Mai usually didn't worry about a lot of things, but her best friend who was currently the size of a little kid was nowhere in sight, when they were being attacked by the Fire Nation? She was slightly worried. Mai knew that Azula could handle herself just fine, but none of them had seen her firebend since she shrunk. Not to mention, there was also the possibility of Azula's identity being discovered as well if she were to firebend, which was the last thing that they needed. No doubt that Fire Lord Ozai would send troops after them to capture Azula on suspicion of treason.

Having pinned down two soldiers with her knives, Mai turned around to find the others holding their own. Toph had encased a few soldiers with her earthbending, Katara was in the middle of freezing one soldier, Aang slammed his staff down in order to blow away a group of soldiers, and Ty Lee managed to chi-block the last few that remained. One person from the group was missing, however.

Where was Sokka?

When Azula attacked the soldier, she had expected him to fall unconscious due to the might of her firebending. What Azula wasn't expecting was for the soldier to easily deflect her attack and send it right back at her. The small girl quickly jumped out of the way before her own attack could hit her. How embarrassing would that be? At least her attack made the soldier let go of Sayo. Azula would take what she could get. Speaking of the soldier, the man was looking at her with a mixture of fear and confusion. The former of which confused Azula. Why would he be looking at her with fear? It's not as if he knew who she wa-

Oh

Her firebending. Her blue firebending, something that nobody else could do but her. She was the only known firebender alive who could bend blue flames. How could she have forgotten about that?! If this man had indeed recognized her, then she couldn't allow him to escape.

She would have to kill him.

Not waiting for the man to break out of his stupor, Azula shot a ball of fire at the man with her feet, causing him to stumble back. She then shot out streams of fire with her fingertips. As she launched her assault on the man, she noticed two things. Her attacks weren't doing nearly as much damage as they usually would, and perhaps the most worrisome thing, was the fact that she was beginning to feel tired. Her. Princess Azula. Firebending prodigy. Tired after only shooting a few fire blasts! Seriously, what was wrong with her? She wasn't Zuko. She wasn't weak! There had to be an explanation for why this was happening. An explanation that she was almost certain had to do with a certain pair of spirits.

There was one other technique that Azula had yet to try. She was hesitant to use it, though. If she was already feeling this tired from firebending, there was no telling what would happen if she used her lightning bending. The more Azula thought about it, however, she realized that she didn't have much of a choice. She had to get Sayo to safety. Looking to make sure that Sayo wouldn't get caught in the crossfire, Azula took a deep breath and began moving her arms in the familiar circular motions that her father had taught her. Within seconds she began to feel the sensation of lightning at her fingertips, and immediately shot it at the soldier. As Azula expected, it wasn't as powerful as it usually was, but it succeeded in knocking him unconscious. A state that Azula soon followed him into moments later.

Sayo stood a few feet away, shocked by what she had just witnessed. Ming was a firebender. She was no better than the people who killed her mom and sister! But was she really just like them? After all, Ming had saved her life just now, hadn't she? If she truly was just like every other Fire Nation soldier, Ming would have just let that man kill her. And yet she didn't. Instead, Ming fought to protect Sayo. Perhaps Ming was the exception when it came to the Fire Nation. As she slowly approached the other girl, Sayo heard rustling coming from the bushes. She turned around, hoping that it wasn't another Fire Nation soldier who had found them….

"Ming! Sayo!" a familiar voice shouted.

Sokka ran as fast as he could, desperately looking for any signs of Azula and Sayo. He had been helping Aang and the others fight off the soldiers that attacked the village, when Sayo's father found him and revealed that neither of the girls had made it back. Which immediately put Sokka on edge. The fact that the two girls hadn't returned meant that they were most likely facing some kind of trouble. Said trouble being the Fire Nation. Sokka knew that Azula could handle herself in a fight and protect Ming if she had to, but he preferred if she didn't use her firebending. It was unique, after all. And if Azula's boasting was anything to go by, she was the only known firebender alive who could bend blue flames. Which meant that she could be easily recognized in a fight.

Sokka's thoughts were interrupted by a loud boom in the distance. When he looked up, what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Was that freaking lightning that he had just seen? Hadn't Azula said that she could bend lightning?

"Please don't tell me that means she's fighting someone!" Sokka said. He began to speed up, hoping to get there and help Azula before things took a turn for the worst. He ran for a few more minutes before he eventually came across a path. And on that path was an unconscious Fire Nation soldier, Sayo, and Azula, who also appeared to be unconscious. The scene before him worried Sokka. What had caused Azula to pass out?

"Ming! Sayo!" He shouted.

Sayo's face lit up with relief when saw him. Tears gathered in her eyes, and she ran over to Sokka and hugged him. Sokka hugged her back.

"I'm glad to see that you two are ok. Can you tell me what happened?"

Sayo nodded, sniffing a little bit, "We were playing when we noticed the smoke coming from the village. On our way back we ran into that soldier. He demanded to know where Aang was. Ming lied and said that she didn't know what he was talking about, and the man got angry. He hit Ming and then threatened to- to kill me if Ming didn't tell him the truth. I was so scared and thought that we were both going to die, when something unbelievable happened. Ming, she- she firebended! But something seemed to be wrong with her though. She looked like she was out of breath. Oh, and then she shot lightning at him! Can you believe that?! I never saw anything like that before! And once she did that, the bad man collapsed. And so did Ming a few seconds later."

So, Azula had firebended….and it caused her to collapse? That didn't sound like a normal thing that happened to firebenders. Granted, Sokka wasn't an expert, but after spending time with Azula, he began to learn some things about firebenders. And she had never mentioned something like that. Not once. So what did it mean? He supposed that it could have had something to do with her body shrinking. That was the only possibility that he could think of that made sense. And if that was the case, then they had a lot to discuss once Azula woke up. Sokka walked over to where Azula was and picked her up, relieved to see that she was still breathing. He turned towards Sayo and gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Come on, let's get you back home. Your dad is worried sick about you."

Night had fallen when they finally returned to the village. Sayo and her father had tearfully hugged each other, glad that they were both still alive. Her father had asked what happened, and she said that Sokka had rescued her and Ming from the bad guy. Sokka sent a grateful glance her way, since what she had just said was an obvious lie. Which meant that the girl wasn't keen on revealing to her father who "Ming" actually was. Sokka was sure that the little girl would have plenty of questions for them later, though.

"Hey" a voice said behind him.

Sokka turned around and saw Mai. She looked at him before her glance turned to the girl in his arms. The look on Mai's face changed from indifference to….something. Sokka wasn't sure what to call it, but it wasn't a worried look. Maybe something in between that, then?

"What happened to her?" Mai asked him.

"Sayo said that Azula protected both of them from a fire nation soldier. But something strange happened to Azula when she was firebending. She looked as if she was getting tired, and then when she used her lightning bending on the guy to end the fight, she passed out. I'm assuming that this has never happened to her before and isn't normal?"

Silence

"Um, Mai?"

"...The only time Azula ever passed out from firebending was when she would over do it in her training back when we were kids. I have no idea what would cause her to pass out now, though." Mai said.

"I'm going to guess that it has something to do with her shrinking. Maybe her body can't handle it or something. I mean, according to her, you, and Ty Lee, she's a super strong firebender, right? So, maybe now that she's small again, it's too much for her to control. That's my theory, anyway. We won't know for sure until she wakes up and tells us what happened."

It may just be a theory, but Mai supposed that it made sense. What else could explain why Azula had collapsed? Sokka's story made her realize something else, however.

"Wait. She used her bending? Then that means her cover is blown! We need to put as much distance between this place and us as soon as possible."

"I know, and we will. I want to wait until she wakes up though. I want Katara to check on her too." Sokka said.

"Katara? Why?"

"Aside from kicking butt, Katara is a healer too. Figured that she could check Azula out and see if she has any damage or not."

Mai supposed that made sense. As they made their way back to Sayo's house, she found herself thinking about the soldier that attacked Azula and Sayo. Mai never thought that the day would come where she wished death on her own countrymen, but she hoped that Azula's lightning had killed him.

She didn't want to think about what would happen if the man was still alive.

Azula slowly opened her eyes and looked around. It looked like she was in the same room that she had woken up in the first time around, and it was night. She started to remember everything that had happened, and a single thought made her shoot up.

"Where's Sayo?!" Azula asked, frantically searching for the little girl. Was she ok? She sure hoped she was….

"Woah, easy there! Don't worry, tiny princess. She's just fine. It's you we've all been worried about." Sokka said with a relieved grin on his face.

"Me?" Why on earth would they be worried about her for? Didn't they know that she could take care of herself?

"Sokka told us about how you passed out during your fight against the soldier that attacked both you and Sayo. You don't remember that?" Ty Lee asked.

Oh. Right. That had happened, hadn't it?

"Yeah. But what I don't get is why that happened to me. I've never felt so tired like that after doing a few simple firebending moves! I don't understand. I'm not weak! And yet….and yet, when I was firebending earlier, it felt as if the wind was being knocked right out of me. I never want to feel like that again. But I have a funny feeling that this will happen from now on as long as I'm stuck like this. Oh! Something else happened that was weird during the fight."

"What was it?" Mai asked.

"My bending was weak. Like, weaker than Zuko's. Almost none of my attacks did any damage to that guy at all. The only time it actually did was when I unleashed a barrage of attacks on him, and when I used my lightning bending. And even that was weak! What am I going to do, you guys?"

Of course, nobody had an answer for her. How could they? None of them understood this anymore than she did, after all. After a while, Sokka spoke up.

"I think this most likely has something to do with your current situation. You're a crazy powerful firebender, right? And now you're the size of a child. So maybe your body can't handle how powerful you usually are. And to make up for it, it cut your bending power in half." Sokka said, rubbing his chin in thought.

Azula supposed that made sense. So then she would have to find a way to firebend in a way that wouldn't tire her out. In other words, control the power of her firebending. Should be easy enough. Right?

"Well, you should get some sleep. We're leaving first thing in the morning. We can't risk staying here any longer now that the Fire Nation knows that Aang is here and your identity was revealed." Katara said.

As the others began to file out of the room, a thought occurred to Azula.

"Um, could you guys have Sayo come in here? I want to see her. And I'm sure that she has some questions for me." Azula asked.

"Sure. But only talk for a little bit and then go to sleep, Azula." Mai said.

Would she ever stop treating her like a child?!

As promised, Sayo was brought into Azula's room. The girl immediately ran to Azula and hugged her, taking the other girl by surprise, before sitting herself down on the bed beside Azula. It seemed like the child didn't know what to say. Not that Azula could blame her, of course. She did, after all, see Azula firebending. The two girls were silent for a while before Sayo finally spoke.

"So…you're a firebender?" the girl asked, looking at Azula with a mixture of concern and wariness.

Azula nodded. She didn't know what to say to the girl. The more she looked at Sayo, the more she couldn't believe that she had actually fought her own people to protect this girl. This girl, who should be nothing more than a peasant to Azula. And yet, Azula risked everything just to protect her. Why? What would father think if he found out?

Azula sighed. She would worry about that later. Right now, she would answer Sayo's questions to the best of her ability. It was silent again until Sayo asked her another question.

"Your name isn't really Ming, is it?"

Well shit. How was she supposed to answer that? It wasn't as if she could say "my true name is Azula, princess Azula of the Fire Nation. I'm actually 14 years old, but these stupid spirits decided that it would be funny to shrink me". How did one explain all of that to a child?

"I can't answer that."

"Why not?"

"It's better if you don't know who I really am, Sayo. Trust me."

Can't have her thinking that I'm an even bigger monster than she probably thinks at this point, now can I?

"...Ok. Hey, Ming?"

"What is it?"

Sayo hesitated before pulling Azula into a tight hug.

"Thank you for saving me. And I'm so glad that you're ok. I was really worried about you." Sayo said, hugging Azula tightly.

Azula sat there silently for a few seconds, too shocked to move. Eventually, however, she returned the hug.

All the while hating herself for doing so, knowing what she would most likely do to this girl and other people just like her when she returned to her true form.

In the forest, a lone Fire Nation soldier was slowly coming around. He got up as the memories of what happened came back to him.

Memories of a certain little girl bending blue flames and lightning.

The man made his way through the forest, looking for his comrades and with one thought on his mind.

He needed to send word to Fire Lord Ozai.