Morality Chain

I'm back! Nice to see all of you again.

One other thing – if you look through the chapter list you'll note that I've changed the chapter titles, because my old style really wasn't helping me all that much. Not a big deal, I guess, but it's there.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The newest addition to their little group had brought along some complications with her.

In truth, Azula had half-expected it, and back when this whole operation had still been in its planning stages she'd deemed it a worthwhile trade – her skills were simply too valuable to pass over so lightly.

Which wasn't to say she wasn't annoyed.

"Zuko! Firebending training! Now!" She snapped at the two figures huddled several feet away. "You two have already been talking to each other for the whole day!" And she could have sworn she'd heard giggling coming from them earlier, except that the very idea of her brother or Mai giggling was almost too horrible to contemplate.

As Zuko reluctantly separated himself from Mai and came over to her, Azula resisted the urge to roll her eyes and to make a snide remark. There were slightly more important things to be concerned with.

"We'll go through the Phoenix Wing form today. I assume you remember how to perform it?" She clasped her hands behind the small of her back as she watched him nod and move into the stance. Credit where credit was due; he appeared to be focusing on his training once it started, no matter how reluctantly he had separated himself from Mai in the first place.

"Arms wider." She noted, and Zuko complied.

As Azula kept one eye on her brother's training, she also immersed herself in pondering the Avatar's next goal. She had to assume that the Avatar had, however briefly, entertained the thought of having King Bumi be his teacher. Now that option was clearly out of the cards, and she had to wonder if he had any other backup plans in mind. Given what she knew of the Air Nomads (and what she had seen of the Avatar himself), she deemed that rather unlikely, but it was still a possibility that she couldn't ignore.

"Keep your upper body forward."

The guards stationed at the walls had reported the direction that Avatar had flown of on that mount of his, and Azula had been momentarily surprised that it led straight to the swamplands of the south. Well, even if the Avatar was going to head there, he wouldn't be staying for long – there wouldn't be anything of interest to him.

Her attention was drawn by the sound of sizzling flames as Zuko went through the rest of the set. As he finished, she cocked her head to one side. "Is your wrist sore? The fire from your right hand is a little… off."

"Wow. You can even tell something like that, Azula? You really are a genius!" She heard Ty Lee's voice over Zuko's mumbled acknowledgement.

Azula turned around to look at Ty Lee as she stepped out of her tent.

The acrobat paused and scratched the side of her head. "It's… not really my colour, is it?"

Her friend was now dressed in Earth Kingdom green – specifically, Earth Kingdom peasant green, which was unquestionably one of the most drab and dingy colours amongst the fashions of the various cultures. Azula had to admit it didn't really suit her friend – although in a concession to her usual dress sense, Ty Lee had removed the middle of her outfit, leaving her midriff bare as always. Silently, she wondered why her friend always insisted on doing that – it was logical in the Fire Nation, especially in the heat of summer, but here? Maybe old habits just died hard.

"You look fine." She said aloud. And it was true, at least as far as Azula was concerned; far be it for her to claim she didn't care about appearances, but she was pragmatic enough to realize that she needed to move as quickly as possible through the Earth Kingdom, and that she could no longer throw the authority of the Fire Nation around; in Fire Nation colonies that would simply bring the guards down on her as the sought to claim Zuko's bounty for their own, and in unoccupied areas it would result in the locals either fleeing or trying to lynch her.

Not that she didn't believe she'd be perfectly capable of dealing with those sort of problems should they arise, but that would simply waste time and energy in the end. No, being inconspicuous was the best approach here.

On that note, she looked down at her own clothing. It was certainly brighter in shade than Ty Lee's, and of a better make – an unconscious bias on Mai's part, perhaps. Unhappily enough, she had to remove the flame headpiece but she'd substituted it with a bright green ribbon to secure her topknot. Zuko had commented that it made her look 'innocent', and she'd merely rolled her eyes in response.

Well, she should be able to pass inspection as long as nobody looked too closely (and she doubted that many Earth Kingdom peasants had the slightest idea what her golden eyes signified, so that wasn't a big issue either).

She glanced up in time to note that Ty Lee had abandoned the current line of conversation in lieu of practising her cartwheels and backflips. At her side, Zuko was continuing his own training, and even Mai, now deprived of one of the very few things she found genuinely interesting, was lazily hurling some of her knives at a nearby tree.

She nearly began to move through her own sets herself, but common sense and long-standing habit stopped her. Back when Zuko had still been living in the palace it had been an unwritten but acknowledged rule that neither of the siblings practised their Firebending in front of the other. She knew her brother's fierce pride better than most anyone (Uncle perhaps, would have seen more of it in recent years), and she wasn't blind to the fact that her outstripping him so thoroughly in Firebending was a rather sore spot. Back when they had been younger her natural desire to show off her skills had often collided with the knowledge that it would drive her brother into deeper resentment, and most of the time the desire for a strong relationship with Zuko had won out, although she had to admit it had often been close. Silently, she pondered how their relationship might have changed had she taken the opportunity to rub her superiority in his face.

Well, that was beside the point; she didn't go through her own training until Zuko wasn't watching, and that was that.

After all, old habits died hard.

(X)

Zuko opened his eyes, letting his gaze dart back and forth. It was springtime, but the lack of rain in recent weeks had been enough of a signal for the group to sleep under the stars, with a single tent set up to preserve the modesty of the three ladies he travelled with. As such, the young prince of the Fire Nation was currently afforded an excellent view of the predawn sky.

That wasn't why he'd snapped awake, of course. He was a Firebender to the bone, and even in his slumber he could sense when the flames were being stirred by someone else.

Slowly, he shifted his gaze to the left, where he could see his sister sitting near the remains of the campfire, her back as straight as a sword-edge. Her eyes were closed, her breathing steady, and every time she breathed out the dying embers of the fire flared briefly.

He blinked, looked up at the sky that was still flecked with stars, and silently wondered if she rose this early every morning to meditate. He had his own training regimen he stuck to as closely as possible, of course, but still…

Lying back down onto his sleeping bag, he thought back over the past few days. Her sister had been relatively tight-lipped about their next destination – Zuko suspected that it was because she wasn't entirely sure herself. They had passed through a couple towns, but most of them were sleepy backwaters, with little in the way of news. They hadn't had any word about the Avatar, and while he wasn't surprised, he was disappointed.

There was a soft murmur to his other side, and Zuko's attention was drawn to the sound of Mai turning over and grumbling to herself about how some rocks were poking into her back. A thin smile curled across his face. It had been so long since he'd seen Mai – he could still remember the withdrawn, quiet girl from his childhood, and it had come as a bit of a surprise to him that she had grown so quickly into a woman of grace and elegance (if not cheer). And despite not having seen each other for over three years, they'd gotten on wonderfully. It was actually pretty surprising how well he'd gotten on with Mai, how… comfortable he felt in her presence.

And Azula's grouses weren't without merit. He had been spending a lot of time with Mai, talking about everything and nothing, and sometimes simply being quiet and relaxing together. So much that it had started to cut into his training time more than once…

Zuko's smile vanished. His drive to hunt the Avatar had been his one, all-consuming passion for the past three years. His last thought as he lay down to sleep, his first thought as he rose in the mornings. Some of the men who'd served under him had laughed, called him 'obsessed'. What did they know? Their honour didn't hinge on something like that.

But recently, ever since he'd seen Mai, that resolve had started to be pushed to the back, with the quiet girl occupying more and more of his thoughts instead. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

No.

It couldn't go on like this. His friendship – and potentially more – with Mai could not be allowed to distract him from hunting the Avatar. That had to be at the forefront of his mind, always. After the Avatar was safely in custody, maybe he could pick up where they had left off, but until then…

His decision made, he rolled over onto his side, closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

(X)

Approximately a week later, as they rose and broke camp for the day, continuing their journey, Azula couldn't shake a creeping sense of frustration.

First and most importantly, the Avatar trail was cold. She had become increasingly certain that he had ended up spending some time in the swamplands, but there was no way to tell where he left from there on out. Maybe he had entered for the specific purpose of throwing pursuers off his trail, or he'd blundered into it by accident, there wasn't much practical difference in the end.

The nearby towns hadn't heard of anything relating to the Avatar, so no leads there. She was left with guesswork and estimation with which to try to ascertain the Avatar's movements. Well, he would likely want to stay out of Fire Nation territory, so that was a start. Furthermore, almost all of the major fortified cities had fallen to the Fire Nation by now, which the Avatar would presumably know about. There were several mid-sized cities and towns scattered around that were still largely free of Fire Nation influence, so it made sense to continue the search there.

Second was the… well, something going on between Zuko and Mai. After Mai had joined she had had to deal with dragging Zuko away from her every time she needed him to do something… until suddenly and abruptly the exact opposite had happened and now he seemed to be throwing himself into his training with greater fervour than ever before. As far as she could tell Mai was confused (and rather hurt) by this sudden change, but apparently not sure enough of where they stood to press the issue.

As far as Azula herself was concerned, this was just another potential headache that she would have to watch and prevent from blowing up. Well, she'd just have to keep a closer eye on the both of them and see if things started to fall apart or not. However, she was unhappily aware that the initiative on such a move was entirely out of her hands, and that sort of thing always frustrated her.

Third, Ty Lee had been unusually mopey even since she'd gotten up this morning. No, correction, she'd become mopey after brightly wishing everyone a good morning and then deflating when they'd returned their standard greeting, which in Azula's own case was a curt nod.

Now she rode at the back of their little group, eyes downcast. Under ordinary circumstances she would have been glancing up and down and making exclamations about everything and anything that happened to catch her eye. But not today.

Under ordinary circumstances Azula would have gladly welcomed the chance for some peace and quiet, but she also knew that keeping up morale was a rather important role of the leader.

Well, at least she knew how to solve this issue. And speaking of which…

"There's our stop for today." She said out loud as she caught sight of the ramshackle collection of buildings in the distance.

"That?" Zuko said with undisguised disappointment. "That barely qualifies as a town."

As he spoke, Azula pursed her lips. Zuko was right, - it was a rather run down place. But with a little luck, she'd be able to find what she needed here – it wasn't that rare by any means…

"We should keep going," Mai spoke up as well. "There's no way the Avatar would come here, and we have all the supplies we need for a while."

Not all… Azula shook her head. "We're going in, and that's final." I'm working on a time limit, here.

Zuko let out a sigh of exasperation, and she could see Mai roll her eyes slightly. Quickly, they dismounted the mongoose-dragons.

"Ty Lee," she called.

"Huh?" her friend's head shot up and for a moment Ty Lee looked like her cheerful self again. "What is it?"

"It's your turn to guard the mongoose-dragons." Azula said. It was standard procedure – the mongoose-dragons were native to the Fire Nation, and as such they were usually kept a safe distance away from the town whenever they entered.

"Oh." Ty Lee's shoulders slumped again and she slowly got down from her own mount. "Yeah. Sure."

"Make sure nothing goes missing. We need those supplies."

"I got it already. No need to nag." As she finished tying down her own mount, she settled against a nearby flat rock and gazed listlessly over the mounts. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Zuko and Mai exchange glances.

"All right then. Zuko, Mai. Let's go."

(X)

Upon approaching the town, the first thing she noticed was the motley group of soldiers ostensibly guarding the place. They were currently intensely focused on a game involving dice and barely glanced up as the trio passed through the entrance. Sizing them up with a quick look, Azula wondered if the standards of the Earth Kingdom were really that lax that they would allow rabble like that into their army, or if they were simply so short of manpower that they would hire any able-bodied person available.

Maybe it was a little of both.

"So what's your plan for our visit here?" Zuko questioned, eyes narrowed as he gazed over the dusty street.

"Split up, try to find information, gather whatever you think useful," Azula said shortly as she spied several shops. They'd probably have what she wanted in there… "Meet back at the entrance at sundown."

"Sundown?" Zuko questioned, one eyebrow raised. "Az, look at this place! It probably won't take us fifteen minutes to find out that no one's seen or heard anything, and then we'll be on our way again."

"Sundown." She repeated firmly. She kept her gaze focused on the area around her.

"Everyone else has been acting weird lately, I suppose Azula wanted in on the fun." Mai quipped as she brushed past the two of them and headed further into the village. Meanwhile, Zuko threw his hands in a gesture of exasperation and stalked off in a different direction.

Now alone, Azula let out a deep breath and turned towards the nearest of the shops. She supposed she could have told them of what she was planning, but knowing them they'd have wanted to help, which would mean that the credit would get split up. No, in this particular instance, she needed to be the sole person behind everything.

She paused in the doorway, letting the sunlight from behind her frame her outline as she gazed into the quiet store.

"Not the most prosperous looking establishment." She commented, almost to herself. In response, a shaggy-haired man shuffled out from the back of the store.

"Well, ain't you a pretty little thing. What are you lookin' for, miss?"

Ignoring that remark, Azula stepped into the shop proper, looking through the produce. None of what she was looking for was on the shelves, which she supposed was only natural. With a shake of her head, she turned to regard the storekeeper and told him what she needed.

His eyes widened slightly. "Well, that's a rather tall order, miss. I'm not sure –"

Wordlessly, Azula withdrew a single gold piece from her pocket.

"No worries, I'll get everything you need! Come back in about two or three day's ti-"

"I want everything prepared by sundown today."

"Sundown? But that's –" She shifted her fingers, revealing that she was in fact holding two gold pieces. "Sure. Sure, sundown's good."

"Payment upon delivery," she said dryly as she left the store. Well, that was her primary reason for being here settled (and if it turned out that oaf couldn't deliver after all, she was going to make him pay dearly). Now all she had to do was come back at the end of the day.

That, and find some way to occupy her time until then. Azula stared wordlessly at the sun, still hanging low in the eastern sky. Then with a sigh and a shake of her head, she turned and headed off into the town. She might as well question some of the locals while she was here.

(X)

Zuko stomped through the centre of the town, eyes still focused on a stony glare. What on earth was his sister thinking? For as long as he'd known Azula, she had always been brusque and commanding, but most of the times her actions were always borne out of a line of common sense and logic. This, though… it was just odd.

Regardless, he'd already been to several of the houses, and they'd confirmed what he already knew – no one had heard anything about the Avatar. This was a complete waste of time.

"Hey."

The voice was harsh and rough. Zuko turned to regard its owner and beheld an Earth Kingdom soldier – probably one of those stationed at the town entrance he'd seen earlier.

"Yes?" He questioned carefully. The soldier wasn't approaching Zuko as if he were a threat, so his identity as one of the Fire Nation was probably safe for now. Still…

"Those are some fine swords you have behind you." The soldier inclined his chin to indicate the broadswords Zuko had strapped to his back. "Wouldn't want to go gallivanting around town with those, would we. Someone might get the wrong idea." There was an unpleasant look in the man's eyes.

"I've found it's always best to have something on hand to defend yourself with." Zuko's voice was tight as he regarded the soldier.

"Is that so? What, you don't trust us fine men of the Earth Army to protect you? Is that it? In fact, why don't you just hand over those weapons of yours and we'll consider it your contribution to the cause. Don't you know there's a war on?" He thrust one meaty hand out.

"Yes I do," Zuko snapped. "And if the Earth Kingdom is relying on people like you to win it, then they're as good as finished."

Judging by the soldier's reaction, it clearly hadn't been the response he was expecting. He lunged, hands reaching out to seize the prince. Quickly Zuko sidestepped the clumsy attack, one leg pivoting around to catch the soldier in the back of his knee. The was a loud thud as the soldier landed heavily on the floor and Zuko began to back away.

Quickly the Earth Kingdom soldier scrambled to his feet. Zuko shifted into a better stance. It felt unnatural – against his nature as a Firebender – to wait for an attack before responding, but he really didn't want a scene here.

"I don't want any trouble," his voice was soft, but one hand drifted to the hilt of his blades, regardless.

The man growled as he struggled to his feet, one hand reaching up to wipe at the dirt on his chin. "Don't think this is the last of it, boy," he snarled as he turned and began to limp away. He'd probably twisted his ankle in the fall, Zuko surmised. A lucky break, then – in his experience men like that would have been too enraged to think right and would have continued attacking otherwise. A healthy dose of pain could do wonders sometimes.

"That was awesome!" There was exuberant shout from behind him and Zuko turned around, noticing for the first time that there had been a little boy sitting against the front of the house, his eyes wide and excited. "The way you talked back to the guy, that little move of yours..."

"I just wanted to be left alone." He replied, hoping the kid would catch the hint.

Naturally, he did not and instead continued to chatter, "no one here likes these people. All the real soldiers are off doing the fighting, and they just come here and throw their weight around."

Zuko didn't reply.

"You're not from around here, are you? I don't think I've ever seen you before," the kid noted as he stood in front of Zuko. "My name's Lee. What's yours?"

"…" He closed his eyes and made to walk pass the boy.

"Come on! You should introduce yourself properly when you meet new people. Didn't your mom teach you that? I know mine did."

Zuko's eyes snapped open. Mom. He sighed, turning to look back at the kid.

"I haven't seen my mother in a while." He replied. "But she taught me a lot when she was still around. And didn't yours teach you not to be so friendly to complete strangers?"

The kid pulled himself to his full height. "You're not a stranger." He beamed at Zuko.

"You don't even know my name."

"Yeah, that's true, I guess, but… but you stood up to that soldier! As long as you do it around here, that means you're a good guy."

Zuko had to stifle a snort of bitter laughter. A good guy, huh…

"Hey, it's almost lunchtime. Come on, I'll take you to my house. My mom's a great cook! And just wait until they hear about what you did!" Thus saying so, Lee ran off, apparently secure in the belief that Zuko would follow.

With a sigh, Zuko glanced up at the noonday sun, and then started off after the boy.

(X)

Mai gingerly settled herself on the bench, which made an unpleasant creaking noise as she sat on it. Folding her arms, she leaned forward, glaring out at the drab landscape.

There had been nothing in the town worthy of note, and now she had absolutely nothing to do. Just like always. Agni, this was boring.

Worsening her mood was the fact that one of the few things she did not find boring had been avoiding her recently. And she couldn't figure out why, which just left her in an even more foul mood. Hadn't he been happy to see her back in Omashu? He'd certainly given enough of an impression for her to believe that…

Now, though, he was always busy whenever she tried to talk to him. Busy with Firebending training, busy with sword training, or busy with meditating, or busy with – and this was his favourite – stuff. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.

But the reasons behind it? Mai knew she lacked Azula's cold, analytical mind that allowed her to read people so easily, but she knew Zuko well. She should have been able to figure it out, but so far she was coming up with a nothing. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she didn't know Zuko well at all, she only thought she did, and so that was where all the confusion was coming from.

Well, if Zuko wasn't going to open up to her, then there was really no reason for her to torture herself over it. Mai's gaze hardened. Asking him to his face would be the simple, no-nonsense method, and it would likely work.

Unless she'd been reading the whole situation wrong and Zuko simply stared at her and asked what she was talking about. That would likely damage the relationship if it hadn't been already.

This was harder than she thought. And she almost missed Azula walking up to her, but her senses were better honed than that, and she turned to regard the princess with a questioning gaze.

"Here," Azula said without preamble as she tossed a small packet at Mai, who deftly snatched it out of the air. "You haven't had lunch yet either, I assume." The Firebender settled herself on the bench next to Mai (and it made had horrible groan again), unfolding another packet of her own.

"And this is?"

"The local speciality." Her friend said dryly. "Some kind of meat stuffed into a bun. It's not exactly high cuisine, but it'll do."

Mai lifted it to her mouth and took a bite. She chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "Tastes like burnt rope," she finally said.

Azula made no reply.

After the two of them had finished their food, Azula heaved a sigh and turned to Mai. "Any luck?"

"No." Mai said as she shook her head. "One of the families didn't even know the Avatar had reappeared."

Azula sighed. "This place is even more of a backwater than I assumed," she muttered

"Don't look at me. I didn't even want to stop in this run-down excuse for a town." She paused. "Can we find Zuko and leave y-"

"No, we cannot."

Mai let out an exasperated sigh, turned away, and folded her arms. A moment later, two men dressed as soldier uniforms walked by. As they passed, the one on the right turned around, letting his gaze roam across the two girls far longer than Mai felt comfortable with. Just before he returned his attention to the road in front of him, he let out a rather lascivious whistle.

Mai could feel her friend stiffen. "Don't cause a scene." She said quickly.

"I have better self-control than that, Mai." She shot back.

As the sun blazed overhead, the two of them continued to sit there in silence.

(X)

"So where are you from?"

"Far away."

"And where are you going?"

"Lee, it's not nice to pry. If he wants to keep things to himself, let him." Zuko let the conversation swirl around him as he continued to eat his food.

"Okay. Okay." The boy was clearly annoyed at the restriction placed upon him, and he continued to pick at his own meal.

As he continued to eat, Zuko couldn't help but notice the glances the boy was giving to his twin broadswords every couple of seconds. Lee was bright and curious, eager to pick up and learn as much as he could.

He paused. Lee actually reminded him a lot of… himself. When he had been younger.

Before I got this scar.

Quickly, he tried to banish those thoughts. They weren't going to help anyone.

"Say, mister? How'd you get your scar?"

Silently Zuko wondered if the heavens did in fact have it in for him. Before he could speak, the boy's father cut in again.

"Lee, can't you see he doesn't want to talk about it?"

He was starting to regret accepting the invitation at all. Not that these people weren't nice, but still… everything felt so… so awkward.

This isn't the kind of life I was made for. Zuko sighed as he finished his meal and stood.

"Thanks for the meal, ma'am."

"Oh, you're leaving so soon?" The mother – Sela, was that her name? – paused. "Surely you can stay a little longer. You look like you could use a rest."

Zuko almost opened his mouth to tell them that no, he had to leave, but then he paused and gazed out at the midday sun.

Meet back at the entrance at sundown.

He settled back into the chair. "I guess I could wait until evening," he finally allowed.

He had barely closed his eyes when he felt a tug at his shirtsleeve. Opening them again, he found himself gazing into Lee's eager expression.

"Can you show me how to use those swords?"

The prince sighed, glanced left, glanced right, and shook his head. Oh, whatever. It couldn't hurt.

"All right," he said as he stood. "Let's get out where it's a little more open. Now, the first thing to remember is that these are dual swords. This is one weapon in two parts…"

(X)

Azula rapped on the doorway of the entrance to the store. A moment later, the man appeared again.

"Oh, it's you, miss!"

"Is it ready?" She asked.

"Oh, yes, of course! It's piping hot, too! And it wasn't easy to get the ingredients, let me tell you that."

"I'm not interested in hearing you prattle," She cut in smoothly. "Now, if you'd please?"

The tightly wrapped bundle was pressed into her hands. After taking a moment to check that it contained what it wanted, she nodded her satisfaction and placed a single gold coin on the counter.

"Hey!" The shopkeeper cried indignantly. "We agreed on two gold pieces!"

"No, I showed you two gold pieces. I never said I was going to give both of them to you." Azula replied. "And let's not fool ourselves – I'm drastically overpaying you as it is. Good bye." Without waiting for a response, she stepped out, feeling the glow of the evening sun upon herself.

As she neared the entrance, she could see Mai leaning against the archway, looking bored as usual. Zuko came into view from the further end of town as she herself reached.

"Can we please leave now?" Mai sighed as she caught sight of Azula. "You'll remember I agreed to come along to get away from the mind-numbing boredom."

"Fine. We're leaving."

"Hm? What's that in your hands, Az?"

"None of your business, Zuko." She smiled wanly at him. "Where were you, anyway? I didn't see you in the town for most of the afternoon."

"Oh, I was…" he hesitated. "I was with-"

The roar of a commotion sounded from behind them, and Azula looked over to the centre of the town to see the group of Earth Kingdom soldiers from earlier, now with a struggling kid in their custody. In a few scant seconds, a crowd began to build of the villagers coming to see what the matter was.

"Time to go." Azula muttered, and with a signal for Mai and Zuko to follow her, she turned to leave.

"Wait." At the sound of Zuko's voice, she paused and turned back.

"Now what?"

"That's… they have Lee with them!"

Azula had absolutely no idea who 'Lee' was, but as she looked at her brother's face, she could see concern in his eyes. And a moment later –

"I have to help him."

"What? This is an Earth Kingdom affair – it's nothing to do with us. Let them sort it out themselves, and –"

"No, Azula. It does. I have to help him. He's no match for four soldiers."

"Zuko, even if he and you were together for most of the day and hit it off buddy-buddy or whatever, were the soldiers around when you left his house? No? Then it has nothing-"

"Azula, this is not a debate," he turned to glare at her, and Azula could see flashes of steel in his eyes. "And I do not need your permission to help people." And then he was off, running towards the centre of the town.

"Hey, hang on a – Argh, that idiot!" Azula snapped. And then after a moment, "Come on, Mai."

Silently, her friend fell into step behind her as the two of them hurried after Zuko. As they reaching, they could hear him confronting the leader of the soldiers.

"What do you want with the boy?"

"Him? Well, we dropped by his house to get our due – protecting the folks isn't easy, after all, so we need every little bit of help we can get – and this little brat here chewed us out. So I thought we'd bring him here to make a little example of him – teach him, and the others, some respect."

Azula resisted the urge to speak up. This had been her brother's decision – let him play it his way. Silently, she moved to cover Zuko's right – not that she honestly thought he'd need the help. He could probably defeat the whole lot with one arm tied behind his back.

Her brother's eyes had narrowed. "Cowards." He said clearly, letting the single word ring out through the plaza.

"What?" A dangerous expression was on the leader's face.

"You're all nothing more than cowards and bullies. Stationed to some backwater town in the middle of nowhere, far from the war, far from any real danger, and you keep oppressing the people. What does it matter if a little boy speaks out of turn? You're going to punish him for that?" There was a ringing noise as Zuko's blades were drawn. "You're a disgrace to that uniform."

A split second of complete silence – and then the four soldiers charged as one, spouting incoherent howls, eyes alight with malice and rage.

Instantly Azula darted forward to intercept the rightmost soldier, one hand reaching up to knock aside the halberd he had been aiming at her brother. He glared at her – and Azula's eyes narrowed as she recognized the lecherous soldier from the afternoon.

"Lookit the big tough guy that needs girls to come cover him! Har!" The man snarled as he swung his poelarm again in a wide, clumsy arc. Azula ducked smoothly, letting the weapon sail harmlessly over her head.

"You know, I wish the Earth Kingdom had more soldiers of your calibre," she said conversationally, as she brought her right hand up, extending the first two fingers. His face registered surprise at the apparent compliment. "It would make conquering you lot so much easier."

His eyes barely had time to widen in shock before she jabbed her fingers at the soldier's midsection, releasing a tiny dart of flame into the thug's gut. Her opponent gave a howl of agony and collapsed to the ground, a tiny smouldering hole the only evidence of her Firebending. Quickly her gaze swept the area – Mai had pinned two of the soldiers to the nearby wall – and none of them appeared to have noticed what she had just done. Good.

The sound of rock on metal drew her attention and she turned to regard Zuko facing down the leader of their little band. A shattered rock was lying at her brother's feet, and as she watched, the thug slammed his hammer into the ground, sending out another rock missile.

Zuko batted aside the second one too, but the third one came at him too fast to react and he was sent reeling.

Azula's eyes narrowed and she turned to regard the leader. She took a couple of steps forward, bring her hand up-

"Wait!" Zuko had dropped back into his swordfighting stance. "Stay back. This is my fight."

She resisted the urge to slap her forehead, but nonetheless complied as she took two hesitant steps back. Zuko charged the leader again – to be met by yet another flurry of stone projectiles. Once more Zuko charged through the majority of them, but another clipped his shoulder, sending him back again.

His bending's just too big an advantage – especially when we're so used to being able to do it ourselves. Azula quickly analyzed the situation once more. Mai could get through to him – she's got the range. Indeed, her friend had a knife in her hand on standby, but she was apparently respecting Zuko's wishes as well. Maybe we can-

Her musings were interrupted by a massive shockwave of earth that burst from the ground and sent Zuko sprawling. As she watched her brother crumple to the ground like a rag doll, something ignited in her chest, somehow both ice cold and burning hot at the same time.

She whirled to confront the leader, dropping into a combat stance. To hell with honour and duels. I'm going to kill him. She barely realized that she was moving her arms in a circle, it was so comfortable, so familiar-

A blast of orange and red burst soared through the air, slamming into the torso of the enemy soldier and sending him flying backwards. Shocked out of her action, Azula whirled to see Zuko standing again, broadswords in hand – and flames wreathing his entire body.

The leader of the soldiers tried to defend himself once more, but once the playing field evened out in terms of bending, he really had no chance. In a matter of seconds, the soldier had been defeated and was lying on the ground.

She swept her gaze over the defeated band, trying to decide if she should silence them. No, no point. All the villagers now know we're from the Fire Nation anyway. Killing these idiots would just give the army more reason to come after us. She aimed a swift kick at the nearest of the enemy soldiers, hoping he was still conscious enough to feel it and headed after her brother. He was busy untying the boy – Lee.

"Don't worry. You're safe now," he was speaking in what was probably meant to be a soothing tone as he finished untying the boy and stepped back. "They won't come after you anym-"

"Go away! I hate you!"

Silence fell upon everyone present. And then Azula stepped forward, fists clenched tight.

"Say that again," she said, very softly. "Look my brother in the eye and say that again."

Lee glared at her – at the both of them. "I said, I hate y-"

She thrust one hand out, and blue flames blasted forth in a raging torrent, the fire reaching out to completely cover the youngster's body. Cries of horror arose from the assembled crowd.

"AZULA! NO!" She heard her brother's horrified cry, as well as a sharp intake of breath from Mai. Pursing her lips, she waved her hands, dispelling the raging blaze to reveal Lee on the ground, completely unharmed, surrounded by scorched earth all around him. The boy gazed at her, eyes wide with shock and fear.

"A coward, a weakling, and an ingrate." She said, every word dripping with disdain. "What a delightful combination." There was a pause, pregnant with expectation, and then she spun on her heel. "Zuko. Mai. We're leaving."

As she strode towards the exit, the crowd parted ways, and Azula could see the dull hatred in their eyes. Shrugging it off, she strode through the archway.

Mai was the first to break the silence. "Well," she muttered as they headed off into the deepening gloom. "So much for the public relations campaign."

(X)

It was fully nightfall by the time they returned to their mounts, and they could see that Ty Lee had taken the initiative to build the campfire on her own. As they neared, they could also see that she was lying on her back, staring up at the sky – yet another sign of her funk. Ty Lee was almost always practicing her gymnastics, especially when she had nothing better to do.

"Ty Lee," Azula called as soon as they came into earshot. "We're back."

"Welcome back, Azula." She said listlessly. "How'd everything go?"

"Not so well, actually. No one had any information on the Avatar."

"Bummer." She didn't even look up.

"Yes, but on the plus side, I got this." Holding the package up into the light, she saw Ty Lee glancing over with idle curiosity which quickly morphed into wide-eyed surprise as it was unwrapped. "One chocolate-mud pie. Your favourite, I believe."

"But – but that's-" Her friend had jerked into an upright sitting position. "Did you-"

Azula allowed a genuine smile to grace her features. "Happy Birthday, Ty Lee."

A moment later she found herself enveloped in what was probably the tightest hug she'd received from Ty Lee, ever. "Azula!" She cried, delighted. "You remembered!"

"Of course I remembered. Back when we were together in the palace you were always harping on about how important it was to you." She paused, head cocked to one side. "Why so surprised? You mean they didn't remember in the circus?"

"Well, no, not really. They had a lot of people to keep track of, and it'd be like a monthly celebration thing…" The acrobat gazed down at the pie. "It's the first time in four years anyone did this sort of thing for me."

Folding her arms behind her head as she leaned back against a smooth rock, Azula felt rather pleased with herself.

(X)

"All right, we need to decide where we're going to next. I think talking to random villages isn't getting us anywhere, or at least getting us at an incredibly slow pace." Azula stared down at the unfurled map.

"We should head to one of the larger cities. One that gets a steady flow of travelling merchants and news." Zuko opined. "And once we're there, even if there's not been any news, we should wait a while, because there's bound to be some soon."

The three others turned to look at him. "Why do you sound so sure of that?" The princess questioned.

He shrugged. "Well, if there's one thing I learnt from my hunting the Avatar during the last few months, it's that they are incapable – and I stress, incapable – of keeping themselves out of trouble for long. If they're active, we'll hear about it soon enough."

Azula nodded. "Fair enough. Let's see… where's the nearest city of a decent size?" Her eyes darted over the map, trying to pinpoint a location.

Mai leaned forward, finger stabbing towards the scroll. "This one. It's about four days travel from where we are, and it's fairly popular in terms of merchant travel. It fits what we need."

"All right, then. I guess that's our next destination." Azula nodded and rolled up the scroll again. "I hear they have some decent earthbenders in Gaoling, as well. I wonder if there are any full-fledged masters there?"

Mai shrugged. "I think I briefly heard about some sort of famous teacher there… I wasn't paying much attention at that time."

"Hm. Well, we'll know sooner or later, I suppose. Go get the mongoose-dragons ready, would you? I don't want to waste any time."

Chapter End

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