A/N: Hello everyone! New chapter, thought I might give you all a (day late) Christmas present). Merry Christmas to you all that celebrate it and I hope you all have a Happy New Year! May all your holidays be filled with happiness and love!

We're still in the invasion, but a lot more personal stakes involved in this chapter, I hope you enjoy it and as always, let me know what you think!

Word Count: 4181

24. Challenging Destiny (Finding a Princess Underground Pt. 2)

Azula still felt the fire of the sun churning through her when she'd heard the commotion outside the chamber. She'd received word from her messenger agent recently about the attack breaking through their defences, so she knew people were on their way. It didn't take a genius to surmise it'd be this group.

Using her good hand, the princess had lit a fire in her palm as she sat in a way that limited the pain shooting around her shoulder. She'd signalled to the two Dai Li, telling them to wait until she gave the go ahead.

With a metallic thunk, the doors had fallen open to reveal the quartet of children.

"You're early." She'd said, with a smirk.

The princess surprised herself with how much she was glad that the Avatar was indeed not dead, but she had other things to worry about. But she couldn't tell how she felt about Percy not being with them. She knew she couldn't have beaten him, even without the eclipse, but that didn't cease her rising panic.

Did he not come? Was I wrong?

He doesn't think of you as important. Your father does.

You know the way to prove your importance to him.

She also didn't know how to feel about the Dai Li and their recent history with conflicting loyalties. If Percy were to show up, who's to say he couldn't turn more of them against her.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent a fireball their way which had the kids scrambling and successfully distracted her from her own thoughts. The two Water Tribe siblings dove to either side as the airbender and earthbender put small shields from the floor up in front of them.

Azula pushed off her throne and carved her right arm downwards, once again, hiding the pain it caused her. An arc of fire came at the Avatar which he deflected with a slice of air. She saw a water whip coming her way from her right and ducked away from it before leaping over some earth that was tossed at her.

The princess bent down and swung her leg around in a circle, sending a wave of fire outwards that all the other occupants in the room were forced to dodge. Right before the airbender could land, she shot a blast of fire directly at him to which he responded by spinning his staff around to dissipate the flames.

Out of the corners of her eyes she saw the other three begin to surround her in the room. She jumped back onto the throne, flipping and kicking out her legs to send each of them their own personal ball of fire. They all backed away from her.

The practice with Percy felt like some of the best training she'd ever done. She felt, even with the burnt shoulder, she could toy with them all she liked.

Percy had seen roughly where Appa had landed on the side of the volcano. He had been riding next to Hakoda holding onto the front of their lead tank.

The resistance from the Fire Nation going up the path had been quite minimal. Occasionally, up the path, he'd frozen the few enemies who weren't desperately retreating up towards the palace. The earthbenders that strode in between the tanks branched away to pull down the watchtowers in landslides.

They reached the top, well before they'd planned, with the Fire Nation soldiers still sending blasts of flames their way. All of them were doused by Percy, but he knew where he was needed most. He manoeuvred Siosi even closer to the Water Tribe Chief.

"Hakoda, you've got it from here?" Percy asked. "I think the Avatar might need my help."

"Yes, thank you for all your help so far." He replied. "Keep the kids safe!"

The demigod nodded back to him, preparing himself for a very quick ride. Hakoda turned back to his troops.

"We've made it to the top and there's just under ten minutes till the eclipse. Watch out for the firebenders and we should be able to make it near the palace by the time it starts and secure the entire capital."

The man raised his sword into the air, and everyone cheered.

"You ready to run, Sio?"

'I'm ready, dramatic dumbass.'

"Whatever, let's go find an Avatar."

He flicked his heels against her sides, and she sped off over the sides of the volcano. His ostrich horse made good progress, leaping over the looser rocks and going in the vague direction Percy knew they'd gone. It seemed that coming from the Earth Nation made breezing along steep inclines not at all difficult for her.

After a few minutes of sprinting, the demigod saw a small spire of earth coming out of the ground a few hundred feet ahead of them.

"Head for that?" He half requested, half asked.

'Why?' She questioned back.

"It looks out of place. I don't know."

'You sure do live up to your nickname.' She said, as she ran towards it.

"Uhuh. Let's just see what it is."

They came upon it and saw a hole in the ground next to it. It looked to be done by earthbending and it appeared new.

"Well, what do you know?" Percy said to her, sarcastically. "Someone's been earthbending here."

The ostrich horse snorted in what sounded like contempt and he could've sworn she rolled her eyes at him.

'You don't even know if you got it right and you think you're a genius.'

"Just because you can't handle me not actually being a dumbass doesn't mean you have to be rude."

The demigod looked over the side of the ridge to see a sky bison sitting there, waiting.

"See, this is where they went. I knew it."

'Whatever, dumbass.'

"Oh, look who's a little salty now."

'Yeah, says the ocean boy.'

"Sure, just go back to the invasion. I'll find Aang and help there. You help Hakoda with anything he needs."

'Ugh, do I have to?' She almost whined at him, though he could tell she did it out of a genuine want to stay by his side.

Percy rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes, now go."

'Fine.' She huffed, before tearing her way across the mountain sides again.

He chuckled a little at his friend, before he dropped himself into the hole. After a few calming breaths, he looked left and right to see where they went. Percy found following them wasn't too dissimilar from hunting or finding monsters in the woods back at camp. There were little traces of movement, be it recently knocked stones or shifted dust and volcanic ash. All of it suggested to him that the kids went to the right.

Percy knew that the hardest part of his descent into the volcano was going to be the memories that came flooding back.

The demigod moved down the path, quickly seeing the reddish glow in front of him. The pathway narrowed and he saw some dripping magma sliding over the tunnel.

"I don't think that is the drinking kind." He muttered to himself.

He tried to make himself laugh but found it difficult. A lot of what he was seeing was just a little too close to his time after his fall in Rome.

Percy managed to slide to the end of the thin section though, crawling a lot on his hands and knees. It opened into a wide cavern that had glowing holes. Every so often, one would spurt up magma into the air.

Lava geysers? Or do regular geysers do that here? I don't know.

He walked carefully in between the geysers and made it to the other side. The fumes from the volcano not helping in his attempts to keep the reminders of his past away.

The memory of noxious gases kept climbing down his throat. Or at least, he hoped it was just a memory. Percy tried to move faster down the path but that didn't help at all. His breath quickened, as did his heartrate.

The heat increased around him until he came to his next obstacle. A river of lava. His hands began to shake. Everything just looked too familiar. Percy turned around and tried to breathe deeply but the bubbling and frothing boomed in his mind.

The Phlegethon.

"I can do this. I can do this." He whispered to himself, looking up to the cavern roof. "Give me strength."

He closed his eyes and pictured all he needed to get through. Blonde hair and grey eyes looked down upon him, through his dark red surroundings. He steadied his breathing and held his hands close to his chest. Taking one last inhale where he pictured the air filtering out all the things that tried to kill him in that place with Annabeth, he opened his eyes.

Percy smiled slightly.

"You always were my best friend."

He figured that that kind of comment would get him a punch on the shoulder back home, but that suited him just fine.

Probably followed by 'Of course, Seaweed Brain.'

The demigod turned back to the river, looking away from the lava.

Now, how would they get across. I could free climb but… There!

Percy spied a little path that seemed to be made of earthbending winding its way across the walls. He leapt onto it, holding onto some of the nicer outcrops of volcanic stone. The trail was only just big enough for him, but the perfect size for some littler children.

The demigod made the mistake of looking down. The horrible shadows cast across the rocks beneath him. The raw, sunburnt feeling washed over him. He felt the cuts from the black glass on the banks of the Cocytus begin to open up on his palms.

Percy didn't know if the blisters forming on his arms and legs were real from his closeness to the lava or just hallucinations from his memory.

He pulled himself flush against the rock face in fear.

The path was nowhere near as thin as the ledge they'd had to climb down when they were… there. But that piece of knowledge did nothing to put his mind at ease.

"I can do this. I can do this." He repeated to himself as a mantra.

What was it I said?

"Oh yeah, Phlegethon. Sounds like a marathon for hawking spit balls." He allowed himself a chuckle. "And I stand by that."

She totally wanted to laugh so badly at that. That wouldn't have been too bad a way to go, laughing at one of my amazing jokes in that place. What a poetic end it would've been for the both of us.

He laughed a bit more, allowing his voice to echo around the cavern a bit.

"What a terrible name for a river. Although I guess it was 'flaming'."

Percy steadied himself a bit more.

"Alright then. Left foot first."

He began to shuffle along the pathway, not knowing or worrying about how much extra room he was leaving for himself.

Annabeth did this with a broken ankle. I can do this now.

The demigod kept moving. His skin felt feverish, and he saw, vividly, the boils opening up on him. But between every step, he closed his eyes. Each time, Percy said something she'd laugh at, sigh deeply at or just straight up want to kill him for. And all of them made his next step just that bit more bearable.

"I don't think this lava would be considered spicy yet disgusting."

"What do you think the odds are that if I jumped backwards into it, Bob would catch me. I mean, he saved us before."

"I'm gonna do it."

He could imagine every single tiny detail of her reactions. Inching closer to his destination.

"I reckon you and Toph would have a swell time competing on who could give me a bigger bruise on my shoulder-"

Percy was interrupted by almost tripping. He grappled hold of the wall terrified that if he looked down, it would open into a boiling red lake. That he would be at a dead end.

Instead, what greeted him was the solid floor of the cavern. He'd made it. Immediately, he dropped down onto the ground.

The son of Poseidon looked back upon the river of lava. He pictured his Wise Girl standing next to him.

"Well, I'm not sticking my hands in there." He said, chuckling a little.

The demigod almost felt her arms wrap around him in a hug.

'Stupid Seaweed Brain.' She would've said. 'You made it through.'

He smiled to himself, looking upon what he'd crossed. Annabeth's voice and image faded out of his mind. Her spirit within him had helped him do something he didn't think he could've done after dropping in on this world without his anchor. Percy turned his back on the bubbling inferno with a proud expression.

Focus.

He started to run forward. There was a deep gouge in the metal.

Toph. He smiled.

Percy ducked through.

Now. Where to go?

He heard a whole bunch of crashing sounds from somewhere up ahead.

Follow the noise. He smirked.

Azula balanced herself atop the throne with fire, water and earth scattered around the Fire Lord's chambers. That was when she felt the fire leave herself.

The Avatar was standing in front of her with slightly charred robes, as were the rest of the group. The waterbending girl seemed to be running low on water and the Water Tribe boy was hiding behind one of the pillars with a particularly peculiar sword at the ready.

It's nothing like Percy's sword though.

Stood next to the airbender was the little, blind earthbending girl with fists clenched and her foot pointed towards her.

The princess dropped down effortlessly from where she had perched herself and calmly sat back on her now slightly damaged throne.

"You're just trying to slow us down." The Avatar said to her. "You're going slower than last time."

She smirked back without a reply, knowing it was mainly her shoulder. She'd managed to hold her own the whole time, but when she raised her palm to the sky, only a poof of fire came out before it all disappeared. The boy in the blue robes pulled out something before turning to his friends.

"The eclipse has begun."

"Yes, indeed it has." Azula said.

She gained all their attention immediately. Her silky-smooth voice maintaining its quality even with her internal wincing.

"But I've known about that for months." She continued, pridefully. "I am glad to see you're still alive though, Avatar."

"You're lying!" The Water Tribe boy said.

"You could never be glad about that." The waterbending girl said.

Azula almost shrugged but caught herself as she didn't want to move her shoulder too much. Though the truth was, she didn't know if she was lying or not. A large part of her truly believed she was happy he was still alive, just to have the knowledge she hadn't killed him. The earthbending girl seemed to be about to interject but caught herself.

That is the enemy trying to keep you from your destiny!

"Where is he? Where's the Fire Lord?" The Avatar said.

"What?" Azula replied, in a mockingly sarcastic pain. "I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings."

"Stop wasting our time and give us the information." The boy said, pointing his sword at her. "You're powerless right now and in no position to refuse."

The princess looked up to him with a smirk.

"Do you really think I'm powerless?"

"Yes." The blind girl said, before trapping the firebender in earth. "And I'd stick to the truth if I were you. As I said, I'm able to tell if you're lying."

Azula bit her lip to stop herself from shouting in pain at the ground that squeezed her arms together. Instead, she tried to get her focus off her shoulder. After a deep breath, she continued her distractions.

"Are you sure? I'm a pretty good liar." The princess paused slightly, to look the girl directly in the eyes. "I am a four-hundred-foot-tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings."

Her line rang out around the room. The young girl looked to be about to open her mouth in confusion, when a different voice spoke from behind them.

"Well, that was clearly a lie."

"Percy!" Came the shouts of the group in front of her.

"Percy?" Azula whispered out, wide-eyed.

Her princess façade faltered, as did she, while the frustrating waterbender just leaned against the exploded door frame.

"You'll have to lie better than that, Azula."

"You came!" The earthbender said, moving to his side.

"Of course I did. I said I would, didn't I?" He replied easily.

The pain stabbed through Azula's chest seeing him acting not too dissimilarly from how he had with her.

"Percy?" The princess asked again, her mind apparently not believing it even though she'd expected it.

In her periphery, she saw the other waterbender looking back and forth between them, as if piecing some things together.

"Yeah, that's my name. What about it?"

He smirked at her, and she felt like she was back on the beach.

No one around them, no pressure on her shoulders, both literal and figurative.

Just them…

She was ripped out of her pleasantness by her situation.

"Okay." Percy trailed off as Azula couldn't even begin to think of a reply. "Guys, I think you've got her. Aang, see if you can find the Fire Lord. Take the rest of them, I'll keep her away from you."

Desperately, Azula looked up and signalled to the Dai Li, but she sensed their hesitation. They were both carefully watching the dangerous waterbender's actions.

"Wait." The princess yelled out to them as they were about to travel down the hallway. "Sokka is your name, right?"

The Water Tribe boy turned around and faced her. Percy looked on and she couldn't meet his eyes.

"My- my favourite prisoner used to mention you all the time." She stuttered out.

Percy's gaze narrowed at her as he seemed to know exactly where she was going. She got the reaction she wanted as the younger boy in blue ran at her. The princess looked up to the Dai Li who finally broke the earth that trapped her.

Quick as a flash, she dropped her dagger out from her sleeve of her shaking right hand. Before she'd even had a chance to move it, water solidified on her right wrist. It pulled and attached her to the wall behind the throne. She saw a piece of earth attempting to do the same to her fly from the blind earthbender and explode against the wall above her head.

Finally, Azula's mask was forced to drop due to the pain. She bit her tongue to hold in the scream as her shoulders clattered into the wall. She wasn't really paying attention as Sokka was in her face, asking her about Suki. She barely noticed how the Dai Li had been frozen in ice as soon as they landed, nor how the waterbending girl was looking in shock at her almost completely empty water skins.

All she could see was Percy, looking at her shoulder and coming to some realisation. He walked forward with purpose, until he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Sokka, go down the path. See if you can get Aang to the Fire Lord."

His tone was as firm as she'd ever heard it, and the boy seemed torn.

"But Suki-"

"I know, Sokka. I know." Percy said, his eyes swirling with a whole bunch of emotions. "But now is not the time. Go further down the path."

"He's not there." Azula tried to say, weakly.

The powerful waterbender in front of her just held her gaze.

"She's lying." He said, darkly. "Go. I'll catch up with you."

The princess saw the boy turn to Percy and look him in the eyes. He seemed to shiver slightly and move to do exactly what he'd said. As did the rest of the group. The earthbender walked out slowly, concerned for whatever the waterbender in front of her was feeling.

It was obvious that, like her, they hadn't really seen this side of him. Even below Ba Sing Se, with all that power flowing out of him and all that control, he'd never looked quite so… angry.

He'd appeared disappointed before. Worried and unhappy? Yes.

But never angry.

The Avatar did manage to corral them down the path, with a very understanding look in his eyes, though Azula could only really see sea-green in front of her. She looked down quickly to see his hands shaking.

As soon as they'd all gone down the hall, he spoke. It was barely above a whisper, but she felt like he yelled it with how easily he'd read her.

"Did he do it?"

Percy stalked in front of Azula. She was still frozen against the wall. The Dai Li stood encompassed in ice around him. He didn't know how long he'd been paced back and forth for.

The princess hadn't answered his question, but he knew it. He knew it all too well.

The way she flinched. The way she shielded her shoulder. He'd suspected by the lake, when she'd flinched away from him then. But in that moment, he knew her father had done something worse.

There were sounds coming from down the corridors, but he had to focus on his breathing too much to pay attention. He felt the blood in himself boiling over as he tried to keep the ground from shaking beneath his feet.

The demigod tried to channel his rage away from his earthshaking, feeling the way the waves rose and crashed against the shore, imagining the way the winds swirled hundreds of feet above his head.

The ground beneath his feet still shook, but only slightly.

I can't let another volcano erupt but…

He took a deep breath in. Percy wouldn't destroy everyone.

Just him.

The demigod flexed his fists as they shook, not that he noticed. He rose his eyes to see Azula. By the time he'd finished his pacing, he didn't know if she'd answered his question or if she'd been talking the whole time. Everything had become white noise to him.

Percy saw her looking at his fists. He didn't bother to look down. It wasn't important. Her golden eyes came up to his. There was so much pain buried deep within them, but all he felt was anger.

"Percy?"

Her weakly spoken words broke him out of his trance, though his anger remained. The sounds from down the hall grew louder in his ears. Earth and water crashing all around the corridor.

"I'm going to kill him." He resolved.

"No, he didn't do it." She said.

He just held her eyes with his own. He knew it was a lie, and he knew she did too. It wasn't Azula trying to delay him. She was still defending her father and, as much as he hated it, he knew exactly why. His mother had done something similar, which brought a few stray tears to the corner of his eyes.

But just like with Sally, the demigod wasn't going to let it slide. No matter what reason they gave him.

"Why do you insist on lying when you know it doesn't work." He said, frustrated.

Gone was his more jovial tone at her attempts at lying to him. His jaw clenched and she visibly moved closer to the rock wall she was stuck against.

"I- I deserved-"

"No." He growled, interrupting her. "You don't get to say that. No one deserves that."

The demigod went back to his pacing. Before long, he stopped and looked down the hallway.

"I'm going to kill him." He repeated.

Percy took a step towards where the others went.

"Wait!"

The demigod kept moving.

"You can have a place by my side." She said, full of hope.

Her last-ditch attempt stopped him in his tracks. His eyes deciphered exactly what she was thinking.

"Please?" She begged. "We can rule together. It's my destiny, and I feel like it's yours to be at my side."

Percy had never heard her sound so desperate and vulnerable, but there was this painful hope that broke something in him. He could tell she knew, as soon as she'd said it, that he had no interest in any of it.

But she tried. She'd tried with everything she believed.

Her whole expression fell, accepting his incoming answer.

"Azula." He sighed. "I don't want power."

He couldn't look in her eyes when he realised what he wanted to say, so he looked down the hall.

"I think you should start looking for a new destiny for yourself."

With that, he began walking out of the doorway again.

His path of anger was interrupts as a crack of lightning echoed throughout the tunnels ahead.

A/N: There was the chapter! Had one of the more subtle but important chapters in regards to Percy overcoming things from his past, but also being able to recognise those same things in other people. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to get the next chapter out after the new year! Let me know what you think about this one, as I always enjoy all your reviews!

A smaller note, I'm glad some of you picked up on the Hephaestus quote from Battle of the Labyrinth in the last chapter. I enjoyed using it.

Some review replies:

Artorias78: I did indeed, and this chapter isn't too much better haha. I'm glad you're still enjoying the story and it will indeed keep continuing! I hope you enjoyed this one!

Poseidon Olympus: I'm glad you enjoyed and I hope that continues! The delay was for that, and this one is sooner than the last one at least. I will continue to try and keep it to at most a months wait, but as always, depending on how fast I write, that could fluctuate. I have a bunch of systems in place to help stop it happening again, but I did attempt to recover the data. It didn't work very well.

DARK WRAITH 2001: Haha I wish! I'm tempted and have been beginning to write my own original works (I have about three or four books that I return to every now and then), but no, I'm by no means a professional writer in disguise. I appreciate the compliment though!

: That does sound interesting, though I do already have plans for what I'm going to do after this book. I appreciate the ideas though! And absolutely she is! I knew that already and it's awesome but as always... there is no movie in Ba Sing Se. That goes for both of these franchises in my opinion but I want everyone to have their own.

wintersteve45: I'm glad! That was the balance I tried to manage and get to so I'm glad that it's coming across! As you can see in this chapter, there will be elements to this story that go into all of his powers, not just his water powers. Shockwaves would be interesting, though I think just limiting it to earthquakes is a bit more believable unless he had potentially some training in earthbending. But I don't know.

Guest: I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. I can respect that that's what you and a lot of people want though :)

Guest(1)/Death Fury/UQJTAk8cx9dpbvEL/Jaydog123: I'm glad you enjoy it!

Backpack Bandit: Who's the king? Aragorn? But I appreciate that! And yeah, I have multiple backups now, I had one backup before but it was corrupted when my laptop went caput. Thank you for the advice though!

mockingbird875: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the new chapter!

Callum Runchman: Thank you! That's exactly what I liked about it. I wanted it, as you see in this chapter, to be yet another of Percy's personal trials that he has to overcome in order to live in this new world and recover from his old life. And Azula does actually plan for them being sent on ahead. I hope you enjoy the rest of what I do with the invasion!

ProtogenoiLord: That is indeed a fun request, but unfortunately, my strategy of writing multiple chapters in advance means that I have bamboozled myself in regards to challenges like this. I also don't think that writing them into a chapter would be good, as it doesn't exactly suit the tone I'm going for. However my rapscallion self might attempt it if it comes up naturally. I appreciate the compliment to my writing and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And becaues I couldn't fit it in...fox

Seananagan: I'm glad, that was one of the things I focused on most. I didn't want to take away from the Avatar and the Gaangs experiences and journey but I also wanted Percy to still be the Percy we all know and love. You got a little bit more of that Percy and Azula interaction here, and you might see some more changes in the near future. Finishing writing is hard, but I'm still plugging away. I'm glad you're still enjoying it. I get your point, however for me, its not about when the pairing (whoever it may be with) happens, its more about what their characters needs to deal with and experience to grow and complete their arcs. I just hope you enjoy what I do with it, and that the time in between each chapters aren't too long a wait.

CRUDEN: It definitely won't be exactly like canon. I can guarantee that. How it changes though, I won't give you any indication as to how much I'll do that because I don't want to spoil anything. Though you've already seen some of the changes that will ripple out for later on.

fallyear1: Yeah, broken laptop are endlessly frustrating. I'm glad you're still enjoying my writing and you definitely got a bit more Percy and Azula in this chapter :)

ant-death: Apologies for that. I went on a bunch of months after starting to upload on Ao3 where I was extremely unmotivated. I would dump them all on at the same time, but the way you gain readers incentivizes spreading out uploads. I have begun to upload on there again, but it will take time. May as well read on here.

fanfic rater 1-5: That would be interesting. I hope you enjoy how I manage and write that particular trio of characters :)

Cnrbrr: Hahah I'm glad you did like it. More destruction could very well be on the way. You never know

Kurama49: Yeah! It's awesome that you picked up on that! I thought it matched perfectly to the scenario and sets up the problems internally for Percy with controlling his anger in this chapter. I hope you keep enjoying it!

Aspect of Stories: You can see it that way. I see it a different way, but I've left it purposefully open ended. I also think it's very likely that Poseidon and Athena wouldn't be able nor would they do anything because that's very like the gods.

Mysterytrident14: I'm glad you read it all! I hope you enjoy!

Okoh: I hope you enjoy as I keep updating! I'm glad you like it!

Keres47: There absolutely was a reason for that. It's been about three years since I wrote it so I don't think I can remember it exactly but I'm sure there is one. I shall reply to this again when I think of it.

Stormzy: I'm glad that you tried to read it and it's not for everyone. He's definitely not weak though, and him helping others through a similar trauma to his own is very in character for him, at least from my point of view. And I will say, if you don't think Percy has PTSD after two wars as a child soldier, I don't know if you fully understand the psychology of that.

I'm glad you all read it and I hope you all continue to. Let me know what you think, and again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

-PS