You know, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly this story became popular. Despite being the youngest of all the stories I write by a fairly wide margin, it's already competing with all of them (and surpassing some of them) in terms of favorites, alerts, reviews and all of that good stuff. Kind of makes me wonder what exactly fostered such a reception.

Despite a preference for humility, I'm fully aware that I'm very good at writing, and I'm sure the fact that the story is well-written and put together is a factor. Still, I feel like there has to be something else that draws people in. Is it because there aren't enough stories from a Fire Nation perspective in which the main character doesn't defect immediately? Is it because there aren't many stories that focus on the bad girl trio as a group? I just feel like there has to be a hook I hadn't really planned on somewhere.

Or maybe it's just a combination of things. Feel free to share your own reason for sticking around if you want. After all, there has to be something for people to stay invested even with such long wait times between chapters.


Fully aware that his potential lead on the Avatar was already a long shot at best, Xisheng wasted no time in determining the best course of action so it could be acted on immediately. Unfortunately, there were some problems that presented themselves right away, as he stood on the far bank of the river somewhere out in the woods. The problem was that he had no frame of reference for getting back to the others. Being unfamiliar with this area overall, he didn't actually know how to get back to the Overlord from where he was right now.

Sure, he knew the rough direction it was in from his current position, but with the amount of distance between him and the vehicle, even a slight miscalculation in trajectory could lead him pretty far astray. Not to mention that there was almost no distinguishable mark near all of this white fur to readily identify it upon returning to try and pick up the trail. Even if Xisheng did make it back to the Overlord, he'd be hard pressed to drive it back here so they could potentially follow this trail, if Azula felt like that was the right call.

So he was in a bit of a tight spot. If he could communicate with Azula at a distance, the issue would be moot, but they were lacking a bird for long-range communication. Thankfully, Firebenders had some other options available to them.

In the Army, Firebenders would launch special plumes of flame into the sky to signal other troops or their commanders, if no alternative was available. There were several ways to use these signals to get basic messages across, and most every soldier learned what all of those signals were during their training. Considering that the forest in this area wasn't particularly thick as far as the canopy was concerned, Xisheng could feasibly use such a signal to at least establish Azula's location.

There were two issues with this line of reasoning, however. For one, they were in enemy territory, technically. Launching large plumes of flame into the sky was giving away their rough location to potentially unwanted eyes. That said, they were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, completely in the wilderness of the Earth Kingdom. There were no trade routes, no locations to protect, no nearby city that troops needed to move to: while the risk wasn't completely nonexistent, it was very unlikely that anyone with the power to do anything was around to notice the signal. He supposed the Avatar's group could technically still be around to notice it, but it seemed unlikely, considering the seeming age of the fur trail.

The second problem was whether or not Azula would respond to the signal as Xisheng desired. These signals were standard knowledge for soldiers, but Azula was not a soldier. She hadn't gone through the same training Xisheng had. It was possible that she wouldn't know what the signal meant, how to respond to it, or what she should do.

That said, Azula was an intelligent young woman. Xisheng was fairly certain she was smart enough to figure out the most likely reason he would launch a jet of flame into the sky for all to see. Or at least, he sure hoped so.

With that hope in mind, Xisheng gathered energy into his right hand and threw it towards the sky, creating a fireball with a trailing steam that arced decently far into the air. Launching flame into the sky was the most basic form of Army signal, but then again, it was all that needed to be done to request the location of allies. The more complicated signals, which required pulses, timing, or manipulation of flames while they were airborne, weren't needed here.

When the flame reached the apex of its arc, it began dissipating into the air almost immediately. Without the chi of the bender, there was nothing to actually burn, so it was guaranteed to fizzle out before it accidentally started a forest fire or something.

By the time the flames had withered away completely, Xisheng had still received no response from Azula. Of course, there were plenty of reasons why that could be. Maybe Azula hadn't seen it, either due to obstructed vision or simply the fact that she hadn't been looking in this general direction. Or maybe she had seen it and didn't know how to respond. She could assume that he was in danger or something, and therefore choose to avoid signalling her presence due to the possibility of alerting enemies. Such was the problem with this kind of communication.

Still, at about the time Xisheng was considering firing off a second signal, he got the response he was looking for. A single ball of azure flame peeked over the trees off to his right, pretty far into the distance. As the flame reached its apex and began the glowing process of fading away, Xisheng couldn't help but admire how beautiful it was. Truth be told, Azula's fighting style meant you generally only saw her flames in small amounts and for short periods of time. It wasn't every day that you got to see the sapphire color of her craft in such a large and extravagant manner.

Honestly, Xisheng was kind of jealous. No matter how skilled or powerful he became, he would never be able to create flames like that. Or at least, he didn't think he would. Best as he could tell, it wasn't something one could just develop through hard work or will. However, it also didn't seem hereditary: everyone had seen the Fire Lord's bending during the Agni Kai with Zuko, and there had been no blue flame there. So it begged the question: why was Azula's flame special?

Xisheng couldn't think of any potential reason. It couldn't be her focus or her drive or intensity or anything like that. Plenty of other Firebenders had such traits over the years. If anything, it was ironic that someone of Azula's disposition created flames that were so gorgeous. Ultimately, Xisheng figured it was something he would have to ask her. Assuming Azula even knew herself why she had such a special trait.

Shelving those thoughts for now, Xisheng quickly marked the direction of Azula's flare in the dirt around him, while also making sure to mentally mark a particular tree that was in the direction he would soon need to go. Before that though, he had to find a way to mark this location so he could lead his comrades back to it.

Thankfully, fire had some users in regards to somewhat longer-lasting signals as well. Wasting little time, Xisheng cleared a decently large area on the ground around him, before gathering some branches and brush in the immediate vicinity. After gathering up some rocks from the riverbed, he had everything he needed to create a long-lasting fire that wouldn't spread to the forest around him and cause some sort of accident. Lighting his contained kindling, Xisheng waited until the flames started to grow before searching out a bit more fuel that would add longevity and more smoke to the process.

Once the fire was raging well enough and smoke started rising into the sky, Xisheng turned back in the direction he had marked thanks to Azula's flare. At a decent jog, the fire he had created would last plenty long enough to reach them, and the smoke would serve as a waypoint to get back to this place. With all of that in mind, the Fire Nation officer locked his direction and made sure to keep it dead ahead as he crossed the river and started jogging through the forest.

The problem here was that he still only had a general direction to head in, which meant he could still get lost, especially if his straight line was interrupted by on obstacle, like any one of the many trees in the forest. But despite not being an Army Pathfinder, he had worked with enough of them during his career to know a few tricks: if an obstacle got in the way of a straight line, counting your paces and circling around it using right angles would ensure you ended up very close to your original trajectory on the other side of it. It was better than nothing, at least.

Xisheng used this method to stay on course as best he could, but he had only been moving for a few minutes when he was distracted.

"Gohan, hey!"

Placing a hand on a nearby tree so he could keep his current bearing relative to the way he was facing, Xisheng turned his head to the right to see Ty Lee, who was several dozen feet away and had clearly been moving in the opposite direction. She was moving towards him now, a worried look on her face. Xisheng figured he would dispel any worries first.

"Ty Lee-"

Before he could address her presence, the brunette was in Xisheng's face.

"Gohan, are you alright?! I saw that fire through the tree canopy. Is that bad? Is something wrong?"

"Calm down, Ty Lee, nothing is wrong. I used that to signal Azula after getting a little lost. She sent one back so I could figure out what direction the Overlord and the rest of you were in. Didn't you see her do it? Speaking of which... why is it just you out here? What, did Azula send you by yourself to see what was up?"

For some reason, a kind of sheepish look crossed the brunette's face.

"N-no, I wasn't actually with Azula and Mai when I saw your flames... I was, uh, taking a walk! In the woods. For relaxation and stuff."

"Just after bathing?"

"Y-yes?"

Xisheng looked back in the direction Ty Lee had come from, doing some mental calculations as to what direction she may have been going prior to noticing his signal.

"Ty Lee... seems to me like you were heading back to the river..."

The acrobat turned Avatar hunter took a step back as she blushed, waving her arms frantically.

"W-what?! No! Don't be silly, Gohan!"

Xisheng leveled a doubtful look at her.

"Really? Ty Lee, lying isn't a good look for you. Were you... coming back to spy on me?"

The blush on Ty Lee's face went completely crimson, matching the soldier's uniform almost perfectly. It basically confirmed Xisheng's suspicion immediately. Surprisingly, he wasn't as embarrassed himself by this notion as he would have assumed he would be. Maybe the fact that she was so flustered made it easier for him. Either way, Ty Lee did say something back, and that response in and of itself was kind of surprising.

"Y-yeah, so what if I was?! It's only fair, you spied on me too!"

Reminded of the gorgeous nakedness he had witnessed not that long ago (he was surprised he had managed to forget at all), now it was Xisheng's turn to feel flustered.

"On accident! T-that's not the same as doing it intentionally!"

Seeing that she could counterattack and thus limit her own embarrassment, Ty Lee swiftly took the offensive, hand on her hips in a somewhat judging pose.

"Well you sure didn't seem all that invested in looking away, did you? You seemed pretty happy to ogle me, you know!"

"Well you seemed pretty happy to be ogled by me, you know?! It's not like you covered yourself! Besides, it's not like it was just you!"

Contrary to the intent, the reminder that two other girls had been involved actually didn't seem to make Ty Lee feel any better about the situation. She folded her arms and everything.

"What kind of guy complains about getting such a great show, anyway? The least you could do is take responsibility for seeing everything..."

Forgetting that there was actually something bigger at hand, Xisheng focused on this conversation about nudity and all, having not expected it in the slightest.

"I didn't see everything. You were facing me sideways initially, you know..."

His voice trailed off at that, prompting Ty Lee to cock an eyebrow at him.

"Try not to sound so disappointed, Gohan. Not an ounce of shame in you, even after stealing the purity of several maidens! And you know, Azula's the Crown Princess and all that, not to mention kind of young for you. You should feel bad for all this, don't you think?"

Honestly, Xisheng was surprised that Ty Lee was holding this all against him. She had been eager to show off for him earlier, so what the hell was with this? He didn't get a chance to question that, since Ty Lee was looking at him with a smug expression at this exact moment.

"You know, I bet Azula and Mai would be really excited to learn about all of this..."

Of all the people to threaten him with certain death, Ty Lee was the last person that would have come to Xisheng's mind.

"Hey, hey, are you trying to get me killed?! I thought you liked me!"

In response to that, Ty Lee donned a mischievous smirk as she leaned forward to put their faces closer together.

"I do like you, Gohan. That's why I'd be willing to overlook all of this shameless behavior if you just paid me back in kind. I just want to be compensated for showing you my perfect body and saving your life from Azula and Mai at the river."

With the girl so close to him, a charming smile on her face, and decidedly lewd thoughts and implications on the table, Xisheng couldn't help but lean back to try and get some air into his overloading brain. Ty Lee had a point in saying that he had gotten to see her naked, but it was an accident. That wasn't the same as someone requesting you to give strip show.

"N-now hold on, like I said, I didn't see everything!"

Gaining a lot more confidence seeing how well her attack was going, Ty Lee somehow failed to miss a beat, saying completely embarrassing things without herself seeming too flustered herself.

"Fair enough. Then I guess you just have to show me your chest and your butt, right? Then it's even."

"T-T-Ty Lee, that's ridiculously scandalous!"

The brunette leaned towards him again, constantly ensuring that the space between them was sparse.

"I think I know what Mai and Azula would find ridiculously scandalous..."

"Hey, are you seriously going to blackmail me like that?!"

Giggling to herself, Ty Lee backed away to give him some space.

"Of course I'm not, Gohan. I know what those two would do to you. But come on, don't you think it's only fair? And are you really upset with the fact that a hot girl wants to see you naked?"

Xisheng had to admit, that idea was kind of flattering, in a way. There was a certain appeal to knowing for certain that someone was interested. But still, this felt like a little much. That said, Xisheng tried to find a way to divert this line of thought to something else entirely.

"Er, T-Ty Lee, there isn't time for this right now! I launched that signal because I needed to get back to Azula and report something right away."

Maybe finding his claim to be a little dubious with how suddenly he was injecting it into the conversation, Ty Lee put her hands on her hips.

"Oh really?"

"Y-yes, really! Look, I need you to keep going the way I came until you reach the river. I started a fire on the shore of the river so I can follow the smoke back there, and it would really help me out if you could go and keep an eye on it until I return, alright?"

Ty Lee followed the finger he pointed back in the direction he came, figuring that Xisheng wouldn't make something like that up just to dodge this conversation. After all, it would be too easy to reveal such a lie for what it is.

"Alright, Gohan..."

She stepped forward again and gently pressed her index finger against Xisheng's chest.

"...but don't think I'm going to forget about this. I can't just let you go around fantasizing about my naked body if I don't get to do the same thing with you. So don't be surprised when I bring this up again!"

With that, the acrobat jogged off in the direction Xisheng had come from, giving him a dainty wave and a smile as she did so. One would never have assumed she had just been openly discussing something so promiscuous two seconds ago.

As for Xisheng, he was frozen in place for the moment, wondering how on Earth this turn of events had taken place. Where had this crazy situation come from? Maybe it had been too naive of him to think that what he had witnessed at the river would be a one and done occurrence that had no lasting effects or consequences. After all, maybe it would actually be kind of ridiculous to expect Ty Lee to not follow-up on what had happened at all.

Still, this was technically a minor thing that shouldn't have been taking up his focus right now, so Xisheng moved it to the back of his mind and returned his attention to what mattered right now.

Having thoughtfully kept his bearings even during that flustering conversation with Ty Lee, Xisheng set himself on the right path once again, a decent jog carrying him forward. Hopefully, it would only be a few more minutes before he arrived at this destination.

Being in great shape due to the nature of his career and combat arts, Xisheng covered distance at a fairly rapid pace. After another few minutes, he questioned whether or not he was still going in the right direction, but within sixty seconds Xisheng broke through the light tree cover and found himself standing in a clearing. A quick glance around proved that it was indeed the right clearing, as he could see the Overlord several dozen paces to his right. He had come out a little off to his exact destination, but honestly Xisheng was proud of how accurate his trajectory had been. Maye he could have been a scout, after all.

With little time to waste, Xisheng trotted over to the Fire Nation transport, finding the people he was looking for on the far side of it. Mai was sitting on one of the metal steps of the vehicle, her focus consumed by some sort of maintenance with a contraption on her forearm. Xisheng had never noticed it before, but he assumed she hid the thing under her spacious sleeves.

Azula, on the other hand, was standing with her arms folded as she stared right above the treeline. One of her slender fingers was tapping impatiently against her armor. Xisheng imagined she was waiting for some sort of sign or indication of what Xisheng's flare had meant, whether that came from his actual arrival or something else.

Unfortunately, Xisheng's slightly off-target trajectory had spit him out behind the Princess. Xisheng couldn't imagine that she was the type of person to get spooked, but he knew as well as anyone that someone on edge could be easily startled, regardless of their normal disposition. He'd once been knocked upside the head by a Fire Nation guard with a polearm when Xisheng had come to relieve him.

That said, all he could really do was announce his presence as sensibly as possible, and hope neither girl present was the type to react before identifying the source of a disturbance.

"Princess."

To her credit, Azula didn't really whirl on him with a gout of flame or anything. But Xisheng noticed the mild alarm all the same. She turned to face him with narrowed eyes, and her hands had swiftly taken the shape of her preferred Firebending stance. Her body had moved to a battle position before her mind even acknowledged that the sudden voice was friendly. Honestly, Xisheng would chalk that up to instinct and reaction time before jumpiness.

Even Mai, stony as she usually was, visibly tensed at his arrival, and that was to say nothing of the fact that a knife had appeared in her hand in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, both girls quickly discovered little need for concern, seeing as how the arrival was a friendly one. Honestly Xisheng was glad they both had such good reaction times. It was a good trait to have in their current line of work.

That aside, Azula was quick to ask about the meaning of all this.

"Lieutenant: I assume there's an explanation for all of this?"

Bowing to her since this was customary of a report, Xisheng did his best to make everything concise. He also tried to determine the best way to word everything so it all seemed reasonable in the first place.

"Yes, Princess. While at the river, I encountered a very large clump of white hair. Seeing as how no animal should have their winter coat around this time of year and that the fur was clearly from a sizable animal, I made to investigate its source. Further down the river, I found a trail of similar fur in suspicious spots: the tops of trees, caught on branches and the like, seemingly indicating that the fur fell from above the treetops. I know this is hardly a solid lead, but I felt it was prudent to bring this to your attention: this fur could belong to the Avatar's bison."

Instead of answering immediately, Azula's hand went to her chin, the girl's brow furrowing as she considered what she was being told. Mai, on the other hand, was a bit more vocal in her own thoughts.

"Not that I'm an expert or anything, but isn't that assuming a lot? It's not winter and that bison has a white coat to begin with, so plenty of other animals could just have white fur year-round. And how many Earth Kingdom animals are you familiar with anyway? That fur could be from any number of creatures you don't know about."

Xisheng wasn't at all bothered that Mai said any of this. After all, she was right about all of that. He'd said himself that the lead was less than solid.

"You are right about all of those things. Still, it's worth calling attention to, at any rate. Ultimately it's the Princess' call as to whether or not we pursue it."

Having raised her points, Mai merely shrugged, returning to what she had been doing with the contraption on her arm. She supposed it didn't particularly matter to her where the party went. She was mostly along for the ride anyway, so North or East or off some vague trail didn't matter that much to her.

Azula, on the other hand, couldn't be so flippant about the decision. It's not like the group was on a strict timetable to achieve any particular goal. But that didn't mean they could just go off on any detour that came their way. And even though they didn't have a specific deadline to achieve their goals, obviously it would be better to catch the Avatar as swiftly as possible.

Having lost his trail and with no reasonable way to get it back, Azula had figured that the best thing to do was to go to a Fire Nation military base and be appraised of the overall war situation. At least then she could determine what other ways her group could contribute to the war effort, since she would hardly be content to traipse about in the wilderness with no lead on the Avatar.

All of that said, she figured that it wouldn't be too detrimental to investigate this fur trail Xisheng had brought up, even if it was a long shot. If it seemed like a viable pursuit, they could follow it, and if it didn't, then they wouldn't have lost too much time investigating regardless.

"I believe it's worth a look, at the very least. Mai raises some valid points, but unlikely and impossible are far from the same. Although, how exactly do you plan on getting back to the trail's location...?"

"I started a controlled fire near it. The smoke should be rising above the treetops any minute now. Ty Lee should be keeping an eye on it: we crossed paths in the forest on my way back here."

Azula's raised brow implied that she was a little confused as to how the two of them had met up in the woods, but she supposed Ty Lee was the kind that was predisposed to wandering. It was probably just a coincidence.

"Very well. To the vehicle then, there's no point in waiting around."

Xisheng bowed to the much shorter girl again, turning from her as Azula made to enter the car she called home for now. Instead of moving directly to the driver's cabin himself, Xisheng turned his attention to Mai, who was just getting up.

"Mai, could I trouble you to ride in the driver's cabin? The view port for the Overlord is too narrow for me to really look up into the sky: I may need your help to stay on course towards the smoke signal."

To her credit, Mai didn't immediately show any signs of being discontent with the suggestion. However, that only lasted for a moment. Maybe because she put some thought into it.

"What, do you want me to hang out the open door or something?"

Realizing that this did sound a bit more troublesome than he had worded it initially, Xisheng smiled apologetically. Truth be told, if Mai didn't agree to do this, he'd have to stop the Overlord every few minutes and step outside himself to make sure they were going the right way. That would be remarkably inefficient.

"I'm really sorry to ask it of you, but you would really be a great help, Mai. I'd be very grateful."

With a sigh, the dark-haired girl decided against resisting any further. Didn't mean she was going to be particularly gracious about it, though.

"Fine. But only because you're so desperate about it."

Instead of claiming that his plea was more earnest than desperate, Xisheng figured he would settle for the victory he had.

"Thank you, Mai."

For some reason, his simple gratitude spurred the girl to turn away from him and head for the driver's cabin, a tiny frown that seemed less about displeasure and more about irritation of some sort.

"Let's just get going already."

Xisheng smiled to himself, glad that he had enlisted Mai's much-needed help, but even more pleased that he had flustered her a bit. Something about breaching her impervious emotional barrier was just immensely satisfying. Maybe he was being presumptuous, but it felt like something he could do that others couldn't. Hell, he hadn't seen Azula or Ty Lee get some sort of notable emotional rise out of her, and they were her actual friends with years of experience with her. Maybe that was a bias governed by his narrow perspective, but he enjoyed it nevertheless.

Of course, now that she was walking away from him, Xisheng's attention drifted away from that innocent enjoyment and towards a memory from earlier that day. It was weird how her loose clothing actually did more to accentuate particular curves rather than hide them. Maybe it was because there was nothing else to rest on. Or maybe it was just because he actually knew what was hiding under there now.

Aware that he was probably going to be spending a fair deal of time with her today since her help would be needed, Xisheng tried to clear his head of such thoughts. The last thing he needed was that kind of distraction on his mind when there was something important to focus on. Surely he was professional enough to keep a clear head, right?

As he failed to immediately disperse some distinctly perverse thoughts, Xisheng finally understood why the Army was so ridiculously strict about uniform: everyone looked the same in armor, and there was nothing to get excited about regardless of gender. Until now, he hadn't really appreciated the rationale of that principle.


Once the engine was fueled and the and the Overlord was ready to go, the team was ready to meet up with Ty Lee and take a look at the trail Xisheng had discovered. As Mai had predicted, she had no choice but to leave the door to the driver's cabin open and lean out of it in order to direct Xisheng in the direction he needed to go. The view port of the Overlord made it impossible to look too high into the sky, since it was designed to offer maximum protection for the driver. There would be no way to see the smoke signal Xisheng had created from within the confines of the cabin.

Fortunately, that smoke signal had indeed reached into the sky by this point, with the column being tall enough that Mai could see it over the treetops and steer Xisheng in the right direction. Thankfully, the rather sparse tree canopy allowed her to keep track of it even while they were in the woods. As before, Xisheng had acknowledged the possibility of such a signal drawing unwanted attention, but there had really been no alternative other than wandering around and hoping they didn't waste too much time doing so.

Besides, they were really out in the middle of nowhere: Gaoling was really the only major city in the southern Earth Kingdom, and that was back West. There was practically no major settlement even worthy of being mentioned on a map to the East of Gaoling. It was essentially wilderness all the way to the ocean on the EK's eastern shore. Considering that there was nothing to even defend way out here, and that the Fire Nation didn't have any notable presence in the area since a staging area blocked off by the Si Wong desert was pointless, the chances of any sort of Earth Kingdom patrol being out here were practically nil.

Assuming that Xisheng was actually right and the white fur he had found did indeed belong to the Avatar's bison, then it was possible his group was in the area: but if they did see the smoke, it was possible that it would actually lure them in, which would ultimately be beneficial for them. Got rid of the hassle of a chase, at any rate.

Considering that the destination in question wasn't that far away, it didn't take long to reach it, even though the Overlord had to take some winding paths around trees, which slowed them down. Thankfully, Mai's sharp gaze kept them going in the direction they needed, so that type of hassle didn't cause them too much of a problem. It was a bit odd to have Mai leaning out of the open cabin door to give him directions, but thankfully they were moving slow enough that she was in no danger of harm. Admittedly, Xisheng was worried about the danger to her person if she was needed for following the trail of fur, if Azula authorized it. He would probably need her to do the same thing in that situation.

One way or another, it wasn't long before the vehicle broke through the woods and reached the bank of the river they were looking for. On the opposite side of the river was the very bonfire Xisheng had left as his marker, with Ty Lee kneeling down some ways from it, keeping a watchful eye on the flames and ensuring that they didn't grow out of control. Thankfully her job wasn't very hard, since Xisheng had created quite a large fire break around it.

Considering that the team would have to get to the opposite bank anyway and he assumed they didn't want to get wet while fully clothed, Xisheng went ahead and plowed the Overlord into the water, after telling Mai to shut the door and keep herself dry, of course. Frankly he wondered how Ty Lee had gotten across without getting wet herself: while the river was rather narrow at this point, it would have been impressive if she had actually managed to jump it. Then again, maybe she had just taken off her shoes and waded through it. With such a raging fire nearby, drying off wouldn't have been much of an issue.

When the crossing was over and done with and the Overlord was safely parked, Xisheng and Mai disembarked the vehicle, with Azula following suit from her much roomier cabin. With the three of them approaching the large bonfire, Ty Lee wasted no time in excitedly waving to them and making some proclamation about getting lonely out here. As for Xisheng, he quickly took control of the bonfire's flames with his bending and extinguished them. Their purpose had been served, leaving only a smoldering pile of tinder.

With a specific purpose in mind and with the intent to waste as little time as possible, Azula was quick to summon Xisheng's attention.

"So, Lieutenant: where is this suspicious trail of yours?"

Xisheng traced his steps to where he had spotted the white fur when he was first here. Once he was confident that he was standing in the same spot as before, the soldier peered into the woods before him. Even knowing what he was looking for, it took him a few moments to spot the first tuft of hair that was their objective. There was a lot to take in within his field of vision, after all.

"Right there. Can you see it?"

He pointed directly at the first white spot he saw, hanging off of a tree branch. Both Azula and Mai came to stand next to him, trying to follow his outstretched finger to its implied destination.

Unsurprisingly, Mai saw it first. As always, her sharp eyes impressed.

"Yeah, I see it. And the next one too, stuck on that vine. There's a third one a little further away. I'll admit, the placement of this fur does seem to indicate that it fell from up high."

While not as quick as Mai, Azula quickly picked up the trail herself.

"I concur. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean this is tied to our prey, but I can see why you would find it prudent to bring this to my attention, Lieutenant. Good work."

"Of course, Princess."

Now that he had finally done his job as far as this situation was concerned, Xisheng had little to do other than wait. At this point, their course of action was up to Azula and Azula alone. Unless she asked for their input, there was little else for the others to say.

That being said, it didn't look like Azula was going to ask any questions right away. Her hand on her chin, it was fairly obvious that the Crown Princess was deep in thought, perhaps weighing their options and the merits of both.

Having lost the trail of the Avatar after Gaoling and having no way to accurately pick it up again, Azula's intention had been to continue eastward to make contact with the nearest Fire Nation outpost, which Xisheng had assured her rested on the west coast of the Earth Kingdom. The reason for this was simple: blindly searching around for the Avatar when he could have been anywhere in the world by now was a waste of valuable time. Instead, it would be more productive to return to Fire Nation territory and be appraised of the current war situation if possible. If pursuing the Avatar was a waste of time due to a lack of a trail, then there were surely other war efforts Azula and her companions could contribute to.

Such things were outside of the general scope of her mission: even hunting the Avatar was something her father had not explicitly told her to do. However, it wasn't as if Ozai had told her that she was forbidden from doing anything while abroad. He trusted in her judgment and discretion, and likely would have applauded her for trying to do greater things that were within her power. He had always told her to settle for nothing less than all she could achieve, after all.

As for getting back to Fire Nation territory and being appraised of the war situation, one would think they could have just turned around and returned to Omashu instead of making for a remote outpost. There were two reasons why they hadn't done this.

For one, returning to Omashu was actually a more time consuming ordeal than heading for the remote outpost to the East. Between Omashu and Gaoling was mountain lowlands and a huge forest that couldn't be skirted. Xisheng had experienced quite a degree of difficulty in navigating all of it on their initial journey here. On the other hand, the path to the remote outpost was mostly easy terrain for the Overlord to navigate. Once they left this forest they were in now, which was already sparse, there would be little in the way of obstacles to slow them down. Ultimately, reaching the outpost in question would take less time than going back to Omashu.

Of course, there was a second reason Azula had foregone Omashu. That was because there was only one real operation left in the war's entirety: capturing Ba Sing Se. The South Pole was negligible, the North was suppressed, Gaoling was no threat and Omashu had been recently neutralized. Pockets of resistance from the enemy may have existed across their territories, but Ba Sing Se was well and truly their last remaining stronghold. Once that was over and done with, the war would be well and truly over, at least in an official capacity. Azula had no doubt guerilla warfare between the Fire Nation and rebel forces would continue for some time after the official conclusion of the war.

Point being, Azula was very confident in saying that the next military operation would be against Ba Sing Se. And if she wanted to contribute to that operation, she would have to reach Ba Sing Se. Unfortunately, Azula and her retinue were on the literal opposite side of the continent from the city, and the Si Wong desert separated them, among other things.

Reaching Ba Sing Se from Omashu was actually very easy, if one took an aquatic path. There was a channel one could enter near Omashu that led right into Full Moon Bay, which was about the closest one could get to Ba Sing Se as far as its shores were concerned. However, Full Moon Bay was currently the epicenter of a large refugee evacuation for the Earth Kingdom, and was heavily fortified. Moreover, news of Omashu's fall had almost certainly reached Ba Sing Se by now, so such an obvious route would be fortified even further.

This was also why Serpent's Pass, the land route, was off the table. While the East side of the Pass was technically under Fire Nation control, it wasn't very tight. Ships weren't occupying that space in great numbers, due to constant Earth Kingdom entanglements and the titular serpent that resided in those waters. Traveling that route on land in hopes of flagging down a Fire Nation ship to take them the rest of the way was risky and complicated, not to mention likely to fail altogether.

So ultimately, it was a simpler matter to travel to the East Fire Nation outpost on the Southern shores of the EK, at which point Azula and her allies could take a ship around the easily accessible waters on the Eastern shore of the continent, all the way to land near Ba Sing Se. At that point moving safely on land would be easy.

The question was this: was this potential lead on the Avatar worth delaying that entire plan of action for an undetermined period of time? Would it be worth delaying hours, days, or even weeks? What if it ended up being nothing? What if it was just some wild animal that had white hair and was shedding? Azula would be particularly disgruntled if they wasted a ton of time chasing some pointless lead.

But there was no way to determine whether or not this was a worthwhile risk or not. All she could really do was guess.

With no words from Azula forthcoming for several moments, it was clear to everyone else that she wasn't particularly confident on making a decision one way or another. But no one had anything to say to help her make a decision. Or at least, Xisheng and Ty Lee didn't.

Mai, glancing back at the Princess from her position nearest the forest and the trail being considered, debated whether or not she really wanted to say anything. On one hand, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of following this trail through the woods, especially since she knew she would have to play a major part in the pursuit. She wouldn't be able to just relax while they pursued this lead, if they chose to.

On the other hand, it's not like the alternatives were really any better. If they ignored this trail, they would just be driving East for several days, according to Azula. In all that time, Mai would have little to do other than lay around, and that was even more dull than doing something that she didn't care much about. Besides, if they did follow this trail, she would have to stay in the driver's cabin to help Xisheng follow it with their vehicle. The two of them hadn't really talked at length since the conclusion of his duel with Azula earlier. Not that she would admit that the notion of talking with him again lifted her spirits, but she was somewhat curious about a number of things following the huge debacle that had gone down. Namely, she wanted to know how he had gotten Azula to take a loss so well. Mai really hadn't thought that was possible.

In the end, she decided it was worth speaking up. Anything was better than standing around here, right?

"Azula, if you want to investigate this, you don't have to worry that much about wasting a lot of time."

Surprised to hear an interjection from Mai of all people, Azula cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Is that so?"

"Think about it: if this is just some animal and not the Avatar's bison, then following the trail will lead us to something that makes that obvious pretty quickly: an animal path, a nest or a den, hunting grounds... if this fur is from a wild animal from around here, there will be signs that make that clear before we have to follow it too far. If that happens, we can just get back to what we were doing."

Xisheng was quite impressed with this deduction, though he didn't say anything since Azula was the one being addressed.

"I suppose you have a point... I must say, Mai, I didn't expect you to be this well-versed in tracking. Doesn't seem like something you'd have experience in.

To this, Mai merely shrugged.

"I'm not. Just seemed obvious to me."

There was a small twitch in Azula's expression, probably a disgruntled one that had to do with the implication of something obvious eluding her, but ultimately she said nothing about it. The thing about Mai was that she often called things as she saw them, so it was very unlikely that she was actually trying to insult anyone in situations like these. Throwing a fit over it would just waste time.

"Well, one way or another you're right about this. That said, I suppose we can spare a little bit of time to investigate this since our current objective wasn't tied to a particularly tight timetable. Although, if this does happen to lead to the Avatar..."

Azula petered off again at this, her hand going to her chin as she glanced back at the parked Overlord.

"...we'll probably need the Mongoose Lizards to engage him. Out here in the wilderness, they'll have plenty of avenues of escape available. Not only will we have to catch them on the ground, but we'll have to close the distance and attack very quickly so they can't run before we actually have a chance to strike."

At this point Xisheng stepped into the conversation as well.

"Rapid deployment could be a problem. With the smoke from the vehicle, we'll hardly be sneaking up on anyone paying attention. I'll be driving of course, and I'll need Mai with me in the driver's cabin to navigate for me. That means the two of us won't be able to immediately mount the Lizards and deploy. As for you and Ty Lee, you'll probably have to stay in the car with the Lizards themselves to quickly deploy from the vehicle and attack immediately."

Needless to say, Azula didn't look particularly happy about sitting around in the same car as their mounts. While they weren't nearly as bad as Ostrich Horses, Mongoose Lizards still weren't particularly pleasant company, especially for a Princess. Even so, Xisheng had a point.

"Well, let's wait until we're certain of what we are pursuing before worrying about that. No need to put ourselves into an uncomfortable situation prematurely. But assuming that they will be needed: Ty Lee, do you feel that they're ready to go right now?"

The brunette looked a little confused by the question, wondering how she had been saddled with the job of animal ringleader. Apparently, she had been appointed due to being slightly more knowledgeable about Mongoose Lizards than any of her friends. Darn that one summer at the circus, giving her such a skill set...

A little dismayed to have the job but understanding why she did, Ty Lee figured it would be best to just roll with it. She had been paying more attention to the Lizards than anyone else, after all. It was usually her that made sure they stretched their legs, stayed fed, and remained generally docile. Thankfully that wasn't hard since Mongoose Lizards were actually pretty tame. They didn't get too antsy in the car of the Overlord since it was usually warm, and there was a certain rhythm to its movement.

"Well, they went out while we were parked for most of the day, and they ate not that long ago, so they should be ready to go on another trip if you want to leave right now."

Content with that, Azula merely nodded.

"Very well. We should get underway immediately then. You and I can wait in the main cabin, Ty Lee. Lieutenant, alert me via the communication pipes if something of import arises."

Xisheng bowed at that, watching as Azula retreated to the main cabin of the Overlord, Ty Lee on her heels. The latter was giving him a sort of disgruntled pouting look, perhaps unhappy with the notion that he and Mai would be alone for an extended period of time. Frankly, Xisheng didn't know why the notion bothered her at all. They'd be busy, to start with, but on top of that he highly doubted that Mai had any sort of interest in him that would get in the way of Ty Lee's own, especially considering what the acrobat had made clear earlier today...

Remembering an extremely flustering conversation and the embarrassing implications that went with it, Xisheng turned to the driver's cabin, hoping to put those unprofessional thoughts from his mind by focusing on the task at hand. It only partially worked, so he decided to try harder by speaking to his new companion for the moment.

"Sorry about this, Mai. I'm sure you didn't really want to do this today."

Following him towards the driver's cabin, Mai sighed, but it almost seemed obligatory. She didn't actually sound that disgruntled.

"It's not like it's your fault the situation is what it is. I'm sure you didn't really want to do this today either."

"Well, I was driving either way, but I guess you're right in saying this is a little more tedious. It's not all bad though: I like having your company, and I doubt I would have had that if this situation hadn't come up."

Opening the door of the vehicle, Xisheng's hearing was somewhat impaired due to the groaning of metal on metal. Because of this, he didn't actually hear Mai's response.

"You could have just asked..."

Knowing she had said something but unsure of what it had actually been, Xisheng glanced over his shoulder.

"Sorry, what was that?"

Perhaps realizing that she had said something kind of embarrassing, Mai didn't repeat herself, instead opting for something else entirely as she fought down a mildly flustered feeling that would have broken her usually impeccable mask.

"I said it's a little sad you get so lonely. You'd think you would actually want a little peace and quiet after everything that's happened to you this week."

Accepting her altered response at face value, Xisheng merely responded to that.

"I suppose that's fair. But honestly, I don't find your presence taxing in any way that would necessitate avoiding you if I was tired or frustrated. You don't really infringe on any semblance of peace and quiet."

Xisheng said all of this as he stepped into the Overlord proper, lighting a lantern near the door that illuminated the cabin for its occupants. That wouldn't be necessary once the engine was running, but it was a preferable alternative to having to Firebend a light until that was accomplished. All things considered, he didn't see the somewhat gratified expression on Mai's face as she took his impression of her into consideration. It wasn't everyday that someone told you that, of all people, they didn't feel as though they ever needed a break from you.

Of course, before she took that to heart too seriously, perhaps it would be best to discern how he really meant it. It could actually be insulting, depending on how and why he had formed this opinion. Mai decided to investigate just a little bit as she stepped onto the door frame where she'd likely be spending a significant amount of time today.

"And Ty Lee and Azula do? Well, I can get why you might need to avoid Azula from time to time after the past few days, but you don't ever seem to get fed up with Ty Lee."

"As you say, there's definitely a certain level of exhaustion that builds up over time with Azula. She's very intense, and even when she tones that down a bit, you can never really relax: she's always plotting something, or trying to catch you off-guard, or expecting something of you. Admittedly, all of those things contribute to making her a very interesting person, but it also requires you to be constantly focused and attentive around her. Of course, a lot of that may simply be because she has deigned to teach me personally. I'm sure these aspects of her character are different for me than they are for you or Ty Lee."

Folding her arms as she waited for Xisheng to reignite the coal powered flames of the Overlord, Mai couldn't help but agree with that assessment. He was right in saying that it was a little different from the perspective of her friends, but Azula was indeed a demanding personality to be around. She had high expectations, lofty ambitions, a confidence that often bordered on disdain for others, and a penchant for holding everyone to her standards. She was difficult to please and easy to agitate. Like running a marathon, just being around her was an often draining experience that one needed to recuperate from. Frankly, Mai wondered if she would have ever become friends with her as children if it hadn't been more or less out of her hands. Probably not, honestly.

Realizing that she was thinking almost entirely bad things about Azula, Mai actually felt obligated to point out something good that justified them being friends. Otherwise she really had to question what on Earth she was doing here at Azula's behest.

She supposed the Princess was usually good to her friends, even if she was a little finicky from time to time. The debacle with Xisheng was evidence enough of that. Even though Azula very rarely said it out loud, there was a certain respect that she had for Mai and Ty Lee at least: she wouldn't have asked them on this mission or even have been friends with them as kids if she didn't appreciate their skills and abilities, and whatever else it was that the Princess considered important.

For Mai specifically, perhaps it was simply the fact that life with or around Azula wasn't and never had been boring. From mischievous second child to current teenage heiress, she was always pursuing something that was more interesting than whatever else Mai had to do. She had little doubt that this reality was a major contributor to their continued relationship. Admittedly, that didn't seem like very good grounds for a friendship, but it was what it was.

As the fires of the coal burning engine roared to life at Xisheng's hands, Mai realized she hadn't actually responded to him, which was probably something he had been expecting.

"OK, so that's plenty of fair reasoning for Azula. But you didn't say anything about Ty Lee. You don't ever really seem bothered by her presence."

Xisheng picked up a shovel that was constantly resting near the engine and shoveled in some coal to get it going. It was a wonder that he could hear Mai speak to him next to the roar of the flame. Hopefully that noise would block out anything condemning from entering the communication pipes and being heard by their friends: in hindsight, Mai hoped Azula hadn't heard everything they had just said about her...

As for Xisheng, there was a really weird expression on his face as the conversation turned to Ty Lee. Mai couldn't really tell what that was about, but the solider got it under control soon enough, so she forgot about it swiftly.

"Well I would never say that Ty Lee's presence bothers me, per se. But she is a very... enthusiastic person. Even when we're just talking about something minor, there's a certain level of energy she brings to the table, and a certain level of energy she expects from others, as well. I'm sure we both know that this level of energy is a lot higher than most people exude on a regular basis. I'm glad she's so energetic and passionate: someone who finds joy and happiness in everything is rare in this world to begin with, but having that kind of person in your life is especially rare for a soldier like me. You see so many terrible things in war, so many examples of humanity at its lowest, that it's easy to forget how to enjoy things in life. I'm glad that Ty Lee constantly reminds me that there are plenty of reasons to smile and laugh, even when things are rough."

For her part, Mai couldn't help but wonder about all of these "terrible things" Xisheng talked about in regards to his soldiering. It was kind of easy to forget that he had apparently seen a lot of people die, and that he'd probably killed a lot of them himself. He just didn't strike Mai as the haunted, brooding about dark deeds and darker realities type of guy. Maybe he just hid those memories away. Or maybe he just didn't have them. Mai certainly wasn't going to ask, at least not yet. She didn't think he would trust her of all people with that.

That being said, she didn't say anything, which gave the soldier time to finish his piece on why Ty Lee was someone he could arguably need a break from, even if they were few and far between.

"All of that said, if I'm too emotionally spent or physically exhausted, I could see it as being difficult to hold any meaningful interaction with Ty Lee that would be satisfying for both of us. It's weird to call her "demanding," but I feel as though she has a certain expectation for others to try and match her positivity and cheerfulness at all times. That, in its own way, can be tiring, depending on the circumstances. Of all the people in this group, I can't think of any aspect of you that's tiring, even in a small way like that."

Now that he had finished all of that and was moving towards the driver's chair, Mai actually did deign him with a response. Mostly because she was closing in on Xisheng's reasoning for not finding her exhausting. What she believed that reasoning to be, at any rate.

"So basically, the main reason you don't see me as someone who "infringes on any semblance of peace and quiet" is because I'm boring?"

Glancing over at her, Xisheng found that his partner in conversation actually seemed quite displeased by this notion. He supposed it made sense: Mai did hate boredom, after all.

"No, it's not because you're boring, Mai. You're... relaxing. Tranquil, almost. This may sound odd, but I don't feel as though you really expect anything of me, other than me being somewhat interesting and not a nuisance to you. I don't feel like I have to try and be a certain way with you, whether it's trying to be more ambitious, or cheerful, or dedicated to a certain goal. This is not to say that I'm faking those things when interacting with Ty Lee or Azula: but I feel like you aren't disappointed when I'm too tired to act a certain way, or when I just want to spend time doing something that ultimately might not be that practical or useful. Am I explaining this well?"

Having not expected this type of explanation at all, Mai wasn't quite sure how she felt about it. But ultimately, Gohan seemed to think of it all as a good thing and a good opinion of her. She supposed that mattered most.

"Well, it's a little weird to hear that what you really like about me is the fact that I don't expect much from you..."

"I really meant it more along the lines of being able to be myself in any emotional or mental state around you: so long as that state is somewhat interesting and doesn't annoy you. Not having to put in any effort to be a certain way around you means that your presence doesn't really cause any fatigue, so ultimately I don't feel as though I ever need a break from you. Maybe that makes more sense."

Probably unaware that she was even doing it, Mai smiled a bit.

"I suppose it does make sense. To be honest, I guess I kind of feel the same way about you... I don't really feel like you expect anything of me either. Maybe it's because you're just too passive to care, or maybe you actually understand me better than most: either way, I don't really feel like you ever tire me out either. That's a first..."

Getting as comfortable as he could in his chair, Xisheng smiled too, though his was combined with a bit of smugness.

"Oh really? Mai, are you saying I'm special to you?"

Averse to teasing as always, Mai's smile swiftly turned to a frown. She also wasted no time in turning her back on him, directing her gaze outside.

"You've cleared a low bar that the rest of humanity has somehow failed to, that's all. Don't get too cocky about it."

The tone of her voice, while irritable, wasn't truly unhappy, so Xisheng was able to tell that Mai wasn't honestly upset. That being the case, his smile widened even further as his situated his hands on the levers of the Overlord.

"So I'm the only one out of a very large number: what's the definition of special again?"

"Are we going to get going, or what?"

Chuckling to himself, Xisheng decided he would let the subject rest. He was more than content to simply know the things that had been revealed between the two of them in this conversation. Knowing that he had something uniquely special between him and all of his allies, even the prospect of navigating the wilds based solely on verbal directions didn't seem that bad.


Hours later, Xisheng was rethinking his sentiment in regards to the scenario not being that bad. It was true that he had company in the driver's cabin, and it was even company that Xisheng really liked. But having Mai with him was quite literally the only good thing about the situation. Everything else about it was bad.

For one, maneuvering the Overlord through forests was difficult enough under the best circumstances. With the addition of two cars to the main engine, the Overlord was arguably the largest land vehicle in the Fire Nation military, and considering that it wasn't the most maneuverable vehicle to begin with, there were many times Xisheng had to take a detour around terrain it simply couldn't pass.

That issue was compounded by the fact that their path was determined by tufts of white fur that Mai had to pick out of the scenery, meaning they had a very narrow range of maneuverability. Xisheng couldn't stray the vehicle too far from the path whenever an obstacle came up, or picking it back up again would be nearly impossible. That too took time and effort, being remarkably tedious. Honestly, out of all of it, Xisheng was most impressed by Mai's ability to keep the trail with little more than her hawkish vision. Sure, they had lost the trail a few times, but Mai always managed to pick it back up in the end.

Unfortunately, the nature of the exercise required a great deal of focus and attention from both of them, so there was little in the way of conversation between Xisheng and Mai over the course of the several hours they had been on the move. Sure, they'd managed to talk about a few things, albeit with interruptions every time Mai had to direct him towards the next step of their trail. The best they could really do the whole time was small talk, which wasn't really satisfying for either of them.

Finally, there was the fact that they had been at this wretched task for roughly six hours, with no break other than one for food, water and physical relief from biology's demands. Xisheng's ass and knees were both stiff as hell, and Mai had made it clear many times that her legs were killing her, no surprise considering that she had nowhere to sit for the duration of their travails. They hadn't been able to entertain the option of changing roles, as Xisheng didn't have her impeccable ability to follow a trail, and while Mai had driven the Overlord a little bit, she didn't have the experience to maneuver it around efficiently in such a tenuous situation.

There were only two things that could be considered good news at this point. For one, the fact that the trail they were following was still going, even after all of these hours and miles, made it highly likely that they were indeed on the Avatar's trail. Secondly, they had left the wooded forests behind some time ago, giving way to open ground that was much easier for the Overlord to traverse, and much easier for Mai to see long distances across. After what was shaping up to be a downright exhausting experience, they finally had it a little easier.

Unfortunately, even this turn of fate was completely unchallenged. Having left near noon prior to six hours of travel, darkness was beginning to fall. It wasn't the all-encompassing darkness of night quite yet, but it wouldn't be long before dusk reached that point. Now that they had a bit more leeway as far as focus was concerned, Xisheng made sure to raise a brief discussion about this.

"How long do you think you'll be able to keep track of the trail with it getting darker like this?"

Mai, leaning heavily on the door frame of the cabin to take some strain off of the legs she'd been more or less standing on for six hours, held up a hand to block her hair from flowing into her face thanks to the wind. No point talking with a mouthful of hair in your immediate future. Even after all of that, she was a little slow in responding. She was clearly tired.

"It should be a full moon tonight, and the skies don't look too cloudy... I should be able to keep an eye on the trail for a bit longer yet. Bank right towards that hill, by the way."

Xisheng did as he was told, completely blind to whatever trail Mai was following. Every once in awhile, he felt like he could see some of the white fur they were looking for, but more often than not it ended up being a trick of the light. He pretty much had to trust her senses, but she hadn't steered him wrong so far, as best as he could tell.

Of course, depending on how tired she was, the accuracy of her tracking could suffer. The fact that she wasn't even complaining much about this objectively shitty situation was evidence enough that she was actively conserving energy for the task at hand. To say this worried Xisheng was a major understatement.

"Since it's getting dark, I feel that our chase will come to an end sooner rather than later. Even the Avatar has to sleep."

If this made Mai feel any better about the situation, her words didn't make it obvious.

"So do his hunters."

"That's true. Azula and Ty Lee may be fine, but if we do come across our foes, I'm worried about you. Leaping into action after so many hours of standing isn't as easy as it sounds."

Mai kept her eyes on their surroundings since missing any part of the trail could cause them a significant setback.

"Me? What about you? You started this day off getting beaten up by Azula. Then you had to sit around in that metal chair for the same amount of time I've been standing here. If anyone should sit things out when the fighting starts, it should be you. Did you even have time to treat your injuries before all of this started?"

Xisheng could admit that, objectively, his situation must have looked pretty bad from Mai's point of view. But for him, it didn't strike him as that odd.

"It's not so bad. I've actually had a lot of experience with this type of thing. You stand around on guard duty for four or five hours, then have to leap into a fight to hold the line. You get injured in the heat of battle, and you just have to keep fighting until it's over. You know, one time an Earthbender split my shoulder, and I had to crawl away-"

Having cast his gaze towards Mai in some sort of macabre bragging about the old days, Xisheng cut himself short when he saw that she had turned her head enough to glare at him. Naturally he felt the need to cover his mistake somehow.

"Sorry, guess you have to be a soldier to get a kick out of that."

Mai turned her attention back to the outside, but she still sounded pretty irritable.

"So soldiers get a good laugh when they hear stories about their friends getting hurt? Are you all just psychos? And bank left towards the third mountain from the prow."

While getting directions threw a weird interruption into the conversation, Xisheng didn't let it distract him from the subject at hand. Maybe Mai had a point. He wouldn't want to hear about her or Ty Lee or Azula being hurt, even if the instance was in the past. No sane person really wanted to dwell on gruesome injuries their friends may have suffered.

Of course, all of his soldier comrades back in the field would have laughed about it. They also laughed about the Kebab thing once a week. But maybe that was just the kind of atmosphere that existed between people who knew they could die on any given day at their job. Dark humor was a good way to cope with the stress and trauma... but only around people who had gone through the same and got it.

Maybe it wasn't a good thing that they all got it. Maybe it was the normal people back in regular society that were right, acknowledging that there was something fucked up about people like Xisheng making a joke out of their suffering. Sure, it was his suffering, and in a way, he had a right to treat it however he wanted... but he could also understand why those who cared about him would be unhappy if he treated said suffering as a joking matter. If he cared about them in the same way then he should have the presence of mind to understand how they felt about it.

Coming to that conclusion, Xisheng figured he had to apologize again, though for a different reason.

"Sorry, Mai. I guess it does seem crazy from a normal person's point of view. It's just... well, you, Ty Lee and Azula are kind of the first friends I've had in years outside of the Army. I've... forgotten what it's like, really. I'll do better, I promise."

Feeling something very unusual for her (pity, maybe?) Mai tried to clarify that she hadn't really meant it that way. She didn't want him to feel like he had to hide or tone down an aspect of himself. Such things were exactly what she had hated about her own childhood. If anything, what she was really upset about was how nonchalantly he considered all the crap he'd been through. People like that, too selfless to consider themselves slighted or too sheepish to feel like they deserved some sort of respite from their struggles... something about it just pissed her off.

"I don't want you to do better, I just want you to be a little more- wait..."

Mai cut her statement short as she squinted out at a point in the sky, trying to identify something. Considering the task at hand, she had no choice but to shift her focus even though what she had to say was important. It would have to wait until later, considering what she had in her sights.

"Over there, above that copse of trees to your right: I think I see the Avatar's bison flying away from us. Do you see it?"

Ever the professional, Xisheng likewise shelved their conversation to focus on the mission. He had to lean down to increase the angle of his upward view, but ultimately he was able to see what Mai was talking about. Granted, to him it was just a white spot in the sky, but he could tell by the somewhat unnatural movement that it certainly wasn't a cloud, and it was visible from too far a distance to be a bird.

"I see it. Did you only just notice it?"

"No, it came up from the trees. Must have just taken off."

"Hm. Guess they must have seen us coming. No surprise, what with the big trail of smoke from the engine and all. I wouldn't be surprised if Toph could sense the approach of something this heavy with her Earthbending either."

While she kept her eyes on the target so they could keep following it, Mai nevertheless glared at the implication.

"If that's true, we're doomed. Anytime we get close they'll just fly away again. Hasn't this all been a waste of time?"

"Not necessarily. It's called endurance hunting: they may be able to outpace us in a sprint, but if we can overtake them in a marathon, then ultimately we win. That bison is an animal, so it'll tire out eventually. We have a machine that never falters. As long as we can keep track of them..."

Mai didn't seem nearly as optimistic about this assessment.

"We've been driving for hours already. Hard to talk about endurance considering the situation. I don't think I can keep this for a whole lot longer."

Even though Xisheng had far more experience in long shifts in uncomfortable positions than Mai did, he definitely saw where she was coming from. This type of scenario wasn't great for them: with he and Mai exhausted and cramped from the situation, half the team would be either greatly hindered or out of the fight entirely, against an opposing team of three powerful benders: plus the Water Tribe boy. It wasn't particularly good odds. And that was assuming their enemies even stopped again within a reasonable time frame. Experienced as he was, Xisheng was with Mai on the fact that he probably couldn't keep this up for another four to six hours.

That said, he didn't believe it would come to that. The fact that the Avatar and his gang were on the ground out here in the middle of nowhere meant they were likely preparing to stop for the night, which meant they were likely tired or approaching a time that they were usually sleepy. Even if they had the wits about them to abandon sleep and flee at this point, they'd probably tucker out eventually, likely choosing to stand and fight before they collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Besides, kids more easily succumbed to sleep than their elders.

That said, they had options as well. Unlike Azula's team, which required two people to follow the Avatar, his group didn't have to go in any particular direction: only one of them needed to stay awake to guide their bison, if any of them had to stay awake at all: maybe the bison was perfectly capable of running away without any direction. Point being, many of them could sleep on the pretty spacious back of their animal transport while fleeing from their Fire Nation pursuers. Xisheng and Mai didn't have that luxury.

"I personally don't think we'll have to. I'll not pretend to know the limits of that bison's stamina or their own ability to stay awake overnight, but even if they don't tire out, I wouldn't be surprised if they choose to stand and fight just out of frustration. If Toph is with them, she may even try and persuade them to do just that for the sole sake of fighting Azula..."

Mai didn't know what she was expecting: perhaps some sort of answer that would have allowed them to rest or call of the chase, but she had known from the start that wasn't going to happen. That being said, all she could really do was sigh.

"Regardless, I'm not helping with the fight. My legs are killing me."

"That's fair. Either way, I'm going to alert Azula regarding the situation."

Since the Overlord could continue driving so long as it had fuel in the engine, there was no issue with Xisheng leaving his chair to head for the communication pipes near the back, using the opportunity to stretch as he did so. In that regard he had been better off than Mai for most of this ordeal, since she couldn't really leave her vantage point, lest they lose track of the trail they were following.

Leaning towards the pipes, Xisheng simply assumed that Azula was listening in, or that he would be loud enough to awaken her if she were sleeping. Frankly, Azula struck him as a light sleeper.

"Princess, we have eyes on the Avatar. He's fleeing in the opposite direction with his bison. Presumably, our approach was detected."

For a moment, there was no answer. However, it didn't take long for that to change, even though Azula's voice was a little distorted through all of those pipes between the cars.

"Very good, Lieutenant. Continue the chase, and alert me when a confrontation seems likely."

With little else to be said, the conversation ended, leaving Mai with room to sigh yet again.

"Typical. Not even a little grateful that we're doing all this crap."

Still near the pipes, Xisheng didn't say anything to that, lest it be heard by his superior. Mai may have been safe talking at a low volume at her distance, but Xisheng certainly wouldn't be, and he wasn't going to risk that.

That said, another voice came across before he could return to the driver's seat. This one was Ty Lee's.

"Gohan, are you and Mai alright? You've been cooped up in the front all day. Have you had any more water since we stopped?"

Xisheng couldn't help but smile at this: while Ty Lee had certainly made herself a rather... awkward existence earlier today, somehow she still managed to negate that lewd image entirely when she was so sweet and considerate. Odd, how such a pervert could turn completely around on a whim. Then again, maybe it was presumptuous and rude to assume that perverts couldn't also be very nice and caring people.

"We're fine, Ty Lee. Well, I'm fine. I'm sure Mai would disagree with that assessment."

Rather than agreeing with that, Mai scowled and kept her attention on the Avatar and his bison. Losing sight of them now would just cause an even bigger hassle for them. Of course, considering that they could fly, their prey would definitely escape her sight sooner rather than later, but knowing which direction they had gone in at all was certainly helpful.

Naturally, Ty Lee didn't know how Mai had responded, but she was probably well aware anyway. Anyone who knew anything about Mai would know how she would react in this situation.

"Alright, but when this is all over, you and Mai had better forget everything and just rest, alright? I bet it's been really uncomfortable up there this whole time."

"Yeah, remind me to tell our military's development branch to make some cushions for these seats. I doubt they sat in them even once before saying this thign was fit for service."

"Oh, we should have gotten you one while we were in Gaoling, maybe-"

Perhaps foreseeing why this conversation was getting too long for its own good, Mai interrupted it.

"Gohan, do I need to remind you that you have to turn this thing to keep following the Avatar?"

"Right, fair point. Sorry Ty Lee, back to the driver seat for me."

Since it was true that he couldn't afford to lose track of their prey, Xisheng didn't wait for whatever response he may have gotten, instead hopping back into the driver seat posthaste. It was just in time, since Mai had to guide him to a new direction. Not for the first time, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder how much easier this all would have been if dragons were still around in the Fire Nation. Whatever happened to all of them anyway?


About an hour later, the fact that it would be a long night was only further cemented in the minds of the Avatar's pursuers. As expected, the Avatar's bison outpaced them readily enough, once again leaving Mai to keep track of things. Thankfully, their prey had yet to realize that the beast was shedding, and with plenty of hair to go around, tracking the bison wasn't all that hard. It was always understood that the Avatar would outpace them: like Xisheng had said, it was just about lasting longer than their foes in the long run.

With the the trail getting tighter and narrower, Mai had already assumed that the bison had slowed down and likely stopped moving not too far off from their current position, so Xisheng had already alerted Azula and Ty Lee that they may be on top of the enemy soon. The Princess had merely acknowledged this notification and left him to his task.

Right now, the Overlord was navigating a winding mountain path at a decently high elevation, leading both Xisheng and Mai to believe they were rapidly closing in on their target. At most, they may have had a few minutes. Mai was using the time to gripe about the situation.

"Would it kill them to do the decent thing and surrender? This is driving me crazy."

Keeping his eyes ahead because failing to do so could throw the vehicle off a cliff, Xisheng nevertheless responded.

"I imagine they feel much the same way. Hence why, if we're lucky, they'll stop to fight out of sheer irritation at some point."

"If they don't stop soon, they'll see what sheer irritation looks like."

"I'm sure Azula will say something about how much of a hassle they've been for us."

Mai, kneeling at this point to take some of the strain off of her legs, didn't seem particularly enthused by the notion.

"Whatever she manages to say will still be an understatement."

Xisheng may have said something to that, but with his eyes on the path ahead, he was distracted by exactly what they were looking for. Near the top of this winding mountain path, where things seemed to plateau, stood the Avatar and his three companions, looking down at the vehicle that had been chasing them all night.

"Looks like they've gotten tired of the chase already. Alert Azula, would you? Tell her we're on a narrow path, the enemy is uphill, and that I'm going to turn the Overlord so the car doors are facing them."

"Got it."

Thankfully, while the path was generally narrow, there was enough space for Xisheng to maneuver the vehicle to the side. This way, Azula and Ty Lee would at least be able to engage almost immediately. Droning out what Mai was saying to his comrades over the pipes, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder why Toph didn't just send a rockslide their way or knock them clean off the mountain. Having seen her capabilities before, he didn't doubt that it was within her power. Even if she couldn't move the entire Overlord, stopping it in its tracks shouldn't have been too difficult. Maybe she just really wanted an actual fight. She had seemed pretty excited about it back in Gaoling.

Either way, Xisheng managed to bring the vehicle to a stop with the doors facing their foes. From outside, he heard the steam of the door opening on one of the other cars, or perhaps it was both of them. With the vehicle safely stopped, he wasted no time in rising from his chair himself, which garnered him a look from Mai.

"You're really going to go out there?"

"Well, it is my job. More importantly, if either one of them gets hurt because I was sitting out instead of watching their back, I would never forgive myself."

As Xisheng left the car, Mai sighed in defeat. Even she couldn't argue with that logic, which was probably why she begrudgingly got to her feet as well. He had a point: if someone ended up dying or crippled because she was too irritable to help, even she would probably be guilt-ridden for life. Or at least a few years, minimum.

When Xisheng exited the vehicle and stepped outside, he swiftly took stock of the situation. The Avatar and his friends were still at the top of the winding mountain path, choosing to fight but apparently believing that Azula and company were too far away to attack at the moment. That seemed reasonable as far as Aang and Katara were concerned, but Xisheng couldn't help but question the distance at which Toph could manipulate the earth. It was either a shorter distance than the one between them, or she simply chose not to do it.

Azula and Ty Lee had evidently released the Mongoose Lizards, finally revealing their purpose in being brought all the way from Omashu: they would allow for the traversal of a great distance at a much shorter time than running allowed. That was critical when one had to close the distance with a number of benders, especially when two members of the team were limited to close or medium range combat. Besides that, Mongoose Lizards could be fairly dangerous in combat themselves.

However, there were only three of the reptiles, and Azula and Ty Lee had already mounted two of them. The Princess diverted her attention to the arrival of the other half of her team for a moment following their arrival.

"Good of you to join us: it seems the Avatar and his merry band are willing to wait for a good fight, much to our fortune. But I won't bet on that courage remaining for long, so mount up, would you?"

Mai sighed in frustration as she begrudgingly brushed past Xisheng and stepped into the saddle of one of the Lizards. Naturally, this left the only professional soldier a little flat-footed.

"Uh, I suppose I'll catch up...?"

Azula seemed to find the notion of him trailing behind on foot amusing, but she nevertheless refused the concept.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're with me. Attacking the Avatar in tandem is our best chance of victory against one so evasive. For obvious reasons Mai and Ty Lee aren't the best suited to defeat him. So get on."

Xisheng supposed that Azula had a point: with the ability to fly, Ty Lee faced great difficulty in making physical contact with the Avatar, and with his wind manipulation, Mai's projectiles would be hard-pressed to ever stay on target. Both of them could only really fight Aang if they caught him by surprise or if they had support to distract or box him in. They did have that support, but since the Avatar had support as well, it wasn't like they could all focus on just Aang.

All of that said, Xisheng realized that being 'with' Azula in this scenario meant sitting behind her on the saddle. Despite being a pretty receptive person in regards to equality, he had to admit that the notion of being the only one who didn't know how to ride among a group of all girls stung a bit.

Azula seemed to pick up on his malcontent with the notion, something that seemed to amuse her greatly.

"Well? Any day now, Lieutenant."

Knowing full well that he couldn't delay the mission for something as petty as unease or embarrassment, Xisheng stepped up towards the Mongoose Lizard Azula had claimed, seeking to distract himself from the situation as he settled on the back of the saddle, a spot not designed to be ridden but capable enough of allowing it.

"Where did all of you learn to ride these things anyway?"

Azula merely scoffed.

"Please, I'm a genius."

Ty Lee simply shrugged sheepishly.

"You know that 'experience' with Mongoose Lizards I talked about before?"

"You never actually talked about it."

The acrobat seemed unwilling to divulge whatever secret experience she had, so Mai decided to explain herself in the silence, though not very well.

"The usual way. Got bored."

Somehow, all of their answers did very little to explain anything about their riding skills or where they had gotten them from. But Xisheng didn't have time to think about that, since Azula was eager to begin the attack. The Avatar and his crew were being quite patient, after all.

"Don't you think you might want to hang on, Lieutenant?"

While it sounded like Azula was suggesting he hold onto her, Xisheng couldn't fathom the idea. What, like, around the waist? Yeah, maybe their relationship had advanced beyond mere soldier and superior, and beyond subject to Princess, but this seemed like a big leap in comfort and familiarity. He just couldn't bring himself to make that leap so suddenly.

"I'm certain I'll manage, Princess."

There was a brief moment in which an irritated expression crossed Azula's face, but ultimately she just shrugged and accepted his answer.

"Suit yourself."

With a snap of the reins, Azula's mount shot forward at an alarming speed, and Xisheng's upper body did about the same thing in the reverse direction, with his already stiff legs barely holding him in place. Now that they were moving, it was fairly obvious from his perspective that Azula's motivation in telling him to hang on was purely practical. Unlike her, who had the benefit of a saddle to keep her rooted, Xisheng didn't really have any other option than to hang onto that rooted person for his own stability.

So, while it was uncomfortable for a number of reasons, Xisheng did what he had to do, leaning forward to wrap his arms around Azula's waist. The last thing he needed to do was waste even more energy trying to stay mounted as inefficiently as possible. This was practical: all practical, he told himself. Surely that was the only way Azula saw it, so why not him? Besides, he may have been pressed up against her smaller back, but he'd also punched her in the face earlier today, so it wasn't like he had never been this close before. Hell, she'd stepped on him once or twice in the early days of sparring.

That sounded a little weirder than it really was in reality.

Thankfully, any room for awkward thoughts was eradicated by the prospect of battle. While Toph hadn't done anything to prevent the approach of the Overlord, she apparently felt a little differently about the Mongoose Lizards and their riders, as she used a series of quick movements to force out spikes of earth in their immediate path. However, the agile Mongoose Lizards either sidestepped or climbed over all of them. Frankly, Xisheng wondered why these animals weren't more commonly used in military operations. They seemed quite useful.

Toph's next attack was a little more wide-ranging, choosing to erect an entire wall that spanned the path available to them, while also being at least two dozen feet high. It didn't really seem like it would be that useful though. Didn't the Lizards already prove they could climb well? Maybe she was just creating time for them to run. Then again, Xisheng knew a thing or two about Earthbending, and he knew that the style often involved multi-stage attacks...

"Azula-"

His warning was apparently unneeded, as Azula cut him off.

"I know. Everyone, jump!"

It was a good thing that everyone understood that she meant to have the Lizards jump, rather than jump off of them. Because if they had done the latter, the poor beasts would have been hammered by the oncoming salvo of square rocks, being launched out of the wall Toph had erected as rapidly as she could throw them. But with the Lizards commanded to leap by their reins, their impressive acrobatic ability launched them over the attack, and consequently, the wall obstructing them.

It was clear by the looks on their enemies' faces that they had not been expecting this level of jumping ability from the reptiles, giving the Fire Nation hunters a brief window to act before they were under attack again. Azula clearly intended to use this window to dismount, as she planted her feet on the saddle, consequently forcing Xisheng to release his grip.

Well, he supposed now was as good a time as any to get into the fight. He just hoped the stiffness in his legs wasn't going to make it a troublesome affair. Unfortunately, as he followed Azula's example and leaped from the airborne Mongoose Lizard, he definitely felt the tension in his legs hold him back from doing as well as he would have liked. He hadn't jumped nearly as hard or far as he had wanted, forcing him to botch his landing with a pained grunt and a staggered roll to his feet.

Trying his best to ignore the fatigue, Xisheng found himself a few feet from the Water Tribe Boy, Sokka. He didn't seem that eager to jump immediately into a fight.

"Tough day?"

Acknowledging the dark bags under his opponent's eyes, Xisheng nodded, feeling a certain sense of solidarity.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Wanna just call it quits and forget about all this so we can rest?"

As flashes of blue erupted from Xisheng's right, he decided the moment of friendly banter had to come to and end.

"Sorry, but no."

As for Azula, she wasted no time in beginning the offensive, simply trusting that her allies had landed safely and would engage in battle at their own discretion. The only thing she did see from her team was the trio of Mongoose Lizards landing, all of which began to hiss and circle the Avatar's bison immediately, which roared back at them defensively. Predator and prey: nature's way of things, evidently. If they were lucky, the reptiles would actually wound or even kill the Avatar's mount, but it wouldn't pay to bet on that outcome.

Besides, if Azula could just do what she needed to do here and now, then it wouldn't matter if the bison came out of this in one piece or not, hence why she was attacking Aang right away. Said Airbender barely managed to leap away from her initial inferno, caught off guard by the dogged attack on his person within the first two seconds of combat. Even some of his clothes had caught fire.

Of course she had a whip of water coming her way almost immediately afterwards, but a swift jab of her own flames dispelled that problem, revealing the irate attacker that had sent it, scowl on her already exhausted face.

"Tch, I thought Zuko was bad, but you're a literal cockroach. Why are you so persistent?"

Naturally, Azula felt a great deal of ire being called such a thing, but it wasn't going to rile her. She'd heard worse.

"Why, I'm glad even a lackluster peasant like yourself can note the difference between a pushover and an elite like myself. Then again, if you were capable of that, you wouldn't be stupid enough to embarrass yourself by facing me, would you?"

Clearly already in a bad mood, probably due to extenuating circumstances and a lack of sleep, Katara didn't react to Azula's rebuttal particularly well.

"We'll see how smug you are when I mess up the other side of your face. You trip and fall while you were distracted by your ego?"

Finding her jab to be a little weak, Azula merely smirked as she turned her attention back to the Avatar, who had thankfully been occupied by the Mongoose Lizards harassing his bison during this brief exchange.

"Cute. If you don't mind, I have a real fight to get to."

Now truly furious, Katara readied another glob of water between her hands.

"Oh, I'll show you a real-hey!"

This cut off was due to a slab of stone jutting up between Katara and Azula, with said slab actively shoving Katara away a moment later. It was no mystery as to who had done this, but Toph's words of challenge left no room for doubt.

"You're right about that: you and me, right now! C'mon, let's do it!"

Azula sighed in frustration as she turned her head to appraise the situation. To her left, Toph stood entirely unmolested, arms crossed in a confident pose of challenge. She apparently had no issue with the fact that she had just sabotaged one of her own allies. Not that Azula was above such things herself all the time, but she'd never do that in the heat of battle. It was just inefficient.

Speaking of inefficiency, she couldn't help but address her comrades.

"If the Avatar is over there, the peasant girl was facing me, and Miss Beifong is free to accost me like this, what on earth are all of you doing?"

Near the wall Toph had erected earlier, Azula found her allies recovering from a massive slab of earth that had launched them all off of their feet. Apparently Toph had neglected holding back against anyone in the way of her duel with Azula. Mai, grumpier than usual thanks to the situation at hand and the one that had preceded it, sniped back at her.

"What were you doing while we were getting thrown around, other than trash talking the stupid Waterbender?"

Azula heard some objection to being insulted from the vague direction that Katara had been pushed in, but she ignored it.

"That's fair enough, I suppose."

Fed up with being ignored, Toph shouted her intentions once again, a little more brusquely.

"Hey! I want this to be a fair fight but if you don't focus up I'll just smash you over the head with a rock!"

The Crown Princess glanced back in the direction the Avatar had fled, trying to discern her best course of action. After all, while she acknowledged that a large part of her really wanted to battle another prodigy, even one as loud as Toph, the practical part of her better judgment dictated that the Avatar was the most important target. However, said Airbender was a little busy trying to protect his pet bison from a trio of vicious reptiles. Besides, it wasn't like he was the type to up and flee without his friends in tow.

On top of that, Toph was arguably the most dangerous of the enemy, to the best of Azula's knowledge. And she was the best of their own number. So it stood to reason that it would fall to her to fight Toph in this situation.

"Very well, I suppose I did tell you to search for even greater foes in life. Lieutenant, if you and the others could attempt to take down the Avatar while I'm preoccupied here, I'd be most grateful."

Eager to fight now that Azula was taking her seriously, Toph settled into an aggressive stance. Truth be told, she was a little miffed about the way Azula had spoken of her abilities back in Gaoling, regardless of whether or not the Princess had a point. She's briefly witnessed Azula's prowess in battle when she had pit her against Aang and his friends, but that hadn't been enough to determine whether or not she had been justified in everything she had said.

As for Xisheng, he figured it would be best to follow Azula's wishes. Even without them, it was obvious that they had to get the Avatar above all else, so it was what he would have done anyway. With Mai and Ty Lee at his side, he was about to beckon them forward, only for one particular male to step between them and their goal in the distance. Xisheng had kicked Sokka away earlier, deeming it more important to focus on the more dangerous members of his group, but apparently the boy hadn't learned his lesson, brandishing his boomerang and a club with only mildly perceptible trepidation.

Maybe Xisheng should have just taken him out for good, but honestly it hadn't even seemed worth it. He'd never actually faced someone in combat that he hadn't perceived as a threat before. Maybe he would have to rectify that, since this obstacle was still a hindrance, however minor it may be.

"H-hold, if you want to go any further, you'll have to go through me!"

Particularly irate for a number of reasons, Mai brandished some of her knives with a little more menace than usual.

"I don't think I'll have any problem making these go through you."

Sokka gulped, no doubt visualizing an imminent and grisly demise. Frankly, Xisheng didn't blame him. With Mai's precision, the lethality she could bring to the table was no joke. This was especially true for someone like Sokka, who couldn't rely on an earth wall or block of ice to protect him at his whim.

Speaking of a block of ice, Sokka was fortunately (for him, at any rate) joined by his sister, who was fuming about Toph even as she took a stance.

"Ugh! Why did we even let her join?! She's been nothing but an obnoxious brat this whole time!"

Sokka, perhaps wisely realizing that he didn't need anyone else trying to beat him up at the moment, simply stayed quiet. He wasn't going to score Toph's ire, i she happened to be listening, what with all the exploding rocks and balls of blue fire behind him. He was scared to even look back at what kind of battle was happening over there.

Ty Lee, on the other hand, had no such qualms in regards to Katara. Xisheng actually found it amusing that the Waterbender was the one person his brunette friend would get all snappy and offensive with. Katara had apparently rubbed her the wrong way at some point.

"I don't see the problem: if she's like that, you two are practically twins."

Already irritated by a lack of sleep, not to mention the friction with Toph and a stinging insult from Azula, Katara decided against fighting back verbally and settled for the much preferred physical violence. Attacking someone was downright cathartic at this point.

Said catharsis came in the form of a wide, horizontal whip of water that aimed to strike all three of her enemies. Both Mai and Ty Lee moved to get out of the way, but Xisheng opted for kicking a vertical line of flame to intercept it, slicing the water attack in half at the middle and effectively nullifying its threat, as the to halves fall harmlessly to the ground short of its targets.

Waterbending was interesting, like that. A wave was only dangerous as long as it remained a cohesive whole. If the center was suddenly vaporized, the attack lost most of its force. Of course, if a Waterbender was swift enough to take control of the remaining water, they could mitigate this, but that was hard to do in the heat of battle. After all, Katara's attack had been nullified in a split second. It wasn't a lot of time to react.

Since dodging was unnecessary, Mai used the opportunity to scatter a half dozen razor discs at both of their foes. Clearly expecting Katara to protect them with an ice wall, Sokka did a double take when his sister merely dived to the side, leaving him to scramble to do the same. His late barrel roll earned him a clean but not entirely deep slice on his upper arm.

Xisheng was actually impressed by Katara's keen reaction. Had she raised an elemental barrier, she would have risked losing some of her precious ammunition to a Firebending attack, much like their fight in Gaoling. They'd only fought once, but apparently, she had already learned her lesson. The fact that she was a quick learner just made her more dangerous, of course. She would only improve more and more each time they fought.

Of course, the obvious solution to that was eliminating her. Xisheng had already promised her that he would kill her, if she continued to resist. And of course, he had no qualms with that. But thinking about it now, any opportunity he had to kill her or any other member of the Avatar's team would be witnessed by all of his allies. That thought actually did give him pause. If she saw him kill another human being, even if she was an enemy combatant, right before her eyes, would Ty Lee see him as some sort of monster?

The thought wasn't pleasant, but it also wasn't to say that Xisheng wouldn't do it regardless. Objectively speaking, getting rid of a physical threat to himself and his teammates was more important than the opinion of others, even his friends. He supposed he would consider the problem more seriously if he actually had a chance to land a killing blow.

"Alright; Mai, you keep harassing them from back here. Ty Lee, come with me. I'll cover you so you can close the distance on the Waterbender and take her out."

Ty Lee seemed to have no qualms with this plan, either eager to team up with Xisheng in a fight for the first time or eager to cut Katara down to size, or perhaps both. But Mai didn't agree right away.

"I thought Azula said to get the Avatar?"

"If we ignore our other enemies to go after him, they'll either follow us and make our fight harder or try to take down Azula, who already has her hands full. You can't worry about other enemies when you have some right in front of you."

"You and your Army doctrine..."

"Actually, that one was just common sense."

Choosing to throw another two knives at Katara instead of answering, as well as one just to scare Sokka, Mai made it pretty clear that she was onboard with the plan. Since everyone was in agreement, Xisheng swiftly motioned for Ty Lee to follow him, before charging at Katara. Sokka was more than safe to ignore in this situation.

With little actual distance between them, Katara acted fast to try and intercept her approaching foes, creating two icicle spears to launch their way. Unfortunately for her, direct attacks of this magnitude were easy enough for Xisheng to deflect with Firebending. Such was the weakness of Waterbending: their power in battle was almost entirely dependent on the volume of water available to them. With only the pouch of water she had available, there was no attack Katara could muster that Xisheng couldn't overpower. If she survived this encounter, perhaps she would consider carrying more ammo around.

Perhaps realizing that she had to work that much harder with a disadvantage, Katara opted for two streams of water controlled by each hand, as she weaved them through the air in spirals to try and avoid interception. Unfortunately, this strategy still wasn't enough: after all, it wasn't like Xisheng had to be accurate in his interception: a large plume of flame in the general direction of the attacks was more than enough to nullify them. Moreover, whereas Waterbending relied almost exclusively on the utilization of the arms, Firebending used all four limbs to achieve its goals. Xisheng was easily able to intercept both attacks with a few kicks, then follow up in Katara's direction with punches of flame.

His opponent reacted by rolling to the side, once again proving that she had taken up the code of evasion instead of blocking. Ty Lee, on the other hand, used the opportunity to jump onto Xisheng's back and leap off of him, startling the soldier but giving the acrobat a solid springboard to close the remaining distance. She flew through the air and practically landed on top of Katara, jabbing for the opposing girl's shoulder right away.

Surprisingly, Katara's reflexes were good enough to save her even as sleep deprived as she was, as she succeeded in raising a small ice shield to block Ty Lee's fist, causing the brunette to reel back in pain. Katara took this opportunity to manifest a very pointy shard of ice around her other hand, which was swiping at Ty Lee in no time.

Thankfully the acrobat managed to back step away from what would have been a nasty gash, though she nevertheless expressed her surprise at Katara's very aggressive maneuver.

"Hey, you know that would kill me, right?!"

"You know that you're all trying destroy the world, right?"

Noting with an almost proud expression that Katara of all people was taking the fight as seriously as required, Xisheng prepared to move in for assistance, but he was cut off by the sound of a metallic clang to his right. Glancing over, he found Sokka's boomerang tumbling through the air, having been knocked off course by a heftier knife from Mai. Much as he hated to admit it, that boomerang could have knocked him clean out had it made contact. Maybe he wasn't a completely negligible threat.

On Azula's side of things, she was completely unaware of the surrounding situation. Sure, she heard it all: the roar of the bison, the hiss of the lizards attacking it and the Avatar, the sounds of fighting from her comrades: but for once in her life, she was actually forced to devote her full attention to the battle at hand. It was a begrudging admittance to such a thing, but she couldn't deny that Toph was pushing her far more than most foes did.

Of course, perhaps it was also the fact that Toph was her very first Earthbending adversary of any note. She obviously didn't count Lao's goons. To say that fighting an Earthbender was an entirely different experience than any other element was an understatement. Unless a Waterbender was fighting you on a literal block of ice, both they and Firebenders attacked in a very direct manner. Fighting a clever Earthbender like Toph was anything but. Attacks could come from almost anywhere, and Azula couldn't even be sure of her own footing, since that too was earth.

And unlike most Earthbenders who simply chose to throw rocks in some manner or other, Toph took advantage of this. When Azula evaded an obvious boulder to the face, the ground beneath her feet almost always shifted, or even tried to suck her in, effectively nullifying any attempt to make a solid recovery. When Azula did get a chance to attack, a slab of earth was always in the way.

So in essence, Azula's defensive maneuvers were compromised, and her offensive capabilities were limited. Her usual tactics regarding relatively average power in exchange for precision and speed weren't going to work here. Apparently Toph sensed her difficulty as well, as she reveled in the chance to point it out as Azula ducked under a particularly hefty boulder.

"C'mon, is this all you got? After all that crap you had to say?"

Toph's disappointment was punctuated by the particular piece of earth Azula was occupying launching the Princess into the air. While initially startled, the prodigious Firebender realized this was advantageous for her almost immediately, swiftly choosing to launch two fireballs to her left and right and curving them inwards to strike in a pincer fashion as she fell back to the ground. To the best of her limited knowledge on Toph and her abilities, the young Earthbender should have been helpless to discern this maneuver.

Considering the lack of reaction to the strike, Azula quickly deduced that her hypothesis was correct. Toph chose to throw several small fist-sized rocks into the air in the general direction she assumed Azula was, completely ignorant of the spheres of flame approaching her from the left and right. Not only did her follow up attack miss Azula quite cleanly, but it wasn't until Toph could literally feel the heat from Azula's pincer attack that she realized she was in danger.

And yet, even though she only had a second or two to react, the prodigious Earthbender nevertheless managed to raise walls on either side of her to bloc those attacks, just in the nick of time. Her reaction time was truly impressive, there was no doubting that.

Still, as Azula landed back on her feet none the worse for wear, she couldn't help but smirk to herself. Dangerous though she might be, Toph still had very exploitable weaknesses, as the most recent exchange had just proven.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Miss Beifong. Only a fool goes all out before seeing if it's even necessary. I'm not in near enough trouble to show you 'everything' I've got."

With a prominent scowl on her face, perhaps from realizing how close she had been to getting toasted, Toph raised a spherical disk of earth out of the ground.

"You think I've been going all out either? Just watch!"

In another moment, the several foot wide disk was flying at Azula's midsection, intent on bludgeoning her to death in a single strike. Azula handily leaped over it, using her earlier strategy of attacking in the air so Toph couldn't see what type of attack was coming. This time she opted for a ball of flame going overhead. As she landed, she saw Toph pull a fist back, which prompted Azula to jump again in a neat little spinning motion that allowed the disk from before to pass under her a second time.

"Sorry, but I've seen that move twice already."

Sensing the heat of the incoming attack from above, Toph actually used the earth beneath her to launch her backwards rather than block out this time.

"Damn, who's out there stealing all my moves?"

"If you think you're the first person to come up with a technique that simple, then I've really had too high of an opinion of you this whole time."

Toph frowned at this statement.

"Man, you are seriously mean. I want to come up with some sort of insulting nickname for you, but I feel like you'd call me something a hundred times worse."

Honestly, Azula found it pretty amusing that she could banter like this with someone she was actively fighting. Despite the very serious levels of violence they were throwing at each other, it honestly felt like a competition more than an actual conflict, which was, in a manner of speaking, actually fun. Was this what it was like to have a rival?

Still, they were fighting here, and on a technicality, Toph was just an obstacle in the way of her actual objective. While she did enjoy the chance to test her skills, Azula could still see that, rationally, she had bigger fish to fry. Thankfully, a quick glance in the Avatar's direction showed that he was still having some trouble with the Mongoose Lizards, attempting to bat them away with large air attacks. Apparently, his unwillingness to do harm to wild animals was holding him back from taking care of the problem more quickly.

There was no telling how long that would last, of course. So Azula figured it would be best to try and take Toph out as swiftly as possible.

"I may hold back on the insulting name if I was feeling generous. But you'd have to impress me first."

"Oh don't worry, I will."

Instead of waiting for an attack, Azula launched herself into the air this time, knowing it was her greatest advantage. Toph must have been getting a little sick of it, because she responded much more aggressively this time around. Instead of trying to pinpoint Azula's airborne location and hitting her with a precise strike, the Earthbender chose to simply throw an entire slab of earth in Azula's general direction. Needlesst to say, it was more than large enough to cover any position Azula may have been in.

As far as she was concerned, Azula didn't like testing out new techniques in the heat of battle. Xisheng had proven in his fight with her why that wasn't a great idea. But she didn't have much of a choice here, since she was about to be splattered by a flying block of earth six times wider than her.

Xisheng had only briefly explained his new Firebending technique to her, to an extent where Azula had understood that it really wasn't that complex or even innovative. Basically, he had just used his Firebending as a propulsion force for his actual body, only in a particularly concentrated area. This was something Azula herself had thought of plenty of times before. Heck, she had even used a similar technique in the past to propel herself in a forward motion.

The only reason she didn't bother with the technique that much was because she rarely found a need for it. Normally speaking, Firebending didn't require a lot of airborne action. Besides, overusing a technique that required constant bursts of great power would swiftly be exhausting.

Either way, said technique was her only option now, so Azula stretched her arm out to her side and swiftly concentrated her significant power into her palm, releasing it but a moment or two before her imminent demise. The blast was more than enough to propel her out of harm's way, but it also launched Azula further than she had intended, and also jammed her arm into her torso quite painfully. She'd used too much power, and probably at a bad angle. Theoretically simple the technique may have been, but that certainly didn't mean there was no finesse or skill to it.

Sent careening through the air a little less gracefully than she had intended, Azula nevertheless managed to launch tendril of flame at Toph. She would have considered lightning, but that was out of the question at this juncture.

Definitely not expecting Azula to reposition so quickly or so far, Toph was unable to react this time, though Azula's aim was a little off. The azure bolt of fire struck the younger girl in the shoulder, burning through her clothes and scorching the skin beneath. Toph clutched the fresh wound with a pained grunt, but still managed to locate Azula when she landed on the ground again. This airborne business was getting on her nerves, so she came up with a good plan to take care of it.

The first part of that was throwing a rock in Azula's direction, to which the Princess predictably jumped into the air again. Certain that she would reposition to get a clear shot again, Toph swiftly erected a dome of earth around her entire person.

Certain that her opponent had made a mistake, Azula prepared to conjure a bolt of lightning to demolish the shield and possibly end the fight, but she was only halfway through the movements when Toph's domed shield exploded outwards in all directions, fractured into several dozen pieces. This area attack made it so Azula's position in the air was irrelevant: it covered all angles.

Certain that even small chunks of stone could do her serious harm at the speeds they were going, Azula did the only thing she could on such short notice and placed her arms in front of her vulnerable face, trusting in her armor to take the brunt of any blow to a critical area. It was the best defense she could muster, even though it was paltry, and it showed when her body was showered by shards of stone that, while small, had enough force to hurt like hell in any unarmored part of her body.

With her attack ruined, Azula landed back on the ground, with a variety of cuts and gashes, as well as some spots she was certain would bruise in no time. Despite being in pain and being very unhappy with getting injured a second time in one day, she wasn't all that upset. This is what made for a fight between prodigies: when both opponents were so good, they had to come up with new techniques and strategies in the heat of battle to keep the fight going. It was kind of exciting, in its own way.

Elsewhere on the small battlefield, Xisheng was unaware of Azula's situation or how dire it may have been. He was dealing with a situation of his own, after all. His side of the fight was not going as well as expected, surprisingly. Perhaps it was his own fault.

He'd already sent Mai away from them to try and nail the Avatar while he was distracted protecting his bison. He had no idea how well that was going, but perhaps it had actually been a bad idea. Somehow, both Sokka and Katara were still standing, neither of them having been incapacitated in the few minutes they'd been fighting.

Katara was the main problem: despite being at a disadvantage, she was striking in a wild frenzy that seemed to have no end. With attacks far more vicious and aggressive than any of their previous encounters, it was actually Ty Lee who was struggling in close quarters. While the acrobat only had to land a single blow to severely hamper Katara's ability to fight, said Waterbender had found her idea of icy sword arms to be extremely effective, especially once she made them a little longer.

Ty Lee was a better fighter in melee, there was no doubt about that. But fact of the matter was, she had no means of protecting herself. She wore no armor at all, making blades and other sharp edges particularly dangerous for her. Even though Katara was less skilled in this kind of combat, it was enough that it was too dangerous to get close to her. Ty Lee could only dodge, and trying to trade a blow for a blow was just too risky. All of the vital points Ty Lee could strike to instantly incapacitate Katara were difficult to hit in a direct fight like this, so she would have to land several strikes to disable Katara completely. Meanwhile, Katara only had to land one strike to potentially kill or cripple Ty Lee for good.

Maybe Ty Lee could have still come out on top, theoretically, but the danger to her person was revealing a serious weakness of her own: she may have been a martial artist, but she wasn't a warrior. The very real and imminent possiblity of being seriously hurt or worse was scaring her. She was too focused on trying to protect herself to really fight at her maximum potential.

Of course, Xisheng had tried to support her throughout the engagement, but this too proved difficult. Ty Lee was often too close to Katara for him to use any really powerful attacks, forcing him to also get close. But he was constantly forced to divert his attention to avoid that boomerang from Sokka, whom he couldn't take the time to eliminate lest Ty Lee get seriously hurt in his absence. The Water Tribe boy was wisely staying at a distance that would require too long for Xisheng to close without risking his partner's safety.

And on top of that, despite telling himself that he was used to fighting in such conditions, Xisheng was far from his peak performance right now. His day had been rough as hell: it started with an intense fight against Azula, in which he'd been wounded. Those burns still stung him even now. After that, he'd been forced to sit in the uncomfortable steel chair of the Overlord for hours on end. And on top of that, he had been awake for many hours past the norm on most days.

He was tired. His body ached, his actions and reactions were more sluggish than they should have been, and even the speed at which he was processing the situation was suffering a bit. Exactly what he had feared would happen had happened: even though the Avatar's group had been unable to sleep very well or for very long, their day had been nowhere near as grueling as his. Katara, tired though she was, was in significantly better shape than him. Even as he raised a knee to strike her in the abdomen, she easily raised an icy shield in defense.

Before he could follow up with anything else, Ty Lee's voice warned him of that damned boomerang again.

"Gohan, look out!"

Warned early enough, Xisheng ducked under the projectile, hearing it slice through the air over his head. That kid really did have uncanny aim with that thing. Unfortunately, the moment of distraction was enough for Katara to blast him back with a small but potent gush of water, all while swiping at Ty Lee again with a foot of icy dagger. She was like a wild animal at this moment in time.

With Ty Lee backing off and Xisheng staggered, Katara launched a small trio of icy needles at Xisheng, all of which he was unprepared for. One bounced off part of his armor, another merely grazed him, but one stabbed into an unarmored part of his body.

Maybe she was just tired of running, or maybe the sight of one of her friends getting injured spurred her to act beyond her fear, but either way Ty Lee stepped forward to try and take Katara out of the fight, jabbing for a pressure point on her abdomen that would make it very hard for her to stay upright. She was close enough to make the strike that Katara couldn't really react optimally, but she did still react on reflex, swinging her bladed arm low to high at her opponent.

From Xisheng's position, the scene didn't look good. There was an arc of blood, a cry of pain, and Ty Lee reeling back from her opponent with a contorted expression on her face. Katara fell over backwards too, her legs seemingly refusing to hold her up. But she, unlike Ty Lee, was clearly uninjured. Furious by the thought of what may have happened, Xisheng charged over in a heartbeat to get involved.

He was worried about Ty Lee of course, but that was going to have to wait. If he had even the slightest qualm about killing his current foes before, he certainly didn't now.

Xisheng stopped right above the grounded Katara, noticing a feeble attempt to raise her arm and attack him with waterbending. Unwilling to let that happen, Xisheng stomped down on that arm at the wrist, pinning Katara down as he reared a fist back to strike the fatal blow. The only thing on his mind was whether to crush her directly under his fist or incinerate her from where he stood. The terrified expression of a young girl beneath him did noting to elect any pity.

While he had every intent to strike, Xisheng didn't get a chance to. A determined yell from off to the side cut him short, swiftly followed by Sokka tackling him. Said tackle didn't work very well: Sokka was smaller than Xisheng and undoubtedly weaker. Even with his legs worn out, Xisheng was in a fairly stable stance. So ultimately, he was only pushed back a few steps. But it was more than enough to piss him off.

Much stronger than the young man tackling him away from his sister, Xisheng grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and shoved him back, using the power he had already charged for Katara to blast him in a manner not all that dissimilar from the way Azula had done to him in their duel earlier that day. Sokka was sent flying backwards, smoldering and quite literally on fire.

Xisheng ignored the cries from his victim's sister and instead returning his focus to her, charging up another attack to deal with her as well. But fate apparently had other plans in store, as it saw fit to interrupt him a second time, though it was a lot more effective this time around since it came in the form of a foot wide boulder smashing into his arm. The impact flung him away from Katara and garnered the attention of some of the other combatants in the area.

Azula berated herself for allowing Toph an opening to interven in an entirely different fight. Mai, who had been having little success aside from poking a few holes in Aang's glider, diverted her attention to the rest of the battle just as Aang took off towards it to help his friends. While this presented an opportunity to strike at him, she instead turned her attention to Toph, who was unmolested for the moment since Azula was recovering from some sort of attack. For some particular reason that may have involved Gohan getting smashed with a rock, Mai really wanted to attack her.

A lone dagger in Toph's direction was how she started, but even though she was the farthest away and had yet to attack her in any way, Toph sensed the attack through Mai's motions and blocked it with a wall.

"Nice try, but don't waste my time with your silly parlor tricks."

Now even more irritable, Mai aimed above the wall and threw another knife a little easier than usual, as well as a second one behind it with a little more force. Naturally Toph sensed these motions as well, but judging from the way Mai's arms moved from Toph's perspective, she was just missing terribly.

"What, you so upset that-!"

Toph's derision was cut short when Mai's first knife passed over her stone wall, only for the second one to impact said knife at the perfect angle to deflect the first into a downward spiral that planted the edge into Toph's forearm.

"Argh, what?! How the-?!"

The Earthbender looked like she wanted to retaliate, but the voice of her one Airbending ally stopped her from doing so.

"Toph! Sokka and Katara are hurt, help me get them out of here!"

Instinctually, Toph didn't want to do this, since it meant they would be running. But even blind, she could see that the situation was bad. Sokka hadn't moved since being blasted by the soldier, and Katara had never gotten back to her feet after the strike from the jumping girl. And of course, she herself was hurt as well, a sensation and experience that was new and unwelcome to her. Even Appa had taken a few bites and slashes from those reptiles, though he had ultimately scared them off once he'd blown one of them away with his tail.

Taking all of this into consideration, Toph flung a few more boulders at both Mai and Azula as distractions before running in Aang's general direction so she could use her Earthbending to get them all to Appa quickly.

Azula dodged those boulders and prepared for another attack while Toph's back was turned, but for her team, it was Mai who called her off.

"Azula, we're in bad shape too! Gohan and Ty Lee are hurt!"

Casting a glance in the direction of the mentioned allies, Azula confirmed the situation. Ty Lee was on the ground, holding bloodied hands to her chest, which was likewise smeared with crimson. Xisheng was kneeling beside her, seemingly functional, but his left arm was dangling at his side in a manner that hardly seemed good.

To her credit, the sight did stir up some sort of feeling in Azula: anger, mostly, but some weird sort of protectiveness as well. It was an odd sensation she didn't know how to really identify considering her unfamiliarity with it, but at the least, she could tell that she didn't like it.

The Crown Princess swiftly considered their options. Azula herself had also suffered some degree of injury, though it wasn't bad enough to prevent her from fighting. Mai was seemingly unscathed in her entirety. Technically, they were better off than their opponents, since the Avatar was the only uninjured one of their number. But Toph was still good enough to fight, even though she was hurt, and that damned bison could probably be a threat too.

She could continue to attack. Maybe she and Mai could actually win. But it seemed like the Avatar wanted to flee with his friends, and engaging them could drag them back into a fight, putting the already injured Xisheng and Ty Lee at risk. Some small part of her told Azula that such a thing was irrelevant, that there was no reason to just let the enemy run when she could still fight, but a much bigger part of her acknowledged that it wasn't a safe choice. The more cornered the Avatar felt, the more likely he was to do that glowy special crap that had been reported from some of his encounters with Fire Nation troops. If that happened, Azula's mostly injured team probably wouldn't be able to stop him.

But even ignoring that, she found herself asking a strange question: what would the person Xisheng had talked about before do? That potential future leader he supposedly believed Azula was going to be? Considering that this theoretical future version of herself was of Xisheng's imagination, Azula couldn't say with certainty what she would do. But she felt that needlessly endagering her allies for only a slim chance of achieving their objective wasn't it.

So she did nothing. Aang called his bison over to him, and Toph used her Earthbending to lift their entire team onto its back before it took off as fast as it could manage. Azula did nothing to oppose them, even though she considered shooting some lightning at the creature as Mai passed her in a very rare rush to check on their wounded.

Observing the Avatar's retreat, Azula catalogued a variety of different thoughts that would need to be factored in to their strategy from here on out. Maybe next time their main objetive should have actually been to just kill the bison. But on the other hand, the mere existence of that bison meant that, in situations like this, the Avatar would retreat rather than press Azula's weary and wounded team.

All of this and more was something she'd have to think about. But for now, she shelved all of it in favor of following Mai over to Xisheng and Ty Lee's position, to assess the damage if nothing else. She certainly hoped the Avatar's group had at least left as worse off as her own.


So, there was a long wait for this chapter, but I hope there was enough good content in it to make the wait somewhat worthwhile. Truth be told, I considered having the chapter go significantly further, but that would have meant an even longer delay in publishing it, so I decided against it.

This chapter was fairly robust in a number of ways: the main group of protagonists all got their own unique interactions to further their relationships, though Azula's was admittedly the smallest. She made up for it a bit with some personal growth at the end. Also, this chapter included the use of some very unorthodox techniques in battle, which will probably see some use in the future. I want fight scenes to be more interesting than "so and so throws rock, so and so blocks it, etc.", but coming up with cool ways to do battle takes longer than one might think. From Toph's new flak-like shrapnel attacks to that thing Mai did that I totally didn't steal from Naruto, I hope to continue coming up with unique fight scenes at the least. Remember, if anyone has a cool idea for a fighting technique, feel free to share. I'm all ears.