Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

358. Chapter 358: The Battle for Yu Dao 3

Battle for Yu Dao

3

Thousands of soldiers spread out to fulfill Jeong Jeong's orders: it wasn't only the catapults, attempting to annul the threat of the mines, but the flanks that scattered to either side of the city. The group comprised by half of Jeong Jeong's waterbending forces also progressed towards the shoreline, though they distanced themselves from the forces tasked with surrounding the city, endeavoring to remain hidden from any sentries at Yu Dao's walls.

"I've got a plan in mind," Unnuaq announced as they marched, with a proud smirk: Anorak, lagging behind the group, scowled upon hearing those words. "We're going to split into groups of three: two waterbenders will hold a third one over their shoulders! The one above will do the fighting, while the other two hold their position in the water. How about it?"

"Uh… but doesn't that mean that the ones below won't be able to fight too?" asked one of the other waterbenders. Unnuaq shrugged.

"They'll fight once we reach land. But see, even if they put those stupid bombs everywhere? There's just no way they could've set them up in the water. They wouldn't have put bombs in the pier and port itself, right? Maybe at its entrances, but not in the streets or so."

"It's unlikely, yeah," Anorak agreed, frowning heavily. Unnuaq smirked at him over his shoulder.

"If even Anorak thinks so, then this plan's got to be the best one!" he said. "Once we reach land, all of us will use the sea water to tear apart whatever defenses the port might have and seize the ships we need. So come on, come on, let's hurry! The sooner we're done, the sooner we'll be able to get that bitch."

Anorak flinched: Unnuaq would withhold his disdain towards Princess Azula whenever Sokka was around… but he certainly appeared to despise her, along with the rest of the Fire Nation. Anorak had no business urging him to show restraint towards the Princess when she was an enemy… but a part of him wished to do that, even after what he had witnessed so far. Azula was dangerous, a bigger and greater threat than any warnings had suggested she was… but Anorak couldn't help but wonder if she would fight back at all to defend Yu Dao if they weren't threatening it. Even if she knew her nation was in the wrong, and Sokka was adamant that she did, was it that surprising that she would choose to protect her people from the threat the White Lotus and the Gladiator Army posed? Unnuaq might not be an accurate representation of the beliefs of their entire army… but several of its members did appear to have similar feelings to those of the hot-headed waterbender.

Anorak himself had been one of them until Omashu.

He gritted his teeth, unsure of what to do, trapped by orders and instinct, by violence and diplomacy, stuck between Jeong Jeong and Sokka. The defiance he had learned from the latter had resulted in his fall from grace with the former. Jeong Jeong was unforgiving, harsh and cruel to those who crossed him, and Anorak had certainly done that: could he make amends for his mistakes in this upcoming stage of the battle? Could he redeem himself… by bringing chaos and death to Yu Dao's people, the same way it had been brought to the Earth Kingdom years ago?

It made no sense to think of themselves as the offenders rather than the liberators. It never had felt that way in Omashu, or in Ba Sing Se… but somehow, it did now. Yu Dao's people rallied under the Fire Nation's banner, under the Princess's charismatic leadership. With but a few words, she could sow chaos and dissent in their forces… for even though Anorak hadn't been caught off guard by her accusations against Jeong Jeong, he could only wonder if they had distressed other members of the army who had never heard of Jeong Jeong's attempt on Sokka's life. Could she drive them to question their leader? To lose faith in him, to dread that his Fire Nation heritage might mean he was a disloyal opportunist to his very core, as they believed from all other Fire Nation people?

If he had been one of them, he might have thought so. Perhaps his commitment to their cause wouldn't have fully wavered… but his faith in Jeong Jeong would have. Much as it did right now.

He glanced at Unnuaq's back, dread rising in his heart: the man might prove to be an extraordinary leader, just as he might bring about the downfall of this entire group. Whether he would turn out to be one or the other, only time would tell. But now, free from the burden of command and the pressures of authority if only briefly, Anorak found himself seeing things far more clearly than he ever thought he would. It scared him… it unsettled him. He didn't want to be the villain in anyone's eyes… but that was something Sokka had always known they would risk. He had led his forces onwards, knowing that the friends he had made across his years in the Fire Nation might take his war venture as a betrayal. It hurt him, Anorak knew it did… but he hadn't stopped anyway. If so, neither should he.

Even if he was marching into great danger, he had to serve the Gladiator Army and secure this victory over the Fire Nation, no matter what. He could attempt to persuade Unnuaq of keeping the Princess alive and safe, perhaps, should it be necessary… he might be able to communicate first with her, explaining the situation once the port fell, once they held her ship and all people in the bay as their hostages. All she needed to do, in the end, was cooperate: perhaps she didn't understand what Sokka was trying to do, and she might change tunes once she did. That could be possible… couldn't it?

The time to confront the Princess wouldn't arrive all that soon, though. First, they needed to seize the port… any opportunity to face her directly would only arrive after that, and the notion of so much as speaking to her nearly made him lightheaded. Curses, if only Sokka were here… if only he could speak with her himself, their odds at persuading her to change sides, to surrender Yu Dao, would be much greater.

But for now, they would fight: explosions in the outskirts of Yu Dao suggested that it wouldn't be long before the Fire Nation's defenses were completely undone. And once that was the case… what would Princess Azula do to protect her people next?

---

Azula breathed deeply as she stepped forward on that wall: where the rest of her forces inched away from the threat posed by the mines, with the explosions that were carried towards the city walls, the Princess would not be deterred. She raised her hands in a battle kata that startled those standing nearest to her: a bolt of blue fire appeared to bloom in her left hand, but she didn't use it right away. Instead, she waited for the next of the projectiles to be launched.

She charged her attack with more potency once it was: fingers extended, Azula snarled and let out a slight cry of exertion as she launched her charged attack in the direction of the incoming projectile.

The large, sturdy rock fell apart upon impact: the debris crumbled in all directions, and it seemed too small to trigger the explosions of the minefield underneath them.

"Woah… you did it!" Chan exclaimed, watching the rock fall apart from the wall's crenelation. Azula breathed heavily: she hadn't pushed herself too hard, but her anxiety and nerves certainly had no small bearing on her performance right now.

Jeong Jeong and his forces glimpsed a blue flash where their projectile was last seen: the Deserter scowled, urging the catapult's team to prepare a new payload. He suspected what had happened with the previous one… but he needed to confirm it. The dust clouds in the air, the foggy aspect after so many explosions, blocked the landscape from view. Had the rock fallen in terrains without any mines, or…?

"Fire!" Jeong Jeong exclaimed: the nearest catapult launched its projectile towards the city's defenses anew.

This time, the rock soared higher than before. Jeong Jeong watched its trajectory with a heavy scowl… he snarled when a blast of blue flames struck the solid rock, tearing it to pieces.

"They're fighting back!" exclaimed Colonel Mingyi, glancing over at Jeong Jeong. "Master Jeong Jeong, sir…!"

"Launch the flank attacks, now!" he commanded.

His order was spread through the armed forces, all the way to where the commanding officers, at the southern and northern city walls, had already begun their process to test for more bombs: their catapults, while smaller and lacking in range, carried numerous projectiles that could be used to trigger explosions in that area.

And so they did, launching multiple, smaller rocks that scattered across the landscape, setting off the bombs that, as predicted, had been planted at either side of the city.

By the walls, Azula gasped when the next explosion came from an unforeseen location. Two assaults at once? Her every nerve-ending seemed to shoot warnings to her as her body ran cold. She might be able to handle one set of catapults, but more than that…?

Another explosion, this time, by the other end of the walls: they were flanking them on both sides.

Azula snarled. Their tactics to defend against the enemy's assault had paid off until then, but she couldn't hope to undo a three-pronged assault on her own.

"Are they in range for the Yu-Yan Archers?!" Azula raised her voice towards either side of the walls. "Split your forces in two! Head to the northern and southern walls, now!"

The Yu-Yan Archers obeyed her orders, scattering towards the furthermost ends of the wall, from where they would have clear shots, albeit not perfect ones, at the people manning these new siege weapons. Azula breathed deeply, preparing to attack the newest rock hurled by the frontline catapults…

A visual by the tree line startled her, causing her attack to swerve in the wrong direction, missing its mark and allowing a new group of mines to burst under that heavy impact. Everyone by the walls braced themselves against the shockwave of the explosion that Azula had failed to prevent this time… distracted as she had been by the sight of hot-air balloons rising in the distance.

They were behind the catapults: the Yu-Yan Archers, off to deal with the flanking attacks, would lack the range to reach them from their current position. Azula snarled: even this, however, represented no security for Jeong Jeong. Even now, the Fire Nation's circumstances in Yu Dao were not as bleak as they could have been: what was his play? What was he trying to achieve?

"Hot-air balloons are coming our way!" exclaimed one of her guards. Azula snarled.

"Join me in destroying the catapult's projectiles!" she commanded. "Firebenders: charge your attacks and take down their rocks! Captain Chan!"

"Yes?!" the man glanced at her, eyes wide, surprised to realize he was being called to action too: Azula's eyes sharpened as she deposited more trust him than she ever had.

"Take down those hot-air balloons!"

Chan swallowed hard and nodded. He turned towards the soldiers under his command, ensuring they understood what was expected of them, and he prepared by the crenelations with his personal assistant, the low-ranked corporal who would light his weapon for him, hoping to find the perfect shot to take down the hot-air balloon…

Azula snarled: something was fishy, something beyond everything they'd faced so far. Three different assaults were meant to overwhelm her forces, and even so, they would be likely to fail. The hot-air balloons would be sitting ducks in the air: Jeong Jeong surely had predicted that they would collapse sooner than later, as soon as they entered the range of their archers and firebenders, even if he didn't expect the cannons…

But if the hot-air balloons collapsed, they would fall in the minefield.

Jeong Jeong would sacrifice the hot-air balloons to further wear down their defenses.

Was that it? Was that the full extent of their plan? Panic threatened to seize Azula as she launched another fire blast at a catapult's projectile: was that as far as Jeong Jeong would go?

No… it wasn't. This was too simple… too straightforward. He didn't have an assured victory even if he tore down the bulk of the minefield, the ground upon which he would have to move his army would be treacherous and unstable: even his best siege weapons would be within range for Chan's bombardment brigade to strike them down, even if Jeong Jeong didn't know that yet. They weren't in a bad position at the moment, not bad enough to be completely unsustainable…

But this was Jeong Jeong. He was up to something so much worse than what was in plain sight: this was how he had caught her unawares years ago, tricking her into being overconfident, certain of her success, wrongfully assuming her enemy could not read her choices accurately. And in doing so, she had jumped to the wrong conclusions, believing herself to be the target of his attack when their true goal had been to kill Sokka.

What she was seeing right now wasn't the goal. He wasn't trying to wear down their defenses because he had a great idea of how to attack frontally. The flankers weren't strong enough to represent a real threat if they succeeded at defeating the Fire Nation's defenses. There had to be something else she wasn't seeing, something more, something…

"Princess?" Chan called for her, frowning as the guards around her took over in her stead, launching fire blasts that tore the rocks to pieces – though to lesser success, for some of the debris would be large enough to set off the mines anyway.

Azula, however, had withdrawn into herself, clasping the wall as she trembled: what wasn't she seeing? What was she overlooking? How did he intend to outsmart her this time?

She couldn't let him win again. She had failed to stop him once before, and it had nearly cost her Sokka. Without her gold fire, he would have died that night and she would have been helpless to stop it: it could have been a devastating loss for Azula, one that had scarred her so deeply she hadn't shaken its grip from her heart still.

She couldn't let it happen again. She couldn't…

A pair of hands clasped her shoulders.

Azula closed her eyes, feeling him with her, standing before her.

"Soothe your mind," he spoke, and his voice rang through her body, bringing her heart to life with just that contact between their souls. "Breathe, my love. Breathe. Take a moment to breathe… and then look at the world with clear eyes."

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't account for everything Jeong Jeong was doing. She couldn't stop him if he found another path forward: was he heading underground anew? Would he do it through the flanks? Was that it? Was that…?

"You've faced this enemy before. You've learned from your mistakes. You've understood what his priorities are, what his intent will be: you know he will not be stopped unless the cost of victory becomes too steep for him to afford. So… make it so. Make his path unsurmountable: open your eyes, Azula… and see."

Sokka's words echoed in her heart: his lips brushed hers, as though to awaken her in the middle of that dark bloom of despair.

The mirage faded, finding Azula standing atop that wall still, watched by a confused Chan: she opened her eyes, and she saw… but she turned on her heels, frowning heavily as she turned her gaze towards the distant horizon. The sea blinked under the sunlight… there was nothing there yet, but there would be. She had no doubts that there would be: that had to be Jeong Jeong's true plan.

"Mayor Morishita!" Azula exclaimed, peering over the wall to find the frantic man, busy providing the archers with more arrows at their positions by the wall.

"Princess…?!" the man's wife spoke instead, and Azula turned her attention to her.

"Reach out to the defenses in the port! Tell them to get ready! The enemy will focus on them next!" she exclaimed. Mrs. Morishita seemed startled by the sudden revelation, but she nodded in Azula's direction.

"Right away, Princess!"

"The port…?" Chan repeated, staring at Azula in disbelief as she returned to her position in the wall. "Why…?"

"The waterbenders," Azula said, with a heavy scowl. "They haven't done anything so far: there's no water available for them to use readily here. But there is more than enough by the port… and they can launch a proper attack from there, strike us from our rearguard, so to speak. That has to be his plan… has to be why he's doing this, striking from every possible direction to keep us engaged, looking everywhere but to the west!"

Chan's jaw dropped: the Princess's explanation had proven a lot more convincing than he expected. She breathed heavily, extending her arms again as though to charge a new firebending attack… but she seemed to think better of it.

"It's enough," she said. "He won't fall back if not by force… so we'll make him surrender."

"Princess?" Chan blinked blankly. "What should we…? Princess?!"

His voice didn't distract her as she spread her stance, arms shifting in circular motions: sparks began dancing around her body, bursts of electricity that alarmed even the most seasoned of firebenders around them…

It was a dangerous gamble. She was not level-headed… but perhaps she didn't need to be all along. Perhaps she could simply navigate the generation of lightning, conjure the right mentality just as she was charging it. The familiar motions, sensations, cleared her head for what felt like an instant…

She charged the lightning fully, and she fired it.

The bolt shot through the distance between herself and the nearest hot-air balloon: it had been so distant that Chan couldn't quite hit it with his cannon yet. She had feared her attack might miss its mark… but it didn't.

The vehicle exploded at once, in a ball of fire so much more chaotic than she had anticipated.

"Holy shit…!" Chan gasped, jumping backwards: the remnants of the hot-air balloon, which hadn't made sufficient progress yet, still hovering over the Gladiator army's frontlines, fell atop its fellow soldiers. Jeong Jeong's people screamed and scattered away from it.

Azula breathed deeply, calming herself: she had to open her eyes to more than what was apparent, to the truth in the depths of Jeong Jeong's cruel mind. He would stop at nothing to seize victory… but Yu Dao was not his true goal. He sought the Fire Nation. Losing valuable assets now meant he would not have them at his disposal for the eventual assault on the Fire Nation's mainland: he could not afford to lose them quite as easily as that, could he? He might have chosen to sacrifice them now, sending them up into the sky, loaded with explosives they would throw to set off more mines still… but if they weren't destroyed inside the minefield, Jeong Jeong's forces would pay the ultimate price for his arrogance.

"They're getting closer now! Aim for the hot-air balloons!" Azula commanded: Chan, still shaken, nodded promptly and propped the cannon over his shoulder.

"Cannons…!" he exclaimed. "Ready, and… fire!"

The low-ranked soldiers lit the weapon's fuses, and within moments, loud blasting sounds echoed across the city. The first of the projectiles flew across the expanse of the terrains, some soaring higher, some lower. Some had better aim than others, some took longer to be fired than the rest…

But Chan's particular bomb cut through the sky, striking one of the hot-air balloons, colliding right into its basket.

The explosion that followed was almost blinding: Azula snarled as Chan roared with pride: the hot-air balloon went down in violent flames, causing the enemy forces to withdraw for the second time.

"Did you see that?!" Chan exclaimed, beaming. Azula breathed heavily and nodded.

"Well done, but… we're not done here," Azula warned him. Chan swallowed hard and nodded, setting aside his excitement quickly.

The catapults hadn't moved, even though the soldiers meant to protect them had raced backwards for safety's sake: a new payload flew towards the city, and Azula cleared her mind quickly, charged her lightning a second time and blasted the rock apart with even more violence than before.

It wasn't enough. Nothing would be until she dealt sufficient damage to the enemy's resources… and she meant to do that next. She could do it, provided she continued to focus. Mrs. Morishita surely had heeded her command to send word: Renkai would be warned. The soldiers under his command by the port would be ready to face all waterbenders in their path. All she had to do was ensure that, even in the off-case where Jeong Jeong's forces pushed forward further than anticipated, the Gladiator Army would suffer so much damage that they would be unable to support the waterbenders if they attacked as she anticipated.

She charged a new lightning attack, even though the catapults weren't firing just then: everyone watched her intently by the top of those walls, as her body appeared to light up with electric power…

She raised her left hand, aiming her fingers at one of the four catapults, firing her arcing bolt of lightning in their direction.

The attack was too fast for any of the enemies to see anything but a blinding blast of light, and then, they heard the deafening sound of thunder.

The catapult she targeted snapped out of its hinges, shattering and catching fire: the enemy army, organized and steady as it had been so far, even in retreat, suddenly appeared to be overtaken by chaos. The Princess breathed heavily after her latest exertions, glaring at that destroyed weapon in the distance. The remaining catapults were being moved back, surely in fear that she might destroy any others. A solid blow against their enemies.

"Don't waste all your strength, Princess!" the closest of her guards warned her. "We will continue from here!"

Azula's panting slowed as she stared at the man in perplexity: together with the rest of the firebending guards above the walls, the six men gathered their potent firebending in a single spot, creating a mighty large fire blast that, once launched, would singe the land and burn down the enemy forces .

"NOW!"

The coordinated efforts by the firebenders saw the massive fireball hurtling dangerously towards the Deserter's forces: screams of panic shook their foes, as they scurried off to unstable safety. One more catapult caught fire, and several soldiers were caught by the flames, if briefly, before Jeong Jeong stifled them personally.

As powerful as the attack had been, the Deserter stemmed it after it landed. He snarled, glaring at the wall in the distance, from where the lightning, the bombing projectiles and now these massive feats of firebending poured down on them. The flanking attempts weren't yielding immediate results either: the Yu-Yan Archers had already killed over fifteen assigned members of the squads at either end of the city, and while the catapults hadn't been affected by their arrows, most the soldiers trained to manage the catapults had been injured or killed already.

They were losing. The Princess had retained the upper hand under all the pressure they had applied to Yu Dao's walls. Jeong Jeong snarled, deeply hoping that Unnuaq's plan would be paying off in the city's bay: as uncomfortable as it made him to place his faith entirely in someone else's success, it seemed that his efforts in Yu Dao hinged entirely on the waterbending squad right now.

---

The bay's defenses had been bolstered and strengthened progressively through the weeks leading to the battle: the troops General Ling had gathered across the colonies were positioned in the area, preserving the harbor as well as guarding the area between the city and the port. General Ling himself had taken up the role of defending the vulnerable region between both locations, and his men remained on standby in the area, wary of the potential progress of the enemy's flanking mangonels across the southern or northern borders of the city. Communication continued between the city walls and the soldiers elsewhere. So far, regardless of the lost mines, the Fire Nation's side had sustained no real damage, as opposed to the Gladiator Army: if they continued to hold the frontlines, the danger posed by the massive enemy forces would be quelled, minimal once it reached them, if it even did.

But the letter that reached Renkai by the port was ominous, and it painted a much darker prospect than what General Ling had conveyed to him thus far: a hastily scribbled message arrived by messenger hawk, informing Renkai that the enemy waterbenders would likely strike soon. Had the defenses proven to be too formidable for the Deserter to win through any other means? Had they unintentionally led the man to attack through water, having no other shot at victory?

"Steady!" Renkai commanded his soldiers with as much authority as he could muster after sharing the Princess's message. The guards obeyed promptly, the lesser-ranked appeared moments away from launching into panic, but the word of a superior officer kept them from losing their nerve. "We do not know enough about the threat coming our way, but we will weather it! Stand your ground, stop our enemies from seizing any ships! Your spirit must not falter, no matter the challenge ahead!"

The words were easier spoken than fulfilled: most of them, Renkai included, had never confronted a waterbender, let alone large numbers of them. Waterbenders always had represented frightening, daunting enemies for anyone who dared cross them: their elemental versatility provided them with frightening advantages that most other benders couldn't easily contest, not when the waterbenders had sufficient water at their disposal. The Stingray alone had caused irreparable damage in the Capital, even killing hundreds of soldiers before he was defeated. As extraordinary as his waterbending was supposed to be, was he stronger than a group of likely experienced waterbenders? Renkai's nerves twisted in his gut, no matter how level-headed he tried to present himself before his troops. This battle, if it truly took place, would be the fiercest he had ever faced.

The threats in the horizon hindered his ability to cling to his own confidence… most of all, once those threats began to be far more than just a distant idea, far beyond their reach or imagination. Once that idea started taking the shape of a wave… a large, dangerous wave, surging in the distance, from the depths of the ocean.

Their spyglasses couldn't reveal what kind of enemy they were up against when that wave was still far away… but it wouldn't stay distant for long. Something was navigating on it, a small dark speck that contrasted so strongly against the sky, against the sea… two specks. Three.

Renkai snarled, eyes flickering towards the last ship in the harbor: no, there was no easy way out of this, no solution to keep them fully safe, for any location in Yu Dao's vicinity would have been dangerous… but Song, Rei and Hotaru were far too close to the worst of the fray for comfort. Even if he and the rest of the soldiers took down the threat… there was no way he would dare prepare for battle without doing one thing, first.

"Blow the horn!" Renkai exclaimed, his words oriented towards the soldiers manning the communications' tower of the port. "Warn the city: the waterbenders are here!"

---

The danger in the enemy's attacks didn't diminish, even after many of them ran away: Azula had to shoot two more bolts of lightning to utterly destroy more boulders, cast by the catapults that hadn't been moved yet. The flanking groups, it appeared, were running away and dropping their position, whether for the sake of rejoining the rest of their army or just to scatter to the winds, away from the battlefield. But it wasn't over yet, no matter how effective Azula's lightning might be. Wistfully, she wondered if she could strike Jeong Jeong if she cast another bolt into the trees… but she didn't know where he was right now. The bulk of the enemy's forces had raced into the foliage, and they might just remain hidden there until they were ready to strike again…

"We can't let them fall back that way!" Chan exclaimed, a fist on the crenelations before him. "Either they're trying to escape or waiting for reinforcements…!"

"I'm not certain there's any reinforcements they could hope for," Azula said, breathing heavily as she attempted to scrutinize the enemy amid so much debris, dust and smoke. "At least, not for the time being. As far as I understand… most of their forces are there already."

"For real?" Chan asked, frowning. "Then… we didn't even see half of it just now, did we? Even when they climbed down the hill…"

"No, we certainly did not," Azula sighed.

"So… they're in the forest," Chan frowned. Azula raised an eyebrow.

"What about it?" she asked: metallic noise by the enemy cluster brought her to focus again… only to find that, instead of launching a new projectile, the catapult was being rolled back uphill, on its way back to safety.

"The Gladiator is in the North Pole," Chan reasoned. "If they can get a message out to him, he could bring the Water Tribe's reinforcements with him, if there's any left, right? And there's people elsewhere, too? I think?"

"In the southern Earth Kingdom," Azula nodded. "But they're too far away. It would take them too long to get here."

"Sieges tend to take place across months, even years," Chan said. "As far as I know, anyway."

"Indeed," Azula said.

"Would be weird if they weren't planning on bringing more help from elsewhere if things get out of hand, wouldn't you say?" he commented.

"And if they held out until they could be joined by the people who are either in the north or down south… things would not turn out well for us," Azula said, with a prominent scowl. "Toph alone would be capable of dismantling our entire minefield. The Avatar, as we know, could probably raze Yu Dao altogether if he cared to. And Sokka… he'd be smart enough to find any opportunity, any holes I've overlooked, turn our strategies around to ruin our chances at victory. So… no, we can't afford letting them reinforce Jeong Jeong's army. But if I've read them right… they won't prioritize helping him."

"And if you haven't?" Chan asked. Azula frowned. "These guys… the Deserter's group, were they supposed to rejoin the bigshots you talked about right now?"

"Once they secure enough ships to travel to the Fire Nation, yes," Azula said, her stomach sinking at the very thought.

"So… they can't afford to get completely wrecked here, can they?" Chan asked, glancing at her with a gleam of an idea in his eyes. Azula frowned.

"What are you thinking, Chan?" she asked.

"I think… we should do what you've been doing so far, but we can take it further," he said, a wild grin across his face. "Our cannons don't have enough range to reach them when they're hiding like cowards in the trees, I know that, but… what if we get that range?"

"By doing what, exactly?" Azula asked, her apprehension growing. "Chan…"

"I could go out, into the field, with the hand cannoneers," Chan explained: Azula's wide eyes gave away just how bad an idea she thought that was. "I know, I know! I'm just saying, if the earthbenders helped us navigate the minefield…!"

"Even the earthbenders would struggle to tell where they planted their bombs after all the explosions so far!" Azula said.

"But that's it, though: there's been enough explosions already to clear a path for us inside the minefield!" Chan said. "See?"

Azula scowled, glancing over the edge of the wall: Chan was probably too reckless, more than a little crazy… but there was, indeed, enough destruction in a relatively straight line where, in all likelihood, no more mines remained. The earth in the area was shaken, muddled, damaged by the explosions, however… she glanced at the eager soldier with no shortage of apprehension.

"You're saying you want the earthbenders to strengthen that ground and help you cross most of the minefield, all be it so that you can gain sufficient range to launch your bombs into the heart of the enemy forces?" she concluded. Chan nodded eagerly.

"Not the heart, I doubt I'd have enough range for that, but…"

"Chan: you'll be in incredible danger," Azula said, point-blank. "There's a reason why sieges last as long as they do: the defending forces are restricted to remaining safe behind their walls, as we have been so far. Our losses will always be far smaller than theirs provided we continue to hold this position successfully. Jumping out into the open to pick a fight with them would result in… in a dark outcome that you're not prepared to face."

"Only if we fail," Chan said, with a slight pout. Azula shook her head, though, showing she didn't see the situation as lightheartedly as he did.

"Chan: you serve your nation better if you're still alive to fight for it," she said, bluntly. Chan's eyes widened. "Jumping out there recklessly will be a risk far greater than you're acknowledging right now."

"But the rewards could be worth it," Chan said, firmly. "If I succeeded… we could set Yu Dao free from this siege, if not right away, then for a fair amount of time before they gather their forces again! And if they choose to carry forward to the Fire Nation, well… there'll be less enemies, less siege weaponry, to attack with the mainland if this works out. Isn't that kind of outcome worth it?"

Azula gritted her teeth: he was reckless, and she wasn't sure he was thinking things through… but if his eyes were blue, intense and clever, she would have hesitated far less. She believed in Sokka blindly: he could do anything he set his mind to… but Chan was not Sokka. Was it worth it to risk him, his resources, his weapons, just on the chance that he might strike big, as he believed he could?

He might not be Sokka, for no one else could be. But after all the risks she had taken, Azula certainly would be a hypocrite by rejecting gambits that she'd gladly take, if she were the one taking the greatest risk in the operation. She gritted her teeth, frowning as she met Chan's earnest eyes.

"I appreciate the concern, I do…" Chan said, with a slight grin. "But I don't mean to die out there. I promise I'll run like a coward if anything goes badly, okay?"

"I… I suppose that's more reasonable than pretending your success is assured," Azula acknowledged. Chan shrugged.

"I'm not that arrogant… but I do believe I can pull this off, Princess," he said, firmly. "So… maybe just let me?"

Azula breathed deeply: something was definitely wrong with her, allowing Chan to undertake such a dangerous mission…

"We… we will continue to break any projectiles they try to send your way," Azula said. Chan's eyes gleamed with hope. "If you really want to prove yourself, then I guess this is how you'll do it. I'm… I'm trusting you far more than I ever intended to, damn you. Don't let us down. And come back alive with your entire group, too."

"I'll make sure you don't have to miss me too much, Princess," Chan smirked, turning around to rally his soldiers. "Everyone! We've got a special mission! Bombardment brigade, to me!"

Azula gritted her teeth, turning towards her guards: they appeared to have overheard her entire discussion with Chan, something she hoped wouldn't undermine her authority over them.

"We will fight off the enemy from here. We will tear apart any other rocks launched by them, particularly towards the bombardment brigade. Keep your eyes on the battlefield and be ready for anything, understood?"

"Yes, Princess!" they exclaimed at unison. She nodded and turned again, this time, down the wall.

"Kori!" she called: her friend, slightly filthy after her earlier ventures into the dusty, crumbled maze underground, glanced in Azula's direction right away. "Take as many earthbenders as you can… and keep Captain Chan and his forces safe as he attacks from beyond the wall!"

"I… yes! Right away!" Kori gasped, perplexed by the unexpected new duty as Chan's bodyguard.

Across the next ten minutes, the latest, improvised stunt by the defenders of Yu Dao took shape: Kori guided Chan and his troops underground, digging new tunnels carefully, cautious of the danger in the minefield above them, fortunate that the chaos in the Gladiator Army's ranks meant that the catapults had ceased their attacks for now. The earthbenders with seismic sense could guide them away from the path of the bombs, and closer to where Chan wanted to be…

Once they emerged from the tunnels, the earthbenders set out right away to craft a large, spiked, defensive wall to protect the hand-cannoneers. Chan was the first of them to step out into the open, finding they had moved further away from Yu Dao's walls than he had thought… but he convinced himself that it was a good position to take, even when there was a chance the enemy might spot them before they could take action.

A catapult's unmistakable metallic whirring greeted them: the sudden earthbending within the minefield had alerted the enemy that something was happening near them, and they were ready to fight it off. The heavy projectile was tossed their way, the catapult's vantage point allowing it to rain stone freely down on the valley.

The earthbenders prepared themselves to receive the rock and fend it off… but they didn't need to: a lightning blast struck the rock in midair, tearing it apart, leaving nothing but debris in the middle of the expanse between Yu Dao and the mountains. Chan dared glance over his shoulder, smiling a little at the distant sight of Azula's silhouette, her hand outstretched – sparks of electricity still danced over her arm. She had their back… and his plan would have far better odds of success because she did.

He nodded in her direction before turning towards the forest again.

"Get ready! Aim for the trees!"

Chan was about to commit a severe crime against nature, but the Fire Nation had never held much regard or concern for such matters, and neither did he: he hoisted his cannon over his shoulder, certain that it was properly loaded with the explosive ammo. The young recruit by his side stood ready to light the weapon's fuse and reload it when necessary, trembling even if he remained resolute by the captain's side.

Each hand cannoneer was accompanied by one such recruit: around twenty men held weapons behind the rudimentary wall the earthbenders had crafted. The Mayor's daughter stood behind the hand cannoneers now, nerves rising as she dreaded a nefarious outcome: they had avoided chaos by not stepping on any misplaced, not-yet-detonated mines, but even so, she felt unsafe, even while knowing that Princess Azula stood ready to destroy the enemy's projectiles with her lightning…

"Be careful," Kori told Chan, who nodded.

"Wish us luck, if anything!" Chan told her.

After his smug remark, Chan breathed deeply: the positioning of the cannon on his shoulder was the right one to gain as much altitude for the bomb as possible. The angle was correct… everyone else followed his example too, though they aimed at slightly more open angles, intending to spread the damage as best they could. One round might not be enough, but they could try again if it wasn't…

Another projectile flew towards them: a new blast of electricity destroyed it.

"FIRE!"

Chan's command saw the recruits lighting the fuse at once: five seconds after his shout, a thunderous set of explosions took over the terrains in the outskirts of Yu Dao.

The sound had to be a massive aspect of the intimidating factor involved in the use of such novel, deadly weapons… no one in the enemy forces could have ignored that unnerving, sudden, loud blast. They knew the Fire Nation forces were up to something… and they understood those plans when the edge of the forest was suddenly enveloped in violent, swirling flames.

Jeong Jeong gasped, pulling back from the danger before attempting to stifle it… only to find his firebending was not locking onto the flames. The fire only grew stronger and wilder as more projectiles hit the tree line. The fire was out of his control… for the air itself was on fire. He could not stifle those flames anymore than he could airbend.

Horror caught him, gripping him with cruelty as the realization of what kind of deadly threat they were facing sank in: the Fire Nation had, without a doubt, developed worse weapons than the bombs that had destroyed the Grand Royal Dome.

The catapults caught fire. The battering rams were too heavy to move: they had to be discarded. Everyone was encouraged to run, the remaining waterbenders rushed in to douse the flames… but it was to no avail. Matters became worse, too, once the second barrage struck, slightly deeper into the forest than the first: even more of the forest caught fire, and it was every bit as difficult to stifle as before, if not more so.

"RUN! RUN, NOW!"

The voices that could be heard in the forest were cries of escape, for they were facing a much more dangerous, complicated threat in this battle than any they anticipated: their haven and safety in the forests was compromised… their numbers diminishing as the flames trapped countless in their control.

It was as though Sozin's Comet had arrived anew. As though firebending could not be stopped, stalled, restrained or controlled: Jeong Jeong's worst fear over his own element, the reason why he had grown to resent it so profoundly, spread across that forest now. He had no choice but to run, along with everyone else, endeavoring to keep as many of them alive as he could… but there was no fighting against that barrier of fire, against the flames spreading across the forest, poised to kill humans, animals and plants alike.

They were forced to flee. The siege of Yu Dao would never come to pass, not as long as the defenses of the city held onto weapons as deadly as these.

No nearby location could be safe from that kind of fire barrage, but backtracking deeper into the forests would have to suffice, if just at first. Jeong Jeong's chest heaved – as active as he might be, his body certainly was not in its prime anymore. His amber eyes glared at the glow of the fire in the distance, once he and the survivors had managed to flee to safety, past a wading river… again, he hoped deeply that Unnuaq and Anorak would succeed. The Princess had forced him out of the battle through her harsh defenses… and there would be no defeating her with this army anymore. Jeong Jeong couldn't do it. He couldn't command his forces to charge ahead, against the Princess's allies, when there was no telling how much more ammo of that devastating weapon they still had in stock.

Unless Anorak and Unnuaq succeeded… the Gladiator Army had faced its very first defeat against the Fire Nation's forces.

---

Azula's wide eyes took in the chaos before her: Chan hadn't been wrong to believe he could daunt the enemy with the weapons… but she certainly hadn't expected the outcome to result in such violent fire. As glorious as her father might think the sight was, a part of her ached with more guilt, more fear… the constant reminder that her choices to defend the Fire Nation only condemned her anew. She had seen the pollution in Yang Hui, she had found it outrageous… and now, she was responsible for the terrifying destruction of yet another forest, a perfectly common practice by the Fire Nation's occupation forces throughout the war. She shuddered in place, trying not to panic. Trying to stay calm. She focused on Chan… he and the earthbenders appeared to be perfectly safe and sound. The fool even turned towards her, beaming with pride: he had done it. He certainly had proved he could fill the hearts of the Fire Nation's enemies with fear…

But Azula struggled to offer him anything but a nod, anything but an acknowledgement of the political significance of what he'd done. It shouldn't have come to this… but she had to defend Yu Dao. Jeong Jeong would have stopped at nothing to take the city, she knew that, she had to believe that…

And was this enough to make him surrender? Could this actually be the very last she'd see of the Deserter?

Among the rejoicing sounds of the soldiers at the wall, cheering over the enemy's retreat, a sudden, distant hum caught Azula's attention. She frowned, turning her head in the direction of the sound…

The harbor's horn.

The blood chilled in her body as, for a second time, the threat of the waterbenders returned to her mind at full force.

They were more than a vague threat. They were more than a hazard to beware.

As their allies ran from the fire, the waterbenders were attacking Yu Dao's port.

A moment of paralysis, of panic and fear, much like the one she felt that night when she had believed Sokka was dead, when she had lost everything in the darkness of the Royal Palace, the very same fear she had felt when Sokka had nearly bled to his death in that forest clearing…

Even now, she hadn't truly wanted to believe Jeong Jeong had done it. Even though it was so likely, even though she had predicted it…

But her daughters were in danger. Her best friend was in danger.

The fury taking hold of her nearly saw her burning brighter than the flames in that forest: her resolve built up in a matter of instants. The soldiers nearby had barely noticed the distant sound of the horn, but they only started quieting down to hear it when the Princess, shaking with unsurmountable fury, backed from the edge of the wall, leaning over it towards the position where Mayor Morishita stood.

"Mayor Morishita!" she called him: he, too, had noticed the sound from the port, and now he regarded her in profound fear.

"Princess…!"

"You will take up the command of the walls, effective immediately!" Azula exclaimed. Mayor Morishita's eyes widened.

"Princess, I can find you a carriage to take you to the port as fast as possible, but I don't know if…!"

His words went to waste as the Princess glanced at the guards beside her. The irrational rage in her eyes daunted any of them away from protesting her choices.

"Stay here and secure our position! Obey the Mayor! I… I'll be back shortly!"

No, she didn't know if she would be, actually. In truth, she didn't care if she failed to return: all that mattered was that her family remained safe.

Morishita, down below, had started calling for a carriage, the fastest one to be found in the city, when an unexpected burst of blue light caught everyone near the city walls by surprise. The Princess stepped forward, raising her arms and then striking them down powerfully: an incomparable bloom of azure flames burst from her limbs, launching her into the sky at an alarming speed. The fire spilled dangerously around the wall, but unlike that of the forest, it was much easier for her firebending guards, and the other firebending soldiers, to stifle and restrain as to prevent damage to the city walls.

Princess Azula took off into the sky, leaving behind a trail of blue flames as she flew at haste in the direction of the port.

The streak she'd leave in her wake would alert the entire city of where she was going: it would also give away to Jeong Jeong's forces that she had left the frontlines, should they be paying any attention to Yu Dao rather than solely focusing on saving themselves from the fire in the forest. It would also announce her arrival rather boldly once she reached the port… but Azula couldn't care less if it did: if anything, she wanted to be seen. She wanted them to vie for her, to choose her as their target… to forget about the ships, about her guards, about all the soldiers and civilians by the harbor. If those waterbenders were to fight anyone, it had to be her. They had to target her… and an entrance as messy as this one ought to ensure that was the case.

She could see the port from the heights she had reached: she pushed as much fire output through her limbs as possible, but she wasn't fast enough, she wasn't approaching quickly enough to tell what was going on. She needed to go faster still, fast enough to stop whatever Jeong Jeong's waterbenders might attempt to inflict upon the harbor… upon her family.

No one would lay a finger on them if only she had the chance to destroy them before they dared.

The power of her flames jettisoned her towards the shore, finally bringing her close enough to detail the situation: the physical barriers of the port's defenses had been torn down by a cluster of waterbenders, whose fighting formation difficult to interpret from afar. It appeared that two waterbenders held up a third, who summoned vast amounts of water from the sea, launching it against the piers. Soldiers, guards, stood in the area, attempting to defend from the waterbenders… seven groups of three waterbenders each. Going by the chaos of overturned ships and infrastructural damage, they had arrived with a massive wave which they had crashed upon the people tasked with defending the harbor. The remnants of the wave were still visible… for a large chunk of it had been frozen into solid ice, encasing several soldiers within it.

Her racing heart seemed to scream with outrage and despair over what looked like a nefarious situation: her focus was claimed by one of the waterbending groups, the one closest to the Morishita family's ship. That one wasn't overturned, but it had received damage from ice shards… and it would face far worse than that unless she did something, now.

A whistling sound, along with a potent burst of brightness heralded Azula's arrival. The Princess slowed in midair, snarling furiously as she stopped blasting fire from her limbs upon reaching the peak of her trajectory: she charged the flames with her feet to slow her descent, aiming the fire towards the water that was approaching rapidly, as gravity claimed her violently.

She'd only have one shot, and she packed it as potently as she could, angling her body in the best way possible to cause an explosion that might affect multiple teams of waterbenders, and not only the group by the Morishita family ship…

The streaks of blue in the sky went unnoticed by the struggling soldiers by the port: even the waterbenders, fiercely attacking them, failed to realize that something unnatural was happening in the distance, focused on wearing down Yu Dao's defenses. Anorak snarled, relegated to holding up his team's leader rather than taking an active position, despite being the strongest waterbender in Unnuaq's group. He observed the situation while holding up the other waterbender: the whole group had built up the massive wave they had crashed into the port initially before getting into position as Unnuaq had planned. Numerous soldiers now lay frozen in the highly damaged port…

Unnuaq's thirst for glory had caused him to forget the priorities, fool that he was: some ships, namely smaller ones towards the center of the harbor, had been overturned and a few were even sinking. Anorak hoped they would be able to properly patch up those ships when the time came… because it would. Even though some firebenders had avoided being stuck in the ice, or even if some had melted their way out of it, the battle in the harbor would not be much more difficult than the others Anorak had joined so far. Jeong Jeong's choice hadn't been wrong, it seemed… Anorak's wariness of Princess Azula, however, might yet prove correct in the next stages of the battle. Would she compromise? Would she agree to surrender Yu Dao in exchange for any prisoners captured in the port? Or would she prove to be merciless to the point of discarding all those who had failed to stop her foes…?

As it turned out, Anorak should have given more thought to the connection between Azula and Sokka. He should have reminded himself of his frequent reasoning: a man as impressive as Sokka would not be inspired to move mountains for just anyone. His partner had to be his equal, and that meant the enemy would be creative, stubborn, charismatic, deadly… and unpredictable, just like he was.

When the sparks of blue fire finally caught his eye, Anorak remembered yet again, with deep, harrowing dread, that he was in the presence of an enemy far beyond any he had faced until that day.

A charged ball of azure fire flew towards the waterbenders: it clashed against the group near the Morishita family's ship, but it didn't stop there, colliding with the wave the other six teams were riding, from which they drew the water they were using to wear down the Fire Nation's defenses.

No one had time to react, not even the enduring Fire Nation soldiers battling at the port, some of whom were busy trying to melt the solid ice to save their frozen allies. Renkai had avoided the ice and taken charge, fighting by evaporating the enemy's water, constantly shooting attacks at the waterbenders that were too close to the Morishita family ship for comfort…

The flash of light overwhelmed his senses when it finally reached the port.

It was as though the sun had dropped atop them, somehow. It was fiercely blinding, its origins confusing… until he registered the streaks of blue.

Renkai gasped: even though he covered his eyes with his hand over the sudden apparent explosion, he still noticed the blue flames that gave away the Princess's presence, for that massive firebending feat could only be her doing. Only she wielded blue fire…

She was here. Instead of staying by the walls, Azula had come to the port.

He wanted to scream, more so once he raised his gaze towards the sky: the Princess's shape hovered in the air, silhouetted against the darkening skies. She wasn't moving all that quickly, the massive blast of fire she had launched against the waterbenders had slowed her flight's speed… but gravity would drag her down soon enough. The enemy's assault against the Fire Nation's defenses had been interrupted by her intervention, and if any waterbenders had caught fire over the Princess's attack, they had likely tucked underwater to take care of the matter that way. No one could see them anymore, not within the steam and the chaos left by the flames that had sizzled out in the water. Renkai certainly didn't see any of them, for he wasn't looking in the first place: his eyes were set on the shape of the falling Princess.

"PRINCESS!" he shrieked, his voice louder than ever before: it was pointless to shout at all, for as much as she had slowed her descent, the Princess was still moving too fast for even her last-second bursts of desperate firebending to slow her any further…

She fell in the water. The same water within which twenty-one waterbenders were likely taking cover.

Renkai watched her go under, sinking not too far from the end of the piers with a loud, fountain-like splash.

He didn't know how he made up his mind as fast as he did to shed his helmet and armor, kicking off his metal boots before jumping off the pier too, ignoring the cries for guidance and leadership of his fellow guards behind him.

The overwhelming, oppressive water was dark and unsettling, but Renkai didn't stop pushing forward, swimming as best as he was able, chiding himself internally for not having invested more of his education in learning how to swim better than this. Where was she? Everything was so dark, bubbles fizzled past him, turbulent filth rose from the bottom of the ocean, or perhaps it poured down from above the surface: either way, all of it muddled his eyesight even when he forced it as best he could. He had to find her. He had to keep kicking: she was in her armor and she was sinking. She had to be sinking, and he had to get to her, he didn't even know if she had enough air in her lungs to sustain a long period of time underwater, who knew if the impact had been bad enough to render her breathless…

He kicked. He waded. He as good as attacked the water, feeling an unproductive, illogical urge to use his firebending to evaporate it all just to reach the Princess as fast as possible, just to find her at last…

His fingertips grazed smooth metal.

Renkai kicked harder: his arms wrapped around the figure that he deeply hoped would be the Princess: she struggled slightly against him, and he forced his eyes as best as he could to find that it could only be her, once a stray beam of light fell upon her golden armor.

With that, he began kicking upwards as fast as he could, hands firm on her breastplate. Where she had struggled at first, she didn't anymore. Instead, she clasped him too, apparently attempting to kick her legs as well. Did she realize it was him? Did she know it couldn't be a waterbender, for they would have restrained her through water without needing to touch her at all? Renkai deeply hoped so…

They were too far down. But at this stage… perhaps firebending could be a solution, provided he followed her example. He hadn't seen it happen, but he suspected she had arrived by firebending flight, released through her feet… and so, he did it too, hoping to boost himself out of the water with her in his arms.

The Princess realized what he was doing after a moment: perhaps she sensed his inner fire, or maybe his attempt to unleash flames through his feet was affecting her. Either way, she straightened out her legs and boosted herself with him, helping increase the speed of their rise to the surface.

She continued to cling to him as though depositing her every hope of survival on him, and Renkai refused to let her down. He pushed forth harder still, using more power, every ounce of energy he had left. The surface wasn't that far away, the brightness was so much clearer now, they were almost there…

A violent stream of water suddenly forced the Princess out of his grasp.

She was confused at first, then she panicked: her hands reached for him, and Renkai would have screamed if they hadn't been underwater. His fingers brushed hers, but before he could grip her hand, she was too far for him to cling to.

The chaos in the port was severe, with only a handful of uninjured soldiers surviving the initial assault by the waterbenders: the communications tower had been torn apart by multiple waterbending attacks after the initial wave. Several ships had been damaged, and the civilians who had taken refuge in the buildings nearby screamed as they ran away, perhaps to Yu Dao proper, perhaps hoping to find cover anywhere else. But whether those escaping or those resolute to stand their ground and continue fighting, all stopped on their track once a tendril of waterbending burst out of the sea violently.

The Princess was in its tight grip.

That golden armor glowed as a beacon, as good as demanding for attention that Azula would have never wanted in the middle of such a dark situation. She finally was free from the ocean's oppressive embrace only to wind up in an even worse one, one that deliberately threatened to cave her armor in. Try as though she might to draw in breaths, she failed to do so as that tendril around her squeezed tighter.

The waterbenders were surfacing again: barring a few scorch marks, most of them appeared to be untouched. The group near the Morishita family ship seemed to have shifted their attention towards the Princess, who now hovered among the seven teams, helpless, with water dripping down her soaked hair as she attempted to inhale what little air her captor allowed her to take in.

Shaken and rattled as he had been by that sudden, unforeseen explosion, Anorak shook his head, still holding his position, hoisting a waterbender with the help of another… then, he raised his gaze towards Unnuaq's group: the water tendril seizing the woman in the golden armor was attached to Unnuaq's arm.

The woman in the golden armor.

Anorak's eyes widened.

She was in pain. She was struggling in that grip. She snarled viciously…

How the hell did she even get here? He had seen her from a distance by the walls. How had she reached the port so fast? Had that explosion been her doing? That huge mass of violent, volatile fire had come from… her?

Her appearance was easy to recognize through the water, no matter how muddy it might be. Her apparel ensured that every single one of her enemies could tell it was her at once. Azula wasn't paying much attention to them, though, struggling to take in sufficient air to break free from the grip of that accursed water tendril…

But where many of them could have looked at her with rage, with fear, most appeared as confused and conflicted as Anorak himself felt: he had been the one to encourage them to trust the Gladiator, to believe in what he believed. Even though Unnuaq had never listened, many of the others had… and they couldn't seem to fathom that they had found and captured the elusive, mysterious, revered Princess Azula only to treat her as any other enemy.

Unnuaq, however, shifted in his emotions far more volatilely than everyone else did: where he was outraged at first by the attack, now he smiled with a wickedness no one else had seen in his features before, upon finding the person responsible for the upset to his plans.

"Release the Princess at once!" roared the guards from the pier: they were panicking. They knew their attempts to convince the waterbenders would be futile… but they were too scared to attack. They were ready to barter, surely, to resolve this through negotiations if need be…

The Princess had handed herself over to them on a silver platter, though, and secured the White Lotus's victory in Yu Dao.

"Not that bright, now, is she?" Unnuaq snickered, before letting out a much louder laugh.

The sound of it grated Azula's nerves, and she stopped struggling only to glare down at the bender who kept her suspended in midair, in the restrictive grip of that water tendril.

"Anorak!" Unnuaq exclaimed, startling his former leader. "Get ready to send a message to your buddy, the Blue Wolf!"

Azula tensed up: her racing heart seemed to burst inside her chest upon hearing those words. Sokka… if he were here, this wouldn't be happening. Sokka… was he anywhere nearby? Was this just a trick, a ruse, a way to get a rise out of her…?

"Unnuaq…!" Anorak exclaimed, shuddering at the words Unnuaq had said, interrupted by another burst of laughter.

"Tell the Blue Wolf…!" Unnuaq said, a vicious smile spreading even more widely across his features before finishing his sentence: "Tell him we found his whore!"

The word sank through Azula as an anchor might, as good as tearing her in two once its deeper meaning rang repeatedly in her mind.

The soldiers by the port shouted all manner of insults at Unnuaq: some even attempted to attack him to no avail, for the other waterbenders protected him. Anorak, however, remained rigid in place, aghast by Unnuaq's wording… by his likely intent.

Anorak's fears of over Anorak's vindictiveness towards the Princess began to solidify just as the water around the Princess's body did, too.

She cried out in pain, though most of all, in frustration: anger began boiling over inside her, but where she might have used it to break out of Unnuaq's control moments ago, she failed to harness enough power before the ice surrounded her entire torso. She screamed, unintelligibly so: the firebending attacks grew more persistent, more violent, even if not enough to truly hurt the waterbenders, let alone enough to break the solid grip Unnuaq held on the Princess's body…

They were desperate. The situation was dire. Their fear of losing control of the port, of a battle that seemingly would not go the way the Fire Nation wanted it to, was gaining on every last one of them. So many had been killed in this particular assault by now, some frozen too, like Azula, or through other means, such as those who had been buried in the debris of the torn down communications tower. How many soldiers had been dragged into the water only to be drowned or torn to pieces by the waterbenders…?

And even though all those things certainly angered her, building up her rage, the Princess's fury beelined, however, towards one thing:

The Blue Wolf's whore.

What hope she had felt for a moment had burned to cinders. The ashes of it tasted like dirt and blood in her mouth. She screamed again, as the ice squeezed her invasively, slipping under her armor, wrapping tighter and tighter still…

She couldn't breathe.

Unopposed, helped by the other waterbenders who endeavored to keep their current leader safe, Unnuaq continued to freeze the water in his command until it was as solid, as tight as he could make it. Her yelps, like those of a fish out of water, were as good as a melody to his ears as the waterbenders holding him upright began moving, dodging attacks by the soldiers as best as they were able…

She couldn't even cry for help. She couldn't do anything. Once again, Princess Azula was helpless on a battlefield against an opponent with no mercy…

She glared down at him, finding the most unpleasant blue eyes she had ever seen: she would have accepted to die looking upon the blue gaze she had grown to love best. But whoever this bastard was… he didn't deserve the satisfaction of having killed her. None of them did, and yet…

Her clothes began to tear under the grip of the ice, too. She snarled, she damn near screamed again as the ice tightened over her bare skin…

A whistling sound rushed fast through the air in her direction.

Unnuaq's smile faded: his grip on the Princess broke when a spinning axe cut through the ice.

The frozen tendril shattered violently, though the ice that clung to Princess Azula didn't recede as she sank back into the sea.

Unnuaq, shaken by the unexpected attack, made to grab her in midair, but failed as she fell in the water anew. He snarled, turning his attention towards the source of that axe…

The very last ship on the pier.

A thick, tall man with a topknot, wearing Earth Kingdom attire, stood at the roof of that ship, raising a second and third axes in each of his hands as he glared furiously in his direction.

"What…?!" Unnuaq gasped: an Earth Kingdom man had saved the Princess. "You…!"

A sudden flash of fire, small, contained and violent, attacked him next: Unnuaq snarled as his group's members pivoted away from the flames.

Dripping wet, scowling as a furious lion, an Imperial Guard out of his armor stood by the pier, charging potent, bomb-like attacks he seemed ready to use against the waterbenders.

Renkai claimed their attention, hoping to reel them away from Sneers… who should have known better than to involve himself, for he had basically drawn a target on that specific ship. Even so, Renkai couldn't begrudge him for it. He had barely managed to climb out of the water when he caught sight of the Princess's conditions: just before he could make any kind of move, any desperate bid to save her, the axe had done the job instead. Renkai would dive again soon, he would find her, but the waterbenders were visible, above the surface right now: he could get rid of the most violent of the waterbenders in the enemy's group, to ensure he wouldn't be able to hurt her again before diving to find her anew…

Azula sank, deeper and deeper into the ocean, the grip of that ice weakening over the clashing temperature of the seawater. Swallowed by the ocean anew, dreading she would wind up in the grip of another violent waterbender at any given moment, Azula could only snarl, rage coursing through her system as she fisted her hands:

The Blue Wolf's whore.

That was all they thought her to be.

That was all they thought she amounted to.

That was the kind of people Sokka had decided to align himself with?

That was the kind of alliance he had sold his soul for?

An overwhelming feeling, the full opposite from which gold fire was born, bloomed inside her chest: pure, uncontrollable wrath seized her so potently that her figure lit up in the depths of the sea.

With it, the ice began to recede.

The cold was chased away.

The furious Princess, who could barely make out her bearings underwater, saw red.

The power of her bending melted the ice that continued to grip her, dissolving it completely. Then, she routed her power downwards: a potent jet of firebending bloomed from the soles of her feet, one that resulted in a blast of propulsion that launched her upwards.

And all she could feel was rage.

The power of that new burst of firebending, not unlike her flight technique, propelled her upwards: that she wore heavy armor, that her hair had fallen loose, that the water's pressure was quite oppressive, were but irrelevant factors in the face of her blinding fury. This time, nothing seemed to oppose her as she jettisoned herself, for the second time that day… though this time, she blasted her way out of the water rather than into it.

Her inopportune return saw her knocking down one team of waterbenders once she burst out of the surface, right between them. The spree of firebending she left behind herself caused the other teams to find cover from her flames in the water, just as the Princess sought her own safety: she opened her eyes briefly, once back in free, open air, and she aimed her new flight for her Barge, fortunately still upright, even if it had sustained damage during the battle.

Her firebending wasn't as powerful as it could have been, if mainly due to her breathlessness: she landed clumsily on deck, stumbling and rolling in a watery heap as she attempted to cleanse her lungs. She coughed, slamming a fist on the metal deck as her hairpiece dropped out of her hairdo, clattering on the deck, beside her.

She had no time to waste. She had too many enemies to take down. She couldn't sit still here for much longer than she already had.

While she dreaded she might not have had the time to catch her breath, she found the truth was slightly more complicated than that: the uninjured guards and soldiers in the port charged attacks, launching them against the waterbenders, with an intensity that caught Azula off guard as she forced herself to move.

Unbeknownst to her, the sight of their Princess saving herself, her firebending taking its toll on one of the enemy groups, had rekindled every motivation her troops had needed to fight to their best. Reinforcements had arrived too, led by General Ling, who had finally joined the defenses of the port.

The clashes were intense, even if not decisive: fire and water rained back and forth, and the occasional boulder joined them, too, from the Fire Nation's side. The waterbenders were scattered for now: the Fire Nation's defenses would only hold for a short time before the White Lotus members regrouped and began attacking as fiercely as before.

But it seemed unlikely that they'd assemble properly again anytime soon, however: the waterbending leader appeared to refuse to listen to reason, even when his allies were calling for him.

"Unnuaq! Unnuaq, that firebender…!"

The firebender who concerned them, Renkai, roared viciously as he launched a potent fire wheel at the man attempting to call for his leader's attention.

Anorak snarled, jumping in the direction of his targeted ally: the waterbender he'd been holding up so far stumbled and fell into the water as Anorak shielded Renkai's target with water, dousing that burst of fire, and then the next, and then the next…

Engaged in that fierce scuffle, both the waterbender and the firebender lost sight of what was happening beyond them until a blinding flash startled them both.

Unnuaq raised a wave, pushing himself and his group high enough to look at the deck of the Princess's Barge: the sight of her, unkempt and dripping ocean water, her outfit ripped in many places, brought no shortage of satisfaction to his vengeful mind, even though it wasn't enough. No, it wouldn't be enough until she was writhing, begging for the mercy her forefathers had never granted anyone else…

"There's so much more where that came from, Princess Whore!" he roared: even his companions seemed to panic upon hearing him shout those words. "Thought you liked Water Tribe men, didn't you?!"

Halfway to standing upright, Azula's anger continued to boil over. Her golden eyes glowered at the approaching waterbender. Soldiers, perhaps even sailors on the Barge urged her to run, to return to solid land… but she didn't intend to do that. Not now.

The maddening laughter of that accursed man saw her snarling, stretching her arms out just as he hurled a new tendril of water in her direction.

But his water could never be as fast as Azula's next technique.

He didn't see the sparkling of lightning. The Princess conjured it around both her arms through a single, flowing circular movement: the fast-charging technique she had never dared copy off her father, out of fear of failure. She faced no such fear today: there was nothing on her mind but the complete determination to never let that man speak another word.

She had come here to protect her family. To stop this battle. To save her people.

If just for a fragment of a moment, those convictions worked as the concentration factor she needed to properly create and bend lighting.

The blast burst from her two hands, the electric power arcing fiercely out of her body and jumping across the short distance between Unnuaq and Azula: his eyes widened when he impulsively withdrew the tendril… but it was too late.

The water was charged with electricity, the very same water he had only just lifted out of the sea for the sake of capturing the Princess for a second time.

The water that covered his left arm, up to his shoulder.

The sound of thunder accompanied the screams: it wasn't only Unnuaq, for his companions were affected by the lightning's spread, too. Their bodies, joined with his, jolted violently, overcharged by the voltage well before it scattered into the broad ocean… and the Princess roared as she unleashed more of her power into that flashing, blinding attack.

She lowered her hands upon cutting the electric charge at last, nearly stumbling under the weight of her body's strain… knowing, however, that she had succeeded.

Shock spread across the port as three limp bodies flopped into the water. Fear seized the waterbenders, just as the Fire Nation forces grew emboldened by their Princess's unrestrained, violent response to the enemy's taunts: more attacks rained on the waterbending hostiles, who, shaken, hardly knew how to react to the consequences of their leader's hubris.

Anorak himself had stopped fighting against Renkai, eyes and mouth wide open after the terrifying lightning display. The water near him had warmed due to that electric blast… and its source had been none other than the hunched Princess, standing on that ship's deck, struggling to keep her footing.

Three waterbenders were out of the fray.

How many more would follow?

"N-no, no, no…!" exclaimed some of the waterbenders, rushing to Unnuaq's body… which, lifeless, sank into the depths of the sea.

"You…!" screeched another of the waterbenders, glancing down at his team. "Get her! We'll get her for this! For Unnuaq!"

Whatever respect, whatever pity they might have felt for Azula before was well and truly gone after they had seen what she was capable of. The waterbenders vying for her rushed towards her Barge, but one of their team members was quickly picked off by a well-placed firebending attack: one of Azula's guards shouted with determination, hellbent on protecting the overwhelmed Princess…

But Azula rose back to her full height upon sensing the threat that approached anew: they were predictable. Too predictable for their own good.

A new tendril of water rushed towards her, a whip this time, and she leapt out of its way. It was loaded with further water moments later, turning it into a thick enough mass that might be able to capture Azula anew, just as Unnuaq had done it before… and it shot towards her just as Azula shifted her arms in a quick circle, for the second time: instant lightning took its toll, but she would do it as many times as was needed – this time she didn't even focus long enough to clear her mind. Her single-minded focus on what needed to be done would have to suffice for her to conjure and control this new burst of power…

She stretched out her left hand's middle and index fingers.

The tendril, swung towards her in blind anger, splashed right into her hand.

The discharge bloomed, sparking as though ready to backfire… but the water captured the lightning, channeling it through the two remaining waterbenders of that team.

Azula snarled, producing as much lightning as her remaining strength allowed her to, regardless of the danger to herself when her mind was in such chaos: the thunderous sounds deterred any other waterbenders from fighting further after yet again, two more waterbenders were electrocuted violently by the surge of power the Princess unleashed.

The water's grip was completely gone from her hand, vaporized by her attack: the power seemed to continue flowing out of her, even then. She snarled, forcing herself to focus anew… forcing herself to cast the last of the attack into the distance, letting it fire towards the sea. Never before had lightning seemed to have a will of its own, rushing out of her, sapping her energy… she had to focus. She had to focus. She had to…

Hotaru. She was protecting Hotaru. She had come here to ensure her daughter would be safe.

Her chaotic, panicked state, her inability to grip the lightning and control it before it ran away with her, dwindled once her determination returned: her racing heart slowed, if only slightly, as she regained her grip over her own power… enough to cut down her bending, letting the last of the lightning fire into the sea.

By then, she lowered her hand and breathed.

Then, she realized that the Barge had begun moving.

At first, she didn't notice the movements at all, chest heaving as a light wheezing sound left her lips. After all that lightning, especially the last attack, Azula felt dehydrated, her energy drained… her head was spinning, it hurt, as did her chest… some of the ice had burned her, she dreaded, perhaps some of its sharpest edges had cut into her skin. She truly had no grasp of how severe her wounds had been, so far.

Well before she could tell what was happening, the guards had coaxed the captain of her Barge to move it in such a way as to trap the waterbenders within the bay: the Barge was the largest ship in the area, and once it was positioned horizontally behind them, it would block the way out for the remaining waterbenders.

Chains dropped from the military ships in the harbor, nets that sought to seize the squirming waterbenders who attempted to escape by any means possible: some had been knocked out by firebending attacks, which rendered them far easier to capture. But one of them continued to kick, to swim away, dodging and blocking the fire attacks by his foes. He had to get away, he had to get out of here, he couldn't let this be the end, he couldn't…!

A blast of blue fire cut his way off now.

The menacing scowl of a wrathful, wounded and unafraid Princess greeted Anorak from the golden prow of that ship. Exhausted as she might be, she had more than enough fight left in her to kill him if she chose to.

"I don't think so," were her words, even though Anorak failed to hear them from such a distance: her menacing fingers outstretched saw Anorak raising his hands immediately, in a gesture of surrender.

"Please don't…! Please…!" he gasped, breathless even if he was floating in his element… but the ebbing of the sea was no comfort when any attempt to escape would be certain to fail against the Princess and her merciless lightning.

"Princess…!" one of the guards aboard her Barge called her, rushing to her side. Azula scoffed.

"I don't care how you do it…" she told him. "You're to restrain… and extract every last one of those waterbenders from the sea. At once."

"Y-yes. Yes, Princess."

The guard had been concerned for her fate, but Azula had cut off any attempts to see to her safety. She glared at the waterbenders as further ships started to move, ensuring to limit their enemies' possibilities to maneuver, and allowing them to capture them safely, too.

When another one tried to wrestle his way out of the chains the Fire Nation soldiers were using on them, Azula's next bolt of lightning struck the water violently, merely a few meters away from him. The rise of the water's temperature as a result of her attack daunted him, even if it didn't electrify him completely.

"Stay. Put." Azula's hiss was accompanied by her wrathful glare. Yet again, the daunted waterbenders found themselves at a disadvantage in their own element: never before had they faced a foe with lightning so precise as to kill or threaten whenever it suited her best.

They could go underwater, they might escape that way… but the thought to do so only crossed Anorak's mind after several unconscious waterbenders had been captured. Soon, they were followed by three conscious ones who had already been restrained forcefully, shackles on their ankles and wrists as they were tossed on the ships like cargo.

He couldn't leave them, couldn't escape on his own. Even if the sole alternative was becoming a prisoner like everyone else… he couldn't dive underwater and save himself only.

And so, Anorak surrendered. He bit back his confusion, his frustrations, the tears that bloomed in his eyes at a failed operation that had been moments away from grand success.

But he did dare look at her.

The fearsome, murderous glare in her golden eyes was almost strong enough to daunt his newfound resentment towards her into full-blown fear. Almost.

All ships, damaged or not, returned to their positions after the waterbenders failed to fight back, too shaken by the Princess's actions, too helpless over the loss of their leader and five more waterbenders at the hands of the Princess's lightning. Two more had been killed by the firebending defenses… seven dead, fourteen survivors.

Contrasted with the fifty-nine dead Fire Nation soldiers, including three Imperial Guards who had been trapped in the wall of ice, it might have appeared that they had sustained light losses… but it wasn't as simple as that for the anguished Anorak: what now? What next?

He was a prisoner.

He was a prisoner of the Fire Nation.

Princess Azula's prisoner.

She didn't cast another glance at him once the group of waterbenders was brought to the shore: they could see their own kills, the people frozen beyond help into that wall… the result of the wave Unnuaq had planned for them to begin their assault with. It had been the most effective aspect of their entire battle… the most successful attack against the Fire Nation in the entire day. But as promising as it had started, the waterbending assault had been dismounted and stopped… not unlike the frontlines, where Chan had succeeded at driving away Jeong Jeong's land forces with the power of the volatile bombs and his hand cannons.

Even so, the Princess was not satisfied: she ambled awkwardly off her ship, wincing over whatever injuries she had sustained during the battle. The very guard Anorak had been fighting, the one who should have been in bad shape after jumping into water as he had, rushed to her side only for the Princess to grab his shoulder and push him aside: she marched on, down the port… in a direction that made no sense to Anorak. She walked away… and the guard who watched her worriedly winced as another one placed something in his hand.

Nothing made sense. They shouldn't have lost today. The Fire Nation shouldn't have retained control of Yu Dao…

Was this how necessary Sokka's expertise and talents were? Was this the Fire Nation's true strength whenever they had time and possibilities to prepare against their foes, unlike in Omashu and Ba Sing Se? Anorak couldn't attest to that with certainty… but he felt his knees shake by the pier after the chains were clapped around his ankles and wrists, and he bent his head in remorseful, painful defeat.

The noise throughout the harbor, be it cries of anguish or triumph, pleas for mercy and violent threats, the smooth waves against the shore, were but cold, white noise in Anorak's mind: among all that wild cacophony, the one thing that briefly caught his attention happened to be the loud, frantic crying voice of a baby in the distance.

---

The ruckus outside had set everyone aboard the ship on edge: the comforting swaying of the ship on the water had become a wild, violent battering instead once the waterbenders had showed up. This, however, had happened beyond Song or Rei's awareness or understanding: the violent slaps of water against the side of the ship had taken them aback, particularly when the ship's hull had almost threatened to shatter over the first, particularly violent attack.

It hadn't taken much more than that to send the two women fleeing from the bottom-most cabin, seeking refuge in the ship's bridge instead. Sneers had urged them inside that room, hiding them there while stepping outside to witness the battle personally. Their attempts to communicate with him, to find out what was happening in the bay, hadn't paid off once Sneers involved himself directly in the scuffle: they could have looked for themselves through the windows, but neither Rei nor Song dared do so.

The Princess's adoptive daughter shivered as she hugged her friend, holding her younger sister in her arms. As deeply terrified as Rei felt, though, it wasn't long before she realized that, for once, the confident and strong Song was moments away from falling apart: she had been through this far too many times already. She had witnessed so much war, so much destruction, so much pain… her eyes were wide open as she trembled, arms tight around Rei, head bent, tears spilling down her cheeks without any control… but she didn't speak. She didn't sob. No sounds came from her other than the incidental whimper whenever the ship swayed in any dangerous ways.

Every urge in the healer's body was directed towards staying put, in a small space, to ensure she'd go unnoticed… just as she had when her father had been taken away. As she had failed to do, when she and her mother had been dragged out of their house.

And then it had happened again, in Rui Shi's arms, in her bedroom, as she heard the screams and the brutal beating Sokka received in the very next room.

They had Wolf's Bane with them right now, for safety's sake… but to this moment, neither one had even considered wielding it. It rested against the bridge's wall, idle, perhaps aching to be in its master's hand instead of here, as she fought in a fearsome battle. It would be over soon… if things took a turn for the worse, Sneers would get them out. He hadn't done it yet because it hadn't been necessary, surely, but if it were…

Screams, roaring voices, the splashing, the whooshing of flames… a violent wave, making the ship sway more powerfully than before.

More screams, menacing voices speaking unintelligibly…

Until they were cut off by the deafening sound of thunder.

Rei screamed, and Song hugged her tighter still.

In their arms, the confused Hotaru broke into panicked tears.

The thunder struck again and again, and every time, Hotaru cried harder. In any other circumstances, Song might have realized the lightning could not be natural, that it was a result of bending… but her mind was stuck in a dangerous cycle, one she couldn't hope to break, her mind clouded by fear. Rei, even less used to the circumstances than Song, tried to soothe Hotaru to no avail: the child had never screamed quite so loudly as she did after the last burst of noise and power shook the harbor for the final time.

Then… distant voices. No more violence. An uneasy peace seemed to settle beyond their ship.

Song snarled: if the calm meant the battle was over, it meant it was time for the part she dreaded most.

The price of her survival had never proved cheap.

"Song…" Rei called her. Song shook her head, gripping her and Hotaru tighter.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I…" she said, chest heaving.

"I don't know if it's over, I…"

"I don't… d-don't… please don't look. Please just… stay here. Please…"

Rei's eyes widened at Song's pleas: the powerful woman she had always admired now seemed moments away from collapsing, her heart threatening to scream and cry for help as loudly as Hotaru did. Rei gritted her teeth: what could she do? How could she help Song, when she was hardly any calmer herself?

"We should…" Rei started, hoping to convince Song of leaving that particular cabin…

That was when the sudden sound of heavy footing upon the ship's metal caught the two of them by surprise.

Song whimpered, shrinking in place, holding Rei and Hotaru even more protectively than before. Rei gasped, heart racing as she heard what sounded like Sneers's voice…

"… me through! Let me…!"

"They're here! I brought them up to the bridge in case the hull got damaged and we…"

"Mom…?" Rei gasped, eyes widening: the word caused the frantic Song to jolt to her senses as Rei turned towards the closed door – so lost in her bone-deep fear, Song hadn't heard Azula's voice, but Rei certainly had, and she handed Hotaru over to Song quickly. "Mom…!"

The bridge's door swung open abruptly, and in stumbled Azula.

Song gasped loudly, a profound relief seizing her, as though letting her fill her lungs with real air for the first time in hours. Rei's relief was apparent too, through the tears that bloomed in the corners of her eyes…

The sight of her mother as disheveled as this certainly wasn't as reassuring as it could have been…

But she was alive.

"Mom!" Rei cried out, jumping to her feet and rushing towards her: Azula's armor appeared wet, as were some of her clothes…

Some of the fabric was ripped. Her hair was down. Her hairpiece was nowhere in sight.

Her hands gripped Rei almost violently, clasping her shoulders to hug her quickly. She pulled back after an instant, it seemed: only then did Rei register the utter panic across her mother's golden eyes.

"Rei…!" she said, and her voice, so fierce as it had been before, now was charged with emotion.

She glanced towards Song: she remained hidden by a small corner of the room, with the crying Hotaru in her arms. Even now, it didn't seem that she was completely alright… but she sniffed, tears spilling down her cheeks as Azula rushed towards her and her daughter.

"You're… y-you're okay," Song sobbed. "You're okay…!"

"Hotaru…!" Azula dropped on her knees, and Song offered her the child at once, handing her with caution as the baby squirmed in her grasp. "You… you're all okay. Song…"

The healer failed to hold back the torrent of tears this time, overwhelmed by emotion as she dropped her head on Azula's shoulder: she didn't try to take much of her attention, knowing Azula needed to soothe her daughter… but she was here. She was solid and real…

The battle had raged outside, and it might continue raging later, or elsewhere, but Azula was here. For now, that was enough.

Rei dropped on her knees by Azula's other shoulder, too: she had a thousand questions to ask, most of all if Azula was alright… but the Princess didn't look like she'd be responding to anything just yet. She held Hotaru in her arms, trembling violently as the baby cried still, reaching out with her small hands to touch her face. Azula's tears spilled down her cheeks, even over Hotaru's clothes as she pressed her brow to her child's torso: she was alive, in one piece, safe… none of that chaos had hurt her baby, or her older daughter, or her friend. The three of them were still fine… her rampage had been successful. She had arrived at the right time to stop those waterbenders from reaching them.

She could breathe again. She had to remember how… but she would. For Hotaru was safe.

A cry of relief, mixed with despair, left her throat as she hugged Hotaru as best she could. The baby still wept, though… and it was Rei who grew to suspect why.

She was the one who attempted to unbuckle Azula's armor for her, and Song helped her do so moments later.

It was only once the golden breastplate lay on the floor that Song fully snapped out of her emotionally overwhelmed state: Azula's pristine attire was torn in numerous places, and she could see sharp cuts, and even burns, through the holes of her outfit.

"Azula…! Y-you're hurt. Azula…!" Song gasped, touching her friend's flank, where a gash bled more profusely than the others.

"W-what…?" Azula blinked blankly, glancing at Song in confusion. "I'm…"

"Azula, I… I'll help. I can try to… give me a moment. J-just give me…" Song sniffed, rushing to her feet. "I'll go get my… m-my gear. My things. I… I'll be right back."

Song's awkward ambling didn't stop her from heading to the lower cabins, supported by a concerned Sneers. He helped her walk, whispering reassuring words that didn't register in her mind at all.

She returned a few minutes later, carrying a box of supplies for basic first aid: the Princess snarled as the quick treatment stung her painfully, making her aware of wounds and damage she hadn't truly registered so far…

"Is it over?" Rei finally asked. Azula snarled.

"It… it should be. In the frontlines… here," she said, shuddering over the next round of disinfectant upon her skin. "We… we should've won. I don't… I don't know, I couldn't go back to find out, not until I made sure you were…"

"We're okay. Rattled, but… no one hurt us," Rei said, hoping to be reassuring.

"I… I have to check you more thoroughly," Song told Azula, who didn't move even upon hearing those words. "You're covered in… in scrapes and wounds and… w-what happened? Who did this to you? Why…?"

"Doesn't matter," Azula whispered, for it didn't anymore. He would never hurt her again.

Perhaps she should have been infused with remorse for what she'd done. Perhaps she should have hated herself even more than she already did because of how far she'd gone today…

But she had done so to protect what mattered most to her.

Her fate had been sealed long ago, as far as she was concerned. No benevolent forgiveness could await someone who had no end of responsibility in the calamities her father had inflicted recently upon the world. Nothing could await her but a painful, punishing death…

But until her dark destiny was fulfilled, she could protect those she loved. She would dirty her hands further and further… for their sake.

Perhaps that was why it didn't hurt so much to realize that she had become a killer on that dark, bleak day: she had long grown to believe that there was nothing left inside her worth saving anyway.

"I still have to… to take care of you. Azula…" Song said. Azula gritted her teeth, shaking her head.

"Not right now. N-not yet. Please…" she said, holding Hotaru tightly. "Just… just let me…"

Heavy footfalls in the ship's corridor caught Azula by surprise: she glared over her shoulder, frantic and fearful, as though she believed that waterbender would return, hellbent on destroying her daughter…

"Princess," Renkai spoke, disheveled just as well, though in better shape than her, aside from being barefooted and bereft of his helmet. Azula's tension lifted at the sight of him. "I know you said you… you had to check on them. I understand, but… everyone knows you came here. Everyone saw you…"

Azula snarled, lowering her head as she held Hotaru tightly: to hell with everyone who saw something… she couldn't care less how they judged her, all that mattered was her child's safety.

And yet… it did matter. She wanted no onlookers, no spies, no dangers near her daughter. Even if everyone believed Sokka was the father already, she couldn't let them confirm it anyway.

She couldn't stay here. Neither could Song, Rei and Hotaru.

"Y-you… have to go," Azula told them. Song's eyes widened. "Take the tunnel. The city should be… the city should be safe. Go. I'll… I'll meet you at the Morishita home soon."

"Then… the attack, did you really stop it?" Rei asked. Azula swallowed hard, nodding.

"At least… a-at least, we did enough lasting damage that… that they won't be able to recover from it right away," Azula explained, sniffing as she gazed at her baby: comforted by her mother's warmth, Hotaru gaped at her with confusion, soft sounds leaving her throat now. She had finally stopped crying. "So… if just for now, you should be safe there. T-to hell with… with everything. I know, I know people will know you're here, b-but I can't… I can't hide it anymore. I can't…"

She sobbed, holding her daughter tightly as she cried again: she didn't want to leave. She didn't want to face the disaster of that bay anew. She didn't want to see the columns of smoke rising into the sky, in the horizon. She didn't want any of it… but the world had other demands and expectations.

"R-Rei… Song," she called them, and they inched closer to her. "I… I'll be with you shortly, okay? J-just… take Hotaru there. Take her, and… and we'll figure this out tonight. Somehow."

Song nodded, hugging Azula. Rei joined them too, as Azula cried still, pressing her lips softly to Hotaru's brow…

But she couldn't stay for another moment. She could hear the noise outside. She could feel the scrutiny. She wouldn't put her daughters and Song in the line of fire, let alone if that fire would be likely to come from her allies rather than her enemies.

There was nothing to do about her chaotic appearance. She simply handed her daughter to Rei, picking up her armor and buckling it in place for a second time. It served to conceal most of the cuts over her clothes in her upper body… that bastard had truly done his best to freeze her alive. The temperature shock might take a toll on her, she was bound to fall ill from it eventually…

But she couldn't afford to acknowledge the effects of any of those wounds over her body right now. She had to step outside and face her damn army, even if it was the last thing she wanted to do as she turned to the door…

Her hairpiece.

She raised her gaze, finding Renkai was offering it to her. Azula swallowed hard, reaching for the small crown. Renkai bowed his head towards her, leading her outside the room after glancing one more time to confirm the Princess's protegees remained safe, huddled in that small corner of the bridge.

"Princess…" Sneers called her: right now, Azula would be far more responsive than she had been so far. She swallowed hard, meeting his gaze apprehensively.

"I need you to… t-to help them get to the tunnel. As fast as possible. As soon as everyone's gone, Sneers, I… I'll steer all these people out or away somehow. Just get them… get them to the Morishita house as soon as you can, Sneers. Please…"

"Of course," Sneers nodded, firmly. "I… I'm sorry if I made things complicated earlier. I just… thought I had to intervene."

"You… what?" Azula blinked blankly. Sneers swallowed hard.

"I… I was the one who broke the ice holding you."

Azula's eyes widened. Sneers eyed her with uncertainty: she could understand the conflict in his heart, she had never asked him to do more than he was ready to… but he had saved her life, regardless.

"I knew it was a huge risk, I did, but…! I couldn't let them kill you," he said, gritting his teeth. "I knew that meant they'd start paying attention to this ship, but…"

"But things got too messy for them to follow up after you did that," Renkai told Sneers, clasping his shoulder firmly. "I did my best to keep them away from you."

"And it helped. You really did keep them distracted, but…" Sneers said, gazing at Azula in uncertainty. Her chest heaved, and she closed her eyes before bowing her head in his direction.

It was a gesture of profound gratitude… perhaps far more distant than the occasion deserved, but it was the best she dared do with someone she didn't know that well, as was the case with Sneers.

"I… I owe you my life."

"W-what…? No! I didn't…"

"Thank you, Sneers," Azula said, her voice charged with emotion as she rose to her full height. Sneers' eyes glowed, no doubt relieved that she had reacted well to his confession… but nonetheless, unsettled by her gratitude.

"We… we may talk more about this later. But for now, I… thank you. Thank you. Please… protect them as you protected me."

Azula clasped his forearm, squeezing it gently before walking past him. Sneers swallowed hard, throat thick with emotions he had never imagined he would feel towards a member of the Fire Nation's Royal Family. He watched as the Princess and Renkai marched together, out and into the deck of the ship… and he remained within, firmly gripping one of his axes, prepared to cut down any threat that might attempt to board this ship next, if any did.

Azula's breath caught as she stepped out onto the deck: the survivors of the battle were gathered nearby, flocking to her as sheep, desperate for whatever safety they felt near her. She certainly didn't feel all that unstoppable right now, but she nodded in their direction to reassure them as she marched down the ramp of the ship, with Renkai right behind her.

"Princess… t-the enemies, we've restrained them."

"Our wounded will be carried into the city, we've found some carriages…"

"The victims of that freezing attack… I'm afraid they didn't make it."

The news came from multiple sources, be it surviving guards or soldiers. She barely registered any of it, rattled, shaken, disturbed as she marched across the port, urging them to follow her. The only thing she did, the only response she gave them, was the gesture of her arms, pointing towards the central area of the port: Renkai saw to evacuating as many people as possible away from the Morishita family ship's vicinity, providing Azula with a modicum of ease thanks to his reliability. She dared glance in his direction, feeling slightly at a loss without him by her side… but relieved that he would ensure to clear the way for Sneers to lead Song, Rei and Hotaru to safety.

She didn't speak, didn't respond to the countless words and questions they hurled at her… right until they reached the port's main roads. By then, Azula made up her mind to focus, to listen, to reassure and appease her people, perhaps even to ask them where the waterbenders had been taken, maybe to urge them to keep watch for more enemies, should they turn up at all…

But the chance to do so didn't present itself: Kori Morishita did, instead.

A new group of carriages from the city had only just reached the harbor, and Kori jumped off the carriage at haste. As filthy as she might look, covered in dust and dirt from her many earthbending efforts of the day, she appeared the epitome of dignity compared to the worn down, wounded and battered Azula.

"Princess!" she nearly shrieked, rushing to her side desperately. "Princess, are you alright? Princess…!"

"What happened in…? T-the frontlines. Are they gone? Did you… d-did you and Chan manage to keep them at bay? No counterattacks, no…? Kori…" Azula managed to say, with a hoarse voice. Kori nodded promptly.

"They left. We're thinking of sending scouts to check that they really are gone, but… it looks like they've moved south."

"South…?" Azula repeated.

The Gladiator Army had nothing more to claim to the south. Reinforcements? Could that be it? But even if it was, if they'd all left…

"The harbor?" Kori asked, worried. "Did things go…?"

"Not… not so good," Azula admitted, glancing over her shoulders: splatters of blood clung to shards of ice that remained embedded in the wooden constructs still. "They killed some of our defenses. But we… we defeated them. Killed some… captured the rest. The waterbenders are… are in our control now."

"They are?" Kori asked, breathlessly.

She smiled, and Azula looked at her cluelessly: Kori smiled, reaching out to clasp her shoulder gently.

"W-why are you… smiling? Why…?"

"Princess, if we beat them on both fronts then that means… Yu Dao is free."

That was not the word the White Lotus, the Gladiator army, would use to refer to this outcome. The thought burst in Azula's mind before she could help herself. She shuddered, though… remembering that this city believed more firmly in the Fire Lord, in the Fire Nation, than any other colony in the Earth Kingdom.

She had protected it.

Under her leadership, Yu Dao's defenses had held.

Her forces had prevailed.

"We… we've won," Azula said the words without feeling them, stating them as though spitting them out might make them mean something far more solid than what her jumbled mind could make out from them just yet.

A shudder rushed through her body as she finally dared gaze at the city anew… a city still standing. Civilians remained safe in their refuges. The bulk of the military defenses still stood.

Their losses hadn't been overwhelming. Even the battle in the harbor had resulted in a victory, chaotic and disastrous as it almost had been. Though, if she hadn't intervened when she did…

She had magnetized the attention of the waterbenders, ensuring they targeted her, that they mainly focused on defending themselves against the soldiers rather than attacking them, taking their focus away from the ships they were supposed to capture: Rei, Song and Hotaru were safe. That was the main reason why she'd flown across the city… and as much as she was starting to feel the pain all over her body – bruises, cuts, had she broken a damn rib…? –, the reality of what had happened in Yu Dao sank in, too.

She had led the city's defenses to the first victory the Fire Nation had claimed over the rebel army since the war's latest stages had begun.

She had defeated Jeong Jeong… she had protected her people.

She had won.