A/N: And this half-written story is horror at best, the kind where the hero still dies in the end. Love and be loved. Read… and review!

Chase the Dragon

[Early Winter 155 AG]

The last two years have been up and down for Xai Bau, with some positive developments, but the downs have been just about a worst-case scenario. On the positive side, the Red Lotus' recruitment efforts have successfully added talented, young, unique benders. Most recently, the last few weeks, he's reached the commitment point from a spiritualist who rivals himself. A young man, a street rat really, who has preposterous strength and skill with a blade, the likes of which he has not seen in many generations. Outside of those recruitments, not much else has gone right. In particular, he has watched as his once great benefactor, eventual nemesis, The Dragon Empress, has risen once again.

"Master," one of his advisors alerts him. "I've just received confirmation. "We've got her. She's…"

Xai Bau raises his eyebrows. "Well?"

"Master, she's… a couple of blocks away."

Xai Bau is currently in a highrise in Republic City. He has been chasing the last dragon since the moment she sent him a letter through Ming Fe reminding him that he doesn't 'see the endgame.' She'd been spotted, more publicly than ever before, all over the place in last few months. Her tracks were easier to follow which was odd in and of itself. However, they have been trying to set a trap for her for a while now.

'So for her to be so close? It can't be a coincidence.'

He groans, knowing that this was likely by her design. "Where is she?"

The lackey replies, "She's at the Aang Square pai sho tables."

"The public park? Just… out in the open?"

"Yes."

Xai Bau rises from his seat.

"I'll make my way there now. Call our contact at the RCPD and tell them we need a fire drill."

"Right away, Master!"

"And tell Zaheer-"

"He's already on site, Master Bau."

It is a beautiful day at Aang Square in City Park. The public park is a 10 square acre park in Midtown. It is an icon as well as a meeting place, and most of all represents a center for cultural activity. It is an open space where artists come to celebrate nonconformity with a rich history over the years. Famously, there are rows and rows of pai sho tables for players, locals, and tourists to test their skills. Today the park is alive with the sounds of life persevering. People talking, satomobiles honking, the city going about its business, even birds chirping despite the crisp winter air. This is the setting for Xai Bau as he comes to stand beside a short, muscular man with faded black hair and olive green eyes.

"What's she been doing?" Xai Bau asks.

The short man pauses and takes in a deep breath. After the pause he replies, "Absolutely nothing."

They say nothing as they observe her. She is sitting alone at a pai sho table, staring off into the distance in quiet contemplation. She's staring in their general direction and it is probable that she already sees them. She's playing with something in her right hand.

"You know it's a trap, right?"

Now it is Xai Bau who pauses with a breath before replying.

"Yes, Zaheer. I simply don't care."

The young benderless warrior grips a handheld knife on the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Alright. Just as long as we're both in agreement."

In unison they step forward to hunt the dragon.

A pair of Republic City Police Officers appear on site and immediately start ushering the civilians away. They explain to them that there's been a report of a wanted criminal in the area and that everyone needs to evacuate immediately. The message spreads like wildfire and quickly all of the bystanders are fleeing. The officers do not stop to inform The Dragon Empress. They do not stop the two men who are walking up to her. By the time they arrive at their destination, Aang Square is deserted. Xai Bau and Zaheer stop a few feet away, fists clenched and watching her. Azula sits with her legs spread apart, wearing sleek, well-fitting dark clothes. She has very short hair, a pixie cut of black and whites. She holds a small, oval-shaped rock in her hand and she keeps turning it over and over, eyes locked on it as she does so. When the quiet comes, and they are alone, she finally speaks to them.

"You could not live with your failure. And where did that bring you?" She tosses the rock away and looks up at Xai Bau. "Back to me."

Neither man says anything so she goes on.

"I warned you that the Dragon Empress would rise again. But you were unable to see through your own misjudgements. Now it appears that this spirit of yesteryear haunts even you, Xai Bau."

They stare menacingly at her but she just smiles back. She waves her hand to the two seats across from her.

"Please. I'm sure you have such very important things to say to me. I'll hear you out."

Xai Bau sits down first and Zaheer reluctantly follows. Her old nemesis begins his questioning.

"You were spotted in Lanxi just the other day."

"Indeed, I was. Playing pai sho with an old friend."

"Oh? Not laundering black market deals through the world largest trading port, which you happened to build yourself?"

She smiles cooly, enjoying this game.

"Come now, my Greatest Ally. Surely they say more of me than that? What else have you heard."

"Are we playing a game?" He asks, harkening back to how they used to share information.

"Xai Bau, we have always been playing a game."

"You've been rebuilding. With your expansive network across the globe."

"Indeed. I'm a very busy woman."

"The Southside of Ba Sing Se has infiltrated the Middle and Upper rings, if rumors are to be believed."

"Mama was a dear friend for so long."

"Equalist movements in Ba Sing Se are swelling."

"Well, I am one of the few alive who can say that I've been a bender and a non-bender. So I understand the call for equal treatment." She laughs.

"You were in the process of bankrolling a probending team. Something about Fire Ferrets?"

"Hmm. But Future Industries is blocking our board of governors efforts. I imagine you played no small part in that."

"Why would I have a say in Future-"

"Don't play dumb with me, Old Man."

He stops.

"This little boy may not know your secrets, but I do. Now are we playing the game or not?"

"I see."

Zaheer was unaware that the Red Lotus had sway with Future Industries. He files that away for later to discuss. For now he simply observes, a quiet sentry drinking in this battle.

"Cabbage Corporation is building. Complexes going up all over the world."

"How curious. I wonder what they're planning?"

"There's also a nagging rumor that won't go away that you're responsible for the Avatar's sudden passing two years ago."

"Why would people believe that?"

"You're the greatest publicly facing villain to ever live."

"That's true. Now why would you believe that?"

"You told me you had a plan. In the Idle Grove."

"And you threw me out."

"But what I can't figure out is why you would kill your ex-wife?"

"Who says I did?"

"Don't play games with me, Old Woman." He curly replies.

She just smiles a smug grin. He continues.

"I've read the reports myself. Seen the photos of the wreckage. The trace amounts of bone that belonged to her. There was no doubt left by you. But I can't understand why after you begged me to rescue her."

"Well, if I truly did, it would've been about eliminating my weaknesses."

Xai Bau is growing angry and anxious, two emotions he does not typically feel anymore.

"What are you building towards, Immortal Soldier?"

"Done playing our game?"

"I'm done. Tell me now."

She smiles wickedly.

"Perhaps I always had the formula for Lonlhai Fire, hmm? Perhaps it's been here," she says while pointing to her head. She taps the side of her skull three times to stress each syllable, "All along."

"The formula was lost-"

"That's what I wanted you to believe. That's what he wanted you to believe. But it was left to me."

"Gah." Xai Bau can't help but grit his teeth.

"I'd need to have facilities to produce it. Which would mean I'd need to utilize my shares in Cabbage Corp. Shares that I offered to you as well."

Anger boiling over, suddenly Xai Bau rises up. He reaches across the table and grips her by the chin then produces a knife that he holds to her jugular. Out in the open, in the park, without a soul to bear witness.

"Maybe I should slit your throat right here and now? Hmm? Your plans won't matter then, now will they?"

She is stone faced and stoic, unmoved by his rage and threats.

"Like I said, you could not live with your own failures."

"RAH!" He shouts at her.

She finally shows emotion as she tells him, "Let's not stand on ceremony, Xai Bau! You need me. That's why you set this ambush. It's why you've hunted me for the last two years. It's why you wanted to meet with me, not kill me."

He's blind with anger and his knife pierces her neck slightly. A tinge of crimson on the tip of his blade.

"Master…" Zaheer finally speaks.

Her voice is firm and steady. The look in her eyes dares him to do it, with all the confidence of a woman who knows he won't. She almost smiles while her blood trickles onto his blade.

"I'm right here, Xai Bau. The object of your fury. The Dragon Empress has risen. If you want to curtail my legacy then you'll have to kill me."

She pauses and he looks her in the eyes. She practically spits on him with her next words, her disgust evident in her voice.

"So do it and be done with all this bother."

There is a tense, pregnant pause. They stare at each other, with Xai Bau right now being perhaps the closest person to ever come to killing The Dragon Empress. He just needs to apply a few more pounds of force and the knife will cut her beyond saving. Or just drag the blade from one side of her neck to the other, and she'd bleed out in moments. She scowls at him and waits, knowing already how it ends. He can not make the move. He drops the blade and steps away in anger.

"Hahahahaha!" Azula explodes with laughter. She produces a rag from her pocket and holds it up to her neck to dry the spilt blood. "You have nothing! Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your power."

"SHUT UP!" He shouts at her. "If we wanted you dead, we would've killed you already! We need you alive to do something."

"But of course. No one ever kills me. They just keep me alive long enough to use me."

Xai Bau calms down. The winter air blows through the park and he shakes his head in frustration. Azula dabs the blood and smiles, waiting for him to go on. Resigned, he finally says, "Even without your bending you're a prolific fighter."

"Oh stop trying to butter me up. You need my publicly-facing empire to take the heat of some scheme of yours, don't you? Hmm? What is it now?"

"Even if that was so, I have a perfect mission for you. Something you'll have a vested interest in anyway. You always had such a soft spot for poor, destitute girls with fire bending skills."

"Mhm. I have indeed, I won't deny that."

"There's a combustion bending girl. A young girl who is a prisoner for a warlord in Yu Dao."

"Is it still Zase?" She asks.

"How do you know that?"

"I have my own intelligence networks." She replies curtly. "So you need my assistance getting in and getting out, because Zase has gone off your grid. He doesn't want to play the games anymore."

"He hasn't ever played the game. But we're not focused on him. We're focused on the girl."

"Some nobody teenage combustion bender? You care for unique talents, but surely there's more to it than just that."

"She means something to us." Zaheer interrupts.

This gets Azula's attention and she senses opportunity.

"Something to us? Or something to you."

"She's just a girl."

"Funny. I once said something similar to a King who wanted to kill me."

"I wish he had finished the job."

"What's your name, boy?"

"Don't answer that."

"Zaheer."

Xai Bau scowls.

"Zaheer. Tell me, Zaheer. Would you die for this girl? Would you kill yourself for this girl?"

"I would," he tells her sincerely. "I'd kill you, myself, this entire city. I'd burn down a thousand cities for her."

"Excellent." She whispers to herself. She tilts her head to the side and asks a new question, "Can you chase the dragon to the very end, Zaheer?"

He furrows his brow. "What do you mean?"

Xai Bau is silent as not even he knows what she means. She weaves a tale for him so eloquently it was as if it was some sort of fairytale that mother's tell their babes before bed.

"Everyone thinks they can chase the dragon. Everyone thinks they are the hero who will slay the dragon. But in all of those children stories you hear about dragons being slain, they're always in dark castles that are littered with corpses. All those who chased the dragon and thought they would win, but died screaming in the end."

Zaheer listens to her and understands. Proverbially, symbolically, spiritually, he understands on every level. She is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging him. He does not fear this old spirit of yesteryear.

"Do you think you frighten me, Dragon? You do not know what fear is. I've seen things you've only seen in your nightmares. Things you've only heard stories of. Things you can't even see."

Azula laughs in response.

"Oooh, I like you! I think you'll reach the end, where the Dragon awaits."

"Why's that?"

"Because I can tell you're a true believer. And life is about more than just schemes and plans. Above all else, it is about faith."

"Faith?"

Confidently she tells him, "Aye. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely."

Narrowing his eyes only slightly Zaheer asks, "And what is that?"

"Legend, Zaheer. A lasting legacy in your name." She speaks with reverence.

"Enough!" Xai Bau cuts through the fog of their interaction. "Well? Will you do it? Will you do as you promise and reclaim your place among the Red Lotus?"

Azula steals a long, final look at Zaheer. She turns back to Xai Bau and thinks about what he said before answering.

"Under one condition."

"Hmm?"

"You'll be there too."

"Why? What do you have planned?"

"Nothing," she replies sincerely. "But if you're going to betray me and kill me, I want you to look me in the eye as you do it. Not send some young protege to do your dirty work."

Both Xai Bau and Zaheer scowl. The sun beams in between the three of them and the trees flow. No one says a word. Finally, Xai Bau stands up and throws a piece of folded parchment down onto the table.

"We're leaving. Be at Yu Dao at the next full moon. The details of where to meet are all there."

The Dragon Empress grabs the paper and unfolds it to review. She is reading it as the two men step further away. Suddenly, Xai Bau stops in his tracks. He turns back to her and shouts something.

"Did you enjoy it? While it lasted?" He asks. He clarifies for her, "The peace?"

The Immortal Soldier looks across the way at her old friend and colleague. Effective immediately he is her work associate again. Above all else though, he has always been one of the most powerful people alive. She smiles and shouts back to him.

"There is no peace for those of us who succeed at war time. You taught me that, Xai Bau."

He nods in understanding. Finally, he turns and walks away, with Zaheer in tow.

A/N: This chapter's OST is "Still D.R.E. (feat. Snoop Dogg)" by Dr. Dre.

Love always. Red Lotus forever!

Notorious