AN: So it's alive! Yes, yes it is, I finally had the time and the motivation to revive this story, and I am happy I did as this arc is going to be an exciting one. There will certainly be plenty of action and adventure, as our intrepid heroes work their way through the wartorn lands of the Earth Kingdom. Should be good fun, even if it is a pain to write sometimes. It's the downside of flipping canon on its head and going your own way, sometimes you get stuck, or it takes time for you to properly orientate yourself. I suppose it is the difference between professional writers, like the ones who did the storyboard for Avatar, and fanfic amateurs that just do it for the fun of it. Still for the moment I am still having fun with it, I just wish I had more time, so on with the show!

Either way here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy and please do leave a review! Also fun little tidbit for the PJO nerds out there, today, the 18th August, is apparently canon Percy Jackson's Bday, so that's a thing!

Another thing while I am at it, is this. I am a part of a discord group, there's tonnes of others there, plenty of writers, admittedly mainly PJO, but other stuff too. Feel free to pop along and say hi, I'm always happy to chat about the stuff I am writing. So if you fancy it please do to join by sticking '8rp5uActfK' this into discord, or using the link on my bio.

Thanks for reading and please do leave a review, that or feel free to PM, I am usually much better at answering those!

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Avatar the Last Airbender.

( - )

(Last Time)

"Hunting down Zuko's murderer, the Avatar." Mai nodded, her lips curling downwards, even as her dark eyes seemed to momentarily flicker with rage. The fingers of her right hand almost lovingly toyed with a knife she had just pulled out of the sash around her waist.

"Don't worry, Azula. We won't let him get away, we'll bring him to justice!" Ty Lee said firmly, her frivolous happy go lucky persona fading for a moment as she instead gripped Azula's hand tightly and met her golden eyes with her own brown ones.

"Thank you, to both of you." Azula nodded, a genuine smile on her face as she looked between her two friends. She didn't feel quite as alone as she had before. More than that though, she now also felt one step closer to capturing the Avatar and punishing her brother's killer.

( - )

Chapter 14

( - )

(With Percy)

Riding on a giant, flying skybison was an odd experience to say the least.

Initially, Percy had thought the ride would be bumpy and uncomfortable, and that there would be a very real threat of him getting airsick. But that just wasn't the case, the bison flew in a strangely smooth manner, practically gliding, or maybe even swimming, through the air. If he could liken it to something, he would say it was like riding a Pegasus. It just felt safe and secure.

That said, as they flew over the sprawling forest below, he could feel the wind roaring around them. How any of the passengers managed to coherently talk while the skybison soared through the sky, he just didn't know. The wind was harsh and cold, and seemed to bite through his thin woollen shirt.

"Percy?" Suki's voice broke through his thoughts. Her voice sounded louder and more strained than normal as she fought to be heard over the rushing of the wind as Appa, their skybison ride, doggedly ploughed through the air.

"What?" Percy shouted back, his eyes narrowed against the cold, smoke filled wind as he continued to watch the black plumes of smoke spiralling into the air in several dozen places across the forest, before with a grudging sigh he turned to look back at the other passengers.

"We need a plan!" Sokka shouted. "There are fires everywhere. The soldiers at Omashu are probably already heading out to investigate. But there are too many of them, and they're to spread out, and probably too big, we need to get there and help out before they spread any further, and the entire forest goes up!"

"He's right," Aang nodded.

Looking back out at the forest, Percy also nodded. In the time it had taken for them to dress and saddle up Appa, at least a dozen more fires had broken out, adding their own plumes of smoke to the rapidly growing forest fires that had already been set.

From where he was sitting and with his bird's eye view, Percy could already see great swathes of the forest were already alight. Crackling dirty orange and yellow fire was licking at the boughs of trees, consuming any and all vegetation it passed as the fires tore through the forests below, devouring everything in its path.

"We should split up." Katara added, her expression more intense than Percy had ever seen it as she glared at the surrounding pillars of smoke. He had thought he'd seen the worst of Katara's glares when he had initially refused to teach both her and Aang. But the look she had given him then, paled in comparison to the glare on her face now. Katara seemed to truly hate the Fire Nation, and in a way that went beyond the usual hatred of an enemy you're at war with. No, the anger on her face spoke of a deeper kind of anger, something personal. "The Earth Kingdom armies won't be able to get to the further out fires, we should split up and start with those."

"Maybe," Suki nodded, worrying her lip a bit. "But, doesn't this all seem strange? So many fires just appearing like this, out of nowhere?"

"It's the Fire Nation, they're all evil, fire starting maniacs!" Sokka replied loudly.

"No, I think she has a point. These fires, they have to have been set for a reason." Percy finally spoke up. He was never as tactically minded as Annabeth, or some of the other campers. He had always excelled at adapting on the fly, and trusting in his instincts and gut to carry him to victory. That said, he had had enough experience of war games and battle both, to know a distraction when he saw one. "This is a distraction, one meant to lure the soldiers out of Omashu, probably so they can be ambushed. It is a classic ploy. Trick the enemy into sallying forth and then gut them. That and they are probably trying to force people to flee to the city en masse, it would make it easier for them to slip some double agents into the crowd, who can then sabotage the defences and let the main army in later."

"Then we should definitely help out then!" Aang said resolutely. "It's my duty as the Avatar!"

Biting back a retort at Aang's reasoning, Percy instead focussed on the matter at hand. He didn't want to get into ideological debates with a kid, especially one that had been brought up believing himself to be some kind of messiah. That was something he didn't want to touch, even at the best of times, let alone when they were in the middle of an emergency.

With that in mind, Percy held his tongue and instead started buckling on his leather armour and his sheathed sword. It would provide scant protection from fire, but it would at least provide some nominal protection from spears and blades. It was just a shame neither Suki nor himself had been able to pick up something better at the city before all this went down. "If this is a trick to get the soldier's out of Omashu, then that means the Fire Nation probably have some kind of nearby force just waiting to take advantage."

"So we need to not only put out the fires, but also scout out an army too?" Suki summarised, her own fingers nimbly helping Percy as he finished strapping on his armour. She had already pulled on some of her Kyoshi armour, minus the traditional face paint and some of the skirts.

"So, how do you want to split it?" Sokka asked, his whalebone club in hand now as he looked expectantly over at Percy.

"Suki and I, we will try and find the Fire Nation forces, we'll put out any fires we come across as we go. You three use Appa, head to the furthest fires and start putting them out. Be careful, though, your ride isn't exactly inconspicuous. Watch out for enemies using the forest's foliage as cover to ambush you as well." Percy said, his brow furrowed as he thought things over.

Aang for all his youth was a powerful aerokinetic, on a par if not very slightly better than Jason had been. He was certainly more versatile in the things he could do, even if his control was maybe not quite up to Jason's standards, after all Aang needed a glider to fly, Jason didn't need that kind of crutch. He was also decent enough when it came to manipulating water too. His technique and approach needed a lot of refinement, yes, but in terms of power and basic technique he was pretty on point. He was more than competent enough to put out some fires and deal with some Fire Nation thugs.

Katara too, wasn't bad as far her waterbending went. She was a bit rough around the edges, and needed a lot more training if she wanted to be a master, but she certainly had the basics down, and like Aang, she was more than competent enough to put out the fires. Though first they would probably need to find some water sources as neither of them were at the level they needed to be to draw water out of plants, ground or air.

As for Sokka, well he was smart enough and according to Suki was moderately skilled in hand to hand combat. He wouldn't be dead weight, at least.

"Okay, good luck!" Sokka nodded.

"Thanks," Percy nodded back, before looking over at Aang. "Could you get us closer to the tree line?"

"Yeah sure," Aang nodded. "Come on, Appa, down."

"Are you ready?" Percy asked, looking over at Suki now.

In response the younger girl sent him a cocky smirk and patted the sword sheathed at her hip.

"Let's go then." Percy smiled, giving her shoulder a squeeze as he did so, before then leaping off of the saddle and falling down to the forest below.

"Good luck, and stay safe." Suki called to the trio, before she followed Percy's lead.

Plunging through the foliage, Percy kept his wits about him as he landed on a thick branch, his knees bending slightly to relieve some of the pressure of his landing before he then pushed off again, this time jumping to a lower branch, and then so on and so forth until he made it to the leaf strewn forest floor. It wasn't the quickest of landings, but it was a damn sight safer than just leaping fifty feet from a bison and landing in a classic three point hero landing. That was a sure-fire way to fuck up his knees, and potentially break something.

With a rustle of leaves and another thump, Suki landed down beside him, after having followed his path. Her breathing was slightly more ragged than before, and she had a few leaves in her brown locks, but otherwise she looked unperturbed by their sudden descent.

"Are you alright?" Percy asked.

"Fine," Suki nodded, before pushing herself up and standing beside him. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well first I think we need to deal with the forest fires, and unfortunately hindsight has hit me like a bitch." Percy replied.

"What?" Suki said, her brow cocking at his unusual turn of phrase.

"I've just thought of a quick way of stopping the fires. It's still doable, but it would have probably been easier to pull off whilst on Appa." Percy said, staring up at the forest canopy now, and ignoring the distinct scent of smoke he could smell in the air.

"Okay, but you can still do it here and now?" Suki asked, confusion tinging her words now. "Is this another waterbender thing?"

"Well, I'd say it is more stormbending, but essentially yes." Percy nodded. One of his father's Domains revolved around storms. It was something he'd played around with before, but never fully mastered, or even partially mastered for that matter. Controlling water came easy to him, and to a lesser extent so did manipulating the earth, especially when it came to creating earthquakes. The Domain of Storms, that was more complex. It was made up of several different constituent elements, some of which were substantially harder to control than others, such as lightning and air.

"So you're going to create a storm?" Suki asked incredulously, as the two of them started walking, their feet carrying them in the direction of the nearest fire. As they walked, the smell of burning wood became more intense, and the air became hotter and harder to breath.

"Yes, and it'll be a big one. It'll have to be to cover the entire area. Unfortunately, my control won't be the best, so I'll be going big." Percy nodded, sheathing his own sword as he did so, even as Suki unsheathed her blade. He would need to concentrate in order to whip up a storm big enough to cover nearly ten thousand acres worth of forest. It was doable, but it would leave him defenceless, as doing it on such a large scale like this, it wasn't something he had ever done before. "I'll need you to have my back while I'm summoning the storm, as I'll probably need to maintain it, so it doesn't disperse, which basically means I'll be defenceless. Hopefully we won't be disturbed, but if we are…"

"I can deal with it." Suki said resolutely, pulling a buckler shield from her back now too and slipping it on her left arm.

"I'm counting on you." Percy smiled, his eyes narrowing against the smoke in the air now as they made it to one of the raging fires. The smoke was thick and the heat of the flames was intense and prickling at their skin. Added to that was also the size of the fire, over one hundred metres of forest was already aflame, both the under brush and the trees both.

Gritting his teeth in anger at the sight in front of him, Percy took a deep breath and pulled at the ground beneath him. He could feel water far below.

Ignoring the clenching feeling in his gut, Percy focussed on all that water lingering beneath the ground and pulled it up to the surface.

Almost at once the ground beneath him started rumbling, with several spots bulging slightly as earth and soil was displaced.

"Percy?" Suki coughed, her hand held to her face and her eyes streaming from the smoke.

Instead of replying, Percy thrust his hands forward, his eyes also streaming from the smoke. In answer to his abrupt actions, geysers of muddy water exploded from the earth, the water spraying into the air all around.

Smiling at this, Percy spread his hands wide, manipulating the water as he did so and turning the gallons of water now swirling through the air into a thick mist, before with a deep breath first, he then exhaled and pushed his hands out again.

Almost akin to an avalanche, freezing cold mist swept through the vast forest fire, with more of it following as the mist rapidly quenched the open flames and soaked burning embers.

Within a matter of minutes all one hundred square metres plus of burning forest was reduced to a smoking black scar on the land, and with the fire gone so too did the roaring of the flames and the crackling of burning undergrowth. The entire glade was now a frost covered, silent wasteland.

Letting out a deep sigh, his breath misting in front of him, Percy looked sadly around at the burnt ruin around him. It was depressing to see such pointless acts of destruction.

"Are you alright?" Suki asked from next to him, her hand resting gently on his shoulder.

"Yeah, fine," Percy replied, his breathing slightly harder than before. The water beneath the ground had not been the easiest to draw on. Wiping some sweat from his brow, and holding back a shiver, Percy looked around at the clearing again, his gaze coming to rest on a charred stump just in front of him. "Okay, I'm going to get to work."

Walking over to the stump, Percy took a seat, his legs crossed beneath him and his eyes closed. He wasn't as monk-like as Aang, nor was he quite in touch with the spirits like some of the benders he had come across. In fact in the few years he had been here, he hadn't come across or interacted with a spirit once.

Despite that, however, he could at least appreciate that monks and spiritualists weren't completely full of shit when it came to calming your mind through meditation. Sitting down, crossing your legs and taking slow steady breaths, it was a good way to concentrate, and considering what he was about to do, he needed to concentrate.

( - )

(With Suki, a few minutes later)

After taking a few practice swings with her sword and once again testing the weight of the weapon, Suki looked around at the smoking landscape around her.

Looking back behind her, she could see Percy, still sitting on the stump, his eyes closed, and his brow furrowed in concentration. A few minutes had passed since he'd started doing, well whatever it was he was doing, and in that time there had been no noticeable results.

She trusted Percy, but when it came to the bending arts, it was all very alien to her.

She couldn't bend the elements, and neither could her father or mother, or anyone in her extended family really, or at least not for the last few generations. Which, in some ways, she found odd really, after all her several times great-grandmother had been Avatar Kyoshi, the founder of Kyoshi Island, and who, at the age of over two hundred, when she had died, had been one of the oldest and most powerful Avatar's to have ever lived.

Despite her pedigree though and her direct relation to an Avatar, a relation which was shared by a number of families on Kyoshi -which maybe wasn't surprising considering how small the population was on Kyoshi, and also how isolated the island was, the only visitors they had were trade ships- neither her, nor anyone living on the island could bend.

Not that she needed bending though.

Sure as a kid, when she had first learned in school about the exploits of Avatar Kyoshi, and of the great earthbenders of old, she had dreamed of discovering a hidden talent for bending within her.

Many a late afternoon and early evening of her youth had been spent pretending to be earthbender or waterbender in the forests and on the coast of Kyoshi with the other kids her age after school had let out.

They had acted out scenes from the story books, and more often than not she had played the part of Kyoshi. She had pretended to sunder the land, unleash volcanoes, and had even acted out the creation of the island upon which she was born. All deeds and feats that Kyoshi herself had done during her long and active life. It had been fun and exciting, even if it was nothing but wishful thinking.

She hadn't been born with the gift of earthbending, no one on Kyoshi had. For some reason the spirits had deemed them unworthy of their blessing, and had instead shunned the children of Kyoshi for some unknown reason, or maybe for some long forgotten deed of their distant ancestor.

That had been a long time ago though, back before she started training to be a Kyoshi Warrior, back when she had had time to mess about with such idle fantasies. Back when she had cried, and railed at the hand fate had dealt her. Back before, she had learned just what she was capable of. Before, she had fallen in love with being a Kyoshi Warrior.

Yes, she didn't need bending.

She didn't dislike benders, not any more, nor was she jealous of them.

At the same time, though, neither did she revere benders.

They were just people in the end, and as such they were just as flawed as every other person on the planet.

In fact, in some ways benders were more prone to corruption, ego and arrogance, than non-benders. They were born with power, after all, power that put them above the average person. They grew up knowing they were special, and sometimes that went to their heads. But of course just like with non-benders, there were good people and bad, those that used their power, abilities, influence and wealth to help others, and those that used those same things to oppress others.

She was no expert on the bending arts, but she knew people, and more than that she knew what people were capable of.

During her time with the Kyoshi Warriors, she had seen the worst of humanity. She had fought pirates, slavers and bandits that had attacked Kyoshi, foolishly thinking the isolated island was easy prey. She had defeated plunderers and marauders that had predated the coasts of the Kyoshi and the other islands in the archipelago. She had fought, and in some cases slain these individuals, both men and women, benders and non-benders, Fire Nation and natives from other Nations and Kingdoms.

It was for that reason, that as she looked around at the pointless destruction around her, she couldn't feel anything but contempt for the Fire Nation soldiers.

It could be argued that they were just men and women following orders. They were just people in the end, people that just happened to be born into the Fire Nation, and who had been indoctrinated into the common Fire Nation believe that what they were doing was right, and that by conquering the other Nations, they were in fact setting the stage for prosperity and peace to reign.

But looking around at the surrounding carnage, at that moment she found it difficult to find justification in their actions.

Her experience of the war thus far had been negligible, just like most of the people on her island. She had heard second and third hand stories from sailors and traders, and had taken in the heavily biased teaching their Earth Kingdom teacher had shared with them growing up.

In reality, her only real experience of the war had been the attack on her island by the exiled prince that was hunting the Avatar, and the small skirmish she had had on the way to Omashu. That and she had had the stories the refugees in the caravan had told her.

Drawing on her experience of people, she, like Percy, believed that this war was not black and white. It was not simple, and not something that could be summarised as succinctly as saying all Fire Nation people are evil monsters, and everyone else is good. That was the kind of world-view Sokka, Katara and Aang had, an immature view that didn't take into account the nuances of the situation and the complexity of humans.

Still though, looking around at the mindless destruction around her, and seeing tplumes of dark smoke in the distance, there were over a score by this point, Suki was finding it difficult not to fall back on Sokka's view of things.

How can you justify setting a forest on fire, and at this scale too?

No doubt, they justified it as being a viable military strategy. Percy certainly seemed to think it was. But these people had started this one hundred year war under the pretence of spreading wealth, peace and prosperity to the world, of sharing their 'golden age' with the world. They had claimed to want to make the world a better place.

Seeing their actions up close and personal though, she didn't see them making a world a better place.

Instead, she just saw destruction and death.

It was as she was dwelling on these morbid thoughts, her mind wandering as the minutes flowed by without nary a whisper of danger nor any conversation from the still stationary and quiet Percy, that she felt the first change in the air.

Literally.

The smoke wafting off the frost covered ground was all suddenly blown away, carrying with it ash, damp twigs and leaves, all of which was also noticeably caught up in the suddenly strong breeze that swirled through the desolated glade.

From around her, she could hear that same wind rustling the leaves of unburnt trees, and knocking branches together.

The wind was cold, and wet, it soaked through the woollen shirt she had under her armour, and made a shiver of foreboding run down her spine.

Looking up at the sky, Suki felt her eyes widen as she saw the previously steel grey sky had darkened considerably, and that roiling, dangerous looking dark clouds had instead begun to form far overhead, before spilling out and spreading across the area.

The epicentre of the storm was directly over her head.

Flinching slightly as she heard the boom of thunder overhead, Suki turned to look at Percy, her eyes widening even as the sky let out another ominous rumble. Following the sky's angry rumbling, fat droplets of rain also started to fall as the heavens seemingly opened, and wept over the destruction that had been wrought here today in the vast forests around Omashu.

"Percy!" Suki called, raising her voice as the winds got stronger, bringing with it more cold and dampness as it tore through the barren patch of land and out into the surrounding forests. Overhead the rain started falling harder, great droplets falling like miniature spears as they lashed the ground around her, impacting on the wet ash and leaf mulch with a constant 'ratatat' sound.

Pushing her now sodden, wet hair out of her face, and trying to ignore the cold burrowing into her core, Suki moved to Percy's side, her gaze turning worried as she saw the veins on his face and neck bulging, even as his breathing became sharper and more ragged.

Boom!

Another loud crash of thunder sounded out, even as overhead the now black clouds began to swirl around in a vortex, the wind growing stronger and fiercer, which in turn caused the rain to fall heavier.

Dodging to one side, Suki only just managed to avoid a charred branch that hurtled past her.

The sound of groaning, stressed wood momentarily distracted her as she turned to the tree line, only to wince as she saw a vast, ancient oak collapse to the ground, the sound of its keening death cry lost in the roar of the storm.

"Percy!" Suki shouted again, her feet sliding in the now sodden ash as she turned and tried to scramble towards her lover, fighting against the wind, rain and mud as she tried to make it to his side.

All the while the strength of the storm continued to grow, the sky all around her, as far as she could see, was covered in colossal angry looking clouds, casting the forest in shadow, a shadow that was only momentarily relieved by the occasional flashes of lighting that danced across the sky.

Living on an island, Suki had seen her fair share of storms. These last few years she had tended to seek Percy's company during such occasions, basking in the warmth of his presence, and delighting in the tall tales of demigods, monsters and bizarre myths he used to tell.

But never had she seen one like this. The speed at which it had built, and its ferocity, it was like nothing she had seen before. It was like Raiden, the ancient storm spirit, had descended from the spirit world to unleash his wrath upon the humans that had dared to despoil the land.

Grabbing onto a nearby charred tree for support, Suki's attention was soon drawn away from the storm and Percy, and instead to the edge of the still living forest, her eyes narrowing against the cold wind as she spotted the familiar black and red colours of Fire Nation soldiers, slowly, gingerly picking their way through the storm battered forests as they approached the burnt out clearing, the eye of the storm.

As if her thoughts were prophetic, the wind around her calmed even as the storm raged on outside of the clearing, similarly the rain seemed to slacken, even as light spilled out from a sudden gap in the churning, dark storm clouds overhead.

A hurricane had formed, and like she had just thought, they were in the eye of the storm, safe from the destruction.

Unfortunately, as they scrambled out of the forest and into the ash covered clearing, so too were the Fire Nation soldiers who had obviously been sent to investigate the sudden storm. That, or they had been trying to search out a good place to weather said storm.

Gripping her sword tighter, Suki once again pushed her wet hair out of her face, even as she eyed up the gasping and struggling Fire Nation soldiers.

There were a lot of them.

From looking at their armour, and by comparing it with what she had already seen, and from what she had heard both in inns and whilst with the caravan, she could identify that there were at least three firebenders with the group, their white masks and more ornate armour gave them away. The rest of the group meanwhile were made up of six normal soldiers, three were armoured and carrying spears and shields, whilst two others were dressed similarly, only they had swords and shields, and the final one, well just to be different, he had a double handed battle-axe.

Suffice to say, she was greatly outnumbered.

Glancing back at Percy, and seeing the strain on his face as he kept the storm going.

No doubt he wanted to put out all the raging forest fires at once, and knowing him, he was probably also overreaching and trying to also disrupt the likely ongoing Fire Nation attack as well. In the end it all depended on just how much awareness he had of what was going on in the forest, and how much control he had over the storm.

None of which she knew.

Percy had always been a mystery to her, especially his origins and abilities. She liked that about him. But unfortunately that also meant she wasn't always aware of just what he was capable of.

Still, he was doing his part, and so she would do her part too and defend him whilst he directed the storm.

Clenching her sword tighter in her hand, Suki set off at a run, her feet dancing across the sodden ground as she rushed the tired and surprised Fire Nation soldiers.

If she was going to win this, she needed to take them by surprise, otherwise they would surround her, pick her apart and then either kill or capture her.

Within moments, she was in reach of the group, her blade already mid-swing as she slashed through the throat of one of the spearmen. His crimson life-blood spattered across her face, running in rivulets down her cold, wet cheeks. She didn't stop though, instead she continued forward, taking advantage of her enemies surprise.

One of the quicker to react firebenders, thrust their hands out, fire exploding from their palm as they tried to release a blast of flame straight into her face.

They were too slow however, by the time they had summoned up their fire she had pressed forward, her footsteps light as she brought her sword back around and rammed the hilt into the side of the firebender's helmet.

With a loud clang, the firebender's flames dispersed, and they fell to one knee.

Keeping her movements quick and smooth, Suki deflected a clumsy sword swing form one of the soldiers with her buckler shield, even as she lashed out with a straight kick into the side of the kneeling firebender's head. With a grunt, the already disoriented firebender landed on the wet, ash covered ground in a sprawl. A downward thrust with her sword through the back of his neck finished him off. It didn't matter how many elements a person could throw around, a blade through the spine would still kill them just as easily as it would any other.

"Get her!" One of the Fire Nation soldiers shouted.

Answering his call, Suki spun on her heel and slashed through his neck. Fire Nation armour was well crafted, and made of good quality steel. A foolish fighter might try and use their blade to hack through such armour. All they would get for their trouble would be a dented and broken sword and a winded and pissed enemy. That is, unless they were wielding an axe, warhammer or a mace. A skilled fighter however, they went for the weak points in the armour, the neck, groin and armpits, and if they were wearing an open helmet, the face too.

Ignoring the additional spray of warm blood that spattered across her face and chest, and ducking under a sudden blast of fire, Suki darted forwards, her sword moving fast as she parried a spear thrust with the flat of her blade, and then continued her lunge by driving her sword through her attacker's open helmet, and subsequently through his now pulped eye socket and into his brain.

Open helmets, the upside, was that they allowed the wearer to have better vision of the battlefield. The downside, well the downside, was that they also left a critical weakness in your defences. Seeing the results of not wearing a helmet, or wearing a poor helmet, it made her consider whether or not she should invest in a helmet too.

Tearing her sword out of the spear wielding soldier's head, Suki was forced to throw up her shield to block another fire blast. Or at least to partially block a fire blast, unfortunately the dimension of her shield made it light and easy to use, but also meant it didn't give great coverage.

"Shit!" Suki eloquently swore, her gaze momentarily flicking to the fresh burn on her left arm. Her sodden clothing and the buckler shield had stopped the worst of the fire, but the blast had still been intense. She would be nursing a nasty burn for at least the next week, and even then that was only if she got out of here alive.

Darting forward, and avoiding an axe swing and a sword thrust, Suki turned her movements into a slide. With her deliberately sliding along the muddy forest floor, her body positioned low as she avoided a blast of fire and a swinging blade and instead kicked one of the remaining firebender's legs out from under them. The sound of cracking, and subsequent cry of pain, told her that she had caused more than a bit of damage.

Acrobatically springing back up and onto her feet, Suki bit down on a hiss of pain as she then clumsily deflected another sword thrust. The spear blade missed any vital organs, but still glanced off her Kyoshi armour and cut her inner arm, drawing blood.

"Out of the way!" The uninjured firebenders snapped, roughly shoving one of their non-bender soldier's aside as he tried to get a clear shot at her.

The advantage of attacking a bigger group, especially when that group has fire throwers and spear users, is that it is very easy for a single person to mess up their organisation, and if they're quick enough and remain in close quarters, stop them from bringing their full strength to bear. Unfortunately, such a strategy was very tiring, especially when the people you were fighting knew what they were doing.

Letting out a tired grunt, Suki whipped her sword and shield around deflecting questing swords and spears, and completely avoiding the occasional wild blow with an axe or blast of controlled fire.

She had been forced completely on the defensive. There were no longer any opportunities for counterattacks, as she instead had to keep blocking and deflecting strikes, all while keeping the other soldiers between her and the two angry firebenders, the one she had injured was now unsteadily standing again, and understandably, very pissed off.

It was not a good position to be in.

Every blocked strike, and every dodged blast of fire, it took its toll on her.

This was a battle of attrition now, and unfortunately she was still outnumbered. Four of their number were dead at her hand, the other five however were still around, and more than that they were very angry.

"Keep her still!" The axeman snapped, his weapon a grey blur as he swung it around, chaining his swings together as he pushed forward, using the momentum of each swing to add to the power of the next. If that blade hit her even once at this point, she was dead.

"We're trying!" One of the swordsmen shouted back, his shield raised, as he tried to ram her substantially lighter and less armoured form. "Get her surrounded!"

Hearing his words, his fellows raised their shields and tried to box her in.

Cursing at this turn of events, Suki found herself in an impossible situation. If she didn't move and try to break away, she would be boxed in and hacked to death by the axe wielding maniac. If she did move, however, that would make her an ideal target for the firebenders -she wouldn't be able to use their fellow soldiers as unwitting human shields any more- and would almost certainly lead to her being burnt to death. Added to this conundrum was the fact she was exhausted, suffering from several nasty cuts and a horrible burn, and wielding a sword that had so many chips in it, it resembled a wood saw more than a sword at this point.

Effectively, she was screwed, and not in a fun way.

This also meant she had only one choice left.

"Percy!" Suki shouted desperately.

"Nice try girly, but-" The axe man started to snarl. Only for him to be stopped mid-sentence by a lance of ice slamming into and through his face.

"Shit!" One of the other soldiers shouted.

It was the last thing he said, as moments later another lance of ice struck him in the chest, the ice tearing through the front of his steel armour and out the other side.

Falling to her knees in exhaustion, Suki watched as the soldiers turned away from her now, even as the familiar form of Percy came into view. There were dark shadows under his eyes, and his face was paler than she had ever seen it, but despite that, he was still as deadly as ever.

With a snarl on his face, she saw him drag water up from the sodden ground and hurl it at the three remaining soldiers, even as he continued to walk forward. The stump that was his left arm, had by this point morphed into a several foot whip, a whip which he then proceeded to lash out with, slashing the remaining non-bender almost in two, even as he moved in to fight the two firebenders, freshly fallen water swirling around his form like a cloak, absorbing the blasts of fire sent at him, even as he lashed out with a viciousness she had never seen from him before.

Slumping to the ground, Suki fell back first onto the ash covered forest floor, her breathing still ragged and her injuries burning as she looked up at the sky. She couldn't remember being this tired before, nor this sore. Fighting nine enemies at once, it was not something she wanted to do again.

Staring up at the sky as the fighting died down, Suki quickly noticed that the black clouds far above had rapidly started to disperse. The fierce winds had stopped, as had the rain.

Peace was once again returning to the heavens.

( - )

(Elsewhere in the forest)

Holding tightly onto the reins of Appa, a thoroughly drenched and miserable looking Aang, glancing nervously up at the sky.

The sudden storm had vanished almost as quickly as it had come.

"What was that?" Sokka groaned from behind Aang. Like Aang, Sokka was soaked through, goose pimples evident along his bare arms as he held himself tight and tried to coax some warmth back into his limbs by vigorously rubbing them.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it put out the fires." Katara answered, focussing on the positives as she too hazarded a look up at the now steel grey sky.

Looking over at the slightly older girl, Aang watched as she used waterbending to wring the water out of her hair and clothing.

Tearing his gaze from her, Aang instead looked out at the windswept forest. Katara was right, the fires had all been extinguished, and with the amount of rain that had just fallen, he didn't see the Fire Nation making another one anytime soon.

It was over.

"It also almost killed us! I mean no offense to the big guy, but death by giant skybison, was not the way I saw myself going out!" Sokka complained.

"Hey, Appa saved us!" Aang shot back defensively, and it was true, he had. If Appa hadn't been so quick to react to the storm, all three of them could have been thrown down to the forest below. Likewise, if he and Katara hadn't used a combination of both airbending and waterbending, then they could have died anyway.

That storm, it had been vicious.

In fact the last time he had experienced a storm that bad, he had ended up falling into the sea and being frozen in ice for a hundred years.

"Yeah, I know, sorry. I'm just… well, you know, that wasn't a nice experience." Sokka sighed.

"It was pretty touch and go." Aang nodded, calming down at Sokka's apology. They had had a rough time of it. They had only managed to deal with one of the fires before they got ambushed by a group of Fire Nation soldiers. With the group consisting of three firebenders and six non-bending soldiers. Fortunately, they had managed to escape the ambush, and make it back into the sky just before the storm had hit. It had been a close call though, and their brief fight had been unusual, in just vicious and aggressive the firebenders had been. Still, they had made it and that was what counted. "But we made it out alright. I just hope the others did too!"

"Percy and Suki, yeah, those two will be fine!" Sokka waved him off. "They're both tough and know what they're doing."

"Do you reckon we should try and find them?" Aang asked.

"In a forest this big, they could be anywhere. I think the best thing would be to head back to Omashu and tell the authorities there what happened, and warn them that the fires were started by the Fire Nation as a distraction." Katara replied.

"Yeah, we'll catch up with them later. For now, I just want a long hot bath!" Sokka groaned, still shivering, even as his sister used her waterbending to dry him off too.

"Okay, Omashu it is, hey if you want to unwind, I know a great thing we can do for fun in the city. Tell me, do you both like slides?" Aang replied, an eager smile spreading across his face as he looked back over at the distant city. The Fire Nation were in the area, but their plan had been thwarted, and the city had probably already mobilised their army to drive them off. Everything was going to be okay, which meant that for now, there was time to relax a bit, or at least until the next emergency. "Come on, Appa, yip yip!"

Tugging at the reins, Aang lay back on his old friend and enjoyed the ride.

As he did so however he couldn't help but let his mind wander slightly.

Just what was that storm all about?

It certainly wasn't natural.

Did it have something to do with the spirits, or maybe it had something to do with the ever mysterious Percy?

He honestly didn't know, but a part of him was desperate to find out just what the cause was.

( - )

(At the walled town of Quinlan)

"Looks like that storm has finally stopped." Ty Lee muttered, looking out from under the palanquin, as she instead looked up at the once more grey, overcast sky. The distant storm had petered out almost as quickly as it had formed.

"Yes, an unfortunate occurrence," Azula muttered, her golden eyes flicking over to her friend before she went back to looking at the conquered town of Quinlan before her. The gates of the walled town were yawning open in welcome, and her soldiers dutifully lined the streets, welcoming her arrival. "But immaterial in the end. The fires did their job and drew the attention of the Earth Kingdom army away."

"Oh great," Mai sighed from where she was also lounging under the cover the palanquin provided. "I was kind of hoping for some excitement."

"Worry not," Azula said, a slight smile on her face as the palanquin moved through the gates and into the town square. Fire Nation flags adorned nearly every building of import with the centre of the walled port town, and flags bearing the red and black colours lined the walls. "Now that we have established our newest colonial port, our beachhead in the west, the Earth Kingdom will have no choice but to sally forth to try and remove us. They'll have no choice, not unless they want to risk the Fire Nation bringing in more reinforcements and tipping the balance of power in the area."

"Well, at least there'll be something happening." Mai replied, a slight smile on her face now. "I didn't come all this way to sit around doing nothing, I could have done that equally well at home, and in more comfort too."

Azula rolled eyes at her friends, as usual, downbeat, acerbic comment, it was just Mai being Mai.

"Errmm, Azula?" Ty Lee suddenly spoke up, tearing her gaze away from the browbeaten Earth Kingdom civilians, all of whom had been lined up to greet their new overlords. "How does this help with your mission? I mean, it's great we have the town, and probably good for the war effort, especially if we keep hold of it. But how does this help with capturing the Avatar?"

"It's quite simple, it's bait." Azula smiled. "Someone as 'noble' and 'self-righteous' as the Avatar, they wouldn't be able to stand around and do nothing while we take over this town. No, they will join the Earth Kingdom in trying to force us out. Which means they'll be coming here to me, a far more convenient prospect than me having to hunt them through the Earth Kingdom. That, and they will be forced to fight us in our territory, while we have the advantage."

"Oh that's clever!" Ty Lee gushed enthusiastically.

"Yes, it is rather." Azula acknowledged with a smirk. "What is even smarter, however, is that I've also now positioned a number of Fire Nation agents in Omashu too. Once we've dealt with the Avatar, our agents should also hopefully have finished sabotaging Omashu's defences, poisoning their water sources, and destroying their food. Once the Avatar is dead, the city will soon follow."

"You don't do things by halves, do you?" Mai smiled.

"No, not normally, and especially not when things are personal." Azula replied, standing up now as she proceeded to leave the palanquin. The first stage of her plan was completed with little in the way of casualties, or inconveniences. Now it was time to prepare for the second stage.

( - )

AN: So what did you all think? There was a lot of action I know, and Percy pulled out the big guns, is it enough though? Azula is a cunning opponent, and at her most dangerous when given time to think and plot. Plus she has some pretty foridable back up, team Azula is looking tough right now. That said, the rest aren't stupid, and they're gaining more and more experience as they go, nor are they incompotent, naive yes, but not useless. Either way, it should be fun to see what happens next. On another note though, I did enjoy writing more of Suki this chapter, as I feel I have not given her as much attention as I intended these last few chapters.

Which is a shame, as I love her character and hated how little she was used in the canon series. It had a big cast I know, but I would have loved to have seen more of her, and found out more about her background. Hell she wasn't even mentioned in the sequel series Korra, and yes I have watched, and finally after over a year of trying to find the time, finished it recently. Suffice to say I have been inundated with ideas for how a PJO/ Legend of Korra story could go. Wishful thinking I know considering how many other stories I have on the go, but what can I say, I'm an optimistic chap, besides I am prone to starting more stories than I can reasonably handle!

Other than my inane rambling, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and hopefully there won't be such a long period between updates next time. Please do leave a review, as feedback is helpful, or feel free to PM, I am usually good at answering those. Thanks for reading, and I'll catch you later.

Greed720.