The Dragon of the West was not a man to shy away from a fight when it faced him, but what lay before him was not the kind of fight he was used to; nine whole months had passed since the fall of Ba Sing Se and the death of his beloved son, and now, he faced the greatest challenge yet. Any other man in the Fire Nation would fear most two people, their father, and their Fire Lord; despite those two categories coinciding for Iroh, they did not correlate with his fear. He feared only one man, and that was his own brother; he felt a tinge of sympathy when it came to the conflict between his niece and nephew, knowing how much it mirrored the fight between Ozai and himself.

He was the firstborn son, a lauded and respected general who fought for his country and perhaps the closest thing to his life for it- his legacy, and yet, his brother stood tall, spoke proudly, as if he were already Crown Prince, as if the throne was just waiting for him. That was before Lu Ten had died, and now, as he stared his younger brother down, he could only imagine the worst of his reaction to his nephew's death; he was disturbed by the very idea that he might have been happy about it, and that made an anger rise in his gut. The wiser half of Iroh quashed that rage and pushed it back deep down, knowing that it was not the time or place for anger; that emotion was of no use to him, not anymore.

"Brother." he heard Ozai address him, his tone neither cold nor confident, simply ambivalent to his presence in the war chamber; the Fire Lord had yet to arrive, and they were to be sitting in on the meeting, as was expected of his heirs, and thus, they were left there, looking at each other, as if that might reveal the other's intentions.

"Ozai." he addressed him by his first name, wondering how many people actually did so.

He knew for a fact none of the servants would dare to address him by anything less that 'your highness', lest they light his short fuse; for a man who saw himself a future Fire Lord, he had the temperament of a young, boisterous man, despite the fact he was well and truly an adult, with two adolescent children of his own to chide for such behaviour he himself presented from time to time.

"This must be your first time back here, since you left for Ba Sing Se." the younger brother acknowledged, turning his gaze around towards the unlit wall of flames that surrounded the throne, which was coloured a dark golden hue by the lack of light; it seemed a whole lot less impressive without the Fire Lord's silhouette, in his opinion.

"It is." he acknowledged, stepping a few strides ahead to stand beside his brother, "Father was very adamant on me being here. Warfare is my specialty, after all."

"That explains your timeliness." he observed, before raising his chin up, his piercing glare meeting his elder brother's own eyes, "You wouldn't want to disappoint Father, would you?"

Those words hurt, and he knew they were intended to; he swallowed his pride, knowing that whatever Fire Lord Azulon thought of his grandson's death at the hands of the enemy, it would not change Iroh's guilt and shame. He was a disappointment for himself, and he was angry at his own blind ignorance toward the suffering he had caused. It was only when that pain had been inflicted on him so directly that his eyes were opened truly, and he understood what his vision had meant; he had taken Ba Sing Se, and he had found his destiny. His destiny was not to be a conqueror, it seemed, but, perhaps, at the very least, to be a better Fire Lord; Lu Ten's death was not just tragic, but a reminder of the tragedy that was the Fire Nation. His grandfather Sozin's great vision for the world had corrupted the very people that had set out to achieve it, and he was among their rank; even if Ozai had not set foot on the battlefield, he was enthralled to that vision of the world all the same.

"Father expects me to walk these halls as his successor and heir, and for the honour of our family, I will." he explained himself in a way that didn't sound in any way suggestive of his actual intentions for the Fire Nation once he was the Fire Lord.

He didn't want to discuss those things with Ozai, knowing all too well that he would oppose them, and call him a traitor to their people; he considered that perhaps Zuko and Azula would feel the same as their father, given how blinded they were themselves by the lies the Fire Nation had told itself for over a century.

"Does the throne not sit well with you, Brother?" his brother prodded him once more.

"Sit well?" he asked him, trying to sound surprised at his question, "I believe it is a great honour... the greatest honour I can do for my nation." he assured him, telling his brother the same line his own father had told him from when he was a young boy about the responsibilities that awaited him.

He knew Ozai was trying to ask him whether he actually wanted to be Fire Lord, and part of him hated the idea, of the responsibility he would bear, and the lives that might be lost in his name, but another part of him knew that it was necessary; somebody had to lead the charge and fix the world, and if it would not be the Avatar, then he knew he might have to take the responsibility up for himself. One day, his niece and nephew would succeed him, and he could only hope by the time they did, they would be wise enough to hold the throne and serve their nation as he wished his beloved Lu Ten should have.

"I intend to serve our nation well, Brother, as you have." Ozai simply told him, his rare compliment more an observation on his achievements rather than any indication of respect he held for him; if anything, it told Iroh that his brother sought to supersede his achievements, which was very Ozai-like of him- that was a trait both he and Zuko held in common, and was one that worried him at times.

"The Earth Kingdom is ours." the elder Prince stated the fact of the matter, "I am sure you will be able to see the great benefits that our new peace will bring, and serve our nation by furthering it." he admitted, hoping that his brother might see the benefits of the peace they had worked so hard to achieve; of course, the people of the Earth Kingdom would disagree with it, and that was something Iroh knew he was going to have to address once he became Fire Lord.

"Yes." he agreed with him, "I will further our peace." he smirked, "A great peace. One that will last for a thousand years." he acknowledged, "Four nations will become one, and Fire Lord Sozin's dream will be completed. I can only hope to see it become reality." he explained his thoughts, although he knew that his brother didn't simply hope for that one nation, he sought to make it an indisputable reality.

As soon as he got a sniff of Iroh's plans, he would most likely decide to take matters into his own hands, or perhaps, he would do so without knowing of his intent; upstaging his brother with a plan of domination and crushing of the opponents to their power would be the most reasonable choice of action, and he didn't want to imagine what might result from that.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the doors of the throne room opening up behind him, and both he and Ozai turned around to see their father, flanked by his Imperial Firebenders, walking down the hallway; he raised his hands up, and suddenly, the wall of flames shot up and set alight. Both sons bowed down toward their father as he approached them, not looking him in the eye, as was expected.

"Iroh, Ozai." he addressed them both, "I see that you were both punctual. Is there anything you'd like to discuss with me before I let the rabble in?" he asked them, the two Princes shaking their head.

"No, Father." they both replied, and with that, he walked past them both, and approached the throne; he moved his hands, parting the fire that sat between the stairs and the seat itself, and he strode across, before sitting himself down on the throne.

A few moments later, he raised his hand up, "Let them in. I don't have all day to listen to their pompous words." he ordered his guards, who at the other end of the throne room, opened the doors up, allowing the officers who had been waiting outside to stride on in.

Both he and his father could agree that the war meetings tended to be a lot of pomp and bragging with not much productive discussion, and he guessed that would be even more prevalent now that the war was practically won, with Ba Sing Se firmly under their grasp and the rest of the Earth Kingdom quickly falling into line.

Iroh and Ozai then moved to sit down at the table, sitting at the end closest to their father, across from each other; the younger Prince eyed his brother intently, before he looked up toward the men who came into the room. The Dragon of the West noted in the corner of his eye that some of the men were looking towards his brother specifically, and then quietly chatting among themselves, far too far away for him to get any idea what they were talking about. All in all, it wasn't a very good sign; Ozai was not a general, and Iroh never expected him to be one, but the fact he seemed to know and have the interest of those kinds of men suggested that he was already making moves around the court.

The Fire Lord sat on his throne, but the real power did not lie there, not when his years were numbered and his day-to-day involvement in the government was evaporating with his growing infirmity. Iroh was not there to see what had happened over the past two and a half years, but he was sure that Ozai had spent his time well ingratiating himself among those he ought to know; he had his own connections, both from the army, and from other places, which he was willing to use, if the situation demanded it. He knew that the tinder under the bonfire were already alight, and it was only a matter of time before it became an unstoppable inferno.


Princess Azula didn't want to admit how much she was hurting, both physically and emotionally. The fight against the assassins had taken a serious toll on her, and though the ship's physician had done a good job, it would be a number of days before she returned to her full strength, with her bruises and cuts still raw, even if they were being well tended to. That physical pain was exacerbated by the knowledge she held; she cursed her prior wishes of wanting to be all-knowing, to use the power of information as her weapon to forge her destiny, as it had only led her, accidentally, to learn things she wished she never had. Her own father was set on killing her uncle, and she struggled to believe it. However, it was not because she didn't think Ozai to be incapable of kin-slaying; to the contrary, she thought he was the only person she knew capable of such a disgraceful act.

She struggled to believe that he'd be so stupid to try and do it to begin with; her father wanted to be the Fire Lord, that was certain, but he was going about it in a way that could only harm their nation, and tear their family apart, of what little remained. Lu Ten was dead, her grandfather was dead, and she was feeling as if her brother might be next; she did not desire to see Zuko go the way of her cousin, especially at the hands of her very own father, but it seemed more than likely, given what her uncle had told her. Mai and Zuko were the ones to warn him, and thus, they were the ones meddling about in his plans; her father was not one to tolerate impediments, and he held no great respect for his son.

She did not know how to address the matter with her uncle, knowing that he was the only one capable and willing to provide guidance; she did not want to trust his advice, only knowing of the terrible things she might have to do herself. Betraying her father was something she couldn't stomach, not when she lacked the certainty to call him a traitor. He was still her father, and his guidance and tutelage was not something she would ignore. As she sat on the side of her bed, she could only wonder what she ought to say to Iroh. She could interrogate him for every little spare bit of information he held, with the hope of using that to better judge the terrible situation she'd found herself in; that would give her at the very least some kind of certainty as to his own intentions, which, though clearer than they had been ever since he returned home from Ba Sing Se, were still vague.

"They can't both be traitors." she mumbled to herself, knowing that the truth had to be that one of them was in the wrong; she wanted to believe that both of them were right, but she knew that it was impossible.

Her hands were covering her face, and she was glad nobody was watching her; they couldn't see her in her vulnerable state, where she would look like what she really was. A fourteen year old girl, way in over her head; she wanted to call herself a master of strategy, wit and conceit, but that would be a gross exaggeration. She was just a girl, no matter how much she spun it, and she couldn't act like she was the one with all the answers. Her uncle clearly had some of them, and she knew she had to speak to him about those answers, no matter how much they might disgust or scare her.

She stood up from her bedside, wondering how long she had slept for; it had to be the late afternoon, but nobody had come in to give her her lunch yet. Perhaps they were waiting for her permission, which would be understandable; she had been furious when she returned to the tank-train after finding her uncle, so the few servants that had tagged along in the vehicle would be most likely unwilling to face her ire.

She sighed, and grasped her hair, deciding to tie it back up, knowing that she couldn't go out and face Iroh looking like she belonged in a prison cell. Once it was tied in place, with her headpiece back where it ought to be, instead of sitting down on the table beside her, she stood up, eyeing the doorway nearby; the room on the tank-train was a fair bit smaller than hers on the ship, though she wasn't going to complain. She required the mobility the vehicle provided, and she was willing to sacrifice some floor space and extra servants for that.

She strode over toward the door, unlocked it, and then pulled it open; in front of her, she could see the small lounge area that she had, in which, as expected, her uncle sat. He was wearing some new, clean robes, and his hair had been cleaned up as well; he looked a lot more like a monarch, even if he wasn't wearing his headpiece. She didn't know for sure where it had gone, and she guessed that it might have sunk with his ship.

"My niece." he turned to face her with a smile, "Did you rest well?"

"No." she bluntly admitted, not wanting to lie about it; she felt like shit, and partly it was his fault, so she was going to rub it in when necessary.

"Well then, would you like a fresh cup of tea. I'm sure it will improve your mood." he suggested, gesturing to the teapot he already had ready, which from the look of the steam emanating out from it, seemed to be ready.

"I doubt that." she retorted, before stepping closer, "But I don't have much of a choice if I want to talk to you, do I?" she asked him, the Fire Lord looking at her, his warm expression turning to one of guilt.

"I'm... I apologise, Azula. I didn't mean to cause you grief. I only want to make sure you are safe." he stressed, the Princess rolling her eyes as she sat down across from him.

"I'm a lot less safe knowing what you told me." she addressed her concerns, before taking a deep breath, "But that can't be undone, can it?"

"No, it cannot." he answered her rhetorical question, his timid look telling her that he understood where he went wrong; if he hadn't told her, and had kept the truth at bay, then maybe, she would be in a better mood, but lying about it wouldn't have changed the fact of what happened, "I know this is hard for you. It is always hard to look at the things you thought you knew, and accepting the truth for what it is."

She narrowed her eyes at him, before picking up a turned over cup, and placing it upright, suggesting for him to pour some tea into it, "The truth? I don't think this is about what is true, Uncle."

His expression shifted to one of surprise, before he picked up his teapot and poured some of the steaming hot liquid into the cup, "So, you accept what I told you?" he asked her, the Princess raising her chin up.

"I accept that it's the most reasonable explanation for what's happened, no matter how much I wish it wasn't." she admitted, before looking down at the teacup, "I don't know if you're right, however, Uncle."

"Right?" he narrowed his eyes, "Do you think I should let Ozai become the Fire Lord?"

"No, I think you should consider what you want to do as Fire Lord. If you're going to betray our country after all you've done for it, perhaps you shouldn't be leading it." she warned him, knowing after what he had suggested that he might intend to do things, in ending the war and creating a new age of peace, that would certainly not be approved by his fellow countrymen, nor Azula herself.

"I will not betray the Fire Nation. I simply want to set it on the right course."

"The right course?" she narrowed her eyes at him, "So, is the right course one where we destroy ourselves?"

"We will not." he assured her, his expression becoming more serious, "My niece, we are trying to avoid that outcome specifically. I could declare your father a traitor and ask for the military to seize him and whatever cronies are backing him, but I know that will not end well." he admitted, "I know that many respect me, but that does not mean that they will agree to follow such an order."

"Well, at least you're thinking in advance." she conceded, picking up the teacup, "i haven't thought much further than drinking this cup of tea."

"I thought you had a plan, Azula."

"Oh, Uncle, I did. It's just that you burned it down like the Earth King's Palace." she warned him, reminding him that her plans were thrown into disarray by his revelations, and his own intentions; they were going to Omashu, and the chase after Aang was a distant memory, even if she knew that she would have to return to that endeavour, sooner or later.

"I..." he mumbled, before sighing, "There is no choice. I have to go to Omashu. If we do not, then I won't be able to find a way to stop your father."

"You're the Fire Lord. You have the command of the largest military the world has ever seen." she stated the fact of the matter, "Why do you need a 'secret society' to help you?"

"Because your father's assassins, and whoever else is supporting him, will work against me." he warned her, placing his hands together, "I can trust these allies to gather the resources I need to stop Ozai and his plans. If we're lucky, they can contact your brother, and he can help us stop Ozai before he does anything too drastic."

She sipped from her cup, before sighing, knowing that her brother, no matter how useful his sneaking around might have been, given it had allowed her and Iroh to see the extent of her father's plotting, was not in a position to try and outmaneuver Ozai.

"Zuko's not going to be able to do much." she argued in return, "Nobody knows him, and he doesn't have the same respect Father does. Even if he tried to sway people to our side, do you think they'd follow him over Ozai?"

"We'll just have to wait and see, Azula." he admitted, before she took another sip from her tea cup.

She turned her eyes away, deciding that she ought to address something else rather than dwelling on her father's actions, or Zuko's potential ones, "How far away is Omashu from here?"

"In this contraption... perhaps a few days. I've never travelled in one myself, so I can't say for sure." he admitted, the Princess nodding.

"Well, it better keep at pace. We stocked up with a lot of coal back at the port, so we should have enough fuel to get us to the closest Fire Nation base to the city." she explained, before narrowing her eyes, "So, are you going to publicly appear before your loyal soldiers, or are you going to pretend you don't exist?" she asked him, making her uncle's expression shift; he was more or less happy before those words, and after them, he seemed to look a whole lot more uneasy and conflicted.

"I know that it is cowardly of me to hide... but if anybody knows I'm in Omashu, then they'll-"

"They already know you're going to Omashu, Uncle. If Father hired these people... then they'll know your whole schedule, even if they don't know about those people you're going to meet." she explained her thoughts on the matter, knowing that her uncle's argument was flawed; they were already in serious danger, and the only advantage they held was the great speed at which they could move away from her uncle's would-be assassins.

"At the very least, we might be able to afford some extra security for our passage in and out of the city. I know that you might trust... your friends, but I cannot trust the Earth Kingdom soldiers defending that city. They are just as much a threat to your life as the men Father had go after you." she decided, the Fire Lord nodding.

"I cannot argue against that, my niece." he admitted, "Though, if we were to-"

"Disguises?" she preempted his suggestion, "That would work, but I will not stoop so low to disgrace my title as Princess."

"I thought you liked deceit and trickery." he made a small pout, as if that would persuade her to his plan.

"I do." she conceded his point, before placing her hands firmly on the table between them, "Who exactly was expecting you? The King?"

"I sent a letter to him. He's in the secret society." he clarified, the Princess raising a brow.

"Hmph, so that's why you haven't conquered the city yet." she deduced, her uncle shaking his head.

"I didn't want to waste the resources on such a campaign when I knew I ought to be focusing on bringing peace to the Four Nations."

"Three." she corrected him, before smirking, "Three and Aang."

"That's not funny, my niece. The destruction of the Air Nomads was a travesty."

"Oh, I'm well aware of the nature of our assault on the Air Temples, Uncle." she assured him, "We're just lucky that the boy who might have otherwise wanted to destroy our nation didn't witness it."

"If he had, he would've died." Iroh retorted, his tone serious and concerned, despite the fact he didn't know Aang; she didn't really know him that well herself, but at the very least, she had had a few conversations with the boy.

"Well, he's not dead, and he's not... spiteful toward our nation. At least not as much as I'd expect him to be." she admitted, narrowing her eyes, "If I was in his situation, I'd hate the Fire Nation with every fibre of my body."

"The Air Nomads were never hateful people, Azula. Some might have been unkind and callous, but I'd never expect them to be hateful." he acknowledged, the Princess taking his words as a learned observation; something told her that he knew a lot more about the Air Nomads than she did, despite all the reading and on-the-ground research she had done while searching for the Avatar.

"That's a good thing. We can utilise his... fear, instead."

"We do not need to use fear, Azula." he raised a hand, "This Aang, he mustn't be very jaded, given his age. He might be better inclined to use his hope for peace; he mustn't understand or like the world he's found himself in after a hundred years away."

"Frozen in an iceberg." she sighed, finding the concept to be absurd, but seeing that she didn't have any evidence to the contrary, she took it as fact, given he was still twelve years old, despite having disappeared at the time of Sozin's Comet.

"It is unusual. But the Avatar as a person is unusual. Able to bend four elements, convene with their past lives and the spirits. They are the bridge between worlds and the guardian of the balance that was upended a hundred years ago." he acknowledged, before turning his eyes away, "Or maybe... maybe balance was lost long before that."

"The world has never been perfect, Uncle." she suggested, before narrowing her eyes, "Well, at least, the history books at school didn't paint a very nice picture of what the world was once like."

"It hasn't been, you're right, Azula." he smiled at her, "But that doesn't mean we cannot aspire for a better world." he suggested, the Princess sipping from her teacup once more.

She didn't know what a better world would look like; a few months prior, she might have just said the march of prosperity and greatness that had begun under the reign of her great-grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin was that better world, but as she sat there, considering her father a traitor and the Avatar a potential friend in what could become a war over the right to be Fire Lord, she knew that world wasn't the one she was looking for. She didn't know what would replace that century-old dream, that had set out a great and bright future for their nation; the world was theirs, yet, it didn't seem like much had improved.

They had more colonies, and they had a stronger economy, but it was built off of the war machine, continuously building new and better weapons, ships and contraptions to use against their enemies. That was not the recipe for a strong nation, if her tutors' few words on economics had had any merit. That didn't even consider the world that they lived in, where the Four Nations had become one, but the Fire Nation continued to put its new subjects down; she wasn't one to advocate for the rights of the lesser peoples, but she knew that if they were to become one united world, the only way that could be achieved was through integration.

"What is better, Uncle?" she asked him, wanting to know his opinion on the matter, "What is the future you want for our nation?" she added, specifying what she actually wanted to know; the Fire Lord looked at her with a bittersweet, pained smile.

"A future where young, hopeful people, like Lu Ten, wouldn't die an early death." he told her rather simply before raising his chin up, tears falling down his cheeks, "A future where our nation no longer begets suffering upon the world, and upon innocents, who have done nothing but simply stand in our way. Where the prosperity and peace that my ancestor said he desired can truly be achieved. That's the future I want, my niece." he explained, before sighing, "I just wish I could have said that sooner." he admitted, his lips pursing upward as his eyes met her own, "Thank you for coming to get me. I don't know... what I would have done by myself out there."

"Starve and suffer in a way that no Fire Lord ought to." she gave him her best guess on that matter.

"Perhaps the people of the Earth Kingdom might argue otherwise." he grimaced, making her wonder what people thought of him; he had conquered Ba Sing Se, after all, even if he was an affable and clearly kindhearted individual.

"They'd be wrong to do that." she suggested, turning her eyes downward, thinking back to what she had first thought when she got that letter from the Fire Navy base, "Those... weak, despicable men won't have a chance to hurt you again, Uncle." she assured her, before rising up to her feet, "I need to speak with the helmsman. We must go as quickly as we can to Omashu."

"That we do, my niece." he nodded, before he scrunched up his lips, leaning forward slightly on the table to show his interest, "And what do you intend to do about the Avatar?"

She narrowed her eyes, and wondered what Aang might be doing at that very moment; she assumed he and his Water Tribe friends would be trying to get as far away from her as possible. Of course, she knew how to find him, given she knew where he would be headed.

"Get to him before he gets to the North Pole." she clarified, the Fire Lord nodding.

'Well, actually, I have a contact there that might be able to help with that issue." he explained, making her eyes widen; she didn't know how he was so well-connected, given the fact he had been a General fighting the other nations- she didn't expect him to be making friends on the other side, though she assumed the secret society had something to with that.

"How many people do you know, Uncle?" she asked him, concerned by the depth and breath of the secret society he belonged to, which he hadn't even told her the name of; all she knew was that many people across the world were associated with it, and thus, they'd have a wide grasp- as far and wide as the Fire Nation Capital as well as the North Pole.

"A few. I just happen to know a few important ones." he clarified, before pursing his lips upward, "Trust me, my niece. Friendship is more powerful than you might suspect."

"If friendship is so powerful then how come Mai sent a letter to you, but not me?" she questioned him, knowing that her friend clearly had the means to contact her and warn her about her father, and yet, she had received no such message.

"Mai?" he asked her, before he scrunched his lips up, seeming unsure how to answer her question; he mightn't know the answer for sure, but he could certainly come to conclusions, as she had. It definitely had something to do with a certain person who disdained her very existence, "Zuko can be... unhelpful at times. I see that." he conceded, the Princess sighing.

She knew that without the tension between them, the situation they were in might have been resolved quicker and with a real goal set in mind. That would have been better than her brother and friend sending her uncle a letter which must have barely prevented his death at the hands of the mind-explosion assassin, whom she had yet to find a name for; 'the dangerous one' was all that her mind could come to at that moment. She raised her teacup up once more, and wondered whether her brother would really be able to help them; he might have sent a letter, but that was nothing next to going against their father openly.

"Let's just hope he's more helpful when it comes to the matter of preventing a civil war."


The dark passageways and cool, humming wind that blew through the catacombs made Mai nervous, though not as nervous as the threat that awaited her and Zuko outside; she didn't know how long they had been sitting there for, while the Prince lay sleeping, having passed out from the pain of his injuries, but she knew it couldn't have been much longer than a few hours. The catacombs were almost pitch black around her, and the nearest entrance only dimly emanated light, presumably from the streetlights nearby. She only had a lantern to light up their little space in the catacombs, which she had bought from a store after she and Zuko got away from the assassins who had nearly taken his life.

Taking her mask off, she was able to just play off being her usual self, and she was lucky enough to snag some coins off of the assassins, which she used to pay for the lantern as well as some burn ointment, bandages, a small amount of rice crackers and a tunic, which the Prince wore instead of his burned robes. That was all the coins could afford her, and the time she could spare to spend away from her injured friend, who was slumped over in an alleyway at the time to not attract any attention from pedestrians.

Zuko's injuries, luckily, seemed to only be on the surface, barring the bruises that he had supposedly self-inflicted with the hilt of his dao. His burns looked bad, but after she had applied the burn ointment, that had stopped the growling and groaning he made every time he moved his arms and legs around. In the rush of things, she had forgotten to get his swords, but he didn't complain; he obviously couldn't fight while he was hurting so bad, barely able to walk.

She felt angry at herself for not getting to him sooner; she didn't know exactly where the 'hideout' the Prince had spoken of was, and the assassin she interrogated didn't help by giving her a specific locale. She did hear the explosion that rocked the structure, however, and was able to get there before the assassins had the chance to kill him. She knew, however, that she could not fail now that she was protecting him; Zuko was trying to do the right thing, to try and help his uncle, and his country, and he had nearly lost his life in the process.

She placed her hand down on his chest, which was covered by the tunic, and felt his heartbeat; the very fact it wasn't going wild was reassuring, telling her that at the very least, he could rest in relative peace. She wondered how he was feeling at that moment- perhaps ashamed or angry at himself, for falling for the trap that had nearly cost him his life; he was tricked, just as she was, and it was only the fact that they'd used such an extreme method to try and kill him that he didn't beat all the assassins. She knew he was capable of it, but she wouldn't get to see him kick some arse, given his state.

"Mai." he mumbled her name, reminding her that he wasn't necessarily asleep, making her feel self-conscious about her hand on his chest, which she retracted at once.

"Do you need more ointment?" she asked him, sure that he might be hurting again; it wasn't going to fix his injuries, but rather, help him tolerate them while they slowly healed.

"N-no." he raised a hand up, before making a cringed expression, the motion obviously hurting him; that didn't stop him from reaching up to grasp her hand, which she had retracted away, "How long have I been lying here for?"

"I don't know. A few hours, since it's dark outside." she told him her best guess, making his eyes widen.

"We can't..." he mumbled, before glancing up and down the passageway they were hiding in, "We can't stay here. My father knows about these. He'll send his people down here eventually." he explained, making her tense up.

"How long do we have?" she asked him, the Prince scrunching his lips up before he moved his hand to his face.

"Maybe a day. Not even." he admitted, "We need to get out as quickly as we can. Go to... I don't... I don't know where." he added, the uncertainty and pain in his voice telling her that he really was lost.

They had their lives swept from underneath them, and if they showed their faces in public again, Ozai's operatives would go after them, that was certain; Prince Zuko and Lady Mai were dead, and now two teenagers sat in a dark tunnel, with no homes to return to, and nothing to but the clothes on their backs, the weapons on their person, and the few things she could get from the store before they hid themselves.

"We have to get as far away from your father as we can, Zuko." she told him the straight fact, which was that they couldn't afford to stick around in the Fire Nation Capital; even if his father was a traitor and they could back it up with evidence, she knew that the only thing that would come of daring to confront him would be a long imprisonment, if not an untimely death.

"But where?" he made a cringed face, "I'm a Prince. I don't have anywhere to go- I don't even know where uncle is, or if he's alive."

"Somewhere in the Western Earth Kingdom." she bluntly told him the thing they both knew; he was being a little too pessimistic, though given the circumstances, she did not blame him, "You didn't forget that, did you?"

"No. The explosion hurt my body, not my mind." he assured her, before cringing in pain once more, "This is the worst."

"Worst would be you dead, Zuko." she corrected him, before turning her gaze down the passageway, "So, where are we going to go now. We can't stay here."

"The port." he simply told her, "That's the easiest way to get away from the capital, right?"

"If we can get aboard a ship. They won't accept you as a ship-hand in your current state." she acknowledged, "Not that I know anything about sailing, but I know that workers never are recruited when they can't do their job."

"U-uh... yeah." he nodded, "Maybe I- we can wait down there. It's a little safer than being here, and maybe we can find a... what are they called... smuggler?"

"Yes, a smuggler." she nodded, before rising up to her feet, "So, are you going to rest any longer or are we going to go?"

"It isn't that far." he admitted, making her raise a brow at him.

'Have you ever walked there?"

"No, but it's all downhill. That's better than climbing up to the caldera."

"Where do we need to go to avoid the army checkpoints?" she asked him, the Prince gesturing to their left.

"There's an exit by a stream that way. We'll have to walk around in some fields, but we can get back to the road quickly enough." he explained, to which she nodded, before offering him a hand.

"Are we going?"

"Give me a second." he raised his hand up to refuse her, if only for a moment while he shuffled around, reaching around to pick something up off of the ground, "Ah, I didn't drop this, good." he mumbled, making her raise a brow.

She glanced around, and noticed that he was holding a dagger in his hand; she had taken it off of his pant leg when she was tending to his burns, but she didn't know what the importance of it was. She had seen it on him before, so she assumed it was of value.

"What is that?" she asked him, the Prince raising a brow.

"A ceremonial dagger." he clarified, making him narrow his eyes, "Isn't that obvious?" he asked her, moving the weapon a little closer to her.

"No, I meant why do you have it." she clarified, the Prince narrowing his eyes at the blade.

"It's from Uncle." he explained, "He got it from a General he defeated at the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se."

"So, more important than your dao?" she asked him, the Prince chuckling.

"Well, he just bought those in Shu Jing for me." he admitted, before his eyes widened, "Actually... I think I know where we can go."

"Shu Jing?" she guessed, as he had just mentioned it.

"Well, I don't know, but Master Piandao is the kind of person I could trust to keep us hidden. At least until we can track down exactly where Uncle is." he explained, before making a small smile, "He's the one who taught me how to use my swords."

"A friend of your Uncle's?"

"Yes, he is." he nodded, before pulling himself up to his feet, groaning with pain; he made a small smile to assure her that he was capable of walking, "We should try to get to him, but I... uh, rather just find some nice empty alleyway to lie in tonight." he acknowledged, before taking a deep breath, "My legs... really hurt."

She picked up the lantern with her left hand, before she offered him her right, "Don't be stupid. Just let me help you." she demanded he accept, which he did, allowing her to pull her arm around his shoulder.

"Thank you, Mai." he turned to face her with a small smile.

"You can thank me when we get out of the capital alive." she retorted, narrowing her eyes at him, "Which we haven't."

"I don't think our luck's that bad." he suggested, making her sigh.

"No, Zuko, I think it is." she warned him, before raising her left hand, her sleeve falling back to reveal her stilettos, "But I'm ready to shoot bad luck in the jugular, if need be." she assured him, making him snicker, before making a pleased face, his mouth dropping slightly ajar; whatever pain he was dealing with, he could still take a joke- that told her the Zuko before her, despite having lost his livelihood and nearly his life, was still the same boy she knew all too well.

"Nice."