Morality Chain

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Sokka's first thought was that his suspicions had been proven true after all.

Zuko had lied to them and won their trust – somehow – only to set them up for an ambush while all of their guards were down.

How else were they supposed to explain an explosion right as Zuko was supposed to be telling them some supposedly important information about Ozai's plans for the war? In some ways, the more he thought about it, the more sense it had made. Gather all of them into a nice tight circle to talk, and then BOOM

But no, that wasn't right. Probably not entirely right, anyway. He had heard that crackling sound before and the way the air itself seemed to compress just before the fiery explosion seared the area. And the source of these attacks had been tailing them for far, far longer than Zuko and his gang had joined up with them.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Aang had been thrown back by the force of the explosion – but he had summoned a cushion of air even as he had been flung away, and was now righting himself, preparing to fight.

"It's Combustion Man!"

He glanced down at the scene around him for a brief second before snapping his eyes away to look for – there! Zuko had moved to shield the Fire Nation girl from the blast and had been knocked down. He was pulling himself to his feet, but the way he moved indicated that he was still stunned and recovering from the blast.

Feeling the reassuring grasp of the boomerang in his hand, he looked around and spotted a dark shape moving through the higher levels.

Aw man, there's no way I can get a good read on his position from here!

He felt rather than saw the air heating up again and he quickly threw himself behind a large chunk of stone. What the original inhabitants of the temple had built it for Sokka had no earthly idea, but at that moment he was just glad for the cover it granted.

There was a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, and Sokka suddenly realized he had company.

It just had to be these two, didn't it? Sokka glanced over at Mai, who managed to look an impressive combination of bored and grumpy, and then at Zuko, who was peering cautiously over the edge of the stonework.

"So, not that I really believe this," Sokka began as he shifted into a position where he could look over the battlefield – because that was what it was now – for himself. "But just to be on the safe side, you guys have no idea who that is, do you?"

"Of course not," the girl's voice sounded annoyed. "In case you forgot, we only just got here."

"Can't hurt to check," there was another explosion, this one aimed further away. Combustion Man was clearly paying more attention to wherever Aang was. Well, that suited Sokka fine – time spent not focusing on him was time he could use to mount a counterattack.

The girl – Mai- obviously had the same thought, as there were now knives gleaming dangerously in her hand as she scanned the area above them.

A moment of silence, and then, "I can't see where he is." He could hear the angry frustration in her voice.

Well, that was a problem. Their assailant had the advantage in terms of terrain – the upper levels had no end of pillars and balconies that Combustion Man could hide in. Meanwhile, the courtyard was relatively open save for the fountain and the various outer edges where there was more stonework, which meant he could continue his assault to root them out.

They could change their position to get a better line of sight towards him, of course, but so could he, and he would be doing so knowing where they all were as soon as they came out of cover.

Yet another explosion blasted the air, and Sokka could see Katara at the other end of the courtyard, hurling an icicle up at a spot he couldn't see from his angle. He caught a brief glimpse of Suki behind cover as well, and he could see the frustration in her eyes. Without a ranged weapon or the ability to bend, Suki had no practical means for striking back at their pursuer.

Come to think of it, Suki hadn't actually met Combustion Man yet. Well, they would have plenty of time to fill her in on the details later.

Sokka sighed. They couldn't camp here all day. And given the circumstances, he didn't think running away like they had done when travelling the Fire Nation was a real option here. No, they had to stand and fight. Most likely the rest of the gang had come to the same conclusion too.

He glanced out from his cover once more, saw Aang take a running leap boosted by his airbending to leap straight at wherever it was that Combustion Man was hiding. And then there was the crackling in the air again, and Aang was weaving to the side, trying to avoid the blast.

But Combustion Man was skilled enough to control his explosions, and Sokka suppressed a wince as the explosion flared up right next to where Aang had been and the Avatar was sent flying away.

Sokka pursed his lips as he saw Katara breaking cover to run over to Aang, hand already coated in water as she called for him to hold still and let her heal him.

Right, direct assaults weren't going to be good for much – except forcing Combustion Man to hold his attention on those people. Sokka nodded.

"All right, he's not paying that much attention to us now, so we should try to sneak up on him while the others are drawing his attention," he gave a quick glance to his side, enough to ensure that he had caught their attention. "If we're close enough, we might be able to catch him by surprise and take him down. You both with me on this?"

He didn't really want to trust them for an important fight like this. For all he knew the instant he turned his back he could find one of the girl's knives stuck in it. But he'd trusted them at the Boiling Rock and it had paid off... more or less.

So trusting them one more time probably wouldn't hurt. Too much.

He turned as he heard the brief word of affirmation from Mai, but he also saw Zuko standing, a strange set to his jaw.

"Hey, what are you -"

"Hang on," and with that, Zuko had run out of cover into the open courtyard, waving his arms frantically at their unseen enemy.

(X)

The moment the explosion had sounded, Azula had dashed out of the room – and just as quickly, she slowed.

The explosion had most likely come from the courtyard area – after all that was where all the others had been. She knew the way down – after all she had come from there just a while ago.

But should she be going down? A frown crossed her features.

What could be the cause of an explosion around here? An attack by the Fire Nation seems the most likely, but...

A second explosion rocked the temple, sending yet more tremors through the ancient stone.

Yes, definitely a sustained assault, then. In that case, running out into the courtyard would likely not be the best course of action – better to find a vantage point where she could observe the entire area and figure out what was going on.

For a brief instant, her thoughts strayed to Zuko. She shook her head. He was fine. He had to be fine.

"Earthbender," she knew that the girl had come up behind her. "How well do you know the structure of this place?"

The earthbender tapped her foot on the ground once. "I can tell you were everyone in the whole place is right now. And..." her body tensed. "And that there's someone who's not supposed to be here."

"Where is that person?"

"Upper levels. Higher than here," the girl took off at a jog. "Follow me."

As Azula followed the girl as she climbed up through the air temple, the earthbender would occasionally stop and pause, face furrowed in an expression of concentration.

"He's moving a lot," she said by way of explanation.

"Trying to evade attacks?"

"Not exactly," they rounded the corner, passing through a tall doorway with elaborate carvings down the side. "I think Sparky Boom Man is just trying to keep Twinkletoes – oh, that's Aang, by the way – in his line of sight without exposing himself.

"... Wait, did you just call him Sparky Boo-"

And then suddenly they were out in the open and Azula noted with a detached air that in addition to the area she was walking on, there were long, narrow platforms crossing through the area. Supports of some kind?

And as she scanned the area, she quickly caught sight of a dark shape crouching ahead of her. His frame was partially obscured, but she could tell that it was a rather large man.

Well, he hadn't appeared to have noticed them yet, too focused on finding the Avatar as it was, so with some luck she could -

"STOP!"

Zuko's voice carried up from the courtyard, and now Azula could see his figure running up, waving his arms up at the figure. What on earth was he -

"I'm calling the mission off!"

The mission? She felt the frown on her face deepening. What mission was Zuko going on about?

"I don't need you to hunt the Avatar anymore!"

Oh. Oh.

Azula's jaw tightened. Once this whole messy affair was over, she was going to have a nice, long talk with her brother.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an unpleasant tingling sensation in her gut and she turned her attention back to the man. He was glaring down at Zuko, and suddenly she could tell he was Firebending somehow, even without any visible motion on his part.

Firebending comes from the breath.

The man exhaled and Azula could feel the air in front of him distort and ripple with heat as he sent a wave of energy down towards where Zuko was standing in the open.

"Down, you idiot!" a blur of motion, and Azula could see the boy Sokka tackling Zuko out of the way. They were able to clear the blast radius – barely – but the force of the explosion still sent both of the sprawling on to the smooth stone floor.

Abruptly Azula realized that she had spent too long sizing up the situation instead of doing something about the situation and she leapt forward, fire already blazing forth from her hands.

The man finally noticed that he was not alone on the elevated platform and swung to face her. Her bolt of fire had already almost crossed the distance between them when she felt another tingling in the air around her, another wave of superheated, combustible air.

And then her attack had been blown attack and Azula was throwing herself into a roll to the side as she felt the wave of energy pass over her. An instant later, there was another explosion and she glanced up to see the doorway they had come through now a pile of broken rubble.

A blur of motion from her side and she could see Toph hurling a stone roughly the size of her head at the man. He didn't Firebend it away this time, simply raising his arm – and Azula noted in some distant corner of her mind that it was made of metal – and swatting the missile out of the sky.

"Got anything bigger?" Azula said as she pulled herself to her feet. "I've seen you fight – I know you can do better than that."

Toph snorted. "The platform isn't going to take well to having huge chunks pulled out of it all the time. I'm not going for flashy, princess."

Suddenly, the stone around the man's feet lurched up to seize ahold of him, and the next attack he had been preparing was thrown off as he stumbled.

"Now, princess!"

Azula didn't need to be told twice – or even once, really. She was swinging her hands, feeling energy break apart in a timeless instant before it could come together again and –

With a growl of anger the man wrenched one leg – the metal one – free of the stone binding him and another blast – she could feel the energy gathering together before he released it all at once in a single destructive wave – crashed into the ground in front of the two girls.

Her vision obscured by the cloud of debris, Azula hurled her lightning bolt at where he had been standing, knowing as she did so that it was a futile gesture. The man was an experienced warrior, she could tell that much, and he wasn't going to be foolish enough to stay in the same spot if neither side could get a good read on the other's location.

"Look, I'll pay you your commission! Just stop!"

She heard Zuko's voice again as she jumped forward through the smoke – at her side Toph was moving forward with the sureness of someone who didn't care one fig for obscured vision – and she heard, rather than saw, another rumbling explosion that she figured served as the man's answer.

"I'll pay you double to stop!"

She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

The heavy thud of metal against stone told her that he had shifted his location yet again – and as the smoke finally cleared enough for her to get a good view, she saw him glaring down at her.

She felt frustrated. It was like fighting an immovable rock. His strange form of Firebending was powerful enough to tear straight through her own fire blasts, and while it was possible that her lightning would be powerful enough to match the energy put out by the man, firing it would root her to the ground for a second or so – enough that she wouldn't be able to reliably dodge the followup energy blast.

Not a gamble she could afford to take, not right then.

Once more the gathering of energy – and this time Azula focused reaching out with all her senses, trying to touch, trying to feel the point where the energy was gathering. There was something about it, something familiar, and she couldn't help but feel it was important.

All bending involved manipulating chi and energy, of course, letting their spirit work through to make the elements do as they please. But the way this man was bending, the way he gathered his energy, it was...

Right in the centre of his forehead. All to be released in a single wave.

A focal point for chi. That was... something Ty Lee had told her about. Long ago.

"Earthbender."

"Yeah?"

"Can you hit the eye in the centre of his... head..." Azula trailed off as she glanced at her current companion and remembered that she was blind.

"Hmph," the earthbender seemed to guess at what Azula was thinking. "I know a human body's shape, but that's a lot more precise a target than I'm used to."

A brief pause.

"I can try," she nodded. "But what do you want me to do that for?"

"He's gathering energy in his forehead before he fires those blasts of his," Azula said as the man turned and sent another explosion down at the courtyard below. "If we can hit that spot and block his chi flow there, he'll be a sitting turtle-duck."

"All right, here goes nothing," the earthbender tapped the ground once, and a pebble about the size of her fist jumped into her hand.

"I'll pin him down," Azula said as she stood and prepared to charge him. "Don't waste your shot."

It was foolish, really. Trusting her plan to someone she didn't know all that well, someone who both of them knew didn't really have a good skillset for what she needed her to do.

But it was better than nothing. And it was better than trying to do it alone.

The distance between her and the explosion man could be covered in about three seconds if she sprinted straight for him. Of course, he'd be able to fire a blast straight at her before she would be able to cover that distance.

So, straight line was out.

She charged out from cover, noted her opponent turning once more to face, displeasure clearly written on his face that he was once more being distracted from his task of hunting the Avatar down. Already Azula could feel the beginnings of another blast -

She shot a wave of fire at the ground in front of her, letting the blue flames spring up to obscure his vision for a crucial instant as she skipped to the side. Throwing her weight forward, she heard a sizzling, crackling sound as the blast of explosive energy fired wide.

Good. He wouldn't be able to fire a second time before she had closed the gap.

Well, there was the possibility he would be reckless enough to fire at her at point-blank range, but considering the harm it would probably do to the both of them... probably not.

She was close enough now. Bringing one hand up, she fired a narrow dart at his face – but he was fast, weaving to the side to avoid it as he metal arm swung down at her, seeking to club the life from her body.

She had trained in melee combat, of course, but she had always been and would always be a Firebender first. Size and mass were significant gaps in close range, ones that were not so easy for her to make up for.

Still, all she needed was to keep him angry – keep him distracted from the earthbender as she prepared her shot.

She dodged – barely! - and lashed out with her foot, a thin whip of fire curling forward to singe at the man's chest. He barely grimaced, and as he whirled, a dark shape that filled her vision, she heard a dull thud and the world suddenly swung around her wildly.

A moment later she felt the impact in her stomach, felt her body crash hard against the ground even as she forced uncooperative muscles to throw her body into a roll and a more prepared position for the follow up attack.

He had kicked her – a glancing blow, with enough power behind it to knock her back and away.

And yet, now it meant that for a crucial second, he was standing completely still as he glared at her. Doing her best to ignore the pain in her abdomen, she pulled herself to her feet.

She felt the energy gathering again as he gazed down at her, probably seeking a poetic finish. At this range, even if Azula was able to jump out of the explosion's radius, the resulting force would still send flying, leaving her open to any followup attacks.

There was a crackling sound –

And then the pebble, zipping through the air as if fired out a cannon, smashed into the direct centre of the man's forehead.

A growl of pain and anger came from the man, as he turned back to Toph, and he exhaled, preparing to release his next wave of energy at her, except that the flow was all wrong, and Azula could tell, could feel the energy trying to be released but with no where to go –

And then there was a noise like a thunderclap and Azula turned away as smoke and dust blew up all across the raised platform they were on. Fighting against the urge to cover her eyes, Azula peered through the clouds of brown dust. Had he -?

A dull thudding noise, then another. Azula stared at the ground in front of her, where there lay a metal prosthetic arm and leg. And nothing else

Well, that was that, then.

"How'd you like that?" the earthbender was striding towards her now, arms raised in a gesture of victory. "Nailed it! First shot and I got him right smack in the forehead, dead on! I tell you, princess, I am the greatest earthbender of all time!"

Despite everything, Azula felt a smirk come onto her face.

"Not bad," she said after a brief moment. Then she paused and nodded thoughtfully. "For an earthbender."

"... Oh, it is on," a brief pause. "After we've got this whole mess sorted out, anyway. Come on, we should head down and join the others."

(X)

"You hired an assassin to go after the Avatar and you didn't think to tell me? What were you thinking? What was even the point of all this?"

Aang fidgeted uncomfortably as she watched Azula talking to her brother. Well, mostly it had been her yelling at him how stupid he had been about this whole affair and his stammered attempts at apology.

They were all sporting bruises – and in some cases, burns – and so they had gathered together in the courtyard to nurse their wounds and to decide on their next course of action. Of course, no one had really anticipated that Azula would go off like a firecracker on Zuko once they'd met up again.

And to be honest, Aang was just a little bit torn between feeling extremely uncomfortable and taking a sort of strange amusement from the way Azula was yelling at Zuko.

"Azula," the quiet girl – Mai – had laid a hand on Azula's shoulder. "That's enough. He made a mistake – we all know it - there's no need to keep rubbing it in."

At this, Azula stepped back, and all of a sudden Aang could tell that she looked very tired.

"Er, look," he said as he cleared his throat. "First of, I just want to say... thanks. Regardless of how it came about, you helped us out against Combustion Man. So... yeah, thanks for that."

Azula didn't respond directly. Aang sighed. Sometimes it felt like he was talking to a brick wall.

"And also... this is kind of spur of the moment but... if you want to stay with us... we'd... be willing to have you."

He could see Katara out of the corner of his eye, her face displaying her displeasure, but no one else spoke out directly against it.

The three Fire Nation people did not respond for a long time before Zuko stepped forward.

"I... thank you." he offered his hand out, and Aang took it in turn. "And hey, maybe I could be your Firebending teacher after all."

It was a lame attempt at humour, but there were smiles and polite chuckles all around.

Still, Aang couldn't help but notice Azula closing her eyes and quietly making her way outside the gathered circle of people.

Nor that Toph, after a moment's hesitation, turned and began to follow after Azula as well.

Chapter End

Shorter than I would have liked, but this was really the only good place to break off a chapter for a long while.

And as much as I would have liked Sokka and his boomerang to save the day again, I felt I needed to change up the events significantly to lay the groundwork for other stuff.