'And then things got worse'. Title of our memoir?

Aargh! Can't we have just one day where life doesn't pile it on?!

Omashu's walls had been blown in by blasting jelly or covered in anti-bending metal sheet. Fire Nation banners fluttered in the wind, smoke billowing from where they must have recently smoked out some insurgents. The tracks of supply wagons were everywhere.

So much for rustling up a posse of earthbenders. Azula knew, didn't she.

What's her game? Just waste our time? Run down the clock until the Comet, so the Avatar doesn't have time to master the elements?

It was late enough at night to probably count as early the next morning. He'd been running for much of the day and all of the night so far, only stopping to splash his face with water at the odd stream. He'd made pretty good time considering he was on foot. He was getting a bit light-headed, but he could keep going awhile longer. He had to.

You what I think her game is? I don't care. Shut up, stop whining, and fix this.

Right. There must still be some earthbenders around. Either in hiding, or our side carted them off but didn't take them far. Logistics must be shot to pieces after the disaster up north; and prisoner relocation isn't a high priority.

Some might still be in the city. And even if they aren't, that's still the best place to find out where they are now.

This was easier said than done. Omashu was built atop a massive mound, with towering walls, impossible to climb with the sheer metal sheets, and portcullises over every gateway. There were metal bridges in place, with teams of sentries standing around bonfires. They looked like they were actually paying attention.

We must have taken this within the past month or two. They've probably been dealing with insurgents and maybe a counterattack. Not enough time to get complacent.

We're not getting past all that unseen. Secret tunnels?

He got closer. He could go down into the ravine around the city and poke around, but that would take time he wasn't sure he had.

If there are any, they won't be secret. Doctrine is to find any tunnels immediately and either seal, surveil, or booby trap them. And that's assuming our side didn't use them to take the city in the first place. Much easier than going through walls like those, with as many men as Omashu has. Had.

If we can't go over the walls, or under the walls, that means there's only one way to get inside.

He walked straight up to the front gate.

There were four guards, a sergeant and three privates. The privates all jumped up and aimed two spears and a bending stance at him.

"Stop right there!" said the sergeant, leaving his sword sheathed. "Who are you?"

Zuko gave him a condescending look, and, one-handed, reached into his yoroi and fished out his passport. The bender took it and read it, his eyes widening.

"Prince Zuko?! What are you doing here? You were banished!"

"I'm banished from Fire Nation sovereign territory," he said, putting on an annoyed tone. "This is only occupied territory. Omashu hasn't been formally annexed yet."

I hope.

"That's … not …" said the soldier, glancing over his shoulder at the sergeant for help.

"He's right," said the sergeant, stepping forward to examine the passport. "Technically. But it's under military exclusion, so it's still restricted. What are you doing here?"

"The same thing I've been doing for the past three years," Zuko said. "Hunting the Avatar."

There was a sharp collective intake of breath.

"The Avatar?!" the sergeant repeated, eyes wide. "He's not coming here, is he?"

"I was right behind him a day ago, he was coming by a smuggler's tunnel. I lost him after a cave-in. I should be ahead of him right now, but not for long. I want to catch him before he gets to the city. If he finds a friendly earthbender, he'll go underground and be ten times harder to root out." Struck by a flash of inspiration, "Do you have any Maguma troops here?"

"Uh – yeah, one platoon. I think."

"I've seen them near the city centre," offered the firebender private.

"Excellent. I'm requisitioning them."

"Er, I'm just a sergeant. You'll have to tell the commander, Lord Ukano."

"Ukano!" Zuko repeated, pleased. "Yes, I'll do that. He'll be near the city centre too?"

"Yes. Chan, go find the Major." Chan the spearman sulked but made to go. "I'm sorry, Highness, but I still need authorisation –"

There came a commotion from inside the city: yelling, a swoosh like a dam bursting and flooding out, crashes, and a chorus of horns.

I swear, if Katara's got herself captured again

"This way!"

Aang zigzagged through a maze of narrow alleyways. Sokka and then Katara were right behind him, but he was fast. The clatter of Fire Nation armour was falling back, but, less reassuringly, horns were calling and responding from all directions. They might lose one patrol, but they were probably surrounded, and the garrison would sweep the entire city.

Aang trotted to a stop. Somehow, he was barely winded, whereas she and Sokka were doubled over, gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" Aang asked, pitching his voice low.

Sokka nodded. Katara could only manage a thumb-up.

"This part of town hasn't changed since before I was frozen," Aang said. "I know a hundred hiding spots."

Sokka got his breath under control. "If they don't have dogs to sniff us down," he said. "The Tiger Shark Tribe had seal dogs, they can track you from a mile away."

"Does the Fire Nation use those?" Aang asked.

I've only seen them using rhinos.

Zuko would know.

"If they have enough troops to take Omashu, they probably have one of everything around here somewhere," Sokka said. "Or they can take one from a local."

"Okay," Aang said, scratching his head. "Then we have to find Bumi as quickly as possible. Where would they keep him …"

There was a rumble beside them. They jumped out of the way as the road folded in and an Earthener with a lantern poked his head out.

"Uh," Aang said.

"Come on!" the Earthener said, beckoning.

Reasoning that an earthbender had to be one of the good guys, they hopped down into his hole. He restored the surface above them and bent a narrow passageway, leading down.

"Hurry," he said, "the ashmakers plant blasting charges whenever they find our tunnels."

They sped up.

"Who are you?" Aang asked. "I'm –"

"The Avatar, aren't you? I'm Captain Yo. And this is the Underground."

The freshpassage joined onto a wider tunnel. They could see more lanterns in either direction, with people huddled around them. The air was hot and stuffy and smelled of unwashed men.

I guess that'll happen if you get bombed whenever you try to open a ventilation shaft.

"What happened here?" Sokka asked. "We visited just a couple months ago. This city looked like an absolute fortress then."

"It was," Yo said.


Captain Yo peered through his eyeglass across the field. Division after division of Fire Nation troops, enough to outnumber them three to one. Daunting, but Omashu's walls multiplied the defence fivefold, if not tenfold. The Fire Nation had siege bridges, but the defenders would be able to push those away easily.

"What are they doing?" Yo asked under his breath, counting the men and specialist units. "They have to know they can't take us."

The King ambled up behind him. "Maybe they don't want to," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe they're just here to say hello! We should say hello back!"

"That's … a possibility, Your Majesty," Yo said, too tense to humour him properly. "But we should assume they're planning someth–"

A chorus of horns sounded: four minor key notes, falling, rising, falling. Yo paled. He swivelled his eyeglass around, searching frantically. All across the wall, men drew weapons or muttered prayers to whichever spirits might be listening.

"Incoming!" someone yelled.

"Is old Iroh here?" Bumi asked, peering around curiously. "I thought he'd retired?"

Yo's eyes caught a glint of gold, a headpiece. Not the heavyset man he was expecting, but a teenage girl, with an expression of pure focus. She was drawing circles in the air.

"Get down!" he bellowed at the men atop the wall opposite her. They scurried back, a moment before she finished her windup and blasted the top of the wall from across the ravine. The flash and thunderclap blinded and deafened Yo for a few seconds; by the time he recovered, one of the siege bridges was already in place, men flooding across. The girl was walking atop the bridge's railing like a cat, uncaring of the three-hundred-foot fall; she caught his eye, smiled, and hopped down into the melee, with rapid-fire flashes of blue.

Bumi suddenly had his arm in a bruising grip.

"Get everyone you can into the tunnels," he said, with a piercing, intent, entirely sane look.

"Your Majesty –?"

"I'm going to hold them off," Bumi said. "Go!"


"He went down to fight her," Yo said, "and he lost. The best earthbender in the world, defeated by a little girl in less than a minute." He shook his head.

"Then Lee was right," Sokka said. "This really was a trap."

"Hm?" said Yo.

"The girl. Princess Azula. We captured and interrogated her, and she said it'd be safe to come this way."

Actually, didn't she say they'd left 'significant forces' here?

She must have laughed her head off after we left.

"You should have interrogated her more thoroughly," Yo said.

Aang chose not to interpret this. "Where's Bumi now?"

There came a crash off to their left, then a series of thuds. Dust rained from the ceiling.

"Breach!" someone yelled. "Firebender in the tunnel!" People all along got up and grabbed weapons.

There was a flash and a boom, then a familiar voice yelling. "Get it through your thick" crash "stupid" thud "heads, I'm on" bang "your side!"

A couple of men scurried out of a side tunnel, a tongue of flame flying overhead.

Yeah, nothing says 'I'm on your side' like clobbering you and setting you on fire.

Ooh go on, say it. Sokka gets all the good one-liners, we deserve this.

"Yeah –" she began.

"Nothing says 'I'm on your side' like clobbering you and setting you on fire," Sokka said.

Aang chuckled. "Good one, Sokka."

"," said Katara.

Zuko walked out of the side tunnel, glanced around at the horde of assembled earthbenders, and promptly took a boulder to the side. He rolled with it into a ready stance.

"Whoa whoa wait!" Aang said, hurrying forward. "He's with us!"

Yo turned to them, his face shrouded in shadow. "A firebender?"

People used to be happy to see us, before we let Zuko along.

Long ago, the three of us lived in harmony. Then, everything changed, when Zuko attacked.

"It's a long story," Aang said. "Lee, are you okay?"

Zuko brushed himself off and got up, looking imperiously around. Oh, some little boulders, how cute.

Yo glowered, staying in his bending stance. "What do you have to say for yourself?!"

Zuko peered down his nose at the man, which involved tilting his head back slightly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, deadpan.

"It's a long story," Aang said again, raising his hands to Yo placatingly. "But trust me, we wouldn't have made it this far without him. Lee, how'd you get here? We took a secret passage in. And we only even got out of the tunnel because of the power of love."

"And a pair of giant fluffy monsters," Sokka said. They began walking again, and the gaggle of riled-up Eartheners dispersed. "That might have actually been spirits? They didn't feel like spirits, but they could earthbend, and I thought only Earth Kingdom … people? What's the word for someone from there? Earth people? Earth Kingdomites?"

"Appa can airbend, and he's not a spirit," Katara said.

"," Zuko said, then, visibly deciding he didn't care, "I can take care of myself. It wasn't too far and I didn't have to carry any supplies."

"You haven't had dinner, then," Sokka said. "I think we should –"

"We can eat once we're out of the city," Zuko snapped. "We don't have long before the army breaks down here."

"We've lasted this long," Yo protested.

"That's because you're not important enough for our side to break out all the stops. The Avatar is."

Are you trying to be a jerk?

Actually, he might be. How many fights has he got into with Earth Kingdom people since he was banished? I'd have a grudge too, if I'd had that.

How many of those fights do you think he lost? Aang pretty much toyed with him every time, but he pretty much toyed with the Kyoshi Warriors, and with Hahn.

Actually, how's that work? Aang beat Zuko easily, who beat the Kyoshi Warriors easily, who beat Aang easily. I guess Zuko's good at the stealth thing, so he countered the Kyoshi Warriors' style?

Uh, Boss? You're zoning out. Focus.

"'Our side'," Yo growled, taking a step forward. "Listen, you –"

Aang held him back. "We can't leave yet," he told Zuko. "We have to rescue Bumi. If we don't, we came all this way for nothing."

"He could be anywhere," Zuko said. "By the time we find him –"

"He's in the city centre," Yo said. "They have him locked up in the main plaza."

"– Finding him is the easy part," Zuko verbally backspaced. "He's the strongest earthbender since the Unbreakable Wall, who he trained. The Fire Nation isn't going to just leave him. He's going to be surrounded by crack troops."

"… We tried to rescue him before," Yo admitted. "Twice. Both times, the Fire Nation was waiting for us and captured most of the rescue team."

"If only we had an expert on breaking into Fire Nation prisons," Aang said pointedly.

Yo gave him a confused look; Katara, Aang, and Sokka all looked at Zuko, who fidgeted and scowled.

"We'll be a lot tougher with a master earthbender on the team," Sokka said. "The sooner we get one, the safer we'll be. We take him, punch through any Fire Nation blockade, get to Ba Sing Se, and be in the clear."

Aren't we being reckless? The Fire Nation knows we know where he is, and they've already caught two groups. This is a trap.

That doesn't mean we can't get past them. They don't know we have Zuko. If anyone can beat Fire Nation security, it's him. And we have to help Bumi.

I know, but …

Katara opened her mouth, but bit it back. Maybe she was being too pessimistic.

Zuko sighed. "Fine. But I'm in command of this mission, and you actually listen to me for a change. No arguments or backtalk."

"Cross my heart," Aang said, drawing an X over his heart with his index finger.

"All right!" Sokka said, grinning. "Heist time!"

Zuko, clearly regretting it already, motioned them to follow him. "First off, you need to know about the opposition, Maguma Corps. It's a select unit of earthbenders from the colonies, loyal to the Fire Nation."

He dropped to his front on a roof, the Blue Spirit mask in place. Nine soldiers patrolled the street below, one a teenage girl in green-trimmed armour, trailing her hand along the stone facade of a building. He motioned the others to drop onto their hands, so their weight would be more evenly distributed and she'd be less likely to notice them.

"They're support units rather than combat specialists. They can sense earthbending nearby, they're how the Fire Nation always knows you're coming. So, the earthbenders will stay in the tunnels. One will let us out well away from the city centre, while other groups bend diversionary tunnels."

Clouds of dust wafted up in the slums, near where Yo had rescued them; near the main gate; and inside Bumi's old palace. Fire Nation horns sounded and soldiers ran over, while the earthbenders kept underground.

"I'm limiting the main group to three people: me, the Avatar, Katara. Shut up, Sokka, you agreed I'd be in charge, and if you don't stop whining, Katara stays behind, too. This is a stealth mission, the away team has to be small. Besides, you have your own job to do."

Zuko led the way to a courtyard at the base of the gigantic half-finished statue of his father in the city centre. They looked up: Bumi was in one of those metal coffins, dangling from the statue.

Are they trying to hold him inhumanely? How long has he been up there?!

"We won't need to worry about stealth once we find him. He can tunnel directly downward, backfilling as he goes. No-one in Maguma has a chance of out-bending a master like him, so we should be clear to make it back to this tunnel network and make our escape."

Aang dashed up the scaffolding like it was horizontal, got atop the cage, and hesitated. He shook his head.

Katara's stomach twisted into a knot. Something was wrong. "What's he waiting for?" she asked.

Zuko made a chopping motion.

Aang shook his head more emphatically and mouthed something that was lost between the distance and darkness.

"Is he worried about the drop?" Katara asked. "He can just catch him with airbending."

"Someone's going to spot him," Zuko undertoned. Even with his mask and dark ninja clothes in place, Katara could feel his tension in how he held himself.

Katara pointed at Aang, then down at the ground, jabbed her finger for emphasis. "We need to go, Aang," she muttered.

"Come on, hurry up …"

With an expression that he was doing this against his better judgement, Aang bent a fistful of water among the chain holding the cage and froze it; a chain link snapped, and the cage plummeted. He caught it with a pulse of airbending a moment before it could smash to bits on the ground.

Zuko stepped forward and axe kicked the cage, smashing the door off, and with the impact, Bumi also smashed to pieces. Zuko jumped backward, startled, and Bumi's head rolled out of the wrecked cage.

It was painted terracotta.

Oooh boy.

She, Aang, and Zuko stepped together, facing outward in a circle, as dozens of troops filtered out of the shadows, from behind walls and pillars. The Maguma girl arrived too, and a giant of a man with a tattoo of an eye on his forehead and a metal arm and leg. Finally, another teenage girl came out, this one wearing a red bijia dress and with her hair up in buns. She stepped a pace past the line of troops.

"Koshaku Mai, daughter of Ukano," she drawled. "I'm sorry, Avatar, but your king is in another castle."

Aang levelled his staff at her. "Where is he? Where's Bumi?!"

She was shorter than Zuko, but somehow better at peering down her nose condescendingly.

"Princess Azula told me to give you a message, if I saw you before she did," she said. "'Everything you touch will turn to ash.'"

Aang's knuckles went white. "Where's Bumi," he repeated.

Mai blinked slowly and adjusted her fingerless gloves. "You know, when she suggested this little art gallery, I thought it would never work," she said. "Surely no-one would ever believe we could be stupid enough to leave someone as dangerous as the Mad King in his own city, while there were still partisans on the loose. But here we are. It really is like she said. You only need to give the tiniest nudge, and people will believe whatever they want to believe. It's a shame we won't get any more of the resistance, but I guess we've already picked off everyone dumb enough to come here. You're free to go."

There was a beat.

"What?!" said the Maguma girl, incredulous. Everyone stared at Mai, except the eye tattoo man, whose unblinking gaze was fixed on Aang. "We have him! We can end this right now!"

Mai yawned, never taking her eye off Aang. "You read the Fire Sages' brief, didn't you?" she said. "If the Avatar's life is in danger, he'll just enter the Avatar State and flatten the entire city. We have civilians here."

"," said Aang.

"If it were just me, I'd take that risk," she went on, "but not if it'll get them massacred, too. That's the difference between you and me."

"I'm not a murderer," Aang said.

"Do you feel more like a human when you tell yourself that," Mai asked conversationally, "and less like a dark spirit puppeteering a sack of flesh whose soul you ate? Or is it just for the benefit of the two useful idiots standing beside you?"

Whoa. Fire Nation aristocrats are really something else.

Katara practically hissed at her. "You don't know what you're talking about."

Mai's eyes flicked to hers.

"Then what are we supposed to do about him?" asked the Maguma girl.

"We wait until he leaves the city," said Mai, her gaze returning to Aang. "No collateral damage then. Or maybe he stays awhile. The Fire Sages' brief didn't say, but I'm guessing he can't enter the Avatar State while asleep. Or, he could attack us right now, but I don't think it works if he puts himself in danger. Only one way to find out."

There was a pause. Katara had half a mind to attack, but Zuko gently shoulder-checked her.

"Come on," she said quietly, mostly to Aang. "Let's go."

They moved toward the edge of the circle of enemy troops, beside Mai. She gave a little sideways nod, and the soldiers moved aside to let them pass.

As they reached her, there was a chorus of horns from the city gate: four minor key notes, falling, rising, falling again. Zuko jerked so hard it was almost a convulsion. For the first time, Mai did something that might charitably be called smiling.

"Shitsurei shimasu," she said. "I have to greet our new guest. But to answer your question, the Mad King's at Boiling Rock. Small island a few hundred miles nor'-east of the capital. It'll be surrounded by warships, you can't miss it. Jaa ne, Avatar."

She motioned, and her soldiers fell in behind her, the Maguma girl and the eye tattoo man doing so only very reluctantly. Aang slowly backed away from them. Zuko was swaying on his feet, so Katara grabbed his hand to pull him along. She was pretty sure they were followed, but he was so out of it, there wasn't much chance of losing their tail.

They came to the rendezvous point, a tunnel hidden behind a pile of rubbish in one of the cities million winding alleys. Sokka and Yo were waiting for them; Yo hurried them through, then bent a stone plug over it.

"You didn't get Bumi?" Sokka asked.

"It was just a decoy," Aang said.

"Hey," Katara said softly to Zuko. "What is it?"

"We've got to go. We've got to go. We've got to go."

What on earth could affect someone like him so badly?

"Why?" she asked. "What did the horns mean?"

Zuko just swallowed.

"The four notes?" said Yo. "That's the Dragon of the West's theme song. They play it whenever he's about to take to the battlefield. Pump up their men, terrify ours. Or it was, but their Princess used it too."

"Not his theme," Zuko said. "The royal family's anthem."

That's not for Zuko, is it. And Iroh and Azula are both up north …

There was a beat while everyone subtracted three from four.

"If they've had Maguma troops watching the city this entire time," Sokka said, "and you didn't know, they've probably been mapping the tunnels whenever anyone bent since they took the city. We have until they tell him we're here, and then they'll storm the tunnels. We've got to go. Now. So much for the pentapus plan," he added wistfully.

"Go where?" said Yo. "They've got those tanks. And rhinos, and …"

"While they were out, I've been plotting courses," Sokka said, patting his map case, which was fatter than before. He motioned them to walk and talk, moving fast. "Our best chance is to split up. The Gaang heads east. There's a path that mostly goes over hills, which tanks are slower on, and then down into a swamp, which I don't think they can pass at all. After that –"

"Don't tell me any more," Yo said. "Better we can't tell them where you're going, if they capture us."

"Fair enough," Sokka said, "but they're not going to. When they spot us and sound the alarm, you break out and go west. Their fastest units will chase us, so you should be clear, if you're fast enough. Get down into the tunnel when you reach it, dig out halfway along, then head north, skirt the desert, and head for Ba Sing Se. It's safe there if anywhere is."

Katara and Aang exchanged glances.

"It's a plan," Yo said.

"It's a plan where Aang doesn't have to fight him with only two elements," Katara said.

"It's a good plan," Aang said.

"Let's hurry," Sokka said.

He and Aang took the lead, hurrying along. Katara dropped back to pace Zuko.

"You shouldn't have to be afraid of him," she undertoned.

He said nothing.

Aang led them into a sewer, then down and out of the city. It was still dark out, but sentries with torches were fanning out, methodically sweeping the area. The Gaang had to keep silent and move when they could. The pre-dawn light was starting to brighten by the time they made it out of the city's ditch and to a little nook where they'd hidden Appa.

Joo Dee, who was perched in the saddle, stretched and smiled widely at them. "Good morning, Avatar," she said. "Shall we continue on?"

"Yeah," he said. He hopped onto Appa's head. "Come on, boy, wake up. We're going to need everything you've got."

Appa snuffled.

"Ready? Yip yip."

Appa rose into the air, breaking cover. Moments later, horns sounded all around them. Appa swivelled in mid-air and vectored east.

The chase is on.

I hope Captain Yo and the rest of the Resistance make it out.

Sokka looked out over Appa's saddle. "Hey, Zuko," he said. "If they do catch us, what are we up against?"

Zuko still looked green around the gills –

Just hearing his father's boss music does that to him?

Considering what happened last time they saw each other? I believe it.

– but he perked up a bit at that.

Having purpose and responsibility centres him. There's nothing he hates more than sitting around uselessly.

"Koshaku Mai," he said. "That title's almost as high as Prince. In the Fire Nation, all aristocrats are professional warriors, girls included. She's a kunai– throwing knife expert."

"You know her?" Katara asked, surprised.

"Aristocrats all know each other."

"She was such a jerk," Katara groused. "Where's she get off saying what she did?"

"In the Fire Nation, all aristocrats are professional soldiers," Zuko repeated.

"So?" Katara said.

"Oh," Sokka said at the same time, with a furtive glance toward Aang, who couldn't hear from up front with the roar of wind in his ears. "Oh."

"What?" Katara asked, not getting it and annoyed Sokka had first when he hadn't even met Mai.

"One of her family members or close friends was in Zhao's fleet," Sokka guessed.

"One of?" Zuko repeated.

Sokka and Katara both winced.

And it's not just her. Every aristocrat would have lost someone that night. How are we going to break it to Aang?

"I've never seen her that angry," Zuko said, a little wistfully. "She's probably in one of those."

He pointed backward. Two tanks were after them, much bigger than the ones at the Northern Air Temple. They had to have entire squads riding them, and they were faster than Appa. Katara glanced forward. There was an upward ridge coming up; she knew tanks could climb sheer walls, but it would buy them time.

"Is she a firebender?" Sokka asked.

"No, but she's still good in a fight. Think of her like a faster but shorter-range Yuyan. She'll have at least one Maguma with her. Then there's the man with the eye tattoo, Sanmiittai. I don't know him personally, but he's got a reputation. Probably the best firebender in the world that I'm not related to. He hits really, really hard."

"And the Fire Lord," Sokka said.

Katara's eyes flicked to Zuko. He took a deep breath.

"And my father," he said. "If he catches us … We hope he doesn't catch us."

You know, if Zuko backstabbed us right now, he could hand Aang over and be let straight back home. Is he actually on our side, or at least willing to honour his bargain? Or did he just not think of it? Or maybe he doesn't think his father would buy it?

She stared at him, trying to read his thoughts.

You know, just to be safe, let's not give him the idea.

Appa sailed up the cliff. Behind them, men popped out of the tanks and waved signal flags at each other, and the second one peeled off and headed south.

They're not giving up that easily, are they?

Maybe the Fire Lord's on that one and he can't be bothered. He sent out both his kids instead of looking for the Avatar himself, after all.

She pictured the Fire Lord, who in her imagination looked like Zhao but with Zuko's old scar for some reason, throwing a tantrum and having to be consoled with a plate of cupcakes.

She checked their waterskins, which she'd made a point of filling when they'd got out of the tunnel. At the time, it had seemed like a sensible precaution; now she wondered whether the weight wasn't slowing Appa down a fraction.

Should I just throw it overboard? It'll help in a fight, but I don't think we're beating those guys if they catch us either way.

Appa flew off a cliff, and Aang rolled backward onto the saddle. "Hey guys," he said. "Once we lose the tank, we still have to think about Bumi."

"Forget about him," Zuko said promptly.

"He's my friend –"

"He's bait. Mai was lying, Avatar. Boiling Rock is a firebender prison. It's not secure for earthbenders, and we wouldn't send him there even if it was, we just lock them up on ships. She said that so if you got away, maybe you'd walk into another trap later. A sting in the tail."

Katara blinked.

He's used that phrase before. When was it?

Sokka frowned. "I hate to say it, but Zuko's right," he said. "They know we're looking for him; they already laid one trap, they could lay more. We'll never find him in time, we have to get another teacher." Joo Dee's eternal smile widened a fraction. "Once you defeat the Fire Lord, we'll just say that all prisoners of war have to be released. That'd be fair, right, Zuko?"

Zuko shrugged. "Holding prisoners is expensive. Of course we'll let them go when the war ends. One way or the other."

The guy Aang wants to befriend so he can replace his father. But ever since the battle at Agna Qel'a, Zuko's barely said a word to Aang other than to tear him down.

He doesn't have a problem with us, though. Or Sokka. And there are plenty of Water Tribe prisoners we'd like to see freed. Maybe we should talk to him about it later. Get him to agree to that, then just haggle him up after.

"I guess that's the best –" Sokka began, then, interrupting himself, "– oh hey, I was wondering whether they'd be able to just go off the edge."

The tank behind them had got to the cliff and rolled to a stop. It dropped an anchor, inched forward, and began slowly winching itself down.

"We're definitely getting to the swamp ahead of them now," he said.

They all relaxed a bit, for the first time since they saw Omashu, even Zuko.

"What's the plan now, then?" Aang asked.

"We're taking the Earth King up on his offer," Sokka said. Joo Dee's smile widened even further. "We can't keep being on the run like this. We're heading for Ba Sing Se so you can train safely. If we find a teacher before then, great, we'll bring them along and you can get started early; if not, we'll take whoever's there. There'll be Fire Nation troops in the way, but if they have to surround the entire city, they'll be spread thin. We'll find a way through."

"Makes sense," Aang said, climbing back onto Appa's head to help urge him on faster.

I should join him. Planning is Sokka's thing.

Yeah, but … I don't think we can let our guard down yet. We're missing something.

Zuko? If he were going to double-cross us, he would've already done it.

Her eyes flicked over to Joo Dee's weirdly vacant ones.

It's not her. If she were a mole, she would have turned Appa in, or had soldiers waiting for us there. Probably both.

Are we just paranoid because we've been running awhile?

Why would the Fire Lord come out here?

They were making that statue of him in the plaza. Maybe he wanted to see it?

You think he doesn't have bigger statues back home? No. But he's a coward, isn't he? He picked a fight with a thirteen-year-old and then sent both his kids after Aang instead of coming himself. Why's a coward visiting a city that still has a strong resistance movement?

They sat in silence awhile: she worrying; Sokka going back over his maps, sharpening his boomerang, or scratching Momo under the chin; Zuko leaning back against the edge of the saddle, expression unreadable; Joo Dee, with her vacant permasmile; Aang talking to Appa. The tank behind them dwindled into the distance, not quite gone, but more and more hidden by the cliffs and ridges rising and falling below.

Natural, or formations made by earthbenders?

Yagoda said they went to war with the Water Tribes, once upon a time. Water, earth, fire, each at war with each of the others. Were we ever the bad guys, was there a time when everyone fought us? Did … we ever go to war with the Air Nomads?

Aang says they were peaceful.

Were they always? Is peace even possible?

Her eyes slid over to Zuko. His eyes had slid shut. He was normally more or less indestructible, but he hadn't slept in a day and hadn't eaten since the evening before. She made a note to give him a larger portion the next time he ate.

He keeps his word. If he promised peace, he'd do it.

Nobody ever promises to be peaceful, though, they just promise not to start anything. If anyone threatened his people …

She remembered his uncle at Izumihanto. Before then, he'd seemed like a harmless old man; but Fong attacked his people, and he blasted them with lightning. Less than a day later, Fong buried Katara, and Zuko nearly killed him.

he'd start the war again in a heartbeat. Remember Iroh and Fong debating? They both thought they were in the right. Both thought the other was trying to take what was theirs.

How do you fix things so that that doesn't happen?

"Guys. Guys!"

Aang was calling them. Sokka was up first, his spyglass in hand, but Katara didn't need that to see the plume of steam up ahead, just before a thick treeline.

"The other tank," Sokka said. "It must have gone around and found a proper road."

Oh. That's what we missed.

Is it, though?

She looked behind them. The steam plume from the other tank was behind them, but not that far.

"What do we do?" Aang asked. "If we double back –"

"If we double back, they'll keep blocking us," Sokka said, "and they can go longer than us, tanks don't get tired. No. We have to shoot through. If you can stop whatever they throw at us, and then we'll get into the swamp and be in the clear."

Katara, Aang, and Zuko exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"If the Fire Lord is on that tank," Katara began.

"He might be on the other one," Sokka said. "And even if he isn't, firebenders don't have a lot of range. We jink around them at the last moment, he'll only have time for one shot, at a moving target at extreme range. You're three great benders. If anyone can stop him, it's you."

Thanks, Sokka.

She and Aang fidgeted with their waterskins and staff. Sokka took Aang's place at the reins. Zuko tied a loop of rope around his waist, and the other to a nub on the saddle.

"If Sanmiittai's on it," he said, "I'll have to get in the way to block him. Put an ice shield in front of me and get ready to help pull me up. Keep as much healing water as you can spare."

"We won't need it, though, right?" Aang asked. "We're going to block him?"

"You've never seen a master firebender going all-out," Zuko said, "have you."

"," said Aang.

Ahead of them, they saw a hatch open on the tank's roof, and a topknot with a golden pin climbed out.

"Here we go!" Sokka called out. "Brace!"

Appa feinted left, then took a hard right. The tank took the bait, moved left, reversed, stalled, and stopped for a crucial moment, while they made space.

The golden pin kept rising, but it didn't belong to the Fire Lord: it was Azula. She had a little smile in place.

"What?!" Katara said.

She escaped? Already? And got ahead of us?

"Oh no," Aang said.

Zuko said nothing; he was dashing forward to grab Sokka by the back of his shirt and toss him back into the saddle.

Azula finished the motion she'd begun inside the tank, gathering fistfuls of eye-burning-bright energy, and unleashed them. Aang darted forward, spun his staff, and bent an eddy of compressed air, while Katara bent an ice shield; the bolt of lightning punched straight through both, and after that, the flash and crash blinded and deafened Katara. All she knew was the stink of ozone and burning hair, and the tilt as Appa spun around and down.

16