"... speaking..."
'... thoughts...'
Enjoy
Landing on the beach with air bending dressed in a black ninja outfit with his staff strapped to his black, Aang saw Appa waiting with Zuko standing next to him.
"So we really doing it tonight huh" asked Aang still a little hesitant over the whole ordeal.
"I planned everything, so if everything goes according to the plan nothing should happen that's out of our hands, plus if we do we'll have back up" Zuko paused to point over his shoulder at Appa.
"Appa?"
"Sup Twinkle toes " Toph sat up and leaned over the saddle.
"Oh...hey wait why isn't Toph wearing this outfit"Aang looked at Zuko with curiosity.
"She don't need it" Zuko replied climbing on Appa and sat next Toph. Aang watched her basically snuggled into his fire bending teacher, and saw she only added to her normal earth outfit black studded arm guards, he shrugged and jumped up to the saddle.
"Now that we're all here I'll go over the plan one last time, we landing somewhere out of sight. While I was at the palace and planned my escape I looked at several options and before you say anything I know about the blockage net, and that's where you come in Aang with your air or water bending you'll be able to cover us in a cloud or mist so we can fly over it, once we land Toph will take over and dig us a hole and we'll travel underground to the palace"
"What happens when we get there" Aang asked
"Either we find out if their plan of attack for Sozin's Comet has changed or not, with my defection or we find out where my sister is placed in their plan so I can stop her"
"You really thought this through Zuko I'm impressed"
"I have to, while I was chasing you my uncle use to say that I never think these things through, I don't want to put your lives in unnecessary danger so I'm looking at all angles in the plan"
Aang nodded and went to the front of Appa. Sitting on his head he grabbed the reins and with a.
"Yip,yip"
They were off to the Fire nation.
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Standing in one place and moved with a push and pull motion on top of Appa's head Aang controlled the cloud they were covered in.
'...your sister was born lucky, you... were lucky to be born...' the thought ran through his head as they shorten the distance to the fire nation palace, making him clench his hands, feeling his muscles tense up made her shift up and placed her head at his chest.
"You okay" she whispered
"... yeah" he relaxed his muscles. He was honestly thankful of Toph not only had she reassured him about his uncle, she made him feel proud about the choices he recently made, it made him happy to have the type of friends he had, his first true friends he made on his own.
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"We here..." Aang landed them a good distance from the palace, out of sight behind some hills, it felt strange being back here after the fail invasion, maybe they can accomplish something tonight.
After helping Toph down from Appa, Zuko looked around and notice that there was less guards stationed than when he was at the palace.
"Something is wrong, normally the palace and the hills that surround it is full of guards, Toph" he turned to her with an unspoken question.
"On it" placing her hands on the ground she concentrate reaching a diameter of 10 kilometres. "You right, I feel alot of post but not alot of guards in it, that's not all ...I don't "see" any earth bending Dai Lee's at the palace"
"Do you think the fire nation would've ... gotten rid of them" Aang gulped between the sentences.
"No, they're my sister's personal toys and if there's one thing I know about my sister it's that she's very controlling and possessive of her toys. No we should figure out what happened here ourselves. Toph did you feel any tunnels near us"
"Yeah there's one that goes out to the side of the hill, likely an escape route, I'll make us a tunnel that connects us to it and lead us to the palace" Standing up she took a horse stance and took a deep breath concentrating her chi, lifting her left foot she stomped it in front of her and performed a C-shape punch, where one hand is above the other, so that the arms form a C-shape when viewed from the side of the person punching. The upper arm is punching conventionally with the palm down, at face-height. The other arm is performing a turn-over punch meaning the fist is palm-up; for this arm, the fist is punching at abdomen-height.
The stomp made the rock loose for her to easily form the entrance to the tunnel on the side of the hill, with that move alone she created a mile long tunnel that connected it to the other tunnel to goes to the side of the mountain.Dusting her hands with a smug look on her face.
" well that was easy"
"Come on I want us to be in and out let's go"
Zuko ran into the tunnel first leading them through it with a fire ball burning above his hand for light. Turning left at the intersection he lead them straight down.
"Wait!" Toph shouted behind them, stopping them in their tracks.
"I feel movement a head of us, two guards heading this way" Zuko turned to Aang.
"Aang you up first knock them out fast and swiftly and don't forget to pull down your mask" he ordered
Aang nodded and pulled down his balaklava like mask and took a starting position. Breathing in and out he sped down the passage in a flash, his air bending helping him greatly. Approaching the light ahead he saw the two guards walking his way, sliding on the ground he hit the left guard's shin making him flip in air. Turning a full 360 he punched up a launching a rock from the ground at the helmet of the flipping guard, flipping him back forward and had him land on his back knocked out. All of that happened in a split second just as the right guard turned to look behind him at who attack them a rock flew out of the wall hit his helmet, knocking him out.
"...Sorry" Aang scratched the back of his head looking down very apologetic at the knocked out bodies.
Hearing feet running towards him the way he came, he saw his teammates finally joining him.
"Good job Aang, no difficulties" Zuko asked
"No sir" Zuko nodded
"Let's continue "
Running deeper into the passage Toph stopped them again and told them that they were right under the palace after turning a right, Toph stopped them again announcing that she felt movement above them. Putting her hand against the wall of the passage and closing her eyes in concentration, her vision gotten much clearer. She saw a figure working on her hair.
"Found her"
"Wha...are you sure " Zuko walked up to Toph with a clenched fist trying to hide his anxiety.
"I never forget a face"
"How do we get up" Zuko look up at the sealing of the passage in thought.
"Leave that to me, I've been practicing my sand bending, stand back" after giving her some space the two waited for her to finish. Lifting both her hands above her head she made a grab motion with her hands and pulled back both arms, sand suddenly fell from the sealing and in place a perfectly smooth circular hole was staring back at them.
"Come on get close" they huddled around her. Focusing her chi in her stomach she slowly raised them up to the hole. When they finally broke free Zuko saw that they were hidden behind a column, crawling out of the hole Zuko went to hide behind the column to listen more closely.
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After sending her handmaidens out, Azula stood in front of a full length mirror. She takes a ribbon and begins leisurely winding around her hair. Her hand gets caught as she tried to ty her hair into a top knot. Frustrated, she tugs at the tangled mess a few times before she grabs a pair of scissors from the table next to her, ready to cut her hair.
"All right hair, it's time to face your doom.!"
Azula grabs the bangs hanging in front of her face. She lifts them in the air and cuts them, with them falling near her feet. Her reflection in the mirror shows her grinning, with her hair a mess, but she stops grinning as she notices Ursa appears in the reflection, behind Azula.
"What a shame, you always had such beautiful hair."
"What are YOU doing here?" Zuko rasied an eyebrow trying to see who she was talking to.
"I didn't want to miss my own daughter's coronation."
"Don't pretend to act proud. I know what you really think of me. You think I'm a monster." Zuko thought of the 'monster' and narrowed his eyes. She replied to her 'mothers' reflection in anger.
"I think you're confused. All your life you used fear to control people, like your friends Mai and Ty Lee."
She Closes her eyes before turning around sharply to face her mother, which made Zuko look at the spot at where she was looking at
"Well what choice do I have?! Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way...Even you fear me."
Ursa responsed sincerely. "No. I love you, Azula. I do."
Azula bends over slightly, tears in her eyes, and her hair hanging down in messy locks. Gripping the hairbrush in her hand from the the table. Enraged princess lets out a shout and hurls the brush at the mirror. The resulting impact shatters a large portion of the mirror, including where Ursa's reflection was seen. Azula kneels over and begins bitterly crying. The room is devoid of any other people, showing that Ursa's reflection was a mere hallucination. After a few moments of crying she lifted her head to the mirror in front of her and saw in the spreaded cracks her brother's reflection crouching right behind her with his hand rasied in a chop motion, trying to dodge the blow his hand came down and knocked her out.
...
"Aang " Zuko spoke still looking down at the passed out princess with no emotion.
Aang scurried out of the hole and stood next them. "Yeah..."
"Get her armour for me " "sure" . Seeing that she was still in a robe, he wanted protect her dignity and gently picked her up bridal style and began moving to the hole. Feeling Zuko nearing the hole with Azula in his arms Toph made the hole bigger and raised the platform up to the hole perfectly matching it the round shape. Stepping on the platform they waited for Aang to step on it to, not a sound came from any of them, both understanding that words are not needed at the moment. When Aang finally joined them she lowered the platform to the ground, when they stepped off the platform she bended the sand back into a circle and shot it up into the round hole, not finished she slammed her fist into the tunnel wall and formed the patterns on the rejoined slab to the floor above them. Turning around to join her teammates it was as if they were never there and left the tunnels
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Riding in silence on Appa with Azula still in his arms, he thought back to the episode that she had and realised.
'...I understand everything now...'
A/N: Just a heads up, Toph is actually 14 in this fanfic so maybe I have something for her I don't know yet and yes sorry I finally got a chance to do another chapter, I drop more frequently this time.
YAMI OUT
