The Return

by tubendo

The ice of the South Pole hides many things, and when Azula and Sokka are confronted by something far greater than themselves, the strength of their relationship is tested, and the Princess has to decide whose path she will follow: the path of her father or the path of freedom. (Sequel to Into The Fire)

44. Chapter 44

The warehouse brought back memories, and Azula didn't know if they were good ones. She had been hunting down Dai Li agents with Sokka, back when they were just getting to know each other, or more accurately, getting on each other's nerves. He had been useful enough back then, and she smiled at the memories of how he had proven his skills, time and time again. She knew that even if it might have turned her life around, and not in an especially good way, she knew she was a genius for making an ally out of him, no matter her present feelings.

She was trying to push her thoughts of him to the side, but she struggled to do so, knowing that he was out there, running around like an idiot trying to save his sister, who for all she knew, might not have even needed any help. Katara was a capable bender in her own right, and even if she had less combat experience, she could not say she wouldn't trust her to keep herself safe, even against the Dai Li. They were reliant on subterfuge and numbers, not on brute strength, while Katara might have been able to hide, yet she had more than enough strength to throw those idiots around.

That fact reassured her that her boyfriend wouldn't be doomed out there, even if she knew it was a possibility. She turned her gaze down to her robes, which were dirty and in tatters after being cut by rubble. She would dispense of them as quickly as she could, but first, she would have to reach the spa. She was waiting for the all clear from her guards before they would make their way there, given they expected more guards and even Dai Li agents to be walking the streets. They would need things to die down before they dared to leave the warehouse.

That didn't mean she thought it was safe by any regard there; she knew the Dai Li could and would use the tunnels to reach them, and the warehouse was one of their very own hideouts, though it was presently unoccupied. Azula was waiting for a foolhardy agent to pop out of the tunnel and try and capture them, but she knew that was foolish, even for an earthbender, given how many firebenders were in close proximity to the tunnel entrance. Knowing fire, the poor sod would probably suffocate before they even got burnt alive.

"We're the real airbenders." she joked to herself, thinking that was something that Sokka would say; it made her smile, if only for a moment, before she turned her head up, hearing and feeling what had to be some earthbender moving things around.

Whether that was fighting up at the palace, or something else entirely, she could not be sure, but she didn't want it to get any closer. It would be a shame if her own allies accidentally revealed their position to the Dai Li, mostly because she would likely go into a flaming rage. However, Azula much preferred to remain calm, silent, and patient.

"The agents have left the area." she heard Renshu address her, and Azula let out a sigh of relief.

"Good." she smiled, before hardening her expression, wondering if they were just playing them, as she had feared all along, "I do not want to leave just yet... we should wait to see if it is just a ploy. Ken is spotting down the other end of the block. If he still sees them waiting around... then perhaps the Crystal Catacombs might be preferable to the streets."

"You can't surely be suggesting-" the Captain began, "Your highness." he addressed her, seeming quite concerned with her suggestion.

"What do you propose, that we just hide here? At the very least following those tunnels might actually get us back to the spa." she reminded him where they were intending to go.

Then, suddenly, she heard a thump on the roof; Renshu's hands lit up with flames, and Azula raised a finger to her lips. She wanted to wait and see exactly what was happening before they accidentally revealed themselves and got in a lot more trouble than they already were. She then glanced up to a window, where she had noticed a shadow, and she saw a figure in some long robes. She thought it was a Dai Li agent for a moment, but when she saw blue eyes and a little goatee, she only felt relief.

"Oh, it's just the idiot." Renshu let out a sigh of relief, and Azula stepped forward.

Sokka climbed down from the windowsill via some crates, and dusted himself off, "I thought I was a goner out there." he admitted, "They nearly got me... but I was faster." he declared, a cocky look on his face; his voice was a little croakier than it had been before, and she wondered how puffed out and dehydrated he must have been.

She offered him her water skin, and his eyes widened; he grabbed the water skin and chugged some of it down, before wiping the water from his lips, "Th-thanks." he acknowledged her help, before sitting himself down on a crate.

"What about Katara?" she asked, "Did you end up finding her?"

He seemed lost for words, and glanced away, "I had to run from the Dai Li." he explained himself, though that wasn't much of an explanation, given how adamant he had been about finding his sister; she was afraid that he had hit his head or something on the way, though he didn't appear to be all that injured beyond a few scratches and scrapes.

"Maybe just let the boy rest for a second." Renshu gave a light suggestion, though it implied that she was giving her boyfriend a hard time; he did seem exhausted, so she decided to follow that advice, standing up before she approached the door leading out of the warehouse.

"As soon as Ken returns, we will leave." she decided, "Or if he doesn't... then we take the tunnels."

"The tunnels?" Sokka asked, not seeming very enthused; that didn't surprise her, but it wasn't like they had a better option if the Dai Li were stalking the streets.

Azula let out a sigh, and sat herself back down on a crate, hoping dearly that Ken would return; she felt the looming grasp of the Dai Li tightening around their proverbial neck. The Coalition forces had just narrowly escaped capture, and they would need to return to their base of operations if they hoped to find safety. She was unsure if their ploy would convince the Governing Council, or if they would believe whatever Undersecretariat Hou told them. She was afraid that he would tell them the truth, that the Coalition was behind the attack, and they were able to infiltrate the palace, making it all the more likely to crack down hard on them.

Guards, conscripts, Fire Nation defectors, all running the streets looking for any and every sign of treason. At the very least, they wouldn't know Azula was around, given she had not been firebending in the presence of the Dai Li. She had used lightning, but that was not a technique specific to herself; it was an elite technique, but there were many elite firebenders.

Her gaze turned over to Sokka, "Are you feeling better now?" she asked, and he flexed his neck.

"I guess so." he admitted, not sounding very confident in himself, "I am glad to see you're safe." he admitted with a smile.

It felt strange to see him grin at her, but she was unsure why; it was comforting, but off-putting, like he hadn't ever smiled before. Of course, she had seen him smile so many times before.

"As am I." she agreed with the sentiment, before letting out a sigh, "Ken better hurry up."

"Yeah, we need to get out of here." he agreed, and she noticed that he was tapping his foot out of impatience.

"You remember the last time we were here?" she asked him, and he looked ahead blankly, "Sokka?" she asked, wondering if he was really that out of it.

"Sorry... all that running got the wind out of me." he apologised, before getting up; he glanced around, and paced over to the tunnel entrance, where they had come out of, "So... we're gonna have to go that way if, uh, Ken, doesn't come back?" he asked, sounding concerned, the same as he had before.

"Did you really just hate the tunnels so much that you ran off and went the other way around?" she asked him with a smirk, "I didn't think you were afraid of the dark."

"Of course I'm not. Home is dark for half the year." he assured her, "I'm afraid of what's- what's down there." he admitted quietly.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, I'll watch your back."

"Thank you." he assured her; Azula was close enough to Sokka that she could smell him, and she noted that he did stink, but it wasn't the usual body odour she was used to, "Did you run through a flower garden or something?" she asked, "Or a kitchen... knowing you it was probably a kitchen?"

"Uh... no." he shook his head, and before she could ask any more, she heard a knock on the door; three knocks in a pattern that she had told the guards to use.

A moment later, the doors opened, and Ken stepped inside, "I've got bad news, and good news." he explained, and Azula stepped closer.

"Bad news?"

"The Dai Li presence hasn't died down yet." he explained, and she sighed.

"Then what could the good news possibly be?" she questioned him, and Ken sighed.

"Well, they seem to have been drawn away by something else going on nearby. I just hope it isn't our allies." he admitted, and she cringed.

"Sokka, did you end up finding the others at all?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No, it was pretty crazy back there." he explained, not sounding nearly as concerned as she felt he ought to be.

"Oh, hey." Ken addressed the Water Tribesman, having realised that he was among them, "When did he show up?"

"While you were spotting." Renshu answered his question, "Through the window."

"Heh." he snickered, "The boy knows how to make an entrance." he argued, and the Princess gestured over to the door.

"Alright, we're taking this chance." she decided, "We have to get back to the spa, and then out of the Upper Ring. I want three of you going ahead to check the path, and then, the rest of us will follow in smaller groups... we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves." she explained her plan, and Sokka nodded along.

"Smart." he approved the idea, and with that, a few of the guards, led by Ken, stepped out of the warehouse, and made their way down the street.

Not long after, Azula stepped out with Sokka behind her, checking the street for agents before she crossed over to a nearby alleyway, running between two large manor-sized houses. She followed the other guards along it for a bit, before she noticed they had come to a halt by another larger street. She was about to question why they had come to a stop, when her and everyone else's attention was drawn by a high pitched ringing noise. It sounded like the most annoying musical instrument of all time, or a very strange whistle.

She cringed, finding the noise quite irritating, and when she turned around, she noticed that Sokka was especially irritated by it, clasping his hands over his ears and crouching down; he let out some pained cries, which seemed a bit extreme, though she thought he really must have been in pain with such a stark reaction.

"Sokka?" she addressed him, reaching a hand down towards him, and Sokka swatted her hand away; she almost cried out, in offence rather than pain, but then she saw his eyes.

He was angry, more angry than she had seen him in a very long time; that rage wasn't just about the noise, it was directed at her. Before she had a chance to react, he launched up at her, his hands clasping around her neck. Azula was so surprised she didn't have a chance to block it. Whatever the noise had done, that was more than an adverse reaction. She sputtered and coughed, grabbing his arms to try and wring herself free.

"What are you doing?!" he heard Renshu shout out, and he ran at Sokka, tackling him to the ground before Azula got to the point where she might have passed out.

She wheezed and struggled for air, grasping at her now aching neck, seeing the Captain on top of Sokka, "What has gotten into you?" he asked him, before muffling him as he tried to scream and shout.

Before Azula could question what was going on, she heard the Captain cry out, and he reeled back, his hand bleeding; Sokka had just bitten him. He was slashed across the face by a blade that Sokka had on his person, and the gleaming blade glistened with Renshu's blood as he stumbled back.

"What- what the fuck is going on?" she asked Sokka; his eyes were bloodshot, and his eyes were staring her down like a wild animal, and less like a person.

That was when it finally struck her; there was only one reason he would be acting so crazily: the Dai Li had got him. That was why he was acting so strangely; it all made sense, and hit her like a wall of bricks falling on top of her. She would have to fight him, and she had no choice in the matter; she would have to face him, in a real fight, all while they were struggling to hide from the Dai Li.

Azula stepped back, flames sputtering from her palms as she struggled to hold it in. Her rage, her fear, all her anguish, it all came out in a single moment. When Sokka ran at her, she blasted him right off his feet with a potent fireball, the blue flames splashing his robes and setting them alight; he fell onto his back, somersaulted, and then readied himself.

"Your highness!" she heard one of the other guards address her as he approached.

Before anyone else could do anything, Sokka pounced at her again; she couldn't reasonably fight him, but she knew she had no other choice. She weaved out of the way of the slash of his dagger, and then ran down another alleyway, which forked off from the one she had been walking down. Sokka ran after her, and at that moment, she was relieved that she had only robes on. Even if she wasn't wearing the right footwear, not much was weighing her down, a serious concern when a crazed Sokka was running after her.

He let out a vicious scream, and kept running after her, even after she turned a corner onto another street; her heart was racing as fast as her feet beneath her, and she couldn't hold her emotions back. When she turned another corner, hoping to lose him in some gardens, just so she could gather her thoughts and figure out what to do, she heard another shout. Her eyes darted around, and she realised it was a few local guards; they had seen or heard the commotion, and were now approaching.

"Miss, are you-" he began to ask, before his eyes widened and he and his comrades stepped back, apparently out of fear; Azula turned around, wondering if Sokka was about to hit her.

Instead, she realised his reaction was to her flaming hands; her hands, and quickly enough, her sleeves were covered in blue flames, which told everyone exactly who she was. Azula realised her mistake, but she had no way to undo it. She was herself, and everyone would know who she was, and why she was there.

"A fight it is." she resigned herself with grit teeth, and when Sokka lunged at her again, she slammed him in the chest with a flame-covered palm, throwing him back and making him cry out from the heat of the flames.

He quickly regained his footing, and readied his blade once more; his eyes terrified her, but she could not relent, not when both their lives were now on the line. He let out another scream, and lunged at her with the blade.

"Snap out of it, idiot!" she screamed at him, before grabbing his right arm, and chopping down at it with her free hand, forcing him to drop the blade.

He grasped her arm, which wasn't hard given she had just freed up his hand, and pulled her closer, using his left hand to choke her again; Azula sputtered for a moment but then she let out everything she had. Flames poured from her open mouth and singed his face, Sokka falling back to avoid getting his face burnt off. She kept letting out the flames, bending them into her palms before she readied herself to knock him out. No matter his state, she had to at least try that.

When he reached a hand up toward her again, she shot a twin pair of fire bolts into his shoulders, throwing him forcefully back down onto the street. His body made a rather uncomfortable noise as it smacked the cobbles, and she could only grimace, hating that she had just done that. It was no training; it was a brutal, real fight.

The Captain ran out onto the street, blood dripping from his hand and face as he approached Azula, "We need to go!" he told her, looking down at the pained Sokka with a grimace, "Your highness, it isn't-" he began, but she couldn't stand to hear it; not now, not ever.

"Shut up!" she screamed out, punching him across the face with a flame-covered fist; she realised her mistake as she felt the pain across her knuckles and his cheek marked red by the heat.

"For spirits' sake." he grumbled before he gestured towards her, "Get her out of here." he told the guards, and before Azula could say anything, Ken ran over, hoisted her over his shoulder and began running down the street.

"Let go of me!" she demanded, but Ken did not acquiesce.

That was when it dawned on her; she had completely lost control, and not just over her bending, but over her emotions as well. She grit her teeth, and only felt shame as he carried her down the street; she could hear more shouts and cries, and they were not coming from Renshu or Sokka.

Azula understood things were quickly falling apart, and now, it was not just the fault of the Dai Li; she had made a misjudgement, and it may have just cost her everything. She did not understand what was going on with Sokka; he felt strange before the noise, and she felt that there was more to things than first appeared. She desperately wanted her assumptions to be wrong. That he hadn't been brainwashed, because the very implications of that were dire; he had been taken by the Dai Li, or nearly, before they fell in love. It might have all been a farce; he could have already been their pawn, and neither of them would have ever known it.

She closed her eyes, and silently begged that it wasn't true. She wanted something else, anything that would soothe her fears. He was acting strange, too strange. It was new, it was not as if he had always been like that; so, she had to conclude that if he had been brainwashed, it had been very recently, but that made little sense. Azula was left more confused than angry; she could not understand how it had happened, and then, what had happened. When they reached what seemed to be the underside of a bridge running through a drainage channel, Ken put her down, and she pushed him away, crouching down to hide herself.

"You need to stop him." she demanded, and Ken stepped back.

"I think the Captain has it handled, your hi- your majesty." he corrected himself, falling back to her old address, when she was still Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, "I am sure Sokka will be..." he began, before sighing, "I can't say I'm sure of anything."

"Neither can I." she admitted, "We need to reach the others. Do you know your way to the spa from here?" she asked, and he nodded cautiously.

"I've been through this part of the Upper Ring once before." he admitted, "I think I can get us there, your majesty."

"I've broken our cover." she recalled, "I've just endangered all your lives." she admitted, looking down at her hands, which were no longer covered in flames, but still felt hot, as if they were ready to burst out a volley of fireballs at a moment's notice.

"It is not your fault." the guard assured her, "We were all... shocked." he admitted quietly, "I am... I am sorry."

"Why?"

"We failed to protect him." he told her, and she grimaced, knowing that even if she had never formally told them to, Sokka was treated as her consort, and thus, was worthy of their constant protection; that was the reason she had sent Ken and Geng with Sokka on the airship, and not merely because she thought he ought to have company.

"That was my mistake alone." she declared, before looking down at her robes, "Perhaps we could find a clothes line." she suggested, "If I can replace these robes, at the very least we might be able to reach the spa without being hunted by the city guard."

He nodded, and gestured for her to sit, "Please, I'll go find you something. Just wait. If you have to, move along to another spot in the channel. You must stay out of sight."

She nodded, knowing that even if she felt ashamed for doing so, remaining there and hiding was her best option, at least until she could replace her tattered robes. Ken scaled up the side of the channel, and back up onto the neighbouring street, before pacing away, still in her field of vision, but moving further afield with every pacing moment. Once he turned a corner, she could no longer see him, and crouched back down, hoping nobody would see her there. It was not a very well obscured hiding spot, but it was better than nothing.

She felt awkward just sitting there, and after a while, she dropped her head onto her knees, resting on them, though she was unlucky enough to be alerted not long after by some shouting; she guessed it was the city guard, chasing either her men, or Sokka around. She perked her head up, and saw that it was the city guard, though they were not chasing anyone, but being chased. She could see quickly enough that it was Sokka, ragged and seemingly delirious, running around with his bloodied dagger.

However, her fear became utter astonishment when she saw him reach a hand out towards the channel, and then, out of it, a stream of water flew out, slamming into the guards; he had just waterbent, something that she knew ought to be impossible. Sokka was a non-bender, and unless he was really that stubborn to have never tried, there was no way he could be anything but that.

Nobody could just 'gain' bending, no brainwashing was capable of doing that. Azula's confusion quickly came to the obvious resolution, and an answer that was no less confusing, but a small comfort. He was not Sokka, at least, the person she knew; he had the same face, and sounded similar enough, but all his strange behaviours and now, waterbending, came to tell her that. He was a stranger, playing a role that he had certainly done well, but not well enough.

Her surprise turned to rage; the Dai Li had played her like an erhu, and now, she was out in the open. The would-be Fire Lord was terrorising Ba Sing Se, and the previously unsubstantiated claims of the Governing Council were proven true. What that would do for the Coalition, she could only imagine; their allies would grow bolder, or perhaps, reconsider their loyalties, given that her position as leader of the Coalition made her a target for Earth Kingdom nationalists. She grit her teeth, wondering if this was it; even if she found the real Sokka, and got everyone back to safety, her plans could all have been for naught.

Azula's rage took over her like sickness; she pulled herself out from under the bridge, and covered her palms with fire. The trickery would end now, and she would have her revenge.

"Youǃ" she screamed out at the fake Sokka, whose gaze turned down the embankment, staring her down with a vicious gaze.

He did not utter a word, simply reaching out towards the water that lay in the channel, and moving to bend it at her; Azula understood how waterbenders worked, so she used this to her advantage, shooting a pair of fire streams into the water before it even got a chance to reach her; it burst into steam, and though the heat was searing, she could tolerate it as it washed over her. That gave her a few moments while he had to condense the steam back into a more tangible form. She ran up the embankment, and kicked him square in the chest, throwing him off his feet and into a wall that lined the outside of one of the many manor houses of the Upper Ring.

"I don't care who you are... but I will find whoever did this... and I will make them suffer." she declared with a snarl; the city guards who had been running from him turned to face her, seeming utterly terrified.

"The... it's her."

"The what?" she mocked their shock, "Can you not even say my name?" she prodded them, before raising up walls of fire all around them, "I am the one you are looking for! I am the one who will destroy your Governing Council!" she made her intentions as clear as the sky that hung above their heads, "So, come on!" she prodded them to attack.

The guards rushed at her, their shields helping them little as she shot out a flurry of fire bolts, striking their extremities and heads, knocking them all to the ground in quick succession, before she approached each, and methodically struck them with her flames to knock them unconscious.

"Your highness, what are you doing?!" she heard Ken shout out at her, and she laughed.

"I dealt with the enemy." she told him exactly what she had done, "They won't be getting back up any time soon."

"People will see you. They are going to send-" he began, before their attention was drawn by a whistle; another guard ran around the corner.

"We need to run!" he told them, Azula taking a moment to recognise him as Yi; he looked terrified, and that could only mean one thing.

"They're here." she mumbled, and gestured to the fake Sokka, "Take him with you. We can't have him falling back into the hands of the Dai Li."

"Your highness, he-"

"It doesn't matter. We can restrain him!" she shouted him down, and Ken grabbed the unconscious Water Tribesman and brought him with him as they ran across the bridge and made their way down the street, trying to get away as fast as they could.

When they turned a corner, Ken threw her a bundle of clothes, and she realised that was her new disguise. She nodded, and decided she'd get changed as soon as the Dai Li lost their trail. She was concerned that it would take a while, but if she ran for long enough, she'd surely run into the part of the district where the Northerners had caused flooding, and then, she could take cover in the chaos. She carried the clothes underarm, and ran as fast as she could. She made her way past servants, a few nobles, all of whom were confused by their presence; they didn't seem to immediately suspect them, though they surely would put two and two together if the guards or Dai Li came and told them what was going on.

They made their way down an alleyway, between two large commercial buildings, though she couldn't identify their purposes. However, behind one of them, Ken led her to a relatively secluded spot. He put the unconscious fake Sokka down, and bound his arms and legs with some rope that he had in his bag. Azula nodded approvingly, before she smacked the unconscious man across the face. He sputtered, and slowly regained consciousness. It seemed that whatever the Dai Li had done to activate him was no longer working, as he didn't seem aggressive anymore, but simply confused.

"A-Azula?" he mumbled her name, "Why am I tied up?" he asked her, showing a glimmer of Sokka, she knew he was not the real thing.

When she looked him in his eyes, she could see that his face differed subtly; he was certainly similar looking enough that she wouldn't be surprised if he was a cousin of some sort from the Northern Water Tribe. However, she had no idea who he really was. Not wanting to bother pretending to try and get an answer out of him, she grabbed him by the cheeks.

"Who are you?" she pressed him.

"I'm Sokka." he assured her, and she grit her teeth.

"What is your sister's name?" she asked her, and he blinked a few times, seeming confused.

"My sister... I can't... I can't remember." he admitted, "Why can't I remember?"

"Because you aren't Sokka." she snapped back at him, "I am... I am truly sorry." she looked down, knowing the stranger had had his own identity stolen from him.

"That's... I can't..." he mumbled, "How can that be?"

"What is the last thing you remember before you came after us?" Ken asked, and fake Sokka seemed a lot less confused.

"I was running from the Dai Li. They caught me... but I escaped." he explained, and she raised a finger.

"How long did they hold you?"

"I..." he began, and looked down, "I don't know."

"Where were you born?" she asked him, and he scrunched his lips.

"My home village." he answered, and she pointed her index finger on his sternum.

"Where is it?"

"At the South Pole." he answered, and she sighed.

"What is your... what is your mother's name?"

"I... I can't remember." he gasped out, and looked down in terror.

"Is she alive?" she asked, and he looked pained.

"I... I think so? I mean... I can remember a face, but not a name. Why... why can't I remember her name?" he asked her, and Azula looked away.

"I hope Tulok knows who you are."

"Tulok?" he spoke up, "I- wait... I remember that name. Tulok is- he's my leader."

"So you are one of the Northerners." Ken observed, "When did you last see him?"

"When we were outside the walls of the city. I was- well, it's hard to remember now... but the North... I have glimpses of it." he explained, before his head turned, "Where are we?"

"Nowhere important." Azula snapped back, not finding that overly relevant.

"The Dai Li... we need to get away from them." he told them, and she nodded.

"That we can agree on." she assured him, "I know they used something to trigger you... for your own safety, I think we need to either knock you out again, or put you somewhere you can't hear."

"I don't... I don't understand." he mumbled, and she stood up.

"Of course you don't. I'm sorry, but I can't-" she began, before she heard the sound again; she was too late, and they were upon them, "Fuck!" she screamed out, before kicking fake Sokka in the head, hoping that would knock him out; however, he had been alert enough to weave his head out of the way.

Ken tried to restrain him again, but he was elbowed in the gut, and thrown onto the ground. Azula grabbed him by the shoulder, and punched him in the jaw hard, hoping that would knock him out before he could get away, or worse, actually hurt her. Azula watched him slump down, his eyes glazed over and his body limp. She let out a sigh of relief, before offering a hand to Ken, helping him back up.

"That was a close one." he admitted, and she shook her head.

"He is the least of our concerns." she warned him, before darting her eyes up and around the rooftop of the building they were hiding behind, checking it for Dai Li agents.

She didn't see any on the roof, so that was a relief, but she knew they had to be close by if they were the ones setting off that sound. Azula stepped over to the alleyway, and glanced down to check for agents. She didn't see anyone, only noticing a few strangers passing by the crossroads she was looking towards. None of them were agents, though she didn't spot any of her guards. She imagined they were trying to hide themselves after the confrontation with the guards. She felt a tinge of guilt over that, knowing her stupidity had caused most of their problems. If she had just paid enough attention to the fakes' face, she would have realised he wasn't Sokka, even without him saying a word.

She heard the noise go off once more, louder than it had been before, and she darted her eyes up and down the alleyway, before she spotted a culprit. A Dai Li agent with a strange looking flute, standing in the main street nearby; he was dressed in a disguise, but his conical hat, queue, and gear made his identity obvious. He seemed to notice her, and Azula gestured for him to approach, hoping to prod him into getting closer so she could make a quick blow to stop him from triggering the fake Sokka again. He began to approach her, though she quickly realised her mistake as more men stepped out from behind corners and revealed themselves.

"You have nowhere to run, Princess." the man with the flute warned her, and Azula laughed.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get. After the shit you just pulled... I'd say slow... painful deaths are in order." she declared, lighting torches in her palms, "So who wants to volunteer first?"

"The arrogance is astounding." one of the agents accused her, "We will make you see the error of your ways."

"And I will make you see the spirits... or your ancestors. Whichever you prefer." she made her intent clear, raising her hand up in front of her, "So, which is it?"

He didn't deign to give her a response, and instead shot out his stone gloves; Azula was fast enough to duck and weave out of the way of the glove, and shot out a fire bolt from her index and middle fingers, which struck him precisely on the forehead, making him stumble. Then, the wall beside him caved apart and rubble burst into him; she was shown why Ken was selected as an Imperial Firebender. That agent was relatively lucky to be merely bludgeoned by some heated rubble.

The next agent to move at him only found himself breathing in flames, rather than air, and his screams filled the alleyway as his body set aflame; Azula turned and covered her forearms with blue flames, which burst out brightly, showing that she had more than enough chi to handle the men around her, "Who's next?"

The agents then moved in a quick succession, throwing gloves and chains out. Some of them did hit Ken and Azula, but she was able to weave out of the way of most, and break those that did strike her. However, they were wearing her down, even if she could quickly return the favour and set their robes and faces alight. The Dai Li agents drew nearer, and then, she was reminded of the real danger. The fake Sokka stepped out with blood dripping from his head and out his mouth, ready to pounce at her. She tried to ward him off with her firebending, but he was far more hardy than the agents; a firebolt to the head merely disoriented him, and though it must have hurt, he lunged at her all the same.

She was distracted long enough by the fake Sokka to get both her legs restrained. Before Ken could break her bindings, his hands were covered by the stone gloves, and he was forced to the ground. She realised that unless the rest of her guards turned up, she might be doomed at that very moment. She opened her mouth wide, and let out a fire stream, which got the fake Sokka to back off, and distracted the agents for long enough that Ken could free his hands. However, the guard was struck across the face by a brick; the Dai Li were earthbenders after all, and they could resort to more crude methods if the situation required it. She felt a momentary sense of pride that they were forcing them to give up their 'refined' methods of combat.

She couldn't get back up, however, as her legs were still held in place by grapple chains and she was nowhere near strong enough to dislodge the strength of two grown men. Azula let out a sigh, hoping that they'd slip up somehow, and she could escape. However, with each passing moment, she felt that hope fading, and she began to move her hands, knowing she had only one reasonable choice, even if it might potentially endanger her own life. It was the most effective technique to use when she couldn't move herself from a given position, but the potential for backfire was obvious. The sparks began to gather, but before she could make her move, the agents' and her attention were drawn by a voice.

"Let them go!" she heard a new voice; it wasn't any of her guards, and when she turned her head, she realised that she did not recognise him at all.

However his disguise was something she did know; it was the garb of a servant, and his skin and hair colour identified him as a Water Tribesman, presumably from the North, given he was willing to stand up against the Dai Li. He was either a waterbender, a genius, or a fool, and as much as she hoped it was the former, she felt it was quite likely he was the latter.

"Or what?" the leading agent asked them.

"You die." he simply responded, his threats having the same tone, and thus, the same implication as her own; he was not messing with them, or making a threat he would not go through with.

"I've had enough of these damn foreigners." the agent snarled, and reached his hand forward, ready to launch his chain out.

Then, he stopped. They all stopped, even the fake Sokka; they couldn't move, and they were clearly trying to, struggling against something. It was like they were stuck in ice, except, there was nothing there. Azula did not understand, until she realised the man was moving his hands around. He had not frozen them, he was bending their very bodies, something she had never even thought to be possible.

"I do not bluff." he coldly warned the agent, who he raised into the air, alongside his comrades; they struggled, trying to earthbend, or simply grab onto something, but they could not.

The agent looked terrified, "W-wait! I can clearly- you're the strongest waterbender we've ever seen! We can make a-"

"My loyalty cannot be bought." he retorted, before laughing, "You really think I'd help you?" he questioned, before she saw the man cringe more, as if he was being choked, "Don't flatter yourselves. You never had a chance." he chided him, before the agent's body went limp, his comrades following soon after.

Their bodies dropped to the ground, and Azula looked on in awe; the agents were not wrong: he was the strongest waterbender she had ever seen either.

"Who are you?" she asked, and he ignored her entirely, approaching the fake Sokka; she would have been offended, but she could tell that the stranger had to know the fake Sokka.

"Nanuq, what did they do to you?"

"Who- who's Nanuq?" the fake Sokka asked him, still restrained by the Water Tribe stranger's bending; he looked pained to hear that response.

"I can't believe it... you're..." he began, seeming anguished by the revelation that he didn't even know who he was, before grasping him by the collar, "What have they done to you?"

"You're going to have to knock him out." she clarified, "He'll remain... hostile, otherwise."

"Fine." he sighed, before throwing him back, making him slam into a nearby wall, before he slumped over unconscious; Ken rose up, having broken his binds with his firebending, and he approached the stranger.

"I am grateful for your help, friend. You saved our lives."

"Well, I can't imagine Tulok would be very happy if I let the Fire Lord get captured and brainwashed on my watch." he admitted, before sighing, "But I'm here for him, really." he gestured to fake Sokka, who he had called Nanuq, "Nanuq's been missing since before we came to the city. We thought the bastards had killed him... it seems they did worse."

"And who are you?" Azula pressed him again, "I want to make sure that if I go back to the North... you are properly compensated for your work today." she stressed, and he scoffed.

"I'm a commoner. They won't do all that much for me, even if I saved the Fire Lord's hide." he admitted, before gesturing to his face, "I'm Yakone."

"Yakone, it is an honour to have met you." Azula gave a short bow of respect, before eyeing the bodies around them, "And an honour to have witnessed that."

"It was pretty horrific, honestly." Ken gave his own opinion.

"I would prefer if you kept that a secret." he admitted, "I usually try to avoid using it."

"It... being what, exactly? People-bending?"

"We call it bloodbending. It is generally forbidden in my tribe... and few people know of it, yet even fewer know how to use it." Yakone explained, and he grimaced, "So, please, do not tell anyone else about this. I would much prefer not to be exiled from my home."

"I understand." Azula nodded, knowing at the very least, he had earned her silence by doing what he had, "I must ask... have you seen any of the others? My guards? The Avatar?" she asked, wanting some certainty on whether they had actually escaped the Dai Li's grasp.

"I saw some of your guards fighting off the Dai Li and some city guards... but no, I haven't seen the Avatar." he conceded, "Not that I'd recognise him... doesn't he cover up his tattoos?" he asked, and the Princess nodded.

"No, you're right." she agreed, knowing that if Aang was disguised correctly, as he had been when she last saw him, Yakone wouldn't have identified him as such, just as nobody would have quickly suspected him to be one of the Northerners.

"Just follow me." he gestured down the alleyway, "We need to get out of here before their reinforcements arrive."

"Just a moment." she raised a hand, "I have to get out of these robes." she gestured to her ragged attire.

Yakone glanced her up and down and nodded, "Fine. But be quick about it. Doing what I just did was exhausting enough by itself... I don't want to have to do it again."

"Fair enough." Ken mumbled with a rather apprehensive look, before he gestured back to where they'd been hiding.

"What about Nanuq?" she asked Yakone, realising that he was still unconscious, and potentially a threat if he woke up, "I'm unsure if the conditioning is still in effect." she admitted, and he grimaced.

"Well, I'll restrain him, and we'll go." he assured her, "I can handle him."

Azula nodded, momentarily eyeing Nanuq; he was not Sokka, yet he did resemble him greatly, and if she had not been made aware of his waterbending or name, she might have continued to think he was her boyfriend. The Dai Li had been far too good at their jobs, and she hated them for it. They had made her reveal herself publicly, and now, the authorities had every reason and a good justification to crack down and hunt down every member of the Coalition they could find. She grit her teeth, and unfurled the new robes; she could change her clothes, but she could not wipe memories: only her enemies had that skill, and for better or worse, she would prefer if they were only ones who could do it. She did not want what was inflicted on her to be inflicted on anybody else.

---

The guards were marching across the streets of the Upper Ring, and they did not seem happy in the slightest. Aang was just glad that his disguise had kept them fooled. They weren't looking for a twelve year old, after all, so it was easy to slip around. He had his seismic sense to help him avoid guards, and he did his best to direct everyone in the right direction, but with so many guards about, it was taking a while to actually get back to the spa. Not to mention everyone was worried that they had been played by the Dai Li; they were waiting for Azula and the others when they attacked, and from what he could tell, some of their friends were caught before they could leave the palace.

Aang had wanted to go back to find Toph, but Katara and Sokka persuaded him against it, knowing that she was capable enough to fend off the Dai Li; there were others missing as well, but that was the person he knew they had left alone back in the Ministry of Finance, throwing the crumbling roof at every agent that came her way. They had ran away through the tunnels, and were able to regroup with a few other fighters there, including the Freedom Fighters. Jet was especially worried about Toph as well, at least to begin with, but the situation required that they all remain calm.

He was personally struggling to do that, not knowing where so many people were, and if they were even out of the Dai Li's grasp. That had gotten more confusing when they ran into somebody who claimed to be Azula. However, they all quickly figured she wasn't the real deal, as her guards were nowhere to be seen. They had had to knock her out when she attacked them with notably orange flames, and they were all in agreement: the Dai Li had set her up as a way to try and kill them. However, her attempt was short lived, and they made sure to have her tied up in some garden, where she would hopefully come to her senses. He felt guilty that they were just leaving an utter stranger to her fate like that, but they had no way to be sure she wouldn't attack them again.

After that, the number of guards in their area had dropped considerably, and he wondered if they had been sent to deal with something in particular; he guessed that the waterbenders had either been found, or they had uncovered another group of disguised fighters. In any case, they took the chance to move away, back towards the spa. Now on the approach, they were encountering more guards, though to their luck, these ones were mostly seeming to be dealing with the flooding, and not the attack on the palace, meaning they weren't going to be as suspicious of the group of palace servants moving down the street.

They made their way down the street, and though he was concerned that they might suspect them in any case, they really were distracted with the effort of evacuating people out of the flooded sections of the Upper Ring. However, he could sense Dai Li agents moving through the tunnels that underlay the district; they didn't seem to be heading towards Aang and his friends, however, and must have been going for whatever had already gotten the guards' attention.

He was cautious as he approached the spahouse, deciding to go ahead of the others to make sure they weren't caught off-guard and forced to flee. He saw that one of their guards, a Water Tribesman, was still standing at the front, and he quickly identified Aang.

"Oh, you're back." he waved to him, "Head on inside... but, maybe split people into smaller groups. The guards have been coming through frequently." he warned him, and Aang nodded, before pacing off back to a nearby alleyway where the others were lurking.

Katara was quietly talking to Ty Lee about something when he came back around the corner, frightening the latter; she almost looked ready to whack him in the face with her palm, but stopped herself mid-motion.

"I'd say nice reflexes, but you nearly knocked me out." Aang admitted, and she made a sheepish face.

"Sorry." she quietly apologised, and Aang gestured back towards the spa.

"The guy standing guard says we should split up and move in in groups." he explained what he wanted them to do, and everyone nodded; Sokka got up and followed right after him, as did Katara and Ty Lee.

They approached the spa-house, received nods from the man standing guard, before they made their way back over to the storehouse. Inside, he identified only one person he could immediately recognise: Hakoda, Sokka and Katara's father.

"You're back." he addressed them, initially eager, though as he looked them up and down, he seemed to understand that they had not really succeeded, at least in their main plan, "What happened?" he asked them, and Katara just sighed.

"It's... it's a long story, Dad." she admitted, before approaching the back of the storehouse, "If you don't mind, I wanna get changed out of this disguise. It's a pain to walk around in."

"Yeah, these flowy robes do definitely have their downsides at times." Ty Lee agreed with her observation, spinning around in her robes, making Katara wince.

"You can even make complaining look pretty." she grumbled, seeming jealous of that fact, before she went off to go get changed.

Aang sat himself down inside the storehouse, not wanting to have to stand up for any longer; Hakoda did approach him, however, and looked at him with a concerned face, "Aang, how many agents are around?"

"None right here." he assured him, "I mean, I sensed a few moving through the tunnels nearby, but they were heading the opposite direction."

"Yeah, there was some commotion going on. Does that have anything to do with you?" he asked, and Aang shook his head.

"No... but I have a good guess it has to do with somebody we know." he argued, and Sokka nodded.

"I agree." he spoke up, sitting down beside him, "I didn't try and eavesdrop on any guards we went past because we're already in deep enough shit." he conceded, sounding frustrated with himself for not doing so, "My best guess is some of Tulok's guys got caught." he gave his opinion, before glancing around, "I'm assuming Azula and the guards haven't come through then."

"No, not yet." the Chief confirmed, before he looked worried, perhaps realising that meant they had no idea where Azula was, beyond Sokka's affirmations that she had taken a tunnel he was familiar with out of the palace district.

"That's concerning." he admitted, before sighing, "Well, we should probably try and-" he began to speak, before his attention was drawn by the next group of people coming inside; that included the Freedom Fighters, who he was familiar with from having ferried them all the way to Ba Sing Se, and their work together since they had arrived.

"Oh, Jet, Smellerbee, it's good to see you're fine." he addressed the two leading members who approached them, though the former seemed quite distraught still; he had been covering up his emotions pretty well until then.

When Jet laid himself down on some crates and covered his face with a sack so he could scream, Hakoda was understandably concerned, "Wow, it was that rough, was it?" he asked, and Bato approached, having just come through with another group.

"Let's just say things didn't go to plan back in the palace." he admitted, "I wasn't there for the big... well, whatever Azula would like to call it, but shit-" he began, and Aang spoke up, finding a quicker way of getting to the point.

"We've lost a lot of people." he declared, before looking down, still wondering if Toph was okay, and everyone else they hadn't seen since they entered the palace, "I mean, we have no idea if they're caught, or running."

"Oh." he mumbled, and cringed, "That's... that's not very good. I mean, I was already assuming things were bad with the guards acting as they were, but not this bad."

"Spirits save them." Bato pleaded, and he placed a hand on Jet's shoulder, "Don't worry. Those earthbenders know what they're doing."

"It's the Dai Li." he reminded them who they were dealing with, "This isn't just any battle."

Katara stepped back out from behind the cover of the panels, revealing that she was back in her ordinary servant disguise. She didn't seem to be in that good of a mood, and it made sense, given she must have been listening to their conversation as she was getting changed.

"We're not going to lose." she declared with a surprising amount of confidence; she was always more upbeat and optimistic than the others, but it was a surprise to hear that so soon after what could only be described as a disaster, "The Governing Council is not as strong as they act to be."

"And why do you say that?" Jet asked her, leaning back up so they could see his face; his eyes were red and he looked even worse than he had before, "They just made us run away like a bunch of cowards."

"We were reading through their records. They're struggling to fund anything, and that's telling me they're spending all their income on their big army, which we were able to ignore like it was nothing."

"I mean, we didn't ignore it. We dodged it." Bato corrected her, "The army might be brought into the walls, and then we'll have an even harder fight on our hands."

"Half the army's Fire Nation and the other half are people who were forced to fight." Aang reminded them, "Maybe they'll just give up and join us. I mean, they must want this all to end."

"Everyone does." Sokka spoke up, "It's just a matter of what ending they'd like to see. Most people don't seem to care who's in charge. They just want a government that's not making their lives worse."

"Well, the Governing Council's conscription rules are certainly helping them." Katara sarcastically quipped, "And what about the trick. Won't the Councillors be convinced the Fire Nation members might betray them?"

"Maybe." he mumbled, "I mean, that's assuming they're not believing what the Dai Li is telling them."

"The truth?" Aang asked, and he laughed.

"No, whatever gets them what they want. At the very moment, the truth might be useful, but it won't be if it turns out the commoners want them gone as much as the Fire Nation loyalists do." he argued, before sighing, "Whatever they do, they'll try and spin it to make themselves look like the best people for the job. In any case, I need to get changed out of these robes." he gestured to his slightly tattered clothes, and paced over to where Katara had been; Aang decided to follow, knowing he needed to get changed as well.

He stepped behind the panels, watching as Sokka quickly dispensed of the outer layers of his robes, revealing what looked like a weight vest around his chest; he eyed it with interest, not having seen him put it on.

"What's that?" he asked, and the Water Tribesman was taken out of his concentration.

"Oh, this?" he tapped his chest, "A cuirass. Azula made me put it on because we were expecting to fight the Dai Li. It's meant to keep my insides safe." he explained its purpose, before reaching into a nearby basket to pull out his other robes.

He pulled out his ordinary robes, which were just those that a commoner in the Lower Ring would wear, and put them on; Aang stepped over to the basket where he had left his own clothes, and pulled them out. He had an undertunic, vest, pants, and a headband to wear over his head arrow. He got rid of his robes, untying his waistband and tossing the entire mass of fabric back into the basket, before he put his tunic on. Then, he assembled his outfit, piece by piece. When he was about to put his headband on, he found that it had suddenly disappeared, and glanced around, only to feel it being tied to his forehead. It took him a moment to realise that Sokka had put it on for him.

"It's better to have the fringe hanging over your headband. Don't want your hair getting all sweaty and gross." Sokka argued, before roughly scratching at his scalp, "All good, little man."

"Hey, don't call me little." he retorted, "I'm actually pretty tall for a twelve year old."

"I mean... maybe you are, I don't see twelve year olds very often." he admitted, before stepping past him, "Come on." he prodded him, and Aang momentarily checked his clothes before following Sokka back out to where the others were.

"How are we going to handle getting back to the base?" he heard Jet ask somebody, and he could see that it was Hakoda who was ready to respond.

"The tunnels will suffice, at least to get through to the Middle Ring. I imagine the Dai Li will be looking for us all, so splitting up will be necessary." he argued, and Jet seemed a bit frustrated.

"What about the others? You know, the Northerners, the earthbenders, the other fighters who were in the palace but haven't come back yet?" he asked, "Shouldn't we wait for them?" he asked, and Hakoda grimaced.

"No, you're right." Sokka agreed with him, "We need at least a few people to wait here. Not enough that it seems suspicious, but enough to help anyone who comes back to the base."

"What about brainwashing?" Ty Lee asked, "I mean, we won't know who has been or who hasn't been." she warned, and Jet grimaced.

"You're right, but they won't be brainwashed in a few hours. That doesn't make sense. If somebody shows up after a week, then we need to be worried."

"So, who's going to leave first?" Katara asked, and everyone fell silent.

"Maybe I should go." Aang suggested, "I mean, I'm fast. I can get back to the base pretty quickly even without my glider."

"True." Sokka agreed with him, "But you're pretty important, Aang. I think you should at least have some back up."

"Then maybe I should go with him." Ty Lee suggested, "Not to brag, but I'm fast as well."

"You'll probably need more people than just Ty Lee." Hakoda countered, "I think we can just wait for a bit and decide. We still haven't heard or seen anything of Azula and the guards." he argued, and suddenly, Aang's attention was drawn by a whistle.

"Who's there?" Hakoda asked out, and a few moments later, the warrior who had been stationed by the front approached, helping a cut up and clearly exhausted Renshu.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Sokka asked him, approaching with a clearly concerned look on his face; Aang noticed a few other guards approaching from behind, who were a little less injured, but still clearly battle-worn.

Renshu looked at Sokka, and then angrily looked down and spat on the ground, "For fucks sake!" he shouted out, "I should have fucking guessed."

"Guessed what?" Hakoda asked, "Where's Azula?"

Another of the guards approached, and stepped past the Captain, "Her majesty was helped away by Ken. She should be fine, if they found a good spot to hide."

"Helped away from what?" Sokka asked, and the Captain turned his eyes up to meet his, seeming more than a little angry.

"You." he declared, "Or at least... somebody who thought he was you."

"Oh shit." Katara gasped out, "So you had a fake Sokka?" she asked, and his eyes darted around the area, seeming to understand what those words implied.

"You had a fake Azula?" he asked, and they all nodded.

"By the bloody spirits." Hakoda gasped out, "You could have mentioned that sooner." he argued, seeming frustrated to have been kept out of the loop, "Explain." he turned his gaze over to the guards; the guard who had spoken earlier sat himself down, and let out a sigh.

"Everything was fine. We had gotten away from the palace, following this tunnel that the Fire Lord remembered from last time. We were going to head out through the streets, make our way here without the Dai Li spotting us, but then, this noise-"

"The ringing." Sokka recalled, "We heard it too. It made her go crazy."

"That's what happened to us." Renshu confirmed, sitting down and eyeing his injuries, "He nearly killed her, and then he nearly killed me."

Sokka was silent, just clenching his fists, but Aang could tell that he was mad.

"We had to run away, but he kept chasing us, causing a big fuss, and the guards caught on. Azula... well, she reacted as you would probably guess." Renshu explained, his eyes set on Sokka as he said that, "Ken carried her away to stop her from doing anything worse, and we fought him and the guards at the same time. He ran away, and the city guards split up."

"So, then you ran all the way back here." Sokka guessed, and he shook his head.

"No, we had to fight through two dozen Dai Li agents and just as many guards to even get a chance to run. A few of our brothers were knocked down, and we had to leave them. Spirits willing, they're not dead."

"I don't know if that's really preferable." Jet admitted, before wincing as he realised how callous it was to say that, "Sorry."

"You're right." Renshu coldly agreed with him, "We lost them, and took a shortcut through one of the tunnels to try and confuse them. Then... we came back here."

"Shit." Sokka gasped out, and sat himself down on the ground, presumably thinking about Azula; Aang was thinking to himself about the kind of danger she might be in.

He felt compelled to do something, but he was unsure what he could do without endangering his own life; he wanted to go and help find Azula, and maybe even the guards. He grit his teeth, knowing that he was the Avatar, that he was strong, and yet, he was basically powerless.

"I should- I should do something." he declared, and Katara placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Getting their attention will only end badly." she warned him, and Aang flared his nostrils.

"But what if Azula's hurt? What if she's in trouble and we're the only ones who can help her?" he proposed, and Sokka dropped his head down.

"Aang, stop it." he pleaded, "Katara's right."

"You're going to give up?" Jet asked him; it was not seemingly a mocking question, as the Freedom Fighter seemed equally frustrated, not able to leave, yet knowing he could do something, no matter how minor, to try and help, "What is the point of doing this if we can't save the people we care about?"

Aang stepped forward, readjusted his bandana to cover his eyes, and approached the door out of the storehouse; Katara and Ty Lee tried to grab him, to stop him, but they were not eager enough.

"Wait, Aang, we need to think this through." the acrobat pleaded, "I mean, I know you wanna help her. Help Toph too. We all do, but we can't just run out there."

"There is no we." he retorted, "I can find her." he declared, before stomping his foot down hard.

The whole building shook slightly, and to those without seismic sense, that was probably all it was to them. But to Aang, it was another way of seeing the world. He could sense out, far beyond where his eyes could see, and he sensed so many people, so many things. He honed his mind on Azula, recalling her heartbeat; he was with her enough to find it with relative ease, but the problem remained that he didn't know how far away she was. He knew she would be coming back; that was the plan, after all. He did eventually find her heartbeat, a few blocks away, and she was making her way with three other people, one of which had to be Ken; she guessed the others might be guards, but he had not paid enough attention to them to recognise their heartbeats.

He slammed his foot down again, hoping that he could sense Toph, but no matter how far afield he sensed, he could not find her. Not in the palace, and not anywhere in the district. She could have been further away, but given that she loved to have her feet planted on the ground, he could only have one reasonable conclusion: she was not on the ground. She had to be inside some structure, further away from the surface, and given the fact she had yet to appear, he could only imagine there were two places she could be: prison or in hiding.

"I can't find her." he whispered to himself, and Sokka approached him.

"What do you mean? She should be inside this district." he argued, "That's where she was with the guards."

"No, not Azula." he corrected him, pulling the bandana back over his forehead, "Toph. Azula's just over that way." he gestured in her general direction.

"Wait, what do you mean you can't find Toph?" Katara asked, "She was in the palace, so she must have taken the tunnels out." she argued, and Aang shook his head.

"Wherever she is, she isn't underground, or touching the ground." he admitted, before sighing, "I don't know where she might be... but we can figure that out later."

"I have a feeling." Renshu spoke up, "The prison for earthbenders, in the palace district. It's made out of metal." he argued, and Jet rose to his feet.

"Wait, you're saying she's in there already? Then we should-"

"We can't get inside without explosives, keys, or some seriously hot firebending." Sokka countered him, "I agree, we were already intending to free the prisoners there, but we can't do it without a proper plan."

"I can find explosives today." Jet retorted, "There has to be a-" he began, before his eyes widened, as if he had suddenly realised what needed to be done, "I know where to go, and who to talk to." he declared, and Bato placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Just calm down for a second." he requested, "We can go speak with whoever we need to, but first, we have to prepare." he argued, and Aang nodded, making his way back towards the entrance of the storehouse.

"Then let me go make sure Azula's okay."

"What do you mean by that?" Sokka questioned him, and he cringed.

"Well, the other heartbeats I sensed might be Dai Li agents."

"She wouldn't fold that easily." he retorted, "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Ty Lee pressed him.

"Unless she knows the guards are here, and will kill her captors as soon as she arrives." the Water Tribesman declared what he thought would be a likely outcome.

Aang cringed at the idea of that, even if he understood the reasoning behind such an action. He shook his head and stepped outside.

"I'm going to see for myself." he made his intentions clear, before pacing out through the entrance of the spahouse, and down the street, heading to the point where he expected to meet with Azula, given how she could sense her approaching.

Turning the corner, he made his way down another street, after which he had to turn down another alleyway, where he made sight of Azula, who was accompanied by one of her guards, who he remembered to be Ken, as well as two Water Tribesmen. One of them looked to be dazed, and helped along by the other one; all of them looked up to see him, and Azula's expression shifted from a cold one to a confident one. That was despite the fact she looked exhausted, and was visibly injured; she had some marks over her neck, and others on her arms, which were mostly obscured, but he could tell once he noticed the other injuries.

"Aang." she addressed him, "It's good to see you."

"I heard what happened from Renshu." he explained, and stepped closer, "You're okay, right?" he asked, and eyed the Water Tribesmen, "Is one of them the fake Sokka?"

"Yeah." the non-dazed man confirmed, "His name is Nanuq." he gestured to him, and then to himself, "I'm Yakone." he gave his name; Aang bowed in respect, guessing that he had gone out of his way to go help Azula.

"It's nice to meet you. Is he one of your friends?" he asked, and Yakone nodded.

"Yes, he is." he confirmed, "Have you seen Tulok, by any chance?"

"No, we haven't." he shook his head, "Most people are back at the spa now." he explained, "We were waiting for Azula."

"Of course." the Princess noted with a smug look, before stepping past him, What is the Dai Li presence in this area?"

"Not that many at the moment." he assured her, before gesturing down the street they would have to turn down, "Just wait for a bit, there are some guards coming through."

"Your seismic sense is getting better." she observed his skill, "I'll have to commend Toph for her effective instructions." she commented more quietly, and he cringed; Azula must have noticed and she leaned closer, "Did something happen to her?"

"We don't know where she is." he admitted, before sighing, "They're already saying she's in prison, but I can't be sure. I can't sense her heartbeat."

"So that's how you found us." Ken realised, "That's impressive."

"You were pretty close by. It wasn't that hard." he assured them, knowing that his skills were nothing compared to Toph, whose seismic sense was her only way of seeing the world, and was understandably much more effective than his own.

Once the guards had moved by, he gestured towards the street, "We can go now."

They made their way down the street, and Aang led them around the corner, before approaching the spa house, where the guard acknowledged their arrival.

"Ah, your majesty." he addressed the Fire Lord with a quick bow, "They're waiting for you."

"I know." she replied as she stepped past him; Aang followed her back to the storehouse, where everyone watched as she stepped inside, and raised her hands up.

"I live." she proclaimed, and Renshu and Sokka both approached her, the former falling to a knee while the other looked at her with a face of relief.

"You have my deepest apologies, your highness." he acknowledged, before his eyes darted up, "Wait... why is he here?" he gestured to Nanuq, and Yakone stepped in front of him.

"He's one of us. Just because the Dai Li got him doesn't mean we should abandon him."

"He tried to kill the Fire Lord, multiple times." Renshu retorted, and Sokka looked ready to draw out his bone dagger, but his father stopped him.

"I will not harm the fool any more than I already have." Azula stressed, and gestured to Yakone, "This man saved our lives. If he wants his friend, he keeps him. That's the end of it."

"O-of course, your majesty." Renshu bowed his head down, while Sokka just looked at them with apprehension.

"What... what do we do now?" he asked her, and the Fire Lord snapped her fingers, lighting a torch above her right hand.

"What we've already been doing. Trying." she declared, "We will return to our base, regroup, and decide the next course of action. The Dai Li will no longer take half-measures... now that I've revealed myself."

"The colonials can be made to fight." Ty Lee spoke up, unprompted, and Azula raised her chin.

"We'll need more than just them." she reminded her, before turning her eyes back, glancing at Yakone, "But I already have a plan for the worst case scenario."

"Isn't this it?" Sokka asked, and she gestured around the room.

"We're alive, and as far as I can tell, none of us bar Nanuq are brainwashed." she declared, "This is far from the worst case... but we must be ready."

"I know what I'd have to do." Aang admitted, knowing that he couldn't deny it any longer; he was the Avatar, and he had more power than any of them combined, at least when he applied himself.

"Don't worry, I have something far less... morally queasy than forcing you to fight, Aang." Azula assured him, before raising a fist, "So, what about a prison?" she asked, and Jet rose up to his feet, and saluted her.

"I know a guy, and I know a place. We'll blow it to bits." he assured her, and she seemed amused.

"Well, your confidence gives me hope." she admitted, before her expression hardened, "I expect this to be done at once."

"Well, wait, a second." Hakoda spoke up, standing between them, "We need to actually see if they'll come on their own. For all we know, they're hiding somewhere, and will be back here soon." he warned them, "We don't want to get ourselves deeper into... well, let's call it what it is, this pile of shit."

"I agree with Dad." Sokka spoke up, "We need patience before we put anyone else's lives in danger."

"What about the guards?" Renshu asked him, "You know where the earthbenders might be, but what about my brothers."

"Lake Laogai." Azula recalled a place that she had mentioned before, "That's where they would be taking them. Once we have reorganised, that place is our next target." she assured him, "I will not leave anyone behind."

"That is admirable, but we need to remember who we're dealing with here." Hakoda stressed, "The Dai Li have already clearly won this fight, giving them another one to win seems foolish."

"That is true." she agreed, before gesturing to Jet, "But I trust that he will get us what we need. If not him, I am sure we can go to the colonial districts and find what we need, let alone people to aid us."

"It will be done." Renshu assured her, and Azula let out a sigh.

"Now, if you don't mind, I need to rest before we return to the Lower Ring." she admitted her exhaustion, which was already obvious from her face and the way she was standing.

She paced away, with Sokka and Ty Lee following right behind her; Aang turned his gaze to Katara and Hakoda. Though she hadn't said anything, Katara's face told him that she agreed with her father, though perhaps not completely. She stepped over to Aang, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not trying to demand... but could you try and sense for Toph again?" she asked, "She must be somewhere."

"I don't think it will help." he admitted, before cringing, "I could... I could go to the prison." he admitted with a whisper, and she didn't seem to approve.

"Aang I know you're more than capable of... well, doing what Toph can, but I don't want you just going out there." she warned him, before letting out a sigh, "I- I want to see if there's any alternative."

"I hope there is." he agreed with the sentiment, "But I will help her." he assured her, and strode over towards the entrance once more, wondering if he ought to head out and look around; he wasn't bold enough to go straight to the prison, but there were other parts of the Upper Ring, far too distant for him to sense Toph, or any other person for that matter.

"I wish today had gone better." he mumbled to himself, and Katara stepped up beside him.

"You did good, Aang." she assured him, "You might not have had to... well, you know, but you still helped. Your seismic sense saved our butts more than once."

He smiled at that, glad to have her approval, even if it didn't make him feel any better about the mess. It wasn't his plan, but he felt responsible for everything going awry. He was the Avatar, it was his duty to protect people, his friends, or strangers, it didn't matter. He fought, and he hurt people; those people might have deserved it, but they might not have either. He didn't want to overthink it, but now that was all that was ahead of him: his own achievements, or his crimes, depending on the perspective.

"I don't know if we're doing the right thing." he admitted, knowing that their subterfuge, lies, and trickery were morally questionable at best, and outright malicious at worst, despite any good intentions that lay behind them.

"Right and wrong are hard." she admitted, "That's the one thing I've realised after all of this. I thought Azula was bad because she was from the Fire Nation, but I know she's just as capable of good as anyone else... and everyone can do evil."

"But can evil be good?" he asked, "I mean... doing bad things, knowing they're bad, but knowing you need to do them? I don't want to hurt people, but I feel like I don't have a choice."

"That is the difference between right and good." she argued, "I'm not... well, come on, I'm barely an adult. I don't really know how people should be living, even if I have my great ideas." she chided herself, seeming frustrated with her own naivety; that was something Aang could relate to strongly, given his lack of knowledge about the new world, and the harsh brutality of life, which he had never seen or felt before returning from the ice.

"I think you're good, Katara." he gave his own opinion, "And I try to be. I mean, I'm just a kid... but I think the monks taught me the right things."

"How to be an Air Nomad and how to be the Avatar are two different things." she warned him, "When they started treating you differently, you didn't like it, did you?"

"No." he mumbled, recalling how horrible it felt when he was told he was the Avatar; everyone treated him like he was above them, something different, no longer a little boy living at the Southern Air Temple, but somebody far more important, who needed to be guided on a path, no matter his feelings on the matter, "I wish Monk Gyatso had just..." he began, before looking down; he wanted his friend's guidance more than anything, because he, of all people, understood Aang, and would know what to say to him.

"I'm sorry, Aang." Katara placed a hand on his shoulder, "I know I'm not as wise an old Air Nomad, but I want to make sure you can do the right thing. I promise you."

"I know, Katara." he mumbled, his eyes staying toward the ground.

He might not have had Monk Gyatso to guide him, but his new friends were at least trying to help him. Nobody could understand what it meant to be the Avatar, but all of them understood that it was a great responsibility, and responsibility was everywhere to be found when they were fighting a war, where matters of life and death were always around the corner. More than anything, he wanted to find a way to end the war without any more needless bloodshed. So far, he had just let Azula and the Coalition do what they thought was right, and that hadn't been pretty. He knew he had to take matters into his own hands, and guide the Coalition to a better future. More of the same fighting, hatred, and anger would not help anyone.

"I know."

---

Darkness was nothing new to Toph, but darkness to her and darkness to others were very different things. An ordinary person feared the night, feared caves, and feared labyrinths, because they were away from the light of the sun. She was amused by that fact, that they suckled at something that meant little to her but a some warmth, or the absence thereof. However, Toph had a different kind of darkness she had to contend with, and she imagined it felt similar to that which those who could see faced. Her darkness came when her feet were no longer in contact with earth, the source of her vision, if she could call it that; she could not comprehend how other people saw, because she had no real way of understanding something she had never been able to experience.

In all her genius, she had faced off against scores of Dai Li agents, in the hopes of protecting her allies. She had thought that when the moment arose, she could just simply delve into the ground beneath the palace, and abuse the Dai Li's secret network of tunnels to her own advantage. She had pelted them so hard that she got cocky; that was her undoing. She had been focused so much on ripping them to shreds with her bending that she had forgotten their grappling chains weren't even based on earthbending, making it harder to detect them. She found herself restrained, and though she could still bend at them, she could not dodge a rock smacking her across the face.

That was the last thing she had sensed, before she was pulled from the conscious world; her dreams were strange, as she imagined things that had never happened. Sparring against her own father, giving a victory speech in front of the people of Ba Sing Se, and actually seeing. That last thing was the strangest, as she had no real way to imagine it, other than harsh, strange, and unrelenting. Her seismic sense worked similarly, but she could just get up and sit on something to stop it. However, the very idea of colours was so unnerving that it felt sickening.

When she finally came to, she only had darkness, or at least, relative darkness. Her feet were cold, and the texture was stiff and a little rough; an iron cage, she presumed, which was made more obvious by the fact she could sense it. Her seismic sense didn't really work that well, but she could sense that she was in a cell made of metal, and she could get a feel for the shape. At least she wasn't completely blinded by it, but that confused her more than anything; she had had the same issue on the airship, and Toph had thought of the most absurd possibility: that metal itself could be bent.

Toph reached her hands out to the bars in front of her, and decided to call out, unsure who exactly was around her, given her seismic sense was dampened substantially by the metal, "Who's here?!" she called out, and she heard a laugh.

"Oh, the mighty stone god awakens!" she heard Jianren speak up, "You took your time."

"How long have I been out?" she asked him, and he hummed.

"Well, I honestly can't be sure, they knocked me out as well when I was trying to help you."

"You weren't... wait, when did you get there?" she asked, and he remained silent for a bit.

"I heard the commotion, and had to come see what was going on. I thought you might have been attacked by the Dai Li, but it seems I was mistaken." he explained what he had observed, "You were beating their butts until one of them knocked out with a glove to the face.

"I mean... we did start it." she conceded, before grimacing, "How many of us are here?"

"Not many." he reassured her, "Just me, you, and a few others who were stupid enough to get caught."

"Doesn't that make you stupid?" she questioned him, and he laughed.

"I'm not stupid, you're our best fighter. If there was only a chance I'd save your butt, I had to take it." he declared, and she grit her teeth.

"You're not my dad, dumbass!" she chided him for doing something so foolish, "Maybe if you had distracted them, they wouldn't have knocked me out."

"Hey, hey, there's no point trading blame now." she heard another familiar voice speak up, coming from Haru, one of the many fighters who had come along with the Southern Water Tribe ships; she knew he was with some of the other fake servants, and had probably come over for the same reason as Jianren.

"You got caught too?" she questioned, "I thought you were one of the smarter ones."

"I had to protect the others. I didn't want them getting caught."

"Playing hero." she mumbled, "Well, eh, I basically did the same thing."

"Exactly, don't give the boy a hard time." Jianren argued, and Toph snickered.

"Boy? How old is he anyway?"

"I dunno, like twenty or something?" he guessed, and Haru made an awkward laugh.

"I'm seventeen." he clarified, making Toph snicker.

"Wait, really? How come he thinks you're older?"

"I have facial hair." he clarified, and Toph scoffed.

"Doesn't Sokka? Nobody thinks he's a grown man."

"I mean, he kind of is, Toph." Jianren argued, before sighing, "There's no point arguing about such pointless drivel. We've been caught by the Dai Li, and I can't see this ending prettily." he argued, and Toph grimaced; he was right, they were running out of time before they were inevitably interrogated for information on the Coalition.

That would probably involve torture, or worse, brainwashing. She wanted to avoid all that suffering, and not just for her own sake; the other people who were caught were no less worthy of being saved than she was. She didn't expect a saviour, however; the others had all run off, fearing for their own lives, as they ought to have.

"So... how do we get out?" Haru asked them, "I bet we could find a way to steal a key, if one of us plays dumb." he argued, and Toph cringed.

"That's basically the same as relying on luck." she argued, before reaching her hands down to the metal panels upon which she was standing, "I don't believe in luck." she muttered more quietly, and felt the metal, trying to figure out what of it she could even bend.

Metal was obviously not earth, but if she could sense through it, there had to be earth in it. She knew that metal was forged from rocks, so it stood to reason that it could be bent by an earthbender, but she had never heard of it. Perhaps people never bothered trying, not thinking of metal as earth, and thus, unable to even imagine it. Bending, however, was not driven by one's feelings, it was driven by the material reality in which they lived. What was bendable was a fact, not a matter of belief.

She grit her teeth, slamming her palms down into the metal; she could sense it, pieces of earth, scattered around, like water in a porous rock; she had run into that more than once when she had been off digging in some places. However, the earth was scattered so finely that individually, she would struggle to bend any of it. It was like trying to bend sand out of a mixture of water. It was possible, but the weight of the water meant that she would struggle to pull it up.

She slammed her hands down again, knowing that she had to be able to do it; it was there, all she needed to do was manipulate it. If she could not bend the fragments, she had to bend the whole. She stood back up, and the others seemed confused; she could hear them shuffling about.

"Toph, what are you doing?" Jianren asked her, "You might be strong for your size, but you can't punch your way through metal, certainly not anything as thick as this."

"Punch?" she scoffed, "I'm not punching." she retorted, before reaching her hands over to the bars of the cell, "I'm bending."

"No... no way." Haru retorted, seeming to be in utter disbelief, "Metal... metal can't be bent."

"That's just what you believe. There's earth inside it." she argued, "It can be bent."

"Next thing you're gonna say is that waterbenders can bend people because we have water inside us." Haru scoffed, and she tilted her head.

"It's certainly reasonable." she agreed with what was meant to be an absurd comparison, before she cracked her knuckles, "Leave it up to the greatest earthbender alive to get us out of this situation."

"Alright, do it." Jianren prodded her, and Toph reached her hands through the bars, grasped one with each hand, and grit her teeth, sensing the earth inside.

"Move!" she shouted, before pushing as hard as she could; she felt nothing but the hard, dense, seemingly immovable metal, before suddenly, it gave way.

The bars parted, and her jaw dropped, "I- I fucking did it!" she exclaimed, before pushing even harder, bending the bars right apart, before grabbing the next ones, and pushing at them; it took a few more moments, and a little pressure, but they gave way as well, allowing Toph to slide right out of her cell.

"I... I really don't want to stroke your ego any more than is necessary..." Jianren mumbled, and Haru let out a cheer.

"She's the greatest earthbender in the world!" he proclaimed, and Toph raised her hands up.

"Who else wants to get out of prison?!" she shouted down the hallway, and she heard some grunts and groans, before people began to shake and rattle the bars of their cells, "That's what I thought."

Toph first stepped over to the cell where she had heard Jianren, and grabbed the bars, pulling them right apart; he grabbed her by the scalp and scratched at her head, "You're a little bloody genius, you know that."

"Nah, I just thought outside the box."

"Heh, real funny." he flatly commented on her joke, before stepping out of the cell, "I don't know if trying it is a good idea." he admitted, and she shrugged.

"Well, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to try once we're all free." she argued, before stepping over to Haru's cell, and parting the bars; he made a clap of approval, before stepping out.

"You better be quick. I'm sure some guard will check this hallway soon enough." he warned her, and Toph nodded, before quickly moving along to each cell, parting the metal bars as quickly as she could to let each prisoner out.

"Don't just dilly dally, you need to find whoever's guarding this place and beat their arses!" she told the prisoners, who cheered in approval; she could hear the thumps of their footsteps, and sense them vaguely, as they made their way down the hallway, their numbers quickly massing as she opened each and every last cell she could reach.

Once the last of the cells she could sense were opened, she turned back around, knowing there were a few more by the end of the hallway; when she reached them, the prisoners seemed impatient.

"I was having a nice nap." she recognised the voice of Ran, "So... what, you can bend metal now?" he asked, and she answered her question by bending the cell bars apart, "Well shit... maybe the King does have some competition."

"The King?" Haru asked, presumably not knowing about Bumi, nor his earthbending skills; she waved off his words.

"Don't worry about that." she assured him, before she began to part the bars on the last few remaining cells.

When she was done, Jianren placed a hand on her shoulder, "That's all of them. Let's not waste any time. If we're in luck, the others might still be hiding out at that spa."

"I'd rather head straight back to the base." Toph argued, "But we have to lose the Dai Li's trail, no matter what." she warned them, "They can't find it."

"If they interrogate anyone, they'll certainly have a decent chance at it." he warned her, and Toph cracked her knuckles.

"Then we better find the interrogation room, and turn the punishment on them." she argued, and she grit her teeth, thinking about what they had just been subjected to, "I am not a fan of being imprisoned."

"They couldn't be any more cruel than the Fire Nation was." Haru argued, before sighing, "But after what I've heard, maybe they would be."

"They're only proving the Fire Lord's point." Jianren argued, before he began to move down the hallway, "Let's go find the bastards."

"You don't have to tell me twice." she assured him, making her way down the hallway; she could already hear the sounds of fighting below them, and further afield, and she could sense it as well, but that was mostly through broad, muffled vibrations, which weren't going to help her find her targets.

Toph let herself smirk, glad that she had become as much a thorn in the side of their enemies as she wanted to be. When she reached the staircase, she turned to go down, a bit awkward in her pacing as the metal was still nowhere as effective to sense through when compared to earth. When they made their way down a flight, she heard some more distinctive voices, grunts, and cries, and guessed that was the first few guards the prisoners had found.

"Girl! Girl!" she heard somebody call out to her, "Open their cells!"

She stepped down the hallway, and approached one of the cells, grabbing the bars, before ripping them apart; she did the same with the cell next to it, and the one after that, getting cheers from the prisoners as they stepped out of their cells. Their numbers would quickly overwhelm the guards, and the ones she had heard, and vaguely sensed in the hallway, had already made a break for it.

"I've got some keys!" Jianren declared, presumably having found them on the body of an unconscious guard, and he began to unlock cells.

With keys being grabbed, it made the task of opening up the cells a lot easier, and she only had to open about half a dozen with her hands before the rest were already opened by the others. With that floor done, she returned to the stairwell.

She slowly paced downwards, and reached the next floor, which was larger, with a wide open floor plan. She could see that some of the guards were assembled in formation by what must have been the exit, or the hallway leading towards it. She could sense that the exit was on that level, given that she could sense earth beneath them. She did not want to try and dig through metal, as even if it was possible, that sounded terribly exhausting, and far less fun than beating the lights out of the idiots who had the bad luck of guarding a prison with her inside it.

She felt a sudden burst of heat above her head, and realised that some of the guards must have been firebenders; that was no surprise, given that guarding a prison with earthbenders inside would be made more secure with firebenders holding it, both because their element would work well against a bunch of earthbenders without access to their element, and the fact they obviously mistrusted each other. There was little chance they'd betray their Dai Li masters for people who hated them just as much, or even more so.

She reached down, placing her hands on the ground, before she bent out two sheets of metal, pulling them from the floor; there was an open space beneath it, and some piping, with earth laying below. Though she could properly use her element, she decided it would be a little easier to rely on what she could easily get her hands on; she bent the sheets into gauntlets, and approached the guards with little fear. They couldn't scare her, not anymore.

"What- what in the name of the spirits is going on?!" one of the guards exclaimed, "She can bend-" he began to proclaim, before he was cut off by Toph slamming her metal covered arms into his chest, throwing him back.

"Metal." she finished his sentence for him, "Come at me, ash-makers." she prodded them, "'Cause, I'm your doom!" she proclaimed; it might have been stupidly dramatic, but she felt there was truth behind those words.

"Get 'em!" she heard one of the prisoners scream, and the others cheered; she could sense them ripping earth out from the hole she had made in the floor, and they began lopping bits of rock at them.

She began slamming her gauntlets into every guard who came at her, using the metal to block the firebending. The metal was able to deflect the heat away easily enough, and she was able to beat them into submission, or the rocks did. Most of them either got knocked out or ran like the wind, realising they had no hope of victory. The prisoners cheered, and she grabbed one of them before they had a chance to flee.

"Where are you interrogating the prisoners?" she asked him, and he seemed terrified; she could still sense his heartbeat, and it was running along so fast that it even surprised her.

"D-d-down that way." he gestured towards a hallway that ran away from the main chamber that they were standing in; she could sense that he wasn't lying, so decided to press further.

"Who did you get?" she asked, and he seemed more confused than anything.

"Some of the traitors we caught." he assured her, and she leaned closer, wondering who that might be, before sighing.

"You wouldn't know." she realised before throwing him to the ground, letting the prisoners beat down on him.

She turned her heels and made her way down the hallway, and was followed by the fighters that she had freed; when she reached a locked door, she just twisted her hand on the handle, and ripped it open with her bending. She smirked, glad that the ability she had just discovered was coming in handy. Once she stepped into the room, she could sense the heartbeats of the men who were interrogating a prisoner, and they were immediately terrified; she felt heat washing over her, and raised her gauntlets up, covering her face from the flames.

She then heard a few grunts as her allies knocked most of the interrogators unconscious; that allowed Toph to approach the prisoner, whose heartbeat she recognised as belonging to one of their fighters, though she couldn't recall his name.

"You're bloody crazy." he gasped out, "How are you all free?" he asked, and Toph gestured to herself.

"Metalbending." she proclaimed, and he laughed.

"You're joking." he accused her, before a few moments passed, allowing him to realise, perhaps because he could see the gauntlets she had made to cover her hands, "Wait... really?"

"We need to get out of here, Di." Haru addressed the fighter, "What did you tell them?"

"Nothing much... they were asking about where we came from... so I just gave them some places we've been to in the city. Misdirection and all that."

"Good." Toph approved of the strategy, "Now come on, we need to get out of here before the Dai Li is sent to suppress our prison break."

"They're going to lose it when they learn about this." Di admitted with a nearly giddy voice, offering out his bound hands, "Uh, metalbender, could you help me out?"

She grabbed the chain that held the shackles together, and ripped it to pieces, before turning her heels.

"Enough chit-chat. I'm not getting caught again." she spoke her mind, and ran down the hallway, making her way back out to the main chamber, where the prisoners were massing, having been freed by the others who had gotten keys.

"Hear me!" Jianren addressed them, "We are the Coalition! If you seek to stay out of prison longer than a day, follow our lead!"

"The Coalition?" somebody questioned him, "Aren't they the people the army's fighting?"

"Yeah, we are." Toph confirmed, "We have the Avatar. What do the Dai Li have?"

"Nobody as strong as you." one of the prisoners admitted, and another approached her.

"We'll listen to you, little lady. You saved our arses." he assured her, and she smirked.

"Good. I've got experience leading soldiers. Follow me!" she told them, and the prisoners and fighters followed Toph towards the main entrance, which had been barricaded up by the guards.

"Stay back!" she heard one of them shout out, and she reached her hands down to bend out sheets of metal, using them to form a shield for herself and the fighters.

She dropped down into the hole she had formed in the floor, breaking the pipes, so she could get her feet on the earth that lay below. That improved her seismic sense substantially, and allowed her to use her earthbending to tear right through the floor beneath the guards, trapping them in place and breaking open the barricades.

"Go!" she told everyone, knowing they needed to abuse the opportunity before the enemy reorganised themselves.

She could sense boulders flying through the broken barricades, striking at the guards. They were scattered quickly enough, and with more earth available to be bent, the prisoners were having a field day with the guards. Bodies were thrown about, and more of them fled, clearly terrified they would be crushed. She pulled herself out of the small pit she had made, and followed after the prisoners, making her way through the barricades, which she bent apart, giving the others a wider path to follow.

As she made her way past the unconscious or trapped guards, she didn't spare them any pity. She reached her hands forward, able to sense outside the prison, where she could sense the guards had run to. She threw her hand forward, trapping the feet of every guard she could catch, not wanting them to run off and alert the Dai Li of the prison break. It was more than likely that they already had done so, but if she had a chance to have a smoother escape, she would take it.

When she stepped outside, now on solid stone rather than metal, she felt the wind brush up against her face, and she sensed around, hoping to find any potential enemies who might be approaching. The prison was located by the edge of the palace district, and further afield, she could sense many more people, but distinguishing between bureaucrats and Dai Li agents would prove more difficult than she liked.

However, she knew exactly where to go to reach her way out, and she raised her hands up, ripping the ground ahead of her apart, shovelling out stone and dirt with her bending, forming piles around the trapped guards, who seemed even more afraid now. However, she had no interest in beating them any further. She instead kept digging, and when she reached the tunnel that lay below, she strode over to the hole.

"With me!" she called on the others, and slid down the ramp she had dug out in the process of opening the hole, right down into the tunnel.

Though she was concerned about the Dai Li, with so many earthbenders, all presumably quite capable of handling themselves, she was sure they would be able to push through and escape back down to the Lower Ring. However, it was going to be a long walk; she hated the very thought of it, but her choices were quite limited. She could lead the prisoners back to the spa, but she knew that was a bad idea, and might endanger whoever had already made their way back over there.

She made her way down through the tunnel, which led on a slope back down towards the Upper Ring; the whole tunnel was quite narrow and tight, meaning it would slow down their travel, but she was sure as long as they kept moving, they would at least get there. She knew splitting up immediately might have been a more practical choice, but she couldn't just leave the other prisoners to fend for themselves; it was a matter of principle: if she wanted their help, she needed to make sure they got out of the area safely.

She eventually made her way to a small chamber, lying some depth below the palace, near the walls, and she didn't recognise it; she had taken a different path, though the whole system of tunnels was apparent to her at once, given it was all made out of stone, or more accurately, it was a lack thereof. The chamber had some tables and chairs in it, as well as some chests and cupboards, perhaps filled with supplies. She felt compelled to check, but decided against it, knowing she had to keep moving. It was probably a small Dai Li hideout, where agents might rest after completing their duties, though given how close it was to the palace, she wondered if the hideout was meant as an escape plan: a small, reclusive spot within the tunnel network where they could regroup after a defeat. She kept that in mind, knowing that when they came to seize the palace, the chamber might be a place the Dai Li would flee to.

Toph continued along, sensing some of the prisoners and fighters stopping to take some supplies, though most kept following after her. They were also closing off tunnels as they came past them, which would slow down any pursuers, Dai Li or not; however, that would not stop them. Only killing or incapacitating them would achieve that. She would prefer to avoid another fight, but she knew things could certainly run awry if she didn't get everyone away quickly.

The tunnel continued to lower in elevation, but she recalled a prior issue, which had yet to be solved. She could hear running water, and though her feet were still dry, she could smell the water ahead of them, and vaguely sense it filling the tunnel, as it gave a different feel than air did, brushing against the walls of the tunnel.

"Well, shit." she mumbled, unsure how she could easily deal with that, beyond digging some channel for the water to drain out through, "Water is blocking the tunnel!" she called out to those behind her, before reaching her hands forward, hoping that she could bend a way for the water to drain out.

However, the more she sensed around, the more she understood the scale of the problem. Draining the water would take a lot more effort than she first imagined. She guessed that there were blockages in place, perhaps due to somebody closing up one of the tunnels. So, Toph gestured to the closest fork on the tunnel.

"We need to go this way." she decided, and the others followed her down the tunnel, which led them in a perpendicular direction to the flooded section.

Once she reached the next outward running tunnel, she sensed down it, and observed that the water was pooling much further downhill, telling her that it wasn't flooded, at least nowhere near as much as the previous tunnel had been.

She made her way further down, and sensing above herself, she noticed that there were guards and Dai Li agents patrolling around the Upper Ring; she guessed they were chasing down her friends, though she hadn't sensed any of their heartbeats since she left the prison. That gave her the idea that they had already headed out, away from the palace district, and were probably intending to flee back down to their base in the Lower Ring.

She kept her pace steady, and only stopped when she sensed people moving down a neighbouring tunnel; she knew they weren't her allies, because she didn't even vaguely recognise their heartbeats. Furthermore, she could sense their bodies weighed more than they ought to, telling her that they were armed, presumably agents.

She stopped herself, and raised up a wall of earth in front of herself; Haru, who was right behind her, seemed confused by the move, "Why are you stopping?" he asked her, and she cringed.

"There are agents coming this way. We need to wait." she warned him quietly, hoping that the interlopers didn't make their way down the tunnel they were in; in that case, she would have to crush them, something that was disturbing enough just as a thought.

When the agents turned down their tunnel, and slowed themselves, she knew she had little time to choose; Toph sensed behind her, knowing how many people she was trying to protect, and had to make a decision. It only would take a moment, but she could not undo it.

"Fuck." she gasped out, before reaching her hands forward, and bending the stone she had dug out down the tunnel, throwing it with as much force as she could, striking the agents down and shattering the stone apart.

A few of them were safe, only because the wall of stone had broken apart by the time it reached them; however, Toph knew she could not just leave them and sink their feet into the ground. As earthbenders, they could dig themselves out, however, they were more focused on neutralising her, throwing the rubble back her way to try and knock her out, as the agents had done back in the palace. Toph was not stupid enough to fall for that, and raised up another wall, which broke apart when they smashed it with the rubble.

They might have thought they had a chance, but nobody, not even the best healers, could un-cave in a chest. She had shot pillars into them in quick succession, and she was unsure if they were dead, only knowing they were down. The prisoners behind her cheered, and she just cringed, feeling ashamed of what she had done. Jianren placed a hand on her shoulder, seeming to understand her unease.

"You did good, little lady." he tried to reassure her, and she just sighed, before making her way down the tunnel, stepping over the bodies of the agents she had defeated.

"Let's move!" she shouted out, making sure the others knew to keep following her.

The tunnel drew lower, and closer to another flooded section, forcing her to move down another perpendicular tunnel; that one led her a little higher, and past one of the exits out into the Upper Ring. Though returning to the streets was certainly a possibility, she wanted to avoid letting the prisoners be seen by the general populace. The guards were not a threat, but she wanted to avoid an army of agents converging on them before they had a chance to regroup with the others.

She continued along, not wanting to stop; however, her attention was drawn by some familiar heartbeats. She had gotten close enough to the spa now that she could sense the people that were there, and though she didn't recognise everyone, she made out a few important ones. Jet and Hakoda were there, as were a few others, though the leaders weren't; she couldn't sense Tulok, Azula, or Aang, who were arguably the most important members of the Coalition. She guessed that they had already moved on, probably to avoid the Dai Li, who must have been looking for their hideout. When she reached a crossroad, one path moving closer to the walls, and then down into the Middle Ring, she turned to face Jianren, grabbing him by the arm.

"Take the others down towards our base. I just need to go tell the people waiting at the spa what we've done. I'll catch up along the way, I promise." she assured him, and he nodded.

"I'll do it." he assured her, "But if the Dai Li-"

"You can beat them." she countered, "You're strong enough, most of you are."

With that, she continued on towards the spa, while Jianren led the rest of the fighters and prisoners back down towards the Middle Ring. She did not waste any time, and when she reached the staircase that led up into the spa, she opened it up; that seemed to frighten those people inside, who readied their weapons. However, when she rose up the staircase, they lowered them down.

"It's Toph." Hakoda observed her presence, "Where have you been?"

"In prison." she admitted, and everyone seemed surprised by that.

Jet was looking at her, lost for words, "Prison?" he asked, and stepped closer, "How the- well, I can guess you beat them with your earthbending." he assumed how she had escaped.

She raised a finger, "Technically it was metalbending."

"Ah yes..." Hakoda nodded, before he seemed to realise what exactly she was saying, "Metalbending?" he questioned her, "That's actually possible?"

"I just figured that out." she admitted with a sheepish smile, "In any case, we freed all those prisoners we promised we were gonna help out. They're marching down the tunnels towards the Lower Ring."

"Wait, does that mean you've found the other missing earthbenders?" one of the fighters asked her, and she nodded.

"Don't worry, we freed everyone. They're all safe... unless there was somebody the Dai Li took particular interest in and dragged them away. We'll have to check when we regroup." she conceded, not knowing everyone's names nor their heartbeats; she was confident that the Dai Li would have tried to brainwash some of them, but they probably wanted the prison guards to interrogate them first before they selected those they found suitable.

"That's... that's not concerning in the slightest." Hakoda mumbled, clearly sounding afraid, "Well we were just packing things up here. It's good to hear that we'll be able to go now. I... I'm afraid they're just lurking around the corner."

"Well, I can confidently tell you there's no agents right around here, but they have been moving. We found some on the way here... they're dealt with." she assured them, before she gestured to the tunnel she had just come out of, "So get your crap, and get a move on. I'm sure the Fire Lord's gonna be pissed off if we end up getting caught."

"She's got a lot more on her plate." Jet warned her, and that seemed surprisingly empathetic of him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, "Did you hit your head or something?"

"We can talk about that later." Hakoda assured her, before sighing, "You heard her." he told the others, "Everyone pack up. We need to leave."

"Should I be worried?" she asked Jet, who shook his head.

"No, no, I mean, the problem was solved... but shit... it was one hell of a problem." he gave a vague, rather unhelpful answer; she thought to ask one of the other Freedom Fighters so she could get a straight answer, but she expected to hear it once they were stuck in the tunnels walking back to the base.

"Alright." she crossed her arms, "I'm expecting a crazy story."

"Trust me... it is." he assured her, before turning around to go retrieve his things; he was back in his proper clothes again, though she assumed he was going to get some of the clothes baskets so they could bring back their disguises with them, in case they wanted to use them again.

Toph sat herself down on a crate, and let out a sigh, feeling exhausted from the fight, walk, and all the fighting she had done back in the palace, "I am gonna sleep like a log tonight."

Smellerbee approached her, and glanced her up and down, "You do look like you got the shit kicked out of you."

"I did." she admitted, "But we got away, so that's what counts in the end."

"I'm just glad they were fighting you and not us." she admitted, "I mean, I feel a little bad."

"You shouldn't. The Dai Li are merciless." she retorted, "And so are we... and I know it might be wrong, but it's necessary."

"You don't need to persuade me." Toph assured her, "This fight isn't a fair one."

She stretched her arms out, and wondered what might be going on with the others; she knew that if they weren't telling her, it couldn't be good, but neither was it so terrible that she had to be informed. She wanted to know, but she wasn't going to lambast Hakoda or Jet for information; they clearly had already had enough shit to deal with over the course of the day. They didn't need her demanding each and every detail of what had happened while she was away on top of all that.

Suddenly, her attention was drawn by Longshot; he didn't speak to her, like he didn't with anyone else, but he was trying to communicate. He tapped her shoulder, and gestured off where Jet was gathering things. She was unsure what exactly he wanted her to do, but her best guess was that she thought he ought to go over to him. Toph nodded, and paced over to part of the storehouse where Jet was packing things up. She hadn't been paying too much attention to him, but she could tell that he was stressed, with his heartbeat much faster than usual. He was leaning over a basket, almost as if he was about to be sick, and Toph cleared her throat.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but are you alright?" she asked, feeling that she ought to say something if Longshot thought she should see him.

Jet didn't say anything at first, and just sat himself down, "No, not really." he conceded, and kept his head down.

Toph stepped closer, "Did you have any close calls?" she asked.

She presumed that the Dai Li would have been chasing everyone down; she thought that perhaps Jet was lucky, and he and the Freedom Fighters had remained well-hidden and got away without a fight. However, she couldn't see that as being a likely outcome, given how he was acting.

"It's you." he almost whispered, "I- I thought you were done for." he admitted, turning his head up; he was looking right at her, she assumed, though she couldn't actually sense if his eyes were open or not.

"Don't worry. We got out of there fine." she reassured him, "They can't hold me." she proclaimed, mostly to try and cheer him up, and not because she thought it was impossible to be restrained; if they were going to try it again, they would use wood instead of metal.

"No, you don't get it." he mumbled, "So many people went missing. We thought you were all gone." he admitted, "I- I wanted to go out and try and find you but they stopped me."

She winced, feeling that she wasn't being very considerate of his feelings; Toph was never very good at that, so she decided to sit down beside him.

"Sorry, Jet." she apologised, "I won't let that happen again." she reassured him, "And I mean it."

"I know you do." he whispered once more, "I don't want to die. I don't want any of my friends to die." he argued, "More importantly, I-" he began, and she grabbed him by the arm; he didn't need to say it.

"I know, Jet." she stressed, "Let's just head back. I'll watch your back, and you'll watch mine. Right?" she offered, and he nodded.

"Right." he agreed to her proposition, before laughing, "I'm sounding like a giant fucking baby right now, aren't I?"

"No, you're sounding human." she retorted, "Even I get afraid. Everyone does."

"I don't want to be." he mumbled, "Fear is stupid."

"No, it's the opposite of that. It's the reason we're alive."

---

"Sokka, are you listening?"

His eyes darted back over to Toph, who had taken the lead in their present meeting; he wanted to pay attention, but he was distracted by many things. He felt so bad about what had happened to Azula and he didn't know what to do; she was torn up by what she had experienced, and he knew it would take time for her to recover.

It might not have been as bad as Yu Dao, but she seemed to be just as anguished by it. Sokka had responsibilities beyond caring about her, but that was still the thing that was constantly on his mind. Ty Lee was trying to be as supportive as she could be, given what had happened, but even she couldn't improve Azula's dour and distant mood.

"Sorry." he apologised to her, "What were you saying?"

She placed her hands on her hips, and she shook her head, "He really is a lovestruck puppy at times."

"Hey come on." Katara snapped back at her, "Give him a break."

"The Dai Li won't be giving any of us a break." the earthbender retorted; he agreed with her sentiment, even if his actions suggested otherwise, "Now, pay attention." she demanded, before gesturing down to the abstracted map of Ba Sing Se she had carved out of the ground; it was quite impressive, though he was surprised she was able to sense as much of the city as she had to even form such a map in her head.

"Where are we, again?" Aang asked her, and she pointed out a position in the Lower Ring.

"Here. We're due west of the city centre. Lake Laogai is directly to the southeast of the Inner Walls. To get there, we'll either need to take a train, or walk for hours on end. I'd prefer the train."

"Me too." Aang agreed, "Though, couldn't we take Appa during the night?" he asked her, and Toph scrunched her lips.

"Yes, but we're going to want to take as many people as we can. More than can fit on Appa." she warned him, before gesturing to Katara, who had some documents she was reading from, "Now, what does the report you got from Major Yu say about the defences?"

"The military doesn't have jurisdiction over the place." she explained, "There is a labour camp near the lake, which they supervise, but the Dai Li runs all the operations."

"So, we just break into the labour camp, and free the prisoners." Sokka observed the likely course of action.

"No, it's not that simple." Toph raised a finger, "Lake Laogai as a Dai Li operation precedes the labour camp. That was built after they deposed the Fire Nation." she explained, "Some people I've spoken with, that's what they've said."

"Did any of them ever go there?" Sokka asked.

"One of them." she admitted, before cringing, "He's a former agent."

"And you trust him?" Aang asked, "I mean, I know you can tell if people are lying, but the agents must be pretty good at it."

"They are... but this man is genuine. He's the one who's helping Jet procure the explosives." she explained, and the group nodded cautiously.

"Okay, I get you're trying to show us all this, but what about the actual leadership? Don't they have to approve this?"

"They will." she assured him, "I just want your feedback because, well... we're going to be going, right?"

"Yes, we will." Katara agreed, "We have to help those prisoners. It's our duty."

"We can go discuss this with the others later." Toph assured him, before pointing to Sokka, "So, Sokka, how would you infiltrate the place?"

"Dress up as prison guards, get an idea for how the place operates, and then break the prisoners out." he explained his first idea on the matter, "But that doesn't help us find where the real Lake Laogai is."

"I can do that." she assured him, "I would try and sense it right now, but it's so far away, all I can sense is a body of water." she conceded, admitting a limit to her seismic sense's range, "So, we'll need to get closer."

"What about checkpoints?" Katara asked, "When we came back, I saw them being set up. I think they'll start splitting the districts apart to try and stop us from moving around, as well as the tunnels." she warned, "So, how do we get through?"

"New tunnels." she declared, "That isn't hard for an earthbender to make, even a crappy one. Hiding the tunnels from being seen by the authorities, that's the problem." she conceded, "So, I think we'll need to send some people to handle that. If we can have our own passages, then we'll be able to get anywhere we need to."

"The trains check documents, and I know they'll be looking for us." Sokka mumbled, "We can't send any of the Water Tribesmen or the guards on trains. They'll be looking out for us. So, only people who fit in can go."

"So what, maybe Aang... and a few of the Earth Kingdom fighters?" Katara guessed, "How do we get to Lake Laogai, then?"

"Sneaking on a train doesn't seem out of the question." Sokka suggested the first thing that came to mind, "There must be ways we can avoid checkpoints."

"We can just go through some holes at a train station during the time when it's most busy, and the guards won't even see us." Aang argued, and Toph hummed.

"I like that idea... though I can't say it will fool them." she gave her own opinion, "There's also a bigger distraction we could use."

"Being?" Sokka pressed her, and she chuckled.

"The colonists, obviously." she argued, "And not to mention all the prisoners I just freed."

"They're not exactly the kind of people we should be relying on." Katara countered, "I mean, some of them might have been in there because they opposed the Dai Li... but others might be there for much less honourable reasons."

"I know that, but they can serve their sentences in... well, a different way." she suggested, "Don't you think a second chance is better than them just rotting away in those cells?"

"Y-yeah." Aang agreed with her, "I know they might not be good people, but... well, you've got to start somewhere, right?"

"The colonists would be a safer bet." Sokka gave his own opinion, "But that's something to ask-" he began, before scrunching his lips, "I'll go ask Ty Lee about that. She's actually been trying to get them on our side."

"So, you mean you want to-" Toph began, before stopping herself, knowing she was just going to piss him off by telling the truth.

He wanted to go see Azula and make sure she was alright, which she almost certainly wasn't, but he could do more there than he could just talking about a plan, not even necessarily forming one.

"Just go speak with my dad and Jianren about this. I'm sure Jet will have a bunch of ideas as well, knowing him." he told them what he thought they should do, "I'll go see what Ty Lee thinks about getting them to distract the authorities."

She nodded, and both Katara and Aang looked at him with apprehension; they could read between the lines, but they didn't complain. His sister just made a pensive smile as he turned around and exited the room. He made his way down the hallway, approaching the spot where some of the guards were stationed; the two men, Yi and Shan, seemed to be in dour moods, probably because of what had happened to their fellow warriors.

He felt bad as well, knowing that if he had actually been there, the whole situation could have been avoided; that didn't mean he blamed himself, and his anger was squarely placed upon the Dai Li. When he got the chance, he would wring the life out of the Undersecretariat and his master. Jet was right after all; the time and place for mercy had passed.

"Hey guys, is Ty Lee still in there with her?" he asked, and both guards nodded.

"Yes, she is, sir." Yi assured him, and he cringed.

"You don't need to call me that." he placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, guys."

"We are more sorry." Shan declared, "We couldn't do our duty to protect her highness. That is the greatest shame we could ever feel."

He didn't know what to say to that, but bowed his head down, before approaching the fabric that covered the doorway. He knocked his hand on it a few times, brushing through and making some rustles. A few moments later he heard Ty Lee's voice.

"Who is it?"

"Sokka." he identified himself, and she parted the fabric; she looked dour, though she forced out a smile.

"Did you have some news?"

"Not really." he shook his head, "But I do have an idea. Or at least, Toph does."

"Oh, is this about the Lake Laogai stuff?" she asked, and he nodded, "So, what does she want to do?"

"Use the colonists as a distraction to make it easier for us to break into the prison camp there." he explained, "I don't know how good of an idea that is, given how far away the colonists are from the prison."

"Yeah... I mean, it would help keep the Dai Li's attention in the colonial districts. They must definitely be afraid of a revolt, even if they know it's just a distraction. The threat is... real." she gave her own opinion on that, before glancing behind herself; he could see that Azula was rolled up in the bed, her face turned away from the doorway, "You want to see her, don't you?"

"Of course I do." he bluntly told her the truth, "I know I was here not that long ago, but I- I can't help it. I'm worried."

"Yeah, me too." she agreed, before the both of them stepped inside.

"Azula." he addressed her, "Are you awake?"

She let out a low hum, "I can't be bothered." she mumbled, barely audible to his ears; he stepped closer to the bed and knelt down.

"I'm not here to blab about politics and plotting." he assured her, "That can wait."

"No... no it can't." she argued, "The only reason I'm here is because I can't think straight." she admitted, "I'm- I'm not in the right mind."

"So, let me just be here." he requested, and she turned around, revealing her face; her make-up was long ruined, tears streamed down her cheeks, leaving black marks, while her expression looked tired and solemn.

"I'm afraid." she mumbled, and he sat himself down on the bed beside her.

"Me too." he assured her that she was not alone there, "I- I wanted to go find you, but-" he began, and she just cringed.

"You don't need to justify yourself." she whispered, her eyes facing down rather than up towards him, "You had to make sure Katara was safe."

"I was being selfish." he admitted, "I wanted to protect everyone. I should have just stayed where I was... the Dai Li abused our ignorance."

"And they'll do it again." she mumbled, "They can't be trusted."

"I'll break them." he assured her, placing a hand on her blanket covered side, "For you."

"You don't need to do it for me." she mumbled, "Do it for them. For all the people they've broken." she argued, and he cringed.

"No, it is for you." he retorted, grabbing her by the shoulder; she flinched, and he cringed.

He remembered that she was uneasy about being touched after she returned to the spa house; it didn't take a genius to figure out that the fake Sokka had hurt her, physically. That had angered Sokka, but she had stressed that he was not to blame. It was his brainwashing; Nunaq was relatively innocent, even if he had been the one to harm her. He understood the logic, but that did not make him any less mad about it.

"It is." he emphasised his prior statement, "I want revenge." he told her, "I know it's wrong, but it's true. This isn't about the time they tried to snatch me while I was pissing... this is about you." he stressed, knowing that he was far beyond that little spat with the Dai Li.

"We have more important things to worry about than revenge." she mumbled, and he let out a sigh.

"I know that, but can you blame me?"

She turned her gaze up to meet his own, "No. I would do the same... I would do worse. I almost did worse."

"To him, or to them?" he asked, and she cringed.

"I almost killed Renshu in my rage. I could have if I had been any angrier." she admitted, "He didn't deserve it."

"He is an arsehole, but you're right." he agreed, before smiling, "Don't be so hard on yourself. They did it, not you."

"My hand, my strength, my fire." she whispered.

She pulled her hand out of the blankets, and lit a small flame in her palm, which lit up the otherwise dimly lit room a familiar blue hue.

"I lost control." she admitted, "I've- I've never really lost control."

"That's what you're afraid of?" he asked her, and she looked away.

"I'm no Aang... but I can definitely kill somebody if I'm not careful." she explained, "I'm usually much more careful."

"I know." he assured her, "You're a very deliberate person."

Ty Lee cleared her throat, "Should I... should I go?" she asked, and the Princess laughed, though even then, the laugh was so quiet and terse it didn't feel like she was actually amused.

"I'm not going to do anything dirty." she declared, and Ty Lee shook her head.

"I didn't mean it like that." she assured her, and she turned around, stepping through the doorway.

Sokka laid himself down on the bed, "I know it's a bit weird to ask... but could you hug me?" he requested, feeling that it would reassure him that she wanted to be intimate; not in a sexual, lascivious way, but in a far deeper, more fundamental way.

She grabbed his hand, and leaned in towards him, breathing into his ear, "I won't leave you again, idiot." she assured him, "And you won't leave me." she stressed, "Got it?"

"We'll go find Katara together next time." he declared, and she chuckled.

"Exactly. I was stupid enough to let you run off. I bet you almost got caught."

"Y-yeah, I did." he conceded, "Major Yu did me a favour and tossed me into a pond."

"He followed my orders, good." she admitted with a pleased tone, before leaning her face into his neck, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Not freaking out as much as I did." she admitted, "You're strong."

"Nah, the fake Azula was just way less convincing." he conceded, "I saw Nanuq. He does look pretty much the same as me. If I didn't know better, I might have thought he was my brother."

"They put in the effort to give him your goatee, and your hair." she admitted, running her hand through his locks, "His eyes were wrong."

"They're blue." he noted, and she laughed.

"That's not what I meant." she retorted, "You can fake a man's love, but you can't fake his eyes."

"Are you gonna say mine are pretty?" he asked her, turning his head to meet her gaze.

"They fit." she admitted, before blowing a kiss at him, which burst out a small, momentary flame from her mouth; he understood what she meant.

Her flames made them fit together; she might have been Fire Nation, but blue was her colour, and it was his as well, though that was less of a fundamental thing and more because of his people's culture. They wore blue to fit with the ice, and to fit with water, their element. It was not his, but the colour fit his home, and always reminded him of it. Even her blue flames, ever hot, reminded him of that place.

"I don't know how to make you feel any better about all this." he admitted what he was thinking, knowing there was nothing else he could really do in that moment; he was trying to comfort her, but that wouldn't take away what happened, and neither would revenge.

"I won't forget." she admitted, "But that doesn't matter. You being here does." she argued, before kissing his neck, "Thank you."

"You already said that." he reminded her.

"Well, you're stupid. You need to be told twice." she mocked him, and he rolled his eyes, before leaning his head closer, so she could nuzzle her head in his shoulder.

"He smelt different too." she admitted, "You smell... kinda weird."

"I got tossed in the pond." he reminded her, "It smelt pretty bad."

"I can tell." she mumbled, and he could hear her smile.

That made him feel a little better about their situation, which was exactly what he wanted to feel; he didn't feel the need to comment on it, and just let himself lie there, appreciating the fact that they were together. That was all he really needed at that moment. He could not say for certain what she wanted, but he knew she needed to be comforted, in whatever way she wanted. He hoped, and thought, he was doing that, given she had thanked him twice, for his stupidity's sake.

"Being an idiot has never felt so good." he mumbled, and she giggled.

"Of course you do. You're my idiot, after all." she declared, and he grinned.

"The most powerful idiot in the world. That has a nice, terrifying ring to it."

"Your terror can never hope to match mine." she whispered, "But you're getting there. I think you might have made the Minister shit himself."

"That was the plan." he reminded her, "Hopefully they're all terrified."

"If it's really Long Feng, I hope he is. He certainly deserves it."

"He does." he agreed, before shaking his head, "I don't want to think about him."

"Neither do I." she whispered back, and grabbed him by the back of his scalp, rustling her fingers through his hair, "Problems are for tomorrow."

"Just don't say that tomorrow." he warned her, and Azula smiled.

"My future self would never forgive me." she argued, "Stalling is a fool's game."

"But rest, that's necessary." he reminded her, and she leaned in closer.

"Yes, yes it is." she argued, and he let out a sigh.

"I wish I could stay here forever." he admitted, and she hummed; he could hear her pouting without having to open his eyes.

"Don't you dare." she warned him against leaving, and he didn't think to.

"I won't." he assured her, "But we will have to eat, sleep, wash."

"I wouldn't mind a wash." she admitted, and he scoffed.

"I thought you weren't going to do anything dirty." he warned her, and she shrugged.

"I did say that." she assured him, though she didn't confirm or deny she was thinking about a shower beyond cleaning herself.

She had washed up recently, and he could tell, because her hair had gleamed in the light of her small fire, and he could smell the soap off of her, in contrast to his dirty smell, despite the fact that he had tried to wash out the smell of the pond. However, that had not stopped her from messing her hair up in the bed, nor her eye makeup falling down her cheeks with her tears.

"You would have liked to see Katara kick the Dai Li's butts. It was glorious." he recalled, and she hummed.

"Oh, I would have." she agreed, before making another hum, sounding much less pleased than she had before, "You wouldn't have liked to see Yakone."

"The guy who saved you?" he asked, confused as to why he wouldn't want to see; perhaps it was a pride thing, though he was really just relieved that somebody had come to help her, and it didn't hurt his ego that it wasn't him, "Why?"

"You would have just been terrified." she admitted, her tone so blank that it couldn't have been a joke.

"Oh." he mumbled, "I don't think I should ask why."

"You shouldn't." she agreed with his judgement, "There are some things better left... undescribed."

"Like our love life... to Ty Lee." he joked, and she tut-tutted, leaning in closer.

"She would ooh and ah if she saw us now."

"Stop tempting me!" he heard Ty Lee, right outside the door.

"You know, that only makes me feel better." Azula declared, and the acrobat stomped her feet, perhaps in an exaggerated act of frustration.

Sokka held back a laugh, and he kissed his girlfriend on the forehead; that would make her feel better, if only because she knew Ty Lee couldn't see it. The Princess shrugged her shoulders and looked ready to giggle, but held herself back, just snuggling back into his shoulder.

"I can't believe that I'm snuggling with the Fire Lord of all people." he admitted the absurdity of his own life, given he could not have fathomed such a thing before he met Azula, and even after he had met her.

"It is a privilege few deserve and fewer receive." she whispered back to him, and he just smiled, closing his eyes as he lay there.

He was just relieved to be by her side; after all that had happened, that was all he could ask for, and it was all he needed.

"I wish we didn't have to be here." Azula mumbled, and rolled over, so she could face him, "Every misstep makes me feel like it was all a mistake."

"The mistake might have been leaving without finishing the job." he admitted, and Azula grimaced.

"A world where I have peace, and my throne, without any of the frustrating steps in the middle." she whispered, "Zuko just had to go and make a mess of things."

"I mean, it was his fault we got stuck together, wasn't it?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"He can't take credit for the machinations of the White Lotus, even if he was their beneficiary." she argued softly, "I wonder what they think of me now."

"A twist of fate. You're their only hope." he mumbled, knowing that even if it was a bit dramatic, that didn't make it not true; the White Lotus had had their chance with Zuko, and it was squandered.

Not because Zuko was corrupt or idiotic, but because of his honour; he didn't kill his father, and they all paid the price for it, the boy more than anyone else. He felt bad, wondering if he could have prevented it all by just persuading Azula and her brother to talk things out.

He knew that Azula was the only one who could take the throne and make peace between the nations, and she certainly was the only one with the guts to act on her beliefs. Iroh hadn't, despite his good nature and intentions; he could have made himself Fire Lord, but he just chose not to.

Sokka didn't want to become the bad guy, to lower himself to the level his enemies were stooping to, but he felt more and more that there was little choice. He fought for revenge now, not justice, not for progress, not for peace; he couldn't fathom such high ideals when he had Azula a sobbing mess and barely able to function. She might have been able to talk, think, and love, but she was frozen; she would not fight unless she had to, because she feared losing him, and perhaps she feared losing herself even more.

"Azula, do we have to be as bad as them to beat them?" he asked, and she hummed, seeming amused.

"We're not as bad as them, and it would be a challenge to stoop that low, even for me." she admitted, "But we can be brutal, we can be ruthless, and we can destroy everything in our path. That isn't as bad as corrupting the minds and hearts of everyone to simply hold onto power."

"Your mission... the Fire Nation's mission. How is that any different?"

"There was an illusion of choice." she mumbled, "But no longer. I'm giving people a real choice."

"And what about the traitors?" he asked her, and she laughed.

"We didn't have a pile of bodies back at the base." she argued, before grimacing, "Not until the Eastern Fleet decided to send those men to their deaths. They chose to fight, they could have just stayed away... but they didn't."

"Is choice enough?" he asked, "I mean, if I go and kill the Governing Council, how does that make me any better than the Dai Li brainwashing us all?" he asked her and Azula's face remained blank.

"It is better to die a warrior than live as a slave." she retorted, telling him a proverb that his own Gran-Gran had recited more than once before, in justifying why they sent their men to go fight the Fire Nation; it had not originally been intended for that context, but the sentiment still fit, "We merely want to trick them, but they want to make the whole world their slaves."

He grimaced at the thought, and nodded; even if it was wrong to go around killing people, he knew that the alternative might be much worse, not just for them, but for everyone else. He had wondered if he was just creating a villain in his mind, trying to justify their actions by claiming their enemy was evil and irredeemable, but after what they had faced, he only felt those claims proven true.

"You're right." he mumbled, and turned his eyes up to the roof, "Sorry for bringing this up."

"No, you're right to be concerned." she admitted, "I've already taken so much of your dignity. You should want to protect what remains." she conceded, and he winced, knowing that however blunt and harsh that sounded, she was right.

He had had to become a different person to fight alongside her; even if he stood true to his most important principles, he was much more willing to choose violence over negotiation, which ought to be the better, favoured outcome. There would be no negotiation with Dai Li, and neither with Ozai; half-measures would only lead them to death, and he understood this after all they had experienced. He did not want to aid Azula in becoming worse than her father, but rather wanted her to rise above his brutality. That's why he wanted them to win; if they could not win, then every misdeed and wrong they did would merely be for the continuation of all that was terrible about their world.

"So, we need to win." he declared, "Dignity isn't what matters. Doing what is right, that's what matters."

"I've never been too good with righteousness." she mumbled with a smile, seeming amused by the idea, even if what it suggested was nothing to laugh at.

Sokka had never thought himself a hero, not after he understood the real costs of war, but he knew that he would have to at least aspire to be one if he wanted to make good on his word. They had promised the Earth Kingdom a new world, a better way out of the war, and if they could not give it, then they deserved to lose.

"You're getting better." he assured her, kissing her on the forehead.

He then turned over again, and looked up to the ceiling; though he wasn't looking at her anymore, he locked hands with Azula, making sure she knew that he was still there. Through the narrow gaps that existed in the roof, he saw a dim stream of light, coming down from the afternoon sun. Sokka was unsure how long he had been there with her, and didn't know when he would have to leave. He would have to help formulate their plans to deal with Lake Laogai and the other prisons, but that would not be resolved in an afternoon.

"Maybe I can just lie here all day." he mumbled, and Azula didn't respond, though her grip on his hand tightened slightly, "Is there anything you want to do, beyond lying here?"

"Eat, probably." she mumbled, "I can't be bothered doing anything else."

"Same." he admitted, "I just want to be here."

"Really? Doesn't your mind live off of creating things... plans, contraptions, bad drawings?" she asked, and he winced at that insult; he wasn't the best artist, but he did put heart into drawings when he made them.

"I do... but that's not really important right now." he retorted, "Being here is what's important."

"Consoling your crazy girlfriend?" she asked, her self-deprecating insult a rare touch, but not a surprise, given the circumstances; she was self-loathing because she had failed, and more than that, she had made a mistake that had cost her her anonymity.

The guards were searching for her, specifically, because they had evidence that she had been inside the city, and quickly enough, she would be tied to whatever story they made about the attack on Minister Saburo.

"Don't call yourself crazy." he requested, "You were mad. Angry. You should have been. I would have been."

"You dealt with the same situation much better." she reminded him, and he winced.

"Well, the fake Azula wasn't convincing." he countered, "Take that as a compliment. Nobody can shine a torch to your... fire." he commented, deciding to say that instead of beauty; not because he thought she wasn't beautiful, but because her inner flame, and its outward reflection, that was Azula, not her face.

She leaned over and kissed his cheek, "Thank you."

"Hey, I'm just telling it how it is." he argued, "You are you. Nobody else can be you."

"Blue fire does have its perks."

He scrunched his lips, and turned his face to meet hers, "I'm not just talking about the colour."

She blinked a few times, perhaps thinking over his comment, before she smiled; not just with her lips, but with her eyes. It was a rare thing to see, but it told him she understood what he meant. He was talking about her heart, not her firebending, something that was only open to him; he was honoured with that privilege, and he made sure she appreciated that.

"You don't need fire." she whispered back to him, "My boomerang."

He almost laughed at her saying that without a shred of irony, but he kept his lips straight, not wanting to think he was making fun of her.

"I would prefer a different metaphor." he softly conceded, and she jabbed him in the side.

"Fine." she accepted his request with a disgruntled tone, "My idiot. Is that better?"

"Yep." he assured her, and kissed her on the forehead, before he pulled his body up, stretching for a moment as he wondered if he ought to get some food.

He wasn't terribly hungry, but he didn't want to lie there, get hungry, and then feel so uneasy about leaving that he refused to eat; given Azula's state, he knew that he couldn't just leave without her permission. At that moment, he winced, and realised she had won; he was her servant, even if it wasn't in the way she had originally intended him to be.

"I guess I am your servant." he conceded, and she laughed.

"Come on." she chided him, "You admitting that takes out all the fun."

"I didn't expect fun to be rolling off your tongue so soon." he mumbled, and she grabbed him by the shoulders as she sat herself up.

"I will never miss an opportunity to make fun of you, savage." she reminded him who exactly she was.

"Ah, I can almost taste that boiled water again." he recalled the first thing they had consumed together, back when they washed ashore in the eastern Earth Kingdom.

"Stop being nostalgic." she warned him, "Or I'll have to demand you start carrying me around this place on your back."

"Your pride would never allow that." he countered, and she smirked, leaning her head over his shoulder.

"Does your shame outweigh mine?" she asked, and he didn't really have an answer to that question.

"I don't know." he mumbled, before gesturing to the doorway, "I thought I ought to get us some food. Just so we don't have to leave the room again."

"I'm not that hungry." Azula admitted, and he scrunched his lips.

"You seemed pretty exhausted when you got back here. Are you sure?"

"I feel more sickened than hungry." she quietly added, and grabbed him by the cheeks, making him look at her, "But you're right. We should eat."

He pulled himself up, "I'll go get you something. You don't have to get up." he assured her, and she leaned herself back onto the mattress, placing her hands up behind her head.

"Fine, I'll wait for my meal, and you'll wait for yours." she declared, and for a moment, he was confused.

His cheeks flushed red when he realised the implications of her words, and he stepped over to the fabric that covered the doorway, readjusting his tunic to make sure he looked at least somewhat presentable.

Sokka then pushed the fabric apart, and glanced around, wondering if Ty Lee was still around. She wasn't standing out front anymore, so he assumed she had either gone to eat herself, back to her room, or to speak with the others, who must have still been preparing their plans to deal with Lake Laogai. He made his way down the hallway, and past the guards, who nodded at him as he made his way through.

He turned the corner, and continued on down towards the centre of their base, pacing up a staircase which led him to their communal kitchen, where there was food cooking most times of the day. Given it was the early evening already, dinner was cooked, and other people were already coming up to get their food. He stepped in line, waiting for his turn like everyone else. He realised that he was behind Jianren, who turned to face him with a smile.

"Ah, Sokka, it's good to see you." he addressed him, and offered him a handshake; Sokka accepted it, and gave a smile back.

"You too."

Jianren's gaze turned back towards the line, and a grimace formed on his face, as something must have come to mind.

"How's her majesty?"

"Getting better." he admitted the truth, "Just thought I should get us some dinner."

"I'm starving." the earthbender admitted, "I guess that's what walking across half the city does to you."

"Yeah." he nodded, recalling the time they had spent travelling back to the base; it had been a long, arduous walk, not helped by the fact they had to avoid using the train system out of fear they might be arrested.

Sokka crossed his arms, and glanced at Jianren's hands; the wrists were marked by striations, presumably from the shackles that had been put on his hands. Alongside a number of other earthbenders, he had been caught and thrown in a prison by the Dai Li, but they had been able to escape due to Toph's ingenious earthbending; she had figured out how to bend metal and used that advantage to break each and every person out of the prison.

The chaos caused by the prison break had been to their benefit, as when the prisoners reached the Lower Ring, they mostly spread out and left, returning to their home districts; as many of them were petty criminals, they were sure to earn the ire of the guards, and that would keep their attention away from finding their base of operations.

"Did they end up trying to interrogate you?" he asked him, and his eyes turned to meet Sokka's.

"When I was first caught." he admitted, "The Dai Li didn't try any of their... well, advanced techniques. They wanted to know where we had come from, and where the Fire Lord was."

"And what did you tell them?"

"That she had gone down into the catacombs to kill their leader. Some of them seemed to believe me." he explained with a smirk, seeming pleased with the anxiety he must have inflicted on those agents.

"Speaking of which... Do you think we should bother trying to capture some of the Dai Li's leadership? They might be able to give us some insight into their plans." he asked, knowing that he wanted revenge more than anything, and that might help him achieve it, but also serve the cause by finding out exactly what their enemies were plotting.

"Capturing agents is already going to be a challenge. We know where their leadership is hiding, and they know we know, so they would never let us reach them. Not even Toph." he argued, "I'm sure they have a few men with seismic sense training. In a city this large, there has to be people who have learned it."

"And given how useful it is... they would almost certainly be working for the Dai Li." he acknowledged, before scrunching his lips, "Did you ask the prisoners about their skills?"

"I observed them." he corrected him, "Some of them are very good at earthbending. Fast, lethal, and able to counter attack with ease. Most of them were... mediocre. I mean, some were veterans, with proper training, but others were just street criminals." he explained, and grimaced, "I expect some of them were proper... well, deserving of the cells they were placed in, let's just put it that way."

"I guessed that." he nodded, "But... they owe us- well, Toph, their freedom. They know that they have to help us... and not just go around robbing and killing people."

"Killing our enemies, however." Jianren suggested, not even giving his actual opinion, but simply acknowledging what they could achieve; he didn't want to rely on people who inherently could not be trusted, but if they had a bone to pick with the Dai Li, using them as a club to bludgeon the organisation to death, he certainly wouldn't be opposed to that.

"The principle matters." he admitted, before sighing, "But yeah, I can't refuse the help."

"Toph told me about the idea of going for Lake Laogai." Jianren spoke up, reminding Sokka of what he had been discussing with the others before he went to see Azula.

"Ah... well, what's your thought on that?"

"It sounds dangerous. Everything I have heard about that place screams terror and lies." he admitted, seeming quite unnerved, "But we need to help free those prisoners they must be holding."

"Some of them are probably our enemies." he admitted, knowing that a few would have to be Ozai loyalists.

Some of them would have been held there for political purposes, perhaps as hostages to keep the colonists and soldiers in line, and he knew the Dai Li would certainly stoop down to that level. However, many of the prisoners would be loyal to Azula, or simply opposed to the Dai Li's rule. He knew many people would have been brainwashed and reintroduced to the city, but there had to be value in simply holding the prisoners as a threat, warning any would-be rebels against standing up to them. At least, that was what Sokka would do in their shoes, thinking like a ruthless madman, set on keeping himself in power.

"Many more could be made allies. Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom, it's no matter." he argued, "If anything, it will give them another problem to throw their strength at."

"The people in the Lower Ring are still angry, no matter what concessions the Governing Council throws at them." he gave a simple observation, "When enough people are able to fight, and enough people are angry enough to support it, then we'll have exactly what we need."

"A storm." the earthbender astutely described it, and he smiled, liking that metaphor.

"Yeah, a storm. They're worried about the thunder, when the rain is what will drown them."

---

Darkness loomed over the city, and Ty Lee wondered if she ought to be so eagerly heading out to do something questionable, once again. The colonials of Ba Sing Se were spread around, but Ty Lee had made her way some distance across the Lower Ring to a colonial quarter, which took her a few hours to reach. She was joined by Katara, and a few other fighters who were willing to come along. Their reasons for being there were complicated, given they had more than one goal concerning the colonials.

There was a colonial-run arms factory that Jet and Toph had learned about that they wanted to steal from, but to do so, they'd need to minimise the presence of guards and Dai Li agents in the area, given the importance of the factory to the security of the city. So, Ty Lee's job was to minimise their presence by getting the authorities eyes all on them; they were not meant to be playing the role of the Coalition, but rather agitators in support of the colonials. That was despite the fact that she was the only Fire Nation citizen among their little group of agitators.

They had already spread the word in other colonial quarters, and there had been positive results. Unrest was growing among the colonial population, who were actively starting to disobey the authorities. It was civil disobedience, rather than a revolt, but that was a good start; not paying taxes, tolls, and actively declaring their allegiance to their homeland, over the Governing Council.

Even in the quarter she had entered, despite the fact she and the Coalition had never stuck their fingers inside, she could see the mark of their influence. Blue banners hung from many windows, which might just look like an odd choice in curtains, but it was more than obvious to her what it signified: they had chosen their Fire Lord, and she was going to lead them.

When she made her way down an alleyway, heading towards the centre of the quarter, where the local town hall and guard barracks were located, she came across something that was even more indicative of the public sentiment. It was a graffiti drawing, marked out across a wall, which depicted Azula, dressed as the Fire Lord, leading the colonials against their Dai Li oppressors, led by a shadowy, faceless Grand Secretariat.

More surprisingly, Azula was actually accompanied by earthbenders, Water Tribesmen, and most distinctively, somebody who had to be Aang. People didn't know what he looked like, so he was depicted as a bald youth, marked with blue arrows across his body, wearing some flowing orange robes, which were somewhat similar to the ones he actually wore when he wasn't in disguise.

"Wow." Katara gasped out as she saw the graffiti, "That's... that's pretty cool."

"Somebody's got some time on their hands." she mumbled, before glancing behind herself to Haru; he had been travelling around the city to gather more intel than she had, so she felt he was qualified enough to answer her question, "Do you know if it was one of us that drew this?"

"No, I don't recall anyone ever coming up this way." he conceded, and traced his hand along the wall, "I do wonder if they trust us."

"The Coalition?" Katara asked, "I mean, we've got Azula, I think that might be enough."

"For some people." Ty Lee warned her, "Not for all."

The Fire Nation had always viewed the other nations as their lessers, and even among the colonials, who were more often than not living among and closely interacting with people from the other nations, there was still a sentiment of disdain and mistrust. The war had cost many families much, and most people could name somebody that they had lost, either in their own generation or before them. She imagined it was much the same among the Earth Kingdom citizenry, with the added trauma that the refugees from the west must have faced being forced from their homes.

Azula might have been uniting disparate sides together, but that did not mean those people would ever trust or like each other; she hoped that the colonials would realise that tolerating each other was the best option, given that the alternative was destruction, death, and more suffering for countless generations. The war might have been lauded as righteous by many in the Fire Nation, but that did not mean that their own people were not suffering because of it, even in victory.

"I hope we can find whoever did this." Katara admitted, "We need more people to help spread the word, right?"

Ty Lee nodded in agreement, and continued down the alleyway; at the end, she glanced down each way of the street, seeing that it wasn't that busy. They were away from the night market and eateries, where people would be for their dinners. She continued down across the street through the alleyway, and turned a corner as the alleyway was blocked off by a large building, which she recognised as a factory. She made her way down another alleyway, which led out to a central crossroads, where there was a well, some benches, and a few trees lining the sides, which were otherwise quite rare in the Lower Ring.

She stepped over to the well, so she could look down each street, trying to figure out which one they needed to take to reach their destination. She noticed that one of the streets was much busier than the others, telling her that was the one leading down to the centre of the quarter. She slowly made her way down the street, and the group was forced to move in a single file as the number of pedestrians drastically increased, with each crossroads they passed leading to more people filling the way.

Finally, they came to the central square, where a large number of stalls, shops, and businesses were located; the place was packed with people, though the square itself wasn't that full, as people were primarily there to get their dinner. There were a few tables, chairs, and benches sitting around the edge of the street that lined the square, and most of them were packed full. The sounds of chatter were everywhere, forming an incredulous noise that made it hard to hear her own thoughts, though she was able to alleviate that slightly by making her way out to the centre of the square, where a large fountain lay. The fountain was decrepit, and she could see that there had been a statue in the middle, where the water spout out from, but only the feet remained.

"This place is nice." Katara commented, and she was unsure if the Water Tribe girl was being sarcastic or not; that was more of a Sokka thing, though it wouldn't surprise her his sister of all people had a penchant for snide sarcasm.

She turned around to see that Katara was actually being genuine, with a small smile on her face, "I would say we should get some food... but this place is way too busy."

Ty Lee glanced behind them, and saw their target. The town hall of the district, in all its glory, or lack thereof; the building was quite massive, and had clearly been refurbished after colonisation, with golden paint lining its eaves and walls, though she thought it looked a bit gaudy given the otherwise sorry state of the building. The most distinctive thing there was the massive banners that hung down its walls, which were marked with the colours of the Governing Council, and their symbol. It was the same symbol used by the Earth Kingdom, a golden coin with a square cut through the centre, but the colours of the banner were distinctive, being green, gold, and red, combining the colours of the two nations that had made peace to form the new government.

"The Governing Council loves to show off their flag." the Water Tribe girl commented, "And I thought the Fire Nation was bad."

"Hey... we're-" Ty Lee began, before realising she was right; they threw their red and black flag up everywhere they could, and it hung from every public building if there was space for one, "Okay, that's true." she mumbled, before gesturing over to the building that lay just across a crossroads from the town square; the barracks of the local section of the city guard, which was lined with tall brick walls, "The guard barracks."

Those were the people they wanted to mess with, though Ty Lee thought they could enter the town hall and try and gather some intelligence there before they made a mess of things. She turned back to face the others, and decided to speak her mind.

"Okay, we should probably split up, take some positions to spot for guards, and then, we'll go into the hall. I want to find out everything we can about the things going on here. If we can reveal corruption, or find some people to help the Coalition, it doesn't matter what." she explained her intentions, and the others nodded along; not all of them were out in the square, given that they split up into three groups to try and avoid getting too much attention from the guards as they travelled through the district, "Somebody go tell the others the plan, and the rest of us will spread out."

Ji stepped forward and selected herself, "You got it. I'll go tell the others. What about the guard barracks?"

"I don't want to start a fight just yet. Jet will get what he wants when I get what I want." she argued, and she nodded, before pacing away to go find the others, who must have been waiting in nearby alleyways.

"Wow, you're- uh, surprisingly good at dishing out orders." Katara admitted, and Ty Lee grinned.

"Wait, really? I'm just doing my best Azula impression out here... I guess it works." she whispered back and the Water Tribe girl giggled.

"That'd do it."

Ty Lee glanced at the others, and gestured to the sides of the town hall, "You got it?" she asked them, and everyone nodded.

Confident that they were going to watch each other's backs, she made her way over to the left side of the town hall, spotting out for entrances; she momentarily looked on the other side of the street, checking out the guard barracks, which were mostly obscured by the tall brick walls that surrounded the plot of land.

She continued down the street, and observed that there was a garden at the rear of the town hall, with some trees, a pond, and what looked like some lounging areas. However, the entrances into the garden had been fenced off from public access, for whatever reason. Perhaps it was to be used by the local administrator and his lackeys, though there was the possibility that it was just being fixed up. Given the decrepit state of the building itself, it did not seem like a far off possibility.

She found a gap in the wooden palisade that was blocking off the garden, and thought to squeeze through. She snapped her fingers to get the attention of Katara, who paced down the street to spot for her. She then gave a thumbs up, allowing her to try and sneak on inside. She made her way into the garden, and eyed around for an entrance into the actual town hall.

The rear portion of the building had a few large doors, though each of those appeared to be locked. However, there was a window she spotted that was open sitting to the side. She paced over to that, and leaned up against the wall, listening out for any people that might have still been inside. She could faintly hear people speaking, but they were not in the room the window led into. She decided to act, leaping up to grab the windowsill, using it as leverage to pull herself through the window and into the room.

It was a small office, with a few desks inside; there was a wall full of scrolls, and she thought to try and read through some, just to get an idea of what was going on in the district. However, she stopped herself as she realised it would be pointless to just read through the documents without knowing what area of government she would be dealing with. So, she ran her hands over the desks, looking for any loose sheets of paper that might tell her what they did in the office.

She came across what looked like a form, and from its contents, she realised it was a request for a building permit. So, she guessed that the office dealt with building permits and zoning; that was probably the least interesting thing to look at, though she was almost certain that there was some corruption involved there. It was too obvious a place not to force bribes out of people, or be bribed to allow for certain developments to go ahead, to the benefit of one wealthy businessperson over the rest of the district's population.

She glanced over to the window, where she could see that Katara had come in after her, and was struggling to get through the window; she offered her a hand, helping her through. She smiled and dusted herself off, before eyeing around the office.

"What's this place?"

"Building authority." she clarified, and the Water Tribe girl seemed confused.

"Wait... like allowing people to build stuff?" she asked, and the acrobat nodded.

"Uh, yep, that's what they do." she confirmed, and Katara seemed confused.

"Why would they..." she began, before shaking her head, "Whatever, there's got to be something more useful to look at than this."

"Exactly." she agreed with her assessment, and pushed the door open, glancing out into the hallway.

She couldn't see anyone in the hallway, but the voices she had heard before were louder now, telling her that they were probably just down the hallway in one of the other rooms. Ty Lee stepped across the hallway. and pushed another door open. That led them into a records room, which had even more scrolls, which seemed to be divided up by geographical location, with the names of what seemed to be subdistricts. She guessed that it concerned either property ownership or residents, both for tax purposes. Again, that wasn't all that interesting, as it wouldn't tell them anything about the local government's misdeeds or secrets.

"Uh... this is a lot of scrolls." she mumbled, "And all for one district." she realised, seeming a bit concerned, "What are they keeping here? All the names of all the people who live here?" she asked, and Ty Lee picked out a scroll, and unfurled it.

It was a document concerning a plot of land, who owned it, what it was used for, and what it was valued at by the authorities.

"Property." she mumbled, before putting the scroll back, "There's got to be something interesting here."

"Or maybe not." Katara countered, "The local government doesn't seem to do all that much except paperwork." she noted with an amused smirk, and stepped back out of the door, "Should we listen to what those people are talking about?"

"Maybe just wait." she suggested, "There are other rooms to search."

The Water Tribe girl nodded, and they split up, each of them checking a room; the one Ty Lee found was old, dust-laden, and didn't seem to be in use, beyond being storage for some old, unused furniture, covered in blankets. She felt suspicious enough to check under the blankets, and found absolutely nothing. Not even rats or spiders, just dust. She felt a bit disappointed, though she appreciated not getting frightened by some random critters.

She turned around and stepped back out, noticing that Katara was still inside her room, checking whatever must have been inside. She made her way into that room, stepping inside and making a low whistle to make sure she knew it was her; the Water Tribe girl was rummaging through some cabinets, and when she noticed her, she tossed her a file. She grabbed it with ease, before opening it up. The contents were just some sheets of paper, on which were written some notes, and what seemed to be a formal report of some kind.

However, what she was looking at was of quite some interest to herself, and the Coalition more broadly; the report and notes concerned a local anti-Fire Nation group, who were being spied on for the purposes of curtailing a future uprising. However, she realised from the dating of the documents that they had been written up over a year prior, during the Fire Nation's occupation.

She guessed that the documents had been kept because it was still in the interest of the Governing Council to keep the most radical groups in check. To the Coalition, those sounded like potentially dangerous, but very useful allies. Balancing between assuring the colonists and riling up Earth Kingdom patriots was perhaps the most challenging aspect of the Coalition's political machinations.

As a Fire Nation citizen, she did find herself partial to the colonists' plight, but even she could see that they needed to leave Ba Sing Se, sooner rather than later. Their presence would only further agitate the people of the Lower Ring, and that would happen no matter if their Provisional Government was established or not.

She shot Katara an approving glance, and put the report down on a nearby desk; she thought they should take as many of the reports as they could, and if that wasn't feasible, try to memorise the contents so they could at least recall those people they ought to seek aid from. She was about to go and check through the cabinet for some more files that might cover similar kinds of people, but her attention was drawn by footsteps and clear shouting down the hallway.

"Stop sitting around!" she heard somebody shout out, "I've just received a report from the local detachment of Dai Li agents that there are suspected terrorists in the district."

"T-terrorists?" she heard one of the people who had been speaking in a nearby room, "Should we evacuate?"

"No, stay in place. The agents are going to secure the premises and ensure that nobody threatens the administrator or his employees." the first voice explained, before more footsteps could be heard.

Ty Lee tensed up, and lunged under the desk before she could think of doing anything else. She curled up, and waited patiently to see if the newcomer would enter the office. Katara had not gone under the desk, but had instead taken cover someplace else, though she couldn't see where. She just hoped that he couldn't see her either. The door was pushed open, and a few moments later, she heard footsteps approach the desk.

"Whose brilliant idea was it to leave the files out? These are organised for a reason!" he complained, and he picked up the documents they had left out, before putting them back in the cabinets.

He left quickly, and closed the door behind himself, allowing her to breathe out and let out a sigh of relief, "Crap, that was close."

"Way too close." she heard Katara whisper, and the Water Tribe girl crawled out from cover, "The others don't know that they're already suspicious. They're going to get caught."

"Well... that was the plan." she countered, "We're just running ahead of schedule." she argued, and scrunched her lips, "Jet and the others will surely be at the factory by now."

Ty Lee stepped back over to the door, leaning up against it so she could better listen out to whatever was being said. She heard another door being opened, and another being shut, before voices called down the hall.

"Move out, secure the exits. Act as if we are already under attack... the enemy will not be merciful." somebody warned, and Ty Lee smirked; they were right, because they weren't in the business of being merciful.

She might not kill anyone, but most of her friends would have little issue doing that, given who they were facing. She decided that she would not attack until the opportune time, because even if she was confident she could chi-block a few Dai Li agents, she did not have the confidence to just run out and fight them without knowing their numbers.

"What are we going to do about the files? There are too many to carry." Katara asked her with a whisper, and she cringed, knowing they could benefit from the reports on the local agitators, but it would be a challenge to gather the documents they needed and still do what they planned to do.

"Grab any that are interesting and put them in your bag." she decided, "When we have to leave, I'll try and keep the Dai Li agents distracted." she explained, knowing that she would need to do that when Katara inevitably had to leave and take the documents with her.

She remained up against the door, listening for the voices; she could hear footsteps moving up and down the hallway, and then, she heard the same voice from earlier.

"Everyone get into the hall! I won't tell you twice!" he called out, presumably to whoever was still in the building; more footsteps followed, and Ty Lee remained silent, the only noises in the room coming from Katara brushing paper against itself, as she slowly filled her bag with a selection of documents.

She heard a high pitched whistle, and recognised that as the signal of their attack; one of the agents, who must have been standing in the hallway, began to run towards the closest exit, "What was that?" he asked out, and a few moments later, she heard some grunts and cries; her gaze turned back over to Katara, and they nodded at each other, for their moment had arrived.

Ty Lee pushed the door ajar, allowing her to glance through the gap, and she could see that the agent had opened the front door, and had pulled up some earthen defences to protect himself from their allies; she couldn't make anyone out through the door, but she was sure they had surrounded the entire compound. She then dashed down the hallway, and ran at the agent. By the time he heard her footsteps and turned around, it was too late; her foot collided with his chest and threw him back into his own defences. He crumpled over with a groan; she didn't even need chi-blocking, and that made her smirk. She was pleased that her physical training had been paying off.

She heard a whirring behind her, and didn't even need to turn around; she dropped towards the ground, spun around, and somersaulted, dodging a chain, and then a pair of stone gloves. The agent ran towards her, withdrawing his chain in preparation to launch it again, but Ty Lee kept her distance, letting him try again.

She let the chain grab her by the arm, and as she was pulled closer, she skid along the waxed wooden floor, before uppercutting the agent with her free arm once she was with reach. He stumbled back, and pulled up his arms, hoping to protect his face from another blow; however, she was aiming for his gut, and once his feet fell from beneath him, he must have realised his mistake.

Glancing over, she could see that Katara was giving her a thumbs up of approval, and she gestured down the hallway, "Get going. I'll do my part." she assured her, and the Water Tribe girl nodded before dashing down the hallway.

Another two agents came out, and took defensive stances; they weren't stupid enough to just attack her, seeing their comrade lying at her feet. They both launched grappling chains towards her legs, forcing her to jump up, leveraging herself by stepping on one wall and planting her hands on another. She then dropped back to the ground, running towards them while they drew out their gloves.

Both agents switched positions, before launching a glove each at her; she was able to somersault out of the way of both gloves, which flew into the walls behind her. Then, when she got closer, they shot out two more gloves; this time, they were too close to simply dodge, so she had to slide on the floor instead. She slid right to their feet, and made a sweeping kick to knock them down. They had anticipated it, but by stepping back, they simply weakened their footing; she just had to punch them both twice, in their legs, so they wouldn't be able to move them.

When they stumbled, one used the other for leverage, allowing him to grab a hold of Ty Lee before she could move out of the way of their tumble. Though they didn't fall on top of her, the agent had a strong grip, forcing her to kick him square in the chest to get him to let go. Once he did, she jabbed both him and the other agent on their lower backs, paralysing them further so they wouldn't pose a threat.

With those agents dealt with, she turned her attention back down the hallway; she wanted to regroup with the others; as much as beating down on the agents stroked her ego, she was no Azula. She felt no delight in beating them down, and simply wanted to get out of the place so she could make sure all of them got out of the area unscathed. She ran down the hallway, and out the doorway, where Katara was standing, water coiled around her body, fending off three Dai Li agents, who were themselves forced to fend off the rest of the fighters, who were using weapons and bending to get their attention.

Katara was momentarily distracted by her arrival, but Ty Lee made sure to close any potential gap in her defence by launching herself at one of the agents. She knew he was going to shoot a stone glove at her, and when he did, she let it grab her hands. The agent then stepped over her as she landed, and she feigned defeat; he reached for his chain, ready to restrain her properly, only to find himself swept off his feet by a sweeping kick. His gloves lost their strength, as they were bent into place, and she shattered them by hammering her stone-covered hands over his hat, which made a loud thunk as the stone broke upon it.

"Thanks for the weapon, dummy." she insulted her opponent, before grabbing his grapple chain; when he tried to lock it on her hands, it only made it open up, meaning she could spin him around and throw him into the closest agent.

The two of them were thrown to the ground, leaving them to be beaten by the earthbending of some of her allies, restraining them in place. Katara blocked another glove as it came at Ty Lee, and the acrobat returned the favour by somersaulting and jabbing the agent in the side, chi-blocking his left arm. He tried to do the same thing with the other glove, in that hand, only to find it unresponsive. She grinned and tripped him over, amused by his mistake.

He let out a shout, "Wait a second!" he pleaded, only to be smacked into his own earthen defences by Katara's water whip.

"What was that?" Ty Lee questioned him mockingly, as if she couldn't hear what he said, "I didn't think you guys actually got scared."

It seemed that fate wasn't happy with her attitude, as she found herself thrown off her feet and into another defensive wall pulled up by an agent; her arms were restrained by a pair of stone gloves, and darting her eyes around, she realised there were more agents up on the first floor of the building, who had climbed out of the windows to face them. Though they might have been more exposed, they had surprise on their side, and were able to restrain a few of their fighters.

Katara was lucky enough to lunge back through the doorway, narrowly missing the chain that was aimed at her, before she turned back around. She and Ty Lee locked eyes, and the Water Tribe girl knew what to do. She reached out towards the pond that lay in the garden, and took as much water as she could bend from it, launching it up towards the agents that she couldn't see, but Ty Lee could. They were caught in the water, which froze mid-air, sticking them in place.

That made Ty Lee smile, appreciating her quick thinking, and she felt the strength of the stone-gloves weaken somewhat, but she couldn't free herself from the grip. She tried to force herself free by leveraging her legs against the walls, but that didn't work either. Katara tried to approach her, only to find herself hoisted by a chain and pulled back into the building.

"Katara!" she shouted out her name, afraid that the Dai Li might actually catch her, given that nobody else was inside.

She saw Haru leapt out of cover, and he shattered her gloves, "Get Katara, we'll keep them occupied out here."

"Don't leave the bag." she gestured to the bag that Katara had left by the door, "Those documents are important."

He nodded, and she dashed back down the hallway, hoping that she could reach her friend before she was properly dragged away by the agents; she could hear her shouts inside the building, but she couldn't see her. A few of the agents she had already beaten were back up, and some of them stood in her way.

"You!" one of them addressed her, clearly agitated; he shot out two chains, one first towards one of her legs, which missed, and another towards her neck.

She blocked that with one of her arms, which allowed him to drag her closer. She let him do it, knowing she couldn't get him out of the way without chi-blocking him. The agent's footing was weak, probably because he had only just gotten feeling back in his legs, and though he was clearly physically strong, it only took a single kick to the shin to get him to fall to one knee. He grabbed her with his right hand by the arm, and she suckerpunched him in the head; she was not playing around. Blood dripped from his nose, and he dropped down to the ground face-first, unable to respond.

He did get out one word, "Bitch."

She ran past him, where the other two agents had been, and she saw that they were just recovering from her jabs; they weren't even back up yet, and one of them tried to get her with a chain. She saw that coming, and vaulted over a cabinet in the hallway to avoid it, before kicking him in the gut. That wasn't even chi-blocking, and given his unsteady footing, he fell over easily. The other agent lunged at her with his hands, grabbing her hands and forcing back into the wall.

Before she could kick him, he headbutt her hard; she was dazed and felt sickened by the blow, though she still carried through with her intent and kneed him in the crotch. She knew it was their mistake for only having men in their organisation. He groaned and while he was occupied by that pain, she shoved him off of her and stumbled down the hallway.

"Katara!" she called out to her friend, hoping she would respond; she was still unsteady in her footing, and unsure if she would be able to beat whoever had taken her.

"Over here!" she called out, before letting out a cry; she must have gotten hit by whatever agent had restrained her.

She made her way over to an office, where she heard the voice, and once she slammed the door open, she could see that Katara had been pinned into a chair, with stone gloves holding both her hands to the armrests.

The agent turned around to face her, "And who the hell are you?" he accusingly asked, and she raised her hands up, ready to chi-block him and end the fight before it even started.

She didn't respond, instead using her hands as a distraction while she made a sweeping kick. It made contact, but she wasn't steady enough to hold her footing, and stumbled back into the door. As he too stumbled, he launched out his chain, and it grabbed her by the throat; she gasped out for air, and regretted not taking a moment to breathe after she had been smacked in the head. She was overconfident, or perhaps just too worried about Katara to even consider it. After what happened with Azula, she wasn't letting those bastards near any of her friends.

"Answer my question, girl." he demanded, and just in case Katara had any smart ideas, he punched her in the solar plexus, making her gasp for air and sputter.

Her head slumped down, while Ty Lee was being choked; the agent restrained her hands with a stone lock, and loosened the chain, just enough that she could breathe properly, and thus, speak.

"What did the... the idiot say to the bad guy?" she asked him, as if she was telling a joke; she was just buying time, watching as Katara forced her water skin open slowly, barely able to move her hands.

He wasn't amused, and forced her up against the wall, "You're a chi-blocker." he observed astutely, "That's how you paralysed my comrades."

"Okay, you got me." she conceded that he understood her abilities, eyeing Katara cautiously moving some water behind him, "But I didn't get to finish the joke, you're meant to say what."

He leaned closer and tightened the grip of the chain, "What?"

"Freeze." she gave the answer, which was really a direction for Katara, who flicked her hand, or at least, tried to, turning the water that she had struggled to draw out into ice shards, which she then threw into the man's face as he turned around, hearing her struggling.

"Argh!" he screamed out as he was apparently blinded; blood splattered out, and he stumbled back, grasping at his eyes.

Ty Lee took the chance to smack him hard with her bound hands, right in the side of the face, which made him sputter and fall to the ground, writhing in pain. She watched as Katara took the remaining ice shards, mixed with the man's blood, and used them to slice the stone of her shackles, though that didn't break them fully. It did, however, allow Ty Lee to break them with her own bound hands, weakening her own shackles, and hurting her hands; she didn't really care that much, given the urgency with which they needed to escape the building and rejoin their comrades.

Katara took her free hand, and used it to bend the water she had to slash at her other shackle, before she pulled her other hand right out of the shackle. The agent was still writhing on the ground, and he tried to grab at Ty Lee's leg; she just kicked him in the chest, not wanting him to try and restrain her again. Katara grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her hands out before she sliced her stone shackles in twain with her waterbending, and cut the chain that was around her neck, allowing her to breathe properly once again.

"Let's get out of here." she told her, and with that, the two of them ran out of the room, and back down the hallway.

The agents were still dazed, and didn't try to get up and fight up; when they got back to the doors, she saw a few agents lying splain over the ground who weren't there before. Further ahead, she could see some of the Northern waterbenders, who had come in and cleaned up what remained of the agents there. She recognised one of them as the man who had saved Azula back when she was dealing with the fake Sokka.

He seemed to be leading the group, and he gestured towards the gates, which had been broken open by earthbending, "Come on!" he called on them, "They're going to regroup!"

She understood the urgency, and kept running, past the waterbenders and vaulted over the broken gates, and back out into the street. That's where she saw the others, who were fighting off a dozen or so guards; they were winning against them, given the average guard had little on most of their fighters, who were battle-hardened warriors who had spent years fighting the Fire Nation.

"Run away if you know what's good for you!" Katara warned them as she drew out some water from a nearby sewer pipe, and the guards held their lines.

She turned the water into a massive wall, and swung it at the guards, before freezing it, sticking them in place. They were clearly shocked and confused, but were unable to do much but stand there and try to wring themselves free. Ty Lee turned to face the others, and gestured down a nearby street.

"We need to get out of here!" she called on them, and everyone understood; they weren't going to bother splitting up, at least not yet, and everyone gathered together and ran, the waterbenders following not far behind.

They bent the ice back into water, flung the guards away, and brought the water along with them, given that unlike earth or fire for other kinds of benders, they had a relatively limited supply of it with them. Katara had refilled her waterskin, and was anticipating another attack; when they turned a corner and found themselves face to face with a couple Dai Li agents, she shot out a water whip, smacking them across their faces. Though that only disoriented them for a moment, the other fighters took the chance to beat down on them. Blades cut, rocks flew, and then more water, or worse, ice, was tossed at them. The results were not pretty, and she tried to ignore the blood as she ran past their bodies.

Ty Lee was not used to it, but she had to tolerate it; she kept running, and when more guards appeared, more blood was spilled; she was fast enough to chi-block a few of them, sparing them from what would have otherwise been brutal, quick ends to their lives. Others were not as lucky, and instead of jabs, they found their bodies mangled. She felt sick looking at it, but just kept running, for that was all she could do. When they reached one of the tunnel entrances that they had used to cross past the government's new checkpoints, the earthbenders pulled up walls, which would at least keep the guards at bay, before they all ran down into the tunnel.

She was expecting another confrontation with the Dai Li, but nobody was there, at least at that very moment; everyone filed inside, and the entrance was closed up. Darkness consumed them, at least for a few moments, before one of the fighters lit a lantern; Ty Lee's gaze turned over to Katara, who seemed even more shaken by the events than she was.

"The blood or the shackles?" she asked her, and the Water Tribe girl looked ready to vomit.

"Both." she admitted, and leaned up against the earthen wall, "Please, just... give me a second."

"Keep moving!" she told the others, knowing that once they were out of the tunnel, they could safely return to their closest safehouse, which was an old abandoned warehouse near the edge of the district; her gaze turned back to Katara, and she placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I get it." she assured her, "I don't like it either... but I can't just let them hurt us." she admitted, knowing there was little choice; they could run, but only so much, and only so far.

They had to make a stand every once in a while, and it was certain that those fights would end in somebody dying. Their side was just lucky that they had only lost a few people. She was sure they would lose more before they saw victory, but at the very least, she would do everything to make sure her friends were not among them.

"Thank you." she smiled at her, "You... you nearly died trying to save me."

"I was thinking of something." she assured her, knowing that even if she had been in grave danger, even without Katara, she would have thought a way out of that situation; at least, that was what she told herself.

"You shouldn't have to do that again." the Water Tribe girl declared, and Ty Lee hardened her expression; she wanted victory, above all else, so they would never have to be afraid again.

"We won't, once we're done, and they're gone."

"You sound like Azula when you say that." she warned her, as if it were a bad thing; though Ty Lee had her own criticisms of the Princess, there was no denying she had the right mindset when it came to their war against the Dai Li.

It was either they would die, or their enemies would. So, their enemies would die.

"She's right about that. Only one side can survive. I'd rather live."