Chapter 11 The Enemy of My Enemy is The Avatar.
War Minister Qin rushed to the Fire Lord's throne room as soon as the call for an emergency meeting had been put out. He was rightfully concerned that something big had happened in the wake of their decisive victory over the invaders that had landed on their shores the day before, and so he'd canceled the plans he'd had to meet with his young mistress, and hurried to the palace in the early morning.
Upon passing through the curtained threshold into the throne room, Qin immediately took notice of an abundance of both military leaders, industry figures, the court, and other members of the nobility that would usually not all be gathered at once. There were even members of the press present. The throne room was practically packed, and abuzz with murmurings of whey they'd all been called upon. Qin found his cushioned seat closer to the front of the room, where the Fire Lord's flames separating him from the rest of the public body burned slightly lower than they usually would, and that's when he noticed something wrong. The two seats at his side were empty. The Prince and the Princess were not in attendance, nor the girl's oafish pet.
Fire Lord Ozai raised a hand, and as if a blade had cut through the noise, everyone went silent. He took a steadying breath, before opening his eyes. "I'm sure everyone I've called upon is wondering why they are here..." Ozai paused for a moment. "Yesterday, I made a terrible discovery. Both of my children, Prince Zuko and Princess Azula, have betrayed the Fire Nation..." Mutterings broke out among the crowd again, before Ozai continued speaking. "Prince Zuko came to me during the eclipse, speaking of truths he wished to tell me. Once I'd sent the guards away so we could speak in private, he told me, gloated really, of his plan to usurp me, with the assistance of his sister and The Avatar..." More mutterings broke out that did not dissipate as Ozai held his hand up again. "Silence!..." The crowd grew quite. "The Avatar never died... Both Azula and Zuko have been allied with him since the capture of Ba Sing Se..."
Qin's eyes had gone wide. He knew the Avatar had returned, (having a short run in with him in the tunnel complex below the mountain,) that the prince was soft hearted, and the princess had a lust for power, but never would he have expected the two heirs to betray their nation. Ozai took a pause, before continuing. "The moment my bending returned, I attempted to defend myself as Prince Zuko drew his swords. Briefly we fought, and the boy escaped. No doubt by now they've both fled the capitol... As of today, both Zuko and Azula are stripped of their titles and are enemies of the Fire Nation... Of course this means the line of succession has been severed... In place of my treasonous spawn, the new heir to the throne, via his right as my closest fire bending relative, is..." Ozai scanned the room trying to ascertain if the young man was in attendance. "Kozato of the Masashi family. Rise great great great grandson of Fire Lord Jinushi."
The gathered crowd applauded, as from the middle of the room, the young nobleman and infantry captain, stood from his seat, and bowed to Ozai. "It is an honor and privilege to receive the title of Prince, My Lord."
"Think nothing of it, Kozato... For you will have to earn your new title." Ozai said with a smirk.
Once Zuko had landed the war balloon, the three passengers tied it down to a tree, and followed the prince towards a cliff, where he stopped. "We're here." Zuko said.
Azula raised an eyebrow. "Where exactly is "here," if I might ask?"
"The Western Air Temple. It's directly below us." Zuko said, turning to face the others.
"An air temple is underground?" Connor asked.
"No, it's built into the cliffside overhang." Zuko said, before looking around. "There's a tunnel path that leads to the South side of the temple around here somewhere. It's been a while since I've seen it though."
Connor turned and then took his right boot and sock off, before kicking his heel into the ground. "Huh…" He said.
"What?" Azula asked, as Connor put his sock and boot back on, before walking over to a bush, drawing his cutlass and swiping the shrub away, revealing the hidden entrance to the temple.
"How did you know where it was?" Zuko asked.
Connor shrugged. "Felt the ground shake differently."
"You can feel the ground shake?" Zuko asked.
"It's an earth bender thing, or some such." Azula commented. "Now that we've found the place, what exactly makes you so sure The Avatar is going to be here?" Azula asked, before she as well as her brother and Connor saw The Avatar's bison clear the woods to the North, and then dip down below the clouds beneath the cliff. "Right…" Azula said with a sigh.
"Any plans for convincing them to trust us?" Connor asked.
"Well I was just going to walk up and talk to them. You know? I was going to start with an introduction like; "Hello, Zuko here," And keep going from there. The Avatar needs a fire bending master, and I'm more than experienced enough to teach him."
Azula actually snorted as she laughed. "That's hilarious, Zuzu. You, good enough at firebending to teach The Avatar. If anyone's a master fit to teach The Avatar firebending, then it's obviously me." Azula said, putting her hand on her chest.
"What if both of you taught him?" Connor asked, getting a look from both of the fire siblings, and a shrug from Zuko.
Azula rolled her eyes. "Either way, our history with The Avatar is going to be a problem. Before anything else, we need to convince them we're on their side."
"Are we not on their side though?" Connor asked.
Azula rolled her eyes. "Well we're not really, on their side if you think about it. We just require a temporary alliance to overthrow our father and end the war. Once that's done, I could care who The Avatar allies himself with."
"What would uncle do?" Zuko asked idly.
"Probably go on about the philosophical reason we should be allowed to help, like peace, love, and harmony." Azula said jokingly, impersonating her uncle for a moment. "Avatar, I know that we've had our differences, but if you let me teach you fire bending, I can offer you tea, and sage life advice."
"And you'd do any better?" Zuko asked, before mocking his sister's tone. "Listen Avatar, you can let me join your group, or I'll do something unspeakably horrible to your friends."
"Ugh." Azula groaned as she crossed her arms. "I don't sound like that."
Connor sighed. "Come on you two, we're burning daylight. Let's just go down there, and put the offer on the table."
After walking down the hidden path, and traversing several walkways to where a few of what looked like the Avatar's recent possessions were laid out. The three fire nationals waited for The Avatar or one of his friends to return.
Seeing The Avatar's bison land, the three stood up, as the bison moved out of the way, and all four members of team Avatar stood ready to fight, Sokka with his gun drawn.
"Hello, Zuko here." The prince said. Connor closed his eyes and cringed, just expecting someone to be shot. "We saw you flying around, and uh, figured we should wait for you."
"Seriously, brother, that's the best you could come up with?" Azula asked, as Appa waddled up beside them, grunted, and licked Zuko, who moaned in disgust at being covered in bison slobber.
Aang lowered his staff, as Momo jumped off his shoulder, and landed on Connor's, sniffing him. "I know you're probably surprised to see us." Zuko started.
"Not really." Sokka said, lowering his musket. "You three have practically followed us all over the world."
"Right… Uh… Anyway, I wanted to tell you, that… We've changed…" Zuko stumbled through his explanation. "Well Connor hasn't much…" Connor face palmed. "But my sister and I have... Or more like, I have, and Azula is just... Less evil, or uh, she's still evil, but like, is channeling it in the right direction... And we wanted to tell you, that we're on your side now, and that uh, Connor was always sort of good… Or at least not as bad as we were."
Azula rolled her head back to look at the cliff ceiling in utter disbelief that her brother could be such a blithering idiot. "Honestly, how are we even related?" She asked, before looking at Aang. "Avatar, My brother and I deserted the Fire Nation and have come to teach you firebending."
Toph looked confused. "You wanna do what?"
Katara took a step forward. "You can't possibly think we'd trust you after everything you three have done to us?"
"Yeah." Sokka chimed in. "All any of you've done is try to capture or kill Aang. And he actually did the second thing." Sokka pointed at Connor, who rubbed his neck.
"Yeaaaaah." Connor said, acknowledging his mistake. "To be fair, I thought and still sort of think you're some kind of chaos god... So there's that."
"And, I could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free." Zuko reasoned, before Appa licked him again.
Azula shrugged. "I have been pretty horrible towards you all haven't I?" Azula asked, crossing her arms, acting unbothered by her previous behavior, getting incredulous looks from Zuko and Connor. "What? I'm being honest." Momo leapt from Connor's shoulder, onto Azula's and licked her ear, which she flinched at, before having to suppress laughter, the lemur's tongue tickling her.
"I don't know." Toph spoke up. "Appa and Momo seem to like them."
"Appa's a giant cow, no offense big guy..." Sokka said. Appa grunted in response. "And Momo's got a brain the size of a walnut. I'm not buying it."
"I mean, yeah, Azula's right, we've done some pretty awful stuff in the past." Zuko admitted.
"Like attacking our village?" Katara butted in.
"Or attacking Kyoshi island?" Sokka asked.
"The pirates?" Katara continued.
"And that doesn't even begin to cover you two." Sokka pointed at Azula and Connor.
Zuko groaned. "Look, I admit it was pretty scummy, attacking the water tribe and Kyoshi, and sicking pirates after you… And I should probably call off that assassin I sent to kill you, now that I think about it."
Sokka's eyes went wide, as he raised his gun at them all again. "Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us?!"
"You sent an assassin to kill The Avatar?" Azula asked. "And you didn't think to tell me this before we left?" She asked, pinching the bridge of her nose as Momo jumped over onto Connor's arm. "Were you born this stupid or did our mother drop you before I was conceived?"
"Well I'm gonna try and stop him now, obviously!" Zuko said, rounding on his sister.
"This is just like you, Zuzu. You ruin everything you touch." Azula said, crossing her arms again.
"Name one thing that I've screwed up since Ba Sing Se." Zuko said.
"The coup on our father?" Azula asked with an eye roll.
"I thought you said that was your fault?!" Zuko asked holding both hands out to his sister.
"Yes, well I've had time to think about it, and I've come to the conclusion that it was less so me screwing us on our selected timeline to meet the Avatar, and more so you screwing us with your insufferable bleeding heart and blabbering mouth. Oh and that wasn't just one plan. You upended about four of them, since you failed the simple task of showing up to the right place at the right time for all of them."
"You didn't tell us about any other plans!" Zuko said loudly.
"Because I expected at a bare minimum, you wouldn't go and explicitly tell our father we were going to kill him!" Azula shouted. "I was hoping that if The Avatar couldn't do it, we'd at least be able to lie our way out of any punishment, then gain popular support from the masses over tax reform before making any kind of shake up."
"Again, you sent the sparky boom guy after us?" Sokka asked for the second time, interrupting the sibling bickering.
"Well t-that's not his name, but…" Zuko stammered.
"Oh, well sorry to insult your friend, but he's tried to blow us up twice now." Sokka ranted.
Azula looked at Aang as Zuko hung his head. "Why haven't you said anything, Avatar?"
Connor pushed Momo back towards Aang, and the lemur landed on his staff. Connor spoke. "For what it's worth. I am sorry I shot you." He held his right hand up. "Hand to god, may he strike me down now." Connor swore.
Aang looked between his friends and his enemies, before closing his eyes and thinking for only a second. "There's no way we can ever trust any of you. Not after everything you've done."
"But-." Zuko started.
"You three need to leave." Katara said, gritting her teeth.
"I-" Zuko stammered.
"NOW!" Katara shouted.
Azula flinched, before she sighed. "Come on you two, they're a lost cause." Azula said, walking away. Zuko followed her, dejected, as Connor lingered for only a moment, turning, before looking over his shoulder at Toph.
"If you ever want, I can fix your eyes." The redhead said, before walking away.
Toph contained her surprise at Connor's revelation, as the three left the platform, and disappeared around the corner.
The Sun began to set as the three reached the top of the cliff, and Zuko spoke his thoughts out loud. "I can't believe how stupid I am!"
"I can." Azula said quietly.
"What was I thinking, telling them I sent an assassin after them?" Zuko asked. "I could have blamed that on you." Zuko pointed at his sister.
"And how exactly would that have made our situation any better?" Azula asked, arms crossed, as she tapped her foot.
"Well, then at least maybe one of us would have been able to join them." Zuko said.
"Easy you two, the last thing we need is more fighting." Connor said as he pulled his bag out of the war balloon, and started to make camp.
Azula sighed. "You're right. But I don't think we had much of a chance of swaying them either way. It's not like any of them were going to believe us."
Connor shrugged. "Well the earth girl can tell if people are lying, so I'd say she believed us."
"The earth girl can what?" Zuko asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.
Below, Team Avatar began unpacking Appa's saddle and choosing rooms within the temple to sleep in.
"Why in the world would those three try to fool us like that?" Katara asked idly, as the four other's of the group returned from their past few hours of temple exploration.
"Who tried to fool you?" Teo asked.
Katara glanced over her shoulder, seeing Teo, Haru, The Duke and Smellerbee. "Oh, just the prince and princess of the Fire Nation, along with their pet polar attack dog. You just missed them."
"The one guy isn't literally a polar dog, but he's built like one." Sokka said. "They showed up asking if they could teach Aang to fire bend."
"Really? That sounds stupid of them." The Duke said.
"It was probably a trap. This wouldn't be the first time Connor faked an alliance just to double cross us." Sokka put forward. "And Azula's a complete spider-snake."
"It's just like when I was in prison with Zuko." Katara said. "He gets all doe eyed and starts talking about his mother, and then the next thing you know, he's trying to kill us... And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Appa free?"
"Actually…" Toph started. "As far as I could tell, none of them lied about any of what they said."
"What?" Aang asked.
"They were all telling the truth. Azula claiming they deserted the Fire Nation, Connor thinking Aang was an evil spirit, and feeling sorry, Zuko freeing Appa… Connor was even sincere about being able to cure my blindness." Toph said.
"Well it's nice to know that out of all the crimes they've committed, animal cruelty isn't on the list." Sokka jested.
"And there's no such thing as a cure for blindness." Katara said. "I mean, maybe with spirit water, but I seriously doubt that oger has any."
"Look, I'm just saying, two of them have a pretty shitty family situation going on, ya know, evil overlord for a father and all. They could have turned out a lot worse." Toph said with a shrug.
"And Connor? The guy sold out his home kingdom." Sokka said.
"I don't know about that. I mean, doesn't something just seem off about him?" Toph asked.
"He's a sickly white freak of nature, with fire colored hair. There's something way more than just off about him." Katara said.
"I meant how he talks. Every time we've met him, it's like he doesn't know what's really going on in the world, and he has this crazy accent if you haven't caught it." Toph said.
"Then maybe he's just an idiot too." Sokka hand waved.
"Is it at all possible that your hurt feelings are keeping you from thinking clearly? If they wanted to, they could have captured or killed us all. Connor's an earth bender, and they knew where our stuff was. He could have dropped the temple while we were asleep." Toph said.
"Why do you even feel the need to defend them?" Katara asked.
"Because all of you lame brains are ignoring one critical fact." Toph pointed at Aang. "He needs a firebending teacher, and two of them just walked off."
"I'm not having Zuko, or Azula as my firebending teacher." Aang said sternly.
Toph grunted, before turning away from everyone. "I'm beginning to wonder who's really the blind one around here."
War Minister Qin sat in his office writing up a notice for the military armor smiths. After three months of testing he was saddened to find that Fire Nation personal armor was in need of a redesign. The standard protective gear did almost nothing to stop a bullet fired from a musket. The amount, and thickness of armor required to protect a soldier from gunfire as the current outfit did from arrows, spears, swords and thrown rocks, was simply too heavy.
"Good evening." Qin nearly jumped in his seat, and looked up to find the young Kozato standing in the doorway to his office. The man of twenty five was easily Qin's own height, and likely weighed twice as much.
"Prince... What brings you to my office?" Qin asked.
Kozato entered uninvited, and strolled over to Qin's side, before walking behind and around him, studying the room. "Not exactly a prince yet... I've been given a mission."
"And the mission requires you to visit me?" Qin asked, as Kozato came back around to the front of the desk.
"As I understand it, you're one of the best minds the Fire Nation has to offer... Yet, surprisingly little advancement has been made on every project that's been handed to you from an exterior source." Kozato said, making eye contact with Qin at long last.
"The air ship's are proof against that claim." Qin remarked.
"Oh, but you've always been obsessed with your wonder weapons. The drill, the air ships... The armored train... Yet, when something so simple as a metal tube with an explosive in it is given to you, you can seem to find no way to improve upon it... You should be thankful Doctor Lao was willing to share his creation of mercury fulminate, or you'd be out of your job." Kozato said, before grinning. "One might think that you're actively hindering the war's progress during a period of tactical failures with the intent of retiring early, but I'd like to think it's because you're simply incompetent."
"Why are you here?" Qin asked narrowing his eyes.
"This mission I'm on, it will secure my place as the new heir to the throne, pending Fire Lord Ozai does not remarry and have another child by then... This situation of an absent heir is something those of us in the nobility can only dream of. And the mission is oh so simple... Kill the former prince and princess, and capture The Avatar." Kozato said turning away from Qin.
"And everyone who's attempted the latter, has either failed, or died." Qin commented. "And I don't think that you'd be much of a match for the Princess, I've seen her work. She's second only to her father, and possibly The Avatar, who, if you don't remember, she betrayed the nation to join."
Kozato turned in place, and the older man leaned back into his seat, as the younger man's hungry gaze fell on him. "It's not about how much of a match I am for her, but how much she is one to me... Besides, I'm a believer in the principles of a mechanical advantage." Kozato looked down at the letter on Qin's desk, placing a single finger on it, before turning the paper around to read what was written, and grinned. "And I think I've found one..."
As the three Fire Nation deserters settled around their camp fire later that night, Zuko began to drift off, as Azula huddled closer to Connor, the two remaining awake for the moment.
Azula shooed an insect away, before it returned and she burned it to a crisp with a small fire blast. "I can't believe I'm living like this." She grumbled, as Connor put his arm around her shoulder. "I was fine when it was just the steam wagon, and the Earth Kingdom apartment was suitable, but I shouldn't be forced to sleep in the dirt."
"It's not so bad. I've camped in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a week with less." Connor said with a shrug. "Besides, now that we're out from under your dad, nobody can keep us apart." Connor said, nuzzling the top of Azula's head. She sighed in contentment, before a twig snapped behind them. Connor drew his gun, and cocked a hammer back. "Who goes there?!" He asked loudly, waking Zuko, as Azula drew up a blue fire in her palm.
"It's me!" Came a surprised and startled Toph.
"The blind girl?" Connor asked, hearing her voice. He de-cocked the gun, and put it away. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that. It's a good way to get shot."
"Or burned." Azula commented idly, clenching her fist to extinguish her flames.
"I wanted to talk to you guys." Toph said, as she came closer and sat down across from the three. "Everyone else doesn't trust you, and frankly I wouldn't either if I were them."
"Oh, well thank you for the vote of confidence." Azula said sarcastically.
"But that's just it. I do trust you three. You might have killed Aang…" Toph pointed at Connor, "And you two might be the Fire Lord's crazy kids, who've been chasing Aang for the past half year, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're outright evil people. We were just born on opposite sides of the conflict."
"That's surprisingly mature of you." Connor said.
Toph shrugged. "Look, I'll vouch for you guys tomorrow, but I can't make any guarantees the others are going to listen."
"So why didn't you vouch for us earlier?" Zuko asked.
"It just wasn't the right time. Aang's in a little bit of a funk since we had to leave the rest of our friends behind." Toph said, before laying her head down. "And I get the feeling Sokka and Katara have some real issues with you two, she pointed at Zuko and Azula."
Azula sighed. "Yes, well I can understand that."
"Hopefully in the morning they'll have calmed down." Connor said.
"Yeah…" Toph said. "Why do you even want to teach Aang fire bending? Why the change of heart?"
"It's not so much a change of heart as it is something we're doing out of necessity." Azula started. "We've deliberated, and agreed that Fire Lord Ozai is no longer fit to rule, the war is doing nothing good for the Fire Nation, and more altruistically the world would be better off if it ended. Our best chance at overthrowing him without massive amounts of political backlash from those who support him would be to have The Avatar defeat him, and once that's happened Zuko or I could claim the throne as successor, and the fighting can stop... Of course if someone hadn't told our dad the truth, we probably wouldn't be here."
Zuko snickered. "Azula conveniently left out the fact that if our dad's out of the picture, she can be with Connor."
"Oh, soak your head." Azula said as she tossed a small fireball at Zuko, which he deflected into the campfire. Connor chuckled at the siblings' petty fighting.
"Wow… Didn't think you'd be the hopeless romantic of the group…" Toph said to Azula.
"Believe me. I'm not." Azula retorted.
"Yeah… Well, if you're ok with it, I'm feeling too lazy to walk back down to the temple, so I'm just going to sleep up here."
"I've no problem with that." Zuko said, before laying back down and rolling over.
"Neither do I…" Connor said, as he took his belt off and laid on his side.
Azula rolled her eyes. "So long as you don't snore." She said, before yawning, and resting her head on Connor's limp arm.
In the morning, Toph led the group back down to the temple, and the moment Katara saw them all, she scowled. "Toph, what's going on?" She asked.
"Easy, Sugar Queen. I went to talk with the goon squad last night, and they made a pretty solid case for joining the group… The Spice Princess here really does want to overthrow their dad." Toph said, thumbing over her shoulder at Azula.
"Oh well, it's nice to know that the only reason you're helping us is so you can selfishly take all the power for yourself." Katara said.
"Would you rather negotiate the end of the war with me, or see it's continuation under my father?" Azula asked, crossing her arms.
"I've seen how you people negotiate, and I want nothing to do with it." Katara said, narrowing her eyes as she went to draw water from her pouch.
"What do you mean; you people?" Azula asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh, like you're not racist?" Katara asked in return.
"Uuuuh, guys…" Connor said, looking up to another section of the temple.
"What Connor?" Azula asked.
"Who's that?" Connor pointed up to the man he'd spotted, and everyone turned to look. All present company went wide eyed, as the man standing on the ledge sucked in a breath.
"HIT THE DIRT!" Sokka yelled as he tackled his sister to the ground, and the others scattered for cover.
Not a second later did the water fountain they were surrounding explode into a shower of rocks, pebbles, and dust.
"ˈʤiːzəs ˈfʌkɪŋ kraɪst!" Connor swore loudly, as he covered his ears from behind one of the building's support pillars.
"That's who you sent to kill The Avatar?" Azula asked her brother.
"He came highly recommended!" Zuko shouted defensively.
"I WONDER WHY?!" Connor yelled, pulling his pistol and sword free. Peeking around his point of cover, Connor aimed the pistol in his outstretched hand, and fired once, before abandoning his cover, and heading for the temple's wall. Skidding to a halt, Connor nearly knocked over a kid in a wheelchair, the poofy haired girl pushing him, a moustached teen roughly his age, and a short child who was probably less than 10.
"Who are you?!" The girl asked, pointing a flintlock pistol at Connor with both hands, before another explosion went off behind him.
"Questions later!" Connor said, pushing the smaller kids out of harm's way.
Zuko and Azula both bolted after Connor, sending blasts of fire up towards their assailant while taking up a better position of cover. Unrelenting, the Combustion Man continued to fire at the support pillars keeping the section of temple suspended in the air, blowing away where Connor fired his first shot from, the pressure wave snuffing out the flames the siblings created. Peeking his new cover, the red head fired another round at the man, the bullet sticking into the wall backing the explosive attacker.
Katara pulled the remaining water from the fountain around her into a wave, freezing it to rain icicles onto their attacker, while the others fled to better cover with the Fire Nation defectors. The next blast struck the field of falling ice, vaporizing the solidified water into a thin fog. "He's going to drop us off the cliff!" Toph said, feeling the ground shaking around her.
"Well thank you for stating the obvious." Connor said, after another explosion took out a third pillar. Running from his cover, Connor slid behind a fallen section of the stone column. Once there, he split it in half with his sword assisting his bending, before dragging the blade against the rock, to chuck the thin sliver of stone towards the Combustion Man, only for the attack to be blown out of the air, creating an obstructive cloud of dust.
Ducking back down, Connor looked at everyone else. "Any other ideas?" Connor asked, spotting Sokka's musket in hand. "Can you hit him?"
"I've got this thing loaded with pellets!" Sokka shouted.
"Oh great, our one good weapon's been neutered." Azula said.
"Can't you like, shoot lightning at him, or something?" Zuko asked his sister.
"Does it look like we have the sort of time for that?" Azula asked. "I'd be blown up before I could even separate my chi."
"Maybe we need to come at this from a different angle?" Aang suggested.
Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Different angle huh?" He asked as another explosion rocked the temple. Dropping his musket, Sokka pulled his boomerang from it's shoulder sheath, and grinned.
"You're kidding me, right?" Connor asked, seeing the primitive throwing weapon.
Sokka got a good judge of distance and lined up his throw. With a wind up, Sokka let his boomerang fly, and after a tense second, Connor peeked his cover to see the flying piece of metal catch the Combustion Man's attention, before doming him right in the forehead, knocking him over. Connor winced in sympathy.
Sokka ran out from cover with the others, as his weapon returned to him. He jumped into the air to catch it, and gave a shout of victory… Only for the Combustion Man to get back up, seemingly fine. "Oh shit." Azula muttered, as she began to conjure lightning from her fingers as fast as she could, in preparation to strike their foe down once more.
The others backed away from her, and as The Combustion Man staggered, before focusing on his newest target, Azula loosed a bolt of lightning. The bright blue crack of electricity surged forward, as the Combustion man attempted to fire another explosive blast. Seizing under the electrical shock of the lightning attack, Combustion man flexed his entire body, looking to the ceiling above him as the flow of energy surged down through his light chakra and out of his feet following the electrical current.
Without a point of focus, as his chi flow was completely reversed by the lightning attack, the Combustion Man's explosive power yet to be released swelled within him, before he too swelled, his blood and fatty tissue instantly boiling, before he exploded into a shower of red mist.
All who witnessed Azula's attack, stared in shock as the platform and wall the Combustion man once stood on was painted red, before the group looked back to the girl standing with her two fingers outstretched. Katara gagged, Zuko's scarred eye achieved a near as wide state as his good one, and Aang looked a little pale, as Azula herself stood upright, brushing herself off in disbelief. She'd never actually hit anyone with lightning before, and so she didn't know if that was supposed to be the desired effect. Either way, the gory visual of a man popping apart like a zit was one that sent an uncomfortable wave of nausea through her.
"Well… I... I think that settles the debate on whose side we're on." Azula said with an unconvincing grin, and a shrug, both hands at shoulder level.
"I…" Aang started, still in shock from seeing a man be blown to less than pieces. "I can't believe I'm saying this but… Thanks... Princess."
"Hey, what about me? The boomerang thing?" Sokka asked.
"You really should thank your friend. Without him, I'd never have been able to make that shot." Azula said, crossing her arms, as Zuko stepped forward.
"Look…" Zuko started. "I know we didn't explain ourselves very well yesterday. We've all been through a lot. And it's been hard. But I know why we've had to go through those things. Why they had to happen. If we didn't, none of us would have learned the truth." Zuko said, holding his hand out to Azula and Connor. "I thought that I'd lost my honor, and that my father could return it to me. But I was wrong. Honor isn't something that's given, it's earned, by choosing to do what you know is right… And right now, all of us know that the right thing to do is play our part in ending the war, and to help you restore balance to the world. Like fire itself, my country has grown on it's own to be dangerous and wild, and it needs to be reigned in and controlled, before the rest of the world can heal."
Aang's head pulled back slightly as Zuko spoke, before Azula looked at her brother and scoffed. "Now where was all of that when we met them yesterday?"
"I uhhh." Zuko said, rubbing his neck.
"Look Avatar…" Azula said, waving her hand. "For selfish reasons or not, my brother and I are willing to help you on your journey as The Avatar. You can refuse, but I hope you know that once you do, you'll never get this opportunity again."
"Actually…" Aang said with a small smile. "I think Zuko is supposed to be my firebending teacher."
"Zuko?" The Duke asked quietly.
"Just Zuko?" Connor asked.
"Yes, I too would like to know why you've chosen my brother over me to train you?" Azula asked, eyebrow raising.
Aang looked at Azula. "When I first tried to learn firebending, I burned Katara… What he said, about fire being dangerous and how it needs to be controlled, was exactly what Jeong Jeong tried to teach me…" Aang turned to Zuko now. "You understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love… I'd gladly have you as my teacher." Aang said, as he put his left hand extended over his right fist, and bowed to Zuko.
Zuko smiled softly, before returning the bow of respect to Aang. "Thank you… I'm glad you've accepted us all into your group."
"Hold on." Aang said quickly. "I still need to ask my friends if it's ok with them, and more importantly, if any of you shouldn't be allowed to join us." Aang turned to the rest of the gang.
Toph was the first to speak. "They just took out the guy that's been trying to kill us for a month. They're good in my book."
Sokka crossed his arms. "Look, I might not like any of them, but if they're willing to help take down the Fire Lord, and you're ok with it, I'm all for it."
Katara gazed at the three individuals standing across from her, before Aang stepped closer. "Do whatever you think is right." She said, before walking off.
Smellerbee, The Duke, Teo, and Haru all looked around, before Aang looked at them and spoke. "You four have just as much a say as anyone else."
Teo was the first to speak as he observed the three strange faces, two of whom he'd seen fire bend. The context and the words of his friends clued him in to the identities of the strangers. "They're the ones you said showed up yesterday, the Prince and Princess of the Fire Nation..." Haru went wide eyed, as The Duke and Smellerbee tensed up.
"And you want to let them hang around us?" Smellerbee asked.
"Yeah Aang, I don't know about that." Haru said.
"They're Fire Nation." The Duke added.
"Guys hold on..." Teo said, as he wheeled himself to sit in between both parties. "They might be from the Fire Nation, but so was Chey, and he was cool."
"Chey wasn't the spawn of the Fire Lord." Smellerbee said, pointing at the two fire bending siblings.
"But he was still a deserter, just like these three..." Teo said, putting his goggles up on his forehead. "I mean, how can we judge them if we've never even met them before? I say we at least give them the benefit of the doubt."
Haru crossed his arms. "Weeeell... The princess did just blow up the man trying to drop us all off the cliff... I can't imagine her doing that if she was trying to kill us all."
"Again, I really don't want credit for that." Azula muttered.
The Duke and Smellerbee looked between each other, before Smellerbee spoke. "I think that you're making a mistake, but we won't stop you."
Aang nodded to the four, before he turned and faced Zuko. "You're welcome to stay with us."
"We won't let you down." Zuko said, with a smile, as everyone else walked away except for Toph.
"Well, I guess I'm going to have to be the one that shows you where we're all sleeping." Toph said, as she turned around and waved for Azula, Zuko, and Connor to follow her.
"I still think I'd make a better teacher." Azula said in a huff, as she started walking after the shorter girl.
Once inside the temple's interior, Toph took the three to the end of a hall, and spread her arms out to the last few rooms. "Take your pick… Oh, and we're having lunch in an hour or so. Sokka just dragged the big pot off of Appa." She said, leaving them in the hall.
Azula looked into one of the rooms, and sighed. "Not that far a cry from being in the woods still." She said, noticing the small hard wood bed, bare of any cushioning material, and the windows that had no shutters.
"Oh, I think we'll manage." Connor said, as he hugged Azula from behind.
"Will we now?" Azula asked, tilting her head back to look up at Connor. "It's going to be drafty."
"We'll just have to cuddle closer together." Connor said with a grin as he ran his hands over her stomach.
"Oh you'd love that, wouldn't you?" Azula asked teasingly.
Zuko's groan of disgust caught their attention. "Come on you two, at least shut the door."
Katara cleared her throat, and the three all looked over at her as she entered the hallway. "You three might have the other's fooled with the good samaritan act, but I'm not buying that any of you have changed. All of you have either struggled with, or outright rejected doing the right thing in the past. So let me tell you three, right now, if just one of you, so much as takes one step backwards, makes one little slip up, even so much as gives me a reason to think you might hurt Aang, or any of my friends, and I can personally assure you, that what you did out there to Combustion Man..." Katara said, narrowing her eyes even further as she stared down Azula. "... Will look like a mercy killing compared to what I have in mind for all of you."
Azula faked a shiver. "Wow, you almost sounded cold blooded there for a second."
Katara's fist curled, and the veins in her arm slightly bulged. "Wait until the next full moon, and you'll see cold blood." She said threateningly, before leaving the hallway.
Author's note.
Halfway through the second act out of three, and I've name dropped a new character.
Kozato here is a descendant of Sozin's grandfather. He is Azula and Zuko's 3rd (or 4th, something like that,) cousin. Distant enough that we can suspend disbelief of his existence. This kind of shuffle happened all the time in historic royal families, where sickness or war would claim the heir or the childless ruler, and one of his relatives would have to take over. In the Fire Nation, we can see that it's the Fire Lord's decision who takes the title, and in this case Ozai is looking for a firebender, (if not he'd have gotten Kozato's still living father who is a non bender to rule,) who's up to his high standards. As we can see he's going into his task of doing what everyone else has failed to do, with a fair bit more organization and pre-execution planning.
I'm also including the B-team more, unlike the show.
As for old sparky... Lightning+blocked combustion attack=energy feedback=rapid heating=water boiling=pressure build up=full body gib... As opposed to the more fiery variation of a combustion attack when blocked normally... And yes, the full body gib functions exactly like the BFG in DOOM 2016.
ATLA and TLOK, had some pretty fucked up deaths both implied and on screen for all of Nick's censorship, so I think this is oddly appropriate.