The next day, the Fire Nation siblings did their training with Lo and Li as usual. The difference came afterwards when the session had ended. Someone began cartwheeling over to them and stopped in front of the princess. With a wide smile, a girl with a long braid hugged the royal.

"Hi, Azula!" she happily exclaimed, squeezing.

"Ty Lee?" Azula asked, brow lifted. "What are you doing here?"

"Your father spoke with our parents and we got to come here to see you," she explained. "Hi, Zuko!"

Ty Lee flipped over to the prince and hugged him as well. He awkwardly returned the embrace, but something she had said stood out to him.

"You said 'our.' You're not alone?"

"No, Mai's here too." Ty Lee quickly looked around, frowning. "I guess I ran ahead too quickly. Mai!"

"I'm here," came a sullen response.

Another girl entered the training room with a gloomy countenance. She looked at the princess and nodded slightly.

"Hello, Azula." Mai turned to the boy before looking at the ground.

"Hi, Mai."

"Hi, Zuko."

"It's nice to see you again." The boy blushed and quickly added, "Both of you."

The princess glanced between the two as a smile started to form on her face.

"Zuzu, you should show Mai and Ty Lee the new flying move we learned."

Ty Lee's eyes widened. "You two can fly now?"

"Well, technically it just blasts us into the air," the other girl elaborated, "but it can be maintained to let us levitate for a little while."

"That sounds fun!"

Excitedly, she turned to look at the prince, but he was frowning at his sister. He had spent that entire lesson struggling to get barely off the ground, so doing anything resembling proper flight was out of the question.

"You shouldn't keep our guests waiting," Azula taunted.

Zuko could not think of a way to get out of the demonstration without outright admitting that he was not skilled at the move. All he could come up with was hoping he did better than he did the first several times. A spark lit from his feet and hands as he tried to make the fire push him upwards. His feet left the ground slightly, but he was still practically on the floor. He heard a tsk sound coming from Azula.

"I guess I should be the one to show them how it's supposed to look."

"I can do it!"

Shrugging, Azula stayed where she was and watched as Zuko made a bigger blast, shooting himself into the air. The blast was not very controlled and was unable to be maintained. He began plummeting back to the ground and landed with a heavy thud. Azula chuckled at the sight, but the others looked concerned even if Mai was only looking out of the corner of her eye. Ty Lee hurried over to the bender and began helping him back to his feet. As she reached for his left arm, he pulled it back slightly, getting up on his own.

"That move looks dangerous! I wouldn't want to do that unless I had a safety net or something around," she said.

"Safety nets are for people who lack confidence in their abilities," Azula remarked, rolling her eyes. "The move isn't dangerous as long as you're good at it."

Zuko scowled at her, but he changed his focus to the others. "I'm surprised your parents were okay with you both being out of the Fire Nation."

"Well, I don't think they were really fond of the idea at first, but your father can be pretty persuasive," Ty Lee said, then grinned. "Plus, with all my sisters, it's not like they'd really mind having a break with one less kid for a day."

"You're just going to be here for a day?"

"Yeah, we have to head back, but they wanted us to see how things are over here since some new colonies will be made."

"Zuzu could tell you a lot about the Southern Water Tribe," the princess said with a devious grin.

"You could?" Ty Lee asked, shocked. "I didn't think you'd get out much."

"I'm not surprised," Mai said quietly.

Zuko's eyes widened slightly at hearing that, then tried to look calmer. "I know a bit about it, but I'm not an expert or anything. I like going into the tribe and seeing what I can find out."

"Aren't you scared they'll attack? I've heard of what the Water Tribe is capable of," the braided-haired girl said with a shudder.

"They're not like the stories we've been told. They seem a lot like us actually."

"Just less civilized?"

"No, just less determined to have world conquest."

The girl looked confused by what he had said. "You almost sound like you don't mind them."

"Do you? We've never gotten to meet anyone from another nation while back home."

"I guess not." Ty Lee's bottom lip jutted out a little. "Aw, now I feel bad. I was thinking about how weird it is that Prince Ozai wanted to take over this barren area, but if they're not that different from us, that would be really scary to have someone show up like this."

Azula scoffed. "You two are bleeding hearts. They're meant to be subservient to the Fire Nation and you're acting like they're on the same level as we are."

Mai finally glanced up directly to look at the princess. "It's not fair for anyone to have to live in fear."

"Great, now you're joining them. I suppose I had too high expectations for you both."

Ty Lee could feel the tension building in the room and offered a smile. "There's no reason for us to be mad at each other. The Fire Nation is here now. It could be a good thing if the Water Tribe isn't some bizarre place. At least that way, we can strengthen the nation even more with them working for us. It would be a lot harder to get them to do what we needed them to do if they didn't understand anything."

This satisfied the princess some. "True, but I do prefer my servants to have empty heads. That way, they won't be thinking about any type of rebellion." A twinkle shone in her eyes. "Lo and Li taught me more firebending moves if you want to see them."

"Okay!" Ty Lee eagerly agreed. She followed the bender out of the room, waiting a moment when she realized that she was alone. "Aren't you coming, Mai?"

The girl shook her head. "I wanted to stay here for a little longer. I'll catch up with you."

Nodding, Ty Lee stood on her hands and began using this method to walk after the princess. Mai watched in mild amusement before turning back to Zuko. She glanced at his left arm.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I noticed that you didn't want her touching that arm."

Zuko wiggled the arm, internally cringing a bit as he did. "I'm fine. I just wanted to get up on my own." His gaze moved from hers. "I'll be able to do that move better next time I see you."

"It doesn't matter if you don't. Big displays of fire have never really impressed me. Maybe it's because I'm not a bender." She paused. "I've always thought you did well with sword fighting, though."

"Thanks," he said, smiling. "I bet that you could be a good fighter if you wanted to be one."

A curious look appeared in the girl's eyes. "What makes you say that?"

"You notice so many things. You could probably do something involving precision."

Mai turned her head to the side shyly. "I have started collecting throwing stars."

"Do you have any on you now?"

When she nodded, he smiled. "Could I see what you can do with them?"

Mai looked at him with shock. "I'm not really good or anything. My parents don't even know I have them."

"I'm definitely not one to judge after what you saw."

Unsurely, Mai took out two throwing stars. Her eyes narrowed at the target on the fireproof dummy, then she stuck the stars in its chest with a swift motion of her arm. Zuko's eyes widened and she felt her face become hot.

"That was really good!"

"It was okay. I could do better."

"You didn't have any training at all?"

"No, I just practice around the house. It's a quiet activity, so it doesn't bother Mother or Father." Her dry tone of voice became a little sad. "They weren't difficult to convince to let me come here. I think they wanted me to be gone longer."

"I want you to be here longer too," Zuko said before realizing what he had said.

A hardly noticeable smile was on the girl's face, but it faded almost as quickly as it had appeared. "I'm glad we got to visit. It's been weird being in the Fire Nation without you."

Before either could say anything else, Azula returned. "I'm glad I came back before Zuzu could bore you to death, Mai. There's no point in staying on this ship the entire visit. Let's go into the village so that you can see what everyone is doing to build it up to our standards."

Nodding solemnly, Mai followed after her and Ty Lee. Zuko went with them as they began to leave the vessel, his stomach in knots. Usually, he would be planning to spend time with Sokka soon, but he could not. Earlier that day, Sokka had kept himself busy with his own kind of training. In addition to going over what Zuko had been teaching him with the machete, he also was working on a scroll.

A strategist. That was what Katara had said he could possibly be in the tribe. He liked the sound of that, but he would need his ideas to be perfect if he wanted Hakoda to use them. Otherwise, the boy would risk wasting the chief's time and that was one of the last things he wanted to do. His father was out in the tribe again, so Sokka was at home with his grandmother and sister. He kept scribbling on his scroll, tongue out in concentration. Katara tried to peek over his shoulder, but he shifted his position to prevent this.

"It's not ready yet," he said, rolling so that it would be further out of her line of vision.

"You've been working on it all day."

"Because it has to be great. Dad might not like it otherwise."

"Can you at least tell me what it's going to be?"

"That'll ruin the surprise."

Katara sighed and got back to helping Gran Gran with dinner. By the time they finished, Sokka did as well. The wide smile on his face alerted the woman to him being done.

"Can we see it now?" Gran Gran asked.

Proudly, Sokka turned over the scroll. His smile faltered when he saw the confused looks on their faces.

"What is it?" Katara inquired, tilting her head.

"It's Dad!" he informed her, pointing at a squiggle.

"Why is he floating?"

"He's not floating. He's flying."

"That doesn't really make more sense," she said, brow lifted.

Sokka sighed. "I figured that we have ships and the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation have ways to travel on land, but only the airbenders have ever traveled through the sky. If we can do that, no one will be able to defend against it. They won't even know what they're looking at."

Under her breath, the girl said, "I'm not sure if I know what I'm looking at either."

Sokka heard her and frowned. "Because I haven't figured out how to design it. It's not easy coming up with something that'll fly through the air with warriors in it."

Though Katara still was not sure if she quite could envision it the way her brother did (and admittedly this was not made easier by the visual), Gran Gran could. She smiled at the drawing.

"I think your father would really like this idea. He's not much of an inventor, so you might have to help him with building it, but I am sure that he would support the plan of it being created."

Sokka grinned brightly at her. "Maybe I can start thinking of even more things to make. We can never really have enough."

His excitement began to increase more and more as the thoughts piled on top of each other. There was still some time before when he usually went to speak with Zuko. If he hurried, Sokka could go and show Hakoda. It could even buy him some more time to talk longer since his father would not be wondering where he was due to not having seen him. So, it was a plan.

"I'm going to show these to Dad," he said, taking the scroll and leaving the home.

He kept rehearsing how he would explain the idea to the chief. Apparently, his first attempt was not as clear as he had hoped. The drawing was not that terrible in his opinion, but if only he knew what it was, then he needed to overcompensate with a verbal explanation. Sokka was halfway to the new shelters when he heard footsteps that sounded close. They had been sounding close for a little while.

"I'm being followed," he realized, heartbeat increasing.

Since he did not plan on being there for long, he had not brought the machete with him. There would have been no reason for another member of the tribe to sneakily follow him and he knew the footsteps were too heavy to belong to Katara if she had been spying. Nerves filled the boy as he tried to slyly look around to see who he could find. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw him. It was a soldier with coldness in his amber eyes.

Sokka was not sure what to do. The soldier was not quite hiding, but he also was not too close. If the boy kept going, it was possible that he could get to Hakoda, but he could also tell that the soldier was within firing range. All he had to do was fire off a blast as soon as he realized what the boy was doing.

"Why didn't I bring that machete?" Sokka wondered angrily.

Another sound caught his attention. It was of a fire igniting and a pit formed in his stomach.

"I'm about to be more roasted than penguin seal jerky," he thought miserably. He started to frown. "But that doesn't mean I have to make it easy for him."

When a blast came for his head, he ducked in time. The flames licked at his face, but he had moved quickly enough to not get burned. This angered the firebender who prepared a blast with both hands. Sokka would not be able to cover enough ground to maneuver around this attack.

The light flashed in his eyes as it was blasted and he instinctively closed them, using his arms to shield his face. To his surprise, he felt no flames, but he still heard them. Cautiously peeking from behind his arm, he saw Zuko standing in front of him. The boy was making a shield out of fire which was only added to by the other bender's flames. After the initial shock, the soldier realized who was between him and his target and stopped.

"What's the meaning of this?" Zuko demanded.

The soldier hesitated to answer. Azula had not explicitly told him to keep it a secret, but she implied it and he would not get on her bad side or that of her father's. Zuko could see the fear in the man's eyes and guessed why it was there. He was used to people being afraid of those two, but there was someone else who could also warrant respect.

"Make sure the others know that if they kill anyone without the firelord's approval, he'll be alerted."

The soldier's face paled and he bowed slightly. "I will. You have my apologies for this. It won't happen again, Prince Zuko."

The soldier hurriedly returned to the camp and the younger firebender turned to Sokka to make sure that he was all right. That was when it dawned on him what had just been said. The younger boy's eyes were wide and his jaw dropped.

"Prince Zuko?"