Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: I don't find any of the Avatars unimpressive, even Kuruk was revealed to have done a lot fighting evil spirits.

Zigzagdoublezee: They wanted to sell Appa, which was why they took him. Given Aang wasn't actually there when Appa was taken, Toph was, they didn't know it was his. Besides, in the vast wastes of the Si Wong, the war may have felt very far away.

As Always, Please Review!

Mako

It was a couple of hours until Mako made his excuses and went to bed, the events of the night still racing through his mind, accompanied by flashes of amber eyes.

To think that he had only arrived today, and yet so much had happened! Some of it was good, some very good, some less so.

He had kissed a Princess! Quite a lot, as it turned out. They both had been very enthusiastic, until they were interrupted by Zuko asking why they had left the table. He had entered the garden, watched them split apart blushing, raised an eyebrow, smirked, and then pretended he hadn't seen anything.

Mako still struggled to believe it himself. He was a street urchin at heart, the boy who had looked after his brother after they had been orphaned. He had been a pro-bender, a companion of the Avatar, and a policeman. And now here he was, in love with the Princess of the Fire Nation. He hadn't been what he would call lucky in love before, and much of that was self-inflicted, but he swore to himself that he would not allow what had happened with Korra and Asami to happen again. He would only have eyes for Hotaru, no more stupid love triangles. Far more trouble than they were worth, in his opinion.

His mission, though, had been less successful. Far from immediately rallying behind the United Republic, the Firelord had instead confirmed her neutrality. It didn't seem a popular choice within the Royal Family; Mako had expected Iroh to hate it because the man was a high-ranking General in the Republican Military, who had commanded the Republic's forces in combat. It was fairly obvious he would feel at least some loyalty to it.

Now that he thought about it, Mako would have assumed there would be some kind of conflict of interest there, and Izumi plainly would have preferred Iroh leading Fire Nation troops rather than Republican ones.

Hotaru didn't seem keen on it either, but she had said she didn't know how much of that was fondness for the Republic and how much was fondness for Mako. Either way, Mako would take what he could get.

Zuko was the biggest enigma. The man had not made his opinion on the matter clear one way or the other. Mako knew that he had been the Firelord before Izumi until he had abdicated in her favour, and he also knew that Zuko had been a companion of Avatar Aang, and had ended the Hundred Years' War alongside him, all things which made him a very well respected elder statesman despite his abdication. For those reasons, Mako could only guess that Zuko was trying not to look like he was influencing his daughter too much in order to let her rule on her own merits.

Mako tried to roll over and go to sleep, but found that he could not. Thoughts of Zuko, of Izumi, of Iroh and especially of Hotaru flashed through his mind over and over again, as he shifted in bed to try and get comfortable. He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and tried to empty his mind and relax.

Shink!

His eyes snapped open and he instinctively rolled to one side, coming face to face with a shard of metal that had embedded itself in the pillow where his head had just been. His body was moving before his mind had fully caught up, vaulting out of bed and launching a fireball which illuminated the room and revealed a figure in black racing from one side of the far wall to the other. The figure turned and extended an arm, forcing Mako to dive behind a bedpost. When he emerged, the post had another metal strip sticking out of it, quivering.

"Who are you?" Mako demanded. The figure did not answer, so Mako moved quickly, shooting out jets of fire to light the lamps so he could see what he was doing. He then had to dive behind the bedpost again, and while he was in cover he charged up a lightning blast. With electric energy coursing through his body, he popped up, spotted the would-be assassin and let fly, just as another metal strip whizzed towards him. The lightning and the metal intercepted each other, knocking the metal to the floor as the room was filled with an enormous thunderclap. The Assassin reeled back against the wall clutching his ears, before seeming to recover.

He drew a small sword that had been hanging at his side and lunged, blade raised to strike. Mako rolled out of the way, fumbling on the bedside table for something, anything, grabbing hold of a small potted plant that had been placed there and lamping his assailant with it. The blow caused the man to drop his sword, and he fumbled for it as Mako raced away to the other side of the room, attempting to open the range so he could use his firebending more effectively.

There was a commotion outside and Hotaru burst in, looking sleepy in a robe.

"Mako, you can't lightningbend at 1 in the morning-"

She was interrupted by the assassin instinctively trying to skewer her with a metal strip, and managed to duck out of the way. Then he got up and raced at Mako, launching more strips of metal as he went. Mako pulled a painting down from the wall and used it to block the metal strips as Hotaru reacted with a deadly precise lightning bolt that would have fried the assassin had they not also ducked behind Mako's bed.

"What's going on?" General Iroh arrived, and took in the scene.

"Sorry, a bit busy at the moment, brother!" Hotaru replied, weaving across the room towards Mako. The assassin continued spraying them both with metal shards, but Mako blocked them with his painting and Hotaru was agile enough to dodge.

"Don't you know how expensive that is?" She hissed once she reached him, jumping behind the painting and gesturing to it.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Mako replied, "cost isn't what's important to me right now!"

Meanwhile, Iroh had jumped into action, sending a fireball towards the intruder. He vaulted out of the way and responded with another metal shard that was zapped out of the air with lightning.

There was more commotion and Fire Lord Izumi arrived, surrounded by guards and hastily putting her topknot on. She took in the scene, her children and Mako fighting a masked intruder, and frowned. The assailant looked around, and realised he was surrounded. He picked up his sword again.

"Surrender!" Izumi boomed. "Whatever you came here to do has failed! Lay down your arms!"

The man looked around, and locked eyes with Mako. He raised his sword above his head and charged towards him screaming, clearly hoping to kill Mako or die in the attempt.

"Long live the Great Uniter!"

He was interrupted by Hotaru putting a lightning bolt into his knee. The shout turned into a scream and the man collapsed, clutching at his leg. Mako raced forward and grabbed his sword.

"How dare you," Izumi stormed forward until she was standing over the man, her face contorted with rage. "How dare you. Come into my home and try to kill my guest!"

Her voice softened as she looked at Mako and Hotaru.

"Are you alright?"

"Just surprised," Mako shrugged. Izumi's gaze lowered and Mako realised that he and Hotaru were holding hands. He tried to release it but Hotaru only gripped his hand tighter.

The Firelord looked away, ordered some of her guards to take their attacker away to be questioned, and scowled. "Iroh!"

"Yes?"

"Take a message to the Admiralty for me, will you?" Izumi asked him. "Tell them to put a fleet together. Immediately."

Iroh nodded.

"You can tell Raiko he'll have my support," Izumi thundered angrily. "This was a direct attack on the Fire Nation, and Kuvira must answer."

Mako was struck by the enormity of the situation. For the first time since Sozin's Comet, it looked like the Fire Nation would be marching to war. Raiko's Coalition was beginning to take shape.

He could only hope that it would be enough.