azula's side and stomping off.

The firebender was all too aware of the lack of warmth that accompanied the departure of her friend. Her attention, though, was drawn to the boy who had captured her interest as of late when he said, "What's up with her?"

Zuko also rose, watching in the direction that Katara had left, "I wish I knew."

As he walked away, Sokka reiterated, "What's up with him?"

Azula sighed and twisted around to watch the form of her retrating brother. If he wasn't careful, she was sure he was going to get himself slapped tonight.

Zuko approached Katara, watching intently as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, before glaring and turning away.

He took a breath, "This isn't fair! Everyone seems to trust me now. What is it with you?" He didn't want to seem harsh, but he was running out of options here. He needed to get through to her, wanted to know why she hated him so much.

"Oh, everyone trust's you now? I was the first person to trust you, remember? Back in Ba Sing Se. Then you went and turned your back on us. All of us!" On me.

It was a stupid decision-he knew it was. It had gotten his uncle imprisoned, and allowed room for the take over of Ba Sing Se.

And now it was costing him the friendship he wanted. "What can I do to make it up to you?" He knew it was a long shot- he was certain she would demand the world on a silver platter if he could deliver-but he had to try, he was done with her thinking he was aginst her all the time.

"Oh, I don't know! Why don't you reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King?" Huh, so she was asking for the world, technicaly. "Or I know! You could bring my mother back!" She yelled at him, directly in his face.

Ok, he couldn't do that, he was only a man-currently with limited resources. Bringing someone back from the dead was a bit of a stretch, she knew this.

But it did give him an idea.

He couldn't bring her mother back, but he could give her the next best thing.

He contemplated this as she stalked off. He resisted the urge to call out to her, tell her what he had in mind. If he was going to do this right, he needed a plan.

He waited until he was sure she was settled in her tent. He quietly made his way over to Sokka's, stopping only briefly when her heard multiple voices inside.

"…meaning to tell you something." That was Azula's voice, he was sure. What was she doing in Sokka's tent?

Zuko leaned in closer, trying to hear better.

"What is it? If it's about Aang, I think Katara would be the better person to talk to- she's the one actually training him."

Zuko could practicaly see Azula shake her head. "No…It has to do with you… well, us actually."

"Us? What are you talking about?"

"Sokka, I…" Azula trailed, unsure.

Zuko took this as an opportunity. He entered the tent without warning, causing Sokka to look up. He and Azula were sitting knee to knee, facing one another with their legs crossed. Azula glanced over her shoulder and scowled. A look that said she obviously didn't want to be interrupted just then.

Zuko looked from his sister to the boy she was sitting extremely close to. Putting his big-brother-instincts on the back coal for a moment, he spoke to Sokka, "I need to talk to you."

"Can it wait?" Azula asked, a harsh edge in her tone.

He simply scowled in return. "No. It can't."

Azula held her brother's gaze for a second more then glanced back at Sokka. Knowing she wasn't going to win this one, she huffed and stood.

"I'll see you in the morning." She said to Sokka.

Zuko smiled cheekily at her as she brushed past him. In response, she just shoved him towards the conversation he just stole from her.

As Azula walked out, she heard Sokka ask, "So, what can I help you with?"

It took next to no time for her brother to blurt, "Your sister. She hates me! And I don't know why, but I do care what she thinks of me…"

Azula's eyes widened. While she had been on her way to disclosing her own feelings to Sokka, she had not been expecting her brother to do the same. (Allbeit, Zuko wasn't trying to confess to Sokka his feelings about Sokka, but Azula was)

The young firebender considered staying and listening for a moment. It wouldn't hurt, and she was trying to set up the steamiest pairing in their group herself. But she let it be. She had her own feelings to sort out.

She bit her lip, walking to the edge of camp. She sat herself down on the grass, trying to arrange her thoughts.

She had never been this attracted to someone before. When she was groing up, world domination was the only thing she had on her mind, and if she happened to pick up a submissive fellow along the way, so be it.

But that was then. Please-that was one month ago. But now was different. She no longer dreamed of hearing "Fire Lord Azula" While she sat upon a throne shrouded in blue flames. Nor did she any longer dream of watching her nation rise to power as the rest of the world burned that same brilliant blue.

Now she only wanted one thing.

And that was Sokka.

She didn't know when it started, or why. But she was falling for him. Perhaps it had started at the invasion. When she had cornered him and his friends, taunted him about his girlfriend.

Why was it when she thought of the word girlfriend in correlation to him, it was her name she wished was accompanied with it?

Wow. From "Fire Lord Azula" To, "Sokka's girlfriend, Azula".

The Princess groaned and threw herself backwards, landing with a thud on the grass. From this angle, she could clearly see the stars.

Azula had never been camping.

But she was glad her first experience had included him.

A/N: There it is! Please let me know what you think-I'll have the next chapter up soon!

Writer out! ~0-0~