Part of the Rarepair Big Bang Event. I wrote this along with my beta's BadLuckSav and OrangePanic, who i like to think of as an actual sentient orange and not to forget NevaBorne who provided wonderful art and also provided helpful feedback on the fic. Please shower them all with lots of love!

Summary:

In which one thing leads to another and the face off during 'The Chase' devolves into and even bigger mess.

Chapter Notes:

This chapter was beta'd by the wonderful Sav and Orange! Please give her your support to better their fortune and campaign respectively! For real though it would have been a big mess without them lmao.

"Sokka, wait!"

"What is it now, Aang? We're on borrowed time here!"

"It's just," He pauses while fidgeting his fingers, "Appa is still tired. Try to make sure you fly up along the river so you don't hit any trees, okay?"

What, does the mighty Avatar believe him too stupid to figure that out himself? "Well duh, Aang. I didn't need you to tell me that."

"And please don't push him more than you need to, alright? Be careful."

"Yeah, yeah."

Psssh– kid employs his puppy eyes for one last pleading look and off he goes.

"Like I wouldn't have thought that," Sokka mutters.

"Just start flying, Sokka."

Leave it to his sister to support him.

"Yip yip."

Clumps.

They're wet clumps.

The trail goes on dry.

It seems the monk finally realised he even left one.

The train will need to refuel soon.

It's the only lead they have.

Azula turns to Mai and Ty Lee and lets the corner of her lips quirk up.

"Girls, prepare the beasts, we'll see what kind of game the Avatar's playing."

Ty Lee had expected this to be a dead end –was pretty sure Azula had thought the same. So she's quite surprised to find the Avatar waiting for them. Azula already had them slow their pace when they entered the abandoned village. And they kept their pace as they closed the gap in silence. Ty Lee wonders: had he been meditating? It might be the distance, but she finds him difficult to read. The boy does not seem particularly concerned. Did the sleepiness make him reckless? There were many tales of the Avatar's cowardice, but those rumors had stopped the night the moon bled. His aura remains opaque. She mulls over it a bit. It's light, perhaps a beige?

Azula dismounts from Sunak, her mongoose lizard. Ty Lee makes sure to give her own mount Hmaa a quick pat as she follows after the princess, gambolling a little to catch up with Mai, who's of course already flanking Azula.

The Avatar speaks up but remains seated. "All right, you've caught up with me. Now, who are you and what do you want?"

Azula responds with a lilt that's anything but gentle. "You mean you haven't guessed? You don't see the family resemblance? Here's a hint. I must find the Avatar to restore my honor! "

Ty Lee takes a glance to her right. Mai remains blank, but a glint betrays the steel between her fingers. She pretends they're for the Avatar.

The Avatar only blinks before Azula fills the silence. "It's okay, you can laugh. It's funny."

"So what now?"

"Now? Now, it's over. You're tired and you have no place to go. You can run, but we'll catch you."

The Avatar stands up. "I'm not running."

Azula takes her stance and asks: "Do you really want to fight us?" It's their cue.

There's a shriek to their left followed by a cloud of dust.

Ty Lee springs into action only to notice neither Azula nor the Avatar have moved aside from a turn of their heads. The lack of response does not hide their tension however, a spruce and cedar brown respectively. Ty Lee follows their focused gazes to a now straightened up silhouette not quite large enough to be imposing, despite being the tallest of them by maybe a tấc or two, it's hard to tell between the figure's flatter khamauk and Mai's buns.

Once the dust settles, a gravelly yet boyish voice speaks up. "Yes, I really do," he says and he must be young despite the weary face, hollow cheeks revealing sharp cheekbones and thin lips, clothed in too-wide worn browns and sandy yellows draping over a thin frame.

"Zuko?!" the Avatar yelps, his eyes wide. For the first time Ty Lee senses a yellow creep into the kid, though it's mostly washed out by the blue.

Ty Lee can relate. This Zuko barely resembles the boy she remembered from the palace, or even the scarred one she saw on the posters. There is no softness left in his face. His hair is rougher and hints of browns colour the short edges where there had been long silky strands of ink black. Even his pale skin has turned ever so slightly bronze with red creeping into his cheeks and nose. She had never even seen a firebender be burned by the sun before. Just like she had never -

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Zuzu," Azula cuts in, arms crossed and having apparently decided to return to the lilt she used before.

This time the Avatar does laugh. And Zuko's "Back off Azula, he's mine!" almost brings her back to when she was playing around in lush gardens with pretty flowers she wasn't allowed to touch and big fountains that helped stave off the heat, like maybe the Avatar is just the latest toy they're fighting for ownership over. Almost, but not quite. She allows herself a giggle anyways.

Just in time too, because it's then that Azula decides that between him and the Avatar, it's her brother that deserves to be blasted first. Said brother does manage to block the fire with his own, but the force of impact still blows him on his back.

The Avatar seems to have swallowed his earlier words and the kid runs back. staff in hand, but as he jumps up and releases his glider Mai's knives cut through the cloth, literally taking the wind out of his sails. The glider is pinned to a wall and the Avatar is panicked. Ty Lee's already jumping after him, but a flare of red forces her to spin to narrowly dodge the fire. She rolls over the ground and coin-drops back into a standing position. It's faint, but the foul smell of burned hair is seared into her memory, though the lack of heat on her back tells her it's already put out.

The Avatar is gone and Zuko is back up, this time with a pair of dao in his hands. Once more he's yelling at them to back off. Azula ignores him, running after the Avatar instead.

"Make sure my brother doesn't interfere again. I'll handle the Avatar," she commands. The look she gives makes clear the price of failure, if the matching ice blue she brought out hadn't already.

Like Azula, Zuko pays little heed to his sibling and darts off. Ty Lee and Mai share a look, but it's clear they have little choice but to join in the pursuit.

Unlike the quarreling siblings or their prey, they take the highroad – Or the roofs of the buildings if you wanna be all literal about it Mai . Preaching aside, it's the most natural path for the both of them. Though she doesn't need it, minimizing the obstruction of the rundown town's dilapidated buildings maximizes Mai's talents in ranged weaponry, Ty Lee had learned herself it's always preferable to be able to work with gravity rather than against it in a pinch. And even people accustomed to looking up won't expect attacks outside their range of vision when they're distracted by what's in front of them. Combined with the view, it more than makes up for dealing with unsteady tiling of these roofs.

It does widen the gap a bit, but that matters little. Credit to the gossipers, the Avatar is a true master of evasion, which in this case means lots of turning of directions, feinting, dodging and weaving, which crucially means they're tied down long enough for the pair to catch up.

Zuko is about to zero in on his sister again but Ty Lee intervenes before their spat becomes anything (more) nasty, old times indeed. Already familiar with the basics of Ty Lee's white crane, he uses plumes of fire and quick movement to steer clear of her initial volley. It leaves the peach fuzz around her knuckles singed off and has her reeling from the heat she knows will blister later, while he redraws his swords and sets them aflame.

"Get out of my way!" he barks, and it long stopped feeling like it was a game anymore. Had it ever been to him? Maybe, his once shrill voice might be loud, deep even, but it did little to hide the pain in his eyes.

He makes a run for it and Ty Lee doesn't know what he'll do if she keeps standing in his way. Never finds out either. Because one fling of Mai's right wrist has his left arm pinned by the cuff to a wooden pole, tucked neatly between two knives. Another pair follows, but these get blocked by the swing of his left blade while a burst of flames frees his right. Half a sleeve down, Zuko grits his teeth as it finally dawns on him there's no getting past the two of them. Still that same stubborn boy, he doesn't relent, immediately turning the corner instead. Before they can cut him off over the roofs, the building starts catching fire. Better to catch up to the Avatar before he does then.

Mai had the same idea; she is already ahead, running along the roofs parallel to ones he's burning. Zuko must not have been keeping up his training because she's already passing him by at the first crossing. There's a blast at the third though, so it's probably best to stop him at the second. Well, he's running out of steam anyways. This next row of houses isn't even in flames like the last one.

Making a break for it, she swerves around the next corner to face him. Sure enough, there he goes. No time for grace, just jumping the guy should hold him down. Well, if he hadn't decided to slide right then it would've. As her palms kiss the ground, there's the tell-tale sh-shing of Mai's knives, though Zuko decides right then to spin-kick himself up with a twirl that'd fit right in the circus. Instead of pinning him, one of the blades actually does graze him, leaving a blood red strip along his right cheekbone, already dripping, which, telling by her now frozen posture, is not where Mai had been aiming. By the time either of them actually face Zuko once more he's already darted off again.

You'd think he'd have the sense of when to give up drilled into him by now. He'd been out of breath and glistening in the sun two blocks ago. With the heat, Ty Lee has begrudgingly worked up a sweat herself. She follows after anyways, not too fond of Azula's brand of failure management.

She has just about caught up to him, which took a bit longer without the aid of Mai's knives, when Azula blasts the Avatar right into Zuko's arms. He wastes little time, immediately holding his blades to the Avatar's throat like a pair of scissors about to snip. He's shouting again about how they need to hold it and the Avatar must be captured alive and that he has fulfilled his destiny and that they should let him come home now. All the while the kid's eyes are wide and big and for the first time since she's heard his name shouted, she wonders if the scarred man with the mad eyes and the blood dripping down a hollowed cheek onto a child's singed clothes is really the boy she once knew.

In lieu of an answer, Azula actually allows a silence to follow that outburst. Then Ty Lee sees a flash of steel appear in the corner of her eye and then Azula is falling down. She turns to Mai, who's just as shocked. There's a burst of wind. That distraction was all the Air Nomad needed to escape his bind. Zuko tirelessly tries to catch him with his flames and Mai follows with a halfhearted throw, but the Avatar dispels the fire with a twirl of his staff and effortlessly weaves through the fast paced flow blades. Their efforts are useless, the kid's free as a bird and Ty Lee doesn't even have the heart to cage him back in.

Azula is back up and then there's the water witch clad in blue but emitting a fierce red, followed by her brother wielding his strange bent, edged club he must've gotten Azula with. Zuko just chases the child-Avatar, though the witches' water-tentacles prevent Azula from doing the same. She doesn't manage for long when a renewed sharpness to Mai's dual knives pins the witches' wristbands to the closest post, while a third keeps the brother's odd club from interfering. Undeterred, the boy grabs a bone club and rushes to aid his sister, but Mai's volley of steel prevents him from getting too close.

It's the perfect time to neutralize the witch's bending, but a freezing breath makes Ty Lee's feet slip over once steady ground when there's a blast tightly followed by a scream behind her. Quickly Azula moves to finish what she could not, but as the fire leaves her fingertips she's blown away by the Avatar's wind.

Knife between her teeth, the water girl already freed one hand. With little time to spare there's little choice, but to take her bending. But just when Ty Lee hits the one arm she's flying. This time she lands properly, but the water girl is pulling out the second knife as her first arm flabs around. The boy has been pinned to the nearest wall and Azula has just dodged another burst of wind, but just as she regains her footing the ground on which she's standing breaks apart. It's the little girl in greens, eyes blank and a grin so wide it would barely fit on a grown man's face. Light orange, all proud and steady like the sun, –dirt girl thought her friends could use a little help.

Joke's on her, she should have been here sooner. The Avatar is busy dodging Azula, and Mai's knives will keep the water siblings stuck for a bit, and Zuko's been down ever since she heard that crash. Let's see how the earthbender fairs against the two of them. The girl puts up a wall to block the first of Mai's knives, not even trying to dodge them. It just gives Ty Lee the perfect platform to flip over. When she lands, the ground does force her back up, but she transfers the brunt of it to her knees while letting the rest of it fly her off.

The girl's distractedness earns her cold steel pinning her to her own wall. Though the short clothing didn't allow Mai to nail her down far enough along the limbs to properly restrain her movement, the earthbender is clearly thrown off her game. It's as good a moment to move in as any, though it doesn't last quite long enough. A stomp of her feet puts up a column for Mai's next volley while the slam of her hands against her wall breaks it apart.

Now freed, the earth girl tries to hamper Ty Lee's advance, but quick sidestepping, jumping and flipping is all she needs to avoid those clumsy rocks. Stupid kid never seems to hit the mark whenever she avoids going in a straight line and skids by quickly. Ty Lee is about to close in but the girl grumbles something about Twinkletoes and lets herself trust-fall through the ground, encasing herself in her element.

Figures it takes someone dumb as rocks to be hard like them too.

Still, she'll have to respect earthbender's grit, but before she can find a way around this tough cookie the Dragon of the West appears with Zuko in tow. The former sees them beset by the Nation's greatest enemy and his aides, and decides to open fire on his niece instead. So it had been true what they'd been saying about him. Oh, and of course now the water tribe siblings are back. At least Mai is keeping the dirt girl on her toes with her stilettos cracking the rock.

Just when things couldn't get any better, the Avatar's beast shows up. Its growl is their only warning before the wind blasts them away as he bursts through shabby buildings like paper. A burst of blue flames hit the former general as he blasts away the rubble. Ty Lee can hear Hmaa and the other mongoose lizards' yelp as they scatter. Mai rolls her eyes as Azula decides 'it's time to take a page from the Avatar's playbook' and whistles for their rides. There's a clash of metal as the Avatar and his companions send three different elements their way. Ty Lee dodges it before a flash of blue and hears a blast ring in her ears. She keeps running towards Hmaa as her friends follow from behind as the smoke covers their escape.

"What about Zuko?" she screams.

Azula jumps on Sunak and snarls: "Let him cuddle his traitorous uncle if he loves him so much." Not looking at Mai's pointed stare she rides off. The three of them are out of town before the dust settles.

When they arrive at the train the sun is still sweltering and there's already blisters forming on her hands. Azula is still not looking at Mai, so Ty Lee reaches for something to break the tension.

"So what's next?" she asks, deciding in a split second that she would rather discuss an uncertain future over their present circumstances.

Azula looks back at where they came from. "The Avatar is a master of evasion." Ty Lee nods, happily ignoring that the boy hadn't been the one running away. "His tactics are formidable and fortune favours him. So we'll strategize and cut off his places to hide. As it stands, he's already running out." She smirks while raising her index finger. "But we can expedite the process a little."

Mai lets an eyebrow raise. "Which means?" she asks.

Azula turns back to the train.

"I say we check up on War Minister Qin's little masterpiece."

Notes:

For anyone wondering: Sunak and Khmaa are romanized spellings for Thai words for dog, though idk how accurate that is i just looked for it online. They're the names of the mongoose-lizards the dangerous ladies rode. I'm also using Vietnamese units of measurement for Fire Nation characters.

Aside from my team and the rest of the rare pair big bang, shoutouts to Densharr for writing some dope Ty Luko fic. If u check it out tellem i said hi!