Morality Chain

A couple of action sequences in this one. A part of me wants to burn through these as quickly as possible so we can get to the more important plot points, but it'll only work if things are properly built up, aren't they?

I hope you enjoy what I have here.

Disclaimer: I own jack.

The Imperial Palace was a maze.

Literally.

Fire Lord Sozin's decision to rebuild the Imperial Palace after it had been destroyed by Avatar Roku had also included the addition of a rather elaborate system of passageways, trick rooms, hidden doors, and whatnot; apparently he had been worried about assassins and wished to use the confusing layout of the place to his advantage.

And there HAD been assassins, especially after he'd started the war. Some people had come to him because they honestly believed the war would lead the nation down the path of ruin, others had come out of some misguided moral conviction that the war was wrong and that the Fire Lord had to be stopped before the atrocities could continue. Others were the usual power hungry idiots who wished to seize authority for their own.

Sometimes, as she sat in one of the numerous passages that crisscrossed their way through the palace, Azula wondered how effective all these secret hideaways really were. After all, if a child like her could find them, they couldn't be that secure, could they?

But of course she wasn't an ordinary child. She was Princess Azula of the Fire Nation – it only made sense that she'd be able to accomplish things that others could not.

And she was the daughter of Prince Ozai. That certainly couldn't hurt.

She sighed. She'd discovered the first of the hidden doors that led through the underground passages only a couple of weeks ago, and the novelty of wandering around in the darkness was starting to wear thin. Turning around and heading for the nearest exit,, she quickly decided that if she was going to get anything more out of this maze of tunnels than stumbling around with only the weak light of her Firebending for aid, she would need to be methodical about it. Maybe a map of the place – but then she would risk it getting discovered…

"Have you heard?"

Several steps from emerging into the quiet storeroom she knew the door in front of her would lead to, Azula paused. The female voice was unfamiliar to her, but then again, with so many servants and hired workers in the palace, that was no big surprise. Curious, she slowed her pace and sidled up closer to the door.

I wonder what this conversation is about, she thought. Probably just some idle gossip. Let's see…

"Heard? About what?" another female responded.

"The princess," Azula nearly fell on her bum, which would have been utterly undignified for someone of her stature. "Last week, her mother got a dressmaker to come design a dress for her to wear to the Veteran Commemoration Dinner. Well, the princess took one look at the dress, and she set the dressmaker's hair on fire!"

Azula remembered that. The dress offered to her had been hideous – she had been shocked that mother had ever thought such a thing worthy of being brought to her attention. She had been entirely justified in making her displeasure known – and a smirk crossed her face as she remembered the horrified scream the dressmaker had let out upon realizing that her hair had been set ablaze.

The second voice sighed and Azula brought her attention back to the conversation, "I wish I could say I was surprised, but that's Princess Azula for you."

"I know! Her brother's such a quiet boy; honestly, he's a little wimpy, but he's good at heart. How did his sister end up like she did?"

"Who knows? Who knows what that little brat is thinking at all?"

Azula stood as if she had been turned to stone, her mouth hanging open in horrified shock. WHAT had that person just called her? She, a lowly servant, had dared to-

"Well, at least we can be glad she's never going to get high enough on the ladder to make any real decisions. Can you imagine if someone like her became Fire Lord?"

"Agni forbid!" there was a light chuckle. "Even if General Iroh and Lord Lu Ten somehow passed away, her older brother would still take the throne over her."

"You know, I heard that even her mother thinks that there's something wrong with her."

"Hey, put yourself in Lady Ursa's shoes. Would you be happy having to raise a monster like her?"

A sudden increase in heat and light in the darkened alcove was what led her to realize that she had unconsciously loosed a breath of pure flame. Abruptly, Azula realized that she had clenched her fists and gritted her teeth so had that they physically hurt. How… how dare they! How could these two lowly insects ever presume to speak of her in such a manner? Was this the opinion of the rest of staff as well? Why did they speak of her in such a flippant manner, lacking all the reverence and respect that was due her by birthright? Why did they act as if they had any right to judge her actions or behaviour?

And why… why did it hurt so much?

Before she could collect her thoughts and decide on the next course of action (it would likely have involved fire and a lot of screaming), she heard an indignant yell as the main door to the storeroom burst open.

"I HEARD THAT!" Azula blinked. That voice was –

"Prince Z – Lord Zuko!" The female's voice was flustered.

"Zuzu?" Azula whispered to herself.

"You were talking about my sister, weren't you? You just called my sister a monster!"

"Lord Zuko, I-"

"How dare you! My sister is not a monster! What gives you the right to judge her like that?"

"But-"

"Shut up! Don't… don't think that my dad isn't going to hear about this!"

More silence, this time stretching on for an uncomfortably long period. Finally, she heard the sound of boots stamping away as Zuko apparently left the room. A moment later two more subdued pairs of footsteps indicated the maids were leaving as well.

Waiting until she was absolutely sure that no one else was in the room, Azula cracked open the door enough for her to wiggle out and hastily scurried back to her own room.

Later, she learnt that the two maids in question had been fired.

(X)

"Are… are we the bad guys?"

The question hung in the air uncomfortably for a long period of time as princess and acrobat sat looking at each other. Well, Azula kept her steady gaze on Ty Lee. Her friend, by contrast, was currently putting on a show of being extremely fascinated by a twig on the ground.

Finally, Azula shifted her position into a slightly more comfortable one and sighed. "And what, if I may be so bold as to ask, brought this question on?"

"Oh, n – nothing much. I was just… wondering."

"Ty Lee, if you want me to answer this honestly, then you're going to have to answer my questions honestly as well. That's only fair, isn't it?" the sarcasm in her voice was thick.

Her acrobat sighed "Okay, okay. It… kinda started back when we met the Avatar and his friends in that town. I don't know the name, but he went all glowy and stuff and-"

"Yes, I know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, well, I fought the Avatar, and he… talked to me."

Knowing Ty Lee, Azula thought, she would have been the one to initiate the conversation anyway. Out loud, she simply asked, "About what?"

"Well, he kinda sorta said that we were the bad guys. I mean, I didn't pay much attention to something ridiculous like that!" she gave a fake giggle that trailed off remarkably quickly as she noticed the expression on Azula's face. "At first, I mean," Ty Lee hastily went on. "But then, I kinda started thinking about it. I mean, the Avatar's an airbender, right? We kind of killed all his countrymen a hundred years ago. And – and I know the war is just and righteous and everything, but when we were travelling around in the circus I kinda saw a lot of the Fire Nation people mistreat the Earth Kingdom civilians. Sometimes they even hurt them for – for no good reason. So… so I was just wondering," she finally trailed off into a miserable silence as her gaze came to rest on the earth once more.

Azula sighed as she shifted her attention briefly to the fire, making it flare out again. Satisfied that the blaze was strong enough, she turned back to Ty Lee.

"You're right," she said simply. "We are, as you so eloquently put it, the 'bad guys'."

Ty Lee's expression was crestfallen. "But – but then…"

"I'm not finished. The Avatar is one of the bad guys too. So are his friends. So is the coward of an Earth King entombed up in Ba Sing Se. So are the fools huddled up north in their cities of ice and snow. They are all 'bad guys'."

Ty Lee was silent.

"Ty Lee, what I'm going to tell you is the truth. It is also extremely important. There is no such thing as a good person. There have only been, and there forever will only be, bad people. The only thing is that sometimes the bad people end up on opposing sides."

Azula paused, took in a deep breath, and continued, "At the end of the day, people are selfish, self-serving creatures. Everyone wants to gain as much as they can for themselves. That's why strength is needed; it's what allows you to seize what you want, whenever you want."

"But… but what about when people help each other? I mean, like now. We're doing this to help Zuko, aren't we?"

"Yes," Azula conceded. "I am doing this to help someone. But at the end of the day, I do this because this is what I want. I want Zuko to come home again. I want him to be happy. I want him to have his honour back. So I help him. It's that simple. Someone who drops a pair of coins into a beggar's bowl as he passes isn't doing it because he's selfless. He's doing it because whatever nebulous system of morality he's subscribed to has stated generosity and compassion," she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "As values worth upholding and he does it for the feeling of moral satisfaction. Do you get it now? Everyone is selfish at their core."

Ty Lee frowned, still trying to process what Azula had just told her. "I don't think I'm selfish," she mumbled.

"Oh, you're not selfish?" there was a tone in Azula's voice that trickled ice water down Ty Lee's spine, and as she glanced up reflexively into her friend's face she could see a quick flash of emotion that had fought its way out of her carefully composed expression – and suddenly they were no longer in the centre of the Earth Kingdom but within the ornate and decorated halls of the Fire Nation Palace, and a younger Azula was sitting on her bed, mouth open with surprise and eyes wide with hurt and shock.

"What do you mean, 'you're leaving'?"

"I…" she stammered and swallowed once. "I have to go," she said, forgoing any attempts and casualness or deception – Azula wouldn't have been fooled for a second anyway – and she stood up and walked – nearly sprinted – for her tent.

Alone once more, Azula closed her eyes, shook her head once, and turned to face the fire.

(X)

"We should be reaching the Serpent's Pass soon."

Zuko heard the words, gave a short grunt of acknowledgement – but his mind simply was not focused on the task at hand. Well, that wasn't quite right. It would be more accurate to say that he was, in fact, pondering their task with immense trepidation.

"…when we find the Avatar, we're going to have to kill him."

Zuko didn't want to admit it, but his sister's words troubled him far more than they should have. He had already been dedicated to hunting down the Avatar for three years; the step up towards actually killing the Avatar shouldn't have been that big, right?

So why did this feeling of unease refuse to go away?

"…death is probably more merciful than what we were planning to do anyway."

"Are you saying that you're selfish enough to sacrifice the future of a young boy for your own?"

He shook his head, frustrated. When had it become like this? Before, while on the ship, it had been a simple affair – hunt the Avatar down and capture him, and that would be that.

With an uneasy sigh, he reached up to rub wearily at his forehead as the mongoose dragons rounded the bend and the Serpent's Pass finally came into view.

Along with the small group of travellers already taking their first steps onto the narrow walkway.

"What-" he started in surprise as he recognized the group in front of him, but Azula had already reacted faster than him, throwing her mount into a forward dash.

It wasn't long before the tiny group noticed their pursuers and reacted accordingly, moving into battle stances. As the two groups neared, Zuko tried to force his doubts down into a dark corner of his heart.

He couldn't afford to second-guess himself. Not now.

(X)

Even as Azula realized that they had somehow stumbled upon the Avatar again, she had noticed several oddities in the situation presented to them.

First and foremost was that the Avatar and his companions were, for whatever reason, travelling on foot. His flying bison was nowhere to be seen. That was odd enough.

Secondly, he had apparently picked up a few new companions along the way. A couple of Earth Kingdom people – and neither of them looked very much like someone who would the professor of a university. She pursed her lips – another newcomer near the back of their formation was unfamiliar to her, but her dress (and that ridiculous facepaint) marked her as a warrior of some kind.

She shrugged and dismissed the matter. If she turned out to be a decent fighter, it would be that much more pleasant to defeat her. As she neared, she let loose a bolt of lightning at the group – the blind earthbender was the first to react, quickly creating a wall that took the blast.

The Avatar was quickly summoning several bursts of air to hurl at her, but she was able to guide her mount to dodge most of them – and those she couldn't she simply countered with her own fire blasts. At her side, Mai hurled a trio of daggers at the group – the Water boy quickly knocked them aside with his club. She briefly noted that the Avatar was motioning for the newcomers to move further up the pass – well, let them, she wasn't interested in them except maybe as hostages – and snarled with impatience as she urged her mount faster – she was almost close enough, just a split second more and-

She released the reins on her mount and kicked upwards, launching herself into the air. As she did so she swept her leg out, releasing an arc of flame across the entire group. Twisting in midair, she landed on both of her feet-

And staggered back slightly, eyes widening in surprise as a sudden rush of dizziness washed over her. What in the world- The Avatar was already charging at her, rocks leaping from the ground to form a gauntlet around his hand, and she dodged his hastily thrown punch.

Retaliating, she fired an expanding burst of flame at him, and he met it head of with a breath of air that burst away the flame. Briefly she noted that Ty Lee had gotten herself engaged in the fray as well, and focused all her attention on the Avatar.

Quick sweeps of wind were sent at her, and then the Avatar shifted his stance in a deliberate, almost clumsy movement – obviously trying for earthbending, he still wasn't good enough to move into it naturally and so he telegraphed his attack from a mile away. Azula leapt forward as the ground where she'd been standing a moment before crumbled under her, bringing up a tiny dart of fire at the Avatar-

Then a pillar of water rushed at her from the side, and she was forced to break off her attack and veer backwards frantically. She glanced up, saw the waterbender bringing her arms up in a series of smooth, graceful motions, and from the wave that had crashed down around her tiny jets streamed forth, forcing her on the defensive.

A waterbender's effectiveness in combat is directly proportional to how much water they have available. Azula ducked away as a whip of water lashed out at her. And we're right next to a massive lake. She scowled as she saw the Avatar mimicking the waterbender and raising up his own gush of water to strike out with. And there's barely any room to manoeuvre here. Of course, that wouldn't be a problem for either the waterbender or an airbender.

Suddenly flame roared in between them as Zuko stepped forward, kicking at the ground and sending a jet of fire along the ground. Quickly, the waterbender summoned forth a tiny crest of water that caught the flame and quenched it, protecting herself from injury.

Granted a slight reprieve thanks to her brother's timely intervention. Azula took a step back and several deep breaths, feeling a dull ache resonate through her entire body. This wasn't right. She'd barely been in combat for a minute. There was no way she should be so drained so quickly. What was going on?

In front of her Zuko hurled a steady stream of flame at the Avatar, who replied in kind with a concentrated funnel of air that sent Zuko's fire spiralling out in all directions. From behind, the waterbender was running up again, more water already gathering behind her. Snarling with anger, Azula pushed herself forward, gathering more fire into her fists. There was a battle to be fought. All other considerations took second place.

(X)

At first, Suki had been inclined to pay attention to pay the most attention to the Firebender boy – the one who'd attacked her village before. She would have stepped forward to engage him, but her way was quickly barred by two of the girls who'd been travelling with him.

Now Sokka and her were engaged in fighting off a disturbingly energetic girl with a long braid hanging behind her. She had speed and agility – but then, so did Suki, and she was more than able to hold her own. At times, it almost felt like her opponent was hesitating, leaving herself open for split seconds that Suki, trained warrior that she was, couldn't help but exploit.

Her fan swept down again, blocking another strike from her foe. As she did so, she twisted, her other arm coming up and aiming a strike at the midsection. Her opponent leapt backwards, pivoted on one foot, blocked a strike at her head from Sokka's club and aimed a kick at her shin.

Quickly, Suki skipped backwards slightly – and let out a cry of alarm as the ground under her began to crumble. Before she could start to fall, however, the rock jutted out from the sheer cliff face, providing a platform for her to tumble somewhat inelegantly onto.

"Be careful!" she heard the earthbender – Toph – admonish. The blind girl was currently facing down another of the opponents – one with throwing knives aplenty in her arsenal – and despite her obvious handicap she seemed perfectly aware of the moment the knife thrower hurled her weapons, earth walls constantly raising themselves to shield her from the sharp implements.

On stable footing once more, Suki blocked a couple more blows from the braid girl and lashed out again with a well timed kick, knocking her back slightly. With a smile on her face, Suki began to take the offensive.

(X)

Aang couldn't shake the feeling that something was just off about his opponents today. When he'd first realized that the group had somehow caught up with him again, he'd felt a rush of dread well up inside him – not least of which was because they had several bystanders that they were supposed to be protecting, and they would now be in danger because of him.

But they were several meters away, alarmed but not injured, and none of the Fire Nation people appeared interested in targeting them, which was a pleasant bonus.

More importantly, the fight wasn't turning out anywhere near as hard as he'd thought it would be.

Part of it definitely had to do with his relatively recent ability to Earthbend, of course. In between it, his natural agility, and his airbending, the restriction of fighting on a narrow walkway barely affected him in the least. And if by some freak chance he fell into the water, he was proficient enough in waterbending to get out again. And so he was able to fight with relative abandon.

Katara being at his side was another massive plus. Before, whenever he'd faced down Azula or her minions, he'd done so alone, and usually against two people at the same time. Now, with her backing him up, the tables were finally even. Her presence at his side was a calming, soothing one.

But most of all, neither of his opponents were performing particularly well right now. Aang couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he was absolutely certain that Zuko had been a harder fight the last time they'd met. And not to mention Azula – when he'd last faced her she had been able to shut him down with an almost contemptuous ease, but now she was clearly struggling simply to keep up with him. Her face was flushed, and there was sweat pouring down her brow, and her movements lacked the deadly, easy grace he'd come to associate with her.

Jumping over a wave of flame it's not as strong as it was before, waved his staff quickly, a concentrated air shot shooting down at her. She dodged to the side, almost stumbling okay something is DEFINITELY wrong over her feet. She turned, one hand reaching up, but Katara was already striking at her, forcing Azula back until Zuko stepped in to aid her, orange fire blazing from his hands as he tried to get her to break off her attack.

Not if I have anything to say about that! Still in midair, he boosted himself forward slightly, landing in a crouch behind Zuko. Just as the Firebender realized that he had been flanked, Aang dropped into a crouch, sweeping his leg out and catching ZUko in a rushing wind that sent him tumbling – over the edge of the cliff side.

Pausing long enough to make sure that Zuko had been able to grab hold of a stone to arrest his fall well, he's not going to fall, but he's also not going to bother us for a few minutes, so that's a plus, Aang whirled to confront Azula, Katara at his side.

(X)

Not good. Azula thought dimly. She was currently on the defensive – a problematic enough situation from the get-go, given that the art of Firebending were woefully lacking in proper defensive techniques. The general philosophy was that a good offence made for the best defence, which served Azula well enough most of the time.

Now, though… she attempted a retaliatory fire blast, only for it to be quickly washed aside by one of the waves summoned up by the waterbender. Her blue eyes were narrowed in fury – and hatred. Why were her attacks so much weaker than normal? Her gaze flickered to where her brother was slowly pulling himself up over the ledge – she should be there helping him! But now these two… these two were barring her way.

She growled in anger, a low guttural sound. She should have seized one of the other companions earlier, used them as a hostage. One of them had looked heavily pregnant – perfect hostage material to prevent attacks. It was too late now though – to get to them would have required her to fight her way past the waterbender and the Avatar.

Why? Azula thought bleakly as she was forced back again. Why were all her attacks so ineffectual? Why was she so short of breath? Why did her muscles ache so much? Why?

Another water blast came at her, and Azula jerked to the side – a half second too slow. She was caught in the stomach and sent tumbling backwards. Shakily she tried to pull herself to her feet, but her ebbing strength finally gave way and she fell to the earth again. For a moment, the world around her faded in and out of focus as she felt a rush and rage, shame, and disgust wash over her.

She had lost.

(X)

Panting for breath, Zuko finally managed to pull himself back onto solid ground. With a shake of his head, he stood, ready to pull himself back into the fight.

Damn it all, he shouldn't have been letting himself be distracted by his misgivings. Any potential issues could be dealt with later – first he had to get the Avatar, and everything else could come afterwards.

Quickly, he turned to the source of the conflict – and he was prepared to swear that his blood froze in his veins. The Avatar and his waterbending friend were standing over the limp form of his sister.

All of a sudden, all his doubts and misgivings, all of his internal rage and anger and resentment, everything flew away to be replaced by a single thought with complete clarity and the focus of a razor's edge.

Protect Azula.

"Get away," energy surged through him, painfully hot, and from the depths of his mind he remembered half forgotten lessons as his arms moved through a low, familiar arc. "From MY SISTER!" the last words were said as a bestial roar as he brought his hands together, and suddenly there were streaks of cold blue light crackling across the air in wide, wild arcs, and the roar of an explosion that swept through the entire battle.

Suddenly the world began to swirl back into focus for him, and he could see the waterbender on her knees, one hand clutching a bleeding arm. The Avatar had apparently escaped injury, but that thought was driven to the back of his mind as he hurried over to his siter.

"Az!" he cried out. "Are you all-"

A croaking, watery sort of scream that sounded from behind him, and as he turned to confront the latest change in the situation, his eyes widened in alarm.

(X)

I guess we know why they called it the Serpent's Pass. Sokka thought numbly as he stared at the immense form of the sea serpent rearing up behind them. "Suki? You're the expert on giant sea monsters. How do we deal with this?"

"Just because I lived next to the Unagi doesn't mean I know how to chase off every giant sea creature!" she retorted. "But why's it even attacking us?"

"Maybe it doesn't like us fighting on its home turf? At least we're too high for it to lean over and eat us."

Just then, the creature lunged forward with a deep scream, slamming into the pass with a bone-shuddering force, causing the entire pass to wobble and shudder under the impact.

"I swear the universe waits for me to say these sort of things before it lets them happen," Sokka muttered as he felt the ground sway under his feet. No, wait, not sway. The ground was crumbling!

Letting out a rather girlish scream (although he would later strenuously deny it ever happening) Sokka began running down the pass, trying to get onto more solid land. Later he would have realized that the more logical thing to do would have been to get off the pass altogether and back onto what counted as the mainland, but seeing Zuko as his gang come up from that direction had subconsciously sealed it off in his mind as enemy territory – not to be crossed upon pain of death.

Besides, it all seemed to be a moot point – even as he scrambled frantically, he could tell that he wasn't going to make it, he simply wasn't fast enough, and-

The crumbling ceased, and he could see Toph, feet sunk into the stone and arms outstretched, face screwed up in concentration as she stabilized the collapsing stone as best she could.

"HURRY UP!" she bellowed at him, and at that exact point in time Sokka had no objections whatsoever to her snappish attitude. Pouring all of his energy into his legs, he sprinted across onto the not-crumbling section of the past, unknowingly beating his personal best time in the hundred meter dash. Once across, he collapsed in a panting heap as Toph let go off the rock letting it tumble into the water with a thunderous roar.

"Everyone okay?" Aang questioned. "I think the serpent's not coming back, so we're safe." It was true, too. Apparently ramming headfirst into a sheer stone cliff had taken more out of the serpent than it had realized it would, and with a final screech it sank back under the waves. Of the Fire Nation people, there was nothing to be seen.

"That was amazing," Than said, his voice full of wonder. "Your skills in battle are incredible."

"Yes, well, we've had plenty of practice," his sister said sourly. "More than we'd like, really."

"Yeah, but all's well that ends well." Toph said sardonically.

"All's well?" Sokka rejoined. "We've still got a whole lot of Serpent's Pass to cross over, its namesake is still around somewhere, and now we can't even go back the way we came," he said as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Suki, back me up on this."

Silence.

"Suki?" Sokka craned his neck, trying to see where his maybe-friend-maybe-girlfriend was. After a moment, the awful truth became apparent.

Suki was missing.

(X)

"I don't think they'll be able to find us if they come for us now," Zuko said as he glanced over his shoulder. The party had retreated to a forested area, any were now in a small clearing, resting and figuratively licking their wounds.

Azula, meanwhile, hung her head and seethed with anger. They had been forced to retreat. They were the ones chasing the Avatar and they had been forced to escape and hide in order to avoid capture or injury. The sheer degradation and humiliation of it was so thick that she could practically feel it as a physical sensation in her body.

If only she hadn't fallen ill earlier… if only she'd recovered sooner. If only that incompetent doctor had treated her better!

Still…. She glanced up at Zuko, a bitter smile on her face. "Zuko?"

"Hm? Anything the matter?'

"Thank you," she said shortly. "For saving me."

"Oh? Oh!" he flushed and nodded. "It was no big-"

"But," she said smoothly. "Next time, use two fingers to direct the lightning instead of a fist – it helps you to control the aim better."

He paused, surprised, and then nodded as a tiny smile made it's way onto his face. After a brief moment, Azula gave him a tiny smile in return.

"Hey," Mai said dully. "Not to interrupt your heartwarming moment or anything, but what do we do about her?" She gestured, and as one, all eyes turned to regard the form of the unconscious female warrior they had brought with them from the earlier battle.

(X)

As he walked down the hallway to the dining room, Zuko rubbed at his eyes sleepily. He'd slept in late again, which was a surefire way to ensure that Azula had already taken all the best parts of breakfast for herself. Oh, well, there was nothing to be done about it. With a sigh, Zuko rounded the door to the eating hall – and blinked in surprise.

Azula was sitting there, arms folded, and in front of her was an entire plate of lava cookies. His favourite! His mouth began to water at the mere sight of them. But then he frowned. that didn't make sense. They were Azula's favourite too – and even if they weren't, she'd have eaten all of them as a matter of principle. So why the full plate?

Just then, Azula caught sight of him. "There you are, Zuzu," she said. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up."

He rolled his eyes at his sister's usual attitude. "Some of us aren't morning people, Az."

"We're Firebenders, Zuzu. We're morning people by default."

"Whatever." he said, irritated.

"Anyway," she said as she pushed the plate of lava cookies towards him. "Here, these are for you."

"What? But why? Don't you like them?" then his expression narrowed. "You didn't fill these with salt or something, did you?'

"Please, Zuzu." She rolled her eyes. "I already did that trick. There's no fun in doing it twice, although I'll freely admit that expression on your face was absolutely hilarious. And yes, of course I like them."

"Then why are you giving these to me?"

She hesitated, and Zuko could have sworn he'd detected a hint of vulnerability in her golden eyes

"To say thank you," she replied softly.

Chapter End

I've realized that fight scenes that involved at least two people on both sides of the battle field can get very messy very quickly. Consequently, this chapter was a total pain to write, and I'm still not sure I got it down well enough.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review.